Hacker Monthly Shuts Down - <AUTHOR> http://blog.hackermonthly.com/shuts-down.html <comment><USER2> Thank you Lim Cheng Soon for all the hard work. I ran the same website for well over a decade and I know how it feels when creativity drops away. Consider passing the mantle to someone else to keep the publication going (if there is any interest), I did this and I don't regret it. After an apprentice period that person could then run it by themselves. That way your baby would get another shot at life even if you yourself don't feel like it any more.

<comment><USER3> Thanks Jacques!

I'm thinking of "open sourcing" Hacker Monthly. The process of making it, the InDesign template I use (and optimized throughout the years), the resources etc. That way, anyone can start their own "Best of HN" magazine or really, any "Best of" magazine.

<comment><USER4> Wow... I'm just sad I found out about this while it's shutting down. Those layouts are beautiful, and a condensed version of HN is probably just what the doctor ordered. I'm sure you'll find something inspiring to do next with talents like this! Good luck. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been a print subscriber since May 2011 and I just wanted to say that my monthly issue of Hacker Monthly has consistently been a wonderful experience. The articles, the art, everything was very enjoyable. Thanks so much for having offered this service!

<comment><USER3> Thank you so much. That meant a lot to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Have you considered an "Ask HN" where you solicit someone who is passionate about it to take over running it?

<comment><USER7> Good idea

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm sorry to hear that it's closing down, hearing this for the first time. I get why you're moving on.

Overall, I think there is still an opportunity for a "best of HN" publication, and I would probably subscribe if it wasn't too expensive. I just think it would have to be an entirely online-based format, _maybe_ with an optional PDF, but certainly not something that needs a dead tree version.

<comment><USER9> I've been running Hacker Newsletter ([http://hackernewsletter.com](http://hackernewsletter.com)), a weekly best of HN, for the last 5+ years if that helps any.

That said, Lim Cheng Soon really put in some effort to make the print magazine really nice. I'm not a magazine type person, but loved getting them as they were really well made and a nice way to step away from a screen. I've had a chance to work with him over the years and I know whatever he does next will have just as much heart poured into it... I wish him the best!

<comment><USER3> Thanks Kale, and your kind support over the years.

And Yes everyone, Hacker Newsletter is excellent and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Thanks, it was a wonderful reading experience, and I always looked forward receiving my subscription at the beginning of each month. I was lucky to have 2 posts featured in the magazine (nums 11 and 14), and the layout, composition and all else related to it was great.

Good luck with your next project(s)!

</comment><comment><USER11> I wod love to hear from the OP if he had explores transitioning, aka selling, this to someone. I think there is a market for the attention of people with money to spend, even in print magazines (especially in niche print magazines).

But maybe he explored it and didn't find any takers, or maybe he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of such a transition.

Would be nice to know.

<comment><USER3> As other comments have pointed out, not having the subscribers list is my non- negotiable terms if someone wants to take over. In fact, after I refunded everyone, I'll reset my server and remove all my DB backups so I won't even have a copy of it.

I know it doesn't make business sense for someone to buy a business without any customers. That's why I never explore the option of selling it.

<comment><USER11> That's an interesting choice. I'm sorry, I scanned the blog and didn't see this mentioned. It certainly creates a higher hurdle for a sale.

I'm sure you've considered all the options, but may I ask why you didn't choose to offer current subscribers an 'opt-in' option for being contacted by a new publisher? That way those who were interested in continuing with a new owner would be able to, and those who were only interested in your product wouldn't be bothered. (Again, I wasn't able to find the blog post where you mentioned being approached by possible owners, so if you answered this question there, I apologize.)

But if you open source everything (as mentioned in another one of your comments), that'd be great too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's really sad. I loved the mag and it was my favourite read once a month. Good luck, I'm sure we'll see something interesting from you in the future, you can discard the project you've lost the passion to, but you can't discard the passion itself :-)

</comment><comment><USER13> Best of luck on the next adventure!

<comment><USER3> Thanks, Patrick. Now I finally have the time to get my hands on Stockfighter!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Why? You might ask. The main reason is I'm not motivated anymore. To be more > precise, I ran out of creative juices.

Perhaps now is the time to start "hacking the brain" :) Lots of good nootropic supplements to be tried that could boost creativity :)

Of course, I'm only joking.

<comment><USER15> I wish you were not. Sadly, most of the nootropics are little more than glorified aspirin. There's nothing even remotely resembling NZT :(.

<comment><USER16> There are a number of illegal drugs that do boost creativity. Steve Jobs apparently like LSD.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Thank you so much! I was an ebook subscriber, and I was really sad to hear that it was no longer going to be around. I see your comment about open sourcing the template you have.

Will there be an archive of back issues available in press-ready PDF form?

<comment><USER3> You still buy individual issues from the website. I'm thinking of offering a bundle of every back issues for sale.

Update: Now you can get all the back issues here [https://gum.co/hm-back- issues](https://gum.co/hm-back-issues)

<comment><USER17> Thanks! Bought. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> never knew it existed until today

<comment><USER19> It had way too weak marketing. It was a top quality publication, always interesting and with great design, and it deserved way more readers.

I myself only heard of it when one of my articles got featured in it. They were nice enough to give me a free year of the digital subscription and it was one of the highlights every month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> My friend and I just started hacker daily ([https://medium.com/hacker- daily](https://medium.com/hacker-daily)) If you open source it we could potentially help out whoever picks up the mantle with content.

<comment><USER21> Hacker Daily? Keep up, grandpa! I'll be launching Hacker Hourly in about 20 minutes. Enjoy your retirement!

<comment><USER22> Hacker Hourly? How quaint. Behold... Hacker Instant! => [https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com)

<comment><USER23> Hacker Instant Newest! [https://news.ycombinator.com/newest](https://news.ycombinator.com/newest)

or for those who only want the comments

Hacker Instant New Comments! [https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments](https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments)

<comment><USER24> How about Hacker _Future_? I want to know where Twitter stock will be in March.

<comment><USER23> I cannot find that url on the home page.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Damn it looks interesting. Wish that I have known it earlier.

</comment><comment><USER26> A real shame. Hacker Monthly was a great product for the HN community and I'm going to miss it arriving in the post every month.

With that said, I think there's still a healthy ecosystem of similar products. There was a post on the front page about a new newsletter that sent out one "classic" HN post a week, I think the article mentioned it was doing pretty well. Can't remember its name though haha.

<comment><USER27> You're thinking of HackerCanon: [https://medium.com/swlh/best- of-2015-pfffffffft-79d9b014f4de](https://medium.com/swlh/best- of-2015-pfffffffft-79d9b014f4de)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Thank you for HM. It was the first magazine I was published in. Always admired your creativity and drive to make it happen.

</comment><comment><USER29> Is there a way to order a bundle with printed copies of multiple back-issues? Or do I have to buy them one-by-one on Magcloud for 9$ each?

I have the first 16 issues, which I bought all at once a few years ago, to lower shipping costs (I live in Europe).

I really liked Hacker Monthly and I'd love to have the other issues in a printed form :)

</comment><comment><USER30> Out of curiosity, did Hacker Monthly print articles from the web? With permission of the source websites?

<comment><USER31> Hacker Monthly put together a physical magazine (it looked gorgeous) full of articles from Hacker News.

(Source: he asked my permission for a post of mine that got some attention back in 2013.)

<comment><USER23> Must be quite the thing to have something so well done with your name on an article in it. Those magazines look amazing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Thanks Lim for such an amazing work over the years. It was always a great experience to receive HM on the mail every month, and read (or re-read) the carefully selected articles.

Any plans to let old subscribers download the PDF for past issues? I should have done it before it expired.

<comment><USER3> Yes! I'll make sure subscribers with subscription until the final issue stay active at least for few more months. Drop me an email cheng.soon at hackermonthly dot com and I'll reactivate your account to download the back issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> What a shame, I didn't know Hacker Monthly was even a thing until today. Now I want a subscription so badly.

A magazine of HN delivered to my door would be amazing! Wish I knew about it before, and I hope someone continues with it.

<comment><USER34> I echo these sentiments. Wish I had heard of it sooner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> This is a bummer as I really love the idea and have bought quite a few issues. Super well done. But I completely understand the lack of creative juices after a while. Best of luck in your next venture.

</comment><comment><USER36> Thank you!

</comment><comment><USER37> "I'm not motivated anymore. To be more precise, I ran out of creative juices. Somewhere down the road, I don't feel that way anymore. That's when I know I have to stop."

</comment><comment><USER38> You should sell it instead of shutting it down. There would be someone that is interested in buying it. Sell it and its subscriber base on flippa.com or something.

<comment><USER39> According to a July blog post and regarding what was planned back then once the magazine had run its course :

 _Are you selling the site?

I probably received more than 50 emails about selling Hacker Monthly. My answer is 'No'. I'm ending it and I wanted to do it right. And, I wouldn't be comfortable passing the subscribers data to someone else._

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Are there any similar quality publications around?

</comment><comment><USER41> Thanks for making this -- any ideas what you are doing next?

</comment><comment><USER42> Loved the magazine, good luck with your next endeavours!

</comment><comment><USER43> Pay for things and they won't get shut down.. they said

<comment><USER2> "I'm in the process of refunding all the subscribers who paid for the subscription period after 2015. It will take some time as I'm doing this by hand. If you need a refund urgently (for any reasons), drop me an email and I'll have it processed immediately."

Which is about as nice as it gets. On top of that, you got what you paid for no?

This is not some kind of crucial service that holds your data or that you need for your day-to-day life.

<comment><USER43> When a free service us shut down the mantra is normally "you should have paid for it"

<comment><USER2> Yes, but you see, this is not an online service, it is a publication.

You have a bit of an entitlement issue.

<comment><USER44> I'm not sure eecks is really being entitled, I read it more as (s)he's referring to the often heard remark (here) about any kind of thing that shuts down that is free: "You should have paid for it, use service xyz that is paid and they won't shut down". It is more prevalent in the online business of course, but happens in offline as well.

<comment><USER2> Whether you pay for something or not does not guarantee that it will not shut down, it will simply change the odds that it will. Imagine if LCS would have made hacker news monthly a free publication, he'd have had to shut it down long ago. So in that sense paying for the service made it possible to last this long in the first place but that does not entitle you to expect the service to last _for ever_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Why? You might ask. The main reason is I'm not motivated anymore. To be more precise, I ran out of creative juices.

Such a terrible excuse! Society today has this idea that they should only work on things that are their calling or truly make them happy! Outsource some of the boring work, grind out a few hours a week and collect your easy paycheque. Millions of people would do anything to make such easy money instead of slaving away at a real "boring" job for minimum wage.

What a shame on so many different levels.

<comment><USER46> Eh, this person doesn't want to do it anymore. They refunded people's money for the undelivered product. That's a pretty good way to handle it. Better than slagging along putting out a shitty product just because you can't quit.

Time and energy is a resource just as much as money is. If your hobby project is sapping you of more than you get out of it, there's no shame in doing something else.

<comment><USER47> That's not really the point.

Give it up and give the project to someone else or sell it.

Now it's in limbo... What if someone else wants to do it? Will Lee sue? Is he really interested in litigation now?

Who knows? It's a shame to end it like this.

<comment><USER48> Sue based on what? Just don't literally copy the name and design, and there's nothing to sue for.

<comment><USER2> He's doing one better and open sourcing all the templates, see elsewhere in the thread.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Congratulations Patrick - <AUTHOR> If previous blog posts and memory serve me, today is a milestone day for patio11 (aka Patrick McKenzie) - his last day as a Japanese salaryman before stepping full time into his 'MicroISV on a Shoestring'.
There are others in the HN community that have been there before, or built much larger businesses, or taken the plunge without first having built a successful side project. But since patio11 is a valuable member on this site, and a contributor I greatly admire, I felt it was worth noting and creating a space for others who might also want to pass on their best wishes.
So Congrats Patrick. I wish you every success. If the adage 'Give and ye shall Receive' were ever to hold true, then you will be the recipient of much happiness.
(And if you don't know patio11, I recommend his blog http://www.kalzumeus.com/) <comment><USER2> Of all the start-ups on HN, yours is the one that I easily admire the most. No funding, no bullshit, just endless iteration on perfecting a simple thing and minting that.

It's the epitome of entrepreneurship, far more so than some 'feature' that gets funded and a quick exit.

If you ever decide to do this on a larger scale I don't doubt that you'll be very successful, it's the attitude and the time put in that matter, not so much the product.

It's one of the very few business I've seen where luck has been completely (or at least, almost completely) eradicated and the whole thing is turned in to a science.

The next big question is: Can you scale it ?

I think you can, please keep us informed of your new adventures!

<comment><USER3> re: "The next big question is: Can you scale it ?"

I would like to suggest a potentially more interesting question (or set of questions) :

_Should_ he scale it? If so, why? Why would so many HNers assume the next step to be scaling it? Might he not instead tend to his business like a garden, to ensure that it continues to be healthy, and use his remaining time to enjoy semi-retirement?

I think a lot of HNers could do with considering the above kinds of questions a bit more often. Why are you _really_ doing your start-ups? What are you _really_ looking to get out of them? Is it just to hear the 'ding!' of the cash register more frequently? I hope you're looking for more/different than that.

<comment><USER2> Because having just one stream of income, no matter how reliable it seems is a huge risk. Before you know it you can be back in the treadmill again.

<comment><USER3> I may have accidentally implied the semi-retirement angle more strongly than my point regarding tending to the first business as if a garden instead of trying to scale it, which was more what I wanted to focus on. Apologies if that wasn't as clear as it could be.

Perhaps I should also have mentioned that he is diversifying, where diversifying is certainly distinct from scaling the first business up.

As far as his first business goes, I still think it is worthwhile questioning the common automatic assumption that the next goal should be to scale it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You are all incredibly kind. I would say more, but today is my last day and after I get to work there are four issues in Trac with my name on them.

<comment><USER4> Done! In a mere twelve hours. I can feel myself already getting soft.

<comment><USER5> Now is The Moment for you.

Congrats.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This means his Mixergy interview should be coming up soon too. We agreed to wait till after the big change.

<comment><USER7> Now that is something I'm greatly looking forward to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> What I'm curious about: patio11 seems to have developed some formidable experience in the non-bullshit aspects of "SEO" (running actual A/B tests and iterating as a result). The odds are good that that's actually worth more, on a consulting basis, than selling bingo cards. Maybe he'll add some products? Best of luck in any case!

<comment><USER9> I think he wrote that he has amassed a big amount of experience, enough to write a book, but that he would rather spend his time writing actual software.

<comment><USER10> I wish he would write a book. I'd buy it in an instant!

<comment><USER11> You can read his blog, or see all the comments he makes on HN. That's what I've been doing, and it's quite insightful

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I imagine I'm like a lot of HN readers that mostly lurk but have quietly gotten a lot of value out of Patrick's comments and blog posts. In fact just last week I ended up implemented his omnibox idea and automating the cancelation process for our site because of these two posts: [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/03/20/running-a-software- busin...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/03/20/running-a-software-business- on-5-hours-a-week/) [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/02/09/dashboard-design-for- met...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/02/09/dashboard-design-for-metrics- savvy-software-companies/)

Both ideas have saved a lot of time and effort already and I'm kicking myself for not doing them sooner. I expect to save more time and make more money by following up on a few of his other posts that I have I bookmarked.

So a huge thank-you for all of the information that you've shared. It's extremely valuable and very much appreciated. Congratulations on going fulltime. I'll be quietly cheering you on.

</comment><comment><USER13> In this article:

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what- mak...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-makes-a- great-teacher/7841/)

I remember reading this about a teacher using Patrick's product in his class:

 _Next, Mr. Taylor announces it's time for Multiplication Bingo. As Mr. Taylor reads off a problem ("20 divided by 5"), the kids scour their boards, chips in hand, looking for 4's. One girl is literally shaking with excitement. Another has her hands clasped in a prayer position. I find myself wanting to play. You know you're in a good classroom if you have to stop yourself from raising your hand._

I have written tons of code for many users, but I don't think I've ever had a user "shaking with excitement" to use my software. That is my new goal. Thank you, Patrick. Keep 'em shaking!

</comment><comment><USER14> Congratulations to Patrick! I sincerely wish him all the luck in his new endeavor. I have been following Patrick's progress from beginning when he started posting at Business of Software forums. I always thought that 'Bingo Cards' is a stupid product to work on. But hey, not only he proved me wrong(and I am happy to be proved wrong), he is able to quit his day job by selling this product. He is a prolific writer and is always offering valuable advice. [I have bookmarked his comments page which I check daily. <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11> ]

<comment><USER15> That's funny. The first time I heard of bingo card creators I thought it was a great idea. That and other niche hobbies like knitting, aviation, models, etc have huge untapped potential.

and they're probably much simpler* to succeed in than yet another social widget. They also appeal to my "God-those-narcicistic-valley-kids" personality.

* Simple, but not easy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Patrick - congrats. You represent all that is good about this community!

</comment><comment><USER17> First of all congrats Patrick. It's amazing to know you since your days at BoS. Unbelievable that within these few years, you have achieve tremendously not only with your BCC, but also your stardom in our web entrepreneur community. You're now a moderator @ Seobook and BoS, and a big celebrity here at Hackernews. All due to your unrelenting giving to the community by contributing useful posts!

</comment><comment><USER18> The guy picked out and dominated a specific niche most people never would have touched - on 5 hours a week.

Even if he gets REALLY crazy and doubles his hours each week, I can only imagine the success that is waiting for him.

Congrats on the move, I tip my hat to a true professional and successful warrior of the game.

K

</comment><comment><USER19> Congratulations Patrick. Excited to see what your next venture turns out to be.

For those who aren't aware, Patrick is incredibly helpful off-HN also. As in, if you email him, he always gets back to you, no matter how busy he is.

Thanks for being so awesome :)

<comment><USER4> _As in, if you email him, he always gets back to you, no matter how busy he is._

Please note that this is my aspiration but not my SLA. If you want an SLA, I'm happy to entertain offers for consulting engagements, or in the alternative you can pretend you're preparing for class tomorrow and can't download the Internet to your printer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Congratulations Patrick. I hope you enjoy your new-found freedom. Remember not to work _too_ hard ;)

</comment><comment><USER21> Congratulations, remember full time is just 40 hours (think of all the free time!) and Go Kick Ass! :)

</comment><comment><USER22> Congrats Patrick... I've followed your posts since the Business of Software days and you've been an inspiration to me.

I haven't had your courage though, I quit my job in Japan before working on my own projects... Too many hours of overtime killed me afterwards for side projects...

</comment><comment><USER23> Damn, I didn't realize how prolific his writing was. Kudos! And, anyone have a best-of list?

</comment><comment><USER24> Good luck Patrick, you're an inspiration to the rest of us bootstrappers trying to serve two masters (our day jobs and our startups). I've learned a ton from you and look forward to learning even more as you jump in full time!

</comment><comment><USER25> Good luck, been following you since Business of Software and the launch of uISV on a Shoestring. I have always been curious about what you could do if you put your dedication and talent to work in a larger market.

By the way, I've made the same jump a couple of times, although only for a couple of months each time to get something off the ground. My biggest problem has always been lack of social and professional stimulation from the workplace once you go solo. If you got any pointers on how to deal with that I am all ears.

</comment><comment><USER26> Congrats Patrick, well done and keep up the good work. You are a source of inspirtion for many here (including myself).

</comment><comment><USER27> Considering it's 730 JST at the time of this writing, he's probably sleeping in as he's no longer a Japanese salaryman.

Congratulations!

</comment><comment><USER28> Seconded; fingers crossed the new projects will mean even more great posts/insights for us to drool over :)

</comment><comment><USER29> This is funny. I now just wanted to find something interesting on HN. I decided to check Patrick's comment feed. Here I am finding something interesting about him. Congratulations, man.

Cheers

Edit: I actually have it on my list to read every single post he has written.

</comment><comment><USER30> congrats Patrick! - will hopefully meet you at the Tokyo HN meetup next week.

<comment><USER31> Where is the Tokyo HN meetup going to be?

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Congrats! Thanks for your valuable posts. Indeed, remember to take care of yourself now that you can work anytime you want -- tho your last job sounds like it was quite demanding.

</comment><comment><USER33> Good luck. I look forward to reading more of your insights into conversion optimization. That's certainly one area where I lack knowledge and experience.

</comment><comment><USER34> Way to go, Patrick! Not just because you have the same last name as me, but also because I love reading your posts here and your blog. Best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER35> Good luck Patrick, I really appreciate your blog and your explanations you share on it.. Hope everything goes smooth & well for you new life :)

</comment><comment><USER36> Omedetou gozaimasu!

<comment><USER37> 日本語を喋れるんだ!

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> 頑張って。

</comment><comment><USER39> Are you staying in Japan, or moving back home? If you're staying, how did you pull that off (visa-wise) without a "regular" job?

<comment><USER30> there are two possibilities:

1) it's possible to self-sponsor as long as you can show a certain amount of income from part time work or, in Patrick's case, internet earnings.

2) your visa is not tied to your employer. you can get a 3 year visa, quit your job, then continue to work freelance for 3 years as long as you do all your tax etc correctly. then hopefully by the time you have to renew your visa you'll have a corporate entity set up with enough paid-in capital to sponsor your visa for you. or you do (1).

<comment><USER40> How does self-sponsoring work? Are there any other requirements besides having enough income from _somewhere_? Can anyone do it?

<comment><USER41> Most countries are more than happy to offer indefinite residency to people who can prove they're independently wealthy.

<comment><USER40> Yeah sounds good but is this reality or just your own personal guesstimate?

Also, what does it mean to be independently wealthy?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Congratulations, I've been quite excited about this, show's how much people value you and your posts. Enjoy!

</comment><comment><USER31> Congrats Patrick. Good to get out of a Japanese company :). Am in Tokyo myself, and would love to meet you!

</comment><comment><USER43> Awesome, good luck Patrick - can't wait to see how things work out for you.

</comment><comment><USER44> Here here!

</comment><comment><USER45> hey how are you doing

</comment><comment><USER46> beST OF LUCK!</comment>


In the Air Tonight Drum Fill Simultaneously at 99.9%, 100%, and 100.1% Speed - <AUTHOR> https://soundcloud.com/josephprein/in-the-air-tonight-drum-fill-for-10-hours-at-999-100-and-1001-speed <comment><USER2> Interesting. It sounds good at the start but becomes cacophonous shortly thereafter.

Another war story here: I used to run a 16 track mixing console with a rock band. The guitar player played with 2 different bands. He got a gig in a club one night and both bands showed up. Everybody insisted on playing.

It was OK but the less accomplished drummer insisted on playing a drum solo. I ran his drums through a delay in the range 160 - 200 mSec and mixed it back in. Every drum strike was doubled and the audience liked it. I don't think they would have been as enthusiastic if they had heard what he was actually playing.

<comment><AUTHOR> How much did you listen to? The cacophony comes in waves, and these waves become the sound itself.

It's a technique that goes back to Steve Reich in the 1960's. One day I'd like to see some of this stuff lip-synched to the appropriate visual:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ)</comment></comment>


Taking the Starch Out of Orchestra Attire - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/arts/music/taking-the-starch-out-of-orchestra-attire.html

<comment><USER2> I was an orchestra musician in professional symphony orchestra before back pain and tension-induced tinnitus forced me to stop. I can really see the need for this shirt. You sweat like a pig on stage. The temperature in stage lights is often around 30C, and with a thick black jacket it is unbearable sometimes.

I solved some of it by using a short sleeves shirt with extra shirt sleeves attached to the jacket sleeves. Best job I have ever had though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Next we should do away with the Lounge Suit for businesswear.</comment>


CotEditor – Text Editor for OS X - <AUTHOR> http://coteditor.com/

<comment><USER3> Looks beautiful and well-designed. Clearly a lot of effort has gone into it. I can't say I will try as I don't see enough selling points to peel me away from Sublime. I see some features that seem to address some pain points of Japanese users, so maybe that demographic will be more interested.

Looking at the screenshots, I have to wonder why the developer chose to place the settings for line endings, encoding, and file content type in prime real estate: the top left corner. Something's wrong upstream if you have to deal with these settings. They've rarely, if ever, caused me problems and I don't want to see them. They just work 99% of the time. Maybe not so much for Japanese users.

I think the developers need to put on a their business hats and figure out who the target audience is and tailor their pitch to them. I don't seem much here that would change people's text editor habits away from Vi, Sublime, Atom, etc. That said, this definitely must have been a very good learning experience for the developer.

<comment><USER4> I can confirm that text encoding is still a real pain in Japan. Despite the fact that we now have UTF-8, which should be used whenever possible, legacy encodings like SJIS, EUC, etc. still abound.

For instance, whenever I download CSV bank or credit card data here in Japan, I always have to convert the file from one of those encodings before using it. At work in Tokyo, I deal with email in these encoding (or worse -- parts of the email in SJIS, with other parts in EUC).

So yes, I think the barbaric text encodings of yesteryear are still a pain point for Japanese users. (Even so, I agree that it doesn't merit top billing in the window toolbar.)

 _Off-topic bonus tip for aspiring text editor authors_ : make an awesome autocompletion UI, but leave the indexing/autocompletion up to third party open source plugins. Look at Chocolat.app for what the completion UI should look like (a big, attractive complex popover view (not just a menu) with optional documentation display), but open up the actual dynamic completion itself to your users. There is no way a small team can do good completion in tons of languages, but providing a great UI is totally doable.

<comment><USER5> _Off-topic response:_ w.r.t. code completion plugins in Chocolat, the hard part is already done. With v3, the plugin API is now process-separated, and communication is over mach ports. Now that there's a stable, non-blocking and _low-latency_ foundation for plugins, all I need to do is figure out a good API for it.

My advice to aspiring text editor authors would be: do development on the slowest most outdated computer you can find. I use a 2007 iMac: 2GHz, 3GB of RAM and a 128MB ATI Radeon 2400. If the app works OK for me, it should work awesomely for everybody else!

<comment><USER4> That is _great_ to hear! I bought Chocolat (a purchase mainly instigated by the hilarious "the demo expired so it still works, but only with Comic Sans font" gimmick). And I even sent friends screenshots[1] raving about its completion UI.

But... Chocolat didn't really stick for me, with the plethora of editors I already use. Even though it's good.

I would _definitely_ revisit it, if it got extensible completion.

[1]: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/r2da0rc7spgpxqq/Screenshot%202014-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/r2da0rc7spgpxqq/Screenshot%202014-11-21%2011.59.45.png?dl=0)

<comment><USER6> Is there an app that does have that autocomplete in the screen shot?

<comment><USER4> Yes! That is indeed a real screenshot of an editor for OS X, called Chocolat[1].

The alextgordon fellow that replied to me upthread is one of the principal people behind it.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm pretty effective with vim, so much that other 'normal' editors like sublime & other modern gui editors make me feel a little crippled. That is a problem, because you need to be flexible about things in life.

Has anyone succeeded in deliberately changing editors, even when not feeling like it's necessary? I'm especially curious how I could start using emacs, and actually get up to speed with it instead of using it as Notepad/TextEdit (as I would do if I started today)?

<comment><USER8> I didn't so much change editors as start using multiple editors. On OS X, I regularly use vim, TextMate, and BBEdit.

I find that TextMate looks the best. I simply enjoy typing code into TextMate more than I do in vim or BBEdit. Thus, when I'm doing a stretch of writing new code, or straightforward modification of existing code, I'll probably do it in TextMate (although some days it just feels like it is a vim day or a BBEdit day).

If I need to make a lot of related changes, I'll switch to vim, and use regular expressions or I'll record a macro to repeatedly apply.

If I'm doing something like making some modification at all places that use a particular database table, I'll probably go to BBEdit. I can do a search for that table and click "find all", and it gives a separate window showing all the matches, with an editing section in the bottom part that shows whichever search result I click. This lets me easily see all the places where the table is referenced, and easily edit them, and go back and forth as needed. It works similarly with the results of a multi-file search, which makes it nice when I'm trying to understand crusty old legacy code.

If I start a work session in TextMate, and switch to vim to do something with macros, I'll probably stay there and continue editing. When I exit the editor to test the code, then I'll probably head back to TextMate. Same if I go to BBEdit for something--I'll stay there until I need something that is better in vim.

I realize I'm not making full use of the capabilities of one or more of these editors. BBEdit can certainly do most of the things vim can do, and all of the things I use vim for, for instance, but I'm fine with simply popping into vim for those things.

<comment><USER9> I use Text Wrangler for quick access by SFTP to my code (open server / edit / save). I don't like the SFTP window much, but it does the job. TW is also very good for processing text: sorting, removing duplicates, applying regex-es, filtering and vertical columns.

I tried using Sublime and I did get along well with it for a few projects, but when I am jumping around on various servers, I prefer Text Wrangler's shorter setup. Why doesn't Sublime manage SSH better?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is awesome, but I wish developers would charge for polished, full- featured software like this. The people who made this probably have full-time jobs; meanwhile, independent developers who want to break into this niche now have to compete with "free". This results in a market ruled by large corporations that can "subsidize" free software via the spare time of their employees.

Maybe I'm just being too grouchy. This editor looks impressive.

<comment><USER11> Well maybe that is the point. The developers get paid, somehow, so why do they need to get even more money? This way more people can use their software because it is free.

(I don't know the developers)

<comment><USER10> Yeah. I can definitely see the point. I also realize that open source software is often a political statement, and good for that. But at the same time, I want to see a world where a developer could earn money from making cool applications like this without relying on a large corporation for the bulk of their paycheck. It's what the free-to-play app store model is coalescing to, and I don't like it.

<comment><USER11> Sure, but what is a _right_ price? Shall all code editors cost the same and differentiate on features? Otherwise it seems to me like a race to the bottom where CotEditor people charge $30 and indie developer charges $25. So what about the next indie developer then? $20?

And yes you are right, as developers we tend to publish useful stuff more often for free than not. But maybe it stems from our inability to market cool applications so that we get money for them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like it. Obviously won't replace a programmer's favorite editor, but for quick things you need to write throughout the day (code or not) it's a good replacement for TextEdit.

</comment><comment><USER13> It definitely has potential, but without tabbed windows, editing multiple files at once seems like it'll be cumbersome.

<comment><USER14> Same thought here - now even Finder has tabs!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Not sure why the site advertises "Just for OS X" as if it's a feature.

<comment><USER16> Have you tried using one of those IDEs written in Java?

<comment><USER17> This isn't an IDE. The comparable type of editor that's cross platform is probably sublime. Have you tried using that?

<comment><USER18> Sublime is the best cross-platform app I've ever used. I can count on one finger the number of times I've used something that felt native on more than one platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The license is GPL v2; you might want to consider using "Version 2 of the GPL or any later version" as GPL v2 is unfortunately incompatible with the Apache license. Also, the GPL v3 is becoming more and more popular nowadays.

This means you could keep the project under GPL v2, but people would have the option of using a later GPL version.

<comment><USER20> I've never liked this idea. What's to keep the FSF from adding a "you give us royalty-free rights to all your patents for eternity" as a clause in GPL v4?

<comment><USER21> The author is never forced to use a later version. "Version 2 of the GPL or any later version" simply means that distributor (other than the author) can choose between using gplv2, gplv3, gplv4 and so on.

The author is always free pick any license of their choosing for work that they have themselves has authored.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This editor addresses my need for something simple but 'programmy' \- I develop Xamarin Mac apps on OSX and have been frustrated not finding anything I like that is between TextEdit and Xamarin Studio in functionality and useability. Awesome!

</comment><comment><USER18> The File Drop feature is interesting. I'm not sure what it would be useful for though—for me, anyway, it's faster to just type that kind of stuff out. Good to see something fully scriptable too.

</comment><comment><USER23> Nice looking. But I can't use it as is now — it has no tabs/sidebar for more documents. TextWrangler FTW.

I actually run Notepad++ via Wine too for HTML. It's the only editor I've found that can expand and contract a hierarchy of *ML using plus and minus signs in the marginal of the editor. Difficult to explain, I guess you have to try it to understand.

It's indispensable and I can't be without it. I'd love to go native, but I haven't find an editor for OS X that does this.

<comment><USER24> TextWrangler and TextMate has it.

<comment><USER23> TextWrangler is my default text editor in OS X and I haven't noticed this. Do I have to enable it in some way?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Why the emphasis on character encodings?

<comment><USER26> The GitHub location says Japan so I'm assuming it's a personal pain-point for at least one of the developers:

[https://github.com/coteditor/](https://github.com/coteditor/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Nice, but in the kind of dev work I do, I need to be able to work with text files that are hundreds of MB, even over a GB, in size, and CotEditor chokes on 200 MB text files...

<comment><USER28> Why do you have text files that are 200MB? Why don't you separate that into multiple files? 200MB of text? Moby Dick is 1MB in plain text. The Holy Bible is like 4MB in plain text. What is in your files? I think you may be doing something wrong.

<comment><USER29>
        s/I think you may be/You are/

No single file of source code should ever be even close to 200MB, and no data file (CSV, XML, etc) of that size should be manually edited in a text editor.

Wrong tool for the wrong job.

<comment><USER30> "no data file (CSV, XML, etc) of that size should be manually edited in a text editor"

A new law of the land!

Seriously, tools are meant to solve problems, not to dictate what problems people should solve.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> recently I replaced OSX on my macbook to Ubuntu and I'm very pleased for the following reasons:

1\. better key shortcuts: no hassle to maximize, windows ninja moves without additional software, can do every UI operation with keyboard (most common with cmd+num run/bring back app), fn + arrow works as cmd+arrow on osx, same key shortcuts, UI on all desktops I use everyday

2\. easier software install: apt vs brew (ex. installing postgres was pain in ass for me recently on osx)

3\. no OSX maximize button madness

4\. default file manager is much better on Ubuntu (eg. easy way to modify current path with ctrl+l)

5\. same dev machine OS as production - no additional steps for docker (boot2docker etc)

6\. sublime works great

Ubuntu has good support for my (non-retina) macbook 2012 (no driver problems at all!)

All this on default Ubuntu installation - no special tweak (except enabling mac WIFI driver in _UI driver configurator_ ) - so it just works.

I do understand someone likes OSX specific UI etc. but for me Linux (Ubuntu) matured enough to be better dev machine than OSX

<comment><USER32> how is battery life? Last time I tried installing linux on a macbook pro (1) the machine ran hot all the time and (2) the battery life was seriously reduced compared to using os x.

Have things improved? Might be time to try again?

<comment><USER31> I think it' not much worse than osx but can't say anything for sure - <USER2> usually work with power cord (just sometimes in customer's office)

<comment><USER33> I really have no idea why someone would downvote your honest answer.... This is getting out of hand.

Anyway, in my experience it's been about 50-70% worse battery life on ubuntu compared to OSX. Which, as you point out, is no issue if you don't need all 4 or 8 hours of the full potential of MacBook battery life. A meeting might last 2 hours for me at most, but if traveling, battery life is a deal breaker for me.

<comment><USER31> >I really have no idea why someone would downvote your honest answer

there is a big part of HN crowd whose whole life purpose is to downvote something they didn't like or don't understand

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> "Just for mac" is a non-starter for me. I already suffered through it with TextMate. With Sublime Text, not going back to Mac-only.

</comment><comment><USER35> The second screen shows the search an replace dialogue, which is its own floating window. I can't tell from the screen shot whether it is modal.

Anyway, search is an incredibly crucial feature for navigation. It has to be fast, and non-modal. Even having it in a separate screen is suspect in my book.

</comment><comment><USER36> Very nice editor. I like that Solarized is built in as a theme I also like the nice list of syntax highlighting.

One question: For a text-editor focused on programming, why doesn't it come with a monospace set as the default?

</comment><comment><USER37> Just a first impression: that Find box looks highly out of place within an OSX interface. Are those native yosemite UI controls? If so, that seems like one less reason to upgrade: terribly crowded buttons, for example.

<comment><USER38> No they aren't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I must have missed something but I can't seem to open a Folder. :/

<comment><USER40> Probably out of scope for this app. TextEdit doesn't let you open a folder either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Gotta be honest my doubts are raised by the HTML4.0 doctype in the sample document.

</comment><comment><USER42> What does the 'Navigation Bar' do? What should I do to see anything there?

</comment><comment><USER43> Why is 'find' so horribly difficult to use in sublime? I want to find another instance of the current word and then quickly modify it.

I wish getting out of the find text box was simpler and more intuitive.

Maybe it's just me.

<comment><USER44> I don't know how it could be easier: You position inside a word anywhere, press CMD+OPTION+G; the next word is already selected, you can already edit it, no need to bring up Find panel.

<comment><USER18> Or double-tap Command+D.

<comment><USER43> This doesn't seem to work well as it highlights multiple instances of the word I was on. The current instance and the next instance(but not all instances).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Where is the most important part- plugins?

</comment><comment><USER9> No SFTP integration?

I don't want to donwload and uploadmy files with an external program or to mount remote filesystems.

</comment><comment><USER46> why? we already have sublime, vim, atom.. not to mention IDE's like IntelliJ

</comment><comment><USER47> I have already got one text editor, which is free, with rapid launch, but why Cot?

<comment><USER47> Again, I have to handle errors like:

You cannot save this document with extension ".hs" at the end of the name. The required extension is ".(null)".

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> why are we making another editor.

<comment><USER49> In other words, exactly what someone said as someone else started working on your preferred text editor.

<comment><USER50> good point. unless it is vi or emacs...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Atom been working just fine.

<comment><USER52> Atom is strange to me, it seems like a less familiar Sublime Text with no real distinguishing features.

<comment><USER53> The distinguishing feature is it's horribly slow with large files. The performance is an order of magnitude slower than sublime text. And it doesn't auto-save unsaved work if it closes. Both deal breakers for me.

<comment><USER54> Extremely slow to load, too. Brackets and TextMate load much faster.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> Finally. I have been running Notepad in Parallels just to get a decent editor for the last 3 years.

</comment><comment><USER56> > There is no complex setting files require geek knowledge. You can access all > your settings incl. syntax definitions and themes from a normal preferences > window.

Who is this for? This is not a feature I want.

<comment><USER57> I think the clearest answer is: "It's not for you, then."

I've written and edited plenty of runtime configuration files, but there is this to say for GUI preference panes: you don't need to bother with learning a new language, even a simple one, for every other program. Set it up, and then _use_ it. Maybe occasionally define a new text snippet.

I know many heavy users of editors and IDEs who are by no means _power_ users, with their dotfiles on version control and everything. There is a distinct difference. In all honesty, I don't think either group is more productive than the other except on a _very_ micro scale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> I don't get it. Haven't they ever heard of vim/emacs?

<comment><USER59> Do those support native OSX key bindings?

<comment><USER60> I'm going to guess the answer is yes, but possibly not out of the box.</comment></comment></comment>


Project Fi Outage - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnet.com/news/google-fi-outage-is-preventing-calls-across-the-us/ <comment><USER2> This is _google_ and they've already blown their chance at four nines in telephony for 2019.

What am I supposed to take away from this? Is this another Google product in writing-on-the-wall non-techincally-canceled-yet mode?

</comment><comment> reading-at-work Imagine trying to call 911 and finding that the one part of your phone that makes it a phone isn't working.

Mistakes happen, but this combined with Fi's notorious drop in support quality over the last few years makes me very glad I cancelled. I'll pay more for a real cell provider if it means fewer (or no) outages.

</comment><comment><USER3> Google Fi used to be great! The last few months had a couple of very bad support experiences and decided to port out. It took about three weeks, but very happy with finally leaving them.</comment>


Show HN: A JavaScript Tool for Database Diagramming - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/prahladyeri/VisualAlchemist <comment><USER2> Another pretty good tool e.g. for fast prototyping: [https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner](https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner)

</comment><comment><USER3> I like it, thanks. One thing: When two tables are right next to each other, there's no need for the relation links to curve. Generally, rectangular links are easier to follow.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank You! Yes, I've been struggling with the jsPlumb library to convert that to rectangular curves, but its on the list!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Disclaimer: I don't want to minimize your achievement or be overly critical of the tool you've built. I've used a lot of relational database modeling tools in the past and what you've built looks perfectly capable for the job. But I clicked on your link hoping for something very different and didn't find it. So hopefully others can point me in the right direction if what I am looking for exists.

The crux of my disappointment stems from you having left out a word in the description of your tool. It's a _Relational_ Database Diagramming tool...the Relational aspect of it making it significantly less useful for me. I've worked with Relational databases for close to 30 years and I find that I'm able to design schemas in my head without the need for a tool. On occasion, a tool that's able to reverse engineer a visualization of the model from the schema can be useful in quickly coming up to speed on an existing schema, but even that isn't essential.

Where I think tools would really help me is in designing for non-relational databases. It's a harder problem, since those databases are often schemaless, but that would make a design tool all the more useful, since those designs could act as documentation that's often unnecessary in the relational world where the schema is readily available.

So can anyone point me towards a visual design tool for non-relational databases, document, kv or otherwise?

<comment><USER5> For graph databases, I designed a tool to visually describe queries that can be applied upon a DB. It introspects the current data model and display it as entities and relationships, then with some drag n drops, you can visually design the queries that can legally be applied upon that data model, therefore on this database.

It is ok for any RDF database with SPARQL endpoint. It could be simply extended to manage Neo4J and Cypher.

Comments welcome.

PS: cf [http://datao.net/](http://datao.net/)

<comment><USER4> That looks awesome. Tools like this are why I asked the question. Thanks for responding!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Impressive. By chance have you looked at jsPlumb? If so what, if any, pain points did you encounter? [http://jsplumbtoolkit.com](http://jsplumbtoolkit.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. I'm using exactly jsPlumb to create the relationship links between the table! The only slight issue I've encountered till now is that the joining points are slightly moved to the left whilst the table is being moved, which creates a slightly ugly user experience!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a similar tool I authored, however, tied to Mongoose/mongodb [http://mongomulch.com/](http://mongomulch.com/)

<comment><USER8> Hey I would like to try this but it fails to download. I reckon you could host the zip on github which would be better.

Edit: Nevermind, finally downloaded, and its for mac only. Darn.

<comment><USER7> Since its an electron app you should be able to build a local copy for windows by just following the directions on the github repo: [https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch](https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's nice but I like tools that actually take the database and then design the layout e.g. Entity Framework Power Tools.

</comment><comment><USER10> Nice work. On your github page this caught my eye...

"Governance: Meritocracy"

So, who does Merit-determinance?

</comment><comment><USER11> I really liked this tool, and it's what I used to quickly knock out the data structures for my flask app.

Is there an alternative for django or flask?

p.s. I found the ability to save and reload old schemas was buggy (or i couldn't get it to work).

</comment><comment><USER12> Hi, this looks nice, but could you make the examples somewhat more realistic? I really wonder what this looks like with, say, 50 entities, all interconnected.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your only issue would be perhaps screen real estate! Since this is a pure JavaScript plus jQuery app and doesn't have any heavy framework like Angularjs, performance shouldn't be a problem. Having said that, there are a few UI issues that needs taken care of and I'm working on those bugs.

<comment><USER12> Yes, screen real estate would be a problem, and also the way in which the relationships between the entities are drawn (I am imagining that it may become a "tangled" mess :) So a realistic example would be awesome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hi check this out similar tools but tied to laravel now... [https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigne...](https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigner)

Ps, im the author

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice tool badgeek! You've given me some nice ideas for displaying the tables on canvas. I like the fact that you've given "add column" button on the tables itself instead of opening a separate edit view.

<comment><USER13> And you give me idea on how to add column seems nice with one dialog cheers!</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Favorite hack for determining a market? - <AUTHOR> Authors like Rob Walling and Pat Flynn or course creators like Amy Hoy have these ways to try to figure out if there is a market for an idea.<p>What is your current favorite hack for figuring out if people are willing to pay for something before you create an idea? <comment><USER2> _What is your current favorite hack for figuring out if people are willing to pay for something before you create an idea?_

Talk to people.

If that sounds too glib, and you really want something of a "hack", I'll offer up what Steve Blank calls "the million dollar question." If your domain isn't enterprise software, you can probably find a way to riff on this and adapt it to your needs.

 _"I ask them, "If the product were free, how many would you actually deploy or use?" The goal is to take pricing away as an issue and see whether the product itself gets customers excited. If it does, I follow up with: "OK, it's not free. In fact, imagine I charged you $1 million. Would you buy it?" While this may sound like a facetious dialog, I use it all the time. Why? Because more than half the time customers will say something like, "Steve, you're out of your mind. This product isn't worth more than $250,000." I've just gotten customers to tell me how much they are willing to pay. Wow."_

<comment><USER3> > _" If the product were free..."_

Whenever I talk with the team about our product, some questions are:

\- "Would you work at a company that doesn't use Git?".

\- "Would you work at a company that uses Windows?".

The team's answer is "No". I myself almost quit on my first day because I was under the impression I would be using Windows, and none of the team can stand it. It's a bad example because Windows is a huge hit, but the point is that the product's absense or presence must trigger a strong reaction.

Our case is about internal tooling. We're optimizing for "If I worked elsewhere, I would want to keep accessing the internal tools we have here, or I would push to get access at my new workplace if it were a SaaS."

The extreme version of this questioning is: "Would you steal it?", and the underlying theme is "What would you do in order to use this?". Like the teenager Sean in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8GaFuo4svQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8GaFuo4svQ) .

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The Mom Test (eg, talk to people but ask the right questions):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hla1jzhan78](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hla1jzhan78)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is great book, I have the kindle version.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I attended a great founders' talk (can't find a recording at the moment). The speaker said they used this method:

1\. Identify your target customer first (not the product or the market!)

2\. Interview your target customers. Take notes. Find the unfulfilled need.

3\. Pitch your solution to those customers and have them sign a Letter Of Intent.

The really powerful piece here is the LOI. It stated "I, Company A, intend to purchase Product Z for $XX,000. This is a non-binding commitment and may be terminated at any time."

Even though the LOI was _explicitly non-binding_ and had no legal weight, they found that the cultural weight of physically signing a piece of paper was enough to scare off non-customers and validate true intent to purchase. Once they had 10 signed LOIs they built the product. _All_ the signed LOIs ultimately converted into paid customers (which is rather amazing).

</comment><comment><USER6> Walk around your neighborhood and see what's on the ground floor. Boarded up windows? Luxury car dealerships? Coffee shops?

Look at the buildings. What kinds of utilities are hooked up? Coax? Fiber? DSL? What kind of antennae are installed? What is their HVAC setup?

Who's coming and going? What are they dressed like? What are they doing?

Just pay attention and go with the flow. There are all kinds of opportunities around if you know how to look.

</comment><comment><USER7> Ask for money up front. It proves people will pay. There is no proxy for willingness to pay, not even a contract.

It not only validates that there is a paying market, it validates that you have what it takes to ask for money. A lot of people don't. That's why proxies for paying are attractive.

</comment><comment><USER8> The folloing piece by Elad Gil discusses the topic in detail

[https://firstround.com/review/future-founders-heres-how- to-s...](https://firstround.com/review/future-founders-heres-how-to-spot-and- build-in-nonobvious-markets/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Offer it for free and see how many people say they WOULD pay.

</comment><comment><USER10> Sell product that does not exists.

If someone buys - depends on activity - there is a market.

Refund, apologize and start building the product.

</comment><comment><USER11> No such thing. Hacks are for rigid systems with complex rules.

Understanding human needs requires work.</comment>


Russian satellite lost after being set to launch from wrong spaceport - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/28/russian-satellite-lost-wrong-spaceport-meteor-m <comment><USER2> That would be an excellent ruse to steal another countries satellite for reverse engineering at ones leisure later..

Put in dummies in place of stolen satellites for weight.. then "make a programming error"</comment>


Apple Extends Deadline for Sandboxing of Mac App Store Apps to June 1 - <AUTHOR> http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/21/apple-extends-deadline-for-sandboxing-of-mac-app-store-apps-to-june-1/

<comment><USER2> Ah, this lends credo to my strategy of ignoring Sandboxing in the hopes that it goes away.

10.7.3 introduced a few new entitlements, but the situation is still pretty dire for most apps. Sandboxing is not ready for prime time yet. As evidenced by the fact that almost all of Apple's own apps are still un-sandboxed.

</comment><comment><USER3> What are these new entitlements and APIs, and how well do they address the concerns some developers had?

<comment><USER2> In short, 10.7.3 introduced "bookmarks". Basically your app can ask for permission to read/write to a file/folder, and keep that permission indefinitely. Prior to that, if you wanted to write somewhere on the disc (say the Downloads folder) you'd have to use the sandbox save dialog every time. Now you ask once for permission, and keep a bookmark of that permission.

There is also a document-scoped version of bookmarks. Not clear on the use case for that.

<comment><USER4> One use case would be something with "projects", like Xcode, that need to have project files with implicit access to the files around them. IIRC, it's currently limited to files (rather than directories), though, so I'm not sure how useful it really is.</comment></comment></comment>


What the Royal Astronomical Society in 1884 Tells Us About Python Today - <AUTHOR> https://typesandtimes.net/2019/05/royal-astronomical-society-python <comment><USER3> It took me some effort to understand the issue here, so an alternative explanation in case it helps someone.

First, the part that's independent of programming language. You may want to read about absolute time and civil time (e.g. from [https://abseil.io/docs/cpp/guides/time](https://abseil.io/docs/cpp/guides/time)) but if you don't, in short: "civil time" refers to something like "2019 May 26 at 2:45 pm in New York City" (or "in the America/New_York time zone"), which means (roughly) whatever time the locals in New York City (or a larger shared geo-political zone) would agree is 2:45 pm on that date. To convert this to an absolute time, or in other words to make sense of "2019-05-26 14:45 in America/New_York", we need data about the real world _as of that date_ : most obviously we need to know whether Daylight-Saving Time was in effect on that date, but also what conventions were in use at the time. (This also means it's hard to know for certain what such a notation in the future means in terms of absolute time, as possibly DST could be abolished or the dates when it comes into effect could change.)

It so happens that in 1884 the conventions of New York City were such that it was about 4 minutes ahead of the then-recently standardized Eastern Time, so about 4 hours and 56 behind GMT.

So, in any "correct" library, we should see the following respected:

• "2019 May 26 at 2:45 pm in New York" should mean "2019 May 26 at 18:45 UTC" (timezone is EDT i.e. UTC minus 4 hours).

• "2019 Jan 26 at 2:45 pm in New York" should mean "2019 Jan 26 at 19:45 UTC" (timezone is EST, i.e. UTC minus 5 hours).

• "1884 Jan 26 at 2:45 pm in New York" should mean "1884 Jan 26 at 19:41 UTC" (timezone is... GMT minus 4 hours and 56 minutes).

\----

Now the part that's Python-specific: the pytz library in Python provides two ways of constructing such a well-formed civil time. One is to call `.localize` on a timezone, and the other is to call `.astimezone` to convert from one civil time to its equivalent (the same absolute time) in another timezone, thus obtaining a new civil time. Both are illustrated below, showing it working properly:

        >>> pytz.timezone('America/New_York').localize(datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 26, 14, 45, 0)).astimezone(pytz.utc)
        datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 26, 18, 45, tzinfo=<UTC>)

        >>> pytz.timezone('America/New_York').localize(datetime.datetime(2019, 1, 26, 14, 45, 0)).astimezone(pytz.utc)
        datetime.datetime(2019, 1, 26, 19, 45, tzinfo=<UTC>)

        >>> pytz.timezone('America/New_York').localize(datetime.datetime(1884, 1, 26, 14, 45, 0)).astimezone(pytz.utc)
        datetime.datetime(1884, 1, 26, 19, 41, tzinfo=<UTC>)

Unfortunately, there's a third thing a programmer can do, which the documentation warns against ([http://pytz.sourceforge.net/#localized-times- and-date-arithm...](http://pytz.sourceforge.net/#localized-times-and-date- arithmetic)), and that is to pass one of pytz's timezone objects as the "tzinfo" parameter to the standard library `datetime` function:

        >>> datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 26, 14, 45, 0, tzinfo=pytz.timezone('America/New_York')).astimezone(pytz.utc) # Don't do this!
        datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 26, 19, 41, tzinfo=<UTC>)
        >>> datetime.datetime(2019, 1, 26, 14, 45, 0, tzinfo=pytz.timezone('America/New_York')).astimezone(pytz.utc) # Don't do this!
        datetime.datetime(2019, 1, 26, 19, 41, tzinfo=<UTC>)
        >>> datetime.datetime(1884, 1, 26, 14, 45, 0, tzinfo=pytz.timezone('America/New_York')).astimezone(pytz.utc) # Don't do this!
        datetime.datetime(1884, 1, 26, 19, 41, tzinfo=<UTC>)

which is certainly consistent in its own way, but only the last one is correct. Oops.

The issue here is in the interaction between the "tzinfo" model of the standard-library `datetime` and pytz's timezone objects: the result is that when the two are used together in the above incorrect way, one ends up with a timezone that is a fixed offset from UTC, which is silly. A timezone like `America/New_York` is _not_ a fixed offset from UTC: not only does it change twice a year, it also has changed in arbitrary ways in the past, and may change in arbitrary ways in the future.

(Note that "fixing" the offset of 4 hour 56 minutes to 5 hours would not solve any problems as it would still be wrong many months of each year — arguably, having an obviously incorrect result may even be better than a sometimes- correct one.)

The linked blog post by Paul Ganssle ([https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2018/03/pytz-fastest- footgu...](https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2018/03/pytz-fastest- footgun.html)), the author of the `dateutil` (not to be confused with the standard-library `datetime`) library, is also informative.

</comment><comment><USER4> I believe it was all clarified long ago in Java (Joda library, that was reimplemented in newer versions in core SDK as java.time).

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed! That library, as incorporated into the jdk, seems to me like the gold standard of datetime programming in standard libraries. Good type-level distinctions, good defaults, good extensibility... _chef kissing fingers_

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ok, I don't understand though why the bug hasn't been fixed and is there any other widely used time localization library that makes the same mistake - <USER2> just in python but other languages?

<comment><USER6> Just like people don't use the http module but requests, it's been years since the community moved away from manual manipulation of datetime/pytz for time zones.

Nowadays people use higher level libs such as pendulum:

        >>> print(pendulum.datetime(2019, 5, 21, 12, 30, tz='America/New_York'))
        2019-05-21T12:30:00-04:00

It avoids many gotchas, gives you more features and has a nicer API.

Like skilpat said, dateutil is a better fit that pytz, and hence pendulum uses it, as well as pytzdata, to stay up to date.

<comment><USER7> {{citation needed}}

Your assertion reminded me of this funny dialog about JS: [https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript- in-2...](https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript- in-2016-d3a717dd577f)

<comment><USER6> "pip install pendulum" is not complex.

Using pendulum is not complicated.

You can skim the doc in 5 minutes, your intern can do it too.

This is one of those tools that removes complexity when you use them.

Also, pendulum and the stdlib datetime module are compatible, making migration painless:

        >>> pendulum.now() - datetime.now(pendulum.now().tz)
        <Period [2019-05-26T16:57:35.872732+02:00 -> 2019-05-26T16:57:35.872141+02:00]>

In the end, pendulum doesn't requires you to install a transpiler, 100 plugins and create a configuration file like the post you link to. But it does save you from bugs, and you don't need to be an expert in time to use it.

I see only wins.

<comment><USER8> > "pip install pendulum" is not complex.

For much of the work I do, there's a _big_ jump in complexity from using python (2 or 3) and its stdlib vs. requiring a library. A script using only the stdlib is easy to distribute and get working on developer, ci, and production machines. Once an external library is required, I need machinery or scripts to manage or ensure presence of those dependencies.

<comment><USER9> It's probably no good to you, but one of the reasons I like NixOS is the simplicity of creating single file scripts including dependencies. For example, something using Pendulum and ffmpeg together would start like this:

        #!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
        #!nix-shell -i python -p python pythonPackages.pendulum ffmpeg

Then you just put the code after that.

<comment><USER8> I love Nix and NixOS personally... but it's been a tough sell at work, unfortunately.

Even with simple shell scripts... it's so easy to invoke programs with GNU extensions and later find they fail on a co-workers macos machine. And I often have a shell.nix sitting right there that defines the complete dependency closure; very frustrating to not be able to use it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This article seems a bit misguided in its dismissal of the significance of historical fact. The last paragraph seems to me to get unnecessarily snotty about somebody making a very precise best-guess reconstruction of a historical value/location. "Out-of-thin-air" values aren't something I had heard of but apparently that category has to do with circular reasoning—so it doesn't apply literally in this case. It's just a self-satisfied way of smearing someone else's good faith work.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a pretty wild interpretation! I have nothing but respect for the tz db and its contributors; I indicated as much quite explicitly by stating my appreciation for the commentary. Personally I will soon be sending historical corrections to the precise days and times of DST changes in the 1940s for a few places in US and Canada, from my own research.

But yes, it's absolutely a tongue-in-cheek reference to the unrelated notion of "out-of-thin-air" values and reads in memory model semantics. (I've just added a link to an explanation by some PL researchers.)

<comment><USER10> Nothing but respect? The word "hobbyist" suggests otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> They should have used UTC for the transitions. This is an entire article built around a faulty presupposition and naive objects.

I wrote about this here a few years ago: [https://gordol.github.io/date_time_manipulation.html](https://gordol.github.io/date_time_manipulation.html)

Everyone here saying to use pendulum... you should definitely read this, because it's about a very similar bug in pendulum with datetime transitions across time change thresholds.

</comment><comment><USER12> Anyone know how/if this issue affects Django, which uses pytz?

</comment><comment><USER13> Irresistible title.

</comment><comment><USER4> > pytz.timezone('America/New_York').localize( datetime(2019, 5, 21, 12, 30))

But wait, the datetime argument doesn't specify exact time instance, because it's "zone-less" itself!

So the above code can also be buggy/unclear, if instead of 2019 we'd use a datetime close to the switch time.

We should provide a time zone to the datetime param as well. Better GMT, otherwise we would need to localize that one as well, falling into an infinite loop.

<comment><USER14> pytz.localize() takes a naive date-time as an input.

The pytz docs are pretty much on-point, too:

> "The preferred way of dealing with times is to always work in UTC, > converting to localtime only when generating output to be read by humans."

This, also, is the problem with this article, and is a really common pain- point across the spectrum of programmers, both new and seasoned.

<comment><USER4> Yes, but my point still holds, the code above is buggy/unclear. And documentation supports this:

>>> loc_dt = eastern.localize(datetime(2002, 10, 27, 1, 30, 00))

>>> loc_dt.strftime(fmt) '2002-10-27 01:30:00 EST-0500'

> As you can see, the system has chosen one for you and there is a 50% chance > of it being out by one hour.

And the solution, you're right, is to not use the code like above. But the article doesn't mention that at all.</comment></comment></comment>


Intro to MaidSafe: what it is, how it works, and how it compares to Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://blanshey.com/introduction-to-maidsafe-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-how-it-compares-to-bitcoin/

<comment><USER2> Maidsafe is an interesting idea, but has two serious problems: the transaction algorithm is different from and so may not be as good as Bitcoin.

The other bigger problem is that a majority of the coins are premined.

Maidsafe took millions of dollars from people and stil has not come out with a product - even an public MVP after years.

Stay far away

<comment><AUTHOR> > the transaction algorithm is different from and so may not be as good as > Bitcoin.

So you're saying if it's not like Bitcoin, it's not as good?

> The other bigger problem is that a majority of the coins are premined.

30% is not a majority.

They've got a testnut running and plenty of code to back them up.</comment></comment>


We're All Speculators Now - <AUTHOR> https://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept18/speculators9-18.html <comment><AUTHOR> I'd be curious to know if people believe the author's assertion to be true, or if not, why?</comment>


My work for CERN on gather-scatter for AVX in software 2012 - <AUTHOR> Most of the content sent to ARM and AMD along with Intel investor relations. Due to this not being shared from CERN and only Intel using it.
"Attached is my draft for publication of my summer student at CERN OpenLab in 2012. Where we discovered the problem of transient data in pipe-lining data from memory. To take full use of the AVX instruction set due to data pointers in arrays would be created and destroyed. Leaving mostly empty data that would need to be searched through.
I discovered it would save a lot of ASM memory commands by looping over the data. In order to create an index map over where real data was located such that JMP could be used.
Was particularly useful to study the algorithm and data structures used in GEANT prototype project for this. Due to the use of multiple geometries to calculate particle trajectories through. In addition to different types of particles lacking particle-particle interactions.
Thus allowing to take advantage of this semantics and structure to keep track of real-data for efficient pipe-lining of data through vector instructions.
Recently discovered that this paper wasn't published and not sure if my last draft even was the final one. For these explanations seem to be a bit unclear. This work was done to study and make sure the world of High Energy Physics could keep taking advantage of the developments in this direction." <comment><AUTHOR> Actually,it was for auto-vectorization. Given the data structure and algorithm used it wasn't feasible. And ended up proposing gather-scatter scatter-gather in software as though different math involved for different geometries, it is still embarrassingly parallel, but not for single simulated collision events. And it was for GEANT to take advantage of future hardware and increase instructions per clock where memory bandwidth is a problem: [http://geant.cern.ch/](http://geant.cern.ch/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Worth mentioning a Haswell system with QDR i helped build. I discovered that it was needed to use an older version of libpsm to avoid a bandwidth boost tweak that increased latency which isn't the competitive advantage of IB QDR. Also highly disappointing they down clocked Haswell as soon as AVX2 was touched. Given no temperature increase, there isn't a thermal argument for it just for using more of the micro instructions on the die. Was an early system, and needed to use end-of-life CentOS for the correct library versions.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> So gather-scatter is slightly inaccurate, as it is more detailed memory management.

<comment><AUTHOR> Although, quite obviously used to accelerate memory access in AVX2. Sorry for adding much after, its 6 years ago.</comment></comment>


How I reached 15000+ users in 100 days - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@saeedzti/from-0-to-15000-users-in-100-days-e0aad06f0a5d <comment><AUTHOR> Also if you don't like to read it on Medium, you can read it on this subreddit:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/efu2do/how_i_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/efu2do/how_i_reached_15000_users_in_100_days/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Was it spam? My guess is spam.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, It's not! It's a detailed overview of my first 100 days building [https://wfh.team](https://wfh.team)</comment></comment>


Who owns the space between reclining airline seats? - <AUTHOR> http://discovery.economist.com/brpr?article=2848183 <comment><USER2> The recliner can do real damage to an open laptop or other device if the top becomes caught on the seat as it reclines. Worse, the instinct of the person in front seems to be to keep forcing the seat down harder and harder when a jam is encountered, making me rush to save my screen.

I don't want your head in my lap, and I don't want you making my already-lousy tray table effectively worse. Just stay upright, it's not _that_ bad.</comment>


Ask HN: How would you take on rentiers and middlemen? - <AUTHOR> Not specifically talking about landlords but rentiers in general. I see them everywhere - they don't provide a lot of value, but they are masters in crafting really shitty (for everyone else) contracts and sit in the middle collecting money. For example, my recruiter collects money every hour I bill. He did/does absolutely nothing other than arrange my interview with a few phone calls and some paperwork. I came to know some of the terms in the contract recently and was stunned at the one sided nature of these.
Another example is these Amazon FBA "entrepreneurs" all over the place - they do work, but it is arguable if they deserve the amount of profits they get (one guy was bragging about his margins - he gets items for $4.75 from China and sells them for $25). It would be great if they did quality check, support etc but many of them don't even see the products they sell after initial samples.
I don't begrudge these (except maybe my recruiter :P) people - they found holes in the system and are exploiting them, good for them. But it bothers me that the system is so unfair. <comment><USER2> Well you can go after the serious one.

1\. The ones who do not allow zoning change and later ask to Govt to step in the house crisis so they can lease risk-free their housing units?

2\. Organizations and regulators that regulate blue-collar jobs as hair dressers;

3\. Corn Ethanol that imposes their use on gasoline mix (If it is soo good, sell it as ethanol only as in Brazil) but doesn't force it on Gas.

Every one of the renters is going after middle class because there is where the money is. And I am sure all of this renters feel/believe they are indispensable and are providing a valuable service.

Now let it rain downvotes

</comment><comment><USER3> Not answering your question but here's a funny story from my past:

Once i got a job at IBM (as a consultant) and they told me i had to structure it via "agency". IBM was willing to pay premium on top of my rate to make all legal paperwork to come through easier.

So i had to call "lucky" agency myself.

I called first one I knew - but the agent there had a bad habit of ignoring my calls. He ignored me again.

Then i called another agency and they happily agreed to make paperwork happen.

I conservatively estimate the loss of the first guy's agency was about $170,000 in do-nothing fees due to ignorance.

<comment><USER4> Why not start your own agency, just for that job? Or negotiate and say "I'll offer you the contract but we split the fee 50-50."

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> unionizing and strongly regulating the h1b system?</comment>


Are Young Children Cruel? - <AUTHOR> http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/digital-children/200806/are-young-children-cruel <comment><USER2> Not dissing the article itself, but this is the second article on psychology in the last hour. Is psychology within the interestes of HN now?

<comment><USER3> <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

Although I prefer meatier sources than blog posts, and usually try to submit journalistic news articles or scientific research papers, I find that blog posts get the most readers here on HN.

<comment><AUTHOR> and techcrunch gets the most points</comment></comment></comment>