The genetics of university success - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32621-w <comment><USER2> It's not as controversial anymore attributing differences of athletic success to genes, but academic success is still a thorny issue . My guess is there is a lot of money and jobs at stake in perpetuating a set of systems and beliefs that don't work as well as previously thought (sunk cost fallacy comes to mind).

<comment><USER3> It is startling how ineffective basically all educational interventions are. I remember reading a quote to this effect in the introduction to the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

"Teaching is a skill we have not yet mastered, save for to those happy people for whom it is almost superfluous."

We have known intelligence is heritable for a long time. Anyone who has lived for a great length of time in a small town has seen this in their neighbours.

We have had twin studies basically confirming it for ages; and soon cognitive genomics will confirm it beyond the smallest shadow of a doubt.

It is a testament to what epistemic hacks humans are that we allowed these extreme priors to be overwhelmed by empty political fashion.

<comment><USER4> Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local solid and dependable farm family, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do so.

The political 'fashion' is perhaps more about not pigeonholing people by fallible means, and more about giving them a chance regardless?

<comment><USER5> > Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local solid and dependable > farm family, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do > so.

Why do you associate farmer with lesser intellect?

Change it to:

> Yet there's the exceptional young man from the local family of village > idiots, who got a philosophy degree at Auburn, first in his line to do so.

Now that'd be surprising.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. These days, running a farm of any size requires a great deal of financial planning and a strong work ethic.

I know lots of "farmers", and I can't think of any that I would consider to be of below average intelligence.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One thing to bear in mind is that university success depends more on being compliant to authority than intelligence, at least until you get to the grad school level, and maybe then too.

<comment><USER8> This is cynical in the extreme and essentially not true.

Doing coursework and showing up for class, is not 'compliance to authority' \- it's just the process - and fyi voluntarily chosen by the student in most cases.

In most schools you don't even have to show up or do much frankly, you can just 'write the final' if you think you're a genius.

The workload in most programs surpasses the ability of 'just smart' folks to wing it, and so grades are definitely a measure of conscientiousness behaviour in the student as well as intelligence.

After 20 years of hiring I will take the 'good grades, reasonably bright' student, who was diligent and conscientious over the possibly genius person who didn't do much. 95% of even eng. work requires diligence, competence, focus, the ability to work with others, assumption of responsibility and a hint of leadership. I've never once seen a 'genius move' in my entire career where the totally brilliant dude made the difference. Maybe in some highly specific R&D things, but that's rare.

I should add: that 'someone is good at University' doesn't make them a better person, it doesn't make the more creative, moral, more suited to a whole host of things, it doesn't mean they're geniuses etc. etc.. It mostly just means they are 'good at University'. Which might happen to be a good benchmark for 'good at being a white collar employee'.

<comment><USER9> There's a reason the process involves compulsory tedium rather than skill/knowledge certification.

<comment><USER8> The process absolutely involves skill and intelligence and most of it is not tedious. Doing a few sample questions, trying to solve a quadratic is not 'tedious', for example. Neither is coding your first little program.

<comment><USER10> Yeah but all the tedious hoops you must jump through to even get to that point are absolutely ludicrous and reveal college as the sheeple-manufacturing scam that everyone now knows it is.

<comment><USER8> "reveal college as the sheeple-manufacturing scam that everyone now knows it is."

Though college is not for everyone, it's objectively not a 'sheeple producing scam', and 'most people' know that. You're entitled to your opinion, surely, but I don't think you speak for the masses on that one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This study measures academic performance in non-identical twins with identical twins as the control group. It finds a significant difference in outcomes between non-identical twins than identical twins suggesting the role of genes in academic outcomes.

I am not a genetic researcher, more of a layman in this line of study. Some academics in social media (twitter) handwave and dismiss this research as inaccurate and they also feel its dangerous for such a study into genes (which might have ethical implications when applied to social policy) to be done without adequate interdisciplinary collaborations.

Irrespective of their motivations, I am interested in knowing whether such criticisms hold good for this study.

<comment><USER11> I feel like we must have done enough twin studies over the years at this point to conclusively say that genetic heritage is the most significant factor for a whole host of ourcomes. Environmental factors are alluring, because they offer the potential that something can be done, through toil and good works, to achieve improvements, rather than the more Calvinist tyranny of genetics.

<comment><USER12> Also, future genetic engineering can be used to both fix those unfair advantages, or even make the inequalities worse.

I feel, at this point, more energy is being spent in preaching things that are ultimately unscientific , rather than working towards fixing the inequalities.

<comment><USER13> _Brave New World_. I'm telling you,....

<comment><USER14> Everyone argues whether we're more likely to end up _1984_ or _Brave New World_. In my opinion, we're gonna end up with the worst of both worlds, and are already well on our way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I recently read the book "Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are" by Robert Plomin and it it was quite the eye opener as to how much the nature vs nurture debate seems to have been overtaken by genetic findings.

According to the book genetics seems to be the single biggest factor for a ton of things in our psychology. Including various measures of intelligence and achievement. As a layman the evidence presented seemed quite convincing. The book mostly refers to big studies with thousands of twins. To separate nature and nurture studies can do things like tracking twins given up shortly after birth into two different foster families who never had any contact to their birth parents later (correlated nature), track the development twins in the same family (correlated nurture) and so on.

According to Plomin the effects are huge (especially compared to what usually would be a significant result in a psychology study looking at nurture) and the controversial nature of such findings made the field extremely rigorous to the point where it is hard to imagine these results turning out to be wrong. Apparently it has all been replicated quite a bit by now.

To be honest I found the book quite shocking because it runs counter to so much that is "common knowledge" and "common sense". It basically mostly discards influenceable "nurture" as a defining influence at the population level. Once certain basics are met, relevant environmental influences are mostly too random to control and much of the rest is indirectly caused by "nature". "Nature" basically creates its preferred environment (called "nature of nurture" in the book).

As I am not in the field my ability to verify what the book says is limited. As far as I can tell Plomin is a very well regarded Psychologist and mostly know for his involvement in twin studies. If anyone in the field has better insight on how to evaluate what the book says I would be very interested.

<comment><USER16> Plomin himself seems to characterize it differently:

 _Another problem that Plomin encounters with explaining his findings is that people often confuse group and individual differences – or, to put it another way, the distinction between means and variances. Thus, the average height of northern European males has increased by more than 15cm in the past two centuries. That is obviously due to changes in environment. However, the variation in height between northern European males is down to genetics. The same applies to psychological traits.

"The causes of average differences," he says, "aren't necessarily related to causes of individual differences. So that's why you can say heritability can be very high for a trait, but the average differences between groups – ethnic groups, gender – could be entirely environmental; for example, as a result of discrimination. The confusion between means and variances is a fundamental misunderstanding."_

[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/29/so-is-it- nat...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/29/so-is-it-nature-not- nurture-after-all-genetics-robert-plomin-polygenic-testing)

The above article, and Plomin, were discussed here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18101570](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18101570)

<comment><USER15> That's what I tried to capture with the "at the population level" restriction. Plomin was quite clear that for the individual all bets are off so sorry if it sounded like the environment couldn't still screw you over (it definitely can). The part about inter-group differences is worth emphasizing and I should have done so.

That did not reduce my surprise about the things stated in the book though. If statements it contains like that after correcting for genetics "the most important environmental factors, such as our families and schools, account for less than 5 percent of the differences between us in our mental health or how well we did at school" and "Genetics accounts for 50 per cent of psychological differences, not just for mental health and school achievement, but for all psychological traits, from personality to mental abilities" are true, then I definitely consider that as going against "common knowledge" and "common sense". Definitely blew my mind.

Thanks for the links. Totally missed that it was discussed here before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What does "smarter" mean. My brother had a friend for whom he built his RC car because this guy was uable to figure it out(and you want people to Race against). These were kit cars you build from the ground up with probable 100+ parts.

Yet our non building individual went on to Ivy League universities and did fantastically well. Still incapable of fixing anything I am told..

23 Page pdf of the manual: [http://www.dirt- burners.com/rcdox/Manuals/Kyosho/Kit%20manua...](http://www.dirt- burners.com/rcdox/Manuals/Kyosho/Kit%20manuals/1-10th%20scale/Electric%20powered/3105%20-%20Big%20Brute%20%28EN%29.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER18> Related article today: [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/white- supremacists-sci...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/white-supremacists- science-genetics.html)

And two days ago: [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists- sci...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-science- dna.html)

<comment><USER19> What some insiders make of those articles: [http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-truth-shall-make- yo...](http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-truth-shall-make-you- free.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I mean if u have uncontrolled add, depression or anxiety your university experience will suffer. Also any other long term illness. Success at university should be a spectrum.

</comment><comment><USER21> When you study the biographies of many successful geniuses (e.g. nobelprize winners) you will notice that many have been selftaught. They arrive at university already knowing everything, because they read important literature much earlier. They might have read books about calculus at the age of 13, read Einsteins publications at an age of 16 etc. . This gives them a big head start and that is why most of them succeed easily at university. There might be a genetic reason, why people do this. But in addition they also need to have access to important literature early in their life (maybe due to a supporting teacher or parents, but also simply by free access to university and online libraries). Otherwise their talent will be wasted.

<comment><USER22> Seems like there should be some parallel education system, which would work like this:

It would be completely voluntary for the student. The student would come and say what topic they are interested in. The teacher would give an exam/interview, to find out what the student already knows (and what they believe they know, but actually misunderstand). Then the teacher would recommend books to study, most of which would be available in the local library. (Also online resources.) The student would read the books at home, or perhaps in a local quiet place. Then another exam/interview, and another book recommendation. Optionally, group debates, where multiple students could discuss the same topic with each other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> There is an amazing amount of fixed mindset thinking amongst the armchair geneticists on hacker news.

Two hundred years ago, the median person could not read. They could not do algebra.

There is no doubt that some people are born smarter than others. There is no doubt in my mind that simultaneously we waste much of the potential of many people in our society and that the median human is capable of much more learning and output than they produce today.

<comment><USER3> I agree humans are capable of learning, but the growth mindset set claim people are capable of learning how to learn, for which there is little evidence.

The rate and extent of knowledge acquisition is limited by one's general intelligence. You can not learn your way around a less effective learning apparatus.

I would also say that we have plucked all the environmental low hanging fruit. Lack of education may have explained much of the variance in outcomes 200 years ago. It does not today. We are educated to the gills. Dweck's claims that we can squeeze more out of this desiccated rag do not ring true, even before you account for how poorly ideologically-pleasing findings have held up in the replication crisis.

I don't think growth mindset interventions are going to do much of anything.

Programs like Head Start have been spectacular failures, which does not seem to be what growth mindset would predict.

Ultimately we are too focused on environment and have no focus on genomics.

Embryo selection will be far more effective than propagandizing our children with growth mindset memes, whose workbooks read to me like modern copybook headings.

1-10 embryo selection gives you 3 to 8 points per generation. This is basically possible right now. If we had a million genomes tagged with the donor's IQ this would for sure be possible right now.

Iterated embryo selection and direct genetic engineering allow get you to many standard deviations.

Growth mindset is sneezing into a hurricane. And I am not even sure the sneeze is real.

<comment><USER24> Have you ever seen the movie gattacca? What are your thoughts on the moral behind it, if you don't mind my asking?

<comment><USER3> I thought it was a good movie but morally backwards. Once we have the ability to select against alleles that decrease happiness, intelligence, health, sanity, and longevity we are are morally obliged to do so. His mother's choice was as monstrous as refusing to let your child learn to read.

Would you subject your child to a 1 in 1000 chance of being brutally disfigured? Well genetic defects that cause much the same thing are more common than that.

The use of genetic measures over measures of the phenotype in that movie was silly. Cognitive genomics will never be as accurate as an IQ test. It would be a mistake to, for example, replace the SAT with a spit swab, even in a society with genetic engineering.

<comment><USER16> More important is basic human self-determination and freedom. I understand these comments are your opinions, but who are you to decide for me? Why should I be subject to your opinions, any more than you should be subject to mine if we disagree (and we do)?

<comment><USER10> Whoever is higher on the dominance hierarchy gets to subject others to their opinions. On HN it's a non issue

And for the record GATTACA is the story of a misguided insufferable asshole violating regulations and probably getting his entire team killed 5 minutes after the movie ends due to his heart condition.

<comment><USER16> > Whoever is higher on the dominance hierarchy gets to subject others to their > opinions.

That's a bizarre statement in the modern world. In the modern world, we vote on whose opinion carries the day, and that is only in the unusual cases where government has power in the matter (because we have freedom and civil rights).

<comment><USER24> Our governments have moved to democratic republics, for the most part, but our workplaces are still generally heirarchies and feudalism. I see what he is saying. I see what your point is though, I think. Even in heirarchies, we are supposed to have freedom.

I very much want to experiment with cooperatives, and things like [https://pol.is/home](https://pol.is/home)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Note that a gene "against university success" does not necessarily have to be related to anything you understand as a part of education (e.g. intelligence, conscientiousness, conformity).

For example, imagine that universities are discriminating against... let's use a completely random example here... Asians. In such case, if you measure how individual genes relate to university success, it will turn out that statistically, genes for being Asian are negatively correlated with university success. But that doesn't say anything about Asians' ability to learn or follow instructions, only how the current system is treating them.

Or if you take a country where women are not allowed to study at a university, or course the sexual Y chromosome will be among the ones most strongly correlated with university success.

So even if you find out that a certain gene is good or bad for university success, you still don't know whether this is about what the gene does, or about how the academic establishment treats people having the gene.

</comment><comment><USER25> It's easier to control access to resources when you can imply, and then systematically impose, some way to exclude others from those resources. Emphasis on genetic determinism will just be another tool to do that.

</comment><comment><USER13> _Brave New World_... it's not just a user's manual.

<comment><USER14> Exactly. We're heading to a mix of the worst of _Brave New World_ and the worst of _1984_. Coupled with generic other dystopian realities, such as _The Last Book in the Universe_ where the elite live in a perfect society separated from the rest, who live in a very dystopian one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I have several objections to the paper and to some of the responses here; in fact, it's really got me hot under the collar. It is not clear that this study can support such sweeping claims. Further, due to the fast-moving nature of this forum and the high velocity of misinformation, particularly among certain elements of the online media ([https://www.xkcd.com/882/](https://www.xkcd.com/882/)), I feel that I must take the time to reply now rather than waiting till this evening if I want anyone to read this reply, and so I must attempt to digest a very dry, verbose work of dubious quality as well a substantial related literature ASAP, and I resent like hell having to waste some prime work hours to do it. Therefore, I apologize in advance if I seem a bit short-tempered, unfair, uneven, or less- than-rigorous in this response.

First, the paper itself. The buried lede is certainly the fact that previous, purely genetic studies based on bulk sequencing alone could only find a 5% variation in poly-genetic scores in the metrics for years of educational attainment ("EduYears") selected by Smith-Wooley et al (refered to from here on as the "authors"). Other papers cited by the authors find values above and below this number, but not exceeding %20. The papers broadest, proudest claim, that around %50 of various sorts of educational attainment (with correlations of 0.27–0.76 distributed across various "university success" variables) is determined genetically, is derived entirely from their twin study. Twin studies, at their core, analyse differences between sets of fraternal and identical twins. Fraternal twins share around %50 of their DNA on average, like most siblings. Identical twins share nearly 100%. Since both members of a twin set are assumed to experience an equal environment (the Equal Environment Assumption, or EEA), then differential phenotypes exhibited by fraternal twins and not identical twins can be explained entirely by genetic differences, or so it is claimed.

However, the validity of twin studies isn't settled science, and ought not be held in the same regards as, say, a computer-verified proof of the four-color theorem or the discovery of the Higgs Boson. In particular, there exists a large body of work questioning the validity of the EEA in particular(e.g. [https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/morris- singer/files/2008.p...](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/morris- singer/files/2008.pdf)). There are questions about whether twin studies capture the actual (rather than assumed) genetic differences between different types of twins, issues regarding potentially-heritable epigenetic markers, and the differences between additive vs Mendelian and epistatic inheritances. These problems, in addition to other sources of error, when left unaddressed and compounded over several layers of statistical analysis, severely weaken any hypothesis built upon the assumption of their absence. With twin studies, these issues seem to be especially apparent surrounding studies that focus on the heritability of mental disorders. You don't have to believe me, though. As always, you should do your own research.

Many of these problems can be remediated with additional research. For example, researchers can use questionnaires for the twin sets' families in order to ferret out unexpected violations of the EEA and unusual genetic circumstances. However this study seems to have been going after low-hanging fruit, using mostly archived data to reach its conclusions.

Regarding the responses, I see a field of slain straw-men as far as the eye can see, and a I see a collossal tower of ick being built on a foundation of shifting sand. It is disingenuous in the extreme to equate Enlightenment ideals ("All men are created equal") with some sort bizzare desire for a Harrison Bergeron knock-off fantasy. Literally no one wants that. Further, the idea that people should be uncomfortable with genetic reductionist thinking seems to me to be common sense in light of the horrors of the first half of the twentieth century. Throw in the casual attacks on public education at all levels, and implications that we should bow down to a Calvinist tyranny of genetics," and I really have to wonder what is going on here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a beautiful little ubermenchlet who just awoke from a nap to play with.

<comment><USER9> About the EEA, scroll down to "Assumption 2" here: [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9125.1...](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9125.12049)

PGS variance explained and twin study heritability estimates can't really be compared, the former is just a floor which will be raised with larger sample sizes.

<comment><USER26> This article, and the Barnes and Simon article it is critiquing, are not exactly casual reading, friend. Are you the author of this article? Could you break it down a bit for an interested outsider?

In particular, if the EEA is not so important, what is the value of including fraternal twins at all, compared to, say, other close siblings? And doesn't it raise questions if a mathematical model gives the same results regardless of whether or not the assumptions used in its development are followed?

Also, what do you think of Barnes and Simon's reply:

[https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/heritable/2015-burt.pdf](https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/heritable/2015-burt.pdf)

I understand if you don't have time to answer in detail, all of the relevant paper is probably pushing 100 pages of dense inside baseball at this point. I merely wish for the folks with, ahem, deep convictions about heritability up- thread to understand that this paper isn't as unassailable as its press releases are making it out to be.</comment></comment></comment>


Building communications networks in the stratosphere - <AUTHOR> https://code.facebook.com/posts/993520160679028

<comment><USER2> It's a crazy world we live in that you can go from building a social network in your dorm, to funding aerospace tech.

That said, this looks amazing. It's fascinating seeing web technology companies branch out into all kinds of other tech (e.g. Amazon doing drone delivery, Google building autonomous vehicles).</comment>


DefiantJS – lightning fast JSON search - <AUTHOR> http://defiantjs.com/

<comment><USER2> Okay, this looks really very interesting. Although DefiantJS indeed appears to be a new and promising framework for use in JSON manipulations, what I find _especially_ catches my attention is the XSLT implementation and what I can do with XML. XPATH rocks! When you combine to possibilities for advanced JSON support with XSLT you have a nice solid set of features for creating data client applications for browsers and more. This is actually something I have been looking for for quite a while! I'm anxious to dig deeper into this. Many thanks Hakan ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> Cool stuff!!</comment>


Designing The Stop Sign - Classic product dev video - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wac3aGn5twc <comment><AUTHOR> This is a great video for anyone looking to develop new product. It parodies the design-by-committee and design-by-focus groups methodologies that too many companies still live by today.</comment>


The Boogaloo: when does a meme become a terrorist movement? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/american-boogaloo-meme-or-terrorist-movement/613843/ <comment><USER2> This article, written from the perspective of someone who clearly "gets up close" with that particular scene, is far more interesting:

[https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo- move...](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is- not-what-you-think/)

TL;DR: It's about as coherent as you would imagine for something that self- organized on 4chan.

<comment><USER3> Also see:

 _The Meme-Fueled Rise of a Dangerous, Far-Right Militia_ [1] and _The Boogaloo Tipping Point_ [2].

[1] - [https://www.wired.com/story/boogaloo-movement- protests](https://www.wired.com/story/boogaloo-movement-protests)

[2] - [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/ameri...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/american- boogaloo-meme-or-terrorist-movement/613843/?utm_source=feed)

<comment><AUTHOR> > and The Boogaloo Tipping Point[2].

> [2] - > [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/ameri...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/ameri..).

Literally the article you're commenting on. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I keep thinking of _Maniac Magee_ and reading it as a child and thinking then that Jerry Spinelli was describing ancient history that we'd never see again.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's really unfortunate to see such an unchallenged application of the label "libertarian" here. Put aside your own feelings for a moment.

Highlighting any connection between libertarianism with the alt-right, white supremacy, or anti-government militias seems as disingenuous as the superficial connection between atheism and fascist communism.

In either case, does the ideology overlap in convenient areas (to the negative ideologies), yes, probably. It's easier to command absolute fealty of the state without god in the way. It's easier to preach radical, violent white supremacist anarcho-capitalism with the state out of the picture. But does libertarianism espouse, promote, or a natural evolution that ends in The Boogaloo? Absolutely not, and it's ridiculous for a journalist not to ask and answer those questions.

<comment><USER6> I've run into far too many aggressively toxic, self proclaimed "libertarians" on the internet. So when the article mentioned "libertarian" in the context of the "boogaloo" idiots, it didn't surprise me at all. Libertarianism has changed a bit with the times, as have Democrats and Republicans. All kinds of bad ideas have crept in, after fermenting on the internet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> and also i think that this idea that the boogaloo movement is some how bad comes from CONINTELPRO or some modern equal to it

</comment><comment><USER8> Boogaloo Bois and Nazi Bronies; clearly the people at the Atlantic are besieged by right wing terror recently. I'm personally waiting for the ranks of marching Nazi's with rainbow uniforms and strap on unicorn horns, haven't seen any yet but thanks to the vigilance of modern media I know to listen for the menacing "clop" of approaching hoof boots.

</comment><comment><USER7> The Boogaloo movement is not a terrorist movement, we wish to accomplish the movements goals as peacefully as possible but we also don't want the nations standard to be a "War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength." because that is where this nation seems to be headed and if our second amendment rights are gone than if a government even more tyrannical than the present administration takes power we will have nothing to defend ourselves with.

</comment><comment><USER9> Rarely do you see a "writer" so far detached from reality. Recommended read, just to see what that looks like.

<comment><USER10> Care to elaborate? This is the first time I hear about the "boogaloo" thing

<comment><USER11> Robert Evans and Jason Wilson have a pretty good overview here: [https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo- move...](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is- not-what-you-think/)

<comment><USER10> wow, that's an amazing level of depth! really cool article</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Assange: VISA is a national security problem - <AUTHOR> http://youtu.be/AzBlfoZfIus

<comment><USER2> Since the beginning the US Government has tried to discredit Wikileaks so people don't believe what they are saying or releasing. I suppose they succeeded, because now Wikileaks now lacks the funds because of that campaign against Assange and Wikileaks. The questions is will there be someone else stepping up to this role now?

Also is there any hope that US will once again return to the "innocent until proven guilty" mentality? Because all I see now is more and more bypassing of the judicial process and declaring everyone a terrorist until proven innocent. That's if they don't assassinate them first.

Something terribly wrong is happening in this country and not enough people are speaking up.

<comment><USER3> "You are free to do as we tell you" - always springs to mind.</comment></comment>


Demand for HTML5 Skills On the Rise, Report Says - <AUTHOR> http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/07/21/demand-for-html5-skills-on-the-rise-report-says/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Webworkerdaily+%28WebWorkerDaily%29 <comment><USER2> Yes, just like AJAX. The demand for skills in what's currently a vague buzzword increases. To me this only demonstrates how misunderstood HTML5 is, as many of the features that fall under the HTML5 umbrella have been in use for years.

I'm still waiting for the cover of Time to be HTML5, just like it was for AJAX back when. At that point we'll know it truly reached its buzzword potential.

Note: I'm not saying that AJAX or HTML5 is vague to technically proficient audiences, but rather, the use of terms outside of that audience is/was. It'll be interesting considering all the incorrect context AJAX was used in, especially since it's much more limited in scope than HTML5.

<comment><USER3> Exactly this. HTML5 is mostly just a collection of standards designed to formalize optimizations and techniques that people have been kludging around for a long while. There are exceptions, but it's not a magical new technology that's going to revolutionize the web and make me breakfast in the morning.

That said, developers would do well to stay on top of emerging technologies, both for technical and resume-related reasons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It would be useful to identify the primary driver for this increase in demand for HTML5. Is it iPad/iPhone compatibility? Buzzword compliance? How many clients understand what they're getting when they hire someone with this skillset? And have we defined what the HTML5 skillset really entails?

Can I say I am an HTML5 developer because I know to change the DOCTYPE and wrap items in <header>, <section> and <article> tags? Or should the expectation be the ability to produce Flash-like entertainment-oriented sites with audio, video & canvas animation, or web apps that make use of local storage and offline capabilities? It's a pretty wide range of skills.

<comment><USER5> My gut feeling is a lot of it is buzzword compliance. More and more I'm finding clients who believe that their site isn't going to work on iPad/iPhone unless it's HTML5. Even when we bring up their site on our iPad and show them that it looks great they still say "but I need it to be in HTML5!!!".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here are some buzzword searches from Monster.com (standard search, US nationwide):

"Web 2.0": 893 results

"HTML5": 91 results

"CSS3": 28 results

"AJAX": 2,015 results

</comment><comment><USER7> Most web developers can adapt to "HTML5" rather quickly. It looks more like .NET3.0 VS .NET2.0. Recruiters may not be able to fully understand the difference and would think that "HTML5" represents something completely new.

</comment><comment><USER8> But of course, you need to have 5 years of experience.

</comment><comment><USER9> I need to add that to my resumé

"good with HTML5"

<comment><USER3> HTML5 porn star!</comment></comment>


List of Hobbies - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies <comment><USER2> Some of these might disclose a WP bias :-)

        Distro Hopping
        Digital Hoarding</comment>


Looking for beta testers for a new home inventory management system (Skill&App) - <AUTHOR> https://mailchi.mp/a43fbacb6174/ekitchen-beta-version <comment><AUTHOR> Over the past three months, we, at eKitchen, have worked extensively to develop an Alexa Skill that helps households to save money and manage their home inventory through a unique voice interface.

eKitchen is currently in the final development phase of private Beta, and here is how you can support us - we're looking for Beta testers to optimize the product before its official launch.

If you want to become a Beta tester simply fill out this form: [https://lnkd.in/d2QNcrT](https://lnkd.in/d2QNcrT)

In a nutshell, the system allows households to:

-Save more time with an auto-generated grocery list that is sent to their email when it's time restock. -Save money by using relevant coupons and discounts based on their real consumption. -Be notified when items are running out or about to expire, and stop wasting food.

All this good can be controlled from your Alexa app when you're out, or at home using simple voice commands such as:

"Alexa, how many bananas do I have in my kitchen?" "Alexa, how much milk is left in my kitchen?"

Appreciate your support!</comment>


TinyKeep - AI Focused Gaming - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phidinh/tinykeep

<comment><USER2> It's really interesting to see the focus on AI because those dumb monsters is really what makes games like Diablo 3 so mindless in the long run.

I would support, but developing a new game in Flash/Air is keeping me from considering it - since it does not support my platform.</comment>


Ask HN: What's the Stripe Atlas for existing businesses? - <AUTHOR> Stripe Atlas has been described as the "easy button" for forming a company. It helps you incorporate in Delaware, file taxes, etc.
I did all that by hand starting out. Although it was a good way to learn, I fear I've missed things. I'd love to have someone else managing the legal and tax side of things...especially now that I've sold my software to other states, so my situation is getting more complicated.
Is there an Atlas-like experience that takes on existing businesses? <comment><USER2> Find a local small business CPA to handle your taxes and to review your books etc. It is not that expensive and is so worth it in the end. For a small business starting out you don't need some huge firm with 100's of employees or that is super sophisticated, just find a few good local CPAs that work with small businesses and interview them to find one you mesh with. Sometimes getting the first full non-audit review (and definitely a full audit) can be a little expensive if you've never had it done and have a few years of history, but it doesn't have to be if you do it early enough. They can also review your state nexus as well to make sure you are compliant in every state etc. Usually they can point out common issues in corporate governance as well which is helpful. Of course, if you do good you will out grow them but that is ok, at least you won't have broke the bank to start.

Outside of that (and depending on your current success & needs), there are CFO consulting services that do this work and much more. Of course, most of them work in small teams and are more strategic to support businesses that are say 20-30+ employees.</comment>


A Manager's Manifesto - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/be5f6b118084 <comment><USER2> I wish more managers recognised points 1 and 4.</comment>


Last in Beauty Contests May Be First on Tracks - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/automobiles/last-in-beauty-contests-may-be-first-on-tracks.html?hpw

<comment><USER2> The point about Formula One no longer developing technology for other cars is inaccurate. Recent major rule changes (like the introduction of KERS and the ban on in-race refueling) have been specifically intended to force the teams to focus on developing technologies for making more efficient vehicles. Cool design, though.

<comment><USER3> Formula 1 has never driven production automobiles. Practically every first used in f1 isn't or came from outside the automotive industry. I suppose this car is quite disruptive as it too follows no rules nor regulations.

<comment><USER4> as I understand it, the point isn't that they drive cars that approximate production automobiles. But rather that the technology the teams develop to come up with competitive advantages (lightweight-yet-strong materials, power from limited displacement volume, aerodynamic improvements, etc.) will be useful to production cars. The point that others are making is that the F1 rules are now so stringent that teams are not rewarded for coming up with these types of massive improvements and are limited to tiny tweaks.

<comment><USER5> But those tiny _tweaks_ are not tiny at all. Realize that there are very smart teams of engineers. If one team manages to get a bit ahead, it means that they are putting huge resources on the _small tweak_. Add up a couple of small tweaks and you end up with a new technology altogether. Formula 1 is about engineering. Ferrari is one of the leading teams in terms of getting new technology introduced to the real world. When production Ferrari cars started to have paddles behind the wheels, and people wanted them in other luxury cars, what do you think happened? Nowdays, even my daughters Power Wheels has paddles. But realize that those paddles were engineered into reality because engineers wanted to save space, time, and weight. Little tweaks that combined into a new way to shift gears.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Title should be corrected to 'ALMS/LeMans racecar' - not 'Indy 500'...

The following video goes over some of the more interesting technical bits from one of the engineers (6m38s in): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_INdbXMqsw&t=6m38s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_INdbXMqsw&t=6m38s)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks

<comment><USER7> Looks like whatever the title was, an overzealous mod changed it to match the article title, which has no meaning out of context. I thought this would be about some biological study when I clicked on it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Pedantry über alles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I saw it race at Atlanta recently. I was very surprised in the cars outright speed. Only a couple tenths off of the fastest P2 car! The two things I noticed about the car was how unstable it looked at turn in. The car rotates a lot compared to other prototypes. Quite scary on the high speed stuff. Also, the tin top drivers complained about not being able to see the car in their mirrors (very small frontal area). In fact a Gt car turned into him whilst being overtaken going under the bridge and the crash was scary.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW7qaG9K2_c>

<comment><USER9> It's an odd situation, I can kind of understand where the Porsche driver was coming from, it's ridiculously hard to see the car in mirrors, but he came off such an asshat from the incident _he_ caused it spoilt his point slightly.

It does look like it shouldn't corner though, yet at LeMans it seemed to power through them pretty smoothly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> There was a guy who designed/built racecars by the name of Colin Chapman founder of Lotus Cars (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Chapman>) One of the ethos he had was "add lightness". Every additional piece of weight is more kg's to stop, to turn, to accelerate. It's no surprise this thing is fast as hell. The first thing I thought of when I saw the Delta Wing - Colin would be proud.

It will likely be banned. It will likely have polarising opinions about it. However one thing is for sure, it will prompt people to think different which is what the motorsport industry will need. Grass roots different approaches to make things more efficent. I applaud it.

Personally I went for a drive of the modern day replica of one of Colins original designs - a Lotus Super 7(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Seven>). In a 2L Honda engined version of one in New Zealand (called a Fraser), absolutely staggering performance (around 400hp per metric tonne). Got out all wobbly at the knees. The last time I'd seen that level of performance was in 500-600hp TT V6 engines in big Japanese sports cars, and that is a _lot_ of fuel and rubber up in smoke. Really does make you think, what is necessary in a vehicle? All the climate controls, sound deadening, sound system, power windows... the whole lot is more to move.

Very analgous to systems design, every additional feature, piece of code is more movement within a system. Interesting architectural lessons.

<comment><USER11> I don't see why it would be banned. F1 is all about pushing technology to the limit. In fact, the DeltaWing did not qualify for the 24 hours of lemans but it was provisionally invited to compete due to it's radical design.

<comment><USER12> F1 is more about advertising than about pushing technology to the limit.

It would be trivial for all tesms to build much faster F1 cars. Lots of technological innovations got banned because they made racing too dull or too fast. Examples are turbo engines with engines at are equal in size to non- turbo engines, the 'use a vacuum pump to suck the car to the ground in corners' trick, the 'electronic gear switching' trick, variable angle wings, and KERS (allowed, but drivers cannot use it as often as they want)

<comment><USER11> To say that advertising revenue is the dominant force driving the regulation of F1 innovation is simply untrue. When it comes to limiting the speed of the cars, driver and spectator safety is the primary concern. If you talk to the engineers and drivers they are in F1 for only one reason - to be faster than everybody else. The fact that regulations exist is a part of racing. Doesn't stop cars from going faster every year. F1 is the most technologically innovative sport in existence today.

<comment><USER12> Tht drivers and engineers are in it to be faster says nothing about the sport; they aren't the ones paying the bill. Looking at the bills, I notice that many new regulations are cost-cutting measures (limiting testing time, limiting the number of engines used in a season) that are, AFAICT, solely aimed at leveling the playing field, so that races become more attractive, giving more teams a chance to compete, rather than to take part.

We also have ([http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/06/sport/motorsport/motorspor...](http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/06/sport/motorsport/motorsport-f1-ferrari- future-massa/index.html)) Ferrari complaining

 _""If Formula 1 is not any more an extreme technology competition, where the technology can be transferred to the road car, maybe we can see Formula 1 without Ferrari,"_

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The author keeps referring to the incident in practice before the Petit Lemans as if it was the Porsche driver's fault for the incident. Its quite apparent that the Delta Wing's line is way off on the pass if he expects the Porsche to be able to make turn 12. When you see in the video that Porsche turns in he would barely be able to have made turn 12, the Delta Wing left him no room and it looks like the Delta Wing driver was aiming for the motorcycle course not the car course which sweeps right from under the tunnel.

<comment><USER8> The accident was just a racing incident IMO. The Delta was taking the normal line a prototype would take to get around a slower GT car. The GT oversteered at the exit of the right hander (you can watch his front tires as he tries to save it) and collected the Delta. What I found to be crappy was the GT driver flipping off the Delta driver after the collision. He also never went over to talk to Gunnar afterwards (Once of those unwritten rules in racing).

<http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/29499/porsche.jpg>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The author keeps calling it ugly, but to me it looks f-in sweet!

</comment><comment><USER15> What totally crap photos that don't show the dimensions/structure well at all. And only two of them.

<comment><USER16> There's a slideshow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> So less drag and less weight, but also less front-end downforce and contact area.

My amateur understanding is that this is essentially a compromise between road car and dragster, optimized for straights and low-speed cornering.

<comment><USER8> It makes plenty of downforce. Prototypes these days make a great chunk of downforce from the underbody. I watched it go through turn 1 (130mph+ at turn in) at Atlanta, the car was very fast. Now I am bummed I did not break out the radar detector to compare speeds.</comment></comment>


Marvel sends C&D to TechCrunch - demands TechCrunch/CrunchGear Iron Man Screening Shut Down - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/oh-my-god/

<comment><USER2> I'm going to get downmodded, but what is this? Did Hacker News become TechCrunch's official RSS feed?

<comment><USER3> Andrew, I think Mark posted this because he knows that so much of the Hacker News community is San Francisco-based and/or Iron Man fans.

You've been around HN way longer than I have, so I'm sure you're comment is made from displeasure at a declining quality of submissions. But that's best addressed by submitting more quality content yourself, discussing how to improve submissions in general with other HN members (#startups on irc.freenode.net is awesome), and simply not up-voting submissions you don't like.

So much of TechCrunch is crap that I don't subscribe to their own RSS feed; I'd rather see the good content, interesting news, and occasionally news- worthy righteous outrage it produces come through a smart filter like Hacker News.

<comment><USER2> > Hacker News community is San Francisco-based and/or Iron Man fans.

I understand your position. My only concern is that every time I look, there's a new TechCrunch article on either the New page or the Homepage. You can't tell me that these are all news-worthy, and if they are, TechCrunch should provide a "these stories are not crap" feed that individuals in the Hacker News community can subscribe too.

I don't wanna bring up "the golden days" of reddit, but I'm going to anyway. There was a time when everyone XKCD comic was posted to reddit mostly for karma. I feel as though someone discovered TechCrunch as an "instakarma lottery game," and scratches it off every now and then.

Perhaps I shouldn't have complained, (I don't like complainers either) but my point was made when 3 TechCrunch articles appeared on the "New" page. The fact that I choose to complain in the IronMan had nothing to do with the fact that it was about IronMan (I can't wait to see it), but more the fact that it was the last one of the 3 submitted.

EDIT: as of this posting there are 4 articles on the "New" page.

<comment><USER4> There is no way or reason to stop Techcrunch articles from appearing on the new page. They cover news particularly relevant to this audience.

<comment><USER2> > There is no way or reason to stop Techcrunch articles from appearing on the > new page.

Well, of course there's a way.

As far as reasons go, you're right. Most of them are on topic. But my guess is that if I submitted the on topic Slashdot posts, I'd get flamed, because there would be lots of them, and people would say the same things I've said. I'm done with any more discussion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> snip:

Update 2: Just for the record, we began the whole process by calling the group sales phone number on the official Iron Man movie site, and _worked directly with Paramount on the screening_.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it possible to get asylum for developers? - <AUTHOR>

As you know russians dropped about 6k military force units to Ukraine, and soon the can start to show some aggression. And for me as a developer(and I think for lots of people there) this situation seems very scary, and I'm starting to look some variants of relocation from Ukraine to some peaceful place and maybe to work remotely or to find place where I can be hired. How to do you think, what can be an optimal solution for this case? <comment><USER2> I work at a company in Amsterdam that employs a lot of non-natives (myself included) including several Russians & Ukrainians. I don't think it would be appropriate to name-drop the company given the topic, but contact me if you're interested.

Anyway, given my admittedly somewhat limited knowledge of immigration law I don't think what you want to be looking at _at all_ is getting asylum somewhere. That's going to be a process that's a _giant pain in the ass_ anywhere in the world.

There's also lots of major caveats with getting asylum, generally to do with you or your ethnic/social group being specifically discriminated against or otherwise in danger. You're generally not going to get asylum just because you don't like the general security situation in your country of residence. If that was the case the first world would pretty much grant blanked asylum to millions to billions of people living in the failed states of the world.

If you have a specialist skill such as being a developer a much better and quicker path to emigrating is to get a work visa somewhere, and go from there to potentially getting a permanent residence permit or even citizenship

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the comment, could you tell please, what kind of projects do you have in your company? Do they have ruby or rails positions, or frontend-based positions open?

<comment><USER2> I work at Booking.com. We don't use RoR but yeah, we have plenty of frontend positions open: [https://workingatbooking.com](https://workingatbooking.com) I'm also happy to answer any of your questions, my E-Mail contact is in my profile.

But aside from where I work more generally there's lots of companies in more stable countries in Europe (or elsewhere) that would be willing to hire a competent developer of whatever skills you might have.

I just wanted to point out to you that you'd have a _much_ easier time if you could get a work visa and work your way towards permanent residence or citizenship than starting out trying to request asylum.

<comment><USER3> > I don't think it would be appropriate to name-drop the company given the > topic

Next response:

> I work at Booking.com

Wat? Sorry, things like this really stick out to me, and I thought it was odd. I have no opinion you choosing to, or not to, reveal your employer.

<comment><USER2> I wasn't expecting a follow-up question to be a question about the company I was working at in particular. I mainly replied to give some (admittedly amateur) general advice on seeking asylum v.s. pursuing a work visa.

Since he did ask what projects we have at the company that I happen to work at I thought it was simpler just to mention where I work.

We have a lot of promotion & hiring material online, and it's way easier just to mention where I work and have the OP check that out than for me to write up some some long-winded description of what the company does, all the while trying not to mention what company I'm talking about.

It's not like there's that many companies in Amsterdam that run online hotel booking websites. So any interested reader could infer what company I was talking about anyway if I were to describe what sort of projects we work on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Many other-than-rich countries have permissive visa programs for people who have job offers: Brazil, India, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and others. I've heard the market for developers in Brazil is pretty hot right now.

Getting a work permit will almost certainly be easier than being granted asylum. That said, most civilized countries won't deport people to a war zone [1]. So, if you happen to be in such a country when a shooting war breaks out then you may be able to stay for the duration.

[1] for example: [http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected- status...](http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status- deferred-enforced-departure/temporary-protected-status)

</comment><comment><USER5> Wow. I hope that you and your family are all right.

I would doubt that there is a asylum process specific for developers, at least for asylum in the U.S. (in that I would doubt that the USFG discriminates between developer and non-developer applicants.) It does seem like, again, in the U.S., the process still faces some kinks [1].

However, I know that there is a plethora of nation-states which recognize the universal right of asylum. I would suggest that, should you or your family ever be in a position in which you feel that you will face prosecution (even persecution, maybe?), you should actively research the possibility of attaining asylum.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#United_States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#United_States)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, guys, for the feedback, maybe asylum isn't suitable solution for me. I have no experience in these issues, I just wan't to securely write code and having fun. I have a pretty nice job here in Ukraine but I'm afraid that soon that it is possible to lost everything. So just looking for some variants to save myself and family from this possible hell.

</comment><comment><USER6> By making every problem sound specific to developers, its presence on Hacker News can be justified. Developers are also people, so yes, you _can_ get asylum.

</comment><comment><USER7> Consider Poland?

<comment> a-saleh I am not sure about long-stay-working visa permits for Ukrainians in Poland, but I know that for Czech republic, it can take up to several months to have all the burocracy in order.

I know this, because I work for a large multi-national, and my boss always complains when he has to deal with relocating people from non EU countries to Czech republic.

On the other hand, it happens reasonably often, in two years we hired several people from Armenia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Getting out of harm's way is a wise choice. Don't count on getting asylum though.

Your destination would depend on how much money you've got saved up, of course. But if you want to live cheaply, Vietnam might be a good option. It's supposedly easy to get a long-term visa there (I got six months in 2011), and cost of living is low. I believe applying for a visa through an agent is the typical (or only?) way, but it shouldn't take more than a week or two. You can find these agents on the Internet. Mine wanted the money transferred through Western Union, I believe.

Ho Chi Minh City would probably be a good choice, there's some startup culture going on, and you could even find a Westerner there who could employ you.

Just go for it, and good luck!</comment>


Ask HN: Does this product exist - <AUTHOR> Hi.<p>I'm transcribing some audio dialog in a video  ( I'm not a transcriber so I'm slow) and to do it I am running camtasia video editing software on Windows 8 and then toggling between that and Microsoft wordpad to type the transcription. The problem is that I have to toggle between windows to pause the video while I type. I would like to have an app that lets me have a "learn " feature where I can use the key commands of two apps running at the same time so I don't have to toggle back and forth. This would allow me to play the video and type and then pause the video while staying in the microsoft wordpad. <comment><USER2> You might want to check out autohotkey. You could maybe create a keyboard macro that alt-tabs, pauses the video, then alt-tabs again. [http://www.autohotkey.com/](http://www.autohotkey.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> This looks interesting. Bookmarked

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> One alternative solution: if you have a keyboard with media keys, the "pause" key should pause and play media player irrespective of the application that has focus. Same for the rewind/fast-forward keys.

Another alternative: use integrated software that includes media playback plus text editing, like F4: [http://www.audiotranskription.de/english/f4.htm](http://www.audiotranskription.de/english/f4.htm)

<comment><AUTHOR> I forgot to mention I'm using Camtasia to edit video in conjunction with the transcription, so this is a video that is cut into pieces. I'm doing a bunch of things at once including editing so the idea was to stay in Camtasia. I suppose I could just export the entire thing and do the transcription while having windows media player open and using it instead. Thanks.

<comment><USER3> Is this for something other than captioning? Because Camtasia has captioning support, and supports providing transcripts, or using speech recognition to help you create and edit it. [http://blogs.techsmith.com/tips-how-tos/easy- methods-for-cre...](http://blogs.techsmith.com/tips-how-tos/easy-methods-for- creating-caption-tracks-in-camtasia-studio-8/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't bother to check the docs as I didn't think this would be a feature. I assumed it would require manually typing out the captions.

Problem solved :)

*Edit

Problem not solved. It works so poorly that I am better off just typing it out manually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> this might help: [http://digitalwalt.com/always-on-top-free-app-to-keep- favori...](http://digitalwalt.com/always-on-top-free-app-to-keep-favorite- windows-always-on-top/)</comment>


[Website] hid my job application from an employer? - <AUTHOR>

I've been browsing jobs for some time on a certain website and today I found some convincing information that it hid at least one of my job applications from a potential employer.
Notice: The story below is entirely anecdotal. I don't see any feasible way of collecting evidence, so I will not identify the website.
I created my account a few months ago on [Website], but had absolutely zero follow ups to my job applications.
[Website] offered me to sign up for their [Premium Program]. I was getting absolutely no results, but there was a free trial period. What could I lose? I signed up and focused on getting the most of it. The trial period was over and I still had no followups. Their [Premium Program] brought me zero prospects, so I did not become a paying customer.
I kept on using the [Website] to find jobs, but then it hit me: If [Website]'s users got hired before their [Premium Program] trial period was over, they would make a lot less than if their users were hired after the trial period was over. There is a definite advantage for [Website] that users involved in [Premium Program] don't get hired until they become paying customers.
While I continued to use [Website] to find and apply to jobs, I started to apply outside [Website] via email or web forms. This past month I had four followups.
Today my suspicions were confirmed. I had an interview today with one of the companies that I applied to via both [Website] and e-mail. The interviewer could absolutely not find my job application on [Website]. I double checked and my profile clearly showed that I did apply. To the very same job.
Did [Website] hide my profile from prospective employers, hoping I would pay for [Premium Program]? This would be a disservice to the community, negatively affecting both job posters and job seekers. ----
TLDR: Job interviewer couldn't find my job application on [Website], even though I could clearly see that I applied. <comment><USER2> I would be suspicious of any website that wanted me to pay to apply for a job. Recruiters get paid big money to find talent. I can't see many of them seriously using a service that hid candidates that don't have a paid for account.

If this is LinkedIn, it seem a good time to short these shares. If this kind of activity is allowed it sounds like the beginning of the end for any website that is desperate for revenue at any cost.

</comment><comment><USER3> It is LinkedIn, isn't it?

</comment><comment><USER4> > but had absolutely zero follow ups to my job applications.

Applicant Tracking Systems are notoriously bad. And worse still, their users are primarily flunky HR types. It's also possible, your CV is weak or off- target for the role.

The work-around: From now on, go direct to the boss. E-Mail and call the hiring executive (yes, people still use the telephone). Linkedin is good for figuring out who's in charge. Sort for CIO, VP or Director of Engineering, etc...

You'll find doing this gets better response rates and more courteous follow up.

</comment><comment><USER5> Did you check the request traffic? If it's API driven they might have accidentally left in some clue there. That would be a bad idea on their part but so is acting against the best interests of your user (by and large).

</comment><comment><USER6> > I don't see any feasible way of collecting evidence

The story above seems pretty compelling to me. Why not ask one of the other companies on the site to test your theory?</comment>


What Eventbrite Did Early to Create 'Sustainable' Success - <AUTHOR> http://firstround.com/article/What-EventBrite-Did-Early-to-Create-Sustainable-Success

<comment><USER2> Not trying to disparage the achievement of the founders, but the writing and the language are horrendous.

It's almost like reading Dilbert's Mission Statement Generator for several pages.

For example:

> Diving right in, Julia took charge of marketing, customer service and > finance, while Kevin managed product development end-to-end. Together, they > created an extremely tight feedback loop that empowered customers to rapidly > influence the service. And when it came to finding these customers, they > turned first to their own backyard.

Yes, OK, but what did they actually do? And how? This has no content. The first 1/3 of the article is supposedly about the early hardship of a startup. Could anyone extract any useful, actionable information from that part? Something that you could actually downright do, to help your venture? I sure couldn't. And don't even get me started on "future-cast"...

<comment><USER3> One of them built the product, one of them marketed it...

I think that's the same situation as every small startup. What made them succesful was probably a mixture of hard work, capable founders and a huge dose of luck.

<comment><USER2> > What made them succesful was probably a mixture of hard work, capable > founders and a huge dose of luck.

Exactly. You were able to fit into one sentence a whole paragraph of the original article. This is why I think your sentence is far superior writing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> We've been using Eventbrite for an event we're selling tickets for, and while the website has been fairly good to use, it's the customer service that has completely blown me away.

I never like to telephone a company, but my co-organizer insisted and put me on the phone... the customer support reps definitely knew their product, and they even guided us through some CSS tweaks to hide page elements. I almost wondered if I'd invoked Shibboleet by accident. Even their documentation used JWZ's DNA Lounge throughout the examples, making me feel at home.

I don't know how Eventbrite manage to do telephone customer support sustainably, but it's definitely been key in getting me to recommend Eventbrite to others (and indeed, to post here about it).

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm running ConferenceBadge.com and LeanTicket.com and Eventbrite is a really good partner of ours.

I can attest by my own experience at their commitment to being efficient. Negotiating our partnership was fast and easy, never did we felt they where trying to play us. They always delivered on their promises.

</comment><comment><USER6> I always wondered why YC backed Eventjoy when EB is a relatively recent startup in the same space. But trying both recently and Eventjoy's user experience is miles ahead. Shame they sold.</comment>


Ask HN: User authentication via Facebook and Twitter? - <AUTHOR>

Hi all,
I've been working out an idea over the past few days. It would essentially be a social network of sorts, but I am not trying to create a new one per se. I'd like to leverage an existing social networking sites user authentication. I'm thinking of allowing Facebook or Twitter logins.
Are there any gotchas to doing this? Anything that I should be aware of that might not work so well if I were to use these user authentication APIs from Facebook or Twitter? <comment><USER2> Doesn't work in China.</comment>


2 Googles: 1 for Europe and 1 for everyone else - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2-googles-1-for-europe-and-1-for-everyone-else/2013/04/25/62fc029c-adca-11e2-8bf6-e70cb6ae066e_story.html

<comment><USER2> Note that nothing in the article actually supports the sensational suggestion in the lede that there is a likelihood of separate Google experiences in Europe vs. the Google experience for "everyone else".

Yes, Google is likely to make changes in response to the European anti-trust concerns that it did not need to make to satisfy the recent US investigation. Nothing in the article identifies any source for any indication that either Google's proposed deal or any other changes would be applied only to users accessing Google from Europe.

</comment><comment><USER3> *[except China]</comment>


Ask YC: Mosso.com Computing Cloud? Anyone Tried It? - <AUTHOR>

I just spotted this in an ad. Anyone tried this? Looks interesting. <comment><USER3> When it works, it works well, and it's a division of RackSpace, which - <USER2> recently - had a fantastic record.

Unfortunately, Mosso has been plagued with problems. So if you require reliability, look elsewhere.</comment>


IPhone App Store Has Launched - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/10/app-store-launches-upgrade-itunes-now/ <comment><USER3> There is going to be lot of crap to sift through. It would probably have been a better idea to let anyone distribute iPhone apps and then only include decent ones in the store. Stuff like Tom Peck's many novel apps (literally public domain novels made into an "application", one per app) don't make your platform look cutting edge.

Anyone find anything really cool?

Update: not sure why Apple let this through, but Tom got 43 novels posted as separate applications. That's a pretty high percentage of the total store!

[http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist...](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=284921631)

<comment><USER4> I actually think it's great news to have e-books available for the iPhone. It may not be cutting edge technology-wise, but convenience-wise, it's smart to use the iTunes app store as a distribution channel for e-books and to use Apple's payment system instead of one's own. Simple and effective. I like it.

<comment><USER5> It does strike me as a little silly that there isn't a better way to get e-books to people. What if there was a band that released their new album as 14 separate iPhone applications, each with their own audio player?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Anyone know if there's going to be a terminal/ssh app that you can use without jail breaking your iphone?

Would be excellent for a spot of emergency server admin when away from the desk :)

<comment><USER7> I can't find one. Which sucks because I had figured there was no point me writing one because someone else was going to. I figured someone would hack <http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/> and make it an AppStore application.

<comment><USER6> I commented on their wiki earlier asking if they were going to do it, no response as of yet though.

I wonder if apple will have any problems with it?

<comment><USER8> apple should have no problem with an ssh app. i'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone (maybe [http://www.rovemobile.com/products/networkadministration/ssh...](http://www.rovemobile.com/products/networkadministration/ssh/features/)) gets around to releasing one (likely won't be free).

<comment><USER9> I would expect that they're under pressure to avoid offering apps that might cut into AT&T's business, such as Skype or an IRC client. An ssh client would be about as good as an IRC client.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There are 27 pages of all iPhone apps in iTunes, including 7 pages of free ones. Looks like most chose to charge a fee.

The most exciting part about flipping through the 27 pages this morning was that there is still A LOT of room for more innovation.

<comment><USER11> Agreed. I just perused all 27 pages and didn't see any application that just blew my mind. A bit disappointing, but like you said there is a lot of room in this space for a hacker with an innovative mind.

Funny, my company had a test iPhone with the 2.0 software on it (to test the Exchange connector) and we gave it back yesterday. The whole time I had it I could click on the "App Store" button but couldn't connect. If we would have kept it one more day I could be one of the first to try these apps out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Downloading/sync to iPhone is trivial and slick, very easy to trial/error free programs, apple did distribution right.

</comment><comment><USER13> I haven't checked out the apps, but it would hardly be surprising if the first ones out the door were kind of crappy.

Suppose you've written an awesome iPhone app with a price tag of $9.99. Would you want to release it the day before anyone was even _able_ to buy a new iPhone in the store? Wouldn't you rather wait until tomorrow, at least, so that on a day when the bulk of new iPhone owners unwrap their 3G Phone and visit the store your app will be near the top of the Hot New Apps Released Today list?

The problem of deciding when to launch a new app is nontrivial, actually. You want to pick a day when the first-day audience has potential to be as large as possible, which means waiting for some 3G phones to sell. But you don't want to be too late!

<comment><USER14> I don't think they got to pick the day its released. It was either get included for the launch, or wait until we accept your app.

<comment><USER13> Thanks. If you're right, so much for _that_ hypothesis. I'll have to fall back to my Sturgeon's Law position.

<comment><USER14> Even if you could pick the day, testing the above hypothesis would be very hard. IF you could guess when the most iPhones would be bought, you couldn't possibly know when people would first visit the App Store (they might not go on the same day they buy the phone). Moreover, even if you got on the list of top apps for that day, it might not be as useful as having already been selling your app for a few days. To me, having known customers is more useful than waiting for the moment of the most potential customers. It sounds nice to be able to wait to launch on the best day and have a nice launch day, but I'd rather get out there sooner and build up my customer base, even if it's slow. In my view, unless you have an actual promotion planned, any day after your app is ready is too late.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Anyone here have an iPhone app they're releasing? I'd love to hear about it.

<comment><USER12> I'm releasing one at _some point_. If I can ever get the MLS data. Yikes what a mess. <http://codemorphic.com/products>

<comment><USER14> What about the timeline for your other apps?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> So, what apps have people installed? Any recommendations?

My favorite app so far: "LifeGame" ... it's Conway's Game of Life

Other apps I've installed:

\- Loopt (cool integration with Twitter, Facebook, Yelp... just need more friends on it)

\- AOL Radio (very nice, except you can't leave it running in the background while you're doing other things, but that's Apple's fault)

\- Facebook (quicker than the web iPhone app, which is also very nice)

\- Apple's iTunes Remote app

</comment><comment><USER16> Lots of free apps it looks like. Just what I was hoping to see. 'Flashlight' though? Wow...

<comment><USER3> Shout It is just as useful... This is the equivalent of allowing someone to post their first music lessons for sale on iTunes. No one wants to buy (or if it's free, download) your Hello World app. Show your mom, don't try and impress anyone else.

[http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284701802&mt=8)

<comment><USER17> Can't anyone just publish a podcast through itunes right now?

<comment><USER3> The podcast list is moderated, but fairly open. However the app store is a commercial entity and different quality measures should be expected. Much like how you can assume base quality measures for iTunes paid content (certain bit rate, perfectly legal, it comes with album art, it will really work on your iPod, etc etc).

Since they are letting so much crap through it's pretty likely they aren't actually looking at all the apps. I gotta imagine Steve Jobs isn't going to smile when he sees 10% of the apps in his store are public domain books. One of the benefits of a walled garden is a base line of quality.

I still haven't heard the customer service side of the app store. What kind of data do you get about your customers? How do you make paid updates? How do you do demo copies? Evaluation copies? Who decides when a customer gets a refund? Etc etc. Since it's Apple's merch account they have the last say, but to date they haven't said much to developers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm personally very disappointed that I did not find any mobile video streaming apps on their... like qik or flixwagon... hopefully JTV will move into this space soon so I dont have to create yet another account.

<comment><USER19> From the NYT:

{Still, Apple could end up at odds with some developers - <USER2> creators or distributors of content and media - who offer applications that compete directly with iTunes. Rajeev Raman, chief executive of Mywaves, an ad- sponsored free mobile video service available on millions of handsets, including Nokia and BlackBerry smartphones, said he would like to offer Mywaves in the App Store.

But he has made little headway in his discussions with Apple, he said: "We have a reverse conflict because they are not providing video for free, but we are. We are interested, but we don't want to jump into anything that will have our hands tied behind our backs."

When asked about it, Mr. Jobs said: "He's right. We will compete." He added, "That's a discussion to have."}

Looks like you may be waiting for a while...

<comment><USER18> I dont want to watch video in that sense.

I want to stream live video from an iphone to the net.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> As an ex-Palm/Handango user, I was hoping for more quality. iPhone games will rock. Time will tell...

<comment><USER21> The iPhone will kill the PSP and all handheld gaming devices

They will never know what hit them

<comment><USER5> I wouldn't bet on it. The majority of the 70 million Nintendo DSs out there are likely owned by persons who cannot afford an iPhone (although the situation may be different for the PSP).

<comment><USER22> The iPod Touch is only about 2X the price of a DS, and you get music + games. If they drop the price on this any time soon it will be a sign that they intend on owning the mobile gaming market.

<comment><USER5> The iPod Touch also has no buttons. Even though the DS has a touchscreen, there are very few games that use it exclusively; it seems that many of the games that use it do so only for the novelty, much like the detecting-blowing- via-the-microphone gimmick. Although I'm sure people can come up with compelling games using only the touchscreen, I think it would be hard for the iPhone to take on the DS and PSP's "twitch" game audience.

Given the iPhone's unconventional input techniques and the 1-2 years of lead time needed for a professional game, I wouldn't consider an iPod Touch price drop as a sign of interest in gaming. Rather, I'd look for Apple to purchase or contract existing game studios... ideally a year ago.

<comment><USER22> Having spent the better part of this morning playing cro-magnon rally and super monkey ball, I have to say that you are quite incorrect. The d-pad is so 1990. Accelerometers are where its at today. With the multi-touch touchscreen the ipod touch and iphone are going to get a lot more use out of their touchscreen as an input device than the DS did...</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: jQuery plugin for visual selection of Dom elements - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/terjeto/jquery.selection.tool.js

<comment><USER2> Useful, simple and clean plugin with readable code that solves a spesific problem very efficiently. This is the kind of jQuery plugins i love to work with.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great plugin. The events is really useful for tracking the elements selected.

</comment><comment><USER4> Thanks Terjeto! Great work.

</comment><comment><USER5> That's brilliant! Thanks :)</comment>


Effective coding for small children?  - <AUTHOR>

So we're about to launch a toy on kickstarter that effectively and truly introduces children to programming logic. It is basically a physical version of the logo turtle, and uses a visual sequence of instructions to breach concepts of high level abstraction.
The first time a child plays, he/she effectively writes her/his first line of code. The neat thing about all this is that children can do so without the need for literacy or numeracy.
We see all sorts of on screen and off-screen products that deal with the subject of programming and early learning. They are either to advanced, to complex or completely useless.
The earliest thing we found was something called www.Codebabies.com , which we thought was a bit of a parody at first (not their more advanced stuff which is OK, but their early range products).
In terms of physical toys the best one we could find is the super popular Bee-bot. While being a great toy, we thought it missed the point a little bit.
Here is a link to the product we are launching shortly. The actual packaging has changed slightly, this is footage we took while the product was still a University project. It's slicker and designed for mass production/consumption. Any feedback or conversation around the topic and/or product is massively appreciated.
http://tinyurl.com/on9zj9q <comment><USER2> So it's essentially a physical version of the puzzle game Light Bot[1]. I can definitely see this being an approachable toy, and it does encourage the kind of visualization and sequential reasoning that underlies programming. That said, with such a limited number and variety of instructions (Looks like a 12-step program with the opportunity for a single 4-step subroutine) I don't see much potential for teaching about abstraction and reuse, and I think children will reach the limits of the toy very quickly.

Given that you're already committed to putting this into production, are you actually looking for critical feedback or are you simply trying to raise awareness?

[1] <http://armorgames.com/play/2205/light-bot>

<comment><AUTHOR> No, genuinely trying to get some debate going. We have debated upgrades for a while now at the Arduino head office in Torino where we work. We thought of tapping into the endless wisdom of the HN community for a fresh perspective.

The learning curve plateaus eventually, but it's also about experimenting control within new environments, "go around mommy's feet" "circle the kitchen counter".

In it's basic form no numeracy or literacy is required to approach Primo. This is key, but what do you suggest a suitable upgrade should be bearing this in mind?

We have a Primo 2.0 for schools in R&D right now that will allow for multi play (or super hog play) by controlling several vehicles from the same board. what you think about that?

<comment><USER2> I see where you're going with taking the toy into different environments to produce varied challenges. Controlling multiple vehicles at once could be interesting- I'm reminded of tool-assisted speedruns in which a single set of gamepad inputs are used to complete different games simultaneously. You could create obstacle courses where the same program will help all the robots get out.

From the perspective of learning about abstraction and code reuse, I think having a single function definition that can only be four instructions long is very limiting. If you had more (even just a second one) you'd have many more ways of combining them together- they could be chained, they could call one another, etc- and thus more ways to try breaking down problems. Breaking tasks down into smaller subtasks is, in my opinion, one of the most fundamental concepts in programming, and your toy _can_ teach this idea.

From a totally different angle, have you thought about adding a crayon/marker mount to the car so that kids can lay out a big piece of paper and then have a visual record of their trial-and-error progress? Thinking about the toy as a sort of creative tool, if the kids had some ability to turn the overall program into a repetitive loop rather than just a sequence you could do some neat spyrograph style stuff. Maybe add a toggle switch to enable that?</comment></comment></comment>


How to speed up the Rust compiler some more in 2019 - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2019/10/11/how-to-speed-up-the-rust-compiler-some-more-in-2019/ <comment><USER2> > But I was able to work around this by using a trick: creating two variants > of the function, one marked with #[inline(always)] (for the hot call sites) > and one marked with #[inline(never)] (for the cold call sites).

Can't PGO make inlining decisions like this? Otherwise, propeller/LTO might work well.

> But there's a trade-off. Sometimes a simpler, smaller function is slower.

Without a doubt! Imagine the naive/simple/portable memcpy versus a target- aware one that capitalizes on wider or aligned loads and stores.</comment>


Google XML Document Format Style Guide (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/xmlstyle.html <comment><USER2> Is this an entry for the "most unlikely submission that makes it on hacker news" competition?</comment>