Dear HN, how do I hire a good coder? - <AUTHOR>

Hi guys, long time lurker here.
I run a (semi) successful Australian startup that requires very little technical knowledge to operate. Now that I have some cashflow, I'd like to hire a software engineer (either virtually, or in the flesh here in Sydney) to work with me on a couple of ideas I have for web applications. I myself have basically no programming knowledge, so pretty much the best I'll be able to do are (CSS coded) mockups.
I was wondering if HN had any hiring tips for me? Specifically, what are some ways for a non technical person to tell a good hacker from a bad one?
A few other questions if you're feeling generous:
- Bearing in mind I'm going for web applications, what kind of language specialisation should I be looking for? From my own research, it seems like Ruby, PHP, and Python are all good contenders.
- I know this varies greatly from place to place, but how much do I need to pay to attract the talent? Is equity a more attractive option than a salary?
- How much does experience play a role? Is a naturally talented coder fresh out of university a better option than an average one with 5 years of 'real world' experience? <comment><USER2> Codeclueless -

I've heard good things about the hiring posts that show up on HN every month on the first. Post something tomorrow and see what comes up. Also, if you wouldn't mind, would you shoot me an e-mail? I'm looking to move to Sydney in the next 3 years, and I might be interested in starting a relationship.

As for language specialization, if you yourself don't have any preference, it might make sense to be flexible with your first hire. Ruby, Python and PHP are all sensible languages, but you could go a long way with someone with Java or .NET experience and a web applications background. That also opens the door to alternate JVM or CLR languages without throwing the experience in the "primary" language away. The only thing you don't want to do is hire someone whose only experience is in something that's either very hard to apply to the web or very hard to replace if this person leaves.

For example, I once met a guy on a contracting interview whose day job was writing filesystem extensions for a government agency out in Boulder. The discrepancy between what he assumed he knew about the web because he'd been programming for 20+ years and what he actually knew was PAINFUL. I'm sure he's an excellent programmer, but the leap from filesystems to GoogleEarth mashups is a big leap to make, and the startup that hired him as CTO made a mistake.

I'm not sure what salaries are in Sydney, so I can't speak to that. The ? of equity is a tough one. I know what cash is worth, for example, so if someone offers me $X an hour, I can say with relative certainty whether that's worth my time. An ownership stake can be worth wildly varying amounts depending on what it's an ownership stake of.

Regarding experience, since this is your first hire, and you don't have much programming knowledge, I would strongly recommend against someone fresh out of university. You're giving this person a significant amount of responsibility, and decisions that get made this early on about architecture, tools and other systems will be important down the road.

Again, would you mind shooting me an e-mail? I'm interested in talking more. My contact information is in my profile.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi,

I'm working currently for a small startup as a developer. My personal opinion would be to find someone who can write and deploy code and can build a relationship with you. Ask for references, live website, repository and so on. But be careful with people who quote a lot of technology without using them. Student or 'real world' experience are good options.

This person would do all the major coding task for you. On top of that if you can create a good relationship, this person would be able to find you other tech people for tasks he/she can't handle and can give you nice advice.

The programming language at this stage is not very important IMO. But focusing on a popular programming language with a big community is something to have. Imagine if you need to recruit 2 others coders to do the job. Or if you main developers can't work for you anymore.

Something which may help for recruting someone is to write a draft of your needs (setting-up servers, level of front-end/backend programming...)

Hope that help

</comment><comment><USER4> I would like to say, it depends. The first question to ask is, how big do you feel comfortable growing? Once you figure that out, then the next part is basically a gigantic art form that you pray that you don't mess up on.

There's like 9,000 questions you must ask but all them really boils down to this - can the person do (or figure out what to do) what you want the site to grow into and does this person get along with you that you get things done?

Since this is your first technical employee, you better get along with him/her/it because you'll be spending a whole bunch of your life communicating with them. After that, you have to make sure they have some competence in the technology field. Language specification and stuff doesn't matter as long as they understand how the web (HTTP) really works. The rest of the guys here can probably give some decent advice on that and how to find them.

Just my two cents.

</comment><comment><USER5> As a freelance developer, I think that for a first project, a salary (either fixed or hourly) is always better than equity unless you (the recruiter) have a great portfolio of successful products.

I think experience matters if you have a tight schedule and technology constraints, and being fresh out of university doesn't necessarily mean you have no experience.

If you are NOT looking for a full time developer, I'll be happy to have a chat with you and see if you can work out something (profile for CV/contact)

</comment><comment><USER6> You might try to mitigate your risk by spreading it on a number of developers. Can you divide the work into smaller chunks? You can hire different developers on part time basis, and then eliminate the one's you are not happy with and stick with the ones you like.

</comment><comment><USER7> Whatever you do, try to stay away from recruiters.

</comment><comment><USER8> Sounds like you need a technical cofounder. Search the archives -- there are a bunch of requests -- and talk to some of those people.

</comment><comment><USER9> Since you have no existing codebase, try to limit the technologies used as little as possible. You'll cast a wider net this way.</comment>


What can you do with PostgreSQL and JSON? (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://clarkdave.net/2013/06/what-can-you-do-with-postgresql-and-json/ <comment><USER2> Maybe a 2013 tag?

Postgres 9.6 is out pl/pgsql JSON functions evolved a ton from 9.3!

I would love to have a discussion around what is possible today. But this article is a outdated start.</comment>


Why You Love That Ikea Table, Even If It's Crooked (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171177695/why-you-love-that-ikea-table-even-if-its-crooked <comment><USER2> If assembling a piece of furniture makes people attached to it, imagine how attached they would be to a piece of furniture they perceive that they have had a part in actually designing?

1) Have a set of standard template furniture items

2) Allow user to view the item through a WebGL viewer (or however its done these days).

3) Allow the user to adjust certain aspects of that piece of furniture within the viewer. IE desk surface height, depth, space between legs etc.

4) Use parametric algorithms to adjust the componentry accordingly within existing load bearing parameters. For example, "desktop needs attachment screws every 200mm". This kind of formula is already commonplace in many CAD packages [1].

5) Have the backend software export the parts as CNC cut files and create a bill of materials.

6) Package the cut parts and additional components (screws etc) and ship direct to client.

7)(optional depending on level of unscrupulousness) Have the parametric algorithms incorporate a fatigue based breaking point so they can justify throwing the crumbling desk away in five years and you can sell them more furniture "they" designed that is more in line with current trends.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GClGn1Y7bNA#t=3m58s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GClGn1Y7bNA#t=3m58s)

EDIT: formatting

<comment><USER3> Ikea has done that for quite a while now and is ramping it up this year. The PAX wardrobe system [1] has been an IKEA staple for many years and people are very happy with it (what I hear around me). They starting to take this concept into the living room with the BESTA storage system [2] which allows people to create their own entertainment unit or cupboard. Not to mention their kitchen systems because kitchens are always a "design your own" purchase.

[1] [http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bed...](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19086/) [2] [http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/liv...](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/11794/)

<comment><USER4> They even have an 3D planner for BESTÅ, but in Flash [http://www.ikea.com/us/en/rooms_ideas/planner_bestauppleva/i...](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/rooms_ideas/planner_bestauppleva/index.html)

<comment><USER2> Wow, I'm surprised how functional the 3D planner is. Totally didn't realize they had taken things to this level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I never understood this before reading this post, that the Real secret behind IKEA is the same as Betty Crocker. For those of you from outside of the States or those inside and too young, or have never baked a cake; Betty Crocker was a company that started after WWII and invented (or at least perfected) a mixture of dry ingredients that could be mixed with water, thrown into an oven and get a very nice quality cake.

The original product just required water but failed in the market, because American housewives believed that just adding water and sticking something in the oven was not 'cooking'. It was a shortcut that made them look bad. So Betty Crocker came up with the idea of providing a dry mix that required the cook to add an egg to the dry mix. That was the secret, by adding one ingredient people could save face and believe that they were 'cooking'.

IKEA is leveraging the same principle -- inserting and tightening a few screws and bolts here and there and you feel like you've 'built' something.

Very powerful stuff....

</comment><comment><USER6> What I like the most about Ikea furniture is that it is of high quality, high enough to survive moving multiple times, while being so cheap.

I tried other self assembled furniture before - the quality was just not there. I did not love them, and threw them away as soon as they became too obviously crooked.

Using the Ikea brand in the title is incorrect if the specific effect described should extend to Walmart furniture, but doesn't.

<comment><USER7> One of the tricks to Ikea furniture is to use wood glue in all the dowel pins. With this trick it survives multiple moves for me.

Other people have the same stuff and after 1 move it's loose/wobbly without glue.

<comment><USER8> Applying glue to a pure dowel pin joint isn't a trick; it's how you complete the joint. Some IKEA pieces in fact come with little plastic pockets of glue for this purpose. You should be able to get that free from the store.

The trick is that with IKEA ware, even joints that _in theory_ shouldn't need glue benefit from it. In some pieces, there is some fastener holding parts together, often that silly cam screw which locks onto the head of a pin. Then there are secondary dowel pins that, in theory, reduce a degree of freedom and prevent parts from rotating.

Problem is, those cam lock things are poorly designed. So in fact the joint benefits from glue.

That is not a trick; that's how you complete dowel pin joints in woodworking. If the only thing holding a joint together is dowels, you must glue.

Here is the thing. In some IKEA units, the dowel pins only prevent the rotation of a part, which is held by a metal fastener (e.g. those shit cam screw and lock things). Glue isn't going to do much there, in theory!

In practice, those fasteners are poorly designed garbage, so the glue will help there.

<comment><USER9> Well, it depends. I have an Ikea shelf that is roughly 7' x 7'. If I'd glued the dowels, it probably would be sturdier, but it would also still be stuck in my living room from two apartments back. Without glue, it holds together well enough, and still comes apart when I need it to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As much as Ikea served me well for a period of my life (with some pieces continuing to do so), I wonder what has prevented designers of different styles from copying Ikea's model, which clearly works and scales. I know it isn't that easy, but I feel like there's a gap in the market between say...Ikea, and what I typically consider "mid to high end" Crate & Barrel/West Elm/Pottery Barn/Ethan Allen.

Ikea gets a lot of things right, but if you don't like their aesthetic, you're pretty much out of luck finding something of similar quality for that price point.

<comment><USER11> >I wonder what has prevented designers of different styles from copying Ikea's model, which clearly works and scales.

"Works and scales" may have everything to do with Ikea's shady tax structure[1], not its flat-pack furniture.

[1][https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the- day/...](https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the-day/ikea-is- a-nonprofit-and-yes-thats-every-bit-as-fishy-as-it-sounds)

<comment><USER4> Would you say the same thing about Apple's phones?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Meh. This is just such a small part of it. Where else can you get a decent piece of furniture immediately (3h round trip), be able to transport the thing single-handedly, easily fit it through doors, elevators, stair cases, car hatches and have a good idea what you are getting. I would argue it's ease of sourcing that makes people happy just as much. It goes with the provider instinct.

</comment><comment><USER13> I hate Ikea and everything it represents.

When I make something and look at it I notice every little flaw. When I look at something from IKEA I notice its made of painted compressed particle board and held together with pegs and plastic cam screws.

Maybe people should care about the quality of what they make and how it looks.

<comment><USER4> Why should I care? Its strong enough to hold together, and I get to spend my money on something that matters more to me (such as travel)

<comment><USER14> I agreed.

Funny, it's almost as though not everyone is the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like the theory: labor leads to love.

Would be interesting to see it applied to relationships.

</comment><comment><USER16> This also explains Gentoo users. And, to a lesser extent, *BSD users. The more work you put into compiling, installing and configuring a system, the more attached to it you become.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is a similar phenomenon to the not-invented-here myth.

</comment><comment><USER18> I've had an IKEA Jerker (lol) for almost 15 years and it's an absolute tank.

Some of their stuff is just junk, though.</comment>


Unofficial Ruby coding style guide - clark-kent https://github.com/bbatsov/ruby-style-guide/blob/master/README.md

<comment><AUTHOR> Many comments on this very same project can also be found on its former incarnation:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2987488>

</comment><comment><USER2> ||= Always felt really messy to me. There are cases where its useful, but if you are using it a lot you might want to reconsider.

Otherwise looks good to me :).

<comment><USER3> like any language feature it can be abused, however I find I like it</comment></comment>


LibreOffice leverages Google's OSS-Fuzz to improve quality of office suite - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/Articles/723566/ <comment><USER2> It isn't the presence of bugs that drives me from this suite to MS office. It is the fact that everyone else is using it, and interop is terrible.

<comment><USER3> In big scientific projects we are now using Google Docs.

Although not a totally Open Source workflow, it does provide the possibility of using it in any system we personally work and makes sharing and editing documents from various parties much easier.

For me, this signals a paradigm shift at least in academia where we would normally use open source in various places, but revert to Office to write collaboration documents and proposals (and even scientific papers in some areas like biology).

<comment><USER4> What will happen when Google stops offering that service (like they did with so many others)?

<comment><USER3> We keep all the finished documents in a document managing system in more than one format. There in no danger of loosing those even if google shuts down Google Docs somewhere in the future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> LibreOffice is functional, it does the work. But it still looks substantially like its ancestor Sun StarOffice, and many years have past since then. There are experimental features that enable a "ribbon UI" but they're still in the works.

I was looking into other office suites, other than the known ones such as Calligra suite (formerly KOffice) and GNOME Office, and ran into one called "WPS office", written in Delphi and C++ by a Chinese company called Kingsoft. [http://wps-community.org/](http://wps-community.org/)

The WPS UI looks very polished, I have to say. But I haven't used it much. Does anyone here have any thoughts about it?

<comment><USER6> WPS' UI is polished indeed, with themes and tabs. It's better than LibreOffice for simple documents, but it has quite a few glitches for more "advanced" functionalities (at least on Linux): copying and pasting does weird things, figures aren't handled correctly, etc. It has better Microsoft Office compatibility for old documents, from what I've seen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> link to OSS-Fuzz project [https://github.com/google/oss- fuzz](https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz)

</comment><comment><USER8> Would rather see a good Chrome/VSCode like auto updating. Updating Libre office is a pain especially when you use another language. You are supposed to download and install the new version, run it once, then install the language pack.

Very very end user unfriendly IMHO.

<comment><USER9> If you use a system that requires an auto updater like Windows, then may be it is better if libreoffice can be made in to a store app so that it updates with other such apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm still waiting for someone to make a word process on the level of LibreOffice that will create a markdown document just as easily as it will a .doc and will allow me to convert between the two with ease.

<comment><USER11> Pandoc is pretty close to that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I imagine that LibreOffice's Office binary format code is much different from MS Office's own and probably much more robust to invalid input. Of course, this comes at the cost of compatibility.</comment>


Manifold Garden (Escheresque Puzzle Game) Teaser - <AUTHOR> http://manifold.garden/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me a lot of the game Antichamber: [http://www.antichamber- game.com](http://www.antichamber-game.com)

<comment><USER3> Reminds me more of Monument Valley. Though Antichamber is a better game :-). [http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/](http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Are there any hints as to what the puzzles are?

Also, I only see "impossible architecture" as in very large structures, and floating elements, nothing that plays with perspective like Escher.

I appreciate that a teaser is going to hold back on some information, but I reserve the right to consider being teased a frustrating experience.

<comment><AUTHOR> Submitter here. I twitted the creator in the hope that he'll answer this great question, because I have no idea.

In the meanwhile, seems like the Steam page has some more info?

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing it here!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The music and general aesthetics reminded me of Tranquility:

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

I wonder if this game will have a similar degree of simple mechanics...

</comment><comment><USER7> There's a great GDC talk about level design for this game by its creator [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw)

</comment><comment><USER8> Fyi, William Chyr streams his work on this game on Twitch. [https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr](https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr)

</comment><comment><USER9> I love the shading style - is this simply called 'flat shading'? There's still a subtle gradation. Talking of puzzle 3D games, I really want Portal 3.

<comment><AUTHOR> When I was in highschool I found a demo for a driving game that had a 3D engine based on splines (so all of it vector).

The aesthetics were amazing. This reminds me of them.

I recently spent a whole night googling and eventually traced it to a guy called Zotoaster based on some old gamedevboards.net forum posts, but I contacted him and he says it's all long gone. Not even a screenshot left :-(</comment></comment>


IBM Fired 100k Employees to Make Way for Millennials: Report - <AUTHOR> https://insights.dice.com/2019/08/02/ibm-layoffs-ageism-age-discrimination/ <comment><USER2> Can people please stop using the word Millennials as cheap click-bate?

"IBM Fired 100k Employees to Make Way for People Between 23 and 38" \- that's basically a huge segment of the working population.

<comment><USER3> Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23-38 in 2019) will be considered a Millennial..</comment></comment>


Show HN: Katha – Instagram for Audio - <AUTHOR> http://katha.audio/#1 <comment><USER2> As I page down the site, I see "What's Katha" about 2/3 down one page. On the next page text starts fading in at the top but I can only read the bottom part.

The first time I paged all the way to the bottom, I missed much of the content...and hence your message.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very nice, but high spam potential.

<comment><AUTHOR> what do you mean by high spam potential?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best COA for an exploded sunroof in the UK? - <AUTHOR> I experienced a terrifying event the other day. While driving on a motorway almost as fast as the speed limit, panoramic sunroof of my BMW spontaneously exploded with a huge noise. It's a 3.5 years old SUV, all windows and sunroof closed at the time, everything is factory-fitted and I'm a very cautious and safe driver. Thankfully, I didn't panic and cause a serious accident but instead stayed calm and pulled over.
My car is now in a BMW service pending an initial investigation. Even if the damage is repaired, this is a much more serious problem in my opinion and I will never feel safe in a car with a sunroof from this point.
I am not a British citizen and have lived here for a few years - so friends living in the UK: what would be your best course of action in an event like this? I would highly appreciate any advice you may have!
PS: This is how it looks like just after the incident: https://imgur.com/a/gFVHnCL <comment><USER2> Insurance, call them and let them sort it out. Request a replacement car from BMW until yours is fixed.</comment>


Tell HN: Simple ransom spam results in success - <AUTHOR> So I was going through my spam folder and noticed email below. Essentially, spammer told me they recorded me watching porn and bitcoin address where I should send 650 USD equivalent to erase these records. I was like "what a waste of spam". But then decided to check bitcoin wallet - it actually received about 1500 USD worth of payments - https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17viZFKw1Xn8WQcpC6GwLqjzLTcE7qBJ93
Not sure what to get out of it, but found it is very interesting. Why hijack a computer and encrypt files, when you can just send a spam email and get the same result...
The original email: https://pastebin.com/JhtduV3W <comment><USER2> Has anyone done an analysis of the btc addresses associated with the recent bomb threat spam, to see how much money they received?

ref: [https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+bomb+threat+spam&num...](https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+bomb+threat+spam&num=100&client=ubuntu&hs=GUT&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi187PXi8vfAhVrs1QKHXFFB-4Q_AUIDigB&biw=1412&bih=1023)

</comment><comment><USER3> Now all you need to do is track down who sent the payment, then blackmail them with (1) I know you've been watching porn, and (2) I know you paid somebody off...

</comment><comment><USER4>
      I got a couple of those, both demanding $800.  Maybe the $650 threshold gets a few more hits.</comment>


IOS 6.1 hack lets users see your phone app, place calls - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57569389-37/ios-6.1-hack-lets-users-see-your-phone-app-place-calls/

<comment><USER2> I really don't understand why people keep saying this sounds like an intentional backdoor... it looks a lot more like the ramifications of using an overly complex set of state transitions that end up with a bunch of spaghetti logic strewn between multiple processes and a ton of largely unrelated systems that, if you go through them in the wrong order with outstanding delayed actions (as caused by the animations of that power drop down), lead to an exploitable race condition.

This isn't Apple being nefarious: this is just Apple being "sloppy" (which I put in quotes, as when you have as many engineers as they do working on as many features as they are, with all of the user interface wedged into the same small set of displays, you are going to expect to have at least a few places like this, and honestly Apple generally does really well at avoiding them).

(As a similar example to this, for an unrelated reason, I just spent the last few hours pulling apart how they do the UI z-ordering of the lock screen, and it is a ton of one-off rules like "if I am adding the notification list, and I already have a battery image up, put it over the battery; otherwise, try to find a thermal warning, but first ask if it considers itself important enough to be rendered on top of the notifications; if not, then see if we have a headset charging display, and try to render on top of that...".)

<comment><USER3> Any idea why the status bar turns blue after cancelling a shut down attempt after touching emergency call? Normally status bar changes are for calls/tethering.

<comment><USER4> The Phone app has a blue status bar in iOS 6.

<comment><USER3> You're right! And so does Mail, Settings etc. Never noticed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The best fix will be to include a Emergency.app that displays a num keyboard and it's called from the 'Make an Emergency Call' button, instead of the full Phone.app.

</comment><comment><USER6> The question is how did anyone figure out this method? I know it was first exposed in a similar manner on iOS 4.1 but is there someone deliberately trying to break the passcode lock? Is the recent jailbreak helping?

<comment><USER7> Trying to figure out what difference that makes, or why you bring up jailbreaking at all.

<comment><USER6> Well just out of curiosity. I mentioned the jailbreak because now people can have root access which could be useful, I don't know. Maybe the timing is just an coincident.

<comment><USER2> I believe this bug applies to all devices running 6.1, which includes the iPhone 4; we have a permanent jailbreak for the iPhone 4, due to the limera1n bootloader exploit, and thereby have had people using jailbroken 6.1 iPhone 4's (which are quite popular, even still being sold new) for a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For jailbroken iOS devices, some potential solutions would be to replace the default lockscreen with one of the alternatives, and/or install the Cydia tweak that disables Emergency calls.

</comment><comment><USER9> What are the chances this is a built-in backdoor? Also, what would be the ramifications if someone found out it was?

<comment><USER10> Virtually nil.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Looks like Cnet is having issues. I keep getting "Whoops! You broke the Internet!" on most of their pages.

</comment><comment><USER12> It sounds like a purposely coded backdoor but hopefully I'm wrong.

</comment><comment><USER13> I really don't see what all the fuss is about. It's not like my address book has anything particularly private in it.

<comment><USER14> Well as long as it doesn't affect nwh, I don't see what all those business people, journalists and activists are worried about.</comment></comment>


Single Axis PanGestureRecognizer for iOS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ruiwen/RCDirectionalPanGestureRecognizer

<comment><USER2> Why not just implement the delegate method for whether to begin the gesture recognizer?

It's much cleaner.</comment>


Ask HN: Recommend some good science movie for weekend - <AUTHOR> By science I mean discussing about Space, Time, Biology, Softwares etc. Movies like Inception, martian, A Beautiful Mind etc, In time, Another Earth etc :) <comment><USER2> There aren't enough solid science movies to make a proper recommendation, unless you want to see a documentary.

Anime however, are plenty -

Rocket Girls, Moonlight Mile, the Ghost In The Shell series of films and episodes, Planetes have good science themes that will make you think.</comment>


Want a Great API? Don't Use Goodreads' - <AUTHOR> http://jonathankressaty.com/want-a-great-api-dont-use-goodreads/

<comment><USER2> Couple of points. Could admin update the title to say (2011). Article is still relevant. Just went over the goodreads api and their TOS ([https://www.goodreads.com/api/terms](https://www.goodreads.com/api/terms)), and nothing has really changed. A few more endpoints offer .json as a format choice but a lot are really wonky and have differing api formats from one endpoint to another.

It's surprising. They were acquired by Amazon in 2013. So I guess Amazon has been happy to let the product languish on development side.

Edit - Taking a at their forums for feedback, it seems like Goodreads is in a ripe spot to be outdone by a new read tracking company. Their integration with Kindles make it difficult BUT, while people aren't unhappy, there's a lot that they want added to goodreads. Interesting way to get perspective on what pain points people are having with a product.

<comment><USER3> What would a potential competitor need, data wise? It feels a bit like competing with IMDB, where they have a massive head start, and a pseudo monopoly.

<comment><USER2> Good question. The answers might be here: [http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1-goodreads- feedback](http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1-goodreads-feedback) . A lot of people asking for things for a long time.

[1] List of all feedback topics - [http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/2?group_id=1](http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/2?group_id=1)

[2] Top 10 improvements wanted by community from very recent posting - [http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/17031339-top-10-improvem...](http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/17031339-top-10-improvements- you-d-like-to-see)

[3] List of competitors - [https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/goodreads/competitor...](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/goodreads/competitors)</comment></comment></comment>


It is OK to be a single founder - <AUTHOR> http://readwriteweb.com/start/2010/09/the-case-for-the-single-founde.php

<comment><USER2> Dupe:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1705221></comment>


"It should be noted" and its cousins are the new wasteful phrase of the decade - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=%22It+should+be+noted%22+site%3Aycombinator.com <comment><AUTHOR> Related: "it is important to note", "it is worth noting", and derivatives. [0]

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:It_should_be_noted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:It_should_be_noted)</comment>


It's almost impossible to function without the big five tech giants - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/17/almost-impossible-to-function-without-big-five-tech-giants <comment><USER2> I think it is a symbiotic relationship. We all benefit from Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple. Even facebook. I don't mind using them, thanks to these companies, most of us have jobs. I know it is not common to hear on HN, but I think these companies propelled the technology with or without their evil intends.

<comment><USER3> How do I benefit from Facebook?

I agree that I benefit from Amazon and Apple, but those benefits are mostly luxuries that I can easily live without. I actually can't even buy things on Amazon anymore because the marketplace has become so polluted.

<comment><USER2> Well, for marketers, Facebook was very valuable. I know all about the data and privacy issues, but millions of people made money because of Facebook. I don't like it, I have to.

<comment><USER3> You said that we "all" benefit from Facebook. The vast majority of us are not marketers.

Even for marketers, somehow they got by in the ~5,000 years of civilized history before Facebook began. They still made money without it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Lucerne: A Common Lisp web framework - <AUTHOR> http://eudoxia.me/lucerne/

<comment><USER2> I quite enjoyed learning Scheme at university. Coming from OOP, I loved when it just clicked and you began to look for opportunities to use higher order functions. I never actually used Lisp, so I might try that one with a small project.

For what type of web project could Common Lisp be a good fit? It should probably have something to do with huge lists of data that have to be processed, so that you can map, filter and fold them. The data should be relatively simple to obtain, too, so that the missing libraries are not that huge of a problem.

<comment><USER3> Good Common Lisp doesn't use lists. A Lisp app does nothing like processing lists; in fact, Common Lisp only uses list-processing for processing source- code (aka macros). It is much more like a faster, more functional Ruby or Python in that it uses classes, looping, but encouraging good functional abstractions. Real-world Common Lisp looks nothing like scheme.

<comment><USER2> So what would be a good example use case in your mind?

<comment><USER4> CL is a powerful general purpose language in which you can accomplish much the same things as other programming languages. Where it will really shine is when you benefit from extending the language or environment to suit a domain and then you solve problems of that domain.

Try this as an explanation (and keep reading the book): [http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why- lisp.html](http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I must confess I'm conflicted about this. While it's encouraging that Lisp is being used to build a web framework, this is not a Lispy approach. It's more like Python written in Lisp. In particular the use of Python decorators in Lisp grates.

A more Lisp-native approach could be to use higher order functions in Lisp as well as to use macros instead of adapting Django templates.

</comment><comment><USER6> Seems to be a slight issue with your site on mobiles, somehow your button is overflowing onto a new line: [https://imgrush.com/Qryn4-uvcegH.png](https://imgrush.com/Qryn4-uvcegH.png)

(resolution is 1080x1920, using Firefox on my Android 4.4.4 OnePlus One)

</comment><comment><USER7> Name is uncomfortably close to "Lucene"

<comment><USER8> Agreed. It would also be nice to see a simple snippet of source on the front page similar to Flask[0] or Iron[1]. Perhaps something above or to the right of the "

0: [http://flask.pocoo.org/](http://flask.pocoo.org/)

1: [http://ironframework.io/](http://ironframework.io/)

<comment><USER9> Well, there's kinda an example in the docs [0]. Kinda related: this appears to be built on the Clack webserver and its homepage lists code snippets of Lucerne alternatives that are built on top of Clack as well [1].

[0] [http://eudoxia.me/lucerne/docs/example--a-twitter- clone.html](http://eudoxia.me/lucerne/docs/example--a-twitter-clone.html)

[1] [http://clacklisp.org/](http://clacklisp.org/)

<comment><USER8> I read through the Twitter-clone example in the docs after I posted my comment. The Twitter-clone is a little bit longer than a quick snippet. I just wanted something that showed a route pointing to an index function returning a hello world and a line of code starting the server.

Also, it is definitely Flask inspired. I might have to do a more in depth comparison of the two.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Technical analysis of client identification mechanisms - <AUTHOR> http://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/client-identification-mechanisms <comment><USER2> It's quite funny that a company like Google has both a web security team in charge of squashing fingerprinting methods, and an analytics team in charge of exploiting those very methods to the fullest extent.

Then again it kind of makes sense. Who better knows?

<comment><USER3> Well, I think it honestly harkens back to Google's original "Don't be evil" motto. I think most of the people at Google want to "Do the right thing" as long as they keep their jobs.

They want to find the right balance, the problem is I think a large portion of Google has lost their way in that regard due to the need to make Google more money. If the volume isn't growing fast enough, they have to find newer...higher margin...options to grow.

<comment><USER4> After reading the post I don't think "they had lost their way" instead they are trying to find ways to help everyone involved.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a good guide to some of the ways that evercookie uses to live on even after you've cleared cookies:

[https://github.com/samyk/evercookie](https://github.com/samyk/evercookie)</comment>


Why Leadpages sucks? - <AUTHOR> http://www.montersonbusiness.com/in-english/leadpages-sucks-customer-service/

<comment><USER2> I don't work for and do not have any affiliation with Leadpages, but I have had customers use Leadpages in the past, and have never had a problem with them at all. In fact, I have found their service very helpful and the overall product very nicely designed. There are three issues I see with your complaint.

First, if you had already subscribed a year ago, and didn't like the service, why would you sign up for a 2 year package again? At least if you believed they had improved their service test it for a few months before going all in with a long-term agreement.

Second, not sure which plan you signed up for, but I know with their advanced plans you can upload your own templates to use.

Third, while I will somewhat agree with you that this could probably be handled differently from their side, limiting you to one refund seems somewhat fair to me. Look at it from a service provider perspective. What if every customer signed up for a long-term contract to get the discounted pricing, used the service for 30-days, generated the leads they wanted, and canceled with a refund. Then a few months later signed up again, generated some more leads over 30 days, and canceled again with a refund. The company would never make any money. Unfortunately there is an opportunity to game the system, so limiting the total number of refunds is an appropriate measure for them and I can understand why they do it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi jeff, sorry, but you have some minsunderstanding I think. I use Leadpages to create 5 or 6 things I had delete immediately, I had NO leads with them, none.</comment>


Novell Engineer Blasts Ubuntu for not Helping Linux - <AUTHOR> http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Nerd_Fight!_Novell_Engineer_Blasts_Ubuntu_for_not_Helping_Linux

<comment><USER2> When I was at the last Ubuntu Developer Sprint I was at first a bit surprised that there weren't more prominent OSS people around. Comparatively, Canonical doesn't employ a lot of core developers for OSS projects.

I got the feeling that it was a mix of: that not being part of their core strategy and them being honestly hard to hire. Most core OSS developers aren't out looking for jobs.

</comment><comment><USER3> Canonical is a small loss-making company which has managed to expand their user-base and mind-share at a dramatic rate.

Is it fair to compare directly their contributions with larger long-standing profitable companies like Red Hat or Novell? And is it fair to measure their community involvement on kernel contributions alone when they primarily focus on consumer-facing elements of their distribution?

<comment><USER4> Its not fair when you put it like that, but then canonical are pushing ubuntu as being more important to linux then it currently is. That is fine if it raises the profile and helps linux on the user facing side (a rising tide lifts all ships) but they seem to want to rubbish all the others who are actually doing the work that they use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Crux of the article:

 _If Kroah-Hartman is unhappy that Novell and Red Hat are doing the bulk of the work and Ubuntu is reaping the benefit...._

<comment><USER6> Crux of the problem: "free riding" is part and parcel of open source. And Ubuntu isn't really that bad - they do good work and promote software that's almost entirely free.

<comment><USER5> Ubuntu is by far the best thing to happen to desktop linux. Them & their free cds. Novell has no one to blame but themselves. They should have been paying close attention to Apple all those years.

<comment><USER6> I'm a very happy Ubuntu user, but I can sort of understand the frustration. If everyone did what Canonical did, who would do the work? That's not an entirely solved problem with open source.

<comment><USER5> I'd just leave it to the market. Clearly ubuntu's popularity proves that hacking the kernel is less valuable than cleaning up the UI & novell should have seen this. They're quite free to start selling ubuntu support contracts.

<comment><USER7> I actually think this is a key point: the Linux kernel only provides a small fraction of the utility a Linux user derives from the system as a whole. The work that Canonical does to insure that Ubuntu releases are stable, supported, and documented pays much higher dividends to most users, and does more to attract new users.

Attacking Canonical for not contributing enough to the kernel sounds to me a lot like attacking the members of local Linux user groups for not including enough core kernel hackers in their membership.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In my opinion, Ubuntu is doing a much better job of "helping linux" than any of the other vendors because they've managed to attract something approaching "mainstream" users.</comment>


Are We GUI Yet? - <AUTHOR> https://areweguiyet.com/ <comment><USER2> I have this dream where I'd be able to write an application once in Rust (be it simple game, CRUD, chat, whatever) , target WASM and have users be able to run it (via browser) on desktop, android, or iOS and not have to write the program 4-6 times for different OS's.

However - seeing some people diving into the WASM details makes me wonder whether it will be the way the browser implement WebAssembly that stops us from doing something like this, not rust's lack of a GUI framework.

So far the best I've seen/read on this topic is this session from a Rust meetup where Azriel Hoh walked an audience through what was involved with porting an existing Rust game to webassembly: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YQGwb4_AvA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YQGwb4_AvA)

<comment><USER3> Iced supports the desktop and the web. No mobile support but I don't see why it couldn't. [https://github.com/hecrj/iced](https://github.com/hecrj/iced)

Technically, Qt has bindings and supports them too.

So I don't think your dream is too far off. Though the quality of that level of cross platform might be an issue</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Please rate my GF's startup - <AUTHOR>

My girlfriend does fashion blogging on the side and had been wanting to tag her blog photos for a while. Eventually, she decided it'd make a good service and asked if I could help her code up a site for it. In the past few weekends, we've put this up:
http://tag.loudly.com
For a demo, here's a blog entry where she's using it:
http://www.phosphenefashion.com/2011/02/today.html
Want to try out the actual site? Just use the invite code HACKER or follow this link:
http://tag.loudly.com/welcome?invite_code=HACKER
Anyway, I know the HN community is always ridiculously insightful when asked for its advice, so here I am.
* What do you like and dislike about the service? * How might you extend upon it? * How would you promote it? <comment><AUTHOR> _click, click, click_

<http://tag.loudly.com>

<http://www.phosphenefashion.com/2011/02/today.html>

<http://tag.loudly.com/welcome?invite_code=HACKER>

</comment><comment><USER2> I really like the idea. A couple of initial comments based on a test photo I uploaded straight from my camera (<http://loud.ly/yqyqns>):

I really didn't like having to install a piece of code in my site theme. Although I've done it for this test, I'm effectively giving you a bunch of analytics, and I'm loading JS I don't need on every page. I'd much rather have a single piece of JS (or similar) for each photo that I can just embed. That said, I do very much like that it's not a piece of Flash.

I was expecting to have to drag an area of the photo to begin with, so accidentally created a hotspot in the wrong place. It'd be great to be able to drag existing hotspots around.

Also, you've got this far - why not include buttons to share on Twitter and Facebook? Comments would also be a no-brainer - you could have the comment and share counts next to the "x like this!" hover-over.

<comment><AUTHOR> Because we wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, we choose to for now make the dynamic placement of tags via Javascript the only way to do it for now. However, making a standalone script plus data rich img elements that hold the tag data is definitely on the roadmap.

Thanks for the ideas though - they are going on the backlog!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I actually follow a number of blogs of some of the ladies in my city because they post interesting pictures that give me some inspiration because it's very foreign to the space my head is in all the time. I think they'll love this.

Visually I don't like how bold the boxes are when they show up, it detracts from the image. Would it be possible to either set CSS transparency on them or use a PNG-24 (Not IE6 friendly)? That way they're noticeable but not overpowering.

Otherwise, I like it.

EDIT: How would I promote it? Find some of the other fashion bloggers who have a decent following and try to get them to use it. After getting a few to use it there would be a bit of a network effect. If I were a fashion blogger and saw that on a photo I'd probably try to figure out how to do it. So maybe add a small watermark or something so other bloggers know how to get to you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much for the positive words. We're going to look into making the tag boxes a bit more beautiful.

As far as IE6, what's that? :-P

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Three bug reports:

In Opera 11, the blog post doesn't show tags, but the main site does show tags. This may be the problem @tsanzer was experiencing.

When zooming (ctrl-scrollwheel, e.g.), the tags are not in their correct positions (at least in Chrome).

If I "unhover" sometimes, the application still thinks I'm hovering over the tag. I can reproduce this bug in several ways. For example, hover over a tag, and move the cursor up slowly.

Other comments:

I like that I can hilight a tag's text and even click links!

Flickr (and Facebook) integration would be fantastic!

Service looks really simple and fits a specific need. Don't bloat it too much or it'll lose its elegance.

> How would you promote it?

(Optional?) watermark on images (on hover). Flickr/Facebook integration.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice catch with the zoom bug! I'll have to look into a way to either a) recognize zoom events and reposition the tags or b) from the get-go place tags that play nice with zooming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like the idea; I find it to be simple and compelling. The website has an equally simple and classy look to it.

As a side note, I didn't notice any tags in the photos on the blog post url you provided. Not quite sure why that is.

I agree with the earlier comment that the best way to get this promoted is through some clever networking with popular blogs/writers. They are often highly accessible and are willing to early-adopt a service. And, of course, they will spread the word if the service is good.

</comment><comment><USER6> \- Site is simple and clear. I like.

\- I'd get rid of the Magic, eh? link. Doesn't really relate to the rest of the product and some people probably won't "get it".

\- As for promoting the most obvious thing would be to email a bunch of high profile blogs (that would have use for this) and give it to them. If they use it others will notice. Maybe add a little "powered by loudly" link over the pic.

\- Why the subdomain if the main domain just redirects?

<comment><AUTHOR> We've subdomain-ed the site in case we extend the feature set significantly beyond tagging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Agreed with cschmidt about some visual clues that there are tags on the photos. The site mentioned you'll host the photos uploaded by the users ... is it for free? I'd imagine if the idea takes off this won't be for free for long. From my experience, I know one type of bloggers would love this idea very much ... hand-crafters, e.g. knitters, crocheters, quilters etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's free for now and the plan is to give all our early adopters unlimited accounts.

Later on, we'll set some limits on user accounts, but only if we have to. Sophia's had ideas for monetization from the start, but that said, we want to make sure that enabling our users at no cost remains permanently prioritized over revenue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looking at the photo, there isn't any visible sign that there are tags. I waved my mouse around to find them, but I imagine most people will miss them. Maybe you could have the rectangles initially show, and then fade. I think you need some visual clue.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great idea!

We're also considering making the tag boxes appear on scroll; what do you think?</comment></comment>


Scholars protest over UIUC rescinding job offer of a professor over Israel posts - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/education/illinois-university-prompts-outcry-for-revoking-job-offer-to-professor-in-wake-of-twitter-posts-on-israel.html

<comment><USER2> I'm surprised they offered him a job in the first place; the man is both rude and racist.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh- conspiracy/wp/2014...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh- conspiracy/wp/2014/09/03/steven-salaita-more-than-just-an-obnoxious-tweeter/)</comment>


Tech firms crowd into San Francisco, but it's still no Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/article/3189609/it-industry/tech-firms-crowd-into-san-francisco-but-its-still-no-silicon-valley.html <comment><USER2> "Spurred by tax incentives, Twitter set up its headquarters in the City by the Bay in 2006, and there it remains."

Twitter didn't move into its Midmarket HQ until 2011.</comment>


A Breakthrough for U.S. Troops: Combat-Ready Pizza - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/us/army-pizza-mre-field-rations.html <comment><USER2> I was an intern in that lab more than 20 years ago. I have lots of cool stories from there. The people I worked with were AWESOME! This really surprised me how much they cared about their work with minimal salary and funding.

At the time, one project was to simulate a 30 year shelf life by storing food in a 100 deg F "heat room" for 10 years. Periodically a sample would be taken out for testing (chemical, mechanical and taste). Imagine the taste! The samples were full size recipes but only a small portion of the food was used. The rest was put out on a table just before lunchtime and was available for anyone on the campus to eat. Needless to say, I made it a rule to never eat anything I didn't prepare myself or whitnessed being prepared!

One project I really liked was the desert dehydration project. One scientist was testing how frozen yogurt and ice cream could be dehydrated. Again a full industrial size was made with a soft serve dispenser but only a small portion was used for the tests. All summer an new variety was tested each week. So the scientist incharge scheduled the "sample preparation" every Wednesday at 2pm. There would be a long line ready for the leftovers. Let's just say I whitnessed these being prepared.

<comment><USER3> Do you know if anything fruitful ever came of the dehydration experiment?

FYI it's spelled 'witnessed', no 'h' :)

<comment><USER4> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze- dried_ice_cream](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_ice_cream)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _Soldiers have always groused about their chow, of course. Generations of generals have repeated the adage that armies march on their stomachs, but few ever mentioned taste buds._

Adding to the anecdotes here:

My dad was an E-8 in the army. He told a lot of stories about cutting through the bureaucratic BS to look out for the welfare of his people. He was very savvy about the fact that simply being in charge actively created obstacles to him knowing what was really going on at the lower levels.

One of his stories that sticks with me:

He inspected the chow hall by walking in unannounced and taking the tray from the guy coming off the line, then telling the staff to get the guy a replacement tray post haste so he wasn't unduly screwed over in the process. This meant they couldn't set aside any special cuts of meat or whatever just for The Sarge. He knew he was eating what they ate because he was eating a tray prepared for one of the troops, not for him. He gave them no warning so they couldn't have this day be the day everything was better or whatever.

I'm not convinced MREs are an improvement over the old rations. I've eaten MREs. They are pretty bad. I've heard stories from my dad about the old rations and some of it was apparently okay.

I'm not a fan of microwave meals either. MREs strike me as sort of like that. It is some new fangled means to do x, y or z that actually lowers food quality. Though I have read that in WW2, there were two different bugs that so regularly infested the flour with which biscuits were made for soldiers, that soldiers could tell you which bug they preferred to end up eating because one of them made the biscuits very bitter. So maybe it isn't quite as simple as I like to imagine.

Anyway, this looks like a good thing to me. The article mentions that pizza is "ubiquitous" in the US. That's actually understating it's popularity. From what I gather, it is actually the most widely eaten food globally and they do things like put fish on it in Japan.

<comment><USER6> I was just at a resort hotel in Japan and went over to the pizza bar for some sausage pizza (hopefully) only to find pizza with varieties of fish :( it's actually kind of hard to find really good American style pizza here. The same goes for burgers - everything has weird ingredients, sauces or the meat is not 100% (mixed with some other stuff). Don't get me wrong, the food is amazing, but once in a while I just want some ham and pineapple or meat lovers shitty papa johns, ya know? I would choke a child over some Chicago deep dish right about now.

<comment><USER7> > it's actually kind of hard to find really good American style pizza here

      And when she was good, she was very, very good,
      But when she was bad she was horrid

I have to admit Japan is weird like that. Food is either world class (when they "get it") or it's simply awful (when they don't). There's no good Thai in Tokyo, no good hamburgers, no good Mexican, not even much decent Italian (Saizeriya. Dear God). Not really even any good bread, if you like crusty sourdough.

There's a complicated calculus at work between what the market wants, its expectation when it gets it, and what it will pay. When those factors align you will get absolutely world class food. When they don't, for whatever reason, you get absolutely nonsensical garbage. The best Thai that I know of in Tokyo, a city of 30+ million people, I would equate to a 3rd rate strip mall takeout place in my home country. And yet the crappiest 5-for-100¥ gyouza in Tokyo is better than any gyouza in Australia.

The market drives everything, and the japanese market knows nothing about pizza. I've felt your pain. Eat a lot when you get back home.

update: just noticed that you wanted ham and pineapple pizza. I withdraw my sympathetic remarks. I consider fish pizza an appropriate punishment

<comment><USER8> I had great burgers in Shibuya. Good Pizza in Koenji. Great Italian in Asagaya-kita. McDonalds Roppongi: not so great, but then .. low expectations there. I think it depends where you get out - these are not tourist-type restaurants, but rather novelties for the neighbourhoods.

For sure, stay the heck away from Japanese bread. Worst experience ever: biting into a nice freshly baked roll, to find fish paste where I thought would be some kinda jam. Gross.

Traditional Japanese food, and all the fixings in between, can be very, very good. I loved my Ramen days, my Korean BBQ too. Tokyo food was good for me after a year.

You've gotta get out into the neighborhoods. Same as anywhere, really.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is a great review of the Pizza MRE here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_sY- nJ179U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_sY-nJ179U)

This guy's channel is quite entertaining. He eats really odd stuff, like WWII- era rations.

<comment><USER10> I have wasted more time than I care to admit watching that guy eat all the different MRE's. I think the Canadian MRE's definitely looked like they tasted the best.

<comment><USER11> iirc, he most approves of some of the Australian rations, particularly the CR1M rations. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z8_Xf5tZ5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z8_Xf5tZ5k)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not related to the pizza version but to all MRE's - what if you have a broad food allergy, like lactose or gluten intolerance / allergy? Seems almost impossible to not have those present in these types of food.

<comment><USER13> Then you don't eat the main item, and you go hungry. That's about how it goes. I got vegetarian omelet all the time, it's notoriously gross and runny. You typically don't get to swap if you're less than an E-5. So you just eat the other stuff in the meal or go hungry.

Honestly Basic training with a food allergy, sounds like hell. You're pretty much starving for a month, and you don't get the luxury of choice while eating.

I was a smaller guy when I went through in 2009, and I was required to eat every last thing. I can now eat 3 full meals in less than 2 minutes. But I feel bad for someone who's got an gluten intolerance, because a DS isn't going to take that as an excuse.

<comment><USER14> I'm going to guess that food allergies is something MEPS would catch. As a former grunt I can't see how having a major food allergy would work. There's too much to worry about to also make sure your supply lines also have just the right amount of xyz food intolerant meals. Food prep for patrols was "throw a box of MRE's in the truck and let's go".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> _You've tried the rest, now try the longest-lasting: M.R.E. pizza, developed at an Army laboratory in Natick, Mass., is designed to remain fresh in storage for up to three years._

Fresh? Yah, a lot of words can be used to describe MRE's but "fresh" is not one of them. Even mundane, seemingly easy to store foods, end up tasting terrible and have horrible texture. Most of HN couldn't finish a slice of MRE bread with MRE peanut butter or cheese spread (oh yes we do) on it.

When I got back from Iraq I tried Jiffy for the first time in over a year and couldn't believe how amazing it tasted. I think the words I used to describe MRE peanut butter included "tire rubber".

<comment><USER15> If you got the sugar packet, dump it in the peanut butter packet. Made it go down easier for me, YMMV.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's Not Delivery, It's... Directorate.

(get it? Army's Combat Feeding Directorate, hawwww)

</comment><comment><USER17> If you're really curious and want to try it, you can buy online the same exact pizza portion that's available in the full MRE. [https://www.cabelas.com/product/BRIDGFORD-PEPPERONI-AND- CHEE...](https://www.cabelas.com/product/BRIDGFORD-PEPPERONI-AND-CHEESE- PIZZA/2785435.uts?slotId=0)

</comment><comment><USER18> I do know that posts solely for humour are not really well accepted here but I have to admit that the title really begs to bring up a reference to "Dwarf Bread" from Discworld.

[http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Dwarf_Bread](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Dwarf_Bread)

</comment><comment><USER19> Best thing about the Swiss military is the caffeinated chocolate and cookies [1].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_chocolate_(Switzerlan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_chocolate_\(Switzerland\))

<comment><USER20> "Caffeinated Chocolate"... But doesn't chocolate already contain caffeine?

<comment><USER21> Yes, but this is has additional caffeine added.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Is there a place you can buy MRE's as a civilian? Are they available at any typical military surplus store? I've always had a thing for utilitarian food, I was big into Soylent for a while, and will gladly eat PB&J for lunch every day for months. I'll often ponder that if I could get my energy from a USB charger overnight, I'd prefer to just never eat.

I've always wondered if all the complaints MRE's get are actually because they taste _bad_ , or if most the hate is in the principle of such a food (or the monotony and lack of choice, etc.)

<comment><USER23> Some Amazon sellers carry them. There's also brands like Mountain House that are specifically geared towards campers and don't have the little kick-knacks with them, just the entrees.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There are videos on youtube and elsewhere of people eating the military field rations of their country. Pretty interesting stuff. Some even had packs that would "cook" the food.

</comment><comment><USER25> My Dad used to work for the army as a civilian lorry driver, and frequently brought home the UK 24 hour ration packs (although this is 30 years ago now).

A lot of the stuff in the packs was not too bad. The interesting thing though is the "recipes" that the soldiers come up with by combining items from different packs.

</comment><comment><USER26> >"You have to remember, these were designed to be eaten when you are wet, cold and hungry," said a spokesman for the Combat Feeding Directorate, David Accetta. "They taste better then."

Hunger is the best spice, as they say.</comment>


No Size Fits All: Community Colleges - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/opinion/17brooks.html?_r=1

<comment><USER2> I don't think technology is the answer to a better educated public. Isn't it a simple marketing problem? When Nike wants you to buy a $150 pair of shoes, they get you to think: "all the cool people have them" or "to be cool, you need these shoes." Once there is peer pressure to understand grammar, write well, and know calculus, we will have a better educated populace.

<comment><USER3> I don't really agree with you that it's a marketing problem, but I don't think technology is the answer, either.

Looking at the Digital Bridge Academy's website, it just looks like another way to hold a student's hand.

Community colleges are awesome and serve many much-needed education niches in the U.S. but pushing people through an education that they don't value isn't going to create strong workers, or an educated populace, but simply drive up the minimum education requirements for any job.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, what I really mean is that it's a value system/society/psychology problem. I don't think slick ads for calculus or PSA's will help at all.

We homeschool our children, and rather than ask them to do workbooks, we study grammar and math, and they get educated by being around us, because we put subtle psychological pressure on them to know what we know.

I went to CC, and David is spot on about the eclectic collection of students. I lived in a mountain/resort community, so the CC attracted great instructors, but they still could have done more by having higher expectations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It may be true that most students who drop out do not do so for financial reasons. However, those students who do are fairly easy to help- they simply need more money. Helping the emotionally disengaged is a far harder problem, not one solvable by the government.

</comment><comment><USER5> David Brooks, the great fellater of power.</comment>


How scientific cosmology puts a new twist on the problem of evil (2017) - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/evil-triumphs-in-these-multiverses-and-god-is-powerless <comment><USER2> Question for someone who actually knows the details: do Everett/Tegmark really imply nightmare universes (as the article claims)? Or is this yet another instance of the common misconception that "if there are infinitely many universes, then all conceivable universes are realized" (a conclusion which does not follow from the premise at all!)

And by "imply" I really mean "imply", not "imply with high probability". The latter doesn't really mean very much in a context where anthropic principles apply (and we would be utterly arrogant to pretend to understand the full depths and details which anthropic principles would involve in a multiverse setting)

</comment><comment><USER3> It seems to me this article starts from both an untested speculative hypothesis (infinite multiverse), mixes in some poor theology, and then just babbles on from that point.

</comment><comment><USER4> To be science, a theory needs testable hypotheses and falsifiability. Per my understanding, the multiverse theories have neither. Just because scientists speculate about something, doesn't make it science, just as a lot of Isaac Newton's speculations were not science.

In the Middle Ages, learned people used to debate how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Now they debate multiverses. Neither are really science.

<comment><USER2> Quite right.

Incidentally, you might be interested in a recent paper of mine arguing that one extremely specific type of 'multiverse' (an extremely specific type of our living in a simulation run in a higher universe) is falsifiable. It's a super short paper using a deus-ex-machina you would never guess: soft errors! :) [https://philpapers.org/archive/ALEATO-6.pdf](https://philpapers.org/archive/ALEATO-6.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> if 'you' are attempting to consider a spectra of possible universes, let alone compare them or analyse them on a hypothetical x, y vector of possible outcomes which stretches from now until the end of the "infinite" multiverse; you will fuck it up royally. Infinity is not a mathematical concept, and is instead abstract and used to practically account for unknown variables. While the many worlds interpretation is cool, considering how it actually affects anything we do or how we sit in the universe is a miserably hopeless feat. probably have more luck searching for god in a piece of toast.</comment>


Cryonics included in Numerai employee benefits - <AUTHOR> https://soundcloud.com/twistartups/twist-e729 <comment><USER2> Also in job ad from them: '\- Whole-body preservation cryonics through Alcor. Numerai cares about its employees beyond their legal deaths.'</comment>


Show HN: A Book Published with MkDocs - <AUTHOR> https://krsnagita.github.io <comment><AUTHOR> I will add a formal section of the book as well.

</comment><comment><USER2> Good work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I did a lot of command line pipes and unix tools like sed and awk. It was fun</comment></comment>


Chinese Spyware Pre-Installed on All Samsung Phones (& Tablets) - <AUTHOR> http://reddit.com/r/Android/comments/ektg8u/chinese_spyware_preinstalled_on_all_samsung/ <comment><USER2> Can we see some executable hashes, file names and network activity to prove it?

Also, there is digital surveillance being monetized in iOS and Android phones and tablets innately. Why else would FAANG basically give them away? Calling out one minor company is a drop in the overall bucket.

See also a video on surveillance capitalism: [https://youtu.be/hIXhnWUmMvw](https://youtu.be/hIXhnWUmMvw)</comment>


Drawing Pixels is Hard AKA why HTML5 games probably suck - <AUTHOR> http://www.phoboslab.org/log/2012/09/drawing-pixels-is-hard <comment><AUTHOR> title adapted from this tweet, that is also how I found the article. <https://twitter.com/_AndrewRussell/status/246500090217377792>

</comment><comment><USER2> > I was immediately presented with the challenge of scaling the game screen > while maintaining crisp, clean pixels. This sounds like an easy problem to > solve – after all Flash did this from day one

What the hell? No way did Flash do that from day one. Only since the introduction of frameworks like Flixel has Flash been able to reliably make pixel perfect games. Before then it was a constant fight against subpixels.</comment>


Google's answer to Amazon's Echo is code-named 'Chirp' and is landing soon - <AUTHOR> http://www.recode.net/2016/5/11/11658432/google-chirp-amazon-echo-rival <comment><USER2> But will it integrate with Twitter? (had to do it, with a name like chirp)...

I haven't used any of Amazon's voice products (voice search for firetv, or an echo), so can't compare... with a good connection, I will say Google's has been decent... but they still have a ways to go on giving the correct answer.

<comment><USER3> In Dutch Google's voice recognition is amazing. It's so much better than Siri's and it seems to get better all the time.</comment></comment>


The Structure and Interpretation of the Computer Science Curriculum [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www2.ccs.neu.edu/racket/pubs/jfp2004-fffk.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> I just saw a reference to "How to Design Programs" by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt & Krishnamurthi go by and remembered this paper. It's by HtDP's authors and discusses some of the weaknesses they saw in SICP and why they decided to write a new "standard first year CS curriculum" to replace it.

Worth a read if you're an educational geek, or just sort of wonder what CS professors stay up late thinking about.</comment>


Percona celebrates its 7th-year by giving back to open source - <AUTHOR> http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2013/08/01/percona-celebrates-its-7th-anniversary-by-giving-to-open-source-ecosystem/

<comment><USER2> Man what a fun ride it has been, with Percona 4 or the 7 years and what changes we have seen. Here is to another 7!!!

</comment><comment><USER3> 7 is my favorite (and lucky) number. A huge THANK YOU to the masterminds behind it all. @-->-

</comment><comment><USER4> Happy birthday, Percona!

</comment><comment><USER5> ¡Felicidades! ¡Zorionak!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Happy birthday, Percona!

</comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations, Percona! Cheers to 7 more!

</comment><comment><USER7> Wahoo Percona! 7 years and going strong.

</comment><comment><USER8> Wahoo!! Congratulations Percona.

</comment><comment><USER9> Happy Birthday Percona!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Congrats, Percona! :)

</comment><comment><USER10> Way to go, Percona!

</comment><comment><USER11> Congratulations</comment>


New Apple Leak Reveals iPhone 12 Design Shock - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/09/06/apple-iphone-12-pro-max-mmwave-5g-release-date-iphone-11-pro-max-upgrade/ <comment><USER2> Is there a single millimeter wave 5g network deployed in the US? Honestly don't know, but if there is I hadn't heard of it. I suppose there will be in the future, but people tend to change phones every couple of years anyway, and Apple has always been shy about being on the leading edge of adoption unproven technology.</comment>


When will American banks begin to use BankID? - <AUTHOR> Been reading up on a system called BankID, implemented by Norwegian banks. It's a type of computer chip which contains a random number generator (RNG). They don't publicize the source code, but it bears some resemblance to gambling software.
You set your own PIN code, which must be typed in to retrieve the unique bank-code (changes each time). This may sound confusing at first, but the system is rather clever.
1. You first type in your social security at the bank's log in page.
2.It then asks for your PIN code on the "BankID chip", which in turn provides you with a RNG code.
3. You then finalize it by typing in a personal password on the log in screen.. And voilá.
They also changed it from an all-Java system, to a html5 infrastructure. Apparently it can also be installed on a cellphone.
I really love this device and wish my US bank could offer something similar, besides normal Google 2-FA. The best feature though is this...
Apparently people can also sign loan papers and official documents as if it was a legalized contract. How cool is that? No more paperwork.
We need something like this in the US.
What do you guys think?
Here's one of the sources I came across: https://www.secureidnews.com/news-item/norway-adding-mobile-digital-identity-function-to-its-bankid-program/ <comment><USER2> I think the closest we have to this at the moment is Apple Pay -- and I presume Samsung/Google pay work the same way -- where the card number for a given transaction is changed every X number transactions.

<comment><AUTHOR> So I haven't looked into Apple Pay and the specifics on how it works. What really strikes me as being gamechanger is the ability to sign legal contracts from your own laptop. I've never come across anything like this in the US, where I can accept a loan agreement or something similar from the comfort of my own home.

Maybe this is a business idea to think of for the future.

<comment><AUTHOR> Upon further research, I see that the BankID is provided in two different forms. It seems there is a universal key which can be used to log into most websites, while there's also a private key which will be tied to one specific site. Here's another website with some more info on it:

[https://www.xn--billigeforbruksln-orb.no](https://www.xn--billigeforbruksln- orb.no)</comment></comment></comment>