Show HN: Self-Published Book – "Data Science in Production" - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
Over the past 6 months I've been working on a technical book focused on helping aspiring data scientists to get hands-on experience with cloud computing environments using the Python ecosystem. The book is targeted at readers already familiar with libraries such as Pandas and scikit-learn that are looking to build out a portfolio of applied projects.
To author the book, I used the Leanpub platform to provide drafts of the text as I completed each chapter. To typeset the book, I used the R bookdown package by Yihui Xie to translate my markdown into a PDF format. I also used Google docs to edit drafts and check for typos. One of the reasons that I wanted to self publish the book was to explore the different marketing platforms available for promoting texts and to get hands on with some of the user acquisition tools that are commonly used in the mobile gaming industry.
Here's links to the book, with sample chapters and code listings:
- Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/165206463X
- Digital (PDF): https://leanpub.com/ProductionDataScience
- Notebooks and Code: https://github.com/bgweber/DS_Production
- Sample Chapters: https://github.com/bgweber/DS_Production/raw/master/book_sam...
- Chapter Excerpts: https://medium.com/@bgweber/book-launch-data-science-in-prod...
Please feel free to ask any questions or provide feedback. <comment><USER2> I'm noticing no mention of virtual environments/venv. This is something I notice a lot of (Python) junior data scientists and data engineers struggle with. It's very important to set up environments properly (and following best practices) to avoid version collisions, global scope pollution, etc.

Great work, though! I'm also using bookdown (I instantly recognized the template) for a book I've been working on and it's a pleasure to use. Would love to see a blog post on how you marketed the book and how your sales are doing once the ball gets rolling!

<comment><USER3> Given how fragmented virtual environments are in python is which is the most popular currently? Last I looked there was venv, pyenv, pipenv, pipx, poetry and pipsi.

Haven't done any python work in a while but am curious to know what people use. Starting right now, I'd probably just stick with venv, though guessing the others do offer some extra benefits.

<comment><USER4> I see conda a lot more for new python coders in the machine learning space, having a GUI helps newer programmers. Check out Anaconda/Miniconda. Code is as simple as

      conda create -n myenv python==3.8
      conda activate myenv

Do all your things

      conda env export > myenv.yml

On your coworkers machine

      conda env create -f myenv.yml

<comment><USER5> conda can also manage packages that aren't part of python such as R, which is why I mainly use it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Fantastic - the end result pdf looks great.

Please blog about the details of the production process (scripts you wrote, problems with paper sizes or the amazon real paper process.) I am 30,000 words into a book and would love to hear more.

Good luck !

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like there is a few requests for this, so I'll look to authoring a post on this. And also talk about motivation for going the self-publishing route.

You can follow me on Medium for this update: [https://medium.com/@bgweber](https://medium.com/@bgweber)

<comment><USER6> thank you - look forward to it

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I really enjoy your articles on Towards Data Science and this seems to pull a lot from it. I bought the PDF copy. I have a Full Stack background and really like it all from the data engineering perspective

Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I originally planned on covering more topics related to DevOps, such as CI/CD for model deployment, but felt that this might be a bit of a stretch for some readers, and it's any area where I have less experience. Glad to here it's useful from a full-stack perspective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Way to go! Would you consider a blog post about the self-publishing experience?

<comment><USER9> As user dvt mentioned, this is built using bookdown[1], an R library (with the help of Pandoc). You can see that the example chapter of this book looks exactly like the bookdown output[2]. The bookdown PDF explains in detail how to use Rmd+RStudio+R+Pandoc+Markdown to publish this.

[1]: [https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/](https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/) [2]: [https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/bookdown.pdf](https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/bookdown.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's the complete source for the last text I authored using this pipeline: [https://github.com/bgweber/StartupDataScience/tree/master/bo...](https://github.com/bgweber/StartupDataScience/tree/master/book)

You can use the same tooling to create an epub output, but the formatting will be substantially different.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Well done. Just bought.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please leave a review if you purchased on Amazon.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Starting a company blog, what should I know for SEO? - <AUTHOR> I am working on a SAAS startup and want to start posting to a blog for SEO and to refer our customers to our posts for information. What are things I should know for SEO? I think we are going to go with Wordpress.<p>Does it matter if it's blog.website.com vs website.com/blog? Does it help to have posts link between each other? Are there a list of meta tags I need to take into account? Thanks! <comment><USER2> The most simplest way to get started is to start with publishing product specific content. Gradually move towards industry specific content. Consistency and valuable content is the key to better ranking.

We did a mistake earlier at [https://draftss.com](https://draftss.com) where we built the website using Python/Django and then setup WordPress for blog on 'domain-name/blog'. All the articles that we uploaded would appear nested after blog. It would end up something like 'domain-name/blog/article-name'. This hurt our SEO as compared to 'domain-name/article-name'. We are now shifting the complete site to WordPress so we can have achieve a better ranking with the latter. The closer the article is to the domain, the better chances of it to rank higher compared to others.

Does it help to have posts link between each other?

\- Yes, interlinking post is very important. Both internal linking and external linking is important. However, you should not worry about this at the current stage.

Are there a list of meta tags I need to take into account?

\- Yes, fill all meta tags of all pages describing the contents of each page that you would like to rank. Use header tags to highlight important keywords that you would like to rank for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! This is valuable information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You could take a look at my on-page SEO guide ([https://www.checkbot.io/guide/seo](https://www.checkbot.io/guide/seo)) and Chrome extension that checks on-page SEO for you ([https://www.checkbot.io](https://www.checkbot.io)).

Also see Google's SEO starter guide that the above is mostly based on: [https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en)

Generally, you can't go wrong with anything that make pages more helpful to humans e.g. links between relevant pages are helpful.

</comment><comment><USER4> As someone who grew a site from nothing to 200k/monthlies, here's my advice:

1\. The best way is if you get people to link to you. This comes down 20% to having better content and 80% to putting in the legwork to share your work and get others to see it (and then link). This outreach work is back-breaking and filled with rejection. Which brings me to:

2\. In my experience nothing is easier (at least holistically) than having a high _quantity_ of content (I'm talking at a scale of 1000s of pages). This is a long-tail play and doesn't require near as many inbound links. Consider finding a low cost (Upwork/algorithmic) way of doing so. This content must still be of value to human readers so don't create keyword-stuffed drivel.

3\. Put a lot of thought into how your search snippet appears in Google (look up: meta description and micro-data). This snippet is your website's a sale pitch: you need to convince someone browsing on Google why they should other clicking through.

——

For more:

I make videos about life as an indie-hacker and have a few specials on SEO that might give you some detailed ideas:

[https://www.semicolonandsons.com/episode/seo-strategies- for-...](https://www.semicolonandsons.com/episode/seo-strategies-for-web-apps- part-i)

</comment><comment><USER5> You could be attacked by a spam network, making you lose over 50% traffic in 3 months.

There's lots of spam sites like twilightontheolympicpeninsula, codegrepper, everythingtutorial, bestappsfinder etc (everything dot com). The network that's attacking me has over 10.000 sites (you can discover their whole network using a backlink checker like ahrefs)

What can you do about these type of attacks? Nothing. The only way to mitigate this is the disavow tool, but it may take 4 weeks or longer for those domains to disappear. In the meantime, more and more of those spam sites are getting linked.

It is not a rare occasion either, I found the entire niche (and others) are getting these types of attacks. Changing the Google rankings of the entire niche.

So many of those spam domains are being added that no amount of content writing makes your rankings go up.

Reporting to hosting, police etc is useless. Why Google allows spam networks to decide the Google ranking is beyond me.

So what you should know about SEO is that it's unreliable. Spam networks decide the Google ranking now.

</comment><comment><USER6> There is some good advice in this thread. In the end, just start writing good content which it sounds like you've already started having 20 Google docs. Your post gave me motivation to finish a post I had started on this topic and I hope it provides some value to you. I do disagree with the above comments regarding /blog/ having an impact on ranking, click-depth matters more than URL structure.

I covered this and the sub-folder vs sub-domain, [https://searchmentors.io/company-blogging/](https://searchmentors.io/company- blogging/) on the post.

Also, the guy who said it doesnt matter you need to do direct marketing, he's not wrong but it all plays into the SEO performance of your content. Write good content, promote it and you'll see the benefits. Write and do nothing and you may or may not find some success.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions.

</comment><comment><USER7> None of this stuff matters at this point. Start writing content.

<comment><USER8> Allow me to reinforce the point made above.

None of this matters, because those decisions do not drive traffic to your product.

What matters is _direct_ marketing. AKA directly targeting people or groups with specific content.

What does that content look like? Start with whatever problem you are solving. Write about how you are solving it. Then actively look for people who have or seem to have that problem and share your blog.

<comment><AUTHOR> We've written approx. 20 google docs that we have been sending directly to clients with information and are now trying to formalize the information by publishing them as blog posts. So hopefully this process is sound

<comment><USER8> That is an excellent way to grow your content. Keep it as personal as possible and people will continue to engage.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


iPhone 7 Review - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/a/apple-iphone-7-review-vs-iphone-7-plus <comment><USER2> Much of the conclusions were not very positive...how'd it end up with a 9?

The Verge always seems extra giddy about iPhones. They'd never rate a ho-hum Android phone with "disappointing" and "incomplete" features this highly.

</comment><comment><USER3> "my jet black review unit scratched and scuffed almost instantly"

I don't see a point of making smartphones thinner if they are so fragile that they have to be in cases. A phone that's a few millimeters thicker and a bit heavier might still feel smaller for the customer if it's usable without a case.

<comment><USER4> What does that have to do with having an easily scratchable finish???

<comment><USER5> If the phone has a nice showy fragile finish users may feel compelled to protect it by putting it in a case. Negating the benefit of a thinner phone.

<comment><USER6> The thin phone with special finish that "needs" a case is still thinner than _thicker phone with finish that needs case just as much (or little)_. Thickness is a red herring here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If nothing else, it's refreshing to see a more logical take on the headphone jack issue. All of tech media will not stop harping on this, just like they did when the optical drive was no longer standard on Macs (you need to buy a $35 USB optical drive, the HORROR).

Maybe Apple was a little ahead of their time to remove the optical drive, and maybe they are with the headphone jack too. So far the more level headed of the user base don't seem to give too much of a shit.

<comment><USER8> My issue with the headphone jack removal is that it is a more reliable port than the lightning port. I've had a lightning port on an iPhone become damaged before through normal wear and tear. I have to now position the cable just right to charge it. There's no way that I'd want to use that lightning port even more by trying to play music on it and I definitely don't want to have to hold the adapter a certain way to get music to play.

<comment> k-mcgrady Are you sure the port is actually damaged? A common issue is lint clogging it up. I had an issue where I had to jiggle the cable to get it to charge and when I finally brought it to an Apple store they disappeared out back and returned with so much lint I don't know how it even fit in the port. You can remove it yourself with a paperclip but I'd take it to the Apple store so that if the port really does get damaged removing the lint they're liable.

<comment><USER8> Whoa, never thought of that. It's definitely possible. I'm going to give that a try. Thanks!!

Edit: It worked! (I used the cut stem of a q-tip instead, wasn't brave enough to try a paperclip; lots of lint)

<comment> k-mcgrady Great! It's a common issue apparently. It also happened to my lock switch which wouldn't move for a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How do you plug it in to charge at the same time as using the headphones so you can, for example, listen to music at work?

<comment><USER10> Another option is [http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning- doc...](http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning-dock-black)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is marked as a dupe but is clearly not. Of course flag abuse is nothing new on HN for Apple articles.

<comment><USER11> We can't have two iPhone 7 reviews on the front page. The discussion about this particular review is welcome to continue here, or on the article currently on the front page: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946).

<comment><USER12> Why can't there be two reviews on the front page? They are (or should be) genuinely unique pieces of content that could be more valuable together than apart ... having two perspectives on such a widely used piece of gear might be 10x as useful as one, no?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The list of "bad stuff" in the article is longer than the list of "good stuff", yet it receives a 9/10.

Looks strange (biased) to me, yet I'm not an Apple hater, in fact I've ordered an iPhone 7 Plus for myself last Friday.

But I have to say that I would have bought the Note 7 if they had the same US promotional offer in the EU with a free Samsung Gear Fit2 if you preorder a Note 7. (instead we get the Gear VR - which is less interesting for most consumers)

Also the Note seems to take better pictures, at least that's true for the images compared in the video review.

At least the removal of the headphone jack is no issue for me as I'm a happy user of wireless headsets for quite some time now and I don't plan to ever go back to wired ones.

</comment><comment><USER14> Does anyone have links to some sample (real) raw or full size unedited iPhone 7 Plus images?

<comment><USER15> Using 900x676 pixel ~400kB JPEGs for demoing camera performance is hilarious.

<comment><USER14> I know right? Especially when you're looking at them on a 5K iMac ha!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "Bad stuff:

..

* Looks just like an iPhone 6 in a case"

</comment><comment><USER16> > Great display

How can they write that as a plus when it is the same screen size and resolution as the previous model, and the competition as a better display overall?

[http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple- iphone-6-plus,apple-...](http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple- iphone-6-plus,apple-iphone-7-plus-256gb,lg-v20)

Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery? <\-- EDIT : Thank you all for your openness of mind!

<comment><USER17> Might as well mention the lack of a hardware keyboard and possibly DVD drive and parallel port at that point - no iPhone ever has had an SD card slot or removable battery.

<comment><USER18> A parallel port is useless junk at this point for all but very special use cases.

A removable battery is quite useful and the norm for many home devices.</comment></comment></comment>


The world's most toxic value system - <AUTHOR> http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/TOXICVAL.HTM <comment><USER2> He's roughly correct. Yet if warrior societies are so bad, why are they so common? The answer is that they used to work. In low tech warfare, the fiercest and most cohesive side wins, even if they're outnumbered 10 to 1. So for most of history warrior aristocracies have controlled territories way out of proportion to their numbers.

Industrialization changed the balance. If you have guns and your opponents have spears, it doesn't matter how fierce they are.

The traditions of warrior socities may be obsolete, but it seems provincial to call them "toxic." Members of those societies would be equally contemptuous of our traditions. For example, our lack of loyalty. We're nicer to women, but would we be as willing to die to save a friend? We're more sensitive, but are we as honest?

<comment><USER3> Are we as willing to die to save a friend? Are we as honest?

Yes.

In fact, no matter what your opinion of the current politics vis-a-vis Iraq, it seems that not only would we die to save a friend, we would die to save an enemy, or an idea. We've done it time and again. As far as I know, no other culture is like that. As far as honesty, societies with "thar" mentalities are some of the most dishonest societies on the planet, whereas western societies a lot of business can be conducted on just a handshake. Ever try a handshake at a bazaar?

I think western civilization stacks up quite well against those questions. It's not a relative thing -- certain ideas make cultures better than other ones. Societies are all not equal -- that's a late 20th-century mode of thinking that's non-operative.

But perhaps I read too much into your response.

<comment><USER4> _Ever try a handshake at a bazaar?_

I've tried them with people working on my car transmission, my real estate agent, and various/sundry people in my path I thought I could trust. I would trust a stranger at a bazaar more than any of those parasites.

<comment><USER3> You would trust a random person in an open-air market more than you would trust a trained, certified, bonded, licensed real-estate agent?

Care to think that over a bit more? Perhaps phone a friend?

<comment><USER5> I'd trust the Real Estate agent to not kill me... but I certainly think the random person at the market's interests are more aligned with my own than any real estate agent's interests are.

Real estate agents want the house to sell quickly at the highest price possible (to increase both their deal throughput and commission). This serves neither the buyer (who should be looking for lowest price of whatever it is he wants) nor the seller (who gets to pay an absurd commission for what amounts to secretarial work).

So yeah, this is completely off topic, but at least the person in the open air market just wants to sell something, and by being there you must want to buy it, so I don't see the swindle.

<comment><USER3> Maybe off-topic, but interesting, at least to me.

So the person in the market is unknown to you. He has something, you have something. You trade, life is good.

But how do you know when you give your money you'll get something? How do you know it's the thing you asked for? How can you be sure the trader isn't just trying to lure you back to some back room where you can be mugged or worse? While haggling at a bazaar can be great fun, there's a lot of risk involved. Financial transactions do not like risk. That's why we don't sell houses using the bazaar format.

I'd like to point out that houses sell and are bought for all kinds of reasons aside from price. So I believe your reply to be a little weak in that regard. Whatever the case, the position of "real estate agent" in our society confers all kinds of things. If the house is not the seller's, then you are covered. If the agent runs off with your down-payment, you are covered. If the agent knowingly misrepresents the house, you are covered. In fact, the idea is that the risk is reduced to simply: is it worth what I am paying for it? Financial markets like this.

There's no problem with multiple parties all having somewhat conflicting interests. Financial transactions occur when parties find some subset of aligning interests in which to trade around. Not total alignment -- that doesn't exist. Once you have enough alignment for a trade, you've got to reduce risk. Some of these cultures, for instance, refuse to use a banking system, believing it to be immoral. While I deeply respect the right of any individual to believe any dang thing he wants, cultures that do things like ban banking, private property rights, etc. greatly increase the risk during financial transactions. That's why I'd never get involved in Russia, for instance -- never can tell when the ruling party might decide just to take over your entire business. You can't have a highly-functioning society like that.

<comment><USER5> _"How can you be sure the trader isn't just trying to lure you back to some back room where you can be mugged or worse?"_

Like I said, I'd trust a Realtor more to not kill me (or perpetrate some other act of violence). Was just saying Realtor has much more financial incentive to screw me over in a legal, but still unkind, way.

 _"I'd like to point out that houses sell and are bought for all kinds of reasons aside from price. So I believe your reply to be a little weak in that regard. ... In fact, the idea is that the risk is reduced to simply: is it worth what I am paying for it?"_

I totally agree that houses are bought for a number of reasons, but I was discussing the dimension involving getting the best price. If you love a house because it has fluffy pink toilet seats and are willing to pay any amount of money for that comfort, then you aren't getting screwed. On the other hand, if you live in the real world and have a maximum budget for a house, the realtor will always show you things just above your range, in the hopes you will splurge on it. Sure, you can find another realtor that won't do this, but most people won't. It's not illegal, and only slightly immoral, so I can't say I blame the realtor. They are just working within the system they are given to maximize personal gain, like anyone else. The problem I was pointing out is that the system is not well aligned with the needs of either the buyer or seller.

 _"Some of these cultures, for instance, refuse to use a banking system, believing it to be immoral. While I deeply respect the right of any individual to believe any dang thing he wants, cultures that do things like ban banking, private property rights, etc. greatly increase the risk during financial transactions. That's why I'd never get involved in Russia, for instance -- never can tell when the ruling party might decide just to take over your entire business. You can't have a highly-functioning society like that."_

I totally agree there.

<comment><USER3> "Like I said, I'd trust a Realtor more to not kill me (or perpetrate some other act of violence). Was just saying Realtor has much more financial incentive to screw me over in a legal, but still unkind, way."

I'd rather have an equal playing field and do my own worrying about the realtor screwing me over than about my physical safety. The economy works great with people looking after their own financial interests, but not so well when things like contracts, personal safety, banking, or insurance bonds are non-existent.

Still like that idea of a bazaar being better than dealing with a professional in a western culture? From where I'm sitting it's not looking so hot. Remember -- the guy in the bazaar can still screw you the ways professionals in the west can -- but he can screw you in a lot more ways, too.

<comment><USER6> have you ever been to a bazaar? Or is it just a rhetorical device?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I originally enjoyed this little essay, but the more I thought about it, the more certain things bothered me:

1\. The word Thar: He doesn't want to saddle the Spanish, but is more than happy to saddle the Arabs. This is bad form and almost racist. Every culture in the world practices "Thar", why the disdain for Arabs?

2\. Ignoring European "Thar" - With the exception of the Former Yugoslavia (Muslims - interesting), the author basically ignores the many examples of this in European societies, from Italian, Greek, Spanish, Russian. Hell, the Mafia is basically built on this, and last time I checked it's alive and well - but it doesn't even get mentioned. (FYI, I'm southern Italian... my grandparents are as "backwards" as can be sometimes.)

3\. The real reason the west no longer follows "Thar" is because of the Age of Enlightenment (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment>).

Because it's only a few generations old (having happened in the 1800's) and was centered in Europe - by extension North America - it has simply taken time to reach other parts of the world. Namely, the mid east and Africa.

This is the reason that Thar - which enlightenment rejects - is still so prevalent in these societies.

4\. The Bushido code IS "Thar". The fact is that Japan up until the end of WWII embodied "Thar" to a degree of perfection seen nowhere else on the planet cannot be excused away by a "remorse shine" in a doctor's office.

In fact, had the doctor been a true practitioner of Bushido, he would have killed himself long ago. The remorse shrine is a symbol of cowardice consistent with reason - imported from North America after WWII. (I'm not suggesting either one is correct) This shows more than anything that the doctor is conflicted between the notion of an insult to his honor, and the understanding that real sacrifice should not be required.

This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at pinning Arabs and Muslims with the moniker of backwards-stone age people that need "educating". If this is what qualifies for advanced cultural thinking in the US, its no wonder you're losing in Iraq.

>"It's considered bad form in many circles to criticize another culture's values. "

Perhaps the author would do well to follow the advice of his peers.

<comment><USER8> Reading what you wrote I could not help but think of "What You Can't Say (<http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html>)"

There is a recent idea that criticizing other cultures is a bad idea and or bad form. However, cultures are unique so Thar and "honor" are separate concepts so not all cultures have "Thar". EX: Some early cultures in Europe practiced human sacrifice however over time that went out of style etc. In other words cultures are different, but we should not talk about how these differences may be good or bad at generating wealth?

In the modern world attempting to keep doing the same job your entire life will often fail. Doing your fathers job the same way he did is not going to work. And doing the same thing as your great grandfather in the same way he did is a really bad idea. However, it seems like bad form to criticize cultures who think sons should continue in their father's foot steps. At the same time it seems obvious that such cultures would on average be less likely to do well in the modern world.

Anyway, rather than defending the essay I would just ask you to read it again after "What You Can't Say" and see if you react in the same way. I think the he is trying to talk about a vary specific kind of "honor" vs attacking specific culture as a whole.

<comment><USER7> I don't take issue with the idea that certain aspects of some cultures should not be condoned as morally right.

However, the author has no facts to back anything he asserts. Warrior societies are successful, and always have been. Thar is a proven business practice, as it were.

<comment><USER9> I am curious how many people who writes here are actually involved in some form of modern 'warrior culture'.

Among my martial arts friends, we have a description of "Old Man Powers". What we mean by that is described in this Kung-Fu Magazine article: [http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=74...](http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=740)

... that is to say, the survivors tend to be very, very crafty. Whether or not there is social sanctions for 'thar' behavior, I think that insults to honor and blood feuds often used by the immature, adolescent male more than the older, mature male. 'High-tech' may prove more as a means for killing people with more expensive equipment.

I've had some interesting times reading the comments here over the past couple days and thinking about them. My conclusion (for now) is that the author of the article has some insights in a very broad sense while overlooking some things. He says things that can be mistaken for racism because he did not provide specific examples to the contrary. Having looked through some of his other articles on the site, I see that he also has some very strong opinions. However, at the end of the day, his opinion is more or less irrelevant to someone who _is_ living a modern warrior's life (as archaic as that sounds) -- whether that person is a martial artist, or a hacker. I find I have trouble taking his opinions seriously when I have doubts that he has been at the sticky end of violent conflicts. You cannot intellectually stop yourself from pissing your pants and vacating your bowels when your body is screaming in mortal danger.

Culture shapes us the way, say the Ruby on Rails framework shapes a web app. Conventions may be the results of hard-won experience, but the truly mature human being walk that path of evolution and learn from their own mistakes. One's whole life is an iterative process of development. Evolutionary scaffolding. Technological superiority does not entitle us supremacy any more than our ability to deliver violence. Hack your own life and make it better.

Good coding folks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Well, this is, first of all, racist. He doesn't want to use the Spanish term because he thinks it's "really not fair to saddle Spanish culture with the term." But it IS apparently fair to saddle Arabic culture with the term. Considering that Arabia was the birthplace of Algebra and underwent a renaissance that in large part made the European Renaissance possible, no, I don't think that's very fair at all.

But even if I let this racist term go through, what is Thar, exactly? A good deal of time is spent talking about how it isn't various things-- honor, bushido-- but it isn't ever defined. Instead I get this list of things that are associated with the "mentality," a list that, among other things, describes Tokugawa Japan perfectly. As a side note, anyone who thinks Japan's is a culture of Bushido does not know Japanese history. The Bushido code was written by a samurai who never saw combat, whose father never saw combat, and whose grandfather, in likelihood, never saw combat. The Bushido myth is a propaganda piece for convincing daimyos to keep their samurai on the payroll.

So we have a clearly racist document using a nonsense term to describe nothing. What, exactly, is this?

<comment><USER3> "What, exactly, is this?"

It is a commentary on a way of life usually practiced by Arabs, but also commonly found in other places in the world. It is not a blanket statement about any race, therefore your charges of racism are total BS. You can be a member of a race and participate or not in a particular culture. Race is not culture. It's not a one-to-one relationship. To say that it is, ironically enough, racist. People are free agents and can choose to be anything they want. Cultures are fair game for all sorts of criticism -- we are really good at criticizing our own culture. Thank goodness we live in a world where criticism of culture is encouraged.

<comment><USER9> I don't like how the original author failed to distinguish between Arabian culture and Muslim religion. Though they are intertwined, there are non- Arabian Muslim cultures as well. To add to DanielBMarkham's comment, though, Arabic culture centers around the language, not the ethnicity. Some of the original author's arguments are evidence of Muslim rather than Arabian origin. Lastly, just to throw more confusion into the issue, some of the Sufi sages were tortured to death by their Muslim bretherens as heretics, and they died with the same kind of aplomb the way the Buddhist monks were tortured to death. (Not all Arabs sacrifice themselves in hopes of attaining 72 virgins).

The telling point would be to find a non-Arabian culture that encourages 'thar'. Unfortunately, I have not yet thought of an example off the top of my head involving an non-Arabian culture.

The original author also vaguely discusses the rise of 'thar' culture sprouting on the internet without giving any specifics. I've been to forums where where people flame each other for sport. I remember the occasional tiffs here, and people trashing Reddit. I know Digg and YouTube comments are full of inanities. Not to mention the flames on blog posts and regular news articles when someone gets upset but clearly did not thoroughly read the article in question. It often seem to closely track the maturity level of the people involved: immature human beings don't know how to set good personal boundaries, whatever culture that might be.

<comment><USER11> "The telling point would be to find a non-Arabian culture that encourages 'thar'. Unfortunately, I have not yet thought of an example off the top of my head involving an non-Arabian culture."

American urban hip-hop culture.

<comment><USER12> Boo. Apparently lots of people agree with you. I'm curious about your reasoning.

<comment><USER11> I don't have first-hand experience, so obviously I could be wrong, and if I've mischaracterized the culture, correct me. But here're a few points I've noticed:

1.) The obsession with "bling" and personal status through high-priced consumer goods. I've read that it's poor urban kids buying those $200 Nikes, and then marketers hope that their tastes will filter down into middle-class American kids. The street kids on the subway often have more stylish clothes and accessories than rich white kids. Remember Ludacris's song "Glamorous"?

2.) Anti-intellectualism. I have a couple friends who teach in inner-city school system. When black kids do well in school, they're taunted and teased by their classmates for "acting white". There's a strong cultural pressure not to stick out or excel.

3.) Gang warfare and revenge killings. There was a shooting a block away from my workplace a couple of years ago. A few gang members had apparently been slighted, so they got in a car, hunted down the rival gang member responsible, and shot him in a drive-by.

<comment><USER12> I think there's a bit of bias as an outsider looking in, so here are my comments, having been a bit closer involved in "black culture," as it were.

1) Obsession with personal status isn't one of the points of Thar, at least not as expressed by the collecting of property. And black kids aren't alone in buying clothes that outwardly indicate their high price, although they might be alone in buying rainbow colored AF1's.

2) Anti-intellectualism is an interesting point which I'll grant does show itself in middle and high school aged kids. I think if you ask those kids (or their parents) if education is important, however, I think they'll all say yes. I haven't actually tried it, but I've never met a high school dropout (of any race) who didn't regret it. Inner city schools are filled with kids who, by high school, have often given up on themselves, and the "acting white" expressions are sort of a outward expression of that frustration. Rather than muddle this too much with socioeconomic rhetoric, I'll just say that one look at MySpace and another at Facebook demonstrates there are plenty of kids steeped deep in hiphop culture who are getting their four year degrees.

3) Gang warfare among blacks is probably comparable in degree to that seen with the Mafia and various Hispanic gangs. I don't think your standard Italians, Hispanics, or black people are gang banging, no matter how hiphop or "urban" they are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's good to see an article that makes the case that cultural values are not completely relative. Some things just work better than other things. Stuff like private property rights, for instance. Perhaps "right" is the wrong word, perhaps it should be "effective". Whatever.

For an interesting read along these lines, try "Culture Cult" -- excellent book.

</comment><comment><USER13> "..it's not hard to find poor societies or societies with long histories of oppression where the thar mentality is much less virulent. Instead, I argue that the thar mentality causes poverty, and causes or certainly reinforces the oppression in the society."

the author then goes out to enumerate scenarios to argue how thar mentality might cause poverty.

I agree, thar mentality can cause poverty. But again, poverty can cause thar mentality. Imagine you are poor destitute. All you probably have to defend is your honor, or that your wife (if u are lucky to have one) is not doing someone else.

In the end, I dont know if thar mentality. causes poverty or vice versa. Maybe, they are both caused by some other factor. What I do know is that the Author needs to do a better job than this, Unless all he wants is to appease western cultural supremacists. In that case, he is doing exactly the right thing.

</comment><comment><USER9> As I was reading this, I flashed back to the discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=91794> about traffic jams. One person slows down, forcing people behind him to slow down. The whole thing ripples outwards depending on the traffic density. So it is with generations of "thar" dominant cultures, of blood feuds begetting blood feuds.

</comment><comment><USER14> amazing how nobody here sees the 800lb gorilla. our response to 9/11 is the classic thar mentality.

"But thar is one of innumerable cases where the "natural" response to a problem is the one that will make the problem worse in the fastest possible way."

Our natural response to retaliate, and in the process, attack the wrong country....so thar

<comment><USER2> I wish it was even that high-minded, but though the people who planned the invasion of Iraq exploited these attitudes, they were not themselves motivated by them.

Powerful groups wanted the US to attack Iraq before 9/11 made US voters easy to convince.

<comment><USER3> Read "The Gathering Storm" for an argument to topple Saddam made before we went in (but post 9-11) There is a long list of reasons which I won't go into here. 9-11 was the tipping point in terms of domestic politics, no doubt. It also seems to be the tipping point in terms of strategic policy.

There's an interesting discussion about why democratic nations go to war. If there is a mixed number of reasons and a volunteer army, which are the actual reasons we fight? I just read read a blog entry by an Army 1st Lt. killed last year who made the argument that he was joining up to stop oppression. To do something and make a difference. I also hear a lot of folks talk about leaders with supposedly bad intentions who "got us into this." So when a president and congress vote on something, and people volunteer to do it, is it possible to assign any one reason to why it's being done?

Perhaps I'm splitting hairs. Probably get downmodded again for this comment. Have at it, then.

<comment><USER4> You should not get downmodded for difference of opinion, but frankly, I think thinking in these simplistic terms (good vs. evil, us right, them wrong) has led us into military adventurism and disasters, including the current one. This is not 1938, Saddam was not Hitler, and dissenters were not Chamberlains. They were thinkers.

How people who were alive and had a front row seat to Vietnam let this happen escapes me. It was very clear from the mixed reasons given, along with the silencing of dissent and rush to attack that there were ulterior reasons for invasion.

Coupled with the quotes from senior admin officials "cakewalk", "oil will pay for it", "done in a few weeks", and the end of this fiasco was as clear and predictable as day to me.

But I digress. And feel free to disagree.

<comment><USER3> Dissenters were not Neville Chamberlains. They were thinkers. I agree. I spent many hours pouring over various arguments on Iraq before we went in, and I was deeply emotional about the way things turned out. But I also digress.

But the other side were also thinkers. Thinkers can disagree. The wonderful thing about both startups and politics is that if you are wrong, somebody else will come along and be right. The parallel extends in that sometimes we work on incomplete information. Additionally, traction on the ground is all that matters, hence the reason why we should all know a little more about COIN (COunter INsurgency) today than one year ago.

I was too young to remember the politics around Vietnam. I had an uncle who volunteered in the Marines, only to be sent to California instead. He was very disappointed. I know that hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese left the communist invasion to go wherever they could. I feel certain that South Vietnam could have held against the North had we not cut off all of their support in Congress. But I am not a military expert, so what do I know?

Communism is not bad, as in moral terms. It is bad in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. More people are happy under capitalism. That doesn't make Capitalism right, it just makes it more "right" than other systems. "right" is a term that needs further definition before you can comment on it.

As a side note, I would have not supported the invasion of Iraq had I not felt that we as a country were in it for no matter what it took. Fighting a war is a horrible thing, and if it is necessary, it doesn't become "not necessary" once the bill gets too high, the deaths get too high, or the newspapers start trashing your political party (not that I am a Republican.) Wars are not football games. Nobody wins in a war. But yet the applied use of physical violence seems to be a constant in the reality I live in. It also seems obvious that it is a duty on each of us to determine the rules by which such violence should be fostered on others. It is not sufficient to make blanket statements -- each of us owes our society a reason when and why we would or would not use violence. I think this responsibility for analysis is missing. Perhaps because most people feel more like spectators than participants.

We use terms like "bad" "good" "right" "wrong" to signify some serious and nuanced opinions. It makes sense to take the time to explain ourselves. Thanks for calling me on it. Apologies if I continue to offend folks and get down- modded again.

<comment><USER4> _It also seems obvious that it is a duty on each of us to determine the rules by which such violence should be fostered on others. It is not sufficient to make blanket statements -- each of us owes our society a reason when and why we would or would not use violence. I think this responsibility for analysis is missing. Perhaps because most people feel more like spectators than participants._

If only our elected leadership thought like this. At least you went through the process and were willing to accept the consequences.

We were led into this _as if_ it were a football game, and the public bought it. I remember arguing with people about the cost in lives, and they were pissed at people like Susan Sarandon because "they don't have to pay high gas prices. What are those stars worried for?". The whole "shut up and sing" anti- analytical thought process in the run-up showed me how amenable the public is to control with fear. I counted at least 4 changes in the rationale for war within a week by Bush during this time period, and it didn't seem to matter to anyone but me.

I figured, "maybe I'm too skeptical and they know something I don't". If only that were the case. Due to the football game cakewalk mentality of our leadership, we have had 5 years of hillbilly armor, extended tours of duty, an insurgency, thousands dead, etc. It didn't have to be this way.

Again, thanks for your opinion and glad someone else is thinking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you are interested in this sort of thing, you may enjoy James Bowman's "Honor" (<http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/honor>). I particularly like the way Bowman avoids the trap of having to provide a specific definition of honor by instead explaining various notions of honor in cultural and historic contexts.

</comment><comment><USER16> Both the code of Bushido and the less culturally specific "Texas Justice" mentioned in this article arose in similar circumstances -- cultures that are war-like, family-centric and deeply conservative. Bushido, however, likes to put on the face of self-censure, and therein lay the real difference.

Neither seppuku (suicide with a helper) nor harikari (the solo version) were matters of "killing yourself if you get super pissed and can't find anybody else to kill" (as per Real Ultimate Power). They were a means of averting the wrath of an indiscriminate government, which would punish _your entire family_ if you failed to make up for your shame in the appropriate way. Of course, your family would not be happy about this -- the option of "do it yourself or your family gets it!" drives a wedge between the family and the individual, strengthening the position of the central government by a large margin.

With a government so strong that it can even make people kill themselves, who needs to go around enforcing one's honor by wildly killing people? The strength of the government encourages order, both discouraging revenge and the slights that lead to it. Disputes go through "official channels" and people have confidence in their resolution.

In lieu of "the rule of law", people are more inclined to take justice into their own hands. When there is no law to cover a certain trade or group, honor killing often reasserts itself. Consider Asian gang members in San Francisco who traffic in narcotics -- when one cheats another, they have no one to turn to for dispute resolution, so it's killing time!

So many things are bundled up in that article -- misogyny, honor killing, notions of honor, backwardness, privilege -- but it is important to acknowledge that "Texas Justice" (lolz) is present whenever the sheriff is absent, weak or corrupt. Take a bunch of "Enlightenment" people, put them out in the middle of nowhere with some guns and, voila, you've got Thar!

<comment><USER3> bullshit.

the author either knows nothing about the subject or never saw the experiment deployed

<comment><USER16> It would nice to know what exactly you disagree with, and why you disagree.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I really enjoyed this article and I think he's largely right. Pride (thar) is the most overlooked variable in geo-politics. But he leaves out an important detail. The US provides much of the defenses for Europe and almost all of them for Japan. After Bosnia it is hard to conceive of Europe going to war alone. These places may be free of thar but perhaps it is only b/c a thar-ish country (The US) provided them with breathing room.

<comment><USER18> The US is not a "thar-ish" country. It is probably the farthest from "thar- ish" of all the major countries in the world if you judge by the importance placed on individualism over groups and disregard of what other people think.

<comment><USER17> Agreed but the article said otherwise. It said japan and northern Europe achieved the highest marks for non-thar-ness. The US was criticized for minor thar. I merely asked whether a little thar was such a bad thing. Esp when two common traits of non thar countries are an inability to defend one's borders and two of the biggest US military bases outside the US.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This article should have been published in the National Enquirer. I can't think of any other demographic that would fall for the crap this guy is trying to sell.

</comment><comment><USER20> I don't know about toxicity of value systems, but there's no more toxic form of debate than a semantics argument, which is what this essay devolves to.

<comment><USER9> That's fallacious. I'm getting tired of people bringing up 'semantic argument', soon to be followed by 'agree to disagree'. The toxicity of a 'semantic argument' comes from two or more people unable to _emotionally_ get in rapport with each other and has little to do with the study and crafting of semantics itself.</comment></comment>


SmartThings: Make Your World Smarter - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smartthings/smartthings-make-your-world-smarter/backers <comment><USER2> How is this much different than Ninja Blocks, which was funded in March (and a few months late on delivering)? [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-blocks- conne...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-blocks-connect-your- world-with-the-web)

<comment><USER3> Ninjablocks is a cool idea, but in practice not great for home automation, and not great as a user experience for non-hackers.

For one, from what I understand, Ninjablocks connects sensors to your network via ethernet or wifi. In practice, that's a bad way to do home automation. It looks like SmartThings is using a mesh network (Zigbee or Zwave), which is way more scalable and self-extends its range as you add more devices to the mesh. Using Zigbee/Zwave and Bluetooth 4.0 also means sensors can be super low power... just pop a battery in a sensor and stick it somewhere and have it last for years before needing to replace the battery. Ninjablocks can't do that. Devices that connect via ethernet/wifi/usb are a lot more demanding power-wise.

Also, NinjaBlocks is all about having sensors trigger online actions. That's cool, but what if I want it to trigger my door to unlock? They allude to being able to do that in the future, but from what I gather it will on their site you'll have to cobble together a DIY solution yourself.

<comment><USER4> Actually, Ninja Blocks' next iteration due toward the end of the year will have onboard RF433Mhz, which allows you to interface with a ton of things you might already have in your house (motion sensors, door bells, door sensors, etc). These devices are super cheap and use crazy small amounts of power.

We've tried to go to great lengths to make it possible for non-hackers to interface with us, for instance you can train the platform what devices are in your house, and then make rules that might trigger anything, such as RF devices like power sockets, Webhooks, SMS, and many more.

Right now we're focussed on getting the rest of our Kickstarter obligations out (we're currently waiting on RF433 dongle's, finally due next week), and are working hard on building a platform that other's can build apps on-top of.

Edit: Don't want to steal SmartThings' thunder here, it looks really cool and we welcome the competition. Just wanted to correct the inaccuracies of the above comment.

(Source: I work for Ninja Blocks).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> X10 reborn. I know people who were playing around with stuff like this back in the 90s and the X10 protocol has existed since the mid 70s. I don't know if these are the guys to do it but it does seem like the time is right for this sort of home automation to finally take off.

</comment><comment><USER6> Sorry, but I think this is pure fantasy. Of course it is possible, but they won't provide all those things for 100K.

What I mean is: all they show is a smartphone app and a fancy looking device. All the cool things we all dream about will have to be built on top of that. That is exactly the state we already have without that Kickstarter project (could as well go for Arduino or whatever). Yet nobody is building those things. Hence my conclusions that these are just pipe dreams...

Might as well start a Kickstarter for a Teleporter.

<comment><USER3> > but they won't provide all those things for 100k

they raised 135k in a day. by the end of the kickstarter they will likely have raised 1-2 million.

i think their plan is to ship with a handful of sensors and apps but have a platform for others to develop and share on easily. seems like a pretty good way to do it if you ask me. the platform will be key though, and i guess we'll find out more about that in the coming months.

<comment><USER7> Agree with your basic point, but they won't raise more than ~650k because they've set maximums on all of the (normal) tiers. I think this is actually a great thing as there have been a number of kickstarters that have been victims of their own success because they've been oversubscribed beyond what can actually be delivered in a realistic timeframe. IMO most kickstarters that aren't pure digital distribution should have a limit of ~3x their funding level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why is the link to the backers page? All due respect to the backers, but I want to hear about the project first, not who's backing it. Not hard to find the actual page, just annoying.

<comment><USER7> Probably because the main kickstarter page was submitted yesterday and didn't hit the front page. For whatever reason, it caught on this time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> very cool - love me some internet of things.

A side note: crowd-funding platforms are really sparking a renaissance in hardware startups. VCs have stopped betting on these companies, because software companies have a much cheaper and faster to scale. But the really interesting advancements are going to happen on the open-source hardware side, and consumers are willing to fund that in exchange for early access and involvement in the creative process.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the love! The renaissance of hardware startups and open-hardware were big drivers in us taking this approach.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Cool project. In the future, it's probably better for the story to link to the description instead of the list of backers. I'm guessing most people would prefer to initially read about the project instead of seeing who already supports it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Whoa... this is amazing. Classic use case for all the tools is letting me know when someone has broken into my wine cellar and turned on the taps.

</comment><comment><USER13> I started thinking about a similar concept a few months ago. When researching if to connecting various things in your life to some sort of central, network connected, interface already existed, I wasn't entirely surprised to find out there are a few less than inspiring home automation systems developed by garage door opener companies, Time Warner Cable, etc. Their applications are limited and their UI's look pretty terrible.

It would be awesome if this could be pulled off in some manor that either has a ton of applications from the vendor, or has a fairly open architecture that allows other sensors / devices to be applied it. And if it can do all of this while still being simple for non-tech people who may still want some basic functionality, I could some big potential in it.

<comment><USER14> Same here. Just got a house and I'm looking for a way to automate the whole thing, but there's a pretty shockingly small amount of usable hardware out there for a reasonable price. Here's hoping this platform is everything that hackers like us are looking for in a HA system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> How is this different from Twine? [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/twine- li...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/twine-listen-to- your-world-talk-to-the-internet?ref=live)

<comment><USER16> SmartThings is a fully integrated approach to creating a network of connected devices, from software to hardware and IC design. You can create your own hardware components that talk to the SmartThing platform, APIs, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> My only concern is that this is a lot of hardware / installation to get some of the basic use cases down, which might be intimidating for non-savvy users. Unless they can sell a home-installation service as well...

</comment><comment><USER18> I am missing something or is this actually built with a cellular data connection? A new data plan seems like a huge barrier of entry. Why would you not use local internet or at least offer both? Wouldn't most if not all the consumers in this market have in home internet? Cellular data outside of the huge city is terrible on average, even in ATL it is very iffy. Maybe it is because I have never lived in the valley, but cellular data is still a third class service in my experience.

Not trying to be negative, just hoping someone from the team could answer on why no wifi?

<comment><USER19> It probably supports wifi too. But if the power in the house goes out, so does the Internet. By going cellular they avoid that problem, although batteries can still run out.

I'm not convinced this is what we need. I suppose if you littered your house with these sensors and could see a "house dashboard" to check the house's statuses on a web page any time of the day, it would be nice. But this really won't solve a busted pipe in the basement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I don't think these guys know how complex and difficult this is going to be. They might have an SDK out this year, but chances are its pretty rubbish. Its not as if others haven't tried. And having written my PhD thesis on these things I know its a complete and utter pain. Chances for success: less than 1%.

<comment><USER21> Of course doing something hard means there is a high chance of failure. At least these guys are trying to do something that could have massive upside both to the users and the company, and not just taking the lower risk approach and building yet another social widget or game.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's nice to see lots of competition in this area.

Small nitpick – on the main page you probably mean "CO Alarms", not "CO2 Alarms".

<comment><USER23> Thanks. Fixed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Interesting take on the problem. It reminded me of Steve Ciarcia's quest to automate homes [1]. Perhaps this is the right time for it.

[1] <http://circuitcellar.com/?s=Home+Control>

</comment><comment><USER25> The biggest problem to be solved with home automation, IMHO, is making things cheaper.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is definitely a great idea. My only concern about any products like this, that connect to a centralized location on the Internet, is privacy. There are enough details about me online as it is.

</comment><comment><USER27> My only complaint is that it uses generic bulky looking (from what I see in the photos) add-ons (things). If only they had more slimline pieces to go with the style of the base station.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the feedback Jeff! We're showing those generic ones on the KS page because we do integrate with off the shelf components, but have no fear, we are also going to create a whole array of our own SmartThings that are much, much nicer looking (and smaller!).

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I love this idea. Two years ago, when I had just moved to Silicon Valley, I came up with a concept called OpenAnno for a hackathon about Twitter's new annotations API feature. Lucky for me (I didn't realize this then, I didn't know a lot about them), two of the judges were Ron Conway and Paul Graham. I naively presented the project and later ended up talking to Paul and Ron. Ron thought it was interesting and asked me to send him a follow up email. This is what I sent, I just dug it out and thought it might be interesting in this context. I've never really shared it with anyone either so I'd love some feedback even thought it's such a long time ago :)

\--

OpenAnno is Twitter for Objects.

We want to build a close approximation of the real world "object graph".

OpenAnno stores public annotations (formerly tweets) on unique objects (formerly people). Objects are connected via typed edges (formerly mention, follow, reply), thus establishing the "object graph" (formerly "social graph"). Anybody can add annotations and edges.

Objects can be "followed" (an edge-type; there can be other types with other semantics). Objects can follow objects, too. A vendor can follow product ratings of products and adjust prices. This adjustment is pushed to following objects which might order those items once they are cheap enough. An alarm clock can follow your work schedule and your friends and toaster can follow the alarm clock. Thus, OpenAnno becomes the message bus in a global computational network. The interplay of smart objects reacting to one another is incredibly powerful (brains works like that, too).

Another application is search: the object graph can give you shopping advice that matches your wardrobe, can summarize and add value to complicated news events, can help you learn new languages and cultures, can suggest shops that sell every item in your fridge etc etc..

In certain domains (e.g. shopping) the object graph may be suitable to do analysis/research/simulation.

Possible "early annotators":

\- Cars with license plates (a la bump.com)

\- Anything with a barcode (a la stickybits.com)

\- Real World that can be recognized in images (a la Google Goggles)

\- Pictures/Media (comp. tazpic's presentation from yesterday)

\- Objects other APIs give you

OpenAnno is a desirable partner for the mentioned companies allowing them to put their data in context. Data from non-partners is pulled in through "API tunneling" (as per yesterdays presentation).

Yesterday's demo is at [http://www.justin.tv/jonashuckestein/b/264542955#r=Fs6GQLI~&...](http://www.justin.tv/jonashuckestein/b/264542955#r=Fs6GQLI~&s=05) and a working prototype of the API at <http://openanno.com>. It's built to scale but a rewrite will be necessary (current code is public on github). Everything was built in less than 24 hours.

Challenge: We can build the "starting graph" from all the information we can gobble. This is difficult. Getting from there to a close approximation of the "object graph" is even more difficult and interesting.

Social proof: PG first called OpenAnno a "superset of Twitter annotations" and then a "communication channel that is bigger than Twitter".

\--

 _sigh_ You gotta love the "it's built to scale but a rewrite will be necessary" line and the "social proof" section :) Makes me feel like I've come a long way in those two years.

Me and my friends talked to SV Angel for a little but I had already decided to take a different job for immigration reasons. Back then I didn't realize that these people were kind of a big deal and I should somehow capitalize on that. Good times :)

 _Edit: Formatting_

<comment><USER29> Pretty awesome concept! Could each of the objects hold there annotations locally, and let other objects query them? Or would there have to be be a central server?

<comment><USER28> The idea was to have a central database, otherwise it would be impossible to do any kind of computation/search on it. App.net might be a candidate for something like this.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do Bank Simple make money? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> [http://www.quora.com/Simple-company/How-does-Simple- primaril...](http://www.quora.com/Simple-company/How-does-Simple-primarily- make-money)

Is this what you are asking for?

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly what I am after - thanks!</comment></comment>


The Happy Startup - <AUTHOR> http://www.thehappystartup.co

<comment><USER2> "Happiness is a business model" is a bit much, even for me. I've got respect for Tony but I never really agreed with that one. I think it's easy to say when you've had a few base hits - but I'd love to see today's 'in the trenches' entrepreneurs try to sell that line to their investors or stakeholders.</comment>


Set Camera Timer Using OpenCV-Python - <AUTHOR> https://theailearner.com/2019/03/18/set-camera-timer-using-opencv-python/ <comment><USER2> I love this stuff, really shows you how deep engagement on articles actually is. What are the odds it's upvoted by title alone?

<comment><USER3> I nearly upvoted it on the title. I fully expected it to be some cool (but useless) thing involving setting a camera timer if it saw some particular image at the target within the shot. That wouldn't be too far off from a lot of HN content.

Instead it appears to be using the keyboard as a trigger and opencv to print text over an image? That doesn't exactly fit here. I suspect people interpreted the title as something far more interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is fun primer for OpenCV but I'm not sure I understand why you'd want to do this.

</comment><comment><USER5> Seriously, how is this on the front page of HN? If you know anything about OpenCV, this is completely trivial and not really useful in any way. If you don't know anything about OpenCV... well maybe you shouldn't be upvoting things you don't really know much about?

But I guess this will help me learn the AI, so I guess I'll upvote it after all... /s

</comment><comment><USER6> This is nice and all, but what is the reason for it being on the front page of Hacker News?

<comment><USER7> it has ai in the url,opencv/camera in the title. i think the bots may have boosted this one by mistake</comment></comment>


Found hidden micro in Lidl's kitchen robot (french) - <AUTHOR> https://www.numerama.com/tech/525214-monsieur-cuisine-connect-micro-cache-android-non-securise-les-dessous-du-robot-cuisine-de-lidl.html <comment><USER2> "When developers launched Monsieur Cuisine, they planned for the device to be voice activated and eventually to be connected to Alexa... Risks of hacking exist, but in the same way as for any tablet or device

critics maintain that the lack of security updates for the software [Android 2017] mean it is less protected than other devices

even though the Monsieur Cuisine Connect microphone device itself is dormant, its software could potentially be exploited and used to activate the microphone remotely, thereby giving hackers a recording line into people's homes"

[https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Smart- Monsieur-C...](https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Smart-Monsieur- Cuisine-Connect-mixer-from-Lidl-France-has-secret-microphone)

</comment><comment><USER3> Many of those connected appliances can receive software updates.

They probably thought "Let's put a mic in, it costs nothing, we'll add speech recognition later when it's ready."</comment>


PR Guide Ebook - <AUTHOR> https://www.trycelery.com/pr-guide-ebook

<comment><USER2> Hey Taylor - thanks for posting this. I'm giving some talks about it in SF. Will let you know when the links to the video go live.</comment>


Ask HN: Low-level programming – why are there no new developments? - <AUTHOR> I understand that "If something isn't broke, don't fix it". Lately there have been so many advancement in hardware technology.
Yet from software prespective, I see tech is still relaying on C,C++ and the childres of it.
Why are there no new development, no new programming languages in this area? <comment><USER2> There are new developments and languages, just look at Rust or Go. Some argue that Rust could replace C (I do too, but I'm knowledgeable enough to defend it)

</comment><comment><USER3> There are plenty of developments. Modern C++ is closer to Python than it is to C, while still allowing going down close to the metal if/when you need.

One thing that would be nice is a language that transparently targets CPUs + GPUs. Right now you still need to shift gear and use a different language and toolset to run code on GPUs. Perhaps this could be achieved using byte code and a virtual machine. Numba does that for Python.

<comment><USER4> Isn't the whole point of CPUs is that you don't have to run code on GPUs and other special purpose processing units? You leave it to special circumstances when you actually can't avoid doing it.</comment></comment>


S.F. reaches deal for housing, retail at Schlage Lock site - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-reaches-deal-for-housing-retail-at-Schlage-5434101.php?t=6160f14deb#/0

<comment><USER2> It's nice to see decisions and solutions (especially after 15 yrs) instead of protests and flame wars.</comment>


In Wake of Paris, FCC Seeks Power to Shutter Websites - <AUTHOR> http://www.insidesources.com/in-wake-of-paris-fcc-seeks-power-to-monitor-shutter-websites/ <comment><USER2> Sure, give them the power to snoop on and ban Playstation accounts. Facebook too. Then they'll just use something else. If you want to get information across the planet securely, you can do it, Internet is just by far the fastest and easiest. Nothing I've seen executed, since and including 9/11, needed anything more complex than explosives to pull off, so I don't see how regulating encryption technology for the 99.99% of legitimate users who aren't blowing things up is going to solve anything.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, it's crucial for our safety for the FCC to hold the power to shutter any website -- Wheeler knows humanity and the interwebs too well -- because we have all had that moment: venturing too many clicks deep, we stumbled upon a geocities troll who took things too far; and finding ourselves entranced by their extremist ideas surrounded by blink tags and javascript flashing background colors, turned to ISIS the next day and never looked back.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The attacks were heinous and it's horrible that innocent people died, but we can't let the gruesome nature of the attacks prevent us from putting them into context—

Nearly four times as many people die per week in the US from automobile accidents: [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/opinion/117-deaths-each- da...](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/opinion/117-deaths-each-day.html)

These lives matter just as all lives matter, we need to fight automotive death and all causes of death with the same vigor that we fight terrorism deaths.

We cannot again fall asleep to the pattern of behavior all governments exhibit in the aftermath of events like this.

Snowden woke us up to that.

<comment><USER4> Terrorism really lives up to its name, it scares people and makes them act irrationaly to prevent it at all costs. I blame the media and politicians for focusing so much on it. Media act like vultures - the amount of time and specials they dedicate to massacres disgusts me. Many politicians seem to pass any law that _might_ reduce terrorism, without analysing its costs.

To clarify, I obviously feel sad for the victims of these massacres. But it we keep trying to prevent them by neglecting every other human basic right, we'll harm our whole society.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I heard that the attack was prepared in a flat in Paris, perhaps they should also ban flats. And cars. And clothes.</comment>


Stop Using Rand(): Random Numbers with C++11 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@ivanfon/stop-using-rand-random-numbers-with-c-11-3e81faa280b2 <comment><AUTHOR> I've been wanting to write some programming articles for a while, so I figure the best thing to do was start with something simple and share it.

Let me know what you think! I know it's not the most difficult thing ever, but I'm hoping I explained it well.</comment>


Show HN: Bitmelo – A free tool that lets you build 8-bit games with JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://bitmelo.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey y'all I just launched Bitmelo, game editor to build pixel art games with Javascript. You can code, draw tiles and tilemaps, design sound effects, view the documentation, and playtest your game, all without having to break focus by switching applications.

It works in your browser, but there's also a windows version available: [https://davidbyers.itch.io/bitmelo](https://davidbyers.itch.io/bitmelo)

I built it in react, and you can check out the source code here: [https://github.com/byersdz/bitmelo- editor](https://github.com/byersdz/bitmelo-editor)

Bitmelo was born from my desire to have the most friction free game development experience possible. It's heavily inspired by fantasy consoles such as Pico 8 and Tic 80, however while I love the simple nature of their API's I wanted to have a development experience that wasn't constrained by the same limitations as the games you make in them.</comment>


Uber's self-driving car showed no signs of slowing before fatal crash - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/19/17140936/uber-self-driving-crash-death-homeless-arizona <comment><USER2> Uber vs FB scandal... and so many other tech news happening at the same time!!</comment>


NASA Fed Apollo 11 Moon Rocks to Cockroaches - <AUTHOR> https://www.space.com/apollo-lunar-samples-safety-animal-testing.html <comment><USER2> Anti adblock modal you can't get past. Blacklisted site.

<comment><USER3> You can switch to a reader view, if you are fast enough.

<comment><USER2> Less work to just burn that bridge</comment></comment></comment>


The American Language in 3000 AD - <AUTHOR> http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/futurese.html

<comment><USER2> I scanned the article. Is he saying we're going to speak in regex? I thought we would all sound like the future people on South Park.</comment>


Creating a 3D sound visualiser with WebGL and the HTML5 Audio Data API - <AUTHOR> http://rawkes.com/blog/2011/08/06/browserscene-creating-a-3d-sound-visualiser-with-webgl-and-html5-audio

<comment><USER2> I wrote a basic sound driven visualization about a year ago using SoundManager, which can be had at <http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/>. The demo is here: <http://www.getevilgenius.com/>. It should work in any browser.

It'd be fairly straightforward to get three.js responding to SM2's level API calls.

</comment><comment><USER3> i didn't get any audio, it just sat there, what am i missing? firefox 5.0.1 on a mac.

<comment><AUTHOR> I stupidly forgot to set it to autoplay (you had to press "s"). I've updated it so it starts automatically now :)

<comment><USER3> thanks, nice!</comment></comment></comment>


JSON Diff tool - <AUTHOR> http://tlrobinson.net/projects/javascript-fun/jsondiff/

<comment><USER2> By storing the query in the URL it ends up being too long. I measure it at 3215 characters. This may be worth a read:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/417142/what-is-the- maximu...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/417142/what-is-the-maximum- length-of-a-url)

Seems like you could easily just store it in a cookie, or have a default value on the server side.

That being said, I think this looks really useful. It'd be great alongside the cli json tool.</comment>


Recommendation for interesting hobbies while sitting for a few weeks at home? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> \- mooc (like edx) \- reading \- start a web project \- learn a new language \- learn docker (or any sys competences)- lockpicking videos (lockpicking lawyer on youtube)

</comment><comment><USER3> Whatever activity it is that _you_ enjoy doing, and that can be done while at home.</comment>


Ask HN: Once you have the skills, how do you start getting freelance jobs? - <AUTHOR>

Hi all, First a little background: I started teaching myself CSS, HTML, and JQuery 8 months ago, and after a lot of hard work I feel I'm at a point where I can confidently deliver great work for a client (UI/design/build). But how do I start getting jobs? It seems like many of you here do freelance work full-time. When you were starting out, how did you find your first jobs? It seems like once you're started, referrals lead to referrals and it gets easier. I just can't figure out how to get the momentum started. Thanks in advance! Dan <comment><USER2> This depends on what you want to do. Web development can be anything from installing Wordpress with themes, which can be done by one person with little skills, to large complex sites with teams of people with a wide array of specialties (Facebook for example.)

The money tree starts with the guy who lands the gig from the client. That guy will then either do everything himself (or with an in-house team) or do some parts and then parcel out the rest to other contractors. If you can sell, the you don't even necessarily need web development skills. You can simply land the gigs and sub-contract out everything. Sub-contractors could even hand work out to more sub-contractors.

Where you get work depends on where you fit within this scheme. As a CSS / HTML / Jquery guy you are considered a "front-end" developer. Note that that doesn't make you a designer or a UI guy. Those are totally different areas which you haven't mentioned. CSS / HTML / Jquery has NOTHING to do with being able to deliver good designs. You are simply a coder. You will likely be handed all your designs.

If you aren't doing the selling at the root of the money tree then you somewhere along the sub-contractor track. However, you still need to be able to sell. You still have a client. Your client is going to be another developer.

Now that you know who your customer is. You now need to locate that customer. The developers you will be working for can be anywhere along the money trail. They might be agencies which generally handle marketing strategy for the client and directly sub contract out all the parts. They might be development shops which receive designs from the agencies and handle all the building. They might be solo designers who do generally do as much as they can but hand certain parts off when they are overworked. I have worked with all of the above.

All these people will likely be hanging out in places such as CMS forums, web development forums and social networks such as Twitter. They talk to each other to get help with what they are doing. For example, if they need Jquery help, they will go to a community where they can get help on Jquery. Aside from help, they will also go to places where they can discuss general happenings in the industry. If they are passionate about Jquery, then they may show off things they have done in Jquery. If they are unhappy about the direction of Jquery, then they may want to talk about that. You get the point.

Your job is to start locating these various communities and participate. You need to help people, engage in conversations and show off things you have done. Collectively this process is building your authority. It's a PR game. The more people see your face, the more they hear you talk about intelligent things, the more of an authority you will become. Eventually you will start to receive offers to do gigs for people.

Once you start doing work, then you are building a network. Your network is your bread and butter. The larger your Rolodex, the more secure your future. This is where your work will come in from in addition to all the above mentioned activities. As you bring in more work from your Rolodex, you can do less of the other stuff, but never quit. I have at time worked with certain developers almost exclusively for periods and I have been in totally new ground for periods. I have found that for me, always exploring new ground is better for building those networks.

To do everything described above, you need something to stand out. Just being an HTML / CSS guy isn't very sexy. How are you going to show that off? Your personal projects and portfolio (this is the portfolio you have before you are really even getting work) needs to be pushing the envelope a bit. Developers specializing in nothing but spitting out HTML / CSS are a dime a dozen. There is a lot of noise there to overcome. As you get closer to the bleeding edge, you have less noise. Become and expert there.

What's leading edge? I don't specialize in those areas so you might know better than me. Know HTML 5, CSS3 and all the other related buzzwords that you see in Hacker News. In the JS (Jquery) world there is a lot more you can do to impress. You can build Jquery plugins, become expert with building apps in Node (then you get into server side programming which is a whole different ballgame) and work on building great UI's. You could also begin to specialize in things like UI or design if you see something you like better.

Also keep in mind that this is all a business. Customer managemment, business management and sales are all more important than the technical skills. This is a long and stressful track, just like any business. Make sure this is something you really want to do. Contract developer is sort of like restaurant owner in that it's an idea that everyone comes up with. There are so many other businesses you can get into that you can do totally online that would likely be more interesting and likely more lucrative. Consider this, you aren't likely to ever get rich from doing web development for other people. The people with the great chance of being rich is the people you are building for, the client from which the money tree grows. ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> People usually like to see a portfolio of pretty projects if you're a UI person. Got a website with some work on it? It would certainly help having one. In fact, you might even get a few jobs from here! =)

Once you have one, print a nice business card with your website on it.

Start networking. Meetup.com has programing / startup / business type meetups... go them all! Be nice, have fun, listen to what people say, and when the opportunity comes up - usually when they ask you what you do (people are interested in you if you're interested in them), tell them you're a UI designer. Give them your card. Take their card. Send them an email telling them how glad you were to meet them (which, you were).

Place an ad on Craigslist / other popular classifieds sites. I know someone who started getting UI work this way.

<comment><USER4> I cannot stress this more. Portfolios speak volumes, and if you have yet to start on a project with your new found skills the obvious course of action would be to create your own to start with.

When I was starting out with Python I wished to work with Django projects, so I thought myself the framework. Then I created my first web app in Django, <http://www.cvstash.com>, and with it I scored a couple of Django projects just by showing it. Now I work full time. If I'm going to switch technologies or would like to get some freelance gigs on other frameworks and/or languages, say RoR, I would do the same. Work experience is better, but being able to work on something on your own to start says a lot.

Off-topic: If you put time in examining a possible market with your website it might even turn out to be a win-win situation, with you getting passive income from it.

To summarize, you need a portfolio like vishaldpatel said. If you don't have one yet, then get started with doing something for yourself. Buy a domain if you don't have one yet, and show off your skills there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I got my first jobs via Craigslist and still get many of them that way. Aim high instead of starting with crappy jobs and working our way up- having a good portfolio is actually better than having a lot of clients or references.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. With the Craigslist angle are you posting ads for your services or responding to existing ads?

I tried responding once and it turned into a classic "Craigslist" experience.. after a few skype conversations I showed up at the client's "office" for a meeting, which turned out to be his house, and he wasn't there. Same with the next time. And after telling him to get lost, now I get passive-aggressive skype messages from him every week or two. yikes.. :)

But armed with some strategy I'll give Craigslist another shot.

<comment><USER6> I gave up on getting freelance clients through craigslist a long time ago. Most are bottom-of-the barrel clients that want a ton of work for very little money. Either that or they don't want to pay you after you've finished (and want a ton of features for the same price).

There needs to be a site that not only has a rating system for freelancers, but one for the companies paying them.

<comment><USER7> Odesk sort of does this with feedback ratings: <https://www.odesk.com/> I'm sure there are other freelance sites that do as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's also important to work for the right person the first time around. Make sure it's a job where you retain most of the control over the final look and feel of the result, otherwise you may not be able to use it for your portfolio.

</comment><comment><USER9> Do you know anybody that's in a band or owns a business? I'd let them know that you are now in a position to tackle any creative, online problems they may have, or suggest projects that would help them that you can deliver on. Or hell, just tell everyone you know that you can create stuff now; I've been surprised at how many people I knew from work had side-businesses they never talk about, but could have used a website.

Just watch out for those that take your friendship or the difficulty in creating a website for granted; don't do the work for free, even if your portfolio is severely lacking.</comment>