Kiss your browser goodbye: The future of media beyond the Web (Wired, 1997) - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.03/

<comment><USER2> That was a bit confusing. Here is the actual article: <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.03/ff_push.html></comment>


Ask HN: Why don't companies trust each other like they demand of us to them? - <AUTHOR>

Take Windows 10.  Microsoft is demanding we trust them to store our data and usage patterns with them.  Yet at the same time, they don't trust others.  Why doesn't Microsoft just use Amazon Cloud or Google Compute for their own services instead of building up their own Azure?  Why doesn't Microsoft just promote Dropbox instead of demanding the use of OneDrive?  Why doesn't all of Microsoft's websites just use Google Analytics?  Why isn't Microsoft just using Gmail for it's own mail system like Google recommends to millions of others?
If not Microsoft, why doesn't Google trust other companies like they demand of us?  Why did Google create Android instead of trusting Apple's iOS for mobile?  Why doesn't Google just offload their entire servers to Amazon Cloud instead of trying to manage all those data centers?  Why doesn't Google just use Oracle and Microsoft Windows Enterprise instead of building their own system?  What is Google so afraid of that they don't want to use software (and now hardware) created outside of Google?
Apple.  Why is Apple creating it's own map software instead of just letting everyone use Google Maps and Gmail?
I'll stop here because I can go on and on with nearly every single tech company which demand we trust them.
To conclude, I've read hundreds of articles and comments saying we should trust the companies otherwise we're the ones who are wrong. And these are from highly respected organizations with millions of viewers!  "There is nothing to worry about." Many of them say "this is the future".
Yet those same companies, for some reason, don't trust other companies with the same data they demand of us.  Why?  Why does it looks like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and so forth are the ones stuck in the past?  Why don't they trust each other like they demand of us to them?  Isn't this the future? <comment><USER2> It has nothing to do with companies not _trusting_ each other (although it's true they often don't). Companies don't use their competitors' services because they're...competing. Not because they don't trust them. Often, if there is an area where one company isn't competing with another, they'll form a strategic relationship in which they "trust" each other to provide services to their respective customers.

So not lack of trust, but rather competition is driving the phenomena you're describing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, businesses are not as honest as you think. Google would be reading Microsoft emails in a microsecond. The only reason individual people allow a third party to maintain their data is that they usually don't have anything of monetary value in there. Certain Microsoft emails are worth millions of dollars in the wrong hands. That and there is public trust of the brand that they won't do anything stupid.

</comment><comment><USER4> Those companies decided to build their own solutions rather than use others not due to distrust, but because they saw a business opportunity. They all use 3rd party products somewhere in the organization, but if they make their own product, would you really expect them to use a competing offering?

</comment><comment><USER5> As others have mentioned I have no idea why you are basing everything on this assumption that it is because of a lack of trust. Of course they don't use each others' services! They are competing with each other, it's business 101.

<comment><USER6> Commercial enterprises are also in the business of separating you from your money. Information asymmetry is just as serious for consumers as it is for competitors.</comment></comment>


Concise Checklist for a Agile Cloud Native Application Team - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/checklist-successful-agile-cloud-native-application-team-jeyaraj/ <comment><USER2> _Use Fibonacci series for estimation-When the team estimates user stories, there is a level of uncertainty. While sizing, it is easier to make a decision between 5 and 8, rather than 3 or 4 or 5 days._

Ok, but _why_ is it easier? Who is it easier for? The devs deciding how to estimate their work? The scrum guy rolling up completed tickets?

Having been from team to team where estimates were a measure of effort, to a measure of time spent in days to measure of necessity, I don't quite grok _why_ this system is easier or better than using sequential numbers any more than I grok what "estimates" should even mean-it varies as much between teams as the term "devops engineer" does.

So why Fibonacci? Is it just "because Fibonacci"? Wouldn't it be better to identify why some types of decision trees take longer to climb than other on your team and orient your work estimation along _those_ lines?

</comment><comment><USER3> The estimation is done by the team, and when the numbers are sufficiently apart, team can divide predictably. Let's say you have a six member team, when estimates happen 4 can say 5, and 2 can say 8. Discussion happen, and we finalize one between 5 or 8.

Consider same for a linear estimate. 2 will say 4 days, 1 will say 5 days, 2 will say 6 day, and 1 will say 8 days. How do you come to a conclusion now, it surely needs more debate, to determine if it is 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8.

If you do not like Fibonacci you can use powers of 2. Like 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or you can form your own sequence with numbers sufficiently apart. Since Fibonacci standardized it we just use it. -Alexander Jayaraj</comment>


Ask HN: Should I take a job to pay the bills or keep pursuing the career I want? - <AUTHOR>

It has been weighing on my mind quite a bit lately as to whether I should take a job in web development when I really want to go into application security. I've read through a number of similar posts on HN, and been lurking the forum looking for an answer.
I am soon to be a CS graduate from a non-brand state school, and have been putting out my resume to job boards and a few application security firms. I am hoping to find a good job to start my career in infosec. I have done a few years of freelance work, and even had a web dev gig at my school for a couple years (the two overlapped a bit).
What I really want to do is move out of the town I am in, and get started with a career in application security. I have bills to pay, and a bit of debt, but should I let that stop me from taking the risk of going for a career in app sec? Would taking a low-paying development gig hurt my career opportunities?
I just don't really know what I should expect from the market. My fear is that taking a dev gig that isn't a good fit will sap my motivation and energy to pursue what I really want.
I am contributing to open-source projects, and doing my own projects to sharpen my skills at development and app sec. Should I take a less desirable job to pay the bills, or just continue to pursue what really interests me and be broke for a little longer?
Thanks in advance for any advice. <comment><USER2> Live simple, create the life you want, then live the life you created.

I spent a couple of years eating Kraft macaroni and cheese (my generation's ramen noodles) five days a week, driving a $200 car (country boy - no public transportation) and worked 12 hours a day, six days a week to get my business off the ground. For much of those two years I worked nights to buy the little we had. I had two kids at the time I quit my paycheck. I gave them more than I gave myself.

In 1981 I received the last paycheck that was signed by anyone other than myself. A year later I was living fairly comfortably. I put my kids through college with no student loans. Today I live on the ocean, have any car I want, never worry about money, travel where and when I want.

You can work to get a large paycheck, I'm sure. But in exchange for that paycheck someone else owns your life.

I am by no means smarter than most, I have no real education, no one gave me financial support in the beginning, I was just doggedly persistent in pursuing my vision.

Hangout with people who are smarter, more successful and more diligent than you. You want to be the dumb kid in the company of great rather than the top of a group of underachievers. Meetups or trade organizations are a great start. But also seek out the people in your industry that you admire the most, tell them your interest and offer to buy them lunch to hear their story.

Personally I feel that this generation's pivoting is often just giving up too soon. Decide what you want to do and then move mountains with a teaspoon if that is what it takes to make it happen. Others will disagree and they are just as right.

But if you truly want to do something, quit reading Hacker News and get on with doing the job at hand. If for no other reason than HN exposes you to a wealth of choices, which makes it harder to focus on one. Once you succeed come back and read the cool new stuff that is out there.

Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> It depends on the nature of your being broke. If you have dependants - pets, relatives, etc. - then you have a responsibility to take a job and pay the bills.

Otherwise, it looks like you're in exactly the right point in life to risk being broke for a while in order to gain the type of job you want.

I don't know about the specifics of your local job market, but one thing I would do is find a _reputable_ recruiter (i.e. one held in high esteem by progammers; such creatures are rare but they do exist) and ask for advice. Explain your goals, and see if they're realistic in your area.

Also, attend meetups in your area, and speak to developers and recruiters there. Most old hands will be more than willing to share advice and experiences, and some of them will even be correct and relevant :)

Consider the words of Roark in The Fountainhead (great motivational book, by the way): "If you want my advice, Peter, you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work." My guess is that you already know, deep down, what you want to do :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice, I currently don't have any dependants which is a plus.

Locally there are a few meetups for developers, I've gone to a few of their meetings. I'll make sure to ask around to see if they know of good recruiters to talk to.

There is almost no security scene in my area. That's why I wanted to ask on HN, since there seems to be a fair number of people on here that are in the security space.

My area is honestly pretty lacking in a good developer scene in general, which is one of the big reasons I want to get out. Thanks again for the words of encouragement and advice.

<comment><USER3> > My area is honestly pretty lacking in a good developer scene in general

Definitely, definitely leave then. There's exactly zero point in sticking around somewhere that won't support you in your desired career.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Now's the time to take be broke, take risks, to try and pursue what you love. If you're like most people, you'll have dependents, hiring costs, new obligations before you know it. Better knowing now than kicking yourself down the road!</comment>


Integrate Stripe Payments with Ease - <AUTHOR> https://www.noodl.io/market/product/P201512041604740/stripe-payments-kit-server-side-api-to-process-all-payments-with-a-live-example-in-ionic <comment><USER2> Honest question(not trolling, I swear):

Is it me, or is dealing with Stripe, or any HTTP API in javascript more of a pain in the ass, with it's asynchronous model and callbacks, than other languages? I much rather deal with and API in say...Ruby, than JS.

<comment><AUTHOR> It definitely requires some additional work. They are both advantages as disadvantages with JS.</comment></comment>


Changes to Trusted Certificate Authorities in Android Nougat - <AUTHOR> http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/07/changes-to-trusted-certificate.html <comment><AUTHOR> Does this mean that users will no longer be able to MITM most apps on their own phone by installing a custom cert and proxying all requests through another machine?

 _User-added CAs

Protection of all application data is a key goal of the Android application sandbox. Android Nougat changes how applications interact with user- and admin-supplied CAs. By default, apps that target API level 24 will—by design—not honor such CAs unless the app explicitly opts in. This safe-by- default setting reduces application attack surface and encourages consistent handling of network and file-based application data._

<comment><USER2> Yep. Now to MitM an app you will have to decompile it, tweak its network security config¹ to allow user CAs, recompile, and reinstall via adb. But if you need to MitM because you are reverse engineering, none of these steps are problematic since you are already doing most of them anyway.

¹ [https://developer.android.com/preview/features/security- conf...](https://developer.android.com/preview/features/security- config.html#manifest)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I'm not cut out to be a programmer. What are my alternatives? - <AUTHOR> I'm not a programmer. As in, I'm pretty certain this is the wrong career for me.
I'm in my early twenties. I'm a coder at a great software company. The company is successful, growing, and treats its staff well. They pay well. I have stock options. No pointy-haired bosses. Thing is, I don't like it. I'm bored.
At school I was always good at math and science. And I loved computers; I loved building them from components, customising Linuxs, but never really programmed in my spare time. I got into a good school for college, found the programming course options pretty easy, and majored in Computer Science. So the default choice was a programmer, right? Well, one year out of College, I've realised; it's not what I want to do.
"If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you're about to do today?" -- Steve Jobs
I can't help but think - is this it? I get up, and go to the same old desk, and write some stupid code. Whatever.
I love technology. But coding just doesn't exite me. I could never get worked up about the subtle nuances of programming languages. I'm definitely not the sort to learn Haskell or Erlang in my spare time. Hell, or even code at all in my spare time. I just enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV, and reading Hacker News. What kind of life is that?
Should I quit? I make way more money than any of my non-coder friends, and that would be really hard to give up.  I know there must be something more fulfilling out there. I have other, less geeky, hobbies and interests outside of tech, that I've let fall by the wayside. Perhaps I could combine the two into some sort of startup? I've also better social skills than the average coder (not bragging, just true, many coders can be quite socially inept), and I wouldn't want this talent go to waste . Starting a company seems like the obvious answer, except, I'm scared, and I don't have any good ideas.
So, HN, any suggestions? <comment><USER2> About a decade ago, I had a QA job that I hated and that made me hate my life. Like you, I also didn't have any good ideas about what I could do instead. In fact, I felt kind of trapped, because I wasn't sure I was capable of doing anything else. It was a black-box QA job, and I'm not the sort of person who writes code in my free time, so the skills I'd acquired in college atrophied and I didn't feel like I had anything to offer employers anymore. I was depressed and scared about my future.

Around that time, my manager's manager bought a copy of a book called _Now, Discover Your Strengths_ for everyone on his team. That book changed my life forever. The current edition is called "StrengthsFinder 2.0": <http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx>

What taking the StrengthsFinder inventory did for me:

\- It helped me understand my personal talents better than I had _ever_ understood them before, and it encouraged me to develop them into strengths. Prior to reading the book, I had focused on being "well-rounded". This was very eye-opening for me and it completely changed my attitude about my career.

\- It encouraged me to find ways to play to my strengths in the job I hated, with the goal of finding a way to enjoy it more.

\- When that didn't pan out, it gave me the courage to start looking for roles that might suit me better.

To make a long story short, since then I obtained a graduate degree that would help me develop the talents the StrengthsFinder identified, and I've had two quite different roles that both played very well to my strengths, to the point where I would call them dream jobs. It's difficult to describe just how much happier I am now than I was ten years ago.

In short, if you are looking for ideas, consider the StrengthsFinder. It seriously pulled me out of a rut, and I've seen it do the same for others as well.

As for the question about whether you should quit... consider sticking with it until you figure out what else you want to do. I didn't stay in the QA job I hated, but I did stick with QA while I was working on my Masters because it paid the bills.

<comment><USER3> +1 on Strength's Finder. It is an amazing concept for finding out the words to describe what you already know: those things you love doing where you start something, then look up an 6 hours have passed by. My company has everyone do it and even sponsors a couples course to bring in the significant other of employees to take it. Does wonders for marriages too. good luck!

<comment><USER4> +1 to your +1. Strengths Finder was eye-opening for me. It clearly identified some areas to explore that well suit my intellectual curiosity, in a way I haven't thought of before. Mind you, I haven't done anything with this knowledge, but at least I know what I'm not doing now!

<comment><USER5> +1^3. I worked for Gallup for several years. There were regular discussions about your strengths and how you could be approaching tasks/coworkers using your strengths and theirs. These conversations were insightful and spot on, made working there a pleasure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Before giving you specific advice, there are a few general principles:

1\. Happiness at work frequently has more to do with your circumstances at work than with what you do at work. The three major factors are Freedom, Mastery, and Purpose.

2\. Unhappiness at work can usually be traced to missing one or more of those factors. You want to identify which ones you're missing, and come up with a plan to gain them without sacrificing the others. One major mistake people make is to make a career change that, e.g., gives them more Freedom but takes away the learning opportunities needed for Mastery.

3\. Generally speaking, Freedom and Mastery are functions of how long you've been at a job. You get better at your work and gain more autonomy the longer you stay in a specific field. Purpose is usually a function of company culture. So if you feel like your company is doing great things and you're learning fast but the job is too restrictive, the best option is usually to stick it out and "pay your dues" until you have more autonomy. If you feel like you have plenty of autonomy and are good at what you do but your company is evil, then it's time to join something else.

So of those three factors, what does your current job give you, and what does it fail to provide?

For more on this topic, see self-determination theory: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory>

<comment><USER7> I found the Flow book a much better "happiness model" than what you describe. It is less strict and concise, but gives the reader a lot of room for his own thoughts. Such simplifications make thing worse, (n-rules guides toward improvement,etc.) he really should discover his own way.

<comment><USER8> I don't think Satvik realizes that he's actually talking about self- determination theory.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory>

Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness.

<comment><USER6> You're right, I was talking about Self Determination Theory. I just wanted to spend my post directly addressing the OP's concerns as much as possible, rather than write several extra paragraphs explaining the theory. "Freedom, Mastery, and Purpose" are also common terms used to explain SDT outside the Psychology community, even though they're not exactly the same as Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> You aren't bored from coding. You're bored from what you are (or aren't) making with code. You're not seeing accomplishments from the time you're investing, so your brain is moving on. I'm the same way.

You need to find a project that lights your fire. Code is just a tool, and it alone will not keep you going. I don't know anyone who likes to code for the sake of writing code. Find something that you can use your tools on that are exciting to you. Find purpose.

<comment><USER10> "I don't know anyone who likes to code for the sake of writing code."

I have a different perspective to offer. I found that for a fair few years in my teens, I loved writing code for the sake of writing code. Any project would do, and it didn't even matter if I finished it, I just loved writing the code.

I don't think the fact that I failed to finish most projects impeded my learning much. I learnt an unbelievable amount, and didn't even realise it because I was having so much fun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'd suggest you consider product management. At the right company, product management is a good overlap in the venn diagram of "thinking up cool stuff", "tradeoffs & problem solving" -- ideally with exactly the kind of technical insight it sounds like you have -- and "making shit happen".

Given your lack of inspiration, I'd strongly suggest not starting a company just yet. Wait until it's a calling.

If you pick a company who makes products that interest you, that seems like a win. Ideally one where you can get some mentorship in product management as well.

</comment><comment><USER12> Take some of your developer pay, pack y'er bags, and start looking for your place in society.

In my experience working 9 a 5 job makes you numb, in one way or the other. Comfort-zone's a bitch.

Start living frugal, read less HN (start writing), try making things with physical components, and work out. Endorphins do unexpected things to your mind.

If your not happy now, make small adjustments till you find yourself happy with the new situation. And then; disrupt.

There is no answer to happiness. Find the philosophy that works for you; live it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Stick with coding. Reasons being:

\- Most jobs are boring, especially after the first couple of years.

\- Don't underestimate the importance of good pay.

\- It doesn't sound like you have anything better in mind to do instead.

</comment><comment><USER14> Like OP, I like being around technology, and I'm pretty socially ept, and here, I make a case for my chosen calling -- technical recruiting. Unlike many others in recruiting, I didn't fall into it because I didn't have other options. It was a conscious choice. I left engineering to do this, and I haven't looked back.

I spent almost 5 years working as a software engineer. I knew, when I started, that this wasn't really going to be a lifelong thing. I'm pretty good at programming, but I don't love it. I even do it in my spare time sometimes, but only stuff where there's an immediate positive feedback -- I hate struggling with problems or figuring out the most efficient approach. When I went to bed at night, I'd berate myself for not hacking on the weekends or becoming an expert in my field. I'd read Hacker News and feel guilty for not being one of those people who builds crazy data visualizations in their spare time. I'd worry that one day the jig would be up, and everyone at work would figure out that I just wasn't one of them.

Over time, I organically fell into a role where I was filtering resumes, interviewing people, and so on. I was enjoying it, but I didn't really let myself think about that too much -- the idea that this could be a job didn't really jive with my sense of self, so I ignored the signals. One day, my lead told me that if he were to start a company, he'd want me to do this for him. I laughed in his face.

But the idea wouldn't go away. It kept resurfacing and then retreating under the weight of cognitive dissonance. If I weren't an engineer, how would I introduce myself at parties? I didn't want to be one of many HR girls because then I wouldn't be special anymore -- we all know that girl engineers enjoy a certain status, and I didn't want to let that go.

And then I saw this Einstein quote somewhere in my Facebook news feed: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." And it stuck and the pesky fucker wouldn't go away. And then I realized that, shit, I could plod along and be a decent engineer for my whole life and always feel guilty and avoid reading Hacker News. Or I could be what I actually was, fill a niche that not many people other than me could fill, and actually be happy and self- actualized, not in the hippy dippy bullshit sense but in the way where your actions are consistent with your insides.

So I gave it a shot. I got to meet a lot of smart people and have good conversations with them, I got to make snap judgements about people, I got to have to quickly learn about new topics so I could discuss them at some depth (wtf is this on this guy's github? I guess I'll have to learn a bit about it before we talk), I would be pretty unique in that there aren't many recruiters with a strong technical background, and I could run my own business eventually (for now I'm running tech recruiting at a startup, though I'll be going off on my own at the start of 2013).

And, you know what? For the first time in my life, I'm happy professionally. So there's that.

</comment><comment><USER15> Try product management. If you can understand both people AND tech aspects of making software products, you'll be golden there.

<comment><USER16> +1 on this one. The best product managers I've ever met were former engineers who were good developers, but wanted something broader. That background (and a true love of technology) will make you a stellar product manager. But, be sure you really love the technology industry and are ready to give up day-to-day coding.

Product management, when done right, complements development and is a great career path for well-rounded individuals.

<comment><USER17> -1 On becoming a PM. There's thousands of people who faked their way into developer jobs. Then they saw it's a lot easier to not have to deliver anything and decided they were going to be people persons.

Not being a developer is prime evidence that a person is NOT a good developer. Everybody who tries to make this play claims they're a good developer that moved on but kept their skills. 90% of the time they didn't have the skill to begin with. There are people in PM roles claiming to be developers that, at least on paper, wrote code for literally six months.

<comment><USER16> That's true; there are lots of different paths people can take into PM, and you'll find all types.

Like engineers, there is such a thing as a 10x product manager. I hope everyone at some point gets to work with an outstanding product manager.

Maybe the original poster will make an outstanding product manager. It's certainly worth exploring.

<comment><USER17> How would anyone be a 10x PM? Do they 'leader' real hard or go to 10x the number of meetings? I was just reading something about what makes a good PM, and one of the items was similar to 'shows leadership in funding projects.' Virtually every measure of a PM is just business doublespeak about leadership or something that the PM does not actually do like 'shows technical leadership in shipping software.'

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Your background in coding and understanding of technology is a boon to you in many different areas of the technology field.

You say you enjoy 'playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV and reading HackerNews'. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to find a job where those are the qualifications. However, dig deeper and you might find something.

Unfortunately, you haven't really told us enough to help you find where you fit, but look at the different jobs within your company, and maybe ask if you can shadow a few people for a day or so. Spend some time in Marketing, Finance, etc. etc. The non-programming roles that require an understanding or programming are often in Product/Project Management.

When I was 20, I was fortunate enough to work for a large company and they would ask me to join different teams about twice a year. So within a few years I had experience in Retail (in-store, warehousing and purchasing), finance, customer service, sales, marketing, PR, event management, product development (non-tech), and finally IT.

I don't think enough people spend time learning about the other careers within the company they work for, and miss out on finding something more suitable for them.

<comment><USER19> > Spend some time in Marketing, Finance, etc. etc. The non-programming roles > that require an understanding or programming are often in Product/Project > Management.

If you want to stay in a technology related field, just not programming, I think this is the right thing to do. Talk to your boss and explain your stance. As a company, they are probably more willing to keep employees because you already understand the products, processes, and the people you work with, and you would offer a good point of view in a new department.

Some options could be developing or giving training, high level support, sys admin, db admin, product management, project management, marketing, sales, etc.

If you don't want to stay with the same company, it might be difficult to convince another company of a career change without experience in it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Being a programmer doesn't mean you have to be excited by programming languages in and of themselves; and not wanting to learning Haskell doesn't make you a 'mediocre programmer', it just means you have different fascinations than those that enjoy that sort of thing.

A parallel - I'm a 'designer', but I hate the idea of shipping PSDs for someone else to code. I love diving into the programming rabbit hole, but again I have no interest in being the best Rails & JS guy in the world, I just like to realise the interactions I design as code rather than flat files.

There's wealth of _things to do with code_ inside startups that don't involve Erlang, as there are a wealth of things to do with design skills that don't involve Photoshop.

(that's not to say you shouldn't just move to a beach in Thailand or work on a farm or something, but if you enjoy technology you should explore other options that are only a slight pivot rather than a total life change)

</comment><comment><USER21> Starting -- actually, building and running -- a company isn't for everyone. It's hard; at times, soul-crushing, ego-killing, depressingly, hopelessly hard. Sometimes it's also wonderful and glorious and fantastic. But, starting and running a company is probably best left to those who are absolutely determined to do so, IMO.

Do you have any idea of what general fields you're interested in? There are still a _ton_ of fields that can benefit from people with strong technical skills that can also get along with other people.

</comment><comment><USER22> You can't base an emotional decision on rational arguments. If you're going to be rational about it, you're never going to leave your golden handcuffs.

Unlike you, I love coding. I've learned Erlang, Lisp, Dylan in my spare time just because I _really_ enjoy programming. I try to learn a new language every 6 months. But it wasn't always like that.

A few years ago I was a senior network engineer at a leading networking equipment vendor, made more money than all of my close friends together and had no pointy-haired boss. But, like you, I was bored most of the time. I didn't particularly hate my job, I just knew that I wanted to get excited about something. So I quit to work on a startup with friends.

I didn't start coding right away. Despite having majored in CS, I couldn't write a line of code to save my life. Hell, I couldn't even write HTML. Besides, I hated programming at the time. But I wanted to be part of the creation process, so I needed to learn the tools. I learned HTML, then CSS, Wordpress, Ruby, Python. Somewhere between HTML and Python, I realized that I actually enjoyed coding; it grew on me.

Fast forward 5 years, I still don't make half of what I used to make as a network engineer. But I'm way happier.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: don't be afraid of exploring. You don't have to be 100% certain of what your passion is in order to take the plunge and a startup is a great place to explore, since you get to wear so many hats.

BTW, it's not too late; I was 27 when I quit.

<comment><USER23> any tips for someone struggling with trying to learn Python? Im struggling motivation wise, dont have much direction. I hear its good to learn through a project or something you want to build, but I dont know enough about the language to really have a good idea of a project or goal I can aspire to

<comment><USER22> One of the best decisions I made (programming-wise) was to find a local Dojo. Really, just look for a Python user or interest group. You'll get lots of ideas and a motivation injection every week.

Also, you should start a project that's slightly above your current level. Anything will do, even if it's a clone of something that already exists. It doesn't matter if you're building it by googling and copy & pasting everything. At your level, what matters it to actually ship something.

Finally, read other people's code. Github is your friend; find an interesting library, go back to the very first commit and start reading the code base as it used to be. If you find a function/routine that you don't understand, just type it line-by-line in your repl (bpython or ipython in this case) and inspect the outcome of variables/function calls (use python docs/stackoverflow as reference). You don't need to read an entire library, it could be just a small piece of functionality. You'll grow by leaps and bounds just by doing this.

Good luck and if you need any help, shoot me an email, I'd be glad to help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> You might want to try support at your company for a period of time. It sounds like your company may be agreeable to it, and it's easier than you might think.

After communicating with users for a length of time, you might find that you're passionate about it. You may also respark your love of building things, now that you've interacted with users. You could also find that you hate support and user interaction -- figuring out what you _don't like_ is just as important.

</comment><comment><USER25> Very interesting post. I'm on the business side of the coin and I am struggling with the same issue. I'm in my early twenties. I graduated from Umich in april. As an undergrad everyone around me worked at top corporate firms so i followed suit and interned for a prestegious bank during a couple summers.

I learned very quickly that I hated doing the same thing for someone else every day. I always felt that anyone could be doing what I was doing.

On the other hand I worked on a startup at school and i loved it. I felt like I had a purpose creating something new that nobody else had seen or worked on before.

Unfortuanetly that startup didn't work out because the team wasnt right. But I'm not giving up on my dream to create. I wont be working at a coppration anytime soon. Ive been working on my own startup since graduating and It's been working out quite nice. I just raised a seed round from a great development/incubator firm based out of nyc.

I'm looking for a cto to manage our development team if you are interested. Email me at email@example.com. You'll never have to code for us!

</comment><comment><USER26> Be glad you have a secure job currently.

Keep your day job . . . you just need a side project to get excited about that you can turn into a business.

First watch this . . . David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY>

Then listen to StartupsForTheRestOfUs.com they have good advice for starting your own business. Start a google doc to take notes/ideas/create a plan.

For starting your own business start saving money so you have runway when you decide to make the leap to your own business.

Before you get started review your contract and see if there are any issues with you starting your own side project/company while employed. It shouldn't be an issue but it's a good idea to check that you don't have a clause in your contract that says any IP you create belongs to your company. Never work on your project at work on company time or on a company computer.

Have a long term plan to create a SaaS app or product with a subscription component that solves a pain point for businesses with software.

Good luck in 2013.

</comment><comment><USER27> My thoughts:

Instead of "What do I want to do", try "What do I want to do that people are willing to pay me an amount I'd be satisfied with?"

If you're in your early 20's, you don't have a lot of experience to judge from. Pointy-haired bosses come in all shapes and sizes.

"I just enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV, and reading Hacker News." Lot's of people enjoy that. No one's going to pay you to do it. It's called _work_ for a reason. People pay for something _they_ want, not something _you_ want.

Starting a company isn't the no-brainer you seem to think it is. You have to convince people to buy something at some point.

8\. Ask yourself frequently, "Am I having fun?"

        The answer needn't always be yes. But if it's always no, it's time for a new project or a new career.

From "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes" by Stephen King

</comment><comment><USER28> If you can ... try and go do something else for a while. Explore a little bit, until you find something you actually like.

Its very frickin scary, but its _absolutely_ worth it. I did the same thing when I was much younger, but its the single best decision I've ever made in my life.

You might be more of a devops guy or sales engineer than coder. Happens all the time. From the sounds of it, all you need is a little bit of time doing something you really like and things will fall into place.

Just be smart about it. Save some money before you make the leap. When I did it, I had $30 to my name, I was just lucky to have just paid rent so that gave me a month to figure out my next move ... but that was one of the most nerve wracking months of my entire life as an adult.

</comment><comment><USER29> Stick with it. After your first year, if you're any good (and you should be if University level stuff was easy and you did well) some interesting work should start to come your way.

I'd go with some consulting. I personally found that working with developers all day doesn't do it for me (I did it for 3 1/2 years).

Of the people that I really enjoyed working with the most, a common theme emerged. They all had a background in customer facing consulting type roles. So I gave it a try... real customers with real problems that my programming/software design/architecture skills can solve, that's working for me right now. Sure, I still work with developers daily, and at some points in the project, I work as a developer. Mostly though I all sorts!

</comment><comment><USER30> I didn't like coding until I started dabbling with Ruby.

In university I did a fair bit of C and Java. With these two it was always very laborious to try to have fun while coding. I focused more on networking and security until I had a lecture on Smalltalk and fiddled together some scripts with Ruby at the same time.

Haven't looked back since. Working with Ruby just feels way less clunky to me when comparing with with e.g. Java. I get things done way faster, it all seems more consistent and I don't feel like I have to constantly jump though hoops. This makes me actually enjoy coding.

Maybe it's just the tooling that you didn't like so far? Enterprise software can suck the fun straight out of coding :)

</comment><comment><USER31> I've had that thought about going to the same old desk writing stupid code... typically just making rich companies richer and not making the world a better place in any way. Totally unfulfilling. BUT.... there's a difference between not liking that and not liking coding.

If you were to work on a coding project that was filled with interesting problems, and fulfilled some core value of yours (maybe making the world better in a way you care about) would you still say you don't care about coding? If so, then yeah, look for something else... If not, then the answer is simple. Find a new job that's inline with your needs or start your own company.

</comment><comment><USER32> You've struck a chord there.... I graduated from a college and got a high paying job in a big enterprise, the pay was good so, I stuck to it, I am a mediocre developer, I faked my way and moved up into the organization, now I am Group Lead and pretty good at it, I love working with people. However, I'ev recently developed an itch and really want to code. Now with 10 years of "experience" behind me, I am not getting the roles of developer, as in India, there is very high importance attached to the number of years of experience. I want to make a move and start all over again, but again the pay is too good to quit.

</comment><comment><USER33> If money wasn't a consideration, what would you spend your life doing?

<comment><USER34> This question assumes that people have some sort of innate passion or obscure talent that they wish to pursue, which is not always the case. For instance, I have no objectives in life other than to maximize income and leisure, and to pursue ends that necessitate said money. If I did not need money, I would sit home all day drinking coffee and reading voraciously. I think many other people have similar desires. Not everyone is happy pursuing some arcane dream for little-to-no money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Your self-description resonated with me: good at physics and math, never really programmed much outside of school, saw some coolness in it, sort of enjoy doing it, a little, from time to time, but not enough to really do it as a career.

Nearing 50, I've been a consultant (information security, mostly government space), a development manager, a system architect, and a developer.

I love, LOVE, solving customer problems. I'm really, REALLY good at it. But I don't like to code. Not for more than a few minutes at a time.

I would NEVER hire me as a developer: I'm just not good enough, not productive enough. I write relatively error free, bullet proof code, but I am very, very slow. So the value isn't there, even if the code can be left alone for a long time. There are markets for that, but not in the languages at which I excel, and I have zero interest in learning others. Less than zero.

I would, however, hire me any day of the week as a system architect, especially one who had to work with non-technical people and translate vague requirements into something that could work.

I would also hire me, any day of the week, as a software development manager, senior manager, or VP (sorry, don't want the job, consulting is too sweet a gig): I am very, very good at estimating (design, development, test, documentation), organizing all of that, and managing it, and managing the people who manage it. I've been a pretty good shit-shield for my staff, keeping away all organizational disruptions.

I excel with mixed bag teams where I get to set architectural direction with the assistance of a few really bright people, and set organizational priorities for that team, and for the broader team: What we develop is what you sell, what you need to sell is what we will develop.

Perhaps your path lies therein, somewheresomehow. If you have technical skill and people skill and vision and strong sense of what could go wrong and how to mitigate it, there will be places for you.

(I hate sales. I like the product management aspect of marketing, and some of the branding aspects, but despise a lot of the rest. Operations? Bleagh. Of course, I do all of that as a one-man-shop, but as a necessity to enable what pays the bills. YMMV, of course. If you want to lead a shop, learn those, you'll need to understand them.)

</comment><comment><USER36> Good, honest question. A couple of years ago I was in a similar situation. Always liked math/science, fell into programming but didn't like it enough to spend free time on it, not super happy at work, more social than most programmers, etc.

Here are a few things that happened after that first year that helped me become much happier with my job as a developer.

1\. Experience/Seniority After a year of being low man on the developer totem pole, I finally started to gain some expertise and real value at my company. I had some degree of seniority over a couple new hires who would come to me with questions and for help. For whatever reason, this made me feel far more invested at work and made it a lot more enjoyable than being an apprentice. It's just a lot less fun to be the new guy. I might also mention here that it can take a long while to acclimate to the 'real world' outside of college. It might be the case that you won't enjoy working in any field as much as you enjoyed college (especially if you're social). Something to consider at least - it at least might be worth giving yourself some more time to see what level of granularity your dissatisfaction is: specific job, programming, or just "Job" period.

2\. Expertise It's enjoyable to be good at something. Going hand-in-hand with #1, I found myself enjoying my work a hell of a lot more once I was no longer stumbling around in the dark, but had started developing strong skills. A while back I started blogging and working on side projects, which made me more invested in my growing skillset. Most jobs are un-fun when you're a novice.

3\. Work friendships After 9 months or so at work, I started interacting more with members of other teams and going to the gym over lunch with coworkers. I forged a few reasonably close (by work friend standards) friendships at work, which made going to work more of something to look forward to. It's amazing how something as simple as looking forward to share something you read on HN the night before with a friend can make going to work more palatable.

Anyway, I would suggest not giving up just yet. A year really is not all that long of a time period to make the huge transition from college to working adult. Try sticking in there a bit longer, committing yourself to things you don't currently find appealing (side projects, blogging, etc.) and see if the passion comes.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER37> The first couple years are either boring or terrifying for many people once they hit professional programming. Give it a few more and concentrate on saving money.

</comment><comment><USER38> Have you considered consulting? More high level, less in the weeds. Accenture, etc, look for people with technical backgrounds, you might look into it.

<comment><USER39> As someone who recently moved into consulting more seriously, I second this. I'm absolutely in love with consulting right now. It can be as challenging as you want it to be, and at the same time you get to live outside most of the rules and bureaucracy of the companies that you work for. As an example, I work for companies that don't allow employees to work remote, but I've never even been to the office. Also, when I worked for companies in the past on a full-time basis, it was very difficult to have any recourse when coworkers didn't meet our internal agreements. As a consultant there is usually a legally binding contract sitting in between me and the company I'm working for. This allows me to hold internal employees accountable for their deliverables just as much as I am accountable for mine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Wow, a lot of walls of text. Here's my one suggestion:

Have you looked at being a PM? Product managers at companies like elgooG almost all have a hard CS background, but their day-to-day is talking to people, designing features, researching customer needs and usage patterns, checking out the competition, etc.

</comment><comment><USER7> If processes and organization is something you would consider interesting, try the management path. You can either stay more on the technical side (sw/solutions architect) or go towards business (concentrate on req. management/business problems).

</comment><comment><USER41> "I love technology. But coding just doesn't exite me. ... I just enjoy playing with the latest [...] product, watching TV, and reading Hacker News. What kind of life is that?"

Have you considered something in systems administration?

</comment><comment><USER42> Have you thought about moving to the sales side of the business? I would suggest pursuing a sales engineering position. You get the best of both world- technology and meeting new prospects/customers.

</comment><comment><USER43> _Warning: this comment turned out more "ranty" and longer than I hoped. However, I've noticed too many pre-mature conclusions (I wouldn't call them mistakes as they're very corrigible) that either I or my close friends have made that have -- at one point or another -- led to bouts of intense misery._

I am going to say "stick with it"

0) "Well, ... I've realized that's not what I want to do?" How do you know that you will want to do whatever is it that you _now_ think is interesting a year after you start it?

1) Really, you "don't have any good ideas"? There is no itch that you have that you want to scratch? I find that really odd: what constitutes a good idea in your mind?

I am not saying you should do your own company, in fact I'll probably go ahead and state that you _should not_ : you start a company because you strongly believe you can build a product that has (or will have) a great market, not because you want to "follow your dreams", "be the big boss", or simply don't like your current job.

It's just that it's very strange that you can't think of _any_ product you'd like to use. Just writing this comment made me think of several: a plugin for chrome that lets me use an external editor (there were several for firefox, can't find any decent ones for chrome), a "preview box" for hacker news, and other forum markup languages, a tool that tracks replies to my comments on different sites; these may or may not have built before, but these are all products I'm not using now and would like to use.

2) A "boring" job you don't completely hate is better than no job or the job you hate.

That said, take this impulse with a grain of salt: "a pain I already know" is a bad approach to life. However, you don't have any "aim" in your career, so you might not know what constitutes a job/career that you are likely to like (see point 0).

3) You are (probably?) talented but you don't yet have either (as other commenters stated) autonomy or mastery. Frankly, the examples you've mentioned (learning new programming languages as the pinacle of programming passion) are indicative of that. Programming languages are just one aspect of programming: _some_ people get worked up about nuances of programming languages, but others are more interested in hardware/software interactions, low-level systems programming, scientific computing, machine learning, data analytics, etc...

You are just one year out of school. Did you have any internships? If so, why did you chose to stick with programming despite the experience of your internships (does this reason still hold?)

If you did not have any internships in college, whatever job you have, is very likely extremely entry-level and isn't a good starting point from which to draw conclusions.

4) Product management is a great career, but best product managers are former software engineers: the role of a product manager should be "do all it takes to get a product shipped", which may or may not involve writing code.

I greatly respect product managers, but specifically for the reason that they are capable of doing technical work (whether coding or something else) and usually _love it_ , but are willing to put that love aside and do "boring" work (sending email, getting "highest people in the room" to agree on product requirements, talking to customers) that is required to ship a product.

Seriously, if you think programming is boring, see what product managers (real product managers who have shipped products, not self-styled "product guys" with no qualifications who think that a turtleneck makes them the next Steve Jobs) actually do day-to-day.

With all this in mind, here's what I advice:

1) Identify N people at your current workplace whose jobs you _think_ you'd like to have. Talk to them, see what they actually do day to day, learn about how they got to their current role and what it would take for you to follow their path.

2) Identify N growing skills within the software industry that you think are interested, but (here's the catch) aren't something you find regularly on frontpage of HN (i.e., no node.js, MongoDB, or other trendy technology of the week). In other words, think at a deeper level ("high-performance distributed computing" and "data analytics" instead of "Hadoop"; database internals" and "distributed systems" instead of "NoSQL"). If you are at all interested in any of those fields, start to slowly dip into them (whether at work or at home).

This is similar to Cal Newport's advice of "become so good that they can't ignore you": <http://calnewport.com/books/sogood.html>

This is what Steve Jobs actually did instead of what he said he did, i.e., this is why you are able to enjoy playing with the latest Apple products.

3) Talk to somebody in med school or pharmacy school: not because you should be a doctor, but to see what it takes to join most any other viable career-- 18 hour rotations, crying because you're being constantly yelled at and verbally abused, insane competition, limited number of degrees that can be granted, low-paid long-hours during residency, etc...

4) If you don't already, read fiction and/or study philosophy: this should help you answer "really, is this all there is" question -- no job will help you with that.

</comment><comment><USER44> Sounds like you should just start with some consulting with someone with some bizdev/marketing chops and work with some cool companies. From there you can always stumble onto a good idea.

</comment><comment><USER45> "I just enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV, and reading Hacker News. What kind of life is that?"

What about becoming a tech journalist/blogger/analyst?

</comment><comment><USER46> I am going to offer a straight advice.

How about Tech Journalism. I think you are more of an observer for now (and its a good thing). It will suit you (my guess).

</comment><comment><USER47> If you pick up other specialties, enjoy hardware and enjoy the larger view, go for systems engineering.

</comment><comment><USER48> "Life without enquiry is not worth living for a man", think that's Socrates.

Good luck, I remember doing a 3 months internship at Agilent Tech yeeaaaarrss ago where at the end I was like - "No way am i ever working in this Dilbert socially backwards environment" Not to say it was a bad place, just not for me.

Since then, I've had 6 or 7 real jobs, in 4 or 5 different industries, travelled round the world, asked loads of questions, tried loads of things and still not satisfied.

It's a tough one, everybody's different and very few people figure 'it' out, hence why you most advice is stupidly simple, short and unhelpful like 'be yourself', 'do what you love', etc... the list goes on.

'Wear sunscreen' <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI>

there is a good line in there

"Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't."

My 2 cents:

\- try everything while still young and while your responsibilities are small, and monthly nut is small. It's much more difficult to have a mid life crisis when you need $4000 a month for mortgages, cars and kids.

\- don't chase the $$$ - you'll never be as good as the guy who's doing it cause he loves it

\- most people aren't satisfied with what they do, which is why books by Tim Ferris and Chris Guillebeau sell so well, they sell the 'dream'

\- as far as happiness... others have already said this, purpose tends to help, as well as self expression, the ability to create something is pretty fulfilling too

\- ignorance is bliss

when you said "enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV":

I'd suggest trying out UX Design / Front End Development

UX Design is becoming more and more important, and so is front end development as browsers are getting faster and faster.

Apple has amazing user design, maybe that's what you love about their products, how they feel.

\- get good at javascript / html / css

\- build a few things in backbone.js

\- dig into user design

\- redesign some current applications into what you'd like them to look and feel like

[http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/concept-design-facelift- notable...](http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/concept-design-facelift-notable- websites/)

\- build a UX / front end portfolio

\- watch these talks

[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/22/talks-to-help- you...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/22/talks-to-help-you-become-a- better-front-end-engineer-in-2013/)

<http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/>

<http://www.alistapart.com/>

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

GOOD LUCK :D

</comment><comment><USER49> Leave an email here.I will solve your problem.And no, I am not joking.

</comment><comment><USER50> wow you have lots of good feedback here in this thread... probably still requires you to parse through it all though... i have a feeling though this question has been asked multiple times by different people on HN

i'll just add some thoughts (though it will likely be redundant to large degree) because I empathize with anyone who's seeking for guidance on life decisions (I know what it's like)

1) agree that you should think about product management where technical and social skills combined can be powerful but I'd recommend you do (2) below first

2) based on how you've described your state, inclined to agree that you should take a real hard look at what is the source of discontent with your life and not jump to conclusions that it's being an engineer (as suggested, it can be the project, company, other parts of your life, lack of challenge or growth, etc)... maybe it would help to take a vacation to an international destination in the developing world & rough it (no nice hotels or restaurants etc), live among the local people and think (suggested to get you out of your comfort zone)

3) people who say they are "bored" (even if just trying to simplify the communication in summary form) or describe a lack of passion for anything as an alternative... frankly, those are warning signs that you should iterate on (2) above for a bit. no one can tell you this though, you'll need to be in tune and aware enough to search your own gut for what's going on inside you

4) though self-help folks like Tony Robbins generally make me puke (my first reaction, though i know it can be unfair), he has an interesting mental framework for you to iterate on (2) and navigate why you're so-called "bored" and what to do about it as a TED talk: <http://youtu.be/Cpc-t-Uwv1I>

5) in my past, i've read a lot of stuff on career guidance (what color is your parachute, blah blah) but none of it was useful to me. the _best_ thing i read was this HBR article. key takeaway is that finding meaning through work for those that lack direction is a cycle of test & learn (similar to the lean startup approach)... it's more geared for biz types but the principles can apply more broadly: [http://www.insead.edu/alumni/newsletter/january2003/herminia...](http://www.insead.edu/alumni/newsletter/january2003/herminiaibarraHBR.pdf)

6) Well, you probably already know. But classically speaking, the type of person you're describing isn't the type to do a startup successfully. The classic type is someone driven to make change because of some kind of passion. Not that you couldn't do it and be successful because it seems there are all types of people who do "successful" startups. But on the surface, IMHO signs don't seem to point to this option as a good one for you to quit your job for at this time.

Good signs would probably be that a) you work on side projects solving problems that annoy you b) you are actively engaging and talking about ideas with good people (at work or not) who you could be co-founders with

More than anything, if after mulling it over, you realize that what's lacking is challenge (or possibly the meaning or value of the bigger goals you're working on with your technical skills) then also realize you don't need to be the idea person. You can join someone who already has the passion and an idea and rally against that vision by being part of a solid, small 2-3 person team. Or just find a co-founder and work together for 6 months, build something with some traction and then apply to YC! :)

Or you could join another company (working for 1 company might not be enough data for you to know that coding isn't what you want to do no matter how good you think the current environment is) assuming early 20s means you only worked at 1 place

7) Listen to Bezos talking about his decision to do Amazon: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ>

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER51> When I was about your age I went through a similar conundrum. I quit coding, and started to learn graphic design to become somewhat successful at this new endeavor. Would I do it again if I had the chance? Hell no! Sure I love to have had a visual education, but that wasn't enough to keep me from getting bored. What did I do? I've started to code again. But this time, instead of doing boring business coding as I did before, I went to do graphics programming. Now I have much more fun. What should you do? In my experience don't be blind and quit coding to do something else. I guess my advice is this: don't take myopic decisions; instead, take what you know, and mix it with what you like to reinvent yourself. Just learn a new craft and try to merge that to programming.

</comment><comment><USER52> Great question! It is one I had been wanting to write on HN myself for quite some time in the past actually. I feel I had been in a similar boat. While I did not major in Computer Science like you did, I had, for the past several years, attempted (Unsuccessfully) to become a programmer.

To make a long story short: I realized, much like you, that programming wasn't for me. And yet, like you, I had an interest in technology.

What has ended up working for me is: I gradually moved into the role of system administrator / IT specialist. This role now allows me to be a "Jack of all Trades", be around technology, and help people by solving their problems (The social aspect).

The fact that there is always something new that comes up every day in the life of a system administrator means I don't have much time to get bored. And, when I feel that I might miss coding, there's always something that can be automated by scripting in Powershell (Or your language of choice if you are on Linux, etc).

Have you considered becoming a system administrator? It might be that middle ground that you are seeking.

 _Edit_ : One important thing I forgot to add is: The years I spent trying to become a programmer have helped me as a system admin. I can better relate to the development department when they need something set up a certain way, etc. I can understand their language. Therefore, all of that knowledge you have accumulated over the years will only benefit you as you go forward.

</comment><comment><USER53> What do you think about algo trading?</comment>


Show HN: 'Add To Google Cal' URL generator written in Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/chuckbergeron/add_to_google_cal

<comment><USER2> are you planning to build for other language too ? Say, Python</comment>


Touchscreen CrunchPad due in November, but price has crept up to $400 - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2009/07/31/crunchpad-due-in-november-will-they-beat-apple/ <comment><USER2> too bad. hopefully the price will creep back down if its popular, but its cheaper just to get a netbook at this price point.

i was _very_ interested in a $200 model. much less interested in a $400 one.

</comment><comment><USER3> The new price will make this one sink.</comment>


Canada Needs Silicon Valley's Culture of Entrepreneurship, Expert Says - <AUTHOR> http://www.techvibes.com/blog/canada-needs-silicon-valleys-culture-of-entreneurshp-2013-01-04

<comment><USER2> Silicon Valley is one specific spot in America, so perhaps a specific city or region can get something for Silicon Valley but Canada is a very diverse and large place. So if you're in an urban center like Vancouver you may have very different issues than say a fishing village in Newfoundland. In fact even Toronto is a very different place than Montreal which isn't that far away. Also the secret to making a great company in Canada may not be the same formula as Silicon Valley.

</comment><comment><USER3> Canada simply needs more people like Debbie Landa. Grow was a huge part of helping me get connected with legitimate leaders in tech, and learn (quickly) the massive amount required to get started.

Her advice to us last year was an instigator of our pivot, and probably the most valuable we got all year.</comment>


Microsoft to make 'major' mystery announcement in LA - <AUTHOR> http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Microsoft-to-make-major-mystery-announcement--159113415.html

<comment><USER2> They are announcing that you can watch shows on your television, while hooked into your mobile device, which is being controlled by your tablet device, which is hooked into your oven all while sitting in the refrigerator.

<comment><USER3> _"... Well, we're not doing that. We're just doing this game. It's an RPG."_

My favorite quote from E3 this year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Based on early Windows 8 feedback, Microsoft announce the upcoming release of Windows 9! /s

<comment><USER5> Don't get our hopes up :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Microsoft is finally buying Hulu folks! Also, announcing 'special' partnership with Comcast.

</comment><comment><USER7> Microsoft TV, beating Apple to the punch. With integrated Xbox functionality.

<comment><USER8> This will never happen. Microsoft is not a hardware manufacturer. Yes, they make the x360 and some accessories. That's it.

Besides they have invested a ton of money in the x360 and continuously push the x360's OS to handle media. Clearly they'd be stupid to release a TV that duplicates some of the x360 functionality. Nothing to gain.

I do wonder what they'll announce though.

<comment><USER7> Heh. We were both wrong, apparently. It's a tablet, and Microsoft is a hardware manufacturer (well, OEMing stuff, anyway).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Aren't they demo-ing Windows Phone 8 next week?

<comment><USER10> The Windows Phone event is on Wednesday, 20 June ([http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/4/3063346/microsoft- promises-...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/4/3063346/microsoft-promises- sneak-peek-future-windows-phone-june-20th)). This post is for an event on Monday, 18 June.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's probably a their entertainment-focused Win8 release, perhaps for some Xbox/Kinnect tie-in?

You know, I've played with Win8, and it's got a lot of rough edges. I don't know that any of the form factors presented will excite people, but I hope MS the best.

</comment><comment><USER12> They are acquiring Nokia?

<comment><USER13> I can see MS buying Nokia, but not a few days after a combined profit warning + announcement of a massive round of layoffs. The timing would be totally tone-deaf with regard to the layoffs, and from a legal point of view it seems pretty dangerous to have the profit warning so closely to an acquisition announcement. Possibly not illegal, but certainly begging for a lawsuit from anyone who sold shares in those few days.

And of course MS buying Nokia will pretty much ensure that no other manufacturer is going to touch WP8 with a 12 foot pole. Seems like a bad way to kick off that campaign...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I hope they are delaying Win 8 for at least a year.

</comment><comment><USER15> 8/12 comments on this HN thread so-far are nothing more than "Microsoft sucks lols" dressed up in a pseudo-relevant form. Quality stuff right here. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I encounter knee-jerk reactions here to Microsoft products or reading sentences that start with "MS is too old" and end with "Win8 is too adventurous". (See: People not understanding UEFI Secure Boot, not understanding desktop mode, etc).

<comment><USER16> HN certainly doesn't lean pro-MS but I don't get your point. It seems to be "I'll keep in mind these terrible comments when I see terrible comments in the future."

This isn't a small community and there are plenty of relatively unbiased people that are capable of making arguments to be judged on their own merit.

<comment><USER15> I more or less meant, I'll stop trying to take comments here seriously or assume they're informed opinions. It's an assumption that I generally (used to?) grant HN comments moreso than anywhere else on the Internet. Normally when I see comments hating on an Microsoft product, I assume they have some basis in personal usage reality and not because it's become a meme, even here, to blindly hate on Microsoft and make assumptions about their products that literally stem from 5-10 years ago.

<comment><USER16> Fair enough but I don't see these "Microsoft sucks lols" comments you speak of.

      I hope they are delaying Win 8 for at least a year.

Is that it?

      Based on early Windows 8 feedback, Microsoft announce
      the upcoming release of Windows 9! /s

Maybe this? Even if you ignore the "/s", I don't take this as "MS sux". He's simply referencing some of the critical reaction that comes with any major change to a product with a bit of humor on a post that isn't exactly conducive for a good discussion.

This post is about a "mystery". If anything, I'd take the tone of the comments to be relative indifference about discussing this "mystery".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> They've found out that it wasn't a ghost down in the abandoned mine, but was just old Mr Wilkins who ran the amusement arcade trying to scare off the new owner so that he could buy the land.

</comment><comment><USER18> It would be the new dance routine of Steve Ballmer.</comment>


A 17th-Century Woman Artist's Butterfly Journey - <AUTHOR> http://hyperallergic.com/233040/a-17th-century-woman-artists-butterfly-journey/ <comment><USER2> The drawings are beautiful. Her approach to the subject was apparently game changing. Prior to her work, butterflies were seen as demonic and thier reproductive process so mysterious that the explanation of how they reproduced boiled down to _magic_.

</comment><comment><USER3> Those pictures are beautiful.

Thank you, to benbreen, Boris Friedewald, and of course to Maria Sybylla Merian (oh and hypoallergic.com too).</comment>


Sound waves enhance deep sleep and memory - <AUTHOR> https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/april/pink-noise-sound-enhance-deep-sleep-memory <comment><USER2> > _13 participants 60 and older..._

Oh we can just throw this shit right out. 13 participants? 60 and older in the US?

How about some controls for Diet, Exercise, and other general, you know, basic science shit? No? Well then allow me to just go ahead and call this study "statistically insignificant to the point of being potentially misleading" because I have pretty high expectations when it comes to rigor in academic study. This is what Northwestern chooses to highlight?

Point being, I grew up sleeping with Bach, John Jarvis, and Yngwie Malmsteen music for 20+ years. I think shoving a few cutesy-noise waves into the ears during rest is probably nice, like having a good pillow or decent sheets, but otherwise highly over-stated. This 13 person old fogey study means jack-shit in the big picture.

Want to have some real fun?

Let's get the Neural Network "Music" that Google is Researching to play during the sleep of 60 year olds and find out how that goes over. All these tech- approaches to very primal emotional pathways are disturbing to be on a general principle, mostly because not a single one of them has shown anything other than Placebo-esque results, and when placed against a control group, fail. Bonus hypothesis: The Google Machine Learning Music actually drives the Elderly Insane.

<comment><USER3> "Statistically insignificant" isn't a loose term you can throw around just because the sample size is small.

Here's the actual study, FYI: [http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00...](http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00109/full)

<comment><USER4> Ok. And your take is that in the original example they show sufficient arguments behind its statistical significance?

(honest question, not trying to sound snarky or anything.)

<comment><USER4> (PD: I meant "in the original paper".)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This bothers me:

>> Giovanni Santostasi, a study coauthor, developed an algorithm that delivers the sound during the rising portion of slow wave oscillations. This stimulation enhances synchronization of the neurons' activity.

They did not actually measure "synchronization of the neurons". This is just speculation. In psychology they insist that you need to propose a mechanism for change. In this case it may be true, but they state it as fact without any actual evidence.

<comment><USER6> I suspect this is sloppy editing replacing a "may enhance" where Santostasi said "enhances". That kind of stuff happens all the time when scientists are interviewed.

<comment><USER5> My point is that no mechanism is even required if an effect can be documented. I let go of an object and it falls toward the ground - easy to replicate. I do more tests and find a constant acceleration - easy to replicate for dense objects (not feathers). And so on. For basic stuff I think showing an effect that can be replicated is way way more important than offering any explanation. IMHO even offering a tentative explanation gives people the impression that things are more understood than they really are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In the summer months, I usually sleep with a fan (on a low setting) pointed at the bed. This is primarily to keep mosquitoes away (it works perfectly for obvious reasons), but the sound of it, I believe, really aids restful sleep and I often have it on even when I don't need it.

<comment><USER8> I have clinical insomnia and have relied on white noise from a fan for many years to sleep. On cold nights, I point it away from me, but always fall asleep more easily with it on the highest (loudest) setting. When I travel, I turn the bathroom fan on in hotels. The constant sound helps keep my thoughts from running rampant.

On the rare occasions when I can't do either of these things, I improvise with earbuds, but the effectiveness is diminished.

<comment><USER9> I also sleep with a fan on low, and yes, it does work.

One possible mechanism is the (well-attested) phenomenon of perceptual set. Ever buy a new refrigerator? For a week or so, you'll notice the sound every time it turns on. After that, you'll never notice it again. A similar thing is going on when you notice someone saying your name at a crowded party. Your brain "tunes out" the background noise from the multiple conversations, but when your name is mentioned, you're suddenly listening to that specific conversation.

At one time I lived near busy railroad tracks. For a week or two, I was getting blasted awake several times a night. After that? Didn't even hear 'em.

What may be going on is that the fan noise raises the background sound level enough that minor, unpredictable sounds (wind, bugs hitting the window, whatever) that would normally trigger alertness are enough below the ambient sound threshold that your brain doesn't pay any attention to them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In the past week, I have been using Mitch Altman's Brain Machine, which I bought from him during SHA2017 in the Netherlands, and it seems it has improveen my sleep (which was already quite good). It already has happened several times that I felt asleep during the stimulation process (blinking LEDs and binural beats on head phones).

Last week, I have felt much more relaxed in my thoughts, being able to concentrate for long periods without feeling the urge to visit social media or check my email. Maybe the fact that I returned to work from a frustrating vacation during which I made some important resolutions with respect to social media, also played some role. But being able to break some habits that I have been struggling with for decennia is nevertheless a significant event.

<comment><USER11> That's odd, I couldn't for the life of it fall asleep with a headphone near me. I bought one of the Mitch's machines(the neurodreamer) in the past, but I can't possible imagine how someone can fall asleep with a blue blinking LED in their face. Maybe I'm just a little to sensitive but I figured maybe something a little more subtle might make sense.

<comment><USER12> > I can't possible imagine how someone can fall asleep with a blue blinking > LED in their face.

They appear to be red... Sounds pedantic but there is a big difference if we are talking about sleep.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For those looking for noise gen options, sox can be used to get a variety of fairly complex noise sounds. I tried a bunch of things based on an old blog post [0] with a bunch of helpful comments and the Reddit thread linked from there [1]. I like:

play -n -n --combine merge synth brownnoise synth pinknoise mix band -n 1200 1800 tremolo 50 10 tremolo 0.14 70 tremolo 0.2 50 flanger 4 2 95 50 fade h 2

There is also this clever Star Trek style noise (from the Reddit post):

play -n -c 2 synth whitenoise lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 gain +14 fade h 1

[0] [http://unreasonable.org/white_noise_generator_with_sox_for_L...](http://unreasonable.org/white_noise_generator_with_sox_for_Linux)

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/n7q5x/want_to_preten...](https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/n7q5x/want_to_pretend_you_are_aboard_the_enterprise_for/c36xkjx/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Other people have complained about the number of participants, but that isn't the issue (it was run as a crossover study, so 13 participants should probably be fine).

The issue is that despite purporting to test fancy pink noise synchronized with brain activity, the control treatment was _no noise_ rather than _unsynchronized pink noise_. That means that it's impossible to tell whether the synchronized noise was more effective than normal pink noise would have been (or even possibly just earplugs, although it looks like the earphones they used do a decent job of blocking noise: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046H8ZHS](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046H8ZHS) ).

<comment><USER13> Also worth noting: as someone with a serious sleep disorder (non-24 hour circadian rhythm), I've found that there are a lot of things that affect sleep quite strongly the first night and much less shortly after. The effect often disappears entirely quite quickly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Here is the original article if anyone wants to take a look: Acoustic Enhancement of Sleep Slow Oscillations and Concomitant Memory Improvement in Older Adults: [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314295073_Acoustic_...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314295073_Acoustic_Enhancement_of_Sleep_Slow_Oscillations_and_Concomitant_Memory_Improvement_in_Older_Adults)

</comment><comment><USER16> «enhance», the article won't say how much though.

<comment><USER17> _the article won 't say how much though._

Did you read TFA? _" However, the average improvement was three times larger after pink-noise stimulation."_

<comment><USER10> Three times larger than "a few percent". So, somewhere between three and six percent, I guess. Meaning that if the test set consisted of 20 items, they remembered on average one more.

<comment><USER18> And the study had 13 participants. They did two runs one with the snake-oil noise and one without. Can you even call it a study? With such a small numbers the study can show any random thing you want, from reducing feet odour to increasing yawn count. Even if it worked it's poorly designed because it assumes that the benefits fade away, ie. are not present on the 2nd day. Would be probably better to split them half and give stimulation then sham and for other half other way around (tip. don't split one senior in half!).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Interesting. From my own experiments a pair of soft earplugs and night blinders on eyes does the trick for me. Sometimes when I am under massive stress, adding a winter cap helps a lot to get wonderful quality sleep.

</comment><comment><USER20> A coincidence for me seeing this article...I'm staying at an Airbnb next to a somewhat busy street, so I slept with a pink noise app on last night and I had some of the most vivid dreams I can remember

<comment><USER21> Hey me too! I used an app called Pzizz

<comment><USER20> I used "pink noise" on Android, with a logo somewhat like a human tongue. Super simple but it avoided a subtle clicking sound that repeated on a tone generator app I downloaded. I'll check out pzizz as well, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> will this work with any pink noise apps ? or is this a new thing where "synchronization" that is needed?

<comment><USER23> Yes, it should work but make sure the app is genuine. Really though, even a table fan works.

<comment><USER22> What do you mean by genuine? Any recommendations on Android?

<comment><USER24> I don't know what he meant by legit, but some white noise videos on youtube feature jumpscares after a while. These are specially bad on people with cardiovascular issues and/or elderly. Always be careful before any kind of meditation-like video.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This reminded me of [https://rain.today](https://rain.today)

</comment><comment><USER26> for self test: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9Go1PnAVA&list=RDWJ9Go1PnA...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9Go1PnAVA&list=RDWJ9Go1PnAVA)

</comment><comment> sahin-boydas what is the that lady using in the video?

</comment><comment><USER16> If articles like this make it to HN... maybe it's time to start selling homeopathic snake oil...

</comment><comment><USER27> I have such déjà vu about this article. The weirdest part is that it feels like the reason it is familiar is because I had a dream about it once.</comment>


Man to pay $300k in damages for hacking employer - happy-go-lucky http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39883229 <comment><AUTHOR> Maybe not the time for semantics, but curious where people's line in the sand is with regards to calling logging in with the correct admin credentials as 'hacking'.

<comment><USER2> I consider "hacking" to be any instance of an entity deliberately undermining the confidentiality, integrity or availability assurances (the CIA triad) of a technical security control; be it passively or actively, and regardless of the apparent weakness of the control.

Information security begins with confidentiality, which brings us to the concept of authorization and and the use of encryption. When Bob and Alice want to communicate in secret, they want to assure confidentiality, and they use encrypted messages. Then we also have integrity: when Bob and Alice are enjoying a confidential communication, they want to make sure no one has altered the messages even if they can't read them, so we get hash functions and MACs. Maybe Bob wants authentication: he wants to make sure the person who sent him the message really is Alice, even if he's already sure it's confidential and unaltered, so now we've got digital signature schemes. Eventually Alice decides she wants non-repudiation, or peer entity auth, etc.

Every technical security control can be modeled as the practical implementation of one of these desires for a particular type of assurance. This is neat, because it precludes pernicious questions like, _" Well what if it's weak and the 'hacker' just incremented a value in a URL"_ \- we shift the slippery-slope problem of ascribing malicious intent to the legal sphere without sacrificing the cleanly drawn _technical_ definition.

Under this definition, I'd consider the individual in this story to have "hacked" their employer. A login interface is a technical security control designed to provide authorization/access control as a method of implementing confidentiality (among other things). The employee logged in as a user other than themselves, thereby undermining the control. Furthermore, he did it intentionally, which establishes the deliberation requirement. It was not a sophisticated hack, but then again real world hacking _very rarely_ is technically sophisticated.

Despite the composition of Blackhat/DEFCON proceedings every year, the median company is far more likely to be compromised through a social engineering or endpoint failure (e.g. executive is phished, employee pirates media and gets a virus, etc).

EDIT: Apparently this is an unpopular answer, that's fine. But it's an answer that probably goes the farthest and with the fewest rabbit holes. Humans need to trust software in different ways, and if you deliberately break that trust by bypassing the implementation that assures it, you've hacked the software.

<comment><USER3> > I consider "hacking" to be any instance of an entity deliberately > undermining the confidentiality, integrity or availability assurances

That sounds extremely broad, in the same way that calling jaywalkers criminals would be.

<comment><USER2> It's actually not. Laws are not an appropriate analogy for technical security controls. First and foremost, laws exist which are clearly not enforced. Technical security controls exist, or they don't. They don't generally rely on human arbitrators for enforcement, unlike legislation. Once it is in place, the technical nature of the control is self-enforcing; bypassing the enforcement is what constitutes "hacking." In this way criminality and hacking aren't comparable. A better comparison might be security policies and laws, but that's close to tautological because they're so similar.

Moreover, laws can be broken unintentionally, and under this definition you cannot hack something unintentionally. Awareness can be tantamount to intentionality - I'd argue most people aren't even aware they're jaywalking when they do it. It stretches the boundaries of believability that someone would log in as someone else and not be aware that they did it. In a contrived scenario where they did somehow accomplish that, I wouldn't call it hacking.

<comment><USER4> just to confirm. within this scheme, all a website needs is 2 form fields "userid" and "password" , they don't even have to do anything, and if you crawled it, you've hacked it?

<comment><USER2> If the login interface actually works (i.e. it's actually an access control), and you successfully login with credentials that aren't yours - yes, you've hacked it. It's only a hack if you intend to do it and the interface is a good faith implementation.

I don't really follow your question in this comment and the other one though - what do you mean about CIA desires? You need to understand that a technical control represents a control in order to intentionally bypass it.

<comment><USER4> the problem is good faith and desire?

if theres a bunch of numbers in my url after i login, and i'm oh so curious what i'd see if i increment that number by 1, now i'm hacking? i mean, i believe the website simply didnt want to implement session control, if i saw someone else's account details, is that acceptable interpretation? there's no "rule of the internet" that says we must only navigate by provided links on a html page, is there?

<comment><USER2> _> if theres a bunch of numbers in my url after i login, and i'm oh so curious what i'd see if i increment that number by 1, now i'm hacking_

Under the definition above, if you do it to deliberately bypass the control, then yes. If you do it out of curiosity without believing you might subvert any control, then no you're not hacking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Assuming this is the correct website, it appears to still be defaced:

[http://www.capatrol.com/](http://www.capatrol.com/)

<comment><USER6> Wow, that's crazy! You'd think that part of the ruling would include restoring the website to its former glory...

<comment><USER7> It's bizarre that the issue made it to court and the website still hasn't been fixed. That's a long time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Then, he noticed that someone had tampered with the program's 'Lunch' field. Four hours had been added into the lunch field each day, which accounted for the unexplained extra 40 hours of overtime in Garcia's records. The hours had been entered in black text on a black background, in one-point font. As a result, the alterations to Garcia's hours would not have been noticeable to the casual observer. The alterations resulted in Garcia's being paid wages for overtime that, presumably, he did not work."

That's just one of the things he did.

If you're going to be a criminal, at least be a smart criminal. He's going to be stuck with trying to pay off $300k on a fast food worker's wages which will take him the rest of his life unless he inherits a lot of money or plans on winning the lotto. He effectively removed himself from consideration from any decent job and thus his ability to pay the fine in a comfortable manner.

</comment><comment><USER9> That's like $2000/month for 7 years.

In cases like this, I would expect that $300K to drop later, or to be renegotiated at some point.

<comment><USER10> Maybe! The justice system allows for damages beyond just compensation. Sometimes, it's about sending a message.

<comment><USER11> In France the judge doesn't have any discretion on damages. The defendant is liable for all damages as a result of his action. Even if these amount to $1 billion.

<comment><USER12> What's the point? There's no way anyone could pay that.

<comment><USER13> Just in case they win the lottery perhaps? Debt is debt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Why not criminal charges?</comment>


VMware Introduces Liota – The IoT Developer's Dream - <AUTHOR> http://www.vmware.com/radius/vmware-introduces-liota-iot-developers-dream/ <comment><USER2> Is software for handling data really the worst thing about IoT development right now? For me it's the lack of cheap 3G hardware (Particle is about the only thing on the market and it's really expensive), and the lack of tooling for getting data from poorly documented sensors developed by god knows what company in China from the device to the web. Storing or routing data once it's online isn't that difficult.

<comment><USER3> I'm not entirely unconvinced that this isn't the IoT equivalent of bike- shedding. So many companies are operating in the IoT data channel space and not enough in the actually getting the data space.

I'm using a particle for a production project right now because 300$ for a cloudgate cell router and 20$ a month for 250M of which I maybe need 2M is ridiculous.

The only reason I am even using cellular is because it is such a colossal pain to get on-premises wifi access in a factory. Like 2 weeks of back and forth with plant IT.

If anyone has a good possible solution for this problem I will be your technical co-founder tomorrow.

<comment><USER4> The problem with solving the "getting the data" problem is that it has hardware margins, which are slimmer than software. Everyone wants to "be the intelligence" since that scales infinitely and at close to zero marginal cost.

As for your issue, send me an email. =D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What does this project bring to the table? The examples are Python scripts that we could already write on a Raspberry Pi.

</comment><comment><USER6> Would be better if they called it Lolita</comment>


The cheapest synthesizer you can ever build - <AUTHOR> http://www.teledemic.com/hardware/tinyosc/

<comment><USER2> Check out Tristan Perishe's beautiful 1-bit symphony. He also builds minimal circuits by hand, and I'm always surprised at how rich and complex the music is.

<http://www.1bitsymphony.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> You can actually do better than this - it's possible to build a switchable pulse, sawtooth and sine'ish wave oscillator from a single op-amp. During my childhood my father was heavily into electronics and electronic music, and one of his interests was designing and buildning his own analog synthesizers. One of his more compact feats for one of his many synthesizers was four three-wave oscillators built on a single TL074 (quad op-amp).

<comment><USER4> This is what I came to point out. The 555 is a horrible waste of electronics for something as simple as an oscillator. (Also, iirc, 555 timers do nasty things to your rails.)

You can get a better (50% duty cycle) out of a comparator/op-amp, a capacitor, and a few resistors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator#Op_Amp.E2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator#Op_Amp.E2.80.93based_electronic_relaxation_oscillator)

555 timers are much more useful as one-shots, since that functionality is much more difficult to implement with a comparator.

<comment><USER5> The 555 is probably used because of the influence of the Atari Punk Console(which is typically based on a dual 555 design).</comment></comment></comment>


Russia tests anti-satellite weapon in space - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/russia-space-anti-satellite-weapons-test-2558761b-04ee-4c86-83b3-ed8e2a475bd6.html <comment><USER2> Pretty light on details.

<comment><USER3> [https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield- tech/space/2020/07/23/r...](https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield- tech/space/2020/07/23/russia-conducted-anti-satellite-test-in-space-says-us- space-command/)</comment></comment>


Anti-solar panel can generate electricity at night, researches say - <AUTHOR> https://www.inverse.com/innovation/researchers-have-a-counterintuitive-concept-for-solar-panels-that-work-at-night <comment> anamika-shine This is a great idea! If we could really invent something like this, it will be really great when it comes to using electricity.

In India, this will be the amazing solution. Here, the rural areas suffer due to load shedding which is undertaken to fulfill electricity demand in cities.

It will be great of us if we at cities monitor how much electricity consumption is done. There are many online devices which can monitor power for one. One of which is OHM Assistant ( [https://ohmassistant.com/](https://ohmassistant.com/) )

This device monitors power consumption of home appliances and display it on easy to use interface on your smartphone. This helps you to save power by tracking down devices using most energy and then those can be replaced with energy efficient devices. This will help us to keep track of sudden electricity surges or power leakage. This in return will help to solve the load shedding problem.</comment>


Ask HN: What technologies to study for remote work? - <AUTHOR> I currently have experience working for both two of the 'big 4' (Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, ...), and am now working in HFT. All 3 positions have been in low-latency and high-scale C++, but I see this isn't a popular option for remote work. I'd like to spend my free-time for the next year or so studying the right technologies so I can find a remote job and buy a home in Colorado or something. Is JavaScript the right choice for this? Are there any guides for finding remote work? I'm willing to put in any amount of effort required to reach this goal. <comment><USER2> It sounds like you have rare skills. You certainly could learn to be just another web dev, but I'd take a shot at seeing if you can use your current skills remotely - you are likely to earn more.

I'd probably learn Python/Django and numpy. They gives you the ability to do solid backend web dev, and should open up plenty of jobs. Python is also often used to tie together high performance c code, so you may be able to find work that uses both your new skill and your old.</comment>


What do you use to send/receive email for your Web App ? - <AUTHOR>

I just wanted to know how people here at Hacker news handle email for their web applications. <comment><USER2> Receiving email via Postfix and qmail has previously been described on this forum ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=186879> ). To send email, pipe data to /usr/lib/sendmail or suchlike. Postfix, qmail and other MTAs typically install a wrapper at /usr/lib/sendmail

However, if you're hosting on ADSL, the IP address of your mail server is probably blacklisted, so you may have to configure your MTA to forward messages to your ISP's MTA. I found this easiest to configure in Sendmail, which can be configured to co-exist with other MTAs.</comment>