ReText – Markdown Editor with Live Preview - <AUTHOR> http://sourceforge.net/p/retext/home/ReText/ <comment><USER2> Sorry to take this off topic but seeing as many here have developed their own markdown editors - I have a specific use case where I want to integrate a markdown editor with my backend (multiple technically unskilled users adding information in markdown, to render in html and eventually be pushed to mobile devices) I MUST HAVE a side-by-side editor (currently I use mark able.in which I have found satisfactory) but it doesn't have an api and often doesn't maintain scroll position.

If anyone is interested in making available their editor/working with me in implementing this solution then my humble startup could spare a few peanuts, please reach out to me(Python/flask backend, with PostgreSQL for persistence)

<comment><USER3> This guy: [https://stackedit.io/](https://stackedit.io/)

It's opensource and have export hooks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I mostly use StackEdit [https://stackedit.io/](https://stackedit.io/)

By far the most elegant markdown editor I found.

<comment><USER5> StackEdit is very nice, it's certainly one of the best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's the target group of Markdown editors with preview?

I love Markdown and use it a lot, but do people really wonder what their headers and bullet lists are going to look like?

<comment><USER7> I'm a high school teacher, and I'd love to start encouraging students to write in Markdown instead of Word. It would be a lot easier to do that with an application like this. But I haven't looked into it too closely, so I'm not sure what the best tools are for starting to use Markdown with students.

<comment><USER8> What? Why? Word and md/html solve quite different problems, the way I see it. Word is very much for paper-oriented documents while md/html are for screen- first.

Word is far from my favorite document preparation system [1] (let's call it that), but it still has many advantages over markdown,

* Html rendering has no concept of pagination. Paginating naively from html (ie printing from a browser) makes ugly documents.

* Word has tools for managing references and bibliography generation

* Also automatic numbering and referencing of tables, figures, etc.

Those are just OTOH features I'd consider important for writing a high school history report or whatever. If this were word '97 we were talking about, I'd understand, but modern Word is a quite powerful tool.

I don't mean to bash or disrepect, just genuinely curious if you'd considered this or you had specific reasons for switching to markdown.

[1] I've really been liking LyX for the past years, but it might be a bit much for your typical high school student. I've been considering trying out an asciidoc -> docbook -> (latex -> pdf or straight docbook to html) workflow. Maybee ascii would interest you, similar plain-text formatting like md but more full featured.

<comment><USER7> Fair questions.

Word works well for students' final work, but it seems to get in the way when students are building their understanding of a topic. I like that Markdown has enough formatting options to organize a document, but not so many options that people get lost in modifying fonts and font sizes, etc.

I'm curious to see if using Markdown while doing exploratory assignments would help students focus more on the information they're learning and documenting, rather than how the final document looks. I'd also like to expose students to a different approach to structuring documents; for many of them, they haven't used anything other than Word.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks good! I've also worked on a markdown editor since january but it's web- based and while it's hooked on my blogging engine, I'm planning to make it available as a standalone library down the road. It might not be obvious, but the markdown on top is the actual editor. You can test ride it.

[http://ecrire.io/](http://ecrire.io/)

More the merrier!

(Small disclaimer: I have never tested it on IE...)

<comment><USER9> I like this kind of partial rendering, which preserves the markdown markup. Months ago, I've investigated some alternatives in this regard, such as:

[https://github.com/lepture/editor](https://github.com/lepture/editor)

[https://github.com/airpub/ninja](https://github.com/airpub/ninja)

But nothing was perfect for my criterion. I hope your solution will become the one I've been looking for.

One concern is that it doesn't seem to support the ``` syntax, but the <comment> syntax. Would that be possible to also support the former? Also, are you planning to conform to the CommonMark specification?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> You can also checkout [http://dillinger.io/](http://dillinger.io/) for a web- based Markdown editor

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is the first time I learned about WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean).

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

Both plain text editors (e.g. gedit) and word processors (e.g. LibreOffice Writer) frustrated me so this is perfect for my needs.

<comment><USER8> Check out LyX! Not affiliated or anything, just great software that for me hits the sweetspot between Writer and hand-coding Latex. It's simple and lightweight yet powerful and easy to learn.

[http://www.lyx.org/](http://www.lyx.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Does it have live preview? (It's not listed in the features page.)

Also the UI looks really complex compared to ReText. It looks good for people who write complex documents (e.g. math textbooks) though.

<comment><USER8> It does not have live preview, it uses latex in the backend so you have to compile to view your changes.

I have found the interface mostly intuitive myself (ymmv). It has absolutely no problem doing simple documents, quite the opposite actually, it makes it very simple.

Looking at the web page, I agree it does not make this very clear. The docs come as LyX documents packaged with the software, if you feel like having a look, install it and hit help > tutorial

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Any alternative for Windows users?

<comment><USER12> I wrote a chrome extension called Symplie that lets you write and view notes in Markdown: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/symplie/kjadigajmc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/symplie/kjadigajmcobihfbbhmdeljohoccbejk)

<comment><USER13> Pretty sharp. I like the preview toggle - seems to me that keeping the preview visable all the time like other editors is a waste of space.

Since it saves to Chrome local storage, wouldn't notes get synced along with other Chrome data?

<comment><USER12> I'm actually just using IndexedDB so it doesn't sync. I use Chrome storage to cache the license (in case you were wondering about the permissions). There is a special Chrome storage sync api but it's limited to 800kb I think. I'm still exploring a good way to implement (unlimited) sync. Thanks for the feedback!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> All this stuff with Markdown. I suppose it's either a matter of time, or it's already happened: a Markdown literate programming environment, _a la_ Donald Knuth.

<comment><USER15> I gave it a shot at one point:

[https://github.com/mnemnion/marmalade](https://github.com/mnemnion/marmalade)

Lately I've been using babel in org-mode, it's a bit clunky, but it works. Metalanguages require really, really good tooling; the first project to solve the basic problems is likely to prove quite popular.

Note that while I used to think literate programming was cool, it's actually a subset of the kind of living programmable document which Babel can produce. I'm more impressed at the moment by the ways one can chain various languages together with the results of calling them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Will someone please develop one with spell check? Dillinger.io fails this too. I use ia writer but its not ideal for other features.

<comment><USER17> StackEdit [1] has spell check. Or more specifically, it does not block the browser's native spell check in the editor. It also doesn't suffer from slow down with larger documents [2].

[1] [https://github.com/benweet/stackedit](https://github.com/benweet/stackedit)

[2] [https://github.com/joemccann/dillinger/issues/301](https://github.com/joemccann/dillinger/issues/301)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Alternative for Mac users: [http://macdown.uranusjr.com/](http://macdown.uranusjr.com/)

<comment><USER19> Another one for Mac: [Multimarkdown Composer][1]. A friend of mine uses it and I think it worked well.

[1]: [http://multimarkdown.com/](http://multimarkdown.com/)

<comment><USER20> Yet another alternative for Mac users: [http://25.io/mou/](http://25.io/mou/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> They're probably not as feature-rich, but I find the plugins available for Atom and Sublime Text to meet this need.

</comment><comment><USER22> vmd [1] is handy for quick previewing, especially if you're editing for GitHub.

If I had to jump out of my regular editor to write Markdown or reStructuredText, I probably wouldn't be using them.

[1] [https://github.com/yoshuawuyts/vmd](https://github.com/yoshuawuyts/vmd)

</comment><comment><USER23> I didn't find it's usability for RST docs all that great.

</comment><comment><USER24> Markdown seems to be a lightweight, readable, unobtrusive markup language for relatively simple documents.

Considering that, hasn't markdown (or one of its dialects) failed if someone feels motivated to use a dedicated editor for it? The side-by-side preview feels particularly ironic considering markdown's purpose, though I guess it is nice to have as a check that you didn't mess up closing a paren and other syntax-things.

<comment><AUTHOR> > nice to have as a check

I think this is exactly the purpose of having live preview, just like it's nice to have spell checker even for experienced writers. It's nice to know when something goes wrong immediately.

Also, Markdown's syntax spec, while relatively short, is not something people can memorize immediately, especially for syntax elements they don't use often.</comment></comment>


AT&T charges $29 more for gigabit fiber that doesn't watch your Web browsing - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/att-charges-29-more-for-gigabit-fiber-that-doesnt-watch-your-web-browsing/

<comment><USER2> Google could spoil AT&T's party here.

So it's $348 a year cheaper to have the privacy-impaired AT&T offering. Google just needs to offer VPN service to these people for $40 a year. Privacy intact, you save a bit over $300 a year, and AT&T gets to look at nothing but encrypted bits.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great! We need more soft totalitarianism in our faces to encourage replacing legacy centralized protocols like HTTP(S).

And hopefully the concrete price will raise the issue in people's minds too. If ATT is willing to give you $30/mo for your privacy, how much is it really worth?! Just buy this special router and pay $5 a month to this other company, and get better protection than for the $30.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is why we can't have nice things. Fuck you AT&T.

So, has there been any written accounts/guides for folks that started/wanted to start their own local ISP? In some places, Houston for example, you can lease fiber along powerlines and such from the power companies.

</comment><comment><USER5> Save us Musk!</comment>


Who controls your Facebook feed - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/01/how_facebook_s_news_feed_algorithm_works.html <comment><USER2> My newsfeed experience drastically improved the minute they allowed to disable generic this-happened-x-years-ago posts.

That said I think it's reasonable to assume that some further control mechanisms for the user might make a better experience. On the other hand there is probably a point where possible configuration hurts the experience.</comment>


(41 second video) MIT's AI can reproduce images of objects in poorly lit scenes - <AUTHOR> https://www.turingtribe.com/story/mits-ai-can-reproduce-images-z7TJEaaFdhS8kBXjy <comment><USER2> Sounds like a recipe for disaster.</comment>


Quiver – The Programmer's Notebook - <AUTHOR> http://happenapps.com/ <comment><USER2> Having a personal notebook is a game changer. If you don't have yet, I highly recommend, tool is not that important...

I just use Emacs and Markdown. It's like my permanent memory, and it's public: [https://github.com/azer/notebook](https://github.com/azer/notebook)

I even got a pull request once about a note on parenting :) Specifically about coding, the best thing is, I can quickly open a note within my editor.

For example, I forget some rules about Bash all the time. Instead of Googling the same thing over and over, I open the bash programming notes with a few key presses, check the rule, close the note. This happens really fast as I use Emacs for both coding and taking notes.

<comment><USER3> Apart from it being a bunch of Markdown files, what tools do you use with it?

I keep trying org-mode but keep getting annoyed that it isn't Markdown. I'd love to find a Markdown equivalent.

<comment><USER4> i had the opposite experience; after org, i'm annoyed that markdown doesn't support tangling code blocks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use Quiver for everything.

However it does have its limits (Mac Only) and development has stalled.

I've tried things like emacs with org-mode in the past but it just didn't click for me. I like the simplicity of the Quiver format, just JSON blobs with markdown in them.

For me a notebooking tool needs to have vim keybindings, tagging, searching, inline image support, syntax highlighting and preferably portability.

These threads seem to pop up every 2 - 3 months, and I'm always intrigued at what other people are using, but I just haven't seen anything that matches what Quiver can offer, even if it has some flaws

<comment><USER6> "Updated: Dec 19, 2017" Stalled? Everything has limits, which are the ones you found? I am not related to the app, nor a user. I am simply curious.

<comment><USER7> The Dec update was a couple of minor bugfixes. It had been a long time since the previous update, and there haven't been new features for ages. It is quite featureful, so this isn't egregious, but it is indicative of an app that you'd have to say is, at best, in caretaker mode now. There are a ton of unaddressed bugs at [https://github.com/HappenApps/Quiver/issues](https://github.com/HappenApps/Quiver/issues).

Also the iOS version had been in beta for a long time, and was eventually released in attenuated form (a free read-only notes viewer).

I'm not writing this to bag the app at all. It's still my primary note-taking app. But on present evidence I don't think anyone would say it has a great future.

Quiver got a lot right, at least for me, and hit a kind of sweet spot between the overwhelming closed-platform-centricity of Evernote, and the minimalistic text-oriented note apps. And it was for the most part nicely implemented - performant, very mac-idiomatic, and with lots of nice usability touches. I still have ambitions to build apps based on its notebook files, just because I want to continue using it for my notes now, but suspect the app itself has a limited lifespan.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I like Quiver, use it every day, but it's development has kind of stalled/stopped for a couple of years, and it has some significant limitations. It's search capability is limited, and it can't do search and replace. At all. In any form. I had never seen a text handling program that couldn't replace text, but Quiver now has this distinction. If you need to do this, you have to open up Quiver's JSON in an actual text editor.

<comment><USER9> Speaking of cell structure, could not Jupyter fill the void? It also works on cells, accepts Markdown, LaTeX, and code from various languages.

<comment><USER5> Jupyter doesn't support search as far as I can tell, so you can't tag and search for notes.

Happy to be proven wrong though

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've tried lots of docs tools, but the one I've found works best for me is a self-hosted Dokuwiki.

Dokuwiki stores it's output in text files (not in a database) so installation is as simple as unzipping an archive, and a cron job to copy the docs directory to s3 weekly takes care of backups.

As a plus, you can easily allow collaboration since it is a wiki after all. Needless to say, you can use it on any platform with a Web browser.

Lack of support for markdown is the only shortcoming, but the wiki syntax is easy enough to learn.

<comment><USER11> Have you tried installing one of the markdown plugins?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> the quiver dev(s) decided that converting characters/integers to emojis and adding bizarre hidden characters was a good idea for some reason? i spent an hour tracking down why the messages i was submitting to a queue weren't working and it ended up being the fact that i saved it in quiver. try snippetslab instead.

</comment><comment><USER13> Too bad it's Mac-only, it would not fly well with collaboration.

Would love to have a similar UI but self-hosted alternative.

</comment><comment><USER14> I bought and used Quiver, but I'm slightly concerned about the lack of (frequent) updates. With many apps this is not much of a concern for me, but if I'm going to store much of my data in one, it does matter. As such, I've been, once again, working on moving away from this app into something more basic/generic to avoid lock-in.

FWIW, my needs/paranoia might not be relevant to others, and FWIW Quiver is a nifty app. Still, I do wish I can save others the trouble I went through to get my stuff into this app and then getting it out of that.

And FWIW, the storage format is quite amenable to export if you're comfortable with programming, so that's a definite plus for Quiver.

(I had issues with the search functionality, and that was enough for me to move away)

</comment><comment><USER15> Nobody has mentioned Wiki.JS yet, so thought I'd share this: [https://wiki.js.org/](https://wiki.js.org/). I've just started using it and am pretty happy with it so far. It reads markdown files from a git repository every 5 minutes and only adds two comments to the top of each file for navigation purposes. You can edit files in the editor of your choice and just git push it back to the origin master, and then Wiki.JS will pick it up within 5 minutes. Or you can edit files directly in the browser through the Wiki.JS interface - and this has full access control mechanisms in place to secure content. Very cool.

</comment><comment><USER16> I use zim-wiki. [http://zim-wiki.org/](http://zim-wiki.org/) It's open source and uses a text based file format.

</comment><comment><USER17> I use Typora [https://typora.io/](https://typora.io/) which has most of the functionality including Markdown, Code blocks with syntax highlighting, LateX segments, and is more importantly free and cross platform.

It has recently added file list preview and tree view like functionality. Only missing on tags which are tricky because they break its pure markdown flat file philosophy.

<comment><USER18> "* Only free during beta."

<comment><USER19> If the tools provides good value, charging for it should be OK as long as it is reasonable. The caveat I place is that the data should not held hostage.

<comment><USER18> Of course, I just cited that because @trengrj said:

"..., and is more importantly free and cross platform."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Since Quiver is only usable on Apple platforms, I've instead started using Boostnote. It doesn't quite have the same featureset, but it's still a great way of collecting formatted notes and storing them on Dropbox/GDrive.

<comment><USER21> I've glossed over their website and can't figure out if it's opensource or not

<comment><USER20> GitHub: [https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote](https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I use Quiver every day. I really like the way I can organize my notes and projects. However the main issue I have with this software is the absence of synchronisation between devices: I can't browse on my iPhone what I wrote on my Mac.

<comment><USER23> I have the Quiver app loading my library from Dropbox and therefore have just read on my iPhone what I wrote on my Mac.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I use MoinMoin for that ([https://moinmo.in/](https://moinmo.in/)) it's pretty awesome (and portable).

Right now I just run the whole thing out of a Mercurial repo (it's easy to use the MoinMoin codebase as a sub-repo [1]), but I'm planning to do a setup with a container so that the data can directly live in any (Dropbox) folder or repo.

[1] [https://moinmo.in/HowTo/Run%20Moin%20from%20a%20Mercurial%20...](https://moinmo.in/HowTo/Run%20Moin%20from%20a%20Mercurial%20work%20directory)

</comment><comment><USER25> Seems interesting and something I need. But it is available only for Mac?

<comment><USER26> > _Seems interesting and something I need. But it is available only for Mac?_

Yes, which is ironic because the app is packaged using Electron, which is supposed to be cross-platform.

The developers should have developed this app using native libraries instead to offer a good performance.

<comment><USER27> > _the app is packaged using Electron_

Native developers just can't win anymore. Here someone wrote a native application for macOS using native widgets and getting native performance, and all Hacker News can do is complain that it's Electron-based when it's not.

Seriously, if we're at the point where you just can't tell if it's native or Electron, I think it's time for the anti-Electron brigade to come to an end.

<comment><USER7> Not part of the anti-Electron brigade (native is, ceteris paribus, superior, but at a cost that can't always be justified), but

> if we're at the point where you just can't tell if it's native or Electron

We're really not. I don't know where the parent here got this daft idea, but you can be sure it wasn't from actually trying Quiver. It's gobsmackingly obvious that it's a true Cocoa app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I will try to explain why I don't want to pay for note taking apps. Just an insight, I am probably wrong. Why ramble on like this? Maybe there is someone who can point me to a nice app that I can use.

The problem with most these apps is that I can't just point at a directory where the app should organise my files. I am not looking for something that saves my files to some strange (proprietary) format in an invisible place (some OS's app-data directories/online service). Putting files in folders is a problem that has been solved, it is called a file-system and all OS-s have it.

I want to work with a directory of markdown files like so:

\- Easy to use on all my devices \- Copy-paste images directly (biggest feature over a code-editor) \- Proper code-highlighting and Markdown support support and generally easy to look at and use \- Use normal directory structure for organisation \- Sync using my normal tools (iCloud, Dropbox, etc), hence pointing at a dir \- Search based on tags of some sort would be ok, but can't really see the use over directory structure

Apparently the top 2 requirements won out. I say 'apparently' as I ended up using Apple Notes for note taking as it is the easiest to use on all my devices and it does image copy-pasting very well. The only down-side is that there is no directory to point to at and it lacks proper support for code.

In reality I don't really feel the need to take code notes enough. I just put stuff in the `README.md` of a project that I needed the snippet for in the first place.

So I already have most of the features that I find relevant from a free part of my computer OS and phone OS (Apple Notes). Notes works very well, there is sync, pasting images works like a charm and when I really need a small code- snippet I can live with plain-text in monospace without code highlighting. Therefore I don't want to pay $1.5 (Bear) or any other amount of money per month.

I would pay a set price though for working with MY directories, but not ~$40 (Ulysses), rather than a monthly fee.

Especially pasting images from my clipboard is a must have feature for me. I'd also want to be able to work seamlessly from computer to phone to computer, etc. The last requirement being why just using Atom with git is not a good fit.

<comment><USER28> You might find one of the Notational Velocity forks to be exactly what you're looking for:

[http://notational.net](http://notational.net)

[http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/](http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/)

(nvALT adds Markdown support and a few interface adjustments)

Point whichever NV you use to a directory of txt or markdown files in your Dropbox. NV is nimble and lightning quick, and it excels at super-fast search. Don't even bother with tags, just search.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wouldn't a customizable version of [http://devdocs.io/](http://devdocs.io/) have been a better sell?

<comment><USER30> Speaking of which, imagine combining that with a search tool that could also see what windows you had open and which one was in focus and the search tool could ask your text editors and IDEs to tell it what language was in use at the current cursor position and use that for filtering results.

So I press meta + space on my keyboard and a search box overlay pops up on my desktop.

The search box talks to my text editor and IDE windows and learns that currently I have an IDE open with Python 3 code in focus and aditonally I have two HTML files and three JavaScript files open.

I type _date_.

First result is Python 3 date module documentation from the official Python 3 docs of which I have a local copy.

Second result is HTML5 date element documentation from MDN of which I have a local copy.

Third result is JS Date object documentation from MDN of which I have a local copy.

Furthermore there are results of local copies of Stack Overflow questions about Python 3, HTML5 or JS that talk about "date".

That'd be quite nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I would love something like this to replace Evernote, but being able to synchronize my notes between work and home is what keeps me locked in.

Also, can one of these apps add the ability to cross-reference notes? I used Wiki On A Stick back in the day and being able to cross reference notes was a killer feature for me.

I stopped using it because of all the hoops you have to jump through to get it working on modern browsers.

</comment><comment><USER32> Looks neat!

I've been using Vim and Vimwiki [https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki](https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki) to scratch a similar itch. I wish I was more consistent in using it though.

Vimwiki in a repository makes it easy to share between workstations (and different platforms).

</comment><comment><USER33> I've only recently started using it but if you're looking for something similar but cross platform and open source I recommend: [https://boostnote.io](https://boostnote.io)

All the core features you would needs from a notes app for developers. It even has iOS/Android apps.

<comment><USER34> Did a quick google search to see if there was anything similar to Quiver that is open source and you beat me to it on posting it :D. How's the experience been using boostnote?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> If you are looking for native yet cross platform note taking, take a look at [https://scribbleton.com/](https://scribbleton.com/).

No association with it, just happy user.

</comment><comment><USER36> i am using org-wiki on emacs. Quiver looks comfy but mac only. [https://caiorss.github.io/org-wiki/](https://caiorss.github.io/org-wiki/)

</comment><comment><USER37> I am use FSNotes, it's free and with iOS client in beta. [https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes](https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes)

</comment><comment><USER38> Is this an Electron app? If so, can it be ported to Windows and Linux?

<comment><USER7> No. It has a simple & documented file format ([https://github.com/HappenApps/Quiver/wiki/Quiver-Data- Format](https://github.com/HappenApps/Quiver/wiki/Quiver-Data-Format)) so an equivalent could be built, but it's very much a Cocoa app so a port wouldn't be very feasible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Wow this looks great!</comment>


The Weird and Wonderful CIC (2010) - <AUTHOR> https://hackmii.com/2010/01/the-weird-and-wonderful-cic/ <comment><USER2> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1059572](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1059572)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Very interesting comment about Nintendo's CIC from ~10 years ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1059686](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1059686)</comment>


Alexandra Elbakyan: The frustrated science student behind Sci-Hub - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/alexandra-elbakyan-founded-sci-hub-thwart-journal-paywalls <comment><AUTHOR> For those who are interested in analyzing, the whole data set (28M requests, 2.7GB uncompressed) is available from Dryad digital repository - [http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q447c](http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q447c)

</comment><comment><USER2> Heroine.</comment>


SeatGeek Raises $62M - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/04/02/seatgeek-scores-62-million-for-its-ticket-selling-app/

<comment><USER2> I interviewed at SeatGeek five years ago when they were a very small team. I was super intimidated at my first "startup" interview. No need to be; Jack and Russ were some of the nicest guys and interviewers. I remember after the interview they spent a bunch of time talking about the ways they had scripted Adobe Illustrator (I believe) to make the then very awesome, but now quite rudimentary, seat maps.

Really thought they had a great product on their hands and have used it quite a bit. They've done great work building both a great product as well as an engineering and product driven company.

<comment><USER3> I also remember interviewing when there were around ten people, and also being rather intimidated by just how much they cared about getting seating maps right. I've been a fan—and user—ever since.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> as someone who lived through/participated in phase one of the "ticket disruption" to include secondary markets, i'm skeptical this is relevant and really i think the vc dudes just flushed a bunch of money down the toilet. TM owns this market and frankly, the issue has nothing to do with tech, and everything to do with the way professional sports and concert marketing works from a biz perspective. then there's the whole regulatory issue.

wish them good luck, but this is one of those domains that just sucks...

<comment><USER5> seatgeek has an amazing ui, maybe the best ui for finding tickets. That alone is very valuable. The problem is that with this round total raised is $100M. VC's expect to double or triple their money, as par. That sets a simplified expected exit valuation of $300M for this to be a success. Ticketmaster was last sold for $400MM in 2009. The bar for success is now extremely high. Anything below the high expectations generally means that this fantastic product will be considered a failure and most likely sold for scrap. What a horrible situation, why create these artificial expectations?

<comment><USER6> You didn't really counter any of the OPs points, though. A great UI is cool, but not if you don't have any tickets to sell because Ticketmaster already owns the entire market.

<comment><USER7> is the UI good enough that people pay a markup on TM for the sake of the buying experience?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is cool to see(congrats to them), as I too have had interactions with the founders when they first started. Just looking at a few emails we exchanged and thinking why I haven't I reached the same level of success when I've had a ton of great serendipitous moments/opportunities to seize.

It all boils down to pretty much being a solo founder. I always hired or found code monkeys to help turn my front end coded designs/ideas into a working product. None of these coders cared the same 500% percent I do for my start- ups. I.E. In December a Fortune 500 company wanted to become our client and I wanted to make this happen. I wasn't sure if I should make this company sign a licensing agreement or not. An advisers said they should, though I wasn't sure and wish I had a co-founder who cared as much as I do to discuss this decision with. It was a turning point for my start-up and the deal ultimately fell through (crushing).

Having a team/co-founders that are vested the same 500% is utmost important. Especially, if your not a schmoozer with tons of charisma and or a unicorn with great luck!

</comment><comment><USER9> As an avid sports fan and all around event-goer, this is very exciting. I'd love to see someone match (and surpass) the quality of StubHub.

<comment><USER10> I hope SeatGeek doesn't get picked up by eBay. That's a sure-fire way to halt all future product development.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Major congrats to one of the most outstanding teams I know

</comment><comment><USER12> (I work for TM)

SeatGeek has a wonderful product but I feel we're positioned in the market a lot better because of the access to a large number of primary tickets. We can uniquely do some things (like giving fans early access to onsales). Our products are currently lacking but we have many things internally going on that will change that.

(If you are in LA and would be interested in helping, email me)

</comment><comment><USER13> One of the best startup teams in NYC -- and maybe on the planet!

</comment><comment><USER14> Congratulations! That's big time. I think just in time too. I have a feeling (as do others) that valuations may start declining soon to try and head off a bubble. Peak market is now! Perfect timing if you ask me - congrats again.

</comment><comment><USER15> Congrats guys- I know for a fact you have a terrific DevOps team!

<comment><USER16> Aww shucks :)

<comment><USER17> Keep up the good work ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Fantastic team and founders. Love these guys and gals.

<comment><USER19> Agreed, solid humble folks. Glad to see them pushing things further

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Hooray for the SeatGeek team!

I love their UI and onboarding process, and used it to get tickets to one of last year's world series games.

</comment><comment><USER21> So it does what other companies have been doing since the beginning of time?

Oh, but it's an "app". Totally innovative, then.

<comment><USER22> Name one service that does what they do (hint: the 3 companies mentioned in the article don't). And the web site is at least as important as the app.</comment></comment>


Short guide to deploy Machine Learning - <AUTHOR> http://datasciencelatam.com/short-guide-to-deploy-machine-learning/ <comment><USER2> While this article is a nice read, and provides what may be useful tips, "guide to deploy" feels misleading. I thought it was going to be a guide on deploying ML to production.

</comment><comment><USER3> Simple

1\. pip install scikit-learn

2\. call model inside flask request

3\. docker build && docker push

Joking aside, following articles are good: [http://martin.zinkevich.org/rules_of_ml/rules_of_ml.pdf](http://martin.zinkevich.org/rules_of_ml/rules_of_ml.pdf) [https://research.google.com/pubs/pub43146.html](https://research.google.com/pubs/pub43146.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> Heads up : Article is not talking about a practical production deployment of ML as the title suggests .

<comment><USER5> Where would I find such an article, something that explains how I might go from "I've got a Jupyter notebook that gives me results I like" to 'I'm running those calculations in a production system'?

<comment><USER6> Take a look at Google's "Best Practices for ML Engineering" [1] and "Machine Learning: The High Interest Credit Card of Technical Debt" [2]. They are not tutorials, but cover a number of interesting topics related to deployment of machine learning models to production.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13414776](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13414776)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10338575](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10338575)

<comment><USER5> Thanks, I'll dig into those

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is it just me or is this link pointing a rehost of the original rather than the original. I hope that's okay for the author...</comment>


Edward Snowden took NSA secrets on thumb drive - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-snowden-nsa-secrets-thumb-drive-20130613,0,791040.story

<comment><AUTHOR> My guess is that Snowden had admin privileges on a system that was being improperly used as a file-sharing tool by NSA employees.

Users do weird things to move files around.

</comment><comment><USER2> Can't read it. I imagine it mentions system administrators need an access point somewhere.</comment>


Why do I need a 4Ghz quadcore to run Facebook? - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/themikepan/status/1093035372186034176 <comment><USER2> This example is a deliberate obfuscation by Facebook to hide the "Sponsored" element from scrapers: [https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-blocks-ad- transp...](https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-blocks-ad-transparency- tools)

> Our tool recognized ads by searching for that word. Last year, Facebook > added invisible letters to the HTML code of the site. So, to a computer, the > word registered as "SpSonSsoSredS."

<comment><USER3> Wow. Thanks for the link

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Perhaps with some tweaking to the chip-set, you could overclock to 5.5Ghz. Another option might be to use Dynix PTX and link 16 x86 machines together as one logical machine to render the ads. Mini-Mainframes could make a come-back. You could also write an application to load balance the DOM's to a bunch of VM's at AWS. Beyond that, I am out of ideas. Anyone else have any ideas to help this person?

<comment><USER5> Single browser tabs don't scale up to take advantage of the maximum available hardware on a modern computer (thankfully!). I'm not sure if it's intentional or just some invisible browser optimisation.

Anyhow, Facebook IS extremely inefficient, the tweet just shows an example of it. If anyone wants to see some other messed up stuff, open up a chat window and inspect a chat bubble.

From an i7 MacBook Pro with 16 gigs of ram /safari/ to an 8 core 16 thread Ryzen 2700X with 32 gigs of ram /chrome or ff/, nothing I have can handle having Facebook open for a long enough period without closing and reopening the tab every once in a while.

It's kind of insane.

The mobile apps seem to be the only somewhat performant way to access the service. Or to opt out of any timeline features and just use the chat via messenger.com.

<comment><USER6> Twitter is kind of similar if you keep scrolling down someones giant media list. It isn't paged so the lower you go the more it will grind to a halt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have the ultimate adblocker for facebook.

I deleted my account about 3 years ago.

Once I stopped cycling with a group it had no remaining utility for me so I ditched it.

Family I communicate with via email and it's great.

</comment><comment><USER8> How about they just provide clean markup and directly mine cryptocurrency on my box instead? At this point, I'd welcome that over slow performance of the actual content and being compelled with ads.

</comment><comment><USER9> true, meh :-( i`m just using their basic mobile site, [https://mbasic.facebook.com/](https://mbasic.facebook.com/) Main site works on my office pc, intel quad core, lags on bedroom computer (athlon 2) an brings my daily thinkpad x61 to a halt. not a big fan of facebook, but the groups feature is very handy, signed up to a couple of local ones for getting freelance work in my area.

</comment><comment><USER10> > Pretty soon, it will be faster and more efficient to just send us > prerendered bitmaps.

I really want to do some testing in it.

<comment><USER11> It would be kinda cool for all of Facebook's client-side code to just turn into a pair of <img> and <map> tags.

Almost geocities-esque, and it'll still work great if you don't have Javascript enabled. Adblockers can start integrating OCR and doing image manipulation.

<comment><USER12> Eventually, you'll just

ssh -X facebook.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I get it that you hate ads, but having a handful of DOM elements to show a word won't bump CPU usage in a measurable way.</comment>


Spatial data warehousing in PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR>

In the very near future I will need to create a data warehouse for storing a rather large amount of data.  I'm not sure what it will be in terabytes, but let's just say that it won't be huge instantly, but it will be big instantly, and need to scale to support whatever new data sets (dimensions) get thrown its way.
The language will be Python (Django), but I'm waffling on the database.  All of my experience is with MySQL, but I believe the out-of-the-box support for some of the software we'll be using is PostgreSQL.
Do any of you have experience with data warehousing?  What about a data warehouse with spatial features?  And what of the trade-offs between MySQL and PostgreSQL for this task?
Any information/links you can provide on any of these subjects would be fantastic.
<comment><USER2> I don't know about data warehousing with spatial data, but two guys I was taking two a couple of months ago were both working on web apps that worked with geospatial data. Both of them were using postgres for geospatial use and endorsed it over both mySQL and MS-SQL.</comment>


Dow Jones technical error spreads fake news story of Google acquiring Apple - <AUTHOR> https://9to5mac.com/2017/10/10/dow-jones-hacked-google-acquiring-apple/ <comment><USER2> Since about 2013, most, all?, completely automated trading systems have ingested some form of news headline as well as sentiment on it.

2-3 times year a story like this comes across the news wire and its a good test to see who blindly follows headlines, vs who actually uses the headline and sentiment news as just one of many signals that are mixed together to create a trading signal.

Of course since most algos also have a momentum component, it becomes hard to see who has poor risk management vs who is just following the momentum and piling on:(

I remember two cases, one was about the FED raising rates by 2% and another was that a plane had flown into the whitehouse that was published by the AP.

Rule #1 of machine learning

\- No data is clean, no matter how much you pay for the data, there is always noise.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> _Please disregard the headlines that ran on Dow Jones Newswires between 9:34AM ET and 9:36AM ET. Due to a technical error, the headlines were published._

Technical errors don't manufacture false stories from thin air.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like test data (fake stories) made it's way into the wrong environment. This is easy enough to do. _That_ was the technical error.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder where on the spectrum from metaphysical impossibility to metaphysical certainty the accurate version of this headline is.

Sure, AAPL's enterprise value is north of $800B, and GOOGL's market cap is ~$680B. But I bet stranger things have happened in capital markets, albeit not at this scale.

If Alphabet's board were hell-bent on acquiring Apple, could they get the leverage to do it from anyone short of a national government? (Putting aside the obvious antitrust concerns.)

</comment><comment><USER5> People always talk about the perils of algorithmic trading and how easy bots are to fool, but in this case they all basically ignored the news. That feels pretty sophisticated (and scary) to me.

</comment><comment><USER6> Url changed from [https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/10/16453226/dow-jones- fake-...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/10/16453226/dow-jones-fake- headlines-google-acquiring-apple-technical-error), which points to this, but (in an apparent dick move) doesn't link to it.</comment>


How Drinking Can Make You Socially Awkward - <AUTHOR> http://www.livescience.com/39386-alcohol-intoxication-brain-communication-social-cues.html

<comment><USER2> Drinking can also impair your ability to drive a vehicle, walk in a straight line or even to be able to walk at all. Of course drinking affects your ability to interpret social cues. And if that doesn't make you socially awkward, how about passing out in the hosts bathroom draped over the toilet? How about puking all over the floor when you don't quite make it to the bathroom?

Geez, I think this article is stating the obvious. ;)</comment>


The Strange and Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit - <AUTHOR> http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201409/the-last-true-hermit?printable=true <comment><USER2> Many, many times have I considered isolating myself, separating myself from the seemingly vacuous concerns of a society riddled with senseless traditions, layers upon layers of societal band-aids and pointless struggles over ridiculously subjective arguments.

I spent most of my life being disgusted by the frivolity of most people's desires and qualms, and for this reason, I feel I deeply understand why Chris Knight did what he did. No reason, no justification, no particular aim, just life.

While I still catch myself wishing for such a life, I realized I could not blame or reject what I do not actively participate in. Furthermore, I came to the conclusion, possibly wrongly, that a life worth living is a life worth sharing, that society will always be able to offer you more than you can offer it.

I now believe that the solution is not to reject society, nor be tied by its requirements or norms, but rather behave as a free agent, with independence, compassion and mental fortitude.

Law, Economy, Politics, Religion, Science, Technology, ... are, in my opinion, mere relics and artifacts of thousands of years of civilization, localized attempts at guiding the seemingly mis-guided, while becoming eventually meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

These civilized relics are not necessarily bad, but as with anything else attachment becomes the issue. While becoming a hermit is possibly the quickest way of severing those ties, attachment is the burden of the mind, not of society at large. Isolation diminishes, or even wipes attachment issues altogether, but it does not resolve them.

This might come across as preachy, though it certainly isn't my intention, I simply wanted to share my view with anybody who, like I used to, wishes for isolation as a remedy.

<comment><USER3> I've had a recurring dream of building a little shack out in the woods and I've constantly wondered if the Ted Kaczynski would have turned so dark with modern access to the internet.

<comment><USER4> Kaczynski's case was very complicated by the experiments he was a victim of and his retreat into the certainty of his own internal logic. Kaczynski with internet is an interesting thought - though I'm not sure whether I would expect things to have turned better or worse.

Interestingly, Kaczynski is alive and does send and receive mail. One curious enough could ask his perspective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _" I did examine myself," he said. "Solitude did increase my perception. But here's the tricky thing—when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn't even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free."_

This part resonated a lot to me. I consider self-awareness one of my qualities. But I too feel like the more I try and understand myself, the more distanced of the world I am. If I micro-analyze every reaction I have, I miss the point to connect to another person. I take myself out of society.

I found out that being defined by another person is a good thing for me. Particurlaly by people I love. I want to naturally be the person that made people I love love me.

<comment><USER6> The kind of situation(of identity loss and connectedness to nature ,etc) is kind of a goal in eastern meditation traditions. But another goal is creating compassionate people who care about others while carrying that identity-less feeling with them. And true, one risk is that one would be happy with himself and isolate himself. But those traditions know and try to manage those risks.

And i don't think this loss of self comes from self introspection, but more from long solitude(which tends to break the psych construct we call ego).

And no wonder he like solitude so strongly - he didn't find happiness among humans before. Hopefully after he get released , he can find some way to make a living while having the ability to live mostly alone and in nature.

<comment><USER7> > And true, one risk is that one would be happy with himself and isolate > himself. But those traditions know and try to manage those risks.

Sorry, at least in Indian mythology the "ascetic" is idolized and glorified (they exhibited superpowers through their isolated meditation). In what way is this "managing those risks"?

<comment><USER8> Developing various cartoon superpowers is mostly used in the context of being denounced as being of inferior value compared to that tradition's idea of spiritual salvation. So I am not sure if that can be taken as promoting asceticism.

Leaving mythology aside, different spiritual traditions strive towards different goals.

Sikhism rejects outward asceticism... "Asceticism doesn't lie in the earring, nor in the shaven head, nor blowing a conch. Asceticism lies in remaining pure amidst impurities."

Buddhism advocates a middle way, and is against too much asceticism as well as too much hedonism and in mahayana a vow working to benefit others... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva_vow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva_vow) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way)

Hinduism is a very mixed bag. A one of the most popular ideals involves working towards outcome in a non-attached way... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga)

Jainism probably has the most ascetic spiritual ideal among the indian traditions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I marvel out how perfect this story is in various ways. No real resolution to it, no motive, no discernible point. The unfolding of it all and the brutally abrupt ending; "We are not friends", seemed predictable shocking and sad at the same time.

Interestingly, the journalist has an upcoming movie where he's played by Jonah Hill. A fugitive murderer had used his name as an alias and through that, he'd developed a relationship with him and interviewed him after the person was convicted.

</comment><comment><USER10> > _He was never happy in his youth—not in high school, not with a job, not > being around other people. Then he discovered his camp in the woods. "I > found a place where I was content," he said. His own perfect spot. The only > place in the world he felt at peace._

This resonates very strongly with me personally. So much so, I traveled to Alaska and hiked into "The Magic Bus" of Chris McCandless/Into The Wild fame [1]. From there, I spent 2 years driving to Argentina, sleeping out in my tent as often as possible. I'd often go a week without seeing or talking to another person, two weeks when I found somewhere remote enough.

Since then I've moved to the Yukon, where I've met some very interesting characters. One guy, in Dawson City, lives in a cave across the Yukon River from town. He has a second cave full of chickens, and he sells the eggs in town to make enough money to pay for food/beer. He boats across the river in summer and walks across the river for 7 months of the year.

I once again feel the pull, and I'm heavily planning my next trip - 2 years around Africa, hopefully getting as remote as possible. With luck, that will lead into a 2 year Europe->SE Asia trip, once again camping and hiking as much as possible.

[1] [http://theroadchoseme.com/the-magic-bus](http://theroadchoseme.com/the- magic-bus)

<comment><USER11> Ironically, you can also find isolation in the heart of cities. A lot of mentally ill people become homeless in order to find that isolation, that release from social requirements. Yes, you see people, so aren't literally physically isolated, but you're not seen yourself.

<comment><USER12> >>but you're not seen yourself.

I always find it interesting when people say that. When you pass a man in a suit in the street, mostly see an office worker. When you pass a kid in a baggy old hoody and a haze of weed smoke, you write them off as just another PHD student.

That sentence, that when you are homeless, people don't see you - what it make me think is more that these people refuse to see themselves as homeless bums. They are still who ever they were before they became homeless. They have parents, maybe children, maybe even a job that they still identify with.

There are people I work with who, honestly, I couldn't tell you whether they have children, or a single fact about them except that they can sign QA documents. I suspect they would say the same about me. We don't feel invisible because we are able to accept what the other person sees in us - being a generic office worker is an acceptable part of our identity.

Often, when someone says people don't really see them, it means that what people see in them is not something they want people to see. However much truth there is to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Reminds me a bit of the story of the Russian family that lived in a remote section of the Siberian taiga:

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this- russ...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian- family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/?no- ist)

Granted, they weren't alone (it was a family), but they truly lived a hermit's existence, even when they were discovered by geologists.

</comment><comment><USER14>
      The moon was the minute hand,
      the seasons the hour hand.

Guy can write. Once his weekly obligation ends, he could make it work with a source of income as a writer, using a smartphone, bluetooth keyboard, solar panel, and get near a cell phone tower. Without rent and utils, he needs much less money than usual. Order groceries etc online, so he can remain isolated (and of course hunt/fish).

Or write a book, invest, live on interest in the woods.

He wouldn't really like _having_ to write, but he admires good writing, and if it would grant contentment...

 _See also, coding in the woods[http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programmi...](http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programming.php*)

<comment><USER15> Always awesome to see an outlier, and one removed from our busy lives. I can't help but romanticize living far from others (though, in a cabin- for some good eyecandy, see the 'cabin porn' tumblr.) But, having read this a second time, the part that I definitely didn't appreciate is the burglaries. There are plenty of people who homestead (low-cost, off the grid) just fine without instilling fear into their communities (IMO, despite being a hermit, he did have a community by definition of pillaging them to survive.)

Many people escape the busy life and it works for them. Plenty of them blog about it. Martha from Canada: "I fondly remember an old friend saying that he would never live in a place that had a traffic report." Her latest blog posts are a selection process for which chickens get put on the chopping block. Others write about getting new wood stoves, or photographing piles of wood they chopped for the winter. No one blogs about burglarizing cabins.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> You could argue that he missed out on a lot of the amazing things about modern life, you could argue that we are missing out on many of the things of a solitary life in the forest. Either way, I'm glad that he didn't miss out on one of the most important things about modern life: Pokémon.

</comment><comment><USER17> He may have lived in an uninhabited place but it seems, considering the amount and variety of stuff he stole, his mind was almost constantly inhabited by the modern world.

<comment><USER18> Doesn't sound like either the amount or the variety was exceptional, given that he was living off of what he stole. Food, clothes, books seems to be the bulk of it; I doubt he had to replace that tent very often, for example.

<comment><USER17> Perhaps exceptional for hermit standards (though I admit I don't rightly know what those would be).

"He'd fled the modern world only to live off the fat of it."

Among the items: metal bedframe, toilet paper and hand sanitizer, laundry detergent and shampoo, Coleman two-burner stove connected to propane tanks, deodorant, disposable razors, flashlights, snow boots, spices, mousetraps, spray paint, and electrical tape, pillows, three different types of thermometers (digital, mercury, spring-loaded), watches, radios and earphones (conservative talk radio, Everybody Loves Raymond, Who, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Lynyrd Skynyrd), handheld video games (Pokémon, Tetris, Dig Dug), hundreds of books and magazines.

<comment><USER19> There have been many hermits to compare him with but my favourite is Simeon Stylites who spent 47 years on a pillar.

~ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites)

<comment><USER20> Mount Athos in Greece (which you can visit if you're male) still has "hermitages" of Orthodox priests. Google turns up a few nice images. See also this short article [http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html](http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> A remarkable article.

The author of this has written a number of other spellbinding articles: [http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael- finkel](http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael-finkel)

<comment><USER22> For reference, Michael Finkel was fired from the New York Times for fabricating a character in a story.

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

From the description of his book "True Story":

[http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir- Culpa/dp/B002...](http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir- Culpa/dp/B002ACPMKO)

      In 2002, Finkel, a rising star at the Times, was fired
      for fabricating a character in a story about child
      laborers in Africa

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Kickstart an LLC that employs him to maintain his camping ground alone, a privately funded forest ranger. Satisfy the terms of the court decision while allowing him to return to his place and live in peace with supplies provided at a drop site.

</comment><comment><USER24> This guy is more worthy of admiration and emulation:

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

<comment><USER25> He was not a true hermit. He received supplies from outside yearly and brought his own tools with him - minus handles,e tc. However, Alone in the Wilderness is a fascinating watch and I recommend it for anyone who wants to see what living and working in the wild, alone, making your own tools.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> fascinating read. With 7 billion people in this world, it never ceases to amaze me the different types of experiences humans have had.

I also just finished listening to the latest "Hardcore History" podcast regarding WWI. Holy shit, what crazy things humans have done/experienced.

<comment><USER27> I highly recommend both "Storm of Steel" (best first-person view of the war) and "Dreadnought" (best telling of the majestic story of the runup to the war).

<comment><USER28> Just finished _The Sleepwalkers_ about the diplomatic and political maneuvers from about 1900 on. I would strongly recommend Paul Fussell's _The Great War and Modern Memory_ for reflections on the writing that came out of and around the war.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Very nice article and writing - and a great subject.

To wander the woods all day, read when you want,

To be free of all connections, to not even need a name. There is something to it.

Oh ..and Rudyard Kipling ... wonderful.

<comment><USER30> Just like Christopher McCandless, he searched for some privacy and isolation in the remote corners of America.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> For anyone for whom this story resonated, this book is well worth a read:-

An Island to Oneself [http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom- Neale/dp/0918024...](http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom- Neale/dp/0918024765/)

More info on Tom Neale:- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale)

<comment><USER32> One to add to the reading list:

Ordinary People As Monks & Mystics: Lifestyles for Spiritual Wholeness by Marsha Sinetar [http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=front...](http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ordinary+People+As+Monks+%26+Mystics:+Lifestyles+for+Spiritual+Wholeness+Paperback+%E2%80%93+May+14,+2007+by+Marsha+Sinetar&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2Jb2U8jDN5bcoASix4KgCg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> OP reminded me of this

[http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky- writer/fu...](http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/full/)

And this

[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary- prose-o...](http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary-prose-on- essex-the-edge-of-the-orison-in-the-traces-of-john-clares-journey-out-of- essex-by-iain-sinclair/)

Fugue? Small scale stroke? Or just a need to quieten the brain? Has this man had a neurological examination of any kind?

</comment><comment><USER34> If you want to put faces to names mentioned: [http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit- susp...](http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit-suspect-in- more-than-1000-burglaries-captured/)

</comment><comment><USER35> Being someone who grew up in Maine, not _too far_ from there, spending hours upon hours as a young child, alone exploring acres and square-miles of woods - what struck me the _most_ was " _whoah, the boogie man WAS real all those years...._ "

</comment><comment><USER36> Did this remind anyone else of the Satoshi Nakamoto outing ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283))? Journalist befriends recluse, turns it into a magazine story.

<comment><USER37> Truth-finding and ethics in journalism is really interesting.

"The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_p...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_practice)

But what if "providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues" requires lying/manipulation?

"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." Janet Malcolm, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> 自然: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran)

樸: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29)

</comment><comment><USER39> There are many times in life where you wonder if you would be better living alone outside of the regular world. This guy actually did it. I would go insane if I was alone for more than a few weeks.

<comment><USER33> Its OK for about a week or 10 days. Then you need to return to maintain normality. I did hang out on my own when I was younger, but never longer than a couple of weeks. This is UK, very high popn density place.

 _Knowing_ that there are people to go back to is really important of course. I wonder about the rough sleepers who have no-one sometimes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Chris Knight was the name of Val Kilmer's character in Real Genius.

</comment><comment><USER41> Why is that article dated on _September 2014_?

<comment><USER42> The article will probably be in the September issue of the printed magazine. This pretty common in the paper world.

<comment><USER43> That doesn't even need to be future tense. The "September issue" often means the "display until September" issue for periodicals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> as a kipling fan, he was almost certain to have read "the miracle of purun bhagat" [[http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html](http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html)]. i would have loved to see his opinion of it.

</comment><comment><USER45> Who is to say he is the last true hermit? There could be several in this world. We just don't know.

</comment><comment><USER46> "You speak like a book, one inmate teased."

</comment><comment><USER47> Did he not have a sex drive? I just can't imagine an existence like that, without sex. I'm about 1/2 through the article.

<comment><USER48> Many people live without sex (or even masturbation), including for religious reasons, and have throughout history. The idea that sex is some sort of carnal "need" like hunger feels like a very modern one. I find it odd that people tend not to question it.</comment></comment>


GIF Loop Coder - <AUTHOR> http://www.gifloopcoder.com/ <comment><USER2> >Supports both 'gif' AND 'jif' pronunciation! I always found this amusing, just like where you put the curly braces in code, except it accepts any non- programmer and programmers alike. Btw I pronounce it 'gif' :)

<comment><USER3> gif</comment></comment>


Why no one really quits Google or Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/04/why-no-one-really-quits-google-or-facebook/ <comment><USER2> It's not that hard to do without Google, except for search. My phone has all Google user-facing services removed. Mail is on an Sonic IMAP server and accessed with K-9 mail. Browsing is is with Fennec. Apps come from F-Droid. Navigation is based on Open Street Map. GPS assistance comes from Mozilla's location provider. No Facebook on mobile. Messaging is SMS and email.

On desktop, documents are in Libre Office. Privacy Badger blocks most of the junk. Browsing is with Firefox. Mail is via Thunderbird, talking to the same IMAP server. Haven't looked at Facebook this week yet.

ISP is Sonic.net, which just moves bits, and doesn't MITM anything. They're pro net neutrality.

Who needs Google?

<comment><USER3> Part of the issue the article notes is: once you start with Google (or any large, interconnected service ecosystem), there's quite a bit of activation- energy cost to leaving it.

Consider Drive as an example. You can download the entire contents of your Drive at any time. Where do you upload it to? How many services will provide a clean and easy way to import all Drive documents? Will they maintain folder hierarchy? Individual files in Drive can also be shared with zero, a few, or all users with a given URL---can your new collaborative document editing tool be set up to manage that state? Is it automatable, or something you'll have to set up by hand for 10s - 100s - 1000s of documents?

This is the kind of thing an enterprise can pay someone to sort out, but individual users _really_ have to care about leaving a service family (that one assumes at some point in the past they were already happy with the privacy / security tradeoff) to invest the time and effort to do so without data or functionality loss.

<comment><USER2> I didn't "leave". I didn't "enter" the Google ecosystem.

<comment><USER3> Based on the article title ("Why no one really _quits_ Google or Facebook"), your experience doesn't align with the scenario the article is talking about; it's scoped to people who already adopted these service ecosystems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The people who feel that they cannot quit Facebook seem to think that quitting Facebook means replacing it with something else. Most people who have quit do not move 2000 contacts to new platforms - they simply stop using Facebook.

</comment><comment><USER5> > " They are willing to give up privacy for free email. "

How exactly does Google/GMail violate the users' privacy with email?

They process the messages, show hyper-targeted ads. End of story.

But is there a Cambridge Analytica for GMail? Can some "app" exfiltrate the emails? Or the contacts of users?

<comment><USER6> What you describe sounds exactly like giving up privacy to me, even if it doesn't sound like giving up privacy to you.

And then when you add in all the other tracking that Google does of your web history, search history, location data, that is pretty much all your privacy gone.

Let's say I pay an assistant to help with my email. Even though they are in my employ, I'm still giving up my privacy for the service. Google gives us email service in exchange for that peek in to our private lives.

<comment><USER7> I never understood how scanning emails to show ads is a privacy violation? No information about you is leaking to anyone.

<comment><USER8> I think it's the whole _scanning emails_. The information is already leaked at that point.

<comment><USER7> Leaked to whom though? That's what I don't get. No human is involved in the process and your information is in the hands of the same company as before.

<comment><USER8> That's a lot of trust in a black box coded by humans. What's going on under the hood with their Smart Compose? Smart Reply? Smart Labels? It all requires processing very very personal information, and you simply can't vet whether it's all handled securely.

<comment><USER7> Sure, you're trusting their code is bug free. That's just (lack of) faith on your end. The fact that you decide not to trust their competence certainly does not logically imply that they are invading your privacy. It just means you need to trust their competence or take your business to some company you deem more competent. (Though exactly which company would be more competent in infosec is quite the question, but I digress.)

<comment><USER8> No, it's a lot more than just trusting that their code is bug-free. It's trusting that they're actually only doing what they claim to be doing with your data.

The only solution is to have the code open sourced with reproducible builds and a checksum to verify it against. Pretty much every GApp has a free, libre, open-source alternative that respects your privacy in this way.

<comment><USER7> Even that: if you lack trust on your part, that does not imply what someone else is doing is an invasion of your privacy. If you claim someone is invading your privacy, that is an accusation... a serious one at that. To support it you need to actually describe how that is happening, not merely how you have problems trusting people who deal with your information. I don't see how this is not obvious.

<comment><USER8> It's why GDPR came into being, and California's recent data privacy law. We have no reason to have faith in these companies to keep our data safe, or to use it properly. After 10+ years of having our credit card numbers, social security numbers, emails, passwords, and so on leaked again and again, I fail to see how one wouldn't have trust issues at this point.

<comment><USER7> I never said you can't have trust issues or that GDPR isn't necessary, I'm saying neither of those implies they are invading your privacy when they show you ads based on your emails. This should be pretty clear?

<comment><USER8> The root of the issue is that if they _are_ invading your privacy, you wouldn't be able to tell.

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

<comment><USER7> Yes, and if they aren't, you wouldn't be able to tell either, so all that means is you're willing to recklessly make unjustified accusations to defame a company without actual evidence.

<comment><USER8> Well, we already know they require reading your emails to power their Smart features. That's enough of an invasion of my privacy to use a FOSS alternative, and I'll always be an advocate for this.

<comment><USER5> Which makes sense, but reading emails to provide smart features is not an automatic loss of privacy.

Google runs the SmartBot2000 software for you. If you use FOSS but run it on AWS EC2, you still need to trust the software, manage the upgrades (or trust the auto upgrade feature, trust the maintainers), and trust AWS for not fucking with your VM.

We have a few physical servers. And probably always will. We run our own email, but also use gmail too. Because sometimes our email breaks, sometimes [understandably fewer times] gmail breaks (or is not available, such as in China). And we will probably always run our email, but it's a lot of work, and it's not for everybody. And even though postfix, dovecot and K9/thunderbird/roundcube are all fine, they are not as smart as gmail. (but usually snappier)

You need decades of experience to set up a secure email host. GMail does it for people in exchange for showing them ads. (uBlock FTW, BTW)

NSA/Prism is a valid reason to use your own mailserver, but then again, keeping up with TLS/OpenSSL issues is a valid reason to use a non-self-hosted solution (as they do it for you, though gmail accepts unencrypted SMTP :/).

And of course, at the end of the day, there's ProtonMail!

<comment><USER8> Very true! I personally use both ProtonMail and Tutanota, and give my thanks to Proton for opening their OpenPGP library. I don't think the source to their servers is open, but that's not necessary since:

1) you can't verify they're actually running that code anyway

2) it's end-to-end encrypted so as long as the client-side code is indeed doing its part, your message could be sent to everyone on the planet without any fear of anyone figuring out its plaintext.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> lmao, or: it is actually hard to quit these companies even if you're educated, well-informed, and set to do it. Aside from many articles[1] written precisely about this, casual conversations with anyone who tries to exercise their consumer agency and giving them up talk about why it's hard to do.

Has this author ever spoken to anyone who's tried using a smartphone or OS that isn't Apple or Google? "People love free stuff" isn't a sufficient explanation, it reads like someone trying to blame consumers, to say nothing of the ethical implications behind the conscious, deliberate decisions behind each of the scandals they're happy to wave away.

[1]: [https://gizmodo.com/c/goodbye-big-five](https://gizmodo.com/c/goodbye- big-five)

<comment><USER3> I believe this article mentions that the ecosystems are hard to switch away from once adopted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > But after more than a decade of abuse, we should look deeper at our analysis > and perhaps conclude that these issues aren't abuse at all, but rather a > bargain, a negotiation, and one that people are quite willing to live with.

No. We shouldn't _conclude_ anything. The author gives the mass market way too much credit in knowing the extent of tracking, data-harvesting, data-sharing, MITM access (ie, ISPs, cell companies), the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, the backdoor collusion with government and an entrenched news media that has a vested interest in protecting their ad revenue.

In the grand sleazy scale of things, they are nearly ignorant compared to knowledgeable: basing their consumerism on PR statements, selfies and memes. It remains for most of them... A Brave New World.

</comment><comment><USER11> Would a solution to Facebook's monopoly be allowing other companies to interface into their systems and databases as it's more of a public good than a private one people can reasonably opt out of?

So I'd expect something like a company coming out allowing you to do everything Facebook does and use the same data with events and everything, but that does not ask you to give away your data.

</comment><comment><USER12> The irony, of course, is that when you open TechCrunch in the EU the first thing you see is a GDPR disclaimer saying "hey we're gonna collect your data to do whatever we want with", which 95% of consumers will just click through. This isn't a Google or Facebook problem as much as it is an internet problem.

</comment><comment><USER13> clickbaity title, it's article actually about lazy people, I quit Facebook completely and pretty much Google besides search in browser, so not sure what's the point of article

<comment><USER11> I am not lazy, but cannot quit Facebook, as it is a valuable resource for events and keeping contact with people, both close and far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Indeed, this is the very foundation for the GDPR policy in Europe: users > should have a choice about how their data is used, and be fully-informed on > its uses in order to make the right decision for them.

I still fundamentally disagree with Europe's stance on data ownership. If I collect data on a person in a public location, I believe I own that data, not the person. If a person walks into my store and I take a picture of them, I don't believe I've "stolen" anything from them, nor do they have the right to demand I give them a copy of the picture I took and delete the picture from my hard drive. This fantasy world where everyone should be able to be perfectly anonymous and erase all evidence of their existence anytime they want is a bad idea. There has to be a balance between publicly available information and private information. If you are in a public location, I should be able to glean information from observations.

<comment><USER15> If you take a picture of a person naked on a beach without their permission, is it ok to use that picture as you like?

<comment><USER16> > If you take a picture of a person naked on a beach without their permission, > is it ok to use that picture as you like?

Sounds like a straw man argument. People voluntarily upload/submit their data to Google, Facebook, etc

<comment><USER17> Except when they dont: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_porn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_porn)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


LinearGo now supports Go 1.6 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lazywei/lineargo <comment><USER2> Note that my golinear bindings have been around for ~3.5 years:

[https://github.com/danieldk/golinear](https://github.com/danieldk/golinear)

These are API-stable and have been used in a couple of projects for some time, including my dependency parser:

[https://github.com/danieldk/dpar](https://github.com/danieldk/dpar)

Glancing at the API docs, it seems that golinear is definitely more mature/extensive:

[https://godoc.org/github.com/danieldk/golinear](https://godoc.org/github.com/danieldk/golinear) [https://godoc.org/github.com/lazywei/lineargo](https://godoc.org/github.com/lazywei/lineargo)

<comment><AUTHOR> awesome! actually i did this for learning cgo and for my own project's purpose. it would be great to see there are some better options :-)

<comment><USER2> Doing is indeed the best road to learning :). I see that you have OpenCV bindings as well, will definitely look into them...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The title had me excited that this was going to be Go extended with a linear type system. Speaking of: is there a linear C variant?

<comment><AUTHOR> LOL... the name is indeed a little bit misleading Do you mean liblinear for C? actually, the original liblinear is written in C, and it has both binary executable and library file for advanced using. please ref to: [https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/liblinear/](https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/liblinear/)

<comment><USER4> No, as in linear types. [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.31.5...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.31.5002)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Now whever I read about Go I wonder if it's a program that plays Go or the language!

<comment><AUTHOR> Lol the name is really misleading now... Didn't mean to confuse people with AlphaGo lol</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do I need more at bats? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working on a couple different projects.  It's taken me about 3 months to say, "If I had to work on everything on this list for the rest of my life I could do it and not want to work on anything else."  I feel as though I've really reached my stride on what matters and what doesn't.
However, my biggest fear is running out of money.  Right now my runway is around a year.  When I run out of money, the game ends.  I can't play anymore.  I can pick up consulting jobs locally here that involve wordpress + shopping cart implementation.
This isn't my passion though and I'd like to be in a position where I'm learning from others instead of teaching about the internet and why your lumber yard probably doesn't need to be on twitter and Facebook.
What I'm passionate about is marketing, sales, customer support, and business.  I can code in python and it works, but when I put it up on stackoverflow they say I'm doing it all wrong.  I can modify wordpress themes all day long.  So I'm not technologically dumb, but my heros are Seth Godin and Alexis not Jeff Atwood and DHH.
I've sent three e-mails one to Ben Casnocha, one to SpiderOak and one to videolla.com.  SpiderOak and Videolla.com are from the remotely hiring thread.  I've gotten two 'quite impressive' e-mails back.  One from Ben and one from Vlad of Videolla.com fame.  I don't know if they're being nice or how to take the 'quite impressive' comment.
I'd happy to forward the e-mails I wrote to anyone that would be willing to look them over and make sure I'm not making some silly or basic mistake.
My ideal job would have me working with an underdog company making sure their customers knew we cared about them.  That can come in many forms from awesome documentation, hand written letters, promoting our users on our company blog, recording screen casts on how to do common things, and making sure they get support answered quickly.  Generally, just turn me loose and say, "Make sure every customer has an experience they tell their friends about in a good way"
I'd love to work for a company like SpiderOak because it's a niche underdog with awesome features.  Their company culture seems awesome as well.  I'd probably be happy working for a company that sold niche specialty products as well as long as their goal was to change the world in some way.  That's what I love about SpiderOak they have a philosophy about storage, encryption, multi-platform, etc that the other companies don't have.
So my question is do I just need more at bats or am I doing something fundamentally wrong? <comment><USER2> From your description, your ideal position is with a medium-to-large sized b2b company, that has high-value paying customers to whom you can either sell or provide post-sales support.

Consumer internet startups are more interested in:

      - (good) coders
      - raising money
      - inbound marketing (ppc, blogging, seo, tech pr, etc).

So if you really want to be at a startup, I suggest you rebrand yourself as an internet marketing and/or SEO guru. Read Inbound Marketing by @dharmesh and retool your resume/cover letter.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate the inbound marketing stuff. I focused on that sort of thing in the SpiderOak email, and thanks for pointing out that's where I need to stay focused.

<comment><USER2> and to be fair, you do need more at bats.

Finding a job takes work - even if you're the perfect match and do a perfect job of presenting your skills, it's not guaranteed that a potential employer make the right decision.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think too, that I have some job requirements that probably are unique too like working remote and wanting to work at most 35 hours, but much rather in the 20 hour range per week.

Maybe a reverse job application is the way to go?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you control piracy of your products? - <AUTHOR>

I am giving finishing touches to my first course for startups. I have invested lot of time and money into building the course material (videos, audios, pdfs, templates). I am concerned about the content being shared over forums and file sharing sites. Wanted to check with fellow HNers how you have monitored and controlled the piracy of your products.<p>Thanks! <comment><USER2> I'm both a programmer and a musician.

As a programmer I think bits are bits, they are meant to be replicated. I make my software free (open) and charge for the service, not the product.

As a musician, pretty much the same thing. I make most of my earnings from gigs. I see albums as marketing, a polished support for what you could get in a digital form for free. Some people still prefer the physical form, especially if you offer something more original than a classic plastic case digipak. I'm actually genuinely happy when I see my albums shared in online forums.

So my advice would be: provide a service valuable enough that users are willing to pay for it even if they could find the contents somewhere else.

<comment><USER3> I like when you say "bits are bits"

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There is no way to stop it. I think you have to let that go. The amount of money you put into defending your code will be a big loss in the end.

1\. Make your product pricing reasonable.

2\. Invest money into customer support.

3\. Take survey and reward users as often as possible.

4\. Ask users what they want and actually implement new features (in your case cover the missing topics as quickly as possible.)

A good example is Django Best Practice. I am sure people are pirating that book (and I have pirated other books before too). But I purchased that book because I think the authors are very knowledgeable and they do very good customer support.

People will come to you and buy your service if your contents are great. Give up some content freely and make the rest profitable?

In the end some people will pirate and spread free stuff around.

</comment><comment><USER4> how do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

-bowerbird</comment>


MITRE Publishes Updated DTN Development Kit - <AUTHOR> http://ipnsig.org/2017/04/14/mitre-publishes-updated-dtn-development-kit/ <comment><AUTHOR> An article [0] on The Register entitled " _NetAdmin challenge: Go to Mars, connect a rover, orbiter and three bases_ " provides a brief overview of and more info about just what this is; it's not very clear from the linked article itself.

[0]: [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/18/mars_network_simulat...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/18/mars_network_simulator/)</comment>


Apple's App Store becoming a billion-dollar marketplace  - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12037710 <comment><USER2> The iPhone is, without any doubt, a market on its own.

Apple did what nokia, motorola and others couldn´t, or didn´t know it was possible to do.

<comment><USER3> And yet the whole App-Store part always seemed oddly tacked on. There were times when web apps were all the rage on the iPhone.

Only shows that either Apple are just making stuff up as they go along (which seems implausible as the results more often than not are pretty successful and look pretty polished) or they perfected the art of misleading everyone that follows them.

A strange creature, this Apple company.

<comment><USER4> it has been claimed many times that apple at one time said web apps were enough, and that no native app sdk was needed. i have yet to read any credible evidence supporting that claim.

i think apple was simply holding off until they could make it good. a decent sdk for a whole new platform is no mean feat.

<comment><USER5> In the following press release, they don't literally say that "a native SDK is not needed" but I remember the keynote (WWDC 2007) and that's exactly the idea that Steve Jobs was trying to convey: <http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11iphone.html>

I remember him being very excited about their great idea that "Web 2.0 applications" was the way to go.

But yes it was clearly to keep developers happy (or to have an answer for developers at least) and create some activity around the phone until they could announce the SDK officially. The reaction at the time was pretty much "web apps? are you serious?!"

<comment><USER4> as a matter of fact, i attended wwdc07. i waited in line many hours and was in the audience when steve announced iphone web apps. i didn't get the impression then that steve was saying there'd never be a native sdk, and i don't get that now, reading the press release. in fact, i got the feeling that it was inevitable, from the vibe at the conference.

apple doesn't talk about things that aren't available yet. some people interpret that as "secrecy." i'd call it "savvy marketing." why get people all riled up over something they can't have yet? and expose yourself to negative sentiment if it turns out you have to cancel the project for some reason?

when steve lifts the veil on a new product, it's available for sale right there and then. all that early excitement he is so good at building translates into sales, rather than frustrated longing.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do the people need? - <AUTHOR> If you don't have a disposable income you might not have access to digital tools like VPN, VPS, Hosting Ect.
No government program is going to pay for a person's VPS when they are unemployed or otherwise unable to tinker on the web due of a lack of resources. But this kind of program might provide the most benefit at the lowest cost.
What would be the most useful and cost effective (at bulk) tool to give away, that people may not have access to?
If you are in that situation and have a idea, especially one that benefits people and you can't implement it due to a lack resources, maybe I can help. <comment><USER2> Access to education.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I get on top of HN? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a HN user ready to launch my product (helpjuice.com), and was wondering how you'd go about submitting on HN with your startup?<p>It seems like that you're either really popular(and some having the SIMPLEST of concepts) or no one looks at you -- What gives? <comment><USER2> Swombat gives a pretty complete answer to that here: [http://swombat.com/2011/1/13/how-to-get-your-startup-on- hack...](http://swombat.com/2011/1/13/how-to-get-your-startup-on-hacker-news)

</comment><comment><USER3> The links are rated with an algorithm, which equates to roughly points/time^2. If you are able to get several upvotes in a fairly short amount of time, that ratio will be high enough for you to get to the front page, where you hopefully get upvoted more. Don't try to create bogus accounts, as there are spam prevention measures in place.

</comment><comment><USER4> Ok. Did and admin just "put" this post at the top of the pile ? Either that or the algorithm has an an "ask and you shall receive" feature.

<comment><USER4> Ooops.. didn't realize I was browsing the "new" section :) Guess it's not that easy !

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Post something that we find interesting.</comment>


Understanding the Business Aspect of Freelancing - <AUTHOR> http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/understanding-business-aspect-of-freelancing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+1stwebdesigner+(1stwebdesigner)

<comment><USER2> Good article - lots of very valid points. Having freelanced for 5 years and turned that into an actual consulting business with staff on payroll I can relate to much of the article. When people have asked me how to get started I usually suggest that they start freelancing once they actually have a client - preferably one that needs ongoing work. One good way to do that is to quit your job and negotiate having them retain your services as a freelancer. Many companies are agreeable to this because they get the same work without having to pay all of the insurance costs. In return you get a stable client on which you can build a business.</comment>


The Future of the News Business: A Monumental Twitter Stream All in One Place - <AUTHOR> http://a16z.com/2014/02/25/future-of-news-business/ <comment><USER2> very accurate assessment of the news business. the big issue is that trends in online advertising (more mobile, programmatic) is driving prices to zero. native has an impact but its grains of sand compared to the the waves of these bigger trends. the point that the middle is the death trap of content is 100% spot on. i own a content site in the middle and i'm taking the advice in this article to heart.</comment>