Ubuntu 9.10 is named Karmic Koala, promises to bring boot time under 25sec - old-gregg http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/02/ubuntu-910-is-named-karmic-koala-will-eat-tasty-eucalyptus.ars

<comment><AUTHOR> According to the article, 25 seconds is the target for Jaunty (the 9.04 release) which is pretty nice right there.

Beyond that, Karmic is supposed to being a new UI look (brown no longer). Since this is often the most prominent complaint I get about Ubuntu (ridiculous or not), it will be a welcome change. According to Shuttleworth, "The desktop will have a designer's fingerprints all over it." That's really welcome and I hope they do as wonderful a job as they've done with the rest of the system.

<comment> old-gregg I've been using Ubuntu for 2 years as my primary environment and _I miss it a lot_ despite terrible performance of Firefox and flash. Everything else pretty much rocked.

I don't have room for a desk with a workstation PC to run it and all PC laptops are so lame these days that I'm stuck with Macbook Pro but keep toying with a double boot idea.

<comment><USER2> Some, not all ;) <http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:Ubuntu>

<comment> old-gregg My last 3 laptops were all Thinkpads. I switched to MBP because I couldn't stand the LCD panels they started to use: dark, dim and low contrast TN-film without 24-bit color support. [I owned their FlexView at some point, I was crushed when I got T61]

Even resolution is wrong: 15" panel shouldn't be higher than 1440x900: many web sites aren't readable at resolutions higher than that, yet Lenovo offers only 1280 and 1650 horizontal pixels (too few and too many).

<comment><USER3> Why shouldn't resolutions be as high as the technology allows? Every OS that I know of offers scalable fonts, and a higher resolution allows for nice smooth fonts without hacks like anti-aliasing and cleartype. My 13.1" laptop has a resolution of 1600x900, my 4" Nokia 770 has a resolution of 800x480, and my cell phone's 3" display is 480x320. I don't think anybody's complaining about not being able to see their phones or tablets, and I certainly have no trouble using my laptop.

In what way does a higher resolution hurt anything?

<comment> old-gregg Because most web site designers _assume_ 96DPI and set font sizes in pixels?

Guys with 15" 1680x1050 laptops, can you tell me if you're comfortable reading dpreview.com with default font settings?

 _Every OS that I know of offers scalable fonts_

There are more to it than just scalable fonts. Windows is essentially hardwired to 96dpi, _only fonts_ scale, everything else does not: there are virtually no vector graphics involved in traditional Win32 UI API, even icons are fixed bitmaps: 16x16, 32x32, 48x48 or 64x64 pixels. They have some logical units of measurement of dialog boxes, but everything else is measured in pixels, see GDI/GDI+. Switching to 120dpi on windows is downright painful: a lot of applications either start to look ugly and disproportional or sometimes even break down: UI layouts fall apart.

<comment><USER4> Every web browser can zoom in on documents. I set default zoom to 150%. dpreview.com looks fine.

PS. Windows 7 has a proper scalable interface. I don't or use like Windows, but I tried it and it works well. You don't even need to restart the entire OS to change the setting anymore either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Boot-up times are rapidly approaching the stage where the OS isn't the bottleneck - it's the BIOS. I often wonder what the hell it's doing for those 10-30 seconds. (depending on the motherboard) EFI in Macs is definitely snappier, at least until you start booting into Linux or Windows and the BIOS emulation kicks in and waits around for a couple seconds.

Interestingly, you used to be able to get a decent speedup with hibernating (suspend to disk) but nowadays, with the bootup improvements and larger amounts of RAM (my workstation has 8GB; 4GB is pretty normal these days) it only helps if you've got lots of stuff open in your session. OSX's resume is a lot faster than Linux' though, so there's plenty scope for improvement. I suspect the problem is once again initialising the hardware - controlling the platform sure helps.

</comment><comment><USER6> I spent the last three days converting my xps dell laptop from vista to ubuntu 8.10. I had to spend over 25 hours to get it to work properly. Things like trying to figure out how to make my dual monitor system work with only one of them rotated 90 degrees. It took so much searching and reading to make sure that what I was doing was not going to mess up everything else up to the point. I am no novice computer user. The task of getting ubuntu to run right is not trivial.

<comment><USER7> I spent 4 hours troubleshooting my neighbours computer (it's full of spyware). We basically got no-where with it in that time.

The task of getting Windows to run right is not trivial.

<comment><USER8> Linux advocates should pay attention to the difficulties of installing and maintaining a Linux system in a modern computing environment instead of patting themselves on the back because Windows does some things worse. I gave up the first few times I tried to install Ubuntu. When I finally got it running I was unemployed and had the time to wrestle with it.

Flash and wireless still suck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm really looking forward to this release. Ive been using Ubuntu for a couple of years now, and really enjoy devloping on it. I don't have to restart my machine that often - usually only when I have to do some Windows stuff, but the faster boot time will be a welcome improvement.

When you consider just how many features are available in Ubuntu, and the general feel, it's amazing that you can get it for free.

I even like the current brown/skin theme - I must be a fan boy. The one big improvement I would like to see though is a fast Firefox port.

</comment><comment><USER10> The most prominent change, in my opinion, seems to be the idea of bringing suspend/resume to servers. I'd imagine this would only be implemented in multi-server clusters, with extra hosts powering down but never totally interrupting service. Is there a reason this hasn't been implemented in other distros?

</comment><comment><USER4> ...and, according to the article, finally get rid of the skin toned theme.</comment>


Certificate Verification Issue - GnuTLS - <AUTHOR> http://gnutls.org/security.html#GNUTLS-SA-2014-2

<comment><USER2> @0xabad1dea's excellent sketch analysis[0] explains the root cause of the problem better than the confusing gitorious UI with the diff[1].

[0] [http://imgur.com/UqAkZS7](http://imgur.com/UqAkZS7)

[1] [https://www.gitorious.org/gnutls/gnutls/commit/6aa26f78150cc...](https://www.gitorious.org/gnutls/gnutls/commit/6aa26f78150ccbdf0aec1878a41c17c41d358a3b)

<comment><USER3> One of his complaints is that they aren't using bools, when bools don't exist in c.

<comment><USER4> Sure they do, since c99. Section 7.16

<comment><USER5> Even before then, C had the concept of a boolean expression, and ints were used idiomatically as bools.

Unfortunately, the type system can't save you, so it's up to you to keep your promise to return the correct thing. Not even C99 can save you:

        $ cat booltest.c
        #include <stdio.h>
        #include <stdbool.h>

        bool moo() {
            int rv = -1;
            return rv;
        }

        int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
            printf("moo() returned %s\n", moo() ? "TRUE" : "FALSE");
        }
        $ clang -std=c99 -o booltest booltest.c -Wall
        $

<comment><USER6> I'm usually not much of a Java fan, but making bool a stricter type was a good change. I always write my C code as if it had the same rules. For example, if you have:

        bool b;
        int i;
        unsigned u;
        void *p;

You could write code that looked like:

        if (b && i && u && p)

...and some people would even consider that idiomatic. I'd write the same test as:

        if (b && (i != 0) && (u > 0) && (p != NULL))

which is a little longer but, IMO, clearer. If the compiler enforced that style this family of bug would happen a lot less.

In a similar vein, I wish enums had strict conversion rules. C++11 finally gives us that with "enum class", but I don't think anything similar exists in C.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is this really another problem will poorly written goto's?

<comment><USER2> No, see my link above. Goto is not the bug.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find the language "how to mitigate the attack" completely offensive.

How about "how to verify a certificate?" Or better "how to write C code"

This is a scandal. Stop.</comment>


Fastest and Easiest way to multiply any number by 11 - <AUTHOR> http://mathema-tricks.blogspot.com/2011/12/multiplying-any-number-by-11.html

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://mathema-tricks.blogspot.com/></comment>


Only Samsung Can Save Android from iPhone Domination - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2016/08/21/samsung-galaxy-android-google-fights-apple-iphone/#d3d004e7e42f <comment><USER2> I think competition has been good for all smartphone consumers so keep up the good work Samsung!

(speaking as an iPhone user)</comment>


Ask HN: What were your personal favorite personal/side projects? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I started playing my first fps game in college and learned how to get really good at it. It was cool to learn about esports from people who played in the first tournaments for games like Unreal Tournament. In my experience, everyone at a certain stage had a similar level of mechanical skill but they did not have the same level of interpersonal ability or management/strategy skills. It was interesting to see the dynamics and the people who could pick out the weakest link of a team and exploit it to win the match. We played CTF pickup games where teams were always changed so you could learn everyone's strengths and weaknesses, as well as keep it interesting. But even in a quick CTF match, these players would easily be able to ID the weakest link and exploit it within minutes.

It also taught me about skill level. Even though everyone I played with was at the top 1%, there were still people on a whole new level. I used to play with people that now play professionally. The game I played had a small competitive community, a lot from TF2. As a new player, I was used to being wrecked on a daily basis but I still remember to this day how hard my gaming dreams were destroyed by one player. You could practice for hours every day but there were players that could just log on and be practically godlike. There was no contest. Even though I decreased my kill speed to under a second, their kill speed was .1 second and I was probably never ever going to achieve that ever. Thanks surefour.

I have never ever experienced as much adrenaline again as I did during those days. The fast paced game play and level of communication and coordination was amazing. It was probably like crack. I guess I sort of found it again in entrepreneurship. It will never be as fast and as easily rewarding but what makes a great esports team and a great business team is the same.

</comment><comment><USER3> Probably TechLoaf ([https://TechLoaf.io](https://TechLoaf.io)).

It's a satirical tech newsletter that I write with a few close friends who are successful founders/executives/investors.

It's been very cathartic to poke fun of all that's nutty about the tech world.

<comment><USER4> Wow, this is really good! Subscribed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It was weirdly satisfying to create an emacs package ([https://github.com/dp12/parrot](https://github.com/dp12/parrot)) that shows the party parrot from Slack gyrating in the mode line.

A somewhat useless feature, but it partially redeems itself by offering a "rotate-text" function.

Now I'm anxiously waiting for vim users to port it, as vim users are wont to do. I do expect the resulting plugin will be called something like vip for "very important parrot."

<comment><USER6> Love it. I discovered the party parrot today for the first time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) user for many years. I started in the early 2000s on dial-up and made friends and learned about the Internet. It factored into my technology career today.

As a side project I developed an AIM clone with Node.js and web sockets, using original bitmaps and sounds. One can choose fonts, colors, and buddy icons just like the source.

I ran a server over TLS with a few friends for a while. It was a lot of fun and I am proud of it.

</comment><comment><USER8> I wrote [https://www.checkbot.io/](https://www.checkbot.io/), a Chrome extension that tests multiple pages at a time for SEO, speed and security best practices.

It's been really satisfying seeing something I built being helpful for others when I originally started it for personal use to speed up testing and development.

</comment><comment><USER9> i was particularly into building 3d worlds with opensimulator for a time and i built a directory for them because there was absolutely no way to find other people online ([http://opensimworld.com](http://opensimworld.com)). It grew to a fun community over time that i still maintain. Then i built a farming game on top of it which eventually became an open source project thanks to contributors who came out of the blue ([https://satyrfarm.github.io](https://satyrfarm.github.io)).

Another fun project was a cryptocoin price directory that looked for coins that are "pumping" every few minutes ([https://coinzaa.com](https://coinzaa.com)), but unfortunately my bank forced me to shut it down.</comment>


Amazon rainforest fires: The truth behind the 'record-breaking' headlines - <AUTHOR> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/amazon-rainforest-fires-the-truth-behind-the-record-breaking-headlines/ar-AAG8KeS <comment><USER2> Should I trust NASA or Snopes? [https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145464/fires-in- bra...](https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145464/fires-in-brazil)

<comment><USER3> Do they disagree?

From the NASA article you linked:

> _As of August 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that > total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the > average in comparison to the past 15 years._

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So a viral tweet with false information got a response from the president of Brazil. Crazy.</comment>


What are some tools you can't live without? - <AUTHOR> Non-mainstream consumer web services. For example rapportive, github, stackexchange, etc.. <comment><USER2> I have found [http://websequencediagrams.com/](http://websequencediagrams.com/) and [http://draw.io/](http://draw.io/) to be really useful for preparing diagrams for inclusion in specs.

<comment><USER3> agreed, draw.io is awesome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://floobits.com/](https://floobits.com/)

<comment><USER5> I'm flattered!

<comment><USER6> This looks fantastic! I've been searching for this exact thing for the past month or so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I use Buzzsumo for content marketing research.

</comment><comment><USER8> Drywall screws and power screw drivers.

</comment><comment><USER9> sublime text

</comment><comment><USER10> xcode</comment>


Ask HN: Is it better to auction in Bitcoin or US Dollars? - <AUTHOR>

When auctioning something techy, for example a one month premium subscription code to Spotify, it seems almost more reasonable to auction it in Bitcoin. I feel like by requiring bitcoin, you select the actual users that are most likely to truly want the item you are auctioning. Then you can turn around and get more money by cashing out for US Dollars due to the exchange rate. Does this math sound right to people? <comment><USER2> Given the volatility of the currency and the insecurity (either real or perceived) of exchanges like MtGox, I'd stay away from any BTC auction not purely for experimental purposes. An auction by nature selects the bidder with greatest desire for the item as he/she will offer the highest bid. Limiting to BTC will likely decrease your profit potential.</comment>


A Coronavirus Quarantine in America Could Be a Giant Legal Mess - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-quarantine-america-could-be-giant-legal-mess/606595/ <comment><USER2> A Coronavirus outbreak in America will hit the large population centers the worst. Not flyover country, for sure.

<comment><AUTHOR> Residing in any country with a "spoke and hub" aviation infrastructure is no guarantee that living in the local equivalent to "flyover" country is an effective barrier to infection.</comment></comment>


Bob Dylan, a Genius Among Us - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/bob-dylan-a-genius-among-us-11592520328 <comment><USER2> Bob Dylan is, without a doubt, a genius poet and songwriter.

He might be a decent guitar player, I'm not sure.

He is, by far, the very worst singer I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. Even I can sing better than he can, and that's going a very long ways.</comment>


Stop Panhandling your Ideas - <AUTHOR> http://bennesvig.com/post/4363890591/stop-panhandling-your-ideas

<comment><USER2> Too many people like to endlessly weigh their options and wait for permission or someone's blessing to launch. I hear: I just need funding to launch my startup, I just need to get accepted to this startup incubator, I just need to find a co-founder, or I just need to read this book first.

Stop thrashing about and ship.

<comment><USER3> Come on. Everybody knows that having a server and a bit of coding skill isn't enough to do _anything_. You have to sign a lease to an office in a trendy part of town and stock it full of free soda and Aeron chairs and hire an HR department before you can even _think_ of getting your project going!

<comment><USER4> You're thinking 1999. Today it's different.

Now you have to have at least 10k twitter followers, at least 5k HN karma, posess at least one Arrington-stained blue dress, and win any number of other Silicon Valley popularity contests. It's all about "networking" nowadays.

Get with the times, man.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been working on my project for a few weeks. I just bought a domain for it today. I'll wait till it's finished in a few more weeks before shipping it. It's only hosted at my computer at the moment. I've finished most of the functionality but the app needs data to make sense to users and I still need to collect that. So am I telling myself a lie? I should release now?

?

<comment><USER6> You're turning it into a false dichotomy (of never ship vs always ship all the time). The point is more that you should be finishing stuff (including shipping), instead of starting projects and leaving them half-done forever.

<comment><USER7> I took it more to mean that you should be actually producing a product rather than talking about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> When I see a panhandler, I don't really think anything, unles they are funny in which case I might laugh. Usually I merely suppress the urge to engage entirely and think about it as little as possible. I certainly don't waste any of my time judging the person.

Apart from the barely-applicable analogy, it's a decent motivational blog for someone who is actually suffering from the particular problem of procrastination with regards to shipping a product. Not everyone who hasn't shipped has that problem, however, and to them this is just a confusing rant. Other common problems are lack of focus, lack of discipline, lack of ability, lack of organization, and lack of knowledge. Being told to "stop panhandling your ideas" doesn't help at all in those cases.

</comment><comment><USER9> " _You don't need permission._ "

I think that says it all.

</comment><comment><USER10> Some people don't have the skills or expertise required for the success of 'build it yourself'. They must pitch their idea to others in an effort to partner with one or more individuals with the skills to make it a success, or pitch it to people with the capital necessary (if the founder doesn't have the money to fund it themselves) to hire those with the skills.

If you have the right project and pitch, with determination you can attract developers to work for equity (initially) AND successfully find the capital investment (as needed).

<comment><USER11> I'd say if they lack the skills to build it, they should be developing those skills instead of trying to attract developers. When you start thinking like a hacker, you'll know how to attract them.

Then again, I'm kind of a control freak who refuses to depend on anyone. Help is nice but I'd rather make inroads myself rather than wait.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've had trouble with this balance in more traditional mentor/ boss relationships. Getting buy in at various stages of a project is definitely a skill.

</comment><comment><USER13> You don't need permission. You need a direct order. :) Get off your butt and finish something!</comment>


How McCartney and Lennon Lost Ownership of the Beatles Catalogue - <AUTHOR> http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-michael-jackson-bought-the-beatles-catalogue-then-turned-it-into-a-billion-music-empire/ <comment><USER2> I'm confused.

I thought that the Beatles' story is ultimately about how _clever_ their rights management was in the end -- supposedly they only sold the rights for records and tapes, and then when CDs became a thing they got to sell them again. Most recently and publicly they reached a deal with Apple for distribution via iTunes. Exactly what was Apple negotiating for if they had lost ownership of their catalog?

According to Snopes, they sold the _publishing_ rights to Northern Records.

"Paul McCartney and John Lennon (and Lennon's estate, now that he's dead) have always received their 50% songwriter's share of the royalties for all Lennon- McCartney songs."

[http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp](http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp)

Basically, the Beatles tried to be both the artist and the publisher (Northern Records) and after signing over their _publishing_ rights to Northern Records, lost control of Northern Records. So they're reduced to the position of a merely very successful artist who doesn't own his/her own record company.

I also see here that rights revert to the artist after 56 years:

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2394325/Sir- Pau...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2394325/Sir-Paul- McCartney-set-win-rights-Beatles-catalogue.html)

<comment><USER3> > Exactly what was Apple negotiating for if they had lost ownership of their > catalog?

There was

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

and then there was

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

The former company "owns" the older songs and the later the later songs (that is, the "publishing rights"). As far as I understand only the former company and songs (but that was a significant part of all Beatles songs) ended up by Jackson. The article from the Daily Mail you link to is wrong (now who would expect that) saying "Payday: Sir Paul will be able to receive royalties from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road albums" because as far as I understand Abbey Road is an Apple Records album, never owned either by Northern Songs or later Jackson.

Now how I know that, which were the Apple Records records? I'm just old enough to have had the vinyl records, and holding them it was immediately obvious which is which:

[http://thebeatles-collection.com/wordpress/wp- content/upload...](http://thebeatles-collection.com/wordpress/wp- content/uploads/2014/03/111.jpg)

vs

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Jude#/media/File:Hey_Jude_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Jude#/media/File:Hey_Jude_Beatles.jpg)

Paul apparently has to pay to Northern Songs when he plays his older songs, according to his own words, but is it true?

I guess the "LP vs CD rights" story you mention comes from the fact that the newer remixes were made specially for the CD's. But who owns what when remixing the song "owned" by Northern Songs, I don't know. Anybody knows?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Paul also clarified that none of those earnings came from Beatles songs > because amazingly, he did not own them. Ironically, this free advice would > come back to bite Paul in the butt two years later when Michael purchased > the entire Beatles catalogue for $47.5 million. Paul felt appropriately back > stabbed and his relationship with Michael was damaged forever.

Not sure I understand this... He felt backstabbed? He had MULTIPLE opportunities to buy back the rights and consistently turned down the offers. Michael came in and offered over 7 Million over what it was offered to Paul for after he turned it down.

<comment><USER5> > Ownership of The Beatles catalogue would remain unchanged from 1969 to 1981 > when ATV was sold to an Australian business tycoon named Robert Holmes à > Court. Prior to the sale, McCartney had the opportunity to purchase the > catalogue from ATV for $40 million. He approached Yoko Ono to see if she > wanted to split the cost, but she insisted the catalogue wasn't worth more > than $20 million so they eventually declined. To his credit, at the time > McCartney was personally worth hundreds of millions of dollars and could > have bought the catalgue outright himself, but he feared that buying the > songs on his own would make him look greedy and disrespectful of John > Lennon's legacy.

<comment><USER6> Could have simply bought it all then given half to Lennon's estate anyway. I don't think Yoko would have actively turned down a free half. Would have hurt paul financially, of course, but far less than it probably has over the last 20+ years.

<comment><USER7> Why should he hand Yoko, who is swimming in money, $20m of his own? Because of some unrealistic gentleman generosity that only exists in Jane Austin novels?

>Would have hurt paul financially, of course, but far less than it probably has over the last 20+ years.

Maybe he felt maximizing his riches and spending like a loon wasn't within his interests? Or that this wasn't a good investment? I think its obvious now that the post-ipod world and post-baby boomer nostalgia period, etc means that music monetization for oldies is high, but at the time, records and tapes ruled, and their sales weren't exactly inspiring for 60's rock. Disco, New Wave, Punk, etc ruled at this time and the prospect for a big Beatles fan revival seemed low. The new CD format ramped things up a bit and obviously the digial music revolution happened, but to a conservative investor in 1976, well, those would have been very risky trades.

Its also worth noting that ATV bought the rights from Northern Songs for $17m in the late sixties. So just a few years later the negotiate priced went over $40m? Triple the price? Of course, Yoko and Paul balked. In 2015 dollars we're looking at close to $150m for publishing rights. That was unheard of.

Lastly, this is just publishing rights. My understanding is that other royalties were quite profitable for the remaining Beatles and their estates and getting back publishing rights wasn't a high priority for them. All this hand wringing is interesting, but it didn't stop them from getting incredibly wealthy. None of them were remotely in the poor house.

Of course, in England, the taxation for the top earners was something like 80% (more?), so amassing a fortune meant losing all but 20% of it instantly. This probably helped Paul, a UK citizen, make his decision to not bid large on a potential big payout. Lets say he bought the catalog for $50m in 1976 or so and his net worth at the time was $200m. Now he's down to $150m and lets say that investment brings in another $100m in twenty or thirty years. Great, he's now back up to $170m post tax. Still a $30m loss.

<comment><USER6> > Why should he hand Yoko, who is swimming in money, $20m of his own? Because > of some unrealistic gentleman generosity that only exists in Jane Austin > novels?

To get (or recover) something of business _and_ sentimental value and have it 'in the family' so to speak. Paul's no dummy, and understood the long term value of publishing rights for music from decades earlier. Could he have predicted digital music? No, but regardless of music format, the Beatles were (even by the 80s) an extremely unique entertainment entity, and weren't going away.

It was a decent amount for either/both of them, but wouldn't have bankrupted either of them. It actually seemed more of a struggle for Jackson to pull things together to make his acquisition happen than it might have been for Paul.

> some unrealistic gentleman generosity

L&M seemed to do just fine with a gentleman's agreement between them for several years re: songwriting splits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Michael purchasing the entire Beatles' catalog after McCartney bragged about making money from music he didn't write is one of the greatest ironic tales ever.

I can just imagine Michael Jackson telling Paul, in that innocent childlike voice, "I took your advice and it's really working great for me!" and Paul just fuming mad.

People will still be talking about this hundreds of years from now.

<comment><USER9> There is an interview where Paul mimics Michael saying "I'm going to buy The Beatles catalog". Paul at that time thought Michael was joking.

<comment><USER10> I found this one where talks about it on Letterman [https://youtu.be/f4cVsqUF7GQ?t=181](https://youtu.be/f4cVsqUF7GQ?t=181)

<comment><USER11> And obviously Paul knows it to be true at the time of this interview.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I find it fascinating that content creators consistently underestimate the durability of their work while technologists overestimate the durability of theirs.

</comment><comment><USER13> Stories of up and coming bands signing stupid deals are far to common. Too many greedy managers, record companies and representatives with their hands out when someone gets a bit of fame.

<comment><USER14> This brings to mind an old, interesting essay written by legendary sound engineer Steve Albini:

[http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17](http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17)

This appears to have been written for the "indie rock" bands that got picked up by major labels after the success of Nirvana. Steve watched a lot of his friends get burned and he breaks down exactly why in this essay.

<comment><USER15> The most detailed accounting I've come across of the economic realities of the record biz (including the myriad ways an artist can be screwed by his or her label) is the book "So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star" by Jacob Slichter (drummer for Semisonic). It's a really fantastic read I recommend to anyone who wants to be a professional musician or just wants to understand the industry. If you want wild antics and groupies and what not, skip it. But man does it ever go into a lot of technical detail of how the recording industry sausage gets made.

<comment><USER16> Similar to this is _The Daily Adventures of Mixerman,_ [1] by Eric "Mixerman" Sarafin, which is largely a chronology of his experiences as recording engineer for a bidding-war band with a major-label contract. But he throws in a lot of background about the music business as well as the technology and techniques of recording music. It's also a laugh riot.

[1] [https://mixerman.net/the-daily-adventures-of- mixerman/](https://mixerman.net/the-daily-adventures-of-mixerman/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> For me that kind of story gives extra justification to abolish copyrights in the way they currently are. Our culture is being held hostage by all these games and the real artists get paid very little.

Meanwhile, we technologists should just torrent stuff to make a point and continue to innovate with systems that make copyright obsolete.

<comment><USER18> Assuming you're a developer or designer, why don't you start by telling your employer you're morally opposed to copyright and would like to see all fruits of your labor to be in the public domain.

Please report back how it went.

<comment><USER19> That's an interesting one. Let's say copyright was cut down to maybe 10 years. How much software that's running the world right now would be out of copyright protection? I suspect a significant percentage of the fundamentally important code for our economy is at least 10 years old.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> [http://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/01/13/television-thank- your...](http://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/01/13/television-thank-your-lucky- stars/) Dick James was instrumental in the creation of the Beatles showbiz phenomenon, getting them on UK TV talent shows. Easy to forget this seminal effort and stake once the fab 4 became famous.

Separately, Michael Jackson also owned the Elvis Presley catalog. He shared ownership of the Beatles catalog with Sony in later years, and there was a lot of bad blood between them.

If you are into intrigue it is very hard to find out Jackson's true worth at his death but easy to follow the money afterwards...

</comment><comment><USER21> No mention of Ringo & George? Looks like they got cut out entirely?

<comment><USER22> This is about Lennon/McCartney-written songs, which is just about all of them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I like how part-2 closes

        So what's the lesson here? If you find a way
        to make a ton of money investing in X,
        don't tell your friends about it!

redacted _X_ was mine

<comment><USER24> And the corollary: if one of your friends tells you how you can make a ton of money investing in X, he probably has an ulterior motive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Michael Jackson also owned Elvis Presley's Catalogue!

[http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvisnews_lisanothappywithmi...](http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvisnews_lisanothappywithmichael.shtml)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U7SsGjSgR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U7SsGjSgR0)

</comment><comment><USER26> Who are the Dick James and Charles Silver of the tech world?

<comment><USER27> I think in the tech world if the founders feel screwed they'd just bail and start a new company. The Beatles not only got screwed but essentially had to continue running their company under the agreement for 10 years.

<comment><USER25> > if the founders feel screwed they'd just bail and start a new company.

like this Harvard Business School case: [https://youtu.be/dz72uaZDWQI?t=5m22s](https://youtu.be/dz72uaZDWQI?t=5m22s) (Stanford seminar video) the interesting case starts at 6:00

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I'm very curious how good of an investment it was for MJ, or how Paul and Yoko decided it was a bad investment at the time.

<comment><USER29> The article answers this: Sold his $47M stake in ATV to Sony for $90M + half of Sony+ATV. His part soon grew to be worth $1B.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Dealing with a Toxic Co-Worker - <AUTHOR> How do you deal with a toxic developer co-worker?
I've been working with one for some time now, and I'm really tired of it. I just don't know what I should do. Moving on and finding another job is something I only want to consider as a last resort, and I am afraid that if I do nothing, then I see no alternative, on the other side, I feel like if I do something, I may be forced to move on.
Background: The employee is quite capable, and they were hired in as a top developer. Our manager respects their opinion about technical matters, and is a thought leader on how we should build our applications. The employee's biggest issue is their personality. They constantly belittle other employees, usually to a coworker after they have left their office, when this employee dislikes work they have done. Anytime someone screws up in the organization that person is an idiot or worse. For someone who is supposed to be a technical leader, they set a poor example for other developers to follow.
This person is favored by our manager because they get things done when there is pressure. I know this employee has been counseled by our manager on more than one occasion. Afterwards, his attitude improves for a few weeks before falling back into old habits.
I am just not sure what to do. I have a few options.
1. I could speak directly with my manager. I am concerned about this, because my manager has a big mouth, and I cannot trust that my complaint would be 100% confidential
2. I could go above my manager. Probably not an option here. My manager and his boss are close. I think it would make things even worse
3. File a complaint with HR. This seems like the best option, but I have my reservations about going down this route.
4. Just leave. I would really rather not do this. I do enjoy most of my job, and I worry that the grass may not be greener on the other side.
5. Shut up and do nothing about it. Is an option but I would still feel miserable. <comment><USER3> I don't think going to HR is the right approach. HR works for management, and they're much more likely to side with your manager (who likes toxic-guy) than you. Also, it doesn't sound like toxic-guy's behavior breaks any laws, so HR might prefer to ignore him since he poses no legal threat to the company. They could just throw the problem back at you and tell you to work it out between yourselves. Or you could end up getting branded as a "troublemaker".

Similarly, your manager's boss is much more likely to side with your manager than with you. And complaining to your own manager may backfire if he values toxic-guy more than you (which seems to be the case).

So I'd suggest that if it really bothers you, start looking for a new job. Otherwise, ignore it. If your manager is already talking to him about his behavior, he might eventually improve his attitude.

For more on HR's role in a company, you might want to read this book (which I read after it was recommended a while back by someone else on HN):

 _Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn 't Want You to Know--- and What to Do About Them_

By Cynthia Shapiro

[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312337361](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312337361)

</comment><comment><USER4> well, this is what helped when I faced a similar siutation : 1\. I took the guy who offended me to an informal cup of coffee and discussed about the situation. 2\. Instead of confronting him, I explained my perspective and sought out his guidance to help me out.

It did help me in two ways : 1\. The other person realized that I'm another human being just like him and not some "ideal code cranking robot" that he expected me to be ! He even apologized at some point for any offense he would have caused, explained his reasons and assured me that it was not personal. 2\. I realized that he was under similar stress for meeting his own challenges / expectations laid out to him by his superiors. So, helped me feel better about myself , that the situation was caused mostly due to his inability to communicate rather than any fault from my end !

<comment><USER5> That might work some of the time, but more often than not this just makes you a target because you threaten that person's sense of self-worth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Shouldn't you try to invite him for a beer and talk about it?

Also, be careful when stamping the "toxic" label. I'm not saying you're wrong in your judgement, but maybe you just don't know what's happening with his personal life. I have a fellow colleague which I always considered _at least "cranky"_ since I joined my current company (half a year ago). Last week we traveled to work abroad and had some free time to talk over beers - <USER2> confided me that his mother was and still is very sick. Tough stuff, which reminded me clearly how frivolous we all can be when making judgements.

</comment><comment><USER7> Don't go to HR. Don't go to HR. Don't go to HR.

HR is not there for you. HR is there for the company. Expect the worst if you go to HR and ask for any help. Doing this will immediately politicize the situation, making you the "bad guy" and you'll be on the defensive trying to save your job so fast your head will be spinning.

This has been true at _every_ company I have worked at. HR might be a fine ombudsman at your company, but this would be an exception that I have never seen.

</comment><comment><USER8> I had a programming job that had a toxic environment. I could not leave because I had a house and family. It was during the Dotcom busts so finding a job was difficult to impossible. I worked for a law firm that didn't value their IT workers. While I wrote programs that saved them millions of dollars a year by eliminating waste and missing court dockets was eliminated by writing a docket calendar, they would only go by how much money we earned and how long it took to get projects done.

A lot of the programmers rushed their code so it was sloppy and crashed the system and take down the database. I had to fix those programs and also work on my own programs. I got assigned Legacy Software Support and anything that broke became Legacy Software and assigned to me. I had over 134 projects to work on and had tight deadlines.

I ended up stressed out and on short-term disability, and when I returned to work and had a panic attack I was fired for not snapping out of it. I ended up on disability.

My best advice for you is to learn how to manage stress, no matter where you work there will always be a toxic element to it. The better a programmer the bigger the ego they have in some cases. Sure it is hard to get along with a jerk that management likes and is fire-proof. But if you can change your reactions and manage your stress better you can deal with it better. Don't make the mistake I did and let it get to you to the point that you make yourself sick.

</comment><comment><USER9> 4), and here's why: the manager is already aware of this behaviour and hasn't acted on it. In other words, you're dealing with a toxic _culture_, not a toxic co-worker.

By all means do 5 while you execute on 4, but you're in no position to change the culture of the firm. Go and find a better one. (Context: I've done exactly this.)

<comment><USER10> Strong this. If your manager is already aware, then it's too late to fix. You would have to alter the behavior of both the employee and the manager. And most likely everyone up the chain as well because examples are set from the top. Just bail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> He needs to feel superior. He is confrontational to prove himself, he needs to "win" to feel he is better than everyone and validate himself.

If you call hiss bullshit he'll probably go into denial (sooner or later). He can also become depressive, or even more aggressive. Those are defense mechanisms. They are triggered in confrontational situations, the "fight or flight" instinct. Men usually fight, women usually flight. Best option is for him to actually feel good about himself, as people "at the top" do not belittle the little people, as it would mean they feel threatened (and, as such, are afraid, meaning they're not as strong as the other).

Best way imho is to be friendly to him, and when he belittles someone, instead of confronting him, you approach tangentially, making him feel he would be even "more superior" if he helped. This way he will be validated by his experience and by his understanding.

For example, "man, you don't need to go that far. I mean, you've [been doing this for a long time]/[studied a lot]/[put a lot of effort], you must have made some mistakes too. And you're [one of the best]/[probably the best]/[an awesome] developer. If you could give us some tips sometimes, II bet we'd become an even greater team. :D"

And obviously, whenever you can, praise stuff his done well and ask for opinions. Can be on conceptual stuff or whatever, just help him feel "validated" for his good points and he will naturally shift to a less confrontative behavior, plus he will focus on the stuff that got people to like him.

He should do therapy btw, but suggesting this will probably make things worse. If nobody can make this work, all the good devs will end up leaving, and the company will be left with people that have no other options... Not a good place to work at, unfortunately.

<comment><USER12> Helping people with problems is absolutely the best thing to do. When people offend us, we tend to write them off as an "asshole" or general bad person. But they're still a person with the same motivations as everyone else.

It's entirely possible that most other staff aren't showing him as much respect as they do each other. He may feel miffed when he does something great and nobody compliments him while others doing seemingly lesser things are publicly congratulated. People responding to "assholes" in this way only perpetuates the hostile feelings of everyone involved, and even makes their behavior seem more justifiable.

Something to look for in a company when you're applying is how they treat people with problems - either poor performance, not fitting in with coworkers, etc. Some companies try to help the people with problems while others try to get rid of whichever party to the disagreements is most powerless. I've even seen a case where many coworkers were rude to one individual and antagonized him into aggressiveness, then he was fired after taking a vote and finding he was unpopular!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> My advice, to take with appropriate salt: Leave.

It's a seller's market for people with your skills right now. There's no guarantee that you'll find a new environment that doesn't have one of these cancer-in-the-locker-room culture killers, but they're not quite as common as you're fearing.

It's not just this one employee that's the problem, it's that the bad apple, the manager, and the manager's manager are all knitted together into a situation that you can't break, which is making you "miserable". You may not like the idea of leaving. But, given the information you've provided, it is your best option. (Or, maybe your least-worst option.)

<comment><USER14> > It's a seller's market for people with your skills right now.

This gets repeated way too often - bordering on the obsessive.

What are OP's skills? Where does he live? Unless I'm missing something obvious, we have no clue about it.

I a vast majority of planet earth, it is _not_ a seller market for developers. It isn't for basically any kind of skill, simply because there are no jobs. Even if we assume OP is from the USA (which is kind of arbitrary), on in a handful of places you can leave your job without a thought and be almost sure you'll land another good one quick enough .

Now, to be honest, you said your advice was to be taken with a grain of salt, but I still think it's worth pointing out the huge assumption - which is basically that OP is living in Northern California, Seattle or New York.

<comment><USER15> Average level of HN audience is pretty high, and for people with decent programming skill and good English remote is an option - with liveable wage, if you live anywhere outside SFBA/NY/London; and if you live in SFBA/NY/London, you have plenty of options as a developer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If you decide to report to anyone, is it a bad idea to keep a log of what he says? Not necessarily audio (depending on jurisdiction), but keep a journal? Then you can point out what insults were levered against which people on which dates. It would make your complaint much harder to dismiss.

And it would be pretty bad if said report was leaked to other employees. People might put up with this stuff one by one, but hearing the insults about _themselves_ suddenly changes things. Though again, this might be a horrible idea.

</comment><comment><USER17> At my current workplace, this also wouldn't fly. Its just not worth it in the long run, especially when your company is small (from a managerial perspective)

That being said, obviously your manager doesn't share this ethos. In the future, this is something you might want to filter for.

If I were you, I would make preparations for the worst and escalate. You don't want to leave, but you need to be willing to and prepared to do so. If you do escalate though, go to your manager. He's clearly aware of it, and ultimately its politically a mistake to go to either HR or your manager's manager, since it'll hurt your relations with your direct manager.

Doing nothing isn't an option in the long term if nothing changes. There's no real point in considering it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Over many different work experiences, all over the place, my simple rule is this: if I am thinking about whether or not I should leave? I should leave.

That doesn't always mean that I leave -- only that by the time I'm asking the questions you're asking, it's always been too late. It was time to go a while back and I just didn't want to admit it.

Good luck! I doubt there's some magic sauce or fairy sprinkle dust that will turn a jackass into a flower, but perhaps your experience will be different from mine.

</comment><comment><USER19> _They constantly belittle other employees, usually to a coworker after they have left their office, when this employee dislikes work they have done. Anytime someone screws up in the organization that person is an idiot or worse. For someone who is supposed to be a technical leader, they set a poor example for other developers to follow._

Question what this person is saying. Stand up for your coworkers if you think they've done good work and the comments are unreasonable. If your coworker is wrong then he won't able to defend his position, and he'll look ridiculous. If he's right that the work _is_ poor then he'll look stupid for complaining when the developer in question isn't there.

Just make sure there are plenty of other people around, particularly your boss.

</comment><comment><USER20> Is it possible they actually need a guy like this, because there really are an unmanageable number of cock-ups? If so, it might be a symptom of deeper organizational problems. They're hiring a head-kicker and a fire-fighter.

So you can leave (because you don't really want to work in an organization that needs that kind of intervention).

Or you can speak to the co-worker, and try to come up with strategies for fixing shit. It doesn't sound like he's just angry (otherwise management wouldn't have his back), it sounds like he's angry at actual problem. Try to get him focused on the problems that can be fixed (see the Joel test?), not ones that can't (people issues).

Try to get him to focus on the process, not the people.

Or just leave. It's possible he's just an asshole.

<comment><USER21> > Or just leave.

I've worked a few jobs where a manager has left or been moved. Within six months almost all of the team has left. People leave due to conflicts of personality and or changing work styles. This is normal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> How about just talk to this person directly? It may be more effective to have the conversation about the actions and not the person.

At my current workplace, this kind of "brilliant a __hole " is shown the door asap but most workplace cultures encourage (passively or actively) this behavior.

</comment><comment><USER23> I experienced the same in my company.

How I solved it:

1\. Confrontation. 2\. Talking to managers and tell them I would leave. 3\. Giving him the attention and greet him when he wanted to do something good. 4\. Hear his opinion. 5\. Remind him my role when power argument arise. 6\. Indifference and segregation also worked well. The company started to avoid him.

If none of these calm him, then I would simply leave. There´s no need to gift life and sanity for a jerk.

</comment><comment><USER24> I assume by your post that you are one of the people who thus coworker is speaking badly of. Either that or you are a person who this coworker is speaking to about others. In either case, it can be uncomfortable.

Have you thought about talking to your coworker directly? I know this may sound rough right now and I don't suggest being confrontational. Maybe just ask him out to lunch with you. Build a relationship. It's hard to be mean to a friend... You could become his friend. I had a similar situation recently with a coworker. At a company lunch I noticed this particular coworker was not invited to sit with anyone. I invited him over. We chatted about non-work things. Our relationship did improve. He's still overbearing and mean, but less so. Our relationship has improved.

Also, are his evaluations actually incorrect? Sometimes people are mean and honest at the same time. Are the people he is speaking badly about actually completing work poorly? Is he having to pick up their slack? Does he have to work late or harder because of them? He is purely venting his honest frustration?

</comment><comment><USER25> Your coworker's behavior is extreme, but your response shouldn't be. It is not your job to manage your coworker's interactions with others, and your manager already seems aware of the situation. Instead you have a responsibility to yourself as well as your team. You should empower yourself to act on your beliefs. It's telling that none of your five options include speaking to your coworker or trying to enact any change yourself.

If, for example, your coworker begins to belittle someone else once they leave the room, you could say something like: "I don't think that null-reference exception makes them an idiot, but that's why we have code review," or "...perhaps we should have code review," or "...perhaps you could show them how you have handled a similar problem in your code, so we could learn from it."

When you interact with your coworker, use professionalism as a tool: keep the topic relevant to business and remain as unemotional as possible. If you start to become emotional or if your coworker becomes emotional slow down what you are saying to give yourself time. You can also repeat what he or she is saying, in order to confirm or mirror it.

If you keep it professional no one is going to blame you. Obviously you can get away with much worse, but you need to indicate to this person that it's not ok to talk that way around you. If you're feeling that way and your manager is feeling that way, then other people probably are. If you act professionally, you will give your coworker a dignified way of changing their behavior. Everyone, especially management, will want to avoid drama; but that doesn't mean you should let this person do whatever he or she wants. Right now you're enabling that behavior.

Finally, you should think very carefully about leaving your job because of one other person. That is a major life decision you are making, all because of one jackass. What are you going to do at the next job if you don't like someone? I would try to at least exert some influence yourself before changing your entire work life.

</comment><comment><USER26> I've had a similar experience with a fellow co-worker. In fact, my manager also saw this as an issue but the toxic co-worker was too important to the team. I suffered through it for a year and ultimately left in the end (although for different reasons). I guess what I'm trying to say is, having a toxic co-worker isn't the end of the world. Keep on learning and do your job. If at the point you find yourself not learning as much and not enjoying your job (and your co-worker is still toxic), it means it's time to move on. By that time you'll have learned how to deal with and thrive around a co-worker who is "toxic". Live, learn, adapt.

</comment><comment><USER27> Perhaps it's the situation rather than the person?

Ive worked in high pressure environments before and a little bit of venting is incredibly tame.

From the sounds of it whenever there is a crises he is the one expected to take care of it.

The easiest way to fix it is to take on a chunk of the responsibility yourself. At the very least it will give you a better understanding of the pressure he is under.

If I have to work through the weekend fixing critical problems caused by careless coworkers then I'll probably have a whinge. If you make me miss out on spending time with my wife and kids.... Of course I'll be a bit frustrated with you.

</comment><comment><USER28> To sum up the situation, you have a co-worker that you can't work well with because of their behaviour. Your manager is aware of the situation and tried, but failed to get the co-worker to change their behaviour.

To make life easy for you, I'll lay out your options:

\- Go to your manager with a plan for improving the co-worker's behaviour. Any other conversation about it will be pointless because the manager has shown that they are unable to fix the problem without help.

\- Go to your co-worker and find a way to convince them to change their behaviour. Remember that the manager has already tried and failed at this. You will have to try an approach other than saying "I would really like you to change your behaviour".

\- Engineer the termination of employment of the co-worker by means fair or foul. (Note that going above your direct manager or to HR is essentially an attempt in this direction).

\- Find a way to be happy in your work, despite your co-worker's behaviour.

\- Engineer your own termination of employment.

I think only one of these approaches is easy and none are without risk. If you are willing and able to help your co-worker, this is likely to have the best possible outcome. The chances for success, though, are vanishingly small.

Improving the quality of the team by engineering other people's termination is something that is not so difficult if you know how to do it, but it rather paints a big arrow at your head with the caption "I am evil". Whether you want to go down this route is entirely up to you. It often makes your team happy at the expense of the person you are targeting.

Finding a way to be happy despite the poor behaviour of your colleagues is a very nice outcome for yourself, personally, but it doesn't do much to help others who share your situation. Still, if you wait long enough, the co-worker in questions may gather enough rope to hang themselves.

Finally, you can leave. Knowing when you have had enough is a wonderful wisdom to have. There are risks, as you have said and nobody can evaluate them for you.

It's not a good situation to be in. It's not entirely uncommon, though, given the short period of time people tend to stay in groups in this field, you are likely to encounter the situation again sometime in the future. Building your own skills so that you can help people who suffer from being assholes is something that can be quite valuable (and even marketable). Alas, I have never learned the knack myself.

<comment><USER29> Interesting, how do you engineer termination? (I imagine one must discover ways to raise all sorts of costs so it's eventually worth it for them to be gone.)

<comment><USER28> It's not hard to get people to leave voluntarily -- especially if they are technically competent. Management can easily do it by simply underpaying. Eventually the person will find a better paying job. If you want to get rid of someone and you are not in management, then just imagine all the crap things people have done to you in the past that made you want to quit. It's not hard.

Of course in true Machievillian fashion, I don't actually recommend this. It's the type of stuff that makes teams dysfunctional. One of the things that makes this all difficult is the question, "Who is the asshole who is making this project so difficult to work on?" Nobody answers with "Me". Engaging in petty politics to force people out is what makes _you_ the asshole -- even if you are doing it to get rid of a different asshole.

Choosing to help the other guy, even if you think you have almost no chance of success, is what makes you the good guy. The problem is... you have almost no chance of success, the asshole probably won't thank you, and they will actually probably try to get you fired. Which is why sitting in your cubicle minding your own business is really attractive. But, of course, that just enables the asshole.

Leaving abdicates responsibility and leaves your mates with one less ally.

It's the Kobayashi Maru scenario :-) There is no right answer. It is simply a test of character.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> 1\. no, he likes this guy 2\. no, your mgr will be upset going over his head 3\. definitely not, you'll be the bad guy 4\. no, stick it out 5\. yes, try to expect this behavior out of him maybe it won't bother you so much, not the best team player but sounds like he can't change even when counseled by your mgr. Maybe try to take more of a lead congratulating other team members when things go well and helping them learn from mistakes when things do not. Maybe he'll see this and follow your leadership.

</comment><comment><USER31> Personally, I would escalate, and be ready to leave - this situation is clearly grating on you, and there may be no positive resolution, so it may not be worth fighting here.

On the other end of options, you could grit your teeth and tolerate this further if you don't feel like it's a battle you want to fight.

It's about what you feel is best for you/what you are willing to tolerate. I personally would prepare to leave, as taking verbal abuse often with co- workers is not the type of work environment I want to be in, but that is me.

</comment><comment><USER32> I recently left a company where the CTO was exactly this kind of personality. He's actually an awful programmer but he complains so much about other people's code that management sees him as the authoritative figure. Despite his behavior directly causing a high turnover rate for engineering, the founders have still kept him around because they're brainwashed into his elitist point of view. When you're in a situation like that, you're better off jumping ship. Nothing will improve...

</comment><comment><USER33> I wrote a whole load about my own experiences, but deleted it, because it could be bad advice.

I say that because I don't know your organisational structure and culture. I've done all you've written above, and sometimes it went well, other times not so well. 5 in particular.

Something I recommend for everyone to do is find someone to be a mentor. I have a couple, one a former boss I stay in contact with, the other someone that just took a liking to me. I'm sure I'd have more had I been aware of the power of simply making an effort to stay in contact. For you it could be someone that goes to the same gym, restaurant, or any common connection to bond over. Cultivate that relationship, but don't make it seem like sucking up, because it shouldn't be. No mentor likes sucking up, but they all like being able to share some wisdom and like seeing the results.

</comment><comment><USER29> Some info missing:

\- Does your team lack the ability to healthily self-critique, with the goal of improvement?

\- Are your coworker's criticisms usually right?

\- Do they dominate discussions so others can't get a word in edgewise, or are they an active listener?

\- What do other coworkers do/think about your coworker?

If you can get a healthy process in place to self-critique, with action points... and where everyone has the ability to speak (with a facilitator who tries to understand why some people aren't speaking), that's a possible solution. That provides a constructive vent for your coworker's critiques.

This book is the best I know at discussing team dysfunction: [http://model- view-culture.myshopify.com/products/your-startu...](http://model-view- culture.myshopify.com/products/your-startup-is-broken)

</comment><comment><USER34> As someone who is often perceived to be too negative or worse (although I've improved a lot over the years), I can tell you that in terms of the options you're considering, the best solution is different, but does involve #1.

First, recognize that not everyone thinks the same, or has the same style. Consider that just like his attitude upsets you, your (or your coworkers) attitudes may be upsetting him. This is key to coming up with a solution that works for everyone.

Second, understand that this is probably more venting than anything. The guy is getting frustrated and knows he can't (and shouldn't) take it out on people he sees as having messed up. This doesn't make it right, but consider that the guy is trying not to be toxic.

Third, the guy needs regular feedback about this. --You mention that when your manager talks to him, things improve for a time. This ties into my second point, that the guy is actually trying. You may or may not be in a position where he'll listen to you. I'd recommend trying to talk to him about this directly. When you do this, don't beat around the bush. --Tell him that you know he's good at what he does, but that the constant complaining about coworkers makes it hard for you and others to work with him. I _really_ recommend that you do this. Or if not you, the coworker who he seems to have the most respect for - it'll often mean more coming from a coworker than a manager.

Fourth, ask your manager to follow up regularly. --He needs to help keep reinforcing the attitude change so that the guy doesn't fall back into old habits.

Finally, consider offering the guy a chance to vent over lunch once a week or so away from the office. --This helps give him a chance to get things off his chest, but to do it somewhere that it doesn't hurt others. And it might give you a chance to give him some insights of your own about the people he complains about.

This guy may never be your ideal coworker, but you can probably help find the middle ground that makes things better for everyone.

</comment><comment><USER35> I do not see where you have a problem. You do not mention him accosting you, all you describe is having to listen to him rag on others. Perhaps the problem is you being too tuned into his unpleasantness. In which case moving on will not help, because us capable geek jerks are everywhere.

Remember, he is not your partner or your friend, he is just there. You do not have to let him under your skin. Turn down the gain on your butthead antenna. Visualize a force field around you off which his assininity just bounces. That is how most people (including my best friends) deal with me: they just do not listen to me.

This is an incredible growth opportunity for you. Seize it! You will tolerate us idiots more effectively for the rest of your life.

</comment><comment><USER36> Honestly, I would say something to your manager. I would try and step away and not get personal about it, refer along the lines of "the attitude is deamining to other developers" and "can harm retention and acquisition of new talent".

I was recently in a similar situation where anyone disagreeing with the "golden boy" was chided by him. He's just another bully, generally when you stand up they leave you alone.

I had a word with my bosses boss and my boss at the same time, said basically I have thick skin, but at the end of the day his behaviour is pissing me off, something needs to be done because if a Jr was being "coached" they would likely freak out due to the condescending manner.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER37> option 4 or 5 .

If it is a big corp ask to be transferred to another position for instance. There is nothing you can do about assholes, other than avoid them, especially if they are fully supported by the hierarchy.

</comment><comment><USER38> It might be a good idea to regularly confront him with the things he says about other employees (in a subtle way), in front of those other employees, and thereby creating an uncomfortable situation that he has to handle.

By doing so other employees will then become to know what you already know, and some solution is more likely to arise.

In any case, before this thing starts impacting your mood outside of work, definitely leave the company. (i have been in the exact same situation and regret not leaving that company much earlier.)

</comment><comment><USER39> In my opinion, don't involve a tier. You can't report a problem that has no solution: it's nobody's job to change the toxic co-worker.

Go talk to him, tell him how he makes you feel (not "you do this, you do that", but "I feel like shit when you say X"). And ask him to be kind/patient to less experienced devs.

Make him feel important by requesting his mentorship instead of acid complaints.

Tell him he can help empower others instead of belittling them.

Talking to a manager will only make things worse.

</comment><comment><USER40> How big is your organization? Is it possible for you to switch teams to get away from this guy and is that something you'd be interested in doing?

</comment><comment><USER41> That depends: How are their actions affecting you personally? Besides observing their (bad) behavior, how is your work day affected? I think teasing out these effects might lead you to a solution. And conversely: filing a complaint about an issue that doesn't directly affect you might come off poorly to HR.

</comment><comment><USER42> I've been in this situation where I was the "jerk".

I've only changed when I pushed for a promotion and another manager blocked it based on my behavior. When I asked people who I knew could have influenced my promotion to not happen, she just said "I blocked it because despite being by far the strongest technically, your behavior negates most, if not all, the value you can add to the team." The next week, she was going to my manager telling him he _has_ to promote me.

She's probably one of the person who had the best impact on my career so far (I was 31, so my career was closer to the beginning than to its end.

Another person that was extremely helpful in the same period of time was a coworker who joined as a tech lead 2 years before my promotion got rejected. His title was above mine even though I was technically stronger than him. He had no problem acknowledging it but also that his people skills were putting mine to shame. We had the most honest discussions about both skill-sets and while we were brutal with each other more often than not we became very good friend. I'm a bit frustrated by the fact that I don't think he got as much out of our relationship than I did, but I think it was more coming from his own shame than from my behavior.

A third was a person out of work that had been classified as "gifted" as a kid. He used to introduce me as a "genius" to people around me. I hated that but it got me thinking.

Anyway, coming from the other side, there were a couple of things driving my judgement :

\- I thought I was normal and that anyone not performing to my level was just stupid. And that was making me angry towards others. The third person made me realize that maybe I wasn't normal (sorry if that sounds very pretentious), which means others are not stupid. They're actually quite smart, just not the same way I am. And my responsibility is to help them gain the insight I have, granted they want to.

\- I didn't feel recognized enough. The 1st person made it brutally obvious that people saw what I could do and the only reason why they couldn't let me know what they saw was because I didn't let them. I was trying to prove myself all the time through the wrong behaviors, which just became an infinite loop of mutual deception.

\- I felt lonely and frustrated. The 2nd person made me aware of my own shortcomings and also offered me both a mentor and a mentee with which I could share insight, transfer knowledge and ask questions, expecting nothing but the cold harsh truth.

If this colleague is the only thing that would drive your change of job, I would take that as a last resort option. You should not have to leave a job you are happy/content about because of a single person, so I'll take 4 out of the equation.

As said by other comments, going to HR is a waste of time. Nothing to gain there IMO. It's a human relationship issue that won't be solved by someone you've never seen around and that basically considers all of you as a liability. (Not all of HR is like that, but that's a big part of their job)

I think going to your manager is not a bad idea. if you come to him with a "I feel like" rather than a "it's his fault" approach, it should at least get him thinking. "I feel like XX is unapproachable/angry at others/aggressive all the time and I'm not sure howto approach him and make him an ally and learn from him". It's his job to advise you, to ask around and to advise this person if the feeling you have is shared by your other colleagues. If he breaks confidentiality and that backfires on you, I'd suggest changing managers. You cannot trust him with your career.

Go above your manager only if you are closer to your n+2 than to your manager. There's only so much he will be able to do without engaging your manager in the loop.

Try "confronting" him. Not so much in an aggressive way, but by using your soft skills. Praise him a bit for the things he really is better at you than you are. Learn from him. Don't hesitate to ask him for his opinion/advice/how he got there. And if you can build a connection, tell him about his own shortcomings in the areas where you are better than him. If there's no such area, use him to learn where he's better at than you are. You might be able to learn what he seems to know without having to put all the effort he put in it rather than his social skills. He will probably sound like an insufferable jerk from time to time, but what you'll get out of him might be worth thousand times the 30 minutes of jerkiness and self satisfaction you had to suffer through.

Good luck. I still feel bad about my past behavior but I've grown so much since then that I can only be thankful to all the people who had to suffered through this coming from me.

</comment><comment><USER43> I had a similar experience.

Turned out the offending co-worker just favored bluntness over politeness and was more than happy to discover I was able to discuss with him over concepts and not over how those concepts he expressed.

The two of us never had a problem since.

</comment><comment><USER44> (Is this Linus Torvalds we're talking about?)

The first step should be a private conversation using the "when you do X I feel Y" template. They may not realise the effect they are having.

</comment><comment><USER45> I was in an environment like this once. I just left. You really can't fix a problem like this if he's a management darling unless you want to go the HR route.

</comment><comment><USER46> 6\. Tell the coworker to vent on Twitter. Works wonders for me. It is like shouting at /dev/null :)

<comment><USER47> Except when stuff on twitter gets people fired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Talk to,the guy in private.

<comment><USER49> In the carpark after work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> 6\. Kick his ass.</comment>


Show HN: What do you guys think of our beta landing page? - <AUTHOR> http://www.diglig.com/

<comment><USER2> Reading the three main boxes, I had no idea what you were talking about.

1\. _"We manage your events..."_ : Ok, so it helps me plan parties and meet- ups and stuff? _Facebook, Twitter, Gmail icons_ : Right, these must be how I can manage invitations and attendance.

2\. _"Get smart and precise[d] recommendations..."_ : Recommendations for what? Similar meet-ups I can attend? But I thought it's for planning the event, so maybe venues and catering?

3\. _"We can help you complete our recommendations..."_ : That doesn't tell me anything. I still think it's like Anyvite.

Then I read the lower blurb (which is better):

 _"Diglig is a context-aware, virtual personal assistant and do engine."_

Does "do engine" mean anything to anyone else? I have no idea.

 _"Diglig manages your events at one centralized location and anticipates which tasks you'll need to complete before your next event."_

My idea from before was reinforced: I have tasks like "book venue", "order catering", "create seating chart", and you'll help me with those.

 _"Diglig then assists you in doing our recommendations, whether it is booking a flight & hotel for your next meeting, making a dinner reservations or getting a gift for that special someone."_

Hmm. This is the first time I feel like it's _not_ about planning a single event. So maybe it's attaching tasks to the events in my calendar. Can I suggest you use a word like "appointment", because "event" sounds large and once-off.

 _"At Diglig we believe that everyone should have a virtual assistant to which they can delegate their tasks."_

Oh, I can delegate my tasks. So now it sounds like not just an app, but a service with real people as assistants (where "virtual" means "not in person", NOT "digital"). But I have no idea if this interpretation is correct, as it's hard to get a consistent description of what you're trying to do.

So what DO you do? Then I can help with some wording, if you like.

<comment><AUTHOR> jmah, can you update your email in your profile. We also updated the landing page, please check now.

<comment><USER2> Hmm, my email seems ok; you can reach me on me AT myusername dot-com.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's either WAY more advanced than anything I've seen, or I don't understand what it's doing.

</comment><comment><USER4> The description is too abstract for my taste. Of the three main points, all I really get is that you somehow organize my "Events", whatever that is. The logos above the first point give me a clue as to what "Events" are, from a technical point of view - but still doesn't give me a good idea of how that applies to my life. What events am I expected to think about and get excited? Meetings? Facebook events like parties? What do you actually DO - is it a glorified calendar with notifications?

I don't get any mental image that connects your service to my life and why it could make it awesome. It's missing an "aha - this would've been great last week when X happened" or "I could use this in two weeks when Y".

Too much explanation, not enough examples. Better yet, some images or screenshots.

Also, not a big fan of the custom "social bookmarking" icons in the top right - I think most people will completely miss them.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like the little robotic guy as your logo. However, that empty space between the logo and 'Follow us' section is distracting. Maybe put your tagline or some brief info about your service there.

The 'Yes,' 'You,' 'Can' sections are a bit disjointed. I didn't understand that it was supposed to be a phrase. I took it as blocks of information.

Also, do you take my Events from different services (i.e. Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook)? What do the different service icons mean under 'You'?

Perhaps state in bold words what you state at the end of your page: 'We believe that everyone should have a virtual assistant to which they can delegate their tasks.'

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback. Yes we take events from Google Cal, Ical, outlook and other social media tools.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1\. name (diglig) means nothing to me, even sounds stupid. 2\. 'your do engine' below the diglig using small and not pleasant font 3\. I had to read it 3 times to really understand what you are doing 4\. Too much gifs, text and colors. You have to keep it KISS 5\. The follow us appears twice (where logo and below gifs) 6\. Why Email* ? 7\. bottom links do not work

Bottom line- Unless you asked me to review- In real life i would not stayed their more then few seconds.

Good luck Guys

</comment><comment><USER7> The empty space between the logo on the left and the social icons on the right is a little awkward. Maybe you could pull the email text field and your 'get notified' button to that space. Hope that helps. Goodluck! :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Azharb, Thanks for the feedback.

<comment><USER7> Also, it probably isn't a good idea to tie your business to a political slogan. "Yes you can" may turn off some conservative leaning potential customers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, agree. It will be removed today. Thanks

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Was I the only one that tried to click on the empty space between the logo and the social icons? I read "engine" on the title and figured that had to be the search box.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think you should enumerate what kind of events you mean.

<comment><AUTHOR> The "Events" refers to your calendar events and tasks from google tasks or any social media (Facebook events, Twitter) tools user might use on daily basis.

We will update the landing page soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The grammar is wrong on a lot of your blurbs

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Mainly, I'm looking for some feedback in terms if this is a good landing page. Does it describe our business idea? Do you like the layout and theme?

*note: I know there are few things broken but we are working on fixing them.

<comment><USER11> The Yes You Can doesn't do it for me. It is confusing as for the first two blocks 'yes' and 'you' are/can be used to start the sentence of, while the third one isn't. Also when glancing at the page the slogan doesn't give you any information of what I can do. I suggest making informative headings. Also spelling events with a capitalized E is a bit weird to me -- try to emphasize it in a different way. Also - I don't know how this is for an english native american - but for me 'yes you can' makes me think of the Obama yes we can slogan, which might be a turnoff for republican visitors of your website. Furthermore, the horizontal alignment is off for those three words and text, that makes it look messy (and maybe don't center-align it, but left-align it to increase readability).

Additionally, personally I prefer social media logo's to be their original logo's so they stand out more from you design.

On the whole, I don't really like the blue color in combination with the grey/white elements, it looks kinda 2004ish or something. Lastly, I think the email signup is below the fold for 1280 resolutions, you might wanna make sure it is visible immediately for those resolutions as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> sjaakkkkk, thanks for the valuable feedback. we'll be making changes in next few days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi All,

The "Events" refers to your calendar events and tasks from google tasks or any social media (Facebook events, Twitter) tools user might use on daily basis.

Thanks,

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> We have updated our page could you guys please check it out and let me know what do you think now?</comment>


The Future Is Portable, Dynamic and Distributed - <AUTHOR> https://mesosphere.com/blog/future-portable-dynamic-distributed/ <comment><AUTHOR> Florian Leibert, CEO of Mesosphere, recently sat down with Stavros Korokithakis to talk about technologies that are being used to build the web today and tomorrow. Stavros is the founder of Stochastic Technologies and runs his own insightful and humorous blog, Stavros' Stuff. He's also active on Hacker News under his handle, StavrosK. Flo and Stavros talked about what makes Python and Django attractive for DevOps and data science. They also explore InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a technology rapidly becoming the foundation for the future distributed web.</comment>


Scaling Your Database via InnoDB Table Compression - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3571-scaling-your-database-via-innodb-table-compression

<comment><USER2> Neat use case.</comment>


Branchless code sequences - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/dpt/64e71e065f0a6102fa62

<comment><USER2> Interesting, thank you!

The ever present SO question: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11227809/why-is- processin...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11227809/why-is-processing-a- sorted-array-faster-than-an-unsorted-array)</comment>


TSA willing to pay $15,000 for best ideas to help shorten airport lines - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/07/29/tsa-willing-to-pay-15000-for-best-ideas-to-help-shorten-airport-lines

<comment><USER2> Just went through the security theater myself no less than an hour ago and along with everyone else: Eliminate TSA. We all know it's a joke, I even had my pat down guy joking with me about how ridiculous the whole thing is. On the way out to my destination I had 100' of 8-wire cable in my carry on, a multi- parameter water quality probe and various solutions for calibrations (fit into the appropriate containers) and no one said anything. On the way back the multi-parameter probe was questioned like mad. Their practices are inconsistent and ineffective. However, they are effective at slowing travel down and spending tax payers monies.

</comment><comment><USER3> Get rid of the TSA. I'll take my $15,000 now.

Seriously though, $15k is a pittance for what they're asking. If they had to employ someone to do that, they'd have to pay them _way_ more than that, and the economic upsides of what they're gunning for are quite substantial. This feels like it's along the lines of holding a logo design contest and paying the winner $25.

</comment><comment><USER4> One way might be to decrease the ridiculous amount of security theater they employ.

</comment><comment><USER5> The longest I've ever spent between the front of the line and the concourse was ~2 minutes. The screening process doesn't need to get shorter, just more parallel.

Have more lanes. Hire more staff, and schedule them more evenly. Every time I've waited in an obnoxiously long line, additional lanes were extant but closed. Meanwhile there seemed to be at least 5 staff standing around doing nothing. Have them man a second lane and cut the waiting time in half?

There's no inherent reason you can't solve this problem, the limiting factors are just the size of the screening room and the payroll budget.

</comment><comment><USER6> Have each airline administer its own security. If you want the machines, the patdowns, and long lines for 'security' there will be an airline for you.

</comment><comment><USER7> > It's asking so-called "solvers" to build on TSA's existing PreCheck > program..

They expect to add a process to a failed process and expect a different result? Ultimately they'll add one more machine, one single line that feeds into the scanners, and more promotion of the Nexus program... and in five years, another $15k for another idea that changes nothing.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'll elaborate further on the "just abolish it" idea: let each airline manage its own security. They have every incentive to balance customer experience with meaningful security.

Especially if you leave them open to civil liability in case they are negligent and bad things happen with one of their airplanes.

<comment><USER3> I specifically fly Delta because they fly out of a terminal in my home airport that doesn't have the backscatter machines - just the metal detectors. There's never much of a line and I don't have to go through the hassle of opting out for a pat-down.

I would definitely make it a point to patronize airlines which made convenience and smooth travel a feature. Every time I travel, I sacrifice multiple hours for each direction sitting in an airport because I have to allow time for TSA incompetence. 95% of the time, I'm through security in a half hour, but sometimes it takes two hours if they have the moron squad working the x-ray, so I have to assume that every single time I travel.

If airlines were competing for my business on the basis of "consistent screening times" and "low-hassle screening", I would be delighted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Easy, abolish the TSA

<comment><USER10> rm -rf /home/tsa/

<comment><USER11> rm -rf /homelandsecurity/

<comment><USER12> sudo usermod -a -G sudo RonPaul

sudo fdisk /dev/tsa

sudo mkfs.freedom /dev/tsa1

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Go to Israel, copy what they are doing there.

<comment><USER14> killing people they dont like?</comment></comment>


What do you think of our personal finance app? - <AUTHOR> Hi there, I'm George from Moneyspire, and we developed a very straightforward personal finance app that we believe has all the features people need, without being too complicated and feature bloated. We are also very receptive to user feedback, and are constantly enhancing the software based on our users' comments and suggestions. I just wanted to introduce our app, and to answer any questions you guys may have. Our website is www.moneyspire.com where you can learn more. I'm happy to answer any questions, and also very interested in your comments! <comment><USER2> Why is this superior or YNAB or Mint, or any of the online services that I can connect to from my phone? What problem does your service solve?

If I can use the software to connect to my bank, how can I be sure its not running behind the scenes doing malicious things? How do I know an external service can't connect to my computer through your program? Or worse, connect to my bank through your program.

Also, the supported institutions search is fairly unhelpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> I would say that Moneyspire is superior because it's a full desktop app, and similar to Quicken. So it has a lot of power and speed, and the workflow is just better. We also provide an optional Cloud service so you can share your data with your other computers and mobile devices (iOS, Android coming soon). Also, you can keep your data local if you would like since Cloud is optional. The software securely connects to your bank through our partnership with Yodlee (one of the biggest and oldest financial aggregators) - everything is handled securely through their service, and we never get any of your usernames or passwords.

Thank you for your feedback on the bank search on our website (we're working on improving that).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which magazines/publications do you follow? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I'm really enjoying the slow news movement: Delayed gratification [1] Tortoise [2]

1\. [https://www.slow-journalism.com/](https://www.slow-journalism.com/) 2\. [https://www.tortoisemedia.com/](https://www.tortoisemedia.com/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I tend to go with news feeds like Morning Brew these days. I trust their collections.

</comment><comment><USER4> Monocle, Jacobin, Lapham's Quarterly.</comment>


The Typefaces of W.A. Dwiggins - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dwiggins-lost-typefaces <comment><USER2> Reading many of the descriptions of the types without supporting pictures of each is very teasing. I found some examples (mostly via wikipedia):

Metro: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Me...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Metrolite_and_Metroblack.jpg/800px- Metrolite_and_Metroblack.jpg?1495238410860)

Electra: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/El...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Electra_type_specimen_%288757329161%29.jpg/1920px- Electra_type_specimen_%288757329161%29.jpg)

Caledonia: [https://s-media-cache- ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3b/91/30/3b91...](https://s-media-cache- ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3b/91/30/3b91301670cf2a746cb01a0948778051.jpg)

Initials: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Dw...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Dwiggins_initials.jpg/1280px- Dwiggins_initials.jpg)

<comment><USER3> This page could also be of use: [https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/225/william-addison- dw...](https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/225/william-addison-dwiggins)

<comment><USER2> That page is super useful. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does anyone know where to find the "Aldine cursive" font that's pictured in the article? I love the look of it.

<comment><USER5> Agreed, I'd love to use this in my editor. I use Fantasque Sans Mono[1] now, and it's italics have a little of the same feel.

[1][https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/fantasque-sans- mono](https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/fantasque-sans-mono)

<comment><USER6> You may also enjoy Matthew Butterick's Triplicate, which has true italics.

[http://practicaltypography.com/triplicate.html](http://practicaltypography.com/triplicate.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Its funny, I thought this article might be about Dwiggins losing his work in a fire. When he was working with the Village Press, they moved from Massachusetts to New York City. The office was destroyed in a fire on Jan. 10, 1908. Obviously,"Graphic artists" (I think he invented the term) didn't back up to the "cloud" in those days; everything was physical. His also famous mentor/collaborator, Fred Goudy, lost work in both that fire, and another in 1936. The article doesn't mention the fire, but details like this explain how extremely high quality projects didn't survive, or didn't re-emerge until the digital revivals.

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/34564322@N03/15630456883](https://www.flickr.com/photos/34564322@N03/15630456883)

</comment><comment><USER8> WAD was also an astonishing and whimsical puppeteer. He ran a puppet theatre for his friends on Boston's South Shore for many years, and documented it in a large, beautifully designed and illustrated book. Many of his puppets are held by the Boston Public Library's rare book collection and were displayed outside the entrance to the rare book room. They provide rare insight to a remarkable man.

</comment><comment><USER9> Really interesting piece, thanks for posting this</comment>


A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html?_r=0

<comment><USER2> I for one am glad to see the legislation shot down. It's not common sense and it won't stop a criminal from using a gun while breaking the law. All it does is give the government more control over gun buyers and open the door to taking those guns away from law-abiding citizens.

I applaud the senate for not enacting this obviously knee-jerk legislation.

When logic prevails, we all win.

<comment><USER3> Any gun owner is law abiding right up to the point he shoots someone in the face. Law abiding has absolutely nothing to do with it. Can't you think for yourself what is good vs. bad instead of referring to laws?

<comment><USER4> Just because someone else decides to become a criminal doesn't mean I should have my Constitutionally protected right infringed.

<comment><USER5> You have the Constitutional right to join a well-regulated militia.

<comment><USER6> Errr, you do know that every able bodied citizen and those who have declared an intention to become one, aged 17 to 44, is already by law a member of the "unorganized militia"? That basic definition, with suitable updates (nowadays men and women are read where "men" is stated), has held since the very first Congress which also passed the Bill of Rights.

Also, the Supreme Court, _9 to 0_ , agreed that the dependent clause was irrelevant, and that the "individual" vs. "collective" interpretation was correct. They of course disagreed on what rights it confers, but the collective interpretation is as dead as can be (a terrible outcome from the millions of dollars the Joyce Foundation invested into trying to establish it).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Guns are just a too powerful political tool to be given up lightly, especially since the whole thing is kind of backed by the US constitution unlike religion, pro-life, anti-marriage equality, immigration, ...

Divide ut regnes.</comment>