Ask HN: Multi-lingual website question - <AUTHOR>

I am currently developing a website which is going to be multi-lingual and translated by native people.
The question is:
Should I have just one domain name with all languages, example: http://example.com/en http://example.com/es
or
http://example.com (english) http://example.es  (spanish)
There is going to be a total of around 6-9 languages.
Thank You. <comment><USER2> I think it depends on your product/company. If you have a product like tumblr or twitter, it is OK if you just use .com. Otherwise if your domain name is a company like Microsoft or Ford, I would recommend to go with country-specific TLDs.

<comment><AUTHOR> The site will be focused on specific countries, how can I put it example; the finish language of the site will be for the Finish (Finland). Same goes for other languages and countries.

What worries me is that it would be a bit of a hassle to manage all the domains...

<comment><USER3> If each site will focus on specific countries, then you should note that there is not a one-to-one relation between languages and countries. For example, many countries speak Spanish. If, in the future, you would like to provide sites for both Spain and Chile, then "es" is not enough to differentiate. Do not forget that some countries have more than one official language as well.

Many global corporations with country-specific sites use different domains for each site and make their primary domain (usually www.companyname.com) a gateway where customers can choose their desired country and language. Each country is handled through a specific domain, and multiple languages (when applicable) are often implemented via URL/GET or cookie selection.

Yes, managing many domains is a hassle. The primary reason to choose such a method is recognition in specific locales. For example, .co.jp domains are only available to registered KK companies in Japan (the Japanese equivalent of a C-Corp), so such a domain is very familiar in Japan and give users a sense of added trust. Whether to go with such domain names or not really depends on your business.

If you need to put each site on a different domain (for some reason that you have not specified) but do not want the hassle of managing many domains, then you could consider subdomains: fi.companyname.com is the Finish site and www.compnayname.com is the gateway.

<comment><AUTHOR> I will most probably do subdomains and redirect ex example.dk to dk.example.com

The site is basically same for every country just different languages so it doesn't matter if you enter from Spain or UK, just chose your preferred language.

Thank You for your help.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would honestly just do the .com

You can buy the other extensions and keep them in case you need them (forward them to the proper place) but focus on developing on just the main site for now.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thats what I will most probably do.

Thank You for your help.</comment></comment>


THIS THING DELETED 3 MONTHS OF WORK – Issue #32405 – Microsoft/vscode - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/32405 <comment><USER2> After being used to Visual Studio, where the project and solution files are not a 1-1 match to the file system, I used Eclipse (or some other Java IDE) and found to my shock that when I remove files from the project it also deletes them from disk.

Not as bad as this but certainly an eye-opener.

</comment><comment><USER3> Totally the guy's fault. No one in their right mind should have 3 months (or even a few days) worth of code without a backup/version control system set up.

<comment><USER4> It's his fault for not having a backup, yes.

It is not his fault that the tool deleted thousands of files.

Don't confuse yourself; the tool did a bad thing, and so did the user, and those are two, separate, bad things.

The user is not to blame for the tool's nearly cavalier deletion of 5000 files, and the tool is not to blame for the user's failure to have a recovery method.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Solution:

1) Reproduce exact problem. 2) Say "Fascinating" in your best Spock impression. 3) Restore from daily backup.

If you cannot do 3, then you've found THE base problem.

<comment><USER4> the tool doing something unexpected is one problem.

the user failing to prepare for disaster is another.

don't blame tool problems on the user. blame the user's problem on the user. blame the tool's problems on the tool.

There are two root problems. One is the user's failure to set up a recovery solution, the other is the tool's cavalier ability to delete 5000 with very little warning.</comment></comment>


Levi Strauss CEO: 'Sizes will go out the window 10 years from now' - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/levi-strauss-ceo-sizes-will-go-out-the-window-10-years-from-now.html <comment><USER2> That's misleading. I guess sizes still exist. They are just shortening the supply chain.

A true revolution in clothes would be paintable fabric. Where we can paint ourselves rather than wear them.

Also..custom sizes are not revolutionary or modern. Seamstresses existed and then became obsolete.

</comment><comment><USER3> I misread this.

Sizes will go out with Windows 10, years from now</comment>


If you do anything on the (global) Internet, you're subject to US law - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110617/04014414727/why-is-justice-department-pretending-us-copyright-laws-apply-uk.shtml

<comment><AUTHOR> _"So this is a massive jurisdictional and sovereign disaster waiting to happen. Basically, the US appears to be claiming that if you do anything on the internet, you're subject to US laws. That's crazy and is going to come back to haunt US law enforcement. Do they not realize that this is the same thing that other countries have tried to do to US citizens? The US even passed a law, the SPEECH Act, to make it clear that US citizens were not subject to the liability of other national laws, just because such things happen on the internet. To then turn around and pretend the opposite is true for everyone else is just massive hypocrisy."_</comment>


One guy's recipe to getting indexed by Google - <AUTHOR> http://www.gettingmorevisitors.com/2008/05/26/one-guys-google-indexing-ingredients/

<comment><USER2> I did none of those and was indexed quickly just by submitting a sitemap in Google's webmaster tools. Save your digg submissions for when you have something of value to submit.</comment>


Show HN: My first venture at design -- I redesigned the Unicomp logo - <AUTHOR> http://i.imgur.com/VqpQWB8.png

<comment><USER2> Wow, that is quite simple and clean for a first time design.

The only thing I might add is that the kerning between the "c" and the "o" just seems a little off.

<comment><USER3> I was going to say the exact same thing about the kerning. Good eye.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of [http://www.corebizcentres.com/](http://www.corebizcentres.com/)

It's clean, but I just don't find it very memorable, or unique.</comment>


Struggling Philadelphia Inquirer is donated to nonprofit in groundbreaking deal - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/12/struggling-philadelphia-inquirer-officially-is-donated-to-a-nonprofit-in-groundbreaking-media-deal/ <comment><USER2> At first glance this story doesn't appear to fit here, but I think it's one of the most insightful responses to the news revolution by anyone over 60, potentially ever.</comment>


Show HN: Royalty-Free SVG Illustrations and Animations - <AUTHOR> https://www.pixeltrue.com/free-illustrations <comment><USER2> In the first SVG animation, when we hover over the roll of toilet paper, the carton roll spins clockwise to show the strips of finished paper, yet a sad face appears from the top, as if the roll spun counterclockwise. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is a magic roll of toilet paper, or something? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

<comment><USER3> Your refusal to believe in magic rolls of toilet paper is the reason you will never know true comfort.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very cool! I've been using svgrepo.com since it's inception and it has been a real life saver! Maybe you should consider submitting your work there?

<comment><USER5> omg, thank you for this

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very nice, you obviously did a lot of work, I'm hoping it pays off in more people hiring you for design.

</comment><comment><USER6> Thanks for the material.

The icons in particular look useful.

I'm always torn whether to offer a (very personal) critique, but the man/woman characters aren't to my taste but I'm sure others will love them.

</comment><comment><USER7> These are awesome! I was blown away.

Would you consider an AGPL dual-license for the (non-free) illustrations? Right now, the license prohibits redistribution of any sort, which makes these unusable in free software.

An AGPL dual-license would:

1) Allow redistribution with open source / free software projects, which would be awesome.

2) Require anyone who integrated these into a proprietary system to buy a normal commercial-use license from you.

It's amazing how badly the free software community needs your talent!

</comment><comment><USER8> They look pretty cool!

For me the initial load of the site is really slow and animation is like 5FPS. Also half of the animations are not loading, but it could just be the HN traffic.

<comment><USER9> Page consumes a minimum of 1 CPU core on my Firefox.

On Chrome slightly less CPU and more GPU.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Loch Ness (its a loch called Ness.) Lochness would make a strange adjective!

</comment><comment><USER11> Great work. What software are you using to create the animations?

</comment><comment><USER12> Great work, funnily exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot!

</comment><comment><USER13> Offering royalty-free Lottie animations is fantastic!

</comment><comment><USER14> Nicely done animations, great licence too.

</comment><comment><USER15> very nice!

typo in "Nothing buy quality pixels and freebies" under newsletter box.

</comment><comment><USER16> Great work. Bookmarked :)

</comment><comment><USER17> question: Is it just me or is it a little bit bloated?

</comment><comment><USER18> Awesome! Great work

</comment><comment> white-moss Whoa! Great work!</comment>


Jitbit Blog: 9 Tips to Improve Your English - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jitbit.com/2010/12/9-tips-to-improve-your-english.html <comment><USER2> These are good tips for any language, not just English. I would add, "find a free daily newspaper" in the target language. Even just reading the captions to pictures for 15 minutes a day helps a lot.</comment>


Spot the pattern - <AUTHOR> http://unused-name.blogspot.com/2008/10/reverse-engineering-challenge.html

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a problem I hit upon during my research in optimization. I do not know whether it has a neat solution. I just have a feeling.</comment>


A class-action suit imperils California freelancers - <AUTHOR> https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/california-freelancer-dynamex.php <comment><USER2> On one hand, I appreciate the spirit of this ruling. It's meant to prevent companies from outsourcing their core business to "freelancers" who are really people who do all the work of normal employees, minus healthcare, retirement, job stability, etc. and force the state to cover these things in part. On the other hand, it's getting increasingly difficult to tell who is freelancing because they prefer that setup and are secure with it vs. who is freelancing because the market for stable, _good_ jobs cratered in their industry.

<comment><USER3> I've long thought the distinction was dumb.

Everyone should just be treated as a freelancer. Id rather pay for my own health care thank you very much.

There's practically no advantage to having health care, retirement, etc dictated by your employer and plenty of downsides.

<comment><USER4> >There's practically no advantage to having health care

Only if you're young and healthy and have no pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, enjoy the fun of paying massive premiums for shitty care because you no longer have the group rate from your employer.

<comment><USER5> If those employer group rate things didn't exist, the whole system would be different. The insurance companies would still want peoples money, they'd just come up with some other arbitrary way for people to group up or do away with the grouping all together (which is how it should be).

<comment><USER4> Why would they, if they know someone will cost them a lot of money then what incentive do they have to ever insure them for non-exorbitant amounts if they can avoid it? Every other form of insurance would either not insure them or charge them massive fees (home owners, renters, life, car, etc.).

Group rates are a hack if anything and insurance companies have no incentive to make less money by having their own version of it.

edit: To explain further. Let's say insurance company A has a group plan and B insures people individually. A is then forced to charge half their clients more than B as the average rate is identical. Thus it's in those people's interests to move to company B and pay less. Now those left on A's plan have even more average risk (as all the low risk people have gone to B) and the rate needs to go up. Rinse and repeat until A has no clients or is bankrupt.

<comment><USER6> > To explain further. Let's say insurance company A has a group plan and B > insures people individually. A is then forced to charge half their clients > more than B as the average rate is identical. Thus it's in those people's > interests to move to company B and pay less. Now those left on A's plan have > even more average risk (as all the low risk people have gone to B) and the > rate needs to go up. Rinse and repeat until A has no clients or is bankrupt.

The problem is the same thing happens with employers. Employer A provides high quality health insurance, so everyone with a preexisting condition takes a job at employer A while employer B out-competes them by providing less/no insurance and picking up all the healthy employees who choose them because they can pay better wages. Then it's employer A rather than insurance company A that goes out of business and the remaining employers are the ones that don't provide health insurance.

You can try to get out of that by requiring all employers to provide health insurance, but it really has nothing to do with the employers. It would be superior to require all individuals to buy health insurance instead, but people seem to hate that.

The other option is to require insurance not to deny coverage or set rates based on the existence of a condition _if_ the individual had insurance coverage at the time when the condition became known. Then as long as you were carrying insurance you're covered, which most people will then want to do for exactly that reason, which would thereby prevent the death spiral. But if you don't want to buy insurance, well, then you don't have insurance. See what happens if you wait to buy fire insurance until after your house is already on fire.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In the UK we have IR35 legislation which the government, in its wisdom, is using to cast an ever widening net around the contracting sector. It's become so farcical that a lot of contractors won't touch anything in the public sector while public sector recruiters are bending over backwards to convince contractors that what they're offering is "outside IR35". So the government is effectively trying to find ways round its own stupid legislation. One of the factors which helps mitigate IR35 is a substitution clause, ie. you're replaceable.

</comment><comment><USER8> Companies had come to the conclusion that they could just save lots of money by using contractors or freelancers as cheap long term employees since they didn't have to pay benefits. It was obviously wrong, but everyone was doing it, and no one was stopping them, so it became normalized as a business practice.

There are some companies like Uber that have their entire business model based on misclassification.

The issue of people blacklisting California freelancers though now becomes a real problem for some people.

Maybe other states will make similar laws.

<comment><USER9> > It was obviously wrong

It sounds obviously wrong by the way you phrase it, but it's not so black and white. As a freelancer myself of the past 5 years, I prefer the independent life, being able to negotiate things as I'd like, having more varied work and having more freedom to work when and where I like. Perhaps I could make more and have better benefits as a regular employee, but that's not what I want. Maybe you don't understand and so this is "obviously wrong" to you, but not everything can be bucketed into "wrong" and "right" for everyone. This may help some but it will definitely screw over others.

<comment><USER10> The concept of freelancers isn't the problem. It is entirely legitimate to be a freelancer and entirely legitimate to hire a freelancer.

The problem is de-facto employees who are classed as freelancers as a way of avoiding taxes and worker-protection laws.

<comment><USER9> Yes, I would be classified as an employee according to this CA precedent for some of the clients I've worked for. I don't want this.

> But it's part B that presents a problem for freelance journalists: someone > is an independent contractor only if they perform work "outside the usual > course of the hiring entity's business." In the archetypal example, a > plumber fixing a restaurant toilet clearly qualifies. A freelancer > journalist writing a column for a magazine? Not so much.

In my case, I've been a contract developer working for agencies before. Sometimes I want work like this.

<comment><USER11> My understanding (and experience as a contractor) is that for the service provider the benefit is being able to control the what and how of the work. This is better for the client as well especially if there is asymmetric knowledge as is often the case in tech.

However, if your are working full time and end up being made to follow the client's schedule, don't get to address technical debt, have useless meetings etc. then you might be considered an employee anyway. Which I can't understand why you _wouldn't_ want that, because it could mean overtime pay for all those crunch times that result from bad management.

So independent contractor is probably best for a tech worker if you're able to set boundaries and have autonomy, but not at all if having to work overtime and not take vacations.

<comment><USER6> > then you might be considered an employee anyway. Which I can't understand > why you _wouldn't_ want that

Because it comes with a significant reduction in flexibility. If the employer has to provide health insurance then they'll pay you proportionally less, even if you already have health insurance through your spouse. If they have to pay you overtime then they may cut your hours instead, or lower your base pay to compensate, which may be worse for you than being able to continue working at the original wage.

Meanwhile if you did prefer some aspect of the arrangement the law would require then there is nothing stopping you from negotiating that to begin with in exchange for the correspondingly smaller amount of cash money. Few employers have any objection to providing you with health insurance in lieu of the same amount in cash that they would otherwise still have to pay you in order to get you to work for them.

But some employees would prefer the cash -- and the employers take some of the loss when not being able to do what both parties prefer makes the employee walk away, so they don't like it either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The article glosses over what the decision really says.[1] This strict test applies only to "wage orders", which means minimum wage and overtime laws. Anybody who bills at $40 an hour does not hit this problem. It reaches mostly the subminimum wage "gig economy". Uber, Lyft, delivery drivers, and other exploited "freelancers".

[1] [https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2018/10/articles/inde...](https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2018/10/articles/independent- contractors/dynamex-abc-test/)

</comment><comment><USER13> I realize I should probably work on this instead of posting to HN, but I see a nice potential startup idea here: A matchmaking service where small groups of freelancers can form their own companies. Instead of being independent contractors, they are employed by their own 3 or 4 member LLC or S-Corp that this service would help set up.

<comment><USER14> There's the Freelancer's Union which offers some group benefits

[https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/](https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/)

<comment><USER15> Freelancers Union doesn't offer anything compelling for health insurance, which is the biggest expense for most freelancers and contractors. All they have is an ACA portal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> When this ruling came out the naive reading seemed to me to rule out most software engineer consulting/contracting in California. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

(Of course, many "contractors" are actually employees of a contracting company, but much true freelancing seems incompatible with this law).

<comment><USER17> > but much true freelancing seems incompatible with this law.

If you're a true freelancer with multiple clients you have generally nothing to worry about.

In the past I've had clients where I ended up just working on their stuff and after a few years they ended up just hiring me full time. That is totally normal for non sleazy companies. Then you have companies that try to get out of paying the costs associated with normal employees. These companies are all skeazy and deserve to get slapped.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Why couldn't this journalist create a small corp.? Hiring magazines would then hire the company, not the person. If I understand there are also tax benefits under the current US tax policy.

What am I missing?

<comment><USER2> You're missing that they don't want to because it's a pain to setup, requires an extra layer of paperwork, and costs more at tax time (minimum $800 franchise tax). But as far as I can tell that would solve this problem.

<comment><USER19> It does solve the problem, I've done it, but the $800 tax totally killed it in years that I wasn't as active freelancing. California was just a terrible place to do business, and I'm much happier since I moved out of state.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Silver lining: these laws force freelancers to incorporate and think about building a business around that service. The reporter in that story could easily rebrand as a newswire LLC and get her old customers back.

<comment><USER21> Does Uber not already require drivers to start their own company? I can definitely understand all the outrage if Uber is trying to classify workers as independent contractors and those contractors aren't even registered businesses (and thus effectively being paid money under the table and avoiding taxes).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm curious what folks who think that TNC drivers can't possibly be independent contractors think about this.

<comment><USER22> This just further supports that Uber and Lyft drivers are indeed not contractors? For example Uber drivers don't set their rates, have not negotiated a contract with Uber in any way, are engaged in work that exists only because of Uber, and their driving is basically the entirety of Uber's business.

Compare to a plumber: plumbers and plumbing companies set their own rates, hours, often provide estimates and negotiate a price and contract with the company, don't engage in work solely setup by the company (e.g. the pipes are already there; company is not in the business of manufacturing broken pipes), and fixing plumbing is not any portion of the vast majority of companies.

<comment><USER23> Uber and Lyft can claim that they only provide an online marketplace where drivers are free to join and leave as they please. In terms of setting their own price, Uber can make pricing an opt in "smart pricing" suggestion and drivers are free to set their own price. And also most drivers offer their services in multiple platforms. In essence, they are eBay

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> My understanding is this is actually what's exacerbating the "two-class" system at big tech cos like Google where something like half of all workers are contractors. Like it was bad before, but from what I hear it's even worse now because companies want to make you look as little like an FTE as possible.

</comment><comment><USER25> I am sure every business that abuses its employees by classifying them as contractors can come up with a few cases where the people state they like being contractors.

However, in the United States with its tying of healthcare to employment, unless you are single or have a spouse that has coverage, not being an employee has downsides.

I would guess that while some high-profile freelancers might be worse off, a significant number of freelancers would be better off as employees.</comment>


Ancient Chaco Canyon population likely relied on imported food - <AUTHOR> https://www.colorado.edu/today/2016/12/29/ancient-chaco-canyon-population-likely-relied-imported-food <comment><USER2> There are reasons to believe estimates of the population of Chaco Canyon may be too high.

There are at least two kinds of communal structures in Chaco: the large elaborate structures; and lots of small pueblos scattered around the canyon. I understand the high population estimates are based on the numbers of small pueblos.

I was listening to a talk by a woman who lived in one of the modern pueblos in New Mexico, and she remarked, off hand, that the population of any given pueblo moved from one pueblo to an other as the small animals and plants they relied on became depleted. They successively re-inhabited a circuit of pueblos allowing each to recover before returning.

I don't doubt that the people of Chaco Canyon influenced a wide area, but I am skeptical of large population estimates.

</comment><comment><USER3> Having been to Chaco several times and having read anything I can find on it and the Anasazi, I've always been curious why there don't seem to be middens of a size and quantity that might be expected if a large population lived there over several hundred years. Theories which suggest the many rooms in the Great Houses were mostly ceremonial, never meant to be occupied meaning a much smaller population would be more consistent. Why, then, would they have gone to the significant effort building them? One of the more fascinating questions which may never be answered.

<comment><USER4> Imagine a get together like Burning Man but instead of huge temporary art installations and the burning of the man, people gathered around a mega- structure and your sub-group gained status by adding to it. Bring a new blue stone to Stonehenge and get a bunch of other people to help you install it and you are the cool in-group that year.</comment></comment>


Sweetbox II, the perfect case for your Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/677951563/sweetbox-ii-the-perfect-case-for-your-raspberry-pi

<comment><USER2> I like the case but it's kind of expensive.

Let's assume a Raspberry PI costs $40 after shipping. This case costs $22 (11 GBP + 3GBP for shipping).

It's like half of a whole Raspberry Pi.

<comment><USER3> that's what I was thinking too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why waste money buying a case? Just make one. I made mine using the original shipping case kind of like this one [http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-original- shippi...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-original-shipping- case-hack/) In my case I did not have a rotary tool at hand, so I just used a knife and my oven to warm it up so that the plastic can be cut easily. Just be careful not to overcut (or cut yourself).

</comment><comment><USER5> There are a bunch of cheap and good cases on eBay: [http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=15&_sacat=0&_fro...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=15&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=raspberry+pi+case&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1)</comment>


"Traction and friction" - Seth Godin - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/10/traction-and-friction.html

<comment><USER2> I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what he is talking about. Maybe it's all above my head :/ Did it make any sense to anyone else?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am not an expert at interpretation but I think he meant the following:

Doing better then others is what bring traction but not always, especially when the market is crowded. Sometimes it just doesn't work, coz there are numerous out there doing the same thing - trying to do it better. Only if you do it the best you get the traction. Even then its a transient state, there might be someone who will do it better then you, tomorrow.

So in these situations an interesting and better bet could be to break the status quo of the market, make a few new rules and stick to them.

They might seem like __friction __at the onset but if they are really making things simpler and delivering more value it can result in a lot of __traction __.

Edit: I think I would like to agree more to Alex3917's interpretation. Mine seems a bit amateurish approach compared to his. Point taken.</comment></comment>


Understanding the un-economic Uber - <AUTHOR> http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/understanding-the-economics-of-uber

<comment><USER2> Seems like a detailed and highly informative article. Not political, despite the source (TPM).

Given the subject matter, this should be more highly placed at HN than it is now.</comment>


John Prine, Who Chronicled the Human Condition in Song, Dies at 73 - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/music/john-prine-dead.html <comment><USER2> RIP John Prine, I hope your enjoying a vodka and ginger ale and smoking a nine mile long cigarette!</comment>


Show HN: Dreamlance – A Trusted Platform for Freelance Professionals - <AUTHOR> http://dreamlance.io/#

<comment><USER2> Beautiful website. I love the simplistic yet colorful design. I'm looking forward to using your service.

Side notes: Your social icon footer is broken. The Twitter icon has the "Twitter" text next to it. The others have "#" in the <a> as the link. In the bottom footer, I would suggest linking to your twitter account instead of saying the user name.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yes.. the inevitable broken footer..

Thanks for pointing that out. It should be fixed ASAP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I tried to sign up as a Freelancer, but it seems to take in only specific skills. My focus is on C/C++ and Embedded software.

It's a bit ironic considering the screenshot shows C code but the skills don't even allow for C to added.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello there,

This is Rishi, co-Founder at Dreamlance.

I apologize for not having C/C++ & Embedded software in our skills section. It'll be fixed right away.

In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me - rishi [at] dreamlance.io</comment></comment>


The non-broken promise of static typing - <AUTHOR> http://anthonybruno.com.au/2017/09/19/The-non-broken-promise-of-static-typing.html <comment><USER2> 15% (of a group of 400) JavaScript bugs could be detected with type annotations.

First reaction: Wow, actual data! Cool!

Second reaction: 15% is not nothing, but... I'm kind of disappointed that it's so small.</comment>


Undercover marketing - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercover_marketing <comment><AUTHOR> Any startups doing something compelling with undercover marketing?</comment>


Free software tools for staying in touch - <AUTHOR> https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/better-than-zoom-try-these-free-software-tools-for-staying-in-touch <comment><USER2> Recent and related:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22765899](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22765899)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22758131](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22758131)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22756728](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22756728)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22755596](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22755596)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22669968](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22669968)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22477785](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22477785)

Recent and seemingly related: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22761816](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22761816)

Not so recent: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16155155](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16155155)

Not so recent and maybe not so related: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311324](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311324)

<comment><USER3> Are those really the reason to bury this? There are several other programs mentioned in the article besides Jitsi and Jami, some I didn't know about.

<comment><USER2> Ok, we'll unbury it. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Zoom is still the best performing software. Alternatives fail in various ways. I wrote Emergency Remote[0], and for some companies thrown into the situation it is best to use it anyway. They can't handle more trouble during this time.

[0] [https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf](https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf)

<comment><USER5> I fundamentally disagree. Webex has been around longer and despite the zoom founder trying to trash it, has been more reliable for me.

They just apparently spent their money on building an enterprise-worthy app instead of marketing.

[https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex- Available-...](https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex-Available- Free-in-These-Countries-COVID-19-Response)

<comment><USER6> They say they have a Linux app... but Zoom is available in official repos, Flatpak, the Arch AUR, SUSE community, etc. That's huge for me. I don't really have any interest in blazing a new trail to use a web conferencing app.

<comment><USER7> AUR is not an official repo, and zoom is not in Arch Linux repositories either.

<comment><USER6> I didn't mean to imply that is was.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Going to put my bias out in the open. My whole career has benefited from Open Source, yet when I see something from the FSF, I automatically assume it's going to be ugly and not user-friendly.

Has anyone tried any of these FSF sanctioned tools? I'd love to have my bias be proven wrong.

<comment><USER9> Jitsi is very good. You can try it out at meet.jit.si or install your own server in about 30 minutes. (Yesterday's updated Debian packages improved things immensely.)

<comment><USER10> Installing one's own server seems horribly complicated on non-Debian-based distributions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Matrix would be an excellent one to add for the Chat category. Lovely, federated, and has voice/video calling that works great one-on-one.

<comment><USER12> I was sad to see that matrix wasn't on the list. Another great feature of Matrix, is that it is a lot easier to setup that xmpp.

<comment><USER13> I just installed synapse with Riot, and I have to say it's the exact contrary. Some of the steps are not documented, I had to read the code to understand what to do.

XMPP with Prosody on the other hand is one of the easiest servers I've ever had to install

<comment><USER12> Out of curiosity, what guide did you follow? I followed the docs right on github for synapse, and it was pretty easy. That being said, It was awhile back, and it looks like they've updated the synapse guide.

<comment><USER13> I installed Matrix behind Caddy, so I followed:

\- The archlinux guide: [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Matrix](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Matrix) \- The official doc of running it behind a proxy: [https://github.com/matrix- org/synapse/blob/master/docs/rever...](https://github.com/matrix- org/synapse/blob/master/docs/reverse_proxy.md)

I couldn't really test if it worked as-is, so I needed to install Riot web, still behind a proxy. It was also going to be my client of choice. That's where things got fun:

\- Installing the arch package doesn't do anything, it's just a bunch of static files, so you have to know how to serve them after that \- Riot needs to go to your matrix's /.well-known/matrix/client, so you need to redirect it to your synapse server (and the previous redirect is not enough, because the previous redirect only cares about _matrix, not the root level) \- It failed for me because a setting in the synapse config (server_name) wasn't set, so I had to read the code of synapse to understand how this well-known endpoint is served.

All in all it was still doable, but took more manual steps than I expected.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> If all you need is audio and text Mumble works very well. It used to be the primary audio chat app for gaming but unfortunately the field has become fragmented with game built in voice chat and platform voice chat (eg Steam).

</comment><comment><USER15> Pseudo-related, yet does anyone know of a good replacement for Google Voice? I've heard Asterisk is good software to look into, yet ideally I'm looking for a way to self-host or cheaply have a standard phone number which can send SMS and call normal phones, from multiple devices, ideally with a web interface.

<comment><USER16> Twilio

<comment><USER16> Using Twilio to make a call forwarding and voice messaging system - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22761712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22761712)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've been developing peercalls.com on and off on since 2015. It's an open source peer to peer WebRTC audio/video calling service, allows the users to chat, share their desktop and send files (sending files is a little buggy at the moment, works best in Firefox).

It has gotten a lot of interest in the past month and I noticed a spike in web traffic so I'm actively working on making it more scalable. I'm planning on implementing an SFU to support calls with more than 3-4 people. Right now the peers establish a mesh network and it quickly gets expensive to send video to more users.

I've also been paying attention to the criticisms of Zoom and other WebRTC conferencing services and am hoping to implement end to end encryption for intermediate servers using Insertable Streams once the functionality is supported in most browsers.

<comment><USER18> Thanks for sharing. It doesn't seem to work well in Safari on desktop or iOS. Seemed to connect but if you make the video larger than thumbnail or fullscreen it either doesn't show or only displays a small sliver.

<comment><USER17> Thanks for reporting the bug! I thought I'd fixed this issue. Which version of MacOS/iOS/Safari are you using?

Edit: I just realized that I just hadn't pushed the latest version which contained this fix. v3.0.17 is up and running now (was v3.0.15). Please let me know if you continue to experience this or any other issue!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can anyone comment on the software layers and infrastructure one would have to build around WebRTC to achieve Zoom-level performance?

</comment><comment><USER20> Wiki on this topic: [https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication](https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication)

Mailing list on this topic: [https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/remotecommuni...](https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/remotecommunication)

<comment><USER21> getting a 404 on the list archive at [https://lists.libreplanet.org/archive/html/remotecommunicati...](https://lists.libreplanet.org/archive/html/remotecommunication)

<comment><USER20> Brand new list today. No messages. No archive.

<comment><USER22> That's the sort of amazing focus on user experience I expect from Free software, unfortunately.

<comment><USER23> You should contribute to free software packages instead of complaining and continuing to willingly sell out your agency by using proprietary software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Webex is free right now, they just haven't really marketed it:

[https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex- Available-...](https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex-Available- Free-in-These-Countries-COVID-19-Response)

Hangouts Meet which I've had bad luck with but others have told me works well is free:

[https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/helping- busin...](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/helping-businesses- and-schools-stay-connected-in-response-to-coronavirus)

And MS Teams has a free trial (had good luck with this as well but don't like the interface as much as webex):

[https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/0...](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/02/working-remotely-during-challenging-times/)

<comment><USER20> The Free Software Foundation refers to free as in freedom and not free as in cost.

<comment><USER5> I'm aware of what the FSF is. Downvoting me because I posted free-as-in-beer alternatives that aren't open source is childish. They're valid alternatives for people that don't want to use zoom and entirely relevant to the conversation.

<comment><USER24> It's as though the title was "Try these green ways to generate energy" and you responded with a list of petrol engines which are painted green. It's not wrong, it's not unhelpful, per se, but does somewhat miss the point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> > _Audio chats: 1) Mummble ; 2) Asterisk /SIP_

3) _Walkie Talkie radio_ [0]-like apps?[1,2,3]

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkie- talkie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkie-talkie)

[1] [https://github.com/murtaza98/Walkie- Talkie](https://github.com/murtaza98/Walkie-Talkie)

[2] [https://github.com/js-labs/WalkieTalkie](https://github.com/js- labs/WalkieTalkie)

[3] [https://github.com/dhammikamare/android-walkie- talkie](https://github.com/dhammikamare/android-walkie-talkie)

</comment><comment><USER26> Meanwhile Zoom uses a bunch of open-source software without the required attribution…

<comment><USER23> Report to the license holder/s so they can start compliance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> There is a reason Zoom has been adopted the way it has; the overall user experience, do not confuse with UI, has the least amount of friction.

Zoom might not be the best in any single category, but I am glad it exists.

<comment><USER28> > There is a reason Zoom has been adopted the way it has

The reason is that people do not generally think _philosophically_ or strategically about the software choices they make. The FSF does and, time and time again, their deep consideration has proven prescient. It will be the case with Zoom too.

<comment><USER27> Philosophically? Strategically? Company employees are rejecting the alternatives. For example, SpaceX had to ban Zoom because employees kept using their own subscriptions.

I agree that privacy and security are not negotiable, but unless you ban the tool, you cannot force your employees to not use it, there are no better alternatives from their perspective. We have all lived through Skype, Hangouts, Webex, GotoMeeting, etc. They all failed at delivering the experience Zoom delivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I wish replacements like these would be practical, but the problem is that they all have flaws for many use cases, while Zoom just works.

Jitsi Meet is the best I've found so far, but even that has some issues — I did a quick test with myself and the Android client wasn't able to send or receive audio. It also doesn't have any notion of a "host", which is normally good, but it doesn't work for a school setting where participants can't be trusted to not kick others.

</comment><comment><USER30> Another vote for Cisco Webex here.

Work at a large Fortune 10 company and have tried all the major players (I think) - Google, Teams, Skype, Zoom, GotoMeeting, Webex, Join.me, etc.

Webex seems to be the least worst and is fairly reliable and generally works everywhere under all kinds of load (we have meetings that range from a few folks to multiple hundreds with no issues).

Definitely not the prettiest software but it gets the job done.

</comment><comment><USER31> Jitsi is the primarily recommended alternative video conferencing tool here, which hasn't had anywhere near the security scrutiny that Zoom has had. I'd prefer to use the tool that we understand is moderately secure, though flawed, rather than the tool that is a security unknown.

It seems a little much to recommend Jitsi as 'better', when nobody is really sure of that.

<comment><USER32> Jitsi Meet runs on your own server and lets you videoconference using just your browser and its built in support for WebRTC. That means it gets to leverage the readily available and easily understood security of:

* Traditional Web Servers (Apache 2 or nginx)

* https/ssl

* modern web browsers

Running a videoconference software that just works in your browser over https solves a large majority of security concerns. The video and voice is encrypted over SSL between the clients and the server. It's not end to end encrypted because that's not really possible, but the only place its unencrypted is in your browser and on the server you own and control. If you don't trust Jitsi's ability to password protect rooms, you could put normal http password authentication in front of your jitsi install -- which would break the mobile app but work just fine in your browser.

Lots of the concerns of Zoom's security are resolved by using readily available standards and software instead of depending on proprietary black box solutions that turn out to send encryption keys through china.

EDIT: As kardos notes below the video actually runs over udp on port 10000 so it is not encrypted over https. It looks like video is encrypted[1] but I'm unclear what method it's encrypted.

1\. See Security section of Readme [https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi- meet](https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet)

<comment><USER33> The web app runs on TCP/443 and benefits from your Let's Encrypt cert. Jitsi also exposes UDP/10000 for receiving streams from clients, which doesn't go through apache/nginx. So what does it do for encryption there?

<comment><USER32> Fair enough. I just firewalled 10000 and tried talking to a friend and it does not work. The web app indeed runs over 443 but all the video conferencing is done over UDP. However WebRTC is always encrypted. So add on a 4th well tested piece of tech being utilized.

[https://webrtc-security.github.io/](https://webrtc-security.github.io/)

<comment><USER33> Yeah, I'm not really suggesting that they failed entirely to encrypt the UDP traffic. But I am curious if what they have done has been scrutinized recently. Jitsi was formed in 2003 according to Wikipedia, there could be outdated choices in there somewhere. That they use widely deployed tech is not really enough, we've just seen that Zoom is using ECB mode when they should not, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I recently tried Jami and think it was a great user experience. I love its decentralized nature, but just have nobody to use it with. I'm now using Discord and think its new screen sharing feature is very handy for lessons. The good thing about Discord is that its very popular.

<comment><USER20> Discord is nonfree. BigBlueButton is good for classes and screensharing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> asterisk is an amazing, underrated stack of technology

<comment><USER9> I managed a set of Asterisk PBXen for about ten years. They're extremely capable.

To get full use of it back then, using high-quality hardware SIP phones was a necessity. These days I think that in-browser phones will work very well for most people.

Interconnection with telcos went from unsanctioned to orderable to being widely marketed during that time. If you know what you're doing you can save a lot of money. If you would prefer to have someone else do the work, the virtual PBX vendors are pretty good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> All these downvotes make me sad. I guess we're in a world where people turn off their Alexa for sensitive phone calls instead of choosing not to have an Alexa device in the first place.</comment>


7 great places to work - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0906/gallery.best_small_companies.fsb/index.html

<comment><USER2> Daxko doesn't sound that great to me to be honest, my current employer in the UK gives me 24 days off a year, and have just agreed to a 14 week sabbatical after 8 years of employment. I also get pension contributions, Health care and paid sick leave as standard.

OK, they don't pay for my lunch once a week but I think I can cope with that ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, a bit the same here in New Zealand (20 days/year is standard). But I think that would be quite generous by U.S. standards.</comment></comment>


Super Intelligence for the Stock Market - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@Numerai/invisible-super-intelligence-for-the-stock-market-3c64b57b244c?source=linkShare-d28db7a99006-1472586437?name=hn <comment><USER2> Sockpuppet votes and comments are not allowed on HN.

</comment><comment><USER3> This was five times more interesting than I expected it to be.

</comment><comment><USER4> At the very least, it seems like an interesting approach, but I can't be the only person thinking of the Dilbert comic strip at this moment.</comment>


MeeGo Preview Shows Why Nokia Embraced WP7 - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2011/02/14/meego-preview-shows-why-nokia-embraced-wp7/

<comment><USER2> Shame. Maemo was actually pretty good. I used to have an n770 and it was a nice, usable little device (if underpowered). It had an app store in 2005 (which was an apt repo with a web interface in front of it), and there was a decent app selection since it was so easy to port linux desktop software to it.

<comment><USER3> This is what I don't understand. Why drop Maemo for a partnership with Intel and a long road integrating Maemo and Moblin into Meego? What was Nokia getting out of it? What could a "strategic partnership" with Intel have that would ever be worth delaying to market a single Maemo device?

<comment><USER4> It seems obvious to the HN readership that integrating Maemo and Moblin would be a difficult and risky task, but I'm not sure whether the Nokia leadership understood that one year ago.

Basically, none of them were software people. The CEO, Mr Kallasvuo, was a lawyer who had been at Nokia for decades. He had seen the company's meteoric rise thanks to a combination of hardware expertise and logistic superiority, and his actions suggest that he couldn't see any other path to success.

At Nokia, software was at best something extra that enabled specific features of the hardware, not an integral part of the product.

At the end of 2009, they must have known that there's a problem on the software side, but didn't know how to go about solving it. For a leadership team of lawyers and career managers, a "strategic partnership" is a natural solution. They probably thought that they will solve the integration problem and accelerate Meego development by simply throwing another few thousand contractors on it (failing to notice that this approach was meanwhile killing Symbian).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Did anyone really think this was a surprise? Symbian? Not gonna do it. Nokia clearly bet the future on Meego, decided that it wasn't going to cut it, and hedged with WP7 instead of Android (because they weren't going to be competitive with the rest of the world who had a year's head start on Android devices).

</comment><comment><USER6> Progress: plodding on despite your neighbors, commentators, pundits, and others disparaging you. Changing directions due to group think and not sticking to plans will kill any project.

Remember that people throw stones only at trees that have mangoes.

<comment><USER7> Then there's throwing good money after bad, knowing when to fold, and cutting one's losses. Idioms go both ways.

I find it telling that a smaller company like Palm could take Linux and roll it into WebOS in an amazingly short time but two massive heavyweights, Intel and Nokia, haven't managed anything close to the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Am I the only one who doesn't really like the name MeeGo? I don't know anything about it beyond the wikipedia page nor am I making any judgement regarding it as a platform, but I think the name is kind of goofy. Haha.

<comment><USER9> The name unfortunately is a homonym for "Mi-Go," who are an extra-terrestrial race that appear in several stories of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The Mi-Go are not particularly friendly. For example, in one story they extract a person's brain from his head, then keep the brain alive in a jar while they fly with it through space to their base on Yuggoth (Pluto). <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go>

So if you ever see jokes along the lines of "MeeGo: the phone that extracts your brain from your head!" or "MeeGo: the phone from Yuggoth" or similar, that is why. I have not yet seen Charlie Stross reference this in one of the Laundry stories, but I'm waiting for it. ; )

I would hope this is unintentional on Nokia and Intel's part. I mean, who would intentionally name their OS after something in Lovecraft?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> That's definitely Qt/QML running on that tablet. I knew QML was a dog, but that _that_ much of a dog running on current hardware. That's a shame.

</comment><comment><USER11> Embraced like you embrace a smelly alcoholic uncle/aunty in a family gathering. Sickening but unavoidable.</comment>


The Nerd Handbook - <AUTHOR> http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

<comment><USER3> The writer is dead-on with his analysis.

Nothing bothers me more than small talk. "I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me". Hilarious. That pretty much nails my thought process when I meet someone new.

<comment><USER4> I think the biggest error is the insinuation that all nerds are computer nerds. While it fits me just fine, I know plenty of nerds of other varieties.

Regarding small talk, I don't think it's a lack of a system of understanding so much as a side effect of the relevancy filter. All that stuff people are saying to me? It frequently sounds like "Nice weather outside blah blah blah blah." Small talk about something I find interesting is another matter entirely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This idealizes some not-very-nerdy habits. Yes, sometimes nerds are messy - <USER2> desk is just messy. The package of gum on my desk doesn't mean I have an efficient system, it means I made room for my laptop.

And who watches 3 TV shows at one time? Serious question - if a lot of HN does stuff like this, that's a fairly fascinating discovery for me.

<comment><USER6> _And who watches 3 TV shows at one time?_

I do. I'll start one, and than pause it to go do something else (write code, grab a snack, etc) and come back and start watching a different show. Eventually, I'll get distracted and pause the show I'm watching and talk on IRC or read Twitter for a bit, at which point I'll read about another show that I've been meaning to watch. So, I'll start watching it. Only to remember the first show that I started two hours ago and never finished. Its worse when I catch a reference to another show that I'm watching but can't quite remember what its referencing or its baseball season and I have a Mets game to watch..

This works _really_ well with Quicktime, where it opens a new window for every video file I tell it to play. Not so much with VLC or Movist (mplayer UI) on OS X, that use a single window for all videos.

<comment><USER5> Oh, absolutely. I do the whole "pause and do something else" thing too, which the OP calls Nerd ADD [1]. Netflix + tabbed browsing is especially conducive to it. My point is that flipping through channels every 5 seconds makes us sound like nerd robots from the future, which I at least am not.

On re-reading, this article comes off as more measured and less apologist, but the "nerd robot from the future" aspect still comes through.

[1] <http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2003/07/10/nadd.html>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think this is more like a superset of features which describe many different types of nerd; some nerds implement all features, some only satisfy a subset of these interfaces. Each one is different depending on the level of nerd, and the activity the nerd centralizes their life on.

Definitely passing this along to my partner.

</comment><comment><USER8> He is dead-on with "Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head.". Brilliant!!</comment>


ACS:Law Anti-Piracy Law Firm Torn Apart By Leaked Emails - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-piracy-law-firm-torn-apart-by-leaked-emails-100925/

<comment><USER2> I assume there will be some type of financial damage claim from the clients against the law firm and its individual attornies who are involved in this. I wonder if the multi-clients monetary damages will be covered by any kind of insurance or if it will come out of the pockets of those involved?

I wonder what level of standard of care for the documents will be used to decide this. Some of the more security experienced among our ranks may be able to make some good quick money from expert testimony in this matter. On both sides of the issue.

Edit: A lot of law firms use Interwoven to manage their documents and email. Here is link, if anyone is interested in coming up to speed on this

<http://www.interwoven.com/index_iManage_legal.jsp></comment>


Another Person Has Reportedly Died Due to a Tesla Autopilot Failure - <AUTHOR> https://www.yahoo.com/news/another-person-reportedly-died-due-164546140.html <comment><USER2> _A 23-year-old man was killed on January 20th while behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S traveling on a highway near Hong Kong when the electric car drove itself into a street-cleaning truck_

I would argue the car didn't drive itself, rather that the person behind the wheel drove the car in to the back of a stationary vehicle.

But it doesn't matter what I think, what matters is how the media spin this and how Tesla respond.

A bit more of my opinion: road vehicles with any form of self-driving ability should not allow the driver to take their hands off the wheel at any time for any period of time. I would consider doing so an act of not having proper control of a motor vehicle, which in Australia you can be fined for.</comment>


How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44766487 <comment><USER2> When Google Drive and iCloud and One Drive all cropped up, copying the same service with the addition of deeper integration into different devices and software, I was worried Dropbox would be unable to compete. But they've hung in there, and I remain a happy customer.

<comment><USER3> Out of curiousity, what does Dropbox do for you that they don't? Have you stayed because of price, service, features, laziness to switch? :)

I personally don't have many storage needs so I just email myself important files, back up some things to USB, and sometimes will add things to Google Drive

<comment><USER2> Google Drive is like "I _guess_ you can use the desktop client instead of the web one". One Drive is like "I _guess_ you can use a Mac". iCloud is like "I _guess_ you can have non-Apple devices". Dropbox just syncs your files from and to anything you have, equally well. I'm pretty sure none of the others even have a Linux client at all, but Dropbox does.

<comment><USER4> Except smart sync only works on mac and windows. Linux is a second class citizen.

I'd sign up for Dropbox if they had feature parity on Linux.

Also a plan in the $5 range would be greatly preferred. My threshold for moderately helpful services is usually $5/Mo.

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure what you mean by "smart sync", but selective sync does work on Linux last I checked (a few months ago)

<comment><USER4> [https://www.dropbox.com/smartsync](https://www.dropbox.com/smartsync)

No, it's not the same thing and no, it does not work on Linux.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like Dropbox but I think they now focus more on enterprise and forgot individual users which led them to where they are today.

First is the price. If you need more space than the free option provides, the cheapest upgrade is $100/year. The competition is about $25/year. The $100 doesn't even contain basic features like full text search when searching your Dropbox folder in the browser. You need to pay more for that. I'm sure most companies don't mind paying the extra cost for a better service, but individual users are much more likely to go with the significantly cheaper option even if that means inferior product.

I totally understand that for the big tech companies it's easier to lower prices and even lose money to gain market share. Dropbox will need to find a way to fight back.

<comment><USER6> Individual users are definitely no longer their focus, and it makes sense why.

You could see their individual focus for a long time (ex. developing Mailbox and Carousel) and in an ideal (and theoretical) world, it sounds wonderful to have a consumer-SaaS company focused on delivering amazing software to the masses and making money directly from it. But at the end of the day, you can't ignore the real world and the messy side of business.

I (and I'm sure a big chunk of the HN population) would love to support a company like this, but there just aren't enough of us. Drew & team probably found out how difficult getting people to pay for stuff (especially productivity software) really is.

This enterprise shift is necessary for Dropbox's survival.

<comment><USER7> Annecdata, but I would gladly pay iff they were a zero-knowledge company (they should never see cleartext), but they aren't and I must assume that will limit enterprise adoption as well.

I have _literally_ looked for an alternative for more than a decade, but nobody can touch Dropbox on a really wide range of metrics and the trend amount competitors seems to move away from the hyper-simple file system abstraction.

I think I have tried most commercial options and practically all open source alternatives. I had high hopes for Syncthing, but I found high load and erratic syncing (was testing with 320 GB). Also no iOS client and no partial sync :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The fact that they were strangers is super surprising, especially given how YC seems to discourage that kind of "founder dating", suggesting instead you found companies only with people you trust deeply.

<comment><USER9> OTOH, the fact that dhouston was able to convince a current MIT student and otherwise total stranger to drop out and follow him on this journey in just a few hours' conversation is telling of both his and the product's prowess.

<comment><USER10> That narrative doesn't quite align with the article stating that "for various reasons none of his friends were able to join the business." In retrospect all of Houston's friends made a huge mistake! Maybe Ferdowsi was tired of MIT and joined him on a lark? I am curious to hear the story from his perspective.

<comment><USER11> Ferdowsi says joining was like scratching an itch here.[0] I've heard from alumni he spent a lot of time coding in his room, like more than average compared to your friendly neighborhood MIT student; I can imagine the prospect of high-risk, high-reward coding for 18 hours/day was very appealing.

[0] [https://medium.com/the-story-of-grip/how-two-guys-that- barel...](https://medium.com/the-story-of-grip/how-two-guys-that-barely-knew- each-other-build-one-of-the-biggest-cloud-storage-companies-in- the-c41c383a952e)

<comment><USER12> from the article (medium, not BBC)

"The pair worked tirelessly for three months in a cramped office in Cambridge, waking up everyday at noon and working till dawn the next day. "I think we started like most of these tech companies begin. Just a couple of guys in their boxers coding in a dark room," Houston says. "We just kept our heads down and built.""

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I love my Dropbox. Except one thing. They still don't support SmartSync on their Linux client.

For all the people that commend Dropbox for supporting Linux, they now treat the Linux client as inferior.

To add insult to injury, they promote the SmartSync feature inside the preferences of the Linux client.

<comment><USER14> It might not be as good as its windows and macOS counter part, but it's much better than other vendor's Linux clients.

The sheer fragmentation of Linux space makes something as complicated as smart sync not a very financially viable product to support.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Still available online :)

[https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox/](https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox/)

<comment><USER7> There is so much gold in that link, thank you!

A random pick: "The concept that I'm most excited about is that the core technology in Dropbox -- continuous efficient sync with compression and binary diffs"

* Andrew Tridgell of course created rsync (which is referenced elsewhere) and pioneered the binary delta model which has inspired so much progress. Dropbox's sync in clearly directly influenced by this. Outstanding achievement!

* "efficient sync with compression and binary diffs" is key here but astonishingly appears to be a secondary concern for many (most?) competitors which is why they su^H^Haren't as good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Slightly off topic, but I discovered the other day that shared folders count towards the disk quota for each account it's shared to.

I had several GB of photos shared with me on Dropbox, and it blew right over my free limit, despite the fact that none of them were actually mine. The photos also count towards the quota of the account sharing with me.

That's soured me quite a lot on Dropbox.

<comment><USER17> That's probably done to prevent people from creating many free accounts and sharing folders with each other to simulate having more storage space.

<comment><USER18> I have a big archive of family photos (130 GB and growing) that I'd like to share with my wife in read-only mode.

She only needs Dropbox for a bunch of documents, so paying an extra €10 per month is not something we can do.

Dropbox is a fairly expensive service. I've used it for years however I can no longer defend my choice.

Extended versioning is gone. Expiring sharing links are gone from Plus, so I have to pay €20 per month for it ... yes they grandfathered old accounts, however I made the mistake of trying out Pro and their Support refused to reinstate my old Plus account.

Want to search your documents? Pay €20 for Pro. Which wouldn't be bad, except that their search is terrible. And I could not get their support to admit that they aren't indexing all my documents.

Just to get an idea, they aren't indexing all PDFs (that Google Drive is indexing just fine) and they aren't indexing text files with a .log extension either. A comparison with Google Drive isn't even funny as GDrive does text recognition on images, indexing everything.

Speaking of Dropbox's support, I've never been more frustrated in my life as the only issue they've ever solved for me was a refund, which they had to provide by law due to me being an EU citizen.

All in all, I ended up paying €20 per month for link sharing I had in Plus, broken full text indexing and piss poor support.

Also they keep pushing collaboration features but I wonder for whom. I don't think they've thought this through. If Dropbox is no longer a good place to keep my photos then it stops being a good service for sharing work items with colleagues.

Do they hope for Dropbox to become a service imposed by management? Probably, however in that space they are competing with the likes of GSuite and we already have GSuite for email. And Extending that to the Business edition that gives you Unlimited space is much cheaper than going with Dropbox.

I'll grant that Dropbox's desktop sync is the best in business. But I can deal with the warts of the others.

<comment><USER19> I had sort of the same issues as you and ended up with OneDrive because other family members needed Office.

In Australia you can often find 1 year x 5 accounts (1TB Onedrive space, Office, Skype minutes) for ~$70.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I used Dropbox from 2009 through last month or so. Switched over to Syncthing. I was a little bit worried about stability but soon after I sampled it I felt convinced that it was the right move. I was previously using Dropbox as a kind of makeshift backup as well as a sync tool, but now I have a desktop again and run automated backups on that using Backblaze, so I'm a little bit more in control over the data by doing my own syncing.

<comment><USER21> Somewhat related, ive been a very happy resilio sync user since it was launched as bittorrent sync. I have similar backups -- it backs up to my 2 personal computers, and one of those is backing up to backblaze. My (nontechnical) wife is happy with this for storing all her phone and camera pictures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> My current Dropbox set-up: three hard drives, two of which are SSDs, each of which have a different OS (Windows and Linux respectively) and one really big HDD with NTFS to share data between the two of them. Which also is the Dropbox folder. In practice I only reboot to Windows to defragment the NTFS drive drive, but sometimes it's useful for develpoment.

Makes it quite easy to migrate to a new computer, or do a fresh install if I want to clean up the OS.

The only hassle is that Dropbox doesn't let you link an already existing Dropbox folder in Linux. Which is fixed by renaming the folder, "creating" a new one, moving all hidden files to the renamed folder and renaming it back.

I'm considering moving to another service, but it's just so convenient and the price is OK.

</comment><comment><USER23> > ...as he sat down in his seat, Mr Houston realised that he had forgotten the > memory stick that contained all the files. "I was so frustrated because I > felt like this kept happening," he says. "I never wanted to have the problem > again, so having nothing else to do... I started writing some code [to find > a solution], having no idea what it would become." What Mr Houston came up > with was the idea for Dropbox - remote storage that users can access online > wherever they may be. Within two weeks he had created the prototype, and > come up with the name.

Funny. I (and I guess countless people before) would have come up with a remote login via dyndns to my home computer or using ftp to some server. The idea of dropbox seems so obvious in hindsight but we were all blind.

<comment><USER24> When Dropbox was first demonstrated on HN, people made very similar comments.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> After watching the popular opionion about Dropbox for most of its early years, that it was a product (or worse just a feature) and not a sustainable independent company/business, I'm always glad to see them continuing to grow and thrive. Hats off to Drew and the Dropbox team.

</comment><comment> brian-armstrong Did anyone ever figure out what came of bringing a Bush cabinet member on board? Contract for mining data for NSA/FBI?

<comment><USER26> I'd forgotten all about this ...

I'm surprised she's still there: [https://www.dropbox.com/about](https://www.dropbox.com/about)

and this page still exists: [http://www.drop-dropbox.com](http://www.drop- dropbox.com)

I have to say, I've not heard any mention of her in relation to dropbox since she was appointed tho'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I once used a variety of services, but now use Dropbox (free version) exclusively. It does what I need and I prefer their privacy based model (in comparison to other set-it-and-forget-it solutions).

</comment><comment><USER28> I wonder how those friends who turned him down feel. That would an interesting article to write. I am sure they are mostly super successful, but would still make an interesting article to read.

</comment><comment><USER29> I think there is still space for open source on premise competitor. I don't trust Dropbox or other services, but I'd love to run something like this myself for full control.

</comment><comment><USER30> How many schools allow you to recontinue your education again if you drop out to start a company but it fails?

Seems like if I had this option I would have dropped out at least once.

<comment><USER31> Some remote universities, I guess.

I'm studying a MCompSci for 7 years now and it only costs me 11€ when I don't do any courses in a semester.

I got all courses done, just need time for the thesis, hehe

<comment><USER32> Is your university remote? Can you provide a link by chance?

<comment><USER31> sure

[https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/english/](https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/english/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> OffTopic: How did this story get let through when I submitted the same story with the same url ten hours before? Should the second submission have been caught?

</comment><comment><USER34> is anyone else surprised he was able to build a prototype in two weeks? what technology did it use?

</comment><comment><USER35> I for one no longer trust Dropbox to behave on my computer after this [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12463338](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12463338)

<comment><USER36> They now have a kernel extension as part of their app, supposedly to stop people from dragging files out of shared folders.

<comment><USER35> That's even worse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I noticed the word "profit" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Will Dropbox ever make money?

<comment><USER38> Exactly. It kills me that the definition of a successful company is rarely - being able to deliver a product profitably.

<comment><USER39> They provided a spreadsheet on their investor relations page: [https://dropbox.gcs-web.com/static- files/105a910a-1026-4056-...](https://dropbox.gcs-web.com/static- files/105a910a-1026-4056-912c-1b806b964843)

Losses last three years are: ~300m, ~200m, ~100m.

They are going to be profitable by 2020 and their margin is growing, so I don't get this negativity.

<comment><USER38> They can predict a lot of things. But in the B2B market, they are competing with much larger companies that can offer the same amount of storage plus a lot more - Google and Microsoft.

In the consumer market, they are competing with Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Would you really want to compete against the three most valuable companies in the US where as Steve Jobs said "you're not a product you're a feature"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Still fathoms me that Dropbox is worth billions of $ for the same functionality as FTP.

<comment><USER41> And that's exactly why they're billionaires and you probably aren't. It isn't about functionality, it's about ease of use. It's the same argument used when MS-DOS was being replaced by the GUI.

Explain FTP to your Aunt Edna. Get FTP working where everything on all devices is in sync automatically. Comment on a file via FTP. Send a link to a file they can consume on a mobile device — including playing audio or video without downloading the file. Create access lists for folders.

Sure you could do it using FTP. Now do it cheaply at scale and make it work everywhere and then convince your non tech friends to use it.

Why bother with GPS when we could all use a map and compass? Dropbox made file syncing accessible to everyone cheaply and securely.

<comment><USER42> Oh boy, someone believes in the startup myth.

A massive part of the success of such startups are connections, connections, connections.

The product itself doesn't matter that much, considering all the pivoting. Nor does making a profit, considering all the startups still burning VC money.

Yes, there is certainly an amount of skill necessary, but the scrappy startup that suceeds against all odds is a fairytale. Luck, connections and moral flexibility play an equally or more important part.

<comment><USER43> Except of course, that heard about DRopbox when it first launched, tried the free plan, thought 'this is a really cool product' and introduced it to all my friends. Dropbox hasn't pivoted much, and I knew nothing about their connections.

It was a scrappy start up with a good product.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: S-1 Reader – IPO prospectuses that aren't eyesores - <AUTHOR> http://www.s1reader.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, I believe S-1's should be more widely read, but are intimidating to first time readers. Here, I've taken Eventbrite's S-1, took only the most essential sections (~1/5 of total text), and overlaid a simple WP template to improve readability. Do you think it would be make sense for something like this to exist for ALL S-1's?

Here's Eventbrite's original full S-1 for comparison: [https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1475115/000119312518...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1475115/000119312518255960/d593770ds1.htm)

<comment><USER2> Hmmm...my biggest fear reading this is that I'm not getting the official document (and apparently I'm not...all the financials are missing!).

I personally find the original much easier to read and use. Jumping back and forth in this viewer is jarring and lacks context.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point! Navigation is definitely not easy in this version. I'd be looking to a sticky table of contents widget on the side and/or a infinite scroll feature in the next version.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Sorry, I will be honest and say that there is nothing useful in what you have provided. I don't even think you understand the end user. You have replaced a single S-1 page with a bunch of links, and you don't even have the financial numbers. That's probably the biggest reason why people look at the S-1. Not including the S-1 financials means that you really don't understand the people who consume them, which is a red flag.

Replacing sections with separate links, and forcing you to click around doesn't make things better, it's actually unnecessary friction.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the feedback, you make very reasonable points. Here are a couple thoughts!

1\. I'll be the first to admit that excluding the financials was largely due to the lack of my web design experience – creating pretty tables on WP is harder than I wish!

2\. I'll make a wild guess that 90% of the general public doesn't know how to read an income statement. For the 10% of those who do, and read SEC documents regularly, there are existing paid tools like BAMSEC that you can use to improve the usability of the SEC website. BAMSEC has power features like ability to download financial statements directly as Excel spreadsheets.

What I'd like to know is if there is an interested readership among the 90% that are intellectually curious - HN readers, for example - and find the S-1 language readable and interesting, when presented without the baggage of 1) navigating through the dense SEC EDGAR search system and 2) legal template language that represents bulk of the S-1 doc.

<comment><USER3> Your reasoning is not sound at all.

90% of the general public might know know how to read an income statement, but 90% of the general public is not interested in reading an S-1 no matter what the format is. The vast majority are happy reading a Marketwatch synposis of it.

The percentage of the general public who are actually interested in reading an S-1 will be mostly interested in the financials.

Again, I believe this is because you don't understand who your end-user would be, and who is actually interested in reading an S-1.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> c-slice I personally don't find this any more readable than the real S-1. [https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1475115/000119312518...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1475115/000119312518255960/d593770ds1.htm)

The real S-1 has a clickable table of contents, is easier to navigate (doesn't require back and forth clicking) and has more data (financials, capitalization, voting structure, etc)

<comment><AUTHOR> True, this was not built with the seasoned S-1 reader in mind who already know exactly what they are looking for in a S-1. And I agree the navigation is a big problem with this version – it ought to be easier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If im honest this is difficult to read as a financial analyst. The original document is easier to search and traverse. The idea you have to click through things makes it very difficult to look for anything.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is easy on the eyes but why not include the financial statements? Those numbers are pretty important.

<comment><USER6> Second this - I immediately look for the financials because it is usually the first time they are being presented publicly

Cool project nonetheless!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the great points! I definitely went for "less is more" in this iteration. Financials should be incorporated, but I didn't want to just dump it on the casual reader who's not familiar with financial statements. I believe there are really may be ~10 lines of numbers (revenue breakdown, gross profit, operating cost line items, non-GAAP metrics) that deserve scrutiny in many cases.

<comment><USER7> I would guess that most readers of S-1 statements are interested in the balance sheet, P&L, and the cap table. Would love to see you provide a clean summary of those three things with graphs and extra breakouts like gross margin %.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Couple of UX/IA things:

\- There's no hover effects on your links. This makes the top level links (Business, Discussion + Analysis, and Letter from the Founders) look like they're not clickable, especially because they're treated so differently than the rest of the links.

\- Plus signs are often used to hide nested content, especially in navigation trees like you have here. If these are simply links, they should look like links.

\- Once you're in a section, there's no breadcrumbs or active styling in the header. Because there are so many links, it's hard to know where you are or create a mental model of the space.

\- It might be helpful to add previous and next navigation once you're inside one of the nested pages, instead of requiring people to go back out to the main page.

</comment><comment><USER9> Very cool! I remember circa 2007 using some awful service for S-1 queries at a law firm, I think we paid like $250 per search. The same data was available for free, but this service presented it in slightly more readable form. Given our billing rate, this expenditure somehow made sense (or we were able to justify it anyway).

</comment><comment><USER10> It would be great if you can also generate TLDR; for each section and put it at the start. There are several automated text summarizers out there to experiment with, for example, [https://www.textcompactor.com/](https://www.textcompactor.com/)</comment>


The Ransomware Superhero of Normal, Illinois - <AUTHOR> https://www.propublica.org/article/the-ransomware-superhero-of-normal-illinois <comment><USER2> Great article. I always feel like I'm looking for my niche, and I love it when I find people who found theirs.</comment>


Ask HN: Whatever became of the solo programmer? - <AUTHOR> I'm a child of the microcomputer era, and grew up with the mindset that good software was very often the work of a single developer, and that even "big" software projects were principally the product of one mind, with a few other people helping around the edges.
Fast forward to today: nearly every software development job advert talks about teams, or specific team-oriented practises ("SCRUM", "Agile", etc.).  Searching for "solo developer" or similar brings up a long list of articles about why working on your own is problematic, a few talking about historical solo projects (while pointing out that "we don't do stuff like this any more") and basically nothing in defence of the solo programmer.  About the closest I can find to such a defence comes -- a little surprisingly -- from the XP people [1].  This is counter-intuitive to me: tooling has generally improved since the 80s (with a few reservations) and the range of libraries available has increased massively.  So a solo programmer has extra leverage and ought to be able to achieve more today, not less.
I suspect there's a degree of ascertainment bias here due to plenty of successful solo programmers churning out useful code but not feeling too much urge to write about it.  But really, it does seem like there has been a change over the past decade or so, and very few people are willing to speak out for the solo coder.
Can anyone think of any exception?
[1] - https://web.archive.org/web/20160709203742/http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TeamOfOne <comment><USER2> The condition that enables true solo programming (one developer putting out the entire product) is having a piece of software whose complexity is manageable by one person. Most significant software today is larger than that, although something like a small, stand-alone application (iPhone game or PC utility) might still fall into that category.

For commercial software, another constraint is time: a solo developer might be able to create some software in two years, but the product is needed in six months. So the work gets split up.

There are also risk management issues. If there's only one person working on a piece of software, the project takes a big hit if that person leaves or suffers a debilitating accident (there's a "bus factor"[1] of 1).

And there are quality issues: if only one person understands the code they're writing, who's going to review the code to make sure there are no serious bugs or security holes?

I still work pretty much as a solo programmer, but within a large organization. I work on an important component of a large software product, and I'm the only developer who works on (or even understands) that area of the code. I do, however, interact a lot with other groups whose code interacts with mine.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> >>> I still work pretty much as a solo programmer, but within a large organization. I work on an important component of a large software product, and I'm the only developer who works on (or even understands) that area of the code. I do, however, interact a lot with other groups whose code interacts with mine.

Do you hear the "bus factor" and/or lack-of-code review concerns much? If so, how do you respond?

<comment><USER2> Nobody has ever brought it up.

Regarding code reviews: I try to test and self-review my code thoroughly, and hope that the QA people find the bugs that I don't find. My bug rate seems to be comparable to other parts of the product that are worked on by multiple developers.

As for bus factor: if they insist on adding more people to the project, I could deal with that, but it wouldn't make me particularly happy to manage people (I've done it before, but I prefer just being a developer).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm the sole developer on [https://reviewable.io](https://reviewable.io) and there's no way I could've done that a decade ago. So yeah, I think you're right and the mainstream industry just hasn't caught up to the emerging reality yet. And as tooling and infrastructure keeps improving the effective power of a single developer will only continue to grow.

That said, greenyoda does bring up some good points: time, risk, and quality are very much issues with the solo approach. But I see these more as opportunities to be addressed via new products or services as the number of solo development businesses grows...

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great landing page -- hope your business goes well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Countless solo-made phone apps, with decent sales. Sort of a like a return to the 1-man video game shop.

And although you're talking about solo... There's was a 2-man dream team in the DC area. Not sure if they're still working. They would tackle any project and get it done fast. Any language or tech stack. Design docs, requirements, working project, everything. They tackled in-distress projects where a large team and multi-million dollar budge failed.</comment>


Show HN: Broxy – An HTTP/HTTPS intercept proxy written in Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rhaidiz/broxy <comment><USER2> I really would like to recommend go-any-proxy as well:

[https://github.com/ryanchapman/go-any- proxy](https://github.com/ryanchapman/go-any-proxy)

It is pretty good you can masquerade it (configure it as a transparent proxy for any outbound TCP traffic and it uses HTTP CONNECT to proxies that support it to proxy the connection.) If you're looking to unwrap SSL traffic you can use sslsplit, too.

</comment><comment><USER3> How does it feature-wise compare with Mitmproxy and Burp? Is the repeater data editable?

If the end goal is a Burp replacement, you should know that they're very expensive (basically 365 USD a year IIRC), and a cheaper product could be a hit.

<comment><USER4> The same thing is true of Burp as was true of Microsoft Word for Joel Spolsky: just 20% of its features cover 80% of its use cases, but it's a different 20% for each user. Burp replacements are where tooling projects go to die; many, many of us have stories about attempts, sometimes multiple attempts, to decisively replace it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does it have to look this ugly? Qt lets you make nice layouts easily and looks native by default.

<comment><USER6> Apparently it's already using Qt

<comment><USER5> That's exactly why I have mentioned it - they use Qt and it would look better if they didn't make it look this way intentionally.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I know naming is hard, but I heard this and figured it might be using bro under the hood. It's more confusing because it's a network-related application.

<comment><USER8> Bro is now Zeek.

<comment><USER7> Yeah but tons of people are still using versions named Bro. Most people I know, me included, still refer to it as Bro (or, more formally, Bro/Zeek.) Tons of documentation and tutorial are the same. It's only been a year and change since the re-naming.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason I called it Broxy is actually pretty idiotic, but I kinda liked it and went for it: I simply imagined what would Barney Stinson call a proxy :) ... the answer was pretty obvious.

<comment><USER7> Hah that's pretty good. Thanks for making me laugh.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Live Pictures from Startup School - <AUTHOR> http://futurique.com:8080/pingplog/yc/

<comment><AUTHOR> ...and contribute to the album by emailing your pictures from your mobile phone to email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER2> small suggestion - can you guys make it easy to save the image. from cursory look, when i tried to save one of the images i was in, i had to type out the url.

</comment><comment><USER3> We added a link to the original file next to each picture. Sorry for taking this long to reply. Thanks for your feedback, Cheers.</comment>


Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100 - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-sees-a-7-degree-rise-in-global-temperatures-by-2100/2018/09/27/b9c6fada-bb45-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1a35bea4b7b0 <comment><USER2> That would make a significant amount of the USA Uninhabitable.

</comment><comment><USER3> Paywalled.

[https://outline.com/WGGMtz](https://outline.com/WGGMtz)</comment>


Maesh, a Lightweight and Simpler Service Mesh - <AUTHOR> https://blog.containo.us/announcing-maesh-a-lightweight-and-simpler-service-mesh-made-by-the-traefik-team-cb866edc6f29 <comment><USER2> That's great news !!! Congrats to the Containous team !!!

Using Traefik for more than a year now, working like a charm.

I wonder if SO_KEEPALIVE is implemented ? I ask this because we have funny devs that don't know how to implement SO_KEEPALIVE on springboot projects correctly. That can be annoying for an Operation Team....

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks interesting, but it's not clear to me if this supports TLS traffic to the daemon-set nodes running on each individual node. A key thing that I am looking at meshes for are last mile TLS encryption, with a appropriate sidecar.

<comment><AUTHOR> We think that it is interesting to have an alternative with a simpler design bringing almost all features. So yes, mTLS between pods is not supported. But it's a decent tradeoff for many users. Finally, mTLS could be supported in the future between nodes :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is it like running Istio-ingressgateway only, without mesh expansion and sidecar injection? It looks simpler than Istio, but I'm on mobile and will try Maesh on a test cluster later.

</comment><comment><USER5> So glad to see this supports SMI. That makes introduction of these new implementations much more digestible

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We deeply believe that the best infrastructure products are open and free from vendor lock-in. Being compliant to SMI will make both Maesh and the specifications stronger.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd love to see a comparison between Maesh and Linkerd v1 -- sidecar-based meshes like Istio (AKA coordinated envoy) and API gateways like Kong are not direct competitors with Maesh, Linkerd v1 is.

Is Maesh a newer imagining of what Linkerd v1 sought to do? Is it a better k8s-integrated solution?

<comment><USER7> At first glance the difference is proxy on the node and not per pod. It is also K8s centric where L5d is easier compatible and has way more more powerful configuration options and runs on vms as well.

I would say that L5d 2.0 would be the direct competitor. They are both: small, simple, opt-in, K8s centric, and support SMI.

<comment><USER6> I think you compared it to linkerd v2 (formerly known as Conduit) -- Linkerd v1 was used primarily per-node though it was also capable of per-pod...

l5d v1 is the direct competitor, but is just theoretically lacking k8s integration, though it actually is usable with k8s, I've written about it on my tiny tiny k8s cluster.

Basically what I'm wondering is how much better the integration is for Maesh

[0]: [https://vadosware.io/post/up-and-running-with- linkerd-v1/](https://vadosware.io/post/up-and-running-with-linkerd-v1/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder if this will work along iwth Consul Connect (another service mesh), or if this is an alternative to it.

[https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/index.html](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/index.html)

I wish more open-source products would write semi-neutral explanations of what their project is, isn't and how it compares to some similar services.

For example, I think Kubernetes does a pretty good job of explaining what it isn't.

[https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is- kuberne...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is- kubernetes/#what-kubernetes-is-not)

</comment><comment><USER9> This looks like an interesting off the shelf alternative to Envoy, which currently requires you to implement your own control plane. Moving forward, is this going to be open-core with a paid EE edition type of thing like Traefik?

<comment><USER10> There are multiple control planes for Envoy (e.g. Istio) already; I wouldn't punish them for modularity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So API gateways are becoming Services Meshes and Service Meshes are becoming API gateways. Have we reached critical mass on number of solutions? Will they start to consolidate?

</comment><comment><USER12> "Service Mesh" seems to designate a Kubernetes-specific terminology, for those, like me, who wondered what the title was about.

Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform, AKA a way to deploy software on servers. If all of this sounds complex, it is, as it's Google-scale.

</comment><comment><USER13> From the description, and given who developed it, is this basically a way to run a Traefik instance per node and have the instance dynamically configure itself using the Kubernetes API? Or is there more to it?

</comment><comment><USER14> Kudos for the traefik team. I've just started to use it an is amazing.

</comment><comment><USER15> Ooh. I look forward to deploying this on Iron Arachne's stack.

</comment><comment><USER16> What is up with these names? For a moment I felt either dyslexic or like I'm experiencing a stroke.

<comment><AUTHOR> Whæt's wröng?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is there anything similar that works with Docker Swarm?

</comment><comment><USER18> Should work on OpenShift too right?</comment>