Big Just Got Bigger - 5 Terabyte Object Support in Amazon S3 - <AUTHOR> http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2010/12/amazon_s3_5_terabyte_objects.html

<comment><USER2> It is hard for me to even imagine what the world was like before Amazon Web Services, despite having only used them for half of a year. I truly hope Amazon is making ungodly sums of money with this increasingly powerful platform. Why Google is laser-focused on social and local, yet letting Amazon eat their lunch in this space is beyond me. I know Google has AppEngine and Storage, but they seem to be lacking the full-featured, cohesive collection of cloud services that Amazon has so clearly invested themselves in. I truly wonder if we will wake up five years from now and the vast majority of the web will be running on Amazon infrastructure.

<comment><USER3> No. It's _much_ more cost effective to run your own infrastructure.

It's always struck me as irresponsible for reedit to spend the sums they do for example. You could easily spend half that and get four times the hardware (in addition to an admin to manage it).

Some businesses just don't want to deal with it period. I get that. But at some point it's almost irresponsible. Like sending an employee to starbucks for everyone in the office a few times a day because you don't want the hassle of setting up with a coffee service. ;-)

<comment><USER4> If it really was more cost effective to run your own infrastructure, then I wonder why Netflix is going out of their way to migrate all of their infrastructure to Level3 and AWS. They're even discussing the details at the last cloud computing meetup: <http://www.meetup.com/cloudcomputing/calendar/14476942/>

[Edit: Slides for Adrian's Talk on Netflix->AWS Here: [http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/netflix-on-cloud- combined...](http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/netflix-on-cloud-combined- slides-for-dev-and-ops)

Video of his talk here:<http://blip.tv/file/4252897> ]

Unless you are ruthlessly disciplined (Craigslist), it rarely makes sense to roll out your own infrastructure. When you start to sustain IT Systems in a corporation, the real costs are not only what's visible, but also the cost of managing, hiring, budgeting, change control, procurement, etc...

Plus - you get to ride on all the scale discounts of your cloud hosting company. And, huge win - you don't have to chose the "Safe" technology solutions (Cisco + HP + EMC, or Juniper + Dell + Hitachi) - but you can let your cloud hosting company go spend a fortune on vetting an inexpensive, innovative, but unproven technology, and then ride on their investment in that vetting process.

<comment><USER5> I disagree. Amazon's cloud is great for getting started, no doubt about that. And yes, they take care of all the administration. But the hardware and bandwidth costs are absurdly expensive. Probably somewhere between 2x - 10x as much. Netflix is outsourcing it because they are rich and can afford the scalability that Amazon offers.

<comment><USER4> The mantra at every large company I've ever been at once we get past the initial "Get it done" phase, is, "Do it cheaper, cheaper, cheaper."

I think the thing that everyone overlooks when they price AWS out is they are looking at the cost of the bare metal. They aren't pricing their Network Engineers, their DBAs, their Storage SysAdmin, Their Data Center Ops Manager, the finance overhead required to buy/track all this gear.

Forget about the fact that no company over 200 employees I've ever been involved in could add 30-40 servers in less than 30 days.

The reasons to not go to AWS have to do with things like control, security, customization. Cost is the #2 reason everyone I've talked to is looking at moving their infrastructure over to AWS. (Ability to quickly scale is usually #1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "But I just want to serve 5 Terabytes!"

I like that they increased the limit, not 5x, not 100x, but 1000x. It clearly sends the message that they are the leaders in cloud storage.

</comment><comment><USER7> I can't believe this hasn't received more comments. I find this absolutely astonishing and promising. The future is mighty bright.

</comment><comment><USER8> How long before the AWS division is spun off as it's own independent company?

<comment><USER9> Technically AWS _is_ a separate company: Amazon Web Services LLC. Presumably Amazon.com is the only shareholder, though.

I doubt AWS will go public, though -- it's too central to Amazon's existence. Amazon has never really been about books.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I guess we have to thank Netflix for this? :D

<comment><USER11> Netflix Cloud Architect Adrian Cockcroft explains: <http://blip.tv/file/4252897>

slides here: [http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/netflix-on-cloud- combined...](http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/netflix-on-cloud-combined- slides-for-dev-and-ops)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> great. unless it's Wikileaks documents...</comment>


Habits of High-Functioning Teams - <AUTHOR> https://deniseyu.io/2020/05/23/habits-of-high-performing-teams.html <comment><USER4> Feedback week seems like a way to introduce a tremendous amount of politics to the workplace.

"Feedback week" is not an outcome I would leave to chance unless I trusted management to an extraordinary degree. Getting good feedback would become my priority for the week before and I would be forming partnerships with people to play up certain aspects, especially if management (the people who decide my paychecks) are going to be hearing it. Why would I do all this? It is very hard to shake a negative impression, so preventing one is imperative.

Feedback week tells me to spend the week before not asking for help which may be hard to provide, investing in colleague lunches, sending them job postings and encouraging them to seek a promotion, withholding cool productivity improvements until just before feedback week (I have this cool new automation script), and planning my feedback with close team members.

That seems like a worse outcome than having me actually doing work.

<comment><USER5> > _" Feedback week" is not an outcome I would leave to chance unless I trusted > management to an extraordinary degree._

I worked for the same company as Denise and yes, I had that kind of trust in my management. I have received at times quite blunt feedback, but it has never to my knowledge put me at threat of losing my job. I have at other times been left feeling cynical, hurt or angry, but expressing those feelings has never put me at threat of losing my job.

It's doable. It's just hard and takes a lot of time, a lot of patience and willingness to improve in small steps.

<comment><USER6> I would say losing your job is at the extreme end. There are many ways it could have impacted you without you even knowing. Obvious ones are missing out on promotions, getting a lower raise, bonus, etc. I think it's incredibly naive to think there would be no impact.

<comment><USER5> I was involved in student politics and then grownup politics, so I feel qualified to exercise all due cynicism about people's motivations.

Once I got over literally every other professional experience I'd ever had, Pivotal was the real deal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> >In this post, I'll try to document the characteristics and habits of the highest-performing teams I've been on.

One of the real weaknesses of studying high performing teams is this focus on the behaviours of high perfoming teams. So often you end up with _horrible_ activities that are a disaster for teams that have this instituted. Feedback week sounds like a disaster in the making. I'm not doubting it worked for this person, but I think sometimes you need to back away from the examples. What you need to think about when creating a high performance team is understanding that the high performance _enables_ other things. Retrospectives don't enable psychological safety, psychological safety is a pre-requisite for a retrospective to be useful. It's like winning the lottery and then writing about how you chose to spend the money as if _that_ is going to help other people win the lottery.

<comment><USER8> This reminds me of the Extreme Programming "bubble" (for lack of a better word).

Really awesome Practice A (skipping up-front requirements development, shorter QA cycles) is made possible by really tedious Practice B (pair programming, TDD). If you try to cherry pick the obvious shiny stuff while skipping the slow/expensive less-obvious things, you are doomed to fail.

Getting back to the subject at hand: I think what would be much more helpful than case studies of existing successful teams would be case studies of teams that were successfully turned around. Not only does that quickly winnow down what factors actually have an impact, it provides more actionable advice in other ways. There are certain factors that are only helpful _if you start with a magically perfect team from day one_ that may not help (or actually be harmful) when implemented with B players or a team with existing dysfunctions. (You are probably right about detailed retrospectives falling into this category.)

<comment><USER5> Denise's case studies are coming from time at Pivotal, which performed a lot of turnarounds by embedding client teams in order to demonstrate the possible world.

I've also worked at Pivotal and I was allocated to several rescue missions in both Labs and R&D. A lot of the work was patiently modelling the possible and continuing to make small, incremental steps towards the better condition. From week to week the situation may appear to be impossible, but one day you look back and realise how much better things are than 4 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months ago.

<comment><USER9> I spent about thirty or forty years of my life working with enterprise clients in Pivotal Labs, which i think lasted two and a half calendar years. A year or so of that was leading engagements with one particular enormous and highly dysfunctional retail bank. Every week, we tried to demonstrate that a better world was possible, and every week, they remained resolutely stuck in their world of suffering and not delivering software.

Some time after i left, i asked after that client. Apparently their organisation is agile, the projects shipped successfully, and they're really happy.

I have no idea how that happened.

I'd love to think that i was making a difference and just not seeing it because i was stuck at the coalface, but it's probably just that people much better than me got involved after i left!

<comment><USER5> Ah yes, the banks. By _far_ our hardest clients. I think we took on too many bank engagements.

<comment><USER10> what about banks make them so difficult to work with?

<comment><USER5> It's a mix of things. The biggest is that they're just enormous, so nearly every engagement is pretty much from scratch. As in: single departments of single divisions could dwarf us in headcount and revenue. It can be dispiriting for Labs consultants and I know people who quit because of it.

A lot of the time you hit what I call "veto culture". You are forever running into groups, committees, boards, bureaus, offices of the whatever etc etc who have the power to gate some change. Those folks almost always say "no". The logic is simple: if they say "yes", and something goes wrong, and they are blamed for it, then they might lose their job or at least risk a bonus or promotion. But if they say "no", there's no risk to them.

In practice it drives everything productive underground. We often relied on discovering the nomenklatura who actually _did_ things as we went. The parallels to the USSR's experiences (as I understand them) were fascinating.

It's important to note that I don't see any of this as being a deliberate outcome. In general folks don't wake up and ask "how can I make my company less productive and pleasant today?". People do what makes sense to them, based on their experiences. But I have seen how culture can drift into a bad place that's hard to dig out. Big banks seem to have even more of this than regular megacorps.

I know some folks who worked in the Federal sector had some similar experiences, but overall it seems like a lot of the time it seemed more manageable due to different incentives. In fact a lot of the compliance / standards folks were often thrilled that someone _wanted_ to talk to them.

<comment><USER11> This is very true. I work for a big bank and purposely overestimate any work because: 1) the veto culture; and 2) it allows me time to do work not counted in the "sprint".

The actual amount of development I do is between 20-30%. The rest is taken up by "agile ceremonies" and convincing multiple layers of veto holders not to veto.

Often times I'll spend 2-3 days developing a prototype and then 2-3 months convincing people its a decent idea.

(I put "sprint" and "agile ceremonies" in quotes because its waterfall presented as agile)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't buy almost any of it. The thing is - it's very hard to compare performance between projects and teams. What author considers "high- performance" might mean "environment _I_ _felt_ productive in" and so on.

Don't get me wrong. It might all be good advice and work well, or it might not. Or might work in some contexts, but not in other. And it's all just an opinion.

</comment><comment><USER13> Working for a team like this with psychological safety does indeed sound magical, but I rarely encounter teams like this, big or small corps. I'm not saying they don't exist, just rare.

With that being said, two questions arise:

1\. What kinds of incentives, business area and market forces create or prevent such teams from forming (since I feel these teams are rare), and how does one ensure a pit of success here ?

2\. Is it already hopeless when you inherit a team with low psychological safety or flat out incompetent team members ? Are there incremental steps to get there ?

<comment><USER14> I've found a pretty simple formula.

1\. Team deeply cares about the product. Not just the tech.

2\. Team deeply cares about each other and has things they deeply care about outside of work.

3\. Team has a high level of skill and talent and teammates rarely have to ask for help(as opposed to suggestions / ideas).

So in a way it's hopeless if you don't have all three. Some people simply do not have a lot of passion for life and work and some people just don't have enough talent and skill.

But sometimes they do and it's the original culture they inherited that causes the problems. In that case you can fix things.

With that said, we all play with the cards we are dealt and you can still achieve great things without a high functioning team.

<comment><USER15> There is enormous business pressure to ignore everything you just said.

If upper management wants the team to work on a project that the team feels is a waste of time the only fix is to tell management to find another project for the team. And that doesn't go over well with management very often.

<comment><USER16> If management is pushing a project it is their Responsibility to clearly articulate why a project is being taken on. If the team thinks it's a waste of time then management has failed to communicate the companies objectives and how the project relates. If the people closest to the project don't understand why it's worth doing that's a huge red flag and they should reconsider the project entirely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd love to see an article on how to create psychological safety in the first place where non exists or where the opposite is true.

From there all sorts of good habits can take root but without that things like feedback week can become bitterly political events.

I suspect creating psychological safety boils down to things like the rewards and incentive system, org structure and transparency of decision making but I'd love to hear if anyone has first hand experience

<comment><USER18> Psychological safety is 10% job security and 90% how comfortable you feel with the people you work with. Simple to understand, hard to make happen - you need to hire well.

<comment><USER19> >you need to hire well This! It is odd to write but the more time I spend in the industry the more I find myself thinking back to that statement, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

The five dysfunctions of a team have been the hardest things to change in my opinion once habits form that prevent them.

I ponder at times if this is truly why "hyper growth" startups tend to hire on average much younger candidates and our industry says that ageism is rampant.

<comment><USER20> I just passed on a recent candidate who was a perfect technical fit for an open position on my team (far better than the candidates I'm now considering). He did, however, come across as extremely arrogant and abrasive.

I can work with a junior team member growing into a role but I can't jeopardize the entire team dynamic based on one person's inability to work well with others, regardless of how proficient they might be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> So like if I was on a team one time with Ken Iverson, John McCarthy, and Peter Norvig and the team did a lot of acid and masturbating at their desks whenever they found a really cool bug to fix I would write an article (and probably found a management movement) to have programmers take acid and masturbate at their desks.

hence, stuff like this "Some teams go even further and require that the issue number is tracked in every commit." well, I was on a team that did this and a lot of other stuff listed here but as it happens it wasn't one of the most productive teams I've ever been on.

<comment><USER22> In my experience, aspiring to this while allowing the odd outlier has been very productive. It means the team isn't off fixing random bugs they come across but are focused on what needs to be done.

<comment><USER23> That you think the team doesn't know whether the "random bug" or something else is "what needs to be done" is a big red flag.

<comment><USER22> Right, I don't think I meant it quite like I may have put it, more that I've seen commits by juniors have multiple unrelated fixes, instead of documenting said issues and being unable to track them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Its probably both cause and effect, but low turnover helps immensely.

The joy of working on a project where the whole team has been there for 3-5 years and we had no new people to train was huge. Conversely I've worked on projects where a continual turnover of people means no one fully understands how to code works and no one really cares because they'll probably be leaving soon anyway.

</comment><comment><USER25> Very good article.

There is a thing in leading teams, in having good team composition, structure and over all happiness and strong contribution that is analogous to what Spolsky calls the Development Abstraction Layer. ([https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/04/11/the-development- ab...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/04/11/the-development-abstraction- layer-2/))

You need to try to find at least one company, one opportunity and see it work well. It is a completely integrated system that permeates the entire organization, from the CEO and CTO, down to a recent hire. The way interviews are conducted is also impacted.

Some departments are more stressful than others. Sales, Marketing are the obvious victims in most circumstances and are very competitive. But it is interesting to hear their yearning to adopt this approach.

</comment><comment><USER26> High functioning teams start with high functioning individuals.

After that it's up to the group to not waste effort, not go in the wrong direction too long, avoid toxic behavior, and otherwise stay healthy.

But teams start with individual talent.

<comment><USER27> > High functioning teams start with high functioning individuals.

There's a spectrum between a team with no high functioning individuals and one with all high functioning.

In my experience, only 1-3 people in the team need to be "high functioning". Also in my experience, if the whole team is high functioning, then the chances of dysfunction go up significantly.

In my career, I've been in a bunch of teams that were full of high functioning folks. And not one of those teams acted as a team. The management almost always graded you based on your _individual_ achievements and not on how you helped the team. As a result, every one of those teams had instances of individuals doing brilliant things that hurt the team effort, but would get rewarded for it. Everyone of those teams had the majority of team members working against each other to get their idea to the fore, due to the reward structures.

In every one of those teams, when something went wrong, the focus was on finding out _which individual(s)_ were responsible.

I don't believe that what I saw will always be the case, but the correlation is high and I think it is the natural state unless actively guarded against. In other teams where not everyone is high functioning, the focus on working as a team was much greater, and much more successful. It wasn't "Who is responsible for snafu X?", but "How did _we_ allow snafu X to occur?"

But of course, a team with no high functioning individuals will be mediocre.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure "high functioning" is the right term when discussing individuals rather than teams. I suggest using "leaders" or "mentors", since "high functioning" as in personal contribution productivity is, as you pointed out, often a toxic thing to optimize for.

Consider this: a team with one insanely productive contributor and three new/less-than-productive folks is tasked with a bunch of projects. As expected, the productive person does most of the work. The others might learn a bit by example, or not. Productive person moves on/gets bored/gets significant non-work commitments/burns out/gets hit by a bus. The team is no longer productive or functional.

Then consider this: a team with one person with a talent for teaching and leadership, and three new/less-than-productive folks is tasked with a bunch of projects. At first, they aren't that high-functioning as a team. The teacher/leader spends a lot of their time mentoring, going over the basics, reviewing, and planning. Over time, they get more productive. If the mentor/leader leaves the mentorship/leadership role, at worst they leave a high-performing team behind. At best they leave a high-performing team of people who are additionally prepared to assume a mentorship/leadership role in the future.

Depending on how "10x" (ugh) the developer in the first scenario is, the team in the second example might never reach their productivity. But I think it's pretty obvious that organizations are benefited more by second-example-type teams.

<comment><USER28> > Then consider this: a team with one person with a talent for teaching and > leadership, and three new/less-than-productive folks

In practice it is more complex - people with a talent for teaching and leadership _and_ are experts are incredibly rare.

What we often end up with is a mediocre dev taking on the teaching role and helping build a mediocre team.

<comment><USER27> > In practice it is more complex - people with a talent for teaching and > leadership and are experts are incredibly rare.

Not in my experience. While there are obviously fewer people who have both traits, they're not at all rare. In practice, what I see is that such people shift away from teaching/mentoring as it takes time/effort that their manager does not reward.

If you want talented people who mentor well, make sure such mentoring is rewarded.

<comment><USER28> > what I see is that such people shift away from teaching/mentoring as it > takes time/effort that their manager does not reward

I don't think it's that simple. I work with tons of talented engineers who put a huge amount of effort into tasks that management doesn't care about - <USER2> refactoring our codebase.

In contrast everywhere I have worked management has cared about being able to level up new developers and under performers (assuming it's a skill deficit).

<comment><USER28> To add to this one of the most soul crushing tasks I've had to do is to manage out good people who are under performing.

If I could say "BeetleB, I'm pairing you with Joe for the next 6 months - <USER3> don't care if your output halves but I need you to bring him up to speed or we have to let him go" and you could train him up - well you would be worth your weight in gold.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Another point I'd like to suggest: The motivations of the individual, the team, and the company should all aligned.

Individuals should be happy to help other team members, or members of other teams. Teams should be willing to give up under utilized resources if it means contributing to the goals of the company. The company and teams should support individual growth and reward individuals who help them reach their goals.

That should all be obvious, but it's not uncommon for individuals to be in competition with each other, teams to hoard resources "just in case," and individuals and companies to have an adversarial relationship.

<comment><USER30> > _motivations of the individual, the team, and the company should all > aligned_

Expanding on this from the perspective of building and managing sales teams.

Personality must be considered when building incentives. Sales teams can be paid on commission, paid on salary, or both. A great salesperson under one model can be terrible under the other. Commission-paid sales teams should not need motivating; their processes will focus on ensuring long-term decision making and avoiding risks to the firm. Salaried teams shouldn't need those processes to be as heavy, but _will_ need ones to get balls rolling.

Lifting systems from one model and applying them to the other will be disastrous. Unfortunately, a lot of naïve management involves this sort of tooling transport.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Efficiency means different things to different people. An incomplete list of them (note that these are not mutually exclusive):

a) finishing tasks quickly ("velocity")

b) pushing more code

c) maximizing the work not done

d) reducing rework

e) creating maintainable, reusable code

f) being more productive than other team members

g) authoring new projects / components

Are each one of them the ultimate goal? Let's see:

a) Customers do not buy kanban boards, they buy quality products. A board with finished tasks looks nice, but is your new code production ready? does the result actually make sense?

b) Customers do not buy kSLOCs, they buy featured products. Who will be paying for the maintenance of the new lines of code?

c) Neglecting tasks that increase your productivity leads to "maximizing the work done".

d) Trying to anticipate future requirements can make the code base unnecessarily complex. Implementation is not a substitute for proper requirement analysis.

e) Reusability should not come at the expense of maintainability.

f) Individual productivity should not come at the cost of collective productivity.

g) Before you start a project: can you solve that problem using an existing, robust solution within your budget?

And by budget, remember that that internal projects are not free. They are paid with development time. Paying 10k for a license is cheaper than paying a full time developer.

And actually, you may need more than one developer, for redundancy (bus factor), making your internal project even more expensive.

</comment><comment><USER32> I've seen this exact information before, multiple times actually.

It seems like it's just a rehash of the same generic advice

What I'd like to see, is if you enforce this in a dysfunctional team, would that team still be dysfunctional?

Are these habits things that come out organically from some high functioning team? Cause I bet if you enforce these kinds of habits to a dysfunctional team, that team would still be dysfunctional, but most likely better.

Highly functional teams, would always make things happen, and if you join highly functional teams, you will be part of their culture and reinforce habits

There are also, enjoyable teams. Teams that have an amazing culture. Those teams are great to be in, but have a different culture compared to highly functional teams

<comment><USER33> > What I'd like to see, is if you enforce this in a dysfunctional team, would > that team still be dysfunctional?

I was wondering the same. It seems that the 'good' team dynamics just happens, mostly due to a combination of factors. People, of course, are firstmost. Then the company organism is a big factor too. An isolated team might enjoy a feeling of superiority, yet at some side of it there's still a connection to the rest of the company, with all the 'inferor' luggage that there might be. You're lucky if a manager is the shield that keeps that external drag at bay to alow his team to perform at their best.

The psychological safety that the author mentions is analogous to the feeling of comfort. It can equally apply to healthy as well as to unhealthy teams, as long as the values are shared by the team members. We all have seen very stable yet underperforming teams, trying one or the other technique/practice to put another layer of make-up on a zombi face.

It may sound pessimistic, but it seems that once a team settles in its low energy state it's next to impossible to reenergize it by introducing techniques and practices. Borrowing the analogy... how does one deal with zombies...figuratively speaking? Then, what if by now you are one of them?

On the other hand, when team is still alive or new, then all this spirit must be nurtured. Techniques, experiments, practices. Most importantly, respect!

<comment><USER34> It's been mentioned on Hacker News a few times, but the book "Turn The Ship Around" is essentially about this very question. It's about a different kind of organisation (a military submarine), but I differently recognised a lot of the same dysfunctions and failed attempts at fixing things that I've seen whilst working in numerous tech companies.

The answer seems to be that, yes, you really can turn a dysfunctional team into a high performing one (literally worst to best in the case of the book), and in much less time than you'd have thought (most of the changes happen within 45 days of the author taking command). My main takeaway from the book has not been new ideas about what good looks or feels like, but tools about how to fix it if it's broken. Highly recommended.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Anyone have an example of taking a low functioning team to a high functioning one? Building trust, changing culture.

It's one thing to just say "here's the ideal". And another to say if you're in a sub-optimal place, "just leave."

But how to change a poor habit place into a good habit place.

I don't think bad habits really go away, they get drowned out by the better habits. I think the same is true of teams. But, IMHE, improvement has been hard to come by.

I'd love to hear your stories.

<comment><USER36> I presume most people here at still ICs, so I don't think there is anything you can really do except get into a leadership position and change it yourself.

The best thing I've done for psychological safety is by creating groups within the team that are willing to share feedback with each other. As long as there isn't a bad manager involved or people who are incentivized to sabotage work, we do okay. But, ultimately, it's unproductive and we all end up looking for new jobs in the end anyway.

I'll admit I haven't had every manager in the world but it feels like the manager ultimately decides the psychological safety of the team in the end. If they want it to be unsafe, you can't do anything about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I agree with Denise. High-performing teams are high-performing primarily because they communicate openly with each other, during good times and bad, and their leads are really good about keeping them away from political bullshit without sacrificing velocity. They also encourage learning and have the autonomy and authority to fix things when they are broken even if that means stopping a release.

In cultures where mistakes are forbidden, features are currency, and development is just a step ladder into management, (I.e. a large swath of enterprises) instituting the foundations of high-performing teams is insanely hard to do. It usually takes an executive willing to put their career on the line to try and change things.

</comment><comment><USER38> What I'm missing the most in TFA and this discussion (a few hints notwithstanding) is the importance of demographics compared to process.

Programming is very much a process thing, people much less so.

Successful teams in programming (just like in sports and other human endeavours) seem to have the right mix of skills as well as of personalities. What the right mix is, varies by project - even within programming.

In my own experience, even gender mix seemed correlated to team success - roughly 50/50 mixes seemed the best. And a distribution of leaders/followers, nerds/playboys/mothers/flirts/emos/rationals/heroes/pessimists etc. - depending on the project at hand.

And team size matters - a lot (but that seems already better understood in programming circles).

</comment><comment><USER39> Good hygiene goes beyond just code hygiene. Highly functioning teams take good care of themselves, shower regularly, rest well, exercise.

</comment><comment><USER40> Hoo doggies I need management at work to read and internalize this.</comment>


[Tell HN] 95 days to go to the death of IE7 - <AUTHOR>

Thought I'd get the word out early. Internet Explorer 7's support schedule is goverered by the release schedule of Windows Vista [1]. Standard (non-extended) support for this finishes on the 10th April [2].
What this means is that by supporting IE7 with your sites and apps beyond this date you're implicitly suggesting to your users that it's OK to stay on a browser that's no longer receiving security updates, which I think we'd all agree is a bad idea.
You all looking forwards to this date too? :)
[1] http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=8722 [2] http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?c2=11732 <comment><USER2> I'm looking forward to the death of IE7 as much as the next web developer, but sadly it's not as simple as just stopping supporting it and waiting for users to catch up. As long as a significant number of customers continue to use it, I'll keep supporting it (although I may politely ask them to consider upgrading).

</comment><comment><USER3> FYI- I installed Chrome Frame on a coworker's computer yesterday so she could check out Asana. It worked really splendidly, even without admin rights.

Chrome Frame is the new Flash.</comment>


Spotify now lets parents access their kids' listening history and block conten - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255107/spotify-kids-update-app-block-track-listening-history-parental-controls <comment><USER2> Microparenting is a fast track to backfires.</comment>


A $6 Linux computer you might be able to write code for - <AUTHOR> https://hackaday.com/2018/11/12/new-part-day-a-6-linux-computer-you-might-be-able-to-write-code-for/ <comment><USER2> duplicate (this article even links to that discussion): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18425643](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18425643)

</comment><comment><USER3> A Raspberry Pi Zero is $5, runs ARM, has tonnes of community support, and is available to ship outside of china. If you look at taobao/aliexpress/ebay, there are also hundreds of RPI clones and ARM development boards and even FPGA boards < $10. What makes this interesting?

<comment><USER4> I'm tempted to buy one just to play around with an unconventional ISA. I don't think this is meant to be a Pi alternative.

<comment><USER5> You might want to look at ESP8266 instead.

<comment><USER4> I've got about a dozen ESP8266 dev boards, but they are not in the same league as this. ESP8266 is just a WiFi-enabled MCU. Getting any kind of video output or even keyboard input from it is a hack, and forget about it running Linux.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The SoC on this board appears to be intended for use as a DVB TV receiver with all of the relevant video decoders onboard, and there are a bunch of receivers based on this chip on Alibaba. I'm not sure why anyone would want this thing without an antenna connection.

</comment><comment><USER7> None of these cheap computers are worth the support headaches. Just get a Raspberry Pi.

</comment><comment><USER8> The Chip computer was way better, at just 9$.

The company (nextthing co.) dissolved, however. Haven't understood why yet.

<comment><USER2> Who knows if their "way better" prices ever were sustainable, especially with their zoo of side-projects. Some people waited years for orders and never got them in the end.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to monetize data mining skills - d-miner

Hi, I am a software programmer with several years of experience and I do freelancing a bit. These days, I used to learn machine learning techniques and R language. I wrote some programs for sentimental analysis and text mining. I have some knowledge on recommendation engines too. How can I monetize my skills? Please help.<p>Thanks. <comment><AUTHOR> You have a fairly specialized skillset and I'm pretty sure there are companies in need to experts that don't cost an arm and a leg. Check out some of the better freelancing sites like 37signals Job Board or AuthenticJobs (or why not an aggregator like <http://joblighted.com/> ).

</comment><comment><USER2> If you are interested in solving those exact kinds of problems, for a global advertising agency- we have a need. Shoot your info to the email address in my profile.

<comment> d-miner Thanks. Will send the profile soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Maybe this is the wrong place to ask, but where would you point someone interested in beginning to learn data mining?</comment>


Ask HN: Recommend a Wiki that isn't MediaWiki? - <AUTHOR>

Hey, I need to set up a random wiki. Featureset isn't particularly important, something simpler than MediaWiki is preferred. The main criteria is that it should look really snazzy. Rounded corners and such. What wiki are people using these days? Thanks. <comment><USER2> Try <http://www.wikimatrix.org/> if you'd like to compare available wiki engines side by side.

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually got started on that site. I went through their questionnaire and it told me 53 wikis met my needs and that made for a bit of a ridiculous looking comparison matrix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I've used TikiWiki for an internal Wiki here in my company.

a small reason can be read here:

[http://design-to-last.com/Technical/intranet-wiki- searching-...](http://design-to-last.com/Technical/intranet-wiki-searching- for-alternatives.html)

Daniel

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm using wikidot for my help & suport site:

<http://help.memengo.com/>

Loving it - simple to use and has built-in forums. Two birds with one stone.

</comment><comment><USER5> I really like the simplicity and chosen featureset of Hatta - it is version control based (Mercurial) and works really well. The author is very responsive.

<http://hatta.sheep.art.pl/>

"Snazzy" is quite subjective - I like the default design not to scream "I am a wiki with a gazillion fancy features you'll never use", but your milage may vary :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> Moin Moin. Python powered.

</comment><comment><USER7> Original wiki <http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseModWiki/Download>

<comment><USER8> Well, it's an implementation of the original wiki, but not the same exact implementation the original runs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> are you just putting a wiki page together? pbwiki is pretty cool =)

<comment><USER10> Agreed. We use it in one of my classes this semester, and it's very handy.

<comment><USER9> looks like they just changed their name a few days ago to PBWorks! Seems like they'll unleash more than just wiki functionality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love DokuWiki. It's really easy to set up, and doesn't even require a database. It uses flat files, which you can read even if the DokuWiki site is down. It's pretty easy to use as well.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've become a fan of Confluence. It looks decent has a wysiwyg editor.

It loses points for being written in Java (requires a fat vm to run a small instance).

</comment><comment><USER13> Try Tikiwiki. Quite powerful. Reviewed on MyTestBox.com.

</comment><comment><USER14> I also vote for Wikidot, it's simpler than other Wikis

</comment><comment><USER15> I like DokuWiki and MoinMoin.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the recommendations everyone, we're going to go with Moin Moin.

</comment><comment><USER16> Check out TiddlyWiki.</comment>


A Brief Overview of the Clojure Web Stack - <AUTHOR> http://brehaut.net/blog/2011/ring_introduction <comment><USER2> Very comprehensive, although I feel that some mention of gcv's appengine-magic is called for, since deploying to Google App Engine is a very attractive prospect for a Clojure web project. <https://github.com/gcv/appengine-magic>. It's excellent, my web site is based on it.

</comment><comment><USER3> This needs to be a prominent part of any major clojure web tutorial. Most tutorials are horrible and already assume a basic understanding as outlined here.

Fantastic writeup.

</comment><comment><USER4> Great article. It's too bad the code samples weren't syntax highlighted; I had a hard time following along in monochrome and ended up just skimming most of the code.

<comment><USER5> I'll look into fixing then. Do you have any suggestions for good syntax highlighting to use from either clojure or javascript?

<comment><USER6> If you can - could you elaborate some more on DB interaction from Clojure. For example I dont completely understand _There are no SQL/Relational DB ORMs for Clojure for obvious reasons_. I particularly also ask this, because most Clojure web tutorials are written with GAE or NOSQL in mind.

<comment><USER5> The obvious reason for no Object/Relational Mappers in Clojure is that while Clojure has objects available, it doesn't orient around them. It makes much more sense to treat a set of records from the DB as a sequence of maps.

For DBs and Clojure in general I can only speak about CouchDB via Clutch and SQL via ClojureQL and clojure.contrib.SQL. I don't want to claim to be an expert in either of these technologies, but if you have some more specific questions i'm happy to do my best to answer them. you might find some answers about couch in an older post of mine <http://brehaut.net/blog/2010/couch_impedance></comment></comment></comment></comment>


NamedStruct: A replacement for Ruby's 'Struct' that supports keyword arguments - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rohitpaulk/named_struct <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)</comment>


Auto-prioritise your tasks with eisedo - <AUTHOR> http://www.eisedo.com is a new task manager app inspired by the Eisenhower Matrix. What makes it unique is that it automatically prioritises your tasks for you, helping you to manage your time in the most productive way.<p>Now, you no longer have to worry about which tasks to tackle first - eisedo will work it out for you. Not only are your tasks automatically prioritised, you're also able to identify and eliminate time-wasting activities to ensure you dedicate your time to tasks that help you to achieve your goals. <comment><USER2> If it was that important I wouldn't want to wait for it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Good things come to those who wait, right?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, the first 500 members to register will win free membership for life, so be sure to check it out!

</comment><comment><USER3> when will the site launch?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hopefully within the next couple of weeks!</comment></comment>


Pathfinder's priority inversion problem, discovered and fixed on Mars (1998) - <AUTHOR> https://users.cs.duke.edu/~carla/mars.html <comment><USER2> I remember first day doing some work as consultant with JPL for Cassini and a sim finished just before lunch and my collaborator says "huh, that's interesting, the bug we have been reproducing for the last week suddenly disappeared! Case closed! Well let's go...". Being a naive youngster I say "wait, don't we want to rerun the sim?? Maybe we need to tweak the parameters, etc, etc"

He shakes his head knowingly, says something to the effect of "no time for all that, son" and off we go.

In the end he was right, Cassini performed wonderfully, proof in the pudding and all that...but still can't help think that it was in many ways a lot of lucky coin tosses!

<comment><USER3> The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not a bad group of people figuring in this story:

Glenn Reeves is now Chief Engineer of the division of JPL that designs spacecraft systems.

Mike Jones now appears to work on the notion of Identity on the internet ([https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/people/mbj/](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/people/mbj/)).

And Dave Wilner is one of two co-founders of Wind River, which developed vxWorks, the OS used on Pathfinder.

Also, previously:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5993080](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5993080)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9764297](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9764297)

</comment><comment><USER5> I love stories like this one. It gives me sooo much motivation to dig deeper into CS (I'm in college, studying CS while working as a developer).

Often I feel CS isolates me from the world around me which stops me from digging deeper in CS. But articles like this reinforce the thought that this might just be a question of the right environment.

It has always been a childhood dream of mine to work on (or in) space. I won't make it to NASA (they only take Americans) unfortunately. But hopefully I'll make it to ESA or one of the other private companies that are going to exist in the EU in the future.

Thanks for posting this <3

<comment><USER6> If you want to work _on_ space then anecdotally I don't believe it's true that you have to be American citizen to work at NASA/JPL (you need a work visa etc.). However ESA and others are doing plenty of cool things also!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was looking up the 1553 bus mentioned and it turns out the Military replaced it with IEEE 1394 also known as: FireWire.

FireWire is the main bus for F-35 and other advanced US/Nato weapon systems.

The Ruskies also used the same buses for their MiG fighters, which makes sense for standardization and maintenance.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL- STD-1553](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-1553)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394)

<comment><USER8> MIL-STD-1553 is still alive and well in a lot of places, including newly- designed DoD aircraft.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've not seen the presentation/summary that prompted this email, but it sounds like someone wanted to dunk on JPL and tossed a few stones they shouldn't have.

</comment><comment><USER10> The RAX bug is another good story along the same lines:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZK0tW8EhQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZK0tW8EhQ)

</comment><comment><USER11> Henry S F Cooper Jr.'s book _The Evening Star: Venus Observed_ describes a similar problem, remote debugging of a race condition (and some other things) of a spacecraft orbiting Venus.

Recommended reading for both space and computer geeks (well, there _is_ a lot of overlap...).</comment>


First Cryptocurrency to Utilize AI on the Blockchain - <AUTHOR> http://bitcoinwarrior.net/2015/03/first-cryptocurrency-to-utilize-artificial-intelligence-on-the-blockchain-sapience-aifx-connects-bitcoin-based-coin-networks-into-a-singularity-leads-consumerization-of-the-blockchain/

<comment><USER2> So much hype in one article.</comment>


MIT Startup claims to have solved the fundamental challenges with multicore scalability - <AUTHOR> http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8981295285.html <comment><USER2> They solved a hardware problem (the centralized crossbar), but it's not clear what progress they have made on software scalability. BTW, I thought the Ars article was better.

<comment><AUTHOR> I just found that article here: [http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/MIT-startup- raise...](http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/MIT-startup-raises- multicore-bar-with-new-64-core-CPU.ars)

Software scalability is a huge problem.</comment></comment>


The Internet of Things - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfEbMV295Kk

<comment><USER2> Interesting. But somehow a "decentralized nervous system" seems more appropriate. ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> So basically, the point is to factor out the "boilerplate code" of everyday life?</comment>


Postel's Robustness Principle Revisited - <AUTHOR> http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/archives/000551.html

<comment><USER2> Very glad to hear the idea has one fewer advocate than I though t (my 2010 rant on the issue: [http://www.win-vector.com/blog/2010/02/postels-law-not- sure-...](http://www.win-vector.com/blog/2010/02/postels-law-not-sure-who-to- be-angry-with/) ).

</comment><comment><USER3> This was about TCP but I've seen it used (or abused) in other contexts. This can lead to other undesirable effects. For instance, being liberal in what you accept may make your system less secure (larger code base to manage, more features to consider, especially features users are not actively using, ..)

<comment><USER4> Yeah. It's a solid principle, but must not be used to excuse negligently bad output.</comment></comment>


Unapologetically Plastic, Artisanal Buns - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/9655fd3ea2c7

<comment><USER2> If you want an amazing way to blow an afternoon, read some of the abstracts published in the "Journal of Consumer Research" ([http://www.ejcr.org/](http://www.ejcr.org/))

It's an absolutely fascinating way to see how little turns of phrase, naming, and packaging can influence our perception. There are some absolute classics that back up this article showing that giving exotic names to jelly beans led them to be picked more often, even though they tasted the same e.g. Orange vs. Blood Orange.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've had phones that were apologetically plastic. They had a metallic finish that wore off to reveal the bone-colored ABS underneath.

"Unapologetic" here corresponds to the notion that materials shouldn't imitate other materials, a practice that gained steam during the industrial revolution and irked the Modernists something awful.

<comment><USER4> Exactly. There are so many phones out there that are apologetically plastic, I think it's a very good idea to point out that one does not share that approach if that is the case.

I like Apple's honest use of materials and I like that they increased it over the years. Silver keys on the MacBook Pro, made to look like the aluminum shell (but actually plastic)? Gone and replaced by black keycaps which are unmistakably plastic.

(That is not to say that Apple uniquely has this approach. I also like Nokia's unapologetically plastic phones very much.)

Those words are not completely meaningless. Apple could have made a plastic phone that tries to look like the iPhone 5. That is apologetically plastic. And it would have been awful. There is a difference.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The importance of this message cannot be overstated.

To put it another way:

The Words you use to convince someone are more important than the message itself.

I've seen people stab themselves in the back (and lose out) because they didn't pay enough attention to the words they used.

I was super interested in how Apple was going to sell the 5c for this exact reason, I use a plastic phone that doesn't feel too cheap (the lumia 521) but I think of it as the crummiest phone on the market because of the plastic (though it's actually really durable, I've basically launched it tons of times and like a good nokia it will just come apart- distributing the force evenly) So Apple's "Unapologetic" is a really important marketing concept.

<comment><USER6> There aren't that many metal phones on the market, are there?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Some other fun examples: soft Corinthian leather, Lucky Strike ("It's toasted!"). These fit alongside Madagascar vanilla and artisanal hamburger buns. But "unapologetically plastic" clearly doesn't.

The pattern we should look for is a modifier that creates the appearance of a nonexistent competitive difference. Not a regular bun, an _artisanal_ bun. Not regular vanilla, Madagascar vanilla.

So... not regular plastic, but unapologetic plastic? Apple wants us to believe that this plastic is special because it doesn't apologize? That doesn't even make sense.

It's clear that "unapologetically plastic" means that _Apple_ is unapologetic, proud that the 5c is made of plastic. They want us to believe that this is not a cheap knockoff iPhone, despite being made of plastic, and that's more about affirming their brand values than anything else.

<comment><USER8> You have a point about "It's toasted" (as they were all toasted) --it'd be like selling "cholesterol-free water". Madagascar vanilla, however, is a variety distinct from Tahitian or Pompona. So, depending on what characteristics you're looking for in the vanilla, you might choose one over the other variety. Kind of like how vintners choose one grape variety over others for specific reasons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Have you ever had a really, really good hamburger bun that set the burger apart from almost any other burger you've ever eaten?

If you have, why not describe it as "artisanal"? Some bread really is good enough to warrant a special description.

Likewise, the iPhone 5c is a really, really nice plastic object. I know next to nothing about plastics, but I do know that the 5c is set apart from, say, this Handspring Visor that's (for some reason) on my desk.

<comment><USER10> You have a Handspring Visor on your desk? Have you just not cleaned your desk in 10 years? I kid, but I am genuinely curious what exactly you use it for these days?

I cleaned out my bin of extra cords and random electronics this weekend. I found my Visor and promptly put it in the "give away" pile.

<comment><USER9> It's basically that I haven't cleaned out my desk, but this thing made it to the top of the pile a bit ago because I was curious if I could get it onto the Internet and what that would mean exactly in 2013.

Sadly I cannot find the wireless module.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Words affect people deeply, but they don't affect everyone the same. Some people, myself included, hear certain words like this, and get an emotionally strong negative "that's bullshit, you added that word to manipulate me, and now I like you and your product less for it" reaction. For me it hits really hard when I see people use the word "beautiful" to describe a programming tool or API: some people eat that term up, nearly looking for it as a defining characteristic, whereas when I see it I generally no longer trust anything else you have to say about your product. If the target market for your product includes a lot of people who know they are being pandered to and generally dislike it, you have to be really careful to actively avoid these kinds of words.

I'd therefore feel a better statement to make (than waxing poetically about words like "artisanal", which I know turned off budget-conscious friends of mine as "probably too rich for my blood" despite meaning little in and of itself, due to associated genre effects) is more "don't underestimate the power of a wording change: test different adjectives and see what resonates best with your audience, whether via live A/B testing or using focus groups, and be prepared for the idea that you may have to split your message and target different sub-groups separately, potentially even splitting your brand entirely (something we tend to not see software companies do much, even though old school product companies like detergent or cereal do it constantly)".

<comment><USER12> I'm really happy someone else feels the same way about "beautiful". It's lost all meaning in this space, it might as well be "EXTREME" or some other marketing bullshit term.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Well I only eat Artisan Tostitos because I like to support small businesses like FritoLay.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think this has something to do with the word "cheap" being placed in front of "plastic" so often that it stopped modifying "plastic" and just became part of it. When that happens, you need a pretty strong adjective to reset the connotation. "Unapologetically" seems to fit the bill.

It works with buns, too. "Go grab some hamburger buns" sounds Forth of July Rainbo Bread to me. "Pick up some artisan buns" resets that.

Well, that's how it works in my mind at least; your mind may vary.

<comment><USER15> In the context of phones in particular, Apple had a lot to do with "plastic" being conflated with "cheap" when they launched glass-back phones.

<comment><USER14> I was also thinking much older. Growing up I would often hear something like "this is just a cheap plastic toy, it's not a real <whatever>".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ive's comment about plastic reminded me of a conversation I had once with an architect. He said that one of his dreams was to have a client who wanted him to do an vinyl siding house. He normally did things in very tasteful wood. However, he wanted the chance to explore the possibilities of what you could do with vinyl.

</comment><comment><USER17> They need to try harder. 3 times in the last week when I've told people I'm thinking of upgrading my iPhone(4s) they're said "Are you going to get the real one or that plastic thing?" or something to that effect.

Its going to be an uphill battle.

</comment><comment><USER18> Reminds me of "It's Toasted" on Mad Men (based on a real campaign) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=E0...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=E0L8f1IY1Vk)

</comment><comment><USER19> In other news, copywriting is a valuable skill when selling a product.

</comment><comment><USER20> Perhaps this strategy works great on the general populous and market, but I already recognize this... advertisement trope, McDonald's has been using it for years.

When are marketers going to stop trying to mislead their customers and realize that people in general aren't stupid, just busy? Oh wait, if we told our customers the truth, we'd have to live with a real market, not an inflated one, and everyone knows an inflated market is best.</comment>


Bon Jovi slams Jobs for 'killing' music - <AUTHOR> http://technology.canoe.ca/2011/03/14/17609111-wenn-story.html

<comment><USER2> Disclaimer: I am and have been for decades, a huge Bon Jovi fan.

I think Jon is sorta right about the experience of music being different now, and I think you could argue that something has been lost in the process. But I'd argue that the changes in the music industry (not just the ones related to Apple and iTunes, mind you) have a positive side that outweighs that loss: simply put, more music is more accessible to more people than before.

I mean, I grew up in the 80's, buying Bon Jovi and AC/DC and Motley Crue albums on cassette tapes, and the occasional Twisted Sister album on vinyl... and as much fun as that was, I appreciate that now I can jump online and have almost immediate access to millions of songs, by bands that I never would have even _heard_ of (living in a rural hick town in NC) before iTunes / Napster / Shoutcast / Pandora / etc.

Compared to the experience of going into the local pawn shop or Wal-mart, or driving 35 miles to a town big enough to have an actual "record store" and still having access to only a tiny selection of material, I'll take the current model over that any day.

</comment><comment><USER3> Things are different != things are worse.</comment>


Super long-term kernel support - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/749530/86a6011785a95659/ <comment><USER2> > The first SLTS kernel will be based on the 4.4 LTS release and will be > maintained by Ben Hutchings

That guy is a genius: he probably managed to secure a job for at least the next twenty years.</comment>


Archives digitize 19th century materials for 21st century access - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/21st-century-access-to-19th-century-materials.ars <comment><USER2> "The public can access the collections both at a subscribing institution and at Britain's National Archive."

Well, that sucks! The Corvey Collection has a free trial, though. Still I think these should be free access. Ask Google or someone else to host them and I think they'll gladly do it.</comment>


Apply HN: InventEd - <AUTHOR> Problem: Today's higher education system has become both costly and inefficient. In addition, students are forced to go through a system that restricts their learning to textbooks and lectures from professors that primarily do research and have no teaching experience or desire. This creates a terrible transition from higher education into the industry and life as an adult.
InventEd: Our organization is a personalized higher education alternative that allows our students to develop their own personal and professional goals that drive their curriculum. Our flexible environment will allow students to acquire an education utilizing their preferred learning style, whether its visual, audio, hands-on, etc. As a non-profit organization, we will utilize a volunteer base of retired engineers, current engineers, and anyone with the right amount of expertise to help mentor these students during their self-driven education. We will provide a direct line between the students acquiring an education and the companies that are interested in hiring students that are self-motivated with valuable real-world experience.
About Us: Founder (Dustin Poisson) is a graduate from the University of Michigan with a Aerospace background. He has gotten extensively involved with STEM education since moving down to Huntsville, AL. He has spoke to countless engineers, professors, and other STEM-focused individuals who back this concept. Co-Founder (Cody Stepko) is an Auburn University graduate with an Industrial engineering background who has an interest in an alternative higher education concept because he struggled in the current system as well. Both his parents are teachers and he has always had the passion to become a teacher as well.
If you have any further questions on our progress or our organization in general, feel free to comment!
Thank you and look forward to hearing from the HackerNews community. <comment><USER2> I would ask if either of you are aware of the active STEM (specifically engineering education) research movements at your respective Alma Maters...I would challenge a lot of the assumptions and generalizations made in your problem statement.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think you can´t apply for Fellowship with a non-profit organization, but I am not sure about. Do you have a website or a demo ?

<comment><AUTHOR> They have a separate application for non-profits. Very few get selected (I think there were 3 or 4 this cycle), but essentially they give money as a donation. We are currently working on laying out our website, but we have put together content once it is set up.

Our next step is to break up our educational model into small workshops in order to test and gather data for its effectiveness. We plan to have our first workshop this summer.

If you have any specific questions feel free to let me know!

<comment><USER3> That is fo YC, not for the YCFellowship. :/

[https://fellowship.ycombinator.com/faq/#nonprofits](https://fellowship.ycombinator.com/faq/#nonprofits)

But I think they are still accepting aplications for YC.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ahhhh, thank you for that clarification. Still would appreciate any input though :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Pretty sure YCF specifically forbids non-profits.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are allowed to apply as a non-profit; however, very few get selected (I think 3 to 4 last cycle). The money is received as a donation since 501(c)3 organizations allow a tax write-off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand what you are going to make.

<comment><USER6> Hey, are you friends with bickn? I'm a big fan of his speaking in education.

(No response means yes.)</comment></comment>


Why Computer Keyboards Are Dying - <AUTHOR> http://doriandargan.com/post/37188515990/why-computer-keyboards-are-dying

<comment><AUTHOR> Would love to get people's thoughts on what a next-level navigating experience looks like!</comment>


Lyft forgoes global expansion in favor of U.S. market domination - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_28566633/lyft-forgoes-global-expansion-favor-u-s-market?source=infinite <comment><USER2> _The only advantage of going international is just to be bigger_

This is not the only advantage. Another is being able to serve international travelers. You can step off a plane in another country and keep using Uber. These users may be relatively few in numbers but they have an outsized influence.

<comment><USER3> That's exactly why I initially joined Uber: I was overseas, and if I'm travelling I don't have to learn how the local taxi system works, I just continue using Uber. It's a bit like McDonalds, it's similar enough in every country that you can rely on it and you know what you'll get. I use Uber a fair bit at home, but my heaviest use of Uber is when I'm travelling to other cities & countries.

<comment><USER4> When I travel, I _like_ using the local system. The differences and element of surprise makes for fun adventure.

To each their own, I guess.

<comment><USER5> In several countries it is legal for Cabs to individually define their rates.

Then they prey on tourists who didnt get that the rate was bumped up by 10x.

Hard to watch out for in certain areas if you dont know the local currency that well (esp if the 10x shift looks like they show cents values) and often they group up to make places look like legit normal cab waiting spots.

Completely normal and legal in eg Rumania and Bulgaria. Stuff you know, learn, have to watch out for but is still highly annoying.

I can relate when someone doesnt want to hazzle with this adventure on eg business trips.

<comment><USER4> I can relate to that. Buuuut, it's also pretty easy to look up "about how much does it cost to go a mile/kilometer" beforehand, and map the distance to your hotel. Then, when you're hiring a cab, you just give them a price within 10-20% of that. If they try to overcharge you, onto the next one.

Americans don't like haggling, but it's actually pretty fun once you get into it.

Again, local flavor. But I also get that some people want to go eat at McDonald's whatever country they end up in, so to each their own. (I'd just personally regret it if I visited some foreign country and only had stories about US-based fast food chains...)

<comment><USER6> Constantly having to deal with being ripped off is never fun, and is the usual experience for tourists in many countries.

It's a big deterrent for independent tourists in places life Egypt and India.

<comment><USER4> It's actually pretty easy to avoid being ripped off. You just have to know about how much something ought to cost, and offer that as your price. You also have to be brave about offering $5 for something if someone tries to sell it to you for $100.

<comment><USER6> Now do that at 4am in Merrakesh, in the rain, at the bus station.

Possible, but certainly not fun, and not easy when other tourists are paying $75 thinking they've got a good deal.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, so? You're travelling in a foreign country. I get that some people want McDonald's wherever they go, and some people stay at Disney resorts, but again, show a little grit, I say.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Funnily enough, my experience with Lyft has dropped significantly over the last year.

In the last few months alone, I had an where the Lyft driver who was supposed to pick me up at SFO didn't know where I was despite following the instruction that Lyft texted me. And even after I explicitly told him where I was he just did not understand. Meanwhile everyone else who was waiting for a ride got picked up by Uber without much of a hitch.

On that same trip in SF, I requested a ride while downtown, only for the person not to show up at all.

It's a real shame because barely more than two years ago, Lyft was my preferred choice since the drivers seemed quite friendly and it was that quirky kid on the block. Now that they've toned back their branding and character, it's really no different than Uber. Except sadly, my experience with Uber has been more consistent than Lyft.

<comment><USER8> I had a no pickup with Uber recently, despite the car circling around our spot at a metro park and ride for five minutes. We messaged the driver to try to help, but he simply didn't respond. Because he waited to cancel, we were initially charged $5 for the driver's inability to find us. Uber ultimately reversed the charge, so that's the silver lining, but it was annoying to have wasted about 20 minutes of our time and then assume we wanted to pay $5 for the privilege.

I've also had great service with Uber too. I'd like to see each each company publish their missed connections numbers, see the data on which has more confused no shows.

<comment><USER9> I recently flew from NYC to Seattle. When I arrived in Seattle, I wanted to use Uber to reach my destination. However, the driver it booked for me was still in NYC. We talked for twenty minutes until I just asked him where he was at, and he replied "La Guardia".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seems like a very smart strategy to me.

Uber is dealing with regulatory fights in almost every country it operates in. May as well let them spend all their time and money establishing the playing field before joining in. Lyft is after all only a few minute download away so getting people to switch isn't going to be as difficult as it could. Especially with Uber's appalling business practices continuing to make headlines.

<comment><USER11> How can you entirely discount marketplace dynamics? If Uber has all of the drivers signed up then the users try switching to Lyft but no drivers are available then they will go right back to Uber. Uber has raised billions and are seemingly making a lot of money so they can easily afford to fight legal battles around the world.

<comment><USER12> Wouldn't drivers just be on both apps? Most of the drivers I've talked to just run on both and get the first customer from either one.

<comment><USER13> That's the biggest long term problem, uber can't create platform monopoly without hiring drivers or illegal employment practices. They can still thrive, but it will be monopolistic competitive market where they have to rely on branding/reputation and less concrete platform lockin effects.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Disappointing. Really wanted more choice and competition in the areas where Uber is the only 'on demand' transportation service.

</comment><comment><USER15> Unfortunately for Lyft, it's a winner-takes-all market: "First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives."

At this point, with over $1 billion invested, the most viable opportunity left for Lyft investors is to pressure Uber or someone else into acquiring Lyft.

[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/accusations-fly- bet...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/accusations-fly-between-uber- and-lyft/)

<comment><USER16> I've heard this multiple times with no real evidence to back it up. Why? Why is it winner-takes-all?

Natural barriers to entry? Nope, all you need is a half-way decent mobile app and some people with cars. Yes, the bigger your fleet the larger an area you can cover, but there's no need to serve an entire metropolitan area if covering just some of it is enough to turn a profit. (For example, if I were going to enter the ride-for-hire market in NYC today, I'd put all my drivers at JFK, Laguardia, and Times Square.)

Artificial barriers to entry? There used to be, in the form of TLC monopolies and regulations around medallions. The nice thing about Uber's success, though, is that they're bearing the brunt of breaking down these barriers, leaving the path open for those that will follow.

Network effects? Mmm...some, but only for those that travel frequently. That is, if you often find yourself in a new city, your first act might be to open the Uber app because you can count on them providing service in a new, unfamiliar local. I'd wager that's the minority of ride-for-hire customers, though. Each city has its own local mass transit, and there hasn't been a push to standardize across regions. (Though wouldn't it be nice if your Metro Card worked on BART?)

On the flip-side, I see _a lot_ of opportunity for new competitors to differentiate themselves. For example, let's say you decide to focus on the "regular customer": someone who travels roughly the same route most days of the week, a commuter or someone with a daily or semi-weekly appointment to keep. Imagine you could tune your service to get the same driver for these customers most days. Now you have a familiar face picking you up, who knows where you're going, what route you prefer, what station you like on the radio, etc. If I was that customer, I'd take that service over Uber in a heart-beat.

So, again, why should it be winner-takes-all?

<comment><USER17> The barriers to entry are so high that it's nearly impossible for new entrants. The advantage of liquidity in both drivers and riders is very large. You underestimate this drastically.

<comment><USER16> What does liquidity mean in terms of drivers and riders? I'm familiar with liquid vs illiquid assets, but how does that relate to something like customers or staff?

If a competitor enters the market and offers a better deal for drivers and/or customers, it would be trivial for them to switch, no? There's no lock in beyond a free mobile app download, a username/password combo, and a CC on file.

I think the only way that supply could present a barrier to entry is if you assume that for-hire rides are a commodity and price is the only consideration. It seems obvious to me that this is _not_ the case.

<comment><USER17> Liquidity is the number of drivers available and passengers requesting a ride. More drivers mean shorter wait times, more passengers means more work for drivers. If an Uber is 5 minutes way and a Lyft is 10 minutes away, I go with Uber. If Uber gets me 3 rides/hour and Lyft gets me 2, I drive with Uber.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Prudent move. If Lyft can figure out how to grow in markets already dominated by Uber it will be a much stronger company than if it waters down all its resources playing Uber's game. In fact, a lot of Lyft drivers and riders prefer the Lyft experience. If Lyft can maintain the service differentiation, it can grow to a strong, if smaller number 2 player. And eventually in any market it chooses to go into. Perhaps like a Southwest Airlines.

</comment><comment><USER17> Kudos to the Mercury News for writing a pretty decent analysis article on "Silicon Valley". The Merc and Chronicle never really seemed to take their role as covering the most booming industry in the past few decades very seriously.

</comment><comment><USER18> How do Uber/Lyft etc. get away without paying Apple's 30% tax on in app purchase? I'll be surprised if Apple don't show up one day asking for a big check, every month, forever...

EDIT: Thanks for the clarity here, external goods and services are excluded from in app purchase. Makes sense, but surely represents a loop hole... that I think something I'm building might be able to exploit :-)

<comment><USER19> Because you're not buying features or consuming what you're buying through the app.

Is Amazon supposed to give 30% of all purchases made through the Amazon app? ofcourse not. If Amazon made additional search features an optional upgrade for the app, I'd imagine Apple would want a piece of that.

<comment><USER14> You can purchase a Kindle, but not the books.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> comical pr spin...</comment>


Obamacare: Personal Data Can Be Used For 'Law Enforcement and Audit Activities' - <AUTHOR> http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-marketplace-personal-data-can-be-used-law-enforcement-and-audit-activities_762237.html <comment><USER2> Is there a politically neutral group that compared this text to the fine print with other insurance providers? The Weekly Standard is a notably conservative, anti-obamacare group (and I wonder to what extent they are overblowing what seems like standard text)

NOTE: I don't mean to suggest that the message is diminished by the political colors of the bearer, but the highlighted clauses seem like fairly standard legal language that appear in other insurance website privacy policies (in contrast to the implication in the article).

<comment><USER3> I agree, no need for caution when it comes to liberty and due process. The "true" media has never steered us wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The "law enforcement" part is common in privacy policies; if whoever's running a web site gets a subpoena for personal information (or something more exotic, like an NSL), they don't really have the option of keeping it to themselves, and the clause just acknowledges that.

This leaves "audit activities"; is that a phrase defined elsewhere in the document?

<comment><USER5> Not sure about the document, but I can wager an informed guess as to what "audit activities" means.

I've gone through the Massachusetts Health application process(the model for the ACA). To qualify for subsidised healthcare, your current income cannot be more than 300% of the poverty line. If you qualify for subsidized healthcare, you are told that you must notify Mass Health if your financial situation changes.

So, if you applied for Mass Health because you lost your job, you can't stay on Mass Health when you find another one.

The lovely Mass Health bureaucrat made it clear that I was susceptible to an audit and fraud charges if I didn't report an "income event" (I believe that's what she called it) in a timely matter.

Her explanation might shed light on the phrase "audit activities". But I haven't actually read the Obamacare legislation, so I can't say for certain.

<comment><USER6> I'm willing to bet something like this will be done but I don't know if it's the explanation of the "audit activities" phrase.

Since you can apply for subsidies that take income into account, it stands to reason they would need to do the occasional audit to determine if your current income matches what you claim on the exchange.

How to do that? Well, the IRS is heavily involved in the enforcement of these laws so it stands to reason that every once in a while the exchange will compare notes with the IRS to make sure your stated income on both forms match.

I expect this to happen sometime after April every year.

I'd be curious if there are penalties outlined in the law about getting extra subsidies based on lying on the exchange about your income levels. If you decide to read the law and get to that part of the monstrosity, then let us know what it says.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> this is a misleading title in particular because it applies to the maryland exchange's website and not, as a whole, to 'obamacare.'

regardless, how is this any different than any other website handing over information when a lawful request has been made? is there some expectation that exchanges are immune from these sorts of requests from law enforcement agencies?

similarly, is there any question that correspondence with a public agency can potentially be entered into a public record? this doesn't actually overturn doctor patient confidentiality (which _would_ be worthy of a scary headline), it's just enumerating the same problems you likely already need to contend with when dealing with private insurance.

<comment><USER8> _similarly, is there any question that correspondence with a public agency can potentially be entered into a public record?_

As many HIPPA-related documents as I've had to sign as a consultant working in/around medical and as a patient, I'd have assumed HIPPA was in force here as well since we're talking (a) medical info that is (b) personally identifiable.

<comment><USER7> agreed, it would be particularly disturbing if a govt service were flaunting its blatant disregard for hippa (which, again, would be headline-worthy for that reason alone)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "[W]e may share information provided in your application with the appropriate authorities for law enforcement and audit activities."

Sounds like fraud detection and reporting. Is this really a problem?

<comment><USER10> "Do you use illegal drugs? If so which ones. When did you last use? How often do you use?"

Yeah no risk at all with this...

<comment><USER6> Illegal drugs? Think a tad bit differently, think of states where marijuana is legal but is still illegal on the Federal level.

If you go to surgery you really should tell them about drug usage to make sure they compensate in their drugs, but the Feds might be interested to know as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The Weekly Standard appears to have a very partisan tone in this article and others concerning the Affordable Care Act. Obviously, the ACA is politically divisive. Everyone should be able to debate and critique it, _but_ those who do condemn the approach need to propose a viable, stronger alternative.

This isn't an academic debate in which we have the luxury of finding a perfect solution. As Howard Zinn said about politics, "We're on a moving train." I worked for a health care center in a city where 1/3 of residents were uninsured, unable to afford check-ups and essential services. A similar dynamic exists in hundreds of other U.S. regions.

So, if you shoot holes in a solution (in this case, the ACA), please add to the conversation by proposing alternatives to address the urgent, obvious problems in U.S. health care.

<comment><USER6> Wait, so you're saying that if I see something as a bad idea I have to propose alternative solutions before I can say anything?

If you see my alternative solutions as a bad idea does the rule apply to you as well? Do you just repeat the idea I say is bad to refute my idea you say is bad? Doesn't seem a good way to debate, just seems a good way to shut down disagreement.

<comment><USER11> It's about how you phrase things - and your intentions. It's the difference between...

The Affordable Care Act will never work because it's too expensive.

And...

What steps can we take to make affordable healthcare more financially viable?

<comment><USER6> Who gets to define the appropriate way to phrase things?

I see the difference between your two examples but they don't necessarily work for me in terms of what you were saying.

There's nothing wrong with saying the ACA will never work because it's too expensive. It's an opinion that could be proven wrong. A potential intention is to stop the ACA because it is too expensive and I fail to see what's wrong with that intention if the person actually feels that way. A good response to the statement is to ask for details as to why one would think that, not tell them to offer alternatives or shut up.

As for your second example. If I were a big supporter of the ACA my answer to your question is easy, the answer is simply the ACA. Which does not further the debate in any way.

Maybe the "about how you phrase things" and "intentions" should be considered a two-way street?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The law enforcement and audit activities kind of makes sense with the territory. In my mind, at least. BUT if personal emails and details are therefore considered public record, doesn't that completely break HIPPA privacy requirements? Requirements the government wrote?!

</comment><comment> at-fates-hands I was thinking more like people who logged in, created an account, then got sticker shock and decided not to sign up.

Well, now the government has a database of people who aren't enrolled and can now start fining them. Add in the fact that the IRS can simply take money from their bank accounts and you have some real issues with this law.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm generally for governments doing things, in terms of personal ideology.

That aside, I think that we need to take a big step back from making everything we can think of automated, integrated, and available online until we take a hard look at the role of privacy and the nature of public records about individual's information.

</comment><comment><USER14> I wouldn't have clicked on a news article six years ago with "Bushighanistan" in the title and I won't do it today when a fundamental human right is derided with such a stupid name.

This country needs to grow up.

</comment><comment><USER15> FUD (Considering the source)

</comment><comment><USER16> Affordable Care Act

<comment><USER17> The President himself, said he likes the term "Obamacare".

<comment><USER18> Which still doesn't make it right.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you develop on Macbook Air - <AUTHOR>

Looking to see what tools the community use to do development on os x<p>1) Develop as is on os x by directly installing various tools and apis on the machine 2) Using virtual box - VHD on same HDD as where OS X is installed. 3) Using virtual box - VHD on storage other than main HDD where OS X is installed 4) Using Vagrant  - VHD on same HDD as where OS X is installed 5) Using Vagrant - VHD on storage other than main HDD where OS X is installed 6) Using VMware - VHD on same HDD as where OS X is installed 7) Using VMware - VHD on storage other than main HDD where OS X is installed <comment><USER2> 4)

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you see any performance issues. How long have you been using this setup ? Just wondering if the SSD's on the air can handle the extra I/O without shortening its life drastically.</comment></comment>


Dude, That Is So Fringe - <AUTHOR> http://adam.blog.heroku.com/past/2008/7/22/dude_that_is_so_fringe/

<comment><USER2> "Giles Bowket - Fuck the man, fuck the mainstream. Programming is a tool to do your art. His art is music, his tool is Ruby, and the result is Arcaeopteryx. (Giles stole the show with this talk. He ran like twice as long as his alloted time but we were all so into it that no one minded.)"

This seems to be his style -- his talk at the San Diego Ruby user group was like an hour (most talks are 10-25 minus) and no one really minded.

<comment><USER3> Is there a video? I Googled for his name, and got your comment as the top hit ;)

Edit: that's because his name is spelled with two t's at the end.

<comment><USER2> It should show up on the SD Ruby podcast within a month or two.

Also Giles has slides on the web, code on Github, videos on Vimeo, and blog posts about it. He's not exactly keeping this private. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reginald Braithwaite - It's too bad Ruby isn't more like Lisp or Haskell.

In the other post today ([http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/07/brief-history- of-dangero...](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/07/brief-history-of-dangerous- ideas.html)) he says he is retiring from Ruby Hacking and Blogging. They always indicate what is to come in the future.

</comment><comment><USER5> Glancing down the list of descriptions, I wondered how many here thing what was described was actually _fringe_?</comment>


Is Social Influence going to be a must have skill on your resume in a few years? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/the-mission/by-2020-these-10-employee-skills-will-soon-be-in-huge-demand-55edc301017d <comment><USER2> Only if you want to write for a site like Medium.

</comment><comment><USER3> No.

</comment><comment><USER4> I hate everything about this but I still up-voted.

<comment><USER2> Why?

<comment><USER4> It just feels too much like that first episode of season 3 of Black Mirror. Where your status in society is determined by other people's perception of your happiness.

I guess I would be like the truck driver that's lives completely out of mainstream. "Even your credit score will someday be controlled by how much people like you." Sounds horrible. That is the opposite of the future that I want.

Maybe some people don't work well with others. Has society already deemed these people unproductive/unnecessary? Social influence is just like any other magnanimous recognition; few and far between.

It seems like there is this trend where LinkedIn bloggers pick out the 7 best attributes from their role models and suddenly everyone has to adopt that mindset or you are shamed out of your "influential" position. Just because Arianna Huffington did it, doesn't mean we all have to.

What is "cross-cultural competency"? Does that mean I have to give up my office with a window so my Muslim co-worker can pray before he eats his lunch alone every day? Or does that mean it is OK to be late for meetings like in many Asian cultures? Buzzword bingo.

<comment><USER2> I understand why you don't like the conclusion of the article; I don't understand why you up voted it!

As for cross-cultural competency it is a matter of the being competent for the cultures you actually cross.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Predictive policing: Don't even think about it - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582042-it-getting-easier-foresee-wrongdoing-and-spot-likely-wrongdoers-dont-even-think-about-it

<comment><USER2> Statistical analysis to figure the optimal use of police resources is a great idea, particularly to prevent violent crime and theft in public areas.

What concerns me, however, is the idea of predictive analytics being used on the vast databases collected by NSA/GCHQ (there's no reason to suspect they're not doing this already). Such a system of "pre-crime" would be bound to have false positives, and suddenly based on your Google searches, movie preferences, musical tastes, friendships, or who knows what, the state decides that you are a "person of interest".

</comment><comment><USER3> Woah! I'm the technical founder of this company and I hadn't even seen this article yet. Pretty surreal to see it on hacker news.</comment>


Ask HN: Rate my free group texting service with public API - <AUTHOR> http://groupflier.com

<comment><AUTHOR> I just launched the API today so any feedback on it would be greatly appreciated. The direct link to the API is <http://www.groupflier.com/api.html>

P.S. Click the phone image to watch the video easter egg

</comment><comment><USER2> "Add a row" is not a good call to action since "row" is a developer term. I'd go with something like "Add more users".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, will do!

<comment><AUTHOR> Done and live. I went with "Add more".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Service sounds fantastic, can't wait to see more progress on it!

Also suggestion - I think the design could use some work, have you considered making the grey footer abit bit lighter so there is better contrast with your links?

I would also create real text on your page, for example the "free text messaging groups for friends, family, colleagues" could easily be in text rather than a .gif

Keep up the good work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback, I will pass this on to our graphics guru.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Great service, I might have to switch my fraternity which is using a paid and broken service (textmelater.com) over to this. One quick thing though. The title tag of the form field didn't show up on Mac FF (3.6.13) and it isn't apparently obvious what the fields are there for. Maybe add a label to the fields or at least the top name and number fields to make them stand out more.

<comment><AUTHOR> Rat's I will look at that version of FF. If you switch over I would appreciate the feedback on how it works for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just noticed something, when you click "Your Groups" and then enter your phone # it tells you to enter a pin. If you click off of that box while waiting for your pin the damn pin box goes away. Kinda annoying because now you have to do everything again

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, will fix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Awesome idea, maybe biased because my friend and I were talking about a similar idea maybe just a week ago. :) Maybe some way to import contacts? Not sure if it's overkill, but maybe worth considering.

<comment><USER6> Ouch, does Your Groups work? I typed in my mobile number and it said it couldn't be found, now it's alerting THROTTLE since I probably tried too many times haha.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, I think I know what is going on. Did you send a welcome message to the group from your cell phone? If you didn't then your group is staged and not yet created. I need to check for numbers in the staged groups as well. Thanks for the feedback.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you don't mind my asking, what's your business model?

<comment><AUTHOR> The VC's are funding a few companies in this space on the hope that this is the future of social networking. If that happens the biggest network will be able to monetize the traffic with tag line ads, mobile ads, coupons or the like. Until then the VC's are paying the freight for all the SMS traffic so enjoy the free texting :-)

<comment><USER8> It looks like a killer app to me. There is a similar service in India called SMSGupShup which is a big hit.

best luck!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Suggestion, change * for commands to something else. I like to use * to correct typos.

<comment><AUTHOR> I picked * as it is a primary key on a regular cellphone keypad. I might add the option for the user to customize the command prompt. Thanks for the feedback.

<comment><USER6> Oh wow, that makes a lot of sense actually. Sorry for my bias, snobby iphone user here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What are you using for telephony integration? twilio?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes</comment></comment>


Seattle startup weekend for "startup curious" senior devs - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupcurious.com

<comment><USER2> How much is the fees ? I can't find it on your website.

<comment><USER3> Free for devs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Cool, looking forward to it.

</comment><comment><USER3> This event looks AWESOME!</comment>


Winners of Udacity's CS101 contest - <AUTHOR> http://www.udacity.blogspot.com/2012/05/winners-of-udacitys-cs101-contest.html <comment><USER2> Congratulations to all these winners, but perhaps more important to Udacity itself -- hopefully this and other innovations on their end will really push online learning forward.

<comment><USER3> True.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Udacity is showing its results. Great ideas from fresh-mind programmers. The youdacity app is awesome. Try the word split at <http://youdacity.appspot.com/>

<comment><USER5> Is youdacity down? What's a search term that works? Keep getting no matches.</comment></comment>


Foundry Group Releases "I'm a VC" Music Video - <AUTHOR> http://www.foundrygroup.com/wp/2011/09/imavc/

<comment><USER2> Here's a direct link to the YouTube video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKArupEBE6Y></comment>