Ask HN: What do you use to start your dev environment faster? - <AUTHOR> Hello there !
I was wondering what you all use to setup/start your dev envs (nodejs envs most of time for me) ? I used to run some vagrant with virtualbox, but there are a lot of problems with inotify so livereload is difficult to setup and/or not efficient enough depending on the solution you find.
Or maybe do you just /npm start|docker-compose up|rails server|.+/ all of your repos manually? This is what I actually do for small projects, but you always have to help people get your stack up and running.
Tell me how you ease onboarding on your projects! Thanks for your sharing :) <comment><USER2> I'm using Visual Studio Code dev containers. [https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers)

I have to move across a hand full of languages so having my environments all configured with docker files is pretty neat.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting! I don't use vscode that much, but I might have a look at this!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I am currently using the following combination:

\- [https://github.com/DarthSim/overmind](https://github.com/DarthSim/overmind) for running whatever is needed inside a project which has multiple things (like rails and webpacker). It is great because it uses tmux.

\- A custom file (.dev-start) I put in my parent folder /project which describes what to execute in child folders (like /project/fe and /project/backend). Possible what this files does could be done with overmind but this is a setup I had before discovering overmind

\- A bashrc script (a combination of bash script and bash aliases) which is executed on "cd" command and searches for .dev-start and if exists will execute. In the same script I also search for .browser-wip which is just a simple file with all the URLs I think I need to be open in browser while working on current project. If this file exists then it will open in default browser all links from there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah this looks interesting! Gonna take a look at this, thx!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I work with Docker and Kubernetes do my dev environment is actually in my cluster rather than locally. I use Okteto to manage this dev env so I can even switch computers and all I need is the source code of my app and one 'okteto up' command, and I'm ready to go

<comment><USER5> I'm one of the creators of Okteto, thanks for the shout out!

We recently wrote a post on how to integrate Okteto with NodeJS apps, in case anybody wants to try it out: [https://okteto.com/blog/how-to-develop-node- apps-in-kubernet...](https://okteto.com/blog/how-to-develop-node-apps-in- kubernetes/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The "trick" that saved me a lot of time, and my laptop from overheating, is to work on one project at a time.

Need to change the API? Do that and deploy it. Need to change a React app that uses the API? run it locally and call a private instance of the server instead of running both in parallel..

<comment><AUTHOR> I get what you mean, but my question is more about how you can run your dev environment when your "project" requires you to have multiple things running (a react spa, a rails backend, three microservices, two databases, ...). Understand "do you have one single command to run all of your resources or do you start them one by one?".

Thanks for your reply though ! Your solution might fit people who have dedicated instances for projects.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not a NodeJS dev, yet I rely a lot on boilerplates. Some developed by others, some built by me over the course of many years. For a few rather simple NodeJS projects that I worked on, [https://github.com/sahat/hackathon- starter](https://github.com/sahat/hackathon-starter) this one caught my attention and worked like a charm. For PHP / Laravel, I use [https://spark.laravel.com/](https://spark.laravel.com/) . Not free but worth every penny.

</comment><comment><USER8> Docker-compose is the best thing I've found for sharing dev environments so far. You do have to help people, but if you do a good job, they'll learn and then they can help other people too.

</comment><comment><USER9> Aren't node projects just npm i; npm start? Maybe clearer documentation would help. Like step by step what commands to run to build and run. It's weird I see some projects that expect contributors to figure that out themselves. Or maybe they don't want contributors.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm more asking about how you start an entire dev environment, like when you have your front 1, front 2, api 1, microservice 1-2-3-4, ... that all need to be running in order for you to start working.

For example: using pm2 to start your entire stack in one command (only when it's all nodejs obviously)

It's not really related to the tech you use for every project :)

<comment><USER10> We use docker compose to stand up our micro services. If there's an order you really need, and you can't get around it, try netcat (nc) to knock on the port in a loop until it gets a successful response.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> docker and docker-compose with the project root mounted as /app usually does the trick for me.

</comment><comment><USER12> We are using docker-compose with mounting your local files inside of the container. You can either switch do docker or mount your local folder in VM via vagrant. Not sure live reload will work with the latter solution, but works pretty well with docker.

</comment><comment><USER13> Try to use script files with actual commands that does the work instead of typing in commands each time. Saves lot of time and effort.

</comment><comment><USER14> > I used to run some vagrant with virtualbox, but there are a lot of problems > with inotify so livereload is difficult to setup. Which livereload tool do > you use?

<comment><AUTHOR> Whatever the livereload tool is (in this case it was a webpack watcher on osx), the problem is that a change on the host isn't forwarded to the guest correctly when using shared folders, so the socket server doesn't send the update notification to the browser. :/

You have three options to work around this : \- use a polling based approach \- use a plugin like [https://github.com/adrienkohlbecker/vagrant- fsnotify](https://github.com/adrienkohlbecker/vagrant-fsnotify) which internally uses `touch` (this is the one i used to choose) \- use an ssh mount (not sure about this one, it's been a long time)

All of these workarounds have their downsides, so I'm wondering if someone has another great approach to get a stack up and running when you have a lot of dependencies (not speaking about packages, but different sub-projects)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm a big fan of the idea that a build should be done with one command line. Mine is 'npm run d' for dev, 'npm run p' for production.

This is a nice chart: [https://xkcd.com/1205/](https://xkcd.com/1205/)

If you're doing it daily and it takes half an hour, you could probably dedicate 5 weeks to optimizing this.

If you're doing builds like me, it's more like 20 builds a day, each taking an extra minute. That's about a month worth of optimizing.

</comment><comment><USER16> In one vscode tab 'cd client' 'npm start' in another 'cd server' 'npm run dev'

</comment><comment><USER17> tmuxinator to open all of my panels, services etc for each project with a single command</comment>


Fartscroll.js - <AUTHOR> http://theonion.github.io/fartscroll.js/

<comment><USER2> as a brand new employee who sits in an open-plan office, i regret not wearing my headphones (or muting my mac) before clicking on this link and scrolling.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wait, did they encode the audio files in the javascript? That's pretty clever, I'm surprised I've never heard of it.

</comment><comment><USER4> Isn't there a way to type this into the Chrome inspector console to surprise someone else?

</comment><comment><USER5> Their bookmarklet works nicely on teaparty.org, which is not served via HTTPS.

</comment><comment><USER6> My kids love it. Thank you!</comment>


Codeschool to Internship - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/on-startups/88dcda6c6ec7

<comment><USER2> Sounds like you're juggling C, C++, Ruby, Python and Javascript. You must have one busy schedule.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am just getting exposed to C & C++ because I have a course starting next semester on it. I use Javascript for my internship. Python and Ruby are for fun. I do not pay as much attention to them.</comment></comment>


Emotions You Don't Feel - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/you-can-have-emotions-you-dont-feel <comment><USER2> _" Consider one study from 1974. Researchers had an attractive female interviewer stop one group of men crossing a scary suspension bridge and another one crossing a bridge that wasn't scary. The women asked the men to fill out a questionnaire. The men on the scary bridge responded to the questions with more sexual content, and were significantly more likely to try to contact the interviewer after it was over. This suggests that the men on the scary bridge interpreted (unconsciously) their body's reaction to the bridge as added attraction to the interviewer."_

Personally, I would conclude that the men felt more confident about their chances after having demonstrated their capabilities as worthy mates. Additionally, after having overcome the bridge, they were now ready to try their chances at the challenge of wooing the researcher.

<comment><USER3> Or perhaps reminders of personal-mortality increase interest in procreation to sustain the species.

<comment><USER4> Or perhaps different people in different places react differently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> IMO this is more just that people are really bad at reading themselves. With someone else, you can see the body language and know that they're upset; but with yourself it can be harder to observe body language and other clues.

Most people walk around unaware of their mental state on a minute-by-minute basis. I'm one of them -- I didn't believe it until recently, but once I started unraveling the anxiety I'd been walking around with for years, it became obvious to me why most people thought I was just a grumpy jerk. Other people don't perceive you the way that you do; and in many cases they may have a better perspective.

<comment><USER6> I was the same way for a while -- had body pains and discomforts that I (somehow) misattributed to whoever was demanding my attention and so came off as (or was) grumpy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> All the studies mentioned in this article are exactly the type that are currently being debunked en masse and generally causing a crisis of faith in psychology.

<comment><USER8> Do you have references for this claim? I'd love to read more about this.

<comment><USER9> The replication crisis:

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I feel inclined to think that there's a huge difference between not feeling an emotion (which I would argue is impossible) and not being consciously aware of the feeling (which i would say is what this article is calling 'not feeling')

<comment><USER11> Psychopathy is a spectrum disorder characterised by an inability to feel one or more emotions.

There's certainly a difference between when the average person says they don't feel, and when a psychopath does, but it certainly lies in the realm of possibility.

<comment><USER12> No, antisocial personality disorder (usually seen as psychopathy in criminology for which no paychxological diagnosis exists) is characterized by impulsive behavior, aggression, anger, lack of empathy, no regard for existing laws/rules and in inability to learn from discipline. See the Wikipedia page for more information. Lack of feeling emotions is not a defining trait in psychopathy. Lack of feeling emotions is a defining trait in schizoid personality disorder, certain flavors of depression, and dissociative or trauma based disorders.

<comment><USER11> This touches on something personal, so I'll try to keep this civil, and encompassing, but I won't respond further.

The definition for psychopathy changes within various countries and even the industry addressing the issue.

The US conflates what have clear distinctions where I am: sociopathy and psychopathy.

The definition Wikipedia leans towards would be called sociopathy here.

APD, and several other disorders, get classified as psychopathy here.

The definition I gave is simply the definition I was given post-diagnosis.

However, my point that a lack of emotion is possible, seems to stand regardless of the name you give to the disorder.

<comment><USER13> There was an experimental procedure using trans-cranial magnetic stimulation that opened up empathy for an autistic person. (And similarly, TCMS was used experimentally to temporary induce autism in someone). So I wonder to what extent TCMS can be used for this. Though, like autism, if TCSM can reduce, it can also induce.

It's in my experience that psychopathy (or whatever we'd like to call it) is a consciousness state, and there are some people who can deliberately shift into it by choice. These are usually folks who experiment with hacking their consciousness, such as psychonauts or meditators, so I'm not necessarily talking about people who are born into it, or conditioned by circumstance into it.

The most interesting thing about consciously shifting into that state is that, once you are there, you feel zero motivation to shift out of it, even if you have the knowledge and skill to do so.

And it is not so much that there is a lack of emotion, so much as the lack of _suffering_ when it comes to experiencing things. At that point, any morality is driven by choice, rather than by pathos.

<comment><USER14> One of the English NHS (except they're independent of the NHS) "death panels" NICE has said there's limited evidence of effectiveness of transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment for depression, but recommended that it's offered to some people in some situations.

[https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/IPG542/chapter/4-Efficacy](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/IPG542/chapter/4-Efficacy)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> wu-ikkyu For anyone interested in "emotional intelligence" or being more conscious of emotions in yourself and others, check out Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life by Dr. Paul Ekman.

[https://www.amazon.com/Emotions-Revealed-Second- Recognizing-...](https://www.amazon.com/Emotions-Revealed-Second-Recognizing- Communication/dp/0805083391)

<comment><USER15> It's tough to balance, I'm often overwhelmed by always wondering how others are feeling and trying to decipher their behaviour.

<comment> wu-ikkyu Dr. Ekman is renowned for his research into facial expressions and body language as it relates to our emotional content. He discovered that there is a set of universal facial expressions (microexpressions) which human beings from all cultures unconsciously exhibit when we are feeling certain emotions. His findings are used by many computer facial recognition systems.

Knowing what these facial expressions look like can help you become much more adept at perceiving emotions.

However, once you have identified the facial expression/emotion, the big question is _why_ they are feeling that emotion. Ekman advises using great caution and open mindedness when trying to determine the answer to this question.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> As someone who has suffered badly from anxiety in the past this really rings true. Sometimes I would be completely unaware of what was causing a particular bout only to later have it become abundantly clear once having talked through things with my therapist.

It's amazing how much is going on in your brain at the subconscious level, it's far more than just processing stimuli etc.

<comment><USER17> Yeah, anxiety can be weird like that.

The key I've found is keeping something of a diary, initially it was a sleep diary so the next time a doctor screws up and prescribes me a drug that makes me manic, I'll figure it out quickly.

I added any medications I take, various other things (especially weird dreams are fun), and when I feel unusually anxious I write that down, and mentally go through the things that have happened in the last day or so. The one(s) that make me feel noticeably more anxious right then and there as I enumerate through the list, well, that's the tipoff.

I recommend learning cognitive therapy, now with an added "behavioral" component, if you want to try something like this out, and it can help in general to the extent it helps you realize some of the things that bother you are cognitive distortions.

<comment><USER16> Most of the process of me getting better was learning to understand and recognise my own thoughts, so I totally agree. For me personally it was talking therapy that really worked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This has been my experience.

Let's be more precise. There are emotions you are _aware_ of and emotions that you are not. When we say "consciously feel" it, we are talking about awareness.

Awareness can be trained and expanded. Awareness can also be conditioned to avoid painful and unpleasant experiences. In such a way, emotions can be buried deep in the psyche, with mental constructs that filter someone from feeling it.

It's also been in my experience that burying painful emotions leads to rot.

</comment><comment><USER18> Reminds me of a neuroscience article of Berridge where he talks about emotions that we're not conscious of. I did some digging and found of articles of Berridge. It seems that he mainly worked with another researcher who knows more about this: Piotr Winkielman.

Berridge wrote a lot about unconscious liking and unconscious wanting. He showed that in rats there are different neural areas being activated. There is a wanting pathway and there are liking hotspots ('islands' close or on the wanting pathway).

Disclaimer: bsc. psychology, typing this from memory so subtle errors are probably there.

I hope the links aren't paywalled, I didn't look into it.

Links:

[http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/13/3/120.full.pdf](http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/13/3/120.full.pdf)

[http://lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publicatio...](http://lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publications/Berridge%20&%20Winkielman%20unconscious%20emotion%202003.pdf)

[http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~pwinkiel/winkielman_zajonc_ER-2010.pdf](http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~pwinkiel/winkielman_zajonc_ER-2010.pdf)

Pages of the researchers.

Berridge: [http://lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/research/a...](http://lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/research/affectiveneuroscience.html)

Winkielman: [http://winkielmanlab.ucsd.edu/](http://winkielmanlab.ucsd.edu/)

</comment><comment><USER19> I think a good way to think about emotions and feelings is by strictly separating them conceptually: Feelings are bodily effects like fear, anger, hunger, arousal... while emotions are learned acts of communication. Emotions are interpretations of feelings and Emotions are communicated feelings, arranged in complex patterns or "scripts" that are culturally highly variable. So you could say that all emotions (outward, visible acts of communication) are based on more "invisible" feelings. Take mourning for example. The feelings are a mixture of fear, but how you mourn is extremely variable over cultures, times and even intrapersonally. Emotions have to be learned, feelings are the raw material or puzzle pieces the body/mind offers from birth.

<comment><USER4> To deprive yourself of future confusion you can separate this further into: feelings, emotions and "bodily effects". I present you a slightly less morbid example: you feel happy and you smile. Act of smiling is an expression of emotion that is not named in the prior statement. The happy feeling is expression-less in this example and merely a conscious record of your internal self-observation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> "We find that we have nothing left behind, no 'mind-stuff' out of which the emotion can be constituted."

This is Holmes at work. "Emotion" is a social construct and a rationalization after the fact. What we have is a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system that react to instinctual stimulus and its derivatives, and streams of consciousness that instantly try to rationalize those reactions. Theory-theory has no physical basis.

<comment><USER13> I disagree with that. There is a certain socialization (and mimicry) involved. However, if you were to strip out the socialization as well as strip out the pattern of physical sensations that arises, there will still be something, which is the emotion.

I am not speaking metaphorically. I'm talking about using your own consciousness as the laboratory and your awareness as the instrument to examine and experience this directly. It is possible to concentrate on an emotion as it is being experienced, and mentally distinguish between what is the socialization and what is not. The same with distinguishing what are patterns of physical sensations related to the emotion.</comment></comment>


Deploy your Go apps on dotCloud - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dotcloud.com/go-on-dotcloud

<comment><AUTHOR> For those of you who want to see the source code, here is a link to the github repo. Feel free to fork, and do what you like to make it better for you. <https://github.com/kencochrane/golang-on-dotcloud>

<comment><USER2> Why do you build in the server instead of cross compiling on the client and pushing a binary? Cross compiling will allow developers to use GOPATH instead collecting all dependencies in a directory tree for upload dotCloud.

<comment><USER3> Compiling Go code is super easy; but how easy it is to cross-compile from e.g. OS X to Linux? Or from Windows to Linux? And would there be an advantage over the current situation? (This is a genuinely naive question; I'm fairly new to Go!)

<comment><USER4> Cross compiling is easy. Follow the steps here: [http://dave.cheney.net/2012/09/08/an-introduction-to- cross-c...](http://dave.cheney.net/2012/09/08/an-introduction-to-cross- compilation-with-go)

You can compile from any OS, for any OS. I compile for 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows, OSX, and Linux for my applications. It takes about 5 seconds for all the builds (running serially) to complete.

[edit] Bah, beat by shykes. It's still not hard.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice. I have not tried dotcloud since it first came out and the command line and docs were just not ready for prime time.

I have to say things are hugely improved since then and at least on par with Heroku and with much more fine grained control over costs. Great work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I hope you get a chance to check it out. It is FREE to use, and what ever comments you have good or bad, we would love to hear them.

<comment><USER6> Price is not an issue. Vendor lock-in is.

I would try out DotCloud if it were an open-source PAAS like OpenShift or CloudFoundry.

<comment><USER5> Would you say Heroku is big on the vendor lock in too? If you stay away from the ad-ons they are really mostly just running some code and maintaining a standard database unlike say Google App Engine. I don't see how moving to say EC2 or your own servers is really that much work on the grand scale of things and I have done a fair number of data center moves and server migrations etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > I was sad to find out that there were not many options for hosting Go > applications. It seems you could run your own server (VPS, etc) or you could > deploy to Google App Engine.

Heroku also supports Go: <https://gist.github.com/299535bbf56bf3016cba>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I didn't see it listed on their site anywhere.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm still new to Go, so I'm sure there are ways to make this much better, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. This was done during a hack day, so I know there are improvements that can be made.

</comment><comment><USER8> Do they allow use of the "unsafe" package?

<comment><USER9> Yes, you are free to crash your app any way you see fit :)

dotCloud sandboxes applications with kernel containers, so you can run any userland process you want.

<comment><USER8> Fantastic! One man's crashing app is another (more capable man's) special (dirty) function that makes his tight core loop 60% faster ;)</comment></comment></comment>


Instagram photo app for Android is under way - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57338496-264/instagram-photo-app-for-android-is-under-way/?part=rss

<comment><USER2> I hope they don't follow the start-up pattern of implementing Cocoa Touch UI widgets for a 1:1 port. Even when devs iron out the inevitable bugs and crashes, those types of apps feel foreign on Android.

It's better to use native widgets in a familiar way and keep the two UIs consistent where it makes sense.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone remember a lib which recreates images from colors? - <AUTHOR> I remember a while ago a HNer posted a lib which reconstructed an image from colored shards to approximate the original. Does anyone remember it's name? <comment><USER2> Some variation of [https://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming- evolu...](https://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of- mona-lisa/) ?

[https://github.com/kiirala/approximate_image](https://github.com/kiirala/approximate_image) and [http://kennycason.com/posts/2016-06-01-genetic-algorithm- dra...](http://kennycason.com/posts/2016-06-01-genetic-algorithm-draw- images.html) are similar implementations.

<comment><AUTHOR> It was extremely similar to this, but without the genetic evolution algo (it was just a best guess I suppose)</comment></comment>


Vkontakte: "Big Brother"-Like Surveillance Can Be Conquered By Technology - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/28/vkontaktes-pavel-durov/ <comment><USER2> It's a strange feeling when, as a European who has lived and studied in America, I trust the Russians more than the US.</comment>


LinuxFoundation newsletter is running on Microsoft Windows and IIS - <AUTHOR> http://techrights.org/2020/06/22/proprietary-iis-and-windows-foundation/ <comment><USER2> This feels like a non-issue to me. The Linux Foundation didn't buy hardware and then settle on a Windows server install. They picked an email newsletter service that fit their needs and one part of that happens to contain a aspx link.

</comment><comment><USER3> Given that the newsletter seems to live in a separate domain, perhaps they have an external company handle it?

<comment><USER2> It is an external company, it's got "exacttarget.com" nameservers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think aspx core is open source and runs on linux..

<comment><USER5> It would appear so:

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and- deploy...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/linux- nginx?view=aspnetcore-3.1)</comment></comment>


JRubyConf to be held the day after RubyConf2009 - <AUTHOR> http://www.jrubyconf.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Same venue, and it's free.</comment>


Samsung's anti-iPhone 5 ads - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-anti-iphone-5-ad-2012-9

<comment><AUTHOR> First, what the headline tells me is that Samsung thinks both phones are nothing out of the ordinary. Which is shooting your own foot.

Second, that feature list is ridiculous. The Galaxy side is visibly littered with marketing buzzwords. You could add some to the iPhone too: shake to shuffle, airplay, BLE, photostream, blah blah.

In fact, everything is so off that it makes me question the authenticity of this ad, or the common sense of their agency...</comment>


Utron: Go MVC framework for fast, scalable and robust database-driven web apps - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/gernest/utron <comment><USER2> I don't think it's a good idea to couple an "ORM" with a web framework for Go. Go is, IMO, an inherently bad language to write an ORM in. I tried doing it once, as a convenience layer on top of Redis hash sets (kind of a crazy idea to begin with), and ran into an endless number of complications that led me to the conclusion that it was not the best solution to my problem.

I think its something you certainly can do. And if you have a great understanding of Go, and to a lesser extent C, you could probably do so with a reasonably good outcome. But I think what we've seen out of Go is that small micro services do not exemplify MVC and instead benefit from simpler abstractions that differ from traditional frameworks like Rails, Django, or Express.

That said, awesome work and I hope to have the time to try this out soon :) !

<comment><USER3> All of this is spot on. Go could benefit from a higher-level SQL layer, however.

As an example which has been annoying me the last few days, "database/sql" doesn't automatically prepare statements; so preparing is a separate step, and if you want to use a prepared statement in a transaction, it's yet another step to convert the prepared statement to one that will work with the transaction. I have convenience wrappers around this stuff to make my SQL calls less boilerplated and more readable.

It also doesn't offer high-level convenience functions for things like getting all rows mapped to structs in one go, and so on. And if you're going to support variable expansion in SQL queries, why not support named variables looked up through a map[string]interface{}?

What ActiveRecord gets right, and other ORMs (Hibernate, TopLink) don't, is that you don't want to abstract away SQL. You just want to map the data from/to your native (in this case) structs, because it's convenient.

<comment><USER4> Have you looked at [https://github.com/jmoiron/sqlx](https://github.com/jmoiron/sqlx) It's a nice little wrapper around database/sql that offers some of the things you talk about.

<comment><USER3> That's exactly what I need. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> How do you go about hiring someone from Tanzania?

<comment><USER6> Email him, then set up a phone/video interview and then most likely either work remotely or sponsor him a work visa to where you are. So an H1-B for U.S.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> sad this guy isn't working somewhere sick

<comment><USER8> The "Are you hiring?" section at the bottom is heartbreaking. Recruiters, contact this guy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice, framework, good luck for your job search, i'm sure you'll get some good opportunity to do remote work eventually.

</comment><comment><USER10> Would you guys agree that MVC is on it's way out? It just seems like a mess to couple things like this over just simple views and a dispatcher.

</comment><comment><USER11> I've often wanted to use Go for some silly little side projects and I typically just end up with a Flask orientated Python stack. This might give me some motivation to finally create something other than a todo list with Go.

</comment><comment><USER12> I believe the project is called Utron. I'm also not sure how a 'database- driven web app' differs from web apps in general?</comment>


The Year of Dressing Formally (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://chronicle.com/article/The-Year-of-Dressing-Formally/45940/ <comment><USER2> FWIW, wearing a suit (in the modern "business suit" sense of term) isn't technically "formal" dress. Heck, it isn't even semi-formal. Semi-formal would be a tuxedo (for men), and formal wear would be "morning dress" or "white tie".[1]

"Business suits" fall into the category of "lounge suit" which is considered informal dress.[2]

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_wear>

[2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lounge_suit>

<comment><USER3> In the US, black tie is the highest level of formality that most people are ever likely to encounter. This requires a tuxedo (or, on the more casual level of black tie, an all black suit, white shirt, and black tie). Nothing is "technically" formal, since there is no defining body that lays down the specification of the word with the authority to enforce that specification. Like most non-technical language, it is a target that moves with the times. If someone says they went to a formal event in the U.S., most of the time it will mean they wore a tuxedo without tails.

<comment><USER2> I still want one of those tail-coats though.. and an opera scarf. Just because they look awesome. :-)

<comment><USER3> I would never discourage you from such a pursuit. I would also love to see someone pull off a full cloak and mantle outside of Game of Thrones. I doubt I will live to see that day, but it would be incredible.

<comment><USER4> Wearing a black wool overcoat over a full suit isn't the same thing as a cloak and mantle, but it's close.

Living in Seattle helps.

<comment><USER5> Peter Norvig: [http://pn.smugmug.com/Family/Peter/i-qG4SMC9/1/M/nutcracker-...](http://pn.smugmug.com/Family/Peter/i-qG4SMC9/1/M/nutcracker-M.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I find it amusing how people want beautiful architecture, good weather, nice greenery, and so on, but don't make the next step and want people (including themselves) to dress better. Clothes are just another facet of visual culture.

That's how you get tourists with sweatpants and fanny packs outside the Florence Duomo.

<comment><USER6> Personally I suspect the disconnect centers around utility. Beautiful architecture can be beautifully functional too. Good weather is pretty, and also comfortable. Greenery is pretty, and cleans the air.

Semi-formal and formal wear are practically the antithesis of functional and comfortable.

Personally, I have been making an effort to dress up a step or two, but I have to balance this against carrying more changes of clothes for my various activities outside of work.

<comment><USER7> If your suit isn't comfortable, then you are wearing the wrong size and should get it tailored.

<comment><USER8> Cost of t-shirt: $15. Cost of perfectly-tailored suit: $x.

Solve for `x < 20`.

<comment><USER9> If it is appropriate for you to wear a suit for an occasion (outside of church, weddings, and funerals), then you are likely making enough from the position to pay for the suit.

<comment><USER10> This doesn't apply to me, but couldn't this be a catch-22? To get a job/social status where you're making good money, you need to get a suit, but you need the money for a suit in order to get that job.

Also, you could just be averse to a perceived waste of money, even if you could afford it (my case).

<comment><USER6> It isn't a catch-22 so much- you don't need to be making banker money to dress like a banker, so you can climb the ladder over time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "One day you put on a tie, the next day you are driving a Hummer and voting Republican."

My official nomination for quote of the day.

<comment><USER12> For tomorrow, perhaps this:

"Among other things, Mr. Flusser has led me to discover the value of the male garter for holding up slouchy socks."

<comment><USER13> KISS: Just get better socks.

<comment><USER12> No can do. I already purchased garter-buckle polishing paste, so I'm committed.

<comment><USER14> Sunk cost fallacy; but hey, if you need another hobby . . .

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wear suits at work fairly often; it depends on the client and if I'm interacting externally often in a given week (month). I like wearing a suit: I have an enhanced sense of professionalism and self-confidence when I'm dressed to the nines.

I'm not a developer or in "tech" in the pure sense, and I know this depends on the "culture", but I'm also on the East Coast and a bunch of our devs have Bow Tie Tuesday and really get into it. May be a geographic thing as well: I'm as like as not to wear dark jeans, nice shoes, a button-down, and a blazer on weekends.

And it isn't cheap. If you shop around, you can find a reasonable suit for under $500, which is still a fair amount of t-shirts and hoodies. However, the key to dress clothes more so than quality is _fit_ —you should have all your suits tailored to fit you, and that's another $100 or so between jacket, pants, etc.

<comment><USER16> At a former job of mine, we used to have "Formal Friday." Soon enough, some started to attend "Flannel Friday" instead and it became quite the office- dividing phenomenon. Regardless, it can be quite fun and effective to have informally-defined clothing days. Gives people a nice chance too try out new pieces and styles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The article reminded me of a quote by Heinlein I recently came across:

'Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.'

<comment><USER18> So basically, we need to engage in superficial nonsense, because people are so immature that they can't settle their differences amicably? I'll make sure to teach my child that.

<comment><USER17> That's exactly the same thing you're teaching your child when you tell them not to point and say "Why is that man so fat?".

I usually wear tees and jeans, but I recognize that formal wear has a place.

I'm surprised you made such a snarky response, when you said something very similar in another thread:

"I think, that as techies, we are in a unique situation, as far as intellectual development is concerned. The vast majority of the population can't appreciate technical phenomena because it is culturally viewed as "too hard" or "robotic" or "blah blah, boring". _We, OTOH, actively refuse to engage with humanistic pursuits, but not out of any perceived difficulty so much as discomfort with the pretensions that come with "cultured society"._ "

<comment><USER18> So you're comparing common decency and common sense to overbearing vanity _imposed_ on people? If I remark about someone's weight to demean them, that's simply dick behavior. Wearing whatever the hell you like is not. Now imposing that one may be somehow inferior for not paying an exorbitant amount of attention to dress (for vanity, no less), that's dick behavior - which was the crux of OP's comment.

And please, tell me how "if you strip away the pretensions from these things, more people would take to them" is the same as "the pretentiousness is necessary and the untraveled, uncultured, blah, blah, don't understand that, because, you know, uncultured".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I just wish more American businessmen would wear decent shoes, such as bluchers or oxfords by Alden or Allen Edmonds, so I don't have to see anymore rubber soled, bicycle toed loafers at the airport: <http://instagram.com/p/ZbdZfMsM4G/>

<comment><USER20> People wear all kinds of silly fashions here in Italy, which is pretty much the fashion capital of the world. Some of them may be well made, name-brand silly fashions, but they certainly look odd 5 years out from when they were 'in'.

I'm with Zuckerberg, and Jobs with his 'uniform' on this one: most of that junk is a complete waste of your time. The only winning move is not to play. You don't have to wear just sweatshirts and jeans, but pick stuff you like and get on with life and stop worrying about it.

<comment><USER21> Mimicry has its place for those who haven't succeeded globally by the age you're supposed to start wearing formal, or at least "decent" clothes, like Zuckerberg and Jobs did.

<comment><USER2> _by the age you're supposed to start_

"supposed to"? According to why? And what gives this amorphous "they" any standing to dictate such a thing?

Fuck that... I like to dandy it up and rock the "two and a half piece" suit look sometimes (that is, waistcoat and - in my case - a cravat, but no outer jacket), but I do it because I like it, not because somebody says it's what you're supposed to do. And the rest of the time, this 40 year old sees no reason not to wear jeans and a Twisted Sister t-shirt.

<comment><USER21> Why don't you put "jeans and Twisted Sister t-shirt" version on LinkedIn profile?

In the neighbourhood I'm known as "the bathrobe guy with funny facial hair", so I _get you_. I don't want attract people around me who will judge a book by its covers, but majority people I interacted with are living in that cave. It is pretty oblivious to walk around and think that your appearance doesn't matter to substantial number of people you do business and socialize with.

If you want to leave appearance of laid-back honest doer, that's fine. Not all people do.

<comment><USER2> _Why don't you put "jeans and Twisted Sister t-shirt" version on LinkedIn profile?_

That's actually a damn good idea. The picture that is there now is just one I picked because it's a halfway decent picture. I'm not terribly photogenic, so I usually try to avoid having my picture taken at pretty much all costs. If I had a good picture of myself in jeans and a T/S t-shirt, I'd switch it right now.

As soon as I can get a new picture taken, I'll do it though.

 _It is pretty oblivious to walk around and think that your appearance doesn't matter to substantial number of people you do business and socialize with._

Oh I don't think it doesn't matter to some people, I just try very hard not to think about those people or their opinions. Maybe if I would "play by the rules" more I'd be richer or more successful or whatever, but it's just not worth it...

After all, as they say

        Getcha a 3-piece Wall Street smile and son you'll
        look just like me
        I said "Hey man, there's something that you oughta know"
        I tell ya Park Avenue leads to Skid Row.[1]

[1]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJrbHapH5pM>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I wish I can dress nicely in suits, but I don't do it for two reasons. No one dresses in suits in technology sector. Not even CEO. Only team that dress up in our company is legal, and even they are on the more informal side compared to what real formal is.

Good suits that look good are expensive. I don't want to wear daddy tier suits, but good looking suits I've seen run well over $500.

<comment><USER23> I once worked at a place that required me to rack servers in a 3 piece suit. Once.

<comment><USER24> I worked for a client once (a very large logistics firm) where everyone who isn't union had to wear suit and tie, this included all vendors. We were testing some new equipment we built in a sorting facility without any climate control. In July. In Orlando.

<comment><USER23> UPS?

<comment><USER24> yup, I think they may have loosened their dress code for vendors by now

<comment><USER23> My brilliant developer co-worker worked at UPS for 8 years. Told me he had to wear a suit to work everyday, and shave as well. Not clean shaven? You get sent home. Not dressed correctly? You got sent home.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I dress the same every day. Black t-shirt with no logo, jeans, and sneakers. If its cold, I put on my black hoodie. That's all you will see. Nice ocassions? My wife takes care of that. Otherwise, it's my uniform. Clothing costs have gone down, I save time and money by not having to pick what to wear of having to wash things in differen loads. But, I mostly do it because I'm lazy.

<comment><USER26> > I mostly do it because I'm lazy.

You do realize that's exactly the impression your habit conveys, right?

<comment><USER25> Yes. But I'm the good kind of lazy. I choose to spend my time working on solutions to big problems, rather than working on what shirt to wear tomorrow. I do use different brands with different cuts and styles. Mostly because I grab whatever is available at the store. I also only use name brands, because the last twice as long.

It's also a sort of camouflage. I blend in very easily. I like that.

<comment> UVB-76 > I choose to spend my time working on solutions to big problems, rather than > working on what shirt to wear tomorrow.

It worries me that so many hackers use the delusion of "solving big problems" to justify their often self-destructive lifestyles.

<comment><USER25> Why is this self-destructive? Explain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I don't want to belittle the author too much, but when I think about the way my time is spent, there is no way in the world thinking about clothes this much is worth that amount of time.

This does, however, remind me of one of my favorite scenes from the wire: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJn-9TP7uUM>

</comment><comment><USER28> > But I found that a higher level of formality improved my students' learning. > My larger classes ran more smoothly.

This is the crux of the article, and he provides no proof to back it up.

The article says that this is an "experiment", but how did the professor log his activities? How did he measure the change in his student's perception? How did he isolate the variables of his own bias vs. the impact of new clothes vs. the impact of formal clothes?

My personal opinion is that fashion is a gigantic waste of time. In any and all venues. Clothing should be first and foremost for utility. Part of that utility is creating a personal brand, which the author has stumbled upon here in his "experiment".

While I'm not a fan, Steve Jobs had a great outlook on this, and is well known by his jeans-and-turtleneck look. This is an amazing insight into clothes in my opinion: Jobs found an outfit that worked, and then simplified everything in his life related to clothing. Image how easy laundry, the decision on what to wear for the day, moving, and ownership of clothes would be if you had a single, standard type of clothing to wear? Imagine how much easier it is to standardize social interactions with other people around you? You'll never have to worry about wearing 'nice' clothes again, because ALL your clothes are exactly the same.

<comment><USER3> You are aware that words have various meanings, right? This guy is not talking about an experiment in the formal, scientific sense of the word. Also, you are incorrect about whether this is the crux of the article. As you can clearly see from how much time is spent on each part, this is merely a happy side effect to what was a personal development for him.

> My personal opinion is that fashion is a gigantic waste of time. In any and > all venues.

I'm not sure what you mean by waste of time. Do you mean it in the sense of, "Not something I would prefer to do?" Or do you mean it in the sense of, "Ineffective for all purposes?" One of these two meanings is demonstrably false.

> While I'm not a fan, Steve Jobs had a great outlook on this, and is well > known by his jeans-and-turtleneck look.

I think Ryan Gosling's character in Crazy, Stupid, Love had a great outlook on Steve Jobs' outlook on fashion. "Hold on, are you the billionaire owner of Apple Computer? No? Then you've got no right to wear New Balance sneakers, ever." <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZwjcpEEkPs>

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> The title reminds me of pg's post[1] from 2005 that starts with "Suits make a corporate comeback" as an example of PR.

1: <http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

</comment><comment><USER30> I have a hard time seeing formal clothing as anything other than an attempt to advertise an elevated social status. This seems to me to be at odds with the desire to create an egalitarian society.

<comment><USER31> Then again, flip-flops on a man in long pants is pretentious. If the only winning move is not to play then not playing is an attempt to "win".

</comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra Clothing is boring. It's something you have to do, as opposed to what you want to be doing.

Unless it's a T-shirt with some image that relates to your personality.

I'll pay for a service where I can dump my clothes and they'll produce identical new and fitted items.

<comment><AUTHOR> Or you know, it's an art and a hobby that people other than you enjoy.

<comment> guard-of-terra I have nothing against that. Some people collect postage stamps, some play a tube, some dress.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Very nicely done. Benton has a great voice and style. Loved the piece. I also made some additions to my Amazon wish list!

The social engineering aspect of dressing formally was especially interesting. By dressing formally in formal class, then "dressing down" for one-on-ones, he was able to put students much more at ease. (And they also starting emailing him beginning with "Dear Professor" instead of "Hey")

I'm not a suit guy by any means, but in some situations this life choice could make a lot of sense.

</comment><comment><USER33> Many people pretend to not care about their clothes, or the way they look, so long as they look clean, and decent. The truth is a man who wears a nice shirt, pants, and shoes will simply not want to go back if he is confident about it. And for your information, you look much much better if you sport nice, fitted clothes.

<comment><USER6> _The truth is a man who wears a nice shirt, pants, and shoes will simply not want to go back if he is confident about it._

The truth is I am having a difficult time fitting nice shirts, pants, and shoes into my lifestyle. Less because I am lazy, and more because boulders and bicycle cranks and dirt are hard on nice clothes.

<comment><USER33> If you are dealing with boulders and dirt on your way to work, then you should find a different path, or consider ride-sharing etc... But I believe you can still ride in style.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Now that all the hard problems of humanity have been solved, tenured professors may return to more pressing matters -- with style. Splendid!

</comment><comment><USER35> Pics or it didn't happen.</comment>


The People Who Can't Not Run - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/streakers-in-sneakers/371347/?single_page=true

<comment><USER2> I guess I'm in a grumpy mood today, but isn't this just an example of how seriously _boring_ Americans can be about their hobbies? If you want to obsess over a particular exercise, that's fine, but do the rest of us need to hear about it at such length? Exercise or don't. There are more interesting things to talk about.</comment>


Easy e-Filing of Tax Returns in India - <AUTHOR> https://cleartax.in/

<comment><USER2> Hi,

I am the co-founder of ClearTax. Happy to answer questions here!</comment>


Ask HN: I just thought of a startup, got funding and now I am stuck... - <AUTHOR>

Back story about two weeks ago I came up with an idea for an application and it has just snowballed since then.
The app ties telephony in with a smart phone application and does some super cool practical lookups.  I have spoken to four people that I have known in my previous companies (not related, but trusted) and from the feedback that I am getting this could be a billion dollar concept.
I have build a Keynote pitch deck, and a demo of the app using keynotopia as well as a functional design spec for the site, 15 pages of a business plan and proforma expenses, ultra concervative revenue projections and the 3rd party integrations.
I have also built out the entire site as a balsamic screen by screen representation with each part of the process mapped out.
My HUGE issue - of the 4 people that I have spoken to 3 of them have sent written letters of financial commitment to support the app and the 4th wants to signon as employee number one.
I have "raised" just over $250,000 if I pull the trigger I have the money - but there is a lingering issue.....
My problem is that I am an idea guy, I love technology but I would have no idea of how to actually take it from concept to
beta and from beta to production.
I am stuck, what are my next steps?
Questions in my head:
IP attorney? Where do I find programming talent? What order do I do things? How do I validate the concept?
I need super guidance or even just the next 3 steps.
Thank you, <comment><USER2> You're very different from most "idea guys" as you've done something others haven't: you've proven you can raise funding. Take the funding.

Now, be ready to do something difficult: if you want somebody to stick around, you'll need to make them an owner. You've done one part, raise the money, but now you need somebody who can implement this. As such, be willing to offer them over 50% of your equity (what they're doing is more valuable than what you've done, honestly) and make them an actual co-founder. Let them make complete technology choices, even if he says the application will be written in Erlang and Haskell. Give them input equal to yours when it comes to product direction, not "I come up with all the ideas, you implement them". Anything less, and they're an employee and not a founder.

That's very important: you will not get a top notch employees unless a) you have technical founders b) you can pay them above market rate and give a significant equity chunk c) challenge them in a way that grows their technical skill.

Take a look at a successful engineer at a top-notch Silicon Valley company: they have a job with brand name recognition, they do something they love (a _very_ important motivating factor for an engineer: they will not stop working on say garbage collection algorithms and start working on "GroupON for X" for a paycheck), they have a technical manager, they're earning above market rate (with performance based bonuses), they have stock which may not be a significant percentage but is 100% certain to be worth something.

The money you have isn't sufficient to pay an engineer a market rate salary. The problem you're solving is likely not very technical. The upside potential is likely unknown and it's almost certain than an employee will see very little in the case of a typical exit. The only kind of employee you can hire in this case is somebody who can't get a stable job elsewhere: you'll be giving him legitimate experience to put on his resume in return for his work. That isn't a bad deal if you can accurately identify potential (and if you are unable to give them more responsibility and a higher salary in a year, ready for them to leave as soon as get find something else) or have enough money to hire and fire many times (with "trial periods" and the like), but this isn't your case. You can't identify potential, you can't afford to try and fail until you luck upon somebody with potential.

What you need is another founder, who can insert the critical technology DNA, re-state your problem as one technology can be (intelligently) applied to and who has the same stake as you in the company. This person can also identify further talent (including the kind of talent you will need: engineers who have great potential, but are green and need _any_ kind of experience; they need experienced hackers to mentor them).

Where do you find this person? Problem is that you can't, unless you already know them. That's why companies like YC are very fuzzy about founders who have known each other and have a strong bond. Is there an engineer you've worked with (in a business role) who the company has pulled all stops (before) to keep, but who secretly yearns to have more of say in the product (and not just do what a product manager tells him)? Is there a classmate from college who absolutely wowed you? Is there an engineer you hear great things from your unknown-quality engineer friends? That's the person you want.

Again, I'd also like to state this isn't just about the money, other than the fact you've been able to raise funding has set you aside from most "idea" guys (to whom my general response would consist of a crude ASCII drawing). Just having money, doesn't mean you can get great talent: you must be ready to offer is challenge, responsibility and product ownership (and that means giving up a large part of your mental and monetary stake in the startup). Expect most people you reach out to to reject you (but I'd imagine you are ready for this and have experienced this plenty in the process of raising funding).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your reply. I agree money is currently the easy part, the biggest issue is execution. The ideal is fools gold if I can't transform it from a pitch deck into a reality.

You gave me some really great ideas here about reaching out to other engineers that I have worked with and some siblings of friends with CS degrees and startup mentalities.

Cost structure is really low right now - I already have a succesfull Internet marketing business that is doing 500,000 per year with 2 USA full timers and 11 full time off shore resources.

This team took a long time to build over 3 years now with trips to India to work out some of the bugs. Right now, I just don't have the time for missteps or mistakes.

The problem that is being solved is "somewhat" technical, some social integration, some dollar tracking, some analytics tracking, fraud detection, recurring payments etc. But I am not trying to re-invent the world.

Basically I KNOW of the companies that do everything that I need, I just need to glue it all together and add some special sauce.

<comment><USER2> > You gave me some really great ideas here about reaching out to other > engineers that I have worked with and some siblings of friends with CS > degrees and startup mentalities.

Reach out to engineers you've worked with, the ones who already know what _you_ can offer and the ones where you know what they can offer. As I said, make them a founder along with you. Even better, ask them who the best engineers _they_ know are and then in turn ask their friends.

I'd avoid hiring younger siblings of non-technical friends. They need mentoring to reach their full potential (they have to learn how to use version control, how to write clean code, how to test code, how to deploy code to production -- even if they know the fundamentals; you can't teach them that); presence of this potential is something which you (or your non-technical friends) can't tell. College grades do not correlate with programming ability. They are the ones to hire once you already have somebody who can identify those with strong potential (and not those who want a higher salary and a nicer desk than what IBM or Microsoft will give them as a "college hire") and mentor them.

As a side note, when you talk to people, ask for advice on a specific technical problem, not "I am seeking technical co-founder".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> What the fuck? You have all these people ready to throw money at you but you have no idea how to execute? How does that happen.

<comment><USER4> I think HN is being trolled.

There is the possibility that this is a real post, given how insane and bubbleicious the whole mobile/social space has gotten, but I _highly_ doubt it.

The account is 3 days old.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree the account is new - this is what happens when you go from /. to digg to reddit and then have your brother point you to HN over the years.

I assure you there is nothing trolling here, I have been a successful entrepreneur who sold two businesses for over 1.2 million in the past 5 years. One of these was an ISP / web hosting provider and the other an IT support company for SMB's running windows. A long time member of Vistage international and a supporter of Open Source initiatives for years. Just not a programmer, but I can spot the bullshit.

I have hired / fired over 60 people during my career and the largest company I ran had 15 employees and 1.2 million in revenue.

<comment><USER5> If anything, this post further reinforces the notion of trolling. If this was true, then your original post makes even less sense.

<comment><AUTHOR> Knowing how to configure Apache and configure Exchange server is a far cry from I need to build a SaaS webapp.

<comment><USER6> _Knowing how to configure Apache and configure Exchange server is a far cry from I need to build a SaaS webapp._

You claim you have run multiple companies, hired/fired 60 people, you claim to have multiple investors committed. And now you ask HN for how to hire a programmer?

May I suggest to leverage your contacts/advisor network instead, which you surely have built during your previous endeavours?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> 6 month ago I have quit my job a product manager to provide the exact service you are seeking - I work with startups and individuals to design and build a first version of the product they need. I have a pool of local US developers that I work with, and do rapid functional prototyping myself. If you are serious, ping me info(at)popsolete.com

</comment><comment><USER8> No IP attorney. It's money wasted. If you're really doing something protectable, you can file a provisional patent up to a year after first public demo, and that gives you another year to file a real patent. You'll lose some international protection, but it's quite hard to stay internationally protected anyway. I am _not_ a lawyer, please don't trust me.

If neither you nor the person who wants to join the company are developers, then I would pause until you've found one. 250k is not a lot of money to build anything non-trivial, and you'll burn through it unbelievably fast if there's not a founding member who is highly technical and can evaluate how good other technical employees are going to be. If you're paying salaries and other expenses, 250k keeps a team of 5 going for like 6 months. It usually takes 3 months to raise a follow-on round, which gives a team of 5 three months to build something exciting enough to raise follow-on investment. If it's you and one or two technical co-founders, you can run an awful lot longer. If you're just paying spartan living expenses, you can get it as low as 5k per person per month (in the valley).

If you take the money, chances are you'll fail. Are these experienced investors who can afford the loss? Are you okay with losing that money? If they can deal with it and you can deal with it, then I suggest you take it and stay _very_ thrifty for a while while you figure out what's what. Get them to invest in you and the space, not in this particular product idea (since it will likely change and you want their support if that happens).

Personally, I'd take it. Money's great and you can get a lot done in a few months. But only if you're willing to commit. I spent 3 or 4 years working in a space I didn't care that much about because once you have a employees and investors, it's really hard to let go.

As for steps: 1) Figure out what you want 2) Find a badass developer cofounder 3) Take the money 4) Developer starts building product while you start securing first customers/users/partners, adjusting the product as you go based on your learning from talking to people

<comment><USER9> >you can file a provisional patent up to a year after first public demo

Heed the caveat though - demonstration or use in public will be citable against an application elsewhere in the world. This is a good review of grace periods (from a European perspective but covering worldwide issues) -

[http://www.ipr- helpdesk.org/documents/GracePeriodinventionLa...](http://www.ipr- helpdesk.org/documents/GracePeriodinventionLaw_0000004514_00.xml.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > ultra conservative revenue projections

HA HA HA based on what? It's an idea.

<comment><USER4> Don't knock the power of ideas.

I have this awesome idea for a teleportation ray that will instantly transport me from one city to another. I even have a 15 page powerpoint presentation and I have 4 of my country club buddies who committed to putting up some cash after I got enough long island iced teas in them.

Now all I need is someone to build it for me.

<comment><USER10> send me your routing number, I'm ready to invest.

<comment><AUTHOR> 127.0.0.1

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is what I built on <10k investment budget, the rest was self-funded. The code to get in is 1234 <http://beepl.com/jan> if you want to have a look. Also, I am demoing this to an investor tomorrow. Any word of advice you can give me? Hoping to launch on March the 30rd.. If that doesn't go well, the backend is all programmed by me. And I am sort of a hacker that can program stuff. Maybe I can help with your idea?

<comment><USER9> When I saw the name "beepl" I thought it was a contraction of "beep"+"ppl" [people] - like signalling to people with a beep or something. Then I saw the little bees; perhaps it fits better my way? Was that intentional.

Twitter meets StackOverflow - Is that a reasonable summary?

Hope all goes well on 30th March for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> You should definitely start building as soon as possible. The longer you wait the more time others are out there thinking of and/or building a competing product. Every week there is a post on HN about someone who thought of something and while they were thinking or building someone else launched. Getting to market first might be the guarantee success, it sure as hell helps.

Also, talk to a lawyer. If you are taking $250k from friends you need to have contracts/agreements in place. Don't take money on a handshake. One or both of you will get burned at some point.

I don't know if these friends are seasoned investors or just people with money but if they aren't familiar with the startup world make sure they know what they are getting into. They could lose all their money by the end of the week and they need to be prepared for that (make sure your agreements are in place before you start spending in case this happens).

With $250, I'd say you got about 4-6 months (assuming 4-6 engineers) of runway. That means you need to have a good prototype in 2-3 months and be ready to start pitching real investors. So I go back to my first point, start building.

</comment><comment><USER13> IMHO, you don't say "got funding" until you can clear a check.

</comment><comment><USER14> 1\. You can outsource the prototype but if you're going to get funding, you should hire in-house moving forward aka local.

1a. Ask people you know for referrals of coders they trust. Hit up local networking events. Try to find people through yourself and others you know and trust before branching out to regular hiring ways.

2\. Get a corporate attorney to help set up your company and the appropriate paperwork so whoever you hire, sign the right paperwork needed. This is important.

3\. Build the prototype, and haul ass. Consider talking to an IP attorney but in all seriousness, $250k isn't much. If it's going to cost you a significant amount of money, perhaps hold off on the IP registration. Don't take my word on this though, consult a few different IP attornies for better advice on that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Again thank you. I have contacted - www.hashrocket.com / www.thoughtbot.com

To move forward with round one. Will keep you posted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> You're either trolling, or you're woefully out of your depth.

<comment><AUTHOR> I completely agre with you on one of these

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The biggest hurdle you have in front of you is finding someone to build it. Reach out to your network and see if anyone knows good people working in the technologies you need. Attend local meetups that revolve around these technologies. Visit coworking spaces an ask around. Hacker News may also be a good resource for that. Also, I'd be happy to recommend some folks to you (my email's in my profile).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you have money but no brains, hire some brains. If you have brains but no money find a funder. You can't have both no money and no brains....

So I got the recommendation to contact:

www.hashrocket.com www.thoughtbot.com

And then attend my local Ruby meetup.

sdruby.org

I have called HR and TB and would be interested in getting additional suggestions.

Thanks

</comment><comment><USER17> Find yourself someone who is really, really good at getting products built. Then work with them and trust them.

<comment><AUTHOR> So where does one go to find a really really good product builder. And no, oDesk, elance, getafreelancer are not where I want to take this. Preference would be to get a 90-120 day plan, build it with some local USA developers and get this moving fast.

Is there a paddock of "Internet Guns for hire" that work on this and are proven?

<comment><USER18> Not that I've ever heard of.

From my experience, your best bet is to find someone you trust that is a great programmer (even if they can't work for you), and have _them_ vet candidates for you. The truth of the matter is that there is an amazing lack of correlation between people who _seem_ (to non-techs) to know what they're talking about, and people who _actually know what's going on_.

<comment><USER19> I've been asked to do this for a couple non-tech founder friends. All I really do is have a fairly casual 20-30 minute conversation with the job candidate about the state of whatever tech the product will be built in - "what's the quirkiest thing you've found in iOS?", "which backend platforms do you like? why that one instead of this one?", etc. Throw in a question about big O notation if you think this job requires some CS knowledge.

It's generally pretty easy to see who can walk the walk, without resorting to grilling candidates with trivia or detailed hypotheticals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Hopefully someone with experience will step up and coach you a little. Either way, you will need to rise to the occasion and grow into someone more than an idea guy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Item 1. Agreed. Item 2. Starting to step up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Pull the trigger. Use the money to build a development team that you trust. And trust them with building your first version (MVP). Iterate from there.

</comment><comment><USER22> Where are you at? Maybe we have similar ideas? I have written a few lines of code in my day.

<comment><AUTHOR> California

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Next 3 steps.

Network, hustle, hustle.

In that order.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - networking is huge and I have a huge network. I just want to make sure that I am fishing in the right pond.

<comment><USER24> I would recommend using someone from that network who you trust, and can validate as a great engineer, to hire your first engineer. No offense, but although you can probably assess for business...(ality?), you need someone who knows what they're talking about to figure out if your potentials, well, have any.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Scam

<comment><USER25> Nice example of confirmation bias going on here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you think this is from lack of belief or the overconfidence?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> obvious scam</comment>


Ask HN: How do you use Hacker News on the go? - xavierxf-

Do you use the mobile site or an app?<p>Android or iOS? <comment><AUTHOR> On IOS:

I use the hackernews app by @ashishgandhi. Its okay, there are some serious flaws. Like if you actually sign into the app it breaks and needs to be completely re-installed.

But honestly I comment to much as is, so just reading is likely good for me.

Most other apps I find are very ugly, or lack simplicity of navigation. I just prefer its presentation.

TL;DR I'm trapped in a rut with a semi-broken tool.

</comment><comment><USER2> I stumped the $ for MiniHack as my iPhone and iPad hacker news client of choice after using about half the other free ones and two other paid ones, totally wish I found this first.

[https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/minihack-for-hacker- news/id6...](https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/minihack-for-hacker- news/id631108846?mt=8)

</comment><comment><USER3> Just downloaded [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news- yc/id713733435?m...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news- yc/id713733435?mt=8) and commenting from it sucks (you have to tap the little link that shows a web view of the site). Usually I use ihackernews but I can't sign in to it for some reason.

</comment><comment><USER4> Reader YC on BlackBerry . Works like a charm, not just on the go but while getting the little one to sleep.

</comment><comment><USER5> i use mobile site on android. The best mobile site in my opinion is [http://hn.premii.com](http://hn.premii.com). There also is [http://ihackernews.com](http://ihackernews.com) but it lacks some features of HN.

</comment><comment><USER6> I use Hacker News Android and it has suited me well so far.

</comment><comment><USER7> Pulse app on ios.

</comment><comment><USER8> macbook air usepanda.com</comment>


Autocorrect Java IntelliJ Plugin - <AUTHOR> https://eddy.systems/

<comment><USER2> Also check out the short demo video here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PrShZcaR98&rel=0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PrShZcaR98&rel=0)</comment>


A Copyright Vote That Could Change the EU's Internet - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/09/11/copyright-vote-change-europes-internet/ <comment><USER2> The tech world is going to have to decide pretty quickly what it wants to be:

1\. A set of dumb pipes and a public square for information.

Or

2\. A curated community built for advertising where things that offend people are censored.

Right now tech has chosen option 2, but in answer to any regulation it doesn't like, it pretends it has chosen option 1 and loudly screams "free speech". Tech is trying to have its cake and eat it too. I think more and more people are becoming cynical that the tech companies really care about free speech as a principle, and so we will see more and more of these type of laws.

<comment><USER3> You can have both, and we largely already do.

Interconnects and ISPs are largely dumb pipes.

Individual websites can choose whether they're curated or shitshows. Sites like 4chan do exist, as well as other "wild wests" of freedom.

Sites like facebook where the actual user curates their own information (via following or not certain people) do exist and seem to do particularly well.

And on the final side, personal sites, like "Alice's Blog" do exis, where all content is curated by the central person running the site and all users get the same experience.

I don't get why you say "OR" or say that tech has chosen particular options. Each website gets to make its own choice and deal with various consequences.

The parts between a user and a given webpage -- the isp, interconnects, bgp routing, dns, and hosting/vps-providers/clouds -- have largely chosen to be dumb pipes offering services to anyone who pays.

<comment><USER2> > The parts between a user and a given webpage -- the isp, interconnects, bgp > routing, dns, and hosting/vps-providers/clouds -- have largely chosen to be > dumb pipes offering services to anyone who pays.

I say we have not seen this recently. DNS and hosting providers are deciding that some websites are too offensive for them to host. DDOS protection providers, for example Cloudflare also the same. Search engines also now downgrade content that they view as extremist. Large social networks will censor user produced content that they find offensive. All these examples could be considered as modern infrastructure between the user and content generated by another user.

With the ongoing centralization of the internet, what is considered as infrastructure is going to have be more than just ISP's and Interconnects. The internet is no longer spread out over a billion websites. Probably 95% of content that people access is probably a few dozen sites at most, and the long tail of other sites is found through a search engine like Google. In addition, the ability to monetize a site is controlled by just a few companies. This has profound implications for the social principle of free speech.

True, these companies are private companies and thus are not bound to the laws of free speech as they are not a government entity. They are fully within their rights to determine who they provide service to. However, in decrying this regulation, they are appealing not to the law, but to the social principle of free speech. If they plan to appeal to the social principle of free speech in decrying certain regulations, they should be adhering to the social principle of free speech, or the public is going to get cynical fast.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Another good summary[0], written by a member of the Pirate Party.

[0]: [https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-reform/](https://juliareda.eu/eu- copyright-reform/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Very bad reform. Among the other things, it makes any site directly responsible for every copyright violation of its users.

For a change, this is as bad for big and small companies.

Not even Facebook can policy all the posts of their users for words, pictures, sounds and videos. FB won't get a takedown notice, it could be sued directly.

<comment><USER6> Facebook will have a lobby that carves out an exception for itself while simultaneously shutting down any threat to its monopoly through this legislation.

<comment><USER7> In the EU, maybe not.

This may be a signal that the internet has become way too centralized.

The irony of the centralization of a decentralized platform is suddenly enforcement of regulations like these become feasible. The nuclear-war proof internet is suddenly vulnerable to people sitting behind desks or whatever the hell they do in Europe.

<comment><USER8> The EU is the very reason we see this sort of legislation. Everything has positive and negative sides, and for the EU the negative side is giving lobbyists a 28-for-1 offer: lobby a single parliament, and have your legislation implemented in 28 different countries! The mileage of a European lobbyist has never been greater than it is now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Dunno what else is in the document, but the thing I'm looking forward to is the single digital market.

I'm frankly pissed that a ton of services are unavailable outside the few European posterboy countries.

<comment><USER10> Could you electorate what services are missing? The only thing I noticed is that the catalogue of streaming services is smaller in some European countries but I don't think a "single digital market" would help much. The single digital market is oriented towards lowering trade barriers and having unified regulations instead of splitting local monopolies such as media companies and phone companies (which would help Netflix and amazon)

<comment><USER11> I haven't looked at the idea for the single digital market, but I can share some context about how the EU has traditionally worked regarding trade regulations.

In simplified terms, all member countries agree on a set a set of shared requirements for a type of product, and any product meeting those requirements is allowed to be sold in all EU countries.

So where you earlier had to meet certifications _in each EU country_ , you now have only _one_ standard to meet with your product. That's a big reduction in red tape, saving a lot of time and money for everyone! (contrary to popular opinion, the EU has _reduced_ bureaucracy more than it increased it)

Individual countries can deviate by have more _lax_ requirements (which is why you can still buy _cazu marzu_ in Sardinia, despite it not meeting EU regulations), but not _stronger_.

Remember, all EU countries have to agree to sign up, and this is also why it can take many years and tweaks to come to such an agreement.

And the rabbit hole is deeper than you think. It isn't just fire safety regulations for flags, making idiots look like idiots[0], it goes all the way down to agreeing what kind of cardboard is acceptable for sending your mail (IIRC, there were different standards in what chemicals were considered toxic or not).

The thing is, I can't really imagine how one would apply the same kind of principles to the Internet. What is there to unify? The internet doesn't really have borders, does it? I mean I guess the underlying infrastructure could be unified, but that's not really the "market" part, is it?

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px_M6weS8gY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px_M6weS8gY)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Without links to the actual proposal this sounds like a propaganda piece.

<comment><USER13> Are you only discovering now that mozilla is into propaganda ?

<comment><USER12> More or less yea. I've been recently discovering that a lot of entities I had perviously thought of as trust-worthy are usually spreading propaganda and misinformation under the guise of "spreading awareness".

This particular blog fits into that pattern, which immediately triggered my skepticism.

<comment><USER11> Mozilla is rather big, isn't it? I wonder if this isn't a result of Mozilla being the kind of company that attracts the type of "activist" programmer to write this kind of stuff, and also having the work environment where you can get fanatic subcultures that just assert their beliefs.

This is not a dig at Mozilla specifically, this is a problem for any big company or organisation really.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Available version of the propose directive: [https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2016/EN/1-201...](https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2016/EN/1-2016-593-EN-F1-1.PDF)

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm sorry, but an article like this should contain quotes or at least links to the actual text under discussion. Like this, it's only an opinion piece.

<comment><USER16> I might be wrong, but I think that they haven't posted any actual text because the document(s) got leaked.

If you're looking for a proper discussion about this and the actual text, EDRi (something like EU's EFF) is probably what you're looking for. They did an extensive coverage of this in the last couple of days and have published the leaked documents.

Some links:

[https://edri.org/leaked-document-eu-presidency-calls-for- mas...](https://edri.org/leaked-document-eu-presidency-calls-for-massive- internet-filtering/)

[https://edri.org/estonia-loves-digital-why-is-it- supporting-...](https://edri.org/estonia-loves-digital-why-is-it-supporting- the-censorshipmachine/)

[https://edri.org/six-states-raise-concerns-about-legality- of...](https://edri.org/six-states-raise-concerns-about-legality-of-copyright- directive/)

<comment><USER11> > _I might be wrong, but I think that they haven 't posted any actual text > because the document(s) got leaked._

You're wrong, but it's an easy mistake to make: the leak concerns the ongoing diplomatic discussions between the nations voting on the proposal:

> _According to a new leak, a number of EU Member States share our serious > concerns about the proposal for mass surveillance and censorship of uploads > to the internet in Europe, included in the European Commission's proposal > for a new copyright Directive. Those Member States seem unwilling to build a > censorship machine forcing EU countries to adopt Google's current practices. > They highlight that such practices should not be implemented without making > sure of the consequences for fundamental rights and for the rule of law. The > leaked document contains a list of questions posed to the internal legal > service of the Council of the EU, signed by six EU Member States: Belgium, > the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands._

The proposed directive itself is, as with all such proposals, open and available for everyone in every official EU language:

[http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2016/EN/1-2016...](http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2016/EN/1-2016-593-EN-F1-1.PDF)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I would love to read an analysis or critique of these laws that doesn't come from the radical anti-copyright lobby

<comment><USER18> The critique comes from the proponents of normal approach. It's the proposal itself that comes from the radical copyright lobby.</comment></comment>


Interesting Results from Facebook's New Mobile Ad Features - <AUTHOR> http://katiesmillie.com/2013/01/08/interesting-results-from-facebooks-new-mobile-ad-features/

<comment><USER2> Good stuff</comment>


How to convince your fellow developer to write short methods? - <AUTHOR> http://www.agiledeveloper.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=8a745e85-2a34-4d9c-8c25-ca371530e281 <comment><USER2> > But, do not reply to that question that way. Instead say, "Over the weekend > I got into my car, started it, drove 5 miles West, took a right turn, then a > left turn, then drove another 10 miles, ..." Go at it for several minutes > until your colleague gets frustrated and interrupts you with "What's wrong > with you." Now simply reply, "oh, I though I'll tell you how my weekend way > like you write your methods."

Wow. I'm pretty sure being passive-aggressive is not the solution.

If there's a really concrete case where a method doing too much is making code hard to correct (because you cannot change just one part of it in isolation), show it to the developer, and _don't be a dick about it_. While they may just be writing sloppy code, there's a good chance it was a smaller method that grew so gradually that it never set off their mental alarms.</comment>


Coronavirus – What we're doing and how you can help in simple terms - <AUTHOR> https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/15/coronavirus-what-were-doing-and-how-you-can-help-in-simple-terms/ <comment><USER2> An earlier news post gives some more detail about the projects being simulated [1]. That link was previously submitted on HN twice, but not discussed [2] [3].

[1] [https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/](https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22575200](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22575200)

[3] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22579834](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22579834)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've just built a Ryzen 9 3900X (12C) system with a 2080 Super. I've also got a 100/50 connection. I'll be contributing what I can.

I've got some left over Ryzen 5 and i5 6600K CPUs, a 1060 and a 1070. I'll get these up and running ASAP.

</comment><comment><USER4> Could not get any GPU work units on win10 with a 1080. Anyone got this to work with GPU only?

<comment><USER5> It happened the same to me, and at some point started to work.

I changed the following, but dont know if it really worked or was just a coincidence...

\- In the FoldingAtHome Advanced Control, set the Folding Power to Full. \- In configutation / slots, remove, readd the GPU \- Disable pihole in case you have it

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone run this on a CPU machine?</comment>