What does Unsplash cost? - <AUTHOR> http://backstage.crew.co/what-does-unsplash-cost/ <comment><USER2> I applaud the scale and reach that Unsplash has achieved. It's a great resource. But at a certain point, cost savings _do matter_ and it makes sense to make a change.

At this scale Heroku is always going to be more expensive than AWS or Digital Ocean. What happens when the Heroku bill hits $10K/mo?

Once they hit the next S3 bandwidth tier (350TB), Imgix becomes roughly 50% more expensive than just putting images on S3.

Everyone has their own heuristic for these decisions, but once you get in the realm of "1 or 2 people's entire salaries of savings" that's when I start really thinking hard about changing infrastructure providers.

 _> $18k is a lot of money to spend each month. Understanding the scale of Unsplash though can help explain the costs._

But does it _justify_ the cost? Are you able to attribute new business from Unsplash? Does it bring in enough money to cover the $18K AND the salaries of the people who mantain it AND the opportunity cost of what they could be working on?

<comment><USER3> Couple things:

1\. At any scale pretty much AWS / GCE are less expensive than Heroku. They also come at an non-zero operational cost. Say, switching to Google App Engine (the cheapest from my understanding) -- would save them 75% of their bill (just back of the napkining). -- That's not much, compared to the cost of having someone migrate the platform over (multiple work-weeks)

2\. S3 != Imgix. Imgix is a CDN + Image resizing service. At a couple employers ago we tried to run our own image resizing service in house, and it was a royal pain in the ass. I can go into this if you're interested.

The other thing is S3. My current employer uses S3 pretty heavily, and S3 is really not meant for end-user data access it seems. It suffers from lots of latency spikes, and a non-zero error rate. Slow, and unreliable sites make your users go away.

<comment><USER2> _> S3 != Imgix_

Ok, well, S3 + CloudFront just about is. Yes, I understand Imgix has other features like on-demand resizing. But it looks like Unsplash is a rails app–in which case a library like Refile [0] can handle that.

[0] [https://github.com/refile/refile](https://github.com/refile/refile)

<comment><USER4> Imgix isn't just Imagemagick. Good read here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9963680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9963680)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So at a cost of $18k per month you are getting 30M pages served, 140M API calls, 2.2M background jobs and 143TB of bandwidth. That sounds like a lot of bang for your buck.

When deciding on making any changes you have to consider the cost/benefit. Say an engineer costs you $10k for a month (fully loaded cost). For them to spend a month on reducing costs then what kind of reduction makes it worthwhile? For me, I would want it to take a year or less to pay back. So for me, a developer would need to reduce the monthly bill by $1k in order to justify the effort of a month of their time. Maybe they have ideas to easily do that, or maybe not.

Over time, as the bill keeps rising, you eventually reach a point where the savings become greater than the developer cost and so you go ahead and do it. So just work out your numbers (engineer cost, minimum payback period) and the decision becomes easy.

<comment><USER6> Bang on right. That's exactly how we're looking at it.

One thing we also consider as well is the overhead of adding another person to our team. We're learning a lot as we go (we've never built anything like this), so we have to be very careful that each teammate we bring on is aligned on vision, has the tools and resources they need to be successful and make smart autonomous decisions, and can fit into the current team without disrupting too much of the other teammates. That means that we can't just double our team size overnight and stick two new people on optimizations and cost reduction, even if it financially and procedurally made sense.

<comment><USER7> It makes sense to weigh up your options. I'll propose one you may want to consider.

By hosting on Heroku (or any other cloud hosting provider) you're saving on devops, but you're also paying over the odds for your hosting. However, if you had an option that retained most of the devops simplicity of Heroku, but also cut costs, evaluating this would make sense.

I would suggest that this option exists, and that option is application containers (Docker, etc...). If you can build your infrastructure around application containers, not only do you have the option of using dedicated hosting when you have access to the processing capacity to do so (and thereby save money), but you also have option to scale into the cloud if/when the local capacity is exceeded. A number of the cloud hosts support Docker, including but not limited to OpenShift:

[https://blog.openshift.com/openshift-v3-platform-combines- do...](https://blog.openshift.com/openshift-v3-platform-combines-docker- kubernetes-atomic-and-more/)

Furthermore, it's a change you can make gradually. Developers can start using application containers as development environments, and you can roll them out more broadly once the implementation issues have been ironed out.

Does this sound like something you would consider?

EDIT: Worth noting that Heroku also supports deploying using Docker containers:

[https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/docker](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/docker)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For those wondering how they can justify these costs, a newer buzzword marketing trend is 'side-project marketing' or 'tool marketing'. Make a useful side project or tool that vaguely relates to your business which drives a lot of traffic, and some of that traffic/goodwill will spillover to your site.

</comment><comment><USER9> The first think I asked myself was 'How do they make money!' there are no ads, I found this on Quora and it made a lot of sense: [https://www.quora.com/How- does-unsplash-com-make-money](https://www.quora.com/How-does-unsplash-com- make-money)

</comment><comment><USER10> The biggest chunk is the bandwidth charges from imgix. They do appear to be giving you a break on their published pricing, but not a huge one ($0.075/GB vs $0.08/GB). The CDN they are using appears to be Fastly, which also has a published price of $0.08/GB. So, there doesn't appear to be any overzealous markup on imgix's part.

At your scale, there are CDN providers that can get down to $0.05/GB or lower. That would cut your bill by $3500/month...roughly 20% lower than current. I assume moving your legacy CDN stuff at the same time might add to that savings.

Not sure how tightly bound imgix is to fastly, if fastly has some feature that's not available elsewhere, or if imgix would even be willing to entertain support for alternative CDNs.

Edit: Also curious if you've ever done any analysis to see if bots are using a significant portion of your bandwidth. High res images sounds like a popular target for leechy bots...maybe some savings to be had in detecting/blocking that?

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't work for them, but I've had nothing but good experiences with CDN77. You can contact them for enterprise level service, and they'll be happy to make an arrangement with you as a growing company even through the enterprise level 'technically' starts at 500TB per month.

132.2 TB of bandwidth through them is 1,712.196 per month---6 pops EU/US.

Is it as good as Cloudfront? No. CF has 32+ PoPs.

But you really need to question "do I need < 5ms latency to everywhere on the planet including Asia (huge costs) and Australia (insane costs) for my _free_ service?"

I hope you think about this seriously.

Though if you think you need a service comparable to Cloudfront---contact High winds or even Akamai, they're much easier to negotiate with than CloudFront, and you _will_ save money.

\---

Aside: I run a media group with massive bandwidth requirements (1PB+ per site) so I've churned through quite a few "enterprise level" CDNs while building up traffic over the past 10 years.

<comment><USER12> Any CDN that doesn't have Australian POPs is tier 2 or 3 at best, and isn't worth using.

You can't ignore an entire _affluent_ continent and expect to be taken seriously. Australian bandwidth has dropped massively in cost since you last took a look at it, so there are no excuses.

<comment><USER11> CDN77 has Australian PoPs, they're just not included in the publicized 'high bandwidth plan'. High bandwidth sites have different needs from the rest.

For instance, our network servers 45% US/Canada traffic, 10% UK traffic, _15%_ German traffic, and 20% Korean.

Australian? That's 1% of 1%. We get more traffic from New Zealand than Australia.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is fascinating.

Is there more of these types of blogs?

I always wonder how much companies / startups are spending for their infrastructure.

<comment><USER14> For another detailed breakdown of web app cost, see the thread for Cushion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10875879](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10875879)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is great. I see/hear too much of this:

"Well, you can run some kind of little site/app for free or around $5-10 month. So, I imagine a much larger and more serious app would be like... $50/month? At most?"

It seems right. I don't blame them. We know it's not true.

<comment><USER16> This is akin to the fact that non-technical people (and, hell, even technical people) have no conception of the costs of software development.

"My nephew made a Tetris game in a week, so you should be able to make a billing system in... I dunno, two weeks? It doesn't even need sound effects!"

<comment><USER17> Technical people? Hell, even us blokes writing the software have no clue. I have 20 years in this, but guestamating costs and timelines? Nope. I'm a little better, but I mean, graduating from t-ball to little league.

The only time I hit it on the head, is when I'm doing a project, the type of which, I've done before. And I tend to avoid those.

<comment><USER16> I still use the rule that my mum taught me: Take your best guess at how long you'll take to do the job, and double it. That's the number you tell your team. Double _that_ , and that's the number you tell the client.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is it me or have they forgotten to mention how much they earn? How in the hell would they earn 18k a month?

<comment><USER19> They've written previously about how they consider Unsplash a valuable side project: [http://blog.crew.co/how-side-projects-saved-our- startup/](http://blog.crew.co/how-side-projects-saved-our-startup/) From the wording in that blogpost, I would guess that they consider it part of their marketing spend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Interesting that they pay only $1000/m for Keen.IO. The statistics that are posted seem to indicate they would go far over the 15mln events per month that Keen charges $1000/m for.

</comment><comment><USER21> Great post. I wish more companies would be equally transparent about their infrastructure details. I think the lack of cost optimization is underrated though.

The problem is as you scale the lack of optimization scales with it. Ultimately a late optimization and migration affect more users, complexity etc..

I can't wait for the next post to hear about the details of the choices that have been made.

</comment><comment><USER22> This price breakdown, particularly the CDN costs, reminds me of how fascinating it is that Cloudflare can compete in content delivery at scale without billing by bandwidth.</comment>


Chris Saad: "Facebook's Claims About Data Portability Are False" - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/chris_saad_facebooks_claims_about_data_portability_are_false.php

<comment><USER2> This article has a lot of great points about private vs. open, but one I disagree with is "First, it's hard, if not impossible, to monetize private communication."

The obvious example that comes to mind here is Gmail. People still click on the targeted keyword ads next to their email, and I haven't seen that Gmail has started making anyone's email public yet.

That billion dollars Facebook made last year was mostly from those personalized display ads, which can easily target a person based on the ad profile of them facebook builds without anyone (read: the outside world) ever seeing their name/employer/statuses/etc. I can't imagine that the revenue from selling the status stream to Google for some multiple of $15 million comes close to the billion they're making from display ads, or the PR mess they've gotten themselves in.

<comment><USER3> But we have no clue (AFAIK) that Google makes a profit on Gmail, at least in the consumer market. Google Apps for Enterprise makes them some money but I think their main purpose is to disrupt existing players (cough MSFT cough).

<comment><USER4> I find GMail ads more relevant than search ads and have spent more money in purchases from GMail ads. I am just one datapoint though, and Google probably will not publish relevant statistics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I want portability and I prefer services that offer some kind of API with which I can manage my data, or at the very least, a usable RSS feed. Google is pretty great about this. I felt burned when Yahoo closed Launchcast after I'd been using it for years.

But again, it feels like one of those things only YC/slashdot readers really care about. For instance, a few weeks ago, the CIO of our company had suggested one of those bookshelf sites to me. So I did a little research and emailed him a couple reviews I had found, pointing out that I would prefer a site with greater data portability.

His response (paraphrasing): Yeah, I was looking at those sites you sent me. And then I thought, why I am wasting an hour of my time trying to figure out which book site has the best data portability policy?

But you're probably going to spend a lot more time contributing your content to the site. Wouldn't you like to know that all that time and effort wasn't going to be wasted?

<comment><USER6> I think it's that only YC/Slashdot readers _call_ it that.

How many Facebook users have you encountered who would leave if there were an alternative? The lack of portable data inhibits the adoption of alternatives by raising the cost of leaving. I've heard "I'd leave, but I've got everything on FB" (referring to photos, usually) which they can't get off FB.

<comment><USER7> Really?

I've never heard "I'd leave, but all my photos are on Facebook". Instead what I hear a lot of is "I'd leave, but all my _friends_ are on Facebook".

Data portability solves an easy problem that relatively few people are bothered by; at the end of the day the big problem is that you can take your social graph with you. You can't make your friends all jump to service Y with you.

<comment><USER6> I hear the friends side (much) more, certainly, but I know quite a few people who upload their photos to Facebook and then _delete them locally_. Which is pretty idiotic, but about par for the course with most people and computers. I'd guesstimate I've encountered almost a dozen people doing that, which implies a pretty large amount when multiplied.

<comment><USER7> Interesting. Certainly not a behavior I'd have expected, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm curious... is there any difference between a social _contract_ and a social _compact_? If not, "compact" just seems like either an antiquated form or an attempt at obfuscation / smarter-than-thou with language (though those aren't really dissimilar).</comment>


YC W15 invites will be sent out today - <AUTHOR>

As the invites (or rejections) will land in 1000s of inboxes today, 3% will be seen packing their bags for the interview and others will get back to building their startups.
Let's do one thing - the 97% who won't get the chance of interview will post their product's homepage and demo URL in this thread so that we all can provide crowd-feedback to them.
The happier 3% are also invited to share their products/demo as well.
Let's do it, then? <comment><USER2> Sure! Let me preempt the thread by sharing a product that most likely did not even get to Mr. Graham's desk:

PyEDA is a Python library for electronic design automation.

PyEDA is another option that we could work on but I had to send the idea over to Mr. Graham's public email address just a few days ago. Since it was not mentioned on our application but briefly talked about (by me and most likely to myself), is PyEDA still a legitimate candidate for this forum?

<comment><AUTHOR> Of course, sharing the beautiful things you have put hard work in deserves this thread.

<comment><USER2> Great!! The docs are very well written. Lots of time and care spent on presenting the information effectively to benefit the users.

Python EDA Documentation Release: 0.25.0 Date: October 21, 2014

[http://pyeda.readthedocs.org/en/latest/](http://pyeda.readthedocs.org/en/latest/)

I know it's hard to focus on anything right now on what seems like the judgement day... Maybe reading PyEDA will help make time fly faster? Anything feedback is greatly appreciated.

This round is not over. We can help each other!!

<comment><USER3> I have written EDA software, including some stuff that your library has. One thing that is key for EDA: tool performance. I can't imagine using Python for any of the intensive stuff like synthesis. What is your view on this?

<comment><USER4> PyEDA author here. I agree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> DraftingSPACE is a website that can automatically design your next home renovation [http://draftingspace.com/](http://draftingspace.com/). We're currently running a private beta of our bathroom designer, you can sign up on our homepage.

Good luck everyone :).

</comment><comment><USER6> MemGrid - [https://www.memgrid.com/](https://www.memgrid.com/)

CDN for web developers --- process and host static assets the easiest and fastest way possible.

Just keep the files in your Dropbox folder and we automatically receive, version and invoke any file generators in the pipeline. Builds CoffeeScript, LESS, SASS, compressed JavaScript, CSS, image manipulations etc. There's also handlebars templating for full-blown static website generation.

All assets are hosted at either your custom domain or at ultra-short //yourname.m7.io

CDN meets real-time upload meets asset pipeline meets git meets devops :)

<comment><USER7> Nice idea, I could see myself using the compressed javascript / css feature. Wouldn't this be better done by focusing on git commits rather than dropbox, though?

Edit: I'd rather it just minified and gzipped the files, and uploaded them to my existing storage (e.g S3) rather than setup a new CDN.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Batatuá - We created a mathematical model to calculate human perception and we use it to allow people to rate companies and persons without human emotion, also we can calculate the true intelligent profile based on how (humane, innovator, directive and producer) they are and the objectivity of the ratings, with this information intelligent people will have more importance in decision making in every level. It is impossible to falsify ratings, defame, or try to favor someone, everything is real.

We have a prototype/demo at www.batatua.com, registration needed.

(Working in a new version a lot more easier.. haha)

<comment><USER9> another social network.... like no other network use mathematical model lol

how will you solve chicken\egg problem, hah? lol

<comment><USER8> We got the rejection letter, but our strong side is solve problems, well we now know another way how to not to do a lightbulb.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> VirtKick - a simple, open source cloud panel: [https://www.virtkick.io/](https://www.virtkick.io/)

Virtual machines and Docker containers made easy. 1-click install on a desktop or server, auto-configure hypervisors, super-usable interface. This week we're releasing a standalone alpha (almost one-click). [https://github.com/virtkick/virtkick- starter](https://github.com/virtkick/virtkick-starter)

tl;dr DigitalOcean for open source.

</comment><comment><USER11> [http://v001.sportsup.club/](http://v001.sportsup.club/)

Sportsup - A platform to build sports career and organise sports event. Its like a LinkedIn for athletes, clubs and teams but much more detail of sport, stats and events. API to connect with Wearables and Health Kit. Helps players to discover new teams, matches and clubs. Premium users gets - detailed player statistics, deep search, finding sponsors. Sponsors can use this platform to evaluate a team, player or club.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> About our own product, we are building something to help web and mobile business grow their revenue.

Horntell - [http://horntell.com](http://horntell.com) Demo - [http://demo.horntell.com](http://demo.horntell.com)

We allow businesses to automatically engage their users and turn them into champions. I think, demo should give you a fair piece of idea.

What do you think about the demo, guys? Awesome? Good? Or just Eh? :)

TIA

<comment><USER7> I closed the tab when the demo asked for a name / email. Why should I give my name / email before I know whether or not I want to use something?

Nice design, though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, we didn't think it that way.

But we need your name to show the personalisation capabilities and email to demonstrate you the off-site engagement.

I know everyone says it, but we truly mean it when we say that we will not spam you. It is the need of demo that it requires some information to personalise the demo your way.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback. We will definitely brainstorm something around it this week.

<comment><USER12> I agree in that I would rather not give my name and email before even starting the demo. I did take the demo though by quickly putting in fake information. I'd suggest to allow the user to go through the first step or two in the demo first, and then ask for the name and email as part of the demo to demonstrate the personalization capabilities.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is exactly what we are doing now. Thanks for the feedback though. In case you liked the demo and would like to share the real info about yourself, feel free to mail me about it. hello at horntell dot com. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sproute: a platform for crowd-sourcing travel recommendations. First core functionality allows users to create trips and share them with friends to get input on their itinerary. So I'd send you a link like this [http://sprouteit.herokuapp.com/trips/545035162f65db0800bd28a...](http://sprouteit.herokuapp.com/trips/545035162f65db0800bd28ae) and you can tell me where I should go. No interview, but would love to hear any feedback.

<comment><USER14> Tried to login with Twitter and got an error.

Error: Failed to find request token in session

<comment><USER13> Those logins are not hooked up while we are on the development server. We will open them up with the launch of our beta. The URL I sent will allow you to post recommendations for that specific trip. I'll post an update here once the beta launches.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> [http://thinkpacifica.com](http://thinkpacifica.com)

Pacifica is made up of quick, engaging exercises designed to reduce anxiety over time.

</comment><comment><USER16> I got rejected. My company, One Society, is a network of socially conscious people focused on living and giving the most they can every day. Think of One Society as the Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter of philanthropy.

[http://www.one-society.com](http://www.one-society.com)

[http://www.one-society.com/demo](http://www.one-society.com/demo)

Any feedback would be most appreciated. :)

</comment><comment><USER17> Synaptitude: [http://synaptitude.me/](http://synaptitude.me/)

Do not know if my team is accepted or not, but either way we are going forward with our idea.

A way to help everyone focus and improve, especially, ADHD, depression, and anxiety without any negative side effects.

Further, we accomplish this via an improved method of reviewing EEG data, which we intend to patent this winter. Hopefully, this can improve medicine overall.

<comment><USER6> Great initiative!

I tried to do somewhat similar as a hobby project -- connecting Zeo (now bankrypt) product (brain sensor) with a serial port to the computer and processing the real-time feed with python in order to provide feedback guiding to better focus or whatever the expected brainwave frequency was (deeper meditation was the other goal).

In the end it was working quite well so as a technology this can work great! Working well as in being able to transition my brain state easily. In terms of focusing better -- not sure, I'm quite well focused most of the time and I wasn't sure which targets to hit with my brain :)

My real goal with my hobby was more ambitious -- to use brainwave hemisphere sync technology (binaural beats) to guide brain to the expected state while monitoring the actual brain state with the sensors. Unfortunately, as with hobbies, time ran out and currently not working on it.

BUT -- it could be a fun thing to think about --- using brainwave entertainment/binaural beats in sync with your sensors for maximum effect! Thoughts?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> [http://hubify.com](http://hubify.com)

Hubify let's you create and manage safe community commerce hubs and list anything for sale, for rent, for hire, and post part-time jobs.

Solo-founder with a pre-launch project that was not invited to interview. Not surprised, but I don't regret applying. 200 days to progress and make a much better case for the next batch.

#rejected #craigslistkiller

<comment><USER2> Have you heard of mytag? Many start-ups are one form of craigslist or another with some flaws fixed. How is hubify different?

<comment><USER14> Hadn't heard of mytag, but just checked it out. Looks like a mobile only solution for selling things.

Hubify is different because you can rent anything and also list services for hire and jobs.

The ability to create and manage public or private hubs is unique and better suited to serve different types of local communities, college campuses, etc.

We have Pinterest-style personal storefronts, user ratings/reviews, and will soon offer criminal background checks to improve safety.

If you know of any other #craigslistkiller competitors, I'd love the tips. It's a real "obvious" problem, so of course there will be other startups trying to solve it in their own way.

Thanks for the feedback!

<comment><USER2> Cool.

Will you eventually create an app for this? I have intimate knowledge on this subject because I was personally involved in such venture.

I will say this tho... this is such a problem - tons of waste and used goods and people keep on buying. Whoever finds the holy grail to solve this has huge to gain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> [https://joinpod.com](https://joinpod.com)

Pod's a group organization tool -- we're like a more functional Facebook Groups. Users organize teams around Pods and people can create tasks, schedule meetings or events, or post in forums.

Demo [http://youtube.com/watch?v=LY2DzXf8WwI](http://youtube.com/watch?v=LY2DzXf8WwI)

</comment><comment><USER19> [https://bluemesh.com/](https://bluemesh.com/)

Platform to map and visualize your software architecture, and see relevant data about your applications in real time in the map. Works well for individuals, but really intended to help teams collaborate.

Early beta version, so please let us know what you think. There's a feedback button in the app at the top right.

</comment><comment><USER20> I got rejected. The site is a music training site utilizing the WebMidi Api for midi input. [http://musicians-u.com](http://musicians-u.com)

Also launched an indiegogo: [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/musicians-u-- 2/x/8990541](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/musicians-u--2/x/8990541)

</comment><comment><USER21> Polarr - we try to build machines to understand human's aesthetics in photography.

Polarr Box, [https://www.polarr.co/box](https://www.polarr.co/box) Also Polarr Editor, [https://www.polarr.co/editor](https://www.polarr.co/editor)

Ya'll Photo startups, where are you?

<comment><USER7> It'd be interesting to see a before/after photo to see what your AI can do to a given photo.

<comment><USER21> There you go [http://streetviewphotographs.tumblr.com/](http://streetviewphotographs.tumblr.com/) (we manage the account and photos are retouched by the engine)

<comment><USER7> that seems to be showing the 'after' photos, can you see a before photo somewhere, to see the difference?

<comment><USER22> the link underneath directs you to the "before".

<comment><USER7> Ahh, I see.

I'm curious if they're using any learning algorithms here, where the computer 'learns' how to re-touch the photos. Or if its a more simple list of rules, i.e make these colors darker / brighter.

<comment><USER21> The learning happens on the level of seeing what would a human retoucher does by using the data we gathered from the editor: [https://www.polarr.co/editor](https://www.polarr.co/editor)

<comment><USER7> That's very clever. Did you get in?

<comment><USER21> We got an invite. Thanks for asking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Autosend - [http://autosend.io](http://autosend.io)

Behavior-driven lifecycle messaging for SaaS companies. Basically, automatically send personalized SMS, email, or push notifications to users based on what they do in your app.

I'm not sure yet if we've been invited or not but either way we're still full steam ahead!

<comment><USER9> well, that's the first application (finally!) i see that it doesn't have a home page all fancy yet. Nothing's wrong with it of course. Just shocked when all other founders have time and skills to make their WP pages look so nice

<comment><USER23> We'll get fancy soon, but currently our focus is making the admin panel fancy and the product solid. :) For now... you're looking at developer art.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> FlikNote for iOS: an app that recreates the passing notes in class experience. Quite simply the most fun and creative messaging app. Multiple photos, colored text and website links, and self-drawing received doodles! FlikNote is The Social Notework®

[http://fliknote.com/](http://fliknote.com/)

</comment><comment><USER25> [http://bunkr.me/](http://bunkr.me/)

Bunkr is the best tool on the web to present your ideas in seconds. We believe that data is the core of any presentation and that you should not waste time on the layout/design.

Any feedback would be most appreciated. Good luck for the 3%!

</comment><comment><USER26> [http://inbound.li](http://inbound.li) \- find and share better content, faster.

</comment><comment><USER9> I wonder all those startups have 90% the same website. Are you guys using WP themes you customize? Or does anyone try to style home page very well? I am curious why all those startups even without 2 cofounders being technical always look so smooth and styled properly. I didn't see ugly wp home page in a while..

<comment><USER27> do you have examples?

<comment><USER9> well, even in this thread all people have smooth made websites, and they didn't even apply for YC yet. Also all those companies from YC14 batch([http://yclist.com/](http://yclist.com/)) - they all have websites well done even for the mobile apps. I wonder why\how. Not a single team has an ugly home page

<comment><USER23> There are a bunch of beautiful landing page/single page Wordpress templates specifically gear toward this stuff. [http://themeforest.net](http://themeforest.net) has a bunch among many other places

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> [http://bleepmic.com](http://bleepmic.com) A social voice network. Gives people the ability to literally talk to each other in a townhall-like manner. Didn't get the interview but will have app out in 2 weeks. Looking forward to everyone's feedback!

</comment><comment><USER29> [https://cryptrader.com](https://cryptrader.com)

CryptoCurrency Trading Platform... Guess they aren't really as interested in Bitcoin start-ups as much as they said they were. This site is one of the top charting and trading sites in the game :/

<comment><USER30> If it's any consolation, I like your site.

Crypto-finance aside, I've only seen one financial technology company advertise for jobs on YC. On the surface, it just looks like YC doesn't have that much of a FinTech presence. (Outside of payments, anyway.)

Since they had that "RFS" for financial services, I'm curious to see what they present from this space on demo day.

<comment><USER29> Thank you... appreciated. Will be curious to see as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Do we know if application messages correlate to having a higher probability of being accepted or declined?

<comment><USER7> Why don't you tell us your result and whether you got application messages, and may be we'll have a better idea?

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Tambero.com - [http://www.tambero.com](http://www.tambero.com)

Helping farmers worldwide to improve their production yields based on best practices, data analytics and science information with a free cloud SaaS app.

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks like a promising product. I think you'll get the invite. Good luck!

<comment><USER32> Thank you! I received the invitation! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> StudyBoard - "Stackoverflow for Education"

Prototype - [http://test.studyboard.com/studyboard/app/#/questions](http://test.studyboard.com/studyboard/app/#/questions)

<comment><USER7> stuck on loading for me, a few 404s for js files in console.

<comment><USER33> Any luck trying again? Can you please forward 404s for js files you saw? Which browser/OS were you using?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Paywhirl - [https://www.paywhirl.com/](https://www.paywhirl.com/)

Start a subscription service on your website in less than 5 minutes without needing to code. Powered by Stripe.

<comment><USER35> Great idea, but seems like there's a bug on your demo page - if I click "Add Extras" before selecting a plan, I can't go back to "Select Your Plan" (clicking it doesn't work)

<comment><USER34> Thanks for spotting that! Its fixed now!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Got rejected. Am a lone founder. They watched my video for the full time so I have that going for me. My website's front page wasn't pretty at all so that probably worked against me.

<comment><USER32> but... what is your project about? regards

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Splore - P2P forum that emphasizes users' interests and locations. On the front of Facebook's Rooms or Reddit.

Sploreapp.com

Beta should be out Late 2014/Early 2015

<comment><USER7> result?

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> [https://unravelapp.com](https://unravelapp.com) \- Create custom content interaction using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons.

</comment><comment><USER39> [https://whathaveidone.today](https://whathaveidone.today)

Automated time tracking for Google Drive. (rejected)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Looks like the emails have been sent. Come one guys, keep hitting the refresh button on your inbox.

Good luck everyone!

</comment><comment><USER40> Any idea when they would send out invites?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, about around 6pm PDT. That means, around 8 hours from now.

<comment><USER40> Okay thanks mamoriamohit

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Best of luck to all! BTW, I think ~10% get interview invites, then ~30% of those are selected for W15

<comment><USER27> where did you get your stats from?

<comment><USER41> I think I heard it at startup school, but here's another source [http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Y-Combinator- applica...](http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Y-Combinator-applicants- get-called-in-for-interviews)

We just got our interview email btw!! Good luck guys!!

<comment><AUTHOR> Congrats yousifa! What's your product?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> OP what is your startup? curious!

<comment><AUTHOR> I commented about it too. In case you cannot find, it's called Horntell. You can find more about it here: [http://horntell.com](http://horntell.com) and see the demo here: [http://demo.horntell.com](http://demo.horntell.com).

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Sounds good. I'll come back with results later. Good luck to everyone!

<comment><AUTHOR> Everyone will wait for you! We wish you all the best. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Does anyone know what time the invites/rejections are usually sent out?

<comment><AUTHOR> If we go by the time for last several invites, you shiuld expect it to reach in your inbox at about 6pm PDT.

Please convert the time to your timezone accordingly.

<comment><USER43> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> May the odds be ever in your favor...or whatever that quote is. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER45> www.goodaudience.com — curate and grow the right followers on social media.

<comment><USER46> Looks cool. I'll try it out

<comment><USER45> Thanks! I'd appreciate any brutal and honest feedback :)

<comment><USER7> I keep seeing that template where the header stays fixed and the page animates as you scroll. What's it called? Is it part of foundation?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Just got an interview invite! Super excited! Anyone else got one yet?

<comment><AUTHOR> Got a rejection. :(

<comment><USER41> Don't feel bad, sometimes they reject people to see how much they have progressed until next application. Keep on it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we will grow otherwise too. Thanks for the kind words. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I got my rejection letter! It's a template.

<comment><AUTHOR> What was your product? Link? Demo?

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Best of luck to everyone...

</comment><comment><USER49> have they sent out all the invitations/rejections already?

</comment><comment><USER50> Good luck, everybody.

</comment><comment><USER12> Good luck everyone!

</comment><comment><USER49> guys are all the results out?!

</comment><comment><USER49> compulsively refreshing

<comment><USER51> same, the anticipation is killing me.</comment></comment>


A FREE alternative to the taxpayer funded Fed bailout - <AUTHOR> http://www1.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailout/economic_cleanup_10887.htmlc <comment><USER2> This sounds like a nice solution -- wave a magic wand called "changing the accounting rules", and suddenly everybody will have lots of assets against which to borrow money. Too bad it wouldn't work.

This is exactly what Japan tried: Banks held loans which everybody knew were never going to be paid back, and pretended that they were still worth something. Instead of having a wave of bankruptcies, Japan had a decade where banks weren't willing to loan money to each other because they knew that they couldn't trust each other's balance sheets.

Now, if Sarbanes-Oxley and mark-to-market had never been put into place, it's entirely possible that this financial crisis would have been avoided -- nobody would have ever realized just how bad the situation was. But now that everybody knows that the situation is bad, allowing companies to overvalue their assets won't do anything to help; and might even make the situation worse, since allowing insolvent banks to fudge their accounting would make it impossible to identify the banks which _aren't_ insolvent.

</comment><comment><USER3> Mark to market is what the Japanese banks tried in the 1990. There is a reason the Japanese call it the 'lost' decade.

</comment><comment><USER4> Allowing fraud to continue is not an alternative.

</comment><comment><USER5> Awesome to see a Dave Ramsey article. He rocks.</comment>


Please show some love, HN: Brodlist - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brodlist/x/6476711/

<comment><AUTHOR> Brodlist opens up the world's data (all films, books, people, music) to list, compare, graph or map.

It's educational and even fun -- please support the campaign. Thank you!

The site is here: [http://brodlist.com](http://brodlist.com)</comment>


Trend implies Chrome to overtake IE in browser share in one year. - <AUTHOR> http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-200809-201107

<comment><USER2> And within 2 years it will be used by more than 100% of people worldwide!

As my maths teacher used to say, "even in the privacy of your own home, you should not extrapolate."

</comment><comment><USER3> Obligatory XKCD: <http://xkcd.com/605/> "As you can see, by late next month you'll have over four dozen husbands. Better get bulk rate on that wedding cake."

IMNSHO, the adoption of IE9 (on new computers with Win7 preinstalled, perhaps?) might make a significant dent in that projection. I've seen a very similar graph (starring Firefox) a few years back; and then IE came back from the dead with version 8.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, and there's always someone in April who's on pace to hit 80 home runs for the season. That said, I think the trend toward Chrome, and webkit browsers in general, is undeniable.

<comment><USER4> Linear extrapolation in general is unwise, but with market share it is particularly foolish. I'd bet the opposite, that the gap between the two browsers takes longer than a year to vanish.

<comment><USER5> In South America, where these stats show Chrome in the lead, the growth seemed to be accelerating up to and beyond the crossover point (the same in the few individual countries where they're leading). What about marketshare particularly should make this unusual or unexpected?

I'd assume some kind of tipping point effect as it becomes "normal" not to run IE and/or to run Chrome that could lead to such acceleration since the barriers to adoption are so low.

<comment><USER6> Perhaps there's a distribution deal or popular website in South America that requires Chrome to function best (Orkut?). Or perhaps, as you said, it's just a network effect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Who cares? Whatever browser is the market leader doesn't matter because you will still need to support IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari for the foreseeable future. Nobody has ever made a (significant) profit from a browser. In fact, Microsoft lost billions for their efforts (see U.S. vs. MSFT).

Can someone please explain to me why this matters?

<comment><USER8> If Chrome is the market leader, you have a viable argument for not supporting IE at all. Or at least making it a low priority.

<comment><USER9> It really depends on the target market, regardless. Plenty of people will be quick to tell you how many enterprise companies are still stuck with IE6. And most of them are willing to write fat checks to maintain that status quo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The graph the title links to is a little dated, it only cites stats up to July 2011. Here's a more up to date graph citing stats up to October 2011:

<http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-200809-201110>

The curves are even more revealing.

<comment><USER11> yeah that's too bad others already lost that war even if IE, FF, Opera, etc became 2x better than Chrome overnight it wouldn't change a thing. The machine' rolling and advertised on 99% of the most visited pages, bundled with most software with default opt-in.

In 5 years from now we'll probably start saying how "maybe its not a good thing for ANY company to have 90%+ market share in something as important as the browser" and how "Yeah well Google didn't play fair, but that' ok cause we hated MS, and no one cared much about brand-fanboism for Opera or Firefox"

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Looks to be browser fragmentation.

"Other" (which is massively increased) and IE9 are the only increasing entries in this plot:

[http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww- monthly-200809...](http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww- monthly-200809-201110)

While what's in that "other" plot isn't listed, the Chrome and Firefox version schemes and their associated plethora of smaller and more frequent releases have played havoc with the classic version-plot scheme.

<comment><USER13> I don't think it's fragmentation. It's Chrome on track to achieve market dominance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Chrome 15 is right now in the process of claiming the most used _version_ from IE 8.

But like the combined version share, what you can use is often more about the people holding you back on IE 6,7,8 than the ones pushing you forward.</comment>


I Love Markdown - <AUTHOR> https://dudesgoods.com/blog/2016/11/27.0/markdown.html <comment><USER2> Markdown is indeed pretty awesome, and beats the widely-available alternatives (raw HTML? word processor files?), but I think that org-mode is even more awesome.

Still, if everyone used Markdown, the world will be better.

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't know org-mode, looks interesting even though it looks more technical. I believe that markdown has gained popularity thanks to a nearly perfect balance between simplicity and flexibility.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are some interesting HN search queries? - <AUTHOR> Do you have some favorite or interesting searches that helped you find something you wouldn't have otherwise?<p>Some sample search terms: "Ask HN wish you had", "tools of the trade", "what to learn", "what is the most", "biggest impact" <comment><USER2> I sometimes search for Haskell just to see if there is anything interesting related to that language</comment>


Show HN: Crypt – Secure Configuration Storage in Etcd or Consul - <AUTHOR> http://xordataexchange.github.io/crypt/

<comment><USER2> "After encryption it is gzipped" is a red flag. After encryption it should be noise, why try to compress it?

<comment><USER3> Sorry, if I said that in the video. What we do is base64(gpg(gzip(data)))

We gzip the data first, then encrypt it, finally base64 encode it.

<comment><USER4> Don't compress then encrypt. It doesn't matter in this use case, but it matters very much in others. When attackers have chosen plaintext (which is virtually always), they can exploit compression to create a traffic-analytic side channel. This is the CRIME and BREACH attack on TLS, for instance.

Schneier, in Applied Cryptography (which: avoid) recommended compressing before encrypting. That was bad advice. Compression and encryption interact in treacherous ways. Get of out the habit of combining them.

<comment><USER3> Are you saying that compressed data should not be encrypted? We are trying to limit the amount of data we have to store in the backend K/V store. Can you provide links so I can read up on this. Thanks.

<comment><USER5> Do not compress chosen and/or known plaintext. The compression ratio alone reveals information about the data. i.e., how similar the unknown data is to the known data.

> compressed data should not be encrypted?

That's really tricky to answer simply. "No" might be taken to mean you should store compressed data unencrypted, which would be much worse. Nor do you have to decompress already compressed data before encrypting. But if somebody hands you data to encrypt and store, don't compress it as part of the encrypting phase.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As another point of reference an HTTP load balancer that mailgun built and uses, called vulcan[1], uses secretbox[2] to encrypt secrets into etcd. There are no good docs on how to use this in practice with vulcanctl so I will need need to ask them to document that :)

[1] [https://github.com/mailgun/vulcand](https://github.com/mailgun/vulcand)

[2] [http://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/nacl/secretbox](http://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/nacl/secretbox)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Brandon! - secretbox is another great way to encrypt data, and would have worked for this project too. Ultimately we chose openpgp because it allows us to encrypt the same data with multiple public keys all at once, for multiple consumers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Awesome project, thanks for sharing.

Looks like it takes a similar approach as the hiera eyaml project (it also encrypts on a per-key basis using gpg) which I've found to be really nice to work with in the past (as opposed to other tools that use symmetric encryption or encrypt the entire blob of all secret keys together). Glad to see a tool that does this with etcd and consul, gives the same benefits without a centralized puppetmaster.

Any plans for clients in other languages? Or if you're not planning to build would you accept PR's for them?

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I'm open working with anyone on other client libs. Ideally we can track them in an official doc in the repo. To help others get started I'll document the data we store in etcd/consul in more detail.

Ideally clients only need to store values with the following encoding base64(gpg(gzip(data))) and do the reverse when retrieving data. As long as the public/private keys are available, everything should work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I had always wondered how these service discovery tools handled the encryption of data you put in them. I guess now I know! :)

Before this was created were people just doing an encrypt/decrypt on in/out in their application code?

<comment><AUTHOR> or, perhaps they weren't encrypting.

<comment><USER8> That was my thought but I was trying to be nice :p

</comment></comment></comment><comment> ardan-bkennedy Another great and needed product written in Go. Nice work!!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's particularly useful in clustering environments like CoreOS and Kubernetes where it's a little harder to pass configs securely. Instead, just bind a local volume to your docker container with your private keys, and load your configs securely from etcd/consul.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is interesting, I'm happy that the tool be available as a library.</comment>


With Bitcasa, The Entire Cloud Is Your Hard Drive For Only $10 Per Month - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/with-bitcasa-the-entire-cloud-is-your-hard-drive-for-only-10-per-month/

<comment><USER2> > "And because the data is encrypted on the client side, Bitcasa doesn't even > know what it's storing." ... "If you have an MP3 file, someone else probably > has the same one, for example." ..."Using patented de-duplication > algorithms, compression techniques and encryption, Bitcasa keeps costs down > (way, way down, but that's it's secret sauce), which is what makes it so > affordable."

If the data is encrypted such that "Bigcasa doesn't even know what it's storing." then how is it possible that it knows that my MP3 file is "the same one" as "someone else"? In order to know my MP3 file is "the same one" it has to somehow know what it is storing.

<comment><USER3> Each file could have an unencrypted hash key.

<comment><USER4> Then BitCasa _can_ tell what files you have.

Here's a hypothetical scenario. Suppose Random Joe's machine is searched by the MAFIAA , and they find some videos downloaded via torrents. Then the MAFIAA guys just have to compute the same hash that BitCasa does on these files (or blocks), and submit a subpoena to BitCasa for the users who have files with the same checksums.

For a cloud service to be truly appealing to me, it must offer full client- side encryption. In other words: no one (short of, maybe, the NSA and its zillion quantum computers) should be able to tell what files I have; not even their names.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I call bullshit on "the average user has only 25GB of unique data". My family generates at least 5GB a month in hi-def video. I'll happily sign up. I'll also grab a corporate account to use as an FTP site for our 100GB+ per week of encrypted SQL backups that we throw around.</comment>


Pay TV Just Lost One Million Subscribers in Biggest Quarterly Loss Ever - <AUTHOR> https://exstreamist.com/pay-tv-just-lost-one-million-subscribers-in-biggest-quarterly-loss-ever/ <comment><USER2> We are at the point where each consumer's spending on Cable TV is now transitioning to "Streaming Services" a.k.a. Cable 2.0. In the end "Cord cutting" will not save money; it will simply mean that instead of paying Cox or Comcast, the consumer pays monthly for Netflix, Disney, Hulu, HBO etc.

When there are too many separate streaming services (that there are too many $10 monthlies from each service coming to the house) they will be bundled together and sold as "TV," most likely by Cox or Comcast.

This will all be surrounded by a huge amount of marketing, but the bill will be identical: around $60/mo for the basic package and $120/mo for the deluxe package. And everything that was old will be new again.

And watch too, as ads find there way in somewhere in the process. They are already in the form of aggressive product placement, and some paid streaming services (Hulu) are rolling them out.

<comment><USER3> Cord cutting won't save money? I've seen this said multiple places, but it seems inane. A BASIC cable TV subscription costs over $100/mo. Streaming services are typically $10/mo or so. And they offer radically more content, at radically higher quality, with radically higher convenience, etc. Who out there is in need of 10 simultaneous streaming subscriptions?

You are right, though, that Cox, Comcast, etc will likely bundle together Netflix, Hulu, Facebook Video, YouTube, etc and try to "sell" it, while aggressively throttling data usage. The fact that distribution of content is now worthless, and distribution is the primary value proposition of their business model won't stop them from making money so long as the government is on their side.

<comment><USER4> > A BASIC cable TV subscription costs over $100/mo.

No, it doesn't.

> Streaming services are typically $10/mo or so.

Streaming multichannel video distribution platform (MVDP) services that are most comparable to a cable subscription, with live TV channels (YouTubeTV, SlingTV, PlaystationTV, DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV) have some variation in pricing, but the bottom is _way_ above $10/mo. ~$40/mo seems to be typical base fee, comparable with basic cable plans (U-Verse Basic is $19.99/mo + $10/mo for HD.)

$10-15/mo. streaming services are typically more comparable in what they offer to a single premium cable channels, but without live programming and sometimes with little better on-demand catalog. Some of them are exactly equivalent to such a channel (e.g., HBO Now).

In addition, streaming services count against your broadband services data cap, which may necessitate additional charges for uncapped service (and require sufficient broadband bandwidth, which may also force a higher tiers of service than you otherwise would use—cable/satellite mostly subsumes all of that.)

> The fact that distribution of content is now worthless, and distribution is > the primary value proposition of their business model

Essentislly all the cable companies are both (owned by, or own) major content owners _and_ major broadband (often both fixed and mobile) ISPs, they often _also_ own or co-own one or more streaming services (sometimes both MVDP and "single channel" style services). They are making money no matter what route you choose to the content.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is why we see the ISPs engaging in Net Discrimination. They want to extract more money from both ends through intentional degradation of cord cutting services.

</comment><comment><USER6> Recently cancelled my service. I realized that I was paying for something that's already ad-supported. Why am I oaying to eatch ads? Doesn't make sense.

<comment><USER7> You're paying twice because the fees pay for the delivery service/infrastructure, while the ads pay for the content. They are made by different companies. You might as well ask why you have to pay for Netflix when you're already paying your ISP.

<comment><USER8> Originally cable didn't have ads: [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be- inv...](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by- commercials.html)

<comment><USER4> Yes, cable had ads from day one (as the first sentence of your article hints when it notes that cable was never conceived as ad free.) Originally, cable carried the exact same (ad supported) broadcast channels as were available by terrestrial broadcast; it was a way to get them when you weren't in a location with good reception (which was fairly common, at the time cable originated, places that weren't close to a major market center with a flat line of sight to it; stations weren't expending more power to broadcast than was needed to meet the big markets.)

That article is actually quite odd; the then-existing cable-only channels it mentions were mostly also commercially supported from day one, the ones they report on considering commercial models are channels preparing to go online, not then-operational ad-free channels. While they point to a public expectation of ad-free cable, they don't point to any actual history outside of premium channels (that generally remain ad-free), and other than public access channels, few non-premium cable channels were ever ad-free (except PBS broadcast channels carried by cable operators, when PBS had public funding that allowed it to operate ad free, but that had nothing to do with cable.)

<comment><USER9> The ARTS Channel[0] is ad-free in the USA.

[0] [http://www.classicartsshowcase.org](http://www.classicartsshowcase.org)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Interview with the CEO of Emerging Businesses - <AUTHOR> http://www.twst.com/interview/29266

<comment><AUTHOR> Etna is incubating startups to bring new blood ...</comment>


Correlation between personality type and entrepreneurial interest? - Lets find out - <AUTHOR> http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp <comment><USER2> No matter how many times I take this test I always end up ENTJ, there's something to be said for consistency I guess.

My employer uses a similar style test called "Personalysis" (<http://www.personalysis.com/),> where they send all new hires to an 8 hour seminar for employees to "learn" how to better interact with co-workers based on personality traits.

The funny part is that it cost my organization more than 3k to send me to this seminar and I personally think the free online humanmetrics (ENTJ) by far more accurate. I guess it goes to show that you can convince giant corporations to buy anything if you pitch it to them correctly.

</comment><comment><USER3> One thing to keep in mind is that most people here are most likely related to software engineering. It may be that other industries would show different personalities when you rate their entrepreneurs.

</comment><comment><USER4> ENTP. have started 2 companies (so far). But...I am only slightly E. It says 'moderately'.

My T swings wildly between Very T and barely T.

</comment><comment><USER5> I get a different result each time I take one of these...but it's always INTP or ENFP, so I must be one of those.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm an ENTJ

I've always found these (especially Jung) to be scarily accurate in predicting what I am like.

<comment><USER6> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am usually ENTP but this time came out as and INFJ ... the complementary type - strange!

</comment><comment><USER8> INTJ. The INT is strong and consistent, but I occasionally come out as an INTP.

</comment><comment><USER9> INTJ

Edit: One of my other entrepreneurial minded friends is an ENTJ.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> A good site for checking this stuff out is personalitypage.com

</comment><comment><USER10> INTP. Polar on N, T. Borderline on I/E. YC SFP 07 founder.

</comment><comment><USER6> ENTP with two companies and counting

</comment><comment><USER11> enfp.. usually either entp or enfp :P

<comment><USER12> ENFP, too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> INTP.

</comment><comment><USER14> INTP

</comment><comment><USER15> INTP.

</comment><comment><USER16> INTJ

<comment><USER17> me too... but I was ENTP last time I did one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> INTJ

<comment><USER3> Wow, this just fits exactly:

<http://typelogic.com/intj.html></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is there any way to avoid setting a Signal pin? - <AUTHOR> Signal has stopped letting iOS or Android users into the app unless they set up a pin and turn on the new backup / account recovery features.<p>Is there any way to opt-out?  I don't see an option in the app.  At the very least, I'd like to access my old messages. <comment><USER2> Yes...basically, switch on aeroplane mode, then enter the app. You'll bypass the PIN screen. Enter a conversation, then switch off aeroplane mode. Entering and exiting the app will no longer force you to set a PIN...unless you leave the app while on the conversation list screen.

While you can just repeat the steps above if that happens, to avoid the annoyance, always leave the app in a conversation.

Note: I've only tested this on iOS. Hopefully it also works on Android...

<comment><USER3> Maybe they pushed another update; does not work for me on iOS.

<comment><USER4> After turning on airplane mode, quit Signal by swiping it up in the app chooser (that you get by swiping up from the bottom of the screen), then launch Signal again. Now turn airplane mode off.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yes... just don't set it. I do have the annoying reminder but the app works anyway. I have restored from a previous Signal backup, maybe that matters.

<comment><AUTHOR> It seems like I can only open the app if I get a message and tap the notification.</comment></comment>


Are we losing our ability to reasonably disagree? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/26/conservatives-love-to-hate-political-correctness-but-the-left-should-rail-against-it-too <comment><AUTHOR> Before someone calls me out: Yes, this isn't the original title, but a sentence from the first paragraph. The original title is longer than 80 characters (89 HN helpfully tells me) and I didn't find a good way to shorten it. If someone has one feel free to add it here.

</comment><comment><USER2> Related: [http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html](http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html)</comment>


Semantics3 and Two Tap close the loop on adding ecommerce to your app - <AUTHOR> http://blog.twotap.com/post/80094732982/two-tap-and-semantics3-close-the-loop-on-streamlining

<comment><AUTHOR> And the Semantics3 angle: [http://blog.semantics3.com/announcing-our- partnership-with-t...](http://blog.semantics3.com/announcing-our-partnership- with-two-tap/)</comment>


Natural Catastrophes: Predictable, Seasonal, Cyclical or Random? - <AUTHOR> https://www.man.com/maninstitute/natural-catastrophes <comment><USER2> A whole blog on natural castrophes that fails to mention the word 'stochasticism' or term 'stochastic probability.'

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_process)</comment>


The Man Who Thinks the U.S. Is Better Off as a Bunch of Separate Countries - <AUTHOR> https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/political-confessional-the-man-who-thinks-the-u-s-is-better-off-as-a-bunch-of-separate-countries/?ex_cid=538twitter <comment><USER2> Honestly, I think the real underlying problem with America's politics is that the Federal government has grossly overstepped its intended scope. The federal government frequently tries (and many time succeeds) to impose laws on the entire nation (which of course is the result of any federal law), when many times such issues/laws should remain with the states. Doing this creates resentment and frustration. What's good for one area may not be good for another. Or, if we're talking about moral, hot-button issues - this becomes even more serious as it is viewed as the imposition of will of some group's morality upon some other group/region.

The scope of the federal government should be very limited. But all too often, the immediate response to any problem is to get the federal government to pass a law to solve it across the board for the whole country. Many times that just doesn't work. This approach also goes against the concept of the 50 state laboratory where we can see the outcome of certain laws and whether or not we want to adopt them based on the results they produced. Or maybe we don't care about the results because we are morally opposed to whatever the change is and therefore the economics are somewhat irrelevant because it's more of an issue of principle/value. Having federal laws in those instances removes the ability of a state to choose to be different, for better _or_ worse.

It's much easier to live and let live when those you are letting live aren't actively trying to force rules upon you, which is exactly how most of the nation views the political climate right now - i.e. "the [dems/reps] are trying to force us to [x] by passing that new law!" When people view things like that, it pisses everyone off. Let the states be in charge of as much as they possibly can.

<comment><USER3> There are some issues that don't fall neatly into the "50 laboratories" theory. We tried that with slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights/desegregation, gay marriage, and a host of other things. California or New York banning housing discrimination based on race doesn't help me if I'm a poor black family living in Georgia and can't afford (or other reason) to move to one of those places. Hence, federal housing discrimination laws that apply everywhere.

The problem is identifying _at the time_ which issues fall into that bucket. Sure, any of the ones I mentioned are obvious to contemporary sensibilities in hindsight. But at the time they were being argued, people were making the same argument you are making. That's why the phrase "state's rights" has lost meaning as anything other than a dog-whistle for "the right to discriminate against people we don't like." It used to mean what you are arguing.

I don't disagree with your point, I've just never seen heard a reasonable way to distinguish which issues fall into the "50 labs" bucket vs. the "federal responsibility" bucket without the benefit of decades of hindsight.

<comment><USER2> It's not easy. But a good starting point would be anything that falls within the bounds of the constitution is clearly a federal issue, essentially be definition. If it's an issue of basic human rights which are protected within the constitution or anything else covered within it, then it has to be a federal issue.

Once we are outside of that, I think the default should be to have it be a state decision unless a strong case can be made for things that affect others crossing state borders or a common good/service that federal taxes pay for (i.e. externalities related to dumping, environmental regulation, borders, immigration, interstate trade, roads/infrastructure, military, etc.)

That should cover the majority of cases and we can argue about the rest as they pop up. As for some of the examples you listed - I get your point but two of those ended up gaining enough support such that there were constitutional amendments put in place to make those even higher than federal law. So maybe if we gave the other two enough time we would have had a self-adjustment through legislation on the state level due to changing opinions or enough support to warrant the supermajority required for a constitutional change.

The other part of this is identifying and viciously pursuing laws that are at odds with each other within the legal system. For example, the bill of rights existed and supposedly protected all persons (citizens or not) within the US. And yet at the same time, those rights were ignored for nearly all of an entire race of people. For that to be consistent at the federal level, one would have had to argue in court that these were not human beings. They didn't do that - they merely declared them as property, but never actually stripped them of their human status, as far as I know.

Reading your comment over again, I realize the first paragraph effectively falls into the same category as the problem I am pointing out, in a way. The implication of _" we tried that with slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights/desegregation, gay marriage, and a host of other things"_ to me reads as "a bunch of people were clearly doing the wrong thing and were given a chance to correct it but they didn't, so they obviously had to be forced to do the right thing." And that's precisely the issue I raised. If someone in Alabama was prevented the right to marry because they were homosexual, but no laws were actually being violated (the supreme court ruling changed that), then should I vote to try to force them into submission if it doesn't affect me or anyone in my state? I'm not sure the answer to that should be yes because it results in the kind of issues we face today. I do realize that "your rights are my responsibility" and all that, but I'm referring to the pre-USSC ruling where it wasn't a _federally_ defined right that required protection.

<comment><USER4> _If it 's an issue of basic human rights which are protected within the constitution or anything else covered within it, then it has to be a federal issue._

 _Once we are outside of that, I think the default should be to have it be a state decision_

I don't think anyone who understands and appreciates federalism disagrees with this. The problem is that we all disagree on what those terms mean (read: most of us agree most of the time, some people have legitimate disagreements, and others disagree in bad faith and stir up populist movements against consensus).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My one reason for not agreeing with dividing the US is that most southern states (one of which I live in, happily) still have lots of black people who will lose federal protections from Jim Crow era laws that have not been enforced since the 60s. So the US staying together is a deterrent to, say, Alabama, enforcing some of its segregationist and racist laws that are just sitting there.

Now, I know the first answer to this is for black people to just pack it up and move somewhere else, and the guy in the interview glossed over it by saying people should "self sort". However large migrations almost always bring with them instability and sometimes war. I think of India and Pakistan as the most egregious example of what happens when populations are told to "self- sort" into separate countries that were once unified.

<comment> murph-almighty I would argue that basically all of the recent migrations are self-sorting: you're saying "I can't stay here out of fear for my safety" and doing something about it by removing yourself from that situation. "Self-sorting" is almost a disservice to the amount of effort it takes to remove yourself from a suddenly created situation past your control.

This is also why I hold general antipathy towards the sentiment "move back to your country"\- clearly they left because something was deeply, utterly fucked. And it's awkward/cognitively dissonant to watch my family, a product of exactly this sort of immigration (context: Hungary and Russia in '55/'56) exhibit that sentiment in the modern day when people are fleeing gang violence in Guatemala and civil war in Syria.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._White](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._White)

 _The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form and character and sanction from the Articles of Confederation.

By these, the Union was solemnly declared to "be perpetual". And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained "to form a more perfect Union".

It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not?

...

When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final.

The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or through consent of the States.

...

The ordinance of secession...and all the acts of legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null. They were utterly without operation in law. _

We killed 620,000 american soldiers proving this point about 160 years ago. Let's not go relitigating that.

</comment><comment><USER7> Who is this guy and why is this website spreading his opinions. Nothing he says is based in facts or data. All of his conclusions begin with "I feel" not "The data indicate."

He says, "I'm sure the British Empire in the 1700s and 1800s always thought they would have a toehold in different parts of the world." How is he sure? Is there data to support this claim? He doesn't even cite a primary source. What is "the British Empire" even? The common citizens? The intellectual class? The monarchy? He's just saying things.

"The U.S. has always been, I would say, on the right side of the bell curve when it comes to jingoism — a little bit more patriotic than most countries." Is there data to substantiate this claim?

"I feel like the U.S. peaked in the '90s." How is this defined? The US economy is bigger; the military is stronger; its foreign interests are more secure. It just happens to be this guy's childhood when America peaked. This is just some guy inventing some narrative rooted in his own nostalgia.

This is just some guy blathering. He should rightfully be afraid to share these beliefs, because they are completely unsubstantiated and not based in reality. It's just what he "feels," which should be uninteresting to anyone else. It is journalistically irresponsible to spread such misinformation without at least some fact-checking.

</comment><comment><USER8> We may be better off as separate countries, but the divide isn't red state vs. blue state. It's urban vs. rural.

I'm in Atlanta, and most of us here wouldn't be happy at all living in a "deep south" country.

<comment><USER2> But once you surpass roughly 4,000 people per square mile, things inevitably turn blue. Any political heat map shows this. There's a heavy correlation. Surely, urban vs rural is related to red vs blue, no?

<comment><USER8> Absolutely, which is why breaking up the country geographically wouldn't work. And breaking up the country based on population density seems like a logistical nightmare.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Short of us sharing a military and state department, Chris almost had what he's asking for. The latter Clinton years and up through first few Bush II years had the states holding the their preeminence with a Congress that was loathe to step on states by way of preemption/supremacy clause. When the branches all flipped and the more liberal states starting feeling their oats the Courts shifted and were more eager to find in favor on Federal preemption in conflict cases. FCC actions upheld as they pertain to preempting state and local ISP regulations come to mind as the most egregious of recent flip-flops but I'm sure there are others.

We'll probably drop back to a more federalist state of affairs once the branches flip again.

</comment><comment> non-entity Obviously this is something that's impractical, would leave a lot of people in poverty and won't happen, but I've thought about this a number of times myself, and I've always wondered if it would rock regions so hard, their entire ideals would be shaken up. For example if a hyper individualistic population would slowly lose that trait because poverty forces them into a more empathetic, community focused view.

</comment><comment><USER10> > We're so polarized that the federal government doesn't really work.

I think this idea is best captured in the following chart of the "mitosis" of the congress:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/23/a-stu...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/23/a-stunning- visualization-of-our-divided-congress)

</comment><comment><USER11> It's obviously true that consolidation of power by empire-like nation states was always a stupid idea. Power should always be distributed, countries with too much power act as ass holes around the world and are not needed.

<comment><USER12> I've always thought the most efficient setup would be two levels of governance:

1) Global Governance. Sets regulations on trade, basic human rights (i.e locals can't hang gay people etc), environmental policy (region A can't send pollutants down stream to region B). Things of that sort.

2) City/County level governance. Mosques can only be 10 feet tall and motor vehicles are not allowed. Or whatever the cultural preferences are.

However, an argument for nation states might be, they allow some level of selection. If nation A becomes corrupt or refuses to embrace science, nation B overcomes it. But this does cause a lot of suffering and war.

<comment><USER13> I think you are underestimating just how "provincial" those sub-provincial governments could become. County level is where the professionalization gap between ruling ideas and opposing views is the largest.

<comment><USER14> Every county would send a delegate to the global governance, which would be the World Unity Council. So we would maximize democratic engagement locally (county), and have direct and equal influence in the global body.

As long as democracy is healthy in both places, it won't ever be perfect, but it'll be as good as it gets. Unless we unleash AI to run the world before that, and I think that's more likely to happen.

Half the population views direct democracy as some sort of distrustful evil. Just the way people seem to be, especially when democracy doesn't go their way. Conspiracy theories. It's all about good management, with anything. It's never perfect or suits everyone all the time. That's just the human condition.

So as a result we're most likely going to be dominated by AI at some point in the near future. It's probably what humanity overall deserves since people don't want to be sensible and engage in democracy. Even though it's immensely fulfilling to become connected to your own destiny and relevant community- it's work, and people don't like that. I do think more people would do it, if they saw direct, near-immediate results from their engagement, which does not really exist as much today.

So after a couple billionaires have a nuclear war, we'll end up putting the robots in charge, unless the robots simply takeover first- and we'll be done with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Clinton won counties representing about 2/3rds of the GDP.

It'd be weird to break urban vs. rural areas into different countries.

The same divide exists in other countries like England.

</comment><comment><USER16> A federalist republic should mirror more like the EU than the USA. I don't see why states couldn't be their own countries.

<comment><USER17> What about the armed forces ?

<comment><USER16> every state has it's own reserve. obviously skewed to navys on the coasts and texas/california have big reserves of folks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Anything that destroys the power of the Senate is good. This would do that, therefore this is good.

</comment><comment><USER19> We this guy must be a friend of Putin.</comment>


Suggest HN: A New Comments Ranking Algorithm - <AUTHOR> When going through a comments thread on HN vs Reddit, I did following observation:
Reddit's comments ranking algorithm puts the best comment really at the top (my subjective perception). It doesn't matter in which sub you are but the best ones are always at the top. And this leads to a very good thread on every level.
On HN—I assume—that two thing could influence my different feeling: one is of course that we do not see the points per comment on HN (which I like) but also the writer's karma is incorporated into the ranking algorithm. And latter might lead to sometimes strange orders. Often good comments are buried at the deep end while mediocre comments, sometimes even off-topic comments stick to #1 like glue (I am aware that new comments stick up to 10 min on #1). The better visibility of higher ranked comments lead again to more upvotes and we end up with an odd list where relevancy could be questioned.
Would love to see a try towards a comments ranking algorithm which is just based on points leaving out the karma (only for the comments not for submissions). <comment><USER2> > but also the writer's karma is incorporated into the ranking algorithm

Are you sure? I've never seen this effect and don't remember reading about it being implemented.</comment>


Research into the reasons for trepanation (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160826-why-our-ancestors-drilled-holes-in-each-others-skulls <comment><USER2> If you're interested in trepanation, there's a fascinating documentary from the late 90s called 'A Hole in the Head' about people performing self- trepanation. Cooky for sure but I've been fascinated ever since. It has made me wonder what percentage of ancient trepanations were done purely for the mysticism of piercing something which shouldn't be pierced.

</comment><comment><USER3> In 500 years lobotomy devices will be rediscovered by some scholar, or many other psychiatry procedures that are performed up to date, as rituals.

Drilling someone's mind seems to be a common theme among societies.

Thousands of years of evolution to end up making something like that a part of the science corpus. Discouraging.

<comment><USER4> ECT as well, while you mention it.

<comment><USER5> Well, at the very least electroconvulsive therapy is proven to be effective in psychoses, while lobotomy has no added benefits. ECT will (or so I hope) be replaced in the future but maybe not by something fundamentally different - just more easily palatable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There is the problem of pre-history and people not writing stuff down. So the topic is always going to be open to interpretation.

People in the 60's did the hole in the head to get high - more oxygen to the brain. Not everyone but a few people. It could have been a thing like that fashion a few years ago with people getting their tongues split in two - detestable as a thought for most people but with some people who get into it.

I thought that there were also necklaces with the bone discs, not seen any stories of that recently.

<comment><USER7> >People in the 60's did the hole in the head to get high - more oxygen to the brain. Not everyone but a few people

Do you have any sources for that? It's the the first time I've heard of such a thing. Not doubting you, just curious to learn more.

<comment><USER8> here's an account of one person who've done this: [https://news.bme.com/wp- content/uploads/2008/09/pubring/peop...](https://news.bme.com/wp- content/uploads/2008/09/pubring/people/A10101/trepan/index.html) Not for the faint of heart</comment></comment></comment>


Sketchnotes book - visual notes of 100 talks - <AUTHOR> http://sketchnotesbook.com/

<comment><USER2> thanks for the nice feedback for my book. If you want to learn a bit more about sketchnotes as a technique for capturing talks, there is a lecture I gave a while ago and a ton of references to learn more here: [http://evalottalamm.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/sketchnoting- ta...](http://evalottalamm.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/sketchnoting-talk-at- webexpo-2010-in-prague/)

</comment><comment><USER3> The longing I feel is the ability to create sketchnotes without detracting from the learning and listening experience.

The main pre-requisite seems to be the ability to sketch (i.e. quickly draw) the ideas that you're hearing in a real-time flow. I can do the latter (i.e. synthesize and absorb the talk with bright visuals in my imagination), but putting them down on paper is the daunting task.

Is this the type of art that's only within the grasp of gifted artists? I'd be happy even if I could quickly and accurately sketch rage comics or simpler xkcd stick figures, but alas even those require an inordinate amount of time.

</comment><comment><USER4> This visual view of talks reminds me of RSA Animate

<http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg>

</comment><comment><USER5> Amazing work. Also good job by Sahil in helping his customers make money :) (just saw the checkout experience and the name of the OP).

</comment><comment><USER6> Added to my wish list.

If you want to see some of Eva-Lotta's sketchnotes for other talks go check out her flickr stream. Lots of great stuff <http://www.flickr.com/photos/evalottchen/>

</comment><comment><USER7> I find it ironic that a site selling a book about UX/UI/Usability talks would have 100% of the copy written in majuscule. The site hurts to read.

</comment><comment><USER8> It must have been fun to draw this stuff while learning at the same time. Clever idea.</comment>


Milestones: The Story of WordPress (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/WordPress/book <comment><USER2> If you want to jump straight to the moment when WP began its ascent to ubiquity, that moment is described here: [https://github.com/WordPress/book/blob/master/Content/Part%2...](https://github.com/WordPress/book/blob/master/Content/Part%202/9-freedom- zero.md)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's a neat book, and I like how it covers everything from the B2B fork to the ThemeForest GPL license fiasco.

That said, I do also kinda wish it'd started/finished a few years later, since the Rest API and Gutenberg would have made for interesting chapters. The former because of how it decoupled the front end from the dashboard, and the latter because of the various controversies surrounding it and how the quest for a new post editor ended up receiving a huge amount of backlash and even one full fork.

That would have made for an interesting ending. The book would describe WordPress beginning with a fork, and it'd end describing how Automattic's actions with Gutenberg may lead history to repeat once more.

</comment><comment><USER4> So they wrote and published the book in Github? Is this a free service?</comment>


5 lessons in object-oriented design from Sandi Metz - <AUTHOR> https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/06/24/5-lessons-in-object-oriented-design-from-sandi-metz/ <comment><USER2> There's a bunch of videos of her talks on YouTube; they're among the best I've seen for OO design, testing, and re-factoring.</comment>


Sleeping Beauty Problem - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem

<comment><USER2> Interesting, I'm wondering does this apply to some type of computer problem or algorithm?</comment>