iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/10iPhone-4S-Pre-Orders-Top-One-Million-in-First-24-Hours.html

<comment><USER2> Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. It has an incredibly fast processor, fantastic camera, one of the most popular music hubs (iTunes), the largest app store and probably the most advanced AI technology in a phone.

When the technorati (and, to be honest, most bloggers have been supportive of the product) diss this phone, are they actually suggesting someone would be better off with a Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 phone? It's a plain and simple fact that people refuse to accept - people purchase Android because it's available on many different carriers and comes in many different price points. People choose blackberry cause sometimes their work requires it or they want blackberry messenger. And no one chooses Windows phones. With the iPhone now available on more carriers at different price points, the game will continue to change.

<comment><USER3> You really can't imagine why anyone might prefer the Samsung Galaxy S II (for example) to an iPhone?

How about (straight off the top of my head)

Better Linux connectivity.

Ability to easily copy files on and off the phone.

Ability to sync podcasts directly on the phone, without having to connect to a computer with iTunes (not used an iPhone for a while, they might have finally fixed this).

Ability to run software Apple doesn't like (emulators).

We haven't really seen the AI yet, I remain to be convinced, and I don't care about the camera.

Also, you mention price point. The iPhone (particularly the 4S) is about the most expensive phone around at the moment. In general of course the most expensive phone with have the fastest processor, that's hardly suprising.

<comment><USER4> > Better Linux connectivity.

Very few people actually run Linux on their desktops. If you are one of those people, then yes, I can see this being an advantage. Otherwise... not so much.

I'm a Linux guy and when I had an iPhone, I used to just reboot to my Windows partition to sync my phone. I'd do it ~once per week or so (to sync up with the latest podcasts).

> Ability to easily copy files on and off the phone.

To be honest, I have found this to be more problematic on Android. iTunes synced my music/photos/etc and it Just Worked (tm).

On my Android phone, when I rsync my music/photos/etc from my Linux partition to my phone's SD card, it clobbers everything due to the FS being FAT32 (case insensitive). It's a nightmare to keep things in sync _and_ it takes longer.

> Ability to sync podcasts directly on the phone, without having to connect to > a computer with iTunes (not used an iPhone for a while, they might have > finally fixed this).

Yes, iPhone has this now. It can both sync with your desktop wirelessly and download the latest podcasts via the iTunes app on your phone if you aren't anywhere near your desktop w/ iTunes.

> Ability to run software Apple doesn't like (emulators).

Jailbreak? I mean, ya gotta do that with Android too...

> We haven't really seen the AI yet, I remain to be convinced, and I don't > care about the camera.

I'm skeptical as well, but if it works anywhere near as well as advertised, it will be awesome.

Packing more pixels into such a tiny sensor isn't really going to improve the quality of the photos. However, more sensitivity might...

From what I understand, they've done both... so maybe it'll help or maybe it won't.

The HDR photography that iPhone 4 supported was awesome and makes me regret getting a Samsung Galaxy S which, quite frankly, sucks hardcore in every way.

But I'm a Linux guy so I got an Android... won't be making that mistake again :-\

> Also, you mention price point. The iPhone (particularly the 4S) is about the > most expensive phone around at the moment. In general of course the most > expensive phone with have the fastest processor, that's hardly suprising.

Equivalent Android's aren't typically much (if at all) cheaper, though (if you buy them outright, at least). Of course, the carriers _do_ seem to subsidize Android phones a lot more than iPhones (which is how you can get most Android phones for cheap-cheap with a 2 year contract).

<comment><USER3> Just one comment on Jailbreaking.

Just this week, I happened to get an iPad at work. Turns out, the only way I can jailbreak it is by a "tethered" jailbreak, which means (as far as I understand) my iPad has to be attached to my computer whenever I reboot it, else it won't work properly.

We also have a 3G iPad 2, and it seems that can't be jailbroken at all at the moment.

So jailbreaking really doesn't seem to be the "magic solution" to the Apple walled garden. Also, note I don't have to jailbreak to run software Google doesn't like, just go to the webpage and download the package, rather than get it through google market. You can also jailbreak for root access, but I've never felt a need.

I will admit, the argument between Android and Apple is slim, but personally I see it mostly as a "one or the other", not "Apple is superior to Android in every way", as the opening poster seemed to claim.

<comment><USER5> More anecdotal commentary: I have an iPad 2. It's jailbroken. I haven't rebooted it since the jailbreak, which is probably going on several months now.

Given iOS's stability (even while jailbroken), the tethering is an annoyance, but certainly not a dealbreaker.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Me and the rest of the developer community laugh at the contrary blog posts, all the way to the bank. This weekend, there will be hundreds of thousands more iPhone owners, and the developer community will make a fortune.

I applaud Apple for focusing on what's important - speed and sex, not features and fapping. Because when they do, all my apps get faster and all my customers get happier, and I don't have to do much work at all. Integrating with new APIs and hardware is a necessary evil, but we just want the devices to keep getting smaller and faster, as do the consumers.

<comment><USER7> The contrarian community wonders where your data regarding the percentage of iPhone 4S orders that represent new customers comes from. Is this based on past launches? What were the percentages then?

<comment><USER8> "Every customer who buys an iPhone 4S at an Apple retail store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone 4S by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store™ and more, so they'll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store." They don't need to be new owners. Imagine a sale team that will sit down with millions of your users (existing or new), showing them what new apps are out there, reminding them to buy from your store and walking them through on purchasing your product again. This will sure generate a big spike overall.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Up 66% percent, roughly the same rate that the entire market is growing. It's almost uncanny how the iPhone manages to maintain its near-constant share of this rapidly growing market.

A visual chart of this phenomenon:

[http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp- content/uploads/2011/...](http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp- content/uploads/2011/01/smartphone-OS-share1.png)

<comment><USER10> What's more amazing is that Apple does this with one phone. Whereas Android and BlackBerry are split across many, many devices and/or manufacturers.

<comment><USER11> Well, now you have 3 distinct models out there, with significantly different hardware, so it's not really one phone.

<comment><USER12> Sure it is, its the same phone, but different model years.

<comment><USER7> That must be why they all have different names. But hey, at least that is better than "Macbook Pro (early 2009)".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Good for Apple. I'm happy that internet 'gurus' and Wall St are proven wrong again when saying that the 4S was a disappointing product...

<comment><USER14> I'm quite disappointed (disclosure: I mainly develop iOS applications) not because of the specs, but I'm disappointed because Apple on this one appears to be even more greedy [1] than before. I don't necessarily want change for change but when you reuse components or design you are expected to lower the price a bit.

I find the current release pattern very similar to the Intel Tick-Tock model [2] where the Tick would be a big software update (iOS 5 in this case) and where the Tock would be an emphasized hardware update on the same platform (maybe a new iPhone 5 next year on iOS 5).

[1] [http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/10/apple_expected...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/10/apple_expected_to_achieve_manufacturing_margins_of_70_with_iphone_4s.html)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Tick-Tock>

<comment><USER15> You're right about the Tick-Tock, but since Apple hasn't announced it as a policy, people expect every release to be a Tick.

I think you're wrong about Apple being greedy. Didn't they double the RAM? 16/32/64 for the price of 8/16/32 in the past? Also, the camera, processor and radio chips are all new from the original iPhone 4. The form factor is the same, but the antenna are a new design. And I think they are still working off the margin hit from the retina display.

<comment><USER16> They haven't doubled the storage (at the same price) for 2 years now.

iPhone 3GS: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299.

iPhone 4: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299.

iPhone 4S: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399.

<comment><USER17> Indeed not - with the 4S they added unlimited storage at the same price, and retrospectively added it to any device running iOS 5, with 5GB for some uses.

It may not be flash memory, but it has to count - it is what Apple intend to be used for bulk music storage with iOS 5.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The iPhone 4S will probably be my mom's first cell phone. She doesn't like tech and likes her big button home phone (as in 3/4" button big button). My father and her just moved and my Dad doesn't really want a home phone anymore. He has been looking at getting her a JitterBug. She uses and Apple TV fine (netflix, mlb, and iTunes), so it isn't like she cannot use technology. She just has a phobia of current cellphones. I think it is more from her not wanting to wear her glasses and not being able to read the phone (she sees the TV fine).

Given Siri, Mom will be getting the iPhone 4S.

<comment><USER7> Serious request: please report back on the experience after about three months.

<comment><USER18> I'm already way behind on one HN request (the postfix dovecot OpenBSD e-mail server), but I will try to write something on this. Guess I should get a blog.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Are these numbers from worldwide pre-orders? I might be wrong but I thought that this was their biggest launch (different countries same date).

Even if that's the case, the significantly higher (~66%) orders is something that people in Apple can take a bow for. Well done.</comment>


U.S. Coronavirus Cases Are Rising Sharply, but Deaths Are Still Down - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/health/coronavirus-mortality-testing.html <comment><USER2> This just means that testing was limiting factor before but thats not a surprise based on the papers coming out. We even see this is data like cases/per test. We get far less case per the test we have now because we've tested all the obvious people.

In all actuality way more people were infected before, the deaths per infections is much higher and virus is much less deadly than the 3.4% the WHO quoted or the .5% we thought it was in NYC.

</comment><comment><USER3> Really, this shouldn't be a surprise.

Epidemiologists note that successful viruses _don 't_ kill their host. Covid-19 has all the hallmarks of a virus that will evolve into a strain (or strains) that will be part of the regular flu season - marked by severe symptoms. Of course the elderly and immunocompromised people will always be at greater risk of death due to any form of the flu.

When hospitals and first responders began using PPE to handle all virus patients it isolated the most lethal strains of the virus and significantly reduced the spread in the general population.

In addition, critical care units now have the ventilators and protocols needed to more effectively deal with the virus.

</comment><comment><USER4> Just means healthcare providers have used the time to ramp up.

If the acceleration of the infection rate continues at a pace that would eventually surpass the scalability of healthcare provisioning, we're back in the pits. A lot of local and state governments are trying to balance these two in order to keep some semblance of normality while enabling healthcare providers to manage caseloads and keep deaths down.

<comment><USER5> No, no. The virus is over. The pandemic was multiple news cycles ago. Say the death rate doubles 2-3 times a week, but deaths right now are very low. In that case we're fine. Forget about exponential growth, that's so March 2020.

EDIT: Folks have already raised the following objections: (a) My sarcasm above is lame and pointless, because we all know some people take the position that the virus is much less dangerous now. (b) My sarcastic comment above is an unfair straw man argument. (I.e. nobody really takes that position.) (c) The virus really is less dangerous than it was believed to be in March (though nobody has so far questioned the fact that death rates were doubling every 2-3 days back then). (d) The virus has changed. It is actually different and less dangerous than it was in March.

<comment><USER5> Someone saw fit to downvote, which is part of the process.

But I'm curious. Does that mean you see that I intended heavy sarcasm, but you disagree with my actual position (i.e. that we're still in danger)? Or that you disapprove of sarcasm on HN or w/r/t COVID-19? Or the sarcasm didn't come through in what I wrote? Something else?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

<comment><USER6> It means that your sarcastic comment didn't add anything to the discussion. We know people behave like that, however, jokingly imitating them doesn't add anything to the thread and is just a lame joke.

<comment><USER5> Thanks. Since HN is overrun right now with people who are more or less denying that the virus is dangerous, I have to disagree with you. But it's nice to know what you're thinking.

<comment><USER7> I am probably the archetype of the straw man you invented in your comment regarding people saying the virus is not dangerous. Let me make a few things clear to you and the others who see this as a binary proposition.

This virus is _very_ dangerous to specific groups of people. We know this not only through observation but also through a more complete understanding on its spread, mechanism of action and cross-reactivity. We also know, with a good deal of certainty, that there are also groups who are at a very, very low level of risk from this virus.

What the people you so easily disparage are arguing is not that the virus is not dangerous, but that we are not responding to the actual threat, but rather the perceived threat based on data that is now 5 months old. And that by making this mistake, we are increasing danger to not only those at risk to the virus but also those who are at low risk through our obtuse response.

There are facts which can't be denied. The IFR is NOT anywhere near as high as we once feared. This is good news! We have two treatments that seem to help. This is good news! We understand that a majority of those infected will exhibit minor or no symptoms. This is good news! But we are still _acting_ as if this has a 2% IFR and no treatment.

We have less certainty, but are still researching the following. There is evidence that cross-reactivity in T-Cells with other coronaviruses is helping reduce the impact on a large portion of the population. We see evidence that _something_ has changed in the virus in the past 6 months. Genome sequencing hasn't revealed if this is true or not, but the research is ongoing. We see that outdoor spread is very unlikely. We believe nosocomial spread is a primary means. We see that super-spreaders may account for more of the spread than asymptomatic incidental contact. We have contradicting evidence of lockdown efficacy. And most importantly, we have not seen a TRUE 2nd wave. What is going on in the USA is not a 2nd wave at the community level, no community that had a large first wave is currently seeing a second wave.

Finally, there is debate around whether the herd immunity level is far lower than once thought. Michael Levitt and others are postulating that around 20-25% of the population needs to be infected to see a sharp decline in infections. This has played out in a lot of continental Europe, NYC and the UK.

So it isn't as simple as your snide sarcasm would have us believe. This is why actual debate is needed, not dismissive arrogance as displayed by your comments.

<comment><USER5> Thanks. That's a good example.

Three months ago deaths were doubling every 2 to 3 days. That's some of the little data we really have. Same virus (although there are speculations that perhaps now there are multiple forms). We're being more careful about transmission ... except when we're not. We seem to be better at treatment. Vulnerable population is unchanged.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


I've created a Google Adwords course. Free (usually $59) for first 100 people. - <AUTHOR>

Hey all,
I'm an Adwords expert and today I launched a Step-by-Step guide to creating and managing your first Adwords account. It's a great course for new businesses and new marketers wanting to dive into the world of paid search and Adwords, or for entrepreneurs in need of site traffic.
If you are one of the first 100 people to use the link below, you'll get the course completely free. All I ask is that you leave a positive review if you find the course helpful. Here is the link:
https://www.udemy.com/adwords-step-by-step-guide/?couponCode=FreeHacker
Once the first 100 codes have been used, you can still take the course for only $15, by using this code (200 available):
https://www.udemy.com/adwords-step-by-step-guide/?couponCode=Hacker15
Hope you enjoy the course and that it is useful to you! <comment><USER2> That was very useful. You've earned that positive review. Thank you!

Feedback: your presentation was very clear, the screencast is great, but on your next course, try to look at the camera's lens more often.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great, thank you for taking the course and for the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Thanks. Will check it out. Do you mind if I post a review to my coursemania site?

<comment><AUTHOR> Please do, that would be great! Hope you enjoy the course. Please let me know if you have any questions (you can message me from inside the course), or if I can get you any more information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome, thank you! I'll provide feedback soon.

</comment><comment><USER5> Awesome, thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> You're welcome! Enjoy the course!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> You're welcome! Hope you enjoy the course!</comment></comment>


Why didn't codeproject.com develop into what stackoverflow is today - <AUTHOR> http://www.codeproject.com

<comment><USER2> I'm just a passerby, but it seems like codeproject is mostly windows-focused? Just looking at the front page, I see a lot of .NET, ASP, C#, Java (not windows, of course), but a lot of enterprise-y stuff.

I think part of the success of stack overflow is the wide representation of so many languages, areas of expertise,etc that are there.

ex. I just went to the stackoverflow main page, and the first question listed was objective c, two steps down was a question about neo4j.

Also -- search results probably had something to do with it

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes CP is primarily geared towards Win, that's mostly because they pre-date current day languages and frameworks.

But if they could fix comments and apply the same excellent moderation towards todays language, SO would have a definite competitor.

<comment><USER2> I think they already have a competitor -- just on different grounds. For example, I think most windows devs know much more about CP than SO, but you're not going to find them here, as they're not well represented.

And I think that issue is more generally applied to the communities that hang around most of the startup world/young internet... Most people are more interested in getting started on rails than learning ASP.NET/VB -- and of course, many of the exciting new technologies are not tied into the windows ecosystem, so there isn't much need to get yourself into the windows ecosystem...

I would venture to say that CP needs to do something drastic, rebrand itself (possibly offer a less-cluttered site), and start trying to reach other programming languages/areas more heavily? Not quite sure how you'd do the latter, though

Also, with the stats they have at the top, seems like they certainly have the userbase...

Maybe they could even open up an R&D department, do some advertising to get new hires in it, and start to try and do more experiments? Like for example, if someone were to post on HN tomorrow that CP had a beta site, trying a super interesting new fluid search box, clean redesign, and possibly some drastic interface change, even if it was just a beta, I'd be really interested, and it would definitely get people to view and remember the site...

Again, the R&D team would serve well to get people excited about this. One thing stack overflow doesn't have currently (that I know of) is a code execution testbed. If you gave people a chance to throw some code in fiddles right there on the page, that would be an interesting new feature (and at least a step in the right direction of helping people fix code problems, which is what people go to these sites for), and that would excite people, maybe even spawning a SO copycat feature

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent points especially about the fiddles. One thing CP is really heavy into is the C/C++ realm, which can arguably apply to many platforms. I hope Chris Maunder reads HN and can chime in or start a new post on the future direction of CP.

It just seems CP reached a pinnacle years ago and then just let it ride (so to speak)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have been using codeproject.com for many years because of its high quality posts and still use it today. SO has better advice in the comments.

When searching I'm always pleasantly surprised to see CP come up in the SERP because I know I will find great examples when going there.

<comment><USER3> I agree. If i am looking for quick advice on something SO is great, while if I am looking for something in depth then CP is often better.

One area I wish CP would improve is its comments. It much harder than it should be to find the great comments.</comment></comment>


Try the Future of Television [video] - <AUTHOR> https://storyplayer.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/experience/click1000 <comment><USER2> Failed on some script integrity tests for me in Chrome, but works fine in the more "secure" Firefox :D

Fun show. I know there's been a lot of research into interfaces for CYOA (both from user and technical aspects) but it always bugs me to that it doesn't change quickly after I've made a decision (and the following footage is often awkward).

Finally, for shows like this, I'd like a TOC to get around quickly.</comment>


Supporting MacOS Mojave's Dark Mode on the Web - <AUTHOR> https://kevinchen.co/blog/support-macos-mojave-dark-mode-on-websites/ <comment><USER2> Similar post/discussion yesterday: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18298802](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18298802)</comment>


RealSense 3d camera on Linux MacOS: infrared, calibration, point clouds - <AUTHOR> http://solsticlipse.com/2015/03/31/intel-real-sense-3d-on-linux-macos.html

<comment><USER2> Great work, these cameras look very nice. Excellent having Linux and OS X drivers for them before they are released.

His GoFundMe page is here: [http://www.gofundme.com/3dcamera](http://www.gofundme.com/3dcamera)</comment>


Financial Times 404 Page - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/404

<comment><USER2> This is a great one. But honestly, I hope that I will never see it again. ;-)</comment>


Newsweek says "Nerd Girls" becoming more prominent, mainstream - <AUTHOR> http://cs6c.clearspring.com:80/r/484dbc934177dc66?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enewsweek%2Ecom%2Fid%2F140457

<comment><USER2> This article may be interesting and all, but I can't figure out why the link is to:

<http://cs6c.clearspring.com/r/484dbc934177dc66>

with a url argument pointing to the newsweek article.

<comment><USER3> Veeery interesting. Clearspring appears to be a "widget network". The homepage suggests that I "use Clearspring widgets to Enhance SEO".

Is this a really transparent attempt to measure the clickthroughs from a news.YC link?

Original article link is: <http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457></comment></comment>


London Mobile Security Conference from WWJC and 44Con Creators - <AUTHOR> http://www.securemobilecon.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Disclaimer: I'm involved in setting this up.

We've been working on this for months and I thought theres a lot of UK security people that would know about this, but perhaps not as many mobile developers or people who would go to HN London.

As well as having the guys behind the evasi0n jailbreak talk about the latest ios 6 jailbreak, we're also looking to run workshops on securing mobile applications. Ultimately we want more mobile developers to come as well as information security people, as helping people secure their mobile startups is just as important as a jailbreak.

What do you think we should do at SecureMobileCon?</comment>


Couple Creates Stunning Garden Pub and Everything Inside of It Is Handmade - <AUTHOR> https://www.boredpanda.com/the-drunken-crab-garden-pub-octavia-chic/?cexp_id=29790&cexp_var=1&_f=featured <comment><USER2> The attention to detail is reall impressive. They've absolutely nailed the look of a good country pub.

It's really hard to describe how much I miss being able to go to the pub right now (it's not the drink, it's the atmosphere of a good pub). I know, I'm lucky to be in the position where that's what bothers me, but still, really looking forward to when they can start opening up again. Fingers crossed they won't have all gone bankrupt by then :/

</comment><comment><USER3> I know a guy whose dad did this. An outback Australian country pub, just in his back yard. Complete with tractor-seat barstools, old advertising signs for beer, the works.

<comment><USER4> I saw a house for sale outside Perth (the other one) that included a pub in one of the outbuildings.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is it always rosy in hacker land? - <AUTHOR>

Hello HNizens,
I don't really know how to express the confusion that I have right now, but its a new year so I would take advantage of this artificial milestone and try to seek some answers, even if they are given by someone else.
I do not want to do a long back story as it is dull and might deter people from reading the actual problem. Suffice it to say that I was once very interested in web development, learned a lot of RoR (and even ruby in general) and tried my hand on a lot of websites. But it started to bore me and I moved on to doing other things. I started gaining interest in electronics and chose Electronics and Communication as my college major. I don't really liked my classes(due to bad teaching and no choice based credit system), but I liked the subjects so guessed I made a right decision in leaving computer programming behind.
But even when self learning EE I was more inclined to the fine line where hardware meet software. I did a lot of microcontroller programming as a hobby but as was the case with web development I never got to doing serious projects.
I started on a one month internship at a robotics based start up 3 weeks back. With only one week left to go, I can safely say I have learned more here than I did in 1 and a half year of college classes (out of which first year was wasted in subjects like "Elements of Civil and Mechanical Engineering" and stupid topics like details of how a boiler works or how you do a land survey, I still cannot why a EE guy has to study elements of other disciplines in such detail).
But this is where the problem appears in a the foreground. While working there I realized I wasn't really happy 100% of the time. As anyone who has done any EE stuff might know it is really hard to debug as we cannot just look at the variables in a finely made screen as we do for software. I find myself feeling miserable when I am stuck with one problem for 4 days and don't have a clue where I went wrong.
When ever I see posts on HN I get a feeling that the people who really love their job are happy in it all the time. But I am happy for like 70% of the time. The other 30% I am very frustrated with the work I am doing and sometimes even doubt if I am in the right place. But my being unhappy may have a lot of other factors
1) I am not really a genius and this was the first time I was exposed to real engineering problems as opposed to simple (copyable from book) assignments.
2)EE is hard as it is, you cannot debug it easily. The problem can be anywhere from the power supply to the measuring instrument. You have to check each and every source of error, which quite a painstaking process.
3) I am not exactly working on my favourite problem all the time. This is an internship and I have to work on every problem that is handed to me, whether I like it or not.
4)I have never actually worked for 9 hours straight and this might be the period of adjustment I need. So the training may be over before I get accustomed to it.
So I ask HN, is the hacker land always rosy or even the best of the hackers some times do not enjoy what they are doing? <comment><USER2> _While working there I realized I wasn't really happy 100% of the time_

If that is the metric you are measuring things against, you are in for a really miserable life.

Your four factors are all undoubtedly true: you are not a genius, EE is hard, you need to work on what you are handed, and you need to get accustomed to working long shifts.

That's about the size of it.</comment>


Dont Copy That Floppy - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=197&v=hpv6_6pCpY8 <comment><USER2> better version: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI)

</comment><comment><USER3> On the theme of anti-piracy propaganda: [https://i.redd.it/qzmicynf3rz01.png](https://i.redd.it/qzmicynf3rz01.png)</comment>


Show HN: Waffle – Split-screen picture conversations with friends - <AUTHOR> https://wafflechat.com <comment><AUTHOR> My first iPhone app created in collaboration with Karen X. Cheng. Took about 3 weeks to build, and 3 weeks to get approved. You can hit us up in the app by adding us (finbarr and karen respectively). Any feedback appreciated!

<comment><USER3> Hi Finbarr - looks awesome, but the "find out when" link for Android is broken for me (Chrome 37 on OSX)

<comment><USER4> Ah yeah my bad, I designed that. Thanks for the feedback.

Another thing that is confusing design-wise in the app is how to add friends. Right now you have to take a picture first and then add friends. We need an add button on the home screen.

<comment><USER5> Looks cool, can't wait till Android is working so i can try it out!

<comment><USER6> Likewise, got my wife on iOS to sign up, but shame I can't use it on Android yet. Hoping you can launch it there too soon, I really think this could be fun! Great take on picture messaging.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a fan of this. Although I would say to anyone reading this that quality is preferred over speed. The length of time it took to make something doesn't add any value to the product overall; that is, just focus on making a kickass product no matter how long it takes.

I really think most of are going to look back and remember the times when people would brag how short a time frame it took to build apps. Like, that use to be a bragging point.

Regardless, tangent aside, I think it's cool that we're "hacking" new ways to communicate. Waffle is another example of that. People complain that we're just building more photo-sharing apps, but I think it's important to build new ways to communicate with each other; particular for young people.

It use to be phone or face-to-face. Now there's a plethora of interesting options(Snapchat, Secret, Email, SMS, Group SMS, Chatroulette, etc.). Hack the way we communicate with eachother.

Seems like they're also adding some interesting ways in the new iPhone watch as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely agree on the quality. Thanks for checking it out and glad you like it. I only added that info as I frequently wonder how long apps/products took to build.

Most of the build time of Waffle was tweaks. There are a bunch of subtle details in the way it works that aren't immediately obvious.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Cool app, hate giving out my phone number though. Its funny how apple can be hard on people asking for email addresses to use an app but getting a phone number is totally okay.

<comment><USER4> Understandable. If it's any consolation, people in the app won't be able to see your phone number (it's used so waffle users who have you in your phone book will see you in their waffle contacts list), and we only ever SMS your number one-time to send you the confirmation code.

<comment><USER9> yeah, you see, i also do not like giving out my whole address book either.

<comment><USER10> That would be the normal way to do it at scale for this feature. Though with a small amount of users, I suppose they could just send the app a list of all the numbers they have and compare to your phone book...

<comment><USER11> What about - no ;P That's the worst idea I have ever heard ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Minor nits:

The "notify me when Android is ready" flow appears to not actually list my email address: [http://imgur.com/NJU8QkZ](http://imgur.com/NJU8QkZ)

If I enter an invalid phone number, try again and use a valid one, then click try again, the "ERROR" messages don't go away. [http://imgur.com/EHF4Es5](http://imgur.com/EHF4Es5) In fact, they build up: [http://imgur.com/opkxW4G](http://imgur.com/opkxW4G)

You might also want to move the App Store icon up a little bit; it doesn't quite fit on my 13" Macbook Air in Chrome: [http://imgur.com/mz6Jkma](http://imgur.com/mz6Jkma)

Edit: Also, /try seems to notice when I visit it from my Android phone that I should just be asked for my email address. It would be great if the / page did it too so that I don't have to give you my phone number.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is such a clever idea. I can seriously see this getting some huge mainstream attention. Nice work!

<comment><USER4> Oh thanks! Enjoyed your YC redesigns from a while back - I definitely learned from them.

<comment><USER13> Ah wow, thanks, really appreciate it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Woa, I dig the remixing feature for replies. It's like communicating with emojis except with real-life photo thumbnails. This is more of a communication app than it is a gallery. Neat. I can see this catching on.

</comment><comment><USER15> I like the concept a lot. I'm definitely going to give it a whirl.

To go meta for a bit, it's sort of interesting that this is getting such a positive reaction from a crowd that typically sneers at CRUD software. I'm actually genuinely surprised because I was expecting lots of elitist and condescending comments from people, along the lines of, "gosh, we don't need another picture sharing app, we should be curing cancer instead!" Instead I see lots of props and encouragement, which means that there may be hope for HN after all.

<comment><USER4> I'm actually really surprised from the feedback from HN as well. With stuff I've posted in the past, I'm used to a lot more criticism and like you was expecting 'not another photo sharing app' comments. Everything on here so far has been constructive / positive. Have been enjoying HN being a more positive place in general.

<comment><USER16> Feedback from HN can be unpredictable, but in this case I knew what the comments would be like because it's a great concept for an app.

What I like most about it is that encourages creativity. To extend this, do you think you'd extend the app to support drawing in the tiles? Also perhaps there could be a hidden tiles mode where all tiles are only revealed after the last one is in place.

I also agree with another commenter that it's important to know when a tile has been seen, but it looks like you have an idea on how to implement that.

Also, on the website homepage there doesn't seem to be any pictures of the app, I needed to go to the iTunes page before I saw how it looked, I'd say the homepage itself should be all you need to see to understand how the app will work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I love it. I installed it yesterday when finbarr told me it was finally released, been having friends install the app, and we haven't stopped since then!

</comment><comment><USER18> Very cool, what a neat concept! I haven't found another friend to install it yet, but one thing I would like to see (if it isn't already there) is a way to see whether or not your friend has looked at any of the squares yet. I'm not quite sure how that would be accomplished though or what it would look like. I could see this being a lot of fun though!

<comment><USER4> Thanks! Send one to us! Hit the "plus" button once you've taken a waffle and add username karen or finbarr

Yeah we haven't implemented "seen" receipts but that's a good idea. We show you which waffles you've opened but now which ones your friends have - <USER2> could probably use that same UI element (a dot next to the waffle)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Cool, simple, and creative. Bravo! I even love your app store icon. It's cute and eye catching.

</comment><comment><USER20> Reminds me a lot of one of my apps - [https://frameparty.com/](https://frameparty.com/)

Nice job though, looks great!

</comment><comment><USER21> Congrats on the launch!

</comment><comment><USER22> Very nice, I'll be checking it out :)

</comment><comment><USER23> really awesome. love the invite friends mms that gets whipped up.

</comment><comment><USER24> What a cool concept.

</comment><comment><USER25> Very cool!</comment>


Whitehouse: Where is the CTO? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/02/10/white-house-where-is-the-cto/

<comment><USER2> The Obama administration has, according to Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, already set a sort of record for number of cabinet/subcabinet appointments pushed through in ~20 days. Apparently, appointments usually pick up steam starting in March, after the budget is taken care of in Congress.

Presumably, the CTO is pretty low on the list of priorities compared to many of the other positions (like HHS) that remain unfilled.

</comment><comment><USER3> First let me just say this isn't an anti-Obama post. So if you absolutely love him try to hear me out here.

That said the featured post is more about transparency than it is about actually filling the position. On that note I think it's time for the Obama people to realize "Transparent Government" was more a campaign promise than an actual reality.

I mean, he probably intended everything he said but in reality you just can't make it happen. No matter how smart, how well intentioned, how good hearted, or whatever. You still need to play politics and that goal is contrary to complete transparency.

Let me give an example. Money is going to have to be cut from a lot of good programs. So say you're President Obama and you have Aids research and Cancer research and you have to cut money from one. Cancer kills about 570,000 Americans a year ([http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-People-Die-From-Cancer- Ea...](http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-People-Die-From-Cancer-Each- Year?&id=1872925)) while Aids has killed about 570,000 since the Aids epidemic began (<http://www.avert.org/statsum.htm>).

So the President, being forced to pick one, cuts funding for Aids research and suddenly loses the vote of every person who uses that as their hedge issue. Politics is a game of pushing people's emotional buttons and that's simply incompatible with the very rational idea of Transparency.

If Obama supporters really want him to succeed they'll need to come to terms with the fact that he won't be able to fill some of his more ambition promises in the current economic crisis. This woman's view of what a National CTO will be is almost certainly going to be one of those unfulfilled promises.

(I can almost feel myself losing Karma points for this post but it doesn't make it any less true)

<comment><USER4> Yeah, but breaking campaign promises is more than just uncool, it's bad politics. (Think "Read my lips: no new taxes")

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure that's always true.

Imagine a WW II era politician in London who gets elected on the promimse of building a new University. Right after the election Germany declares war and starts bombing London. Under those circumstances is it still wrong for him to go back on his promise of building a University?

You have to judge people by the circumstances they're handed and sometimes that means giving them a pass on certain promises</comment></comment></comment>


Stop calling PostgREST "MAGIC" - <AUTHOR> https://medium.freecodecamp.org/stop-calling-postgrest-magic-8f3e1d5e5dd1 <comment><USER2> Hi, I read the postgREST documentation about the issue of user referencing. I found "only" the data base user roles. [https://postgrest.com/en/v4.3/auth.html#client- auth](https://postgrest.com/en/v4.3/auth.html#client-auth)

Do I create for every "web user" a new database user?

Or can I reference the "userId" from the JWT as an selector?

Example:

Reqest: curl -H "Auth.... crypt(userId=2)" /todo/1 SQL: select * from todo where id=1 and userId = 2

?

<comment><USER3> you don't create a database user for every web user (unless maybe if you have like only 5-10 webusers in total).

you use the user_id from the jwt tokens in your RLS policies and view definitions. More details here [https://github.com/subzerocloud/postgrest- starter-kit/wiki/A...](https://github.com/subzerocloud/postgrest-starter- kit/wiki/Athentication-Authorization-Flow)

<comment><USER2> Thank you - that is the missing point!</comment></comment></comment>


Google Could Add Face Recognition to Google Profiles - <AUTHOR> http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/06/google-could-add-face-recognition-to.html

<comment><USER2> I thought Google had refused to add this feature in their Goggles project due to privacy concerns? This large-scale face recognition systems for auto- tagging would probably be switched off by default.</comment>


Ask HN: Weird Apache2 Logs - <AUTHOR> Hello,
So i recently set up an Apache2 Server and was looking into the logs and found these logs:
https://pastebin.com/bVKFX9X2
Does anyone know what this or what the goal of the doer is? Finding a specific file on the server, maybe a weakspot?
Also if this is an "attack" how do i protect myself from it?
Kind Regards
PS: For future reference, should i not show the ip-adress? <comment><USER2> Looks like its a (probably) bot from china doing a directory brute force on your web server.

You could ban by ip but there will be others. grep logs for that IP and if they recieved a 200 response. Then you'll know what they found that may be interesting to them.

There are ways to harden your apache, I suggest implementing them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I will try that

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You'll reach a better target audience on the Stack Exchange, either [1] or [2].

[1] [https://security.stackexchange.com](https://security.stackexchange.com)

[2] [https://superuser.com/](https://superuser.com/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also i read the rules, that you shouldn't use 'clickbait' titles but i really didn't thought of a better name, if this 'baited' you i am terribly sorry

</comment><comment><USER4> They're just probing to see if you're running anything they might be able to exploit - I didn't see any 200's other than /, so I think it's low risk.

</comment><comment><USER5> looks like some kind of bot that was scanning for specific file types... they all 404'd so nothing was found from what I saw.

You can block the ip in the firewall of that (assumed) bot and maybe create a complicated iptable rule blocking any bots that send a get request for xxx.filename maybe?</comment>


Mathematics of Machine Learning (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://datascience.ibm.com/blog/the-mathematics-of-machine-learning/ <comment><USER2> Good God that pie chart.

edit: Should've probably elaborated. Not only is a pie chart usually ineffective at conveying information, but these percentages are totally arbitrary. There's not really a specific explanation for why linear algebra is weighted more than multivariate calculus and algorithms & complexity combined, not to mention the fact that linear algebra and multivariate calculus in machine learning overlap to a large degree, and they both feed into algorithms & complexity as well.

And then on top of that, the 3D and shading seem totally unnecessary, but that's just me.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure why you're criticizing that 3D pie chart -- big companies pay lots of money to consultants from IBM to get a chart that good.

<comment><USER4> Surely there's a Chart.ly (or alternatively 314Chart.io) that is in the works somewhere - disrupting this market using tensor flow deep learning networks to produce the best pie charts possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's still early stages. I'd recommend a multivariate test on the best pie chart colours, following Google's astounding results from their search link colour test.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Someone should create a wiki to collect these types of math books/resource recommendations.

Basically a definitive list of math for AI/CS with subpages for the various branches (ML, NLP, haskell-esque typed FP, etc) and focused on self-learning or even hobbyist entertainment instead of focused on being good for formal university classes - which is hard to discern from just browsing Amazon reviews which are mostly full of anecdotes from people's old college days.

I remember when I started down the relearning math rabbit hole last year and found so many threads on HN via the search feature recommending different math books in each.

It also doesn't help that there are 100 math books written each year thanks to the backwards university-fueled incentivize systems to write new ones each year.

I ended up spending a ton of time hunting down the best ones for each subject. Which always seems like a great opportunity for optimization if someone takes a crack at it.

Although once you get past the basics of math I've found a good general rule is to get one the Dover [1] math book series for the particular subject. These were written largely in the <1990s but are almost always still relevant and always my favourites. And notably frequently far more succinct than the university professor ones.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/s/field- keywords=dover+math](https://www.amazon.com/s/field-keywords=dover+math)

<comment><USER6> Wiki didn't catch on for whatever reason, but github "Awesome ____" lists did:

[https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome)

You can find one for machine learning:

[https://github.com/josephmisiti/awesome-machine- learning](https://github.com/josephmisiti/awesome-machine-learning)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Come on folks, that's not particularly charitable. _Of course_ the numbers on the pie chart are arbitrary, the whole article is clearly presented as the author's opinion. I still found it more useful than just saying "everything is important".

<comment><USER8> It's not that the numbers are arbitrary, it's that the chart flagrantly implements the 3 biggest "don't ever do this" items taught in data visualization courses, books, and articles. In an article aimed at novice data scientists, no less!

It would be like reading an article about what an aspiring engineer needs to know about lower-level systems programming, and then coming across a snippet of bubble sort written in the ugliest Perl you can imagine.

<comment><USER9> What on Earth's wrong with it? It's perfectly clear to normal people. And please, don't reference Tufte. People who go round criticizing data visualizations and quoting Tufte are like audiophiles -- no-one else notices or cares.

<comment><USER10> Why does it use green for both Probability and Algorithms? Why does it use red for both Linear Algebra and Others? Why is it 3d?

Thin font is hard to read

<comment><USER9> > Why does it use green for both Probability and Algorithms? Why does it use > red for both Linear Algebra and Others?

I don't know very much about variations in human color perception, but to me at least, all the colors are clearly distinct (Algorithms&Complexity is a light blue (cyan perhaps), and Others is a sort of pink/purple (magenta perhaps).

> Why is it 3d?

Why not? Don't be so serious!

<comment><USER10> i may in fact be color blind

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ask HN: What maths are critical to pursuing ML/AI? [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15116379](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15116379) (135 comments, 4 days ago)

</comment><comment><USER12> I know this is probably irrational but because ibm is associated with garbage Watson I don't take any of their links seriously anymore.

<comment><USER13> Watson isn't garbage, it's just vastly over hyped by their marketing department. The technologies behind it are pretty impressive though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Stopped reading when I saw the 3d pie chart atrocity. I'm sure the rest is great.</comment>


AutoProof – A Program Verifier for Eiffel (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://comcom.csail.mit.edu/comcom/#AutoProof <comment><AUTHOR> I posted this after reading the discussion "Why not program right?" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17466277](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17466277)

I'm not familiar with Eiffel and this AutoProof give a clear example of of its syntax, and methodology.

At first glance it seems a little bit silly - the old keyword. Why not use immutable values?

<comment><USER2> How would immutable values be better? Can you give an example for what you'd prefer? Note that "old" only is valid in the conditions/contracts, not the main function body.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am naive on the language and have not used it.

At first I thought you could get around using `old` by assigning the new balance to a property `new_balance`, but that won't work since this is an object's property so of course it must be set. I see the value and purpose now.</comment></comment></comment>


Steve Ballmer did not write the text for the blue screen of death - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2014/09/09/10556049.aspx <comment><USER2> This is a technical mis-reporting which I can understand, but it worries me a lot more that in the wider press this level of mis-reporting occurs over other issues (finance, healthcare, politics, social change, foreign events etc.) and I don't understand enough about them to notice the mis-reporting.

<comment><USER3> I used to love reading _The Economist_. It was the only printed newpaper/magazine I bothered to read. I always thought they were so insightful about topics I wanted to learn about but knew very little.

Then they ran two articles on topics I _did_ know something about: space tech and bitcoin. And it became plainly obvious that the authors and the editors had absolutely no clue about the subject matter and were merely repeating already debunked pseudo-intellectual arguments from the popular press.

I canceled my subscription, and have basically stopped reading news, except the headlines here. If sometime really peaks my interest I'll take the time to research it myself thank you.

<comment><USER4> A shallow response. It's unrealistic to expect news suorces to be right all the time, especially about abtruse technical topics (it's the _Economist_ not the _Scientist_ ). But you can easily rate how good their coverage is overall over time, by comparing the quality of information received with subsequent historical developments and seeing whether the one would have helped you you predict the other.

Also, interest is piqued, occasionally in fits.

<comment><USER5> Although, if one's interest level were continuously poked into a particular memory location every time it changed, you might find that if you peeked when it piqued you would find that it also peaked.

On an unrelated note, I was writing an article for a travel magazine, and found a very well-conceived online database of recommended places to visit. Sadly, I couldn't use it in my article, because I couldn't figure out how to cite the sight site.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope these people are suitably ashamed of themselves.

I wrote an article a year ago about the use of an ARM64 CPU in the iPhone 5S and what it meant. In the introduction, I called out several poorly researched articles for getting lots of things wrong. I actually got an e-mail from one of the authors basically whining at me for calling him out in public rather than sending him corrections directly. I was feeling generous, so I went through his article and gave him point-by-point corrections. It ended up being longer than his original article, and nearly every sentence was wrong. I never heard from him again, and the article was never corrected.

It's a struggle to get visibility for good information. Meanwhile bad information spreads seemingly faster than the speed of light.

<comment><USER7> I'm interested in reading the crappy article if you have the URL around :)

<comment><USER6> I linked four such articles in the introduction paragraph here:

[https://mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2013-09-27-arm64-and- yo...](https://mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2013-09-27-arm64-and-you.html)

They're links on individual words, so you have to look a bit more closely than usual.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This story was essentially tech news junk food, filler for a slow news day. While it's amusing to see how much they got wrong, this was not a topic you spend any time researching as it's simply not that important or relevant.

It's like breaking down a tabloid article or one of those _shocking_ viral posts that are shared on social media.

A blog post that ties Ballmer (+1) to the blue screen of death (+1) is linkbait 101, not exactly hard news that deserves scrutiny.

<comment><USER9> Agreed.

Plus all of the places running it incorrectly are well known for being tabloids. Engadget used to be respectable years ago, but not really now, and The Register, DailyTech, Gizmodo/Lifehacker (same company, Gawker Media) are all pure tabloids of the worst kind.

But in general Tech' is full of garbage news sites. They just seem to make more money since they can attract more views for spurious stories.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Wow, this is incredible how many tech authors were victim to such an obvious oversight. It really shows how much of modern news reporting is just a giant game of Telephone, with very few people willing to actually go to the source independently.

<comment><USER11> The best part is that if someone said Steve Ballmer wrote the BSOD message, people will believe him because he could cite _10_ sources, not knowing that those sources all stemmed from the same incorrect source.

<comment><USER12> Relevant xkcd: [http://xkcd.com/978/](http://xkcd.com/978/) "Citogenesis"

Wikipedia touches briefly on this problem in "Reliability of Wikipedia": [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Infor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Information_loop)

<comment><USER13> The most entertaining example is arguably the Coati, which due to a widely- picked-up piece of wikivandalism arguably now _is_ "also known as the Brazilian Aardvark"... _except_ , after editorial discussion, on Wikipedia where the name was coined [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Coati](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Coati)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How many errors in a simple article a tech writer/blog can get away with is shocking. On the other hand, I don't think they have too much incentive to be correct than sensational these days, as with the power of social media, something sensational would bring much more revenue than something rather accurate. Also, even if the facts are later disputed, the short-lived nature of the medium significantly decreases the costs of such humiliation and shortened links do not tell too much about your credibility while click-bait titles are more than enough to bring attention (and therefore ad-revenue).

I don't know much about online publishing though. These are just my observations as a reader.

</comment><comment><USER15> I had not heard that anybody claimed Steve Ballmer wrote the BSOD, but I did read the cntl-alt-del article. I guess that shows HN works to filter out the BS :)

</comment><comment><USER16> On the other hand, anything that gets more people reading Raymond Chen's blog is a fundamentally good thing.

<comment><USER17> Off topic, but are you this guy? [https://encyclopediadramatica.es/David_Gerard](https://encyclopediadramatica.es/David_Gerard)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's quite obvious that if Steve Ballmer had written the "blue screen of death", it would have involved actual death.

</comment><comment><USER19> This shows that blog spam is worse than useless, it actively contorts the real news itself. It's always better to link to the original source itself, but those tend not to have the catchy headlines that the blogspam articles provide.

</comment><comment><USER20> minutia</comment>


Centrelink crisis 'cataclysmic' says PM's former head of digital transformation - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/06/centrelink-crisis-cataclysmic-turnbull-former-head-digital-transformation?CMP=share_btn_tw <comment><USER2> > ...would include ensuring only technically proficient executives were placed > in senior IT leadership roles

If only.

Instead we have an in-house piece of software pattern matching between SAP (Centrelink), across a shaky VPN built by Telstra in the 90s with only spartan updates since, to a poorly configured REST service(MyGov), and from there to the ATO running some IBM software.

It wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't had an 80% staff turnover every year since beginning the mygov project.

Instead of unifying departments, so that the data matching project had a chance at working, or being improved, a new layer of fragmentation was added.

And everyone but the non-IT IT manager gets fired.

> "The way they did it, obviously it's dangerous, because their algorithms are > flawed in the first place," Shetler said.

> "Secondly, you have to be careful with data. Much of the data that's in the > federal government, how good is it really? There is this sort of a blind > faith in data."

</comment><comment><USER3> >The man handpicked by Malcolm Turnbull to head the government's digital transformation has said the error rate in Centrelink's data-matching process is so unfathomably high that it would send a commercial enterprise out of business.

I could say this about most government organisations.</comment>


What Is POE (Power Over Ethernet) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.homemonitor.me/poe-power-ethernet/

<comment><USER2> It's what would have made a lot more sense than USB. Mobiles and other small devices were not so prevalent then so USB was prescient in that regard.

The Plan9 USB driver developers reported back on the experience. Not pleasant.

USB: it's not Universal, not Serial and not a Bus.</comment>


Show HN: I built Analytics for my Ghost blog - <AUTHOR> https://ghostboard.io <comment><USER2> And pardon my thoughts but: if you say "I built Analytics for my Ghost blog" I come expect at hacker news "function and code". What I see there is "I built Analytics for _your_ Ghost blog to pay for" aka advertising for a paid service. Its great, yes, but the headline feels ... wrong?

<comment><USER3> I expected at least a blog post launching the product... not just a landing page.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can find that post here: [https://davidburgos.blog/my-first-app-of- turnindiechallenge-...](https://davidburgos.blog/my-first-app-of- turnindiechallenge-ghostboard-io/) I was sharing the product itself

<comment><USER4> > On 10th August, at 11:16 AM ES I found it at the Hacker News Homepage, > position #16:

You should say "it reached front page" instead of "I found it". Since you were the one who posted it, it shouldn't come as a surprise it's there.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, I just updated it, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Congratulations on launching!

Don't worry if you don't get much positive feedback here -- this seems like the kind of functionality that doesn't impress the HN crowd, but could become very popular among more often less-technical, _actual_ Ghost users, quietly making you lots of money if marketed/advertised properly.

<comment><AUTHOR> let's see, thanks very much for your message!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The writing style reminds me of /r/dogecoin; that's probably not the vibe you're going for. I'm viewing this on a 20+ inch monitor, and it's clipping on the right side. You might want to limit the max-width and center your content.

<comment><AUTHOR> made me laugh! wow really? I just try to explain the best way I can but no bad intention. Sorry for the issues and thanks for reporting, I will investigate it and fix

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Looks neat, kinda what I expected from the Ghost Dashboard that was always on the roadmap and the Kickstarter pictures back in the days. It never got built apparently.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah that's why I built it :) thanks for your message!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Or just configure [https://www.awstats.org/](https://www.awstats.org/) to parse your server side logs. It's one of those things that worked for the past 18 years.

EDIT: server side logs have serious advantages: no tracking cookies needed, so no cookie consent needed. Once the parsing done, the actual logs can be purged, so GDPR compliance is fine. It's not fancy, that's true, but it gives you quite a nice overview; enough for most blogs out there.

<comment><USER9> Oh the classics. I've started to use [http://goaccess.io/](http://goaccess.io/) a lot these days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks pretty cool! We've built something similar for Google Analytics to make it easier to monitor traffic growth etc.

Here's a link: [https://chart.ly/products/google- analytics](https://chart.ly/products/google-analytics)

By the way... would be cool to see your own stats for this site, assuming it is a Ghost site! :-) . That would be a great lead magnet as well! (like demo.baremetrics.com is for Baremetrics)

</comment><comment><USER11> What do you get out of this that you don't get from putting GA on all pages other than the small SEO recommendations?

<comment><USER4> It's not (yet) blocked by adblockers, and it doesn't add more fuel to Google.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Excellent! I've been looking for something really simple and straight forward like this. A ton of analytics suites out there are geared towards engagement, user tracking, get-in-the-funnel type BS, but this looks really focused on what you would want to measure in a blog!

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you! One of my goals it's to keep really simple to setup and to use :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A quick note that the layout of the site is really broken - lots of things overlapping each other - on a not-terribly-big screen with MacOS / Firefox.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for report, I will investigate it and fix it

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I personally use clicky.com and get similar analytics. I guess this is good, but I don't think it justifies the price considering clicky.com gives you in some cases, more information (ip addresses, heatmaps of where users click, time spent, etc.)

<comment><AUTHOR> but is your site a Ghost blog? If yes, similar analytics but miss special analytics like SEO and content performence I think.

If this tool can identify any visitor, should track them so I doubt about 100% GDPR compliant without opt-in & opt-out.

Thanks for your message!

<comment><USER14> Somehow clicky.com still is. I can track each mouse movement in real-time and check where they go and come from on my website.

[https://clicky.com/help/faq/privacy/gdpr](https://clicky.com/help/faq/privacy/gdpr)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Two Questions: 1\. Do I understand this correctly, it works by inserting a tracking pixel in the html rendered by the blog? 2\. Does it have GDPR Compliance? If yes, how?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi!

1 - Just pasting a line in your Ghost admin > Code Injection 2 - Yes, basically: don't use cookies, don't get personal data or identify personally each visitor and all IPs are anonym (last octet removed).

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's so annoying that ghost doesn't have basic analytics built in. All I want to know is number of page loads + geo-ip.

</comment><comment><USER16> Serious question. Why should I pay for this, rather than use Google Analytics?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah Analytics it's free and get a lot of features. Also cookies. But if you are looking for blog-specific analytics (posts, content performance, SEO, posts per month, words per post, best time to post, etc etc), without cookies (forget to add opt-in and opt-out) and 100% GDPR compliant, then you can try for free Ghostboard

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Are you using a theme for the app? Looks good.

<comment><AUTHOR> not sure what do you mean but I'm using bootstrap and custom html+css, thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good idea!

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!</comment></comment>