Something mysterious is blocking car key fobs from working in an Alberta town - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carstairs-westview-co-op-grocery-car-key-fob-1.4999558 <comment><USER2> Failing transformers can cause an incredible amount of RF noise. A couple years ago a failing fluorescent light ballast prevented my garage door opener remote from working until it finally gave out (this was when I discovered it as the cause), and it had enough residual power to maintain the interference for a while even after being turned off.

<comment><USER3> (On a much smaller scale) - I had a plasma ball toy as a kid, the kind you put your finger on and the electricity arcs to your finger. One day I broke the glass housing. Curious what would happen, I plugged it in - the radio in the kitchen AND the TV in the living room both simultaneously wouldn't run when the broken plasma bulb was plugged in. I did this several times as a prank on unsuspecting family members and then the unit burned out/wouldn't turn on. I still don't know how dangerous this was to do(if at all).

<comment><USER4> I used to enjoy wrapping a metal slinky around the base of mine. Then whenever I touched metal to it I'd get little sparks. Must have been acting as an antenna, but I wonder what exactly was going on.

<comment><USER5> It's acting like a capacitor.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Call in a couple of ham radio operators who like to foxhunt and they should be able to point you in the general direction of the problem within minutes. If the effects are as localized as they say it should be able to be pinpointed within an hour.

<comment><USER7> I'm a licensed HAM operator.

I would start with just listening broadband with an SDR for a while, just to see what's really going on. Something ought to become visible in the spectrum, at least intermittently.

Once you get the pattern, you could simply move around and measure the relative intensities, map the numbers, and the epicenter ought to become more or less obvious. Then close in with the SDR, watching the levels on the screen, and hopefully you will walk right into the culprit.

An RTL-SDR is a few bucks on Amazon. The software is free. The only other thing you need is a laptop.

<comment><USER8> Can you write this up please - I have lived my whole life with these mysterious radio wave thingamijigs suffusing my world and ... I just don't know how to detect them. TV signals get fuzzy, my loudspeaker crackles just before my phone rings, but being able to deliberately reach out and map them seems almost like magic.

<comment><USER9> [https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/](https://www.rtl- sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/)

They sell a fancy dongle that works 'better' than an off the shelf model but this $10 model will work just fine for learning: [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-2-0-Software-Radio- DVB-T...](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-2-0-Software-Radio-DVB-T- RTL2832U-R820T2-SDR-Digital-TV-Receiver-Stick/32506410349.html)

<comment><USER10> If you can, I'd suggest spending a little more on either an RTL-SDR with a built-in upconverter (~$30 on AliExpress) or an SDRplay RSP1A ($120 from Ham Radio Outlet). An upconverter allows the RTL-SDR to operate in the crucial bands below 30MHz; the SDRplay RSP1A has vastly better performance and will pick up all sorts of signals that an RTL-SDR won't. The RTL-SDR is a really cool and very cheap introduction to radio, but I think you might outgrow it fairly quickly if you're technically-minded and have a serious interest in radio.

I'd also suggest seriously considering getting an amateur radio license. It isn't difficult or expensive in most countries, you'll learn a lot about radio in the process and you'll gain the right to transmit on a wide range of frequencies. The /r/amateurradio wiki is a useful starting point.

[https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-100KHz-1-7GHz-full- band-...](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-100KHz-1-7GHz-full-band-UV-HF- RTL-SDR-USB-Tuner-Receiver-R820T-8232-Ham/32697306316.html)

[https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015965](https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015965)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/index#wiki_gettin...](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/index#wiki_getting_started)

<comment><USER11> You don't need an upconverter to receive HF on the version shipped by rtl- sdr.com; it supports it via direct sampling mode. I've listened to plenty of shortwave broadcasters and hams using it with a random wire antenna.

I did recently get an rsp1a as an upgrade once I realized how much fun I was having. It seems better at rejecting noise but otherwise isn't that different than my rtl-sdr. I need to get a windows install so I can use sdruno instead of cubicsdr, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I have heard of loose electric pole hardware vibrating in the wind and causing interference in the 400mhz range.

Basically they were looking to see if it was the source, and the guy banged the pole with a hammer, and the banging showed up on the listening station some 20 miles away.

<comment><USER13> I've had a similar experience making an FM transmitter. I used a small air coil inductor that wasn't well secured to the PCB as part of the resonating circuit. My FM tuner would pick up ambient noise since the small sound vibrations would ever so slightly change the size of the inductor, modulating the frequency. Ceramic capacitors also have this problem. The small metal 'fingers' are susceptible to vibrations which change the plate distances, and thus the capacitance. Use your imagination to think about cases when this might be of interest for certain groups!

<comment><USER14> aka Microphonics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It might not be the same, but this sounds similar to what happened in Eden, North Carolina recently.

The gambling parlor next door were using jammers to keep "fish table" players from cheating. This was affecting key fobs, car starts, etc. in a pretty big radius around the location.

[https://www.greensboro.com/rockingham_now/business/customers...](https://www.greensboro.com/rockingham_now/business/customers- cars-were-going-haywire-while-parked-at-an- eden/article_f7f76a60-129d-11e9-ac55-370054ab3f40.html)

[https://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/after- complaints-...](https://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/after-complaints- eden-police-remove-jammers-from-sweepstakes- parlor/article_0f679939-e928-593a-a1a9-0d97685202ec.html)

<comment><USER16> Hope the FCC comes down on them like a ton of bricks if they find that the casino was using a jammer. Wonder if they even considered whether they could be inadvertently jamming parts of the spectrum used by emergency services with that thing.

<comment><USER10> _> Hope the FCC comes down on them like a ton of bricks_

Oh, they will. The FCC do not mess about when it comes to intentional interference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> In Lille, France, the automated guided «metro» public transport VAL206[0] is known to block openning of some cars brands.

As it's aerial, in some places it's above ground with, you guessed it, car parks below it.

The tow trucks make a killing with it because you (or your insurance...) pay a full towing charge but your car only need to be towed like 5m for it to open again.

Funnily enough, the RF interference does not prevent closing of the cars, only opening :)

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAL_206?wprov=sfla1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAL_206?wprov=sfla1)

<comment><USER18> Do people not understand how to use the dead-battery mode of their fob?

<comment><USER19> I don't think people know that their fob has metal key and the car has a metal lock generally behind the door handle that you can slide in and open normally.

<comment><USER20> This does not start the car. Starting is a fairly important step.

<comment><USER21> It may not start the car, but will it at least let you put the car in neutral?

The poster a couple levels up said people where paying full towing price to have cars moved 5m. If you can put the car in neutral you should be able to push it that far yourself.

<comment><USER22> Not all cars are automatic. You might need to get hold of a hand instead.

<comment><USER23> Huh ? It's even simpler to put a manual car in neutral without the key. You could even push start it.

The main problem would be having a locked driving wheel (common in France), which may make pushing it 5 meters away impractical/impossible without lifting the front wheels.

<comment><USER22> I will do my best never to make a joke on HN again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Interference can be a funny thing. We have several of these outdoor LEDs at home:

[https://www.lampsplus.com/products/midland-9-inch-high- dusk-...](https://www.lampsplus.com/products/midland-9-inch-high-dusk-to-dawn- led-motion-sensor-light__8m841.html)

If I transmit with a two meter ham radio handheld near any of them at night, the light turns off! When I stop transmitting, the light comes back on.

I haven't taken any time to troubleshoot this, but it would be interesting to learn just why a two meter signal makes the light turn off.

<comment><USER25> You're overloading some "fused" or protected circuit in the little lights with voltage where there's not expected to be voltage. After you stop transmitting, it stops protecting itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> speaking about interference : moved my home office to a new spot in the house the other day ago - which has 3 LED light bulbs for light in the space.

Turned on the ham radio - in scan mode - picked up someone talking, but noticed a bunch of static also being picked up. Didn't think much of it until I turned off the lights and the static went away. radio antenna was about 4 feet away from 2 diff bulbs (!).

These things are noisy ..thinking about trying a few diff brands to see if there is a difference.

also thinking about borrowing a buddy's spectrum analyzer to see if I can isolate the frequencies of the noise, might be able to put a a filter on the antenna.

<comment><USER27> There are serious RF interference problems with some LED, CFL lights and dimmer products. Even low power (5W) lights can swamp the spectrum badly enough to jam out DAB and FM radio receivers.

[1] [http://www.ledbenchmark.com/faq/LED-interference- issues.html](http://www.ledbenchmark.com/faq/LED-interference-issues.html)

<comment><USER21> Also from some monitors and TVs. My Samsung monitor spews all across the 1.25 meter ham band. The form of the interference is a serious of regularly spaced narrow spikes across the whole band.

<comment><USER27> You might try adding snap-on ferrite beads to the power cord. If the monitor has an external switching power supply you could try replacing it; some of those are noisy. Otherwise, if it's an older monitor, the noise is probably coming from the CCFL power inverter (an internal AC power supply that powers the fluorescent backlight.) New monitors usually use LED backlighting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Solved

[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carstairs-key-fob- mys...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carstairs-key-fob-mystery- solved-grocery-store-1.5003043?cmp=rss)

"After investigation it was determined that there was faulty consumer electronic equipment stuck in transmit mode in the area, which was causing the interference. ... In this case, it was determined that it was a remote car starter. It has since been deactivated and the interference has stopped ..."

</comment><comment><USER29> I wonder whether the atmospheric conditions have some unknown effect on certain types of electronics, especially detectors of photons of any kind, preventing them from working as intended.

Story time: a few years ago I used to work in a building which was intended for many more workers than we actually were there (some floors were completely empty). The garage was big and had parking places for a lot of us, but we were only given a few electrionic keys for the garage door. A lot of us, including me, came to work by bus, so basically there were parking places for all of those who came by car, yet we only had like 10 keys for 20-25 people.

We knew that the keys were easy to disassemble and reassemble, so we devised a solution: using arduino, we created a device that (via a cheap prepaid SIM card) was capable of receiving phone calls, and when any of our numbers called the device, an actuator pressed the internal components of the electronic key. Pointing this device to a window near the garage door was good enough. So, every morning, people called the number of the device, and just by doing that, the door would open automatically.

The thing is: it always worked at the evening, between 16 and 18h. But in the mornings, and especially in cloudy or misty mornings, sometimes it wouldn't work. We tried to investigate but we never knew why this was.

I wonder if a similar phenomenon is happening here.

<comment><USER30> > I wonder whether the atmospheric conditions have some unknown effect on > certain types of electronics, especially detectors of photons of any kind, > preventing them from working as intended.

Well, atmospheric conditions have pretty well known effects on electromagnetic transmissions; the presence of water, particularly, interferes with (both scaterring and attenuating) signals that would transmit well through dry air.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm confused - I submitted this story and identical link a day earlier but got no traction. Not complaining, just wondering how Hacker News works.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19043315](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19043315)

<comment><USER32> It's like when you tell a joke: who posts a link and when is as important as the content of the link itself. It's unfair, but any human system is influenced that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Portable spectrum analyzers capable of up to 2500 MHz are not so expensive these days. I'd bring a horn antenna and spectrum analyzer and start hunting.

<comment><USER34> North American cars generally use 315 MHz for the key fobs AFAIK, seems like a hobbyist with an SDR + directional antenna could help clear this one up.

<comment><USER35> At 315Mhz you might even be able to do it with a $10 RTL-SDR.

<comment><USER36> I've captured my BMW's key fob signal with one of the cheapo RTL-SDR devices. The little noolectric I've got has worked great.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Geez, that would suggest a massive amount of noise or deliberate jamming on either or both 315 and 433.92 MHz, a mass delusion or something like helium wrecking the clock circuit. We should send Dave from EEVblog and Thunderf00t to investigate. ;)

</comment><comment><USER38> It sounds like all they've done to try to isolate the source of interference is shut off the power to the nearest store. This probably shouldn't be a national story until they look a little harder and can't figure it out...

<comment><USER39> It sounds like they've brought in IC (Canadian version of FCC) to investigate the interference. As for the news story, I guess they think they'll know the answer soon so this is just a teaser so they can get everyone's clicks again with a second story that answers it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> We had problems with Ford / lincoln in our parking lots. Idiots (car manufacturers) are using a bands in the 800mhz to 900mhz range. We paid about 60,000 in towning fees before we swapped our digital sign board systems out.

</comment><comment><USER41> It's very likely one of two things - either the RFID Anti-Theft device the store has, or an automatic door opener, both can cause spurious emissions in the band that keyfobs use.

</comment><comment><USER42> My car fob has never worked in the parking lot near the top of San Bruno Mountain just south of SF. I've assumed the proximity to Radio Peak is the culprit.

<comment><USER43> Yup, also Twin Peaks near Sutro Tower. "Dead battery," mode doesn't work for me either. So much fun.

<comment><USER44> Daaaang, that's got to be some power. I've looked at Sutro's architecture from across the bay, but never got up close to see what's on it.

I have a keyless-only car now, and this sort of stuff worries me. "Dead battery" mode has always saved me thus far, but in that situation? I'd be hosed. Can't even put it in neutral and coast down the mountain. (Electronic transmission, there's no shift-interlock bypass...)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I think their problem is in calling electricians. Wrong specialty..

</comment><comment><USER46> I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago. I woke up in the morning and found that my phone is almost completely drained while it was plugged into the outlet all night. I then tried another outlet and after another no-go I checked to make sure I have electricity, which I did. I ended up restarting the phone and it magically started charging again. I thought nothing of it until that same morning I got to my car and was unable to unlock it via key fob. However, it started working again when I tried it at my work's parking lot. Maybe just a coincidence.

</comment><comment><USER47> I could see in a future where most cars are FOBs using a weaponized interference to prevent people from accessing their cars. An authoritarian regime might really enjoy that capability.

<comment><USER44> Or enemies who've spent the last decade systematically building a library of vulnerabilities and footholds in tons of (government and consumer) infrastructure.

Did you read the Valasek/Miller paper on the Jeep hack? For me, the technical details were all well and good, but the most interesting bit was right in the intrioduction -- Their research was funded by DARPA.

Wait, what?

Consider this: Everyone knows that water supplies and power grids are critical infrastructure. Bridges and tunnels, too. Transit, obviously -- an attack on the NYC subways would cripple the city. That's all understood and appropriately protected.

But imagine an attack that caused 10% of the cars on the road _right now_ to simply turn off, and not turn on again. Some folks would pull to the side, but a lot wouldn't, and the roads would be an obstacle course for quite some time, while every tow truck scrambled to clear them. In my mind, that's just as crippling as shutting down a subway or an airport.

Individual vehicles haven't been thought of as critical infrastructure in the past, because they weren't vulnerable to that sort of attack. But they're becoming so, and in the most haphazard, security-what-security, if-it- compiles-ship-it, sort of way. And I think DARPA's goal in sponsoring this sort of research is to force people to realize that.

Because you bet the bad guys already know it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Wireless-controlled shopping trolleys (that put the brakes on if they're taken outside the supermarket's property) causing radio interference?

<comment><USER49> Those are actually controlled by magnet strips in the floor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> This happens to my car in the morning only. Not at night. Its flappin weird.

<comment><USER51> It's coming from some equipment that get turned off at night.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> If the signal is relatively constant, triangulation is fairly straightforward. Hold the receiver against your chest and slowly turn in a circle. When you find the minimum, the source is behind you and your body is blocking the signal. Draw a line on a map, move to another location, and repeat.

You can do this with a $26 antenna on a $25 RTLSDR on a $5 OTG cable plugged into any random Android phone. It takes a minute to install the spectrum analyzer app, probably two minutes to plug everything together, and about a minute per "reading". The rest of your time is spent driving.

This is a massively fun hobby I would encourage anyone reading this to consider. Start at the rtl-sdr.com blog and read some archives, there's a ludicrous amount of stuff within the reach of this incredibly cheap receiver.

</comment><comment><USER52> I guess having only 1% of the e-commerce market in China has a bright side.

</comment><comment><USER53> They should have called a HAM

</comment><comment><USER54> Maybe someone can bring this same technology to San Francisco and other crowded urban areas. It's endlessly annoying that every car lock/unlock these days has to be accompanied by a HONK.

<comment><USER55> Without that honk I'd still be stuck in a parking garage in Atlantic City wandering around looking for my car.

<comment><USER56> Take a photo of your cars location and parking level info with your phone.

<comment><USER57> That requires remembering to do so beforehand, though.

<comment><USER58> A bad experience does the job.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Some Airbus Superjumbos Head to Scrapyards Due to Weak Demand – Skift - <AUTHOR> https://skift.com/2018/06/06/some-airbus-superjumbos-head-to-scrapyards-due-to-weak-demand/ <comment><USER2> As a 20 year 10ish p.y. international business traveller I can tell you confidently _all_ of us prefer the 380 to most other choices for 10+ hr flights.

The 350 is a fine plane. The 777 is as noisy as all hell. The 787 is conditionally good, depending on class and who operates.

Sure, we love the 747 but please, don't pretend the 380 isn't the craft of choice in longhaul.

We also know except for Emirates, it's probably doomed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Boeing read the market right and made the right bet back in the 2000s when it decided to not go the superjumbo route --analysts were upset Boeing didn't go all flash and announce a rival to the A380. In retrospect it was wise.

<comment><USER4> I think Boeing already knew the answer to 'why not build a new super jumbo' which is, 'if there is a high market demand for that why aren't we selling more 747's'

Airbus could pretend there was a huge market for the A380 because they werem't selling into that market. Boeing though had been for 30 years and they knew a new superjumbo would just cannibalize their 747 sales.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can someone explain why an airline wouldn't buy an A380 even for $80mm? Difficult to fathom that there isn't a route or operator that could benefit from the massive capacity offered by a second hand a380, even with the higher fuel costs. Are there known deficiencies in the first few batches of A380s for the unit cost to have doubled in the last decade?

<comment><USER6> > even with the higher fuel costs

You answered your own question - that's everything.

Also, only a limited number of airports are A380-ready.

The only airlines I can think of that could fit in more A380's are the Middle Eastern hub airport operators, or Qantas. If they're not buying, it's over.</comment></comment>


Portland, Oregon, is (one of the) most entrepreneurial towns in the world - <AUTHOR> http://siliconflorist.com/2009/07/30/portland-oregon-entrepreneurial-town-world/

<comment><USER2> I suspect I have a super different background and interests than the author of this article, but totally agree.

I'll start from an arts angle.

I really like music, and one of the main reasons I live in Portland is the incredible music scene. Coming from San Francisco, one can see a million reasons why so many bands (and artists) move from SF/Oakland to here. A million more houses with basements, let alone dwellings that don't share two sides with others. (in SF, even practice spaces are hard to get, even when you're able to afford one).

And of course the cost of living is better than SF, so theoretically artists can spend more time on their art.

But then you notice a lot more "community" resources in Portland, too, like the IPRC for zinesters. (free/very low cost access to old-school letterpress, Macs w/layout apps).

And MANY small venues for bands to play/artists to have shows, including many all ages venues, sometimes co-ops, sometimes regular business, sometimes house shows (but houses that have "real" names, and a decent setup, and show schedule) (high turnover, but these places are always starting up).

The venues are a really important building block for artists. Sometimes they're coffee shops with 20 feet of wall space for photos, sometimes they're spacious warehouses for orchestra bands.

But they are not just a satellite for OTHER artists, these spaces are somebody's dream in their own right. I now see restaurants and cafes in Portland as their own kind of awesome art/startup business that I've never seen anywhere else.

A dungeon-like donut shop? Vegan convenience store (they don't even try to be healthy :D), An all food-cart food court?

For whatever reason, people try crazy business/art ideas all the time in Portland, probably because failure isn't that terrifying financially.

But it's not just the "low cost" that I give credit to in Portland, but the symbiotic nature of businesses and projects. It's probably fragile, but all these disparate pieces are critical parts of other peoples projects. It's not mere generosity or community spirit, but just the nature of the ecosystem that gets created when you have enough people with a sincere passion in different parts of a common theme.

Some of the traditional building blocks of tech startups are missing in Portland (VC, multiple universities with business friendly tech research), but I think one reason that Portland geeks are unphased by this is that we're so grounded in some of the DIY principles of punk (there, i said it), that resourcefulness/open source/small scale scrappiness are just "business words" for values we've already internalized.

<comment><USER3> I'd like to see that dungeon donut shop - google does nothing, can you help?

<comment><USER4> I can only assume he's talking about the lovely Voodoo Donuts.

<http://voodoodoughnut.com/>

<comment><USER2> Yup, that's what i (she :D ) was talking about. Lots of crazy donuts, vegan, bacon, cold cereal (!). Two locations now, for all you visitors. (Coming up in Portland: Djangocon, fyi)

<comment><USER4> My apologies for assuming that everyone that reads hacker news was male. ;)

<comment><USER2> heh. no worries :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> His definition of entrepreneur is different from what we normally think of tech startups, but even for tech startups, Portland surely ranks high. I've lived there and at one point was a late state startup employee. It's got the moxie and atmosphere for it, but it still doesn't have the surrounding ecosystem like Silicon Valley or even Boston.

That being said, in my list of best cities for startups, Portland makes a good case for 3rd place.

Quality of living is super high. Combined with a reasonable cost of living, it's a fantastic place to live.

<comment><USER6> I think Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle, and NYC are in the top four. Except for the Valley, people argue about which city is in which spot for 2-4 (they all have their niches), but it seems unlikely that Portland -- although it's a wonderful place to live and a solid runner-up -- could make a solid case for the top four.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a developer at a small tech startup in Portland. The quality of life here is great and there's definitely a fantastic amount of community support here for pretty much anything you would want to do. It's a very open community which is really appreciated. I would say that there might be a bit too much focus on side project and not enough on startup.

I think that everybody thrives in their own way in different places - I love promoting Portland because it'll work very well for some people. For others, not so much, but that's how it goes with almost everything.

</comment><comment><USER8> My reaction is mostly personal: This is f'ing awesome. I've lived in NYC for most of the last decade after growing up in the northwest, and I've had the urge to move...somewhere.

Just in the last few days, I came to terms with the fact that while I didn't really want to move "back home," Portland is the ideal place. Decent-size place, nice climate year-round, plenty of culture, great variety of stuff to do within a day's drive or less ... it is kind of a mini-bay area without the tech tilt in many ways. I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away, but many of the more interesting people I knew in high school have ended up there.

Added bonus: If you live in Vancouver, WA (north suburbs of PDX) and work from home (or just in WA), there's no state income tax.

<comment><USER9> > I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away,

Eugene? That's where I'm from.

> nice climate year-round,

Let's be honest, if it were, then it would be inundated with people because it is a nice place in so many other ways. It's not, though, IMO; it's gray and drizzly from October to early summer (and usually stops raining the 5th of July). If people don't mind that, it's a great place, though, although it does tend towards _laid back_ rather than _busy/active_. IMO you could do a lot worse.

<comment><USER8> Nope, Spokane. High end of "several."

"Nice" is probably overstating the climate, but the flip-side is that it's rarely too hot or too cold; you don't usually suffer through the heat+humidity of the eastern seaboard, which probably has something to do with me holding that opinion right this second!

<comment><USER7> Amusingly enough said during a horrible heatwave here - 106 degrees and the like. Of course, it'll be only this week, and there's no humidity...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There is a lot to like about Portland. Free public transport within the downtown "fareless square", a relatively lower cost of living, and you are not very far away from almost any kind of outdoor activity you can imagine and you can find a group for just about any interest (robotics, rocketry, etc.). It also has, hands down, the best new/used retail bookstore (Powell's books) and technical bookstore I've ever seen. The weather is manageable though it does rain quite a bit but I'd take a Portland summer over the lukewarm San Francisco summers/falls anytime.

</comment><comment><USER11> Portland have diverse neighborhood; classic suburb (beaverton), edgy & expensive (pearl dist. & uptown), hip (NE & SE). But whereever you live there are a lot of coffee shop and bar that have free wireless, perfect for late night hacking with friends.

</comment><comment><USER11> A little trivia, memcached was invented here in Portland (LiveJournal).

</comment><comment><USER12> Portland is a wonderful city in a wonderful state. I spent several intern quarters there, and have friends from there.

Two interesting tech startups that have connections to Reed College, which is not known as a tech school are Tektronix which was started by a physics PhD candidate who needed the tools (so the story goes) and Apple where Steve went to school. Tektronix is credited with starting the Silicon Forest.

One suspects that this is less well known as part of a conspiracy to guard against Californification of the state.

Speaking of food, does anyone remember the "Heavy Number Taco Company" chain which used old gas stations?

</comment><comment><USER13> This whole article seems to be based around 2 strange strawmen about the original article.

First the original article never said the "Best" or "Top Ten" entrepreneurial cities. It was just a "here are some good towns to start a business in"

It's also very much not tech focused.

<comment><USER14> Right, it is not tech focused, because his point is not so much Portland as the actual cultural distinction between good places for entrepreneurial people and good places for starting up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The film Wargames was set in Portland, and I've always wanted to see if the arcade is still around.

<comment><USER7> There's always <http://www.groundkontrol.com/> .

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Portland is clearly the greatest city in the world right now. What's possible there on a daily basis never ceases to amaze me.</comment>


Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/science/scientists-to-pause-research-on-deadly-strain-of-bird-flu.html

<comment><USER2> This is the worst possible outcome. If 10 passages through the lab animals was sufficient for the virus to become transmissible by air, then this _will_ happen in nature. Not being able to share with other members of the world-wide flu monitoring network what they need to be watching for is irresponsible at best.

The fact that this variant of the virus was formed relatively easily, however, leads me to believe that there is a reason that it hasn't been found in the wild yet. It could be that transmission in ferrets is _not_ exactly like transmission in humans. It could be that this variant is transmissible by air in a lab setting, but is critically vulnerable to environmental factors in the wild. Regardless of the explanation, _there is something vital and important that can be learned through further research_...

But _OH NOES THE TERRERISTS!!!1!_

You know, Caesar was just trying to protect Rome when the library in Alexandria burned. Those who have the most are willing to loose the least but, as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained...

The future of scientific progress no longer lies with the United States of America.

<comment><USER3> _You know, Caesar was just trying to protect Rome when the library in Alexandria burned._

Sorry, but _what_? What does the accidental burning of a library have to do with this?

<comment><USER2> There is a real risk in putting national security above all else. Leaders often make the mistake of believing that those with the greatest military might succeed, when in fact it is those societies with the greatest technology that have _always_ lead the world.

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry, but in a time when invading armies raped, pillaged, and killed at their own discretion, defending and thus _staying alive_ is a much higher priority than saving your library. Especially when surrendering to the invaders would probably have gotten the library ransacked & burned anyway.

You cannot reap the rewards of technology fifty years from now if you are beheaded by a mercenary today.

If you need a simple analogy, think of the Civilizations series. (Or, hell, _any_ game with a research/tech tree). Research wins games, but only if you survived the initial stages!

<comment><USER2> Name a period in history when the most powerful society was not also the most technologically advanced.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> On the one hand, this constitutes a weapon of mass destruction and should never be created by civilians in a lab.

On the other... if it is this easy to do, so that two virology teams can do it... then it needs to be done, somewhere. Is open academia that place?

I would imagine that knowing what genes need to mutate, that we could test for them to early detect an outbreak. Also, we could target anti-virals or other treatments against those segments.

Scary stuff.

<comment><USER5> Those things would only get more frequent and easier as the science progresses. I think the best shot to avoid a major disaster is to progress the science far and fast enough so that the consequences are not that severe. For example getting to a point where an "universal" antiviral agent (with an easy to update/modify "database" of targets) is possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3279225></comment>


Gravatar now requires a WordPress account to login. - <AUTHOR> https://en.gravatar.com/site/login

<comment><USER2> WTF @Gravatar, did you just forget about the rest of the Internet using you?</comment>


ZeppelinOS: tools for smart contract applications - <AUTHOR> https://blog.zeppelin.solutions/introducing-zeppelinos-the-operating-system-for-smart-contract-applications-82b042514aa8 <comment><USER2> Standard peer reviewed libraries for the new world of smart contracts is sorely needed. Hopefully the increased complexity does not increase the gas costs of the contracts too much. I think most devs would trade higher gas costs for a more secure platform to develop on. Anyone who lost funds in the parity wallet hack would probably agree.

[https://www.coindesk.com/30-million-ether-reported-stolen- pa...](https://www.coindesk.com/30-million-ether-reported-stolen-parity- wallet-breach/)

<comment><USER3> > Hopefully the increased complexity does not increase the gas costs of the > contracts too much

It's possible to save gas by pulling in libraries' code into the contracts via the "internal" keyword [0]. This way JUMP will be used instead of DELEGATECALL.

Peer reviewed libraries will definitely help to make the platform more secure. However, the engineers decide whether to use libraries or not. What's needed is more discipline and willingness to raise the overall quality level of smart contracts and DApp development.

Writing software that handles money is different from some random web app, where bugs can be quickly fixed. We see some ICOs using OpenZeppelin [1] for their contracts, using practices like continuous integration and measurement of code coverage. However, we need much more quality-oriented practices to become widespread like mutation testing. In the current environment, developers are often more motivated to participate in bug bounties or exploit already deployed code, rather than contribute to the ecosystem/tooling.

[0] [http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/contracts.html#lib...](http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/contracts.html#libraries)

[1] [https://medium.com/@bocytko/would-you-trust-your-money- to-a-...](https://medium.com/@bocytko/would-you-trust-your-money-to-a-smart- contract-3581063d52b1)

<comment><USER2> Thanks for linking docs

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sounds interesting and important, but you probably need a new term for this category of software. "OS" is taken, and it means something else.

<comment><USER5> Also it's built on top of Ethereum Virtual Machine. Quick look at [http://ethdocs.org/en/latest/introduction/what-is- ethereum.h...](http://ethdocs.org/en/latest/introduction/what-is- ethereum.html), which calling that a VM from what I read isn't screaming VM to me, more like a distributed computing application.

<comment><USER6> Which sense of virtual machine do you mean? There are already at least two. One is a virtualization thing like VMware. Ethereum is not that. The other sense is a bytecode interpreter/compiler like the Java Virtual Machine. Ethereum is like that. Except that it duplicates computations across many physical machines.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a big fan of Zepplin devs and the open source work they have been putting out there since the early days. Their medium posts are a goldmine for any beginner developer looking to develop DAPPs.

<comment><USER8> it's pretty hard to write even a simple smart contract that doesn't have horrible vulnerabilities. far harder, I would say, than writing C code that can't be buffer-overflowed on an old system with no protections in place. and solidity the language does NOT make this any easier. read all the resources you can. there are really counterintuitive best practices.

the reason for all these hacks is not stupidity or laziness of the developers. the EVM execution model just makes it very easy to write vulnerable code.

<comment><USER9> Quite the exaggeration, this silly meme has to stop. You make it sound like writing even a hello world would have horrible vulnerabilities or something. There are thousands of perfectly safe contracts deployed, one can't take some isolated incidents and make such conclusions from such a small sample.

<comment><USER10>
      If the creator of Solidity, Gavin Wood, cannot write a
      secure multisig wallet in Solidity, pretty much confirms
      Ethereum is hacker paradise.

[1] [https://t.co/WAR3eltfWl](https://t.co/WAR3eltfWl)

[2] [https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/hackers-seize-32-million- in-...](https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/hackers-seize-32-million-in-parity- wallet-breach/)

<comment><USER9> That's tweet is factually incorrect.

Gavin Wood DID NOT write the change that caused that bug, he was not the assigned reviewer either. [https://github.com/paritytech/parity/pull/3773](https://github.com/paritytech/parity/pull/3773)

<comment><USER10> Gavin Wood is the designer of solidarity and the founder of Parity.

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

[http://gavwood.com/](http://gavwood.com/)

<comment><USER11> Yes but that doesn't mean that they wrote this particular code. Authorship isn't transitive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> So if I read this right, I am supposed to trust a contract that sits on top of a mutable 'OS' that is managed by the community? I feel like all of these contract-as-code groups really need to have a lawyer on their team as well; for some reason, it seems like developers believe they understand the purpose of financial/other contracts and how they're actually used.

Would you sign a contract that references a contract that can be changed at anytime without your agreement?

<comment><USER13> First of all, upgrades are opt-in, so you can build on top of the OS and only switch to a new kernel version under certain conditions, such as if all parties in the contract agree.

Also, keep in mind that financial contracts are not subject to hacks, unlike smart contracts, as we have seen several times. One of the goals of upgradeability is the possibility to roll out security patches as needed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> how does this compare to Tezos?

<comment><USER15> Tezos and zeppelinOS are very different things. zeppelinOS is building an operating system on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine to provide secure infrastructure for the development of smart contract applications. A technology that is still being developed but used by thousands of developers, and maturing into it's next phase. Tezos is building a new blockchain with a different infrastructure altogether.

<comment><USER16> _Millions_ of developers are working with Ethereum?

<comment><USER15> Thousands! Little typo over there. Hopefully soon they will be millions :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> sounds the same as EOS

</comment><comment><USER18> What about this is an operating system?

<comment><USER15> It's an operating system insofar as it's a layer of services on top of the "bare metal" that is the EVM. Through those services it allows the development of complex applications in the same way a normal OS does.

<comment><USER18> How does that differ from installing a web framework, or an application? That doesn't seem like an operating system to me.

<comment><USER13> Good question. Both libraries and frameworks (the main difference between the two being the inversion of control) are addenda to _your_ application, aimed at providing more features and building blocks to set up more complex behaviours.

zOS takes this one step further, including not only libraries for SC development, but also aiming at defining interoperability standards, mechanics and economics for having independent contracts _interact_ between them as independent actors (or processes, if you will) on a shared computing space that is the blockchain.

I think the key here in terms of semantics is that zOS is not just an Operating System, but rather an Operating System _for the blockchain_. And when we go there, we don't have many definitions available, but are rather waiting to be made.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Testing advertisements across the network - <AUTHOR> https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/329763/were-testing-advertisements-across-the-network <comment><USER2> I love how the responsibility is always on the end user to watch out for and report malicious ads, and in postings like this they always talk about how good they are at removing the "bad ads".

If we're going to be test subjects for new malware delivery vectors that the owner of the site has no control over then I think we should at least get numbers for revenue and profitability for these ad programs.

I guess this post isn't really about StackExchange, I'm just tired of being the product and the test subject of these monstrous ad networks.

<comment><USER3> That's been the case for ages, I've seen it across many sites. When it's discovered a site is distributing malware through ads they'll wring their hands and say they aren't responsible for the content their site distributes, and then the next day they're complaining about people using adblockers. It's so transparent and pathetic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Related:

Ads on SE sites are excessively animated, irrelevant, dubious and resource- intensive [https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/329547/ads-on-se- si...](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/329547/ads-on-se-sites-are- excessively-animated-irrelevant-dubious-and-resource-inten)

The Stack Overflow I wish to build and participate in is no longer supported [https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/386324/the-stack- ov...](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/386324/the-stack-overflow-i- wish-to-build-and-participate-in-is-no-longer-supported)

</comment><comment><USER5> Aren't Stack Overflow questions and answers licensed under Creative Commons? It seems like an enterprising group of people could stand up a new website with all of the content and go Wikipedia's funding model with no ads or tracking.

This is exactly what I did with StrategyWiki when Wikibooks deleted their video game guides. I already had a GFDL licensed wiki with topical content, so I copied down everything that was about to get expunged and merged it with our existing guides. (Unfortunately a collaborator of mine stole the site by breaking into my domain name account, transferred the domain, and moved servers while I was overseas. But that's another story...)

<comment><USER6> You could, but google would see it all as duplicate content and you'd get no traffic from them.

<comment><USER7> I'd bet a disproportional number of readers of such a site would use duckduckgo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Stack Overflow was the greatest thing ever when it was new. It was brilliant.

But all ideas have a lifecycle. I am wondering if some aspects of Stack Exchange are getting a bit ossified.

The answers themselves are a case in point. How to centre content in HTML being a classic example. Years ago you needed to do negative margin hacks, a few years later you could do transforms. Now you can just use the layout engine that now comes with CSS - CSS Grid - and just do align/justify items/self to center and that is it, no hacks needed.

But if you go on to SO to look up an answer you will see the answer from a decade ago with a thousand upvotes, seventy hacky answers and no mention whatsoever of the 2017+ CSS Grid method. The moderators would have locked down the answers a few years ago. So, in suspended animation, is an incorrect answer that has thousands of upvotes.

If you know nothing of HTML you could just copy/paste the answer and be happy with it, even give it an upvote. But then to unlearn the hack method for the new CSS Grid method would be not what you would want to do.

The more you know about an area of knowledge the more you realise that SO answers could make you get it badly wrong.

This is purely due to the age of the site. Plus the people who were writing answers originally no longer do so. They have oved on professionally and just don't need the mod points any more than they need gold stars from a school teacher.

Another aspect of the ossification is when you have too many admin people accrue in an organisation. The merch for the giveaways costs too, things that were once nice to have to get things started become expected. The money that was once found for promoting new topic websites now becomes table stakes.

I think they need to focus more on the core product - SO - and not the other sites. If questions had an 'is this answer set outmoded?' checkbox that people who know the subject could flag then they might be able to get some detritus removed from the content.

If they are thus able to keep SO relevant then all should be good for revenue.

As for on the other sites, can we expect this to make it more like Quora or am I being pessimistic?

<comment><USER9> My experience is that many answers have been updated by other users with up to date information.

It says "edited" under the answer with the date, and you can see every version of the text.

It's great that people take the time to do this!

<comment><USER8> There is some feedback and the dashboards are great so you can do this.

But I haven't any interest in those answers I wrote up a decade ago (or whenever it was) and the domain expertise is no longer in my working knowledge. I don't believe I am alone in moving on that way.

Also some people learn one way of doing things and then stick to it, even if a better way comes along.

Apart from pride there is no motivation to update your decade old answers. Potential employers look for online stuff in repositories rather than SO answers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Yet another company consumed by the cancer that is advertising.

The first stage was when they just introduced ads. This is the second stage. The third and potentially terminal stage will be when they will require login to read answers and have stupid pop ups like Medium does.

The worst thing is that they have the resources & influence to run their own "premium" ad network and vet their ads, but don't appear to do so (otherwise there wouldn't need to ask to report malicious/inappropriate ads).

<comment><USER11> > will require login to read answers and have stupid pop ups like Medium does.

And yet medium does not have ads , and neither does ~~nytimes~~, or bloomberg which are frequently posted here. Are login/paywalls not a cancer of the web though? It sure seems to be spreading fast.

The thing is, there is a 1%-1.5% percent of GDP that businesses have been spending on advertising since forever. There is nothing wrong with using that to have a free (as in free beer) internet, and as a bonus we have one that is more pluralist too. The anti-ad hysteria will pass, but the ad spending will stay.

<comment><USER10> I don't see paywalls as bad as ads. I hate them, but I understand the publisher is simply trying to sell me access to their content in a honest way, similarly to a shopkeeper asking me to pay for groceries. I hate them not because they're paywalls per-se, but because they are asking for too much money (I don't read any of these paywalled publications often enough to warrant a subscription, and they don't allow me to pay per-article). Also, a lot of paywalled websites still have tons of tracking attached to them (in addition to already having your details for billing purposes) which means despite paying you still have the privacy liabilities that ads have.

Also remember that NYTimes & Bloomberg produce & own the content they publish. Stack Exchange do not. Even setting aside opinions about the paywalls, I think it would be very unethical to put the content users have contributed for free behind a paywall.

What I hate even more is "login walls" that aren't even paywalls, which means they don't make you login to make you pay, they instead want even more of your personal data (to use later for ads, or resell to someone who'll inevitably use it for ads).

<comment><USER12> The issue with paywalls is that we got use to the "free" access and paywalls limit linkability/shareability: A typical newspaper article I can pass on to my family/friends. With a paywall I can't easily pass it on. Also we still have no good micropayment option. For reading a single article I don't want to have a long subscription and don't want to register with yet another payment service.

<comment><USER10> Paywalled articles can embed a token allowing a certain amount of free views, so links can still be shared.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


A secret campaign to convince Ohioans that wind and solar would kill jobs - <AUTHOR> http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/10/green_energy_vs_coal_a_secret.html <comment><USER2> I think the one thing journalists who write these articles about how green energy adds net jobs don't get. People don't care about the net number of jobs at least not nearly as much as they care about THEIR job.</comment>


VIA launches $49 Android PC - <AUTHOR> http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/via-launch-a-49-android-pc-20120522/

<comment><USER2> I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot.

First I bought a SheevaPlug (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug>) but that fried itself before long.

Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop (<https://www.genesi- usa.com/store/details/11>), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of why).

I wish I could jailbreak my Apple TV 3, because it's cheap and the form factor is _perfect_ for this. But it's looking like it will be more difficult to jailbreak than previous generations.

I just want something I can run Debian or Ubuntu on and _know_ that when I restart it it's going to come back up. Any suggestions?

<comment><USER3> I'm using a beaglebone running Ubuntu, it's a brilliant little box, cost £55.

There's the pandaboard too, which is more powerful with hdmi output

<comment><USER2> Does it reliably boot headless? If it does I'll order one before the ink dries on this comment.

<comment><USER3> Yes, it's been very reliable for me. It ships with angstrom Linux, but it's trivial to install Ubuntu.

I've got it hosted in a collocation rack now, so it had better stay reliable :-)

I've written a short blog post about it <http://www.ewanleith.com/blog/956/my-60-arm-server>

<comment><USER4> Out of interest, what does it cost to host one of these in a colo rack? I was thinking about it as an alternative to my VPS.

(Apologies if you said this in blog post already, it's currently unavailable.)

<comment><USER5> Used Google cache to read the blog. This is what was written in the blog:

So, now it's time to take it to the next level – I've paid for the beaglebone to go into a colocation rack in Telehouse North, with a friendly colocation company called Jump Networks who were happy to help out with the experiment, and who only charge for £50 + VAT for installation and a very low monthly cost for hosting the equipment, as little as £5 per month – perfect for an ARM server.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is about the price-range I would like to see for a ChromeOS box.

Put it in a box I can hide behind a standard monitor, let me reuse the old mouse and keyboard and I can finally throw away the Windows XP PC my in-laws are using for Chrome and Freecell. And use 1/10th of the power.

<comment><USER7> I'd rather pay more for a high-end Cortex A15-based ChromeBox. Browsing will be very slow on an ARM11 chip, especially if you use it in "desktop mode", which will make it feel even slower compared to using it in a mobile phone. Also, it better have a good GPU, otherwise it won't even support resolutions higher than 800x480 (this one might).

But I do think ChromeOS devices should be somewhere in the $200 price range (or free with contract if you want LTE and plan on using it on the go).

<comment><USER8> In 1989 I ran a Unix system with 1000 users on hardware less powerful than this, why this kind of horse power cannot run something as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the hardware.

<comment><USER9> > as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in > current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the > hardware.

No. This is simply not true, at least at the extreme you are suggesting.

What I have open on my quad-core 8GB RAM desktop right now: two Eclipse sessions; One emacs server, with about 20 client windows; Firefox, with 30+ tabs; 20 or so console sessions; five PDFs of documentation; an IRC client; an image viewer and a Jabber client. All of this is spread over two big monitors, with antialiased fonts, fast scrolling, lots of undo history and all sorts of good things.

The truth is that expectations have changed. Say all you want about having 1000 users on a single core, but users today are getting a much richer environment, and capabilities that we only could have dreamed of twenty years ago. This isn't waste or inefficiency, it's using what we have.

Web browsers are also far from simple. High resolution graphics, interactive sites, multiple format support, dynamic content loading, antialiased fonts and all these other things do add up. Compare that to what a user was doing on a tiny slice of a machine 20 years ago. I'd call it progress.

<comment><USER8> <http://www.menuetos.net/>

<comment><USER10> Now go read the hardware compatibility list: <http://www.menuetos.net/hwc.txt>. It only apparently supports 4 network cards, 2 audio cards and a handful of video cards, and all of them are very old tech.

It's essentially a niche operating system, and isn't going to do 1/10th of the stuff that one written with "bloatware" is going to be capable of. I mean, look at what it has for a browser: <http://www.menuetos.net/098b3.png>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> You should always be wary if any binary blobs are required (often the case with video drivers). They will limit what you can do in terms of upgrading the kernel and hence the rest of the OS.

Sadly VIA have a history of not quite getting this whole "open" thing: [http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=via_o...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=via_open_turn&num=1)

<comment><USER12> My vision for these boards is not to display graphics, but to send/receive data from the internet and a local network. I'm not going to use a Pi to watch movies or some other resource-intensive task. I'd just as soon use the power of GPU that comes with Pi for some other task besides video.

What would be interesting is if one of these boards would be designed such that, by pure coincidence, it could fit into an Apple form factor (cheap/old/maybe used). I've read that in, e.g., Vietnam, people with soldering irons do all sorts of hackish things to iPhones.

Or maybe a market for curved edge form factor casings develops. Maybe it already exists. But I never saw any Apple-like form factors in the mini-ITX offerings. Whenever you see something with a cool form factor, it seems it's always a proprietary package, hermetically sealed, not easy to tinker with.

<comment><USER11> The Raspberry Pi starts up by loading an opaque blob into the GPU, and that then runs the CPU under supervision. ie the CPU is a servant and controlled by the GPU, not the other way around as is normal in the PC world.

So irrespective of your video intentions, you are still at the mercy of a blob.

<comment> excuse-me But unless your are a real FOSS zealot (say > 500milli Stallmans) you are at the mercy of the bios, the disk controller firmware and the CPU microcode on any machine

In reality being able to run whatever user programs you want in whatever combination you want without artificial is what FOSS is all about.

<comment><USER11> The "user programs" you want to run are determined by the operating system. And the operating system is determined by blobs, controllers, BIOS and similar gunk.

If for example the Pi blob is such that Linux kernel 3.7 can't run then you are SOL. Or if on a device like this their blob only works with Android 2.3 then you can't run a different version. Or maybe you can't run one of the BSDs.

The video/GPU is especially relevant in the Pi case because it controls what the CPU can do.

<comment> excuse-me Yes that's true - I was thinking of people who complain they don't have details for some deep detail of the GPU shader cores to write an opensource driver for their NVidia card.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What's more exciting than this computer itself is the potential it represents. If you read the actual product page [apc.io], a lot of it is devoted to just how small this new Neo-ITX form factor is.

For comparison's sake:

      Mass-market paperback - 19.8cm x 13cm
      Neo-ITX - 17cm x 8.5cm
      IPhone 4 -  11.5 cm x 5.86 cm
      2.5inch SSD - 10 cm x 6.99 cm
      Raspberry Pi - 8.6cm x 5.4cm

So the Neo-ITX is a third bigger than an IPhone 4.[1] And the perfect size to nestle a normal SSD right on top.

Not very far down the road, we will be looking at a complete, very functional computer (harddrive, wireless internet, etc.) in a package about the size of a small book. All for 15 watts.

And what I love best: it will be so cheap and versatile. Because it will use modular, already popular hardware.

Remember the good old days of the desktop:

Swap out the HDD for a bigger one. Replace it easily if it fails. Swap out the whole motherboard if that fails. Keep using the same damn case and power adaptor for ten years.

And best: put in random, new PCI express cards that expand the capabilities of the computer, using it in ways the original designers hadn't foreseen. As happened in the past with:

      Ethernet
      Wireless Networking
      Exploding GPU power

[1] I initially used a deck of cards for comparison. But I couldn't visualize exactly how big a deck of cards is. But an iPhone...

</comment><comment><USER14> So many comments and no-one could manage any praise?

It matches the real-life cost of the Rpi, probably will have general availability around the same time, and has double the memory and a little onboard NAND.

It may not be perfect, but remember this sector is very much in its infancy, and a little more competition has to be a good thing for improvements in future devices all round.

</comment><comment><USER15> _4 watts when idle_

no power management? my standard voltage laptop with a spinning disk, screen and low backlighting idles at 6-7.

And can you really get away with no HS/F at 13 watts under load?

<comment><USER16> FWIW, SheevaPlug idles at 4 watts as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Finally, a cheap ATX-compatible ARM board. Give me PCIe and DIMM slots and I'll be salivating. Equip it with something like a dual-core Cortex chip and I'll be throwing wads of cash in all directions.

<comment><USER18> Why not just buy any number of Atom or Fusion motherboards out there? Cost is in the same realm as what you're asking for and they already have those slots. Power consumption isn't much more than the ARMs, but there's actual product you can buy today.

If you don't mind waiting a bit, see Freescale iMX6: [http://boundarydevices.com/products-2/nitrogen6x-board- imx6-...](http://boundarydevices.com/products-2/nitrogen6x-board-imx6-arm- cortex-a9-sbc/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> VIA: if you're reading this, your address email@example.com is busted :-(

The original email I sent was:

Hi, I'm really excited to see the $49 Android PC; it looks like a perfect platform for a number of projects I've been thinking of.

However I'm worried - most manufacturers offering low-price Android devices fail to comply with the terms of the GPL.

Will you be releasing the source code to any GPL'd components used by your system? And will you allow customers to install their own OSs on the device or will it be restricted to your own build of Android?

Thanks for your time; I look forwards to your reply.

<comment><USER19> And email@example.com is bouncing too. Classy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> > Android 2.3 OS

 _sigh_. ICS has been out for 6 months now. It's tragic that companies are shipping an ancient 2-year-old OS with their computers.

<comment><USER21> It's more complicated than that, though. You can't just download ICS and drop it on the board. There are drivers to port and middleware integration to do. Someone has to do that. Google did it for OMAP4 (the Galaxy Nexus), but that's it. This isn't an OMAP4 board, and $50 a unit doesn't pay for a lot of software integration work.

This is where the ARM ecosystem tends to fall down. The PC World is built on compatibility. No one can ship a board if it doesn't run Windows (or even DOS, frankly). Graphics cards have VESA and VGA fallback modes so that you can bootstrap a driver installation. And as a result the Linux community can leverage this to provide pretty great support for new hardware, even if it starts out as a fallback or partial implementation for a few versions. None of that exists in the SoC world.

So if VIA or NVIDIA or Samsung or Qualcomm want ICS to run on their chips, they need to do the work. So far they have not. Nor have their customers been willing or able to.

<comment><USER7> Canonical and others in the Linux community are working on making a universal kernel for ARM SoC's, and they hope it will work on most of them by 2014. That might help with upgrades and compatibility in the Android world, too, especially since they are planning to merge the Android kernel back into the main Linux kernel.

[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA0N...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA0NzA)

[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/linux-guru-re- merging-...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/linux-guru-re-merging-of- android-into-kernel-eases-sysdev-a-bit/10635)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Alongside the obvious comparisons to Raspberry Pi, it's worth looking at Allwinner A10 based devices like the Mele A1000: [http://rhombus- tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000...](http://rhombus- tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000/)

Same price bracket, faster Cortex A8 based processor, and (most importantly) marketed as "hackable" with available source & tech docs, and a community working on porting other OSes to it.

Even if you don't want to hack on it yourself, this means you're more likely to find interesting uses and software updates for it down the line.

IMHO these are the aspects VIA should be aiming to compete on as well, so it's not stuck with a crummy vendorware version of Android.

<comment><USER22> Bad link try this: <http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/>

Other than that, its an interesting box too although it looks like it is harder to get one's hands on it.

<comment><USER4> Thanks, fixed typo in the other link.

The Melee boards are available to ship now from Aliexpress vendors, so you'd have it in your hands sooner than the apc.io (July predicted ship date) or the Pi (still filling backorders.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I hope they also have linux distributions for it other than android. If it works with arduino, these could lead to very inexpensive analog/digital controllers.

<comment><USER24> As long as the distro has drivers for VIA WonderMedia WM8750, it will be fine. Honestly I have no idea if any distros do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Add wi-fi, remove vga and ethernet, drop the usb towers and make it flatter, make an aluminum case and sell it for $99.

You'll sell a million just the first couple of months.

<comment><USER26> Do not remove VGA. There are a TON of old VGA monitors (LCD as well) just sitting around, and this is a perfect machine to use with them.

Force people to use HDMI and most of them will have to buy a new monitor.

</comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra For some unknown reason all those sensor terminals, atms and other smart devices are powered by windows.

Windows is an awful choice since it requires a huge pricey box with fans, since it shows its dialog messages over the interface, catches viruses and yet they stick to it. It makes me sad thinking about how much money do they waste on it and how MS is able by get their cut while making everyone lives and products worse by using their BS power.

<comment><USER27> Windows has been available on embedded systems from almost the very beginning. Windows CE was not originally for tablets, it was for ATMs and the like.

<comment> guard-of-terra But still they use stock Windows. They don't use CE or XP Embedded. They use the popping up dialog windows, screensaver kind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> <http://apc.io> is the original source.

It has a nice photo of Allen and Gates.

Now, what I'm wondering is how easy it is to replace Android with your own OS. I want to know about the bootloader.

</comment><comment><USER28> This somehow lacks all geek-appeal to me. It looks like a regular mother board. Not interested.

The raspberry pi on the other hand looks _cool_. Strange.

<comment><USER29> It depends on what you intend to do with it. My mom's computer is due for an upgrade and she would probably be happy with a beefier version of this machine. Swapping the motherboard should be trivial enough and the PC would continue to look familiar, at least.

She's used to Ubuntu and she couldn't care less about the ISA the machine is running. Moving to Android could prove an interesting experience, but I suspect machines like this will have outstanding support for other Linuxes as well and I'd assume Via has a lot to gain by cooperating.

By now, most likely, someone from Microsoft will have called to offer some incentive if Via favors Win8 over Android on the platform. We'll see what happens.

<comment><USER30> Yes, these machines are nearly ready. They need a little bit more stuff, and some nice cloud stuff set up.

Put them in a little box, bolt them to the back of a nice monitor and they're great for most people.

<comment><USER29> Oracle will claim a patent infringement because the thing looks too much like a Sparcstation SLC...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Related, my boss just ordered one of these for me to play with: <http://www.asiapads.com/product_info.php?products_id=2246>

I'm looking forward to it.

Internally, it's called "chrisk's Crapper Computer" (my name is Chris last name starts with K)

<comment><USER32> Nice! Looks a lot better than what VIA is doing. At least the CPU is reasonably powerful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> The main issue of (amost) ALL these boards is the code. They always use a large part of proprietary bobs, which makes using them a pain. Even the Raspberry pi has the issue. In particular, if you've a recent GPU you're often doomed. Want video accel? Nope. Proper video support? Update to more recent libraries? Nope again.

</comment><comment><USER34> Why does it have a VGA port instead of a DVI port?

<comment> mark-r It also has HDMI. They should have dropped the VGA and saved a buck.

<comment><USER35> On the flip side I can pick up a VGA monitor off the curb (i.e. free) while the cheapest HDMI monitor is still expensive.

<comment><USER36> _the cheapest HDMI monitor is still expensive_

Everyone has different levels for what "expensive" means. You can get new HDMI monitors for well under $150, and new DVI monitors for well under $100, and DVI<->HDMI adaptors are under $10.

<comment><USER14> Sure but it is worth baring in mind the context-- that this is a $50 PC.

<comment><USER36> Exactly.

~$100 for a monitor (which can also be used with other computers) isn't expensive when we are talking about a $50 board.

<comment><USER4> Whether "it's expensive" depends entirely on the market. There are markets (developing countries, education) where tripling the total cost of the setup, compared to using a monitor you already have, is significant.

<comment><USER36> Yes, I get that. Hence the bit where I said _Everyone has different levels for what "expensive" means_.

<comment><USER4> My apologies, between your two comments I was confused about the point you were making.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> It doesn't have wlan, not even a dual core cpu, pity. but i am still going to buy it.

<comment><USER38> including a radio means much more expensive certification testing. so they often just have you use a USB wifi stick.

<comment><USER39> That's not true if you use a pre-certified wifi module. Of course such modules cost half as much as the board, largely because they eliminate the cost of intentional radiator testing. But I agree, USB wifi is so cheap these days it makes no sense to have it built-in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I wonder how much wifi/wireless would add to the cost?

<comment><USER41> How about $1.03.

[http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY- USB2-0-Wireless-802-11-Adapter/...](http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY- USB2-0-Wireless-802-11-Adapter/dp/B004I8B8Z6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1337766131&sr=8-4)

<comment><USER40> Wow. And Bluetooth is just another $1.19. [http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth- USB-Micro-Adapter-Dongle/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-USB-Micro- Adapter-Dongle/dp/B001EBE1LI/ref=pd_sim_pc_3)

Those would be two good additions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Could you run a server on this? Something like NodeJS with low casual traffic? Would that work on Android at all?

<comment><USER3> Yes you could, I've been experimenting with running a server on arm for a couple of months and its surprisingly capable.

Node works well on arm because of all the effort google make for v8 to run well in Android

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> PC? How is this thing even close to a PC?

Looks like a motherboard to me,

<comment><USER44> It uses solid state storage and the RAM, graphics system, etc. is bundled into the single System-on-a-chip. Plug in the power then hook it up to keyboard/mouse/monitor and you are up and running.

<comment><USER45> What he's saying is that it's a bare component. Generally a PC is a usable system.

One will still need to add a powersupply and case at a minimum. (And _then_ you can plug in your power, keyboard/mouse/monitor, etc.)

<comment><USER44> OK, fair enough. I don't think the lack of a case is a huge deal (zip tie it inside a tiny cardboard box, whatever) but the requirement for a special power supply is significant. In comparison, a raspberry pi can be booted up and used with parts that a typical geek has lying around (micro-usb charger, usb periphs, monitor).

Edit: it looks like it comes with a power adapter, so it's effectively a fully functional computer out of the box (just as much as any system without kb/monitor).</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How To Lie With Statistics - <AUTHOR> http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/LieStat/

<comment><USER2> For a while I helped out at a local high school, in a class on basic computer skills. The one thing I did that really seemed to engage the kids was an exercise drawn from the book on which this article is based-- Huff's "How to Lie With Statistics".

The exercise was to take a set of data and make two graphs, one demonstrating a point and the other demonstrating its opposite. I think the data had to do with student test scores over the years-- they had to prove that scores were going up, and that they were going down, by their choice of what to plot out of the dataset.

I really liked working with that book in the class. Its form factor makes it non-intimidating, not like a textbook. And I felt like the title added a frisson of transgression.</comment>


Apollo 13's Jim Lovell: Houston, we have a real problem - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10411026/Apollo-13s-Jim-Lovell-Houston-we-have-a-real-problem.html <comment><USER2> I have been obsessed with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs since childhood and I've read the first hand accounts of astronauts, flight directors, engineers, administrators, and journalists covering the programs. What has consistently struck me is that although the programs were marketed - if you may - along the lines of their exciting thrust into the unknown, the programs were executed based upon a cold rational calculus that extended sabre rattling and the grounds of engagement beyond the surface of our planet.

Yes, for me it might be one of the greatest achievements of humanity, but for the people paying for the show all of that work was for one thing and one thing only; to claim the high ground swiftly and decisively before the enemy. For anyone with the ability to put a capsule into orbit and to retrieve it, also possessed the ability to spy on the other party, safely launch and drop a nuclear warhead into the other party's major cities, and one-up the enemy in a show of technical prowess and strength - something that would persuade those on the fence to pick the right side if it were. That's what these programs were sadly all about and that's why they were ended once the high ground was decisively seized.

The reason why there isn't an Apollo-esque or Manhattan-esque thrust towards landing on Mars is because there is no substantial tactical, economic, or political advantage to be gained from the act. Sure in the long term there will be amazing pay-offs if we open up the solar system and expand outwards, but right now in the minds of the people who are actually cutting the cheques that pay-off is too distant, too abstract, too foolhardy, and too unsettling to justify any kind of support.

Now some people choose to rue the cause behind our current Earth-bound civilization, but I think this is actually a good thing. It ensures that when we do manage to find a way to reach out to the stars we will do it for the right reasons and our exploration will continue from one frontier to another because of that fact.</comment>


If programming languages were cars... - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.caltech.edu/%7Emvanier/hacking/rants/cars.html <comment><USER2> If programming languages were bowls of clam chowder, what types of clams would be used for _your_ favorite language?

These things are so stupid.</comment>


Zoho One – A suite of 35 cloud business apps at 1$ per employee per day - <AUTHOR> https://www.zoho.com/one/ <comment><USER2> This includes whitelabeled email addresses right?</comment>


Meld: precision temperature control for your stove - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meld/meld-a-perfect-meal-every-time?ref=hero_thanks

<comment><USER2> That's fairly neat. If I'm understanding it right, it's a mechanical dial- turner which clips onto a stove burner's control, and is combined with a digital thermometer which reports the current temperature in a dish on said burner; the dial-turner targets a temperature in a negative feedback loop.

(In retrospect, I'm surprised we don't have 'smart' stoves which pair up with dishes with thermometers built in to allow seamless temperature specification. Would work very well with induction stoves, I think, since they can adjust the heating on/off much faster than a regular gas/resistance-heating stove.)

<comment><USER3> I'm one of the founders of Meld and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about our product or precision cooking and temperature control in general.

We were as surprised as you that this doesn't exist already. A traditional stove is an amazingly capable and flexible device. By adding some simple smarts to the burner control it's possible to do amazing things.

Induction stoves are good, but you might be surprised to learn that gas is even more precise. With gas you basically have infinitely fine control over the flow of energy to the pan since a gas valve is a linear analog control. Honestly, though, whether you have a gas or electric stove we can generally keep temps to within one degree (F) of a given target.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not sure I'd want that thing sitting on my stove overnight.

If you turn the knobs on my stove too fast, it skips the piezo ignition and just starts spewing gas out.

Wouldn't surprise me if this safety issue has been what has kept other companies out of this space.

But congratulations on their one day goal achievement.

If I may suggest an improvement, how about a manual "off" switch so people can sleep more easily?

And maybe you could add a gas sensor to detect any problems, and try to turn the knob off? And a loud alarm if that failed?

That could turn the product from a liability into an asset.

<comment><AUTHOR> They require you to turn the stove ON first, and then take over from there, so it bypasses the ignition skipping and "auto on" concern.

<comment><USER4> Yes, I saw that.

But what if that $2 processor makes a poor decision, rotates that knob on accident and kills your family?

<comment><USER3> I totally understand your concern. That's why we NEVER turn on the stove for you. All modern stoves require you to push the knob in to move it from the off position. The Meld Knob is mechanically incapable of defeating this safety interlock.

<comment><USER4> Thank you for explaining. Is it possible to misadjust the collar when installing, so as to accidentally defeat the safety interlock?

For instance, if you push in, then tighten down?

<comment><USER3> I'm an engineer so when people ask if something is possible my honest answer has to be that anything is possible.

Would you allow me to rephrase your question? I'd rather answer the question, "What is the likelihood that the knob can be installed incorrectly or that the mechanical interlock will fail in a way that would allow the knob to unexpectedly turn the burner on when not intended?"

My answer to this question is that it would be EXTREMELY improbable that this would happen. I say this for the following reasons. 1) The part of the knob that allows the user to push the shaft inward to override the safety interlock is a completely separate piece from the part that turns the knob; 2) Both of these pieces are made of smooth, lubricious plastic such that it should be very difficult to install the knob in a way that they would bind; 3) assuming the user did install the knob in a way that made this possible it would be very obvious to the user that things are not right; 4) the knob software is written in a way that the knob will refuse to move from the off position without physical intervention from the user.

What I've described is generally called a defense in depth approach. You put a bunch of safety mechanisms in place such that all of which have to simultaneously for a bad event to occur.

Hopefully that helps.

<comment><USER4> Thanks, JJ. Good luck, and congratulations on your day 1 funding.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Where Did All the Documentation Go? - <AUTHOR> http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-did-all-documentation-go.html

<comment><USER2> Article hints at this, but different applications require different approaches to documentation.

For applications geared towards "expert" users, well structured reference documentation is essential. This is true for programming languages, development frameworks, professional sound/video/image editing tools and some enterprise applications. Users of these applications perform complex tasks and are invested in their tools enough to educate themselves about them in some capacity.

Consumer oriented web apps on the other hand should gravitate towards in- context documentation, tool tips, help icons etc. If your users cannot figure out the most common tasks through discovery, you're not going get any adoption. No amount of documentation can change that. Granted, reference documentation can still be very useful in this case, but it's usually better structured as an FAQ or some other troubleshooting/cookbook oriented manner.

Succinct documentation still needs to be well written. Please don't let your software engineers write end-user oriented documentation. And I'm saying this as a software engineer myself.

</comment><comment><USER3> The answer isn't mysterious. Some documentation has moved online. The rest has gone private: You buy it at Amazon, often from the same tech writers who used to write the "free" documentation that was built into the price of your product. (e.g. David Pogue used to be famous for writing excellent product manuals, and he is _still_ famous for writing excellent product manuals, but now they're called "the Missing Manual series" and you must buy them _a la carte_.)

This used to be impractical because the Internet didn't exist. When you brought your copy of Microsoft Excel home from the store you needed a printed manual because, when you couldn't figure something out, your alternative was to (a) get _in the car_ and _drive_ to a store and _buy_ a third-party manual and take it home, only to discover that it sucked and you needed to repeat step (a) again; (b) get on the _telephone_ and speak to tech support people, perhaps slowly and haltingly, with no graphics or screencasts to help you; (c) pray that you had a local expert from your company's IT department; (d) give up, take the software back to the store, and buy some software with a better manual. It was the threat of option (d), and the extreme cost of servicing option (b), that drove companies to expend a lot of energy producing manuals.

Now we have lots of alternatives: Google, wikis, official forums, unofficial forums, blog entries from power users, Stack Overflow. And browsing and buying third-party manuals can be done from your desk, thanks to the power of sites like Safari Books and Amazon.

My impression is that the "unofficial" web-based options, combined with the third-party manual market, works fine for software that doesn't change frequently. (e.g. Photoshop -- my only problem as a Photoshop newb is that there are _far too many_ manuals and tutorials available and I'm suffering the paradox of choice: I can't decide which to try first!) The big, new problem is that the Internet has sped up and de-synchronized software development to the extent that the docs can't keep up. I work with Drupal, a product that evolves so fast that the documenters can't work fast enough: they must produce and organize the docs for the older version, the latest version, and the up-and- coming version (which are all significantly different). And Rails is far _less_ stable. I own a bunch of Rails books that are two years old, and they're increasingly obsolete. Given the lead time in producing books, you can't even get the damned things out the door before the products they describe _disappear_. (e.g. _The Merb Way_ \-- if Merb doesn't actually disappear after the Rails merger, it will certainly be a different platform, with a different audience, than the book authors were predicting six months ago.)

</comment><comment><USER4> For those in need of inspiration have a look at Django's documentation: <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/>

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe a little OT: there was a time when you would get complete schematics for hardware you bought. I remember getting reams of circuit diagrams for DEC computers and peripherals. DEC also had great little handbooks with info on how each I/O register in the interface cards worked. Of course, those were also the days when their field service engineers would show up with an oscilloscope and a soldering iron to fix your computer.

</comment><comment><USER6> Good, thoughtful piece. I have one hopeful thing to say: for good software, maybe the documentation is tending to get 'built-in' in the form of tooltips, "what's this" links, etc.

That was out of the question, due to resource limits, a couple of decades ago - you were fighting to fit just the bare functionality in the code, and shipping the explanatory details on paper.

Now, however, there's nothing really preventing help-on-demand, instead of stop-and-go-dig-it-up elsewhere. Except, of course, the expense ...

<comment><USER7> exactly. i couldn't get into this article because it all hinged on a single, un-qualified assertion. what kind of documentation for what kind of projects? i don't see "documentation" going away, but my personal perspective is obviously limited to my own realm of software.</comment></comment>


The EU the best experiment in World's history of peace prosperitity and dialogue - <AUTHOR>

What do you guys think about the EU getting the Nobel Peace Price <comment><AUTHOR> For entrepreneurs is definitively more difficult to make it big there, but quality of life is better for the majority.

<comment><USER2> FYI: UE does not end on UK, Germany or France</comment></comment>


Shyp lays off 8% of workforce in pursuit of profitability - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/23/shyp-lays-off-8-percent-as-the-on-demand-courier-continues-to-pursue-profitability/ <comment><AUTHOR> I'm impressed they expect to be profitable this year.</comment>


The Perfect and the Good - <AUTHOR> http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/11/the_perfect_and.html

<comment><AUTHOR> This might be a necessary piece of framing behind marketing for YouNoodle.com, for example.</comment>


Ask HN: How to overcome the "You need a co-founder" objection? - <AUTHOR> I started a company last year after moving to a new area (mid-west). I didn't have the relationships or network established to find the perfect co-founder. I decided that waiting to find the perfect co-founder was not a valid excuse for delaying the product or giving up. Over the past 8-10 months I've grown our company (a social shopping app) to over 30,000 users and $500,000 in sales.
We're currently raising a seed round to help us continue our growth and build out a team. Investors love the product, upside, and vision, but they hate the fact that I don't have a co-founder.
My opinion (open to having it changed):
We've outgrown the need for a co-founder, and I think it would be a huge risk to bring one on at this stage. I would much rather raise money with the equity I'd give a co-founder, and build out management, marketing, and engineering teams.
Questions:
- Are you a solo founder? If so, how do/did you handle this objection?
- Is it common/logical for a co-founder to come on after a product is in the market and gaining traction? <comment><USER2> I agree the title co-founder is obsolete after a year and proven business model. Clearly the new person starts with less risk, less equity a couple of less major decisions to make. Consider the title only if you know somebody you absolutely trust or can promote e.g. your first employee to that role.

Investors are probably looking for to minimize risk in case you become a liability. Bus factor (death, coma) is extreme but how about severe lack of motivation, way too much tasks for one person (un-doable) or burn out? On the other hand they simply might (secretly) object to the number of shares you'll hold and try to spread that to more people, e.g. to get you below 50%.

</comment><comment><USER3> I read this a while back on hacker new. It was advice about being a small startup but I think it applies here as well. Pretend to be a establish company and not a startup and people will stop questioning you. People are naturally uneasy with startups because they die so often. That's why their reflex is to question your founder situation even though they know very little about your company financial. I suspect if you pretend to be a more establish company, they will stop asking.

</comment><comment><USER4> Co-founder is just like an investor (except they will typically also invest their work). The later in game you get your investors a better valuation your company presumably has by then and you get more money for the same share of your company you give them.</comment>


Ask HN: The Best April Fools' Day jokes - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> AF has gotten annoying as hell. The only time it's actually cool is when it ends up into cool tech but that is rare enough - Google's pokemon game is neat I guess.

Like many people in tech, I dread Aprl 1st. I have to stay away from my news and social sources because they turn to utter crap.

I'm glad HN is quiet regarding AF this year. Let's hope this tradition dies down as more and more people find it lame every year.

<comment><USER3> Define "quiet" \- there's about 20 stories I've seen today which are blatant AFs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I let my co-founder call a person called Mr. de Leeuw (very common name in The Netherlands, translated Mr Lion)and gave him the number of the zoo. Was very funny, because he didn't noticed the date and really asked for Mr. de Leeuw. (Mr. Lion). I'll expect some payback from him now. Old Joke.. but still very funny!</comment>


How to Ask Questions the Smart Way - <AUTHOR> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html?swag=swag

<comment><USER2> See "Getting Answers" \- which is a counter to this rather aggressive document.

Submitted here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7000152](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7000152)</comment>