Show HN: I built a simple, reliable, and affordable brand monitoring service - <AUTHOR> https://brandchirps.com/?# <comment><AUTHOR> It's always crazy what others can find that you might have skipped or overlooked.

That's what I love about SHOW HN!

Everytime I show a community or ask for feedback from a customer, things are brought up I would have not thought about on my own.

After I posted here yesterday, some leftover code was causing an error I did not spot and someone from HN was able to find it and point it out.

Thanks~

</comment><comment><USER2> How are you going to make this work at $7 a month? You should charge more.

<comment><AUTHOR> At the moment, my costs are extremely cheap because of a number of factors and building it as a MVP.

As it grows in size and features, I plan on raising the price ( current customers are grandfathered in ) and going after larger customers.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone!

I submitted Brandchirps 7 months ago to SHOW HN, but didn't provide a usable way for you to try the product out ( I only had a paid sign up at that time ). My bad, I didn't read the rules entirely.

That caused some issues and I asked the HN mods to allow me to repost, this time with a free trial and updates!

So the free trial is here: [https://brandchirps.com/amember/signup](https://brandchirps.com/amember/signup) . Pick the 14 day free trial ( you will have to sign up through Paypal, but just cancel once signed up ).

I ALSO provided a video for those of you that don't want to sign up, but maybe want to learn more. It's on the front page [https://www.brandchirps.com/](https://www.brandchirps.com/).

.

So what makes Brandchirps different?

I'm still trying to nail this down. I don't mind admitting that, but here goes the reason why I built it:

1\. I was tired of using TalkWalker and not getting ALL the results I should have been. TalkWalker has a paid plan that more than likely fetches more results but its a yearly commit of $9,600. Brandchrips fetches more alerts than TalkWalker.

2\. Google Alerts ( free ) didn't provide a lot of extra functionalty I needed. Things like sentiment analysis, metrics, CSV data export, etc. Brandchirps offers all of this in both of our 2 plans.

3\. Many other paid services ( Mentions, BrandMentions, Awario, etc ) limit the number of total mentions/alerts you can get monthly. Brandchirps is unlimited in the number of mentions we grab for you monthly.

4\. Pricing. Ignoring free alternatives, most of the paid services start at $49 or $99. Some have lowered their price since, but you get less keywords ( 2 or 3 ). The $49 plans competitors offer have 5 keywords. The next highest plan is typically $89 to $99 and offers 10-15 keywords at our competitors. Brandshirps offers you 5 or 20 keywords at either $6.95 or $15.95

5\. Some services do not monitor daily for you. The ones that do, many only monitor once a day ( lowest tier plans ). Brandchirps monitors multiple times a day.

6\. Many paid competitors treat data exporting, history of results, API, as paid "add ons" or only on higher tier plans. Brandchirps offers it on both our plans, starting at $6.95 a month

7\. Some of the lower end/less known competitors are getting their data from Common Crawl, which only crawls part of the internet and can offer real-time monitoring. We do not use Common Crawl as we want full results in as fast as real-time as possible.

8\. Alerting wasn't full featured at many similar services. I decided that for even our $6.95 plan, I wanted RSS alerting, JSON alerting, and up to 3 emails with a daily summary to alert me. This covers a lot of ground as multiple people can be alerted via email, RSS can be used in feed readers and Slack, and JSON could be implemented in custom builds for those that need it.

.

I guess it boils down to, I wanted a way to provide a better value plan for those that didn't want to spend almost $100 monthly to get basic Brand/Keyword monitoring.

In the recent weeks, we added on the ability to hide/delete results you may have took action on already. And we are adding in ( in the coming weeks ) the ability to "star" or "favorite" results so they do not get deleted/removed after 365 days.

My goal is to help service small business and freelancers for now and then move up once everything is proven.

Once I am able to redesign the site and add on a few more features, I plan on raising prices and trying to attract higher end medium sized and entrprise clients.

I'd love to get some feedback. Sorry you have to sign up through Paypal and cancel ( it's free for 14 days ), but that is how my current billing system is setup.

Thanks James

<comment><USER3> Nice product James!! I don't have a use for it now but something I would certainly consider if I was in the market.</comment></comment>


Meet the New Imac - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com/imac/

<comment><USER2> This isn't really big news; it's nothing but a speed-bump.

</comment><comment><USER3> iWant!</comment>


Feature Switching in PHP - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jonathan-bird/feature-switch <comment><USER2> The proper way to do this is with branches, not with hard-coded logic

<comment><AUTHOR> That's one option.

However the issue with that is if you have multiple environments (e.g. three test environments, staging and production) and you want to have the code in a state of continuous deployment, then you use your branch for your feature, merge it in with this feature switch and when it gets to staging and you realise there's a bug, you can simply switch the feature off without it causing an issue rather than having to remove code from a merge.

<comment><USER2> You shouldn't merge until you've tested and are fairly certain there isn't a bug. Bugs in staging shouldn't be common and fixes should be fairly quick and easy. That's what staging is for, after all.

<comment><AUTHOR> I work in a code base that's 5 million lines of code. It happens.

That aside, it's very useful for launching features. I have used this practice at Expedia and works well.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why It's So Difficult to Stop the Spread of the Coronavirus - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-its-so-difficult-to-stop-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-11584871200 <comment><AUTHOR> [https://archive.is/8ycEb](https://archive.is/8ycEb)</comment>


How to make money with Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://motyar.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-make-money-with-facebook.html

<comment><USER2> Am I missing something, or does the page recursively refresh itself? (In Opera 11.62, Chrome and IE8, FWIW)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have applied an hack to redirect from country domain to .com and that caused the problem, Sorry. Can you please tell me from where are you, just want to know your country domain, it ll help me.

<comment><USER2> I'm from Canada.

 _Edit_ : You fixed it. Funny post :).</comment></comment></comment>


NASA Quotes 'Star Trek' As Voyager 1 Enters the Interstellar Frontier - <AUTHOR> http://www.space.com/22782-star-trek-nasa-voyager-1-video.html?cmpid=514648 <comment><USER2> I _hate_ auto-starting videos. Hate, hate, hate.

People, don't do that. It's taken me nearly a minute to find the tab creating noise in a quiet, open office.</comment>


We Are 99.9% Not Different - Bill Clinton's Remark at Harvard College Day 2007 - <AUTHOR> http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/99-clinton.html <comment><USER2> But are all genes equal? Humans and chimps are 98.5% similar, but whatever's in that 1.5% seems to make a big difference.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Paul, exactly his message --- even comparison with just humans --- we are just different 1/10 of 1% --- and almost all us tend to focus on that difference. He, mentioning we somehow forgetting about purpose over power.

<comment><AUTHOR> Bill just wanted to relay that in a much as we should enjoy our differences --- we should be beginning to put forth more value to our common humanity. It's fastly becoming a very small interdependent world and high time to care much more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey, this is _supposed_ to be startup news... once the political stuff creeps in here it'll be just like reddit (and I don't mean that in a good way).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> hi. no political intention meant. just thought something that's intrinsic part of our humanity. please read content and maybe you'll agree. thanks.</comment>


A Christmas miracle: Google Pixel 2 activations surpassed iPhone X - <AUTHOR> http://bgr.com/2017/12/27/pixel-2-vs-iphone-x-christmas-sales/ <comment><USER2> Misleading title. Pixel 2 devices had the largest lift in activations over the previous week.

</comment><comment><USER3> I pre-ordered the Pixel 2 XL, and got it as part of the first ship... I don't care for the rounded display, it's almost impossible to use input without issue unless you have a case on it (didn't have the case for the first few days). Beyond this, the bluetooth issues since Android 8 have been outright painful. The recent update has helped a lot, but it's still not right, about to cancel Pandora.

Other than the bluetooth issues really enjoying the device.. The look/feel (beyond round edges effecting input) is spot on. I am hoping to not have to replace the battery on this device in less than 2 years though. My Nexus 6 literally caught fire after battery issues around 15 months in use.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think Steve Jobs was the unique vision that kept Apple going and kept it 'different' than other tech products on the market. When his inherited influence and ideas start to wane at the company it will become just one of the pack.</comment>


Android StackExchange error page - <AUTHOR> http://android.stackexchange.com/error

<comment><USER2> I thought the video was sped up for much of it. The person inside the Android suit has had wayyy too much caffeine. (which of course makes it even more fitting on a developer site error page)

</comment><comment><USER3> Something about that dancing robot crossed over in to the uncanny valley for me. The strange part is, I can't tell why. It's not like it looks human in any way. Maybe it's because it appears to move in such an unnatural way. The physics of a short-legged, walking trashcan means it shouldn't move the way it does. Interesting how our brains can make these types of evaluations on such a low level.

</comment><comment><USER4> I imagine how hard it's to dance inside that stuff.

Thumbs up for that crazy person.</comment>


Serial ADA lawsuit filer striking Bay Area (2016 article, but current also) - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/10/serial-ada-lawsuit-filer-striking-bay-area/ <comment><AUTHOR> There are allegedly current cases involving longstanding small businesses in the South Bay such as Lombardi's Auto Service in Santa Clara and Time Deli in San Jose.

</comment><comment><USER2> Same person ruined my favorite restaurant because there were not AHA compliant. The plaintiff never actually even patronized the restaurant!</comment>


Twitter AMQP WebSocket Example (no polling) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.0x82.com/2009/12/28/twitter-amqp-websocket-example-no-polling

<comment><USER2> Wow! That's a nice set of buzzwords in one title! =)

<comment><USER3> His email is root 'at' cpan.org; that just dripps 1338.</comment></comment>


Chunchmode – The NT Story - <AUTHOR> http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/crunchmode/nt-story.html <comment><USER2> Cover's the book "Showstopper!" by G. Pascal Zachary.

"Showstopper!" is a weird book, but it should be read more, especially by Windows people. There's some problems with the accepted history of Windows NT vs what' in that book, for example. The book shows that TCP/IP networking was an afterthought at best. For an OS introduced in the early 90s, that one's hard to believe, but NT didn't have a network-transparent windowing system either. Also, the NT filesystem. NTFS is clearly a minor re-write of DEC's ODS-11 filesystem, that VMS used. Why does the book say NTFS was such hot stuff, and why was it so hard to get it coded? Zachary also seems to have missed out on the Mica/NT code copying thing ([http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/death-alpha- nt](http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/death-alpha-nt)), too, so maybe the book is near rubbish.</comment>


Designing Solo, a new U2F/FIDO2 Token - <AUTHOR> https://conorpp.com/designing-solo-a-new-u2ffido2-token <comment><USER2> A personal hardware security device is useful not just for logins but signing messages and encrypting data.

Imagine signing up to a site or service,all you need to do is allow it to generate a unique public/private key pair on your personal hsm. You would optionally associate a username with the public key,but that's it!

No need to enter name,address,phone,email,etc.., Unless required for the service. You won't even need a password(!!)

Lost the personal hsm? No worries,you wrote down a recovery key on paper and stored it next to your social security card and passport.

Here is my thing, simpler security is better security. I use a yubi everyday and it's nice but I also use TOTP and SMS every day. If I am using a hardware security device,why do I need any other form of authentication?

Why can't that same device be used for TLS client certificate storage for every site I visit,storing SSH private keys,trusted root CA store I can use with any device, message(email,signal,telegram,etc...) Encryption,message non- repudiation(think a twitter post or even this comment being signed by my hsm so I can't say 'the hackers did it'). You can use it for banking,voting,signing important documents online,etc...

You can already see how much work goes into adopting something like a yubikey. Why not make it a general purpose hsm that solves all these security problems.

You know what I like about this the most? Minimal user education required,just plug it in,click yes on the app's prompt and press the button on the hsm. Not only that,you can't phish or some other way social engineer the user to give up the private key. Users can keep it on their keychain or building access badge that would give physical attackers similar level of access(they can unlock your house keys and steal pii or get in the building with your badge and steal your laptop).

A user friendly usbarmory for the lay-person!

<comment><USER3> Because the parts you need to provide the functionality you want at the level of security Yubico is promising are expensive.

<comment><USER4> Are there technical reasons that device (well, maybe not quite that blue-sky- ish, but the general idea) can't be your phone? You've already paid for it, people seem to think they're quite secure, etc. I don't get the whole desire to make hw tokens more computery so we can better use our computers while also already carrying another computer in our pockets.

<comment><USER3> This is a can of worms. Experts will tell you that _iPhones_ are quite secure, and there is a lot of hardware security going into making them secure. It doesn't follow that any piece of hardware you build with L4 and a cheap ARM core will protect keys, such that losing sight of your token for a couple minutes won't mean you have to ditch the keys it stored.

<comment><USER4> Right, I mean a secure phone, so a recent iPhone with the enclave and the exurb and the whatnot. The U2F key I get - it's cheap, it's indestructible, I can buy a bunch and put them on my keychain and hide them under the couch and forget them in drawers filled with old SCSI terminators. But the phone already can do things like, say, authorize access to my google account by gmail app push notifications. Why not my ssh keys or all the other zany things people want to do with fancier USB tokens?

<comment><USER5> Krypton does this:

[https://krypt.co](https://krypt.co) [https://krypt.co/developers](https://krypt.co/developers)

It acts as a U2F token, but can also hold a private key for SSH authentication and/or git commit signing. On iOS, it can use the secure enclave.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> How vulnerable are these to differential power analysis? From my understanding, many FIDO keys are designed with resistance to these sort of side-channels in mind.

<comment><USER7> What is the threat model that these keys are typically designed for?

<comment><USER8> Typically these keys are designed to be secure against remote attacks (i.e. adverse software on PC can't extract any secrets). If the attacker physically steals the key, he can just use it directly, no need for DPA. So protecting from physical access typically isn't in threat model.

<comment><USER9> The problem isn't someone stealing the physical key - yes, if someone does that, they can use it. But, if its your key, and you no longer have it, you'll notice that and can take action. A bigger problem is if someone briefly takes the physical key, clones the digital key, and then returns it to you. Then, you have no idea that its been compromised.

If your use case is that you want them to be secure from a wealthy nation- state - well, thats probably a tall order. What you are probably most interested in is that the cleaning person in your hotel can't clone your key. The thing with digital security, though, is that it real hard / impossible to really define intermediate security levels - what is possible for a nation state to do, may be only a research paper or code leak away from everyone else being able to do.

So, I'd really hope that any serious security key would be designed to defend against physical attacks.

<comment><AUTHOR> To echo on Conor's comment, our keys will protect you from online attacks. The one you describe is certainly a threat, but still pretty sophisticate and requires physical contact with the key.

To protect from physical attacks you need stronger devices, for example Yubico now has an entire new line of FIPS certified products. Note that the cost is higher than the FIDO2 usb-a only key.

As Conor mentioned in other places, to obtain stronger hardware we'd need to sign NDAs with vendors, and thus we couldn't make our key open source. Personally, I really hope that this first iteration will be a success, so we'll be able to push the industry for even more open hardware, and eventually we'll be able to address threats like the one you reported.

<comment><USER10> > to obtain stronger hardware we'd need to sign NDAs with vendors, and thus we > couldn't make our key open source.

That's not true. First, you won't even be eligible to sign an NDA with a secure chip vendor. Second, this won't limit you from having your application (running on their chip) subject to the NDA.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is neat, but my biggest problem isn't the _key_.

My biggest problem is how many things I have to configure to even be able to _start_ to use the key.

There is a reason why Duo got bought for >2Gigabucks. 2FA is a PITA to administer.

<comment><USER12> Technically, nothing needs to be additionally configured for FIDO U2F to be implemented for an application. You just need to connect the key to your account and it should just prompt you to click the button when you need to sign in. If a company requires a phone number or some other byzantine process for registering a key that is their own design choice.

I get that simple U2F key registration is not what's seen in a lot of time in the real world, but most implementations are needlessly complex IMO.

<comment><USER11> > You just need to connect the key to your account

Which account? Where is the account? Who runs that account?

In a 10-person office, I want to be able to hand 3 keys to each person (1 for use, 1 for loss, and 1 just in case the other two somehow foul up), and then have them use those keys for computer login, email login, AWS login, GCP login, NXP/ST/SiLabs support forum login, etc.

And when one of them goes to another company (it happens), I need to be able to shut those keys down without their cooperation.

Until I can do this, 2FA is going to remain the province of big companies and not be very useful.

<comment><USER13> So basically you need SSO with an identity provider that supports key-only logins. Perhaps SimpleSamlPHP with privacyIdea would fit the bill.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't understand why all these things have to be so huge and clumsy. The Tomu (tomu.im) fits almost entirely inside a USB slot, and has 64k of flash and a 32-bit ARM.

If it does have to be big enough to be on a lanyard or something, I need it to be flexible, like a short cable dongle. A long skinny USB stick is an accident waiting to happen.

<comment><USER15> The Yubikey Nano is about that size. I find it too small, though, and the NEO is perfect for me. It's the same size as my keys and I've put it through the washing machine with no problems.

<comment><USER16> I think the point of a key like the nano is to permanently put it on your device, not carry it around.

<comment><USER17> If you're essentially attaching it permanently, why bother with an external key at all? Isn't the main point of these devices that they remain with your person?

<comment><USER16> it's a non fish-able token, a password can be fished a security key can't. For most people I'd think the biggest risk are non physical attacks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> If this device is reprogrammable so I can experiment with the 2-device solution proposed a week ago then I'll order quite a few of these when the Kickstarter goes live.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17765979](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17765979)

<comment><USER8> Yup it will be. I've actually been in touch with Dmitry, he came up with a nice backup solution. We were thinking about coming up with some sort of protocol so devices may initially be designated as this sort of backup.

<comment><USER19> I was wondering if inspiration could be taken from the BIP32/BIP39 in the Bitcoin world. You can use a Trezor as a GPG-Agent, for example, with a key that's derived from the master key (BIP32) in the TREZOR (aka, already backed up via the BIP39 seed phrase). I haven't looked at u2f-on-trezor yet, but I'd assume it is implemented similarly.

It seems like you could use existing tooling to generate the phrase and then use some existing code/processes to derive the key backing the token's u2f private key?

<comment><AUTHOR> Independently from the protocol you choose, the final result is that two (or more) devices will share the same private key for, e.g., your google account.

The problem that we need to solve securely, is that you as a user must be sure you know all devices with that private key, i.e. no one else can trigger a backup without you knowing that, even with a temporary access to the key.

<comment><USER19> I (think I) was just discussing a way to make the master key easy to backup.

Isn't what you're discussing (prevent unknown backups) more a function of how the private key is held in the Solo itself (and in my example, how securely your seed phrase is stored)? Or is there an element of U2F that I'm missing here? (Does the token itself have an identity that you want to be unique while still preserving the same key for authentication, or is there some other detail I'm missing?)

<comment><AUTHOR> Let me try to rephrase. If you have a (too easy) way to backup, i.e. extract, the master key, then an attacker can use the same mechanism to backup your master key _without you even knowing_ that the backup happened.

You can, for example, set up a pin or passphrase, however the fido2 protocol doesn't (necessarily) work like that. You buy a key, and you just start using it. There are multiple options to implement a backup protocol, but no standard one to the best of my knowledge. My original point was just that in designing such a protocol, it's important to consider this "unknown backup attack".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there any reason why these devices can't have a USB-C connector on one side, and a USB-A connector on the other? Being able to keep just one single token around and knowing I can always use it without an adaptor is the holy grail of these devices for me.

<comment><USER21> Cost. That's really the only reason.

This would be a really good stop gap until the industry has transitioned everyone over to usb-c.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > But since U2F/FIDO2 devices need to derive secret keys at runtime to be able > to work with an unlimited number of services, the ATECC508A doesn't work out > well. This is because to derive a key at runtime, you typically need to > compute an HMAC that's keyed with a master secret, and store the result as > the runtime key. This needs multiple interactions with the ATECC508A and > requires the runtime key be stored temporarily on the MCU, which tarnishes > the idea of key isolation.

This is incorrect.

The atec family can derive keys using a static master seed and variable nonce. Such keys are derived internally and kept internally, never leaving the chip.

By storing a single derivation master secret, you can use the hashed u2f appid as the nonce. I would additionally have a 2nd hmac secret to apply to the nonce, and use that as the key derivation nonce rather than the appid directly.

</comment><comment><USER22> Just wondering, is there any reason why the Yubico FIDO2 Python API[0] talks to a USB device by using custom code to handle the USB protocol instead of using a module like PyUSB[1]?

[0] [https://github.com/Yubico/python-fido2](https://github.com/Yubico/python- fido2)

[1] [https://pyusb.github.io/pyusb/](https://pyusb.github.io/pyusb/)

</comment><comment><USER23> What's the advantage here over the Yubikey equivalent?

Open/hackable firmware? Price?

<comment><AUTHOR> Please let me start by saying that Yubico is NOT the closed/evil. Without Yubico, we wouldn't have security keys, and we probably wouldn't have these standards. They're working since 10+ years on this problem, and they released a great amount of open source.

Some short term advantages of Solo: open firmware that can be verified by the community. Somehow a reference implementation maybe. Prices will be slightly lower, yes, but not a massive advantage imo. I also hope we can build an open documentation system, to make it easier for people to start using fido2 devices.

Long term dreams.

1) Open hardware will allow for experimentation. I'm personally hacking security keys into jewels, and I hope that people will take Solo design, alter it, and embed security keys into other objects and shapes. Keys are getting obsolete.

2) Pushing the industry. Again Yubico is not the "closed one" here. Security coprocessors/chips are. Hopefully, by having more and more open hardware, there'll be a market for even more open chips.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> What I miss in the U2F tokens is a small display that would show transaction details which is approved.

Imagine you have a malware on your PC; it can send another transaction than the one you see in the browser, while the URL would still match. Having transaction summary on the token would be the last verification point where can still spot something is wrong.

<comment><USER25> I have a Ledger Nano S that I use for cryptocurrency and it does basically this. It won't sign transactions unless you approve them from the device, and the little screen on the device shows the address(es) to which you're sending.

[https://www.ledger.com/products/ledger- nano-s](https://www.ledger.com/products/ledger-nano-s)

It's $100, which is probably too much for your average user, but cheap enough that it's got to be feasible for a U2F kind of thing in a few years.

I guess even the addition of the screen, though, kind of necessitates using a cord so you can see that screen, which makes it less clean than my Yubikey Nano (which is far less obtrusive). But I think we're getting closer.

<comment><USER24> Thanks. Yes, this is something what I think of. Does it show on the screen what operation you confirm with U2F? Or just "U2F authentication"? But cord makes it far less convenient unfortunately.

<comment><USER26> I use it for gpg, ssh(gpg-agent) and u2f. These are official applications that you can install on the device that does the above. It doesn't show the operation, just the website trying to access.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> My wishlist for this includes some RSA GPG usage but it'll probably remain on my wishlist. The Yubikey tokens are still rather expensive at 50$ and soldering my own and maybe selling extra copies (thanks MOQ) to friends.

Otherwise, this looks great, I'll definitely sign up for the newsletter later on...

<comment><AUTHOR> We're considering this and similar features (gpg/ssh keys). One minor issue is the memory requirement, as our current chip only has 128KB of flash available. The bigger issue is certainly our time :), we're really pushing to have Solo keys available before Xmas, and thus we're prioritizing hardware and fido2. We also want to get fido2 certification, which of course means a lot more work that just making it work.

<comment><USER27> Of course, yeah, getting a product out can be more important. Good luck :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> If it's got USB-C, does it need NFC given most phones have USB-C? Or is the phone USB port incompatible?

<comment><AUTHOR> NFC is just more convenient. Also, the support for fido over usb vs nfc vs ble depends on the apps/software implementation. To my knowledge Google supports all of them, but many apps may just choose to implement NFC as it's "easier"/more common.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> why didn't you use a cap touch sensor? pretty easy to do.

the problem with the mechanical button is that it will torque the usb port. this is more of a problem with your design, where the usb contacts are just contact area on the pcb, as opposed to a fully enclosed usb-a "connector".

admittedly, a small problem, but since cap touch would have been easy, it seems a problem that would have been worth tackling maybe?

</comment><comment><USER29> Do these use any sort of security element to store the keys? Or just stored in firmware?

<comment><AUTHOR> Firmware. In the blog post there's a section on this, and why.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Prism – The perfect OAS (Swagger 2) companion - <AUTHOR> http://stoplight.io/prism <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, we originally developed this for internal use over at StopLight, and realized that a lot of the tech could be re-purposed and re-packaged into a nice little complementary tool for anybody working with Swagger. Thanks for taking a look - happy to answer questions, and eager to hear any feedback!</comment>


I launched an iPhone app yesterday, and all I got were some stupid lessons - <AUTHOR> http://skrivr.com/samuel/general/iphonelessons [Update] It seems Skrivr has crashed under the HN load. I've thrown up a flat-file version of the article here:<p>http://samuelfine.com/iphone_lessons_learned.html <comment><USER4> I took a look at your product, and your site, and I just thought I'd list a few negatives in case it helps you somehow:

1) No screenshots? I don't want to watch a movie. Also, if I have to watch a movie, I want to be able to scrub through it. 2) Wheres the one-liner that describes why your app is so great? 3) No sync'ing? WTF? Its the 21st century, I already have a Calendar app - and I've been using it. If I want to switch to your product, I'm going to need data in/data out.

<comment><AUTHOR> It really does help, thanks a ton. I'm all about constructive criticism, very useful after being so closely focused on specific aspects of the app for months.

1) Great points. I'm working on a updated version of the site that will include a better video (scrubbable) and screenshots, amongst other improvements.

2) Working on it, that has been the #1 recommendation so far.

3) Straight-up iCal syncing probably won't happen, for a lot of reasons I mentioned in another comment here. (Import doesn't make a lot of sense logistically, mainly.) But, I'm playing with some import/export possibilities. There will _definitely_ be a way to get data out soon, if for no other purpose than freedom/portability, and some kind of syncing option will surely show up eventually.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A one-line description of why Faraday is different/cool from other calendars would help - both in your flat-file post ("It's a simple day calendar called Faraday, and it's the first iOS calendar to XYZ..."), as well as Faraday's home page, under the video. I can't tell enough from the screen cap, except that the UI reminds me a bit of the Clear to-do list app that was making the rounds a few weeks ago.

Good luck with it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely, I've heard similar from other folks checking out the app. I'm going to spend time this weekend updating the "marketing" stuff. Website, photos, copy, etc. Some of the decisions I made don't show Faraday in its best light, or don't do enough to really sell it and differentiate it from every other calendar or todo app out there. I had like 3 paragraphs about differentiation alone in the original version of my post, but decided to scrap it for later.

Thanks for your input and the kind words!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Apparently Skrivr can't handle HN, so I've put up a flat-file version of the post here:

<http://samuelfine.com/iphone_lessons_learned.html>

[Edit] Looks like Skrivr is entirely down. Not sure it's my fault, but it was working all morning.

<comment><AUTHOR> An update: they're working on it, and it was all our fault. <https://twitter.com/#!/skrivr/status/178173526308683777> (And they misspelled my name!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations, it looks like you're on your way to escaping from developer obscurity :) I really like the clean spare design of your calendar app. Great job on the promotional page and video, it looks very professional. However, when I watched the video I had a bit of difficulty understanding the number of steps required to set the background color for each list item. Very sharp looking, though, I like it.

<comment><USER7> Watching him set the color for every chunk of an item was really painful. It looked like 1) not a simple or intuitive action and 2) really repetitive and boring.

I imagine it's a case of being slightly blind to one's own features. There's not a single case in the video where sets multiple colors for an item, so it seems like an oversight, probably due to the underlying implementation. Definitely a problem worth solving.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh yeah, it hurts. Like I mentioned in my reply to the parent, totally embarrassed by it and have already built a fix for the issue in v1.0.2, coming in a week or two.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The app looks well designed, but the lack of sync features would be an issue for me. But I'm sure there's a good market for people that don't need to coordinate calendars between devices and people.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm still on the fence about sync. There are a lot of good reasons not to; besides intentionally not including it for the sake of compartmentalizing functionality, it would be a pain in the ass to make it work with the UI and UX of the app. Exporting events would be simple (in fact, data exporting will be coming soon, just to an email or text file if nothing else - <USER2> portability!), but importing existing events would be a disaster. I'd have to massacre any overlapping events.

But, I'm intentionally leaving that door open, simply because I'm willing to at least consider any user requests. Maybe there's a place for it, we'll see how things grow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> You've done pretty well to have you app approved with your "support" link going to a 404 page (<http://faradaycal.com/support>). I had an app rejected just because the reviewer couldn't see a contact email address on the support page we provided... even though there was in fact one there!

<comment><AUTHOR> Good catch. That just jumped to the top of my list. Regardless of the app store approval, the last thing I'd want is to piss off a user because they can't contact me about an issue. Much appreciated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It seems your post has become inaccessible. I'm getting: Cannot connect to your Dropbox account. Are you sure you have connected Skrivr to Dropbox

Oops. Page does not exist.

… the page you are looking for does not exist.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome. I don't have a "proper blog" up yet and assumed a third-party service reading a static text file wouldn't die. Serves me right. I'll work on getting that page forwarded to something more stable, I appreciate the heads-up.

<comment><USER11> Amazon S3 can serve static HTML.

<comment><AUTHOR> You know, the sad thing is that I've got a Linode server that's more than capable of handling the load of static pages. I just liked the themes on Skrivr and didn't want to let aesthetics distract me from writing up my post, so I just went with their theme and posted. Probably should have set something up on my own in advance.

<comment><USER12> The good news is that tomorrow you can post a new story to HN: "I posted a story to HN yesterday and all I got were some stupid lessons". :)

<comment><AUTHOR> BRB WRITING AN EBOOK

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> About the app:

\- I'm really surprised Apple's ical doesn't let me create entries like that. You've out appled apple. If I could create todo's and categorize them GTD style I might return to iOS.

\- Floating Tasks (where they carry over) to me would be an instant sell. It's an absolute must and few people even know about it. I'd buy it on the spot if there was there.

\- My work flow is - create todo's in general, and then the floating todo's get scheduled on a day. Each day, I then assign a time to them (drag them) and I have my schedule for the day. My job is just to create the todo's as they come up, or enter the hard appointments. In the end, todo's become calendar items.

\- Allow syncing via wifi to your computer instead of just through icloud or google sync. All three would appeal to everyone

\- If you want to connect off line feel free, I have obsessed over the perfect calendar/todo system for about 6 years trying to replicate the productivity nirvana I had on Palm OS with DateBK6. DateBK6 was the one app made me use the Treo years after it was outdated and it was by far the smartest and most productive app I've ever used in my life. All my efforts through Windows Mobile, iOS and now Android have been to replicate _that_ experience.

Pimlical is becoming more intuitive by the day, it's highly gestured workflow is sinking it's teeth into me. I might not be fond of Gingerbread but the tractorbeam of a working calendar/todo is too strong. The app was built by the same company that has built the best calendar/todo I've ever used, DateBK6.

About the site:

\- The video was great. The music selection helped express the magicalness of how light and easy it is.

\- It might be worthwhile having an interactive demo where people can drag things themselves. Might be a moot point in the beginning but a lack of buttons can be intimidating. Not for me though.

Good luck.

What I like about yours is natively tying in the power of gestures. They're simple, but could become advanced easily for advanced users.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm keeping most of my roadmap close to the vest for obvious reasons, but repeating events (I like the term "floating tasks") are definitely coming very soon, probably with v1.1. Looking in to various syncing options as well.

Your description of your work flow is very interesting. The concept of a sort of todo "queue" from which items gets dropped into time slots is a really cool pattern. Only problem is, the closer Faraday comes to handling todo items, the hairier things get. Once general todo items are added, then you need projects and tags and ownership and etc etc etc.

That said, it would be impossible to ignore how well Faraday's UX would work with a todo list. Stay tuned.

I have heard before - quite possibly on HN, and quite possibly from you - <USER3> old Palm calendar apps are kind of legendary. I'll do some research in to DateBK6 for sure, I saw a YouTube video demoing the interface and it looks like a productivity machine.

Thanks for such an in-depth response, and for all the kind words.

<comment><USER13> Maybe I can clarify.

\- Everything on a calendar is a to-do item, ultimately. We want to remember to do something at a certain time, on a certain date. You're already in that business.

\- The problem you are solving is hairy. Shaving the problem doesn't make it go away. Things always come up to ruin a schedule.

\- Trivializing the issue means it's on it's path to potentially becoming another calendar or to-do list that does neither well, because we always have to manage both, integrated. I've probably tried 30+ apps over the years to handle my workflow, and it's been a tough go.

\- Instead of a to-do queue, it's different types of appointments with your time : unscheduled, tentative (floating), and scheduled.

\- Appointments for your time ("tasks") come into an inbox (GTDesq but simpler) and end up on a list. The list gets put into categories (nothing more), which are the GTD contexts (Phone, online, email, home, etc). You can then drop the categories on your day into blocks of hours and the list fills itself, according to the ranking you give everything, and any dates you might assign. :)

\- Floating task advance notice - One other thign that's critical is having an advance notice for a task or appointment. Sometimes i like 2 days, other times 10 days. I like being able to set that without a separate reminder entry. It just starts showing up in my list early (lower ranked than the rest of my current stuff on an earlier day). I can start thinking about it or start tackling it in advance... it ends my last minute rushes.

\- Each task can be bundled to handle other things of a similar context. I can show you what I do. It works like gangbusters.

\- Mini Reviews: Omnifocus came close but their calendar view isn't how it needs to be. Any.do has great UI integration but their calendar view sucks. Astrid is a lot better, and has different types of syncs, their calendar view is a bit better. GTasks for android is the diamond in the rough, the calendar/todo list view was perfect, but entering, categorizing and syncing of tasks is still coming along. The Datebk6 calendar view is the best I've ever found.

There is a very good chance I talked about DateBK5 / Palm apps.. check my history, I'm almost sure I have. Pimlical is <http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/>, and intended to be the next reincarnation of Datebk6 for android. I specifically left iOS to use this app because I knew he gets me. Actually, his app is the one that taught me to be productive, lol. It's not perfect though and I think Faraday has things I really want too.

Why am I sharing all this? I just want to pay $20 for an app that does all this instead of building it and getting distracted from my core business. I've often thought of sinking in my own money but as you know, building a polished, gestured app isn't a $1-5,000 app development effort. :)

I have spent 10+ years being completely and constantly overwhelmed with having too many projects on the go and getting them all done somehow, and that somehow becoming the norm that I can be peaceful with it as much as possible.

What I learnt is more complex solutions don't work as you get busier. They have to be simpler, quicker and easier than scribbling something down. Everything has to go to one inbox, including emails. It has to be even simpler, but help compartmentalize, self organize, self rank, and self generate as much of your daily list as possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The app looks very neat... A pity I use more my iTouch than my iPad for calendaring (which is not very often), and that it's a 2nd Gen iPod: no iOS5, no downloading. Maybe when I buy a new one...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Unfortunately, iOS 5 is required for a few of the tricks I'm using in the app. For what it's worth, my fiancee uses my old iPhone 3G and she can't run Faraday either. I really hope the next gen iPhone/iPod Touch will send the low-end iOS5-capable device prices down so they're more available than they are now.

<comment><USER14> The problem is not the price (of course a cheaper iTouch 4 wouldn't hurt), it's the time spans. The iTouch line needs a new version (retina display!?), and afaik they are a profitable line for Apple, so it's not like they will ditch it. But no new version yet, and I'm still waiting for my new one. Anyway it's a great looking app, congratulations and I bet it will get traction from this HN post :)

<comment><USER15> The iPod Touch has had a retina display since it first came out in September 2010.

The last update to the iPod Touch was in October 2011, so that may be the one you're looking for.

<comment><USER14> Hmmm you're right, I missed the retina part of the 2010 launch. But the October 11 release was just being pre-installed with iOS 5 and having a white back version. Same chip & RAM as before (previous launch was in September 2010), nothing new & fancy, just a year-old model, running to be 2 years old already.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I think it's prudent to classify a couple of the OP's points differently:

Marketing.

You can be the best developer in the world, but you also need to know how to market your creations if you want them to really succeed. Chances are that otherwise, you're either preaching to the choir or an empty audience.

Know who you're targeting, know how to pique their interest. Know similar markets you can expand into. And know how to make people you don't know like what you do.

<comment><USER17> I just launched my first iOS app a few days ago. The marketing is probably at least half the work. We're in the education space and it's been a little hard really developing contacts and getting attention without an app, so we built a fairly simple first app mostly to get into the space and build a network. We're hoping that pays off for later, more ambitious apps.

Even though I should know better, I was surprised how many people asked for our app on Android, especially for the Kindle Fire. I had planned to eventually do an Android port, but I scrambled and got a port done and submitted to Amazon today (Google Play to follow). It really hit me today that if half or more of the work is the marketing and non-development tasks, it makes even more sense to address the top two markets. I just don't know how much Android users will really pay. We're hoping that the education space, again especially on the Kindle Fire, is a little more willing to buy apps rather than just grab the free game of the day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> You made good points about the data not lying, took me a while to learn that one (actually I'm still learning it)

I up voted you to help your hustle efforts!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I've been a big Gary Vaynerchuk fan for a while, he's all about the hustle. To an insane degree. Check him out if you want to go more in-depth about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Kudos for the title if nothing else.

</comment><comment><USER20> Chartbeat looks awesome! Definitely going to give it a look.

<comment><AUTHOR> Aw yeah, Chartbeat is way cool. Can't recommend it highly enough for any sites or services that could benefit from up-to-the-minute data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I don't own an iphone but I'm buying it anyways. And I'll be sure my girlfriend (iphone user) will buy it too. Good luck to you!

<comment><USER22> As I'm developing my first iPad app right now, I've been reading up on all the tips I can find. As thanks for the blog post, and to support someone else trying to break into the market, I bought your app too; good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Hang in there - you never know. Plus, I could not find a link to your app on your blog post. To say it in your own words: you aren't yelling loud enough. Keep hustling!

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh wow, I linked to it right at the top, guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought! I'll edit to make it a little more noticable, thanks for pointing that out.</comment></comment>


Scathing review of Scvngr by burned customer - <AUTHOR> http://www.vintank.com/2011/06/why-we-abandoned-scvngr-and-you-should-too/

<comment><USER5> Getting a server error when I hit the page, so pasting the text of the article below:

One of our jobs is to find technologies that will help the wine industry succeed. We often look outside the wine industry to find incredible solutions that help wineries in any way possible. Through extensive research, analysis, and lots of white board sessions we try to surface the technologies that seem most helpful. Fortunately we have only made two mistakes in technologies that we have strongly supported in our three year history. Our most notable was Scvngr.

In the beginning, Scvngr seemed like it had innovated where other platforms had stagnated (Gowalla and Foursquare were struggling to innovate at the time). They offered a level of interactivity that was not just about checking in but about engagement. They had fair pricing and a rapidly growing user base. We loved the way they viewed game theory. So as a location based service that would work for the wine industry, we chose them.

Everything was champagne and roses at first. Scvngr offered rewards for engagement. In a hospitality industry, this seemed like a perfect fit. They had unique features (taking pictures, answering quizes, etc) and fun mapping tools called Treks to tie locations together to earn rewards. Scvngr loved the wine industry because we represented a use case for regions that could easily overlay a game layer with mass tourism and strong hospitality culture. For us it also represented an innovative way to engage consumers in both the digital world and the physical world and deepen the engagement when people visit any winery tasting room.

Scvngr made us promises to ensure this was a giant success (with the potential that they could roll it out to other tourist/hospitality based locations with our case study like Las Vegas, Disneyland, et al). This is what they committed:

Promise: They promised to give all Napa merchants (restaurants, retailers, hotels, etc) free Scvngr rewards programs and games. They also promised to support businesses with training and help to understand how to build rewards and more. Result: They soon released this feature to all businesses nullifying the value and barely touched anyone who signed up.

Promise: They promised to have a Mashable party in Napa to celebrate their new launch with Robert Mondavi Winery and Franciscan winery as part of a major release. They even talked about it with a strong press initiative. Result: We are still waiting.

Promise: Setting up multiple Napa treks to make game play in Napa incredibly interesting for Napa tourists. This was intended to spread to Paso Robles, Sonoma, Walla Walla, and beyond. Result: Pretty much the same as above.

Promise: They assured us that they would add new game mechanics that would be extraordinarily useful to the wine industry. Result: The platform has been stagnant since their VC investment of $15 million dollars and their focus completely changed to a new product called thelevelup.com (yes, another "flash in the pan" – flash sale site).

Our promise: We would share our passion about their innovative product, our time, and our relationships to help the wine industry benefit from this new type of engagement. We signed a contract for biz dev fees which we waived to give discounts to all wineries that work with us on digital brand management so they could be involved in the treks and more. Three of our wineries signed up, one pre-paid (and was fortunately refunded but only after threatening legal action). I recently saw a Scvngr campaign with the Napa Valley Vintners for the annual auction (I am curious how successful the campaign was) and upon calling Scvngr, their statement was, "We don't have the time or resources to dedicate to those previous promises. If you can find us some resellers . . ." Uh, no. How about you fulfill your promises made to us and the wine industry as a whole.

All indicators pointed to Scvngr becoming a winner and helping wineries deepen their engagement with consumers. Sorry to all that joined us in this debacle. We really believed in them and made a rare mistake betting on their horse. The net net is that we picked a "dog."

Perhaps it was the money that diluted their focus. Perhaps the VC's shifted direction and the young management didn't have the experience to properly communicate. Perhaps they don't understand the meaning of a partnership or a promise. Maybe they don't like the wine industry. Whatever the reason, the lesson for us was make sure vision is supported by execution and find partners that really keep their promises. In this case, we have ALL deleted Scvngr from our mobile phones and we are back on Foursquare (who has lapped Scvngr times ten in the last six months with awesome functionality) and Gowalla.

Visit us anytime at the "tank" and check in (with Foursquare or Gowalla, that is).

<comment><USER6> Not really a big deal at all. These are some middlemen who wanted some biz dev money for bringing in clients. Read closely and they "bring technology" to wineries, they don't operate their own wineries. Scvngr probably realized these guys were going to ask for lots of custom work without the $ to justify it.

<comment><USER7> Actually if you read, we waived all any fees to help our winery partners. We asked for no custom work and spent large resources to help promote Scvngr with no aspirations of revenue, just to help catalyze the wine industry through digital means.

We don't operate our wineries but if you look at our bio's, we have operated at wineries and for some of the largest wine tech companies in our industry (three of which we founded).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm going to go out on a short limb and guess that most users here don't understand who Vintank is or much about the wine industry in general. The group at Vintank are hardly 'middlemen wanting some biz dev money'. I've had the pleasure recently to meet Paul Mabray as I'm currently diving into the wine world myself with an idea I've already pivoted on once with, and I can say with a lot of confidence that these aren't just another group of marketing guys trying to make a buck. Paul has a phenomenal reputation in the wine world and is one of the preeminent voices when it comes to discussing how to bring the old way of thinking by most wineries to the new ways of social media. If things went down as Paul described, then Scvngr snubbed a whole industry, not just one company.

Edit: Vintank also share the same passion for unifying and making wine 'facts' free for all in the same way that SimpleGeo does with location data. Anyone who spends more than 5 minutes in the wine world knows the horrible state of fragmented / incomplete wine facts (not reviews,tasting notes,ratings) and how that holds the industry back as a whole.

Just trying to paint a picture of who Vintank is for those here who don't know.

<comment><USER7> Thank you David.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Slightly offtopic to the article, but is it just me or does anyone else think the wine culture and an iPhone app + game mechanics just don't go well together? I mean, the people that enjoy wine seem to be, well, just enjoying it without needing any additional incentive to have more of it?

"Sample five wines and you get X points with a 'Wine taster' badge!". Just doesn't sound quite right does it ?

<comment><USER10> Actually it does, it sounds like you have't spent a weekend in the Sonoma or Napa Valley area (I don't mean this disparagingly).

A large part of what you do is drive around a large countryside tasting wines at various family owned and operated winery tasting rooms, interspersed with tasty meals. Many of the best wineries are way off the beaten track and there are many wineries who only sell their wine at their tasting rooms so getting traffic into them is crucial.

Something like what scvnger provides would be a great way for those who don't know the area to find some of those off the beaten track gems.

<comment><USER9> I agree with what you're saying, but I don't think iPhone apps driven by game mechanics are the right answer to this problem. It doesn't necessarily go with the relaxed Joie de vivre attitude of wine tasters. I feel it translates the experience from about enjoying wine to a mindless WoW quest like experience where all you want to do is to accomplish a set of objectives to get your reward.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm pretty confused by this post. Just what did you commit in this "exchange"?

It sounds like you wanted to help an LBS service in the wine industry, and the one you picked turned out not to have a sustainable business. Well, none of the LBSes are making money and when the VC wears off, Foursquare may be in the same boat. This is the risk of being an early adopter... it's a bummer when it doesn't work out but I don't see why you are A) surprised or B) angry.

I don't know anything specific about Scvngr's business, but I spent a good chunk of a year building an LBS (www.mobca.st, fwiw) that really doesn't have any financial future. If _you_ are upset for after "investing" a man-month of thought and a few chats with industry bigwigs over $200 bottles of Merlot, consider a moment the disappointment that the Scvngr team must feel when they set aside the game they've poured their hearts into so they can get to work building a dumb Groupon clone. Your punishment doesn't even register.

When a product goes south, the stringed instrument which plays Ave Maria for you is limited to:

* Founders - Double Bass

* Employees - <USER2>

* Investors - <USER3>

* Paying Customers - <USER4>

* Everyone Else - AM radio, if you can get reception

<comment><USER12> I'm sorry but the attitude in your post really bothers me. Scvngr is a business, if you give them money, you expect to receive the services you promise - case closed. Customers don't care if you're short on cash, stressed out, overworked, or yo-yoing between missions statements and projects. As a customer, I shouldn't care one single bit how the Scnvgr team feels (as a programmer, yes I have empathy, but not as a customer).

<comment><USER11> There's no indication in the original article that they gave Scvngr any money. From all appearances, the OP only qualifies as "Everyone Else".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Given that Napa is so close to the bay area, it might have made more sense to partner with a local company from YC etc. than one on the east coast.

<comment><USER14> To be fair to the Scavngr folks, inexperienced self-flattering wankers that they are, I don't think it would've made any difference whom these people chose as a technology provider as it is evident that Vintank lacks the basic clarity required to a) identify and understand current or future trends in the market and b) they can't even keep a fucking blog afloat, a pretty basic task that should've been learned after a three-year history of ... what it is these people do again? A digital think tank for the wine industry? Obviously not a work tank. Because that would entail actually having a skill.

I cannot speculate what caused them to chose Scavngr over any other service, what type of agreement, if any, that they had in place with them, nor how they were going to measure results if any were to be produced. I also cannot name the particular strain of toxoplasmosis that would cause someone to believe that a company whose business model depends on mass adoption would somehow see that restricting a subset of functionality to a particular industry segment would be financially beneficial to them. The person who wrote this so-called review is ignorant, uninformed and unqualified.

Scavngr isn't dedicating any resources to these types of products because there is no market for it. It's as simple as that and their board has told them to spend their money in another direction. Sorry, you lose.

<comment><USER7> Wow, you don't know us at all. Thanks for your responses although they lacked in any understanding or research. If you had dug deeper you might have noticed that we have all been successful and we are both a work tank and a think tank. We have one of the most prestigious clients lists of any digital agency and a PROVEN track record for success.

To answer your statement:

A - We have led the industry for years as an innovator and we are recognized for seeing the future (and present) time and time again. At the time Scvngr seemed like the right bet. B - We had a server error. Do you need to really troll like this?

Napa Valley has the most tourism in CA next to Disneyland and generate a tremendous amount of income. This valley (and other wine destinations) represents an incredible opportunity for the right LBS company. I think it is less about the opportunity than it is about the focus of Scvngr changing from their app to thelevelup.com.

PS - you spelled Scvngr wrong.

<comment><USER14> Call and position yourself however you'd like. You're a social media consultant in an industry experiencing 25% growth over the past decade. You're riding the coattails of an artificially segmented industry that produces a drug that has sold itself with little to no branding for thousands of years and whose major players are trying to grab as much market share as they can before people tire of snooty enoteca employees and they stop overpaying for labels they know nothing about. Anyone can be successful when people are throwing money at you, Paul.

And yet you fail to understand a basic point:

Scvngr isn't playing their little games any more because there's no money in it.

And you don't understand the technology industry. One look at Scvngr's about page would've clued you in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "We really believed in them and made a rare mistake betting on their horse. The net net is that we picked a 'dog.'"

The real mistake was betting on game mechanics without understanding the underlying psychological principles. The vast majority of 'game mechanics' startups are con artists, and without understanding the academic research on motivational psychology you're just giving your money away.

<comment><USER16> How in the world is any normal person going to be able to really "understand the underlying psychological principals"? That is really akin to saying you shouldn't buy software without understanding the underlying architecture and design principals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sorry for our site being down - service error from our provider. It is back up now.

Paul Mabray VinTank

</comment><comment><USER17> Server is back up. Be gentle ;)

Jason coleman, stranger studios, winelog

</comment><comment><USER18> Just wanted to let everyone know that the site is up and you can view the post at [http://www.vintank.com/2011/06/why-we-abandoned-scvngr- and-y...](http://www.vintank.com/2011/06/why-we-abandoned-scvngr-and-you- should-too/)

</comment><comment><USER19> Was vintank a customer? Were they paying for any services?

Edit: the blog comments feel like Astroturf.

Edit 2: submitter looks like a sock puppet account.

<comment><AUTHOR> Abe Froman here. I'm no puppet. I've had this account for a while and had never heard of these guys before I saw this post (I don't even drink wine). With all of the hyperbole and big money around companies like scvgr I thoughtit was interesting to hear theother side

<comment><USER19> Ferris Bueller's Age Froman? Your account hasn't been around for a while. It's 7 days old.</comment></comment></comment>


Don't Lower Your Expectations - <AUTHOR> https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/dont-lower-your-expectations <comment><USER2> I often find the stoic approach ("don't have external expectations") as one, which makes me less stressed and able to make better decisions. On the other hand I try to aim high and achieve more. So it's basically this subtle tension between both, what works best for me. Choosing only one option probably would make me either lazy and stagnating, or stressed and miserable.

<comment><USER3> Do you have any recommendations for books regarding stoicism? I'd like to learn more.

<comment><USER4> Here is a great summary of A Guide to the Good Life: [http://becomingeden.com/summary-of-a-guide-to-the-good- life/](http://becomingeden.com/summary-of-a-guide-to-the-good-life/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So would a seat back video investment been worth it, considering now they are obsoleted by smartphones?

The operating time of a plane is way longer than infotainment equipment.

That's why I won't buy cars with nav systems, etc. I'll still be driving that car in 10 year, while the infotainment will be obsolete and unsupported. All I car for in a car is a way to amplify what's coming out of my phone.

<comment><USER6> Phones are not bigger than seatback systems. Do people have the time or remember to load movies ? Make sure their device is charged?

Seatback systems may not be great but they might be good enough to last a while longer.

<comment><USER7> > Do people have the time or remember to load movies ?

I'm not sure how prevalent it is, but I know some carriers like United[1] and Delta[2] (via Gogo) stream media to your personal device over the aircraft's WiFi.

> Make sure their device is charged?

Many flights now have USB ports and/or power outlets under the seats.

[1]: [https://www.united.com/web/en- US/content/travel/inflight/ent...](https://www.united.com/web/en- US/content/travel/inflight/entertainment/personal-device-entertainment.aspx)

[2]: [https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with- us/on...](https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard- services/how-to-stream.html)

<comment><USER8> Mainly so they can charge you for it. United's app is awful. It barely works on Android.

<comment><USER9> United is also free to stream movies (or at least, it was when I flew a few weeks ago).

The wifi is decent - I was able to stream 480p video without interruptions, which is way better than I expected.

<comment><USER8> If you set your expectations low enough any experience can be great. Which coincidentally is United's new slogan.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Somewhat related. On the Pitch podcast a guy pitching VR headsets on planes said those seat back entertainment systems are heavy and cost the airlines $1b a year in fuel costs. [https://gimletmedia.com/episode/skylights-s02-ep04/](https://gimletmedia.com/episode/skylights-s02-ep04/)

Company: [http://www.skylights.aero/](http://www.skylights.aero/)

<comment><USER10> VR on a plane sounds interesting. But those headsets are pretty bulky right now, I wouldn't want to be juggling one along with food and everything else.

I'm surprised these AV systems haven't been replaced by cheap Android tablets - they'd be a hell of a lot cheaper and you could replace them very easily.

<comment><USER11> Many of those in-flight entertainment systems are Android tablets mounted onto the seatback. Sometimes if you're lucky you can bail out to the Android home screen on them.

<comment><USER12> Source? I doubt they would embed lithium batteries into the seats, and every device I've seen so far is powered on/off along with airplane systems.

<comment><USER13> You could both be an android tablet and run off a plug and not have a battery...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How can they afford to make payments on a £2.5B loan but not have £10M? At 5% interest over 10 years that's a £26M monthly payment; how did that work?

<comment><USER15> Because they used the 2.5 billion to buy planes which they used to make money.

<comment><USER14> They were already making money with the planes they had, realistically they can't suddenly make £10s of millions more just because they have replaced those with new planes. They can buy/set up new routes but that's going to be more cost.

They only way I see it working is something with investors, but how does that work with a public company, surely not a new share class?

Most likely option I see is that this is mainly spin from Branson??

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Instructions unclear. How do I get Boeing to build a dozen 747s for me, right after a bank refuses to lend me a measly $10 million?

Sure, they can repossess the aircraft if I default, but that's going to cost them a lot more than $10M by the time the dust settles. On the surface, this is really a story of arbitrage, where Branson successfully leveraged Boeing's recklessness against a bank's cowardice.

<comment><USER17> Boeing has more incentive than the bank. Boeing's profit is likely much higher than the interest on the deal. That's probably just the cherry on top. The bank stands to lose the entire principal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Short and to the point. I like it.

</comment><comment><USER19> Sadly I'm forced to lower my expectations when Virgin America was sold to Alaska :(

<comment><USER20> I've never had a poor experience on Alaska. They're my preferred carrier when going to SEA.

What don't you like about them?

<comment><USER21> Some people are just irrationally biased against mergers - on my last flight, the couple next to me could not stop blaming the merger for us leaving SFO 5 minutes late, even when we arrived at SEA on time. It was Friday at 7PM, heavy travel time for SFO-SEA.

I try to fly Alaska everywhere too - never had a bad experience, on-time every time.

<comment><USER22> Ugly old planes, sub par soft and hard product. Walmart level quality brand etc. the basics work, but everything else is crap.

Virgin was he king of American airline quality and raised the bar for the whole industry.

<comment><USER23> The oldest part of their fleet are B734's of which they have 5 (plus I think some Combi's which only service Alaska) all of those are due to be gone by the end of 2017. The rest of their fleet is B737/B738/B739's - all but 30 are B738/B739's.

In fact among legacy carriers Alaska has the youngest fleet age of any of them. Alaska also has excellent on-time and baggage performance - among the best, if not the best in the industry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> So 250 times the debt? Sounds like a deal :/

<comment><USER24> Bank loan to outfit airplanes with seatback video -- easy "no" for the bank, it's dependent on the airline's ability to repay, with little recourse if the can't.

Boeing financing sale or lease of 12 new aircraft? Easy yes -- the aircraft is an asset generating revenue for them, and can be repossessed if Virgin doesn't make the payments.

Same reason that a person who can't get a $5,000 unsecured personal loan at a bank can often finance a $50,000 new car.

<comment><USER17> >Same reason that a person who can't get a $5,000 unsecured personal loan at a bank can often finance a $50,000 new car.

So borrowing money and living outside of your means is now a success story?

<comment><USER25> How did you arrive at that??

<comment><USER17> If you can't follow a thread, don't comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> That sounds right for her diet.

<comment><USER27> That is rude and uncalled for.

<comment><USER8> How is that rude? You can't get around the fact that bananas are vegan.

<comment><USER28> The question is not whether a banana is vegan, but whether it constitutes a meal.

In particular, think of this in the context of the customer experience.

<comment><USER26> That is a meal for a vegan.

Source: vegan friends.

<comment><USER8> Apparently airlines also think a banana is a good gluten free meal.

[http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and- advice/banana-g...](http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and- advice/banana-gluten-free-meal-ana-all-nippon-airways-martin-pavelka-special- airline-meals-a7714626.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Richard Branson is such an inspiration for me. A billionaire with dyslexia who would've thought!

</comment><comment><USER30> To paraphrase Merlin Mann: that's fine for Richard Branson.

</comment><comment><USER31> I hate seat-back video on planes. I really, really don't need some flickering screen a foot from my face for hours on end. My only interaction with them is whacking the off-button until it finally acquiesces.

From a strictly selfish point of view, the only positive feature I can think of is that they can hypnotize some (but not all) children who would otherwise be annoying.

<comment><USER32> Even other people's seatback videos are distracting. Negative innovation for me.</comment></comment>


Violence Breaks Out in Cairo - <AUTHOR>

Just got word that violence broke out in Cairo, this time possibly a lot more significant than before:
1. Apparently, outside the state TV station, demonstrators opened fire on soldiers patrolling the location. Word is two soldiers are dead, 25 wounded.
2. Demonstrations are underway again in Tahrir square, with a lot more violent sentiment and police are supposedly firing tear gas into the square to disperse them.
Will update this thread if people want when I get more info. <comment><USER2> Here's a link with more background on the Christian/Muslim tensions in Egypt [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011109...](http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011109155853144870.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> FWIW, a 2-month old NYT article on the situation of Christians in Egypt:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/magazine/in-egypt-the- lure...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/magazine/in-egypt-the-lure-of- leaving.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all)

</comment><comment><USER4> Please do</comment>


Google to start charging companies for listings  - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fa18bce4-ab67-11e1-a2ed-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1whtjvBgP

<comment><USER2> ft.com forces to register. BBC link: <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18295884>

</comment><comment><USER3> If you go to the site via Google you don't get the paywall: [https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Google+to+start+charging+c...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Google+to+start+charging+companies+for+listings)</comment>