How to be a great entrepreneur: sleep, breaks and a spouse - <AUTHOR> http://www.aginnt.com/post/23693419818/how-to-be-a-great-entrepreneur-sleep-breaks-and-a

<comment><USER2> Wow, some very thorough data to back this one up! Was a great read.

In addition to 'taking breaks' as you sumrize, I think it is helpful if we engineer our 'work' to be more flexible. Sure, if you build a business that is basically a deck-of-cards that could fall at any moment without your presence - those weekend get-togethers with friends and family are going to stress you out. On the other hand, if you build a business that can easily run on auto- pilot when you're not around - things will be a lot more care-free during breaks and life stuff.

Its something important to keep in mind when building a startup, but almost certainly an afterthought for most.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for sharing. I'm over 40, married, with kids. I feel I'm at my prime not only on technical knowledge but also on business experience. I never felt more able to bootstrap a business. I have the energy to work 70 hours per week (considering my job and my side project) and still be able to spend some time with my wife and kids.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome! Let me know if I can help in anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for this post. Enjoyed reading!! Hopefully it applies to people like me (early 30s, aspiring tech. entrepreneur)</comment>


Show HN: Publish from Google Docs to your website or blog - <AUTHOR> https://www.usecloudpress.com/ <comment><USER2> Cool tool, thanks for sharing. Does it automatically sync to the google doc? i.e. if I make a change in the google doc, will it update my post?</comment>


Y Combinator Fall Tour 2017 - <AUTHOR> https://blog.ycombinator.com/y-combinator-fall-tour-2017 <comment><USER2> If we're not coming to your city/school this fall and you'd like us to visit next year, you can tell us here: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf87KZD8Ugj2Iy- ewFh...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf87KZD8Ugj2Iy- ewFhp5xw0_-YrcSRC44bA4eKKzkfTenyuw/viewform).

</comment><comment><USER3> I should, first, thank you for doing an Istanbul meetup in Europe, than say Paris.

The reason? Turkey is accessible for more nationals of less fortunate countries. It is still accessible to most Europe too.

But given Turkey issues with ISIS recently, it would have been better to consider other countries. For example, having a Turkish stamp can be an issue while accessing Germany.

Some alternatives: Casablanca, Tunis, and Belgrade.

They are cheap, have touristic resorts and also beer friendly :)

Edit: Looking at Asia now, it would be better to have the meetup in Hong Kong than in Singapore. Both are world-class cities and HK is accessible to more nationals.

<comment><USER4> I'm not involved in the operations of YC, but this is really terrific feedback! I hope they notice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Another surprised comment, but I'm surprised there is no Seattle or PNW locations..

</comment><comment><USER6> Bewildered by no UK location.

<comment><USER7> Same here. I would attend the event for sure.

<comment><USER8> I wouldn't care if it's Isle of Wight or something :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Israel?? The second to the Bay Area in terms of Startups per capita.

Perhaps next time..

</comment><comment><USER10> Gothenburg instead of Stockholm this year? How come?

<comment><USER11> I, for one, am glad to see Gothenburg getting more love. It would be nice to see some investment in Malmö as well, as it is lower cost and more easily accessible by airport (Copenhagen).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Kinda surprised DC isn't represented here.

Could be doable. Just a quick flight from Quebec to DC, then train from DC to NYC for the NYC meetings.

<comment><USER13> I'd imagine Alexis Ohanian has DC pretty well covered. I saw him there a few years ago when he was doing a book tour.

<comment><USER14> Is he based in DC now?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Do you still require foreign start ups to incorporate in Delaware? Doesn't that undercut boosting the local economy argument

<comment><USER16> The stable corporate laws of Delaware help startups boost their local economies effectively.

<comment><USER15> It may surprise you to know countries outside the us have stable corporate laws. I'd hasten to add there's nothing stable about the us right now and I'd be reluctant to incorporate or HQ there

<comment><USER16> > I'd hasten to add there's nothing stable about the us right now and I'd be > reluctant to incorporate or HQ there

You consume too much news, my friend.

> It may surprise you to know countries outside the us have stable corporate > laws.

I didn't say nowhere else has stable corporate laws. Delaware just happens to be among the best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Aww, man, no love for Raleigh/Durham? :-(

<comment><USER18> Atalanta isn't that bad of trip but agreed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> No Capetown or Nairobi? Nairobi in particular has a ton of software companies

</comment><comment><USER19> Love that there are many events in LA! See you there :)

</comment><comment><USER20> Surprised to not see Chicago here. I'm curious, how is Chicago ranked among other major American cities as a place to found a startup?

</comment><comment><USER21> Come to Toronto!

</comment><comment><USER22> What!? No Antarctica!?

</comment><comment><USER23> Why no South Africa?! :)

<comment><USER23> why the downvotes?</comment></comment>


L.A. Is Creating Traffic Jams to Push Commuters to Ride Bikes and Rail - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/11/20/los-angeles-war-on-commuters-road-diet <comment><USER2> LA has been suffering from traffic, car crash deaths, and car air pollution for decades. Having each individual person travel to and from their job every day for 30+ minutes each way riding on a fire-propelled 2-ton metal block is incredibly inefficient and damaging. If they can start to push back on that it would be great. It's a pretty uphill battle though.

> _about one percent of Los Angeles ' commuters bike to work. Sixty-seven > percent drive._

Yeah, because the way the city has been configured, it's incredibly inconvenient to make trips any other way. The only way to improve that is by adding transit (which they have been trying to do) and reconfiguring roads to be more pedestrian/cyclist friendly (which this article is complaining about). If these experiments which have been successful in other countries turn out to not work in LA, they can try something else next time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Road diet listed in the article was on my preferred way to work. They literally removed a lane of traffic in each direction to put a bike lane in even though there's a paved bike trail less 100 feet away that runs along the beach and up Ballona creek. People complained and they reverted back. Millions of wasted of dollars.

<comment><USER4> So it goes nowhere and has a bunch of pedestrians. But god forbid average speed in the commuting ratrace goes from 15 mph to 13 mph.

<comment><USER5> That was my preferred way of commuting as well, coming from the South Bay going to Playa.

Sadly it did not only change from 15mph to 13mph, more like 30mph to 5mph in addition to creating a really dangerous merger on a downhill turn. In the 1-2 months they had this "improvement" 9 accidents occurred.

<comment><USER4> This is the normal for car roads. Vehicle commuters expand to fill up available space at which point speeds drop precipitously.

In a year or two it will be back to 5 mph only this time round you can't blame it in dem cyclists or 21th century street design.

<comment><USER5> Sure, I'll raise my first to the sky and yell "Damn Cars!".

This worked pretty well for the past 3 years I've been commuting there, and never has been an issue. Local Business in Playa / Marina took a hit. I went to some of the townhalls that were held, and besides the carted-in cyclists (that probably were driven in by a car (OH GOSH!), as none of them lived remotely close to the South Bay), the general populous was pretty active about getting back our 2 lane street.

Edit: The main grief for me, was the shady reason they slimmed the road down. It was cited, that a young woman died in a car accident on this road 8 years ago. Yes, that is true. Sadly, the council-member in charge of this road died, failed to mention that she was heavily intoxicated & running across the street, when there was a crossing 300ft down the road.

<comment><USER3> Did you actually see bikes use the bike lane? I use the strand bike trail frequently but rather not be riding on the roads sucking down exhaust.

If LA wanted to encourage cyclist, they should build dedicated bike trails away from the roads and make the side streets shared lanes where cyclist can use the whole road to prevent us from getting doored or hit by a car pulling out of a driveway. There is no reason to put bike lanes on major arterials.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


YC Female Founder Stories - <AUTHOR> http://www.femalefounderstories.com/

<comment><USER2> Discussion is taking place at the original posting: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8653416](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8653416)</comment>


Raspberry Pi camera module sneak peek - <AUTHOR> http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3224/ <comment><USER2> I was literally just looking into thermal imaging with raspberry pi, and wondering if Rob Hopeless's thermal tech could work [http://www.instructables.com/id/Thermal-Imaging-Phone- Camera...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Thermal-Imaging-Phone-Camera/)</comment>


Dear Mark Zuckerberg (Re: Facebook Phone) - <AUTHOR> http://colinsidoti.com/2011/11/dear-mark-zuckerberg-re-facebook-phone/

<comment><USER2> great points. especially "I don't want to worry about my friends changing their phone number, and creating a Facebook group asking for numbers. We can do better than that."</comment>


HyperCard Forgotten, but Not Gone - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/08/54365

<comment><USER2> A formal language that sounds like

      Put the first word of the third line of field "hello" into field "goodbye"

(which is actually goodbye = hello.lines[3].words[1]) is ridiculous. The HyperCard phenomenon though is something that should be researched by psychologists, because I myself, too, saw it many times how a complete non- techie gets something working in an hour or two. They get it quickly and "amazing" is just not the word. No other programming tool is as good at that as HyperCard.

And like the rest of the old good Apple stuff HyperCard can be traced back to Xerox PARC: that's NoteCards, a Lisp-based hyper-text system, according to Wikipedia.

<comment><USER3> Inform 7 programs read this way: <http://www.inform- fiction.org/I7/Inform%207.html>

This style makes it harder to write but easier for novices to read. It's not the tradeoff you would want for serious programming - the training wheels get old fast, but it makes sense if you need or expect lots of novices to read it.

<comment><USER2> It looks like a descriptive language rather than a Turing-complete programming language. Or am I wrong?

<comment><USER3> Programming in it is a little like prolog. You declare a bunch of facts and you declare some pattern rules.

Oh, and there is this cute little story too: <http://www.math.psu.edu/clemens/IF/Turing/source.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not trolling, but just asking a serious question. If HyperCard was the bee knees, why doesn't some make an open source version of it?

<comment><USER5> Disclaimer: it's been >10 years since I did any HyperCard/HyperTalk programming, so I will admit that I may mis-state some of the points below. That being said, HyperCard served as a major training ground for me when I was getting started programming, and I even went so far as to step through a fair bit of the obfuscated stack that made up Myst in order to understand how it had been implemented...

HyperCard suffered from a few obvious problems for larger-scale programming. First, it lacked any support for meaningful code structure and re-use. You didn't so much have functions or procedures so much as you had GOTO statements pointing between cards. For simple logic, that may be fine, but for more complicated workflow, the 1:1 mapping between cards and code blocks, and lack of shared state between them, means that non-trivial apps quickly became a mess of HyperTalk and hackish extensions written in C.

Also, it was tightly tied to a number of MacOS platform technologies; at a minimum, building a full clone of HyperCard would have required re- implementing some analogue to QuickDraw, including (IIRC) some undocumented hooks that the engineers at Apple used into the underlying system.

In the end, though, what probably killed HyperCard more than anything else was the rise of the web browser. Many of the basic operations of a HyperCard stack -- linking between discrete pages of data, providing simple interactive widgets and multimedia, and supporting complex layout of text and images -- are extremely well-supported by graphical web browsers, and the fact that resources are stored on the network mean that you don't have to pass around stacks on disk like you did in the HyperCard days.

That being said, there have been periodic efforts to fill the same niche, without continuing to enforce the more baroque limitations that HyperCard had. PythonCard _was_ a very interesting project, but seems to be pretty much dead at this point.

The [Shoes](<http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/shoes/>) project seems to be a good bit more active at this point. It's still at a pretty early stage in terms of API stability, but _why is one of the more tenacious programmers out there, and the community that has already sprung up around it is impressive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Before HyperCard, programming was more or less the exclusive domain of professional programmers."

I loved HyperCard (still have some of the reference books on my shelf in case it does come back) but a statement like this is way off base. Tens of thousands of non-professional students and enthusiasts were writing and sharing BASIC programs long before HyperCard and Turbo Pascal was a huge sensation at the time.

</comment><comment><USER7> My first formal programming class was a summer school (grade-school) experience using HyperCard so I have a sentimental spot for Hypercard Stacks. I remember being wow'd by the demos on the Mac SE.</comment>


Woman wakes up from coma after almost 30 years - <AUTHOR> https://www.thenational.ae/uae/health/emirati-woman-wakes-up-from-coma-after-almost-30-years-1.851923 <comment><USER2> "What do you mean there are still no voting rights??"</comment>


Ask HN: Is Apple about to kill the Macbooks? - <AUTHOR> With no announcements in sight for new MBPs and Apple pushing iPads as replacement for full laptops, are MacOS and Macbooks going to be discontinued in the near future? Will we end up programming on an iPad if we want to program for their products? <comment><USER2> As a vi/vim addict, I'm more concerned about the future of the esc key...

<comment><USER3> If you haven't remapped it to caps lock already you're doing it wrong :)

<comment><USER4> Would be a cruel irony if the Esc key dies while caps lock lives...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> No. Source: Tim Cook [http://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/09/tim-cook-very- committed-...](http://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/09/tim-cook-very-committed- mac-email/)

<comment><USER5> About 1000 days ago Phil Schiller said, "Can't innovate any more, my ass!" with the release of the Mac Pro. Regardless of whether it was innovative or not, that was pretty much the last time desktops were ever updated.

Apple could have released many upgrades to the MBP, especially considering what competitors with far less cash and fewer employees have accomplished in upgrade cycles every few months.

I don't think they are going to discontinue the MBP, but I do wonder what the plan is that they're executing. Do long cycles increase confidence among consumers that the machines will last a long time? Can they have low profit margins at the release date without worrying markets that they won't increase?

<comment><USER6> > that was pretty much the last time desktops were ever updated.

They've released 4K and 5k iMacs since then. Most people would consider that a reasonable desktop update.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are certainly plenty of rumors around an imminent Macbook announcement and some of the expected features: [http://www.businessinsider.com/apple- macbook-pro-2016-rumors...](http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook- pro-2016-rumors-roundup-2016-8/#there-will-be-two-main-models-with-different- screen-sizes-1)

</comment><comment><USER8> No. Source: common sense.

<comment><USER9> Agreed. Just asking this question is crazy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Just because they are pushing iPad Pro as replacements for full laptops doesn't mean people can realistically replace their daily workflows with iPads right now.

There is "Productivity" (Generic Office Productivity) and there there is Productivity (Making Industries Turn). No doubt they could have iPad Pro's do both, but by the time you've made the iPad Pro able to do Maya, Premiere Pro, Da Vinci Resolve etc, you've turned it into a desktop again.

They may very well try to do that, arguing the iPad Pro is a better platform that embodies the vision of how they'd like desktop computing to be, but that platform is years and years away.

Also worth realizing that Developers aren't the bulk of people using computers for "Productivity", our use case isn't the primary one. Not that I'd be happy if Apple decided to ignore it. That'd be really sad.

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't follow the Apple's product news too much, but I was really hoping for the announcement of a new Thunderbolt display now that they have discontinued the current generation (which had been around since 2011).

<comment><USER12> I, too, worried about a new display. However, I recently purchased a Dell P2715Q[0] and I LOVE it. I think I like it even more than my Apple Cinema Display. The only thing it doesn't have (that I miss) is the integrated Apple MagSafe2 power supply and Thunderbolt bus. I guess that's 2 things. :/

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2715Q-27-Inch-LED- Lit/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2715Q-27-Inch-LED- Lit/dp/B00PC9HFO8)

<comment><USER13> Have the same display. I got an open box at MicroCenter for a crazy cheap price, like $360 I think.

Nice thing about Thunderbolt is that you could hook 2 up at 60hz. I know if I run 2 at 4k, one will be 30hz; haven't seen a good answer if I run at a lower res. 4k is too small anyways (when I had it paired with a TB, I was able to run both at 60)

I do miss the webcam, but am happy with USB 3 instead of 2. As for the integrated power, I miss that, but this monitor + an extra power adapter is still $300 or so cheaper than the TB. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How would people make ipad apps?

<comment><USER15> With a bluetooth keyboard and a port of XCode. Possibly paired with a CI/build service from apple for testing.

<comment><USER16> Not a chance. They'd lose 99% of the serious developers. I couldn't imagine doing app development without 5 terminals, photoshop, xcode, and a web browser open at the same time; running git, grep and a series of shell scripts invoking all kinds of unix tools and imagemagick and ffmpeg and so on. If iOS can ever deliver that then we've gone full circle back to macOS.

To be productive you need big monitors and overlapping windows and terminals and drag&drop, and beyond a physical keyboard you need a pointing device that doesn't require you to cover the things you are looking at with your fingers. And nobody wants to sit for 8 hours a day stretching their arms out to touch a monitor or crouch over a tablet on a table.

<comment><USER10> The way you imagine productivity works like that. The past is funny, because it seems like that way worked for us and so it should be good enough for anyone.

As I watch my kids using iPads regularly, I realize they don't really know anything at all about a 'desktop' or why its so complicated. We can argue well they need to learn how a computer works, its important etc etc. Maybe they don't for the most part and could just build on top of our knowledge base to get to the next place. We are the old people telling kids to get off our lawn.

<comment><USER17> exactly. the future of productivity looks like high-waisted pants and talking to your OS. offices will still be open-plan.

<comment><USER18> Good luck mixing vocal user interface and open-plan offices!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I have been trying to buy an Apple computer for a year now. I have had multiple issues that have blocked me from buying one, starting with the fact that there is no official Apple retailer in my country [1].

As Apple products are super-overpriced I think _" Why not buy a computer with maxed specs?"_ this way I can counter the fact that I will have a discontinued computer in five years or so. Right now the rMBP 13" with maximum specifications _(16GB RAM, 1TB Flash Drive, Core i7)_ costs around $2,700 + taxes, this is a lot of money but those specs are the minimum nowadays and I want to future-proof it, so I am kind of forced by my profession to buy it. Unfortunately, all shipping companies in my country have a limit of $2,000 per import so it is obvious that I cannot buy it online, I have to travel to the US.

Have you read /r/mac or /r/apple ? There is at least five posts every day of people complaining about issues with the keyboard, the display, the graphic card, the disk _(mostly the disk utility reporting inaccurate information)_ , and even the hinge. Most of these issues can be solved going to a _" Genius Bar"_ and asking for a replacement. Cool, but I cannot do that in my country because there is no _" Genius Bar"_. If I travel to the US to buy this over- priced computer and it comes with a defect I will have to come back to get a replacement; to prevent this I would need to stay in the US for a couple of weeks to check everything before going back to my country.

Another reason to buy the customized version, that way the money spent in flight tickets, hotel room, and local transportation will be worthy. I got the random number of $5,000 as my budget, and the devil knows I've been sitting on this money for several months waiting for Apple to release the goddamn redesign that they have been promising since last year.

[1] [http://www.apple.com/retail/](http://www.apple.com/retail/)

<comment><USER18> Yep, definitely, a Mac is not for you.

There are some very nice laptops produced by other vendors, and with Linux, you'll be able to do as much programming on it than on a Mac.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I've started wondering whether the delay is not only because 1) The current products have been considered "good enough" in the face of intermediate processing / power requirement changes in succeeding chip lines...

But also because 2) Apple is making the move away from Intel to their own customized ARM processor.

The rumor's been around, before. But really, why else not bump the processor and maybe some subsystems, if and in lieu of a more major redesign?

P.S. This is just rampant, uninformed speculation pulled from my posterior. And I've no information and limited confidence as to whether such a move could be made sufficiently performant. Still, why not a bump or two, in this intervening time?

<comment><USER18> That would be a good move, to switch to ARM on all their devices. There are some very powerful ARM chips. If that's what they're doing, I can wait even a year or more!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > With no announcements in sight for new MBPs

Review the announcements at [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/) \- they often announce new Macs in their fall announcement, and generally never at the iPhone announcement.

In addition to various leaks of the new MBP chassis, there was recently a leak of upcoming trademarks ([http://bgr.com/2016/09/07/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-2016-macboo...](http://bgr.com/2016/09/07/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-2016-macbook- pro-trademarks/)) which included the MBP TouchBar.

</comment><comment><USER21> No. But if Apple replaces the keyboard with "butterfly" switches, like those on the MacBook, then the new MBPs might as well be DoA.

<comment><USER22> why?

<comment><USER21> Obviously I'm exaggerating my dislike of the new keyboard. They feel like crap. The travel is really low, so it's like typing on an ipad with bad feedback.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I think it is more likely Macbook moves to AMD or even ARM then killing it. There is actually a lot of room for Mac to grow, compared to iPhone. Percentage wise.

</comment><comment><USER24> They're releasing a new version of MacOS next week, I would take that as a sign they're not discontinuing it any time soon...

</comment><comment><USER25> There is a lot of overlap with macbook, macbook air and ipad pro. I don't see macbook pro's going anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER26> They've been slow about releasing new Mac products, no doubt the much larger cash cow has been a distraction, but I think they'd have to do a huge amount to make the ipad something that would satisfy all their app developers.

I am not an iOS dev, but I would certainly want git, bash, and emacs. I can see how a lot of people might be accustomed to making image content in photoshop or whatever...

</comment><comment><USER27> Not yet but in like 5 years yeah, pretty sure IPad Pro is faster than MacBooks just 3 years ago

</comment><comment><USER28> Rumors of October are in sight IMO.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'll never buy another one, such a waste of money.

<comment><USER30> what do you buy instead?

<comment><USER31> A lot of other manufacturers are making very nice machines these days. Dell (though I'm not a fan) are very popular at my work. I prefer lenovo. But even Acer, Asus, HP are making high power beautiful devices which can run windows or linux.

On a side note, my 6 year old lenovo is beautiful, works perfectly after 6 years (I replaced the battery last year) and would probably still be competitive on weight/size today. It was $650cdn when I bought it. Two years later I bought a Macbook air to develop apps. It lasted less than two years, had two power boards and a power adapter replaced. It ended up in the garbage after spending more than $1200.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> No</comment>


Novel Coronavirus May Not Have Originated in Wuhan Seafood Market - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally <comment><AUTHOR> Back in the 2003-04 SARS outbreak, the cause was partly a laboratory in Beijing that let the virus slip out accidentally.

Fast forward 17 years. The virus looks like it did not originate in the seafood market but was potentially taken there. What else is in Wuhan? The country's only BSL-4 rated lab (secure enough to handle SARS). Occam's Razor suggests to me that history is currently repeating, though of course I cannot be certain. Feels pretty dumb.

<comment><USER2> > "Back in the 2003-04 SARS outbreak, the cause was partly a laboratory in > Beijing that let the virus slip out accidentally."

Could you provide a source on this? I'd like to read more.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here you go: [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4921-chinese-sars- cas...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4921-chinese-sars-cases-traced- to-lab/)

Edit: note this article dates from 2004</comment></comment></comment>


2020 Google Diversity Report - <AUTHOR> https://diversity.google/ <comment><AUTHOR> A couple thoughts on how this is presented:

At least on my computer, the charts with tech/non-tech breakdowns show up sideways. So you have to hold your head sideways in order to see what the breakdowns are. The cynic in me wonders if this is because they don't want people to spend much time looking at these breakdowns, which don't look as rosy as the charts where technical and non-technical employees are grouped together.

Some of the bar charts have different groups colored in slightly different shades of _the same color_. Why are men and women shown as green and slightly- darker-green? Even if green weren't one of the colors most commonly affected by colorblindness, this would still be a terrible idea if you wanted people to actually be able to take in the report at a glance. Again, this seems like they're trying to gloss over a lot of 70/30 splits.

So while I give Google credit for making their diversity data available, perhaps they tweak the design of the report so it doesn't look like they're trying to hide the ball.</comment>


Screencast: A CSS Framework that is actually a framework. - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/4335944

<comment><USER2> Hour long video behind the submitted link. Some bite-sized info about Compass for those who don't want to watch the whole thing:

With Compass, you write your styles in Sass which is compiled to CSS. This helps with code reuse and general cleanliness, not unlike the tool demo'd in the Reddit keynote at PyCon.

You can use Compass to create CSS styles on top of a framework like BluePrint or YUI, which is why Compass calls itself a meta-framework.

Website: <http://compass-style.org/>

More Info: <http://wiki.github.com/chriseppstein/compass>

</comment><comment><USER3> Great link. If you haven't checked this out, do so. I've been using SASS for about 2 years and Compass for about 6 months now and its completely changed that way I do CSS development.

Chris Eppstein is doing amazing work. I think it'll revolutionize how web stylesheets are built.

<comment><USER4> for me haml/sass is a change like jquery was for html/js

now i have a superclean html structure with haml, the same superclean css structure with sass.

compass adds grid & other useful mixins and run-time automatic compilation of sass and haml files.

in plus everything is dry, my own set of mixins reusable in every web app are growing fast.

with compass growing up i think we'll have an API-like building tool for web frontends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I used Compass + 960.gs on a recent project. It took me a while to understand, but once I got it, I really saw the value. Simply put, it makes producing good looking websites easier. I particularly like the helpers provided in the Utilities Module:

[http://wiki.github.com/chriseppstein/compass/compass-core- ut...](http://wiki.github.com/chriseppstein/compass/compass-core-utilities- module)

I actually find Sass more useful than Haml. I find Haml gets in my way too much, and I'd rather do things in ERB.

<comment><USER6> I love HAML most of the time but my major beef with it is that it won't allow midline Ruby injection like ERB. This gets really lame, for instance if you have a <p> and you want to use multiple link_to()s inside it.

SASS + Compass, on the other hand, has been a boon to my productivity.

<comment><AUTHOR> haml 2.2 has universal interpolation and when you put that together with say a markdown filter, writing your paragraphs of text in haml should be a breeze.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hour long video explains what I could have picked up in 10 minutes of reading.

SASS looks like it could have been so much more. Its syntax differs from CSS in ways that it doesn't need to (specifically, requiring newlines and prohibiting multiple rules or selectors on a single line), and the lack of local variable also decreases one's mobility with the tool.

It's a good start, but it could have been so much better.

<comment><AUTHOR> When there's something better, I'll gladly use that.

Until then, I think it's sad that you've chosen to focus on the "negatives" that are largely style instead of the positives that are the substance of the screencast.

For what it's worth, in about a day or so of hacking on the sass source code, one could change it to be white-space inactive and to just rely on css tokens. If someone cared enough, they could add that feature. But, it turns out no one has, because it takes all of 15 minutes to get used to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I see the advantages to having CSS variables and all, but can anyone tell me why this (Sass/Compass) would be any better than me defining variables (like grid widths/colors/etc..) in something like PHP, running it through a CSS document and outputting that document as a CSS file?

<comment><AUTHOR> I tried. If my screencast didn't convey that information, I failed. Did you watch it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Coincidentally I'm watching Reddit's keynote from PyCon and they wrote their own CSS compiler called C55. Their keynote is at <http://blip.tv/file/1951296/> and the slides at (starting with slide 29) [http://www.slideshare.net/kn0thing/ride-the-snake-reddit- key...](http://www.slideshare.net/kn0thing/ride-the-snake-reddit-keynote- pycon-09?type=powerpoint)

The thing I like most about what they've done is to embed the functionality into CSS, rather than writing a new meta-language.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good ideas keep getting re-invented. There's about 4 or 5 versions of this with slightly different syntax, etc. But Sass alone has scripting, mixins, and libraries. These are the language features that make compass possible.

From the feature set I see there, that is where Sass was about 1 to 1.5 years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> pretty interesting. blueprint and sass is a worthwhile combination i wouldn't fight. otherwise, i'd hesitate to use one or another as a standalone tool. haml(unrelated here) is the exception.</comment>


Ask HN: Marketing with minimal hours? (small desktop app) - <AUTHOR> I'm working on a desktop utility for sale via the Mac App Store.  (category is graphics/design, price $5 or less)
I have a day job so I'd like to avoid channels that require lots of attention - Twitter, Facebook, topical blogging, etc.
My question: How should I market the app with minimal time input?
- Is AdWords worth it?  What should be my minimal spend?
- Should I suck it up and write some sort of blog?  Even if the reader segment won't be the same as the app segment?  (I can do a build a mac app tutorial)
- What other options do I have? <comment><USER2> Marketing does not just involve promotions.

Marketing should always be on your mind when running on the company. Marketing is involved when you choose your target market, when you tailor your product towards your target market, whether you have one product or a whole line of products for a similar function, how to price your line of products to get maximum profits... Advertising to your target market is only one aspect of "marketing". // guy who studied first year marketing.

</comment><comment><USER3> AdWords could work if you can cheaply own the exact niche. The blog will take quite a while to draw any significant amount of traffic.

The best bang for the buck might be to get noticed by some high-profile blogger. Make a funny demo video like Dropbox and in-jokes for the Reddit crowd. Can your app do something like make Guy Kawasaki's or Scoble's face morph into a LOLCAT? Find a funny / interesting use and target some tech celebs like that. Or tell the story of how reading The Four Hour Work Week made you a success and Tim might pick up your blog post and link to it. Those are all somewhat long shots but I've seen them work and draw a burst of attention.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Will try AdWords to see how it costs.

Unfortunately, my app functionality doesn't lend itself to funny pics/videos. Will think about it.

<comment><USER4> Doesn't have to be funny pics/videos. This is where creative brainstorming comes in - what is YOUR creative "in" to popular bloggers or other media sources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Adwords works great, except when it doesn't. For a $5 app, it's almost certain to fail.

Local events are good, if that's an option. present it at a users group, entrepreneurship event, and the like.

But, really, the truth is there is no quick marketing. It's just hard work.

</comment><comment><USER6> Define your target market and advertise on graphic/design sites that they regularly visit.

Least then you know you're hitting a more qualified audience straight away.

Have a look at how other similar apps have marketed themselves, where have they shown up?

What about writing e-mail to graphic/design bloggers to see if they want to check out your app and give it a write up.

I guess try to use the networks that are already in place out there to get the message to the community you are aiming at.

</comment><comment><USER4> AdWords is rarely going to be worth it for a <$5 app. As for the blog, if you have to "suck it up" to do it, I wouldn't do it. I think it has a slim chance of success if it doesn't interest you and your heart isn't in it.

Two thoughts:

1\. Run a targeted e-mail/direct-message campaign Can you creatively find some e-mail addresses/other accounts of potential customers in the target market? You can check blogs, forums, Twitter, etc. Draft up a well-written (and designed, if e-mail) pitch and send it to them directly and you may have more success getting those first customers who will help you spread the word. I think it's all about getting it in front of some customers.

2\. Create a pretty infographic with some interesting information about the space you're app is in. They may be close to cliche, but I think they're still all the rage now, and bloggers and more traditional media sources may run your infographic with a small pitch about your app (+ your logo's in the image).

</comment><comment><USER7> Have you considered handing out free review copies to bloggers in the graphics/design space?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I was planning free copies for friends in the space, but somehow didn't think of the bloggers. Probably because I don't know any in that space, but I'm sure my graphics/design friends will. :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Have you tried hootsuite (there are alternatives, but that's not the point)? You can schedule your tweets and FB updates with it, very handy if you don't want to be on Twitter and FaceBook during your day job.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason I want to avoid Twitter & Facebook is that meaningful use requires constant attention to check for incoming messages and respond.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Pod Hunt – The best new podcasts daily - <AUTHOR> https://podhunt.app <comment><USER2> Been a supporter of Pod Hunt since the day it launched, decided to have my podcast (The Better Show) become an official Pod Hunt "Supporter", and spent over an hour last night with it's founder, Mubs, on Skype talking product direction.

I can't stress how critical it is to build better podcast discovery mechanisms for the medium to continue to grow and thrive. Right now, most podcast discovery is self-reinforcing already successful podcasts. This is neither good for podcasters, or listeners. For new podcasts, its extremely hard to grow/learn, and for listeners it limits the ability to show them how broad and diverse the podcasting world is (which is one of its core strengths, there is something for EVERYONE!)

After my call with Mubs, I'm super excited to see where Pod Hunt goes in the future.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> With over 850K podcasts, and an estimated 450K active podcasts finding the gems to listen too is getting harder than ever.

Rather than discovering podcasts, Pod Hunt makes episodes the focal point of discovery. You won't find a the same tired list of top podcasts you see everywhere else.

Instead a daily updated list of new episodes is submitted and voted on by the Pod Hunt community members.

Would love to know what you all think...

<comment><USER3> Something I've been looking for - the discovery of podcast episodes. Excited to see what this can grow into.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Super simple podcast discovery, much needed right now! Replaces (and improves upon) the deeply-missed Product Hunt podcast section. Great work, Mubs!

</comment><comment><USER5> Love how easy it is for me to discover new podcasts that interest me. Not sure how I lived without this before!

</comment><comment><USER6> This looks simple but very useful. Could prove to be a major game changer down the line.

<comment><AUTHOR> Keeping it simple was hard work!

But seriously wanted a quick clean experience and keep the focus on the podcasts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pod Hunt is awesome for podcast discovery, and only getting better!

Excited to see what the future holds.

</comment><comment><USER8> Love the progress. Anything you can share with future features?

<comment><AUTHOR> Still deciding between 2 directions for the short term (based on user feedback)...

Either -) More personalization so you can focus in on the topics that really interest you.

or -) Providing more information on the podcast (hosts and episode specific information) so listeners can better judge if they will enjoy a podcast.

Will probably do both eventually, but with limited time trying to decide which is more important and to tackle first.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> discovery is so hard in this space so any and all channels to discovery are a must!

Thank you for making this new discovery channel.

</comment><comment><USER10> hands down the best way to discover new shows. excited to see how it grows!

</comment><comment><USER11> Nice work Mubashar!</comment>


Brad DeLong: Does Washington Care About Unemployment? - <AUTHOR> http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/203544/does-washington-care-about-unemployment

<comment><AUTHOR> Concluding paragraphs:

Has this recession, which has reduced hiring more than it has increased layoffs, left the kind of people who converse with the powerful in Washington secure in their jobs and thus communicating calm while the unemployed are engulfed in panic? Are we passively watching an unrepresented underclass of the long-term unemployed created before our eyes?

I don't know. But this unseemly calm does astonish me.

<comment><USER2> It's not just political elites, everyone employed by state and federal governments are in a vastly different economic situation than people employed in the private sector.

<comment><USER3> Indeed; here's just the most recent (this morning) ideological but not partisan essay/rant I've come across on this topic, which says that "that federal employees now earn double the compensation of those in the private sector" on average (quoting a Cato Institute guy): <http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/06/026436.php>

That said, it's not universal at the state and local level. In Missouri and my SW corner of it, state and local workers are getting laid off, having the salaries frozen, etc.

Again, this is again an "ideological" vs. partisan thing, our new as of 2009 governor who's laid off thousands of state employees is a Democrat. He, the Republican legislature and the state colleges and universities have worked out an agreement whereby if they don't raise tuition they won't get their state funding cut.

To tie this back to the original essay, Reagan famously noted that the reason the D.C. suburbs were some of the wealthiest in the nation was "that's where your money is going to".</comment></comment></comment>


17 years old, 11 startups - <AUTHOR> http://markbao.com/about <comment><USER2> Oh cool, I'm on here :D

18 now, and I've stopped calling them startups... a lot of them are just webapps :) (also no longer in high school, was going to update it two days ago until threewords.me came along, now at 1.8 million pageviews...) the new startup is <http://supportbreeze.com> !

Would like to note that my bhag (big hairy audacious goal) is to donate almost all my money into positive philanthropy (see below) and startup investments <http://iam.markbao.com>

<comment><USER3> _18 now_

Good. The honeymoon is over.

Now you can vote, join the army, get laid without legal worries, and most importantly, be considered a true peer here without the gratuitous "17 year old" prefix on everything said about you.

I have admired your progress and even enjoyed using some of your software over the past several years, usually thinking, "This guy is great. I wonder what kinds of cool things he'll be doing once he grows up." The wait is over. Full steam ahead and best wishes!

<comment><USER4> > get laid without legal worries

Not entirely true. Now he's gotta be careful not to become a statutory rapist.

<comment><USER5> Most states allow for a 2-3 year difference at the age of 18.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really woudn't like to critize but I would make the disctintion building startups or businesses and building apps. The former usually have customers, employees, payrolls, revenues etc.

But anyway it's great that you're building things.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the feedback :) Yeah, I came to my senses eventually. Check it out... TickrTalk: [x] incorporated [ ] paying customers [ ] employees [ ] payroll [ ] revenue. Nope.

Just so much old literature on the internet that I haven't bothered to update. Too busy hacking ruby and python to care.

<comment><USER7> Well I had a similar mentality at that age: ambitious with a naive sense of the world. It was a time before reality seemed more clear, so you had all these ideas that you believed would enrich the world. Only difference here is that you actually went out there and made stuff. Like a grown citizen of society, but you weren't even old enough to vote. You are one focused dude, unlike me, and for that I...oh look a ladybug!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I know Mark well and we even worked together on Genevine for a bit. He's one of the brightest people I know. Seriously, he gets things done fast and understands business along with tech. They're mostly projects, he knows the distinction as shown below in a comment. It's great to build things and tinker. Eventually one of them makes sense to you, takes off a bit, a bigger vision presents itself, and you turn it into a startup. Some of the comments here gave him crap for his track record. That scares me because it might prevent people from building things. On the other hand, I think the entrepreneurship community needs to do a better job distinguishing from projects=> startups. Startups involve customers depending on you, peoples well being via salary/career as employees, possible investor's returns, and a lot of other serious responsibility. We need to emphasize the responsibility that comes with it. In closing though, keep in mind facebook started as a fun project. Zuck had built a ton of things by 19. Eventually there was a point where it turned into a startup. Maybe it's fair to say the turning point of when a project becomes a startup is when the livelihood of others depends upon said "project". Really curious to hear others' thoughts. (Sorry for long rant mode. I'm on my way to the airport on my iPhone. Will probably make some of this subject matter one of my first articles for 2011 after getting some comments here)

<comment><USER2> Really appreciate the kind words, Jason. Thanks :)

Some thoughts: one pretty important metric for determining whether it's a startup or not is ramen profitability. Not when the project owners' livelihood depends on the project, but when it _can_ depend on the project if needed. However, the caveat is when it isn't profitable at all but still considered a startup (like when a lot of time and money is put in but it hasn't entered that stage), in which case the determination is more murky. Thoughts?

<comment><USER9> I upvoted you, but I'd simplify that point even further. I'd call it a startup when it has _traction_. Technically speaking Twitter has never been ramen profitable. However, their obvious traction and growth brought in tons of investment, enough to allay any monetary concerns.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Awesome.

One suggestion I have is to select either the first or third person and use the same voice for both the title and the article. I think its ok to write your own bio, but to show that you are writing and then appear to pretend that you are not is a bit annoying.

I don't mean to imply any actual pretense, of course, because there is nothing wrong with using the third person. I just don't think it works here as a literary device. Not that I am any expert.

And I'd consider the first person. You have achieved a lot and there's nothing wrong with saying so yourself.

<comment><USER2> Hey, thanks! I wrote that bio when I was 16 and just added on when I started something new, so it's basically like an exquisite corpse except by only one person (but just as much as a hodgepodge.) So it's a mess. But thank you for the suggestion. My new page is a lot better (though still very much in progress: <http://cl.ly/2o0g3f3e2d1f022S3d2X>)

<comment><USER10> and when I have a clue what I'm clicking on, I'll gladly check it out :-)

good luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interested to know the detailed plans for the life goals (<http://markbao.com/lifegoals>), particularly this one:

$5+ billion net worth

<comment><USER2> Actually now $10 billion (not that it matters :p), but the big plan is to put 90% of that into medical/cancer research grants, life extension, political action, humanitarian action, space exploration, and other positive action, and 5% into startup investments

more here: <http://iam.markbao.com/>

edit: oh! detailed plan is to eventually put complete focus towards the main project, Avecora... what we're basically trying to do is build a new, integrated, but open communication platform for data (between applications, appliances, and users.)

<comment><USER12> I think the parent poster meant is - how would you achieve that, not how you would spend it :)

<comment><USER13> Ha, I love that part about it though. Maybe making the 10 million is already predestined in his head. The hard part now is figuring out how to spend it. Probably something Napoleon Hill would be proud of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> When I was 17, all I wanted to do was get laid and play video games.

</comment><comment><USER15> He posted that yesterday

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2051288>

about his last app

</comment><comment><USER16> Not to hate on Mark because I think he is likely a brilliant person, but I fail to see why it is intriguing that someone young started 11 startups.

Let's be honest, starting a company is not hard, anyone with $300 could file a C-corp in delaware. But how many people have actually built just one business with a few million in revenue, how many sold for even more? Sure starting a company is glorious, but I expected people on this board to value building a successful business more. =\

Mark, if you're reading this, any plans to stick around in one company for a while and build the next Baidu/Taobao/Youku in the US?

</comment><comment><USER17> You're living a life that most of us could've only dreamed about... well, ok I speak for myself in that regard, but you're clearly doing awesome things! :) I can only say take a break every once in awhile and remember to play and do all the stupid stuff that you can get away with in your youth. Being irresponsible is frowned upon as an adult(and I mean that in your mid/late 20's and beyond). Ok enough grown-up talk - you're seriously awesome.

</comment><comment><USER18> Although I am very much impressed by Mark's work, his dedication and particularly the way he is trying to be different from other teens in the same age group is really appreciable. But I am not inspired with his philosophy of 11 startups, my advice please start thinking big (I mean what is that threewords.me thing anyway), you can certainly do better things if you try to keep the larger picture in mind.

<comment><USER2> thank you very much! big is <http://avecora.com> \- I've been told it's too big.

threewords.me was an MVP I built in three hours (two of them being design) that just randomly took off. never really meant it to be anything huge.

<comment><USER19> Could someone tell me what MVP means? I see that term used everywhere on HN, but I don't know what it stands for.

<comment><USER20> MVP: Minimum Viable Product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm 19 and got nothing more than a Google Summer of Code and some halfdecent apps. Makes me feel insecure :(

<comment><USER22> Yes, you've only had your work accepted to a program run by the company with some of the best software engineers on the planet, that rejects at least 98% of those who even apply.

What could you possibly do to surpass the kid who bought 11 domain names, some of which have apps attached to them?

No offense to Mark Bao, by the way. I greatly admire that he's put together so many projects and is trying to interact at an adult level. I was not enamored of being a businessperson at his age but I produced projects at about the same rate. However, I didn't know the value of what I was doing, and Bao does. He also knows how to market himself.

But I just get deeply angry when I see people discounting their own achievements in favor of people who've put a lot of effort into personal marketing.

<comment><USER2> Agreed 100%.

yuvipanda, seriously, the last thing I want to do is make other (young or old) people feel like they're inadequate... some of these that I used to call 'startups' are basically half-baked MVPs with marketing on top. Don't sell yourself short dude.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Firstly, congratulations. You're a very impressive person. I hope to see many great things from you in the future.

I second that, you should definitely apply for the Thiel Fellowship. At first i was skeptical of it, but now i understand. The entire program is structured for individuals such as yourself.

Ok, I know this is completely inappropriate, and i'm sorry about that, but i have to ask. Having founded 18 companies, sold more than a few of them, been featured in alot of very popular publications like techcrunch, mashable etc. Most startup founders won't achieve anywhere near what you have.

So my question is, are you rich yet? Rich being defined as a millionaire? (By that i don't mean valuation, i mean physical finances).

<comment><USER2> > Thiel

Applied :)

> Rich

Physical finances, nope. I wouldn't say so. Investing a lot of money into building some stuff (namely Avecora).

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Excellent, I really admire such young prodigies and all. Points that come to my mind upon reading it, [x] The likes of Bill Gates,Steve jobs,Larry Page,Warren Buffett and all did like 1 startup. You can easily achieve 25 by age what 40. [x] I never saw any webpage created by them advertising there personality.

But again you are only 17.

<comment><USER25> ...their personality.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Seems like a pretty awful track record.

<comment><USER27> Sitting on your ass and playing games consoles would be a particularly bad track record from someone of Bao's age, yet many of his peers do it. He is one motivated kid, so don't knock him for it.

<comment><USER28> Sitting on your ass playing games consoles for someone Bao's age is _perfectly fine_! I understand your sentiment, but the startup world of "rush rush rush" really pains me. It does no harm to just bum about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> That's dedication.

<comment><USER30> Doesn't Mark Bao miss riding dirt bikes, chasing gals, playing baseball.

<comment><USER31> Who says he doesn't do all of that? And also, where riding dirt bikes and playing basketball is your idea of fun, his may be programming, running startups and doing bizdev.

<comment><USER32> I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge.

However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.

<comment><USER33> Richard Branson agrees completely, going to clubs, chasing girls, and dirt biking is too immature at 50. Girls chase him to go to his private island and do this:

[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/20/article-1171739-04...](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/20/article-1171739-04888F37000005DC-717_470x419.jpg)

<comment><USER32> I think Branson may not typify the average human ;)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Energy efficiency across programming languages - <AUTHOR> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320436353_Energy_efficiency_across_programming_languages_how_do_energy_time_and_memory_relate <comment><USER2> This was shared in 2017. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15249289](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15249289)</comment>


GOP insurrection heats up over surveillance - <AUTHOR> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/22/gop_civil_war_leaders_target_rising_star/

<comment><USER2> Two day old partisian rabble rousing; the Rules Committee OKed a vote on it yesterday and it looks like it's going to happen today.

Call your representative ([http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/](http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/)) and tell him to vote for the Amash Amendment to HR 2397 (citing the bill number signals seriousness) and point out the data for the call is being recorded by the NSA (seriously: the one blanket metadata warrant we've seen is for Verizon's Business unit, which as the D.C. ILEC we can assume provides the Capital Hill land lines).

The guy who answered the phone this morning groked "including the data about _this_ phone call" and said the office had been getting quite a few calls on it.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you write unit tests for your side projects? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Yes, absolutely. Due to the large number of side projects I've worked on over the years, it's very important to me that I can put something down and pick it up again later. Unit tests allow me to do that. They drastically reduce the amount of certainty I have that modifying or adding a new feature to an old code-base won't break everything.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes.

Since, by definition, these projects aren't worked on full-time you need to know that any changes you do find time to apply are not going to kill your site/service.

I don't have 100% coverage, but I do have a lot of test-cases which cover areas that are "hard". Or in response to customer bug-reports to ensure I don't have any surprises.

(My service has a fair number of moving-parts, using a job-queue, service workers, a web-site, and integration with an external DNS provider, or two.)

</comment><comment><USER4> It depends on the kind of code you're writing, and where it is in its lifecycle.

Briefly:

* Humans can determine if your code does what it's supposed to.

* Automated tests can keep your code stable, i.e. make sure it doesn't change.

If you care about correctness you want manual testing and code review. If you care about stability you want automated testing like unit tests.

If you care about both correctness and stability you need both kinds of testing.

Personally I've mostly written libraries, where stability is very important, so yes, lots of unit tests.

Longer version: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/03/26/why-how-test- softwar...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/03/26/why-how-test-software/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes, I do.

To be honest, I did not write unit tests for my previous side projects. I just think that my codes "it works". I realized that it makes me hard to find a bug on the code when given some test cases. Developing a program is not only just "it works" but also ensure the program can handle the test cases.

</comment><comment><USER6> The way I've always approached this dilemma is to set up my testing framework and tooling so unit tests are possible, and then write them as I find bugs in early ad hoc testing.

I know its very anti-TDD to write tests from a reactionary perspective, but I find this is a good way to gradually get test coverage where it is needed while still being able to prototype the parts of the side project that are interesting.

</comment><comment><USER7> I always tell myself that I should skip unit tests because it's just "a side project". Then I lose sleep over it. And I end up spending an additional week and a half working on it instead of actually shipping. In my opinion it really depends on the nature of the side project. If you're going to charge users or if it's an open source project like a python package or npm module that other developers are going to rely on, it's absolutely necessary that you do. Else, meh.

</comment><comment><USER8> Rarely. I just do a lot of integration/feature testing for actual projects. Most of my libraries have unit tests though cause for me it makes sense to write a unit test for things like matrix transformations or ensuring some generic gl interface func works cross-platform. But IMO its pointless to unit test a sign_in function, I'd rather just know the whole sign-in feature works.

</comment><comment><USER9> Yes. Among other things, TDD lets you code from the inside out. That is, it makes it a lot easier to build and verify the business logic core of your code (which is usually the interesting part from both a technical and learning POV) without havin to first bootstrap all the additional boilerplte required to wrap an application around it to do click-throughs.

</comment><comment><USER10> More yes for deeper stuff, more no for outer stuff.

I have integrated testsuit for core framework components, which can be run separately, i tend to have separate tests for more upper level stuff, and i rarely have unit tests for actual programs.

It tends to be a drag that is very easy to half-ass, so i try not to waste it.

</comment><comment><USER11> Yes, I am used to it from my day-to-day job. I probably don't test every edge- case as I do in my job, but it just saves me time and brain capacity (at least I have the feeling that the coding part in TDD is the easy one).

</comment><comment><USER12> Never unless they are revenue generating over a few thousand a month

</comment><comment><USER13> Yes, mainly around the computationally complicated parts.

One of my side projects is also a test framework, so that has tests of itself using itself, in hindsight this was a poor decision.

</comment><comment><USER14> I do as I find it is important to know I did not break something when I work on something over a span of time.

</comment><comment><USER15> No. But I do write system tests. I'm always using ruby on rails with capybara this is basically headless testing through a browser.

</comment><comment><USER16> Always. IMO, it's always worth writing tests.

</comment><comment><USER17> Depends on the purpose and phase - if its testing the water or proof of concept then no, if it takes off a bit then yes

</comment><comment><USER18> I comment them heavily and use them as documentation.</comment>


Can Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved? - <AUTHOR> http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/02/11/ferrall

<comment><USER2> Short summary of the article:

>Those wealth-seeking, "what's in it for me" philistines are not buying our product. Rather than changing ourselves to serve them better, we should instead be inflexible, and demand that they change their desires. They should love our product, which even I acknowledge is useless. Diversity rocks, I support diversity! Professors should be paid more.

By the way, I'm not exaggerating. The article actually describes students as "wealth-seeking, 'what's init for me' philistines".

It's attitudes like this that make me strongly consider leaving academia.

</comment><comment><USER3> As someone who attended a liberal arts college for a short while, as well as a top-tier "big" school, I feel somewhat qualified to comment on their argument.

(1) The quality of a liberal education that makes it so effective is that the subject matter studied is not "use-eh-full."

>> So, a liberal arts education is better because it teaches you useless stuff? That makes no sense

(2) The best teaching is at liberal arts colleges.

>> There is some truth to this one. A great deal of truth, in fact.

(3) Your life will be fuller and richer if you read Aristotle, Descartes and Rousseau.

>> Yes, but liberal arts colleges don't have a monopoly on Rousseau - you can read them and get just as much out of them from big schools too!

<comment><USER4> I think in #1 they were trying to convey that Liberal Arts schools don't necessarily focus on teaching 'applied' skills. Some colleges get turned into job-mills, and have curriculums full of 'Applied X' courses, meant to enhance the resume more than the knowledge of the student.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "In the early 19th century, subject matter that made up the liberal arts curriculum was fixed: the ancient classics, rhetoric, logic, Greek and Latin."

With the possible exceptions of Greek and Latin, liberal arts colleges should restore these core courses. To those they should require advanced coursework in probability, statistics, biology and psychology.

Probability and statistics are essential elements of thinking and are extensions of rhetoric and logic. Biology and psychology have undergone such change and are so significant to modern scientific and social thought that they should be required.

"Your life will be fuller and richer if you read Aristotle, Descartes and Rousseau."

Yes, but such studies should be limited to the first 2 years of a 4-year curriculum, so that sufficient time for later courses in biology and psychology is available. These courses would point out the errors in the assumptions or reasoning that those earlier philosophers made and bring the student up-to-date with current knowledge of biological, physiological, psychological and social systems.

A graduate of such a program would be educated in the classical sense but more current in his knowledge than the typical liberal arts graduate. He would be very valuable as a potential employee in almost any field, since he was taught primarily to _think_.

</comment><comment> a-priori For myself, I have been intrigued by liberal arts curricula for a while now, especially the 'Great Books' approach. I've actually been toying with the idea of getting a liberal arts master's degree after I'm finished with my current CS bachelor's degree.

No, the liberal arts are not 'practical', but I'm not a believer in the idea that universities are for preparing students for the job market. In fact, I recently presented an argument to my department's faculty that they should re- focus on CS theory and mathematics rather than practical skills (it was well- received).

<comment><USER6> I don't understand the "not practical" sentiment. During the pursuit of my BA, I learned how to research, perform analysis, communicate, and most importantly how to rapidly switch contexts. I use those skills every day. I'm not saying that is exclusive to a Liberal Arts education, but I would definitely call those practical skills.

Today I got wrapped up contemplating the terminology I was using for a UI. I was worried that it was counter to the ontology of the system. Sure, maybe a CS grad would say "consistency of language" or something, but my philosophy- major-addled brain said ontology.

[editted to say: HA! a-priori!]

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> With the author's attitude in mind, I think I'd retitle the article " _Should_ Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved?"</comment>


How one hot sauce seller hauled Uber into small-claims court and won $4,000 - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/how-one-man-hauled-uber-into-small-claims-court-and-won-4000/ <comment><USER2> This was posted here before. I do think Uber was partially at fault here, but I'm skeptical there was intent on the driver's part here.

The video shows the driver pulling away while the passenger is very close to the vehicle...hardly the most stealthy choice.

I suspect some later passenger took the bag, perhaps without the driver noticing. Then, the driver ignored the calls because Uber likely doesn't give them much incentive to take calls, especially potentially contentious ones. Driver hears a message about lost merchandise, knows he can't do much about it, so he ignores it.

I think the hot sauce guy is somewhat lucky he found someone to cover his losses. Had he left it in a public bus, for example, you would have a harder time getting any compensation.

<comment><USER3> >Had he left it in a public bus, for example, you would have a harder time getting any compensation.

He didn't _leave_ the bag. The driver drove away while he was still unloading his belongings.</comment></comment>


Flatworms left in sunlight spur investigations into rare metabolic disorders - <AUTHOR> http://scienmag.com/flatworms-left-in-sunlight-spur-investigations-into-rare-metabolic-disorders/ <comment><USER2> Note that despite its banner, this is _not_ the journal Science; _it 's_ real URL is [http://www.sciencemag.org/](http://www.sciencemag.org/)</comment>


Expanding comfort zones or shifting your baseline for hedonism - <AUTHOR> http://michaelfuller.ca/the-ever-shrinking-comfort-zone-bubble-and-what-to-do-about-it/ <comment><AUTHOR> tldr;

Premise 1: Humans adapt to our environments as they change and we become desensitized. Our experiences shift the baseline against which we measure experiences in future. [1]

Premise 2: The further away an experience is from our baseline, the more intense the experience (but with [exponential?] decay). [2]

Conclusion: If we gradually expose ourselves to less comfortable experiences, we can shift our baseline to better appreciate the more common pleasures in life.

[1] This applies to both someone getting used to their new car, as well as not showering (as an example, not recommended). [2] So, for someone who's baseline is barely not freezing to death, having a shelter against the wind and snow would be quite the pleasure. Meanwhile, Europeans who are used to well insulated homes complain about damp uninsulated houses in New Zealand.

<comment><USER2> So the secret to happiness is to make your life harder.</comment></comment>


Energy Innovation Hub – Batteries and Energy Storage - <AUTHOR> http://www.er.doe.gov/grants/pdf/SC_FOA_0000559.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> So why is it that Energizer or Duracell haven't figured this stuff out? What do they do with all their profits if not re-invest them in R&D?</comment>


How to speed up LZ4 decompression - <AUTHOR> https://habr.com/en/company/yandex/blog/457612/ <comment><USER2> Usage of multi-armed bandits for low-level optimizations looks fairly unusual, I cannot remember any other examples in open-source codebases.

</comment><comment><USER3> Have you considered other integer compression algorithms like [https://github.com/lemire/FastPFor](https://github.com/lemire/FastPFor)?</comment>


Smell.dating - <AUTHOR> https://smell.dating/ <comment><USER2> For context, studies show that mate compatibility can be determined by the reaction to pheromones. This site is attempting to bring this kind of research to the public in a usable way. This is not some kind of fetish thing for people who like the smell of armpits.

<comment><USER3> appreciate your effort to make this seem slightly less creepy!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While it certainly sounds odd, my wife has said that when I'm away on business trips she'll take one of my worn shirts and put it on her pillow at night since it smells like me.

<comment><USER5> I thought this was a pretty common thing.

It's a bit of of a movie/TV trope, especially after a character dies--the widow would try to preserve the scent of their spouse/lover via clothing, pillow, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thanks to lapitopi for the contextual link [1]; tldr: attraction can be predicted by perceived smell of sweat, which correlates with genetic compatibility in terms of resistance to disease.

Could use some better marketing to mitigate the ick factor.

Also, a .dating TLD? We need serious reform of the system.

[1] [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html)

<comment><USER7> >Also, a .dating TLD? We need serious reform of the system.

Why? So they could fork out $50k to the squatter at smell.com?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "It's like Tinder, but for panty sniffers"

<comment><USER9> A potential hit in Japan? Context: [http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkMGhKGp-- Y](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkMGhKGp--Y)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Interesting concept. I think a lot of people will have issues getting past how strange it seems at first.

What I am wondering though is, shouldn't they include at least a bit of personality stuff in there? If I were going to pay them to send sample to me, I would want to know all 10 of those samples are from someone I have a decent chance of getting along with. Because attraction is not everything.

I also think most people know what gender(s) they are looking for, and would rather not get get a set of samples that includes others. Like what is the point in sending two heterosexual individuals of the same gender eachother's samples? Or sending a homosexual individual a sample from the opposite gender?

A completely random sample of 10 seems inefficient. There should at least be some sort of simple optimizations involved. Unless I am missing something?

<comment><USER11> Well yes, I would expect five shirts to be women's, and if I'm lucky, perhaps one shirt belongs to a fellow gay man. Often zero.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> For those who think this isn't a parody, among the links in the footer is "the useless press". This project is a sibling of

"the Decapitated Animals Dataset" \- An open call for projects utilizing New York City decapitated animals data.

"Call to Wait" \- A phone line that puts callers on hold for seven years.

And others. [http://uselesspress.org/](http://uselesspress.org/)

It might still be an actual thing.. but it's a parody for sure :)

<comment><USER13> Hey - I worked on Smell Dating (and co-founded Useless Press). Just to be clear, Smell Dating is a real thing - 100 people did in fact sign up, and we've sent them t-shirt samples etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Love the idea, but can't this be gamed by using synthetic pheromones? Pheromone colognes for the purpose of attracting women have been available for awhile now.

<comment><USER15> I too grew up with a subscription to Popular Science. I was under the impression that those were a scam though.

<comment><USER16> I'm sure a few products out there are scams, but speaking from my own experience/anecdotes I think the real ones do actually work. Specifically the products containing androstenone, androsterone, and the other related endogenous steroid hormones.

I used some (from Amazon, forget the brand) on my neck and my wife literally would not stop hugging me and telling me how great I smelled. She's actually initiated sex a few times after I've applied it.

<comment><USER15> I'm not to proud to admit that this could solve a significant pain point for me and my wife. If you would be kind enough to look through your amazon history and post a link, I would be tremendously grateful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Can't tell if this is legit or a parody of niche dating sites.

<comment><USER18> Niches dating sites are mostly parodies or clichés. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Three days sounds a bit extreme to me. I think a more realistic scenario would be a normal unwashed tshirt as usually most people don't go so long with washing, etc. Maybe though it's so we can more easily determine things. But smell is definitely important. I couldn't date some guys who were very smart and had other things going for them because they smelled bad according to my nose.

</comment><comment><USER20> Have to admit this is pretty weird, but also genius. This certainly falls under some people's personal preferences.

</comment><comment><USER21> I can't tell if this is getting upvotes because people think it's a witty parody of dating apps/sites, or because they think it's cool. If it's the latter, I'm somewhat disturbed by that.

Based on the super-creepy background video, I sure hope that the creators of this thing meant for it to be a parody.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's very clearly not a parody.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Seems like something that people might actually pay for. The smelly shirts alone, that is. There would definitely be people who couldn't care less about actually matching and just want the smells.

</comment><comment><USER23> Gross, funny, experimental and scientifically plausible. LOVE IT.

</comment><comment> ryan-c How are the 10 samples they send out selected?

<comment><USER13> We select them randomly...

<comment> ryan-c I'm interested to see how this works out in practice. I would be concerned that some people have enough constraints it is likely that none of ten random other people would be an acceptable match.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> So each 1 person who sends in 1 sample receives 10 samples in return. Its a ponzi scheme folks!

<comment><USER25> They only send a small part of the shirt, so 'one sample' is actually dozens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Is it already April 1st?

</comment><comment><USER27> This sounds disgusting

<comment><USER28> You're way too divorced from how disgusting everyday human life is.

<comment><USER29> Sure, but we don't put "May contain rodent feces and crushed insects" on our ingredients labels, and I'd frankly rather it stay that way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I can't imagine anyone using this for real. The concepts funny though.

</comment><comment><USER31> what the actual fuck

<comment><USER32> I think it lacks a bit of context. See here: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html)

<comment><USER33> A little more context:

[http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/08/can- you-...](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/08/can-you-smell- perfect-partner)

There was also a study that showed birth control to negatively affect a woman's ability to detect a genetic match by smell:

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-control- pill...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-control-pills-affect- womens-taste/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Didn't these guys just raise $5 mil (@ $100 mil valuation now)?

</comment><comment><USER35> What a time to be alive.

</comment><comment><USER36> 2 grody 4 me

</comment><comment><USER37> Do they allow underware sniff test?</comment>


"This is crazy": FCC kills part of San Francisco's broadband-competition law - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/this-is-crazy-fcc-kills-part-of-san-franciscos-broadband-competition-law/ <comment><USER2> This article seems like fear-mongering/muckraking.

The voices in the article complaining about the FCC ruling are saying that it's impractical to share in-use home wiring runs, so of course the Article 52 law shouldn't be read as requiring MTE building owners to allow such sharing.

Okay, except that DirectTV had petitioned the FCC to do exactly that in the past - multiplex their signal over an in-use home run to a tenant unit. The FCC said that the feedback they received at the time on DTV's proposal cast doubt on the ability to do this cleanly, so they would not accept DTV's proposal to require it.

In this present ruling (subject of the article), the FCC is agreeing with the MBC petition that the City can't now require this. The City says their law doesn't require this. The FCC responds that okay, then no problem; but if someone were to try an interpret it this way (since we have providers on record trying to do exactly this in other venues) just know that it would be invalid.

So what's the problem? Why try and frame this as an oppressive FCC crushing the benevolent City's intentions? It's a boring clarification unless someone has interest in actually doing what the FCC is prohibiting, which the City says it's not, so.. someone's making much ado about nothing, probably to fan political sentiment. And Ars Technica is being a stooge or complicit.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Pai accused San Francisco of playing word games, saying in today's meeting > that "it is difficult to understand how anyone can be harmed by a decision > to preempt a city mandate that the city itself claims doesn't exist." Pai > said that if the city is correct that its law doesn't apply to in-use > wiring, there's no reason for it be concerned about the preemption.

This is confusing. If SF itself claims the law doesn't require this, why are they concerned about the FCC saying it can't do that?

As far as I can tell from the article, the law remains in place except for the part SF says doesn't exist and the FCC says it dislikes.

<comment><USER4> San Francisco passed a rule that said an apartment building can't make the choice about which carrier they use. But apartments often make deals with carriers in which they get paid if they're exclusive to one carrier.

Of course the first thing this does is reduce competition: it costs at&t, Comcast, etc less to buy off the building owner than actual competition would.

So SF required that building owners allow residents to use which ever carrier they want. That requires either installation of additional cables, or sharing the building cables.

The FCC makes the claim that the only option is sharing the cables, and sharing the cables will make companies less likely to invest, harming the competition. It deliberately ignores that the current competition is not the price paid by residents by the private paid to the building owners. Once the carrier gets that contract in place their is no competition for the actual residents.

SF points out rightly: the legislation does not require shared cables: the carriers can choose to put in additional cables, but that's a dumb thing to pay for. Carriers have turned around to say essentially "having to invest in cables means we won't invest in cables", and their paid enforcer has done their bidding to block that.

<comment><USER2> Except I don't think anything in the FCC ruling invalidates the sharing of inside wiring unless it's requiring the sharing of 'in-use' wiring.

The FCC press release states, "Agency Narrowly Pre-empts Part of a San Francisco Ordinance...The Commission preempts part of an outlier San Francisco ordinance to the extent it requires the sharing of in-use wiring in MTEs. Required sharing of in-use wiring...threatens the Commission's framework to protect the technical integrity of cable systems for the benefit of viewers."

"to the extent that it requires sharing of in-use wiring" is the key here. Notice they cite "technical integrity of cable systems for...viewers". This wording is not accident - it's because DirectTV had petitioned them to require cable companies to let them run their signal over an _in-use_ home run from a traditional cable TV company.

Where are you reading that this agency ruling invalidates all of Article 52? Or specifically the part that SF requires building owners to allow residents to use a carrier of their choice?

I don't see that anywhere, but maybe I missed it.</comment></comment></comment>


Does PNC have a bad cert? - <AUTHOR> http://pnc.com <comment><USER2> It appears valid to me and other systems - [https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.pnc.com](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.pnc.com)

It appears similar issues have occurred in the past - [https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/1alZsH...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/1alZsHEeprc) I would recommend double checking to see if you are running the latest version of Chrome and comparing the cert information on other devices to see if your chromebook is displaying old information along with insuring that you are not going through a proxy.

<comment><AUTHOR> I restarted the chromebook and it worked fine. This was the first time I had ever used it, so probably needed to do some updating. Thanks again for the help.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I am on a chromebook and have been trying to access this site all day. However it continues to have a bad cert and have been waiting on it get fixed. I access it on my phone and it works fine. Wondering if it's something I am doing wrong.</comment>


Mike Judge Skewers Silicon Valley With the Satire of Our Dreams - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/04/mike-judge-silicon-valley/ <comment><USER2> No comments!? I really enjoyed this show, I don't think there has really been anything like it-- but then again I never saw "Betas". Mike Judge brings some interesting things to the table, I had no idea he was a math major and had geeky leanings.

This show has lots of promise, and not just for IT industry folks. It's a great ribbing of the mentality of the giant tech companies who promise to make the world a better place--

"Hooli is making the world a better place through minimal messaging transport layers." \-- laughed my ass off.

What did HN think of this show? Did you watch it? Will you keep watching every week?

<comment><USER3> I thought it was "meh" until the doctor started pitching the main character on his startup during an appointment - then I lost it

<comment><USER4> I find a lot of HBO (and other cable) shows start slow and improve once they find a rhythm. Perhaps because they don't need to immediately grab an audience.

The show did seem a little slow, but looks promising.

<comment><USER5> > I find a lot of HBO (and other cable) shows start slow and improve once they > find a rhythm. Perhaps because they don't need to immediately grab an > audience.

I find that's true of most shows, including those on traditional networks. I don't think its really a cable (or premium cable) vs. traditional network issue.

<comment><USER4> It is, but basic cable shows are more prone to pull the plug early. HBO, especially, seems to have much more patience. The canonical example would be "The Wire."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think it's odd that tech people are comparing this to the Big Bang theory. Big Bang theory dumbs down all of the jokes at the expense of not conveying a genuine culture. This is why it is massively successful in the general population and regected by geeks.

Silicon Valley seems to be the opposite at least based on the first episode. There are at least 4x as many subtle tech memes as there are jokes.

<comment><USER7> Agreed. I absolutely loathe Big Bang Theory and don't understand why people like it. It consists of cardboard cutout characters with unfunny dialogue. I watched the Silicon Valley pilot and was on the floor laughing. This is genuine stuff. No comparison.

<comment><USER8> Big Bang Theory isn't made for geeks; it's made for people who want to laugh at geeks. Mostly, it's made to sitcom conventions and happens to use geekery as the punchline to conventional setups, situations, and timing. It's a show on rails, with ostensible 'nerds' as set dressing. Provided you watch it as a formulaic, mildly entertaining sitcom, it serves that purpose. Occasionally you can nod knowingly at catching Sheldon's obscure-to-the-general-public science references. But if you're the kind of person who catches Sheldon's references, the show's not for you. (In the aggregate, at least. Personally speaking, I enjoy Sheldon, even though I recognize him as a caricature.)

There have been some great commentaries over the last few years about shows _for_ nerds vs. shows _about_ nerds. Compare, for example, Big Bang Theory and Community. The former has more putatively 'nerdy' characters, but it's by no means a nerdy show. The latter revels in its obscurity, geekery, and absurdity, even though only one of the characters is supposed to be a 'nerd' in the vein of BBT's Sheldon. General Population watches BBT for entertainment, but also for a sort of paradoxical validation: to feel 'in' on the nerdery, but mostly to place a safe distance between itself and nerdery. Nerds, meanwhile, watch shows like Community, which make no bones about their nerdery.

Traditionally, the gulf between content 'for nerds' and 'about nerds' has been pretty wide. That's because the non-nerdy public finds the genuine article to be unfamiliar and vaguely threatening. If Judge's take on Silicon Valley succeeds, it will be the first time in years that someone's bridged this gap.

<comment><USER9> > Big Bang Theory isn't made for geeks; it's made for people who want to laugh > at geeks.

It's important to note that BBT's jokes are largely predicated on academia and NOT tech culture since their inside consultant is a physics prof. It's amusing when the "geeks" complain how the show portrays _them_ , when they don't just get the humor having never shared the experiences of the academics on the show.

That said, the volume of nuanced yet poignant physics jokes has dropped since season 1. Still not bad though, and enjoyed by those without the misplaced egos.

<comment><USER8> The physics jokes are probably the best part of the show, and they're sort of an easter egg for people who get them. That's the part of the show where the effort invested (expert consultant, etc.) really shines through.

In general, I find the show mildly to moderately funny. I'm certainly not _offended_ by it, as a lot of people seem to be. I just take it for what it is. It's a mainstream show that happens to feature some insider humor, rather than the other way around. Characterizations of the show as "nerd blackface" seem misguided, IMO. Legitimately offensive "nerd blackface" would be, for example, the portrayal of Asian-American characters in '80s comedies like Revenge of the Nerds and Sixteen Candles.

<comment><USER9> All true, but the main point is that the subject of BBT isn't "geeks", which explains the misguided haterade. For example, Raj seeking research/grant funding from Sheldon and their university office sharing hijinx hits home for a segment of nerds who aren't the type to frequent reddit or HN where the "laugh at geeks" narrative became popular.

This is esp. cogent if Community is supposed to be a "proper" nerdy show. The reality is a single-camera format is more conducive to a more subtle script (eg 30 rock, which geeks similarly like) than a cheap/quick multi-cam sitcom. The love seems to stem from the nature of the material, which is conflated with the material itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If all the show ever does is make saying your startup is "making the world a better place" instantly mock-worthy, then it was worth it.

<comment><USER11> Oh? I've never been all that close to the SV startup scene, and as far as I've been able to tell, that was mock-worthy already. Many good things have come from startups, but maintaining a sense of perspective is a good thing, too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> HBO put the first full episode on youtube for at least US viewers:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4)

<comment><USER13> "Not available in your country."

Nothing encourages piracy like geotarded content on youtube. What other industry thinks "na na na, you can't have this" is good marketing?

<comment><USER14> Answer: Every high end luxury good ever marketed.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like the show a lot. I think it does a good job at mocking stereotypes that are all too prevalent in the industry and playing it off for laughs. Most the jokes are very pointed and I feel easy to miss. The world changing CEO who only a 15 minute conversation with can change your outlook on life. Its great.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm confused. So many comments here but the link returns "Not Found. The requested URL /2014/04/mike-judge-silicon-valley/ was not found on this server."

</comment><comment><USER17> I thought the satire was well-aimed, and my wife and I laughed out loud a few times. My nit is that I was hoping for it to feel less "sitcom-y" for an HBO production. Looking forward to AMC's Silicon Valley drama that's coming -- I believe that one is set in the early 90's, and more of a drama.

</comment><comment><USER18> I loved it. It's like big bang theory meets start ups and IT.</comment>