Ask HN: What does your failure resume look like? - <AUTHOR> I truly believe that success is a culmination of a lot of failures. Serial Hustlers/Entrepreneurs tend to have done a lot of things before they struck gold. A lot of them believe these failures are what made them what they are today.
While I have not struck Gold yet, here is how my failure resume looks like -
2011 - Conceptualized a T-shirt printing business. Got samples, got first order. Partner bolted before we could service the order
2013 - Built an intersection of Twitter and Rotten tomatoes. Shipped it but couldn't monetise.Had big plans..had to shut down
2017 - Helped a few friends build web version of a quizzing app. Policies got in the way. Lost momentum
2019 - Built a landing page to validate an idea about highlights of favourite topics. Got close to 80 subscribers..mostly friends and family..Never launched.
2020 - Hustle continues....
What does your failure resume look like? <comment><USER2> 1998 - automated troubleshooting program for use by people on the production line for power conversion hardware. Worked, but system abandoned by employer after I quit.

2001 - 'real-time' monitoring and analysis of data coming from the ATE stacks on the factory floor with various trending graphs and other stuff for consumption by quality and manufacturing engineers. It worked well, but politics in the Mexico factory sunk it to create more jobs to do this stuff manually.

2006 - automation of XRF process. The technician blew the power head, so most of this testing was eventually outsourced to a local lab.

2007 - automation of "Type" tests and high-speed data acquisition for single fault conditions and thermals and other stuff. UL was too stupid to understand anything, and would not accept data unless the tests were done manually and data was hand recorded.

2019 - 'universal' environmental recording and control systems for use in test chambers and agricultural. Reliable and accurate, but too expensive and required the customer to understand a bit of physics to implement the zone mixing feature.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is impressive. Automated troubleshooting program in 1998 was cool. Do production lines today have that sort of ability?

<comment><USER2> For that type of stuff, probably a stupid idea because the root cause was poor process control by the factory. Typically modern production lines mitigate troubleshooting and re-work by building it correctly, which was supposedly the original reason for all of the ISO 9k hoopla. And re-working stuff on the factory floor does bad things to long-term product reliability, so my solution to the problem at hand was doubly stupid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> These are the failures. There's a common theme.

2005 — Desktop app for creative writers. Made about $90k in total over its 10 year history

2010 — Secret sharing website. Made $0 revenue.

2011 — Hugely popular forum for poultry breeders in Ireland that ran for a few years. Made about $6k in advertising and sold it in 2015 for a few €k, can't remember how much now.

2012 — Desktop journaling app. Made about $15k over its 5 year lifespan

2012 — Desktop password app. $3k over its short history.

2014 — Editing app for creative writers. Made about $20k over the 4 years.

2015 — Microsoft Word add-in for editing documents. Made about $50k over the past 5 years.

2017 — _Another_ Desktop app for creative writers. See 2005 above. Made about $5k in two years before pulling the commercial version.

Takeaway: If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. Building B2C apps for consumers who don't have money or don't like spending money is a model for continuous failure. It took me a long time to realise this.

Current project is a B2B SaaS app for dev teams. Work in progress.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow. That is impressive.How as the Desktop app for creative writers that you created in 2017 different from the one you created in 2005?

And true, building B2C apps is always a gamble unless you have a product that contributes to user's forward movement.(What i mean by forward movement is that there is no going back to life without that product). Almost all of the B2C products that have made it large satisfy that criteria.

All the best for your B2B app. By the way, your username seemed familiar - just looked it up on Indie Hackers and Bam! there you were. Followed you :)

<comment><USER3> >How as the Desktop app for creative writers that you created in 2017 different from the one you created in 2005?

That's actually a very good question. The follow on question might be "Why did I think it would succeed in 2017 when it didn't succeed in 2005?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is your 2013 Twitter/Rotten Tomatoes still available to look at? Sounds interesting

<comment><AUTHOR> Alas, it isnt. I got the upcoming, in theatres and opening soon movies information from Rotten Tomatoes using their API and then used the movie name to fetch all the tweets that had the movie name in them.</comment></comment>


Is Growth Hacking = Lean Marketing? - <AUTHOR> http://mattangriffel.tumblr.com/post/30934404832/is-growth-hacking-lean-marketing

<comment><USER2> This one goes out to everyone who thinks "growth hacking" is just a bullshit term.</comment>


Some cities that took on a traffic safety challenge are seeing fatalities go up - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/11/vision-zero-data-traffic-deaths-pedestrians-cyclist-safety/601831/ <comment><USER2> At the same time, in Norway:

[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/oslo- traffic...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/oslo-traffic-road- deaths-accidents-norway-a9269441.html)

Road deaths in Oslo (pop. 673.000) in 2019:

Pedestrians: 0 Cyclists: 0 Children: 0

Totally different outcome from "vision zero" - actually 0. Impressive.

<comment><USER3> Having driven throughout Europe and as a non-Scandinavian I have to say that this impressive result has a lot to do with the ways scandinavians behave in traffic. As car-drivers as well as cyclists.

If urban politicians in cities "just short of the border" to Scandinavia like Berlin or Hamburg propose such measures, residents with traffic experience in both places will often chuckle, because car drivers but even more so cyclists are much more aggressive in Germany than in Scandinavia.

It is not uncommon for urban pedestrians in Germany to be more concerned with danger posed to them by cyclists than by cars.

<comment><USER4> I think the cause and effect may be reversed from what you imply here. Having been a cyclist in both Berlin and in Oslo, I was much more aggressive in Berlin, out of necessity. When there is not appropriate infrastructure and traffic does not respect you, it creates a sort of Max Max mentality where you do what you have to do.

<comment><USER5> There's plenty of infrastructure for cyclists in the Netherlands and they're still famously aggressive.

So, no.

<comment><USER6> I haven't heard of aggressive cyclists is the Netherlands. The image that comes to my mind is a slow bicycle with an upright position and a basket at the front. No helmet.

<comment><USER5> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XypDTdd4qr0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XypDTdd4qr0)

<comment><USER6> The video says less than 5% of cyclists actually impeded other road users: [https://youtu.be/XypDTdd4qr0?t=129](https://youtu.be/XypDTdd4qr0?t=129) Doesn't sound so aggressive to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It sounds like this is really more, "What happens when a city says they're going to end traffic deaths, then completely half-asses it."

It was super obvious when these cities committed to Vision Zero on hilariously overoptimistic timelines that they weren't taking it seriously at all. It was just a bullet point to signal that they cared, without having to do actual work or sacrifice any convenience for cars.

<comment> Joe-Z Well, to be fair, it's very very hard to take away any conveniences for cars because of the strong opposition by pro-car people.

Just recently there was a proposition in Germany to enact an absolute speed limit on the Autobahn. The german Autobahn is famous for having no upper speed limit (in reality you only have that in some parts though), so you can imagine how well that went...

It's one of the "drawbacks" of living in a democracy I guess: Revolutionary changes are basically impossible to implement, because the disadvantaged side also has a right to be heard.

<comment><USER8> > The german Autobahn is famous for having no upper speed limit

30% of the Autobahn have a mandatory speed limit for varying reasons, mostly safety (high incidence of accidents for example). On 70% there is an advisory speed limit of 130kph.

This means, it is inadvisable to exceed this speed even under the best of circumstances. Now in practice this has very little meaning. You may speed with impunity.

Until there is an accident. Then if a driver has exceeded the 130kph he will invariably be assigned a higher liability for consequences of the accident since the driver accepted the increased risk for accidents by operating the vehicle at a speed above the advisory speed limit. This is even true, if the other party to the accident is completely at fault. The only exception would be, if it can be shown beyond a doubt that the accident would have happened at the recommended speed of 130kph as well. In practice this is next to impossible.

There have been several attempts to change the advisory speed limit to a mandatory speed limit. Albeit the arguments aren't clearly on the side of the proponents. Regarding accidents, a statistic from the German autobahn ministry in 2018 stated that 71% of all deaths on the autobahn occur in places with no mandatory speed limit. Since 70% of the autobahn have no speed limit, one might wonder, what the expected result of a mandatory speed limit is expected to be.

In addition 33.6% of all kilometers are driven on the autobahn while only 12% of all deaths occur on the autobahn. 60% of all traffic deaths do occur on rural roads which have speed limits throughout.

Regarding climate change argument, the estimated reduction of total CO2 with a mandatory speed limit of 120kph would be 0.2% or even less if the mandatory speed limit were 130kph.

A visit to the neighbors Austria and Switzerland (both have speed limits on the autobahn) would also destroy the expectation, that smaller cars would be bought, if there were a mandatory speed limit on the autobahn.

<comment> Joe-Z I don't really have a stake in the matter, but as your response clearly shows even just mentioning the topic triggers vehement defenses. You clearly have done your research though, so I respect your argument.

What I will say however, whenever I drive on the german Autobahn at some point it happens to me that I'm in the left lane to take someone over and another car comes speeding towards me from seemingly kilometers away at the speed of a damn rocketship. Whatever the hard numbers may be, this causes high amounts of stress and makes me feel very uncomfortable on the road every time. Not a good state to be in while operating high-velocity death machines!

<comment> Joe-Z @FDSGSG: That's why I said "from seemingly kilometers away". Like, I base my decision on if I have enough space to take over by assuming reasonable[0] speed levels and suddenly someone comes along going 250 km/h

[0] I guess reasonable in this case means what I'm used to from driving on other countries' highways

EDIT: Sorry, I changed my response while you were actively responding it seems! You can call me a bad driver all you want. The fact is that the rules should be made to accommodate bad drivers also. Survival of the fittest is not a good rule when it comes to traffic law!

<comment><USER9> Yeah, but you know very well that many people drive 250km/h on the autobahn. If you decide to assume "reasonable speed levels" and try to overtake someone in a corner that's just you being a bad driver.

But sure, maybe the rules should better account for bad drivers.

E: > The fact is that the rules should be made to accommodate bad drivers also. Survival of the fittest is not a good rule when it comes to traffic law!

Of course, but people also need to take personal responsibility for their actions. Statistically the autobahn is quite safe, it's not clear that adding global speed limits would make it much better. It's very difficult to balance this possible minor safety increase with the fact that many (perhaps even most?) people find it vastly more comfortable to drive on the autobahn as is.

There are places where I refuse to drive because I'm not comfortable with the environment, there's no way you'll find me driving in a city like Barcelona or London. Perhaps you should do everyone (especially yourself!) a favour and consider the same in regards to the Autobahn?

<comment> Joe-Z For some reason now I have a reply button again. I want to use it to tell you that I find your suggestion based on the remarks I made here very rude. The driving skill you infer on my part probably says more about your interpretation of my comment than on my actual ability to navigate a vehicle safely. That said, I detest cars and wish cities were free of them. THAT said, I never posted this to take any stance on the "global speed limit on the Autobahn"-topic, so this will be it for me.

Thank you for the discussion!

<comment><USER10> If you as a driver or your vehicle cannot move quickly enough to overtake another car on the autobanh then the fault is with you. That "rocketship" behind you should not have to decelerate because of this. The other poster is right: you are at fault here.

<comment><USER11> No, you are wrong here. §5.2 StVo[0] says (my bad translation) "You may only overtake if your speed is _significantly_ higher than the one being overtaken."

So let's assume the one you're overtaking is going with a solid 100. What's significant? Let's say 150? +50%. The one approaching with 240 is still the perceived rocket ship.

Also, just for completeness, here's a blog post about some case[1] where the speed was being judged, 10km/h is barely enough. So let's be generous and change my example to 100+120.

[0]: [https://www.gesetze-im- internet.de/stvo_2013/__5.html](https://www.gesetze-im- internet.de/stvo_2013/__5.html)

[1]: [https://www.deubner- recht.de/news/verkehrsrecht/details/arti...](https://www.deubner- recht.de/news/verkehrsrecht/details/artikel/mindestgeschwindigkeit-beim- ueberholen-auf-der-autobahn.html)

<comment><USER10> Did you reply to the wrong person? By my reading we are saying the same thing. If a person cannot overtake quickly enough then they are at fault for impeding the "rocketship" traffic behind them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> A big part of why LA has so many pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities is because the mass transit system is awful and the sprawl. A ton of people in LA still just drive drunk because ridesharing and cabs are too expensive. Lots of people can't afford to pay $30 to get home and would rather risk it.

Note that the economically less fortunate districts of LA dominate the drunk driving fatalities by capita: [https://starpointinjurylaw.com/research/deadliest-cities- dru...](https://starpointinjurylaw.com/research/deadliest-cities-drunk- driving-los-angeles/)

<comment><USER13> I've wondered for years why we don't have more tow trucks on the road for this, and bars need to have X amount on retainer per Y seating capacity.

It's not just the cost of the cab / uber, it's not having your car when you wake up, no good way to get it, and not being sure if the lot you left it in is going to have it impounded / booted or something.

Still waiting for the uber/tow combo that guarantees your car arrives before you wake up, and in the exact condition it was in when they went to pick it up.

<comment><USER14> I am not sure we have enough tow trucks for this, and it seems unnecessary if the public transportation is robust enough. Even if you leave your car at the pub, it should be a minimal hassle to use public transportation the next day to get it back - or to simply use it in the first place. I do think we should disallow booting/towing for cars in those situations, so perhaps having a "safe" parking lot to keep one's car would be prudent.

<comment><USER13> The good thing is that the tow trucks wouldn't have to drive them all at 3am.. they could drive some at 3am some at 3:30am... most people don't need them until 7am or later - so you'd have 4 hours or more..

getting people to use public transportation - haha that's a whole 'nother podcast I'd like to do.. it's just not happening.

The booting, and LAZ parking's new "barnacle" \- it's just absurd, as are the prices they charge.

Vars could start fixing the problem with tows - or the double drivers as another pointed out below, is popular in Japan..

or the cops could start pulling licenses for the places that are over serving.. or do the Salt Lake law where bars have to stop serving an hour before close / stay open an hour later than they stop serving..

I mean, something should be done. It's a true safety issue, and people are profiting by looking the other way every day in just about every city as far as I know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Despite its efforts, San Francisco is facing headwinds. By October of this > year, the city had counted 25 crash-induced fatalities, already higher than > last year's total.

The most notable change in SF has been the delayed light cycle after pedestrian crosswalk comes on. There was a spike in deaths after that change and I understood why immediately - drivers were timing the light by watching the crosswalk countdown and/or the cross traffic's light cycle. Your light used to turn green just as the other direction's light turned red. When they suddenly changed all the light I noticed a fair number of cars jolt forward then stop, confused, until their light actually changes 4 seconds later.

I'm not sure how this change results in deaths directly, but it definitely added to road rage out there. When the light does change and a car is turning, the expectations are different now. Pedestrians are in the middle of the street already and are less wary of cars jumping out because before there was a moment when everyone would figure out the situation before moving (ideally). Now people are mid-crosswalk and have no idea when the cars' light is going to change which leaves pedestrians more vulnerable.

Another issue I imagine is cars that are making a legal right turn on a red light. The driver looks to see if they can go and have their head turned the exact opposite direction of the crosswalk and wouldn't be aware of when the crosswalk symbol changes. Meanwhile, pedestrians aren't expecting a car to suddenly turn into them 2 seconds after they step into the crosswalk and it is a recipe for disaster. I don't see how they can fix that now without banning all turns on red.

There is also a particularly ugly intersection at Laguna and Geary where they instituted a delayed green when crossing over Geary. People were getting run over in the crosswalks because there is an extra long crosswalk on both sides and cars were turning from both directions with other cars getting backed up and unable to go around them. Because there isn't room for dedicated turn lanes, they have one side go then the other side go, but people lose their shit when they see the southbound cars coming at them for 15 seconds while their light is still red because all prior experience at other lights indicates they should also have a green light when other cars are going... I have seen multiple cars simply drive through that red light and one time 3 cars in a row just decided to go despite the red. They finally put up a sign that says "delayed green" which seems to be helping, but it is an imperfect solution and another counter-intuitive solution.

<comment><USER16> I don't understand when I visit SF and as a pedestrian when my light is go there still seem to be cars allowed to cross my path. Why don't they stop cars entirely for pedestrians to cross? And why don't the lights in SF allow you to cross diagonally?

<comment><USER17> I'm curious where you live and what the signals are like there, because what you describe is how almost all the traffic signals I see work.

When the light is green on the N-S street, pedestrians have the right of way to cross N and S (on the E and W sides of the intersection). Cars going straight N and S also have the right of way, and cars can turn left or right from the N-S street after they yield to oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

There are a few intersections in Ontario with a dedicated phase for crossing in any direction, including diagonally, but they're rare.

Anyway, I bet the different ways traffic signals work inform people's perception of traffic and streets in different places.

<comment><USER16> > I'm curious where you live and what the signals are like there

In the UK. Where I am if there is a light for a pedestrian to cross that guarantees no car will be trying to cross your path. I feel like you shouldn't show a pedestrian a light if cars are still allowed to cross their path! Seems dangerous and misleading and it scares me every time.

In most cases what happens here is that the whole intersection gets stopped for pedestrians periodically, so you can cross diagonally as well.

Why isn't that popular in North America? Trying to interleave cars and pedestrians and let cars edge towards you menacingly as they try to turn across your path is absolute madness to me.

<comment><USER18> I don't know how common each system is worldwide, but the UK system (no traffic against a "green man") is different to the system in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and California ("green man" but turning traffic must give way to pedestrians).

I do prefer the UK way, but the downside in a car-centric place like most of Britain is there's much less time for pedestrians to cross. You often wait over a minute for the pedestrian light to go green.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I live in a "bike friendly city", competing for the friendliest bike cities. Yet bikes seem like a distant after though. Things like putting "share the road" signs _IN_ the bike lane during the day. Even worse at night they don't move them, but fold them down so they are near invisible (black cloth) even with a light. They re-engineered intersections with big cement islands to protect pedestrians... but force bikes into traffic right at the intersection.

When they want to slow down a bike trail they put a "S" in it, then line it with large boulders... typically where there's no street lights.

</comment><comment><USER20> I live in a city that has lots of external commuter coming into it, and traffic is becoming a problem. And politics are going a bit haywire here... They have been arguing for years about some expensive, 2-station, city train in some inaccessible edge region of the city. And now they even proposed to tax driven distances on our roads, with some GPS tracking device or so in every car.

</comment><comment><USER21> At multiple points the article tries to argue that things are outside the cities control. But this often sounds more like a cheap excuse.

From the text: "Several factors are fueling this disconcerting trend, from low gas prices that make it easier to drive, rollbacks on state-level traffic safety laws, the ongoing prevalence of digital distractions, and the rising popularity of ride-hailing services and heavy-duty SUVs. Such factors are frustratingly beyond the control of local leaders."

Some of those, ok. But well, you can't stop people from buying SUVs, but nobody says you have to give them free or cheap parking spaces in dense cities or make streets wider for them. You can't stop ride-hailing services, but you can police them to follow traffic rules. You can't control gas prices, but you can control parking fees (and police them). You can't change state-level safety-laws, but you can make sure the existing ones are followed.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wonder if people from such region are more likely to become victims when they go outside of their city since they might be less attentive to traffic else where.</comment>


No Sex Jokes Please, French Government Advises Travelers to U.S - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-18/no-sex-jokes-please-french-government-advises-travelers-to-u-s-

<comment><USER2> For the one wondering, here's the page on the Ministry of Foreign Affair: [http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux- voyageurs/cons...](http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux- voyageurs/conseils-par-pays/etats-unis-12311/)

It's in the "Infos Utiles" tab, under "Us et coutumes". Those are simple and pretty straight forward advices on how to behave in a foreign country. Those advices exists for all the world countries, and are very factual.

I'm not sure what is Bloomberg point in fact. "Foreign ministry gives sensible advices to travellers" could be the title of the article.

<comment><USER3> I took the point to be an invitation to consider how others view us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't see anything on that list that's not sensible. It makes sense to brief visitors about behavior that can get them into actual trouble when going to a foreign country. It's not a judgement either way.

</comment><comment><USER5> I dont think the americans should take offense at this. It's just a cultural quirkiness, like tipping or haggling.</comment>


Ask HN: Launch without paid plans or wait until payment is integrated? - <AUTHOR>

I've been working on my startup (SaaS) for 6 months or so. My original plan was to have all the payment and plans integrated and tested before launch, but I've started to lose motivation as people aren't using it.<p>Should I get the app to a state where I can launch without any paid plans (just a single free plan) and just launch? Or should I stick to my guns, and wait until I have the paid plans sorted? <comment><USER2> With Tarsnap, I got the basic functionality working and started inviting people into private beta testing while I wrote the money side of things. Once I had the money side of things written, I told my beta testers that it was time to start paying (I had warned them from the start that at some point the free beta would turn into a paid beta), and about a month after that I opened up the beta to anyone who wanted to sign up.

This worked pretty well for me; I can't say if it will work for anyone else, of course.

</comment><comment><USER3> Jim... I just wrote a post about this very issue: [http://squeejee.com/blog/2009/10/29/charging-from- day-1-geni...](http://squeejee.com/blog/2009/10/29/charging-from-day-1-genius- or-deathknell/)

Are you writing all your own payment code? If so, why? I would recommend using something like Spreedly or Chargify (we use spreedly with TweetSaver). Getting payment integrated using Spreedly went very quickly for us. You should be able to get it up and running within a day or two.

I always vote in favor of launch early and iterate... but with tools like spreedly it's only an extra couple days at most to get payment plans in there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Funnily enough, I was just in the middle of reading your post.

I'm probably going to go down the Spreedly route. While I agree that it probably won't take me long to integrate, I need to make sure everything is solid. Also, I'm currently working a 9-5 job as well as working on my startup, so it might take a while.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd release free accounts now, and put the paid accounts on hold until you've had chance to see how your site runs under normal usage. If you get people using it now, then

* They will uncover bugs that have been missed

* They will show you where usability is poor in your app

* You will build an audience of people that actually use your app, giving you an crowd to sell to

* You'll get the opportunity to see how the app performs under working conditions

If you wait until your app has the paid stuff in, then the first paying customers may have to put up with problems that could have been ironed out during the free-only period.</comment>


Show HN: Ctrl-F Video – Search for spoken words in a YouTube video - <AUTHOR> https://video.loud.red/ <comment><USER2> It works impressively well! What would be the usefull usages you have been thinking? Is browser extension planned? GL

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! I personally created this to quickly jump to specific points in lecture videos, but it can be also be used to find mentions of specific features in a product review, or mentions of a name in a news snippet.

I did not think of a browser extension, but that would be neat! If I find the time to, I'll look into creating a Chrome extension. A button in the toolbar that displays a search input and redirects to the results should be simple to make.</comment></comment>


Iris: Fast back-end web framework for Go - <AUTHOR> http://iris-go.com/ <comment><USER2> Any time I see a chart about web server performance without displaying the corresponding error rate and latency numbers I start to think that the author does not understand the performance aspect of HTTP services entirely.

<comment><USER3> Error rate? I believe when doing http benchmarks it is assumed to be zero.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The performance comes from using [https://github.com/valyala/fasthttp](https://github.com/valyala/fasthttp) instead of the stdlib net/http. From this project's FAQ:

 _> Why creating yet another http package instead of optimizing net/http?

Because net/http API limits many optimization opportunities._

<comment><USER5> And then you got your database and you speed is comparable to the rest of the world :)

What I think could work is a pure in memory database with server combination. Something like redis for websites.

<comment><USER6> I use Redis as the primary and only database. This results in quite large savings in terms of server infrastructure since memory has never been cheaper than it is today and the minimal amount of resources Redis consume in relation to the massive amount of throughput it provides. Additionally, it has data persistence reliability on par with Postgres and other battle-tested databases[0], so couldn't be happier about that.

The selling point of Redis for me has been its simplicity. It has a fairly small set of features in comparison to other databases, yet extremely powerful.

[0] - [http://oldblog.antirez.com/post/redis-persistence- demystifie...](http://oldblog.antirez.com/post/redis-persistence- demystified.html)

<comment><USER7> "it has data persistence reliability on par with Postgres" if we pretend transactions do not exist and postgres is running in some non-default config then maybe, but we don't need to pretend.

<comment><USER8> Redis has transactions as well.

<comment><USER7> yes and if you set appendonly yes appendfsync always you will get about +/\- PG write performance without all the features Now I know 0 production projects using these Redis settings and I would argue it's not intended use of Redis same way as running PG with fsync = off is not generally what you want to use

<comment><USER9> Why isn't it intended use? And are there actual problems with it even if it isn't intended use?

<comment><USER10> It's not intended use because fsyncing every write to disk makes it inferior to every datastore designed to fsync every write. See here PostgreSQL.

For read performance if your dataset fits in memory PG is just as fast as Redis.

The main attraction of Redis is in-memory writes with async persistence. Trading durability and availability for the increased performance. If you give up this then there is precisely 0 reasons to choose Redis over PostgreSQL.

<comment><USER11> > The main attraction of Redis is in-memory writes with async persistence.

FWIW, you can have that in postgres as well, cf. synchronous_commit = off

> Trading durability and availability for the increased performance. If you > give up this then there is precisely 0 reasons to choose Redis over > PostgreSQL.

As a PostgreSQL developer, I'd say that performance / latency / jitter can still be reasons to choose redis over postgres. The per-read overhead in redis is often a good bit lower than in postgres, and there's less variability in response times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The graph on the homepage says echo2-fasthttp processed almost half the requests that iris processed, but in half the time. Wouldn't that make them approximately equal? I _think_ what it's trying to communicate is the number of requests each framework managed in 500ms, but it isn't clear.

<comment><USER13> Wouldn't trust programmers, who make illogical graphs like that one :D

<comment><USER14> I wouldn't trust any web framework that isn't yet on [https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks](https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks)

It might not be perfect, but it's common ground.

<comment><USER15> Cool site. FWIW, fasthttp powers iris, and it's in these benchmarks (and doing very well at that!).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> That graph is really confusing, is the x axis a progression of processing times from 0 up to ~1000ms? If so then wouldn't it mean that Echo-2-fasthttp has nearly as good requests/second?

<comment><USER17> It is confusing. They meant the benchmark used a 500ms "workload" (sleep) per request handler -- x isn't really an axis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Features: [https://kataras.gitbooks.io/iris/content/features.html](https://kataras.gitbooks.io/iris/content/features.html)

(seems to be missing a data/SQL/ORM layer)

Usage docs for rest api: [https://kataras.gitbooks.io/iris/content/render_rest.html#us...](https://kataras.gitbooks.io/iris/content/render_rest.html#usage)

<comment><USER19> Not including an ORM layer does not decrease "value" of this framework, because you can attach such lib on your own. In Go the you are very flexible to set up a "a place where data will be stored/queried" \- there is fabulous database/sql (or additional layers like lib/pq [1]) which is great for many use cases; also orm-like solutions like gocraft/dbr [2]; oh, I also should mention Gorm [3] or Bolt [4]. Setting them up is really easy in any Go web frameworks because (almost) all database modules rely on abstraction from stdlib.

[1] [https://github.com/lib/pq](https://github.com/lib/pq)

[2] [https://github.com/gocraft/dbr](https://github.com/gocraft/dbr)

[3] [https://github.com/jinzhu/gorm](https://github.com/jinzhu/gorm)

[4] [https://github.com/boltdb/bolt](https://github.com/boltdb/bolt)

<comment><USER20> Isn't lib/pq more like a driver that's used through database/sql than an additional layer ?

<comment><USER19> Indeed. Thank you for pointing this out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Could someone clarify: why is Go faster than say Python? And if the answer is just that it's a lower level language and therefore has less overhead, why not just use C?

<comment><USER22> Go has high level constructs like python, C# or Java. However, it compiles down to machine code directly, like C. This is much faster than C# or Java, which compile to an intermediate interface (CLR and java bytecode respectively, which then run in a VM), and miles ahead of Python, which interprets from the source every single time the program is run.

The closest language to go would probably be C++, and the language designers were quoted saying the main driving force behind go was to replace C++ due to it's complexity.

<comment><USER23> > This is much faster than C# or Java, which compile to an intermediate > interface (CLR and java bytecode respectively, which then run in a VM)

No. Both C# and Java use JITs, and their JITs have been carefully tuned to focus on hot spots. By not having a JIT, Go (in the 6g/8g/gccgo implementations) _loses_ some important optimizations that are very helpful for making virtual-heavy languages like Go faster. JITs enable on-stack replacement, bailouts, and self-modifying code, which enable speculative devirtualization and (polymorphic) inline caching, just to name two techniques. These are very important optimizations that generally you can only get reliably in an ahead-of-time setting with profile-guided optimization, which Go 6g/8g don't have (and PGO is kind of a worse version of what good JITs do anyway).

The true benefits of AOT are reduced startup time and a greater tolerance for slower compilation, allowing for more sophisticated compiler optimizations—instruction scheduling, alias analysis, range analysis, etc. But Go 6g/8g are focused on fast compilation and omit most of those optimizations anyway.

<comment><USER24> > By not having a JIT, Go loses some important optimizations that are very > helpful for making virtual-heavy languages like Go faster.

How does Rust work in this regard? By avoiding virtualization, and compiling each function to many specialized variants corresponding to each possible permutation of input and output types?

<comment><USER25> With generics, yes, like C++ templates: each combination of parameters results in one instance.

However, you can opt into using trait objects instead, which do use virtual calls.

<comment><USER24> Is pcwalton saying that a JIT compiler is more adequate for a "virtual-heavy" language like Go (to use devirtualization with inline caching and bailout), and an AOT compiler is more adequate for languages like Rust and C++ that mostly use code specialization?

<comment><USER26> It's not quite as clean-cut as that, though it is self-evident that optimizing at runtime (e.g. JIT) is the only recourse for optimizations that are otherwise reliant on runtime information (e.g. dynamic dispatch/virtual calls). Go does have an advantage over Java in that it prefers static semantics (pcwalton's assertion that Go is "virtual heavy" should likely be taken as relative to Rust/C++), so has less to benefit from devirtualization, and thus less of an argument to go the JIT route (which would take monumental engineering effort).

I believe pcwalton's points are that 1) running in a virtual machine does not imply that a language is slow (though I bet he'd agree with you that JIT introduces substantial memory overhead), and 2) Java, specifically, is not slow, thanks to a highly-tuned JIT.

<comment><USER24> Thanks! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Discussed on reddit before and I found that Iris uses caches to speed up.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/4a8yit/is_this_the_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/4a8yit/is_this_the_fastest_go_web_framework/)

</comment><comment><USER28> There was a discussion about Iris on the github issue tracker of Gin, another framework, dated March 13 2016:

       https://github.com/gin-gonic/gin/issues/560

Some benchmark were made too.

<comment><USER29> Thanks for posting. I was wondering how this compared to Gin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> why (and how) comparing web frameworks to httprouter, it is just a router.

</comment><comment><USER31> That's the wrong type of graph for that data... should clearly be a line graph.

</comment><comment><USER32> nice site to know the other frameworks.

</comment><comment><USER33> "It's gonna work good on all devices."

Don't they mean work well?

<comment><USER34> The project creator is not a native English speaker. Let it go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Not only is this page riddled with typos that lead me to doubt the quality of the code, the concept of a framework is fundamentally complex and at odds with the goals of Go.

<comment><USER36> > Not only is this page riddled with typos

I'd argue that at least the author tried to write a real documentation, which 95% of Go library authors don't do.

> the concept of a framework is fundamentally complex and at odds with the > goals of Go

The famous "You don't need that with Go ™ ".

It's more like Gophers hate the word "framework","dependency injection" and "orm". It's hardly a framework, it's a router and a middleware stack.

Instead of being enthusiastic about others using their language, like in any other community, Gophers like to hate, shame, mock other people because they didn't do things "the Go way", whatever they think it is. It's one of the most toxic community I have ever seen.

<comment><USER35> I didn't mean to hate, shame, or mock anyone. I would rather that programmers who create complex antipatterns stay in other languages that encourage them, and if light critique has that side effect, so be it.

<comment><USER37> I'm sure the author would love your help fixing up the typos:

[https://github.com/iris-contrib/website](https://github.com/iris- contrib/website)

I just submitted a PR to fix a few minor issues. In general, the grammar issues here are really minimal and the page seems to communicate the project and its goals very clearly without being too distracting.

I didn't find any explicit typos, like misspelled words, but I didn't look that hard either, hopefully you can help out!

<comment><USER35> Really, the typo thing was not the main point of my original comment, it was just an aside. I'm sorry to anyone I have offended.

I mainly take issue with the proliferation of Go frameworks, especially HTTP frameworks. Frameworks are an antipattern and there are already a huge number of HTTP frameworks that are all incompatible and reimplement the same functionality. I don't think this is useful for the language and in fact think it hurts it.

<comment><USER37> I'm curious, what makes you think frameworks are an antipattern in Go?

What is fundamentally wrong with creating a framework with specific goals around performance and API?

If Go's stdlib were so comprehensive such that frameworks were not necessary, I would get your point, but it's my understanding Go exists as a simple language on which to build larger programs, not as a "one true way" language with everything included.

<comment><USER35> > it's my understanding Go exists as a simple language on which to build > larger programs, not as a "one true way" language with everything included.

I agree. However, there is a big difference between libraries and frameworks. I believe frameworks are an antipattern in any language, not just Go, but Go's emphasis on simplicity makes frameworks for it especially grating to me.

Rather than poorly summarize, I'll link two of my favorite articles criticizing frameworks; one is humorous [1] and the other is more serious [2].

[1] [http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?joel.3.219431.12](http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?joel.3.219431.12)

[2] [http://tomasp.net/blog/2015/library- frameworks/](http://tomasp.net/blog/2015/library-frameworks/)

<comment><USER37> Thanks for the links. I misunderstood your displeasure with frameworks as an issue with Go, it makes more sense that you (and many others) see frameworks as bad. The arguments against them are pretty compelling, but I can't fault someone for building one :P</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Jaiku Tips the Tuna? - <AUTHOR> http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/jaiku_tips_the_.html <comment><AUTHOR> _'... Leo Laporte jumped ship from Twitter to Jaiku, his 4,000 followers followed. ...'_

Interesting thought. You build a company on relationships and the key influencer's leave and your user base is eroded. So just who is Jaiku?

I ran into Jaiku [0] after listening to Bruce Stirling. Bruce is a science fiction writer, appeared on the first cover of Wired and writes in his blog, _beyond the beyond_ [1]. But I think he's a better orator than writer. Listening to a talk he gave at SWSX on ITConverstions [2], i found out about things like _spimes_ , why the _'disembodied head of Alan Turing'_ would be beaten by google and Thinklinks.

Thinklinks [3] allow you to locate physical things by a unique id on the Internet. The creator of Thinglinks is none other than Ulla-Maaria Mutanen [4], the other half of Jaiku creator, Jyri Engestrom [5].

What I've tried to demonstrate is the connected nature of communities. Any service that tries to harness their power of connections can be just as easily burnt. This episode shows demonstrates to me there is less loyalty to services than the social network you inhabit.

ps: news.yc can't handle unicode.

Reference

[0] Jaiku, Helsinki based , shared presence startup, 'About'

<http://jaiku.com/about>

[1] Wired, Bruce Strirling blog, 'beyond the beyond'

<http://blog.wired.com/sterling/>

[2] ITConversations, 'Bruce Stirling, The Internet of Things, 58m, 26.4 mb, 2006MAR06'

<http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail717.html>

[3] Thinklink, 'locate physical things by computers. My first thinglink a barcode has the thinglink of 499KCH

<http://thinglink.org/thing:499KCH>

[4] Ulla-Maaria Mutanen, 'Hobby Pricesss, craft website. Where craft meets geek'

<http://hobbyprincess.com/>

[6] Jyri Engestrom, 'Co creator of Jaiku'

<http://www.zengestrom.com/></comment>


Boeing Shares Sink on Reports of Dreamliner Fire - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/07/12/boeing-shares-sink-on-reports-of-dreamliner-fire/

<comment><USER2> Arrivals and departures suspended at Heathrow? How isn't this a complete overreaction?

EDIT: And why downvote someone asking a question? I learned something by asking this question.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like a standard operational procedure when there's an emergency. From the BBC article:

A Heathrow spokesman said: "Arrivals and departures were temporarily suspended while airport fire crews attended to this incident."

"This is a standard procedure if fire crews are occupied with an incident."

<comment><USER4> Sounds like the right move. You'd hate for a chain reaction to make things worse. Things could escalate VERY quickly, in a very bad way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The fire is probably not related to the battery as the main battery is located near the cockpit, with another in the middle of the plane. This fire seemed to have occurred near the tail.

PDF showing battery locations:

[http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/arff/ar...](http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/arff/arff787.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm curious whether if the fire is again battery related whether Elon Musk will reiterate his offer to help with the battery technology. Tony Stark (who in the movie version is partly based on Elon) surely would...

<comment><USER7> Why even bother flying? Let's just give everyone suits :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is it related to battery again? How did they fix it the last time? I can hear Elon Musk murmurs, "I told you so."

<comment><USER9> I wonder if you get a referral fee or some ad money from mentioning name in conjunction with lithium. Or does he appear when you say it three times.

Elon musk Elon musk

<comment><USER8> Just to be sure, I went back into my comment history to check. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I mentioned his name or something related to lithium. I have pretty much avoided the Tesla/Elon/Lithium discussion until this point. I don't know where you got that idea about me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A spot check on stock price is the absolute least interesting aspect of this story.

I don't even know why WSJ continues to print these kinds of stories...it's not like it is hard to keep track of Boeing's stock price.

<comment><USER11> Presumably because people read them. It has certainly been upvoted a ton here, so I have to assume there is interest.

<comment><AUTHOR> eh I don't know. I'm the OP, and the price of Boeing's stock (at least spot price) had nothing to do with my reason for submitting it. Fire on the 787 and potential future implications were why I thought it was interesting.</comment></comment></comment>


The ECHELON report - <AUTHOR> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A5-2001-0264+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN

<comment><USER2> Interesting tidbit from the report. TLDR: US companies getting an edge on contracts due to echelon.

S. whereas, during the visit by the delegation from the Temporary Committee to the US, authoritative sources confirmed the US Congress Brown Report, indicating that 5% of intelligence gathered via non-open sources is used as economic intelligence; whereas it was estimated by the same sources that this intelligence surveillance could enable US industry to earn up to US$ 7 billion in contracts,

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a PDF, from 2001.

<comment><USER4> I think what this comment means is that the title should have (2001) and [PDF] in it to provide useful information to the readers.

<comment><USER3> Yes, that was what I meant. Sorry for my English.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Submitter, what do you feel we should take away from this report? This has been pretty well covered in the news, at least here in NL. Is there anything in particular you wish to point out?</comment>


CISPA is back with a new name - <AUTHOR> http://www.cispaisback.org/?t=dXNlcmlkPTUyMjM4MjE3LGVtYWlsaWQ9ODgzNw== <comment><USER2> Just so you know, they're pulling the same kind of shit over here in the UK: "emergency powers" being pushed through with barely a debate by an unelected PM, his lapdog deputy in the Lib Dems, and a weak opposition, with tripartisan support thanks to the party whips. No one even really knows or understands what they're agreeing to, the "temporary" shouldn't fool anyone as it can be extended (and it would be an 'emergency' not to, wouldn't it?) - and the real kicker is that the "emergency" is the EU courts have ruled the UK's existing mass data retention laws contravene our human rights, so the UK Government's response is to… pass _another_ mass data retention law as a matter of urgency, explicitly before ISPs start deleting (unlawfully collected) data.

 _What the fuck._ Sometimes politicians just disgust me. We could use some help over here too - Pirate Party UK, maybe, or the Green Party?

<comment><USER3> Vote for pro-EU parties. Or really any party that isn't UKIP.

This would not have happened if the UK had listened to the ECHR or the ECJ.

<comment><USER4> > Vote for pro-EU parties

This basically pans down to the Greens or the Lib Dems. The former have just _one_ voice, Caroline[0], in the House of Commons. The latter is led by the guy standing alongside the Prime Minister as this "emergency legislation" was announced, and offered his vocal support. In any case, the Lib Dems will also likely be ground in to dust in the coming general election: currently polling at <10%[1], down from about 25-30% prior to the last[2]. So, even if they were successful at moderating Government policy with respect to social liberties, they soon won't matter.

[0] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQYutZb2iGk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQYutZb2iGk)

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2014)

[2] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7511352/poll-t...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7511352/poll- tracker.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is the problem. It's less effort for them to keep bringing it back under different names/guises, than it is for the general public to continue fighting it, continue raising enough attention against it, etc.

People are lazy. You can rile them up to get critical mass for an action every now and then, but you can't sustain it forever.

<comment><USER6> This wouldn't be as big of a problem as it is for both the population who has to stay extremely vigilant (more than they want to) just so they don't pass something quickly and in secret/when no one pays attention (like at holidays), and also the Supreme Court wouldn't be barraged with bad laws from Congress (and these laws don't even reach them for decades sometimes), if US was using a Constitutional Court.

I think having a Constitutional Court that verifies every single bill that passes through Congress and administration, and has final say on whether a bill is going to become law or not, would be a decent solution for an out of control Congress and administration that don't even care if their laws are Constitutional or not anymore.

This is not to "replace" the Supreme Court, or any other Court. this is in _addition_ to them. A Constitutional Court could filter out a lot of the bad bills, before they ever had to reach the Supreme Court for their unconstitutionality. With a Constitutional Court something like the Patriot Act or FAA might've never passed, and we wouldn't have to endure it for 20 years before it even _reaches_ the Supreme Court, to decide its constitutionality.

But what happens if a Constitutional Court allows a "bad bill" to pass anyway, you ask? Well, nothing different than right now. It goes out there, and eventually someone sues over it, and it goes through the same process up to the Supreme Court, if it's that bad. The point of the Constitutional Court wouldn't be to "set a precedent" but to _filter out_ at least 90 percent of bad/unconstitutional bills coming out from Congress. Other than that, everything else will work as normal.

The system is already used in many European countries, and I think it would work well for US, too. Without it a lot of EU countries would probably have a lot worse justice system, since they don't even have the precedent thing, which means that if a lot more bad bills were allowed to go through, they would have a lot more judges split on the decisions, and more unconstitutional laws would be allowed to continue for more years. But the Constitutional Court filters out most of those, so the judges can only be split on a few of the bad ones.

<comment><USER7> Don't you think that would end up like the patent office? Rubber stamps for everyone...

I think a far more effective solution would be to require all laws be version controlled on a publicly available site. Something like github for Congress. No more need to reference Act 737 Paragraph 3 section 2 part H. It's just a diff at that point. It would make it very clear who is proposing changes to what. Combine passage with a code review process so that everyone can see who voted for/against/abstain and why for everything, ever.

The NSA can view the totality of everything we do. Why are we still unable to view the totality of what Congress is up to? 300,000,000 Americans private lives are under total surveillance, while we can't even monitor the supposedly public activity of a measly 600 people.

<comment><USER8> I fully agree with your way of thinking; this is exactly the approach to these matters I expected to find here on HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The UK is also passing "emergency" data retention legislation just before Parliament closes for summer and before the data is deleted. [http://dataretentionandinvestigatorypowersbill.uk](http://dataretentionandinvestigatorypowersbill.uk)

<comment><USER10> I just checked my MP on Twitter. So far _one person_ has tweeted to her about it. It makes me think the levels of apathy are just too high here for anybody to make a difference.

<comment><USER9> Well, I contacted my MP. I'm not holding my breath with this voting record:

* Voted very strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability

* Voted very strongly for increasing the rate of VAT

* Voted very strongly against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices

* Voted very strongly for reducing central government funding of local government

* Voted a mixture of for and against a wholly elected House of Lords

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The infographic mentions that "Corporate lobbyists have spent $605 million to get this legislation passed".

These pages show which corporations are supporting this (links towards the bottom):

[http://maplight.org/us- congress/bill/113-hr-624/1202831/tota...](http://maplight.org/us- congress/bill/113-hr-624/1202831/total-contributions)

[http://maplight.org/us- congress/bill/113-hr-624/1202831/tota...](http://maplight.org/us- congress/bill/113-hr-624/1202831/total-contributions)

</comment><comment><USER12> Hey California, why is Feinstein still in office?

SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, CISPA v2, now CISA.

<comment><USER13> because voting her out would likely require voting in a republican, which doesn't seem overly likely against an incumbent.

<comment><USER12> This makes sense, depressing, apathy-inducing sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The infographic around half way down the page is really well put together.

</comment><comment><USER15> The problem is that for people living outside the US, we already have the right side of the infographic. All our data is vacuumed in and used with impunity and nobody gives a damn whether we want it or not. Most of the discussion so far has been about the circumstances and illegality of spying after US citizens. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is left watching like second or third class human beings who can't have _any_ realistic expectations with regard to having privacy of their data used by US companies (which dominate the market due to several reasons)

</comment><comment><USER16> "Places online where you can expect privacy: Facebook"

I'd rather be spied upon by NSA any day over Facebook. Atleast then I know how my information is being used. But oh right, NSA doesn't have a website where you can show off your socio economic status.

<comment><USER17> Facebook's never imprisoned or tortured anyone that I'm aware of. Maybe that'll be in a future rollout.

<comment><USER18> Yup, just enabled those that do. Good for them. Keeping their hands clean.</comment></comment></comment>


Petition to ban Trump from UK passes 300K, could be debated in Parliament - <AUTHOR> http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politics/uk-donald-trump-ban-petition/ <comment><USER2> "Lets not worry about the banks, the failed surveillance state, government supported terrorism, corruption or sound money supply. Nor should we focus on affordable living, tax evasion by corporations or decreasing unemployment through sound policy. Lets focus our attention on the entertainers!"

Fun times we live in. Speaking of, wonder what the Kardashians are up to..</comment>


Ask HN: To merge or not to merge (small business) - <AUTHOR>

ASK HN:
I'm a fairly successful small business owner working with large media companies helping them with performance and development process work as well as building websites. I have nearshore freelance staff working with me in Eastern Europe for site builds e.t.c. However I am essentially a one man shop.
Lately I've been talking to two other small business (one man and a two man) about us merging so we can "get bigger jobs".
It seems like we fit well but I can't get rid of one nagging feeling that it isn't quite right. I'm not sure whether it is the control freak in me or some form of risk aversion. We tend to procrastinate over the smallest of things like whether to open a bank account with HSBC or Natwest and whether the geographic location of our accountant matters. All of these things I hardly think matter at all. If a company doesn't hire you based on where your accountant is then you probably didn't want to work with them anyway.
The other business owners are known in our shared community. This is how I met them. I even said up front to them that we should work together up front before forming a company on a trial project where we bid as three companies. They weren't too interested in this as they immediately wanted to start building up a business history.
I think the chances of earning higher and more frequently are available and we want to build products as well as sell our services.
A part of me feels like we are just merging not to solve a problem but instead to make our lives easier, which it would, which is a big consideration. The other guys are very professional and I am sure that when working together it would be fine. Am I just worried? One thing I heard again recently was the advice on hiring. "If there is any doubt then it is a no" Does that apply to business partners?
Has anyone done this with good or bad results? Any advice? <comment><USER2> > One thing I heard again recently was the advice on hiring. "If there is any > doubt then it is a no" Does that apply to business partners?

I'd say that applies x10 for business partners. You need an immense amount of trust in the person(s) you go into business with.

<comment><AUTHOR> So am I to take from that sentence that you think I am entering into this wrongly?

<comment><USER3> I'd say you're rushing it. Do you really know these people? Have you worked with them? If not, fix that first.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You don't sound overly confident about it, and simply from that I'd have to lean towards "no".

I'm not sure about the technicalities, but can't you start some sort of partnership/consortium situation where you can bid for (and work on) larger jobs as a singular unit?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I should mention that I've created a fake account for this as my potential cofounders read HN.</comment>


Media: A world of hits - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14959982&subjectID=348963&fsrc=nwl <comment><USER2> That was not my reading of The Long Tail at all. Anderson didn't argue that the zipf distribution was going away; rather, he argued that with collapsing inventory and transactions costs, it is now possible to make money selling a large number of individually-marginal items as well as a few blockbusters.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I guess the writer mixed up Seth Godin's and Anderson's writings and felt prey to a misconception. That's quality journalism for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is excellent, but I have to wonder what happens to blockbusters when broadcast TV and radio suffers the same fate as Time magazine, HBO, big-city newspapers, and other former media giants and thought leaders? The reason why many blockbusters in the music and film industry do so well is because of the marketing power of broadcast media, in which ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few and millions of people watch or listen to their programming -- and make viewing/listening choices based on what they see in ads and in programs like GMA or The Late Show. When those audiences shift to niche channels on the Internet or elsewhere, what will happen to the blockbusters who used to enjoy such a high national profile?

</comment><comment><USER5> _Another way of rescuing less popular stuff is to charge more for it._

We're talking about IP, where conventional understanding of supply-and-demand is turned on its ear because supply is effectively infinite.

But even considering that, isn't this suggestion backwards? If you've got a product that's in high demand, shouldn't that be what you charge more for?

Doing this would allow fixed costs for less-popular products to be amortized more quickly, and I think that would make their ROI less risky.

</comment><comment><USER6> Related: Modern Warfare 2 earns $550 million in five days. [http://kotaku.com/5413847/3-billion-worth-of-call-of-duty- so...](http://kotaku.com/5413847/3-billion-worth-of-call-of-duty- sold?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+kotaku/full+\(Kotaku\))

The blockbuster is very healthy it seems.

<comment><USER7> game publishers write off plenty of AAA flops for every mw2.</comment></comment>


The Spiritual Guide to Mental Health - <AUTHOR> https://thespiritualpsychiatrist.com/spiritual-guide-to-mental-health/ <comment><AUTHOR> I stumbled on this today and thought it was an interesting approach.

</comment><comment><USER2> I've heard of the benefits of mdma therapy</comment>


TextMate finally gets an update - <AUTHOR> http://blog.macromates.com/2010/textmate-1-5-10/ <comment><USER2> It seems to me that the author of TextMate is in a rather interesting position. he has created an editor with a cult like following that he has neither the time, manpower, or interest in updating.

I am sure that version 2 will be completed at some point, but at what cost to his sanity? Imagine for a moment if he just gave up and released the source for free.

Hundreds of itchy fingers across the net dig into the source, enhancing it, expanding it, fixing it, porting it to everything from Linux to the Nintendo DS. The cult of Textmate grows with each new release, finally bringing another contender to the editor wars long raged by vi and emacs.

Since Mr. TextMate dude no longer has a source of income, he decides to write a book about his experiences developing the app and his eventual burnout. It is an instant hit with geeks everywhere. He rakes in tons of money doing speaking engagements.

After a few years, the itch to code returns. Mr. TextMate's new app, TextyMatey - an editor that converts everything you type into pirate speak, becomes the first ever text editor to hit 1 million downloads in the first day. DVD sales of Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy skyrocket, prompting a visit from Johnny Depp. Mr TextMate and Johnny become fast friends and spend the rest of their days as men of leisure on the French Riviera.

<comment><USER3> I want some of what you're drinking ;-)

Seriously though, I think the picture you paint would work out very well for him, but judging from bits and pieces I've read over the years, I suspect the Textmate code base is not particularly well structured and that he might even be a little embarrassed for others to see the code (I'm just guessing based on scraps, but I think most of us have been there).

It's clear he's made a few million euros from Textmate and I've read that he has a few pet projects he enjoys working on (for some reason I think I saw DHH say this). Perhaps he doesn't want that fame or the big bucks. _I_ could certainly survive full time with a few million in capital and a residue of sales each month.. (even if he sells a mere 100 copies a month now, that nets far more than the median European salary).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The previous update was on 2009-11-23. Almost a year ago.

The full changelog for this release ...

[2010-11-12: REVISION 1616]

[CHANGED] Disable interactive input support as this is unfortunately causing too many problems on Snow Leopard. Ticket 75950BCB.

[NEW] Set DisableClipboardPrecomposing to 1 to disable the precomposing introduced in r1589.

[NEW] Included Make bundle among the default bundles.

[FIXED] Solved problem with broken application after software update. Ticket D8B9A720.

[FIXED] Correct the CSS link in the printable version of the manual.

[CHANGED] Change next/previous file tab key equivalents to shift command [ and ]. This has become the de facto standard.

[FIXED] Improve key event deciphering when running on 10.5 or newer. This should fix problems with the Qwerty / Dvorak hybrid.

[FIXED] On Snow Leopard TextMate should no longer lose last used folder for Save As. Ticket FEE58154.

[FIXED] Truncate really long menu item titles. Ticket 8BBEF40A.

[FIXED] Add missing CFBundleIdentifier which was lost in last update. Ticket F970873A.

[CHANGED] Update use of selectRow:byExtendingSelection: to avoid deprecation warning in console.

[FIXED] Don't use undocumented API for save panels. Ticket 45963BCA.

<comment><USER5> Considering the timing and changelog of this release, I'd guess that Allan was in the old code base to prepare it for the Mac App Store and in the process decided to fix a few more issues and make a release out of it. Just a guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The market must be pretty small for Mac native text editors (and they must be difficult to implement on a grand scale). Otherwise some company would have walked into the gaping void that has been the delay to release TextMate 2.0 and released something by now. The door has been wide open for some time but no one is able or willing to step through it.

Oh well, helps explain the Vim goldrush of the past few months.

<comment><USER7> There's TextWrangler (free, <http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/>), Smultron (free, <http://smultron.sourceforge.net/>) and BBEdit ($125, <http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html>). They're all popular.

I'm a Textmate user though. I don't mind that there have been delays in releasing 2.0, because it doesn't make 1.5 any less useful — it does everything I want it to do and it's still supported.

<comment><USER8> Fraise is a continuation of the now abandoned Smultron.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for the tip but browsing through the site I found a post stating that the maintainer is thinking on starting from scratch:

"...I am currently thinking of starting a completely new text editor that will not be a fork anymore, but a proper and independent software..."

[http://www.fraiseapp.com/index.php?page=news&id=12](http://www.fraiseapp.com/index.php?page=news&id=12)

[EDIT] better link

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I had a problem with my license that came to light when Textmate auto-updated. "Your license key has been revoked." Apparently Paypal decided to do a charge- back a few days after I bought it (earlier this year). Anyway, I bought a new key, but Textmate wouldn't let me enter it anywhere. A Macromates employee was on IRC and kindly gave me the solution.

        defaults delete com.macromates.textmate OakRegistrationLicenseKey

<comment><USER9> A Macromates employee? I was under the impression that Allan Odgaard _was_ Macromates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The funny thing is, I actually switched to using a Mac as a full-time development platform specifically for TextMate, and a few months after doing so, I discovered the joys of Vim and haven't looked back.

There was a time where I would have cared about TextMate 2, but it's long gone.

</comment><comment><USER12> In spite of all the cool features, this update suffers from the same issue that drove me away the last time I tried Textmate: single-character undo. I can understand why this would appeal to some users, but most other text editors undo in bigger chunks, something I've come to expect and prefer.

My original feeling about Textmate overall remains about the same. It probably appeals to recent OSX converts--it's a giant step forward from any Windows- based text editor I can think of--but lacks a certain "Mac-ness" long-time OSX users expect.

Thus Textmate risks falling into a no-man's land: users less set in their ways in the Mac world may settle for the relatively clunky IDE text editors; stubborn old-timers will prefer the more familiar feeling BBEdit.

As for the paucity of updates, let's cut Allan some slack. After some 20 years, BBEdit is only at version 9.6 and vim is only at version 7.3. Quality takes time.

<comment><USER13> Interesting: for me this is a feature that I happen to appreciate a lot, not an issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Thanks. I applied it earlier.

One thing that drives me insane: I cannot see path of files in a folder. If there are duplicate file names, I have to modify the file and then open directories where I think it could be and to see if it has that "not yet saved" state.

Is there a quick way to do this I am unaware of? Or is it a feature coming in the future?

Hope you enjoy a nice restful weekend after your hard work getting this one out.

<comment><USER15> Command-click the title bar of any document to reveal the path hierarchy.

<comment><USER16> This works pretty much in every document-based app and Finder, by the way.

<comment><USER17> It's been a part of the Finder since System 7...

I'm an old man trapped in a young man's body.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm really interested in the TextMate hype as I haven't used it myself. But, it's concerning that updates rarely come. Wasn't a 2.0 version suppose to come years ago? It leads me to believe the developer(s) lost interest.

<comment><USER19> I've used it, but I still don't get the hype. It does seem to be a handy, lightweight editor with decent features. But you can get that for free in other editors.

That said, you can't underestimate the power of the attachment that people get to their editors/IDEs of choice. I personally know a few TextMate devotees.

<comment><USER20> My favorite features (that I've only seen implemented half as well in every other editor) is the pop-up Go To File dialog where I can start typing a file's name and it'll find the file in the open project, and the Go To Symbol dialog where I can start typing a function's name and it'll go right there in the current file.

The best part about the Go To File dialog is I can type something like "mess re pht" and it will find "message_report.phtml". The filtering is instant. Whenever I go to a fellow engineer's desk to work with them on something and they're using Zend Studio or vim it's _so painful_ to watch them go through a gigantic project tree to find a file when I can open any file in under a second.

The full project search is fantastic, too. Once it's indexed, a full project search of a 500KLOC project takes only a few seconds.

<comment> X-Istence <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3025>

Very much like command + t in TextMate, and works like a charm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This doesn't seem to be that much of a change. Is there a wish list that people loved to see?

<comment><USER22> My biggest gripe with TM 1.5 is how Find in Project _still_ beachballs on a new 3.33 6-core Westmere RAID 10 setup.

Even after hearing everyone else's problems with FiP, I thought it might have been the slow HD in my last iMac.

It's not. ;)

<comment><USER23> Definitely use the "Ack In Project" bundle instead of "Find in Project". It's like night and day.

<comment><USER24> The Ack in Project bundle has been deprecated by the creator in favor of the AckMate plugin. It has some major improvements over the bundle. Highly recommended.

<https://github.com/protocool/AckMate>

<comment><USER25> Can you say more about this? I've been very happy with Ack in Project, and I'm loath to change such a big part of my working environment without some understanding if what I should expect to gain...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> As a warning, TM removed the opt+tab and opt+shift+tab keyboard shortcuts in this point release (they're now cmd+[ and cmd+]). I was able to get one of them working via keyboard preferences, but the other was inserting literal tab characters. After a few minutes of trying to hunt that down I downgraded. Nothing in the release notes was something I'd personally had a problem with.

<comment><USER27> This was in the release notes.

<comment><USER26> Tab changing shortcuts were in the release notes, the indenting change was not. You can see in the release notes that were pasted elsewhere in this thread.

<comment><USER28> Cmd+[ has been used for indenting for a while now, though... At least that's the only way I've ever done it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Might be a good place to mention another Mac OS X editor. <http://macrabbit.com/espresso/>

Disclaimer: I also wrote a clojure highlight/indent extension for it. <https://github.com/meric/clojure>

<comment><USER30> The espresso cup illustration is delicious! Looking forward to giving this a try. Mostly Python web development, so don't know how helpful some of these features are.

<comment><USER29> There's an extension for that. :) You can write new extensions with python or objective-c, too. Although if you just want to define syntax highlighting you only need to use XML.

Here are a list of extensions made by third parties: <http://fileability.net/coffee/index.php>

P.S I use expresso for python web development, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm a scientific software developer based in Copenhagen working for a Danish startup. If Allan reads this - I wouldn't mind helping out in my spare time on TM2. Seriously.

</comment><comment><USER32> FWIW, I have been extremely happy with the following combo:

<http://emacsformacosx.com/>

and

<https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit>

Along with a few other minor tweaks to remove some minor irritations.

I bought Textmate last year when I got a Mac after years of linux, but it just can't compete with the ease of switching between buffers that emacs offers.

</comment><comment><USER33> Textmate clone ( Windows & Linux )

<http://www.e-texteditor.com/>

<comment><USER25> I've tried it twice now, and hated it both times. I was very excited about the prospect of a still-actively developed "Textmate" that would run on my other development machines. (I've got four active development machines, and only one of them is a Mac.)

In practice, though, it just felt wrong to me. It doesn't look as nice; I couldn't easily figure out keyboard / menu shortcuts for a number of my bread- and-butter Textmate activities; and I was unable to figure out how to manually install bundles.

Perhaps I just haven't given it enough time, but it always feels like it would be easier to just share my source directories so I can edit them from the Mac using Textmate...

</comment></comment><comment> X-Istence TextMate is my favourite editor on the Mac, only recently have I been using MacVim on my work computer since as a startup they are unable to purchase a license for TextMate.

Honestly though, there are some things in MacVim I am now starting to miss in TextMate.

<comment><USER34> A company that can pay a developer salary but won't pay the cost of that developer's favorite text editor has its priorities out of whack.

<comment><USER35> Especially when said editor costs only $55. That's nothing compared to the cost of a lot of other commercial editors.

<comment><USER19> There are also editors that do far more, for free. That's not to belittle TextMate users. I'm just saying that when it comes time to making decisions about spending money, it may be difficult to convince some managers to want to fork over the cash for something like this.

<comment><USER36> There's a lot of value in how easy TM makes snippets and all that. Yes a lot of free editors do more but it _often_ requires more effort too. TM is well worth the money for that reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Does Textmate do anything that BBEdit doesn't? There are threads like this all over the place talking about a "vacuum" in the Mac editor market. Meanwhile the daddy of them all has just had another big update.

</comment><comment><USER38> TextMate lost me to Vim. I'm never going back, even though it's only been two weeks.

</comment><comment><USER27> This surprised and delighted me:

[NEW] Included Make bundle among the default bundles.

</comment><comment><USER39> Woohoo! Save as starting at '/' is finally fixed!

</comment><comment><USER40> Almost a year since the last!

<comment><USER22> It must suck so much to go back and work on old code after years of working on new code (TM v2).

<comment><USER41> Good one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> also in the news: vim does not need an update

<comment><USER43> It seems to have new bugfix releases every two years or so.

<comment><USER44> Bugfixes are released often (as patches). Minor releases have new features added (in addition to the patches on the previous version).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> TextMate is the BBEdit of OS X.

<comment><USER41> Try to open your project whose files sit on a remote directory with Textmate and tell me if this joke is still funny.

<comment><USER45> My point was that both seemed awesome at first, but then just stopped improving. And yeah, I still think the joke is funny.

<comment><USER41> But BBEdit is an extremely complete tool.

Bares Bones isn't known for aggressive feature releases for any of their products, either.

In what ways do you feel BBEdit didn't mature?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is An Alien Message Embedded In Our Genetic Code? - <AUTHOR> http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/could-an-alien-message-be-embedded-in-our-genetic-code-130401.htm

<comment><USER2> The Star Trek TNG episode, "The Chase" presented an eerily similar concept. <http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Chase>

"Picard tries to finish his old archaeology teacher's monumental last mission: solving a puzzle that leads Humans, Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians to the secret of life in this galaxy, revealing the origin of humanoid life."

<comment><USER3> Well, frankly, looking at actual genetic code, one can't help but find it rather ... organised. You know, being produced by a randomized search algorithm and all, one doesn't really expect so many features.

Everybody knows about telomeres, the "death clock". But there's more. Every gene has a preamble, most of which is not understood. Some of it is known to encode parameters along the lines of "if you detect substance X, copy this gene", with hundreds of variations and parameters in there (like the concentration to be detected for example). It is also known that it is possible to have AND and OR relations in these preambles, and one preamble can refer to another, by name (not by position in genes). This is followed by a small set of instructions meant for the ribosome (the easiest of which is along the lines of "stop after X number of basepair-triples are processed, do not continue to the end of the gene"), then the start codon "ATG" (for all plants and animals, bacteria and organella use others), and then the gene itself, the thing that contains actual instructions to build proteins, followed by a stop codon, of which many variations exist. Then there is a post-amble of the gene also meant for the ribosome (instructions like "export this resulting protein to the outside of the cell", as opposed to releasing it inside the cell, and this contains a wait timer, and a death timer).

So what our DNA does is send programs to ribosomes that are generally along the following lines :

      1) n = 0; stop_after_codons = $X; modifiers = $Y
      2) transcribe (taking modifiers and stop_after_codons into account) until you hit the stop codon
      3) while $TIMER, hold on and do nothing
      4) if $EXPORT request a cell membrane to envelop the protein and make it leave the cell (and a hundred more of these modifiers)
      5) n+=1; if n < $X goto 1 (by releasing the RNA chain. it'll quickly get picked up again by this ribosome or another and restart the program), else destroy the RNA chain by making it's central half-helix collapse

Note that this is the very lowest level of structure that is inside the DNA. There is very distinct highlevel organisation as well, we just don't understand it at all. This is also not the lowest level of structure inside an eukaryot cell, as the ribisomes/mitochondria/... also have internal DNA and are executing complex programs themselves, and our DNA is just one of the parameters they work with.

This is, frankly, not at all how I'd expect the result of a genetic algorithm to look like (referring to the AI concept of genetic algorithm). Genetic algorithm outputs/programs can be generally summarized as working as follows :

      1) poewuiqfawer;awe;rj;l // Non-sense, but usually a NOP that jumps to position 2
      2) take the data xor with some weird value
      3) jump to random location in the gene on some condition
      4) jump to random location in the gene on some condition
      5) result = value and 2309823141
      6) op8uqwerawe;jkasdfaser // Non-sense
      7) jump to random location in the gene on some condition
      8) q[3452345g23421dad // Non-sense
      9) jump to random location in the gene on some condition
      10) take position 3+8*n-5 in the data, add 5, and xor the value at the resulting location with 290138472134

Let's call it "horror-basic". Spaghetti code doesn't quite cover just how much spaghetti there is here. You'd think there'd be a lot of difference between programs that implement different functions, but when you don't understand what the hell it's doing all programs look alike. While I have seen once or twice things that looked like a basic structure in the result of a genetic algorithm, it's extremely rare, and certainly nothing as pervasive as you see in the human genome.

Programs like this example then somehow manage to calculate uncalculatable functions, or find something in an image, or they produce instructions that you can send to robot legs that make them go forward.

This could, of course, be a difference in complexity. Nobody's ever run a genetic algorithm for more than a few months, and the genetic algorithm we think operates life has been operating for ~4 billion years. Still, our DNA, frankly, looks like a medium-size (certainly no more than 10k-50k lines of code _) program that has been compiled from a much higher level programming language. I'm not saying it's not written by a genetic algorithm, and genetic algorithms are famous for taking bloody long to do even the most basic things, but ... I'd like to see this genetic algorithm's implementation, because it's a lot more complex than just duplicate, mutate, evaluate fitness. And it's output is remarkably better than anything I've ever come up with. It looks very LISPy in the sense that the DNA's basic operating principle is to rewrite a highlevel program into a slightly lower level program, and then rewrite the lower level program, and then rewrite it again into a protein (and then let physics "rewrite" those proteins into things like human beings).

_ not including all the organelle programs it depends on

<comment><USER2> Now that is an HN worthy post! :D

My feeling is that this is indeed a genetic algorithm, however it's prone to mutation (I.E. polymorphism which diverge further to form different species) via duplication errors and/or cosmic ray triggered changes.

This gives the algorithm branching and versioning properties in which multiple versions run in parallel thread execution where certain threads die out through natural selection while others continue as more threads are spawned via the above polymorphism.

Naturally, this process is quite messy and you end up with a multitude of different functions that aren't immediately obvious in function. This may also lead to a lot of inactive functions that don't return or are never called (I.E. "Junk DNA").

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> see the date: APR 1, 2013 11:27 AM ET // BY RAY VILLARD

</comment><comment><USER5> Discovery have really let themselves go.

<comment><USER6> All of these supposed science/history/nature related channels have been resorting to carnival style attractions to raise ratings. Ghost hunting, Bigfoot hunting, ancient aliens, pawning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> No.

<comment><USER8> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_law_of_headlines>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yes.

It gives our individual price in Bitcoin.

</comment><comment><USER10> What is this shit... I don't even...</comment>


Something is Amiss with Light in the Universe - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/07/something-is-amiss-with-light-in-the-universe-photons-may-be-coming-from-some-exotic-unknown-source-1.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Dark Light? ;)</comment>


How to be an "Employer of Choice" - <AUTHOR> http://www.keepingthepeople.com/_articles/employers_of_choice.pdf There's more articles on that site, mostly distilling the same information that was collected and covered in Branham's book "The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave" <comment><USER2> PDF!!!</comment>


Tesla Model S Rated 'Acceptable' in IIHS Crash Test, Tesla Lashes Back - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedrive.com/news/12203/tesla-model-s-rated-acceptable-in-iihs-crash-test-tesla-lashes-back <comment><USER2> Full statement from Tesla given to cnbc[0]

> Tesla's Model S received the highest rating in IIHS's crash testing in every > category except for one, the small overlap front crash test, where it > received the second highest rating available. While IIHS and dozens of other > private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that > suit their own subjective purposes, the most objective and accurate > independent testing of vehicle safety is currently done by the U.S. > government, which found Model S and Model X to be the two cars with the > lowest probability of injury of any cars that it has ever tested, making > them the safest cars in history.

[0] [http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/insurance-institute-for- highw...](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/insurance-institute-for-highway- safety-tests-tesla-model-s.html) (Autoplay video)

<comment><USER3> "the most objective and accurate independent testing of vehicle safety is currently done by the U.S. government"

I think EuroNCAP would object to that statement, given the list of their members:

[https://www.euroncap.com/en/about-euro-ncap/members-and- test...](https://www.euroncap.com/en/about-euro-ncap/members-and-test- facilities/list-of-euro-ncap-members-and-test-facilities/)

NCAP results for 2015 test of Tesla Model-S, 82% overall. Pedestrian safety let it down badly:

[https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/tesla/model-s/7897](https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/tesla/model-s/7897)

Compares interestingly to 2013 test of Maserati Ghibli, similar shape to Model S:

[https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/maserati/ghibli/8874](https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/maserati/ghibli/8874)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Tesla might well be in the wrong, but the article is frankly written in a biased way.

> Rather than going back to the drawing board to improve the Model S's design

What is Tesla is right, and the test is inadequate? Ultimately the only thing that matters is for the car to be safe on the road, and passing IYI-designed tests may or may not approximate that well enough.

> Tesla then continued on saying the most accurate crash test is done by the

Why not quote the full Tesla statement? We're left thinking that Tesla has reasons for disagreeing with this test, but the reasons are conveniently omitted. The whole article literally only quotes seven words written by Tesla themselves.

>Tesla quickly responded saying IIHS has "motivation that suits their own subjective purposes." [...] Still, IIHS wasn't bashing Tesla in the least as they rated the Model S as "Good" in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint & seats test.

This last sentence is blatantly dishonest. A test result being good has no bearing on whether the test is fair.

I feel like this bias could only be conscious and deliberate, with the author hoping that people won't be critical/skeptical enough readers for it to work. This is disgraceful "journalism".

<comment><USER5> There isn't even a single source link in the entire article (except to the IIHS page for the safety rating)

Further, they talk about how Tesla bragged about the Model X's IIHS rating, but the Model X has never undergone an IIHS crash test. Totally agree, pitiful journalism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sometimes I see Tesla and it seems like 10% engineering and 90% BS and Elon Musk reality distortion aura a la Steve Jobs.

<comment> aaron-lebo Isn't part of Musk's genius his ability as a bullshit artist? He is a brilliant engineer and visionary, but take away his showmanship and he's just another balding engineer. Doesn't mean his showmanship isn't impressive. Just like Jobs.

<comment><USER7> That's not really fair to Musk. The man has created a string of extraordinary companies. He has done objectively impressive things on a scale and with a frequency that is objectively highly unusual. He is a showman, and to some extent a bullshit artist. But to say he's "just another balding engineer", or even to say he's "just like Jobs" is to unfairly discredit him, imo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> >Tesla quickly responded saying IIHS has "motivation that suits their own subjective purposes."

>It's also worth noting, the Tesla Model X did very well in the same crash test—and Tesla was quick to brag about that vehicle's IIHS safety rating.

Now, which is it then?

<comment><USER5> It doesn't appear like the Model X has gone through an IIHS test. I can't find any references to one and the link in the article actually goes to the Model S IIHS page...

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Video of the test in question.

[https://youtu.be/fMcuiFmIQTo](https://youtu.be/fMcuiFmIQTo)

Edit: If you go to the IIHS website and click on the pictures for the small overlap crash, it explains their reasoning for the rating.

[http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/tesla/model-s-4-d...](http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/tesla/model-s-4-door- hatchback)

Double edit: Or I guess you can just go to the actual report for the test from the left side bar...

<comment><USER10> > the left front wheel shattered during the crash, and the brake rotor and > caliper assembly split the hinge pillar and penetrated the occupant > compartment. Upper interior intrusion measured 2 cm at the hinge pillar and > 9-12 cm at the instrument panel.

> a high head acceleration occurred when the dummy's head hit the steering > wheel through the airbag, indicating that head injuries would be possible

>the dummy's head contacted the frontal airbag but started to move off the left side because the seat belt allowed excessive forward excursion of the head and torso

Seems fair to give second best rating. Also note the IIHS uses stricter tests for vehicles manufactures since January 2017

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> >Rather than going back to the drawing board to improve the Model S's design, Tesla quickly responded saying IIHS has "motivation that suits their own subjective purposes."

<comment><USER9> I mean it's true. The purpose of IIHS's tests aren't to prop up the egos of car manufacturers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The small overlap is a relatively recent introduction to the testing regime, about five years old.

If you think of cars reflecting test-driven development; they all were tested and rated on head-on collisions, but people noticed that you often, perhaps most often, don't hit head on, but try to evade or simply drift into oncoming traffic. So cars were designed to test well on what turns out to be the less common case! And people who buy cars by safety ratings were also unwittingly optimizing for the wrong case.

And the test has been a shock: my car, a mini, was rated very highly in front collision safety, but the first time it received the small overlap test it performed very poorly. (Luckily my wife's Mercedes did much better). When the test was first run in 2012, I believe no cars did particularly well.

The current results reflect redesign to reflect this new test (it's not like it emerged from a vacuum -- car companies knew it was coming and were involved in designing the test). I would have thought Tesla would also have taken this test into account as the Model S was introduced in 2012. And even reading the article I thought so too until I read the statement on Tesla's web site. It reads to me that they they didn't take the test into account. I hope that is just poor wording on their part.

</comment><comment><USER12> I guess the better question is, don't they have the data, results, and guidelines to look at? This might seem like a silly question, but how does the IIHS make it's results?

</comment><comment><USER13> Model S is an old car. They need to design a new one.</comment>


HyperJuice: World's Smallest 100W GAN USB-C Charger - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypershop/hyperjuice-worlds-first-and-smallest-100w-gan-charger <comment><USER2> The scale seems inconsistent between renderings. In one photo it's a 1/4th of an iPad, in another it's 1/2.</comment>


Why Write Book Reviews? - <AUTHOR> https://www.micahlerner.com/2020/06/13/thoughts-on-reviewing-books.html <comment><USER2> Really enjoyed your previous posts, looking forward to your book reviews!</comment>


Dallas jury convicts ex-police officer who fatally shot neighbor - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/1fe3aa086d2a41e79f342f46868841df <comment><USER2> APnews.com seems to be a pretty trustworthy news source to me, and I didn't have any problems with pop ups, etc....

YMMV.

</comment><comment><USER3> Dont follow this link; its a dodgy web site that tried to harass me with popups and downloads and phoney virus warnings.</comment>


Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy - <AUTHOR> http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html

<comment><USER2> I nearly stopped reading after not meeting any of their stupid 'criteria' but glad I didn't. There does seem a general disenchantment with the future prospects of Gen Y (in the Western world) and this seems to have put into words the fuzzy ideas I was having myself.

It's essentially the Rags-to-Riches in 3 generations philosophy[0].

It's unfair to blame parents alone for raising this level of expectation however. Media has a very big part to play in this too. Zuckerberg, Rappers, Sports stars and Movie stars earn massively disproportionate amounts of money compared to their equivalent baby-boomer influences. This has been fuelled further by constant media exposure of these rich young people living the high life. You could argue these guys have talent and have worked hard to achieve there success.

But then we have TV Talent shows that promote the idea of average working- Joe/Jane making it big overnight just because people realise how amazing he/she is. This is completely different to the American Dream of old, whereby people achieve incredible wealth and success through hard-work. In this warped reality, other people recognise how 'special' people are and reward them with incredible life-styles, no hard work involved. The fact that this literally plays out on seemingly normal people on a daily basis further re-enforces the idea that everyone can make it big, they just need the right opportunity to come and find them.

[0] [http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Sayings/Quizzes/Mixed_2/R...](http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Sayings/Quizzes/Mixed_2/Rags_to_rags_in_three_generations_585.htm)</comment>