Emails need to be refactored  - <AUTHOR>

I just read a long winded email from a colleague.  I had to read it several times and still had trouble extracting "the point".  A long three paragraph email could be boiled down to four short bullet points.  It occurred to me that as a programmer, I may be more susceptible to frustration.  I spend all day trying to avoid this in code.  Do you re-factor your emails before sending?  How do you deal with others that don't? <comment><USER2> All good writing has been 'refactored' as you put it. Except writers call it 'editing', 'polishing' and 'rewriting'.

And just like excellent code when you see some great writing you tend to think 'that looks amazingly simple!' but when you attempt to produce the same sort of elegance it somehow isn't so easy!

How to deal with it: accept you can't change the world, move into a position where you have the freedom to ignore e-mails when you like, get good at scanning!

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, I refactor emails. Iteration. I find the more time you take to compose an email, the better and more coherent the end product. Especially true when sending an email a client.

</comment><comment><USER4> you could say the same about any form of communication. some people just don't know how to communicate ideas effectively, whether it is via email, essay, phone call, conversation, twit, et al.

i do my best, when i'm about to communicate an idea in any form, to condense, polish, and qualitatively validate the idea/message/whatever before i actually communicate it, whether that means actually verbally saying the words, or hitting send on the email. not everyone will understand my internal dialog. you have to translate your thoughts into a real-world message before it gets sent.

dealing with others that don't? ask questions and take notes if you have to. other than that, you just have to adapt to understanding other people's brain dumps if they can't filter them on their own. look for topic sentences and latch onto them.

</comment><comment><USER5> If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - T.S Eliot

</comment><comment><USER6> Never really thought about it, but OP brings up an interesting point, especially for specialized apps.

Hmmm, instead of typing out free form text, just click on certain verbs, adjectives, and nouns to get across your point. Kinda like xml for humans. The possibilities are endless.</comment>


A Message to 2600 Readers and Writers - <AUTHOR> https://www.2600.com/content/message-2600-readers-and-writers <comment><USER2> Truly incredible.

The infosec community baffles me, when it comes to politics. I'm no fan of Trump, but the unfounded and apoplectic reactions from the likes of Matt Blaze, Swift on Security, the grugq, Jon Zdziarski, halvarflake, netik, kragen, etc, are batshit crazy.

There is absolutely no evidence that a Trump administration poses any threat at all to infosec, and by many measures represents a _better_ option than the alternative.

Trump's former opponent is on record clamoring for a "Manhattan Project style" effort to undermine crypto, and 2600's readership is concerned with the man whose worst security-related gaffe is a vague suggestion about "[calling] up Bill Gates".

I really don't understand these nominally rational people, when it comes to politics.

<comment><USER3> It's not batshit crazy. It's the responsible response.

Trump's said plenty of disturbing things. Both in his political run and in his 30+ years in the public eye. He's erratic, petty, prone to seeking revenge, and extremely thin-skinned. Americans should have never given this guy power, but they did.

The most responsible thing 2600 et al could do is warn people and be prepared for the worst. If the worst happens, people need to be prepared already and not taking panicked steps at the last minute. History is full of examples of people thinking the incoming leader didn't mean all the awful things he said. It's best to believe what the leader has said and take appropriate action.

There's a chance of looking crazy if Trump ends up not being as bad as his words indicate, but that's a chance worth taking considering the harsh and very possible alternatives.

<comment><USER4> It's not responsible at all.

Flipping out about the nomination of Wilbur Ross, for example, as Secretary of Commerce detracts from the weight of legitimate arguments against many of Trump's other picks.

To many journalists' credit the reaction quickly quieted down once his record and character become more clear, but first impressions are sticky. Now journalists and pundits, especially liberal-leaning pundits, will find it that much more difficult to constructively criticize Ross or other officials in the future given that it's established that they wrongfully flipped out in at least one significant case.

You make fewer of those mistakes when you stick to concrete facts and concrete policy points. And it goes without saying your arguments will be all the more sound for it.

Yes, Trump's rhetoric is anxiety inducing, and there's plenty about his track record, including as president-elect, that evidences he's willing and capable to follow through on much of it. But there's also evidence he won't follow through on some of it. If he doesn't then he can claim people were crying wolf. He probably will do this strategically. Certainly his rhetoric is strategic.

Unfortunately we won't be able to get off this roller coaster for at least 4 years. But that doesn't give everybody carte blanche to start screaming their heads off right out the gate.

Look, plenty of other countries have had to deal with, and are dealing with, demagogues. We know how to do deal with it. Keep your heads on straight and stay vigilant.

Anyhow, if people are right about Trump, there'll be plenty of opportunity for [more] outrage. If there's not, then all the better.

<comment><USER3> > But there's also evidence he won't follow through on some of it.

I hope you're right, but I really don't understand this view. You look at the terrible leaders throughout history, and you'll find they more often than not advertised what they were going to do and who they were going to be.

I'd much rather be prepared than just assume Trump is a troll. I'd rather see an implacable opposition ready to go on day 1. If Trump ends up being a simply bad president, in the conventional way presidents are bad and not a Russian puppet or kleptocrat or autocrat, then people like me might look a little silly. But that's a small price for being prepared if things turn out very differently.

<comment><USER4> It's not a question about being silly. It's a question about retaining the legitimacy to persuade people in the middle, people that are currently nominal Trump supporters.

What should scare you the most isn't Trump; it should be the credulity of the electorate, its tolerance of his rhetoric, and its faith in his vague promises. Trump's rhetoric has only _softened_ over the course of the past year. Not too long ago he was literally criticizing John McCain for being captured.

People in dictatorial regimes didn't get there by being quiet. They never were. Even today in places like Venezuela and Russia people take to the streets. They got there by losing a channel of communication to their fellow citizens.

It's no coincidence that Trump's rhetoric is typically vague and non-specific. The whole Muslim registry thing, for example, was vague enough that many people could rationalize it away; that's even easier now that Trump has come out against it.

People are just going to waste their bullets by shooting at poorly defined, moving targets. And when you finally get something lined up in your sites and have a good shot, nobody is going to notice. Trump clearly enjoys tweaking the opposition this way, he understands that his audience enjoys it. Trump understands how and when to hold and distract their attention--it's second nature to him because he thrives on that attention.

All the Republican nomination competitors made the same mistake... and lost. Hillary Clinton made the same mistake... and lost. Pointing out the obvious flaws in his policies, the impossibility of his promises, and his rejection of core American ideals DID NOT WORK! The moment those tactics find any purchase, he changes his tune accordingly.

Too many people _want_ to believe; too many people are reveling in a sense of rebellion, insensitive to consequences. The only way to get through to them is to give them a front-row seat to each and every policy failure, along with an accompanying narrative that squarely lays the blame at his feet.

In the interstitial time between consequential events, people (especially journalists) should just focus on maintaining transparency, so that the record cannot be easily denied. Doing that requires not providing fodder that allows the administration to sow uncertainty and doubt about opposition criticisms.

If people keep reacting to every aspect of Trump's rhetoric, there won't be anybody in the audience left. They'll have all gone home, either secure in their faith in Trump's promises or given over to apathy. Just like people are in Venezuela, Russia, and elsewhere.

It's not about standing up to Trump. This is a democracy. The only way to win is by persuading his supporters, especially when it's this early in the game and Trump and his growing band of sycophants haven't secured much institutional power.

<comment><USER5> (quote) "People in dictatorial regimes didn't get there by being quiet. They never were. Even today in places like Venezuela and Russia people take to the streets. They got there by losing a channel of communication to their fellow citizens." \-- you are clearly out of sync with reality about Russia. Since 2011 protests, Russian regime jails people even at "single person protest" which are always legal by their law, leave alone cases like Bolotnaya. NGOs are pushed into fed-by-govt-or-illegal mode. Political opponents either went into govt-is-right mode or expelled. Mind you, it is not dictatorial, it is only authoritarian. But it is toxic enough. And we haven't even started yet about DT going to hug with Putin asap once he is in chair. Did I mention that almost whole Republican party is in love Putin's image and strong arm behavior? Thank you but your ideas are out of sync with reality.

<comment><USER4> And yet by every measure Putin remains incredibly popular, even when measured by foreign, non-biased organizations. Just as was Hugo Chavez.

So how are my ideas out of sync with reality? The only thing out-of-sync with reality is doubling-down on the same strategies that lost over the past two years of intense political campaigning.

Policies do not make the candidate. Ultimately, voters elect a person, not a set of abstract policies. Policies _should_ make the candidate, and we _should_ endeavor to nurture a culture where policies matter.

But, alas, in the current environment somebody like Trump is thriving. Like Putin, he thrives _despite_ the fact that clear (though distinct) majorities reject almost every one of his concrete policies. (The exception being national defense, where more is always better and voters don't care much about the details.) And he'll likely follow Putin's pattern--openly promise one thing, do something else when nobody is looking, then deflect criticism using traditional propaganda techniques--promises were "just rhetoric", implemented policies are "misconstrued" and "ill-informed", and... look, squirrel!

Given the cult of personality (Trump the star, Trump the vehicle for rejecting the established order), the way to win is diminish support for the personality. You do that not by attacking policies directly, but by attacking policies in such a way that they expose the personality as a fraud. Those are truly two different things. The latter isn't focused on the rightness or wrongness of policy (always a debatable point), but rather in showing that Trump doesn't actually have voters' interests at heart; you show that Trump is a poor vehicle for reform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The ominous title and the fact that I couldn't actually read the article scared me a bit. I kind of assumed some bad news about them shutting down.

I have not subscribed in quite some many years. And I can't remember the last volume that I read. And yet. I was suddenly sad and ready support them financially.

I think 2600 has been a good influence. I hope they always stick around.

Note: the message has nothing to do with them going anywhere.

<comment><USER7> I was never a subscriber, but I picked up a fair number of issues from the bookstore. It was a little annoying how often they would post an article from someone who clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Sifting through the bullshit to find the nuggets is a tiring job.

It's also one of the periodicals that I am absolutely amazed is still printed on dead trees. I would have expected them to be one of the first to go all digital.

<comment><USER8> Given the audience, there'd be a race to see who could upload a copy on the Pirate Bay first.

Also I thought they'd shut down once Kevin Mitnick was free.

<comment><USER7> They aren't already scanned and put up on torrent sites? That would be a big surprise to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It is timing out for me already, so here is the google cache text-only version: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PL_BKoM...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PL_BKoMHcgIJ:https://www.2600.com/content/message-2600-readers- and-writers&num=1&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

</comment><comment><USER10> There is so much anxiety around the incoming president. Even friends of mine in the GSA who handle anything around energy efficiency with different government agencies are changing their titles for fear of losing their jobs since the incoming administration is clearly in the position of denying climate change is even a thing. I know this post focused on infosec, but the overall tone strikes at the anxiousness being felt throughout the entire ecosystem. I'm a proud 2600 subscriber and very glad the staff is taking a stand publicly.

</comment><comment><USER11> > "We've received requests from both readers and writers to erase all evidence > of their existence in our correspondence and to cancel their subscriptions > and remove their names from our database"

Weird. My level of concern: I buy every copy with a credit card at Barnes & Noble.

<comment><USER12> Right? I work for a major tech company and can get a subscription delivered to the office if I wanted to, paid for by my employer.

I feel like a lot of independent hackers (as well as government officials) don't realize that hacking and info sec in general can be (and currently is) a completely acceptable enterprise occupation. If hackers were being rounded up and sent to jail, I can count at least 4,000 people at my company who would be missing Monday morning. And that's just the number of people connected to my Slack team, which is not mandatory to join.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Web-site is down. This is what it said:

"Since November, we have witnessed a variety of reactions to the surprising political developments in our country. We expect nothing less and welcome the thoughts, opinions, ideas, and schemes that our readers and writers put forth. There is one disturbing perspective, though, that we need to address.

A number of people in our community feel that hackers in particular will be under increased scrutiny and will be facing significant threats under a Trump administration. We've received requests from both readers and writers to erase all evidence of their existence in our correspondence and to cancel their subscriptions and remove their names from our database. On more than one occasion, all hacker-related clothing was also thrown in the trash.

It's this reaction that we find more disturbing than any of the many potential threats we're facing. Why? Because bad things happen when people let them. As long as we stand united and are willing to fight back against anything that would threaten us as individuals or as a community, we have what it takes to prevent such threats from taking hold. If we yield, it's handing out a blank check.

Yes, there is much to be concerned about and even to fear. Hackers, as always, seem to be right in the middle of the controversial news stories bombarding us every day. But we need to embrace this, not push it away. We have always protected the confidentiality of both our subscribers and those sources who contribute material to our publication. We will never stop doing this.

There is great strength in numbers and in intelligence. We need both in order to survive what may be hugely challenging times. We cannot let the specter of oppression slow us down because if such a scenario were to come true, that is when we would be needed the most. We should have more articles than ever, edgy and controversial material that we embrace, and a ton of people who aren't afraid to read and collect what we're putting out. After all, it's in the darkest hours when a bright light makes the most difference.

We are changing the terms for writers of printed pieces, beginning with the Winter 2016-2017 issue due out in early January. Instead of a choice between a year of our magazine or one of our t-shirts, we are now offering both of these items for every article printed. And as for what articles we're looking for, as always we want pieces that embrace the hacker spirit, that examine and dissect technology in ways others haven't, and/or that reveal inconvenient truths about services and products that those in charge really don't want people to know about. Bombshells and leaks of all types are great and, as mentioned, we always protect our sources. And, being a printed magazine, it's a lot harder to block or filter us from any part of the globe.

You can send your article contributions to firstname.lastname@example.com or by surface or air mail to 2600 Editorial Department, PO Box 99, Middle Island, NY 11953 USA.

We are but one window into a world of amazing voices. Please support others as well as us. If our speech and communication are to be seen as a threat to any regime, it's far better that there be a huge number of us than a tiny number. There will be some tests ahead and probably some hard times. We can't think of a better group to face that with."

</comment><comment> at-fates-hands W O W

I have a LOT of friends who went through all the government growing pains when they were trying to enact laws to try and curb hacking. The feds were putting people away for 20+ years and weren't screwing around when they went after hackers. And what happened? We all banded together, formed underground communities, shared ideas on how to evade the government, and created tools to do so, some of which are still in use to this very day.

The fact that people seem overtly paranoid about a Trump presidency is so overblown. I mean, some of the toughest sentences that have been handed down to hackers were done under both a republican president and a democratic president (Clinton and Bush) and to a large degree the FBI is (or should be) a non political entity.

I can't believe this people have also forgotten about the fight for proper encryption, how we are rallying to get the CFAA laws changed as well as the progress that Snowden has brought this country in terms of the governments overreach with regards to spying on its citizens.

I see and hear a lot of this and just shake my head. Hackers have _always_ been at war with the government in some shape or form. Just because we have a new president should not deter people from continuing the fight.

Depressing to hear this. . . .

<comment><USER14> Probably because the "hacker" population you are referring to has gotten diluted with posers and the sort of people who easily give in to mass hysteria.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's very sad that people feel this way, no matter if it justified or not. I feel like this presidential election has had more groups than usual come out and talk about similar feelings and/or actions. Is this a byproduct of new (accurate or not) being much more available compared to previous elections? In other words, did stuff like this happen before and we just never heard about it or is it really happening more this time around?

<comment><USER16> I've lived on the internet since 92 and have always taken an intense interest in politics, so that's 6 presidential elections and 5 midterms (and multiple elections in various Euro countries I've lived in). I'd say there's a significant qualitative difference between this and any previous political turning I've experienced.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> text only [0] version works for now...

wish they were more active...

[0] [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PL_BKoM...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PL_BKoMHcgIJ:https://www.2600.com/content/message-2600-readers- and-writers&num=1&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

</comment><comment><USER18> Many years ago, I sustained my subscription to 2600 by writing articles. Lots of fun nostalgia in those pages.</comment>


Diaspora's Upfront Costs - <AUTHOR> http://nerdlife.net/diasporas-upfront-costs/ <comment><USER2> I agree with the figures for the most part, the scary bit in their proposed 'gifts' is the 'free phone support', they have 700 people in that bin and I really wonder how they expect other people to pay for phone support in the first place.

Their product shouldn't need any phone support.

Manning a phone for 3 months with just a single person would already set them back another 6 grand, and will probably lead to a pretty overworked person. Since their donations were accepted from all over the globe the general public may expect that phone to be manned 24 hours per day.

I think you over estimated the cost of the stickers by a bit, but that's fine, it will probably be offset by underestimating something else.

Taxes have already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, probably this will fall under 'gift tax', which is owed by the _giver_ not the recipient so diaspora may luck out there.

</comment><comment><USER3> I also don't think Diaspora gets that money tax-free. How do they report that at the end of the year? Were people donating to a company? Do they even have a legal structure?

<comment><USER4> Other than the money they have, they don't have __anything__ that anyone else has. An idea? Who hasn't thought of making an (open) social network?

They saw an opportunity in recent events surround Facebook and took full advantage. They don't even have a contract or guarantee with the people paying them that anything has to get done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> The site times out for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Impressive...the first time it's had problems in a while. Fixed, thanks for the heads-up.

<comment><USER2> Same happened to me, HN can give you a lot more traffic than you expect sometimes.

Thanks, will read the article now.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thankfully Slicehost resizes fairly quickly...some more RAM can't hurt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yes but if people actually put the stickers up, wear the shirts, etc, isn't it helping get the word out?

</comment><comment><USER6> Eh, Not sure what the point of this post is. If they have $190,000 and they wanted $10,000, who cares if they have to spend $50,000 up front? They still have a few years of run way.</comment>


Afghanistan: A walk down memory lane - <AUTHOR> https://theramsdellbrief.com/2016/05/02/afghanistan-a-walk-down-memory-lane/ <comment><AUTHOR> I met Tim in Afghanistan and got to work in similar places (although I got to Afghanistan late -- Iraq and other places first). He was one of the westerners with the best info on what was going on, and did everything he could to help out the people in the country, but it was pretty obvious things were not going to end well.</comment>


Is it worth switching to AI (ML and Deep learning) career? - <AUTHOR> I am software developer who is in late 20s. I have already switched my field a couple of times (QE-> Masters -> Soft Dev). So, I feel that I am lagging behind my peers who have been on same field for many years.<p>However, I am keen on working in ML and deep learning (already have basic knowledge) field. Is it really worth spending 1 year on switching to ML with the current job or just keep learning software development well and keep progressing in that? Given my age, I should have already been well-versed in a field already. <comment><USER2> I'm 55 and I'm spending time learning ML; so no, late-20s is not too late. The real question is, how long will humans be writing the majority of software. Sooner or later, AI will do most of it. Is that 10 years away? 20? 5? Who knows!</comment>


Defect that causes Huntington's disease has been corrected for the first time - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/health-42308341 <comment><USER2> Since this drug was developed on public funding in the UK, how does that affect its pricing and incorporation in the NHS? I assume whoever gets the license to sell it in the US will have exclusivity and make it expensive as hell.

edit: Never mind, although the research took place at the University of London, it was funded by Ionis Pharmaceuticals (US) and further by Roche (Swiss multinational). The Guardian article relegates that bit of info to the very last line, as if they were just a minor part of the effort. [http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/Ionis- Pharmac...](http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/Ionis- Pharmaceuticals-Licenses-IONIS-HTT-Rx-to-Partner-Following-Successful- Phase-1-2a-Study-in-Patients-with-Huntington-s-Disease-1010933822)

</comment><comment><USER3> Great news. Although it's already too late for my mother, my sister can definitely profit from it if it turns out well. And I guess I will have to take the test now to see whether I have the disease as well...

<comment><USER4> Best of luck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Slightly off-topic, but there is an interesting connection between Chorea Huntington and the evolution of complex brains and intelligence:

[https://www.economist.com/news/science-and- technology/216457...](https://www.economist.com/news/science-and- technology/21645713-could-key-evolution-human-brain-be-found-dreadful)

<comment><USER6> Interesting connection with brain complexity, but note that the function of the Huntinton's gene remains poorly understood.

Something that may be related... The same unstable repeat that causes the disease is ancient and is conserved throughout mammals! So other mammals can get a similar disease driven by the same mutations. This is useful for generating models of the disease in other mammals (e.g. mice). Such conservation of repeats is exceptionally rare.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Corrected" seems a bit strong. The treatment mitigates the cause of the disease but it's not a cure, at least not yet. Does sound promising.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is awesome. Unfortunately, we lost both my cousin and uncle from this but I'm glad I'm finally seeing a potential cure for this horrible disease.

</comment><comment><USER9> If anyone has a bit of spare time, The Inheritance is a documentary worth watching. It's about a family with Huntington's disease and them living and dying with it. No affiliation.

[https://theinheritancedocumentary.com](https://theinheritancedocumentary.com)

</comment><comment><USER10> I wonder if this can be extended to other brain related illnesses such as Alzheimers.

<comment><USER11> I think the treatment will generalise better to other genetic diseases than to other brain diseases, let alone a brain disease like Alzheimer for which the cause is badly understood.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15896616](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15896616)

</comment><comment><USER13> Really cool to see progress on this terrible disease.

</comment><comment><USER14> TL;DR

Huntington's is caused by an error in a section of DNA called the huntingtin gene. Normally this contains the instructions for making a protein, called huntingtin, which is vital for brain development. But a genetic error corrupts the protein and turns it into a killer of brain cells. The treatment is designed to silence the gene.

One fear was the injections could have caused fatal meningitis. But the first in-human trial showed the drug was safe, well tolerated by patients and crucially reduced the levels of huntingtin in the brain.

The UCL scientist, who was not involved in the research, says the same approach might be possible in other neurodegenerative diseases that feature the build-up of toxic proteins in the brain. The protein synuclein is implicated in Parkinson's while amyloid and tau seem to have a role in dementias. Off the back of this research, trials are planned using gene- silencing to lower the levels of tau.

<comment><USER15> I wonder how this genetic error could propagate wide enough for the disease to get a name.

It's clearly maladaptive, isn't it?

Of course, same question could be asked for BRCA.

<comment><USER6> There is something important about the type of mutations that drive Huntington's.

Huntington's is caused by an expanded repeat composed of (CAG)n with n>40 repeats. Due to the instability of repeat regions, new mutations arise in this gene at a relatively high rate. So, even if there were strong selection against expanded repeats the disease would continue to exist. However, as mentioned by others here, strong selection is unlikely due to the late age of onset of the disease. So mutation continues to introduce the disease and selection has been too weak to remove it.

In contrast, BRCA mutations differ from the Huntington mutations. BRCA mutations are single "point" changes in the sequence, known as SNPs, that disrupt the protein function. Novel point mutations are exceptionally rare.

So, unlike with BRCA, when investigating why Huntinton's disease exists, one must consider BOTH mutation and selection.

<comment><USER16> Huntington's also has an interesting place in the history of genetics, genetic diseases, and heredity.

I wish I could find the excerpt, but the book The Gene talks about the original research and it's an interesting story.

The book is worth reading in general (Siddhartha Mukherjee is a great writer and it's really good).

[http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Gene/Siddhartha- Mu...](http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Gene/Siddhartha- Mukherjee/9781476733500)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What the BBC doesn't say is that this is an important step towards eventually being able to genetically modify healthy, adult people.

It's a trojan horse, and the clever thing about it is that there are valid medical reasons for it.

<comment><USER18> The described treatment degrades mRNA; no genetic modifications are made.

<comment><USER17> I stand corrected.

I can't edit or remove my comment because Hacker News believes they know better than me if I should have the ability to edit or remove my own comments.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: DBMGR – A useful tool to backup/restore/provision development databases - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/callahanrts/dbmgr <comment><AUTHOR> I originally created this out of the frustration of running `dc down` on our MySQL docker container--which wiped my development database almost daily. After I realized why my volumes were getting destroyed all the time, I've still found this to be useful in taking snapshots of my development database and sharing them with other devs on our team.</comment>


Ask HN:  What are my options for cross discipline study after I graduate? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a Junior in a Computer Engineering program.  It's one of the largest majors in the University and I get a little annoyed that it doesn't leave any room for interesting yet unrelated classes.  I would love to take an upper level Econ class as well as upper level Math classes.  But the university is working hard to get me to graduate someday (I am already planning on graduating with 60% more credits than normal).  I've resigned myself to the fact that if I want to study number theory in depth then it's not going to happen during my undergraduate.  What are my options down the line?  Have any of you gone back for a second degree "just because"?  Is there any basic prep I should try to squeeze in now which would aid me in future study? <comment><USER2> You don't have to limit your leanring to just your undergraduate coursework.

If you are passionate about something and want to get in depth exposure, there is nothing stopping you from

1) reading up all the books you can get hands on on that subject,

2) develop theories and do all the analysis you can do on that subject,

3) meeting/interacting with as many experts on that subject as possible.

If you love it, go for it.

(but yeah, do graduate, that degree paper can carry a lot of weight, especially in getting the first job)</comment>


Empathy - <AUTHOR> http://nshipster.com/empathy/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me a lot of Mattt's other post about empathy[1]. What stuck with me most were two tweets at the end of it: one person said "Why do open-source programmers take things so personally?" to which another replied "because we're all persons".

At the time, I was ruining some of my professional relationships over arguments about their open source projects, because I only looked at these from a technical stand-point. Once I started putting myself in their shoes, I stopped criticizing. Instead I tried to be that person who always makes you feel like you can do anything, who always praises and never criticizes, who believes in you and your ideas, because that's the kind of person I look up to.

True, I had to ignore some technical deficiencies a few times, but life's too short. Plus, who am I to think I have all the answers? Maybe those technical deficiencies are really innovations in disguise, which I just lack the proper imagination to see properly at this early of a stage? Even more reason to overlook it and be supportive rather than critical.

So far it's working out well. My professional relationships are improving, and I feel like much less of a sour-puss than before. But YMMV.

[1]: [http://mattt.me/2011/empathy-and-open- source/](http://mattt.me/2011/empathy-and-open-source/)

EDIT: This is possibly related to my recent burnout which made it a whole lot easier to not really care about technical details and focus a lot more on the relationships and the positives. These two things happened at the same time.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't upvote this enough. At the very least, developing cognitive empathy can help you communicate better with people by understanding their emotional state and responding appropriately. But more than that, there's all the positive benefits of applying emotional intelligence to your work and personal life that come from empathizing with people.

</comment><comment><USER4> Given the name of the site, I'd like to add an off-topic remark on culturally sensitive naming.

Your site is named nshipster, which is fine, unless it will become the name of a product which you would ever want to market in Germany.

In public discourse in Germany, the two letters NS are commonly used as shorthand for National Socialism in the historical sense.

So if you want to sell, I don't know, your coffee break management app and call it ns-coffee, nobody in Germany will touch it with a ten foot pole.

Another two-letter combination for which the same holds (I'd even say it is a lot worse) is KZ.

KZ is the everyday stand-in term for concentration camp. So think twice before you name that Kazachstan travel app.

<comment><USER5> NS is a common prefix for Apple-derived ObjectiveC classes. In that context it stands for NextStep, which Apple acquired many years ago. The NSHipster blog is a reference to this usage of NS. I understand that it has extremely negative connotations in Germany, but unfortunately you're going to have to take that up with Apple, not with the blog's author.

<comment><USER4> Yes, I know that. Just recently I talked with a friend about just that unfortunate naming decision by NextStep. I also didn't want to directly critique the site owner.

I just thought it might make sense to draw some awareness to the issue because non-German speakers have practically no chance of knowing about this pitfall. It's kind of similar to the Chevy Nova situation.

<comment><USER6> The "Chevy Nova situation" is an urban legend. [http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp)

<comment><USER7> Alternative: Toyota MR2 in France :).

<comment><USER3> Funny how they repeated that mistake with the next generation. Called the MR-S in Japan, you could see how it could be shortened to "Mrs." in English, comparing the car to something a mother or wife might drive. So they named it MR2 Spyder in US and MR2 Roadster in EU.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems like an awful lot of our problems could be solved in good part with a little empathy...

</comment><comment><USER9> Human trust is the result of empathetic proof of work. It takes what is most valuable to you: time.</comment>


Ask HN: How would you find the best Restaurant or shop in your city? - <AUTHOR>

 Hi,
   I want to find the best Indian restaurant in my city. Building a small web survey form in HTML sounds an interesting way to do it. But I dont want to have a regular survey like -  rate this restaurant on basis of price of food, quality, service, etc. I will be only sending the web address to my friends who can then interact with it. But I want them to rate the entities on the website using their instincts for eg. I show them a list of five and they click on the restaurant/shop they would always prefer to go to. I want to keep it simple. Can fellow hackers suggest any such ways of collecting information? <comment><USER2> why not just email your friends and ask?

in the amount of time it took you to post this, you could have written them and you would already be waiting on feedback.</comment>


To Help Haiti, End Foreign Aid - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748704541004575010860014031260.html

<comment><USER2> I am reminded of both "Diet for a Small Planet" (the political portion of the book) and "Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed". There is also TV Tropes "Stop helping me": <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StopHelpingMe></comment>


My weekend project: Easy parallel computing with Racket - <AUTHOR> http://planet.racket-lang.org/package-source/gcr/riot.plt/1/0/planet-docs/riot/index.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, Hackernews!

For this project, I wrote a library that lets you parallelize big computations by changing only a few lines of code.

You'll need a nightly build of Racket to try it out.</comment>


Everything I Know about Self-Publishing - <AUTHOR> https://hackpad.com/Everything-I-Know-about-Self-Publishing-d4zCU7alhJX <comment><USER2> This article provides some good pointers, but for more detail (all you need to know), read Aaron Shepard's blog, and also read his _Aiming at Amazon_ and _POD For Profit_. You'll thank me.

To keep your options open, you definitely want to buy your own ISBNs from Bowker (if in the US).

Above all, do not use a "vanity press" that charges you to publish your books.

Source: The rewarding and time-consuming experience of self-publishing my first book.

<comment><USER3> What was your book about? Fiction, non-fiction?

<comment><USER2> Non-fiction.

Making a financial success of fiction is (even) harder. Much harder. Generally speaking, I think you need a publisher behind you for fiction, although Amanda Hocking recently managed to bootstrap her way to self-published vampire success.

<comment><USER4> I agree -- harder to be successful in self-publishing for fiction.

(1) There's less "need" for your book. People aren't saying, "gosh, I wish I could find a book on zombies from Mars attacking Earth. Let's see what my options are!" (2) You can't differentiate yourself as easily. (3) To be successful as an author, you need a platform / promotional strategy. It's harder to build that with fiction books (at least until you are well-known). In an "informational" space (business, reference, technical, etc), you can build up a following by starting a business or a website that provides assistance in some area.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Both this and the link to James Altucher's article in the sibling comment should prove to be very useful for my upcoming self-published book[1], especially the link to the image generator. Thanks for sharing!

[1]: [http://www.petekeen.com/mastering-modern- payments](http://www.petekeen.com/mastering-modern-payments)

<comment><USER3> Good luck! I signed up for the free chapter, and feel free to contact me if you'd like some feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> great stuff, thanks! you should also check out James Altucher's recent article, it has tonnes of great tips: [http://www.copyblogger.com/professional-self- publishing](http://www.copyblogger.com/professional-self-publishing)

</comment><comment><USER7> Can someone explain to me why the author is implying CreateSpace is disreputable?

Apparently ISBN's are not acceptable from there an bookstores will not order through them. Why would this be?

<comment><USER4> Whoa! Not saying CreateSpace is disreputable at all. I love CreateSpace.

It is, however, a self-publishing service and thus it is "disreputable" in that sense. There's additional credibility when you're backed by a publisher, particularly a major one. Thus, by using CreateSpace, you're lacking some credibility there. That credibility, as well as the sales channels, can be pretty valuable for getting a book into a store.

There's nothing wrong with _CreateSpace_ specifically though.

That said, Barnes and Noble will not order books for their stores through CreateSpace (unless, perhaps, specifically requested by a customer). That is, it won't stock books with a CreateSpace ISBN on their shelves.

One person (who handles independently published books) at Barnes and Noble told me that this is because CreateSpace / Amazon is a competitor. Maybe that's true, or maybe CreateSpace does something funky with returns (like not accepting them with good enough terms) or doesn't offer a sufficient discount. I'm not sure.

Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that Barnes and Noble will not accept books printed by CreateSpace for their stores. (They will, however, list them on their website... which I can't imagine many people order from.)

AND -- if you purchase your ISBN from CreateSpace, then CreateSpace owns your ISBN and _only_ CreateSpace can print your book. You can't, say, have CreateSpace print your book for Amazon sales and then Lightning Source print your book for B&N sales (or Pothi.com for India).

If purchase your own ISBN (for like $250), then you can print through multiple sources. This will allow you to print your book with Lightning Source (as well as CreateSpace), and thus get into Barnes and Noble stores.

That said, for the vast, vast majority of self-published books (or any book), getting into Barnes and Noble stores just isn't going to happen anyway.

Happy to answer more questions / clarify!

<comment><USER7> Thanks, that was a great answer! I just misunderstood your intent in the OP, good clarification.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is already a great list, and it's just a few of the resources available to people hoping to achieve success with self-publishing.

</comment><comment><USER9> It seems to be blank to me.

<comment><USER10> And I'm getting a server error. "Oops! A server error occured. It's been logged."

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great list of tips. I helped a friend self pub his first novel about 3 years ago. Amazing experience, I organized the cover (lucky to kow an extremely talented graphic designer who worked for a small percentage of sales) and I did all the internal layout using indesign (the OP was right on how much of a technical nightmare it is to get up and running with InD!)

My inspiration and guide for working with the interior of the book, believe it or not, was don knuth's TAOCP. That is one of the most beautifully typeset books I've ever read (ha, I mean have _tried_ to read over the last 12 years). It was a lot harder than I had imagined, and took a lot of by hand tweaking to make each and every page look just right. But it was worth it as the printed version of the book looks great, without the self-published look I've noticed from people who I believe may have just downloaded a template for Word to layout the book.

I don't know about the various comments here about createspace isbn's. That's what we went with, and small bookstores and Barnes and Noble stock the paperback version. (Although I don't know if B&N have it in their stores, but you can buy the paperback version online through them)

The hardest part we found was the marketing. My friend started a blog, and is active on twitter, pinterest and Facebook. The book is a novel so he can't show domain knowledge via the blog, but his blog is entertaining and does lead to sales as the book contains comedy, but isn't a comedic work.

The biggest problem was trying to reach out to traditional media - not even a rejection email from various reviewers we tried to reach out to, even though we focused on papers where he is from and also where the book is set (Philly and Pitsburgh). This could of course be because of the fact that it's self published. But when is next book becomes a big hit we will remember the great websites and independent magazines that did review the book so they'll get first dibs on the author. But I will definetly go through this list with a fine toothed comb when I have a chance and check out the marketing tracking tips.

Regarding piracy, we believed in the old adage that I think O'Reilly came up with - 'It's not piracy that kills authors, it's obscurity.' But I couldn't convince him to go the whole hog like Paulo Coello and upload his book himself to pirate book sites, and I can understand as we worked on the book for about 4 years (by we I mean him doing all the work and me cracking a whip to keep him motivated and writing, then proofreading and editing through 4 drafts)

Happy to say he's sold a few copies, and it keeps plugging along. This summer I get to do it all again as he has almost finished the first draft of his second novel.

If you want to check it out, the novel is called 'Senseless' and the author is Damien Galeone ([http://damiengaleone.com](http://damiengaleone.com)). The book is available on both Amazon and B&N (paper, kindle and nook) Or you can email me if you want a copy of the book in PDF, if you'd like to check out the internal formatting (this is marketing, not piracy and I just called the author he said he's fine to hand out some copies:)my email is in my profile.

<comment><USER4> "I don't know about the various comments here about createspace isbn's. That's what we went with, and small bookstores and Barnes and Noble stock the paperback version. (Although I don't know if B&N have it in their stores, but you can buy the paperback version online through them)"

Right. It's carrying it in _B &N physical stores_ that's an issue. They will put it up on the website or allow a customer to order through a store.

B&N won't stock books printed by CreateSpace in their physical stores. And, as long as you have a CreateSpace-owned ISBN, only CreateSpace can print the book.

That said, for the vast majority of self-published authors, it's sort of irrelevant. B&N won't carry their books because they're not selling well enough.</comment></comment>


RulerPhone Lets You Ditch the Ruler For An iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/25/rulerphone-lets-you-ditch-the-ruler-for-an-iphone/ <comment><USER2> Here's some photo measuring software for your pc:

<http://uphotomeasure.com/></comment>


Microsoft announces Windows 8.1 with Bing to help sell lower-cost devices - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/05/23/microsoft-announces-windows-8-1-bing-help-partners-sell-lower-cost-devices-will-debut-computex/ <comment><USER2> I really thought Bing was default in the current version.</comment>