Ask HN: Ways to deal with ADHD? - <AUTHOR> I really value here the interesting and intelligent perspectives of the HN readers which taught me a lot, maybe even now for dealing with ADHD.
About me:
Had a huge crisis doing my bachelor degree was almost dropping out (same in high school), was also dealing with anxiety and feeling depressed and thus tried a lot of experimental things to "cure" me. In the end I just barely managed to pass my bachelor degree in CS (with an extension-semester) and doing now my masters.
The experimental things that I did so far:
-Doing 3 10-day meditation retreats to make me feel less stressed and overwhelmed.
-Meditating at home(although it's often difficult to maintain this habit) -2-3 times a year LSD to have a mental reset if I feel stuck(cleaning my turmoil, refocus on the important). Recently also two times mircodosed LSD on days where I'm stressed or depressed to have more energy. -Doing an Ayahuasca retreat last year in Peru was somewhat helpful to learn stuff about me, but did not help me be more productive
I feel like all these things are just a patch on my ADHD problem. I feel thrilled and motivated for a few days or weeks and then my usual self creeps back with only slight improvements that remain.
I'm not really motivated and only get things done when I feel the guilt and pressure built up. I had several ideas to build my own little project but I never managed to make anything all these years on my own (motivation is gone after a few hours of work). I feel if I continue like this I will struggle through all my life: Always distract myself to hide from negative emotions(because I'm overwhelmed), always having trouble to have focus, always just do the minimum and as a result be miserable with myself because I won't satisfy my high ambitions and dreams.
An approach would be medication but prefer not to take this route or just as a last resort.
What were your approaches and experiences that helped you? (no matter how extreme or strange) <comment><USER2> First off, see a doctor and get a diagnosis. Avoid the drugs. Ritalin or its time released bastard cousin Concerta are bad news...in my opinion (I'm not a doctor), they're both worse than cocaine.

Second, if you are on the ADHD spectrum, you will need to change your attitude towards ADHD. Yeah, it makes certain environments less productive, and it can create a whole world of problems in personal relationships. However, ADHD can also be extremely helpful.

For me, ADHD is my secret weapon. My brain is simply better equipped to see all sides of an issue. And, for me at least, ADHD is a big part of my creative process. When I brainstorm, my mind can move through possibilities faster than in a non-ADHD mind.

If you are going to learn to live with ADHD, you have to change your attitude towards it. Yes, it's tough, but it is also an incredible gift.

Third, while meditation is useful, drumming is likely the single best way that I found to treat my ADHD. The drummer's mindset and effortless focus are amazing training for those times when you really need to focus on one thing.

Fourth, carry around a notebook and diary out your life. Keep track of what you eat, drink, do and your moods. Make special note of times when your ADHD is worse than others and try to figure out the triggers. One of my major triggers is a lack of water. If I'm even slightly dehydrated, holy shit, I don't know who you are or what I was talking about, but a bird just flew by my window....

<comment><AUTHOR> >First off, see a doctor and get a diagnosis. Avoid the drugs. Ritalin or its time released bastard cousin Concerta are bad news...in my opinion (I'm not a doctor), they're both worse than cocaine.

If I should avoid drugs why going to a doctor? The symptoms match that good that I don't have much doubt anymore that I have ADHD(and not only the obvious symptoms match, but also stuff like eg terrible time management, I have barely any intuition about time and often am late with no ill will)

> Second, if you are on the ADHD spectrum, you will need to change your > attitude towards ADHD. Yeah, it makes certain environments less productive, > and it can create a whole world of problems in personal relationships. > However, ADHD can also be extremely helpful.

Could you please expand on that. What environments do you avoid and which do you seek? (calm ones?)

>Fourth, carry around a notebook and diary out your life. Keep track of what you eat, drink, do and your moods. Make special note of times when your ADHD is worse than others and try to figure out the triggers.

Will try that out

Thank you for your input.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for your reply!!

If I were you, I'd still go to a doctor and get a complete work up, including blood and urine tests. That way, you can rule out any physical conditions that could be causing your symptoms. It sounds like you have ADHD, but that way, you know there isn't something underlying (and easily treatable) that is causing these symptoms.

It's more of an insurance policy, I guess.

As for environments, I know that some places just will not be productive for me unless I take strong steps. For example, fluorescent lights and total silence are a bad combination for me. If I work in a dev pit, I need headphones and carefully curated playlists. If I get bored and start hunting for better music, I'm screwed for the rest of the day. If I sit somewhere where people are constantly walking by in my peripheral vision, I'm going to have problems.

I sound like a lovely guy to invite to parties...

But, ADHD is my secret weapon, so sometimes I want to enhance the symptoms. If I'm in a group setting, I'm most productive when we deviate from the agenda. Little bits of small talk mixed in with 'business' get my creative juices flowing. If you let me go, I'll come back (eventually) with something. If I expose myself to chaos, chaos often rewards me with interesting ideas!

Good luck! And, if you need anything, my email is in my profile!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It sounds like you are already using medication, just not ones that are approved by the FDA.

Do not be afraid of antidepressants, these are particularly helpful for anxiety and they don't have the drawbacks that benzodiazepines and other "downers" have in terms of impaired memory, learning and balance. For best results you might end up trying a few different dosages and/or medications, maybe seeing your doc every month for a few months, possibly making medication changes over the phone.

Meditation is good, but regular exercise should be the first line therapy for most mental health issues: a good goal would be to do 1 hour of cardio 5 days a week. It is good even if you do half of that, but it takes most people about 45 minutes to start experiencing the "Runner's High"

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

As for amphetamines, Ritalin, etc. I can say that I don't know any young adults who are taking those drugs to get into a high-functioning zone. I do know older (65+) people who use them to shake grogginess and I know children who seem to be doing OK.

I have been told, and I have learned, to give no quarter to negative thoughts such as you have described. It is not so easy to do because it so compelling, but trying to explore them in great detail tends to increase their power over you more than decrease it.

<comment><AUTHOR> >It sounds like you are already using medication, just not ones that are approved by the FDA.

For me the difference is not if something is FDA approved or not but if I depend everyday on something new.

Because of a difficult time in high school I spent most of my time before the computer as an escape. This escape showed me also my addictive personality and the following negative consequences. And thus I'm now very reluctant to add anything addiction-like to my daily life. I never even tried coffee so far.

> Do not be afraid of antidepressants

Don't they make you dull and feel nothing? Also I wanted to focus on ADHD and not on depression/anxiety because I want to have good grades. The depression & anxiety I think I can more or less handle until the end of my masters and get by.

> Meditation is good, but regular exercise should be the first line therapy > for most mental health issues: a good goal would be to do 1 hour of cardio 5 > days a week. It is good even if you do half of that, but it takes most > people about 45 minutes to start experiencing the "Runner's High"

Thanks, did know that there are some benefits in doing sports but not to that extent. Already cycle 10m to the train station every day and sometimes make kettle bell exercises. Will try to do more sports.

> As for amphetamines, Ritalin, etc. I can say that I don't know any young > adults who are taking those drugs to get into a high-functioning zone. I do > know older (65+) people who use them to shake grogginess and I know children > who seem to be doing OK.

Although I don't want to try ADHD drugs, here I read a counter point: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345234](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345234)

>I have been told, and I have learned, to give no quarter to negative thoughts such as you have described. It is not so easy to do because it so compelling, but trying to explore them in great detail tends to increase their power over you more than decrease it.

Yes that's indeed true, it's so easy to think negative. Thanks for sharing your insights.

<comment><USER3> Different people may experience it differently, but for me SSRIs improve my ability to "keep it together" under stress, particularly in terms of irritability. If not getting angry because somebody cuts in front of me while driving means my emotions are blunted, I am happy to have my emotions blunted. I certainly do feel pleasure, joys and pain, but I find negative emotions have less command over me.

What is a consistent observation is that SSRI drugs retard (delay) the sexual response so that in general you are less interested and take more time and more stimulation for the experience to progress.

This can vary from "I took a Lexapro and did not think about sex for a whole week but I've been so busy thinking about other things I just noticed now" to "My partner likes it that I last longer in bed" to "My partner is furious that I'm not as interested as they are" to "I feel like I am not myself".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The best thing to do is for ADHD is to see a medical professional. I have meet so many people that self diagnosed their issues and were wrong on the treatment plan 100% of the time as none of them were medical professionals. By not doing so you are unfortunately just wasting time and money as the problem gets worse over time.

Most of the time they needed to take medication for awhile to help rebalance their brain because something was off balance. Over time things rebalance and they no longer needed to take as much medication or no longer need to take any medication because things rebalanced.

The bulk of answers people find online are temporary placebos that never actually helped to permanently solve or reduce the problem because what they were taking or doing were not carefully planned by a medical professional. So my recommendation is to go see the Doc, they will either work with you to do a non medical treatment plan and/or you may need to take medication to resolve the issue. Just note that since it is a mental disorder the only way to resolve it is by using professional medical help by a therapist, physiatrist and or a physician. Do not feel bad seeing a doctor, it is better to seek professional help to try and resolve the problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your insight but my anxiety and ego both make it difficult to look for help. And thus the easier option is for me right now to try the advises of the other users first and only afterwards (if still failing) go meet a physician. But you're probably right and I'm just stubborn and stupid

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Two suggestions:

\- Long term fix: try Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an evidence-based form of psychological treatment that doesn't have a lot in common with your usual pseudo-scientific Freudian psychoanalysis where you get to pay a shrink every month for ten years and see no improvement. The main idea behind CBT is to go against the grain, so it's the opposite of bullshit spiritual retreats in Peru to do LSD (no offense). For example if you have agoraphobia and cannot take the bus, your 'exercise' will be to actually take it, but just for one stop, then two, etc, and keep doing that regularly to 'chip away' the phobia without triggering a panic attack. CBT is process-driven so there are quite a few self-help-style books, and you can start working on this by yourself. DO contact a professional if you feel this could work but are blocked, though. Books recommended by the ACBT (they list a few titles covering ADHD): [http://www.abct.org/SHBooks/](http://www.abct.org/SHBooks/)

\- Short term fix: I bought a Xiaomi Mi Band 2. It's a shitty smartwatch, and an even worse fitness/sleep tracker. But. But I also bought a third party Mi Band control app (the official Xiaomi one is mostly useless), "Mi Band Tools" that can set an arbitrary number of vibrating alarms/reminders. Every morning I change/customize the alarm vibration to avoid getting used to it, decide what my main task of the day will be (i.e. what "idea" I associate with the alarm when it is triggered), then set that reminder to buzz every N minutes. During the rest of the day, every N minutes I am either already working on what I had planned to do, or am reminded I must refocus right now. It's not something I need when working as part of a team, but for some reason when I'm on a solo project I cannot get anything meaningful done without this hack.

Hope this helps.

<comment><AUTHOR> >Long term fix: try Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

I started a few months ago David Burns Feeling Good book. But unfortunately procrastinated reading it further, thanks for reminding me to finish it finally.

>"The main idea behind CBT is to go against the grain" [...] "it's the opposite of bullshit spiritual retreats in Peru "

I had on my first trip some mixture of feeling of dying(the burning in hell kind of dying), a panic attack and an existential crisis. So I don't think that this is the opposite of going against the grain. I got really confronted with the negative aspects of myself (although nothing lasting came from it eventually). But I get your point, your approach is to grow oneself more stoic and stronger instead of having feel-nice experiences.

> Short term fix: I bought a Xiaomi Mi Band 2

Will buy one, thanks for your advice

<comment><USER5> >> I had on my first trip some mixture of feeling of dying(the burning in hell kind of dying), a panic attack and an existential crisis.

Yes, I should have kept the snark in check. I come from a family that drank the alternative medicine Kool-Aid, so am quite dismissive of it. My point was that alternative medicine usually sells itself as soothing / non-threatening, and sometime also (as in your case) as 'transformative', which in my opinion is no better: your attempt might very well have ended up badly and left you worse off, with an additional trauma. Opting for feel-good or miraculous solutions is often a red flag that one is caught in a pattern of avoidance. If you want to solve a personal problem, you have to sit down and do a thorough assessment, and accept any strong evidence that comes out of it, whether you like it or not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am going to come out here strongly in favor of medication.

All of the natural stuff you've been trying, the meditation, the emotional stuff, it's good and I appreciate it, but it just doesn't work significantly.

As a society we have lots of "medication guilt" I've noticed. I don't know where this comes from, but it would be interesting to have a sociologist explore.

Western Society is a very cognitively demanding society. It places lots of strain on our brain and mental capacities. The idea that most people can do very well using their limited cognitive resources is to me as unrealistic as the idea that most people can just fight "regular diseases" using their body and no vaccines, antibiotics, or other treatments.

I see a lot of guilt too around "being dependent" on medicine. I've never gotten this either. We're incredibly dependent on food. We take it everyday. Personality changes dramatically as well. That to me is an argument that while interesting and having good points, doesn't really help anyone at the end of the day.

Medication does have bad parts. A good example would be people increasing dosage of a medicine when in reality they need to get their diet in order. Also, as I write below, you'll probably get a non-effective / bad medicine your first go around since you have to find the right one and work at it.

So what approaches helped me? \- Anticonvulsant medication. This medicine is an alternative to typical antidepressants. I've seen very little written about it, but seizure reducing medicines have been showing some very positive results in treating depression. This is very good for nervousness and social anxiety as well. \- All-cash psychiatrist. Find a psychiatrist in your city who doesn't take insurance. I really believe in insurance, but in this case, those who don't take it will be the best. You are looking at $400ish for the first appointment. \- Better diet. The book "How Not To Die" is very simply written. Ugh so many medicine people have elaborate programs and actually make their books hard to understand so you have to buy more materials. Dr. Greger is very good. Yeah I realize 15 other people are saying something different but just trust me on this.

<comment><USER7> Have you tried ADD medication? It is legalized speed, all of it. Try taking that for ten years and see how your health and life ends up. Come back and reread this post.

Antipsychotics stop schizophrenics from going psychotic by shutting down dopamine receptors, essentially lobotomizing the brain. Patients are brain dead after 15 to 20 years of taking those.

Opiod addiction doesnt need much introduction.

Adderall/Ritalin/Concerta/Dexedrine are all cocaine analogs that force the brain to overuse dopamine. Results in long term structure of neurons that irreversible. The evidence of this is ampheatmine tolerance that does not reverse (the brain is forever fried/changed).

The jist of the matter is that what goes up must come down, there is no free lunch with drugs. The brain adjusts and down/upregualtes receptors.

<comment><USER8> I have taken adderall consistently for the past 13 years. I began as an adult. As for my health, I am in better shape today than when I first begun despite now being well past middle age. As for tolerance, I will take a maximum of 15mg per day, which is the same limit I was first prescribed to. My daily regime still holds at 5mg, with holidays.

<comment><USER7> Nice, is it still effective for you at that dosage (compared to when you first started)?

Mind if I ask, have you ever taken above the prescribed dosage?

<comment><USER9> I was at one time diagnosed with narcolepsy and was taking 20 mg Adderall tabs to get out of bed and 30 mgs Adderall XR 2x a day w/ 200 mg Provigil 2 x a day. Initially, I did not sleep for 2 days and on average only slept 3-4 hours after that. I finally saw a neurologist who specializes in sleep issues said my previous dr had me totally jacked up and dialed it back tremendously. Now, a 10 mg tab in morning and 1 XR a few hours later along w 200 mg of Provigil is my sweet spot for productivity and allows me to get 6 hrs of sleep a night. Six hours seems to be my optimal number of hours of sleep in order to think clear etc.

I can tell you when you are taking as much as they had me on initially, you tend to focus on the minutiae around you rather than the issues at hand. Over use of a drug like Adderall is not advisable. I would never intentionally over use my meds. I can tell you when I had to come off of the tons my first dr had me on in order to do a sleep study it was excruciating. My head hurt so bad I thought I was having a stroke. It was the worst 5 days of my life and I never want to repeat that experience. Don't overtake these meds and it is good to take med breaks when you can in order for them to be as effective as possible. However, I will tell you during med breaks you will be super tired but it is worth it in the long run.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Are you SURE it's ADHD?

No blood test or CT scan can tell you if you have the condition — the diagnosis is made by subjective clinical evaluation and screening questionnaires. This lack of any bright line between pathology and eccentricity, Schwarz argues, has allowed Big Pharma to get away with relentless expansion of the franchise.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/books/review/adhd- nation-a...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/books/review/adhd-nation-alan- schwarz.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Isn't the condition often genetic? [0] And thus would be at least partially detectable.

I agree there is no bright line to make a distinction between ADHD and non- ADHD but the more I read about it and the people who say they have ADHD, the more I'm convinced to have ADHD too.

This maybe medically relevant or not but there's at least a cluster of people with very similar experiences to mine. And thus the hope exists to get relevant and good advise from persons who struggle with the same stuff as me (be it with lifestyle changes or drugs)

[0] [https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Attention_deficit_hyperact...](https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Symptoms >> Doctor appointment

Doctor >> Diagnosis

Diagnosis >> Treatment

Treatment >> Positive results (if negative, Doctor will explore a different solution)

</comment><comment><USER12> Little late, but check out Gabor Mate's "Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It"

I'll admit I only read about 1/5 of it and ...wandered off, but now that I'm thinking about it again it's time to put it back at the top of the book pile.

Since I've considered trying many of the same routes you've taken, but have only done Adderall and some anti-depressants at various stages in life.

It works to help realize how messy my place is or to get necessary (deadline- driven) work tasks done, but historically has also led to increased anxiety, tunnel-vision (lack of creativity) and often ends with me stopping for a period due to feeling exceptionally drained feeling after prolonged usage.

I don't like the concept of being on meds for life, but I also would like to keep the job I have until I find one that's more suited to my temperament in this regard...so, tbd on that. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER13> that sounds like me a lot :) It doesn't sound like ADHD but rather a common procrastination habit (my apologize if you are actually medically diagnosed though).

I have problem focusing on things that I'm not interested in as well, but I've learnt to accept that and not feel too guilty about it. Especially since sometime procrastination has some pretty nifty benefits: [https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_o...](https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers)

What I've found really helpful for things I need to get done but have trouble doing is to make a to do list (highly recommend the Todoist app). And put in things to do in the list for each day. For example, do assignment A for 20 minutes, do assignment B for 20 minutes, exercise for 30 minutes etc. Make sure you make it simple enough such that it feels achievable (don't put things like finish an entire assignment as a task unless you know it's a short one). This helps me put myself in short burst focus mode and actual be productive instead of trying to be productive and totally failing at it. Not everyone can handle the 12 hour work day and I don't think you should force yourself to. I myself can only work for 3 hours most before getting exhausted (with plenty of rest in between), but I can do these 3 hours at hyper-focus mode and get more done than what other people can do in 8 hours.

The core things to do are: \- accept the fact that not everything interest you and you'll be able to do it with focus. There's a myth in society that the longer you work the harder you work. Totally not true. \- don't overwhelm yourself with tons of tasks, the key is to make it seem like it's really easy to do to get things done. The more overwhelmed you feel the less motivated you are to get started. \- take a walk if you are getting depressed or overwhelmed, it helps A LOT! \- And don't be afraid to try different things! Maybe you are just stuck in a bad career :)

<comment><USER13> One other thing that helps. Try to figure out your personality style and see what you are like: [https://www.16personalities.com/](https://www.16personalities.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would head to reddit r/adhd and spend a month watching the posts

Most of the comments here are low quality

<comment><AUTHOR> Am subscribed since 2 weeks but their general advise is to take ADHD drugs (at least as far as I can see).

I wanted to give my best try to find a non-drug solution first and thus wrote here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you lived in England this is what you could expect from the NHS:

ADHD diagnosis and management: [https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72)

ADHD overview: [https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/attention-deficit- hype...](https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/attention-deficit- hyperactivity-disorder)

ADHD improving quality of treatment: [https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs39](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs39)

</comment><comment><USER16> Look up nutritional approaches and lifestyle approaches. If you want to avoid medication, that's the best way to do it.

</comment><comment><USER17> See a physician.

</comment><comment><USER18> does anybody tried or knows about neurofeedback????

</comment><comment><USER7> I would stop using psychedelics they are not healthy for the brain. Also avoid ADD medications at all costs.

Try L-Theanine and Caffeine combination in a 2:1 ratio. L-Theanine is very safe, it is a calming drug that also enhances focus. When used with caffeine it reduces the negative effects of jitters/anxiety while increasing focus. It is the calming agent in tea.

I was on medication for a long time and it was a nightmare.

There is only one solution:

The combo I outlined above (which is actually amazing), good diet, good exercise, and good sleep.

<comment><AUTHOR> >I would stop using psychedelics they are not healthy for the brain

Source? So far I read the opposite, eg [0]

>Try L-Theanine and Caffeine combination in a 2:1 ratio

How do you consume this? Pills?

[0] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/12146975/Taking- LSD-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/12146975/Taking-LSD-leads-to- improved-psychological-wellbeing-study.html)

<comment><USER7> >Try L-Theanine and Caffeine combination in a 2:1 ratio How do you consume this? Pills?

Yeah, generally I take a 200 mg pill. It's worth giving a shot, the effects wont be as strong as amphetamines, but they will make a difference. People say to start with 200mg Theanine and 100mg caffeine, this depends on your caffeine tolerance. Coffee is preferable to caffeine pills, as there are beneficial additives.

>I would stop using psychedelics they are not healthy for the brain Source? So far I read the opposite, eg [0]

This was anecdotal, but everyone I know (and I know alot of people) who took a ton of psychedelics was noticibly slower. I have also dosed LSD and felt that it negatively affected my cognition. They have such a dramatic effect on the pysche, it is really hard to believe they leave no effects. Also, the amount of research that has been has been near zero. All we have are the acid casualities of the 60s.

Also levels of well being is seperate from ability to focus.</comment></comment></comment>


Tim Berners-Lee joins Twitter, complains of "confusing" UI - <AUTHOR> http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/10/23/tim-berners-lee-joins-twitter/

<comment><USER2> Tsk, tsk, tsk. Notice that the author refers to him as "Sir Berners-Lee". The title goes with the first name so it should be "Sir Timothy".

<comment><USER3> That's how you know it's not serious journalism. Wanna pitch in and get the writer a copy of The Economist Style Guide?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _Ooops confusing user interfxce. And no phones on on stage with radiomikes._

He appears to be finding the keyboard a confusing user interface too. :-)

More seriously, he seemed to be using Tweetie to post (then identica, now the Web interface). So perhaps he wasn't really commenting on Twitter's user interface, as the article implies, but Tweetie's (which is great for experienced users but could suffer from the "too simple" effect for others). Despite trying many clients, I've always gone back to the Web one too..

</comment><comment><USER5> This is ridiculous. TimBL has been using identi.ca instead of Twitter for a long time because he supports free network services. No mention of that in the article.

<http://identi.ca/timbl>

</comment><comment><USER6> His name was "reserved" for him by someone:

<http://twitter.com/timbernerslee>

Easily, the most noble name-squatting I have seen.

But it seems like he went with timberners_lee.

<comment><USER7> He could have use "the_real_timberneslee".

Nevertheless I do no see why the fuss. Yes, it is the inventor of the WWW but people is seeing this like "the blessing" of Bernes-Lee to the now-omnipower twitter. I think is not, it is just another user that has been catch for the wave.

<comment><USER8> One problem with that is long names kill @replies.

<comment><USER9> That's a problem with Twitter. Why do they force you to markup metadata within your data?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _"...the man who came up with the idea for a network of hyperlinked, consistently formatted electronic documents"_

Actually, Ted Nelson came up with such an idea decades before TBL.

</comment><comment><USER11> Actually, he uses decentralized identi.ca which mirrors his dents to twitter, this is the original identi.ca account he actually uses: <http://identi.ca/timbl>

If you check his tweets, they're all "from identi.ca" <http://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/5097026255> except for the first ones.</comment>


Aardvark'd (Fog Creek documentary) is now up on YouTube for free - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRL7YsXjSg

<comment><USER2> There's a pretty cool look at the first Y Combinator class at 48:56 - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRL7YsXjSg&t=48m56s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRL7YsXjSg&t=48m56s)

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there a (legal) downloadable version of this somewhere?

<comment><USER4> Looks legal to me. It was done buy Boondoggle Films and it's posted to their YouTube channel and they are linking to it from their site here:

<http://www.boondogglefilms.com/aardvarkd.php>

(I'm not going to lie - I bought the DVD when it came out in 2005)

<comment><USER3> I meant one I could download and watch offline. My TV doesn't have Youtube support (except via the HDMI port + a laptop).</comment></comment></comment>


The Fallacy Of The B&N Fallacy - <AUTHOR> http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/the-fallacy-of-the-bn-fallacy/

<comment><USER2> I think the comments about e-Ink "going away soon" are badly misplaced. The distinct advantage that e-Ink displays will _always_ have over displays like the iPhone, Android, etc is their ability to be used in direct, bright sunlight. Try sitting on the beach and reading a novel on an iPad. Can't be done.

<comment><USER3> I am not so sure. You are right about the beach, but honestly, how frequent is this case? Many people read at home most of the time. I myself actually own Kindle, and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the device, but I am not still sure if I'll buy next generation if it wears down. The advantages of e-ink are still not that substantial, and I find myself read more often on iPhone or iPad. In the future, I find it more probable to own something like iPad mini or a very big smartphone, and not owning e-ink reader. For the rare occasion when I am on the beach, there is still printed stuff available.

To sum it up, IMHO the biggest problem with e-ink readers is that the advantage of e-ink don't outweigh the inconvenience to having another device. (unless the e-ink technology will substantially improve).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting article, but it seems like it starts in the middle of a conversation and I'm missing a bunch of context.

BN is abandoning hardware? Thinking about it?

It seems to me that BN has got something fundamentally wrong with it and I don't understand it well enough to figure out what it is. Fundamentally: if I am in a BN staring at a book that I want to buy, how is it impossible for BN to sell it to me at a price competitive with Amazon -- and it's not even close. I'm guessing the deals they negotiate with publishers suck, or the deals publishers sign with Amazon suck. In any event, BN is getting reamed.

My guess is BN loses money on Nooks, so selling them as a generic Android device isn't going to help it any.

I visit BNs frequently and it is gradually turning into a toystore with a coffee shop. Unless Toys'R'Us missed a huge opportunity by not providing coffeeshops and a couple of magazine racks for its customers, I don't think this is long-term viable. Again, I don't know what's broken at the core of BN but I suspect it simply needs to negotiate better deals with its suppliers. It provides a GREAT shopping experience except for that pesky price part.

<comment><USER5> I think BN made a rather large mistake in trying to sell an extremely limited amount of apps in their store. Many of the apps are available for free, but BN felt it was okay to charge.

The book situation is exactly as you say. I wonder if Amazon is losing money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> mike cane, you excerpted the wrong bit of the original article:

• _Create a first rate storefront+reader on Android and the web._

• _Shift more resources into the iOS app and make it better than anybody else's._

• _Perform a series of commerce-oriented experiments, e.g. subscriptions, bundling, in-book payments, etc._

The bit you quoted and respond to is what he said _other_ people's advice was.

Note the sentence AFTER those bullet points: _"Those are all good but I'd argue that doing this wouldn't solve B &N's problem in the long term."_

The actual advice was to exit the app business entirely:

• _Discontinue the tablets._

• _Milk the eink cow until it topples over._

• _Make an awesome storefront._

• _Discontinue the reading app and license somebody else's._

<comment><AUTHOR> Ouch. There's the link in my post so people can go to it. Tx.</comment></comment>


Understanding the ELF - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@MrJamesFisher/understanding-the-elf-4bd60daac571 <comment><USER2> The following is also a really good resource, if perhaps somewhat less explicitly explanatory.

[https://code.google.com/p/corkami/wiki/ELF101](https://code.google.com/p/corkami/wiki/ELF101)

He has similar diagrams for a few other things which are quite helpful if you are a visual person.

</comment><comment><USER3> A little off-topic, but does anyone have any good resources on how ELF does TLS? The spec is pretty hard to read, but I need to implement it in a system I'm building. Thanks!

<comment><USER4> The best I could find is [http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/tls.pdf](http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/tls.pdf).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Where is the source code for the "quine" program

<comment><USER4> Since the elf file reproduces itself it's its own source code.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is this some kind of joke? Does the author really fail to understand his audience so badly that he begins a long and tedious dissection of an ELF binary with an explanation of what hexadecimal numbers are?

</comment><comment><USER7> I must observe, this is a terrible attempt. No points, and may God bless your soul.</comment>


Windows.exe has crashed - <AUTHOR> http://www.virtualglitter.com

<comment><USER2> LOL, so cool.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks dude! You can discuss it on reddit if you'd like, maybe flick me an upvote? [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3fyvz8/windowsexe_ha...](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3fyvz8/windowsexe_has_crashed/)</comment></comment>


Why we love Node.js (and you should too) - <AUTHOR> http://brainhub.eu/blog/2016/01/01/why-welove-node-js/ <comment><USER2> There really isn't much substance to this article at all.. tbh, I love node, and it's the tool I'm most likely to reach for... mostly for the breadth/depth that is npm, and fast prototyping in a scripting language and much easier usage as a coupled server to web clients.

It isn't the best for everything, but it's very good to good enough at many things. All of that said, tfa doesn't really give many hard reasons behind this... some fluffy stuff about reuse, which generally isn't so much, and the lack of disconnect, which there is.

As to scaffolding, I think there are other tools that can get you to 30% more quickly, but that for web + server, node will overtake quickly.

On the flip side, there are a lot of people who aren't very skilled with the style of development that tends to work best in node. I see a lot of OO (think Java and .Net) class oriented solutions shoved into JS problems. I bag on angular regularly simply because there's too much cruft to jump into an existing project quickly.

Depends on your needs though... more systems throughput, I'd look at go... lower-level can rust do the job... beyond that, node is my go to, and I'm happier here than I ever was with C# (since around 2000) and Java (pull my hair out every time I touch it).

</comment><comment><USER3> I should love Node.js for these three meaningless, generic catchphrases?</comment>


Ask HN: Are there any Artists in the house? - <AUTHOR> Are there any Artists in here? Any Entrepreneurs who think of themselves as being Artists. If you have a start-up do you believe that what you're creating is a form of Art per se? <comment><USER2> Wanna-be artist here. I'm making art as a creative outlet and motivation to build new tools in the areas of audio and computer graphics. It's side projects outside my engineering job. Am making some money on custom plotter prints, but not enough to cover costs.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hello, I'm currently working in my art-startup that will launch next year.

<comment><USER2> Any info?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Art is over</comment>


Dennis Ritchie's home directory on 1979 Bell V7 Unix was in /usr/ not /home/ - <AUTHOR> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Version_7_Unix_SIMH_PDP11_Emulation_DMR.png

<comment><USER2> And so was mine, and so was everyone else's. /usr was the standard place for users' home directories back then. /home didn't appear until some later version of Unix.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fascinating, i never realized. I guess sysadmins took other precautions to ensure nobody had a username of 'bin' or 'lib'? There's a man page for hier(7) in V7 but it doesn't mention home directories at all.

<comment><USER2> In V7, creating a new user was a manual process - there was no program to do it automatically like there is today. You had to do su, mkdir /usr/dmr, ed /etc/passwd (creating an ID with initially no password), chown dmr /usr/dmr, etc. Whoever had the root password would have definitely known that /usr/bin was an existing directory and not tried to create a user called "bin". Of course, you could create user directories on separately mounted file systems as well if you didn't have a lot of space on /usr.</comment></comment></comment>


Why we can execute JavaScript through Rundll32 - <AUTHOR> http://thisissecurity.net/2014/08/20/poweliks-command-line-confusion/

<comment><USER2> I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it's a brilliant hack and I can only applaud them for getting this to work. On the other hand, it's time that MS makes a proper effort to remove the old .hta bloat from the core of the OS.</comment>


Seattle's proposed 'Amazon tax' would hit Facebook, Google and other tech titans - <AUTHOR> https://www.geekwire.com/2018/seattles-proposed-amazon-tax-also-hit-facebook-google-town-tech-titans/ <comment><USER2> _The tax doesn't discriminate between businesses headquartered in Seattle or outside of it. Instead, it would be calculated based on the amount of money a company makes within Seattle city limits._

Isn't this how taxes work? I get charged by the city I live in, the state I live in, the state I work in and the country I live in.

It's a shame that these huge companies benefit so much from the communities they operate in, but choose to be irresponsible about putting proper investments back in.</comment>


Fire Your Academic Advisor, Hire Reddit - <AUTHOR> http://birnholtz.com/2016/02/03/fire-your-academic-counselor-hire-reddit/ <comment><USER2> Initialism key--

LSA: "University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts"

SES: "socio-economic status".

Interesting insights, in my opinion. However, alleges most University of Michigan academic advising positions represent "sinecures and spouses-of- faculty". Citation needed?

<comment><AUTHOR> Citation definitely needed, and thanks for the key. I'll follow up with said evidence.</comment></comment>


JQuery Gantt editor - new release - <AUTHOR> http://roberto.open-lab.com/2013/01/28/jquery-gantt-editor-include-today/ <comment><USER2> I'm working on something related. The way that a Work Breakdown Structure is part-table, part-tree has been enormously frustrating.

I've been tussling with drag-and-drop for days. Have you managed that or am I doomed to continue wandering in the wilderness?

<comment><AUTHOR> you can d&d tasks for enlarge/move, but, for now, not for create dependencies

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Awesome work Roberto. Thanks for letting us use your work.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a pleasure!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious what items under $100 have made your life better or any meaningful impact.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/22SuXhyWAqPMTsBPk/what-are-objects-that-have-made-your-life-better
For example, for me one of them is having a small bluetooth keyword which I use with my iPhone on the plane, Uber, at cafes and restaurants. <comment><USER2> Tiny Swiss army knife with scissors, tweezers, blade and file. Use it constantly. ~$15.

Digital multimeter. Diagnose basic electrical problems in house, car, etc. ~$20.

Chemex coffee maker. Best way to make coffee. (Was a gift.)

Cuisinart chef's knife, ~$30. Still a cheap one, but good enough to make preparing food more of a pleasure.

Plastic organizers for SD cards. Multiple little compartments with lids. ~$10.

GigSky sim card: internet access anywhere in the world. ~$30 for card + various short-time plans that you buy as you need them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lindstrom Rx8150 cutters. [https://uk.farnell.com/lindstrom/rx-8150/large- micro-bevel-c...](https://uk.farnell.com/lindstrom/rx-8150/large-micro-bevel- cutter-esd-ergo/dp/3377006?st=lindstrom%20cutters)

EDIT: I guess I should say a bit more.

If you cut a couple of wires every day you don't need these. Any cutters will do. If you have a wide range of wire that you need to cut, from very fine copper to not so fine steel you don't want these, because they'll break.

But if you're spending all day, five days a week, cutting 7/02 or component leads, then these are lovely. The edge is sharp and stays sharp (so long as you don't do stupid things like cut steel), the pivot is smooth, the pivot is solid (my cutters had no wiggle after years of heavy use), and the handles are comfortable. The spring is plastic and clips into mouldings in the handles, so it's a part you can maintain.

</comment><comment><USER4> Swissgear/Wenger carbon backpack (86€). It's been almost four years and it basically still looks like new.

</comment><comment><USER5> Raspberry Pi for a Pi-hole

</comment><comment><USER6> Leatherman Micra mini-tool

</comment><comment><USER7> Global Entry

<comment><USER8> TSA Precheck for those who travel domestically. One of the best purchases imaginable.</comment></comment>


MetroBoy – a playable, circuit-level simulation of an entire Game Boy - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/aappleby/MetroBoy <comment><AUTHOR> Hi folks, I thought the 30th anniversary of the Game Boy would be a good day to publish my current project.

MetroBoy is a sort of ultra-low-level Gameboy simulator, more like Verilog than the C++ it's written in. Since this is the first public release, there will likely be all sorts of bugs. Let me know how it runs on your machine and I'll be around to answer questions here.

</comment><comment><USER2> How many gates?

<comment><AUTHOR> Haven't synthesized the whole thing yet. The chunks I did run through Vivado (spu, mbc, parts of gpu, parts of cpu) have me guesstimating at around 6000-8000 luts once it's all translated and pulled together.

<comment><USER2> Tiny!!! Oh, dreaming of a downstream project... Gates big enough to see, crude LSI... Minecraft engines..</comment></comment></comment>


US sanction threat wipes 23%%20off the value of China's biggest chipmaker - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/07/tech/smic-stock-us-sanctions-hnk-intl/index.html <comment><USER2> Title right now: "US sanction threat wipes 23%%20off the value of China's biggest chipmaker"

%20 is [space] in percent encoding. Something failed to process "...wipes%2023%%%20off%20...".</comment>


If you're worried about the GitHub acquisition, here's what to look out for - <AUTHOR> https://www.userinterfacing.com/if-youre-really-worried-about-the-github-acquisition-heres-what-to-look-out-for/ <comment><USER2> Github searches your code to index it so you can be able to use the search box to find things.

Everyone searches your code; because if you upload child porn it needs to be detected and removed.

Maybe this is unfortunate but the only way to own your data is to self host.</comment>


A free, self-guided study program for software engineers in San Francisco - <AUTHOR> https://bradfieldcs.com/bsp/ <comment><USER2> Recently took a month off in between jobs and took three of the classes offered by Bradfield. Would've jumped on this opportunity if they were offering it at the time!

</comment><comment><USER3> Finally, a Recurse Center in SF. How it doesn't already exist here is beyond me.

<comment><USER4> For those that don't know, Recurse Center[^1] is a self-directed, 12 or 6 week free programming retreat in New York City. I'm currently enrolled, and my batch is finishing this week. It's been a really good learning experience, and I'd highly recommend it.

[^1]: [https://www.recurse.com/](https://www.recurse.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Something tells me that, in this, "software engineer" probably doesn't mean the same thing it did in my university.

What would a person with a degree in CS (or related) get from this program? Honest question.

</comment><comment><USER6> Cool Ozanonay,

How the program works? I mean, there's any schedule, plans or lessons to follow? Can you share some of the scope to give us an idea how the course works? Tks!

</comment><comment><USER7> What will the Skype interview consist of?

<comment><AUTHOR> We'll just chat about your goals and interests. Depending on your background, we may also talk through a technical problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> What's the catch?

<comment><USER9> You have to be rich enough to not need to work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is the second time I've seen this on hackernews in the past two weeks...

<comment><AUTHOR> We only published it yesterday, but you may have seen something else, like a blog post or our self-teaching guide teachyourselfcs.com</comment></comment>


Hacker Beats – Music to Code To - <AUTHOR> http://www.growdetroit.com/hacker-beats-music-to-code-to/

<comment><USER2> I usually log into Pandora and pick a cool station</comment>


Ask HN: As a small company, where can I get affordable legal advice? - nk- I have a small side business running a few websites and earning money through ads. I am based in the EU but many of my users are in the US.
So far I have been dealing with legal questions around this myself but I have some questions around data protection and the CCPA that I would like to ask a professional about. I am happy to pay a reasonable rate for a qualified advisor (I guess they'd be a lawyer?) to help me with this but I have no idea how to find one. This would have to be someone reasonably well versed in Californian laws although they could be based anywhere.
Can anybody recommend someone who might be able to help with something like this, or could give me any suggestions for finding someone? <comment><AUTHOR> In the US where I live, a good public library has a few shelf units of book from companies such as Nolo Press which explains much of the law as it pertains to patents, rental properties, loans, e.g.

For me a few hours spent there helps me understand the situation, take some actions (e.g. file a patent application myself) and also to appreciate what the lawyer does that I can't do.

In specialized areas of law in different lands it get harder. Some very good lawyers specialize in routine work such as probate, wills, and creating corporations -- they are qualified to help you but they would spend many hours educating themselves to know the right answer.

I think the EU there much be a law school near you, and around law schools you find people being educated in the latest law -- EU has its own data protection regime and lawyers will be quite concerned how it interacts with CCPA.</comment>


Brian Acton Tells Students to Delete Their FB Profiles - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/whatsapp-brian-acton-delete-facebook-stanford-lecture <comment><USER2> Versions of this story submitted several times in the past few days with at least one significant discussion:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&date...](https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=pastWeek&type=story&query=whatsapp%20cofounder)

</comment><comment><USER3> Can this guy stop talking and actually take some action and put his (substantial, Facebook derived) money where is mouth is? I feel like this is the same quote I've heard from him over and over.

<comment><USER4> He's donated $50 million to the Signal Foundation. That sounds like putting his money where his mouth is to me.

<comment><USER3> 50 Mil out of 19 billion = 0.2%. Not enough, by a long shot to deserve accolades for.

<comment><USER5> His share wasn't 19 billion. What percent of your net worth have you donated to causes you support? Is the total anywhere close to .2% of 50 mil?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Your First iOS App – 100% Programmatically - <AUTHOR> http://blog.austinlouden.com/post/47644085183/your-first-ios-app-100-programmatically <comment><USER3> So, a word of advice to new folks trying out iOS land:

Interface Builder is most emphatically your friend. The compile/debug cycle in iOS is sufficiently lengthy that laying out views programmatically gets very tedious very fast.

Besides realtime previewing of _exactly how your view is going to look_ , IB also helps you understand how your layout is affected by rotations to landscape and differences in view height between device classes (3GS/4/4S vs 5).

Nibs make it easy to tweak and adjust – and even to throw away and start fresh.

Most importantly, though – every nib you use is code you _do not have to maintain_. If a UI object has some part of its API deprecated, your nibs don't care. They're automatically up-to-date.

Can you do every fancy thing you'd like with nibs? Certainly not. But you can do the basic braindead layouts of labels and buttons there, and you're much likelier to get what you want the first time. There's enough tedious code to wrangle in iOS as it is – don't create more for yourself by rejecting a mature, useful tool.

edit: For clarity, though, by all means, enjoy this solid tutorial so you understand how to get your hands dirty when necessary. Just don't fear the IB.

<comment><USER4> I've been a Cocoa developer for close to a decade now, and I've gone back and forth on this many times, but by now I've settled 100% in the nibs-are-evil camps. There are several reasons for that:

\- Nibs are a nightmare when working with version control and merge tools. Now, at least, they are XML instead of a proprietary binary format, but it's still a joke…

\- Auto-layout in IB is provably the worst GUI I have ever used. It's completely impossible to make it do what you actually indent. I was one of the guys cheering and wooing in the audience when it was announced at WWDC 2011, but it's proven to be a huge flop.

\- I have a similar experience with storyboards.

\- Having classes that may be instantiated both from code or from NIB deserialization adds a layer of complexity and messiness to your app.

\- Ultimately laying out your views in code doing some simple arithmetic is easier to reason about and more likely to do what you expect. (People have no problem doing it to lay out websites with CSS–it's not that complicated.)

At the end of the day, nibs make it a little easier to get started (like using Ruby on Rails, and the Active* set of libraries), but it does not belong in a serious project, as it would add a prohibitive amount of technical debt.

<comment><USER5> Not any of those points is justified, "a nightmare", "the worst". You need to provide something to support all those affirmations.

<comment><USER6> It's called an opinion. This isn't a peer reviewed paper we're talking about. And his opinion is that merging Nibs is a nightmare. Does he need to document how he did it, when, where, and what the room temp was at the time to "justify" an opinion? Hardly.

<comment><USER7> > _It's called an opinion._

Which are like noses. Everybody has one.

> _And his opinion is that merging Nibs is a nightmare. Does he need to > document how he did it, when, where, and what the room temp was at the time > to "justify" an opinion?_

Does he needs to elaborate more in order to justify it?

Of course.

<comment><USER6> Well allow me to elaborate - have you ever merged two nib files? With today's variant you merge XML. With yesterday's variant you simply don't do it because it's not possible. So you're merging an obtuse XML file at best. In my mind that's painful versus merging clean .h and .m files where we know what's going on. So he's using colorful language to describe such situations - <USER2> "nightmare".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Having made a few iOS apps in team/solo environments, I now stick to the following:

Large team - don't use Interface Builder. Synchronizing it is too difficult and any productivity gains will be lost. Layout in code is best here, but really is time consuming for complex UIs. However, pixel-perfect match for designers is a great benefit since you're specifying everything in pixels that you can copy right out of the designer's graphic.

Solo dev on a small app - Storyboards. In this case, 99% of the time the budget is fairly low and getting out something that works is the most important. Storyboards can speed things along and make it quick for matching a design to an outside designer's Photoshop.

Small team with only a couple of developers - either way is fine, but you need to manage it correctly. If going for Interface Builder, you need to have a list of devs who 'own' each screen, and only they make changes to it. This prevents any kind of conflicts when merging. If going for in-code layout, make sure the design is set in stone and won't change. Moving things around to meet designer's goals for a small team can kill productivity fast.

Also if you like TDD (it's not really popular at all in iOS dev circles, probably because TDD for ObjC/UiKit is not that great), then 100% stay away from IB. IB and TDD are very incompatible in my opinion.

<comment><USER9> Can you elaborate on why you feel IB and TDD are incompatible? I haven't found it particularly difficult to drive out behavioral tests for views/view controllers powered by NIBs (at least relative to Obj-C TDD in general), since any actions or subview settings you declare in your NIB will be exposed programmatically as well. I'd love to hear about what pain points you have.

<comment><USER10> Please do a write up on how you use TDD with ObjC/VCs. I'm sure that others would be interested as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This article, although still great for beginners to get started, is using dated techniques that should be avoided.

In the past, developers would have resorted to starting with interface builder to do their designs. As they continued the development process, theyd notice that more and more of their views had to be done in code because Interface Builder wasn't powerful enough to do what they wanted. It could then be understandable why for newer projects, someone would skip Interface Builder altogether and go for code-only from the start.

Things have changed now though. Auto-Layout is extremely powerful in both Interface Builder and through code. Out of the box your visually designed interfaces now support powerful alignment and resizing irregardless of screen size. This is a big deal because there are a lot of screen sizes in iOS these days (iphone4, iphone5, ipad, all of these in landscape and portrait and yet again all these permutations with and without the keyboard open). auto-layout makes internationalization super easy too as all objects on your interface are designed to get bigger as words get longer (such as in German), yet have all associated objects around them still be perfectly aligned. Even right-to-left languages (and interface re-ordering) is supported without any additional code.

Looking at the code in the article, none of these are supported. If you even turn your iphone landscape the ui will be cut off. Let alone supporting ipad, keyboard open, longer words in the buttons/labels, etc.

I highly recommend new iOS developers to start with Auto-Layout from the getgo: [https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserE...](https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AutolayoutPG/Articles/Introduction.html)

It's like tables vs css. Use CSS, it's much more portable.

<comment><USER12> I seriously doubt you've made a complex app if you're recommending Auto Layout.

<comment><USER13> I hear this over and over again but don't understand why "complex" suddenly means "non-idiomatic UX." Most iOS apps follow common design patterns, and IB makes building these patterns extremely straightforward. For the one-off odd screens, sure, don't use IB, but certainly if you are building an iOS app the majority of screens will not require crazy unique UX. If they do that is probably a design smell.

<comment><USER14> _Most iOS apps follow common design patterns._

Really? Every app I see in the top ten and every app clients want me to build for them is customized out the wazoo, with nary a stock control in sight. Most apps these days have highly dynamic content too, with elements resizing, moving around, and appearing and disappearing based on context. IB is worse than useless for this kind of UI and editing AutoLayout in IB should be considered cruel & unusual punishment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have to say I agree totally the philosophy of this article. I tried interface builder when I first got started on iOS development, but I just found it far too restrictive in terms of creating the sorts of interfaces I needed.

I can see it's uses for simple apps, but when you've got something complicated where there's lots of non-trivial interactions between the different elements and you often want to change certain parts of the interface (like adjusting the set of buttons visible on the toolbar depending on the mode you're working with), interface builder doesn't really cut it.

Perhaps this is just my nature - I prefer expressing things programatically and having everything defined in code (or in a suitable declarative language). It gives me a lot more control over how changes in the UI happen. But it depends very much on your background and the type of app you're developing and I can understand its appeal for some developers.

As always, you should choose the right tool for the job.

</comment><comment><USER16> I've finally arrived at the fascination with learning something by just starting with nothing and building onto it one step at a time.

My first two to three years of programming were spent jumping into random tech (like Rails, SQL, jQuery) and faking it til I made it (although we all still fake it with jQuery). I didn't necessarily understand my tools but it let me rapidly gain a feeling for how tools come together.

But now that I have a fledgling intuition and opinion on how software can be put together, I've gone off the deep end this year and have been learning from the other end of the spectrum: By starting with a blank canvas and using no other reference than API docs and maybe some Getting Started blog posts if I get stuck.

Some examples:

* Learning Emacs starting with nothing but `C-h` and Open File (`C-x f`). Don't install a plugin until you've toiled with the vanilla way for a while.

* Building familiarity with Linux by installing Ubuntu on a VPS/VM/partition and slowly creating your own bash aliases for commands. Like `untar` instead of `tar -xzvf` or `ag-install`, `ag-upgrade`, `ag-depends` for the various apt-get commands. Read the man pages and see if you can improve your abstractions (aliases) with options you didn't know about. I don't remember the iptables file location. I just type `edit-iptables`.

* Learning iOS dev via RubyMotion which has a really nice cli workflow.

* Learning Clojure's Ring, Ruby's Rack, Python's WSGI, etc. by making a Hello World app and gradually expanding it piece by piece. Add session support. Params support. Create your own middleware. Then start looking at community middleware.

So that's why I like these kinds of blog posts.

<comment><USER17> _we all still fake it with jQuery_

this

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> What a lovely tutorial, very well put together.

I'll put my hat in for 'use IB where possible'. I've used old IB, current IB, and programmatic for building Cocoa UIs and honestly it comes down to what you're doing with that project. Often IB gives you a nice productivity boost out the gate. It's worth building with it and banging heads with it so you know when to switch to putting on your coding tool belt.

</comment><comment><USER13> I don't understand all the anti-IB sentiment. I feel like it speeds up my workflow tremendously compared to manual code, especially now w/ autolayout. I put off learning it for years and feel like an idiot for not learning it sooner. It's elegantly designed to not hide anything from the programmer (a common mistake with visual tools like it), it essentially is just a way to design an object hierarchy and pass it into code.

</comment><comment><USER19> When the iPhone SDK came out, this was what you got. And this was how the first Apple tutorials were. Back then, there was no Interface Builder for iOS. All the views had to be laid out by hand. That's how I wrote my first iOS app. Man, that was tedious. I'm happy there's interface builder now. Though a word of advice: the ugly XML/plist format of interface builder files makes tracking changes or merging very, very difficult.

</comment><comment> k-mcgrady Title should probably be changed to remove the reference to Apple. I know the URL isn't an Apple one but I still thought this was something official they had put together. The article title doesn't contain the 'Apple's' part.

</comment><comment><USER20> I came from a electrical and computer engineering background and so I am more used to procedural programming. When I started with iOS development, I tried IB but then I cannot figure out the magic and decided to create my UI mostly from code. Then, I started doing more and more software and adding more code, and managing it becomes painful. Since this is a personal project, I do not want to spend too much time and want to follow Apple's way of doing things. Since then, I started using XIB file and adding them slowly. It is important to realize that it is NOT an all or nothing approach. You can mix and match XIB and code with what you are comfortable with.

Some comments say that using UI will eventually restrict you. That might be true and I can totally see that. However, at that time, it is a good idea to step back and look at the overall design and figure out if you over design something. I like functional apps that work with little effort. It does not mean that it have to look ugly but you can customize and beautify the UI within the constraints of Apple's framework. Yes, there will be limits but is it worth the extra complexity of rolling it out on your own?

I have not tried storyboard but I would like to try it out soon.

In general, my philosophy has changed to use good, solid, reliable frameworks and keep the design (UI) and features (code) simpler. You will be able to get 90% of what you really want with less work (coding and maintaining).

</comment><comment><USER21> XIBs are great for user interfaces that use components that are not table views. XIBs are completely unnecessary and actually a hindrance for view controllers whose primary UI element is a UITableView or UICollectionView.

Most apps, most of the time on iOS make heavy use of these two classes. Even if you're building a data entry form, you're likely to place the text fields inside of a UITableView.

For subclasses of UITableViewController, you actually have to do _more_ work to use a XIB than not.

</comment><comment><USER17> I find IB (and storyboards in particular) to be _amazing_ for rapid prototyping (MVP anyone?). I can put together a basic app with 5 views, buttons, maps, whatever I want (as long as its a standard iOS control) in like an hour.

HOWEVER, in the long run storyboards can get annoying, because you're constantly switching between code and a visualizer. The first time you can't find what exactly is making that button do what its doing is quite frustrating, to say the least.

</comment><comment><USER22> I've written 3 fairly sophisticated iOS apps that have highly customized user interfaces (most recently "Just Landed"). I dumped Interface Builder a long time ago and haven't looked back. For those interested, here's why...

I remember loving IB when I was just starting out with iOS. If you're building a quick throwaway app using stock UI components, it's great. However, as your app grows in complexity, and the needs for UI customization increase, IB quickly becomes a crutch and a source of hard-to-find bugs.

The nail in the coffin for me was realizing that IB would frequently get out of sync with my code if I renamed anything or moved code around. I found myself frustrated clicking through menus to hunt down incorrectly set IB outlets, fix references to nonexistent classes and methods that had been changed, and rewire event targets that had gotten out of sync with my code. There's also some UI customization that just isn't possible with IB, for example much of the stuff that the UIAppearance APIs now allow isn't customizable within IB, as well as any time you make a totally custom UI widget (IB doesn't really know what to do with it, and if memory serves me just shows a blank rectangle). Trying to add additional customization to IB user interfaces (beyond what IB can do) generally involves tagging them in IB, then retrieving them by tag in code, and then making the change. Convoluted and high maintenance IMHO.

When you add to this that changes to .xib files can't be easily merged, that it's generally pretty useless to diff them (the format is complex), and the fact that you have to look at both the .xib and your code to piece together the end-to-end functionality, it was pretty clear that dumping IB was going to be a big win for me. Turns out, it was.

I now override the -(void)loadView methods of all my UIViewControllers, and create and position all of my custom UI for each controller in there. I never have to worry about what IB will or will not let me do. Additionally, in the case of customized UI elements, I either create subclasses of UIKit classes (often subclassing UIView or UIControl), or categories of existing classes if the change to their functionality is small. Doing things this way also makes it much easier in the rare case that I need to do custom drawing within -(void)drawRect. I suppose what makes this a bit easier for me is that I have no problem visualizing the UI I've written in code before I actually see it. Other people may miss seeing their UI in IB and being able to visually edit it. I suppose I got over that pretty quickly.

If you're still not convinced, consider that by coding your UI by hand you'll also have a lot more control over memory usage since you control what gets created and when, you can share resources between elements more easily (colors, images, fonts etc.), and also avoid the performance hit of your app parsing .xib files.

But what does hand-coding your UI do to code length, you might say? In my experience it adds about 25% to the length of your UIViewControllers. Perhaps a small price to pay for all these benefits? For me it was the right tradeoff. Try it - I suspect you'll come away feeling empowered and understanding a lot better how UIKit works.

<comment><USER23> I think the perfect thing to do is use a tool when it's necessary to use that tool, and no more/no less. Sometimes it's unnecessary and a pain in the ass to use .xibs or storyboards and other times it makes iterating through designs magnitudes faster (why not select all objects in a .xib and press up twice for a 2 pixel shift instead of editing 20+ cgrect calls).

<comment><USER22> I can definitely see how .xibs and storyboards might be useful for prototyping or quickly mocking up and iterating on a design that is changing rapidly. Whether or not you ship the app with the .xibs intact I think depends on whether you can tolerate the problems I mentioned, or whether your app is simple enough that it's NBD.

Btw, for rapidly prototyping iOS apps I highly recommend Balsamiq - it's amazing what you can do with that tool :)

<comment><USER23> The things is, I've just never had those problems you mention in the 7 apps I've shipped, and I always use .xibs. Some apps of mine are simple, and some are fairly complex.

As a side note, I also hate, hate, hate using things like Balsamiq and other wireframing/mockup tools that you use a computer for. I'm a designer first and foremost (Art degree), and if I have to see something before beginning any coding/visual design work I'll draw it out on paper first. Most of the time though, I can keep the whole visual design process of which screens go to where and how they should look in my head. I think you're also underestimating how much visual design work has to happen, including after iterating a few times on the design, after doing your mockups. A few pixel shift here and there or bumping up/down a font-size, or even changing a gray from 65% black to 63% is fairly common. So, I just skip that mockup phase and start making the thing - iterating the design all the way through.

<comment><USER22> I think you misunderstand what I mean by "prototyping or quickly mocking up a design that is changing rapidly". It has nothing to do with achieving a pixel- perfect design, finding the perfect shade of gray, or the right font size. It has a lot more to do with quickly testing ideas and iterating, rather than committing to a design and trying to get a finished look.

Paper does work well for this, and you're free to not like Balsamiq.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wrote my first little Cocoa app couple of days ago and indeed the most confusing thing was how stuff in interface builder interacts with the written code. (Coming from webdev background.)

<comment><USER25> Had exactly the same experience a week ago. Mad me yearn for Rails!

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> When will building an iOS app be as easy as building a homepage? I really don't understand why it must be such a big difference in complexity.

<comment><USER27> Since when building a homepage is easy? I'm not talking about a simple static page with company contact info, but a full-fledged, dynamic web page. It includes knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, (no)SQL and some backend technology like PHP or Python/Django/Sinatra. A whole lot more to learn than just one language - Objective-C.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Thanks for this link, it is useful for beginners to understand. Comments are even more interesting.

</comment><comment><USER29> Wonderful, I'll be checking this blog regularly.

</comment><comment><USER30> This is exactly how you should build your first app.

Using Interface Builder will make you a permanent novice.

<comment><USER27> Do you really think that reinvent the wheel is better than using technology that a vendor gives you? Do you really think that folks at Apple make all their interfaces in code? Tip: Probably every feature that was added in Xcode was added because Apple engineers benefited from it.

<comment><USER30> I'm not reinventing any wheels - I'm choosing not to use a square wheel, and instead just write the code. Tip: It works for us and many other developers of high-ranking iOS apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I made a fake account to ask this question b/c I'm too ashamed not to know this:

Is there an equivalent Visual Basic-style editor for making iOS apps? You just place the button, double click on it, add functionality, drop in elements and you're off the races?

Just looking at this tutorial, it is astonishing how much knowledge you need to have to get up & running and create something so simple like a HelloWorld example (I've heard it is a herculean effort to do something _really_ exotic like make text both bold and underlined in label on say a title screen)

Can somebody who knows their stuff please disabuse me of my ignorance/foolishness?

<comment><USER32> Having used both, the answer is actually no.

People will say that Interface Builder is the equivalent and to some degree that's true - you use both to drag/drop UI elements on the page.

However, the main feature I think you are looking for from VB (and any Visual Studio language for that matter) is the ability to double-click on a something like a Button control and have it create a new click event all wired up ready to go for you to add your code (or take you to an existing click-event if you've already done this). So Visual Studio adds the delegates/wiring necessary for the control to fire properly when clicked on.

Unfortunately this is where Interface Builder gets crazy and confusing. Double-clicking a Button control in Interface Builder does not do this for you; Instead you have to use Actions for something like a click event and Outlets if you wanted to wire up a Label and then be able to programmatically change it from code-behind. You'll actually need to drag a special Outlet or Action connector in Interface Builder to make that crucial relation between Interface Builder and Xcode.

So while Interface Builder serves a very similar purpose to Visual Studios UI builder there is a pretty significant disconnect between it and the code- behind that makes it much less intuitive to use.

<comment><USER23> This is still fairly trivial stuff, and I like the IDE a ton better in Xcode than Visual Studio (seriously, I shouldn't have to stop my current build just to add lines in VS - that's lame). Just open up your dual screen editor, put the xib on the left or right, then your header on the other side. Right-click down on an element (hold it!) then drag over to the header. It'll set everything up you need to add your event actions in the header and implementation files, as well as the getter/setter methods.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to Open Source an already live project? - <AUTHOR>

I am one of the founders of a crowd funded Go(game) Server and currently both me and my partner have day jobs and can't put in the development time we used to to improve the project.
It has thousands of registrations and although there is a lot to improve, there is also a lot of work done. It has thousands of games played a month and if it were to continue improve it could surpass current alternative Go Servers.
One idea to help the project improve is to Open source it, and us founders can become code controllers (plus maintainers and occasional fixers/improvers as we are now). If we could build a community around technical collaboration it could vastly improve.
Kaya has an OpenKaya project on github, and several libraries and functionalities were done in collaboration with other users  (We have open sourced tools  and parts of the application that we deemed reusable in other places).
However, the  majority rest of the code is not a general solution re-applicable for other purposes than a Go Server, so collaboration would be mostly be applicable to the project itself.
For sure, open-sourcing the code cowboy style will not work. We want to build community around it, and be prepared for this potential change. How to face it?
How to build a developer contributor community around the project?
What should we look out for if we open source it?
What are the guidelines for an open source maintainer?
What could we learn from Firefox, or Diaspora for specific project collaborations (as opposed to gems or libraries that can be reused for different purposes) <comment><USER2> There was a talk at PyCon US this year covering several of the questions you have.

How (Not) to Build an OSS Community

[http://pyvideo.org/video/1742/how-not-to-build-an-oss- commun...](http://pyvideo.org/video/1742/how-not-to-build-an-oss-community)</comment>


A Dashboard for Your Body - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/garden/gadgets-to-track-your-health-home-tech.html

<comment><USER2> The day is not far when our every activity would be tracked by a chip implanted somewhere on our body, we would have an application that would collate all the data, tell us what we could have done better and what should be our next move, hackers would steal the data, sell it for millions to organizations relying on what their consumers really do and think, governments would keep track of all of us and somewhere down the line it would become mandatory for everyone to have one these chips, people would get used to it and forget would it was like in their ancestor's times when a man was free to think and do what he wanted even though it defied all the logic in the world.

</comment><comment><USER3> _Although Fitbit doesn't explicitly acknowledge this in its marketing materials, the gadget makes you feel bad about yourself._

that's exactly why i still wear my fitbit. i initially bought it just to track my sleep patterns, but now i wear it every day and make a conscious effort to walk more than i would otherwise because "the fitbit is watching me".

related plug: i made a fitbit low battery notification tool with their api and twilio. it will pull your battery info every hour and send you a text message and/or e-mail when your battery gets low. <http://fitbit.jcs.org>

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm still waiting for the day that we can see a realtime graph of our nutrition profile, from serum vitamin D to insulin (and blood sugar) to testosterone. Imagine watching a protein counter tick up in realtime as your chicken breast is digesting.

We'd be able to engineer instant gratification for eating healthy.

</comment><comment><USER5> Somebody needs to build a site that aggregates data from all of these devices - this could be a real dashboard for your body and would be incredibly useful. Imagine giving your doctor a guest login for your dashboard...

<comment><USER6> [http://developer.runkeeper.com/healthgraph/introducing- the-h...](http://developer.runkeeper.com/healthgraph/introducing-the-health- graph)

<comment><USER7> Thanks for the link. I've been thinking there was a gap in the market for this kind of service for a while now. I wonder if there's scope to add some psychological indicators to the API, so as to integrate with Mappiness (<http://mappiness.org.uk>) or similar?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The problem is that most people don't really like to see negative feedback/reinforcement. When they see they're not fit, or not getting enough sleep compared to others, they'll get discouraged. Any data is useful, but it's not very motivating. Also, having used apps like Nike+, most of them aren't very accurate at all

<comment><USER9> The accuracy will improve over time, but the real challenge for all of these health tools is that they accomplish a job most people aren't trying to do.

A lot of people say they care about or would be curious to follow things like their weight, BP, or heart rate, but very few people actually do. The barriers aren't even very high--taking your morning, resting heart rate or stepping on a scale is dead easy, it's just not very valuable information to most of us.

Heck, what most people who have hypertension, pre-diabetes, or obesity really want is for the disease to just go away. Since a quick pill or surgery for many of these problems don't exist, not thinking about the condition is the next best thing.

These health tools are getting a ton of press lately and I have no doubt that they'll be very useful for doctors and the committed few, but the real problem to be solved is motivating people to care about their health like they care about their bank accounts.</comment></comment>


India's Rice Revolution - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution

<comment><USER2> Here are detailed descriptions with photographs of the rice cultivation method described in this amazing and interesting article.

[http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/countries/bhutan/bhExtManual08...](http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/countries/bhutan/bhExtManual08.pdf)

[http://www.worlp.com/images/casestudies/SRI- PHOTO_final%20FO...](http://www.worlp.com/images/casestudies/SRI- PHOTO_final%20FORMATTED.pdf)</comment>


❖ Workless - <AUTHOR> http://ikreativ.com/projects/workless/ <comment><USER2> <http://flyerme.info/qrcode/JJA32BCeNK-b>

<comment><USER2> I voted the post up, took the time to use the service, and posted a link to my creation... and 2 downvotes. Classy.</comment></comment>


Reddit Enacts Anti-Harassment Policy After User Complaints - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/05/14/technology/ap-us-tec-reddit-anti-harassment.html

<comment><USER2> "That case highlighted issues of gender imbalance.."

She lost. Looking at both sides, it was pretty clear there was no 'imbalance', so I'm not sure why the case has to be portrayed this way.

I find that this is being used to ban opposing political opinions and view points.

If I post an opposing view point that goes against most redditors, I am almost always attacked and harassed by many users. I have never seen any of these users banned nor their posts removed.

I have had posts of mine removed for not being "civil" when I never personally attacked anyone and only was posting my point-of-view.

It will be interesting to see if this situation improves.

Twitter added some new features awhile back for preventing harassment and it continues to be abused by users that don't want opposing political view points from being heard.

If someone says something you don't like (unless it's a threat) online, it's not harassment. I just wish more people supported our rights to free speech.</comment>


Of emoji, Hanzi and alchemy (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://jealousmarkup.xyz/texts/of-emoji-hanzi-and-alchemy/ <comment><USER2> I wonder how the visual density of Hanzi vs. Pinyin (or English) compares. On the one hand, each hanzi is approximately equivalent to about 4 letters of Pinyin, and Hanzi text uses no spacing (which would otherwise be needed approximately every 2 Hanzi). On the other hand, apparently Hanzi text should be approximately 1.3 times the vertical height of Roman text, according to the article, and Hanzi are square, so significantly wider than a Roman character. From my observations, it seems that Chinese text ends up slightly denser than the equivalent English text, but not overwhelmingly so, but surely there should be an actual comparison somewhere...

<comment><USER3> Though varies by different kinds of content, but in reality Chinese is often noticeably denser, mainly because most Chinese "word"s are less than 2 characters, while much longer in English. Here is a good example:

[http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-06/29/c_136403556.htm](http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-06/29/c_136403556.htm)

It's high quality translation of Chinese Premier's speech.

<comment><USER4> So about twice as dense at the same line size, but it's using much finer details and shapes. If I want to make sure all the lines are clear, I need to zoom in to about 150% for the Chinese, while the English has clear lines at 70-80%.

<comment><USER5> Maybe you're just speaking theoretically, but if you're talking about practical reading, you certainly don't need all the details. Just like English (where you can basically read with no more than a rough outline of words), you can read hanzi with full fluency even with many strokes abbreviated, illegible, etc.

<comment><USER4> I'm not speaking theoretically at all.

Obviously you can shrink both. But my guess is you need to keep the Chinese bigger.

I don't know if it's 1:1. I can't read Chinese so I can't give exact legibility numbers. But when I shrink the text closer to the limits of legible English, with letters still basically intact, many of the Chinese characters are completely destroyed (while some are perfectly fine, but with more information per character losing any of them is much worse).

<comment><USER5> Sorry, replying very late, but I do read Japanese and you can go very small and still read it. There's enough context and humans are incredibly good at seeing patterns and filling in details.

Early computer fonts, for example, couldn't fit nearly all the strokes and could be read just fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is literally the only time I've heard anyone say anything good about Skype since they were bought by Microsoft.</comment>


Webapp verification emails are becoming snail emails - <AUTHOR>

i'm having this issue with 2 businesses i'm working on. we are sending out automated verification emails to users signing up for our saas. these emails can take up to 15 minutes to arrive in the Inbox - there appears to be no pattern.
we use Mandrill as one transaction provider and sendgrid as another. the emails are shown as sent/delivered but the emails are taking far longer to show in the Inbox.
Anyone having the same issue? Any ideas on fixes? <comment><USER2> Do you really need to have eMail verification before the user is allowed to do anything?

In my application I let the user use the service for a week before actually doing any kind of blocking, simply displaying a bright red banner at the top of the page will prompt the majority of people to login to their eMail and verify, and for the ones that are waiting for an email it's no bit issue.

May be also think about sending an email and have a button/link for people that are still waiting, then use something like Twilio to verify them via SMS or Call if it really is vital to prove their identity before any kind of access is given.

</comment><comment><USER3> Email is one of those technologies which makes no real assurance about delivery speed. Which is to say that the receiving party can delay it substantially as a spam-fighting technique (e.g. Gmail) and you cannot REALLY complain because email makes no assurance.

If you want near instant delivery then may I suggest Text Messages? They will often be delivered within a minute and cost very little with the right provider (e.g. Twilio).

<comment><USER4> Text Messages also provide no such assurance, though. Sure they 'often' are within a minute, but then so is email.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Don't require verification for the first hour if you can, and try not to worry about it, or change your provider.

In the end, you only have control over how fast your mail is sent. The e-mail provider of the client determines when it is received.

Good on you for tracking and measuring it though.

</comment><comment><USER6> Those delays can be caused by greylisting.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greylisting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greylisting)

</comment><comment><USER7> For Mandrill, did you set up DKIM on it? I am running verification e-mails via Mandrill and right now they are getting sent more or less real time.

<comment><USER8> Good catch, I was just going to suggest that.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: SaaS startup with open sourcing the code? - <AUTHOR> Hello HNers, after several startups I'm planning a startup were the code is open source and developed (also) by the users of the startup.
How would you do this? AGPL? What would be your concerns?
Thanks for any input from the community, especially if you have done that before. <comment><USER2> Having a SaaS with open source code is possible, but probably best to consult with an attorney to insure the license being used is going to match up with your business plans.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have seen a similar process on some open-source blockchain projects where they just award people who fix issues within the code.

</comment><comment><USER4> You could use AGPL and offer an additional commercial license, which is what Artifex does with Ghostscript.

</comment><comment><USER5> A restrictive license will restrict adoption. Don't expect much help until there is traction

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you mean with adoption?

<comment><USER5> It means companies will not let their employees use software licensed with restrictive or uncommon licenses, even if free, they are automatically red flagged. So you immediately eliminate a large and profitable segment users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment></comment></comment>