Switching from imperative to functional programming with games in Elm - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Dobiasd/elm-articles/blob/master/switching_from_imperative_to_functional_programming_with_games_in_Elm.md This is the first time I wrote an article not in my native language. If something sounds stupid or the content is nonsense in your opinion, I would be glad if you let me know. :) <comment><USER2> (I posted this same answer in the r/Haskell crosspost, I think it may be useful here as well.)

I'm the "David" the article talks about. The backstory is this:

I spent a year abroad, but we were regularly talking over XMPP. One day, Dobi gave me a link to an online book that has a sun saying "holy shit" on the front page. It was [http://learnyouahaskell.com/](http://learnyouahaskell.com/), and it spoke of some obscure language I had never heard of. But I found the pictures funny so I started reading the first chapter.

A month later, Dobi had long lost interest in Haskell himself, but I was hooked. Every "wow FP is awesome moment" was forcibly shared with him. I soon began to talk about ApplicativeMonoidMonadFunctor and how neat these abstractions are.

Since that one day when I received the LYAH link, it's marked "Dobi shows David Haskell day" in my calendar, this has continued: I'm learning Haskell, and everything cool is thrown at Dobi. He even made a second attempt at learning Haskell, but due to its inaccessibility (relative to Elm), he lost interest again.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, he asks me whether I knew Elm. I said yes, but as someone who now uses Haskell as his main language, I thought of Elm as a toy. Today I see how this was wrong: Elm is an excellent language, maybe not to write a scalable webserver, but it gets a few things right that Haskell doesn't:

\- Elm is very accessible.

\- Even simple and small programs can have cool output, and by that I don't mean conceptually cool but you-can-show-your-friends cool. Getting positive feedback is really motivating in the beginning when you're not quite sure whether the language is useful yet.

\- Elm has Haskell-like syntax, and is of similar semantic structure. It has recursive lists, fold, map, Maybe and all those other Haskell Prelude things.

\- No category-like abstractions (as a result of not having typeclasses, mostly). Monads are pretty abstract, and are pretty infamous among people that don't know them. This significantly lowers the barrier of entry.

The crucial thing is the similarity to Haskell: Elm is a much better gateway drug to Haskell-like languages than say XMonad (which is pretty geeky) or other nice little things. Once you can write Elm, a Monad is just another addition to a language you already know how to move in, and you can learn to include it in your programming instead of requiring it in the first place. I think instead of having a "beginner-friendly monomorphic Prelude" we should have generalized the crap out of Prelude (Foldable, Traversable, all those things go in) and recommended Elm to newcomers if they have problems with Haskell.</comment>


Keybase's New Key Model - <AUTHOR> https://keybase.io/blog/keybase-new-key-model <comment><USER2> Since the keybase people are probably here reading, can I make a suggestion? Please change your logo from a shifty-looking character to something that inspires more confidence. I actually think the character in the logo is cool and I love your artwork but I just think the logo sends the wrong message. Google Chrome's private browsing mode does the same thing...

Identity management and encryption should strive to be associated with concepts of strength, integrity, legitimacy, trust, cleanliness and safety. There is nothing shady about it and we shouldn't need a guy in a trench coat to represent the idea that we should be able to confirm that our friends who are communicating with us are who they say they are and not imposters. Let's focus more on the trust part and less on the sleuthing in the dark part.

Sorry, just my $0.02... I only tell you because I want you to succeed.

<comment><USER3> What's wrong with the fox? I like their logo. A lot of big, mainstream brands have fun-looking mascots. They may have to redesign and improve it as they grow, like everybody does, but I don't see it necessary to replace it completely.

<comment><USER4> What fox? The logo looks a lot more like some sort of a criminal Berenstain Bear (see [http://www.nelvana.com/content/assets/shows/berenstain- bears...](http://www.nelvana.com/content/assets/shows/berenstain- bears/gallery/357/BB006b_SA_02_big.jpg)).

I agree that the logo insinuates that you're probably sneaking around doing nefarious things, if you're interested in encrypting your messages.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can somebody explain the difference between NaCl and PGP and why I want device-specific NaCl keys instead of device-specific PGP keys?

<comment><USER6> I didn't design this so I can't say for certain, but from reading their post there are a couple of benefits that NaCL confers over PGP for generating per- device keys.

The most important benefit is probably that NaCL keys are 256-bit keys based on ECC (specifically, Curve25519), which means these keys are stronger, faster, and actually _more_ secure than the strongest keys commonly used in PGP (4096-bit RSA keys). Critically, they are _much_ smaller and therefore easier to communicate between people/devices.

While their ideal workflow is to communicate keys by scanning QR codes, they currently need an alternative workflow to communicate keys between desktops (and will always need an alternative for users who can't scan QR codes for whatever reason). The "Paper keys" section of the blog post discusses this at length, and shows an example of a Paper Key:

"death punch correct staple battery horse clearly cherry picked words yeah moo car lisp"

They are probably generating this (Diceware-esque) string by splitting the 256-bit key into n-bit segments, using each n-bit segment as an index into an array of words, and then joining the words to form a "sentence" that encodes the value of the key.

14 words is already pretty unwieldy, as they acknowledge in the blog post. Imagine how bad it would be if you had to encode 4096 bits instead of just 256!

That was probably the most important motivation for Keybase to use them. Other motivations may have included:

* ECC is generally considered more future-proof than RSA

* NaCL is a small library and therefore is probably easier to incorporate into a variety of clients rather than the behemoth that is GPG/libgcrypt.

* NaCL is the new hotness, PGP is old and busted

<comment><USER7> PGP may not support ECC, but then again, who the hell uses PGP over GnuPG?

[https://www.gnupg.org/faq/whats-new- in-2.1.html#ecc](https://www.gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html#ecc)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> So I just noticed that the new client beta installs a launchd service when installed via homebrew:

[https://github.com/keybase/homebrew- beta/blob/master/kbstage...](https://github.com/keybase/homebrew- beta/blob/master/kbstage.rb#L36)

Digging into the code now, anybody know what this is for / why it's silently adding that?

EDIT: so, looks like it adds a launchd file to run `keybase service`, which is helpfully described here: [https://github.com/keybase/client- beta/tree/master/client/go...](https://github.com/keybase/client- beta/tree/master/client/go#run-the-service)

This seems to do all kinds of things, including running an RPC server and interacting with keychains: [https://github.com/keybase/client- beta/blob/master/client/go...](https://github.com/keybase/client- beta/blob/master/client/go/service/main.go)

<comment><USER9> (Hi, I work at Keybase!)

There's a document describing this client/service split here: [https://keybase.io/docs/client/client_architecture](https://keybase.io/docs/client/client_architecture)

<comment><USER8> So the existing client works just fine without a long-running service and interacts with my gpg-agent to handle my passphrase. As a user, what does this new keybase service get me vs just letting the already persistent gpg-agent handle things?

<comment> grey-area It's also aimed at users who don't use gpg.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So... there are no actual links on this page to anything that describes Keybase. The only way to get directly to the site homepage is to edit the URL.

This is pretty annoying if you're somebody who doesn't already know what Keybase actually is.

<comment><USER11> Well, I know what Keybase is. But the page was so empty looking that I stopped reading, and checked out Noscript and Privacy Badger for blocked stuff and errors ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Doesn't PGP subkeys already essentially solve the problem of requiring shared private key on devices? Its not immediately obvious what the main benefits of their solution are.

<comment><USER13> I'd like to know how they plan on dealing with subkeys -- my Keybase key is an ed25519 key kept offline, with a set of RSA subkeys generated directly on a Yubikey.

This lets me use my key on an Android device (via Open Keychain), or PC (via GnuPG's smart card interface.)

I don't want additional NaCL keys hanging around on 'online' machines outside of a secure element such as a smart card.

<comment><USER14> > my Keybase key is an ed25519 key

Could you explain how you did this? I was under the impression it was impossible because Curve25519 encryption isn't implemented yet.

<comment><USER13> The offline key isn't used for encryption, only signing. In this case, signing the subkeys, which are used for encryption (or auth, or signing).

Really not all that different from past days of having a dsa key with an el gamal subkey for encryption.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I don't use Keybase yet as I haven't evaluated the assurance and usually don't rely on VC-funded, startup tech for critical stuff. That said, I've enjoyed the Keybase articles so far and this is no exception. Way I see it, companies like them will keep experimenting until they figure out what approaches work in terms of usability, adoption, and potential for strong security. And then experienced, security engineers can build a stronger version of it. :)

Look forward to seeing what they brainstorm next.

<comment><USER16> i think keybase (or something like it) is going to be huge. Instead of email, sites like reddit and HN will use PGP keys for identity instead of email. I don't use keybase because 1) I'm behind 12K people for their private beta 2) I know how to run gpg --gen-key

<comment><USER17> > I don't use keybase because [...] I'm behind 12K people for their private > beta

Sadly, this is the main reason _most_ people (including me) aren't using it. I'd _love_ to try it out, but until I can get a log in, I'm just going to ignore it. They are throwing away a lot of good-will by making these announcements, then when users go to the site they get turned away because they aren't one of the blessed few with an invite. If I don't get access soon, I'm going to file them under 'ignore', since it seems like I've been trying to get an account for years, now ;(

<comment><USER16> > this is the main reason most people (including me) aren't using it.

Most people don't know what PGP/GPG is, probably know less than nothing (have misconceptions) about encryption, and don't even realize why a service like keybase.io would be helpful, much less that it exists.

What I love about this community is that there are people like aianus below who have early access to stuff like this, and being part of this community will engender them to help you. I like this service because people outside of this community will get involved after they work out the kinks. People getting invites are developers and tech-centric people who likely have other keys anyway and are testdriving the software.

The biggest way forward for keybase would be Facebook or Twitter allowing you to integrate your key into the service.

> it seems like I've been trying to get an account for years, now ;(

The keybase github account was created 2 years ago on sept 6 ;). Someone below will likely help you out if you email them.

Thanks aianus. Appreciate the invite.

<comment><USER15> It's actually a bad idea and parent post is right: they need to open it up to more people even if still limited or with a warning that features might change. The reason has to do with their goal of making something usable for widespread audience. Asking what GPG-loving techies and HN readers think about usability will not tell you if your grandmaw or average employee will find it usable. I remember the studies on PGP surprised cryptographers in that what they thought was understandable (esp icons) were really confusing to end users.

So, they need to go ahead and get a diverse audience to spot problems early on. For sure, they should stick to a patient audience that knows they're helping something evolve rather than using a finished product. Still need to broaden and diversify it, though. I'd start with the 10,000+ volunteers on that waiting list.

<comment><USER16> I disagree. I believe there strategy is not,

> Asking what GPG-loving techies and HN readers think about usability

Although, many of us do UX or appreciate and can accurately review it, they want the GPG-loving techies to evaluate their security and software. This isn't exactly a social network, you can't move fast and break stuff, and just push flaming builds and iterate. This has to launch to the public with bulletproof security. This is because in 3 years they want "Log in with Keybase.io" on every website instead of "Log in with Facebook" and they want secondary authentication for twitter and facebook to leverage their keys. So they have to convince people and those companies they have security pretty well figured out.

I understand where you are coming from and I would like it if they rolled out quickly. They could maybe even do it tomorrow, I don't actually know but so far it seems to work well. However, the public isn't really clamoring for this anyway, because they don't even know what it is. I was even surprised how old keys were. You can see elon musks firstname.lastname@example.com key from the early 90's on the MIT keyserver and some are much older than that. Not even everone on HN has keys I bet, so the public isn't as anxious as you or I might be ;). I hope they release soon though.

<comment><USER15> "they want the GPG-loving techies to evaluate their security and software." "This has to launch to the public with bulletproof security."

How is merely using Keybase.io a security evaluation? It isn't. Security evaluation is all kinds of activities with specialized skill working on source, interfaces, debuggers and so on. You do that _in parallel_ with testing of usability, performance, reliability, and so on. So, they need the security evaluations but also need users running it through paces for other reasons. They can and should do both.

"This isn't exactly a social network, you can't move fast and break stuff, and just push flaming builds and iterate."

Whose asking for that? I believe I said patient, filtered user-base that are clearly told it is a work in progress given to them for evaluation.

"I understand where you are coming from and I would like it if they rolled out quickly."

I'm not even asking for that. I'm just saying they need to seriously increase their user-base and with more non-technical, privacy-focused users. What input they're receiving before launch needs to be as diverse and representative of what they'll receive after launch. They can still cap the user count or be selective. Closed with 10,000+ person backlog or wide open in full production is a false dilemma. Heck, maybe even a room's worth of people from each likely demographic, skill level, target platform, and so on. Will help spot many issues coming from each before production.

"Not even everone on HN has keys I bet, so the public isn't as anxious as you or I might be ;)"

I should be clear that I'm not factoring in the general public at all: they'll continue using Facebook Messenger, etc for private communications because it's cool, convenient, cheap, whatever. I don't waste time trying to push privacy tech, esp key management, on the public any more past improvements to infrastructure or tools they already use. Strong security/privacy is and always was a niche. However, as Keybase's vision realizes, the niche is potentially larger than techies with GPG or stuff in keyservers: people who would use it if it was simpler & less technical at interface. So, I advocate they get more of that audience into their user-base for feedback.

<comment><USER16> Sorry mate, I was having a laugh with the social network bit, but I think we are both just saying the same thing. The product is in Alpha. It isn't ready yet. I just downloaded it and it says "This product is in Alpha". They will then move to private Beta then Beta then launch. So I think they will do what you are asking, but they are further behind.

I guess my point was that they have a really long release cycle because this is a security project. Regardless, I have 9 invites so I am considering allocating a few to some non-technical friends now to get their take.

<comment><USER15> Curious, how did you go from behind 12k people asking for an invite to having 9? I figured aianus got you one but nine is some progress in a short time. ;)

<comment><USER16> Chris Coyne (co-founder of keybase.io) seems to send them to new members. Unless he was on here, which is possible, I have no reason to suspect I received special treatment. It actually is fairly smart because you can grow your base by an order of magnitude and if you have set the culture of the people you invite, the site will blossom that way. I sent you an email to ask if you want an invite. If you get back to me I will send you one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> That's really good news and I'm really excited about keybase's future. I'm curious though why they chose to use NaCl instead of libsodium [1]. I was thinking of doing a crypto app a while back and did some research and libsodium seems to be a more portable and recent (removed deprecated code) version of NaCl by the folks at dnscrypt. Maybe I missed something in my research?

[1] [https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium](https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium)

<comment><USER19> "NaCL key" is a generic term, you can probably use them with libsodium, like you can use "PGP keys" with GPG.

By the way, libsodium has the same maintainer than dnscrypt (and Pure-FTPd) but he does not work for OpenDNS anymore (afaik he works for OVH, but libsodium is his personal project).

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is fantastic. Thanks, Keybase!

I've kept my private key on a single device because that's the easiest way for me to secure it... but it means that I haven't used keybase to actually secure communications much because that device is my nice big linux desktop... not my handy laptop or phone or any of the other devices that I spend more time communicating from.

Really looking forward to the Android app.

</comment><comment><USER21> Woo-hoo! I'm a fan of Keybase (although, I'll admit, I've received barely any encrypted communication from the outside world). The first version of their product did a whole lot to open up secure communication to "the masses," by simplifying strong encryption into an easy-to-use app.

I'm glad that the Keybase team decided that they didn't want to stop there. I'm not sure that I'll use the new keying system (my use case isn't very risky), but I _do_ think that a lot of people will.

In my opinion, the more people that have access to easily-used crypto, the better.

<comment><USER22> > "I'm not sure that I'll use the new keying system (my use case isn't very > risky)"

To be clear, you'll be using this system automatically if you install Keybase on your phone or desktop. It'll just work, and you'll have a private key on that device. As you add devices, you'll collect keys. If you remove a device, that public key will no longer be a part of your identity.

If you want to use PGP on one of those devices, you can. And you can strongly connect it to your other keys, as the graphs in the post show.

This should be easier. From a "regular" non-PGP user perspective, you needn't think of this as managing keys, or adopting a more advanced key system. Instead you would just be managing your devices and installing Keybase.

That's our hope anyway. (Disclosure: I'm one of the people working on the project - [https://keybase.io/chris](https://keybase.io/chris) \- thanks for the kind words about the project)

<comment><USER21> That's awesome -- and thank you for the clarification. I'm primarily a user of the webapp, although I have the CLI application on a server (hence not using mobile stuff, multiple machines, etc).

I'm a big fan of your product, and recommend it broadly -- great work so far!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> wow, please put a link to [https://keybase.io](https://keybase.io) on your blog header.

<comment><USER24> And also add a blog header.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This reminds me - is Google's End-to-End still going somewhere or has Google "virtually killed it" (by not caring about it anymore as they do with many of their products)? Yahoo's CISO promised to implement it for Yahoo, too, but I think the guy who promised that left the company.

<comment><USER26> Seems to still be receiving commits as of a few days ago > [https://github.com/google/end-to-end](https://github.com/google/end-to-end)

I was waiting on smartcard support in that project myself

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> It looks like we knocked keybase.io off the net; all I'm getting now are 502 Nginx errors. Does anyone have a mirror of this blog post?

<comment><USER28> Yep; same issue here an hour later.

Google cache:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vneH1nu...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vneH1nuQcSsJ:https://keybase.io/blog/keybase- new-key-model)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So what happens to the existing GPG-using folks?

<comment><USER29> They clarify that PGP support will continue to function as is at the bottom of the article.

<comment><USER30> Also, now you can have multiple PGP keys tied to your account.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I don't really understand key base. Is there a more elaborate explanation of how it works somewhere?

<comment><USER22> The simple idea is that it's a directory mapping public keys to social accounts. If I know you as a Twitter user, I might want to send you an encrypted message. Or if I get a message from you that's signed, I might want to know that you're a certain Hacker News user. If I download some source code, I'd like to know it was signed by someone who has Github account X, and write access on example.com. And so on.

Historically, a few people using PGP would do this identity mapping, at least in one direction, by posting a PGP fingerprint (of their public key) on their, say, Twitter profile . Of course, this only went in one direction. To achieve a bidirectional proof, they would also have to post a signed statement going in the other direction, too, stating they were in fact that twitter user. (Otherwise you couldn't start with a message and conclude which Twitter user sent it - multiple people could claim this.)

Keybase started as a hobby project to make these posts structured and formal for PGP users. We just wanted to make this kind of thing easier, so we made a directory to hold the signatures going in the other direction, and a reference client that would look up these announcements and verify them.

The other specific advancement is that these signatures have been put into a data structure designed to prevent the server from lying by omission or forking - a big problem that exists with historic key servers. If you remove a key, what's preventing the server from not admitting that? Or what's preventing the server from giving Alice and Bob a difference experience from Charlie and Diane?

Anyway, that was the first idea behind Keybase. To make a better directory and walk people through these proofs.

What we realized - and what has gotten us both (a) extremely smart developers to join us, and (b) funding - is that there are deeper problems beyond the identity establishment....problems that can be solved in 2015.

Those two problems are (1) pretty sucky clients for public key crypto (at least from the perspective of non-programmers), and (2) key management issues. The first is something we have experience with, as our team has worked on a lot of successful projects. And let's be clear, lots of teams could solve this, if given the resources. The second is something we feel can finally be solved thanks to mobile phones. Phones and watches and other small devices allow you to provision new keys easily, because 2 devices can be brought together. That wasn't easy in the past. All this is now possible without understanding what a key is. Or worrying about how to store and move one around safely. That's the new goal: actual crypto clients. For signing, verifying, encrypting, decrypting, and sharing.

You can read the front page of keybase.io for some more info, but it's somewhat out of date and talks mostly about PGP. This will change when our clients are further along and we're seeking more beta testers.

<comment><USER32> _> If you remove a key, what's preventing the server from not admitting that?_

Can you point me to somewhere I can read about Keybase's solution to this problem?

<comment><USER22> These 2 docs together will explain it:

[1] [https://keybase.io/docs/server_security](https://keybase.io/docs/server_security)

[2] [https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitco...](https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitcoin_blockchain)

The tl;dr: Removal statements are signed into a chain of all public announcements you make (each references the last), and each link also references the root of the site's merkle tree - a tree which includes everyone's chain. The root of that tree is written to the bitcoin blockchain multiple times per day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I have 9 invites and none of my friends want them. If you want one let me know @hydandata.

</comment><comment><USER34> I've said it before and I say it again:

\- For security focused websites, it's a no go to include 3rd party domains for any content.

The fine folks at keybase responded well last time and moved the font files to their own servers (thanks!).

This time, they host images at S3 and therefore leak metadata about their visitors directly to Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER35> probably off topic but what library was used to render the graph?

</comment><comment><USER36> The real problem is that no one gives a shit

</comment><comment><USER36> Keybase has no altruistic incentive to broker safe PKI. They're just another for-profit-scammer-of-your-private-key

<comment><USER11> Keybase _does not need_ your private key.</comment></comment>


Einsteins Demands - <AUTHOR> http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/04/einsteins-demands.html

<comment><USER2> Well well well,...Einstein must have been quite a stud.Why did he even suggest that they should stay together for the sake of their children?That is soo brutal.</comment>


Ask HN: What conferences are you attending this winter? - <AUTHOR>

Is there a conference you're anticipating in between SEP-DEC 2013? <comment><USER2> Silicon Valley Code Camp Oct 5th and 6th It's Free, and pretty awesome [http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com](http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com)</comment>


Wikimedia Foundation proposal for name change to just "Wikipedia" - <AUTHOR> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_movement_brand_project <comment><AUTHOR> This has resulted in an open letter against this name change:

[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_ren...](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming)</comment>


What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society (2014) - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html?mid=facebook_nymag <comment><USER2> News flash: people with similar interests tend to socialize.

Rich wall street people are still just normal people, and it would be weird if they didn't have industry social events.

<comment><USER3> The homophobic jokes suggests they are not normal people, but rather terrible ones.

<comment><USER4> Only if you can't find similar homophobic jokes being told by, say, 60% of the population...

Jokes are irreverent. You don't have to be a "homophobe" to laught at such jokes, you could just as well be gay or a gay marriage supporter etc -- you just laugh at the mechanics of the joke (the word-play, the twist of the punchline, etc).

Same with all kinds of jokes. You don't have to be a serial killer or a sadist to laugh at jokes about murdering people or black humor in general. You don't have to be an atheist to laugh at jokes about religion. You don't have to be an bigot to laugh at jokes about the Irish -- Irish themselves laugh with such jokes (and similar for other ethnicities).

You just have not to be all righteous and/or PC.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, you pretty much have to be a homophobe to laugh at a joke that disparages homosexuals, just like you pretty much have to be a misogynist to laugh at jokes that disparage women, a racist to laugh at jokes that disparage whatever race is the target of the joke.

Oh, sure, you will find "in joke" types, where members of one group will tell jokes in an ironic kind of way for their own amusement - but I guarantee you that that will be seen as controversial and far from universally accepted within that group.

Of course, you also get groups telling the jokes that disparage them in such a way to identify the group that would have told the joke originally, as a way of bad mouthing that original group. That's just as bad, just as sleazy.

There is plenty of humour, plenty of belly rupturing spit out your beverage humour, without disparagement.

There is never any need to disparage or be sophomoric to get a laugh. Ever.

Was this post humourless? Good. So are racist, misogynist, and homophobic jokes.

<comment><USER4> > _Yeah, you pretty much have to be a homophobe to laugh at a joke that > disparages homosexuals_

Strange, because many gay friends of mine laugh at those and even make them. In fact lots of famous gays are notorious for this kind of disparaging humor, against other gays but also against everybody.

And I often laugh at jokes about a kind of handicap I have. Heck, I often MAKE such jokes about that thing. Also consider most comedians making jokes about their shortcomings, insecurities, appereance, etc).

It's part of having a sense of humor.

> _There is plenty of humour, plenty of belly rupturing spit out your beverage > humour, without disparagement._

Not that much as you think. In almost every great comedian (and I'm not proposing a "no true scotscman" here: check the top-50 commercially or critically accepted acomedians of all time) you'll find all of these kinds of jokes you condemn about all kinds of groups.

> _There is never any need to disparage or be sophomoric to get a laugh. > Ever._

No, you can also tickle people. But being disparaging or somophoric is another great way. Heck, Aristophanes, probably the most celebrated comedy writer in the classics, had fart jokes and silly puns in his plays...

<comment><USER4> Case in point. Here's a great joke about rape:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3xoiShfknA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3xoiShfknA)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It sounds like an episode of The Simpsons, not real life. People who accumulate more wealth than they would ever need consider themselves better, smarter, more evolved than poor people. They should prove it by setting a good example and showing empathy for their fellow man. Instead, they laugh at the idea that your grandmother lost thousands in her 401k due to their addiction to amass more money than they need.

If you need money to feel good about yourself, you should re-examine your priorities.

EDIT: Also, what is with the cross-dressing? Do they dress as women to humiliate because they consider women lesser beings?

<comment><USER7> I've completely forgotten where I read it but the most convincing sociological explanation for old school secret society cross-dressing I've heard was along the lines of:

1\. These are cultures with very conservative ideas about gender and gender roles. Someone who cross dressed in their regular life would be shamed and excluded. It's considered degrading.

2\. Since it's such a "bad" thing to do, when you are with your other high status peers it signals status to confidently do it anyway, as a joke only, to show that you are so confident in your position that you can even get away with cross-dressing.

When you live at an extreme the normal status rules apply less and less to you, while the middle class engages in conspicuous consumption for status reasons, the upper classes can engage in conspicuous anti-consumption for status reasons. When you are high status enough, you can just ignore the normal rules because you are so comfortable and confident in your position. And this fact is something to show off with conspicuous rule breaking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Previously [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7256960](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7256960) (104 comments)

</comment><comment><USER9> Interesting, but totally unsurprising. Any time you get a group of elites together, this sort of fun is fairly common. In my opinion, tf it was really anything more than just a roast/goofy party, the reporter would never actually have made it in.

</comment><comment><USER10> Should be tagged as (2014).</comment>


Show HN: Streak.ly tracks what you do daily and I'd love feedback on the concept - <AUTHOR> I've been working on a side project called Streak.ly with a friend of mine for the past month or so; it's intended to help keep you motivated to do otherwise mundane daily tasks (like do 10 pushups, read for an hour, etc.) by letting you log "streaks" — consecutive days in a row of doing something.
It's in private alpha/beta/gamma/whatever right now (has some rough edges to clean up), but is more or less functionally complete and pretty stable.
I'm a big fan of the Seinfeld calendar, and have seen other services which do similar things but were unsatisfying to use, either from an aesthetic or functional perspective. Streak.ly is designed to be simple, good-looking, fast, fun, (and hopefully addictive). (FWIW, it's also a place to experiment with user stickiness stuff I can potentially roll back in to Forrst.)
There are also some in-progress social/game/motivational features I plan to roll out in the next few weeks that hopefully contribute to the enjoyment factor of the app.
Streak.ly uses Twitter for authentication, and I've set up a URL to let HN folks in early: http://streak.ly/auth/twitter/start?secret=showhn
I'd love any and all feedback and/or criticism you may have.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> For a simple webapp like this, please don't make me get a twitter account/sign in to use.

Generate a unique URL for me to use, or hash my email address or something like that. Reduce friction, I want to be able to use this with 1 click.

<comment><USER3> really? creating a twitter account takes about 15 seconds. if you're not one of the 150 million people with a Twitter account, then why not just be patient? i'm sure kyle will get around to supporting other login methods eventually.

i believe you're genuinely trying to be helpful with your suggestions, but comments like this reminds me of the vocal 0.1% of users who exercise troublesome preferences like disabling javascript, or installing ad-blocking plugins that break half the web, (which is fine!), but then complain that their (pathological) preferences prohibit them from enjoying the experience (which is not so helpful).

feedback like, "i can't be bothered to log in to give you feedback because i don't like your login" isn't great feedback. it might even be viewed as a sign to you that you're not the intended user. yet.

<comment><USER2> I wasn't aware not having a Twitter account was considered pathological in our Web 2.0 world.

Why do I need to sign up for a microblogging platform to use a completely unrelated calendar app???

Anyway, my comments about reducing friction aren't based on my own preferences, they're based on dozens of multivariate split tests I have conducted across many thousand unique visitors.

Every single time, forcing the user to sign up, login, enter their email or anything of the sort before getting to use the site SIGNIFICANTLY decreases engagement, time on site, conversions, and pretty much every other metric you should care about.

<comment><USER3> The "signup friction" argument's a straw men; no sane startup seeks to _add_ friction to the signup process. the bogus (implied) assertion in the comment is that requiring a Twitter account to use a new web app in beta is overly restrictive / cumbersome.

The only way that would make sense is if beta testers don't have Twitter accounts, since OAuthing with an existing account _reduces_ friction. Twitter's been around for four years and seems fairly well established among early adopters like HN readers, so counting on a critical mass of beta testers to have Twitter accounts hardly seems a stretch, even if those users aren't very active tweeters.

i for one was very glad not to need to enter an email address, pick a login name, etc; the oauth process handled that for me. ymmv

<comment><USER4> I think the suggestion was to not require a form of authentication (email or twitter) first. Instead, let the potential user "test drive" the app and then when they are a little invested prompt for a signup of some kind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Here's my somewhat similar homebrew GTD system: <http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/6109/progressb.png>

You see time spent (in minutes) coding (+) and anything else done at the computer (-) taken from RescueTime, along with basic efficiency score and stuff done / to be done for my main project (game) and everything else (misc). Coloring is manual, blue = "worked well", red = "could have done better".

The file sits on the desktop and is the place where I keep my general to-do lists, so it is always open. Works well for me.

 _Note: censored some "misc" stuff, so don't think I normally work 4 hours a day :)_

<comment><AUTHOR> This is really, really cool.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://streak.ly/auth/twitter/start?secret=showhn>

</comment><comment><USER6> I really do like the idea of positively "completing" a task every day. Outliers-wise 10,000 hours is a lot, the sooner I get started the better.

The only thing I'd add, besides the request for OpenID love, is that the FAQ needs to put "we won't spam your twitter" higher up - that's what I wanted to know _immediately_ after signing in for the first time(the serious faux pas being "My streakficiency is blahblah, what's yours?").

Besides that, just one detail: the FAQ(which is great, btw) wasn't in the first-login "we're very beta" notice at the top, which would have been easier to find.

</comment><comment><USER7> nice looking but pretty limited for the moment. Honestly think most people who use tools like this will be looking for simplicity in their lives...and so convincing them to add another tool to their daily tools list is going very difficult considering all it can currently do (i realise it's alpha mind)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, and totally makes sense. Hopefully there is a nice middle ground where this could fit. My theory is also that if I can a) show value to enough folks that they start to realize, "hey, this is pretty useful and I can probably manage to use it 5 mins a day" and then b) get them to invite small groups of friends, the upcoming features in that vein will create a stickiness in those groups. Probably obvious to most but makes sense in my head at least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice and simple! I like it!

Looks like you've already given some thought to iPhone support. I might also suggest adding fullscreen mode once the app is added to the home screen: [http://building-iphone- apps.labs.oreilly.com/ch03.html#ch03_...](http://building-iphone- apps.labs.oreilly.com/ch03.html#ch03_id35932771)

The "new thing" text input could use some CSS for smaller screens too.

Apologies if you already knew all this...

<comment><USER8> Also, it'd be good if I could edit the text of each entry after it's been going. Just in case I dont't like the wording or something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This app looks rad, I've been using [calendar about nothing](<http://calendaraboutnothing.com/>) for my opensource hacking needs and the seinfeld calendar way of being motivated definitely works for me, I saw some of the teasers on forrst and am eager to give it a try; keep up the awesomeness!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much :) Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My first feedback - I don't intent to give your my twitter account, so if you want me (or pretty much anybody) to review your site and you are dead set against using the standard create a user that works pretty well (because we now have ways around all the problems) use OpenID.

tldr; use openID, nobody is going to want to share their twitter account with the world.

</comment><comment><USER11> heya Kyle,

This is great. Just signed up. I am familiar with the Seinfeld calendar. (Though not because I've seen it on the show, but it was explained to me in some other geek GTD blog/system/something.)

I have an idea for a visual aid that might appear in two places on your site for folks who might not know the basic idea behind the Seinfeld calendar, and for those who _do_ know it, but might want to an incentive on their Streakly page:

A visual of a calendar week with a streak (or 2, or 3) through it.

This would appear on the front page, and in another form, on an individual's Streakly page.

I realize you probably already something similar to this already sketched out (along with many other features). So as you were, take your time!

I respect the MVP process :D

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad to hear it!

There are indeed plans for a more visual display of your completed days. The cool thing is that it's built in such a way that gives us a ton of cool data to play with. Just a matter of displaying it well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Just signed up. I'm probably gonna try and use it for working out. :)

First thing I noticed was that there are only 3 "reminder times", but I'm sure that would change in the future.

And being able to set different "reminder times" to different things would be cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> feedback re: the reminder portion of the app - would be nice if:

1\. i could get the notice as a tweet (DM) instead of an email. since you're using oauth, i'm betting you're facile w/the twitter api.

2\. you offered a fuller range of hours for the reminder. the first task i added to streak.ly was, "cook breakfast", but 10am was the earliest reminder i could pick in the list, which is too late for me ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks very much for the feedback;

1\. is a great idea and I'll definitely consider it (it does have the advantage of probably showing up as an SMS, too)

2\. yep, I had a hunch the list was too short but wanted to try it out. I wonder if there's a happy medium between an 0-23 type list and what exists now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm really enjoying the app the whole 5 minutes I've been using it. I'll use it for a week and see what kind of results I get.

For the record, I do realize that results will vary according to the type of person that uses the application. I'm a serial procrastinator, so maybe it'll be worth something for your Customer Development process.

</comment><comment><USER14> There shouldn't be a need for the page to postback when adding/deleting/completing items. A necessity for a site like this is for it to be faster and more convenient than anything else. My notepad++ session is more practical than this in a lot of ways, just because of the speed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, 100%. Have not added any AJAX goodness yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is good stuff, let me know when the API rolls out because I think these kinds of apps are better when they are on a handheld device because you can do a lot more stuff when you can carry the reminders in your pocket wherever you go.

</comment><comment><USER16> Check out Joe's Goals. <http://www.joesgoals.com/>

What's your edge?

</comment><comment><USER3> nice idea. i'm sure you know about <http://www.freshapps.com/streaks/> already. wonder if there's an integration point, there, where you could leverage their app with your data.

<comment><AUTHOR> yea, I really dig what they're doing but wanted something web-based. Streak.ly's got an API coming soon; would be awesome to integrate somehow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Great idea. A similar inspiration to Jason at www.HabitMix.com I think.

</comment><comment><USER18> Another solid web app from the Bragger-Matic. Keep it up Kyle!

</comment><comment><USER19> Question: What's the Seinfeld calendar?

<comment><USER20> It's a productivity method named after Jerry Seinfeld. I first heard about it from this lifehacker post: [http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds- productivity-se...](http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity- secret)

Basically you decide to do or practice something every day. If you forget or otherwise fail to keep up, you mark it in red on your calendar. Goal is to try to see how long you can go without a red mark. And get things done in the process.

<comment><USER21> You're wrong. The inverse is correct and is the driving force behind the idea...

 _He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Coming soon to Streak.ly... Serial killers

<comment><USER23> I just completed "Kill Someone" 14 days in a row on Streak.ly</comment></comment>


In shards of glass: signs of how the enigmatic Easter Islanders met their demise - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/17/in-shards-of-glass-a-new-sign-of-how-the-enigmatic-easter-islanders-met-their-demise/ <comment><USER2> Very unconvincing, because of so many assumptions that are never justified.

Frex:

 _In a society where warfare is rampant and violence may be the only means of survival, people surely would have learned to make better weapons than the ones that Lipo and Hunt found._

Really? Says who? That's just an assumption- who knows what factors influence the development of better technology?

On the subject of those artifacts so far considered as spear points, I imagine that if something was used to dig and turn the earth instead of killing people a) there would be evidence of its use on the tool itself and b) there would not be any evidence of its use as a weapon in the remains of people on the island.

So where's that analysis? The article doesn't mention it. Was it done by the authors?

Unfortunately in the article we're just left with "Surely" this and "Surely" that. It's not convincing at all.</comment>


The Snooper's Charter would devastate computer security research in the UK - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/11/the-snoopers-charter-would-devastate-computer-security-research-in-the-uk/ <comment><USER2> Interesting that this posting has been "deep sixed"; it does raise some interesting points. Maybe the phrase "Snooper's Charter" is now verboten.</comment>


Ask YC: Ideal location for a non-VC startup? - <AUTHOR>

I've seen some discussion here on the bay area, and how it's not necessarily the right place to be for a non-VC-backed startup. So the question is this: if you had the choice of running your company from any city in the U.S., which one would it be and why?<p>I'm in the process of deciding where to move right now, and was wondering which places have the best social and professional environment for geek-entrepreneur types? <comment><USER2> The one near your biggest customer(s).

But, some other factors make the valley great for tech business, and similar elements in other cities would be similarly valuable. Good schools nearby, nice culture and decent weather so smart people like to live there, low friction living so those smart people can focus on their work rather than on getting by (this can mean a lot of things, but I think places where long commutes are the norm is probably a negative), enough of the support infrastructure necessary for running a tech business (tech-knowledgeable legal services, accountants, PR/marketing, etc.).

I'd think this narrows it down to a few areas in the US, roughly in order of goodness: Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Research Triangle in NC, Seattle (sucky weather, though), New York, Chicago, Houston (too spread out, so long commutes, and hot muggy weather), Pittsburgh, Dallas/Fort Worth, Portland (too cold!), Boulder, and probably a few others.

But, again, your biggest customers can determine your success or failure more than almost any other element, and being near them makes them more likely to work with you. If you're working for oil and gas companies, you'd want to be in Texas (Austin, probably, but any major city will do). If you're working for the federal government or military, you'd obviously want to be in D.C. or Virginia. If you're working for car manufacturers, Ann Arbor (because Detroit is still too much of a shithole--though you could get some bargains on housing, and it does seem to be having some sort of resurgence). I'm working in the hosting industry, so I need to be in Texas or the bay area (or both-- which is probably how it'll shake out by next year).

<comment><USER3> FWIW Portland's average yearly temperature is exactly the same as San Francisco's. It gets about 10 degrees colder in the winter but makes up for it by being 10-20 degrees warmer in the summer. It is a wonderful place to live and hang out but is totally overrated as a good place to start a tech business.

Just curious as to why you put "too cold" next to Portland but not next to the places that are actually cold. Maybe you're talking about the one in Maine? ;-)

<comment><USER2> _Just curious as to why you put "too cold" next to Portland but not next to the places that are actually cold._

San Francisco is also too cold. I live in Mountain View which is 10-15 degrees warmer.

Just assume that any place colder than SF is too cold for my tastes. (But then again, I've been warped by living in Texas for many years before coming to the valley.)</comment></comment></comment>


Report: Thieves steal iPads from Microsoft, leave everything else - <AUTHOR> http://www.geekwire.com/2013/report-thieves-steal-ipads-microsoft-leave/ <comment><USER2> The thieves merely picked iPads because they have guaranteed resale value and quick resellability. It's not about what kind of devices are better.

<comment><USER3> High demand and resale value don't indicate the device is better?

<comment><USER4> Not necessarily, no.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> People who are dumb enough to break into a corporate office to steal easily traceable electronics prefer iPads.

There, a more useful headline.

In all honesty, it most likely means that the iPads were left out, whereas laptops and desktops were too hard to take because they were either too big or weren't there.</comment>


Ask HN: How do Bitcoin millionaires cash out? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> [https://support.gdax.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2819552...](https://support.gdax.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2819552-how- to-increase-withdrawal-limits-)

</comment><comment><USER3> Some exchanges have weekly maximums you're allowed to withdraw or deposit USD from/to. However, you can increase these withdrawal limits and pay yourself out in increments (after you've sold your BTC on the exchange)

</comment><comment><USER4> Send the BTC to an exchange.

Perform the trade into fiat.

Call the bank, warn them a large sum is incoming.

Withdraw.

Pay taxes.

A few million dollars is not a big deal in the bitcoin world these days. GDAX BTC-USD volume is $466 million in the last 24 hours. Bitstamp is another $353M.</comment>


Dune II ported to the Web with Emscripten - <AUTHOR> http://play-dune.com/# <comment><USER2> Emscripten is fantastic. <https://github.com/kripken/emscripten>

LLVM -> JavaScript. The possibilities are many, wish I had more time to play with this kind of stuff.

I believe it's how <http://repl.it> and similar sites work.

Tangentially, aside from porting games, <http://luatut.com/crash_course.html> is one of the better uses [of Emscripten] I've seen. Press Escape and a console drops down. Handy way to learn a language.

<comment><USER3> repl.it uses biwascheme, a scheme interpreter written in javascript

<comment><USER4> They also use Empythoned (CPython compiled with Emscripten, <https://github.com/replit/empythoned>) and Emscripted-Ruby (Ruby compiled with Emscripten, <https://github.com/replit/emscripted-ruby>) and a version of Lua compiled with Emscripted (<https://github.com/replit/jsrepl/tree/master/extern/lua>), among others.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm sure this site will be taken offline for copyright infringement almost immediately, but it really is a decent recreation of the original. It's also historically significant: Dune II is to the real-time strategy genre what Wolfenstein 3D is to the first-person-shooter: not necessary the very first example ever, but the first to achieve notable popularity, and the progenitor of most of the following examples.

<comment><USER6> Maybe a silly question: do copyrights for games (art or whatever) ever expire?

<comment><USER7> Yes, but not for a long time.

<comment><USER8> By "long time" you mean "as long as large copyright holders lobby to keep extending the window" which could mean "never" in practice.

<comment><USER7> Why don't we just settle on "so long as to make expiry irrelevant for video games".

<comment><USER8> I don't know what you're complaining about. Pong will be public domain in 2092.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For anyone interested in playing Dune II natively I highly recommend Dune Legacy[0] - an open source implementation which I personally found much better than OpenDUNE, which the link is based on.

[0] [http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/dunelegacy/index.php?t...](http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/dunelegacy/index.php?title=Main_Page)

<comment><USER10> Nice! It fixes most annoyances of the original Dune II, e.g. you can use your right mouse button to order units to move somewhere, and there is finally a production queue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Oh wow, this takes me back.

My first job was at Virgin Games as an artist. I got a beta version of Dune II, and played it obsessively.

The artwork Westwood Studios created was very inspiring - their artists were very good and developed some wonder palettes.

</comment><comment><USER12> Funny, I've been replaying Dune 2 over the past week and a half. Despite the controls being somewhat clunky (no selecting multiple units, your units won't defend themselves in a lot of cases, etc.) this game has _character_ and _charm_ , not to mention hours and hours of gameplay. I have been hoping that games like this, King's Bounty, Settlers, XCom, and others from that era would show up for mobile platforms. A lot of them would work really well on a touchscreen device.

<comment><USER13> iDos is great for this. Playing Ultima V on my iPad is fantastic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Just awesome. Dune II was a big part of my childhood. :)

<comment><USER15> Same here. I spent countless hours playing this in 1992, back when I was tiny and my English skillz were severely lacking. Words like "siege tank" were beyond me, so the siege tank was nicknamed after my fat aunt, the MVC after my handy uncle etc.

Brings back memories.

<comment><USER16> Haha, us too. It got to where me and my friends who played it would call someone a harvester if they kept getting lost IRL due to their stupidity

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> We've come a long way: <https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9414611/dune-II.jpg>

</comment><comment><USER18> Awesome. I'm not so excited about the tiny 320x200 viewport though. Why not zoom it to fit the browser window?

Strangely, they seem to have managed to disable the browser's built-in zooming.

So yeah, fun, but squinty.

<comment><USER19> If you are on an OS X system, just use Ctrl+touchpad two-finger scroll to zoom in/out (presuming you've enabled that)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I played this game a lot a few years ago :).

It amazing/annoying how different the UI is from the modern games. For example to move a unit you must click the "move" button and the click the place where you want to go. There are a million of details that make modern games easier to play.

<comment><USER17> In the DOS version you could also use 'm' on the keyboard

<comment><USER21> Also possible in the online version

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Can you still save and reload until the Death Hand actually hits something useful?

</comment><comment><USER23> Anyone else having trouble getting it running? I'm on a very fast internet connection and it's been 2-3 minutes of black screen already.

<comment><USER24> Doesn't run on Firefox for me, but does on Chrome. (Man I hate saying that as I am a Firefox fanboy)

<comment><USER25> Works with Firefox 16.0.2, unfortunately on Windows.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The download is pretty massive, it is 6235641 bytes. Which is slow even on the multihomed fiber connection I am on. Still pretty neat.

<comment><USER27> That's only 6MB, I think the server is just getting hit pretty bad from all the traffic

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> played a lot of Dune II in programming class back in the days. Also got caught a couple of times. Learned two thing you can't teach in a class room, culture and how to slack like a pro

</comment><comment><USER29> small bug : you can attack and kill your own units :)

<comment><USER30> That's not a bug.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> it seems to have some bugs. I lost a unit in the first level (I know, I know) and tile graphics went bonkers

</comment><comment><USER17> No sound effects :(

<comment><USER32> The music brings back memories, though :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> FYI, there is a post from the author, describing some game designs and listing existing bugs (unfortunately, Russian only) - <http://habrahabr.ru/post/159501/>

In short, he says that sync model used in OpenDune ran very badly in JS, so he had to replace it with async model (thus introducing some bugs).

He also lists hotkeys:

 _A_ ttack, _M_ ove, _H_ arvest, _R_ etreat, _G_ uard, _T_ ab, _B_ uild</comment>


Microsoft details how Xbox Series X will load 4.8GB/s from memory - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/microsoft-details-how-xbox-series-x-will-load-4-8gb-s-from-memory/ <comment><USER2> TLDR: by scamming you multiplying real transfer rate (2.4GB/s) by magical x2 compression ratio like LTO drive manufacturers (because we all know already compressed textures and movies easily compress the second time to at least half their size, right), and using below average NVMe SSD every PC user can buy off the shelf at mere $130 (SN750 1TB)</comment>


Ask HN: Can I work on my side project while working for your company? - <AUTHOR>

Borrowing from this post "Ask HN: Are side projects allowed at IBM?" news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9820993,  I too have several side projects I want to work on.  They range from making my own game to making my own niche search engine.
Of course, all projects are going to be limited in scope to what one person, me, can do on a part time basis.
For example, let's say I want to work for Google.  I also want to create my own niche search engine for myself and anyone else who cares to use it.  It will probably run on three or four servers on a SQL or an easy to maintain NoSQL backend.  Compare this to Google's gigantic ultra scalable Spanner database system which requires hordes of people to just maintain.  Technology wise, it's night and day.  Can I work for Google while keeping ownership of my engine?  If not, why not?
I don't want to go beyond what I as an individual but I still want to work in whatever side project I feel like doing without the hassle of doing things like getting "approval" for every idea I come up with since they can change at any time. <comment><USER2> I'm not a lawyer but here is what I know.

These clauses are for the company to cover their ass. Let's say you make Flappy Bird at Google and they try to claim it. The bad publicity will not be worth it.

Working on a side project that competes with their core business is different. But if it's a pet project with 100 users then Google will be seen as the bad guy again. How about 1 million users? Then you've created a competitor and less people will sympathize with it being shut down.

I hope that made sense.

<comment><AUTHOR> It does make some sense.

How about creating Flappy Birds while being glue coder #1,341 for EA's next big budget NFL next gen console game? Would the same idea apply? Would the idea be different for EA vs Amazon or Microsoft?

<comment><USER3> A lot of this will come down to splitting hairs. If you do it on your own computer at home with your own resources, its almost certain you will be fine. If you do it during company time using software they paid for and getting your coworkers to help on company time, they will probably be entitled to some part of the proceeds.

<comment><USER4> That is a good description of the Californian situation, but does not necessarily apply everywhere.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Everywhere I've worked has had an IP policy that was agreed/signed at the same time as all of the new-hire paperwork. The ones I've signed essentially said "if you develop it on your own time and equipment and it's not based/dependent on our code, it's yours; if you develop it on our time or equipment or codebase, it's ours". The others I did not sign. Anecdotal experience, probably not reflective of everyone's hiring practices, et cetera.

</comment><comment><USER6> There's a lot of law in California related to this specific IP topic, but IANAL so maybe someone with legal experience could chime in.</comment>


184.108.40.206 - <AUTHOR> http://18.104.22.168/

<comment><USER2> Eh, I wouldn't be surprised if there were dozens, even hundreds of HN clones. It's a pretty simple website.

<comment><USER3> It's harder to make it look like the same content, though.

<http://rachelbythebay.com/fun/hrand/></comment></comment>


Selling to enterprises - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2010/02/06/selling-to-enterprises/ <comment><USER2> When a customer is going to spend more than $100k, they look for a relationship to minimize risk. Golf and similar activities are what the buyer demographic does with their friends.

Do people really think that customers that sign up for $10/mo "to-do" apps are more sophisticated buyers than enterprise customers?

In my experience, many people who complain about the enterprise sales process are failing for their lack of real domain expertise not their distaste for "schmoozing." They are also usually underestimating the intelligence of their customers and unwilling to build relationships.

Disclaimer: My companies do enterprise software. Edit: I've also played golf exactly once in seven years since we started.

</comment><comment><USER3> How does this apply to subscription-based models? I'm guessing that the valley of death bounds change when you're talking about monthly recurring revenue.

If most managers can approve a $5,000 purchase without much hassle, what's the magic number for monthly subscriptions? Is it $5K/12? Higher? Lower?

Also, with subscription-based sales, you often have the opportunity to sell more plans to the same organization if your product solves their problem. Is there some magic number that people have experienced here? If it's proven by one business unit, can you get enough "grass-roots" support to equal something close to $100K/12? That would be nice because it cuts down on the timeline of the initial sale and is a natural way to recruit internal champions.

</comment><comment><USER4> I vowed after my first startup never again to build an enterprise product for this reason. Plus I don't like golfing and drinking with some random guy in Omaha trying to convince him my product solves one of this top three problems.

<comment><AUTHOR> During my 3 years doing enterprise sales at Akamai, I learnt a ton of things from my customers and met some really interesting people. Not all enterprise sales involves golf and drinking and schmoozing.

 _Edit:_ I would also add that you tend to learn a lot more about your product from your customers. In addition, once you target a certain industry and speak to all the major players, you get some insight that helps with product, sales, marketing.

<comment><USER4> Yeah I didn't mean to sound like that's ALL there is. But I was time and again surprised how often buying decisions had nothing to do with the product, company's need etc. I guess I was perhaps a little naive :)

<comment><AUTHOR> So was I when I started. There are so many reasons folks buy that doesn't involve our product or company, it's mind boggling.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The #1 question to ask when selling to the enterprise is, "What are the spending authority cut-offs?" Nothing means more.

Funny, in my experience, the 5K and 100K numbers are pretty accurate.

I recently assisted in the purchase of business intelligence package. The CIO (my contact) had authority to spend up to $100K. Anything more had to go the board, and that "just wasn't going to happen". One vendor knew what to ask and bid $93K. The two others were much higher. Guess who (automatically) got the sale. The other 2 may have been better, but we'll never know. They were effectively eliminated by rules they never asked about.

At the low end, almost everyone has authority to spend up to $5K, even users. They bring in desktop software or SAAS under IT's radar. There's _huge_ demand for solutions to their problems that fit under their spending limits.

<comment><USER6> How willing are the people to disclose the spending authority cut offs?

<comment><USER5> _Very_ willing, especially when it's in their own best interest to make a deal. Remember, these are people trying to solve their problems without going up a level for permission.

Of course, any good salesperson will find this out on Day 1.</comment></comment></comment>


Verizon to the Cable Industry: Let's Be Friends - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-20/verizon-to-the-cable-industry-let-s-be-friends.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I really hope the FTC stops this. If there is anywhere we need competition it is this industry.</comment>


Hire Good Writers - <AUTHOR> http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch08_Wordsmiths.php

<comment><USER2> I will admit, we do see 37Signals blog posts on here just about every other day on every topic imaginable. Sometimes I wonder if they do more writing than working on their own products.

So it's no surprise that they'd write a post about liking writers. After all, it's just human nature to like someone that closely reflects one's self.

<comment><USER3> _blog posts_

They aren't blog posts. They're "chapters" in a "book". Your confusion is completely justified, though. People who would try to pass off blog-style entries as chapters in books should not discuss "good writers" much less try to determine what exactly good writing signifies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I got a BSc, read half of On Lisp and then wrote a screenplay which got accepted to be read by a Hollywood agent. A good screenwriter is a good technical person! Compression is important, too, due to the confines of the screenplay (~100 pages). As opposed to a novelist, who has to write a lot more than a screenwriter.

<comment><USER5> "As opposed to a novelist, who has to write a lot more than a screenwriter."

They are different art forms.

Otherwise we should be looking for greeting card writers.

LOC comparisons for literature is a goofy idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Bleh. That "book" (notice quotation marks) of 37signals' has more horseshit per word than the book of Mormon. Okay, let's "get real".

Candidate A doesn't know what a binary tree is--but he knows how to properly stamp out dangling participles.

Candidate B knows how to code.

The first rule of a good writer isn't clarity, style, correct semicolon deployment, etc, but is rather saying things that aren't patently false.

<comment><USER6> Who said anything about "style, semicolon placement" &c? I got the impression that when they said "a good writer", they were more specifically requiring a good _rhetorician_. (Also, how often do, say, _fiction_ writers say things that _aren't_ patently false? At least some writers' worths are absolutely uncorrelated with stating the "patently false", so you can't say it holds for "good writers" in general.)

The thing about _good_ writers is that they understand communication at a higher level than most people, because they practice it consciously rather than subconsciously. Therefore, a good writer is necessarily a good learner (the read-side of communication), and, assuming no specific mathematical- related learning difficulties on either side, would probably become a better programmer than the "actual" programmer.

<comment><USER3> Sorry. Re-read the "book's" "chapter" again. He's not making any qualifications as you are. He's saying, "Hire the best writer," which is utter namby-pamby rubbish. Between two otherwise identical candidates, sure, hire the best writer. If you define "good writer" so that it correlates perfectly (by whatever means) with intelligence and problem-solving, then maybe hire the best writer.

But if I have to choose between Bill Shakespeare and an MIT grad for a programming position, guess who I'm hiring, despite 37signals' crappy, abbreviated, unsupported advice?</comment></comment></comment>


AMD RX 480 review: The best budget graphics card–but for how long? - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/amd-rx-480-polaris-review/ <comment><USER2> Related: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12005149](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12005149)</comment>


It could be worse - <AUTHOR> http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/10/it-could-be-worse.html <comment><USER2> It's funny to me how many people still fear the early 20th century version of fascism: jack-booted thugs, death camps, fire hoses, wars.

That's old school. It still survives in a few backward places like North Korea but it's now obsolete. It's not something we need to fear.

The new fascism is kind and gentle. It doesn't arrest you, beat you, electrocute you, draft you into the army, or kill you. Instead it surveils you, models you, and gently nudges you into doing the Right Thing as determined by a benevolent class of philosopher kings.

The new fascism only wants good things. It wants lower unemployment, higher GDP, better education, health, welfare, less crime, cleaner cities. Who doesn't want those things? Who wants more filth and violence? Who wants people to be unemployed? Only bad people oppose the new fascism, and who wants to be a bad person?

Interesting times indeed. Plato would be proud. Of course all this is well- trodden territory in sci-fi and fantasy. Fiction is full of gleaming utopias with a dark secret. But that's fiction, right, and fiction isn't reality. Who says we can't really engineer a perfect utopia?

Prepare yourselves folks. Prepare for the absolute tyranny of the good, enforced with a smile and a gentle nudge in the right direction.</comment>