The Jason Bourne Aesthetic - <AUTHOR> http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2015/09/20/bourne-aesthetic <comment><USER2> Understand that PCs were end-user fixable and upgradeable by _accident._

The intention was never for _you,_ the person who bought your computer, to be able to pop a new CPU into your Compaq five years later.

Standardized, modular parts were always all about the OEMs, who were all trying to build an industry by cloning the IBM PC. They could have a variety of manufacturers making various components and as long as everybody followed the standards, they could pick and choose parts to create SKUs for various needs and then sell them to you, the end-user.

The fact that a twenty year-old me could spend a summer saving up for the parts to build a brand-new Pentium II computer and then spend an exciting weekend putting it all together was a side effect of all that.

A side effect many of us enjoy, obviously. And a side effect that developed into a small industry of its own, with various companies (even Intel and AMD at times) targeting the "enthusiast builder" community.

When you understand this, though, things like soldered-on memory and CPUs make sense. The reasons why your 1988 Compaq had standardized IDE drives and memory slots are utterly inapplicable to a 2015 MacBook.

I _hate_ the non-hackable place to which PC hardware is headed, but I don't get angry at it.

Almost no other category of consumer good works in the modular way that we nerds wish that everything would. Aside from the fact that they run on the same gasoline you can't put Chevy stuff into a Ford; you can't even put Ford F-150 stuff into a Ford Fusion. Your toaster oven, your ceiling fan, and your lawn mower are the same way.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I hear where you're coming from, but all of those parts are still serviceable. If your starter goes on your Ford car, you might have to buy a Ford starter (or a third party starter for a Ford car), but it can still be fixed with a commonly accessible set of relatively inexpensive tools.

If the RAM in my Macbook gets cooked, either I can buy an entire new motherboard, or a new laptop. It's throwing the baby out with the bath water, and the truck/lawnmower example you've mentioned doesn't extend to that.

<comment><USER4> They are actually working on that. With DRM, DMCA, shitty software, etc. They want you to go back to the vendor to make sure things are fixed. Repairable? Only by authorized service dealers. At a monopolistic cost.

And in the US you can thank the EPA for helping with that.

<comment><USER5> If you want a 1kg notebook that's 100x the power of a room-sized $40,000,000 Cray 2 from back when, you'll have to leave off things like connectors, removable covers, generalized internal interfaces, empty space (for varying- sized components), beefier batteries (to run whatever you plug in), etc. Some of us value compact over modular.

You want "repairable by user for cheap"? Such is eminently available, and will decidedly not weigh 1kg.

<comment><USER6> You're right, my Thinkpad X201t weighs 2.89 lbs. That's 1.31kg, it's so difficult to lug around but at least I can replace the hard drive, RAM, keyboard, CPU fan, battery, and fundamentally keep it maintained until the processor fails.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm not sure I buy the contrast between old computers and macbooks. The smallest replaceable part on a MacBook is the entire MacBook (excluding any wired or wireless peripherals), but the smallest in a normal computer might be the CPU. The CPU cannot be repaired except by replacing the entire thing. You can't repair a CPU or a MacBook, so it seems the the only real difference is how much it costs to replace the broken part.

I like to think that as moores law ends and computers stop being obsolete we may get to a point where a computer could be passed down generations like a solid dining room table. In that case maybe it makes more sense to be able to repair it and people build them that way. Or maybe computers cost nothing and it's like bequeathing a pez dispenser.

<comment><USER8> The other difference is the rate at which the part fails. CPUs basically last forever if you keep them sufficiently cooled. Batteries or screen backlights or keyboards, not so much.

<comment><USER9> But CPU spring connectors don't last forever. If you want to ensure the CPU stays reliable for a good long time (at today's clock rates), you're going to have to solder it down.

<comment><USER10> source for that claim? Never heard of that, and outside of laptops or SFF boards it's really unusual to solder CPUs in.

<comment><USER11> Contacts are a source of trouble, especially in devices that are subjected to vibration. That's why they're sometimes soldered down. For stationary devices this is much less of a concern, the long term killer there is contact oxidization. Since CPU contacts are made of gold this is not usually a source of concern. Even circuit boards made in the 70's with regular sockets still function fine today, the 'bad' parts are usually electrolytic capacitors (they dry out) and tantalum ones (they like to change into miniature fireworks).

<comment><USER9> I got a great score on an exotic DMM from the 80s where the only problem was a weak ROM socket. Machine pin sockets might be OK (if you're always inserting a brand new IC) but dual wipe definitely wears out.

Gold plating only works for expensive parts, and only if you have the same plating on both parts. The 10u gold alloys on flashy audio equipment looks great but they aren't likely to be any more reliable than tin. A gold socket can't save a tin balled CPU: [http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p316-90.pdf](http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p316-90.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> _" The world is seven billion people swimming in a boiling froth of water, oil, guns, steel, race, sex, language, wisdom, secrets, hate, love, pain and TCP/IP."_

Yep. There's my quote of the week.

<comment><USER13> Mine:

> More to the point, this is why the soi-disant-designer snob ... comes across > as such a douchebag. It's not "minimalist" if you buy a new one every two > years; it's conspicuous consumption with chamfered edges.

<comment><USER14> Weren't we also buying a new laptop every 2 years back when they had removable batteries?

<comment><USER15> I'm still rocking my 2009 Thinkpad after passing on my 2007 model (too heavy for my tastes) to my kids.

<comment><USER16> I'm still using my mid 2009 macbook. The battery is not _that_ unremovable, it's just screwed in. I upgraded to 8gb ram and SSD as most have. Thanks to Apples move to super weak hardware you can't buy a new one that's better for the same price.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It is interesting to compare Bond with Smiley. While Bond is whom the salesman aspired to be, Smiley is whom he would actually become.

The expense account is a reptile fund over drafted by senior management for spurious expenses, he travels, but to cold and boring places, usually on a budget and staying out of sight in cramped hotels and safe houses.

Instead of sleeping with beautiful women, he spends most of his time working, and being cheated on by his detached wife.

And when he actually makes it to the top, he just finds himself overburden with political machinations, stakeholder management, and longing for the time when he'd actually get something done.

<comment><USER18> I watched a fascinating interview with a former MI6 manager. This was probably about 10 years ago. The interviewer made some comment about the men she had to manage: the agents. She said, effectively 'men?'.

The Grey Man principle is a good one, as far as it goes, except maybe the gender.

Fictional spies are interesting reflections of social angst, but I think we're about ready now for a fictional Valerie Plame.

<comment><USER19> What does gender truly have to do with the "Grey Man" idea? The core idea as I see it is to blend in with your surroundings, be "boring grey" instead standing out. Sure, "Grey Man" has the word "Man" in it, but I think the operative word in it is "Grey."

Also, where was the interview you watched?

<comment><USER18> Oh, I wasn't trying to make a massive point on gender, beyond pointing to the fact that fictional spies tend to be male. My interpretation of 'grey man' is not so much blending in, as not being the kind of person one would expect to be a spy. A person who 'looks like they can handle themselves' is probably less useful than an inconspicuous office intern. It would be interesting to see a fictional spy that was believable in that way.

I'm trying to remember where. It was a TV program in the UK, and I think the interview took place in an unused london underground station, I think. Sorry. ...

[edit 1:] Was it some kind of show where they trained people to be spies for the camera? I seem to also remember footage of someone having to plant a letter in their mother's handbag without being seen by them. Sorry for not being helpful. Like I said I wasn't trying to make a significant point: the discussion of spies just reminded me.

[edit 2:] Can't find a YT clip of that bit, but the show was 'Spymaster', or 'Spy'. I hope I'm not remembering it too wrongly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Well then we're all Bob Howard from the Laundry. The unassuming backroom guy who knows his way around a computer yet surprisingly can hold it together when confronted with gibbering Lovecraftian monsters from beyond the void. Has an iphone that can kill demons, the senior management are keen to push him up the ladder and has a wife who is clearly out of his league.

</comment><comment><USER21> This might be an interesting reply: [https://www.fairphone.com/phone/](https://www.fairphone.com/phone/) \- it's not exactly a clunky brick, and it's completely modular and user-serviceable (at the level of modules, anyhow). Apple didn't pare down the openness, they designed it out. They've been actively hostile to user servicing since the toaster mac (that you couldn't even open without a proprietary tool).

<comment><USER22> Thanks very much for sharing this link - I had not heard of the fairphone before.

Predictably huge at 5+ inches screen diagonal, but I guess that's to be expected these days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I can see the point.

My hobby is photography. I love my Nikon D5300 to bits, but after a year of usage two buttons are stuck and the eyecup needs replacing. And then there are people using twin reflex cameras from the 50s and they run like butter...

<comment><USER24> Having had one of these old cameras I can tell you they are not immune from the ravages of age! They do need a good service periodically!

<comment><USER23> Thank you for the advice. I kind of reckoned one would need to. I'm about to buy one and currently looking, if there are shops that do repairs, if need be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Modularity has advantages (repairability, upgradability, switching out manufacturers) and also disadvantages (cost, design constraints).

The way I'm seeing it technological advance is changing how big those are. I still remember how soldered on cpus were seen as a problem with laptops. I don't know anyone who ever upgraded their cpu (might be that it was more common earlier). Laptop batteries today are way better than what they used to be. They used to hold maybe 2 or 3 years before having unusable usage times. The development in RAM is stagnating.

And of course Apple now is so big that they can just dictate proprietary connectors.

</comment><comment><USER26> seems interesting, gonna save for later reading, BUT the hook for me, Bond/Bourne relation to the salaryman at their respective time...

awesome stuff, so far :)

</comment><comment><USER22> I really, really miss the days when there was more than one manufacturer of computers.

I think it was in 2002/2003 when I was last in the market for a non-apple device and there was a _lot_ of interesting competition ... thinkpads, sony vaio, HP ... Dell had some great laptops ... there was actually a reason to scroll through gizmodo/engadget and look at new products coming out.

Now there's only one.[1]

I really do think that the macbook air is the final evolution of the laptop computer. Yes, I do wish I could pull the battery and yes I do miss PCMCIA and yes I cannot use a laptop with a _single_ port[2] but the 13" MBA that I bought in late 2008 lasted _7 years_ of hard use and three battery swap-outs (done by apple, of course).[3]

I don't really understand why other manufacturers can't make a MBA ... I'd like to see some minor competition along the very, very final bits of design latitude you can have in this thoroughly distilled form factor ... but for whatever reason Dell/HP/Sony/Lenovo refuse to _just make their laptops out of metal for god 's sake_.

I wonder if this is where we are going with high end cars ? I notice the exact same inability to function on the part of all the incumbent car manufacturers. It's how many years since the Prius came out and how many years since the Tesla roadster and Porsche _just announced_ an all electric car and _of course_ it's a concept car?[4] BMW has a brand new 7 series with the predictably lame hybrid option mated to some little lawnmower engine. Just concept cars and half-assed hybrids over and over again. Meanwhile, Tesla has a dual-motor, AWD supercar for sale.

There used to be more than one maker of high end four door luxury cars ...

[1] Well, actually there's two - apple for laptops/desktops and supermicro (god bless them) for anything that goes in a rack.

[2] New macbook 12" with the single combined USB/power.

[3] Actually it still works now, but I get a new 11" MBA.

[4] [http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/15/autos/porsche-debuts- first-e...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/15/autos/porsche-debuts-first- electric-car-mission-e/index.html)

<comment><USER27> > I don't really understand why other manufacturers can't make a MBA...

Lenovo's Carbon X1 is that machine for me. I carried an Air (running Debian) for a couple of years. I've since replaced it with a Carbon X1, and there's nothing I miss about the Air. The Carbon is simply fantastic.

<comment><USER22> Thanks. I have heard the Carbon X1 mentioned many times, of course, and I will take a look at it again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Interesting and thought provoking comparison b/w James Bond and Jason Bourne.

<comment><USER29> It's mostly nonsense. You can invent comparisons like this, which are really just half-baked and not very convincing attempts at social science deconstruction, between any number of things and it may appear to be just as thought provoking.

I am sure that the generation that watched James Bond in the 1960's trusted their employers more than action movie watchers of the last decade but Bourne stories are about government conspiracies and the first book was written even before Iran Contra deals were known and president Reagan took office.

<comment><USER30> There were no government conspiracies prior to Iran-Contra affair?

<comment><USER29> No, not saying that. Pentagon Papers and Watergate come to mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> > He can't trust his employer, who demanded ultimate loyalty and gave nothing > in return.

Jason Bourne, Independent Contractor & Free Agent.

</comment><comment><USER32> Can today's Thinkpads still hang with the best of them? (typed on a recently- upgraded late 2006 MBP)

<comment><USER33> I'm on my 3rd thinkpad. First one was a T30 that I got 12 years ago. I used it for 4 years and my mother for 4 years after that. I still have it and it still runs but it is now made out of parts from two T30s, the original, whose screen died, and another that had a bad hard drive. My T60p I used for 4 years and then my mother for 4 more years, it had to have its cpu fan replaced once about 6 years into its life, otherwise it is sitting here next to me in perfect working order.

I'm 3 years into a first gen X1 Carbon, it runs perfectly. The only annoyance is that I can't get at the battery to replace it. I'd be a bit happier if it had a 2560x1440 screen since then there would really be no need for an upgrade ever again, but as it stands I expect to be able to use it for at least another 5 years.

Build quality on the newer T series feels like shit to me, but I haven't spent enough time with them to be able to judge and they are so new we don't really have any data yet.

edit: seeing the link to the potential retro thinkpad, that I would get without a second thought

<comment><USER34> I'm on the 3443CTO revision of the X1 Carbon. The "carbon" part of it is starting to fall apart, the palmrest creaks and I really should have bought it a week later when the i7 with 8GB of RAM was available - 4GB and an i5 feels restrictive (what a sad statement on current software optimisation)

Oh, and you can only get ~6 hours of battery out of it with very particular settings and a specific power management driver in Windows 8. Otherwise it's 3-4 hours at best.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I regret that I have but one upvote to give.

</comment><comment><USER36> That was a lot of words to say Apple is wrong about design and I'm right and I wish someone would realize this and build something that suits me exactly.

<comment><USER37> But it was written well and entertaining.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38>
        They took everything he had, and promised that if he gave
        himself up to the System, in return the System would take
        care of him.

        It turned out to be a lie.

        We're all Jason Bourne now.

I read this with a tongue in cheek but walked away with a profound sense of camaraderie and Tyler Durdene feels.

This last few setences. WOW. As a Jason Bourne fan, I can now be him.

</comment><comment><USER37> Besides the point, but there are quite a few typos in this piece.

</comment><comment><USER39> This is the most pretentious article I remember reading in recent history but it seems the author has a few interesting points. Can anyone do a tl;dr in plain english?

<comment><USER40> Design as crafty/minimalism/apple's aesthetic is irresponsible in that it refuses to acknowledge that things can break. Design which pays attention to the reality of a thing's environment and usage patterns, and which does not prompt conspicuous consumption of every brand new version after even the slightest failure of the old, is better.

<comment><USER41> Nah, it's just realistic about the extent to which most users will want to repair their devices …

<comment><USER15> Well, let's call that out then--folks should be honest that they buy un- repairable hardware at least partly because they enjoy having an excuse to get the latest model two years down the line.

<comment><USER41> I don't think two years is the average life time of a current MacBook. I would guess maybe three, four years, maybe even longer. Most problems will crop up during the first year and be fixed on warranty.

Mechanically the devices are very solid and will survive for many years.

The biggest issue is the battery, really, and probably the power supply, both of which are costly (maybe 25% or so more than a replacement battery for another laptop, plus you have to bring in the MacBook to get it replaced, you can't do it yourself), but can be replaced. Most people will just not do that, though, and live with diminished battery life and fraying power supply cables.

I think you are stuck in your filter bubble if you think people want to buy a new one quickly. Many will live happily with a current MacBook for many years. A decade ago the situation was a bit different (and performance crummy), but nowadays the speed is there.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Self Employed and not working hard - <AUTHOR> I feel bad because I've worked very hard to get to this point. Worked at a job I hated for years to build my savings and skillset to the level that I can work for myself.
To put it simply, I don't exert myself. My pace of work is really bad. I quit during the day far too early.
I use the "pomodoro" system of productivity and once I hit 8, I start on my long list of hobbies. I know I'm capable of doing 12 or even 16.
I put in a good day yesterday, far more productive than usual. I thought to myself: this is actually what a normal day was like when I was working.
I rarely work until exhaustion.
Any thoughts? <comment><USER2> Your problem isn't that you are only working 8 hour days, the problem is someone taught and you accepted that it is normal and acceptable to work 12-16 hour days as a standard. I have built more than one successful business now, the first one I killed myself doing 14+ hr days for a few years straight taking only a weekend here or there off, it aged me and destroyed me in ways I didn't realize until much later. The sad part is that business wasn't even the most successful for me. At the time I believed all the hype and BS I had been fed too about working crazy hours etc. What I have learned since is that the number of hours does not in itself equal success, productive hours spent intelligently where you have free time to explore life will make you better and more successful in the end.

I still will work some long days, but I always try to keep my average day around 8-9 hours at most, that way I am sane and can explore and clear my mind. I also believe that people should stop measuring their day by the number of hours they work and instead measure it by the number of milestones reached (even as a percentage completion base) each day. Doing this, you will work more some days than others and that is ok, cause you are focused on the goal not the number of hours.

</comment><comment><USER3> You're doing everything right. You could try 12 hours but only work 3 days per week or such a model for a while. I tend to do that depending on weather. Recently read [https://ofone.co/](https://ofone.co/) which makes good point on how endless growth shouldn't be a goal.

</comment><comment><USER4> You should be happy you can do that. Not many of us can. I would say - enjoy!</comment>


154 Startups Selected in Start-Up Chile's 2nd Round of 2011 - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupchile.org/154-startups-selected-in-start-up-chiles-2nd-round-of-2011/

<comment><USER3> I am currently participating in Startup Chile and I am very happy to be here.

It is important to note, however, that there are some things that have surprised many participants that I think should be made clearer.

This is not an accelerator program like Y Combinator or TechStars. There is less structure and support, for example no "Demo Day" to work towards. You also don't get a check made payable to your startup to relieve your short term cashflow concerns and allow you to focus completely on your product.

Startup Chile is more like what I imagine taking a government job as an "Entrepreneur in Residence" might be like. We earn points by actively working to give back to the community, each team is expected to earn a minimum number over the 6 months. In return we get fast tracked through the admin of moving to a new country (getting visas and social security numbers) and are given access to a $40K budget to reimburse most, but not all, of our expenses.

You should expect to spend a couple of days a month working through the (bureaucratic) government reimbursement process and organizing / participating in community activities.

A few notes on the reimbursement process:

1) You have to spend money on things before you can get it back, and have to pay off any payments made by credit card before you get reimbursed.

2) You will probably need to put in around $10K so you have cashflow allowing you to spend the $40K within the 6 months allowed.

3) There are lots of rules restricting what can and can't be reimbursed. You need to make sure you understand all the terms and conditions before you spend any cash.

4) There are limitations on some forms of spending, for example: a) You will need to get 3 competing quotes before spending more than $5K. b) You will need to ask permission in advance of booking travel / events and they won't be reimbursed until after you have taken the trip / attended the event.

5) You will only ever get 90% of what you spend reimbursed. So $44k = $40k.

6) The complexity of the system means that there are inconsistencies between startups on what gets reimbursed and what does not.

It saddens me to say this but you shouldn't expect to have your mind blown by the quality of the startups here. There's lots of talking and not enough shipping. Unless contacts in Latin America are critical to your business, Startup Chile will not accelerate your startup any more than other forms of cash.

tl;dr: Apply to Startup Chile for the experience of living in another country amongst a community of ambitious people from around the world. Bring lots of money with you.

<comment><USER4> I've talked extensively to a number of people that run Startup Chile. They are very interested in getting early startups that are too early to even go into an incubator. That was a conscious choice. So, it stands to reason that you're not going to be astounded by the quality of the startups.

Catalina, their director of HR/Culture is coming to Silicon Valley in two weeks to learn more about what Silicon Valley is, and does. I'm going to try and communicate what we think works at Hackers & Founders to help get startups ready for incubation / launch. We're trying to get her talking to a number of people that we think can be really helpful.

Anything that you think would really help down there? Ping me: email@example.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wow, 154 at once. That's impressive. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. With these kind of numbers you really might end up generating a startup hub. It's a comparatively cheap experiment, considering the upside if it works.

<comment><USER6> It'll likely be considerably more in future rounds. The goal is to fund 1000 over three years and we're almost a year in already.

Start-Up Chile is the closest I've seen to anyone trying to implement what you described in: <http://paulgraham.com/maybe.html>

I was funded in the last round of ~80 startups. Experiencing it first hand I think they're well on way to creating a startup hub. The only thing holding them back is bureaucracy that comes with the government funding. This leaves many teams spending too much time worrying about the process rather than their startup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> With 150 startups, this is much more interesting. For less than the tax abatements to incentivize a single tire factory, they're getting hundreds of active entrepreneurs in their country. Who knows if it will work or not (I'm optimistic), but this is so hilariously cheap for a national program. I'm pretty sure it will work out better than advertising in the WSJ for a month or two.

<comment><USER8> I think the program could result in a little collaboration between locals and foreign startups short term, with the rub-off effect resulting in increased entrepreneurial activity by locals mid to long term.

Real question is whether the govt stays the course and fosters the right environment along the way, i.e. ensuring that the right tax/legal/political/social incentives are there to encourage Chilean entrepreneurs (the longterm target) to start and retain companies in Chile to boost its economical growth.

<comment><USER9> As evidence of the governments commitment in chile, consider this: They fund Venture Capital programs as well. As I understand it they have an existing program that provide funding to VCs as a forgivable loan. If the VC is successful they payoff the loan with reasonable interest. If the VC folds, the loan is forgiven.

I read they are also working on (or recently created) another program whereby the government provides funding for Venture Capital but participates as a financial partner in the returns, which, if successful, means the government would be able to put the returns into future VC funds without any further cost to the government.

I think the biggest problem is that the VCs don't have enough startups to invest in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Huh. Chile is taking a $6 million ($40,000 × 154, assuming they all accept) bet that one of them becomes successful in some way.

I think the chances are pretty good.

<comment><USER11> Are they? They don't take equity. In fact I am not sure there is a direct benefit to Chile at all. I assume it is a bet that some companies will stay, locals will develop support infrastructure / services and ultimately create an ecosystem that is Silicon Valley like.

<comment><USER12> Of course it's not like Chilean citizens won't see any of that money. The startup founders need places to sleep, to eat, hang out while they're not working, etc. I'd wager a substantial amount of that money will go right back into the Chilean economy.

It's actually a fantastic kind of stimulus (though on a very small scale obviously).

<comment><USER13> Also, I believe one of the requirements is that founders must hire locals. And I imagine they have to pay the nations taxes as well?

<comment><USER14> Hiring locals is not a requirement. In fact, they hardly have any requirement apart from the fact that you need to spend 6 months in Chile.

<comment><USER15> That's a great move by the administrators of the scheme. Not because hiring locals is a problem (though it very well may be depending on what skillset you need and the language barrier) but because the bother of administrating such a scheme is a huge bother for the startups. They are right to put as few barriers in the way as possible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Here is the breakup of nationalities, thirty-three in all:

Argentina: 5, Australia: 1, Belgium: 2, Bolivia: 1, Brazil: 5, Canada: 11, Chile: 27, China: 1, Columbia: 1, Czech Republic: 1, Equador: 2, Estonia: 1, Finland: 1, France: 3, Germany: 3, India: 5, Ireland: 1, Israel: 1, Malaysia: 1, Mexico: 2, Netherlands: 1, New Zealand: 1, Poland: 1, Romania: 1, Singapore: 3, Spain: 1, Sri Lanka: 1, Switzerland: 1, UK: 9, USA: 54, Uruguay: 2, Others: 1

Interesting to note, there are no companies from the African subcontinent.

<comment><USER17> nitpick: Africa is a continent, not a subcontinent

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Congrats the ones who've done it for round two.

As being from round one and already have been living in Santiago - <USER2> almost three months, I'll be more than happy to help/assist newly selected startups on settling down here. For those who consider applying to upcoming rounds are also welcomed.

<http://www.startupchile.org/supprojects/limk/>

</comment><comment><USER19> I know someone who got selected and frequents HN (as I am sure there are a lot of people on HN who have friends who were selected). Congrats to the 154.

And to you, XXXXXXX. You will know who you are when you read this. The next step in your dream is now a reality!

</comment><comment><USER20> My company (GooseChase Adventures) was selected for this round and we are pretty stoked, but the 6 month commitment is a concern for me on a sales front. Any companies that have already participated have any experiences about selling to North America from Chile? Fortunately it's the same timezone, but it is a long trip if I need to hop on a plane for a meeting.

If anyone has any questions on the application process or wants to discuss this offline, feel free to drop me a line: firstname.lastname@example.com.

</comment><comment><USER21> Damn, I'd had some hopes about going there, although it certainly would not have been easy with two kids in tow. I guess something like LiberWriter is not so exciting because it doesn't aspire to be the next big thing, but the fact that it already makes money seemed relevant. Oh well, que sera, sera (which is actually not used in Spanish, because the song title is based on the Italian che sara`, sara`).

</comment><comment><USER22> We applied and were selected (artsumo.com) for an adventure, an equity free 40k investment, an international network and the empenadas!

<comment><USER15> I'd be very interested in reading regular, photograph-rich updates on how it's going. Either from you, or from any other of the startups.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Almost 35% of the startups are from US. I wonder why they chose Chile, instead of applying in the numerous US based incubators.

<comment><USER24> The reasons we applied (yeah, we're going :) ):

1\. Awesome life story and experience

2\. International rolodex

3\. Focus on MVP outside the temptation to chase publicity

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Questions for anyone that has done this:

1) Can you find good local talent on at least software but hopefully hardware as well (I have a consumer electronics idea)? (I speak Spanish at the intermediate level if that changes anything)

2) Are you required to live in Santiago either practically or by rules? Or could you live in Valpariso or Vina del Mar?

<comment><USER26> 2) On the site they make clear you can live anywhere in the country you wish. In other articles about this it's mentioned that most live in Santiago, but I do recall reading that some companies are in Valpariso and Vina del Mar:

[http://www.startupchile.org/ocean-side-pitching-in-vina- del-...](http://www.startupchile.org/ocean-side-pitching-in-vina-del-mar- valparaiso/)

1) That article also notes that companies are recruiting from DUOC University and Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria.

See also <http://www.startupchile.org/regiones/valparaiso/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Kudos to the selected start-ups! :D

</comment><comment><USER28> Startups on a beach... I like.

<comment><USER29> Santiago is inland. Valpariso is a 2.5 hour drive away.

<comment><USER6> It's only 1.5 hours on the bus. There's a small collective of us Start-Up Chile teams living and working in Viña del Mar next door to Valparaiso.

<comment><USER22> jot - approximately how many are working from Viña del Mar?

<comment><USER6> I think we're up to around 7 teams. More are considering the move and there is a community of about 30 that attend regular meetups.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> "SOLR Netherlands"

Can a startup succeed with a name that's most likely already swiped on every major social network platform, besides being a very well-known search platform?

<comment><USER14> Yes, if they have a good product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> woot!

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd be really interested to hear from current or past Startup Chile participants as to the quality and style of the companies applying. Is it a really high bar like YC, or is it more along the lines of "if you're working on a credible startup, you're in" kind of thing?

Also, love to see any videos people made for their applications, or any feedback about the application process that they learned after being accepted.

Looking at the stats for the previous round, it was really interesting. IIRC, around 300 applied, ~150 or so of which were ruled out because they didn't qualify or didn't complete the application correctly, and 100 were chosen, or about %66 of the ones who weren't ruled out. This time around, twice as many applied but only %50 more were chosen.

One concern: I avoided the single founder issue by having two co-founders, but both of my co-founders are great partners, though not nearly as experienced with startups as I am.

<comment><USER32> When we applied for the beta round, the stated goals were having 10% of the companies raise a significant round of further funding or reach 100,000 USD annual revenues. As I understand it, the program blew past this criteria.</comment></comment>


NDA upheld in 'sexual harassment' / #MeToo test case in UK - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45964165 <comment><AUTHOR> This is likely to turn into a UK test case for NDAs in sexual harassment cases ... one to watch</comment>


Python for Finance - <AUTHOR> http://www.packtpub.com/python-for-finance/book

<comment><USER2> This is the same as an older thread, but I didn't comment in the last one, so I thought I'd comment here.

I was a technical reviewer on Node Security from Packt, and it was an interesting experience, so I thought I'd highlight a few things for those who have criticised the quality of Packt books.

\- Reviewers are unpaid, I'm not sure if this is normal. I was happy to do it unpaid as experience that I could talk about with future employers. The only 'pay' is a copy of the book, and one other from the library.

\- I was found and asked to be a reviewer, but I was quite surprised given my lack of experience. I was also surprised at the lack of experience of the author. I felt I was able to do my job as a reviewer, and would have declined otherwise, but I perhaps they should be finding some more experienced people.

\- Node Security is one of their shorter books, most are either several hundred pages and ~$30-40, or about 100 pages and $20. During the review process I highlighted that I felt the book did not contain enough content for a $20 book, lots of it was quite practical stuff that could have been found by reading some READMEs on GitHub repos for the libraries it talked about.

\- I noticed that much of the advice in the book was around deployment of Node.js applications, and I suggested an extra chapter specifically about configuring secure deployments, perhaps covering nginx reverse proxying, etc, I felt that this would really improve the overall quality of the book, the focus of each chapter, and ultimately I thought it would make the book well worth the $20. Unfortunately they declined to do this. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure what my role as a technical reviewer was for because of this. I found some minor issues in the security theory descriptions, and a few errors in example code, as well as making a few suggestions for how bits could be worded better, but it seemed they weren't keen on any major suggestions.

I'm not sure whether I'd buy books from Packt, I'd probably have to evaluate them on an individual basis, but I felt there could have been better selection of authors and reviewers, and that they should have been more open to changes proposed by the reviewers.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've read some great books from Packt, this wasn't really one of them. When the first thread was on HN, I got excited because I love Python and had been looking into starting some investments. Namely, I want to implement a low- risk, low-frequency automated trade strategy. Naively, I assumed this book would be for people who knew Python and were interested in learning finance, but it was the opposite. A lot of concepts were thrown out there with little to no explanation. I gave up reading it until I actually know finance, and can use it as a cookbook.

The code in the book is also shoddy. I don't have it with me, but two examples come to mind. I didn't run any of the examples, but eyeballing them I some of them wouldn't run because of syntax errors -- rather unfortunate for a beginner's text. The section of naming conventions. To write a program using a financial expression like P(1+r) __n (exponential growth /decay), the book recommends against using confusing variables like p... in favor of P. P stands for Principal in this case, and I doubt many of you knew that off hand.

For those looking to do finance in Python, I recommend looking into QuantLib[1]. I'm also watching a series of videos from the University of Michigan's online Intro to Finance class on YouTube[2]; however I realized a few days ago that they're probably pirated. That makes me feel bad, but its still a good reference.

If any quants on HN have some better book recs, they would be strongly appreciated.

Edited to add; To be fair, I haven't really touched the section on Monte Carlo simulations, which seems to be the bulk of the value.

[1] quantlib.org

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQeZqn-8yM8&list=PL07D40483B...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQeZqn-8yM8&list=PL07D40483B1BE4B4C&index=1)

</comment><comment><USER4> Older thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7680223](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7680223)

</comment><comment><USER5> I have the book, though haven't spent much time with it yet. Initial impression was that it's quite brisk. You'll get a couple paragraphs on a new concept and then a code snippet to demostrate. You'd need to compliment it with deep study of the actual concepts.

Still, sometimes breadth is better than depth.</comment>


How to build a small hardware component/computer - <AUTHOR>

Hi all. This is my first HN question, so lets see how it goes. I am a software programmer. I can manage well with a compiler, a unix computer, and a web browser. However, I have only a basic understanding of computer hardware.
I have an idea for a small project. I want to build a small, low power, computer that I can program to record simple real-world events (i.e. a door opened) and send messages to either my phone or a networked server. The component doesnt have to be general purpose or re-progammable, it could just start by flashing an led or something simple. I think that building this will give me a really good idea of what are the minimal components it takes to hook something up to the internet or just power a small machine.
I know logic gates and remember vaguely finite state machines from school. I am wondering where this community would suggest I start. Thanks. <comment><USER2> Micro controllers are simpler you can start with Arduino, easy to buy also books, tutorials and open source project with code available.

But if you want to build embedded applications, try getting a Raspberry Pi(huge waiting lists though), a familiar Linux environment

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much for the reply. I didn't know about Arduino, had heard something, but it looks like an awesome project. Thx so much

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Arduino 100% of the way. When you're good with that, you might want to move on to ARM.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much for the reply. I didn't know about Arduino, had heard something, but it looks like an awesome project. Thx so much.</comment></comment>


Solving the Mystery of Whose Laughter Is On the Golden Record - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/06/solving-the-mystery-of-whose-laughter-is-on-the-golden-record/532197/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Bah, Had I known about this kickstarter, I would have pledged $98 immediately. Looks like I missed the boat on this :(

Edit: The linked Article links to the Kickstarter in question.

</comment><comment><USER3> It sounds an awful lot like a chicken and not a human laugh.

<comment><USER4> First time I heard that track I was using headphones, it was few years ago and that laugh got me shivers, it was unexpected and, at first impact, strange. It surprised me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> There's an ad block wall. Brave will get you around it.

<comment><USER6> Didn't even notice it with uBlock Origin.

<comment><USER7> Can confirm, uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android here and I didn't notice anything amiss.</comment></comment></comment>


Clojure 1.1 release - <AUTHOR> http://groups.google.com/group/clojure/browse_thread/thread/fa1a750cf5f9ebb1/6c19f007ae38e832?show_docid=6c19f007ae38e832 <comment><USER2> Cool, I just upgraded. A long while ago, I used to use Rich Hickey's very nice LispWorks to Java bridge. I have tried getting into Clojure a few times in the past, but I kept going back to Common Lisp, Ruby, and Java.

That said, I have in the last week given Clojure some real experimentation time: set up an IntelliJ (good for Clojure and Scala) project with little examples for using PostgreSQL, embedded Sesame RDF data store, accessing CouchDB and MongoDB, and a lot of other small bits of code that are requirements for common work tasks.

One possibly great thing about Clojure is that it could be effective for just about everything that I do except web apps (I like Rails :-) The downside of Clojure is that there is a solid amount of work in Ruby, Common Lisp, and Java. I am not at all sure if customers would want me to use it.</comment>


Analyze the quality of your passwords - <AUTHOR> https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> From their explanations I learned something. Use mostly symbols and uppercase letters in your passwords, make them long, by putting for example 14 dashes into your password. Most people use lowercase only, and some digits. Attacking programs have the best chance when they systematically first try to attack lowercase and digits.

If you use non qwerty layouts (I use the Neo-Layout) you might be able to type unicode chars, such as λαμβδα (lambda) or √Ω³ and can put that into your password too.

<comment><USER2> I wonder how many password crackers have full unicode support?</comment></comment>


Boeing waited to tell Southwest that safety alert was turned off on 737 Max - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/28/boeing-didnt-tell-southwest-that-safety-feature-on-737-max-was-turned-off-wsj.html <comment><AUTHOR> Southwest says "Boeing had indicated through its manual that the [AOA] disagree lights were functional on the 737 Max."</comment>


Ask HN: Why aren't more programmers in academia? - <AUTHOR> Background: I started on academia as an undergraduate researcher and continued towards a PhD after graduation in computer science late last year. I've now written my first paper, and two more are on the pipeline for the end of the year. My work is about the application of software engineering in cellular networks.
To my current experience, academia allows me to be more of a "hacker" than the industry does. Why aren't there more programmers in academia? It seems like it's the unspoken way to work on open-source projects one deems interesting and worthwhile. I've also spoken to VCs regarding spinoffs of some of my research findings, but I feel like they cannot offer a better deal than the university. That is, VCs seem to only help in CapEx (buy what you want), but for OpEx (do what you want) they limit freedom in research by setting growth indicators. Meanwhile, academia lets you write individual papers of your progress, taking the time to facilitate what I deem much more ambitious end-goals.
Am I missing something? If Hacker News is so much about hacker mentality, why do not I hear more about it being applied in academia? <comment><USER2> Academia requires more than being just a hacker/programmer and the money is not as good.

I share your experience with hacking in academia. It's amazing how much almost every scientific field has demand for academic programmers. Its not restricted to computer science. There is computational- subfield for everything: computational biology, chemistry, physics, brain science, economics. Almost all research requires some programming and tool development these days.

There exist similar positions in industry research labs with better pay. If somebody really wants to spend most of their career as a hacker–and not just writing bean counting apps for business–getting degree in some other field and then finding a job where they can program a lot is a good choice. Petrochemical research engineer who is a good programmer and knows computer science can have really fun problems to work with.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. One of the most interesting and challenging projects I worked on was a stratigraphic suite of programs used by a mining company. The programs had been written over a period of about 15-18 years by numerous persons of varying knowledge and ability. In doing maintenance coding and writing the missing documentation I learnt heaps about geology and mining practices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I went and did a PhD in software engineering after a couple of decades working in industry and now back working in industry. Thus, I offer my comments in hindsight.

The primary focus of academic research is to extend the knowledge and disseminate that knowledge in the form of papers. Researchers are assessed on the basis of the number of papers they write and grants that they procure. The evaluation of the work is very much a result of the peer review process based on those papers and not the programs that might have been written in support of the core research.

The general observation is that most programs written as part of some research project are a hack written to address a very specific need and fast. A common gripe is that much research is difficult to reproduce because the programs are not freely shared and/or written for non-portable environments.

<comment><AUTHOR> > A common gripe is that much research is difficult to reproduce because the > programs are not freely shared and/or written for non-portable environments.

This indeed is something which I've noticed and what my supervisors have made a great concern. That is, if I create hacks, I should also rigorously document how to reproduce the results. Luckily, much of this comes naturally during the paper writing process which reduces the amount of labor. Moreover, I think many times I end up learning something new or general inefficiencies in my working processes when writing documentation.

I guess I will know better later the year whether academia appreciates the results of my research. Though this far, I feel much of it is like selling in general, i.e., how you frame the results as a part of the bigger picture. And I guess the peer-review process is good in the sense that someone will call you out if you try to build a claim which is completely ludicrous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Widely generalizing, because it obviously depends on the specific field/university/...:

Academia typically doesn't care about code: sure, you can hack on your open source code, but don't count on funding for that or it being recognized as something as "worthy" as a paper. In extremes: "Why would a Postdoc in a computing related field need to be able to write big code projects, isn't that what students are for?".

Given that, there typically isn't a "programmer" role in academia (although there are exceptions): You're expected to follow the academic path, which involves publishing etc. If your contribution is "I write great code for projects happening here", that's not something that allows you to progress, if it results in a long-term role at all, even if it actually makes others a lot more productive. There's mostly only space for academics who happen to also code, and I've seen a few people crash out due to judging that wrong.

If you want to do research in an academic environment as a job, that's great (although depending on what it is, an industry research lab can also be an option). For people that are more about "making things with code" and don't need to environment, it's probably not the right place. For those that are happy at slowly chipping away at a problem, without pressure, a day job in industry and doing the development on their thing in their free time is also an option that avoids all the problems of an academic career.

E.g. for me personally, I decided to not go for a PhD because I didn't have a burning question I really wanted to solve that a PhD would give me the opportunity to figure out, and without that as a motivation it felt like all the things coming with it wouldn't be worth it (for me, having to do lots of academic writing was the main sticking point. Can't do that well, could probably force me to learn it, but would be unhappy with it). On the other hand, I know lots of people for which that worked out differently, but programming typically isn't the main aspect of what they're doing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the warning! To elaborate, I have come to understand that code is just a part of the paper, seldom the beef. I basically create proofs of concepts, which I've told increase the impact of the paper (thus be fine to work on). I find that in general, it's not about how much or elegant code I write, but whether it allows me and my peers to learn new.

Industry labs are a good point, but I think I have to consider those later when my academic profile is stronger. Beyond Google X, do you know other options?

And I do have the burning question, which is the end-goal mentioned in the OP.

Thanks for the comment, I feel like there's a pressure for me to create a startup (market validated, employees and funding found) but I feel like academia is actually what I want. Your points solidify those thoughts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> My main issue with academia was the relatively poor prospects (the pay isn't great) and the insecurity (there are far far less permanent positions/grants than the number that want them etc.)

To be honest the pay isn't such a big deal as at least in Europe it is reasonable although not exactly generous.

But the insecurity is crazy - like you can spend ages becoming some expert in some area of Physics just to be kicked out in your thirties and while most of the people I saw that happen too didn't turn out badly, you wonder how much more successful they might have been had they just pursued industry from the start.

I think these issues combined with the fact that programmers can get a pretty good deal in industry probably lead many not to pursue careers in academia.

</comment><comment><USER6> You can take a look on [http://matt.might.net/articles/](http://matt.might.net/articles/) He wrote quite some blog posts on the academic life of CS-related fields.

</comment><comment><USER7> In academia most code is useful until the paper gets published, and there only a cursory code review afterwards. It's typical to reinvent wheels (due to the nature of research, it is often not possible to predict future needs/directions so most code is not meant to be long-term). Lots of new people coming in continuously needing training / outside CS most of your colleagues will be beginner programmers. And writing grants / networking / giving presentations becomes distracting after a while.

</comment><comment> a-saleh For me it is the money.

I think I would enjoy it, doing the research, even the grant/publication game. But where I live, I probably wouldn't have money for feeding my family. The money you get kinda assumes you are still a student living in a dorm, or equivalent, unless you are lucky to work on a really well funded project or your academic institution can supply you with a wealth of teaching/other side- jobs.

Compared to being employed as a developer, I just don't see it worth it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Poorer pay, less interesting stuff to work on and tbh from my own experience, the guys currently there aren't very talented. A fair few had never even been in industry and it showed (e.g. not believing in source control/management).

</comment><comment><USER9> 1) Jog insecurity 2) Lower pay 3) fewer engineers to work with

In that order</comment>


Cex.io : Bitcoin commodity exchange - <AUTHOR> https://cex.io/promo/

<comment><USER2> can you sell the futures short? is there anywhere to sell btc short?</comment>


How to Become a Successful Corporate Trainer - <AUTHOR> http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=521

<comment><USER2> Ensure the participants can not have access to the web or their work e-mail should be number 1. That way they can't get distracted by either and will pay attention, thus ensuring the training is more effective and people notice you deliver effective training.

(Coming from my own observation of being present when people are being trained on a system I developed and have barely paid attention thanks to web / e-mail access)

<comment><USER3> That would be a nice addition to the list. Perhaps it can be turned on with selective access and only at points where it is really needed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Instead of number 7, I think "Involve the participants" should be number 2. If the audience is involved, they're more likely to pay attention and retain the information and perhaps even try to replicate it themselves after the session.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think to be a successful corporate trainer, you will also need to Walk The Talk too. Let's say you are teaching Project Management course under PMI, it is important that in additional to being certified, you used all the tools and techniques taught in your own lessons in actual real life business environments too. Else you will never be able to relate to your students.</comment>


Don't look now, but Gmail is on the verge of getting major upgrades daily - <AUTHOR> http://technologizer.com/2009/02/11/mighty-morphin-gmail-dawn-of-the-daily-upgrade/

<comment><USER2> It seems Google has had these small updates waiting for the big time. And now that times are bad pushing them harder, to bring consumer confidence that Google will continue to innovate and to ensure stock holder confidence. Either way its good for us. :)

<comment><USER3> I don't think they were holding back so they could use these features as PR. It's the Gmail labs infrastructure that is driving these updates. It's apparently something like an internal extensions platform for Gmail, making it a lot easier for them to develop and try out crazy ideas.

[http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=m...](http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=29418)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's been fun seeing all the new features popping up on the Labs page. Meanwhile, Hotmail _finally_ adds POP3 capability.

</comment><comment><USER5> How do you take a super tall screenshot of a page that won't fit on the screen like that??

<comment><USER6> <http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> As long as they keep putting the changes into labs, they're not hurting anyone.

</comment><comment><USER7> Looks like the dawn of email as a platform.

</comment><comment><USER8> Gmail question: I like the old interface because the contrast between the buttons and background are easier to see faster. So I click "Older Version" in the top right corner of the screen to switch to the older version. The next time I close the window with Gmail in it, and go back to Gmail, I'm back using the new version. All thoughts/solutions very welcome and appreciated.

<comment><USER9> You can use the new version with the old color scheme. In the settings there is a section for "theme" or whatever and one of the themes is "classic" or similar.</comment></comment>


Y Combinator interview tips - <AUTHOR> http://drraw.blogspot.com/2007/04/ycombinator-advice-interview-tips.html <comment><USER2> One of the problems with our YC interview was that we were overly attached to our idea. The idea was to develop a web based operating system for people that have never used or are uncomfortable with current computers. We had initially envisioned it as a product bundled with hardware but decided we would be unable to finance that, so we'd start with just the software.

Of course, the YCs immediately understood that the associated hardware was an important part. They suggested that a good starting point was an "internet picture frame with email." Instead of going with their suggestion, we defended our own.

They also spent a lot of the interview comparing our product to yahoo.com which was another direction we didn't think the interview would go.

In the end, we were rejected because we didn't have a functioning demo. It was a dumb move on our part, and I would say a demo is an absolute must for the interview. I really regret making it as far as we did and not having a demo. We threw away our opportunity. I've heard that one demo-less team was told at their interview to make a demo in the next 24 hours, so be prepared for a serious test of your ability to get things done if you don't have a demo. Being undergrads didn't help us either. If you're an undergraduate, make it clear to the YCs that you are absolutely committed to starting a company and that you intend to drop out and work on it whether or not you get funding from them.

For me, it's all moot because I got myself banned from Y Combinator after I made a really dumb Techcrunch comment. I've burned my bridges, but at least Paul lets me post here. :) One of my partners that didn't go to the interview was reading one of Paul's Lisp books at the time and commented on how surreal it was to be blacklisted by the guy who wrote the book he was reading.

When I was younger, I always separated the internet and internet-based friends from the real world. They weren't the same. My internet persona and the real me were different. I've since come to understand that the internet now is the real world. The real world is the internet. My internet persona is me and actions in both worlds truly impact each other.

They also had really good drinks and cheese available. I could tell by the cheese labeled with the country of origin that Y Combinator was an amazing company. We waited in a coffee shop because we didn't want to be too early, but I wish we would have gone earlier so we could have talked to more people that were also interviewing. We did got a chance to talk to the Zenter folks and I'm glad they seem to be doing so well.

To all YC applicants, I wish you the best of luck and I hope no one else is dumb enough to become a member of the banned from Y Combinator club.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. This advice was candid and valuable. Hacker News and the community of people here is a really great resource. Good luck in the future rms. We're about to submit our application for Winter 2008, so we'll see how it turns out...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I disagree with one part here. It's not always good to be passionate about your idea.

The Zenters happened to be working on a good idea, so we were glad they were psyched about it. When people walk in with a fully-formed idea, we just start the YC process right there-- ok, how do you make the perfect web-based Powerpoint killer? But when a group walks in with a semi-broken idea, which is much more common, the conversation becomes: what good idea can we morph this into? In that case, being passionately attached to your initial idea is not a plus.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. There's a fine line between being passionate and being stubborn - I've added a section to the original post to reflect this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> To anyone else who may not be familiar with the abbreviation Q.E.D. in the post, here's the definition from wikipedia:

"Q.E.D. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "quod erat demonstrandum" (literally, "which was to be demonstrated"). In simple terms, the use of this Latin phrase is to indicate that something has been definitively proven."

</comment><comment><USER6> _'... it's actually true. I hate job interviews - they're very artificial and weird ... The YC interview is a conversation that honestly is exhilarating ...'_

excellent, no fear.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think you need to be passionate about your idea at the interview...if your not, who is going to be?</comment>


Show HN: CanaryClip: A new way to share Minecraft Builds Online - <AUTHOR> http://canaryclip.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN,

This has been a project I've been working off and on the last few years. I've gotten the plugin and some of the website done in the past, but there wasn't a good way to visualize Minecraft builds for the internet until Chunky Renderer ([http://chunky.llbit.se/](http://chunky.llbit.se/)). Once I discovered Chunky, I was able to make huge progress on my project, and just recently got it to a point I think people can use it.

I would love some advice about how to spread the news about my website. It's been a challenge on how to spread the word to Minecraft admins, and I think I built something they would really enjoy. If you would like to try it on your server, let me know if you would like some help!

Thanks! \- Adam

Here's a quick overview of the site:

CanaryClip is a Minecraft mod built on top of WorldEdit. It allows you to upload and download builds to/from CanaryClip.com without leaving Minecraft.

Did you build something amazing in Minecraft? Share it on CanaryClip!

CanaryClip is a new way to share your Minecraft builds online. Your friends will be able to see everything about your build including:

* Automatically rendered images * Your Build's dimensions * Minecraft blocks used in the build * How many people viewed, favorited, and downloaded your build * The Minecraft server was the build uploaded from

In addition to all this, every build is automatically given a download short code where other people can easily download the build to any Minecraft server running CanaryClip.

If you've ever used WorldEdit, you'll be uploading your builds in no time!

To Upload your build:

1\. Build something amazing! 2\. Select your build using WorldEdit (`//wand`) 3\. Use `//copy` to copy the blocks to your clipboard 4\. Use `//can up` to upload the build to CanaryClip (You will be given a shortcode after uploading your build. The build will be immediately available for others to download, but may take a few minutes to show up on the website while the build is rendered)

To Download a build:

1\. Find something awesome from CanaryClip, such as [http://canaryclip.com/builds/bRjMZDy](http://canaryclip.com/builds/bRjMZDy) 2\. Use the command `//can down bRjMZDy` to download to your clipboard 3\. Use `//paste` to paste into the Minecraft world

You can also follow CanaryClip on Twitter @CanaryClip ([https://twitter.com/canaryclip](https://twitter.com/canaryclip)).

 __IMPORTANT __The CanaryClip mod will not work on your server unless you register your server with CanaryClip. Add CanaryClip To Your Minecraft Server</comment>


What Is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect - <AUTHOR> http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521741477

<comment><AUTHOR> The original hardcover edition of this book by James R. Flynn came out in 2007, and I read it immediately. Now I've just read the new chapters in the 2009 updated paperback edition, mentioned in the submitted link.

Another participant here on HN recently kindly submitted a commentary article from the Chronicle of Higher Education criticizing Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Flynn has a new chapter in his book with a very thoughtful criticism of Gardner's theory, with especially good insight into the behavior of educational administrators that have eagerly adapted Gardner's views in ways that Gardner himself might not approve. Flynn's chapter on Gardner is a great example of writing that "delights the mind"

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

and provides a framework for further thoughtful research. His other two new chapters are also up-to-the-minute summaries of some of the latest research on human intelligence, with significant contributions from other researchers such as Linda Gottfredson.

A good recent overview of Flynn's views from a lecture by Flynn can be found at

[http://www.psychometrics.sps.cam.ac.uk/page/109/beyond- the-f...](http://www.psychometrics.sps.cam.ac.uk/page/109/beyond-the-flynn- effect.htm)</comment>


Salt Bugs Allow Full RCE as Root on Cloud Servers - <AUTHOR> https://threatpost.com/salt-bugs-full-rce-root-cloud-servers/155383/ <comment><USER2> This really ruined my night :(. Good luck to everyone out there. Keep calm and replace all your ssh keys.

For anyone else that's affected, people have been tracking it within a github issue:

[https://github.com/saltstack/salt/issues/57057](https://github.com/saltstack/salt/issues/57057)</comment>


Interview Nightmares - <AUTHOR> Like lots of people at the moment I found myself back on the job market. Things have been going well, but an interview yesterday included a (virtual equivalent) whiteboard coding exercise.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of these and don't use them in my own hiring. But as a dev of ~15y experience, still very much hands on, I should be able to handle it.
I found myself drawing an absolute blank. The exercise was nothing too complicated really, but the brain would simply not engage. Nothing was working.
As interviews go it was the worst experience I've ever had - I spent maybe twenty minutes in this blocked state but it felt like forever.
So I'm now feeling pretty depressed about job prospects, coding ability, my capability as a human being etc. Sharing or talking about a problem always helps to process it, so I thought 1. Why not do that with anonymous internet strangers, and 2. Why not provide a place for people to do the same. So it would be great if people felt able to share their stories too.
And for those of you also unexpectedly back in the job market: best of luck, you will get there. <comment><USER2> Hi. I went through the same problem. After passing a hard online test on Codility I had a live coding interview with a much simpler problem I just froze and could not solve on time. I found this article here on HN and it helped me understand what happened. [https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job- interviews-anxiety/](https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews- anxiety/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing - and that article is really interesting.

Being "good at hiring" \-- and hence having better people -- is such an advantage for an organisation, it always surprises me that too often we fall back on seemingly default hiring processes, and we don't look at the sorts of optimisations we could do to help surface the best candidates for a role.

<comment><USER3> What's a good method of (technical) hiring in your view?

For some context on my question:

I'm part of a startup-ish group of people who, frankly, don't have a tech hiring group. We have ~25 engineers _(i 'm losing track these days lol)_, but no real manager-engineer bridge. Which translates to, we have a bunch of people who code but none who know how to hire. Unfortunately, i am one of those responsible for hiring, and i've got no clue what to do.

We've gone through various attempts over the years. I've been part of ~15 hires for the company - most of our current tech side, to one degree or another. We heavily value hiring the "person" \- so we try to suss out people values and cultural fit, but i think we really suffer from being able to evaluate the technical ability of the candidate.

We're not worried about hiring the top talent of SF - we probably couldn't afford that anyway. But we do want bright people who can grow in the problems we're solving. This is where i'm struggling to improve on, as a person hiring.

Thoughts?

<comment><AUTHOR> Growth Mindset might be a bit of a wooly term but that tends to be what I look for. I want people who continually get better. There are lots of resources on specific things you can discuss for this. For me, I think simply asking "what was a recent new thing you had to learn" opens up a good conversation.

For ascertaining whether someone meets a technical bar -- the gold standard has to be facilitating some way where they can do some actual work with you. That might be v difficult depending on nature of stack, tech debt, etc. But the closer you can make that sort of process to what would really be happening, the better. Coding exercises really only prove someone is good at coding exercises -- that may or may not have any relevancy to what you do I think.

<comment><USER3> > I think simply asking "what was a recent new thing you had to learn" opens > up a good conversation.

Really appreciate the reply, that's a great question.

> the gold standard has to be facilitating some way where they can do some > actual work with you.

We've actually done this, recently. It worked okay. We identified a few problems with that iteration for us though:

1\. We chose real projects, but we felt limited by finding a project where the scope could be small enough for the developer to create it to a meaningful extent and not be bogged down in planning. Projects without meaningful planning however felt so simple that i didn't feel it would challenge anyone. 2\. I really hated giving interviews "real" work. Which is to say, it was work we as a company needed - but that felt too easy to be seen as exploiting the applicant - for good reason. 3\. I felt disconnected from the applicants mindset. I want to understand how they think on a problem - what things they're skipping for time, what pain points in the application need testing, what things they think need to be abstracted, etc.

I did like how it gave them time to solve the problem themselves. As someone who struggles with.. stage fright _(for lack of a better term)_ , interviews are hell for me. I want to hire people even if they're terrified and draw a blank.

My next set of interviews coming up i'm thinking i'll try a combination of a take-home project, but also something pair programmed. Perhaps a take-home, and then we review in a pair program after? I want them to be able to not be under pressure, but i also need some insight on their mind.

Unfortunately i have no idea offhand how to design a take-home that is both simple but not brain dead. I don't want it to take long, i don't want to riddle it with complex algorithm based requirements either. My initial gut is to mock up some requirements - after implementing them myself - that have real world value. How do they choose to abstract database access for unit testing? What do they choose to cache with? Did they consider cache invalidation? Something like this.. i guess.

My final concern is that we'll be hiring for specific languages, but i'd like to be able to hire someone wanting to learn and use those languages. Partially because it promotes growth, but also because it opens the job market. Namely, we're a Rust shop and i don't want to hire only people who know Rust - but i also don't want to hire evaluate someone based on a take-home in another language.

I'm debating offering a pair programming option for the take-home if they're not comfortable with Rust. I would expect their take-home to be far worse, as so many concepts would be new.. so i'm unsure if this would be valuable.

Thanks for the reply, and if you have any more thoughts i'd love to hear them :)

Best of luck on the market!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Don't worry. Even if you're a shitty developer (which I doubt), I'll always be shittier.

I once had an interview that was so bad that I asked the manager at the end why he even gave me an interview. He wanted a UI expert. His posting didn't mention that requirement and my resume didn't list that type of experience. It was a huge waste of our time.

<comment><USER5> Ooof, that sounds awful.

Don't worry, there's no way you're a shittier developer than me. Maybe we should form a club.

<comment><USER4> I don't think so. Pretty sure it's only a matter of time before I get fired. I'm very demoralized by the past treatment the company has given me. I moved to a new team but they just bounce me from technology to technology with no training (Splunk, Tableau, Python, AWS). This will not allow me to become an expert in anything. They aren't happy with my output. Because my prior experience was FileNet and Neoxam, I don't have any career options.

<comment><USER5> Sorry friend. I don't have any advice, other than it sounds like it's time for a new job. There are places that will treat you better out there. Maybe put together a side project to learn a new technology that will make you more employable?

<comment><USER4> Will it really be better at other places? The company I work for consistently makes the top 10 in ComputerWorld's best places to work in IT list.

I did some very basic Android apps before. If I stick with the current job long enough then I should get better at Python and AWS.

<comment><USER5> Best places to work surveys are garbage. Your experience isn't matching what others might feel at the company. It's probably just a bad fit, which is okay.

Keep building experience, but start studying and applying for other jobs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am fairly competent, am CTO of my nth start-up, have had fairly well paid finance IT work in finance in London with multinational banks, etc, etc, and I have still drawn a complete blank sometimes, and other times have bowled the interviewers (and myself) over!

It happens. It's the equivalent of writer's block and the fear of the blank page. Please just don't read too much into individual events.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. Sleeping on it, and writing this post, has definitely bought things back into perspective: we can all have off days.

It had been a while since I'd had this sort of negative experience, and what I would say is it's re-reminded me to make sure my hiring in the future caters for this sort of thing. Particularly for less experienced devs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I suffered a brain freeze at an interview once. My brain freeze was not caused by anxiety, but rather the Office Dog wandering into the interview room, sitting down on my feet and shoving its snout firmly between my legs.

</comment><comment><USER8> I recently had an interview where I was supposed to record the screen while I am solving the problem and share it with the interviewer. I couldn't do it. I am one of those people who's mind goes blank when someone is standing behind me and watching over the shoulders. The thought of recording my screen induced the same feelings.

</comment><comment><USER9> I once forgot how to write a simple join in SQL during an interview. Full blank. It is like forgetting how to tie your shoes. The second I walked out of the building, I instantly recalled the insanely simple task.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a perfect analogy!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Thanks for posting. We've all been there.

This is something I'm working on solving:

[https://www.srchparty.com/](https://www.srchparty.com/)</comment>


San People of South Africa Issue Code of Ethics for Researchers - <AUTHOR> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/san-people-south-africa-issue-code-ethics-researchers-180962615/?no-ist <comment><USER2> San people are intriguing as they were the original population of parts of Africa lying at south of equator before the Bantu migration who had vastly superior technologies (mostly iron metallurgy and social organisation). San are now in tiny numbers but they are resilient. They deserve our respect and this code of ethics is an excellent idea.</comment>


Burger King Plans to Roll Out Impossible Whopper Across the US - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/business/burger-king-impossible-rollout/index.html <comment><USER2> I'm pretty excited about this to be honest. Having this available in such a mass-market, convenient location is a big change for me. Previously, the only place for me to get an Impossible Burger would be to travel to a fancy upscale burger joint in a neighboring city or visit my local White Castle. Having them at the local BK is going to be neat. I'm not a vegetarian, but my Son is and he keeps telling me that it's the way to go. We'll see...

</comment><comment><USER3> These impossible burgers are quite good, I've had them a few times now, but I'm a bit tired of the ceremony associated with them. They are pretty good veggie burgers, and that's a nice option to have. That's all.

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be annoying if there were articles written every time a new restaurant started carrying them. The Burger King announcement is a pretty big deal though. It might double the number of restaurants in the US that have the Impossible Burger, and it's surely one of the cheapest places (most are $10+).

I'm not the hugest fan, but I will probably swing by a Burger King to try one after they come out. Haven't had a Whopper in years!

<comment><USER3> > It would be annoying if there were articles written every time a new > restaurant started carrying them.

Yes, I kinda feel like that is the case. I don't mean just announcements though, the burgers themselves have "version numbers". And it used to be you only could get them in the flagship stores, which is where I first had one. I think it cost sixteen dollars. I'm referring to all of this.

With Burger King, there already was a big to-do about how they have these, but I guess that wasn't the _real_ marketing push, this is. A burger joint having improved veggie burgers is the sort of thing I find it reasonable to hear about... once.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right that the BK partnership has already been covered. This happened when they launched their pilot in St. Louis, and this is the follow-up announcement that they're going nation-wide. I can see how this comes across as a bit much, although this second announcement is more relevant to people (like me) who live somewhere else in the US.

Personally I don't mind the version numbers. It's not something we're used to in food, but presumably other companies like Soylent do it. (Coke and Pepsi also do it with their various iterations of regular and diet soda.)

BTW, I have no idea why your comments are showing up as dead right after posting. Presumably no one is flagging them that fast, so maybe it's based on prior comments or something? I've been "vouching" them so they show up for everyone.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


All-Glass Bathrooms: users can see out, but passersby can't see in - <AUTHOR> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/all-glass-bathrooms-debut-in-texas-town/

<comment><USER2> My prescription glasses came with a polarizing filter that can see through some one-way glass.

So good luck with this, not sure who was sold on the idea but they need their head and budget examined.

</comment><comment><USER3> Here's what you do:

Gather as many friends as you can and get an idea of where the toilet is when the room is vacant. Wait off to the side until the restroom is occupied, ideally by someone who looks like they had to settle.

Completely surround the room and stare towards the toilet. Make sure some of you are licking their lips, raising their eyebrows or slowly groping themselves. Bonus points if occupant is not actually on toilet.

The cameras? Oh yeah, I forgot that we care about privacy.</comment>


A walkthrough of the internals of the Carp compiler - <AUTHOR> http://blog.veitheller.de/The_Carp_Compiler_(as_of_2017).html <comment><USER2> A couple of useful links:

[https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp](https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp)

> _Carp is a small programming language designed to work well for interactive > and performance sensitive use cases like games, sound synthesis and > visualizations._

 _The key features of Carp are the following:_

* _Automatic and deterministic memory management (no garbage collector or VM)_

* _Inferred static types for great speed and reliability_

* _Ownership tracking enables a functional programming style while still using mutation of cache-friendly data structures under the hood_

* _No hidden performance penalties – allocation and copying are explicit_

* _Straightforward integration with existing C code_

[http://blog.veitheller.de/Carp.html](http://blog.veitheller.de/Carp.html), HN discussion at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15778530](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15778530)</comment>


Canonical to halve Ubuntu support lifetime - <AUTHOR> http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2013/03/20/ubuntu-support/1

<comment><USER2> So, I guess this means they can alienate users faster?

I left because they moved my close button to the left, but my friends stayed because they "got used to it". Same thing happened with unity and upstart. I don't see users can "get used to it" by EOLing your product in 9 months and providing new, possibly breaking, changes every 3. I use Arch Linux now, and I like it because they don't force decisions like that on me, since they try to keep packages vanilla.

They're just giving power users twice the reasons to leave.</comment>


Too Rich to Live? - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703609004575355572928371574.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

<comment><USER2> Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1502132>

Many, many comments there from a couple of days ago. Probably polite to read those before repeating them all over again.</comment>


3 year old issue on Bitbucket, no response so far - <AUTHOR> https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issues/5658/allow-custom-pre-receive-hook-that-rejects

<comment><USER2> A 3 year old ignored bug is one thing, but this is just a feature request. I don't understand all the outrage just because BitBucket doesn't yet consider this a worthwhile feature. They're under no obligation to implement this feature and they would probably get even more flak if they had said "maybe" or "eventually" once a year.

<comment><USER3> In this particular case I don't see the point either although Atlassian does have a strong history of ignoring customers. The big one I know of off hand that led me away from them is below:

[https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions- ideas/sug...](https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions- ideas/suggestions/6328442-add-support-for-two-factor-authentication)</comment></comment>


The Supernova at the Bottom of the Sea (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/78/atmospheres/the-secret-history-of-the-supernova-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea-rp <comment><USER2> > The only way to do that is to trace the debris they deposited on Earth by > finding elements on our planet that are primarily fused inside supernovas.

Just pick up some metal off the ground ;)</comment>


(Big?) Data Question: Searching in a large dataset - <AUTHOR>

I am working on a model of social interactions in mice. I have mice and boxes and a simulation that outputs which mouse stays in which box during which time period. The problem is how to obtain, in the end and from this, the meetings of two mice which were in the same box in an overlapping period.
Right now I have a MySQL database where the simulation directly inserts each stay result. And then another tool,written in Scala, just retrieves all stay result, in portions of a few hundred, loops through them and for each asks the database which stays were overlapping with it, and inserts each pair into the database, like this:
`box`,`id1`, `res_id1`, `id2`, `res_id2`, `from`, `to`, `dt`, `typ`
This means that mice id1 and id2 were in the box "box" in the interval between "from" and "to" with duration "dt" and the meetings was of type "typ". There could be four types of meetings depending on when each mouse was in the box (e.g. when the one entered and exited relative to the other). "res_id1" and "res_id2" tell which stay results were used to generate the meeting result.
Obviously, this is very inefficient. What would be a better way of doing it? I am not constrained to using a RDMS, but I though this would be the easiest as I am reading and further analysing the data in R afterwards. Would it make sense to output the stays in a text file and then use Hadoop to generate the meetings somehow? Or anything else?
For the duration of an approximately one quarter of one trial of the simulation I generate around 1.5 million stay results. <comment><USER2> I expect your simulation simulates the movements of all mice simultaneously in time order.

If so, it might be easier to directly create the overlap results from the simulation. For example, when a mouse enters a box, check and remember what other mice are there. When that mouse leaves, check again and create the record for the stay.

If that isn't possible or feasible, check whether your database supports range types and queries. It might be worthwhile to migrate to PostgreSQL just for this (see [https://wiki.postgresql.org/images/7/73/Range-types- pgopen-2...](https://wiki.postgresql.org/images/7/73/Range-types- pgopen-2012.pdf))

<comment><AUTHOR> It is not simultaneous. I use the Gillespie technique for stochastic simulation. I select a mouse at random to change boxes, depending on its transition rate compared to the transition rate of the system as a whole.

<comment><USER2> Are the mice interchangeable? If so, can you simulate one, get a distribution of box occupancy from it, and compute interactions from that?

<comment><AUTHOR> No. That's the point. It is a simulation of a complex system. The interactions between the mice are everything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> How about having a table where each row corresponds to a duration of time?

time | total | mice_ids (a json string. or use mongo)

And then, run through all your data and assign each mouse to a certain duration (ie, minute one, minute two, etc), updating the total counts every time as well as the mice_ids. Then, you could query by minute and see which minutes had meetings in them (ie, select mice where total > 2)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! But I am thinking, could I be able to obtain easily the duration of _each_ meeting using this setup? This is what I would ultimately need (to construct the empirical cdf, social network, etc.)

<comment><USER3> Hmm. How are you defining a meeting? Is a meeting a pair of mice? Or is it a pair of mice with a time component? So a pair of mice + the duration of time they were together?

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly.

There are four types of meeting: mouse 1 entered -> mouse 2 entered -> mouse 2 left -> mouse 1 left; mouse 1 entered -> mouse 2 entered -> mouse 1 left -> mouse 2 left; mouse 2 entered -> mouse 1 entered -> mouse 1 left -> mouse 2 left; mouse 2 entered -> mouse 1 entered -> mouse 2 left -> mouse 1 left.

Then the meeting record contains the times the two were together and the duration of this.

The dumb approach is very slow. Would it be a good idea to read all stay results in Scala (or whatever) and try to do the searching in memory, completely eliminating th db? But then the comparisons would be more expensive...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Try a columnar database solution for time series.</comment>


Joe Armstrong on Elixir (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://elixirforum.com/t/learning-elixir-frst-impressions-plz-dont-kill-me/16424/52 <comment><USER2> Wonder why after all this time nobody managed to replicate erlang concurrency mechanism successfully. I've heard about actors framework in other environments ( such as akka in .net and java), but i feel that the approach that really became mainstream is node style single thread with callbacks and async / await mechanism.

Especially, erlang seems like the only environment where the concurrency model has such a big implication on how you build your whole system ( as opposed to just letting the framework spawn actors underneath without you even noticing, like i've seen in some recent dart web framework)

For example in swift, chris lattner set actor as a long term goal for concurrency, but async seems to be going to be implemented first ( probably for very good practical reasons). Yet the way erlang does it seems to be so core to its design that i'm very skeptical we'll reach something similar.

<comment><USER3> Because fault tolerance and isolation has to come with it.

It actually has been replicated successfully in modern multiuser operating systems. You can safely restart your web server process while the cron service or your DB stays up. One user's shell crash doesn't take down all the other ones.

The power of BEAM VM is making it possible to start millions of such processes on a machine.

There have been many instances of anyone starting a bunch of threads with some message queues and calling it "a modern super-fast Erlang" but it's just solving the wrong problem.

<comment><USER2> To me something really important is also transparent cross-machine communications. The fact that you don't really care where an actor is running on your network (local or remote) as you long you've got its ID is the most seducing aspect of the whole environment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Joe helped me a lot of times on the elixirforum and it was really eye opening how his solutions were so radically different than most.

He wrote really functional elixir, and you could tell he commanded expertise rarely seen. To have such a senior engineer spend his time teaching beginners, it was really inspiring. He'll be sorely missed by everybody in the Elixir community.

</comment><comment><USER5> Could someone elaborate (or link to a reference) on Joe's point about how having many processes can help build fault tolerant systems? I know next to nothing about Erlang/Elixir or the actor model, but I'm curious about the underlying principles. My primary interest for now is not necessarily in scalability, but actually in engineering fault-tolerant systems.

EDIT: To give some more context... I'm thinking about software systems that must interact with the real world (eg: robotics) where it is very hard to give guarantees that a certain action would necessarily have the desired effect. Also, it is very common for agents to function with an incomplete model of the world (which essentially encodes their assumptions on how the world ought to respond to their actions) and keep adapting their responses and changing their model based on observations. (BTW, thinking along these lines lead to an approach called behavior-based robotics)

<comment><USER6> Joe Thesis is probably the best place to begin with.

[http://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf](http://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the link; will read.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > Objects are things that respond to messages (or should be) - to get an > object to do something you send it a message - how it does it is totally > irrelevant - think of objects as black boxes, to get them to do something > you send them a message, they reply by sending a message back.

The part I love about Elixir is the "objects" don't have to send a message back! There's no need for the sender to sit around waiting for a reply.

</comment><comment><USER8> RIP Joe</comment>


Show HN: Codeposters – making code into art - <AUTHOR> http://codeposters.io <comment><USER2> I really like this idea of the Apollo collection, but I'm a bit disappointed that I can't see any of the code in any of the images. The close up of the comments is okay, but I would like clarification that there's real code there.

<comment><USER3> Highly doubt there is actual code, and even if there is - how does it matter?

0 - [http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1093/9840/products/Screen_S...](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1093/9840/products/Screen_Shot_2015-12-17_at_9.07.59_PM_e30bf17e-395f-4c67-b0a9-cbbcb90b2eab_grande.png?v=1450410442)

<comment><AUTHOR> It's assembly code from here: [https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/source/browse/?r=258#sv...](https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/source/browse/?r=258#svn%2Ftrunk%2FLuminary099)

The posters start with the code from BURN_BABY_BURN--MASTER_IGNITION_ROUTINE.s

I concatenated a number of files together and removed new lines, and runs of certain characters (space, #, and * for example). I felt that runs of the same character distracted the eye too much to keep. Those NASA engineers liked to make huge blocks of # characters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It would be really cool if you could pick the source code location that the image is made of.

<comment><AUTHOR> So, have a way for you to enter a github repository (for example), and have the image created using that repository?</comment></comment>