Ask HN: I have ~12hrs of free dev time a week. How do I turn that into money? - <AUTHOR> I'd like to hear people's opinions or experiences on what I could be doing in my spare dev time to earn money outside of my fulltime work. I'm a senior iOS developer with a well paying 9-5 job, however my wife has decided to leave her full-time job to pursue her career as an artist, and so I'd like to be able to makeup somewhat our drop in income. <comment><USER2> The most immediate way would be taking on 12 hrs per week of freelance/consulting iOS work . . . network and make connections. (Try not to use upwork/online sites try to network and charge 1.5 to 2x your 9-5 hourly rate.

(Taking care to work with in the bounds of your 9-5 job/contract, I wouldn't bring it up with your boss/co-workers but make sure you're not breaking rules in case it would every come up). Get an EIN number and work as a 1099 contract dev with clients, LLC if you're bringing in lots of hours over the year.

I'll mention the app store seems like minimal return on investment if any for most iOS devs so I wouldn't expect to make money off that. If you enjoy it just want to roll the dice without any expectations more as a hobby but sounds like you want to bring in revenue.

Beyond that investing 12 hours in building an audience for a product (ebook/training/info products) might be worthwhile.

Give this podcast a listen . . . [http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/](http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/)

Microconf talks [https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos](https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos)

Building a product or SaaS app times time/is hard but having recurring revenue down the road is a huge payoff . . .

Congrats to letting your wife pursue her dream.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you had all the money you could ever want, what would you be doing?

Then, if you could do that in your 12 hours of free time, you'd have turned 12 hours of your time into all the money you could ever want, and used it to do whatever it is you want to do.

<comment><USER4> That is what the OP's wife is doing. But what should the OP do?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> 12 hours/week doesn't sound like enough time to make any money via appstore to me, as some are suggesting. It's just enough time to freelance a bit though! You can find part time freelance work without an established network pretty easily actually. I've done this successfully for web dev work several times:

1) search angellist jobs section for companies looking to hire their first iOS dev, or to have an MVP of their app made 2) contact all of them (this is a numbers game) by pitching yourself and how you have the exact skill set they need, include a portfolio, and mention your terms up front (hours per week/desired rate/no I don't work for sweat equity)

Even people looking to hire full timers are probably desperate enough to consider taking on a part timer, even as a temporary stop gap.

I prefer angellist jobs section to traditional freelance sites because you can avoid race to bottom bidding and avoid much of the competition. There are a lot of open minded people looking for high quality workers out there and are thus willing to pay a better hourly rate, but they avoid most freelancing sites and focus on full time because they don't think there is an alternative- be that alternative to them

<comment><USER6> Could you detail the hourly rate you can have there as senior/junior dev? Do you happen to know the rates for php programmers?

<comment><USER5> It depends... if you are picky and can sell yourself well, 80+/hour as a senior. Unsure of junior rates but maybe 50+. PHP may be less in demand on angellist in particular though as compared to JavaScript/Ruby

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Probably freelancing via something like Upwork. I work an additional 15 hours a week on top of my current job, and the pay seems quite competitive (I mainly take Laravel jobs). The service seems way less 'Wild West' than Freelancer does (which I've had bad experiences with in the past).

</comment><comment><USER8> From experience, I'd opt for freelancing / consulting over "make an app" or "contribute to open source".

Making an app is great when it works, but it's not guaranteed to earn anything. It can take a while to find the right product. Even then, you're better off having a diversified portfolio of products, it's unlikely that one product alone will replace a full-time income, and they'll have individual dips & peaks in sales / subscriptions (several products helps make your income more steady).

Contributing to open source _guarantees_ you won't earn anything upfront. Freelancing / consulting is far more immediate income, you either have a paying client or you don't. It's possible that some of your prospective clients won't even know what open source is, let alone be able to judge the quality of your code.

Of course, there are lots of ways to earn income that don't involve code. Getting casual work at Starbucks is an option. Being a day trader on stock markets might be another. Not everything has to be solved with code.

<comment><USER9> You can certainly fail on the App store if you think like you do. Nothing is easy in life, people who succeed are people who start with a positive attitude and transform a failure into a learning experience. Anyone can make it on the app store with hard work and dedication. The more you fail the better you get. The 5th, 6th app might work out. Not the first ones for sure...

<comment><USER8> Been there done that for the last 15 years, it's one of the ways I make my living :) I love product businesses, they're a great source of semi-passive income. The lifestyle of choosing your hours & where you work is bliss.

But the OP asked specifically about earning money to replace a full time income, and consulting is a faster route to money. Product businesses take time to build an audience (you do have an email list of prospective customers, right?) and you're looking for thousands of customers. Whereas with consulting, you only need to find a handful of clients. Charge your client $100/hour (really you should charge more, or charge weekly) and you'll be so far ahead of most App developers. Which is easy, since most apps earn no money and many get no traction at all.

You could always try both. Split half your time into consulting, the other half into doing an app. See which works better and gets more traction. Hopefully the consulting half becomes unnecessary as the apps take off and become a hit.

<comment><USER9> I agree with $100/hour for consulting, it's "easy" money. It depends on how you deal with micro-management. If you work as a consultant you'd be treated as an expensive external resource by your clients. Which is usually not the best place to be. On the other hand you have your corporate main job where your manager owns your life, which sucks. So he might end up going nuts. It all depends on how you deal with structures and bosses. If money is the main focus then yeah, Starbucks, consulting, any factory or freelancing is the right path for him. If he wants to use these 12h/week to learn something valuable and give himself the opportunity to not have to think about money anymore, then he should invest a couple of month in learning how to build an entire product from scratch, marketing, how to interact with his users, UX, business strategies, priorities, you know what I mean if you've done it already. He might not make money at all but he will acquire a lot of valuable knowledge. Knowledge = long term investment. It's like stock versus real estate.

<comment><USER8> That's a good point. If you've already got a full-time job with a boss, adding a micro-managing client on top is a fast road to burnout & reduced quality of life. And the best way to learn how to build a product & market it & deal with support is to jump in and give it a try.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Kind of the obvious suggestion here, since you're a mobile developer, make an awesome app. I know, it's not that simple. I'm not a mobile developer, so I honestly don't know how not simple it is. Just a thought though.

As a senior developer, you could try consulting on the side. Do you network? If you're good at what you do, there's probably someone you know or someone you know who knows someone who might be able to use your expertise. It never hurts to ask around.

That's all I can think of. They're probably not new ideas for you though. Hey, you can always contribute to open source software. It won't make you any money, but you might get your name out there and help a cool project out in the process. You might even learn some new things to put to good use in your career.

</comment><comment><USER9> app store... write your own app, submit it, do some marketing by putting up a website (wordpress template = 10 min kick ass website), run some FB/youtube marketing for like $100 and you're set. If you end up having a great idea it'll pay off and you could make 10 times what you're making as a slave.. I mean, as an employee. It's like 1-2 month of development and the rest is passive income. You'll have 12h of free time looking at when you could quite your 9 to 5 to go full time on the app store. If you don't make a dollar with your app you'll get to learn all the process from A to Z which is gold. So you'll never lose your time.

</comment><comment><USER11> I hope it is just loose language, but it should be both of you who decided to support your wife's dream to be an artist. I can't imagine making such a decision on my own and expecting my wife to work extra to make up for our loss of income.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd like to team with you to make something viable! What are the fields of interest you are searching to put your valuable time into?

</comment><comment><USER13> Build an authority site on something you are passionate about.

</comment><comment><USER14> Freelance on the side seems like the obvious answer.

</comment><comment><USER15> Use dev time to dev something that makes money ;)</comment>


Show HN: Add Clippy to Your Website for April Fools - <AUTHOR> https://eager.io/app/clippy/install <comment><USER2> Tried 4 sites, two external and 2 registered on Eager. The preview didn't work.</comment>


Dancing mania - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania <comment><USER2> > Scientists have described dancing mania as a "collective mental disorder", > "collective hysterical disorder", and "mass madness".

You can call it a disorder but it's also human nature. I can see this instance being classified as a modern outbreak: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ)

</comment><comment><USER3> _" Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St. John's Dance and, historically, St. Vitus's Dance) was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected men, women, and children who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion."_

The complexity of human behavior never ceases to amaze me. The more I learn about it, the more I realize how little I know. Here we have numerous documented instances, over several centuries, of people dancing maniacally, unable to stop themselves until they collapse from exhaustion. WTF?

<comment><USER4> There's an awful lot of strange stuff in history. If you like this you'll enjoy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusion...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds) (1841)

It even has a section on memes, entitled "Popular follies of great cities".

<comment><USER3> Thanks. I read MacKay's book many years ago. Its accounts are not always historically accurate or well-documented, but it's a great read -- particularly its descriptions of Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble, and the Mississippi Bubble.

That said, I still can't quite fathom how or why a crowd of human beings will suddenly burst into dance, and do it until their bodies collapse from exhaustion.

<comment><USER5> Have you ever just ran until you couldn't run anymore, for reasons other than physical activity itself? There's a point at which you _feel_ you could go further, and in fact know you can, but you choose to stop because the discomfort and exhaustion at that point outweighs the purpose of the run. I can imagine and speculate this is what is meant. The dancers exhausted the point of the dance, and then would fall to the ground for quickest relief, just as you might throw yourself onto a bench after a spontaneous, excess- driven sprint.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> At first, I thought it was a joke or a fake post, especially with: "music was often played while participants danced, as that was believed to be an effective remedy" but "music encouraged others to join in however, and thus effectively made things worse". I'd assume that music would encourage dancing, but perhaps that was not the norm during those days.

<comment><USER7> Maybe they tried to play something difficult to dance to, or something timed to mis-match the dancers' cadence?

<comment><USER8> > In Italy, a similar phenomenon was tarantism, in which the victims were said > to have been poisoned by a tarantula or scorpion. Its earliest known > outbreak was in the 13th century, and the only antidote known was to dance > to particular music to separate the venom from the blood.

Perhaps it was something similar to this. It sounds like they were shooting in the dark with various different "antidotes".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I always thought that this D&D Spell was silly, but maybe it was based on this "Dancing Mania":

[http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/spells/irres...](http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/spells/irresistibleDance.html)

> The subject feels an undeniable urge to dance and begins doing so, complete > with foot shuffling and tapping. The spell effect makes it impossible for > the subject to do anything other than caper and prance in place. The effect > imposes a –4 penalty to Armor Class and a –10 penalty on Reflex saves, and > it negates any AC bonus granted by a shield the target holds. The dancing > subject provokes attacks of opportunity each round on its turn. A successful > Will save reduces the duration of this effect to 1 round.

For those who haven't played D&D: a level 8 spell is outrageously powerful. Resurrection is a level 7 spell (restoring life to a dead person, even if their body has been mutilated). While "Raise Dead" is a level 5 spell (Restoring life to a dead person, so long as their body hasn't been mutilated). Teleportation across hundreds of miles is accomplished at level 5 spell level. Indeed, "Limited Wish" is a level 7 spell.

So level 8 spells are SERIOUSLY powerful magic. A level of spellcasting that is beyond the abilities of most players, and is basically reserved for the end of very long campaigns.

So "force a guy to dance" has always been silly IMO. But the thought of historical accuracy with regards to "Dancing Mania" has changed my opinion. It would be downright terrifying if fellow villagers suddenly were forced to dance, seemingly unconsciously.

</comment><comment><USER10> Sounds fucking lit!

</comment><comment><USER11> Perhaps someone was just throwing down a really slick bassline.

</comment><comment><USER12> Sounds like a rave.

<comment><USER13> Not really, at a rave they don't die unless it is in exceptional cases.

<comment><USER14> Every now and then dancing mania article pops out here or there and every time I'm reading it I wonder how much of it is exaggerated after telling and retelling this stories or even as a warning of sorts that such 'dirty', spontaneous rave may be deadly so should not be performed by a righteous christian (considering that it happened mainly in Europe between 7th and 17th century)

<comment><USER15> So basically a medieval version of Footloose? "Dancing is the work of the devil. It will bring great evils upon our town and our people!"</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google DeepMind is building a blockchain-style system for healthcare - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2017/03/google-deepminds-untrendy-blockchain-play-make-actually-useful/?mbid=social_twitter <comment><USER2> Except for the part where it's not actually a blockchain?

By that definition, Certificate Transparency is also a blockchain. Except...it's not.

I also like how they make a big deal about the "trusted" hospitals and whatnot. As if hospitals couldn't possibly be sabotaged.

The whole point of blockchain is that it's a network of _untrusted_ users. That's one of its main features. Having a "trusted" network is almost a downside, from this point of view. The certificate authorities are also a "trusted" network. But I think we've learned by now just how "trustworthy" they can be.</comment>


Tetris Is Hard, Even to Approximate - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0210020 <comment><USER2> Worth linking to the most famous of these authors, Erik Dermaine. More or less a prototypical child genius in math / CS. MIT Professor at 20.

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

Also highly recommended basically any filmed class he's teaching on MIT OpenCourseware

<comment><USER3> I quite like his presentation format for his online lectures (example - [1]); 3 panels - (1) video of him explaining/board work (2) notes (3) slides, all sync-ed. When he changes topic the slide and notes panel also move forward. And I think this has been around for ~ 10 yr now.

[1] [http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.849/fall10/lectures/L01.html](http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.849/fall10/lectures/L01.html)

<comment><USER4> This dude is amazing. Did not know about him. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a version of Tetris in which random pieces appear, not the classic version where all 7 of the pieces appear in a shuffled order over and over.

<comment><USER6> The original NES variant (which is used for professional play) has random pieces.

<comment><USER7> I think this is also true for GB?

<comment><USER8> The GB version is the definitive version for me, I've never been able to find a modern version on any device that feels the same.

It was the only game I had for my GB, I played the crap out of that game to the point I'd dream about it or see the tiles when I closed my eyes.

<comment><USER9> Totally agree and I've always wondered how much of that has to do with the hardware feel.

<comment> frosted-flakes It's available on the 3DS as a Virtual Console, and it's identical in every way, including the controls.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Interesting. I would think ML would do well to copy players. When I play it's a rather boring game, I'm almost always just setting up for the |. I can imagine trying to approximate a player using a complex branch if/else structure being complicated code. But I have to wonder if deep ML would be a rather impressive implementation (even without seeing the next block). The only thing that kills my game is the ever increasing speed, which wouldn't matter to ML.

<comment><USER11> Well, according to this paper, ML can't do too well, unless you can use ML to solve NP-complete problems.

<comment><USER12> ML is all about finding approximate solutions. Categorizing problem as NP- complete only makes sense when talking about exact solutions.

<comment><USER13> that's not true at all [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximation_algorithm#Hard...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximation_algorithm#Hardness_of_Approximation)

<comment><USER12> Please point out where I am (completely!) wrong.

I have formally dealt with approximation algorithms before and I skimmed the wikipedia article, yet I did not find anything that contradicts me. Note the in the section on hardness, P and NP (obviously) appear as bounds of solutions. Where is the contradiction?

Further, all this (approximation algos and P/NP algos) are discrete, complete algorithms. ML is a completely different story, as one is never certain whether some optimum is global or local. Hence, ML is a heuristic, while Djikstras shortest path algorithm is a series of steps with a success guarantee (with provable worst runtime behavior).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Has someone tried to implement public key cryptography with Tetris?

</comment><comment><USER15> I thought Tetris was pretty easy for a computer to play: to decide where to put the next piece, just maximize flatness of the surface while penalizing holes.

I'm hence surprised about the hardness of approximation result.

<comment><USER16> You are right: the authors observe that when the size of the playing field is fixed and the only variable is the sequence of tetrominoes (which may vary arbitrarily in length), Tetris can be solved in polynomial time with a dynamic programming approach.

The authors' contribution is that the problem of choosing the optimal strategy is NP-complete when the playing field is itself variable, and provided as an input to the algorithm (as a matrix of 1s and 0s indicating whether or not the cell is filled, or equivalently, as the number of cells in the grid provided in unary base.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is a very thorough analysis. It's not that surprising to me, given the existing knowledge about the complexity of this type of game:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile- matching_video_game#Compu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile- matching_video_game#Computational_complexity)

<comment><USER18> The paper is from 2002, all of the references in that Wikipedia article are younger (and indeed, reference [16] even cites the Tetris is Hard paper).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> (2002)

<comment><USER20> It's not like Tetris has gotten any easier to approximate in the last 17 years.</comment></comment>


Turning Japanese: Coping with stasis - <AUTHOR> http://thelongandshort.org/issues/season-three/turning-japanese-coping-with-stagnation.html <comment><USER2> Why so many negative comments? Japan certainly seems to outshine the US according to multiple metrics, so they are doing something right:

Japan's unemployment rate is 3.6% vs 5.5% for the US: [http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/results/month/inde...](http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/results/month/index.htm) vs [http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000](http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000)

Japan's homelessness rate is 20 per 100,000 population (25,000 homeless people in 2001) vs 220 per 100,000 in the US: [http://books.google.com/books?id=q-PgHH8TJi8C&printsec=front...](http://books.google.com/books?id=q-PgHH8TJi8C&printsec=frontcover) vs [https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/2012AHAR_PITesti...](https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/2012AHAR_PITestimates.pdf)

Japan's incarceration rate is 50 per 100,000 population vs 710 per 100,000 for the US.

Japan is even on track to stop increasing their public deficit by this year (thanks to the new sales tax) whereas the US is far from being on budget. And Japan even manages to achieve this despite a significantly aging demographics (lots of social benefits paid to non-working people), compare [http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population- pyramids/japan-p...](http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population- pyramids/japan-population-pyramid-2014.gif) vs [http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/3/28/saupload_3-...](http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/3/28/saupload_3-28-us.png)

Japan's society seems to be functioning better than the US. I appreciate this article for trying to find out why.

<comment><USER3> > Why so many negative comments?

Because the English-speaking world has roughly agreed on the neoliberal economic consensus that extreme individualism, devil-take-the-hindmost capitalism is the Only Way. It is an absolute dogma, reinforced constantly through the press and the best-funded political parties.

Rich nations like Japan or Norway who are trundling happily along with more equitable societies, rather than a return to Victorian social models, need to be stigmatized lest one start asking questions like "what's the point having a country of billionaires and ditch-diggers?"

Might as well pitch atheism in Saudi Arabia.

<comment><USER4> Please don't bring Norway into this. I'd rather not see it inspire yet another subthread with a bunch of cocksure foreigners who think they know what this country is like. Their analysis tends to be shallow.

<comment><USER5> If that's true, why not help educate? What is Norway actually like?

<comment><USER6> I live in Norway, and I think it's pretty close to an utopia.

Not that there aren't flaws, but people tend to complain for the sake of complaining.

This often makes outsiders think that it's all just a facade and that behind the scenes it's actually terrible, that Norway can't just be a good place to live, there has to be some sort of dirty secret that undoes all the good things about the place.

<comment><USER4> Are you a native or have you moved there from somewhere else? I think the dual to "the grass is always greener" is that you might not realize that some things are problematic, or that there are better alternatives, unless you've have the chance to look at it from another perspective.

<comment><USER6> I moved to Norway when I was 5 (from Sweden). While I technically qualify as a foreigner, I would say that I'm a vanilla Norwegian guy.

I can't really comment on being biased or not, that's obviously not the sort of thing I would know myself, but I do have a lot of friends all across the world that I talk with regularly, and find that they have to deal with a lot of small crises and huddles in life I don't have to deal with (saving up for college, paying hospital bills, high insurance costs, etc).

I know that if I suddenly lose both my arms in a car accident, or otherwise get long-term sick, the social safety net is there to get me back on my feet.

When I've interacted with the police, they have been polite gentlemen who genuinely care about their job and their community, I've never come across the power and trigger happy psychopaths that the US unfortunately seems to attract for their police jobs.

And I know by experience that even somebody who has a "low" job like working at McDonalds is pretty well off, able to buy more than just the bare necessities. Stuff like people having two jobs just to survive is unheard of.

As I said, nothing is perfect, but when I do hear people complain about Norway, it's usually from an outsider perspective, getting things like our taxes completely wrong, or from an insider perspective, complaining about dumb politicians or bad weather.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > _And then there's the view. Whether it's the outskirts of Queens on the way > from New York's JFK airport, or the fringes of the Los Angeles highway off- > ramps by LAX, everything seems a bit run down and decrepit._

Even on the train from Narita Airport to Tokyo, you'll pass plenty of comparatively run down "commerce areas" adjacent to small train stops. The buildings are old, and made of nondescript concrete that have been stained by the rainfall over decades. It makes me uneasy every time I see these sort of buildings.

Taking the Narita Express or the Limousime Busses will largely insulate you from seeing those things though.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, that line is ridiculous. Tokyo is the _only_ part of Japan that's still growing in population, and that will stall and reverse by 2020. Even in Tokyo, "new and shiny" is concentrated in a few central spots near major train stations. Population in the rest of the country is shrinking, with many places in outright collapse.

[https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/yubari- withering...](https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/yubari-withering- into-truth/)

<comment><USER9> Bit of a sidebar but I _really_ like Spike Japan. I wish they'd compile all the blog posts into a book.

<comment><USER10> I just wish he'd keep posting. I got the distinct impression someone complained to his employer, though, and he was told to stop. I used hit that site up all the time looking for a new post.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> '"Do rich societies really need to get richer and richer indefinitely?" he asks.'

They do if they are going to pay off their mega-debt. The real fear is when the GDP drops below the yearly interest payments.

I feel the same when I go to nice European countries. "Wow everything is so nice" and then I remind myself that Germany is paying for it all. It's not sustainable. Look at some of the Scandinavian countries for nice mass public transit in a more sustainable setting.

<comment><USER12> Does anyone actually think the USA will ever pay off its debt?

<comment><USER13> Public debt is private savings, you don't ever want to pay it off. Debt is to be serviced, not paid off.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't find his reasoning compelling at all. Countries can coast on the efforts of previous generations for a long time. Indeed, you would expect to see all the outward signs of prosperity in a society which has comparatively few children to whom resources must be allocated.

</comment><comment><USER14> Japan is a cut rose. Cut in a clean way. Kept at an optimal temperature and sitting in an optimized floral solution. It will last quite a while in a very attractive state, but its still cut from that which renews and replaces.they, like much of the world, are in for either a great mutation or an extinguishing.

</comment><comment><USER15> I think when comparing Japan's growth versus other countries one has to remember the differences between GDP growth and GDP growth per capita (as the article alluded to). I live in Ontario, which basically has been sub 2% GDP growth since the 90s, but has had around 1.1% population growth. So most of the GDP growth has been from population increases rather than people individually becoming richer. Sometimes I thing the Japanese are on to something.

<comment><USER16> For anyone who is interested in Ontario's GDP numbers, I found some data. Excel so beware.

[http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/ecaccts/oea_hist.xls](http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/ecaccts/oea_hist.xls)

<comment> semi-extrinsic You can read Excel in Pandas and in R.

<comment><USER17> As well as LibreOffice Calc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> >from dreams of the infinite to realities of the finite

It certainly feels like the entire developed world is at this awakening point. Some cultures are just built to handle it worse, or better, than others.

<comment><USER19> If we make it for long enough we will face a time when growth based economics fail. The funny thing is that if you think quality of life is related to GDP per capita then one way to improve quality of life is to allow GDP to stagnate while you decrease the population.

We desperately need to find alternatives to US style consumer economies because they are simply unsustainable and don't really lead to happiness or fulfilment. It amuses me that this article seems to suggest that it is not technological innovations that may save Japan but their longstanding cultural habits and priorities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> > I travel back and forth between Japan and the United States, mostly Tokyo > and New York and a few other American cities, several times a year. The > contrast is jarring. Arriving in the US can feel like rolling back a decade > or more, returning to a time when information was scarce, infrastructure > creaky, and basic services like ground transportation chaotic and > unreliable.

When I visited Tokyo in 2008 I felt the same thing upon my return home. The transportation systems are efficient, punctual, and clean. People paid for their meals, bought snacks, and took the subway using their phone to pay for all of it. People were, with few exceptions, polite and helpful despite my boorish attempts to fit in.

Everything... it's so well thought out. You hand the store clerk your yen on a small tray. You can swipe your phone at a vending machine to get a quick bottle of water. You can walk from a bustling interstitial arcade into a quiet shrine. It seems like everything is meticulous and considered.

Even the seediest clubs in Roppongi or the dirtiest punk bars I could find still maintained the propriety and concern for others I found everywhere else. After one show the band passed around a bucket for some yen and we all sat down together and had food and drinks. One of the kids I came with made sure I got on the right train before the subway shut down. Even as a foreigner I could find people who were concerned about me as they were for everyone else.

Arriving back in Canada, where I'm from, was not what I had expected. The streets are haphazard and practical without a consideration for how it looks. People are louder. Traffic is thick. Litter abounds. Turnstiles, ticket booths, and grumpy ticket booth operators. Pushing... always the pushing. I had to wait a while before Street Fighter 4 would come across the Pacific so I could play it again... and 7 years for Apple to announce that you may eventually be able to buy a Coke with your phone in certain regions. Coming back to Canada felt like walking backwards in time.

</comment><comment><USER21> Not exactly a hard-hitting analysis.

<comment><USER22> Just looking at the title of his book "Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S." gives doubts to his objectivity.

<comment><USER23> You literally just judged a book by its cover in order to accuse its author of a lack of objectivity. God I hate you guys sometimes.

<comment><USER24> No, the circumstantial evidence of the book title was placed along with the shallow exposition that made up the "analysis" and was found to point in the same way: towards a not very objective assessment by the author.

I mean, this is a the text where a teacher relates anecdotes of the japanese actively sabotaging their learning (answering "yes" even when they don't understand) in a positive context.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I just noticed that the calligraphy responsively changes from vertical right- to-left to horizontal left-to-right even though it's an image. If you're reading on an iPad, you can check just by changing the orientation. Very cool attention to detail.

<comment><USER26> Thank you for pointing this out (reading on a desktop, so I'm wouldn't have noticed otherwise). The source does this via:

And where ipad-landscape-img is backed by media-selectors in bookstrap.js.

I wonder if this "bookstrap" think is related to bookstrap.org? The site is blank, and the github-repo linked to from [https://www.npmjs.com/package/bookstrap](https://www.npmjs.com/package/bookstrap) is gone/empty …

Either way it's refreshing to see some people still make sensible design without a ton of minimized CSS (even if this still pulls in two big stylesheets and a js-file … all to display some text … ).

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> > Japan's 2014 fertility rate is low – 1.4 births per woman – but David > Pilling, former Tokyo bureau chief of the Financial Times, notes that South > Korea's is lower; and that those of other developed countries, from Taiwan > and Singapore to Germany and Italy, are similarly low.

The difference with at least Germany, Italy, and Singapore is that they are fighting low birthrates with increased immigration. Japan is not. They are betting on robotics, in order to keep their population homogenous.

</comment><comment><USER28> Such cultural aspects of Japan are indeed attractive and I hope they will endure. However, the current economic model is not sustainable for a country of 120M, or even 80 - 90% of that (after shrinkage of human assets). Ironically, from the perspective of the country as a whole, _sustainable_ agriculture / craft industries are very far from being so.

I believe, Japan needs to find a way to attract economically stimulating diversity into the midst of its cultural homogeneity, without generating excessive social disapproval. OIST[1] is an interesting experiment and I'd like to keep an eye on its progress.

Otherwise, it'll eventually come down to a drastic upheaval, along the lines of Meiji or Post-WWII. And that can only happen after the other countries have laid down a bright new model for Japan to follow and improve upon. Which could be a long time hence since, as the article says, Japan is in the vanguard right now.

[1] [http://www.oist.jp/](http://www.oist.jp/)

<comment><USER8> The interesting difference to eg. the Meiji revolution, and what makes this really uncharted territory, is that the extreme aging of Japan makes both democratic _and_ violent upheaval near-impossible. You can't vote out the bastards, because the pensioner vote outweighs the youth, and any violent students/revolutionaries will not be able to get the majority of the population on their side.

As a practical example, my father-in-law was a salaryman with a rock-solid pension and amazing health care (a month in a hospital costs $50, etc). His generation has no incentive to change the system that has worked for them -- even though it imposes an increasingly unsustainable burden on the ever- shrinking working generations paying for it.

<comment><USER28> If and when it happens, a sharp transition would include seizure of debt assets owned by your father-in-law's generation. Either through default or inflation.

Furthermore I understand, but cannot provide evidence, that 10% of true believers is enough to revolutionize a whole population. Indeed the Meiji succeeded with only around 10% support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> There's a new "Cool Japan" venture capital fund.[1] It's run by the government and some big banks. Since their startup late last year, they've bought the world's largest translation/subbing service, a TV channel, and an anime streaming operation, and opened a food court in Singapore. The government of Korea has been spending heavily to promote K-Pop, and Japan is responding.

They take proposals. See their investment criteria.[2]

Someone should propose a robot-run restaurant in San Francisco.

[1] [http://www.cj-fund.co.jp/en/](http://www.cj-fund.co.jp/en/) [2] [http://www.cj-fund.co.jp/en/investment/flow.html](http://www.cj- fund.co.jp/en/investment/flow.html)

<comment><USER30> what's the story behind the food court?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I've had that experience as well but it's arguably a pretty self selected thing. It's only people living abroad who are almost all people who wanted to live abroad. Ask the same questions to an actual slice of Japanese natives living in Japan and the number of people that want those things will likely be a tiny percentage of the total.

</comment><comment><USER32> Is the author saying recession _caused_ the good aspects of Japan. If that is the hypothesis, then we expect that none of these cultural aspects like low crime rates, politeness, good food, cleanliness, etc existed before the Japanese recession? Why do people take articles like this seriously?

</comment><comment><USER33> There is one typo in brush style typeface translation. The word "萎縮" is pronounced as "Ishuku" not "Jishuku". If writer want to "Jishuku", chinese character should be "自粛".

</comment><comment><USER34> _Nearly everyone was on the same proverbial page: Japan 's population is 98.5 per cent Japanese, as defined by citizenry. While ethnic diversity has its strengths (and some academics point out that, when you analyse the population's regional roots, Japan is quite diverse), a set of common cultural values, instilled from birth, may strengthen resilience in the face of crisis and adversity._

Thought-crime in progress, citizens. Look away! Look away!

<comment><USER35> Jesus Christ. Why do we even allow this sort of pseudo-scientific "race realist" (read: racist) rubbish on Hacker News?

Japan is one of the most racist first-world countries in the world. Have you even seen their incessant xenophobia?

<comment><USER36> I think there can be an interesting discussion on the benefits of integration vs. diversity, even if I personally think diversity is something that is good. Integration has good sides and bad sides; the good being the focus of the original article, the bad being horrendous xenophobia and terrible treatment of those who don't integrate. Shutting discussion down as if things don't have multiple sides isn't very liberal, in my opinion, even if I personally disagree with the focus of said discussion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> This site has this line in bookstrap.css:

      /* Use responsive pixels */
      font-size: 1px;

Since Firefox uses the font size to determine scroll distance, this page scrolls really slowly in FF.

<comment><USER26> Thanks for the heads up. I was mostly happy the thing worked well (except for arrow-key scrolling) with js off... I wasn't aware of this (mis)feature of Firefox (I can see the rationale of using line-height for scrolling a line at a time, so it might be safe to say that the css is at fault here).

<comment><USER38> Speaking of misfeatures: I was scrolling down this page, wanted to go back up to re-read something, and the entire page just changed.

I wondered why for a second, then made a half-inch swipe to the left and discovered there's a "feature" to let me change the page for some reason, but it requires that I change the fundamental way I operate my phone/browser.

Tried to read the article again, and on the way down to where I was last reading, the page changed again. Closed the tab and won't bother reading the rest because I'm infuriated.

This is on a Nexus 5 with Android 5.1, so no, there is no rendering issue here, or lag in read of inputs. This is just an anti-feature that need not exist, nor is made obvious to the user that it exists and needs to be worked around.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Herbivore men in Japanese is not "soshoku danshi", it's "soshoku KEI danshi". Just sayin'.

<comment><USER40> Does this apply to vegetarian Japanese men? Does this mean vegetarianism is considered a negative (at least among men)?

<comment><USER41> I don't think it's literal; it just uses meat eating as a metaphor for aggressivity and drive. Just like in English we have "carnal act" for sex, referring to the flesh. Or whatever.

It's not even a word denoting vegetarians, but rather herbivores. A vegetarian is called 菜食主義者 (saishoku shugisha), not "soushoku" anything. "soushoku danshi" comes from "soushoku doubutsu", or "herbivore".</comment></comment></comment>


Encyclopedia Frown - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/12/wikipedia_editing_disputes_the_crowdsourced_encyclopedia_has_become_a_rancorous.single.html

<comment><USER2> Such a sad state of affairs. I hope Wikipedia gets its act together. The attitude of the "established" editors toward new editors and female editors is particularly disturbing. I admire the site and its mission, but the execution needs to be far better.</comment>


Show HN: OvaFlow Founders - <AUTHOR> https://www.ovaflow.com/blog/2014/06/10/ovaflow-founders/?ref=hn3 A little blog about the founders of OvaFlow <comment><USER2> Good luck guys.</comment>


My Clojure Toolchain: Leiningen - <AUTHOR> http://blog.venanti.us/clojure-leiningen/

<comment><USER2> Hi, does Ultra work with Midje[1]?

[1] [https://github.com/marick/Midje](https://github.com/marick/Midje)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not actually sure! If you give it a shot I'd love to know.</comment></comment>


Family domain name extension choices - <AUTHOR> My wife has expressed an interest in getting a family domain name that I would manage for us and and the children. Everyone would get fn@domain name.
What would HN say is the better choice:
firstname.lastname@example.com
or
firstname.lastname@example.com
I'm not sure which would be better. I also wonder how viable anything not com/net/org really is. <comment><USER2> The latter will still get rejected by a lot of software with crappy regex validation, fwiw.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good to know; thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The latter may lead to some registrar problem, and the former would be fine, but I'd recommend the format following `firstname.lastname@example.com` or `firstname.lastname@example.com` (or even with a `-` in-between `surname` and `family`).</comment>


Facebook rewrites PHP runtime, will open source on Tuesday - <AUTHOR> http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2010/01/30/Facebook-rewrites-PHP-runtime.aspx Facebook has been rewriting the PHP virtual machine for the past 2 years in an effort to make it faster. On Tuesday, they will announce the release of this software as a new open source project. <comment> matthew-wegner This was mentioned in that anonymous Facebook employee interview: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1089800>

Specifically:

 _Rumpus: So tell me about the engineers.

Employee: They're weird, and smart as balls. For example, this guy right now is single-handedly rewriting, essentially, the entire site. Our site is coded, I'd say, 90% in PHP. All the front end — everything you see — is generated via a language called PHP. He is creating HPHP, Hyper-PHP, which means he's literally rewriting the entire language. There's this distinction in coding between a scripted language and a compiled language. PHP is an example of a scripted language. The computer or browser reads the program like a script, from top to bottom, and executes it in that order: anything you declare at the bottom cannot be referenced at the top. But with a compiled language, the program you write is compiled into an executable file. It doesn't have to read the program from beginning to end in order to execute commands. It's much faster that way. So this engineer is converting the site from one that runs on a scripted language to one that runs on a compiled language. However, if you went to go talk to him about basketball, you would probably have the most awkward conversation you'd have with a human being in your entire life. You just can't talk to these people on a normal level. If you wanted to talk about basketball, talk about graph theory. Then he'd get it. And there's a lot of people like that. But by golly, they can do their jobs._

<comment><USER2> _The computer or browser reads the program like a script, from top to bottom, and executes it in that order: anything you declare at the bottom cannot be referenced at the top. But with a compiled language, the program you write is compiled into an executable file. It doesn't have to read the program from beginning to end in order to execute commands. It's much faster that way._

I lost count of the number of untrue statements there after about ten.

<comment><USER3> Wanna talk basketball?

<comment><AUTHOR> _Terrified stare_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The article is completely unsubstantiated.

 _Well, I was able to put all the pieces together on this one, finally, and I now understand exactly what is up: Facebook has rewritten the PHP runtime from scratch._

Look if it's true, this is cool, it will no doubt be a great contribution to the OS world, but let's wait until Tuesday or until we have more concrete info beyond this author's guess that FB has completely rewritten the PHP runtime. I realize the author has little to gain from making this up, except for maybe 15 min of fame on HN, but still, don't believe everything you read.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think that someone reimplementing PHP and cleaning up a lot of it's . . . quirks . . . could be a very good thing for the web. Someone who didn't care about maintaining backwards compatibility with code that relies on those . . . _quirks_ . . . and who did care about language design, and clean implementation.

Unfortunately, I have this sinking feeling that _this_ is not going to be _that_.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is there an implication that all this optimization could be merged into PHP core? PHP's appeal is ubiquitous support. Even if it is open-sourced, I can't imagine a bunch of hosting companies suddenly serving Facebook-flavored PHP.

<comment><USER7> The PHP internals developers heaped scorn on compilation when I talked to them about phc (<http://phpcompiler.org>). I think it might be different with a Facebook seal of approval though.

<comment><USER8> Should the current internal developers object to the idea even when implemented, well, "a new set of PHP internals developers" would not be the worst thing that ever happened to PHP....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wouldn't it have been easier to have moved away from PHP? From what I understand, Facebook only uses PHP for the most front of ends. Business logic is all in other languages. Isn't it easy to port the front-end into something else?

<comment><USER3> What other languages? (genuine question)

<comment><USER10> Reddit was rewritten from Lisp to Python: <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit>

Twitter from Ruby into Scala and JVM: [http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.ht...](http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.html)

I think there are two aspects of a language (correct me if I am wrong) -- it's elegance/simplicity/breadth of code produced by programmers that write with it --- and then the efficiency/effectiveness/HW-optimized executable code produced by its compiler once it's run: so how does PHP and Facebook fit in with all this?

<comment><USER11> Twitter's frontend is still definitely Ruby (on Rails). Based on what I've heard from people who have consulted there, it's a gigantic ball of crap. They've so heavily patched Rails 2.0 that they can't realistically migrate to a more modern version of Rails.

<comment><USER12> I do a fair amount of Rails, so I'm really curious here. How could it be that they've so heavily patched 2.0 that they can't move on? Anyone from Twitter care to comment?

I've worked on many Rails apps, and have upgraded the apps from version to version. It's a pain when key elements of the API shift, but it's not _that_ bad...even when the project has monkey-patched Rails a lot. And twitter certainly has the resources to afford to dedicate a few programmers to this task, so I'm just not sure I buy it.

<comment><USER11> One of the contractors I spoke with said that they had a branch running Rails 2.1 successfully. When they deployed it in production, the entire application fell on its face.

Supposedly, the problem was caused by Cache Money, but nobody at Twitter wanted to risk moving to a different version again. They're still on 2.0 today. :-)

Another fun fact: Twitter has over 1,500 remote git branches. They also have bright green deer in the reception area of their office. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > That team were forced to sign NDA's, and taken to a very quiet, secluded > meeting room where some cool new Facebook-backed open source project was > described.

This caught my eye - an interesting use of the term "open source" that I haven't previously been aware of. This is only a single datapoint (and the article states the project is going to be opened up anyways), but I do have a feeling the term has been diluted and joined the buzzword ranks.

<comment><USER2> It's "open source" as in, "we'll release it as open source when we are good and ready". So far, that's been never.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, open source is kinda a verb now. Anyway, Facebook has other open source projects: see Hive <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hive/43928506208>

Kinda silly to have a facebook page for an open source project, though.

<comment><USER14> Here's the main page for open source facebook projects:

<http://developers.facebook.com/opensource.php>

I agree it's a bit silly. I think they hope that it'll catch on sometime in the future and they'll have yet another type of group socializing on facebook.

<comment><USER15> You mean people actually socialize on Facebook pages?

It seems that the only effective purpose for pages is for celebrities/companies to push updates to their fans (and almost always ignore the reverse direction), and groups are even worse. Most pages and groups I see are things that you join because you agree with/identify with the name and then totally ignore. I wonder if facebook a) cares, and b) could do something to fix it.

<comment><USER14> Ya I used to agree with you completely. I still do for the majority of pages out there.

I recently learned of a counter example. There is a locally owned sports bar and restaurant that has a very active group. Most of the members are fans of sports teams that are across country and the games play regularly at this bar. The owner is active in the group too and definitely encourages and responds to conversation. The other group I know that is relatively active has more or less the same characteristics. It's people who identify with the group but are otherwise disjoint - and this is the best way for them to casually communicate. I think it's safe to say this was the original intent of groups and pages. Celebrities and companies are just taking advantage it. Of course, I have a handful of pages on my facebook profile, so I guess I'm as guilty as anyone else. (I'm With COCO!)

EDIT: abusing -> taking advantage

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is particularly interesting because PHP's runtime was rewritten for 5.1 back in late-2005 (on top of 5.0's Zend Engine 2.0 improvements in mid-2004).

And is PHP really considered "pokey"? Sounds like this guy is making stuff up because I get execution times of >0.01 seconds on my micro-framework.

<comment><USER7> PHP is dirt slow. When you look at the implementations of Lua or Python (which have approximately the same design as PHP), its about 4-5 times slower. Note this is only in the interpreter -- lots of the library code is written in C, which makes the difference somewhat less relevant.

The implication is that writing code that uses PHP's built-in libraries is pretty fast, but the more you write in PHP itself, the slower it gets. For example, my impression is that Yahoo isnt really written in PHP - its written in C patched together using PHP.

The Zend engine was "rewritten" for PHP 4, PHP 5, and to a certain extent for PHP 5.1. I guess it wasn't a complete rewrite because the legacy code from about 10 years ago is still in there. Anyway, its still dirty, badly written, slow, and very very badly commented. Hacks abound (and not the good kind).

<comment><USER17> This is a point I always have trouble impressing on people. They do a simple benchmarks on a tiny code base that pulls some data from the database, spits out some data, and they compare and PHP seems to be lightning fast.

The problem is that because it's interpreted at some point PHP slows down in proportion to the _size of your code base_. A small app runs really fast, a big app with 100,000 lines of code will kill your server unless you modularize it really really well - which harder than it seems, because the more modularized you make it the more separate "includes" you end up with in different files and then you come to realize that including a lot of files itself is a problem. And the nature of PHP's very loose coupling tends to lead to code that is nearly impossible to do large scale refactoring on once you have gone too far down the path.

I work on an application that has a very thin PHP layer that performs some simple web services that are the back end for a pure Java web app. Amazingly, when we load test it, the PHP part is the bottleneck, burning CPU like crazy just parsing all our files ... over ... and over ... and over. The java code meanwhile, while theoretically doing far more "work", is completely bored. We will probably look at using an accelerator of some kind or maybe just rewriting all the PHP in another language.

<comment><USER7> If your problem is parsing time, just use an accelerator. APC is the standard and best integrated.

On the other hand, if you have an opportunity to switch out PHP for something better (read: nearly anything), you should. Otherwise it might grow to a point that you can't remove it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you agree with Blocking ADS  - <AUTHOR>

Any website or service that provide free service they usually use ADS to generate Revenue and it is most used way to generate ADS,so Do you agree with Blocking ADS.<p>I agree with ADS but i don't agree with Tracking users to show Interest based ads to users. So what is your opinion. <comment><USER2> ADS is not an acronym thus putting it in all caps is sort of like "Let's eat Grandma" vs. "Let's eat, Grandma" - it causes confusion and misinterpretation because it is grammatically incorrect. My first thought when I saw the thread was, "Oh no - is there some TLA I'm not aware of? Wonder what ADS stands for? Is that some new Amazon 'thing'?"

<comment><USER3> For me reading the sentence felt like someone was shouting all the "ADS" at me. Just as obnoxious as many ads themselves.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I agree with blocking ads because so many of them have just got so damn intrusive lately, to the point where if your mouse pointer ends up over the wrong part of the screen it takes over the whole screen, and the other ones that really annoy me are the ones that have sound and automatically play. To that end i believe blocking ads can be the solution until sites stop using such intrusive ads. The intrusive ads are also more likely to make me despise the product being advertised instead of wanting to buy it so there is no advantage a lot of the time having the ads enabled

<comment><AUTHOR> Ya you are Right, some website create problem due to there money making intrusive i am also agree with this point also.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't block advertisements on all sites I visit. I only block ads on sites that feel the need to have 6 ads on one page, instead of one tasteful ad. I don't have a problem with all ads, just the super intrusive and sometimes distasteful sexual ads like you'd find on The Pirate Bay and some other sites.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ya Pirate bay ads vary annoying it just pop new window of ads if you click wrong place or wrong links.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I agree with a users right to block Ads, I also agree with a web site owners right to block that user.

</comment><comment><USER7> in your opinion, are there any ADS on HN?

<comment><AUTHOR> No HN don't use ads.

<comment><USER4> you could say that every (external) link on hacker news is an ad</comment></comment></comment>


Get Work Done: 5 Genres of Music for Unstoppable Productivity - <AUTHOR> http://ryanio.com/2014/music-to-get-work-done/

<comment><USER2> My favorite personal work music is phutureprimitive [https://soundcloud.com/phutureprimitive/sets/kinetik](https://soundcloud.com/phutureprimitive/sets/kinetik)

<comment><USER3> So good. Center of Gravity is such a great track.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't wait to try this out! Pop music can be energetic, but it can also be very distracting. In the past, electronic music has been my go-to, but lately I've tired of it.</comment>


Ask Hacker Node.js: Which JavaScript book should I get? - <AUTHOR>

HN has turned me into a convert of Node.js, which I need to learn for other reasons anyways. However, my background in JS is very sketchy. I've already been going through the wonderful Eloquent Javascript guide (http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html), but I'd like to get my hands on a real book in hard-copy that's more comprehensive.
I've narrowed it down to two O'Reilly books:
JavaScript: the Definitive Guide - Sounds solid, but I'm afraid of it being a bit too comprehensive to have to go through. And there's a new edition being released in summer, so I'm considering postponing waiting to get that one.
JavaScript: the Good Parts - I've heard a lot of acclaim for this book, almost universal. Then late last night I saw this rant and it gives me great pause now: http://goo.gl/oa9pj
However, I'm also willing to consider any other books, including non-O'Reilly ones.
Also, is the upcoming Up and Running With Node.js worth looking into? I suppose I should ask that after it's actually released and hopefully reviewed on HN. <comment><USER3> I wouldnt be put off reading The Good Parts by that post, although it does raise some valid points IMHO. The point is, the author of that blog post probably wouldn't have even known about those things had they not read the book. Whether something is 'good' or 'bad' is somewhat subjective. Check out Crockford's YUI Theatre lectures (<http://yuiblog.com/crockford/>) to get a taste of what you'll be in store for in that book.

At some point in those videos he mentions a book called The Little Schemer - <USER2> haven't read that but the reviews on Amazon look decent and if Crockford calls it out as useful you should probably not ignore it.

I found a really good book to be Object Oriented JavaScript from Packt (<http://www.packtpub.com/object-oriented-javascript/book>). Unlike most other js books, it spends a good few hundred pages without mentioning browsers. I seem to recommend their books a fair bit, no I do not have anything to gain from doing so :)

Finally, once you start getting stuck into things go hang out in the #node.js IRC channel. IRC is still probably the best technical resource out there as far as I'm concerned, especially when the community is as friendly as the #node.js regulars are.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is it possible to learn JS from The Good Parts? From what I've heard, it seems to be more for reinforcing good practices for those already familiar with the language.

<comment><USER4> I'd learn JS with Rebecca Murphey's book. I haven't seen anything better.

I'd also read, and think about, accepting or denying what Crockford says. A lot of what he says is great, a lot of it - adding custom methods to inbuilt classes (potentially conflicting with some other libraries custom modifications) rather than redefining your own classes for example - isn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I prefer to learn from reading code examples and so I found a freely available online book called jQuery Fundamentals (Rebecca Murphey) helpful. Although it's focus is on jQuery, the introduction to Javascript is second to none: <http://jqfundamentals.com/book/index.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> I've not read it personally but i've seen recommendations for: Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 2nd Edition by Nicholas C. Zakas and published by Wrox.</comment>


Show HN: BBB for Linkedin profiles. - <AUTHOR> http://www.veritruecorp.com

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been working on this for a while.

HN feedback is always appreciated.

I'm bringing the VeriTrust / BBB model to individuals.

Anyone on HN that would like a free VeriTrue verification, shoot me an email. email@example.com

<comment><USER2> There is definitely a need for something like this in the recruiting market, as there are many fake profiles on linkedin (I ran a recruiting thing for a while). But most of the companies already run their own education & employment history checks, and at $40 its a tough sell to Job seekers, at the start, unless I really am guaranteed a job with the badge :). A suggestion would be, to make it free for Job Seekers, interviewing them and making sure they are who they say they are and etc, and then you can try talking with companies to use this as a service and charge a referral fee.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Moving back into tech industry from consulting - <AUTHOR> Dear fellow hacker community. I am at the crossroads of my career. I started my Comp Sci grad career in software development for a Unix / networking consultancy until where I learnt networking and software development 'in the trenches' with Perl and C. Later I moved into enterprise systems doing Java EE (J2EE) and .Net.
After completing my MBA I started a generalist business consulting career where I have spent the last six years with a large global consulting firm. I have done a ton of work in financial services where my software background has enabled me to run miles around other consultants because of my ability to juggle numbers at scale. I am now about three-four years to partner in the firm and they have just reconfirmed their unequivocal backing to get me there. $ is good but work hours are long and often involves a lot of travel. I miss working in tech and was wondering if anyone else has done the same jump back into the tech industry from a generalist consulting role? I miss having fellow geeks as my peers, I miss tinkering with technical problems and the pace of change. However I also know I am too 'senior' for going back into a developer role. Becoming some sort of architect would be ok, but the 9-5pm cooperate environment hours gives me the shivers. I still want to be able to feel the 'rush' of business development. So perhaps a start up tech role might be more appropriate. Seniority or not, I can still be hands on and love cutting code and debugging tech problems.
Any ideas or suggestions on possible career moves? FYI - I am Sydney based and also looking for international opportunities into Singapore, Hong Kong and other major cities. <comment><USER2> Coming back from consulting into Tech is generally not a super tough transition as long your skills are still reasonably sharp. For me I spent years consulting and as a founder (U.S. based). Good consultants learn business and people skills which are critical to succeed that generally a senior developer won't have.

So my guess is your key skill that so many very good engineers lack is the ability for you to work with the business, understand the business needs and translate that into technical product vision and priorities. This set of skills are very underrated in most small companies and startups overall, yet it is the one thing that can really have a solid and positive impact on all companies. In my opinion if you want to move back into a tech based company and out of financial services you should focus on those skills as your sales point. Your tech skills could be less than others, but if you can turn business needs into tech vision and priorities that is more valuable.

Not sure what the Sydney or other markets you mentioned are like, so your mileage may vary.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for this; very elaborate. I would be interested in hearing more about your experience making the shift. I have considered CTO roles but generally here in .au look for people with previous CTO experience, so it becomes very hard to demonstrate experience. I have worked with numerous CIOs in my time as a consultant on business cases and commercial performance so definitely have some proof. But again being a consultant is very different to an operational role of a CTO. Unless tech start ups are different?

<comment><USER2> You'd have to look at small businesses or startups if you wanted to go straight to a CTO type role IMO -- having not held something equivalent prior. But assuming you interview well and have the right skill set you could probably pretty easily do that. Startups need people that are more versatile and willing to take on a lot of challenges. Generally the one negative with early startups is the pay will not be what you are used to, so you have to weigh that based on your personal situation.

You could also look at product roles, e.g. where you are a product manager or something similar. Again since you want to be hands on technical you'd have to do this in a smaller company or startup where you could do so.

As for my experience, it wasn't that difficult to do. I just sought out positions which seemed to gel well with my experience and desires. Honestly, when I joined the current startup I am at, I joined as a Senior Firmware Engineer. I am doing more now that uses more of my total experience, but that was how I joined and I loved it cause I initially really wanted to spend some time just in code.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I totally get the "too senior" thing, but it's not as bad as I feared. Here's my own experience of making the kind of move you're talking about.

Last year I switched from ops manager/factotum in a small agency to a pure dev role in a corp. I get to think about technical stuff most of the time now and it feels okay, despite my fears about the 9-5. Thing is, it took me two years to get to that point. I knew I wanted to move for similar reasons to those you list. And Imagined that I had to head for a job that would value my agency experience which was varied and had a management and client-facing bias. So I felt like I was trapped doing the same sort of stuff. I was good at it, but it wasn't making me happy any more.

I have a technical background (programming language theory) but it felt so long ago as to be irrelevant. And perhaps it was. I managed to get second interviews for engineering roles -- which is what I wanted and I turned a couple down because they weren't quite right.

Then this happened. Back 2 years ago, when I started to look for a change, I also got excited about some new-ish tech (Elm, in this case). I started running a local meetup and going to relevant conferences just to scratch my itch. I got a three month contract using it and took unpaid leave from the agency to give myself the chance to do it. But as soon as I added it to my CV I got a call from a recruiter from a local company who wanted exactly that tech. Now I work there and they sponsor the meetup that I still run.

I admit I hit it lucky in this case with a genuine excitement for an emerging tech, and a local employer who were early adopters. But I think the important thing is that I was doing this alongside job hunting and hadn't even connected the two. I was finding a way to do what excited me, and being committed and passionate about that. Then when the chance came up, making the move was easy and pleasant.

</comment><comment><USER4> How about a Product Manager role at a large tech company? They have many teams that work on very complex problems, where the Product Manager can have a huge impact if they know how the code works (at some level) and a strong quantitative/commercial understanding.</comment>


Your Personal Archiving Project: Where Do You Start? - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2016/05/how-to-begin-a-personal-archiving-project/ <comment><USER2> I wonder how encryption, if it indeed becomes as widely used as many of us hope it does, will affect the ability of future historians to read all these archives.

All of my computers and backups are encrypted. If I were to drop dead tomorrow or suffer some kind of memory loss, 99% of the documents and pictures I own will turn into meaningless blobs, assuming the cryptography in the products I use are any good. I have no intention to print out the keys and give them to someone while I'm still young and healthy. Part of the reason is that I believe those files should die with me. There's nothing incriminating, nor anything particularly embarrassing, it's just nobody else's effin' business. That's what privacy means to me.

And yet, it is the business of historians and librarians to poke into dead people's private documents and learn from them. In an ideal future society, maybe it will be historians, not spooks, who try to break commonly used encryption methods.

<comment><USER3> If your data dies with you, the rest of us lose whatever insight your data might have given us.

Suggestion: leave decryption instructions with (attorney, loved one, safe deposit box, etc.) so we don't miss your take on life. Someone (can't know who) may benefit and spend a moment thanking you.

<comment><USER4> Shamir's Secret Sharing[1] seems like it would be a good mechanism to encrypt decryption keys with - you can give a part of the key to several people, and require that a certain number of them put their keys together to decrypt the information.

[1]: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing)

<comment><USER5> Shamir's approach is just one option for secret sharing, so you are being overly specific.

The Wikipedia page for secret sharing links to [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine)

Apparently the word has been use to refer to secret sharing. It hints at the problem with using this strategy to preserve access to encrypted data: all the sharing parties will die eventually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The most difficult issue I've encountered is identifying a format to use. Here are some specifications, which I think are widely applicable:

* Readable 100 years from now. If that sounds crazy, consider whether your family currently has photos 75-100 years old? Ours does, and I don't think it's unusual. Come to think of it, possibly the factor that determines the age of a family's archive is how long they have had access to cameras.

* Maximum fidelity: Complete and correct, over time. This involves resolution, color gamut and some sort of color correction (I'm not quite sure; I'm no color expert), and error correction for the ravages of time.

* Metadata: Stored in the same file as the image (otherwise the relationship between image file and metadata file will almost certainly be lost in 100 years), readable 100 years from now (UTF-8 seems the obvious choice), machine-readable and parsable for building databases, user-defined fields, and editable (to add and update information after the image is created).

* End-user control of data: That online service you're using might not be around in 100 years, or even in 1.

Maybe I'm missing one or two specs here, but does anyone know the recommended solutions? What do professional archivists use?

<comment><USER7> Pdf/A and xml based formats in theory. And in general use open source software. In practice use the Odf format because I support that and it does what you want. And don't use pdf/A because too many implementations are pretending they produce pdf/A while they don't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > First, approach your collection as a single unit of stuff. Don't dwell on > individual photos or letters yet. Think about the entire collection as a > mass of related things. Kells said, "You'll scare yourself if you think, 'I > have two hundred things.' The project will seem bigger." It is one > collection.

This is good general advice for solving any problem, from archiving a lifetime of curios to building a complicated software project.

<comment><USER9> One of my first jobs out of college I was stuck on a bug for several days and I was very obviously in panic mode with a deadline looming. An older engineer agreed to help me if I met him at his office at 7am. Up bright and early he greeted me at his office door and immidiately asked me to demo the bug. After seeing that I had a grasp of the issue he didn't try to troubleshoot. He just smiled and said, "You'll figure it out. Just ask yourself what is one thing you could do right now to get closer to solving the problem. That's what I always do and something always comes to me." With that he stood up to indicate the conversation was over and escorted me out of his office. I'm 35 now and it hasn't failed me yet.

<comment><USER10> Great story and great tip. Thank you for sharing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _or worse, "I'll just get rid of it all."_

No, that's really the best thing. Don't keep a lot of crap. Even sentemental crap. It clutters your life, physically and psychologically.

<comment><USER12> i agree. it's quite cathartic to think back on all the information i've lost over the years, vague memories of past events that mainly live on through their consequences on my life and personality.

although some things, especially technical knowledge, are great to archive/store for later retrieval. i just don't feel the same for personal things. i think it's healthy to forget, especially in the information age where being able to do so is practically a luxury.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The problem with sorting physical objects is that it's basically like inserting everything into a database for later retrieval, except you're only allowed to have one index (whatever you choose to base your categories on).

It's often better to scan things like photos and documents and tag them; that way you don't have to decide ahead of time how you're going to search them.

</comment><comment><USER14> I always have this joke I tell which I'm starting to get more serious about. I'd like to get a medium size statue of myself made that I can hand down. It's hard to lose and would need to be deliberately destroyed(or disaster) to stop existing.

</comment><comment><USER15> Relevant project that's usable now: [https://camlistore.org/](https://camlistore.org/)</comment>