Help the Internet Archive - their offices were destroyed in a fire - <AUTHOR> https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/please-help-the-internet-archive-after-their-offices-were-destroyed-in-a-fire <comment><USER2> Why not cut out the middleman? [https://archive.org/donate/](https://archive.org/donate/)

<comment><USER3> The crowdfunding campaign will probably be more effective at raising money for this.

Fortunately, there is effectively no middleman here, according to the campaign's description:

> * I've spoken with June from the IA, who will ensure that funds go directly > to them.

> * Crowdtilt has agreed to waive their card processing fee!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Naive question: what portion of this would be covered by insurance?

<comment><USER5> I must be naive too, then, because this is what I thought at first. Anything that gets dollars into the hands of the archive.org folks is fine with me, but this is what insurance policies are for.

<comment><USER6> Do they even own the place, it looks like it's probably rented. How much will it cost to replace a desk and a computer?

<comment><USER7> The article's only five paragraphs; maybe you could try reading it? "High-end digitizing equipment" isn't cheap. Just one big archival scanner can run $5000-$10,000 or more, and they had quite a few of those, probably specialized/customized.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The title here is misleading. "Their offices" were not destroyed. The office involved was just a single office used for scanning content.

That being said. They are an amazing resource that I have used a few times to obtain copies of content that I had lost.

</comment><comment><USER9> I used the fire as an excuse to finally set up a monthly donation for them. They deserve it.

<comment><USER10> Thanks to the headline, I finally remembered to set that up, too. I suspect that if they need anymore money after insurance and such, the most effective time is to fund raise immediately. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but maybe that's a silver lining!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Another photo just posted on Tracey Jaquith's twitter @tracy_pooh [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYfLJp2CEAAA7cU.jpg:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYfLJp2CEAAA7cU.jpg:large)

<comment><USER11> Ah I fat-fingered that, for the record it's tracey_pooh with an 'e'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> donated.

Slightly off topic, but I really like Crowdtilt's payment dialog. That was easily the lowest friction payment box I've seen. I wonder who designed it? Looking at their terms, it looks like they're using Balanced Payments, was it an internal design or inspired by some Balance Payments widget?

<comment><USER13> Thanks :). We designed it in-house. One of the great benefits of balanced and stripe is complete customizability of not only the look and feel, but also of which fields to include/leave.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm using FireFox 25.0 and I got a notice about my browser not being new enough ... I never win!

</comment><comment><USER15> Did Tesla build their office?

<comment><USER15> downvote away humorless nerds.

<comment><USER16> I'm not sure this is the site for you if you use "nerds" as an insult.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How Should I Market This Thing? - <AUTHOR>

Finished my labor of love:<p>http://blanqd.com<p>...but don't have experience with promotion or "growth hacking". Any tips, tricks, or ideas you can share? <comment><USER2> Downloaded. Already addicted. Well done, well done indeed. I'm not gonna get shit done today thanks to you :)

I doubt if you'll need to market it at all. I'm sharing with friends now, I would expect this to grow virally if others have the same experience.

<comment><USER3> I'd like to see how this ends up. please follow up in a few months.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well of course these are the responses you hope for! Will follow up indeed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't know if anyone has said this but if you have any friends who are high school teachers tell them about it. I think it would really be engaging for high schoolers to use it, its fun and they also can keep up with current events. I remember back in high school a lot of my teachers in certain classes asked about current events and stuff in the news, it would be perfect for them now since they are always on their phone and teachers can make sure they are reading or doing the quizzes based on their scores.

Really cool app by the way, downloaded it and love it.

</comment><comment><USER5> You have a twitter account! [https://twitter.com/blanqd](https://twitter.com/blanqd) I growth hack twitter accounts. Let me know if you're interested in my services. You can see some of my work at: [http://www.twitter.com/kampheyapproved](http://www.twitter.com/kampheyapproved) and [http://www.twitter.com/sports_father](http://www.twitter.com/sports_father)

I really like the look of the game, already tweeted about it. hope you get this out there!

<comment><AUTHOR> Tweeted at you but no reply

<comment><USER5> Hey there! thanks for letting me know. DM me on Twitter and I'll spill my email (better immediate contact)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It really looks good.

As kamphey said, you can make use of twitter to get users on board, given it's a place where you'll find people actually interested in blanqd.

Friends : Just make some of your friends use it and see if they push it forward to others or not. That's a great way to start, and also validate if it will work that way or not.

Product Hunt, HN, others: Either you go to blogs directly, or you make them notice you on these websites. Have you posted it on ProductHunt yet? If not, do it and see what people have to say about it.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm not your target audience, but here are my two cents:

Initially, I had no idea what this app did, and the details are a little vague... From the sound of it, if users download the app, it all makes sense and is an awesome experience. What you need is a tested call to action that makes users want to drop everything to download the app.

There are tons of ways to find potential users, and feel free to email me at johnsonmkj at gmail if you want to talk a little more in depth, I'm happy to provide some insight.

<comment><USER8> Yes.

I know more about Google Play than the others.

You underestimate how much attention people will give you. Let's say you find the perfect user - someone who types "news game" into Google Play. Well, you don't show up for that which is one problem. Imagine if you did though. What do I see with you among the competitor apps? I see Blanqd (what does that mean?) and a big letter B.

The first sentence of your description is key. It says "Blanqd makes a game out of getting your daily news fix"

Frankly, people don't care what Blanqd does. You're presuming they do. Something like "Get your daily news fix while playing this awesome game" would be better.

A better icon might say "BLANK to City: Drop Dead" or "BLANK defeats Truman" or something like that. Maybe that would be too detailed for an icon, but a giant B isn't that great.

You care about Blanqd but other people don't. They don't care what Blanqd does, or what Blanqd wants to make a game. You should put the "BLANK to City: Drop dead" screenshots and promotional graphics up front. Don't wait to show people what it does. "Fill in the blanks - engage with your news" means nothing to me and I'm not going to wait to see what it means. Just show people up front what your app does.

Also for the app - tapping anywhere but back on the popup should move forward. Don't make people on small phone click a tiny little arrow.

<comment><AUTHOR> I feel like you are maybe saying something interesting with the "BLANK to City: Drop Dead" stuff but I'll admit I am not totally sure what exactly. Care to rephrase?

<comment><USER9> > "BLANK to City: Drop Dead"

He means fill in the blank here:

"_________ to City: Drop Dead"

Older news junkies would know the answer to be:

"Ford to City: Drop Dead"[1]

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford#Budget](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford#Budget)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This screams paid app installs for me. You'd be surprised how cheap they can be too.

Ping me if you want some free help. I run a small digital agency, and we helped take one of our clients to #1 in education for both itunes and google play store. More than happy to help out a fellow entrepreneur. :)

</comment><comment><USER11> It sounds scummy but honestly increase the price, then say it's free for the next week in honor of <insert holiday>. After that leave it free. There's a bunch of sites that advertise apps that are "temporarily free" and then a bunch of people who subscribe to those apps who want to get paid apps for free.

Also just wondering, what technologies did you use for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, nice trick. I've heard of far worse so would actually be open to experimenting.

Cordova front end, hodge podge of appropriate tools on the back end such as Python/NLTK for quiz generation and re-implemented my own "readability view" for when reading the articles.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> One thought I had was to try offering a white label version to news outlets. For example, sell a white label version to New York Times so it would be the same quizzing but just using the Times' branding, categories, and content. How the heck to get an in at a media org to do this deal is the question???

<comment><USER12> This seems like a smart way to go. You could start by looking for business development people at these publishers on LinkedIn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Maybe market it to journalists/writers. Either to novice ones (students) so they get more aware about what good article title might be. Or to the experienced ones so they become more aware how everyone else is making up titles. Analytics from other users could also be interesting for journalists.

</comment><comment><USER14> You can post your app to the Android subreddit[0] as long as your reddit account is more than 3 months old and you respond to any questions people have.

[0]: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Android](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android)

</comment><comment><USER15> Raise money as fast as you can so that you can turn around and pour money back into paid installs.

I'm not normally one to advocate raising money as the only way to do things, but the app store is ridiculously hard and you're going to need help.

</comment><comment><USER16> You can check out [https://growthhackers.com/](https://growthhackers.com/). It's individual stories of what/how they market their company and little nuggets of actionable items for you.

</comment><comment><USER17> Not really a hack, but you can try buying a few FB ads for people that like trivia games. It might be interested to add a "tweet your score" type thing or "challenge a friend" which would grow virally.

</comment><comment><USER18> A nice growth hack tip for that would be to find targeted influential instagram profiles and get them to post an image/video advert on their account.

</comment><comment><USER19> I would potentially contact NPR about this, cross-branding an on-demand mobile version of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! could be interesting.

</comment><comment><USER20> Are you interested in any feedback for the app itself? If so, where should I send it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am, for sure! Either email@example.com or inline here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Needs multiplayer and time based games.</comment>


System Security at Cornell, class notes and exercises - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs513/2007fa/02.outline.html

<comment><USER2> Too bad this has been discontinued! Would have been an awesome course to take.</comment>


Firefox OS for TV: UX Overview - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2015/04/firefox-os-for-tv-ux-overview/ <comment><USER2> While it wasn't difficult to understand what the author was trying to say, I found this post jarring to read.

Surely Mozilla have native English speakers who can at least edit their blog posts? Anything that goes out to the public affects Mozilla's reputation, and should therefore be taken seriously.

<comment><USER3> > _Surely Mozilla have native English speakers who can at least edit their > blog posts?_

Certainly, but we also try to let teams and individuals operate fairly autonomously, and I believe our open, honest humanity is one of our greatest strengths as both a global community and as a company.

Let's put this in context, though: This isn't a press release, nor is [https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/](https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/) a press channel. Rather, it's someone openly sharing the UX team's ongoing work on their team blog, much the same as you'll find at [https://blog.mozilla.org/creative/](https://blog.mozilla.org/creative/) or [https://blog.mozilla.org/services/](https://blog.mozilla.org/services/). Could Shiqi's posts have used a pass by a native English speaker? Certainly. But I'm happy to be part of an organization that shares openly at the occasional cost of mistranslations.

Plus, I'm sure the UX team will learn from this and adjust their review process accordingly. :)

<comment><USER4> I think you make some excellent points, but I'd like to share some perspective from the outside (and from someone who strongly supports Mozilla and its mission):

> Let's put this in context, though: This isn't a press release, nor is > [https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/](https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/) a press > channel.

That distinction may be well known internally, but nobody else knows or cares to learn about it; we're going to base our judgement on impressions: The page says "Mozilla UX" in big letters at top and it's on the mozilla.org domain; to me and I suspect to almost everyone else outside Mozilla, it's official Mozilla communication.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hope someone can save us from the "grid of icons" UI that pervades set-top boxes. The grid works fine for handheld/desktop applications where access is non-sequential, but when we're using just directional arrows, that's a lot of tedious button pressing.

Traditional TV service has the advantage of shortcuts by way of being able to jump to a channel directly using the number pad, but the top set-top boxes don't have that affordance because they generally lack number pads.

<comment><USER6> I feel that the grid of icons works great for the TV but the problem is the unimaginative remote control. Instead of a plastic remote with arrow buttons, a better solution is using a phone or tablet which shows a UI based on what is on the screen. You tap through apps on the phone and pick what you want to watch. Then, you hit play and it starts showing on the screen.

TVs aren't really great for interacting with - so a better approach is not to interact with them at all and do the interaction on a different, closer touch device.

<comment><USER7> > a better solution is using a phone or tablet which shows a UI based on what > is on the screen. You tap through apps on the phone and pick what you want > to watch. Then, you hit play and it starts showing on the screen.

This might be the former TV-addict in me speaking, but would you be able to change channels and adjust the volume without taking your eyes off the TV screen? Because remote controls in their present form are just perfect for that, and have been since at least 20-30 years. In other words, don't get rid of physical buttons unless you really, really need to.

<comment><USER8> You should be able to, at least volume and channel up/down; i.e. normal press of the volume keys when connected to the TV changes volume, long press changes channel. Much like how mediakeys are already implemented. Indeed, some remote apps for IRBlaster equipped Android devices support this.

That being said, I'd prefer my TV controls to be at least mostly tactile/physical. At least for the TV operations. I'd be thrilled if instead of menu arrow button hell I could just set things from my smartphone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My flat screen TV seems to pick up about a second of latency every three months, it now takes about 12 seconds to load up the programme guide. I'd really like if it had proper OS that could be updated, reinstalled, and extended, rather than something cobbled together and frozen in time. Smart TVs are basically computers so they might as well have decent operating systems.

<comment><USER6> I bought my TV just before smart TVs became popular and am dreading having to replace it, with - from what I can tell - all of the good, high end TVs now being "smart".

I really wish the trend was TVs becoming less smart, more like a monitor than a computer, especially now that TV "pucks" like Apple TV, Roku, etc are gaining popularity.

<comment><USER10> > I really wish the trend was TVs becoming less smart

How so? Ever since I switched to a Smart TV I pretty much removed all other boxes that were standing around. My Samsung solves all the problems I had separate boxes for before. The only thing that is still connected is a PS4.

<comment><USER11> Witha smart tv I have to fight that tech, and all the other tech, to get it to do the reasonably simple task of "display the image".

Let me chose the smart box I want, and be the best dumb display for that box you can be, rather than giving me a bunch of poorly engineered over-expensive cruft that I neither want nor need.

<comment><USER12> Don't you just want to buy a monitor instead of a TV then?

<comment><USER13> Yes, exactly. But that's not the way the market works these days. I want a TV- quality display (which means large, but otherwise having lower specs than the monitor on my desk), with no tuner, no speakers, just a remote control receiver and a few HDMI ports.

For some reason they keep adding stuff that I don't want to the device. And "smartness" is the worst of it. I plan to keep the display far longer than the Roku box (or whatever).

Consider: is your TV going to be able to play H.265 content when it become available? Chances are your manufacturer won't even upgrade your software - they've got a dismal record for this. But even if they do, you probably don't have the CPU power to handle it. To avoid replacing the display, you'll wind up buying a Roku or Chromecast, and (as was said up-thread) fighting the TV's UI to get to your new box.

<comment><USER14> What usually ends up happening (at least since the last time I bought a TV) is that I can't find anything simpler for the same price since a big part of the (relatively) lower cost of modern high-def televisions comes from volume in manufacturing and sales. Since most come with some token "smart" capabilities, I end up buying something regardless of (or despite) the addons.

I just use a basic home-theater-in-a-box receiver for 5.1 sound and because it has a built-in Bluray player (which I have yet to use) and like 3 or 4 HDMI inputs. So I run the cable box into one input, Chromecast into another, game console or HTPC into another, etc. and then output video from that into the TV.

So in the end, I only use my TV as a display even though it has other features built in. Having all sources go into the receiver means I can just switch inputs and audio follows video. If I want to watch Youtube or Netflix or listen to streaming music or watch something on my NAS via Plex, I use the Chromecast. If want cable TV for some weird reason, I switch to the cable box, etc.

But yeah, a large format display should last me longer than the life cycle of the "smart" capabilities or streaming services. When I bought this TV, there were several streaming sites that didn't exist yet or I didn't use. I want to be able to add or remove hardware as I need it and I want to use services that are currently valuable to me (and not have to skim past all of the integrated ones I never use or don't exist anymore).

Right now the two options I see are to use a low-powered HTPC that is still more functional than anything in a smart TV and can be upgraded, or something small and cheap like a Chromecast or extender that lets me tap into sources on my network or on the WAN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> First, I fail to see the difference with the UX of the other smart TVs.

But mostly, as it is still Firefox OS, I don't see how people will be able to do cool multimedia applications, without access to native code and threads. Implementing DLNA, SMB, AFP shares, listening to network devices, hardware decoding, perfect audio/video synchronization requires threads and probably native code.

Limiting to HTML5 videos is going to be a very light. Or they will re- implement all the media center and multimedia code themselves, supporting all codecs and formats (and subtitles)?

I could somehow understand the limitation on the phone, but on a TV, multimedia playback is the massive use case.

<comment><USER16> _Limiting to HTML5 videos is going to be a very light. Or they will re- implement all the media center and multimedia code themselves, supporting all codecs and formats (and subtitles)?_

Generally on Smart TV's the video decoding isn't handled by the browser/render, instead handled by the underlying media player and hardware decoder. Pretty much all the TVs (Samsung, LG etc) use HTML5 video with much wider support for codecs then you see in browsers. HLS/H.264 is commonly supported.

Similarly they tend to use mechanisms such as custom plugins and JavaScript interfaces for DLNA/SMB etc. Not sure why you need threads in particular, there's already a lot of JavaScript mechanisms (events, async calls) to support these types of features.

<comment><USER15> All the TVs are moving to native SDKs, in order to have good games and good multimedia apps. This is true of Samsung, Sony and LG. Games on Firefox OS are a joke.

If you want extra codecs, media players or media center, you need to write them in native.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if Mozilla is in communication with Matchstick.tv developers? [http://www.matchstick.tv/](http://www.matchstick.tv/) [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick-t...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick- the-streaming-stick-built-on-firefox-os)

Matchstick developers have gathered quite a lot of support for their croudfunding campaign, by promising an open software and hardware TV streaming stick due this February, and for a low price ($16+). Then, come February, they pissed off the vast majority of their supporters by suddenly announcing the 6-month delay in favor of things like hardware upgrade and DRM support, which none of their backers actually asked for. If it turns out that they were not in communication with Mozilla and their vision for Firefox OS TV's is incoherent with Mozilla's, then this project will truly end up a poor application of users' money and trust, bordering on a scam. Actually, a lot of supporters have lost faith in crowdfunding, and, presumably, Firefox OS, as it is; demanding their money back - not that Kickstarter supports it, after the project's been funded.

<comment><USER18> Their backers may not have asked for DRM support, but they did ask for supporting services that require DRM, such as Netflix.

I participated in the kickstarter. What I am interested in is less a physical product and more an open platform, but I suspect we won't actually be getting that.

<comment><USER19> The DRM is being implemented via EME which is a sandboxed* plugin that's invoked by the app. If you don't use it you don't get it. There is no monitoring or reaching into other parts of the app or OS. Firefox (the desktop browser) allows you to disable the EME (which also deletes the plugin). This would be expected behavior on Firefox OS as well.

You seemed to indicate that the DRM addition would make it not an open platform so though I'd share that as it still seems like a potentially positive situation.

*at least in Firefox

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Please do not include several images > 1MB in your posts. Ever thought of mobile users?

<comment><USER11> It's kind of surprising to see people at Mozilla make this mistake. They're targeting low end systems and so you'd think they are expert in image optimizing systems for all those people on limited 2g and 3g Internet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The link is now returning a "Not Found" error. Google cache link for those interested: [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fblog.mozilla.org%2Fux%2F2015%2F04%2Ffirefox- os-for-tv-ux-overview%2F)

<comment><USER22> I archived the page: [https://web.archive.org/web/20150504173515/https://blog.mozi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150504173515/https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2015/04/firefox- os-for-tv-ux-overview/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> It looks good, and don't want to shoot down the UI, but here are some suggestions:

In regard to pictures 4 and 5, Roku tried the fully horizontal menu for a while, but wasn't great. It's too limiting. Think about using a vertical left and a grid right like they do. It fits more and given the right control, works pretty well to navigate, even if it isn't the prettiest.

And, if you only do one thing, remember the rule of simplification and reduce the number of visual elements required to convey the same information. Examples...

In picture 6, you shouldn't need icons strawn about the window left, right, and bottom. All kinds of space wasted for no apparent reason.

In picture 7, just say no to the advertisement looking things in the top bar and the useless title and description at top. If you must get their attention, make them go through a screen to have full attention on your singular announcement. Don't make noise.

In picture 8, having the blue under each black and white icon is a little distracting, and the text and icons have features too small to read or recognize easily.

<comment><USER16> _Think about using a vertical left and a grid right like they do. It fits more and given the right control, works pretty well to navigate, even if it isn 't the prettiest._

While grids are nice they have a problem. They're great at navigating two dimensions but they aren't easy to get out of. Where do you put the settings and search buttons? Do I have to scroll through all the categories (like netflix does) to get to search?

Similarly how do you do subcategories?

This system actually solves both of those problems. What it lacks is information density. Something like this linking _into_ a grid could work.

Note I say this while our company that does this developed an app with this exact navigation scheme for Comcast cable boxes.

[http://adifferentengine.com/cases/sochi/](http://adifferentengine.com/cases/sochi/)

But we had a very strict set of content so we knew it would work for our use case.

<comment><USER23> > Where do you put the settings and search buttons?

My opinion:

1\. They go on the remote controller itself as magnifying glass and gear buttons, if you have that luxury. If there is no UI pointer, there is no need to provide anything else.

2\. If you have a UI pointer, icons (gear, magnifying glass) or word links (settings, search), upper-right is most intuitive but lower-right may work also.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> What's the feasibility of getting this variety of Firefox OS / B2G running directly on real hardware either now or in the near future? Ubuntu for TVs ended up being miscarried because Canonical didn't provide anything prospective hardware developers could _easily_ download, build, and deploy to prototype hardware (and end users / software developers couldn't do the same with COTS hardware), and it would be a shame if the same happened to this for the same exact reasons. It looks like there's already the ability to run it in an emulator (with some custom make flags for Gaia), which is a start, but the ability to, say, pack this into an ISO or USB image and boot it on an ordinary HTPC would make for a really compelling home media platform and probably drive implementation rather significantly (rather unlike what happened to the TV variant of Ubuntu).

</comment><comment><USER25> First person to use a Duck Hunt zapper to control the UI wins a cookie.

Its an annoyance to repeatedly use arrow keys on remotes.

<comment><USER26> NES controller input has been part of the Linux kernel since at least 2000 (thanks to Vojtech Pavlik of SuSE), so most of the heavy lifting is already completed. Input was originally added (according to the mailing list) to support the NES Power Glove as a mouse input.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The UI is (almost) just like any other on a Smart TV. Okay. Strikes me as somewhat unimaginative.

Also, the Dashboard is a separate app. Like, um, in a car, right? Just like the radio and temperature controls are away from the user, so they have to look away from the road (their focus) to access it, right? Right.

What this UX actually needs, instead of being an app menu that can access TV or whatever, is TV-centric design. It needs a focus. Provide a viewport that apps can draw to, and allow switching of apps without having to "look away" from the content.

Folder tabs? Search? (Please don't add a) favorites menu? They're all acceptable ways to provide apps to users, but this is none of them.

You must be forgetting that most people use TVs for the video content. I'm not saying "oh, get rid of YouTube and Netflix," I'm saying "constrain yourself to video output because no one really cares about the web on a TV box." Yeah, cool, you can go to webpages that have totally broken design and are totally illegible on TV (hi, HN!). I mean, an RSS reader makes sense, because then the TV (and thus, the user) has control of how the content's displayed. But "FF on TV" sounds like a really bad idea to me, because the Web sucks on anything that isn't a computer.

> The usage of applications on smart TV is getting huge, and it needs an re- > framing of the UI structure to make the application as important as TV > channels, and as input sources.

No, it isn't. No, it doesn't. Unless you mean you're going to make my Netflix another channel just like Fox News, which would be pretty nice. But that differs in the fact that Netflix is a video focused application that acts a lot like a channel or something. But that means you had better add a unified UI for video playback. Netflix and YouTube and everything should share the same UI widgets.

A dashboard that can be activated on command is cute and can possibly be a good idea. Like, maybe show it for a moment during that period where the TV is adjusting to a new signal or something to allow the user to peek at it by default so they can see alerts ("hey, Hillary Clinton's running for Pres! I need to pull up the CNN Channel!"), and then allow them to later press a button to show a dashboard that doesn't force them out of their content. But if you push them out of the content, the illusion is broken. It's no longer a TV, it's a computer. A big, complicated computer, with lots of little nodes in its huge and complex menu. And only us nerds want that, because us nerds like intricate and complex things. (there's nothing wrong with catering to nerds, but I don't think that this is supposed to be directed towards them, because they could just as easily grab a Raspberry Pi and load up XBMC on it without having to invent their own new flavor of Linux)

PS: adding a focus means your UI will be necessarily shallow. It will force you to get creative when you want to get complex in writing a good UI. Snapchat, for example, has a focus on the camera. Swipe from the left, you get your incoming Snaps. Swipe from the right, you get your Stories. Swipe from the top to see stuff about you and your settings. And that's the extent to which anyone uses Snapchat.

<comment><USER13> I agree that this is disappointingly unimaginative.

 _Unless you mean you 're going to make my Netflix another channel just like Fox News, which would be pretty nice. But that differs in the fact that Netflix is a video focused application that acts a lot like a channel or something. But that means you had better add a unified UI for video playback. Netflix and YouTube and everything should share the same UI widgets._

I think that's a big part of it. The distinct between "channels" and "apps" is artificial. On my Roku, most of the "channels" can be interacted with in at least some way, making it difficult to draw a line.

Most channels on Roku are offering on-demand features, and you interact with the channel to locate a feature. The Weather Underground channel has controls allowing search for locations, and viewing maps and radar. Some really big things, like Tablo, include features for programming recording; and Plex is pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.

I think if they saw that the apps/channels distinction is artificial, the rest of the design would collapse into a bunch of irrelevancies, and they'd be forced to confront the question for real.</comment></comment>


2,000-year-old roads predict modern-day prosperity - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/06/how-year-old-roads-predict-modern-day-prosperity <comment><USER2> The original (academic) source, with more images and analyses, is available at [http://web.econ.ku.dk/pabloselaya/papers/RomanRoads.pdf](http://web.econ.ku.dk/pabloselaya/papers/RomanRoads.pdf)</comment>


LSD Microdosing - <AUTHOR> http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/how-lsd-microdosing-became-the-hot-new-business-trip-20151120 <comment><USER3> The Reply All podcast had a pretty interesting episode on this recently: [https://gimletmedia.com/episode/44-shine-on-you-crazy- goldma...](https://gimletmedia.com/episode/44-shine-on-you-crazy-goldman/)

<comment><USER4> @gwern has done self-experimentation with LSD microdosing.

[http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing](http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love Acid and have taken the occasional microdose myself but I cannot support the authors attitude. The benefits described can all be achieved through meditation and single real doses of LSD, but after all it is merely a chemical shortcut to these higher states of conciousness where your mind loses its grip on you and you gain uninterrupted access to insight and creativity. Microdosing acid every fourth day is neither necessary nor very healthy, I assume, since there's a chemical component involved that acts on several neurotransmitter systems. The solution is already within everyone of us..

<comment><USER6> There is no evidence that LSD is toxic to humans. It is, physically, one of the safest drugs you can take. Mentally is a different story, but at micro doses, you're hardly feeling the normal psychedelic effects that occur at recreational doses, so there's hardly potential for "bad trips". I'm guessing that micro dosing is perfectly healthy.

The only problems are A) knowing what you're taking is LSD and B) knowing what dose you're taking, as you're dealing with an active dose of millionths of grams.

<comment><USER5> I am not talking about toxicity or bad trips, I am talking about your neurotransmitter systems. Permanent exposure to chemically altered levels and heavy fluctuations can and will change in you very negative ways and cause tons of problems nevermind the dose. I speak from experience.

<comment><USER7> I took average-to-high doses of LSD and/or other tryptamines nearly every day for 3-4 months. It did make me less able to function in my circumstances at the time (surprise surprise!), but I don't count the experience as negative overall, and given a different set of circumstances with fewer obligations to meet, it could have been wholly positive.

<comment><USER8> Jesus! Daily doses for months? How long ago? What do you mean by 'less able to function'? Any long-lasting effects?

<comment><USER7> It was 22 at the time, so about 5 years ago. As far as my mental state, it's hard to say what was from what, since I consumed a lot of marijuana and cocaine at the time too, but I did have psychedelic-like visual distortions that persisted for many months after. Tryptamine tolerance builds very quickly so by the end I was taking a lot.

It was not the happiest time of my life, but not the worst either. I became pretty reclusive, and spent of lot of late, late nights walking around Minneapolis, sitting on the Stone Arch Bridge[1], watching insane late-night American TV / infomercials / televangelists, playing the guitar, and reading Hacker News. I maintained or even strengthened my interests in technology, but probably absorbed very little concrete knowledge at the time.

By less able to function, I mean I would've been utterly useless to an employer, or as a student, etc. I wouldn't have had the focus to complete any sort of complex project, software or otherwise. I did, however, manage to make some money ;)

So while I was not terribly productive, it did (I think) make me a more empathetic, positive, and less materialistic person and pushed me to make decisions that were ultimately very positive, like selling most of my stuff and moving to Cambodia! Still, I wouldn't recommend it and no doubt some of my behaviour could have incurred terrible legal consequences. My parents were definitely worried too.

[1] [http://www.waynemoran.com/blog2/wp- content/uploads/2011/11/s...](http://www.waynemoran.com/blog2/wp- content/uploads/2011/11/sab_007sm.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> LSD was by far my favorite mind altering substance when I was taking everything under the sun at around age 18. I dosed heavily and had life changing experiences (some for the better, others that were deeply troubling), but one of the most stand-out experiences was when I took the advice of a friend and used it not to get high but to "figure out important questions." I took a very small dose, barely enough to qualify for what I typically considered a legitimate trip, and sat in the country for several hours thinking about what I wanted out of life. It was just enough to change my way of thinking enough to get outside my usual process and ended up being one of the most productive sessions of deep meditation of my life. I don't know that I would endorse doing this on a regular basis, or especially in a professional environment, but I definitely agree that a carefully moderated experience can be just right to help shift paradigms without losing touch with reality.

</comment><comment><USER10> Some interesting related reading: [http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing](http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing)

</comment><comment><USER11> One of the first experiences that i had was accidentally micro-dosing, i only come to realize the now. Reflecting on it, it was more pleasant then full doses that occurred after. It was as if I was seeing familiar things for the first time. However i feel that some of the most meaningful photographs I've taken have been during trips.

</comment><comment><USER12> Also relevant is this great interview:

[http://matrixmasters.net/salon/index.php/2006/06/27/podcast-...](http://matrixmasters.net/salon/index.php/2006/06/27/podcast-042-using- psychedelics-for-rational-work/)

</comment><comment><USER13> How does one manage to get/make a 10 micrograms dose without professional help? Or even with for that matter?

<comment><USER14> With professional help/equipment you can either:

* Get the blotters/microdots lab tested so you know dosage per blotter, then volumetric dosing. This is relatively easy/accesible although not very convenient.

* If access to crystal and equipment is possible, you can just weight it. Obviously this is rarely a possibility and LSD crystal needs to be handled with care.

People suggesting volumetric dosing at home are simply clueless, "100ug" blotters are almost never ~100ug.

<comment><USER13> It's mostly blotters and liquid drops here. How would one go about volumetric dosing with a blotter? if it's in liquid form, I'm guessing it's already in some volumetric dosing (I keep using it but not sure what it means - <USER2> its diluted dosing) - so i just need to check it's in the right amount?

I actually have Fadiman's book but didn't get to the part of micro dosing - was more interested in the full trips guidance, but I remember being very intrigued by micro dosing.

Lab tested you say... not convenient as in I can't just go to a lab and tell them "hey I need to be trippin so can you check these blotters"?

<comment><USER14> > How would one go about volumetric dosing with a blotter?

Dissolve in alcohol, avoid water like others suggested. You can't calculate micrograms if the blotter dosage is unknown, lab testing is needed for that.

> if it's in liquid form, I'm guessing it's already in some volumetric dosing

Yes, just take a smaller dose then.

> Lab tested you say... not convenient as in I can't just go to a lab and tell > them "hey I need to be trippin so can you check these blotters"?

Here in my country I can... this kind of services are available for free in some European countries.

Energy Control in Spain provides this to foreigners for a relatively small fee. You can contact them at: international AT energycontrol.org

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> LSD can kill:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and- order/1198604...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and- order/11986043/Nick-Caves-son-Arthur-took-LSD-before-falling-to-death-at- Ovingdean-Gap.html)

[http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/11/11/coroner-...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/11/11/coroner- nick-caves-teen-son-took-lsd-before-death-cliff-fall/75571696/)

[http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/10/nick-caves- son-...](http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/10/nick-caves-son-died- from-fall-after-taking-lsd-inquest-hears)

<comment><USER16> So can alcohol, but countless offices have beer fridges.

And, relevantly for an article on microdosing, so can _anything_ at high doses, including water (e.g., Jennifer Strange) and oxygen (e.g., Apollo 1).

<comment><USER17> It wasn't the oxygen that killed the Apollo 1 astronauts, it was the fire. Oxygen can be toxic at high pressures (which is why deep divers use a mix with helium replacing some of the oxygen) but AIUI breathing 100% oxygen at ordinary atmospheric pressure is fine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> this. is. dumb.</comment>


The 1987 Max Headroom Pirating Incident - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion_incident

<comment><USER2> This is just a cut and paste job from wikipedia. The whole site is spam/stolen content, as far as I can tell.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_i...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion_incident)

<comment><USER3> Though there may be other things wrong with it, given Wikipedia's Creative Commons-Share Alike license, it's certainly not _stolen_ content.

It certainly does make me think about alternative ways of presenting Wikipedia that are more interesting.

<comment><USER4> As there's no apparent attribution, the content is being used in violation of the Wikipedia license.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If I was going to buy some air time via Google TV to promote my Chicago news aggregator, this is what I'd do.

</comment><comment><USER6> Although it's fake, the Wyoming incident is pretty interesting:

(Possibly NSFW and a little creepy) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBHkW0aKHRc>

It's like an internet campfire ghost story about a hijacked broadcast.</comment>


The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/wills-newsletter/wills-newsletter-2-don-t-be-evil-3918b91fcf82?2 <comment><USER2> I'm genuinely unsure how I feel about this article.

First, the internet itself is only in danger if net neutrality is genuinely threatened by ISPs. Until then, the network itself is as open as it ever was.

As for the services on top, the meta-layer of products and infrastructure we rely on--social media, content sources, smartphones and smart devices, etc-- there's a lot of reason to be concerned.

But Amazon's marketshare is tiny compared to traditional retailers. They're growing, sure, but they're not a monopoly yet.

Apple is already being beaten on many fronts, smartphones included.

Google is successful in a few areas (search, email, android), but they've proven incapable of pushing into other major areas (streaming services, social, etc).

And Facebook also has basically one core competency.

So, there's lots of reasons to be concerned. But this article feels more than a little hyperbolic.

And as a random aside, modern theories suggest that pyramid builders were paid employees and not slaves.

<comment> jon-wood > Google is successful in a few areas ..., but they've proven incapable of > pushing into other major areas (streaming services...

Are we talking about the same Google here? The one that owns YouTube, which created an entire culture around video streaming online?

<comment><USER3> The writers seem to be solid Apple fans and exaggerate their influence. With billions in free marketing from every media site on the planet, Apple would be pretty much irrelevant already.

<comment><USER4> Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

<comment><USER3> ... and you don't think all the free marketing is a large part of that? It's a little quieter lately, but they have a huge fan-base in the media world due to them using Apple kit for both audio and video editing for years. How many other phone manufacturers get multiple articles in the news when a new model is released?

<comment><USER5> _... and you don 't think all the free marketing is a large part of that?_

Ummm, no. It is people who are willing to pay more for the extra service, strong integration, and a business model that does not build on pushing advertising.

I pay the premium for a MacBook every 1 1/2 year or so, because if there is a problem, I can go to the Apple store and they'll typically have it fixed in two hours, no questions asked. I had a two-year leave to Android, but after the excruciating experience having to deal with Motorola twice, I'd rather pay a bit more.

Besides that, Apple hardware and software is typically extremely well integrated. E.g. I have a HiDPI screen, on the Mac it works without a problem. On e.g. Linux I had to hand-patch Mutter to get proper scaling and even then a lot of applications used the wrong scaling or UI elements are blown up and blurry.

Finally, let's also not forget that Apple is typically a company that pushes new technology first in an integrated fashion. E.g. a fingerprint reader that is not a toy and works across apps, 120Hz refresh rate on the iPad Pro, force touch.

tl;dr: people drop money on Apple because their product generally work great and they provide excellent service.

<comment><USER2> So, I built a Hackintosh recently, and in researching software recommendations, one thing stood out: even die-hard Apple fans had to admit that PCs were catching up (or, maybe more honestly, in a lot of ways Apple is losing momentum).

Windows 10 has come a _long_ way from its roots. Windows laptops are getting remarkably good (the latest line of Dell and HP laptops are excellent, and Lenovo always stands out). And the smartphone gap has been rapidly closing for years, both the hardware and software. I think you can lay this at the feet of Apple elevating customer expectations.

Meanwhile, Apple hardware refreshes have been lackluster at best, particularly in the pro category. The OS doesn't feel like it has the edge it once had. And top notch software exclusives are increasingly rare as software goes cross platform or moves to the web.

Now, by all accounts Apple's support is still some of the best in the business. And the overall platform integration across devices is excellent. So a lot of the benefits you cite are still present.

But you have to wonder how long that'll last...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Fun experiment to try out on your computer and experience the gradual death of the internet: block all domains and subdomains from Google and Facebook in your `/etc/hosts` file, and see how many other websites fail to function.

I've had this enabled for 6 months and I've seen websites stopped working as they should, e.g.:

\- I couldn't reset my password in Twitch, it required (for some reason) access to both Facebook and Google servers. I had to temporarily disable the `/etc/hosts` restrictions

\- National Geographic site fetches jQuery from Google and the website is unusable

\- No more embedded Google Maps on many small websites (like local restaurants etc)

\- Say bye to embedded YouTube videos

\- Many small websites just display in blank

\- Other websites have default ugly fonts but are still usable

So Google and Facebook's reach is not just related to direct visits to their sites. Essentially, without them, it's a very crippled internet. The one site that works great is Wikipedia, even its videos are self hosted.

<comment><USER7> Analyzing how websites work without Google or Facebook given that they were designed with the availability of those in mind is pointless. To truly see what it would be like without Google or Facebook we'd have to test how websites work without Google or Facebook given that they were designed _without_ the availability of those in mind.

The saying "if things were different, things would be different" comes to mind.

<comment><USER6> It's not about how websites depend on Google or Facebook being _available_. It's about the leverage Google and Facebook gain over you through _data collection_ once they are nearly omnipresent on the web, and the growing inability of opting-out from those two tech giants without crippling your basic web experience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What I think is potentially more interesting is the anti-consumer behaviors of Amazon in what I call the Amazon/Google cold war over video:

\- Amazon not allowing the sale of chromecast

\- Amazon keeping its instant video app off generic android TV devices for a long time, even though they had an app that worked with the Sony android TV.

\- Amazon using its instant video app as a trojan horse to get you to install the Amazon app store on your Android phone. (and weakening your phone's security, due to having to "allow unknown sources"

<comment><USER9> > Amazon using its instant video app as a trojan horse

Google requires Play Services to be installed and enabled in order to allow Chromecast, which is why no Google apps are on Amazon Fire devices. If anything Amazon's approach is less intrusive since it's just one extra app (unless they also install services).

<comment><USER8> The problem with both is that you have to allow unknown sources. It would be nice (on Google's part) to allow multiple app store certs, so you (as the consumer) could decide which app stores to trust & the OS could maintain some level of security based on the users prefs. As it is now, you need to open your phone up to potential malware to install another app store.

What I just don't get is why Amazon are trying to force people to get their video app via their app store, rather than putting it in Google play (where it is apparently available, but just for non-US regions). Is Google trying to take a cut of in-app transactions, like Apple does?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Facebook's algorithmic echo chamber got Trump elected.

The article he references talks extensively about how the campaign effectively used social media for fundraising and advertising instead of tv, not echo chambers for brainwashing people. After all this time people still can't admit that echo chambers are what propped up Clinton in every media outlet and poll.

</comment><comment><USER11> I wish we stop the perpetuation of dumb metaphors and analogies. It does nobody any good.

<comment> aaron-lebo What is the dumb metaphor/analogy and why?

<comment><USER12> Calling Apple the genitals because they're a luxury brand?

As soon as I saw that graphic I knew what quality of article I was in for.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, that was pretty tenuous. And assertion that women buy Apple products to deter "romantic rivals from poaching [their] relationship partner" seems almost ridiculous.

I would say that iPhones and MacBooks are almost mass-market these days. Sure, they are more expensive than the alternatives, but they are so ubiquitous that can't really be considered status symbols anymore, can they?

<comment><USER14> Go to a public university or high school and count the MacBooks you see.

<comment><USER15> Or the number of apple earbuds and airpods. Those white buds are ubiquitous. And where they are lacking, Apple's other property - Beats - steps in.

<comment><USER11> I can tell you from my experience as somebody that never liked Apple products, those Apple earbuds are popular because they are cheap and good, having an insane quality/price ratio.

I have an Android phone right now, but I'm using Apple earbuds, even though the volume controls don't work.

<comment><USER12> That's nice to hear.

As someone using AirPods right now... they're AMAZING. The 'magic' pairing is nice but it doesn't go as far as I hoped.

However as Bluetooth headphones they're so tiny it's easy to always carry them. They're a cinch to charge. They sound great (for their size) and now I always carry them with me. Music? Podcasts? Videos? Way more than good-enough.

Just fantastic little things. Shame they're STILL 6 weeks behind demand. They must be REALLY hard to make if Apple hasn't sorted it out after all this time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I always wonder why the whole "facebook internet" isn't brought up more by pro net-neutrality folks. I think there's only one article that's been written about a particularly worrisome consequence it has as well [1].

While I think it'd take a very long time for Americans to actually be convinced of this, the reason why this is happening (because facebook might as well be THE internet for these users) is a lot more worrisome. Particularly when Mark himself is running soon.

(1)[https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no- id...](https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre- using-the-internet/)

</comment><comment><USER17> There's an effect here that this article doesn't mention and that most don't mention.

Large scale innovation happens in one of two ways: a strong industry leader, or via government. The latter is relatively rare because government is necessarily usually more conservative; the former happens more easily, especially because industry leaders often are either formed or maintained because a private venture was able to move fast enough to develop a technology in a way that has large societal implications.

The side effect, though, is that people who work at those private industries that have innovated and developer something new (which may or may not have short term deleterious effects) eventually leave and either diffuse their knowledge or start their own ventures. When this happens, as time passes, many other new ventures - which can often have an effect directly opposite to said deleterious effects, or otherwise have positive effects - spring up and take hold. And that's a net positive.

There are people who worked at (or currently work at and will leave) Google and Facebook, advertising companies that have disproportionately much power, but will use the knowledge they gained from those places to put into effects efforts that they might not have known how to otherwise and that may make the world better, long term.

Articles like the one posted here are passionate and persuasive, but they also focus on the short term (if not solely the present); it is worthwhile to remember these sorts of long term effects.

</comment><comment><USER18> I honestly find it very easy to not use any of their services. They all have quality competitors.

<comment><USER19> The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary.

<comment><USER20> > The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary.

Minority, in fact. You're wildly exaggerating, as is the article.

Half of Facebook's monthly actives barely use the core social network service. That leaves a billion people or so. There are 7.x billion people on the planet. Your majority premise just collapsed.

Google has about 1/3 of global adults as users, with varying frequency. Gmail as an example, has a small share of global email. Again, minority.

Amazon is still a trivial ecommerce presence outside of the US, as a whole and in relation to the number of adults shopping on their service versus the total number of people on earth.

And Apple? Their reach, like the others, is dramatically less than the "majority of humans." Apple reaches a billion people.

<comment><USER21> Please. Don't be a pedant, you're not advancing any meaningful points. It should be obvious that in the context of this discussion, we are talking about the developed Western world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> In case you want to shorten the title in similar situations ("The GAFA War"):

FAMGA - Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon

GAFA - Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple

FANG - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google

<comment><USER23> Personally I'd keep Microsoft included, they're killing it with services now. Especially amongst enterprise consumers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> If your are a coder, I'd say: Split your money between those four giants and get back to code [1].

[1] [https://goo.gl/TjDviU](https://goo.gl/TjDviU)

</comment><comment><USER25> Network externalities (product's value to a consumer changes as the number of users of the product changes) are so incredibly strong that few monopoly powers and eventual market failure is inevitability.

If you could run multiple parallel universes starting from early 90's, you would end with just handful of companies dominating the markets and using one service or product to leverage to other areas in almost all of them. Just the names of the companies would change.

0014749879

</comment><comment><USER26> The ironic part is that the real "gatekeepers of the internet" are the cable companies, but they can't take advantage of it.

<comment><USER27> What technological innovations have the cable companies led in the past 20 years to avoid becoming commodities?

<comment><USER26> What improvements has Facebook made over Myspace? And do these justify the billions in valuation?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> > Your iPhone signals you're wealthier, better-educated, and more attractive > than an Android user.

The "status" argument is a bit silly. An iPhone costs about the same as a dog annually, [1].

[1] [https://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-980&y=-2276&z=5](https://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-980&y=-2276&z=5)

<comment><USER28> The "status" argument is the least silly thing in that statement.

<comment><USER26> Good point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This article is like scaremongering, partly about how Google and Facebook are selling ads but interlaced with "SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER!", all the same. Some posts can be so ironical.

</comment><comment><USER30> Only one mention of Microsoft. They're eating the software world, and have one of the best data platforms.</comment>


I want build Email service Website Like Gmail / Hotmail / Yahoo (for $500-$1000) - <AUTHOR> https://www.elance.com/j/gmail-like-email-service-website/38955940/ <comment><USER3> Just because you're not in a cubicle doesn't mean that you've escaped the Dilbert comic strip.

Now that the shutdown of Google Reader is in the news, about two weeks ago, someone posted an offer on Elance for a website with a few RSS feeds posted to it. When I made a proposal asking for details, I got an e-mail essentially asking for Google Reader but with a snazzier user interface. Yup, the asking price was "less than $500."

I sent an e-mail in reply pointing this out as diplomatically as I could. A few days later, I got an e-mail saying that the project had been canceled.

It saddens and enrages me to ponder how many people either have so little respect for programmers or so much ignorance of programming that they think that they can get away with this. Would these people try the same thing with lawyers? Or even plumbers?

<comment><USER4> > Would these people try the same thing with lawyers? Or even plumbers?

I'm sure that lawyers and plumbers field questions from people who don't understand what they cost all the time. It's part of doing business.

<comment><USER5> Exactly. Developers really get their panties in a wad over this. Get over yourselves.

<comment><USER3> I did not downvote you, nor do I think that you should have been downvoted. Sure, perhaps plumbers and lawyers get unreasonable price requests as much as programmers. Sadly, getting panties in a wad over this — in one way or another — is the only way to keep wages up. If we are not for ourselves, then who will be?

<comment><USER6> I feel like this happens much less often for lawyers. I never heard of someone say "let's hire a lawyer, it'll cost almost nothing". It's always the exact opposite. People assume a lawyer is going to be really expensive because they are.

Everyone seems to always know their uncle's friend's nephew's brother who makes web sites for $100 so they assume a 2 page static site of horribad quality will cost the same as anything else.

<comment><USER4> I guess that makes sense. Could this be because lawyers artificially limit their supply, so all lawyers are expensive?

On the other hand, programmers do not. There exist programmers who are cheap.

<comment><USER6> I don't think they artificially limit their supply. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure you need to pass a fairly difficult exam and maybe need some formal schooling?

That's going to cut down on the supply of lawyers.

Programming can also be done remotely. Having someone working in India where the cost of living for them might be 50x less than NYC is going to result in them working for a cheaper price than a programmer in NYC.

You can't really hire a plumber or lawyer from another country and expect them to be able to do their job remotely too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm willing to pay someone up to $10-15 to rebuild the transmission on my car, but I need it by this afternoon. It also needs to be converted from manual to automatic in the process. Provide your own parts.

</comment><comment><USER8> Why not just install Roundcube[1] on top of your preferred MTA? It's free and it's going to be more polished than any $500 bespoke project.

[1] <http://roundcube.net/>

<comment><USER9> For $500 one could easily install roundcube, add some branding to the default skin, and still have some budget left for ramp-up support or doing some additional tweaks.

From this point of view, the project and budget is actually quite reasonable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Setup mail server, install roundcube. Done.

<comment><USER11> I was about to post this exact same thing. It actually would be quite easy to do.

<comment><USER12> Don't forget the hosting costs of like, uh, $15 for three months. $985 profit in 1 hour!

<comment><USER13> Don't forget taxes either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> 1.) Set up google apps account. 2.) Turn on a custom skin. 3.) Profit?

<comment><USER15> Now that is agile.

<comment><USER16> MVP

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Funny how we ridicule freelance sites like elance and their seemingly ingnorant project requests and race to the bottom pricing model yet celebrate low budget - super fast development feats of engineering like [http://blog.zite.com/2013/03/14/google-reader-is-dead-so- we-...](http://blog.zite.com/2013/03/14/google-reader-is-dead-so-we-rebuilt- it-for-you-in-zite-in-six-hours/)

<comment><USER18> I'm not sure that's fair because zite obviously already had some degree of integration with Google Reader, and an elegantly enough built back-end to speed further integration (admittedly, I don't know the specifics).

As a side note: I'm not a user of zite, feedly (sp?), or flipboard, and I can't stand these magazine-like interfaces. It seems to me, people that want that sort of interface never want to see the RSS acronym, nor know what it is/ how it works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is no exception. elance, freelancer, odesk are full of such projects. And he will get a lot of bids, someone will even be ready to do it for $100! There are lots of people out there who think building and running a web service like email or social network or even a search engine is a piece of cake!

With news of one year old startups getting acquired for billions Everybody wants to be a web entrepreneur. :) During my freelancing days I have seen a lot of such requests, and they never actually get awarded because someone sensible will write a comment saying you can't build such a service for that amount and that the front end they see is just the tip of the iceberg and there are costs involved in running the servers and getting users and all.

But there are some who go ahead and in fact at places like scriptcopy.com you will find clone scripts for almost anything - Facebook, eBay, Hotmail. I have seen someone selling Yahoo clone script for $20! Some even provide hosting. Go figure!

</comment><comment><USER20> According to the way my boss thinks, I'm sure this wouldn't take me more than a week.

<comment><USER21> Pfft. I could knock this out in a weekend, maybe an all-nighter if I make some really strong coffee.

<comment><USER22> pop some modafinil, you'll be done in 4 hours if your genetics are conducive to the drug...

<comment><USER23> geez..you don't really take such drugs, do you? Have you ever tried turkish coffee? A friend of mine is a coffee junkie, but he got a racing heart and felt immensly active after one cup. Something he never felt before and we coded until 4 in the Morning :) hehe However he'll stick to less coffeinated drinks in the future.

Even coffeeine should be used in limited dosasges. So, please don't recommend drugs anymore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Why is this news? These kinds of postings have been on Elance / RentACoder/ Guru.com / etc since 2000, when I first started looking at those sites. Many of which are probably more outlandish than this.

</comment><comment><USER25> For those who are now pondering a weekend project...

<http://twitter.github.com/flight/demo/>

</comment><comment><USER26> If they're going to pay $500 for it, give them $500 worth of work. Let's see, if you bill $150/hour, then that's 3 full hours. 3 full hours, assuming you type 120 wpm, with 10 minute breaks per hour, that's 18KB.

As stupid as what I described is, I bet it would appeal to the people who think you can clone something like that for $500. Scope is everything!

</comment><comment><USER27> Looks ridiculous at first glance...and the more I think about it - the more ridiculous it looks to me...

</comment><comment><USER28> Just ask this guy to send across a requirement document/ wireframes. Nip it in the bud I say :-D

</comment><comment><USER29> Freelancer websites are full of things like this. "ebay clone with all features" etc.

Problem is, how does one define "all features". Does it mean all the obvious features, like the ability to list an item and have people buy/bid on it.

Or do they want an actual replica of ebay complete with all the anti-fraud stuff that ebay must have and all of the seller account controls etc?

Obviously there's a huge difference between the two, but you won't get much more detail from them than "I just want all the features, should be simple".

So yes, you can probably make an "ebay clone" in a day or two, but what happens if they refuse to pay because it doesn't have some advanced feature that ebay does?

</comment><comment><USER30> See also <https://www.elance.com/j/website-like-amazon/37294947/> ("I want a website like Amazon for $1000"), submitted to news.ycombinator on 14 Feb.

</comment><comment><USER31> >Project Will Given to who post complete structure details + resume

I don't know what 'complete structure details' even means but I assume it means something they could toss to another developer for the excuse of paying them less and the schmucks who apply nothing at all. I've already made the mistake of completing a "test" of putting together a couple of email templates for a job that then magically never materialized after I was "awarded" it.

I will point you to my github and linkedin profile, but you're not getting free work.

</comment><comment><USER32> There are plenty of projects like these on freelance websites; They either end up being a low quality clone with fewer features than the original, or never get funded to begin with.

</comment><comment><USER33> Is it really THAT unreasonable ? Throw some random open source mail server and web interface, customize et voilà!

<comment><USER34> Roundcube would probably do the job. The problem is what if the guy says "but this doesn't have feature X that gmail has, add it or I won't pay you."

If you could change the spec to be "install roundcube" then maybe it wouldn't be such a bad deal, but then you're essentially doing the most important part of the work (telling him _how_ to get what he wants) for free.

<comment><USER35> And this will happen. Usually such projects get half-done and half-paid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> To be fair, we don't know the expected use and it says to state the features to be included. If you throw in non US labor rates, you _might_ get something useful. Admittedly, I'm reaching.

This is why I don't look for work on these sites. I'm literally better off just sitting here waiting for the phone to ring.

</comment><comment><USER37> There's a nonzero chance that this is a honeypot designed to draw out the bots or incompetent devs.

<comment><USER36> If so then Elance is 90% honeypots.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I am reminded of the questions I see posted on Quora with some regularity - <USER2> many that show a staggering ignorance of the most basic systems fundamentals, coming from people claiming to be professionals.

</comment><comment><USER39> Give the job to this guy: [http://fiverr.com/farooqahmed/develop-website-for- you-in-htm...](http://fiverr.com/farooqahmed/develop-website-for-you-in- htmlcss-on-your-instructions)

<comment><USER40> He sure doesn't look like a native of Pakistan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> How many users are you expecting?

</comment><comment><USER42> Looks ridiculous at first glance but that's actually not unreasonable.

The value in Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo is first and foremost their users. Next is the technical infrastructure to support all of those users. The front-end website and basic functionality of sending and receiving emails isn't that hard of a technical problem.

Given the level of intelligence this guy appears to have, an Indian PHP dev on elance who charges $10 an hour could probably build something in 50-100 hours that would support far more users than this guy would ever be able to attract and they would both be happy with the transaction.

<comment><USER43> > an indian PHP dev on elance who charges $10 an hour

Stereotyping much?

<comment><USER44> If I post a job to one of these sites, it's pretty much guaranteed to get 20+ responses from devs in India. Most are pre-written responses that don't really show that the project was read in any sort of detail.

I'd actually be curious to find out how these operations actually work. Are they solo devs just casting a massive net ? Solo devs actually outsourcing responding to gigs? Agencies applying for as many jobs as possible and subcontracting them out or having employees on staff to do the work?

<comment><USER36> I think they're just cheap and aggressive companies. I had one calling me daily trying to "partner". I had to yell at him to get him to stop.

What I don't get is why some of these guys don't approach business like their US counterparts and charge US rates. They could live like kings in some areas of the world. Maybe that's easier said than done. But even the good ones seem to compete on price.

<comment><USER42> Ya I don't get that either. It's a race to the bottom. I mean I love finding diamonds in the rough that don't know what they're worth. I have a guy who does Rails jobs for me, used to work for Microsoft, went to a top Indian technical college, speaks perfect english and is really, really good - and he charges me $25 an hour. He could easily be charging $100+/hr if he just marketed himself to different clients (i.e. not on elance).

I guess it's the opposite of what's going on in San Francisco where anybody with a CS degree or equivalent experience expects six figures. There they all expect very little and are happy to get a bit more than the guys hustling hard for $10/hour.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Here's How You Can Learn to Build DIY Robots and LED Cubes - <AUTHOR> http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/learn-to-build-diy-robots-led-cubes <comment><AUTHOR> I got feedback on this idea initially from the arduino subreddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/397ewc/what_do_you...](https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/397ewc/what_do_you_think_of_monthly_kits_for_learning/)

After the Kickstarter launch, I posted an update: [https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40gxhu/update_what...](https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40gxhu/update_what_do_you_think_of_monthly_kits_for/)

Direct link to imgur album used for that update: [http://imgur.com/a/r4UAl](http://imgur.com/a/r4UAl)

Our website: [http://www.thimble.io](http://www.thimble.io) (landing page) Our kickstarter: [http://www.thimble.io/kickstarter](http://www.thimble.io/kickstarter)</comment>


Native wrapper for webapps on OSX? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking for a webapp wrapper for OSX, kind of like PhoneGap, but for OSX not iOS. But there seems to be...nothing. Apache Cordova has a flashy website, but not very much information on what it can do or how to use it - and when I downloaded the bundle, read the readme.md, got sent back to a URL[1], OSX wasn't listed.<p>[1] http://docs.cordova.io/guide_getting-started_index.md.html <comment><USER2> Although not a complete "wrapper" it is very interesting:

Node Webkit: <https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit>

Features:

Apps written in modern HTML5, CSS3, JS and WebGL.

Complete support for Node.js APIs and all its third party modules.

Good performance: Node and WebKit runs in the same thread: Function calls are made straightforward; objects are in the same heap and can just reference each other;

Easy to package and distribute apps.

Available on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows

</comment><comment><USER3> If by "webapp wrapper" you actually mean a site-specific browser, there's Fluid: <http://fluidapp.com/>

Or, if you mean an SDK or framework for writing a native app using web technologies, I know of a few:

TideSDK: <http://www.tidesdk.org/>

AppJS, if you're not opposed to Node.js: <http://appjs.org>

Awesomium: <http://awesomium.com/>

</comment><comment> jarek-foksa I would stay away from frameworks that expose native APIs to JavaScript. Always use the best tool to do the job. Features such as dock integration, window management, main menu or filesystem access can be implemented in Obj-C/Cocoa with ~500 lines of code.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://www.tidesdk.org/>

</comment><comment><USER5> <https://github.com/maccman/macgap>

</comment><comment><USER6> Chrome can do this, right click chrome apps and select open as window.</comment>


Track OS X Users Remotely Using IPv6 Device Fingerprinting - <AUTHOR> https://www.danieldent.com/blog/remote-ipv6-device-fingerprinting/ <comment><USER2> Does anyone know if Windows is affected by this?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't have a IPv6 connected Windows machine handy at the moment to check, here's one way you could get an idea: take a look at ipconfig. Look through the list of IP adresses. If there's an address with ff:fe in the middle of the last half of the IP address, that's a sign Windows may have the same issue.</comment></comment>


Electrical failure cuts power to all of Argentina and Uruguay, supplier says - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-48652686 <comment><USER2> I'm reading that the distribution sector is composed of two distribution companies (Edenor and Edesur).

Both websites are currently down:

www.edenor.com.ar www.edesur.com.ar

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Be interested in technical reasons for this. Presumably those closest to it having a hard time getting on the net!

</comment><comment><USER3> Too bad the electrical grid is so centralized.</comment>


Ask HN: Why are Apache projects so Java-centric? - <AUTHOR> It seems most Apache projects are written in Java.  Why such a heavy focus on Java at Apache? <comment><USER3> [https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html](https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html)

Apache offers stewardship for projects of a certain size. That is they have to be big enough to accept the overhead of having for example a vice president of the project.

Big companies create big projects. Big companies create projects written in Java.

Big companies wants a steward for their projects to welcome outside contributors.

      Project - Company - Commercial Product
      Geronimo - IBM - Websphere (parts)
      JackRabbit - Adobe - Adobe AEM
      Felix - Adobe - Adobe AEM
      Apache CXF, Apache Camel - Red hat - <USER2>
      Apache Sling, Adobe, Adobe AEM

I am sure there are other examples.

<comment><USER4> Everyone always considers Apache as being synonymous with old school Java technologies. But they have a set of newer big data tools that are integral components at almost every major corporation or serious startup these days:

Accumulo, Ambari, Avro, Cassandra, CouchDB, Falcon, Flume, Hadoop, HBase, Hive, Kafka, Knox, Oozie, Phoenix, Pig, Samza, Spark, Sqoop, Storm, Tez, Zookeeper.

I can imagine many database companies in particular Oracle and Teradata wishing Apache wasn't as fantastically competent as they are.

<comment><USER5> Add Lucene (and by its extension, Elastic Search) to that list. In retrospect, I don't know how we did things before some of these projects came out.

<comment><USER6> Don't forget about Solr!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's not so much that Apache writes projects in Java, as that companies with Java projects find that Apache is a good place to give them to.

<comment><USER8> In particular, the Apache License 2.0 is the most appealing license for "commercial-friendly" open source, whereas the GPL with its "developer- friendly" license correlates highly with FSF-hosted, Gnome/KDE/... or independent projects.

The Java/C(++)? divide also seems to correlate with "commercial-friendly" (Hadoop, Lucene) versus "developer-friendly" (Blender, Linux) software.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What's "at Apache"?

Apache is not a company, it's a foundation, non profit style, founded around the Apache Web Server at first but adding lots of project under the Apache licence. Some where donated to it by commercial companies, others started there.

One of the major sub-projects of the Apache Foundation was a Java based server, called Tomcat, started when Java and Servlets were all the rage, more than a decade ago (1999-2000). It was based on code donated by SUN, and grew very popular fast.

From that, and under the "Jakarta" umbrella, it grew lots of other Java related projects, and this attracted new Java projects in turn.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think part of it is a network effect; Apache has been successful with Java projects so Java projects tend to go there. There are other homes for other kinds of projects.

I think also there is a kind of pragmatism involved. For instance, even though OpenJDK is now Open source, people like Richard Stallman think Java is an oppressive island, so Java people are less likely to be part of the GNU world.

<comment><USER11> > people like Richard Stallman think Java is an oppressive island

I was surprised to hear this claim, so I looked into it. The only thing it's turning up in this vein is the description of it being "shackled", or comparable adjectives, all before the JDK was GPLed a decade ago. Do you have a specific source on this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Many reasons:

* Initial projects started in Java by various contributors

* Large open community of Java which contributes back

* Wide acceptance of Java being cross-platform

* Today Apache is the de-facto home for any donated code from a corporate

</comment><comment><USER13> My impression is that Apache favors application level networking and infrastructural projects and Java affords a fairly large tech sweet spot for creating such projects.

</comment><comment><USER14> Heh, not a completely well defined question.

Java-centric relative to C#?

Possibly because a less FOSS friendly vibe among C#ers previously.

Possibly because the relative stagnation language-feature-wise of Java fostered a culture of frameworks and libraries.

</comment><comment><USER15> [http://projects.apache.org/indexes/language.html](http://projects.apache.org/indexes/language.html) for anyone curious to the actual language split.

<comment><USER16> The numbers themselves:

        Java 213
        C 19
        Python 16
        C++ 12
        JavaScript 10
        C# 9
        Perl 9
        Scala 9
        PHP 7

I think the crucial statistic would be that there's >10 times more Java projects than the next-most-popular language.

<comment><USER17> Do things like Hadoop count as one or several projects?

Also some Apache Java libraries (several of which are used in Android)

<comment><USER16> I just counted the projects on the page provided. That said, the Java culture does tend to encourage hypermodularisation so what would be one project in another language could turn into several in Java.

Some of them are a bit odd:

[http://projects.apache.org/projects/commons_chain.html](http://projects.apache.org/projects/commons_chain.html)

Others have really, really buzzwordy descriptions:

[http://projects.apache.org/projects/rave.html](http://projects.apache.org/projects/rave.html)

<comment><USER18> What's odd about an implementation of the Chain of Command?

<comment><USER16> Design patterns are usually integrated into software projects, not themselves a software project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Because Apache is where code goes to die, and Java code is dying ;)

<comment><USER20> You just go ahead and keep thinking that. There might even be an award at the end of that rainbow you are chasing. A Darwin one, but still.</comment></comment>