Ask HN: Advice for a high school student - <AUTHOR>

Hello. I am a 17 year old living in a medium sized town in eastern Canada. Recently I have started to have concerns about my future; not that it will be bad, nor that some unfortunate event shall occur, but rather I am uncertain of the direction to take in my life to be able do what I want. I consider myself lucky in that I know where I want my career to start (most of my classmates do not), which is starting in technology. I can program very well in Java, Javascript (including node and backbone), and PHP, and with the knowledge of all these, other languages are very easy and quick to pick up. I can design quite good looking web applications as well. Since I am graduating this year, I will be going to taking computer science and my town's local university (which is not at all a bad one, but not a top school), although I am interested in taking business as well (and was heavily weighing on whether to go into the business program). The problem is that I do not see what path to take. I do not want to live in this town for the rest of my life. I want to make a difference in companies and most of all start companies.
I have a plan somewhat laid out for my future. My first year at university I will live at home to ease into university life, second year I will switch to dorms to get accustomed to living away from home, and third year I will transfer to a reputable university in a large city such as toronto (or somewhere close such as the University of Waterloo) to make the move, and then take a co-op program to ease into getting a job, however after that I do not know. There seems to be many successful people here on HN, and many people that may have been in my situation. How does this sound? What is your advice on university, how to move to a big city, how to get an interesting job, and how to start a company?
note: I will not e able to respond until later as I am at school for the day <comment><USER2> Man, I wish I had your focus when I was in high school! I chose a different career path, then chose another, only to roll in the tech scene by accident. But you know what: I don't regret the choices I made, they all taught me valuable things, insights, ideas. I believe it was John Lennon who said 'life is what happens to you while you're making plans for it', so don't worry about your future path too much.

As for advices: University: in my opinion, universities build networks, not knowledge. If you get in a good uni, by all means go for it. If you don't, there are other ways to build a network. How to move to a big city: easy. Just do it. Don't obsess about the details, just go with the flow. How to get an interesting job: all jobs are interesting at first, especially your first job. No matter where you'll end up for your first job, I guarantee you you'll learn more in the first two months than four years in uni. Not just knowledge, but stuff they don't teach you in school. Like coffee-machine politics, interhuman relations, understanding how a business works. How to start a company: start- fail-repeat.

As for success: that word means something different to anyone. To me, it's not about money, the car you drive or the size of your company. To me, success means freedom, doing stuff I love to do, caring for my family.

So go on, work your way through college, participate in extracurricular activities (tech and non-tech), keep an open mind but most of all: enjoy the ride.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd recommend that you don't focus on computer science. Find a different subject you like and make that your major. Of course, you should keep taking the CS courses. At the very least you should pick up a minor and, if you feel up for it, go ahead and double major, but the other degree should be your focus.

After you graduate, you'll be out in the job market with thousands of other programmers. You'll have some nice coding projects under your belt, as will they. However, when Google/Facebook/Apple is looking for someone on their secret new NLP project, being the only applicant with a degree in Linguistics puts you at the top of the pile. Blizzard won't care if you forget a few semi- colons in your interview code if you can point to your senior thesis on medieval siege engines and discuss how they'd work in Diablo 4. Heck, if you're just in it for the money, J. Random Consulting will shell out the megabucks if they can charge for you as both a programmer and a CPA. If you want to go the startup route, what better way to find a niche than to spend four years working on problems generally solved by people who can't code.

Besides, even in the worst case scenario where you can't get a coding job that has anything to do with your major, you now have a degree in a field you enjoy and can drop out of the programming rat race if you ever burn out.

</comment><comment><USER4> If I were you, I'd go to the best university you can get into and you and your parents can afford, regardless of location. I'd also move into a dorm immediately.

The best school possible, regardless of location, is not just so you'll get the best quality education - it's also so you'll meet more of the most interesting people, and be exposed to the most interesting opportunities down the road.

Moving into a dorm immediately is so you'll make friends. Most first-year students are in the same situation - they're in a new location, they don't know many people, and there's lots of social activities, so they'll make friends quickly. If you wait until your second year to start living in the dorm, you'll be entering a situation where people have already made close friendships, and you'll have a harder time getting to know people.

You don't need to worry about the stresses of moving to a new city, and you don't need to worry about 'easing into' dorms - the dorms are already designed to be an experience that eases you into adult life. Best of luck!

<comment><USER5> Dorm life is (or at least was) nothing like reality or adult life. You may become friends with the people you meet in the dorms but I made more meaningful connections with the people who shared the same interests as I did. I met those people mostly in classes we shared. Dorm relationships were more random.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Programming is one job where the knowledge you acquire during your career becomes useless within just a few years. I'm over generalizng here of course but, for the most part, it's true. Techniques you learn live longer, accumulated wisdom and approaches are valuable forever but there are no old programmers. Programming languages are not skills,they are tools. Knowing HOW and WHEN to apply them is where the skill lies. You're smart to start thinking about this now before you get boxed in. A business background will definitely help, especially if you're interested in running your own business someday.

I guess it depends on the campus, but dorm life (when I went to UNB) was noisy, messy and distracting. Don't live in a dorm just for the experience of living away from home, rent an apt instead. It's probably cheaper than living on campus and you get to pick your roomie.

</comment><comment><USER6> Being enrolled as a full-time student in a university is the perfect time to dive into formal/mathematical proofs, algorithms, data structures, and discrete mathematics. Those subjects are the backbone of Computer Science, so it will be to your advantage to study those topics thoroughly.

Also I would strongly recommend taking courses (history, economics, music, etc.) that are not related to your major, as college is an opportune time to open your mind and explore new subjects and hobbies. Go wild and don't worry, you'll have plenty of time in the future outside of college to learn PHP/Java API incantations.

</comment><comment><USER7> I wouldn't worry about it since you have so much time. Seems like you're in a pretty good spot. I'd consider getting into internships while you're in University(If you go to Waterloo, I think that they pretty much force you to do these in order to graduate) -- you can try working at some startups or bigger companies and see where you'll fit there. I wouldn't plan it out too much. You have to see what you'll enjoy through your experiences.

</comment><comment><USER8> In my opinion, it's going to boil down to what you accomplish – not where you go to school. A good school will, however, provide you with a good network and make you more attractive applicant. Once you decide whether you want to study CS or Biz (a decision you need to make for yourself), I would suggest selecting the top program you are admitted to.

When you get to school, capitalize on the opportunity. Learn as much as you can. Don't map out your next four years. Be agile. Test, try, learn and make moves accordingly. Act like a 'Start-Up', don't just build – test and then build.

Most importantly, make sure that you take some time to smell the roses. You only get an Undergraduate University experience, and access to University women once in your life!

</comment><comment><USER9> When you get to college, if you can't do the math, realize this as early as possible. Slogging through will only ruin your GPA and won't be worth it.</comment>


Snowden blocked from traveling to Germany, - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/snowden-blocked-from-traveling-to-germany-testifying-to-parliament/

<comment><USER2> But do you really think he's going to be traveling outside of Russia anytime soon?</comment>


Ask HN: Can you be a great developer if you don't program in your free time? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> You will probably have a higher chance of developing technical skills if you take some time to study and code during your free time. You shouldn't depend on your job to train you on new languages or frameworks. There are a lot of things you and I don't know and we won't have time to learn about them while at work.

Also being a developer isn't just purely coding. There's the ability to write legible code, write tests, know what to use when, know how to read code that you didn't write (or even in a language you aren't a master of), find the cause of a bug in an efficient way. You need to be able to talk effectively to non-technical people to figure out why they think X is a bug or how Y is really supposed to work. Those type of skills kinda evolve during your work hours but you have to be aware about improving on them.

I think if you don't spend some extra time programming you very well might grow stale. Years will pass by and you'll realize you want to get a new job but you don't really know that much beyond what you did at work.</comment>


Steve Jobs explains ban on Flash - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10092298

<comment><USER2> This article is pretty old (April 2010). Apple has loosened some of its restrictions in the meantime:

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20015954-264.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow. This is pretty funny considering how old the news is that this article is about.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is almost one year old. Why does it suddenly re-appear?</comment>


Second Oracle v. Google trial could lead to headaches for developers - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/round-2-of-oracle-v-google-is-an-unpredictable-trial-over-api-fair-use/ <comment><USER2> _Google petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its case, joined by allies including Yahoo, HP, Red Hat, and open source advocates, but was rebuffed. Microsoft, EMC, and NetApp urged the high court to let the Federal Circuit ruling stand, and that 's what happened._

WHY?? And here I thought Microsoft was coming around. Fuck these assholes (and EMC and NetApp too). What do these people have to gain by letting the ruling stand? It just makes interop harder. And here they are tapping into the Linux API shamelessly[1]. Shame on you fuckers.

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/04/why- mi...](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/04/why-microsoft- needed-to-make-windows-run-linux-software/)

<comment><USER3> I can think of a few good reasons:

\- Microsoft benefits when Google's mobile platform is hurt.

\- Microsoft has many APIs so why the heck would they want to overturn a decision that puts them in a position of power?

If those weren't enough, Google has poached Microsoft talent for years. Maybe there are people at Microsoft who just don't like Google and will work to screw them over. Most likely though it's more to do with the two reasons I listed above.

Plus, a little too much emotion in your post. Hard to believe you can feel any emotion about this whatsoever let along being basically pissed off. This is super boring tech news.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft also has a competing platform to Java that might benefit greatly if Java's open foundations were shaken: .NET

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This whole thing is unbelievable to me. We have Oracle spending who knows how much money suing Google and claiming that APIs are copyrightable. At the same time they, along with virtually every software company ever, rely on documented, standardized, ubiquitous protocols like IP, TCP/IP, and HTTP to create software that does anything useful. Even the most basic notepad or calculator application relies on APIs to function. I cannot imagine a world that forces us to treat every use of an API as a must-be-legally-contracted integration. Even the most trivial applications would never get completed because the cost just to agree to all these contracts would exceed any ability to generate profit from the resulting software.

If Oracle wins then in a way this might actually be _good_ for open source; software developers would seek out the path of least resistance: APIs that could be licensed freely. This could simply extend the push of open source _code_ further to _APIs_.

<comment><USER6> There's a strong fair use defense for interoperability ( _Sony v Connectix_ ). In the hypothetical situation that someone claimed copyright on TCP/IP, presumably that would be a strong enough defense.

Google is in difficulty here because they didn't use Java for purposes of interoperability; their version isn't even compatible. If they had, Oracle would have no case.

The appeals court left open the question of whether Java being _easier for developers_ because they already know Java counts as a fair use defense.

It might count, and then Google is free.

 _If Oracle wins then in a way this might actually be good for open source; software developers would seek out the path of least resistance: APIs that could be licensed freely._

That is why the FSF supported Oracle before the supreme court.

<comment><USER7> It's quite a stretch to say that the FSF supported Oracle before the Supreme Court. Also you seem to think that the FSF supports API copyrightability as a means of making free software more attractive to developers. This is not at all their position. Here is what they said at the time of the Jury verdict in the first trial[1]:

 _Were it grounded in reality, Oracle 's claim that copyright law gives them proprietary control over any software that uses a particular functional API would be terrible for free software and programmers everywhere. It is an unethical and greedy interpretation created with the express purpose of subjugating as many computer users as possible, and is particularly bad in this context because it comes at a time when the sun has barely set on the free software community's celebration of Java as a language newly suitable for use in the free world. Fortunately, the claim is not yet reality, and we hope Judge Alsup will keep it that way._

As for their brief against Google's petition to the Supreme Court[2]:

 _SFLC and FSF take the position that the decision below is wrong, but that certiorari should not be granted for three reasons: (1) the decision of the Federal Circuit merely mispredicts what the Ninth Circuit would do if it had been the Court resolving Oracle 's appeal from the District Court's finding that the application program interface declarations at issue are non- copyrightable; (2) the decision rests on narrow factual grounds; and (3) there is no public interest in continuing to adjudicate this dispute because Google can now and could have used all material at issue under the terms of the GNU GPL v2._

What to make of this? It's a bit convoluted. On the general issue of proprietary APIs, the FSF supports Google's position. But they think the judgement against Google from the Federal Circuit court carries virtually no value as precedent, as they say in their brief[3]:

 _Despite the manifestly erroneous character of the decision below, the petition for writ of certiorari should not be granted. The precedential weight of a decision so evidently mispredicting the law of another Circuit is essentially nil._

Now independently of the Oracle v. Google dispute, they would prefer if Google were using the GPL license for Android. Wouldn't it be nice if the bad Federal Circuit judgment could incentivize Google to use the GPL, without affecting other cases? I think that is the tactical advantage the FSF saw in opposing Google's petition to the Supreme Court. And it might have been a good call, as Google is indeed switching to the GPL Java implementation[4].

[1] [https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement-on-jurys-partial- verd...](https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement-on-jurys-partial-verdict-in- oracle-v-google)

[2] [https://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2014/dec/08/sflc- files-...](https://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2014/dec/08/sflc-files- against-scotus-cert-google_v_oracle/)

[3] [https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2014/google_v_orac...](https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2014/google_v_oracle- sflc_cert_amicus.html)

[4] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/android-n- switche...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/android-n-switches-to- openjdk-google-tells-oracle-it-is-protected-by-the-gpl/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It was a grave blunder for Google not to buy Sun. Besides Java, they would have gotten MySQL, ZFS and some hardware that would all be useful at Google.

<comment><USER9> Imagine Google the cloud operator having to tread carefully not to get into political infighting with Google the SPARC manufacturer. Google had very good reasons to stay clear of those recipes for disaster.

They could have still done a "Motorola" with Sun, but that's hindsight speaking.

<comment><USER10> Pish. Oracle didn't buy Sun for SPARC any more than Google would have. I don't hear anything about SPARC infighting at Oracle.

<comment><USER9> Sure. But introducing a hardware division into an organization that did not have one before can not only be useless, it can be harmful.

Oracle has much less direct investment in datacenter operation that could suffer from unwanted influence of in-house hardware than Google.

<comment><USER10> I still find it a bit silly to think Google would have been menaced by infighting from one of their acquisitions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I suspect if Oracle's wins the case ...

1) they will win a lot of money in the near term but it will greatly diminish the popularity of Java/JVM in the long run because most tech companies shudder at the thought of having Oracle be the slumlord of their core program language.

2) there will be a painful transition of FUD and lawsuits but open source languages/libraries will be ultimately become stronger in industry b/c the licenses can easily be extended to API rights. Restrictively or vaguely licensed code will be looked up on with greater suspicion.

<comment><USER12> There is no point using java, when Oracle can sue you anytime for any reason. Time to get away from Java, if oracle wins.

<comment><USER13> Only if you violate Java's GPL license. Google took a GPL code and licensed it under a different license - that's why they are sued. So, even if Google looses, that basically strengthens the open source case AND Java, meaning that you can not hijack Java (GPL) and make its offshot non-free (in a copyleft sense).

<comment><USER14> _Google took a GPL code and licensed it under a different license - that 's why they are sued._

The only code that was alleged to be copied were a few test files (which weren't even distributed) and a 9-line function called "rangeCheck".

There was a second copyright claim on the APIs, but Oracle didn't claim the _code_ was copied, just that the reimplementation had the same "structure, sequence and organization" (that is, same names and arguments).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What might this mean for open source platforms that target non-standard Java back-ends? Take scalajs[1] for example. It reimplements Java API's but not for the direct purpose of interoperability with standard Java. I believe this will be the case for Scala native as well.

In both those cases, it allows code to be written that targets both, so I would think interoperability would be a strong argument. But is that not the case for Android as well?

In this case the reimplementation is in Scala, but it could be argued that the "structure, sequence and organisation" definition of copying could apply.

If there is any chance this could be ruled as infringing copyright, then Oracle would have a powerful platform lock-in, and every line of code targeting their API's would contribute further to that.

[1] [https://github.com/scala-js/scala- js/blob/master/DEVELOPING....](https://github.com/scala-js/scala- js/blob/master/DEVELOPING.md)

</comment><comment><USER16> This would pretty much projects like Wine or GNUStep would be illegal. For those who don't remember the days of the Microsoft Empire, this is a pretty big thing.

Once AWS becomes a monopoly (which should happen anytime in the 5 to 6 yrs), the only way to challenge the gorilla would be to build an API compatible competitor.

This ruling would make it illegal.

<comment><USER6> No. There's a fair use defense for interoperability. Wine is clearly built for interoperability purposes, so they are ok.

Google's primary difficulty in this case is convincing the jury that they have a fair use defense, when their version of Java is technically incompatible.

<comment><USER17> No, the difficult is working out what on Earth fair use actually is here.

The fact that what Google has is not strictly compatible with Java is neither here nor there....because it isn't Java.

<comment><USER6> The one who suggested the compatibility defense for fair use was the appellate judge, so I'd say it has at least some chance of working.

<comment><USER17> Who suggested it is neither here nor there. You don't use an API for anything other than compatibility and code reuse for developers. It's easily demonstrable. If it isn't the develop tools market has disappeared.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> *In the United States.

Let's hope that if this goes badly, the rest of the world retains some sense of sanity and doesn't allow intellectual property laws to be used to restrict essential principles like interoperability.

<comment><USER19> That likely depends on what trade agreements exist between your country and the US. The dominoes could fall quite quickly.

<comment><USER18> Indeed, though that is exactly the sort of reason TTIP is starting to attract attention for all the wrong reasons here in Europe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Maybe I'm thinking about this incorrectly but Google's use of the Java APIs seem to me to be the quintessential case of fair-use for interoperability. It's not like Android is shipped with a JDK and is constantly exercising the Java API internally on Android; they are only used so that I can write a Java algorithm on my desktop and use the source code to generate Dalvik bytecode that does something roughly similar to what the Java bytecode would do. The Java APIs are just a means to an end. The surface area of the copyright infringement is limited to the desktop Android build tools which convert Java sourcecode and some bytecode into Dalvik, i.e., interoperability. Now, that is only one-way interoperability so maybe that is enough to sway the matter away from fair-use.

</comment><comment><USER21> So what would actually happen for reals in a copyrighted API universe? If someone wants people to interact with their API (such as a website) they will obviously license their API in such a way. And if they don't they won't.

So, what terrible things would happen? Most programmers agree it'd be terrible. I trust the masses. But for discussion's sake could someone provide a concrete example or two?

Somewhat related, I believe ARM's instruction set is protected. Probably by patents? I've always felt that source code should NOT be patentable but SHOULD (and is) be copyrighted. Where an API falls and how to draw that line I'm not sure.

<comment><USER6> There's a fair use defense for interoperability.

So despite all the hype, this case is unlikely to have a huge effect on the software industry.

<comment><USER17> _There 's a fair use defense for interoperability._

Which hasn't been defined in this case.

 _So despite all the hype, this case is unlikely to have a huge effect on the software industry._

Oracle might try and paint that picture, but I'm afraid it will. There can be no software industry if APIs are subject to copy-write, and if they are, simply using them always comes under fair use. That's why....you use them.

<comment><USER6> Your understanding of the law is really weak. Go read this, and keep reading it until you have some understanding of it: [https://www.eff.org/files/2014/11/10/oracle_v_google_13-1021...](https://www.eff.org/files/2014/11/10/oracle_v_google_13-1021.opinion.5-7-2014.1.pdf)

If there are any difficult terms you don't understand, look them up in Google. Build yourself some understanding and you'll say less stupid stuff.

<comment><USER17> _Your understanding of the law is really weak._

Your understanding of how software works is non-existent, and knee-jerks legal rulings will not change that I'm afraid sweetheart.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> One thing to note is that if Google loses, this is going back up the appeal chain and will no doubt take another whack at the Supreme Court _on the original issue_. We don't know why the Supreme Court denied cert., but among the reasons that Oracle said that it should do so was that the appeal was interlocutory, and there is a preference in appeals courts agains such appeals -- that is, because the ruling that resulted in sending the case back to the trial court to decide the fair use issue, the decision was non-final, and, if the Supreme Court _were_ to hear an appeal on the issue raised (which Oracle also argued that they shouldn't, for other reasons), they should do so only after a final decision in the courts below.

Because its possible that that was the reason the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, its certain that should Google lose at trial on the fair use issue, they'll be back up the appeal chain not only on that issue, but also attempting to raise the copyrightability issue with the Supreme Court again. Which may be more inclined to take and decide the issue on a final decision (and, depending how long things take to get through the courts, and what happens in the political sphere, may be a substantially different court than the one that refused the case previously, anyway.)

Also, since the patent claims are now gone from the case, I think the inevitable (whoever wins) first appeal from the trial court will now go to the Ninth Circuit and not the Federal Circuit, and its quite possible that the Ninth Circuit will rule differently on the issue than the Federal Circuit did.

</comment><comment><USER23> It should be noted that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's ruling in this case does not set precedent for future copyright cases. For more details, see this comment from an earlier discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11377318](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11377318)

</comment><comment><USER24> If I remember correctly, the appeals court did not rule that APIs are copyrighted, only that they might be copyrightable in some cases. Judge Alsup had ruled that they couldn't be copyrighted; that if you used the four-factor test, you would always always come to the "outside copyright protection" answer in all cases.

<comment><USER25> The Federal Circuit didn't remand on the question of copyrightability, it reversed. In other words, it explicitly held that the Java APIs at issue in the case _were_ entitled to copyright protection, not merely that an API _could_ be.

<comment><USER24> I had to dig up the ruling ( [https://www.eff.org/files/2014/11/10/oracle_v_google_13-1021...](https://www.eff.org/files/2014/11/10/oracle_v_google_13-1021.opinion.5-7-2014.1.pdf) ). It looks like my memory was faulty: "Because we conclude that the declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection, we reverse the district court's copyrightability determination with instructions to reinstate the jury's infringement finding as to the 37 Java packages. Because the jury deadlocked on fair use, we remand for further consideration of Google's fair use defense in light of this decision" (pg. 5).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> One thought over the last years MS has seen the light, but they haven't. Maybe someone will sue them over their Ubuntu on Windows, it's not about interoperability either.

</comment><comment><USER27> Seriously, when a corporation creates a VM and enforces a standard, and provides APIs for use in their framework/software ecosystem - just don't adopt it.

If it is done via a Foundation with an API/ABI that is freely available to use - then use this.

But never adopt a framework created by a corporation if you can avoid it. And that includes .NET. While the current corporation may be benign, some other rapacious and unethical corporation might buy them out - then you are screwed.

</comment><comment><USER28> Of course it is a problem with ecosystems that already built around APIs like JSE/JEE / Java core. It is only a problem, because people did not care much about licenses or questioned copyright in terms of APIs.

I believe that APIs are copyrightable. It should be up to the creator to specify licenses that suits his agenda. I believe, if API users care about it and like to build a business on top, only APIs and standards with Copyleft licenses will thrive.

</comment><comment><USER29> If it turns out that api's are copyrightable then in the short to medium term this will cause some indigestion. In the longer term though companies and developers will just insist that api copyrights are put in the public domain or they won't use them. Lockin avoidance.

</comment><comment><USER10> Once again, I just miss Groklaw.</comment>


Without Fox News, Republicans Would Be Toast - <AUTHOR> https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/without-fox-news-republicans-would-be-toast/ <comment><USER2> It actually goes deeper than just the channel number, FOX News is much easier for those of us without cable to stream. I personally feel that the pendulum has swung way too far in favor of the media on both sides. It concerns me that the press, owned and controlled by unelected billionaires get to hire talking heads to promote their political agendas without even the requirement to register as lobbyists. I make a concerted effort to watch both CNN and FOX news and when they get to be too much for me I take a break from both and let my blood pressure return to a healthy level.

<comment><AUTHOR> I had no idea about the stream-ability of Fox News, but that makes sense. I, too, make sure I watch both sides (CNN and Fox as well) but CNN has a 10-minute cap unless you sign in through your cable provider, which has consistently not worked for me. Sure would be nice if somehow print and TV news didn't have to be so much behind paywalls and commercials.

<comment><USER2> usnewslive.tv and livenewsnow.com seem to both work most of the time, I believe they are both using JwPlayer which seems to work best with my low bandwidth. Just don't click on the adds!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Because motherjones is going to be the best "real news" source on this one.

Yes, Fox News does make it easier to get "news" in the conservative light. But if it wasn't them, someone else would be catering to that tens of millions of viewers.

</comment><comment><USER2> It seems to me that what needs to change is news media companies that exceed more than say 50% political coverage need to be classified as a political organization rather than news media company. Once falling into such a category they should be subject to campaign finance laws or something similar. 50% may not be the correct number but when both FOX NEWS and CNN are at 90% politics, not to mention some of the Internet news sites, something is needed to return the balance of power back to the elected representative, from the paid news corp. employee. Free and IMPARTIAL press should be protected by the 1st amendment, what we have now is something much different.</comment>


Show HN: I built an app to create threads on Twitter and also to learn Redux - <AUTHOR> http://tweet-threader.herokuapp.com/ <comment><USER2> Landing page with zero information and a login-to-twitter button alone.

I waited 5 seconds to see if something else loaded, nope, then I closed the tab. Despite the the fairly intriguing "threads on twitter" the landing page was bad enough that I'm not even interested in continuing.

Put some examples there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the usefull feedback. It was meant to be a not-so-serious sideproject but I guess the homepage should at least been more descriptive, side projects are projects too and deserve some work on the landing page.

<comment><USER3> If you want anybody to use it that is. I have the same problem with information underload on [https://qKast.com](https://qKast.com) , trying to figure out the homepage right now.</comment></comment></comment>


What are the good-to-read academic blogs on any topic? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Import AI: [https://jack-clark.net/](https://jack-clark.net/)

Less Wrong: [https://www.lesswrong.com/](https://www.lesswrong.com/)

The Azimuth Project: [http://www.azimuthproject.org/](http://www.azimuthproject.org/)</comment>


What making something people want looks like - <AUTHOR> http://blog.monitorbook.com/post/114152200984/what-making-something-people-want-looks-like

<comment><USER2> I don't think it's a case of "something people want", but FOMO and spammy Twitter tactics.

It sucks in your Twitter friends graph, and whenever you start streaming it posts to Twitter with the |LIVE NOW| announcements. Those two methods at least make sense - but it's the Meerkat chat that's annoying and inexcusable. It's cross posted to Twitter and everything you type is @-replied to yourself (instead of to the people you're replying to), so your Twitter followers are forced to see your Meerkat conversations... and only your half of the conversation. There's no reason those conversations couldn't just stay on Meerkat, and you can't see the rest of the conversation unless you're on Meerkat yourself.

I have never muted anything on Twitter as fast as I've muted everything to do with Meerkat. Even then, I still can't mute those one-sided Meerkat conversations, because there's no hashtag - I'll probably just have to unfollow those users. But at least it's given me a great understanding of how people feel whenever I tweet about Eurovision or soccer.

</comment><comment><USER3> There are at least 3 types of "something people want". The first is the obvious, you-see-it, you-want-it, you-know everyone-and-his-cousin-will-want- it-too something, like the original iPod. There's the it-doesn't-seem-that- great-until-you-try-it-for-a-while something, like Minecraft. And then there's the I-still-don't-know-why-anyone-wanted-it-even-after-it's-insanely-popular something, like Flappy Bird. What these three types of somethings have in common is what people really want.

<comment><USER4> > The first is the obvious, you-see-it, you-want-it, you-know everyone-and- > his-cousin-will-want-it-too something, like the original iPod

The original iPod sales looked like this [1]. Tell me if you think if it falls into your first category. For the first 3-4 years, very little movement. It is interesting to me that a large number of people feel iPod was a smash hit right out of the gate.

[1] [https://geekwhisperin.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/total- ipod...](https://geekwhisperin.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/total-ipods-sold- till-june-2008.jpg)

<comment><USER3> Uh, that's a chart of the _total cumulative_ sales, so just by the nature of the chart, it's going to make the early years look terrible. The raw numbers[1] were: 376K in 2002, 937K in 2003, 4.4M in 2004, and 22.5M in 2005. That's growths of roughly 300%, 400%, and 500% after the first year. That says to me while everyone may not have known about it right away (Apple was still the plucky underdog, instead of the $700B overgod), people were pretty quick on the uptake once they really got to see it. Anyway, even if you didn't rush out and buy an iPod for whatever reason, it was pretty obviously a very cool piece of gear that people would want. "Want" doesn't necessarily mean "buy". I want a McLaren P1, and I know a lot of other people do as well, but they will only sell 375 of them, ever. That's why I would put it in my first category along with the iPod.

[1] [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarte...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg)

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I had never heard of Meerkat before, but live in SF, and use plenty of apps, and am a developer. The more I see things like these, the more I grow suspicious they're yet another form of "submarine" articles, in pg terms.

<comment><USER6> First off, didn't it "hit" at SXSW, when all those kids get back to SF, you'll hear about it.

Secondly, you're right - "_everyone's_ using it" \- is pretty subjective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The problem with the statement "make something people want" is that people most often don't know what they want.

Most people didn't want the first iPhone, or even the first car -- they were happy with their non-smart phone, and their buggies. If people did know what they want, there wouldn't be a huge marketing and PR industry to tell them what they want.

The statement can lead to the kind of thinking that only products like Meerkat that have viral growth are worth investing in. Some companies may require a large marketing push to get off the ground. Even Paul Graham's first company was spending $16,000 a month on PR.

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure you can say that most people didn't want the first iPhone.

Sure, they weren't already picturing "an iPhone" and thinking "I want that"—but there had been Star-Trek-PADD-like-devices in the popular consciousness for ages. People were cognisant of a _hole_ in their lives, that any number of hypothetical things within a previously-empty product category could fill.

Apple's job in marketing the iPhone (and iPad) basically consisted of convincing people that "the future had arrived"—that they had created the first product to meet that known nothing-exists-that-can-meet-it need.

I would say the same of the first internal-combustion-engine automobile. There were carriages, there were trains, and so people could _see_ that in the intersection there was some efficiency to be gained in everyday life if the technology could be created to capture it—though it wasn't really clear what form it would take.

I think this is where wearable/augmented-reality tech is today. People know there's something there, can see the potential of the _product category_ from all the sci-fi movie UXes we've ever been subjected to—but nothing has really been an example of a _real_ product that would sit in the _as-yet- hypothetical_ space. We're still reaching toward the space, rather than landing in it.

<comment><USER7> I agree. A poster below said it might be better to express this as, "Solve a problem that people have". To which I would add, "...and cultivate the market for your solution". This would eliminate the implication that something should be automatically "wanted" by people for it to be successful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think it's time to replace 'Make something people want' with 'Solve a problem that people have'. This works regardless of if people can cogently articulate their problem.

<comment><USER10> Either way you slice it, a statement with fewer than 10 words probably isn't going to be your recipe to success.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> If that's what people want then they already have it with Ustream, Livestream, Bambuser, Qik, etc, etc.

I think Meerkat is riding some kind of SXSW hype machine but I don't see it lasting. Look up Justin.tv.

<comment><USER12> Meerkat has two things going for it:

1) It spammed twitter whenever you used it.

Start-up journalists use Twitter constantly. People who hype themselves use Twitter constantly. This is the live streaming target market. Additionally, Twitter is real-time, like live streaming, and Twitter doesn't actively manage your stream, so the spam wouldn't get hidden (Facebook had this happen to them years ago, and they've since gotten way better at keeping app spam out of your face). Twitter was the perfect existing social network to use here.

2) Twitter noticed this and shut them down quickly.

While this sounds like a bad thing, it ended up being perfect for Meerkat. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect) in action. On top of the natural Streisand effects, there quickly arose a conspiracy around it -- Twitter had recently acquired Periscope, a company competing with Meerkat! And on top of even that, this all happened _right_ as start-up journalists converged on Austin for SXSW, so they could chat about it, use it to live stream bands, etc.

On top of these two main factors, Meerkat does have a slightly better onboarding process, and a cute brand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Insulting to cite 2048 as "making something people want", considering it's an inferior copy of threes.

<comment><USER14> I bought Threes, but I prefer 2048. I am terrible at sliding puzzles and strategy games, so Threes is too hard for me.

Edit: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm really not sure what they mean by "track something on the web".

Do they mean "monitor price changes for something you might want to buy sometime with push alerts when the price changes"?

Their screen shot is a picture of an Amazon page.

I can't think of anything I'd want to track that I simply wouldn't follow their twitter feed or like them on facebook.

And if I was really that price sensitive, I am not sure I'd track an item on Amazon waiting for a discounted price to show up.

I'm confused.

</comment><comment><USER16> How "easy" is it to create a service like meerkat?

What are the minimum requirements regarding hardware setup, cost overhead, web app setup?

</comment><comment><USER17> It appears the images in the blog have been hugged to death. Getting Access Denied messages is what it looks like.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is working fine for me</comment></comment>


NYC has released data for every tax lot in the city. Here is my first look - <AUTHOR> http://andrewxhill.github.io/cartodb-examples/scroll-story/pluto/index.html

<comment><USER2> This is really neat.. but please, please give me a back button. A lot of the pictures were gone before they loaded for me on the slow internet I'm using.

<comment><AUTHOR> Added a back button

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great work!

How did you create the isometric view of building floor counts?

Also, the 'skip' button could be a little more prominent.

<comment><AUTHOR> skip is bigger now! the iso views are done using mapnik, the tiling library used by CartoDB. So it is just a pretty simple style option, building-height: somevalue

<comment><USER4> Mapnik describes itself as a mapping application toolkit:

[http://mapnik.org](http://mapnik.org)

Tiling might not convey that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, wrote that at 6am so probably wasn't as specific as I should have been. Thanks for including a link.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice! The next question is "How do you make this useful to Commercial Real Estate?" Answer that and you have yourself a business!

</comment><comment><USER6> Another thing I didnt see (sorry if it already exists) would be something like a table of contents or an index of all the different maps. I think some of them are a lot more interesting than others and skipping multiple maps would be good.

</comment><comment><USER7> The PLUTO database is fascinating - but it also isn't a new thing - the real development is that the city has finally released it gratis under the open data law.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure, you are allowed to redistribute it now too! [http://blog.cartodb.com/post/57786792357/pluto-is- back](http://blog.cartodb.com/post/57786792357/pluto-is-back)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great job! Skip should be next?

<comment><USER9> Yes, it should be labeled 'next', not 'skip.' 'Skip' suggests you go to the end without looking at everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point, sorry about that... I'll get it fixed later today :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well... never mind, easy enough, so I just pushed a fix now

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Very nice!Thanks. Would be great to have an index so that 1) I can get an overview of what is available and 2) I can view what interests me instead of going through all the content.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, thanks for the comment! I had originally made this to loop on the wall during a PLUTO party :) so didn't add an index. I'll consider adding it next time I get a moment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is very nice. In Denmark we have a country-wide database of buildings with physical data about them (number of floors, square meters, number of units, etc.), and it's gratis-queryable at a small scale through a web interface [1], but to get the data in bulk you have to license it for a lot of money. Would be nice to see it going in the open-data direction.

[1] [https://www.ois.dk/](https://www.ois.dk/)

<comment><USER12> I'll try to scrape it if you want.

I'm currently working on a project to scrape property tax data from every country in the US, and will be providing it for free via a JSON API and with an Openstreetmap mashup for visualization.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is real good stuff.

One comment, though, why did you use this offensively horrible font? I've never gone in and changed a font style just to use a website

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm a terrible designer. That is the only reason I have to offer :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nice representation of the data.</comment>


Zotero: Personal Research Assistant - <AUTHOR> https://www.zotero.org/ <comment><USER3> Zotero is simply a wonderful tool and I'm very grateful to the developers for it. As an academic, it is the only GUI program besides Firefox that I consider essential on one of my computers. Some of the features I enjoy:

* free software

* Linux and multi-platform support

* browser extension "that just works" for ingesting items and magic lookup tool for DOIs and arXiv IDs (and I hardly ever have problems with the metadata)

* shared group libraries for collaboration with students

* offline only as well as sync

* the ability to add notes, tags, and relational links between items.

After reading about Luhmann's Zettelkasten[1] system, I've also had a great productivity boost by implementing a similar scheme in Zotero. After reading an article, I write up a summary of my ideas and thoughts and attach it to the article as a literature note. I then keep a primary repository of notes in a flat folder with links between them and the literature notes as my makeshift Zettelkasten. While not as stream-lined as some special purpose note taking tools, Zotero can do a pretty decent job at this while also having all the advantages of it's bibliographic system, file syncing, etc.

Something I wish it had for this purpose was an "auto-complete" for other entries and a graphical tree viewer of relations. However, these aren't so bad not to have, part of the genius of Luhmann's original paper card notes system seems to have been the critical thinking required to determine which handful (1 to 3) of notes are most related and the serendipitous discovery process from having to manually walk the note files when you need to find something.

<comment><USER4> I love Zotero for my academic work, but I'm contemplating using it more for less formal research as well.

As Luhmann did, I'm trying to more frequently write summaries of articles—both actual academic articles and things like blog posts, news articles, even recipes. I prefer to handwrite these notes.

For web links, I was thinking of using pinboard's caching feature which assigns a url like [https://pinboard.in/cached/01234567890a/](https://pinboard.in/cached/01234567890a/) and recording down the 48-bit identifier.

Alas, what happens when my online service of choice fails? So, maybe the Zotero citation key?

I'm wondering what others' experiences are with hybrid written/digital research workflows, and cross-referencing. Anyone have a "personal DOI" that works really well?

<comment><USER5> First thought for easy digitization of hand written notes is an iPad with pencil by your workstation. A BKM for integrating that into your Zotero workflow isn't obvious though.

<comment><USER6> Does BKM stand for bookmark manager or something else? I tried searching for "BKM" but didn't come up with many (relevant looking) hits.

<comment><USER5> Best known method: "bkm acronym" came up with it as first result.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Also chiming in to say I used Zotero for my Master's thesis and I was happy with it.

With some plugins (I don't remember exactly) I had a very nice pipeline of "find paper on the interntet" -> Zotero -> automatically updated .bib -> trigger rebuild of Latex document to PDF -> automatic reload in PDF viewer.

The UI is somewhat dated but the functionality is great. Nowadays I would probably choose Citationsy, maybe only because I find the UI more aesthetically pleasing.

<comment><USER8> > The UI is somewhat dated but the functionality is great.

I like Zotero precisely _because_ of its UI. It's efficient, and reminds me of the Firefox bookmarks manager.

In fact, I wish I could replace or merge Firefox's bookmark manager with Zotero, so I'd get the best of both worlds.

<comment><USER9> Zotero is/was a XUL application, and the whole application used to (also) be a Firefox plugin. So the similarities are not unexpected.

<comment><USER10> Is, for now. The parts of FF that Zotero relied on are being phased out (listed on the Mozilla docs site as "Archive of obsolete content"), so a transition to Electron is planned, and as part of that transition plan, parts are already being rewritten from XUL into React/HTML.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> My workflow is:

1\. Come across paper pdf on the web.

2\. Use Zotero firefox plugin to import it into Zotero. Zotero is able get citation data, and automatically exports it to a bib file.

3\. Use emacs helm, which reads the bib file, to cite papers in my documents.

I would have really loved to have this workflow during my Phd, but I was doing everything manually back then. My only complaint is this recent silent change in Zotero, where the exported bib file has entries in alphabetical order, rather than in last-added order. With the last-added order, when I popped open emacs helm, the last added paper would be on top. Now I have to search for it.

<comment><USER12> Hi, helm-bibtex author here. Helm-bibtex has support for importing citations directly from CrossRef: Fire up helm-bitbex, type search terms (e.g., title of paper), select CrossRef option, select paper from search results and press "c" to copy BibTeX entry, "q" to close, then paste entry into your .bib file.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for the response. I am aware of that functionality. I, however, usually find papers using the browser (either searching google scholar or on arxiv/scirate). Zotero, then lets me click one button (most of the time), and the entry is available to be cited using a nice citekey (firstauthorYear), and the pdf is placed in my pdf folder with the right filename.

With all due respect to the excellent work you do (many thanks for that), my workflow does not require any manual work most of the time.

<comment><USER12> I guess you have to manually export your bibliography, but, still, that's a pretty streamlined workflow. There's definitely room for improvements within Emacs.

<comment><USER13> The BetterBibTeX plugin for zotero automatically keeps the BibTeX file in sync with the database.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Zotero phones home with perhaps more information than you expect.[1]

By default, there's a persistent connection whenever Zotero is running, a request when you visit a site with a translator (eg NYTimes) the first time since a browser start, when you download a PDF, etc.

I enjoyed using it, but their approach to privacy felt creepy. That [1] is somewhat improved... but only somewhat.

[1] [https://www.zotero.org/support/privacy#disabling_automatic_r...](https://www.zotero.org/support/privacy#disabling_automatic_requests)

<comment><USER15> (Disclosure: Zotero developer)

Criticizing Zotero for privacy, of all things, is a bit bizarre. Zotero is an open-source project from a nonprofit organization with no financial interest in people's research data. It's designed as a local tool specifically to give people complete control over their data, and it's developed in the open. Most similar tools are proprietary programs owned by major publishers or analytics companies with voracious appetites for data.

The page you linked to explains the reasons for every single network connection that Zotero makes and how to disable it. Every one enables a specific Zotero feature — push-based auto-sync, fast translator updates as sites change to minimize save failures, open-access PDF retrieval. When we implemented retraction notifications, we even did it using k-anonymity to avoid sending up library data from people who don't use syncing.

We're always happy to discuss design decisions in our forums, but I'd argue pretty strongly that privacy is one of the main reasons one should use Zotero, not the other way around.

<comment><USER16> Zotero's privacy features even extend to where data is stored: you can bring your own WebDAV server [1] and have Zotero store data there.

[1] [https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#webdav](https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#webdav)

<comment><USER17> You do realize that (unless something changed recently) all your metadata is still on their servers? Last time I checked, a Docker image of the sync server was in the works though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The problem with this (and Mendeley, Papers, Bibtex, etc.) is that each paper/thought is isolated. Roam Research ([http://roamresearch.com/](http://roamresearch.com/)) is my new jam.

<comment><USER19> We're shipping a new version of Polar ([https://getpolarized.io/](https://getpolarized.io/)) this weekend that is sort of closer to the roam/zettelkasten idea of managing notes.

Here's a video explaining the new functionality:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M6jNlairGc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M6jNlairGc)

Basically all the documents you read can have tags. So you can manage all your documents via whatever tag you want.

You can then read those documents in Polar directly and highlight parts of text that are interesting.

These highlights, notes, comments, and flashcards that you create can also have tags.

We call these annotations. We then have an annotation manager which you can manage by tag so you can pivot everything around the tags you're working with.

This version is pushed to the web version of Polar now and the new desktop version will make it out this weekend.

We're also working on a new Polar 2.0 which will support Android and tablets and have better pen support too so you can work directly in a tablet rather than a desktop/laptop.

We're also working on a dark mode but first need to get 2.0 out the door.

<comment><USER20> Would it be possible to export annotations into a markdown+wikilink syntax to import into Roam?

I love the idea of Polar for document management, and Roam for knowledge management, so I'd love to find a way to use both

<comment><USER19> We're thinking of adding an generic sync functionality into Polar so that you could keep external connections to thinks like Anki, Evernote, Roam, etc.

The biggest challenge is deletions though so I'm still trying to work out the ideal sync framework.

<comment><USER20> That would be so great!! I think a plain export would be useful to someone at somepoint though, in addition to sync :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've used Mendeley Desktop for some time, which I believe is very similar in functionality (but proprietary, yes Elsevier!): [https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop- new/](https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop-new/)

Furthermore I think [http://www.docear.org/](http://www.docear.org/) deserves to be mentioned as another free open-source solution with some interesting mind-mapping functionality: [http://www.docear.org/software/screenshots/](http://www.docear.org/software/screenshots/)

<comment><USER22> I actually specifically chose Zotero over Mendeley because Mendeley is owned by Elsevier. Their company has always been a toxic influence on publishing.

Recently they even added a new dark pattern so that when you click the "download PDF" button on their articles it opens up a web app reader loaded with tracking instead of just giving you a PDF. You then have to spend time and click through about three menus to really download the PDF.

It's to the point that I avoid articles published by Elsevier if possible. Easier in my field than others I'm sure.

<comment><USER23> I agree that Elsevier is toxic, and wish they didn't own Mendeley. Unfortunately, at least the last time I compared them, Mendeley was way better than Zotero for my personal use and just couldn't use Zotero. The cloud sync and sharing, the lit search, and all were just so much more compelling. I do think its been long enough I might poke at Zotero again and see if its caught up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> So another great thing about Zotero is that you can share public bibligraphies. I've taken to making a little QR code at the end of my presentations that links to my bibliography (since no one actually reads the bibs on your last 4 slides).

Here's an example from a talk I gave on Variational Autoencoders: [https://www.zotero.org/groups/2350257/jszym_presentations/co...](https://www.zotero.org/groups/2350257/jszym_presentations/collections/GI7553H2)

</comment><comment><USER25> I started using zotero after reading about it in the nytimes, I guess it's about 11 years ago. I'm pretty sure it's this article, because its the same date as the first book I added. [https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/defeating-b...](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/defeating- bedlam/?searchResultPosition=1)

I mostly just used it for keeping lists of books with tags (to read, which library has them, on my kindle etc) and some notes. The bibliography report is nice. I know its is targeted toward research, but it really is good for people who just like to read books if for nothing else to remember what they have read!

I think the really nice thing about it is how easy it is to add books. When I was using a kindle a lot, just add it from amazon. Recently I've been reading a lot more books from archive.org, and again its really easy to add it, just one click.

</comment><comment><USER26> The killer feature of zotero is, that it is customizeable with different plugins. One very neat one is the integration with scihub. So you just paste in the DOI and it automaticly downloads the paper and adds all the metadata.

<comment><USER27> Pretty sure I'm the author of the plugin you're talking about :)

I did a few updates recently, but I welcome any additions/PRs anyone wants to send.

<comment><USER28> Can you please link to your plugin?

<comment><USER27> [https://github.com/ethanwillis/zotero- scihub/](https://github.com/ethanwillis/zotero-scihub/) Here you go!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wouldn't have made it through my doctorate without Zotero. The plugins and MS Word integration made paper writing (almost) enjoyable! Instead of wasting hours on formatting my bibliography/citations, Zotero did the same work in about 2 minutes. Kudos to the folks who maintain this incredible resource, and a big personal thank you!

<comment><USER30> Zotero's been around a while, I remember using it and its plugins many many years ago. Glad to see it is still kicking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> One of the killer features is the multi-platform support, including web browsers, in combination with synchronization across devices and the Google Docs plugin. Makes working on a paper across multiple devices super easy.

<comment><USER32> Mendeley has this feature too. Their current desktop uses Qt.

One of the other things going for Mendeley is seamless sync between an iPad and a desktop. Their cloud limit is 2GB free storage.

Though Zotero has Zotfile, it's a hassle to set up tablet sync with an iOS device.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I don't use Zotero any more, but from the receiving end, the BibTeX it exports is terrible. Lots of non-ascii chars, bizarre nested curly braces, wrong capitalization detection, etc. I dislike collaborating with colleagues who use Zotero because it takes so much time to clean up their BibTeX entries.

<comment><USER34> This. The paper I want to cite, I actually make an effort to go to its author's website and grab bib from there. That's the only definitive source of how the author _wants_ to be cited. Grabbing bib from automated tools has created bib hell that we rely upon Google Scholar to clean up via fuzzy matching which screws up things quite often.

<comment><USER10> That works if it's the author itself, and the author has at least a passing familiarity with BibTeX. Much of the bibtex that you can download from journal cites is itself pretty botched up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Zotero was also the first reference manger to use CSL, the Citation Style Language [1], now adopted by many other apps including Mendeley and Citationsy.

[1] [https://citationstyles.org](https://citationstyles.org)

<comment><USER36> From the link:

> _9500 free CSL citation styles._

Should I ask how it has come to be that there are 9500 citation styles? Or will it make me angry and depressed at the lack of cooperation and widely accepted standards?

<comment><USER37> I believe most of them are the same, but with a different name. So, for my convenience, I don't need to think what citation style a journal uses, I just go and download the citation style with its name, even if I have the same style installed for another journal.

<comment><USER10> And most of such styles are so-called "substyles" \-- if the master style they derive of changes, so do they.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I have used Zotero for my [part time] PhD and found it a great tool (I submitted last week). Whilst I love it, its a bit cranky, and it's a shame it doesn't have things that would clearly elevate it to the level of (or beyond) others like endnote and the elephant in the room of Mendeley: \- doesn't play nice with cloud storage - seems you should be able to just pick your cloud provider and let it sync up. Instead if you try and use cloud storage it'll most likely corrupt your library \- because of the above unless using their storage, it's hard to make work accross multiple computers (and never even tried on my ipad, which is a shame) \- can't export a reference pack \- interface is dated. I don't mind, but suspect it is intimidating to less technical folk and a bit of a barrier to entry (Mendeley is much more accessible) \- does require plugins and fiddling to get the most out of it, some of which seems unnecessary (why are they not in the main program?

Still, I've no regrets in choosing it in 2013, and think it's a fantastic piece of software. Hopefully it keeps on developing, and becomes the de facto standard :-)

<comment><USER39> Sync your metadata with Zotero but the files in the cloud - you just need to make sure your settings are compatible between machines (storage locations etc).

<comment><USER38> That's what I do, but it took a while to get there.

Since I would say 80% of people have some level of cloud storage now (University, employer, personal), there should be a simple setting to pick one, and the location. Make it easy for people and win users!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I've been using [http://www.qiqqa.com/](http://www.qiqqa.com/) for 8 years and it does a fantastic job of organizing my PDFs and managing citations. It can do cloud based shared libraries as well.

for me the killer feature is that it makes all the PDFs full text searchable so it is like my own personal google where the links never break and the content is all relevant.

Highly recommend!

<comment><USER41> So does Zotero.

<comment><USER40> great! good to have an alternative to qiqqa in case it disappears, although it looks like qiqqa has killed their cloud libraries and gone open source. I found qiqqa after google desktop was EOLed.

I have been quick to recommend Qiqqa whenever it seems like it might be a useful tool but I never really saw those comments get much traction - <USER2> because everyone was already using zotero?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> When you import a work into your bib, always check if it got the right data! Sometimes it categorizes something as the wrong type of file, or it wil even implement the data of a whole other article. This can make it impossible for you to find the data back when you actually need it.

<comment><USER43> One good habit is to never import using the browser plugins until the page is fully loaded. Otherwise, papers often get imported as web pages with no PDF attachments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> A thread from 2018: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606929](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606929)

A little bit from 2008: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=319975](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=319975)

Related from last year: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18977461](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18977461)

(Links are for the curious. Reposts are fine after a year: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html))

</comment><comment><USER22> Easily one of the most useful programs I've installed for work.

Best feature is the web browser add-on. Can open up a few dozen articles during a literature search and dump all of them into Zotero for reading later.

</comment><comment><USER41> I use Zotero for my research everyday, and I am a paying subscriber for their storage. I love it, and it is getting better. I recently discovered a new feature: I received a notification that one of the articles I had in my library had been retracted! That is pretty cool! The Word/Libre integration is solid.

When I saw Zotero at the top of HN, I suddenly wondered if they published a new tool. So I'm kind disappointed...but still love any attention they can get.

</comment><comment><USER45> If you like Zotero, Dataverse[0][1][2] might be appealing as well!

[0] [https://dataverse.org/](https://dataverse.org/) [1] [https://dataverse.org/software-features](https://dataverse.org/software- features) [2] [https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse](https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse)

</comment><comment><USER46> Does it also have support for managing scans/photographs? I have about 10 Gbyte of images with respect to a research project about art works. The images also contain scans of materials. I would like to extract facts from these documents and maintain a link between those links and the scans. This means being able to annotate a part of an image, which for example is a text with an illustration or a mentioning of a certain art work.

<comment><USER47> The same people doing zotero have another project [https://tropy.org/](https://tropy.org/) which might be what you're looking for? (Disclaimer: I haven't used tropy personally)

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I have used Zotero for years. I can't imagine writing a paper without it. I know some academics still do all their citations by hand. Fuck that shit. I can't imagine doing that - especially when journals often have their own citation style and if you get rejected by one and submit to another you may have to change all the citation formats.

</comment><comment><USER49> I've recently started a little project for my own reference manager. Since I end up writing papers in Latex, I want my bib file(s) to be the ground truth and I'm slightly obsessive about things like consistent capitalization and author names. I'd rather not fight my reference manager to eventually produce the bib file I want if I can just create that bib file in the first place.

Everything I want from a reference manager can be done in a relatively simple command line tool with an interface similar to beets. Only the extraction of DOIs from PDFs looks like it will have to be a bit hacky, but if `ref im article.pdf` works for 90% of articles and asks me to provide the DOI for the other 10%, that's good enough for me.

</comment><comment><USER50> I wrote a Zotero extension many years ago when doing my PhD[1]. Unfortunately, recent changes have broken it, I can't figure out what's wrong (XUL is not exactly well-documented these days), and the developers aren't responsive[2]. :(

[1] [http://mackerron.com/zot2bib/](http://mackerron.com/zot2bib/)

[2] [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zotero- dev/a1IPUJ2m_...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/zotero- dev/a1IPUJ2m_3s)

</comment><comment><USER51> I've started using Calibre for these purposes, saving papers from arXiv to it, and can definitely recommend. It takes a bit of manual effort to add tags to the papers, but once you have a bit of a collection going they autocomplete. The only downside is lack of read/reading/unread status, but I've hacked around it by rating papers and books I'm currently reading one star. I'd love to have an easier method for importing the papers, but not enough to actually have tried to write the script yet.

</comment><comment><USER52> I started using Zotero a few months ago when a major Firefox update rendered the Scrapbook extension non-functional. It's nice to be able to take quick snapshots from Chrome or Firefox and save them to the local document repository. I found this guide helpful in getting things set up:

[https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-use-zotero-and-scrivener- for-...](https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-use-zotero-and-scrivener-for-research- driven-writing/)

<comment><USER53> For the cloud side, there was a nice tool for linking a Google Drive full of PDFs with entries in your Zotero database, bypassing the cloud storage limits.

[https://github.com/mtekman/ZoteroGoogleDrive-PDFLinker- Cloud](https://github.com/mtekman/ZoteroGoogleDrive-PDFLinker-Cloud)

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Does anybody use this for non-academic purposes? I've been looking for something similar to use as a personal knowledge base, but zotero may be a bit much for that use case.

<comment><USER22> It ended up being the perfect solution for storing manuals and other random information for me.

It's lightweight enough to not get in my way but still syncs everywhere and is searchable. There's even a third party app I can use on my phone if I need quick access to PDFs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> I had a quick look at Zotero's github but couldn't quite work out how they render their desktop UI - is this an electron-style app or a browser extension of some sort?

<comment><USER50> It's XUL. It used to be a Firefox extension, before Firefox changed how those work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Just curious, what is Zotero's business model (as open-source software for academicians)?

It's most direct competition, Mendeley, has always been closed-source, and then got acquired by Elsevier.

To make it clear: I love that Zotero is open-source. And I am happy it is growing (I remember the early versions, well over a decade ago, when I was writing my Master's thesis). I am just curious if they are based mostly on the storage payments, grants, or voluntary work.

<comment><USER15> Early versions were grant funded, but the project has been fully supported by storage subscriptions — including institutional subscriptions — for years. (Lots of invaluable volunteer work as well, but there's a paid dev team.)

<comment><USER57> I'd be interested to learn more about Zotero's history and whole space. Do you mind if I reach out to you with more questions? Email's on my profile :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> I've used this for years, it's one of the first applications I add to a new build. Keeps all of my reading synced including backup copies of the material.

</comment><comment><USER59> Big thank you to the Zotero team (@dstillman) for your ongoing work, particularly the much improved web interface. One of my favorite features is to easily share a URL of a Collection with someone interested in the subject.

My setup: writing in Emacs with markdown, export with pandoc, which grabs Zotero's .bib file made with the Better BibTex plugin. Works really smoothly, though takes a little tinkering to get it set up on a fresh rig.

</comment><comment><USER60> Does anyone know of a comparable tool for legal research (or plugin(s) that add this functionality to Zotero)? A good friend is in law school right now and has really been wanting a good citation manager, but when I pointed him to Zotero it ended up being lacking due to the absence of a standardized reference number and citation info that scientific papers have.

<comment> ar-jan Juris-M, a friendly fork of Zotero supporting legal referencing ([https://juris-m.github.io/](https://juris-m.github.io/)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> While Zotero is great, I'm a bit confused as to why this is #1 on hackernews right now? Is this a new version of Zotero?

</comment><comment><USER62> I use this all the time, it's a great way to collect papers about different topics and easily add them to writeups. The option to keep a bibtex bibliography updated in real time is especially helpful. All it takes to add a new source is a single click on Firefox and then just cite in latex/docs/word.

</comment><comment><USER63> I used Zotero and their Chrome Extension when I was reading research papers. It automatically formatted citations, allowed me to add annotations and also locally saved any PDFs so I can access it quickly. You can also send different types of links such as videos, PDFs articles directly to Zotero.

I'd highly recommend it!

</comment><comment><USER64> Used Zotero with Firefox plugin and word plugin. Used to use Mendeley, but like the open source nature of Zotero.

</comment><comment><USER65> Anyone else here who only uses Jabref?

<comment><USER66> I've tried Mendeley, Zotero and Jabref and stuck with Jabref for my masters thesis. Couldn't recommend it enough, even though haven't given Zotero a serious try.

Synced bibtex and pdfs folder in linux and windows with dropbox, worked like a charm.The best part was configuring it based on this blog post ([http://griechenzicken.blogspot.com/2011/10/configuring- jabre...](http://griechenzicken.blogspot.com/2011/10/configuring-jabref-on- different.htm)) and making pdf links work on both machines. I wrote a blog post about why Jabref, but unfortunately it is in portuguese ([https://gtpedrosa.github.io/blog/gerenciador-de- refer%C3%AAn...](https://gtpedrosa.github.io/blog/gerenciador-de- refer%C3%AAncias-bibliogr%C3%A1ficas-jabref/)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> I used this to research and write what was essentially my thesis graduation requirement from law school in 2012. Good tool, I'm happy more people are finding out about it.

It's up there with calibre in terms of "meh" UI but just excellent functionality.

</comment><comment><USER68> Ahh darn I was hoping this would be an AI thing that collects and highlights research for you.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm using diigo for the same purpose. It seems to have similar features and more, especially easy tagging instead of having to deal with folders. Diigo also allows annotation, offline copies, search within text, export whole collection etc.

</comment><comment><USER69> The magic import is great, but I wish it understood links from more sources, including [https://www.semanticscholar.org/](https://www.semanticscholar.org/)

</comment><comment><USER70> I'm using Zotero with Yandex WebDav and it's pretty amazing. But there is no official iPad/mobile application. Are you planning to release a mobile application?

</comment><comment><USER71> A college professor taught me about Zotero during my last semester. Awesome tool, but I wish I learned about it years before. I try and teach every student I meet about it.

</comment><comment><USER72> No way I could have written so many papers in so little time in my undergrad Poli Sci major. (2005-2009)College without this would have been a bigger nightmare.

</comment><comment><USER73> Zotero is a game changer. Citations have become the easiest part of writing and the tagging feature is incredibly useful when doing a systematic review.

</comment><comment><USER74> I've been using Zotero for a few years and I really like it.

I'm using my own nextcloud storage to get more than the 300Mb free storage on zotero cloud.

</comment><comment><USER75> Loved Zotero in my undergrad at UWaterloo for nano degree. This was over 10 years ago, so it's good to see it's still popular.

</comment><comment><USER76> I use it to write my master thesis, for my not so conventional setup, (using markdown and pandoc) I find that it integrates nicely.

</comment><comment><USER77> I used to use this almost 10+ years ago to organize my research during my masters. Love Zotero, glad to see it's still around!

</comment><comment><USER78> Happy to see Zotero here, I use it on a daily basis and I couldn't love it more. Thanks to the developers!

</comment><comment><USER79> Was looking at this just yesterday. Anyone have success self-hosting this?

</comment><comment> marcel-me Does anybody have a good workflow syncing Kindle notes with Zotero?

</comment><comment><USER80> It's shocking how many Git repos are used to build this project. It seems unnecessary. Personally I find the ability to make atomic commits across different parts of a project very handy. Don't understand the drive to break it into so many parts.

<comment><USER15> Mostly historical. Zotero began as a Firefox extension, with separate Firefox extensions for the word processor plugins, and later added a standalone app that used the same codebase. Since Firefox discontinued support for XUL extensions, there's only a standalone app and the lightweight browser extensions now, but we haven't gotten around to merging the various build repos. We know it can be a pain to build, though, so streamlining this is planned.

But it's also just a huge ecosystem with parts that are used and developed independently. E.g., "translators" for save/import/export are used in both Zotero and in the Node-based translation-server (used by Wikipedia and others), and we can give commit access to those separately from the core code.

(Disclosure: Zotero developer)

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> This is so cool! Any plans for working on an iPhone/iPad app?

<comment><USER82> For a version 1,2,3, etc., it doesn't need to display annotations or notes. Just a local browser for my library with tags would make my life far better.

ps- fellow iPad user: check out Liquid Text. It's the bee's knees: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEMuL4_9sk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEMuL4_9sk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER83> It'd be interesting if someone can compare it to Evernote.

<comment><USER48> I don't think it is similar at all. I haven't used evernote but it is for notes and things right? This is just for citations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> This would have been extremely helpful when writing my book.

</comment><comment><USER85> Is there a WordPress plug-in?</comment>


Ask HN:Big Data.Statistics or CS Phd? - <AUTHOR>

I am a double major in Math and Computer Science planning to go to graduate school next year.I am interested in Data Analytics,Data Mining&Machine Learning .Which PhD  program is most appropriate for this? <comment><USER2> If it were me, I'd look at which departments the superstars you want to be studying under are in. At Columbia, Jebara is in CS and has an opening (<http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~jebara/prospective.html>). Also, it kind of depends where your interests lie. If you want to use big data to create intelligent machines, or you're interested in the logistics of working with massive datasets, maybe CS. If you want to use big data for hypothesis testing, or you're more interested in theory related to math modeling, maybe stats.

Good luck!</comment>


A shrinking Japan worries about its people leaving, but not foreigners coming in - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1459867/japan-worries-about-losing-residents-but-not-about-foreigners/ <comment><USER2> At least they should 'invite' workers they need in terms of easy visa, easy sponsorship, good work environment, good pay, etc.

I am not sure whether Japan can attract high-skilled talent, when the latter have better chances elsewhere in the West. They need to compete with the West in terms of salary and work environment.

Otherwise, they can become like the middle east (Dubai/UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudia) in inviting Indians, Pakistanis, Philippinos, Africans, etc for jobs like construction, healthcare, etc. Give them better environment than the middle east, you can get people for service sector.

Or they can automate away everything.</comment>


Florida Passes Plan For Racially-Based Academic Goals - <AUTHOR> http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/10/12/florida-passes-plan-for-racially-based-academic-goals/

<comment><USER2> A quote from the article: "On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level."

Putting aside for the moment the racial and political issues, and because of the technical meaning of "grade level", the described goal is impossible.

Let's say for the sake of simplicity that the size of the four named groups are equal in the student population (the outcome of this thought experiment doesn't depend on this assumption). Using that assumption, this means the school board wants (90+88+81+74) / 4 = 83.25% of the students to perform at or above grade level. But by definition, the statistical category "at or above grade level" cannot possibly be greater than 50%, and if it was, the meaning of "grade level" would change to accommodate that reality.

Unless the town is named Lake Wobegon (where all the students are famously above average), this school board needs to learn some mathematics and statistics along with laws against discrimination based on race, creed or color.</comment>


Sprint to Offer Free Minutes to Any Mobile Phone on Any Carrier - <AUTHOR> http://anymobile.sprint.com/

<comment><USER2> This is really great news for the Sprint data plan users. I have the unlimited everything for $99, but I mostly call other mobile lines. With this change I can drop my plan down to the $69 bracket and still be fine on minutes. The free minutes are added to your plan at the start of the billing cycle if you have one of the unlimited data plans.

With an increase in the use of Skype and Google voice which circumvents the minute counts anyway, Sprint made a good choice to push through with this.</comment>


Refuting "The Mathematical Hacker" - <AUTHOR> http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4727

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder if pg and Yegge have a similar response in the works? It seemed like HN was more interested in the theme of TMH than the accurate portrayal of the names he dropped, which really surprised me with respect to pg.</comment>