Ask HN: Offers to help with webapp - <AUTHOR>

I'm a solo founder, built a web app over the last 12 months, targeted at a niche market of about 50,000.  It has received enthusiastic feedback from users. I'd rather not disclose the URL at the moment because there is a monopoly that I'm trying to sneak up on.<p>Something that keeps coming up:  People offering to donate and/or help with the software.  How should I handle these emails? <comment><USER2> I don't care what else you do, but you should find out more about each of them, and take the information down. You will be surprised how valuable that list will be down the road, and how hard the list is to develop on your own.

</comment><comment><USER3> You have enthusiastic users and you think you're going to sneak up on an incumbent? (suggest reading: [http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/06/the_spooky_econ.h...](http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/06/the_spooky_econ.html) )

I'd add a donate (or tipjoy!) button. Or a bounty page where people can buy their favorite feature request to the top of the list.

If people want to help, maybe you could release an API? Or open-source your software?

<comment><USER4> I back the api idea. If anything, this helps you seperate logic in the app which will probably allow growing a dev team more efficiently. More importantly, though, is if customers actually do extend your app via an API you be empowering creativity outside your vision while still in your control. Letting users change the scope of your site is about as close to mapping your site to their needs as you can reasonably get.

<comment><AUTHOR> The API idea is excellent, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From what he's told me, axod has had a similar experience with users offering to help with mibbit, and he's managed to put some of these offers to good use. Care to say more axod?

<comment><USER6> For Mibbit there's been a few ways people have helped:

1\. Testing - people love finding bugs and telling you about them. You get some crazy fanatical users that can't wait to try your new release on 17 different browsers and email you with any issues.

2\. Documentation - wiki. A great way to have people help each other, and to grow the project.

3\. Helping other users - if it's applicable have a help chatroom where you hang out, in which new users can come. With Mibbit there's now a core group of users that hang out in the help channel helping new users.

4\. Integration with other things - For mibbit, people have created joomla plugins, mediawiki extensions, and even submitted a bug report to firefox that Mibbit should be the default handler for irc://.

5\. Adding to a feature wish list (I'd recommend using a wiki and seeing if someone is willing to maintain it and keep it tidy and organised). Although I know there is a good webapp for voting up/down feature requests (Forget the name though).

5\. Obviously word of mouth/recommendation/blogging about it.

6\. Internationalization - People seem all too willing to translate a UI into other languages.

For me personally at the moment, I'm not interested in people helping with the software for a variety of reasons, but the above ways people do help are excellent, as they all assist in growth - worth far more than them donating some $.

Of course I'm sure once things get larger the dynamics change, but for an early stage I'd recommend those sorts of things.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for taking the time to share. I don't really want to give up ownership of any code either, and hadn't considered some of your other ideas.</comment></comment></comment>


Mise en abyme - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_abyme <comment><USER2> Somewhat related, what I could be the closest equivalent -in the realm of sound- of a mise en abyme:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone)

Both fascinating constructions.

</comment><comment><USER3> A thread from 2016: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12005869](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12005869)</comment>


Sounding black hurts your income; so does sounding southern - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/how-much-does-it-cost-you-in-wages-if-you-sound-black/

<comment><USER2> Accents are shaped by environment.

In my case, people often tell me that I have a very clear British accent; but when I ask them to pin down what sounds so particularly British, I often flounder about and eventually answer along the lines of "well, you speak very precisely and in a very educated manner" -- which says something about our (or at least, Canadians') stereotypes about the British!

In light of this, I wonder to what extent the judgements made about whether people "sounded black" or "sounded southern" were in fact merely that people were picking up voices which sounded uneducated -- and having subconscious racism translate that into a sense of blackness or southernness.

<comment><USER3> I think "British accent" can be a placeholder for "Big words in complete sentences." When I lived in Texas, people asked if I was British -- I'm from the Midwest.

<comment><USER4> What I love is in any movie not set in America, people speak in an English accent because it's foreign. Doesn't matter if it's France or Outer Space, it sounds English.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> After browsing the paper... it seems his sample was 300 random kids 19-25 average age 22, the avg income in the study was 11$ an hour...and the difference in wage from sounding black to not sounding black was 8%... unless I am missing something this study sounds very meaningless due to the small sample size of the subgroups of the sample, and the pointlessness of comparing 22 year old wages.

<comment><USER4> 8% of $11 meaning that you make $0.88 less an hour? Wow, earth shattering.

<comment><USER6> When you're only making $10.12 an hour, it probably is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For better or worse, I think sounding "anything that could be perceived as uneducated" hurts your income. This could include any type of accent (Boston, Southern, Indian), which leads to pronouncing words wrong (e.g Wata vs Water, Y'all vs You all).

<comment><USER8> My last name is "Higginbotham", I have a very slight Southern accent and say "y'all", and I look very Asian because I'm half Vietnamese. Most of the people I do work for I never see in person, but it's often amusing when I do meet them.

<comment><USER9> Higginbotham is an awesome name!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-dHl0c9S98></comment>


Call for Open-Source Projects - <AUTHOR> Do you have an open-source project and want to harden your security?  NeuraLegion offers a free annual subscription to the AST tool NexPloit to open-source projects (T&Cs apply)
Interested?
Contact us: email@example.com
Web: www.neuralegion.com <comment><USER2> NeuraLegion does AST (DAST/Fizzer) using machine learning and offensive approach. If you want to learn a bit more about the company [https://www.neuralegion.com](https://www.neuralegion.com)</comment>


TLS 1.3 in enterprise networks - <AUTHOR> https://www.cs.uic.edu/~s/musings/tls13-enterprises/ <comment><USER2> The ( _much_ ) better link on this story is Checkoway's:

[https://www.cs.uic.edu/~s/musings/tls13-enterprises/](https://www.cs.uic.edu/~s/musings/tls13-enterprises/)

Fun facts:

* The proposed "wiretapping modification" of TLS 1.3 doesn't really modify the TLS protocol in any way that a proprietary implementation couldn't already do. This is in stark contrast to the banks' original demand for TLS 1.3, of retaining the RSA handshake, which actually does change the protocol.

* The author of the "wiretapping" proposal is Matthew Green.

* Steve Checkoway was one of Matthew Green's students, before Chicago captured him. :)

I think Checkoway's post is pretty level-headed. I think Tim Bray's post is less so.

<comment><USER3> Ok, changed to that from [https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2017/07/24/TLS-1-3-W...](https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2017/07/24/TLS-1-3-Wiretapping). Thanks!

Edit: actually this looks like a dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14832517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14832517).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The concern is valid, but the way the author expresses it is totally paranoid. It is not "easy" to insert a "wiretap" into TLS - as the technical article, which reached the FP as well yesterday, explains, nothing the WG is discussing isn't already possible in TLS 1.2. If you're scared of a wiretap, it's already happening. Nothing is being _introduced_.

<comment><USER2> That's not totally true. We generally want enterprises on TLS 1.3 rather than TLS 1.2; TLS 1.3 has a safer, more modern design. Further, _enterprises_ want to be on 1.3.

It's also not a legitimate IETF goal to prevent network operators from monitoring their own networks. Of course, it's not a legitimate goal to ensure they can monitor their networks in any particular way.

It's not an especially simple debate.

<comment><USER5> I can also say that, as a _personal_ user of filtering proxies[1], I'd want to have TLS 1.3 support too.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxomitron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxomitron)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> No, no. Please no static DH!</comment>


Show HN: Take a full page screenshot of a webpage, up tp 50 url at once - <AUTHOR> https://screenshotcyborg.com/ <comment><USER2> There's multiple typos in the first sentence on your landing page. Might want to fix that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the information, all typos are now fixed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice job ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much for your kind word, very much appreciated.</comment></comment>


Oldest Body of Seawater Found in Giant Crater - <AUTHOR> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131120-oldest-seawater-chesapeake-bay-crater-science/

<comment><USER2> The way this article is written is very misleading.

This is not in any form or fashion the "oldest body of seawater yet found" nor is it unusual to find ancient trapped seawater.

"Connate water" is water trapped in sediments at the time of their deposition. Whether or not connate water is preserved in large quantities depends on the local permeability structure of the sediments and the regional hydrology. However, it's very common for connate water to be preserved more or less indefinitely (particularly in shales).

In other words, there's a _lot_ of trapped seawater almost everywhere you look.

What's unique about this isn't that there's trapped seawater, and it's certainly not the oldest connate water discovered (nor do the authors of the actual article claim that it is).

It's unique because:

A) it's direct evidence that the Central Atlantic had a very high salinity even long after it opened. (The authors are using the term "north atlantic" for some strange reason, but this segment is more commonly referred to as the "central atlantic")

B) The connate water survived a metorite impact without being highly disturbed.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Editor's summary from the Nature journal:

 _Geologists and oceanographers generally have to rely on indirect evidence from the analysis of solid materials in deep sediment cores when estimating temperature and salinity levels of the ancient oceans. But now a team from the US Geological Survey has identified a body of underground water that is actually a remnant of a past ocean water, a body of Early Cretaceous North Atlantic sea water. Deep drilling at the site of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater has yielded groundwater with an isotope and chemical composition signature that together with model analysis suggests that it was trapped in the sediments before the impact occurred around 35 million years ago. The water may have lain undisturbed for much longer: it has an average salinity of about 70 parts per thousand, twice that of modern sea water, and is probably 100–145 million years old._

[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v503/n7475/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v503/n7475/full/nature12714.html)

<comment><USER3> What struck me is the age of the oldest known seawater. That's on the order of 2% of the age of the earth. There are plenty of rocks that are much older. I guess seawater doesn't keep very well.

<comment><USER4> For one, rocks don't evaporate in the sunlight at our distance from the sun.

<comment><USER3> That's true. But rocks erode at a rapid pace in comparison to the age of the earth. Apparently, very little is left for geologists to study from earlier than about 1 billion years ago. And there is a tremendous amount of groundwater deep underground, with some of it trapped by rock formations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Looks like my uneditorialized title was edited to remove the "mind blowing discovery" prefix. I thought HN policy was to use the title as published. In any case, thanks for the edit. I would have done it except for my apparent confusion regarding best practices.

</comment><comment><USER5> _...the team was able to figure out the rough age of the ancient water_

Is there significant creation of "new" water on the earth? I suppose water produced in combustion of hydrocarbons would qualify, but seems to me that's tiny compared to the existing amount of water, which is all roughly the same age (ancient) and is just continually cycling between vapor (evaporation) and liquid (clouds/rain) state.

This discovery is simply water that has been in isolation for a long time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Recent discoveries of isolated water have lead to investigations of new organisms (see [http://www.nature.com/news/russian-scientist-defends-lake- vo...](http://www.nature.com/news/russian-scientist-defends-lake-vostok-life- claims-1.12578)). This appears to be much older, but perhaps not as well isolated as Lake Vostok since there appears to be a connection with increased groundwater salinity in the area.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hate it when these blog journalists don't event know how to read scientific papers

</comment><comment><USER7> Mirror??

<comment><USER8> right click => inspect element => set style to "display:none" on the popup and overlay, and you're good to go.</comment></comment>


Rabbits v. Tigers - <AUTHOR> http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/01/31/nick-holdstock/rabbits-v-tigers/

<comment><USER2> With English subtitles.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbAtMsz0dro>

References:

\- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal>

\- <https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=ye+guozhu+housing>

\- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Yunhui>

\- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Karamay_fire>

<comment><USER3> also:

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Somehow I feel for the Chinese government (not really). They're caught between a rock and a really hard place.

On one hand they have to control the flow of info over 1.5 billion people and it's getting increasingly hard. With every piece they ban there's always a bit of Streisand effect. With people getting more and more knowledgeable about how to get around the system to get their sources (see Egypt 2011), that effect gains more and more amplitude.

On the other hand they just can't pretend to release their grip by ignoring that kind of material. It's 1.5 billion people. If they let go even just a little bit, they're bound to lose some control they'll never be able to regain.

A rock and a hard place. I really can't fathom what the future holds for China.

</comment><comment><USER5> Get ready for the riots in China...

oh wait <http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/01/workers-riot-in-suzhou/>

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm reminded of the norska in the Vlad Taltos novels: they look just like rabbits and they eat dragons. Too bad it wasn't the year of the dragon we were coming out of!

Also Monty Python's killer rabbits.

</comment><comment><USER7> This video is pretty messed up.

<comment><USER8> And in that respect, it reflects the current situation in China well.</comment></comment>


Hurricane sandy in new york realtime photos - <AUTHOR> http://skylines.io/search?q=l:40.7143528,-74.0059731,20&location=New%20York,%20NY,%20USA

<comment><USER2> Wow! looks awesome.</comment>


Apple Reports Second Quarter Results - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/20results.html

<comment><USER2> So, the Gross Margin, the EPS, and the Operating Income pretty well match their previous record _holiday_ quarter.

They're doing pretty well in the same way that google has a lot of servers.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Apple also sold 4.69 million iPads, a steep decline from the 7.33 million > iPads the company sold during the fourth quarter, during the peak holiday > sales season.

> However, Apple was not able to compare them with sales figures from a year > ago, as the company had not yet established a full quarter's worth of > results for the iPad.

[http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=263436,00.asp?h...](http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=263436,00.asp?hidPrint=true)

</comment><comment><USER4> What makes this interesting? They did well this quarter and they are going to do ok next quarter. Intel's earnings report yesterday was much more surprising, but still not particularly notable to anyone who isn't following Intel.

<comment><USER5> I'd say Apple news is interesting in that:

a) it was a stereotypical tech startup, and Jobs is the consummate entrepreneur. Lots to learn from their history. b) they are the biggest tech company in the world c) they are still leading innovation in mobile, and that is an unavoidable market opportunity for tech/social startups and developers.

<comment><USER4> Apple is an interesting company but not all Apple news is interesting. Articles about the three points you mention have a lot of potential, but this is not related to any of them except Apple being big, which is somewhat interesting on its own but the reasons for its dominance would be more interesting. Sales, revenue, and profit are way up as expected and I think an analysis of the earnings report would have been interesting, but this press release doesn't provide that.</comment></comment></comment>


How Driverless Cars Could Make Traffic Dramatically Worse – CityLab - <AUTHOR> http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/01/how-driverless-cars-could-make-traffic-dramatically-worse/384821/ <comment><USER2> This may be another reason to use roundabouts instead of stop lights or stop signs at intersections.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't trains usually have to accommodate the potential for standing passengers and thus have to have a much smoother acceleration curve than is strictly necessary for car comfort?

<comment><USER4> I would expect that trains have to accommodate the fact that they're trains as well. I would expect trying to stop/start a train traveling at 60mph without damaging the tracks on which it runs would require rather more time than a car.</comment></comment>


Computing History - Sinclair ZX81 Computer Launched - <AUTHOR> http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5447/Sinclair-ZX81-Lanuched <comment><USER2> For HN Readers who care little about an obscure computer from the UK, Micro Men is an incredible movie about the people behind the 80s UK computer revolution and the chip design at the core of pretty much every modern smartphone. It's as much about the egos, the business behind it all and the race for dominance over the burgeoning home computer market as anything else, and has Martin Freeman and Alexander Armstrong in title roles.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEV1gefvy_k>

Incidentally, Acorn (who ended up getting the BBC project) went on to design their own CPU for their next generation computing lineup, a funny little chip design called the Advanced Risc Machine, or ARM, now the most use CPU design in the world.

<comment><USER3> So, in the end, the Archimedes really won ;-)

I remember an article on BYTE (badly missed) that pictured an Archimedes as capable of doing floating point math faster than a 386 _with_ a 387 attached.

I always wanted one.

<comment><USER4> Not to mention that you could power an ARM2 by collecting the waste heat from a 386 using a thermocouple.

<comment><USER3> I don't know about the 386, but you could power a lot of stuff out of the heat of a Pentium 60.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I'm amazed this got to the front page. It's a terrible article about a computer that was the precursor to the computer that completely revolutionised the UK's computing industry, was father (or grandfather) to millions of British geeks and nerds, and taught a generation how to program.

Some better links for those wondering what the hell this is all about:

<http://oldcomputers.net/zx81.html> \- Includes the pictures of the ZX81's other key use as a door stop

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81> \- A highly informative Wikipedia article not just about the zx81 but covering some of the business end of things as well.

[http://www.1up.com/features/spectraspective-history- sinclair...](http://www.1up.com/features/spectraspective-history-sinclair- spectrum) \- A great article covering the history of the successor (the ZX Spectrum) including the ZX81.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEV1gefvy_k> \- 3d Monster Maze, the great- great-great grandaddy of Doom and Wolfenstein 3d. Skip to about a minute in if you're not bothered about the loading noise.

<comment><USER3> > was the precursor to the computer that completely revolutionised the UK's > computing industry

I may be wrong, but I always had the impression that honor belonged to the Beeb, not the Spectrum.

<comment><USER5> My recollection is that schools adopted the BBC, but consumers bought the Spectrum. Later on (as I recall) the C64 took an increasingly large share of the market.

<comment><USER3> Interesting. The BBC was, in many respects, very sophisticated for the time. It makes sense the simpler, cheaper, Spectrum made a larger splash in the home market.

In Brazil, the home market belonged to Apple II clones at first. Small offices split evenly between TRS-80s and IIs, with a small participation of CP/M machines. Later the home split between IIs and MSXs, losing space progressively to IBM clones. And then it all became this dull x86 world we now know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Oh boy, is it really 30 years since we had wobbly RAM packs and Horace goes Skiing?

<comment><USER7> We had the wobbly RAM packs with the ZX80, only they were white.

A sharp quote about the ZX80: _With an unusable keyboard and a quirky BASIC, this machine discouraged millions of people from ever buying another computer._

<http://computermuseum.50megs.com/brands/zx80.htm>

I loved that machine. Most memorable was that as you used up nearly all of the memory, the number of rows displayed on screen started to reduce.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My first computer! Although I started programming on the Acorn Atom just before that. The combination of wobbly RAM pack and thump sensitive keyboard was not a good one. But those were exciting times.

<comment><USER9> My dad gave up on our ZX81 ever arriving and bought an Acorn Atom from an electronics guy at work.

I ended up with a Spectrum, then a BBC, then a Dell 486 and various home- builts an Macs since then.</comment></comment>


FinTech VC – Germany to Overtake UK in 2017? - <AUTHOR> http://www.barkowconsulting.com/right-on-the-heels-of-uk-fintech-vc-in-germany/ <comment><USER2> If you look at this image (which is at the end of this article), it looks like manipulation:

[http://www.barkowconsulting.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/F...](http://www.barkowconsulting.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/FinTech_VC_Germany_vs_UK.png)

In what world is 783 smaller than 581?</comment>


Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths? - <AUTHOR> https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/11/05/who-telling-truth-about-prescription-opioid-deaths-dea-cdc-neither-13569 <comment><USER2> The claim here is that opioids are not as bad as you've been led to believe. I'll let the article speak for itself, but note that ACSH has been frequently criticized for taking a pro-industry stance on issues:

* In 1979, the information director of the FDA said, "Whelan just makes blanket endorsements of food additives. Her organization is a sham, an industry front."

* Ralph Nader claimed: "ACSH is a consumer front organization for its business backers. It has seized the language and style of the existing consumer organizations, but its real purpose, you might say, is to glove the hand that feeds it."

* The Center for Science in the Public Interest stated: "ACSH seems to arrive at conclusions before conducting studies. Through voodoo or alchemy, bodies of scientific knowledge are transmogrified into industry-oriented position statements.

They previously sought funding from Philip Morris. Recent donors include Chevron, Coca-Cola, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Bayer Cropscience, Procter & Gamble, Syngenta, 3M, McDonald's and Altria.

<comment><USER3> Like most drugs, opioids are easy to demonize, at least up until you or someone close to you depends on them.

It's naive to assume that the industry dislikes the focus on the "opioid epidemic". It works to their advantage in a variety of ways, but one of the biggest is the formation and reinforcement of a whole new class of specialized clinicians called "pain management specialists". In Florida for example, a law went into effect this past July that effectively barred any non-pain- management specialists from issuing an opioid Rx that exceeds a 72 hour supply.

Even before this law went into effect, the sentiment it conveyed directly impacted the willingness of ordinary docs and medical facilities to reasonably treat pain in persons without a chronic condition that would be handled by a pain management specialist, like postpartum women. My wife was left with only lightweight OTC pain relievers because the hospital said it was too risky to write anything stronger unless there were clear complications.

The outcome of the campaign against the "opioid epidemic"? There is now a specialized clique of doctors for the pharmaceutical sales reps to focus their attention on, there are more flurries of codes to bill for, and there is a niche for enterprising doctors to exploit desperate people to make _literal millions_ for themselves while setting their own hours, just like psychiatrists. In fact, the industry is trying to reshape pain management to be the spitting image of psychiatry, which, especially over the last 5 years or so, has become astronomically lucrative for the industry all around.

The long and short of it is that restrictive regulation for this type of drug is bad news only for the sick people who depend on their medication to function. It will be much harder and much more expensive to get and keep a steady stream of the drugs that allow them to work and live a semblance of a normal life, all so the incumbent political dynasty has a talking point in the next election cycle.

But, err, yeah, let's write off anyone who sees this as a pro-pharma shill...

<comment><USER4> > But, err, yeah, let's write off anyone who sees this as a pro-pharma > shill...

ACSH does not seem like "anyone" but rather a documented pro-any-paying- industry-shill...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Take this article with a grain of salt - ACSH looks to potentially be something of an industry PR group.

From some sources that may themselves be biased:

"Council on Science and Health is a Corporate Front Group" [https://usrtk.org/hall-of-shame/why-you-cant-trust-the- ameri...](https://usrtk.org/hall-of-shame/why-you-cant-trust-the-american- council-on-science-and-health/)

[https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Council_on_Sc...](https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Council_on_Science_and_Health)

<comment><USER6> As per wiki [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Council_on_Science_an...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Council_on_Science_and_Health)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The whole "opioid" shit fight can be summarised as:

Pharmaceutical companies needed a way to profit from developing alternatives to morphine so they developed a bunch of dangerous bullshit then convinced everyone it was safer than morphine even though it's not.

Morphine is awesome and has as its only long term side effect constipation.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Prescribe morphine, including to heroin addicts who are, after all, simply addicted to morphine which isn't actually that dangerous. The only thing that makes heroin dangerous is the fact that it's not prescribed by a licensed pharmacist.

Think about it: if you're addicted to pain medication maybe you're experiencing some pain. So like, prescribe them the pain medication, then help them deal with the cause of the pain.

Drug policy is so stupid.

<comment><USER8> I think you're massively downplaying addiction. Sometimes it is physical pain at first, but you get hooked on it. Not everyone does heroin because they actually need that level of pain medication. They do it because it feels amazing. They get dependence on it, and then keep doing it. Read the Heroin diaries by Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue if you want a good look into that.

I don't know where you're getting that morphine isn't dangerous. It's highly addictive and deadly if dosed wrong, and you absolutely build tolerance over time which changes your dosing.

<comment><USER7> A substance's addictive ness does not equate to lethality. The reason it's dosed incorrectly is because it is manufactured and sold in an unregulated environment.

That is the cause of its lethality.

Also I'm not referring exclusively to physical pain, but trauma or lack of emotional and social connection.

<comment><USER9> The addictive nature of the substance combined with the body's growing resistance to it leads to users of the substance to use larger doses to achieve the same high, in some cases not exercising any caution about dosage, leading to overdose.

<comment><USER3> This is a reason to continue to prescribe drugs through a licensed medical professional. Most long-term medications can't just be stopped without serious adverse effects.

By and large, drugs will be a large social problem until going to the doctor to get a monitored, controlled dose is the easiest way to get a fix. If we keep pharmacists and doctors in control, they can ween dependent users off in a controlled, gradual environment.

Prohibition keeps drug abuse firing on all cylinders until the addict slams into a brick wall (which, very often, is simply death), instead of giving them the equivalent of a "runaway truck" ramp that will allow them to gradually slow the pace and return to a normal existence.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This article misses several points.

When we ask people with a substance misuse disorder who use opioids what they started on we find, very often, that they started on meds prescribed by a doctor. Those meds may not have been prescribed to them - they may have been prescribed to a neighbour or family member - but they were prescribed.

This is why the massive over-prescription of opioids is a problem. It floods American homes with opioids that people keep "just in case" and that are experimented with by family members or handed out to neighbours to help out.

Opioids may be a good choice for some people with long term pain (I personaly don't think they are), but that would be in a carefully controled setting being closely monitored by a doctor. It's definitely not using opioids that your neighbour has given you for your dodgy back.

The article makes an incoherent point about what is classed as a CPD. Benzos are dangerous (especially in combination with other meds or alcohol) but far fewer people are dying from benzos than from opioids.

<comment><USER11> > Opioids may be a good choice for some people with long term pain (I > personaly don't think they are)

They definately are for _some_ people, because I'm one of them. I've tried _everything_ else, and nothing even touches the pain.

I've tried numerous anticonvulsants (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, topiramate, levetiracetam, gabapentin, pregbalin...), tricyclics (amitriptyline, nortriptyline, dosulepin...), muscle-relaxants (tizanidine, diazepam...), anti-depressants (venlafaxine, reboxetine, duloxetine...), as well as NSAIDs like diclofenac, and assorted things like topical capsaicin and topical gabapentin. A lot of these made me dizzy and uncoordinated, where I couldn't function normally, and some made me extremely nauseous - while not touching the pain. The rest did _nothing_.

I realise I'm probably a statistical outlier, but I resent the idea that I should be left to suffer because my body and genetics don't conform to some p value from a meta-analysis.

Opioids should of course not be the first choice for chronic or neuropathic pain, because statistically other things are more effective and safer (e.g. pregbalin) - but doctors should not be prohibited from prescribing opioids when pain cannot be adequately controlled by other means.

If I had to deal with my chronic pain 24/7 without any pain relief... well, opioids have likely saved my life. I've been taking them for years now, and while I will obviously be physically dependant on them now (that's just how receptors work), I feel absolutely no psychological addiction to them whatsoever.

<comment><USER10> > > > Opioids may be a good choice for some people

> I realise I'm probably a statistical outlier,

Do you think you might be who I'm referring to to here?

The US massively over-prescribes opioids. They could probably reduce prescribing by 75% and it wouldn't affect people like you, other than having to go to a specialist pain clinic. Since you have specialist pain you deserve best quality treatment from specialist.

> Opioids should of course not be the first choice for chronic or neuropathic > pain, because statistically other things are more effective and safer

Isn't this just agreeing with what I said?

<comment><USER11> > Do you think you might be who I'm referring to to here?

That sentence continued with "(I personaly don't think they are)".

> Isn't this just agreeing with what I said?

Well, no, because you explicitly stated that you personally _didn 't_ agree.

I realise that the US has a huge problem with over-prescribing opioids. I think that great care needs to be taken in how that is reduced - there are many instances of a heavy-handed approach being used, and those that have a genuine need have their pain relief removed. The consequences of this can be disastrous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > The American Council on Science and Health is a research and education > organization operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. > Contributions are fully tax-deductible. ACSH does not accept government > grants or contracts, nor do we have an endowment. We raise our funds each > year primarily from individuals and foundations.

Hmm.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, I don't trust this article. The only point it makes that I can agree with is that the opioid crisis isn't resolved yet, which is a very easy conclusion to reach.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a really important article, and a good complement to [https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-science-says-to- do...](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-science-says-to-do-if-your- loved-one-has-an-opioid-addiction/).

<comment><USER10> Your fivethirtyeight article is good. The submitted article is pretty poor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wonder how many death could be prevented by legalizing and regulating opioids and other drugs and educate users on different opioids and safe use.

<comment><USER15> Opioids are not stigmatized enough. They destroy lives plain and simple.

<comment><USER16> I don't think anyone disputes that they destroy lives; what people wonder is what is the most effective way to prevent them from doing that, and what to do with cases where they are already doing that.

One can seriously question whether "stigma" is that most effective way.

<comment><USER15> It worked wonders for smoking cigarettes. Stigmatizing tobacco played a huge part in lowering the number of people using it.

<comment><USER16> Maybe, though the stigma there took the form of legalising it, allowing people to openly come forward and seek help, and levying heavy taxes. I'd say drugs are even more stigmatised (to the point of being largely illegal), which so far hasn't really result in lowering usage numbers.

<comment><USER15> 44% of Americans are prescribed opioids each year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't get it. I read people blaming the drugs. I read people blaming the drug companies. But how are people getting the drugs to overdose or get dependent? Aren't doctors prescribing these and aren't doctors supposed to be monitoring them? Pharmacies too?

Whether that happens or not doesn't matter. My point is that if people are getting hooked on these drugs and overdosing, the fault lies with who gets them the drugs and no one else.

</comment><comment><USER18> The article focuses on which substance killed the drug addict. It would be more honest if it identified the opiate that led to addiction in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER19> Am I missing something. Or did the definition change when Sessions appointed Uttam Dhillon? Why are we not surprised and why is this even open for debate?

</comment><comment><USER20> The parents.</comment>


Larry Ellison reportedly says Uber's business model is 'almost worthless' - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-says-uber-wework-are-almost-worthless-barrons-2019-9 <comment><USER2> "Uber has an app my cat could have written." -Larry Ellison

Then why hasn't Oracle written it and become a competitor? Surely with their 11b in profit per year, Larry's cat could have all the sardines it wants in payment.

I don't use Uber very often but it's usually an enjoyable and helpful and fairly priced experience to go wherever public transport wont take me.

<comment><USER3> Presumably because there's no profit in it. With competition so tight in the rideshare space, Oracle's entry would just be another one that makes no money.

"Enjoyable and helpful and fairly priced", when flipped around to the corporate POV, usually mean "Attention-commanding, demanding, and no money in it for me." This is perhaps why Oracle is as shitty as it is to customers: Larry Ellison purposely seeks out businesses where he can get away with that shit, because it means there are no other alternatives on the market and hence he can charge high prices.

<comment><USER2> I do agree with you, but most of Uber's spend is on tech salaries and (superfluous) marketing.

I suppose the more direct point I'm trying to make is that if Uber is spending $BILLIONS on salaries but Larry's cat can allegedly do the same work, why hasn't Larry created the app?

Presumably he could even license the tech other companies who want to compete with Uber but don't have the time to build out the app from scratch. I'm sure Tesla or Apple or BMW or Porsche would love to diversify revenue streams.</comment></comment></comment>


Helping crowdfunded projects deliver on time and keep their backers happy - <AUTHOR> http://backerkit.tumblr.com/post/38316812703/helping-crowdfunded-projects-deliver-on-time-and-keep

<comment><USER2> The problem this project attempts to fix is based on a whole lot of correct assumptions, IMO. 2013 is going to be the year crowd-funding really takes off and creep up on a lot of consumer facing industries. And so it follows a lot of the creators are going to be surprised themselves about the very real problem of fulfillment. Basically, fulfillment and inexperience is always a bad combo. Looking forward to see how Backer Kit attacks this problem.

</comment><comment><USER3> Logistics are a big problem for crowdfunding, especially first-timers, and Kickstarter isn't keen to step in. Pebble actually developed their own backer- facing website to deal with it. For campaigns without those resources, like our own, this takes care of logistical issues and lets us focus on product. Incredibly valuable.

<comment><USER4> yes! we actually talked with Eric and the Pebble guys about what worked well for them. I sure wish we had it for Diaspora.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very Very good idea for a service. I could see your partnering with fulfillment companies, and integrating with their API ("T-shirts for users 1-2000 are in the mail")

Is there any way to get into this without an active KS? I'd like to poke around, but I don't have a KS running at the moment.

When is the expected launch? What's the pricing? ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Colin, thanks for the kind words! We've definitely talked about those ideas :) Right now, we are only taking signups for our beta, and working with a few select KS projects to get it off the ground before opening it up to more project creators. Launch and pricing details soon—we'll keep you updated ;) Please feel free to email us at email@example.com if you have any further questions and suggestions! Thanks again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Would love to see what some of the current Kickstarter project have to say about the service. Nothing validates project better than excited users :)

</comment><comment><USER7> Works for more than Kickstarter I assume? I'm not in the US, as are many other HN readers.

<comment><USER4> Currently we support only Kickstarter, because thats what we have first hand knowledge of. Happy to add others when we get a customer who needs it from us.

<comment><USER8> Curious to hear what the business model is. I see "start for free" mentioned a lot. What isn't going to be free? Personally, I'd rather know that if I were to use the service.

<comment><USER4> actually it will be a paid service, but it will be free for the duration of the beta. We will make that more clear ASAP.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Developers looking for a startup job? - <AUTHOR>

We're a start-up that are looking for developers that can program in many languages (such as: HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, MySQL, etc)
For more information on the job, and what we're creating, please don't hesitate to email us
We will get more indepth in our emails.
firstname.lastname@example.com
Thanks! <comment><USER2> And for those of you who might be interested, this is effectively a repeat of a post from 18 hours ago, where there is already some discussion and a few more details:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2320545>

Not many, though. Still doesn't say if remote working is possible.

</comment><comment><USER3> You may want to try posting in the jobs section for maximal exposure.</comment>


HackerNews algorithm for new app discovery - <AUTHOR> http://profg.io

<comment><USER2> Why the clickbait title containing "hackernews algorithm" if in reality your goal (by previous submissions like [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8606401](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8606401)) is to build a clone of reddit/producthunt. That's just misleading.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry for this misleading, but we are using the (P-1) / (T+2)^G algorithm from hacker news to rank all apps.</comment></comment>


Why I hate iOS as a developer - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@Pier/why-i-hate-ios-as-a-developer-459c182e8a72 <comment><USER2> You're right but I feel that the App Store has on average better quality apps compared to Google Play. It could be that not many people would go through the trouble to get their app to the App Store unless they're serious about it. Plus there is also the yearly fee which enforces this even more.

I could be wrong but I would think that Apple uses the yearly fee to pay for the people that review the apps before they are published on the app store. Whereas on Google Play it's more an automated process.

<comment><AUTHOR> > the App Store has on average better quality apps compared to Google Play

As a user I find good and bad apps on both platforms. From my personal experience I don't see any benefit in Apple's policies. Quite the contrary. For example you get automatic refunds in the Play Store, no questions asked.

Also, the quality of Android apps has been going up since Lollipop and the introduction of material design. I was an iOS fanboy not so long ago, but now I'm really happy with Android.

As a developer, working for Android is a joy compared to iOS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "You have to pay money for the privilege of being an iOS developer. It's not enough that Apple forces you to compile on an actual overpriced Apple computer or that you have to endure all these problems."

You don't have to pay money to use Xcode or the iOS SDK. This is whining. You are not forced to do anything. You can live a happy life not doing iOS development. One could say that you have to pay money to learn/do programming, period.

<comment><AUTHOR> > You don't have to pay money to use Xcode or the iOS SDK

You are not going very far away by deploying apps on the simulator. You can't even test on a real device without paying the fee.

> You can live a happy life not doing iOS development

As a mobile developer? Not really, at least not where I live.

Users are both on iOS and Android. I'm not so stubborn as to ignore that truth.

<comment><USER2> You can actually test on a real device without paying the fee now.</comment></comment></comment>


Tanky Pod and Quadcopter for FPV Racing - <AUTHOR> http://sdbr.net/post/Tanky-Quad/ <comment><USER2> This is a neat idea, but the tradeoff for the added flexibility is extra weight. In FPV racing, weight is everything.

<comment><USER3> That depends what level of competition you're aiming for. At the highest levels of competition sure, but the vast majority of people are going to be limited by time commitment and thus flying ability. If you're not aiming to be a serious competitor, the weight isn't going to be that much of an issue. Work on reducing weight when your current quad is bottlenecked by weight rather than your skill.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. The weight is very important to me personally, and I spent a lot of time trying to shave as much plastic and CF as possible in the design, while still maintaining rigidity and strength. We are shooting for an all up weight of under 380 grams. My previous design is all up with 1,200 mAh battery is 452 grams with an HD camera attached.

However, I do agree. Skill and durability are really limiting factors nowadays, along with maneuverability. In the California Cup races, a few months back, most races were won by default, by the drone that was simply able to finish the race. Basically, the problem is, any contact with walls, nets, or gates currently knocks the drone out of the race. We are working on a few ideas to address that, to make it a bit more interesting. I'll post some more info once we have our prototype built.

You can find some updates and latest pics on my wife's Instagram at [https://www.instagram.com/yukitostudio/](https://www.instagram.com/yukitostudio/)

<comment><USER2> That's surprisingly light! Well done. I happened to fall into a flying group that is _very_ serious and they obsess about weight. My personal flying skills are not to the same level, but they are competing in (and winning) several competitions nationally. They've gotten down to 260g (everything but battery) with 12:1 thrust to weight ratio. Definitely a racing machine, no bells and whistles.

I like the idea you've got. How sturdy are the arms? We found with trial and error that a straight connection between the motors (think an 'X' and a 'box' overlayed) really improved crash durability.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am guessing you are talking about Bolt XBR? It's a very awesome frame! I was considering adding webs for reinforcement, and may still add them as an optional extra bolted under the main frame in the front and the back. But the durability should be solid, of course I don't want to say much before I test it properly, I have a motto of under-promise and over-deliver :)

What I really wanted to concentrate on in this design is thrust path for the motors. Bolt is pretty good about this, but still not ideal. Many other frames really don't take this into consideration at all. But if you have a prop that develops 1,000g of thrust, but well over 30% or more of the area under the prop is blocked by the body of the quad and the arms, you are not really getting 1,000g of thrust at all. This is also my main objection to tilt rotor designs. I tried to slim down the arms as much as possible while maintaining rigidity, and still being able to place ESCs in the thrust path to keep them cool. Again, I don't want to say much until I build a few final design prototypes and test them though :)

If you would like, could you send me an email through my blog. I would love to talk to you more, perhaps see if guys from your group would want to test a prototype when I have a few done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You should see if Steve Doll from hovership would like to collaborate on this. Pm me and I'll connect you over email.

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice work! What are you modeling in? Any in-flight beta units of with video? Once you're considering a couple of beta units you might consider RTV molding.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am modeling in AutoCAD for Mac, which is quite annoying, because, by comparison to the Windows copy, the Mac copy lacks proper materials facility and a lot of other features. Even basic stuff, such as Copy to Layer. But oh well, such is life. AutoCAD is what I know :)

No beta units yet. My previous source for carbon fiber CNC production is out of that business. We just acquired an X-Carve CNC machine, so I'll be starting on cutting the frames as soon as the holidays are over. I have a previous design which has a similar layout, but this should be lighter, and about 25% more thrust, so it will be very fun.

As for RTV, I have to research that. I really like the toughness and finish of the nylon parts from Shapeways, but the price point for them is insane. It's fine for prototypes, but for production I would love to do injection nylon plastic. I never done anything like that though, so it will be interesting to research and do.

<comment><USER6> Be VERY CAREFUL cutting carbon fiber on a router. You do not want that stuff in your lungs, eyes or electronics.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I am. I am designing a vacuum system for the X-Casrve CNC. CF dust is really bad for electronics and your health, as you mentioned it. My vacuum will have a filter and outlet to the outside.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Alain de Botton's Twitter Account - <AUTHOR> http://twitter.com/alaindebotton <comment><AUTHOR> While not exactly news, his account is filled with a continuos stream of truly interesting philosophical ideas, 140 characters each. Quite the contrast to the typical wordy philosophical discourse.</comment>


Ask HN: Main concerns for a dev while using low-code dev platforms? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I'd be curious what the difference in cost at scale are?</comment>


Samsung's Dex Turns the Galaxy S8 into a PC - <AUTHOR> http://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-dex <comment><AUTHOR> I think it's only a matter of time before phones replace PCs for the majority of users.

The hardware is certainly powerful, with 4GB RAM and a fast processor. I remember using a Windows 3.1 machine with a 25Mhz processor and 8MB RAM. If that can drive a usable GUI, smartphones certainly can.

A phone as PC is one less device to research, buy, configure, maintain and upgrade. It's one less chance to get your data out of sync, or leave it stranded on the wrong device. It's also cheaper than buying a desktop or laptop.

<comment><USER2> Phones will not replace PCs, iPad and tablet does a better job with touchscreen, large screen and offer the ability to draw in free form.

<comment><AUTHOR> Tablets do a better job for some use cases like drawing, where touch helps. But for other use cases like spreadsheets, a keyboard + mouse + a bigger screen than a tablet are better.

It's not right to say that one form factor does a better job for all use cases.</comment></comment></comment>


Does a one-fits-all file format exist or should I offer multiple ebook formats? - e-sushi http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/92/does-any-one-fits-all-file-format-exist-or-should-i-offer-multiple-file-forma?lq=1 <comment><AUTHOR> ePub and PDF covers most. ePub for best display on a lot of readers, PDF for your own nice layout on computers and for printing.

Furthermore, don't put DRM on your eBook. DRM will hurt your customers and won't stop the pirates.</comment>


Google's Grand Plan - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/google_acquisitions_the_search_company_s_startling_transformation_under_ceo_larry_page_.html

<comment><USER2> _Page and his management team have mandated that all Googlers focus on seven business areas [...]: search, advertising, social networking, Android, Chrome, YouTube, and local mobile commerce._

Which of those does Google Docs belong to?</comment>


API-first architecture, or the fat vs. thin server debate - <AUTHOR> http://www.leaseweblabs.com/2013/10/api-first-architecture-fat-vs-thin-server-debate/ <comment><USER2> I remember when this sort of thing used to be called SOA. Before that there was n-tier, before that client-server, before that people used to talk about terminals.

        What has been will be again,
        what has been done will be done again;
        there is nothing new under the sun.

The best place to park different parts of the logic varies according to the algo-economics of the day. Right now people have fast client environments, so the balance is tipping back to heavy clients.

<comment><USER3> SOA (Service-oriented architecture) is a pattern to split an application into discrete pieces of software providing application functionality as services to other applications.

Fat vs Thin is more over a debate about where to place logic. Thin implies controllers are small, and models have a wider responsibility. Fat is the inverse, where controller do the majority of work, and models are a small abstraction.

My point is this: They are not the same thing. SOA helps in designing scalable, robust systems. Fat vs Thin helps you decide where logic should go.

I'm proponent of SO design and thin controllers.

<comment><USER4> Well, unless you design them for high performance from the very beginning, SOA also helps in building slow systems that your customers will hate and that will fail in the marketplace if the people who buy the software actually use it.

(I was at Altassian's San Francisco office a few months ago and I said half- jokingly that I quit my last job because I couldn't stand waiting for Confluence, and all the other off-brand webapps my employer used, to load.)

Now I use Github, which offers true interactive performance even over crappy DSL connections. I'm not going to work for anybody who makes me use some off- brand webapp that makes me wait 30 seconds to put time on a ticket or to edit a Wiki page.

SOA can be part of the solution rather than the problem, but it takes a clear architectural view from day one and a commitment to avoid stupid and obvious mistakes, as the article points out.

<comment><USER5> Not sure why you're blaming SOA there. Atlassian apps are standalone instances so, assuming your former employer self-hosts, it has more to do with your own server and network performance.

In fact GitHub is most likely closer to SOA architecture than Confluence is.

<comment><USER4> They weren't self-hosting.

And whether it is SOA or not, the moral is that many many systems are designed and sold as if performance didn't matter.

I had another job where the team toiled for years to develop an SOA system that, when we first stacked it all up, took 45 minutes to boot up an RIA because it did 50,000 requests to initialize it's state.

Sure, this is stupid design, but people do this all the time.

I was able to speed the boot time to 20 seconds by packing much of the data with the application file and creating one "initialize" call that downloaded all of the data necessary to initialize a particular instance of he app in one shot.

Had performance been built into the app from day one that app might have seen the light of day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One massive advantage of the API first architecture that wasn't mentioned in this article is that it makes proper unit testing much easier because of the clear distinction between the server side API code and the client side JavaScript/Mobile app.

Of course it is possible to test a "fat" server that does view and presentation logic, but it is much easier and more efficient to test a thin server and have a separate suite of tests for the client side app.

<comment><USER7> I've always been curious how people do integration tests on things with multiple servers (like SOA stuff), it seems like it'd be dreadful, unless you use Vagrant to (quite slowly) spawn a new VM every time you want to test.

Anyone with experience care to enlighten me?

<comment><USER8> I've used mocking for this purpose. Not in the same way you would for unit testing, of course. But if you want to integration test the (entire) workings of a consumer of a service, then your test starts with its entry point (whether a form submission, an API request, or whatever). Then if part of your consumer's business logic relies on a call to an external SOA service, you mock that service. In other words you say, "Given this particular form of request that would be sent to the SOA service, respond with this particular service response". Then your consumer will continue on with its business logic, all the way up until it returns its response to your original request, and you can apply your assertions then.

It's not a true end-to-end test, which would require all your services to be up, but it is an integration test since it tests the entire workings of the consumer. The assumption is that other test suites would test each of the services, and maybe a ping test to test the availability of the services themselves.

<comment><USER7> I've never been able to fully grasp mocking and stubbing.

<comment><USER8> The most common objection I've heard to mocking is along the lines of, "If you're mocking, what is the point of the test?" The answer lies in having a clear understanding of what you are testing.

For instance, method A might call another class's method B. If you're writing a unit test for method A, you don't also want to test method B. (Other unit tests would test B in isolation, instead.) So in A's test, you make A call a mock B rather than the real B, and you ensure B returns a particular kind of response. In other words, you want to make sure method A behaves correctly when it gets certain responses from B.

So in english, a test is basically saying, "When B gives this type of response (which I'm forcing it to respond with), make sure A behaves as I expect", and a second test says, "When B gives this _other_ type of response (which I'm forcing it to respond with), make sure A behaves as I expect.

So when you write a unit test for A, you mock B by making it send back a canned response and make A use it. Then you call A with some parameters, and then you make sure that A's return type is as you expect.

One advantage of this is that if a future code enhancement breaks one of the methods deep in the code, then the failing unit test will tell you exactly where the problem is. Without mocking, a failed unit test will make you have to examine several layers of stack trace to find the bug.

<comment><USER9> Also getting the right kind of response out of a back end server may be hard, eg getting certain kinds of error or unusual responses, so mocking is the only way to get them reliably.

They are not a substitute for end to end tests though, as you cannot tell if some other assumption is broken.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> One of the biggest benefits I see to API-first is that it encourages you to document everything well, and that process usually leads to better organization and greater consistency.

As far as fat vs. thin, I worry that this article could be a bit misleading. It's great if you have an API that responds in 20ms as very few people can achieve that. But it doesn't matter much in a world where mobile network latency can easily be 200-500ms. If you're worried about app performance, I'd focus first and foremost on the number of requests you are making and making sure none of them are blocking. The network is the slow part. I know a lot of companies with blazing fast API's and sluggish apps, because they're optimizing the wrong thing.

<comment><USER7> When developing an API, I like to practice "documentation-oriented design." The first thing I do is write documentation of the API, and then I write APIs to fit that documentation (iterating both in parallel once I start writing the API).

I figure that the documentation is the first thing a developer faces when using an API, so it should also be the first thing I write.

<comment><USER11> A related approach is client-driven development (just made it up). Write client code (or controller) in the most thin, elegant, and obvious brain-dead simple way, then build an API (or model) to service it.

<comment><USER7> It's okay, I totally just made up "documentation-driven development" too. And yeah, that's the best way I find. Always build a consumer and then build the supplier, you'll usually end up with a great experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The article makes the implication that MVC is inherently slow. It's not, in fact it can be quite fast if you use the right framework.

I'm assuming they only know that Rails is slow (which it can be, especially for a case where caching can't help much like in an API) and assume that's because of MVC and not because Rails is monolithic and Ruby-based.

Before I used Rails, I used an MVC consisting of Mongoose + Handlebars + Express in Node.js, and I regularly had pages render in under 10ms. The biggest bottleneck was consistently the communication with MongoDB, something I had very little control over.

So to conclude, stop blaming the architecture, start blaming the frameworks.

<comment><USER12> >The biggest bottleneck was consistently the communication with MongoDB, something I had very little control over.

Interesting you say that, because one of Mongo's few redeeming features is that it's supposed to be pretty fast for both reading and writing. Exactly which part was the bottleneck? Was your app more read-heavy or write-heavy?

<comment><USER7> The problem I ran into was that I needed to perform roughly 20 interdependent queries in a short period of time. At most, I could do 5 queries in parallel due to the interdependent nature, but I still ran into trouble with the database being slow.

In the end, I added Redis as a caching layer, which cut time-per-query down a few ms per request, which was significant in this case.

I can only imagine how bad it could've been if I had block for each request instead of using the asynchronicity of node.

<comment><USER12> Right, caching is usually the easiest way to solve problems in those situations.

>I can only imagine how bad it could've been if I had block for each request instead of using the asynchronicity of node.

All modern web servers/frameworks are going to be asynchronous in one way or another, whether they spawn a new thread or process for each request (and for each database query), or whether they use polling and an event loop like Node. Node and HTTP servers like it are only a boon when you expect to have so many concurrent requests that threads/processes will begin to hog too many resources.

So unless your server was really being hammered with queries for hundreds or thousands of concurrent users every second, I imagine using Node was neither a significant advantage or disadvantage. And if it's the database or database driver that can't handle concurrency, then Node would do absolutely nothing to help there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Please note that the thin server should never be too thin. Logic should always happen in the server domain, handle the client as merely a presentation unit.

<comment><USER14> Not all logic. You can do simple input verification on client side. You can do in pace filter and yielding from client side. Bu anything tht requires extracting db and saving o db must go bough server side to ensure security is met.

<comment><USER15> Input verification and pace filtering must be duplicated on the server side as well. You can do this on the client side _as well,_ but only to aid good user interaction, not to actually verify input.

<comment><USER14> hence why i said anything that has to go through db and save to db has to go through server.

<comment><USER16> Which is the point of pearjuice's post about the logic not being _too_ thin. Also _duplicating_ same verification logic on _both_ client and server does not make the _server_ thinner, it only makes the _client_ fatter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This article suggest that MVC implies a fat server, and that using newer patterns with thin servers breaks away from MVC.

Using a thin server with a Javascript heavy app basically means keeping the Model/Controller on the server, then having Views/Controllers on the client.

So in the end, you're still with a MVC pattern, you just spread your Controller over two machines with RPC in between.

<comment><USER11> To me a controller is just another thin client and models provide an (internal) API. What breaks this and leads to fat clunking controllers is ActiveRecord and 'model as table row' mindset (particularly when a model doesn't handle collections).

The missing part here is turning that API into an external one, which requires a layer in any case to cover things like authorisation, caching, queuing, reporting, QoS, orchestration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> In my last three projects we've aimed at an API first approach, and the flexibility of having the same API serve content for web or native mobile apps is the biggest win. We used Play on two of this projects and Jersey for another and the speed is very slow at first since the browser has to load a bunch of JS (AngularJS in this case) but then, the whole user experience is seamless. Our biggest problem with this approach were localization and authentication/session handling. Tackling this problems were hard at first and I've never felt confident about the solutions we did for them, specially for authentication.

</comment><comment><USER19> This is a good description of the difference between available architectures, but more detail is probably required to backup some of the discussion points, beyond the fact that reducing presentation is beneficial for response times. An API server is still required to render JSON responses?

</comment><comment><USER8> A problem in general is that all these terms are highly overloaded.

Models: For some, models are backend structures that are closely related to database entities. For others, models are data structures that are passed around closer to the front, or structures that controllers pass to views. Some also equate models with domains that have behavior as well as state.

Servers/services: These are often used interchangeably when they are really not. For instance, your API call has to go to a web accessible server, which might in turn rely on a separate (SOA) service that is not web accessible.

Client: This can mean the browser or mobile device (client/server), but it can also mean the consumer of a service (client/service). This consumer might also be sending serialized data structures or page responses to a browser or mobile device.

Controller: This can refer to the logic in a mobile device that is making requests and unpacking json requests. Similarly, it can refer to a part of the javascript in a dynamic frontend that is doing the same. Or, it can also refer to the application that is _receiving_ the network request (and in turn invoking business logic in other layers or making service calls to remote/private services) and then responding with json.

So, imagine a browser or mobile device that makes a request to a remote "server" and receives a javascript application. The javascript has its own MVC architecture. Ensuing requests to the remote server will receive json responses. The js app might unpack the json in the js app's controller, and repack it into different models (data structures) that get passed to the js app's views. In turn, the remote "server" could have a controller that receive the initial request and returns a "view" that is the javascript app, but also another controller (more accurately a "resource") that would receive the RESTful requests and respond with json. These controllers/resources could in turn have a bit of business logic to help them make calls - via REST or SOAP - to internal/private "services". These services (on different servers) could have additional business logic to interact with private databases through daos that act on models (which somewhat-but-not-exactly represent the database schema because of ORM).

I guess my point is that past a certain point, "fat" versus "thin" doesn't really capture the essence of the tradeoffs. It's more a series of questions of what is consuming what, what the consumer shouldn't have, what the consumer needs, and what the consumer is going to do with it. The big reason "controllers" (?) are getting "thicker" (?) is because there is a push to make the consumer-facing front-end more interactive and dynamic. I think that what the original article is saying is that if you want that, you should do what you can to return your API data structures (whether json or whatever) in as direct a fashion as possible, rather than manually constructing them through a templating technology and a bunch of views that would normally be used to return html.

But more generally, I'd say that unless you're talking with a team that knows exactly what you're referring to (from previous discussions), it's best to just completely define what you mean by client/service/server/controller/model/etc in each case, because these days, it seems like everyone is using them differently.

</comment><comment><USER20> BUmp</comment>


Using Visualization to Kill a Hoax - <AUTHOR> http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/projects/p2_3_2.html

<comment><USER2> Intersesting (and hackerish) side note on how the story finally broke:

"When Brian Ventura, a financial analyst from Mount Vernon, New York, put the recording of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes credited to Hatto into his computer, the Gracenote database used by the iTunes software identified the disc not as a recording by Hatto but as one by László Simon."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto#Recordings_unmasked>

Other sources claim this was "almost certainly due to someone deliberately planting the information in the Gracenotes database" because "the track timings are too dissimilar for the software to pluck Simon's BIS recording out of the many 12-track CDs it holds" <http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> _We have no basis on which to speculate as to how this situation might have come about. It would, however, be very desirable for those who are in a position to clarify this to do so_

Nicely put.

</comment><comment><USER4> Can someone explain why the visualizations are triangles, if the two axis are meant to represent similarity and time?

<comment><USER5> _The horizontal axis represents musical time, from the beginning to the end of the piece, while the vertical axis shows how far the similarities persist into the higher-level structure of the piece._

If I understand this correctly, this means that the vertical axis goes from "similarity in large-scale structure" at the top to "similarity at the momentary scale" at the bottom, so the triangle is a sensible way to look at it.

<comment> brown9-2 I think it might be easier to look at the triangle from bottom-to-top; the "higher-level structures" build upon/are made up of the lower-level structures.

Or at least that's how this musicology-phile interpreted them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _We have no basis on which to speculate as to how this situation might have come about. It would, however, be very desirable for those who are in a position to clarify this to do so._

The wikipedia page has some details on how this situation came about:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto#Recordings_unmasked>

</comment><comment><USER7> I wonder what the response is of the audiophiles who were claiming that these were original recordings? I know those types don't like to be debunked by 'science'. They seemed fairly adamant about this hoax being true and were somewhat insulting to anyone who thought differently.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the headline, llimllib! <http://twitter.com/llimllib/statuses/7502975524>

</comment><comment><USER8> I wonder if the youtube audio fingerprinting algorithms would have picked this up, had these tracks been uploaded.

</comment><comment><USER9> The link to the side-by-side sound file is redirected to a useless page. Did anyone manage to track it down?

<comment><USER2> This page has side-by-side graphics and a split-channel mp3 <http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax1.html></comment></comment>


A simple CSS based usability tip for search buttons - <AUTHOR> http://www.productivedreams.com/simple-css-based-usability-tip-for-search-buttons/ This is a small tip to improve the usability of search fields. Do you have the habit of hitting the search button multiple times even before it loads the search results? <comment><USER2> this seems a bit strange to me, as I doubt a user is going to click, notice that something has changed, and then release the click, and not click again.

If you are really looking to alleviate issues on the back end, you're best to use javascript to disable or even remove the submit button if you don't want multiple clicks.

The author both insults users 'because they're users!', and then gives those same users the credit that they'll understand his minute UI change and accept it, even when it returns to it's pre-clicked state.</comment>


What I Learned as a Woman at a Men's Rights Conference - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/2949435/what-i-learned-as-a-woman-at-a-mens-rights-conference/ <comment><USER2> I wish that men's rights advocates could see the obvious when it comes to parental rights: this is just another result of the traditional gender roles that feminists have been fighting since the beginning. This just happens to be a case where it disadvantages men instead of women (or, maybe, men as well as women).

The irony is, though, that instead of fighting these traditional gender roles, some men's rights activists seem to embrace the roles and then confuse diminution of those gender roles with the diminution of men. If more of them could embrace the goal of the abolition of traditional gender roles, and stop speaking in stereotyped terms about the need to promote and respect "masculinity" as though it were synonymous with male-ness, I think they would find that feminists (good ones, at least) are their greatest allies.

(This applies only to the "men's-rights" activists who don't say things like "All the cold-hearted jerks who run the world came out of the vaginas of women who married a–holes" and "Doesn't no mean yes?" Clearly some men characterize themselves as "man's-rights activists" because it provides, in their view, a framework for legitimizing their antecedent misogyny.)

<comment><USER3> Family courts "do not just happens" to disadvantage men. There is duluth model and other literature produced mainly by feminists largely responsible for that. On any proposal such as child payments to be accountable or visitation rights enforceability, feminists screams rape.

MRA are making many efforts to cooperate with feminism. Many MRAs are feminists shamed and kicked out for not being radical enough. So far we got only acknowledgement that "men has issues too", that is kind of success.

I will not comment on article itself. I could go on any feminist conference and cherry-pick many statements.

<comment><USER2> Also, what does this mean?

> Many MRAs are feminists shamed and kicked out for not being radical enough.

Is feminism an institution? I was not aware anyone could be "kicked out" of feminism for not being sufficiently radical. I would know, being a not- particularly-radical feminist myself.

At any rate, this is quite dubious. The only MRAs I know of are not even close to being merely "insufficiently radical feminists," except perhaps in the same sense in which Catholics are insufficiently radical atheists.

Note that by "MRAs" I mean people who self-identify as part of the MRA movement. There are, I'm sure, many people out there who are aware of and interested in men's issues who could also qualify as feminists. Such people, such as myself, choose not to be identified with the MRA movement because of all the misogyny that travels with it.

I suppose you might make the argument: "why not refuse to be identified with the feminist movement for the same reason"? There are (at least) two reasons. First, feminism is less associated with a small particular people and institutions than MRA. This may just be because feminism is bigger. But, whatever the cause, I don't feel that identifying myself as a feminists as closely associates me with objectionable activities at the fringes. More to the point, I simply don't think most feminists generally are as virulently anti-man as MRAs are anti-woman. Again, maybe this is attributable to the size of the movement. I know that there are feminists who are virulently anti-man, but I think they make up a small fringe of the overall feminist movement. Ultimately, though, this is just a question of what labels one is or is not comfortable taking on.

<comment><USER3> Yes, feminism is pretty much religion today. You can be "kicked out" for being men or not agreeing with some 'axioms' such as rape culture or patriarchy. One link for demonstration:

[http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&sl=auto&tl=en&u=h...](http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://se.avoiceformen.com/allnews/nathatade- feminister-transexuell-man-till-dods/)

Feminism is not just 'bigger' it is multi-billion dollar industry. MRA is just a few web forums which barely managed to organize single conference.

If you disagree with some radical feminists, perhaps it is time to tell them, instead of bashing on MRAs.

<comment><USER2> Next time I see a "radical feminist" posting on HN I'll be sure to give him or her a piece of my mind.

Also, you'll need to do better than an article from, of all places, avoiceformen.com that merely assumes the existence of a feminist institution that you can be kicked out of and blames it for a man's suicide.

I'm certainly not aware of any such institution and I'm a feminist! Perhaps my membership card has just been lost in the mail? Or _gasp!_ maybe it's because I'm a man and the mother ship is just not giving me the time of day? That explains a lot, actually...

<comment><USER3> There are many feminists institutions, that guy got kicked out from FEMEN Sweden. Others got kicked out from campus groups or web forums. If you want go to MRA forum and just ask.

Perhaps you have no membership card because you never applied anywhere. But some people are more involved.

<comment><USER2> Ah ha. There are, of course, organizations that identify themselves as feminist. And yes, you can get kicked out of them, I suppose. But this is not at all the same thing as getting kicked out of "feminism," as you have been alleging to have been the case.

This is more than a mere semantic distinction since any arbitrary feminist group can have whatever arbitrary rule or prejudices it likes without those views' being imputable to all feminists. I certainly don't accept that FEMEN Sweden speaks for all (or even many) feminists or that being kicked out of FEMEN means you can't be or aren't a feminist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If anyone is interested in a place where issues of particular importance to men are being discussed by a variety of writers (and not just men), I recommend checking out The Good Men Project.[1] I've found a good number of the articles there to be timely and thought-provoking, and the general spirit is one of cooperation rather than the antagonism that seemed to be underlying the conference detailed in the article.

Some of the topics frequently written about include the changing perceptions of masculinity, child rearing, friendships, dating, sex, work, community, race, self-worth and fulfillment. That's painting in very broad strokes, but with such a diverse collection of articles (and a narrower yet similar variance in quality) it's hard to give a more specific description without linking to individual articles, which I will not do since I am at work.

[1][http://goodmenproject.com](http://goodmenproject.com)

</comment><comment><USER5> It seems to me the men were laughing because the woman was objectifying herself in her selfie...

In any case, the woman in this article had her own experience, yet it is only a single person's experience, and as I can see, it is colored by her own pre- conceived notions and judgements. I appreciate that women are willing to listen to the message, but disappointed that she chose to focus on one thing she considered negative to ridicule their points of view and make ad hominem attacks on the speakers.

<comment><USER6> What do you feel is the one thing that the author "considered negative" which was used to ridicule the points of view of the presenters, and what do you feel are ad hominem attacks made by the reporter?</comment></comment>


Xiaomi Mi Mix review–This is what the future of smartphones looks like - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/xiaomi-mi-mix-review-this-is-what-the-future-of-smartphones-looks-like/ <comment><USER2> A very cool concept phone, and everything I've come to expect from Xiaomi.

That being said, the speaker design raises a lot of questions in my mind, foremost: If I turn the volume up, and play a couple hours of music, what are the chances I'll break some components?

<comment><USER3> Fairly low? Why do you think they'd be bad enough to release a self- destructing phone? What in particular about the design concerns you?

<comment><USER2> > At that point, you start to feel the vibrating metal frame through the rest > of the phone.

As for the testing and quality: its a concept phone they aren't selling internationally. They can take some risks.

Considering Apple has finally acknowledged dropping an iPhone can break some of the solder work, I wouldn't be surprised if applying mechanical stress to a frame for long periods of time could be detrimental.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Found it interesting that they have palm rejection at the sides but not at the top. Is it to not interfere with the pull down menu?

</comment><comment><USER3> > Forget about buying it, though—Xiaomi is selling the Mi Mix in China only

Xiaomi don't appear to _market_ in the West, but that doesn't mean you can't buy their stuff from the usual array of websites. Which appear to list this phone.

It also looks like it will work on the popular LTE bands in the UK, and probably much of Europe.

</comment><comment><USER5> > The bezel looks like it's from a scifi movie ...

All modern scifi movies have these completely transparent phones/tablets. If you have light in the back those would be unusable it seems. The Xiaomi phone looks just like the next iteration of making phones bigger screen wise, thinner and bezel-less.</comment>


No retainer? Seriously? (A web agency perspective) - <AUTHOR> http://13.7billionyearslater.net/2010/07/17/no-retainer-seriously/

<comment><USER2> That was a good post. I have some customers who pay me ahead of time most of what they think a job will cost, and others who pay slightly more than my published rates, etc.

In principle, I try to treat all customers the same: first come first serve with a few obvious overrides for extreme need or emergencies.

That said, I know that I give some preferential treatment to customers who do a little extra for me.</comment>


JUnits a feature all programmers should know about - <AUTHOR> http://www.bunker37.com/2011/02/junits/

<comment><USER2> This article is misinformative. It attemps to talk about the xUnit family of unit testing frameworks, not a feature, and not firstly implemented in Java. See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUnit></comment>


Why the switch from foraging to farming?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-foraging-farming.html

<comment><USER2> I suppose this idea has been stated in Jared Diamond's 1997 book "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies"</comment>


Accountability for ObamaCare - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/accountability-for-obamacare-1477435661 <comment><USER2> There will be no political punishment for the Democrats. They will shift the blame to the Republicans and blame it on Bush somehow.

I remember when Obamacare was being proposed and all of us against it were ridiculed for thinking it would fail/go bankrupt.

The real problem is that because failures aren't accepted. We will never be able to create a better system that might actually be affordable.</comment>


A Jordan Bookseller's 24-Hour 'Emergency Room for the Mind' - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/amman-jordan-24-hour-bookstore <comment><USER2> ""There can be no set price for a book," he says. "It depends on the book, the person, and the author—when you put a price on something, you change the relationship between person and book. You say 'this is 10 dinars, this is 20 dinars' and then the person thinks one is better than the other. But how can I know how much somebody needs a particular book in a certain moment? Which book is the best for that person?""

This dude and Amazon agree on something important, it looks like :-p

</comment><comment><USER3> "A favorite book! No! That is extremism!"

That quote tells you everything you need to know about the owner of the bookstore. He's not _merely_ a merchant.

<comment><USER4> He's also an upstanding citizen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was pleasantly surprised that the "relevant stories" area actually shows _real relevant stories_ instead of the insane clickbait you see on every site nowadays.

Besides that, this article makes me long for more reading, so much knowledge about everything is contained in books... wish I could capture just a small portion of that knowledge within myself

<comment><USER6> > I was pleasantly surprised that the "relevant stories" area actually shows > _real relevant stories_ instead of the insane clickbait you see on every > site nowadays.

I didn't see a "Sponsored by (Taboola|Outbrain)" there, or any other credit to an outside site, so I'm guessing that the site is choosing relevant content themselves which is probably why it is actually relevant.

Do Taboola and Outbrain and the like actually try to tailor their links to the content they appear on, or are they just general interest clickbait?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is much like Nina George's novel, The Little Paris Bookshop [1], which is a pleasant and occasionally thought provoking read.

From the publisher's description:

"Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls."

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0286MS](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0286MS)

</comment><comment><USER8> [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-al-maa-bookstore- com...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-al-maa-bookstore-community-- 3#/)

</comment><comment><USER9> The world needs more Hamzehs.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is wonderful.</comment>