Using TensorFlow in Windows with a GPU - <AUTHOR> http://www.heatonresearch.com/2017/01/01/tensorflow-windows-gpu.html <comment><USER2> I'd be far more interested in seeing TensorFlow work on AMD GPUs or standard FPGAs.

Nvidia GPUs, with a profit margin in the double digits, aren't very cost- effective for such a task. Especially when you're a student.

For the paper I'm currently writing I ended up running the models CPU-based for months, as I couldn't afford the cost to get a good Nvidia GPU, and as my university couldn't provide me with compute time (as they have many thousands more students than servers available).

<comment><USER3> I agree with your sentiment completely, it would be a win/win to be able to use TF and other similar frameworks on AMD hardware. But I would also like to point out that using online compute power for this should be possible even at a student budget (assuming you're in the west).

Amazon and Google have good options for those who can't afford dishing out $650x4 for a decent ML setup.

<comment><USER4> Online computing power is not the same as your own - it's like taxi vs your own car. You can't do what you want when you want. Turned on your Amazon machine? No sleep till you fix the bugs and load all GPUs :) Every "downtime" costs. I, personally, find it very disturbing and despite the fact my employer pays for my Amazon time I often prefer my laptop with GeForce 840M :)

<comment><USER5> Agreed, as well as the evolving nontrivial hunt for cost reductions e.g. "Just use spot instances in US west 1 on weekends", stuff like that.

A pascal GPU and older CPU that takes at least 32GB RAM is a decent combination. I'm looking to upgrade to an older Xeon and a 1080 (price should be dropping any week now...) or 1080 Ti. Even the Sandy/ivy bridge i7's have not too bad results on most benchmarks: [http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake- review-6700...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake- review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/9)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> DISCLAIMER: TensorFlow on Windows require strictly Python 3.5 64-bit and never was how the author states

> As of the writing of this post, TensorFlow requires Python 2.7, 3.4 or 3.5

</comment><comment><USER7> Anyone know what the process in TensorFlow is like for taking your trained network and bringing it into another application (or whether this is even possible)? Just wondering whether it's easy/difficult/(in)flexible or whatever.

Edit: to clarify: by 'another application' I mean something else you're making that it serves as an algorithm within (e.g. a handwriting recognizing Android app).

<comment><USER8> It varies :) Mores especially it depends on your final platform and programming language. Android is fine, pure C++ without Python is more difficult though doable (eg deepdetect server has support for it), many other wrappers exist around TF.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Deeplearning4j had done this for a long time. Tensorflow has been slow to serve Windows.</comment>


3 ways Bing is ahead of Google - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/02/3-ways-bing-is-ahead-of-google/

<comment><USER2> As a long time Microsoft detractor, I must admit that Bing has a few things that I like:

1\. instant view popups

2\. free search and spelling APIs for developers. I wrote a web blog showing how to use these services in just a few lines of Ruby code. and, free is good

3\. daily pictures :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting choice of headline, both by submitter and the article. Actually, the three things listed are, in their words, "three ways the new audience's demands differ from the early adopters."

At the end of the first item, the author even says "I'm not convinced yet that Bing is better or faster at decision-making, but it's an appealing promise." So we've established we're not actually talking about what Bing _is_ , we're talking about what it _wants_ to be.

Which is fine. Except that at the end of the third item, the example they use is based on weather results:

"Most people like having a canned answer atop the results, as long as they can trust that it's correct. What's the top reason most people hit a search engine? Bing researchers found that it's to decide what to wear, based on the weather outside. You don't need t0 search every page on the Internet to figure that out."

Indeed. Try seaching for "weather" on Google, it offers up a weather report at the top if you supply a zip code or keyword (like "nyc" in my example below), and has an input box for you to specify one if you don't. It seems an odd example if you want to show how Bing Is Not Google.

<http://www.google.com/search?q=weather> <http://www.google.com/search?q=weather+nyc>

</comment><comment><USER4> From TFA:

"But Bing hasn't grabbed one-tenth of the world's search engine traffic in just a few months by luck, or by advertising."

Hm, maybe they grabbed it because:

\- microsoft sites (msn, msdn, etc) use bing

\- live.com redirects to bing

\- bing powers yahoo search

</comment><comment><USER5> It crashes more, too!</comment>


Ask HN: All (many?) DP problem flavors - <AUTHOR> Is there a catalog somewhere of all, or at least many, of the different flavors of DP? I know about Clemson's[1] page but these are just the classical problems. On leetcode et al you see all sorts that are non-standard and you don't know you've run into a new flavor until you fail to solve it. Stuff like this[2]. Of course it can be argued that it's all DP and therefore there's no point in studying particular cases ("just learn the concept") but that's like saying learning trig substitutions for integrals isn't useful. Before anyone asks: yes this is for interview prep. It seems like between all of the interview prep sites/competitive programming sites there should be a taxonomy/list somewhere.<p>[1] https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~bcdean/dp_practice/<p>[2] https://www.hackerearth.com/practice/algorithms/dynamic-programming/bit-masking/tutorial/ <comment><USER2> I can see your motivation for trying to be exhaustive which makes sense if you expect to encounter all manners of tricky interview questions.

The best way I've found to deal with variations is to get a feel for the variations remembering that it's nothing special. Memoization is a much better name, and really it's nothing but caching re-usable results, so just think of what intermediates can be cached and re-used during computations. I've never really understood the fascination with the topic myself.

<comment><AUTHOR> >Memoization is a much better name, and really it's nothing but caching re- usable results

memoization does not work for bottom up dp.</comment></comment>


Chomsky, Valiant and the algorithmic mirror - <AUTHOR> http://www.maymounkov.org/chomsky-valiant-algorithmic-mirror

<comment><USER2> Google Cache:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.maymounkov.org/chomsky- valiant-algorithmic-mirror)

for those of you getting the "Over Quota" error.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry folks. Should be back up soon. In the meantime, there is a mirror article here:

[http://petar.svbtle.com/](http://petar.svbtle.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> While the blog is "Over Quota", use this alternative link to the article:

      http://petar.svbtle.com/

</comment><comment><USER3> some quick info: Petar Maymounkov, the author, is the same guy who invented kademlia, the distributed hash table that many p2p networks use ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kademlia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kademlia)).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> And the article is back up on the original link.

</comment><comment><USER4> tinkling?

<comment><AUTHOR> faintly entlightening

<comment><USER4> Do you have a reference for that, or are you Humpty Dumptying?

<comment><AUTHOR> Reference for which? The meaning of "tinkling" or the claim made in the sentence that contains it?

<comment><USER4> For the meaning of tinkling.

 _EDIT_ ah, you probably meant "inkling".</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Don't be a front rudder - <AUTHOR> http://www.dgsiegel.net/news/2013_08_16-do_not_be_a_front_rudder <comment><USER2> The absence of upper-case letters is disturbing on this website. I am not sure of the purpose, is it a stylistic thing? It does not confer style to me. It is a kind of forced laziness, the kind of laziness that takes an extra effort. Going against the grain for no other good reason than that it is against the grain. It is like living in a foreign country for 10 years and not learning the language at all - it takes a bigger effort to not do it, than to do it.

While everyone might write emails or other messages in all lower-case, this is an article that is meant to be read by lots of people. Upper case letters actually do exist for a pretty good reason, they let you read much faster, by letting your eyes parse sentences more easily.

<comment><USER3> I never thought i'd be this pedantic but the article really is difficult to read for me due to the lack of proper punctuation, namely upper-case letters. For comments, i don't mind, but for decent length articles that take more than a minute to read, it gets annoying and it removes my focus from what the words are conveying, to how the words are conveyed.

<comment><USER4> I find it funny that you find the lack of upper-case letters makes it difficult to read, when you missed have the words you should have capitalized in your comment.

<comment><USER5> Muphry's law?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a bit of a bizarre analogy - I don't think it fits.

The reason why the rudder is at the back rather than the front of a ship is the same as why a pendulum rests straight down, but a pencil won't balance straight up - stability. I can't really see any links between that situation and the one being described in the article.

Not to say there aren't some good points being made - I think though the analogy being used distracts from, rather than adds to, these points.

And yes, the lack of capitalization does make it harder to read.

<comment><USER7> A front rudder would not need to move before its axis of rotation. It could easily be just like the rudder of a rowing shell ([http://www.rumerys.com/Avanti/a3.jpg](http://www.rumerys.com/Avanti/a3.jpg)), but mounted close to the bow.

Also, many ships want/need to have the ability to steer both the front and the back of the boat. As an other reply already says, bow thrusters ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_thruster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_thruster)) are common in larger ships nowadays.

And yes, people have tried to build serious sailing boats with two true rudders:

[http://articles.philly.com/1986-10-17/sports/26058791_1_radi...](http://articles.philly.com/1986-10-17/sports/26058791_1_radical- hull-golden-gate-challenge-fiberglass-hull)

I even could find a mention of a boat with only a front rudder: [http://www.craigmarine.info/yacht_boat/builders/power_boat/B...](http://www.craigmarine.info/yacht_boat/builders/power_boat/Boat_design_oldprinciple.htm) (scroll down to 'Canard')

So, be a front rudder, but be good at it!

<comment><USER8> A number of high performance sailboats have front rudders -- it's called CBTF or Canting Ballast Twin Foils. One example is the Schock 40 [1].

[1] [http://www.wdschock.com/boats/schock40/s40_specifications_b....](http://www.wdschock.com/boats/schock40/s40_specifications_b.php)

<comment><USER9> The down-side to a front rudder appears to be that it creates turbulence underneath the hull of the boat, where the bow rudder creates turbulence in the water behind the boat.

A rudder also creates drag. Having drag behind the boat is a lot easier to deal with, it has a damping effect on movement, than drag on the front which would make it more twitchy and erratic.

For a racing boat maybe you're willing to deal with twitchy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Project management" (I'd probably argue "People management", too) is kind of like playing with cornstarch in water. If you work with a gentle touch, you can get it to do what you want. If you apply too much pressure the whole thing seizes up - turning to stone.

Crises don't happen often but when they do, it's good to remind yourself if the project/team/thing you're working on is cornstarch and not to over- control.

In general, this phenomenon is why I think the "Project Manager" as commonly defined isn't implemented correctly. PM (in large companies) isn't about _control_ (PMs have no real ability to control anything) but about communication and coordination.

In smaller teams/companies, the role is usually distributed amongst others, or centralized in the CTO etc.

([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RmamKIkpxs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RmamKIkpxs) \- Non-Newtonian fluids are fun!)

</comment><comment><USER11> You should be writing with proper capitalization.

<comment><USER12> Glad I wasn't the only one having trouble reading that. Which is a shame, because it's an interesting analogy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The article isn't that interesting except for its example -- the front rudder. It's easy to see why a front rudder would lead to instability -- a small initial change in heading leads to an ever-larger change in heading, and the system isn't self-stabilizing.

The classic example of something like a "front rudder" and its consequences is the Wright Flyer, the pitch control for which was in front of the center of mass (the rudder was aft).

[http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/images/flye-lotech.gi...](http://www- tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/images/flye-lotech.gif)

The result of this arrangement is that, ans anyone who has tried to fly a modern version of this craft will tell you, it's very difficult to control in pitch, and constant adjustments are required.

Pretty soon Glenn Curtis and others got the idea to put both the rudder and elevator aft of the center of mass, which greatly increased flight stability. That arrangement quickly became a universal standard.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm an engineer who occasionally project manages. At first I felt like I was doing a terrible job because I wasn't in there helping make all the decisions and being the hub for the spokes to communicate through. Every project I'd feel like I wasn't doing enough (luckily laziness won out over my fear of not doing enough) but every time the project would get done.

I still don't particularly like project management but I'm learning to enjoy the feeling of not doing enough, at least on internally facing projects.

</comment><comment><USER15> As someone who has done work on ferry boats, I can assure you that there are ships with a front rudder -- it's just kept center-locked most of the time.

Also, larger ships use these [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_thruster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_thruster)

OK, nit-pick over.

</comment><comment><USER16> Analogies are awful. I wasn't sure what their trying to get at. Anyone can translate this story in no-nonsense clean speak?

<comment><USER17> Yes. When you do something it has bad results, don't do that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Many cars are front wheel drive.

What's wrong with capitals?

<comment><USER19> That's why cars are easier to manouever in reverse. Also why parallel parking is done in reverse: so that the steering is done from the "rear".

<comment><USER18> I find my car easier in forward. It's easier in forward, even though it's a front wheel drive.

<comment><USER19> It's easier to drive, but it is less manoueverable. It is impossible to parallel park forwards without a great deal of room and shunting, whereas when going backwards you can put the rear of the car in position, and then swing the front across.

Being front or rear wheel drive doesn't change this point, it's where the steering happens that matters and is purely a case of geometry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Uh oh. That's me.

</comment><comment><USER21> You are not e. e. cummings. Use proper capitalization.</comment>


Game Dev Tool: Use a small image to generate original PBR texture/image - <AUTHOR> https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140360/TextureWorks/ <comment><AUTHOR> TextureWorks is an incredible one stop powerful tool for Texture Synthesis, Texture Re-scaling, Texture Designing, tiled texture generation, Texture Map Generations; with over 1600 texture files available free with the Base code to help you simplify your game development workflow.</comment>


Joe Frank, Spinner of Strange Radio Tales, Has Died - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/obituaries/joe-frank-spinner-of-strange-radio-tales-is-dead-at-79.html <comment><USER2> TL;DR If you spent time in Los Angeles in the 80's or 90's, Joe Frank was a fixture on KCRW, the local NPR station. His work could be loosely classified as the aural equivalent of a David Lynch movie.

I have distinct memories of being out on dates, turning the car radio to KCRW and hoping for "Joe Frank: Work in Progress" to be on, to see if my date had a basic understanding and appreciation of surrealism.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9YwALw73gY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9YwALw73gY)

<comment><USER3> Joe was a fixture on KCRW even until quite recently, though often as "reruns". I remember listening to him quite a bit around 2012-2013.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was not familiar with Joe Frank but I did quite enjoy Fresh Air's remembrance of him that aired last night:

[https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579097081/remembering- peabody...](https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579097081/remembering-peabody- award-winning-radio-artist-joe-frank)

</comment><comment><USER5> Joe Frank had no peers and no equals. Definitely my favorite radio storyteller. If you haven't heard his stuff, seek it out.

[https://www.joefrank.com/shop/best-the/](https://www.joefrank.com/shop/best- the/)

<comment><USER6> I see the entire catalog, item "001 – THE ENTIRE JOE FRANK COLLECTION – SHOWS AIRED 1978 – 2002" ... $1,510. I wonder how many they've sold.

The first time I ran across Joe Frank was traveling Phoenix <\--> San Jose. I tuned into a public radio show, the background track was awesome, and an anthropology professor was discussing his experience at a conference, in a "confessional" interview style, and I thought "standard public radio fare". The storyline was plausible for about two minutes and then veered into a couple of off-kilter details ... then wandered into stranger and fantastical details. The result was thought-provoking, strange, and oddly satisfying. There were various other segments in like and different styles ... and the whole hour-long thing fit together so well.

In truth I haven't run across anyone ever that knows about Joe Frank's shows, I've enjoyed them over the years. I wish I could justify $1,510.

<comment><USER7> "The storyline was plausible for about two minutes and then veered into a couple of off-kilter details ... then wandered into stranger and fantastical details..."

In the Dark was broadcast weekly (Saturday nights, IIRC) by KQED in San Francisco, and I had the same reaction to essentially all episodes: great production values, compelling initial narrative... then devolution into annoyingly unlikely twists, as if he had navigated a bunch of one-way streets into a dead end. And kept driving anyway. The sheer waste would anger me; I had to stop listening altogether.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The first Joe Frank I heard was "Enterprising Man" [0], I was hooked ever since. I enjoy the irony of that episode and focus of this forum board.

[0] [https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/joe-frank-return- eng...](https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/joe-frank-return- engagement/an-enterprising-man)</comment>


Memory-mapped I/O without mysterious macros - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/780710/ece0f8b930151422/ <comment><USER2> On a tangentially related note, I love the PowerPC instruction to act as a mmio barrier: Enforce In Order Execution of I/O, or eieio.

For those anglophones that remember the kids' song "Old McDonald Had a Farm", your code can pretty easily follow the song.

      read_a_register_right_here();
      eieio();
      then_write_a_register_right_here();
      eieio();

      bookkeep_here();
      bookkeep_there();
      a_lot_more_bookkeep_everywhere();

      then_write_a_register_right_here();
      eieio();

<comment><USER3> EIEIO is also an error code typedef in GNU libc:

[https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Error- Cod...](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Error- Codes.html#index-EIEIO)

"Computer bought the farm."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _While I /O memory looks like memory, and it can be tempting to access it by simply dereferencing a pointer, that does not always work on every architecture_

Unfortunate that there's no examples, because that sounds more like something which is not actually MMIO (like the I/O space on x86) or a bug, since one of the reasons for using MMIO is that it behaves like memory.

<comment><USER5> Even memory doesn't behave like memory. The order that DRAM sees your writes doesn't necessarily match the order in which you thought they were written, even though the CPUs themselves take extraordinarily complicated pains to make it look the same everywhere. You might thing you're writing into a uniform space with byte granularity, but under the hood the bus is logically 512 bits wide and accessed almost exclusively in whole cache lines.

There are long specifications in every architecture that detail exactly how the memory model works. Nothing is simple.

And in the case of MMIO devices, they tend to care about things software doesn't (like, you must write 32 bit words aligned on 128 bit boundaries or it doesn't work -- stuff like that), so the rules get even hairier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I need to take a look at the patches (on mobile now), but can anyone comment on how a barrier at unlock can provide ordering between mmio accesses under the same lock? Or is it required that every register have a unique lock?

<comment><USER7> It doesn't, this is about this case:

      CPU1:
      lock()
      write1
      unlock()

      CPU2, after CPU1:
      lock()
      write2
      unlock()

Until now it was not guaranteed on all platforms that the writes arrive in the same order even if the CPU2 entered the critical section after CPU1.

This was because spinlocks only implied regular memory barriers, not mmiowb barriers.</comment></comment>


Your thoughts on waving so far  - <AUTHOR> http://googlewave.blogspot.com/2009/11/your-thoughts-on-waving-so-far.html

<comment><USER2> It needs about one more year to pickle. It's way too young.</comment>


Post-mortem report of Saturday's file server failure - <AUTHOR> https://blog.nearlyfreespeech.net/2014/04/03/post-mortem-report-of-saturdays-file-server-failure/

<comment><AUTHOR> Reading this, I was surprised at some of the characteristics they use to describe ZFS. Specifically: it's not cluster-able, and that it slows down after a lot of uptime. They seem to know their tech fairly well! I'd love to hear any insights about these.</comment>


Brown eyes and blue eyes racism experiment - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s

<comment><USER2> Off topic tangent: Apparently Hitler had piercing blue eyes. It was his most noticeable feature.

I can't find a link that's not Stormfront related, so I won't post one.

It's just odd that thru some combination of black and white pictures/film and maybe some winners-write-the-history type bias, there are things that I have never heard anywhere - so I thought I'd share.

</comment><comment><USER3> A classic, thank you for posting. I recall seeing this a long time ago, very interesting. It is something that everyone needs to review.</comment>


Show HN: Phone verification at no cost - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/natsu90/dial2verify-twilio <comment><USER2> I may get down voted for this and so be it, this must be said. This is a prime example of creating what was intended to be a security feature without understanding the threat landscape. I just tested it, and it's 100% vulnerable to caller ID spoofing. In 2016, caller ID spoofing is as simple as downloading an iPhone app and spending $30 for a bunch of minutes.

The problem is, a lot of people will find this cool and will also not evaluate the threat landscape. In fact, it's even worse. They will assume the threat landscape has already been evaluated. The code is out there, so it must be good. They will then implement this into some "super duper secure" service which should require a far more security for user authentication. It will then take me 15 minutes of pulling my hair out in a security review to explain to whomever implemented it that it offers no security. The team will walk away from our meeting wondering if I was just trolling them and ask how their entire team could have made this mistake. They will then come to the conclusion they are smart and I must be wrong. They'll then call me back to explain again, at which point I'll take them through a full video demonstration with their VP of operations on the call. This time they will actually "get it" because they saw it exploited on video. Their VP of operations will then fire the project manager and lead developer and I'll feel like shit for being responsible for the termination of two careers.

<comment><USER3> Not to mention that it's _incredibly_ inconvenient if you don't carry a phone, or if you lost it. I tried to signup for airbnb this weekend while traveling, but wasn't even able to go through the verification process without a physical phone. Zero alternatives for verification and even trying google voice (my main 'phone' provider) wasn't good enough. Sure, I could've borrowed someone's phone for a second, but isn't that the sort of thing these systems are supposed to guard against? I don't get it.

Another example - you can't use uber on a desktop without going to m.uber.com last I checked. There's no way to order trasnportation without that m. (why!)

Another - gmail. You either need another email or a phone, and at the time, neither were possible. (why!!)

For tons of reasons, I just don't like having a phone in my pocket 24/7/365\. Mostly, I just enjoy the peace of mind of being unreachable. I've been oncall for years, but that oncall vibe is extending more and more into social situations, for the worse. I hate it. Devs - PLEASE account for those like me! I'm really tired of people telling me (accurately :(.) "You wouldn't have these issues if you had a phone." on account of your laziness or lack of awareness for sensible security.

<comment><USER2> I have a shocking number of burner phones driven by the need to register for stuff which requires phone-call validation of identity. Of course every one of those phones was purchased in cash while wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, after parking in a nearby neighborhood and walking to the store.

Note, I'm not a criminal, I just play one in my day job.

<comment><USER3> I might go that route, honestly. I've done a few security disclosures recently as myself and doing so has been giving me a vibe that I'm not a fan of. Same with a lot of the FOIA calls I need to make. Having a burner phone might help, as much as I'd hate to use it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's relatively easy to change/fake the caller ID of phone calls so unfortunately this approach isn't really secure. That's why phone number verification usually places an outgoing call, to verify that you're actually able to receive calls on that number.

<comment><USER5> At the risk of sounding like I'm actually going to abuse this capability... if it's done "relatively easily", how is this done?

<comment><USER6> My SIP provider passes whatever number I send, for most of the numbers. No talking to them required. Particularly fun for Android phones that do Google Maps lookups for caller ID, so calling from 2024561414 shows up as "The White House"

Just for fun i went ahead and verified 2024561414 with the demo of this thing. It gave me a nice little check mark showing that I was definitely the White House

<comment><USER5> Sorry, what's an SIP provider? I've looked it up and still don't understand what it is. Is it a residential service? Can anyone get it? Is it some form of VoIP? Or a classical phone line? I've seen it in multiple places but don't understand what it is or which companies it relates to.

<comment><USER7> It's the open standard for VoIP.

It's used in many places, but mostly offices. An office might have an exchange system, with features like voicemail and routing different types of call over different networks.

I have a personal account which gives cheap international calls, which I added to my android phone. I can receive calls at my SIP address, from anyone on any provider. When I make a call, I'm given the option of using the mobile network directly, or SIP.

Naturally, neither the phone networks not the big tech companies want you to use SIP. They'd rather you used normal calls, or their proprietary system.

<comment><USER8> Can you recommend one that works well? I want one that hopefully provides a Greek DID, I want to be able to make calls from my Android to landlines over my home Internet connection, as you describe, but I haven't managed to find a good (read: cheapish) provider.

<comment><USER9> I use voip.ms but many others exist. Anveo, Twilio, Vonage, etc. cheapest might be a service that uses Google, but only for as long as Google offers free calls.

<comment><USER10> +1 for voip.ms. I've been using them for years - they're inexpensive, lots of features, and service has been great.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hi, there's a free phone verification using facebook. It's account kit.

[https://developers.facebook.com/docs/accountkit/overview](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/accountkit/overview)

What do you guys think?

<comment><USER12> Similar to Twitter's Digits, which has been around for a while and seems quite popular. [https://get.digits.com](https://get.digits.com)

<comment><USER13> Why is it free?

<comment><USER11> Twitter built fabric and it's free because they say "they want more developers using their platform" to help them with building apps

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Are you willing to make international users pay up to 80¢ per verification? If someone cancels a call, I still have to pay for one minute (it's only free if I cancel the call). So if I were to call any American number that hung up on me, I have to pay 80¢ (USD dollar cents of course).

Just pay the 0.02¢ or whatever phone services charge these days. If your business is actually big enough to have to worry about phone verification, do it right. Users don't like to call your number since they don't know the costs associated with it (especially international users). Furthermore, it makes number spoofing much harder.

</comment><comment><USER15> Haha, this is the digital version of the Indian phenomenon of 'missed calls', used as 1-bit 0-cost notification mechanism. It's become such a cultural artifact, that big companies are now advertising numbers you can 'missed call' and get a callback from.

[https://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/indias-missed-call-mobile- ecos...](https://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/indias-missed-call-mobile-ecosystem-2/)

<comment><USER16> It's not Indian specific either. I've seen it in a number of places throughout the world. It works anywhere that does not charge to receive calls (i.e. any sane place outside of the U.S.A.) as long as the caller doesn't get billed for cancelling.

You can get more than 1-bit of information as well if you sync the clock on your phone with the recipient. That gives you approximately 3.3 bits of information if you use the minute modula 10. This only works if you previously agree upon a meaning for values (Mod 0: Yes, Mod 5: No, etc).

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Would 'rejecting' the call result in the calling user's operator billing _them_ , though? This is a major concern with international usage, given phone providers' tendency to... overcharge for what's technically VoIP usage.

The classical text message verification schemes barely have this issue in most of the world as the _recipient_ pays nothing, but of course the sender gets billed instead.

</comment><comment><USER18> So you can only verify, at best, one user every 90 seconds?

Also, I have to assume Twilio would look at this as a form of abuse.

<comment><USER17> This doesn't reserve the incoming number for _just_ that user (given that one has to enter their phone number beforehand), but while the user is using the line, other users most likely wouldn't be able to call either (though it might be Twilio handles this as well and sends a status message anyway - as even cell carriers seem able to notify users of incoming calls while being in a call already).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can people just stop with this whole verify-by-phone thing?

<comment><USER20> Can people just stop with this whole spam-every-website-to-death thing?

They can't, that's why there's an ever-increasing amount of verification.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is pretty cool hack. Great job OP!

</comment><comment><USER22> So... Twilio adjusts their pricing in 3... 2... 1...

<comment><USER23> Twilio likes makes revenue on inbound, or enough breakage on the $1 to not have it be an issue. This is a perfectly legit usage of the number.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> However isn't it considered a kind of exploit? Twilio never intended users to waste their VoIP traffic.

Could we also do phone verification at no cost, however instead by outbound call? Is there any free/paid host providing such service?

</comment><comment><USER25> Again, nothing new. I have already implemented this on my app here : [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.xtel.quitq....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.xtel.quitq.app) using Twilio alone. But, twilio is not completely free.

<comment><USER26> Well done. But you didn't blog about it, or release that part of your app as a standalone library. You also didn't (couldn't) patent it - it doesn't need to be new to be interesting and valuable to HN readers.</comment></comment>


Daring Fireball: How to Judge the Battle Between Apple and Adobe Regarding Flash - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/judging_flash_battle <comment><USER2> If youtube, slideshare, podcast widgets had not existed, flash would been passe.

Last time I used flash was when I was experimenting with font embedding with sifr and swfupload, even there it was more to JS than flash.

A decade back embedding java applets was the norm, flash usage is at same level for most sites now.

We would get past it in mainstream sites in next 2 years</comment>


Wal-Mart Plans to Test Grocery Delivery Through Uber, Lyft - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-03/wal-mart-to-start-testing-grocery-delivery-through-uber-lyft <comment><USER2> UK supermarkets are a bit ahead of the curve here. All the large ones have a home delivery service, including Walmart-owned ASDA. It's quite cheap too: £1-6 if you buy £40, for various time slots. They all use their own vehicles and staff, so I suppose Wal-Mart can reduce the risk by using Uber/Lyft. I wonder though, does this mean no active cooling on the way? Can you trust that the ice cream is still frozen when it arrives?

I have found home delivery very useful, especially after having a baby. I don't enjoy going to a supermarket after work on weekdays, but receiving a delivery is easy and means the weekend is free. The main psychological barrier is that it takes surprisingly long to choose groceries online, almost as long as walking around the store. They try to make it easier by suggesting things you usually order, but it's still something you have set aside time for.

<comment><USER3> Safeway in the US has home delivery from their own trucks.

<comment><USER4> The grocery stores I grew up going to in CO had delivery too, I think it was just primarily targeted at the elderly and disabled.

<comment><USER5> King Soopers (Kroger) has it in Colorado, as do a few local ones...That said, I don't know anyone that uses it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> martin-adams Justin King (former CEO of Sainsburys in the UK) said that their data showed that people start ordering groceries for home delivery is when they start a family.

After a few weeks, when (usually) the mother of the new baby is willing to venture out, she will visit the grocery store to buy extra things.

Turns out that the spending level of online groceries doesn't drop, but the spending level of ad-hoc in-store purchases does, resulting in an overall increase in spending.

This is true for my family. The UK also has seen an increase of convenience stores which carry a 5% price premium. People like to by a little often, than to buy a lot every week.

The behaviour of grocery shopping has shifted a lot in the past 5 years in the UK.

Edit: Spelling and clarity

<comment><USER6> > people start ordering groceries for home delivery is when they start a > family.

This certainly matches our experience. We've been using Google Express a ton to get the regular necessities that come with having children: diapers, cheerios, food for lunches, etc.

We have a grocery store within walking distance that we still visit regularly for produce, perishables, and the odd ingredients that dinner sometimes requires.

</comment></comment><comment> k-mcgrady I'm always surprised grocery delivery is still a big deal in the US. All the major supermarkets in the UK do home delivery, next day, for a £3-5 delivery fee. You can go the site, fill your basket, and checkout. You also get a 1-2 hour delivery slot so you don't have to wait at home all day. We also have Amazon Prime Now doing grocery delivery within 1 hour in some cities. I can see how it would be a problem in some less densely populated areas in the US but how it's not done in all cities is beyond me. Any one know?

<comment><USER7> A fair amount of US grocery stores do as well. Our local grocery store has a pick up option as well as a delivery. Another a few miles down the road near a restaurant we enjoy also has a (free) place for us to charge our car why we shop.

I am hesitant to adopt them. I guess we are finicky about how we shop. Fearful of the bad head of lettuce or banana or what have you. Or how will we know they didn't chose the yogurt that expires in two days over the one that has two weeks?

What my girlfriend and I do is use AnyList (there are multiple other apps, but we are liking this one). And start at opposite ends of the store. Checking off the list real time as we shop.

<comment><USER8> _I am hesitant to adopt them. I guess we are finicky about how we shop. Fearful of the bad head of lettuce or banana or what have you. Or how will we know they didn 't chose the yogurt that expires in two days over the one that has two weeks?_

There are ways around this though. Using Ocado in the UK, they will specify minimum lifetimes for all of the products you order and display them prominently (for example, in the iPhone app: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d0awqydeqq386v/2016-06-03%2019.58...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d0awqydeqq386v/2016-06-03%2019.58.21.png?dl=0))

I'm pretty sure they'll also refund anything you aren't happy with, which helps to keep quality high.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Strangely, the small merchants in India are doing a great job when it comes to door delivery of groceries.

Even over 15-20 years back, my mom used to get door delivery of the month's groceries by just making a phone call. One of the reason's for the success of this model was that most customers did not have a car to transport all of their groceries and phone-order was the easiest option available to them. (I'm talking about the late 90s when Internet was not that common).

Of course, it works on the assumption that the customer exactly knows what they want - rather than making them buying arbitrary items at the store.

Most of the merchants circulate their menu/deals along with newspapers and have a phone number that customers can reach them at. All you do is decide on what you want to order and then call the merchant at the given number. They deliver all the items at your house within a couple of hours. It uses the idea of "Cash on Delivery" i.e., you make your payment in-person to the delivery person. This method has been in practice for so many years that customers are quite used to the entire process and the merchants make sure that the delivery is processed as comfortably as possible.

</comment><comment><USER10> Isn't this a bit going the wrong way somehow?

Growing up, mom went grocery shopping once every 2 weeks. We'd load up 2 or 3 shopping carts that filled 8 or 10 grocery bags.

One auto trip every 2 weeks for groceries.

With all the delivery services for restaurants, groceries, and more and more sundries, the trips to my house are made for less and less 'stuff' per trip. More trips per household obviously means more gasoline burned.

With Amazon or FedEx, at least it's a truck on a route with several dozen deliveries to make. But this Uber/Lyft scheme looks to likely be 1, maybe 2, deliveries per trip.

<comment><USER11> How did you guys keep vegetables fresh for 2 weeks? That's usually why i go a couple times a week. Usually buy a pack of meat to have for a few nights of dinner, vegetables to use as well. Then get more once it's used up.

<comment><USER10> There was a time when canned and frozen vegetables were more common than fresh. I can't eat them today, but that's what we ate growing up.

<comment><USER12> Same. Most veggies we either grew in the backyard garden or were frozen from the store. People don't remember that the vast fresh produce sections you see at most supermarkets today are relatively new. Back then you might have lettuce, carrots, potatoes, and maybe a few other things available fresh and the quality was not always great.

<comment><USER13> I still remember this from 1999-2000 in the Silicon Valley...I was shocked, fresh products were hard to find and very expensive. In France it never disappeared, we always had fresh sections in supermarkets on top of fresh market at walking distance twice a week.

<comment><USER10> It is possibly even more shocking today: The best organic produce can be found at Costco. I've bought blackberries there the size of my thumb, and they tasted like a dessert wine. Never had anything like it, let alone from Costco.

<comment><USER14> "Organic" is a marketing buzzword.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is going to take a bit of magic to pull off. Groceries are very low margin items and people just opt for pre-made restaurant food when we are feeling lazy. When I'm motivated enough to prepare my own food I'm motivated enough to go to the grocery store. This is the domain of driver-less delivery vehicles of whatever kind.

<comment><USER16> There are also moms (and sometimes dads) at home with a small kids. And they may be highly motivated to avoid journey to a grocery store.

<comment><USER17> I understand what you meant, but a trip to the grocery store can also be a perfect way to get their energy out if the kids are particularly bananas that day. So, some parents relish that trip.

<comment><USER18> Exactly. For my toddlers I also view it as training in some level of obedience (not running to the other side of the store), social interaction, dealing with disappointment (no you can't have the batman matchbox car set), learning about money (goes in hand with the disappointment factor!), helping me to pick out food, learning what stuff is called, a little hide and seek fun within the obedience bounds...it's like a little slice of life learning all in one place.

Overall it is a _challenge_ for a parent though, so I'm not convinced that many won't just stay at home and order food from an app with the kids watching TV.

<comment><USER19> This. In my parenting life, I feel there are so many decision where you have to choose between optimizing the short term or the long term. I tend to favor the long term and my philosophy is roughly: the difficult path becomes easier and the easy path becomes more difficult.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I would pay a small premium for a 'pick up at store' service like I can at some retailers. Buy the item online, go to the store, go to the customer service counter and pickup the your purchases.

Imagine just going to the grocery store drive-through and picking up your groceries that you've chosen beforehand.

<comment><USER21> I am not sure where you live but this is pretty common in the north east (ShopRite etc.). To me though, I feel like there are misaligned incentives when employees pick food vs. the customer picks the food. Why should the employee care if the bread is going bad tomorrow instead of a week? The added time-savings just don't offset that concern for me.

<comment><USER22> I can't say that concerns with expiration dates are high on my list of issues when I'm grocery shopping. That said, if I'm going to order online anyway, I'm not sure why I wouldn't just have it delivered--maybe for a few bucks more-- than driving to the store. Maybe if I'm not very mobile but can still drive, but then I still need to unload the car. I don't really understand the use case.

<comment><USER23> Sometimes you can't be sure when you'll be at home to receive them.

<comment><USER22> There's still a time window for pickup though. So you have to schedule in any case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Call me old fashioned but I still would trust UPS/FedEx more with my packages - as opposed to contracted amateurs. Granted, last mile delivery is always a challenge...

How long until you can get a freight van through uber's subprime leasing program?

<comment><USER15> Agreed, but to be fair that was how I felt about having Uber driving me around when I first heard about it a few years ago.

<comment><USER25> And that's why I don't use Uber, their drivers are much less professional (smoking, loud music, don't know the area, poor driving skills) than taxi drivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Planning in advance could really save a lot of gas, time and money if customers decided to shop online more. The last mile seems like a tough headache in term of logistics, but I'm sure there are many people who would love to not go shopping if it was convenient enough.

Although I don't think it will viable at first, so I doubt that market will really grow, since the economies of scale only happen if enough people shop online in a small region. Ultimately companies like Walmart still want customers to roam in their supermarkets to buy things they did intend to, as a virtual store and online ads seems less appealing than a customer just wandering in an aisle and discovering an article.

<comment><USER27> It would also reduce traffic in cities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I'm torn between wanting somebody to compete with Amazon and it being Walmart

<comment><USER29> While I was caught up in the anti-Walmart meme [and I'm using "meme" dismissively] for many years, today Walmart provides jobs in my community and those jobs appear to be stable with regular shifts because I often see the same cashiers at the same times one year to the next. I'll add that Walmart also generates local sales and income tax revenue [and sometimes property tax] that helps make schools and roads and fire trucks possible.

That's not to say either Amazon or Walmart is moral. It's more that because Walmart has a greater dependency on the commons around me and I believe its interests and mine are less orthogonal.

<comment><USER30> Sure, Walmart provides jobs in your community... But they cost state and federal taxpayers in a significant way.

Walmart's business model depends on state and federal government assistance to their low-paid workers:

[http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/the-high-public-cost-of- low-...](http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/the-high-public-cost-of-low-wages/)

It is true that Walmart brings in local revenues through sales and property taxes, however this is more than offset by the assistance state and federal governments have to provide to low-wage Walmart workers:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/15/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/15/we- are-spending-153-billion-a-year-to-subsidize-mcdonalds-and-walmarts-low-wage- workers/)

<comment><USER31> Any unskilled job is going to have a low enough pay rate that many of the employees will qualify for public assistance. This goes for Walmart, Target, and the mom and pop shops Walmart replaced. If Walmart went out of business tomorrow, these people would still be on public assistance. That's today's economy.

<comment><USER32> This article[1] though on a biased (in that they have a point of view) site, has links to some state data, so it's convenient to link to it. It's also specific to medicaid benefits.

> Of the 50 companies with the most employees on Medicaid in Massachusetts, > almost half are retail and restaurant chains. The list includes CVS, Home > Depot, May Department Stores, Sears, Kohl's, Walgreen, Lowe's, and Best Buy.

> Similar data was recently released by Wisconsin, Missouri, and New Jersey. > Topping all three states' lists are many of the same retailers, including > Walmart, Target, Dollar General, and Home Depot, as well as restaurant > chains such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

It doesn't seem exactly fair to do it based on total number of employees though. What about percentage of employees? Looking at the Missouri (state health care) data, Walmart is at about double the rate as Target, it has:

        Walmart work force: 43,281
        Walmart MHN Enrolled employees (E): 2403
        Walmart MHN Enrolled family members (N): 3633
        Walmart total employees (E+N): 6036
        Walmart Percentage of Missouri Workforce Enrolled(E) or Responsible for Enrollee (N) 13.95%

        Target work force: 7,580
        Target MHN Enrolled employees (E): 282
        Target MHN Enrolled family members (N): 317
        Target total employees (E+N): 599
        Target Percentage of Missouri Workforce Enrolled(E) or Responsible for Enrollee (N) 7.9%

Actually the rest of the data[2] is interesting (kind of old; 2011), and too much to summarize here, but there are a lot of worse companies than both of those, percentage-wise. For example, Dollar General is at 42.24%.

[1] [https://ilsr.org/chains-walmart-foods-free-ride-taxpayers- ex...](https://ilsr.org/chains-walmart-foods-free-ride-taxpayers-expense- responsible-small-businesses/) [2] [https://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pdf/2011-employer-match- repor...](https://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pdf/2011-employer-match-report.pdf)

<comment><USER31> Walmart recently (this year) changed their pay structure so that nobody will make less than $11/hour, which is good for jobs that don't even require high school or the ability to speak English, so data from 2011 is outdated.

But being paid $11/hour still means that at the workers with dependent children will still be on Medicai and other public programs.

Very few unskilled jobs pay enough that a single mom is not going to qualify for benefits, so these stats probably reflect more than anything who the company hires or retains. If they hire lots of single moms, they will be lots of employees collecting benefits. If they hire more men, older people or younger people, they will not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Core issue long-term is that if Amazon doesn't own the "last mile" it will be at the mercy of those that do; clearly, Jeff knows this, though unclear how he's going to address this long-term.

</comment><comment><USER34> Once again I wonder about the notion of an "independent contractor" class of worker, one where they save up and buy the standard "util-i-car" a vehicle which has a driving/motive unit, and attachable rear units, delivery pod, cargo pod, livery (tax) pod, transport (ambulance) pod, Etc. Along with a supply of lenders/repairs/resellers who lend you the money for your first utili-car, trade you used car or pod, repair your car/pod, sell new pods etc.

</comment><comment><USER35> I've used Safeway's home delivery service before. Wal-mart's as well. The whole, get your groceries delivered, it isn't such a great experience to be honest.

First of all, pretty much every single time, I was missing items!

Secondly, navigating the online store is a horrible experience. Finding things, thinking of what you need. The whole thing stinks.

The experience of walking down an isle and picking out what you need, is strangely more efficient.

</comment><comment><USER36> This could be huge if they can keep the prices near Walmart levels. This could be a way to get around the negative stigma of shopping at Walmart amongst the hipster / bourgeois / middle class. If they pull this off it will put real pressure on the other grocery providers. On the downside, grocery delivery services have been tried many times in the past 15 years.

<comment><USER22> Eh. I can't say I've done formal comparison shopping but Walmart groceries don't strike me as being systematically a lot cheaper than other grocery chains on an, ahem, apples to apples basis. Personally, given other options, I'm not sure why I would use Walmart for grocery delivery given that I'd be paying for delivery in some form and their selection and, often, quality are inferior to other stores.

<comment><USER37> Have a look at Walmart SavingsCatcher. As you walk out of the store, you snap a QR code on your receipt. They check every other store in your area for the stuff you bought and refund the difference on a gift card if they weren't the cheapest.

I've used it a few times with grocery delivery.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> It seems like Uber and Lyft are currently doing deals like this as big special one-offs. At what point do real world services like this become plug and play via APIs?

<comment><USER39> When we remove the pesky wetware

<comment><USER38> Can't you see a world where Lyft or Uber offers themselves as a platform?

"You put in the weight and dimensions of the object to be transported, and we'll give you pricing and an ETA for pickup and delivery"

People could then choose to do the delivery similar to how they choose to pick people up. Perhaps there's a premium (similar to surge pricing?) based on size.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I can't say I'd want my family's food traveling in a car used to haul the public around when it's not delivering food.

<comment><USER41> Why not?

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Would be interesting to know how and who shoulders the liability here?

<comment><USER43> Walmart has all the reputation risk.

Which whatever anyone wants to say about Walmart's reputation, it's pointless to offer the service if they let it suck.</comment></comment>


Results of: 7 developers, working 24/7 for 90 days, 1 house (in Colombia) - <AUTHOR> http://alexander.letmego.com/2009/07/29/how-productive-was-the-letmego-immersion/ Colombian entrepreneur Alex Torrenegra hired a small team of developers and for 90 days, they worked every waking moment, and except for one family weekend break, they did not leave the house. Food and other logistics was taken care of by another company. Here he tells how productive the experience was. <comment><USER2> Hopefully helpful critique regarding the business itself:

1\. I'm not sure about Americans, but "lodging" translates very poorly for this Canadian. It's not that I don't understand it, it's just that people don't really use the word here. "Rooms" or "Beds" would be a better bet.

2\. I'm questioning why I as a traveller would bother to "bid" on a room that I may know nothing about. Seems like a win for the hotelier, but a lose for me. I can stay at a hostel or hotel chain and have a reasonable expectation of what to expect. I can't do that at a B&B, but I can compare prices to get an idea of what would be up scale and what would be bargain basement. This site disables that, and brags about it. I really don't need to save $5 that badly.

About the process:

I think - humbly - that sometimes us geeks can get so caught up in the process of how we're building something that we lose sight of what it is we're actually building. This doesn't matter when you're making lego structures as a hobby, but it's completely relevant when you're trying to design a business.

How you do it is - in the end - largely irrelevant. Yes you can argue about productivity or the best way to get the most hours out of a day, but extremes aside it is not going to be what matters to your customer. I don't care if you used agile and got your product up in 10 hours or if it was a disastrous waterfall plan that needed to be redrawn 6 times and took 6 years to complete. I care about the product, and what it can do for me.

In this case (and I mean this respectfully) I get the impression that the process was the focus and the product was the afterthought. There's nothing wrong with that specifically, but it certainly shows through.

<comment><USER3> Thank you for reading the post. I must clarify that travelers are not bidding. Instead, the lodgings bid for the itineraries of the travelers.

Additionally, we, at LetMeGo, use the word "lodging" because we are not only limited to hotels, beds, or rooms. We also cover vacation rentals, tents, and pretty much any place where you can sleep. "Lodging", which is the abstraction of all these, is not a common word because most online services only offer one type of lodging: hotels, or rooms, or vacation rentals, etc. That, hopefully, will change, as more options equals more competition and lower prices.

<comment><USER2> >Instead, the lodgings bid for the itineraries of the travellers.

Ah, I see. That wasn't evident to me. The way it was described seemed to be that travellers were bidding on open rooms and highest bid won.

Your way is interesting, but I'm not sure what benefit it offers me as a traveller. In order to drive the service you'd need to create a market of travellers eager to provide the products to bid on. I'm having a hard time understanding why I would do that on the surface.

Also, I understand why you use the word lodging, I just don't think it fits. I need to know as a consumer exactly how I can benefit from your product. If I'm confronted with a word that I need to define, it delays my understanding of the product and increases the chance that I not use it.

Regardless, good luck to you. I wish you the best of successes.

<comment><USER3> Thank you! We'll need it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> All that work on the backend and, sadly, the lack of time put into the landing page will make it all for naught.

* 7 steps? Why would I want to be involved in something that complex? 3-4 steps max.

* 11 benefits? I'm not going to read or be able to process all that. 3 max, give me something I can quickly understand and tell friends about.

* That screenshot has got to go. Looks amateur at best.

<comment><USER5> Nothing they can't tweak "over the next few weeks". They're not open yet.

<comment><USER6> But they have a landing page explaining what they are, and they're obviously already doing their PR push. How many eyeballs are they getting that, instead of saying "I'll have to come back and check it out when it goes live", are saying "Uh, what?" and won't go back?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Erm... Doing 27'000 hours of development in private, without any customers beta-testing early versions of the site, seems completely insane. Why would you ever do that? I mean, if you really don't have a choice at all, because the project is that big, then fair enough (but in that case, don't do this as your first start-up - do it later when you have access to funds and people).

Imho the CTO/CEO of this start-up should have figured out a way to get something out there and test the concept for at most 1/10th of that cost. Much smarter, and cheaper, than trying to cram developers like chickens in a coop.

<comment><USER8> The interesting thing was it was done in Colombia. If you read the job ad it pays 30,000,000 Colombian pesos, which equals ~$15,000 (or $5k/month per developer).

Which is pretty damn cheap for a 40/hr week developer, nevermind 80.

So it's even smarter than at first appears.

edit: Colombia.

<comment><USER9> Colombia, South America is quite different to Columbia

(sorry, just nitpicking a little ... :)

<comment><USER8> i should _really_ know better. (my gf is Colombian) :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From the benefits on the job description page:

[http://alexander.letmego.com/2009/01/29/very- special-90-day-...](http://alexander.letmego.com/2009/01/29/very- special-90-day-job-opportunity/)

I see no mention of exercise, and:

* Unlimited food and beverages, including of course Red Bull and coffee.

* _If interested_ , we will offer you healthy and balanced food. _(emphasis mine)_

I have to wonder how productivity would be affected if they offered an environment just as immersive, but a bit more focused on health. Healthy mind in healthy body, right? I don't think I could last more than a couple of weeks.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am sure home cooked food by a cook is way healthier than ramen noodles or rice and beans, which is the diet PG suggests (and that Ive lived on for quite a while)

UPDATE: I found a picture of their meals... [http://letmego.com/to/141440/gallery#http://hal.bz/i//l14144...](http://letmego.com/to/141440/gallery#http://hal.bz/i//l141440/letmego_immersion_home_1246392113_lgallery.jpg)

<comment><USER10> Mmm, that does look pretty good. The "if interested" part made me worried.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ugh, that sounds like an awful experience.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know if I could do 90 days, but I would like to have that work environment for maybe two weeks. No distractions, and everything else taken care of. Weekends off though.

<comment><USER12> I've though of this as a business. Find a rural place in beautiful surroundings, fit it with a bunch of high quality workstations, a fast internet connection, meeting area, lounge area and small but private sleeping quarters. Fill the fridge with good, healthy food and have someone come in and cook dinner. Breakfast and lunch is self-serve.

I'd market it as a place for get-stuff-done-retreats for entire teams (I thought of the name "CramCamp") rather than the semi-luxury-relaxed setting of traditional conference resorts.

You're in the middle of nowhere, so physical distractions are few, but in nature, so clear-your-mind/10-mins-of-privacy walks are right out the door.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like it might be a good idea, however, you would have to prove cost benefits.

<comment><USER13> There could be something there, I imagine more than a few companies would pay very generously to trim 7 months from their timeline. Of course the cost of all that white board paint might add up :)

I'm a nerd, I've had my share of overnight music blasting pausing for the occasional ping-pong game pizza eating soda pounding programming sessions. I've even gone several months working > 60 hours a week, but still thats not near the intensity of this. My point is, it sounds like they have all their needs met except for one... for me I have a girl friend to take care of it, what do these guys do?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So basically, you screwed up your scheduling, your project management and your resource allocation. As a last ditch effort to save the project you created a sweatshop and bandied it around under the euphemism of "immersion".

Instead of taking personal responsibility for entrepreneurial, management, and financial shortcomings, you've degraded people's health and sanity.

Going so far as to mock these people who built your product by showing before and after pictures of them in a state of decline and then presenting that to us as "humor" is a bit much.

I'm insulted and ashamed at the way this operation was carried out. Hacker News is supposed to be a community of the forward thinking, not those who wish to revert to the abuses of the industrial era.

</comment><comment><USER15> Add a few staged infights and you pretty much have Hacker Big Brother meets Shattered (reality TV show where participants didn't sleep for a week), with a dash of Apprentice (you'd have to throw out a coder after each week), Dragons' Den (have nice closeups of bad feature pitches) & even Startup.com.

God, Channel 4'd be all over this. I'd best pitch the idea to them quick!

<comment><AUTHOR> I like it a lot. When I first heard of it that was my first thought. They had a ustream, but it was not as exciting as I thought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't want to be that "this would take a weekend!" guy, but 27,000 hours? There must be some hidden complexity somewhere. Excited to try out the product though, sounds like a great idea.

<comment><USER17> Impressive to put in that kind of hard work for such a long period. I'd be falling asleep at my keyboard after the first month or so.

Also, I wonder how this would stack up against the same thing done on a 'regular' schedule. Of course nobody in their right mind is going to do an 'a/b' test on something like that but it would be interesting to see if this kind of all-out effort really pays off or if there are hidden costs which make it less than what it seems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A little off topic but: Colombia as in the country? It seems the company is based off the New York area but all the names/faces look Colombian. Is the dev team located in Colombia?

Just curious since this is the first time I've heard of a "Colombian startup".

<comment><AUTHOR> This is Colombia as in the country. Bogota, Colombia. Alex Torrenegra is Colombian but also lives in NY. This was developed in Colombia by Colombians for the rest of the world.

I promise this will not be the last time you hear about a Colombian startup. (Disclosure: I am Colombian too)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> How do they capture travelers? Also, how do they convince travelers to go to a particular place?

<comment><USER20> Big nets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> So were requirements, design, coding, debugging and testing all crammed into this 90 days?

I'm guessing that system is going to be very difficult to maintain. You need some downtime for designs to settle in your mind and to be sure that it's going to work.

If you're going 24/7 for 90 days, I expect the design to be poor, the code to be hacked/patched, the bug count per loc to be very high and the test coverage to be minimal.

</comment><comment><USER22> Ugh. Andres' transformation (photos at bottom) reminds me of "faces of meth".

</comment><comment><USER23> I really question the productivity measures used in this article. All time in front of a monitor is not equal. Sure they tripled the amount of time they were at their desk -- how did it impact the quality of the code, the abstractions used, the overall design, etc.

I know that after some really long days, I look back at what I wrote and am like WTF did I do.

</comment><comment><USER24> There is no partial payment plan for those who quit or get fired before day 90 of coding is reached.

Wonder what the reason is to load the last payment and underpay on the first 2, more pressure to push to complete the project at the end?

</comment><comment><USER25> "...we are pleased to note that there were no fatalities due to programmer-on- programmer violence..."

Good thing you used a framework. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is nothing to be proud of. I'm surprised they are willing to broadcast that they: \- we're able to convince some amateur developers to work slave camp hours \- didn't hit the goal \- on top of these two, they spent 3x what they normally do.

I can't see [http://about.letmego.com/letmego/content/career_opportunitie...](http://about.letmego.com/letmego/content/career_opportunities) getting many visits.

Just my opinion of course. What would the inverse of this scenario be? A start-up that has remote workers and saves 3x the amount of money of keeping everyone in one spot, has flex hours, and hits the targets.

That would be something worth blogging about.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm not sure this is ethical or sane. In Europe we have working time regulations and that is for a good reason.

Seems to be another attempt to justify start-up whipping tactics to cash in quick rather than build a well-backed product with staff who won't hate you.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> "The Results:

We didn't reach the beta milestone completely, but we were able to release a limited beta version of the site. We are still developing some of LetMeGo's traveler-focused features.

We found that the productivity of the team was also three times higher than usual. For those of you familiar with RescueTime, the tool we used, we measure productivity by multiplying average efficiency per week times the tracked time worked per week.

Productivity = Average Efficiency * Work Time

Productivity Working as Usual = 1.22 x 30.9h/week = 37.7/week

Productivity at the LetMeGo Immersion = 1.53 x 73.8h/week = 112.91/week

Ratio: 1:2.99

Given that the productivity and the cost increased side by side, we can then conclude that the biggest benefits is that we saved seven months of development. If it wasn't for the Immersion, a limited beta of LetMeGo would have not been released yet and the full site would have not been launched until the second quarter of 2010."

<comment><USER7> What exactly is the point of quoting part of the article without adding any comment of your own?

<comment><AUTHOR> My bad</comment></comment></comment>


The Last Post - <AUTHOR> http://www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the-last-post

<comment><USER2> I take my life for granted. I take the adoration my two year old son has of me, for granted. I take my wife's love and caring for granted. I do all this, thinking that what I build today will provide a better future for all of us. And I could be wrong.

I could shut my laptop when he squirms his way between me and the desk and wiggles his way on to my lap. I could switch my context when my wife sits down next to me aching for a conversation. I could spend more time with both of them.

I can pretty much be sure when I say I will not be the next Zuckerberg. There are many things that vy for my attention throughout the day and night. But there is only one thing both of them needs and which I squander.

I do not want to look back and regret. I am going home right now and I am going to kiss my wife and hug my kid.

Ciao.

<comment><USER3> A more profound comment I could not have written.

It is amazing how much this rings true for me. I keep saying, once I launch....once I get X number of paid users...once I am doing $X/month in revenue....once I reach profitability...but this post and comment reminded me...I can no longer take today/tomorrow for granted.

This is one of the reasons why I used to force myself to take the night-shift to feed my 6 month old daughter, but then I gave that up in an effort to launch. I have to get my priorities back in order though.

I have to become more ruthless with my time and the time of my loved ones. When I am not working, I need to be spending more time with them.

I wish it weren't a struggle and there was some easy switch....until then, I have to keep being reminded by these types of posts...I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I didn't know Derek, but reading this I'll miss him, but thank him for this.

Between this post, "Cranking" (<http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking>) and the fact I have a second child probably coming Very Soon Now, I have to admit I'm sitting back and thinking hard about where I've spent, and am spending my time. I'm thinking about all the wasted time and opportunities I've accrued over the past 31 years.

I'm thinking about all the time spent arguing with people on the internet and giving up my free time to change some small part of the world, and not playing with my almost four year old daughter, or talking with my beautiful wife.

Take stock in your life and make sure you're following your passions. Make sure you try to remember and capture every moment before it's gone. Change the world while you're still here.

Appreciate the world while you're still here.

<comment><USER5> This hit me hard as well. I just wrote a post about choosing to spend time with my 4 month old daughter every morning instead of working full-time. ([http://personalmba.com/building-a-business-that-supports- you...](http://personalmba.com/building-a-business-that-supports-your-life/))

Derek's post reminded me why I don't spend more time building my business. Some things are worth more than money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've posted this a few times now, but always feel it is worth posting again when I read these types of blog postings and see the comments they inspire. It has been attributed to Jorge Luis Borges, but many disagree with that. At any rate, it inspires me...

"Instantes"

If I were able to live my life anew, in the next I would try to commit more errors. I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more. I would be more foolish than I've been, In fact, I would take few things seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would run more risks, take more vacations, contemplate more sunsets, climb more mountains, swim more rivers. I would go to more places where I've never been, I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans, I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.

I was one of those people that lived sensibly and prolifically each minute of his life; Of course I had moments of happiness. If I could go back I would try to have only good moments. Because if you didn't know, of that is life made: only of moments; Don't lose the now.

I was one of those that never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, an umbrella, and a parachute; If I could live again, I would travel lighter. If I could live again, I would begin to walk barefoot from the beginning of spring and I would continue barefoot until autumn ends. I would take more cart rides, contemplate more dawns, and play with more children, If I had another life ahead of me.

But already you see, I am 85, and I know that I am dying.

<comment><USER7> 100% not Borges.

The story of this particular poem is kind of weird... it basically wrote itself.

[http://www.reelyredd.com/instantes-pick-more-daisies-who- wro...](http://www.reelyredd.com/instantes-pick-more-daisies-who-wrote- what.htm)

The original version was a (prose) piece published in Reader's Digest in the '50s. Then people started changing it here and there, and it coalesced into the "Instantes" we all know and love/love to hate.

As opposed to "Instantes" Borges' writings are notoriously devoid of pathos. He even said he regretted writing his famous sonnet "I have committed the greatest sin/ that a man can commit. I haven't been happy" when overcome by grief over the death of his mother.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This post made me glad I'm living the life I'm living now. I'm 31 years old -- 32 in a month -- and while my daughter is at school, I spend the day programming, running errands, reading, chatting with RL friends via IRC, playing video games, browsing Reddit and HN. When she gets home, I make sure she does her homework, I make dinner, I sleep.

Every morning I get to wake up next to a beautiful, brilliant girl who's several years my junior but emotionally more mature than me. I have never felt better about another person in my life.

I have no bills, I maintain a modest lifestyle and am attending university for a degree in a subject matter that simultaneously I love and will make me some extra money down the road when I need it.

Every day, I set my own schedule, fitted around picking up & dropping off my daughter at school. Beyond the normal stresses of being a single parent, my life is astoundingly, remarkably, wonderfully, joyously stress-free. For the first time in my life.

Reading Derek's post has affirmed the decisions I've made to put me in this position. I regret nothing, and just about every day is awesome. If you've read this far, please don't take this as shameless bragging. It is a sincere expression of gratitude to Derek, and a grinning shout of relief at the sky that I have let so many unnecessary, trivial things fall away from my life over the past few years.

</comment><comment><USER9> I often think that some people die "before their time" so that other people receive a unique, golden opportunity to learn to reprioritize their life. Thanks for that, Derek, again. (Didn't know you before.)

And yet it's real difficult to make good use of that opportunity; we people are so stubborn that we rarely change for the better of ourselves or for other people even if somebody goes lengths and dies to remind us that _we won't be here forever_.

Even worse, it might take a whole row of people dropping dead until we manage to corner ourselves into a position where we can no longer give ourselves a choice to postpone any necessary changes in our lives. But that's how it works, so can't complain.

I'm nearing that point myself, currently. It haunts me, all the time closer and closer. I can go only so far this way anymore until I have to take that other road and start living a bit differently: start living a life that is completely mine and not partially borrowed from anyone else.

I'm not there yet.

Maybe I need to bump into a few more deaths before I get zapped into alignment with all things relevant. I can just anticipate now, and that makes me both scared and thrilled.

</comment><comment><USER10> You know, this is going to sound callous, but everybody dies. Any one of us could be killed in an accident tomorrow. All this "live without regrets" is just flatly impossible, and a waste of time to sit and worry about. Every choice has opportunity costs. I can't believe that anyone gets through life not wishing he could take back some decisions he made, but even if this were possible, those changes would have their own unintended consequences.

You are who you are. You love what you love. The world isn't perfect. Don't sit and think your priorities are "wrong" all the time.

<comment><USER11> I think a lot of the people that feel that their 'priorities are wrong' are people that think that X is important but keep procrastinating X because "I'll have time later." Things like this point out to them that maybe they won't have time later.

Also, all regrets are not created equal. You may regret that you didn't go for some hot girl you had a crush on in HS, but you probably wouldn't regret that as much as ignoring people that you care about because you had tunnel-vision on a task that doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This post has me wondering about the health of my figurative soul. Not because it didn't move me - it did. The last sentence definitely brought tears to my eyes when I first read it, and then again when I thought of it again.

No, the reason it has me worried is because although I have people I care about, I don't think I love anybody so much that I'd rather spend time with them than work/learn/create things. When I think about starting a family, I worry about how much I'll regret not being able to devote my full energy to building intellectual edifices out of math, bits, and music. But I see most people here saying the opposite.

I'm trying to tell myself that this is only because I don't have kids. Surely, if I had kids, my whole perspective would change, and I'd become a more complete human being, right?

<comment><USER13> I feel the same way. The weird thing to me (observing from a distance), is that having kids is in a way, a projection of those things you're already doing, just in a physical form. But I don't have kids, so I don't know for sure, that's just what it seems to be - projection of ego that can capture your attention, instead, because it seems like a bigger thing to "build" than some webapp.

<comment><USER10> Except you don't "build" a kid, and they don't turn out the way you expect they will before you have them. I've found that their interests, passions, and abilities seem to have little to do with what I'd like them to be, and are mostly either innate or governed by mechanisms I don't understand. I have three kids and they are all quite distinct individuals despite being raised in basically the same environment by the same parents.

<comment><USER14> Not only that. All your kids have quite similar set of genes. And yet they are still different.

<comment><USER15> I think when all things are tallied you would find they end up pretty close to a combination of you and your wife. There are just parts of you that you don't realize are the way they are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I was about to cry but didn't happen. I've been in this position before and I've had tears rolling down. But not this time. I have learned and I know that it's not as simple as taking things for granted or not. Those that are running to their wives and kids right now are just emotionally hijacked by the rush of whatever neurotransmitter is triggered in this situations. Tomorrow it will be different and a week from now even more. And that's OK. Life goes on and we have to explore other things, pursue new goals; and if we're wise enough, we'll find a way to find peace within ourselves.

<comment><USER17> What a desolate, barren worldview materialism is!

In your view, wisdom is an illusion. So is peace. Are not these just specific neurotransmitter configurations? Nothing more. The only 'wisdom' that makes sense according to materialism is: "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!" The only peace that can be gained from materialism is not acceptance of, but numbness to, the absolute vanity of existence and the absence of anything that transcends the merely physical.

I love my wife and kids.

<comment><USER16> I believe that the mind is a product of the brain and so are emotions. I believe in evolution, and our very old brain evolved to help us survive in very different circumstances than we have today. Unfortunately, surviving has nothing to do with feeling happy, and some of the strategies hardwired in our brains to help us survive, actually makes us suffer; makes us sad. The mind, on the other hand, rewires the brain all the time. The ultimate goal in life is to be happy. Whatever we do, ultimately we do it for our happiness. Wise is he who finds mechanisms to rewire the brain such that "it" enjoys what the world is showing, such that it finds tranquility and remain equanimous.

I'm glad that you love your family. Guess what: I love mine too and I'm trying to love yours too, because we're not that different.

And yes, we live in an illusion, fabricated by our brains. But, regardless of what reality really is, what we feel is what matters. Your love for your family is what matters. Your happiness is what matters, to you. And if you don't believe that we live in an illusion, take a look at this image: [http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illus...](http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> My wife passed away unexpectedly at the age of 34 two years ago. The last line of Derek's post made me lose it, sitting here in my office at work.

</comment><comment><USER19> There's nothing here that couldn't have been done before the Internet; but the instant ubiquity of such well-written final words seems to increase the emotional immediacy of it, for me.

I was taken aback.

</comment><comment><USER20> As a kid I spent a lot of time wandering around a cemetery near my grand parent's house, I read tombstones of folks, some of them younger than I was; That somehow numb my fear of death as I considered each day alive as a gift. Now as a father I fear death not because of actually leaving this world but dying before my kids are old enough to take care of themselves. I see Derek had the same fear and that must have been devastating for him, so sad. I pray and wish his daughters and wife well.

</comment><comment><USER21> Cache (since it seems to be down now): [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the- last-post)

<comment><USER22> Can't even get to the cache.

<comment><USER23> Try text only [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the- last-post&hl=en&strip=1)

<comment><USER24> <http://www.readability.com/articles/kj6dgb0f> makes it pretty.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Currently looks overloaded, here it's text of hist last posts saved on pastebin: <http://pastebin.ca/2053916>

<comment><USER26> I still had the page open in a tab, so I took a screengrab of the whole page for those who want the original formatting

<http://kristofferR.com/files/lastpost.png>

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> So sad. This made me even more grateful for the life that I have. The transient nature of life is difficult to come to grips with. I wish Derek's family well.

</comment><comment><USER28> I've nowhere near completed the life that Derek had (I'm only 23), but his "last post" has really inspired me to pay more attention to life, those around me, and what is truly important. This was a really thought provoking post. Take the time to read it, the lessons he teaches are invaluable.

</comment><comment><USER29> The points he touches upon about things he will now never get to see has haunted me since a very early age personally. It was scary to think that the man who wrote these words which I have worried about for years has now passed away and won't get the opportunity to see what happens in 2061.

The final paragraph is the kicker and has my eyes watering up, I hope his family all the best and hopefully we'll see his two daughters do something just as great as Derek has done online!

<comment><USER29> Just to explain just how much this concept of missing out on the future has affected me, read here; <http://gre.gs/post/958258554/time>

<comment><USER30> I wear a Halo UNSC hoodie around and people always ask what it stands for, or what branch of the military I am a part of. I tell them it stands for the United Nations Space Command and it won't exist for another 150 years. And it really bothers me that I have absolutely 0% chance of seeing the year 2160.

<comment><USER31>
      And it really bothers me that I have absolutely 0% chance
      of seeing the year 2160.

With exponentially advancing science and all that, I'm envisioning nanobots killing cancer cells, cleaning out blood vessels, keeping my neurons connected and renewing everything that needs renewing. Don't be too sure you won't see 2160.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Suddenly, none of my problems matter.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm trying very hard not to cry in front of my coworkers right now. A very emotional, great read. Unfortunate circumstances. Condolences to his family. :(

</comment><comment><USER34> I knew Derek briefly on a professional level and knew he had cancer but we lost touch. Seeing his post here was how I learned he passed, he'd be honoured to know so many people care and that his words will live beyond him.

</comment><comment><USER35> I worked with Derek on a few websites years ago, and though I've never met him in person (we lived in different parts of the country), he made a definite impression on me as a genuinely good and thoughtful person. Funny how some people just stand out in your memory, even after years have passed. My heart goes out to his family and friends right now. He will be missed by many of us.

</comment><comment><USER36> Thx for the link, this was a _very_ emotional read.

</comment><comment><USER37> I hope this reminds people, especially in light of recent news, that cancer kills far more people in this country than terrorism ever has or will. We must do what we have to to keep our nation safe and secure, without doubt, but if we could spend this amount of money towards medical research and stop politicizing it, we could achieve wonders.

<comment><USER38> Thank you. Well stated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I'm gonna make tomorrow my best day ever.

<comment><USER40> Why not today? Why not now?

I had the exact same feeling when my friend died in a car wreck. The trick to living life to its fullest is to tease out the beauty in every moment.

<comment><USER39> It was for quite practical reasons: at the time I posted above comment I was about to go to bed :D I had a really good day by the way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> I can't read this, it's too moving. Maybe in parts.

</comment><comment><USER42> Thank you for sharing this. His life has now touched us all..

</comment><comment><USER43> How much of a tear jerker was the last sentence?

"I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you."

<comment><USER44> Brought me to tears..almost bringing me to tears again reading it here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Thanks for posting this...so moving.

The strangers around us, even those we brush against on the web, are all fighting hard battles at some level. Compassion in the midst of our sometimes misguided inclination toward competition can keep us human, and sane.

</comment><comment><USER46> While this was a beautiful and very moving post, I disagree with this:

> I haven't gone to a better place, or a worse one. I haven't gone anyplace, > because Derek doesn't exist anymore. As soon as my body stopped functioning, > and the neurons in my brain ceased firing, I made a remarkable > transformation: from a living organism to a corpse, like a flower or a mouse > that didn't make it through a particularly frosty night. The evidence is > clear that once I died, it was over.

With all due respect to Derek, and it's remarkable he was standing by his beliefs until the very end, he has no way of knowing that's what happened.

<comment><USER47> And neither do you.</comment></comment>