Marketing - <AUTHOR> http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/02/marketing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29&utm_content=Netvibes <comment><USER3> _2) Social hoooks - Your product/service must be social. It must encourage your users to invite others to try it out. Hooks into Facebook and Twitter are obvious. Email invites are another obvious feature. The product should allow people to express themselves in it. Profiles, personalization, etc will allow the users to feel ownership of the product and tell others about it. Foursquare's adoption of a game dynamic when it launched is a particularly clever implementation of a social hook. Games are the most social of all things on the web._

Ugh. Maybe it's just me, but I can't stand this. Whatever happened to just being useful? If I like your product, I'm fully capable of sharing it myself. You see so many pages now that look like they were designed to maximize the possibility that you will accidentally like them on facebook.

There's nothing wrong with a "share this post/page/app/etc" panel but, unless your core functionality is based on social interactions, please keep it reasonable.

Also, not everything needs to be customizable. I don't know who all these people are that supposedly _love_ making accounts and filling out profiles for every little thing they want to try on the internet - I think it's a huge pain. When I studied UX it was pretty well agreed upon that you shouldn't force people to create an account until it was _absolutely necessary,_ not the other way around.

Jeez, I'm way too young to be having these get off my lawn moments.

edit: I also have a problem with his opening sentiments, but it's more of a semantic issue.

 _I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or when you make so much profit on every marginal customer that it would be crazy to not spend a bit of that profit acquiring more of them (coke, zynga, bud, viagra)._

It's views like this that make people sneer when I say I'm doing marketing. So, thanks.

I believe marketing is how you capitalize on the thoughts and feelings of your audience. This is why you should take support very seriously - people spend sick money trying to find out what your customers (current and potential) are thinking - when they offer it to you for free, that's the biggest marketing opportunity you're likely to get, so treat it as such.

<comment><USER4> I agree that it must be social, but it shouldn't encourage you to share - <USER2> must simply allow you to, should you decide to.

If I see a popup demanding that I enter friends' email addresses, I leave.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I find it a little bit scary that Fred Wilson might not be able to differentiate Marketing from Promotion.

He must be having an off day.

Every business needs to have vision for how its products and/or services relate to its customers and the wider marketplace. Marketing is fundamental to business.

However, I do agree that for many startups, costly promotional efforts probably wont offer enough return to justify the expense.

<comment><USER6> _I find it a little bit scary that Fred Wilson might not be able to differentiate Marketing from Promotion_

Glad to see I wasn't alone in having that thought.

 _Every business needs to have vision for how its products and/or services relate to its customers and the wider marketplace. Marketing is fundamental to business._

Exactly. If you aren't "marketing," you basically don't have a business. Marketing is just identifying a need, finding a solution to that need, and connecting them. To borrow from Wikipedia[1]:

 _Marketing is the process of performing market research, selling products and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising to further enhance sales. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves._

 _Marketing is used to identify the customer, to satisfy the customer, and to keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, it can be concluded that marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries. The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable_

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Don't be Google's bitch - but building on Facebook is just fine?

</comment><comment><USER8> My favorite style of marketing is when your users market your app for you. NOT in the way you might think (not through referral programs, emailing friends, etc.) rather that they're encouraged to share their profile, page, website, etc., because it will benefit them directly. In turn it benefits you, but it starts with benefiting them.

What's an example? KickStarter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, etc., are all examples of this. Another is Carbonmade. Artists must share their portfolio (e.g. <http://colerise.carbonmade.com/>) with their friends, recruiters, etc., to get benefit from it and in turn those friends (usually other artists) see the Carbonmade link at the bottom of the portfolio, click it, and can then sign up for their own. It sets off a viral chain.

Side note: We're seeing nearly as many referrals from Facebook as we are from Google, because people are sharing their portfolios on Facebook as their homepage. Screenshot: <http://cl.ly/0a372w1T3y3G1s2U3337> And look at StumbleUpon's comeback!

<comment><USER9> This is only effective for apps where the content the user puts into the app is put in with the intent of sharing it in the first place (i.e. this isn't a marketing technique, so much as an app-design technique.) You can't just pick a random app in a different vertical (say, Gmail) and tack viral own-data sharing onto it.

<comment><USER8> Certainly, but gmail has the @gmail.com to market for them. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I and someone in my family invested a lot of time trying to be a customer of one of Fred's portfolio sites, Etsy. One of their problems is definitely effective marketing and sane branding. The guy in charge of their marketing, Matt Stinchomb, had no experience in the field other than promoting an indie band, so that's how he promoted Etsy. Their activities since then leave a lot to be desired. I hear so many people who have heard of Regretsy, a site created to mock Etsy, and not Etsy itself. It doesn't make me feel proud to have a shop.

It seems like Fred's plans here are 'one size fits all' without recognizing that not all web ventures are the same. They've treated Etsy like it's some viral Facebook 'tag your chickens in VR' app, more than something that needs to be built into a household name.

</comment><comment><USER11> I guess this only really applies to consumer web startups with some kind of viral aspect. What if your marketing to businesses in a certain field that makes it unlikely for you to get more than a trickle of word of mouth uptake and your app doesn't get any external exposure from the business.

That kind of thing closes the door on a lot of the methods mentioned, depending on your field to you might need a decent budget just to get a look in on industry events.

Interested to hear others with more B2B based products and what they think about advertising early on.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm struggling to see how Twitter is of any use in finding customers.

On the other hand spending on Adwords links me directly to people who are looking for my products. For me it is consistent, reliable, directly measurable and profitable.

<comment><USER13> I've had luck converting people tweeting about the problem my product solves to beta users. I'm sure it depends on who your customers are and how likely they are to express themselves on Twitter and other social media.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door".

I thought this was discredited a long time ago.

The world has to find out about your mousetrap before they beat a path to your door.

That's marketing.

</comment><comment><USER15> Fred is confusing marketing with advertising. Advertising is one of many functions of marketing.

<comment><USER16> Agreed. This post smacks of hubris too - it's fantastic that your social media investments have a viral loop built in, but good luck selling enterprise software without a customer acquisition cost. Maybe your enterprise software is so awesome that customers are beating down your door, but you still need salespeople to close.

Very narrow thinking.

<comment><USER17> from the article: "I'm not an expert on enteprise focused SAAS businesses. I am not going to address that part of the market here."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Interesting article, as usual. But a rule like "you shouldn't have a marketing budget" seems too one-size-fits-all. If you're building consumer apps, sure, it makes sense to rely on it being viral, but there's a whole universe of other stuff out there to build where it can be a lot harder to reach the customers.

And even if it is a viral consumer app, don't you want to be able to put the pedal down and accelerate growth at some point?

We launched at techcrunch, but it still cost money to get out there, get material ready for the demo, etc. Isn't that marketing (to investors, but still)? Seems like you're spending time/money on marketing even if it doesn't have a dedicated budget line item.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think Fred means that you shouldn't spend your marketing budget on advertising.

I agree with you that it sounds a bit like a mantra; for instance, you may want to foster your growth with advertising to get network effects faster.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This post was the biggest surprise of my day. I like the sentiment of good enough products market themselves but it also reminds me too much of "build it and they will come." And we know how often that works out...

</comment><comment><USER19> i'd like to hear more about customer acquisition (ie getting users); especially from YC startups.

<comment><USER19> late edit: i meant especially from non-YC startups.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I am late to this conversation and Fred already posted a follow up but I wanted to just add that this is not Fred's normal voice. He is upset about something. When usually his posts are very open and constructive, this one was bitter.</comment>


Honest Guide to Remote Work - <AUTHOR> https://blog.stephsmith.io/the-guide-to-remote-work/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN. After 3 years of working remotely, I decided to compile all of my thoughts into 4656 words. I felt like the world needed a guide on remote work that:

1) Was not trying to sell anything 2) Highlighted benefits but also honest realities of location independence

We know it's not all fairies and rainbows, so I created this guide to give a more accurate view of the lifestyle and address some misconceptions. To be clear, I am a big advocate of remote work, but I think it needs to be represented realistically.

Are there any key points missing from the article?

I split it up into 5 sections so feel free to jump to the section most useful to you. 1) Remote Work != End Goal 2) Can I Even Go Remote? 3) The Good and Bad of Location Independence 4) My Personal Experience 5) Practical Tips

</comment><comment><USER2> Remote work is definitely not for everyone and you need some time to adapt and find your own pace. The harder for me is regarding the physical health. I find it hard to stick to what I use to do since I'm nomad.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, it's not for everyone and even for those who it's suitable for, there's a calibration period of at least a few weeks-months-years.

I also struggle to fit in personal goals like staying fit!</comment></comment>


Five entrepreneurial lessons in 54 hours: Startup Weekend DC 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://www.whitegloveapps.com/2010/08/22/entrepreneurial-lessons-startup-weekend-dc-2010/

<comment><USER2> I work from home, and when my family does not interrupt me (as they are wont to do), I am able to get much more done. I think there's a caveat to the first lesson, though: you can get lots of work done in a short period of time if you're not interrupted, but it is hard to keep up a steady pace, working long days, for more than a few days at a time when you're doing creative work.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Your point that it's hard to do intense, creative work for more than a few days is well-taken: everyone was worn out after the weekend!</comment>


Collection of data from Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/brandtg/trump-data <comment><USER2> This is indeed a useful dataset, but I wonder what the propriety of scraping the American Presidency Project is? It looks to be a project run by academics/researchers and there's no license note other than a copyright. Before you say that facts are in the public domain...yes, but not the work in collecting them. You'd be in trouble if you were to reprint the Guinness Book of World Records. Dave Leib's Presidential Atlas, which is the only collection of county-level presidential vote results, has strict prohibitions against distributing the data after you've paid for the license.

Collecting these speeches is nontrivial work, which is why the American Presidency project is one of the few places you can find such repositories.</comment>


A Wave Function Collapse Overlapping Model Guide - <AUTHOR> https://frame.42yeah.casa/2020/01/30/wfc.html <comment><USER2> Note that the implementation described above uses the Arc Consistency 3 algorithm for the propagate step. It's often an order of magnitude faster to use AC4, as is done in the original WFC repo and in my implementation ([https://github.com/BorisTheBrave/DeBroglie](https://github.com/BorisTheBrave/DeBroglie)).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I am just trying to make it work :P I would strongly advise against using my implementation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I broke it. (In a good way) I managed to embed a pattern in the feed that is not repeated in the output. Well, at least some of the time is not repeated- haven't done very many iterations.

[https://ibb.co/k6BmFsd](https://ibb.co/k6BmFsd)

<comment><USER4> I broke it in a bad way. Pattern chugged along fine and then it froze and a random white rectangle appeared. (N=3) [https://imgur.com/a/IlmdkC6](https://imgur.com/a/IlmdkC6)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, sorry I didn't make that clear... That would be a contradiction, as no pattern was found to fit in that area. You need to generate again.

<comment><USER4> Interesting. Well it only happened once so I guess I just got bad luck. Fun demo!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is awkward. My home router blocks your site as malware. (It tells me I can submit the site for review here: bitdefender.com/submit

<comment><AUTHOR> Well maybe that's because I am hosting my blog on vultr... I guess?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems like n=3 really helps to get good results. With n=2 it was a bit hard to see that it actually followed the pattern.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that's why in the official repo lots of images were generated using N=3. However N=2 is pretty good for mazes and stuffs from my perspective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Wow that's cool ! It's like perlin noise for grownups :D

</comment><comment> a-dub computer modern in the hizzy!</comment>


Ask HN: Where do you get your science news? - <AUTHOR> I have recently found myself checking HN as my primary source of science news on the web. It's great for tech news, but, if anyone has any recommendations, I'm interested in finding some new resources that focus on science. News aggregators, magazines (paper or online), podcasts - anything, really. Even book recommendations would be welcome.<p>In particular, I am interested in biology and innovations in medicine, but have a pretty general interest in science and want to do a better job of keeping up with STEM news. <comment><USER2> I am personally getting it from:

* /r/science (reddit)

* richard dawkins foundation (although there is much crap news there)

* Discover magazine rss

* Scientific american rss

* Ars Technica (not science but they are pretty deep and occasionally scientific)

* Google+ communities about science

Used to follow "I fu*king love science" but this one is not actually scientific at all.</comment>


Professor solves 240 Computer Science exam problems in a row - <AUTHOR> https://youtu.be/g_ZdcHSFGv0 <comment><USER2> Dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23759673](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23759673)</comment>


Ex Google PM criticizes new Reader layout - <AUTHOR> http://brianshih.com/

<comment><USER3> I don't care for the new interface and I agree that it's slower, but that may just be because I'm not accustomed to the look. GUI changes are minor to me and easily fixed with a greasemonkey script anyway. The real problem is that they stripped out tons of functionality and didn't replace it with anything. Google+ is not integrated. They added a button to share in google+ . That's all. that's not integration. There is no way to get my friend's content on google+ back into google reader.

That is the entire point of sharing in google reader. It's not a 'social network' per se, it's specialization in going through RSS feeds. I find a 'friend' that looks at funny photos all day and he pics out the 10-20 good ones so I don't have to look at funny photos all day. My feeds can be focused around other topics. but this only works if sharing is super easy (like pressing shift + s) and there is some way to get shared content back into my reader.

Without that the social network is completely useless. I might as well be emailing/IMing links to my friends.

I don't mind that they are using google+, but they need to think about this for moment and actually make google+ useful in some way.

This would be roughly analogous to twitter removing hashtags and replies and replacing them with a 'post to Facebook' button. What's the point?

<comment><USER4> > _There is no way to get my friend's content on google+ back into google > reader._

PlusFeed is an unofficial AppEngine service that exposes Google+ posts as RSS. You can then subscribe to the PlusFeed RSS URL in Google Reader. Unfortunately, PlusFeed can only see other people's public Google+ posts (since it's not logged in as you).

<http://plusfeed2.appspot.com/>

I wrote this JavaScript bookmarklet to open the appropriate PlusFeed RSS URL for the Google+ user page you are looking at:

      javascript:void(open("http://plusfeed2.appspot.com/+location.href.match(/^https?:\/\/plus\.google\.com\/(\d{21})\/?.*$/)[1]));

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use Google Reader a lot, and so found this critique of yesterday's UI rollout interesting. My own experience was not as full of grousing as this guy's, but I do have my own complaints.

His complaints are (1) of screen real estate having been reduced to something admittedly pretty insane, (2) increased number of clicks to share and (3) decreased privacy in doing so (he's incorrect about the last: you don't need to +1 prior to sharing; noted, he updates his post with a correction about this), and (4) lack of contrast of the grey on white of titles and links (to me titles appear black on white and links are underlined making them easily identifiable -- was this changed?).

As for complaint (2), integration of sharing in Google Reader and G+ means that there is necessarily going to be a bit of latency introduced, because you've actually got to do the work of choosing who to share with. This doesn't bother me: the precision and primacy of the circles concept in Google+ is what attracts me to it over the convolutions of exhibition on Facebook.

Lastly, as for the first complaint, regarding screen real estate: My usual daily objective in Google Reader is to be able to do triage on about 200 - <USER2> articles in less than 10 minutes. I am subscribed to a ton of feeds and in order to keep pace I need to consume headlines and form a general intuition about the content while doing as little reading as possible. I want to decide between (1) "this is interesting, I'll read it later" and (2) "this is not interesting, pass" on the order of milliseconds. I don't actually do any reading at all in Google Reader itself, so his screen real estate gripe doesn't really resonate with me. If I want to read an article I just re-tab (or in the case of some content, usually videos or music, star it) it and return to it later. His contrast complaint (4) would be relevant, but I'm not seeing it.

Which brings me to my own central complaint. Namely, general sluggishness. Because of the speed that I sift through articles, any delay between pressing the "j" shortcut which advances to the next unread article and actually advancing to that article is a really palpable, frustrating and significant. Such delays are frequent -- very frequent. I haven't actually looked into what the cause of this delay is computationally, but I'm fairly certain it's not a bandwidth issue, because Google Reader keeps itself loaded pretty far ahead of the current article you happen to have in focus.

In any case, as long as such delays exist, any UI issues are pretty much secondary to my use case.

</comment><comment><USER6> I dislike the new layout mostly because it wastes a lot of vertical space, particularly the fixed top part. Here's the user style I use to neutralise it:

        #top-bar { height: auto; }
        #search { padding: 8px 0; }
        #lhn-add-subscription-section { height: 48px; }
        #viewer-header { height: 48px; }

Adjust numbers to taste.

<comment><USER7> Thank you, that helped a lot. Here's my version if anyone is interested...

Additional changes: 1) Made the left hand navigation slightly grey to offset so much white. 2) Made the list of articles have less padding (more "compact", less "bloaty" :) ) 3) Removed the "Home", "All Items" and "Explore" links (I never use them and just wanted it clean)

CSS: <https://gist.github.com/1333174>

Screenshot (Before): <http://cl.ly/083j2i3i0o2r1r2W3e1C>

Screenshot (After): <http://cl.ly/0s0g2X1r0T1U3V2q1b2Z>

<comment><USER8> What is the easiest way to load these changes? Do you add them to your custom.css or use an add-on?

<comment><USER9> Try Chrome Stylist: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pabfempgigicdjjlcc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pabfempgigicdjjlccdgnbmeggkbjdhd)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The redesign of Reader looks like it was done by a junior designer who got the memo that "white space is good" but didn't understand that little blobs of white all over the frickin place are not actually that good. Reader is now a mess of disconnected bits floating aimlessly in space. It's gone from being quite serviceable to quite disfunctional.

<comment><USER11> That is the new style for the entire Googleverse. It came straight from the top, not a rogue designer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This should probably link directly to the blog post, so it isn't lost in the future. <http://brianshih.com/78073742>

<comment><USER13> Which was submitted to HN before:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3181766>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like using Reader to manage my feed subscriptions, but nothing more. I don't want to share my content on any social network. Nor do I want to view the content in an iframe. I would prefer to just click the row of the feed item and have it open in my browser like normal links.

So for me the gui updates are sort of mixed. I agree its wasting a whole lot of screen space, but overall I like that it shares the same look every other google product is moving to.

I feel like I use Google Reader incorrectly because it has so many extra features I have no use for. Anyone know of a product that does exactly what I described above?

<comment><USER15> I'm working on this concept: <http://forr.st/~wnA>

Key features are:

\- In the browser

\- Twitter like articles stream (just post titles)

\- Nice UI

\- Pin to read an article later

\- Star to bookmark an article

\- Organize in folders

<comment><USER16> So, how long until we can try it out? I'm happy to be a beta tester for you. :)

<comment><USER15> The current status is: app design and mark-up (html + less) 90% done, front end (js with backbone) 40%, back end (node.js + mongoDB) 20%, product page design and mark up 70%.

I'm so happy you feel like testing it :) you (or anybody that wants to) can contact me. My gmail is jackjackbach.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I use google reader everyday at work on Internet Explorer 7.0 ( bank-mandated browser, don't ask ). Worked fine until this new layout change. Today I login. It says "Your browser is not supported" ! Hmmm...never happened before. Now I get 3 vertical scrollbars, 1 horizontal scrollbar and lots of whitespace. 3 vertical scrollbars to scroll thru an article ? Which one do I scroll ? There are weird color artifacts - like when I click on an item in LHS, its a little bit red, then white, then red again. There's a black dropdown "View in Reader Play" what is that...click...I get a new fullscreen window with a whole lot of high contrast white on black text with large fonts...WTF...Dude gimme back my old google reader. This one is definitely broken on IE7. I'm all for ui redesign, but pls don't break what works well on older browsers.

<comment><USER18> Google phased out support for IE7 across their Apps platform in August. It shouldn't be surprising that other new versions of their products only support the newest and second newest versions of a browser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I like Google's new design style for its services, but as soon as I saw the new Reader I realized something was off. I found it harder to read the headlines. Maybe it's because of too much space between them, or maybe because the lines between them are as dark as the headlines. I'm not sure, but I know I can't read through the headlines as fast as before.

I think the decision to integrate +1 is the right one and they should do it with all their services. I haven't tried it yet, but if what he says is true, then they need to lower the amount of clicks you need to share something.

<comment><USER20> Scanning all the headlines is more difficult now. Additionally, seeing what rss feed has new articles was also not very easy for me.

I couldn't find the +1 button instantly. Overall, I am not very satisfied. I am looking into alternatives now.

Overall, I like they new layout googles is rolling out on al l their products. Reader was the first were a felt something is not working here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The Reader team must be thanking their lucky stars that their product lives on and that Reader hadn't been given the chop like other non-mainstream services, e.g. Google Notebook, Code Search. Ultimately it's a techie tool and most internet users likely aren't aware of feeds let alone Reader.

I bet they agreed to any hurried G+ shoehorning as it's a sign Reader isn't being wound down.

</comment><comment><USER22> They ruined a really impressive web application. Thanks to a HN recommendation I've fully gone over to Tiny Tiny RSS <http://tt-rss.org/redmine/> which is quite similar to the old reader in many ways and self hosted. Click Settings > Import/Export, download OPML, then import OPML. Away we go.

</comment><comment><USER23> This user style was posted in the reddit comments: [http://userstyles.org/styles/55556/google-reader-new- interfa...](http://userstyles.org/styles/55556/google-reader-new-interface- tweaks)

<comment><USER24> Thanks. That part with the blue background burrowed from the old layout goes a long way to making all that white less jarring.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Reader is remarkably slower for me now and half the keyboard shortcuts stopped working after the redesign, I finally made the switch to RSSOwl and I'm pretty happy about it.

</comment><comment><USER26> Google does seem to be trying the "one size fits all" approach. While it may work on a grand scale, trying to standardize the look across their apps, it definitely falls short when you get into the particulars of each platform's individual needs. Beyond that, though, for their "new look" to significantly slow down my browser is unacceptable. New UI should not be so heavy that it materially affects the page's performance.

</comment><comment><USER27> I wouldn't miss the old design too much if there were a chance to adjust the display density. So, where's the switch to change that? If this were consistent in design, I'd expect it to be around the same location as in Gmail. But it's just not there.

</comment><comment><USER28> The layout can be tightened up a little bit. I experience no significant lag when scrolling or changing feeds. Imo, the blogosphere is overreacting. I disliked the look and feel of the old one :)

</comment><comment><USER29> Regarding sharing, on the mobile (or, at least, iPad) interface, the only sharing option I can see is the basic +1, which, as far as I can tell, isn't seen by anyone unless the go to a user's google plus profile and click the tab. As a result, I can longer share in any meaningful way via my primary consumption device.

Edit: to add, there doesn't appear to be any way to view my +1 items on my iPad, since the google plus mobile interface apparently lacks that section.

</comment><comment><USER30> Ok, so lets say you want to keep Google Reader as your back end, but want a new front end (ala the various apps on iOS). Is there a good alternative online front end (open source or paid) that can replace Google's front end, but still offers things like "mark unread"?

</comment><comment><USER31> Yeah, I don't like it either. The line separation between content boxes is not clear. It reminds me of a news paper layout instead of being a web app.

I am using Reeder for now, before I can find a suitable theme.

</comment><comment><USER32> I don't really care about the layout, I care that they destroyed my favorite social network. Google+ does not offer anything near the functionality that Reader had.

</comment><comment><USER33> Judging by the tone and language of this critique, it sounds more like a bitter ex-employee who "didn't feel appreciated for his brilliance" than an honest effort.

</comment><comment><USER34> Does anyone have suggestions for Mac RSS readers that sync with google reader? I'd like the sync because I use Reeder on iOS.

<comment><USER14> Then why not use its bigger brother <http://reederapp.com/mac/index>

<comment><USER34> Poor reviews, no ability to test it before paying $10.

<comment><USER35> Reeder for mac is an amazing piece of software; I cannot recommend it enough.

<comment><USER36> Thanks for the info.

I am in the same boat as grk. I wanted to try it, but $10 seemed to pass that 'oh its only a dollar or two, what the hell' threshold. Couple that with the poor reviews for the mac version, and I was dissuaded.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I can't read the OP because of the extremely bright yellow makes it feel like my eyes are on fire. Is it just me?

</comment><comment><USER38> GR stopped working for me on Chrome (works on Safari). Weird

</comment><comment><USER39> newsblur.com anyone?

<comment><USER30> Great site, interesting idea, but doesn't sync very well with Google Reader, so kind of a burn-the-boats jump.</comment></comment>


Teaching Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to Play Go [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7e03/1a05fb2b26ede4fe9ab21d7a9c0fa20bd4e8.pdf <comment><USER2> > To solve this problem we introduce a number of novel techniques, including a > method of tying weights in the network to 'hard code' symmetries that are > expect to exist in the target function [...]

Shouldn't the neural network be able to figure out those symmetries by itself? And if not, why not?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wups, I've just noticed myself that this is a repost: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8753347](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8753347)

<comment><USER3> The first comment of that thread predicted AlphaGo! :O

<comment><USER4> Biggest fundamental difference: no policy network learned via reinforcement learning. AlphaGo = MCTS + Value network + (Policy network). I think that that piece is pretty important and is what allowed AlphaGo to improve so much with self-play.

<comment><USER5> Aparantly, just the policy network of alpha go plays at a decent level (around 1kyu - 1Dan IIRC).

Alphago started with the policy network and later build the rest around that.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who's hiring? - <AUTHOR>

Full disclosure: I've just exited from an 8yr partnership in another business. We ended up having differing visions and values, and it was decided it was best for us to separate.
As a result i've lost my income stream and need to find some freelance work very quick.
I would say I work best in Digital Marketing; i use that as an umbrella term for things like Web Analytics, Social Media, Conversion Optimisation.
Also, although i've only done this in short bursts so far, i'd be interested in working in Project Management capacity to get development work completed. I'm not a developer myself, but have a working knowledge of programming. <comment><USER2> Here is the September "who's hiring" topic: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4463689>

If you're looking to work freelance, there's also the Freelancer topic for September: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4463692>

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much. I didnt realise there is a monthly posting until after I had posted. Thank you very much anyhow.</comment></comment>


Fog Creek Is Now Glitch, Inc - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/glitch/fog-creek-is-now-glitch-5a57dab604e3 <comment><USER2> I think Joel Spolsky is fantastic, I read his excellent blog articles way back when they were first written. His intelligence, business acumen and subsequent success are not in dispute. I am a big fan of his ideas and work. But even I would say this marketing puff piece is over the top, I thought it must have been satire...

"Back in 2000, two visionary founders, Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor, envisioned a new tech company that would distinguish itself by the way it treated people — both its employees and its customers"

Visionaries? The company they started was a consulting shop that only later transformed into software products when the dot com boom crashed and consulting dried up. Was that part of the vision?

"The company they created, Fog Creek Software, has gone on to create multiple ground-breaking products and to help change the entire tech industry along the way."

Trello is great and I use it myself, but it is a TODO list application and certainly not ground-breaking. FogBugz is a bug tracker, which is not ground- breaking, and was actually out-competed by JIRA. StackOverflow is definitely ground-breaking and I would agree changed the software development industry, but the original idea came from Jeff Atwood with Fog Creek providing mainly the money and initial public profile.

"...other successful and influential products like Manuscript and Kiln and Copilot and CityDesk..."

I mean no disrespect but I would not consider any of them successful and influential.

Maybe Glitch will become a big product in the future, but for now can be step down the marketing intern that wrote this whilst drinking too much caffeine.

<comment><USER3> _> I think Joel Spolsky is fantastic..._

It might be worth pointing out that Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor aren't really involved at Fog Creek anymore. Joel is the CEO of Stack Overflow now, and Michael is CEO at Trello. The CEO at Fog Creek has been Anil Dash since December 2016:

[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is- the-n...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is-the-new-ceo- of-fog-creek-software/)

<comment><USER4> Well, Joel is still the chairman of our board, and I spoke to both Joel & Michael them yesterday, so while they're certainly running Stack Overflow and Trello, respectively, we do benefit from their wisdom and experience.

The video linked in this piece explains Glitch a bit, but since this was a corporate announcement (and really only of interest to people who track such things), I didn't want to go too far into talking about the product itself. Ironically, it was because I knew folks on HN would say this kind of announcement is too heavy on the marketing.

On the plus side, we listed a bunch of new jobs, and the response seems to be extremely strong, so different people have different impressions about the announcement, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have followed Spoelsky and Fog Creek more in the past but less recently. This piece of self-praise fails to convey the message what Glitch (community?, product?) is all about. They are assuming everybody knows, but that seems to be an overestimation, given the low attention the item has drawn on HN so far.

<comment><USER6> I've used glitch before... its like plunkr.co , or codesandbox.io

Glitch (the software) has been around for like 3-4 years... but the marketing is some of the worst I've ever seen especially for a well established company like Fogcreek ( _now glitch, inc, how is that different from glitch software. Makes it even more confusing now_?)

The UX is just... no. One of the worst examples of UX possible in my opinion. I say this after trying thousands of tools. Contrasting colors everywhere, going on that site is like a deer seeing headlights for the first time. Except those headlights are constantly strobing different colors. Constantly. Enough to give it a seizure, if it stares too long

The logo isn't pleasant on the eyes. It seems very retro, but not really. What does fish have to do with the word "glitch"? Why two fishies? The first word when I hear "glitch" is the movie Matrix, which fits in the theme... since its programming.

The plain white background contrasted by the bright antonym colors everywhere are VERY distracting.

The 1,000,000 drafts created... are mostly driven by online course users following along. Possibly, many K-12 school courses. I have used the "help" section a few times and I haven't gotten many helpful responses from it. I had used glitch in one of the MOOC's I took earlier with watchandcode's practical javascript. I had used glitch's API through freecodecamp as well, but all I needed was the endpoint anyhow.

I honestly question what Glitch is trying to do. What are they trying to do? Have they lost their touch? I say this in all seriousness, I really don't know. I'm sure the backend programming is topnotch, frontend...not really.

Where is money going to come from with glitch...? Schools? Ads? Who is the userbase? Is it newcoming young age developers? Why would I want to use this tool over all the more beautiful tools out there like codesandbox and codepen? What's the appeal? Why the logo choice? What is the overall theme? Why the strong contrasting colors on white? What have they done in the last 3 to 4 years?

The only real benefit I see for a company using glitch is having a place to host a REST API.

I even ran a siteprofiler on glitch.. I am even more confused now. The top keyword was "news, google, blog, community, search" 1MM monthly visits, compare this to codepen which is "programming, design, webdevelopment,google,blog" , 24MM monthly visits.

What I did see is glitch is used alot for A-frame, and VR tutorials / hosting. And some starter react-projects as well for courses

<comment><USER7> All those alternatives you mention appear to be for client-side code only? I see people using Glitch for running small services quite a bit.

Agreed with your questions about monetization.

<comment><USER6> I must not know about what glitch's small services are for. They do have paid plans for monetization. I would be really curious to know what companies are using them for what service and why</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Convolutional Neural Net in Google Sheets - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@bwest87/building-a-deep-neural-net-in-google-sheets-49cdaf466da0 <comment><AUTHOR> The medium post above links to a Convolutional Neural Net that I built in Google Sheets. It was an interesting project, and thought ya'll might be interested to play around with it. Simply copy the spreadsheet into your own Google account and have at it!</comment>


Tell HN: The solution to bad interviewing is the reverse job interview - <AUTHOR> There's much discussion about how broken hiring is, and how companies don't know how to effectively interview and select developers.
Consider this Tweet https://twitter.com/evanplaice/status/1128108341190725632?s=20 in which the author states that he was asked relevant questions in none of his recent job interviews.
I propose to you a solution - the "reverse job interview".
The reverse job interview is proactive rather than reactive.
ALL job interviews currently are reactive - the interviewer chooses how they will assess you and drives the assessment process.
A proactive interview process is one in which the interviewee/job seeker takes control of the interview process.
In a reverse job interview you, as the job seeker, follow your own interview agenda, present your technical credentials skills and experience, quiz the company about the job and its requirements, the company and the culture.
At the end of the process you invite the company to ask any questions it might have of you.
This will be a huge challenge for most companies to accept - many won't - but at least you'll get to ensure that your best self is presented to the company.
If they don't like it that you took control, then that company has eliminated itself from your job search.
There it is - the 'reverse job interview' - a solution to all those companies that don't have any idea how to assess your talent. <comment><USER2> We sort of do this. It's important for the company to get to ask fit questions that can't be inferred. As with anything, if you try to force a company to do what you want, most won't. If you meet in the middle with equal amounts of questions and assessment on both sides, that probably makes more sense than one side or the other dominating the conversation.</comment>


Show HN: New approach to securely store passwords - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ihucos/passpod

<comment><USER2> I appreciate your attempt to make password solutions for other people, but after a cursory glance at the code, I can see that you are using sha512 to hash passwords. This is easily brute-forcable. To understand why, google "password hash". Dont make tools for other people if you dont understand the security implications of the decisions that you make. I would hesitate writing ANY security related code at all and would rather leave it to people with far more experience than I have like tptacek or cperciva.

<comment><AUTHOR> I appreciate your feedback too and agree that security related code is a sensitive thing. I did not loose any thought on the actual hashing and as written in the readme this is just a prototype. The key aspect of Passpod and on what I'd love to get some feedback is the idea to save the passwords in a giant set of hashes instead of the commonly used map of clear usernames and hashed passwords. I wrongfully supposed that it would be obvious that the actual hashing is just meant to be a placeholder. So I changed sha512 to md5 and documented that the actual hashing is broken accordingly.</comment></comment>


Hacker News "Compromised?" - <AUTHOR>

For 2-3 years now I've noticed that the submissions and top articles on Hacker News are really strange. The titles of each submission seem especially odd and depressing. Has someone been trolling Hacker News? <comment><USER2> Can you give an example?

</comment><comment><USER3> Please define trolling! ;)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yea, an example.</comment>


Use Viewert over Medium? - <AUTHOR> https://www.viewert.com <comment><AUTHOR> Is there a reason more developers don't use Viewert? It's like Evernote meets Medium in a social network. It's a young project with fewer people even aware of it.</comment>


Violent French Protests Show Why A New Debt Crisis Is Inevitable - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/french-protests-show-why-there-may-be-no-alternative-to-a-new-debt-crisis-2010-10 <comment><USER2> So when are these countries going to learn that expensive social programs aren't sustainable?</comment>


Everything Wrong with Peter Thiel's Doomsday Survival Plan - <AUTHOR> https://www.outsideonline.com/2152476/everything-thats-wrong-billionaires-doomsday-survival-plan <comment><USER2> I know Americans are absolutely hooked on dystopian scenarios, but please can you just stop for a few minutes and consider everything that _is_ right with the world?

It's really more of a state of mind than objective reality. And BTW feeling like we're constantly on the brink of disaster is exactly where Trump, Thiel, and their merry band of doomsayers would want you to be. It's bad for you, so please, knock it out.

<comment><AUTHOR> The article is by an actual outdoorsman and details with knowledge where these guys are doing it wrong.</comment></comment>


I Was Assaulted For Wearing Google Glass In The Wrong Part Of San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.co.id/i-was-assaulted-for-wearing-google-glass-2014-4/#.U5vc-I2Swr6

<comment><USER2> >I was pretty shaken after seeing someone completely disregard my personal space...

That's rich, coming from a Google Glass wearer.

<comment><USER3> While I get what you're saying, I can't help but imagine that a person holding up their cell phone recording video would get no such response, despite being the exact same thing.

Glass isn't uniquely invasive. I've yet to hear about someone mugging a guy wearing a gopro.

<comment><USER4> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AL6amm35gk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AL6amm35gk)

<comment><USER3> I should clarify. Mugging someone _because_ of the gopro.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand people who think Google Glass is not invasive to others. This is evolutionary psychology 101.</comment>


Meet Nodeload, the new Download server - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/blog/678-meet-nodeload-the-new-download-server

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it's really awesome that node.js is being used in something as large as GitHub. It shows how stable node.js is getting.

Are there any other large environments using node.js?

<comment><USER2> We're announcing/launching <https://transloadit.com/> later on today. The service (not the website) is written entirely in node.js.

So far we have processed 55k internal jobs for our test users, where each job is usually tied to 3 or more command line scripts executing. Probably not as a big as GitHub, but afaik, we're the first SaaS/IaaS product build with node.js.

<comment><USER3> Great idea! Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What is so great about node.js? libevent has been around for ages, and it's got Python bindings (pyevent)...

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. The core library is completely event-based and most of the third-party libraries are event-based. Not true for Python, Ruby, etc.

2\. JavaScript has grown in an event-based environment (browsers). Any serious JS developer is already familiar with event-based programming because of it.

It's debatable whether JS syntax is very event friendly, however (CoffeeScript has made an attempt at fixing it).

<comment><USER5> In fact the source of nodeload is written in CoffeeScript</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you vote? - <AUTHOR> Why or why not? <comment><USER3> Yes. If I didn't vote, what incentive whatsoever would my representatives have to act in my interest? I may not have a statistically significant impact on the outcome, but neither do any of the other tens of millions of people who vote. Even if an individual vote isn't statistically significant, the aggregate of them is, and because non-voters are self-selecting we can't count on those who vote enthusiastically to be a representative sample of the opinions of the populace. Each person who makes the decision that their vote doesn't matter helps our country slide away from government by the people and towards government by corporations.

Living in a part of the US that skews VERY heavily towards one party, I especially vote in primary elections, which are where it's actually determined which congresscritter or senator we'll be sending to Washington or the state capital. And yes, I will absolutely vote my heart rather than strategically in a primary. "Electable" too often isn't.

And I make sure to vote in off-year state and local elections too because those actually have more impact on my daily quality of life in the short-term than national ones do. (Whereas national elections have more impact on the long-term direction of the country, especially when there are Supreme Court vacancies likely).

My state allows a candidate to run for office on multiple parties' slates, and will aggregate those votes for the candidate. I dislike one party much more than the other, but there are third-parties far closer to my actual positions. I'll often vote for a major-party candidate on a third-party slate, which both helps ensure that the third party remains on the ballot for the next election cycle and hopefully helps send a message to the major party in question.

(Edited for typos.)

<comment><USER4> _" Living in a part of the US that skews VERY heavily towards one party, I especially vote in primary elections, which are where it's actually determined which congresscritter or senator we'll be sending to Washington or the state capital."_

This is exactly the case in NYC, which is heavily Democratic: the winner of the Democratic primary is the most likely winner of the general election (where they sometimes even run unopposed). In the recent primary in my district, the vote for City Council member was won by a margin of a few hundred votes, since the voter turnouts for primaries are pretty sparse compared with the general election. One person's vote really makes a difference in this situation.

<comment><USER5> You mean, a few hundred people's votes really make a difference in this situation.

Voting has a bit of a free-rider problem. To a first approximation, one vote never makes a difference; but an attitude that voting doesn't make a difference (especially when unevenly distributed) definitely makes a difference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Yes, I usually vote and I've even run for public office before ( Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, 2008, as the Libertarian candidate. I wasn't elected).

That said, I am somewhat ambivalent about voting and democracy. I think democracy is basically just a euphemism for "mob rule" and find that whatever systems you put in to try and prevent the "tyranny of the majority" never really work. And if you're on the losing end in a "democratic" system, are you really "represented"? I argue that the answer is "no". I don't hold Richard Burr, David Price, or Thom Tillis as representing me in any way. I certainly didn't vote for any of them, and would't if you paid me to.

Basically I'm a voluntaryist / anarcho-capitalist / market anarchist / whatever-term-you-prefer, who wants to eliminate most of "government" _as we know it today_. Note that does not mean I'm in favor of chaos or opposed to communal action (this is something critics of libertarian thought often get wrong.. seemingly intentionally at times). I just want _voluntary_ exchange and self-government to be the fundamental basis for society, with use of force/violence reserved for self-defense.

<comment><USER7> I agree. I'm libertarian with a lower case "l" and not too big on democracy. I don't want my town voting on the best way to do heart surgery for me. Why do I want the masses voting on other issues that are equally important. The U.S. is so divided right now, it seems like we could stop it all by returning to more local, or at least, state governments being in charge of most things. No need to enforce rules on a gigantic number of people who are all so different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> No. Looks like only people who do feel like commenting here. I guess people who don't, like me, might just not care about it. Kinda like asking people who don't believe in God why they don't.

Yes, I might not think I'd make a difference, I don't have anybody to vote for, I don't think parliament members make much of a difference, I'm not crazy about democracy etc etc. But in the end I guess I just don't care.

If there was a special party or person that I'd really believe to be a game changer, I might. If I was American I would perhaps vote next year depending on who gets the Republican nomination.

</comment><comment><USER9> Yes.

I used to be an organizer for the Green Party so I am capable of very cynical views of the electoral system but also going door to door to get signatures, running candidates, etc.

In local races, even up to the state legislature level, I often know the people involved personally. I've had friends and acquaintances run for local offices as Greens, Democrats and Republicans. I even meet a congressional candidate from time to time.

For the presidential election next year the immediate thing on my mind is that I don't want to see a Hillary Clinton - Jeb Bush matchup because as much as the "Anderson-Horowitz politics" people on HN would find that easy to swallow, it would set a very bad precedent for our country.

<comment><USER10> > I used to be an organizer for the Green Party so I am capable of very > cynical views of the electoral system

Cynical?

I always vote 3rd party when available, because I know they won't win. It's a "none of the above" vote, where "above" means dems and reps.

<comment><USER9> For me it really depends.

If I actually like a mainstream candidate I will vote for them. Personally if I was in a "swing state" I might be more inclined to vote for a mainstream candidate but I am in the kind of state Hillary Clinton would go to get herself a solidly democratic constituency so most of the time I vote for whoever I want.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Yes. If I don't vote, I have no right to bitch about whatever scumbag takes over a given office for the next term.

Also, I might be naive enough to think that if I vote despite my cynicism and outspokenness against the shit politicians pull, maybe - just maybe - I might inspire just one other person to vote. And if I manage to do that, maybe they'll inspire someone else and eventually people will start engaging with politics again, instead of just handing the reins over to the people that stand to gain the most from voter disenfranchisement.

<comment><USER12> > Yes. If I don't vote, I have no right to bitch about whatever scumbag takes > over a given office for the next term.

Please. When our choices are a turd sandwich and a douchebag, we absolutely have the right to complain.

"Whether it is exerted by ten men or ten billion, political authority is force … the power of the Rods and the Ax" - Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

<comment><USER13> Wow, somebody on HN is taking Heinlein very seriously :) .

OP - really good words! Tempted to print the whole passage and hang in the office :) .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> No. I've never voted, not once.

I do not believe I live in a democracy, even though that's what we're calling it. I believe that by voting I'm validating a broken system.

Who are all these people making calls about everything and setting rules, while knowing relatively little on the subject matter? I personally think a democracy would be every eligable person being able to contribute to the decision of (ie. voting on) these calls, rather than simply picking the 'guy' who makes them. Let the experts in their fields have a say. I don't know what such a system would look like - but only if something like that were in place would I call it a democracy. What we have right now is the illusion of a democracy. I'm not interested in voting, but I am interested in fixing this mess.

Back down to earth.. I think the barrier to entry for understanding current politics is unrealistically high: in order for me to make a call on a party I need to know quite a lot of things about each. There is no 'official source', which forces me to google, which forces me to read some third party source, whether it's a news site or some blog. Either way it's more often than not a very biased opinion that does not weigh all sides equally, and I can never form a complete picture. Too much time is required to contribute for what I would gain from it, and I have better things to do. Is anybody aware of an aggregator or a summary site of all political parties views? Can I look up a party's stance on something and cross reference what the other parties stances are on the same subject?

<comment><USER15> Honestly, if you don't have time to form an opinion for what each party (or at least main parties) stand for, then how will you have time to vote on each individual issue? According to this website: [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics) there have been over 10 thousands things those people have input one per year. (sounds insane to me as well)

You don't want to micromanage each little decision, and you can certainly make phone calls and show up in person to talk to some people in government to discuss things you do care about.

<comment><USER14> You're right of course, I definitely do not want to do that. But I _know_ I would vote individually on the issues that I care about.

For example, if everybody had a say, SOPA wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. I would have voted it out, as would everybody else. But instead we had to sign a petition once it was nearly through. We could all be pro-active about... well, everything! But instead, we're kept on our toes being reactive to it all. (opt in not out, people!!! This ideal should exist everywhere but instead it's nowhere to be found).

If everybody did that, I believe that each of us would have more of an effect on the country than electing somebody who is never going to agree 100% with my beliefs, but is the best fit. That's insane! There will always be compromise. In England, a party can promise to change x and y if you vote for them, but once they finally come to power they might go back on their promise. Okay, so what did I vote for then? Nothing. And there's no accountability. This system is thoroughly broken and I refuse to acknowledge it by 'playing along'. And the worst thing about this is that nobody seems to notice, or care that picking the best out of a bad bunch is how we should make our country work.

Vote Waldo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> No.

I refuse to support a system that legitimates the voice of the majority. There is little to no correlation between what the majority has been led to believe is right, and what is actually right.

That said, I could see myself voting for a party that (intentionally or not) would reveal the ridicule of democracy, a party that undisputedly wouldn't be fit to rule the country.

</comment><comment><USER17> I have voted in most elections I have been eligible for. Many people say they don't think their vote matters, but we were just a few votes away from avoiding the whole Iraq war mess[0].

The times I feel I have had much more impact though is when I wrote letters to my elected officials. If you have an issue you really care about then write to your representatives in the weeks leading up to a vote. I have always gotten a reasonable response when I sent a personalized (not form letter) note, and in at least one case I think I really helped make a difference in how they voted.

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

<comment><USER7> Really? I have sent a number of letters to elected officials - I've only ever gotten what appears to a form letter back. Glad you've had a different experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I always pray for a blizzard on election day. When there's bad weather, a lot of the low-information types who are only voting because they want the "I voted!" sticker, will stay home. At least that's my theory.

</comment><comment><USER19> Last presidential election, I voted Ron Paul in the Republican primary, then didn't vote in the general. If there's someone I like, I'll make the effort to get registered and mail in my vote. Otherwise, it's not worth the effort of figuring out what paperwork I have to send, and to whom. Having said that, after my state elected the governor I didn't like by a narrow margin, I felt a little guilty not voting. But, the truth is the democrats' strategy of funding a libertarian candidate to hurt the Republican would've worked on me too, so it wouldn't have made a difference.

I also don't think I should have the right to vote, as a pretty young person with minimal skin in the game. The risk is too great that I'd seek just to support the candidate who offers me the policies most beneficial to me, rather than acting as a steward, so it seems like I should be left out.

My non-vote is noticed just as little as my vote for any candidate in a presidential election, so I don't care too much, nor do I feel a need to make a principled stand that will go unnoticed. I'd vote in lesser elections like US Rep, but my congressman is pretty well set for every election. He's been the Rep for my district longer than I've been alive, and I think he mostly does a good job. He's the house sponsor for the bill that required carriers to unlock phones, which I think has been fantastic for me, but in a freedom- increasing, rather than pandering, sort of way.

</comment><comment><USER20> No. My political views are extreme enough to not be represented by any candidate. My non-participation decreases the legitimacy of the current system, which I want to fail.

<comment><USER21> Why do you want the current system to fail? What do you prefer in its place? How likely do you think it is that, if the current system fails, it will be replaced by something you view as better?

<comment><USER20> Concentration of power in the hands of a single social class. Decentralized, direct democracy. Not very likely, but I see myself benefiting from the disruption.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Yes, though in the past 10-15 years I've become increasingly jaded to the point where I really wonder if it's worth it, at least at the state and national level.

</comment><comment><USER23> Yes. I believe it to be a civic privilege and duty. My mother comes from a country where (for her gender and religion) her civil freedoms were severely restricted and I think it is important to engage in the process even if you don't like the options. I believe a void vote is better than no vote at all and I think real engagement to change the system is the best (although a difficult) solution to the "no one represents me" argument.

</comment><comment><USER24> Yes, because I believe the economy can be a more "fair" place, and that everyone should have a minimum quality of life (voting for Bernie Sanders in 2016).

</comment><comment><USER25> I have only voted twice.

Why: I have a serious medical condition which limits how much I can take on. I spent a lot of years as a military wife and devoted mother, raising two special needs sons. This was just a helluva lot of work, more than most people seem to appreciate. Trying to stay up on The Issues was just not something I could manage. My plate was overly full as is. I saw no reason to vote if my choices were not based on some kind of meaningful information or opinion.

From what I gather, you see higher rates of voting and political activity in older people, precisely because their plate is less full (with launching a career, finding romance, raising kids, etc). It is possible that as I get older and my life works better, I may someday feel able to effectively participate in the process. I haven't made any decisions one way or the other. It wasn't a Stance. It was happenstance.

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes. Because I think it's my responsibility. But I am against legally mandated voting.

</comment><comment><USER26> Nope. Not legally allowed to vote in my birth country, since I've been away too long, and not legally allowed to vote in the country I currently live in, since I'm not a citizen.

I have to admit I don't see much point voting on a state, congressional, or federal level when living in areas that are completely skewed in favor of a single political party. Were I able to vote, perhaps I'd vote in the primaries.

It doesn't bother me too much - when I really care about an issue, which isn't that often, I call a politician's office or two and donate something to an appropriate PAC. That's probably more effective than voting directly.

</comment><comment><USER27> Yes, Ivote. Usually for the candidate of the party which, in general, believes as I do. If I don't vote, I am conceeding control to persons that believe the opposite of what I believe. All candidates have weak points, but some are deffently opposed to my main positions and toughts. If the current polls prove to be correct, the up coming election for President will have two poor major candidates, but the party platforms will be very different. I can support the one.

</comment><comment><USER28> Yes, but I rarely get any pleasure from it. If I want to feel like an active participant in a democracy it typically takes a bit more than that.

Going to city council meetings, canvassing for candidates, collecting signatures for propositions, etc...those all feel a bit more impactful than voting...but I feel like a hypocrite doing any of those things if I myself don't actually vote...so I vote too.

</comment><comment><USER29> Yes.

I devote about 5 or so percent of my free time to civics. This means learning about my local options, who actually can impact my life in notable and significant ways, as well as just being active. Being active means doing advocacy actions, the occasional trip to the State capitol, phone banking, GOTV efforts of various kinds, etc...

I sure wish I knew how to convince more 20 somethings to vote.

</comment><comment><USER30> I believe that democracy does not scale beyond roughly several hundred voters of roughly equal expertise and ability. I decide whether or not to vote accordingly, which means saying no to local and national elections.

That said, I vote on Hacker News stories. Could HN be an example of a moderated democracy (constitutional monarchy?) working well on a larger scale?

</comment><comment><USER31> Long time ago, when I was young and stupid I've mastered in politcal sciense. So, now (when I'm only stupid), let me tell you this - question do you vote or not is pointless. Only when you ask for motives right after makes any sense. Because those two questions can show who you are and what your politicals class is.

There is quite pleasant theory about what political systems are. It state that you can represent all political systems as segment, on which both ends are dictatorship and democracy. But, this theory also states that those two systems are unachievable in our world, they are like asymptotes - <USER2> political systems tends towards them, but never actually get there. If you take a look at democracy - even Greek democracy weren't this perfect one - yeah, everybody could vote. Except for a women, those who hasn't finished their army service, those who haven't got status of a citizen and those who were slaves.

Having this in mind, I personaly always go to elections and always vote. Sometimes - in local elections - I know who had done something for my district or city, and this gives me clear options. This man did this and that, he seems fair and honest, he claims he can do few things better - yup, I'll give him my vote so he can try his best. Other times - especially when it comes to parliment or presiden elections I go to election but I don't have clear options. I don't know those people and to be truly honest - most of them has been on political scene for far to long - so I don't vote for them who have the biggest election budgets. And it happened twice to this day - I made invalid votes on purpose. Here, in Poland, we can't add our option to the vote card. There were two cases where none of candidates on my voting card weren't good enough to have my voice, so I write my types down which made my voice invalid.

What does the first paragraph have to do with the second? I choose people who will drag our political system towards this version of political system which is nearest my opinions and preference.

And to all people who say that qoing to election won't change antyhing - yes, it will. But it require some maturity and effort. It require to make a choice and quite possibly to regret given voice. And then it require consideration - "who I'll vote for if my previous choice was bad?". In some sense it's quite biblical - be hot or be cold, not lukewarm. But... this would mean handling the consequences of our choice, and we humans don't like to do that...

</comment><comment><USER32> No, because I see no parties any more. Because there are no philosophies, no ideologies any more. There are only group of people who put up an appearance of separate parties to engage in the farce called election. After it is over, they go back to the ruling/opposing party drama, while collaborating and robbing people at the back.

</comment><comment><USER33> I used to but after waking up I made a principled decision to abstain from what is just another tax on my time. (Best case: trading time for the illusion of voice.) I would consider voting for a moral statement candidate like Ron Paul but sadly guys like that seem to be a once-in-200-years phenomenon.

</comment><comment><USER34> Yes. Local, state, federal...may not always like my choices, but they are all I have until I actually run.

</comment><comment><USER5> Subquestion, for those in the US who show up at the polling place on election day: Do you educate yourself about local positions and vote there as well (or only?)? Or do you limit yourself to voting for those on the national stage (who, of course, get more press)?

</comment><comment><USER35> I think voting should be obvious and a much better question would be: do you vote the candidate you really want or the least bad of the candidates that could actually be elected? (In parliamentary democracies with many parties).

</comment><comment><USER36> I do, it's a very small expenditure of time and effort even if the probability of my vote making a difference is very small considering we live in a two party system with... conveniently... set electoral boundaries.

</comment><comment><USER37> No. There is no difference between voting/not, bush/obama, this/that in my day to day life. If I thought a politician would make meaningful changes, I'd vote for him or her.

</comment><comment><USER38> Voted: 'None of the above'

This was an option that was successfully won for many years over (sometimes concurrently, sometimes not) for the Student Union at my first university, Imperial College London.

</comment><comment><USER21> Yes. But if the choice is Trump vs. Hillary, I'm going to sit that particular race out, because I could not in good conscience vote for either candidate.

<comment><USER3> There will always be at least one third-party candidate on the ballot, even if they've got zero chance of winning. By voting for that candidate you signal that you're a voter who WILL go to the polls and whom candidates should put in some effort to court, while still indicating with your fringe candidate vote that you are unwilling to support either major party candidate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> No. Not registered here. That's probably partly why I am now represented by a separatist party both locally, "stately", and federally.

</comment><comment><USER40> Oh. You meant in real elections. I thought on here.

</comment><comment><USER41> No - too lazy.

</comment><comment><USER42> yes i do vote</comment>


God Rest Ye Merry (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://crookedhouse.org/grym-home/ <comment><USER2> The idea of such an event is fascinating and I enjoyed reading about it. Although one comment on the site points to a difference between American and British culture: they say they set the story in the 1950s because it is "a 'vanished decade' in pop culture". Which is odd because in the US it is perhaps the most cliched decade thanks to things like "Happy Days", "Grease", faux-1950s diners like Johnny Rocket's, etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is totally cool. I wish there were more events like this. Disney meets escape rooms meets The Mysterious Package Company.

I bet there's a huge market for botique entertainment like this.

</comment><comment><USER4> INHO 250 GBP is a steal for this kind of experience. There are more expensive shows where you sit on your ass as part of the audience and just watch other people perform.

</comment><comment><USER5> That should be "God Rest You Merry". 'Ye' is a subject pronoun. The subject of the phrase is 'God'.

Now diagram the sentence five times, due in class next week.

<comment><USER6> Can't it be read as "God rest the merry"? That parses just fine.

<comment><USER7> In that case it's a typo, and should be spelled "God Rest Þe Merry", with a latin^W _english_ capital letter thorn, rather than a Y, which was used as a substitute when using early german printing type that didn't include the thorn character.

Unless you're actively trying to write in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe, in which case go ahead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The site is creaking under the weight of hackernews.

</comment><comment><USER9> >It was a difficult event to capture, because putting a camera crew in would have ruined the mood.

Really? Why didn't they use hidden cameras and microphones then?</comment>


With 'Gigs' Instead of Jobs, Workers Bear New Burdens - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/upshot/contractors-and-temps-accounted-for-all-of-the-growth-in-employment-in-the-last-decade.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news <comment><USER2> I freelanced while living in Asia in my late 20s. I usually had 3-6 month contracts and at the end of a contract, had to find my next gig.

You are basically running your own small business: taxes, marketing (finding gigs), health insurance, and the uncertainty of finding your next pay check are all things you now need to worry about.

Most people don't want this. They want to come into work, focus on their job, and collect a paycheck.

The "gig" economy is just a fad. Companies love it because they don't have to pay for a full-time employee.</comment>


Alan Kay Interview (1990) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=275FQ9koAw8 <comment><USER2> I love this bit (about 48 minutes in, talking about Aldus Manutius):

KAY: this notion that a computer can be lost is not one that we like yet. we protect our computers. we bolt them to the desk, and so forth.

INT: because they're still quite valuable.

KAY: still quite... expensive. they'll be really valuable when we can lose them.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't remember where it is (somewhere in the middle), but I like the part where Alan Kay describes (paraphrasing) programming languages as 'Idealized machines', and that if we layer ideal machines on top of each other it increases the pleasure of programming at the cost of performance.

</comment><comment><USER4> There is a full transcript at the video's home: [http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_D9DC82D997454711A71B586E...](http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_D9DC82D997454711A71B586E17D23119)

My favorite:

Interviewer: DID [institutional model / one or two runs a day] PUT MANY PEOPLE OFF COMPUTING?

Kay: I don't think so. I think you, you know the happiness is the how much expectations you know, the reality exceeds expectations.

<comment><USER5> Or about 5 minutes in:

'So for instance, John McCarthy, who is a professor at MIT both wrote memos suggesting we should time-share the computer, and he also thought more into the future that we'd be all networked together, and there would be these huge information utilities it would be like our power and lighting utilities that would give us the entire wealth of the knowledge of man, and he suggested on that what we'd have to have is something like an intelligent agent. An entity not maybe as smart as us, but an expert in finding things, and we would have to give it advice. He called it the "advice-taker."'

Of course the interviewer brought the interview back on track with the next question ;-)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Can HN share their experience with "off shoring" web development? - <AUTHOR>

I am thinking of exploring the option of "off shoring" some of my company's web development.  By off shoring, I mean outsourcing web development to companies/contractors in countries with cheaper rates.
I am curious to hear the HN community's experience, as well as any tips or tricks. <comment><USER2> Here's some thoughts I've written on the subject:

[http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-web- dev...](http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-web-development- on-odesk-or-elance/)

I also I recommend Rob Walling's book "Start Small Stay Small", at startupbook.net

<comment><AUTHOR> Great link, thanks for sharing!</comment></comment>


The MEAN Stack – MongoDB, Express, Angular and Node - <AUTHOR> http://mean.io/

<comment><USER2> They HYPR stack: Haskell (less bugs & fast), Yesod (type safe web dev & fast), Postgres (trusted, scalable, ACID+HSTORE), React.js (waaaaay better then Angular, needs additional libs e.i.: Reflux/ajax/etc.).</comment>


Lüderitz v Nami≠nüs: dispute over town's name divides Namibia - <AUTHOR> http://gu.com/p/466pv

<comment><AUTHOR> On the topic of things programmers might assume about place names: 'does not equals' not appearing in a town name.

<comment><USER2> FWIW, from [http://www.kalahari- meerkats.com/fileadmin/files/guides/Bush...](http://www.kalahari- meerkats.com/fileadmin/files/guides/Bushmen_light.pdf) :

Bushmen speak a variety of languages, all of which incorporate 'click' sounds represented in writing by symbols such as ! or /. The unique clicks used in Khoisan languages are varied and complex, with many varieties and applications throughout the different Clans and groups. Here is a very simplified description of the more common ones used. They are denoted by internationally recognised symbols.

• / (Forward slash) - denotes a frontal dental click similar to the English "Tsk-Tsk" of disapproval. /? is a Glottal variation & ?/ is a nasal type.

• // (2 Forward slashes) - denotes a lateral dental click similar to the sound used to urge a horse.

• ≠ (Equals sign bisected by a forward slash, "not-equal sign") - denotes a sharp alveolar click made with the tongue against the roof of the mouth.

• ! (Exclamation mark) - denotes a sharp palato-alveolar click made with the tongue on the back of the gum ridge. Cork popping sound.</comment></comment>


Why I choose native code over PhoneGap or Appcelerator Titanium - <AUTHOR> http://www.andreybutov.com/2012/08/25/why-i-choose-native-code-over-phonegap-or-appcelerator-titanium/

<comment><USER2> My views on this front have always been the same as this article. If you're really going to commit to building an application for a platform, take the time and learn to do it correctly. Yes you could do it faster in a language that you're more comfortable in, but in terms of the experience of people who don't care if you're more comfortable writing in JS or HTML, it's worse for them (usually not always I know)</comment>


CDC guide to reopening was trashed by the Trump admin. It just leaked - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/cdc-guide-to-reopening-was-trashed-by-the-trump-admin-it-just-leaked/ <comment><USER2> To be entirely fair, the CDC also let a US passenger after arriving from Wuhan free in February instead of quarantining her [1] and she was a walking vector going throughout the area into the mall's shops and food courts. This was particularly alarming as I was in the area coming down from Colorado for my SpaceX interview, I spent most of my time in San Antonio (hotel and shops) and got sick on my trip back only to read this while I was bedridden at home was alarming!

They also let a patient out from quarantine who later tested positive, also in San Antonio [2].

I think the trump administration was foolish to dismiss it entirely, in what seems like an act of petty politics, but reviewing it and drawing data and usecases from it would have been the smarter thing to do even if they didn't want to give them credit.

I just hope the leaker took the necessary steps to protect themselves from any backlash. This is what wikileak's role was supposed to be in Society, and helped relieve the whistleblower from the potential fall-out. Instead it's Founder is still in a cage in London, exposed to Corona himself and is currently ill [3], awaiting extradition to the US for what will be a kangaroo- court trial.

1: [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/cdc-released-a-woman-in- texa...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/cdc-released-a-woman-in-texas-who- tested-positive-for-the-coronavirus-totally-unacceptable.html)

2: [https://www.theblaze.com/news/san-antonio-mayor-blasts- cdc-f...](https://www.theblaze.com/news/san-antonio-mayor-blasts-cdc-for- releasing-man-into-public-who-later-tested-positive-for-coronavirus)

3: [https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/WikiLeaks-London- court-d...](https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/WikiLeaks-London-court-delays- Assange-15245094.php)</comment>


Manipulate Clojure source code like the DOM - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/zcaudate/jai

<comment><USER2> In a programming language setting, this is usually called an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree), not a DOM. Though I see what you're getting at here with the AST query API. There are certainly parallels. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree))

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks really great. On the topic of manipulating data structures in a funky way, see also specter ([https://github.com/nathanmarz/specter](https://github.com/nathanmarz/specter)).

<comment><USER4> Or instar: [https://github.com/boxed/instar](https://github.com/boxed/instar)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does jai have a meaning? It's also Jon Blow's programming language.

<comment><USER6> Not really... I just wanted to write (use 'jai.query) as a reference to the more famous library

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Oh! I had so much need of this, if only it were ClojureScript.</comment>


Donald Knuth Quotes - <AUTHOR> http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/donald_knuth.html <comment><USER2> 2 other quotes:

Q: "If you were young again, would you start writing TeX again or would you use Microsoft Word, or another word processor?" A: "I hope to die before I have to use Microsoft Word." —Harald Koenig asking Donald Knuth, Tübingen, 2001 Oct 2.

"The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language."

</comment><comment><USER3> I saw Knuth talk at Kepler's Bookstore in Menlo Park some years ago. Someone asked him which language was better Java or C++. He replied: "Whichever has the better debugger".

<comment><USER4> Are most debuggers now equivalent nowadays?

All I need it to do is set breakpoints and inspect variable/memory values.

<comment><USER5> No, they aren't. With Java you can change code while the application is running and it will be hot-swapped after you have recompiled it.

I learned about this feature when playing a bit in Eclipse, forgot to kill the program between edits, and got a warning that the recompiled class couldn't be hot-swapped because its signature changed. And then I sat there in awe; I can just dream about this functioning reliably with C++.

<comment><USER6> Microsoft Visual C++ supported "Edit and Continue" for many many years.

<comment><USER7> I remember using this in MSVC 6 - so at least 14 years ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located. \- Donald Knuth"

This is so true. It also applies in any factory and any construction site and any dorm-room.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you send emails to yourself? - <AUTHOR> I send e-mails to myself with interesting quotes, viewpoints, graphs/stats, tweets etc. that I screenshot or copy+paste.<p>Am I the only one? What do you send to yourself? <comment><USER2> Sometimes. Usually just URLS with tutorials or something I need real quick. Firefox has a great little button on the hamburger menu on the search bar that pulls up your email client with the url in the body and the page title in the title of the email.

</comment><comment><USER3> Used to... now I slack myself - email inbox is major source of anxiety, for me, given how many unread/junk emails I get.

<comment><USER4> I used to as well, but my mail just has too much junk in it for it to _feel_ like a workspace.

Seeing ads just makes it feel icky to me, or a random newsletter, and the spam folder that builds forever and sometimes leaks into my inbox (which always makes it feel like I've been infiltrated in some way).

Email is like regular physical mail now. You'd never think to methodically organize your physical mail because it's been abused to oblivion. This is why we can't have nice things (looking at you Google (search/mail)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I still do send emails to myself for safekeeping.

I also use specialized apps e.g. Apple Notes, Trello, etc. but usually I find email interfaces are easier, searchable, and I don't have to remember which app I stored that note in.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yes I do, but now I have 100's of todos and ideas which lets face it will never amount to much :(

</comment><comment><USER7> For general note taking I use OneNote, but sometimes if a work idea comes to me after work hours I find it is better to email my work address with the idea than most of the alternatives. It better separates the "spaces" in that sending that email means it is no longer my problem that night or that weekend. I don't keep work apps on my personal devices, and it's much better than booting up a work device to add it to a note taking app or a TODO list (or Kanban board or whatever), as it keeps me from falling into other work or checking work email in time that should be away from work.

</comment><comment><USER8> Constantly. Emailing myself is the easiest way to "bookmark" something - be it a web page or a random thought - that I want to transcribe to my long-term notebooks.

</comment><comment><USER9> I used to. But not since I started using OmniFocus, which has an email address I can send things to. So I kind of still do, but it's specifically an email which goes to an application and not to a regular mailbox. I use my kindle email address similarly for PDFs.

I would send, primarily, links to future reading, or reminders of tasks I need to do. Especially from work (I've often worked in areas where a phone was not permitted for various reasons).

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes: when I'm browsing on mobile, I send myself links to topics to look into further on desktop (where it's easier to have a bunch of tabs and applications open at the same time).

This way, I can reserve weekly blocks of time for processing these interesting links all at once instead of being side-tracked every time I encounter an interesting new rabbit hole.

</comment><comment><USER11> All the time! I mostly take pictures on my iphone and email them to myself.

It bothers me that the iPhone's "send to" (or whatever it's called) does not put my email in the "recent email addresses" choices even though I'm always emailing myself.

</comment><comment><USER12> I use a modified GmailThis bookmarklet to send myself URLs frequently: [https://github.com/DangerousPenguins/GTDPI](https://github.com/DangerousPenguins/GTDPI)

Just click the bookmarklet, optionally add any search terms and click send.

</comment><comment><USER13> Sometimes. I'm also adding note taking capabilities to a little web app of my creation. The challenge has been reducing the time from thought to saving. The most promising solution at the moment is a browser plugin that talks to the app.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nikki Glaser talks about this on Joe Rogan, which is not safe for work -

Nikki Glaser Details Her Porn Habits - [https://youtu.be/ey60IhkJF3E?t=484](https://youtu.be/ey60IhkJF3E?t=484) (NSFW)

</comment><comment><USER15> Yes, sometimes. Depends on the content to be sent.

I also send messages to myself on Slack.

</comment><comment><USER16> I used to very regularly, but nowadays I use the macOS notes app since it's synced between all of my devices. I may also text myself links/quick notes, but I don't really email myself anymore.

</comment><comment><USER17> It is so common for me that I often accidentally send messages to myself that are intended for others (which clearly is better than the reverse). It's my main reminder/notepad/etc method.

</comment><comment><USER18> I have a self-hosted mail server and with a bunch of aliases. e.g.

\- email@example.com

\- firstname.lastname@example.com

\- email@example.com

Each of the aliases is processed by procmail and performs certain action:

\- creates a bookmark on the owncube.com

\- adds a record to my TODO list

\- creates event in calendar

<comment><USER19> Any tips for running a self-hosted mail server in 2020?

<comment><USER20> Same as it was a decade ago. Postfix and Dovecot on debian stable, SA and RBLs so you catch spam, DKIM and SPF so your emails don't go to spam. I've been running my own mailservers for about a dozen friends for several years now, with no issues and maybe an hour of maintenance per month. The ISPmail tutorials are very good: [https://workaround.org/ispmail](https://workaround.org/ispmail)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> King-Aaron I find it much quicker at times to email myself individual photos from my phone when I need them, as opposed to plugging the phone in and going through the directories.

</comment><comment><USER21> Same, if I need to save something really quick that I'm gonna need for later, I send it via e-mail (e.g. note, URL, screenshot/photo etc.)

</comment><comment><USER22> I usually just save them as a draft in the email application.

</comment><comment><USER23> I use my mailbox as a first-line todo-list, next to just e-mailing with people. So yes, I do send myself e-mails, very often.

</comment><comment><USER24> Yes, I used to, when I worked in an office I would send myself stuff to my personal address. Now, not at all.

</comment><comment><USER25> Yip, reminders from my phone.

</comment><comment><USER26> No. I use intray.eu for this.

</comment><comment><USER27> I use the "saved messages" feature of Telegram, which syncs across my devices.

</comment><comment><USER28> No. I use apple notes and reminders on all of my devices.

</comment><comment><USER29> No, but I do send myself messages on Telegram.

</comment><comment><USER30> All the time. I send myself reminders and todos.

</comment><comment><USER31> I do too, mostly book references

</comment><comment><USER32> Occasionally, mostly reminders

</comment><comment><USER33> Yes, journal@(my name).com

</comment><comment><USER34> I also reply

</comment><comment><USER35> i do</comment>


What I Talk About When I Talk About Ice Skating - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/114355643924629339481/posts/LQ94gYWtzxX?fd=1

<comment><USER2> Amazing to read something so close to home. I too was going 3 or 4 times per week at the height. For me it's been longer than 18 months, and this reminds me that it's high time I get back out there.</comment>