My experience with Firefox Quantum [as compared to Chromium] - <AUTHOR> https://blog.einval.eu/2017/11/my-experience-with-firefox-quantum.html <comment><USER2> About the profiles, Firefox supports "Multi-Account Containers" [1], it's like profiles but per-tab. You can also force some websites to open in a tab (like facebook.com in a "Social Media" container). You should definitely give it a try!

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603)

<comment><AUTHOR> I did give them a try and I use them for a different purpose. I use profiles when I want a separate set of bookmarks, browsing history and/or addons (like a work/home separation). I use containers if I want a different set of cookies, so usually if I need to log into a single service with multiple identities. Maybe I should have mentioned that in the article but I totally forgot about the containers when writing. They are nice but I wouldn't miss them much if they were gone.

How can I force a specific website to always open in a specific container? I cannot find it.

<comment><USER2> With the website open in a container, click on the Multi-account containers' icon (the 3 squares with a +) and check "Always open xxx in yyy".

<comment><AUTHOR> I needed to install this addon[1]. Somehow I enabled the containers on Firefox 55 or 56 previously (possibly with about:config) and I didn't have this button. Thanks!

[1]: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi- account...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account- containers/)

EDIT: Yes, it was privacy.userContext.enabled in about:config.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I started to use Firefox Quantum after a 8 years long breakup. I'm impressed, so impressed that Firefox Quantum is the first browser I'm paying for every month, there is a donate link on Mozilla's homepage in the footer.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have really been enjoying Quantum. It's noticeably faster on almost every page I use daily, or maybe it's just placebo. I have noticed that on pages that are very JS and video heavy (YouTube, KhanAcademy) it is quite a bit slower than Chrome, so I've just been using chrome for those.

<comment><USER5> I had to switch back because of this. For example Google docs was dog squeeze slow.

<comment><USER6> It is odd. Web sites load noticeably faster, but web _apps_ take longer to load than Chrome. Only tested on Google SPAs so far, though, so it may be a lack of optimization.

<comment><USER7> That is easily explained by faster rendering / CSS (Stylo) but a slower JS engine (vs V8)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> switched to Firefox because Mozilla was the only company that was against inclusion of DRM into w3c standard.

</comment><comment><USER9> One area I think Firefox could improve is site-level permissions. For example, when third-party cookie blocking is enabled, Chrome will display an icon in the URL bar when cookies are blocked. Using that icon, you can allow cookies if you need to. In Firefox, there's no way to tell that cookies are being blocked, and the procedure to unblock them (for me) involved finding the origin setting the cookie and manually setting the site permissions to allow cookies.

Another example: clicking the information icon for any site in Chrome allows me to quickly enabled/disable permissions. Have a site that is loading really abusive Javascript? In Firefox, there's no way to disable JS for the page outside of using your adblocker or globally disabling it. In Chrome, just click the site icon, click the Javascript menu, and choose disable.

</comment><comment><USER10> Might as well plug my update experience as well, although _you_ in particular have already seen it:

[https://gist.github.com/FichteFoll/903baad8447ce83e81dee1789...](https://gist.github.com/FichteFoll/903baad8447ce83e81dee17892e59ec2)

Regarding multiple tabs, I use this: [https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/multiple-tab- han...](https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/multiple-tab-handler/) It also cooperates with Tree Style Tab (since it's from the same developer)</comment>


Basketball nerds out there: Was KD's shot against the Mavs luck, or physics?  - <AUTHOR> http://books.google.com/books?id=CPosYIEgag8C&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=physics+lucky+bounce+basketball&source=bl&ots=-zrOs3u5j6&sig=cZsdRVHrdLAQ34apTPO87o2sAbg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xcOcT4m6BcLX0QGZrLysDw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

<comment><USER2> He got a very friendly bounce off the rim from what was a desperation type shot. Can credit him for putting enough arc on the shot but it was off to the left and very well defended.</comment>


How to send local files to Chromecast with Python - <AUTHOR> https://rinzewind.org/blog-en/2018/how-to-send-local-files-to-chromecast-with-python.html <comment><USER2> I'm surprised no one has mentioned Videostream! Works so smooth, and there's an iOS app so you don't need your computer for play back control.

[https://getvideostream.com/](https://getvideostream.com/)

I also recently downloaded Soda Player for OSX to stream, and it also has similar capabilities.

<comment><USER3> > so you don't need your computer

.. which I have. Now I need an iOS device.

Or set up a GET endpoint with the python library and access that from my mobile device of choice

<comment><USER2> I should have said mobile app.

My TV is not in the same room as my computer setup, so it is more convenient for me to control with a smartphone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://github.com/skorokithakis/catt](https://github.com/skorokithakis/catt)

<comment><USER5> When I read the original article, my first thought was: wow, someone could or should really build an interface on top of this that let's you cast all things.

Looking at this GitHub project, looks like it lets you do exactly that.

<comment><USER6> VLC also has similar functionality as of version 3.0.

<comment><USER7> VLC also does transcoding of video formats that Chromecast does not support. For the python script, you have to ensure the video format is supported by Chromecast [1].

[1] [https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media](https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm using castnow, a cli in nodejs and has support for streaming torrents and local files

[https://github.com/xat/castnow](https://github.com/xat/castnow)

Edit: from Python to nodejs

<comment><USER9> Castnow is great, but it is written in node.js not python.

<comment><USER8> You are right, i thought it had a dependency on Python (checked it in the past) and interpreted it as Python.

While checking it, no idea where that came from.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What about the opposite? Are there any good server libraries to cast content to as opposed to casting content from?

<comment><USER11> This used to be possible, but IIRC Google locked things down and the cast receiver apps for Android stopped working.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Another alternative that worked pretty well for me with Linux: [http://mkchromecast.com/](http://mkchromecast.com/)

</comment><comment><USER13> a GUI that does exactly that (and the occasional transcoding / reboxing when necessary, to handle mkv files, etc.): [https://github.com/keredson/gnomecast](https://github.com/keredson/gnomecast)

<comment><USER14> Yey! Note that, much to my unhappiness (see issue #42) transcoding is a process that blocks the streaming from starting, which can take several minutes at 100% CPU.

<comment><USER13> yeah, that's a sticky problem unfortunately. on the plus side real transcoding is pretty rare given h264 is pretty much everywhere now. most of the "transcoding" gnomecast does is repackaging an unmodified h264 stream from one container format to another, which FFMPEG can do at 30-100x (rather than 1-2x for real transcoding).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Woah this is really, really cool! I've been meaning to mess with chromecast and this does all the heavy lifting for me!

I think I'm going to wrap the script to get a REPL so that I don't loose access to the object, similar to what I did for AWS: [https://github.com/russellballestrini/botoform/blob/master/b...](https://github.com/russellballestrini/botoform/blob/master/botoform/plugins/repl.py)

</comment><comment><USER16> SimpleHTTPServer is no longer part of python 3. On Python 3 this `python -m SimpleHTTPServer` should be `python -m http.server`

<comment><USER17> python2 will work for many years to come.

         python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I normally just use LocalCast ([http://www.localcast- app.com/](http://www.localcast-app.com/)), although there may be a use case for a kind of "jukebox" application using PyChromecast.

</comment><comment><USER19> I have [http://movies.foamsnet.com/url/](http://movies.foamsnet.com/url/) bookmarked. Give it a URL, and it will send it to Chromecast and provide playback controls in your browser.

</comment><comment><USER20> I am using a tool called AirFlow - has built in support for subtitles which was the first thing I look for when chromcasting. Even though it's not free, it's an amazing tool. (not affiliated with them at all)

</comment><comment><USER21> Interesting. Is it known which libraries the Chromecast uses under the hood? Given that RCE exploits are commonplace for media/codec libraries, this can easily be used to get a decent jailbreak on the thing...

<comment><USER22> It has been semi-jailbroken in the past, but Google has always very quickly closed anything.

Chromecast (device, protocol, libraries, firmware) are Google's most user- hostile and restrictive project so far.

<comment><USER9> Chromecast even stops working if you do not have a working outside internet connection. On many occasions I've been unable to cast movies to chromecast simply because my internet connection was broken.

After some time it bothered me that I had a machine plugged in 24/7 connected to both my local LAN and Internet, owned by Google. So, every night I unplug the chromecast and then plug it again whenever I want to cast something.

<comment><USER23> If physically disconnecting it is easy enough then I'd agree that is preferable. Only plug it in when required.

How about creating a firewall rule and then toggling that instead of physically disconnecting the Chromecast? I found a likely configuration: [https://blog.g3rt.nl/allow-google-chromecast-host- firewall-i...](https://blog.g3rt.nl/allow-google-chromecast-host-firewall- iptables.html#comment-2981801043)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This would be great if it worked. It's pretty simple, just pip install pychromecast and call pychromecast.get_chromecasts() in the repl. This returns an empty list for me every time.

<comment><USER25> Is your Chromecast on the same subnet as your computer? If not, autodiscovery won't work.

<comment><USER24> I believe so, it works for my browser and phone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is awesome! I gave up on my hopes of doing custom stuff with my chromecast when I discovered there was a pricetag on the developer license, but this could be handy!

</comment><comment><USER27> Does this also work with the Chromecast audio? and if not does anyone know of any great open tools for that hardware?

<comment><USER28> It looks like pychromecast implements the Google Chromecast API, so any Chromecast audio devices should show up in the list for pychromecast.get_chromecasts()

[https://github.com/balloob/pychromecast](https://github.com/balloob/pychromecast)

<comment><USER27> Nice, I'll have to try and play around with that to see if I can create some Sonos/Heos like functionality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Great. Casting is broken on Chromium from the Debian stretch stable repos.

</comment><comment><USER30> generally, you can cast anything from a Chrome browser tab, so just open those files in a new tab and cast away.

</comment><comment><USER31> im pretty sure you can open chrome and just drag a local video into a tab and then chromecast the tab.

<comment><USER32> The quality of doing that however, is not great</comment></comment>


Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) - 88840-8855 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bose-lawsuit-idUSKBN17L2BT <comment><AUTHOR> The outcome :

"The court dismissed Zak's novel wiretap and eavesdropping claims, writing that the complaint failed to adequately allege that Bose is not a party to communication, as is necessary for violations of these statutes. " … [T]he relevant inquiry," the court wrote, "is whether the defendant is a participant in the conversation, as opposed to a nonparticipant that uses other means to gain access to – i.e., intercept – the communication." Bose wasn't an intruding third party, so this line of attack was shut down.

Nonetheless, the unjust enrichment and Illinois state consumer fraud charges survived. And, to make things a little more interesting for the defendant, the court left the door open for Zak to file again under the Wiretap Act if he could prove "that Bose is in fact not a party to the communication or that Bose, while a party, nevertheless intercepted a communication with the purpose of committing a crime or tort independent from the alleged interception.""

[https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5499bec3-8a87...](https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5499bec3-8a87-4dc0-a010-dae6249a2932)

<comment><USER2> Not an intruding party?! Well who the heck invited them to the conversation!!

I was assuming it would be thrown out because they only collected _metadata_ and if they didn't pull full audio that they didn't meet a required element.

Luckily the wording implies that it's not that the judge found from the evidence that they were an invited party, just that the claim failed to properly lay the foundation in their briefs?

I hope they refile.

<comment><USER3> It looks like the app only sent song selections so there's no "communication" in general.

> The alleged eavesdropping would deliver user information – including song > selections . . .

[GP's source]

\---

Honestly I think it might be worth looking into the idea of metadata collection as eavesdropping. Unless there's an implicit technical requirement for data, the company should need to explicitly request it.

For phone lines it's obvious why the service provider is party to the communications:

        caller --> switching equipment --> callee

The bose situation is more:

        user --> bluetooth --> headphones
                     |
                     +--> bose

Though this sort of ruling might just drive everything to an even more disgusting state of centralized services so that companies can claim an implicit technical need for data.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is exactly why I refuse to use an app for setting up hardware. Bose pushes really hard to get you to use an app for something that really doesn't require an app.

<comment><USER5> I switched from a Bose QC35 to a Sony WH-1000XM3 about half a year ago, and the Sony app on iOS was egregiously requesting permission for location access, even while the app is in background. The cited reason for location access sounded rather flimsy and suspicious. Luckily, everything that can be done with the app can also be done with the physical buttons on the headphones. I guess their design philosophy is that if you want the convenience of using an app with the product that you've already paid a lot of money for, you'll need to pay for it with your location info.

<comment><USER6> A company should exist that simply takes wonderful products, removes the offending bits, and resells them, perhaps at a premium. Both headphones are really good, and I certainly would pay a $100 premium if the maker was "one of the good ones" and provided, e.g., an optional, open-source app with minimal permissions.

<comment><USER7> I'm 100% right there with you. But the inner pessimist in me isn't holding my breath. Said new company would perhaps start with an excellent and wholesome mission statement, make some great products and then take on funding, need to experience exponential growth, maybe have an IPO, and eventually betray it's users in the quest for "maximizing shareholder value" and providing a "better user experience". If it can happen to Google it can happen to anyone...

Also, can I even buy a sound bar for my TV that doesn't listen to me and need an internet connection these days... It's unreal the unneeded complexity and bullshit they put in some electronics.

The real heroes the world needs are just independent founders that use slow growth over several generations and never sell the business, thus minimizing incentives other than having a lifestyle business and making great stuff. But the money is just too tempting eventually, or the business just isn't feasible at that scale.

<comment><USER8> Google was never "wholesome". Their business model from day one was to collect user information and sell ads.

<comment><USER9> For the first few years of its life, Google (nee BackRub) was a business- model-less company that just ran a search indexer. They looked like they were heading toward the Inktomi model of selling their compiled search-index (or access to their index data warehouse) to companies to use. Google Ads came later, and was honestly quite a shock to everyone who was telling their friends that Google is an unalloyed good as the new AltaVista.

<comment><USER8> Google was incorporated in September 1998. AdWords was introduced in October 2000. They were an ad company from almost day one as a business.

<comment><USER10> But there's still a difference I think.

IIRC, and I'm quite confident about this particular one, ads used to be served based on the site you were visiting or the search had typed.

Some people hate all ads.

For me I felt old google ads were OK.

Some people will say this isn't a good enough business model and to that I'll point out that google was widely profitable back then as well, again IIRC.

<comment><USER8> Google ads on desktops on Google's site aren't that bad. But, because of limited real estate, almost all ads on mobile devices are bad. Web page ads on other sites have gotten so annoying that the web is horrible without an ad blocker.

Strangely enough, ads in feeds like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter don't annoy me as much.

I also think the ads in the iOS App Store are horrible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you start the app (Bose Connect, iOS), there's a setting called "Privacy Policy & Settings". There's one option there, which disables "Share data with Bose". I'm not saying that everyone will find it, but at least it's a solution for people that read Hacker News and wants to keep using the app.

<comment><USER12> Why do you _need_ a special app to use headphones? Is this really what the future looks like?

<comment><USER13> You don't. The last pair of Bose headphones I had came with instructions to download the app which I just ignored. The headphones worked perfectly fine without the app.

<comment><USER14> You need it if you want to turn off or change the noise cancellation mode.

<comment><USER15> There is a button that cycles through high-low-no noise cancellation on mine

<comment><USER16> When you buy a new pair these days, pressing that button causes the headphones to say "Configure the action button in the Bose Connect App"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why do people build great companies then do unnecessary things to destroy them just for a few more dollars

<comment><USER18> A terminal (to the company) focus on short term profits over long term sustainability. Profits, after all, boost stock prices, and a good portion of a CEO's compensation is typically in stock grants (not to mention share holders or board members).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It is worth pointing out that MIT owns Bose. 100%. Omar Bose left it to MIT in his will. He would be rolling in his grave if he saw what MIT was doing with it.

<comment><USER20> MIT doesn't own 100% of Bose; he didn't leave it all to them.

<comment><USER21> From Wikipedia:

 _In 2011, Bose donated a majority of the company 's non-voting shares to MIT on the condition that the shares never be sold. Because these shares are non- voting, MIT does not participate in operations or governance of Bose Corporation._

What the heck is the point of owning shares if you can't sell them and you can't influence the direction of the company? That sounds like an accountant's joke.

(Presumably the benefit comes from the fact that Bose Corporation pays dividends, but nothing stops the other shareholders from deciding to cut or stop dividend payments. MIT certainly has no way to stop them.)

<comment> 52-6F-62 Dividends, in order to provide funding to the school, I imagine.

<comment><USER22> I wonder how many problems in the world are ultimately caused from shares not being seen primarily as a source of divident, but as an asset to gamble with.

<comment><USER12> Considering that it generally pays (far more) to gamble with them than to sit on them and collect meager dividends slowly over time, it's not a surprise really.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, it's not a surprise that this happens. I'm just wondering why the system is designed to allow and encourage that, instead of blocking it. I can't see anything good coming out of it.

<comment><USER23> Long-term tax treatment for dividends on stock held for more than N years wouldn't be a bad idea.

<comment><USER24> We already have that, qualified earnings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Why should one need an app to control their headphones?

Give me hardware interface to control the functions.

<comment><USER26> You couldn't physically fit those controls onto a pair of headphones. There's simple stuff like the level of noise cancellation, but also language settings for the voice prompts and saved profiles for different paired devices.

The Bose app is relatively simple as headphone apps go. Nuro and Even offer headphones with custom DSP profiles to match your hearing and the Audeze Mobius has spatial audio with motion tracking. It's simply not possible to implement features like that without some kind of companion app.

<comment><USER27> Or publish the APIs for at least allowing a third-party implementation?

<comment><USER28> Now you have APIs that people depend on and will get pissed if they change. If you do it all internally then major API changes are not a problem.

<comment><USER29> Assuming you are talking about lock-step updates of firmware and app, how would an app work with firmware lagging hardware, or updated firmware but old app?

People have multiple devices (eg tablet and phone) which means they'd easily get into such a state.

I imagine they have to keep the most of backwards compatibility for their internal purposes as well (or at least their developers' sanity :)).

I am pretty sure having open APIs (that evolve) would still be more appreciated than not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I've used QuietComfort (25) in past, I've never heard of any app that was available to configure it.

<comment><USER31> It's very common to have an app for Bluetooth QC 35 headphones, as these headphones play back digital audio (they basically have built-in iPods minus the on-board storage), and in their newest variants, ship with Google or Alexa via the app. But primarily you'd get the app to customize EQ, customize which devices are connected, troubleshoot the Bluetooth connection or perform software upgrades (an essential task these days...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'd be fascinated to see whether a similar degree of monitoring is going on in a post-GDPR context. A data request should return everything as Bose is an EU based firm with some customers within the EU surely?

<comment><USER33> The GDPR haters need to realise this is exactly the sort of thing it is meant to prevent. The EU legal landscape is very different from the US, in that regulations protect consumers vs the threat of class action lawsuits. What would happen here if Bose were a solely EU company with no US presense, who would you sue then?

<comment><USER34> The GDPR haters on the tech side usually work for companies (or are founders of) that do stuff that they really shouldn't be doing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I have Bose QC35 and personally I think that app is great because: 1) you can select the level of noise cancellation, and I found that I appreciate more having a low level NC a part from when I am on a flight where I use high NC 2) you can select 2 devices to pair at the same time, having 2 laptops and my iPhone at work is great to be able to switch with an app

That said, these two actions do not require to collect users data..so they should stop doing that without users' consent

<comment><USER36> If I planted a listening device in someone's home, I wouldn't be asked to 'stop doing that' \- I'd go to jail.

<comment><USER12> You? Yes.

"Tech" companies? Nope.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The court's opinion and order: [https://f.datasrvr.com/fr1/319/48563/Bose_Memo_and_Order.pdf](https://f.datasrvr.com/fr1/319/48563/Bose_Memo_and_Order.pdf).

</comment><comment><USER37> It looks as if there are quite a few Bose-made apps available for download in in the EU. Feels like a clears GDPR violation without active consent

</comment><comment><USER38> New marketing strategy: Bose // We Listen to our Customers

</comment><comment><USER39> Will there be similar consequences for Bose, as for Huawei? Like companies stopping dealing with them, Google revoking software licenses? Or if it is an American manufacturer, then it's ok to spy?

</comment><comment><USER40> This is from 2017. IIRC it was quite widely reported then as well.

<comment><USER41> First I heard of it.

Mind you, I would never, ever buy a Bose product, or install their app if I got one, so this is kind of academic for me.

<comment><USER42> And why not? They seem to have the best noise cancellation system on the market, even when compared to headsets twice the price.

<comment><USER43> My gun range headphones have physical noise elimination by nature of their construction. Better than anything Bose can do digitally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Needs a (2017)

</comment><comment><USER45> I agree that this is quite shady, but they require your explicit permission when you enable music sharing. My QC35s are great btw.

</comment><comment><USER46> Clearly this man is seeking a fat settlement but this kind of behavior by Bose is indeed sleazy, even if it is mentioned in the small print most people wouldn't expect that and read it.

<comment><USER47> Isn't hitting corps with settlements an effective mechanism in the consumer protection toolkit?

<comment> a-dub it shouldn't be necessary.

<comment><USER47> I'm curious what you suggest... how things ought to work in your mind.

<comment><USER48> The EU seems to work fine without the sort of litigation culture the US has. Punitive damages aren't a thing here either, and not all menber countries even have class action lawsuits in their legislation.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Avoid FIFA World Cup CDN Issues - <AUTHOR> https://blog.peer5.com/avoid-cdn-issues-at-peak/ <comment><USER2> What amazes me is the lack of concern on latency for web streaming.

We use the internet (and IP in general) to stream video. At high bitrates (200mbit+) we aim for sub 100ms end to end, for compressed services we're happy with 500ms, maybe upto a second if it's something like Sydney to London over the internet.

I was in a control room a couple of weeks ago watching some football. There were two displays, one end was the feed from the stadium, one was the feed from the web streaming service.

There were cheers and then groans from the live end of the room. nearly a minute later someone on the web end started running up the field to score. Of course I knew at that point that it wouldn't be a goal, as not only did the people watching the live stream tell me, but twitter was abuzz.

1 minute end to end delivery latency is shocking for this type of program. Heck 10 seconds is bad enough.

<comment><USER3> Already since over 20 years, the german TV chanel "RTL" is about 15 seconds later than all other TV chanels on live events like formula 1. But I have no idea why it is.

<comment><USER4> There no technical reason for it to be that high. Perhaps I should reach out to them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> BBC is doing UHD, with HDR and HLG, for the world cup, with the top stream 36Mbit/second [0]

There are a limited number of "spaces" available [1] -- I think it's upto 100gbit of output.

Unlike with the FA Cup (where the BBC did a uhd trial), the world cup will have a lot of games during the week, where people will be watching from the office (although probably not UHD). This will mean far higher loads on the distribution.

Fortunately England's only 3 games are either at the weekend or at 7PM. The second half of the tournament will really stress the UK internet though, with both World Cup and Wimbledon on during the working week.

[0] [https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2018-05-uhd_hdr_world_cup_2018](https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2018-05-uhd_hdr_world_cup_2018) [1] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/uhd-vr- worl...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/uhd-vr-world-cup)

<comment><USER5> "Only" – A subtle dig ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've started building P2P live adaptive (DASH) live video streaming using WebRTC with distributed rate control mechanism some time ago and I am planning to open source it. Basically using that you could build your own p2p global distributed live adaptive video streaming CDN (or use it on one server only). Adding new supporting server (to add additional bandwidth) in this solution is just as easy as spawning vm/server and launch binary. Distributed signaling server with GEO/region based peer distribution, full real time statistics on whole network health, analytics, network automatically adapts to bandwidth shortage (if for some reason network can't sustain itself) switching to lower bandwidth versions of the stream. Very easy to use, you would need to set one config file only, launch 2 binaries and add one JS file to source of your site and you are ready to go.

Anyone interested in this?

<comment><USER7> Yes! How do I keep updated with progress? Do you have a project hosted somewhere?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Life pro tip: Just use an ace stream and have zero connectivity issues.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/comments/82ac7j/acest...](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/comments/82ac7j/acestreams_you_what_are_they_and_do_i_use_them/?st=jibvbwab&sh=3dc2954a)

My brother bought the MMA ticket to watch mcgregor vs mayweather and it was a horrible experience.

I booted up my laptop and ran an acestream, boom crystal clear high definition image with zero network issues.

<comment><USER9> Of course, those streams are not legal.

<comment><USER10> Is it illegal be the streamee, the streamer, or both?

<comment><USER11> It is P2P so you would be both.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is there anything that can be done from the user perspective to improve your streaming experience. Beyond bandwidth.

<comment><USER13> Hey, I work at Peer5 (another Peer5 employee wrote this article). We typically measure video user experience in several ways:

\- The amount of rebuffering the user is getting (basically, the less the user sees the loading wheel the better). \- The bitrate the user has (are the users seeing the video in the highest possible quality?) \- Whether or not there are any media errors. \- The amount of time the video takes to load after a seek.

From the user experience - you don't really have control over these things - it's up for the broadcaster to set up a good service.

We've found (unsurprisingly) that services that are either paid or are national broadcasters offer better user experience than ones that are free and easily found online so my recommendation would be to spend a few dollars and get a solid provider.

(Also, the bandwidth you get now doesn't mean too much when the network is very congested - so it's worth checking how fast your network is during big peaks and considering a different ISP or a streaming provider that utilizes P2P)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The P2P approach is interesting. Do you have data on how much bandwidth is saved at peak usage?

It might be especially interesting when many users share the same connection, effectively achieving broadcasting - the CDN pushes the data to one client, and it broadcasts it to the local network.

</comment><comment><USER15> I watched the UCL final via YouTube this year and the Bet365 webapp kept telling me about goals half a minute before it happened on the screen. To be honest, if you're isolated the delay doesn't _really_ matter.

</comment><comment><USER16> Don't use webrtc for live video. It doesn't scale with CDNs. Use dash/hls.

<comment><USER17> Peer5 uses webrtc datachannels and runs on top of existing dash/hls streams

<comment><USER16> still doesn't scale efficiently. http based streaming is the only reliable way to get economies of scale. The cpu cost per webrtc socket is high compared to a cache-hit for a static resource. Not to mention that WebRTC is way more cpu intensive client side compared to hls/dash which has kernel/hardware offloading.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Software for scaling up live-streaming CDN points of presence (POPs) is a pretty crazy domain. For on-demand video, you can think of a CDN as a cache, getting known-ahead-of-time chunks. But what about for live streaming? It's not feasible to stream frame-by-frame directly from your encoding backend to all the viewers of the World Cup, over something like RMTP - you'd want to use a CDN. So typically, you distribute meaty (multi-second) HLS segments as individual video files, or collections of files, to your CDN; once available, they then need to be requested by browsers/mobile clients as a whole segment, over HTTP(S). Works well with existing CDN infrastructure (provided they can handle the write volume and have big enough inbound pipes)... but the huge issue is that the length of the segment plus round-trips is a lower bound on effective latency. And when interactivity is required, multi-second delays can be horrible.

[https://www.wowza.com/blog/hls-latency-sucks-but-heres- how-t...](https://www.wowza.com/blog/hls-latency-sucks-but-heres-how-to-fix- it) is a great writeup. Another overview of the problem, and a proposed solution, is in this excellent article by Twitter here:

[https://medium.com/@periscopecode/introducing-lhls-media- str...](https://medium.com/@periscopecode/introducing-lhls-media-streaming- eb6212948bef)

> In HLS live streaming, for instance, the succession of media frames arriving > from the broadcaster is normally aggregated into TS segments that are each a > few seconds long. Only when a segment is complete can a URL for the segment > be added to a live media playlist. The latency issue is that by the time a > segment is completed, the first frame in the segment is as old as the > segment duration... By using chunked transfer coding, on the other hand, the > client can request the yet-to-be completed segment and begin receiving the > segment's frames as soon as the server receives them from the broadcaster.

And Twitch's followup challenge:

[https://blog.twitch.tv/twitch-invites-you-to-take-on-the- icm...](https://blog.twitch.tv/twitch-invites-you-to-take-on-the- icme-2018-grand-challenge-2b3824d3537b)

> This Grand Challenge is to call for signal-processing/machine-learning > algorithms that can effectively estimate download bandwidth based on the > noisy samples of chunked-based download throughput.

(IMO) If you're thinking that this is all rather silly, and that live video streaming is not something that should be done over HTTP in the first place... there are a lot of reasons why this is the case. All the CDN POPs are optimized for HTTP GET requests rather than stateful sessions, and Apple's smiting of Flash removed a lot of incentive for innovation on RTMP servers. The ironic thing is that Internet connectivity is fast/reliable enough nowadays that RTMP might have been able to escape its association with "buffering" spinners, and would provide a much lower-latency experience. Hopefully there's better standardization in the future as live video becomes more mainstream.</comment>


Show HN: Anonymous Mode, an experiment with anonymity on Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://www.anonymousmode.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Just launched today, built it over the last few weekends. Sorry for the fb login requirement, as I know HN isn't the target demo of this app. But I thought you all might appreciate an effort to get away from the never- anonymous aspects of Facebook.

Besides <http://www.anonymousmode.com>, you can also access the app at <http://apps.facebook.com/anonymousmode>

Would appreciate feedback, particularly on how long you think it will take FB to complain about how closely I've mimicked their UI. :)

</comment><comment><USER2> God, I literally cracked up laughing when I saw all the permissions you asked for!

<comment><AUTHOR> Too many? My mom taught me I won't get anything if I don't ask for it. :)

<comment><USER2> I thought it was a joke... =P

<comment><AUTHOR> I can see how the HN crowd would be amused, but for the target demo, I'm currently under the assumption that they don't really read/care about those extended perms too closely. Suppose I could cut a couple of them and stage them in later to engaged users, but I doubt if that's going to affect conversion significantly.

Note: if you cancel the login prompt, you can still browse around the site and see most of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Okay, I just removed a bunch of the perms asked for up front, because I really would like some feedback from some of you. Anyone?

<comment><USER3> I don't even have a Facebook account, so I haven't spent more than ten seconds looking at your site (sorry!), but I do find it hilarious that an "anonymous mode facebook" requires authentication via a facebook account.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that's a bit of a disconnect all right, but a necessary one: without an active FB session, I can't wire up the necessary features like Search (of all FB's 600MM users) or showing you your friends list.

Rest assured that while you you do need to connect via FB, all your activity on the app is anonymous - as either "a friend" or "a stranger" of the user you're rating/commenting on.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Average American can no longer afford "average-priced" new car or truck - <AUTHOR> http://autos.yahoo.com/news/average-american-can-no-longer-afford-"average-priced"-new-car-or-truck--and-why-it-s-getting-worse-013001053.html

<comment><AUTHOR> The more sensible countries heavily tax fuel and have historically let the market determine vehicle fuel economy (correct me if I'm wrong). Consumers choose smaller, less-powerful (but more affordable) vehicles and don't drive them as much.

Americans can't stand to pay the true cost of anything, so rather than raising the price of gas, we spend vast sums chasing ever smaller incremental improvements in fuel economy. So consumers choose huge, powerful, expensive cars and then drive them everywhere.

This is one area of the economy where the inkjet printer model would actually be an improvement over the status quo.</comment>


Five dollar advertising - Fiverr's lesser known gigs - <AUTHOR> http://www.colindeschamps.com/

<comment><USER2> Very cool indeed!

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, eye opening.</comment>


Kevin Rose on the sources of Digg's problems - <AUTHOR> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6120067/Kevin-TWiT.m4v <comment><USER2> Seems pretty reasonable to me. It might not have been what everyone wanted to hear, but the truth of the matter is that there are a lot more mediocre developers out there than outstanding ones, and if you're not careful with your hiring, you'll wind up with a lot more of the former than the latter.

It seems Kevin wasn't blaming any problems on his team, but rather on their lack of attention in selecting that team. Whether he's able to select better will soon be seen, but I take his comment as more of a _mea culpa_ than anything.

<comment><USER3> I've got a fairly extensive background in software development and management and the most striking thing at digg was there was no attempt at what's colloquially known as "management," at least up until 2007 when I left.

There was no such thing as a performance evaluation.

The founder and CEO mostly worked on side projects or spent time "taking money off the table."

There were lots of parties and social events.

They could have evaluated mediocre developers, put them on performance improvement plans, and if they failed to improve, fire them. They were too busy.

In the podcast, I didn't hear any mention of what I'm talking about. I heard "we hired too many B and C people."

<comment><USER4> I interviewed with Digg in the early days (not sure you remember me but with you Owen)

I think while finding big successes can be hard, dealing with them once you have them can be even harder.

Kevin was pretty quick to realize that Twitter/Facebook were going to eat Digg's chances of become a huge company, but it wasn't trivial to figure a response to that. It's a valid question: should Digg have even tried to grow grow grow or just been happy owning their area?

Engineering gripes I think were mostly focused on acquisition and investment attractiveness. There probably is also some elitism in the Valley: if you don't have the right pedigree and look the way that fits what people expect you don't deserve success

<comment><USER5> IMO Twitter/Facebook are not directly competing with digg. Digg was a news aggregator, Twitter/Facebook aren't.

<comment><USER6> I pretty much switch from Digg / RSS to twitter as a news aggregator once sufficient sites got twitter accounts to follow. I don't think I am a unique case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think 'thrown under the bus' is a bit extreme.

He was simply telling it as he saw it.

They hired people that turned out to be not as good as he would have liked, and that was a major issue that cascaded.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

<comment><USER3> No offense, but Kevin wouldn't know a good coder from a bad coder if his life depended on it. He can't read code, is essentially innumerate, and mostly just plays a techie on TV. To be blunt, he's blaming just about everybody else but himself. A college dropout who couldn't write a line of code to save his life talking about "B and C" players is offensive.

<comment><USER8> One doesn't need to know how to code to know if a programmer delivers or is always making excuses.

<comment><USER9> One does need to be a programmer to know if they're delivering at the expense of absurd amounts of technical debt.

<comment><USER8> only in the short term. In the long run that will become clear to an intelligent person.

<comment><USER9> Is there before or after you've taken on VC, planned a project roadmap, and realized there was no way you'd hit your goals?

<comment><USER8> we all know that software is an iterative process and that our goals, scopes, and deadlines go through a lot of change as we iterate. We know this is simply how it is.

Why then is it so hard to view managing people in the same light?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seems this video came off the wrong way - I didn't mean to throw anyone under the bus, but rather highlight mistakes I wish not to repeat. As the founder I am accountable.

A few things I've learned over the years:

\- Realize you're only as good as the people you hire.

\- As a non-coding founder, it's important you perform deep reference checks and have a trusted senior developer review code samples prior to hiring. (We rewrote ALL of our early code base because we didn't take this step)

\- Make time to interview every potential hire and vet them with proven experts.

\- Ensure employees are a good cultural fit.

\- If someone is doing a poor job, step-up and fire them.

\- Look for employees that are up for the technical challenges. I remember several occasions when the answer was "MySQL can't do that" vs "we can do that, just not in MySQL".

<comment><USER11> Sometimes, Kevin, a technical master will realise the limitations of the tool, and not always suggest it as a solution for a problem that clearly calls for something else.

Of course, that's over-simplifying things. Sometimes you asked for things that were physically impossible. When you need 1Bn operations to complete a task, you can't do that with 1M worth of resources, no matter if you try to use MySQL, Cassandra, or text files to get that result. You see, some of us at Digg actually had real computer science degrees, where we learned algorithm worst-case complexity, and we understood you were asking too much of too few computers. And if you think back hard enough, you'll remember the answer was actually: "MySQL can't do that unless you get 10x more computers."

Thanks for talking about your dissatisfaction with the theoretical limits of computing here, in this forum, where I had to find out about it third-hand, instead of actually talking to me face-to-face back when it could have made a difference.

Signed lovingly, Your MySQL DBA from Digg.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Great leaders figure out how to effectively work with "B and C" grade developers. Good leaders simply try not to work with them. Poor leaders blame them.

<comment><USER13> If a business plan can only succeed with "A" developers, then perhaps it is not a very good plan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sounds like a great way to kick off recruiting for his next venture.

<comment><USER15> It seems fine to me. I regularly interview people with CS degrees (some of every kind!) who couldn't code their way out of a paper bag. If we didn't spend a huge amount of time interviewing people compared to the number of people we extend offers to, we would be hiring "B and C grade developers" too.

<comment><USER16> I totally agree. Hiring blindly like that is hazardous to say the least.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Classy, nothing like an exec who blames the hires that came onboard under his watch for his failures. Here is a hint for the next time Rose, you were building a web site, not the space shuttle, you don't need 40 "rockstar" developers, hire fewer people and work slower.

<comment><USER18> I really hope space shuttles aren't built by "throwing warm bodies" at the task.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> What is a "C" or "D" coder? Is it somebody who writes bad code that works? Somebody who takes forever? Somebody who doesn't care?

I figure I'm probably a "C" coder, I get stuff done, and I'm always improving, but I know there are better coders out there than me.

Does management take any responsibility in driving C's to be A's??

Apparently not from Rose's point of view. What does HN think?

<comment><USER20> A "C" coder is someone who writes bad code. It's relatively easy to detect and fire a "C" coder.

A "B" coder is one who for the most part writes good code, but doesn't design a good long-term architecture, or makes many small mistakes that add up in the long run, or leaves the code riddled with small bugs that eventually cause frequent problems. The "B" coders are the dangerous ones because really you should fire them or fix them, but it's too easy to ignore them.

An "A" coder writes solid code and is dependable, but doesn't hit the high notes, as Joel Spolsky says.

A star coder is an "A" coder who hits the high notes.

(I don't know what a "D" coder is, but perhaps our scales are offset by one letter grade.)

<comment><USER21> A "D" coder is outsourcing. or code that is bad, runs slowly, has bugs and is often incomplete. Oftentimes things are written in one heroic coding session and simply cannot be touched after that. BUT it meets the "specs".

ooowww I've seen some of that.

An "A _" coder's code is simple to spot: It's boring. There's nothing heroic or clever (that's hard to debug) it's well documented so even junior devs can understand it, and thought has been taken so that it can be extended in the future. To put it simply it shows_ taste*. That is a rare thing indeed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've built many large and small engineering teams. One of the most important lessons I've learned is "A players hire A players. B players hire C players. C players hire D players." It is a fact.

Sometimes you can't avoid hiring B players. But if you do (either by mistake or because you explicitly decided to) you need to be disciplined about either turning them in a A players or ensuring they are not responsible for hiring. If you find you have C or D players get them to move on IMMEDIATELY.

Kevin says something here that is really important, and I think it is part of the lesson he's learned: "It was really hard to get rid of the C & D guys".

This is why I now try to work on the principle that I am far better off not hiring someone than compromising on quality. I have learned the hard way (multiple times) if I don't live by this principle, I WILL pay later.

<comment><USER3> A. Why is it so hard? California is an at-will state. You just fire them.

B. I completely agree with the idea of making B players into A players. It's called "management" or "employee development." It did not exist at digg.

<comment><USER20> A. Because managers, for the most part, don't have the courage to do it. It's emotionally difficult to fire, so they look the other way.

<comment><USER22> One is not an experienced manager until one has had to fire someone. One is not a good manager until that happens either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't think he throws them under the bus as much as he shows his total lack of understanding and involvement in a key part of what would have made his business successful.

Based on that anecdote, I'm amazed that Digg got this far.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is basically what happened with del.icio.us after the acquisition. It was insanely bad.

</comment><comment><USER25> I can tell someone hasn't read The Mythical Man-Month.

</comment><comment><USER26> That's a clip from the latest episode of "This Week in Tech", <http://twit.tv/293> . You can get audio as well as high- and low-def video downloads from there. The clip seems to be from 34:10 into the show.

</comment><comment><USER3> One of the things I found kind of weird about this whole argument is that Joe Stump, basically made an argument in 2009 that amounts to "hire shitty programmers"

<http://vimeo.com/3571817>

</comment><comment><USER27> How is this "throwing under the bus?" He's absolutely right. They probably made some hiring mistakes, and those are can be tough to identify and undo.

I suspect the one making the analogy is such a developer. Related: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect>

<comment><USER28> He's blaming poor coders for digg's failure, but he's the one who ultimately hired them (or at least started the ball rolling by initially hiring bad people) so really it's his failure.

Every company is inundated by poor applicants. One of the most important-- maybe the most important--responsibilities of a founder is hiring good people. He failed at that responsibility.

<comment><USER29> How is he blaming them? The whole point of his argument is that he failed to bring in good people. As you say, "He failed at that responsibility."

<comment><USER27> +1 my point exactly

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Link's dead, Jim.

<comment><USER31> Dropbox: I'm a synchronized folder, not a CDN!

<comment><USER32> Well, let's take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the ideal solution for it would do:

      There would be a folder.
      You'd put your stuff in it.
      It would sync.

They built that.

Why didn't anyone else build that? I have no idea.

"But," you may ask, "so much more you could do! What about serving public files over the Internet. It could be an easy-to-use Content Delivery Network!"

No, shut up. People don't use that crap. They just want a folder. A folder that syncs.

[https://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular- th...](https://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-than-other- programs-with-similar-functionality)

<comment><USER33> No one is contesting that. Parent was simply mocking those that use Dropbox as a CDN.

<comment><USER32> Who said I was contesting anything? I was agreeing. Well, not agreeing with mocking anyone, but rather praising the Dropbox folks for not trying to make Dropbox work under these circumstances. Trying to make Dropbox do something it wasn't designed to do is hacking. If it doesn't work, fine, I would never mock someone for trying to hack something.

Replies need not be antagonistic, you know. I'm more than a little amazed how quickly people assume disagreement. Aren't we all one big happy family?

<comment><USER34> Apparently rightness is a zero sum game. In order to maximize my rightness, you must be wrong.

<comment><USER32> You may have something there :-)

In any event, (a) I was coat tailing on your excellent and insightful joke, (b) I quoted someone else's brilliant wit, contributing nothing original, so (c) no matter how people arrived at the idea that my comment wasn't contributing to the conversation, (d) they may be right :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Digg's code wasn't the problem.

</comment><comment><USER36> Link is definitely dead, mirror: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1r9XZZISS4>

</comment><comment><USER37> Hiring poor developers is not the cause of what went wrong with Digg, but a symptom of what really went wrong.

The problem with Digg is they stumbled onto a formula that drove them to success overnight, but the company never had a true vision that they believed in and followed as a company.

</comment><comment><USER38> The main problem with the whole Digg affair is that it re-affirms VC's ideas that "the kids shouldn't be left in charge".

I hope this hasn't done a disservice to other "about to be" funded entrepreneurs who might not be so cavalier about their ventures.

</comment><comment><USER39> This is actually taken a bit out of context in you watch the full interview. This response was to the question of what experiences from Digg are you taking with you to your next startup and what are you going to do differently.

</comment><comment><USER40> i have a question whether digg (and reddit) investors _are going to lose some money_ on all these problems with technical debt.

if the answer is positive, that would be an argument to defend more careful development over quick business returns and short lasted customer happiness.

there are plenty arguments against over-engineering, there must be the balance :)

</comment><comment><USER16> No news here. This happens to a lot of orgs that rapidly hire. No big deal. I think Kevin's best work is ahead of him.

<comment><USER41> I hate to break it to you but you are what is known as a 'Fanboy'

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Does anyone still have a copy of this and able to mirror it? The link on dropbox is dead now and I'd love to hear this.

</comment><comment><USER43> He speaks the truth, I don't see any problem with what he said.....this happens.

<comment><USER41> How can you judge what is true when you don't even know what the truth is? Did you work at Digg? I can assure that while there were of course sub-par employees, they are now what I would attribute to v4's failure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Dropbox seems to be down. Link is dead...

<comment><USER31> Dropbox kills public files pretty quickly if they get a lot of traffic. Within minutes, sometimes - seems to depend on the size of the file.

<comment><USER45> Dropbox is actually down—nothing to do with this link.

<comment><USER46> Huh, so it is.

The Dropbox bandwidth limit for non-paid users is reportedly 10GB/day. If the file's 20MB, that's only 500 views. Definitely not a CDN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> A poor craftsman blames his tools.

</comment><comment><USER48> I think , there is no B and C , there is only who wants to make his/her product work or lousy dont care guys . It's all attitude .

<comment><USER49> I totally disagree with this. Some people just aren't very good at making things, even if they care.

<comment><USER48> if you put enough hard work and with dedication , anybody can make anything. remember nothing is impossible

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> the fact that their main competitor Reddit.com currently only has 1 software devloper - shows that the main problem for Digg is management - there is no need for so many developers anyway

they can hire as many of the worlds best developers as they want - it does not hide the fact that diggs management people are yesterdays stars</comment>


Canonical will no longer fund Kubuntu - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.kde.org/node/4531

<comment><USER2> "[...] a regularly released community-friendly distro with a strong KDE focus. There is no other major distro out there that matches that description [...]"

Then WTF is OpenSuse? <http://www.opensuse.org/en/>

This makes me really mad. OpenSuse is a major distro and has supported KDE for years. It's not so popular in the USA, but is pretty big in Europe (I have used it for years and it rocks; so does KDE). I don't see how the quote above is excusable. Before reading that you had my sympathy, but if you're going to trash-talk the rest of the community then good riddance.

[I just noticed some people are actively downvoting this comment. Just how far does mindless Ubuntu fanboyism and intolerance of alternatives go?]

<comment><USER3> Kubuntu is not Ubuntu. It is a complete distro with KDE as the default desktop. In the future, KDE support will still be in Ubuntu, as much as it is in Opensuse. Opensuse allows you to pick which desktop to use [1]. OpenSuse is not a "KDE distro."

[1]<http://en.opensuse.org/Product_highlights>

<comment><USER4> Puh-leese. Kubuntu and Ubuntu are the _same_ distribution. They just replace your boot screens when you install kubuntu-desktop instead of just installing another DE.

I've always been annoyed at Canonical's packaging of different DEs as if they were entirely different distros.

<comment><USER5> _I've always been annoyed at Canonical's packaging of different DEs as if they were entirely different distros._

You mean they aren't? Really, how often do you have to go mess around under /etc ? A different DE is probably the biggest user-facing change you'll get.

<comment><USER4> Of course they aren't. One of the coolest things about desktop Linux is that you can easily use whatever DE suits your fancy without having to do a bunch of footwork.

Packaging these as different distributions sends your users red flags about compatibility and ease of use. It makes people think they have to change their computer completely if they want to try something new. It makes them think they can't have concurrent DE installs if one user prefers XFCE and another prefers KDE and another prefers Gnome. It makes them look for "Kubuntu packages" instead of "Ubuntu packages" even though the distributions are binary compatible.

There are a lot of implications of pretending like you're a whole different OS when you're just a different default DE.

And I "mess around under /etc" frequently, probably multiple times per week.

<comment><USER6> Ubuntu's target market has a very different interpretation of "a bunch of footwork" than yours.

<comment><USER7> sudo aptitude install kde-full shouldn't be "a bunch of footwork" by any standard by someone who passed high school.

<comment><USER8> I'd hazard a guess that there's a not-insignificant number of Ubuntu users for whom opening the terminal is "a bunch of footwork".

I used to live with a 40-something woman who was fairly technologically impaired, the kind of person you would expect to get a MacBook Air and call it a day. She ran Mint. Now, granted, it was installed by our room mate who was (still is, I suppose) a CS grad student, but she got by just fine with Mint, LibreOffice, and Chrome. Never used anything else, and never had a need to go plunking around on the command line.

I suspect Susan is not alone among Linux users who just wanted a cheap computer that worked and had some nerd install a user-friendly distro for them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Following the Unix philosophy _Write programs that do one thing and do it well_ \-- perhaps we can assume that Canonical is willing to maintain one OS, and do it well.

<comment><USER10> I've been wanting to hear this for a long time. Not that I like one more than the other, I just think that Canonicals effort should be towards developing, fixing and improving one UI, not four.

<comment><USER11> I'm not sure Canonical supports XFCE in any way, and now they also no longer support KDE (financially, that is). There were hiring _one_ guy to work on Kubuntu, that's not much if you ask me. So we're down to two (Gnome-shell and Unity), and the support of gnome-shell is almost mandatory. Unity itself is based on gnome3, so they need to help maintain and improve it.

There is no harm in letting community driven efforts take place. Having a variety of desktop environments available to pick from has its advantages. For example, Xubuntu is really useful for people who need to cut down memory/CPU requirements.

<comment><USER12> Xubuntu is also really useful if you want a superior desktop UI. I'm not sure if it's gotten harder or easier to make a default Ubuntu install use Xfce4 on the very newest version, it'd be nice if that was an install-time option instead of the separate distro mess. (It used to be just sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop, but I've been out of the Ubuntu world for long enough I have no idea if they changed that and it wouldn't surprise me.)

I'll be on Gnome2 until it dies, after that I'll have a full switch to Xfce4 since it's the only one that can compete with Gnome2 at the moment. I'll probably seriously experiment with various tiling managers around that time too. I'm more excited about the future developments of Wayland which I'm glad Canonical is supporting but not so much gnome3 and unity.

<comment><USER11> So far, I'm not a big fan of gnome3 (and Unity), but I'm going to give the gnome developers some credit and trust the direction they took. They spent countless hours thinking about what to do - I didn't.

They refactored most of gtk, simplifying many things, and in the long run, when people are done migrating everything, I believe it will turn out for the best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This comment stood out for me in that article:

 _If it does then we need people to step up and take the initiative in doing the tasks that are often poorly supported by the community process. ISO testing, for example, is a long, slow, thankless task, and it is hard to get volunteers for it. We can look at ways of reducing effort from what we do such as scrapping the alternate CD or automating KDE SC packaging._

This is the biggest single challenge that free software has to over come if it every hopes to challenge proprietary versions. Testing, and verifying bug fixes, and bugs, and documenting. Its not the 'fun' work of building a distro, its not the 'glorious' work of building a distro, its not something that makes people want to sit at your table during a 'con.

But the reality is the for most software products the number of people who are 'users' and the number of people who are 'developers' are generally very different, with successful products having many more users than developers. Users have no option when they hit a problem or an incompatibility but to stop using, that is their only choice. They aren't going to learn C, they aren't going to try to fetch and build a newer version of a kernel module, all they really can do is try something else.

Everything else pales in comparison to that problem.

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't understand what is the problem. I installed Ubuntu multiple times just to uninstall Gnome and install KDE as a first step after install. Never bothered to actually try KUbuntu.

Is this method of installing KDE still supported, or they are dropping support for KDE completely.

<comment><USER15> They will probably not drop the KDE packages (that'd be idiotic, tons of people use, say Amarok or Kopete or whatnot) — but it won't be the streamlined experience that Unity is or Gnome was, Ubuntu icons everywhere and whatnot.

It'll just be closer, or even identical to upstream KDE (or rather, Debian's version of upstream KDE) with few modifications on Canonical's side.

<comment><USER16> Canonical is not a stranger to idiotic business decisions.(See also Unity and their subsequent losing of ground to Mint)

That, combined with their utter inability to take community feedback into account, really makes me wonder whenever they do something like this. It's like traditional logic doesn't apply.

<comment><USER17> > Canonical is not a stranger to idiotic business decisions.

Do they even make money? They provide a bunch of free stuff, so I'm not sure how the recoup it.

<comment><USER18> They sell support contracts.

<comment><USER17> My _impression_ , with no basis in actual facts, is that they spend more than they take in. How many zillions of users do they have, and how many of those actually need support from Canonical, especially when they can get varying degrees of support from anyone with Linux knowledge.

<comment><USER4> Ubuntu Server is becoming more and more popular. While the Red Hat "wait five years between releases" model works for some applications, it is actually not very good for people developing new web-based programs. There is a lot of appreciation for a server-style OS that updates more frequently (semi-annually in Ubuntu's case), and Ubuntu offers contracts (supposedly) comparable to what you would get with RHEL so you can still keep the CYA business guys happy (and get support, I guess, if you need it).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> That's a shame. I never liked KDE since I first tried it about 15 years ago. Unity and Gnome 3 are so bad that on my latest ubuntu install, I decided to see if KDE was fixed yet. It's now my primary desktop environment. There are a few issues with it, but I felt like it was far better than the alternatives.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've recently switched Linux Mint as a result of Canonical's new focus on eye candy rather than functionality (I couldn't take the new interface in Ubuntu). Have others gone the same way or is there another distribution I should look at?

<comment><USER17> The idea that you should reinstall every time, with Mint, makes it sound like a bit of a toy, in my eyes.

<comment><USER21> It's a philosophy, not a requirement. Mint thinks you should upgrade Ubuntu that way as well.

I just keep separate partitions and do a full install on the ones I need. No sweat.

On the other hand, I did a "ubuntu" style upgrade to 10.04 LTS, and that worked fine, too (I run that on a netbook for their netbook interface). It took longer than a full install on Mint (perhaps being a slower machine had something to do with it), but it worked out ok.

<comment><USER17> Ok, but if they eventually strike out 'on their own', it's not something they're going to test, potentially leaving you in the lurch.

<comment><USER21> I imagine we'll at least be warned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I liked that mix o Debian base + latest KDE + some Ubuntu graphical extras (printer, package update, etc). KDE needs it's own distro focused on a great KDE user experience. Sorry for Mandriva and others but for me I need something based on Debian. My real opinion is that KDE should make itself a distro to get a good vertical integration.

</comment><comment><USER23> Canonical should consider dropping Unity and getting the Gnome people to drop Gnome 3 and then get them to come out with Gnome 4 based on Gnome 2 with some very small Ubuntu twists. Oh right, that would be all Ubuntu versions up to 11 which were successful.

</comment><comment><USER24> It's always sad to see a project failing. There are other alternatives, both to a KDE linux distro (i.e: openSUSE) and gnome/ubuntu (mint being my favorite).

It's a business decision I understand, they want to shift focus completely to ubuntu, especially since they are losing a huge user-base over their last gnome3 releases.

<comment><USER25> It doesn't mean the project is failing. Kubuntu had only a single developer from Canonical, and numerous other developers. This just means that Canonical doesn't feel like funding a KDE desktop anymore with that one developer. It doesn't mean the project is ending or anything.

<comment><USER24> You're right, but it means the project will (probably) become less stable. One less full time individual probably means less testing and might require you to use older packages or build them yourself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> really, what's the problem with installing kde on ubuntu/ubuntu server?

<comment><USER27> kubuntu are the ones who maintain the packages. If they go away, you're either HOPING someone volunteers to package KDE in an independent repo (a pretty daunting task), or you're building it from source.

<comment><USER28> All those packages come from Debian anyway. As long as Debian keeps KDE in its repos, I don't see any reason for KDE packages to disappear from Ubuntu repos. Worst case, KDE on Ubuntu will become less stable due to less testing, but that could be partially mitigated by using slightly older packages.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The reason i prefer xubuntu is the fact that Kubuntu is going the way of ubuntu by investing heavily on eyecandy, touch-like interfaces and excessive UI bloat. KDE seems to be the best overall platform for development, but the interface is trying too much to be everything. I think they should reconsider falling back to a simple clean default desktop, because they are doing a disservice to the developers of thousands of great KDE apps.

<comment> mike-cardwell I'm on Ubuntu 11.04 atm. I plan to upgrade to 12.04 in July (after its had a few months to bed in), but I'm weary of what to expect from their next UI update, given their recent history. Unless I hear good things, I'll be moving over to Xubuntu.

<comment><USER30> Alternatively, you could go with XMonad! I made the jump after experiencing Canonical's Unity and proceeding to search for alternatives. Once you make the switch, you won't want to use anything else. :-)

<comment><USER31> Or maybe he will switch back. Like I did.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Facebook Is Working On A Deal With Microsoft To Kill Google In Online Ad Space - <AUTHOR> http://www.dazeinfo.com/2012/12/06/yes-facebook-is-working-on-a-deal-that-could-kill-google-in-online-ad-space/

<comment><AUTHOR> Apparently, Google's dominance is coming to an end and Facebook is the biggest challenger of this. For one after another Facebook is just occupying Google's ground in every aspect.</comment>


CryptoPHP: Analysis of a hidden threat inside popular content management systems - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fox-it.com/2014/11/18/cryptophp-analysis-of-a-hidden-threat-inside-popular-content-management-systems/

<comment><USER2> Can someone tag the title [2014]?</comment>


Ask HN: which cheap server hosting in Europe (not OVH) would you recommend ? - <AUTHOR>

Hello,
Which hosting provider would you recommend for storing a lot of personal files (backup from a nas at home) and eventually hosting a few tiny websites/sandbox ? I need about 3 terabytes.
OVH is still in "sold out" mode, and I don't want to use a service based in the USA for privacy reason. <comment><USER2> Leaseweb (Netherlands), not exactly "super" cheap, but great hosting for a very fair price.

For a reference, even MegaUpload had a lot of servers from them.

Want superbe service, you should consider Combell (Belgium).</comment>


Vinwo – The open-source virtual world with real investments - <AUTHOR> http://www.vinwo.net <comment><USER2> An email signup cannot be a Show HN. Please read the rules:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, So Show HN for next stage ;)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, Vinwo aims to be a open-source virtual world, in which you could be the owner of a part of the world. What do you think? Happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks!</comment>


Targeting WikiLeaks, Explicitly Threatens Speech and Press Freedoms (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://theintercept.com/2017/04/14/trumps-cia-director-pompeo-targeting-wikileaks-explicitly-threatens-speech-and-press-freedoms/ <comment><USER2> I might be understanding this incorrectly, but the charges appear to be limited to Julian apparently coaching Chelsea on how to crack passwords, specifically because at that point he had already received the data dump from her and therefore would know that he is instructing on how to conduct further (alleged) crimes.

Although journalists often obtain information from otherwise potentially illegal sources, telling them how to go about it in a way that definitely _is_ illegal probably makes you accessory to that crime. (accessory, aiding and abetting, etc.)

Thoughts?</comment>


Thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar and "Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out" - <AUTHOR> http://jseliger.com/2009/12/27/thoughts-on-james-camerons-avatar/ <comment><USER3> While there are some interesting points in this article, I didn't take this movie as either anti-corporate or anti-technology.

It's more anti-military / anti-imperialism than anti-corporate. Yes, the bad guys are a corporation, but I get the feeling that they did that to make the film more marketable. Americans probably would have a much harder time cheering for the aliens who are slaughtering US Marines. But very little about plot would have changed had the bad guys been military instead of a private corporation.

As for anti-technology, I think it's more about the dangers of abusing power of any kind, including the power that technology lends us.

<comment><USER4> I haven't seen it yet, but I assume it's just a regurgitation of a "noble savage" story.

I want to make a movie about a technologically and culturally advanced people who encounter a primitive race. The primitives have high murder & infanticide rates, endless stupid tribal wars, etc. The technologically advanced people force assimilate or drive off the primitives and live happily ever after. The End.

<comment><USER3> Watch any old western :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are, fundamentally, two different ways to approach science fiction, exemplified by Star Trek and Star Wars. The "Trek" style uses a "weird" setting to enable social commentary that would otherwise be either unpalatable or simply impossible. In the "Wars" style, the "weird" setting is the whole point: the reader/viewer can witness world-building on a grander scale than would otherwise be possible, and the plot can include elements that the audience would never otherwise swallow.

There's almost always some crossover between the two, but it's important to remember that each is very difficult to do well. Very few artists are skilled at both. A work that tries to focus on both, as Avatar does, usually fails.

Avatar is an excellent example of world-building, on possibly a bit too grand a scale for a movie: there are a handful of things that should have been explained away or lampshaded, but the explanations just wouldn't fit into an already-too-long movie. Where it falls flat is in its attempted social commentary.

</comment><comment><USER6> I would imagine that the limited resource on earth would sell for an incredibly high price before getting depleted. Thus Earth would become a conservationist society, careful not to waste resources or produce too many humans.

It is hard to imagine that the incentive for space travel to find new source would be outraced by extremely fast usage of resources.

Plus there are asteroid belts to mine, and probably tons of them in the system that that Avatar is occupied.

From my political perspective, this is mostly a libertarian film that pit a peaceful tribe who rightfully homestead the island against a fascist corporation that was granted evil government privilege.

Though I can't help but think that most people will think this is about environmentalism and planting tree and that greedy evil free market corporation ruins everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> Now let's not let realism get in the way of a good movie! Every story gets a few points where you suspend belief, then the rest has to make sense in that context. For this one, let's say that it's an exotic material that has only been found on Pandora. Unrealistic, but so is the fact that the aliens are humanoid shaped.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Capitalism won when it learnt how to sell anti-capitalism."

I think I read that somewhere...

</comment><comment><USER8> I saw the movie yesterday, and I also watched "District 9" yesterday. I'm kind of amazed at how the 2 movies approached the same basic idea - <USER2> oppressing aliens - and ended up entirely different. While I enjoyed all the visual effects of Avatar, I think District 9 had a more interesting treatment of the idea, mostly because it was less utopian.

<comment><USER4> District 9 is a movie about refugees made by a refugee.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> (spoiler alert)

A lot of the themes and messages in Avatar are very common in science fiction, in particular the parallels with the story of Dune are striking:

\- greedy corporation seeks to exploit a resource with little regard for the native population (spice/unobtainium)

\- saviour from same race as greedy corporation is accepted into native population and through a mythical prophecy, becomes leader and unites tribes against greedy corporation

\- native population and their natural habitat are massively underestimated and through help of saviour defeat greedy corporation

</comment><comment><USER10> This is a bit off topic, but I related Avatar to Rudy Rucker's Postsingular. Same theme of technology becoming irrelevant when faced with superior natural/supernatural alternative, which I think reveals what we subconsciously desire, try and fail to create with technology.

Just like Postsingular made me wish someone would figure out how to strum the "lazy eight", Avatar left me wishing life on Earth came with an organic USB cable.

Sorry if there's a spoiler in there...

</comment><comment><USER11> Cameron's thinly veiled message clearly seemed to be that the corporations are out to destroy the earth and everything green causing overpopulation. The whole thing seemed kind of juvenile, especially when you consider the abundance that has been caused by corporate competition, which has in turn directly lead to decreasing birth rates in developed countries. The two factors, overpopulation and corporations destroying the earth for resources, are contradictory.

<comment><USER12> I disagree. Corporations don't have to have any goal to "destroy the earth" or "cause overpopulation". Pursuit of short-term profits while externalising the risks and wastes is bad enough. If you consider the "the abundance that has been caused" you should also consider the common tactic of trying to ignore and hide the drawbacks (e.g. tobacco industry) and drag feet on any effective action to change thigns (e.g. recent Copenhagen climate conference).

<comment><USER11> The changes advocated at Copenhagen only make sense if your financial future is tied to either green tech or carbon trading. If the stuff was economically viable or offered an attractive alternative (e.g. Tankless water heaters never run out of hot water. Plugging in a car should be much cheaper and easier than visiting a gas station.) it wouldn't require legislation.

<comment><USER12> _If the stuff was economically viable ... it wouldn't require legislation_

I think you're missing the point if what I said. Lots of things are economically viable to a corporation if it can externalise the downsides (either by dumping the wastes or getting a bailout when it make mistakes) or simply get the legislation that favours it (google "oil industry tax breaks" for an example).

You can't get away from legislation. Bailouts are legislation. But making polluters pay requires legislation. There is no mythical free, unlegislated market that will magically do the right thing. There's only good legislation and bad legislation.

<comment><USER11> Don't polluters already pay? The proposed measures are designed to curtail carbon emissions, aren't there already supply side taxes on carbon generating fuel sources like oil and natural gas. Has carbon actually been scientifically proven to be the sole driver of global warming? By scientifically, I don't mean using a computer model with fudged numbers generated by interested parties with poor programming skills. If it isn't testable and repeatable it also isn't science. The models have made predictions that haven't matched reality thus far, why would we believe they are going to start matching reality in the future?

Aren't there other more pressing forms of pollution than CO2 emmisions? What about strip mining, particulate emissions, and methane? Is this really about curtailing emissions, or creating a lucrative secondary trading market and taxation system to benefit people like Al Gore who are both heavily invested in carbon trading, and part of the legislature.

<comment><USER12> Whoah, that's a whole lot of rant you've got pent-up in there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> this was submitted by the author himself only 19 hours ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1018100></comment>


The Meaning of the Bones - <AUTHOR> http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/11/02/the-meaning-of-the-bones/ <comment><USER2> Shakespeare is so popuar because he's the most popular playwright of the current lingua franca of the world. That's all there is to it.

And I say that as someone who absolutely adores Shakespeare and who's from the country that had the first ever Shakespeare society (hint: it's not an anglophone one).

</comment><comment><USER3> > Perhaps the most miraculous thing about Shakespeare is that, through the > accidents of history, he's come to form a global point of reference.

Is he really a "global point of reference"? I'm not at all confident I could drop a reference to, say, Macbeth or Hamlet when dealing with people from India or China. Using the high-points of American popular culture like Luke Skywalker or Superman seems a lot safer.

I'd be interested to hear from folks from outside the Anglosphere on this point.

<comment><USER4> Somewhere around the house, I have a copy of Samuel Johnson's prefaces to Shakespeare's plays, edited by an Indian professor. Now, I can't at all speak to the case of China.

<comment><USER5> Chinese people generally hear of Shakespeare in school but few will have read him.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Gameboy port of 2048  - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Sanqui/2048-gb

<comment><USER2> Man, that's awesome. And it's written in assembly! I'm asking out of my armpit here but, is there no way to compile C/C++ for the Gameboy?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! You can compile C, but it's pretty inefficient to do that. Even my algorithm here (to draw the tilemap animations) isn't the fastest, and it's assembly.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why I should attend to Google I/O? - <AUTHOR>

I'm building a company focused on APIs on node.js ( a kind of Google Apps script but for all APIs -not only Google ones and not on Rhino as Google Apps Script-). Just to know why people attend to Google I/O. Is it only a google tech conference for discovering Google tech news 2 days before everybody? Is is a business networking event? Is it a "business with Google" event? Which population goes there? Only Developpers using Google technologies? Is it open to start-ups which can show off their techno? I would come from France to go to the Gluecon 7 days after, so I would like to know if I have a good reason to spend $900 to Google I/O (If I have the chance to book a ticket the 13tth of March !!!) <comment><USER2> I think the main reason to go to a conference is to immerse yourself in a certain type if culture. I attended a query conference last weekend and I came out of it so motivated to work on new things. It is easy to get bogged down sometimes by the daily grind at work and these events feature speakers who can show you a different side of things - things that excite you. And the best part is that you are there with others that share your enthusiasm. It is sometimes infectious.

I would say that the type of person that attends a Google i/o conference appreciates the cutting edge in terms of mobile and web technologies.

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you already been there? what did you learn, make, or who did you met that you could only do there? I love cutting edege technologies and I watch Google I/O videos on Youtube, but I want to understand here why I would pay $900 for attending.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'd also love to know the answer to this. I'm a freelance developer (Node.js/Python/Go) in SF Bay area and am wondering if this would be a good event to attend for building relationships that will lead to more freelance development work.</comment>


Ask HN: How much traffic to expect if your project hits HN front page? - <AUTHOR> Older post:<p>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107658 <comment><USER2> You can expect up to low 5-digits of page views -

[https://ma.ttias.be/the-frontpage-hacker-news-stats- graphs-a...](https://ma.ttias.be/the-frontpage-hacker-news-stats-graphs- analysis/)

[http://alainmeier.com/traffic-data-after-hitting-the- hacker-...](http://alainmeier.com/traffic-data-after-hitting-the-hacker-news- homepage)

[http://purde.net/2015/01/hacker-news-number-one-post- stats/](http://purde.net/2015/01/hacker-news-number-one-post-stats/)

But unless you're selling something most people can enjoy (dropbox, github, etc) it may not be of much value to you -

[http://blog.yesgraph.com/yesgraph-tc-ph-hn-omg- bbq/](http://blog.yesgraph.com/yesgraph-tc-ph-hn-omg-bbq/)

9.3k uniques -> 44 free trial registrations = 0.4% conversion rate, or 0+ paying customers from 3 front page posts

</comment><comment><USER3> Single data point: My personal best for one of my blog posts is currently at 20432 in total page views. IIRC, about 15k of that was from hitting the front page and the rest is residual traffic that keeps trickling in. Those numbers are handwavy and I have reason to suspect they probably aren't really all that good. It isn't like that post got really wildly upvoted. There is some relationship between how much it gets upvoted, how long it remains on the front page and how much traffic it gets.</comment>


Booting a VM of an iSCSI LUN – inside a Kubernetes Cluster - <AUTHOR> https://dummdida.tumblr.com/post/157834884385/booting-a-vm-of-an-iscsi-lun-inside-a-kubernetes <comment><USER2> suggest a iSCSI target docker image with code in [https://github.com/gostor/gotgt](https://github.com/gostor/gotgt)

<comment><USER3> That's a nice hint</comment></comment>


At last apple.com looks good on phones - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks like apple.com finally has become mobile friendly.</comment>


"Kulveer Taggar says he expected to wait a little longer before becoming a millionaire." - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/130596

<comment><USER2> _everybody is given a gray T shirt that reads MAKE WHAT PEOPLE WANT_

What they really say is _Make something people want._ It's interesting that, whenever I have inside knowledge about an article's subject, I always seem to catch little mistakes like this. And it makes me wonder, how many other details do they get wrong?

It's a tired but true cliché: don't believe everything you read. (That being said, this article is basically right---as far as I can tell.)

<comment><USER3> Indeed. I've been in the newspaper a few times, and every time there was some glaringly wrong detail.

<comment><USER4> I've not been in the paper myself, but many of my friends have, and the first thing they always point out is how badly the paper misquoted them.

I always expected the things I read in quotation marks to be quotations, and it was surprising to find out that's rarely the case. A journalist's idea of quotation is actually to take the gist of what you said, put it in new words, and then put it back in your mouth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> i can't help but feel like this is an odd fit (auctomatic + communicate.com). Of course I know nothing beyond what I've read, and auctomatic sounds like a group of talented folks with savvy advisers - but the synergies between the two companies just aren't clear to me.

Maybe communicate (like many small google acquisitions) is buying for talent which would makes sense from their perspective, but they are not quite google so the allure from the founders side is a bit less shiny. Hard to second guess 5 million though.

<comment><USER6> Yaw, I think this is a case where a really profitable domain company decided they needed a webdev team and found a well-priced turnkey team in the Auctomatics.

It's easy to underestimate the value here, but it's huge, I think. Imagine the time, cost (and opportunity cost!) of trying to build your own team, including the risk that you'd hire a bad seed or two.

With a scant $5mm, this company gets a functional team that's already used to working together. In addition, presumably there's a vesting schedule that requires that they stay there for some number of years to get paid... With lots of web devs hopping jobs every year or so, this is a big deal.

<comment><USER7> no that's not what this deal was. of course the talent of our team was attractive but that's not why they paid $5m. Live Current have a huge amount of organic traffic with genuine purchasing intent that comes to sites like perfume.com and electronic.com. but they have no understanding of what tools you need to provide sellers to get them to invest their time in another trading platform.

you'd be surprised how ineffective pitching the potential for a new distribution channel is to most sellers, they value their time so highly getting them to convert is incredibly tough. you can only do it by making it _very_ easy for them to integrate their set up with the platform you're offering.

not surprisingly we have a deep understanding of what these sellers want and have developed tools they use. we always wanted to eventually build trading platforms but didn't have the buyers to seed an initial platform with. now we can promise them great tools and an immediate audience for their products.

incidentally there's no vest on our cash, we're working at Live Current because we see it as the next step of Auctomatic (hence we've kept a lot of autonomy) and not a well-paid job. it'd be very tough for someone to compensate us well enough that we'd be happy to work as web devs implementing someone elses ideas on domains.

<comment><USER5> thanks for adding that layer of details.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> wtf at submission headline.

im paying no tax on this deal.

the stock price hasn't been finalised on the deal yet either (related to point 2 above).

<comment><USER9> i've heard some other kul quotes that would make great headlines.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _"... When Auctomatic began negotiating, it put its efforts for a second funding round on hold—and just about ran out of money. ..."_

Why did this happen?

As for the sale, well I think the decision not to hold out showed good judgement, an appreciation of the current credit squeeze. Is it always worth to hold out for _"double"_ or nothing? Only time will tell if eBay market will be hit by the downturn. Is there any reason another startup in this area could not try a similiar tack?

</comment><comment><USER11> To all the non-hackers out there... the Taggars learned to hack.

Although having Patrick and John was surely a huge benefit, it goes to shows where there's a will, there's a way.

<comment><USER12> _Although having Patrick and John was surely a huge benefit_

And Phil Kast (who also wrote the News.YC bookmarklet).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Kinda nitpicking here but are they really 'millionaires' with that low of a buyout after taxes and everything else get taken out? Not trying to diminish at all what they accomplished, but I think its more accurate that they are all '6-8 hundred thousandaires'

Think about it, 3 (4?) founders, YC investment (assuming 7%) plus additional investment (10-25%) - 30-40% to the government does not leave as much as you might hope.

<comment><USER14> If you set things up properly, as a founder or sometimes as an early employee, you should only pay capital-gains tax (10-15%).

<comment><USER13> Thats interesting... would love to see more details on this, anyone have any useful links?

<comment><USER15> As the first poster said, don't believe everything you read. The media is all about hype and thousandaires don't roll off the page.

The details: the acquisition price was $5 Million which was made up of $2 Million Cash and $3 Million Stock.

There were 3 founders, Harjeet Taggar, Kulveer Taggar, Patrick Collison. Each founder held 20.89% of the company at the time of sale. YCombinator held 4.38%. Paul Graham personally held 0.96%.

20.89% of $5 Million is $1,044,500. Of course they only have 40% of that in cash and the other 60% is in stock. The stock was $2.69 the day the deal closed. It's now trading at $2.40. If they still have their shares, they are worth 10% less which is a loss of $62,670.

That is all before tax. Factor in capital gains tax of 10-15% before the stock drop and you are already out of millionaire territory.

On an unrelated note, each of the founders are now making a base salary $100,000 at Communicate.com. This does not include bonuses, options, etc.

Source: [http://www.edgar- online.com/bin/cobrand/?doc=A-1108630-00011...](http://www.edgar- online.com/bin/cobrand/?doc=A-1108630-0001176256-08-000345&nav=1&src=Yahoo)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Congrats:-) Any bets as to the first Economist article related to Y Combinator?

<comment><USER17> More interesting, perhaps, would be the first YC IPO.

<comment><USER18> Actually YC companies are less biased towards IPOs than the average VC backed company because of the smaller investment and lower average burn rate, and even VC backed companies rarely IPO in todays market. In conclusion I wouldn't hold my breath.

<comment><USER12> Nearly all (good) startups start small, but lots of YC-funded startups have now raised more than Google did initially. I believe 9 have done series A rounds, and many more have done big angel rounds.

<comment><USER18> Google raised more than 25M USD in its first year in a series A round, the largest round done by a YC backed company I could find was 12M (Loopt) and that was a B series round.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Combinator>

<http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease1.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> There was a seed round before that to get them started which was a lot larger than most YC startups take. Anyway, what does the size of the round have to do with what you are trying to prove?

<comment><USER18> My point is that Google's had very few exit strategies other than an IPO once it took 25M in VC money.

Most YC startups have more flexibility regarding their exit strategy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sometimes I think that "make something people want" should really be "make something people need or could really use even if they don't know or think they want it".

But then every shirt would have to be XXXL.

<comment><USER18> Henry Ford once said that if he asked his customers what they wanted they would've said they wanted a faster horse

<comment><USER7> that's still compatible with making something people want - read Innovator's Dilemma on demand for sustaining v disruptive technologies.</comment></comment></comment>


Ada Lovelace Day - <AUTHOR> http://findingada.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't know about this until I saw this great contribution by Aaron: <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/margo></comment>


What Happens When You Zap Exposed Film with Static Electricity - <AUTHOR> https://petapixel.com/2020/03/03/unique-self-portraits-made-by-zapping-4x5-film-with-static-electricity/ <comment><USER2> I would of loved to see the unexposed statics, some of these just look two photos super imposed. But I guess they literally are!</comment>


Show HN: Advanced Scheduler Heroku Add-On - <AUTHOR> https://elements.heroku.com/addons/advanced-scheduler <comment><AUTHOR> The last year I worked hard on launching my first production project, Advanced Scheduler. It is an Heroku add-on providing task scheduling as a service with an increasing number of higher value services on top. It aims to be more flexible, reliable and easy to use than existing solutions. The beta phase has just ended and it is now generally available on the Heroku Marketplace:

[https://elements.heroku.com/addons/advanced- scheduler](https://elements.heroku.com/addons/advanced-scheduler)

I'd love feedback and suggestions on how to make it better. Thanks!</comment>