How successful are you? - <AUTHOR> http://bycomet.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/how-successful-are-you/

<comment><USER2> In some ways, I could say I'm successful. I have a stable source of income, a wife and I can afford to go on holidays. But, I feel that I'm an NPC. If I didn't exist, the world would be the exact same. When I think back on my twenties, I had a lot of dreams, now all of them have been broken and I settle for less...

Sometimes I feel that I just need to pick myself up together and decide what to do with my life. Find some new dreams I can achieve but instead I just stay in my own mediocrity doing nothing and wondering why nothing changes...

I don't think success necessarily correlates with the amount of wealth you have but it correlates with the amount of self worth you feel and how proud you are of what you did at the end of the day. It's way too easy though to enter a vicious circle where because you failed at something you just stop really trying. Like the author, I tried, I created a business, it failed spectacularly last year due to my own incompetence at managing people and now I'm just there regretting all that I did wrong and thinking that maybe I shouldn't even have tried.

I'm sorry for rambling, I'm probably writing this more for myself than for anyone else. I need to get up, stop pitying myself and find some new dreams to follow instead of just settling for mediocrity.

<comment><USER3> I really liked the NPC analogy. It's brilliant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> His definition of success reminds me of Bill Watterson's advice: [http://zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a- cartoonists...](http://zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists- advice)

\----

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.

You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.

To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.

\-- Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin & Hobbes)

</comment><comment><USER5> Wisdom from _Catch 22_ author Joseph Heller, via Kurt Vonnegut and Vanguard founder John Bogle [1]:

<quote>

... At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel _Catch 22_ over its whole history.

Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he will never have . . . _Enough."_

</quote>

(Extra paragraphing added.)

[1] [http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp20070518.htm](http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp20070518.htm)

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a really difficult question to answer as what you consider success will change as you age. I am not a success if I consider what I thought this meant at 20, but I am now pretty happy with what I have done. I have a fantastic wife, three great boys, a business I enjoy working in that allows me to support and enjoy my family, and I am healthy. This feels like success to me right now :)

<comment><USER7> Totally agree. I didn't get the success I thought I wanted in my 20s (some sort of tech mogul). I did get a different kind of success (small business ownership, flexible with direct customer relationships). Now that I have a family, I love the success I ended up with, but I would have been disappointed with it in my 20s. It is very hard to anticipate what you are really going to want.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As others have said, it all depends on what you define "success" as. Clearly the OP has done things that fulfill him.

Although the OP makes no mention of it, when I've talked with friends & family about "success" and all that, following dreams is great. One big thing to keep in mind is that the future is also uncertain. Retirement is the biggest thing that comes to mind. I have many friends who have foregone saving for retirement in order to follow their dreams, no matter how "irrational" that may be (I use quotes because that might not be the right term).

20, 30, 40 years down the road, who is going to be paying for retirement? It's great that "you" have memories of doing great things! But the bills have to be paid. Is it going to be your friends, who worked those boring, monotonous jobs? Will their 401k accounts be taxed so that they have to pay for your retirement? Will mine?

What about kids? I have family members who did follow their dreams to do whatever it is they want to do, and then start having kids. Without a solid job, boring or not, someone has to pay for the kids. Either it's charity from family, or it's the government via taxes.

Anyways, that's some things that I think about when these topics come up.

<comment><USER9> A critical issue in "following dreams" is the way in which people do it. Case in point: I have two close friends who decided to become poets. Not "poets" in the colloquial sense, i.e., liberal arts majors with no quant skills. Poets, as in people who hope to earn a living writing poetry.

One of those friends has been writing poetry her whole life, has become phenomenal at it, got into the Iowa Writers Workshop, has been published in the New Yorker on multiple occasions, and earns a respectable living in academia. The other abruptly quit his day job at the age of 33, declared himself a poet, and enrolled in some beginner's classes. I support his dreams, but I do not support the order in which he took those actions.

People often forget that chasing "dreams" is hard work, and it follows the same principles as chasing success by more conventional means. In fact, the less conventional of a career you chose, the more conventionally hard you'll have to work to make that career remunerative. Following your passion is a wonderful thing, but you need to do it sensibly, strategically, and skillfully.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've got four healthy kids and a loving wife (for almost 27 years). We live comfortably and feel incredibly blessed ... what more could I ask for out of life?

<comment><USER6> I could not agree more. You are living is what I call quiet (or quietish) success.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As I'm getting close to the magic age of 30, the ultimate dream and goal for me right now is running my own business - not to get rich, but to be free and independent, to feel that I have accomplished something more that working for others, to create something on my own. It may change world, it may not - doesn't matter, it's yours and always will be yours. Sure, it may require more work, it may be more stressful - but I choose this over being a tiny cog in another's men machine for the next 10 or 20 years as my life is running through the hands.

<comment><USER12> I got there a little while ago and started my own little business (a mobile development company, predominantly for Android). I've had a startup, worked for fairly large web-name, done a bit of consulting, and worked freelance. The business is, by far, the hardest in terms of stress. I can't say I don't spend any time at all envying a few of my friends with stable jobs, salaries and work hours, but it's been an eye-opener in terms of personal growth and my own capabilities (occasionally a lack thereof) and I can't recommend it enough. My own endeavour may well still fail but I've learnt more about myself and my abilities than I'd ever have a chance to in a normal 9-to-5.

I had a recruiter contact me for a developer position recently at a good, interesting company. I politely declined, saying I'd started my own small company. He said again that it was a rare opportunity, likely to disappear, and began going through all their upsides again (or, at least, the ones he figured would appeal) and finished with "and they have a foozball table!"

I don't want to belittle fulltime jobs, fun working environments, or large companies, but in my opinion the chance at working for yourself - even if you suck at it - is worth more than regular access to a foozball table.

Best of luck with your dream. I'm pullin' for you, brother.

<comment><USER13> I am about to jump from safety of the regular salary, and do something similar. I'll be 30 in a few months and have always wanted to do this. Just curious how did your journey into biz-owner begin, and what was the biggest shock?

<comment><USER12> I ended up working as a developer for an digital agency based in Toronto. It was relatively small (~10 people, in total) but catered to some huge clients. I realised that, with experience in freelancing (managing my own time and projects), consulting (working with non-technical clients on technical projects) and development itself, my skillset was varied enough that the jump from freelancer to simple subcontracting to business owner shouldn't actually that large a move. Once I thought of that, _not_ doing it seemed impossible. I can't say it's been as smooth-sailing as I thought but I've been doing it for a little 2 years now and we're still here.

The biggest shock was probably the amount of time it takes to simply manage the business. While I was used to a degree of bookkeeping and simple project management from freelancing, I wasn't quite prepared to spend a fifth of my time managing the everyday flow of the business, as I find myself doing now. It's a natural progression, but I still can't say I'm quite used to it. I am better at planning for it though, and ensuring that my time spent project managing is taken into account. Hope that helps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've got money, a house, cars, flexibility to take whatever time off I need, international travel ... all I want in life. Except no wife or kids.

Not feeling very successful right now.

</comment><comment><USER15> Perhaps a more valuable question: how many people sit down, hopefully starting early in life, to define what success is to them? And how many people keep reevaluating that definition?

If being successful means getting what you want, what people seem to want is relatedness, competence and autonomy, whatever that translates to for each person.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- determination_theory#Basic...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- determination_theory#Basic_needs_and_intrinsic_motivation)

</comment><comment><USER16> If you're feeling down on yourself I highly recommend a quick, short, and entertaining read called The Underachiever's Manifesto: The Guide to Accomplishing Little and Feeling Great. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811853683/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811853683/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0811853683&linkCode=as2&tag=j02-20) (Affiliate Link)

Edit: Affiliate free link: [http://www.amazon.com/Underachievers-Manifesto- Accomplishing...](http://www.amazon.com/Underachievers-Manifesto- Accomplishing-Little- Feeling/dp/0811853683/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398783061&sr=1-1&keywords=underachievers+manifesto)

</comment><comment><USER17> I had the opportunity to take a high stress, really well paid job at a successful company (tech in a professional services org, not a tech co, 60% more pay). They picked someone else after previous interviews, but approached me again after the other person moved up. They had this "we stay late" culture and I couldn't bring myself to take it.

For me, I took satisfaction from knowing I made that decision, and felt like I actually had control of my destiny somewhat.

</comment><comment><USER18> At what point are you supposed to be successful, age wise?

I'm 21 and my net worth is about 20 times more than most people my age (putting me in the top 0.05% of the world by income). But I definitely don't feel successful (no real relationships in my life), but maybe that's okay—plenty of time to figure things out in the future.

<comment><USER19> I'm pretty sure you are always supposed to feel you are successful in some way. If not, than you should have something you progressing towards/working on that WILL make you fell successful.

Why would you keep doing something that doesn't make you feel successful if you have no real obligations?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Another interesting question if I may: Why does one feel the need to be successful? Or maybe one needs to simply be satisfied?

<comment><USER21> Goals in life are obviously personal, but I've observed they're very much influenced by the culture of the country.

USA is a country where there is tremendous pressure to be successful, purely for the sake of being successful. This is mad for me, and I am strongly against this attitude, but it's factual.

There were interesting comments in a post, a short time ago, comparing the cultures in USA and New Zealand. The latter would fit very much in what you would define as "be satisfied".

It's mostly the typical division of A and B-type personalities.

My personal opinion is that to live in a very fulfilled way a bit of both is required. One needs a bit of "success" to overcome some inevitable obstacles, and a the sime time, "satisfied" to get a true feeling of himself and what's around him.

The excessively laid-down people I've met were afflicted with subtle and not immediately visible problems. As a matter of fact, one needs to carve his space in life, otherwise he's going to be very limited, if not crushed.

The type of problems which affect the opposite type of attitude are more "visible" \- mostly, neurotic behavior.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> If getting home by 5.30 is important, you should look into moving to Sweden, 6 hour work day ? Also free health care and blondes!

<comment><USER23> Not for Software Engineers. Never for software engineers.

<comment><USER24> Most European software teams have a strict "no over time" policy that's both respected and enforced. Some company's even turn off the Astrix and e-mail servers at night.

We all know what kind of shit code you produce after working to long, it's not helping anyone if you do that every week.

Engineering should be striving towards excellence, not creating more shit and more work for everyone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> [http://www.globalrichlist.com/](http://www.globalrichlist.com/)

</comment><comment><USER26> -2/10 :/

</comment><comment><USER27> What definition of success do you use?</comment>


I built this 'HN inspired' site. What do you think? - <AUTHOR> http://www.news.thejobhill.com

<comment><USER3> It needs some polish: The tags should not be above the "tag" label. "Like" should be on the left of the article title (similar to upvote here). The line underneath the title should be vertically aligned with the title.

"Welcome" should not be there at all. To the left of "Join" might be a good idea. Your moto should be under your logo, at the very least in the same area (the header).

The drop-down of the search has a scrollbar even with no results.

Your overall color palette might need some tuning (too much darkness/contrast for my taste).

Unfortunately your site broke half-way through, more when it comes back online!

I hope you had fun building it, it's the most important part!

</comment><comment><USER4> The first thing I spotted was that full domains weren't showing next to the links, so for example, story 3 is currently:

      Hosni Mubarak has resigned (co.uk)

Showing just the last two sections of the domain is clearly unexpected behaviour. :) The intention is clearly "TLD plus one more section", but not all TLDs are as short as ".com".

This reminds me of the difficulties with cookie domain validation - <USER2> actually contains a hardcoded list of top-level domains: <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Public_Suffix_List>

So you could either copy that, or just show the domain in full.

<comment><AUTHOR> You got me there. Plus i noticed that also. My solution was some crappy regex thing. i obviously need to do better.

</comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell [http://www.news.thejobhill.com/ajax/tag_search.php?query=tes...](http://www.news.thejobhill.com/ajax/tag_search.php?query=test%22%3E%3Cimg%20src=https://encrypted.google.com/images/logos/ssl_logo_lg.gif%3E)

You seem to have rudimentary protection against XSS, but it's not complete. You should escape properly. Backslashes aren't for escaping characters in html

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks mike. i always knew that could be a problem, but was a bit lax cos the results didnt stay on the site. Have a look now anyways, the google logo doesnt show anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why not use HN src ?

<https://github.com/nex3/arc/blob/master/news.arc>

<comment><USER6> Result: <http://hubski.com/>

Creator of this site used source. Has some interesting features like the ability to create frontpage loaded only with content from users you follow (called hubs).

Friend of mine just put it together and is kind of continually working on it. Not sure what he has planned entirely, but a good example of using HN src.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You should allow anonymous submissions until you build up a decent amount of content. Change the green. Use only one font. All the text should be slightly smaller.

Are you applying for the reddit job?

<http://blog.reddit.com/2010/08/reddit-is-hiring.html>

<comment><USER8> I actually liked the green. Even though the color was slightly jarring, it made the site a lot more memorable.

What didn't you like about it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really don't see the resemblance.

<comment><AUTHOR> ok.. i probably was thinking aloud, but it was HN inspired!

<comment><USER9> You could change it from: _I built this 'almost' HN look-alike site. What do you think_

To: _I built this HN-inspired site. What do you think?_

Maybe that would inspire a little more conversation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'll take the opportunity to remind people about my Hebrew HN-like site: <http://bitorama.com>

OP: care to share some info about the tech behind the scenes?

<comment><USER8> Very cool. :)

I have been trying to become more involved in the Israeli high-tech scene. bitorama just became a "Check Daily" tab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is there a script ready anyone recommend for alike website as HN ? Got to design one about another subject and do not code at all. ;-) Thanks for your insights.

</comment><comment><USER12> Looks good but the font is a little too big for me liking. I want to see more on a page at a time.

However, great job getting it up and running!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks guys. I want to say that this is my first project. It is a work in progress and i hope to keep improving. Thanks again.

</comment><comment><USER13> Looks garbled on FF 3.6 under Linux (tags are not aligned, items below title bar start on a new line...)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Funnily, i developed this running linux and a gecko browser. BTW what is your screen size?

<comment><USER13> Small, 800 px wide, Asus EEE PC (may not be typical, but still a common resolution)...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was thinking about using a Bayesian filter to auto-assign tags after training

<comment><AUTHOR> Boy, that would be so cool

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> seems a bit garbled. also, the site renders awkwardly on an iPad. while I see the connection with HN - barely - you've got a ways to go. keep at it though!

<comment><AUTHOR> dont own an ipad. do u know an emulator for testing purposes?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> clicking on submit should redirect to sign in page.. right now it requires clicking an additional link

<comment><AUTHOR> fixed.</comment></comment>


How to send DMs on Twitter without permission - <AUTHOR> https://homakov.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-to-send-dm-on-twitter-wo-permission.html <comment><USER3> > I wrote a full disclosure post 5 minutes after finding the bug because > twitter doesn't reward "bounty hunters".

Companies without bug bounties don't deserve responsible disclosure? Twitter has a pretty clear way to reach them, and recognition is given on their page. If recognition isn't sufficient for responsible disclosure, how much money would be enough? I think bug bounty programs are great, but I don't think they should be mandatory.

[https://about.twitter.com/company/security](https://about.twitter.com/company/security)

<comment><USER4> > Companies without bug bounties don't deserve responsible disclosure?

That seems to be homakov's view, yes, and I can't say I don't understand his view.

<comment><USER5> Of course you understand it, but do you agree with it?

If you seek out bugs in a company's code with the expectation that you'll be rewarded for it, and then the company fails to reward you, I can see that it might be perceived as unfair, especially if the company indicated that such an expectation was reasonable.

If you happen across a bug in a company's code, and then publicize it because they aren't going to pay you money for it, that seems a little more like "blackmail." People really shouldn't orient their moral systems around money.

<comment><USER6> Well given that homakov has found this bug, there are a few possibilities:

A. Homakov could do nothing. This leaves Twitter in the same state that it is now, but it if everybody did this, it is likely that nefarious people would find and exploit bugs in Twitter

B. Homakov could donate his time, as a skilled and highly-trained professional consultant, to a $32bn publicly-traded company

C. Homakov could practice full disclosure

This isn't even close to blackmail. This is a security consultant publishing a vulnerability that he discovered on his own time, that apparently Twitter's internal security team missed. That might be embarrassing for Twitter, but tha'ts hardly homakov's problem as a third party.

<comment><USER5> > This isn't even close to blackmail. This is a security consultant publishing > a vulnerability that he discovered on his own time, that apparently > Twitter's internal security team missed. That might be embarrassing for > Twitter, but that's hardly homakov's problem as a third party.

Perhaps "blackmail" was too harsh a word. A better analog might be discovering a business left their back door unlocked. Do you announce it to the entire neighborhood because the business doesn't give out "security prizes," or do you attempt to notify the employees? That seems like the point of responsible disclosure.

<comment><USER6> Well I think we are blurring two different issues here. The first question is whether or not full disclosure is acceptable. The second question is whether or not it is acceptable to choose it because one is not being paid.

As far as full disclosure being acceptable, there are a lot of advocates. For example Bruce Schneier, Leonard Rose, and others. Not to mention that this issue isn't in a high impact category like remote code execution, loss of data, privacy, etc. It's also difficult to exploit; it requires authorizing a malicious app. So for all those reasons separately, and certainly all of them together, I think full disclosure is a completely acceptable choice.

Given that it is acceptable, is it still acceptable to do it if it furthers our own interests? Again, I think the answer is yes. The fact it is in my interest does not make an acceptable action into an unacceptable one.

You seem to be hung up on the fact that the researcher here was not particularly nice to Twitter. But people are under no obligation to be nice. It would be nice if you sent me a check for $200. But you won't, because there's no obligation to do that. And you and I--two strangers arguing with each other on the Internet--have a much stronger relationship than this researcher has with Twitter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> People in various forums (a couple on HN, SO, Egor's blog, Twitter itself) seem to be saying something like "this isn't really a bug".

It's definitely a bug. Twitter requires clients to ask for the DM permission before they can send DMs. With Egor's approach, clients can privilege-escalate themselves to send DMs even if they never asked for that permission (although they still need to be authorized to send tweets).

Also, even worse, Twitter doesn't consider it a bug, according to the person who originally reported it (who was not Egor): [https://twitter.com/DaKnObCS/status/411869431036653568](https://twitter.com/DaKnObCS/status/411869431036653568)

And here's a response from Ben Ward, the Twitter web lead: [https://twitter.com/benward/status/411924515459850240](https://twitter.com/benward/status/411924515459850240)

<comment><USER8> Read the API docs, only reading DMs needs a special permission, POST direct message only needs the permissions that writing a "normal" tweet would. There's no bug here. Maybe a confusing security model, but no bug.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is the same guy who hacked GitHub (and Rails) with the multiple assignment hack, among other things.

<comment><USER10> homakov is as famous as PG on HN.

<comment><USER11> Where is he "as famous"?

On HN? Or somewhere else (if so where?) where he is "as famous as PG on HN".

If you mean he is as famous on HN as PG is on HN I don't think that is the case.

<comment><USER12> He means that the following are equivalent:

* How famous PG is in HN

* How famous homakov is in HN

<comment><USER13> Who is PG? Parental Guidance?

<comment><USER14> Close.

<comment><USER15> I suppose you can say he is a sort of Parental Guidance for HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It only allows you to send DMs to those users you can already message - <USER2> is a small mercy.

This part of Twitter's "Get Better" problem - where they've allowed SMS commands to be activated via non-SMS interfaces - [http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/26/twitter-get- better/](http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/26/twitter-get-better/)

Of course, it doesn't help that Twitter's permissions system is really poorly thought out. An app which only wants to read your Tweets also has WRITE access as well.

<comment><USER17> So twitter should replace R&W DM to just R DM permission, because W DM comes automatically with R&W Tweets. Isn't it.. so wrong?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Isn't a bug according to twitter employers:

[http://twitter.com/jmhodges/status/411975535703511040](http://twitter.com/jmhodges/status/411975535703511040)

</comment><comment><USER19> the 'd' syntax for sending DMs has been around from nearly the beginning (or from the actual beginning?) of Twitter. That in itself is not a bug. However, Twitter should be stripping that leading 'd' from anything that is reposting or from a 3rd party OAauth session.

<comment><USER20> It's not a bug per se, but it's certainly a hideous misfeature to have ever had that kind of input parsing except on the SMS interface to Twitter. It's just completely unnecessary.

<comment><USER21> This isn't the first bug to be found because of it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not sure how many hours go into finding these sorts of vulnerabilities, but his rate of $150/hour[1] seems like a steal compared to the lost revenues he can prevent.

[1] [http://www.sakurity.com/](http://www.sakurity.com/)

<comment><USER23> On the flip side, Homakov personally has incredibly bad OPSEC practices which would make me think twice for using him. There's a correlation between what you pay and what you might get.

<comment><USER24> What do you even mean to have "incredibly bad OPSEC practices"? Without an explanation, your comment comes across as more unnecessary snark, which unfortunately isn't uncommon in threads that remark upon Homakov, or on HN in general.

<comment><USER23> [https://twitter.com/homakov/status/387805705669206016](https://twitter.com/homakov/status/387805705669206016) [https://twitter.com/homakov/status/345544666483130368](https://twitter.com/homakov/status/345544666483130368) [https://twitter.com/homakov/status/218630370231451648](https://twitter.com/homakov/status/218630370231451648)

<comment><USER17> I am not trying to hide my real name. If you need my ID just ask.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This is in line with a long laundry list of horribleness about user experience as related to DMs in my opinion. They don't work as expected, and quite honestly to me it feels like Twitter is running a campaign to destroy peoples' love of the DM in search of a Solution, maybe in preparation for a dm 2.0 or something.

Some of the experience elements of DM have been fixed on the iPhone, but last I checked, the problems on web desktop made me so annoyed that I stopped using DMs altogether.

<comment><USER17> Taking into account this bug and twitter's response - they don't differ DMs from tweets much. Privateness of DM doesn't mean it to them what it means to us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Come over to App.net. It will be a while before the masses ruin that.

Free invite link >> [https://join.app.net/from/fjjgdclsjq](https://join.app.net/from/fjjgdclsjq)

<comment><USER27> Oh, I don't think you have to worry about the masses ever ruining App.net

<comment><USER15> I think I'll avoid it as well. I wouldn't want to accidentally ruin it.</comment></comment></comment>


Haswell chip primer: How Intel pinches power - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57586165-92/haswell-chip-primer-how-intel-pinches-power/

<comment><USER2> Let the benchmarks speak for themselves.</comment>


Ask HN: How to setup a software culture in my school - <AUTHOR> I'm a undergraduate freshman at an above average engineering school in India. My school has one of highest rated computer science and engineering programmes in the country, right after the top 10. It also has the students of sufficient intellectual capacity. One of the reasons I joined this institution was because I was informed that there was an excellent coding culture in place.
However, since then I have realized that the extent of this 'coding culture' is limited to teaching beginners programing, training for programming contests and providing bare minimum introductory classes to topics that are in fashion like block chains and ML.
I recognize the practical importance of such activities, but I lament the lack of a culture that promotes students to build actual software solutions to real life problems i.e. Software that people actually use. That was one of the reasons I started programming in the first place.
So I have taken it upon myself to remedy the situation. From my perspective, the only way to do this is: A) Actually make software solutions to real life problems and B) spread the word around the campus that there is a group of students doing this.
Any suggestions/comments? <comment><USER2> (Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the culture in India, this is based on what I would do in Europe. YMMV)

I like that you're taking initiative and getting into changing the culture, kudos for that! Here's how I would start building a community for that and through that, showing example that would hopefully change the culture:

1) Gather together a small group of people who are passionate about building stuff. Start bi-weekly "demo sessions" where this group showcases to each other what they have built. In some countries/universities these are called Clubs or Guilds.

2) After you have the core group (4-5 people) actively participating, turn it into something bit more formal: make a website, book a room for these demo sessions and start inviting people outside your core group

3) Run a hackathon for the group once it's bit bigger: this will bring attention to the group and its activities and it's a great way to connect great developers with the industry and prove to other students that it's worthwhile building stuff while studying.

4) Get the university involved. If you want to change the culture at the administrative level, involve them after you've shown that people are interested in it and they are already doing it.

That's one really surface level example of how I would start building such culture through action and community. It's much easier to affect someone once you have a following.</comment>


Color Will Be The Pin That Bursts The Startup Bubble - <AUTHOR>

I'm going to be quick.<p>-Friend showed me app on iPhone<p>-Noticed similarities between Color and Path, does not provide any usefulness to me<p>-Realized I can now creep on people nearby without having to ask their name and friending them on facebook<p>-Excitement grew with media frenzy over Color and a few friends downloading app<p>-Downloaded app<p>-Constantly crashed when uploading photo<p>-App lost its novelty<p>-App deleted from phone<p>-Startup that created app has 41MM funding <comment><USER2> No, the burst will come after the Facebook IPO when they can't find a way to make the $5,000 per user per year that their stock valuation will suggest it can earn. When Facebook stock crashes and it's plastered all over the news, that'll be the start of the bust. We're a long way from that.

<comment><USER3> Where are you getting $5k/user/year?

<comment><USER4> i see ~$83b valuation, and ~500m active users, putting it at around $166/user

<comment><USER5> you really think there are 500m _active_ users? My BS detector goes off when I hear that number. Unless they have a couple billion total users...

Edit: just to be clear, that's not a rhetorical question. Anyone know how they define "active"?

<comment><USER6> An "active user," by their definition, is someone who has logged on in the last 30 days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> How come everyone misses the fact that the app doesn't make the company. I think color actually redefines "social". If these guys are successful in executing their vision, their current valuation will seem a no-brainer. I seriously don't understand all the negativity and backlash around their launch.

This is coming from a guy that couldn't get their app to work. Every time I try to take my picture, the app crashes. But I don't think that really matters.

Isn't this the same community that proclaims, if you are not embarrassed with your initial product release, then you haven't released it early enough. ?

<comment><USER8> All of the startup mantras hacker news recites go out the window if you raise lots of capital, apparently.

<comment><USER9> And they should. There's a big difference between two guys renting a house and living of their savings accounts pre-launch and 41 million dollars and 27 employees pre-launch.

<comment><USER8> Why?

<comment><USER9> Well for one, you shouldn't have issues like the app crashing when someone tries to take a photo. 27 employees means you have plenty of QA and a testing environment. Two guys in a house means you maybe have one iPhone version to test on and no time to do thorough QA.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> To be fair, the funding probably came sometime after the app development started.

I tried it as well. I can see the novelty of it -- watch in real-time what people are doing around you. It definitely has a voyeuristic aspect to it.

I think all that money could also be used to consolidate the market a bit -- do we really need 30+ photos apps?

PS - I'm working on a photo app. :-)

</comment><comment><USER11> Facebook valuation is only $20/user each year (profit).

Simple Valuation Breakdown: Take $80 billion and divide it by an EBITDA multiple of 10 = $8 billion. Divide that by 400m users, for $20 profit/user each year.

EDIT: EBITDA: Earning before income tax depreciation and amortization.

</comment><comment><USER12> i doubt Color will burst the bubble, but it sure seems to be a strong indicator that there is a bubble of some sort...

</comment><comment><USER13> Assuming the premise of your title is correct, that the bubble bursts.. what would this mean?

Funding dries up because all these ideas cant make money. Valuations plummet - nobody hires and we have bust 2.0.

except it is different because this time around we have a glut of seasoned developers that can build a hell of a lot of stuff.

So I cant see this burst being the same -- but I see a lot of stuff being built for no / little funding.</comment>


How Google's Algorithm Silences Minority Opinions - <AUTHOR> http://highspeedinternet.com/blog/technology/how-googles-algorithm-silences-minority-opinions

<comment><USER2> Author misunderstands Google. It is not an Oracle we should expect to answer questions like "Does God exist?" We need to realise that it will find us pages that are popular using that term - hence, we'll find pages by people who think that it's a useful question to ask. People who think otherwise wouldn't even ask the question or post a site that asks it.

In other words, the fault is not Google's, it's the user's fault for not knowing what Google is doing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very meta (this isn't getting a lot of upvotes/discussion).</comment>


Teller Sues Other Magician For Doing The Same Trick - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120417/04275318521/disappointing-teller-sues-other-magician-doing-same-trick.shtml <comment><USER2> Seems quite legitimate. If you're covering a Pink Floyd song they can sue you, so I don't understand why magic would be any different.</comment>


Show HN: Apify SDK – A scalable web crawling and scraping library for JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/apifytech/apify-js <comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys, today we're showing HN a new open-source library that we have been working on for almost a year. It incorporates lessons learned from scraping of thousands of websites over the last 4 years. We figured there was no such universal library for JavaScript, while for example Python has one ([https://scrapy.org/](https://scrapy.org/)). That wasn't fair, because JavaScript is THE language of the web :)

Anyway, we hope you'll give it a shot and we're really looking forward to hear what you think about it. All feedback welcome!

</comment><comment><USER2> I wish I could upvote this more. This solves a huge problem for me and will definitely be taking a peek at this over the weekend.

Thank you so much for making and sharing this!

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks, this looks solid, with a really extensive documentation. I will give it a try for my next crawling/bot project :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome, looking forward to hear what you think :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This comes just in time when I needed to replace an old scraper!

Does it have to run on an instance or can we also use a serverless environnement?

<comment><AUTHOR> The SDK runs anywhere where you have Node running. And if you can run headless Chrome with Puppeteer there too, than you can use it in the SDK too. This might require several libraries and configuration settings. If I'm not mistaken, Google Cloud Functions support Puppeteer by default, AWS Lambda does not. With any Docker-based serverless platform such as Zeit Now or Apify Cloud you just need to use the right Docker image.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a huge fan of Apify and look forward to exploring this new SDK. Thanks y'all.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much!</comment></comment>


A ban on immigration is an attack on Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2017/02/03/a-ban-on-immigration-is-an-attack-on-silicon-valley/ <comment><USER2> > The tech industry is a global one, and it depends on hiring workers and > employees from around the world.

Honestly, this sounds very Pro American Corporations, and very anti-other countries.

No one ever mentions Brain Drain - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight)

It's a disservice to young and struggling Americans, and young and struggling youth in other countries, by making it harder for youth here to find jobs, and robbing other nations and cultures of their best.

> The tech industry is a global one, and it depends on hiring workers and > employees from around the world.

So there's no need for immigration for tech. Remote working, new start ups in other nations.

I see no problem with restructuring our immigration patterns, especially if it helps young Americans already here gets jobs more easily, and enriches other nations and peoples, so they don't have to "move to the US" for a future. My ideal world has people working in their own countries, for their own families and culture, not for the established corporations of the West.</comment>


The patent "Network-1" just used to get a $25MM settlement from Apple - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/patents/US6006227 <comment><USER2> Twenty five millimetre?

Or is MM shorthand for "million million" aka "trillion"?

<comment><USER3> It's a traditional financial notation for million. Some discussion about its origins here [1][2]

[1] [http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/149190/what-is- th...](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/149190/what-is-the-correct- abbreviation-for-millions-billions-and-trillions-in-a-finan)

[2] [https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/2sd9bm/why_do_peop...](https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/2sd9bm/why_do_people_abbreviate_million_as_mm/)</comment></comment>


Show HN : Hackathons are dead. Introducing Code in the Dark. - <AUTHOR> http://www.rudebaguette.com/2013/07/16/hackathons-are-dead-introducing-code-in-the-dark-sept-27th/ <comment><USER2> It's a good idea to focus on devs in hackathons and leaving all babbling out. But "recreating a given design in html and css" is as boring as the marketing pitch.

That's what most unfortunate web-devs have to do all day at work :\

<comment><USER3> Agreed, and it's not coding, it's not creative. This will be the most boring event ever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This sounds like something a bad tech recruiter would come up with. I enjoy working with a team and showing off something I helped create.

</comment><comment><USER5> I actually like the concept, unlike other commenters. Sure it's not creative but it definitely is coding and I think it's the perfect way to showcase real good knowledge of Html and Css, which, unlike some people seems to believe can be enjoyed as much as backend dev or JS-Heavy web apps.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think the goal should not be to recreate sites in the same way, but to create a better version of the same site. Hope that kind of "freedom" will be allowed and encouraged.</comment>


How to Eat If You Want Better Sleep - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-eat-if-you-want-better-sleep-11585138783 <comment><USER2> I think this is an entirely relative situation, I've only eaten once a day for nearly 10 years now and to be honest its pretty close to when I fall asleep, often after having worked 8-12 hours in physical job and 2-3 hours at the gym. I can eat between 2-5000 calories in one sitting depending on how stressed/tired or ultimately hungry I felt.

I went several years sleeping only 3-4 hours a day in my 20s. I'm more reluctant to do that now in my 30s and it was almost never by choice, but what was always a constant is that I normally only ate until moments I was about to fall asleep. And I'm entirely healthy and have way more energy than people in my age group and as much as 7-8 years younger than myself.

It does take me longer to fully recover from an injury or cold these days than when I was in my teens or even 20s, and while I really enjoy sleep (I spent significantly more on a bed when I was 21 than what I spent going to the bar in the following 4 years) and food I don't think its an absolute that its an absolute to keep the 2 so separate to achieve those goals.

I have an incredibly fast metabolism, too. I still have to workout on a regular basis and eat 3k+ calories to just keep my weight constant. I think I'm one of the few in my group of friends whose actually lost weight during this lockdown.

Now that gyms are starting to open up I need to get a few session in to see just how much of that was muscle loss as I barely kept up with any routine due to having bad joints in my upper body.

<comment><USER3> ... "I'm entirely healthy" ...

... "bad joints in my upper body" ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not enough meat in the article. A very good read on the subject is _The Circadian Code by Satchin Panda_.

More info: [https://www.salk.edu/scientist/satchidananda- panda/](https://www.salk.edu/scientist/satchidananda-panda/) and [https://panda.salk.edu/](https://panda.salk.edu/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting but eating in the cycles recommended makes me feel ill. I can't eat shit in the morning, at best I can sip 100 calories worth of a drink but anything more will make me nauseous and lethargic for hours, maybe sometime after lunch I can eat an okay sized meal, and then I eat the most as a real late dinner, another thing which they say you shouldn't do. And to top all that off, I work physically demanding job, and eating before doing something only makes it worse and feels like it drains stamina, especially breakfast. So I always take these kind of recommendations with a grain of salt, maybe as an overall trend for most people, but just like sleep phases and schedules I don't believe there is a one ideal fit for everyone.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been thinking for a few weeks to change my diet to avoid having high sugar spikes and keep my energy high throughout the whole day.

When I workout I use to eat 5 times a day and a snack with a high glycemic index (like a handful of raisins) during workout or I'm unable to keep up. That's probably because all the energy from my last meal which is usually 3 hours before my workout is gone.

I'm the kind of person who loses weight on a normal diet that someone else would gain weight and my body fat is around 13-14%. My problem, as I said, is keeping the same levels of energy during the day.

I'll probably start by eating 2 times a day. High protein meals with veggies and some whole grains with a low glycemic index to see how it goes.

<comment><USER7> I have the same problem as you do, not being able to keep same energy levels throughout the day. I realized my diet was too carb heavy (white rice, 2x a day usually) and I was able to somewhat counter that by high protein snacks (handful of almonds) between meals.

I got the idea from a book called "Why isn't my brain working?" by Dr. Datis Kharrazian. There is a chapter in the book detailing some dietary changes that a person should make depending on their blood sugar levels and other factors. I suggest you take a look at this book for some ideas on approaching this problem via diet.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> One of the things recommended is a drink right before bed that includes 1/2 cup of full fat coconut milk plus some coconut oil - it probably tastes great but I have a hard time believing their claim that it's good to drink that every night before bed.

<comment><USER9> Its a sure way to gain some belly fat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> They say it should be easy to digest, but they show some complex recipes (many different ingredients) at the end. From my experience at least, less ingredients means easier digestion. I often eat rice only (with the cooking water)

<comment><USER11> > (with the cooking water)

All the rice preparation techniques I know involve the water evaporating or being absorbed by the rice. What cooking method preserves cooking water??

<comment><USER10> I cook rice in a casserole, the amount of water not absorbed at the end really depends since I don't measure anything (whether quantity of rice nor water), but anyway I add some water at the end to cool stuff down and eat directly in the casserole

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is great!!

</comment><comment><USER13> The whole article is behind a paywall. I don't understand how I'm supposed to read it.

<comment><USER14> [http://archive.is/xztOi](http://archive.is/xztOi)

<comment><USER15> thank you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> paywall.

<comment><USER8> [http://archive.is/xztOi](http://archive.is/xztOi)</comment></comment>


The race to become the WeChat of the West - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@tedlivingston/the-race-to-become-the-wechat-of-the-west-3fe52c8db946

<comment><USER2> It's extremely impressive how line and wechat have managed to build an app- store within the AppStore.

But with Google and Apple as a direct competitor in both chat and AppStore markets and gatekeeper in large portions of these markets I think the author is forgetting the main threat here.</comment>


Solar panel contract is under review - <AUTHOR> http://newsdemocrat.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=137914&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1 I thought this was a good subject for HN because it is how a small community is dealing with emergencing technology. In this case, the renewal of the solar panel contracts. <comment><AUTHOR> I thought this was a good article for HN because it is dealing with how a small community is dealing with emerging technology. In this case, its solar farm.</comment>


Code Cartoons - <AUTHOR> https://code-cartoons.com/ <comment><USER2> This is great. I always try to mock up visual representations for problems I'm solving and it's so nice to see an entire blog just about this. Great work!

</comment><comment><USER3> after taking a quick look at the redux one, i feel that "an intro that features a few drawings to redux" is a much more realistic name.</comment>


Planet enlists machine learning experts to parse Amazon basin data - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/20/planet-enlists-machine-learning-experts-to-parse-a-treasure-trove-of-amazon-basin-data/ <comment><USER2> Unfortunately, the Amazon won't be saved unless the rest of the world puts their hand in their pockets. It is a resource for those countries to elevate themselves out of poverty and develop their countries.

Europe did the same. The US did the same. To tell these poor countries they should not cut down the forest because it is a resource for the world is a bit rich.

Yes there is a problem with the mega farms / ranches that seem to be a problem in some areas of Brazil, but also the small holdings where peasant (I don't like to use this word, but it does differentiate from the typical wesstern usage of the word farmer, but I don't intend to use it in a derogatory way) farmers eek out an existence by chopping down a few hectares for pasture land for a couple dozen head of cattle which they can sell.

Ecuador tried a novel approach a couple of years ago and went to the UN asking for $4 billion to not extract oil from a particular life rich area of the forest (the oil was said to be worth $8billion). They got pledges of $32 million (pledges which do not always translate to payment).

So now oil roads are being built, where the road goes, small holidings sprint up all along and more of the forest gets cut down / polluted.

</comment><comment><USER3> I live so much in the bubble that whenever I read "Amazon Rainforest" I think about what new cloud product by AWS that is...

<comment><USER4> Same. I thought article is about how AWS machine learning platform found a big customer which would help the revenue growth

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> [https://www.kaggle.com/c/planet-understanding-the-amazon- fro...](https://www.kaggle.com/c/planet-understanding-the-amazon-from-space)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks @ontouchstart

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Do you get extra rewards if you score well with random forests ?

<comment><USER7> Or if you use AWS?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone else believe that chopping down massive swaths of rainforest is the primary cause of global warming?

I mean, these are the planets largest carbon sinks and they are being decimated.

<comment><USER9> Definitely not the primary cause of global warming.

Speaking terms of carbon flows, the Amazon as a whole only absorbs two or three times the carbon emissions as the UK.

However it's approaching saturation anyway--it can't absorb an infinite amount of carbon.

In terms of absolute numbers, the total carbon locked up in the Amazon is definitely large, but I'd guess it's at least an order of magnitude less than human carbon emissions since the start of industrialization. Trying to figure out how to get the exact figure.

<comment><USER10> > the Amazon as a whole only absorbs two or three times the carbon emissions > as the UK.

The Amazon probably doesn't absorb any net amount of carbon, unless it's growing.

Let's demystify this: The carbon trapped in the Amazon _is_ the plants. When plants consume CO₂, the C part _becomes_ the plant. In a forest in equilibrium, growing plants do capture carbon from the air, but rotting dead plants release an equal amount.

So when you chop down a forest, and for the sake of example burn all the plants, you're releasing a large one-time amount of CO₂, but then the whole damage is done. And if you then leave the area alone, the forest will regenerate over the next 50-100 years, reabsorb the same amount of CO₂.

If you chop down the forest and build lasting structures from the wood, you're actually _removing_ net CO₂!

<comment><USER11> I wonder if we could come up with some sort of fast growing plant that we could then use as a replacement for sand as a filler. This would reduce the sand crisis and capture carbon, if it's possible.

<comment><USER10> There is a sand crisis too?

Is it the one caused by dams?

<comment><USER12> Between 2011 and 2015 China poured more concrete than the US did in the entire 20th century.

Sand is one component of most concrete.

[https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/27/sand- mining-g...](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/27/sand-mining- global-environmental-crisis-never-heard)

<comment><USER11> See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13789108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13789108)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> $60,000, that's it?

<comment><USER14> Resulting models will likely be released as open source, and the techniques published in open journals.

The big money is in productionizing and running it on bigger datasets.

Kaggle competitions are not a data-science-product-for-hire kind of thing, like some kind of logo design contest. It is a sport. Super GM chess competitions see smaller prize pools.

Mediocre people, including me, would compete for free (just to get access to interesting data like this). The really talented people are not driven by money, but by competition and fame.

Increasing the prize money is more of a marketing move and only attracts more low-to-mediocre people trying to get lucky in a lottery: It won't increase the quality of top 10 solutions. And no computer vision PhD/professor is going to drop everything he/she is working on for a small chance to win 400k.

<comment><USER13> If it's as you say, then OK.

But it did look like a fishing expedition for ideas worth far in excess of $60,000, which smelled exploitative</comment></comment></comment>


The Ballad of the Green Beret - <AUTHOR> http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/09/ballad-green-beret <comment><USER2> My dad was in the Army Special Forces during Vietnam. He says "they" didn't like the term Green Berets and I don't remember why, it might have something to do with the song (which he also claims was not well liked) or the movie.

I think he has a conflicted view of his time, he did not stay in the service afterwards and to this day I think he both regrets his participation in the war and is proud of it at the same time.

I think war, and by extension the military allows people (mostly young men historically) to push themselves and put themselves in danger, forming some of the most memorable moments of their lives. The problem is this often goes with creating some of the most traumatic moments of their lives, and they are forever stuck with the juxtaposition of those memories.

I've personally felt a longing for the former but not the latter and I wish there were more opportunities to gain those kinds of experiences and the camaraderie without having to do things you are morally opposed to. I've found myself looking into disaster relief work and things like that at times as an alternative but that might not be a realistic option at this point in my life.

<comment><USER3> > I wish there were more opportunities to gain those kinds of experiences and > the camaraderie without having to do things you are morally opposed to.

I recently joined my local Search and Rescue team. The opportunity popped up at just the right time for me and combines many things that I'm interested in while being of service to my community. The application process was fairly rigorous (under 10% acceptance rate) we then went through intensive training in a wide range of skills before being able to respond to calls. The team has a lot of cool toys, trains to high levels to maintain their certifications, has types of access to areas of the county that the public doesn't, is on call 24/7, and directly deals with the life and safety of individuals and the community at large.

Depending on where you live, your local team might be something for you to look in to.

<comment><USER4> Many, many communities still rely, at least in part, on volunteer firefighters. I know a number of former military guys that love it--provides that the risk/rush and camaraderie you're looking for. And it ain't a cakewalk.

[https://www.volunteerfd.org/become-a-volunteer- firefighter/](https://www.volunteerfd.org/become-a-volunteer-firefighter/)

<comment><USER2> Thats a good point, I was thinking about that and first responder. Where I grew up most people are actually served by volunteer fire departments (extremely rural, only the towns have full fire departments and they are low population). Any time there was any kind of fire or medical emergency volunteer firefighters and first responders were always there super fast even if regular emergency services were ~30 minutes away.

My dad was actually a EMS/Paramedic for 20+ years and I think he feels similar about that to his military service. The long periods of boredom (low population rural area) followed by intense life and death situations mimics deployment/combat experience and if you have psychological issues related to wartime experience it can exacerbate it. At the same time, saving lives and helping people are extremely fond memories but when I was growing up I think the job was harder on him than he remembers these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The song lyrics hit home. My father was a green beret, and now I have a brother who is a combat controller and another brother who is 101st airborne and training to become a ranger. I also started down that path but I have diminished lung capacity due to a bout with tuberculosis, so I never could join.

There's a million things wrong with the lifestyle. Even if you don't die, you still do in a sociocultural sense. Divorce rates are near 100%. Nearly all of your job is classified or top secret, so you can't discuss it with anybody. Even your psychiatrists have to have top secret clearance just to talk to you. It's nearly impossible to have any commitments (social, financial, educational, etc.), because you can be pulled away at any moment, and you can't even tell people when you expect to return. Bankruptcy is extremely common, and nobody has good credit. It's nearly impossible to leave and do any other occupation successfully.

And yet, even though he left the green berets to become a mostly unsuccessful but still boring CPA, and even though I basically have no relationship with him anymore, I still have this undeniable urge to be a part of it. I read the books, seek out the stories, devour any news of operations, etc. And while my dad paid lip service to how bad it was, he's secretly proud of his two special operations sons and he clings on to their lives, trying to relive his own.

<comment><USER6> As a 12-year post-9/11 veteran with 7 years at a Tier 1 SOCOM unit and currently a successful BD guy at a Top 5 SV unicorn, your post is filled with misinformation, generalities, and is frankly offensive. Many of my brothers and sisters from the SOF world have successfully transitioned to the civilian world and are crushing it. Are there dark times - yes. But we either choose to let them define us or choose to rise above and move ahead with our goals.

Your comment about bankruptcies and poor credit is not even worth responding to.

<comment><USER5> The world under SOCOM is pretty big, and I've only experienced some of it, second hand via direct family as well as family friends. I may be painting with an overly broad brush, but I'm telling it how I experienced it.

The bankruptcy and credit problem may not be as relevant anymore due to technology, but it was absolutely relevant in the time my father was active. The technology we rely on to maintain our finances (automatic payments, mail, pervasive internet and phone communications) didn't exist, and if it did, it wasn't anywhere near the combat outposts where they would be deployed to for several months to train local militias. It is really hard to pay a bill if you can't be sent a bill, call to ask about a balance, send a check via mail, or have your bank take care of it for you.

I do know at least one former Ranger who was pretty successful in a civilian job (logistics at amazon), but I've known far more that couldn't hack anything out of the military (apart from security contractors that is). Maybe my sample is small and not representative, but that's just the way I've seen it. Sorry if I offended you by the generalization, it wasn't my intent at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I clicked on this wondering "WTF is something like this on HN" and really enjoyed and learned from what I read. Thanks, submission-upvoters! A great piece of HN serendipity.

(This also made me realize I have a weird saddle-curve tropism: articles that are clearly on topics I care about I always click on, even though they often turn out to be me-too. Stuff that's mildly interesting looking I rarely click on because who has the time? But stuff that looks like it's clearly not-HN fodder I'll click on. This means I'd probably click on a seeming listicle or something with "Kardashian" in the title)

<comment><USER8> Saw the movie 20 years ago and remember enjoying it. Was better than I expected. We were "saving the world from communism". We lost and communism didn't take over the world.

Watching the Americans today reminds me of how we fought to save Afghanistan from the Russians. Now we're there in our longest war.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans_(2013_TV_serie...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans_\(2013_TV_series\))

Iraq ... we saved the Iraqi's from Saddam. Libya from Gaddafi...

Personally, I think the Green Berets should be required watching with an additional history lesson to help us better reflect on our past and future choices.

Maybe someday we'll stop trying to save the world, and quit repeating past mistakes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This explains (kind-of) the Simon and Garfunkel lyric, "I've been Lou Adlered, Barry Sadlered." Somehow it had never occurred to me that Barry Sadler was a famous person. I suppose I'd assumed since I didn't get the reference, they'd just tossed in a name that fit the meter.

</comment><comment><USER10> I was hesitant to click on it due to my association of the song with the 1968 warmonger propaganda film "The Green Berets" (not John Wayne's best work, IMO). But the story itself was not what I would have expected, so worth a read.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm not American and didn't know about the green berets until I heard of them in this episode from the Love+Radio Podcast :

[http://loveandradio.org/2016/11/wood-fighting-with- steel/](http://loveandradio.org/2016/11/wood-fighting-with-steel/)

It's an intimate interview with a Vietnam vet (the green beret). A truly beautiful piece of radio IMHO.

<comment><USER12> Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed listening to this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sounds like the life story of the child from a triangle relationship between Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac.

<comment><USER14> And raised in Leadville, a town famous for its whorehouses at the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I read one of the Casca novels as a teenager and the premise really stuck with me. I remember referencing it to my wife recently and subsequently having to explain the reference.

I do read alot, and I guess it says something that I haven't searched for or read any more of the novels.

<comment><USER16> I read three or four of the Casca series as a teenager. I remember them fondly, but I'm not sure they would age well. Maybe someday I'll look for one in ebook form.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why would the mom make her son a beret when that's what killed her husband?

<comment><USER18> The song paints a narrative of a patriot, dedicated enough to give his life for his country in the earnest belief that his actions will make life _in_ his country better.

The exaggerated and romanticized version of the wife of a man like that is expected to support the same goal just as vigorously, through her sacrifices. Sending her son to serve when her husband already died that way would just be a continuation of her patriotic duty.

Note that this is just my interpretation of the song and its commentary on some aspects of military culture, and not my opinion of a reasonable expectation for anyone's actual behavior.</comment></comment>


Dear Al-Jazeera: Why Steal Our Code? - <AUTHOR> https://www.scrollytelling.io/al-jazeera.html <comment><USER2> [https://mobile.twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/769636034749558...](https://mobile.twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/769636034749558784) it appears the journalist works for both de volkskrant and al-jazeera. scrollytelling is mad that they haven't got paid twice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, this is our product. Wouldn't you be?

In addition to copying the code, they left some original asset urls in there as well. Which means that those come out of our bandwidth bill. So yeah ... we're a little mad. Not terribly so, though. Life's too short.

<comment><USER3> You absolutely should have included that detail in your article. It completely changes the story and it's highly unethical to exclude it.

It's still wrong for Al Jazeera to use your code without licensing it, but you need to let your readers have all the facts. Without that detail, I was rather curious why de volkskrant wasn't also upset.

<comment><USER4> At no point in his blog post was it even implied that the content was stolen, only the frontend code which appears to be generated by their proprietary frontend tool. I don't think the blog post does anything unethical to not clarify this further as it seems fairly obvious the contention is about the code copyright and hotlinking.

<comment><USER5> Here's the changelog for the post: [https://github.com/scrollytelling/website/commit/21e9c8ba8f6...](https://github.com/scrollytelling/website/commit/21e9c8ba8f6bdbcc87aadc2eb751c424303549f2)

I mean, with a sentence like this, it's hard not to jump to the conclusion that there's more than hotlinking and code copyright going on: _" We know you love us Al-Jazeera, but stealing from us and then ignoring us is not the way to express it."_

I wouldn't call them unethical, just incomplete. We have a case here where someone paid Scrollytellio to create a story in their content-management system. Their system is such that, to a layperson (which I assume the reporter is when it comes to webdev), the code and presentation is inextricable from the content.

The reporter was wrong, but that's just one level of confusion and ambiguity where it's possible to understand why AJ messed up. Even more confusing is that AJ itself uses the same open-source tech that ScrollyTelling does:

[https://twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/777535017383845890](https://twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/777535017383845890)

[https://twitter.com/pageflow_io/status/777562569468964864](https://twitter.com/pageflow_io/status/777562569468964864)

A web dev/producer at a media company not knowing the difference between the open-source code they've used in the past, and the modified version that a freelancer has given to them for this one package? Yeah, incompetent, but not malicious.

Again, it doesn't excuse AJ, their web producer, and the reporter, for not following up with more speed. But I can see why it's more likely that incompetency is the culprit and not malice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This ... is not the best way to take advantage of what is basically a sales lead. After all, Scrollytelling is a small company with only a handful of clients, of whom De Volkskrant appears to the most important, so why barge in with DMCA takedowns and angry allegations before you have to?

This would have been a great opportunity to work through Scrollytelling's existing relationships with their clients (and their clients' reporters) to get in front of AJ and make a case for their platform (and only go for the lawyers _if_ talks broke down). Instead they've now ensured that, regardless of anything else, at least one reporter is _never_ going to use their platform again and is going to be one hell of a net detractor. For a small company, garnering a reputation as being troublesome loose cannons isn't a good way to grow market share.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's worth noting that we didn't barge in with the DMCA, so I updated the blog post to reflect that. Besides, nothing wrong with a DMCA. It's a valid, and expected way to take down infringing content. Which Al-Jazeera chose to ignore.

We're not treating them as a sales lead. What they did is not a great start to a fruitful relationship. We just would like them to take down the infringing code and at the very least stop using our bandwidth for their stories. It's kind of ridiculous.

As you say, we're small. So when a large bully steals from us, that makes it okay? I really don't understand. People go to jail for copyright infringement but when Al-Jazeera does it to a small startup nobody bats an eye. We chose to speak up after it was clear that Al-Jazeera would keep ignoring our friendly requests and formal demands.

<comment><USER7> Actually, the DMCA is evil. It was invented by evil men. It's been used countless times to terrorize people and maintain a corporate oligarchy. Nobody should utilize the DMCA, you should find a way to get the things you need without resorting to that particularly evil method.

There is some philosophical debate to be had regarding whether your code is deserving of copyright protections. Precisely what parts were duplicated? Just the CSS? Is there a better way to write those parts? If your way was the best way, copyright laws cannot prevent someone else from duplicating that method. This is known as reverse engineering, and is completely legal.

I'm a designer and developer myself so I understand your perspective, but you are not necessarily the righteous ones in a battle of good vs evil. It is definitely a blurry grey area.

Quite frankly, "code borrowing" happens everywhere in development. Most lessons on "How to learn to code" encourage people to explore other's code and adapt it for their own projects as a means to learn. The history of computing supports borrowing and adapting other people's code. You probably aren't aware of these things.

<comment><USER8> The Safe Harbor provision of the DMCA is extremely important to preserving the Internet as I think we all want it to be. It protects joesvideoshack.org as much as youtube.com. If you host a site to publish your own blog articles, I don't think you would want to be legally liable for the contents of someone's comment on a blog post.

<comment><USER7> You suggestion implies we can't have one without the other.

Tacking on small concessions is how the most evil people in American politics are able to pass insane and crooked laws.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like a) journalists using their platform don't really understand what they are paying for [1]: a license to use the story platform, when they expect to use it as a content creation tool and fully own the result. And b) either Al-Jazeera has copied them before [2] or there is some mutual stealing going on...

[1] [https://mobile.twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/777509638002634...](https://mobile.twitter.com/Hiddemhigh/status/777509638002634752)

[2] [http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2015/BanishedNepal/](http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2015/BanishedNepal/)

<comment><USER10> > And b) either Al-Jazeera has copied them before [2] or there is some mutual > stealing going on... looking at the source and at what they are showing in > the updated page of the eggplant story[1] they seem to be using an open > source version[2].

[1] [http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/gmo-eggplants- aube...](http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/gmo-eggplants-aubergines- bangladesh/index.html#2208)

[2] [https://github.com/codevise/pageflow](https://github.com/codevise/pageflow)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'd start serving hilarious, huge pictures of dicks and boobs on the dodgy asset links or injecting js that does silly (but not malicious) things to browsers.

<comment><USER12> Well, if you understood their motivation for this post, you wouldn't.

> We'd love to work with you Al-Jazeera. But not like this.

> So how about starting over and signing up for an account.

> We will even keep that eggplant emoji in there for you.

> We look forward to hearing from you.

<comment><USER13> That isn't directed at Al-Jazeera though. If they wanted Al-Jazeera to sign up, they would not have started with a DMCA.

This is pure marketing. They go out of their way to explain what features their product has and why it is beneficial to sign up. If they get even just 2 new sign-ups with this article, it has already paid off. The "our service is great!" message is not there to remedy things with Al-Jazeera.

<comment><USER14> Well, it appears they didn't start with a DMCA.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "We knew there must be some mistake, so we quickly sent you a DMCA takedown requests and waited patiently."

That does not seem like the best way to start a business relationship...

<comment><USER16> Personally I'd try to first contact Al-Jazeera (in a friendly and direct way, not DMCA) before a name and shame. This could after all be the fault of some technical intern at Al-Jazeera who didn't think twice about ripping code. And I suppose DMCA notices are easily ignored if they come via e-mail.

<comment><USER17> They didn't just rip code though. They ripped the entire story...that's gotta go higher than some random intern.

<comment> angry-hacker It's the same author. Probably misunderstanding about redistribution etc. Shoddy work but dmca is stupid.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Lesson #1 - It will be hilarious when they'll discover that Al-Jazeera is actually paying a license to them. Just under a different name. (Yes, big international companies have many legal names and subsidiaries and buying departments).

Lesson #2 - Seriously. Do NOT let 20 yo bro-grammers handle the business and marketing.

Noone could care less about your code + The DMCA notice is plain silly. This is exactly how you SHOULD NOT handle business leads and customers.

<comment><USER19> The "business" mindset is a funny thing. It turns bullies at worst and thieves at best into leads and customers, just because they're big.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I almost cared until I read the snarky, passive aggressive tone this article took along with the fact that it intentionally attempts to frame the entire situation differently from how it actually happened. This is not randomly scraping some content and then re-publishing it. It's a contract dispute about whether the original publisher had rights to redistribute it. What a bunch of brats. Grown up. Yuck

<comment><USER21> Yeah, kids these days, expecting their signed contracts to not be breached. Why don't they get a real job, like used cars sales?

<comment><USER22> Except that it's the Dutch author who breached the contract. But bitching about AlJazeera gets more publicity. What a bunch of brats.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > We knew there must be some mistake, so we quickly sent you a DMCA takedown > requests

Is that really the most appropriate way to start?

<comment><USER24> When someone blatantly plagiarizes your work without any attribution, I think it's perfectly appropriate.

<comment><USER16> Are they sure they didn't get permission from de Volkskrant to re-publish the article (effectively white labelling the article)?

<comment><USER25> Why would de Volkskrant have the legal ability to grant them permission to redistribute somebody else's code?

<comment><USER26> Obviously they do not, but did Al-Jazeera even know that the original came from there? They bought the story from the author. It is possible (even probable in my eyes) that they thought that all of the assets were included in the sale. It is possible (even probably in my eyes) that the author told them this outright (because he was mistaken). And if I'm running a company in a non-US country, a DMCA request is going straight into the round file. I'm sorry that people assume they can inflict their laws on people outside of their country, but it is not the case.

If you are in the business that storytelling.io is in, you have to assume that some fraction of people are going to make mistakes. You also have to assume that most of those people will _not_ be in the US. Al-Jazeera is in Qatar. Qatar only joined the Berne convention in the year 2000. Their attitude toward a DMCA request is pretty predictable.

Honestly, I found the article insulting, myopic and reactionary. The imprecise (and legally incorrect) usage of the word "stealing" is simply used to justify their outrage. Even though they appear to have edited their page 2 or 3 times to improve the content based on suggestions in this thread, it _still_ has no details on how the original transaction was handled (what did the original author sell?). There is no indication that storytelling.io made any attempt to rectify the situation other than sending an incorrect legal request and then complaining on social media.

To be totally blunt, if I were thinking of using a service like theirs, I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole because they really appear to have absolutely no idea what they are doing on the legal front -- something which seems to be crucial to their business survival.

I hope they can figure it out. I'd start with realising that even when you are in the right, you can do the absolute wrong thing to try to correct it. This is going to happen again, so back up, take stock and ask yourself how you are going to improve your reaction next time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Someone should make a blacklist with websites that hijack scrolling. Or an /etc/hosts.

<comment><USER28> I use an extension called stylish, where you can pretty much inject your own css handlers for each website. I know its a bit tough to deal with but maybe someone can make a list which people can subscribe to just like the ad- blocking lists (eg. easylist).

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm really shocked how many people here are blaming the victim here...

<comment><USER30> When the victim thrusts himself into the public sphere, it's sensible to raise alternate hypotheses and call his story into question ... if only to conclude that he is, indeed, the victim!

This knee-jerk cry of "don't blame the victim" is just that: a knee-jerk response. Few people want to humiliate victims, but I don't see a reason not to ask pointed questions.

I mean no disrespect, but I think comments like yours lower the level of discourse and are pretty toxic despite their good intentions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Al-Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, the only country in the world with a major slavery problem in 2016; I don't think plagiarism is what you should be worried about.

</comment><comment><USER32> Something feels off about this whole post, but can't put my finger on it.

For example, appears the company makes money selling their code to online newspapers, but when a major media company uses their code the response is to tell them to stop doing it.

I would be curious to see the take down notice that was sent literally said.

<comment> vertex-four Al Jazeera are essentially pirating - the company makes money selling their code to online newspapers, not giving it away.

<comment><USER32> Right, that's obvious, just like it's obvious you'd call them up and sell them on paying you to use it, not tell them to stop via so legal notice that might not even legally apply to them.

<comment><USER19> So what's your move when they simply ignore your call and continue to use your work? After all, they got it for free, no one else seems to care, why should one call from you convince them to pay after the fact?

<comment><USER32> AJ is a professional company. If you read the other comments, which were posted after my comment, it's clear the developer made an agreement a freelance journalist, not AJ; which isn't even mentioned by the developer in the blog even though they're 100% aware of it. Given near the journalists or the developer have committed publicly to the terms of the agreement between them, I don't see the point in speculating what their agreement was; I do know on GitHub that the developer use the MIT license for some other code, which would have allowed the journalist to reuse the code where ever they wanted.

As for what to do, volumes of books are published on the topic. If the content was hosted in the US, the next step would be contact the ISP that's hosting the content.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Take down the AJ flag with swords. Russians will see it as someone is acknowledging that Qatar is supporting ISIS. I'm not kidding.

</comment><comment><USER34> What's up with the Al Jazeera logo with swords underneath it? Might be misunderstanding but I thought misappropriating branding logos was usually something that was a touchy subject (i.e., no license to modify the brand logo).

<comment><USER35> It would appear to be a modification of the Anonymous Pirate Flag. They're making a 'statement.'

They were so mad about this event, they photoshoped Al Jazeera's logo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Whoa ... I'm sure you've thought about changing the urls of your assets and update you code before publishing it again, then why haven't you done this ?

<comment><USER12> Probably because they are trying to open up an account for them, rather than Al-Jazeera stealing their code. Changing the URLs would probably make them angry/upset and not thinking about making business with Storytelling

<comment><USER37> Probably moot; I rather doubt that sending them a DMCA takedown notice will make them too interested in doing business with them

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Dear Al-Jazeera: 1) instruct your developers to only use open source code so as to avoid situations like this 2) slideshows are terrible, lots of work for viewer to get through. text or video work great, stick to them, don't use a format only suited for demo-ing the limited capabilities of cd-roms circa 25 years ago.

</comment><comment><USER39> I would love to hear the AJ response to this. I hope they are allowed to make it public.

</comment><comment><USER40> Homepage:

> We are ready for you hitting the big time. We make sure your stories keep > being told, even if they're on the frontpage of The New York Times.

So they wouldn't have send the DMCA to NYT?

</comment><comment><USER41> How does one scroll on a laptop without the browser's scroll bar on the right? What's the point of the "software" if you take away the base feature of a browser?

</comment><comment><USER42> Good luck enforcing an dmca on a website code vs a foreign company. The court history of such cases is rather funny. From cases thrown out of the court, to unenforceable defaults

<comment><AUTHOR> They do have a documented procedure for this, posted on [http://america.aljazeera.com/tools/terms.html](http://america.aljazeera.com/tools/terms.html) \- paragraph (V)(B). It likely does not apply to Al-Jazeera worldwide, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> It might be wise to just hire an attorney and file a copyright infringement claim. You have a pretty solid case.

</comment><comment><USER44> What's with the flag?

<comment><USER45> It's a pirate flag (often in copyright infringement articles) with Al Jazeera's logo replacing the skull.

<comment><USER44> Still, a bit tasteless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Scumb bags

</comment><comment><USER47> This is slightly off-topic, but why does this website hijack the middle-click button? It's pretty annoying.

<comment><USER48> It doesn't for me, not on the blog at least.

But I wouldn't be surprised as it's a "scrollytelling" website, which is probably made to hijack lots of browser controls, especially those to do with scrolling. We all hate it, but I guess it looks cool if you're trying to be a modern newspaper.

<comment><USER47> Actually, the middle-click is hijacked only for the main page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Ooops

</comment><comment><USER50> Nice storytelling. (couldn't stop it)

</comment><comment><USER51> They also translated the whole article from De Volkskrant and used the exact same images. So, plagiarism and theft, nice.

<comment><USER52> I highly doubt that plagiarism is taking place. I bet you that the original outlet simply gave AJ permission to use the article's content and template.

<comment><USER53> Do you have some special knowledge to indicate that this was done with permission?

When reprinting it's common to include a 'with permission of' or 'originally published in' or especially 'translated from the original'. I might have missed it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there.

<comment><USER54> There is a twitter post above of the author promoting the AJ story.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> Copying front-end code is hardly "stealing".

At best you can call them out for not properly attributing merit where merit is due.

<comment><USER56> It is copyright infringement and piracy; they had no right to redistribute this code, even if they had kept the copyright notice.

Aside from that, I do think it is theft in the sense that AJ is using bandwidth not paid for by them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> You still have your code, so your accusations of theft don't really hold up.

<comment><USER58> They sell a product. That product is the ability to produce beautiful stories for online publications. There is code in there, and because of the poor copy, it's obvious that the code was stolen.

But, what I don't understand is, why didn't they call it plagiarism, which is usually what you would call a copied story.

both are copyright violations, but is one worse in terms of law?

</comment></comment><comment><USER59>
        > What Happened to Journalistic Integrity?

Did Al-Jazeera ever have any?

<comment><USER60> Al Jazeera always had one ! This must be the fault of some tech intern.

<comment><USER59> It's owned by the Qatari government; I'm not sure why anyone should trust the independence of a news outlet owned by a foreign democratic government, nevermind Qatar's [0].

But then, a shocking number of people seem to love _Russia Today_ in the UK, so it really is a sad state of affairs.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Qatar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Qatar)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> EDIT: I understand the comparison to books and other creative works. However, many writers don't outright copy someone else's work word for word, they appropriate the tone, style, setting, etc.

The point I was trying to make is that front-end devs are like the creators of Stranger Things. We may not outright copy code character for character on the front-end, but we sure do give a lot of nods to the greatest hits. And the web is a better place for it

<comment><USER62> Isn't the entire point of copyright to protect things that people put "out into the world"? Proprietary server-side software is already a trade secret, but creative works that must be published to have any use at all (like books, newspaper articles, and client-side software) is properly protected by copyright.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> Each Andorid app is obfuscated by ProGurd.

If I'm in the jury and I can easily cut/paste - than that is on you. Obfuscation has to get better in HTML5. There are now some paid tools that obfuscate CSS and HTML5 variables, not just Base64, and inject that it can run on only one domain.

Did they do any of that?

<comment><USER64> Android applications are compiled, so they can be obfuscated. Web applications do not work that way at all, and proper obfuscation is impossible. There will always be a way to reverse this, and the actual content shouldn't be obfuscated anyway, as this would have severe negative effects on SEO.

Other than that, just because you can steal other people's hard work doesn't mean you should.

You clearly do not understand this situation.

<comment><USER63> 'Web applications do not work that way at all'

You clearly do not understand the tech. Most (good) web sites are SASS, and that gets compiled for one.

You clearly don't know what you are talking about.

<comment><USER64> What. SASS doesn't get compiled, it gets transpiled to CSS, which is human- readable. Trolling?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Adobe Not Worried About the Future of Flash - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.adobe.com/jd/2010/03/_the_fundamental_things_apply.html

<comment><USER2> If they're not worried about their future, they will fail.

Companies like Apple, to use a cliché, are always worried about their future, and so they always innovate to compensate. If Apple wasn't worried, the iPod Touch wouldn't exist yet since nobody else would come up with anything better that required keeping up with.</comment>