Race on to build world's first space elevator  - <AUTHOR> http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,24662622-5014239,00.html <comment><USER2> I've always wondered why, if you have a material sufficiently strong to build a space elevator, you don't just use it to wind composite fuel tanks for conventional rockets? At 150 times the tensile strength of steel, for example, you could make a pressure vessel that holds 150 times the pressure that you can with steel. Taking the densities as similar (sigma/rho is the relevant parameter) that should make pressure-fed rockets not just viable, but hugely preferable to turbo-pump-fed systems. It seems like you'd recoup your capital outlay much more quickly, even if you did (eventually) use more material to launch an equivalent mass of payloads.

For reference, in Engines of Creation (iirc), Drexler outlines a personal launch vehicle that weighed ~100 lbs and could lift a single occupant to leo with one stage. I suspect that the guys that finally do build a space elevator are really just going to end up with a nice place from which to watch personal spacecraft launches.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm very happy about the fact that this is inevitable. The first nation to build it will have an order of magnitude if not more of an advantage when it comes to space travel costs.

Not being stuck at the bottom of a deep well is going to be a game changer.

<comment><USER4> I'm still not convinced that it's possible to make the kind of super-long, defect-free nanotube cables that are going to be required. I'll be very happy if I'm proven wrong, but I certainly wouldn't say it was inevitable.

<comment><USER5> You should watch the new episode of Mythbusters called Motorcycle Flip, as the side myth in it is testing if someone can actually escape from jail like some newspapers state the 'facts' like using human hair, bedsheets and toilet paper. As all three get proved plausible, it shows what can be turned into a cable.

When someone can make a rope out of single ply perforated (the easy-rip kind) of toilet paper, I think someone will find a way to make a cable out of nanotubes.

From what I've read of nanotubes, you might not even need an adhesive to hold the cable together as they have high levels of van der Waals force. If you simply splice all the ends together it's possible you'd have the worlds strongest material held together by the universes everlasting and powerful adhesive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you're interested in some commercial companies currently working on this, check out the LiftPort Group. <http://liftport.com>

</comment><comment><USER7> I wonder why Perth? 2000 miles south of Hawaii makes sense since it's near the equator to maximize centrifugal force and tangential velocity during launch, but why Perth?

<comment><USER8> It is more economically feasible to transport materials to Perth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is there anywhere to read about the physics of this for a mechanical dummy?

Specifically I'm wondering, wouldn't the counterweight be pulled toward earth every time we use the elevator? Would we have to continually boost it?

Does the counterweight have to be in a geosync orbit, or the center of mass? If the latter, what keeps the counter weight in geosync?

</comment><comment><USER10> What are the failure modes of this technology? It appeals mosly to SF fans, and every SF fan who has read the Ringworld novels will think of cities crumbled to dust by flailing nanowires...

<comment><USER11> The upper half would fly off, and the lower part would burn up in the atmosphere. I think.

<comment><USER12> I don't think it would burn up because its relative motion to the atmosphere will be zero apart from a relatively small vertical acceleration due to gravity. It would most likely come straight down on top of its base.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Proof of concept at VC pitch meeting: Willy Wonka movie.

</comment><comment><USER14> I have one word. Why?

<comment><USER15> Well there's only one reason for a male to risk death, radiation damage, bone loss, etc & it's not the rocks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> before they make a space elevator, they need to build a proper space station. The current one is tiny. I want something the size of an oil tanker.

<comment><USER17> but it would be much cheaper to build a cruise liner of a space station if we had a space elevator

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> space elevators are at least 50 years away...

we haven't even been back to the moon yet. let's be realistic

<comment><USER19> Space elevators are just one way of avoiding the near exponential nastiness of the rocket equation. We currently have the ability to construct compressive towers that extend beyond the atmosphere. Build several of these, and park an electromagnetic accelerator on top, and you have something that gives you the same economics as the space elevator for a comparable price. The big problem with this scheme: building it would be politically impossible.

<comment><USER3> are you talking about this? <http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0701/0701093.pdf>

<comment><USER19> Not just that. There are more recent calculations involving modern carbon composites somewhere in Google Groups.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


CDC: 5 things cause two-thirds of U.S. deaths - <AUTHOR> http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/01/health/frieden-preventable-deaths/

<comment><AUTHOR> The article links to the full report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,[1] which seems to have trouble loading just now as many people follow this news story, so the Google cached version[2] may be easier for you to access to check the details.

[1] [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6317.pdf](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6317.pdf)

[2] [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6317.pdf)</comment>


Ask HN: Follow my start-up from soup-to-nuts? - <AUTHOR>

My co-founders and I have recently begun work on a new start-up. I've learned so much from the community here, in particular the articles from other start-ups describing their processes and techniques. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to follow a start-up from soup-to-nuts, from the very beginning to wherever it may lead. My team and I are therefore considering journaling openly on a blog about the details of our internal operations and progress, including the type of 'family business' you wouldn't ordinarily be privy to hearing about in a start-up. Before we dive in to this, my question to the community is would this content interest anyone? Could following our progress at a low-level give some color to even less-seasoned founders than ourselves about what goes on and help them in some small way? Thanks for any feedback. <comment><USER2> I think bringing this sort of transparency to a startup could be really interesting, especially to the HN community. Go for it! Even if it ends up failing miserably, it'll be a useful case study into what transparency can do/not do for a startup.

On another note, I remember Kevin Rose saying how he always wanted to put up live web cams at the Digg offices back in the day and basically let the community watch Digg being made. It would be really cool if you guys setup a calendar with your meetings, made it public, and live streamed those with a chat room where the HN community (or anyone else) could literally take part in the discussion and lend a helping hand to the startups creation.

<comment><AUTHOR> These are very interesting thoughts and the feedback from letting the community in on our meetings would obviously benefit us tremendously. If we see some interest on the journaling (and can work up the courage!) we might be inclined to try something like this. Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Sounds very cool but it all depends on your site's audience. If you have a really technical or startup centric site, then that will probably be the best marketing vehicle you could ask for. If the site is geared more for the masses, then taking them behind the scenes could work but you may not want to go into too much details. You might lose them. But, hey, I'd love to read it and I'm sure many would on this site. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER4> You could take it a step further and turn your startup into a reality TV show. Make it something like Jersey Shore mixed with the Apprentice. If you add enough drama and sexual tension it wouldn't really have to be about anything to make it interesting.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like reading these types of blogs, but I find that most people end up quitting after a few weeks. I have about 4-5 on my RSS feeder that posted <10 times then went dead.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think you need to be very careful with this approach. I tend to be very open and tend to wear everything on my sleeve. Some downsides:

People think I am a braggart and a charlatan. I think this is partly due to talking openly about whatever my latest thought/ambition is well before there is anything to show for it. As with anyone, not all my thoughts/ambitions pan out. So I sound like I talk a lot of sh*t and don't deliver. Even in cases where I do deliver, the delivery date may be well after people have grown bored with hearing me talk about it and so it isn't really counted as much.

Security issues: I have recently concluded that laying everything out "in real time" is a security issue in that it gives people too much detailed information about my life. I have concluded it would be better for me to put a little space, time-wise or in some other fashion, between topics on my sites and where I am right this moment.

It leaves you open to personal attacks. I think people are less civil when you are out there with everything. I really don't have an explanation. Just take it as personal observation from someone who has done plenty of "letting it all hang out".

Putting out "family business" creates a real danger that issues you could have resolved privately will become intractable and unresolvable. Letting people "save face" and "forget" is a big part of letting them move on. Putting it all out there so that 10,000 other people know and will continuously remind you can make it impossible to get past something that really shouldn't have been that big of a deal to begin with.

I haven't blogged in real time about stuff in part because I think it makes you less flexible: You told a jillion people you were going to do X so now even though X isn't really a good idea, you feel compelled to go ahead and do it. Since the thing I am tempted to blog about is getting myself well when folks say it cannot be done, my life is literally on the line here. I have concluded it is best to keep my "live"/ongoing problem solving process private and share my conclusions rather than the messy, on-going process.

In the natural world, things gestate in darkness. They do so for a reason. Putting a window in a woman's belly wouldn't benefit the fetus, though I imagine it would make for fascinating viewing. Be very careful you don't kill the baby in the process. I am disinclined to think this is wise. (Feel free to chalk that up to having been burned.)

Peace. And best of luck, whatever you end up doing.

<comment><AUTHOR> All good points here, thanks for the thoughtful comments.</comment></comment>


Grafana 2.5 Released – Cloudwatch support - <AUTHOR> http://grafana.org/blog/2015/10/28/Grafana-2-5-Released.html <comment><USER2> For people who do not know what Grafana is. Grafana is a highly popular open source web application for visualizing time series metrics. Used mainly in infrastructure and application monitoring and analytic's but also in many other areas.

Grafana supports reading metrics from many of the most popular time series databases like Graphite, InfluxDB and OpenTSDB. This release also adds support to use Elasticsearch, Cloudwatch and Prometheus as data sources.

[http://grafana.org](http://grafana.org) to learn more

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow! As a previous AWS engineer I found the default CloudWatch web client terrible. This is a nice alternative.</comment>


Egyptian court bans YouTube for a month - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egyptian-court-bans-youtube-for-a-month/2013/02/09/e1664b6a-72c9-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html

<comment><USER2> I like Hamza Yusuf's take on this matter [1], regarding free speech in the Arab world and in general. I think this is a stupid move on the part of the government. It's making them look like clowns and easily manipulated simpletons.

[1]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE7FZmpVhtA>

<comment><USER3> I don't. He basically invokes the right of people of being offended and demands this right to be protected by law: anti-defamation laws, anti- desecration laws, anti-racism laws, etc.

As a person of Latin American heritage I don't want anyone to be arrested for saying Chicano or Cucaracha. I can handle offenses. Muslims should be able to do the same.

<comment><USER2> I think his main point is that while this country has risen above racial denigration and there are consequences to racial hate speech, there aren't any to religious hate speech. Also, free speech is _restricted_ if it is directed to lead to "imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action" (Brandenburg v. Ohio)[1].

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#United_States>

<comment><USER3> > free speech is restricted

Where I live (Brazil) there are, regrettably, a lot more restrictions to free speech than in the U.S.. But I don't think one error is justification for another one.

> free speech is restricted if it is directed to lead to "imminent lawless > action and is likely to incite or produce such action"

Ok, I can accept this. But I don't understand how mocking a religion leads to "imminent lawless action".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "It seems to me a certainty that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammed and the utter degradation of the Arab women are the outstanding causes for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have been developing."

-General George S. Patton

<comment><USER2> Interesting that you quoted an outspoken racist and anti-semite. I'm guessing you believe in a "clash of civilizations" existential conflict between Muslims and Westerners, right?

<comment><AUTHOR> _Interesting that you quoted an outspoken racist and anti-semite_

\-- Have your read the history of 20th Century Warfare?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> dont like it ? dont watch it. Nobody forces you to watch that video or to read "Mein Kampf" ( though strangely "Mein Kampf" is a best seller in the arab world , like "the protocol of the elders of zion" ... )</comment>


Never build something no body wants to use - <AUTHOR> https://idea-sprout.web.app <comment><USER2> I guess this is a Show HN? Regardless, on mobile this looks downright broken.

<comment><USER3> All I get is a page telling me to sign in with Facebook, Google, etc. That's not gonna happen.

Maybe that's the entire point of the page, and the HN post?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have no idea what it does, no explanation, nothing.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Enables entrepreneurs to quickly and easily validate their startup idea and obtain an initial following.</comment>


Analyzing Code Review Response Times at TrialSpark with GraphQL and Chartify - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/trialspark/analyzing-code-review-response-times-at-trialspark-67af447f97e3 <comment><AUTHOR> Wrote this article because I was inspired by the amount of data the GitHub API gives easy access to and all the sorts of interesting info that can be gleaned from it.

It also raises some interesting questions on how to use this data effectively and responsibly as a tool for reflection on an engineering team's operating methods. I'd love to hear if other engineering teams have gleaned anything interesting about their own methodologies from GH data!</comment>


Uncloaking a Slumlord Conspiracy with Social Network Analysis - <AUTHOR> http://www.orgnet.com/slumlords.html <comment><USER2> We do this kind of analysis where I work for detecting fraud. I can't go into too many details, but I can probably show you a simple example: <http://i.imgur.com/feJLd.png>

This is showing some of the relationships between users in the system. You take a user that you know is dodgy, and then start looking at what they have in common with other users.

Also, slightly offtopic—I open sourced the graph visualisation part: <http://github.com/dhotson/springy>

<comment><USER3> dhoston/springy is awesome !

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ok, I thought that was cool.

Its a bit scary, in that it will force such conspiracies to become more complex (its an arms race after all), and it highlights a 'good' use of an analysis technique which the evil doers can use against their enemies, but still.

<comment><USER5> "Its a bit scary, in that it will force such conspiracies to become more complex (its an arms race after all)"

I'd say rather that it will push smaller players out of this kind of corrupt business. If you can't sell the business to your uncle without someone making the connection, you have to have a wider circle of trusted conspirators. If you're the mafia, that may not be a problem. If you're just a crooked family, you might just go out of business.

<comment><USER6> Exactly. Keeping it in the family allows for easy trust... once that trust-web is exposed, it only leaves those who have heavily invested in "enforced non- traceable trust" (ie, the mafia, etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The diagrams remind me of the hand-drawn ones FBI agent John O'Neill created after the USS Cole incident and continually updated prior to the attacks of 9/11.

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/conne...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/connect.html)

<comment><USER8> Was that the best Frontline ever or what? Thanks.

<comment><USER7> Agree. The independent documentary "The Devil's Miner" about teenage Bolivian miners ranks up there too.

<http://www.thedevilsminer.com/hauptmovie.html>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I guess I'm confused.

I can see how real estate owners and mortgage companies have relationships with each other. (A lot of small owners have investments from family and friends and use a single mortgage financing company with experience closing tough initial investment deals)

What I don't understand is how the social network analysis led to a conviction. What does the connection mean? Can someone else explain it?

<comment><USER10> If you are cited for code violations, then you sell the property to your brother before the deadline to comply, and claim compliance is no longer your problem, that's fraud. This kind of analysis can be used to show a pattern of that kind of fraud.

<comment><USER11> Is the problem that I sold the property before complying, or that I sold it to my brother? What makes selling to my brother any different from selling to a stranger? [supposing we live in different households with independent assets]

<comment><USER12> There was a whole group of people who were doing this constantly. So all the properties stayed within the same group.

Normally, you could sell the property to a stranger... but then you wouldn't be able to benefit from it anymore. This way it "stays in the family."

<comment><USER9> This seems unlikely due to the taxes and paperwork expense of transferring property even with no brokerage fees.

I really don't see how the social network proves wrong doing.

I'm actually worried that an overzealous prosecutor and advocacy group prosecuted people who were not guilty.

Obviously I don't know all the details so maybe they should be convicted, but they weren't provided, so it is hard for me to evaluate.

<comment><USER13> Sham transactions are a common part of financial crimes. Ownership didn't change in fact, just on paper. Linking all the owners together in one family showed that the transactions had no material effect on where the rent and equity money was going.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That was interesting.

If you like this kind of sleuthing and analysis, you'll enjoy <http://sharesleuth.com/> \- Which is a Mark Cuban pet project that investigates shady listed companies in search for shortable targets.

</comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if this type of business behavior explains some of the places in Boston I saw that were always "going out of business" only to reopen the next day, as practical the same thing. There was a rug store on Boylston that was like that. I swear it must have had 10 going out of business sales.

<comment><USER16> In high school I was working at a failing grocery store that decided to go out of business. In the weeks prior to the going out of business sale we marked up everything in the store by at least 33%. Then we had the "sale".

I remember the manager telling me we were making $30,000 a day during the week-long sale. I guess "going out of business" is good business, haha.

<comment><USER17> Yeah, I remember a few years back when a lot of businesses were going out of business reading online accounts of these tactics.

One that especially sticks out is when the Circuit City chain went under. I remember reading about how they brought in an outside company to handle the sales, and the first order of business was to raise all the prices on everything in the store. DVDs that they couldn't sale at $10 were suddenly flying off the shelves at $20 (don't remember the exact numbers).

It makes you realize what a fine line (which each person has to draw for themself) there is between clever marketing and slimy, manipulative tactics.

<comment><USER18> This practice is an interesting play on expectations; namely, that a fire sale implies deep discounts on goods. It is similar to the tactic used at Black Friday at just about every major retailer: have a few major loss-leaders in your ad, and discreetly mark up everything else in the store.

Is this manipulative? I wouldn't call it that, at least not more than any other retail tactic. Consumers have more price information available to them than ever before, yet they are still amazingly susceptible to the idea that they are getting a good deal, nevermind that the widget that they are saving 25% on costs half as much on Amazon. If using psychology as a sales tool is unethical, then the idea of advertisement and "sales" must be as well.

<comment><USER19> Free markets are only efficient if consumers act rationally. In addition to being unethical, manipulative marketing is bad for the economy. It's in everyone's long term interest to regulate false advertising.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "How to research a slumlord", from last year, has a lot more information about the process: <http://drpop.org/2010/04/how-to-research-a-slumlord/>

<comment><USER21> the link's so good it's even included in the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> A similar situation in the state of Texas: multiple units under a condominum regime with a (now majority) owner who wants to buy all remaining units, raze the structures and convert the land to commercial use.

A minority of condo owners want to continue to live in well-maintained condos in a nice part of town where commercial real estate is _very_ expensive.

You guessed it, the majority owner is a shell corporation with the church/school behind it. The majority owner has slowly purchased units, stripped them of utilities and let them lie fallow without renting them.

The subdivision has well-written deed restrictions limiting the land to residential-only use. Commercial entities are specifically disallowed (churches and private schools are commercial entities in Texas). The deed restrictions can be changed only by majority subdivision vote once every 10 years (2020 next vote). The church/school does not own a majority of the land in the subdivision.

Through these shell corporations, the church/school has quietly purchased properties at residential rates in this deed-restricted residential-only subdivision and then converted the land to commercial use (IMO a clear violation of the deed restrictions). Commercial land in the same neighborhood is _very_ expensive. The city is allowed to enforce deed restrictions but is reluctant to do so.

The condo regime requires that units be kept for the welfare of the owners and residents but soon the majority owner will take over the condominium board. Minority owners fear that the majority owner will use the condominium association's powers to drive them out..

To me there appears to be a legal conflict of interest: all condo owners sign an agreement to support the condo regime and the welfare of all owners in perpetuity, yet this particular majority owner seeks to liquidate the condo regime.

Anyone have expertise in handling this type of case in Texas? Or who can direct me to someone familiar with this type of takeover?

What does this have to do with conspiracy? The ties of the church/school to the city government, the local legal community and real estate developers are deep and intricate. Most real estate attorneys we have spoken to have some affiliation with the church/school (which is a very large and very wealthy organization) and cannot or will not sell their services to us. For years the companies that were acquiring units in the condo used multiple shell corporations to do so. It was not clear what was happening until fairly recently.

</comment><comment><USER23> A fun way to explore some (very different) data in a similar manner is to use Palantir's <https://analyzethe.us/> \- the Palantir client is pretty complex but _extremely_ powerful for this kind of social network analysis.

</comment><comment><USER24> It just seems unlikely that every single state will require the actual owner of the LLC to be in public records. If that is the case, good luck finding the owners. Ideally the slumlord will have a different registered agent (person in the relevant state who handles the LLC paperwork) for each LLC and the superintendent only deals with a lawyer. Again, different lawyer for each building/LLC. You can sue the LLC, but the only asset that'd own is the building itself. So, properly done, it seems that slumlords can get away with it. Of course, paying all these lawyers might be more expensive than being a decent landlord, it is probably a lot less work.

I feel like I'm missing some practical uses of knowing the superintendent, local and out-of-state lawyer for each building (or building/LLC combo). I only skimmed the linked How To Research a Slumlord, although the results seems to be "render the LLC useless by suing the actual owner".

</comment><comment><USER25> _As time went on, and the buildings appreciated in value during a real estate boom -- loans from the mortgage company allowed the owners to "strip mine" the equity from the buildings. This is a common slumlord modus operandi -- they suck money out of a building rather than put money back in for maintenance._

Strip mining the equity? It's their building, isn't it? Seems to me that if someone wants to own a pile of cash and a worthless building instead of owning a well-maintained building, that's a business decision they should be entitled to make.

<comment><USER26> Buildings with sewage leaks, inadequate electrical systems, and vermin infestations are a public health hazard, e.g. fires from electrical malfunctions.

Thus, it may be argued that local governments have a legitimate interest in setting minimum property standards.

Typically, owners are given the opportunity to correct violations and fined if they do not.

As fines accumulate, governments will often work with prospective purchasers in order to make transfer of the building's ownership economically viable and provide relief to owners who are unable or unwilling to comply with minimum property standards established by law.

Keep in mind that these buildings are inhabited -- the tenants of these buildings are citizens.

The city government represents their interests - in the US property ceased being the basis for citizenship a number of years ago - and that other citizens are also paying for fire protection and other services which must be rendered by the jurisdiction.

<comment><USER25> _Buildings with sewage leaks, inadequate electrical systems, and vermin infestations are a public health hazard, e.g. fires from electrical malfunctions._

Right, and that's why (most) cities have building codes.

 _Typically, owners are given the opportunity to correct violations and fined if they do not. As fines accumulate, governments will often work with prospective purchasers in order to make transfer of the building's ownership economically viable and provide relief to owners who are unable or unwilling to comply with minimum property standards established by law._

It seems to me that the fundamental problem here is that landlords can dodge fines by selling a building. If the tenants of sub-code buildings received a statutory reduction in rent until the building is back to code requirements, there would be no incentive for landlords to operate sub-code buildings.

The issue of imposing externalities on tenants is, however, entirely orthogonal to the issue of _building equity_ which I was responding to.

<comment><USER27> _Right, and that's why (most) cities have building codes._

Right, and that's why it's only profitable to strip mine for equity if you engage in fraud to avoid the building codes.

<comment><USER28> This shouldn't be an effective strategy. In many municipalities, the code enforcement bureau can record abatement liens, which must be paid before title to the building can transfer.

In some cases, civil penalties enforceable in a court of law may also be applied to the property, which the current owner may disclaim if they existed at the time of purchase (so the prior owner must pay).

See, for example, the FAQ from Sonoma County (outside of SF).

<http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/faq/code-enf.htm>

<comment><USER26> As a practical matter, municipalities often hesitate to encumber problematic properties with large liens because they make transfer of property to a new owner with better promises less economically viable.

The theory that the prior owner must pay, is simply not the case. First because liens run with the land regardless of ownership, and secondly, because a new owner's name cannot be recorded on the deed until the lien is cleared (and thirdly because everything in a real-estate transaction is negotiable).

<comment><USER28> If you read the link, it says that in the case of a civil penalty (not a lien), the prior owner can be excused from paying under some circumstances.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Reminds me of the kind of analysis in [http://www.palantirtech.com/government/analysis- blog/insider...](http://www.palantirtech.com/government/analysis- blog/insiderthreat)

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm no slumlord, but the fact that people can do this analysis with public data does spook me more than a little.

Still, that's good detectivework and a great outcome!

</comment><comment><USER31> And now I want to start a conspiracy. It just looks so cool!

</comment><comment><USER32> Imagine how much easier this is when the subjects _openly declare their connections on Facebook_.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you learn and improve yourself as an experienced developer? - <AUTHOR> How do you learn and improve yourself as an experienced developer? I'm talking about constantly learning any topic that helps you professionally.
I've seen this topic covered superficially by a thousand times, but never by real developers talking from their real habits.
And I've seen that many devs start feeling overwhelmed by information and that they are left behind, without taking any action. It may be a relevant discussion. So
Do you actually learn constantly new stuff related to your profession, from your own initiative? (Every programmer likes to say they continuously learn, but just a few from the ones I've met really do)
Are you doing it in an organised/ planned manner? If yes, what's your structure? (i.e. you might have fixed intervals of time in your calendar when you force yourself to learn or you may just do it when you find some free time at your job)
How do you find motivation? Especially if you already have a good salary, you already are good enough in your field, etc.
How are you choosing what to improve/ what to learn? Do you evaluate and prioritise the topics in any way
And any other related idea/ experience you have, please share and let's discuss it <comment><AUTHOR> Personally, I have tried multiple times to develop learning habits. But I always fail (yes, the literature on this topic hasn't helped me)

Why am I focusing on this? I am really passionate about all the new technologies that appear. I know that from a logical point of view, you shouldn't try to get on every trend, but I really want to get out of my comfort zone and learn a lot of new stuff

</comment><comment><USER2> Real problem is motivation. Try to find a better job? Then we need to push our self for constantly learning.</comment>


Breaking into Chip Design - <AUTHOR> http://insights.dice.com/2015/10/14/breaking-into-chip-design/ <comment><USER2> Yes, Apple is hiring for silicon design and verification positions.</comment>


Ask HN: How best to heal your body? - <AUTHOR> I've moaned in the past at off topic posts on hn, so feel slightly guilty that I'm now asking for similar slightly off topic advice, but here goes. Hope you think of it as being in the "body hacks" bucket. I really value the advice you guys give, so any would be really great on this question.
I broke my hip on Thursday whilst skating, and it's going to be a long recovery (3-6 months). What things should I do? Has anyone here had a long recovery from something?
Things I've started thinking about:
* Should I modify my diet to make sure I'm getting 100% of the nutrients, calcium etc needed to fix bones quick? Any particular things you think are really important? I've read some places that a balanced diet is more useful than a calcium rich diet? Also read that caffeine is bad since it can make you loose Calcium?
* Should I do regular gentle exercise, or mainly rest :/
(Tech details: I had a dynamic hip screw+plate for a Intertrochanteric Hip Fracture)
Oh and while we're at it, is there any device I could buy to watch the bones healing (X-Ray add-on for my camera? Perhaps not X-Ray since it's harmful if used too much? Any other technology?). Watching a time lapse video of my hip healing would be simply awesome :) Or at least would give me something to do and focus on for the months ahead... <comment><USER2> I have had 2 major neck operations due to 3 fractured vertebrae so...

Listen to your doctors and your physical therapists. I did lots of fiction reading and exercised like hell when I was allowed / needed to. Eat healthy, like you normally would even without a fractured hip (although your doctors probably recommended supplements). Do activities that bring a smile to your face.

Bottom line: let your body heal naturally, don't worry too much and as most of the comments here have said, be patient.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can learn a lot about your body while your recovering. This will help you understand the objective of the physical therapy exercises that you'll be doing when your injury has healed to that point. Also you'll understand how better balance and just being in better shape can stop you from getting re- injured.

There are also strength coaches who can give you specific rehabilitative exercises that your therapist might not know about. If you read the work done by Mike Boyle and Mike Robertson, you'll get an idea. You could even email them and ask what all you could do to fix your hip faster.

I bought a few anatomy books and listened to a lot of different lectures on the knee till I realised that glue+hamstring strength decreases the pressure on the patella tendon (which I had torn). And then I created my own exercises till I'm pretty much healed now.

Its a long process but I feel that the appreciation you get for fitness from this will help you for the rest of your life.

</comment><comment><USER4> Patience is indeed key.

I've had several sports related injuries over the years; two things have always caused problems for me:

1\. my impatience to get back into the swing of things too soon

2\. not listening to the physiotherapist/doctor/rehab personnel

The above two points combined together caused me to start doing activities that I shouldn't be doing far too soon after the injury and not do enough of the (prescribed) activities that I should have been doing for long enough after the injury.

While I'm now mobile, I can't do many of my favorite sports/activities anymore - hindsight is 20/20, naturally.

I just wish I'd been more patient, receptive to advice and persistent. Live and learn.

</comment><comment><USER5> Not sure what your eating habits are but I went from 140 => 200 pounds when I spent a year mostly in bed (my eating habits were not too healthy to begin with).

Make sure your activity/eating ratio is adjusted as necessary.

<comment><USER6> I am recovering from a back injury, which started with a couple of days in bed, unable to even get up to go to the bathroom. I'm still dealing with pain even over a month after.

I recommend: eating Food, as in Michael Pollan's books. Eggs. Milk. Broccoli. Green Beans. Bananas, Strawberries, Fruit of all kinds. (Wash and freeze strawberries split in half for a convenient low calorie snack.) Produce. Steaming is fast and easy for moderate portions. Oatmeal -- the one food you can eat that doesn't rot. (Actually, of all grains, Oats rot the fastest, because they have high fat and protein content.)

I think the eggs and milk have helped me the most.

Also: be mean to your equipment if you can be kind to your body by doing so. And don't be afraid to pony up for the equipment you need, if it means you can protect your injury. Research to get the best quality and price, but don't delay it and let your body soak up wear it doesn't need. Amazon can be your friend, especially if it's hard to get out of the house.

Lastly: be polite and reasonable, but firm and gently insistent when dealing with medical personnel. You need to be your own advocate. Think ahead. Cover implications and contingencies. Ask. Think about the implications of the bureaucratic machinery, and point them out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> In 2007 I was involved in a major automobile accident. I fractured my neck at C6-C7 and completely shattered my right leg just above the ankle. I broke both bones completely, resulting in having a rod and screws implanted in the bone.

It was 12 weeks with the neck brace on, and 14 weeks before I could walk unassisted with a cane. Full healing and recovery took even longer then that.

The first thing you need to realize is that you don't have to hack your body - based on your tech details the doctors have already done that for you. Welcome to the bionic club! The practice of medicine in general is akin to hacking - it either helps the body do something better, or coaxes it into doing something it wouldn't otherwise do.

Your diet should be as normal and healthy as it can be. You don't need to do anything special. If something was out of whack that you needed, it would probably be detected by now. I was low on potassium and sodium after my emergency surgery and they wouldn't let me leave until it was corrected. FYI - IV potassium burns :).

Your physical therapist can assist you with exercise. In general they'll want you to do a variety of things in the office and give you some exercises for daily homework. Do them! Your therapist should be able to put together some appropriate exercises if you want to go beyond the basics.

The most important thing for you right now is to be extremely comfortable with your doctors and physical therapist. You need to be able to tell them everything and anything without fear or embarrassment. Sometimes the best test a doctor can do is to ask what you are feeling, and pushing through the pain in PT doesn't make you a hero. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Be careful with painkillers. They are important, but they can be addictive. It might not be a bad idea to have someone keep an eye on the bottle and make sure you stay within the prescribed limits.

I'm not sure what devices you could use to watch yourself heal, but you can probably get your X-Rays and other test images on CD when they are taken. I've even got a bunch of physical X-Ray, CT and MRI films.

To help heal my leg, which broke in a spot at great risk for nonunion, they put me on an ultrasound bone healer. Nifty little gadget - I still have it!

[http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/portable-bone-healing- sys...](http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/portable-bone-healing-system-gets- fda-nod/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Good lord, that sounds painful. Hopefully you have a rapid recovery.

Your doctor is probably the best source of information regarding exercise.

As far as your diet is concerned, you should just focus on eating as healthily as you can. Your body is going to heal itself at it's own pace; assuming your normal state is not one of malnourishment, you should be planning for what happens towards the end of your healing process. By that, I mean you're going to be largely immobilized (I assume) from this injury, so the best you can really do for yourself is to try to keep your overall health up in a general sense.

I wouldn't focus on calcium rich diets versus a balanced diet - a balanced diet is almost always better, and then you don't end up with follow-on side effects of drastic diet.

Beyond that, all I can recommend is you follow the advice of your physical therapist. They make not sound logical, but they're good at what they do.

</comment><comment><USER9> The best you can probably do now is eat well and rest. I hurt my tendons quite a bit and I know for bones and connective tissue, you can't do much better than rest.

edit: and I hope you feel better. I'm sure we can expect more activity from you now.. or more frequent updates to mibbit :P

</comment><comment><USER10> Since physical health directly relates to our performance as well as well being, I don't see this topic as at all off-topic.

From another perspective, many people "hack" their health. It seems a worthy topic.

</comment><comment><USER11> If you are going to be mostly immobilized the most likely potential problem is gaining weight. Be very careful not to eat more than you need (be especially careful about snacking from boredom). I speak from experience when I say not gaining weight in the first place is a LOT easier than losing it later.

</comment><comment><USER12> No.

Probably almost nothing you can do can make you heal faster. You can make it heal slower, however, pretty easily (say, by breaking it again!) but it's hard to beat millions of years of evolution with only a few hundred years of medical science.

</comment><comment><USER13> Please do not try any X-Ray experiments on yourself, unless you want to neuter yourself!

As regards to dieting go with what your body tells you it wants to eat. As to focus learn a new computer language or contribute code to an open source project.

</comment><comment><USER14> "Or at least would give me something to do"

I don't think it will heal so fast that you can actually watch it live ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> A watched kettle never boils eh :( true.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Just be patient, good luck. Don't break it again in the same way.</comment>


TayPO, a Unifying Framework for Reinforcement Learning - <AUTHOR> https://syncedreview.com/2020/07/14/introducing-taypo-a-unifying-framework-for-reinforcement-learning/ <comment><USER2> Was looking for code for this, but looks like nothing published.</comment>


Ask HN: I cannot stop pursuing ideas and it's ruining my life - <AUTHOR> Some ideas can be so strong, so compelling, that you want to neglect everything to realize them even if you know that doing so will further isolate you socially and provide no financial upside. I feel there are only so many years living this lifestyle until I have passed the point of no return.<p>Have any of you dealt with similar themes? How do you moderate yourself? <comment><USER3> Aside from the fact all of my side projects are currently abandoned (in search of wellness).

I use Trello, and have found organising ideas by value and difficulty has eased the burden of having 100+ side projects.

So.. I have multiple columns identifying which projects I will work on: "backlog", "will do", "won't do", "in progress", and "finished".

The "tickets" are also colour coded by difficulty: green - easy, orange - <USER2> days/week, red - few weeks/months.

Depending on how much time I think I will have free in the next few weeks, I pick a difficulty, and will only work on ONE project at a time (This is the only rule that stops me picking things up then abandoning it half way through).

I haven't been doing red projects in the past few months as they require more energy than I currently have, the green ones are the most fun, usually done in a night or a weekend, then I will not start another project until the next week to give myself a rest.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you're looking for a word to describe this frame of mind, you seem to be describing hyperfocus. People with ADHD deal with it pretty much constantly, but there are many other conditions with this exact symptom. OCD, which only superficially looks like the polar opposite of ADHD, is a major one.

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

Yes, the wiki says OCD is _not_ hyperfocus. But down to the grit, ADHD and OCD are differing responses to focusing on the order of far too many things, at the expense of everything else. Just wanted to add that in here because although they sound exclusive when worded a certain way, they aren't.

<comment><USER5> What he's describing doesn't sound like a symptom of OCD at all.

Source: I have a diagnosed OCD so quite familiar with the common symptoms.

<comment><USER6> One of my pet hates is the old "I'm so OCD, I just _have_ to have a clean desk"

<comment><USER4> Same goes for ASD and Aspergers, or whatever other uninformed self-diagnosis is popular today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think at a certain point you can only really act on <10 ideas and see them through in your entire lifetime. I would probably only give credence to ones that you think you'll realistically spend 10 years on. Even if you don't end up doing so, it's a pretty strong filter to get rid of junk.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm in a similar boat. My whole life I've been an idea _factory_. The trade- off for me has been that summoning the focus required to implement anything myself is like pulling teeth, let alone choosing which idea to implement in the first place. Despite this I'm just as capable as any other developer, but like you getting my priorities in order has proven difficult.

In fact, I've spent the past six years of my life working towards an idea that's largely consumed me. It started small and expanded in scope to something best described as a blueprint for a future FAANG-scale company. Yet I'm as far away from realizing the idea as ever, and I've paid an enormous social and financial price for allocating so much time in pursuit of it.

Pursuing such things is best done with solid financial, emotional and social footing. I had very little of those when I started, and I basically buckled under the weight of them by the end. It's like taking a road trip, if your emotional gas tank is half empty when you start, you're going to be pushing your car across the desert in the end.

The upshot is I've now found an overriding purpose to my life, but ironically that purpose is now requiring me to think more instrumentally than ever.

That means getting a job or otherwise making money, giving my love life more attention, whatever I can do to make myself happy and financially stable. After so many years I've come to realize that you can't do great work if you ain't happy. Likewise being crushed under financial pressure. In practice, the mythology of a lone badass being driven by sheer will only goes so far.

> _I feel there are only so many years living this lifestyle until I have > passed the point of no return._

I can't speak to your situation, but it sounds like you may need to pull the same eject handle I did. The thing about ejecting is it allows you to avoid crashing and burning, only to fly another day.

There's no shame in it, and it doesn't mean you failed. On the contrary it's only the beginning. It took me forever to realize this.

Good luck.

<comment><USER9> > After so many years I've come to realize that you can't do great work if you > ain't happy.

I don't think that's true. Many of the greatest creators were miserable through most of their life.

<comment><USER8> Good point. Some of my best work has been while miserable, though I wouldn't call it sustainable. It ultimately depends on the person.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Let me know what you think of this:

Use some resources from those with expertise to evaluate your idea. Hopefully it helps interact with your ideas really thoroughly and brings you peace in filtering out ideas (and identifying the really good ones):

Harvard Innovations Lab: Ideation framework with Josh Wexler (2013) [https://youtu.be/0zCtHDPRlog](https://youtu.be/0zCtHDPRlog) Follow along with your own idea in mind instead of the example given.

Start up school: How to Evaluate Ideas , pt. 1(2019) [https://www.startupschool.org/videos/62](https://www.startupschool.org/videos/62)

</comment><comment><USER11> Find a job that pays you an acceptable wage and then you can work on your ideas exactly as you see fit.

I was doomed to a similar fate. I simply do not have the focus and tenacity required to be a businessman, so I took the easier route of selling my labor and my free time is reserved for my hobbies and passion projects.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER12> Getting a low stress job as a hedge and spending the rest of my free time aggressively pursuing my ideas.

<comment><USER13> good

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Warren Buffet's theory.

Write down the top 25 ideas you have.

Now choose the top 5, most important ones. The absolute best.

Now cross out the other 20. They're distracting you from the ones you should be focusing on.

<comment><USER15> I love the advice and idea, but this reminded me of an excerpt from The Third Door by Alex Banayan.

"Mr. Buffett, I've heard that one of your ways of focusing your energy is that you write down the 25 things you want to achieve, choose the top five and then avoid the bottom 20. I'm really curious how you came up with this and what other methods you use for prioritizing your desires?"

Buffett chuckled, responding, "Well, I'm actually more curious about how you came up with it." The audience erupted in laughter.

Buffett proceeded to explain that both he and Munger live very simple lives, and are not disciplined enough to approach decision-making in that way. "I can't recall making a list in my life," said Buffett.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> idea_heroin... love the name.

I'll try and approach this objectively (since I also start tonnes of projects with no financial upside).

Consider that there are millions of ideas out there and most will never _ever_ be realised. You _CANNOT DO THEM ALL_... so you will need to prioritise what ideas are _worth_ working on. The criteria you choose is up to you; financial gain, social gain... just thinking about this is a good way to moderate yourself.

 _There are a finite number of keystrokes left in your hands before you die._ \- [1] Scott Hanselman

[1] [https://www.hanselman.com/blog/DoTheyDeserveTheGiftOfYourKey...](https://www.hanselman.com/blog/DoTheyDeserveTheGiftOfYourKeystrokes.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER17> Reframe what you consider a project. Learning to do trades is a project. Picking up hobbies is a project. Volunteering is a project. Diversify your projects

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm trying to evaluate the potential of each idea and really commit to the most promising one for a sometime, then iterate :)

</comment><comment><USER19> I keep this in mind:

'Starting an idea is easy. What matters is finishing it.'

</comment><comment><USER20> it may be hypomania. Please seek professional help.

</comment><comment><USER21> It depends _which_ ideas. Gandhi, and Hitler, might've felt the same thing. Are the 'ideas' making the world a better place, or not? Are they attached to some worthwhile goal? A goal needn't be attainable to be worthwhile; the greatest ones aren't. (I wonder why you didn't mention actually what they are, at all.)

</comment><comment><USER22> hallo</comment>


Mosified - <AUTHOR> http://www.mosified.com Check this out... looking for investors to build and early adopters to get feedback <comment><AUTHOR> Would you like to participate as an angel investor to make this Startup a reality?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Would you like to participate as a Mobile/Web Developer or Graphic Designer?</comment>


Attacking Ruby on Rails applications (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://phrack.org/issues/69/12.html#article <comment><USER2> I remember reading this when I was the sole Infrastructure Engineer for Reverb.com. I knew we were being attacked and I knew we had issues but I didn't have any idea where to start. This article sparked my interested in Cyber Security and helped me find a bug in the website that allowed me to set the CEO's credit card as a primary card on my account in production. That was an amazing day.

All I had to do was modify a post parameter in flight and the backend would accept it. Turns out this is what is known as an "unscoped find". More info here: [https://brakemanscanner.org/docs/warning_types/unscoped_find...](https://brakemanscanner.org/docs/warning_types/unscoped_find/)

Thanks to the author of the article for inspiring me to dig in the rails codebase and find vulnerable patterns that I could exploit. Thankfully I was able to pivot into a cyber security focused career and I credit this article for starting me down that path.

Rails has a few things going for it that other languages and frameworks don't but it still lets you shoot yourself in the foot if you're not careful. I ended up writing a blog article about preventing XSS in rails as a direct inspiration from the OPs article: [https://product.reverb.com/stay-safe-while- using-html-safe-i...](https://product.reverb.com/stay-safe-while-using-html- safe-in-rails-9e368836fac1?gi=9bcb3cdf5726)

Just because this article is old doesn't mean it's not useful. Thanks for posting!

<comment><USER3> The unscoped find issue is fairly easily solved by using devise's current_user in combination with something like cancancan. Let them send anything as a param but have the controller blow up if the user doesn't have permission to access it.

I suspect an insane number of websites are validated only by the frontend and can be exploited like this.

<comment><USER2> You'd suspect right :) I've had a huge number of bounties from this as a result of finding the pattern first on Reverb.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you're using Ruby on Rails, you should be using a static code analyzer to look for vulnerabilities. Please take a look at Railroader, an OSS tool I maintain that does this (and contributors are wanted!): [https://railroader.org/](https://railroader.org/)

I recommend that you also use a web application scanner like OWASP ZAP and something to scan your dependencies for known vulnerabilities (e.g., bundle audit or GitHub's scanner).

That is in addition to normal software development tools like a style checker (like Rubocop) and a test suite with good coverage (e.g., minitest).

If you develop software, it's going to get attacked. There are some pretty straightforward ways to help resist attacks, but you have to use them.

<comment><USER3> Static code analyzers don't seem to find too much interesting in my experience. They could basically only find string interpol in queries and uses of constantize. Ruby is just too dynamic to find any really interesting issues.

<comment><USER5> Really? I find that brakeman is a pretty amazing tool which finds a number of surprising issues. Of course, these days the vast majority of Rails apps already have brakeman set up, so it's used more as part of the commit process and less of a "wow, here's a few dozen potentially high-impact web vulns". I wouldn't hesitate to say that it's the most high-signal SCA tool I've used across any language/framework.

(source: a few years of webapp pentesting and Rails app dev)

<comment><USER3> I ran brakeman on our app and it found a bunch of things that were almost vulnerabilities because it was unable to work out the source of some data going in to a potentially unsafe function but after I inspected all of them, none of them were actual vulnerabilities. Meanwhile a bunch of real issues go undetected that could have been spotted in a language like rust.

<comment><USER6> [https://github.com/presidentbeef/brakeman](https://github.com/presidentbeef/brakeman)

link to mentioned app for those interested.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I suppose this is good, since this document was written for Rails 3 and Ruby 1.x; the author mentions that most of the attack vectors stopped working by Rails 4.1.

We're now well into Rails 6 and Ruby 2.x is in its last year before 3.x rolls out. So far the sky hasn't fallen.

</comment><comment><USER8> I like the format of this post very much. Plain text yet clean and navigatable. Is there any tool for this?

<comment><USER9> No. It's plain text

<comment><USER10> I think you've missed the point of what they were asking... which is probably if there are tools to facilitate authoring and publishing in plain text.

<comment><USER11> The year is 2020, developers demand decent tooling for authoring and publishing plaintext.

<comment><USER12> Pretty sure anyone working in plaintext is using something better than ed or similar. emacs, vim, and many others are plaintext editors. It's not hard to imagine we can come up with even better tools for it as well.

<comment><USER13> I suspect the best of those tools will be called Emacs and vim for some more decades.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is from 2016

<comment><USER15> Added above. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I figure, if you ever want to attack a Rails app (white hat on), go through the CVE list and try every vulnerability. There's been so many with exploit codes and it's dubious that every single service is patched.

<comment><USER7> I figure, if you want to attack literally any app, go through the CVE and try every vulnerability.

I don't think it's defensible to claim that Rails itself is inherently more vulnerable than other similar systems. If you disagree, feel free to cite references.

<comment><USER10> The question isn't whether a framework is or is not more vulnerable than other similar systems.

It is whether using that framework <dis/en>courages developer behavior that produces more or less vulnerabilities.

Ruby in general almost certainly does encourage dangerous developer patterns, however I doubt that's the case for Rails in particular as it has largely been practically a DSL for nearly a decade.

As a corollary of "convention over configuration" and dominant patterns in popular accessory frameworks however, this only applies so long as you don't try to be too clever.

<comment><USER7> I would genuinely appreciate cited references to back up your assertion that Rails almost certainly does encourage dangerous developer patterns.

I'm not trying to be pedantic; I do hear this sort of claim a lot but when pressed people rarely have anything more than pearl clutching about various metaprogramming capabilities that rarely get used outside of blog posts.

In other words, just because you can redefine + doesn't mean everyone is doing that in production code. :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do we know enough to guess the purpose? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> Apparently man has long wanted to know about the universe, God as maker of the universe, etc.

Well, now we know much more about the universe, our solar system, earth, and life on earth than just 100 years ago.

Here is a little of what we know:

At

[http://www.askamathematician.com/2017/06/q-where-is-the- midd...](http://www.askamathematician.com/2017/06/q-where-is-the-middle-of- nowhere/)

is

Q: Where is the middle of nowhere?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by The Physicist

with at

[http://www.askamathematician.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/06/...](http://www.askamathematician.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/06/Nearsc.jpg)

a map, amazing, of our local universe, within about 500 million light years from earth.

Amazingly there are large voids. Can see several voids 100+ million light years across on the map. Off the map there are voids maybe 1 billion light years across; considering that the big bang was about 13.7 billion years ago, a void 1 billion light years across is surprisingly large. Where there are stars and galaxies, there are strings, sheets, walls, etc.

Weird stuff.

But we know much more than in such a map.

We must ask:

Q 1. What the heck was the propose of creating the universe?

Q 2. Then we ask, do we know enough now to start to guess a purpose?

Maybe the most amazing thing we know about so far in the universe is human life. Well, even if human life now is a bit messy to serve as a guess of the purpose of the universe, the amazing parts of human life have increased a lot in just the last 100 years.

So, we ask,

Q 3. Give human life another short time to develop, say, another 100 million years, what might human life be, how knowledgeable, powerful, advanced, amazing, and then ask if that state of human life could be a guess at a purpose?

Note: So far it appears that there were some physical laws. Somehow they were _enforced_. Then someone clicked on the button "Big Bang", essentially left hands off, and let just the physical laws -- the same ones without any changes -- take over from there. Amazing.

Guess 1: Maybe the purpose is just for the universe, i.e., humans, to discover the physical laws.

Note: So far it appears that humans are quite strongly locked into the universe and, in particular, just our local part of it. With the amount of energy required for space travel and the speed of light speed limit, it's tough to see how humans could explore more than just a tiny fraction of the total: Yes, I know, humans could start colonizing and eventually have descendants explore and/or colonize our galaxy all in a reasonable interval of time, say, 1 billion years.

That given, for humans to explore the whole universe looks like one heck of a challenge.

So, it appears that humans are locked in.

Guess 2: Maybe the purpose is to see if humans can get out of being locked in, to explore and understand the whole universe, what made it, how it's made, how the physical laws get enforced, how space can expand, etc.

Q 4. As we look at the data and understanding we have so far, e.g., that map above, the standard model of physics, the 3 K background radiation, and much more, can we get some good hints about the purpose?</comment>


What's in a name?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/10/urban_economics

<comment><USER2> ??? why pointing out such article?</comment>


My weekend hacking project: a Facebook friend meme generator - <AUTHOR> http://memify.me/

<comment><USER2> Can't really comment, it seems to require I login just to even browse the site.

I'm always a little bit put-off in having to divulge any info just to get a basic feel of a "casual" site like this. Ideally I'd be able to at least browse some other pics or something.

<comment><AUTHOR> The browse page looks at pictures your friends have made. I was thinking about adding up/downvote ability so I could have a universal browse page, but I have some hangups about letting anyone view memes people have made of you since you didn't consent to your picture being on the site per se. I chose the cautious route.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'll confess - I'm not a design guy. I wanted to get the site functional and then worry about it. I really think the design is the site's only weakness.

How can I improve it? What would you add? What would you take away?

<comment><USER3> Actually no, I like the design. It's very Facebook-ish and fits perfectly. The red is nice, given Valentine's day and all, heh.

Well done :)</comment></comment>


Chinese scientists genetically modify human embryos - <AUTHOR> http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-genetically-modify-human-embryos-1.17378

<comment><USER2> I am all for gene editing, even on viable embryos.

Only issue I have concerns for is not knowing the long term ramifications of genetic mutations of human embryos.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well that issue is the whole ethical concern and restraint for not experimenting in humans,

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _" In the paper, researchers led by Junjiu Huang, a gene-function researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, tried to head off such concerns by using 'non-viable' embryos, which cannot result in a live birth, that were obtained from local fertility clinics."_

where are the non-viable embryos coming from?</comment>


Good Salary for a Sr Mobile Developer (iOS, Web, Android) position? - <AUTHOR>

I was extended a verbal offer of $80k a year with full benefits and $16k stock option (25% vested 1st year then mth to mth). The company is a startup in bootstrap mode with a few million dollars fund located in Chicago. The offer is at the lower end of the salary range in the job description.
From my understanding, there are at least a couple of recruiters in the process. May be they got a cut out of this.
Is this a decent/good/low offer for position like this in Chicago? How much should I counter?
I don't understand much about stock option. Could someone care to explain? How can I cash out vested stock options if the company never goes public or sold?
Thanks <comment><USER2> That base is too low to consider for that position (Also, what is the strike price of the options?). I don't know your personal situation and how badly you need the job but even outside of silicon valley I think it's low and would not consider anything less than 100k. If you can stand to walk away I'd counter with 120k at least. Recruter friends of mine are placing people at 120-150k all the time for that role here in California. Ping me via email if you want to chat off list.

EDIT: If they can't afford to pay market rates and you really really like the company then they need to come legit with serious equity but I would never play that game. Market rates or GTFO.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply guy. Well the max of the salary range on the job description is $110k. I'm not in the situation that I have to take the job. I'm just trying to find out the reasonable counter offer. According to CNN Money $80k in Chicago = $113k in SF.

[http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of- living/](http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/)

</comment><comment><USER3> If the company never is sold and never goes public, you will likely be holding worthless options. That's the risk you take with startups. Also, imho, if the offer is not written, there is no offer.

</comment><comment><USER4> The salary is too low for Chicago. I've seen $100K+ in Minneapolis. In the Bay Area and NYC it's $120K to $150K.</comment>


Can we use Toph in  headline? - <AUTHOR>

Just a quick test to see if we can use the name "Toppenish" in a HN headline ... <comment><USER2> Yes, we can refer to Dave Eggers's younger brother in a HN headline. And in a comment we can link to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem> (= <http://en.wikipedia.org/?oldid=536692814>)</comment>


Firefly III – Self-hosted financial manager - <AUTHOR> https://firefly-iii.org/ <comment><USER2> It's a nice system in PHP. There are quite a few of them. Like ledger-cli [1] in C++ and emacs lisp, hledger [2] in Haskell and beancount [3] with fava [4] in python.

We used ledger-cli and beancount with fava and built automatic creation of accounting entries using machine learning and Bayesian alogrithms by analyzing bank and credit card statements. You can use powerful icsv2ledger [5], smart importer [6] and the awesome list [7] to get importers for various banks and other utilities.

[1] [https://www.ledger-cli.org/](https://www.ledger-cli.org/)

[2] [https://hledger.org/](https://hledger.org/)

[3] [http://furius.ca/beancount/](http://furius.ca/beancount/)

[4] [https://beancount.github.io/fava/](https://beancount.github.io/fava/)

[5] [https://github.com/quentinsf/icsv2ledger](https://github.com/quentinsf/icsv2ledger)

[6] [https://github.com/beancount/smart_importer/blob/master/READ...](https://github.com/beancount/smart_importer/blob/master/README.rst)

[7] [https://github.com/siddhantgoel/awesome- beancount/blob/maste...](https://github.com/siddhantgoel/awesome- beancount/blob/master/README.md)

Note: corrected the entry for ledger-cli, its primarily written in C++ with some emacs lisp scripts.

<comment><USER3> I use and love ledger-cli but importing/downloading bank data is the biggest pain point.

I'm currently using ledger-autosync ([https://github.com/egh/ledger- autosync](https://github.com/egh/ledger-autosync)) to import OFX/QFX files. For some banks it can automatically pull the data using ofxclient ([https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient](https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient)) but for most of my bank accounts this is broken and I need to manually download the OFX file before importing with ledger-autosync. It works OK, I wish I didn't have to do the manual download, but the simplicity of the setup is nice.

I've read of other setups using Plaid or Puppeteer to download their data. Would be interested to hear about what other people are currently using in mid-late 2019 to pull their financial data.

<comment><USER4> I was using Tiller ([https://www.tillerhq.com](https://www.tillerhq.com)), pulling from US and European banks to a Google sheet, then a command line tool to pull CSV from there. This worked well except for not handling foreign currency (it calls everything $), adding a bit of extra latency/uncertainty on top of the back end (Yodlee), and eventually forgetting to update your sheet unless you manually visit it every so often.

Currently I'm using plaid2qif ([https://github.com/ebridges/plaid2qif](https://github.com/ebridges/plaid2qif)) to pull CSV from US banks via Plaid's ([https://plaid.com](https://plaid.com)) API. This is more developer friendly and gets the latest data to me faster, but the data is not quite as good as Tiller/Yodlee's, at least for Wells Fargo bank; Plaid gives more truncated transaction descriptions.

Both of these have the big downside of sharing your bank credentials with others. With Plaid I guess there's one less party involved. My current alternative is manually visit each bank's site and download CSV. Ideally I want to get timely data every day (the easiest way to stay on top of the books), so the manual downloading (click, wait, click, relogin after timeout..., wait, wait for paypal's download, retry when it gets stuck..) gets really tiresome.

<comment><USER5> Maybe use something like moneydance? It talks directly to the financial sites to grab ofx and is extensible via plugins.

<comment><USER4> I believe many banks in the US don't provide OFX, or not easily. Wells Fargo would charge me $10/month for it.

<comment><USER5> That's insane. I'd change banks over something like that.

FWIW, USAA, Ally, Fidelity, AmEx, Chase, no charge for OFX.

<comment><USER6> This page suggests that it's actually $3/mo: [https://www.wellsfargo.com/online- banking/software/fees](https://www.wellsfargo.com/online- banking/software/fees)

However, I've been pulling OFX data from my Wells Fargo for years via AqBanking ([https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Setting_up_OFXDirectConnect](https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Setting_up_OFXDirectConnect)) and have never been charged.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is at lease one vulnerability in the demo: looks like dev or something is on in the framework. Sending bad input in at least one place exposes debug info with db/api credentials along with other sensitive info. Email in my profile if more detail needed.

[https://postimg.cc/gallery/2chl5bji2/](https://postimg.cc/gallery/2chl5bji2/)

Edit: sent email with details to listed address on landing page.

<comment><USER8> Yep, I saw that. Thanks a lot for letting me know. I'm resetting credentials and setting up the DB again. Cheers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wow, this is all I ever wanted. A self hosted PHP based financial manager with a good interface and an API. I am SO excited. I'm going to throw it on my server instantly. It seems to also have a lot of features! This is great! Thanks!

<comment><USER10> Why is a self hosted financial manager your dream come true? I assume sharing financials to others is everyone elses's nightmare.

<comment><USER11> The success of cloud hosted products like YNAB suggests many people have no issue with sharing financials.

<comment><USER12> I think YNAB's popularity comes from the stand-alone desktop version which was really popular until they went cloud.

<comment><USER13> I'd have to disagree with you. There's tons of people who use them as a mobile-first service (my wife only ever uses the mobile app). I think a subset of tech/privacy savvy people don't like that they went to a cloud based model, but that's a small subset of a small subset.

<comment><USER11> Mint is another example of a popular financial management tool, that was always cloud-first. It would import transactions by using the same credentials you would use to login to online banking. This wasn't appealing to me. This didn't deter many other people.

<comment><USER14> I didn't like sharing my credentials either but I _was_ using it – until it stopped working for most of my accounts.

I've since stopped using even the 'manual import' and I've found that reconciling to my bank/financial-company statements manually is _much_ easier overall as importing auto-reconciled transactions but then it was basically impossible to then match any specific balance reported by the bank/financial- company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I admittedly haven't been looking for better, but the "double-entry lite" systems I've seen kinda miss the mark a bit.

\- Source/destination (as used here) is awkward when transactions have more than one split: at best there's a single source/destination which is entered multiple times and you need to make sure the splits add up right (and that single $50 charge to your credit card doesn't show up that way in the register); at worst you have an m:n split.

\- Simple plus/minus without debits and credits (à la hledger, which I am otherwise quite happy about) runs into situations like: I _increase_ my liabilities (e.g. by paying by credit card) by _subtracting_ from the account?!?

I think if you're going to use a GUI then going full debit/credit isn't hard, I got up and running with Quickbooks pretty quickly and GNUCash seems about the same.

EDIT: I don't mean to downplay the accomplishments of the authors of any of the software mentioned, like I said I'm a happy user of hledger and Firefly III looks pretty polished from what I saw of the demo. This is really meant to be more of a meta-comment around the idea that bookkeeping is hard and double- entry debit/credit is doubly so.

<comment><USER16> > I increase my liabilities (e.g. by paying by credit card) by subtracting > from the account?!?

Maybe I'm just inured to the convention, but this makes perfect sense to me. You subtract money from any other account you pay from. At a sufficiently abstract level, paying by credit card is the same thing as overdrawing your checking account. You need to add money to get the balance back to zero.

<comment><USER17> Makes perfect sense to me too. Credit cards aren't money you have, they're money you can borrow. Paying by credit card is borrowing money. Paying a credit card back means it should show in your system at $0. If your bank shows it at some positive $, that's just convenient financial fiction.

(And possibly dangerous fiction. I think a big part of the way people get in trouble with credit cards is by thinking their credit line is "the money they _have_ ", instead of "money they can borrow really fast".)

<comment><USER15> It's definitely a dangerous fiction.

'0xcde4c3db makes a good point about it making the _flow_ of value clear in the transaction, but the transaction view is already the easy thing to interpret. The value (heh) of bookkeeping is when those flows are aggregated, and the meaning of those aggregations is (admittedly only somewhat) obscured when optimizing for clarifying flows in single transactions.

Charging a credit card to make it more negative does match our intuition of how it affects our overall financial position, but that's due to serendipity. What does it mean that expenses are normally positive, is that a good thing then? Or that my paycheck account is negative?

In the end it's a nit, a small thing I mostly ignore. I just think that part of the complexity it tries to eliminate is essential, with results like negative revenues. It's a leaky abstraction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Minor tangential gripe but hamburger menus on desktop are rather annoying. I have a large screen, please make use of it and don't hide important elements away behind a button!

<comment><USER8> I'm working on a new layout which wouldn't feature such a menu. Tabler IO, you can Google it.

<comment><USER19> How is this development going? I am a long time Firefly-iii user, and am excited for this UI update and would love to follow the progress!

<comment><USER8> It's frozen at the moment. I need to develop a way-of-working where I can work on v1 and v2 at the same time. That is a headache. And my Vue skills are non- existent so it's a bit of a learning curve. But I hope to push something to develop soon :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Has anyone here successfully migrated from GnuCash to Firefly III? How does it compare long term? GnuCash is amazing features wise, but the UI and cross platform compatibility is subpar at best.

And more importantly is it possible to import data from GnuCash? Last time I tried it I failed.

<comment><USER21> What are the GnuCash issues with cross-platform? We used to use it via dropbox on mac, linux and windows and never hit any obvious problems. The UI however...

<comment><USER20> I can't get it to use en_US for interface but de_DE for dates/currencies across all platforms. Because GnuCash insists on reading these settings from locales, and I can't get it right to save my life.

So it'll see a comma when I open the file on windows and just report an error.

Right now I'm considering running it in on my server and then connecting to it somehow from all the different platforms.

<comment><USER22> [https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Locale_Settings#Changing_the_L...](https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Locale_Settings#Changing_the_Language_on_Windows)

See the part about adding an environment file on Windows. On Linux, I set my LANG to en_US.UTF-8 but all the LC_* variables (apart from LC_ALL) to en_CA.UTF-8 and that gets me the right UI/formats mix in GnuCash (and also Chromium, which tries to speak British to me otherwise), and hopefully that works on Windows too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This looks a heck of lot like a fork of Akaunting [0][1][2].

[0] [https://akaunting.com/features](https://akaunting.com/features)

[1] [http://www.softaculous.com/demos/Akaunting](http://www.softaculous.com/demos/Akaunting)

[2] [https://github.com/akaunting/akaunting](https://github.com/akaunting/akaunting)

<comment><USER8> We use the same layout template but my tool is older and has a lot more features.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I have moved to Firefly III last year from the "My Expenses" app. Very happy so far, even though I don't use (and hide via uBlock) all the Budget-related items.

Updating is a bit annoying as there are no Debian packages and one has to essentially re-install from scratch on each update, but everything else is working perfectly well. Categorising expenses allows for easy monthly reports on shared expenses, too.

<comment><USER8> Try using the docker images, that makes for a pretty flawless upgrade experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Had this running for a bit, tried a mass data import, managed to get it pretty quickly wedged into an inconsistent database state. Dropped it.

<comment><USER8> Had you let me know what went wrong, I could have fixed it. No matter ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is amazing, and clearly takes a tremendous amount of work, and judging by the comments here provides an invaluable service to many many people. Which makes it somewhat discouraging that when you look at the Patreon link [https://www.patreon.com/jc5](https://www.patreon.com/jc5), people support him to the tune of only $27/month. Makes me wonder if my ideas for small scale SAAS could ever possibly be financially viable.

<comment><USER8> Oh well, it's just a hobby you know? And I guess people who need financial management tools aren't people looking for more expenses ;)

I'm happy with every donation. I use it to pay the AWS bill and maybe get a beer.

But make no mistake, a lot of people have donated one-time over PayPal which is greatly appreciated as well.

<comment><USER26> That's great to hear people have donated over PayPal, and I suppose it is cool that you think of it less like a way to make a living and more like a hobby. Great job!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Can highly recommend Firefly. Used for a while and it is really powerful, impressive work has been done here. What bothers me (too much) as a former YNAB-user is the limited budget planning view. But the dev already has this on his to-do list.

<comment> martin-adams I'm a current YNAB user find it hard to use any other financial manager software because they only seem to record what happened and not plan for the future.

What made you leave YNAB if you don't mind me asking?

In additional to my personal finances, I currently use Xero for my business, but I also run everything through YNAB as well to actually know the health of my business and how much money I'm making. The book "Profit First" made a lot of sense through a YNAB approach.

<comment><USER28> One thing that I find surprisingly missing from most budget platforms is a recurring rolling budget post. For instance, let's say we have a clothing "category" I want spend $200 monthly for the entire family. I don't know when I'm going to buy a new winter parka, or the recurring biannual event of buying new shoes for the children. But I do know that $200 monthly is what I believe is reasonable for our income.

I just want the balance on that budget to roll over for every month, so I know how much there is for that particular thing. And if you don't buy any clothing for 2 months, $400 is added to the available fund for that particular budget category.

It extends to a lot of things:

      * Day trips
      * Saving for car repairs and ultimately a new one.
      * Groceries
      * Holidays
      * Hobbies
      * Takeaway

<comment><USER29> With anything with double entry bookkeeping, you can book an expense each month for $200 for clothing and have a liability account set up as a clothing reserve account. Then you would have a built up total over time, less anything you purchase.

<comment><USER28> I could do that - but is it really that foreign to center a budgeting tool around it, so I don't have to go about creating accounts and transactions for every budget category?

In essence, it's just the "envelope" system with a rollover - i.e. if I don't spend all my grocery money this month, just add them to the next months envelope.

<comment><USER30> It's more than that... when you are living on a tight budget you really want a line graph that tells you what your checking account is going to look like in a week, two weeks, three weeks. Your problem is not necessarily income but cash flow, and you do all of this cash-flow reasoning informally, "I'd better postpone any doctor's visit until the 15th because usually things are less tense in the middle of the month and I'd like to keep my copays out of it," but it would be really handy to say "look, if you need to you can spend up to $200 and things will get tight in 9 days time but you will _not_ go broke, assuming you have put everything in properly."

This sort of diagram is only easily possible if you can specify "here are the deposits that I think are going to happen, and here are the expenses that I think are going to happen."

And for that, those envelopes are _crucial_ , especially the ability to graph the amounts in the various envelopes and the amount that's not in any envelope.

<comment><USER28> That is a matter of fixed recurring bills. I know when I have to pay rent, insurance, loan payments, to a degree utilities ect. Once you have plotted those in the system, you know how much to set aside for that every month and those are funds you cannot touch without a very very good reason. And should you do so anyway because you're terribly ill, you make a plan for how to make up the deficit before the payment happens.

For my personal economy it come out such that the "account" for all of those recurring payments are always significantly in the positive - in other words, I can "borrow" from that "account" without it interfering with my ability to pay the bills. E.g. you have two annual bills of $600, one has a payment date of Jan 1st and the other have Jul 1st. I need to set aside $100 monthly to pay them, but at any payment date there will be $900 in the account, so it's always at least $300 in the positive. It's just a peculiarity that can happen.

So that leaves all the variable expenses, food, clothing, going out, ect, things you can control the magnitude of. Those are well suited for the envelope system. I would personally treat necessaries such as food and transportation as a special envelope in the sense that it's only variable down to a minimum but no further. Clothing on the other hand can be turned down for $0 for quite a while, and "going out" certainly can be $0 for as long as it need to.

How does all that fit in a cash flow analysis then? Well for bills and fixed income it's easy - just make the graph. But for variable expenses it's a bit more hand wavy, because I cannot not buy food for my children, but I can certain not go to that sushi restaurant. And that is where the envelope system is helping me. If I have an unforeseen expense that is greater than what I have in my emergency fund, and there is not enough to borrow from the fixed expense account without compromising payments. Well I have to transfer some funds from the envelops that have a surplus that i can control, such as the "going out" envelope.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I think I'm getting old. I just don't understand why this needs a web application and not a desktop one.

<comment><USER32> Why is this being downvoted? It's a genuine question and I'm curious about it too.

<comment><USER33> Maybe because it sounds curmudgeonly, without giving much thought to any possible answer. If had been made a Mac app I suppose the OP would say, "Why does this have to be a Mac app?", or the inverse for a Windows app, more so if it was Linux only. Thinking about these makes it abundantly clear WHY it is a web app... so anyone can use it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Does anybody know a FOSS zero-based budgeting software? GnuCash or Firefly are great double-entry systems, but for personal budgeting I prefer YNAB or Everypocket styles.

<comment><USER35> You can simulate various forms of envelope budgeting in Ledger (aka. ledger- cli) and the similar projects like hledger. There are quite a few of blog/forum posts out there that help explain how to do this. If you're specifically looking to emulate YNAB, there are also some posts that deal specifically with this.

<comment><USER4> Several examples/how-tos are linked at [https://plaintextaccounting.org/#budgeting](https://plaintextaccounting.org/#budgeting) .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Unless it can pull transactions from my bank this isn't very helpful. It looks like it can't. I have far too many accounts+transactions to do by hand.

<comment><USER37> It can, if your bank supports Spectre (which apparently is a common API service for banks). It's a bit awkward, you have to sign up for a third party to do it, but worked well for the three months or so I used Firefly.

Here are the docs: [https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/spectre.html](https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/spectre.html)

(For what it's worth, now I use Pocketsmith, a NZ-made Mint clone that I'm pretty happy with.)

<comment><USER20> Works directly with banks too via FinTS - [https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/fints.html](https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/fints.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I've been eyeing Firefly III myself for managing our family's finances, so I'm glad to see this thread starting and see others' experiences'. In the current day and age of cloud-hosted apps and everything-as-a-service, happy to see some self-hosted love on HN.

</comment><comment><USER39> I played around with Firefly and was generally impressed, outside of Laravel log verbosity defaults running me out of space on my VM in a quick manner, heh.

[https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/spectre.html](https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/import/spectre.html) was the killer feature, in my mind. Not having to manually enter all of my data myself made it usable.

Ultimately I'm lazy so I stopped doing much with it, but if you're interested in it, I highly recommend getting the Salt Edge account to handle importing everything.

</comment><comment><USER40> If you're still monitoring and have the time @JC5, I was just curious about your data model.

I see that there tags, categories, and budgets. I understand the differences between these, and why they are presented as different concepts. How did these different features evolve? Did you have budgets first, then categories/tags? Did you ever consider implementing categories as tags and not having a separate category concept?

Just wondering if what you have now evolved from a simpler model (at least fewer concepts—maybe not simpler implementation or mental model), and if so why/how.

<comment><USER8> I started with budgets and categories. Budgets for the money (I had like five budgets) and as many categories as you want. They are basically the same thing. Max one category/budget per transaction.

Tags were added later on by user request. Most users use them to categorize transactions. I don't use them myself. I tried using tags for meta-data like "expensive" or "wasnt worth it" but never bothered to tag everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Thanks for the link. What's the username and password for the demo site?

<comment><USER41> I found it: [https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly- iii/issues/2259](https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii/issues/2259)

demo@firefly / demo

I'd strongly suggest putting that on the demo page itself.

<comment><USER8> Something broke, it's back now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> For something as important as financial management software, it doesn't inspire confidence that there are ads in documentation. Could they find another way to monetize it?

<comment><USER8> I don't have to monetize it. It's a hobby. But the website provides a good platform to host the docs and I can live with the ads they serve. I assure you they don't pay me for the ads in the documentation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Is there any support for OFX or QFX?

Most banks I've dealt with support downloading transactions via QFX, which makes working with GNUCash pretty easy.

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly- iii/issues/965](https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii/issues/965)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I recently switched over to Firefly III as a long-time Mint user unsatisfied with privacy issues and many feature limitations. I also like that Firefly encourages manually inputting transactions to improve mindfulness about expenses, rather than importing them automatically which in my opinion makes the information less actionable.

</comment><comment><USER44> On the features page ( [https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/about/features.html](https://docs.firefly- iii.org/en/latest/about/features.html) ), it says it can import data from "CVS files". Does it mean CSV files?

<comment><USER8> It does, yes. That spelling error should be gone now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Before people spend time setting this up: Note this doesn't support any other asset types other than cash.

I would assume that most people here have stocks or bonds or something of some type.

Most of my assets are investments which makes this fairly useless for me, even if it does look very nice :-(.

</comment><comment><USER46> Would be nice to have something like that but in Go, so deployment would be way easier on all platforms.

<comment><USER47> What platforms don't support PHP that do support Go?

<comment><USER48> You get immediate executables through Go.

PHP, on the other hand, requires fifty packages and your sister's phone number before you get segmentation faults from the caching script and give up.

<comment><USER49> Docker/containerd is your friend, especially if you don't want to maintain a LAMP stack and try to match php versions.

<comment><USER50> And Go is even similar. Instead of having to deal with docker/docker-compose, I can just put an executable somewhere. If I have multiple apps, I just set up a reverse proxy through my web server and I'm done.

It's a bit telling that I essentially need to run a docker container for something so simple. Statically compiled binaries are super simple to use.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Great! Finally I'll be able to move my data from the old YNAB version to a more reliable place :)

</comment><comment><USER52> Is the demo under high load or is it just generally slow responses? 2+ seconds for many operations and graphs take a while to paint (5+ seconds). I am on 200mbit, low latency fiber.

<comment><USER8> It's under high load I'm afraid. It's a very small instance over at AWS and I'm getting hugged to death.

<comment><USER52> Gotcha, thanks for confirming. I'll try again post-HN DDoS ;).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Quick glance and I got excited that maybe Joss Whedon was going to be able to create another series based on Firefly.

</comment><comment><USER54> Only thing I miss or can't find is joined account /login. So we see who entered what in transactions.

<comment><USER55> > The ability to share a financial administration with your partner or > significant other. Unfortunately, this requires a large change in Firefly > III's architecture and functionality. As an alternative, you could share the > login details with each other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Lost all interest when I saw you need to register an account to demo it

<comment><USER8> Not necessary. Something broke, you should be fine now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Not one screenshot of the UI in 60 seconds and 3 clicks in...

<comment><USER52> Tried to login with demo [https://demo.firefly- iii.org/login](https://demo.firefly-iii.org/login) and after submitting just put me back at the same login form with no messaging.

<comment><USER52> K, found the error, I speed read `demo@firefly` and entered `firstname.lastname@example.com`. Probably should make both work since there is no failure message showing what was entered.

<comment><USER8> Yeah that's bloody annoying but I haven't been able to fix it yet. Laravel, the underlying framework has moved to a new way of reporting login errors and my code hasn't been adapted yet. Sorry about the confusion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> Doesn't support biweekly transactions for some reason?

<comment><USER8> Like recurring transactions? Just enter weekly and set it to skip 1.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> Is that Sonata Admin?

</comment><comment><USER59> Have know this a while ago, it's definitive for someone who needs to manage their financial.</comment>