Uber contract 'gibberish', says British MP investigating gig economy - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/06/uber-contract-gibberish-says-mp-investigating-gig-economy <comment><USER2> The actual Uber [Contract] is found on the [Evidence] page of the most recent work and pensions committee [report].

There are Amazon and Deliveroo contracts too.

[Contract] [http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons- committees/work-a...](http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons- committees/work-and-pensions/Written_Evidence/Uber-BV-Driver-Services- Agreement-20-10-2015.pdf)

[Evidence] [http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees- a-z/...](http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons- select/work-and-pensions-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/self-employment- gig-economy-16-17/publications/)

[Report] [http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees- a-z/...](http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons- select/work-and-pensions-committee/news-parliament-2015/gig-economy-evidence- published-16-17/)

</comment><comment><USER3> There is a high degree of irony casting aspersions against a contract by calling it gibberish while citing specific clauses to back up the accusation (if it were truly gibberish, wouldn't the complaint be 'the contract could mean anything, it's unclear.' Not: 'these 3 clauses are problematic because of ...'.

The specific complaints were exceptions taken with very clear aspects of the contract, not vague terms difficult to decipher.

If common law still rules English law, vague terms would be interpreted against the drafter. I would guess that the contracts are crystal clear. Better critical terms could be:

* one-sided / imbalanced * onerous * too long, too specific, too technical

The complaints against the moveroo contract with regard to challenging your independent status are a different issue.

<comment><USER4> Well, the contract uses clear terms like "Customer" but where on earth is a customer roped into such a thicket of demands, encouragement etc.? Customer is king so the saying goes but here the "Customer" is the driver and that "Customer" gets a lot of rules dictated.

Customers in the real world pay. "Customers" of Uber get payed.

It is not that the language is vague. It is double plus good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "[An Uber] spokesperson said: "Almost all taxi and private hire drivers in the UK are self-employed""

Is that true? Most taxis I see in an area are from 2-3 large local companies: are they employing drivers on a similar basis to Uber?

It seems like a pretty simple thing for the Guardian to fact check.

<comment><USER6> A lot of taxi drivers are essentially self employed and working under franchise, or similar arrangements, IIRC. I don't know for sure (in other words: rampant speculation follows!) but I expect it is a way for the taxi firm to dodge various responsibilities regarding health & safety, insurance, tax, and so forth, by passing them on to the "self employed" driver.

<comment><USER7> I suspect it's mostly about flexibility: the firm doesnt have to worry about balancing driver availability (either complying with labour laws or not having them available at peak times) because they get paid exclusively in fares so will be available every hour that's humanly possible.

As I understand it my local firm's drivers pay a weekly fee for use of car and dispatch service, and take the fees, so aren't in a very different situation from Uber drivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I suspect most contracts are gibberish - the only ones anyone really looks at in detail are the ones where there is a dispute and that's a tiny percentage.

Ask a litigator what they think about the people who drafted the contracts and they generally aren't particularly kind.

Edit: I wasn't meaning employment contracts which are special cases, like consumer contracts.

<comment><USER9> I've read all my past employment contracts and all of them have been readable and understandable (UK). I've even gone back and challenged points before and got some removed or, for example, been given a waiver allowing me to run a company in my spare time (as the contract said you couldn't unless you had asked).

I realise I have much higher reading comprehension than most people, and have more bargaining power than a Deliveroo rider, but I find it crazy someone wouldn't read their own employment contract from start to end.

<comment><USER8> Actually, on the subject of employment contracts (which I wasn't talking about originally) I've had to resort to multiple lawyers who gave conflicting advice on seemingly innocent and clearly written parts of a contract I had.

The experienced lawyer who realised what trick a particular clause was trying to pull saved me quite a chunk of cash!

<comment><USER10> What was the trick?

<comment><USER8> I can't remember the details - was over 2 years ago. But I was on 6 months notice and I was leaving for my current job and I (i.e. my lawyer) negotiated getting 3 months pay out of them and it was something to do with the tax on that lump sum - either they would have had to pay or I would. They wanted me to sign a severance agreement under pressure and I handed it across to the lawyer and he did a splendid job of negotiating away all the silly terms and got them to pay his legal fee (which is actually pretty common in the UK).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think it would be helpful in this sort of conversation if everyone made it clear whether they were discussing US or UK practice (or French, or German, etc.).

It's very confusing to read what seems like a well reasoned comment and then find a few comments further on that none of it applied because the legal system in question was the wrong one.

</comment><comment><USER12> Convenient for the government to crib about lost payroll taxes and their inability to regulate Uber. What studies have been done on how may jobs are created and $ injected into economy because of Uber/gig-companies?

</comment><comment><USER13> Yes Minister.

Unlike most legislation, which is perfectly readable and not overwhelmed by legalese and corporate-funded loopholes.</comment>


Why C++ is still one of the best ways to dive deeper into programming - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@vardanator/why-cs-students-must-learn-c-as-their-main-programming-language-6d3b4f8720bd <comment><USER2> I agree, computer students should learn C++ and write at least one exam using it, and if it is only to get acquainted with all the possible pitfalls. Extra points for the exam code if it passes Coverity, Valgrind and ASan/UBSan checks and input fuzzing.</comment>


How I Became U.S. Chief Data Scientist - <AUTHOR> https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/06/email-dj-patil-how-i-became-chief-data-scientist <comment><USER2> The nugget was this:

> But then I took a calculus class — and it rocked my world. The lecturer > really took the time to explain deep concepts and helped me see the > intrinsic beauty. Today, when I explain some of the concepts I learned back > then, I still call upon the way it was explained to me all those years ago.

We say we want kids to find their passion and interest. But, in many cases, the passion / interest is created by accident or serendipity. You can love a lot of topics if they are explained very well and in an interesting manner.

<comment><USER3> And by accident, you mean, a really great teacher. Had teachers who would move me into learning physics and chemistry. Then I had teachers who'd put me to sleep.

Passion can be kindled, that's for certain, but after a certain point it must come from within.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So I strongly believe in public schooling and the importance of education access for everyone, but I think this piece glosses over a few important links in the chain of events that lead to his success.

1) His father has a phd from MIT and founded a semiconductor manufacturer when DJ was 12, then went on to later become a VC.

2) The community college in question is De Anza College in Cupertino. This isn't just some random school that gave him the education to enter the previously unapproachable world of tech, Steve Wozniak went there.

We're still a long way from decoupling education and class. I think it's good that this case is being made, we just need to be more realistic when we talk about the successes we're seeing.

<comment><USER5> Wow, yeah, he certainly made it sound like CC got him there in a more significant way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing I think the state of California does very well (where De Anza is located), is the transition from community college to world-leading universities (Ex: UC Berkeley, etc.) is very good (I think much better than other states). I knew many students who attended a community college for 2 years, and then went to UCLA or Berkeley (the college admissions seem very open to this), and they ended up saving money and doing very well after.

</comment><comment><USER7> click bait title, no real hard information, and more trying to sell universal access to community college.

</comment><comment><USER8> Am I the only person who doesn't give a shit about our government having a Chief Data Scientist, a CTO, and every other tech-related position? After what Snowden leaked to the world, the government, including some of these who the government has hired, are trying to convince us to spend a year or two working for the government? They've straight up lied to the American people about their capabilities. Why should I want to work for them if scrapping that isn't within my power?

Also, pushing more people into community college isn't inherently a good idea. Are people still unaware of the higher education bubble?

<comment><AUTHOR> Technology, and those who fully understand it, is absolutely vital in not only efficient government, but in efficiently monitoring and regulating it. You'll see the difference when trying to FOIA/FOIL an agency that gets it versus one that doesn't.

There's a lot more to technology and life than spying.

<comment><USER9> Indeed. A huge push in my agency is to comply with the initiative to make research data publicly available ([https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding- public-...](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public- access-results-federally-funded-research)). This isn't lip-service, we have strict local deadlines for getting data online.

The hurdles are entirely technological, almost everyone who works here (scientists anyway) love the principle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Relentless self-promotion?

Oh, community college.

<comment><USER11> And? Or perhaps, so?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> There are many education pathways to a good career. The traditional 4 year college after high school is only one of them. It's great to see real examples of these different pathways.

</comment><comment><USER13> Interestingly, he was Chief Product Officer of Color Labs, one of the more buzzy failures of the last few years.

Not knocking his other accomplishments. I'm just surprised I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the recent press he's been getting (even the tech press).

</comment><comment> bra-ket good ol' hustle</comment>


Show HN: Ready to move on and give your MVP a new home... - <AUTHOR> http://handoff.it/

<comment><AUTHOR> Still hanging on to an old MVP or software prototype? Did you build the next great startup that hasn't gone anywhere, but still could? You've moved on, but your old project still has potential? You've got the code, the branding, the design, the IP and the domain name, but don't have the time or financing to keep your project moving forward? Then we have the solution for you: Sell it with The Handoff at handoff.it !

Looking for a particular startup concept that you know is out there? Want to hit the ground running? Want to buy an off-the-shelf startup? Then we have the solution for you: Sell it with The Handoff at handoff.it.

Hey @sparker (Sean Parker) !! Want to be our first client?? @airtime

</comment><comment><USER3> How does this compare to Flippa and Apptopia?

<comment><USER4> Flippa and Apptopia are for completed and launched (or nearly launched) online services (be they websites or apps) that may (or may not) already be generating revenue stream, whereas Handoff.it is for earlier stage projects that are still at the MVP stage and whose founders have lost the drive - <USER2> lack the time or resources – to make their MVP progress further and take it to the next level. Handoff.it is geared more to the hacker community or to investors who would then hire programmers and designers to work with them to bring the MVP to a commercially-viable level. The idea is that they'll be buying a new working site, with up to date coding standards, design and branding then take it from there …

Bottom line: Handoff.it is a complement to, rather than a competitor of, Flippa and Apptopia.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Ultra Tiny Compiler in less than 90 lines of code - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/elfet/ultra-tiny-compiler <comment><USER2> Love the use of literate programming here. It's a great fit for teaching tough concepts

<comment><USER3> Yeah. My first reaction was "Oh god", but after reading through the source, it's actually a really great usage of literate coffeescript.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice work. Is there a story behind its development?

If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good "Show HN".

Guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it meets guidelines. What need to do? Edit this post or create new?

<comment><USER4> I doubt it's editable, so a new post probably makes sense.

<comment><USER5> Hacker News post titles are editable by the mods. Which is great!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Was this inspired by the Super Tiny Compiler ;)?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11395656](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11395656)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it was. :)</comment></comment>


James Golick has died - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/jill380/status/548978785404874753 <comment><USER2> James was in a car accident in Mexico: [https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552](https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552)

I briefly did work for Normal this past summer, where James was the CTO. He was a great guy and I'll never forget the standup we did while standing on our chairs at the Quirky office... That was James' idea to do that.

</comment><comment><USER3> I remember interviewing James for a podcast I used to produce. It was hilarious in that many of my friends are strong Christians, and many of James' friends are part of the BDSM community. We could not have been more polar opposites on many aspects of our worldviews, but we both loved the Ruby programming language and surrounding community.

Both of us had "fallout" from that interview, me for interviewing a "heathen" and James for associating with someone so "vanilla". We both laughed, and we both remained friends.

I'm really going to miss James.

<comment><USER4> I met you and James at my first Ruby conference. I didn't ever get to know James well but that was the start of a sea change in my career.

I never heard that interview but I'm smiling imagining the interaction.

<comment><USER3> It was a typical podcast talk between typical Rubyists. There's a copy of it up on archive.org:

[https://archive.org/details/Coderpath10-JamesGolick](https://archive.org/details/Coderpath10-JamesGolick)

I think the only people who would really have been offended by it are those who hadn't listen to it :) It's the same sort of banter you hear at clubs, conferences, and other podcasts, except that I'm not very smart and James is (or was... ugh, still having a hard time believing he's gone).

<comment><USER5> I just listened to it and it is full of good quotes, my favourite: "Discussions without good definitions are doomed to fail." (about the upcoming NoSQL dabate). I feel that's still ringing true in that sector.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you're a Rails developer, you probably have a config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb file in your app. Think of James the next time you see that file. He wrote the initial implementation:

[http://jamesgolick.com/2007/12/1/noisy-backtraces-got-you- do...](http://jamesgolick.com/2007/12/1/noisy-backtraces-got-you-down.html)

DHH later ported the work to Rails:

[https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/f42c77f927eb49b00e84d3...](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/f42c77f927eb49b00e84d355e07de48723d03fcb.patch)

I knew James mostly online and a little in person from various programming conferences. He was smart, funny, and kind. He made a difference. He will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER7> Just a note (and please tell me if its OT/inappropriate), but with these types of events, people often concentrate on the 'what' that made it happen. However, the way a man dies does not define him. It is his work and contribution, which James had a ton of. I personally think celebrating James' contributions to open source, and his talks, and writing does him much more justice than speculating at a cause of death.

RIP

<comment><USER8> This is very true, however many people also achieve understanding and closure through details. It allows them to absorb what at first blush seems incomprehensible. Is there something they could have done, should they have known if he was ill, etc. We want to understand how this could have happened. You're right, it doesn't define the person though, but it helps frame the reality of the shock.

<comment><USER7> This is true. Personally, I have always dealt with death in a strange way (compared to peers). Thank you for the insight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I met James a few times in Montreal when we both lived there and quickly decided he was incredibly smart and awesome. From a distance, I admired his work and taste and I was thrilled to learn about his move to NY. I'm sure he had a lot of enthusiasm for his relatively new life here (NY) and lots of things he wanted to do. I can't understand deaths like this, and it's very difficult to accept. It's a really tough loss.

</comment><comment><USER10> Who was he?

<comment><USER7> He did a lot of great talks, as well as blog writing. He also was the main developer of resource_controller (a rails library)[0]

0\. [https://github.com/jamesgolick/resource_controller](https://github.com/jamesgolick/resource_controller)

<comment><USER11> Totally unknown fact that resource_controller was initially extracted from a project James was working on with me (he was doing the coding) 7 odd years ago, we never fully discussed it as the project never saw the light of day (it was for a client) but I'm pretty sure the crazy client requirements drove the thinking behind it in some part.. I still have the half finished project somewhere, must dig it out..

Pretty shocked about his death, an inspirational guy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm shocked; I saw a talk or two he did in Vancouver, and really enjoyed that he tackled deeper technical topics. He's too young to have passed away.

</comment><comment><USER13> I saw one of his talks and he definitely had a knack for taking extremely technical issues and making them easy to understand!

Below is more information surrounding the accident.

[http://jpupdates.com/2014/12/28/puerto-vallarta-mexico- two-j...](http://jpupdates.com/2014/12/28/puerto-vallarta-mexico-two-jewish- tourists-killed-car-accident-saturday/)

</comment><comment><USER14> James' talk on how to debug anything was one of the best tech talks I saw this year [http://www.confreaks.com/videos/3451-goruco-how-to-debug- any...](http://www.confreaks.com/videos/3451-goruco-how-to-debug-anything)

</comment><comment><USER15> Wow. I worked with James a few years back. This hits home hard.

</comment><comment><USER16> does anyone have any information relating to what happened? recent activity suggests it was a sudden/unexpected event, but i don't really like to guess.

<comment><USER17> [https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552](https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> So sad to hear this. Too many rubyists gone this year. I knew him only loosely from conferences and twitter but the guy was interesting and inspiring.

</comment><comment><USER19> Sad to see a great person like him leave us.

I recommend everyone check out defensive driving. You just never know what state of mind other drivers are in.

<comment><USER20> Not sure of the circumstances beyond a car accident in MX, but it's awful and painful.

For those still living, a few simple best practices for ground transport that cut the risk:

0\. Always hire a driver foreign countries.

1\. Make sure the driver isn't high, drunk or insane.

2\. Assess yourself the vehicle is in safe, working order and has enough mass and safety features to "win" an accident.

3\. Wear a seatbelt, even if it's hidden or nobody else does.

Being reasonably careful isn't about being a p$ssy, "worrying too much" or eliminating all unforeseeable risks, it's about not letting other people down by dying and causing a loss that really could have been prevented by making other choices. There are plenty of difficult/nearly impossible unpreventable ways to shuffle off the mortal coil, no reason to volunteer. I'd venture this wasn't one of those, because JG sounded like a sensible fellow.

Condolences, again.

<comment><USER21> I would not be typing this were it not for wearing a seatbelt.

People, wear your seatbelts. Especially when you normally might not (like in a cab).

<comment><USER20> Bump. Thanks for this. Taxis, microbuses and shuttle buses... if they have 'em, use 'em. If they don't, opt for the next one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> A big loss to computing, a terrible loss to family and friends. My sincere condolences. :'-(

</comment><comment><USER23> Oh no .. It's so sad when people leave us too soon... :(

</comment><comment><USER24> Unbelievable. RIP James!

</comment><comment><USER25> Fuck.

</comment><comment><USER26> sad.</comment>


A New Microscope Can See Inside Moving Cells in Real Time (2014) [video] - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/read/new-microscope-can-see-inside-moving-cells-in-real-time-and-there-are-videos <comment><USER2> I think the title of this post could reflect that this article was published in 2014.

If you want to see more videos, the supplementary section of the article has quite a few with descriptions: [http://m.sciencemag.org/content/346/6208/1257998.figures- onl...](http://m.sciencemag.org/content/346/6208/1257998.figures-only)

Here's a fascinating talk by the Nobel laureate behind this technique, titled "Imaging Life at High Spatiotemporal Resolutions": [http://youtu.be/2R2ll9SRCeo](http://youtu.be/2R2ll9SRCeo)

<comment><USER3> Thanks, we added 2014 to the title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> ...and so can an old microscope. Betzig invented PALM, which was a cool idea. This isn't. The lattice light sheet is a combination of a great idea Betzig didn't invent (light sheet microscopy) with another great idea Betzig didn't invent (structured illumination microscopy). The engineering is well done, but the fundamental idea is crap: the two techniques don't combine in an elegant way, and interfere with each other's strengths. What Betzig did exceptionally well with this paper was parlay a star-studded author list and some fancy surface-rendered time lapse movies into an extremely high-impact paper, despite a mediocre underlying accomplishment.

</comment><comment><USER5> Here's the full paper:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336192/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336192/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Can he make a GoPro for a sperm?</comment>


Pro Edward Snowden petition hits 250,000 in 24 hours - <AUTHOR> http://www.zeropaid.com/news/104111/pro-edward-snowden-petition-hits-250000-in-24-hours/ <comment><USER2> The petition described there (and looks spammy) is _not_ the White House one:

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward- snow...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward- snowden/Dp03vGYD)

which still doesn't have 100 thousand signatures.</comment>


Is Google's Chrome OS / Android ever going to get Java support? Any options? - <AUTHOR>

Our team is currently looking for an alternative way to replace the Java code dependency into our web-based SaaS application. Our app uses Java for detecting scales, printers i.e standard printer for invoice / packing slip printing and a thermal printer for UPS, FedEx and USPS label printing. But lately, ever since that massive Java security breach and the ongoing updates to Java versions has created issues and our app only works with earlier versions of Java. It forced us to refactor our code to get it working with latest Java version. But, with every new Java version update release, we have to be very vigilant and see if it breaks any functionality. Majority of our clients are using Chrome browser on Windows PC but that market is shrinking rapidly. They are now moving onto Chrome OS and Android based devices and Mac too. A 32-bit Chrome browser do not support Java 7 on the Mac platform (as per official Java page: http://java.com/en/download/faq/chrome.xml). So Java has issue with Mac too.
So, here we are, searching for a solid alternative to Java language which is based on a newer open source standards that everyone has been pushing for. Considering Oracle's lawsuit against Google for its use of patented Java (where did the "Open Source" go?) technology makes Google even less likely to use it. Ironically, most Android applications are written in Java but they use "Dalvik" instead of Java Virtual Machine.
We are debating the way to go is use of HTML5, JavaScript, Node.js. But again, what to do between now and the time that HTML5 is adopted? OR should we opt for a "GWT Web Toolkit" (GWT) will let us develop in Java and then compile it to optimized JavaScript to run on the web. But our goal is try to stay away from anything that relates Java code.
This should really be asked to someone at Google, but I would like to get the opinions of HN experts. Please share your thoughts. Thanks. <comment><USER2> I would say go the HTML5 direction. It's probably a bit more stable than Java. Also, you can do a detection of whether or not the browser supports HTML5 technologies and give them the Java port if it does not.

That should fix your issue. Add in new technology, but have a fallback if it support for it does not exist.

That's just in theory though, i'm not sure how java works in Web or how you have to import it. I've never really worked with Java in terms of websites / web applications.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you prefer reading news(online/print) or listening to it(audiobook)? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> I prefer reading news and listening to podcasts.

I don't think I'd enjoy listening to a verbatim recitation of a news article in an audio format.

That being said I do love listening to NPR, but NPR writes their content with an ear for how it will sound being read on the air, not to mention most of their stories are "audio packages" which involve more production than just a host reading an article.</comment>


Hook.io - a full featured i/o framework for node.js - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/hookio/

<comment><USER2> I would have named it "Hook.io - write clouds of programs using Node.JS".

It's a small yet powerful framework for making your programs discuss together damn easily, nearly the same way you have done it in one program using event emitters, but distributed across programs.

It's very easy to hack your first own Hook, to make something something smart by creating an express app for managing what you do, then sending the work to background independent hooks and get some magical stuff happen damn easily.

After a proof of concept we just have drop 150 work days (~ middle of the project) of Java/Apache Camel/Spring/OSGI to go Node.JS/Hook.io despite it was not perfect (and despite we had a lot less tooling for NodeJS than Java), because it was able to do the same thing, and even more, in a far easier way, in a more understandable way, and in a more flexible way. We also kept the deadline, and after 60 more work days, we can tell we will be ok for the deadline.</comment>


Google Web Fonts Families - <AUTHOR> http://somadesign.ca/demos/better-google-fonts/

<comment><USER2> A bit of context (I didn't get what this was at first):

"Google Web Fonts is an awesome source of free, open source fonts hooked up to a world-class CDN. It's also, sadly, filled with one-off novelty fonts vying for the title of "the new Comic Sans."

"I quickly discovered that a good metric for higher-quality fonts was the presence of at least one alternate. The Google Web Fonts directory does not allow that type of filtering, so I built this simple one-off page that allows you to browse multi-variant typefaces."

From here: <http://somadesign.ca/2011/better-google-fonts/>

<comment><USER3> I still don't get the point of this. I see the utility of seeing multiple fonts at once, but I'm sure there is a more subtle point. _Because web designers want font families, not just fonts_ , what does this even mean?

<comment><USER4> He's saying that fonts that have multiple weights/styles are also fonts that are more likely to be higher quality.

Personally, I would use this tool to find a font that could be used throughout the page for different elements: such as body text, heading text, quotations, etc. The alternative would be to mix and match different fonts, but this takes a lot more effort and experimentation.

<comment><USER5> This. I am trying to only use FOSS fonts, also for print, so having families matters even more to me. I actually went through the while directory and sorted it by hand just last month, so this service will prove invaluable next time i need to choose fonts for any project, especially cross-media.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A very useful round of editing of Google's webfont directory with a simple and uncluttered, "everything at a glance" interface. Awesome!

</comment><comment><USER7> Anyone know why it renders poorly on Windows Chrome? Looks beautiful in IE9.

</comment><comment><USER8> Ubuntu Mono seems to still be missing, unfortunately.

<comment><USER9> Hm... for me it's there

direct link: <http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Ubuntu%20Mono>

<comment><USER8> I thought about <http://somadesign.ca/demos/better-google-fonts/> but it's there too, just in a separate family. Thanks.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What did you do for health/dental insurance when just starting out? - <AUTHOR>

Currently trying to navigate my way through getting health/dental insurance for my small two person start-up and I'm wondering how other people have done it. Anybody have any experience/tips/tricks for getting reasonable prices?  Currently it looks like it is going to be close to $700 a month for a $2500 deductible, 20% co-pay and I'm not sure if that is what I should be expecting.  Thanks! <comment><USER2> How old are you? If you are younger than 26 you can use your parents' health insurance, and if you are 26-27 you can get cobra coverage.

Otherwise, check out <http://www.healthcare.gov/> or <http://www.ehealthinsurance.com> \-- convenient search tools

FYI I asked a few weeks ago here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5244867> and

</comment><comment><USER3> Re: dental insurance... if your employees have decent teeth, it maybe be worth it (and a lot cheaper) to work out a deal with a dentist and pay for their checkups. I know that getting a tooth cleaning in NYC is like $80 cash (and I don't have insurance). Same goes for a doctor.

It all depends on how the employees' (and you) feel about preventative care vs. catastrophic care.

</comment><comment><USER4> I went with Humana and pay $180 a month for a $2500 deductible. One person, non-smoker, in good health, in my 30's, single. If you have a family to insure, good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> So my options are to try and get onto a small business plan with 2 employees (myself and my wife) or to just get an individual plan for myself that also covers her. I had been told getting into a group plan would be cheaper, but maybe I should look into just going down the individual route...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> What state are you in?

<comment><AUTHOR> Washington State

<comment><USER5> Lived in WA a long time, and I've found a Group Health plan for less than $100 a month (might have gone up in recent years). ehealthinsurance.com is a great research tool.</comment></comment></comment>


Why Blameless Post-Mortems - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/tock/why-blameless-post-mortems-80f9f446fb77 <comment><USER2> Expanding on the post, one corollary of "people are rarely the cause of the outage" is that "you can't fix people". Given that Dave accidentally caused an outage by pressing some button he should't have, explaining to him why he shouldn't press the button won't prevent anyone else from making the same mistake.

Instead, you need to look at the reasons underlying why Dave pressed the button. Is the button confusingly labeled? Is there no playbook on what the process for pressing the button should be? If you fix those underlying problems, you will prevent other people from making the same mistake Dave made.

<comment><USER3> If your response to every problem is "we need a process to make this idiot proof," pretty soon you are going to be up to your eyeballs in CYA training webinars and permission requests and committee reviews. Small groups of competent people who can be trusted to wield powerful tools will start to run circles around you.

My employer does a reasonable job with this. Our tools usually make the path of least resistance the right thing. We have guardrails that help prevent accidents. But at the end of the day, our controls presume competence and good faith, and there's always an "I know what I'm doing" button. Actions taken after pressing it incur a bit more personal responsibility.

<comment><USER4> When parent poster says "look at the underlying reasons why", you jump to untrustworthy idiot employees hampered by CYA red tape.

When your employer does the same thing, it leads to "good tools with sensible affordances and guard rails" for competent responsible people.

Why is that?

<comment><USER3> It's a balance. "Harden the process" is good and necessary in moderation for the reasons already mentioned, but can be taken too far, to the point that the process is so rigid it's paralyzing.

A finding of "the process was reasonable and the individual wasn't" or "a process guaranteed to stop this kind of action would be unreasonably heavy" may sometimes need to be on the table.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ties to Warren Buffet, someone probably smarter than me ;) "Criticize generally, praise specifically" or "Praise by name, criticize by category". In my experience the biggest problem with criticizing specific actions is that it destroys loyalty and undermines trust.

</comment><comment><USER6> My $0.02:

Despite being a strong believer in it, I've worked at places that did blameless post-mortems and it was sometimes frustrating because remediation often felt like a second-class citizen. Remediation is often _much more_ difficult in these environments because systematic changes can obviously much more complex than "fixing" an individual's behavior.

If someone pushes the big red button accidentally I'm fully on-board with the "well what led them to push it and why were there no safeguards?" but it also kinda sucks if you spend so much time on that conversation that there's no time left for "ok, who's going install the confirmation screen for the big red button?"

Sometimes the "remediation" was even just "well, that's just the way it is and we can't do anything about it easily, but hopefully the post-mortem itself will serve as a way to inform people not to push the big red button" which is obviously frustrating because memories are short and people come and go quite frequently in the tech industry.

Anyway, and this might be obvious to some, but remediation is important and sometimes incredibly difficult in these environments. Adopting such an environment requires a commitment to actually fixing the systemic issues. It can sometimes feel _more_ frustrating than "blameworthy" post-mortems especially if it's the same individual(s) over and over again.

<comment><USER7> > _I 've worked at places that did blameless post-mortems and it was sometimes > frustrating because remediation often felt like a second-class citizen_

Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems orthogonal to the blamelessness. Blame won't necessarily bring remediation front-and-center either (and will probably do far more harm do that end).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> All good reasons. I'll take the first one a little further... when such an event happens, it may cost the company actual money. If you fire or create an environment where someone wants to look for another job, then whatever that event cost you is no longer an investment in the education and experience of your employee -- you've now invested that money in someone else's employee.

A person who plays a part in a costly error is going to be much more cautious in the future and be very helpful in improving systems so it can't happen again. You want to foster that approach rather than discourage it.

<comment><USER9> > A person who plays a part in a costly error is going to be much more > cautious in the future

Unless they're just a fucking cowboy all the time and you should just fire him now because he's going to do it again. Maybe gauge the level of surprise of his collegues. Are they shocked at how this could happen or are they going "sounds like Jerry".

<comment><USER10> To add to this - if there's a pattern of having to take part blame/ownership for people who should know better I'm going to move on to greener pastures.

Some people work more carefully than others. This is absolutely a thing in software development/operations (my fields). When I was young, I had more screw-ups because I was still learning "how to work carefully" with certain things... It's hard for me to admit this but it is 100% the truth. When things went wrong, I felt the need to take it on _my_ shoulders vs. to put it on the rest of the team who likely had nothing to do with the error.

As with all things this isn't black and white, which is why I'm making this comment.

<comment><USER11> If you keep making mistakes that get caught in testing, you need to be careful. If you keep making mistakes that get caught in production, you need to write better tests.

<comment><USER10> > If you keep making mistakes that get caught in testing

Ha, yea. I can get behind this. There are times that one dumb thing causes the entirety of my tests to crumble and I'm always admittedly laughing saying "that's why we have tests!"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> To expand on the CYA reason why blaming causes problems, people who want to avoid blame want to say there's nothing they could have done that would have prevented the incident. In a blameless environment people are more likely to figure out a way they can contribute to prevention.

</comment><comment><USER13> Honestly, I expected the article to be hot trash -- considering how I saw the implementation at our shop. I've changed my mind. We just go about it wrong. What went right, what went wrong, where did we get lucky... If we answered those questions rather than dodge responsibility... this could be useful.

<comment><USER14> Think of it this way: _Blameless_ means looking for solutions (which involves identifying root causes), not scapegoats.

Sometimes, it really is one asshole and they need to be fired. Most of the time, it's not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > As a rule, people are not the cause of an outage.

But leaders are.

Most enterprise post-mortems I've read will deliver pages and pages explaining (or justifying) poor system architectures. But they will never, ever criticize the executive or tech lead who decided on that structure to begin with.

Everyone makes mistakes, for sure. One stray outage is likely technical in nature. A simple oversight that can be corrected. But if an org's systems are constantly failing or breaking, then it falls to the leader of that org to reshape its structure.

Or they can pretend that blame doesn't exist. The system is fine. A band-aid will suffice.

Without commitment to fix systemic failures, "blamelessness" enables the abdication of leadership.

<comment><USER16> > Most enterprise post-mortems I've read will deliver pages and pages > explaining (or justifying) poor system architectures. But they will never, > ever criticize the executive or tech lead who decided on that structure to > begin with.

Certainly explains their popularity lol</comment></comment>


Amazon sellers are moving to alternative ecommerce platforms during Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://betterthansure.com/why-amazon-sellers-are-moving-their-stores-to-alternative-ecommerce-platforms-during-covid-19-74183e72b0e2 <comment><USER2> I can say as an employee for a dev agency that has historically specialized in e-commerce, we've seen a massive increase in work since this all started. Our clients are all selling more which means they need to scale more and we're getting paid to make optimizations to balance infrastructure costs due to demand.

Shopify has said they're serving Black Friday levels of traffic and volume every day since this started and our clientele on their platform supports that data point.

Depending on how the next 6 weeks goes for "opening up" around the world, it will be interesting to see how much of this increased demand sticks around.

As someone who advocates for owning your own data, I think it's a good thing to move away from these larger platforms when you can. Going from amazon to Shopify is a good step. When you need more customization or data control, WooCommerce is a decent choice given the unlimited flexibility of the platform (though this comes with downsides if you are not aware how to run it in a way that is performant).

<comment><USER3> > Going from amazon to Shopify is a good step. [..] WooCommerce is a decent > choice given the unlimited flexibility of the platform

Just took a look at both those sites, and on the consumer side I don't see how these are even remotely comparable: I don't see any way to search for products. They seem geared to creating independent stores that must be linked to from some other location.

<comment><USER4> > on the consumer side I don't see how these are even remotely comparable

Consumer side isn't relevant here. These are two backend ecommerce platforms. The platform part doesn't extend to anything that consumers know they're interacting with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We checked seller growth on competing marketplaces like eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping, etc. and found it to be the opposite - none are seeing accelerated seller growth.

Report here [https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/sellers-are-not- di...](https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/sellers-are-not-diversifying- as-amazon-struggles)

<comment><USER6> Your analysis doesn't include Shopify which the fastest growing e-commerce platform right now.

<comment><USER5> We don't have data on this, but Shopify is not growing because of Amazon sellers opening up Shopify stores. The sets of businesses on Shopify vs Amazon are largely distinct. For example, most Amazon sellers are resellers of brand products; few of these are shifting to sell though their own e-commerce website.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interestingly over here in Australia, those who went with Amazon AU left for different reasons; mainly that the platform just doesn't attract much sales volume and the costs were astronomical. Even eBay does better here.

At the company I work for, we operate a fulfillment center for eCommerce sellers and we've been booming lately from businesses choosing to leave the closed ecosystems and marketplaces like Amazon and run their own Shopify, WooCommerce and others while still having a third party handle their fulfillment needs.

<comment><USER8> As a consumer, I found Amazon here (AU) ridiculously overpriced. The shipping is fast, so if they have the thing I want and I need it urgently sometimes it's worth it, but generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support.

Ebay is even worse than Amazon now though. I was an avid Ebay user from when they first came here until not long ago, but in the last year or 2 I find it's just chock full of scams, fake products, lies about shipping (advertised as local stock with 2-5 day shipping, arrives 4 weeks later with postage marks from China), etc etc. I flat out just don't trust anything on Ebay anymore unless it's an actual local individual selling something used and I'm picking it up.

<comment><USER9> > generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big > W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run > their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple > hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores > buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's > generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support.

Room for someone to be a discoverability platform? One stop discoverability, which _sometimes_ is all Amazon is for a particular transaction.

Find it at IFoundIt, and then directed to the seller's store.

<comment><USER10> Shopify seems to be working towards exactly this, and recently announced their new Shop app: [https://www.shopify.com/shop](https://www.shopify.com/shop)

It only includes Shopify sellers, and of those only the ones that choose to be listed on Shop, but with the Shop app and their new fulfillment network, I think Shopify is currently best positioned to become a real threat to Amazon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ok, so I am a consumer, not shop owner. Where do I find products that are offered using Shopify platform?

<comment><USER12> I made a shopify global search [[https://snapshop.netlify.app](https://snapshop.netlify.app)]. Hastily completed just for this post but it should work.

<comment><USER13> Nice! I'd use something like this, but it's not very useful to me currently if I can't search by region or country.

<comment><USER12> Planning to do that, try searching for "product <location>" for now. Should work to some extent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Once the decision has been made to move their products off of Amazon [...]

There is another valid decision: Diversify your channels and sell on multiple platforms. This way, you're not completely dependent on Amazon anymore, but still present on the biggest eCommerce marketplace.

Sell on your own shop (and, if you do marketing, direct it there) but also on Amazon, eBay and probably other marketplaces that work well for your niche.

This can be done with Shopify and probably most of the other solutions listed in the post as well.

Disclaimer: I work for commercetools, an API-first eCommerce platform.

</comment><comment><USER15> Is there an aggregator for online shopping that isn't Google Shopping?

I would love to give Amazon less business, but Google's results aren't super helpful a lot of the time either.

<comment><USER16> Like pcpartpicker but for everything else? I'd pay a few bucks for such a service that respects privacy but collecting no user data and has a perfectly level playing field that actively polices shops.

<comment><USER15> It would be cool if there were some open format and standard URL structure (or a meta link) that points to it so that any online shop can publish a full table of what they have for sale, so aggregators can slurp up all of the data from all known webshops.

<comment><USER17> Wouldn't that turn everything into a race to the bottom, which is precisely what happens in Amazon?

<comment><USER16> Amazon has far worse problems then declining quality.

Eg: review fraud, selling stolen items, counterfeits, inventory comingling, inconsistent return policy, warehouse worker/driver treatment, terrible search/discovery, bad ux, etc.

I'd worry about that problem when it's a reality not before.

<comment><USER17> I agree with you, but my point is: other than their internal problems, wouldn't a aggregator suffer the same faith?

<comment><USER16> The subscription fee should be enough to hire enough staff to design fraud resistant systems and police the rest of the network with bounties for whistle blowers and PoCs. The server cost for essentially a forum, even with trillions of page views a month, is nothing compared to tens of millions of paying subscribers and the requisite army of business moderators.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> In the US I've found Amazon is so slow to ship something that it's led me to buy the product directly from the company or from eBay. I actually will continue this even if Amazon shipping times returns to normal. The only benefit of Amazon is discoverability, at this point. I ordered some vitamins that said would arrive from Amazon in a month but shipped the same day I ordered them directly from the company.

<comment><USER19> Regardless of shipping speed, I'm concerned about quality and co-mingling with knock-offs. Especially with something medical like vitamins. But everything else too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> As a consumer, Shopify just doesn't cut it because of discoverability.

On Amazon, there's on search bar on top where I can search thousands of sellers.

For Shopify, there's just hundreds (thousands?) of smaller shops with no centralised search. Many products I want might be there, but they're not easy to find.

(Disclaimer: Amazon is unaffected in my region and continues to deliver all products as usual, so I quite biased)

<comment><USER21> > As a consumer, Shopify just doesn't cut it because of discoverability.

Fair point, but it's not that hard to do a Google search after an Amazon search. I usually check Amazon first, and then the manufacturer's website to see if they link to the Amazon storefront. If not, I jump to a 3rd party reseller.

For me, it doesn't matter whether or not a specialty storefront is a Shopify one. I would pay a premium for that extra trust that I'm getting an authentic item. For instance, I buy my fountain pens from Goulet Pens [1] which is Shopify but you would never know it. I've tried buying fountain pens and consumables off Amazon but have received enough fakes to drive me toward specialty storefronts.

But for dish soap and other stuff that are not worth counterfeiting, sure, I get them off Amazon. Fulfilled by Amazon is slightly better, but I've still gotten duds.

I just hate wasting money on counterfeits.

[1] [https://www.gouletpens.com/](https://www.gouletpens.com/)

<comment><USER20> Amazon lets me quickly filter out things that ship to my region.

A google search is usually dominated by products that don't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm willing to bet that a lot of these stores were pushed on Amazon FBA sellers that were frustrated with Amazon by Facebook "masterminds" hawking "Shopify Courses". These stores will see zero sales or will be forced to purchase so much in Facebook ads that the margins are drilled into negative territory. What I do has been the opposite. I run niche sites for products not selling on Amazon and lately have moved into selling on Amazon MFN. Note to FBA sellers, just do MF and you'll be fine.

</comment><comment><USER23> The article mentions BigCommerce and WooCommerce as alternatives to Shopify. I was always wondering what the selling point of this alternatives are - isn't this a winner takes all market? Shopify has the biggest app-store and its most convient to work with since most information is available to people getting startedn - or do I miss something?

<comment><USER24> I head up customer experience at Re:amaze and we work with merchants on Shopify, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce. These alternatives all have something to offer that is unique to a particular merchant's business preference. Shopify is much easier to set up and offers more direct access to marketplaces. Bigcommerce is a bit more powerful for high volume, high GMV businesses looking for headless commerce. WooCommerce is, of course, low cost and works with WordPress and that's a huge plus for many merchants. These are very basic differences but merchants should look at every platform to see which one suits them best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Not surprised. Amazon has been completely useless since the pandemic hit the US. Everything I want is out of stock or shipping in weeks. I guess some people must be getting orders though.

<comment><USER26> I guess they didn't raise prices enough to make demand match supply?

<comment><USER27> They can't. People would scream bloody murder.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> What a coincidence -- as a shopper, I'm moving to alternatives to Amazon, as well.

Partly C19 related, but I was moving away from them in the before-times, as well.</comment>


Barbarians at the Gateways: High-frequency Trading and Exchange Technology - <AUTHOR> http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?ref=rss&id=2536492 <comment><USER2> So much talent... focused on the _buying and selling of securities_ , instead of _creating new things_ that will make the world better in a directly measurable manner.

Virtually all trading volume today consists of buying and selling _old_ securities -- essentially, legal claims on _existing_ assets. The sale of _new_ securities issued to finance the creation of new products and services -- for example, a company selling new shares via an IPO or issuing new bonds for investment in physical infrastructure -- represents only a minuscule portion of total trading volume.

I'm not sure having so many of our best and brightest minds going to Wall Street (and into high-frequency trading in particular) is a good thing, from a societal perspective.

\--

PS. Whenever I read anything about high-frequency trading, I'm reminded of the following passage, written by John Maynard Keynes in 1936 -- 77 years ago (!): "Of the maxims of orthodox finance none, surely, is more anti-social than the fetish of liquidity, the doctrine that it is a positive virtue on the part of investment institutions to concentrate their resources upon the holding of 'liquid' securities. It forgets that there is no such thing as liquidity of investment for the community as a whole. The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelop our future. The actual, private object of the most skilled investment to-day is 'to beat the gun,' as the Americans so well express it, to outwit the crowd, and to pass the bad, or depreciating, half-crown to the other fellow."

Source: [http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/keynes/john_maynard/k44g/cha...](http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/keynes/john_maynard/k44g/chapter12.html#chapter12.3)

The more things change, the more they stay the same!

<comment><USER3> Someone said something similar about a lot of people in the startup community. That we were sending our best and brightest out to create products that ultimately only served the purpose of pushing ads (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc). I don't know how true this is. There are a lot of very smart people in the world. The luxury of having that many smart people is that we can have a lot dedicated to designing amazing infrastructure that sends satellites into orbit and we can also have Twitter and HFT.

<comment><USER4> Then why we haven't cured cancer yet or malaria or global warming or psychological disorders ? There are a lot of smart people in the world but we really can't afford to work on silly things.

<comment><USER5> Some of those problems are "Nine women can't make a baby in one month" type problems. Sometimes the solutions are stumbled upon by accident, rather than by concerted effort, especially in medicine.

In fact it wouldn't surprise me if some sophisticated neural net algorithm developed for HFT was repurposed and used successfully for other things - medical research, climate modelling, brain research - basically anything involving non-linear dynamic systems.

Only problem of course is that all those HFT algorithms aren't FOSS, but the incentive to develop them in the first place would be greatly diminished since they'd lose whatever edge they had almost immediately after publishing.

The markets are a pretty decent lab for experimentation and learning about complex systems, which we're still not so great with, as long as systemic risk can be prevented and every player forced to take their losses instead of passing them off to governments. I personally don't think HFT is remotely as much a problem as what caused the financial crisis - a few flash crashes here and there plus an "HFT tax" on asset prices, vs the arguably-fraudulent origination and dissemination of trillions of dollars of bad debt resulting in the near total annihilation of the global economy. I think we'll gain a lot more (or at least lose a lot less) as a society by prioritizing the latter problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Some facilities such as the Mahwah, New Jersey, NYSE (New York Stock > Exchange) data center have rolls of fiber so that every cage has exactly the > same length of fiber running to the exchange cages.3

I remember the first time someone told me that. I thought they were kidding. Then I actually got to see the data center.

The exchanges, and HFT firms, take this very seriously. The speed at which they execute is just unbelievable.

The amount of technology and networking stack knowledge is just mind blowing.

I remember tuning my linux distribution's networking stack to gain an advantage only to find out that everyone had moved onto using asic's and infiniband hardware.

I continue to be amazed at the sheer talent and brain power that goes into this field:)

<comment><USER7> How do I get into this field? I'm a 20 year old making a shit ton of money by doing mobile work but I find it so boring. Nothing about it is innovative. I feel like a high level computer construction worker. It's brainless for the most part, it just takes _time_.

I want to get into some really cool stuff. I've been wanting to get into investment banking from a technical standpoint, HFT, algorithmic trading etc, but honestly don't know where to start.

What are the de facto books/websites/reads for this field?

<comment><USER8> The worlds of HFT and the rest of algorithmic trading are very far apart. For HFT pickup the exchange documentation for each exchange. Memorize how order types. Get a copy of RegNMS. Memorize that as well. To be effective an HFT needs to exploit the market structure. Learn how processors work. How do you avoid a pipeline stall or a cache miss? Become an expert in c++. Maybe pickup some verilog for those pesky FPGAs.

The rest of algorithmic trading offers a lot more flexibility. In either case read 'Trading and Exchanges'. It will give you a good overview of the mechanics of all different venue types. Then its thinking about how to build better algorithms then the next guy, or get better data.

<comment><USER9> I second the recommendation of 'Trading and Exchanges'. It's a great book to get insight into how the underlying exchanges work and how to exploit certain architecture to produce profitable strategies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm going to say this again: Exchanges should be put on a stepped clock. I'd suggest a one minute interval. Orders pile up during that interval, and then they're processed in random order. If things start to go really, _State- concerning_ hinky, then authorities "pull the plug" before the next interval is up.

Anything less, to my mind, serves point-shaving and profiteers, rather than real investment.

Then, all the "gearheads" can go back to doing useful science. And maybe getting paid decent wages and benefits for doing so.

/grump

<comment><USER11> By the way, this is an awful, awful idea that you hear quite a lot. Think about what would happen. What incentive would a participant have for placing an order early in the one minute interval? If you can't cancel it, you're a sitting duck. And if you can't be executed now, why insert the order now? By doing so, you show your hand. You'd end up with a rolling one minute e-bay auction where everyone tries to insert at the last possible microsecond.

<comment><USER12> Why would it matter when people place the orders if there is no extra information to be gained during that time? If the orders placed are only revealed after they have taken effect, why bother waiting for the last moment?

<comment><USER13> YOu have just reinvented a 1 minute cross on a unlit platform...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The sub-penny rule (decimalization) was also mentioned by Chris Stucchio (aka yummyfajitas).[1] And it is extensively discussed in the book "Dark Pools".[2] Because order queues only exist at whole-penny prices, the bots are forced to compete on speed. If it weren't for that rule, there would also be competition on price because you could place offers and get price-priority in the sub- penny interval.

The playing field is basically a DDoS arms race, where the main technique is full-throttle quote-stuffing to push anyone without equivalent hardware and connection away from the front of the queue, and out of the game. (Dark Pools also mentions a conspiracy of special undocumented order types on certain exchanges). The ACM article even admits that the algos aren't even particularly intelligent, just very speedy: "In my experience, most high- frequency algorithms are fairly straightforward in concept—but their success is based largely on how quickly they can interact."

A distributed order book like the one in the Ripple protocol[3] is a much fairer system. The network charges a transaction fee in order to prevent quote spam/DoS attacks, price fractions can be as small as 6 decimal places, and offers are processed in an effectively random order (within each discrete ledger).[4]

1\. [http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2012/hft_whats_broken.html](http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2012/hft_whats_broken.html)

2\. Dark Pools: The Rise of the Machine Traders and the Rigging of the U.S. Stock Market by Scott Patterson

3\. [https://ripple.com/distributed-fx/](https://ripple.com/distributed-fx/)

4\. [https://ripple.com/wiki/Arbitrage#Rapidly_changing_offers](https://ripple.com/wiki/Arbitrage#Rapidly_changing_offers)

<comment><USER11> Mind you, if they lower tick sizes, that means a lot more order cancellations. A market-making algo is simply a control system, taking in a set of inputs and spitting out a fair price that it is willing buy/sell something for. The number spat out is a rational one, that is then rounded to the nearest discrete tick. Smaller ticks = more jumps in the discrete output price = more cancellations/modifications. Which is fine, except the anti-HFT brigade seem to think a trading system that cancels 10000 orders and trades 100 times is the devil. It's not, it's about as remarkable as any other control system. You may as well express outrage that the cruise control system in your car adjusts the throttle ten thousand times a second. The only downside is that the exchange needs to cope with that level of traffic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm wondering if someone here can explain to me the value in HFT for anyone other than the people doing the trading. I went to Wharton and some old friends are in HFT and the one thing they all say, and I hear repeated everywhere, is that they provide liquidity to the market. Something about it just doesn't ring true to me. If it is in fact true I'd love to hear an explanation.

<comment><USER15> Liquidity has certainly gone up.

Also, it is hard to prove a causal relationship, but with the rise of electronic trading and HFT, price spreads and fees have come down.

I can't prove it, but I believe that insider trading is also much less rampant in modern electronic systems than it was in the older pit based markets.

<comment><USER16> Re: spreads & fees: Price spreads and fees have come down as a result of electronic trading being open to everyone, and is probably independent of HFT (at least, modern HFT): E.g., The decreased spreads and fees were happening in europe in the early 2000s, when fastest updates were at 1/4 second, and slower updates were at 2 seconds. The nanosecond scale was not the reason for this.

Re liquidity: it depends how you define liquidity. If you define it by "the average size at the bid or offer and next few price levels" or "volume traded", then yes - HFT has helped liquidity tremendously. If you define it as "the probability that a large order can complete", then liquidity has NOT gone up. With HFT, it's the same 100 shares/futures changing hands thousands of times per day, and they disappear often in times of uncertainty. If you need to execute a large order, you observe that you do not have the amazing liquidity everyone in HFT is talking about.

Re insider trading: I wouldn't bet on it. With electronic trading, it's now easier to do insider trading slowly without attracting much attention. Furthermore, HFT has created new forms of fraud, so far unregulated: see e.g. [http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/4329.html](http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/4329.html)

<comment><USER17> > If you define it as "the probability that a large order can complete", then > liquidity has NOT gone up.

People seem to have this idea that back in the days of floor-based trading you could just call up the NYSE and say, "sell 1 million shares of Citigroup!" and the market makers would just kindly oblige you, without widening their spreads or trying to eke out a bigger gain from a transaction which inherently carries significant risk for them.

It's possible that the situation for executing giant orders in one fell swoop hasn't gotten any _better_ under HFT, but it hardly seems to have made it worse. And as the large flow traders become more sophisticated and start to implement algos of their own, they'll get better at moving volume at a fairer average price.

> With HFT, it's the same 100 shares/futures changing hands thousands of times > per day, and they disappear often in times of uncertainty.

I don't know about "often," unless you're talking about trading individual issues where news events introduce a high degree of uncertainty. There's really only been one case of a market-wide drying up of liquidity, which lasted for about 15 minutes during the flash crash.

There's also nothing new about market-maker liquidity drying up in times of uncertainty or severe volatility. Plenty of stocks went "no bid" during the 1929 crash. Floor-based market makers are no more interested in standing in front of freight trains than algos are. If you're looking for someone/something to blame when markets crash and there are no bids to be found, focus on the Fed and its attempts to manipulate the credit cycle, which periodically fail in spectacular fashion.

<comment><USER18> > _It 's possible that the situation for executing giant orders in one fell > swoop hasn't gotten any better under HFT, but it hardly seems to have made > it worse. Plenty of stocks went "no bid" during the 1929 crash._

1929 is an obsolete example. Heck, the SEC didn't even exist in 1929. A more relevant example is 1987 -- how many stocks went "no bid" on Black Monday?

Here's how HFTs operate today. Bid furiously while the going is good. If you find yourself on the wrong side of a trade, you can always hit up the actual market-makers for a penny loss. And if the markets collapse, you pull out. What could be better? Supply liquidity when it's not needed, and stay out precisely when liquidity is most needed.

Meanwhile, the registered market-makers are pulling back, or pulling out. And why not? They used to count on having the good times to balance out the bad. But now, the HFTs are siphoning off their profits during good times. Thus, the cross-subsidy has gone away. In periods of market stress, the HFTs go hide under a rock and don't participate in absorbing losses.

The effect is: There are now fewer market-makers in periods of market stress. That's how HFTs have made things worse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> ""It's legalized front-running. I think it is basically evil and I don't think it should have ever been allowed to reach the size that it did," he said. "Why should all of us pay a little group of people to engage in legalized front- running of our orders?""

Charlie Munger, [http://www.cnbc.com/id/100705820](http://www.cnbc.com/id/100705820)

<comment><USER20> What's the difference between HFT and traditional Human Market Makers?

May I suggest that Electronic trading and HFT have made it possible for a few people to do the work of thousands. This has brought down the cost of trading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is a well informed and put together article. Up to date technically and the Author knows what he is talking about. As a former HF trader I endorse it, great piece.

<comment><USER22> Out of curiosity. Why "Former"?

<comment><USER21> I walked away and moved onto more exciting things like entrepreneurship. As the author states, HFT is like rebuilding gravity models every week, so your product is not sustainable and doesn't grow, cash generation from HFT also is usually not scalable on a per strategy basis.

<comment><USER22> Thank you, interesting insight.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> A great overview of the space. The numbers and techniques are realistic and the article refrains from the moral debate (which you can find elsewhere...)

</comment><comment><USER24> God, what a waste of talent and technology.

<comment><USER25> Not really, what comes out of it is nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> _By 2005 we were approaching the one-millisecond barrier for latency arbitrage_

Everything you need to know, in one soundbite.

<comment><USER11> Why? What's the response time on an airbag release in an accident? On the ABS in your car? Your graphics card manages to rotate, scale, texture and shade a hundred million polygons per frame in around 1000/60 = 16ms. We're talking here about processing one UDP frame, usually under 256 bytes.

Why is this the only topic discussed by HN where technology suddenly becomes this frightening bogeyman?

<comment><USER26> Its not the engineering, its the objective. Latency arbitrage is code-word for front running. Woops.

<comment><USER11> You'd best look up the definition of "front-running". Reacting to an event the fastest makes you the quickest behind-runner, but you're still behind. Not front-running at all. Where did you even learn this term? Are you just regurgitating something you've heard elsewhere?

<comment><USER26> Try looking up the definition of 'arbitrage'

<comment><USER11> Wtf? An example of latency arbitrage is say, two identical fungible securities listed on different exchanges. An order arrives causing the price on one exchange (A) to spike up (the event), you react _after_ that event and buy the security on the other exchange (B). You reacted fastest to public knowledge.

Front running would be if you were say sitting on a broker desk and one of your clients rang up and said to buy lots of A. Then you put in your _own_ buy order _before_ the clients one hits the market. That is front-running. You got in before that knowledge become public. Do you see the difference?

<comment><USER26> _An example of latency arbitrage is..._

Arbitrage requires that you cross the trade. You've merely described a following Algorithm. One that leaves open long positions.

<comment><USER11> And you've merely tried to change the subject. Something can't be front- running if it happens after a publicly disseminated market event. Understood? Flash orders = front running. Trading ahead of client flow = front running. Latency arbitrage != front running. HFT market making != front running.

<comment><USER26> Arbitrage is precisely the subject. Sorry you don't understand that.

<comment><USER27> It isn't front running, stop being a dick

<comment><USER26> Actually, it is "synthetic" front running.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Good to see an article about real engineering, not the usual web app / JS bull...

</comment><comment><USER29> Can someone please tell us what is the return or for an hft fund vs. the market in the long run say 5 years. Also , are there hft funds available to general public for investing.

<comment><USER30> > Are there hft funds available to general public for investing?

No, one of the characteristics of HFT is that the returns are high and the capacity is low.

<comment><USER6> > one of the characteristics of HFT is that the returns are high and the > capacity is low.

The second part is correct, the first, not so much anymore.

[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/how-the- robo...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/how-the-robots-lost- high-frequency-tradings-rise-and-fall)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Would there be any loss of liquidity if trades were matched in 1 or 2 second intervals? This would eliminate all front running and colocation bias.

<comment><USER15> This doesn't solve the problem in anyway. The issue is what if you have a different amount of buy to sell qty. Who gets their order filled? This is called matching and each market matches in different ways.

The typical way (and one of the leading drivers of latency races) is first in/first match. If you continue to FIFO match on your intervals there is still a tremendous advantage to being first into the interval.

If you aren't going to FIFO match that is fine, you just need to determine (and publish) your matching routine.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Making Money Online as a Teen - <AUTHOR>

I've got a month to start making around $1,000 a month online. I'm 17, and basically need this money to bootstrap my life.
My skills include: HTML / CSS, Photoshop, Ruby / Rails, Photography
Any ideas, tips, or stories? Thanks. <comment><USER2> Charge 1k per website. Make a website every month. Spend one week working your ass off finding someone that would pay 1k for the site. Spend the rest making it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Coming from a current college student who spent his entire high school career doing this: it is very possible, but it isn't about your skills. It's about who you know.

I was very lucky. When I was 14, I ran into a very nice person, Mike, from South Carolina through a PHP forum that we both frequented. He had no idea about my age until I told him a few months after we started working together.

Mike had recently been laid off from his full-time IT job, and was getting into the swing of freelance development, much like I was trying to do. He and I explored business models together, shared ideas, and tried to encourage each other's success. When I told him my age (he asked a tax question), he was dumbfounded.

Mike's career quickly took off. He found an affiliate marketing company looking for an awesome PHP developer, and is currently making more than enough to live off of. However, he has absolutely no time for other jobs, nontheless to learn new programming languages. As a result, he sent any excess work my way. Since I am young and have an aptitude for this kind of work, I quickly learned whatever tool(s) were necessary for the job. Ruby, Objective-C, Python...I've had clients for tons of programming languages. (Unfortunately, this means I have to use good 'ol Google for a refresher on every one, but it gets the job done.)

It's all about who you know when you go into this at a young age. Make good connections now; spend a little bit of time asking questions and making personal connections. The opportunity cost of "wasting time" on forums and sending e-mails WILL pay for itself in the long run. Trust me.

I assume you're still in high school, and I can only encourage you to stay in school and take AP classes, especially AP Calculus AB/BC and AP Physics C. They'll teach you how to really use the critical thinking skills that you need to succeed in this business. That, and, if you plan to attend college, take AP Chemistry, because general chemistry will kill any free/development time you have in college. Additionally, whatever college you attend probably has a student employment system for their web development; check it out. I know the University of Michigan has a CAEN web team, which I am a part of (well, technically, I'm on the database team, but it's close enough).

Best of luck, and feel free to shoot me an e-mail!

</comment><comment><USER4> A similar question was asked a few months ago and has some great ideas: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692995>

Also, don't expect to hit your target in the first few months. If you absolutely need a steady $1000 a month right away, look for a local part time job and work on online ventures in your spare time.</comment>


Show HN: Pixpit.com a fast and mobile friendly aggregate of /r/funny - <AUTHOR> http://www.pixpit.com <comment><AUTHOR> Little note about pixpit:

My fiancé recently showed me a picture on her Instagram feed. It was a Chihuahua behind a pizza with the caption "Yes I'm into fitness, fitness whole pizza in my mouth."

She had recently discovered 9GAG on Instagram and was loving it. As for me, I tend to lurk around /r/funny for my daily fix of dank memes and funny cats, so I'm usually a few days ahead of what shows up on 9GAG. I tried to introduce her to reddit but she thought it was too much work and decided to stay with 9GAG on Instagram.

I thought to myself, how much work would it be to clone 9GAG. To create a feed that automatically updates off reddit and shows it on a platform that's very much like Instagram. Turns out, not much work at all. The good folks at reddit allow you to grab a JSON format of everything on the site. All you have to do is end your requesting url with ".json". It's awesome. This made the hardest part, aggregating data from reddit, rather trivial.

The result is Pixpit.com. An auto updating feed of /r/funny that's fast, mobile friendly and ad-free. Redditor seem to like it as well [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/46c2v5/90_of_my_mobi...](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/46c2v5/90_of_my_mobile_reddit_experience/d03yado?context=3)

Pixpit also creates 20 image albums at the end of the night so whenever you're done with the main feed, the shuffle button up top throws you into a random album from the past.

Check it out and let me know what you think :)

<comment><USER2> You could go a step further and try posting these to an instagram account that she can follow.

If I'm not mistaken there are solutions for automated image posting to insta.</comment></comment>


Petabyte Scale Data Deduplication - <AUTHOR> https://engineering.mixpanel.com/2019/07/18/petabyte-scale-data-deduplication/ <comment><AUTHOR> hi, author here :). happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback.</comment>


I've Been Acquired by Amazon - <AUTHOR> https://startupnextdoor.com/ive-been-acquired-by-amazon <comment><USER2> Isn't this the guy who was trying to get a gig at Google? What happened with that? Seems every place that previously mentioned Google now says 'large company.'

<comment><AUTHOR> The very same guy</comment></comment>


Is reality a simulation? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nasca.org.uk/Ancestor/ancestor.html

<comment><USER2> _"the idea of Ancestor Simulation has been around for quite some time. However it did not receive widespread publicity until 2001 when Nick Bostrom from the Department of Philosophy at Oxford University in England wrote a paper entitled 'Are you living in a computer simulation'?"_

A slightly less well known version of the idea was written around 400 BC by some guy named Plato.

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Allegory_of_t...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave)

Of course Plato couldn't hold a candle to the likes of Nick Bostrom.

And we mustn't forget an even earlier version of the idea that's been around for thousands of years even before Plato. The Hindus believed the world was illusion. This was echoed later by the Buddha (around the same time as Plato).

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Maya_(illusio...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Maya_\(illusion\))

<comment><USER3> _Of course Plato couldn't hold a candle to the likes of Nick Bostrom._

Is this kind of disparagement necessary?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The more technology we have, the less we resemble the creatures encoded in our DNA. Humans are made to be lazy but are only truly happy when striving to overcome obstacles. Once we have AI even work will have lost its meaning. I wouldn't be surprised if, at that point, we spend all of our time gaming. Living in a simulation of our ancestors can be considered the ultimate game. Some things are elegantly explained by such a theory. The weirdness of quantum mechanics? A computational shortcut.

</comment><comment><USER5> One of my favourite parts of Accelerando was when the (post)humans observed some strange stellar activity far out in the galaxy, and speculated that it was a post-singularity civilization running a timing attack on the virtual machine that's hosting the universe.

</comment><comment><USER6> Its not possible to argue against this idea in a comment because it takes a lot of work to disprove. Try reading "The fabric of reality" by quantum physicist/computationalist David Deutsch.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is the exact same thing as believing in God and the afterlife.</comment>


Ask HN: Open sourcing my wiki-based social profile site? - <AUTHOR>

Hi all,
I had spent some time last quarter working on https://secure.wikisapien.com/ (wiki profiles for everyone) on the premise that current sites are much more focused on recent and high-turnover posts, so the concept that it can be easier to find what someone had for lunch than who they really are.  I hate having to curate my most recent posts to give a balanced perspective, so I wanted a place that could act as everyone's front page.  Better still, it can be Wiki-style so you get a varied perspective on who someone is (with enough privacy settings to prevent problems).  You also have incentive to mark who you trust, since trusted people can potentially see more and edit more on your page.
As I mentioned in a recent post "That's one of the reasons why I've stopped development on this: nowadays the only way to get a critical mass of users on a site like this seems to be by being annoying or shady, doing things such as scraping data to build up profiles, spamming friends, etc. I have been considering though opening up the whole project on github to serve as an example and see perhaps what others can make of it."
I'm planning to clean up the repository, get rid of all passwords, make sure local testing is working fine, clean up some of the code and documentation, and have something out on Monday or so.  But first, would there actually be some interest in having this out there, or is it not the right approach?  Is there something I should know about this process, or things that I should be sure to prepare before putting it out there?
Features: 1) Django, redis, SOLR (fallback to sql search), S3 (fallback to local files), MySQL (fallback to sqlite), FilePicker 2) Can immediately run on Local, Heroku, AWS 3) Designed to scale up nicely 4) Image uploading to S3 via filepicker 5) Carefully tweaked inline editing via CKEditor (with bindings for AlohaEdit too) 6) Trust system, and permission system 7) Obfuscated IDs 8) Versioning of changes
Thanks, Ralph <comment><USER2> Where is the github link ??

<comment><AUTHOR> As mentioned, it's still closed off while I clean up the codebase, but I was just curious first if there'd be any interest, because if not then there's only downside.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Bias in flagging stories? - <AUTHOR> So, today I posted this NYT article regarding a settlement Asia Argento paid to an underage boy who accused her of rape in order to avoid trial: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17798703
The post has been flagged and it's not possible to comment it anymore.
I'm not familiar on how HN flagging works; I understand it's been flagged by an user for some reason and that flagging prevents it to reach the frontpage or to discuss the story further. I also guess it's been flagged because it's not in line with the usual content you might find in HN.
That would be OK, but why a number of, let's say, specular stories (the ones where Argento accused Hollywood producer Harwey Weinstein have not been flagged and some of them reached the front page? (e.g.: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=harwey%20weinsten&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story).
I just joined HN last year and I'm not incredibly familiar with its internal mechanics. Is there an implicit bias regarding what can and what can not be posted? Did the Weinstein stories get to the top because HN "likes" their narrative more than Argento's story? Not making any accusations, of course, this is just to understand. Happy to engage in respectful discussion.
Thanks, Curtis. <comment><USER2> I did not see the story, therefore I had no 'flagging' input into it, but based upon the "guidelines": [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and your description of the story above, I'd bet that a few users felt it fell into this category:

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, ... If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

<comment><AUTHOR> But the Weinstein stories have been not flagged. That's why I ask: is there an implicit bias? Should one only post stories that support a certain narrative?

<comment><USER3> As you say, you're ignorant of how flagging works.

It's probably a good idea to stop flinging accusations of bias around until you understand the balance between upvotes and flags.

<comment><AUTHOR> What I see is a story about Weinstein abusing Argento in the front page and a story about Argento abusing an underage boy flagged. And I get answers like "HN is not for news". Shouldn't it be both ways?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The HN internals are kept a bit opaque. Some users can flag, and then IIRC it can be "vouch"-ed for once, where it might be re-flagged again. Upvotes may factor in. Mods will occasionally override manually. Luck of the draw is always a factor.

I'd say that the bias around the Weinstein stories were that they were simply very hot in the mainstream, and that caused otherwise off-topic posts to catch some traction here.

<comment><AUTHOR> To be fair, the linked story was doing quite well, in terms of upvotes, until someone flagged it repeatedly.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> For completeness sake, the story title was "Asia Argento, accused of rape of an underage boy, pays $380k deal to avoid trial (nytimes.com)" and pointed to [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/asia-argento- assault-j...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/asia-argento-assault- jimmy-bennett.html)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Edit: it seems the story has been unflagged. I'm kinda confused in how the whole thing works.

<comment><USER5> I vouched it, that's why it was unflagged. I thought it was an interesting other perspective, regardless of which "side" you believe.

<comment><AUTHOR> Still flagged though :(</comment></comment></comment>