Twitter Blog: A new standard for the mobile web - <AUTHOR> http://blog.twitter.com/2012/05/new-standard-for-mobile-web.html <comment><USER2> As I say here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3940595> ...

        It doesn't work on my ASUS Eee netbook. The result is that I can read
        Twitter, but I can't tweet or reply when I'm computing on the move.
        Once again an "update" has rendered an existing system unoperable.

        It looks like I'm going to have to write my own Twitter client, if
        I have the time. Maybe I should just call this a great time saver.</comment>


Ask HN: I constantly have to push/nag my cofounder to work. What should I do? - <AUTHOR> Hi HN readers,
I co-founded a startup with a Surgeon a few years ago.
Me: technical cofounder Surgeon: domain expert and desire to help sell the product
We started this as a side project so we landed on 50/50 equity split. Fast forward 2 months and I decided to go full time since it had some legs.
I struggle to work with him because I pour my heart and soul into the company while he seems like a consultant. I always have to give him tasks and constantly remind (nag) him of them.
Typical flow would go like this:
Him: "I'll get it done tonight" (radio silence) Me: check-in Him: "(insert random excuse)" (completes task 1-7 days later. Most of the time it is half assed and rushed)
He just seems to prioritize everything over the company. He offered to quit his job and work full time if we raise $1M and pay him $500k/yr and offered me the same salary. I quickly rejected this because that's not how this world works.
We had a long talk early this year where I laid out all of my issues and concerns. He decided to show his commitment by taking 1 day off of work to help sell the new software and work on product development. He immediately asked for the same salary as me, (60k) and I explained to him 1 day does not equal 5-7 days. We settled on $1k/mo for him.
Week 1: 10 phone calls. Sent 12 emails to hot leads.
Week 2: 1 webinar. 6 phone calls. 12 emails.
Week 4: he was back at work 5 days a week and never told me.
Definitely doesn't seem like a great use of 8 hour days. Fast forward to today, still painful, his word means nothing to me, deadlines skipped, etc.
After talking to a few friends, here are some options:
1. Threaten to leave 2. Use our users/investors (surgeons) as the domain experts and ignore him.
3. Shutdown the company and start a competing company
(Currently, he is our "CEO" which is funny considering he is not even part-time)
Thanks HN! <comment><USER2> Sounds like he's making too much money as a surgeon so there isn't a need for him to focus on the startup.

One thought is he could invest money in to the company instead of working on it to retain his 50% equity. So he could be the CEO, provide direction/advice but instead of hustling sales calls and demos he funds the company ($60k per year) to pay someone to do that.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. Threaten to leave: Don't bother. Won't change anything, and will put you in a position where he calls your bluff, and you end up in the same position but with a time factor, coming off as mercurial, melodramatic, and weak.

2\. Use your users/investors: Probably should be doing this already.

3\. Shutdown the company and start a competing company: Hard to see the downside to this approach given what you've told us.

Have you raised money? Do you have registered IP or IP agreements? Are you an LLC, C-Corp, or non-entity? Need to know these things to provide the best advice.

If a shutdown-today, reopen-tomorrow approach is non workable, consider a "soft landing" where you arrange for a "new company" (which you control) to exclusively license your existing entity's IP at a pittance (or a convoluted formula that ends up becoming a pittance). The other guy still owns 50% of something, sees his fortune as existing shareholder is the same as yours, so he's happy and has no reason to fight with you.

</comment><comment><USER4> And this is why I alway say choose your cofounder carefully. It is better to do it alone than have a bad cofounder. A good cofounder is best but you can force that.

I have seen this multiple times. This isn't going to work out. If he like this idea, suggest to him that he be a seed investor and not a cofounder. Explain to him that no one would invest in a startup with a cofounder that isn't there most of the time. If you haven't signed any papers, then you don't owe him anything. Start recording how often he is at the office.

He is a classic case of I will do it if there is money. He is using you as a call option. If it makes money, he goes full time. If not, well, he has nothing to lose. I mean he still has his job. It's a good bet for him. Not so much for you.

If he won't leave and your shares are not vested, then you are going to have a hard time getting rid of him. Next time, be smarter.

</comment><comment><USER5> > He just seems to prioritize everything over the company. He offered to quit > his job and work full time if we raise $1M and pay him $500k/yr and offered > me the same salary. I quickly rejected this because that's not how this > world works.

Clearly you and him have very differente expectations.

Options 1, 2 and 3 all have the risk of you being sued by him sooner or later over IP issues. You need to get rid of him and that may cost you.

<comment><USER6> I agree that 1, 2, and 3 are poor options. If the OP believes he's in the right--that is, his expectations are the reasonable ones--then he should sue his partner for breach of contract. The goal is to force a settlement where the partner's share in the company is proportional to his actual contribution.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Try having a heart to heart about the problem first and see what he's willing to commit to increasing his effort.

If not, float the idea of reducing his equity.

</comment><comment><USER8> Is it possible to bring someone else on for lead gen?</comment>


Player Piano Emulating Human Speech - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4

<comment><USER2> It'd be interesting to hear this done with other (midi) voices: drums, violins, whistles, birds, dolphins, a full orchestra. You should be able to take an arbitrary sound-track, and recreate it by mixing a bunch of samples of ... just about anything.

<comment><AUTHOR> Perhaps it's possible, but it would be harder to chain an actual sound with a part spectral print of another sound. I think here they are cropping out the part of the vocal recording that falls outside of the range played by a piano, and then pressing the appropriate piano keys to emulate that recording. A piano key when pressed doesn't even really create a simple tone, but a sound wave with its own structure that sounds like an exact note, even though it contains a combination of other frequencies that mature and decay with their own pattern over time. My guess is, in order to determine which keys to press and when, they assumed the keys were exact notes. It would be impossible to do this with anything producing true white noise (many percussions), and hard to do so with most natural sounds.</comment></comment>


How to Properly Remove an Arrow - <AUTHOR> http://ciaraballintyne.com/uncategorized/2015/02/properly-remove-arrow-crazy-things-learned-researching-books/ <comment><USER2> currently down with 504 Gateway Timeout.

Meanwhile here the Google Cache link: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OLQFbgV...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OLQFbgVKXhUJ:ciaraballintyne.com/uncategorized/2015/02/properly- remove-arrow-crazy-things-learned-researching- books/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)</comment>


Gene editing is GM, says European Court - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44953100 <comment><USER2> I can't see any technical reason not to classify gene editing as GM, and I find it infuriating that there are scientists who oppose this on the grounds that they think it will make it harder to do research (they're assuming that once people hear "GMO" they won't buy it.)</comment>


Ask HN: Does your company have plans to upgrade its Python 2 codebase? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Nope here too. Can you name some benefit of Python 3 over Python 2 that would make "upgrading" the code base worthwhile? Not even google starts with python3. They recently released their ML library, TensorFlow as Python2 without Python3 support (and Guido worked at google for 7 years -- 3 years before the Py3 release and 4 years after!).

Over 80% of pypi downloads are still Python2. Python3 seems to be the experimental playground with anything worthwhile ported back to the mature, stable Python 2 codebase. There are multiple options for the future of Python with Py2: PyPy, Cython, Conda.

Is there a killer feature for Py3? Maybe if they brought a feature worth upgrading for like true threading, but otherwise -- no. The fact that the company Guido worked at before and after releasing Py3 doesn't even use Py3 should be a pretty strong indication that it will not capture the mindshare that Py2 has. Google put a lot of effort in their own language, Go, after Guido left.

I hope that doesn't portend the fate of Python as a whole (abandonment) if Guido continues to insist on ignoring the user focus and needs with Python 2. I like to think he will come around and make a decent shared syntax version (2.8, 4.0) or develop some feature that makes it worth while, but it has been 7 years so I'm not holding my breath.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nope

</comment><comment><USER4> Haha. nope as well.</comment>


UI/UX design firms in Boston - <AUTHOR>

What are good UI/UX firms you have worked with in the Boston area? <comment><USER2> Depending on what you're looking for, you may want to get in touch with either Joshua Porter ( <http://bokardo.com/services/> ), or Joe Baz ( <http://www.abovethefolddesign.com/> ).</comment>


Far-UVC light used to control the spread of airborne-mediated microbial diseases - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21058-w <comment><USER2> This is awesome. Our team at Infinite Food have been working with UVC light for our food robotics project, and the area is very dynamic. Traditional UV lights were broad spectrum and had spikes in output at various wavelengths that could not be controlled, consequently they were only effective with vast power consumption. Newer UVC LEDs are able to target specific wavelengths identified through research like this as particularly damaging to pathogens, thus enabling very low energy, high effectiveness machine sterilization. Current germicidal applications are mostly in industrial settings, water and air conditioning, however I believe we will see a lot more UVC deployment. There are only a handful of manufacturers in the world that can achieve high longevity products right now. Lower spec products last only hundreds of hours, higher spec products are rated to 5000-10,000 hours. A complicating factor in deployment can be protecting the LEDs - quartz glass must be used as emissions in these wavelengths cannot pass through traditional glass.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28941399](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28941399) and [http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2008/11/uv- lig...](http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2008/11/uv-light-s- germicidal-properties-aid-in-fight-aga.aspx) are examples of prior information.

</comment><comment><USER3> How about targetted use? eg lighting the doorways either side of toilets, or entry/exit points? Might be lower cost retrofit than entire venues, for close to same benefit.

Huge potential in schools, if this is kidsafe.

And cruise ships, floating gastro-enteritis factories.

Or on Aircraft.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I did not see any references to acquired UV resistance in this or other articles. Could this be a short-lived solution?

<comment><USER4> That doesn't really work; it would be like a human trying to acquire resistance to being riddled with bullets. Strong UV is more or less a sort of machinegun if you're a microorganism. You can produce more of your existing defenses, but it will be so far from what's required to gain a reproductive advantage that you won't evolve.

Maybe you could induce resistance to very brief exposure, but that's it.</comment></comment>


Extreme Botany: The Precarious Science of Endangered Rare Plants - <AUTHOR> https://e360.yale.edu/features/extreme-botany-the-precarious-science-of-saving-rare-endangered-plants <comment><USER2> You can actually buy _Brighamia insignis_ from Logees (a specialty nursery) [https://www.logees.com/cabbage-on-a-stick-plant-brighamia- in...](https://www.logees.com/cabbage-on-a-stick-plant-brighamia- insignis.html) It is grow-able as a houseplant, but you need to be careful not to overwater it.

</comment><comment><USER3> "75 percent of cycad species are at risk of extinction (by poachers)"... and nobody blinks an eye".

Yup, the sign of the times...

<comment><USER4> Not big enought ... and "only" plants</comment></comment>


What happens when you bring a 22 year old Mac to the Genius bar? - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5406566/what-happens-when-you-bring-a-25+year+old-mac-to-the-genius-bar

<comment><USER2> Probably my suspicious nature, but any chance this is a planted viral ?

<comment><USER3> Perhaps it could be, but if it were a viral I suspect they would try to make Apple's tech support seem particularly impressive. For example, the customer service reps could have figured out the particular problem and helped him order the necessary parts.

In my opinion, this story doesn't seem to make Apple's support appear particularly good or bad.

<comment><USER2> Virals are getting trickier to figure out, that 'one night stand Danish girl with baby' from a while ago I called immediately and I got nothing but flak for it, that one turned out to be on the money, not having a clear beneficiary does not seem to be a hindrance.

<comment><USER4> "Virals are getting trickier to figure out"

The basic formula is still the same: every viral video has to be either funny or urgent. It's just that executing is harder because there is more noise. So while it's getting harder to predict which videos will go viral, you can still do a pretty good job of predicting which videos have the potential to do so.

<comment><USER5> I think he meant that it's harder to figure out if a given video is a deliberate attempt at viral marketing vs. just a video that some guy posted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Now that is customer service! Yet I'm surprised that they just directed him to a store where he could buy parts rather than trying to sell him a new one.</comment>


Newsflash: Geeks now good at usability, everyone else crap - <AUTHOR> http://www.flourish.org/blog/?p=470

<comment><USER2> _Partly I think it is in cliques wanting to keep people out as they don't have room in their venues. At least, that is how I feel as an outsider. Just like normal people felt about computers in the 1990s._

I can confirm that this is often the case :) If there are more people in the area that enjoy the artist and are likely to come to the event than you have space in the venue, why would you want much else on the poster? Also, event posters are most often glimpsed from several metres away, in the dark, while drunk, so it's important that the key information is very visible.

But you're right, that poster sucks. What do you think of this?

[http://erisian.tk/wp- content/gallery/flyers/20090515-erisian...](http://erisian.tk/wp- content/gallery/flyers/20090515-erisian-flyer_bk-760w.png)

(They were 15cm wide by about 10cm high)

Done by a friend of mine for his night Erisian, he's likely reading this. Hi. Notice the name isn't actually on the flyer anywhere, by this point in the event's history it was known throughout the town simply by the striking typography and the eight pointed star logo. So there's the elitist cool, but also I think it tells you a lot more about what to expect than that other flyer.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, the process for band posters is : recognise a band (or in this case, maybe a genre). If so, then check the details. That's all the poster needs to convey, and the most important way for it to do it is by being cool and by appealing to fans of that band/genre/club night/promoter/whatever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are a lot of unsubstantiated generalizations in this piece. So because capitalism has done its work on Internet startups, forcing them to make clear value statements, this means all geeks are good at usability. And because music posters, real estate, and government forms suck in the UK, "everyone else [is] crap"?

</comment><comment><USER5> The flip side to all the clear examples of poor user experience out there (government, banks, universities, BigDumbCompanies, hidebound industries, etc.) is that there seems to be plenty of opportunities available for the smart entrepreneur to develop a friendlier alternative and make a profit. Just takes time and execution.</comment>


How to Data (Science): Mapping SF Restaurant Inspection Scores - <AUTHOR> http://blog.zipfianacademy.com/post/57158627293/how-to-data-science-mapping-sf-restaurant-inspection

<comment><USER2> > How to Data ...

First time I've seen "data" used as a verb.

<comment><USER3> DAE data?</comment></comment>


I made Ghost work with multiple users - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mkawalec/Ghost It is a very rudimentary solution, but it gets the job done in a simple case, when you need a small number of trusted users to post to the same blog.<p>The usual disclaimer of sleeping dragons in the code applies, enjoy. <comment><USER2> Wow, that's what I waited for!</comment>


Flipping Secret Exponent Bits Using Timing Analysis - <AUTHOR> https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/618 <comment><USER2> In the paper's conclusion, they mention another 2016 paper, 'Cache Attacks Enable Bulk Key Recovery on the Cloud', recently discussed on HN here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11891579](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11891579)

Though mitigations of this technique were introduced with Linux 4.0, they say the attack is still relevant in a shared-hardware environment, as in that paper.</comment>


Will Google Chrome OS Bring Us the Mythical GDrive? - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/will_google_chrome_os_bring_us_the_mythical_gdrive.php <comment><USER2> too slow google - dropbox is everything I wanted from GDrive, and more.</comment>


Today the PC is 30 years old - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/92640-ibm-personal-computer-its-30-year-legacy-slideshow

<comment><USER2> Sigh. The stock photo they pulled for the article is a PC Jr, who's 30th birthday won't happen for another two and a half years. Come on, folks. If you're going to write this stuff at least get the details right and don't hand it off to a 22 year old intern who's never seen such a device.

</comment><comment><USER3> The source code to the BIOS was printed in the back of the tech manual. Only later would people be sued for having read it, and then implemented it again.

<comment><USER2> Early clones were using direct copies of the BIOS, not merely reimplementing it. The same was true of the ROM code in a bunch of contemporary Apple ][ clones. That sort of thing is never OK, even in free software communities.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What IRC / Matrix channels do you hang out on? - <AUTHOR> I was a big fan of IRC in the 90es and 2000s, but these days IRC seems relatively dead. I'm trying to hang out on Linux and open source channels on Freenode, but most of them are support related. I really miss the underground atmosphere of IRC with idling, homemade bots and what not. Does anyone here still hang out on IRC or Matrix and where? Where should I find my digital social life? (PS - I'm in Australia and I don't like Facebook, Reddit or Twitter.) <comment><USER2> > I was a big fan of IRC in the 90es and 2000s, but these days IRC seems > relatively dead.

It's very much alive. Tens of thousands of people are on Freenode.

> I'm trying to hang out on Linux and open source channels on Freenode, but > most of them are support related.

Try finding, or starting your own, channels that are little more specific. When someone asks for help participate and try to get the conversation going.

> I really miss the underground atmosphere of IRC with idling, homemade bots > and what not. Does anyone here still hang out on IRC or Matrix and where?

I still hang out on IRC. There's still that "underground" atmosphere in some networks. You just have to look.

> Where should I find my digital social life? (PS - I'm in Australia and I > don't like Facebook, Reddit or Twitter.)

IRC channels and forums that match your interest.

</comment><comment><USER3> I bounced around a couple places looking for the same IRC "fix" and finally settled on my own Discord: [https://discord.gg/ejfqYCC](https://discord.gg/ejfqYCC)

Its still mostly me doing lunatic redneck hacker ranting about whatever comes to mind. We'd welcome more voices :)</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone having issues with new repo creation on GitHub and fresh push? - <AUTHOR> I create a new repo on GitHub and then set remote to the GitHub URL, same as always, but I get "Repository not found" when I try to push.<p>More baffling is the fact that even though it was created as per usual, when I try to find it again on my profile, its mysterious gone. Is GitHub hosed today? <comment><USER2> When you have problems, take a look on GitHub status - [https://status.github.com/](https://status.github.com/) . As you can see they have some storage issues today.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes.</comment>


Future of science: 'We will have the power of the gods'  - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2007/10/23/scifuture123.xml

<comment><USER2> We already have some powers that the ancient civilizations couldn't even imagine so that they could attribute them to their gods.

<comment><USER3> We're only about 10^25W of usable power away from surpassing the Christian God in strength.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >"There's a good chance that the machines will be smarter than us. There are two scenarios. The optimistic one is that these new superhuman machines are very gentle and they treat us like pets. The pessimistic scenario is they're not very gentle and they treat us like food." hehehe

</comment><comment><USER5> I predict he'll be hit by an iceberg.</comment>


What NoSQL Store Should I Use? The Right Tool for Your Use Case - <AUTHOR> http://architects.dzone.com/articles/what-nosql-store-should-i-use

<comment><USER2> Where's Azure Table Storage?</comment>


Instacat – the kitten delivery service - <AUTHOR> http://www.instacat.info <comment><USER3> From the footer: "This isn't a real product. Just something I built on a plane to make Brandon laugh."

<comment><USER4> It should be pretty obvious it's a joke. The logo is the same as the Instacart logo, just modified slightly to have cat ears ;)

<comment><USER5> > It should be pretty obvious it's a joke.

Uber has delivered kittens before, so we need a bit of a Poe's Law for startup concepts.

"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a startup idea in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am currently in the middle of a lawsuit with the Instacat service. Instead of delivering the cat I had selected, I received a hamster in a cat outfit which bit my child. The cat outfit was also poor quality. My child's wound became infected and then my husband divorced me. I am only 3 years old.

<comment><AUTHOR> We apologize for the mixup ndeme2. There was some confusion in our A/B test team (we were experimenting with alternative small mammal rentals). Please email support and we'll provide you a free week of deliveries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Didn't these guys just close a $30 mil funding round (putting them at ~ $1.2b valuation now?)

</comment><comment><USER8> For a joke site, this is pretty well-designed! I was wondering if you used a ThemeForest design or some other pre-packaged landing page, but, nope completely unique.

On a side note (and perhaps also a shameless plug) maybe I should consider renaming the browser extension I showed to HN the other day: [http://instacats.co/](http://instacats.co/).

</comment><comment><USER9> Am I crazy to think this could actually work as a real business? The other day I was telling a friend how I love the idea of having and walking a dog - <USER2> in a while. Unfortunately my life doesn't allow me to have a dog in the traditional full comitment way. But maybe there could be a way to get that dog-owner experience the few days or weeks each month you would have the time. It's obviously super important that the animals are treated well, so that is probably difficult to do without making it too expensive to be viable.

<comment><USER10> If there's an animal shelter in your area, they tend to be in demand for volunteers; based on what I've heard from family and friends who've volunteered for the local SPCA shelter, for example, it sounds like it's right up your alley.

<comment><USER11> They need a cool mobile app..

But also, from their website: "Volunteers must be able to commit to a minimum of eight hours per month for a minimum of six months. Due to the extensive training requirements, we are not able to accept short-term volunteers."

Not exactly "occasional dog owner", though I suppose 8 hours/month isn't a huge commitment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It is not worse than some products that got real money behind them. If it got you even for a second - we are in 1999 mode again.

<comment><USER13> This idea is significantly less dumb than many that have been funded (people like cute furry animals, so they're ahead of advertising-supported iOS app #213742 already). It's been 1999 for a while now. We're just waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates like they did from June 1999 through May 2000, with the killer blow being that last 50bp jump. Until then, you are cleared to party on.

<comment><USER14> >We're just waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates like they did from June 1999 through May 2000

doing it before elections changes the party in the White House, like in 2000 and 2008. So the question is what movie... err... president Fed would find more entertaining - Bush 3, Even More Dumber or Clinton 2, I'm Back, Baby.

<comment><USER13> With an election cycle lasting a full 3 years, it's always "before elections". The Fed is immune to lawsuits and the FOMC members cannot be removed from office no matter what. They have been given that independence for a reason, much like the Supreme Court justices (not that it's a good reason, but it's still a reason). If they aren't willing to use it, they shouldn't have it. It's long past time to normalize rates, and doing so will put paid to the VC mania just as it did 15 years ago. So be it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I don't know about this - it's going to be disorienting for some cats to get switched around between so many different environments. What will the firm do about a cat that starts acting out - running away, clawing, or more commonly, spraying to make territorial markings? Cats prize stability and even a cat that hasn't been in the habit can suddenly take up such behaviors.

Source: many years of experience of up to 10 cats at once. I wouldn't mind if this service also offered to pick up excess cats (I have too many due to a neighbor abandoning hers on me) but I would feel guilty about not setting them up with a more permanent environment.

<comment><USER16> Not to mention, what happens to these kittens when they grow up? Are they put down? Maybe ground up and fed to the next batch of cuteness to be shipped out? So many questions!

Note: I took the parent as being tongue-in-cheek. I apologize if I misinterpreted.

<comment><USER17> I think once they become too problematic, you turn them into Bonsai Kittens. Still cute, but they really can't be a problem anymore!

[http://bonsaikitten.com/bkintro.php](http://bonsaikitten.com/bkintro.php)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Too bad it's fake. I'd pay a lot of money for Maru to be _my_ cat.

</comment><comment><USER19> How could they not say "Sign up meow"??

<comment><AUTHOR> Well it does say "Request Invite Meow"...

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> My cat stood on the power button for too long on my keyboard today and killed my work-in-progress. I think renting might be better than owning as I could be without a kitty when working.

<comment><USER21> Maybe your cat needs a power button...

<comment><USER10> Relevant: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TmmF79Rw0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TmmF79Rw0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I think I'd start with dogs, really. Trained therapy dogs that come with a trainer for a couple hours to businesses and individuals.

</comment><comment><USER23> everkitten.com was a similar fake service. Subscription to have a jung kitten. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140218072828/http://everkitten...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140218072828/http://everkitten.com/)

</comment><comment><USER24> Actually, Uber does this, though not all the time.

[http://newsroom.uber.com/austin/2014/10/uberkittens-is- back/](http://newsroom.uber.com/austin/2014/10/uberkittens-is-back/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Who here would pay ~15$ to rent a healthy cat for an hour or two? Seems like an interesting idea.

 _Guaranteed no toxoplasmosis!_

On a second thought, getting a cat is really not a problem, but this would provide entertainment without the responsibility.

<comment><USER26> It's like a Cat Cafe that comes to you. But without the coffee and food.

<comment><USER27> That's the second tier of the pricing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> "Kittens-as-a-service. Now with 9x availability"

</comment><comment><USER29> Is just this a subtle ad? The twitter/facebook on the bottom direct to a website-maker company.

<comment><AUTHOR> It was not intended to be... just a joke :) Any backlinks don't hurt though...

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> This would make a great episode plot in HBO's Silicon Valley.

</comment><comment><USER31> How was it designed and made? It is well designed at first view.

</comment><comment><USER32> It's currently the #1 Product Hunt startup of the day

</comment><comment><USER33> I wish this was real.

</comment><comment><USER34> An absolute must! I wish there was something for real.

</comment><comment><USER35> $1B valuation in 3..2..1..

</comment><comment><USER36> s/dilvery/deliver/

<comment><AUTHOR> Text editor on a plane with a dyslexic writer... not a good combination. And the scotch... that probably didn't help either. Fixed! Thanks :)

<comment><USER36> Are you familiar with the Bonsai Kittens?</comment></comment></comment>


Five-year-old passes Microsoft exam - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30054140 <comment><USER2> Nice, that and $6 will get him a coffee at Starbucks :-). I think it is great that the kid's Dad is allowing him to pursue his ideas, but its a challenging place to be in without additional support from the family. The challenge is that his feat is called out because he is '5' not because the exam is particularly hard. So later when he completes the Cisco one and he's 10 it won't be as 'good' because hey, he is 10. If expectations and understanding aren't managed the fact that the kid is older and won't be "special" any more can be a problem for them later.

I hope his father continues to foster a life long love of learning and does not get get hung up on the whole 'prodigy' narrative. In college there was a 12 year old girl in my physics class who was miserable. She had an eidetic memory and could regurgitate any fact or formula, but she was deeply unhappy with her life and the path (and expectations!) her parent put on her. I wouldn't want that for any kid.

<comment><USER3> When I was a little kid I too aced anything I wanted to, without trying (granted I never signed up for particularly hard stuff, like this).

My parents, and all their adult friends were convinced I was going to be the "Brazillian Bill Gates" (I think mostly because I was the only person interested in computers at that time in their social circle...)

Now I am 26, unemployed, and desperately looking for a coding job... Now everyone is interested in computers, everyone is a gamer too (when I was a kid when I said I played computer games people looked at me like if I was an alien), and I did not even entered a CS course, so I am just a regular jobless coder.

It is making me very, very desperate to not fall into depression, specially when I compare my life now and my life as a kid, and realize that my life is essentially stagnant since I was 16, the same things I had while 16, is what I have now, except health (that now is worse).

<comment><USER4> The folks in the various programming subs over on reddit tend to have good advice for landing that first programming gig. There are probably several posts that cover situations similar to yours, so do a little searching and reading before you post.

/r/programming would probably be a good jumping off point.

<comment><USER3> I already had jobs before, but I spent all my money then to pay university debt (that thankfully is now 100% paid... but I still wish I never went to college, it made more negative than positive difference on my life).

My problem now is that the startup where I am working ran out of money, and I have no money (I don't own a car, house, or even a decent cellphone! I am using a borrowed dumbphone right now).

I sent hundreds of resumes, but companies don't even invite me to interview.

<comment><USER5> Hey Speeder, where do you live in brazil? I could probably help you out. I work in a VC firm and know several it companies in brazil.

<comment><USER3> I live in São Paulo right now, but I ran out of money and will have to move back to my parents home soon.

<comment><USER6> We employ someone in Sãn Paulo. Send a resume.

<comment><USER3> Hello! Send to where?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I also like the way the article ends, e.g.

      "Ayan says he hopes to launch a UK-based IT hub similar to
      America's Silicon Valley one day, which he intends to call
      E-Valley.
      He also wants to start his own company."

It's sets both the tone and quality level of discussions regarding IT in the general public.

<comment><USER8> Haha, when a 5 year old says this, it should be the cue to unplug the computer and tell the kid to play outside.

<comment><USER9> Yes, because you need to be a certain minimum age to have a dream.

<comment><USER9> And again my premise is validated by down votes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The lack of normal social life from being a geek in the eyes of other kids will likely do the kid more damage then the benefit he will receive from being a child computer wiz.

Let kids be kids and don't try to make them adults early, it usually doesn't turn out to be as glorified as the adults think it will.

<comment><USER11> Maybe if _adults_ like yourself would stop trying to push conformity on their children, young prodigies wouldn't have such a hard time.

I was pretty sharp with computers and math when I was that age, or a bit older. I wasn't passing certification tests (there probably weren't any Microsoft ones at the time) but I was programming in BASIC and modifying games that we played in the classroom and jumping ahead on my math. My peers were supportive. At around the age of 12 I changed schools and suddenly being smart was bad just because it was a different group of children with different attitudes.

Kids shouldn't be pushed too much but they also shouldn't be held back just because you think it will make them an outcast. _That_ attitude is far more damaging.

<comment><USER10> Obviously i wasn't advocating the opposite extreme of telling a kid to do thing just to 'fit in', kids should be encouraged to have a healthy curiosity towards their interests.

My point was that parents should have in mind that when they send their kids off to college at the age of 12, or in this case let them take tests that are suited for 22 years olds they are likely doing more harm then good. Often parents get excited by the fuzzy feel of my kid is a genius, but forget what damage they are really doing.

<comment><USER11> College at the age of 12 I can see. Suddenly they're put in an environment where everyone is substantially older and more mature, and with nobody their own age around. That's a huge leap.

But taking a test? That's not even remotely similar. In that case, the damage comes not from a strange environment or lack of peers, but simply from a conformist attitude that comes from people saying this stuff shouldn't be done. It's self-fulfilling.

<comment><USER12> Taking that kind of test is far worse imho. (Been there, done that...) It gives the parent a warm fuzzy "our kid is a genius" feeling as they encourage their child to do so, and the feeling oozes back onto the kid as an "I am a genius" anti-social attitude. Peer rejection won't be far behind, and there's absolutely no way anyone can argue this is good for the child with a straight face.

<comment><USER11> That attitude doesn't require the test, nor does the test require the attitude.

The real problem is that "I am a genius" is seen as being automatically anti- social. "Smarter" is seen as "better" and that separates them. Ultimately it comes back to the conformist attitude I'm arguing against. _That_ is the problem. Get rid of that, make it acceptable to be different, and passing a test won't matter.

<comment><USER12> A test makes that attitude materially more likely.

Encouraging kids to be smart and do smart things? Go for it.

Labeling them as smart? Sure, as long as you don't forget to teach them a healthy dose of humility.

Constantly labeling them as _smarter_? Uh oh... did I mention humility yet?

Making them pass tests to _validate_ that they're smart? Kids don't need or want that; the parents do. It's a recipe to set their kid's life ablaze until young adulthood -- or later.

<comment><USER11> You're still assuming that "smarter" means "better" and that "better" means "separate".

What if we held the attitude that "smarter" was just another aspect of the genetic lottery, like your height or the color of your skin? What if we taught our children that it doesn't matter what you are, it matters what you _do?_

Why should telling a child that they're "smart" be any worse than telling them that they're "tall"?

The problem isn't labeling them as smart, the problem is the pervasive attitude that smart can be a substitute for other things like hard work or kindness, and the attitude that a child who's too smart is somehow no longer compatible with his peers.

Why shouldn't a child genius _both_ pursue extreme mental enrichment _and_ participate in life as a peer with other children of his own age? There's nothing that inherently separates prodigies from their peers. _We make it happen._

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Not to take anything away from this (obviously) smart kid, but this is exactly why less emphasis should be placed on particular "certifications".

<comment><USER14> Why? If a five year old can run a marathon, does that suddenly mean completing one isn't much work?

<comment><USER15> It doesn't mean the certification (or marathon, or whatever) is intrinsically easier than it was before, but it does mean you may have been overestimating it.

<comment><USER14> If lots of five year olds were completing it, perhaps. One isn't conclusive evidence of any level of difficulty. Five year old Mozart could compose music in a way most adults can't - that hardly means composing is easy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> _> "The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five- year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory," explained Ayan's father Asim._

Maybe I'm just cynical but this made me think that the boy simply memorized the questions on the some of the previous tests that have been posted on the Internet ("dumps").

<comment><USER17> I agree that he probably did, and in an ideal world I think it would be better if he was a bit older and had a little more knowledge of the whole subject area. But where do you draw the line? If he memorizes some information, and that leads to him being the 'computer expert' amongst friends and family, and he ends up in an IT career that he really enjoys because of it, is that a bad thing?

My first experiences were looking up basic problems online, then memorizing them enough so that if the problem happened again I could fix it. Eventually I wanted to dig more into the actual problem, and just like that I was hooked!

So yeah, it might be a problem but hopefully it'll lead to something productive and if the kid actually enjoys it I can't see the harm.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Poor Microsoft certified professionals, I can hear the client complaints now "What? Why do you charge so much? I can get a five year old to do your job"

<comment><USER19> To be fair "You don't go to jail for using child labour" is a good reason to me. Also tack on "and my rate just went up £10 for hearing your stupid comment."

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> My Parents generation talk of "mid-life crisis". Generation Y started to write on "quarter-life crisis" (post college moving back in with parents due to no work). I suspect this kid will suffer from "eighth-life crisis" if he keeps this pace up.

I was doing generally nerdy things at 5 but I fear this kid will outpace himself in a way that will lead to sadness and isolation.

Tech parents of HN, do you think this will help or hurt this young man in the long run?

<comment><USER21> This would be my worry too, because I've seen it in a few others. Eventually, they make it to a place (top tier college, big name company, etc) where they are no longer consistently the smartest person in the room, and they are unable to cope with the sudden competition that poses.

<comment><USER22> I remember the first lecture at undergrad university, at a very highly rated university, was basically "You're no longer the smartest kid in the class, and some of you will start to think we made a mistake letting you in to this course. We don't make that kind of mistake."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I would be interested in knowing what kind of program will this child create in the next years. If his success relays mainly on his good memory then perhaps nothing outstanding is to be seen, but it could be that there are other great capabilities that could allow him to excel in programming.

      Perhaps we will see some very fine art of work in the foreseeable future. Time will tell.

</comment><comment><USER24> So either recruiters now have a whole new demographic to target, or certification exams are worthless.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity."

Perfect typo

<comment><USER26> is it a typo? I just assumed the dad was speaking his 'native tongue' ;-) What is the intended wording? I must be missing something...

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> its great the that kid is learning technology at an early age. but i really hope its not in replacement to learning how to make friends, play and enjoy being a kid. when i hear about how 5 year olds want to start companies it makes me cringe.

</comment><comment><USER28> Well that's the first time I've ever seen the word "invigilators".</comment>


Ask HN: Have you ever considered becoming a single parent through surrogacy? - <AUTHOR> I am wondering if you ever thought about it as an alternative to a traditional family, or as a Plan B in case you are romantically unsuccessful.<p>Would love to hear the opinions of this community on this topic. <comment><USER2> I would rather never be a parent rather than be a parent without a partner. The logistics of infant care alone would wreak havoc on my physical and mental health. Working full time to support said infant and time commitments such as doctors appointments and enrichment activities associated with a growing child sounds like a complete nightmare. If one has extended family to help out, that's a different story, but ageing parents or others with their own lives can't be excessively burdened for my choices.</comment>


Using CloudFlare to mix domain sharding and SPDY - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cloudflare.com/using-cloudflare-to-mix-domain-sharding-and-spdy

<comment><USER2> This reminds me that the domain wildcarding we do for thumbnails probably isn't necessary anymore thanks both to SPDY but mainly how many parallel connections browsers open these days...

We only do this on the imageboards though -- not the front page.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's been good practice for years now to place static assets on a separate domain to reduce cookie traffic. In some cases, the website owner can't control which cookies are set on the root domain (e.g., Google Analytics sets cookies on the root, not on the subdomain the page is served from).

Doesn't sharing the root domain (jgc.org in this case) partially negate this advantage?

<comment><USER4> Yes, but SPDY does compression of headers and so the same cookie being sent should be compressed.

<comment><USER3> On non-SPDY connections, it won't be, correct? Seems like the best approach might be to simply serve different static asset URLs based on User-Agent sniffing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can someone explain why one DNS lookup was enough?

<comment><USER4> See: [http://calendar.perfplanet.com/2013/spdy-domain- sharding/#co...](http://calendar.perfplanet.com/2013/spdy-domain- sharding/#comment-33220)

<comment><USER5> Interesting. Does this mean that Chrome actually issues those requests over that single SPDY connections on the assumption that it belongs there without first waiting for the confirmation from the DNS servers? (And then not using the corresponding responses until it gets the DNS confirmations?)</comment></comment></comment>


How I Hacked Any Facebook Account Again - <AUTHOR> http://www.nirgoldshlager.com/2013/03/how-i-hacked-any-facebook-accountagain.html? <comment><USER2> As someone who is nowhere near skilled enough to do any such things, I am so impressed with these types of posts, very interesting stuff. I can also appreciate that you directly reported these vulnerabilities to FB.

<comment><USER3> Well, I will be skeptic.

As the past of being white hacker shows, keep hacking but shut up! Because even if you tell the author you find a way to get into their system and you havent cause any damage, they sure will come after you in a legal way.

In example herein, not only time after time the author proves that there are serious holes in FB auth system, but is also very happy to blog about it. You see, FB is publicly traded company. The management answers to stockholders and the board. If some Joe Hacker keeps finding holes in the system, someone somewhere reading that blog may be thinking of abandoning the FB platform due to it security layer looking like a swiss cheese. And management doesnt like that, because less users == less eyeballs for $.

My gut tells me, if this guy did not get offer to work for Facebook just yet, it means they are building a lawsuit against him, as you perfectly know FB TOS forbids anyone from fiddling with any of their URLs.

<comment><USER4> _"it means they are building a lawsuit against him, as you perfectly know FB TOS forbids anyone from fiddling with any of their URLs."_

Not true: <http://www.facebook.com/whitehat/>

<comment><USER3> _If you give us a reasonable time to respond to your report before making any information public and make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data and interruption or degradation of our service during your research, we will not bring any lawsuit against you or ask law enforcement to investigate you._

Only question -- who decides on what is "reasonable time", because something tells me its not a hacker, its Facebook itself.

<comment><USER5> "reasonable whatever" is often used in laws/courts/contracts. Lawyers and judges are used to interpreting this. If Facebook were to sue you, you could start talking about it as part of your defence.

Additionally, Facebook needs to be seen to be reasonable and have a proper 'whitehat' policy. If they start being mean and dictatorial here, then there will be a breakdown in social trust. People won't report bugs to Facebook, people will sell vulnerbilities on the black market. People will release exploits before telling Facebook. It will, eventually be bad for Facebook.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> c-oreills How much bounty did this net you?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, I am puzzled why so many hackers give away their work for free (or for a to-be-determined bounty).

Are they doing it just for fun, as a hobby, and making so much money in their other jobs that they don't care?

<comment><USER7> Maybe it's because some people are genuinely good people. That, and anyone in a collaborative field would gladly welcome beneficial tweaks to their product. Karma.

<comment><USER8> Sure, but the beneficiary is a company, and publicly held at that. You're alluding that the inverse is true, that not sharing exploits with a company who's sole purpose is to accumulate money somehow makes you a bad guy. It doesn't. That's like saying I should code for free in order to be a good guy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice to see the combination of a determined White Hat attacker and the responsive FB development team ready to fix vulnerabilities.

<comment><USER10> Yes but it's sad to see yet another OAuth SNAFU.

At which point should people consider _not_ using a technology which has been repeatedly exploited and start using something where security has been thought about from the start?

Because we all know that the article _"How I hacked FB using OAuth a 3rd time"_ _is_ coming...

<comment><USER9> This isn't really a generic OAuth bug though. This stems from the fact that you can trick the redirection scheme that Facebook uses into thinking that you are the legitimate owner of an application whilst using your own backend-flow URL.

This isn't going to affect 99.999% of Oauth implementations and arguably just shows that Facebook made an error in their design.

<comment><USER11>
      > trick the redirection scheme that Facebook uses into thinking that you are
      > the legitimate owner of an application whilst using your own backend-flow URL

Thanks for this summary which demonstrates the importance of both effective communication skills and reading comprehension since I didn't come up with anything close from my dash through the blog post.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For those who read the article, what caused this vulnerability? An input sanitization or a flaw of OAuth2 that other OAuth2 providers should be aware of?

</comment><comment><USER13> What are the odds that this has been exploited before?

</comment><comment><USER14> This article renders as a blank page from Android Browser...

</comment><comment><USER15> It's called cracking

<comment><USER16> I'd sure love to be told how this type of attack is any less worthy than buffer overflows, or similar attacks upon old school systems? This guy obviously understands where vulnerabilities can be found and is pretty good at exposing them.

<comment><USER17> Worthiness? They're all examples of cracking as well.

However, although he's cracking sites, this guy's obviously a pretty leet hacker.

As such, "hacked" and "cracked" are equally good in the title as far as I'm concerned.

<comment><USER18> This is actually called hacking, not cracking. Cracking refers to removing software protections.

<comment><USER19> <http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/cracker.html>

<comment><USER18> I'm aware of Eric S Raymond's attempt to change the definition. It's still not correct. Nobody uses it that way other than misinformed pedants. This includes the general public, the media, security professionals, and the people who maliciously break into other sites. Just accept that "hacker" means both and move on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> <meta>

Submitted 2 hours prior [1], why repost? Karma whoring? ;)

[1] - <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5367908>

<comment><USER21> This one was submitted by the author.</comment></comment>


Barnes and Noble Laid Off Its Nook Hardware Engineering Staff - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/barnes-and-noble-hardware-engineering-staff-2014-2?op=1

<comment><USER2> Meta note...

The HN title perfectly matches the articles title but the first line of the article actually says:

"Barnes & Noble laid off its Nook hardware engineers, according to a source that tipped Business Insider."

I only point this out because in North America, fired and laid off have two very different connotations.

<comment><USER3> > I only point this out because in North America, fired and laid off have two > very different connotations.

... to almost no one who does not work at a state unemployment office. I kid. More accurate snark would be to say "to everyone except the person just fired/laid off."

A friend who was just laid off mentioned the way certain people feel the need to correct her when she mentions she was fired, and how hugely annoying that is. I experienced a similar thing years ago amongst my former coworkers after a large firing-I-mean-lay off. It all seems to have something to do with making everyone except the person just fired/laid off maintain a certain level of comfort, even though everyone understands that the effect of the thing is exactly the same.

(back in the day it was probably all about whether the factory was going to call you back in eventually or not)

<comment><USER4> To me, "laid off" means it was structural, whereas "fired" implies that the specific individual was deliberately gotten rid of. Also, I think "fired" carries a connotation of blame. You don't get laid off for calling your boss an asshole, you get fired.

<comment><USER5> Agreed. You would not want to say "I was fired" in your next job interview.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a shame. Their Android tablets were misguided, and never likely to be competitive, but the e-ink readers were the only things really competitive with the e-ink Kindles.

I always thought if they had opened up the Android e-ink reader market more then they could have created a viable niche in reference applications, which are a surprisingly lucrative sector.

<comment><USER7> Have you checked out Kobo's e-ink readers? From a hardware perspective, I actually prefer the Kobo Aura to my own Kindle Paperwhite 2.

<comment><USER6> I've not tried the latest ones, but the earlier ones just had a distinctly unfinished and rushed vibe to them. Kind of neat, but hacked together.

It doesn't help that I'm in the Canadian market, and for a while Kobo existed simply as an e-reader to take advantage of the fact it was more easily available here than the Kindle, so I think we were exposed to rougher versions of the initial product than elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I work for Nook as a Rails developer in Palo Alto. I'm not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, blah blah blah, but I just wanted to post a quick comment saying that this news should NOT be interpreted as Nook going out of business. In fact, we're actively hiring devs here in Palo Alto and also in New York: [http://www.nook.com/careers/locations](http://www.nook.com/careers/locations)

I really wish I could provide details, but I'll just say that I would be extremely surprised if Nook wasn't around and doing well in five years. My coworkers and I really enjoy working here, and none of us worry about job security.

</comment><comment><USER9> I really don't trust Amazon having a monopoly on any market especially one I care about as much as books. While they still have competition, things seem to be going in their favor. Even more so after the justice department handed them control over the market again when they complained about Apple. Amazon is taking the Walmart strategy: push your competitors out with unsustainable pricing and then take over the market and charge whatever you want when they're all gone.

<comment><USER10> >and charge whatever you want when they're all gone.

Where does Walmart do this? I've never been to a Walmart where pricing was out of line. Moreover, predatory pricing is litigious at best and illegal at worst.

<comment><USER11> How would you even know what predatory pricing is.

<comment><USER12> I suspect that it is "predatory" if it puts you out of business. It becomes illegal if you can convince a legislature to intervene (witness what happened in France, to Amazon[1]). Consumers don't tend to complain about lower prices.

1: [http://www.france24.com/en/20140109-french-senators-pass- ant...](http://www.france24.com/en/20140109-french-senators-pass-anti-amazon- law-protect-small-retailers/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> My (unsubstantiated) impression was that books on the Nook would always cost more than for the Kindle. I think I automatically associate Amazon with online, progressive and cheap, and B&N with clunky, b&m, and profit-focused. That's why I never even considered buying a Nook.

<comment><USER14> In what sense is Amazon less profit-focused than B&N?

<comment><USER15> Amazon is focused on growth and market control. It is willing to take a smaller (short-term) profit in order to achieve those goals.

<comment><USER16> It's still profit focused, just for later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> At this point, they should focus on the e-ink readers, and just offer a ton of free books for them. Beat Amazon at their own game by not making any money on the books.

<comment><USER18> At this point, does B&N have the cash to burn like that on a loss-leader?

<comment><USER17> It's kinda a suicide mission. B&N is very nicely fucked anyway. Not much they can do but liquidate and compensate the shareholders sometime in the next 2 to 3 years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I bought a Nook Color in early 2011 during a trip to the States (I live in Canada). It was the first Android device on which I did any sort of mobile dev or hacking. My first experiences with custom roms, in fact, was on my Nook Color.

Unfortunately, the Nook lineup couldn't compete with what was rapidly emerging onto the market. It didn't take long for my Nook Color to start collecting dust once the Nexus 7 (still my tablet of choice, even though I own larger ones) became available.

</comment><comment><USER19> I met a Nook engineer once, and she was convinced that the Nook was a better product than the Kindle. It's too bad that it never took off (as far as I can tell).

<comment><USER20> It turns out marketing is a thing and when you go into a brick & mortar store to buy a digital object people get confused.

This is another example of technical superiority not being enough to win (see VHS vs Betamax as the classic example but there are a TON of these).

I found this article by Amir Hirsch to be a good reference point for products in general, not just startups: [http://fpgacomputing.blogspot.com/2013/11/the- stanford-start...](http://fpgacomputing.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-stanford- startup-and-mit-startup.html)

<comment><USER21> > when you go into a brick & mortar store to buy a digital object people get > confused

For some part of the market I think this was actually a strength, though perhaps not a big enough strength, or not exploited well enough. We got my uncle (American, aged mid-80s) a Nook for Christmas 2012, in large part because we knew he could go to his local B&N to buy books and have them loaded onto it. That's worked pretty well: he basically buys books like he used to, except now they are more portable and he can zoom in to compensate for his poor eyesight, which is easier than reading paper books with a magnifying glass. With the Kindle we weren't sure whether he'd enjoy having to figure out how to shop online at Amazon. He rarely uses computers, and even more rarely uses the internet, so probably wouldn't buy books from a desktop connection. So he'd have to buy them online from within the Kindle itself with no local customer support available, which even to me seems like a confusing interface (it's not _quite_ as bad as trying to navigate Google Play on a smartphone, but it's not great).

<comment><USER20> Confusion is an opportunity to provide education and build consumer trust. If you're breaking intended behavior you need to pacify the confusion that results (this is a social capital creation opportunity).

I do appreciate your point though and I think it's just another example of B&N having poor marketing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I love my Nook HD, it is a great Tablet, It has the google App Store and I can extend the storage. I think it is a great alternative to other tablets out there.

</comment><comment><USER23> I always wondered why B&N didn't spin the nook hardware division off and focus on providing the content.

Either way this sucks. I own a nook simple touch and love it. Hope they still keep their apps for other devices around.

</comment><comment><USER24> I wonder if they could still succeed going pure software route. Would the margins on the ebooks make sense? I.e. make bundling deals so nook is on every tablet non-amazon that is shipped by default?

</comment><comment><USER25> >Update: After posting this, Barnes & Noble told us that it did not eliminate its entire hardware department, but it declined to provide specifics.

</comment><comment><USER26> Oh crap. I like my Nook.

<comment><USER27> Aye, I love my Nook HD+. Works great with Cyanogenmod. Too bad they crippled the software so much in its default configuration (in the beginning anyway, better today...too late).

Put vanilla Android on there with a high quality e-reader app (and maybe a Nook Book Store), sell the HD+ for < $175 and they would have had a lot more success in my opinion.

<comment><USER28> Ironically, the Nook for Android and Nook Video apps don't work on Cyanogenmod on the Nook HD/HD+ (not from the Play Store anyway, they do work if sideloaded). B&N should at least put in the effort to enable them on CM.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> A bit misleading when the title states "fired" and the first sentence of the article states "laid off"

</comment><comment><USER30> That was expected, once MS bribed them to stop the failure with their patent lawsuit.</comment>


BBC accidentally tweets Queen's death - <AUTHOR> http://www.3news.co.nz/entertainment/bbc-accidentally-tweets-queens-death-2015060406 <comment><USER2> For a rehearsal, why not always use a fake name?</comment>


The million dollar engineering problem - <AUTHOR> https://segment.com/blog/the-million-dollar-eng-problem/ <comment><USER2> Articles like this are constantly reminding me of how massively complex the AWS ecosystem has become and how difficult it is in practice to actually tell what you're getting billed for. If there isn't already, this seems like a great space for consulting services dedicated to optimizing AWS usage and reducing overall billing (with a dead-simple value proposition).</comment>


Transhumanism on the Cheap, and For the People - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/18/transhumanism-on-the-cheap-and

<comment><AUTHOR> Direct link to the referenced article, print version (I should have posted this): <http://hplusmagazine.com/print/1093></comment>


Super-tomato shows what plant scientists can do - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06915-y <comment><USER2> > _Thousands of years of breeding have produced a fruit that often suits > farmers and sellers more than consumers_

Actually it's the opposite.

Modern breeding and other technical alterations has reduced tomatoes to a BS fruit that suits farmers and sellers (longer lasting, more colorful, more resistant, bigger) than consumers.

Tomatoes have lost a large percentage of their sugar content and flavor in the last 60 or so years for commercial reasons:

(...) the researchers also wanted to determine why store-bought tomatoes are so tasteless — i.e., "water bombs." It turns out that modern tomato cultivars are selected for qualities such as size, because consumers prefer large fruit, and firmness, because that trait makes tomatoes easier to ship, the researchers said. Meanwhile, the quality of flavor has been overlooked, the investigators said. We found that modern commercial varieties contain significantly lower amounts of many of these important flavor chemicals than older varieties [do]," the researchers said in the study.

[https://www.livescience.com/57647-why-store-tomatoes-are- tas...](https://www.livescience.com/57647-why-store-tomatoes-are- tasteless.html)

<comment><USER3> > >Thousands of years of breeding have produced a fruit that often suits > farmers and sellers more than consumers

> Actually it's the opposite.

> Modern breeding and other technical alterations has reduced tomatoes to a BS > fruit that suits farmers and sellers (longer lasting, more colorful, more > resistant, bigger) than consumers.

You're saying the same thing as the article. Did you misread? :)

<comment><USER4> No he isn't. Breeding for crappy tomatoes has only gone on since the 1940s, not for thousands of years. The thousands of years of breeding was for good tomatoes, and the last 70 years or so has been ruining that thousands of years of work.

<comment><USER5> >the last 70 years or so has been ruining that thousands of years of work.

Unfortunately this has happened to a lot more than just tomatoes or even plants themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Yes, well, I'm extremely suspicious of the "better tasting" claim in the article- and the use of the over-the-top terminology is not doing much to reassure me ("super" tomatoes! Rrriiight).

To begin with, there is no need to edit wild varieties to produce tasty tomatoes. The varities we have already are actually pretty damn good already. It's the production and distribution methods that suck out all the taste and purpose out of their miserable, sour existence.

For example, when I'm back home in Greece for the summer, I eat tomatoes that taste of tomato and smell of tomato. They are usually grown by people, normally grocers, in their gardens, in small numbers (though not necessarily using organic means, if you were wondering). The grocers who grow them then sell them in their stores, so you can find maybe a kilo of home-grown fruit in a grocery store every other week or so, and often only in the summer (because the grocers seldom have greenhouses). Note that this is only true in the countryside- in the cities, like Athens, the quality is much more bland.

Like in Athens, the tomatoes I eat in the UK, where I live and work, are boring, tasteless and miserable and they leave behind a lingering sensation of disappointment and nostalgia of a faraway sunny land. As I understand it, these commercial varieties are actually grown in Southern Europe (including Greece) in vast greenhouses, from where they are picked when they're still green and then allowed to "mature" (basically, slowly they rot) during transportation in fridge trucks. These tomatoes have been abused to the point of PTSD and it shows when you put them in your mouth: they are empty and devoid of all taste, fragrance and meaning and can drive a sane eater to depression.

So forget about mass-producing and mass-distributing decent-tasting tomatoes. You can mass-produce tomatoes that satisfy the farmers, with characteristics that make them profitable to sell; and you can mass-produce tomatoes that the majority of consumers will accept, mournfully, but only because they seldom have the chance to buy and eat good ones, and have probably even forgotten what tomatoes actualy taste like.

But you can't mass-produce good tomatoes.

<comment><USER7> Your comment kinda highlights the point of the exercise. Attempts to breed shelf-stable varieties have accidentally bred out a lot of the flavor. But an analysis of the genes involved shows that these qualities are not inextricably linked. With the right tools, you _can_ make tomatoes physically tough enough to ship well without sacrificing that tomato taste.

<comment><USER8> You can't make void taste good. The problem of the tomatoes is not their genetic material but the fact their environnement is empty of the things that make them good.

You can create the most badass tomatoes you want, they can't create things out of thin air.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Thousands of years of breeding have produced a fruit that often suits > farmers and sellers more than consumers.

Tomatoes were only brought to Europe a few hundred years ago. I very much doubt that there was much serious breeding before that.

And there are loads that taste good, the supermarkets simply won't stock them because they make less money.

<comment><USER10> I don't understand. Domestication is defined by the significant genetic changes induced by selective breeding. It's been practiced around the world, long before the industrial and scientific revolutions. For instance, pre- Colombian maize looks dramatically different than it's wild ancestor due to thousands of years of selective breeding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Where I see _really_ a lot potential for genetically-modified food, is in space. There, the constraints are completely different, so it can be extremely beneficial to be able to design your crops as you wish - control water usage, respiration, growth patterns, flowering patterns, number and size of fruits, etc.

Another thing I was thinking about - not related to GMO, but I'll throw it out in case anyone from HN knows more about it - would it be possible to _control_ plants using hormones? E.g. to manually "order" the plant to stop growing leaves and start growing fruits, or to grow in a particular direction (this could probably be done with light as well) or pattern, etc.

<comment><USER12> How do you know there are only extreme benefits?

To your second question I need to ask something: after you moved past the coolness factor, what do you think would be the _drawbacks_?

<comment><USER11> I'm not saying there would be _only_ benefits, I'm just saying that the tradeoffs are different... Earth-food _works_ , so GMO can either marginally improve it, make it marginally worse, or make it _really_ worse (i.e. it's the tail risk I'm worried about, same as with climate change). Space food is currently _impossible_ , so almost anything we do will be neutral or an improvement. Also, as I mentioned, the constraints are completely different - up-front costs are mostly irrelevant, mass and speed of growth are the problem - so foods that are net negative on Earth (e.g. because they have to be produced in a lab and are hugely expensive) might be viable in space.

<comment><USER12> I'm amazed by your comment:

"I'm not saying there would be only benefits [in space]... ...Space food is currently impossible,so almost anything we do will be neutral or an improvement"

So in the first comment I read that there will be only benefits in space, and in this one that there will be, practically speaking - only improvements?

<comment><USER11> Maybe I expressed myself poorly... I meant "using GMO can benefit/improve food production in space [much more than on Earth]".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There was a really good article awhile ago about gm potatoes that produced there own Pesticides.

The author grows some (there is a end user agreement that software people should be familiar with)

The trouble was figuring out who would regulate these new crops (in the US anyway). In the end McDonald's wouldn't buy them so I think that potatoe is gone. It's a long read but it talks about how modern farming vs organic and a whole host of issues that are still relevant today .

[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/magazine/playing-god- in-t...](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/magazine/playing-god-in-the- garden.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> Finally. I think many people in the west have never tasted a real tomatoe. They'll think it's a completely new breed ))

<comment><USER15> There are lots of heirloom tomato cultivars -- but they don't travel well, and frequently look strange. They tend to be sold directly by farmers at slightly premium prices.

In the last few years there has been commercial success with "new" varieties of cherry-sized tomatoes, which carry a lot of flavor, are pretty, and travel quite well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> >Europe's outdated approach to gene editing.

Right, I can't wait to follow the latest trends on gene editing. Our approach is so old and boring, we should be trying the new fun and shiny stuff, like having some guy edit the genes of our staple foods while providing no guarantees whatsoever.

For those who aren't aware what this is article is about, it's about US farming lobbies being unable to export their genetically modified food crops to the EU.

While GMOs can be exported to Europe, they must pass through a careful set of tests by the EFSA (european food safety authority), including appropriate labeling, and the various EU countries can still choose to ban them under their authority.

As Trump said recently, he will be pushing the EU to accept all of the untested GMO crops his sponsors grow, and he'll probably be pushing for a forced, EU-wide directive to just take everything and shut up.

<comment><USER17> I don't buy this. It is 100% guaranteed that these GMO tomatoes are safer than alcohol and tobacco. Yet the 'old and boring' approach has deemed these clearly poisonous substances safe, and allows billion dollar industries to exist selling them. This is totally illogical.

<comment><USER11> What's the proof?

The article says:

 _> a cupboard full of genes with known effects, that can each be adjusted to turn an unruly wild plant into a valuable domesticated one_

which I don't believe at all - if we really _knew_ exactly what genes do, we could construct new life-forms artificially. But we don't biology is far too complicated for us (for the time being). We don't even understand climate (even the best models consistently overstated the predicted temperature rise).

<comment><USER17> You lack any sense of proportionality. Compare a theoretical and frankly implausible risk of harm from a vegetable to an aerosolised highly addictive carcinogen.

Which do you think deserves closer scrutiny?

The 'life is too complex argument' leads no where. There is far more genetic experimentation going on in your gut bacteria as we speak than there ever will be in a GMO tomato.

<comment><USER11> Yeah comparing GMO to smoking is a bit of a red herring... Like, who cares, everybody knows that smoking is bad and driving is very risky, but these are known risks, we _choose_ to do them. I'm comparing GMO tomatoes to non-GMO tomatoes and frankly, I don't see that much potential benefit at all, especially if you buy locally grown tomatoes (which already taste amazing).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> the European Court of Justice has way too much power over way too many things.

<comment><USER19> Are hearings for new judges contentious?

<comment><USER18> there are no hearings, so they are not contentious

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't know anymore if Idiocracy is a movie or not. It's like I'm living a bad dream where common sense is at a premium.

<comment><USER2> Take for example the above content-less comment, which is all about signaling superiority (but doesn't even bother to explain why).

<comment><USER12> On one level I'm experimenting with different type of inflammatory comments to see how people respond. However, if you've seen the movie, you know that my comment is not void.

On another level, I really think that subject at matter (genetically modifications) is such that its full implications are impossible to correctly predict on any scale you consider. Thus, it would be _wise_ for everyone to play it safe and consider the fact that we are ignorant and don't know everything.

Unfortunately people act like they do know everything and they also know the future a million years from now. It's pointless to tell them that they are willfully blind to any opposition so one recourse is caricature and irony.

Once in a while you'll stumble onto someone who asks you, how dare you tell me that I'm stupid? Well, if you say you know everything, you are. They might even get the point.

At least I'm stupid enough to know that I don't know everything.

<comment><USER2> Well, that would be an argument if you have bothered made it. Taleb, for one, has.

The reference is all wrong though. People in Idiocracy are just idiots -- the simple kind. That's the very base of the money.

Whereas people doing "genetically modifications" while they might not know all the implications of are not idiots, just smart people who commit hubris.

Different thing, different movie. Try "Jurassic Park" or "Frankenstein" for your kind of message.

<comment><USER12> My bad, and you have a point. But I don't see much difference between idiots that water plants with Gatorade and smarts that make it their business to save the world from hunger (and they just know how to do it)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Velodyne Unveils Monster Lidar with 128 Laser Beams - <AUTHOR> https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/velodyne-unveils-monster-lidar-with-128-laser-beams <comment><USER2> How many beams does a solid state laser has?

How is LIDAR resolution measured an how is it compares vs solid state?</comment>


Ask HN: Tools for non-developers to create tools - <AUTHOR> Over the last year or so I've heard a number of tools mentioned that enable non-developers, or nearly-non-developers to create custom tools/workflows/processes. I'm interested in introducing one of these at my company to replace some spreadsheets, CMSs, etc, and was wondering if anyone had recommendations?<p>I'm keen to hear about all sorts of options: products, services, hosted, self-hosted, VC-backed, open-source... anything. I don't really have an opinion on what's good here, so would be keen to hear from your experiences. <comment><USER2> Years ago I built an extensive Ms Access database to manage our accounting firm. Recently my son has been doing similar activities this time using Libre Office Base. It's cross platform and learnable by anyone that is comfortable with computers and using spreadsheets. No code required. It only suits building something desktop based to be used on location but could be all you need to make an envelope mailout app, book library manager or simple stocktake app.

Stay away from trying to make webapps without wanting to deeply learn to become developer, here be dragons.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice!

I hadn't thought much about desktop-only options, but that's a good call, something I'll give more consideration to. We would probably need some sort of remote database access, webhooks, or something to integrate with the rest of our systems, but it's possible that we could build something for that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> I think the other oppprtunity for the tech savvy 'power user' that works in a company but is not a developer would be to get really clever with a tool like Zapoer. You could go a long way mixing and matching SAAS apps and wiring them together into custom workflows without the need for code just a bit of logic thinking on your workflows.</comment>


The default form of disagreement - <AUTHOR> Ask HN: Has modding down become the default way of disagreeing with a post? What happened to "I disagree with you because of X, Y and Z"? Why so many people prefer to mod down instead of engaging in a discussion? <comment><USER2> IIRC we first had this conversation about a month after launch. Downvotes have always been used to express disagreement. Or more precisely, a negative score has: users seem not to downvote something they disagree with if it already has a sufficiently negative score.

<comment><USER3> seems like we have this discussion like once a week. i have several comments in similar threads that are all now under dead submissions.

i think the better point to be made is that people downvote opinions that they don't agree with (as opposed to downvoting something factually inaccurate or bad in some other way). its good to have different points of view, and if people get punished for expressing the unpopular one, fewer people will express them.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Would you use HN notification service? - <AUTHOR> Do you think that HN notification service would be useful? The service can notify you about trending posts, posts by followed people, reply to you post/comment, monitor your karma, notify if keyword was detected and notify you about the best time to submit a post. <comment><USER2> This would be extremely useful for me, especially if it was baked into a mobile HN reader

<comment><AUTHOR> It shouldn't be a problem ;) I'm considering to write such a service, and firstly would like to ask the hackers.</comment></comment>