Inflammation: Medicine's burning question - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/30/inflamed <comment><USER2> It's great to read things like this... I wish my GP would do the same.

I recently had a really high cholesterol reading (both total cholesterol and LDL). Everything else (blood pressure, blood glucose etc) seems fine. I'm 38, fit and healthy and nothing that suspect in my family history. I found the attitude of my doctor in all this quite surprising. It amounted basically to "You definitely have familial hypercholesterolemia. There is no other possible option here other than statins". No further questions about what I eat, my stress levels, lifestyle - nothing.

What disappoints me the most here is now that I feel like it's all on me to determine what my real risk levels are and what's appropriate to treat this. I don't subscribe to the mainstream NHS view still heavily pushed that eating saturated fat -> high cholesterol == unhealthy as I think it's a lot more complicated (as this article shows). I don't like being is this situation as I'm as susceptible to human bias as the next person, and I'm not a doctor, however almost all of the high quality, science based writing I've read indicates that the mainstream healthcare system's view on cholesterol is wrong.

<comment><USER3> On the other hand your GP examined you and has an actual medical degree while you just read some articles on the internet...

<comment><USER4> I've got some friends who do medical research, and from what they say, "translational research" (getting the latest research into the hands of the doctors actually practicing medicine) is a HUGE problem.

I have been advised that if I (or a family member) ever gets some medical condition, that if I do a few hours of reading up on the latest research on that condition, chances are that I will be better informed on that condition than my GP.

<comment><USER5> Probably, but your ability to process the information is severely limited to someone who has be trained on how to do so. And I'm not saying that your doctor has been trained to do so.

<comment><USER6> My faith in Doctors is pretty much at an all time low.

I kept having bouts of extreme pain with really strange symptoms, Doc's said Reflux but I kept saying it didn't fit the pattern, a dozen AE (ER) visits later and I got a Doc who told me to _insist_ on an MRI.

Turns out I have Syringomyelia, a serious and rare spinal condition which the radiologist spotted by accident as it was on the edge of the scan, he then did a bunch more images and they saw the syrinx.

The next doc I saw I needed an endoscopy and they said the results where abnormal, so I looked into the condition, when I went to see the gastro doc I asked him if the cells where "high" or "low" grade dysplasia and his snarled response "Oh, trying to be a doctor eh", "no, just trying to be an informed patient".

I requested a different gastro doc after that, I read everything I could get my hands on and I'm not stupid, I understand my condition well enough to ask good questions at least.

So yeah, not a massive fan of Docs at the moment.

<comment><USER5> I can relate to this.

I feel that the chasm between the lay person and the MD has widened tremendously in our lifetimes (I'm in my 30s).

This also, unfortunately has made the average patient be almost completely uninformed. They demand medication to cure their, self-inflicted, ills, or try to diagnose through Web MD.

I for one will educate my children and will continue to educate myself to not require an MD on every occasion.

But I know that I'm not an MD and I was not trained to diagnose. I'm glad you found doctors who could give you a correct diagnosis that you can lean on to help you through your own search for the truth. I feel this is the best solution at the end of the day, for patients and doctors to be partners.

* My dad is an MD and my wife is a biological scientist which really puts me at an advantage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Somehow LDL-cholesterol has come up in this thread about inflammation.

The article here offers a highly speculative opinion regarding the role of inflammation across many diseases. The luminaries in cardiology cited in this article ran trials which many of us consider to show that, rather than inflammation being important, any reason to start statins is a good reason.

The genetic data currently supports very little role for inflammation in important diseases like coronary artery disease, whereas there is crystalline evidence supporting the connection between LDL-cholesterol levels and mortality. Interestingly, when genetics are invoked and mere epidemiology is reassessed, there is no clear atheroprotective role of HDL cholesterol.

The treatment of statins is very much like the treatment of vaccines: dismissed in a pseudo-intellectual manner by people who know a lot (just not about the subject at hand).

<comment><USER2> I think this is a bit unkind:

> dismissed in a pseudo-intellectual manner by people who know a lot (just not > about the subject at hand).

I'm the one who's potentially sick here, and this (perhaps wrongly) smacks of appeal to authority. What I absolutely don't want to do is disregard medical opinion, but neither am I inclined to abdicate all responsibility for my own health and well being.

> The genetic data currently supports very little role for inflammation in > important diseases like coronary artery disease, whereas there is > crystalline evidence supporting the connection between LDL-cholesterol > levels and mortality

I'd be very interested in learning more about this, do you have anything you could recommend? I'm fully aware that the majority of what I read on the internet is likely to be along the lines of "don't sweat it, eat natural and you'll be fine" and I'd very much appreciate some exposure to the opposite point of view too.

<comment><USER8> _[T]his (perhaps wrongly) smacks of appeal to authority._

Don't dismiss appeals to authority so easily. As it happens, _not_ giving extra weight to experts in proportion to their track record is a provably suboptimal strategy in an adversarial setting (see _e.g._ [1]). So, in this sense, deferring to trained medical opinion might in fact be the most responsible thing to do.

Note however the bounds in [1] also (indirectly) imply you are better off with a diverse _ensemble_ of expert advice. So if you can afford it, always get a second (or third) reputable medical opinion. And weigh their advice accordingly.

[1] [http://www.mit.edu/~9.520/spring08/Classes/online_learning_2...](http://www.mit.edu/~9.520/spring08/Classes/online_learning_2008.pdf)

<comment><USER7> This is correct. I reference one of the Mendelian randomization studies in my comment [1].

1 = [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10739687](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10739687)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Inflammation will probably turn out to be some combination of a fad and a real phenomenon that is simply a symptomatic mask for a host of different underlying issues. For example an allergy to dairy and a GI infection are different conditions but both present with inflammation.

And by the way, we don't really know why allergies develop at all. The best treatments simply tire them out, or suppress the symptoms. The immune system in general is poorly understood, so perhaps it's not surprising that people have trouble thinking past "inflammation" in general.

The idea that the human body has some pervasive fault or malfunction that can be addressed by adherence to an ascetic diet is not really new. One can find similar accounts going back hundreds of years in Western medicine, and even farther back in religions. For some reason, our minds seem to incline that way.

And it's true to some extent: obesity makes almost any disease worse, and obesity can be avoided or reduced by an ascetic diet. That is true for almost every human being, which is the highest standard that medical advice can meet.

Unfortunately, most diet advice does not meet that standard. By which I mean, it's easy to find counterexamples to most diet advice. A diet might tell you to avoid dairy, but there are millions of people who consume dairy and yet are perfectly healthy. A diet might tell you to take fish oil, but there are millions of people who never do, yet are perfectly healthy. A diet might tell you to avoid gluten, yet there are millions of perfectly healthy people who eat gluten every day. And again--I'm not talking about real allergies here, I'm talking about general diet advice.

The future seems pretty clear to me. We know that each person's genetic code is unique. We know that each person's genetic code is expressed in unique ways due to epigenetics and other factors. We know that each person has a unique collection of gut bacteria, skin bacteria, and other hangers-on.

Ultimately, if we want to create more perfect health, we will need to learn how to collect each person's unique information, tie it reliably to health outcomes, and then introduce highly personalized therapies based on that information.

The demand on information technology will be _enormous_. This will be a growth industry for humanity for at least the next century, I bet.

</comment><comment><USER10> Inflammation can fan the flames of depression

"In the health area of psychology at Rice, we're very focused on the intersection of health behavior, psychology and medicine," said Christopher Fagundes, an assistant professor of psychology and co-author of the paper. "One thing that we're particularly interested in is how stress affects the immune system, which in turn affects diseases and mental health outcomes, the focus of this paper."

The authors found that in addition to being linked to numerous physical health issues, including cancer and diabetes, systemic inflammation is linked to mental health issues such as depression.

Among patients suffering from clinical depression, concentrations of two inflammatory markers, CRP and IL-6, were elevated by up to 50 percent.

Fagundes said chronic inflammation is most common in individuals who have experienced stress in their lives, including lower socio-economic status or those who experienced abuse or neglect as children.

Other contributing factors are a high-fat diet and high body mass index.

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151218110253.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151218110253.htm)

</comment><comment><USER10> statins-for-cholesterol is a hugely profitable business pushed hard for decades by BigPharma, going back to a single faulty "study" in the 1950s, after Eisenhower's heart attack.

My opinion is that statins-for-cholesterol, obsession with cholesterol is as big of a medical scam, a BigPharma misdirection-for-profit, as BigFood's "low- fat" and "whole grain", and gluten scams.

Cholesterol is essential, so much so 90% is produced by the liver without any dietary consumption.

Cholesterol + lipids + calcium sticking to arteries is a reaction to an injury, mostly from systemic, low-grade inflammation. High blood pressure also injures arteries, also causing cholesterol plaque.

Some people with high cholesterol have no CVD, while some people with low cholesterol die from CVD. Maybe cholesterol isn't the problem?

Aspirin's help with CVD was initially thought to be due it blood-thinning effect, getting blood through narrowed arteries, but then its anti- inflammatory effect was more reasonable. btw, statins are also anti- inflammatory (aspirin and similar are cheaper).

Systemic inflammation reduced by aspirin (or statins), less injury to arteries, less plaque.

Systemic, low-grade inflammation also reduces insulin sensitivity, so the body produces more insulin, which is a really nasty hormone. result? adult-onset Type II diabetes.

So "I think" watching inflammatory bio-markers is more important than watching cholesterol, as one could take away from the New Yorker article.

An alkalizing, anti-inflammatory diet is key, complemented by both moderate resistance work and moderate cardio exercise, which also reduce inflammation.

"life-style" of diet and exercise is your best "Heal Thyself" strategy, not BigPharma.

btw, chronic, systemic, low-grade inflammation causes chronic high-levels of cortisone (derived from cholesterol) to reduce the inflammation, and wreaks havoc on the immune system, which of course causes inflammation as a response to injury or foreign matter.

<comment><USER11> > An alkalizing, anti-inflammatory diet is key

Can anyone cite a peer reviewed study / documentation of "alkalizing" diets? I've attempted to trace this idea back to anything scientific, and always eventually came up with "well, someone I trust once told me ...".

<comment><USER10> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid%E2%80%93base_homeostasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid%E2%80%93base_homeostasis)

one of the nasty results of a acid diet (sugar, mammal/fowl products, etc) is that the body will buffer the serum pH on the low side to stay within the body's healthy pH range by robbing calcium from bones and teeth.

<comment><USER11> Thanks, but that's not what I'm after - let me rephrase my question.

Acid/Base homeostasis is obviously important, and the body works hard to maintain it, no question about it. However, there is a claim (e.g. the one you made) that an "alkalizing diet" is healthier in some way than a "common" diet -- and I'm looking for a reference for that.

I have found references saying that ingesting sodium bicarb (the ultimate alkalizing agent) was shown to help with very controlled amounts and strenuous exercise, and was otherwise either useless or harmful. I have found many claims, but not one properly supported by an experiment, that an "alkalizing diet" (which often includes acids like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in those descriptions with some hand waving) is good for you.

So, my question is: I am trying to understand the origin of the "alkalizing diet" argument, and see whether it is science, pseudo-science or myth; can you help me with that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am not really sure that inflammation is a single entity. Today is is fashionable to claim everything has something to do with inflammation, but I remember the time a medical mixup caused me to get a high-sensitivity CRP test after I had just smacked a quadricep muscle enough that I was off my feet and on painkillers for a week and my CRP reading was as low as it can be.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think there's something to the acid/base thing and I think it's connected to inflammation.

I recommend a vegan diet. Juice celery, and everything else.. drink it soon after juicing don't put in tha fridge. Juice about a half pound of raw cannabis per week if you can (it's not cured so it won't get you high)

and uh.. drink lots of h2o.</comment>


Are HTML Form Tags Redundant Since Ajax? - <AUTHOR> http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/03/ive-stopped-using-form-tags-since-jquery-ajax/

<comment><USER2> It really depends on what your userbase is doing. If you aren't concerned about users who don't have javascript enabled, then sure. There's also the other issue of SEO though. Google and other search engines increasingly are attempting to index the "dark web", basically the data behind the <form>.

Usually Googlebot will find a <form> and run a series of queries against it to try and see what it pops out. Kind of like a safe cracker with his ear to the safe, slowly twisting the nobs and listening for a click.

If you aren't concerned about this, and indeed if you don't want the search bots to do that, then using javascript-based submissions helps with that too.</comment>


Facebook No Longer The Second Largest Social Network - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/facebook-no-longer-the-second-largest-social-network/ <comment><USER2> Nice graphs. I like how he swaps the colors between them, just to make it extra-confusing.

</comment><comment><USER3> how do you stay number one? by competing like you're number two.

<comment><USER4> For me, both sites conjure up visions of number two.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hi Matt Maroon.</comment>


Ask HN: Personal accountant recommendations in California? - <AUTHOR> I'd love some recommendations! <comment><USER2> While I hope you get some recommendations, I am not so sure this is the right forum for such a request.

</comment><comment><USER3> Perhaps www.bogleheads.org or even AccountantForums.com would be a better place to ask this.</comment>


Once in Guantánamo, Afghan Now Leads War Against Taliban and ISIS - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/world/asia/once-inguantanamo-afghan-now-leads-war-against-taliban-and-isis.html <comment><USER2> _More slowly, he recounted the long list of relatives he lost over these decades of calamity, from a brother who died in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s to his 70-year-old brother-in-law, who was beheaded this month. The Taliban killed more than 19 relatives in all._

Indeed, it seems very likely that on the other side there are numerous individuals who have suffered similar losses and fight for similar reasons. And moreover, it seems likely that both sides will continue to inflict further deaths that will continue the process. And here, the idea that the tactic of using drone strike to kill Taliban leaders and "incidentally" many bystanders, could help put an end to the situation seems both absurd and grotesque.

Moreover, for as long as the war on drugs and geopolitical maneuvers pumps significant funds into underdeveloped, lawless areas, conflicts in those areas seem fated to continue in their present fashion - you'll always have machine guns and people with considerable motive to use them against people in the next village. The brutal views of ISIS and similar groups just seems a logical generalization of such a situation.

I guess it's not common knowledge that the ruling Shia-dominated government operated death-squads on a large scale in Iraq, targeting Sunni-ethnicity tribe people group now supporting ISIS/ISIL/daesh/etc.

"Not only counter-insurgency units such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpions and the Tigers, but the commandos and even the highway patrol police have been accused of acting as death squads."[1]

One more instance of after X many family members members have been killed, how much effort do you think someone is going to take to get revenge? And how many family members of someone else will they kill in that process?

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

<comment><USER3> There is an interesting reframing of "us versus them" here [1]:

 _It 's the side of tribalism -- the primitive instinct that says your "group" has to win at all costs, and I honestly don't care how you define your group (race, religion, country, way of life) because ultimately I think there are the only two sides:

A. Those who think their tribe has to dominate Earth; B. Those who think tribes can coexist._

It's especially interesting to see that even when offered revenge on the people who took the life of his family immediately, Hajji chose the longer and more abstract fight against the entire organization whose flag he believes they were operating under.

1\. [http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ways-to-keep-terrorists- from-r...](http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ways-to-keep-terrorists-from-ruining- world/)

<comment><USER4> I find it ironic hat the author is dividing all of humanity into two tribes (A and B) and then stating that they cannot coexist.

<comment><USER5> Except that A by definition has a mandate of non-coexistence.

<comment><USER4> I'm sure plenty of "it's us or them" people justify it on the basis that the other group thinks "it's us or them."

In any case, I'm not criticizing the author. This sort of thing is a fundamental paradox of tolerance. It's hard to tolerate those who would not tolerate you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope that this is not another textbook case of abused gets abuser, and "fiercely effective fighter". To put traumatized people at charge, is a good new for the innocent civilians trapped in the villages currently controlled by terrorists?. I doubt so.

</comment><comment><USER7> How sweet, wonderful propaganda, mean while other innocents at Guantanamo experience the joys of anal rehydration and the Kafka esque life of indefinite imprisonment without trial.

But yeah, I'm glad the NY times can share such heart warming news.

<comment><USER8> Well, to me, "the US government is keeping innocents in Guantanamo that could be fighting the Taliban and ISIS" doesn't sound like pro-government propaganda.

<comment><USER9> It is a much better story than: Former prison camp detainees join ISIS with renewed vigor (certainly the most likely scenario)

<comment><USER10> And unfortunately with a much better reason.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


An 8-Year-Old Boy Tried to Pay with Toy Money. It's Now on a Swiss Police File - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/world/europe/switzerland-boy-fake-money.html <comment><USER2> This is what happens when you delegate away all responsibility for dealing with people in your community as a business to the state/law enforcement. Would it have killed the supermarket to ask the boy who his parents were, talk to them about it, resolve any balance, then turn it into a learning experience?

No. Instead, they get this.</comment>


The Higher Education Bubble (Part 1) - <AUTHOR> http://www.educationnews.org/higher-education-bubble/part-1/

<comment><USER2> I can't pin my finger on it, but this feels too hand-wavy to me. AFAIK, the housing market crash was caused by bad lending - people with bad credit were able to get loans for homes for far more than they could afford (in the hopes of flipping the home), they defaulted, and the banks are left holding the bag.

Could this happen to higher-education? Could too many graduating students defaulting on their loans cause problems for future students in obtaining loans? I don't know how student lending works (how does a bank know when or when not to issue a loan to a student?), but I'd wager that if they aren't taking into account a student's performance record and potential future earnings, they will soon.

 _Google break_

Huh. It looks like they don't [1]. It would be interesting to learn why they haven't yet, it seems like a good idea. It's certainly reasonable to think that there are more factors to take into account (I'm thinking that of moral/ethical considerations mentioned in the linked paper).

[1] <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1941070>

<comment><USER3> Federal Loans are basically unlimited to anyone without an adverse credit history (so 18-24 year olds with no credit qualify). That is the definition of bad lending. There is no linkage between likelihood of making the investment back and size of the loan.

<comment><USER4> That's not true, unless you're a grad student or an independent, and can take advantage of PLUS loans. As a senior, I can only take out 10 or 11k in subsidized, and 2k in unsubsidized loans. The rest has to come from family, aid or private loans.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not all degree's are equal.

I can't imagine any engineer saying that they cannot pay off their student debt because they cannot find a well paying job.

<comment><USER6> That's not true. Even during the boom, many people who got engineering degrees at second and third tier schools couldn't find jobs as engineers.

<comment><USER7> When I graduated in 2002 from a smaller state university I was the only BSEE out of 12 (I think) who had a job or even prospects. The rest of the engineering department wasn't much better.

I turned down Rose-Hulman because I would have had to make up $12k+ per year in loans and wages to afford it.

Edit: I would like to add that, despite the complaints here about not having enough programmers, the current unemployment rate for fresh BSCS grads is about 7.8%.

<comment><USER8> This is because people are not looking for just any programmers, they are looking for very skilled programmers with a specialty in what their company does. Which is a hard ticket to fill the majority of the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Taking the Harvard endowment's performance in 2008 (a year in which the S&P 500 lost 40% of its value) as a measure of the change in the availability of financial aid is... strange.

</comment><comment><USER10> It would be interesting to see how MOOCs (Coursera, Udacity etc.) will change the education landscape. Personally the MOOC courses have been far more useful to me than any university courses I took. If getting a job is the sole criteria, I can see a time where university courses can become irrelevant compared to free online courses.

</comment><comment><USER8> I think the major problem with higher education is two things.

1) Inflation. So many people are now getting degrees that they are starting to mean less and less. But since so many people have a degree its starting to become a necessity for jobs that use to not require them.

2) People see Higher education as something it was not designed for. Training for a job. Historically (unless your going into a professional program such as engineering or medicine) education was designed to help in the quest for knowledge, not as a means to get a good paying job. And we are starting to see this more and more. A BA may give you tons of knowledge in literature, or history, or whatever your major is but more often then not this knowledge is not preparing you for a job, it is acquiring knowledge for the sake of knowing.

</comment><comment><USER11> Is there a way to reconcile their graph, which shows the cost of education going up by 1000% on their index, with the statistic, lower on the same page, that says the cost of education has gone up by 439%?

<comment><USER12> The graph shows a 1000-ish percent increase in tuition since 1978, the 439% number later on the page is the cost (not tuition) increase since 1982. Measuring different things from different starting points.</comment></comment>


Quick-sort with Hungarian folk dance - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWBy6J5gz8 <comment><USER2> This and many similar videos have been discussed many times in the past. Here's a search to help you find them:

[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3Asor...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3Asort+dance)

They're mostly all old, so if you want to add anything to the already extensive discussions, you'll need to do it here.</comment>


Ask HN: Bullet-proof vests for everyday use? - rajesh-s How much of a challenge is it to manufacture low-profile, inexpensive and comfortable for daily use bullet-proof vests?<p>I am curious about the materials challenge involved or if there are people invested into solving this. The world really could use this right now when laws haven't been able to eradicate gun violence. <comment><AUTHOR> Use your favorite search engine for "bullet proof suits".

There's plenty of companies out there already doing this for the 1%.

Problem is that they're just too damn expensive for anyone who is not in the 1%.

Moreover, even the best bulletproof vest isn't going to help you against a head shot.

And even if they do shoot you in a place where the clothing does help, all it will do is spread that impact out over a larger part of your body. And then you are likely to wish you were dead because of all the pain you're feeling from the shattered bones and other extreme trauma that can happen when you are hit by a flying sledge hammer which doesn't penetrate your skin.

The real trick would be something that could make guns just go away.

<comment> rajesh-s Yes I agree, I looked up before posting this and did not find anything that's an inexpensive solution that can be used daily and unnoticeably a part of common life because of all the incidents we hear about.

The headshot is unavoidable, but given the probability I really think it would be wise to stay protected.

<comment><USER2> > _...given the probability I really think it would be wise to stay > protected._

"Probability"? Unless you live in Medellín or an active war zone, the probability is negligible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> there a problem with wearing a ballistic vest etc. and that is if you are not LEO or an agent, a prejudicial stance appears.

it was the case that "your looking for trouble" if your a normie and wearing a vest. you see its harder to make people scared of you carrying a gun when they wear ballistic vests, so this has to be delegitimized, as in normal civilians dont need vests as they have LEOs to engage the bad guy, this is compounded by mass shooters wearing ballastic gear during recent events.

It isnt the guns its the weapons, so getting rid of guns is a red herring. The problem is motivation. just like a disease or other demic problem there is a cause or set of causes that lead to mass shootings, mass stabbings, mass bombings, mass vehicular homicide etc. having homicidal motivation and only an [axe] as your means will likely culminate in [axe] murder, etc

all that being said , FIELD EXPEDIENT ballistic shielding and some reads like below.

[https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/field-expedient- bulletproofin...](https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/field-expedient- bulletproofing.201919/)

[https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/budget-body- armor/](https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/budget-body-armor/)

[http://soldiersystems.net/2017/02/27/bullet-proof-origami- sh...](http://soldiersystems.net/2017/02/27/bullet-proof-origami-shield/)

a good buck knife can help you hack a chunk of drywall plastered in ceremic tiles and assist in hassling bullets trying to do thier job and mantling the bodys kill points from the more discerning shooter.

the mass shooters heuristics are important, not entirely evident for public consumption yet but there is a reason why mass shooters pick a person or a crowd, and somtimes talk to people or warn them instead of killing all encountered.

this cant be modeled until an appropriate forensic examination of the mass shooter mentation occurs and we can maybe find out how to be invisible to a mass shooter, and perhaps, more importantly demotivate the shooter in the first place.

last thing here, Ive never heard of a mass shooter that suddenly occured, as in "hey i just had a great idea!" It seems that mass shooters are built over time via a process, and we should take strives to visualize that process and intercept it.

just like its an offense to possess/operate a firearm when drunk or high, there should be some procedure for a gun possessor that is having a >mental< as in not simply emotional cranky or "you tresspassers git offen m'land" affect, but actual delusional "i must kill 1000 then myself and become god" kind of derangements.

the red flag law is gaining some ground but must be crafted carefully so as not to intersect with 1st and 2nd amendments or im sure it will fail.</comment>


Show HN: Coinbolt, test drive Bitcoin by purchasing cats - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coinbolt.bitcoin

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN, I made Coinbolt, a Bitcoin wallet, so that newcomers can testdrive Bitcoin by doing something fun and interactive. New users can purchase fake cats on the Cat Shop (a OSS React.js app [https://github.com/coinbolt/catshop](https://github.com/coinbolt/catshop) / [https://www.coinbolt.com/catshop/](https://www.coinbolt.com/catshop/)). What do you think of the idea?</comment>


Gitlab Handbook: Informal Communication - <AUTHOR> https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/informal-communication/ <comment><USER2> How does one opt out of most of this without becoming a pariah? I like the donut channel since it's voluntary and small scale, but I would be burnt to a crisp by day two of the unconference.

<comment><USER3> > How does one opt out of most of this without becoming a pariah?

you don't and most companies will probably follow this trend if not already, we're doomed

EDIT: damn, forgot the emoji again to convey my feelings...</comment></comment>


ACLU: Reimagining the Role of Police - <AUTHOR> https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/reimagining-the-role-of-police/ <comment><USER2> I did not see anything really forward looking or profound.

Their suggestion is to redefine things so they are not criminal and take away budget.

These in no way address the core or foundational issues of racism and inequality.</comment>


Seed funding has declined - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/theres-an-implosion-of-early-stage-vc-funding-and-no-ones-talking-about-it/ <comment><USER2> Given that they define 'early' as before A, they simply mean seed fundings have dropped off a lot. There's a lot of reasons this could be true, but a couple that resonate for me (an investor in three pre-A and two post-A companies) is that 1) the series A cliff is real and is backpropogating to seed rounds and 2) seed is full of dabblers (me included) who have hopefully realized the economics aren't great unless they have quality deal flow and can afford to invest at least $1M+ being an angel (which means they should have overall portfolios in excess of $10M minimally).

Bonus theory: the bloom is off the crowd-funding rose. Crowd funding was producing a lot of low quality startups that tanked fairly rapidly and probably never had a chance.

<comment><USER3> Bonus theory #2: few IPOs means few newly minted angels.

Bonus #3: huge companies still sucking up VC like Uber are crowding out smaller investments.

<comment><USER4> I like to imagine that maybe Uber and money-losing ventures like it will help bring some balance to the universe by taking away the billions accumulated by super-rich investors and redistributing that money to working-class drivers through subsidies.

Like, I don't know: does all that red ink have a positive effect on the Gini coefficient?

(This pipe dream might not be supported by actual facts.)

<comment><USER5> I would argue the subsidies are going to the customers. The drivers, who often take out leases only to be surprised by Uber pricing changes, are often just treading water.

Karhoo is a more flagrant example - they allowed multiple referral codes per account, and people quickly circulated lists of codes that together came to over $100 in free rides.

<comment><USER6> In many cases, I expect customers are getting subsidized by both VCs and by drivers who don't have a good handle on their costs.

<comment><USER7> Regarding drivers who don't have a good handle on their costs, almost definitely. Mr Money Mustache just did a piece on this recently.

[https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/11/22/mr-money- mustache...](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/11/22/mr-money-mustache- uber-driver/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Other strong factors that are not mentioned:

1\. Seed funding has long delays to liquidity. The glut of seed investors, money and excitement in 2012-2015 got a lot of investors interested but none of them have got returns yet so they got tapped out.

2\. Accelerators like YC have built up a strong brand so seed funding is more concentrated as well.

3\. You need less and less money at seed stage so expectations are higher and one would expect less funding activity.

Overall a gentle decline in seed funding from its slightly bubbly levels is a healthy sign for the ecosystem.

<comment><USER9> What about ICOs didn't they some kind of seed funding?

<comment><USER10> Were there any legit icos?

<comment><USER11> there are some. checkout [https://coinlist.co/](https://coinlist.co/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> My main takeaway is that there seems to be little incentive to invest in new companies, just invest FB, Google, Lyft, Spotify, etc.

That can't be good long term for the tech sector.

<comment><USER13> If you are looking for a steady ROI this has always been true.

You don't invest in startups unless you're hoping to make huge returns. Investing in FB or Google at this point will never get you 100x returns.

<comment><USER12> I see it as a difference in investing $100K in 50 startups and one gives 100X increase vs $1million in 5 companies all giving like 50% increase. The risk/reward for more medium-large companies is far too appealing these days to avoid

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Well, VCs don't just stop funding stuff for no reason. I'm sure this is an effect and not the cause. I suppose, VC must be getting less returns on Seed rounds and everyone's starting to see that most of the new opportunities are gone. It's now all about established businesses that already have a user base. We've already seen this play out with the gaming bubble when it peeked in 2012.

<comment><USER15> There is also far less apetite for "tech unicorn" startups and IPOs on Wall Street now than a few years ago. The gold rush is over and now people are waking up to the fact that most of those super hyped companies will never turn into the next Facebook. The Fed having turned of the money faucet (i.e. quantitative easing) probably has something to do with that, too. Plus we have seen a sector rotation from tech to financial stocks recently.

Without a greater fool to sell the VC's stake to after a few years at most, the whole VC business case wouldn't work. That means VCs have to be far more discerning.

<comment><USER16> Not surprising when half the shit people fund was dog shit to begin with. Half of the time I read about start ups with the most trivial ideas ever and wonder how dumb and blind people are to throw millions at them

<comment><USER17> Most big internet wins started as little ideas. Its about the market and timing? More than how shiny the idea is. If there's a customer for it, then it can make money.

<comment><USER18> They started out as fundamental ideas, not little ideas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What do they mean "no one's talking about it"? That's just clickbait, it's been talked about widely that seed funding has been declining, but Series A and later rounds are staying about the same.

Just a google search for "decline in seed funding 2017" shows how many big outlets have had stories this year on it.

</comment><comment><USER20> Perhaps the ~10yr life-cycle of many funds started in 2007 have ended in disappointment for many LPs. I wish there were comprehensive statistics on GP performance.

<comment><USER21> It would probably be very educational to see the same sort of post-mortems from those funds that we've seen from their investments.

<comment><USER13> What more could they say really? They already expect most of their investments to fail expect for a few big outliers.

<comment><USER21> "We expected X, Y happened, and we learned Z" would work for me.

<comment><USER22> Failed VC fund : "We expected 90% of our investments to fail. 100% of them failed. We learned that choosing the right company to invest in is harder than we thought."

Successful VC fund : "We expected 90% of our investments to fail. 80% of them failed. We learned that we are awesome at choosing good companies"

Realty : They both gambled. One of them won, the other not so much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> There also seems to be a contraction in digital publishing. I think the money well is starting to run dry and we might be seeing the beginnings of a flight to quality.

[http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital- media-c...](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital-media-crash- but-no-one-will-say-it)

<comment><USER24> The reasons for the contraction are well explained by the author in that article, though, including why venture capital investing has slowed in the sector - the business model for most of these companies doesn't seem to have the same explosive potential previous investors predicted and it's clear the expected returns won't happen either. Not an attractive market at the present moment.

<comment><USER25> The gold rush is over and the profits go to the big five.

This is unfortunate because a lot of the 'innovation' in the big 5 comes from acquisitions, and without the VC money startups won't exist to be acquired

<comment><USER26> Following your model, then 'innovation' at the big five will slow down and there will be greater incentive for people to create new start-ups... and the cycle will continue.

<comment><USER27> "It's different this time", but, it's different this time. As the Information Age advances, entrenched players can use their information advantage to outcompete. For example, Facebook has analytics on every small startup that gains traction, and can due much better due diligence than the startup's own investors, and so can buy the most promising ones out for cheap.

<comment><USER26> The companies still have to be willing to sell, and there's greater and greater liquidity in the market. While the ICO fad will fade, there will be new financial innovations to take the place of ICOs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Y Combinator partners have been saying for a while now that accelerators were a bubble. I see what they mean now.

<comment><USER29> Speaking of which, I wonder what this artcile means when they say "early stage".

Do $200k "angel rounds" count the same as $5M Seed rounds involving actual tier 1 or 2 VCs?

<comment><USER28> I feel like a lot of it includes angels who instead chose to buy Bitcoin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Fwiw, there seems to be a push from VCs to bring you in talking about a 'normal' seed round (a smallish figure, debt-financing or simple equity- financing), but then try and talk up doing a large Series A immediately (with all the complexity that brings).

The idea being that you then have enough money to go and do whatever you want, at any cost, and work your way to a Series B. In the mean time, the VC(s) get their share and have some/all board control.

<comment><USER18> Do you really mean Series A or do you mean priced? I did see a presentation from a seed fund that insisted on a priced round recently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Can anybody explain this sentence?

>> More worryingly, it comes at a time of unprecedented stock market valuations worldwide.

So people are putting their money into stocks because interest rates are low and there's nowhere else to put it? It's worrying to startup investment because...there aren't many good opportunities to invest instead of the stock market? Not sure I'm understanding this correctly..

<comment><USER32> When interest rates are low and/or stocks are overvalued, interest in alternative asset classes like venture is supposed to increase. Think of it like a BATNA in negotiations.

<comment><USER31> Right, so what are possible explanations for interest in alternative asset classes not increasing, and why is that worrisome?

<comment><USER19> I think it's worrisome because it means people are keeping their money in stocks - they aren't acting as if the market as overvalued, even when everyone's talking about it (which could contribute to a bubble pop).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Congress' and the SEC's diligent efforts to regulate markets and prevent another 2000 have also prevented another 1999.

Now companies don't IPO... they suck up all the funding that would otherwise be aimed at actual startups (as opposed to companies that should probably be listed in the Fortune 500).

</comment><comment><USER34> The stock market is white hot right now. Why take a huge risk on a startup when your index fund is up 20% in just one year?

<comment><USER13> The point of investing in startups is not to get better returns, it's to get different returns. If you already have a ton of money invested in stocks, diversifying a bit by throwing some capital into startups is not a bad idea in case the market tanks.

<comment><USER35> Where do you think the venture money comes from? Mostly from investment banks and faceless funds, not a bunch of rich guys.

These funds have diversified portfolio. They are paid to produce good returns, so a small part goes into "alternative investments" and such, which is potentially high-risk, high-yield.

The article does a good analysis but they forget to mention another factor: cryptocurrencies. It's clearly the biggest bubble right now, which means it'll draw the money used to gamble.

<comment><USER36> Cryptocurrencies are also used to directly invest in startups via ICOs. The ICO market is reportedly bigger than the venture capital market as of a couple months ago; the numbers in this article are completely consistent with a shift in early-stage fundraising from seed funds to ICOs.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/initial-coin-offerings- surpa...](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/initial-coin-offerings-surpass- early-stage-venture-capital-funding.html)

<comment><USER3> Is the quality of seed stage ventures as bad as the quality of nearly all these ICOs? If so wowza.

<comment><USER36> If you take as your universe the set of all ventures that _pitch_ to seed stage, probably yeah. Most of them are weeded out by investors. I suspect a good many ICOs are weeded out by "investors" as well, but if you pitch to enough people, there's always someone willing to suspend disbelief. (This goes for seed stage ventures as well...some truly idiotic business models have gotten funded.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> If you want to invest in early technology that is vague on substance and has only speculative potential to add true value, then why would you invest in startups when bitcoin has far higher returns?

<comment><USER38> Because startups create value in the real world?

<comment><USER39> I'm not a fan of Bitcoin but it creates a lot more value in the real world than many Silicon Valley startups; such as the ones building webcams for animals, or delivery for X.

<comment><USER27> Yes, the best of one category is better than the worst of another category.

<comment><USER39> Well regardless of what we think of those startups, massive amounts of money are being poured into them. How much value are they really creating though?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I have known about it for two years or so and I can't say that I'm terribly well connected.

</comment><comment><USER41> It is all going to Bitcoin.

<comment><USER3> ... and into the air as CO2. Last I heard mining consumes as much power as the entire nation of Ireland.

<comment><USER42> Yes, but did you hear how much power nation of Ireland is consuming? Last I heard as much as whole Bitcoin blockchain! </s>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> It seems to me that seed funding was treated too much as a disconnected financial bet instead of a connected reasoned instrument? I mean, the seed as a small lump sum of money plus closed-circle services buys time but nothing organic. More consideration seems being given to industry-tailored, vertical seeds aka the big players playing with startups as prospective, cheap, external, disposable, temporary r&d departments.

</comment><comment><USER44> It's much easier and faster to raise seed round amounts of money via an ICO than it is to deal with the huge time sink that is courting angels.

<comment><USER45> Let's be realistic - something that's happened a (relative) handful of times over the past 12 months does not explain a dramatic 3+ year trend...

<comment><USER46> It has happened hundreds of times actually. There have been tons of ICOs. I would not underestimate it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> >The data shows by far the sharpest fall in activity has been in early- and seed-stage rounds. In fact, later rounds have remained fairly flat the last three years, and A and B rounds have fallen, but not nearly by as much.

A/B rounds I guess is being called "mid stage" in their graph. For both early and mid stages, we're back to lower than 2011 numbers. Mid stage rounds may not have grown as much in frequency than early stage, but they're back to levels just as low as early stage, comparatively. Given that, the author's observations look very biased and reeks of trying to interpret the data to fit the narrative.

</comment><comment><USER47> It would be interesting to see what is defined as "VC Funding" \- specifically, I suspect it may exclude accelerator programs (or measure the whole accelerator program as a single funding activity for a VC fund).

The drop in VC fundings seems to align reasonably well with the increase in accelerator programs[1]. That makes sense - as tech companies are getting cheaper and cheaper to start.

[1] [https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271000](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271000)

<comment><USER27> That can explain the trend in #fundings, which is a silly metric anyway. But $$$ has also plateaued and started to drop.

<comment><USER47> Maybe?

Depends how and when it is measured. If the 2017 figures cut off at the start of September (which isn't crazy if it gathered quarterly) then it is on track to be the most ever. If it cuts off at the end of November, then it's a real drop.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Reporting from Singapore. Yes, seed funding has dried up here as well.

On the other hand, the TechCrunch chart shows that the amount is still higher than, say, 5 years ago.

</comment><comment><USER48> How much of the early investment done in startups is motivated by QSBS (pre-$50M)? Maybe the virtuous cycle has stalled as participants haven't reproduced.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15594177](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15594177)

I doubt it has a major impact, but it may be a small part.

<comment><USER18> I think the effect of QSBS is quite small. It has only really come into force with Obama's initiatives in 2009+2013 and it seems that few people know of it and understand it.

Unlike 83b, not many people are even aware of QSBS. For example, it isn't mentioned at all in the 3rd edition of _Venture Deals_. I've been in a few Silicon Valley workshops (Morrison Foerster and also Berkeley Law) and neither mentioned QSBS. YC doesn't seem to provide any guidance. I see very little on it from SV law firms. I've asked and I get a recital of the basic mechanics. First Round Search doesn't mention it.

[https://search.firstround.com/search?query=qsbs](https://search.firstround.com/search?query=qsbs)

Anyways, I've been looking into QSBS myself. I don't know why QSBS isn't a bigger thing, especially since the maximum capital gains rate increased to 20%.

[https://g.foolcdn.com/editorial/images/433057/maximum- capita...](https://g.foolcdn.com/editorial/images/433057/maximum-capital- gains-tax-rates_large.PNG)

I don't think startups are handling this well for either their early employees (which includes founders themselves) or for any individual angel investors who could qualify. Empirically this lack of interest in QSBS is the case. But I don't know why it is the case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> i figured the opposite might start happening with Softbank's gigantic fund coming online. But I guess if they're going to go after late-stage "winners" and that's how everyone else is going, then maybe tech startups will have to start thinking about starting business the traditional way.

<comment><USER50> I believe at least 50% of SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund is dependent upon Saudi Arabia, which recently arrested several prominent businessmen and investors that were integral to securing the deal.

As far as I know, the status of Saudi Arabia's $50 billion investment into the Vision Fund is uncertain right now due to the arrests.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> I don't see this as being too terrible. Hopefully it causes companies to focus more on selling things to customers, instead of just "growth hacking" to get more users that don't actually contribute to the bottom line.

</comment><comment><USER52> it's official, we are running out of ideas

<comment><USER14> more accurately, running out of solvable problems

It's time for another innovation unlocking to occur. Someone needs to build a platform that does what the internet did for software, but apply that platform to the world of hardware and the real world.

I still need a robot to clean up my kitchen and put the kid to sleep.

<comment><USER53> You mean something like a web of value vs the web of information we have currently?

Where we can meld physical properties with digital and interact in both worlds seamlessly through AR.

In order to do that we would some sort of immutable database where many parties can come to a consensus on its values...

<comment><USER14> Well, i was think more along the lines of reducing barries to the point where anyone can create a real product. For instance, anybody with basic coding skills can create a website or social network. Imagine if anyone with some basic programming skills could build a house, a new car, a form of transportation, a cheaper form of medical insurance, a new robot, etc. We'd see an explosion of new innovation, that really would benefit society. As it stands right now, all the above requires enormous amounts of legal knowledge because even if you had the hardware/AI skills to do it, it's illegal and politically insurmountable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> I realize this won't be popular with this crowd.

One big reason is the campaign against patents in general, and against software and e-commerce patents in specific.

Why would an investor put down money for an idea for a new website where FB Google Amazon Apple MS will simply copy the idea and use their economy of scale to remove even the hint of success?

<comment><USER55> I'm not buying that. The reality is early stage companies dont bother with patents as mich because of money and time constraints. Really well funded compa oes sure, but the reality is patents are a tool for the big guys, if you have to do battle with google, your startup is probably screwed either way.

<comment><USER56> Yes, but this ignores the fact that those patents are transferred to an acquirer upon the sale of your startup. Yes, the patent is largely useless to your startup. However, if you've proven the market, a patent could be an attractive perk to acquire your startup (rather than just copying and crushing it) since they can use that patent to keep other big players out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> Anyone know why the title was changed away from the actual title of the article?

<comment><USER36> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15822097](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15822097)

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> Hopefully seedy people along with it.</comment>


Wireless Networking in DOS - <AUTHOR> http://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/ <comment><USER2> While I appreciate those that do.. I simply can't imagine trying to keep some older hardware alive and running like this... I have reached for emulation time and again, and while there have been headaches and hiccups, it still seams easier than physical hardware to me.

In this case, I'd probably just try to do wired to a wireless ap/bridge. Especially since fast data isn't needed, a cheap $20 AP would probably do well enough (though wouldn't be integrated into the laptop itself.

</comment><comment><USER3> Now that's a coincidence, just yesterday I was thinking if it would be possible to use WLAN in FreeDOS on my 1998 Toshiba Libretto xD I found one of the PCMCIA cards mentioned in the article for sell and immediately ordered it, can't wait to try it :-)

</comment><comment><USER4> Meh, I would get a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, configure it as a wifi bridge, and connect the laptop to it via wired Ethernet. It means you can't carry the machine around while playing DOS games from the network, you'd have to keep it in a fixed location. But other than that it seems way less hacky.

I currently have my desktop PC (and a couple other machines) configured this way except using an Intel NUC as the bridge.

<comment><USER5> No need for an entire Raspberry Pi and Linux, a esp32 with an ethernet interface is enough

[https://github.com/espressif/esp-iot- solution/tree/master/ex...](https://github.com/espressif/esp-iot- solution/tree/master/examples/eth2wifi)

<comment><USER6> There are also bridges from serial/modem/RS232 port to wifi that can be used on all sorts of hardware. The Wifi232 is one of those.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> the first part is better: [http://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in- dos/](http://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/)

<comment><USER8> Ok, since that one hasn't been discussed here, we'll change the URL to that from [http://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos-wireless-networking- continue...](http://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos-wireless-networking-continued/). Thanks!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Would you use more gestures if would be easier? - <AUTHOR>

At gesturekit.com we believe that gestures are part of the future of our interaction with computers however there is a lot to be done about them. We are currently doing but we need your feedback. Can help us improve our platform and continue solving problems providing solutions for the community.
We think that:
1) Gestures on apps (abstract glyphs sepcially) are cumbersome to develop. Read more http://bit.ly/ZTCwBb.
2) They should be cross platform so you don't have to code each time on each platform.
3) They should be web-based.
4) There are private APIs and few people/companies are deciding about their use.
5) Should be opened so everyone can create and share.
6) Should not interfere with your app at any extend.
Given these arguments:
Would you use gestures on your app if would be as simple as draw online and use everywhere?
At gesturekit.com we are taking care of these six points and want to provide a very simple way how to use them and implement them.
Thanks very much for the feedback, we appreciate. @gesturekit <comment><USER2> I don't think I am your target audience, but I will respond just so you have at least one data-point.

I don't use gestures. Ever. For anything (except unlocking my phone, which I am stuck with).

Opera 'introduced' mouse-gestures a long time ago, and like all other attempts I have tried; I cannot understand the point. I don't think that waving my hand/mouse/fingers around like a spell-caster writing runes in the air is ever efficient. There is far too many chances at misinterpretation, and it obscures the target action. Give me buttons. on/off-yes/no simple binary choices that give exact feedback. Need something more analog (i.e. volume slider) let me input a number.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nothing will beat a button, ever. Gestures are not more important than buttons, components, application and developers. But will need a new space in this new world, the one of the already arrived future.

Not even gestures being used by all the crowd all together will replace a binary and perfect button. However the world is changing fast and the evolution of the interaction with our computers, crowded with wearable vehicles household touch interfaces, Internet of things and so on, will definitely need a new approach on gestures. That's the reason we are trying to start a nice discussion about with the developers.

Our API enhances the ongoing apps. We created a non transparent overlay to have all the app components available however provide the alternative of having gestures enabled with a single line of code on any platform, designed on an online editor. It should not harm however have the alternative of doing them, under different accessibility scenarios and different body movements and ergonomics.

As you pointed out air gestures can be yet experimental and will definitely need more work on the input side. We think that our fingers are key as I expose it here at this blog [http://www.gesturekit.com/side-effects-minority- report/](http://www.gesturekit.com/side-effects-minority-report/) and I envision them having more alternatives to efficiently tackle more problems needing a deeper use of them touching rather than airing.

<comment><USER2> Thank-you for your patient and well reasoned reply.

I wish you the best of luck with your project.

<comment><AUTHOR> No problem, thanks lot for the feedback and nice wishes.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview, an Experimental Android App - <AUTHOR> https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/11/firefox-os-2-5-developer-preview-an-experimental-android-app/ <comment><USER2> And yet my FirefoxOS phone is still stuck on 1.3, because Alcatel apparently could not be arsed to support their "flagship" FxOS phone for a mere six months.

Can we get an open-source mobile OS that is _not_ fragmented to the point of uselessness?

<comment><USER3> You're lucky! Mine is 1.1.

<comment><USER4> Comments like this are why I think Google should merge Android into Chrome OS and not the other way around. It seems that most manufactures have concluded that offering long upgrade periods for their devices is against there best interest. As a result I only recommend iOS and Nexus smartphones.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> On My nexus 7 it's really slow. Staring any application takes ages compared to times that ParanoidAndroid does it. Start-up time with Foxfood is noticeably longer than PA, actually I got bored waiting. 8 minutes and counting... It's not possible to stop it and go back to android launcher.

There is an updater built-in. UI looks better than my Android, there is no theme changer, so it's a no-go for me.

It provides access to applications from Android, but icons are HUGE. On N7 I have 3 icons per row (you can change it to 4, but it's still ugly), so they're really ugly and pixelated. Settings are pretty nice, it looks like something between iOS and standalone Android 5.

It didn't fully replace my android UI, as the bottom bar with back, menu, recent is still visible, but pressing back doesn't do anything, instead back button is placed in top left. Not every application has the button, contact settings doesn't have, so I had to restart FirefoxOS to go back to main menu. Also I still see Android heads-up notifications from VPN reconnecting. Doubled.

There are a few unnecessary UI-fireworks, which I would like to disable, but can't see any settings about UI.

I think battery consumption is big as well, in several minutes of testing I lost 11%, which normally I use 6%-10% in 1.5h.

It's good, needs a lot of polishing, and it's getting somewhere.

I listed only disadvantages here, but it looks nice, their own UI is clear and consistent, better than android, everything what comes from FxOS runs very smoothly. It's 7/10 for a developer preview package.

When those things improve in the future, I will be happy to replace Launcher3 with Foxfood.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm really hoping that Firefox OS will save us from a future overtaken by walled gardens, save the mobile web that apple and google have less and less incentives to support. But unfortunately so far adoption has been nominal from mayor manufacturers, I understand this "trojan horse" approach even if it seems to defeat the purpose. The world needs a mainstream open mobile device, fingers crossed.

</comment><comment><USER5> Could it be pushed to F-Droid? At of people using FD as main source of apps would like to try it.

<comment><USER7> I don't think so. Similar to many Linux distributions F-Droid apps should be build from source. There are some issues about the branding (logo, name etc.) which leads to things like Iceweasel (Debian) or Fennec (F-Droid). See: [https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.mozilla.fire...](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.mozilla.firefox)

<comment><USER8> Beside this, Firefox is not really welcomed (and a drop is planned eventually) on F-Droid because it's really complex to build, depends on some closed source libraries (Google Play Services, for example) and has lots of tracking in it (everything is at least opt-out as far as I can tell, but the guys behind F-Droid aren't really keen on any kind of tracking it seems).

It's possible to build it without those problems (see Fennec on F-Droid in fact), but it takes a lot of time for someone to create a recipe, and it's prone to break on every upgrade (and that's why the last version of Fennec on F-Droid is based on Firefox 40).

I don't know if/how many of those problems apply on Firefox OS (I guess at least the complex build environment applies), but that's likely why you'll not find it on F-Droid anytime soon. Unless someone decides to pour lots and lots of energy into this.

More info/sources:

[https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox](https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox)

[https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid](https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid)

[https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/blob/master/metadata/or...](https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/blob/master/metadata/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid.txt)

<comment><USER5> Yea, I know all of that.

>It's possible to build it without those problems (see Fennec on F-Droid in fact)

Fennec is stuck on 40 because of difficulties with building it, and even when one person managed to build it, .apk didn't start on others developers phone. A few people tried upgrading it to 41 and all failed, I guess fennec is kill now. I talked about it a few times on their IRC with people responsible for fennec.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For the love of all things good, why didn't Mozilla adopt the webOS UI instead of the terrible, unscalable iOS UX? Sure, webOS couldn't survive the awful hardware designs and last-generation JITs, but the UI was the best mobile UI/UI to date.

Even at this point, I believe there's a lot of potential that could be gained if Mozilla worked with LG. Mozilla has the web experience and LG has the patents and hardware ability.

I'd go for a $350-$400 LG/Mozilla phone with nexus 5 specs running a new version of webOS in a heartbeat.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's extremely hard to find a Firefox OS device with acceptable (as in "> 512 MB RAM") specs in Europe.

I looked for months and I ended up buying a Moto G 2014 and installed CyanogenMod (which took me ~3hs because newb).

I couldn't be happier today and I sincerely hope FirefoxOS offers its OS on newer hardware if it ever wants to stand a chance.

<comment><USER11> [https://firefoxos.mozilla.community/device/Motorola/Moto%20G](https://firefoxos.mozilla.community/device/Motorola/Moto%20G) ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Glad to see Mozilla announcing FxOS release versions, at last (previously they didn't).

Should I be able to upgrade any FxOS device to 2.5 now?

</comment><comment><USER13> I am REALLY tempted to buy a Nexus 5 just to put FirefoxOS on it. Kinda looking for a more reasonable phone though, also not sure how well it's supported.

<comment><USER14> I've been running Firefox OS on Android for a couple of months now on my Nexus 5 with CyanogenMod and everything works alright. As long as you have KitKat or above things should go smoothly.</comment></comment>


Ask YC: How Can Web 2.0 Improve Conversation Between Local Gov and Citizens - <AUTHOR>

After this past election and the way things are shaping up, starting off with Youtube for national addresses, social media is going to have a more rapid acceptance by local government.  It's a topic I've been exploring the past week or so for fun, and just want some insights + thoughts from fellow hacker news commenters.<p>I'm NOT looking for a discussion about politics.  I'm looking for insights about technology and its impact on communication between local governments and its citizens. <comment><USER2> _"... I'm NOT looking for a discussion about politics. I'm looking for insights about technology and its impact on communication between local governments and its citizens ..."_

Adrian Holovaty of Chicago Crime ~ <http://holovaty.com/blog/archive/2008/01/31/0102> and <http://www.everyblock.com> is probably the best example I can think of. Everyblock is going to be opensourced at some time in the future.

The ability for citizens see what is really going on at street level thematically is the key benefit thus allowing the Local government to get on with governing and release the data for others to use.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you have a Oracle to PostgreSQL migration success story? - <AUTHOR> Do you have a story from a successful Oracle to PostgreSQL migration to share?
What did the existing stack do?
Why did you want to make the switch?
- Technical hurdles
- Useful tools in order to faciliate the migration
What did the business case look like:
- What was the cost of the migration?
- What were the savings in the end?
- Any new possibilities post-migration that opened up? <comment><USER2> 1\. We (an NFL team) had an Oracle 9i database (which Oracle pulled support for in 2010) storing NFL player's Scouting information for > 20 years.

2\. We needed to make the switch to a modern solution because as of June 2016, we had been running w/o support for 6 years (I got here in 2016), and the RDBMS (9i) was quite slow and not compatible with modern drivers and applications.

3\. Our biggest technical hurdles were unique to the tool that we used for migration (etlalchemy, described in (4) below). i.) Finding the correct cx_Oracle (Python) driver to communicate with the correct Oracle Instant Client version, and then finding the exact version of Python libraries which supported that driver (b/c Oracle pulled support for 9i so long ago, finding the old instantclient binaries was nasty work). ii.) Handling FK constraint violations when importing data into PostgreSQL. Because you can't turn constraint checks like you can on MySQL (SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;), data that violates constraints must be resolved before the migration. As a solution, I added support to etlalchemy (the next bullet below) to "dump bad rows" to STDOUT, and skip the foreign key that is violated during the "constraint migration" step.

4\. Regarding tools, we used [https://github.com/seanharr11/etlalchemy](https://github.com/seanharr11/etlalchemy) to facilitate the migration. I created this open source tool 2 years ago, published it to github, and used it to carry out 99% of this project. The only thing that had to be migrated manually were the Oracle functions (most of which we tossed out as they were used for ColdFusion/Report Generation). The most powerful feature of this tool is its ability to migrate schema (including column types) between 2 different RDBMS's. It also loads data quite fast leveraging PostgreSQL's 'COPY FROM' bulk import, and MySQL's 'LOAD DATA INFILE'. (Constraints and Indexes are also migrated with etlalchemy out-of- the-box)

5\. From a business standpoint, we are just completing the project now and are likely going to choose MySQL as our final destination. This is mainly because our database is very OLTP-oriented. Our applications perform very small SELECTS, INSERTS and UPDATES to our database at high frequency (think football scouts updating player statuses, live stats feeds from the NFL, etc...), and InnoDB (MySQL storage engine) happens to do a very good job of facilitating this type of database (high-frequency simple updates). PostgreSQL would have been a better choice if we were to run less frequent queries involving more computation (OLAP-oriented), but we don't (yet) have a huge Machine Learning/Data Mining requirement here. From experience, PostgreSQL has a huge toolkit of functions, very cool indexes, and other nice-to-haves, we just don't need them for our business case. Both choices have a much stronger community, and answers are found via StackOverflow/Google rather then reading the Oracle manual until your eyes bleed.

6\. If you want to read about my experience, I have posted a quick write-up here, including some more background info on etlalchemy: thelaziestprogrammer.com/sharrington/databases/migrating-between-databases- with-etlalchemy

If you decide to give the tool a try (it is battle-tested), please let me know how it works for you. And please, if you have any questions/feature- requests/issues, reach out to me. I am trying to get some momentum going for this project, as it would solve lots of people's database migrations problems as it solved mine.

<comment><AUTHOR> In horror I see a lot of business application stacks driven by Oracle. Probably because of some nifty set feature early on. Again and again we pay dearly for it.

A small and growing part of me wants to cut through the bulls hit and look into eliminating it wherever I can sell the idea.

<comment><USER2> My experience with my current employer is that Oracle/SQL Server/Windows are used because of the lack of trust in open source solutions, usually by management who grew up in the Stone Age of Software.

All 3 of the aforementioned slow EVERY process in the building down, especially when it comes to application development.</comment></comment></comment>


Crunching subway data – a New Yorker's busiest stations - <AUTHOR> http://blogging.alastair.is/crunching-subway-data-a-new-yorkers-busiest-stations/ <comment><USER2> I noticed some funny stuff about the data, but I haven't tracked down the source. I'd expect the entry/exit counts to increase over the course of the day, and they generally do. Sometimes, though, the latest record doesn't have the greatest number. I suspect it either odd cutoff times, i.e., not aligned to the day.

If anyone wants to play with the data, here's some stuff to start with PostgreSQL:

      create table stats (
          ca varchar(10),
          unit varchar(10),
          scp varchar(10),
          dt timestamp,
          "desc" varchar(20),
          entries integer,
          exits integer
      );

      copy stats from '<path>/output.csv' delimiter ',' csv header;

Here's query that will show the entire set of exit counts align with both their greatest and latest values:

      select
          unit, scp, dt, exits,
          max(exits) over (
              partition by unit, scp, date_trunc('day', dt)
              rows between unbounded preceding and unbounded following
          ) as largest_exits,
          last_value(exits) over (
              partition by unit, scp, date_trunc('day', dt)
              order by dt
              rows between unbounded preceding and unbounded following
          ) as latest_exits
      from stats
      order by 1, 2, 3;

If you want to see the discrepancies I described above, just wrap it up and find where latest <> greatest:

      with x as (
      select
          unit, scp, dt, exits,
          max(exits) over (
              partition by unit, scp, date_trunc('day', dt)
              rows between unbounded preceding and unbounded following
          ) as largest_exits,
          last_value(exits) over (
              partition by unit, scp, date_trunc('day', dt)
              order by dt
              rows between unbounded preceding and unbounded following
          ) as latest_exits
      from stats
      )
      select *
      from x
      where largest_exits <> latest_exits
      order by unit, scp, dt;

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm a bit surprised to see Penn Station below Grand Central.

Penn Station is the most trafficked train station in North America[0], which I would imagine would lead to more subway entrances/exits, especially during rush hours.

Also, Penn Station has the A,C,E, 1, 2, and 3. Grand Central only has the 4/5/6[1]. The 4/5/6 are the only lines on the east side and are therefore fairly busy, but I find this surprising nonetheless.

[0] This includes non-subway trains, [1] Don't even get me started about the T (ie, the Second Ave. Line)! :)

<comment><USER4> Not every commuter takes the subway to and from Penn Station. The surrounding area has a lot of offices, so many people take light rail there and then just walk to and from work.

<comment><USER5> NJ Transit and the LIRR are heavy rail (as are the subway and the PATH train).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I didn't know this data was available! I wish we had the same breadth available through the MBTA. I'd be interested in using this data to:

\- plan travel directions based on past congestion patterns

\- pair this with any data found for NY's bus system or taxi system to map out hubs vs destination stations

\- examine stations' frequency of repair and see if congestion at a station correlates with the frequency of repair; try to predict dates of repair

very cool!</comment>


RSpec Best Practices - <AUTHOR> http://blog.carbonfive.com/2010/10/testing/rspec-best-practices

<comment><USER2> This was a good article, but only covered the more superficial best practices concerning formatting. The more important best practices include things like, you don't need to save an object to test its validity. I see this a lot:

      it "returns no errors for a valid object" do
        @object.save
        @object.errors.size.should == 0
      end

This doesn't scale well and will cause your specs to run painfully slow when your project gets bigger, as the spec will hit the database every time it's run. Instead, do this:

      it "returns no errors for a valid object" do
        @object.valid?
        @object.errors.size.should == 0
      end

Or even better:

      it "returns no errors for a valid object" do
        @object.should be_valid
      end

Neither of these actually hit the database, so the entire thing is run in- memory. And this is just one example of functional RSpec best practices. Don't get me wrong, the formatting stuff definitely helps readability across the team, but if your specs are testing the wrong thing, or running slowly, the formatting doesn't matter.</comment>


Optimal Account Balancing - <AUTHOR> http://stochastix.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/optimal-account-balancing

<comment><USER2> Free book on directed graphs:

<http://www.cs.rhul.ac.uk/books/dbook/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Very, very simplistic. Much more applicable to _TCP network throughput, travelling salespeople_ than financial transactions

Missing ::

* Real World Transaction costs [ state, federal, international tax . Exchange volume discounts ]

* Risk [ counterparty , timing, many more ]

* Traceability : Ensuring decisions made are recorded and deterministic

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>

See _After the Trade is Made_ for an accepted analysis of distributing securities.

\---

[http://www.amazon.com/After-Trade-Made-Processing- Transactio...](http://www.amazon.com/After-Trade-Made-Processing- Transactions/dp/0131776010)

<comment><AUTHOR> In case you didn't notice, the blog post is on how a group of friends can split the bill in an efficient manner. It has little to do with securities. Of course, if it had to do with securities, then your points would be right on target.

Thanks for the book suggestion, btw. It seems a good complement to Larry Harris' _Trading & Exchanges_ :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice. Also shows very well why it would be useful to trade things like credit default swaps on exchanges instead of OTC.

<comment><USER5> "Over-the-counter (OTC) trading is to trade financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities or derivatives directly between two parties." -- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-counter_(finance)>

I had to look it up so I noted it here for anyone else that would need to do the same.</comment></comment>


Protip: Write for you - <AUTHOR> http://coderwall.com/p/ckrpia

<comment><USER3> I'm really of two minds about the write for you/write for an audience argument. I started blogging early this year, and so far I've written and published four posts that don't make me want to gouge my eyes out. That's not to say that what I've written is especially good, just that it's passable. When I started I was shooting for one post a month, so I'm obviously way behind on what I thought was a conservative goal.

What surprises me most about the whole exercise is how overwhelmingly _bad_ I am at writing. More than 80% of the content I've written has been thrown away. If I wrote code like this I'd have been out of work long ago, but I just can't bring myself to go on permanent record with half-baked poorly thought out blog posts.

I hate to put this so bluntly, but many people out there lack this kind of restraint. As a consequence, there's just a universe of truly awful writing online. The Joel Spolskys and Steve Yegges are really few and far between.

So yeah, write for you, but if you don't mind, could you do the world a service and write for the rest of us too? We'll all be better for it.

<comment><USER4> I, too, feel like I'm just muddling through my first foray into a personal blog. (For what it's worth, I found your four posts pretty interesting. Hadn't heard of _Design for Hackers_ and I'm definitely checking it out now.)

I think the "write for you" advice is good, because it gets you through the early stages of writing and posting content. This might lead to a lack of restraint in some, but it reminds me that I don't need every post to be super- insightful or essay-of-the-year worthy. I just need to write about what interests me, which takes a lot of the pressure off.

<comment><USER3> You just doubled my traffic for the month.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A few years ago, I thought to myself, "Self, you haven't started a really stupid business with a remarkably high chance of failure in a long time. Why don't you start a magazine?"

I was bored, so I did.

Within a few months, I had founded a magazine. My co-founder and I bootstrapped it, so we didn't have access to the highest caliber of writers. Consequently, we did a whole lot of development work; taking writers with passion and some technical flaws and working with them until they could bang out some good quality content.

I learned something really valuable working with young writers. The 'write for you' advice is great...to a point. If you really want to become a good writer, you need to write for an editor. Find someone you trust and get him/her to butcher your writing. Write for that person.

The problem with writing for yourself is that it is too easy to say, "well, the audience didn't come because x." (where x != my writing sucks)

The joy of writing for a good editor is that you will improve faster than you can possibly imagine. And then, you can say, "who cares about an audience, I'm a better writer now."

You can become a great writer...anyone can. Hell, if you can write code, you're already 95% of the way there. My email address is on my profile - <USER2> you want someone to edit your stuff, send me some mail...

<comment><USER6> As a corollary, you don't know how bad of a coder you are until your first thorough code review.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Protip: Don't track statistics on your blog.

Little controversial, but this is the first time in my life I actively care for a blog I've created. And the reason? I don't care about the statistics.

Previously my main priority was getting traffic. I became obsessed with looking at statistics to see how much traffic I'd gained. I spent far far too much time looking at statistics, when instead, I should have been doing, what I hope I'm doing now. Writing content that I will want to read again.

<comment><USER8> Really great advice. I take too much consideration of my stats on other sites and it really shouldn't be about that unless I'm in full-on sell mode, and that isn't what most personal blogs should be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I write a personal blog because I want to get an idea out of my head. It's almost a pathological need to put it to paper or bits, or else it festers inside and distracts me from what I want to do. This post here is here because of that need.

Other ways I deal with this need is carrying physical notebooks and a pen just about everywhere I go. Sometimes I turn them into blog posts. Sometimes I turn them into stories. Right now there are about six game ideas and four business ideas in the notebook next to me, as well as dozens of proto-essays. My blog likewise has almost twice as many "draft" essays than published posts.

This wasn't the norm for me two years ago. If you were to give me a page and a pen then, it would be blank for months. I made a decision to make it easy and effortless to write down ideas and thoughts. That meant carrying around a notebook and pen to many places I went. I also started doing stream-of-thought notes to try and jog my noggin when I was first starting out.

The takeaway here is to just get started. All my early stuff is garbage now, but it served as a good first wave to get me in the habit of writing.

</comment><comment><USER10> Like everything else, this advice is highly contextual: in this case, the context depends on where the writer is starting from.

The goal is to write things that come from the heart as well as the brain, that leverage your passions and appeal to an audience, all at the same time. In other words, the goal is, as usual, somewhere in the middle.

If your starting point is that you think nothing of your own passions, interests, and write whatever you think will please an audience, then yes, this advice is right on the ball for you: you should write for you, because it's about you.

If, on the other hand, your tendency is to boldly write what you care about, following your passions and interests and not giving the audience much of a second thought, then the opposite advice applies: write for your audience - because it's about them, not you.

Of course, "write for both the audience and yourself" doesn't make such a good sound bite...

I'm reminded of a quote, by Niels Bohr, I thin, which said that the opposite of a Deep Truth is another Deep Truth...

<comment><USER11> I agree with your points. It is hard to make something this small have meaning across the board. This is part of the reason why I targeted the thought at tech blogging in particular. This net may also be too wide, but in my opinion the point holds when it comes to that type of writing.

</comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell I have a few self imposed requirements for anything I post to my tech blog (<https://grepular.com/blog/>)

1.) Only post stuff I myself would be interested to read if somebody else had written it.

2.) Do not force myself to post simply because I haven't posted in a while.

3.) Do not simply regurgitate stuff I have read elsewhere.

A lot of articles on tech blogs violate rule #1 and the _vast_ majority violate rule #3. Rule #2 seems to be violated by any site which is making a serious attempt at making money.

</comment><comment><USER12> Although applicable to more than just tech writing, James Altucher offers some interesting pieces of advice on becoming a better writer: [http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/03/33-unusual-tips-to- bein...](http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/03/33-unusual-tips-to-being-a- better-writer/)

</comment><comment><USER13> I really like the short style of this post, but the only thing I kept in mind while reading the piece is that it wasn't written for the author himself. A nice morning read, by the way!

<comment><USER14> It could surely be a post meant to remind the author himself that he shouldn't stray from his path :)

<comment><USER11> That is definitely part of it. When I first started writing I needed to remind myself of this quite a lot. Thankfully I haven't really needed to do that for quite a while now. I enjoy writing and I do it when I can. The goal continues to be learning with the added bonus of helping others along the way. It hasn't ever been, nor will be, about traffic.

Cheers for the comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> mck- I like writing, because of it structures my thought and forces me to think it through thoroughly.

It is also greatly satisfying to share the lessons learned down the road.

So I don't think you shouldn't write for others. In the end, no one is Spolsky or Yegges except for themselves, but we shouldn't underestimate the benefit to the masses that may learn from you.

I am by no means an authority, but I get a few appreciative emails every so often and that brings me great joy.

<comment><USER15> That reminds me that by sending an "appreciative email" you can make a blogger happy with little cost. I should do that more often.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> One tip I would give developers/hackers who double as technical bloggers (whether regularly or infrequently) is:

 _Write what you want to read (but can't find elsewhere)._

This simultaneously challenges you to learn the subject matter in depth, fills a needed gap in content that other like-minded devs are probably looking for, and may even yield a nice chunk of open-source or useful code snippets.

I use this strategy on my blog, albeit infrequently.

</comment><comment><USER17> Or just do both. You can have a main blog and a tumblr account, have a personal blog and do guest posts on other blogs, or even write both kind of posts on the same blog.

A couple years ago, getting RSS subscribers was the holy grail of blogging. But these days, people find your content via Twitter or HN anyways. So there's much less risk of losing your audience because you wrote a personal post that didn't connect with your readers.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nice post. :)

I tend to find writing (or explaining) for other people and doing it for yourself blend. A lot.

The old adage that you don't truly understand something unless you can explain it to someone else holds particularly true with tech writing. When I'm writing to communicate something to someone else, I'm also helping myself understand the topic better. It's win-win.

</comment><comment> mck- The coolest thing I found about this link is coderwall.com. First time seeing it, just signed up.. Looks like fun.

</comment><comment><USER19> This works for any kind of writing. And it doesn't matter if you publish it or not.

Well if it's good writing, or useful writing, it's better to publish it because it might be useful for someone else.

</comment><comment><USER20> Morrissey said.....

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIanJS6fks>

</comment><comment><USER21> Alrighty then, keep your blog hidden from view and you'll be just fine.

<comment><USER11> At no point did I say "hide your writing". I think it's clear that the sentiment of the post was not to hide the stuff that you write, but instead to write for the right reasons. If you write for the purpose of pleasing others you'll struggle. If you write to please yourself you'll be surprised just how many others you please in the process.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who has an old sideproject they want to sell? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> What size side project you looking to buy? :)

</comment><comment><USER3> You should check out Flippa.</comment>


Content Believes in Second Chances - <AUTHOR> http://simplereach.com/blog/content-believes-in-second-chances/

<comment><USER2> Awesome. It's interesting to see that the data doesn't support the existence of "evergreen" and instead, what we see as "evergreen" is just content that gets resurrected on a very regular basis.

</comment><comment><USER3> great read.</comment>


Yeloha Brings Solar into the Sharing Economy - <AUTHOR> http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/start-ups/startup-profile-yeloha-brings-solar-into-the-sharing-economy/?utm_campaign=hackernews <comment><USER2> About time! As a fan of the sharing economy for both transportation and hospitality, never really thought that solar was in the cards- (guess I always pictured a single house with panels not a shared/subscription model- interesting to know it is something available to me). Cool find.

</comment><comment><USER3> This seems to solve a lot of typical issues I've found with trying to go solar (particularly for those of us who rent apartments like me). Love that this company is changing things and is part of the sharing economy - people love this concept. Very interested in trying this out.

<comment><USER4> I feel the same way, provides a useful tool to those of us who previously did not have access to solar, im also an apartment dweller)Have a friend who was one of their early adapters and loves it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is pretty cool, you can go solar fully online, even without a suitable roof.

</comment><comment><USER6> Just a matter of time before the big power utilities put an end to this

<comment><AUTHOR> Some utilities resist these new models that empower consumers. But others embrace change. For example, utility Green Mountain Power just announced adopting the Solar Sharing Network: [http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051271/in- vermont-a-forward-thin...](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051271/in-vermont-a- forward-thinking-utility-is-helping-customers-share-solar-power)</comment></comment>


BlackBerry postpones launch of BBM for iOS and Android - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/21/4756906/blackberry-postpones-launch-of-bbm-for-ios-and-android <comment><USER2> I wonder if it was an engineering issue that caused this "rollback", or if it was a management/political issue.

Is there something about the iOS version (or about iOS development in general) that prevents them from disabling that version, while they disable the Android version?</comment>


Soup-Salad-Sandwich Space - <AUTHOR> http://sandwichspace.xyz/ <comment><USER2> This kinda misses to point of soup-soup by my eye. The point of the original game was refining an absolute definition of one category, not building a relational map.

<comment><USER3> I'm not even familiar with soup-soup! What was it?

<comment><USER2> [http://soup.gua-le-ni.com/](http://soup.gua-le-ni.com/)

"SOMETHING SOMETHING SOUP SOMETHING could be defined as a videogame. We prefer to think of it as an interactive thought experiment: a piece of technology that discloses situations and presents notions in ways that are interactive and negotiable (and maybe even playful)."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Proposed salad-soup nexus: cucumber soup</comment>


Android applications list for local search [GPS & AR] - <AUTHOR> http://androgeek.com/android-applications-list-for-local-search-gps-augmented-reality.html Use your Android to find restaurants, shops, new friends, never miss the latest event in your hometown or on your vacations and for sure Socialize <comment><USER2> Nice!</comment>


Stream your media to XbOX, PS3 using TonidoPlug - <AUTHOR> http://www.tonido.com/support/TonidoPlug_Streaming

<comment><USER2> What's the purpose of this? It doesn't provide transcoding, and my Xbox 360 can pull media off of my computer if I put it in the shared media folder. WMP can be used to share additional media from different folders, so seriously what is the application here?

TVersity serves media with and without transcoding, doing it all with minimal CPU usage; even on my 3 year old laptop I manage to stream 720p MKV's through tversity without rendering my laptop inoperable during the movie.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can have low-power media server running 24/7 for a fraction of electricity costs that your laptop consumes. I guess that is the point

<comment><USER2> Use a portable HDD and plug it directly into you 360, it'll use a hell of a lot less power than a media server and will only consume power when your xbox is running. Totalling about 9W of extra consumption assuming constant usage of the USB drive while the Xbox is activated.

I can't see anything running for lower power than 9W.

<comment><AUTHOR> it is just an alternative to home servers and consumes approx 5 watts. There are other uses for TonidoPlug - not limited to media streaming

<comment><USER2> So it itself consumes ~5 watts, does this include the hard drive and routers required to store and transmit the data, or solely the device itself?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah that includes the hard drive. Once you have a 24/7 dlna/upnp server u can play not only from TV and other computers as well. It is not a game changing device but there is a value in it. i rest my case.

<comment><USER3> 5watts is the consumption for the device itself, which includes 512mb of storage. An external hard drive would require additional storage.

It's a packaged sheevaplug [http://www.marvell.com/products/embedded_processors/develope...](http://www.marvell.com/products/embedded_processors/developer/kirkwood/sheevaplug.jsp)

You can do the same thing using fuppes, an updated version of uShare. Fuppes also supports transcoding, uses a sqlite backend and can rescan watch folders to rebuild the database pretty quickly (either from cli or web interface, without restarting). I use it to stream to an xbox360 and it works perfectly. Haven't tried transcoding though since all my video is compatible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Seems like a new development coming from the ushare side, will be keeping an eye out.

I still prefer <http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver> for transcoding and the plethora of other options.</comment>


A Palantir Founder Suggests His Startup Is Worth About $8 Billion - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/16/a-palantir-founder-suggests-his-startup-is-worth-about-8-billion/

<comment><USER2> Neat!</comment>


Software consultant caught with huge stockpile of homemade explosives - <AUTHOR> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_re_us/us_explosive_house

<comment><USER2> It seems to me that burning the house to the ground is merely an excuse to check some of the disaster planning methods and equipment to determine accuracy of fall out equipment etc.

I strongly doubt that most of the material is too hazardous or dangerous to remove. Like I said it's an opportunity. 8)

Anyone else think this?

</comment><comment><USER3> Mostly I think it's a bit hard on the landlords. They're expected to know that the tenant has stockpiled explosives?

The burn doesn't sound prudent to me. On the other hand, I don't blame the local bomb squad for not wanting to work in the house.

</comment><comment><USER4> Given they are not paying the homeowner for their "experiment", I wonder if the homeowners insurance will payout for fire damage? Will the homeowners insurance have to pay out for any damage to neighboring property, etc?

</comment><comment><USER5> > "It certainly would not be a detonation that would level a neighborhood," > Newman said.

Oh those words would be terrible indeed to rue...</comment>