Perennial Crops - <AUTHOR> https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/ <comment><USER2> From the Vision page ([https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision](https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision)):

 _Minnesota has 27 million acres of farmland, occupying nearly half the 55.6 million acres in the state. Two highly productive and profitable crops, corn (8.7 million acres planted in Minnesota in 2012) and soybean (7.1 million acres) are the foundation of our agriculture, along with other important production systems such as animal agriculture, small grains, horticultural crops and others. The proposed initiative aims to build on these strengths by adding to the productivity and profitability of our current agriculture._

 _Most of our current crops are 'summer-annuals' that are grown during the summer. By selectively adding winter-annual and perennial crops to our agricultural landscapes to create new crop production systems, we can enhance the prosperity of Minnesota agriculture, support rural communities, and provide major benefits to all Minnesotans. A strong base of evidence indicates that these new production systems will enhance yields of our summer-annual crops, enable production of new commodities, enhance our soils and wildlife, and improve our water resources. All of these benefits are possible because perennial and winter-annual crops are active during a large portion of each year, including many periods in fall, winter and spring when summer crops are absent._

 _For this reason, perennial and winter-annual crops—working in tandem with summer annuals—can capture solar energy, water and nutrients with very high efficiency._

</comment><comment><USER3> This is exciting to see on the front page. If anyone's looking for more in depth reading on the subject, I highly recommend Mark Shepard's book, "Restoration Agriculture". In it he gives a good overview of farming with perennials, and why it can be beneficial for the planet.

<comment><USER4> I agree - we will need to adopt permaculture on a wider scale in the future to survive climate change. I will definitely check out the book you have mentioned.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am currently doing free osu intro to permaculture course and perennials are much preferred over annuals in permaculture as there's less soil erosion and less overhead and less work!

<comment><USER6> What's "free osu intro" ?

<comment><USER7> Oregon State University "Intro to Permaculture"

[https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/](https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> (non native English) How does that work when you learn a new word and then you see it everywhere in the following future time?

I scanned a color yesterday, it said, perennial color (I just wanted to determine if it was green or yellow). Googling it did not make it much clearer but I now know it has to do with plant colors :)

<comment><USER2> _plant colors_

That's unfortunately not correct. A "perennial" plant grows back every year and does not need to be planted again. An "annual" plant needs to be planted every year.

The word "perennial" comes from the Latin "per annum", meaning "through the year", in the sense that the plant does not die part-way through. The word "annual" also comes from the Latin "annum", in this case meaning that it needs to be re-planted "annually", i.e. "yearly".

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective)

As a native speaker, whenever I encounter a word I don't know, I find it helpful to look up its etymology, which helps me remember what it means: [https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial)

<comment><USER8> thanks, been very informative. I'm still a bit puzzled how perennial relates to a color, the app literally stated 'perennial color'

in the end, I settled on green :)

<comment><USER2> Can you give more context? It could be metaphorical.

<comment><USER8> it's a pair of jeans of my daughter, her mother said, have her wear the yellow pants... I spend hour searching and I found a pair of lime green pants :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Isn't Silphium extinct or are they referring to another fennel-like species? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium)

<comment><USER10> [http://forevergreen-umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf](http://forevergreen- umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf)

 _> Silphium integrifolium—rosinweed—is in the early stages of domestication to become a part of diverse, sustainable, and productive cropping systems that will protect Minnesota soil and water resources by providing continual cover of the landscape. Silphium is a relative of annual sunflower and is a native forb in the tallgrass prairie region of the U.S._

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> A similar initiative is The Land institute [https://landinstitute.org/](https://landinstitute.org/) They actually just got one of the crops they've been working with into a cereal.

It's seems like crops that better perversive the balance of our planet will have a huge impact on the longevity of our tenure here on earth

</comment><comment><USER12> Classic book on tree crops for permaculture: Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture [https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture- Frie...](https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture- Friends/dp/1523641231)

</comment><comment><USER13> Is there any genetic modification that can be performed on a plant to make it a perennial?

<comment><USER14> theres a two pager where they're hybridizing sunflowers with artichokes to that effect, but they've so far steered away from the targeted genetic modification</comment></comment>


Doesn't matter, I hate it - <AUTHOR> http://www.drawar.com/articles/doesnt-matter-i-hate-it/115/

<comment><USER2> _You have an idea and there is nothing stopping you from putting idea to screen and pushing it out to the world. Problem is, the idea is always better than the implementation. Doesn't matter what it is, sooner or later I am going to hate it._

I think all developers can say the same...</comment>


Laravel - a nice PHP web framework (sinatra-like) - <AUTHOR> http://laravel.com/

<comment><USER2> I've been an early adopter of Laravel and a contributor. Laravel really is a pleasure to work with and makes PHP programming feel a lot better.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm the author. Thanks for the mention!</comment>


Overfocus on tech skills could exclude the best candidates for jobs - <AUTHOR> http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/07/overfocus-on-tech-skills-could-exclude-the-best-candidates-for-jobs.html <comment><USER2> There is steady, day-by-day interest here on Hacker News in what the best hiring procedures might be for technology companies. Some of us are in a position to be hiring workers, and many of us have been in the position of applying for jobs. The fundamental error in hiring procedures the author of the submitted article identifies is putting biographical data about the job applicant, which is just one thing to look at in a hiring procedure,

[http://www.siop.org/workplace/employment%20testing/testtypes...](http://www.siop.org/workplace/employment%20testing/testtypes.aspx)

in too crucial a role in hiring procedures. Don't screen out people on the basis of biography until you know what they can do for you. A job applicant's biography may possibly tell you what the applicant did for other employers, but it is a demonstrably low-validity way to find an applicant who can and will do a lot for you. The best hiring procedure is to give your applicants a work-sample test.

Because I posted the latest revision of my detailed FAQ for Hacker News on company hiring procedures

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4270768>

just yesterday, I won't repeat all those keystrokes here. If you would like to know more, read the FAQ and follow the links to the references included in the FAQ.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4270768>

But the bottom line is that most companies in most countries use stupid hiring procedures, because their managers are too lazy to do even elementary research on the HUGE prior literature on what hiring procedures are most effective (and most legal in countries that have laws about hiring procedures). In the United States, if you are looking for the "best candidates for jobs" that the submitted article here talks about, you had better be using a work-sample test as part of your hiring procedure.

<comment><USER3> Is there any literature on portfolio-based hiring? That's basically how people are hired into most research positions: hiring managers evaluate the research you've done, and invite you to interview based on it.

Interviews still are important, but they're usually not about assessing the technical ability of the candidate - that's already been established from their prior work. Rather, it's more: do I want to work with this person?

The github-is-my-resume meme is rather similar to this approach, I believe. I don't believe that one's github account _is_ a resume, but it is a portfolio.

Anecdotally, I can say that IBM Research does well by hiring former interns. (I did two internships as a grad student before being hired.) That's exactly a work-sample scenario, and I know that it's often the easiest hiring decision for managers: they already have worked with the candidate, and have observed what they can do.

<comment><USER4> > Is there any literature on portfolio-based hiring?

From the world of higher learning, the emphasis on portfolios is well-known. The interesting thing to emphasize is that the focus is on long-term development - e.g. have you become a _better_ researcher or teacher over time.

Remember, we don't want someone with 7 years of experience if those 7 years were spent doing the same thing, not getting better/learning more skills.

I think this is something that checklist-based interviewing fails to uncover. Behavioral-based interviewing (e.g. STAR) does better but it forces the candidate to know that this evidence of programming maturity over time is what is being probed for (if it is). Whiteboard-based interviewing is probably the best but it requires dedicated interviewing by engineers and there are flaws to it (emphasis on reducing false positives v. false negatives)

> "In the section where I describe the various courses I have taught, I > include several sentences that detail how both my successes and my failures > in one course led to improvements in subsequent semesters. I refer to this > development in my statement of teaching philosophy as well, but in the > teaching portfolio I can point directly to the evidence of those > improvements in sample syllabi." [1]

> "In some ways, it's like a two-year-long take-home exam," says A. Mitchell > Fraas, a graduate student in Duke's history department. When the system was > introduced, in 2005, he and his peers could opt to complete either a > portfolio or the traditional exams. Mr. Fraas chose the portfolio, he says, > because it offered a measure of control and a permanent record of his > progress.

"I liked the sense of being able to see in a tangible format everything I was doing working up to exams," he says, "rather than blurting stuff out in a four-hour oral and never seeing it again, or scribbling something down on a 24-hour exam."

Felicity M. Turner, a fifth-year graduate student in the department, says the portfolio gave her an opportunity to revise her papers and think through an issue until she was happy with the result. In the portfolio model, she says, "the responsibility is on you to formulate your own argument, so the process of creation is yours." [2]

[1] [http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/developing-an- effective-...](http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/developing-an-effective- teaching-portfolio/32297)

[2] <http://chronicle.com/article/Portfolios-Are-Replacing/9141/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My sense is that many of the complaints about a "skills shortage" are in fact thinly veiled boasts about the selectivity and eliteness of the complainant and his organization. It's my observation that most of the actual hiring still happens through informal networks and social contacts rather than through the official, formal hiring process.

<comment><USER6> While a "skills shortage" complaint is an obvious status seeking behavior, it does not take away that there is an actual and severe skills shortage for many position.

There are normal software developer jobs where it is nearly impossible to find anyone qualified even when one has no significant price sensitivity. We know such people exist because we have some on staff but expanding the pool has proven to be difficult.

For some segments of the market, the skills shortage is legit.

<comment><USER7> > _There are normal software developer jobs where it is nearly impossible to > find anyone qualified even when one has no significant price sensitivity._

Well, if you're looking for someone with a year's experience at a start up with decent JS/jQuery skills, some experience on iOS and ruby and hobby stuff on the side...

Have a look at my profile. I'm a pretty bright guy with a track record of learning stuff that most people struggle with, but so far have had an unsuccessful job search in SF for 2 months due to pretty much everybody wanting an expert.

Edit: If you're looking only for those who already possess "expert", "ninja" or "rockstar" skills, then please don't email me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I came close to rejecting an interview with a company after a recruiter pushed back my resume, and I'll tell you why:

What I saw was either a noticeable discrepancy in adequately communicating to the recruiter (who for full disclosure, has the title: "Technical Recruiter" in their email signature) what they wanted out of a candidate for the role, the hiring manager not having any actual understanding of what the role entails, the recruiter greatly misunderstanding the intentions and requirements from the hiring manager -OR- a devastating combination of all three.

I say this, because the recruiter rejected my resume twice for a role that I am highly interested in based on the notion that I did not adequately explain my experience with text files and Microsoft Excel. Now, if you're a technical recruiter, hiring for a data analyst position and you make a point of looking at a resume that lists database administration experience, modeling, forecasting and technical analysis of clearing house data and fail to forward a resume for a job that would entail all three because I didn't say in clear terms "I used Notepad.exe and excel.exe" something is very, critically and fundamentally wrong with your recruiting process.

That would be like asking a nuclear trained submarine electrician with 14 years experiance, 6 in the service field, with things like programming multigenerator plc control systems, can you show me more experience on wiring?

<comment><USER9> Maybe the recruiter was looking for somebody who used a specific tool rather than someone who knows the fundamentals and could use any tool. In the early 00's, I was turned down from a web job after they found out in the interview that I developed web sites using notepad, vim, and text files instead of Dreamweaver. The same thing might have happened to you.

<comment><USER8> If it turns out to be the case, I'll still go to the interview but never work with that recruiter again. We've reached a point in tech now where processes are (nearly) tool agnostic; and to focus on that given the context of the resume (which the role based on my experience in the role with other companies), this is especially true. I don't need to rely on notepad to manipulate CSV data, I can easily use Excel, Sublime or any other tool that can open a comma separated file.

So I'm going to softly reject the notion that this recruiter was looking for someone who uses a specific tool. With the experience you mentioned, I can absolutely see why they'd want a certain toolset because perhaps their internal development lifecycle relies on features not present elsewhere.

If that's the case with a recruiter, it's entirely their job and responsibility to their candidates to find this out and outline it in a job post to explain this without inundating interested prospects with tool-speak. This could have easily been accomplished, but it wasn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> My observations as someone who's checked job boards/sites continually for almost 20 years:

Through the mid-nineties, when I graduated college, the requirements were reasonable. A solid understanding of software development fundamentals and reasonable experience for the advertised position. Focus was on ability and potential.

A few years later, as the .com boom was underway, requirements dropped to unreasonable levels. I saw people with embarrassing "qualifications" who were far better compensated than me. If you could grope a computer without getting slapped, you were hired to build web sites and paid top dollar.

A few years later, after the bubble burst, the pendulum swung in the other direction, hard. The market was flooded with applicants, and requirements at best matched the resume of the person who left. At worst, we got "10 years of Java" in 2001. Focus was on experience in very specific (and usually broad ranging) skills.

I have seen very little recovery from this point. It became the new norm. I do think it's getting better, but not a lot better, and only recently.

People are hiring employees like they would consultants or contractors. For short term hires, I want very relevant experience because paying premium, short term rates to someone learning on the job is very expensive. But if I'm hiring an employee, I just want someone who can learn quickly and with whom I can happily work for the next 5 years.

</comment><comment><USER7> I agree with the article. As I written before, the job hunting market in SF has been maddening:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4216622>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4155172>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4253909>

Never before in my life has it taken more than 3 weeks to find a job, certain bloggers keep claiming the job market is "on fire" and yet I've been at it for two months, already having reached out to about 30 companies and done at least half that many informal meetings.

The really strange thing about it is that my skills are undeniably stronger than when I got hired at my first tech job in Beijing 18 months ago, and that search was much easier. Similarly, I've met a few interns over the past month with clearly less productive ability than I have who have been hired with great packages. The other thing I've noticed is that the hiring demand is very bimodal.

On one hand, hiring managers I've talked with at various small-medium sized companies have had extremely high expectations and been quick to reject me for not having specific skill X or for not having N number of years' experience with Y. Worst is that in many cases, this doesn't happen until they or their recruiters have actively pursued me over half a dozen phone calls and a trip to their office.

On the other hand, there are clients with lots of money to spend on making sites or customizing iPhone apps. In this market, I've suddenly found myself to be at the highly-skilled end of spectrum. Not only is there the potential for great earnings, but it's still not bad in terms of learning opportunities. It's leading me to seriously consider abandoning the job search entirely. I can just freelance, keep going to meetups to hang out and learn with the inside crowd and start saving money to bootstrap my own thing. It wasn't my original plan, but the long-term result will be the same.

<comment><USER11> Hi xiaoma, I'm the product and tech lead at a place in LA. Email me with more info if you're still looking for a front-end gig.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I totally agree with the article. Perhaps if you're a startup moving very quickly, you might need someone with a specific skill set; otherwise, you're probably excluding better candidates by focusing on skills.

I've performed a fair number of technical interviews over the past few years -- usually looking for some combination of Java & database skills -- and I've developed a couple of informal heuristics, imperfect, but with some predictive power.

1\. The ability to code seems inversely proportional to the number of acronyms on the resume.

2\. Listing certain skills is a negative indicator: XML, for example, or Eclipse.

3\. Certifications are often (though not always) a bad sign.

<comment><USER13>
         Perhaps if you're a startup moving very quickly,
         you might need someone with a specific skill set

My experience is the opposite of this claim ... when working for a startup you cannot afford the privilege of being specialized, but rather a jack of all trade that can easily switch between technologies and problem domains like putting on socks in the morning.

        I've developed a couple of informal heuristics,
        imperfect, but with some predictive power.

Your rules will give you a lot of false negatives, because the current hiring practices are completely broken, so naturally many people also know how to game the system (devs are a smart bunch in general)...

1\. I also added lots of acronyms on my resumes in the past, because resumes are first read by HR people that look for keywords

2\. I never listed XML or Eclipse, but I am listing Emacs :) ... regardless, this is in no way worse than listing those same requirements in a job posting, which many do

3\. Certifications are cheap to get and in the corporate world certifications matter. I never got one, but that's only because I work with startups or with companies that know these certifications are useless

<comment><USER12> I agree with you, and for the record, I was only approaching this as one developer (out of several) doing an interview. It's just that, after several iterations of, 1. "Hey Mike, can you interview this guy tomorrow" 2. Looks at resume, sees dozens of acronyms, languages, platforms 3. "Ok, can you write a function to reverse a string?" and getting something like 4:

    		for (int i = s.length() - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    			String newString = new String();
    			char x = s.charAt(i);
    			newString = newString + x;
    		}

Well.... you get pretty jaded.

<comment><USER14> Out of curiosity - is there something particularly wrong with that code, or is it just nauseating reading the same thing over and over?

<comment><USER12> 1.) newString gets re-created every iteration of the loop, so it always contains a single character, and at the end of the loop it contains the first character of the string. 2.) Strings are immutable (in Java), so "newString = newString + x" creates a new object on every iteration. Better to use a StringBuffer and swap the ith and N - i - 1th characters of the string.

<comment><USER15> Isn't there some common library that contains a reverse() String method? That's why I like Ruby, for stuff like "string".reverse in the standard library. I can just use the language and know that the people writing the language are better language() method implementors than I am, which is fine. Not sure how well that flies in interviews at KPMG, but whatever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This article resonates strongly with me as a candidate who works as a generalist Software Engineer at a small company and has been looking out for opportunities.

At this point I am frustrated enough to put up a big 'Fuck you recruiters!' on the top of my resume.

I mean there are tons of software positions that I apply to that I know I can easily handle but just get turned down because of lack of 5x years of experience with Tech Stack Zaphod v4.2.

/rant

<comment><USER17> Want a better job? Put more info in your Hacker News profile. Email address, Github link, personal website, LinkedIn...so when you write these posts, people can contact you if they're interested.

<comment><USER16> Thanks for that. I'll update my profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > I know many companies that are hiring, and all of them are saying they can't > find the people they want.

Here's why (real job posting, name and location withheld):

        Responsibilities:
        Analyze, design, and develop scalable, reliable Java EE applications, using several Java technologies: Servlets, JSPs, EJB, JMS, and JDBC
        Lead the solution architectural design and/or analysis tasks
        Design and develop the Java programs required to achieve the desired functionality
        Prepare technical documentation
        Work with the SQA team to ensure high-quality products

        Qualifications
        Must have:
        Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent
        7 years + of experience in large-scale application design and development
        Experience in Data security Domain
        Sound knowledge in Cryptography

        Nice to Have:
        Proven expertise in OO design and development using Java EE
        Good experience in Servlets, Hibernate, Spring etc.
        Experience developing in JUnit and Ant
        Experience with Java technologies and frameworks: JMS, JDBC, JAXB, JAXP, JAX WS, etc.
        Expertise in Web development, XML Web standards, and Web Services
        Experience developing Web Portals (using AJAX, Ext.js++) is an asset.
        Proficiency in English (oral and written)

I bet you $8 that the job posting above could be done by someone with 1/4 of the necessary "years" of experience.

Most places seem to find some <insert tech job> and just blindly copypasta all of the acronyms they can find into a big wall of useless information.

If you want to hire someone then put as much effort into the job posting as you would expect from the candidate applying, don't just put a wall of text up and expect to get a "rockstar" (good god, I hate that term so much). Have the team where the person will be working in write the job posting.

<comment><USER19> I seriously doubt hiring managers are actually "blindly copypastaing acronyms" unless they are hiring for a role for which they have previously written similar/identical a job ad.

A much, much more likely scenario -- and this I have observed first-hand many times -- is that BigCorp used to have Bob on staff, until Bob realised he was worth more and left; subsequently, the hiring managers assess what exactly it was Bob was hired to do (Cobol) and what he actually did (something like the above) and decided to include the former _and a carbon copy match of every niche, technology, domain and specialist skillset_ Bob had.

Why?

Because they want another Bob, of course! It's unlikely such a person exist and, more likely, the ones who do charge out the yazoo for their skills.

<comment><USER20> > Why? > > Because they want another Bob, of course!

This happened to me at my previous job. My manager asked me to write the skills section for the advertisement of my replacement.

It ended up being a mish-mash of the old job ad, some of my skills, and some new ones like "BI" and "text files"!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The claim that every applicant should get to "make their case" to a human may sound nice in theory, but it would be a monumental waste of time.

It's easy to get a stack of 500 resumes, and many of those resumes are from people who legitimately lack the skills to be productive. A company committed to talking with every applicant would never get anything else done.

<comment><USER22> I don't think that he was trying to suggest that every single applicant should get an interview. Right now there are people who are being excluded from consideration for missing one small item from the checklist of requirements. I'm not a programmer, but I've run into the same issue as a telecommunications specialist.

As an example, I applied to a position that was looking for someone with at least 1-2 years of experience working with military Satellite Communications systems. I have almost a decade of recent SATCOM experience but when I spoke with their recruiter, they wanted someone who had specifically worked with their system and would not budge on this issue. For anyone who has worked in the telecommunications industry, pretty much all of the long-haul systems are made up of the same basic components (modems, crypto, frequency converters, high-powered amplifiers, etc.) and you can train someone who is familiar with one system to use another in just a few days. Six months later, this position was still being advertised and the employer still wasn't budging.

Now many people might say that this is a company I shouldn't want to work for anyways, but generally when someone is looking for a job it is because they don't have one.

<comment><USER21> I was probably overstating the author's position when I mentioned interviewing every single applicant. But, I think I'm correctly interpreting him as interviewing a lot of people who don't meet some predefined "requirement" list.

The strict requirements filter doesn't work great... You may be the perfect example of where it's missing a great potential employee.

But the problem remains: if you receive 500 resumes, and you don't have time to interview even 100 of them... how do you whittle down the pool?

<comment><USER23> The problem isn't whittling down the pool, it is finding signals in noise.

<comment><USER24> Sounded like spam filtering, when I thought about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Like J-Live, kicking it again, only with a slight twist.

This is probably still the most relevant write-up: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4270768>

</comment><comment><USER26> If you want somebody to talk to your computers you employ somebody who can do that. If you need somebody who can deal with customers, then you employ somebody to do that. You can find a happy medium for many roles. But for a lot your better of seperating them. This is why you have sales people and marketing people and HR and line managers. Your tech people dealing with your computers need to be able to do that, anything else upto and including personal hygiene is a bonus. Computer room cooling units aint just to cool the computers down, for many there air showers.

The real question should be, are companies asking the right types of tech questions in there interview process. The tech skill should be relevant to what you have experienced and asking question about how they would deal with a situation you recently had and seeing how there mind responds knowing how you eventualy solved it will give you an insight. It also tells you, if we had this chap then would we of solved that problem quicker and if it's yes then that person nomatter what is sombody of value to your company, thats the easiest way in an interview on how to measure there tech skills. You can ask more detailed questions during the thought process as you already have the answears as you experienced it. Remember there is a probabtion period as well so you have a safty net nomatter what and remember that works both ways. So don't overpromise either, be honest and open. Works both ways. Somebody who knows there limitations is also important. Some people have no limitations, but they can take a while, as long as they know that again that can be fine. You as the manager should also have somebody who you can communicate with, even if you have to interpret geek to managment, anything else is a bonus if they can do the job in a way that add's value, everybody is happy.

</comment><comment><USER27> I agree with the article and with, "I look for an applicant that fits the culture, who is bright, and who is excited and wants to learn." Recruiters can't automatically filter on culture, so that is out. Recruiters aren't always that experienced (no offense), as they've probably gotten recruited into the recruiting company as new blood or just started doing it because they thought they'd be good at it. So having them judge things like culture, how bright the employee is, and how much they want to learn (and not just faking it), would be tough.

And without a recruiter, you are going to be missing out on a lot of candidates. I personally have gone through this recently and know small companies that either tried to do this themselves or with a minor (not heavy hitting) recruiter, and finding people that way is SO SLOW.

So basically, this advice is good for interviews once you can get people in, but you won't be able to change the fact that the process to getting people in will stay the same.

</comment><comment><USER28> There are some other common reasons, apparently so far not mentioned in this thread, for job ads with a list of detailed qualifications nearly impossible to satisfy:

First, the ad might be only to satisfy some legal or bureaucratic purpose and not to help fill a real job. Having the requirements be nearly impossible to satisfy helps reduce the number of responses as desired.

Second, the ad might have been designed to give the employer plenty of excuses to reject people for whatever unstated reasons they have in mind. So, maybe they don't want to hire anyone in set A they have in mind so ask for five years of HTML5 experience and use lack of that experience to reject anyone in set A.

Likely real hiring in organizations good to work for don't use such absurd ads.

Such ads bring up a fundamental problem: The worker that happens to have so much experience that they can respond to a nearly impossible to satisfy list of 'skills' likely has many more related skills and, really, is quite highly experienced. So, such a worker is likely more experienced than the people hiring. So if the less experienced people hiring have actually done well enough in business to be able to pay a new employee, then the more experienced worker should be able to do still better starting their own business!

Or maybe the worker should do anything to get an interview with the company, see what they are doing, and then start a company to compete with them!

There is a related point: Such a worker will have to have at home his own computing, laptop, desktop, servers, and good Internet connection. So, really, he must already have nearly everything but a good 'business idea' for bringing up his own Web site and, thus, starting his own business. And in doing this work, he gets to use the tools he already knows or ones he would like to learn instead of the tools someone else wants him to learn and use.

Likely good companies are not hiring via such ads but are hiring via Linkedin, job fairs, networking, open source code samples, etc.

The real solution here is due to Darwin: Companies that waste time in silly recruiting efforts are at a competitive disadvantage and on the way out of business.

So, here is the good news: If some companies can remain in business spending time, money, and effort in such silly, wasteful ways, then think of how much money there is to be made if cut out the waste!

One final point hackers should understand: The 'suits' should be afraid of the hackers and they are!</comment>


A Day in the Life of a Principal Space Architect - <AUTHOR> https://elpha.com/posts/54dfau67/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-principal-space-architect <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! I'm the founder of Elpha.

One of our members, Isa Peterson, is a Principal Space Architect at Tesseract Space. I noticed her job title on her Elpha profile and had no idea what her job was, but I was intrigued. So I asked if she'd write up a post telling us a more about it. As it turns out, her job is pretty interesting. Hope you enjoy!

</comment><comment><USER2> Hi HN, I'm Erik CEO at Tesseract. Tesseract went through YC in Summer 2017 and builds in space propulsion. Please reach out if you have any questions

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi HN readers! If you have any questions, I'll be lurking and here to chat :)

<comment><USER4> nice! i have job title envy now :-) have you seen [https://youtu.be/THNPmhBl-8I](https://youtu.be/THNPmhBl-8I)

<comment><USER3> I say go for it and make it your title too ;) That YouTube link made me literally LOL - bookmarking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fascinating!

Do you get to watch launches on-site for satellites that carry engines that you worked on? :-)

<comment><USER3> Hopefully! I've always wanted to go to Launch Base, but haven't had the opportunity yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It seems fitting that someone who works on rocket engines would be called Isa.

<comment><USER3> Agreed - and the pronunciation is the same as ESA!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> So is he an aerospace engineer or a principal space architect? His first sentence seems contradictory.

<comment><USER8> In a space agency a Principle Space Architect would be responsible for constellation design and acquisition- they'd rarely get their hands dirty with constructing their own powerpoint slides, much less chemical handling. Presumably this is much further down the stack, so to speak.

<comment><USER3> That's honestly one of the reasons I moved out of "old aerospace" \- it's so easy to get pigeonholed and it becomes easier for people to stop learning.

<comment><USER9> I agree, at least when it comes to overspecialized roles in large companies.

If you didn't get to actually _Do_ anything, are you really a rocket scientist anymore? Does it feel the same? Does it make you excited to do your job?

Your day sounded pretty amazing to me. Well done!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Android Developers Can Thrive With Google Play - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/20/how-android-developers-can-thrive-with-google-play/

<comment><USER2> Am I the only one reading this on a mobile? How do they get away with splitting the article over no less than 12 pages, two or three paragraphs per "page"?

I read the first page and gave up because I'm not going to sit there while its loading 12 times!

<comment><USER3> Same here. Chrome on Android, seeing 13 pages.

<comment><USER4> I almost always get the desktop version of sites on Chrome/Android too. I looked into this in detail and it's just stupid user-agent sniffing; Chrome on Android specifically sends the string "Mobile" to indicate that it's a mobile device. (My UA is currently "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.0.4; Galaxy Nexus Build/IMM76F) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Mobile Safari/535.19".)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _"According to Nielsen, Android has more than 48 percent of the smartphone market, versus 32 percent for iOS"_

TC should mention that this is in US only. Outside US iOS has a much smaller share and I believe Android's share is a little bigger than 48%.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm wondering if this article takes into account the amount of iPod Touch owners.

<comment><USER7> Probably not, since this article is about smartphones.

Edit: but I see your point (I think) - iPod Touch users are also buyers from the iOS app store. The latest data I can find is on ad requests, which is only tangentially related to adoption, but those numbers [1] suggest that there are a little more than a third as many iPod Touch users as there are iPhone users, and a bit more than half as many iPad users as there are iPhone users. Of course, there are a lot of non-smartphone Android devices out there now, too, so it's difficult to factor that in.

[1] [http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/06/top-3-connected-devices-in- u-s...](http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/06/top-3-connected-devices-in-u-s-made-by- apple-tablet-market-continues-to-balloon-in-q3/)</comment></comment>


Female-Founded Startups Generate More Revenue and Do It with Less Funding - <AUTHOR> http://fortune.com/2018/06/07/female-founded-startups-revenue-funding/ <comment><USER2> Is it click bait? yes. Is it a real argument? no.

Summary TL;DR - 2.2% of founders are female, they generate 730k (vs 660k for male founders) over 5 years on average. I think these numbers are all or a substantial amount of the available sample size (article doesn't say, didn't bother to look at the study). Mentions several personality differences between men and women (risk strategy, etc).

The article ends by saying we're missing out (presumably because if there are more female founders, the ROI for startups would be higher in general). They provide no data about their assumption that a growing population of female founders will maintain their effectiveness.

It's more likely that since more men get investment, there's a lot more bad investments on male founders out there bringing the numbers down (article does mention this).</comment>


Half Staff – why is the US flag at half staff? - <AUTHOR> https://halfstaff.co/ <comment><USER2> You might want to find a better flag graphic.

The people who want to know if it should be flying at half mast are more likely to care that the US flag being accurately represented.

<comment><AUTHOR> So, this is what I came up with, but I reverted it because it just doesn't have the same impact: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/ma2rf6lo39jb47m/Screenshot%202016-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ma2rf6lo39jb47m/Screenshot%202016-06-19%2016.18.57.png?dl=0)

I'm probably going to have to find a designer. :)

<comment><USER3> Try searching "american flag" on openclipart.org. You might find something you like.

I agree with the others -- the one you have isn't really appropriate for such a solemn subject.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does it use location information to determine what the status is for a particular state ? IIRC, there is a also a state level status that could override the national level ?

For example: [http://portal.ct.gov/flag-status/](http://portal.ct.gov/flag- status/)

<comment><USER5> Can a state override a president proclamation for flying the flag?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think not in that the proclamation states that the flag should be lowered "at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions" and "at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations".

So, for those locations it seems mandatory. But the flag code that states things like that state flags should be flown lower that the federal flag is codified tradition and not law, so technically states do not have to follow, as far as I understand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems like this maybe should have been submitted as a "Show HN."

Do upgrade your flag. Make that a high priority.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nice. Does this pull live data from somewhere?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, directly from the Presidential Proclamations on WhiteHouse.gov. If you're curious, the source is on GitHub at [https://github.com/jacobwgillespie/halfstaff](https://github.com/jacobwgillespie/halfstaff).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is really cool. Great idea.</comment>


Announcing autonib2cib - <AUTHOR> http://www.annema.me/blog/post/announcing-autonib2cib

<comment><USER2> Forgive my ignorance, but after readying this article I still have no idea what it is.

<comment><USER3> Cappuccino has this neat feature of being able to use nibs that you create in Interface Builder by converting it to their own format cib (iirc for web optimization, at least I've noticed .cib filesizes in general be (significantly) smaller than their .nib counterparts, but this could be coincidental).

Normally you use a commandline tool called nib2cib for this which you had to execute everytime you changed your nib to get a corresponding updated cib. This arguably breaks the workflow a bit (it's pretty easy to forget to do a nib2cib after modifying your nib). The tool Klaas Pieter created aims to eliminate that extra step by watching your resources directory for changed nibs if I've understood correctly. Once it detects a changed nib it will run nib2cib for you on that nib for a fresh cib.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cibs are indeed web optimized format. Thanks for the explanation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Could solve this pretty easily with <https://github.com/mynyml/watchr>, I'd imagine.

<comment><AUTHOR> Didn't know about this. I have thought about extending my example to run user defined commands on user defined files. Obviously someone beat me to it.

Thanks for the link.</comment></comment>


The curious rotational memory of the electron (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sigfpe.com/2007/03/curious-rotational-memory-of-electron_31.html <comment><AUTHOR> Part 2 is here: [http://blog.sigfpe.com/2007/04/curious-rotational-memory- of-...](http://blog.sigfpe.com/2007/04/curious-rotational-memory-of- electron.html)</comment>


HN: What did you do the day after your company failed? - <AUTHOR> I'm far less emotional that I expected and I'm actually filling out Stripe Atlas to start something new. Just surprised by my state of mind right now and curious what others did the day they went bankrupt. <comment><USER2> I don't recall there being one actual day, since we didn't go bankrupt (no company debt), we just ran out of money to keep running. I took no salary for the last year and lived on my credit cards to try to keep the company running (founders, DON'T DO THIS), so it was more a process of me realizing I was completely tapped out. I really had trouble giving up on the dream. I had been hoping we could pull out a breakthrough and make it work, but it didn't happen.

There is one day I remember very well. I had decided to throw in the towel and start looking for another job. We had been operating in a college town, and I knew the job prospects were poor there, so I took a few weeks to look for a job elsewhere. I was contacted by my apartment telling me I was being evicted. I drove back to get my stuff out and clean up. By the time I arrived, it was night. The electricity had been off for a few weeks, so the lights were out. It was a hot Florida summer, and there was no A/C, so I stripped down to my shorts and using a flashlight I moved my stuff into my car. Then I cleaned it as best as I could by the light of the flashlight. I still remember cleaning out the fridge which had been turned off for weeks, with the bugs in it jumping on my bare chest in the flickering light. I was thinking "This is not my life".

I survived that. You can survive this.

</comment><comment><USER3> I spent about two months mostly just thinking about it. We weren't bankrupt. We closed because we realised we no longer had enough money to get from where we were to a point where we could raise another round or get to a sustainable level of revenue. My period of reflection was mostly about why the business had failed, what impact I'd had on it, what I could have done differently, and what I wanted to do next. I learned a lot; mostly I learned that running a business is not something I enjoy or really want to do again.

<comment><AUTHOR> That sounds like a valuable 2 months!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I remember waking up in my apartment, walking out onto the balcony, looking up and seeing the office windows (I lived across the street) and thinking that I had failed.

A week later I had my entire life packed into my car and drove across the country to be with my friends who knew me before I had sunk my life into trying to make the company happen.

Fortunately I still had some residual income from another part of the company that I hadn't sold, so I lived off that.

A year and a half in a bathrobe, letting friends pass thru my house, I found myself being asked to help a friend at his startup getting things off the groud, a contract gig, but cash and something back in the working world.

Life continues, its a very hard place to be on day one, but each day it gets better.

It is still an experience that I'd never trade. Ever.

</comment><comment><USER5> Really depends. If you invested around 3 years of your life, and took significant investment from people, and all your employees had to be laid off along with yourself, you probably would want to take a break and have nothing to do with business for a while.

Moreover, if you have no money left, you will probably want to find a job, otherwise you will become homeless.

But if you still have some money, and it was only just a short sprint of several months with just you and your co-founder, it's good to move on to the next idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah everyone's gonna react differently. I was hoping to hear some stories.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I just booked a ticket to India that left in 3 days. Stayed there for two months living cheaply, bumming around with family, riding camels, and scaling the himalayas. Realized it takes a very long time to internalize all the lessons I've learned from the failed startup and realign with what I really wanted. A break prevented me from doing more startups simply out of routine habit.

</comment><comment><USER7> Felt excited for the future because

0\. You dream

1\. You fail

2\. You learn

3\. You win

Failure was the end of step 1. The only thing you need is a little break though...</comment>


The Future of Node Is in Microsoft's Fork - <AUTHOR> https://blog.andyet.com/2015/12/31/the-future-of-node-is-microsofts-fork/ <comment><USER2> I am a PM on the Chakra team. It is encouraging to see all the excitement after we announced at Node Interactive that we'll be submitting a PR to enable Node to work with Chakra and bring the power of Node to new platforms including Windows 10 IoT Core. As we mentioned at that time, our goal is not to compete/replace but rather help Node and it's ecosystem grow. ChakraCore is going open source in January w/ plans to go cross-plat being one of key things on our roadmap (more details on roadmap to come when we make the sources public). We're also working on a patch to submit to Node mainline once ChakraCore sources are made public, which will help us and hopefully the Node technical committee establish a neutral binding layer that could eventually be used by more than one JS engine implementations to work with Node. As one could imagine, there's definitely a lot of work ahead. LMK if you have questions, feedback etc.

<comment><USER3> It would be very interesting if you could share your team's challenges and insights in creating a Chakra shim that exactly mirrors v8's C++ API so that it's a drop in replacement for v8 for Node. Is it difficult to maintain the Chakra shim against an ever-changing v8 API?

<comment><USER2> We plan to do a blog post about this when we submit a PR to mainline, but you can see the session at Node Interactive where we discussed some of these - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbc3SwMDWf0&index=14&list=PL...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbc3SwMDWf0&index=14&list=PLfMzBWSH11xYjL8oFumSfzOf6-kr8_t-o).

<comment><USER3> Good stuff.

Looking forward to the neutral binding layer for different javascript engines for Node.

Ideally for a given platform a native Node module should be ABI compatible with v8 Node or Chakra node - without the need for recompilation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "The Node.js Foundation would be wise to migrate to Chakra"

Actually it would be extremely unwise, and here's why:

"In order to use Microsoft's fork, you need a Windows 10 machine with the November update"

When Chakra is open-source and cross-platform, its differentiating "killer" features will be merged into node's V8.

SpiderMonkey has been beating V8 in ES2015 adoption and V8s own benchmarks, but even that wasn't enough for it to become the new node.js runtime. We have yet to see if what Microsoft brings to the table is more convincing.

<comment><USER5> Google doesn't care about the server-side use case for V8. Microsoft, on the other hand, has some skin in the game, as they are pushing Node on their Azure platform. While I wouldn't want to see Node _controlled_ by Microsoft (or any single vendor for that matter), it's not outside the realm of possibility that Node will be better off using (open source) ChakraCore over V8.

<comment><USER6> See at Google Coder ([https://googlecreativelab.github.io/coder/](https://googlecreativelab.github.io/coder/)). A Node based server of applications.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you want to test out ES2015 features (incl. proxies) coming soon in V8, you can download Chrome Canary and turn on the Experimental JavaScript flag (under chrome://flags). With the flag enabled, Chrome reaches 91% percent on the Kangax table [0]. We're working hard to turn these features on by default as soon as possible.

[0]: [https://kangax.github.io/compat- table/es6/](https://kangax.github.io/compat-table/es6/)

(Disclaimer: I'm a PM on the V8 team)

<comment><USER8> Sorry, I down-voted instead of up-voting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > The future of Node is in Microsoft's fork

People should read "Embrace, extend and extinguish": [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish)

It happend with Java. Microsoft created their own slightly improved Visual J++ and then Visual J#, and after Sun sued them and MS had to remove their proprietary MSJava from WindowsXP, they forked it with C# 1.0).

It happens with JavaScript. They tried to kill Netscape (Browser Wars) with their powerful but slightly incompatible JScript. Remember the IE 6 problems, it's the result. The XHR/AJAX came out of these era too.

It almost happend again with JavaScript. First they tried it with JavaScript 4 that never got mainstream (tried to added classes and XML syntax). Thanks god JavaScript 5 came along as lean barely changed succesor.

It happens again with JavaScript / ES6/7 and TypeScript. They lobbied to add "class" syntax and at the same time create an competiting language on top of ES6 (optionsl typing, like HACK does for PHP).

It happens with Node. The plan to release (we heard that often from MS, it my take a while...) their JavaScript engine and forked Node.

Please wake up, and learn from the past history of Microsoft. They are not saints and judge them by their past actions and also their recent Windows 10 forced phone home and forced update disasters, the expensive license changes, etc. I am certainly happy as long as the official Node will continue to run on V8 on all platforms.

<comment><USER10> >It happend with Java

And spectacularly backfired with Java. Java is at an all time high and ranks #1 in the TIOBE index at 20.97 (up 6% from 2014). C#, on the other hand, is at 4% - which is probably why they decided to open source it before it dropped even further. Even Python has surpassed C#. Moral of the story is that the days of Microsoft extinguishing anything are over.

<comment><USER9> > spectacularly backfired

?? First TIOBE index cannot be taken seriously. Second a hypothetical forth place isn't that bad, right? MS managed to fragment the community. And they actively try to fragment the JavaScript community with ES6 and TypeScript. And with their Visual Studio Code (based on Electron/Atom editor).

> Microsoft extinguishing anything are over

Sure with $100+ billion in cash it's over. Microsoft was far less evil company between 2005 and 2011 than before or after that timeframe. Sorry for waking you up from your dream.

<comment><USER10> I think TIOBE is a good indication and so are the number of GitHub projects that exist and are being created with these languages. Also, I keep hearing this talk about a new Microsoft. Where's their support for the #1 language in the world in their IDE?

As for Microsoft's cash reserves, I heard it was close to 90 Billion with over 90% of that overseas. Google, on the other hand, has about 64 Billion and only 60% overseas.

<comment><USER11> > the number of GitHub projects that exist and are being created with these > languages

Definitely not indicative of all the myriad of business applications that are created and not release on github

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> One thing I learned in my 20+ years in this field is that relying on anything from Microsoft leads to inevitable regret down the road as they cannot restrain themselves from turning every thing they do into a means of vendor lock-in.

</comment><comment><USER13> Doing a wholesale replacement of the JS engine in node sounds like bad news for native npm modules. There's even another frontpage story right now about dealing with the native API breakage between various V8 versions in node.

<comment><USER14> While your right this neutral bindings layer that the Microsoft team is working on could alleviate some of that and hopefully make it so the interface on the C++ and JavaScript side are the same for module developers but the engines are completely pluggable.

That would be pretty cool if they can pull it off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Did anyone complaining about the windows 10 requirement read the while article?

It clearly says it goes open source and multi platform this month.

<comment><USER16> They've announced they will release source this month. Multiple platform support will be on the roadmap. That will take time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Babel has way too many errors.

I do not care if I am a grandpa for using 2014 tools - but I am not pushing ahead until things calm the fuck down.

<comment><USER18> Node 4/5 (really arrow functions alone) largely eliminated the need for Babel on backend code IMO.

<comment><USER19> To some extent, yes. In some of my projects I decided to avoid using Babel and just limit myself to Node's (new) features. The advantages of not having a build step for the backend js is sometimes worth it.

However, there are so many cases where Babel is useful, or turns out to be 'necessary', that I'm considering just using Babel by default again.

Some examples:

      - JSX for using React in the back-end (almost a default for me nowadays)
      - async/await for async-heavy code
      - a miscellaneous few still-unsupported ES2015 features that   occasionally are sorely missed

And finally, it's happing more and more regularly that I end up wanting to use some server-side modules on the client-side, in which case I need to set up Babel anyways.

That said, if I'm pretty sure I'm not going to need Babel, I still try to leave it out. It adds complexity that I'd rather avoid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Nonsense on stilts, how did this even get on HN? "In order to use Microsoft's fork, you need a Windows 10 machine with the November update", really.

In response to the downvotes. The author is suggesting that "the Future" of a major open source web technology belongs with a notorious monopolist corporation that's known for lock-ins and other anti-competitive practices even to this day. Given their past behaviour, and given they haven't yet managed to get this to operate on a platform other than their own, calling it "the Future" is pretty silly and worthy of being mocked for the hyperbole. I wouldn't mock it if the headline was "Microsoft is making a play in the Node ecosystem". The two responses on Reddit have also been sceptical of this as well.[0][1] Any of the (4+) downvoters care to share your thoughts?

[0] [https://www.reddit.com/r/node/comments/3z303d/the_future_of_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/node/comments/3z303d/the_future_of_node_is_in_microsofts_fork/) [1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/3z302e/the_futu...](https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/3z302e/the_future_of_node_is_in_microsofts_fork/)</comment>


Chemists make first-ever ring of pure carbon - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02473-z <comment><USER2> > Gawel and his collaborators have now created and imaged the long-sought ring > molecule carbon-18. Using standard 'wet' chemistry, his collaborator Lorel > Scriven, an Oxford chemist, first synthesized molecules that included four- > carbon squares coming off the ring with oxygen atoms attached to squares. > The team then sent their samples to IBM laboratories in Zurich, Switzerland, > where collaborators put the oxygen–carbon molecules on a layer of sodium > chloride, inside a high-vacuum chamber. They manipulated the rings one at a > time with electric currents (using an atomic-force microscope that can also > act as a scanning-transmission microscope), to remove the extraneous, > oxygen-containing parts. After much trial-and-error, micrograph scans > revealed the 18-carbon structure. "I never thought I would see this," says > Scriven.

The molecule (an all-carbon cycle of 18 atoms) was prepared in a very unusual way - by directly manipulating the atoms using an atomic force microscope.

In other words, each molecule is made individually. This is not the way that chemists typically work, and will not result in quantities of material that can be seen.

The abstract says nothing about chemical stability, but I suspect C-18 quite unstable and may never be prepared in gram quantities.

Higher cycles containing more carbons may be more stable, but this is likely to remain a curiosity for some time.

Still, this is a new kind of "allotrope" of carbon. The cyclic, relatively rigid nature of the structure and the potential for electrons to circulate under applied fields could lead to some unusual applications.

<comment><USER3> >In other words, each molecule is made individually. This is not the way that chemists typically work, and will not result in quantities of material that can be seen.

Is there not merit in doing it via this 'hard way' first before optimizing stuff and finding a production pathway? (IANAchemist)

<comment><USER2> It's not really a question of hard way vs easy way. It's more like the difference between having a balloon filled with helium and making a single helium atom in a collider. One you can buy at the grocery store, the other requires a team of trained scientists and a facility full of equipment.

A milllimole (10^20 moleculess) is considered small scale by many chemists. Working with a single molecule as described in the artice is just short of science fiction, and hardly any chemists have ever done it. It requires one of the most expensive instruments in the world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> A short, straight to the point read. Fascinatingly the scan image appears to have 9 vertices.

Nit: Article confusingly uses name carbon-18 to denote a molecule with 18 atoms of carbon. Carbon-18 suggests otherwise an isotope of carbon.

<comment><USER5> The notation is confusing, but I don't think it's that uncommon. For example a buckyball is denoted Carbon-60.

<comment><USER6> Geez, I wonder how radioactive carbon with 54 neutrons would be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The question that springs to my mind from this is 'could rings be interlinked?'

I'm not very familiar with chemistry. Are there other instances where other molecules can interlink in a way that, while not having bonds between them cannot be separated without breaking the bonds of one or the other?

At the very least it's fun to imagine a form of ringmail made of these.

<comment><USER8> Very much so. There are different synthetic methods that could be used to create these so called "catenanes", from a slapdash wait-and-see process where the starting material is thrown together and by hope and statistics a product comes out of the reaction with two interlocked rings. Otherwise one could build up a reaction with a starting material in a shape that's conducive to a ring structure then attempt complexation/liganding etc etc finish and close the rings so they interlock.

For some interesting reading in self-assembling structures see: Hao Li et al. Quantitative self-assembly of a purely organic three-dimensional catenane in water, Nature Chemistry (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2392

<comment><USER9> Would the rings tunnel through each other at a significant rate?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> IANAChemist but

> ...showed that the 18-carbon rings had alternating triple and single bonds.

 _Stable_ alternating single/triple bonds? As in the bonds don't flicker around? How is that even possible?

1\. Surely the bonds can't stay in the same place

2\. Surely they would 'nebulise'/spread out/whatever the right term is, over the ring

3\. if 2. doesn't apply, why on earth is it more energetically favourable to have a very high energy (ok, my assumption) triple bond next to a much lower energy (ditto) single bond, and for it not to immediately snap into a pair of double bonds?

Given my n00b level of teh chemistry, what is going on here?

<comment><USER11> These alkyne (C≡C) bonds are indeed strained and unstable, but there is an energy barrier to jumping to alkane (C-C) or alkene (C=C). Otherwise, polyynes like Ichthyothereol [1] would not be stable.

Resonance is not possible with this configuration because the orbitals are not symmetric. Benzene is often drawn with alternating alkane and -ene bonds, ⌬. It's not obvious, but benzene is radially symmetric in its electronic configuration. Each carbon has p-orbitals pointing vertically from the disc, forming a cloud, rather than discrete pi bonds between neighbors, and the electrons can "skate around the ring".

The first bond between carbons is always sigma. In alkenes, there is one sigma bond, in -ynes, there are two pi's at 90 degrees to each other. I'm a bit fuzzy on my o-chem, but iirc there is an energy gap between this configuration and cumulene C=C=C, which makes spontaneous transition unlikely.

In this c18 cycloalkyne, the p-orbitals are further strained into a bent cross shape if looking toroidally. This makes for an even bigger difference in energy levels, which means it can't flip to alkene or even swap positions.

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

<comment><USER10> OMG which part of "I Is A N00b" did I not make clear? :-)

The role of spdf and sigma/pi electrons, I'm aware of these things but don't have a mental model for them. And "p-orbitals pointing vertically from the disc"??.

That was brutal but you've given me a lot to aim for so I'll get to reading this afternoon - thanks!

<comment><USER12> In order for a pi-bond to easily flip parallel to a different sigma-bond, there has to be some factor making the other end of the new bond more positive, or the other end of the existing bond more negative. And pi-bonds basically occupy two side slots. You can think of them as left&right for one slot and top&bottom for the other.

Aromaticity is basically alternating single and double bonds. So when one pi- bond flips to the next bond down the chain (preferably into the same slot, but not necessarily--molecules can twist and flex), you get two single bonds in a row on one side, and two double bonds in a row on the other. Ordinarily, this would be a strong incentive to flip back to the way it was before, but if a double bond further down the chain can be flipped, it might propagate further down. In a ring, like benzene or a phenyl group, that wave of bond-flipping can just chase its own tail forever. In a polymer, it can go all the way down to the end of the (long) molecule before bouncing back.

When you have alternating single and triple bonds, that triple bond uses up both mutually-perpendicular slots for the side bonds. No other pi-bond can flip over next to the adjacent sigma-bond, because the bonds on the other side just bounce it right back, like having Manute Bol and Hakeem Olajuwon on either side of the paint when the second forward of your high school junior varsity basketball team tries to go around to one side or the other to score a new pi-bond. It's just not going to happen, unless you pump Jeremy Cohen full of so much cocaine, amphetamines, and sugar that he can charge into a gigantic center and somehow bounce _the defender_ into the top row of the bleachers.

<comment><USER10> Oh my. I had no idea of "pi-bonds basically occupy two side slots" or "uses up both mutually-perpendicular slots for the side bonds". This geometry aspect is completely new.

I'll have a goggle but if you have any introductory resources for this, that would be very helpful. Books, sites, appropriate terms to search for I may not know, anything for a beginner just to get started, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

<comment><USER12> Electrons around an atom occupy certain probability functions that correspond to the electron's energy level. The most basic and lowest energy of these at a given tier of orbital distance is nested spherical shells (s). Next is 3 different 2-lobed dumbbell shapes (p), oriented mutually perpendicularly (px, py, pz).

The spherical mode (s) and the dumbbell-shaped modes (px, py, pz) can also hybridize when each has a single electron in it. Those hybrid modes can point lobes out in different directions. A stable mode can hold up to 2 electrons, each spinning in opposite directions.

When an electron probability function of one atom overlaps with that of an adjacent atom, their functions can further hybridize into a bonding function. (They can also hybridize into anti-bonding functions, but ignore that for now.)

When the bonding function puts the electron pair mostly along the line connecting the centers of the bound atoms, that's a sigma bond. It's the lowest-energy kind of bond, so it always (aka exceedingly rare exceptions) happens before any other kind of bond.

In a carbon triple bond, the spherical orbital (s) will hybridize with just one of the dumbbell orbitals (p), forming one function (spx+) that mostly occupies one lobe of the former dumbbell, and one that mostly occupies the other (spx-). These two will then form direct sigma bonds with atoms on either side, separated by 180 degrees. That leaves the other two dumbbell modes (py, pz), mutually perpendicular to the two hybrids. Those can align with the parallel dumbbell modes of the adjacent atom and create bonding functions where the electron positions sort of average out to between the two bound atoms, but mostly occupy places that do not overlap with the sigma bond. Those are pi bonds. They happen between two aligned p orbitals. (There is another kind of indirect bond, a delta bond, that happens between two aligned d orbitals, which have more complex shapes. Those would be the fourth bond in a quadruple bond.)

When those carbons are triple-bonded, their p-orbital atoms are leaning toward the adjacent bound atom. It's much harder for the atom on the opposite side to get their attention to maybe participate in a pi bond on that side.

If you look at the bond through a microscope, you're just going to see a big blob of electron probability between the nuclei, with 6 electrons somewhere in it most of the time, where the triple bond is. It's not organized into discrete spaces for each separate bond. It only has separate slots when you look at the mathematical model.

I don't have any specific resources, other than any modern chemistry textbook you can find. Possible search terms "electron orbitals", "bonding orbitals"

<comment><USER10> I do recognise spdf and the orbitals, I didn't realise the clouds interacted (well duh!), and that's the clearest description of pi and sigma bonds I've come across. That was brilliant, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > Elusive 18-atom 'cyclocarbon' could be a step towards molecule-scale > transistors.

Can someone 'in the know' on semiconductor device fabrication expand on this more?

<comment><USER14> The press release always mentions the cool new technology _du jour_ as a possible spinoff of the discovery. Today, it's transistors.

When the Superconducting Super Collider was proposed, the newspapers said that research done at the SSC would lead to breakthroughs in computer graphics and flat panel displays.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is really cool. Both the action of assembling it and how they imaged it.

One of the amazing things about carbon is that it can lots of interesting things (conductor, insulator, semi-conductor, Etc) with no added elements, just different bonding and structures. Further, it is an excellent thermal conductor. As a result it has the potential to be the material that replaces silicon in computer chips on a very large scale.

</comment><comment><USER16> Can we draw carbon out of the atmosphere to make this?

<comment><USER17> We can draw carbon from the atmosphere, sure. It's an inefficient process costing a lot of energy, but given they're making the final rings molecule by molecule, it isn't as if we'd need a lot.

...for the purposes of scrubbing CO2 from the air? There's absolutely no reason we'd use _this_ as the final product. Graphite or diamond would do the trick just as well, and either is cheap to make.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Should've called it a cyclyne.

</comment><comment><USER18> so basically benzene without the hydrogen?

<comment><USER12> No. Benzene is an aromatic ring. It has C-C=C sequences that easily flip to C=C-C, making electrons in the ring highly mobile. A C≡C-C sequence does not easily flip to C=C=C, or vice versa. Those electrons are a lot less mobile.

Also, alternating single and double bonds leave a bonding site on each carbon for a functional group. Alternating single and triple bonds use up all four (easy) carbon bonds, and you can't cram another bond in there without an insanely powerful acid.</comment></comment>


"No-else-after-return" considered harmful - <AUTHOR> http://blog.mozilla.com/nnethercote/2009/08/31/no-else-after-return-considered-harmful/ <comment><USER2> C++ is not Ocaml, and Mozilla is not random-opensource-project. When you're contributing to an established project, you follow the conventions there even if they aren't what you'd consider ideal.

Brendan Eich even said as much in the comments of the bug: he'd rather be programming in a pure, expression-based manner too, but C++ is not Ocaml. And for a lot of C++ code, no-else-after-return works reasonably well.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm with Mozilla.

If I have a function with multiple conditions that cause me to return error / false / nil, I'd rather not have to nest them all in a series of if/then/else statements nor combine them into a single more-complicated if condition. I'd rather write them each as separate if-and-returns, followed by the real meat of the function.

function updatePlayers{

      if (charList is empty)
         return false;

      if (play is paused)
         return false;

      if (char is frozen)
         return false;

      //do stuff here
      return true;

}

I think this better spells out the "error" conditions.

<comment><USER4> Guard clauses are a particular case of if statements. I agree with omitting elses when using guard clauses. A blanket rule that eliminates elses after returns doesn't make any sense.

<comment><USER5> Blanket rules don't make sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I always go a step further, and use at most one "return" in a function.

I find short-cut "return" statements frustrating for many reasons. For example, there's a risk that proper cleanup will not always happen, it is harder to see state and program flow when debugging, and it's no longer simple to make every-case changes by adding things to the end of the function. They're really just another type of "goto".

The only "advantages" I can think of are saving a few keystrokes, and having slightly better performance by not using a variable for the return value. In my experience, neither of those things has ever mattered.

In other words, I'd do this:

      <type> result = defaultValue;
      if (condition)
      {
        result = val1;
      }
      else
      {
        result = val2;
      }
      return result;

With this approach, there is never anything after the "return", "else" or otherwise.

<comment><USER7> Yuueurrgh.

Without early return, you wind up with multiple-nested if statements that make the code absolutely unreadable. Early return is almost always used as the error path -- if you need to perform cleanup, then instead of returning, _use goto_ to jump to a single end-of-function cleanup handler.

There's nothing wrong with using goto for this purpose, and it means I can actually read -- at a glance -- code that requires more than a few preconditions at the start of the function.

<comment><USER6> Functions that have become too complicated _should_ look ugly, so that they're likely to be split into simpler parts (for true readability).

When making that split, it is also helpful to have relevant cleanup code nearby: odds are everything is already in the inner block, instead of having to remove extra code at the end of the function.

<comment><USER7> That's the usual hand-waving argument (if you need this you're doing it wrong), but the fact is that even something with three simple preconditions is quickly rendered unreadable through three nested levels of if statements.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Profoundly unconvinced.

</comment><comment><USER9> A minor quibble. He claims that "no-elses" are prone to side-effects and "error-prone junk". However, "no-elses" are in my opinion as flagrant a crime as "no-braces" following if statements (which appears to be his style). The author says that he prefers the _ternary_ operator (a > b ? a : b) to "no- elses"; however, its use is definitely more error-prone!

</comment><comment><USER10> I prefer to return as early as possible and I dislike unnecessary else clauses. And unnecessary braces. I especially hate really long functions where there's only one return but a bunch of baggage and nested conditionals along the way to pull it off. Like mullr said, only handy if your language doesn't support guards.

Most of the people who code this way that I've met don't do it b/c they're trying to be 'pure.' Most of them say it was coding standard some manager mentioned somewhere else long ago and now they just do it w/o thinking.

</comment><comment><USER11> On the one hand, this reads like "I prefer functional languages, and want to twist procedural languages into a form I'm more familiar with". On the other hand, I do find his re-written example more readable, and I'm not sure if that's due to my previous exposure to functional programming, some innate readability bestowed by the functional programming style, or just the fact that this particular code was rewritten by someone who wanted to make it a publishable example (as opposed to just getting it to work).

</comment><comment><USER12> What's his argument about purity here? His examples rely on global state which is inherently impure. Rewriting them to make it more expression like does nothing to change that.

</comment><comment><USER13> Just use whatever seems clearer

<comment><USER14> Yep. Use else when the two branches do symmetrical amounts of work. Don't use else if one is an early return.

If you find this discussion interesting you're probably stuck with codebases with overly long functions. My commiserations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think the main problem is the lack of braces means you have to rely on white space to figure out what the hell is going on.

That's the main reason why I religiously put open and close braces on even the smallest if/else blocks as it dramatically improves the readability of the code.

If the mozilla code style specified that you have to use braces no matter what then they wouldn't be having this problem.

Of course, I'm probably arguing with hackers who prefer to use constructs like 'return (a > b ? a : b)' rather than write readable code.

This is coming from someone who likes to put spaces after and before parentheses so it makes it easier to figure out what's going on.

e.g. if ( ( y > x ) || ( x < 10 ) ) - this makes things easier to read (for me) when you start to get a hell of a lot of nesting going.

<comment><USER16> The ternary operator is perfectly readable if you spend even the slightest amount of time getting used to it.

I like spacing my parens too, but what you wrote isn't as readable to me as:

      ( (y > x) || (x < 10) )

Spacing _inside_ your terminal pair of parens only makes your atomic expressions harder to read.

I also like multiline expressions:

      if (  (x == 10) ||
            (y == 10) ||
            (x > y) )
      {
        .....
      }

<comment><USER17> Why do you put the operators for multiline expressions at the end of the preceeding line instead of at the beginning of the next line?

With statements, the first token on the line tells you what it's doing and the indentation tells you about its relationship to statement on the previous line. Why not do something similar for multi-line expressions?

<comment><USER16> I like aligning the atomic conditional tests I'm or'ing together, and that's the most space-efficient way to do it. I guess I could indent the first line more and put the or operators on the left, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> And here we have a classical bikeshedding article.

This sort of thing really doesn't matter much one way or another. Do what the rest of the codebase is doing, and move on with your life. If you're writing your own code, do what you feel like doing.

</comment><comment><USER19> I disagree. The rule works for me.

I now find myself using 'cond' almost exclusively over 'if'.

And there is a little misunderstanding propagated: "Even in a language like C/C++ you can do something approaching functional programming by avoiding statements". I don't think so.</comment>


How Google Destroyed American Democracy - <AUTHOR> http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-google-destroyed-american-democracy/

<comment><USER2> So, if McCain-Feingold was still in effect, and if Google were to hypothetically campaign against Lamar Smith, and if said hypothetical campaigning were to occur in the run-up to an election... it would be illegal?

Is this absurd mix of hypotheticals honestly supposed to be a cogent defense of the Citizens United ruling? It sounds a lot more like a Colbert segment to me.

<comment><USER3> Not to mention hypothetically if It where illegal for corporations to petition congress SOPA might hypothetically not be a bill. Given that it would have been illegal for Hollywood to lobby. So Google may have never felt the need to get involved in a situation that did not exist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is a really convoluted argument which fails to live up to its headline.</comment>


Say hello to men who hate NSA spying but blame women for being spied on - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/1/6092769/creeps

<comment><USER2> I don't know how right it is to blame anyone in particular for this specific security flaw (I don't even know enough details to start to analyze that), but I don't think this is an appropriate comparison either way. Purportedly the NSA is supposed to be acting on our behalf, in our interest - they are given a huge amount of access to our internet infrastructure, and as such we're trusting them not to misuse that access; when they abuse that power, it's a betrayal of trust. No one is trusting these random hackers with their data - they just took it because they found a security hole they could exploit. It's not something anyone's encouraging (it's illegal, for one thing - we do actively try to stop these sorts of things), but you don't usually get _mad_ at your opponents, you just try to work to prevent them from getting you again next time.

I think the comparison would be more apt if these pictures were leaked by some IT guy who had been given all these women's phones and passwords and he abused his position to get the pictures. I think you'll even see some anger at Apple if it turns out that this is something that could have been easily foreseen ahead of time (e.g. poor security practices in general). My guess is it's going to end up being social engineering and weak passwords.

<comment><USER3> The point of the article isn't where to lay blame for the security breach. It's to point out the hypocrisy of people who scream "Invasion of privacy" in every online conversation about the NSA, but somehow still feel justified in viewing or looking for these celebrity photos.

<comment><USER2> The point of my comment wasn't about blame either, just that the thing that people are so upset about regarding the NSA is the breach of trust, not just normal breach of privacy.

Also consider that no one is going to be surprised or outraged if these people are caught and prosecuted, but we already _know_ who is perpetrating the NSA breaches or privacy and nothing is being done. There are a lot of reasons why these things are perceived very differently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Speaking of hypocrisy:

"Tell creepy men on the Internet how you really feel" then posts people's Twitter accounts.

It's public shaming when we do it, and organized harassment campaigns when they do it.</comment>


Ask HN: Will you use email privacy solution created by ex-NSA employees - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> I am asking generally because it seemed former intelligence agencies employees tend to develop security solutions.

Exactly what I mean is Virtru (exNSA) but Checkpoint (Ex-Mossad [https://www.haaretz.com/1.5045925](https://www.haaretz.com/1.5045925)) is also such example.

</comment><comment><USER2> What is the name of that solution ?</comment>


A completely rebuilt, digitally-enabled Polaroid SX-70 camera - <AUTHOR> https://gross.is/super70/ <comment><USER2> Besides the amazing project, the presentation page blew me away - the sticky text on the side, the progressive loading of images, the tasteful white of the background, the subtle coloring - all of it shows a lot of care and attention, I love it!

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it needs a mode where you can watch for few minutes while the image slowly develops. That was half of the fun of Polaroids.

<comment><USER4> And half the fun of dial-up downloading progressive JPEGs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Amazing build, I love how the photos come out blurry around the edges. Extra authentic ;)

Now see if you can cram a printer in there and make it a real Polaroid again!

<comment><USER6> Do we really need a printer in there? What if it just connects to one of those Fuji Instax printers or something like a Canon Selphi printer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Another cool Polaroid mod is the thermal paper Polaroid made by Tim Jacobs:

[https://mitxela.com/projects/thermal_paper_polaroid](https://mitxela.com/projects/thermal_paper_polaroid)

</comment><comment><USER8> I love polaroid cameras, no matter how mundane the picture might be, I always have some excitement waiting for them to develop.

</comment><comment><USER9> This is amazing. I've been thinking about doing something similar with one of the old Lubitel's I have laying around. Something simpler, twin lense of Lubitel allows me to bypass the whole screen thing which should make the entire build pretty straightforward due to having a lot of space just for a RPI, power and lense.

I probably won't get to building it, though, but this was a very interesting read nonetheless.

</comment><comment><USER10> All the photos on this page are just a blurry mess. It sounds like an interesting project; too bad I can't see it.

<comment><USER11> Do you have JavaScript disabled or something similar that would keep lazy loading if the full res images from working?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is a wonderful project, and inspiring too. I've been working on my own photo booth by gutting a 1930s Kodak Brownie, and now I think I'm just going to use my own CCD instead of using a GoPro which is what I have been doing.

Great build.

</comment><comment><USER13> Note to the author: please correct the systematic mistake of "it's" instead of "its". And it definitely lacks a printer :)

</comment><comment><USER14> I absolutely love this and I think the resulting photographs have a great charm. I wish I had the dedication to follow something like this through.

</comment><comment><USER15> The SX-70 is one of the most gorgeous examples of form and function.

Nice build!

I've been trying to find one at a goodwill or estate sale for years.

</comment><comment><USER16> Can't say I approve. If it's non-working, why not restore it to original condition rather than adding a second-rate sensor after applying destructive modifications?

<comment><USER17> (I'm the one that built this.)

I knew I would get this comment at least once somewhere.

This one was in middling condition, and I own three others that have either been restored or are in their original working condition. I care a lot about (and collect) Polaroid instant cameras; this was a singular sacrifice.

<comment><USER18> I guess here is part of the grand reveal. Congrats on getting it done and documenting the project so beautifully.

The way you can head off those who want to point out the obvious - 'but it doesn't print' \- is to mention what you have said here. It provides context. It is okay if you collect the things and re-use one that was originally a parts donor for others and is a bare shell.

What would also be interesting would be if you could record people's reactions to it. Years ago the Polaroid camera was all about sharing, it was fun passing the just made snaps around the table.

Nowadays everyone has a screen so how do you do the instant share?

One thing you could do is have the freshly made snap upload itself to a URL. Whilst it is doing so there could be a QR code gradually reveal itself so people can then 'share' the picture the modern way, to see it on their own phones. A simple web page could do some CSS colour effects and have the classic frame with someone needing to 'waft' their phone around for the picture to reveal.

You could convince under fives that 'this was how it worked' way back in the 1970's. The grandparents would go along with that.

In this way the camera itself need not show the pictures, it could be a 'paperless polaroid' so the sharing thing works . It could break up the dynamic of selfies and 'me with my mates' Instagram photography and bring some fun back, passing around the camera rather than people doing their own thing with their hand-rectangles.

Since you have got so far documenting the project some QR code enabled viewing thing where the URL + timecode makes up the picture could be really good. Plus if you have save and regular share buttons going on.

NFC would be interesting too although a lot of the metal backed phones don't do NFC.</comment></comment></comment>


Snowden has pushed Encryption ahead by 7 years - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/blog/2016/04/25/another-reason-to-praise-snowden-he-sped <comment><USER2> Forgive my ignorance but how do you say that something was pushed ahead by a specific duration? In this article for instance, how did they say that encryption was pushed ahead by 7 years? Is this based on previous rate of advancement in the field? (how do you even quantify that)

<comment><USER3> Rate of adoption of said technology broken down by certain sectors (individuals, businesses, governments) is one way. Number of scientific research papers published by industry leaders is another. Estimating the rate of sales of products in this industry is another. Or monitoring the size and attendance of professional conferences and speeches on the subject is one more. It can be done quite easily. This is usually what a think tank would do.</comment></comment>


Netflix is shutting down its public API today - <AUTHOR> https://gigaom.com/2014/11/14/netflix-is-shutting-down-its-public-api-today/

<comment><USER2> Netflix's in-built search is astoundingly terrible. I'm sure it's been A/B tested to hell and back, and I'm sure my elderly parents appreciate the giant tiles, but for 'power watchers' it's catastrophic. I would literally pay 50% more per month if they would provide me the ability to filter search results to eliminate movies I've seen, movies with less than 2-stars, and to add a search-by-year feature.

Instantwatcher.com provides much of this functionality so I hope this API change doesn't force them out of business.

</comment><comment><USER3> This seems like a really short-sighted move on Netflix's part. Most of the API users were effectively free advertisers for their service, and it seems slight arrogant for them to assume that their currently strong market position won't ever change or that they won't need the support of third parties.

I'm glad 'Can I Stream It' survived. That is just the type of service which makes great use of Netflix's API and would be "impossible" to create today (you'd need to scrape Netflix's entire site).

</comment><comment><USER4> Netflix' value proposition is constantly dropping. Now, that the API is gone, I'm not sure how would I go around their stupid limitation of 500 titles and the inability to slice and dice my queue by genre and so on. Still don't understand why I see other profiles' viewing activity as mine, too. Anyway, I really wish they hire UX experts and finally get rid of the "bug" that starts showing a movie when I want to see its deets.</comment>


Aol To Unveil New Aol Mail On Sunday - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/12/aol-to-unveil-new-aol-mail-on-sunday/

<comment><USER2> As a person who used AOL back in the day, how did AOL get themselves in this branding mess in the first place? I know they lost my business 11 to 12 years ago to DSL provided by SBC (now part of AT&T) but I also couldn't wait to see them go. We called SBC Send Big Check at the time, because DSL was damn expensive. MORAL OF THE STORY: don't trash your brand for a quick buck, consumers remember that stuff.

</comment><comment><USER3> Horrible timing.

But props to TC for treating AOL, their parent company, just like any other one and spilling the beans as soon as they could.

<comment><USER4> Alternatively, props to AOL for disguising a press release as an internal leak.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> you've got mail?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet. Waiting for Sunday to arrive!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> They should consider dropping a line to their parent company.

"Modernizer.js. This is unacceptable in 2010. This is why people laugh when they hear AOL, I'm sorry, Aol. <http://imgur.com/F8gGS.png.>

Not even a friggin override ability. Are you kidding me?</comment>