Never a Hippie, Always a Freak - <AUTHOR> https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/never-a-hippie-always-a-freak/ <comment><USER2> Ah, Frank, I still listen to his works as often as I get the chance. Being a novice guitar player myself I can't seem to get tired of hearing all the great (often live) variations and improvisation he was able to apply to his music. Whether it's the humorous, satirical stuff or the serious jamming he and his various bands could pull off I find it all enjoyable.

And outside of the music, as the article does a good job of articulating, he had a wonderful way of sizing up the world around him and pointing out, bluntly and succinctly, what he found lacking. Certainly a man ahead of his time both musically and intellectually.

Anyone looking for more good stories about Frank can check out "The Real Frank Zappa" which was basically written by him and then cleaned up and edited by his friend Peter Occhiogrosso. A thoroughly entertaining read...

Edit: Here's the "Zappa plays a bicycle on Steve Allen" clip mentioned in the article: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE)

<comment><USER3> Yeah, Zappa is not just a counter-cultural icon with a knack for comic and witty lyrics, but he's also a musical genius.

I think there comment by Warren the fan (and future guitarist) in "Intro Rap" opening track on the live "Baby Snakes" album sums it up :

"Tonight though I'll tell you one thing about these New York crowds. Some of them, they get too carried away you know because they think Frank Zappa is such a mad man. You know they come here to see him go crazy or something you know. They don't realise there's, notes are involved you know"

<comment><USER4> Also, I would say, a genius in music production: nailing down great sound.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My favorite instrumental Zappa song 'Peaches En Regalia"[0] really captures his style I think for those who haven't heard him. My favorite song of his has to be Montana[1] or Titties and Beer[2] both capture his humor.

[0][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQxI0G6mKk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQxI0G6mKk)

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smZA9Jv3qH0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smZA9Jv3qH0)

[2][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvepB7uYoAo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvepB7uYoAo)

<comment><USER6> Can't really pick a favorite, the entire Hot Rats album is a guitar masterwork. Apostrophe is also a standout track (and album! and double album!) in my mind:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXP_pr7np-o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXP_pr7np-o)

<comment><USER7> Peaches en Regalia is one of my all time favorite songs. Apostrophe is amazing. Montana is fantastic.

More of my favorites:

Black Page (every different version)

Watermelon in Easter Hay

<comment><USER5> I agree, but I also have to add Muffin Man[0] to the list for those who might know Frank. My two best friends passed away one recently, one a few years ago. In school we bonded over Frank Zappa (I'm 27 by the way). His music will always hold a special place in my heart for me.

[0][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptoN-5QE0Lw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptoN-5QE0Lw)

Edit: Another reason Frank is my hero, Him and George Carlin are the reason that they put those 'Parental Warning' labels on albums. Here is video of him on crossfire defending his right to free speech[1].

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpdvfTlKjP8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpdvfTlKjP8)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Frank Zappa is one of those individuals that will be discovered in the future and raised to icon status. His insights are just beginning to be understood. Like Phillip K Dick, Aldous Huxley, and Warhol: they saw the effects of the modern marketed and mass produced world better than others, and decades before the rest of us.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think the thing that still fascinates me about Zappa over all these years was his commitment to DIY principles and standing his ground. You very rarely see other artists with his level of fame doing this nowdays (or really ever). He definitely had some personality flaws as most people do, but I think deep down Zappa saw things he wanted to change about the world and did everything he could to make those changes a reality.

Also the guy was incredibly prolific, let's see anyone else write/record/produce ~62 studio albums of highly complex, original music with a revolving cast of musicians while touring all over the world (and making movies too!) for multiple decades on end. I'm not sure audiences even have the attention span for someone like Zappa anymore.

</comment><comment><USER10> Not only do I enjoy an extensive collection of his albums, I appreciate the tribute Weird Al did on Poodle Hat, with Zappa's son Dweezil called Genius in France. Yankovic manages to capture so many of those Zappa/Mothers riffs...</comment>


A Private Air Force Would Require More Than Two Planes - <AUTHOR> http://exolymph.com/2016/04/25/a-private-air-force-would-require-more-than-two-planes/ <comment><USER2> This appears mostly to be a summary of a summary of an Intercept piece.

The content of the article was almost decoupled from the title. There's no mention of why two planes would not make a air force. The Belize Defence Force Air Wing had 5 planes in service, so I guess a private air force needs somewhere from 3 to 5 planes before it counts?

In any case, the The War Is Boring piece mentions that these would be the first 2 of _150_ , if there were a market need. The WIB piece also comments that the 2 planes under discussion are a bad fit for the possible market.</comment>


Ask HN: Going Through a Crisis/Burnout - Advice - <AUTHOR>

Hi all.
I am going through quite a tough time of it lately, and would really appreciate some help + advice from hn, if that doesn't sound ridiculously vain and entitled. I am posting via a throw-away here, but am a moderate, if low-key, contributor to hn.
Some disclaimers: Forgive the life story aspect of this post. Just need to get it all out. Also apologies for the unrelenting sense of entitlement throughout. I am expressing how I feel, really feel, and that inevitably makes it sound as if I am not grateful for my first-world privilege. I am.
Background - feel free to skip...
Firstly, some background. I grew up in a family pretty much totally committed to a bordering-on-cult, but not really (a milder form - perhaps you could call it a sect?), whose tenets included the idea that we each have a 'natural talent' ordained by God and to go against it meant never really being able to find happiness/success.
'Thankfully' there is a person in this organisation whose 'responsibility' it is to (conveniently based on a letter you send them outlining interests/areas of academic success) dictate what your talent actually is. I was told to pursue a particular discipline in engineering, one in which I had no interest whatsoever. Thus began a very unhappy 5 years in which not only was I really unable to motivate myself to pursue the degree, but my family also fell apart due to my brother's repeated attempts to kill himself (thankfully all unsuccessful). I even failed exams one year, and suffered a lot of humiliation (professors telling me what a terrible student I was, etc.) and a complete undermining of confidence in my own intellect. I still managed to get a 2:1 from a good uni, but the experience has had a very serious effect on my ability to study anything, or even to hold my concentration long enough to get to any depth of understanding of a given subject.
So to programming - I have loved + programmed computers since I was 9 years old. I even contributed code to a relative's software firm when I was 15, though I did really little overall as a teen, certainly compared to many hn-ers. After uni, I decided I wanted to follow what I wanted to do, and worked an internal line-of-business job at one firm as a one-man team, then moved to another (my current job) where I've been for 4 years.
/Background
The situation now is that I feel quite desperate and despairing - I began feeling so passionate about programming but that has slowly been replaced with feeling utterly worn out + frankly terribly bored by it. I have had several overly-ambitious non-starter side-projects which I've screwed up, and busted so many interviews in such terribly crap ways that I've kind of lost count there too. I've spent 4 years at a place I am terribly unhappy at, and yet I can't pass a goddamn interview. I can't stand LoB/internal software anymore, and wonder whether it gets better anywhere else.
A large part of my anxiety at the moment is that I feel as if software engineering is all so much cargo cult bullshit. After reading articles on readability and quality of empirical evidence for readability tips, and certainly after reading a number of people's perhaps more cynical views in the community I have come to feel as if I simply cannot judge what is good or bad code, or at least that what I feel is good/bad is just bias. It's freezing me up and I find it utterly impossible to deal with the uncertainty of it all, something which attracted me to programming in the first place.
Another issue is feeling that the work can only be boring - it is impossible to motivate to work hard in spare time when you feel like you can't be passionate about something, and the idea that the 'reality' is that the thing is definitely boring, no matter where you work, is a horrific thought.
Another concern is that it's 'too late', 'too much competition', etc. and goddamn that grates at age 30. I am even considering a career change.
I suffer from depression, clinically diagnosed, so it's hard to know where that ends and 'real' concerns begin, but all-in-all I feel really down at the moment, and would appreciate people's help and advice. <comment><USER2> \- 30 is not old, don't worry about that.

\- Continue to deal with your depression. It's going to affect everything. Take charge of your treatment and have a say in what works for you. Treat your doctor as a team member, not a boss. Pay attention to all the "be healthy" advice and decide what that means for you, but decide.

\- There will be software fashions and software eternal truths. You'll come to know the difference. You'll also notice that fashion will change, and you'll see some things fall out of fashion and come back years later. You'll also find that things you held as eternal truths will change. So what? You don't have to be right, you just have to be interested.

\- Maybe you want to step away from software for awhile, do something else and come back.

\- Or something. It seems like, just vaguely, you could benefit from shaking up the whole thing.

\- Overly ambitious projects: choose smaller scopes. Build up gradually.

\- You don't _have to_ stay in software, and you don't _have to_ leave software. You don't have to do anything. You can do whatever you decide to do, and there's no requirement to follow any particular path. Make lists of all the mundane and outrageous things you can do, both career-wise and personal wise. Leave nothing off the table. Decide to do some of it. But don't feel like you have to commit the rest of your life to whatever you choose, you can change it whenever you want. You're going to change _anyway_ (guaran-fucking- teed), you might as well have some say in it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do small things. If you love software get some job that pays you to write code. Try to improve the status quo of the code at work in small increments. The smiles you bring on users faces will give you the energy to start a virtuous cycle of writing more software that people care about. Dont dwell on doing significant things, dwell instead on pushing the boundaries of what you know. Equalling a fields medalist is a depressing thought, knowing more math than I did the day before is a much more meaningful and reasonable task.</comment>


Ntopng: High-Speed Web-based Traffic Analysis and Flow Collection - <AUTHOR> http://www.ntop.org/products/ntop/

<comment><USER2> anyone knows what features it offers beyond what iftop already offers (being web based doesn't count)? thanks

<comment><USER3> Isn't iftop for a single interface? This can be a netflow(s-flow,etc) collector and thus give data about an intersection of links. This gives you the chance to add cpu and memory overhead to your switches and routers and also sampled data to draw dubious conclusions from! (Sorry, bitter ex net-eng. Modern data center speed and data volume are no place for sampling IMO. ASIC buffer vs microburst = hard to find badness.)

<comment><USER4> Most modern routers do sflow collection in hardware. There's no CPU or memory overhead for having it on.</comment></comment></comment>


Please rate my startup (again) - <AUTHOR>

I either posted this at the wrong time (5am-ish) or nobody likes me... :( So I'm posting again, sorry for the repost!
A while back I asked for a site review and I got some very constructive feedback. I honestly was not happy about it all at first but I'm glad I pushed my ego aside and listened... because my new landing page is a thousand times better than the first.
It took me a while to come up with something [relatively] concise... I probably spent a week just trying to come up with a way to explain all of the things my app does in as little time/words as possible (went through 5+ revisions)... while matching the current look/feel... and not being too cheesy.
As for a little background info on myself... I'm 23 and this is my first startup with no funding or guidance. I've basically spent the past 7 months by myself glued to my computer with only my dog by my side and occasional contact with family. I make a little money here and there doing some freelance odd jobs. I'm just taking it as it goes and quite frankly I'm ready to move forwards because my current situation has grown incredibly stale and depressing. I'd bet I'm far from alone in this kind of situation here on HN. But I think it's time for me to really move forwards... live life and have fun again.
I came up with the idea behind this startup when I was a professional touring musician. It takes care of all the boring, tedious number-crunching aspects to being a professional in the industry. (In advance, the term "soundscans" is widely known among all serious touring bands in case anyone asks.)
With that said, please check out my startup and I would be so very grateful for any advice and guidance in moving forwards with this. My main concerns are whether or not there are any security holes and/or crippling bugs. (Edit: Small question... how many of you have to download a plugin to hear the music when clicking play? I'm trying to minimize the number of required plugins while supporting older browsers.)
I'm also wondering about a "terms of service" agreement. Does anyone have any advice as to how to properly approach this?
And one last thing if anyone would be so kind... My laptop resolution only goes up to 1280x800 so if anyone with higher resolutions could let me know if it does okay I would very much appreciate it. I've also only tested the mobile version on my phone (Samsung Instinct) and my father's phone (first gen Droid)... so any input there is also greatly appreciated.
I'll include working links in a comment. (Side question: Why are working links not allowed in text submissions?)
Fullscreen: http://www.rela.cc
Mobile: http://m.rela.cc <comment><USER2> 1\. You need a designer. While a poor design was acceptable 10 years ago since web design was a relatively new concept, it's no longer acceptable by the consumer.

2\. You name seems like a bit of a stretch

3\. This is an extremely crowded market.

4\. This is exactly how I started. 10 years ago I wanted to help bands connect with their fans and so I built a site for them to sell their music online (CD Baby at the time was delivering CDs). Unfortunately iTunes launched and killed my idea so I created a social network that included music. Myspace then launched music and killed that idea as well and Facebook came along and all the girls at my school were using it so I knew I was going to fail. The result was that I eventually gave up but not on entrepreneurship. I also now had learned how to program and was getting paid $30+ an hour which was a serious upgrade for me from Baskin Robbins or Home Depot.

The reason I say this is not to discourage you but simply that I think you have a long way to go. I was approximately 21/22 at the time so it sounds like we're in a similar position. Keep focused and keep trying to make something work. If an idea doesn't stick, try another (I tried importing liquor ... it failed, online bookstore ... it failed, about 6 other things ... they all failed). I eventually got really good at programming over the past 10 years and 8 years after starting my crappy looking (it really looked like crap when it started) music website, I sold my first company.

I'm going to be brutally honest about your website: it's not presentable and the name is horrible. That's not a bad thing though ... you're just getting started on the path of entrepreneurship! Keep doing the side jobs (as they'll pay the bills) and keep studying how to program and maybe look into learning some design. If you want to be a successful internet entrepreneur you'll make it happen.

I know that didn't answer your question the way you wanted but as soon as I saw this site, I knew we had a lot in common. I'd also suggest taking some business courses or read business books ... you are entering an extremely saturated market and performing market research will often help you improve your idea and find the proper niche. Also try working at some local internet startups. I worked at a bunch that failed but I learned a hell of a lot. It's a much cheaper way to fail :) Best of luck!

5\. Just thought of one other thing: I'm not sure if you're a musician but create a product that solves _YOUR_ problems. It's much easier to be passionate about a problem when it's fixing your life. If you're a musician, congrats!

<comment><AUTHOR> I appreciate the kind words. But believe it or not my design sense isn't lacking as much as it would appear haha... it's just that I was trying to do something different with this particular app. The landing page uses the same framework as the actual app but it looks like that wasn't the way to go. I'll probably end up conforming to typical landing pages and repost within a few days. Please keep an eye out as proof that my design sense isn't as terrible as you think haha!

I should also mention that my app does something completely new for that market but it's my fault that you didn't know what it does.

Lastly, I actually don't plan on becoming a huge internet entrepreneur... just using this to have some kind of self-sustaining income so I can work on what I'm _really_ good at: robotics.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for replying. Definitely let me know when you have the new landing page b/c the homepage right now really isn't good :) As for new for the market you'll definitely have to explain that aspect. In terms of starting a business: if you are passionate about robotics ... focus on robotics. My passion happened to be starting businesses so in that regard we're probably different then!

I still wish you the best of luck!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Quick thoughts:

\- You've clearly put a lot of effort into this. You seem to have a big collection of useful features. Congrats on that.

\- I checked out the site before reading your post. I didn't really get what it was about -- something to do with bands or something. You wrote in your post, "It takes care of all the boring, tedious number-crunching aspects to being a professional in the industry." That kind of concise tagline is missing from your site. I would put all those boxes with features and stuff below the fold and summarize your service above the fold with a heading and maybe a short paragraph. E.g., <https://www.wepay.com/>

\- The video, which should be featured more prominently, is way too long. It's clear you put a lot of work into all the features, but it's too much to show off all at once. Give a "big picture" view of the service and skip over the details. I'd aim for no longer than 1-3 minutes, the shorter the better. The video's job is to give people a taste, and get them excited.

\- I tried going back to the site after writing some stuff here. It immediately took me to the video page and I didn't know how to get back to the homepage. Really confusing.

\- I now see that when I click on "Bands" it gives me more of an overview video. I didn't expect that. That video still has a lot of details. Needs more summarizing to tell you what you're seeing and why it's the solution to your problems.

\- The design could use some spunk. It may be handling "boring, tedious" details but you don't want people to think _your app_ is boring and tedious. Not sure what to suggest other than maybe getting a designer's input.

Nice job so far, good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

The landing page uses the same framework as the actual app... I wanted to do that to keep things consistent and emphasize its flexibility.

I've also been trying to do something different/new but as everyone seems to be saying... maybe I should conform to a typical startup landing page. I just get tired of seeing such similar layouts all over the place. I'm sure it's for good reason though... so I'll probably end up conforming. I can actually do it myself and in a fraction of the time it took me to do all of this... but oh well. Just trying to break the mold! Maybe some other time haha...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 1\. At first glance I am a little overwhelmed by the landing page. It may be because I am not in the industry, but it doesn't seem to give a clear, concise, quick overview of what your site is about. You put it simply above, "takes care of the tedious number-crunching aspects of being in the industry". So refine that line into a mission statement and clearly put that on the page. The items on the left and right of the screen should be more like bullet points below the top. Very confusing and hard to look at. Not sure what I should look at first or what is important to know.

2\. It asked me to download a plugin. I have most of the standard plugins for media installed on Chrome, so not sure what it is asking me for. I assume it is something to do with Windows Media Player, but I can use other sites requiring it just fine. I would either check for the plugin and alert the user nicely with a message on the site that certain content requires a specific plugin or not include that content at all right off the bat. If I had just happened to come across your site I would have immediately navigated off simply because of this.

3\. Clicking on the "more" links in each of the boxes just adds additional bullet points. Take me to another page. Let me explore, let me learn more about how your service is going to change my way of doing business.

4\. I watched part of the video tutorial. It is a bit lengthy for an intro video and is definitely more of a tutorial. I was expecting it to be more of how does this service help me. Also, if you are going to have it as a tutorial, I would break it down into shorter segments for each aspect of the service.

</comment><comment><USER5> I checked out the page BEFORE reading your description, so this is my impression as a normal web user. Sorry, but it's kind of brutal. I'm trying to be honest.

First thoughts: After viewing the page for about 20 seconds, I have no idea what it is. If I were a normal user, I'd be gone by now.

Seconds thoughts: Now that I've read all the boxes around the page, I get that it's for managing a band. Took way too long to figure that out. The 6 boxes need to be shrunk down into one "sound bite" to describe what the site is. You don't have to tell your users all your feature on the front page - that's what a "more info" link is for. Also - there's a SIGNUP UP NOW, below that there is an Enter, and below that is another Enter. Over on the bottom left is another Enter with a smiley face. Not sure what to do first.

Decided to pretend I'm a band: Clicking on Band starts a video tutorial. Wasn't expecting that. Video tutorial goes by pretty fast. How do I stop this video? The "Enter" button at the bottom of the page is apparently a free text field that does nothing.

Decided to sign up: Filled out the fields. Clicked Continue. Took me back to the form and told me the user was not found.

At this point, I'm done. In general:

Too much going on for a simple landing page. The idea of a landing page is to convert casual surfers into signing up.

I never saw the Terms of Service anywhere.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Also - there's a SIGNUP UP NOW, below that there is an Enter, and below that is another Enter. Over on the bottom left is another Enter with a smiley face. Not sure what to do first._

This front page is using the same framework behind the rest of the app. I figured I'd do that to keep everything consistent. The free text field that says "Enter" is the name of that particular layout (it matches the smiley face icon)... I figured I'd leave all layouts editable on the front page just for people to tinker with if they wanted.

 _Video tutorial goes by pretty fast. How do I stop this video?_

It's actually all javascript. :| I've considered adding pause/stop/forward/back buttons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It seems to me that you are really trying to be original in your landing page. So much that I felt a bit lost looking at it.

\- There's like an input text on the bottom saying enter.. ?!?!?

\- I find the overall font/structure really weird.

\- And most importantly, I really have no idea what your application is doing.

\- And then, the bottom bar.. I clicked somewhere near video and it went fullscreen.. and I couldn't close that video.

Anyway, overall, I'd suggest:

\- Try to focus on what your application is doing \- Try to be more standard in your landing page

It's ok if we don't see all the features.. Just focus on the most important one and if people are interested, they'll dig in to learn more.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry but it's appalling.

I went to the site before reading what you explained the site does, and left it almost immediately.

It comes across as spammy and complete information overload.

Hire a designer, or get a friend at least, just to make some visuals for it. It'll be well worth the money. It needs serious work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Believe it or not my design sense isn't lacking as much as it would appear! It's just that I was trying to do something different with this particular app. The landing page uses the same framework as the actual app but it looks like that wasn't the way to go. I'll probably end up conforming to typical landing pages and repost within a few days. Please keep an eye out as proof that my design sense isn't as terrible as you think haha!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As Mark Zuckerberg would say, your startup is "too useful".

I'm surprised that everyone here seems so focussed on your landing page. It may be a thousand times better than the first, and it may still need improvement, but what is more important is the actual product. And right now from what I've seen that needs work.

I think the main concern I have comes from the fact that you spent "7 months by myself glued to a computer". How much have you talked to users in this time? Have you had any bands use some of the functionality while you were working on it to get an idea of what they really wanted?

The home video looks like you have an incredible amount of features, but with little emphasis on usability or design. I'm intimidated by your website. It may be able to produce 30 kinds of graphs, but if I don't like using it or won't take the time to learn most of them, it doesn't matter. There is some stuff there that sounds really cool; like the idea of Myspace integration. But the cool stuff gets lost with all of the features that band members may not really care for (the merch section with pictures seems quite separate from event planning).

I think it's a cool idea with potential. I'm not sure what the technical expertise and design expectations of band managers is, and perhaps they only have really poor software to do similar things. But if I were a potential user, I'd like you to select one or two really cool features, make those well designed, and take the rest away until I ask for them or put them in the back menus for the hardcore users. That would give your site a really simplistic message and could leave me demanding more; maybe in the form of an additional pay-for content. Which features should these be? I don't know, talk to band managers.

If you can find one, it would be really useful if you could get a designer to help you with this. If not, just bring it to bands that you know, get them to use it (for free), and talk to them regularly.

I really don't mean to sound critical. I'm a 20, and I've been working on a website for 4 months now, though probably not as hard as you have (because of school). It's still been pretty tough for me, and I give you a ton of credit for lasting so long while working on something you care about. This is an incredibly comprehensive website. If you did cut it down a bit, the nice part is that it seems like all the backend is already done, so most of the work is complete. I just don't know how much longer you are willing to endure on this. Websites can be quite depressing when you have few users.

Having gone seven months working on this alone, based on your own idea, is something few of my friends are capable of. In the case that it doesn't work out you have still done something very impressive and can live knowing that you've finished something original. Best of luck to you, and if you ever want more advice let me know.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the kind words and actually taking the time to try it out! :)

 _How much have you talked to users in this time? Have you had any bands use some of the functionality while you were working on it to get an idea of what they really wanted?_

My old band used the original version of this app (it was overall much more basic than this but with all of the same functionality - if that makes any sense)... not to mention I know bands and exactly how the majority of them think when it comes to this boring stuff - I've been planning on adding a more guided approach. I also know exactly what tour managers have to do... and the app takes care of 99% of it - which is actually mainly who this is for. You'll just have to take my word for it... this app is exactly what tour managers need. They do everything on paper first and transfer it to excel later.

I really like the idea of reducing the feature set,,, but at the same time I feel like the culmination of all of the features is really what's going to reel in the management, booking agencies, and record labels - which is who I'm really after (more money there!)... individual bands are a plus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm no designer, but I'm pretty sure you're violating a whole handful of design guidelines here. The site just feels like one giant fullscreen flash ad.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think you have too much information on the front page. Give a static tour of your service so I can figure out what you're really offering. It looks, to me, like you have way to much text on the front page -- I don't think people will move around the little boxes to explore the service.

I can't really understand what you offer from your the video on the front page video -- (i.e. I know I can track gas consumption, but I want to be able to really see what that table looks like for more than a second).

Your front page is complicated because you're trying to quickly describe a complicated service...why not offer a live demo on the front page? Also, forget the "rely, relate..." I'd use words that completely describe the service..."track, engage..."

Cool idea, make the front page simpler. My .02

</comment><comment><USER11> Congrats on getting your idea built. Without knowing the industry I think the idea is great.

However, I think the landing page still needs a lot of work. I was suspicious when you were asking about monitor resolutions and had a separate mobile version. It really needs to be simplified greatly. There are a million articles out there that can help (clear/short desc of value, clear call to action...).

I realize it probably took you a lot of time to do the animation, but I would scrap all of that. Sorry :(

Also design wise there is nothing "music" about the landing page.

A 9 minute video seems excessive for a landing page. Cut it to 60 seconds to get the customer interested. Save the 9 minute version for after they sign up.

</comment><comment><USER12> You're going to HTTPS on full-screen very fast; you might get better performance with some HTTP+CDN integration (if possible, I've not examined the code at all).

The mobile landing page should probably provide a link to what the app does (since the fs didn't load at first for me, it's what I saw first).

The main page is very cluttered -- try reducing the amount of text, and adding more significant white padding between your columns, and remember that not everyone comes to see your site with a 29" screen.

Still looks far better than my UI skills any day :-)

Edit; Just tried to play the videos, and the audio is clipping badly (linux, chrome); A filter pass through on peaks/troughs would probably be wise

</comment><comment><USER13> Some design suggestions... The second 'play' button looks like the css was messed up, positioning the text in weird places all around it. Until I realized it's an image. You should DEFFINITELY clean those up, it looks like an accident. Maybe vertically stack them above or below the appropriate play buttons. Second, you can barely notice that tooltip to see the video on the bottom. You have a lot of empty black space right under the RELA on top... maybe have some intro text or a link to the video there the first time somebody visits the page. It took me a good 45 seconds just to figure out what the purpose of the site was. A couple sentence description right at the forefront would really help.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm guessing your on a bit higher resolution? This is how it looks on my resolution: <http://i.imgur.com/XmpRl.jpg>

But I'll definitely have to figure out a way to satisfy all resolutions. I was trying to go for something atypical... not a big fan of the cookie cutter startup landing pages I see all over the place... but I guess there's a good reason they all look similar.

As for the forefront description, my app does a ton of stuff so I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with something short and sweet that describes it all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Focus on your USP, try some A/B testing to figure out what people react to best. Maybe a 1 minute intro video to what you do on the front page.

When you know a little bit more about what makes people tick, get a complete redesign from 99designs or similar. You need to show people quickly what you are selling! I usually look at a landing page, read maximum 5 sentances of description that is prominent on the site. If I am still interested, I check out the video on the front page. If I'm still interested, I check for a prominent "pricing" link.

</comment><comment><USER15> Based on the design/workings of the site, the blurry onmouseover images are quite hard to read, especially with the small font. Also, to avoid using plugins (which everyone hates), can you not use HTML5 or flash?

On a large screen (1920 x 1080), the site still works but it's pretty spaced out and harder to read. Maybe try limiting the size by setting a fixed width/height?

</comment><comment><USER16> I believe the best time to post on HN is Tue-Thur, in the morning in the U.S. eastern time zone. The problem with Friday is that the rest of the world is already enjoying the weekend.

How about pivoting into a field where the customers are spending more money and have more money to spend?

</comment><comment><USER17> The page takes too long to load. It is blank for a very long time. Then everything suddenly appears on the screen at once.

If you can't fix the load time, at least add a better loading indicator so that people don't close the window.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is what I see - <http://i55.tinypic.com/29pusn5.jpg> \- Firefox on Windows

</comment><comment><USER17> Furthermore, the "Sign up now" call to action shouldn't disappear when you play the demo video.

</comment><comment><USER19> I tried to look at your site to give you feedback but saw "Alright HN! Thanks for the input! I get it now. I should conform to a typical landing page and not try to be different. :)"

However, I was able to see it using Google's Cache and the site design is terrible, if I was a user I would instantly close the screen seconds after loading the page - it may be the best thing since sliced bread - but there is so much information to take in that you can't instantly tell what you do AND you don't know which bit to take in first.

After fixing the design, you also need to cut down the length of the video down since especially the part where it says

"Check this out to see what RELA can do in less than 9 minutes."

You need 9 minutes to tell me what your product actually does? REALLY?! This would definitely drive a user away, if you want to have a video which shows what you do then make sure that it is only about 30-60 seconds long and if you still love the "9 minute video" then allow users to see that after they've signed up.

Additionally, I can see that you say this landing page is based on the whole framework of the site, and if that is the case as you haven't provided us with a login to test//the site is now down I can't go further into the site and check out if the framework design is suitable for the rest of the site because, it may require you also altering other aspects of the website to make a more fluid design which has a better UI so users can use it better.

Afterall, user number is nothing these days, its all about the active user numbers!

<comment><AUTHOR> Google's cache on the site is all kinds of screwed up... it's missing quite a bit. Either way it doesn't matter though because I'll be conforming to a "standard" landing page to appease and appeal to the widest audience possible. :P

There are actually a couple of 1.5 minute long advertisements if you click play... that 9 minute vid is actually a tutorial for people who want to learn how to use it from start to finish.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Fullscreen: <http://www.rela.cc>

Mobile: <http://m.rela.cc></comment>


Show HN: Tweet Cruncher – substitute characters for unicode lookalikes - <AUTHOR> https://tweetcruncher.com <comment><USER2> Seems a cool concept, but it shrunk "how" to something that looks like "w".</comment>


Developing for the NES and using JS - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRSRVdLQ_-k <comment><AUTHOR> Most of the credits should go to Michael Matuzak who did something similar and which I used as a starter for the JS demo: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiOW- swy2Ys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiOW-swy2Ys)</comment>


Should we even offer a freemium product? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.polleverywhere.com/should-we-even-offer-a-free-product-for-educa

<comment><USER2> My two cents:

1) Never, ever describe customer feedback as whining dramatics, especially when it is whining dramatics. It is very easy to get teachers to see things as Us vs. Them and you are -- make no mistake about this -- Them.

2) When reading comments from teachers about your pricing strategy I find it is salutary to remind oneself that they don't teach for free, either. Again, you don't have to say that out loud.

3) There are price-sensitive customers in every market. You don't have to sell to them.

4) Teachers report spending $250 to $400 a year on educational supplies from their own pockets. I would keep that in mind when contemplating pricing of software/services aimed at them.

5) If you want to sell to school districts, you are going to have to learn how to do Enterprise Sales. Trust me on this: $150 a year is not _nearly_ enough to recoup the costs you'll incur doing this. (Just chasing POs through the 7+ step process to get them approved will cost you more than that in staff time. When customers approach me about paying with a PO I give them a copy for free -- it saves me money. Not even joking!)

<comment><USER3> And a small addition to point 1 - don't post your customers' emails in public. Especially if you're going to describe them as whining dramatics. It's the equivalent of announcing 'if you send me any feedback I dislike, I'll post it on the net and make fun of you'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is an exceptionally honest and forthright look at the pros/cons of a freemium model versus a simple free trial. I tip my hat to the Pollers for being willing to express their conundrum in such clear language in a public forum. Kudos.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd make .edu a special case and give away a free subscription to any teacher who asks for one.

In fact, that's _exactly_ what I did with Twiddla, and it has paid off amazingly well in the form of ridiculously loyal, eternally grateful users and tons of free press. Better still, every student in every classroom that uses Twiddla today will eventually be wearing a suit and sitting in a conference room while a bunch of other guy in suits struggle to make WebEx work _at all_ , and chances are he'll suggest this cool web meeting tool he used back in school.

So if I were you guys, I'd re-do the math to see what it will cost to offer free accounts, but _only_ to educational users. It was more than worth it for us.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think the real lesson to take away from this is "stay the hell away from the education market, especially primary/secondary schools." Seriously, it's a god damn nightmare, and the fact that $50 plastic remote controls are the state of the art in that market is just an indication of that.

</comment><comment><USER7> You might consider allowing teachers at the same school to pool an account so they can split the costs across multiple teachers. Teachers in the same grade or subject often collaborate, and this might be a good way to incentivize teachers to sell the product in their schools for you.

</comment><comment><USER8> Suggestion for the archive feature: -> Archive results for all. -> Only make the latest results available for the free customers. When they pay for a year's subscription, make the rest of the archive available.

I think flickr does this.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is actually the direction we're heading with PE. Thanks for the independent validation on this strategy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> While I have nothing against the sentiment/content in this post, I think the structure leaves a lot to be desired. Why anger your readers if you're going to give in anyway?

Far too confrontational, imho...

<comment><USER10> Actually this didn't anger our readers at all, the opposite in fact. Its very easy for people to forget that there are people behind web companies that have to eat, sleep under a roof, and occasionally blow some money on something fun every once in a while like Skiing.

Teachers are very reasonable people, so we're being straight forward about the situation and reminding them that we're not Google; we don't make money from ads, we make money from building software applications.

It amazes me how people assume free products "monetized" by ads are the norm when in fact it is a freakish anomaly for any business. Most companies run like lemonade stands; you pay for water, lemons and sugar, mix it all up, setup a stand, and sell it to a customer for an amount that covers your costs and gives you reasonable profits to cover your risk.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree. Based on some of the comments and re-tweets from educators themselves, it is clear that they are reasonable. They just want to pinch pennies (And who doesn't?). Unfortunately, there is a minimum level for us to charge that still makes sense to even sell to them in the first place.

As a poster above mentioned earlier, just having to deal with a PO process almost _automatically_ means you have to charge more just on that basis, as dealing with the paper back and forth process, collecting on invoices, etc., adds up to a significant portion of the acquisition costs. Unfortunately, it schools continue to insist on a purchase ordering model, they'll have to also keep paying for it in all the services/products they consume.

In fact, if you want an interesting business opportunity, it could be to build a product that helps schools/educational institutions buy shit more smartly!!! Using credit cards and expense reimbursements from staff members rather than a centralized purchase order/paper check system. Blech!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> $129/year < $3/week = Not expensive for something that gets used.</comment>


Ask PG: Can we see our Y combinator application score? - <AUTHOR>

To my understanding the managing partners put a score on every application that goes through and filter them accordingly
Would it be possible for us to have an idea of our score so we can know how to improve? it doesn't have to be a complex feedback just a letter based report e.g "your score was a B, together with 56% of the applicants"
Just a question <comment><USER2> Maybe they're afraid that having detailed reports gives applicants more information to game the system with? I think PG expressed such a sentiment some time ago.

Unless their rating system is so good that if you manage to score high you're doing very good anyway?

Perhaps you can create a self test based on PG's and other investors' public expressions about startup material, and measure yourself against those? :)</comment>


Apple Wireless Keyboard drives the Iphone - <AUTHOR> http://www.ubiqkom.org/blog/?p=41

<comment><USER2> This is pretty cool but I fail to see any long-term use.</comment>


Please rate my lang - <AUTHOR>

I added an in-browser REPL to my site so that people could try out the ideas : http://www.typesandotherdistractions.com/2011/03/try-purity.html
There are a few basic things missing that I'll be adding soon, most notably a module system and generic types, but for now, please let me know what you think.
Some sample code is available here: https://github.com/paf31/Purity/wiki
which can pretty much be pasted right into the REPL (modulo removing comments), and my blog contains a few guides to the syntax in the more recent posts.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I'd have loved to try it, but it requires SilverLight. Would it be possible to hook this up using a JavaScript REPL like <http://try-clojure.org> ?

</comment><comment><USER3> Clickable:

[http://www.typesandotherdistractions.com/2011/03/try- purity....](http://www.typesandotherdistractions.com/2011/03/try-purity.html)

Both the links you give are the same- was that intentional?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm sure it would be possible, but my js skills aren't quite up to the task...

<comment><USER4> You could run it on the server side, like <https://github.com/timrobinson/try- fsharp/>.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd thought about that, I might give it a go once I have a few more features in the language worked out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> No, thank you :)</comment>


CSS3 Facebook Buttons - <AUTHOR> http://nicolasgallagher.com/lab/css3-facebook-buttons/

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "same syntax as jQuery UI only slightly different" class structure. Maybe change to an "fb-" prefix?

</comment><comment><USER3> Please consider adding dropdowns, popovers, modals or form elements :)

<comment><AUTHOR> There's been an issue for dropdowns since may [0], but there hasn't been much activity in the repo. I guess you could fork it and add it in yourself, or use it in combination with the fb-bootstrap posted. I would fork it and add it myself, but I'm not good enough at web design to do so.

[0] - <https://github.com/necolas/css3-facebook-buttons/issues/1></comment></comment>


Amazon S3 - Bigger and Busier Than Ever - <AUTHOR> http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2011/01/amazon-s3-bigger-and-busier-than-ever.html <comment><USER2> I'm pretty certain that I store almost a billion objects into S3 every month (yes: the requests for that cost a lot)... does that make me a noticeable percentage of S3's object count? Seriously now?

<comment><USER3> Don't keep us in suspense, what are you storing?

<comment><USER2> I wish it was interesting, or even sane... one day my website got like a million more users /that day/ and every database mechanism I had to do some of the user statistics I was keeping totally failed: the website ground to a halt. So, rather than decide what I really wanted to keep, I frantically developed a little library that stored all of that data into S3 as a giant key/value store, with my own little makeshift inverted indexes. Needless to say, this was stupid, and when I next checked my S3 bills I noticed I was doing a billion puts per month (which costs like $10,000). Lukily, this has only been a few months, and I'm now fixing the situation during a giant cost- cotti g endeavor... but yeah: omg that was stupid.

(typed on my iPhone and therefore a little shortened: hacker news comments suck on the iPhone)

<comment><USER3> Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm a packrat myself, but I guess something like S3 where you actively pay for storage and transport shows you very clearly the cost of being a packrat--there may be value in what you keep around, but it's not free to keep around, and it's not free to move it to storage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is it just me, or does this post leave you a bit confused. What does 292 billion objects mean? I know an object is a file stored in a bucket.

But rly? If Amazon wants to convince developers to use their platform they have to speak in terms that ordinary people can understand.

Tell us how much money developers have saved since they switched - how many individual apps are using S3, etc.

</comment><comment><USER5> Looking at it from a bit more of a critical view than their graph would probably appreciate, that means that from the end of 2007 on they've done a little better than doubling yearly.

That's it? They're an _enormous_ company and seem to me to be by _far_ the most-mentioned storage option. I'm surprised they're not a heck of a lot higher, especially given that a number of very popular cloud services sit right on top of S3 and store many gigabytes and _hammer_ it with requests.

Oh well. If they maintain that growth, they'll own everything soon enough. I don't mean to imply yearly-doubling is _bad_ in any way, just that I would've expected more by now.

<comment><USER6> Is cloud storage the factor that is driving companies to AWS? I'm sure that's huge for NetFlix, but they are an outlier. My bet would be on EC2 usage as being a better growth metric.

<comment><USER5> Well, to pick a high-profile AWS-user here: all of Dropbox runs on S3, and apparently a bit of EC2, last I saw. Not that I think they account for a truly significant amount of Amazon's traffic, but they're not small-time either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Off-topic: I've always wondered who 'Jeff' is on the AWS blog…I like to think it's Bezos, but is it?

<comment><USER8> It's Jeff Barr, Lead AWS Evangelist.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jeffbarr> (the OP). <http://www.jeff- barr.com/?page_id=670>

edit: Barr, not Bar :(

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, that's me, but with two r's.

When I started writing the AWS blog in late 2004 I wasn't sure how personal I should or could be, and didn't know if it was ok to brand it with my full name. I had adopted "-- Jeff;" as my signature a long time ago, when one of my friends had "++md;"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> wow the growth is phenomenal! Everything is indeed going to be in the cloud

<comment><USER10> It is kind of funny, right? I mean, our servers are already "the cloud". So it's a really cloud within a cloud.</comment></comment>


CuPy: NumPy-compatible matrix library accelerated by CUDA - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cupy/cupy <comment><USER2> This is interesting. But I wonder what differences it hopes to attain vs. Numba's CUDA support for NumPy, which seems to work pretty well and is under active development.

One benchmark, [https://www.scivision.co/speed-of-matlab-vs-python-numpy- num...](https://www.scivision.co/speed-of-matlab-vs-python-numpy-numba/)</comment>


Did These Computer Scientists Solve the Cuban 'Sonic Attack'? - <AUTHOR> https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-these-computer-scientists-solve-the-cuban-sonic-attack <comment> GCU-Empiricist Summary: two listening devices transmitting at ultrasound frequencies and undergoing mutual interference may have created the human audible sound that was recorded and published in the news as evidence of the Cuban sonic attack.

Personally, this makes a lot of sense and satisfies both Hanlon's Razor and the basic "Who profits?" question.

</comment><comment><USER2> Should be an easy enough problem to spot. If there's an UHF audio source that intense in a room, it'd show up on a good-quality tweeter wired to an oscilloscope.

</comment><comment><USER3> "It was just an accident" isn't too comforting, since if this is true, well, now the whole world knows how to construct such an attack.

</comment><comment><USER4> Perhaps uBeam has a prototype deployment after all.</comment>


Remind YC:  It's Valentine's Day.  Don't forget the flowers and card for your s.o. - <AUTHOR>

I'm just saying, some of us can be a little forgetful of such things... <comment><USER2> I was hoping that Hacker News would be the place that I wouldn't have to hear about v-day.

You cruel, cruel man...

<comment><USER3> I'm with you on this one. Tonight, while couples are happily enjoying each other's company, I will be eating dinner at a dining hall in my college.

<comment><USER4> There's some corresponding girl who's going to be eating alone too. Why not ask her to go have coffee with you afterward? Unless the college is Caltech, in which case never mind.

<comment><USER5> This was the key to ending my loneliness years ago. Once I realized that there were great women who were just as alone as I was, I suddenly had motivation to go out and look for them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I find it very satisfying that although my wife and I are getting divorced, I can still kiss her good morning, wish her happy Valentine's day and tonight I'll probably tell her to have a good time on her date as I hug her goodbye!

Nothing about our relationship has ever really been conventional :-)

Flowers? Card? Good sentiment, but I'd try something from the heart: paintball, horseback ride, hot air balloon trip, have the in-laws watch the kids while you two disappear to the sleazy motel around the corner for a few hours, or just bake him/her a huge chocolate cake and eat it naked in front of the fireplace with a nice Zinfandel.

<comment><USER6> That first sentence was so depressing. Are you really being serious?

<comment><USER5> I am absolutely serious! Why do you find it depressing? I think it's a celebration of who we are that we're able to give each other what that person really wants.

Valentine's Day should be about love for those around you and she and I love each other. We just shouldn't be married and we're lucky to have figured that out before we began to hate each other.

<comment><USER7> Ideally, that "figuring out" would have happened before the marriage part, no?

<comment><USER5> The real world is far from an ideal situation!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Significant other? Is that one of the things that come along with taking VC funding?

There's a reason people say that the most important thing for a bootstrapper to have is a good divorce lawyer. :-)

<comment><USER9> He must mean co-founder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > It's Valentine's Day. Don't forget the flowers and card for your s.o.

Are you only supposed to care about your S.O. one day a year? Shouldn't you be nice _every_ day?

<comment><USER11> I suggest not buying flowers and a card daily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Sitting on the dining room table waiting for her return from work, then we're off to dinner + dancing :)

<comment><USER13> You're sitting on the table? Not sure she'll like that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hey, if we're on the topic of a Valentine's Day thread, I figure I'll ask a question that's never been worth an Ask HN: how do you start-up people deal with relationships when you spend a lot of your time intensely focused on the work you're doing or want to do?

<comment><USER15> Keep in mind that I'm not in a startup yet, but I have worked in several intense jobs and professions in the past. It is my opinion that you should never regularly put in more than 10 hours a day except for the occasional short crunch period. It is also my opinion that one day per week should have no more than 4 hours of work in it. That should give you a few hours for dinner and a movie on a fairly regular basis.

I just don't think it's valuable to put in more time than that in the long run. Does anybody disagree?

<comment><USER14> I'm not in a startup either, but my thought has always been, you put as much effort in as interests you. The goal is to get an idea good enough to make you want to obsess over it.

I guess my problem is that I keep hoping I'll meet a girl who feels the same way. Every girlfriend I've had has been less intense (I think that's the word I want?), and as a result when I get into these moods where I want to write for 8 hours straight, or code like mad, or whatever, she doesn't understand. And then, in turn, they never have these moments that I do, where you pour yourself into something and suddenly have something magical and your own.

I hope there're girls like that: I've met a few guys like that, but never girls. A guy can dream, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> FORGET cards and flowers, I'm BUILDING a gift. Right now.

</comment><comment><USER17> Singles Awareness Day? Bah, Humbug!

<comment><USER14> Do I smell a Hacker News-based dating site around the corner?*

*I really, really hope not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If you don't have a significant other today: www.goodcrush.com

</shameless plug>

<comment><USER10> That doesn't really solve the problem of not knowing anyone to date.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Insensitive clod! ;)

</comment><comment><USER20> so you do hallmark holidays?</comment>


Tell HN: Programming on a Mobile OS Is the Future - <AUTHOR> Smartphone adoption is rising around the world. India alone will see 100m users use smartphones in the next couple of years - using phones that are quite capable machines.
Laptops are expensive, and its sales have plateaued. Convergence will occur - line between mobile and desktop environments will blur. The next generation of coders will program on a mobile OS.
There are ways to connect a smartphone to monitors, keyboards, and laptop shells to get work done, but the mobile software ecosystem tailored for productivity is lagging - specifically for programming.
During my attempt to set up a web development environment for my Android tablet, I ran into issues installing dependencies (node.js) and editing files that I had created in another app (created files in Termux (an Android terminal emulator) so that I could execute them, but had trouble opening those files from another application due to Android storage restrictions that prevent apps from accessing each others' storage).
What I've noticed so far with development on Android
- There exist tools to write and test scripts, but when it comes to developing applications, tools are lacking (e.g. the web dev environment I described above)
- Inactive Community. This is prob the biggest factor that prevents novice - intermediate level programmers from trying things out on Android.
Some of the technical issues could be bypassed by rooting the device, but I think that's too much to ask for to be able to build applications (let alone security issues).
Unlocking the power of today's smartphones to program would be awesome. Anyone interested in exploring development on Android, perhaps as a side project? Would appreciate feedback. <comment><USER2> I already do this with AIDE on my pixel C, it costs around 1400-2k for a machine that can reasonably run android studio. I use termux for node and front end development.

<comment><AUTHOR> How do you set up your node environment using Termux? I could only install my npm dependencies when using private storage for Termux --> meaning I couldn't edit my files from an another editor app, forcing me to code in vi / nano.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Mobile OSes are build with certain assumptions and building on top of those assumption something that contradicts those assumptions will lead to all sort of problems.

As of now, it seems only Ubuntu have the mobile version that is more suited for development work, unfortunately not many devices around the world.

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://c9.io/](https://c9.io/)</comment>


Sorting 1 million 8-digit decimal numbers in 1MB of RAM  - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12748246/sorting-numbers-in-ram <comment><USER2> This was a Google interview question for a while (I know I got it as one) I think it has since made it to the banned question list. The 'trick' was, as answer #2 elided, to use bits to store the fact that you had observed the number and then you could dump them back in sorted order.

So imagine you have a bit field where 'one bits' indicate you have seen the number and 'zero bits' indicate you haven't. And you compress it with run- length encoding.

Your initial data structure is '99999999:0' (all zeros, haven't seen any numbers) and then lets say you see the number 3,866,344 so your data structure becomes '3866343:0,1:1,96133654:0' as you can see the numbers will always alternate between number of zero bits and number of '1' bits so you can just assume the odd numbers represent 0 bits and the even numbers 1 bits. This becomes (3866343,1,96133654)

Anyway, as you get numbers you will split and coalesce the bit space until you've either seen all numbers (0, 99999999) or you run out of memory because a hacker has sent you only the even numbers from the space.

Its a clever 'math trick' which explores how you think about numbers (are they a thing or a representation). But I never thought it really gave a good indication of whether or not you would be a good candidate for the company.

<comment><USER3> It is extremely unlikely that you'll be able to sort a random sequence of 1 million 10 digit numbers like that, or ANY method for that matter, unless the particular sequence is highly compressible. You won't even be able to store the answer in the average case. You'll need 10^6*lg(10^10) bits to store the raw input, from which you'll be able to save about lg(10^6!) bits because it's sorted. That comes out to more than 1.7 megabytes.

Edit: the exact amount of bits necessary is ceil(log_2((1e10+1e6-1) choose 1e6)), which is ~1.756 megabytes.

Edit edit: see udiv's comment below: that 1e10 should be 1e8 of course.

<comment><USER4> They're 8-digit decimals, not 10, so it works out to 0.96 MiB.

I think the parent's solution works. The typical separation between numbers is about 2^7: that works out to 8 bits per number -- 7 for the length of the '00...0', plus one length-one '1'. 8 bits * 10^6 is 1 MiB exactly. You need a variable-length encoding, so you can fit 2^7 in 7 bits while still allowing larger numbers to be encoded.

<comment><USER2> There is fairly intuitive way to reason about the storage requirement. Lets start with you've seen no numbers in the range, you have the tuple (99,999,999, 0). That is two 32 bit numbers or 8 bytes of storage. Now lets say you've seen all the numbers in the range, you've got (0, 99,999,999), again 8 bytes of storage, two 32 bit numbers. Since we're describing a linear bit field, the worst case is : (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, ... 1,0) every odd number and none of the even numbers. So the memory to encode the virtual bit field will be (assuming 32 bit numbers always) 4 bytes * n where 'n' is the number of distinct regions in the bit field. With a perfectly uniform random number generator each number generated has possible outcomes:

1) It splits a region (it causes a string of zeros to have a one in them) (adds 8 bytes)

2) It coalesces a region (it removes the last remaining zero between two regions) (subtracts 8 bytes)

I'm sure there are other solutions, and as was pointed out it doesn't really deal with duplicates. I suspect a multi-value bit field might cover that.

<comment><USER3> With 10^6 random numbers between 0 and 10^8 almost all operations will be splits, and you'll end up with 8 bytes * 10^6 = 7.6 megabytes. So indeed the chances of this working for a random sequence are _extremely slim_. You have to have a huge number of coalesces, which is just extremely unlikely when you choose 10^6 random numbers in a range of 10^8. So for almost all inputs this method doesn't work.

I simulated it with a Python program and you get about 10^4 coalesces. That doesn't even begin to make a dent in 10^6, and storing this will still take ~7 megabytes.

<comment><USER4> _With 10^6 random numbers between 0 and 10^8 almost all operations will be splits,_

Right.

 _and you'll end up with 8 bytes x 10^6 = 7.6 megabytes._

Not if you encode cleverly. The successive differences will be on the scale of 10^8/10^6 = 100, which is a very small number. It takes 7 bits to store, or at least 8 bits in a variable-width encoding.

<comment><USER3> Sure, if you encode cleverly. That is the essential difficulty of the problem which he glosses over (note that he explicitly says that he will store the differences as 4 byte numbers). Getting it under 1.5MB (or even 1.1MB) is probably easy, but I have yet to see an encoding which is sufficiently compact to fit in 1MB.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All of these bizzaro explanations leave me wondering if I've missed something. Can't this be elegantly solved via the pigeonhole principle?

There are one million numbers to be sorted, out of a space of one hundred million. That means that no number may be more than 100 away from any other number once fully sorted (7 bits). Therefore, you can simply use deltas to encode your numbers, as 7 bit deltas * one million numbers < 1 MB RAM.

EDIT: should've been clearer: no number may be more than 100 away from any other number _on average_ once fully sorted. Therefore, it's an average of 7 bits per number, maximum. Duplicates are even easier, since it's only one bit to encode the duplicate (a delta of zero).

EDIT 2: As for the encoding to be used, I think a universal code or Golomb code would probably be sufficient. They can get quite close to natural entropy.

<comment><USER6> Duplicates are allowed, so you could for example have 500,000 zeros and 500,000 99,999,999's, which are more than 100 apart.

<comment><USER5> That is one of the more ideal distributions, as each number gets one (zero) bit for delta, and the number at the jump point gets a large but globally inconsequential number of bits. Bits per number is still less than 7.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Since no computational bound has been placed, this problem could be solved in n^2 by an insertion sort and keeping the list of numbers sorted in memory as they are received. Then the problem then boils down to encoding a list of sorted 8 digit decimal #s, where it's possible to insert new #s.

Since the #s are stored sorted and bounded in size, they can be encoded as deltas which will be more space efficient than storing absolute values. Now we just need to figure out the worst case encoding and will 1 million values fit?

<comment><USER8> i think that's the clearest answer i've seen. really, it's pretty much equivalent to the other answers, but at least for me it's by far the easiest to grasp. although i guess that may be because the idea is simply becoming familiar after reading the others.

the best "high level" explanation, i think, is that you are compressing the _sorted_ numbers, which are therefore not random, and so concerns about the incompressibility of random streams are completely irrelevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Information theory to the rescue! Well, not really.

8 decimal digits takes 26.6 bits. An ordered list of 10^6 of these takes 3.17 MiB. The information contained in the ordering is lg(10^6!) ~= 2.20 MiB [0]. So as an _unordered_ multiset, the information content is 0.96 MiB. It's at least _theoretically_ possible to store the input in 1 MiB of working memory. But only just; in fact it's significant that the problem specifies 2^20 bytes, because for an SI megabyte (10^6 bytes), it wouldn't work.

I don't think it's _actually_ possible though. The answers here don't do it. LZMA accomplishes nothing.

[0] Stirling's approximation in base 2: lg(n!) ~= n lg(n) - n/ln(2)

<comment><USER9> > _The information contained in the ordering is lg(10^6!)_

Can you point me to a resource that discusses the information theory behind this claim? I'm interested in learning more, but don't know what to search for.

<comment><USER4> You have N elements, so they have N! possible permutations. The ordering of the list is one such permutation; to describe one message out of a language of N! possible messages, it takes lg(N!) bits.

<comment><USER9> Interesting. Thanks for explaining. Are there ways to store (multi)sets that take advantage of this fact to reduce size? I can't envision a way to utilize this information meaningfully. It seems like any storage scheme would imply _some_ ordering.

<comment><USER4> Yes, the other commenter ChuckMcM showed one

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4680259>

An ordering of a storage scheme doesn't always store information. E.g. if the list is sorted, the ordering is completely determined by the data -- it's redundant.

For storing integers, an idea to is store the pairwise differences between sorted elements. E.g. [30,10,20] -> [10-0,20-10,30-20] = [10,10,10]. If you have N integers of typical size X, the differences will be much smaller, typically on the scale of X/N. With variable-width integers, X/N takes lg(N) fewer bits to encode than X. So you save N lg(N) bits (asymptotically the same as lg(N!)), compared to storing the integers literally.

<comment><USER9> > _Yes, the other commenter ChuckMcM showed one_

I saw that comment. I'm not clear how that's not still storing ordered data, or rather how the order there is not storing information.

Obviously my information theory knowledge is weak.

> _if the list is sorted, the ordering is completely determined by the data -- > it's redundant._

I don't understand this. In what way is the information redundant? If there's 3.17 MB of data in the ordered list, and 2.2 MB of data in the ordering itself, the information stored in the ordering cannot be redundant, because that would mean >4.4MB of information is stored in the ordered list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Since code size is not restricted, the obvious solution is to store the entire list of numbers received in the program counter. In short, put every possible input combination into the code, and just follow whatever branch pattern you receive.

This requires no memory other than that for the networking stack. It is, of course, also completely impractical.

<comment><USER11> This was my thought as well. But if you can afford several TB of ROM you can probably afford to increase your RAM to 4MB.

<comment><USER12> it's not TB of ROM. It' much, much more: 2^(2^20) addresses... Even if you're faking it and the addresses aren't real (inevitable with those numbers), you're still just cheating and storing data in a multi-megabyte _dynamic_ (not ROM!) program counter. After all, you need to distinguish all those addresses...

<comment><USER10> It's not cheating! If they wanted to limit the size of the program counter then they should have specified a limit on the amount of code!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> EDIT: I put this same description into the stackoverflow page with an image which might help visualize it.

I think one way to think about this is from a combinatorics viewpoint: how many possible combinations of sorted number orderings are there? If we give the combination 0,0,0,....,0 the code 0, and 0,0,0,...,1 the code 1, and 99999999, 99999999, ... 99999999 the code N, what is N? In other words, how big is the result space?

Well, one way to think about this is noticing that this is a bijection of the problem of finding the number of monotonic paths in an N x M grid, where N = 1,000,000 and M = 100,000,000. In other words, if you have a grid that is 1,000,000 wide and 100,000,000 tall, how many shortest paths from the bottom left to the top right are there? Shortest paths of course require you only ever either move right or up (if you were to move down or left you would be undoing previously accomplished progress). To see how this is a bijection of our number sorting problem, observe the following:

You can imagine any horizontal leg in our path as a number in our ordering, where the Y location of the leg represents the value (image: <http://i.stack.imgur.com/aJp4b.png> ). So if the path simply moves to the right all the way to the end, then jumps all the way to the top, that is equivalent to the ordering 0,0,0,...,0. if it instead begins by jumping all the way to the top and then moves to the right 1,000,000 times, that is equivalent to 99999999,99999999,..., 99999999. A path where it moves right once, then up once, then right one, then up once, etc to the very end (then necessarily jumps all the way to the top), is equivalent to 0,1,2,3,...,999999.

Luckily for us this problem has already been solved, such a grid has (N + M) Choose (M) paths:

(1,000,000 + 100,000,000) Choose (100,000,000) ~= 2.27 * 10^2436455

N thus equals 2.27 * 10^2436455, and so the code 0 represents 0,0,0,...,0 and the code 2.27 * 10^2436455 and some change represents 99999999,99999999,..., 99999999.

In order to store all the numbers from 0 to 2.27 * 10^2436455 you need lg2 (2.27 * 10^2436455) = 8.0937 * 10^6 bits.

1 megabyte = 8388608 bits > 8093700 bits

So it appears that we at least actually have enough room to store the result! Now of course the interesting bit is doing the sorting as the numbers stream in. Not sure the best approach to this is given we have 294908 bits remaining. I imagine an interesting technique would be to at each point assume that that is is the entire ordering, finding the code for that ordering, and then as you receive a new number going back and updating the previous code. Hand wave hand wave.

<comment><USER13> I think the answers to most of these seemingly impossible questions depends on discovery of isomorphic problems spaces where they can be solved a lot more easily.

In your case you translated the problem to a different problem space and solved it there. The other contributors in stack overflow tend to do the same eg: Using network latency, compression etc to solve these problems.

These sort of solutions become very interesting when they become isomorphic to some other real world problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Radix sort. Done.

Depending on his dataset characteristics a radix sort can have a space requirement as low as a few hundred bytes to sort several million values.

EG: 8-bit values, Simply make a 256byte array. Increase the appropriate count on each value when you see a value. When you've gone through the list, loop through the array outputting count values at that index. It's also quite cache friendly, mind the last time I compared was on a Pentium PRO to quick sort.

For larger datasets, you actually want to compare on the digits (LSD or MSD first), and that'll take more memory.

EDIT: Originally posted that it'd take 256 bytes of memory. That's not true for his dataset.

<comment><USER15> There is not enough memory to keep all the numbers and therefore radix sort is no viable solution. But I think you actually meant counting sort, but this will not work either. It requires 100,000,000 slots each 20 bits wide for a total of almost 238.5 MiB.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of the sleep sort that was on here a few months ago. If you don't care about the run time and your processor was fast enough it may be hacked to work.

<http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithms/Sleep_sort>

</comment><comment><USER17> As others have mentioned, you need 7 bits per number (on average) if you store the numbers as deltas in sorted form. So 7M bits out of 8388608 bits yields 1.32MB of working set.

One could implement a simple block allocator, where each block contains a sequential list of deltas.

The trick to fast insertion is to place new blocks at addresses interpolated between 0 and 10^8. If there is a collision, merge blocks. If the input distribution is off, physically reallocate colliding blocks left or right into free space.

So inserting the numbers 10, 20, 1000, 2000, 1M, 2M would give you a heap looking like:

[head->[10,10]->[980]->[1000]->[998000]->[1000000]->tail]

As more numbers are inserted, blocks combine until you end up with one contiguous block.

</comment><comment><USER18> Am I the only one who thinks this was someone's homework assignment?

<comment><USER19> It does sound similar to the opening problem in the book "Programming Pearls." The solution proposed there was to write temporary files to disk and do a K-ways sort.

<comment><USER20> Except in this case, you have no disk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Compressed buckets of number ranges. I love it because it's incredibly easy to understand which makes the code easy to maintain, and it works.

</comment><comment><USER22> Here's the solution that I came up with prior to following the link or reading any comments.

We're given 1 million integers from 0 to 99,999,999. We only have 1MB of RAM, or an average ~8 bits for each of the million numbers. So we can't store the numbers directly since they take ~27 bits each.

First thought was to use a bitset but that would require 100 million bits, and we only have ~8 million bits RAM, so that's not going to work. Also need to deal with duplicates.

How about this. Something similar to a selection sort algorithm that stores deltas of distances between sorted numbers. As a number is streamed in, we start scanning from the beginning of the list until it's correct position found, where it is inserted and then push down the remaining numbers. This will be O(n^2).

Since the average delta distance between numbers is about 100, we'll use 8-bits to store the delta value. Value 0 means the number is a duplicate of the current number. Values 1-254 mean add this number to the current number for the new number. Value 255 means add 255, then use the next byte as the delta value (repeat until the value != 255).

(Case 1) 1 million ints exactly 100 apart: 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, ..., 99999800, 99999900 Stored as a list of 8-bit delta values: 0, 100, 100, 100, 100, ..., 100, 100 (1 million bytes total)

(Case 2) 1/2 million zeros, then 1/2 million values of 99999999. Stored as: start: 0, 0, 0, 0, ... (1/2 million zero deltas) then: 255, 255, 255, 255, ... (99999999 / 255 = 392,156 times repeated, which gets us to number 99,999,780) then: 219, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... (another 1/2 million zero deltas)

So the total amount of storage for Case 2, which I presume is worse case (but correct me if I'm wrong!) is: 500,000 + 392,156 + 1 + 500,000 = 1,392,157 bytes to store the delta values.

1MB = 1,048,576 bytes, so I'm over by 343,581 bytes... (so close!)

We'll have to modify this scheme so that we reduce the number of 255 values, which should not be hard to do and will get us under the 1MB size limit. Or we could try something fancier like huffman coding to reduce the size of the delta values.

</comment><comment><USER23> Compressed bucket-ranges works fine for random date, but if the data are skewed in some way (e.g. normal-curve shaped), the bucket-sizes must be adjustable.

An alternative method is to use one bucket into which all values below a limit (e.g. 20,000,000) are sorted as they arrive, and compress all the rest. When 10^6 values have arrived, transmit the bucket and then reuse the empty bucket repeatedly to sort the compressed values.

</comment><comment><USER24> Just a thought but given "have a computer with 1M of RAM and no other local storage. I must use it to accept 1 million 8-digit decimal numbers over a TCP connection, "

I was wondering why you can't use TCP as a form of storage, possibly many ways but latency and buffers would actualy work for you as crude storage. Not that it is need in this case but it is one form of queue that could be abused to store data.

<comment><USER25> That was actually suggested by one of the replies:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12748246/sorting-1-millio...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12748246/sorting-1-million-8-digit- numbers-in-1mb-of-ram/13000176#13000176)

<comment><USER24> I must of missed that one, though good too know I'm just as sane as others out there. Many forms of storage that most forget is out there as not directly obvious. Even the display ram is usable - blame my ZX81 days for that perversion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Store each number as a delta from a previous one, first number as a delta from 0. Each number starts with a code describing its length: 0 (duplicate), 7, 9 or 27 bits. For storing a code use values '1', '01', '001' and '0001'. Calculate statistics for different code types and when space is tight replace most common codes with shortest ones.

<comment><USER27> Bit late to this as I've been ill.

If you try that encoding scheme with some random data you'll find it won't always fit.

I took 1,000,000 random numbers between 0 and 99,999,999 and sorted them and calculated the deltas. Here's the distribution of the sizes of the deltas:-

       diffbits: 1 nos 5009
       diffbits: 2 nos 19937
       diffbits: 3 nos 38275
       diffbits: 4 nos 72319
       diffbits: 5 nos 128146
       diffbits: 6 nos 202000
       diffbits: 7 nos 252698
       diffbits: 8 nos 202681
       diffbits: 9 nos 72750
       diffbits: 10 nos 6148
       diffbits: 11 nos 37
       totbits = (1*5009)+(2*19937)+(3*38275)... = 6,408,685

That's the total number of bits required to store just the deltas, but doesn't include the length encoding.

8 _1024_ 1024 - 6408685 = 1979923 spare bits.

Each of the 999,999 deltas will take at least one bit to determine the size of the delta, leaving you with 979,924 bits for extra length encoding and wastage (if you pack multiple lengths under one encoding).

There's no way I can see (after trying lots of permutations) to be able to encode all of those bunches of diffs using those few remaining bits.

What's even more difficult is that you don't have the space to 'calculate statistics for different code types' because you can't fit anywhere near all of the deltas into that 1MB of memory without having them encoded perfectly anyway. Calculating them on partial data is all that you can do, and that's not going to be accurate enough because you've no idea what the unseen data has to hold (it could all be duplicates or 11 bit differences...).

I'm keeping going on looking at this (and trying not to look at any of the posted solutions).

<comment><USER26> You are right, my solution is not really working. But I still believe that there might be a working solution of encoding deltas.

Thank you for your reply!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Does anyone know what the original question was? Its clear from the answers that the input used to be some kind of stream (or, it was unspecified and everyone jumped on this interpretation), whereas now it is in ROM.

<comment><USER29> No, the input is 1 million 8-digit decimal numbers over TCP.

The ROM is used to store the program itself, so the code doesn't take up any of the limited memory itself.

<comment><USER28> I misread it. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Now, can you please solve this with 50% less code using Haskell?

<comment><USER31> Go ahead.

<comment><USER30> I'm am guessing it would take substantially more LOC to do this in Haskell than in Java. The problem seems to lend itself much better to OO design patterns than to functional ones.

edit: unless perhaps you make use of haskell's FFI, then maybe haskell could beat it on LOC

<comment><USER32> I really don't see how OO design patterns come into play here. I haven't seen anyone suggest OO-based solutions.

<comment><USER30> The POC code offered by Renat Gilmanov is OO.

<comment><USER33> That's not a solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> What did the question mean by "8 digit decimal number"? Did that mean anything from 0.0000001 to 99999999?

</comment><comment><USER35> Use a machine with 32 bit bytes.</comment>


An Overview of AngularJS for Managers - <AUTHOR> http://andrewaustin.com/an-overview-of-angularjs-for-managers/

<comment><USER2> What about performance? What about the fact that the Angular 1.x code you write today will have to be rewritten when Angular 2 comes out?

<comment><USER3> Angular 2 coming out isn't going to make Angular 1 disappear. It might not even end first party support for some time, though the fact that Angular is open source means that there are options for maintenance even when first party support does end.

You might choose to switch to Angular 2 later just as you might switch to anything else based on a future cost-benefit analysis, but you don't have to.

<comment><USER2> From: [http://eisenbergeffect.bluespire.com/all-about- angular-2-0/](http://eisenbergeffect.bluespire.com/all-about-angular-2-0/)

> So, it would seem that Google is heavily invested in the current version and > will need to support it for a while. In a Q&A session at ngEurope Brad Green > said that you can expect at least 1.5 - 2 years of support for Angular 1.3 > after the RTM of Angular 2.0 becomes available

If I am working on a long term project choosing a technology that will be supported for 1.5-2 years, would make me feel uneasy.

But let's just pretend that the 1.x codebase will be so stable that it won't need support. What about the third party libraries that my project will depend on? Should I expect all of those to be maintained after Angular 2 is released?

For real projects these are deal breakers. Recommending Angular for any serious project that is expected to be used for years is irresponsible.</comment></comment></comment>


Internet Turns 40 Today... Or Does It? - <AUTHOR> http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8466876

<comment><USER2> See, the "...Or Does It" clause refers to the theory that the internet is actually the collective subconscious (certain fringe weirdos propose it is in fact the entire abstract), and we just now have found a (somewhat) tangible way to access it, however primitive and incomplete.</comment>


Good hacker essays? - <AUTHOR>

I'll be honest and say that this is for a college assignment. I need to choose an essay from which I can then study to understand more fully and finally come up with my own idea. Honestly, I am a little tired of most of the essays in our anthology so I'd like to use something that fit my experiences more.
It's hard to describe, but I'm looking for essays of the hacker-spirit, it doesn't have to be related to computers or tech. It just needs to come from that mindset.
The more general it is the better, so I'd prefer something about the values of openness and Free to one about the openness of Linux or something like that. I know PG has a large collection, but some pointers would still be nice. Also, good essays that you think hackers tend to like in general are also welcome, even if they're not "hacker-esque".
My apologies if it looks like I'm making HN do my homework. Please look at it more as me trying to find literature that is more representive of me. I will use others as possible choices, so please don't think I'm trapping myself into writing about hackers. <comment><USER2> I'd go for something by Paul Graham. Maybe <http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html> Sort of appropriate for a question on HN, but it's also very good.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html> <http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve- wozniak.html> <http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html>

</comment><comment><USER4> Eric Raymond is a good start. I also like Steve Yegge's blog posts. Also Zed Shaw's essays are a good read, this one is my favorite: <http://www.zedshaw.com/essays/master_and_expert.html>

Surely theres a better list, but these are the first names that came to my mind.

</comment><comment><USER5> This Hacker News site has a library of essays and articles:

<http://ycombinator.com/lib.html>

(The link appears at the bottom of the main page.)

</comment><comment><USER6> My favorite by ESR <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html>

</comment><comment><USER7> I just started reading "The hacker ethic" by Pekka Himmanen. Sounds like something you would be interested in.</comment>


Wagtail 1.0 (beta) best Django CMS? - <AUTHOR> http://www.revsys.com/blog/2015/apr/29/wagtail-best-django-cms/

<comment><USER2> We have used Wagtail on a recent project of ours. We were looking for something lean which would allow us to define our pages easily and offer a clean interface to upload content to those pages. Wagtail fit this requirement perfectly. We faced some issues when upgrading to newer versions but they were expected on 0.x releases.

<comment><USER3> Pretty much our experience too. Haven't run into any upgrade issues but so far only have done a couple of minor release upgrades so might have lucked out and missed the pain points you had.</comment></comment>


How American Health Care Killed My Father - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care

<comment><AUTHOR> Key points:

1\. Insurance should be reserved for significant expenses but not routine ones. Not paying for minor expenses distorts incentives in system.

2\. Reimbursements distort market signals; for example there should be high demand for geriatricians given our aging population but Medicare makes it a less profitable specialty. If seniors paid directly there would be more geriatricians.

3\. The patient is not the customer, the insurance company or Medicare is. This creates further distortions in care.

</comment><comment><USER2> Previous thread:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=760477>

</comment><comment><USER3> Doesn't this article show that there seems to be incredibly potential for innovation in healthcare?</comment>


Native Integer support in Lua 5.3 by Lua creator R. Ierusalimschy, Moscow 2014 - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjqNK1jA77M

<comment><AUTHOR> May be of interest to JavaScript users, because until now, Lua and JavaScript shared the concept of a single number type based on IEEE 'double'.</comment>