Show HN: Product Hunt – Hacker News for Products - <AUTHOR> http://www.producthunt.co/# <comment><USER3> Congratulations on getting this out there. My favorite hacker news posts are always Show HN so this is really cool. I love seeing what other people are working on and having a single place to find new tools could prove really useful.

That being said, in my opinion, product discovery doesn't seem well suited to the hacker news format. A new product's relevance lasts a lot longer than the average new news article does. I'd love to see tags added to each product and a way to browse by tags. Boring and probably done, I suppose, but I think it'd be more useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Hacker News and "Show HN" is responsible for some of the market validation and product design of Product Hunt.

While we want to keep the product simple and useful, we do see value in adding more context and "searchability" with tagging. It's definitely on our radar.

<comment><USER4> The ability for people with certain domain knowledge or active interests to subscribe to tags, or customise their front page based on tags would be pretty nice.

Example, I'm interested in travel related ideas/products, but I've really no great interest in much of the stuff on the front page at the moment. But if something travel related does hit the site I don't want to miss it.

This might also allow for higher quality of comments, less eyeballs but more interested eyeballs so to speak.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think the big interface problem with the website is that it makes the user work extremely hard to figure out what the hell each product is about.

I don't think there's any point in emphasizing the product names, when they don't serve to explain the product.

A really simple improvement would be to display the name and description similarly to HN:

        <description> (<title/domain>)

E.g.

       Realtime code sharing for developers (CodeShare.io)

I mean this in the most helpful way possible: the interface is really, really bad at serving one of its basic, fundamental functions.

<comment><USER6> The interface literally does what you just listed but backwards.

<comment><USER7> It emphasizes the product name, rather than the description, which I'd argue draws the reader's eye to the wrong place; that emphasis would be better placed on what something _is_ , which information the reader will find useful in deciding whether she cares what something is _called_.

<comment><USER8> It's not exactly "extremely hard" to find the description, though.

<comment><USER7> Why let bad design make it harder than it has to be?

<comment><USER8> Obviously we should strive for better design, but greatly exaggerating is not a useful method of critique. The original post makes it sound like this information is almost impossible to find, when it is actually the second most prominent information on the page.

<comment><USER9> I don't think it's exaggerated at all. I looked at the page for like 30 seconds, thinking to myself, "What is this? I thought it was supposed to be like Hacker News, but for products. It appears to just be a bunch of people posting half-sentences that make no sense."

Seriously, the first post is "Go Dish HotelTonight for restaurants (SF)" WTF does that even mean? It's just a string of words that make no sense at all. It's literally incomprehensible to a typical reader.

<comment><USER8> The original post makes it sound like those half-sentences don't even exist. That's a pretty great exaggeration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> We launched publicly about two months ago after Nathan Bashaw (@nbashaw) and I built it over Thanksgiving break. The backstory was published on FastCo: [http://www.fastcolabs.com/3023152/open-company/the-wisdom- of...](http://www.fastcolabs.com/3023152/open-company/the-wisdom-of- the-20-minute-startup)

Happy to answer any questions and would love feedback from the HN community!

<comment><USER10> I have a user account but when/how can I post something?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're currently limiting contributor growth as have a few changes we need to make to the product to scale. If you're interested, please add your info here and we'll send you an email once you're added! :) [http://bit.ly/ph- contributor](http://bit.ly/ph-contributor)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Huge congrats to Ryan & team for getting this out there. It's a great, focussed source of news on product launches that might not provide incredible traffic (yet) but that provides valuable, constructive feedback from smart people.

I really hope it retains this quality as it (inevitably) grows. We launched SupportKit for Zendesk ([http://supportkit.radialpoint.com](http://supportkit.radialpoint.com)) on ProductHunt yesterday and the response was great.

</comment><comment><USER12> Had one of my apps featured on PH and was amazed at the quality of feedback. Ryan himself wrote a detailed review and a designer from Pinterest pointed out a UI flaw I'd never even thought about.

Post here: [http://www.producthunt.co/posts/442](http://www.producthunt.co/posts/442)

<comment><USER13> Can you share the link please?

<comment><USER12> [http://www.producthunt.co/posts/442](http://www.producthunt.co/posts/442)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> PH has been a pretty great resource for me. There aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with every company that launches. Quality > quantity any day of the week.

</comment><comment><USER15> Nice. We just launched something like this on [http://beta.techendo.co/](http://beta.techendo.co/)

Any feedback on how we can make the experience better, just let me know. :)

<comment><USER16> Once navigating to a sub-domain there is no link back to main. That's really frustrating so a small link at top or bottom back to techendo.co would improve my experience greatly.

<comment><USER15> Thank you so much. Will do that now!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Product Hunt is addictive and fun, but also useful. I've found a few cool things that I've used right away, and more that I've bookmarked for later.

</comment><comment><USER18> The way that Product Hunt has been helping me to discover new products is by the collective curation, by people that provide a lot of insight and are users themselves, just as it would on HackerNews. Above all, it allows me to get involved with the community (founders, PMs, designers, avid users). I used to go to the App Store for my discovery, but now I do it faster and easier on PH. That's why I really like it. Kudos!

</comment><comment><USER19> Congrats on launching. Suggestions:

* Some of the images are broken, you should fix those * You should add all the product images from every site. Not having multiple angles is annoying * You should consider making the thumbnails rotate when I move my mouse across the image on the search pages * Would be nice if there was a larger selection of furniture

<comment><USER20> Furniture? Are you talking about [http://www.producthunt.co/](http://www.producthunt.co/) or some other site? Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

<comment><USER21> Guessing that's in response to this thread instead?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7144369](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7144369)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I have been enjoying PH for awhile - congrats on the launch and getting the word out.

I would say that sometimes it is a little overwhelming to get through every service, and I look forward to a time where you are classifying/organizing the products that come through. Knowing there is a searchable repository of products would be a great resource.

</comment><comment><USER23> When @nbashaw first launched this, I told him they should limit submissions to 10 products a day because they'd run out of new products after a few weeks.

It's been amazing just to see how many new products are out there-- more than any (productive) person could really check out on a daily basis.

Excited to see where @producthunt goes in the future.

</comment><comment><USER24> I like Product Hunt, I've been visiting it several times a week since its launch.

Question for Ryan, how are the contributors chosen?

</comment><comment><USER25> Here's a few things I couldn't easily figure out on your site: What is a best new product? How is this different than a linked list on a blog? How would I find the best X app? e.g. Best new iOS note app? Is this site for me or for someone else? Am I a product person?

</comment><comment><USER26> Shame you can't open the comments in a new tab - I usually use Hacker News that way. I realize javascript things popping up in odd strips down the side of the page are trendy but not very nice to use if you want to actually read stuff. Otherwise nice.

<comment><USER20> Good point! I'm to blame for that :) but I'll fix it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Congratulations Ryan, I feel lucky to be an early part of this (user #3 baby!) when you just sat down to think about doing it. It's come along a long way already, I can't imagine where this is going to end up in a year.

</comment><comment><USER28> I really enjoyed this site, at first my reaction was 'meh' but as I was starting to go through services and recognized some, I am seeing great potential. Startups as a rule need all possible ways to get the word out.

</comment><comment><USER29> How do you intend to balance the need for high quality with the desire of users to get involved in the community? Are you worried if someone can't post/comment for months after joining, they may lose interest?

<comment><AUTHOR> Great question! Honestly, that's one of my least favorite parts of Product Hunt. I hate turning away people that want to contribute but to keep the contributions of high quality and not overwhelming, we need to curb our contributor growth.

We will be making product changes to grow the community, opening it to more people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Congrats to @nbashaw and @rrhoover, absolutely insane that you built this over Thanksgiving Break! It's been amazing to watch it grow in this short amount time. I always expect big things from the two of you.

</comment><comment><USER13> Tell HN: It is a great website but hella addictive, so be-aware specially those who complain about HN sucking all their time, now you have 2 addictive websites to deal it. I personally would stay away from it.

<comment><USER31> Why would you stay away from ProductHunt? It adds value??

<comment><USER13> I can get everything I need on HN. Ultimately the best products will make the front page here, no need to look around.

<comment><USER3> If you aren't at least occasionally looking beyond the front page how can you be certain the best products are making the front page?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Dear Product Hunt, please fix "switch to weekly emails or unsubscribe" feature. I was trying to switch to weekly emails 3 times and unsubscribe as well. It doesn't work at all.

</comment><comment><USER33> I found out about you guys last week when you linked to -my- project, Geocodio, from -your- site (came up in my Google Analytics). Since then I've been checking it daily. Nice work!

</comment><comment><USER34> My scrolling experience was really laggy... as if images were constantly loading in the background slowing the page. But it's a nice site otherwise.

</comment><comment><USER35> My favorite aspect of PH is that it cuts out the fat of TC/HN/Pando and sheds light on the products we, the people, deem worthy of praise.

</comment><comment><USER36> Exactly what i wanted! I actually deliberately scan for Show HN posts because even the half-baked ones are often very inspirational. Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER37> I use PH daily as well. I posted a side project of mine up there and received a bunch of positive feedback and insightful questions :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Which product was it? Want to link to the discussion thread?

<comment><USER37> Splashbox

[http://www.producthunt.co/posts/868](http://www.producthunt.co/posts/868)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I like PH. It could be more editorial in describing each product. Also, are you working on an improved mobile design?

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't share much yet but we have something better coming than just a better mobile web design. /end tease :)

<comment><USER38> Tease? I was just wondering if you'll improve the mobile experience - <USER2> now I have to scroll through a big header, newsletter signup, tweet button, the voters avatars and related links before actually viewing the comment thread.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> HN and PN are the two sites I now visit daily to keep up with the world. Great job rrhoover (and pg, of course!)

<comment><USER40> What's PN?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think he meant PH (aka Product Hunt) :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Did you use Arc for this?

Edit: nvm. Thank you for introducing me to Telesc.pe. This is exactly what I've been looking for!

<comment><USER42> Love Telesc.pe. Used it at [http://lighthouse.io](http://lighthouse.io) as a first test app, been great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> These new product discovery sites are awesome, been spending a lot of time lately on ProductHunt and Headlinr!

</comment><comment><USER43> Congrats @nbashaw! Glad to see it on here. Looks great, keep killing it.

<comment><USER20> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Bookmarked a few weeks ago. Visit every day, love the site.

</comment><comment><USER45> Something I can put in my feed reader (rss or atom)?

</comment><comment><USER46> Just learning about you- congrats on the launch!

</comment><comment><USER47> I think you're on to something here.

</comment><comment><USER48> Can you add sorting by characters?

</comment><comment><USER49> before producthunt existed how did you share links about cool new products @rrhoover?

<comment><AUTHOR> I shared much less before Product Hunt but most of these discussion happened IRL. Products are watercooler topic and particularly interesting conversation starter for many techy, early adopters.

Online, I did and still share cool products on Twitter and occasionally Facebook. I've also written about several early products.

<comment><USER49> what about a special msgme group?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> This is awesome, congrats!

</comment><comment><USER51> very cool! I'd prefer comments to be threaded though.

Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER52> Love this site.

</comment><comment><USER53> RSS feed?

<comment><USER54> +1. looks great, but I'd love to have a feed to follow. I tend to forget about this kind of thing if I don't subscribe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> how do I submit a product I found?</comment>


Apple Developer Program Membership Fee Waivers Now Available - <AUTHOR> https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=01032018a <comment><USER4> I wonder if I count as a nonprofit since I've spent way more in Apple developer fees than I have made from any of my apps?

<comment><USER5> But if you could do that you would then start making a profit, so would no longer qualify as nonprofit ;)

If you're spending more in developer fees than you're making from the apps it might make sense to make them free/ad-free so you can qualify as non-profit. You would lose the possibility of turning a profit in the future, though.

Edit: Just realised it's not available to individuals/non-profit businesses, which is a shame. If it was it could increase the number of free/ad-free apps and maybe the quality of the app store as a whole. Plus, who says one person can't run a non-profit. Surely they have to start somewhere like any other organisation?

<comment><USER6> _who says one person can 't run a non-profit_

I'm guessing: the IRS. A non-profit is a specific type of entity, not a business model.

<comment><USER7> That's irrelevant as to whether one person can run it.

Like an LLC -- one person can run one, it doesn't take 2.

<comment><USER6> Right, but an LLC is still a separate entity. nsgi's question, as far as I understood it, is why an individual can't be a non-profit without incorporating it.

<comment><USER7> A, that's true then. A non-profit is all about being registered as one (incorporating etc) and not about intentions (or for that matter, not being into it for profit).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wish they would just make the ad-hoc distribution mechanism actually useful, by extending the expiration to say, 1 year. This would make it easier for students/hobbyists/indies etc. to build apps for their _own_ devices. Currently, if they build an app for themselves, it only works for 7 days before they will have to reinstall via Xcode.

If they later want to publish to the App store, I think it's completely okay to ask them to pay $99 then.

<comment><USER9> I wish they'd let anyone run whatever they wanted for whatever lenth of time they want. Anything beyond that is a gross misuse of power.

<comment><USER10> I don't understand why this is getting downvoted. Not being able to control what you run on your own computer is kind of ridiculous.

<comment><USER11> Do you control what you run on a game console?

<comment><USER12> How is this even an argument? Why is it that someone always trots out the "well other company/industry does it" argument?

Actually, yes, I want to control what I run on a game console, a smartphone, a router, a computer and even my refrigerator.

<comment><USER11> If that's your desire you are free to buy an NVIDIA Shield for your game console, an Android for your smart phone, any computer, a well known easily hackable router, etc.

Vote with your dollars.

<comment><USER13> >Vote with your dollars.

I hate this saying. It's such a bullshit saying. a) There is no viable competition and b) It's incredibly profitable to lock people into an ecosystem, so even if you do "vote" with your dollars (hint: you're not voting) every company that you've now "voted" for has an interest in locking you into their ecosystem. The very act of "voting with your dollars" is part of the problem. This requires a principled stand and a demand, not more consumerism.

<comment><USER11> I gave you plenty of examples. There are plenty of Android manufactures with some phones more locked down than others. There are plenty of routers - <USER2> more hackable than others. There are plenty of alternatives to dedicated game consoles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> 'Nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, and government entities based in the United States'

US only...

<comment><USER15> Yeah. I see zero reasons why this can't be extended internationally -- just flag these developer accounts as unable to charge or profit (in any way) from apps, including having the review process exclude anything with in-app ads (which, IIRC, are already flagged/audited in some way).

<comment><USER16> The delay may have something to do with complying with local laws. I suspect that since this is limited to non-profits, Apple is claiming some portion of this $99 as a tax deduction. If this is what is "funding" the program, then they need to make sure the legal framework is in place in other countries.

<comment><USER17> Purely curiosity, but surely that can't be how it works? It kind of makes sense at face value, but seems like a monster loophole[1], too -- I'd be curious if anyone could point me towards more reading on the topic.

1 - Bob wants tax deductions. Bob decides to sell pencils for $50k each. Bob discounts them to $0 for non-profits. Can Bob deduct $50k per pencil, for each sold to a non-profit?? Maybe Bob can only deduct his _cost_ , or something?

<comment><USER16> From what I remember of working with a non-profit, there are limits to "gift- in-kind" donations. Apple sells the license at $99, but they can probably only claim $50 or so since that's what the actual "cost" of an iOS developer is.

So in your example, yes, Bob could only deduct the cost of the pencils, not his inflated "value".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Does this imply certain open source projects could setup related nonprofit associations then waive the fee?

Could be interesting if an "app archive" nonprofit starts up to bring back abandoned indie projects (assuming the original developer decides to open source)

</comment><comment><USER19> Why do they charge this fee at all if they're taking 30% of purchases?

<comment><USER20> 1\. It's a nominal fee that keeps a certain kind of crappy app out of the store. 2\. Apps can be released for $0, yet it costs money to host those apps.

<comment><USER21> Apple have to approve every app before it is release so the cost to them is really the approval process.

<comment><USER19> So charge for approvals. Why am I paying $99/yr to deploy apps to my own phone when I am already forced to buy their phone and their computers.

<comment><USER22> I doubt anyone actually forced you to buy their phone and computers.

<comment><USER23> He probably means "in order to develop iOS apps"

<comment><USER24> Nobody forces you to develop iOS apps either. This is the point I think people are missing. Access to Apple's walled garden is valuable enough to people that Apple can charge for it and people will pay it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> > accredited educational institutions

Would this also extend to _students_ of said institutions wishing to distribute free apps that they create in, say, an iOS development course?

</comment><comment><USER26> From what I understand, the "catch" (trade-off) is the "will distribute only free apps".

As an example I would think that a University teacher would release his/her app with the classroom material thus free app, mainly for the students - <USER3> point charging as the whole effort is not a "for profit".

Same for various orgs/NGOs who would need to reach out to provide news (e.g. United Nations).

This for me (who pays the $99) is honorable and shows that apple does indeed separate the for-profit efforts from the non-profit efforts.

</comment><comment><USER27> There is a bit of a background to this that I don't see mentioned in any of the comments.

Since last summer's WWDC, Apple's policy regarding "templated" or white- labeled apps has bounced around quite a bit. At one point they suggested that cities (for example) would be required to develop their own "custom" app rather than purchase an appropriate white-labled app from a vendor. They imagined that the functionality could be provided via an SDK that the city would use to build their own custom app. Pretty much a non-starter for all but a very few large cities with a significant IT department.

In any case, they have landed on a policy that requires the apps to be published by the municipalities directly rather than via the vendor. This isn't entirely unreasonable as it provides a strong signal to users that the app is "official" and lets the city promote their own brand rather than the vendor's brand.

So apparently as a concession to the administrative overhead that this change introduces for thousands of apps and organizations, they have introduced this fee waiver.

All in all, I think they ended up in a reasonable place but the last six months have been pretty frustrating as Apple figured this all out.

        https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/21/apple-goes-after-clones-and-spam-on-the-app-store/
        https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/20/apple-revises-its-controversial-guidelines-on-template-based-apps/

</comment><comment><USER28> Why don't make this permanent and for everyone? At least add indie developers to the list.

<comment><USER29> Yeah some sort of revenue metric like 50k would be nice.

But they have the fee probably as a slight deterrent to just anyone uploading anything or abusing many accounts/company setups as there is a cost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think this will be interesting. But the biggest cost to these institutions would probably be developing the app that would be published, rather than $99/year to get it published. But that's not accounting for volunteers...

</comment><comment><USER31> I wonder if MOOCs and other non-profit coding schools could use this to get their students apps distributed. Perhaps the risk would be too much, but would be cool to see Udacity or someone allowing first time progammers to release for their first time.

</comment><comment><USER32> Oh this is great!

Unless you're a non-US non-profit. Thanks a bunch Apple.

</comment><comment><USER33> Finally, after this long time...

</comment><comment><USER34> Apple development fees are wayy too big compared to value of the google and user experience..

</comment><comment><USER35> Good Apple!</comment>


United Airlines Pays Man a Million Miles for Reporting Bug - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/07/united-airlines-pays-man-million-miles-reporting-bug/

<comment><USER2> The rules of the bug bounty program pretty much preclude anything agressive:

 _Attempting any of the following will result in permanent disqualification from the bug bounty program and possible criminal and /or legal investigation. We do not allow any actions that could negatively impact the experience on our websites, apps or online portals for other United customers.

        .. Brute-force attacks
        .. Code injection on live systems
        .. Disruption or denial-of-service attacks
        .. The compromise or testing of MileagePlus accounts that are not your own
        .. Any testing on aircraft or aircraft systems such as inflight entertainment or inflight Wi-Fi
        .. Any threats, attempts at coercion or extortion of United employees, Star Alliance member airline employees, other partner airline employees, or customers
        .. Physical attacks against United employees, Star Alliance member airline employees, other partner airline employees, or customers
        .. Vulnerability scans or automated scans on United servers (including scans using tools such as Acunetix, Core Impact or Nessus)*

One can hope that the bad guys are similarly polite. And, as you would expect, the United security folks did not see the irony of their restrictions when it was pointed out to them.</comment>


Broken windows and a Molotov cocktail:DOJ finds creative ways into rioting cases - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/20/doj-local-rioting-cases-329735 <comment><AUTHOR> Interstate commerce was interfered on by a bottle of tequila:

 _In another case, federal authorities charged a man with possession of a Molotov cocktail, arguing that because he had used an imported bottle of Patron Citronge Pineapple Tequila to make the incendiary device, the case fell under the federal government's regulation of foreign commerce. "_</comment>


Show HN: cloudlab - numerical processing with javascript & json - <AUTHOR> http://cloudlab.io

<comment><USER2> First of all, I think this is a great idea. It's something I've thought a lot about myself for several years now -- with the name 'cloudlab', even! -- but ultimately decided to work on a different set of problems in science. Anyway, the key questions you'll need to answer are, in approximate order of importance:

* What do I do with my mountains of MATLAB code? Will cloudlab run my existing mcode and access my existing mat files as-is? Will you provide a conversion tool? How perfect will it be? If I have 5 years of work in mcode, and huge amounts of organizational knowledge around that process, why would I ever redo that?

* How do you handle security? My data is my entire career. I can't take a risk with that. Running MATLAB _at all, much less locally on underpowered hardware blows_ , but you still need to convince me that my data is more safe with you than it is with me. Which is hard, considering my data ranges from VPN'd to airgapped.

* How much does it cost? MATLAB may not be free, but it's paid for via a convoluted pre-approved purchasing system once every ten years by someone who isn't me. I can't decide to go spend money on a MATLAB-that-isn't-MATLAB on a whim, much less a lot of it. Being free now does nothing to inspire confidence in either longevity or affordability into the future. See: Google App Engine.

* What kinds of data formats do you support, and how big can the data get? I have something like 5 terabytes of data lying around waiting to be analyzed. JSON doesn't really sound compelling when I'm talking about huge matrices or gigs of timeseries data. Do you support HDF5? How does plotting work when I want to plot ten million points, or draw a fine 3D mesh? It would almost certainly need to be rendered server-side and presented as an image... it looks like you're using basic JS charting libraries, though, from the screenshots. How well does that scale to real datasets?

If your scripting environment makes lots of assumptions about your platform in a way that makes it nonportable code, and you don't open-source it, it'll be hard to get people to make the investment and move projects onto your platform now knowing it could disappear at any time. If I spend 6 months collecting data, then another 3 months analyzing it, and then you announce you're shutting down because you failed to raise VC while I'm in the process of preparing a manuscript, that would set me back months and generally be a disaster.

You don't expose too many docs without requiring a registration, and the screenshots don't really give much away. What's up with that?

Edit: Also, the fixed password policy isn't really amusing. I guess you guys will track it and see what happens, but I bet that you'll notice a way depressed return user rate, because every time I'll want to log back in I'll need to go search through my email first, and I'll never really "activate" as a user after the first time or two playing around. If you're serious about account security, use 2-factor ([https://moocode.com/posts/3-using-the-google- authenticator-a...](https://moocode.com/posts/3-using-the-google- authenticator-app-with-rails)) auth or something similar.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've just pushed a little fix that allows anonymous users to view documentation at <http://cloudlab.io/documentation>

At the moment, the software is a proof of concept. There is much, much more planned vis-a-vis data formats, APIs and built-in libraries.

As for your Matlab code, I've given thought to a transcompiler. It's not high on the list, but it has been given thought.

<comment><USER2> If you're serious about converting any significant percentage of current MATLAB users (which would be the vast majority of the scientific community), either a JS mcode interpreter or a code translator should be near the top of your list. With that you'll turn heads; without it, everyone will ask why they'd ever throw out their lab's huge library of accumulated, well- understood, thoroughly-debugged (hard!) code.

Also, just out of curiosity, what are your guys' backgrounds? Why did you decide to build this instead of something else? Is this something you'll use (or, would have before you stopped whatever you were doing to start this), or did you just identify a market need?

<comment><USER3> its large but its not the entire scientific community. I used to be a matlab user, my entire phd thesis work was all in matlab, we were in medical imaging. Then I left to work in industry in finance and we use python numpy scipy for all our work and its much better than matlab. R, Fortran, C/C++/Java are also highly represented in scientific work.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google Bans Developer, Developer bans Chrome Extension - <AUTHOR> http://launch.is/blog/google-bans-developer-for-using-pseudonym-and-developer-stop.html

<comment><USER2> Interesting that they are publishing that he is 16 considering that Google+ is currently limited 18+ for the "field trial"</comment>


For all the chemistry geeks... - <AUTHOR> http://www.touchspin.com/chem/SWFs/pt2k61012.swf <comment><USER2> I am a chemist, and I like it.

I used to use webelements.com, which has the same information but is becoming more and more difficult to navigate with all the ads and subsections. I need a site that serves the same purpose as glancing up at the periodic table on my wall...except that I don't have a periodic table on my wall...so the lighting- fastness of it is great.

Your periodic table links to Wikipedia, which I just realized today has wonderful information on the elements. At first I assumed this was kind of a problem business-wise...you're linking to a competitor with much better information. Then I realized what a great tool this is as an interface for the wikipedia information on the elements. So, I've replaced the Webelements link in my bookmark bar with the Touchspin periodic table, which I will use as an interface to link to the wikipedia pages for more detailed information.

A few small points: -When I minimized the window with the elemental information in it, I couldn't ever figure out how to make it bigger again. -Some of the data is missing (% crustal abundance for Zn and many other elements). -No isotopic data which is what I am usually looking for.

</comment><comment><USER3> When I was in high school the periodic table still didn't have names for some of those elements (I think it only went up to Lawrencium).

I'm not actually old myself, but evidently that periodic table was. ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> I would have been more stoked had it been cross browser css/js. Still awesome.

</comment><comment><USER5> what about ununbium (112) through ununoctium (118)?</comment>


Elon Musk: How We're Going to Colonize Mars - <AUTHOR> http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-elon-musk-interview-on-mars <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8388156](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8388156)

</comment><comment><USER3> Now _this_ is what I call a mission statement:

 _' I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future.'_

</comment><comment><USER4> The key to space is to be there. Permanently. We can't lift everything from Earth; it's too far down our gravity well. Once we mine the bulk of the raw materials from The Moon and asteroids, space won't seem nearly so daunting. Until then, everything is an extreme effort.

<comment><USER5> Yes, and until we build robots that can do most of the work, it's not going to happen either. We need to build the "tech tree" in the right order.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's an interesting talk by Robin Hanson that argues that the absence of observed alien life should make us think human civilization is likely to go extinct and therefore that interplanetary colonization is either harder than believed or insufficient to propagate life long term.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8804856](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8804856)

<comment><USER7> This assumes that we should expect to observe alien life with any meaningful probability at all, which may not be a reasonable expectation and completely independent of the difficulty of interplanetary expansion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It is great to have long term goals this massive as it makes the other big problem steps in getting there seem smaller relatively and more attainable. Not even settling for just getting there but putting 1 million people on Mars.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd prefer to orbit Saturn than to live on Mars, but the technology to make that affordable would be made available by Musk's Mars colony.

</comment><comment><USER10> We're exhausting this planet, what's the point of going to Mars to repeat the same mistakes ?

<comment><USER11> Not going out like the dinosaurs?

<comment><USER10> You mean the ability to escape in case of planet wide catastrophe or just running away from the potential ecological mess we started ?

<comment><USER11> Either. Both. Whatever.

Having a backup planet opens up, literally, a world of possibilities. In the end, either we survive as a species or we don't. The universe doesn't care either way, but we're capable of caring, so we should continue to live.

Edit: Actually, I suppose either way, we don't survive in the end. But might as well die out later than sooner, if possible.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A China Triangle: Bitcoin, Baidu, And Beijing - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/11/24/a-china-triangle-bitcoin-baidu-and-beijing/ <comment><USER2> Even the most oppressive governments can't monitor or trace payments made with physical cash. But tracing Bitcoins is easy, thanks to the blockchain.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a sudden crackdown, in which BTC China's records are seized and used to identify individuals who are using Bitcoin to shift money overseas. In fact, who's to say it's not happening already?

<comment><USER3> _can 't monitor or trace payments made with physical cash_

For large values of cash, yes they can; cash is bulky and has to be smuggled if you want to do it secretly, which is expensive.

Hence all the US asset forfeiture laws, and various countries rules on bringing currency in or out.

<comment><USER2> > For large values of cash, yes they can...

No they can't, unless they have taken special measures (e.g. surveillance[1]) which are invariably resource-intensive. If a $100 turns up in a Miami drug dealer's wallet, there's no way of tracing it from the ATM is was issued from in NYC a month earlier. Cash does not leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to every wallet it passed through.

Bitcoins, on the other hand, are traceable by default. Users have to make an effort to cover their tracks using a laundering service (vulnerable to compromise) or something like CoinJoin (potentially vulnerable to network analysis).

[1]: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1460639069/follow-the- mo...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1460639069/follow-the-money-0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting article overall, but:

"it is inconceivable that Baidu would permit the acceptance of Bitcoins without first clearing the matter with Beijing authorities"

It do not seem to be what suggested Kaiser Kuo [http://qr.ae/GsjwK](http://qr.ae/GsjwK) and it should be noted that Baidu is a bunch of small sized teams competing each other fiercly. Accepting Bitcoin could very well be decided locally, and the risk would be localized.

Even if the higher instances in Baidu or higher have heard of it, they probably won't have endorsed it officially and will be able to say they didn't know.

I would be extremely surprised if the Chinese government would be very open- minded with bitcoins and would suspect an hidden agenda behind. Why? Because from all what we know of Bitcoin and its use, it allows bypassing a lot of controls, and even threaten directly the life and blood of any government on Earth: the taxes.

<comment><USER5> Bitcoin doesn't threaten taxes at all. It would be like suggesting that taxes didn't work in the age of cash transactions (eg for the first 200 years of US history).

Primarily it threatens fiat-based Keynesian economics by making it impossible to inflate away savings / wealth / standard of living as a means of government deficit financing. To the extent a government is dependent on devaluing their currency to remain afloat or otherwise pretend to be better off than they are (eg paying for entitlements with inflation), is the extent to which bitcoin would be a threat with wide-scale adoption.

<comment><USER6> As long as the Gov't has authority what asset it accepts for tax payments, legal tender as issued by the central bank is in no danger. Since in industrialized nations taxes make up a large part of the GNI, I cannot see XBT dethroning national currencies.

The usual inflation of traditional currencies would predictably lead to a deflationary spiral in XBT until it either hits a ceiling or goes into extremely fast boom and bust cycles that kill trust. Everyone who tried to evade the debasement of his savings by 2% inflation only to witness them melting 50% in the next XBT bubble pop will be hesitant to go there again - especially if the market get so narrow that selling is a real problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen My take on China's embrace of Bitcoin is not that it will help it with police- statesmanship, but simply that they really don't like the USG dollar, and would love if the international monetary system made a little more sense. Right now, Japan, Germany, and China (mostly) buy enormous amounts of US treasuries at tiny/negative interest, only to see them defaulted on little by little at the pace of inflation (which is of course paced by the USG). China doesn't really believe in fiat currency, definitely not at the state level. They should know, they invented paper currency back in the day. Instead, they buy precious metals (and other metals, they stockpiled copper during the gold boom a few years back), and I think they see something very similar when they look at Bitcoin. They see gold 2.0, at any rate, a contender to become the world's reserve currency, only with better liquidity than gold, less inflation (you can mind more gold into existence, but Bitcoin is capped at 21 million), and harder to forge.</comment>


Detect a Mobile Browser in 220 bytes (Using PHP) - <AUTHOR> http://www.justindocanto.com/scripts/detect-a-mobile-device-user-in-php

<comment><USER2> Looks useful, but please don't routinely redirect iPad users to the mobile version of your site. Typically any site that works on desktop Safari will work just fine on the iPad. It will almost certainly work much better than a mobile layout that's optimized for a 3" screen.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very true. Idk how that slipped my mind. Maybe i'll add in an argument to skip detection of an iPad. Thanks for bringing that up. =)</comment></comment>


The cost of messaging - <AUTHOR> http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2009/02/09/the-cost-of-messaging.aspx

<comment><USER2> No: topic is actually about demands of _writing_ message objects: [http://codebetter.com/blogs/gregyoung/archive/2009/02/09/cos...](http://codebetter.com/blogs/gregyoung/archive/2009/02/09/cost.aspx)</comment>


Ask HN: What do you want from a note-taking app? - <AUTHOR> I couldn't find a note-taking app that ticked all the boxes I'm interested in, so I built my own [1].
What this project thought me is that the process of note-taking is incredibly personal, and consequently there are way more note-taking apps available than I imagined.
I'd be interested in knowing how a way more technical than average crowd approaches note-taking, so:
What apps do you use?
What features do you need?
[1] https://github.com/fabiospampinato/notable <comment><USER2> \- reasonably lightweight & fast – should stay open all times, ideally out of your way – invoke by keyboard

\- text based storage

\- markdown or similar, with inline markdown source preview – see Typhora, or ST/Atom/VScode

\- hierarchical structure – see Workflowy

\- tagging (bonus: hierarchical tags)

\- edit locally, or at least back-up locally – in the way that Google Keep doesn't

\- mobile access (or compatible w 3rd parties)

I'm currently using nvALT on the desktop (synced w Dropbox) and Google Keep for quick mobile notes.

Some of the apps I've considered: [https://notes.pinboard.in/u:pax/notes/d77078d915cf59841bb3](https://notes.pinboard.in/u:pax/notes/d77078d915cf59841bb3)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, thank you!

PS. I think the link for "Notable" is pointing to the wrong page.

<comment><USER2> fixed, thank you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> \- Modularity: I would like it if I could open a folder with the app, and the app will interpret some meta file in the folder to understand settings for that folder. This will ensure that it is scalable. I can open another folder with app in addition to, or by appending to existing folder.

\- Interlinking of notes.

\- Tagging at least at file level.

\- Ability to add yaml metadata to files and search the metadata fields of multiple files/all files in current folder.

\- Ability to set a default notebook/folder and create quick notes in that folder.

\- Ability to extend via plugins written in a major language.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm surprised by how often questions like this come up, but I always find the responses interesting and educational.

 __* What I Want __*

Non-negotiable items include:

\- Low Friction: A little initial setup is ok, but just taking a note should require no more than a click or two (whether clicking a mouse or a pen). \- Open source. \- Aesthetically Pleasing: I'm tired of looking at ugly stuff. \- Has to handle LaTex. \- Has to handle syntax highlighted code listings. \- Notes are in an easily portable format. \- Organization Tools: Some sort of organizational ability. I have thousands of notes that I use and need to refer back to all the time. \- Privacy: No sending my personal information to someone else's server.

Negotiable:

\- Mobile Friendly: My eyesight isn't good enough to use a phone for note- taking or reading. Tablets are Ok. Desktop is best for me. \- Implementation Language: Since I'm looking for an open source solution, I'd like it to be in a language that I like. In my case, Clojure/ClojureScript, Lisp, Scheme (Racket) would be optimal. JavaScript is least desired. \- Minimal dependencies: I'd prefer that it not be based on Node, NPM, Electron, Atom, or any other huge ecosystem that would have to be installed on my system. (Java is Ok with me, obviously.) Scriptability: It would be nice if it could help automate my workflow.

 __* What I Have Tried __*

\- Long ago (2005) I started a job at which the company provided me with a stylus-based, Windows tablet PC. Included was a copy of [OneNote]([https://products.office.com/en-us/onenote/digital-note- takin...](https://products.office.com/en-us/onenote/digital-note-taking-app)) that could do very good, real-time handwriting recognition.

       During work meetings, I typically created the notes as the meeting progressed and projected them on a screen in the meeting room, letting everyone make sure that what they said was understood and that they could see what they had agreed to (tasks, dates, etc.)

       When I left that job, I would have bought one of those tablets if I could have afforded it. Since then, OneNote has morphed into something unusable for me, and I haven't gone back.

* I was a very early adopter of [Evernote]([https://evernote.com/](https://evernote.com/)) and had a premium membership for a long time. I really missed the ability to do handwriting recognition, but being able to search within images was almost as useful. We would put meeting minutes up on the whiteboard, photograph them at the end and stuff them into Evernote so they could be searched.

       I sadly stopped using it after Evernote also morphed into some unusable mess (Pay more! Get less!) that I couldn't remember how to use on different platforms.

* I used [TiddlyWiki]([https://tiddlywiki.com/](https://tiddlywiki.com/)) for a while. It was quite powerful and easy to use, but it just bogged down unacceptably with a lot of notes.

* [Zim]([http://zim-wiki.org/](http://zim-wiki.org/)) wiki works well, but it doesn't have all of the features I want these days. And it is so ugly that I just can't bear to use it.

* [WikidPad]([http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/](http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/)) is nice but also ugly and missing features that I need these days. And I don't use Windows anymore.

 __* What I Do Now __*

I have tried to consciously move away from Google and Microsoft tools and closed-source programs (not always successfully.)

* I finally just wrote a personal wiki of my own. I started it in [Racket]([https://racket-lang.org/](https://racket-lang.org/)), but moved on the [Clojure]([https://clojure.org/](https://clojure.org/)) for server part and [ClojureScript]([https://clojurescript.org/](https://clojurescript.org/)) for the client part, mostly just the Markdown editor. It creates documents that are based on [Markdown]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown)), but include extensions for [LaTeX]([https://www.latex-project.org/](https://www.latex-project.org/)), syntax highlighting, [YAML]([https://yaml.org/](https://yaml.org/)) front-matter, and, of course [Wikilinks]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Link)).

       It exports to Markdown files that can be included directly in my blog.

       It has almost all of the features I want, and it is relatively easy for me to add new things as needed.

* I always keep an inexpensive [sketchbook]([https://www.strathmoreartist.com/visual-journals/visual-jour...](https://www.strathmoreartist.com/visual-journals/visual-journal-watercolor-140-lb.html)) with me for drawing, painting (watercolor, tempera, and acrylics only) as well as note-taking.

       Scanning or transcribing notes into my wiki was a PITA, but...

* I have recently started using a [Rocketbook]([https://getrocketbook.com/](https://getrocketbook.com/)). I use it for detailed drawings at my desk. But for things that are in my sketchbook, I can place the smaller pages from the sketchbook onto a page in the Rocketbook and scan them. They are then sent off to my email account. There are settings to cause the handwritten notes to be transcribed and placed in the email, allowing easy transfer into the wiki.

       That's usually all I need.

* For web clipping, I use the browser extensions from [Joplin]([https://joplin.cozic.net/](https://joplin.cozic.net/)) or [DEVONthink]([https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overvi...](https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.html)).

* For extremely long-form writing (beyond a blog post or note), I usually start with my wiki, splitting the significant parts into different documents. While collecting research, I use DEVONthink and [Scrivener]([https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview](https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview)). Finally, I put it all together in Scrivener.

 __* The Future __*

* I enjoy expanding my wiki, both in content and in function. I want to add sophisticated tagging, something like in [Trilium]([https://github.com/zadam/trilium](https://github.com/zadam/trilium)).

* I think [OPML]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML)) is the perfect format for writing a daily journal among other things.

* Of course, there is a never-ending list of smaller things to add.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very interesting, thanks for commenting! You touched on the dependencies point:

> Minimal dependencies: I'd prefer that it not be based on Node, NPM, > Electron, Atom, or any other huge ecosystem that would have to be installed > on my system.

You don't want "bloated" frameworks to be used or you don't want to install NPM/Node/etc. on your system?

I'm asking because my app is based on Electron, but it doesn't require you to install anything in particular in your system to use it.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I commented before looking at your app so I wouldn't be influenced by it.

My dislike isn't so much with the final app, but more related to the ability to rebuild an open source project. If I want to make modifications, there is a lot of additional stuff I would have to install. I just don't use node, npm, code mirror, electron, etc. The argument could be made that installing Java and the libraries I need would produce the same kind of clutter, but that hasn't been my experience.

I think it's a matter of differing tastes and I have the luxury to indulge myself.

I do want to thank you for putting your work out there though. It is always interesting to me to see how people approach these projects.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the clarification. It makes sense that if you want to perhaps contribute to the project or even just self-building it you'd pick a stack of your preference.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: #AlphanumericShellcoding, alphanumeric shellcodes on RISC-V [DEFCON'27] - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/RischardV/riscv-alphanumeric-shellcoding <comment><USER2> It's a shame that

> Our academic paper gives a lot of details about design choices. We encourage > you to read it if you want to understand how the code works.

yet

> Link to paper to be published soon.

<comment><USER3> GitHub has been updated with the paper.</comment></comment>


OpenMP Reaches into the Parallel Universe of GPUs - <AUTHOR> https://www.nextplatform.com/2018/11/18/openmp-reaches-into-the-parallel-universe-of-gpus/ <comment><USER2> But what about FPGAs or DSPs? I want one environment for all....</comment>


Self-driving taxis are a fantasy - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@alek_m/self-driving-taxis-are-a-fantasy-ea6f8eb039b7 <comment><USER2> I find it interesting (well, actually, sad) that the author chose that picture for the image of a "public toilet", instead of, say, anything like here: [https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=지하철+화장실](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=지하철+화장실)

(The query says "subway restroom")

It's a classic failure of imagination. When you live your entire life using (or refusing to use) abysmally dirty public transit system, you kinda assume that it's a part of inevitable human nature. And then of course it stays unchanged, because everybody in the town _knows_ it can't be helped so why waste precious budget on it?

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd say the opposite: i used public transit whenever i can and, having lived in many countries, bought a car in just one (Cyprus) because there is no usable public transit there. Cars are not something 'desirable' for most people, they ride them because they have no other choice.

Also it's easy to put a webcam inside an SDT to monitor what's going on - it's not a problem with a human-driven taxi that he could see you, so it shouldn't be seen as a violation of privacy. If you do something nasty a machine vision system can detect it, lock the car down, and drive you to that aforementioned police station.

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you familiar with the outrage that NSA spying of people's communication caused? What makes you think that after all the data breaches and privacy violations, people will be okay with someone recording them in a car? The recordings are permanent, unlike the taxi driver's vision. Plus, the point of the self-driving car is to free people up to do other things. It's like your own room. The ability to lock the car down is frightening, because as it was stated, in a centralized system it could be used by government in any way they want, the same thing they're doing with data - they said they're gonna collect just metadata, but the truth is much more disturbing.

Wouldn't people rather be in their own semi self-driving car, where they are not recorded and can go anywhere they want(including very long distances or bumpy terrains), plus they could take control of the car anytime they wanted? That would be a more reasonable option for many, not a taxi that you have no control over and where you're recorded like a rat in a laboratory.

<comment><USER4> Umm, many if not most taxis have a security camera recording things already. As do buses.

2008, "All licensed cabs in Windsor will have on-board cameras by the end of August" \- [http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=1ea2956...](http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=1ea29561-df0a-48bf-b7e6-a36d27b815aa)

2000, for NYC "The in-vehicle security camera system takes digital photo images of the entire passenger area of the vehicle, and consists of a small camera with integrated infrared lighting that is installed above the vehicle's rear-view mirror." \- [http://www.taxi-library.org/tlc- cameras.htm](http://www.taxi-library.org/tlc-cameras.htm)

2015 Uber driver with dash cam - [http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln- uber-rider-arres...](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uber-rider- arrested-20151101-story.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If self driving taxis were run by a government entity I'd buy your argument.

But if run by private enterprise they will either figure out how to deal with the problem or go out of business.

Capitalism isn't in vogue now but it is a tremendous self regulating mechanism that government will always lack. If you question that imagine how long a fast food restaurant could survive with bathrooms like the one in your picture?

</comment><comment><USER6> Perhaps the taxi operators could make people put down a monetary deposit in order to be a taxi customer, which they forfeit if the next customer finds the previous customer has done something bad to the interior of the taxi. (That might be a challenge for taxi riders' anonymity, though -- which has already been a problem with services like Uber and Lyft.)

<comment><USER4> So if I barf on the seat I can say it was there when I got in the car and get the previous person to pay for it? Sweet!

<comment><USER6> That's a good point. I wonder what Zipcar is doing about adjudicating the disputes like this that come up today (since they don't have a human agent inspecting the car for dirt or damage when it's returned).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why the hatred against poor people? Don't forget that LBJ peed on his Secret Service agent(!) and supposedly justified it as "That's my prerogative."

In any case, the relevant comparison is a car-share club.</comment>


9FRONT "PLAN9-Haters" Released - <AUTHOR> http://9front.org/releases/2020/05/28/0/ <comment> 4x5-Guy Since it looks like it works on a Raspberry Pi, I think I'll give it a try.</comment>


Galileo's reputation is more hyperbole than truth - <AUTHOR> https://aeon.co/opinions/galileo-s-reputation-is-more-hyperbole-than-truth <comment><USER2> Had to stop reading at "...largely mythical war between science and religion..."

History, countries, continents were shaped by religion persecuting shit. Paganism was burned at the stake, and herbal medicine in European cultures is almost inexistent when compared to Asian and (Native) American cultures. Religion wages war on everything, which is epitomized by the crusades.

Galileo was persecuted because he voiced uncomfortable truths. Much like Einstein and many others, he wasn't the only one who knew those truths. And much like Einstein, he had the passion and the guts to pursue his path and voice his findings.

This is his merit, and calling it Hyperbolic to recognize the worth of someone risking their life for something shows at the very least a very poor understanding of history.

A good way to criticize history would be to focus on the "History is written by the winners" though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Dear Thony Christie, author:

500 years is a long time to wait before publishing a hit-piece like this. That "astronomy would have proceeded fine without Galileo" doesn't matter. With two (Newton, Einstein), possibly four (Lavoisier, Maxwell) exceptions, that could be said of any scientific discovery. What's next - will you degrade Niels Bohr for his childish characterization of the atom? Was Milliken's or Rutherford's work obvious to their contemporaries and so obviated their work?

Please, allow me to quote from another group of obvious, undeserving creative people, those who work at Pixar:

 _In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so._

Yours Truly, Josh

<comment><USER4> Galileo made non-trivial advances in science. He's also famous for his house arrest. Neither imply he deserves the reputation of "greatest scientist ever"—admittedly, not a reputation I'm familiar with. Even in his time period, Kepler probably deserves at least equal recognition.

<comment><USER5> Before Copernicus and Galileo, most of European 'academia' was holding steadfast to the ideas proposed by Aristotle and his legacy. The heavens where unchanging and divine - as clockwork, engineered in such a way that the divine human capacity for logical thought could understand it and predict it. And Earthly life was chaotic, dirty, and transient, with all regularity and flux a side-effect of heavenly or humanly processes: the divine.

Galileo's telescope showed these people a supernova. Moons around jupiter. Sunspots. Galileo _proved_ that the heavens were changing, which did a lot to upset this worldview, and paved the way for people like Newton to do work independent of the Aristotelian world-view, and assert that the same laws that govern us on Earth also govern the heavens. (Let's also not forget that he correctly disagreed with Aristotle on the behavior of objects under the influence of gravity.)

Kepler deserves equal recognition, and he probably gets it. But really, they're both dead, so the important thing is for _us_ to recognize what works and what doesn't. Not who found out what works.

<comment><USER4> > Kepler deserves equal recognition, and he probably gets it.

Evidently not; there isn't an article arguing he is the best scientist ever.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Graveyard Spiral - <AUTHOR> http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2008/11/graveyard-spiral.html <comment><USER2> I try to control my penchant for correcting grammar and spelling on the internet, but "insurance premia" demolished my self-control. A good name for an ED drug, perhaps, but not the plural of "premium" - that would be "premiums."</comment>


The Dalai Lama Thinks Silicon Valley Needs a Dose of Compassion - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/02/27/the_dalai_lama_visited_silicon_valley_to_speak_at_santa_clara_university.html

<comment><USER2> I was nearly run over by the Dalai Lama's security caravan when he visited Seattle a few years ago. It was the most compassionate and spiritual near- death experience I ever head.

More relevantly, his main message has been that compassion is a skill that can be improved with deliberate mindful practice. It's something that I, a generally non-spiritual person, have taken to heart. I find myself deliberately trying to be compassionate with difficult co-workers and even strangers online. I don't know if makes the world a better place, but it has improved my sense of well being.

</comment><comment><USER3> Surprise surprise, he's saying something about peace and happiness again. I think the Dalai Lama's personal brand is getting stale. He should start shopping at JCrew.</comment>


Ask HN: What bad deals have you made / opportunities have you missed? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Missed opportunities in roughly chronological order as I remember:

Github, early hire I was heavily involved in the Ruby on Rails community circa 2004 - 2007, with a popular Rails blog, a bunch of open source plugins, and as a contributor to the framework itself. I got to know the founders of many startups built on Rails. I was friends with the early founders of Github, and could have easily been the 6th or 7th hire. But didn't think git was 10x better than svn for it to take off. I completely missed the social potential of Github.

Airbnb, first hire The founders of Airbnb ran a co-working space called Jelly back in 2008-09. I used to work out of there and got to know Joe. Since Airbnb was built on Rails, he asked me to work on it. I rejected since I didn't think it could compete against Couchsurfing. Recently I found an email from Brian Chesky in 2009 looking for a Rails developer, which I ignored. So I missed TWO chances of being their first hire / engineer.

Groupon, early Groupon was a pivot of an early crowdfunding platform called The Point. I was at The Point and could have been one of the first employees at Groupon if I didn't quit to pursue iOS development in early 2008.

Smule, acquisition One of my apps was doing really well in the App Store and got the attention of Smule's investors. They reached out to me for a potential acquihire. I turned them down because I didn't want a "real job", and my app was doing amazingly well. Around this time some music labels wanted to license my iOS sound engine for their own apps. I rejected these deals because I didn't want their apps competing with my own.

Facebook, early mobile hire A designer friend got a job at FB right around the time they were looking to build a mobile team. I was a offered a free flight to meet Zuck and interview. Turned it down because my own apps were doing better than I could make with a normal FB salary. I also vehemently didn't want to work for a company with an ad-based revenue model.

Square, early hire One of my friends was the co-founder of Square. He tried to hire me as their second engineer (he was the first, in addition to being a co- founder). I refused since I didn't find mobile payments that exciting at the time. RIP Tristan.

Calm, CTO Alex reached out to me to be Calm's CTO. I turned it down because I didn't believe people would use an app to meditate.

There's possibly others I'm forgetting, and more hidden in my inbox.

</comment><comment><USER3> I graduated in 1982 and didn't go to the hiring fare. Microsoft was hiring, MS-DOS had just hit and they were looking to bulk up.</comment>