A MIDI Player on Eight Floppy Drives - <AUTHOR> http://kukuruku.co/hub/diy/a-midi-player-on-eight-floppy-drives

<comment><USER2> My personal contribution to the genre: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhChYJzw4FM&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhChYJzw4FM&feature=youtu.be) See link in description for build log and source code.

And one of my favorites from another artist: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZGgymGg0Ns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZGgymGg0Ns)

</comment><comment><USER3> I remember vividly the range of sounds a floppy drive could generate back in the day. It's high time somebody put this musical potential to good use :)

While the C source formatting is rather horrible, the resulting playback instrument is absolutely impressive. I almost fell from my chair laughing.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is an awesome interpretation!

The idea for this dates back some years however, the first one I remember is a scanner playing Für Elise [0], and of course there is the Imperial March performed by three floppy drives [1].

There is also another performance (Bach's Toccata & Fugue) using eight floppies [2].

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ftYO5J3ZZQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ftYO5J3ZZQ)

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

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGSTYvx5c78](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGSTYvx5c78)

</comment><comment><USER5> The sounds the drives produce are reminiscent of bowed strings, especially the one playing the bassline. It would be very cool to connect this to a midi controller and play it live.

</comment><comment><USER6> I did this with a PC (and a MIDI keyboard rather than playing MIDI files) but never got it working with multiple channels. Well played.

</comment><comment><USER7> That's very impressive. I saw this video recently that shows how to turn an old hard drive into a speaker (it works of a wav form, not midi though) with some simple tricks:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPjQou42i8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPjQou42i8)

</comment><comment><USER8> What is the song he/she is playing? I wonder how the original sounds. Some of the channels sound rather muddy. Maybe something could be done to align upstrokes and downstrokes?

<comment><USER9> Metallica unforgiven

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This might be the best version of this song ever made.

</comment><comment><USER11> That's a hell of a racket! If Vlad wasn't single before this project he probably is now.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is really entertaining. I wonder, why there isn't 12 floppies to cover all notes?

<comment><USER13> It's not a floppy drive per note, but per channel. Every drive maps to a MIDI channel.

</comment></comment><comment> v-yadli Dat overdriven bassline!

</comment><comment><USER14> there has got to be a better way to write that Action() method..

<comment><USER15> Why?

Adding in additional abstractions would probably be unnecessary overhead for an embedded system. The code the author wrote, while a bit repetitive, maps fairly straightforwardly to assembly.</comment></comment>


The ethics of donating breast milk - <AUTHOR> http://mosaicscience.com/story/give-and-take-ethics-donating-breast-milk <comment><USER3> I actually have a friend who is in the latter stages of importing donated breast milk from Cambodia. At first, when he told me about it, I was a little bit disgusted, but the more I think about it the more I realize it could be a net win for everyone.

He described it as:

1\. Breast milk is, hands down, the best nutrition a baby can have. Babies in the NICU need it, there's a massive shortage, and we can't match its nutritional value with formula, period.

2\. A woman will continue producing breast milk as long as she continues either feeding or pumping, even if her child is too old.

3\. There's a desperate shortage in the US, because people don't want to take the time to come to the donation facility for the blood tests, and those are very expensive to do by mail.

Basically, what he's doing is paying women in Cambodia for their breast milk. A woman in Cambodia will donate her milk for a few dollars a day, and it completely changes her lifestyle. Women are willing to come to their facilities to be tested, and are willing to go through background checks that make sure they're not neglecting their in doing so.

They can then export the breast milk to places that have shortages (like the US), and make a profit.

Domestically it's regulated by the FDA like a foodstuff (beans or corn), and it can be homogenized just like cow's milk.

It takes a while to get over the weird factor, but it seems like economically it's a win-win. I'd be curious to see if anyone else would consider this exploitative. I've gone back and forth.

<comment><USER4> _It takes a while to get over the weird factor_

I suppose it's weird for those who have never seen a cow being milked before, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was true for a large number of the (city- dwelling) population.

<comment><USER5> I don't think it's so much the fact that people haven't seen a cow being milked, so much as it's about the fact that drinking human milk is something we're not used to considering. It's always been a very personal and intimate thing between mother and child, so this seems unusual in comparison.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My wife had a Caesarean section and was unable to produce milk. She went out and filled our freezer with some milk a friend donated her. I went along with it since I knew it was healthier than formula and didn't want my son missing out on any needed nutrients. However, we definitely got some strange looks from family and friends, with many people thinking it was gross. Hopefully its less weird in the future.

<comment><USER7> The American fear of boobs is such a bizarre thing. We will happily artificially impregnate cows and pump them til they're dry to extract an inferior product, but cower in fear of the free, natural, superior option.

We've been lied to for decades, and our too-smart-for-that-malarkey grandmothers are dead.

This is a good addition to the what-will-future-generations-think-we-were- stupid-about lists.

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure when "weird" became the stigma around feeding baby, but its unfortunate. My wife and I have a 3 month old, and if our baby is hungry - <USER2> breast feeds him. (Mind you she is very conservative about the whole process). Its amazing the people that give strange looks in a restaurant, after all everyone else is eating. Why can't our son?

<comment><USER9> Because we don't live in a culture that mandates you hide your fork and plate when they aren't being used to eat with. Imagine a culture where forks are taboo and often times illegal to be shown in public, except when you eat and where most people don't use forks. Where giving a child a picture of a fork (that isn't being used to eat with) is a significant social social breach that will get you hated and labeled for years and perhaps even a crime. Use of a fork in public in such a situation would get weird looks.

In fact, even imagining such a society seems absurd, but that is how our current culture is (at least where I've lived at).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The one issue I have with the article was the mention of concern that it was the use of formula that led to the death of the child. All things being equal, and in this instance they were twins, the formula alone was not to blame.

Breastmilk is better than formula but formula beats no food at all or too little to sustain a child.

This sort of thinking (from the article) actually makes things harder for new mums who can feel pressure to breastfeed and avoid formula. Breastfeeding is not easy nor is it always possible. The whole article could have made the same poi t without blaming formula for contributing to the death of the infant.

<comment><USER11> New first time father of a 3 month old. It's really taken me by surprise how much guilt is thrown at women who either have to or choose to supplement breast milk with some formula. In our case, my wife cannot produce enough to cover him 100%, so we supplement. And he's growing well and extremely healthy so far (shrug).

I guess this form of "mommy guilt" is well in line with the trend of every person you meet having their own opinion about every aspect of child raising. Where I'm really starting to think that, outside of the advice of your pediatrician (who should never be ignored), most of it really does not matter at all.

<comment><USER12> First time father with a seven month old here. I observe there is frequently more attachment to an idea (don't formula feed!) than there is the ideal (baby should be as healthy as possible).

But I also observe that part of that is driven (at least, in America, where you seem to also be located) by the conceptual societal framework that has led kids to understand you should only be with people who don't criticize you, and my wife and I heard from several people while she was pregnant that we 'need to find our tribe,' where we try to exclusively spend our social time in a sub-group of people that share our philosophies on child-rearing and related fields. I reject this line of thinking as needlessly polarizing, and I think that if you only are with your tribe, you're going to be messing up your kid the same way everyone else in that tribe messes up their kids (and I also observe that every generation of Americans since the 'Greatest Generation' complains about how their parents raised them, I don't expect my children's generation to be any different)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I have a seven month old, and my wife has shared bagged milk that she pumped before we figured out that he can't eat it because he seems to be MSPI.

The hardest part about infant nutrition is that passing on knowledge about it isn't a part of modern American culture, and so when we had our son, we felt we had to do a lot of reading and research to figure out what was the best thing to do.

And it's tragic, although understandable from a certain perspective, that a significantly lower portion of [statistically speaking] lower-income African American women do not plan to breastfeed. Tragic solely in the cost savings that it could be for them that could help them slowly make their way out of poverty. (Yes, yes, structural societal issues aside, I mean for them individually).

It also appears pretty true that almost anything involving infants, birth, and the fuzziness of medical ethics provokes strong reactions from those involved. Hopefully, the focus will remain on doing the best thing, and less on doing the thing that people yell the most about.

<comment><USER13> > _I have a seven month old, and my wife has shared bagged milk that she > pumped before we figured out that he can 't eat it because he seems to be > MSPI._

A very cursory google search tells me that MSPI only appears to be related to soy and cow's milk. Am I googling wrongly?

<comment><USER12> Not googling wrongly at all. Just missing that the proteins that the mother ingests make their way into the breast milk. Therefore, when my wife ate dairy/soy then pumped and bagged the milk, it is no longer usable for our son since it has the proteins from her consumption in it.

<comment><USER13> Oh, wow - so if she wants to breastfeed, she basically has to avoid soy and dairy?

New dumb startup idea: match women like your wife with women who are lactose/soy intolerant (but whose babies aren't), and do a milk swap!

<comment><USER12> Yeah. It's really kind of torturous to try to plan meals (no cheese, and the amount of packaged food we can eat goes waaaaay down), or figure out what she could possibly eat when we go out (especially if we are somewhere longer than planned and need to eat before getting home, that's terrible.).

There are informal milk swaps, but part of the deal is that the way the biology works, it's better for the baby to have their own mother's milk ( if you're giving another mother's milk, it's statistically not much different than formula [to anyone reading, I know this is a controversial statement simplifying a complex issue]).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> My daughter was born via c-section, so there was a short period between her birth and my wife's milk coming in when my wife was driven to tears by her inability to provide nutrition to the child. The coin has recently turned, however, with my wife now having a slight overproduction problem: after freezing the excess over the course of the month, there was literally no more room in our freezer for normal food.

We'd love to see the excess used productively (she's literally pumping and dumping gallons of the stuff every week). Unfortunately, the litigious nature of US ensures that this is a non starter, as we are unable to find anyone willing to give us an assurance that we are free of liability if a child became ill after drinking my wife's milk.

</comment><comment><USER15> In addition to women who can't produce enough: There are preemies who have difficulty latching on. Suckling at mom's breast is far more work for the baby than a bottle is -- again, for preemies or babies with health issues, this is a real problem.

When I had minor issues with breast feeding, I was able to resolve them myself in spite of nurses being zero help. When someone close to me had trouble breastfeeding, I did not know the answer but was able to be emotionally supportive of her and helped her get over any guilt or bullshit social messages about how this should be easy and natural for both her and baby. She also was able to find solutions in spite of the stupid things people around her were saying.

I suspect this is easier for women in cultures where women have more babies on average and breastfeeding is more the norm. It is a situation where you have much better odds of being personally acquainted with someone who had the same issue and can tell you how to fix it. I was appalled by the really crappy attitudes I was surrounded by and the dearth of practical solutions.

Perhaps importing breast milk makes that problem "worse", but you at least are able to feed your baby, which is actually the more important issue.

</comment><comment><USER16> Beware!. I can see some big problems here that have to be carefully managed. For some reason the article do not even mention that:

 _" Despite the ban on persistent organochlorines (OCs) in most of the developed nations, their usage continued until recently in many Asian developing countries including Vietnam, for agricultural purposes and vector- borne disease eradication programs."_

 _" This result suggests recent usage of DDTs in both north and south Vietnam"_ (2004)

 _" Analysis of infant exposure to DDTs via breast milk suggested that the daily intake rates are close to or above the threshold for adverse effects on children health"_

Source. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749103...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974910300472X)

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm wondering wether pasteurized human milk really provides that much advantage over formula. Isn't it the bacteria that's providing all the benefits for the immune system?

<comment><USER18> It really does, especially in critical formative days and weeks.

Formula is pretty much the equivalent of junk food. You can live on it, but not optimally.</comment></comment>


Blood, Sweat, and Rails: Obie Fernandez on how to build a consultancy - <AUTHOR> http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/obie-fernandez-blood-sweat-and-rails <comment><AUTHOR> This is definitely worth a watch, even if you've heard Obie talk business before. He covers an expansive list of topics including current rates, equity put into Hashrocket, and some lessons learned from offering productized fixed bid offerings like 3-2-1 Launch.</comment>


Dementia on the Retreat in the U.S. and Europe - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/health/alzheimers-dementia-rates.html <comment><USER2> Some things it could possibly be:

\- Lead gasoline stopped being sold(this is also theorized why crime dropped alot from the 90's)

\- Pollution being down across the board due to better EPA standards and electric vehicles.

\- Increased internet access and more games/puzzles with smart phones to stimulate the mind.

\- Lead paint being taken very seriously as being detrimental to health. having specialized crews dealing with removing it, also asbestos being removed from society in the same way.

<comment><USER3> Some other possibilities (guesses):

\- Banning of transfats

\- Better dietary and fitness practices in general

\- People getting on daily antivirals if they have HSV

<comment><USER4> >People getting on daily antivirals if they have HSV

That's not happening in Europe, only Americans are weird about HSV. Most Europeans ignore it and don't make a big thing out of it.

<comment><USER5> Is that really a thing? I live in Australia and I'm really careful about who I have sex with mainly due to not wanting to catch HSV-2. I'm an early 30's man and I turn down more potential sexual partners than not. Condom use prevents most STD's + unwanted pregnancy with a high degree of success but not HSV.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> >Twenty-seven-year time trends in dementia incidence in Europe and the United States — The Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium

[https://n.neurology.org/content/95/5/e519](https://n.neurology.org/content/95/5/e519)

<comment><USER6> ^^ This is the original paper and the full pdf is available. I recommend a brief perusal before posting your "guesses". It's not very long and has pretty graphs.

<comment><USER7> Although in fairness, the paper mostly just speculates itself as to the underlying cause--mostly better control of high cholesterol and blood pressure, presumably primarily through drugs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Could this be related to lead exposure? Leaded gasoline was fully banned for new vehicles in 1996.

<comment><USER9> My mom tells stories about pesticide trucks driving down the street, spraying entire neighborhoods, when she was a kid. Says it happened pretty often. Kids would chase them, playing in the "clouds". Talk about yikes.

I do wonder what we interact with regularly that future people would have to be paid _very_ well to even be in the same room with, and will think we were nuts for ever thinking was OK. I'm guessing "basically anything plastic, especially if contact with food" is a likely candidate. Fire retardant chemicals in construction materials and furniture, probably.

<comment><USER10> >>pesticide trucks driving down the street

That was DDT. Occassional exposures like that aren't linked to anything horrible in humans. It was banned for its impacts on birds, specifically their eggs. (Google "silent Spring".)

<comment><USER11> Sounds pretty horrible to me...:

> DDT is classified as "moderately toxic" by the US National Toxicology > Program (NTP) and "moderately hazardous" by WHO

> studies document decreases in semen quality among men with high exposures > (generally from indoor residual spraying)

> Indirect exposure of mothers through workers directly in contact with DDT is > associated with an increase in spontaneous abortions

> studies found that DDT or DDE interfere with proper thyroid function in > pregnancy and childhood

> Mothers with high levels of DDT circulating in their blood during pregnancy > were found to be more likely to give birth to children who would go on to > develop autism

<comment><USER12> Malaria used to be a serious problem in the US.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wouldn't be surprised if some of the change is due to better recognition of other neurological disorders that were lumped in with Dementia in the past.

</comment><comment> iso8859-1 Why does the submission headline say "N. America" when the linked article doesn't? The linked article does say have this ridiculous sentence though: "One puzzling aspect of the decline is that it seems to be confined to Europe and the United States — it was not seen in Asia, South America or, from limited data, in Africa."

<comment><USER14> "Methods This analysis was performed in aggregated data from individuals >65 years of age in 7 population-based cohort studies in the United States and Europe from the Alzheimer Cohort Consortium. First, we calculated age- and sex-specific incidence rates for all-cause dementia, and then defined nonoverlapping 5-year epochs within each study to determine trends in incidence. Estimates of change per 10-year interval were pooled and results are presented combined and stratified by sex."

I thought it could be related to demographics, but they calculated using age- specific rates. Still, if the age bins are not small enough there could be some leftover bias (more older people in each bin for older countries). But that's for between-country comparison. The age distribution within the US itself might not have changed enough to account for the reduction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > One puzzling aspect of the decline is that it seems to be confined to Europe > and the United States [...] One leading hypothesis for the decline in the > United States and Europe is improved control of cardiovascular risk factors, > especially blood pressure and cholesterol.

My completely-devoid-of-evidence hypothesis is that over the past 25 years, increased globalization has reduced the number of menial jobs/tasks in those two continents, thereby increasing overall day-to-day mental exercise. This coupled with the rise of the internet gives citizens a needed mental outlet. The article mentions improved education as a possible reason, but not in the form of late-age mental exercise.

<comment><USER16> Claude Shannon had Alzheimer's so I'm not sure if being really smart with a playful mind protects you.

"Shannon developed Alzheimer's disease and spent the last few years of his life in a nursing home; he died in 2001"

<comment><USER17> It wouldn't protect you completely but doing intellectually stimulating things is supposed to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's.

<comment><USER18> I've always wondered if this simply isn't a case of having the causality wrong, that is to say people in old age who don't have alzheimer symptoms are more intellectually engaged.

<comment><USER6> Well today is your lucky day, because you can cease your wondering! The answer is "no".

In fact, any question you have that relies on thousands of doctors and professors in the field missing something obvious is always "no" (cf "never a compiler error").

<comment><USER12> It's not clear to me precisely what you are intending to communicate.

Are you scoffing at the idea that Alzheimer's symptoms could reduce intellectual engagement?

Or just at the idea that experts could have missed it in favor of the opposite relationship?

<comment><USER6> The latter of course. Everyone who has given more than 10 seconds of thought to the issue has considered the opposite relationship because it's _so obvious._

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sigh, biology. We spend years working on the disease with no progress, and don't manage to work out the cause before it starts going away by itself magically...

</comment><comment><USER20> I have 3 best friends I've known for over 40 years. 3 out of 4 of us have a parent with dementia, including my mom. I know 3 other close friends whose parents have dementia as well. I know this is anecdotal but to me it looks like a crisis.

<comment><USER21> Dementia rates per capita rates are soaring due to an aging population and better medicine(we're able to keep sick people alive for longer who are at much higher risk of dementia). But dementia rates age groups are dropping.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> 1) Smoking is not as widespread compared to 10-20 yrs ago.

2) Less indoor/outdoor pollution ie. less lead/asbestos/pestecides/etc.

3) People exercising more

4) More activities ie. Internet, movies, iPhones, gaming, etc.

</comment><comment><USER23> everyone is just dying off of social diseases instead (addiction, murder, PTSD, war, suicide, et cetera)

</comment><comment><USER24> My guess is the decrease in using aluminium cookware can explain this. Those areas that didn't see the dementia reduction are also likely poorer areas where they still cook using aluminium.

<comment><USER25> Studies have not provided strong evidence of aluminum being a risk factor for the development of dementia.

[https://alzheimer.ca/en/Home/About-dementia/Alzheimer-s- dise...](https://alzheimer.ca/en/Home/About-dementia/Alzheimer-s-disease/Risk- factors/Aluminum)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Not directly related to the article, but tangential: sometimes I wonder "how do I know that right now, I'm _not_ in fact sitting in a wheelchair in an elderly's home, with final stage dementia, and my dementia-ridden mind telling me I'm writing this comment on Hacker News as a healthy 40-something?"

<comment><USER27> Because dementia is forgetting, not hallucinating.

<comment><USER28> That's what it wants you to think.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice? - <AUTHOR> Hello HN, posting under a throwaway since I've been around for quite a while.
Long story short, I got laid off this morning for the first time ever (without cause). The reason for the termination was cited as an internal re-org. Truth be told I was planning on quitting at 3pm during my bi-weekly one-on-one with the CTO, so I'm taking it in stride/happy.
I've worked here just under a year. The company is paying me 4 weeks salary as severance, with medical benefits ending 1 week after pay ends. This is contigent upon my signing a release which essentially ensures I maintain confidentiality and prevents me about the company publicly, due one week today.
Just posting to ask if there's anything I should be wary of, and if there's any advice from people who've been through a similar situation, thanks! <comment><USER3> 1\. You must _reframe_ the situation as quick as possible. Don't think, 'shit, why me, what happened, am I not good enough?' Such thoughts bring you a vicious cycle. You must treat this situation as the best thing ever happened, you _must_ be happy about it. And I promise you, heck I bet $10,000 that you'll tell us in one year that this lay-off was the best thing ever happened and led you to x, y and z. So, basically it's not reframing or lying to yourself—no, what happened was really the BEST what could have happened (so, I just did the reframing for you). Change is always good and rarely gets triggered by oneself.

2\. Reach out to as many people as possible, preferably people outside the company. Most people from the company won't help you and even if they did, they just remind you of the company again, what happened and this brings you again to a bad state and you need to start at zero and reframe again. Just let them go, all of them, really. So, look for prior peers, old friends. Further, write applications or just plain emails to many CEOs and tell them that you are out. You don't have to write that you look for a job. Just get into conversations with as many people as possible. It's more about staying connected and keeping a social context (after you lost the one of the company) than finding the next job.

3\. Work on a pet project with a technology you always wanted to work with, get into flow and put it online. This will be the most fun and will give you tons of self-confidence in a very short time.

You should spend 30% of your day on 2 and 70% on 3 and 0% on thinking about the past.

Sounds good?

<comment><USER4> * Work on a pet project with a technology you always wanted to work with, get into flow and put it online. This will be the most fun and will give you tons of self-confidence in a very short time.*

In addition to the personal mental benefits, as a hiring manager, I would look favorably on this. It shows initiative. It shows that you aren't wasting your time between jobs. Should your unemployment extend to a few months or more, if you can show you were doing something useful, that's a huge plus.

<comment><USER5> This is great advice. I'd like to add emphasis to the importance of creating something that is tangible and complete. The extra effort it takes to actually host and launch a web application or to release an app to the app store will go a long way to greatly improve the weight and impact of your project to your next potential employer.

<comment><USER4> While that's certainly true, I wouldn't be put off if you just had the app side-loaded or webpage/DB hosted locally.

Having anything functional will put you ahead of the majority of candidates I see (DC area, enterprise software, so def. not the same market as SV/NorCal or start-ups in general).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Since you were laid off and didn't quit or were fired, you should head down to the unemployment office so you can start collecting. You don't know how long it will be before you find a new job, and the bills will keep coming in. You may have savings, but there is no need to blow through it when you've been paying into the safety net.

<comment><USER7> I agree with this recommendation. It's easy to do, has simple ongoing requirements (that you are applying for jobs), and while it's not going to be a lot of money, it's fairly dependable money. Set up an alarm to submit your weekly reports, and that's it.

<comment><USER8> Honestly, this would be the first thing I would do, though, since you've been there less than a year, I'm not sure if you would get the 'max' or not. In CA, that's about $450/wk.

I would recommend checking the box to take the taxes out when submitting your forms. Or however they have it set up online now.

I second the other suggestions about letting it be known that you're available for hire. I assume that you might have already been putting out feelers since you were planning on quitting anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you are not hard up for money you should immediately look for a nice trip somewhere. Be flexible with location instead of time to get a good price. Take three weeks off. Nice places this time of year might be Cuba, Thailand, Costa Rica, Florida, or Big Sky.

Polish your resume on the plane.

<comment><USER10> I agree with this one. You are never so free as you are between jobs (for whatever reason). Even if you can't afford to take a far away trip, go see family for a week, drive somewhere new, or just goof off all week for a week.

...but yea, also file for unemployment immediately. Your former employer paid for that safety net.

<comment><USER11> I really agree with this as well. Jumping right into another job at another company can have its draw backs. If you can afford to, take a trip and change your perspective and reflect about what you want next for yourself.

When a potential employer inquires as to a gap in time on your CV just say you went and did some traveling and "recharged your batteries." It is completely respectable and envious thing. Also you will be glad when you are sitting at your desk at your next job working late that you went out and saw some of the world. Likewise you will also be glad when you are sitting on a beach in Southern Thailand somewhere :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >if there's anything I should be wary of

Don't cave to the temptation of making an ass of yourself. You never know when you might run into someone in a future job.

They'll likely make you sign some papers for the 1 month severance. Pay attention. Sometimes there are unsavory clauses, like non-competes, non- disclosure, etc. It would be helpful to know where you are located. If you're in California, for example, you can sign a non-compete without reservation, as they are largely unenforceable.

>any advice from people

Was it a really large layoff? Sometimes, there's opportunity there. Often, some of the key people already smell blood in the water, and are thinking of either jumping ship to a competitor, or even starting up their own competitor. If you know any of the key folks that might b e planning this sort of thing, invite them out to lunch a week or two after the layoff and probe around a bit...you might find a place to land.

<comment><AUTHOR> Forgot to mention and it doesn't seem like I can edit my post anymore, but I'm located in Vancouver, B.C (Canada). The release includes the following sections:

* no admissions

* further claims (agree to not make claims against the Releasees)

* indemnity for taxes

* no denigration or defamation

* non-disclosure

* confidentiality

I don't believe it was a large layoff, in fact, I'm not sure if anyone else got hit. The reason was cited as an internal re-org, where the group of developers I belong to went under a different person within the company. I suspect it may have to do with the fact my options vest in about 2~3 weeks.

<comment><USER13> > I suspect it may have to do with the fact my options vest in about 2~3 > weeks.

OK, _that 's_ a whole different kettle of fish. You may want to talk to a lawyer before signing, because if you sign, you most likely sign away your right to sue for the options. (On the other hand, you may not have any case for suing for the options anyway. And your expectation value of what you would get from the options, times the probability of winning them, may be lower than the cost of talking to a lawyer for an hour...)

<comment><USER14> I agree, a lawyer is a good idea. I've had this happen to me. Not pleasant.

<comment><USER15> How did that turn out for you?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I had a similar situation back in 2009. I gave my resignation to my boss on a Friday and he said I should hold off until Monday. Monday came around and they laid off most the the dev staff. Instead of having to work for 2 more weeks I got 6 weeks severance and got to leave that day. I already had a job lined up to start 2 weeks later so I booked a week in Cancun in the interim.

They make you sign a paper that says you resigned, so you can't claim unemployment, but the severance sounds better than unemployment since you were leaving anyway. Negotiate that severance, too...they offered me 4 weeks at first but I asked for 2 more and got it.

<comment><USER17> I have not heard of layoffs making you sign paperwork that you resigned. More common is they ask you to sign paperwork that you won't sue them, and give you more severance payment if you sign it. You can still claim unemployment as you were laid off. But check your paperwork.

<comment><USER18> Not only have I never heard of this, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Unless you will be starting a new job in two weeks, why would you forgo 26 weeks of 50% of your income in exchange for 4-6 weeks of 100%. The math just doesn't work.

<comment><USER19> Unemployment maxes out in most states between $350-$450 a week.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Do something with your free time. Shut down Netflix, HBO, Reddit, Hacker News and all such distractions. It doesn't have to be profitable or even remotedly useful, just as long it's something that you know that you should be doing.

Examples: create things (write, program, compose); exercise; meditate; start learning something.

Sleep 8 hours every day. Or whatever is your optimum. But no more and no less.

[https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp/1...](https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp/1936891026) \-- this book might resonate especially well now.

</comment><comment><USER21> Your friends will want to take you drinking. Be careful.

Be sure to get lots of exercise and sunlight. I'm serious you have be very careful about slipping into depression.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, I am aware. I personally do not touch alcohol, and have gone through periods of quite severe depression. Luckily this lay off was quite ideal personally (despite being slightly unexpected), so I don't believe I'll sink back into depression (in fact, some things at the place were starting to make me depressed), but I'll be mindful.

<comment><USER21> That's the main thing. It's hard to underestimate how psychologically hard periods of unemployment can be. Take care of your self. If you ever want to talk fee free to hit me up on here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> In 2011, I was "laid off" from my job along with almost everyone else when the scraps of my company was acquired. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that this day was coming, management was completely open with us about the dire situation of the company and most of us stuck around until the bitter end hoping that our options might be worth something (they weren't) or that we would get a severance.

From looking at people's LinkedIn profile, everyone from developers, to managers, to the L1, and L2 tech support staff had better jobs within a month. Once recruiters got a whiff of the company being in trouble, they started contacting people. Don't ignore recruiters. I have 15 recruiting contacts from different companies in my contact list.

I put "laid off" in quotes above because immediately after I was laid off, I did contracting work for one of my company's clients (based on a written agreement they had with the acquiring company). After that contract was over, I spent a day contacting every recruiting company I knew. Three days later, I had a phone screen with a Fortune 10 company, one day after that I had an in person interview. By that evening I had an offer letter. At the time, I was a an experienced developer but a middling .Net developer trying to get into full stack development.

Moral of the story, aggressively reach out to people, recruiters aren't evil, study up on interview prep, and don't be afraid to take chances on going after jobs that you might feel that you are not 100% qualified for. I've conducted about a dozen interviews over the past four years. I don't care if you meet all of the bullet points. I care if you are "smart and gets stuff done." And if you are an aggressive learner.

</comment><comment><USER22> As your being made redundant, there's nothing untoward about their reason.

1 month for each year served is fairly normal so again, nothing untoward.

Signing a release is also fairly standard. Under these circumstances I would always recommend showing the release to an employment lawyer. For me, peace of mind is worth a couple of hundred dollars but YMMV.

Also, in the UK at least, there are tax breaks on some of the redundancy package so it's worth looking into.

Otherwise, what you do next depends a lot on what your financial situation is. I was made redundant a number of years ago and it worked out great. I was married and had a child at the time but we had enough money for me not to work for a few months. I had a bit of a break, in hindsight I was quite burned out, then got a job at a startup, refreshed and raring to go.

Obviously, it's not always a positive experience but it's not always negative either.

Good luck. Hope things work out.

<comment><USER23> You are not obliged to sign anything. So, it's always disadvantageous to sign these documents. Don't do it.

<comment><USER24> Depending on OP's country, the employer may not be obligated to pay any severance at all, and this document may be part of the agreement.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Looking for a job is a full time job in itself. Start looking immediately, get up early as if you were going to work and keep looking until it's time to "go home".

The release you've signed is pretty normal, nothing to really worry about (Unless they've done anything illegal, in which case you're not obliged to adhere to the release but I don't think that's the case).

Just get back on the horse. This happens to the best of us.

<comment><USER26> > Just get back on the horse.

But if you have some funds to tide you over I wouldn't recommend jumping onto the first horse you find. Go for some fun pony rides first.

Most people have a list of "minor aspirations" that are constantly deferred due to the pressures of work. Now's a good time to achieve those. Much better than going on vacation, which I believe is a bad idea after a lay-off as your mind constantly replays what has just happened and you come back to the real World having achieved nothing but self-criticism.

They don't have to be World-changing aspirations, just something to achieve on your own schedule. For example I kept reminding myself to schedule time to take photos of some derelict local buildings as I passed them every morning en route to work, but I never found the time and eventually they were demolished and rebuilt as anonymous apartment blocks. I wish I'd taken one morning off work to photograph them.

<comment><USER3> > going on vacation, which I believe is a bad idea after a lay-off as your > mind constantly replays what has just happened

so true

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> If you are in the UK you may qualify for legal advice where you get a lawyer and your employer has to pay for it.

A couple of years back I resigned from a job in the UK and although I was on good terms with the people I worked with the HR department (inevitably) did their best to try and screw me and having a good lawyer on my side made the process fairly painless as they actually did the negotiation with my former employer and I got 3 months salary and various other benefits.

<comment><USER28> How did they try to screw you? If you resign you withdraw most of your termination rights surely, as you are the one terminating yourself.

<comment><USER29> I'm in the US but I've had employer's hold on to final paychecks out of spite and refuse to payout vacation time. My state department of labor took care of it after a few months.

<comment><USER30> Regarding accrued vacation time - when a firm offers "unlimited" vacation, that means they no longer have that on their books as a liability (since the employees aren't building up a balance). So you don't get it paid to you when you leave. If your firm converts to unlimited vacation and you have a balance at the time, talk to them about being paid for it. Either lump-sum right then, or offer to let them pay it to you over time. You earned it, you deserve to either take the time or get the money.

<comment><USER31> Also note that being paid out for earned PTO is as state-specific thing. A fair number of states do not require this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> First thing's first. Sign up for unemployment benefits.

I was laid off last April and my employer gave me a severance package in exchange for a similar confidentiality agreement.

It took me several months but I was able to secure a new job with better benefits but with a lower salary.

Update your profile on LinkedIn. Update your résumé.

Talk to lots of recruiters. If you have friends in the industry, ask them if their companies are hiring.

Just keep pounding away at it and you'll find the right spot.

<comment><USER4> Unemployment benefits - YES YES YES! Too many people view this as "welfare". It's not, at least not in the negative sense. You have been paying taxes into this system your entire career, for just this eventuality - in a sense, it's your money.

<comment><USER18> If you've been working and paying taxes for years when times were good, taking a little back in a time of need is not at all shameful.

I am not sure if it works the same way in every state but in mine, we pay for Supplemental Unemployment Insurance (SUI) with every paycheck. You'd file a claim if you had a car accident, so why not file a claim when you lose your job through no fault of your own?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> A lot of good advice here. Whenever I was laid off, I tried to send out a minimum of ten new contact emails a day. (Longest layoff, two months. Shortest was 14 days.)

Make sure that you sign up for unemployment compensation immediately--sign up before you need it. If you're in the US, there's (often?) a waiting-week period you won't be compensated for; if you sign up immediately, you can get that out of the way first thing. Good luck!

<comment><USER33> It probably varies by state. You probably also won't get unemployment until after the severance pay and/or paid-off leave period ends but you should absolutely start the process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Hey hey. I was in the same boat last year. Loved the company but there just weren't enough contracts coming through the door to keep me fully employed.

One thing that really helps to keep me sane during tough times is to catalog every teeny tiny expense I've made over the past year. When you know exactly where your money is going, it will help alleviate lots of stress.

Before I did this, I felt a vague sense of panic. After I did it, I realized that I had already earned two times more than what I typically spend in a year. It gave me a sense of calm, knowing that I had plenty of "runway" before having to dip into my investments.

If you have any egregious expenses (I know I did), now is the time to systematically eliminate them. You might be money poor, but you are time rich now. If you treat your life like a business, now is the time to make some big cuts to ensure your longterm survival.

Just last month, I cut my phone bill in half, figured out how to cut food expenses by a few thousand a year, and reversed a bunch of b.s. charges for services I no longer use.

Make this your new job & you will thrive.

<comment><USER34> Shoot. I forgot one thing.

If you haven't done your taxes already, do them. It will give you a better picture of where you stand & what you can expect in terms of a refund (if you get one).

Admittedly this advice probably applies more to the self-employed folks as we have to pay quarterly estimated taxes. The worst thing that can happen is to lose a client and then discover that you owe the government a few grand in April.

But if you are getting a refund, it should make you feel more calm about your situation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> That sucks. Luckily in this environment you have a good chance of actually making "extra money" due to the layoff (severance + new job pay overlap) I echo the suggestion to take some time off and travel if your state's unemployment situation allows it (some states now require you to physically check in to receive unemployment benefits)

</comment><comment><USER36> My advice is don't burn any bridges on your way out.

</comment><comment><USER37> I got laid off a year ago. I got severance + unemployment, making more cash then I did at work. Within a month I found a new job making 40% more. This could be a blessing. Treat it as such, and enjoy the paid search for better employment.

</comment><comment><USER38> _Truth be told I was planning on quitting at 3pm during my bi-weekly one-on- one with the CTO, so I 'm taking it in stride/happy._

Happy? You should be _ecstatic_. You just won the lottery!

What you would have received if you had quit at 3pm: nothing.

What you will receive because they beat you to it: 4 weeks pay, 5 weeks benefits, 26 weeks (potentially) unemployment. I dunno, something like $10,000 to $20,000.

Count you lucky stars and enjoy your lottery winnings. I wish I could figure out how to do that.

</comment><comment><USER39> 1\. Incorporate - Create a name and make yourself a company. In the US, do your state incorporation papers (most are on-line) and get a TIN/EIN from the IRS, and open and fund a bank account in the company name. This allows you to do consulting work or even be called back by your former employer as a contractor, and it puts you in the right frame of mind for maintaining accounting and expenses while you are off work. 2\. Meet people - Get out for networking events in your industry and visit a BNI chapter. Look for professional associations and groups in your area. Make networking your new job, even if you don't think you are good at it. Time to practice! The way to find better job opportunities is to be actively exploring the market. Sitting behind a screen mining the job boards is not a motivating exercise and does not make you visible. 3\. Keep your schedule - There are work hours, and non- work hours, and don't let your typical work patterns fall out of sync. It's better for your brain and your emotional state. 4\. Cut your expenses - <USER2> revenues just went to 0, so time to get rid of subscriptions and habits that are costing you money. Cook at home and stop eating out, and make those rare times that you do eat out or grab a coffee be as an expense for your business. 5\. Get fit - Join a gym, buy some running shoes, get out and restore your body. Fitness sharpens the mind, and a fit and trim individual finds work faster. Sad but true. 6\. Keep a journal - Dump your thoughts. Capture your ideas. Get that stuff out of your head and make it real. You will find great catharsis in doing so, and some day you will re-read it from a very different perspective.

Welcome to the next chapter of your life, cheers!

</comment><comment><USER40> I would recommend this article which is exactly about the situation you're in:

[http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2008/05/laid-off- one-t...](http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2008/05/laid-off-one-thing- you-absolutely-need.html)

It was written by a fellow HNer a few years ago, but still relevant today, IMHO.

Edit: shortened overlong sentence.

</comment><comment><USER41> Did the internal re-org involve only you getting terminated? If not it sounds like it's a time to celebrate. You were going to resign later the same day and now you get the same result along with a month of pay. Re-orgs happen and some good staff are let go (Sony even called the staff they let go yesterday 'high caliber' [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-01-12-guerrila- ca...](http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-01-12-guerrila-cambridge-to- close)).

That said, I like the question, I have never been laid off or terminated, I've resigned from all 4 jobs I've had (employed at the 5th) and so I'm reading other answers to see if there are real issues to be aware of should it happen to me.

</comment><comment><USER42> Sounds a little more than coincidental that were you planning on quitting anyway. Can you explain further?

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, a while back I was asked to help out with an emergency project on another team with a major client for a major contract. An arcane system that no one (not even I) knew how to work, that was incredibly frustrating and old.

Essentially they wanted a major new system built off of a very old, limiting, and opaque tool. I won't go into the details of the tools for confidentiality reasons. Anyways, this meant I had a huge task to do, no one to go to for help, and many top levels within both ours and the client company overseeing and getting stressed over it.

This project was originally scheduled for 2 months, but due to scope creep and a lack of push-back from the PM in charge of this project, they begged for me to continue to help another month, after which they asked me to continue till the end of November after which I would be on my 5 week vacation.

Anyways, the reason I was quitting was partially because of all the frustration, stagnation (no learning opportunity) of working on that system, and because of the main person I have to work with (our product team is ~9 people but this "side" of it is only 3, and 1 is a junior with less experience/know-how).

During my whole time there, this person I had to work with only trained me on the existing system only when he felt like it, but only ever scratching the surface. Any further questions about this unfamiliar domain (very niche service for extremely niche work) that I was unfamiliar with and unable to learn from anywhere else was met with "I'm busy.", occasionally followed by expletives and heavy sighing. Often times this person would also get incredibly passive aggressive. Long story short, it was very stressful working with this person and the general environment at the company is very heads- down, hard working, so virtually no other social interaction was ever had (or very rare).

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Don't take it personally. Any energy you use being bitter and making yourself a victim is worse than wasted - it makes things worse.

It's great that you were thinking of leaving anyway. Rejoice that you get the benefits for slightly longer than you would anyway, and move on.

</comment><comment><USER44> I'm seventy. It has happened to me three or four times. My own experience and the experience of those I know has been: I always find a substantially better job. It was good for me. I know it HURTS. Boy do I know it hurts! But it will be good for you.

Buck up!

</comment><comment><USER45> Send an email to your peers explaining that although you might not agree with reasons, you understand management needs to do what they think makes sense. And that you enjoyed your time together, wish them success, etc.

</comment><comment><USER46> File for unemployment, use the safety cushion to work on your own startup! When I was laid off years ago I believe you could get 99 weeks which is totally absurd!

</comment><comment><USER47> Since you were planning on leaving anyway, what's the concern? Enjoy your severance, relax, and sign up for that government money (unemployment.)

</comment><comment><USER48> Don't disparage your former employer - regardless of how the breakup went. I feel that in retrospect these things are for the better. You didn't want to be there anyway - they just made their move first.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yea, I definitely have no intentions of doing so. Overall my PM and CTO were pretty great people, the general team overall also. I've been through much worse plights in my career, I'd say it's more a win-win for this particular situation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Clear your mind of feelings of self doubt, clarify with yourself what you learnt from your role and the work you did. Find value in this and use it to move forward.

</comment><comment><USER50> You have 4 paid weeks not to think about what to do next, but to think about where you want to be in the future, and plan your first steps for getting there.

</comment><comment><USER51> Don't get down on yourself. It happens to the best of us (and probably more often to the best of us because we cost more)

</comment><comment><USER52> I feel for you. I just recently went through a similar situation. I had never before been laid off. A re-org took place in my business unit, and a few people in my department were laid off including me; the company stated very clearly it was due to re-org and __NOT __for performance reasons. Further, it happened immediately before the holidays.

I was very lucky in that another division in the same company was having a different re-org. and a few jobs opened up, so I applied for, and got another job. Same company, different business unit. Less than ideal, but I count myself lucky. (Although jobs are posted out there, its extremely rare that companies hire or conduct interviews during the holidays!) But the feeling of having been laid off was quite devastating; again especially since I had never gone through something like that.

I think the advice that others have been offering seems pretty good. While my lay off period was extremely short, I myself woke up every morning - as if at any other regular job - and kept searching/applying for jobs. I think that "routine" helped me deal with the whole thing at least emotionally. I also like some advice throughout the comments here about working on a side project. That could help in several ways:

* Keep your mind off the challenges (physical, social, emotional, etc.) associated with finding new employment.

* Maybe it could turn into a little revenue on the side to supplement unemployment, etc.

* Possibly, it could turn into an opportunity to go into business for yourself. Even if it doesn't make you a millionaire, or is short-lived, its still work. Maybe it might pay bills, and you can feel good about putting it on your resume/linkedIn, etc. (In the state of NJ, you are allowed to collect unemployment and __still __have a part-time side business [1]...But there are caveats and of course I 'll disclaimer that I am not a lawyer. So you'll want to seek out professional legal advice if you're considering this.)

* Even if the side project results in no new business, you will have picked up some new skills, or perhaps improved any existing skills. And, if it involves other people - like a meetup - maybe you can get some future business/opportunity contacts - i.e. networking!

The only other advice I can give you: stay positive, and keep yourself busy so as to avoid getting into a negative groove. Good luck!!!

[1] See "Part-Time Corporate Officer/Owner" section on [http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/ui/aftrfile/corporate.html](http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/ui/aftrfile/corporate.html)

</comment><comment><USER53> It also depends on what the labor law in your country says. Are you in the US?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm in Vancouver, B.C (Canada)

<comment><USER54> Almost all the advice here is aimed at US employees. Does Canada have, and it should, stronger laws about your rights under termination? If you are the only person affected you may have basically been fired under their law and they are using redundancy as a way to get around the law. I don't know but a local employment lawyer or consultant does. I strongly advice speaking to someone in the game before your next meeting. You may be in a stand down period where that is what you are meant to do. Do this properly and you should get your options and perhaps more cash. You are getting ripped off if they don't give you the options or compensation for losing them.

Saying on a public forum that you wanted to leave anyway was probably unwise btw as it makes it harder to negotiate a decent severance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> You may want to buy some time by contracting with a staffing agency. You'll earn a nice premium in salary and can take your time contemplating your next chapter.</comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone made a product with virtual euro/pound account with a iban? - <AUTHOR> Hello folks, I'm ideating and building a digital bank for any immigrants coming into Europe for student/work purposes and offer them a digital euro account. I'm trying to get an account with Solarisbank but they keep turning me down. <comment><USER2> Did you check TransferWise?

<comment><USER3> Something which could complement TransferWise in France is the French "compte Nickel" [0].

Nickel is a payment institution, opened to any natural person aged twelve or over, with no income requirement and no possibility of overdraft or credit.

The target of this financial service is varied, it can concern people prohibited from banking (2.5 million in this situation in France in 2014), people deprived of means of payment who only pay in cash, those living under the poverty line (8.4 million people in France in 2014), in the process of divorce with a blocked joint account, but also seasonal workers, temporary workers, executives or students.

Thanks to an interactive terminal at a tobacconist, the customer opens a Nickel in less than five minutes by scanning his identity card (national identity card / European Union passport or residence permit issued by a French authority), and entering their address and mobile phone number, the customer leaves with a box including a MasterCard debit card and two RIB.

In order to fight money laundering, cash deposits are limited to 250 euros per transaction and 950 euros per month

The MasterCard card fee is 20 euros (annual fee). In addition, there are fees for cash withdrawals from tobacconists (0.5 euro), from an ATM (1 euro) or even in the event of cash deposit at the tobacconist (2% of the sum).

[https://nickel.eu](https://nickel.eu)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why my colleague cannot vote or start a new thread in HN - <AUTHOR>

One of my colleague is a huge fan of HN. But recently he found out that if he add a thread it only visible to him and others cannot see it. Also he cannot vote to any tread. Can anyone explain why? <comment><USER2> Sounds like he got himself banned. The thought is if you let people who have been banned still post but auto kill them, then spammers will not try to work around their ban. Your co worker can try to contact PG and crew to get himself unbanned or just create a new account. Note you can turn on show dead to see what has been killed in this manner.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your answer. Do you have any idea where he can contact the crew and PG? Any email addresses?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> that's possibly because he has too low karma like me :) understand how it works better here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=196509></comment>


Networking in the startup community - <AUTHOR> http://snapcrackleprop.posthaven.com/networking-in-the-startup-community

<comment><AUTHOR> Kudos to Hacker News for all of the valuable advice we received!</comment>


Nintendo's Sad Struggle for Survival - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/12/super-marios-sorrow/511187/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> I don't understand everyone's response to literally everything Nintendo does ever.

The stock drops like 15% in a weekend, because Super Mario Run came out and made a ton of money...? It's got numbers comparable to Pokemon Go, which tripled Nintendo's stock price and Nintendo only owns 1/3 of Pokemon, but Run brings it down? And it's not even on Android, which makes up what, 80% of all mobile devices? (I know, not in the US, but still...)

It's like someone writes an article about how gamers don't like a specific design decision, and all of a sudden Nintendo is about to go out of business?

Nobody talks about Nintendo's successes, like Pokemon Sun/Moon kicking ass, Amiibo still selling like hotcakes, the Switch coming out with tons of first and third party support, game sellers and game makers endorsing the Switch as something awesome. Who was the king of the last console wars? Pretty sure it was the Wii.

Can you even name a famous video game character, other than Sonic, who isn't a Nintendo brand? Can your kids?

Enough of this bullshit. Nintendo isn't going anywhere.

<comment><USER3> > Can you even name a famous video game character, other than Sonic, who isn't > a Nintendo brand?

Master Chief (Halo). Lara Croft (Tomb Raider). Duke Nukem. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII). Solid Snake (Metal Gear).

there are a few. I could go on. a lot of extremely famous/popular game franchises don't stick with a single iconic character though. Assassin's Creed is a good example. The archetype is consistent but it's a different character in each game. A lot of games are like this. Nintendo has pursued a branding strategy based around a handful of "mascot" characters (Mario, Link, Samus, Donkey Kong) but it's not like those are the only famous video game characters around.

Maybe that's what you're pointing out though? Besides Sonic (which was Sega's attempt to make a Nintendo style mascot character) most other game developers don't use mascots. That's true. They generally don't. The games themselves are still incredibly well known and popular though.

<comment><USER4> Master Chief and Cloud Strife? Honest question, perhaps I'm missing the intended meaning of iconic.

<comment><USER3> maybe its generational. I'm a 90s kid. Cloud Strife was an icon in my childhood.

<comment><USER4> I am too, but in fairness my circle of friends was not especially 'into' JRPGs until the release of Final Fantasy 9. Maybe we're outliers, but Cloud did not resonate a whole lot with us.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nintendo is extremely conservative fiscally and will have no trouble surviving purely from a corporation point of view.

In my opinion, their largest threat is a new generation that does not know who their characters are. Mario has a ridiculous level of nostalgia for me as someone in his early 30's, but who knows if my son will have anything close to that.

Disney solved this problem through a literally awe-some multi-channel strategy combining movies, both new and re-releases on latest platforms, theme parks, video games, TV shows, toys, etc. My nieces are very familiar with Cinderella and Snow White, who is as old as my grandma, but their brother probably doesn't know who Yoshi is.

I think the trick is to ride the generational wave. Again, something Disney excels at. A young mother takes her daughter to see the live-action Cinderella movie because of the nostalgia she has for the character, which she in turn got when _her_ mother bought the VHS for her because of the nostalgia she had from seeing it in the theater as a little girl...

There is a limited window of opportunity that Nintendo has. Personally I would love to share Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, etc. experiences with my son vs. random new IPs that mean nothing to me.

Speaking of Disney, the Nintendo catalogue is one of the few remaining significant cast of characters not owned by Disney. If Nintendo does hit dire straits and I were Disney, I would aggressively try to bring them into the fold, although it is extremely unlikely Nintendo would capitulate.

<comment><USER6> Doesn't Nintendo do the same thing? Sure, they don't have the same "multi- channel" platform as Disney, (does anyone?). But they've been releasing Mario games steadily for 30 years. If someone doesn't know mario, it's only because they arent involved in video games at all.

<comment><USER7> > they don't have the same "multi-channel" platform as Disney, (does anyone?)

On a smaller scale: Studio 100 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_100)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This author woke up on the wrong side of the bed before writing this article. If Nintendo can achieve $4M in mobile sales in 1 day as it did with Super Mario Run -- does it really matter if the company is conservative or revolutionary?

See: Hollywood in recent years and its constant need to do sequels because they guarantee a successful and profitable venture.

<comment><USER9> I bought Mario Run, but, subjectively, it doesn't feel like a success. This article captures the nebulous subjective experience fairly well. We don't need a thinkpiece to cover the sales numbers - those are obvious.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Talking about the Classic NES system that was recently released: "It's possible Nintendo limited stock to create a bottleneck, and thereby a holiday phenomenon. But more likely, the company just didn't anticipate demand for an official re-release of its three-decade old flagship."

Isn't it kinda Nintendo's thing to bottleneck their consoles? Does anyone else remember having to wait in huge lines to get a Wii? The Switch will likely have the same "issue"

<comment><USER11> This is actually an old accusation of Nintendo going back to the original NES and it's cartridges.

The truth then (and likey today) was that demand is hard to calculate and supply costs money. Nintendo I'm sure greatly underestimated the demand for NES Mini convincing themselves that 'nobody wants to play classic games today but what people actually want is new games with our characters and bits of nostalgia put in'.

They were wrong of course as evident by NES Mini sales versus that of Wii U sales.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nintendo actually has a very sizable war chest. I don't think they are struggling for survival at all.

Although Nintendo doom and gloom has been a popular theme for many years I'm a little surprised to see it here.

<comment><USER13> I had the same thought as you and I did a quick search, the results of which are behind my company's firewall.

I think Nintendo can lose up to $250 million a year until the year 2052... so not too sure if they are struggling for survival like the title claims.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Honestly I read this as the Atlantic's sad struggle for survival.

I once considered a print subscription since their writing quality was high and they weren't as high brow add the New Yorker, but a lot of their output over the past few years had been embarrassingly desperate.

<comment><USER15> > I once considered a print subscription since their writing quality was high > and they weren't as high brow add the New Yorker, but a lot of their output > over the past few years had been embarrassingly desperate.

This _was_ written by Ian Bogost. He's not an industry outsider, he knows his stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> >Facing an uncertain future, the company keeps trying to mine its storied past.

You mean like virtually every software company on the planet? Or storylines or characters from franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel/DC et al.

Give me a break. It's called working a series of franchises that people like.

</comment><comment><USER17> After being a long-time fan of the original Wii, I was a late adopter of the Wii U about a year ago. By then, most of the system exclusives had rolled out but if you weren't into Mario, there wasn't a whole lot to do except buy emulated games and the few indie games that made it over. The main hope was that the new Zelda would be released on the Wii U -- and it is (as far as we know) -- but only after Nintendo releases its new system, the Switch. I guess I didn't invest much in the Wii U so I don't have as much room to complain as the early adopters, but it really felt like Nintendo bungled as much as they could. Not just in the overall system design, but in not providing enough first-party games to make up for the lack of AAA titles from third-party developers.

What's been shown about the Switch so far looks pretty tepid. Its clumsy publishing of Mario Run doesn't give much faith that Nintendo has improved since the days of the Wii U rollout [0]. I recently got a PS4 to try out its VR and think I'll be sitting out the Switch as I don't need a console for portable gaming in my life. Hoping Nintendo regroups in the VR age though, which will seem ripe in 5-6 years for a Wii-like system to dominate.

[0] [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-secret...](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-secret- developers-wii-u-the-inside-story)

<comment><USER18> Nintendo's first party output has been split between the 3DS and the Wii U, and it's been a been a bit sparse on each. Individually, the platforms has a few really great games. Combined, they have one of the best libraries this console generation. With most of Nintendo's effort focused on a single platform, the hope is that their output on the Switch will be significantly more frequent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Mario run made 5 million in the first day, but it's a failure. And somehow the success of the NES classic means Nintendo is failing as well, because people are only buying it for aesthetics, not to play the games (source on that anyone?). WTF am I reading, this article is so delusional. If you don't like Nintendo or their strategies, that's fine, but they've kind of been knocking it out of the park lately compared to the last few years, it's a strange time to be saying they're doomed.

</comment><comment><USER19> In an article about "Nintendo's Sad Struggle for Survival", no mention of the Switch (and four paragraphs dedicated to CliffyB because...)?

<comment><USER20> The lack of Switch mentions raised my eyebrow as well. This article is right in the micro sense but omits two crucial facts:

* The Switch is a giant question mark that could be good * Nintendo is sitting on a lot of money. That money and fan goodwill means it has the time to figure out its future.

<comment><USER4> It's also worth noting that they've been active since the 19th century and have successfully pivoted twice, so I feel pretty confident about their chances.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> wtf even is this? the author literally refuses to accept that Nintendo has their own vision for their product line and isn't simply trying to do exactly the same thing Microsoft and Sony are doing.

it's such a bizarre and distorted premise to write the article from that I can't help but wonder if it's a plant.

</comment><comment><USER21> Journalism's sad struggle for relevance.

</comment><comment><USER22> Nintendo is leveraging their IPs in a relatively monolithic fashion, and I'm not sure why. They need to allow their different IPs to express individuality, and certain franchises certainly need more games, good and bad.

They also need to stop hand-holding gamers. Nintendo Hard doesn't exist anymore.

<comment><USER23> I think they kind of respect their own franchises, trying hard not to destroy their fame for quality, improving on them only _if_ they have something novel to introduce in the series or a new way to do a particular game, like non- linear dungeon order on Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, or a 3D Metroid when they did Prime, etc.

They don't make the same game in different clothing just because they can. And their games generally age well.

A different approach when compared to most game makers nowadays, surely. But one I can definitely respect.</comment></comment>


Escaping VMware Workstation Through COM1 - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sIYgqrytPK-CFWfqDntraA_Fwi2Ov-YBgMtl5hdrYd4/mobilebasic?pli=1 <comment><USER2> _You are absolutely deluded, if not stupid, if you think that a worldwide collection of software engineers who can 't write operating systems or applications without security holes, can then turn around and suddenly write virtualization layers without security holes._ \-- Theo de Raadt

</comment><comment><USER3> Virtualization is a great tool for using "well behaved" programs. It's foolhardy to expect it to defend against sophisticated malicious software.

About 40 years ago IBM studied the security of their own VM technology. They found many exploitable bugs, and this was on a codebase that was probably less than 1% the size of VMware. I wrote more about IBM's findings on HN about 3 months ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9241807](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9241807)

</comment><comment><USER4> Remind me: Are modern hypervisors _meant_ to securely contain guests? Because they advertise their presence pretty loudly, and there's nothing which motivates a jail-break like reminding the inmate they're in a cell.

<comment><USER5> This is why I'm not a fan of public cloud virtualization for high security systems (PCI-DSS/HIPPA/etc).

In addition to the escapes, you need to contend with side channel timing observation and resource contention.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6>
        COM1

Man, I haven't even /thought/ about that term in years...

</comment><comment><USER7> That's not the only place that has poor isolation: clocks, cache, devices ...

virtualization comes with the lie of hardware isolation while devices are views on common peripherals that are isolated at application level by an incorrect abstraction.

jails and virtual machines alike are jails made of a strong but viciously brittling glass.

</comment><comment><USER8> I disable any hardware in VMware guests that I don't need, like printers, speakers, or USB devices, to avoid exploits like this.

<comment><USER9> The VENOM vulnerability that affected the Floppy Drive didn't require that you had it enabled to be exploited: [http://news.softpedia.com/news/11-Year-Old- Bug-in-Virtual-Fl...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/11-Year-Old-Bug-in- Virtual-Floppy-Drive-Code-Allows-Escape-from-Virtual-Machines-481079.shtml)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Well I suppose a guest with access the internet could also deploy malware to a website which is then visited by the host computer and downloads a hack that patches vmware to allow full host control from the guest.

Depends on what you mean by "escape".

</comment><comment><USER11> Is this a bug in VMware or a bug in Windows?

<comment><USER12> VMWare. It takes advantage of the fact that VMWare links guest VMs to the host's printers by default and takes advantage of that link. The patch from VMWare even applied to VMWare Fusion even though there hasn't been anything published on getting this to work in OSX.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Anyone know why some of the images are incredibly low resolution?

<comment><USER14> If you look at the non-mobile version at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sIYgqrytPK- CFWfqDntraA_F...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sIYgqrytPK- CFWfqDntraA_Fwi2Ov-YBgMtl5hdrYd4/edit) you'll see that the images have been resized to the width of the page, probably from much larger images, causing the text to be very small and fuzzy.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Some ideas to try, no time - <AUTHOR> Hey fellow HNers! I work as a software engineering contractor at several companies and Im currently fully booked. All the companies with contracts for the full year.
This is not something to complain about, but the problem Is that I have some side projects ideas Id like to explore and no time to actually do it. Money is not a problem, I can loose two of the three clients and still earn an average salary income.
So Im thinking about how to approach this. My initial take is to start outsourcing some of the work and using that time to try new ideas. But is difficult to leave secure money to try and explore new projects.
What would you do? <comment><USER2> What kind of ideas would you like to try? How much time do you think would need in order to build a MVP?

</comment><comment><USER3> Finish your current contracts, then take a year off.

<comment><AUTHOR> The problem is, there's a big chance two of them requesting me to renew the contract.</comment></comment>


Every bookmark manager ever made - <AUTHOR> https://bookmarkos.com/every-bookmark-manager-ever-made/ <comment><USER2> My issue with all bookmark managers, including the one I currently use (Larder.io), is re-discoverability. I will happily bookmark this and that, but it's unlikely I'll ever actually go back to the bookmark. Every once in a while I'll go through the library when I feel like looking for random gems, but the first port of call when trying to solve a problem will always be a search engine.

I wish a non-Google search engine would offer a bookmark manager that integrates into its everyday search, giving preferential treatment to previously-bookmarked material. _That_ would be the be-all end-all of bookmark managers.

<comment> orbital-decay _> I will happily bookmark this and that, but it's unlikely I'll ever actually go back to the bookmark._

That might be a problem with your process, not with your tools.

 _> I wish a non-Google search engine would offer a bookmark manager that integrates into its everyday search, giving preferential treatment to previously-bookmarked material._

Most browsers already do that with local bookmarks, to a degree. (they don't search the article contents, only the bookmark tags and titles).

<comment><USER3> > Most browsers already do that with local bookmarks, to a degree. (they don't > search the article contents, only the bookmark tags and titles).

That's a pretty big problem- the specific term I remember is rarely in the title or URL. Not to mention all the times I've returned to the same bookmark only to see the content have been deleted or the domain expired. Default bookmark managers in browsers are complete rubbish.

<comment><USER4> It seems to me like you want an offline cache. How can something local deal with searching the content of a possibly deleted page?

<comment><USER3> Local cache would definitely be the (easiest) way of solving it. Tools like Memex [0] are most of the way there.

But a text-only copy on my local device isn't great if the content had special formatting in presentation. Also, it misses out on images or embedded videos. That's where something like ArchiveBox [1] comes in.

> ArchiveBox takes a list of website URLs you want to archive, and creates a > local, static, browsable HTML clone of the content from those websites (it > saves HTML, JS, media files, PDFs, images and more).

But really what I'd like to see at some point is an opt-in community tool where every page I visit that fits a certain criteria (URL, topic, special mark by me, etc) is fully cloned and uploaded to IPFS [2] for anyone interested in that topic to find and use later - regardless of what happens to the source content. Definitely a host of legal issues around this, but not impossible.

0 - [https://worldbrain.io/](https://worldbrain.io/)

1 - [https://github.com/pirate/ArchiveBox](https://github.com/pirate/ArchiveBox)

2 - [https://ipfs.io/](https://ipfs.io/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Amazingly, none of these options are great.

Bookmark OS comes close for me, but the ugly UI ruins the experience. Nothing is more annoying than the Russian doll experience of seeing a hacky version of macOS doubled up inside of the chrome of your actual OS.

Love Raindrop in theory (design-wise they have the right idea), but I dumped it in practice due to the fact it's too bloated and buggy and runs much slower than just keeping my bookmarks on Safari.

Pinboard, while being minimalist which I love, is minimalist in the wrong way. The visual hierarchy is all over the place and impossible to decipher through. Scanning down a list of bookmarks is painful.

So I've largely just been using the standard bookmarks feature in safari-- which is actually refreshing and awesome.

Except when I do that, I can't sync bookmarks to other browsers. I use Chrome on mobile and sometimes on desktop.

So back to the drawing board.

Why the hell are bookmarks so hard in 2019?

<comment><USER6> Oh my goodness yes!! This is the truth.

Shameless plug: I'm currently building [https://AcornBookmarks.com](https://AcornBookmarks.com) for all the reasons you stated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> No p2p-distributed portable across all browsers with ability to do semantic topology tagging integrated with webarchive and some translation service with ability secure parts of subgraphs and forkshare other parts with all proper layers views of visualization - from fast tag and to publish and research. With all these rdf. Crdts, type theory of patching, fuzzy vertex merges, deduplication, collective intilligence and graph marketplace. And dozen of other things. When you, the developer, will write one for me? You do not earn on giant huge market of knowledge consumption and digestion. Until than, internet is useless place without new T B Lee and Ted Nelson. I cannot live in the world without such bookmark manager. Please save me from self destruction.

</comment><comment><USER8> Neat! Thanks for putting my LinkAce on the list too, depite being in beta.

I find it very interesting, that the "market" for bookmark manager kinda exploded in the past years, at least from my perspective. Tons of new apps were developed, all of them with their own specific feature set. And yet, finding the right solution is very hard because a) projects are sometimes barely visible or b) you have very specific needs. I find the first point is one of the biggest problems about open source projects and stuff. There are so many great projects out there but marketing is hard and/or expensive so many of these projects can only be found on page 2 of the Google results. Overviews like these are a great help, especially if they are up-to-date and cover a lot of projects.

To be honest, there are some solutions out there looking really promising and if I would have found them earlier, I probably wouldn't have built LinkAce in the first place. Now it's a great side project to work on that I actively use.

</comment><comment><USER9> Where's the one where I import my 1000 unsorted bookmarks and get a neat categorized list of bookmarks?

<comment><USER2> One of the problems is that any two people likely disagree on what "categorized" means. Tags? Hierarchy? Tag hierarchy? What defines a hierarchy? Etc etc.

<comment><USER10> I've been thinking on this for some time. Quick sorts for my use might be by date for one, by url (base domain) for another, common found terms within urls (news, product, etc)

then start looking at other tags, terms within the pages, stuff like that. But just having the quick sorts and exports on those above would make it more manageable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Every bookmark manager ever made" ... not really.

One that is missing which I love is [http://www.gettoby.com/](http://www.gettoby.com/)

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm still in the process to find the perfect one. So far I use Trello lists for my bookmarks but it lack of search and tags and various other stuff. I have boards with over 5000 links, my github has over 3000 stars, it is hard to maintain and reuse the knowledge or find stuff you know you are going to look for in the future.

So I am on the works on creating my own, A Trello style boards but more suited to links and knowledge search. Far from complete but it is a start.

[https://pindicate.herokuapp.com/](https://pindicate.herokuapp.com/)

If you wish to view a demo account: firstname.lastname@example.com:123456789

Bear in mind it is hosted on heroku free plan. Let me know if anyone find this interesting I will further invest more time in it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Tefter ([https://tefter.io](https://tefter.io)) co-founder here. I'm glad we made the list! It's under the visual-based section, but arguably meets the criteria to be in many more categories.

It's list-based and tag-based, since you may organise your bookmarks using either lists or tags. It's also search based, since bookmarks have their contents indexed and ranked and there's autocomplete. For read-later, we keep archives and you can mark bookmarks as "read later" to read them on the mobile app.

However our favourite feature is the team collaboration. You can create organisations, install the Slack app and add bookmarks and aliases (think golinks.io type of short links).

A mostly complete list of features can be found here [https://github.com/tefter/tefter](https://github.com/tefter/tefter).

Happy to answer any questions.

<comment><USER14> How does the tag suggestion work?

<comment><USER13> We use a combination of heuristics and integrations with the most popular websites. In most cases we'll suggest relevant tags. Give it a go and let us know if it works well for you. We're still tuning it.

<comment><USER14> Honestly a tag suggestion feature is something I've been looking for a long time. I plan to try it out soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'd like to mention my own tool: Static Marks [1]

Recently, I have introduced it at work. All project bookmarks are maintained as plain text (yaml) in the project's git repository, so they can be adjusted by anyone (with Git knowledge/access). They are deployed on every commit automatically, so all collegues can access the latest version. It is not as end-user-friendly as most tools, but it has advantages for tech-savy people (like the mentioned plain-text managing via git or similar).

[1] [https://darekkay.com/static-marks/](https://darekkay.com/static-marks/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Here is a related project I am working on: [https://johns-async-react- project.glitch.me/](https://johns-async-react-project.glitch.me/)

It's instant search of my 1503 bookmarks. Just titles/tags/urls right now, but I plan to index the text on the pages.

Meant to replace my current bookmark solutions (neither of which are in the list). So there is a feature to import netscape-formatted bookmark files. I currently use:

\- [http://www.myhq.com/](http://www.myhq.com/)

\- [https://www.bkmks.com/](https://www.bkmks.com/)

</comment><comment><USER17> Missing All Bookmarks from AgileBits, which is probably fine because it isn't available and probably isn't on anyone's radar anymore :)

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110511105926/http://agilebits....](https://web.archive.org/web/20110511105926/http://agilebits.com/products/AllBookmarks)

But for posterity and to remember it, there's the old page via the way back machine.

Kyle

AgileBits

</comment><comment><USER18> Bookmarked!

<comment><USER19> The real question is 'Bookmarked!' using what?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Heh - they don't have the one I created, so it's missing at least one! Don't worry, though - I'm not proud of it, it was one of my first Perl scripting efforts, and interactive web-site efforts too (perl cgi - ugh). So it's best if its never looked at again...

</comment><comment><USER10> did a ctr-f and did not find "linkstash" ( [https://www.xrayz.co.uk/linkstash/](https://www.xrayz.co.uk/linkstash/) )

after some research found that one to be close in some ways to what I wanted. Found a missing feature I think it was 'deleting chunks based on urls' not supported that I wanted, I wrote the developer and never heard back via email, so I gave up on it. Kept it installed as a reminder to make something similar one day.

It's been a few years and now I wonder if gmail or some similar anti-spam system didn't just blackhole the email from my custom domain and that was the issue, not a dev that doesn't answer. hmm.

</comment><comment><USER21> Is there any that can auto-categorize bookmarks without them uploading to their online service?

</comment><comment><USER22> A bit pretentious to say "every" as it does not include mine. It's on github. Not that mine is worth mentioning as it is a personal utility.

</comment><comment><USER23> Thank you for the search-based bookmark platforms, that's what I really need but haven't found... a Google search engine for just my bookmarks

</comment><comment><USER24> pinboard, keep, pocket, insta paper, and a whole lot of stuff i've never even heard of.

I happily pay for pinboard and don't need or want anything else.

</comment><comment><USER25> Surprised not to see del.icio.us there.

<comment><USER26> I see it there under "No longer active (Tag-Based)", but listed as "Delicious" instead of "del.icio.us".

<comment><USER27> The URL they listed is delicious.com, but that doesn't load.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Well that's not true. There are two from the late 90s missing here: Blink and Bookmark Box.

</comment><comment><USER29> Happy to see my project Unmark in there. :)</comment>


Intuitive Remake Game of River Raid in HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/joaoneto/river-raid-2k <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice, thx</comment></comment>