How the Use of Geometric Shapes in Films Helps to Evoke Certain Feelings - <AUTHOR> https://laughingsquid.com/use-of-geometric-shapes-in-films/ <comment><USER2> I think it was Anton LeVey who wrote about quadrilaterals being the most satanic shape because of their ability to make a person feel off-kilter no matter what direction they look at it. It's a sort of anti-fengshui.

OTOH, I don't recall if he ever mentions that in 3D space, there is are two vantage points that will make a quadrilateral appear as a square. If you believe the quadrilateral is satanic, then you probably would consider those two vantage points as being quite magical.

<comment><USER2> I missed a word. I meant "Irregular quadrilaterals" where no 2 sides are equal. But since it got an upvote, I am glad the meaning came through anyway.</comment></comment>


Probiotics help poplar trees clean up TCE toxins in Superfund sites - <AUTHOR> http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/08/14/probiotics-help-poplar-trees-clean-up-toxins-in-superfund-sites/ <comment><USER2> A really interesting approach, but the article doesn't give evidence that the enhanced growth _causes_ greater TCE remediation.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm confused. Doesn't this show greater TCE remediation?

>Additionally, the researchers found that groundwater samples taken directly downstream from the test site showed much lower levels of the toxin, compared with higher levels up-gradient from the testing area.

<comment><USER2> That doesn't demonstrate that the _greater tree growth_ itself causes (or contributes to) added remediation; it could have been the bacteria added to the soil itself, or the presence of the grove as a whole, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see your point. Thanks for clarifying.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hoverboard electrical safety standard released - <AUTHOR> http://www.ul-energy.com/start/the-new-ul-2272-standard-gets-a-handle-on-hoverboard-safety/ <comment><AUTHOR> The new UL standard for self-balancing scooters, UL 2272, is out. This is a standard for fire safety and shock hazards only; it doesn't mean the thing won't face-plant the rider. (Underwriters' Laboratories was created by the fire insurance industry.) Hoverboards which pass should not catch fire.

Tests:

        ELECTRICAL TESTS
        Overcharge Test
        Short Circuit Test
        Overdischarge Test
        Temperature Test
        Imbalanced Charging Test
        Dielectric Voltage Withstand Test
        Isolation Resistance Test

        MECHANICAL TESTS
        Vibration Test
        Shock Test
        Crush Test
        Drop Test
        Mold Stress Relief Test
        Motor Overload Test
        Motor Locked Rotor
        Strain Relief Tests (Cord Anchorages)

        ENVIRONMENTAL TESTS
        Water Exposure Tests
        Thermal Cycling Test
        Label Permanence Test

Those are standard tests for portable devices such as cordless drills. All those things can happen during normal hoverboard usage. This will probably lead to hoverboards with lithium iron phosphate batteries, like Boosted electric skateboards. They cost a bit more, but don't blow up or catch fire. Both products need tougher batteries than a laptop.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is taking the position "pass the UL tests or don't sell in the US."[1] Reasonable enough. It has been 2 days since the most recent hoverboard fire destroyed a house.[2]

Internet of Things developers need to be aware of risks like this. "Move fast and break things" in high power hardware means recalls and litigation into bankruptcy. Even Nest is having troubles over failure issues.

[1] [http://www.cpsc.gov/Global/Business-and- Manufacturing/Busine...](http://www.cpsc.gov/Global/Business-and- Manufacturing/Business- Education/SelfbalancingScooterLetter.pdf?epslanguage=en) [2] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/02/1...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/02/19/hoverboard- fires-are-no-joke-two-kids-almost-died-as-their-house-burned-down/)</comment>


How MeetMe Went International on Android - <AUTHOR> http://engineering.meetme.com/2012/09/meetme-goes-international-on-android/

<comment><USER2> Quite in-depth for string localization on Android. What other problems did you have to solve when developing for Android? Getting code to compile and run consistently on 2.2+?

<comment><AUTHOR> Was trying to get as much info out there as we could for Android i18n. I'll try to get some more data about Android development and maintenance.

Not sure what you're alluding to for 2.2+... Does this have anything to do with proguard?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can you please please please put a link to your actual website on this blog? I don't want to have to edit the URL. I really don't.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea... added.

<comment><USER3> thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


Kubernetes clicked when I learned about Deployments and Services - <AUTHOR> https://ljvmiranda921.github.io/notebook/2020/01/18/kubernetes-deployments/ <comment><USER2> Getting started with Kubernetes took me one evening spent reading the docs. I see this "Kubernetes is complicated", "Kubernetes is overkill", "You should not use Kubernetes" posts on HN every now and then and I wonder: is it really that complicated? How come I never noticed that complexity while learning it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi mamon, good for you for getting it in just one night! Given that everyone has different backgrounds and experiences in tech, we may end up on different parts of the learning curve!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice post. I've enjoyed reading it as much as discovering your other blog posts and projects (especially, PySwarms). Keep it up! :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello, thank you so much ablekh, I'm glad you enjoyed reading my other posts as well!

<comment><USER3> You're very welcome!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hello everyone! I'd just like to share my learning journey on Kubernetes. I've been learning this technology for a few months now, and it all clicked when I learned about the idea of Deployments and Services.

In the blog post I share my journey and some brief reflections. Read on to know more! I hope it can help people who are still on the learning journey just like me!</comment>


Zendesk and the Art of Trademark Trolling - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/05/zendesk-and-art-trademark-trolling <comment><USER2> Wait, this sounds like Zendesk is an independent company. Isn't it a subsidiary of Autodesk? Now I'm confused...

<comment><USER3> Well played, sir/ma'am. You make an excellent point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a fine reason to use OSTicket or Request Tracker, both of which are free, open source and (with their various dependencies and modules) composed of entirely GPL, BSD and Apache licensed software.

Disregard Zendesk, acquire RT.

RT has been around for 15 years but it's continually developed and kept up to date. It's used by a large percentage of the 50 largest ISPs in the world for their back-end OSS/NOC ticketing.

Wait until they go after everything that's pronounced verbally like Zen. Most people I know if speaking about the Xen hypervisor will say "zen", not pronounce it as if it were a Chinese family name (Chen or how the X in Xiaoming is pronounced).

</comment><comment><USER5> Quick question, what would be a good alternative to Zendesk? We've initially chosen it because it seemed pretty standard, but it looks designed for much larger companies. We avoid using it (!) because the UI is confusing, and it's very pricey for what it does (especially that some basic features are locked in the higher-priced tiers). This article doesn't help either.

<comment><USER6> Intercom, hands down. We switched what now seems a long time ago, and the pricing is like 3x of what we paid for Zendesk, but the UX feels so much more natural and UI unobstructive that we gladly pay $600/mo for it. Plus the additional features make it a non brainer (true, it also lacks some that Zendesk has)

<comment><USER7> We used Intercom for a while and found it didn't fit our use-case; our tickets tend to be longer and more technically in-depth, and the Intercom UI/API didn't perform very well in those constraints.

Additionally, the chat-based interface gave our customers the expectation that they'd always get an immediate response, which just wasn't always possible.

We still have it and use it for some features like usage analytics, but it's not our primary support tool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> When I was at ZenPayroll we received a notice early on (2013) from ZenDesk about name conflict.

The rebrand which ended up as Gusto was, in part, caused by this.

To be fair to ZenDesk, we had a similar target market and did get questions about whether we were the same company.

To be fair to ZenPayroll, they pivoted mid-YC from a company called Switchboard Labs so didn't put a lot of long-term thought into the name.

Naming things is hard, but at least establish your own name-space.

</comment><comment><USER9> Well, I thought about using zendesk but now I'm taking my business somewhere else and I hope others also think twice before giving their business to companies using such tactics.

</comment><comment><USER10> LOL it's about "Zen" now?

Half a decade ago they were claiming ownership of "desk".

2011 HN discussion of their tiff with freshdesk.com: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3311496](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3311496)

</comment><comment><USER11> Zendesk recently sent their customers (at least me) a survey asking about thoughts regarding changing their own name from zendesk to something else.

</comment><comment><USER12> What is wrong in using the word 'zen'? It is not like you name your child 'zen' and other people shouldn't name their child 'zen'.

I think zendesk fears that if people use the word 'zen' and they are better then them, they will lose customers. If you want your brand to remain unique, just try to be better than all others. There is nothing to fear, If you are better, people will use your product else they will use some other.

BTW there are many alternative for zendesk and which are doing better than zendesk. I believe Freshdesk([https://freshdesk.com](https://freshdesk.com)) is doing better than zendesk. So may be that is why zendesk fears.

Also they always exchanged words with freshdesk. Even markdown has commented about that:([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11750875](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11750875))

</comment><comment><USER13> Surely the alleged infringers just need to appear at a trial in order for Autodesk to be laughed out of court with an award of costs against them?

Shouldn't there be some sort of government action against these sorts of bullying crimes, removal of trademarks for false allegations of infringement would be a good start to rationalising business uses of IP laws.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm not sure if this is the case, but I remember reading somewhere than in order to keep your trademark, you have to show that you defend it (ie. bully other companies with the same name).

</comment><comment><USER15> TFA "may increase the chance of confusion" between Zendesk and other assholes like Kik.

<comment><USER16> The Kik case was different. In that case, Kik was a) a word which had no other usage outside the startup that it represents it/no historical prior use, and b) the existing npm package held by another developer was an _exact_ name match.

<comment><USER17> kik.com in 1998: [https://web.archive.org/web/19980115104316/http://kik.com](https://web.archive.org/web/19980115104316/http://kik.com)

List of KIK used as a TLA: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kik)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> is that why ZenPayroll re-branded to Gusto?

</comment><comment><USER19> Reminds me of Intel suing Yoga studio for being named "Yoga Inside" (infringing on Intel's "Intel inside" campaign slogan)

[http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Intel-forces-yoga- gro...](http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Intel-forces-yoga-group-to- fight-for-its-name-2859147.php)</comment>


Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France - <AUTHOR> http://visa.lafrenchtech.com/?visa <comment><USER2> I live and work in France and I am well versed in this type of Visa. It's a very nice arrangement, but it's still France. It's still dealing with the same administrative burdens for everything else. You don't get treated special, you just have a special deal. I've said before that if France wants to attract foreign talent what they need to do is assign someone in the French administration to help workers get established. That is _the_ hard part about coming to work in France. If you've dealt with the DMV in the US, imagine that for everything. You can't just walk into a bank and open an account. You can make an appointment for next week...which is your first consultation. You'll need to bring a long of documentation for your second appointment the week after. You won't get your bank card for awhile, and by the way you'll have to activate it before you can use it. That might take a week. You'll need to go to Paris for a medical check that you can do your job. All French employees must do this. And you have to do it every two years. Pee in a cup. Undress over there. You'll need to go to the prefecture to get your residence permit. It took me 5 months to get my initial appointment and a total of 9 months to get my card, even though the "long term visa" in your passport is only good for 3 months. Some people I know waited 2.5 years for their residence card, another over a year. More? The French healthcare system is pretty good, but you won't get on it until after several trips to the Social Security office. Whoops, your entire file was sent back to you because they needed some additional piece of documentation they didn't tell you about. Make another appointment. Repeat. Repeat. Drivers license? If you are 1 of 14 states you can exhcange easily, but you only have 1 year to do that, after which you have to go to driving school. 3000 euros. Better learn French to pass the test. Better learn French to navigate all the adminstration. So Year 1 you will not be productive. You will be running around trying to stay legally. For an entire year. Ask me how I know.

<comment> d--b I am French and I went through the process of immigrating to both the UK and the US. While I agree that France is particularly painful about burocracy, what you describe is not a breeze elsewhere either.

You have to compare with other systems, cause I don't know of any immigrants who can say "oh coming here was so easy".

That is unless you're sent by a big company who takes care of everything.

<comment><USER3> As a French who migrated off, going to the UK was so easy.

I can't begin to imagine the burden a non speaking French person would have to go through to migrate to France.

<comment><USER4> Note that immigration inside the EU is way easier than with other countries.

You don't need a visa, working permit, special bank account (for US citizens, since the bank must report income, etc, to the US gov), your driving license is valid, etc.

<comment><USER3> Not really.

You change languages, currency, you need new bank accounts, new health insurance, completely different educational system. All administrations are different. The culture is also a shock. You will never find any of the grocery or shop you used to buy.

A French going to the UK is not much different than a Mexican going to the USA.

The only advantage is that you don't risk being deported by the police if they don't like you papers. You are effectively allowed to be there by the virtue of being European.

<comment><USER5> What's it with the bank accounts? You can transfer money within the EU without any problems. I pay my rent in Spain from a German bank account. Though, getting wired internet is another thing, these companies seem to ignore European law.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they execute on the admin/bureaucracy side.

If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your hair out :)

I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) but this is a country where in 2013 we moved from one department to another and had to close our bank accounts with the branches in the first department and open new ones in the second department because there was no way to migrate accounts between branches of the same bank o_O We literally had to post cheques to a friend in the old department so he could deposit them while we waited for the old accounts to be closed and new ones opened (complete with different cards, chequebooks, account numbers - the works).

Why did we need to migrate accounts? Because you could only deposit cheques in the same department as your local branch. Why were we depositing cheques?! Because half of France (including my fiancées' employer at the time) still uses them for everything (which is also great fun if you're in a rush in Super-U and the person in front decides to pay with one).

Having said all of that, France is awesome despite its flaws and there are lots of reasons to be hopeful with Macron now piloting the ship.

<comment><USER7> At least 20% of French people express capitalism-hostile opinions (and it goes well beyond Mélenchon voters). You face hostility as soon as you make money, with consequences ranging from being denied places in the kindergarten to the "petit Gregory" affair where the 5 years old son of a newly promoted team leader was drowned. I'm trying to show off as much as I can that I'm sponsoring poverty, donating a lot, making a lot for minorities, etc, because truth is, I'm afraid of getting mugged. People who criticize me, talking as if I belonged to the group of tax evaders, themselves don't have a clean business and evade taxes just as much as Greek citizen, so don't expect any rationality in their despicable criticism. Things can be so simple as, if you don't buy locally-grown groceries, you deserve to be told off in public for not helping the local population.

If you belong to the Christian minority, expect to be harassed by those you say "We need to respect all religions". Everyday you'll face jokes like "priests rape kids, followers are stuck-up, donating is worse than sponsoring a mafia".

President Macron himself is seen as a capitalist _enemy_ by those 20-50%, and this Mélenchon group explicitly denies his legitimacy. There are currently very active groups and many of my friends are preparing the ground on Facebook (God knows what kind of riots they're preparing for September – you think I'm kidding? wait and watch).

French people are entirely hostile to privately-owned companies and average- wealthy managers, so, no, I wouldn't recommend my country for entrepreneurs, not until they make peace with a reasonable dose of capitslism. And that's where I have hope for Macron: If he does the right things, he may tame anti- capitalism sentiments a bit and show that hard works does bring money.

<comment><USER8> What happens in September? I'm going on vacation over there!

<comment><USER9> There's been a call for strikes to protest against the labor code reforms by several syndicates and far left parties (PC, Mélenchon's Insoumis). Expect the usual circus, but I don't think it'll be too bad. There were already some labor reforms under Hollande, and they went through. Now there's an even bigger majority for it. But syndicates and the far left have to go through the motions and protest on this. Get some popcorn, enjoy the show (not too close), you may see a traditional French protest while here. IIRC it should be around mid-September.

<comment><USER10> If you really want to have some fun go poking around high school and facultés de science humaines. You'll probably get to witness "the che" flags on faculty buildings and students barricading the ways in. Why? Neither we nor them know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This seems sort of like the kind of visa system the USA would advertise to attract a particular talented group, does it not? The founder visa looks quite friendly and easy, but it's four years. What happens after that? And what if the startup fails, does the founder have to leave France?

I also wonder how appealing these international visa programs will be in light of the changing US immigration and visa system. Will the USA lose out on talent? Will the USA lose on half of the next generation of billion dollar+ startups? Assuming the past trend mentioned in WSJ persists, anyway

[https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants- fou...](https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants- founded-51-of-u-s-billion-dollar-startups/)

<comment><USER12> "The founder visa looks quite friendly and easy, but it's four years. What happens after that? And what if the startup fails, does the founder have to leave France?"

I think that ambiguity is by design, to attract certain type of demographics for people falling under the employees and founders groups. (i.e. young, unattached, adventurous)

For people falling into the investor group, I seriously doubt getting visa renewed after 4 year will be an issue as long as they are willing to bring in additional capital.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Here is a country that refused to give me knowledge when i needed it but it's now trying to lure me in.

A decade back i finished my high school in a French speaking country with honors and got an admission in a French university to study Business Administration. I've been refused the entry visa for some imaginary reasons. Unofficially i was part of the group of potential foreign students who may refuse to go back to their home-country after graduation. I then stayed in my country went to university to get a "useless" B.A. that couldn't help me to face the socio-economic realities of the world. In 2015 i read a book "Googled" by Ken Auletta that shacked me to the core and pushed me to learn how to code. I'm now a self taught programmer with skills that will benefit any French Tech startup and products' projects that could create 1000s of jobs in France if i decide to start my companies there. That said, I would not go to France because it didn't welcome me when i wanted to get in order to acquire knowledge. Now France "needs" me to come and boost their shrinking economy with the tech-knowledge i have acquired elsewhere. Sorry Monsieur le President, I ain't coming.

<comment><USER14> It should not be that personal. This a weird way to think of it, France is 20 million times different from the "France" of that person or persons, who decided you do not go there. I was turned down from getting an entry visa to a country when I needed it the most, yet go it later very easily for something that I was not very keen to travel for it. By the way, I went to France last month and loved every minute of it.

<comment><USER15> Don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. \-- Mario Puzo

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've been working on relocating to France, and while I'm very excited to do it it's been frustrating to try to get information about this program. People don't seem to know what documentation is required, and replies come after weeks (if ever) from government bodies.

<comment><USER17> Sounds pretty French. Source: lived there for 8 years

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wow you have to have a graduate degree to even be an eligible employee, never mind.

<comment><USER19> As it should be.

We don't have people calling themselves engineers just because can type a few lines of code.

<comment><USER20> I'm a self taught dev with 15+ years' experience. I only got a degree a few years ago (did it while working). Honestly, I learned exactly _nothing_ useful that I didn't already know.

I do a lot of hiring and, in my experience, having a degree (or indeed the class/score of said degree) has no relation to the real-world abilities of candidates.

<comment><USER21> "engineer" in France is a regulated title you can only get through a degree (like Germany?). Actually I'm not even sure most foreign schools degrees would be accepted as engineers in France.

<comment><USER22> That is slightly inacurate, "Engineer" is not a regulated title in France. What is though is the "graduated engineer" (Ingénieur diplômé) title.

[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_des_titres_d%27ing%...](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_des_titres_d%27ing%C3%A9nieur)

<comment><USER23> You are discussing about the university degree (as the parent did), but there are other usages of the word "ingénieur" in France beside diplomas.

In France "Ingénieur" is also a civil servant title, or a title given to someone who did that job and is now retired (I am "Ingénieur honoraire" and have a master but no "Ingénieur" diploma).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> If they're looking to attract founders, founders will obviously care about exits. It might not be the #1 concern, but it's up there. France has a reputation for very high taxes and a seeming contempt for very large cash windfalls. I'd be curious how they plan to improve this international image.

</comment><comment><USER25> They're requiring masters degrees for entrepreneur visas. One thing Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Lei Jun, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Travis Kalanic and Cheng Wei all have in common is a lack of a master's degree.

Why would France add a restriction to their visa that would have eliminated the founders of Amazon, Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Xiaomi, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Uber and Didi Chuxing?

Are they pinning all their hopes on someone following the path of Larry Page or Robin Li, except choosing to immigrate to France to start their search engine? Are the people who made the rule just not aware how few of the top tech company founders have master's degrees? Is it some kind of intentional low-beta strategy to try to scoop up a bunch of more certain, smaller wins?

I truly don't understand what kind of reasoning went into to this program. It's just making France look out of touch.

Edit: ok apparently the founder needs money and it's employees who all need masters degrees (nearly as bad).

<comment><USER26> There is a Founders Visa and an Employees visa.

Only the employee's visa requires a masters degree. All the big names you dropped were people that never intended to be employees.

I'm not sure what the problem is.

> It's just making France look worse.

This is just silly.

<comment><USER27> Yeah, and they would never have needed a special visa.

It's sad, there is so much myths and fantasies around those specific guys.

<comment><USER25> It's not a "myth" or "fantasy" that they didn't have master's degrees.

To the best of knowledge any of them would have needed a visa to go to France, and one of them did in fact live in Canada and then the US on visas before naturalising and starting three separate billion dollar companies along the way.

<comment><USER27> Please, don't misunderstand me.

 _special visa_ doesn't mean _no visa_.

myths and fantasies are not about their degrees but more on the public image we have of us who do more harm than good in my opinion.

 _" Rather than placing tech leaders on a pedestal, we should put their successes in context..."_ [1]

I would never advise someone to drop school without a strong family background, a solid bubble opportunity or just luck. And I don't like schools, for me they are clearly not the best places to learn, just to network.

[1] [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539861/techs-enduring- gre...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539861/techs-enduring-great-man- myth/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I've been looking forward to more details about this program emerging seeing that I'm a french-speaking francophile who recently made a transition to a career in programming.

The minimum education requirement being a Master's degree is quite disappointing. I fear they are making the same mistake as Japan when the latter introduced their points-based immigration system that requires you to be fluent in Japanese with a Master's degree and published research, making far above the salary any Japanese worker would make in the same position.

France isn't exactly an easy country to immigrate to. I was toying with the idea of doing a Master's earlier this year; this might be the motivation I need to get it done now.

<comment><USER29> The US has a very similar requirement for their visa (I'm specifically referring to E3, which is the H1B for Australians) which only lets in 'skilled' people, defined by a university degree (or 3 years of work experience for every 1 year of degree, so a total of 9-12 years).

It was pretty disheartening to get a job offer from a big tech firm in New York only to have any chances shot down because of visa...

<comment><USER30> At least it's only a 4-year degree though.

<comment><USER21> In France, 4-year degrees do not exist so it counts as a Bachelor.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> It will be interesting to see how French engineers and computer scientists see this type of visa. The perhaps equivalent H1B visa in the US is or was obviously a big plus in certain areas but was lately perceived as an abuse channel to get cheap labour to replace the locals. Hopefully this scheme won't be abused...

<comment><USER32> 1) As far as I know, this is only communication stunt. There was no new legislation that eases immigration, it falls in the current set of laws and regulations that didn't seem to cause major issues for now (at least for engineering jobs).

2) At least on the posted website, there isn't any big SS2I/ESN (Societe de Service en Ingenerie Informatique/Entreprise de service du numerique, aka meat renters, like Capgemini, Atos, Sopra-Steria...) or big employers (like Thales, Snecma, Airbus...) in the list. The list seems kind of legit as it seems to be constituted only of small start-ups.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> For those who are seriously considering moving to a European nation for work purposes, you might want to also look up the EU blue card scheme[1] which is most likely more flexible than this for employees (no idea of equivalent for founders and investors).

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_(European_Union)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_\(European_Union\))

<comment><USER34> Edit - it turns out that the link I put here is actually for a private company. I haven't had any luck finding a more official link for information. If you can help, I'll update this.

<comment><USER35> Note that this is (one of many) websites made by private companies that try to appear as official as they can without being (and collect some "fees" on the way). I would be extremely surprised if there were actual employers on that site or if they would actually provide a useful service regarding the real application.

<comment><USER34> Ooops, I'm an idiot! Thanks very much for telling me (and giving me the chance to correct my error).

<comment><USER35> The EU site is at [http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/bluecard_en](http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/bluecard_en) but as the thing is issued by the member states each country has their own website with information. For example, Germany (which issues about 85% of all Blue Cards) has some information here: [http://www.bamf.de/EN/Migration/Arbeiten/BuergerDrittstaat/B...](http://www.bamf.de/EN/Migration/Arbeiten/BuergerDrittstaat/BlaueKarte/blaue- karte-node.html)

<comment><USER34> Thank you very much for the link!! If my daughter and I end up in the EU, I owe you a beer! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> _There has been a very strong dynamic over the past few years around France's 10,000 startups._

Any info on the success rate?

<comment><USER37> Yet only 70 companies are allowed to hire talent based on the visa rules.

<comment><USER38> Out of those 70 companies, how many have job offers in english?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Will they pay as good as the Us? That is going to be the biggest motivator in my opinion.

<comment><USER38> No, around 40k€ / year, before taxes.

<comment><USER40> Sure, but it's not just that. The quality of life could be argued to be significantly higher than in other places.

The job security once you land a decent gig is not something to be discarded. This being said, Macron does plan on making it easier for people to be fired, in order to make it easier for companies to hire. This is a big topic that I could rant for hours about.

You do get all-inclusive health care. In addition to what the government provides, most 40k€ jobs will come with an extra private insurance ("mutuelle"), which will effectively reduce health costs for you and your family to 0. Depending on how nice your company is, you might be _taxed_ on an extra 20-40€ of monthly income, which gives mutuelle rights to you and your family. If you're unlucky, 20-40€ will be deducted from your pay for every family member on the mutuelle. This is usually not negotiable as it is managed/negotiated by the employee representatives/unions.

You also get fairly decent rents. 600€/month will get you a flat in any city, except Paris/Lyon. 1000-1400€ will get you a nice place in most cities.

You also get access to a decent transportation network to most Europe, and a very good internet connectivity, at the consumer level.

I moved from France to Denmark. I would say my wealth has increased (2-3x salary increase), but my overall stress has massively increased. France has a lot of good things going for it.

<comment><USER38> I'm French and I moved to San Diego, so....

My health insurance is paid by my company and I don't really care about free education.

Yet, after all my bills, groceries for the month and rent (which is around $2k/month) is paid, I still have almost $2k / month in my pocket to do whatever I want. Good luck to have that in France.

The quality of life in Southern California is miles ahead from what I could have in France. My only regret is about food.

<comment><USER41> I'm French and I'm curious as to how you moved and got a job in SD ? Thanks

<comment><USER42> SD is "South Dakota" as abbreviated in US-English. See: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota)

<comment><USER43> There are more people in San Diego (~1.2M) than all of South Dakota (~800k). Even absent the context of replying to a comment about having moved to San Diego, I think it would be reasonable to assume that "SD" stands for San Diego instead of South Dakota.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Very French for them to require a masters degree for employees. Contrast that to the more welcoming working permit in Germany[1]. Also currently the startup scene in Berlin looks pretty interesting!

[1][http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/work- permit.h...](http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/work-permit.html)

</comment><comment><USER45> As some here have posted disparaging comments about French bureaucracy, I'd like to share my own experience. I've have emigrated to France four years ago with my wife and our two kids. On the whole our experience dealing with the government has been quite positive.

Yes, some stuff feels really backwards, like getting a bank account (it helps a lot if you have a big wad of cash to dangle in front of your banker, you'll get treated differently), the RSI (social security for entrepreneurs) and the CAF (child support) are frustratingly incompetent, but most bureaucrats we dealt with have been quite understanding to our needs and some of them have really gone out of their way to help us.

I think it really depends who you stumble upon, and most of all - if you make an effort to speak French (which is definitely one of the hardest things about emigrating to France) you'll find that in the end it all works out, it just might take some time!

<comment><USER2> I am all for learning French and doing it "their way." The challenge I've run into with it "just taking some time" is for some things you don't have time. Things need to be done at or by a certain time. Like setting up utilities, getting a bank account, housing, signing up for healthcare, enrolling kids in school, etc. Those can't take time, they need to be done as soon as possible. So you have to get them done before you are good at the language and before you understand the processes. Things have worked out for us but Year 1 was a constant scramble. Reducing the burden of all that I think it what would really help recruit talent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> So Euro 300K for 4 years. It doesn't look like good deal compare to USD 1 million for permanent residency.

</comment><comment><USER47> No mention of self-employed/freelancers/consultants.

</comment><comment><USER48> At this point it seems that many Europe nations are more "free" than the US. Now with same-sex marriage getting legal in germany the probably last big issue is resolved. You will not get extreme high salaries like in the US, but there is stuff like free higher education and getting serious medical care won't be expensive at all.

Also remember that the EU has a higher population than the US with very diverse countries to explore just a few hours apart, all rich of culture and stuff that is over thousand years old.

Oh, and of course we don't have Trump. :D

<comment><USER49> I find European culture and history alluring, but I don't think Europe is somehow "more free" than the U.S., in particular, you guys have much more regulation and far greater taxes. Maybe you have a greater quality of life by certain measures, but I think the freedom point is hard to defend. Maybe I'm wrong?

<comment><USER50> Taxes are not higher everywhere, and where they are higher it's usually because there is really awesome infrastructure and a social safety net and other stuff you would normally want to finance collectively. Compare, say, the homeless situation in Berlin to that in San Francisco... or compare pretty much any bus system anywhere in the developed world to MUNI.

One freedom Europeans have is freedom from fear of the police, i.e. I don't think there's any country in Europe in which you might have to fear for your life when you're not doing anything wrong and happen to meet a cop, regardless of your skin color.

Also I think there's more political freedom in countries where small parties play a role in government, i.e. you don't have to choose between the Democrats or Republicans or a symbolic protest vote.

And while this varies by country, there are places where you can be just as "off the grid" as in the US and the bureaucracy will never find you (or even try). But I wouldn't try that in, say, Germany.

Anyway, that said I wouldn't propose that an American is likely to feel "more free" living in Europe, probably the opposite, but in some things they probably would be.

Source: US American living in Europe for a long time. :-)

<comment><USER49> Thanks for your response.

Maybe taxes in California are crater than Croatia, but I would be very surprised if the average tax want much greater in Europe than in the US. Do you have specific places in mind?

I also think fear of police is overblown in the US (maybe I would feel differently if my skin were a different color, but this doesn't appear to have a basis in data), and "freedom from fear of police" isn't really a political freedom (at least in my mind) unless you are referring to police oppressing people for their speech, political affiliations, etc, which clearly is a non- issue in the US. That said, while the odds of being injured or killed by police are many times greater than in Europe, they are still miniscule. It seems analogous to the recently heightened risk of terrorist activity in Europe--many times greater than in the US, but still not a reason to avoid Europe.

I do think Europe is a good value proposition for a lot of people (I've lived there and occasionally consider trying to move back), but I don't think Europeans have more freedom.

<comment><USER50> The tax picture is complicated, as always, but consider Hungary, where VAT is very high (27%) but income tax is very low (15% flat tax). Vibrant tech scene, programmers are paid very well by local standards, etc.

Having gotten quite used to the mellow police of Europe (not that I've ever been arrested or anything) I find the militarized police of the US unnerving every time I go back. Not sure I'd call it a political freedom but having mostly-friendly cops even in a really big city is a big quality of life thing.

Plus, drinking beer on the tram (in Berlin) -- that's definitely a freedom you won't enjoy in California. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> From reading the comments there seems to be huge potential for a startup in France: Making it easy to navigate the bureaucracy. Automate everything, streamline communications, speed up enquiries, etc

This is assuming that the bureaucracy cannot be disrupted itself outside of the government. I imagine if such a startup would work it would have lots of popular support. Uber for Bureaucracy.

</comment><comment><USER52> I guess if I'd want to attract talent, I would not use the most depressing, gray, bland picture of Paris I could find...

</comment><comment><USER53> I wonder if there are any avenues to do this as a sole proprietor? I'm an unattached programmer with a bunch of independent projects released and in the works, but I'm not really interested in doing a full-on "startup". Currently looking into DAFT, but I think France is a bit closer to my heart!

<comment><USER2> You could get a long term visitor visa. Lasts one year and is renewable. You need to prove that you have income, medical insurance, and promise not to work for a French company in France. [http://sanfrancisco.consulfrance.org/spip.php?article2703](http://sanfrancisco.consulfrance.org/spip.php?article2703)

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Does it have to be a graduate degree in something related to the job or would like an MA in Art History do the trick?

</comment><comment><USER50> Four years renewable is nice, but the higher tiers of "international tech talent" _employees_ are usually eligible for a _permanent residence permit_ in Germany.

Does France have anything to compete with that, other than better food?

<comment><USER2> It's four years renewable for the residence permit, but really the important thing is to have a work contract. You get the residence permit because of the work contract. So if you still have a work contract after four years, you would just apply for another residence permit. You can have a work contract that has no expiration (no fixed duration).

<comment><USER50> Yes, but with my permanent residence permit I can take a year off to write poetry (if I could afford it) then come back and take a part-time job in a cafe or be a freelancer, and nothing would happen to my status.

I'm not arguing that it's better to live in Germany than in France, that depends on way too many variables (not just the food of course). But it would be nice to see more competition. Maybe if other EU countries really started beating Germany for tech talent acquisition, Germany might finally wake up and allow dual citizenship. (Wishful thinking on my part.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> This basically seems like an H1-B in the US. The US has had H1-B for 25 years now and is doing 100,000+ per year.

This seems like too little too late.

</comment><comment><USER56> France needs to lower long term capital gains tax. If you work for 10 years at big risk, the payoff should be big.

</comment><comment><USER57> I see a blank page.

</comment><comment><USER58> Just a friendly reminder: as of today there has been a state of emergency in France for over a year now. We are talking about situation with regular army with full automatic assault weapons on the streets and police authorized to enter apartments without court order.

<comment><USER34> I'm Canadian and have a 15 month old, so I'm not as up on European news as I should be. Does that state of emergency stem from the Paris attacks in 2015?

<comment><USER41> It was supposed to be a temporary state but no politician wants to be responsible of an attack if they shut it off...

I don't live in Paris but overall this doesn't change daily life by much. You basically only see a couple police officers in front of police stations and a couple guards in front of universities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> This on some case could be good, but there's plenty of people with talent and they don't want to hire them or nor give them decent salary.

This is what ruin the French, only following trend. USA is doing TECH DAYS, let's do the same.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you believe in? Calculus or Statistics - <AUTHOR>

To quote Peter Thiel via "The hard thing about hard things" by Ben Horowitz:<p>"There are several different frameworks one could use to get a handle on the indeterminate vs. determinate question. The math version is calculus vs. statistics. In a determinate world, calculus dominates. You can calculate specific things precisely and deterministically. When you send a rocket to the moon, you have to calculate precisely where it is at all times. It's not like some iterative startup where you launch the rocket and figure things out step by step. Do you make it to the moon? To Jupiter? Do you just get lost in space? There were lots of companies in the '90s that had launch parties but no landing parties. But the indeterminate future is somehow one in which probability and statistics are the dominant modality for making sense of the world. Bell curves and random walks define what the future is going to look like. The standard pedagogical argument is that high schools should get rid of calculus and replace it with statistics, which is really important and actually useful. There has been a powerful shift toward the idea that statistical ways of thinking are going to drive the future. With calculus, you can calculate things far into the future. You can even calculate planetary locations years or decades from now. But there are no specifics in probability and statistics—only distributions. In these domains, all you can know about the future is that you can't know it. You cannot dominate the future; antitheories dominate instead. The Larry Summers line about the economy was something like, "I don't know what's going to happen, but anyone who says he knows what will happen doesn't know what he's talking about." Today, all prophets are false prophets. That can only be true if people take a statistical view of the future."<p>— Peter Thiel <comment><USER2> I believe that Peter Thiel doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. He seems to have confused mathematics and new age philosophy.

"There are no specifics in probability and statistics"? I would call this statement bullshit, but I cannot figure out any precise meaning to ascribe to it.

"Antitheories dominate instead?" Umm..... huh?!

As a math educator, I find the question of whether to teach calculus or statistics in high schools extremely interesting, relevant, and important. If you want to ponder this question, I recommend beginning with a more substantive contribution to the debate.

</comment><comment><USER3> Using calculus to predict the future is a special case of statistics where your uncertainty is zero. Statistics is absolutely necessary to do any science or prediction. It provides how confident you are with your prediction, and there's nothing special about having uncertainty in your beliefs (yes I am a Bayesian).

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a false dichotomy. Calculus and measure theory underlie probability theory which provides the foundation for most of statistics. Stochastic calculus is another tool for dealing with noise in systems. Good luck understanding stochastic calculus without regular calculus.</comment>


Announcing iFirefeed, An iOS Twitter clone, built on Firebase - <AUTHOR> https://www.firebase.com/blog/2013-08-02-announcing-ifirefeed.html

<comment><USER2> neat!</comment>


Deep-sea worms and bacteria team up to harvest methane - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2020-04-deep-sea-worms-bacteria-team-harvest.html <comment><USER2> It's not just worms in the wild, there are a range of companies growing and harvesting these same bacteria for feeding fish and livestock. It seems to just be a cultural hurdle keeping them from becoming an ingredient in our own food. See this article from 2016 about Calysta of Menlo Park and Unibio of Denmark:

[https://www.newscientist.com/article/2112298-food-made- from-...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2112298-food-made-from-natural- gas-will-soon-feed-farm-animals-and-us/)

<comment><USER3> We're more indirectly already eating methane as it's the source of hydrogen, for making nitrogen fertilizers out of thin air.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing.

<comment><USER5> or also "The Invinvible" by Stanislaw Lem, published in 1964.

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

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Schwarm#Verhältnis_zu_Werk...](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Schwarm#Verhältnis_zu_Werken_anderer_Autoren)</comment></comment>


What's the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? - <AUTHOR> https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm <comment><AUTHOR> Someone just mentioned this in another thread ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18397380](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18397380)) and I didn't know there was a name for it. Now I do :D</comment>


"The proliferation of drones is well underway." - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2204790/?from=rss <comment> patrickg-zill Heh, for a moment there thought the article was about working in a large corporation ... instead of UAVs.

</comment><comment><USER2> Michael Chricton was on Charlies Rose a few years back, and his biggest worry for humanity was something along the lines of self-replicating nano-bots. Without going into specifics, he said in 20-30 years we'd be at the point where we would need to decide as humans whether this tech was indeed safe enough to use.

He also stated that now, for the first time in his life he talked to scientists who were deciding _not_ to pursue a line of science due to the potential risk to humanity.

He was a wise man, may he rest in peace.

</comment><comment><USER3> Working on killer robots is the dream of about 90% of all engineers I'd say. Myself included of course.

<comment><USER4> Drool...</comment></comment>