Launch HN: Bitrise (YC W17) – Continuous Integration and Delivery for Mobile Apps - <AUTHOR> Hi, we're the founders of Bitrise (https://www.bitrise.io/) in the YC W17 batch — YC's first-ever Hungarian startup!
Bitrise is a Continuous Integration and Delivery platform specifically for mobile apps. We started working on Bitrise when we were running our dev agency, building apps for clients. It was frustrating to go through all the manual tasks when somebody needed a fresh build, or when all the bugs piled up before releases. We wanted to automate all the manual aspects of app development so we could get back to coding, because that's what we loved to do.
We've started with iOS CI/CD, because that seemed to be the hardest and that's what we had the most experience in. For starters we had to build up a scalable Mac infrastructure, since iOS apps can only be compiled on a Mac machine. That was tough.
We also wanted to make setting up and maintaining CI way easier, without scripting, but having the same level of customizability. We've come up with an easy workflow and step system, where steps are ready-made and reusable building blocks responsible for one task, like git cloning, deploying to HockeyApp, etc, and workflows are a succession of these steps. All of these steps are open source, and since we started the library grew to more than 100 integrations, around 30 added by the community (https://www.bitrise.io/integrations).
Tens of thousands of apps are being built on Bitrise including Foursquare, InVision, Pagerduty, Grindr. We are attracting so many apps because we are the most open platform in this space. In addition to our step library, we've open sourced our CLI, our webhook service and all of our build images, and we're growing together with our awesome community.
We raised $200k in 2015 and became profitable last year. We feel extremely grateful and lucky to have gotten here, being a 7-people dev shop in Europe. Now we're joining YC and we have big plans to take Bitrise to the next level!
We'd love to hear your feedback and are happy to answer any of your questions. Thanks! <comment><USER2> I love bitrise, especially since it is free for OSS projects. This means I don't need a build server at home for iOS, whenever I need to build and release my iOS libraries. It is fast. It is flexible and gives you the possibility of making your build pipeline using their blocks and other OSS blocks around on GitHub. You can use build scripts such as Cake, Fake and many more. More importantly the guys behind bitrise are very helpful when encountering issues.

Good job so far!

<comment><AUTHOR> We love having you in our community as well :) Thanks for the kind words!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great product! I was indeed waiting for something similar to appear in the market. I run an app creator, and app building and submission is a big pain.

Fastlane solves part of the problem, but I think you solve it all.

By the way, I've found this tweet: [https://twitter.com/wercker/status/431757646333751296](https://twitter.com/wercker/status/431757646333751296) Were a similar company explains that a service like this one is not allowed by Apple's EULA: [http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/MacOSX.htm](http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/MacOSX.htm)

Did you have any problem with Apple in the past?

<comment><USER4> Great question! ( also you can use fastlane on Bitrise ;) )

We are using physical mac machines and according to their terms you can run as many virtual machines as many cores you have in the mac. However we have to get licenses for the VMs as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Love bitrise!

Customer support is great. They get actively involved with the community to solve issues. Great example was a tweak to access control in sierra meant builds hung. Bitrise worked on a solution with the fastlane guys.

Platform is rock solid.

<comment><USER6> Thank you for the kind words, we try to do our best! ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just some notes for the CLI:

\- It's the same runner which is used for running the builds on [https://www.bitrise.io/](https://www.bitrise.io/)

\- You can run the same build config (YML) with it both on [https://www.bitrise.io/](https://www.bitrise.io/) and on your Mac/Linux

\- CLI [home page]([https://www.bitrise.io/cli](https://www.bitrise.io/cli)) | [docs]([http://devcenter.bitrise.io/bitrise- cli/](http://devcenter.bitrise.io/bitrise-cli/)) | [GitHub]([https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise](https://github.com/bitrise- io/bitrise))

(disclaimer: CTO here)

</comment><comment><USER7> I just wanted to extend congratulations from the team at buddybuild!

It's awesome to see the mobile developer tools ecosystem as a whole expanding.

It wasn't too long ago that mobile teams had to use web CI products, awkwardly repurposed to build & deploy their iOS and Android apps - imposing on them a huge maintenance burden and slowing down the development of their apps.

Great tools help build great products, and the future for mobile development tools is very bright today.

<comment><USER4> Thanks Chris, that's very kind of you all!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've used bitrise for about the past year as an iOS dev at a fairly small company. I really have no complaints with the service. Super easy to setup and maintain an app on there. Also a ton of integrations (Slack, cocoapods, carthage, hockey app.) Our current setup is pretty simple, primarily creating an archive and posting a link to a slack channel, but we are hoping to start getting some tests running on there soon.

<comment><USER4> Great to hear! If you need any help we are happy to help out, just reach out to us on the on-site chat / Slack :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is a great product - by far the best solution to mobile CI I've seen. Serious congrats into getting into YC guys!

<comment><USER6> Thank you - we're determined to keep providing the best solution, YC will definitely help in that ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> A small nitpick with your website. In your front slideshow "as a service" is moving(forward or backward depending on the term) as new terms take place in front of it. It would look better if it didn't move (and the words expanded on the left for the space they needed).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! Took a note to fix that ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Bitrise is a wonderful product. Last year a close friend and I formed an LLC and built an iOS app on contract. There was an insane number of things that we had to figure out from scratch, but our CI Just Worked and allowed us to easily send install links to our client.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is so great to hear! Would love to hear more about your story!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Great product, I'm going to start using it! I'd love to see a native Android app that allows me to see the latest builds, will send a push notification when a new build is available and allows me to launch the apk from the app.

<comment><USER6> Great idea! We're working on the public API right now, after that native apps would be awesome!

Feel free to create a feature request at [https://discuss.bitrise.io/c/feature- request](https://discuss.bitrise.io/c/feature-request) with your notes about what you'd like to see in the apps! ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does the CLI work on ubuntu, or just mac?

I run my current CI/CD pipeline through jenkins for Rails, and I would like to keep everything running through jenkins. Is there a way to do this currently with bitrise?

<comment><USER4> Sure! Check this link for the guide: [https://github.com/bitrise- io/bitrise#install-and-setup](https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise#install- and-setup)

We are mobile focused at the moment, but a couple of our customers use it to build web projects and we are also building the Bitrise website on Bitrise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> We use bitrise for iOS CI. Nothing but great things to say about them!

</comment><comment><USER15> Bitrise is pretty great. CI for iOS and Android apps have never been easier. I'm currently on the free plan, but will gladly pay for a pro plan when/if my apps become profitable.

<comment><USER4> Thanks! Best of luck with your app! ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Really like Bitrise, we are using it for 5 apps both android & ios and it works great! I think it would be awesome to even do more CI/CD on bitrise then just for Mobile Apps! :)

<comment><USER6> We definitely agree and will focus on it more in the future!

P.S.: if you want to you can do it, we CI/CD the bitrise.io website/servers through bitrise too, but you will have to use the Script step extensively right now

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is an amazing service and I've deployed multiple apps using their tools. It's well documented and easy to use. Amazing work Bitrise team!

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the kind words, it means _a lot_ to us! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> love Bitrise. It addresses all the needs for flawless iOS and Android CI, from build triggers to customized variables, and push to app stores.

</comment><comment><USER19> Do the Docker containers that builds run in still provide root access to the Docker socket, allowing people to break out of the container?

<comment><AUTHOR> You have passwordless sudo access on the Docker containers, however when you kick off a new build we will create a new VM just for the build and start the docker container inside it, making sure that nobody can ramble around :)

<comment><USER19> Thanks. Is this setup with the per-build VM and Docker server access intended so that users could set up multiple linked containers for integration testing, etc.?

<comment><USER4> Yup, we wanted to give you full access during the build, to achieve whatever you would like to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Congrats Bitrise team! I super love your product, and I've really enjoyed using it for my iOS projects!

</comment><comment><USER21> Could you do a short comparison to what CircleCI is offering for iOS and what is Bitrise's advantage?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure!

\- Biggest difference is the reusable steps (e.g. add HockeyApp step, paste API token, good to go for deploy)

\- Generally being more open - steps/integrations, stacks, CLI, webhook service, workflow editor are all open sourced

\- Repository scanner - based on your configs you'll get a workflow to build, test and deploy your app in minutes

\- You can download the bitrise.yml to run your workflows locally with our CLI: [http://devcenter.bitrise.io/bitrise- cli/](http://devcenter.bitrise.io/bitrise-cli/)

\- Trigger map, to configure what to build when: [http://devcenter.bitrise.io/webhooks/trigger- map/](http://devcenter.bitrise.io/webhooks/trigger-map/)

\- (GitHub,) Bitbucket and GitLab (full API) support, and additional webhook support for Slack (trigger a build from Slack), visualstudio.com, gogs, deveo git repos through the open source Webhook processor ([https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise-webhooks](https://github.com/bitrise- io/bitrise-webhooks))

\- Codesigndoc - an open source tool which, by running a line of command in your terminal exports all your necessary code signing files to upload to Bitrise

\- We don't charge you for builds running over time limit

\- You're able to use both Linux and macOS stacks on the same plan (either on free or paid)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Hey! Really cool product. Is this compatible with cordova/phonegap build apps?

<comment><USER4> Yes! :)

We have ionic & cordova preinstalled on the VMs ( [https://discuss.bitrise.io/t/can-i-use-bitrise-to- automatica...](https://discuss.bitrise.io/t/can-i-use-bitrise-to- automatically-build-and-deploy-ionic-2-cordova-based-apps/72/3) ) and you can find some best tricks here: [https://discuss.bitrise.io/t/best-practise-for- cordova-apps-...](https://discuss.bitrise.io/t/best-practise-for-cordova-apps- include-platforms-directory/885/4)

And a blog post form on of our users: [http://vgaidarji.me/blog/2016/02/27/how-to-build-cordova- bas...](http://vgaidarji.me/blog/2016/02/27/how-to-build-cordova-based- android-project-on-bitrise-io/)

We are also preparing the next additions for the scanner ( automatic project detection ) that will include cordova & ionic as well :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Congrats on the launch guys! Bitrise is THE CI tool for iOS apps.

</comment><comment><USER24> Can you elaborate on what you have that Travis does not?

<comment><USER4> With Travis you have to use their yml and reimplement your whole configuration per app every time. On Bitrise with the reusable integrations you can simply just drag & drop more than 100 integrations like HockeyApp and with only adding your API token you are ready to go. However we also have the YML file and an open source CLI, so you can run the same thing locally. Also when you add your app to Bitrise we will scan it and instantly give you a workflow that builds, tests and deploys your app.

<comment><USER2> Would also seem that Travis doesn't have Xamarin support, or so it appears.

<comment><USER4> Yup, that's correct :) Also if you are comparing us to Travis, we have both Bitbucket & GitLab integrations in addition to GitHub.

Our build machines are faster to use, too, because the most used VMs are pre- booted, which saves 1-2 minutes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I am using Bitrise for 2 months now, and for 3 apps. Really love their support! Can't complain for anything!

</comment><comment><USER26> Bitrise is awesome. I have worked with Travis, Jenkinse and Circle and I do prefer Bitrise among them.

Keep Fucking Fire!!!

</comment><comment><USER27> I've been using Buddy Build and I really enjoy their environment. How does this compare to that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question!

The main differentiator might be that our platform is more open compared to Buddybuild's enclosed ecosystem approach. That means we allow much more customizability while having the same, fast initial project setup. Bitrise grows with the community, both by helping each other and developing extensions, like new steps/integrations and other tools.

We feel that Buddybuild is great for smaller projects, but Bitrise can provide more for more complex apps with more rigorous development cycles and needs, which is the feedback we get back from these type of companies as well.

We also have Xamarin support, which may or may not be interesting for you.

<comment><USER28> As one of the Founders of buddybuild, I'd like to perhaps also provide another perspective on this specific thread.

We certainly don't think of buddybuild as a closed ecosystem.

In fact, our users are able to customize buddybuild infinitely to meet the needs of their workflow (details can be found here: [https://www.buddybuild.com/blog/customizing-the-build- proces...](https://www.buddybuild.com/blog/customizing-the-build-process))

Further, while buddybuild is favored by thousands of because it can can auto- provision iOS devices for you on the fly. Meaning, you never have to deal with provisioning profiles and UDIDs ever again.

We also care deeply about making sure that teams can involve and engage their end users as part of the development process. One of the reasons we built buddybuild is because of the frustration sending builds to our users... AND then never hearing back from them. Phones are great devices for "consuming content", but it became obvious that the physical form factor of the device tends to result in infrequent feedback which was often ambiguous.

So, we build an SDK that gives you high quality and actionable bug reports from beta users. With a simple screenshot, testers can file bug reports that include graphically annotated screenshots, feedback notes and their device metadata.

We also have a feature called "Instant Replay", which lets you watch a video of the exact steps required to reproduce a crash. Instant Replay works in conjunction with our Crash Reporting solution to offer you both the exact lines of code that caused a crash as well as the exact sequence of events that lead up to it ([https://www.buddybuild.com/blog/introducing-instant- replay](https://www.buddybuild.com/blog/introducing-instant-replay))

Thousands of teams with fairly complex needs use buddybuild every single day. They teams like Slack, Meetup, FireFox, Wordpress and others..

You can read why they made the choice to use buddybuild here: [http://www.buddybuild.com/customers](http://www.buddybuild.com/customers)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I love Bitrise. Revolutionary!!!

</comment><comment><USER30> How does it compare to Jenkins?

<comment><AUTHOR> \- First and foremost, the biggest advantage is that it's hosted. You can forget about having and maintaining your own build machines. Every build you kick off will start from the same clean VM, thus never giving you a false positive/negative.

\- No need to worry about tooling maintenance anymore. Best example is when a new Xcode version is released, usually lots of things break. We test these out quickly and release the new version in a way that won't give you headache.

\- You have the same kind of control over your build environment, but an easier time with project setup with our scanner and reusable steps. This means, you _can_ do scripting, but you don't have to.

\- Team and organization management features

\- You don't lose the advantages of open source

\- You get awesome tech support along with a very helpful community

\- You get a much more intuitive and nicer UI/UX

We hear from a lot of our users coming from Jenkins how it took up more time for them to maintain the build machines than it actaully saved, while not always delivering proper build results, lacking the always clean kickoff state.

<comment><USER30> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Bitrise rocks my world!

</comment><comment><USER32> Awesome stuff guys!</comment>


Using webmail to control malware - <AUTHOR> https://www.virusbtn.com/virusbulletin/archive/2014/08/vb201408-IcoScript <comment><USER2> lets see as time passes we will be able to see more advanced ways of controlling the malware</comment>


Tip HN: One weird trick to get more freelance gigs - <AUTHOR> Recently, I've started posting the most difficult/exciting parts of debugging workflows on Twitch and I link to the relevant ones when I big on any freelance project. It has improved my win rate by 60%. <comment><USER2> That sounds like a great idea! What would you include in those videos? Do you ask your clients if you can post those videos?</comment>


IBM Researchers Remove the "Mem" from Memcache - <AUTHOR> https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/01/memcache/ <comment><USER2> Does anyone know if the free test version they're offering includes an Intel Optane SSD or is it just a standard NAND SSD? The blog post isn't clear about what configuration is used in the data they present. Looks like I may just have to wait for the USENIX conference paper to be made available...</comment>


Google Glass: Let the evil commence - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/google-glass-let-the-evil-commence-7000014733/ <comment><USER2> _...extended recording of video and audio could be accomplished through a thin USB connector wire (painted to match hair and skin color) hidden behind the neck, leading to a large external battery hidden..._

If we're already to the part about _painting wires to match skin color_ , google glass isn't the stealth recording device that's going to be on the other end of that wire.

</comment><comment><USER3> _This is the kind of stuff that until now, only major intelligence agencies could do with very expensive surveillance equipment._

'Major intelligence agency' is apparently now code for 'anyone with a few hundred dollars and an Internet connection'. _Google did not invent the concealed camera!_</comment>


Why Did That Blog Post Work? Cause of Hacker News. - <AUTHOR> http://katsenblog.com/post/56993351747/why-did-that-blog-post-work?utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=hacker

<comment><USER2> One mistake I kept making for a long time is not turning that traffic from HN into repeat visitors. In the old days it was about email newsletters. Today Twitter followers help. I'll often end my blog posts with a simple PS: follow me on Twitter. It's proven insanely helpful to get new followers who will read that next post.

<comment><AUTHOR> great point. will do next time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> tl;dr

How did so many people reach my page? One of my friends posted my article to hacker news where it then got picked up by digg and feedly.

So why did that blog post work? Given the data I'm looking at, the subject matter was controversial and timely, and it was posted to hacker news. Obviously this would not hold up in the court of law but hey it's directional.

<comment><AUTHOR> brilliant summary.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is very meta.</comment>


Google announces open source patent pledge, won't sue 'unless first attacked' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/28/4156614/google-opa-open-source-patent-pledge-wont-sue-unless-attacked

<comment><USER2> The fact that this is only for 10 of Google's patents makes me think that this is a PR stunt.

YC companies have a even better pledge here, <http://thepatentpledge.org/> It sure would be nice to see Google join this pledge.

</comment><comment><USER3> Rewrite of [http://google-opensource.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/taking- stand...](http://google-opensource.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/taking-stand-on- open-source-and-patents.html)</comment>


Bitcoin Foundation has $4,600,000 in assets and spends $150,000/mo - <AUTHOR> https://app.box.com/s/1xbjbx9qiaua7xpyh94w <comment><USER2> So apart from Gavin's salary what do they spend it on?</comment>


Build Systems in Sublime Text 3 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/tech-tajawal/build-systems-in-sublime-text-3-9706ab7f44f4 <comment><USER2> You can even use Sublime as the front end to a database for interactive querying. There is a video[1] on Youtube demonstrating how to achieve that, using Sublime's build system. I really wonder if Atom or VSCode have something similar?

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPd4m3PLVqU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPd4m3PLVqU)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this blog and the linked documentation[1] is about the current build system in the main release, not the dev channel (ie the best channel :-).

I believe[2] in the dev release the system is very different, and I don't think there are docs for it yet.

[1] [https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/build_systems.html](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/build_systems.html) [2] [http://docs.sublimetext.info/en/latest/reference/build_syste...](http://docs.sublimetext.info/en/latest/reference/build_systems.html)

<comment><USER4> The official docs you linked to apply to both the stable channel (build 3143, aka 3.0) and dev channel (build 3160). There have been a few bug fixes in the current dev cycle, but no significant changes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not throwing a shade but can any vim/emacs expert user tell me stuff that st3 has but not vim/emacs?

I know st has better mouse movement.

(I doubt experts would move but asking anyway)

<comment><USER6> (Diehard vim keybinding user, but editor/IDE nomad) For an expert, I'm not sure that there is anything that st3 has that cannot be achieved by the other two with a combination of plugins and customization.

The biggest difference I have seen is reasonable defaults for a new user. I have lots of friends and coworkers who use Sublime because dropping into vim/emacs is like entering an alternate dimension. They expect to click around and edit text similar like any other program on the computer (which vim lacks) and have a sensible menu system (which emacs lacks). Sublime uses standard system keybindings, so that e.g on a mac Cmd-S saves the current file like you would expect. This is possible to do on both vim/emacs, but not the default. It is really difficult to convince a brand new user that the first step they need to take is opening some random hidden file and customizing their entire editor in a custom configuration language just to get the system default behavior.

<comment><USER7> this</comment></comment></comment>


What do people think of AngelHack - <AUTHOR> I'm a new developer and I've been going to a bunch of hackathon to try and learn, make things,and meet interesting people. There is an upcoming hackathon sponsored by angelhack which looks very cool that I will be going too. I'm trying to learn more about the organization, but everything I read online seems to be some sort of press release so it's hard to cut through the hype. Do people have any thoughts? <comment><USER2> AngelHack runs good hackathons. I've been a volunteer and an ambassador for them. An ambassador is someone who organizes one of their hackathons. I put together the first AngelHack hackathon in Vietnam. It was a smashing success and a lot of fun. When you go to a hackathon talk to a lot of different people, learn as much as you can and have fun. I wrote about AngelHack in Saigon here. [http://seanlaurence.com/thoughts-become-things-the-first- ang...](http://seanlaurence.com/thoughts-become-things-the-first-angelhack- hackathon-in-vietnam/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Angelhack ignites the passion of the world's most vibrant community of code creators + change makers to invent the new and make change happen, together. I think that's true. Addition to develop good service in 24hr, you commit to run the real business in near future. 2 min pitch was exciting for us

</comment><comment><USER4> True hackathon is the best way to learn and test the skillset we had. And I joined many of hackathon before. AngelHack they run in different country and city, so I meet many different country peoples in the angelhack too. If you team win they will sent your team to Silicon Valley.

BTW you are a designer or developer ?</comment>


Glitching websites, a new trend in web design - <AUTHOR> http://vibeasy.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Experimental this one, not for all browsers.</comment>


What do you guys think of the "reseller" hosting business model? - <AUTHOR>

I recently came across the concept of "reseller hosting" from for example hostgator.com. Apparently one purchases a cpanel plan from them, along with web templates and related tools to be able to create a site to "resell" hosting solutions to customers.<p>Is this a worthwhile pursuit? Or is the market simply too over-saturated for it to be worth a risk? <comment><USER2> The problem with reseller hosting is that you have absolutely no technical control. You sell hosting to a bunch of people, and then if the server(s) crap out, you start fielding a ton of angry phone calls. There's absolutely nothing you can do to get things back online except wait on the (sometimes shoddy) hosting technical support.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's a commodity business-- very low margins.

It's a marketing driven business... How good are you at lead generation?

It's support intensive. You're essentially losing money every time you talk to your customers.

It's a utility business. You will never hear from your customers unless something is broken, and they'll be enraged that their site isn't up 24x7. If they botch their HTML, they'll blame you. If the have an old version of WordPress and it gets exploited, they'll blame you.

It's LOUSY hours. Stuff breaks at weird times. All upgrades have to happen at weird times.

(I ran a hosting biz for a while as part of my consulting biz. We bought a hosting company, ran it for 2 years, and then sold it-- for a tidy profit. But I would never touch that business again).

</comment><comment><USER4> As everyone has pointed out, hosting is an extremely competitive space. We (Virtualmin) build tools for the industry, and the majority of our customers are providing hosting services in one form or another (though not all could be called "hosting providers"--many are web developers that host their clients sites as a value-add, and for their own convenience, since they can always install the software they need when they need it).

I would recommend you do a bit more research before building a basic hosting service. You'll be competing with people who charge a couple of bucks per month for service. It takes an awful lot of customers to make a living out of $2/month agreements (many of whom will disappear after the first month or two, so customer acquisition will be a constant struggle).

I would almost certainly recommend you aim for the high end of the market rather than the low. You can't do it with a cPanel plan from Hostgator, however. You'll need one or more dedicated servers with a good method of backing it up (either to S3 or to a file share at your hosting provider). From there, pick a niche that you love (Ruby on Rails, Python/Django, PHP with some framework or application, etc.) and build a really nice service based on providing the best possible user experience for deploying that kind of application. Or, focus on your local market, and build relationships with small businesses in your area. In either case, you can charge a premium for good service, and because you're offering a very focused set of features (either support for a complex set of tools, or a local personal touch, or something else) you won't be competing with every hosting provider in the world (of which there are thousands or tens of thousands depending on your definition of hosting provider).

</comment><comment><USER5> The market is in an ongoing race to the bottom. With google pages & app engine, charging for basic hosting is becoming a losing proposition. The only place you can make money with hosting this days is by selling to power users; unfortunately you can't really do that without a large investment in hardware and connectivity.

</comment><comment><USER6> Last I checked, hostgator's own host is The Planet. Go directly to them, if you're going to go that route.

There's no sense in having your customers have to wait through a chain of three companies (counting yours) before their support tickets get resolved.

<comment><USER7> The poster is referencing hostgator.com as an example I believe. But agreed, three levels of people would be ridiculous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It can be worthwhile, but there are a couple of different types of hosting resale that you could consider, apart from web hosting. It may be more economical for you to rent a low-end dedicated server (Celeron etc) and a control panel license, and then resell service from there. However, Hostgator might provide an all-in-one solution for you to use (billing, automatic setup, etc), which may simplify the process.

I personally won't allow any money to ride on a machine to which I do not have root. :)

</comment><comment><USER9> As everyone points out, web hosting in general is very crowded. That being said I've seen plenty of hosts thrive in the reseller market.

One suggestion is don't compete on price. You'll never win. Find something else like quality or customer service.

I personally use a reseller account because I like not having to worry about server security. Plus I can host multiple websites and friends/family at little to no cost.

</comment><comment><USER10> I don't see the point. It seems as worthwhile as selling Mary Kay products, only with more maintenance.

</comment><comment><USER11> Hosting reselling is an old form of marketing. Welcome to the Internet!

As for is it worthwhile? Well, how many friends do you know? If you have a big social network and can convince them then yeah, you can make some money off of it. A buddy of mine started reselling hosting packages from a tier 2 service provider and slowly graduated into buying his own racks and providing better products. It's enough to get him a house and a comfortable living but it also took him 5 years of hustling and bustling and a friends and moderators of a tech-oriented web forum to continuously market for him.

If you scour the forums, it's typical that you'll find ads for them as well. And as for the guy that said you'll be fielding the tech questions: that's really true. Some service providers will be doing that for you, it depends on who you pick to partner with.

Should you get into it? Only if you do a bit more research than just pitching a question on Hacker News.

Suggestions on where to start:

<http://www.webhostingsearch.com/reseller-web-hosting.php>

<http://www.devshed.com/reseller-web-hosting>

<http://www.thehostingnews.com/>

</comment><comment><USER12> Like in any crowded business, you have to have an edge to succeed. There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands hosting providers out there, so competition is gonna be very though. However, if you already have a big client list (say, as a freelance webdesigner) or add some value to your hosting packages (e.g. a new, supersexy blogging platform), you can have good business. Competition on price is surreal, especially with a reseller package.</comment>


Who pays for us to browse the web? Be wary of Google's latest answer (2014) - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/30/new-ways-to-fund-the-web

<comment><AUTHOR> Did anyone hear about Contributor's launch, or am I just out of the loop???

edit: I've been reading a lot of Evgeny's work as of late, nodding along, without changing my habits. This is what finally made me switch to DuckDuckGo...

<comment><USER2> I think the news broke around Thanksgiving weekend when the tech press was all about Black Friday deals. You're right, I can't remember any news coverage following the initial announcement. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8637365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8637365)</comment></comment>


I Had a Stroke at 33 - <AUTHOR> http://www.buzzfeed.com/xtinehlee/i-had-a-stroke-at-33 <comment><USER3> What a beautiful article.

My girlfriend had three strokes, in succession, two years ago (when she was 22). The night before these strokes occurred, she had a transient ischemic attack (TIA). She began speaking gibberish to her friends. She texted me later that night explaining what happened. Her friends had laughed about it because they thought she was just acting like a goofball. I had no idea these were signs of a TIA, but I told her that if it happened again she needed to go to the doctor immediately.

The next day, the right side of her body went numb. This time, she was around people who noticed something was wrong, and she was immediately rushed to the emergency room. By the next day, I had flown a thousand miles (from the location of my new job) to be with her. She couldn't remember many words. She couldn't read a clock. She did not know the answer to 3 + 0.

It turned out that, similar to the author of this article, clots had traveled through the hole in her heart and up to her brain. Luckily, she recovered fully and was back to her old self within about a month. She had surgery to fix the PFO a couple months later. The neurologist told her that nine times out of ten, the clot travels a different path, and the victim is left dead or braindead. I am so lucky. Writing about this has me in big tears.

I am going to stop writing and go hug her now.

<comment><USER4> I'm the writer of the story--thank you so much for reading. I'm glad to know that my experience helps people gain further understanding of strokes/brain injuries. I hope your girlfriend is in a better place, now.

<comment><USER5> > I'm glad to know that my experience helps people gain further understanding > of strokes/brain injuries.

After my severe traumatic brain injury, I'm trying to do the same thing. Brain injuries are so broad and so complex and dangerously invisible. I would guess this is the one unifying thread between us.

This is a solid A-level piece. Good job on both the writing and content.

<comment><USER6> I've only had a mild traumatic brain injury, but it's been about 1 3/4 years and I still have some symptoms. I could emphasize with a lot of what was written in the article. You're right in saying that these injures are complex and invisible... and I would say that that is true as much for the people around you as it is for the person experiencing the injury.

Even for someone who understands the symptoms conceptually, it's a completely different matter to actually experience what it's like to be unable to speak the name of a person that you see constantly, or to experience real pain from light, or to be around people and then be utterly exhausted afterwards. It took time for my family and friends to grasp the extent of my injury, especially since it didn't occur in any dramatic or obviously horrible way.

If you are like me, you'll have moments in which you feel completely frustrated and hopeless. Be patient and merciful with yourself. Last year I wondered if I'd ever be able to have a job that required serious mental thought -- but this year I've successfully switched careers to become a full time programmer.

I apologize if this is unsolicited advice, but I guess I'm saying what I wish I would have known when I first got my concussion. And for others who read this: if you get a concussion, see and listen to your doctor -- and if your doctor doesn't take you seriously, find someone who does (especially if you have a clinic nearby that specializes in concussion / brain injury). I can't know for sure, but I think my life over the past two years would have been a lot different had I simply _rested_ in the period afterwards, instead of staying up late studying.

<comment><USER5> > I've only had a mild traumatic brain injury

"only". All brain injuries are incredibly frustrating.

Adding on the advice, if you have others close around you, please listen to them and take their advice _even if it 's painful._ This was positive for me and I'm glad I did it... but man it was painful. I felt powerless and helpless and couldn't grasp the full details of the situation. When everyone around you is saying the same thing, they're saying it for a good reason.

The largest lesson I've learned is that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with someone who has a brain injury. They manage their deficits like any sane person would. Yes, their deficits will show through but that doesn't speak to _who_ they are. That's their injury showing itself and they're doing their best to control it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> About 15 years ago my father had a stroke at our house. I was about 12 years old and at home at the time along with my grandmother. We didn't know what was happening. At one second he was okay and in another he was on the floor. It was almost impossible to put him back at the bed even with the help of one of our tenants.

We called my mother at work and the funny thing is that before she came home to take him to the ER he was able to ask for coffee (and drink it) and also to smoke a cigarette.

Moving 15 years forward he's still with us (62 years old) with no movement at all on the left side of his body. Had a heart attack with major surgery, is on more than 15 different medications, has diabetes and a bunch of other "minor problems".

My mother gave up her life to take care of him and everyday is a struggle because of the existing problems prior to the stroke and the ones that came after he became bitter and really mean to those who love and take care of him.

I'm not sure why I wrote about this but I felt like sharing. It's not easy when people don't recover, but for some reason I believe we have to take care of them and do our part.

<comment><USER8> Thanks for sharing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was 32 when I had a stroke (March 4th, 2003). It was a different kind of stroke, affecting a different part of my brain, essentially related to vision. I was half blind, but I only realized something was "strange" when I saw myself in the mirror: I had only one eye. My brain knew I should have two: I was half blind.

The first diagnosis was migraine with aura (blindness in my case). But the aura should have lasted no more than an hour. Two days later, the aura (blindness) was still there (a sign of infarct but my doctor didn't know it).

I spent 2 days alone in the dark. I forgot to eat but I knew I had to call a taxi to take me to the hospital. I wasn't scared, I though it was just a migraine. It really looked and felt like my usual migraines. So my doctor had me take anti-migraine pills, which are vasoconstrictors. That might have caused the actual stroke: extreme vasoconstriction. Never take anti-migraine treatment during the aura. Never.

It took 2 days before I was diagnosed at the hospital, but they just told me "I see a shadow on the CT scan"... so I spent the next 2 days wondering what kind of shadow? stroke or cancer? And no, I didn't think about asking.

It took one week to be hospitalized for 10 days (my mother called the hospital, harassed them until she could talk to a doctor, who said it was an emergency... one week after the stroke).

It took 15 days before I woke up in the morning and thought "Wow! WOW! I'm back now!". Before that, I spent most of my time sleeping, reading half a page between two naps. I was sleeping more than I was awake.

It took 3 months before I could look at everything I wanted. Before that, looking at trees (and other complex objects) was "painful", and watching movies was too exhausting (especially action movies). During these 3 months, I recovered from blindness, but not completely. I still have a blind spot in my field of view today.

It took 6 months before my mood was really restored. Before that, I needed a daily nap, lots of soothing music, and no pressure at all.

I took aspirin daily for 3 years, after which my neurologist told me I could stop.

I had a few migraines after that, and even ended under oxygen at the hospital once, but I always recovered within 15 days.

It was 10 years ago, and it changed my life. I quit my job as a developer, spent 2 years wondering what to do next, then became a wedding photographer. In february this year, almost 10 years after, I got a new job as a developer.

I'm back on rails (node.js to be precise :-)

<comment><USER10> > It was a different kind of stroke, affecting a different part of my brain, > essentially related to vision. I was half blind, but I only realized > something was "strange" when I saw myself in the mirror: I had only one eye. > My brain knew I should have two: I was half blind.

There's something going on here beyond just loss of raw visual input. If you lose an eyeball, or hold your eye closed, and look in the mirror, your one good eye will still show you that you have two eyes (or, as the case may be, sockets / sets of eyelids). Perceiving yourself as having one has to involve a loss of brain function, not just a loss of eye function.

<comment><USER9> My eyes were just fine: it's the brain that was the cause here. When it occurs, I can close one eye then the other and still not see in half of my FoV.

Part of my brain was not irrigated and did not function properly...

There was nothing in /var/logs: I couldn't _perceive_ that I was half blind. syslogd crashed :-)

<comment> a-priori Is this always one half of your field of view? Or is it one half of _certain objects_ (e.g. your face)?

If it's the first, then it sounds like damage to one visual pathway. The visual input from each eye is divided into left and right fields, and they're processed independently. Here's a good illustration:

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constudeyepath.gif#me...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constudeyepath.gif#mediaviewer/File:Constudeyepath.gif)

After the optic chiasma, the two pathways diverge. Damage any time after there, such as to the occipital lobe of one hemisphere, could result in blindness to one half of the field of view.

<comment><USER9> It's really one side of my field of view.

It've talked about the face because I did not perceive that half my field of view was missing, but when looking at myself in the mirror, I saw one eye was missing... But it really was half of my field of view.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> >I wandered outside the boundaries of telemetry. They lost my heartbeat. When I returned, they scolded me.

The audacity of health care industry workers (those who should know what a certain disease entails) who place blame on their patients for acting normally is infuriating.

I had kidney stones once at a young age. I remember barely walking into the emergency room one night after they became too painful.

As soon as I arrived, white as a sheet of paper, they asked me a few questions... doped me up on morphine... and managed to "lose" me on a gurney in a hallway somewhere for a few hours until my girlfriend at the time came and found me.

They took xrays I believe and I was free to go with some more painkillers in hand.

Apparently the hospital told me that I was supposed to call them by X date if I wanted any more painkillers.

I called them back about a week after that date had passed, asked for a refill, and was scolded like I was some drug addict just looking for a fix. I think they even hung up on me. How could I be so stupid as to have forgotten a date they told me when I was high as a kite by their own doing? Right.

I ended up passing them without any painkillers which as many of you have probably heard is unbelievably painful.

I understand that it can get monotonous working in a hospital, but with the amount of money they're paid to work there you would hope that they would be required to operate with a little compassion. Considering the fact that many people in a hospital are leaving this world.

What if the author's last memory was that of a person she didn't know berating her for something she wasn't sure she even did?

<comment><USER12> > ...was scolded like I was some drug addict just looking for a fix...

It's tough dealing with drugs and potential abuse. You know if you're really in need or not, but they deal with people wanting them for any reason just because, and so the skepticism starts to show. There's the default assumption at hospitals/pharmacies of just locking everything down so the healthcare providers themselves can't abuse them too.

My father was in the ER the other month for severe abdominal pain. He got morphine _after_ it was discovered that his blood pressure was through the roof and he wouldn't tolerate even a light touch in the area. Then multiple people were required for disposal and documentation of whatever was left over - after someone had to go get it from an automated dispensing cabinet and _then_ scan both the drugs and his bracelet QR code to verify the order (+allergies+other things). It was impressively thorough.

In comparison, my neurologist and doctor are really freehanded with nerve pain meds for my legs. Can't really recreationally abuse anticonvulsants or antidepressants or lidocaine patches, I guess. Also on the pain front, having something that can be directly tested goes a far way for the disbelief/skepticism that might otherwise be a problem. :(

<comment><USER13> I am not allowed to have a prescription that has refills (I assume due to law? Maybe office policy though). So when I need a refill I have to call and leave a voicemail message. It takes up to 72 business hours then I get a phonecall my prescription is ready. I have to physically go there and sign two forms saying I picked it up AND get my ID photocopied. Then I have to go to the pharmacy and show my ID AGAIN. I hate being treated like I'm a criminal!!

<comment><USER11> >I hate being treated like I'm a criminal!!

That's exactly how I felt when I called in for a refill of my pain medication after just having met with multiple doctors in the ER just a few weeks prior.

Do they really think I intentionally got kidney stones (which they saw themselves on xray) just to get an extra refill of pain meds a few weeks later?

No, the lady on the phone probably got intense amount of pleasure by telling me off verbally and hanging up. At least that's one of the only reasons I can think she didn't even bother to listen to me.

I was upset and confused, but too proud to call back and have myself humiliated again. So I just grinned and bore it and screamed like a baby when the stones actually passed a few days later.

A funny side note to this story... I can laugh at it all now seeing as it's ten years in the past. In my long walk to the hospital (I was a poor student at the time, unable to even afford the bus) me and my girlfriend passed a band of elderly ladies who took one look at me and within seconds said "Oh no, look at him. You must have stones, don't you laddy?".

I wasn't sure what was wrong with me at the time and I just replied something like "haha, I hope that's it!" and continued on to the hospital.

6 hours and an xray later... the doctors confirmed the very same thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Remember this -

      You have FOUR HOURS to get a person with a stroke to the emergency.

If you do, their chances of survival are _dramatically_ higher.

<comment><USER15> I think many people that haven't personally faced what a stroke is in one way or another don't realize how dangerous and life changing the disease is. Also, they don't understand how to detect it.

I have seen it several times. The first time it happened to my grandfather, nobody in the family realised what's wrong only that he seemingly was losing memory and repeating things he just said. Several hours passed until we thought we should perhaps call the medics - stroke was immediatelly recognized by the doctor and the emergency saved my grandfather only with very mild consequences afterwards. The second time my grandfather got a stroke, he started stuttering and had difficulty speaking. Again, we did not believe it could be stroke, because, you know, he might just be feeling bad. And again, the emergency saved him within a few hours. During the third and final stroke that we know of family was already aware and he was taken to the hospital early but he was released just a couple hours later with instructions to stay in bed and rest. Overall, about 6 to 8 hours passed until he got the required medical care. After that stroke he spent almost five years doing nothing, just existing - with almost completely blank mind. If only the doctors were professionals and we, the family, would have paid better attention, he would have been saved.

TL;DR: pay attention to the people you know. If something is _slightly_ off and the person himself does not seem aware of it, this is definitely a strong signal that it might be a stroke.

<comment><USER16> Problem is, there are tons of other diseases that look like stroke. Migranes, epilepsia, etc. IF you have one of those, going to ER every time you have something weird going on will suck you dry of money and your doctor will probably start treating you like an hypochondriac. There is no subsystem in US health care to handle this. Your primary care physician probably sucks and not available when you need them the most. ER does not care, prone to misdiagnosis and like to dope people on drugs before figuring out what's wrong. Been there, seen that, and it makes me really angry.

<comment> k-mcgrady >> "Problem is, there are tons of other diseases that look like stroke. Migranes, epilepsia, etc. IF you have one of those, going to ER every time you have something weird going on will suck you dry of money and your doctor will probably start treating you like an hypochondriac."

But shouldn't the doctors have though, "Ok, this man has had two strokes. These symptoms could be of something much more mundane but as he has had two strokes we will take very precaution"? I don't want to start the free health care debate but is that a problem? We have free health care and doctors seem to be willing to admit you for a night even if there is a very high likely hood you're fine. Do finances come into it more in the US and actually effect patient care?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My mother had a stroke. The fallout is very, very hard for the patient and their family.

Diet and exercise are, apparently, the easiest levers you have to control for stroke risk. Trust me: this is the best of all possible reasons to care about those. You do _not_ want to go through it and you do _not_ want your family to go through it. Specifics elided for privacy but suffice it to say that it combined elements of a heart attack, advanced Alzheimer's, and a profound war injury in a compact package that arrived on a normal sunny Tuesday.

<comment><USER18> Diet and exercise should really be taken care of by everybody. Lowers the risk of strokes and heart attacks considerably. In most of these young patients the reasons are due to other (most often undetected) issues like PFO though. That's also why i really have issues with health care in the US, as many people avoid checks to save costs. In germany, whenever you feel something is really wrong, you can just walk into ER and costs will be covered, no matter what.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Strokes can present in truly any number of ways. The Cincinnati Stroke Scale, often seen in public health campaigns as "FAST", provides three simple, quick assessments that can reliably delineate a majority of strokes. It is the standard for basic EMTs as well. More advanced providers should perform a more comprehensive exam, testing all the cranial nerves (actually usually just II through XII). A more formalized, advanced stroke scale is the NIH stroke scale: [http://stroke.nih.gov/documents/NIH_Stroke_Scale.pdf](http://stroke.nih.gov/documents/NIH_Stroke_Scale.pdf)

While there are often some kind of neurologic deficit associated with a stroke, the goal standard is, of course, a CT or CTA that should be administered immediately upon arrival in the ED of a suspected stroke (depending on the presentation of symptoms an exam by a neurologist may occur first).

The symptoms described in this story would absolutely make me think this person was having a stroke if she had verbalized them to someone with my training.

It's also worthwhile to point out that the person having a stroke may not realize they are having a stroke. People may have the obvious symptoms - slurred speech and hemiparesis - and refuse to acknowledge that these problems exist, because, in their mind, they don't.

If you think someone is having a stroke, record the time you first noticed symptoms and call 911 immediately.

</comment><comment><USER20> Great article.

I had a stroke one night in my 20's. When I woke up, my right side was numb (I thought I just slept on my arm), I spoke gibberish and was unable to write but I _felt_ fine and I thought I spoke perfectly fine. I finally figured out that something was not right when I tried to write a message to my mom on the back of an envelope to tell her that I was fine and I just drew a straight line instead of letters. That's when she called an ambulance.

Luckily I was back to normal within a month, but I struggled for some time to to find the right words when talking.

</comment><comment><USER21> I had a TIA when I was 28 (over 10 years ago) and under heavy stress (high blood pressure; they did not find any other causes; I was healthy as I could be, just extreme stress from my own business at that time); I swore after that to never be stressed again (and took measures to make sure that is possible, like living in southern Spain for large parts of the year) and haven't been since. I even forgot how it felt. My life is so much better that I now thank this TIA. Stress is pure hell and whatever business people think they get out of it; it's bullshit IMHO; I have had way more business success than ever without stress than I had with.

<comment><USER22> I can relate to this.

At 28 I had to deliver a project with a very tight schedule and ended up working 70 hours a week. It was fine for about two weeks, then started to have a permanent headache, then chest pain, then collapsed in the gym. After a doctor check up it turned out I had a 24h average blood pressure of 190.

It all went to normal again after taking forced holidays.

I swore to never put anything before my health.

Don't overwork guys, it's just not worth it. Screw the rat race. Your health comes first, it's your most valuable possession.

Stress is always there even if you don't see it, and by the time you do and symptoms arise it's almost always too late.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Four weeks ago my girlfriend, 32 yo, had a brain stroke because a deep venous thrombosis at her left side of the head. It was intense to see how much she deteriorated in the course of just a few hours, starting with a seizure and some very acute headaches she had together with vomiting the previous days. We were in intensive care around 10 days, and then 3 days more in hospitalization. The investigation of her tendency to hypercoagulate yielded as main culprit sedentarism and the previous uninterrupted usage of oral contraceptives (mercilon) for almost ten years. We were fortunate in some sense as the cause was easy to point out and also as we discarded autoinmuse diaseases (my biggest concern) and now she is under low molecular weight heparin, hoping that the clot is reabsorbed in two or three months.

As part of the recovery, I'm reading to her My Stroke of Hindsight, of Jill Bolte Taylor, and her symptoms and the description of the episode of the acute phase match largely: speech loss, paralysys of her right part of the body and rational disconnect with external stimuli.

This article highlights also how sensible we are to the changes of what we are at the end: physicochemical interactions. I was worried my girlfriend would lose her essence, but thanks to God her recovery has been amazing so far.

</comment><comment><USER24> I am not sure if you are the OP or know her, but this story touched my heart. It is beautiful. I am only imagine how strong she has to be, and the people around her must be to get through this. My sister and her husband are going through the very same thing -- He was progressing very well in his career and they just had their first child when he suffered his from the same reason - <USER2> hole in the heart. All the best. You and all the stroke victims have my prayers tonight.

</comment><comment><USER25> All the stories I know and heard of stroke victims in their 30's or 40's make me think and ask: is there really a way to prevent or predict a stroke?

Would the "controversial routine full body scan" help? Specially to people who have a parent being an early stroke victim?

These things are scary as hell...

<comment><USER26> Most common symptoms of PFO are described in the article: "migraine headaches, or have altitude sickness at 5,000 feet instead of 10,000 feet, or find yourself panting while doing a slow jog, no matter how often you train." Also should be noted that there are much many other subtle syndromes that can lead to sudden cardiac death, many are detected accidentally when testing something else (going to the ER because of a car accident) There's no math formula to detect how and when each of us will die one day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Remember FAST: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAST_(stroke)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAST_\(stroke\))

First 3 minutes of the house episode Fetal Position (S3 E17) demonstrate it.

<comment><USER28> The author points out that she didn't display any of those symptoms.

<comment><USER29> Though she says her speech wasn't slurred, you can tell from the story she had speech and comprehension difficulties. Regarding face drooping and arm drift, it could be that she just doesn't remember/didn't notice, again she says herself her memory was failing. I'm sure a doctor would have recognised the symptoms immediately.

<comment><USER30> She was sitting with her husband and friends for _hours_ and they obviously felt extreme guilt about not realizing she was having a stroke. I'm sure they've all played that party back and forth in their minds for days wondering if there was something they should have noticed. That day would have been analyzed in agonizing detail by all of them. And it sounds like the writer had this conversation, as she had to re-piece so much together.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Her memory experience was already reminding me of Leonard in Memento and then she writes, "it's time for my shot." That hit me unreasonably hard.

<comment><USER25> I just saw Memento last night (for the first time), so reading the article felt like an incredible coincidence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Two years ago this October I was homeless. I would wander around all night for fear of attacks[1] and try to sleep during the day at the university while sitting on a bench or chair. In October the winter shelters had not yet opened here, and it was so cold I feared I would freeze to death. I wandered into ER on a pretext: there was a swelling in my leg, spider bite maybe?

I overheard the intake person talking with someone: "I'm worried about that guy in #68." Why? "He thinks he's got a spider bite, but he's got blood clot written all over him."

I felt pretty good about that; it meant I'd have a place to sleep for a whole night. Then I was suddenly surrounded by 5 or 6 people.

Symptoms, sir?

Sometimes slurred speech, tingling in the extremities, can't spell anymore, confused by the way people talk so _fast_, confused by simple things, excessively paranoid, feels like there's an Ace bandage wrapped around my chest.

You're a junkie. No. You're exclusively vegetarian. No. You're diabetic. No, I've been tested for that. Well, we'll take a blood draw.

I got an ultrasound over my legs -- and they discovered a DVT. Next thing I knew, they'd slapped me in hospital for eight days. I was put on no less than eight medications, the scariest of which was Coumadin (same as Warfarin, I think?) -- scary because they made me watch a video describing it, by which I mean "You follow these instructions to the letter or you gonna die, son." At least that's what it felt like. And I had to sign all kinds of waivers, or something. Two of the residents (very young women) told me that they had had DVT's themselves... possibly as a result of being exclusively vegetarian?

The diagnosis was: Pernicious Anemia. My understanding (which is not to be trusted) is that the myelin sheathing around my nerves has been dissolving for years. Apparently the communicating tissue between the axons in my brain had been going away for quite some time.

I liked this diagnosis because: it's easily treatable; it explains my increasingly weird behavior; I'm not dead from it.

The treatment is: Take B12 every day for the rest of my life.

The highly-abbreviated coda to the story is: My Doctor told I'd had this disease for at least ten years(!); hospital got me a case manager, who got me Disability, Homed, and a Laptop. But it took 2 years or so.

TLDR: Being exclusively vegetarian can cause DVT's

[1][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM6WrqLMJrQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM6WrqLMJrQ)

<comment><USER11> >The treatment is: Take B12 every day for the rest of my life.

Every human being on earth that I know of needs this. It's not just vegetarians.

What foods were you eating while homeless?

I imagine it's fairly tough to come by nutritional yeast and other B-complex rich foods whilst living on the street.

My girlfriend is a strict vegetarian, gets her blood checked regularly, and is apparently fine. We assume because she supplements all of the necessary nutrients that she lacks in her food. Mainly iron and the b complex vitamins I believe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> > Each night, I took the box of Lovenox syringes and carried it to my husband, > sobbing. "It's time for my shot," I said, tears streaming down my face.

> Each night, he pinched skin on my belly as I screamed like a toddler and he > injected the medicine.

Her husband sounds like an awesome guy - taking care of her in that state sounds incredibly difficult.

> My husband and I decided to get a divorce.

> "I think in hindsight, it was your stroke that changed everything for me," > he said.

> I thought it was the affair he'd had. But maybe he had a point. "Maybe that > was the year," I said.

Dang.

<comment><USER33> I actually found this to be the most interesting/least covered aspect of the article. I wanted to know more about the husband, and how he dealt with (or didn't) the ordeal.

<comment><USER30> Also this:

> People have asked if anyone around me could tell I was having a stroke. > "Weren't you acting weird?" they'd ask, and my husband's mouth would turn > into a thin line, and my friends who joined us for New Year's would lower > their eyes.

How long would that be hanging in the back of his head, eating at him about what he could have done differently?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Well, I just popped an Aspirin for no reason.

<comment><USER35> just don't do to much of it, one dude killed himself with couple dozen taken within a day in the 90-ies (or at least that's what the then Russian media reported; aspirin UPSA was heavily advertised back then)

<comment><USER35> I really hope the above was not downvoted due to you guys taking mentioned amounts of aspirin every day :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Will smartwatches with heart rate/other health sensors be able to detect strokes right when they happen? Or maybe even slightly before they do?

<comment><USER37> I don't see how a clot in the brain would be detectable through heart rate at all.

<comment><USER36> Not sure, but maybe at a preventative level? E.g. if your heart rate behaves a certain way after exercise or during sleep, maybe it indicates a stronger likelihood of having a blood clot.

Well I don't know, I'm not a doctor- that's why I'm asking the question, hoping that someone knowledgeable will answer with a concrete reasoning.

Your comment in its present form is quite pointless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> This is an amazing article and incredible blog

Among many interesting and inspiring themes, of interest to the HN community may be the disassociation of vision and objects. All of the deep learning models succeeding in classification emulate one side of the brain, while perspectives like this present life outside the constraint of rational thinking.

</comment><comment><USER39> I was terrified after reading this. Reminded me that I should live a bit healthier, not drink more coffee then water, got to sleep earlier, wake up earlier, maybe even exercise. But more important, it got me thinking. The non- routine kind of thinking. Read some old diary entries. Wrote a new one, after almost a year.

</comment><comment><USER40> My wife had a stroke at the age of 30, seven years ago. It happened in the hospital during an embolization procedure. She was unconscious for 5 days. This event has obviously changed her life, but I wasn't prepared for the ways it would change mine. Thank you for sharing this.

</comment><comment><USER41> This is relevant:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight)

</comment><comment><USER42> Profound. Thank you for sharing this. It pains me to read though that you had years of abnormal symptoms (severe shortness of breath, migraines, etc) and the medical system was unable to detect the issue early. This seems like the sort of issue that early detection could provide tremendous quality of life / survivability improvements at little risk. If the existing tests are too difficult, then we need more tests.

</comment><comment><USER43> This was on _buzzfeed_?? Crazy. Didn't think those soul-less bottom-feeders would turn to quality long-form essays.

</comment><comment><USER44> This is the best piece I have read in a while. It is amazing how something so small could affect our life. We are so delicate. Do you actually see objects as shapes and colors (as in, was the part of the brain that translates the signal into images lost) or was that you can not figure out what it is that you are looking at?

</comment><comment><USER45> There is a similar TED Talk worth watching:

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

[http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight) (18:19 min, Feb 2008)

</comment><comment><USER46> Such a well written article. I loved the details with which the incident was described.

</comment><comment><USER47> I wish Buzzfeed only had articles like this.

<comment><USER48> Why, people enjoy the other types of articles - why should they not cater to them as well?

<comment><USER49> Because we associate BuzzFeed with bullshit clickbait spam. It makes it difficult for an article to reach the right audience when you have such a large amount of negative association with a particular brand. It'd be like if the supermarket tabloids starting include well-written and legitimate content. It's going to take a substantial amount of work to win over the millions of people who view them exclusively as a tabloid, which is exactly how we view BuzzFeed today.

<comment><USER47> Exactly.

I don't even know how you'd find this article on Buzzfeed - the homepage is so obnoxiously cluttered with vapidness ("21 Hashtags All Curvy Girls Really Need") I only lasted about five seconds. It's like a parody of everything that's awful, only it's real.

<comment><USER50> If you want a parody of the parody then clickhole.com is awesome - it's the sibling site to The Onion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Not sure what this has got to do with programming?

<comment><USER52> Intellectually interesting stories on all topics have been welcome here ever since PG changed the site name from "Startup News" in 2007:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html)

By the way, if anybody wants a hit of meta, it's astonishing how precisely the last five paragraphs there still apply.

<comment><USER53> > The focus of Hacker News is going to be anything that good hackers would > find interesting

How are we defining "good hacker" ?

> It doesn't include most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless > they're _evidence of some interesting new phenomenon._

Can a "good hacker" be curious and intellectually satisfied by political stories even if they don't include _new phenomenon_?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the article. However, if we're saying, "this is on topic for HN" or "this is off topic for HN" it seems weird to have a definition that is 100% dependent on one's lived experiences and what _they_ individually find interesting. Maybe someone really really likes cat pictures because of the color or makeup of the fur, or the instincts of felines. Maybe someone finds geopolitical discussions about surveillance states to be intellectually uninteresting because they feel helpless to affect reform. Or they feel most startups are void of substance and rely too much on VC funding and thus are not intellectually interesting.

I guess I'm looking for a bit more of an enumerated "this is acceptable" and "this is not" as opposed to "you'll know it when you see it."

Thoughts? Thanks!

<comment><USER52> I don't think "defining" captures what we can do about these things. "Meandering around" is more like it. But here are a couple observations.

A semi-objective thing about most of the uninteresting, non-HN-appropriate stories is how predictable they are, i.e. how repetitive of previous instances of the type. The more predictable a story is, the less information it adds and the less interesting it is.

There's a reason we say " _intellectually_ interesting" to describe the stories HN wants. There are different kinds of interesting. For example, we all have an interest in the things we're personally invested in or identify with, but that is not intellectual interest.

Similarly, as humans we're highly interested in what other humans are up to, but that—think gossip and celebrity news—is not intellectual interest either. So a story can be interesting without being a good fit for HN, quite apart from not all having intellectual interests in common.

Maybe this explains why upvotes alone don't work for a site like HN. We upvote the things that excite our interest. It's too much work to pause and ask ourselves what kind of interest we're experiencing. And the non-intellectual kinds have the advantage—they require less attention to get excited. (For one thing, they rely on recognition, while intellectual interest relies on curiosity, which is an absence of recognition.) This is compounded on the internet, where attention is fleeting and fragmentary.

<comment><USER53> Oh absolutely, this is a really neat conversation that I was hoping could happen. You mention how predictable stories are, and we all have those moments on social media sites where we're all rolling our eyes. I think it might be interesting to look at HN from something like Google Trends, wherein tracking the topics that are upvoted/downvoted. Maybe do some penalties for topics that have a large front-page success rate and upvote/downvote ratio (and throw in comment # too, same with comment length) and you could start to probably see trends for circlejerk material. We'll always have people flagging stories for duplicates or the like, but certain topics always get through by virtue of many people submitting about that topic.

The advantage to so something like Reddit is if a topic is talked about too much or not at all, you can just add a channel and grassroots it. On HN, you only have a single timeline and front-page (yes, there's searching, but people are lazy). News sites have channels but editors which controls the stream (and most restrict who can edit). I think a more algorithmic approach to provisioning up and down channels for specific topics could be neat. Not really sure where I'm ultimately going with this, kind of free-forming based off issues I've seen with internet discussions and IRL discussions and recent controversies as of late. I think it's important to look at how HN does it's news/info vs. reddit vs. twitter etc, to me it doesn't feel like we've really 'optimized' it yet for user distributed news ... or maybe I'm not hip with the latest app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> > As a result, my left brain, the expert at numbers and language and logic and > reasoning, a part of it suffocated and died. My right brain, the specialist > with regard to color, music, creativity, intuition, and emotions, therefore > could not talk to my left brain.

This popular myth of broad specialization of the hemispheres needs to die. The author lost credibility there.

<comment><USER55> There were a thousand ways to convey this information. You could have pointed at articles, you could have enlightened the reading audience. You chose the one with the highest insult to information ratio. And you did this when the target of the insult is someone who went through a tough ordeal.

Humanity never ceases to amaze me, on both ends of the spectrum.

<comment><USER54> My first draft was actually more harsh, mostly because I do not consider this essay well written in several aspects. I did not insult the author; I just did not sugarcoat my criticism, as US American culture of insincere friendliness may demand.

<comment><USER55> I'm not North American. Your post has a high insult/information ratio in any culture.

<comment><USER54> You still have not pointed out my alleged insult (as in personal attack). The only insult I see here is your passive-aggressive one: "Humanity never ceases to amaze me, on both ends of the spectrum." As for your questioning why I did not reference external sources, the invalidity of this popular myth is far from arcane knowledge, especially on the Internet where it is just one web search away, and I do not reward lazy ignorance.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>