Pulsar – an open-source distributed pub-sub messaging platform - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/apache/pulsar <comment><USER2> I've used Kafka a lot in the past and I've been looking at Pulsar. The broker being stateless is great. I've had issues with moving partitions around in Kafka.

That being said, I'm getting tired of managing these clunky memory-hungry JVM- based systems that rely on external dependencies like Apache Zookeeper and BookKeeper. They may be necessary if you're Yahoo, but I would argue that for the vast majority of companies, these complex systems create so many administration headaches that the net productivity impact is negative. I've spend days or weeks debugging Kafka issues. I almost feel like "big clunky heavy JVM enterprise software" has become synonymous with Apache projects.

If you don't absolutely need the messaging guarantees I would recommend looking into NATS ([https://nats.io/](https://nats.io/)) - it's a brokered systems that's significantly more lightweight and super easy to deploy and play around with. You can get persistence and delivery guarantees with NATS streaming, but that part is optional and a bit more early stage.

<comment><USER3> >That being said, I'm getting tired of managing these clunky memory-hungry JVM-based systems that rely on external dependencies like Apache Zookeeper and BookKeeper.

One of my pet peeves with Kafka were CLI tools written in JVM languages. Slow JVM startup time was killing my focus.

<comment><USER2> Yep. I'm using containers and Kubernetes in production so I'm trying to stay far away from anything JVM-based. On top of being slow to start, memory hungry, and plagued by GC issues, JVM docker images are always huge. I don't want two layers of virtualization. If Docker and k8s become more mainstream that's probably bad news for a lot of JVM projects. Of course, Pulsar itself is quite old (2013?) so it was built well before any of the containerization stuff took off.

<comment><USER4> I'm not really sure what containers/k8s has to do with JVM? Containers are just name spacing, not virtualization. If you're running in the cloud, either way you slice it you'll have two virtual machines: hypervisor and JVM.

I'd argue that being able to herd your JVM procs like cattle makes them good candidates for k8s because you can always just set resource limits so they get purged when the heap becomes too large.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Indeed, Apache Pulsar is a very good project, but as far as I am concerned, I prefer RabbitMQ in Production env and for little projects, Redis is enough to take this role.

<comment><USER6> Pulsar and Rabbit MQ are fundamentally different products; viewing pulsar like a push based message queue is missing a lot of the features that make it so suitable for event driven architectures.

<comment><USER7> RabbitMQ simply does not like holding on to data. Performance craters with long queues. RabbitMQ is accurately a "message broker" and quite an excellent one at that. Tooling is fantastic, and the software (built on Erlang/OTP) is very reliable.

But it is not a "distributed log". Pulsar (as Kafka) is built on a distributed ledger/log. People confuse 'semantics' of messaging with "message broker" so equate various products supporting 'messaging semantics'.

To your point, and to doubters, simply try building an event sourcing system (complete with replays to recover) on RabbitMQ and see how that works out!

<comment><USER8> Not "currently" a distributed log, but we're working on adding that (in a Rabbity way). We're not trying to compete with the likes of Pulsar or Kafka though, we're just trying to round out RabbitMQ's functionality to ensure it remains the best swiss army knife of messaging - and log semantics (and performance) is now a dominant paradigm.

<comment><USER7> You're working on Rabbit team now? Interesting! Ironically enough, you probably have a lot to do with Pulsar gaining mindshare. Thanks for your blog; very informative.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Recent discussion of Pulsar vs Kafka: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23787958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23787958)

</comment><comment><USER10> Anyone using this? Looks interesting.

<comment><USER11> Not yet, but reading the docs. Has 'once only delivery' which is good. Still trying to find if it does FIFO (i think its hard to achieve this in a distributed system).

<comment><USER8> Yes it does FIFO.

Just like RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka and many other distributed systems, writes go through an elected leader, who is able to ensure ordering guarantees.

Specifically with Apache Pulsar, each topic has an owner broker (leader) who accepts writes and serves readers.

It should be noted that Apache Pulsar supports shared subscriptions which allow two or more consumers to compete for the same messages, like having two consumers on a RabbitMQ queue. Here FIFO order cannot be guaranteed for all kinds of reasons.

<comment><USER12> See also: competing consumers pattern [https://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com/patterns/messa...](https://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com/patterns/messaging/CompetingConsumers.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What's up with github?

<comment><USER14> [https://www.githubstatus.com/](https://www.githubstatus.com/)

> Update - We have identified the source of elevated errors and are working on > recovery.

> Jul 13, 05:53 UTC

<comment><USER15> A recent version can be accessed here: [https://web.archive.org/web/20200713060005/https://github.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200713060005/https://github.com/apache/pulsar)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Any other Publix fans here that thought this was referring to their sub sandwiches for a second?

<comment><USER17> Given the technical audience of hacker news, I can all but assure you that no one else here who reads "pub-sub" defaults to thinking "Publix Sub Sandwiches"

<comment><USER18> Publix makes great subs but i definitely wasn't thinking about them at first.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What to do when you're "too early?" - <AUTHOR>

It's a common axiom in the startup world: "Being too early is the same as being wrong." I'm a product guy (mediocre coder) with some ideas on how I think video is going to evolve. The problem? Structurally, there are some existing elements that haven't yet been solved and, I think anyway, will impede the progress of video[1].
My passion is enabling anyone to create TV quality productions on a less-than TV quality budget. Rather than developing ideas into a startup too early, I'm instead focusing on working with other startups, getting a Master's in Professional Comm[2] and enhancing my poor coding skills by pushing some ideas into code form.
Since I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels like they see a trend before it's fully developed, I'm wondering if there's any wisdom for people who are too early. I'm not someone who wants to start startups just to start them, but instead I'm focused specifically on the world of video, and how I want it to progress. Are there any words of wisdom to help someone who's waiting for an ecosystem to mature?
Asides: [1]- I think the structural issues are all production related, ie waiting for DSLRs to mature to a point that they're feasible for most people to use, and increasing upload bandwidth. On the distribution side, video player frameworks / HTML5 / EC2 have taken care of a lot of the encoding / distribution hurdles.
[2] - The Master's will help me experiment more with the presentation of video, rather than give me some marketable credential, in my view.
[3] - If you think you want to change video to be better, and make it so anyone can create awesome quality video content, we should be friends. email email@example.com so we can pay attention to each other's projects. <comment><USER2> I was in the same boat as you, but in the apparel/fashion industry. The whole crowdsourcing, bespoke(custom), and mass customization movement which is now starting to take-off, I began six years ago, before anyone else. The technologies I developed are still cutting edge and solve most of the problems the industry startups face today. At the time the technologies were far too advanced and disruptive.

So I waited, started another company, and now I'm trying to reenter the industry. Looking for a start-up which is in the best position to use my technology and learn from my mistakes. I'm trying to avoid going at it on my own since I know what I'm good at, which is the operations/product side. Which also happens to be the side that generates the most problems, problems that I've (or you) solved.

Sometimes the best option is just to wait instead of flushing time and money down the toilet. Then when the time is right have the technology ready to launch so you beat everyone else to the market and have everything in place.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why not just keep pushing the edge of what's currently possible, and keep a catalog of the more advanced ideas that you can revisit from time to time to potentially begin executing on? For the ones you identify as still too advanced, specifically identify the pieces you still need. Judge whether or not you (or a team you know/could put together) could develop any or all of those pieces. If so, do it. If not, wait. In the meantime, constantly ask "What's the best way to solve this problem given what I can do today?" and do whatever the answer is.</comment>


Netflix: We're Working On HTML5 Standard to Bring Streaming Video to All Devices - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netflix_were_working_on_html5_standard_to_bring_st.php <comment><USER4> Translation: We need DRM in HTML5. They don't quite say it, but they come very close and this isn't very much of a "translation".

DRM doesn't belong in a standard like HTML5. On the freedom side, the argument hardly needs to be made around here; on the Netflix/DRM-users side, you don't really want to standardize on DRM because then you're locked to the standard if it doesn't work, and, frankly it solves no problems for you anyhow. DRM and Linux are not going to fit together no matter how many standards docs you write and how hard you thump on them. And when the standard fails to work for you because it has been hacked, you will leave the standard anyhow.

These are pretty words but I can't see anybody actually getting anywhere with this, not just because the standards bodies really shouldn't do this but because it doesn't seem to be in _anybody's_ interest to create an HTML5 DRM standard.

<comment><USER5> It would be in the consumer's interest if there was DRM in HTML5. They would get content on more platforms more quickly.

<comment><USER6> I really can't see how DRM is ever, _ever_ in the consumer's interest.

<comment><USER7> Subscription media services are impossible without DRM. Many, _many_ consumers enjoy these services, myself included.

<comment><USER8> That reasoning is completely false. Yes, the content industry insists that DRM must be in place to make a streaming solution work.

On the other hand, Hulu works just fine. Clearly subscription media services work fine without DRM. The requirements for DRM are just a symptom of an industry that doesn't understand digital media, and believes that DRM is effective at stopping piracy.

<comment><USER9> Hulu has DRM.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Please link to the original source.

[http://techblog.netflix.com/2010/12/html5-and-video- streamin...](http://techblog.netflix.com/2010/12/html5-and-video- streaming.html)

</comment><comment><USER11> This is really pushing the fundamental limit of DRM, namely, that you must _both_ lock up the data so that the user can't "steal" it _and_ give them the key so they can watch the movie.

<comment><USER12> _you must both lock up the data so that the user can't "steal" it and give them the key so they can watch the movie._

All DRM is like that. All DRM tries to both give you the locked up content, give you the key and hide the key so you can't get it. It always fails.

What they are pushing is the definition of an open standard. My guess is that people kept asking them about HTML5, so they have written this press release saying why they don't use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> They basically say they need DRM, but its impossible to have a DRM system that is also an open webstandard.

<comment><USER13> Clearly. Just to expand on why you're right, it's the client that's in charge of restricting the rights of the user -> enforcing "play once", "stream only", "24 hour pass" etc. If anyone can write a client based on the open standard, obviously anyone can write a client that ignores the granted rights.

If you need to rely on API keys and pre-approved platforms there isn't much open about it. At that point you're just trying to get 3rd party developers to build your proprietary clients for you.

<comment><USER14> > Anyone can write a client that ignores the granted rights.

Not necessarily; the server providing the video can look at your authentication cookie and the current timestamp, and decide whether to send you video or not.

The harder thing is preventing clients from stealing the data. If the player uses an open standard, someone could easily write a version that plays by all the authentication rules, but then pipes the playback bits to the hard drive and then torrent sites. And then suits get nervous about signing over their content, and we're right back to the status quo of digital media.

I hope Netflix has a clever solution for this, but it's hard to see how it's possible.

<comment><USER13> Saving the data for later play is one of the rights you manage with DRM - <USER2> you're not supposed to be able to play it later and the client allows you to, it's ignoring the granted rights. Sharing the data with friends is another "right" in DRM. What you're describing is authentication - something that you can clearly do within HTML5 as is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Meanwhile consumers can access everything they want on torrent sites - <USER3> you not know about them, Google will helpfully auto-complete your searches for you - with no limitations and no stupid "this content is not available in your country" (not shown until after the preshow ad).

Netflix will have to get its stuff in order _now_ to remain relevant. If it is not already too late.

</comment><comment><USER16> I am really excited about HTML5 + Torrent + Streaming. There was a post a few months ago at [http://gigaom.com/video/wikipedia-is-using- bittorrent-p2p-fo...](http://gigaom.com/video/wikipedia-is-using- bittorrent-p2p-for-html5-video-2/)

</comment><comment><USER17> Why does Netflix even bother with DRM or studios bother to pressure Netflix to use it? By the time something's on Netflix, there's often already a decent quality torrent. Their customers aren't going to steal their videos and neither will pirates.

</comment><comment><USER18> Not without DRM, I'm sure.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the cheapest way to get leads for a free corporate product? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> This is important because if you're making a free corporate tool -- let's say a free Trello or Basecamp or email client -- by the nature of having a free product you won't have a budget to market ala Google with $2 CPC. So for new and free products, what is the best way to reach to corporate users -- is email worth it?</comment>


Breaker 101: An intensive online web security course - <AUTHOR> http://daeken.com/2013-06-11.1_Breaker_101__An_intensive_online_web_security_course.html <comment><USER2> Can you create a landing page with an executive summary and pricing button? I cannot show my boss a blog post. Just hit the high points: 12 week course in web security, $1000, increased proficiency in x, y, z, ability to do a, b, c, protection from j, k, l, and security as a key to protecting data -- the core of the product -- the core of business.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely, good call!

Edit: Put up a simple launch page here: [http://course.daeken.com/](http://course.daeken.com/)

<comment><USER3> Just for more feedback: extremely interested! I'm not able to do it right now, but please consider offering it again in the future. I'd also be interested in working through the material on my own with a limited support or a forum if that would help you with residual income from this :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I worked with Cody for awhile at Matasano. He's as smart and enthusiastic a teacher as I think you'll find anywhere for this material.

</comment><comment><USER5> Dan Boneh's crypto course is starting in 5 days on Coursera. Syllabus is not same as the OP's course but is very good and useful nonetheless.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/crypto](https://www.coursera.org/course/crypto)

<comment><USER4> If crypto is your thing, and you want to keep it practical, allow me to plug:

[http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto- challenges/](http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/)

They're free, they involve writing actual code to break actual crypto constructions, and they seem to be pretty popular; our standings right now: level 0 (6687), level 1 (490), level 2 (156), level 3 (50), level 4 (36), level 5 (29), level 6 (37).

<comment><USER6> Let's say my experience with cryptography and web security can be summed up with 'using bcrypt' and 'using ssl.' Would I be able to learn from this or would I need to seek out something more basic first?

<comment><USER7> From the page tptacek linked to:

> HOW MUCH CRYPTO DO I NEED TO KNOW?

> _None. That 's the point._

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't have a spare $1000. Write an ebook after this and I will buy that.

<comment><USER9> This book covers a lot of the material: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Web- Application-Hackers-Handbook/d...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Web-Application- Hackers-Handbook/dp/1118026470)

<comment><USER4> We buy that book, along with _The Tangled Web_, for candidates to Matasano. We like both books a lot (I wish WAHH had a title I wasn't embarrassed to say out loud, though).

The other book candidates here tend to get is _The Art Of Software Security Assessment_.

<comment><USER10> While we're talking books and education... tptacek, could you share any resources that you are acquainted with, specifically on the topic of SSL/TLS? I feel a need to really ramp up my knowledge in this space, and would be glad to hear any recommendations you might have.

Note that I'm looking at this from a deployment / administration POV, not programming. I don't want to implement TLS from scratch, just understand the various issues and implications involved in rolling out TLS.

If you have some suggestions, they are _much_ appreciated.

<comment><USER4> This is Adam Langley's blog:

[http://www.imperialviolet.org/](http://www.imperialviolet.org/)

I might start with this post:

[http://www.imperialviolet.org/2010/06/25/overclocking- ssl.ht...](http://www.imperialviolet.org/2010/06/25/overclocking-ssl.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For those commenting on the price, I'd point out that if you're a consultant or freelance developer you should be able to justify adjusting your rates enough after this to make the $1500 back in a month or so, and if you're a salaried employee with a smart employer, you should be able to negotiate a reasonable raise or get your employer to cover the cost for you.

I operate on a shoestring budget, I'm just about the most price-sensitive guy on here, and I'm still going to do my best to scrape together the money for this.

<comment><USER12> I think your price is reasonable for people that will get a good return from this, and not for people that won't.

I'm not going to get a raise from doing the course, and my employer is not going to pay out for it, so I'd like it to be $500. People who are going to make the money back will pay more. If you fill the seats, the price is right.

<comment><USER4> If you have no way of recouping the cost of the class, the class isn't targeted at you. The most common pricing fallacy on HN (perhaps after cost- plus pricing) is the idea that every product must be targeted at all people to make sense.

<comment><USER13> So a person that simply want to learn something for the sake of knowledge is not the target of a teacher?

<comment><USER14> Not the target of a teacher that is asking for _this_ price. There are plenty of teachers out there that can, presumably, teach the same material just as well for probably less cost to the student, however it's not the OP's job to find those alternative sources for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I just want to echo the sentiment that Cody is a great person to be offering this.

I had the experience of being interviewed by him a while back, and he made what could easily have been a very intimidating (especially as it was a long interview in a series of long interviews) technical interview both immensely enjoyable (by the end it felt like being part of an exciting conversation), and actually went out of his way to explain a bunch of stuff to me.

I wish there were more things like this.

<comment><USER16> Did you get the job? (for the sake of full disclosure)

<comment><USER15> I did not; which I actually think is even more of a testament to how positive the experience (and interviewing with Cody in particular) was.

<comment><USER16> Definitely. If you had been a former or current employee I was going to say that colors your recommendation a bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> try-finally Would you consider doing a reduced price for people who just want access to the videos after the session and logs of irc. This way you won't have to grade their homework, answer their questions, nor give them a certificate. I'd love to learn all that stuff at my own pace, but I don't have 1k to spend on it. On the flip side I don't expect you to do work for free.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's something I may consider for future runs, but I'm not planning that for the first iteration. I think the real value in this is being able to work through this material and have hands-on instruction when you need it, much as if you were being trained inside a security consultancy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I signed up. If for $1,000 you can help me learn how to better secure the web applications I'm building for a living, it will be well worth the cost and time investment. See you in class :-)

</comment><comment><USER18> There's always value in a guided course, but everything on the outline can be found free online. Unless you need the structure, I'd save your money and use open learning materials.

<comment><USER19> I'd suggest that if you know where these subjects can be found online, and since there are many who state that they don't have $1000, that you should post the links here. Those of us that wish to take the course by Cody will still do so.

<comment><USER20> vulnhub.com for vulnerable distributions. They have some distributions setup with WebApps designed for you to practice and learn various attack from.(I.e WebGOAT)

OWASP(Open Web Application Security Project)

OWASP Top Ten: [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Top_Ten_Proje...](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Top_Ten_Project)

OWASP Testing Methodology manual: [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Testing_Guide_v4_Table...](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Testing_Guide_v4_Table_of_Contents)

OWASP Developer Guide: [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Guide_Project](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Guide_Project)

PTES(Penetration Testing Execution Standard): [http://www.pentest- standard.org/index.php/Main_Page](http://www.pentest- standard.org/index.php/Main_Page)

CTFs: overthewire.org

Self-Promo: rmusser.net/infosec site full of information on various infosec topics. Going through right now and updating/increasing the quality of information.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It appears to have sold out.

Is there an equivalent to sitting in the back of the lecture hall / access to an online forum of similar folks following along?

I ask because as a developer I make stuff but rarely know which mistakes I am making in the break stuff department.

And of course how do I book the next run?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not quite sold out, but EventBee seems to be having some issues on the last few tickets for some reason. If you can't get in, refresh until the dropdown actually has tickets and you should be good to go. Sorry for the annoyance!

<comment><USER22> Got to say I'm also somewhat underwhelmed by the EventBee experience. No 'sold out' notice, but the only currently available quantity is consistently zero.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, bit disappointing. What's actually happening is that the tickets are reserved, but I have no way of releasing them or any of that. There are still 6 tickets here -- if anyone wants one, shoot me an email. First come, first serve.

Definitely switching to my own little service for this next run.

Edit: The remaining tickets are now all taken. Thank you all so very much, and see you in class!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I was incredibly skeptical of this until I looked at your bio. This looks pretty awesome.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm curious how much value there is in knowing the infrastructure side of security as well as appsec, vs. being a really good developer and knowing appsec. The overall quality of appsec expertise seems highest from people with stronger dev backgrounds, at least from the ones I've met, in practice. Infrastructure and appsec (and compliance/policy, and theoretical math/cs/cryptology) seem like quite different worlds.

</comment><comment><USER25> Is the certificate that you get for completing the course an actual acknowledged certificate in the infosec industry?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, it's not -- this is a brand new course. However, I personally will put my weight behind anyone who completes this course successfully, as it will put them in a prime position for many positions; I have no doubt that they will be perfect for those jobs.

<comment><USER4> I'm a software security hiring manager and will confirm that going through a course like this would get our attention.

<comment><USER26> What about the SANS SEC542 + GWAPT certification? It looks like Cody's course covers a couple areas that don't fall under the SANS one, but the high-level overview appears to be pretty similar.

Or, would you be willing to speak more generally about certifications, and which, if any actually DO get attention from hiring managers in the security field?

<comment><USER4> We pay absolutely zero attention to certifications. I literally don't know what's in the SANS program.

 _Not_ taking Cody's classes wouldn't harm you here, or at any other high-end firm that I'm aware of. But actually taking it would signal a particular interest and engagement with appsec, which is something I would pay attention to.

If there is some other forcing function you have to get you to actually practice software security and find vulnerabilities, that too would be valuable.

<comment><USER26> I'm pretty familiar with the attitude among hiring managers that certifications generally don't signal anything useful; my boss and I also hold that position (I hold an MCTS that I was forced to get so my employer could get a better partnership status with Microsoft). So I'm curious why holding Cody's certificate might actually mean _something_ where a more established cert would not.

<comment><USER4> Cody isn't offering a certification. But I know Cody and I know people that take his class are going to be working directly with him.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'm going to see if I can get the business to pay for this, would love to take this course.

</comment><comment><USER28> Got super excited until I saw the 1k price tag.

</comment><comment><USER29> For those of us not in the US, I wish you had opened this up at a different time of day. I would have loved to join but this went up and sold out while I was asleep. Best of luck and please contact me if a spot opens up.

</comment><comment><USER30> I missed this opportunity, and have followed you on twitter with the hope of not missing the next one. I'd feel better if you had a mailing list to announce the next one though; much more reliable than twitter!

</comment><comment><USER31> I'm really trying to sign up for this course. Every time I try to pay for a ticket, Paypal tells me they're experiencing difficulties and I need to try again later. Is there a way I can sign up?

<comment><USER31> well, having let some time pass, I now fill out the payment information and click "review and continue", and a thinking animation displays, and then the exact same info panel slides out from the left, with all the stuff I typed in still in. I can click "review and continue" any number of times to no avail. How do I actually complete the transaction?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's really quite odd -- I wonder what's going on. Have you tried another browser? I'm still seeing payments coming in, so everything should be fine.

<comment><USER31> yes, this occurs in firefox and safari.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry to hear you're having so many troubles. Is this happening on the Paypal side or the EventBee side? Also, if you email me at firstname.lastname@example.com we can discuss other possibilities for payment or troubleshooting.

<comment><USER31> As far as I can tell, the problem was with the paypal side. I emailed you (once before posting this original complaint, and once recently); I'd be happy to discuss other possibilities. Eventbee seems to have difficulty deciding whether there are 5 or 0 tickets left, but it's definitely not even letting me attempt to purchase one anymore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Is this for someone who finished the Stripe ctf last year? I think it is pretty much covered all the stuff what is offered in this course. By the way, in Hungary $1500 is about two months of payment, if you are a simple dev (in most places), so I don't know if it is really worth it, if you don't want to move to another country to work later. So I guess this is not for everyone.

</comment><comment><USER33> As essential as this is for me, $1000 is a lot of money for an Indian freelancer. Seconding the request for a PDF download.

<comment><USER34> You can try this. For $0

[http://web-for-pentester.pentesterlab.com/introduction/](http://web-for- pentester.pentesterlab.com/introduction/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Before the Breaker 101 course starts, I invite you to take a quick (15 questions) quiz about web application security practices and quirks: [http://timoh6.github.io/WebAppSecQuiz/index.html](http://timoh6.github.io/WebAppSecQuiz/index.html)

</comment><comment><USER36> Well shit, if only I had a $1,000 to drop on this this is definitely an area I'd like to be stronger in.

</comment><comment><USER37> This seems like an awesome idea.

Unfortunately, or fortunately?, not sure... most of my application security understanding comes from this question on stackoverflow:

[http://stackoverflow.com/q/72394/25981](http://stackoverflow.com/q/72394/25981)

</comment><comment><USER38> Signed up! This'll be more useful than what I'm learning in university right now.

</comment><comment><USER39> What if the time you stream doesn't suit me? Can I get access to the recorded session?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, absolutely. Recorded stream as well as logs of the IRC channel. Missing the live stream isn't a big deal if you keep on top of the course work and ask questions. Participating in the forums will also help you keep on top of things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I really do hope that you package this as a video series. Then sell it to people/teams who are not able to attend a live class. I'd gladly pay the price of the live class for the video series.

</comment><comment><USER41> Course content looks awesome. No way in hell I can afford it though. :(

</comment><comment><USER37> Wow, looks like it might be sold out. When I selected the early bird package( $1000) it wouldn't let me enroll for the course anymore.

Congratulations if you are indeed sold out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks like the early bird package is indeed sold out, though two tickets are currently pending payment, so someone might just be sitting on them. I'll update if I find otherwise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> If successful, do you plan to continue holding this course? If yes, how many times a year?

I, and may be some other folks, can not do this now, but would love to some time later.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm hoping to do this 2-3 times a year, if I can get enough interest and nail down the material. Mind you, the price will be going up past this "beta" run.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Will the videos be recorded and published? I am currently employed full-time and I will find it very difficult to be online for a live video...

<comment><AUTHOR> The videos will be recorded and made available to students. If you can't make the classes, you can always watch them after the fact. So long as you keep up with the course work, you should be just fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Now if anyone would kindly drop me a thousand bucks..

</comment><comment><USER45> Is there any limit on the number of regular seats available? Trying to help my boss decide how many devs to subsidize...

<comment><AUTHOR> There is, yes -- 40 seats. Currently ~25 seats left.

<comment><USER31> Are there still seats left? I can select positive quantities on eventbee, but I can't for the life of me get it to accept payment.

<comment><USER45> At 15:15 Pacific time, no regular seats seem to be remaining -- no quantity other than zero can be selected, though not marked as Sold Out.

EDIT: A coworker is suggesting that Eventbee's payment system is down and not letting him accept a newly-available ticket.

<comment><AUTHOR> There are 7 seats currently reserved but unpaid. I think they'll clear out in something like 15 minutes if they aren't paid within that window. Otherwise, it's all sold out at this point.

Edit: Several tickets have opened up -- they're gonna go quick.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Is the "Early Bird" price sold out? The only available quantity in the menu is '0'.

<comment><AUTHOR> It looks like that's the case. I only see 8 sales (out of the 10 total) but I believe that the tickets are being held pending payment. I'll update if I find out otherwise.

Hope to see you in class!

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Awesome curriculum. Now if only the price was awesome...

</comment><comment><USER48> signed up! definitely +EV ;)

</comment><comment><USER49> Student discount?

<comment><AUTHOR> Given that this is the discounted price (for the first run), I'm not planning a student discount for this iteration. Future runs may have one though.</comment></comment>


Is Your Storage System Preventing You from Working with 4K? - <AUTHOR> https://www.quobyte.com/blog/2018/02/27/is-your-storage-system-preventing-you-from-working-with-4k/ <comment><USER2> Great post.</comment>


The Disappointing Surprise From Apple - <AUTHOR> http://www.amberweinberg.com/the-disappointing-surprise-from-apple/ <comment><USER3> I do think Apple was right to remove support for their crappy reader. In any domain where you have tons of options (like rss readers) I'd rather have no feature than a poorly executed one. No feature means I'll go out and get a good version of it. A poorly executed feature (especially from apple) means I'll probably put up with it longer than I should.

However, given that they were going about destroying access to user's data (the collection of rss feeds), I think the classy move would have been to run a script on install that checks if the user is subscribed to any feeds. If they are, export them into a well formatted file on the desktop, and give the user an alert through that highly touted new alert system, and give them a link to the app store that searches for rss readers that can receive the exported file. They'd get to introduce a bunch of new features that they seem to be very proud of, and they wouldn't destroy[1] a user's access to their own data. Which does seem like a pretty big deal to me.

[1]Yes, I know she was able to access her data eventually. That seemed like an unacceptably difficult process to go through for the sort of users Apple is trying to appeal to.

<comment><USER4> They didn't destroy the data [1] but regardless a migration path should have been provided. It wouldn't have been to much effort to check to see if they used the RSS feature and then basically tell them "this feature is not supported, but we see you use it - how about we make an export so you can use one of the other great readers out there". The upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion did something similar when it decided to change the trackpad direction, so the functionality to notify the user is definitely there!

[1] Sorry: I do see that you mention that later on. Though, in general I'm not sure why so many HN comments think it did when the article said that it was still available?

<comment><USER5>
         They didn't destroy the data

No, they just left it hidden and in an unreadable format.

<comment><USER6> The version that created the data reads it just fine. The new version just isn't backwards compatible.

<comment><USER7> The correct thing to do is give a warning before the upgrade:

"This new version can not read your old data. Please export it before continuing."

Does Apple provide release notes for the OS? Did they at least document this in the upgrade/release notes?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> We've found the only user in the world that used RSS in Mail! I feel a bond, as I was apparently the only user of RSS in Safari. (as confirmed by informal polling of friends and family).

I moved my stuff into Google Reader and also went to Reeder on the Mac, but tried Newsify on the iOS devices and have to say that a custom newspaper is a much better experience than the hundred takes on master-detail drill down you find in the typical RSS reader.

I resent Apple killing my feature, but I am better off going forward. I should have switched long ago. And I don't live in Stockholm.

<comment><USER9> And I'm the last person who uses the NetNewsWire desktop client. It's kind of buggy, and a better user interface would be nice, but it works well enough most of the time.

<comment><USER10> I still use it too.

It's the only RSS reader I can find for OS X that lets me set it up in my preferred "River of News" display format (what NNW calls 'combined view'). All feeds in one big stream, no 3-panel Mail-style separation of titles and content. Just scroll and read.

If anyone knows a cleaner, less ugly, less buggy RSS reader for OS X that can display feeds in this way, I'd love to hear about it.

<comment><USER11> Reeder. It unfortunately syncs with Google, but otherwise, it's tops.

<comment><USER10> Really? Nothing in any screenshots suggest it can be set up this way.

Instead it looks like there's a list of synopses on the left which you must click to view a full story on the right?

<comment><USER11> I navigate without mousing:

<https://homonculus.net/images/reeder.png>

What Reeder shows on the left is the summary of the article; one can read the original by right arrowing. Many of my feeds put the full article into the summary. I navigate up and down the list (which is all of my feeds sorted by date ascending) with the j/k keys. I don't know how NNW does it. Or did it.

<comment><USER10> It sounds nice and all, but it's definitely not a River of News style reader.

RoN style is one pane, all of the stories from all feeds laid out, newest to oldest, in one pane, and you just scroll through them reading when something looks interesting. Think the way planet aggregators work.

<comment><USER11> Got it. I'd like that, actually. I approximate it now, but I'm not concerned with the feeds themselves, just the new items. Hmm.

<comment><USER10> There's an actual app called River of News for the iPad that does it quite well, but no Mac version, sadly.

NNW can be configured to work this way, but it's a bit clunky. Everything else I've seen seems to go with a standard Mail-type setup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> In a word Amber, yes, of course you are right to feel violated. Apple removed your data without your consent. The fact that you were able to recover it is impressive, and far beyond the ordinary user.

The fact that you are in the minority because you used a tool and technology (RSS) that is passe if not unpopular, should be no excuse to ignore this kind of treatment. That feed collection was your data, and Apple had no right to remove it or make it inaccessible.

The correct behavior would have been to replace the RSS reader component with a button that a) explains what happened, and b) offers a path to save your data (perhaps a data export or even a link to a MacAppStore app). It would have been particularly slick for Apple to partner with a 3rd party RSS reader to support automatic "cross-grading".

This is not a hard problem, and the fact that Apple didn't even think to solve it is, in fact, disheartening. Hopefully you (and everyone affected by this) will get an apology from them and some sort of redress.

<comment><USER13> _> The fact that you are in the minority because you used a tool and technology (RSS) that is passe if not unpopular, should be no excuse to ignore this kind of treatment._

It seems like just yesterday my NASA rocket scientist friend was asking me what this new-fangled RSS thing was. I explained, and his response was, "So they just reimplemented USENET?"

<comment><USER14> Other than the fact that RSS and NNTP are both built on TCP, they have virtually nothing in common neither technically, architecturally nor in terms of use case they are trying to solve.

IOW, wat

<comment><USER13> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4306232>

In particular, my friend asked what people use RSS for. At the time, lots of people used it to stay current on news.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "A computer shall not harm your data or, through inaction, allow your data to come to harm." -Jef Raskin's first law of interface design

Shame to see the Macintosh violating the first law of the Father of the Macintosh.

<comment><USER16> If you read the article, the data wasn't harmed, it was just moved. Therefore, the law wasn't violated.

<comment><USER17> It wasn't even moved, it remained in ~/Library/Mail/RSS/ - it's original directory and a very logical one at that. It's surprising that a developer wouldn't have been able to figure this out, considering ~/Library/ is the directory where all application data and preference files are stored..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> From the LinkedIn profile of the guy who implemented Safari RSS:

Social-Software Introvert

Apple, Inc.

February 2004 – January 2008 (4 years)

Part of a very small team that implemented the news-reading (RSS/Atom) features of the Safari browser in Mac OS X 10.4, and the public news-reading framework for 10.5, used by Mail and 3rd party applications as well as Safari. I also prototyped some wild and crazy social-software applications I can't talk about here, and researched technologies like social networking, P2P, identity systems, and delta encoding.

<http://www.linkedin.com/in/jensalfke>

Obviously there's noone at Apple picking up the slack that Jens Alfke left behind. He's stated repeatedly on his blog that Apple is decidedly not a social software company. Which is ultimately the reason why they removed these features. The reason is not that "RSS is the past" bullshit.

<comment><USER19> Wait.. so the reason Apple removed RSS was they don't have the talent to implement RSS? Apple simply couldn't figure out to implement RSS in a way that they liked. I am sure they had lots of data about the usage of RSS in Safari and mail. Yeah they should have offered an export option, but I for one think RSS isn't going anywhere as a user facing technology.

As for not being a social software company, well; they want to build social features around existing applications and platforms. Things like iCloud sharing and even deeper integration of iMessage into existing applications are coming.

<comment><USER18> Check out Jens Alfke's blog post when he left Apple, I really can't say this better than he did:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20110714114434/http://jens.moosey...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110714114434/http://jens.mooseyard.com/2008/01/gone- indie/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Congratulations. You are now what's called a "power user". That means your argument is invalid, because normal users don't know what RSS is. Normal users don't need RSS. RSS is dead. (Obviously nobody has any detailed studies on this, us software devs just assume that the general user is a blithering idiot who needs regular reminders to remember breathing)

/s

</comment><comment><USER21> I guess I don't understand why people are cheering about RSS being replaced with tighter twitter/Facebook integration. Seems to be trading an open format that allows us all to publish for a proprietary one that is tied to specific sites with which Apple has a business arrangement.

I can understand why Apple wants to do this, but I'm surprised by the RSS hate from the tech community.

</comment><comment><USER22> "All this to say, that I still run out and buy the new OS as soon as possible. The affordability and ease of doing so make it ridiculous not to. But this time I'm disappointed for one very specific reason."

"run out and buy the new os"

If you are a user to the extent that your usage depends on having access to all or certain features [1] is probably isn't the wisest thing to upgrade immediately or even upgrade on the existing disk without doing some testing.

I typically wait some time until the immediate bugs get squashed, and even then I will try to install on a different cpu, migrate things over and test before switching over what I would consider my "main" desktop machine (or laptop).

If you only have one cpu you can take the existing disk and partition it so you can boot from either the old OS or the new OS. You can setup the new OS and then use migration assistant to move over your old data. Or you can clone your existing OS on the partition (using "Super Duper") and then install the new OS on that extra partition. Which isn't a bad idea anyway in case something goes wrong.

All this of course takes having enough space to create the two partitions. But as an alternate you can also attach a USB drive and do the same. That way you can boot from either and do your testing in a controlled manner. (Note migration assistant doesn't work when filevault is on so you have to turn it off.)

The amount of effort you put into this all depends on how critical certain features are to you.

[1] I have a dns server running under 10.5 Mac OSX and the admin utility (hate it but have to use it) that runs under 10.6 or above won't allow you to access the 10.5 server. So I have to keep 10.5 running on a CPU (or as mentioned above) in order to control that server. Or I have to upgrade the 10.5 server which I'm not really looking forward to taking the time to do.

<comment><USER23> Please don't use the word CPU when you mean computer. The audience on hackernews knows what a CPU actually is, and will do a double take trying to work out what multiple CPUs has to do with running multiple different OS. I know I did

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> "THERE were my RSS feeds! They weren't deleted at all, just left in an unusable, unreadable format no app could use." - this is the most important part I think. Many software vendors - and Apple is definitely one of the most prominent in this regard - think that if they need to store user data, it's completely OK to store it in undocumented non-standard way without any possibility of export. Of course, that enhances vendor lock-in, so why not? But the users should be aware that inevitably will lead to stories like this - my software vendor screwed me over and I have no way to recover my data now! Fortunately, in this case there were third-party tool that were able to export the data - but in many cases the same vendor would fight tooth and nail with such tool vendors to shut them down for "copyright", "patent protection" and whatever else reasons.

</comment><comment><USER6> Lets not get of topic: A new version of the software refuses to read the old version's data.

It's unworthy of a modern day app, especially a non-third-party app.

It's especially unfortunate that this upgrade is bundled with a larger OS upgrade. Likewise that a proprietary format was used for the data.

This falls short of the integrated experience and "just works" attitude that Apple prizes itself on.

Backward compatibility has never been a strength of Apple's. Floppy, Classic, PowerPC, and recently optical discs have fallen to the wayside.

The data is not deleted. That's significant especially in principle.

This has little to do with other policies of Apple, such as their "control the user experience" attitude. Nothing about their policy prohibits handling this better.

</comment><comment><USER25> They also kicked the web-Sharing configuration. :( I got to work and wondered why my localhost did not respond. I installed mountain lion the night before. so I thought I have to re-enable websharing but couldn't found the confit anymore. After some googling I got the answer: it has moved to a so called "Server" App for round about $20. It provides many things I didn't use ... and the "old" websharing. :/ Remember Steve's promo quote? "it just works" ... the new one should be: "it just worked before"

<comment><USER26> $ cd /web/folder $ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Free, already on your machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Apple removed rss from Mail because it was pretty crappy. Anyone interested in RSS should hit the appstore and snag one of many RSS readers that blows Apple's offering off the planet. When I discovered Reeder I knew my browsing habits would change forever, it's that much better.

<comment><USER12> Yes, but this misses the point: An OS upgrade hosed her data. Only the fact that she is (apparently) a small minority prevents this from being a big deal, a fact which itself sort of concerns me.

<comment><USER28> Not that it is obvious in any way, but apparently you can still get the list of subscribed RSS feeds with the command-line tool "pubsub list".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Apple products are meant to be used how Apple wants you to use them, nothing else. It's an all-in decision, either you take the good with the bad or get a computer that allows customization. "Apple power user" is a sad, unfulfillable concept.

<comment><USER24> Not true for MacOS, though Apple is not exactly going out of the way to make it easier. Closer to the truth for iOS, where all "advanced user" stuff is not only not made available - but applications making it possible are explicitly banned. I know there are reasons for that - like if you can do power user stuff, you probably can circumvent Apple restrictions that bring them that juicy 30% payment cut - but the fact is the fact.

However, this is the iOS picture, on Mac picture is much better - I could do on Mac almost every power user thing I did on Linux, albeit I'd have to do more research to find the proper docs and the proper tools, and some of the tools may be not free (in either sense).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> One of the comments notes that this was a well publicized change, citing page 9 of Siracusa's in-depth review. I'm sure every affected user will have read through his entire review before upgrading.

<comment><USER31> You would still hope that an OS upgrade wouldn't leave your data in an unusable state! As someone above pointed out, it would've been pretty easy for the OS install to determine if you had feeds and export them into an open format and let the user know where they had been exported too so that they may then do something with it.

I don't think the lack of the feature is the main complaint in the article it's that her data seemed to be suddenly gone (I know she eventually found it but it took a third part tool to try to export the proprietary format into something usable).

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> My problem with Mountain Lion, and Lion, and I cant rember if it were true with snow leopard, was that I needed to re-install all of my unix dev tools

<comment><USER33> It's become a ritual for me that I have to rebuild imagemagick with each new upgraded version of OS X.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I used Ubuntu for laptops for about 6 years. I moved to Mac because Linux laptops were no longer allowed for the new company.

I don't really understand the shock from early adopters that core things have changed. In Ubuntu, I wouldn't compete to update right away. Just wait a week or two. Why would you do it for Mountain Lion?

Apple isn't really any better than Ubuntu with saying what will 'break' and what won't. It's either a positive change or a UI breakage, depending on the person.

</comment><comment> SG- While it sucks for the few users that did use RSS reader in Mail.app, the truth is most people didn't actually use that feature in Mail.app and I actually like that Apple has removed feature bloat from Mail.app on a feature that has nothing to do with mail.

I think the only thing they should have done is the first time you start the new Mail.app is a warning comes up saying your RSS is gone and an option to export to some "easier to read" file on your desktop.

</comment><comment><USER35> I wrote a script that solves the problem: <https://github.com/DaNmarner/ExtractMailRSS>

For direct download: <https://github.com/DaNmarner/ExtractMailRSS/zipball/master>

</comment><comment><USER36> I have no love for RSS, and even if I did, there are many third party apps that fill the niche, but I will say (as a regular Final Cut Pro user) welcome to the club. When Apple does their famous "cutting out the cruft" there are always users like us that are jilted because they depend on that cruft.

<comment><USER37> So many people are missing the key point...it is never ok to to remove data without warning.

<comment><USER24> I think the even bigger point is it's never ok to organize data in a way that removal of the UI leaves you with no access to the data at all, even though you could use another tool to do UI if only the vendor gave you proper access to the data. E.g. if Apple stored their RSS feeds, say, in OPML - <USER2> would be easy. If they exported the feed to OPML on upgrade - migration would be not very hard too. Since Apple did everything the wrong way there, the user had to use 3 tools and spend hours of manual work to get her data back.

This is especially bad coming from the company that is known for their neglect to BC and overhauling UIs in most radical way. Their developers must have known the possibility of UI change exists - and still stored the data in a format that turns this possibility into a major problem for the user.

Compare, for example, to Firefox that stores bookmarks in HTML(-like) file. If ever something happens to Firefox project or their bookmark functionality, I can always take the HTML and get the info out with the simplest of tools, and probably I won't have to, since these tools would already exist - since the format is easy to use.

<comment><USER38> I don't think Firefox has stored bookmarks in HTML since the bookmark and history systems were unified in Firefox 3. Now they're stored in a single SQLite database. The schema is sensible, so it's easy enough for a programmer to work with, but it doesn't have the automatic portability/transparency of a text-based format like HTML.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Feed readers are dead. Not at all feeds themselves, but the process of using a reader like mail to pull in feeds to a desktop app is going out the window. When consumers buy products, they should be able to look into the future. If you choose technology that is a bit behind the times, understand that you should be careful before upgrading, as old features are often cut from Apple products.

This happened in every industry, not just the computer industry. The problem here is that the computer industry abandons old features at a MUCH faster rate than other industries, but for good reason.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Feed readers are dead.

At least as far as standalone desktop apps are concerned, I think you're right. I can't even remember a time when I was _not_ using Google Reader. I do hope RSS-fed reading in general is not going extinct though.

<comment><USER40> As I got to this page via FeedDemon I think "dead" is an exaggeration.

Sprained seems reasonable though :->

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Apple removed it because more and more of their client apps are just desktop versions of iCloud. iCloud isn't getting RSS syncing anytime soon.

</comment><comment><USER16> Honestly, I could see this coming a mile away. I've always distrusted Apple for a variety of reasons. Probably more than Microsoft.

</comment><comment><USER42> Complaining about Apples f-ups with RSS feeds is like complaining that Hitler used to litter. Big Woop!

</comment><comment><USER43> I don't have a lot of sympathy for her. 1. She could have read up on what was changing with ML. 2. She could/should have a backup of her data, especially before an OS upgrade. 3. Her data wasn't rendered "unusable" or "lost" it was left where the old RSS client kept it. 4. Her real beef seems to be that she lost the RSS functionality and wasn't told about it.

For all of the commentators saying that Apple should have exported her data to the desktop in a neat file/folder with an alert, get real. This is such an edge case that it doesn't warrant the effort from Apple nor from HN.

<comment><USER44> I don't know why this was downvoted. This is a very accurate representation of Apple philosophy in a nutshell.

<comment><USER45> No, I'm pretty sure "move fast and break things" is Facebook.

<comment><USER44> And Apple is a shining example of backwards compatibility and concern for the 20%.

Prioritizing tasks, focusing their efforts, and consciously deciding not to support some users or pursue some customers is _why_ many people on HN hold Apple in high esteem, and now someone's downvoted for explaining this?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> There are plenty of RSS reader apps.

The fact that they may collect your personal data for future mining shouldn't concern you.

</comment><comment><USER47> Apple always removed what they found weak and this is a part of why OS X is a strong and well integrated operating system.

I can't see what all the fuss is about. I remember Apple removing many features in ten years of usage and it always been for the best.

If you can't stand this anymore, to to the app store where's there's way better options such as Reeder and NetNewsWire.

</comment><comment><USER48> _Removing RSS functionality:_ A defensible decision, I think. Many excellent third-party RSS readers are available and this fits Apple's overall theme of simplifying the OS: there are more system apps but each does less and only a very specific thing (Mail was split in Mail and Notes, iCal was split in Calendar and Reminders), iTunes being the big exception. RSS was never a good fit for Mail, why should Apple have to schlepp around that ballast for all eternity?

 _Removing user data:_ That is indefensible. There should be a painless way for users to export their RSS feeds on first launch (an OPML file would be minimum, better would be some even tighter solution that is not as painful and annoying as dealing with an OPML file.

(Yes, I know that technically Apple didn't remove the data – but no one should be expected to conduct such a preposterous rescue mission for their data. This is also not meant as a criticism of her, it's pretty clear that she is more or less ok with Apple removing the functionality, just not the data.)

<comment><USER49> I would expect a decent third-party solution to scan for folders like this, just as every third-party browser grabs (or at least offers to grab) Safari's data.

<comment><USER50> So, how would e.g. Google Reader do that, exactly?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> If you don't like a product, don't use it.

If you don't properly research a product, don't complain about its features.

Do some research next time.

Take responsibility for your actions instead of blaming others.

These are elementary principles.

<comment><USER52> I expect an OS to mostly stay out of my way and let me do stuff. If an upgrade is going to damage my stuff in some way it's the most minimal of courtesy to warn me and give me options.

<comment><USER19> Mountain Lion changed the internal functioning of mail so rss would have had to be architected. Yes, I think an export option would have been nice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> yawn!

</comment><comment><USER54> I don't understand what the article is about. Is she trolling for page views? I don't understand why she considers herself "violated" by Apple. Don't people make backups anymore?

<comment><USER55> > I don't understand what the article is about.

The article is pretty clear. She was using Mail app for rss feeds and the upgrade seemed to totally delete her rss feeds and her subscriptions. Mail app upgrade should have checked if the user has subscribed to RSS, and could have exported the feeds and subscriptions. The least the upgrade could have done to notify the user to manually export the feeds and subscriptions before going through the upgrade.

> Is she trolling for page views?

Trolling isn't defined as _whatever you disagree with_.

> Don't people make backups anymore?

Take backup of what? Taking a disk backup would have given her the proprietary on-disk blob which only Mail app could read, and now the Mail app refuses to do so.

<comment><USER54> Never mentioned I disagreed with her. Where did you get that assumption?

<comment><USER55> > Never mentioned I disagreed with her. Where did you get that assumption?

>> I don't understand what the article is about. Is she trolling for page views? I don't understand why she considers herself "violated" by Apple. Don't people make backups anymore?

Let's try this again. She complained an upgrade shouldn't have made her existing rss feeds and subscriptions inaccessible.

You said you don't understand what the article is about, she is trolling and implied what's the fuss about since everybody should make backups.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


ZIP Is Broken, Except It's Not, Except It Is - <AUTHOR> https://blog.archive.org/2019/02/13/zip-is-broken-except-its-not-except-it-is/ <comment><USER2> And then if you had a Mac, you probably ran across one of the Stuffit formats. .sit, .sitx, etc. or a binhex one, like .hqx.

so many file compression formats, so little time. Stuffit did a great job of handling them and keeping the pesky Mac OS (classic) resource forks in line. Mostly.</comment>


Partial list of people who have declined a British honour - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declining_a_British_honour

<comment><USER2> Totally read this as 'British humour' first.</comment>


Amazon Prime Air pilots to protest wages at shareholders meeting - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/22/amazon-shareholders-meeting-protest-prime-air-pilots.html <comment><USER2> I don't understand this article. Supposedly Atlas pays less, but they don't say how much they pay. The main pilot has been at Atlas 16 years, presumably on this pay scale, why is he complaining now and why to Amazon? Did the pilots think the Amazon contract would get them a raise?

Lastly, Atlas has added 600 pilots in last year or two, it doesn't sound like their pay is out of whack with market.</comment>


Computer Game Helps Autistic Children Recognize Emotions - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070622183516.htm

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the post. I confess, FaceSay will not win a design award :-), but it does seem to generate some key aha's for the kids. I sometimes wonder if a bit of quirkiness in the design helps make it engaging.

Here's a quick synopsis of the research. Since the first study, the emotion recognition and face recognition results have been replicated in one additional randomized controlled study, though not yet peer reviewed (dissertations and masters theses). The latest emotion recognition results were in a randomized controlled study in a California school district - i.e. a more challenging environment. Here's a link to the IMFAR poster I presented in May. <http://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2011/webprogram/Paper9669.html>

This 2010 study also found, to my surprise, significant improvement in theory of mind measures.

I am hoping a group in Canada and one in Poland will launch a FaceSay study this year, and we are aiming for an NIH grant for additional studies and new development.

I hope your daughter likes FaceSay. Sorry for the long delay on the Home Edition. Classic bootstrapping limitations. If she likes it, I'd be happy to discount the current classroom edition to the Home Edition price.

Casey

Casey Wimsatt Founder www.FaceSay.com

</comment><comment><USER3> Website is here: <http://www.facesay.com/index.html>

They don't have a home edition yet, but you can get the trial at least. Interface looks appalling. I hope the research holds up. Will be checking this out for my daughter with Aspergers.</comment>


Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now? - <AUTHOR> Greetings all!
I was hoping the fine minds here might be able to help me out a little with the quandary I'm in.
Some woeful backstory:
I'm a (ahem) PHP developer & been doing it for 8 or so years now. I'll be honest, I'm no 'rockstar', 'ninja' or 'action-monk' but I think I'm reasonably good and have always managed to build whatever is required within a decent timescale. Nothing has even blown the heck up on my watch. I've done everything from proper low-end nonsense to working on/building on a few largeish e-commerce sites (nothing enormous but in the $millions taken through site in a year).
Right now I'm earning £18,000/yr (approx $26,708.40 - off the top of my head ;) with ZERO chance of pay rise (it's been 2 years since my last one) and while this pays the rent, that's about it. I can't pay every bill that comes through each month as it stands.
The problems I have are twofold:
1. My current job description looks good on paper (built/manage 8 sites of low-to-high complexity, mailing lists, graphic design, print, server admin, iphone app development..) but if a prospective employer saw half of these sites, I'd be binned instantly. It's the old 'make everything bold and pink' edicts and keyword spam that the bosses love to add.
2. As I said, I'm no rockstar. I can't in good conscience apply for one of these jobs knowing I'm not the genius they are looking for. Plus, I'd be out on my arse after a week once they rumbled me. Unfortunately, the next step down seems to be junior dev, for around the same wageas I'm on now!
So... am I having delusions of grandeur here? Should I be happy that someone with my skillset is getting paid this amount and I have no right to expect more for being average?
Or - am I right to think that I could do a lot better? And it what ruddy way do I go about it? The job market around here is pretty dire unless I make the 200 mile journey to London (not really feasible for several reasons).
Sorry for the waffle, just at my wits end right now and unable to see anything clearly. Please don't read this a pity-seeking tale of woe - I'm more interested in getting out and making something decent out of my life. Thanks for reading and any kick-to-the-head advice is much appreciated! <comment><USER2> You need to learn about control and responsibility. See, you have become responsible for your work, but you were not in control of it. Your employers have controlled it, and you let them by not pushing back on their decisions, which is understandable if you need work. I've done it. The problem is you are also now _responsible_ for this work, because your name is on it. You're now screwed because the rest of the world assumes that you were both in control and responsible.

That's how you got in this situation, and the sad thing is, that's how it usually goes. You work on whatever projects you can find, never really getting anything challenging or even in good taste, and then when you go to get your next job you have nothing to show for your work. Cycle repeats.

The way you break out of this pattern is with open source. Open source lets you be both responsible and in control. You choose what you're working on, you do the work, you get your name on it. It's all you. You can start your own project, work on someone else's, and even blog about it. You get the recognition and you get experience with people interested in the new stuff, not the crap you do at work.

This is how I've had to work for a decade or more. _Nobody_ I work for is interested in letting me do something interesting or challenging. I go to work and work on very mundane things, and then go home and write advanced algorithms to create web servers and bizarre protocols for fun.

If it weren't for open source, I'd still be working as an enterprise Java douchebag. Open source and writing literally saved me from the "industry" more than once and kept my love of code alive long past any love of the job.

<comment><USER3> Wait are you saying I have to be content with who I am?

What do you mean I can't expect my employer to validate my passions in life?

<comment><USER4> > Wait are you saying I have to be content with who I am?

When did he ever tell you to stop bettering yourself?

> What do you mean I can't expect my employer to validate my passions in life?

Because your passions are yours, and yours alone. You could get miraculosuly lucky and get an employer that shares some of your passions and lets you work in them... or you could remove chance from the equation and write code on your own, and open source it.

<comment><USER3> Sarcasm.... The internet doesn't get it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The typical engineer is not a genius. Don't compare yourself to geniuses. The typical engineer also makes more than you do, and you should find a job and close that gap. If you are feeling like you are unworthy, go talk to any chaps in London about the guys making 50k sterling while being unable to do FizzBuzz. (I assume you have them in London, too.)

If you're worried about your portfolio being insufficiently graphically impressive, well, pick an off-the-rack template which looks pretty, then build an example site off of that. You can reference the case studies of what you've done without actually showing the sites. Just tell people that your previous bosses are uptight corporate types.

The Internets is full of people looking for competent PHP developers, if you can't find them locally. Network network network, develop a speciality, blog, all the usual advice here.

<comment><USER6> Is FizzBuzz actually used as a coder test? Are their really paid coders out there who can't solve that in a couple minutes?

<comment><USER7> I just got thrown the FizzBuzz test a couple days ago. First time I had ever seen it. Startled me that everyone else knows what it is too! I don't know if it would be blindingly obvious without the mod operator.

<comment><USER8> I would consider the mod operator to be pretty basic though. (Feel free to call me out if I'm just being naive.)

Outside of the mod operator, you could always use a combo of floor() and ceiling() (which I assume most languages have in a standard library). e.g.:

      from math import floor,ceil
      def divisible_by_3(n):
        result = n / 3.0
        return ceil(result) == floor(result)

Or even more basic:

      def divisible_by_3(n):
        result = n / 3.0
        return int(result) == result

<comment><USER9> The main danger with using the mod operator is that you can get an off-by-one if you aren't in the habit of using it and forget the exact definition. If that's in doubt, rolling your own thing with a division or a while/if makes for a stronger guarantee of success on the first try.

In an interview you could explain your reasoning for such a detour as well, which might work out better than just "knowing the answer."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Been there. Got out. It took 95% burning determination and hard work, and maybe 5% luck.

1) You've identified that what's in your project portfolio isn't impressive. This is fine, as there's lot of people working for Cardboard BoxCo. My recommendation is to create a side-project that you think might be impressive to potential employers. It doesn't have to be a real website. Think of those "Contoso, Inc." examples that Microsoft likes to use. Just create something that you feel demonstrates what you're capable of and could show either on an inexpensive VPS solution ($20 USD/mo) and also could bring in via a laptop for a bit of show-and-tell (I've had plenty of candidates do this).

2) Even if #1 doesn't lead to an immediate job, keep playing. Keep learning. At the very least you can make your life easier in your current situation. Possibly you might be able to raise an eyebrow for at least something of a pay raise. If not, you're learning skills that could prove useful elsewhere. Don't give up, just dig in. Keep aiming your sights higher, never be complacent with what you're capable of. Keep learning. Keep outdoing your best.

3) Network with everyone you know to look for opportunity. I got out of a similar situation to yours via our hardware vendor. His son used to run a fairly impressive IT firm, and one of his old high school buddies had went to work for a startup that they were providing hardware to. Over the years they knew what I was capable of and could be doing better (they had an idea of what I was getting paid), and that startup needed someone who could get things done. That ended up being my ticket out and eventually on to better things.

</comment><comment><USER11> There's lots of good advice on this thread, but I'll just say this: you're getting raped at that salary? I have a very close friend who had a very similar background as you except only about three years of experience programming, period. He got a job making almost six figures, 100% remote. I've got 4-5 yrs of PHP experience and I can easily pull down six figures doing freelance work part-time.

Perception is everything. If you think you're not worth much, that's what you'll make. If you think you're worth $75/hr (or much more), you can definitely[1] find clients to pay that.

1\. I'm assuming with 8 years of experience, you're good with Drupal, Wordpress, CakePHP/CodeIgniter/Symfony, etc. If not, I'd recommend learning them. It's not hard and all my clients ask for them. Learn APIs as well, like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

<comment><USER12> Any advice on how to find fairly paid freelance work?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you can write code that has been put into production, then you are way ahead of many so-called developers on the job market. This is the sad state of our industry.

Since you say you know design and programming but the actual sites you've had to put together for your employer(s) are atrocious, why haven't you built a portfolio for yourself? For very cheap, you can get yourself a virtual server or even some shared hosting site along with a domain name or two and put up whatever you want. One site at least should include your resume and contact info along with anything else you feel is good to post with that info. After that, it's up to you how you want to present yourself. If your portfolio of sites under your control are attractive, have good usability and present well, then it will be obvious to any prospective employer that your work sites are bad because you were doing what your employers told you to.

<comment><USER14> Could you please elaborate on that one?

I understand it is true for every rookie, but how is it possible to remain 8+ years in the payroll if you do not ship anything to production? By job hopping every year?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> As mentioned in other suggestions, it's time to just try your hand on the job market. In my opinion, you are being too critical of yourself.

Perhaps you should be looking for jobs that isn't coding? Perhaps roles like project management is a better fit. You know enough code to push out eight projects to production. You have an understanding of the effort involved. You have dealt with management and translating requirements into code.

I've always recognized my strength is not in development but in gluing things together. In my day job, I get teased* for using Perl and the simple ways I get to solutions. But I point out I've pushed to production multiple projects within the corporate bureaucracy. I've seen many other projects just experience heat death as they get very complex with features. With the success I've had, I'm making my way to middle management as someone who is more useful at getting things done then squinting into a code editor.

In summary, I'm a poor developer. I can't create an algorithm to punch through a wet paper bag. But I can glue things together, my other brain is Google + Safari Books, and I have the stubbornness to push projects through to completion. Therefore I'm getting out of the developer role I never really was good at.

(*) The teasing is in good nature.

</comment><comment><USER16> You sound conscientious, competent, and reasonably experienced. That's worth a lot more than what you make. Apply for PHP development jobs in the geographic area to which you can reasonably commute. Network locally, but forget the blog stuff unless that's something you think you'd enjoy.

And make sure to give your current employer a chance to bid against the firm that makes you an offer. You'll be surprised how much your bosses are willing to pay to keep you from leaving.

<comment><USER17> >>And make sure to give your current employer a chance to bid against the firm that makes you an offer.

I agree with the rest, but not this.

1\. I think bosses are taught that: After this kind of negotiation, most people leave soon after, anyway.

2\. The bosses underpaid him. In my experience, there seems to be a bit of strategy to keep employees self confidence down. He should leave that place, no good will come from staying with them. (This might be my own history speaking.)

<comment><USER16> People get other offers and counteroffers and stay at their jobs all the time. In most of corporate America, this is one of the primary ways to get ahead. Maybe not at the most enlightened employee focused development shops, but most programmers don't work there.

There are a number of good reasons to give your current employer the opportunity to give a counteroffer: 1\. It's the polite thing to do. Even if you say no, your former boss will appreciate being given the opportunity. 2\. You may be able to use it as a bargaining advantage in setting your compensation at the new job. More bidders = higher pay for you. 3\. Your current employer may decide to make you a really good offer. I've seen it happen. They may even create a new job description that didn't exist to accommodate you.

Ideally we would all work at places that properly valued our skills and contributions, and updated our salaries to reflect our value every year. In the real world, there's nothing wrong with a little negotiation and competition.

<comment><USER17> Interesting.

It isn't true in the US then, about "they'll leave anyway, if they did so much work that they applied, did the interviews and got an offer"?

Is it a general philosophy in some areas?

I've heard that in more "active" work markets (London is the closest to me) that people have their CVs going around continuously.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> A lot of people are recommending writing some open source software. I would advise against that. Instead I would advise writing some software that you find to be useful. That does not rule out contributing to an open source project, it just makes it less likely you'll waste your time. It's really really hard to figure out if people really need the features they ask for in open source projects -- and I think there are a lot of bloated FOSS products out there. Write something for yourself and it may lead you down a surprising path.

</comment><comment><USER19> I sympathize; I was in a simliar situation around five years ago.

There are three things I've done which have been responsible for literally every job I've had in the last decade. In order of importance, they have been:

1\. Know people. 2\. Engage in the FOSS community. 3\. Challenge myself.

That's it. Now, the interesting thing is that if you reverse this list, you get the steps you need to get a new job:

3\. By challenging yourself, you will increase your knowledge base and become a better coder. 2\. Find an project, tool, or subject that interests YOU. Something YOU would find useful and rewarding. Whatever it is, write it and RELEASE IT. If there's a project that already does what you want, start contributing. Help other people use it. Write documentation. Anything. Whatever it is, RELEASE IT. Doesn't matter if it's something a hundred people worldwide will find interesting - you'll get their attention, which leads to… 1\. Knowing people who can get you jobs.

I cannot stress this enough: RELEASE CODE. The great thing is that you can usually get your employer on board with this. If other people use it, they can contribute features and bugfixes back, which they can make use of. It's like having programmers work for them for free.

The fact that you have this ambition at all puts you at a significant advantage over other programmers. Keep hold of that drive.

</comment><comment><USER20> Time to become a rockstar, mate. I say fill in whatever holes you think you have in your skill (if there are any) and market yourself as a rockstar. You're only a rockstar if you act like one.

<comment><USER21> Please don't market yourself as a rockstar - rockstars tend to be characterised by egocentricity, rudeness, and childish intractability.

Do market yourself as a skilled craftsman that can contribute to a team.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Ok - long delayed response since I lost my damned login :)

Thanks very much for all the replies, MUCH appreciated - and it seems to have given me the big kick I needed.

Since I posted, I managed to wangle a £10k raise. Basically gave a polite ultimatum with a well sourced list of equivalent jobs ~£30k. It's a good start!

I also took on board some of the Rentacoder type tips and have started to build up a rep on there. Did a few all-day $20 jobs, which was horrible, but I've just now finished a couple of jobs at $150 and $250 with around $500-800 due to complete soon. On top of that, I dug out a couple of old contacts and emailed on a whim. Could have £2k monthly coming in from their project overflow.

I'm also gonna look into doing some FOSS stuff if I can somewhere I'll make a good fit.

tl;dr: thanks an effing million. I was wallowing in self-pity and knew it. I really needed something like this. Now I'm slowly getting rich :)

</comment><comment><USER22> £18,000 for a development position is absolutely horrendous. You can get 21k for a non university educated PHP developer position. With 8 years you could easily crack £35k if you spin your CV the right way.

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm still in college, but I've found myself in similar situation.

I was/am a jack of a lot of trades but master of none. I manage to code in whichever language that comes by or feels good to do the job at hand in the easiest and best way. I've to blame my nature for that. I like variety.

At the end of the day, I had nothing to show off on my portfolio that's fashionably cool. Only a bunch of apps that most average coders would have. I realized that most awesome ideas I thought off still rested in my head or I discarded them with the reason that the idea's implementation required tech skills way above mine.

So I just charted a schedule for my normal day. I spent half the day learning and half the day working. I code when I'm fresh from sleep (early morning or after the afternoon nap). I spend the other boring time learning. I'm able to learn things very quickly. I hope this trick will help you learn more.

And I totally agree with patio11 says. I can't help myself from stumbling atleast 10 "php developer wanted" job posting every day. Since you said you've been doing it for 8yrs now I assume you are really good at what you do and you are way better than half the php crowd if you've done it right for most of those 8yrs. So maybe continue your niche (small sites on cheap hosting) while the rest is busy learning/doing rails.

P.S: read this <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1438983> for another bunch of tricks

</comment><comment><USER24> The average UK salary is looking more like double what you're getting.

[http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=...](http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=php&id=0&lid=2618)

Check what it is specifically for your area, since it does vary a lot and London salaries pull the average up. Then raise the issue with your boss, and be prepared to give notice if they're not going to pay you more.

£18k is a mediocre salary for full-time helpdesk work, nevermind eight years of experience at dev. You're being proper fucked here, and you need to get away from it.

If you're too scared to walk from your current job right away - and I'm in much the same position and can appreciate how you feel - pick up some easy PHP dev work from RentaACoder, Elance, or guru.com on the side. You should be able to give up some weekends for a month or two to make money on the side, which will prove that you CAN make money on the side and give you some headroom for when you quit.

Oh, and the sites you've made don't really matter. You just make what you get told to make, right? Everyone understands that.

</comment><comment><USER25> Stop being average, stop calling yourself average, stop caring about your job description.

Do what you want to do, do it awesomely, live small, be patient.

</comment><comment><USER26> If you can honestly say that you get always get everything done on time then that's _huge_. If you say that the design on these websites isn't your idea then I think potential employers would be understanding, but better would be to build something simple on your own that shows what a website looks like when you do it your way.

</comment><comment><USER27> Learn to manage other developers.

If you do that well (and it's much harder than programming) then your upper salary is unbound.

</comment><comment><USER28> IMO the biggest thing that's going to hurt you is actually how long you've been in the same place. Don't do that again. :)

If you've been doing software development for 8 years then you shouldn't be a junior and shouldn't settle for it. Highlight the points you mentioned and don't show any links for it. You could have been doing company internal sites for all they know.

>2\. As I said, I'm no rockstar. I can't in good conscience apply for one of these jobs knowing I'm not the genius they are looking for."

How do you know? Employers often end up asking for more than they want, so just try and let them decide if you're good enough. You're going to need more confidence though. If you don't think you're good you're going to have a hell of a time convincing someone else that you _are_.

</comment><comment> adam-_- £18,000 is pittance - you should get more than that just for reading Hacker News!

Apply for a junior position at a more interesting company if it's the only job around. It's the same or possibly more money so who cares?!

Check out things like NMA Top 100 [1], Times Tech Track [2] etc. to try and scout around potentially interesting companies in the area.

[1] <http://top100.nma.co.uk> \- you have to register but it's free. [2] [http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/leagues/tech100suppleme...](http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/leagues/tech100supplement.html)

</comment><comment><USER29> With your attitude, I wouldn't hire you either. Buck up, little camper! Welcome to the internet!

You made no mention of open source apps you've written or contribute to. You also made no mention of any side projects you've done that don't have that 'bold and pink' your work projects do.

With no drive to improve your skills, you're destined to stay in this dead-end job, if you're not replaced soon by someone who will do it faster and cheaper. GET ON IT, MAN!

A much better job awaits, but you're certainly not going to get it by sulking and not doing any quality work.

<comment><USER30> +1 for Open Source

Since you have a php background I recommend looking into Drupal. It's in high demand right now & with Drupal 7 I see the demand for talent increasing even more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I suggest focusing on something that many (web) programmers don't have, don't think about enough, and are paid a heck of a lot more if they do:

How are your design skills?

Edit: by design I mean aesthetics and user experience

</comment><comment><USER32> Build a side project you can be proud of! Will allow you to get your skills up in the areas you think are lacking and give you something you can show to prospective employers.

</comment><comment><USER33> Ouch dude, I'm earning £17k/yr and I thought I was getting stiffed (Two years experience). If I'm still earning this kind of money in six years time I will be most unhappy.

</comment><comment><USER34> If you're only making 26 grand a year, why don't you go try to be a real rockstar or ninja instead of the PHP version? You would probably make nearly the same wage...

</comment><comment><USER35> You're not stuck. You've just got to become a better developer, which you can do by practicing a lot and learning everything you can outside of work.

</comment><comment><USER36> How about working on a startup in your free time? Even if it fails, you will gain experience and have something interesting to add to your C.V.

</comment><comment><USER37> Light a fire in your bones now. What inspires you?

</comment><comment><USER38> By your statement....you are no rockstar. I would argue that...you are no rockstar YET. You need at least two things to become a Genius/Rockstar/whatever:

1\. Challenging work that forces you to improve your c0ding ski11z.

2\. Time.

There is no shortcut and your eight years so far count quite well. It is time to take it up a notch and start challenging yourself in your current job or trying some side projects.

If you don't believe that you could become a rockstar coder, I'd suggest reading Bounce by Matthew Syed.

<comment><USER39> I would say that you also need "3. Groupies". I really dislike the "rockstar" moniker, but positive reinforcement is important, especially if it appears as if you're stuck. That's one of the good things about the open source world, where it's easy to have a small, popular project. The sheer amount of project and time management skills teaches you is much greater than the improvement in coding ability (which really isn't that linear).

If you do a decent job of presenting and updating such a project, people will like it and probably let you be aware of that fact. And even the most lone- wolf programmers need that, whether they admit it or not.

This could be done at work, too, by making some utilities or introducing new features for the benefit of you co-workers or customers. Most of the time, the feedback isn't as direct, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> damn dude it's not like you can't learn to be way above average if you're really just so dim you can't get better, it's time to become a manager. I'm not even joking loyalty + mild tech skills + don't question it = great middle manager get an mba or stop being lazy and do the work to get great

</comment><comment><USER41> You have built successful businesses for other people. Now do it for yourself.

<comment><USER12> The technical side of a business is usually the easiest (for a developer).

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Quit & take a junior dev position preferably working with other languages (ruby, perl, jquery, ms visual studio, w/e) to mix up your skill set- then you'll have ten years of experience in varied environments, much more attractive as an employee. Even if it pays less, it gets you on the right track. Good luck!</comment>


Pg-Minify: Minifies PostgreSQL Scripts, Reducing IO Usage - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vitaly-t/pg-minify <comment><USER2> Do you have any metrics showing that these measurably change any performance numbers?</comment>


Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> API _along with a service_ to correct dumb people who misuse the term API to mean an RPC service over HTTP.</comment>


Ask HN: How does someone get more confident? - <AUTHOR> Hey, I've been a professional developer for 3 years and some change.Before that I graduated with a CS degree (1st class) or close to 4 for US people.
I started fiddling with computers around the age of 12 (now 26). I build a few websites being the early 2000, did some irc shell scripts etc, got involved with game emulation for e.g world of warcraft etc.
Now comes the time where I want to move forward with my career and prolly in less than a year from now move Countries, find another job or do contracting, or ideally land a remote job. On the company I am now I've builded a whole dashboard that reflects the website, I've designed their "sales" website which is the public face of the company, I've builded a full on hybrid mobile app for a complicated social network, I worked on nosql db, sql db's and graph. I've also done scaling, TDD, got involved with our API's and expanding them etc. Our stack works on C# and JS mainly.
I have personally been working on more JS and frontend work the past year or so, and I'd consider myself more proficient in JS including frameworks like angular, CSS, HTML.
My issue is that for some reason I can't convince myself that I can find a better job than what I currently have. I believe that I lack in many departments and I am afraid that I won't be able to land another job at my level of skill. 1) How can I become more confident or at least find my skill level and where do I belong? Do I go to interviews and take tests to see whats what? 2)How do I get past the thought that there are millions of people out there that are way better than me and will land that job that I am looking at?
TL:DR I've been a professional software developer for 3 years, have a CS degree and have spend most of my life fiddling on computers. I am not confident that I could land another coder job other than mine due to the massive competition out there, and I am underestimating my current skills. Is there a way that I can get past this? <comment><USER2> Don't just be a "tools experts". I have been into software development for over 10 years and in last few years I realized that what we developers sell and hone is the skill of being an expert in a set of tools. Tools that allows us to translate the so called requirements into software. We need to be more than that, we need to understand the real world and its problems and get out of our digital shell. Learn other stuff, read about physics, logic, maths, philosophy anything that allows you to think about things in different ways and expand your mind. In the end, don't try to be the smartest guy (the world already is filled with pseudo intellects) , rather try to be curious (about anything and everything).

One more thing, whenever you meet someone smarter than you, don't be just in the awe of it rather realize that here is your chance to know more and learn more.

</comment><comment><USER3> First, find a mentor you can talk to and who can guide you. In your case, getting a mentor who does not work where you work would be better. Perhaps someone at church, or within the local tech community.

Second, it sounds like you may be overthinking things. Get yourself out there and start interviewing. You'll find that your thought processes will often change in response to actions.

When you get out there and start looking, keep this in mind: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1WiCGq- PcY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1WiCGq-PcY)</comment>


Microsoft Employees Being Put in Charge of Linux - <AUTHOR> http://techrights.org/2019/11/26/microsoft-linux-entryism-2019/ <comment><USER2> It sure is great to see Microsoft embracing and extending Linux you guys!

</comment><comment><USER3> ....embrace, extend, extinguish.

Yep, everything's on track.</comment>


Build a Minimalist Blog, Powered by Emacs and Common Lisp - <AUTHOR> http://cat-v.mit.edu/2019-10-18-write-you-a-minimalist-blog-powered-by-emacs-and-common-lisp.html <comment><USER2> Pretty awesome!</comment>


How to have great ideas - <AUTHOR> http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/04/how-to-have-great-ideas/

<comment><USER2> Such a great mental set of exercises. James is an awesome writer, I've really been enjoying his stuff.</comment>