Every Mac I've owned has failed - <AUTHOR> http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1489-every-mac-ive-owned-has-failed <comment><USER3> Every _computer_ I've ever had has failed. Even the ones that are working now, I expect to fail sometime relatively soon.

Some statistically small time after that, I'll fail as well. Bummer.

<comment><USER4> You haven't had a Thinkpad :-) (ducks).

<comment><USER5> Sorry dude. I've had a few Thinkpads that have failed on me (wireless died completely on one, screen on another). No manufacturer is immune to things dying after awhile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can we stop screwing around with anecdotes and cite some sort of study?

In my family, we have had 5 macs. An iBook G3, a Macbook Pro, two Macbooks, and an old Powerbook 170 from 1991. All of them are still in perfect working order, and have only ever broken as a result of physical damage (drops, spills, etc.) The Powerbook 170 was used as a word processor for about 15 years, and still remains in working order.

I have had nothing but positive experiences with Macs, but I need to emphasize that my experiences are not data. They are anecdotes, and thus can't prove anything one way or the other.

<comment><USER7> > Can we stop screwing around with anecdotes and cite some sort of study?

But he said he has enough anecdotes that it feels statistical to him.

<comment><USER8> Haha yes. And in 37signals land, they're somehow still a startup, you only have to work 32 hours per week to be successful, multiple anecdotes = data, and feelings trump reality.

<comment><USER9> Feelings _are_ reality for most people. If this were not true, religion, depression, stock market crashes and mental illness would not exist and we'd be living in a utopia.

<comment><USER8> Right, but that's sort of a strawman. I was mainly referring to this:

 _But he said he has enough anecdotes that it feels statistical to him._

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Every pet I've owned has died (except the current dog)

One of our dogs only lasted 17 years, the other failed after just 15. The chooks weren't much good; we only seemed to get about 4 or 5 years from them. The finches are all dead, and so are the budgies. The rabbit died too.

My wife had a dog they gave away, but they kept in contact with the new owner, and after 6 years with the new owner, that dog was dead too.

</comment><comment><USER11> Didn't this guy (along with Jason Fried) make a _commercial_ for Apple?

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTM19XLnzPU&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTM19XLnzPU&feature=related)

<comment><USER12> That almost makes me want to rethink my mac usage.

<comment><USER13> I'm pretty sure it was a parody.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What a great way to direct a lot of traffic to your blog.

<comment><USER15> Welcome to every 37signals blog post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Oh man, I know from experience that nothing good will come from this.

Let the torrent of anecdotes begin.

<comment><USER17> It's always best to quote yourself. ;)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=323829>

Totally kidding. :)

But I'm leaving Apple with my next laptop. For coding, Linux is better (same dev/deployment environment, and better repos / package managers), and for gaming, windows is better. Also, the hardware is much cheaper (about $500-1000 less for an MBP equivalent non-Apple laptop). Most OS X apps are too mouse driven for my taste anyway. The only apps I'll miss are Textmate, Smultron, Dictionary. The only OS feature I'll miss is painless plug and play.

PS: Written on a 2 year old macbook whose screen flickers after sleep and which is constantly in danger of overheating due to fan failures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> 2 years is pretty good going IMHO. After 2 years a laptop is starting to look pretty dated. The battery is likely to be dead, the hard drive likely to be miniscule.

</comment><comment><USER19> Seems to me that the Mac failure rate is always going to seem higher because of the devotees - a certain class of selection bias. For instance, if a Dell fails who's going to:

1) ascribe it to Dell and not the relevant component maker?

and

2) continue to buy Dell products after a few failures?

<comment><USER20> I'm going to keep buying Dells because even though I bought the computer in the US, when the HD crashed here in Austria, they had a guy at my house with a new drive in just over 24 hours. Yeah, I paid a bit more for the service options, but since this computer is my business, that makes sense, and ended up saving me a lot of worry. The overall price was still very reasonable for what I got.

<comment><USER21> Note: International warranty only valid on 'business model' laptops - <USER2> Latitudes.

Also, you often have to be a PITA to Dell to make sure that international service happens.

That's my experience, as a former Dell business tech support dude.

<comment><USER20> Nope, it was an Inspiron, and I was expecting a big hassle, delays, and the whole messy dance, but it was quite easy. The German support guy who I reached checked my information, and asked whether I'd prefer someone to come around or for them to mail the disk, and both being free, I chose to have someone come by with the disk as it was faster.

I guess I may have gotten lucky, but it really left a good impression on me.

<comment><USER21> Most Inspirons don't have a warranty that includes international service. I had to tell people in similar situations that they need to bring or mail their machine back to the US before it could be fixed. So, I'm leaning toward lucky.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Well, this should provide for a certain amount of conflicted ambivalence, the collision of Rails and Mac fanaticisms should be amusing.

I'd have to say that my experience of Apple hardware is even worse than his, modern Macbooks are at least user serviceable meaning you only need to undo a couple of screws to get at the hard drive, the count on the old iBooks was between twelve and 17 screws to get to the hard drive.

</comment><comment><USER23> I have a similar experience. Every mac I've had has died (basically my last 4 computers). 2 screen deaths, one overheat, and one coffee incident.

I blame all of these on myself. Even paying 3k for a top of the line laptop, I really dont expect the computer to last more than 1.5 years at the way I use the computer. Pounding away on the computer for 60 hours a week on average, and working out of lots of coffee shops, I'm hardly the typical use case for a computer user.

Just like a consumer coffee machine cant be expected to stay functional for long if it were in use in a restaurant, I dont expect my consumer laptop to work for the same time period as an average consumer would.

However, if you're using a laptop for commercial purposes, and at such a high capacity, you should probably expect to be investing at least yearly in your equipment.

</comment><comment><USER10> In a previous life (before I had a wife and kids), I had both money and balls and used to do a lot of dirt bike riding.

This same argument used to come up then too, in regard to the European bikes (KTM and Husky) vs the Japanese ones. Essentially, people would get upset that their new European bike, for which they had paid a substantial premium over an equivalent Japanese bike, would still break and require maintenance. I've owned both a KTM and a Husky (plus a Honda and a Kawasaki), and can attest to the fact that they are just pieces of machinery, like everything else. But... (and this is the bit people find hard to understand) ... the Euro bikes had something the Japanese ones didn't; something that made you forgive their mechanical woes and their extreme price. Man I miss those days...

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't think it's fair to put a hard disk failure down as a failed mac ... It's one of those things you think are supposed to fail someday!

</comment><comment><USER25> every device with millions of integral connections between delicate components i've owned has been so susceptible to failure that i've got reason to wonder if this is an untapped market...so far i've not seen a class of consumer electronics that fails as beautifully as its software is expected to.

<comment><USER26> Toys, and almost anything manufactured by Nintendo. Things designed for abuse, in other words.

</comment></comment><comment> matthew-wegner Surprised nobody has mentioned how Apple treats customers when they do have hardware failures. There are a lot of stories of hardware being swapped/upgraded in Apple Stores, even out of warranty.

Hardware failure is inevitable; the real question is, does Apple do a better job when that inevitability strikes?

</comment><comment><USER27> I once had a minicomputer fail on me when one of the TTL chips fell out of the CPU.

</comment><comment><USER28> Every Mac I've owned has not failed. Seriously, they are all still chugging along.

</comment><comment><USER29> Odd. I've had one Mac fail on me (dual-USB iBook, the one with the motherboard problem). They replaced the motherboard, but then I sold it anyway a few months later.

Every other Mac I've ever had since then is still running. Another iBook, a MacBook, PowerMac G4, and the Mac Pro I'm typing on.

It's a little annoying, honestly. At least the PC hardware has the decency to die and get out of the way when I stop using it. :-)

</comment><comment><USER30> That's why I wish I could have ThinkPad with OS X, without spending too much time on non-standard configuration. ;-)

<comment><USER31> ThinkPad + Ubuntu FTW

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I've had a powermac g5 tower dual 1.6 for over two years now and it still works fine (though flash seems to be a lot slower now)

My other old mac a G3 (i forget how old it is) is still working well with Tiger (albeit a bit slower compared to everything else)

</comment><comment><USER33> Network card on my MacBook refused to work just after 6 months. On the other hand, my 4 year old Asus laptop still works as a charm, apart from the HDD failure. Still, the HDD went on 3,5 years of heavy and tough usage.

</comment><comment><USER34> That's a pretty normal time span for a laptop to fail. Someone working at Dell once told me that components generally start failing after or around 2 years.

My laptop rule of thumb: always buy the extended warranty.

</comment><comment><USER35> I have a thing for second-hand 2001-era HP Omnibook 6100's, which fail after about 2 years (screen hinge, etc), but are QUIET. A recent favourite is Thinkpad T23's, which are titanium cased.

</comment><comment><USER36> The only computer that has ever failed me was a Sun Sparc station, 'round about 1995 ('twas the hard drive). Other than that, so far I've been unscathed. _< knocks on wood>_

</comment><comment><USER37> I have the same identical problem with my MBP. I'll be forced to get a new laptop in January, as being without one is a huge inconvenience.

</comment><comment><USER38> Post seems pretty spot-on.

My Mac Pro's RAM failed within 6 months.

My MacBook Pro's battery died and had to be replaced within 11 months.

<comment><USER5> If its within 6 months, AppleCare should have replaced it for free. There were some known battery issues - Thats why Apple replaced (and still does) the batteries if you bring it in and your battery is bad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> moral of the story: buy applecare.

</comment><comment><USER40> Hard Disks and Optical drives only fail on Macintoshes?

</comment><comment><USER7> Every bias I've owned has failed me.

</comment><comment><USER41> The longest I've ever had a Mac was six years, when I used a Mac Plus from 1989-1995, when I got my dads old IIsi. Then in 1996 I bought a Quadra 605, and in 1998 I bought a PowerMac 7200, and in 2000 I bought a new iMac. In 2001 I bought a Powerbook Lombard 400, and in 2002 I bought a G4/466. Then in 2003 I bought a new Powerbook 12" 1ghz, and that worked perfectly for me for three years until December 2006 when I bought a new Macbook which needed a new motherboard six months later. Since then it's worked pretty OK though it does seem to completely lock up every now and then requiring a forced shutdown, which didn't happen with the old Powerbook 12" if I recall correctly. Our 4 year old Dell PC has worked perfectly and we will continue to use it until it blows up.

</comment><comment><USER42> every pc I have owned has failed!

<comment><USER43> I'm not a Mac guy... Never had a PC fail me (over about a decade), except one ultraportable toshiba (screen failure). That's... 4 desktops and 2 laptops.

Of course, it DOES fail on the software side... Windows gets pretty painful as it ages.

I've always aid that Mac vs. PC is a decision of whether you want crappy-but- pretty hardware and good OS or ugly-but-solid hardware (assuming you do your research) and a mediocre OS that ages poorly.

I'm seriously considering a hackintosh for my next machine.

<comment><USER44> Most of the parts in Apple computers are the same parts used in PCs. A majority of the PC laptops are built by one of a few companies in China. As a former sys admin I've dealt with my share of PC hardware failure and in the last several years I've seen my share of Mac failures.

Hard drives are probably the component most likely to die in either and they all use the same group of vendors. Display failures are also more common in laptops and again, they all use the same group of vendors.

<comment><USER45> "Three of my older laptops have had their hard drives fail (with painful data loss in one instance)."

More like they deserved what they got. A four or five year old hard drive should b expected to die yesterday and full backups should be an absolute requirement. I have had plenty of drives die long before that and would never dare push a hard drive to such a long limit with no backup, especially a laptop one that is moved around a lot.

And just to top it off "hard drives" are not Apple special hardware. I have noticed that some comments have negative points, how do I vote down something (in this case the article)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> What do you expect from subpar parts at a 300% markup?</comment>


Ask HN: Suggestions for yearend projects - <AUTHOR>

Its the end of the year. Can we share our biggest problems/ideas which can become seed for some of the side projects. As they get built I am pretty sure we will see them in ShowHN. <comment><USER2> I plan on revamping my personal site to run off AngularJS on the front end. It's more of a trivial project for me, as porting a resume to Angular doesn't exactly get at a lot of what makes the framework useful, but presenting my whole portfolio in Angular might make for a decent side project. Maybe abstract it into a generic portfolio template or something.

</comment><comment><USER3> I was going to attempt to create a basic programming language. I have about 16 days off between christmas, new years, unspent vacation time. I figured it would be an interesting project to fill my free time.

I have no design documents yet. Its just organizing how I _want_ to be able to program and how a few languages aren't letting me.</comment>


New Linux kernel debuts, adds more suspect NSA-sourced crypto - <AUTHOR> https://www.itnews.com.au/news/new-linux-kernel-debuts-adds-more-suspect-nsa-sourced-crypto-500094 <comment><USER2> Google has decided not to use it [1], so there is discussion of it being removed [2].

[1]: [https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=No- Speck...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=No-Speck-Yes- HPolyC-Encryption)

[2]: [https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux- Ke...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kernel-RFC- Remove-Speck)

</comment><comment><USER3> This email outlines some potential issues with Speck: [https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux- crypto/msg33291.html](https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux- crypto/msg33291.html)

And that was discussed here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17214827](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17214827)

I really can't judge the quality of that critique of Speck, but, its a lot more interesting than just "NSA = bad".

<comment><USER4> A comment on the thread from the code's contributor is super useful: SPECK was added because on low-end Android devices with less than 50MB/s AES, it enables phones to have encryption enabled by default. That is, SPECK is useful in cases where the alternative would be no encryption at all.

I'd be a little surprised if SPECK was the only workable answer here.

 _Later_ :

It isn't; Google is doing HPolyC instead.

<comment><USER5> You can read about some of the other options considered here: [https://marc.info/?l=linux-crypto- vger&m=152573520705012](https://marc.info/?l=linux-crypto- vger&m=152573520705012). But in the end, a new ChaCha-based mode suitable for disk encryption ([https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/720.pdf](https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/720.pdf)) had to be designed since there didn't seem to be any alternative block cipher that met the strict performance and security requirements. LEA-128 maybe comes close, but it hasn't undergone too much cryptanalysis yet (much less than Speck).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Well, is Speck enabled by default? If not, then this title sounds a bit like they fear-mongering, or just general FUD.

<comment><USER7> To my knowledge, on Arch it's enabled as module, so unless some application uses Speck (which are none that I have installed, care about or know) then the module will not be loaded and do nothing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> After Dual_EC_DRBG, and the early warnings and raised eyebrows, I feel like "there's no smoke without fire" is a good way to operate nowadays concerning the NSA.

</comment><comment><USER8> I encourage ITNews or anyone else to point out what's suspect about Speck. It's so tiny I don't see where you can or would put the compromise.

<comment><USER9> remember this guy ?

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

<comment><USER4> Yes. Now, finish the thought.

<comment><USER9> Everything the NSA and the US govt touches is suspect. Anything less is silly

<comment><USER4> That's a non-sequitur. The commenter upthread asked how you would hide a backdoor in a tiny block cipher. Can you answer that?

<comment><USER10> Nobody said anything about a backdoor; the question was "what's suspect about Speck". Speck is _suspicious_ (which includes more potential risks than just a "backdoor") because "Everything the NSA and the US govt touches is suspect".

This is the same kind of security-minded heuristic as the advice that you should restore from a clean backup instead of assuming you can even know how to clean a compromised host of every rootkit/backdoor/etc. Once trust has been broken, you have to assume risks _might_ exist until proven safe. This is why burning trust is often a very bad idea; regaining that trust takes a lot of time and effort.

Also, suspicion does not require an actual risk to exist.

edit:

For the record, I don't know much about Speck, good or bad. It might be fine, but that's orthogonal to the NSA earning a reputation that invites suspicion.

<comment><USER11> _Also, suspicion does not require an actual risk to exist._

No, of course not. But if you are taking that position, you are basically saying "I suffer from paranoid delusions and don't confuse me with the facts."

From what I gather from skimming this discussion, the question being put to you is "Suppose I don't suffer from the same paranoid delusions. What are the actual risks here that a rational person should be genuinely concerned with? Please and thank you."

<comment><USER9> Google seems to be joining the tinfoil crowd

[https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=No- Speck...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=No-Speck-Yes- HPolyC-Encryption)

<comment><USER4> Developing a superior lightweight cipher design doesn't mean Google is joining any particular criticism of SPECK.

<comment><USER12> Either way it's probably good for Google's reputation for them to roll their own. After all, they don't exactly have as high a standing as Apple appears to have for some things?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Top Voted Startup Technologies  - <AUTHOR> https://globality.be/tools?type=tool

<comment><USER2> Pretty much sums up my go-tos: Github + Django + AngularJs + Asana.</comment>


How do YOU survive during tough times? - <AUTHOR> This is to startup entrepreneurs living with high rent in the Bay Area especially SF.<p>Do you sell cereal, freelance on the side, couchsurf? How do you stay afloat? <comment><USER3> This is the wrong question. A better question is "would 'tough times' affect you at all?"

Never couple spending to income. That's a recipe for always feeling poor. Instead, find a baseline where you can live and make sure that it lies at such a tiny fraction of your normal income that you never need to think about thinks like "budgeting" or "saving".

So if you're fresh out of school with your first $50k/year job, make sure you can fit your entire life into $20k/year.

When you take that $120k/year job a few years later, live on $20k/year.

When you crack the $300k/year barrier with your RSUs from Google, live on $20k/year.

That is how I've always approached things, and it makes life a lot less stressful (since it removes the number one worry that everybody else has from the equation). There were several years when I was traveling and consulting where I'd only take one little $10k gig a year (or nothing at all), and there was never a question of running out of money because it naturally went out the door so slowly.

If you do what everybody else does and ramp your lifestyle up to meet your income, you're just ensuring that you'll be in trouble if things go south. But once you have a dozen years of accidentally saving (n-20) per year, you can survive for years at a time with no income at all, so bumps in the road don't feel bumpy at all.

Fix that and you'll stop needing to ask questions like this one.

<comment><USER4> The problem with that argument is that not everyone is OK with living a bare minimum cost of living life style. Also rewarding yourself for earning more can give you motivation to progress further.

I recommend fixing your spending at a %-age of your post tax income at a maximum. For me it is 50%, but that is on the conservative side for most people. I don't always spend 50%, but that is the max. I feel it is a good compromise between preparing for the future and rewarding yourself in the present

<comment><USER3> $20K was just an example. You can fix your acceptable living costs at $50k/year if you like, so long as you know that that will always be a tiny fraction of your income, regardless of how life evolves. The important thing is to not set it to a percent of your current income.

Keep them decoupled. That's the important thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Get a job at a lame startup with lots of processes and code reviews - <USER2> that leave you with a lot of free time waiting for others to approve the minutiae. The more designers they have the better - especially if they work remote. That company will fail horribly but, you will have the time and funds to work on your project.

<comment><AUTHOR> Omg this is quite an answer. Wish I could meet you lol

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you're building a company in SF without OPM (Other People's Money), you are making a big mistake.

<comment><USER7> Why use an acronym if you need to explain it anyway? You've essentially just added an extra word.

<comment><USER8> So next time she/he uses it there won't be need to clarify. Well, it will probably have to be repeated many times until it catches on, but I would say that's the idea :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Easy answer: leave SF and get to a lower rent situation if you truly cannot afford rent.

When I wanted to cut down costs, I built some software to take advantage of referral programs from startups and used that to get free food for a few months. But if I found myself in a situation where I truly feared my ability to pay rent, I'd start contracting and look into moving elsewhere.

<comment><USER10> Curious what you meant by:

>I built some software to take advantage of referral programs from startups and used that to get free food for a few months.

<comment><USER9> A bunch of food delivery startups have referral programs for first time users. There are some ways to get lots of referrals using software :-).

<comment><USER10> Oh like creating a bunch of new emails or whatever?

Proxy... I know if you're smart you can take advantage of things, like for instance me not being smart, my credit cards fucked me, but smart people on the other hand, they sign up for credit cards and can make money off of it. Like $600/mo through all those signup bonuses or whatever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If I didn't prepare a buffer before reaching a point where I had to think about "staying afloat" then I'd just be more aggressive in taking on contract work (I'm a consultant but favour my discretionary time over filling every day with work). I'd pause my main project until I had a buffer again or do the new work around my project.

That aggressiveness comes from reaching out to my existing network more, stretching that network to more people and also removing things that compromise in the contract work search (bonus if they're also sapping money). So things like Netflix, eating out regularly, or anything else that's definitely a Want but not a Need, are put on pause as well.

But this would be a lot easier if a buffer was created first so you wouldn't reach this situation in the first place. Or if you did then you're prepared better for weathering it out. You build a buffer to help you financially and also mentally: build up a war chest with either savings or investment money and do things that make you uncomfortable while you have the room to do so, so they don't make a mess of you later.

</comment><comment><USER12> How long have the tough times been going on and how much longer do they look to continue? If this is a rough patch, getting a second job, selling some belongings or renting out an extra room/space could be feasible (even renting out your apt and staying in the office if you have one).

If the tough times look to be continuing indefinitely they aren't tough times they are life and you have made some bad decisions about where you could afford to live..

</comment><comment><USER13> Join a company that pays good salary. Save up enough to have a cushion for the startup's tough time.

Startup is high risk business.

</comment><comment><USER14> i forward project my buffer (savings) to 2 years to cover living relatively modestly. I think it's important to not feel desperate to take whatever the next thing is.

I fish for contract work when it's available and try to generate passive income where possible. If you're living on $20k, the 3-4K you get from your asset portfolio goes a long way.

If I had no assets at all, I wouldn't be willing to enter the start up game . I'd look to ratchet up the ladder to a bigger buffer first then role the dice.

If I had to ... I'd consider taking s part-time job doing whatever and finding a living situation that the part time job could afford (e.g. Sharing an apartment uncomfortably). I'd spend the rest of the time on my start up or trying to ratchet up a better living situation.

What's that saying about logistics winning wars?

</comment><comment><USER15> > sell cereal

Huh? Breakfast cereal? Is this something people do in SF to earn money on the side? Or is it a joke I don't get?

<comment><USER16> It's a part of the story with AirBnB

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Mods, please add the "Ask HN" prefix for this one. It's not a link to another site/article.

</comment><comment><USER18> Not joking: Get your spouse to sponsor your startup. Give them some ownership of the company.

</comment><comment><USER19> Freelance, or live in a car + buy gym membership to shower.

</comment><comment><USER20> Access to a locale with a vastly cheaper cost of living.

</comment><comment><USER21> Go back to school by taking advantage of student loans.</comment>


Ask HN: Does anyone have any spare-time project ideas? - <AUTHOR>

I like my day job, but I find that I have a bit of spare time over the nights and weekends.
I'd like to put that time to productive use, but I like my job and don't want to quit. I've seen a few posts here on small web projects that people have done in their spare time, and I'm wondering if anyone has ideas they'd like to share with me. I'd like to get something that a few people think is quite good.
I'm looking for more "Parrot e-book" than PG's Request for Startup style problems :)
Here's one that I've thought of, I'd love to see what HN thinks of it:
"Web app for sending surprise gifts to one's romantic partner" - basically, I read once about someone with a shell script that reminded him to tell his wife he loved her at random intervals (after x commands). I thought that was really cool, and you could potentially extend it by having people sign up on a site and then the site would randomly decide to send them a surprise for their partner (based on some demographic information they provided) - for instance "We suggest you send Carla this cute picture of a cat". You could potentially monetize with a few "paid" suggestions from local restaurants, beauty parlours, bars and the like.
Keen to see what HN thinks of that, and what they can come up with :) <comment><USER2> What you want with small web projects are probably not things you need to get in contact with companies every day to monetize. Sticking a suitable advertising network should be enough, or you should do like one or two companies at a time, changing monthly.

If you go with your idea there is room for expansion. See if you can make it work for a broader categories then just guys getting stuff for wives and gfs. The reverse for one. You could target it at women to get insight into what guys like. And maybe find a way to get users to review or provide ideas... Maybe gamify it. And there is always anonymous marketing data as a potential money stream.

I also recall reading about a date planning site for committed couples not too long ago. You might see what is already out there.

The best thing to monetize is perhaps something you are already doing for yourself. You can extrapolate from your experience.

</comment><comment><USER3> I recently read an article on HN about how the value of an idea comes from execution, not from just having it. That ideas bounce around a lot before they finally find a good home. It was such a romantic image that I now feel compelled to inspire you with some sort of nascent idea.

Unfortunately, I have nothing ready.

But, off the top of my head... I think the world is missing a lot of tutorial- ized scripts. That is, a lot of download-able programs, especially programming-related ones like languages (Ruby/Node/Python/etc) have install scripts that make changes to your system when you install.

I think it would be cool to have a "tutorial-ized" version where the installer explained why it was doing things as it did them.

Of course, that would require someone with know-how to augment the script. And it would be a nightmare to maintain. But perhaps a useful learning tool / way to disseminate knowledge.

</comment><comment><USER4> This post is a couple of days old already but I'll add my concept for you. I've lost steam on this project but have a good deal of basics done if you want to pick it up.

Here is my description: [http://jnorthrop.me/2011/11/8/take-my-idea-measure- any-exerc...](http://jnorthrop.me/2011/11/8/take-my-idea-measure-any- exercise/)

And here is the work in progress: <http://wodwatts.com/>

There are opportunities to extend this to smartphones and go "social" as well. I doubt it'll make anyone rich, but I would have said that about Instagram as well. Ping me if you're interested.

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3869288>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3869427>

These are stories #3 and #8 respectively, to this story's #2.

</comment><comment><USER6> HEY I HAVE A SIMILAR IDEA WITH INSTAGRAM AND GIFTING SO IF YOU ARE INTERESTED WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT AND MAYBE WORK ON IT TOGETHER. I AM FRONT END PERSON AND DESIGNER, ALTHOUGH I UNDERSTAND SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS .. SO YOU WOULDN'T GO AT IT ALONE.</comment>


The New McCarthyism? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/editors-picks/b3cd7b5e5687 <comment><USER2> "To protect our liberty, it is essential that we root out these threats by any means necessary; and if the Constitution gets in the way, let's ignore it — just for a bit — until we can get the problem squared away. Then things can get back to normal."

The Roman republic had some ideas about dealing with this with dictators appointed to "get the matter done". They were usually called upon when they were at war or facing rebellion. The dictator was vested with absolute power. He could pass any law or make any change to the Roman constitution. Once the matter had been done, he was immune to prosecution for anything done as dictator. It was an effective way for Rome to be free during peacetime and powerful during wars.

The thing is that when there's constantly a matter to be done that the power creep is never repealed.

</comment><comment><USER3> The most dangerous enemy, as the nation's founders understood, is inside....the growing domestic surveillance apparatus. These have become part of the new normal.

... millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for "high-risk persons or behaviors" among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

Under Obama's leak policies, anyone who reveals secret activities — illegal or not — is considered to be aiding the enemy.</comment>


Etymology of "Foo" (2001) - <AUTHOR> https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3092.txt <comment><USER2> One of my least favourite things about learning to program was the use of foo/bar/baz in example code. They can make a simple concept difficult to understand, and a difficult concept almost impenetrable.

<comment><USER3> I agree, also other common abstractions like "item", or "x". When I was first starting out I had a difficult time discerning which parts of example code snippets were system keywords and which were user-supplied and arbitrary. When I started writing my own code I used these generic terms as variable names to my own detriment. It makes sense that these examples are generic and the authors don't want to commit to concrete variable names, but a concrete example is usually much clearer and equally translatable to some other domain. Reading other people's code with actual variable names helped me a lot to finally grok the basic structures of code back in those days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Published on April 1st :)

</comment><comment><USER5> (2001)</comment>


Google's App Engine to get Java? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/get-ready-for-java-on-appengine/

<comment><USER2> Warning: All the "content" in that post is contained within the title line. Could have been a single tweet. Nothing certain, but rumored to be late May.

<comment><USER3> I've highlighted the really important content that required this to be a blog post:

[http://img.skitch.com/20090326-kmtrsapyef3p4r679r9wmi93sq.jp...](http://img.skitch.com/20090326-kmtrsapyef3p4r679r9wmi93sq.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If this happens, what is the likelihood of any of the JVM languages working there as well? (I haven't used GAE, so I have no idea how it is with libraries.)

It'd be fun to have Jython, JRuby, Groovy, Clojure, etc on GAE.

<comment><USER5> Just like Google Code was aimed, tangentially at least, at reducing the number of software licenses, it'd be a major coup for GOOG to establish a VM for languages big and small.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is it a surprising choice? Do you think they would have been better off targeting more hackerly type language, since companies aren't going to be too quick in moving to AppEngine in the early term?

</comment><comment><USER7> I would be interested in the memory limitations Google would impose. Java pretty much requires lots at startup. Would Google charge for more memory?

<comment><USER8> Google has a few Java properties. I'd be really surprised if they hadn't already solved this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's not exactly news.

A Googler accidentally mentioned this at their dev. conference in India last year.

The "other language" (which has been in the AppEngine roadmap for a long time) was always going to be either Java or Javascript, but all the bets were on Java

<comment><USER9> Here's a link on the Indian story: [http://www.controlenter.in/2008/10/google- developer-day-bang...](http://www.controlenter.in/2008/10/google-developer- day-bangalore-google-app-engine-to-support-java-android-sdk-release-on- oct-22/)</comment></comment>


Interview: Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp CEO - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15228114?nclick_check=1

<comment><USER2> Compere this: (from [http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastbay/yelp-and-the- business-...](http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastbay/yelp-and-the-business-of- extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635))

"During interviews with dozens of business owners over a span of several months, six people told this newspaper that Yelp sales representatives promised to move or remove negative reviews if their business would advertise. In another six instances, positive reviews disappeared — or negative ones appeared — after owners declined to advertise."

... with this answer from Stoppelman:

"So, a typical case history might go like this, 'OK, I got a call from Yelp advertising' — because we call pretty much all the local businesses, so everybody gets a call — and so that business owner declines advertising that time, looks at the site and then sends out lots of e-mails to their friends and family members and preferred customers, and they say, 'Hey I found out about this Yelp thing; it's great; review me.' And it's a success, they get 15 reviews up on their page. But that's also extremely biased, and if every business could do that, the site wouldn't be useful. And so what happens? Well, all those reviews get filtered. And so then they are convinced that if they had paid, those 13 reviews would have stayed up."

No, they are convinced that if they had paid, the _already existing_ good reviews would have stayed up.

</comment><comment><USER3> Another Yelp data point: the CEO saying that there is a definite correlation between people getting Yelp sales calls and their positive reviews being taken down. But it's for the site's own good. Yep.</comment>


LinkedIn Is Worth $9 Billion? The New Tech Bubble Has Arrived. - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2295189/

<comment><USER2> It's certainly beginning to look like a Bubble.

A few things -

1) Everyone is assuming that revenue will explode, and more importantly, profits will really, really explode.

2) Everyone is discounting intent. A social network for networking is very different from a site you go to to find jobs.

The assumption that LinkedIn is going to destroy sites dedicated to job hunting is just that - an assumption.

There is a higher chance that people will not change their intent from social networking to jobs - than there is that people will.

3) Everyone is discounting competitors.

 __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

 _NEW

The biggest warning flag to me is the assumption that all these tech companies are just waiting to hit some magical figure (say 250 million users) and then they will turn on the magic tap of unlimited profits.

A company that makes a lot of profit from the get go is very different from a company that stumbles into a huge source of profit and those are both very different from a company that optimizes for customers of bad intent and thus never reaches high profitability.

_ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __*

 _NEW

LinkedIn is worth $9 billion because Wall Street needs a way to get everyone's savings into their bonuses. The party will last for a couple of years. LinkedIn, Yelp, Groupon, Facebook, Zynga, etc. and every day people will be milked.

The same strategy - release a small amount of shares and drive up prices - appeal to people's greed to make a quick buck.

Then 90% of these companies will go down from 10 billion and $50 billion valuations to $1 billion and $5 billion valuations.

_ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _

</comment><comment><USER3> Currently, I haven't seen any overwhelming proof of a bubble (the type of proof that no one can dispute). Without said proof, it's up to everyone to digest their information and make their own opinion. It's only an opinion and until you can over conclusive statistics that sway a large majority of educated people, why waste your words? If you work at LinkedIn, this article becomes only slightly relevant to you (you may be out of a job in the future etc.). If you don't, this sort of thing should be ignored and you can continue to work on your business.

There is no bubble for solid (market-validated) business plans with reasonable, actionable revenue models.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have been reluctant to use "the 'b' word", but I'm afraid this is overwhelming evidence. LinkedIn waited a long time (by late-1990s standards, anyway) before issuing this IPO. Their business is relatively mature; while I don't think they've captured the entire market, even in the US, I think it's fair to say that the size of their ultimate market can now be estimated, and it doesn't look to me like it's more than 10 or 20 times their current revenue. Does anyone have any reason to think it's bigger than that?

If that's right, then yes, they are crazily overvalued at this price. Maybe I will short them at some point.

<comment><USER5> > Does anyone have any reason to think it's bigger than that?

The revenue per paying customer is high, but their conversion rate is low. When the economy picks up again and companies start hiring I can see both of these numbers improving

They currently only capture about 2-3% of the US job search market

They are not yet a mature company, they are still pouring all revenue into sales and marketing, R&D and dev - I think they will only be more mature and start showing the expected 35-40% net in 3-4 years time

They are still only 60% USA and 40% international - a lot of overseas growth to work out

$400M this year, I can see them eventually start leveling out at ~$4-5B a year in revenue where they will have to start coming up with new streams - which is certainly possible.

They could completely wipe out Monster and the others if the next few years work out well

They have a very good brand and large social network and have only really focused on monetizing the job search portion of it to date - there are many other apps that they can layer onto their platform (and they should open up that platform to others who want to build out ontop - I am surprised they haven't)

I think the risk of them not growing into the current price are pretty low. They can show 3 years now of double-or-more revenue growth and exceeding targets.

I can't see any of their competitors grabbing the market that they currently have and the market they are moving into. The LinkedIn brand is strong and if you talk to people the experience of recruiting through it is apparently brilliant. The only problem may be Xing and others in Europe

This IPO is a huge marketing event that will see a one-off big spike in numbers again. Everybody is talking about LinkedIn at the moment - I dug up my old account which I hadn't logged into for 3 years. I must assume that many others are doing the same. They have never had this much press and the marketing value of the IPO must be in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions

I wouldn't short them - no way. I wouldn't buy at this point either - but I can see them becoming a ~$15B company on $500M net and $1.5B revenue company in ~3 years. Their growth and multiples will start tailing back at that point

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think everyone who keeps saying that LinkedIn is evidence of a tech bubble should just stop complaining and take a short position. Put your money where your mouth is.

<comment><USER7> They can't. It's not available to short yet.

The underwriters who own shares from the IPO are not allowed to lend them out for short selling for 30 days. The institutional/retail investors who own shares can lend them out, but it is too soon for that to be enough volume to take any meaningful short position.

<comment><USER8> next week linkedin options start trading, and i suspect there will be demand for put options

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> With 100 million users, that makes it $90 per user. That looks a big number, but consider the cost of recruitment of a single position and look at the value of a validated network of 100 million professionals. I am sure each position filled in by recruiters would be worth a lot more.

\+ Ad revenue. \+ Their paid plans average $30 a month.

I would not short them yet.

<comment><USER10> I would place more value on the potential of their corporate solutions, hence price raising on recruiter-styled plans (done in 2010) to drive out the third- party companies / individuals. Though, a "successful" recruiter / shouldn't blink at $74.95 / month(25 InMails). $399.95 / month (50 InMails) is a bit more steep.

Corporate solutions: <http://talent.linkedin.com/>

Edit: typo.

</comment></comment><comment> wh-uws Can someone please edit that inflammatory title please?

 _If sources are weak, or only a single source is found, headline writers will hedge their bets by posing the headline as a question_

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines>

</comment><comment><USER11> According to the article itself, the new tech bubble has not arrived:

 _" But it does not mean that we are returning the big tech bubble that we had in the 1990s. LinkedIn is only one company, and one crazy IPO does not a bubble make."_

</comment><comment><USER12> aside: is there a linkedin specifically for programmers yet?

<comment><USER13> Stack Overflow? They do have a "careers" section. Not really a way to express a social graph AFAIK, though.

<comment><USER14> But do we need one (I mean social graph)? I believe our code (ie. github) or advices (ie. SO) speaks more than social graph when it comes to programmers, doesn't it?</comment></comment></comment>


Jason: Scriptable iOS JSON Client - <AUTHOR> http://www.jasonclient.org <comment><USER2> Hi I'm the creator of Jason, I was going to wait a bit before I feel ready enough for Show HN but I guess someone already posted :)

Jason came out of my personal frustration with building apps. I think it takes too much time and effort going from an idea to an actual functional app, even if you're an experienced developer.

I really think you should be able to just whip up some script and have it running in 5 minutes, as quick and easy as writing a blog post.

As an example here are two hacker news clients I just wrote up in 2 minutes:

ShowHN app: [http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http:/...](http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http://www.jasonclient.org/things/115.json)

HN firehose client: [http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http:/...](http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http://www.jasonclient.org/things/127.json)

Jason is completely native. It's not one of those html5 hybrid app builders. The JSON script you write is used to directly manipulate these native elements and also can even invoke native device functions such as camera, geolocation, audio/video playback, etc.

Please ask any questions, I'm here.

<comment><USER3> > _I was going to wait a bit before I feel ready enough for Show HN_

Go ahead and post it as a Show HN when you're ready. We won't treat it as a duplicate.

<comment><USER2> Thank you, I will!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> In a past project, we had a similar system used where most of the UI of the iOS app was driven by json served by the server. You can definitely do a lot, but the syntax of json had quite some limitation especially when you are trying to code some complex UI actions or add some business logic linked to your dynamic UI.

The system did evolve into using a combination of json and JS using for back then the newly introduced framework JavaScriptCore ... It made everything a lot easier overall since JS is definitely a proper language.

The JS obviously was able to map to native objects and thus performance overall was great. The app is still used by millions of users daily.

Edit: typo and adding more info

<comment><USER2> I've faced lots of challenges in terms of expressive power while working on Jason, but think I've figured out a lot of them. Could you share some of the challenges you faced? It would help a lot. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks really cool, thanks for this! If there is one thing holding me back, it's that JSON is a bit of a pain to write manually. Do you have any plans to support a more human-friendly format like YAML[1] or Hjson[2]? I guess I can always manually convert those to JSON, but it'd be neat to not have to.

[1] [http://www.yaml.org](http://www.yaml.org)

[2] [http://hjson.org](http://hjson.org)

<comment><USER2> I'm a huge fan of hjson. I agree it's pain in the ass to write JSON, especially the need to double quote everything. My goal was to release this asap and get actual feedback and work on things people want first.

To answer your question more specifically, as long as you can turn a data into JSON format you can run it on Jason. That's what I do in this tutorial where you can turn any spreadsheet data into JSON and then run it on Jason. [http://www.jasonclient.org/spreadsheet/](http://www.jasonclient.org/spreadsheet/)

Also there's an HTML parser which turns HTML into JSON format and then renders it in Jason ([http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http:/...](http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http://www.jasonclient.org/things/127.json))

So I'm sure I can add on HJSON and YAML support. BTW please join the slack channel if you're interested, [http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61...](http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61843c19c384fc05&id=c6e08abd5c) I'm happy to chat :)

<comment><USER5> That's brilliant, thanks for the reply!

Good call on getting something out the door quickly and waiting for feedback. Not sure you need to support both YAML and Hjson, just one human-friendly format would be enough, especially as the conversion is easy enough to automate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just tested, it's awesome. It's really fast I like it! :). It would be nice to have an Android version of this as well.

<comment><USER2> Hi, the creator here, If you look at how layout is implemented, it's very similar to android linear layout and its intentional. I do have plans for android version :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting but is this HTML+JS reinvented?

<comment><USER2> Yes, to be precise it's HTML+JS+CSS reinvented. I took lots of inspiration from existing browser standards while developing Jason.

But to be clear, it's NOT one of those html5 hybrid app builders. Jason is a scripting language that you use to manipulate native functions and elements directly. There is no HTML and packaging going on.

Also on the packaging note, the whole point of Jason is you can just write something up quickly and have a functional app running in 5 minutes. No compile, no build, no upload/download, no deployment. All you need is a single flat JSON file and you can share that url with anyone.

Does this make sense?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can you do a multi-page on this? Like having one link to another page and parsing another jason?

<comment><USER2> Yup. Here's a demo [http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http:/...](http://www.jasonclient.org/gallery/show/index.html?id=http://www.jasonclient.org/things/15.json) Scroll down to the bottom and tap the orange rounded button. And here's a documentation for that [http://www.jasonclient.org/doc/#1-href](http://www.jasonclient.org/doc/#1-href)

Lastly, please join the slack channel if you're interested [http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61...](http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61843c19c384fc05&id=c6e08abd5c) , I'm always there :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks really neat! Thanks for putting this out there!

Any chance the code for this will be open-sourced?

<comment><USER2> My top priority is to make this as extensible as possible, open sourcing is one option I'm considering but it comes with lots of challenges including security issues. I'm still exploring different options, would love to chat, please join the slack channel if you're interested :) [http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61...](http://textethan.us8.list- manage.com/subscribe?u=54e23b3fe61843c19c384fc05&id=c6e08abd5c)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Such a clever idea. Take raw JSON content and turn it into an app.

</comment><comment><USER10> Very, very well done... Thank you for creating this.

</comment><comment><USER11> Great idea and very interesting stuff.</comment>


Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures - <AUTHOR> http://seriss.com/people/erco/fovicks/ <comment><USER2> It's just functional. It has a job to do, moving water, and it does it.

When the Panama Canal locks were nearing completion, some artists were sent down to Panama to advise on decoration. There was talk of building stone lions at the locks. The artists came back and reported that the works had been carried out with no regard for decoration, and the best thing to do would be to keep them that way, purely functional. That was done, and the locks, impressive but plain-looking, are still that way.

River control for intermittent floods through populated areas has produced some good solutions. The Guadalupe River goes through San Jose, and floods every few years. The river now runs through a narrow channel deep in a big, wide channel. The big wide channel has walkways and bike paths, which will be underwater during a flood. And now, multiple homeless encampments.

Tapei has a similar setup on a much larger scale.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_River_(California)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_River_\(California\))

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great reading for everyone who grew up watching Terminator 2 and was fascinated by the chase scene where the T-1000 terminator bursts through a bridge down into in the LA river.

This seems to be the bridge: [https://goo.gl/maps/3v3LK6h75LqrzexSA](https://goo.gl/maps/3v3LK6h75LqrzexSA)

<comment><USER4> This was my first reaction seeing the picture: "Isn't that the bridge from T2??".

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Boston City Hall routinely ranks as one of the ugliest buildings on earth [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall)

Brutalist concrete building straight out of 1984. Really gets you mentally prepared for the labyrinth, dispassionate and uncaring bureaucracy that awaits you inside.

> _The building has been subject to nearly universal public condemnation, and > is often called one of the world 's ugliest buildings. Calls for the > structure to be demolished have been regularly made even before construction > was finished._

I highly recommend anyone who visits Boston take some time to walk around it and even inside of it. It really is something to experience, unfortunately for me I experience it every day of my life.

<comment><USER6> You're conflating brutalism and soulless/inhuman/ugly concrete-heavy design; this is a common misunderstanding.

Brutalism when done thoughtfully and well is beautiful, uplifting, and provides a sense of calm and space. The Simon Fraser U campus is a good example: [https://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-brutali...](https://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-brutalist- acropolis-in-great-white.html)

<comment><USER7> Check out this list of movies that utilized the SFU campus:

[https://604now.com/movies-filmed-at-sfu/](https://604now.com/movies-filmed- at-sfu/)

In every case the campus is used to represent the headquarters of some government agency or military facility, or as the setting for some dystopian sci-fi.

I'm interested in both brutalism and dystopian sci-fi, but I don't want to live in a dystopian future, and I don't like being around the brutalist architecture in my city either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Brings me back to the good times on Flood Control Dam #3 in Zork.

[https://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/flood_control_dam3.ht...](https://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/flood_control_dam3.html)

The underground Flood Control Dam #3 is a staggering engineering feat that must be seen to be believed. It was constructed in year 783 of the Great Underground Empire to harness the mighty destructive power of the Frigid River. This work was supported by a grant of 37 million zorkmids from the Central Bureaucracy and the local omnipotent tyrant of the era, Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive. This impressive structure is composed of 370,000 cubic feet of concrete, is 256 feet tall at the center, and 193 feet wide at the top. The huge reservoir created behind the dam has a volume of 1.7 billion cubic feet (an ancient document, perhaps in error, records that the volume of the reservoir is 37 billion cubic feet), an area of 12 million square feet, and a shore line of 36 thousand feet (an alternate dam guide book found in 1067 GUE states that the shore line is only 35 thousand feet).

</comment><comment><USER9> Since the server linked doesn't provide a secure version of the content here is a link to avoid MITM/downgrade attacks:

[https://archive.is/de6d](https://archive.is/de6d)

<comment><USER10> What threat model do you envision for a visitor on this site?

(I sorta can imagine one option, but curious about other opinions.)

<comment><USER9> Someone at the same coffee shop or the owner of the shop injecting ads or botnet mining.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It frustrates me that so many people hate brutalist architecture. I definitely wouldn't want every building to be brutalist but I'm glad that some are.

I also much prefer brutalism to soulless glass and concrete skyscrapers or nondescript office buildings. At least brutalist buildings look like something.

<comment><USER12> Why are you glad some are?

Signed,

A Brutalist Hater

<comment><USER11> Human beings are physical creatures and our physical environment can communicate messages that are more powerful than if you just read them in a book. I find that brutalist buildings often communicate a visceral sense of power, profundity, inhuman scale, etc.

A Brutalist library can give one the sense that it houses the knowledge of hundreds of generations. From a time when the gigantic heroes of myth necessitated the building's inhuman size.

Entering a Brutalist courthouse might feel like walking into a fortress where the forces of law and order make their stand to protect society from the forces of chaos.

In short, I agree, at least in part, with the critics of Brutalism who say that it creates in the viewer a feeling of insignificance and the sense that the environment was not fully built for you. Where I disagree is when they say that we should never feel that way. At a time when the comforts of modern technology allow people to live divorced from nature and where social media allows everyone to be at the center of their own world, I think its valuable to occasionally be reminded that we are each a very small part of a world that is very large.

<comment><USER13> > A Brutalist library can give one the sense that it houses the knowledge of > hundreds of generations.

Or it can resemble a turkey: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robarts_Library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robarts_Library)

Brutalist structures are hideously ugly and oppressive to the human spirit. Why anyone thinks architects and advocates for the dehumanizingly ugly should be allowed to use public spaces for these projects is a mystery to me. We have to share these spaces, and for people to say things like "sometimes you should feel insignificant" and then impose it on the rest of us in building form is objectionable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Civil engineering is awesome. Those canals look boring but it's better than having that water making it's own path.

</comment><comment><USER15> Reminds me of an anecdate from South America: "This is not like Europe, if you see a river in a city on the map, it is not a river, it is a sewage storm drain."

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm kinda surprised at the lack of graffiti

</comment><comment><USER17> This reminds me of GTA and probably a few Hollywood movies.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nothing in the article explains why it is Kafkaesque.

<comment><USER19> True, Kafkaesque would imply something like you get on the elevator to floor 5 and the 5th floor is labeled 6. You take the stairs down two flights to floor 5, skipping floor R. You go to the door labeled for the office you want and they tell you the office you seek is actually in a different building, which they do not know the address to, and you must now wait for the elevator which has stopped running until an hour from now because reasons and the stairs do not let you back to ground level.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Does Pyramid of Tirana, Albania qualify as Kafkaesque? I was there half a decade ago. Fascinating building especially with it's dilapidated state at the time.

Edit: Looks like they have recently struck a deal to turn it into a "tech center" \- seems like brutalism + tech overlap in this case. Edit 2: Changed to Pyramid of Tirana instead of Enver Hoxha's Pyramid

</comment><comment><USER21> One of the world's best examples of industrial architecture creating an inadvertent skateboarding Mecca.

</comment><comment><USER22> Is it a place from this episode of the 'Terminator 2' movie?

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

<comment><USER10> Yes. Also in 'Grease', 'Drive' and a bunch of other films: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_River#Entertainmen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_River#Entertainment_setting)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm surprised that this construction is considered a "river".

<comment><USER24> Americans tend to call artificial structures with names usually associated with more natural structures: they have a lot of "parks" in their cities, which usually end up being just a concrete avenue with a few trees in it (still infinite progress from concrete avenues with no trees at all). I'm always so sad to visit US cities as European

<comment><USER25> Also a European, but I really don't understand you. I don't know what you think park means in a urban context, to me a park is a man-made green area. Anyway, even when you go to a forest in Europe you likely have no idea of how much managed they are, it's exactly like farming, just on a different time scale. There is really almost nothing that is not somehow man-made on this side of the pond.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This seems like a good opportunity to post this book review about an alternate take on the intellectual history behind modernist / brutalist architecture. [https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing- lik...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like-a- state/)</comment>


Show HN: Social experiment with live textboxes - <AUTHOR> http://lines.editfight.com/ <comment><USER2> This needs some way of voting posts down/flagging. Too many "Send nudes" and other inappropriate messages.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep definitely have a feature like that in the works. Where if > 50% active users vote to kick someone they're kicked out for 30 mins. Easy to do, just a matter of finding the time to code it :/

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Site looks broken to me. Using Chrome on Linux.

>There are 0 people here (NaN have typed stuff).

I'm also getting JS errors: "Uncaught TypeError: Object.entries is not a function connection.onmessage @ (index):403".

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't realize how new that was. Yeah I rely on the newest of the newest features. I check caniuse.com and if at least 3 major browsers supports a feature then I use it freely. Sometimes that means using stuff that doesn't work on older browsers or IE11.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how subtle changes to the way the game is framed may alter what people write.

</comment><comment><USER5> caused it to freeze for chrome users with max craziness text from this site : [https://lingojam.com/GlitchTextGenerator](https://lingojam.com/GlitchTextGenerator)

</comment><comment><USER6> Rick roll links and profanity incoming!

</comment><comment><USER7> That's cool! How did you make it?

<comment><AUTHOR> It was originally vanilla JS on the front-end but I changed to Vue.js because it was really inconvenient without something like that. Vue has its own caveats but they're less annoying than nothing. The backend is a single free- tier EC2 server running a single Node.js process, using Websockets. Everything is custom except a canned websocket lib (and Vue).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks like it died?</comment>