Ask HN: Automatically click on all ads on all pages that I visit - <AUTHOR>

Like many of you, I am annoyed that ads follow me. I was wondering if anybody wants to build a browser plugin that automatically clicks on all ads in all pages that I visit. (or is there such a thing already out there). The idea here is to create noise on the advertisers side, and prevent them from having any evidence/insight into what I really like and don't like.
Of course this does not work on Google/facebook and others with whom I voluntarily share my preferences (by using their products, search, social ...). But I am not very worried about them personally anyway. I am more annoyed by these other advertisers with whom I don't have any direct relationship (I don't use their free products) and they are also being very dumb about it. Like I once looked at product page (a year ago) and now everywhere I go I see ads for that damn thing.
In summary, anybody wants to feed noise to dumb advertisers. This makes them smarter (or the smarter ones will survive) which makes our experience better (don't know if it makes our lives better, but that is a tall order anyway).
I don't have time to do it myself, but will be happy to help if needed.
EDIT:
I really don't want to use an ad blocker, because I want to support content producers who rely on ads (like youtubers ....). <comment><USER2> I'm not sure how much you know about tracking cookies and the like but clicking on every ad on every page is not really going to help you. You are better off installing a plugin like [https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/self-destruct...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/self-destructing-cookies/) or [https://disconnect.me/](https://disconnect.me/). Those tools take away a lot of the tracking and profiling capabilities of ad networks.

The other problem is that modern ad networks these days are pretty complicated beasts very much like stock exchanges where publishers and marketers come together to bid on the ability to serve ads on specific pages and to specific users. This means a lot of these networks gather and segment information by IP addresses and browser fingerprints. Those pieces of information are much harder to mask and you need to start using anonymizing proxies if you want to hide that information as well.

So the bottom line is that all these tools already exist and they are much better at masking information than clicking on every ad possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't want to use an ad blocker because, I really want to support people who produce content and rely on ads (like youtubers ...).

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, deliberately clicking the ads may get your favorite websites and youtubers banned from their content network. The network will see the abnormal increase in clicks and they'll blame the publisher and will pursue them for click fraud. So...this tactic might be counter-productive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Get an ad blocker and add an exception to YouTube or whatever site you don't want to see ads.

[http://i.imgur.com/1HX7pnD.png](http://i.imgur.com/1HX7pnD.png)

You can retarget / remarket YouTubers, and YT'ers are not the only content producers that rely on ads.

This is a black hat, unethical idea. Distributed click fraud? (yes many ad platforms do consider this fraud) It would never make any of the directories, no one in their right mind would ever touch this.

</comment><comment><USER5> >build a browser plugin that automatically clicks on all ads in all pages that I visit.

>I really don't want to use an ad blocker, because I want to support content producers who rely on ads (like youtubers ....).

You would be hurting the publishers with these. I work in ad ops, and if there's enough fraudulent clicks I simply place a publisher on a blacklist.

</comment><comment><USER6> Good idea. Lets also DDoS all new startup websites. The smart ones will learn how to mitigate the attack, and we can weed out the rest!

If you don't want to get retargeted just use ghostery.

Also just install adblock and whitelist youtube/whatever few sites you want to show ads

</comment><comment><USER7> This would be quite awesome, not for confusing tracking, but messing with advertisers. Imagine hundreds of people visiting a site and clicking on all the ads. Sites would go crazy.

</comment><comment><USER8> This doesn't seem like a good use of your time.

I suggest installing an advert blocking program, then finding a more ambitious way to put a dent in the universe.</comment>


FTC Preparing Possible Antitrust Suit Against Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftc-preparing-possible-antitrust-suit-against-facebook-11600211840 <comment> dane-pgp > The Federal Trade Commission is gearing up to file a possible antitrust > lawsuit against Facebook Inc. by year-end

So the administration will decide whether or not to punish Facebook after they know the results of the election, which Facebook may be able to influence? Nice business you have there, it'd be a pity if something were to happen to it.

Anyway, a simple remedy to the problem of Facebook (other than splitting off some of its acquisitions) would be to mandate Data Portability for users, such that their Facebook posts could be seen by friends on other social networks, and vice versa. Once Metcalfe's Law is broken, and switching costs become near zero, proper competition will be restored.

</comment><comment><USER2> [https://archive.is/ZTap3](https://archive.is/ZTap3)</comment>


Record fine for TalkTalk security breach - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37565367 <comment><AUTHOR> £400,000 is massive compared to most data breach fines in the UK</comment>


Ask HN: What's the least expensive VM you can buy in the cloud? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking to setup a proxy in the cloud (with Squid) and for that I need a very cheap VM. I was looking at the t2.micro from AWS, but is there something even cheaper than that?<p>Thanks! <comment><USER2> A t2.micro will run you about $10/month (you have to have some amount of EBS to go with it).

By comparison, an f1-micro on Google Compute Engine (GCE) is just under $5/month thanks to lower prices and "sustained use" discounting: [https://cloud.google.com/compute/#pricing](https://cloud.google.com/compute/#pricing)

Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine.

</comment><comment><USER3> I signed up to [http://nanovz.com/](http://nanovz.com/) out of curiosity and, well, it works. It's €1.50 per year and you get 20 mapped inbound ports on an IPv4. I definitely wouldn't trust it far for the price but I've almost had my full year out of it so far :-D I learnt about it via [http://lowendbox.com/](http://lowendbox.com/) which is a blog that focuses on ultra low cost hosting and VMs.

</comment><comment><USER4> Not a VM but a real dedicated server: €3 month with an IP address, €2 without for those microservices of yours. (I'm not related to then other than been a happy client) - [https://www.scaleway.com/pricing/](https://www.scaleway.com/pricing/)

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://www.ovh.co.uk/vps/vps-ssd.xml](http://www.ovh.co.uk/vps/vps-ssd.xml)

I think this is the cheapest I've ever seen.

</comment><comment><USER6> [https://www.digitalocean.com](https://www.digitalocean.com) ?</comment>


Ask HN: launching a startup but still having a life? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a young, 20-something guy who's been working on a startup project for about 5 months now. It's going well. Fortunately, my project is technically very simple – most of the work is non-technical (writing, design, etc.) which I am better at. There will also be no need for a huge staff to maintain the site, once it's live.
Here's the thing: sitting in front of a computer for 15 hours a day isn't exactly how I want to spend the next 2-5 years. These are arguably the best years of my life (age 18-26) and I'd like to spend them traveling, volunteering, and doing other crazy stuff.
At the same time, I'm passionate about the product and entrepreneurship in general. It's not that I'm lazy or unwilling to put in the work (far from it), it just doesn't seem like the right phase in my life to sacrifice all of my time.
Any advice on running a startup "part-time"? Is it doable, or am I just deluding myself? Would going all-out for a couple years then selling the business be a better plan? Putting the idea on the backburner isn't an option, so please don't suggest it. I currently don't have the money to travel. Even if I did, there's a time limit to my startup – I need to launch soon, before someone else solves this problem. The question is "How will I execute?" not "Will or Should I execute?"
(Yes, I know you aren't supposed to keep your idea under wraps. I have talked to numerous business professionals offline, but I'm not ready to broadcast it on a tech savvy site like HN.) <comment><USER2> The problem is that it will take sacrifice and hard work to get your startup off the ground. If you half-ass it, you probably won't succeed (I've seen many failed attempts from others and myself).

If you want to travel, volunteer, and do crazy stuff, that's fine, but you probably won't be able to run a successful startup at the same time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I agree entirely with the initial work. I don't have a problem buckling down (in one place) for the next 6-12 months and getting the product launched.

The issue, I think, is if I can actually run it from abroad, _after_ it's been launched. Or rather, if it's even worth trying to manage it part-time - perhaps I'd be better off just focusing on it 100% for the next 1-2 years, and then see what happens.

(My apologies for not being clear in the initial post.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Instead of travelling from point A to point B, go live in another place like Thailand. Costs are cheap (you can live well on $500 a month) and you get to experience more of the culture rather than just travelling through.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a possibility. But the idea is more to go wherever you want and run a startup simultaneously - being able to manage it anywhere that has an Internet connection.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think you should worry about the other stuff after you launch the site. Buckle down for the next 6 months. After that, figure it out. As 37signals says... Look only 90 days ahead... Shit changes.

Also, don't assume success.</comment>


Ask HN: Student laundry? - <AUTHOR>

Doing laundry sucks.  Especially when you live in a dorm as a student.
Most washers and dryers charge somewhere around $2-$4 for washing and drying.  Do you think a student would pay five bucks for someone else to do the laundry and return it SAME DAY?
Think campusfood.com except for laundry.  We'd pick it up, wash it, dry it, (fold it?) and return.  Then collect $5.  Charge extra for stain removal, better detergent, etc.  But this is simple, not a dry cleaners.
At first, I could just use a laundromat and me and another person could swap pickup/delivery and laundry duties.
Do you think people would pay for this?  I'm almost willing to try it due to the extremely low cost to me at first.
I already have hosting and stuff, I can make a dead simple website that just accepts addresses and phone numbers for us to pick up and possibly for them to specify how many pieces they have (or loads).
Opinions? <comment><USER2> I see laundromats in my area (NH) that offer this service for $0.79-$0.99/lb typically.

I would find such a cleaners in your area, and strike a deal to funnel business to them for a discount rate.

Structure it such that pickup/dropoff is $2.00 or so, and service is $0.99/lb and try to negotiate a rate for yourself initially at around $0.89/lb.

Pickup/dropoff would be at scheduled times, and a 24 hour (not same-day) cycle. Same-day is a $4.00-$5.00 premium.

Basically start out as a middle man with a website and a marketing effort. College students are notoriously cheap and broke. If you find that you can actually make a _business_ out of this, you can then find your long-term strategy (push the local laundromat to drop their price, invest in your own equipment, etc.).

My gut reaction is that there is a business in there, but the balancing point is rather more precise than you would first expect. Liabilities are also somewhat moderate when dealing in real-world goods and services (someone claims (rightly or wrongly) that they gave you a $100 special edition shirt that was a gift from their dead grandmother that you lost/damaged/ruined). Best, IMO, to limit liabilities and overhead until you have all the kinks worked out.

If in a pure college environment, picking a catchy name ("Your Girlfriend") and giving away sloganed T-Shirts ("Your Girlfriend Did My Laundry") ("Your Girlfriend Washed My Undies") could get you a lot of exposure.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, that's incredibly valuable input.

I'm actually a little fuzzy on how much a pound of clothing is. Would that be, say, 2-3 lbs per load? I mean, obviously it varies, but roughly....

The catchy name is a particularly insightful tip.

I was actually thinking that pickup/delivery would be part of the included price. I was trying to keep it incredibly simple and cheap, so that college students might pay for it.

I've run a few numbers and you're right about the balance point being precise. I think $5 for pickup and delivery of ~1 load plus $3 for each extra load was a decent price (which is pretty close to what you suggested).

I'm going to sleep on this idea. If I wake up tomorrow and it still sounds feasible, I may pursue it.

<comment><USER2> I have no idea how much an average load of laundry weighs. Mine probably comes in around 8lbs or so for a load, but is probably also not at all indicative of a college students laundry...

Simple/Cheap is good, but where does it scale? How do you ever make enough money to cover your gas/transportation costs AND have enough left over to make this more worthwhile than just getting a $5.00/hr job?

You're going to gross about $3.00/load after paying the laundromat, and will probably net out about $1.50-$2.00/load if you outsource the actual laundry (the other costs going to vehicle overhead, small marketing dollars, etc.).

If you DIY, it's probably pretty close to the same numbers (you might fit 2 students worth of laundry in 1 washing/drying cycle, but you'll have to buy some of those netted laundry bags to keep the clothes separated.) But then with DIY it seems like a HUGE time suck to make $2.00.

What else can you deliver WITH the laundry to offset your costs? Adverts for local businesses? Tie-ins to online clothing retail (I see you wear brand X, and your stuff is looking worn-out, here is a coupon (with your referral code) for 5% off at foo.com).

Somehow the actual clean clothes seem like the loss-leader in this idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> <http://www.collegebellhop.com/>

College Bellhop does this, but with long-term pricing: you pay for a term, not for a load of laundry. There were a few people that used it where I went to school.

It always seemed overpriced to me. I realized early on that the card-based laundry systems tended to have very simple control outputs, so all you had to do was pop the cover off and short the right connections--bam, free laundry. Errr, not that I ever did that.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd pay for this.

Note, though, I'm not a student and I don't live on campus.

There might be more of a market for this service off campus than on. Figure out some way of charging for pick up, put up some sort of map or other way of showing your delivery/pick up area, and you might have a larger market than you think.</comment>


Has MacUpdate fallen to the adware plague? - <AUTHOR> https://blog.malwarebytes.org/news/2015/11/has-macupdate-fallen-to-the-adware-plague/ <comment><AUTHOR> Contrary to Betteridge's Law of Headlines[1], the answer in this case is apparently (and sadly) "Yes".

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

</comment><comment> slipstream- PUPs are everywhere these days.

Most of the Windows ones I see these days are even more malware-like, with exe packers, anti-VM, and even kernel mode drivers that hook functions.

</comment><comment><USER2> And Yahoo continues to destroy its brand name among consumers and (perhaps more importantly) the tech community by using channels like this one.</comment>


Ask HN: Do I have any chances to get into YC if I submitted late application? - <AUTHOR>

I submitted my application few days ago. I was really late. I didn't know for this session. Do I have any chances to get my application reviewed? <comment><USER2> They may review the applications, but if you submit it very late, they probably will look for absolutely ANYTHING that they could decline you for.

I submitted a late application for S14, here was the response:

"We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your late application for funding. Please don't take it personally. The chances of a late application being accepted are much lower than for an application submitted by the deadline.

If you want to apply again for the Winter 2015 cycle, the application will probably be online within the next couple of months.

Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. We have good statistical evidence that we fail to interview a significant number of startups that we'd accept if we did."

From the reading, it seems that they probably briefly reviewed it.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't really answer the question, I only know that Instacart got in on a really late application, but the founder did more than just submit an application. He also contacted one of the partners and showed him his application by sending him a beer with it.

</comment><comment><USER4> Do you know if anyone who submitted a late app has heard back yet?

</comment><comment><USER5> I guess so, otherwise, there wouldn't be the option to send it after the deadline. But ynk.

</comment><comment><USER6> and if. Late Applications Interview call its the same ?</comment>


New York Architects Plan Enormous Skyscraper Hanging from an Asteroid in Space - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/bridaineparnell/2017/03/29/skyscraper_suspended_on_asteroid/#7b7f8a245194 <comment><USER2> So this looks like a story to get some attention for the architecture firm. They basically want to build a space elevator and then suspend a building from it. Also geostationary and "over New York" can't happen according to the laws of physics that I know.</comment>


Diamond – fast search across all your cloud services - <AUTHOR> http://diamond.io <comment><USER2> Using cloud services is scary. But giving a cloud service full access to all my cloud services scares the * out of me. I'm a scared person.

<comment><USER3> This would be such a nice app if it was local-only. Like, there's no reason for it not to be...

You could have the index created locally or even just do remote calls for search to the respective API's. There's really no reason for this to be cloud- based. Maybe access token synchronization, but in this case, I think setting up all accounts on each device I have once... wouldn't be much of a trouble compared to giving them access to all my storage everywhere.

<comment><USER4> We have some experience with on-premise installations for corporate teams. If you're interested in learning more, we're happy to field questions.

Disc: I work for Diamond.

<comment><USER3> You know, it's creepy for a single person too though. I know you're storing only metadata to build an index, but that is _still_ a lot and I think for most it causes a big feeling of unease.

In my opinion your service would be great if it were fully-local. This would also open up the path to full-text search for documents, without being creepy. I'm not expecting you to do that for free of course, I mean as a paid product. (Haven't dug into your current pricing details)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ctrl+Space is a really unfortunate keyboard shortcut, it's an extremely common shortcut to trigger auto-complete in IDEs and some editors. I downloaded the app to try it out and can't find any way to rebind it, and I don't intend on undoing years of muscle memory in my IDEs…

So, feature request I guess?

<comment><USER4> Message received, dljsjr!

Disc: I work for Diamond

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Never knew I needed that until it appeared on the HN front page.

On a more serious note, I can totally see the value this adds. Everything is so fragmented these days. Nice. Franz did something similar for chat, but never really took off, I'm afraid. Hopefully, those guys will fare better.

<comment><USER7> The problem with Franz is it's literally just a browser running each chat service in its own tab.

For anyone who's known and used well-integrated multi-protocol IMs like Pidgin or Trillian (or heck, any of the browser-based ones from the past), it's incredibly sad how far we've fallen.

<comment><USER8> Especially since my Trillian account is now ONLY for Trillian and a single client who uses XMPP for their chat.

Google Chat is gone, AIM is gone, Facebook Chat is gone. No one uses ICQ anymore, and even if they did, they are probably on my facebook or hangouts anyway. Its disappointing how every chat service went to a closed protocol model.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Really like the unified search concept: one suggestion would be to add a page with a comprehensive list of the data sources that they support. Right now besides the repeated "Ai" tiles in the background, a disparate collection of logos and the sentence "Google Drive, Gmail, Dropbox, Outlook, and more" there isn't ANY information about what is supported.

</comment><comment><USER10> We actually just launched the latest version of something similar. However Gurn doesn't require you to setup integrations with all your cloud services, we're based around the URL - [https://www.gurn.io/](https://www.gurn.io/)

<comment><USER11> Heads up. There's something wrong with your account creation flow. The "/token" endpoint is returning:

{"error":{"code":2004,"type":"ForbiddenError","message":"refresh token not provided"}}

<comment><USER10> Just remembered I forgot to reply to this, this was resolved just after you mentioned it, thanks!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I worked at a company building something similar. I do think this kinda product is a bit niche. Certainly when we tried to roll something out similar it was a hard sell as most companies are trying to standardise on one type of cloud storage solution.

That being said they do support searching across slack, email and other things. That was something we didn't support and I think that makes this product much more appealing.

<comment> dorian-graph A new one of these services pops up every 6 months or so. From what I've seen, they don't stick around.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Anyone know if this supports Nextcloud/WebDav? I can't seem to be able to tell from the website. That and a nice Linux version and I would use this in a heartbeat considering how all over the place things are these days.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'd use this if it was backed by full homomorphic encryption.

</comment><comment><USER15> So they rebuilt Alfred and are charging for it?

<comment><USER16> Looks like it is free for individual users and they have a premium plan for "teams."

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I used CloudMagic for this before their pivot.

</comment><comment><USER18> I can't seem to find the source code.

</comment><comment><USER19> I wonder if by _native app_ they mean an _actual_ native app instead of a _fake_ native app (Electron I'm looking at you)

<comment><USER20> Will there come a time when Electron apps are considered native? I'm not being facetious here, just posing the question that if — say — the horrendous performance issues of Electron were ironed-out, or perhaps a similar standard that isn't such a mess, would you consider it less _fake_?

<comment><USER21> Is a Java app "native"? Is Python "native"? Perl?

<comment><USER22> I don't care in what language the program is written in, I just want it to use my system GUI toolkit. In MacOS it's cocoa and in Linux it's GTK+/qt

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> That logo. Oooooh my gosh. Soooo nice.</comment>


Merging lock elision into glibc - <AUTHOR> http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/557222/f7db853fdfb3bc11/

<comment><USER2> Has anyone seen performance measurements for hardware lock elision? What's the performance gain/loss in the uncontended case? How costly is an aborted transaction?

<comment><USER3> The folks at Sisoft have written up about the changes and included some examples of the performance difference it can make:

[http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/?d=qa&f=ben_mem_hle](http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/?d=qa&f=ben_mem_hle)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Now glibc is more open to changes it would be cool if they could add some more interesting features.

<comment><USER5> Such as?

<comment><USER4> Well I am probably going to be shot down here. glibc has all the basics down. And its on every Linux (and other OSes) box. How about letting fopen() open a URL? It would be great if any *nix code could do that. There already a a bunch of sorts qsort(), heapsort(), etc. But there isn't a sort for huge array using disk or mapped memory (that I know of). How about making qsort() work differently based on an environment variable? OK fire away.

<comment><USER5> Well, the big problem here is that glibc _isn 't_ on every other OSes box. FreeBSD uses its own libc, as does Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, etc. In fact, the latter three are probably more in common with each other than with glibc. And certainly the CRT on Windows is a different beast entirely.

Personally, I want a predictable API between different libc versions; I don't want to deal with somebody's code that assumed that they could fopen(3) a URL and have it do something useful. That Solaris and Linux (say) set errno slightly differently for the same error is enough for me to pull my hair out.

And yes, I realize I brought Windows into this argument, but at least _you know_ that Windows is always going to be a little bit different, whereas you expect all the Unix libc implementations to act mostly the same way for most of the things, even though in your cold, cynical heart you realize that's idealistic.

But my cold, cynical heart _is_ still idealistic and believes that all fopen(3) should be fopen(3) everywhere. So if you can get all of the vendors on board, then let's talk.

Otherwise, let's just use libcurl.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I keep my p/t web development team motivated? - <AUTHOR>

Hi, I need ideas how to motivate my web development team to complete my website which I started almost two years ago.  I'm not a programmer or web designer, but my friend the web designer is working on the website for me.  His friend a web programmer is doing the programming and together they are creating the website.  I have the business model and the concept is mine.
The problem: Their progress is taking much longer than it should take, now almost two years from when we seriously started working on the website.  The issue is that they have full-time jobs besides my website and my website falls to the way-side.  We are in touch through 5pmweb.com's Project Management capabilities as well as through emails and chats.
For the time being, they are working for free.  I tried offering them money to speed up their motivation, but they flat-out refused.  They said that money isn't going to make a difference and they are already doing whatever they can to complete the website.  I also tried (but not as hard) to offer them a piece of the profits for the first year or so, but I believe they said the same that it won't change anything.
An important aspect is that the nature of the website is that it's a seasonal business and in order for the website to be completed post-programming and web design is I have to meet with organizations to sign them up with my website.  For every month they are slow, I have a greater chance of missing the next season. This is because I need to make the sign-ups and then the website can go public.
You'll probably say that I should abandon them and look elsewhere for another programmer and pay money.  The issue with that is they already have the concept and understand the way how to program what needs to be done and I feel confident that they can do it.  The concept is not easy to understand unless you are familiar with the product, which they are.  They also spent almost two years on-and-off working on the website, so to abandon all that work spent doesn't make much sense.  I also feel that it will cost me much less competing it with them since this website will be a milestone for both of them and something to show-off  in their portfolios.
My programmer suggested adding another programmer to the team, this time as a paid employee.  My programmer will give instructions to the new guy on pieces of the website to complete and they will finish up.  He says that he has two potential candidates one is cheaper than the other but one is better than the other.  Would you think adding adding another programmer to the team make much of a difference? (I know you have no specific details to base your assumption on, but I also don't have any.)
Do you have any ideas in helping me move this project along?  How would you motivate such a slow team?
Also, how would you consider a pay-out at the end of the website's completion.  Right now, the understanding is that we will discuss payment when the website is complete.  Originally it was supposed to take a year,  but now its almost two and I don't see the end ahead.  Would you make a tier-payment where payment is decreased by a percentage for every extra month?
Truth is, they just got serious again and are busy working on the website as I see from interacting with them on 5pmweb.com.  I don't know how much effort they are putting in, but I need some suggestions to keep their fire hot and alive!
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Is your design documented? Is the implementation documented? If so, promote your current two guys to team leaders, hire some kick-ass programmers to finish the job. Pay a substantial incentive for hitting a mutually agreed deadline.

Oh, by the way, do you have a business plan? One with dates, budgets, revenue targets? If so, pull numbers out of that, do a discounted cash-flow analysis and a big chunk of that is your development budget. It's either doable or not.

If you have no documentation, no business plan, then you have nothing, just a dream morphing into a nightmare.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't understand what you mean by if my design or implementation is documented. I have nothing to do with the programming and I'm assuming you're talking about that.

I haven't started on a business plan but I would like to make one. Do you have any resources you suggest to write one?

The idea is kick-ass (to use your phrase) and the website has a lot of potential added-value available to the consumer.

What benefit are you suggesting there is to promote my development team so I can hire others? It took me a while to get them settled and comfortable to do the job! I don't see where you're going.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> First I advise against communicating with them via giant walls of text, not checking whether those HTML paragraph breaks actually put in line breaks or not.

edit: after making my way through it, this jumped out: "Right now, the understanding is that we will discuss payment when the website is complete."

This seems like a good way to get into a three-way fight and legal troubles.

<comment><AUTHOR> So what is a better way to communicate? We live in different states and its much easier on all of us if we communicate via the Internet.

I also suggested we have a weekly phone chat to keep it more personal, but it hasn't happened as much as I have like it to, so I'm going to change it starting now.

In terms of legal issues, I'm going to talk to my lawyer and ask him what he suggests. Yes fights are inevitably gong to happen.

<comment><USER2> I think "wall of text" referred to the fact that your post is one huge, impenetrable block of letters. No paragraphs, nothing to chunk it down to be readable.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see what you mean, but he mentioned 'they'. I wrote it in paragraphs in my email so I can take advantage of spell check and then I pasted it. I tried editing it, but HN doesn't seem to let.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What happens when the business takes off? Will you be okay with having your friends do it whenever its convenient for you? If not, you're going to have to get a team in there anyway. Why not do it sooner rather than later? That way, they have a system they have a say in, rather than inheriting something that could be complete garbage from their perspective. I think it will lead to a happier long-term team as well as you getting your site up quicker.

</comment><comment><USER5> Modern wisdom goes; you need to set a deadline for release, then figure out what features can be implemented in that time frame. "Release early, release often".

</comment><comment><USER6> Why do you keep mentioning 5pmweb?

<comment><AUTHOR> Because I love the website! Before my team suggested we use it, our progress was much slower because they didn't have any concrete idea of what to work on. Now, its broken down into many pieces and much easier to collaborate.

No, I have no relationship with 5pm.</comment></comment>


A sudden, precipitous drop in the Voat.co post: censorship on HN - <AUTHOR> http://hnrankings.info/1/1-10/

<comment><USER2> That's what happens when a submission receives multiple flags. It's not a censorship conspiracy theory.

Also, at 72pts/100comments, it probably set off the flame war detector.

<comment><USER3> Why would it get flagged?

<comment><USER4> There was a lot of yelling from both sides of the conversation, mostly about topics unrelated to the article itself. While the thread should have been about the actions Voat's host took against it, most of the discussion was off topic, and overly heated at that.</comment></comment></comment>


Startup Idea: Solve Personal Analytics - <AUTHOR> http://blog.kirigin.com/personal-analytics <comment><USER3> "So the point of my keeping a notebook has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking. That would be a different impulse entirely, an instinct for reality which I sometimes envy but do not possess. At no point have I ever been able successfully to keep a diary; my approach to daily life ranges from the grossly negligent to the merely absent, and on those few occasions when I have tried dutifully to record a day's events, boredom has so overcome me that the results are mysterious at best. What is this business about "shopping, typing piece, dinner with E, depressed"? Shopping for what? Typing what piece? Who is E? Was this "E" depressed, or was I depressed? Who cares?"

Joan Didion, "On Keeping a Notebook"

Apologies for the long quote but this is pretty much how I feel about all attempts at "personal analytics" so far. As other posters have mentioned, analytics are great for businesses who have their FOMs and TPMs and KPPs and whatever to maximize already, but on a personal level the best use of diaries and journals is to force yourself to realize what your goals are, not to help achieve them.

<comment><USER4> I liked "Where I was From," the book she wrote about how crummy California is and how she had disowned it as her childhood home. I was feeling down on California at that time, and it was a great book to read.

Personal analytics software is something I would never use. It must be nice to have a life worth quantifying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've built this and have used it for years. Initially I decided never to make a product out of it so that I could allow myself to experiment and really just solve my own problems.

Its exactly focused on insight and de-cluttering the mind and finding focus. Being happier and more creative.

It really works and lead me to significant periods of peace and contentment and working on meaningful things.

In the last year I did a lot of work to turn it into a proper business, but got caught up in another startup which took up all my time.

I am planning on making it into a product with great design.

That's really the primary work now: crafting a design that is communicates the data in a clear way.

Some messy bells and whistles thing with all the data and graphs and features.... nope. Not interested. I want clarity.

<comment><USER6> Did you build it so others could use it? Link?

<comment><USER5> I'm restarting work on it in December. but the path to launch should be fast.

<comment><USER7> I'd love to check this out, maybe set up a site to gather emails?

<comment><USER5> OK, thanks ! I'll refresh the landing page and add a launchrock.

Its "newrelic for the soul"

or maybe "your own personal planantir" ;)

<comment><USER7> But where is your landing page? :) I'd like to bookmark it :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm building a mobile app, called DidSum, that focuses on your #2 "Avoid Data Entry, but Make it Easy" (and putting an API around the data). It's almost ready for broader use.

I use DidSum to track running, blogging, eating healthy, sex, coffee consumption, and more.

DidSum allows you to define the actions you want to improve at. You can track publicly with friends and family and encourage/compare/compete with each other. You can also track privately (some actions I only track with my wife). It has basic analytics, which will get more powerful with time.

We're in a closed beta right now, if you're interested in helping test I'd love anyone interested in this thread's feedback: [http://didsum.com/auth/register.html](http://didsum.com/auth/register.html)

<comment><USER9> I'll give it a go ... always been interested in personal analytics.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > You need as much data as possible.

You need to separate the signal from the noise, and ramping up the noise isn't the solution. Quality takes precedence over quantity. Benjamin Franklin identified thirteen 'virtues', and those signals seemed to work for him.

> I propose a simple data entry framework: click a button, and that event gets > tracked.

The problem with data entry is that it requires the motivation and initiative of the user, which is precisely what the user lacks. That's the reason people get personal trainers and life coaches: you need someone else to keep you accountable and motivated.

> Machine Learning Matters

Here's where I think almost all of these personal-analytic type applications go wrong: it's trying to solve a very subjective human problem with a very objective machine program.

Here's an alternative startup idea: a web application for life coaches and their clients, focused on providing them the tools they need to communicate better with one another. I'm betting that life coaches use email, text messages, phone calls, a calendar, and maybe a spreadsheet. They probably could use some help integrating all those tools and all the data they are collecting.

<comment><USER6> You don't think there are correlations in behavior? I'm pretty sure when I drink I don't sleep as well. What if you could show that with actual personal behavior instead of "some study"?

And as far a motivation, the mobile component is essential because it will literally buzz in your pocket to remind you to do things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > If you consider the number of people that want to lose weight, quit smoking, > or get better at something, I'm probably wrong about the market size. It's > huge.

Everyone wants to improve something (or everything!) about themselves. Most people have a sense of what that is, and what they _should_ be doing. Stop smoking, go to the gym, get more sleep, eat better, spend less money, make more money, etc. A personal analytics system may help someone _optimize_ their life from seeing the hidden details, but I claim that the steps to self- improvement for most people are fairly obvious. The problem in self- improvement is not lack of data, it's how to execute on the obvious known fixes (how to stop smoking, etc).

<comment><USER8> What I'm finding from using and talking to beta users of DidSum (referenced in another comment on this post) is that the act of physically tracking a behavior has value in building habits and improving toward goals (or being extra aware of it, when you're not).

This is doubly true in a social setting where your friends/spouse/mom/coach can _see_ when you are or are not taking actions toward what you want to improve at.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've published some code and articles about this concept. My idea is to have something like:

friends <\- [user.alice, user.bob, user.carol] # array of friends friends_movies <\- apply(friends, movies)

When a friend updates its movies everything is recalculated like in a spreadsheet. The core idea behind this is to end with emergent behaviour from the small scripts of millions of people.

To simplify the programming language everything can be written as an s-expression. I've published the parser (using o-meta) with an article here: [http://blog.databigbang.com/parsing-s-expressions-in-c- using...](http://blog.databigbang.com/parsing-s-expressions-in-c-using-ometa/) more food for thought in:

i) Egont, A Web Orchestration Language: [http://blog.databigbang.com/ideas- egont-a-web-orchestration-...](http://blog.databigbang.com/ideas-egont-a-web- orchestration-language/)

ii) Egont Part II: [http://blog.databigbang.com/egont-part- ii/](http://blog.databigbang.com/egont-part-ii/)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is exactly the problem we're trying to solve with [http://exist.io](http://exist.io).

For the moment we're starting small and just trying to pull in activity tracker data (Fitbit, Jawbone, Withings etc) and some secondary services that provide useful quantifiable data - things like Foursquare checkins, Gmail, task management tools, productivity trackers, etc. It's hard to interface with every service when you're writing custom API clients for each of them. And on the other hand, if you try to dictate a common standard without any clout to back it up, you just end up with [http://xkcd.com/927/](http://xkcd.com/927/). We're working on an API to export all your data too, so people can build visualisations and apps on the aggregates of their data.

Tracking things has to be as frictionless as possible, so I'm wary of manual tracking unless you're already quite committed, or it takes mere seconds - <USER2> interface in #2 looks like a good way to approach this. But we're avoiding this for now.

The other thing we strongly agree on is #4 - you need insights, not just data! Numbers alone are of limited value, and a lot of people already into Quantified Self end up with "number fatigue" where they're no longer motivated to put in the effort to track things, let alone work towards a goal, just so they can see the number go up. People need to qualify their data and make it part of a narrative about their life. They also need actionable feedback, which is where we're trying to focus on providing value - if you're trying to be more productive, on which days is that working, and what are the factors behind it? We'll try and tell you so you can focus on that. Same process for becoming more active or anything else.

It's a big problem to solve, but so many possibilities too.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think the oversimplified nutrition analytics is actually killing one of the biggest potential sources of insight from personal analytics. The key then is having a large, accurate database of nutritional information so you can see which fundamental ingredients a users is constantly ingesting.

Other than that, I totally agree. Someone please make this app-- then let me do the machine learning for you. :)

<comment><USER6> Users won't input that data. I care a lot about this, and found using apps like LoseIt to track food way too much overhead.

I know some people are trying food tracking via taking a photo. Taking a photo per meal is a lot of overhead! That said, 4 Hour Body recommends it to stick to a nutrition goal.

Also, I disagree with your premise. I know what I shouldn't eat, and the main questions I want answered are what correlates to my making bad decisions. How does sleep relate? Alcohol? Being around friends? Tracking specifically what I eat seems irrelevant.

<comment><USER15> I've been taking a similar approach to a side/hobby project that relates to personal spending/budgeting.

I am seeking to apply the "easy data entry" \+ "subjective good/ok/bad" measures to help folks discover patterns of bad spending decisions. While most every budgeting/spending app will show you "how much you have left" or "safe to spend" the real measure of improvement is whether you made good decisions or bad decisions given your life circumstances. This also has the effect of softening the penalty for missing data. If you miss some data, you just pick up where you left off. You're not trying to balance your budget. You're tracking decisions. Although I'm not (yet) biting off the notion of correlating it with other personal analytics, that's an interesting extension of the idea.

I'm really convinced that a behavioral approach to spending/budgeting would lead to longer lasting positive changes than fretting about exceeding your grocery budget by $19 due to unexpected company joining you for lunch.

The general gist is described here: [http://www.spendlight.com/land-3.html](http://www.spendlight.com/land-3.html)

<comment><USER16> The issue is that of avoidance. If I have to tell an app I've been bad, I'm more likely to avoid telling it at all. (Like not getting on the scale when one knows the weight won't be good news.)

Sure, highly motivated users will track everything, but it doesn't take much to leave the highly motivated state. There's also the angle that knowing you have to report in with bad news might stop you doing the bad thing in the first place, but when the penalty for not reporting in is nil, it loses some of its power. Perhaps approaches that use human accountability or other reward systems (eg. GymPact) could help here.

<comment><USER15> Good point. This is absolutely essential.

In some circles I've described it as "a money tracking tool built for couples" and that's true. This all emerged from a chart my wife and I had been using on our fridge. We wanted to address the decision making progress as a couple and not beat ourselves up over specific failures (impulsive spending, false bargains, etc), but try to improve our process for budgeting and spending money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What companies have been at least mildly successful in Personal Analytics? From where I am standing I can't think of any.

Yes Fitbit is a great pedometer that gets people to walk more but last time I checked they weren't recording that much data and linking to connected scales is useful but its barely scratching the surface.

One issue with Personal Analytics is we need more data and it needs to be EFFORTLESS to record. The ROI is only high enough when the effort is very low. This is a challenging problem that requires "true innovation". I don't think a tracking app on my mobile phone is going to be the answer.

Another issue is the ability to improve some facet of my life with this data(weight, sleep, etc). Even if I can correlate drinking coffee in the evening is causing me sleep problems unless I can change my habits its not useful information. We need to be able to change our habits and processes based on this data. There are scientific strategies to get people to change habits and simply telling them they need to walk more or eat less do not pass scientific muster. Trigger -> Habit -> Reward. If we need to change Habits we must replace them something. If I need to stop drinking coffee then I need to replace it with something.

<comment><USER18> Well the basis watch is pretty good in the passive recording department. It automatically tracks your sleep and activity levels with many sensors and can give you a pretty good estimate of your daily calorie burn. You never have to press any buttons to track sleep like with the fitbit, making it purely passive. It's also in a watch form factor, preventing the device loss you can get from the fitbit form factor.

Basis although is lagging in the software department. Their mobile apps are not very useful and their API is not open so people can't grab their data without doing unofficial hacks that accesses the web apps json data directly.

I think although people are going to be using something like the iPhone 5S's M7 motion tracker more than something like a fitbit, because they carry their phones everywhere and don't have to buy or manage a separate device.

This would be the best current combo if basis opened it's data silo:

1\. A basis watch for sleep and general activity.

2\. A wifi weight scale for weight & easy to measure BF%

3\. Runkeeper, etc to track your cardio activities. Basis & fitbit doesn't track actual fitness activities (like biking or hiking) too well compared to runkeeper.

4\. Also lets you manually input personal measurements such as your navel, hips, waist, etc from the mobile app. Fitbit does not do this.

All of these items in one cloud-managed website & mobile app will be pretty powerful. The closest you have for this is fitbit right now.

In the future, a credit card / payment system that automatically tracks nutrition purchasing info will be very powerful. This needs to be combined with more nutrition estimates in restaurants although.

Passive 24/7 location tracking can also help co-relate events. It can track the effects of vacations, ski trips, trips to the pool, more grocery shopping less restaurants, etc to put more meaning into your graphs. It can co-relate you going to the gym frequently or not going to burger king anymore with you losing weight.

I think just awareness that your slowly gaining weight can help snip weight gain trends in the bud, along with warnings your eating a lot of high calorie crap that you might not be aware just how high calorie it actually is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> 4 months after our 2nd child was born my wife still wasn't getting enough sleep. Part of that was the child's sleeping pattern and part of it was her not being disciplined with sleep (not taking naps or staying up even later). Of course my telling her "you need more sleep" fell on deaf ears. So I recommended she get a fitbit since it claims to track one's sleep. It was a big reality check to see on her computer in a big red circle that she was only getting on average 4hrs of sleep each day. Just seeing it on the computer meant she could no longer ignore the truth. It's the same as a doctor's prognosis vs. a friends opinion. The former carries a lot more weight. She started getting more sleep the following week.

If someone can create a system that nearly automates the tracking of what you eat you'll make gazillions and help a lot of people along the way. Maybe a bluetooth food scale in conjunction with a tablet that can do "facial recognition" on a plate of food to estimate what I'm eating and the carb/protein/fat/calorie breakdown. Then based on my physical activity for the day and calorie consumption it could recommend I skip desert or have a carrot instead.

</comment><comment><USER20> How would tracking all this be useful to you? Why would you pay for it? The reason why tracking is more common in business is that knowing the metrics gives you guidance on how to be profitable. Therefore you can optimize all your metrics to paint that picture. With personal analytics, there isn't one thing that delivers that kind of ROI, even if we're talking about the investment from inputing the data alone.

<comment><USER21> Yep. I created a system that addressed 3 or 4 out of these 6 points a few months ago, but struggled with adoption and monetization simply because it's hard to find a tangible use/benefit from seeing these trends as an individual. One thing I am/was considering is the value of comparing your data to that of others.

<comment><USER6> Try [http://www.sanebox.com/](http://www.sanebox.com/) and notice how they make it social in comparing your performance to others.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I feel that the most important part of this is having clear data ownership rules to assure users that they actually own their data. That is, they can take it in a machine-readable format whenever they wish, and with it remove the right of the company to continue holding the data. I am very much in favour of stepping up personal analytics, but there's no way I'm going to just hand over some of my most personal data and hope that the company doesn't use it as the ultimate lock-in tool.

If a web platform is developed to provide storage and an API, the only way I would trust it is if it were completely open source and users were encouraged to run their own nodes (as well as supporting easy data migration between nodes).

<comment><USER6> Considering your early adopter audience is probably going to be highly technical, I think this matters. Having a clear benefit also makes the privacy cost more appetizing.

But frankly, requiring users to run their own nodes is a terrible idea and would doom a startup that followed this advice to failure. It would please some early adopters, but make growth essentially impossible.

<comment><USER22> I don't think it is necessary to require users to run their own nodes, but simply allow the option and encourage a community to form around doing so.

Basically, set up a scenario where the startup is service-oriented and must stay honest because it competes with its own community for users on the official node. Most users will prefer to trust the startup with their data for ease of use, and there will be an enormous amount of credibility gained by having a mechanism to keep the startup's greed in check.

<comment><USER6> > the startup's greed in check.

I didn't mention this, but the value and the revenue will come from solving people's problems. I think things are really well aligned here. You have a really cynical view that most people don't share. You're probably closer to reality, but what users actually care about matters more than reality.

<comment><USER22> I should probably mention that I have put quite a bit of work into developing a similar system myself. I even prototyped and pitched it a couple years ago, but basically got shut down by judges who were offended by the kinds of data I suggested tracking (i.e., everything).

I am quite cynical about companies that extract revenue from personal data (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, etc.), and I recognize that most people probably aren't. I suppose I am more of an idealist and would have trouble sleeping if I inadvertently created Big Brother, which is why I would risk hamstringing such a startup to try to ensure that it stays honest.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> [http://jcutrell.svbtle.com/a-simple-and-flexible- selfquantif...](http://jcutrell.svbtle.com/a-simple-and-flexible- selfquantified-aggregation-idea)

I've written a response, but I suppose I am hellbanned for new posts. No clue why unfortunately.

The basic idea: prompting is of great importance in this field. You can't get GREAT data through passive measures, but you can get much more consistent data if you consistently prompt. (This is my personal method, at least.)

[edit] It's not so much of a response as it is related - a way to capture data about self. Not so much related to the startup viability discussed in OP's article.

<comment><USER24> I'm seeing you just fine without [dead]

<comment><USER23> Sorry - should have clarified. My commenting is good to go, but my Submissions are all dead on arrival.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> "Every piece of content created: mobile camera roll, instagram, facebook, vine. Every piece of content consumed: amazon, itunes, netflix, spotify, rdio. Every place you go. Every dollar you spend. You won't start with 100 services, but you'll get there soon enough. Some people will be obsessed with adding more data"

And therein lies a potential headache. What if the API for those 100 services break? What if just 10 of them change their API every month? Are you going to update them? And oh btw, you're gonna keep doing this before you actually have paying customers.

<comment><USER6> There is brass in the muck: [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/12/06.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/12/06.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm slowly creating something similar to learn rails.

I want to track how much spend, consume electricity or gas, what are my goals.

The problem I found that I forget to enter the data into the app so it is fairly sparse. I can only get meaningful data on a monthly base.

I imagined it would be capable to compare gas (heating) consumption with the weather on the same day but it is not really working (without some automatic data input, that I don't have).

Among others I though about adding mood tracking, attaching 1-3 picture/day so when you want to watch back on your vacation you are not overwhelmed with 5000 photos, tracking locations. I would like to think about it like a social network where I am alone or something like this. (Codename: Track My Sheet :-) )

Showing trends, adding watchers like "you now need 1 year 3 months on your Y Account to reach Z amount at your current rate +Q USD / day, but these kind of things are faster with an excel sheet. Here is a dashboard mockup: [http://snag.gy/OozTi.jpg](http://snag.gy/OozTi.jpg)

It is similar to the reportr.io app, actually I started mine on the same week before I first saw it on HN. :-)

</comment><comment><USER27> I wrote a chrome extension to analyze the websites I visit on certain days and track how long I spend looking at each one and graphs it. It's called melytics and it is pretty buggy but it does the job.

Honestly I think this is too much data to make use of. I'm just one person. How much meaning can you get out of what I do? If it is a lot, do I really want that platform to exist on the web?

<comment><USER28> Have you considered using RescueTime[1] and pulling data from their API instead of tracking it yourself?

1: [https://www.rescuetime.com/](https://www.rescuetime.com/)

<comment><USER27> Didn't know it existed (the whole reason I wrote the dang thing). Ill check it out thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I worked on a concept for this for a while. I ran into the following contradiction I couldn't solve:

If the data entry is quick and easy, then I'm not gathering empirical usable data. If I try to gather good data the user will become annoyed.

I think data gathering apps work for a small scope when the user is engaged enough to provide the data. Fitness or body building for example. Or sports car races etc.

This was making me think that maybe a generic statistics app with user generated values/measures/timers might be interesting. But once again, non technical folks probably aren't interested in statics too much.

Maybe gamification and a great UI is the answer here or maybe one should start with a specific problem (workout, drinking, sex or whatever) and broaden the scope as he analyzes user interaction.

I would give such an app a shot, but I'm not sure if I wouldn't forget about it too quickly. Just as I forget about using Lift (the app) and other interesting stuff.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm the founder of [https://zenobase.com/](https://zenobase.com/), another startup in this space.

Completely agree that "graphs without the ability to manipulate data are worse than nothing"\--it's hard to gain much insight without being able to drill down and filter the data. Simple questions such as "how strong is the correlation between room temperature and sleep" end up having to be refined e.g. with "ignore weekends" and "correct for different amounts of physical activity".

Being able to "get as much data as possible" sounds good, but garbage in, garbage out applies...

Finally, I don't think it's possible to create a single mobile app that suits everyone, which is why Zenobase has a flexible, generic data model and an API.

</comment><comment><USER31> In case anyone hasn't already seen this amazing article by Stephen Wolfram about his own analytics...

[http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal- analytic...](http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of- my-life/)

<comment><USER6> Those phone records are a great example of visualization without insight

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Personal analytics is indeed a very interesting topic (cool article from stephen wolfram: [http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal- analytic...](http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of- my-life/)).

The biggest challenge imo is privacy and security: How do you safely collect and process everything (from emails to texts)? While I could implement something for my personal use, would anyone give access to all their communications to a third-party service? I wouldn't.

Maybe there is some better way to collect this information (just metadata? do some analytics and store results instead of raw messages?).

</comment><comment><USER33> Check out [http://www.reportr.io/](http://www.reportr.io/) It's open source: [https://github.com/SamyPesse/reportr](https://github.com/SamyPesse/reportr)

</comment><comment><USER34> My biggest issue with personal analytics is storage. I want to track everything, from browser history to keystrokes, but I don't want to share this information with a third party. I think solving the data problem is the first hurdle.

</comment><comment><USER35> Quite an ambitious idea. I started small (by focusing on personal reading analytics): [http://www.clarelegere.com/profiles/1](http://www.clarelegere.com/profiles/1)

</comment><comment><USER36> There are already too many of these services that don't interoperate with each other, or sources of data in an open way.

[http://activitystrea.ms/](http://activitystrea.ms/) is a good first step in opening some of this stuff up for consumption.

The way it is now, each front-end service has to do a ton of work for each data source they want to integrate with. There should be services that translate data into a shared format. And then front-end services can focus on their idea instead of having to parse all the data.

</comment><comment><USER37> I think social media platforms are slowly building towards generating massive personal data. I thought with the advent of Facebook timeline, user events (both macro and micro) would be well documented in an aggregate consumable form.

Where do you get your revenue for personal analytics like this? Therein comes super targeted ads with pinpoint accuracy, using predictive analytics at a personal level. If you buy a brand of milk only on Saturdays, rivals have a higher incentive to strut their wares on next Saturday.

</comment><comment><USER38> Sorry for the following unsolicited ad. I work for a company in the Washington, DC area that is making almost this exact product. Reading this article was like hearing a stranger talk about what I do at my day job.

In addition to the Quantified Self crowd, we are also (for now, primarily) focusing on the educational space. We are currently hiring developers. Most of the code is Python, but we need front end help also. Contact me at email@example.com if you are interested in learning more.

</comment><comment><USER39> It sounds like everyone in this thread has built this app before.

</comment><comment><USER40> I've been thinking about this for a while. It seems almost impossibly easy and yet no one has really done it.

Maybe it's because the consumer startup crowd and the data science crowd don't overlap enough. If [http://prediction.io](http://prediction.io) supported time series data you might see a few of these products pop up overnight.

<comment><USER28> > It seems almost impossibly easy and yet no one has really done it.

How does it seem easy? If you just want to track one or two data points and put them on a graph sure, it's easy. If you want to track 100 sources of data, each in a different format with different types of data it becomes quite hard. Then try taking that data and analyzing it. Try looking for correlation between your manually recorded caffeine consumption and your sleep patterns logged with FitBit / BodyMedia / another service.

It's a hard problem with a limited market and limited options for monitization.

<comment><USER41> >It's a hard problem with a limited market and limited options for monitization.

I disagree; I think there is enormous potential in this market; having a set of concise and insightful information that shows you are making progress with a particular goal is something a large number of people would be interested in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> This sucks. We don't need some new "exciting" personal helper shit, what we need on hacker news is exciting object recognition algorithms, better nature language processing module, high accuracy text detection and recognition in natural scenes. Why are there so many people building crappy stupid things that no one really need?

<comment><USER43> Uh-huh. And what, pray tell, are you building that's so goddamn important?

<comment><USER42> you web dev people just won't get the big picture. that's why some black smith can learn to build a website/app in a couple of month but he can't do machine learning, numerical optimization or natural language processing or what have you. because it not the same thing. anyone could build websites, wake up!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Someone is working on a lot of that: [http://humanapi.co/](http://humanapi.co/)

</comment><comment><USER45> I remember starting a company several years ago focused on using advanced analytics to improve personal decision-making. This idea morphed over time to a specific use: budgeting. Visualization and making the process quick and super easy are of the utmost importance for "personal analytics".

<comment><USER6> Visualization with insight in budgeting is pretty easy because you're trying to answer "where do I spend my money?". Categorization needs to be good, but then you just need a distribution.

Mint is surprisingly bad at automatic categorization (failing on things like large transfers that trump all my other data), so I think there is an opportunity here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> I've enjoyed reading your post but I'd be more interested in seeing how you go about fleshing your ideas out. I personally keep a similar list but have trouble taking the ideas from rough works to completed business plans. I'd love to see what processes/frameworks other people use.

</comment><comment><USER47> The quantified self movement should be far more extensive. I am linking to our blog again!

The Secret Digital Ocean: The Data We Aren't Addressing

[http://thoughtly.co/Blog/thesecretdigitalocean](http://thoughtly.co/Blog/thesecretdigitalocean)

</comment><comment><USER48> Many efforts underway already. To add to the list [http://fluxtream.org](http://fluxtream.org) [http://lockerproject.org/](http://lockerproject.org/)

</comment><comment><USER49> I built a website www.selfstats.com with this sort of thing in mind.

Ask yourself questions Receive email everyday with the set of questions Reply to email with answers

Login to your dashboard for an overhead view (charts, lists, etc).

An API and Mobile support are in the works.

</comment><comment><USER50> Maybe the slow carb diet is a bad choice since it doesn't work... always results in bouncebacks (2 data points for you; 1 for me). Maybe only useful for a photo shoot or weeks leading up to a beach trip..

</comment><comment><USER51> I'm basically working on that idea, too. It's built API first and the first iPhone App is almost done. [http://goaly.co](http://goaly.co)

</comment><comment><USER52> Lots of us working on this problem. We're focused on the insight and machine learning pieces.

[https://www.fitoop.com](https://www.fitoop.com)

Send me a note for an invite.

</comment><comment><USER53> My startup sympho.me is working on this challenge. Trying to help people get a holistic view of their lives though quantified self. Please send feedback:D

</comment><comment><USER54> Here's yet another (mine) attempt of addressing this problem. [https://pokelog.com/](https://pokelog.com/)

</comment><comment><USER55> I had pretty much this exact same idea a year ago. The people I talked to didn't seem all that interested, not that it necessarily matters.

</comment><comment><USER56> Does [http://hmpgr.com/running](http://hmpgr.com/running) resonate with anyone here? Invite Code: HN

</comment><comment><USER57> I'm seriously considering working on this. I can build the API/server side as well as the mobile components (Android at least).

</comment><comment><USER58> Surprised no one has mentioned [http://thetempleapp.com/](http://thetempleapp.com/)

</comment><comment><USER59> What about a startup idea(s) startup ? where non-devs can create startups just by submitting an idea?

</comment><comment><USER60> I like the concept of re-centralizing all personal content.

Dispersed services, central location, central analytics.

</comment><comment><USER61> Had a very similar idea 4 years ago, have been working on this for ages. Bleh.

</comment><comment><USER62> NSA already has your daily data, make a wrapper service around it?

<comment><USER63> Injecting the NSA into absolutely every thread on HN is not clever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> So how many other people have had this idea too?

</comment><comment><USER65> my simple private journal can be used to track things

[http://journalcat.com/](http://journalcat.com/)</comment>


Why is Ask HN limited to 15 posts per page? - <AUTHOR> Why is it limited to 15 and no pagination? I like going through old Ask HN posts and I'm sure plenty of people do as well.
Also having 30 items per page makes more sense than just 15.
Can we please have the old system back? <comment><USER2> Let's see what we can do.

Edit: the /ask page has some minimal quality filters and, as far as I can tell, there have simply been few posts lately that pass those filters. So this isn't a change in the software, it's a drought of content. I wonder why.

I'll check tomorrow if we can make the stories go back further. They're ranked, so it's not as easy as just ordering them by date. In the meantime, sorry you're not getting enough to read!

Edit 2: Ok, we updated the page to show more Ask HNs. Hope this helps a bit. We also have some ideas for expanding the content further that we'll look into.

<comment><USER3> Ask HN has always been 'buggy' in the sense it would throw up a page full of very old results from time to time.

Maybe the quality filter is running more frequently now?

<comment><USER2> Oh you're right. With your reminder and in the light of day, I realize what's happening: we're no longer including stories that would happen to get cached in RAM over time.

We'll try to fix this so more stories show up.

<comment><USER3> And there I was speculating that the behavior is a feature.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I like going through them to, but there have been a lot of marginal quality questions typically...and questions that aren't questions and attempts at growth hacking. The quality is more consistent in the new format at the expense of quantity.</comment>


You're wasting money on AWS - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@abatalion/you-re-wasting-money-on-aws-461ce1f02c9f

<comment><USER2> > Their docs aren't great and best practices are locked up in fast scaling > startups.

Their docs are ok sometimes, not good for some products. Best practices are available from AWS reps themselves. Not all the solutions are good (Redshift, SQS, and by dependency Lambda). This is barely an op ed.</comment>