Show HN: Skimling - A Platform to Help Kids Improve Their Writing - <AUTHOR> http://skimling.com/

<comment><USER2> I just sent an e-mail to you. There might be other people contemplating starting a service like this, so as somebody who also considered it, I'll post the important parts here:

1\. Most teachers are willing to help out students. Why would a student pay for your service?

2\. An obvious answer to the above is "we'll focus on the students that have teachers that are unwilling to help". From my experience, that's a small market.

3\. You also have to consider that the ones who would be interested in this service are ones who really want to have a good essay (I'll come back to this later); the union of the two sets is even smaller. I'm not entirely sure you would be able to churn profits from just this subset.

4\. Moving beyond teachers, how will you compete with EssayJudge? They offer an amazing service for nothing. The quality of their service is hard to beat already, and their price impossible to overcome.

5\. How will you vet the quality of your "teachers"? If a student isn't happy with the response, will you refund the money? What if your customers are immoral? (I've found that the union of immoral people and students is quite large.) Looking on HN, I see somebody mentioning "chargebacks"; that would indeed be a big problem.

6\. What is your target market? Are you aiming for people who want to buy ghostwriters, or are you aiming for people who simply want to get a good grade (from "Doing well on essays is part of doing well in school, and doing well in school leads to a better life!", that seems to be your target audience), or are you aiming for people who really want to improve their writing? It seems that you're focusing on the penultimate, but is that really a good decision? Why wouldn't they just hire a ghostwriter instead?

7\. An easy answer is "they're pretty good writers already, they just need that little bit of editing". If so, it looks like you're focusing on the last group. That's where the money lies, but your advertising doesn't seem to be targeted towards them.

This is by no means a complete list of the problems you'll face. You should probably have answers to many of these before starting/going forwards though.

<comment><USER3> I agree with your opinions, and wish to point out that your are using the word "union" when I think you mean "intersection".

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory#Basic_concepts>

<comment><USER2> Doh! You're absolutely right. I'm sorry I got them mixed up, I probably confused a lot of people.

I'll fix It as soon as I get home. Thanks for pointing it out!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't think the math works out well for you. The cost is 12 dollars per essay. If I understand stripe's fees, you will pay 65 cents per transaction. You are paying teachers via paypal, I do not know their fees but it will probably be in the ballpark of 50-60 cents to transfer 10 dollars. So 12 -10 - 0.65 - paypal fees = 0.75 to 0.85 profit per transaction. Not sure how automated everything is, but it seems like you will be doing a bit of work for what amounts to a large pack of gum.

Now consider chargebacks. Stripe charges a 15 dollar fee per chargeback. So for each chargeback you lose (15+10+1.25(transaction fees above) = 26.25 or so. I have a feeling you will have a larger than average number of chargebacks due to children borrowing their parent's credit card to get their essay graded.

I assume you are paying the teachers as independent contractors? Are you prepared to issue 1099's to all of them at the end of the year?

And not to sound too harsh but nothing on this site looks professional at all. It reads like it was written by a Nigerian scammer.

EDIT: fixed my math

</comment><comment><USER5> This is a nice idea. However, I would suggest a better name. Skimling is derived from the word "skim", and "skim over" means to READ SUPERFICIALLY. This is not a good message to prospective students.

You need to think harder about quality control. A simple email-based dispute process is a start, but you need more. How about teacher rating? Teacher credentials, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Improving quality control is probably the most important feature I'd like to add for the next iteration of the product. Each teacher that signs up is approved by me individually; so I go the website of the teacher's current employer and confirm that they are in fact a teacher. A rating system is definitely a critical next step for the product though. I also appreciate your input about the name. I always thought of it as being catchy, but will work on finding one that promotes a better message. Thanks for checking out the site!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone! I'm the sixteen year old founder of Skimling! I'm going to be launching this weekend, but wanted to get feedback from the HN community! Let me know what you think, and feel free to email me at email@example.com if you have any questions!

</comment><comment><USER6> I like the concept.

I would work on improving the copy, especially because this is a writing- related startup.

Fewer exclamation points and fewer words will help.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking it out! I will definitely make changes to the copy before I launch!

<comment><USER7> _Doing well on essays is part of doing well in school, and doing well in school leads to a better life!_

That line is particularly appalling and represents one of the many things that is wrong with our education system. That logical progression is what encourages people to cheat (plagiarism and paying for essays count).

Maybe try something more like "Getting feedback and incorporating it into your thought and work process will help you get it right the next time for your whole life."

<comment><USER8> What kind of appalling? There's definitely a correlation between education level and lifetime earnings, life satisfaction, etc.

(Yes, many people do fine with low levels of formal education. However, many or most of them are curious, self-educated,and self educating people with good habits.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I understand that everyone does what they can to get ahead in school and as a parent I know everyone wants their child to succeed, but I can't help but feel that a service like this, especially if it becomes common, will be put kids with limited means at an _even greater_ disadvantage compared to their more well heeled peers. OP: I know this is probably impossible, but any chance of "scholarships" or a pro-bono service for poor kids? In any case if it genuinely achieves greater understanding and isn't just a "pay a teacher to clean up my essay" service, I hope it's a success!

<comment><USER2> I mentioned EssayJudge above. Basically, it's the same service, but free.

The founder is also the one who goes over the essays. His comments are amazing, and his price can't be beat.

<http://essayjudge.com/>

<comment><USER9> "We are trying to provide a _servivce_ to self-motivated learners."

Ruh roh! :p

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great idea.

Copy is dense.

Price seems off. Maybe $12 per semester or something.

How does it compare to the competition?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking it out! I haven't done much research on competing sites, but am sure competitors exist. I may look at changing the price as well. The conundrum that I'm in is the fact that I would like to make the service as inexpensive as possible, while giving value to the teachers as well. The price of each essay is something I have to think about more and talk to customers about more, and I will definitely change the copy before I launch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> You might consider adding a "skilled writer" option for non-teachers to apply. This would allow people like grad students and retired teachers to participate. Just have an "upload resume" field.

<comment><AUTHOR> Allowing "skilled writers" is something I want to do soon! If you are a skilled writer, you can still sign up! I may send you an email asking for a resume before I verify your account.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> Bah! I've had this idea for a long time; I just never took the time to build it.

Anyways, I would love to talk to you about some ideas I think would be helpful. It doesn't seem like you have any contact information on the site (a _big problem_ ), nor on your profile. If you want to talk, you can find my contact information in my profile.

I would definitely suggest adding your contact information on the site first. That'd be helpful for anybody who wants more information.

</comment><comment><USER12> Do teachers not provide feedback if you go to them with your work (during their office hours) prior to the hand-in anymore?

<comment><USER13> They still do and I actually prefer doing this instead of using a service like Skimling. I try to write for the professor that is grading my paper, some of them have different styles they prefer. Writing to their style usually ensures a good grade, especially if you ask them for feedback and adjust your work accordingly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interesting concept. Just a piece of advice that might improve conversions: I know you're using Stripe.js but you still should have an SSL cert on a payment page. And another thing with Stripe.js, don't use name attributes for the credit card input fields. That way they don't get passed through on the form submission.

<comment><AUTHOR> I bought an SSL cert, and the payment should be encrypted over SSL. I'll check it out later though, and will look at the name attributes on the credit card field. Thanks so much for checking Skimling out!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think an idea that could really push this over the top would be, for the teacher registration allow anyone with a .edu to register, let them identify their expertise (history, english, poetry etc.). When a student uploads a paper, the student identifies the category of the paper (history, english, poetry etc.) and that'll make it easier to match an editor. You could even let the student see a list of teachers, and select them based on the teachers profile.

Under this system, an important feature, down the line, is a rating system for the teachers to help students find quality editors.

Really cool idea that I definitely see scaling to even more complex project assistance. Maybe you could create a healthy teaching consulting ecosystem? Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestions! The problem with allowing anyone with a .edu email address to register is that there are plenty of people who work for universities that have .edu addresses, but aren't teachers. There is a matching algorithm that matches students who are taking a certain course to teachers that teach courses similar to the one they are taking. The rating system is a very important feature, which I hope to get to work on soon!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Informal poll: is it within a teacher's rights to forbid the use of such a service on their assignments? You know, "I want to see YOUR work, not an underemployed English major's work." If I were a teacher and I thought my wealthier students were turning cash into better essays not thru tutoring (learning) but simply paying someone to spruce it up, I'd do what I could to ban the practice. It's not fair to other students and it makes it difficult or impossible for a teacher to accurately gauge a student's _own_ skills.

<comment><USER16> Teachers consider the practice you describe (paying someone to spruce up an essay) cheating, but it's not clear that that is the kind of service that OP's site offers. Many teachers also encourage students to get critical feedback on their essays, and so they should. Many professional and academic writers seek out the same kind of feedback. I share your desire for the democratization of online education (that's the point of essayjudge) but there are so many sites that appeal to the baser instincts of struggling or just lazy students (selling pre-written or custom written essays) that I think any site that provides legitimate feedback to students, even if it's for a modest fee, should be welcomed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I like the simplicity of the model. $12 seems a little high for input from only one reviewer. Perhaps I'm thinking of shorter papers than you are?

<comment><AUTHOR> The papers can be of any length for the minimum viable product. For the next iteration, I'd like to adjust the pricing of each essay that is graded based on the length of each essay. As a teacher though, if you don't grade a paper that you've been given within a few days, I can resend it to another teacher.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Love the concept. Getting graded early is so important for students. It shows they really want to know what they are doing right or wrong before they hand in their assignments. After all, that's what learning is all about right? The grade itself is not as important as understanding what you can do better. This might shed some light on grading standards across different teachers as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I'm going to be very interested to see the trends as to what teachers look for when grading essays.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This looks like a great product, but am I the only one to cringe at such an abuse of the word "platform"? Last I checked, a platform was a combination of hardware and software capable of running other software. Examples of actual platforms include iOS, Java, Windows and the Web.

There's no shame in building an amazing product that isn't a platform!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to change the copy tomorrow, and will incorporate your suggestion into it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Most universities have free tutor services, including for writing. Also, most professors are willing to take a look at your work ahead of time and give you advice.

Given those two options why would a student pay for this service and why would the grad student work for you instead of their university's program?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone! I'm in school right now and have to go to lunch, so I will not be able to respond to any additional comments until later. Thanks so much for checking out Skimling, and if I don't respond to your comment right away, I will have responses later tonight!</comment>


Study Finds 'Corporate Takeover' of First Amendment - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/us/first-amendment-patron-saint-of-protesters-is-embraced-by-corporations.html <comment><USER2> Yes, the universities which are leading the charge on suppressing the speech of students are widely known as bastions of conservative thought. /s

The article is idiotic. Yes, groups of people (corporations, in the literal sense) have begun to be recognized as having almost as much right to free speech as the individual constituents. No, that might not be perfectly ideal. Yes, at the same time (who can speak as to the causal relationship) the conservative right has embraced the first amendment somewhat more than in the past.

But the real problem is not that the right has embraced 1A, it's that the so- called "liberal" left has abandoned it. The left is no longer liberal in the traditional sense; in fact, these days, it's the left which seeks to impose certain values on society by any means necessary, including the suppression of speech. "Students, prisoners, pacifists and whistle-blowers"\---at least two of these, students and whistle-blowers, have been primarily attacked by the leftist university administrations and the current American executive, also on the left. I can't say as to the prisoners and pacifists, except insofar as the prisoners and pacifists _are_ the whistle-blowers, in which case it was again the left which has trampled their first amendment rights.

Those of us who might be liberals in the traditional sense are and should be increasingly disgusted by these trends.

<comment><USER3> > "Students, prisoners, pacifists and whistle-blowers"\---at least two of > these, students and whistle-blowers, have been primarily attacked by the > leftist university administrations and the current American executive, also > on the left.

What you call "left" in this argument is actually centre right. Sorry but the left barely exists in the US, compared to other nations. Your confusion is probably due to the binary party system where, interestingly, 0 = 1.

Anyhow, though they share some common grounds, the left is not and cannot be "liberal". (For example, no leftist would argue for the corporatization of free speech in their right minds, as you did in your liberalist comment, excusing it as "not perfectly ideal".)

For classical leftism, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)

For modern leftism, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left)

> leftist university administrations and the current American executive, also > on the left

Leftist university administrators do not exist in the US. No leftist university administrator would take an active (pro/supporting) role in a system that depends on the exploitation of adjunct faculty, the active sabotaging of unions by universities, and the overall commodification[1] of education.

The current American executive is not leftist either, as demonstrated by their trend towards building a surveillance system for elitist / corporate US dictatorship.

In light of the above, you are in no position to call any article "idiotic."

edit: [1] [http://www.randalolson.com/2014/03/29/its-impossible-to- work...](http://www.randalolson.com/2014/03/29/its-impossible-to-work-your- way-through-college-nowadays-revisited-with-national-data/) is an interesting read.

<comment><USER2> I think you missed my point entirely. I agree that the American left is not liberal; however, they are very much still the left.

Your argument is basically, "well, these people are doing some shitty things and therefore they must be on the right, because only the right does shitty things". Give me a break.

If you want an "ism" which matches up most closely with the concept of "the left", you're looking for statism. And the American left is very, very much statist; they just also happen to be capitalist too. I agree that statism and true liberalism are largely opposed; however, a few decades back, the American left was somehow also very liberal. At the time, there were many influential statist visions of liberalism which were quite popular (your "New Left" link exemplifies this perfectly). So my earlier comment could be restated as pointing out that what's happening today is that people have become disillusioned with the oil-and-water mixture of statism and liberalism, and thus the true liberal elements have moved away from the left. The result is a kind of coalition between the old right and the departing liberals.

But all of that was more-or-less irrelevant to explain the link.

And, uh, I'm not sure what your link has to do with anything.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I never understood how a potential restriction of commercial speak would look like. Which of these consists of commercial speech and which should be protected?

1\. MSNBC or Fox News hosts opining on TV

2\. An unpaid op-ed in a for profit publication

3\. A paid op-ed in a for profit publication

4\. Someone handing out political leaflets in the street for free

5\. Someone handing out political leaflets in the street for money or some other benefit

6\. The movie Juno (could be both pro and anti abortion, depending on who you ask)

[edit formatting]

<comment><USER5> None of these are commercial speech. For crying out loud. Commercial speech is speech done by a private corporation for the purposes of furthering their own economic interests. Even commercial speech is protected as long as it isn't fraudulent.

I don't know what you mean by "potential restriction". We've had restrictions on commercial speech since the early days of our country.

<comment><USER4> > Commercial speech has been defined by the Supreme Court as speech where the > speaker is more likely to be engaged in commerce, where the intended > audience is commercial or actual or potential consumers, and where the > content of the message is commercial in character.

Commercial speech, such as advertisements, has been ruled by the Supreme Court to be entitled to less protection under the First Amendment than noncommercial speech. Under the First Amendment, noncommercial speech is entitled to full protection, and any sort of content-based regulation is only valid if it can withstand strict scrutiny. However, commerical speech is not given such deference. For a content-based regulation of commercial speech to be valid, it only must withstand intermediate scrutiny.

Additionally, commercial speech that is false or misleading is not entitled to any protection under the First Amendment, and therefore can be prohibited entirely.[0]

Sorry, I should have said political speech more generally by a commercial entity

[0] [https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commercial_speech](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commercial_speech)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To summarize: 1A was good when it was being used by liberals/Democrats, but is bad now that it's being used by conservatives/Republicans.

<comment><USER7> Your summary is laughably, trollishly incorrect.

>His study, he said, analyzed First Amendment challenges from businesses to an array of economic regulations.

Actual summary that's based on the actual article and not whatever tripe you think you read:

Based on an analysis of challenges to various laws on 1A grounds, more challenges are being made by corps fighting economic law (as if money were speech), than by the everyperson.

I'm not sure the conclusion bears out, though. The (patently insane) idea of money==speech is relatively new. Are there really that many first amendment abrogations happening on a daily basis for normal people?

I'm also not sure why you chose to make this a partisan issue. Both major political parties are bought and paid for by large corporations, and framing corporate gaming of the system as a leftist-only issue is _incredibly_ dishonest.

<comment><USER8> "Money == speech" is a rhetorical device for soapbox points. The ruling for that was very clear in stating that there is no way to separate _political speech with the intent to persuade_ from the costs of such speech. (leaflets, airtime, and meeting halls all cost money) Therefore, spending money on that type of speech is granted 1A coverage because denying people money for that type of speech is the same as denying their right to speak.

<comment><USER7> Whatever the fine details of the ruling, the proverbial floodgates opened immediately after CU.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Freedom of Speech does not exist to further the political ends Mr. Lipsak is sympathetic to. It is the fulfillment in Law of the Free Conscience of Man: that no man should have to answer in shackles for speaking his mind; that for his words he should fear nothing but the equally Free Judgment of his peers.

There is ample and settled case law in the US that guarantees nearly unlimited freedom of expression to individuals and activists. But for over a half- century now, the state has exerted its power over realms once ruled by the freely-entered private contract. At its best, the state can be defender of the peace, guarantor of stability, and investor in tomorrow. But at its worst, it enviously confiscates wealth, stifles innovation, and denies freedom. Who but the impartial judge is suited to arbitrate between the democratic legitimacy of the state, and the human autonomy of the individual? Between guardianship and freedom?

Criticism of the the Citizens United decision overlooks the specifics of the case, which are actually very illustrative of the danger of making exceptions to Freedom of Speech. Citizens United's violation was making a movie critical of Hillary Clinton within 1 month of a primary. A new campaign finance law prohibited private "electioneering" featuring candidates within one month of primaries and two months of general elections. The Federal Elections Commission believed that Citizens United was in violation and sought a gag order prohibiting further marketing of the film. Fast forward to the Supreme Court's decision: Citizens United won on First Amendment grounds. The under- told angle of this story is that the government had passed a law shielding itself from criticism when the freedom to criticize is most precious: leading up to an election! Picture a possible scenario if the court had ruled for the FEC: if Citizens United had refused to cease marketing the film, the FEC would have been granted a court order. If Citizens United still refused to stop spreading their film, the executive officers would have been imprisoned for contempt of court. The Supreme Court would have been foolish to abandon a great tradition of free speech and allow people to be punished for spreading a political message.

An aside: as a journalist working for a very wealthy corporation that sometimes acts more like a political campaign than a newspaper, Mr. Lipsak should know better than to so quickly dismiss the free speech of "corporations" as lesser than that of people.

</comment><comment><USER10> I must be missing something. Why shouldn't corporations benefit from freedom of speech? I don't care _who_ says it or _what_ it says, freedom of speech is a fundamental right.

Are not NYT & Harvard companies of some sort? Why should they be protected under the 1A but not other companies?

<comment><USER5> My goodness, what are they teaching in schools these days?

Commercial speech is protected under the 1st Amendment. It can be restricted if it passes the Central Hudson test:

1\. The speech regulated is fraudulent, misleading, or proposes an illegal transaction; or All of the following elements are present: a. The government's interest in regulating the speech is substantial; b. The restriction directly advances the government interest; and c. The restriction is no more extensive than necessary to advance the government interest.

Since the early days of our country, there has been a distinction between expressive organizations (like the New York Times -- a company that primarily engages in activities protected by the 1st Amendment -- publishing an article on how Bob's Chicken will make you sick) and commercial speech (Bill's Chicken, a competitor, publishing an article on how Bob's Chicken will make you sick.)

Both Bill's Chicken and the New York Times have freedom of speech. But commercial speech can be restricted if it's fraudulent or misleading, whereas expressive organizations are given far more leeway. That seems fairly common sense to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> The NY Times also benefits from a specific provision in the Bill of Rights, freedom of the press.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Printing presses are and have always been expensive. Those who can organize people to pay for them will always have that advantage over those who cannot.

</comment><comment><USER12> saving you a click: corporate takeover because, as corporations are "people" in a legal sense (although only when it benefits them to be so), they have a right to free expression.

therefore laws which inhibit corporations from pumping money into politics violate the First Amendment, although scanning every email you ever write does _not_ violate the Fourth Amendment. (spoiler alert: yes, it does.)

</comment><comment><USER13> Don't think we needed a study for that. Frankly, US history classes are propaganda, and the problem is that they lead us to think that it hasn't always been this way.

We're just starting to kind of legitimize it. I don't see that as a bad thing, once you accept that it has always been this way, you realize that legitimizing it makes it at least out in the open. It's no less dangerous, but at least it isn't taking place under the table.

</comment><comment><USER14> Unsurprising but still thoroughly depressing.

</comment><comment><USER15> I wish people would think through citizen's united instead of just spouting off the 'corporations are people' platitude (convenient no one seems to mention that unions are also people now). Why should a group of persons not have the same rights to speech as a single person? What about it being a group makes it so scary? It's not like the barrier to entry on pooling your money is any higher than protesting is it?

The argument in this piece seems to boil down to "I am afraid of what conservative people with money might say, and I don't want them to be able to use their money to say it." Is there even any evidence that corporations are using their wealth to influence politics through political ads? Because that's what this is really about isn't it? Corporations buying elections through ads. This article is full of vague notions, but there's no real evidence to support the narrative that this is a problem that's even happening.

<comment><USER7> Even if we accept the partisan hackery you've dropped on us here, the idea that it's not "a problem" is insane. The answer to a lawsuit about something like false advertising is not "freedom of speech".

The limits on the first amendment right for individuals has been thoroughly explored in the last century or so - the recent cases, less so. And I feel that there's value in asking why this sudden change in many years of jurisprudence.

None of the answers I can conceive reflect very well on the legal or regulatory systems.

<comment><USER9> First amendment cases concerning private individuals aren't as common anymore because it's largely settled law. Welcome to America, you have nearly- unlimited freedom of speech. People don't get arrested for political opinions, or for posting racist tweets (unlike Europe), or for saying something hateful things in public (unlike Europe), or for publicly supporting Al Qaeda or ISIS, or for wearing a swastika and having a Nazi march through a town inhabited by aging Holocaust survivors (see Skokie). In fact, if a CIA agent walked up to you and gave you thousands of seriously embarrassing classified documents, he'd go to jail for a long time but it would be almost impossible for the government to get a court order stopping you or punishing you for publishing. Every so often, some local cops overstep their authority and the district courts take care of it. The Supreme Court is interested in clarifying existing law, resolving circuit splits, and deciding landmark cases, not in deciding the same issue repeatedly.

If you say hateful or stupid things, your punishment is that people won't like you. Amazingly, it works.</comment></comment></comment>


Paranoid Browsing - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Xodarap/Paranoid-Browsing Many organizations attempt to build a profile of you based on your browsing history. Paranoid Browsing confuses that effort by browsing the internet randomly in the background. <comment><USER2> Is there something similar to this for Firefox? The closest thing I have found is the TrackmeNot extension [http://trackmenot.org/](http://trackmenot.org/) [http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/](http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/)

" TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. It hides users' actual search trails in a cloud of 'ghost' queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. To better simulate user behavior TrackMeNot uses a dynamic query mechanism to 'evolve' each client (uniquely) over time, parsing the results of its searches for 'logical' future query terms with which to replace those already used."

Here's a paper they wrote on resisting surveillance in web search. [http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/TMN-Howe- Niss08-ch23.pdf](http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/TMN-Howe-Niss08-ch23.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> this is cute, but it's not going to help against the kind of things we've seen from the nsa recently. the analysis there (and the stuff from palantir etc) is simply looking for a positive signal - a single connection. the kinds of algorithms used (graph based) don't normalise by the total number of connections (it's not statistical, it's structural). so having a bunch of "normal" stuff won't change anything.

<comment><USER4> OK, so add in searches for bomb-making and forums that a terrorist would likely visit. Get lots of people to use your extension and generate lots of false positives.

<comment><USER5> Again you fail. Those who will truly abuse this system will not be looking for true positives. They will be looking for excuses. Such a system would provide them with excuses aplenty to drag someone away and lock them up for a while, until they show the proper love and respect to the system.

<comment><USER6> I completely appreciate what you're saying here, and I think you're absolutely correct... However framing your insight with "Again you fail" makes me respect your opinion less. As someone who had a similar idea to the person you replied to, and as someone who comes to HN to have "smarter people in the room", it's this kind of condescension that keeps me from commenting on HN.

Sorry for the mini-rant, your three word comment doesn't really warrant it but hopefully you can respect why I took the time to type it.

<comment><USER7> Voted up, but I think (hope) he meant it in the sense of "And even that is not enough."

<comment><USER6> Reading it again, you might have it right... in which case I feel bad for offering up criticism when it is surely better deserved elsewhere.

<comment><USER5> Yes, sorry - I did not mean it in a derogatory sense, more like "Even with these changes the idea won't work". In hindsight, a far too aggressive way to state it, mea culpa!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is one of the reasons I am running a Tor exit relay.

<comment><USER9> Plausible deniability assuming you have a competent lawyer/judge?

<comment><USER8> Well, I don't have a lawyer (or a judge for that matter...)

And I wouldn't use my own ip (exit node) to do anything that isn't boring. I'd switch to Tor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The Idea sounds good, but lately I was downloading a lot of plug-ins to go "anonym".

How 'bout a combined plug-in that contains the following:

-No-script

-No-cache

-Clearing browser history every x days -Entering random results into history

-Disables tracking (I'm not sure what how normal tracking works on a technical side, so sorry if that's a double with some function above)

Additionally you should be able to make exceptions from the restrictions, for specific websites. (Like you can in the No-Script add-on, that you might know)

I believe most of it can be done using multiple plug-ins, but there seem to be space for new inventions.

</comment><comment><USER11> This has been done many times before. One such example:

AntiPhorm Lite - [http://tweaks.com/forum/Topic239854-59-1.aspx](http://tweaks.com/forum/Topic239854-59-1.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER12> what if this puts something in your history that is illegal?

</comment><comment><USER13> Can the environmentalists please start lobbying for sensible Internet laws now?

</comment><comment><USER14> Wouldn't disconnect.me be a better option?

<comment><USER15> As I understand it, disconnect.me handles tracking cookies and the like, which is fine for protection against third parties, while Paranoid Browsing throws chaff at the ISP, NSA, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> haha this is glorious!

</comment><comment><USER17> How do I turn this into a chrome extension?

<comment><USER18> Visit chrome://extensions/

Check 'Developer mode'

Click 'Load unpacked extension...'</comment></comment>


Natural language considered harmful - <AUTHOR> http://pragdave.blogs.pragprog.com/pragdave/2008/03/the-language-in.html

<comment><USER2> My first thought on seeing this headline: "Oh, this is going to be about why Applescript totally sucks."

And, sure enough, there's Applescript halfway down the essay, as an example of a classic antipattern in DSL design: the "Oh, if I make it read like English it'll be really easy to write with it" antipattern.

When I look at Applescript I can't believe that there are people in the world who think that _Lisp_ is hard to learn.

I liked RSpec when I tried it, but I have to admit that PragDave has a point: it is right on the hairy edge of being _too_ cute with the English syntax. It took me some time to learn to write it properly.</comment>


Tech Crunch Crashes under Apple Load? - <AUTHOR>

Did anyone else get this... Error establishing a database connection When visiting Techcrunch at 10am today? <comment><USER2> There are about 500 tech sites and they all have the 'iPad' on their front page, and they all have more or less exactly the same stuff to say about it.</comment>


Everything Breaks, All the Time. - <AUTHOR> http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/06/everything-breaks-all-time.html <comment><USER2> This guy is wrong, plain and simple. Unforeseeable bit-copying errors caused by cosmic rays and similar circumstances, which do exist, probably account for less than a one out of every billion actual bugs/crashes experienced out there. When a bit is toggled by a cosmic ray in memory, if it hits program memory, it will with a significant frequency crash your program.

Most bugs you experience daily (Word or your favorite game/appp crashing, etc...) are caused by actual software errors in overly complex systems with many dependencies. Multithreaded-coding errors can often account for many of those, but not only, complex system with many layers and complex dependencies can often hide obscure behaviors that can cause crashes in a given machine if, for example, you have a weird combination of disk drivers, file system code, and an antivirus hooking and acting on every filesystem read or write.

When, for example, a Word plug-in makes a call to Word's object model, this goes through easily 10 software layers until it reaches its target, some of these layers being configured via the flaky Windows registry, others going through jumps from VM-based to native code using weird "marshalling" techniques, etc... in these cases, you may encounter buggy behavior in any one of the 10 layers, or in a combination of two of them, even if it seems like you are just incrementing a simple counter.

Most of the time, though, bugs are caused by the app's own code (your own code): careless code, dangerous practices, lack of solid control-flow design, etc... if you write really good code, it's unlikely you will have many support issues. Only if you are working in some problem-prone area: plug-ins to other complex, often poorly-designed products, code pushing graphics drivers to the max, etc... where you get into "complex system" behavior.

Even if you use multithreading, if you control all the code, you can write very solid code. If your multithreaded code is perfect, it won't crash. Although it can uncover bugs in third-party libraries, etc... which is why I tend to write only "worker threads" with no third-party dependency if multithreading is required.

And I think it's very dangerous to warn novice programmers to think that the bug is probably somewhere else.

<comment><USER3> His point makes a lot more sense in the context it was originally intended. He's not making a point about programming or debugging in general; he's specifically discussing tech support as a one-man indie game shop. In particular, it's all about the cost-benefit tradeoff. In his words (taken from the first post in the series - [http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/06/seven- tips-for-giving...](http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/06/seven-tips-for- giving-good-tech-support.html)):

 _But at the same time, as a small developer, you have very little time to spare for support. Time spent getting the game working for one person is time not spent making a new game for everyone. You will need to develop a sense of when the time lost helping a person is not worth it, either because you won't be able to solve their problem or because they will not able to implement the fix you provide._

...

 _Remember: It's only worth the time to do tech support if you have the chance to, in a reasonable amount of time, fix a problem and make a loyal customer. If you realize that, at the end of the road, you aren't going to end with a happy person and a working product, end the conversation as quickly and pleasantly as possible._

In that context, I think his approach is very rational. If you pushed him, he'd probably agree that more often than not the issue is in his code (even if it's just a question of inadequate error handling). However, if the problem is only seen by a single user and will be a significant investment to try and fix, then it's simply not worth the time when he could be working on a new game, a port, or even a different problem that has been seen by multiple users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I dont get this, its so often a bug, and so many people dont report bugs, this strategy of telling people to reboot or reinstall or redownload just perpetuates these voodoo-style fixes.

Im not saying fix everything always immediately, but dont write people off as victims of cosmic rays just because you can't repro in 30 seconds or dont see the bug where youd expect in the code.

<comment><USER5> He didn't say "cosmic rays" anywhere in the article.

 _voodoo-style fixes_

They're not voodoo, they're sledgehammer to smash a nut fixes. A reboot reinitializes every part of your system into a mostly-known-good state. If you knew what, you could say "restart this service" or "reinitialise this driver like that", but a reboot gets all of it.

If you actually stabbed a doll with a pin and your program started working, that would be ... scary.

<comment><USER4> His actual criteria for taking the time to find a bug is reasonable, but I take issue with the assertion that its not a bug in code he wrote most of the time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Only checking for a bug reminds me of the Intel bug that they claimed would hardly ever happen, but turned out to happen a LOT.

I don't ignore bugs. I follow the same first step, and send the standard list of things to try like reinstalling, rebooting, etc. But if they still have it, I always look into it. Almost every time it's been a real bug. Some were really hard to track down, but would have caused a lot of grief later. I was always glad I did it.

<comment><USER7> Have you encountered a hardware defect yet? If/when you do, it represents a lot of technically dead time that was spent looking at code. I'm not saying either premise is right but I can appreciate his philosophy here.

For the record, I killed four weeks digging through code and running tests and it turned out that temperatures in winter coupled with some bad soldering was the cause of the issue. D:

<comment><USER8> Yes, you have to track them down, yes it takes forever for the hard ones. But most of the time it Isn't hardware, most of the time it my own bug and I can fix it.

It definitely takes some experience to be good at debugging. I guess that's why all the emphasis on development environments these days, where the hard stuff is being debugged by someone else and I can work on my app-level stuff in peace.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This fact drives me insane. It's theoretically possible to write a perfect piece of software that can never fall down, break, blow up, etc. But it's actually pretty much impossible in practice unless you have either near unlimited resources (NASA in the 60's), but even with that you still might fail (Microsoft).

</comment><comment><USER10> There are two completely different conclusions that I would draw from his facts:

1) Most bugs are in code. But it might not be your code. Your code layers itself on top of many other layers of code that are outside of your control. Learning to deal with that will make a difference in your work.

2) Know how everything works. I am always hocked at people who claim to be web developers who don't even understand how an HTTP request/response works, much less what your browser does with the results. It is one of my interview questions for tech folk - I ask them to explain to me exactly what happens on the server when a browser sends it a request. Few people can give much detail here. Most can only give a generic explanation of the actions taken, if that.

</comment><comment><USER11> My biz partner has a GPS system from garmin. He lives in the central time zone, but works in the eastern time zone. Any time we use the GPS it will always add an hour to our trip when we are in EST.

Programmers aren't perfect. Practice makes permanents.

<comment><USER8> Ha! And my sister went to Egypt and looked up the gps distance to home (Iowa): 8000 miles. Off by 50%. Why? The programmer was doing cartesian distance instead of great-circle. So yes, if she drilled a tunnel through the Earth's core, it was only 8000 miles. :)

<comment> T-hawk No, 8000 miles sounds about right for the great-circle distance on the surface from Iowa to Egypt.

First, the diameter of the Earth is not quite 8000 miles, but 7926. So if anything says more than 7926 (plus maybe the height of a mountain or whatever), it's not calculating a straight line in Cartesian 3d space.

Second, that distance of 7926 miles would be from a point to its antipode. Iowa is not antipodal to Egypt, not even close. The antipode of Iowa is in the Indian Ocean and hundreds of miles from any land. The straight-line distance from Iowa to Egypt through the Earth's sphere would be more like 6000 miles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Read Jim Gray's Why do computers stop and what can be done about it? (<http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/tandem/TR-85.7.pdf>)

Excerpts:

"In the measured period, one out of 132 software faults was a Bohrbug, the rest were Heisenbugs."

"[retry] routines had a 76% success rate in continuing system execution."

Cosmic rays or race conditions, transient bugs _are_ common.</comment>


How Netflix won CES - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/10/5291068/how-netflix-won-ces-4k-streaming

<comment><USER2> Too bad Netflix is also almost single-handedly bringing DRM to the web, which has _far worse_ consequences in all areas of the Internet than the "convenience" of watching Netflix _not in Silverlight_ , while also not doing a single thing to even try to make their content DRM-free.</comment>


Automatic Machine Learning Model Tuning on AWS - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/sagemaker-automatic-model-tuning/ <comment><AUTHOR> I'm the author of the post if you have any questions.</comment>


PiPhone call your MEPs for free, Demand Rejection of ACTA - cm-t http://piphone.lqdn.fr

<comment> cm-t "PiPhone: call your MEPs, free of charge, and make yourself heard! Demand Immediate Rejection of ACTA! (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)"

NB: Vote will be done on this 4th July. La Quadrature du Net want to provide to citizens tools they need.</comment>


Hegel: JavaScript with types - <AUTHOR> https://jsmonk.github.io/hegel/ <comment><USER2> I'm looking forward to checking this out. It looks promising.</comment>


Man Scrawls World's Biggest Message With GPS 'Pen'  - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/worlds-biggest-writing/ <comment><USER2> Does it mean "Everyone in the US should read Ayn Rand!" like "You morons, make more anarcho-capitalism!!!"

or "Everyone in the US has read Ayn Rand..." like "The capitalsm made us morons!"

</comment><comment><USER3> This is outright hillarious, I love it. GPS grafitti

</comment><comment><USER4> A giant penis or the word boobs would have more merit than the suggestion of reading Ayn Rand.</comment>


Now this is a busy dashboard... - <AUTHOR> http://now.sprint.com/widget/

<comment><USER2> A good illustration of the distinction between high production values and good design.

<comment><USER3> On the contrary, I think the effectiveness of the design depends on its clutter. The clutter promotes exploration, as long as you're not expecting an informational tool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> :D This was gold:

Habitable Planets: 1

</comment><comment><USER5> AAAAGGHHHH MY BROWSER

<comment><USER6> not too bad on chrome...

<comment><USER7> "AAAAGGHHHH MY TAB" ? :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Actually, I'm not so overwhelmed by it. Taught me we can pack more on a page.

<comment><USER9> I think the dangerous term here is, _pack_.

<comment><USER10> More information! That's what the people want. They don't have enough numbers and facts being projected at them on a daily basis -- moar, moar!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This widget page took a risk (of crashing browsers and annoying users), and I think it is interesting because some of the widgets are liked together ala Rube Goldberg style.

I like the visualization of 'Forests being cut now' into 'Houses built now' (trees chopped/shredded into house 2x4's).

</comment><comment><USER12> That's like a DoS attack against safari :(

<comment><USER13> Upgrading to Flash 10 helps a lot, actually.

<comment><USER14> My MacBook Air is choking on it either way :P

<comment><USER7> doesn't it choke on everything?

<comment><USER14> Nope. Just flash. I just watched a 720p blu-ray rip on my 24" external monitor without any problems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I lasted 15 seconds before raging and closing... Because I had 16 tabs open at the time and it took a while to find...

</comment><comment><USER9> Anyone else make it to the part when she said, "This point in time will self- destruct, _now_." CTRL+W

</comment><comment><USER16> "Top words being used online: the"

Is this some kind of parody?

</comment><comment><USER17> Is there something about flash+FF that makes my MacBook go crazy?

<comment><USER18> Flash sucks on OSX; For me, World of Warcraft uses the same amount of CPU as an average flash game…

This thing rocks, just wish I could choose the panels on the OSX dashboard version...

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Man. That's kind of awesome.

I guess it's kind of odd that my only gripe is that it doesn't do any sort of screen size detection before displaying. I probably SHOULD complain about the information overload, or the inconsistencies in box sizing or some other silly thing, but I ... I like it. Inexplicable.

</comment><comment><USER20> Love it. Downloading now.

<comment><USER21> how can you download it?

<comment><USER22> Look around - somewhere in there is a grey lozenge/button with 'Get the NOW Widget' I have it in my OS X Dashboard now, god help me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Another all Flash site, yuck. What if I don't have Flash installed/enabled?

<comment><USER24> well then install it</comment></comment>


Tim Ferriss on tolerable mediocrity, and the advice he gives startups - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2734-tim-ferriss-on-tolerable-mediocrity-false-idols-diversifying-your-identity-and-the-advice-he-gives-startups <comment><USER2> Tim Ferriss meets 37 Signals, creating a perfect storm of self promotion.

"Hi Tim. Some folks doubt that you're as awesome as you say you are, because they can't believe anyone can be so awesome. However, we're also that awesome, so we can totally believe it ourselves."

</comment><comment><USER3> "I don't know anything about Tim Ferris's exercise regime. He came through our Sport and Fitness Evaluation Program for some testing a number of years ago. He did not provide any information about his purpose. In fact, I only found out that he put my name on his website after receiving an inquiry from someone who had seen the website and asked if I could confirm his results. I cannot — he signed a consent form that states that individual results will not be disclosed. Although he contacted me about being retested, I am not willing to do that because he is apparently using my name and San Jose State University for his commercial purposes, without asking for permission or notifying me of this."

The above quotation is allegedly from the doctor that Ferriss sites at the beginning of The 4 Hour Body. I have not verified that the quotation is legitimate, but I found it within this review of the book: [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=337...](http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3373698)

I found the review when I was researching some of the claims he makes within the book, claims which, to me, seemed to be obviously fraudulent. Assuming it's true, I have a hard time understanding why anyone should seek him out for advice on any matter.

<comment><USER4> This runs the other way for me, suggesting that Ferris at least made a good faith effort to get supporting data. No-one is claiming the data is wrong here. It's the "fitness evaluation expert" who is refusing to confirm or even retest the guy. And her scorn about "commercial purposes" rings particularly hollow given she is taking salary from a publicly-funded university.

Reminds me of the time I paid a US university hospital for various STD tests for visa purposes, and then the hospital refused to give me the resulting paperwork citing patient confidentiality. Totally ridiculous.

<comment><USER3> I think there's a difference between getting "supporting data" (or your own medical test results) and using a physician (and a university's name) without their express permission to both:

1\. promote a commercial work, and 2\. espouse an exercise regime that may be harmful.

Tim has responded to my comment on that original post:

"Matt,

To be clear: - Dr. Plato took most of the measurements in one chapter titled "Geek to Freak" - As she noted, I've contacted her several times (phone and email) in the desire to confirm data and even repeat tests. My last email to her was in March of 2009 and read:

"Dear Dr. Plato,

It has been some time since we last spoke, and I hope this finds you well! We did a number of hydrostatic weighings and circumference measurements back in 2005/2006, when I was gaining a lot of muscular weight as an experiment.

Are you still working at the Human Performance Laboratory? I will be writing a new book about physical optimization and will need to track things well. Do you have any availability for a visit from me and one other person anytime soon?"

If I wanted to falsify data, I wouldn't include a specific person's name. Too much headache for everyone. I hoped to actually work with Dr. Plato to present things, but she didn't respond to my email/phone.

That is. Nothing sinister about it.

All the best,

Tim Ferriss"

<comment><USER4> I don't know if I'm missing the point here, but I don't see anything wrong with getting tests done and letting people know who did the testing and where.

Unless Ferris is claiming a personal endorsement of his program that does not exist, this is a non-issue. The university and physician seem to have been given ample opportunity to divorce themselves from the published results and/or retest. The refusal to do either because Ferriss doesn't work for the civil service is churlish.

<comment><USER3> The problem is using a physician's name to lend authority to a physical regimen that might be harmful without that physician's approval. He's clearly attempting to mislead his readers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Additional inspirational content coming soon:

Napolean Hill, "Code and Get Rich"

Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Data and Influence Google"

Norman Vincent Peale, "The Power of Positive Customer Feedback"

Jack Canfield, "Chicken Soup for the Ruby Programmer"

Stephen Covey, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Founders"

Ken Blanchard, "The One Minute Start-Up"

Harold Kushner, "When Bad Data Happens to Good Web Sites"

Tony Robbins, "Awaken the Coder Within"

Zig Zigler, "See You at the IPO"

Robert Kiyosaki, "Rich Angel, Poor Angel"

Wayne Dyer, "You'll See It When You Click It"

David Allen, "Getting Apps Done"

Robert Fulghum, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned at 37signals"

<comment><USER6>
      Robert Fulghum, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned at 37signals"

HAHA I wonder, due to age, if the average HNer might not get that reference. Regardless, I can't help but feel that would be a hilarious book.

A few possibilities:

      Warm cookies and great design are good for you

      Wash your hands before you code

      Say you're sorry when you have downtime

<comment><USER7> More:

Share everything, preferably on github.

Play fair and deploy an API.

Don't hit people with bait-and-switch privacy policies.

Put things back where you found them or use garbage collection.

Clean up your own mess by refactoring, documenting and commenting with a full test suite.

Sanitize your inputs before you insert.

Flush your input buffer.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and hack and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

When you send data out into the world, watch out for packet sniffers, hold hands, and stick together.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and processes and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why specifically is it that Tim Ferriss brings out the absolute worst in HN? Most of these comments would not be tolerated on any other thread, yet when it's Tim Ferris, all of a sudden random "LOL TIM SUXX!!!" comments get 20+ points?

Furthermore, I continue to be confused and amazed that someone who is clearly a hacker and a damn good salesman is vilified around here, a place for hackers trying to be good salesmen.

It's a very strange outlier.

<comment><USER9> People get upset that they toil away at their jobs all day and he gets rich from seemingly nothing. Even though the truth is that he's a fantastic salesman and a really smart guy who works hard selling his admittedly mediocre books and himself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think a chrome extension to block all HN links about Tim Ferriss is in order, but leaves the HN comments (which are the actual interesting bits).

While I am genuinely impressed and shocked at his ability to self-promote, the content is ALWAYS a waste of time. Meta-lessons about self promotion and marketing are interesting...wish I could extract those without actually reading the content as when TF speaks, I just seem to get more and more angry.

Asking a genuine question: What is a good hack to get over the feeling that self-promotion is slimy? Not that I want to go all out like TF, but it would be interesting to have it in ones bag of tricks that you can turn to when needed.

<comment><USER11> What's so intolerable about Tim Ferriss? Just this month, I read portions of his two books, and have found them quite interesting... he's not 100% correct, but is able to generate new ideas or inspire. But maybe that just me here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not a very interesting article in general - I say that as someone who hates Tim Feriss, but this part was genuinely interesting and novel at least to me:

He uses A/B testing for finding the best book title (and subtitle) and cover.

 _"Ferriss famously used Google AdWords and in-store A/B testing to come up with the title to his first book [Full title: "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich"].

His experimentation didn't stop there, he decided to test various covers by printing them on high quality paper and placing them on existing similar sized books in the new non-fiction rack at Borders, Palo Alto. He sat with a coffee and observed, learning which cover really was most appealing."_

</comment><comment><USER13> I have a HN litmus test: if the comment section hates it, then pay attention. Other themes that persist are google, facebook, twitter, zynga, dhh, ebooks, mba, and pretty much anything that's acquired.

</comment><comment><USER14> I dont like Ferris. I read Tim Ferris 4 hour work week a while back. While he has some valid points, overall i think its a big scam. Hes a genius in marketing himself and his mediocre books that make things all so simple, but thats about it.

</comment><comment><USER15> Call me cynical, but I have a hard time reading any piece on Tim without thinking of it as a lure to buy something. It's not that he isn't good, it's that he's either selling something, or not talking at all, and I don't trust his intent.

</comment><comment><USER16> Hm. The people that hate/don't like T. Ferriss: Can you summarize in one sentence why?

(I understand that we sometimes just don't like people for no conscious reason, perhaps some of you failed following his book, but there must be more?)

<comment><USER17> I think the main reason is that he sells books about how to be successful, but his only success is in selling those books. It's a scam. And the 'advice' is ridiculous.

Most 'self help gurus' just prey on the stupid.

<comment><USER18> You know he sold his previous company, right? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ferriss#cite_ref-7>

<comment><USER19> Did you bother to look into his previous company at all?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I am not a big fan of Tim Ferriss - he argues for a 4 hour work week, but in one sample day of his I saw, he worked 4 hours on one article for the Economist alone.

That said, this article is surprisingly interesting/useful.

<comment><USER8> > he argues for a 4 hour work week, but

You're missing his message.

> In the second category, you have people who don't love what they do. It > comes back to that comfortable mediocrity. And for them, it's about > replacement. It's not about reduction. For them, the goal is to get to the > point where they're doing what they love. And that is the objective of > everything that I teach. _It's not to be idle_, but it's to get to the point > where you control your time and allocate it to the things that will give you > the most joy and also provide the greatest impact. For each person, that > will be very individual.

Emphasis mine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> tl;dr;

Advert for his new 'self help' book.

An advert for Sarah Palins book would be more relevant to HN IMHO.

<comment><USER12> Don't forget the part where he pays lip service to 37signals by speaking against feature creep.

Ferris gets to use 37signals as a (completely uncritical) sales platform, and in return he gives them a back rub. Quid pro quo I guess.

<comment><USER21> Logrolling: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logrolling>

<comment><USER12> Never heard that word before. Definitely going into my vocabulary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Wow, not what I was expecting at all.

First, hating your job is not better than merely tolerating it.

Yes, it'll spur you to change... Just enough to bring it to mediocrity. Hating your job never turns into a job that is awesome.

If you have the energy to make it from hate to love, you have more than enough energy to make it from mediocrity to love and sustain it.

From the title, I was hoping for an article about getting things done, even if they aren't the best way. Aim for perfection, but don't insist on it. Get it working and start earning money, and then make it better.

Oh well.

</comment><comment><USER23> Why would anyone in this industry care what Timothy Ferriss thinks?

Have all the VCs, angels, entrepreneurs, programmers, and software PMs died?

<comment><USER24> He may be selling snake oil, but that doesn't mean we have nothing to gain by learning how he sells.

<comment><USER25> If there are people here who want to follow Tim Ferriss' business plan (being a false ubermensch to impress a gullible public into buying his books), I don't want to be on this board.</comment></comment></comment>


Retired lawyer sues Israeli airline after she was asked to move seat - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/renee-rabinowitz-sue-israeli-airline-el-al-orthodox-gender-discrimination <comment><USER2> What I don't get is, why wasn't the man asked to move?

Again and again, this bumps up with my core belief that, you can believe whatever the hell you want, as long as you don't impose it on others. This is a clear violation of that.

<comment><USER3> I do agree, but it may be that the only open seats were also next to women.

<comment><USER4> Cue the world's smallest violin.

<comment><USER3> Well, my point was that maybe moving the guy (and no other people) was not an option that would solve the issue. In no circumstance do I think someone be forced to move like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's pretty unfortunate, but penalizing the airlines financially is the only way that they'll stop kowtowing to these sorts of unreasonable requests. Hopefully if this goes through, similar lawsuits will be brought against non- Israeli airline companies and this type of anti-social behavior will go away worldwide.

The article's key quote:

> Rabinowitz, a Jew who attends synagogue and keeps a kosher home, told the > Guardian: "The man had no other reason to complain than my gender – and > that's unlawful discrimination. It's no different than if a person of > another religion had said: 'I don't want to sit next to a Jew.' And I don't > believe El Al would move a person in those circumstance."

<comment><USER6> I think this passage is also very interesting (quoting Rabinowitz):

> "He started to tell me it was forbidden by the Torah. I interrupted him to > say the Torah says nothing about a man sitting next to a woman. He conceded > I was right, but said there was a general principle that a person should not > put himself in a dangerous situation."

So not only is it not explicitly forbidden by the Torah -- this whole thing is somebody's interpretation -- but the general principle being invoked says, don't put _yourself_ in a dangerous situation; it doesn't say that you get to rearrange everyone around you! Either find an acceptable seat yourself, or get off the plane!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> More power to her.

</comment><comment><USER8> Why is this on HN?

<comment><USER9> People on HN provide services to the public. The public are pretty good at testing your expectations around what a reasonable service provision is.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea? - <AUTHOR> http://lmframework.com/beyond.htm

<comment><USER2> I saw the whole presentation. I have absolutely no idea what lmframework is or does. All I see are words and no actual information: <http://lmframework.com/page.php?id=lmf>

Sure, humor could help with pitching an idea or hurt it if used unwisely. But lack of information about what you specifically do will certainly hurt a lot more. In the slide 50/52 you say you've built the part that monetizes the rest of the (Internet-iPhone) gap but then the slideshow ends abruptly without any explanation. Sounds extremely fishy to me.

<comment><USER3> I agree, I have no clue what this is about. Also, checked the website which didn't clarify anything.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's useful feedback, thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think there's a hierarchy in pitch priorities:

1\. Clarity.

2\. Brevity.

3\. Uniqueness of product.

4\. Uniqueness of pitch.

...and so on. If you can make your pitch more unique with humor in a way that doesn't cross any boundaries of taste (and if what you intend to be funny is ACTUALLY funny), then go for it!

For example, I saw a pitch to a room of startups, VC, and press that involved singing, dancing, weird accents, and a ukelele. I loved it and remembered the company's name, the product, the founder, the works. Because of that pitch (and their general attitude toward the tech ecosystem), that company's getting a video interview and a shot at a guest post on RWW.com.

<comment><USER5> I think in this case some might find your humor offensive "commie b*stard", or an overweight man in a ill fitting costume. The list jolie provides is correct. To me it looks like you searched reddit, more than doing a proper analysis of your startup. Also as others have pointed out you have no insight to even what your product is or how it works. Talk is cheap.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, some might find it offensive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd say in a pitch, unless you're _really_ good (judging from your question you're not quite there yet, and few people ever are) situational humor is OK, while all other humor should probably be cut completely. If something funny happens during the pitch, it's ok to joke about it. Planned humor usually doesn't go over well.

We had a phrase or two in our pitch (not the slides, but verbal communication) that were a bit humorous, and it happened to work really well. But it's very easy to overdo it, and ultimately, it's unlikely to make much difference.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Humor helps if you're already doing well, and hurts otherwise.

<comment><USER8> Absolutely, if I will wear turtle neck and blue jeans to office everyday, people will laugh at me. But Steave Jobs can do that even when he is giving keynote in front of thousands of people. The difference is success.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> It is a good idea - if you're actually funny.

I don't know what your product is. I've scoured your website and I still don't know what your product is. No sale.

</comment><comment><USER10> Did you catch the superbowl commercials last night?

Done well, humor can be a key component of a marketing strategy.

<comment><USER11> And poorly done humor is just uncomfortable. If first impressions are of any value, you better be sure your material is top notch.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very diplomatically put..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> i don't get it

(read the whole deck, clicked around, watched 30sec of a video)</comment>