The Hyphen Affair - <AUTHOR> https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/associated-press-style-changes-explained.html <comment><USER2> Good writing is a form user experience design. Do what you feel you must. Adopt a personal style and some flair. Use punctuation as you wish. But know that the goal is (generally) clarity and communication, not blind adherence to any specific rule.

</comment><comment><USER3> "'If a hyphen makes the meaning clearer, use it. If it just adds clutter and distraction to the sentence, don't use it,' it now reads."

I would say the test is whether it makes your writing easier to read. I use it when I want to link the two adjectives together, so the reader knows one adjective refers to the other and not to the noun, for instance, "ice-cold beer".

<comment><USER4> Which is clearer: ;) or ;-) ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> One argument against requiring the hyphen in such situations ("first-quarter touchdown", "emergency-room visit") is that doing so encourages constructions that are ambiguous if spoken aloud. Since the hyphen never makes it into speech, you end up relying too much on the punctuation to convey meaning.

Note that certain punctuation is often spoken aloud for instance people often say "quote" (and maybe "unquote"). Other punctuation such as exclamation point and comma can affect how it is spoken. Technically you can speak very slowly and group words together and use a bit of accenting to indicate how words are grouped, but still.

I generally don't use a hyphen unless it is absolutely needed to make it clear. I find them kind of ugly and can break the flow.

<comment><USER6> The hyphens in compound modifiers often (usually? I suppose it depends on the person) do get spoken. It's common to speed up speaking cadence or change breathing or pauses through a set of compound modifiers to indicate which are associated and which are distinct.

Aesthetic tastes aside, it should be all about having the maximum chance to transfer the writer's thought into the reader's head, and it's cool if AP are finding not having to hyphenate still gets the job done. If nothing else, it can be really difficult to squeeze longer hyphenated phrases into paper columns and such.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I expected this to be about Dear Leader's recent tweet:

"To show you how dishonest the LameStream Media is, I used the word Liddle', not Liddle, in discribing Corrupt Congressman Liddle' Adam Schiff. Low ratings @CNN purposely took the hyphen out and said I spelled the word wrong. A small but never ending situation with CNN!"

This, of course, being the perfect time to open a new front in the grammar wars.

</comment><comment><USER4> A hyphen is kind of like infix-parenthesis / (infix parenthesis) for grouping words together tighter than spaces.</comment>


The Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of 1986 [video] - brian-armstrong https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/562556/cleveland-balloonfest/?single_page=true <comment><AUTHOR> The thing that strikes me is how deep the pathos about Cleveland runs as the newscasters hype the event ("Cleveland is no longer the mistake by the lake!" as the balloons fly). And that everyone seemed so entirely sure that dumping a million balloons into the sky would somehow make everyone stop laughing at the city. And then of course they all landed in the lake anyway.

<comment><USER2> The "newscasters" are Big Chuck and Little John which were a local TV comedy duo (similar to Almost Live! in Seattle). Its probably one of the more Cleveland things to happen in Cleveland though.

Random aside - local shows like that are pretty sorely missing now.

<comment><USER3> Man, I miss those guys almost as much as Ghoulardi.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0742671/quotes](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0742671/quotes)

<comment><USER5> I almost forgot, fellow babies..."Booger!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Funny to see this on here. I believe Clemson and UGA actually started this trend.

In 1983 Clemson announced it was going to set the record with a release of 250,000 balloons. Georgia, being competitive announced that the next week it would release 300,000.

Both releases happened and after Georgia's attempt to steal the record, Clemson released official numbers that were about 360,000, allowing them to hold the balloon release record and making UGA's attempt to 1-up the release a wasted effort. Clemson and UGA was a big football rivalry at this point with both schools having won titles in 1981 and 1980 respectively, while being located only 90 miles apart.

Shortly afterward, Disney decided to take the record with a launch of 1 million balloons which I believe preceded this Cleveland event.

EDIT: Yep, Disney in 1985 release 1 million.

[https://www.ocregister.com/2015/12/02/mr-anaheim- remembering...](https://www.ocregister.com/2015/12/02/mr-anaheim-remembering- a-high-flying-anniversary-at-disneyland/)

<comment><USER7> I was at that Clemson game. It was unreal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Made me think of the doomed "10 cent beer night", another Cleveland event that suffered from unintended consequences:

[https://youtu.be/CFtR38Mlscc](https://youtu.be/CFtR38Mlscc)

<comment><USER9> That one is commemorated on a t-shirt I've seen locally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Semi-related - the YouTube clip in the article was linked to on a little subreddit called "Obscure Media", [https://www.reddit.com/r/ObscureMedia/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObscureMedia/)

A wide variety of stuff shows up there, some of which might be interesting to the HN crowd.

</comment><comment><USER11> >"No one is quite sure where they went, but at least they are no longer posing a threat to fish and wildlife and they are not littering the lake"

Victory for Cleveland!

</comment><comment><USER12> Nowadays, I can't look at any helium balloon release and not think it's littering. "Pretty" and out of sight, but still littering. You're throwing plastic into the nature and environment.

<comment><USER13> Not to mention the waste of an important non-renewable resource.

<comment><USER14> The helium used in balloons isn't actually useful for much of anything.

<comment><USER15> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Applications)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> There was no circumstance in which this could have gone "right".

</comment><comment><USER17> yes! Big Chuck and Little John:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chuck_and_Lil%27_John](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chuck_and_Lil%27_John)

I grew up in Akron in the 80s and loved watching them

</comment><comment><USER18> Here's another fun idea gone horribly wrong courtesy of Cleveland:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohvjLTZnH48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohvjLTZnH48)

<comment><USER19> Don't have the time to watch it now, could anyone quickly summarise in text form? Thanks!

<comment><USER20> 10 cent beer night at the ballgame. 8 innings of increasing shenanigans and then a riot broke out in the 9th inning. The refs called a forfeit and the Cleveland SWAT team had to be called.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not sure I'd want to fly a helicopter near that.

</comment><comment><USER22> Unrelated: I recently found out The Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/emerson...](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/emerson- collective-atlantic-coalition/535215/)

<comment><USER23> I didn't even know a person could own an entire ocean. I should get off the internet and start working on that first billion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> After this video, I finally got the joke involving Great Ohio Desert (artificial desert that was intended to be landmark of Ohio) from Wallace's 1987 "Broom of The System". Maybe it even inspired his idea with catapulting trash to Canada in his "Inifinte Jest".

</comment><comment><USER25> I wasn't aware of this. So they launched 1.5 million balloons to set a Guinness World Record only to have Guinness not recognize the record and have 60% of the balloons fall into the river and eventually make their way to Canada. Crazy times back then.

<comment><USER26> if this had happened today the president would have announced a 50% tariff on the Guiness Book of Records

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> YouTube direct link:

[https://youtu.be/n0CT8zrw6lw](https://youtu.be/n0CT8zrw6lw)

</comment><comment><USER28> More information is in this article from the 25th anniversary of the Balloonfest:

[http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/twenty- five_years_ag...](http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/twenty- five_years_ago_thousand.html)

</comment><comment><USER29> I wonder if this contributed to the "Don't Litter" movement in American culture. It looks like a lot of people had no concern for the aftermath or the environment.

In hindsight it seems people didn't think about the future as much... maybe this changed that.

</comment><comment><USER30> This was grossly negligent on so many levels, I find it hard to believe that was televised live with enthusiasm just 32 years ago.

</comment><comment><USER31> The weight of each uninflated plastic balloon is apparently 2.5g.

That's 3.75 tonnes of plastic they released into the environment.

</comment><comment><USER32> Should be renamed to litterfest

</comment><comment><USER26> > _most of the balloons ended up in Canada_

in these tense times, Prime Minister Trudeau should look back with an open heart to the days when a great American city gave the Canadian people thousands of free children's toys.

<comment><USER26> trying to figure out the downvotes here. was it the Cleveland thing? do people not think Cleveland is a great city?

<comment><USER33> Jokes are mostly not welcome here. It's possible to make a humorous remark that gets upvoted (or ignored), but the element of politics in this specific remark doesn't help. Politics is also mostly not welcome here and political humor is nigh impossible to do without being offensive to somebody.</comment></comment></comment>


Decoding the N.F.L. Database to Find 100 Missing Concussions - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/at-least-100-concussions-left-out-of-nfl-studies.html <comment><USER2> Far more important, and certainly not coincidental, is that the NFL employed some of the same lobbyists, lawyers, consultants as the tobacco industry.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/nfl- concus...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/nfl-concussion- research-tobacco.html)

<comment><USER3> And the same quack doctor (a Guadalajara-educated rheumatologist -- definitely not a neurologist) that ran these studies to hide the affects of CTE was the same asshole that was defending MLB's steroid policy during the early 2000's.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/sports/baseball/medical- ad...](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/sports/baseball/medical-adviser-for- baseball-lists-exaggerated-credentials.html)

What an amazing coincidence that the same guy happens to be an expert on both steroids and brain injuries when it benefits billion-dollar sports empires.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's the NFL's response to this new york times story:

[http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000647389/article/nfl-r...](http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000647389/article/nfl- response-to-new-york-times-concussion-research-story)

</comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone else find the timing of this and the NFL's recent surprise admission before Congress[0] interesting? I'm curious if they did that because they knew this story was coming out, undermining their science which produced uncertainty about the link.

[0] [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/sports/nfl-concussions- cte...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/sports/nfl-concussions-cte-football- jeff-miller.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> While unfortunate I don't find this that surprising (or even nefarious). Getting every doctor to consistently do something outside of their normal scope is probably pretty challenging. Sometimes things can slip.

As for the Dallas Cowboys, well, they clearly just couldn't be bothered.

<comment><USER7> And Dallas's owner, Jerry Jones, has stated that it's "absurd" to say there's a link between CTE and football.

[http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on- football/25527187/jerry-...](http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on- football/25527187/jerry-jones-its-absurd-to-say-theres-a-link-between-cte-and- football)

Was the absence of Dallas Cowboys data truly a mistake?

<comment><USER6> I originally had something a little more accusatory about the Cowboys before I edited it. In light of Jones' attitude, it seems likely that he obstructed it out of self-interest.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: SWAPI – A Star Wars API - <AUTHOR> http://swapi.co <comment><USER2> Check out the author's blog post where he explains his motivation: [http://phalt.co/if-you-have-data-they-will-consume-it/](http://phalt.co/if- you-have-data-they-will-consume-it/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there a reason you're not using numbers in the json output?

        "vehicle_id": "1"

is better represented as:

        "vehicle_id": 1

<comment><USER4> What if the integer exceeds the maximum allowed on 32 bit machines and you try to decode the JSON?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is mostly just a typo in the examples I put, but I will consider using only strings for this type of stuff, to avoid issues.

<comment><USER3> Given the dataset you have to serve, I don't think you'll be having any issues if most of the JSON parsers give you 32bit integers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can I use the API to figure out that, for instance, the x-wing is /vehicles/1 and Mustafar is /planets/7? Otherwise, how would I know?

<comment><AUTHOR> As well as ID, we'll do some fuzzy matching on the URLs as well, so

GET /api/vehicle/t-65-x-wing

and

GET /api/planets/mustafar

will also work

<comment><USER6> I think it would be nice to also provide an endpoint that lists all the resources as an array of objects where the key is the id and the value is the name. Maybe something like this:

      GET /resources/ships
      [
        { 1 : "Tantive IV" },
      ]

<comment><AUTHOR> So RESTfully, I think this is normal. You should be able to call a resource and then be fed back all of those resources (usually paginated to say, 20 per request).

It will have this style of lookup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was so excited and then equally let down when I realized it wasn't online and this is just a coming soon page. Oh well, I signed up.

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working on it, sorry!

<comment><USER6> No worries and thanks for building it. You may want to put the email capture above so it's more clear as I'm probably not the only one to copy pasta the url in the examples and be confused for a moment until scrolling to the bottom.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. I set the URL config to catch all URLs and redirect back to the home page (anticipating people would try the API).

Once things die down I'll push up an update. Getting a heavy bit of traffic right now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Any reason why this is an API and not a data dump?

<comment><USER8> You don't really want to have to download potentially gigabytes of data to find a few sets of results!

<comment><AUTHOR> Local caching will be the way to go.

All resources will have a "date_updated" or similar attribute which you can check against.

<comment><USER9> Ahh, if only HTTP had defined a standard header for checking if the requested content has been modified, and sending a specific status code if that's the case...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Not encouraging to see a basic error right on the front page: "From all _six_ Star Wars films"

Couldn't resist... ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Check the bottom of the page ;)

We'll have episode VII details as and when it gets released.

<comment><USER11> I'm pretty sure it was a jibe at the fact that only 3 real Star Wars live- action films were made.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, you didn't see the film_id & episode_id reference in the second example?

<comment><USER12> I feel like somewhere, somehow, a point is being missed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Signed up. This is going to be great for conference demos.

<comment><AUTHOR> :D My other API for Pokémon is also great for demos and teaching APIs - [http://pokeapi.co](http://pokeapi.co)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I Virtualized this API just for kicks - [https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/planets/...](https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/planets/7) and [https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/vehicles...](https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/vehicles/1)

Would love more details and I can make a Virtual Copy of the whole thing.

Built it here [https://vapi.ca.com](https://vapi.ca.com)

<comment><USER14> Added Films and People now [https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/films/6](https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/films/6) [https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/people/1](https://vapi.ca.com/vapi/api/Vapidemouser/Star_Wars/people/1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is amazing, all I need is a reason to mash [http://pokeapi.co](http://pokeapi.co) into this

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Mike, this is Paul, I am making this API too :D

<comment><USER15> Yeah I know, I'be even used PokeAPI at a hack before. It's MusicHackDay soon, I may have to use it again as a reference for poke chiptunes

<comment><AUTHOR> Please do :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hah! I'm in need of just this sort of API come January, what are the odds? Awesome, hope you launch soon!

<comment><AUTHOR> ETA is end of January :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Where are your getting the data?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good ol' scraping from websites like wookiepedia.

And watching lots and lots of Star Wars.

I have the blurays, so I should be in for a fun experience whilst collecting the nitty gritty data.

<comment><USER17> Do yourself a favor and get the Despecialized Edition.

[http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR- WARS-...](http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS- Despecialized-Edition-HD-V25-MKV-IS-OUT-NOW/topic/12713/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh that's a good point. Do I want my data to be consistent with the 1997 releases or the originals!?

<comment><USER18> If it's "All The Star Wars data [We]'ve Ever Wanted," then I want both. With tags telling me which data is 'original' and which changed in the '97 releases.

EDIT: And a donate button so I can reward you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Totally ridiculous, but awesome at the same time.

Make that API great!

Whats the backend?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey! Thanks. I made the Pokémon API as well - [http://pokeapi.co](http://pokeapi.co)

The backend on that is Django. I might stick with what I know, or build SWAPI in Go. At the moment, we're still very early stage, so we can choose soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Under which license is this data available?

<comment><AUTHOR> The data is being scraped from sources online and by watching the films about a thousand times.

As the data is already available freely elsewhere, I won't be charging or keeping the data, I'll provide it just like I do on [http://pokeapi.co](http://pokeapi.co)

<comment><USER21> Thank you for what you're doing, that's awesome! I'd like to enlighten why choosing a license is important.

Many people can be picky about the license, because even though you may be full of good intentions, the data you provide is non-free as-is in that it can't be reused elsewhere. Having a license is the clean, boring way to tell everyone "do whatever you want with this data".

That's even a problem for Github, or more precisely Github users, because many people push some code without any explicit license, making this code hardly usable by default: it may be available but you don't know if you have the right to reuse it, even if the developer said "yeah, use this as you want". That's not enough. Just because the developer didn't take a few minutes to select and put a LICENSE file.

It is also important to think about it in the other direction: If you're going to take content from Wookieepedia, their license is CC-BY-SA ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookieepedia:Copyrights](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookieepedia:Copyrights)), which means that you MUST say it comes (at least partially) from them (not that you wouldn't anyway) and that you MUST redistribute your content with a "similar" license. Even though you may think that everything is fine, there are some actions to do on this side.

Now, I'd understand that if only "amateurs" come and play with the data, we're all among good behaving adults and all is fine. But you may not be able to predict what will happen with how data is used, so unfortunately this step is important.

Personally I don't like restricting people, so I try to use CC0 as much as possible. Be aware that Creative Commons licenses may not be best suited for data (they were designed for work of art primarily), as can be seen by OSM's decision on the matter ([http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_Th...](http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_The_License)) so you may want to avoid them.

Note: I'm not even talking about money, which is an orthogonal problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Luke Sykwalker

<comment><AUTHOR> Good spot!</comment></comment>


Game changer: the Commodore 64 concert - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jul/23/game-changer-the-commodore-64-concert <comment><USER2> A recording is available on Youtube "for a limited time" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTc9mswxLLk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTc9mswxLLk)</comment>


Some Technical Clarifications About Do Not Track   - <AUTHOR> http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/harlanyu/some-technical-clarifications-about-do-not-track

<comment><USER2> Important clarifications, in particular highlighting that it's _not_ a do-not- track list.</comment>


A few things iOS developers ought to know about the ARM architecture - <AUTHOR> http://wanderingcoder.net/2010/07/19/ought-arm/

<comment><USER2> Key takeaways:

\- ARM is a little-endian, 32-bit RISC architecture widely used by mobile devices.

\- The original iPhone's core processor is ARM1176JZF-S (aka ARM11) which implements an instruction set called ARMv6.

\- iPhone 3GS and later models use the Cortex A8 processor core that implements ARMv7, a newer instruction set.

\- The so-called A4 processor is in fact a bundle of the Cortex A8 core and several other systems-on-a-chip components including the graphics accelerator and audio/video codecs.

\- To take advantage of ARMv7 features while supporting ARMv6, your code must be compiled for both targets and put into a fat binary.

\- When you debug optimized ARM code, remember that most ARM instructions can be conditionally executed -- the processor may go through a code block without actually running it.

\- Thumb is a compressed subset of ARM instructions. 16-bit thumb code is generally smaller but can not be freely mixed with 32-bit uncompressed ARM code.

\- Thumb for ARMv6 has a run-time overhead that makes it undesirable for high- performance apps; however, Thumb for ARMv7 has no such drawbacks and should be turned on by default.

\- iOS supports unaligned memory access, but it's slooooow. Don't use it.

\- Integer division on ARM is not natively supported. Surprise, surprise!

\- GCC sucks at optimizing ARM code, particularly weak at 64-bit integer arithmetic.

<comment><USER3> > \- ARM is a little-endian, 32-bit RISC architecture widely used by mobile > devices.

Gotta make a small note here: ARM is bi-endian (bytesexual, if you will); you can toggle the endianness from the lowest level. It just happens that iOS uses it as little endian. I seem to remember the baseband chip (which is also an ARM core, at least with the original iPhone -- never dealt with the others) being big endian, in fact.

Sadly, you can't do this on a per-process level, IIRC, like you can with PowerPC (a huuuuge perk for emulators).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> When I joined the iPhone dev team, about a week after the first iPhone came out, I came in as an experienced reverse-engineer on x86/PPC but had never touched ARM. Within a few weeks (after writing a dead simple decompiler, among other things), it became one of my favorite ISAs. Why? Conditional execution and free shifting.

They touch on conditional execution, but they don't really point out how amazing it is. It makes conditional math code, if nothing else, insanely simple and elegant, not to mention fast as hell.

As for the free shifts, I'm sort of amazed they aren't touched on in the article -- they make life very easy. In ARM, you can do a shift on the result of most instructions. E.g. you can do _add r0, r1, r2, LSL #4_ , which is equivalent to _r0 = (r1 + r2) << 4_. If you're commonly dealing with powers of two, this is an absolute godsend.

<comment><USER4> Ah, a kindred spirit, I too am an assembly/ISA buff. However, if you pay attention you'll notice that this article is precisely not for ISA buffs: as I've written, I wouldn't have mentioned conditional execution if not for the debugging side effect. It is aimed at ordinary iOS developers who may be carrying assumptions from desktop architectures and not realize some ARM specificities that may impact them; I titled it "[…]things iOS developers ought to know[…]", not "hey, did you know about that cool thing?". Hence why I didn't mention free shifting (and it's the second operand that can be shaf-- er, shifted, IIRC).</comment></comment>


How secure is your web browser? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nsslabs.com/tested-technologies/web-browser-security-wbs/ <comment><AUTHOR> Key takeaways: [https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/07/16/how-secure-is- you...](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/07/16/how-secure-is-your-web- browser/)</comment>


Reframing Sexting as a Positive Relationship Behavior [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/reframing-sexting.pdf

<comment><USER2> _" Leveraging a novel Internet platform (Amazon's Mechanical Turk) to recruit heterosexual adults" ..._

This is another one of those low-end studies where somebody put a psych questionnaire on Mechanical Turk because it was easy. The joke in psych used to be that psychology was the study of grad students, because they were easily available for study and so many studies used them. Now it's people who have free time and few skills trying to make money on Mechanical Turk.

<comment><USER3> The joke I've heard is that college freshman are the best-studied demographic in America.

<comment><USER4> It's more than just a joke. UBC Researchers made a bit of a splash a while back meta-studying the studies of "WEIRD" people ([http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/Weird_People_BBS_fina...](http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/Weird_People_BBS_final02.pdf)).

> Broad claims about human psychology and behavior based on narrow samples > from Western societies are regularly published. Are such > species‐generalizing claims justified? This review suggests not only > substantial variability in experimental results across populations in basic > domains, but that standard subjects are unusual compared with the rest of > the species— outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, > fairness, spatial reasoning, moral reasoning, thinking‐styles, and self ‐ > concepts. This suggests (1) caution in addressing questions of human nature > from this slice of humanity, and (2) that understanding human psychology > will require broader subject pools. We close by proposing ways to address > these challenges.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Willingness to sext (and candor to discuss it) is probably just standing in for open and positive views on sex, and/or the presence of a vigorous and passionate sex life.

Although I appreciate the evidence that the sexting isn't _harmful_ to relationships, I think this study is basically stating "People with healthy sexual relationships often have healthy overall relationships. (p = Duh.)"

<comment><USER6> > __ _" Willingness to sext (and candor to discuss it) is probably just > standing in for open and positive views on sex, and/or the presence of a > vigorous and passionate sex life."_ __

Totally!

Candidly; I sext a LOT. It ___IS_ __a skill such as foreplay... I only mesh well with others who have the same propensity for sexting. Also - I am 40, and those with whom I sext are in my age range + /-5 years...

It is not a young thing by any means. It is also not a new thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Misleading? Satisfaction is correlated with sexting, in some demographics. Nothing about relationship quality but that.

<comment><USER8> What's misleading?

<comment><USER7> "Positive relationship behavior". They only showed an increase in one partner's satisfaction. E.g. perhaps cheating could have caused their satisfaction to increase - would cheating then be a "Positive relationship behavior"?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wait, sexting isn't considered a positive relationship behaviour?

(Edit: Assuming all parties involved are consenting adults.)

<comment><USER10> I know a number of folks who think sexting is:

A) Weird

B) Perverted

C) A good way to have your sex life plastered over the internet.

D) A good way for the NSA and cell phone provider to know all about your sex life.

<comment><USER9> A) Purely subjective opinion. Actually a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in Sept 2014 (IIRC), sought to define what true sexual deviation was. The results found that many things considered sexual deviations in popular culture are actually not that un-common in reality.

B) See A. You say this like it's a bad thing.

C) The fact that this is true doesn't make it good or bad. One person's nightmare, is another's acceptable risk, is another's pleasure.

D) See C. As a side note: If the NSA spends countless dollars cataloging private citizens sexual interests rather than protecting United States security, then there are much much larger issues to worry about. (And frankly, there probably are)

Edited to fix typos and spelling issues.

<comment><USER10> I didn't say it was my opinion, so not sure why you are trying for a rebuttal.

But as long as a significant number of people feel that way, it has a social impact.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Notify.me closing shop - Oct 4th - <AUTHOR> http://blog.notify.me/post/10800212423/notify-me-closing-shop-oct-4th

<comment><AUTHOR> I have been using notify.me for year, it notifies me new hackernews items, what a pity to say farewell to it...</comment>


Landing Page Best Practices: the definitive guide (with infographics) - <AUTHOR> http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/landing-page-best-practices/

<comment><USER2> Granted, this one did provide some original content - but all these _Ultimate Landing Page_ articles simply seem to re-hash the same information in a link- baity ( _with infographics!_ ) way.

Perhaps its just a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that they all originate from SEO/analytics company blogs, and recycle this chart [http://www.formstack.com/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-landing- pa...](http://www.formstack.com/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-landing-page)

<comment><AUTHOR> It has a ton of original content. Oli (from Unbounce) is considered one of the experts on landing pages and he talks a lot about them in this interview.

I included info-graphics in it because they help get the point across, plus they keep distracted reader interested in the content (who first scans the page if all he sees is text would probably run away)

<comment><USER2> Yes, but the _infographics_ (term used loosely) add nothing to the article. The article doesn't mention them, or give them any context. At best they are large semi-related graphics re-purposed from other sites whose only purpose is to separate large chunks of text.

This type of visual noise is actually more distracting than not providing an images at all. In my opinion, you would be better to provide images that provide visual context, and illustrate or support his answers.

For instance, in the "Opinion on Landing Pages" section you could provide a screencap of a well designed Full Sail or Webtrends landing page (perhaps with a caption or pull quote of what makes them well designed).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, agreed that a screencap of Full Sail or Webtrends landing page could have added a lot of value. Great point.

Also agree that infographics aren't directly relevant to the interview but they definitely are contextually relevant.

<comment><USER2> Relevant in the overall big picture of landing pages perhaps, but not to the blog post at hand. That's what "Related Posts" sections are for. If you spend the time to get original content, then you should not be afraid to showcase it.

If you want break up large sections, use visual cues to break up content. Since you mentioned Unbounce, see these[1][2] as inspiration. Note the use of font size and weight, lists, whitespace and images that are directly related to the copy.

If you want more feedback, my email is in my profile.

[1][http://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/your-landing- page-...](http://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/your-landing-page-sucks/) [2][http://unbounce.com/landing-page-optimization/marketing- fail...](http://unbounce.com/landing-page-optimization/marketing- fail-7-newbie-landing-page-mistakes/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> We had a few landing page articles on hacker news lately. But this one gives a much greater background to the concept of landing pages and what else goes with it.

Been holding off on designing a real landing page for my side project <http://www.virtualrockstars.com> and generating signups therefor has been costing me a much higher price.

Will compare the difference next month after launching with an optimized landing page experience. Might blog and share my experience...if anyone is interested.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been enjoying the uptick of landing page and testing posts, even if if there has been some overlap.

I'm a big fan of testing but regularly encounter a problem: not enough traffic.

I've sold clients on the idea, only to have the tool say it'll need until the year 2055 to hit any sort of confidence level. (With PPC you can obviously spend more to get more visitors.)

Is A/B/MV testing useless for sites with <1K uniques a day? I'm curious if any of you have thoughts. I could sell VWO all day long if I could get around this issue.

<comment><AUTHOR> <1K uniques should be enough traffic to get decent results (as long as b <1K you don't mean 10 or 20 visits a day). You can get in touch me with at paras @ wingify if you want to discuss it further.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm not paid to say this but I highly recommend Unbounce for landing page creation -- simply a fan of that service. It is available in this month's free Appsumo bundle <http://appsumo.com/hacker-monthly/>

(Visual Website Optimizer is also in the bundle -- and we've got a nice plugin for Unbounce!)

<comment><USER5> It's a good offer if you want those things, but note that the bundle is bunch of free[1] _coupons_ , not free products - that is, you'll still have to spend money to get the benefits. (E.g. you get a free upgrade from a $25 to a $125 plan.)

[1] Where "free" means "in exchange for spamming your Twitter/Facebook friends".

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh yes, didn't notice that. We offered VWO 3 month custom-plan for free, so assumed all services on the bundle are free. But great that you mentioned it here. (I now notice that only Visual Website Optimizer and KISSMetrics are completely free. Rest require some kind of purchase)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am always impressed by the high quality of your blog posts, Paras. Keep it up mate.

<comment><USER7> I'm with you on that, too!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> How are any of these Infographics?

They're three Information Architecture workflow diagrams.

People who bandy the term Infographic around in this manner might as well just use "graphic" or "diagram".

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there a generally well-accepted definition of infographics / information architecture?

<comment><USER9> "infographics" display statistics in a meaningful and visually attractive way.

<comment><USER10> The term infographic has surely evolved though... It is essentially a graphic designed to communicate a topic/concept using visuals instead of words.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Mobile Chat Groups for Whatsapp and Telegram - <AUTHOR>

I don't know how many of you remember SlackChats - a place to find Slack groups, which is now known as http://www.chitchats.co. I made this after being inspired by that site.
A ton of people use Whatsapp and Telegram groups so you may find it useful to have a kind of Yellowpages for groups, to be able to find them online. The idea is to make it easy to find and connect with people that share your interests.
Any and all feedback welcome.
The link is: http://mobilechatgroups.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Link for the lazy: [http://mobilechatgroups.com/](http://mobilechatgroups.com/)

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the linkage

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice idea. It's a shame that the integration is manual. Even WhatsApp web is missing some of the group admin features. Perhaps you could generated a vCard (maybe in a QR code) to make adding contacts easier.

I've only used the whatsapp://send?text= URI API before (for [https://instabail.uk](https://instabail.uk)) but it would be great if they allowed URIs to groups too.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a really awesome idea! congratulations! I was thinking on this but didn't know how make it happen.

Just create the group I always have in mind: [http://www.mobilechatgroups.com/groups/28/late-night- develop...](http://www.mobilechatgroups.com/groups/28/late-night-developers)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the love :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Works great, registration and group join are straightforward.

Looking for some more explore/discovery features (especially location based).

</comment><comment><USER5> You should remove type="number" in phone number input field in order to allow '+'

<comment><AUTHOR> Was struggling with that one. I was getting issues with a prefixed +. Will look into it. 00 is the equivalent of + in phone numbers BTW.

<comment><USER6> That depends on where you live:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_call_pre...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_call_prefixes)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh wow. TIL. I'll definitely have to look into this tonight then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can only login with Twitter? Websites that only have OAuth login are a bit annoying but usually have 1 - 4 different options so I usually have an available account.

Only having login with twitter is preventing me from listing a group and probably a few others as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah I can understand the frustration. Reason for Twitter is identity credibility. I would have added FB as well but this was churned out quite quickly.

<comment><USER7> Twitter is just as bad at identity credibility as having your own user accounts I would of thought. There are numerous accounts on Twitter with unidentifiable entities?

<comment><AUTHOR> For egg accounts, sure, but for anyone with > 1,000 tweets, a real photo and > 500 followers, the level of credibility should suffice for most people. What providers would you add in?

<comment><USER7> Right, so the users can figure out if the user is credible and you don't do it yourself, got a bit confused there.

If users want people to join their groups then they would add their verification regardless, eg register on the site and then in some bio I could add my SO, github etc...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I always wanted these sort of services in India. But can't find one. Nice idea by the way.

</comment><comment><USER9> Any plans on adding search functionality, tagging, or categorization?

<comment><AUTHOR> Search is in there, but we'll consider improving it. Tagging not so much, but I did consider categorization last night. Possibly something like Product Hunt lists i.e HN category with groups like HN NYC, HN SF, HN Japan etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks like a great idea, haven't tried yet but if I join a whatsapp group will my number be shared with everyone in that group?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey there! Thanks. No it will only be visible to the creator so that they can add you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is there a way to list all groups?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not currently, the front page will list up to 30. It's quite new so that limit hasn't been reached yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I keep getting error when trying to logon. Standard rails error.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is basically IRC for IM platforms, such as Whatsapp.

But I like the idea.

<comment><USER14> If IRC required two separate accounts and ran on proprietary services.</comment></comment>


Are we Y combinator material? - <AUTHOR> I was wondering, are we Y combinator material? Or perhaps we are too young sill?
We are disrupting the unfair higher education application process with our Google of "University Searches" and our natural language generation engine - we use software to help qualified foreign students get into western universities. We're successful with about 100 paying clients who, on average paid us $800 each. On top of this they all made it into great universities and in total received 1.6 million dollars in scholarships and other funding.
So we are ramen profitable and we are changing the world. On top of this me and my co-founder quit our jobs last year to work on this project full time.
Anyway, do you think we should apply? We have seen that some of the appliants had far more success then us when they applied. If anyone thinks that we should apply, are you intrested in looking over our application? <comment><USER2> 1\. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so I would apply. 2\. If you sell like a madman you might turn ramen into champagne. 3\. Be fearless, your competitors are!

<comment><AUTHOR> Beautiful written.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Historically, YC accepts companies further along than what is described and less far along than what is described and with better ideas for a business and worse ideas for a business.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Inspiring.</comment></comment>


We all think our jobs are safe from automation - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610067/we-all-think-our-jobs-are-safe-from-automation/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2018-01-25&utm_campaign=Technology+Review <comment><USER2> I must be one heck of a cynic then. Working in the electronics industry I see EDA tools doing more and more. When it comes to software developers try to automate a lot work if they can. Heck just think of build scripts. We are now using neural networks to build a model for algorithms we don't even know how to code.

So far these all still involve a person operating them. However, what if things get good enough that you don't need massive teams of people as before? There are so many things that can be automated. There is no way the thought of being safe from automation applies to 94% of people. Just shows how naive/deluded we can be as people. If this poll's sample represents the average population's view on the topic we are in for a rude awakening. If that is the case it would seem majority of us are just coasting along in la-la land instead of being aware.

<comment><USER3> Idris' codegen comes to mind... just write the types and automation will write most of the code for you.

<comment><USER4> That doesn't fundamentally change anything, though. It just puts the code that matters in the types. Just like macros, or procedures, or assembly; it only changes how a program is specified. It does not automate away the ability to transform fuzzy business requirements into deterministic logic by describing a way to achieve them in a formal language, i.e. "programming".

<comment><USER3> It is a new layer of abstraction. A new "secret weapon": [http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It is not without irony that AI is going to replace the radiologist before the cleaning lady. First field of expertise requires specialized knowledge (which AI is great at) latter requires general intelligence (which requires Artificial general intelligence and is much harder)

<comment><USER6> Well, Roombas do exist...

<comment><AUTHOR> They don't clean walls. Or toilets.

<comment><USER7> Or corners and stairs

<comment><USER8> Or floors full of toys.

<comment><USER9> Or dog poo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As a data scientist, I have the lingering fears of job automation. At least for applications-oriented work (as opposed to research). There's no reason Auto ML software couldn't take away most of the difficulty of model building in simpler scenarios. I mean, the software is already here. Just not widely used. And as computing power increases, no reason they can't tackle more of the complex problems where you might need to call in an expert. Feature generation based on the context of the industry, etc. Translation of findings into business-understandable language. One new algorithm or software package can automate much of what a data scientist might do. I mean, the unofficial slogan for some of the data science positions I've found were to "automate myself out of a job."

That's why, although I LOVE what I do, part of me thinks I need to make sure I'm in a position to move into management at some point - because I see a lot less ability for automation in areas that require "people" skills over the next few decades. On the other hand, I LOVE what I do. What's that French phrase? C'est la vie? I think it translates into "you're screwed, one way or another."

<comment><USER11> Machine Learning today is where web-development was twenty years ago. As more tools become available, everybody will be able to do it.

<comment><USER12> I feel general ML is already extremely accesible. There are tons of frameworks that trivialize impleneting various types of classifiers. I am actually surprized it's not more popular. I think the only thing left is to make GPU processing more available or find a cheap alternative to expensive Titan cards (maybe Google's NPUs?) and not really a requirement but abstracting away some of the configuration parameters could help the general population that doesn't know or care about the math behind.

I can already see a future, a dark future, where pre-trained models on pictures of people are sold on darkweb and you can just plug the model and hook it up to some live cam in your area and stalk anyone. This is almost if not already possible today and I can't imagine Facebook not already having something caple of this.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd really love to see some GPU-like capacity integrated into the main CPU ISA so one could be certain to find those instructions and cores as you can be sure you'll find AVX.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Another reason to strive for financial independence ASAP.

I have to wonder though: if >50% of people currently employed lose their jobs to automation... who will be there to fuel the consumerist economy? Who will buy ads on Facebook and Google that peddle widgets and services for which there no more consumers with disposable income to market them to?

<comment><USER14> If every single job was automated... What do you think would happen?

Ideally nobody has to work and everything you'd ever want is free.

<comment><USER15> > Ideally nobody has to work and everything you'd ever want is free.

but in reality, people who don't have investments in the automation will just starve and die, while people who _do_ have such investments reap many rewards.

<comment><USER16> I think that, given the historical evidence (specifically the french revolution being driven by the price of bread), it's more likely that there will be mass unrest and those who own the robots may get executed to cheers of those whose jobs have been automated.

<comment><USER17> And, again judging by the French revolution (and the Russian, and numerous others), an elite subset of the revolutionaries will seize control of the robots, and the situation will return pretty much to _status quo ante_ , except for the identity of the owner of the boot stomping the average guy in the face, and their philosophical justification for their exalted position.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is anyone out there working to automate middle management?

<comment><USER11> If you use the Dilbert comic for training data, I suppose you could get pretty far.

In fact, turns out Scott Adams wrote a post on the topic: [1]

> ... My prediction that robots will dominate management before they dominate > blue collar jobs is based on The Dilbert Principle which observes that the > least skilled employees are promoted to management. You need your most > skilled people doing interface design, engineering, and the hard stuff. > Management is mostly about optimizing resource allocation, and that is > something a robot can learn relatively easily, at least compared to most > skilled jobs.

> You might wonder if a robot can have enough leadership qualities to be a > manager. I would point out that most humans in management have zero > leadership skills, so the bar isn't set high ...

[1] [http://blog.dilbert.com/2012/12/19/the-future-of-middle- mana...](http://blog.dilbert.com/2012/12/19/the-future-of-middle-management/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> There is a particular slide in this talk I gave which was mindblowing - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEnFBHqHJT8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEnFBHqHJT8)

Slide 58 to be exact - [https://www.slideshare.net/mintek/future-of- engineering-and-...](https://www.slideshare.net/mintek/future-of-engineering- and-disruption-in-maintenance-81522488)

Between 2015 and 2022 most of the industries on the list are expected to go from a 5-10% automation rate to a 60-90% automation rate.

<comment> Joe-Z slide 55 only says "50 billion machines will be connected on the internet by 2020"

<comment><USER19> Doh, slide 58.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I work in digital marketing and really think my job will go in the next 10 years due to automation (if not in the next 5 years).

I'm trying to stay a step ahead and work "above the algorithm" \- learning skills that will always be needed and can't be automated (creativity, team management, translating analytics into actionable insight).

It's difficult to tell how quickly the need to adapt is and the best way to adapt to automation.

<comment><USER21> I've been thinking of getting into the field, so this is very interesting. Can you please explain a bit about how do you see digital marketing becoming automated ?

<comment><USER22> I'm guessing when they have your inputs and outputs matched in a hypercubed skinnerbox, "marketing" would seem as quaint as "alchemy" of yore.

(If that is not clear enough - a scientific way to extract all your available economic margin by ways of manipulating you. Of course in a race with competitors to the bottom, knifing each other with the same algorithms. I should write a dystopic scifi book.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't think my job is safe from automation, and I'm an automation engineer :)

</comment><comment><USER24> Outsourcing is a greater threat for software engineers. Why pay wages that reflect the costs of living of a city with first-world standards when you can just pick anyone in the world?

</comment><comment><USER25> Some developer communities are very active in securing their employment by convincing the managerial tier that their yak shaving is essential work.

</comment><comment><USER26> The problem is not that your job will be automated, the problem is that it will happen too fast and people will not have time to adapt. The disrupt mantra for startups can generate lots of money with the side effect that it hurts people's lives. If the changes comes slowly, across one generation, then people do not suffer because they already retired.

<comment><USER27> "too fast and people will not have enough time to adapt"

Thing is, this has been the case for at least 200 years, dating from the Luddites. Quoting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite) , "Luddites feared that the time spent learning the skills of their craft would go to waste as machines would replace their role in the industry. ... The Luddites were not afraid of technology and did not attempt to eliminate technology out of fear. Their goal was instead to gain a better bargaining position with their employers."

(As a reminder, "It is a misconception that the Luddites protested against the machinery itself in an attempt to halt the progress of technology.")

Or Phil Ochs "Automation Song" from 1964, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbSTnuXv_3Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbSTnuXv_3Y)

      Now you've got new machines for to take my place
      And you tell me it's not mine to share.

Both of those point out that the advantages of automation go to a subset of the people - capitalists, in Marxist terms. But that doesn't have to be the case.

A strong labor union, or a more socialist form of government interested in supporting labor and workers, could help reduce the hurt of disruption, either by effective trade negotiations or higher taxes on those profiting from automation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The less your job requires understanding advanced ML concepts, the more likely you won't comprehend what it's capable of or where the technology is going.

That's why your average dishwasher is blissfully unaware of what's coming for a job function that's relatively simple while computer programmers may be similarly optimistic - but for good reason.

</comment><comment><USER8> Over a long enough timeframe everything will potentially be automatable. The only timeframe I care about though is the one between me and retirement. For now I am quite safe no automaton can manage to deal with my daily nightmare without pulling its own plug.</comment>


The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It's Coming Soon - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/17/thegoogle-phone/

<comment><USER2> One possibility is that Google is thinking really outside the box.

They have Google Voice and have recently purchased Gizmo5. In addition they have been really working towards providing free Wifi access in various hotspots and have been fighting for wireless spectrum.

It may be wishful thinking, especially since I'm not a wireless phone technology expert, but can Google be setting the stage for a pure VOIP Wifi phone which completely bypasses Telcos and can this Google phone be just that?

<comment><USER3> In my dreams, yes, but you're going to have serious problems with that implementation. Think about your cell phone in your car on a plane, etc.

<comment><USER4> In the UK 3* already have a dedicated Skype-over-Wifi handset, I believe it wasn't terribly successful.

*3 is the name of a mobile telco in the UK.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It will be interesting to see how this turns out. On one hand we have Mike Arrington who is wrong quite a bit. On the other we have the VP of Android Engineering directly stating that Google isn't making a device and won't compete with their customers. If I were a betting man I'd say Mike's going to eat it.

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10387677-265.html>

<comment><USER6> My personal guess is that Arrington's source heard about a real project, but it's actually just another Android Developer Phone, not a consumer product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> As I said last time these rumors came up, I _really_ don't think this story is accurate.

Nobody in the US wants to buy a $500+ phone at retail when they can buy a $150 Droid or a $50 G1 with a new plan. After all, you're going to have to pay the same monthly fee either way.

Not to mention the fact that it's basically impossible to have one phone that will get 3G on all US carriers (even supporting just two at once would be difficult and expensive). If it only works on one carrier, how is it any different from the Droid?

<comment><USER8> _Nobody in the US wants to buy a $500+ phone at retail when they can buy a $150 Droid or a $50 G1 with a new plan. After all, you're going to have to pay the same monthly fee either way._

t-mobile would disagree with you. they just announced new plans a few weeks ago that are contract-free, cost less per month (since you are not paying for the subsidized cost of a phone), and allow you to bring your own phone or buy theirs for the total upfront cost.

i am using an iphone on t-mobile and just switched to one of these plans. i got locked into a 1-year contact by buying the mytouch 3g when it came out, but once the contract is up, i'll be contract-free and paying less per month than i would on their normal plan.

<comment><USER7> What do you gain by paying more upfront for a phone that you can't really take anywhere else anyway? Sure, your iPhone will work on T-Mobile... but not with 3G.

<comment><USER8> you are paying the same amount for the phone regardless. you're either paying for it all upfront or spreading it out by paying an extra $10 every month for the duration of the contract.

with the new plans, you can buy their phone upfront and then sell it on ebay/craigslist and move to another provider without worrying about breaking a contract, or you can just bring your own phone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My unscientific prediction: Andoid has only a few months to catch up to iPhone by June 2010, when the exclusivity deal with AT&T ends. This is not nearly enough.

<comment><USER10> _A_ T and T is not really a concern in most of the world, so at best that concerns the US market, which has been, until the iPhone, a bit of a backwater in terms of mobile phone stuff.

I see Apple conquering a nice share of the market, maybe even larger than anyone else, but still well under 50%. If everyone has one, they lose their cachet. Also, Android will probably never be quite as beautiful, but if you combine 'good enough' with a far more open system, and a platform that people can innovate on, I think that, long term, it will do quite well.

I sure hope so; I'm simply not interested in owning devices that I can't load my own code on, and that also require the ownership of a Mac just to develop on.

<comment><USER9> _I'm simply not interested in owning devices that I can't load my own code on_

The average consumer doesn't care about this.

<comment><USER10> Good for them, I was talking about myself in that phrase, which is why I prefaced it with "I sure hope so".

I do think that open tends to win out over closed, though, with time, because the advantages for developers and businesses translate into advantages for everyone.

<comment><USER11> I agree that advantages for developers and businesses are key to success in the long term, for any platform.

But I don't agree that openness of the platform is _necessarily_ the exclusive nor primary way of doing that — it's just _a_ way of doing that.

Right now, Apple's platform is clearly offering key advantages to developers and businesses, in spite of not offering a very open platform.

Personally, I hope both Google, RIM and Palm manage to catch up in this department. Strong competition between these vendors should offer plenty of incentives for them to improve their own platforms.

Apple certainly seem to need a bit of extra motivation to improve the train- wreck that is the AppStore approval process — right now I think their success is blinding their ability to see many of their flaws.

<comment><USER10> > Right now, Apple's platform is clearly offering key advantages to developers > and businesses, in spite of not offering a very open platform.

It absolutely blew the competition out of the water, so yeah, that's what the 'key advantages' are. Everyone had been muddling along with their fiddly Nokia interfaces, which aren't _bad_ , but nowhere near as nice or cool as the iPhone.

However, Android looks to be 'good enough' in terms of competition, much like Windows was 'good enough' when competing with the Mac, and much more open in terms of what it ran on. The big open question for me about Android is fragmentation. With j2me staring them in the face, it's something they _have_ to be thinking about a great deal, and I'd really love to know what they actually think about it.

In any case, between a closed, proprietary platform and an open source one, I know where my own loyalties lie. There is tons of work in this field, and I will simply not bother with mobile if it ends up being 'owned' by Apple.

<comment><USER11> I'm not talking about the interface of the device, I'm talking about the _complete picture_ of developing mobile apps — Apple's offering, while flawed, is a huge step up from the state of mobile development prior to the iPhone.

<comment><USER10> I think that:

* The app store is a good idea and a win for developers.

* The tools/environment suck. I don't use a Mac and I do not want to. Java ME lets me use Linux, Mac or Windows. Same with Android.

* The hoop jumping sucks. Reading about all the hoops just to get something on your own phone makes it look unpleasant.

* The single platform does make things easier, but that has some costs for consumers who don't get as much freedom as with, say, Nokia (who have way too _many_ offerings, but that's another post, another time).

So, they've had a few good ideas, but on the whole I don't think it's revolutionary. I think the hardware/software themselves are what was really the great leap forward.

<comment><USER11> If their offering to mobile app developers _isn't_ revolutionary, why _is_ the number and quality of apps revolutionary?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > There won't be any negotiation or compromise over the phone's design of > features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the > Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, > this phone will be Google's pure vision of what a phone should be.

Excuse me, but how exactly will releasing _another_ Android phone _reduce_ splintering of the platform? That doesn't make sense at all.

<comment><USER13> It could become the defacto standard for Android devices. Mostly screen resolution & a baseline CPU/memory expectation for developers to target. This could reduce splintering by simply making Android a far less attractive option for use outside of the ARM mobile phone platform. Ultimately I think this is Google's goal. They want to keep Android a mobile phone OS and position Chrome OS for netbooks, tablets, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> How will it work on a carrier's 3G network? My understanding was that even most tri-band GSM phones have a custom chip from the carrier in order to work on their particular 3G network. Is that incorrect? If not, how will a phone _not_ tied to a carrier work on, say, T-mobile 3G?

<comment><USER15> There are two things to consider 1) SIM lock that ties a phone to a particular carrier. A Google phone wouldn't have a SIM lock unless it were subsidized by a particular carrier. 2) GSM bands. The phone could be quad-band GSM and work on any 3G network. Some recent GSM handsets omit one of the four bands to prevent roaming inside the US between T-Mob and AT&T.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> GSM or CDMA?

<comment><USER10> I really hope it's GSM... I'm starting to weigh my options in terms of unlocked Android device to develop with.

<comment><USER17> If you buy a phone from T-Mobile (GSM), they will gladly unlock the device for you if you tell them that you will be traveling with the phone to Europe. Alternatively, you can purchase either the ADP1 or ADP2 phones directly from Google already unlocked.</comment></comment></comment>


Omnidrive: Officially Cooked? - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/omnidrive_officially_cooked.php

<comment><USER2> A perspective on the downfall of Omnidrive by one of their angel investors: [http://www.gooruze.com/members/claycook/blog/119381/My- exper...](http://www.gooruze.com/members/claycook/blog/119381/My-experience- investing-in-Nik-Cubrilovic-and-Omnidrive/)

Rather ugly how this turned out.

</comment><comment><USER3> So I wonder if the customers managed to extract their data before the company vanished?

I've suddenly realized why they call it "cloud computing": At any moment, it can evaporate without a trace and leave you high and dry.

</comment><comment><USER4> Wasn't Michael Arrington an investor in this startup? Seems kind of odd that this wasn't deadpool news that he likes to cover.</comment>


US Seizes $25M of Aluminum Linked to Chinese Billionaire - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-seizes-25-million-worth-of-aluminum-linked-to-chinese-billionaire-1484303409 <comment><USER2> (same story, less paywall) [https://agmetalminer.com/2017/01/13/part-of- aluminum-stockpi...](https://agmetalminer.com/2017/01/13/part-of-aluminum- stockpile-seized-us-opens-wto-case-against-chinese-aluminum/)

Context: there is all manner of strange stuff going on in the aluminium market, especially in relation to futures and warehousing.

e.g. [https://www.fastmarkets.com/base-metals- news/aluminium/timel...](https://www.fastmarkets.com/base-metals- news/aluminium/timeline-whats-happened-to-lme-warehouses-since-bazooka-was- loaded-112210/)

[https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2011/05/18/572046/please- wait-10...](https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2011/05/18/572046/please- wait-10-months-for-your-aluminium-thank-you/)

[https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/01/16/1744342/an- aluminium-...](https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/01/16/1744342/an-aluminium- supernova-which-the-lme-never-saw-coming/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Can we add a unit to the title here on HN? The only reason I clicked through was to see what unit the 25M was in. 25 million grams? 25 million milligrams? 25 million rupees?

(it's $25 million USD)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for saving me a click. I was going to go with 25 million moles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> web link don't work. [Here's another]([http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us- seizes-25-million-worth-...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us- seizes-25-million-worth-of-aluminum-linked-to-chinese- billionaire-2017-01-13-101032922))

</comment><comment><USER6> [meta]

web link has stopped getting me around the paywall. Isn't it against HN policy to link to sites with paywalls?

<comment><USER7> I don't think so. The guidelines don't say anything about paywalls. WSJ and WaPo are linked to all the time.

Now is it bad form, maybe...

<comment><USER8> "Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds." \- FAQ

<comment><USER7> My fault. I went and skimmed at the guidelines before I responded. I must have missed that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In"

More & more sites are doing this. Its such a crappy experience.

<comment><USER10> Losing money and laying off workers is a crappy experience for the media. I like my free high quality news as much as the next guy but the current system of free riding isn't working. Can't blame them for trying.

<comment><USER11> Where are you finding high quality news? In my experience, that comes from the places without a financial incentive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If anyone can actually get to the article, would you mind pasting it here, please?

</comment><comment><USER13> What kind of warehouse do you need for 25M or aluminium?

<comment><USER14> Its a factory yard - just acres of dirt surrounded by a fence.</comment></comment>


Typing the technical interview - <AUTHOR> https://aphyr.com/posts/342-typing-the-technical-interview <comment><USER3> The previous two of these were also great:

[https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical- intervie...](https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-interview)

[https://aphyr.com/posts/341-hexing-the-technical- interview](https://aphyr.com/posts/341-hexing-the-technical-interview)

</comment><comment><USER3>
       "You're… defining the natural numbers by hand? Why?"

       "Haskell is for mathematicians," you explain. "We always define our terms."

That's just beautiful

</comment><comment><USER4> How.. beautiful.

Like I said earlier in the "half-dead chicken thread", the occult is a quiet and powerful force in computer science and related areas. With things like neural networks and learning functions, we're approaching the ultimate.

In this case, it was only a handful of lines of a functional language that could solve the N-Queens problem.. Of course, mixed with a bit of Lovecraftian lore and Norse magic.

It's only a careful look beneath the stolid atheism and antitheism that the tech community likes to front.. All is not as it appears just beneath the digital waves, is it?

<comment><USER5> I always like to kindly remind people that sufficiently-advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

<comment><USER6> My favourite casting of this is 'any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced'.

<comment><USER7> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is insufficiently documented."

[I think I coined this one, back in the day. But I was probably preceded by someone even more damaged]

<comment><USER8> And then we come full circle back to heavy wizardry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(programming)#Variants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_\(programming\)#Variants)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is awesome. I didn't even really see what was happening until it was too late.

If you enjoyed that you might enjoy the structure of the proof of the complexity of type inference for \\-calculus: [http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~mairson/Papers/jfp02.pdf](http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~mairson/Papers/jfp02.pdf) . They construct arbitrary boolean circuits from simple types and evaluate the circuits through type checking.

<comment><USER10> Not sure if you noticed but your username fits the mythological setting :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So where can I buy my "Summon a linked list from the void" T-shirt?

<comment><USER12> It's like the HN generation's "I put on my robe and wizard hat"

</comment></comment><comment><USER13>
        You smile kindly. "Haskell is a dynamically-typed, interpreted language."

_Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!_

</comment><comment><USER14> > Summon a linked list from the void. It floats to the surface of the screen: > a timeless structure, expressed a thousand ways, but always beautiful.

Coincidentally, I had Bach's E minor organ sonata on in the background, so...

> You sigh contentedly.

I did, I started smiling from ear as soon as I read the now-classic "Summon a ______ from the void". :)

Also, TIL: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei%C3%B0r](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei%C3%B0r)

</comment><comment><USER15> Nope.

This is a polemic against people who don't know Haskell. Previous iterations were the same except Clojure/Lisp.

Aphyr/Kyle is a genius, and one of my favorite people on the internet. But this series is the WRONG way to attack the code interview, which deserves to be attacked, BUT.

Some of us face real challenges about how to find common ground with interviewees. Because you know you're smarter than those questions is not a reason to discount them.

I will sacrifice ALL my HN points to say this is bullshit. Bullshit written in decent prose, but still bullshit.

<comment><USER14> I doubt Aphyr/Kyle is one of those people who would know how to simultaneously rotate five binary trees using only one pointer off the top of his head (or whatever). The point of this series isn't that it's an attack on people who aren't comfortable with Haskell type magic (or the extremes of Lisp or JVM classloader-fu): whatever made you think that?

Now if you mean that making fun of the coding interview itself is wrong because there exist people who either interview people for a living or people who are job-hunting right now, and this makes light of their troubles, well, that's different. I disagree, but it's still more sensible than "lol you dont know Haskal, nub".

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> "One queen per row, in every legal position, for every configuration. You imagine what their startup's about-us page would look like."

the coups de grâce!!!

</comment><comment><USER17> > Seize two meaningless constants from the void, and imbue them with meaning.

Holy shit

<comment><USER18> This is, literally, math.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> For the N queens on an NxN chess board, wouldn't you put them in a fibonaci spiral? Of course I can draw the board and explain it, but I have no idea how show that fibonaci formula modified for a chess board. Do you think that would be enough?

<comment><USER20> People like Criss who ask this question in interviews are looking for a brute force solution with recursive backtracking.

<comment><USER21> Is that not what's happening here? Except GHC has the recursive backtracking built in? The code looks a lot like the equivalent Prolog implementation.

<comment><USER22> I think you're supposed to show that you know how to do that yourself, instead of just using an existing implementation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is decent prolog code ;)

<comment><USER24> Any sophisticated enough type system contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Prolog.

<comment><USER25> It's quite formally specified.

Seems to not be very bug-ridden either. But maybe somebody should code a non- backtracking operator extension for GHC. This way, next time he could claim Haskell is a dynamically typed, interpreted, lazy and not-pure language.

<comment><USER26> > It's quite formally specified.

Haha, that's a good one. Haskell, unlike SML, is _not_ formally specified. If only, if only... _sobs_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> This is the Old type art. It's tragic to see such unkind typing.

</comment><comment><USER28> I honestly have no idea what's going on, but his writing is humorous.

<comment><USER29> As far as I can tell, this is an article teaching functional programmers LISP, using the framing of a LISP programmer who trolls a technical interviewer by writing LISP-like Haskell libraries with which to solve the n-queens problem.

<comment><USER30> I'm not a Haskell expert (and I skimmed the article), but I believe the article is about designing a simple method of computation that runs on top of Haskell's type system and that operates via type inference.

The answer at the end is evaluated by asking Haskell to print out the type of the variable "solution", and the answer is encoded within that variable's type (rather than its value).

In Aphyr's meta-language, "values" are represented by Haskell types, "functions" are represented by Haskell type constructors (functions from types to other types), and "computation" is represented by type inference.

For example, a cons cell in a typical language is a data structure consisting of two elements, so in Aphyr's meta-language it's represented as the binary type constructor `data Cons x xs`.

The meta-language also defines its own natural numbers and arithmetic in the fashion of Peano arithmetic. `data Z` declares a type that will represent the zero value, and `data S n` declares a unary type constructor representing the successor function. For example, zero is the type `Z`, one is the type `S Z` ("the successor to zero"), two is the type `S (S Z)` ("the successor to the successor to zero"), etc. Using this construction we can build arithmetic recursively. For example, equality in Peano arithmetic is implemented in Aphyr's program as:

      class PeanoEqual a b t | a b -> t
      instance PeanoEqual Z     Z     True
      instance PeanoEqual (S a) Z     False
      instance PeanoEqual Z     (S b) False
      instance (PeanoEqual a b t)
        => PeanoEqual (S a) (S b) t

You can read that code as if it approximately means the following (pseudo- code, bit hand-wavy):

      function PeanoEqual a b
      PeanoEqual(0,    0) = True
      PeanoEqual(a+1,  0) = False
      PeanoEqual(0,  b+1) = False
      PeanoEqual(a,    b) =    # a and b are both nonzero
         PeanoEqual(a-1, b-1)  # so recurse

My pseudo-code expresses equality of natural numbers by recursively subtracting 1 (that is, undoing our successor function) from `a` and `b` until one of the values is zero. If both are zero, then the original inputs were equal; otherwise they were unequal. In the Haskell meta-program, we don't have imperative recursion, but have recursive types and subtype relationships, and unification that understands them and will construct those types.

Further reading:

[https://wiki.haskell.org/Constructor#Type_constructor](https://wiki.haskell.org/Constructor#Type_constructor)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_(type_theory)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_\(type_theory\))

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

<comment><USER29> Yes, and that functional language is LISP, as demonstrated by the parentheses and Cons operator, and a few other things I probably didn't catch. I suppose it's less educational, and more just a meta-level trolling.

<comment><USER31> I don't think it's actually Lisp. Lisp is essentially an imperative language; you use functional concepts, but you're telling the computer what concrete thing to do at each step. This is just asking it to resolve types in a type system, using whatever algorithm it likes to satisfy the type constraints.

Note, in particular, the complete lack of _algorithm_ to solve the actual n-queens problem: just the constraints.

<comment><USER29> Fair enough, I pretty much nope'd out after the "Haskell is a dynamically- typed, interpreted language" bit, scrolled to the end, and saw some LISP-y output.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Still the most educated form of trolling to be seen around here. Beautiful and always worth a few good snickers.

</comment><comment><USER32> Template without the name

</comment><comment><USER33> This is his third one on interviewing and definitely the funniest. I wonder if he actually has been interviewing and doing this?

</comment><comment><USER34> There was a great talk at Haskell Exchange 2016 along similar lines - <USER2> a lot of complex functionality at the type level to derive correct functionality. [https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/8893-is-a-type-a- lifebu...](https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/8893-is-a-type-a-lifebuoy-or- a-lamp)

</comment><comment><USER35> This was a funny article :)

</comment><comment><USER36> Sad to say, this is exactly the sort of magic that, as the conclusion suggests, gets people not hired. Even on this very enlightened forum people argue in favour of less knowledgeable candidates (even with all else being equal).

<comment><USER37> But the solutions shown in this series are just pointlessly esoteric. I'm not actually sure what the point of this series is.

<comment><USER38> I took it as a commentary about how stupid tech interviews are. The scenarios all present a company rejecting someone who is clearly more skilled than the interviewer.

<comment><USER39> Yeah, well, that's based on a fallacy. You're assuming that there's a single scale and being more "skilled" on that scale means you should get hired.

But that's not necessarily what interviewing is all about. Type-level programming is cool but wildly inappropriate for most jobs - that's part of the humor.

You are not your job, or your resume, or your ability to pass an interview. There are all sorts of ways people can be elite that are mostly orthogonal to a particular job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> It's odd. There are people who complain on Hacker News about interviewers who ask about algorithmic complexity: "when are we ever going to need this?"

This is about wasting an interview demonstrating a semi-obscure technique that's fascinating but mostly useless, and it gets widely praised.

Seems like it's just that fantasizing about turning the tables on an interviewer is fun, never mind whether it makes sense or not.

<comment><USER40> Do you have no sense of humor?

<comment><USER29> On the contrary, I found his post a well crafted sendup of the typical HN commentariat who didn't get it.</comment></comment></comment>


To Startup CEOs: You Can't Outsource Marketing - <AUTHOR> http://chrismoody.com/startup-marketing/ <comment><USER2> Let's see - will the next article be, "To Startup CEOs: You Can't Outsource Sales"?</comment>


When to leave grad school off your resume (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2012/04/10/when-to-leave-grad-school-off-your-resume/ <comment><USER3> There are some people who feel strongly that graduate school is a waste of time, a moral failing, or worse. The author is clearly one of them. Fuck 'em.

More reasonably, nobody has the right to dictate to you how to spend your time, once you are an adult. If you want to study a subject in depth (and contrary to the author's assertion, there are some things that are virtually impossible to learn on your own) you have every right to do so. If an employer doesn't respect your education you almost certainly don't want to work with them.

<comment><USER4> If you're able to make decisions without considering how they'll affect your income, you're enjoying a luxury that the vast majority of humans ever born cannot enjoy.

The liberal arts have always been a privilege of those who don't have to worry about where their food comes from or how they'll pay off a huge debt. I'm one of those privileged few, and it's endlessly enriching to have studied and understand various humanities and "impractical" fields of study, but I'm fully aware how lucky I am.

> nobody has the right to dictate to you how to spend your time

That's true, but they have the right to decide how they perceive you and whether they want to pay you.

> If an employer doesn't respect your education you almost certainly don't > want to work with them.

That may be true, but (as I said above) most people can't make decisions this way. They're lucky to be covering their expenses with each paycheck, and they can't afford to be choosy about employers.

In some cases, their field is small enough or their resume is weak enough that they're desperate for _any_ job at all. The employer has the power in most industries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I came away from the article feeling that the author missed the point of a PhD completely, at least for the hard sciences. When you complete a PhD, you have by definition extended the scope of human knowledge. You must conduct original research to get a PhD, its not just another couple of years of showing up to class. A PhD student will typically have 5-7 journal papers, a couple of conference presentations, perhaps a best paper, and an entire thesis by the time they get out.

That is a lot of proven work, ability, and expertise that very few other people on the planet have in your specific area.

</comment><comment><USER6> What the hell? If I'm hiring, I'd much rather see time in grad school listed rather than a gap. Getting a Master's or PhD takes time, focus, dedication, and intelligence. Those are all good things to show, even if the specific subject matter is different.

Also: I'm wholly of the opinion that people who have strong backgrounds in multiple subjects are deeper and more creative thinkers. (And just generally more interesting to have around.)

</comment><comment><USER7> This article can't be serious...

> Grad school on your resume is a formal announcement of a mistake.

Studying something is a mistake if you don't dedicate the rest of your life to it, really?

> She lives on a farm in Wisconsin and __homeschools __her sons

This tells you everything you need to know about the author.

<comment><USER8> > She lives on a farm in Wisconsin and homeschools her sons

More power to her, her professional success has allowed her to pursue her passion. I think the lesson then is that to pursue your passion you first need to earn it.

> Grad school on your resume is a formal announcement of a mistake [if not > working in the field]

Success is working forward, and not worrying about or admitting to mistakes

<comment><USER7> I was talking about the homeschooling ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > 4\. A Ph.D on your resume often makes you look like a poor self-learner.

This doesn't make any sense because after writing a dissertation, you have by definition learned something that no one else knew, therefore, no one could have taught it to you. How does that make you a poor self learner?

</comment><comment><USER10> I disagree with this blog post. I can't imagine any employer would look negatively at a graduate degree. Even if in an unrelated field, an argument can be made that a grad degree adds breadth of experience.

</comment><comment><USER11> So the author considers the opportunity to learn and conduct research full- time as a bad thing, because it's not "working" in the "adult world", yet considers travelling, sports training and dancing to be fine?

</comment><comment><USER12> Ah, good old Penelope Trunk - a virtual emporium of poorly thought out notions, backed up by nothing, but presented with _conviction_. It has been a long while...

Need career advice? By all means, ask a person with no experience in your field!

</comment><comment><USER13> The author of this post seems to be laboring under the impression that everyone has a nice neat career trajectory in which everything fits neatly into place. And he doesn't like MBAs so he thinks people who have them ought to hide the fact even at the cost of having a gap on a resume.

Sure, don't emphasize irrelevant stuff but, in general, this seems like pretty silly advice.

<comment><USER14> (The author uses "her" in her biography section)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This seems to be aimed more at humanities degrees than mathematics or computer science or other such technical degrees. I do still think applies in some cases to some jobs.

Edit: looking at another post, [http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/08/29/voices-of-the- defen...](http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/08/29/voices-of-the-defenders-of- grad-school-and-me-crushing-them/), it's obvious that she is only considering humanities degrees and ignoring STEM fields.

<comment><USER5> Fair enough. I am not sure myself what exactly people with a PhD in Literature or Social Justice go through to be anointed Dr.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The piece given here is how she would look at a CV of that pattern - and as far as it goes that's fair enough. Personally if I see you with a four to eight year gap on your CV my first question, assuming I'm hiring for a significant role and your CV is strong in other respects, is going to be 'So, what did you do during those years?' I'm not just going to assume you were working small jobs to support yourself, I'm going to be thinking 'Were they working small jobs? If so why didn't anyone there hire them full time? Were they in prison? Were they a trouble employee?'

Certain parts of the recruitment and interviewing process are effectively black boxes. You can guess at things that HR/hiring managers want - <USER2> and achievements related to the role they're looking to fill, relevant qualifications - and there are some cultural things, (you wouldn't put a picture of yourself on a CV in this country for instance,) but beyond that it's a very muddy game. There's limited advice on that front - though my personal take is that it would be a great shame not to be hired because you've not given the best account of yourself. Or, perhaps worse, to be hired because you've given someone the _wrong_ impression of yourself (assuming you're not desperate for the money of course) and end up in a role that's going to make you miserable.

</comment><comment><USER16> What a terrible article, how would leaving a gap look remotely better.

</comment><comment><USER17> > "Penelope Trunk [...] She lives on a farm in Wisconsin."

Culture plays a huge part on the perceived value of degrees. On my case I did not do a degree to learn things but mainly to have the right stamp at the right place. You can be sure people will have a look at this part of the CV even with 10 years of experience in the field. This article looks a bit too american-centric.</comment>


The Apple 'Kill List': What Your iPhone Doesn't Want You to Type - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/16/the-apple-kill-list-what-your-iphone-doesn-t-want-you-to-type.html

<comment><USER2> Such a stupid article. It lets you type them in (so the 'censorship' or 'customer choice' thing is pure BS). It just doesn't autocorrect words that could be particularly bad if you accidentally sent them in a text.</comment>