HTML Instant - Real-time HTML Editor - <AUTHOR> http://www.htmlinstant.com

<comment><USER2> Why is this noteworthy?

      $('textarea#markup').keyup(function(){
          $('div#preview').html( $(this).val() );
      });

<comment><USER3> While it is true that this is dead simple to implement (and probably exists elsewhere. I know there are plenty of side-by-side editors that require you to push a button. I bet one realized they could eliminate that.), it's still very useful for people learning HTML, wanting to try some obscure thing with HTML super-fast, etc.

Easy to implement != useless or boring. Look at Twitter.

<comment><USER2> No doubt; I'm just surprised that something this common made the front page, even if putting "instant" in front of things is all the rage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice! Very similar to my live HTML/PHP editor for Mac OS X called HyperEdit:

<http://www.tumultco.com/HyperEdit/>

A couple of ideas:

* Utilize contenteditable to go the opposite direction

* Bookmarklet to open any page you are viewing in htmlinstant.com

* Save the document to local storage (cookie or html5 client-side db) in case the page is closed

* Snippets for commonly used functions (like table or list tags)

And of course the further you take the editor, the more capable this will be. Bespin (<https://bespin.mozillalabs.com/>) in the best in-browser editor I've seen.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hm, dangerous back button. I liked the fact it served as an undo, but I wanted to navigate back here to say so, and had to click though a whole minute of edits. I would suggest not breaking the default functionality, back buttons should go back. Instead add an undo/history/revision button.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think this would be more valuable if it integrated:

* Syntax highlighting

* Saving

* HTML Entities

* Code completion

* Clean up or 'tidy' function to format the code

* The ability to modify the <head> attribute (if it's possible)

<comment><AUTHOR> i agree

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd like to point out Firebug has this feature and much more.

<comment><USER8> Exactly, it's like a crippled version of Firebug.

At least in Firebug, when you reload the page your Javascript edits are still there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Reminds me of <http://jsfiddle.net/> \- JS lib, JS, HTML, CSS, AJAX and your Result all on one screen.

</comment><comment><USER10> Looks like an excellent learning tool for newbies. :)

</comment><comment><USER11> If someone were to implement this with vi keybindings, and/or Zen Coding macros, then it'd be truly noteworthy.

</comment><comment><USER12> Off topic:

I just tried embedding a marquee inside of a marquee and it surprisingly worked.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is great, a great learning tool. Thank you for sharing (or even making?) this!

</comment><comment><USER14> Reminds me of jottit.com, only that is for Markdown.

</comment><comment><USER15> Would love to see something like this support CSS.

<comment><AUTHOR> it supports css and javascript

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> How do I save my edits?</comment>


Show HN: Git Releases – The missing link to your latest GitHub release asset - <AUTHOR> https://gitreleases.dev/ <comment><USER2> Funnily enough I had the same problem, and setup a simple API to handle the redirection:

[https://api.steve.fi/github/](https://api.steve.fi/github/)

In my case I was doing this so I could deploy binaries, fetched via puppet/ansible/deployr/etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> ;) I wondered how nobody else ever did this. Apparently you did.

To me that seems really an oversight on GitHub's part. Maybe it's intentional?</comment></comment>


Why do GIMP developers hate you? - C-Rogers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBmdbipkbrk <comment> C-Rogers You came, you saw, you complained! Pat David of the GIMP project takes you through exactly why the GIMP project hates you! (new GIMP features walkthrough at the end) Thanks to Mc for clipping this out of an 8+hour SCaLE vid. :D</comment>


McCollough effect - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCollough_effect <comment><USER2> Can we change the title to be not click-baity?

<comment><USER3> Yes.

(Submitted title was "An image that alters your brain".)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've tried this a few times and I've never been able to make it last more than maybe 4 days.

<comment><USER5> If effects last for more than 4 hours you're supposed to see a doctor.

<comment><USER6> Says whom?

<comment><USER7> It is a reference to erectile dysfunction medication disclaimers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The brain does a lot of optimizations and filtering. Like when you look down, you don't see your nose, (even though its in the way).

<comment><USER9> but I do see my nose - in serious double vision, and way out of focus, but I do see it.</comment></comment>


End of the world DRM-free sale - <AUTHOR> http://www.gog.com/#

<comment><USER2> Its a legit site. Its a good membership to have because about twice a year they will give out some games for free. In fact, just last week, Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition was free for 48 hours. These are in addition to the eight or so titles that are always free.

If you are looking to buy, their current holiday sale seems to run like most Steam sales, so it may be worth holding off on purchases until the end of the sale for a chance at getting more than 50% off.

</comment><comment><USER3> Took a little digging to find the How-It-Works page <http://www.gog.com/support/website_help/downloads_and_games>

I really want the Ultima pack. Is this site legit?

<comment><USER4> Yes it's legit, they've been in business forever.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com>

<comment><USER3> How do I know I can trust you and that wiki page? :) Got the pack. Good thing I took off the next 10 days. If anyone is looking for me, I'll be in the abyss.

<comment><USER4> I don't really care if you trust me.

<comment><USER3> :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Love GOG--they do a lot of work to get old games working on modern systems. Installing Fallout 2 on Win 7 was as simple as downloading, running the executable, and playing.

I'm loving Baldur's Gate I and II right now, so here's a (potentially obvious) question: should I get Neverwinter Nights? Or are they significantly different from one another?

Same question for Icewind Dale too.

</comment><comment><USER6> Tried and failed to sign up for an account before the promo ended. Seems like it was just timing out. :(

<comment><USER7> I don't understand. It says the sale goes until January 3rd. Or was there another one that I missed?

<comment><USER8> yes, there was another one. ie: <http://www.gog.com/promo/bullfrog_favourites>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Don't forget to vote for adding Linux games to GOG: <http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/add_linux_versions_of_games>

</comment><comment><USER10> You can't possibly play these all before the world ends!

</comment><comment><USER11> nice</comment>


The Witchcraft Compiler Collection - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/endrazine/wcc <comment><USER3> I had the pleasure of watching Brossard's presentation on wcc at DEF CON last weekend, and it was quite fascinating.

There was a live demo of wcc "unlinking" an ELF executable into a portable library that was then linked with and called by another library. Looking forward to where this project goes in the future! He did mention that help expanding this project would be much appreciated, as it takes time to reverse the relocation patterns of various binary formats, so please help out if you find this interesting!

EDIT: Talk outline here provides some nice context [https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-24/dc-24-speakers.html#Br...](https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-24/dc-24-speakers.html#Brossard)

</comment><comment><USER4> Could someone explain in what kind of situations this could be useful?

<comment><USER3> _The primary use of wcc is to "unlink" (undo the work of a linker) ELF binaries, either executables or shared libraries, back into relocatable shared objects._

If I understand correctly, this is a novel way of speeding up reverse engineering by creating the missing middle step of compiling a binary - <USER2> code. Normal decompilers go from machine code to source code, which is difficult to work with. Going from machine code back to object code is not supposed to be easy or even possible. (ELF is only supported right now because reverse-engineering the linking process for different architectures takes a lot of work.)

WCC unlinks machine code into a library, allowing you to interact with the object code and reliably include and call its functions from your own code, as if it were a shared system library rather than a black box.

<comment><USER5> I wonder how many folks are aware that ELF shared libraries and ELF executables are the exact same thing?

There's no substantial compiling or decompiling necessary to go from shared object to executable and back. One need only add or remove the appropriate symbols from the object and (perhaps even optionally) change the object type.

Have you ever tried to directly execute your libc.so.6 on a linux system? You can.

There's nothing at all novel about this process, other than making it easy for folks who've never read the manual for their linker.

Edit: Someone downvoted this observation; I imagine they think I'm unfairly trivializing this so I'll add: Read the source code. This tool we're discussing is a simple ~100 line program. It's not complicated: [https://github.com/endrazine/wcc/blob/master/src/wld/wld.c](https://github.com/endrazine/wcc/blob/master/src/wld/wld.c)

<comment><USER6> I don't get it. Isn't there a missing step of making the objects relocatable (i.e. what -fPIC does)? That requires rewriting branches and stuff. But clearly wcc isn't doing this?

<comment><USER7> PIC makes the code _position independent_. That is, the code can be moved _without_ relocation fixups. ELF executables typically use relocatable code (with relocation sections) rather than PIC because especially on i386 it has performance and size implications to use -fPIC. But on x86_64 it's actively discouraged, but not actually prevented if you generate an ELF file that the linker is satisfied with.

The main issue with that latter part is that 64 bit code can contain 32 bit relocation fixups, and such addresses will be impossible for the linker to relocate outside the 32 bit memory space, and your mileage may vary whether your load time linker will be able to even try to handle that or not on a 64 bit platform.

If your code is free of 32 bit relocations, there "shouldn't" be any reasons for them not to be usable as shared objects even if they contain relocations instead of use PIC (whether any specific load time linkers unnecessarily enforce restrictions on this is another matter).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> These tools really have potential! Hopefully wcc will gain support for non- intel, non-GNU/Linux ELF files as well.

And the readme.md! I love how the author shows an example after every explanation! If only every readme.md was written that well!

Since shared object libraries must be generated as position independent code, how does converting an executable which was not generated as position independent code work though?

</comment><comment><USER9> This is really cool. I've wondered occasionally whether something like this might be possible, but this looks like a really spiffy implementation. I wonder how hard it would be to add Mach-O support to it...

</comment><comment><USER10> wcch Sounds very useful. It sounds similar to some other tools in other languages, but I'm not sure how those are implemented, JNA comes to mind.

Recently I wrote a Rust library and wrote the header by hand for C. It sounds like this could at least get things started. Though my guess is it would generate the right 'const _' vs. plain '_' for pointers.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is pretty amazing.

</comment><comment><USER12> Could this be used to combine the output of projects written in incompatible languages? EG: say I have a rust program and a go program, both are open source, but I want to call them from a swift program. Could I compile the rust and go programs into ELFs then use WCC to break them out into "libraries" and then call them from swift?

Is there a better way to do this? Right now the alternative I'm thinking about is creating opening sockets from the Rust and GO side and talking to them via TCP.

But the end result I want is a single binary for the target platform and no install complications other than putting the binary on a stock unix machine.

I'm sure there's a better way.

<comment><USER13> You can build native C-compatible libraries from Rust, see [https://doc.rust- lang.org/book/ffi.html#calling-rust-code-fr...](https://doc.rust- lang.org/book/ffi.html#calling-rust-code-from-c)</comment></comment>


Hong Kong man reinfected with different strain of Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1545589-20200824.htm <comment><USER2> So is the premise of a vaccine that it only operates on identical strain pathogens?</comment>


Why We Can't Stop Playing - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703945904575644940111605862.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

<comment><USER2> Am I the only person who does not enjoy mobile gaming? I like a few rounds of some game occasionally but would really rather just read.</comment>


(Upd EU/Be)Treatment Guidelines COVID19,Azithromycin+Chloroquine,ACE/ARBs Switch - <AUTHOR> https://epidemio.wiv-isp.be/ID/Documents/Covid19/COVID-19_InterimGuidelines_Treatment_ENG.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> This shows the updated (March 19) official Belgian treatment guidelines for COVID19 and comparison with treatment guidelines for France,Belgium,Switzerland,Netherlands.

Notably it shows now the addition of Azithromicyn as an addition to Chloroquine/Hydroxichloroquine (cf the controversial French study source: [https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp- content/uploads/20...](https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/03/Hydroxychloroquine_final_DOI_IJAA.pdf)).

It's also clearly indicated that Remdesivir is now in short supply: " At this moment very restricted availability of remdesivir (long delay for supply) and very strict criteria released by Gilead "

France is still not considering hydroxichloroquine/chloroquine at this point officially for some strange reason.

Also this line seems important : " Lopinavir/ritonavir can still be therefore considered a second choice for the moment, when hydroxychloroquine is contraindicated, but only if this treatment could be administered early in the course of the disease (within 10 days after symptoms onset). We consider this treatment as futile if administered later "

So they seem to think Lopinavir/ritonavir is futile is not administered early.

And last but not least and in line with several hackernews threads. They do seem to somewhat advice physicians to possibly switch medications of infected patients with High Blood Pressure and ACE inhibitors/ARBs to an equivalent therapy.</comment>


Any Accounting Book or Course recommendation for Tech Entrepreneur? - <AUTHOR> I'm SW Engineer and planning to start a SaaS business. Which books or courses can you recommend me for Financial & Managerial Accounting ?<p>Thanks very much. <comment><USER2> This might not be what you want to hear, but I honestly think that worrying about accounting is a waste of time given that you are still in the planning phase. My suggestion would be to build the product, get users, and pay an accountant to worry about accounting in the early days.</comment>


Ohm - Oaml web framework - <AUTHOR> http://ohm-framework.com/

<comment><USER2> Now would be a good time to change the title

<comment><AUTHOR> too late, sorry about that :)</comment></comment>


Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey - b-man http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/geb/geb/

<comment><AUTHOR> Why are all the fun courses so far away?

<comment><USER2> Why not just order "GEB: An Eternal Golden Braid" and read it ? The book is much more interstnig than any such course derived from it.

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal- anniversar...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal- anniversary/dp/0140289208)</comment></comment>


MoviePass: Go to the movies as often as you want - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/moviepass-launches-subscription-service-2012-10

<comment><USER2> My aversion to movie theaters isn't the cost - but the other patrons. Whether it's talking during the movie, or someone texting on their phone illuminating their row with its screen, or somebody 10 rows up that's left their blinking bluetooth earpiece on their ear - movie theaters are annoying places to try to enjoy a movie.

The alternative is to wait a few months and watch it in the comfort of your home, at a fraction of the cost, in an environment that's likely to be good- enough from an audio/video standpoint. You've also got your own food, and the option to pause the movie. Aside from some movies where the visual effects may merit going to a theatre, it's becoming increasingly less desirable for me to do so.</comment>


I Got 99 Problems and Blogging is One - <AUTHOR> http://ryanhoover.me/post/44306432089/i-got-99-problems-and-blogging-is-one

<comment><USER2> One the one hand, I admire the author's relentless tendency to view everything as a defineable problem to be solved. On the other hand, the consequences of this viewpoint on most of the points mentioned wind up being absurd.

Taking it one point at a time.

 _Writing is hard._ Twitter is the best workaround - you can't write very much, so writing is suddenly easy for everyone there. Outside of twitter, long form writing is very easy for some people because of a combination of practice and talent. Aside from cultivating that in what will necessarily be a small segment of the population, there's nothing to be done , at least on the order of the authors want of a 10x improvement. Meanwhile, Football has a huge problem that I am both no good at playing it and can't be bothered to practice it.

 _Insights are unexpected...99% of the time, I'm in no position to synthesize my thoughts into a post..._ Your own time management is a tangential problem. This statement applies to any time-consuming task which you've deprioritized. Prioritize blogging and this "problem" disappears.

 _It's easy to start but difficult to finish... It's embarassing..._ It's not embarassing. There are only so many things you can do in a day. Other things were more important. Don't be so hard on yourself.

 _Although I primarily write for myself, it's discouraging to find few people read, let alone share a post I've spent hours writing..._ Doesn't sound like you're writing for yourself at all here. I'll be content if only one person reads this little response of mine.

 _Creating or finding visuals is time-consuming._ Very true. A skill and talent in and of itself. If you're willing to just traffic in ideas, and care less about engaging and attracting large audiences, you can just skip the visuals.

 _Writers lack feedback._ Here you go, you're welcome. ;) And by the way, I'm posting the response here because I don't like using Facebook to comment. If you had a normal commenting system, I would have used it.

 _Writers lack a personal connection with readers._ Again, give up on large audiences and this is more than just possible. Personal connections and popular media are mutually exclusive.

 _Distribution and discovery sucks._ Yup. Although both Twitter and Facebook work as a decent enough channel, I find.

 _The best insights are unsharable. The most valuable information is often proprietary and cannot be publicly shared._ Now this is a little crazy. If you decide to make your best insights proprietary, that's entirely your choice and a problem of your own making. I find that most people pay for convenience, not wisdom, so keeping secret insights is less enriching than you'd expect.</comment>


DOD official: Snowden 'stole literally everything' | The Daily Caller - <AUTHOR> http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/17/dod-official-snowden-stole-everything-literally-everything/ <comment><USER2> How is this any different than the advent of "total war"? The threshold at which an intelligence apparatus aught to begin contingencies for defection should be somewhere around Dunbar's number, not the grand opening of bumblehive (which I've just realized has a splendid double meaning now).</comment>


RIP, Macintosh - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonic-shifts/2010/06/08/does-apple-s-iphone-4-signal-the-death-of-the-macintosh.html

<comment><USER3> Well, that was a silly article. Of course, the mac can't go anywhere since they're needed to build the pretty apps for the iOS. They're updating the hardware (see the recent updates to macbook pros and macbooks) but maybe they're just slowing down on the main OSX software development. But even that's fine with me, since Snow Leopard has been working pretty well for me.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, Mac is a mature product line. True it might not be at the cutting edge of Apple's business but it is a highly profitable income stream for Apple. So it is not going anywhere.

I suppose there is a possibility of iPad cannibalising MacBook sales, but its pretty much apples and oranges.

That said, I cant help thinking that they might do some kind of Apple desktop app store where they can keep 30% of the app revenue, but give developers access to a well integrated distribution channel.

</comment><comment><USER5> Isn't there a brand new 2.4 GHz Macbook? Check the online store.

After a long time of using Ubuntu for about 80% of my work, I am drifting back to OS X for the majority of my work. The issue for me is that the MacBook keyboard is just a little nicer for reducing hand fatigue for me - not sure why. That said, MacBooks run Ubuntu great.

</comment><comment><USER6> The last major Mac announcement...the air two and a half years ago. Snow Leopard was thrown off the back off a truck in the middle of the night - <USER2> between the 3GS and the rock and roll event (aka the smokescreen).

The Mac jumped the shark the day Bootcamp was released.</comment>


Poor Man's 3D Printer - <AUTHOR> http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-Mans-3D-Printer/?utm_content=buffer74430&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer <comment><USER2> Easier to just buy one of these: [http://www.peachyprinter.com/](http://www.peachyprinter.com/)

<comment><USER3> Except this thing can be built right now instead of having to wait for the Kickstarter to finish, products to start shipping and then ordering and waiting on the post KS batch.

<comment><USER4> The Kickstarter finished October of last year.

Printers have already been delivered to the first, second, and third tier beta testers.

As of the latest update, printers for the first (Jul), second (Sep), and third (Oct) tier version one have been "pushed back" but there's no indication by how much. I believe this is the first schedule push back, so I wouldn't expect it to be a massive one. They did not sell-out their third tier version one, so I would assume anyone who orders from their "coming soon" store would expect delivery shortly after, or at the same time as the third tier version one Kickstarters.

<comment><USER5> The peachtree is one of the most innovative printers out there. Their drip system to remove one expensive stepper motor and moving platform is genius in my opinion.

The poor man's 3D printer looks to be a bit larger and is probably faster to print.

<comment><USER4> The peachyprinter's (not peachtree) drip system also drastically reduces the resin needed in comparison to existing DLP/SLA/Photolithographic type printers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Very impressive. A friend of mine tried to build something similar with some old flat bed scanners he managed to get from the local tip. Inevitably though, there is cost involved in the extruder head, electronics and software which killed the project dead for him.</comment>


Using Facebook Notes to DDoS any website - <AUTHOR> http://chr13.com/2014/04/20/using-facebook-notes-to-ddos-any-website

<comment><USER2> really amazing find! Thanks for bringing this out in the community, maybe by getting more exposure facebook will have to do something about this</comment>


Scala Benchmark comparison with JDK 6 and 7 - <AUTHOR> http://engineering.panaxiom.co.uk/post/37046314822/scala-benchmark-comparison-with-jdk-6-and-7

<comment><USER2> It's interesting that there's more improvement from JDK 6 to 7 in Scala 2.9.2 than 2.10. Does that mean that the JVM's performance on all of these benchmark is not improved that much?

I mean, Scala's improvement from 2.9.2 to 2.10 is better than JVM 6 to 7's improvement. Is my assumption right?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, Scala's improvement from 2.9.2 to 2.10 is better than the improvement from JVM 6 to 7 with this benchmark. Especially for the Eratosthenes test where the time halves from ~1494ms to ~704ms.

The largest percentage improvement from 2.9.2 to 2.10 is therefore roughly 52% (with JDK 7 and 2.10 over 2.9.2). The largest percentage improvement when comparing the JDK versions however is 13.85% where the JDK 7 sundaram test with scala 2.9.2 runs faster than JDK 6 with the same scala version.</comment></comment>


We Failed with ProductHunt Launch - <AUTHOR> https://blog.getprobe.io/how-we-failed-with-product-hunt-launch-and-what-we-have-learned-from-it <comment><USER2> "First of all no matter what you launch, if you hope that you simply put your submission out there, and it will end up in the top 5 of the day, most certainly this is not going to happen. If you wanna get there, you have to come up with a plan to promote your listing and get the upvotes." \- so, it looks like that was (at least partially) wrong.

Why would you think that it's not possible to launch it more or less organically? It's definitely possible here on HN, why would PH should be very different?

At the very end - don't focus on promoting that much, especially artificially, build the product people love and you get your front page.

<comment><USER3> > It's definitely possible here on HN

It's possible here, but the majority of Show HN submissions don't get much attention either.

<comment><USER4> Is there a way to make it here? Is it community building or sg else?

<comment><USER3> It's possible to have a nice launch at HN, but whether or not that's going to translate into much value is another question. If you have a really great product that everyone just loves, and it's free (or free to try), and it's built for viral growth - then getting to the top spot at HN might jump start things for you.

But to anyone who doesn't manage to get any traction on HN or PH, I wouldn't worry about it too much - it's one of those things that's nice if it happens but you shouldn't be counting on it in your business plan.

<comment><USER4> Thank you for this. As a new maker, I am trying to understand the market and how things work. My product has b2b and b2c (free) offerings and I would like to hope that it's useful. But you are right, making it here should not be the main point of the business plan.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Six Motivational Cards for Coders - <AUTHOR> http://blog.tomgibara.com/post/4143779136/six-motivational-cards-for-coders

<comment><USER2> /* Don't believe the comments lies. */</comment>


India OKs censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/india-oks-censoring-facebook-google-microsoft-youtube/7308

<comment><USER2> The current Indian government is run by a bunch of amateurs (if not outright criminals). They keep concocting fake issues to keep people from the real issues. Their days are numbered.

<comment><USER3> The dumb move by the government to censor the internet earlier was catapulted by opposition from every corner and then came headless high court rule and the signal from the court to continue with the censorship. I see this as a dumb and the dumber show.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 2 things: Google does censor youtube - via responding to user complaints. And I bet Google /could/ censor the rest if it wanted to. And doesn't it already, anyway, for China?

But then if not, who would lose more, Google + Facebook or India?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not really. Google gave up on censoring search results in China and simply moved its operations to Hong Kong ([http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/googles- china-...](http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/googles-china- problem-leaves-opening-for-bing-in-china.ars)).

China blocks websites that don't follow its rules. India is threatening to do something similar. From this article: "Like China, we too can block such websites," said Justice Suresh Kait.

<comment><USER5> Google is back in China, but it looks like they are somehow not censoring themselves there: [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020343690457715...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203436904577155003097277514.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEADTop).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This trend will go on, other 3rd world countries will do the same. The problem is that "the internet" doesn't have the political clout that mainstream media has.

The good news is that most of these countries are too corrupt and disorganized to make this censorship work. It might even actually help improve anti- censorship technologies.

<comment><USER7> _This trend will go on, other 3rd world countries will do the same._

The term "3rd world" is a bit outdated (it's from the Cold War to describe neutral and non-aligned countries) and is derogatory. It would be more accurate to say India is a developing country.

<comment><USER8> 3rd world=developing

I don't see anything derogatory about it.

<comment><USER9> Just because you dont see it means its NOT? Google it up! I think there are a significant number of Indian people visiting this site. I see no reason why a less offensive term like BRIC or developing countries can't be used.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I am confused why google is repeatedly being included in this list. From what I read in the newspapers the (perceived) problem was that posts on facebook are promoting enmity between religious organizations. Setting aside the validity of this claim, what does google have to do with this problem ?

</comment><comment><USER11> No surprise. All movies are reviewed by the Indian government's censor board. The 'world's largest democracy' has a long way to go!

</comment><comment><USER12> Looks like a new reason to emigrate is being created this days:

Q: "Why do you want to live in Japan?" A: "Gastronomy, more jobs and no internet censorship"

</comment><comment><USER13> India needs to correct their shit, or US companies need to begin pulling out. The dilemma is that any company worth their commercial salt is not going to give up the business opportunity that is the Indian economy.

<comment><USER10> I am an Indian and I used to think that one safeguard that we have against state sponsored censorship is that there are many companies outsourcing work to India, however I have recently realized that the outsourcing situation is more or less the same in China and they censor the web without qualms.</comment></comment>


Remove the requirement for IE10 to be installed first prior to VS 2013 - <AUTHOR> http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/4153040-remove-the-requirment-for-internet-explorer-10-to-

<comment><AUTHOR> This was inspired by the post about Google Docs dropping IE9 support. Also see the fixes in Update 1 RC for IE9 support: [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2911573](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2911573)</comment>


The full expressive power of flowcharts – but in a simple checklist UI - <AUTHOR> https://tallyfy.com/features/ <comment><AUTHOR> Happy to share more with anyone interested!

Tallyfy is an app that helps you track repeatable processes like client onboarding, etc.</comment>


Web Pages to image files program - <AUTHOR> http://iecapt.sourceforge.net/

<comment><AUTHOR> I needed something like this for one of the projects I'm doing and I found this program to help me out. Unfortunately it looks as if it only works with Windows at the moment.

I'm still trying to find a web based one with an API. Maybe if I have the time I can try to create one. Not sure how I would approach it since I've never really done image manipulation.

<comment><USER2> It also looks like it's at version "works for me," so you're probably out of luck if it doesn't work for you.

There's actually a fair number of these popping up as of late, webkit2png (<http://www.paulhammond.org/webkit2png/>) and khtml2png (<http://khtml2png.sourceforge.net/>) are the other ones I've seen recently...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Paparazzi is a similar program that uses Safari on OS X.

<http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/>

</comment><comment><USER4> I was looking for something like this just last week.

This is a web service that will produce web page images, but it's useless to me because they don't specify which browser's rendering they're capturing: <http://webshots.velocitysc.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> There's gnome-web-photo that uses Gecko.

</comment><comment><USER6> Kevin Burton of Tailrank released his own thumbnailing code earlier this year at [http://feedblog.org/2008/05/10/tailranks-open-source-web- thu...](http://feedblog.org/2008/05/10/tailranks-open-source-web-thumbnail- backend/) .</comment>


Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter finishes at $3,335,250 - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure/?

<comment><USER2> A periodic topic that has come up on HN in the past few weeks is how people can make money in a non-copyright world. A common example brought up is the commission model, where payment is made in advance, but I think people subconsciously discard it as a real possibility because they can't imagine how it could actually happen.

Here it is.

Yes, Double Fine (and Brian Fargo with the Wasteland 2) come in with a pre- existing reputation worth millions, but while you're there, poke around on Kickstarter's other projects. I never had before, and I am astonished what is on there and has been successfully funded with no apparent name-brand power that I'm aware of. Just look at this stuff: [http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games/most- fu...](http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games/most-funded#p1)

There are things that targeted $10,000 and handily blew past them.

Relevant to HN's interests as I browse through: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meetpoint/startup- fever-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meetpoint/startup-fever-the- board-game-0?ref=category)

Anyway, back to my point. I think it's time to stop theorizing about how maybe the commission model might work someday in the future maybe sorta, because it's happening _now_. (The fact that I never even considered browsing around on Kickstarter is itself a testament to my own subconscious bias against the idea.)

<comment><USER3> It's a good point and a step on the way; though these projects are not copyright free (the doublefine one is DRM-free, but not free).

Will people pledge money, knowing that the game will be equally available to everyone (i.e. they aren't getting exclusive access in return)? Maybe special bonuses (like doublefine's) will compensate? But what if they also are copyright free...?

Perhaps people paying more than the purchase price indicates that they don't mind others getting it for less? Here are the distributions (the last three aren't representative, because the number of units was limited):

      $    15      47,946
      $    30      24,636
      $    60       1,090
      $   100      11,530
      $   250         900
      $   500         148
      $ 1,000         100  SOLD OUT
      $ 5,000          10  SOLD OUT
      $10,000           4  SOLD OUT

A game on kickstarter that's free for everyone else would test this. _EDIT_ this free comic + paid hardcopy seems close <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3701721> (raised $1,254,120)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Seems to be the start of something big, Wasteland 2 launched today on kickstarted and is about to hit $400,000. <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2>

<comment><USER5> Wasteland 2 being successful is far more impressive to me than Double Fine Adventure.

DFA was a perfect storm. Amazing and funny front man in Tim Shafer. A proven studio that has released multiple games of similar small scope in recent years. Plus a pair of guys (Tim + Ron Gilbert) who practically invented the genre in the early 90s. Amazing, awesome, and wonderful that they were so successful but not necessarily a sign of things to come.

Wasteland 2 on the other is a different story. A front man with strong pedigree, but most people have never heard of. A game that came out in 1988 and only ever sold 100k units (plus lord knows how many pirated copies). A studio that few have heard of.

With DFA it's easy to say that this Kickstarter fad is just a fad. With Wasteland 2 it shows to have a little more leg. I can't wait to see what large scale project is successful next.

<comment><USER6> > A game that came out in 1988 and only ever sold 100k units (plus lord knows > how many pirated copies).

In those days 100,000 units sold meant a big hit. The original sales numbers for Secret of Monkey Island were in that neighborhood.

<comment><USER7> My first game for the Commodore 64, a port, sold 18,000 copies. It was considered a big hit at that time, 1983.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This was an amazing success especially given no equity traded hands. Game publishers shouldn't be the only ones worried.

While I don't see it being easy to do initial angel funding on Kickstarter, it clearly is possible to raise significant amounts of money if you either have a good product and/or a name.

<comment><USER9> Tim Schafer said it in an interview (with NPR I believe) this isn't replacing traditional publishers (yet followed by evil laugh).

I think the two can coexist. This was a great way to revive a game genre with following that is still to small for a AAA publisher to go after.

I think people who want to be successful with crowdsourcing like this will need to follow that pattern and attack small undeserved niche markets.

<comment><USER10> Do you mean "underserved"?

I agree that the two can coexist (and probably have to). Kickstarter might work for areas with untapped potential when the game is published by a recognized personality with public goodwill on their side. But to be honest, to actually do something novel and unproven, or with a budget that is larger than goodwill can provide, someone needs to take a bigger risk. And to make that happen the I think the risk-takers will need equity. So while I am happy to see this Kickstarter project grow so big, I don't think traditional publishing should or will go away, lest we end up with only the games that someone can pitch to public backers in a Kickstarter video.

<comment><USER11> With the recent crowdfunding bill obama just signed, I hope to see a kickstarter-like site that offers equity instead of "rewards". There are lots of businesses that don't work well as kickstarters, but could work with an equity model.

<comment><USER10> Even so, I have my doubts that mob mentality and viral marketing will prove to be reliable diviners of good investments. That said, they may be every bit as good as say, a gated community of silicon valley entrepreneurs and angel investors. After all, in a sort of perverse coincidence, these people purport to predict mob mentality and viral potential. Maybe crowd-funding is just trading the experience and insider knowledge of the investor community to cut out the middleman.

In any case, I fully expect both sources of funding to produce plenty of gems, so I would fight to make sure both can survive and be strong.

<comment><USER12> The main thing crowd-funding has over big investors is that rather than having to predict what the mob will be interested in, the mob can be part of the investment process.

Sure, they might not be as good at judging potential to execute as a seasoned team of investors, but they'll be a lot better at gauging interest levels.

I also wouldn't underestimate the potential of having a lot of tiny investors becoming product evangelists; if you've got a thousand people putting $50 apiece into a project, that's not only a thousand first users, it's also a thousand real people that will happily post links to Facebook, mention the product in a blog, recommend it to their friends, etc. Especially because they presumably were interested in it in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I loved Tim's (approximate) celebration quote: "I don't want to say this is the end of the game publishing as we know it...... I'm sure a few games will still need publishers." Classic.

</comment><comment><USER14> <https://twitter.com/#!/TimOfLegend/status/178928061285277699>

"$2.7MM!?! And it looks like our hourly rate is going up! Um, people... three million dollars... that was the budget of Grim Fandango!"

This has been such fun to watch happen.

</comment><comment><USER15> After watching the success of Double Fine Adventure and the Lois CK video. Do you guys think it's reasonable to assume that in the future, big hollywood blockbusters would be funded this way?

A common argument from copyright supporters is that it wouldn't be possible to fund such movies without heavy copyright enforcement. But after watching the recent success of Kickstarter and Lois CK. I feel it's getting easier to convince artists that a better world is possible.

<comment><USER16> Hollywood blockbusters are more of an investment banking scheme than a way to fund the making of movies. I don't mean to be cynical, really. But the Hollywood (in particular) works is incompatible with this funding model.

<comment><USER15> Could you expand on that, or point to where I can read more on it?

<comment><USER17> Try: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting> for a starting point (esp. 'Examples'). Also note that states often provide generous tax subsidies to film projects filmed in their territory. Some films can profit their investors without making any money at the box office (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe_Boll>)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Plus some private backers gave $110,000 (Tim Schafer said that on the live stream from their offices) so that plus Kickstarter would be: $3,445,250

<comment><USER19> Wasn't that included in the total? I wasn't sure what he said specifically.

<comment><USER20> No, it wasn't: [http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/the_partys_over_but_...](http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/the_partys_over_but_the_adventure_has_just_begun/)

So they really got what they wanted plus three million in the end. (Minus ten or so percent, right? Five for Kickstarter, the rest for Amazon.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Happy to see they put some of the extra money to adding Mac support. I wish I saw that news before the window closed, since I ignored the project on first hearing about it because they were going windows-only.

Now I see that the Wasteland 2 project also says it is Windows only, but "Maybe" they will add mac compatibility if they get 1.5mil.

This suggests that Kickstarter needs a new feature: Pledges that are conditional not just on the project succeeding, but pledges that are conditional on the project exceeding successive tiers of ambition.

<comment><USER22> I think Kickstarter will start to add more features like that, now that these giant successes have started. Previously, the money was so low that it wasn't really worth doing things like that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> They're having fun with it already- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdq8odshMls>

</comment><comment><USER24> seems like the idea of platform for funding ideas (kickstarter) has proved itself as a valid idea.

<comment><USER22> I think it's a bit early to decide that. DoubleFine Adventure and Wasteland 2 are really big hits with the fans, and this is the first time this has happened. There's a lot of emotion involved here.

If this were new IP and/or new devs, it wouldn't be nearly so crazy.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it's not going to be a free ride in the future just because these 2 groups did it. They're going to have to work hard for it... Probably a lot harder than these 2 projects did.

<comment><USER25> This isn't the first time this has happened. Remember that little game "minecraft"? The game was effectively developed live while pre-orders were sold that allowed people to play the pre-release code. It raised more money than both of these games before it was released. Enough to create a game company with several employees working on other games as well.

The fact should be firmly established now: it is feasible to bootstrap the funding of games and even the creation of game companies.

Of course it's not going to be easy, and for some people it's going to be harder than for others. But it's always been that way. Making games has always been hard, it's a rather brutal industry that is not very rewarding for most of the people in it.

<comment><USER22> That was different. When I bought Minecraft, I was able to say to myself, "For this price, if I never get an update, it was worth it."

That's not the case with these kickstarters.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> They don't just have 87,000 backers. They have a tribe of 87 000!!!. This is absolutely impressive!!!

I am sure some shameless lobbyists or companies are thinking of how to put Kickstarter out of business.

</comment><comment><USER27> Shame that I didn't see this before, I would have sent some cash! I'd love to play a new adventure game by Shaffer/Gilbert.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> and it still seems to be rising, not sure how that's happening after the time was reached, maybe some are still completing transactions?

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm a backer, and I'm super-excited. I'm probably a weird one, though, because I don't think I've ever played a Tim Shafer game before.

One of the projects that got me really excited was Nataly Dawn's:

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/555488012/nataly- dawns-f...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/555488012/nataly-dawns-first- solo-album)

She wanted to raise $20,000 to record her first solo album. Nope, she got $104,788. This is the kind of thing that can change someone's life, and it's exciting to see it happen to independent artists.

Plus, people aren't "voted off the island" each week...

I'd love to see stats about Kickstarter - for each category, what are the percentages for funded or not. For each category, a graph plotting how much people asked for, and how much they received. Stuff like that.

</comment><comment><USER29> Several impressive numbers in there.

100 backers at $1,000 a shot.

$38 per pledge.

Oh and exceeding the goal by nearly $3 million.

<comment><USER30> Awesome stuff! Truly a great day for the project, Kickstarter and the internet overall. Not only traditional publishers trembling, but their establishment middlemen financiers...only place to go from here is up with any single inventor or team with a concept that can catch the eye of the funding crowd!

<comment><USER31> Traditional publishers trembling? That would seem unlikely to me given that one of the legends of the game development community only managed to raise a budget equivalent to an average XBLA game.

<comment><USER32> An _average_ XBLA game makes millions?

I need to change careers.

<comment><USER33> He was talking about budget, not profits. I don't know about average but I wouldn't be surprised if quite a bit of XBLA/PSN ( __not __XBLIG) are made at around that budget point (AAA games on the other hand commonly have budgets in the 10s of millions, some ever more).

The _common_ XBLA game probably loses money.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN - Browser based collaborative IDE? - <AUTHOR>

I'm teaching programming and web development and decided to try out Cloud9 IDE.
However it had trouble for my "student". She had a Windows 7 PC and C9 had troubles running even on the latest Chrome and FF.
Are there any alternatives available?
Can be really simple. Not interested in GitHub integration or deployment support right now.
- Fb <comment><USER2> Besides tools that allow code execution like <http://codepad.org/> or <http://repl.it/languages>, I'm not aware of anything beyond C9.</comment>


A tech billionaire blocked public beach access - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/12/a-tech-billionaire-blocked-public-beach-access-a-court-just-forced-him-to-open-it-up/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_pn-billionaire-beach-1140am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4f8dfa77dfe7 <comment><USER2> While the guy is probably a jerk, it doesn't appear as cut and dry from reading the article. Unless I'm mistaken in my reading it was a private beach that had been previously open to the public versus a public beach that went private. Not veering into my opinion of private coastlines, it appears that he did violate a law by changing the public access, though he will probably just price it out of reach for most people out of spite since the law doesn't say anything about how much he can charge for parking. Which was what was monetized by the previous owners.

<comment><USER3> You are mistaken. All beaches in California are public, up to the "mean high- tide line". The previous owner of the private land adjacent to the beach welcomed public access and allowed public use of his land. But the beach itself, along with the right of way providing access to it, have always been public.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In a town near where I used to live there is a country house set in a beautiful deer park. While owned by the lord of the manor, the park had traditionally been open to the locals to use. Until one day the lord at the time decided he'd had enough of the riff raff tramping through his grounds and put big iron gates over the entrance. This was so unpopular that the locals ganged up one night and threw the gates from their hinges. Wisely, the lord took the hint and the gates have remained open ever since.

Rich people limiting access to previously public spaces has rarely gone down well.

<comment><USER2> But it wasn't a public space in your story. It was private land he graciously allowed the public to use until they damaged his property to the point that he felt he had to restrict access to the property to protect it for future generations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> HN has rich chronicle of Vinod Khosla's long-running war on the people of California:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Vinod%20Khosla%20beach&sort=by...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Vinod%20Khosla%20beach&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

</comment><comment><USER6> Ah! Billionaries.</comment>


Ask HN: What team chat tool do you recommend? Hipchat, Flowdock, Hall, Campfire? - <AUTHOR>

Hey guys -
What team chat tools are you guys using? Having a strong mobile component is necessary since we all travel a lot! Hipchat is rated quite low/buggy on the App Store... Any others I'm overlooking/missing? Why do you use what you use, and how big is your team?
Thanks!
R <comment><USER2> We're still using Skype and starting to introduce irc.

One main advantage that Skype had going for it was a little known feature on the Mac Skype 5 and 6 clients: ChatStyles [1]

The Mac Skype client used a copy of webkit to render the conversations and at one point provided instructions to let you hook into that and style the conversations the way you like with HTML templates, css and javascript.

We took advantage of this feature it to add communication short cuts, the main example being that if someone typed #1234 in a chat and the person receiving the message was using our ChatStyle #1234 would become a clickable link to the appropriate bug in our issue tracking system.

Skype silently killed this feature in an update a few weeks ago, so our thought is to go with IRC and and use an IRC bot that can provide these kinds of shortcuts.

If there is another chat system that allows you to customize these kinds of things, I'd love to hear about it.

[1] [http://joemiller.me/2011/05/24/alternative-skins-for- skype-5...](http://joemiller.me/2011/05/24/alternative-skins-for-skype-5-on- mac-osx/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Great question and something I'm interested in finding out as well. We currently use Skype but I'm not totally happy with it.

I've looked into a few others but if I'm going to go through the trouble of switching I'd like to find something HIPPA compliant so we can use it for more than general basic conversation...

</comment><comment><USER4> Highly recommend running your own Jabber server and using Pidgin/Adium. Easy to use, works everywhere. You can run it on your private network.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yammer - anyone?

</comment><comment><USER6> IRC

<comment><USER7> sure IRC is great, but for mobile?

<comment><USER6> I've often thought there was space for a nice IRC wrapper in the form of an app. I don't need to type out /msg nickserv on my phone, but a series of buttons to help with things like that would be awesome.</comment></comment></comment>


Qt 5.5.0 Releases, including Bluetooth LE, new SSL for iOS/OSX, 3D support - <AUTHOR> http://www.qt.io/download-open-source/

<comment><USER2> Qt is wonderful. However they abandoned the Indie licensing. Now it's more expensive for developers, compared to the monthly price of Xamarin, for example.</comment>


Interactive 3D ASCII scenes - <AUTHOR> https://yeahpython.github.io/game/game.html <comment><USER2> About WASD controls and alternative layouts: apparently JS supports key codes.

[1] [https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/event_key_keycode.asp](https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/event_key_keycode.asp) [2] [https://keycode.info/](https://keycode.info/)

Edit: Apparently it is deprecated:

[3] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEve...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEvent/keyCode) [4] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEve...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEvent/which)

Also there doesn't seem to be a way to detect the user's preferred layout before pressing any keys, that would make printing the instructions hard.

<comment><USER3> The linked article [3] links to KeyboardEvent.code which is not deprecated and still supports physical layout

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Since the movement speed is tied to requestAnimationFrame, the speed of the game changes with the update frequency of the user's monitor. Since all my monitors are at 144Hz this game is ridiculously fast for me.

<comment><USER5> To clarify, there's nothing wrong with tying your movement to requestAnimationFrame() and it is in fact encouraged, but you must modulate it by the frame delta.

<comment><USER6> That is only true if you write your own physics. Otherwise, your physics framerate should be fixed, usually at 30FPS. Many physics engines don't support variable timestep, and in the ones that do, it can lead to instability and general weirdness.

<comment><USER7> Weird statement. All games and game engines I've worked with have used frame deltas to modulate everything from animation and movement to AI and UI's. I've worked on mobile games to AAA games.

Can you link to a physics engine that doesn't support variable timestep?

<comment><USER6> You definitely use frame deltas when updating things (I mean, how else would you know how much time has passed), but when doing physics, that frame delta is constant for the lifetime of the simulation.

Box2D User Manual > We also don't like the time step to change much. A variable time step produces variable results, which makes it difficult to debug. So don't tie the time step to your frame rate (unless you really, really have to).

[https://stackoverflow.com/a/21273467](https://stackoverflow.com/a/21273467) (Bullet) > maxSubSteps: Should generally stay at one so Bullet interpolates current values on its own. A value of zero implies a variable tick rate, meaning Bullet advances the simulation exactly timeStep seconds instead of interpolating. This feature is buggy and not recommended.

Edit: The archived version of the (404-ing) Bullet Wiki also says "Bullet maintains an internal clock, in order to keep the actual length of ticks constant. This is pivotally important for framerate independence. The third parameter is the size of that internal step."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Love it! Just a note, it is not actually 3D, it is an isometric representation of a 2d scene, as same as Monument Valley. Game devs call it 2.5D :)

<comment><USER9> Why doesn't it count as 3D? I seem to be able to move the character in 3 dimensions. Some parts of the floor are higher than others. What else does 3D mean?

Could you represent this map using just two components for each point? I don't see how.

<comment><USER10> I believe usually "3D" implies that some change of perspective is possible, e.g. by changing the orientation of the camera.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The github user gave me hope it would somehow be a python-in-the-browser thing somehow.

But I can quell that disappointment and say how cool and exciting this is (if your target gameplaying public is the kind of people who hang out on HN; those who haven't seen a terminal aren't going to grok the graphic style).

Its years since I've done a game jam like ludum dare, but I hope some of HN get inspired to enter that kind of thing! Good luck and happy coding!

</comment><comment><USER12> Woke up this morning feeling quite crappy. Then saw this. All faith in humanity (And the internet) has been restored. Thank you! [On a sidenote: How would one go about learning to build this? Any learning resources on understanding all the math and physics behind this?]

<comment><AUTHOR> This was built through incremental edits from a Python proof-of-concept, which you can see here: [https://github.com/yeahpython/ascii- renderer/blob/master/fun...](https://github.com/yeahpython/ascii- renderer/blob/master/funblocks.py) It doesn't have any real physics, but reading through it might help reveal how the rendering works.

For the physics, I'm basically colliding against a grid of tiles, so this might be a helpful tutorial to do the same: [https://jonathanwhiting.com/tutorial/collision/](https://jonathanwhiting.com/tutorial/collision/)

<comment><USER12> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Wish it had mobile touch event support to experience it. Looks interesting

</comment><comment><USER14> This is something out of my wildest game-dev dreams

</comment><comment><USER15> Very cool. But feedback in case developer is here: the jumping physics could easily be much smoother and prettier, and the surface feels icy and hard to control.

</comment><comment><USER16> Mind bogglingly awesome. I was just dreaming about a 3D ASCII engine. But I would have rendered to planes and used billboarding ;)

</comment><comment><USER17> Why WASD ? A lots of people on the Internet doesn't have a Qwerty keyboard.

<comment><USER18> Wait. What do you use for PC games by default in those countries?

<comment><USER19> Big games already have the right bindings, the others have to be configured. Sometimes it is not possible, and we just pass.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Great job! I'm amazed.

The game reminds me of Monument Valley [1].

[1] [https://www.monumentvalleygame.com/](https://www.monumentvalleygame.com/)

<comment><USER21> also Edge Extended [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_(video_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_\(video_game\))

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Now multiplayer this gem à la agar.io/slither.io and maybe pull in a little revenue through ads.

</comment><comment><USER23> Reminds me of the old C64 game "Realm of Impossibility"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGBA0FG7Gk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGBA0FG7Gk)

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm not sure if second level is glitching for me, or if it is supposed to be a 3D representation of a hypercube - traveling in any direction shows more cubes with parts carved out

<comment><USER25> It's supposed to be like that, just jump into one of the cubes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Looks cool, but I can't try it out on mobile. Good job regardless!

</comment><comment><USER27> Would be better if it supported arrows in addition to WASD for controls: it is literally unplayable internationally.

<comment><USER28> It does support arrows though. Worked fine for me at least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is crazy cool. How do you create the maps ? After all, they are 3 dimensional not flat !

</comment><comment><USER30> would love to see how this could transform into a rougelike (or a rougelike with the same aesthetics). really cool job! will poke at the source.

<comment><USER31> Inventory, items, enemies, weapons, towns, crafting, destructible levels (could a voxel based system work in ASCII?), ...

Someone farther up linked to Monument Valley [0], and that has a really pleasant rotating mechanic so that the player can have more than one view of a level / set-piece.

A little wave-collapse [1] function for automated level building.

I suppose I could go on. This does fall into the trap of "why don't we just ... ?" which I don't like. But I also like to dream a little.</comment></comment>


How the United States created Vladimir Putin - <AUTHOR> https://reees.macmillan.yale.edu/vladimir-pozner-how-united-states-created-vladimir-putin <comment><USER2> We really needed a Marshall plan-like response to the collapse of the USSR. Something to instil democratic values and ensure enough propserity and participation. Instead we sent over academic economists who advised to dismantle everything overnight because the magic of the free market would solve all problems. This leading to chaos and the pillaging of the state, forming a new oligarch class.

It's hard to see how to put this genie back in the bottle, especially now with someone like Putin having such a firm grip on everything in Russia, but also even now interfering in our own democratic system with half of that system shockingly acting complicit with it.</comment>


How to Build SaaS as Quick as Possible - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/how-to-push-out-saas-as-quick-as-possible-12011b049173 <comment><AUTHOR> I always spend soo much time choosing a tech stack when starting a new project, that I wondered whether there could be a completely different approach to building (web) apps. How can one use pre-existing code in order to save as much time as possible?

Always glad to hear your comments and how you go about this task of deciding how to build apps.</comment>


How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made - <AUTHOR> http://www.outsideonline.com/2017711/path-beta-flash-resistance-route-setters <comment><USER2> For the unfamiliar: Anytime you are getting belayed with a rope, you are not bouldering. All but the very top picture are considered "top-roping". Bouldering problems are much shorter (generally under 20ft) and require you to exert a shorter, but greater amount of effort when compared to roped-climbs of a similar grade of difficulty. It's similar to comparing a sprint and marathon.

<comment><USER3> Hey at least the videos are there - be sure to check it out. I've seen it before so I've realized what the description was about which made it a lot more interesting

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It was really fun watching climbers figure out the 360 degree campus move described in the article.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69YVimEOX3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69YVimEOX3I)

Problem 4 starts somewhere around 2:07:00.

Adam Ondra skipped the 360 by starting with arms crossed, somewhere around 2:28:??. I don't think he was the only one doing that, just the one I remember. These contests show amazing ingenuity by both the setters and the climbers.

Bouldering should be in the Olympics in 2020. As an occasional boulderer happy with the sport's current reach and feel, I'm not sure how I feel about that... it'll sure be fun to watch though.

<comment><USER5> _> Bouldering should be in the Olympics in 2020_

Climbing has been shortlisted among other sports that might get added, and the proposition includes lead, speed and bouldering. Whether it will really happen is doubtful (final decision will be announced in August 2016).

I think it would be great, but I should hope that the traditionally festive ambiance of climbing competitions will not get tainted by the ridiculously serious Olympics mindset.

<comment><USER6> omg I would watch the hell out of this

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> When did the setter worship start? The gym I go to, Brooklyn boulders in somerville ma, has pictures of the setters and little bios hanging on the walls... for sure it is a creative process but give someone a bucket of holds and an hour and you'll have something that is fun. A gym I used to go to used to let pretty much anyone set, just had to ask.

I think this explains the rating "deflation" where there aren't really any V0s because there is so much pressure to be known as a "hard" setter? Or possibly the dedicated setters are so experienced they don't remember what a V0 actually is? Either way I've found it to be an issue when trying to introduce climbing to novices.

<comment><USER8> Hm, odd that you mention V0 as an example of deflation because at most gyms I've been to V0 is an example of grade /inflation/.

In the Hueco V-scale, V0 is supposed to be equivalent to 5.10 in the Yosemite Decimal System. But not a single gym I've been to sets V0s that are as hard as 5.10. Some gyms introduce a "VB" grade for beginners but their V0 is typically not as hard as the 5.10 they set on ropes.

I've always chalked this up (heh) to a need to make an enjoyable "first climb" experience for new climbers (who are typically messing around on boulders to see if they like it before learning to belay). If you start bouldering and can't even do the easiest problem in the gym then it's unlikely you're going to have fun and come back.

Unfortunately this leads to disappointing (and in some cases, dangerous!) first outdoor experiences since you try out a V3 and get absolutely shut down because your gym's whole rating system is biased by 1-3 grades.

<comment><USER9> I've experienced what both of you are saying. Some gyms I go to have exclusively hard stuff that is accurately related in relation to outdoors, and then others have had crazy inflated rates. I find mainly lead routes inflated though. I don't think any 12a 5.12a I've lead inside was really a 12a.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Something that really distinguishes bouldering gyms, for me, is the quality of the route setting.

I've been in gyms in which there are routes that are interesting and challenging at all levels. There are several variables the route setter can manipulate:

* Various strength areas (fingers/wrist, upper arms/upper back, core, legs)

* Flexibility

* Balance

* Skill moves (matches, switches, flagging, heel/toe hooks, etc)

* Dynamic moves (jump and grab, throws, etc.)

I usually climb ~V5 routes, but a well set V2 that properly exercises all of these different areas can still be fun to goof around on.

On the other hand, I've also climbed in gyms in which the routes are set almost solely on the strength variables. Separating a V3 and a V6 are only bigger, stronger moves. This makes for pretty dull climbing (in my opinion).

</comment><comment><USER11> "But the setters are the wizards who really run the show. They are to a climbing wall what coders are to a video game, the geeks who keep you up all night obsessing over that winning sequence"

This analogy with coders is pretty sweet. I really miss indoor climbing and bouldering, such fantastic mental exercises (which ironically relax you quite a bit even though your whole body aches) after a long day of work in front of a computer.

<comment><USER2> Yeah I'd also be surprised if many programmers weren't climbers as well. Those two activities are basically my favorite two things to do, and I believe they complement each other very well. Much like programming, it gets harder the better you get at it.

<comment><USER12> Climbing seems (outsider here) to provide a good combination of technical and physical challenges. I've been getting back into martial arts (BJJ and, now, wrestling, hopefully boxing soon) and have found the same thing there. Ballroom dance, again, provides a nice combination of physical and technical challenges.

I think that's what appeals to programmers (and similarly technically inclined folks) about these hobbies and sports. You learn some basics, you develop the skill and strength to perform them, and then you start applying the knowledge in new and more creative ways to solve the problems you face on the boulder, in the ring or on the dance floor.

<comment><USER13> Where do you find wrestling as an adult?

<comment><USER12> The MMA gym I attend for BJJ. The owner was a wrestler in HS and college. There are a bunch of students (younger men than me) who have some background in wrestling (HS, college or both, some still in that) so he started a couple wrestling sessions a week for them. Also, some of the MMA guys wanted to learn a bit of wrestling to add to their skill set if they didn't have it already.

EDIT: Random plug, though this probably won't apply to anyone here: Rush MMA in downtown Macon, GA.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> At one point a few years ago when Max was setting routes in Boston, he was free-soloing a 14d at Rumney (one of the harder climbs in the world, without a rope, probably 40-50' tall), and fell on the last move of the climb. He broke both his legs but survived, and later went on to make it through to the finals of a bouldering competition with boots on both legs.

Unbelievable natural talent - I've seen him out at Dogpatch in SF easily climbing v11's.

<comment><USER15> Max's accident was described in the article. Or did the article get it wrong?

<comment><USER9> They got it right actually, supernova is only about 30ft, super short lead route, shorter than a lot of highball boulders out there. Which explains why he tried to solo it. I don't think many people are trying to solo long single pitch sport routes that hard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Just for the record, Max, is a _beast_ of a climber. When I moved to the East Bay, he finished one of the hardest outdoor climbs right in front of me one afternoon in Berkeley. Incredibly strong & gifted climber (and route-setter, apparently!)

</comment><comment><USER9> There are some good videos[1] going through the mindset of setters as they set problems that I feel explains the concept super well.

Also, another crossover between technology and climbing that has been doing the rounds recently is this really interesting gamification of bouldering[2]. The guy uses a projector to put spots on a bouldering wall that the players have to hit. Fastest time wins.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feveaPjUb4E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feveaPjUb4E) [2] [http://joinrandori.com/blog](http://joinrandori.com/blog)

</comment><comment><USER17> The one annoying thing to me about route setting is there's seemingly no science to it (or at least I didn't get that from the article). I may climb a V5 at one gym, but not be able to crack a V3 at another. It would be nice to know if i'm really progressing or if Router Setter Bob just keeps labeling a V3 as a V5.

<comment><USER10> Startup idea:

Make special climbing holds with RFID scanners in them. These are your starting holds and your finishing holds.

Sell wristbands or something with RFID tags in them. RFID tag is coded to a climber. Upon starting a route, the start hold scans your chip, and upon finishing (if you finish) it gets scanned.

Now you can use an Elo rating algorithm (think chess ratings, or various video games use it now, too) to rate both routes and climbers in a statistically objective way. If there is any intermixing of climbers among gyms who both have this system, you get cross-gym normalization for free.

Finishing a route counts as the climber "defeating" the route. Likewise, failing a route counts as a route "defeating" the climber. This suffices to create a rating, even though the matchmaking graph is bipartite (e.g. there is no way to have two climbers play each other or two routes play each other).

<comment><USER17> Or, you know, just have people scan the QR code of routes they finish.

<comment><USER10> That would be the poor man's solution, but:

* A lot of people don't carry their phone around with them in the gym.

* Added friction. My favorite thing about bouldering (as opposed to top roping or something) is that I can just hop on and off the wall without any setup.

* Doesn't measure failures (unless people manually input them, which is adding friction on top of the annoyance of not finishing the route).

<comment><USER17> Many gyms already have QR codes on their routes and several climbing sites accept them as part of entering your routes and discussing them. But if you want to build a custom piece of hardware and manufacture it, convince people and gyms to buy it and maintain it and then convince an existing site or service to support it, good luck to ya

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Great discussion on bouldering from history to the technical aspects of the holds. The piece isn't for everyone but anyone that wants to know more about climbing in general it gives a great overview of the terminology used and gives you a perspective from seasoned climbers and route setters.

</comment><comment><USER19> Since this seams like the right crowd / article, are Climbing Wall Treadmills worth the money and do they allow for setting the holds? Asking for a community college environment.

<comment><USER20> Yes, they allow setting holds. Can't say if they are worth the money though. I've climbed on a demo and didn't particularly enjoy it. It's better suited for people working on endurance (you can climb vertically for hours) instead of technical ability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up after I'm already intrigued. Are these journalists being paid by word or they're just honestly thinking they are Scott goddamn Fitzgerald?

Worse than that, this particular post doesn't even quite answer the question. Turns out it's pretty much of an art without any rules.

<comment><USER22> Typical fluff piece. Let's face it, bouldering (setting) is pretty boring, the writer has to make it seem "more exciting" than it actually is.

<comment><USER23> As a non-professional route setter I disagree - it's actually a very interesting activity that is part science and part art. It involves a lot of contemplation in the area of physics, body mechanics, and psychology. Additionally it's a lot like game design in that the problem you create will be interacted with extensive, obsessively and can result in significant challenge, reward and frustration by the user.

But I'll admit I didn't read the article, because big media almost always does a terrible job at covering climbing... let alone a niche of climbing that has taken years of practice to understand and appreciate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> How they _are_ made, not _get_ made.

<comment><USER25> They get made by setters and get sent by climbers :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> O RLY? Go track down half a dozen Gill problems and come back and talk to me about what route setters in the gym are doing.</comment>


Ask HN: Provider for Secondary Phone? - <AUTHOR> It's more and more critical to have access to the smartphone, especially when traveling. So much so that I often carry secondary phone on my trips (and was saved by it when my primary phone was damaged).
Also it makes sense to use other provider for the secondary phone (my primary provider is T-Mobile).
What (virtual) provider do you use for your secondary SIM?
Requirements:
* low ongoing costs
* reasonable data speeds
* no sudden cancelations if not used for awhile
* reasonable international roaming <comment><USER2> I use Ting as my primary phone provider the pricing is great if you're a light user. Their international roaming rates when traveling to first-world or major cities is usually about double the local US rates which is very fair. Do you have an unlocked international cell phone with a dual sim? This can be useful because then you can buy a second data-only sim if it works out to be cheaper which it often does.

<comment><AUTHOR> I use my old iPhone as secondary phone. Dual SIM, while attractive, doesn't work for this scenario (loosing primary phone).

I'm looking at Ting as primary contender for secondary SIM, but was hoping to see more suggestions. :)</comment></comment>


Senate passes controversial cybersecurity bill Cisa 74 to 21 - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/cisa-cybersecurity-bill-senate-vote <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10461526](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10461526)</comment>


View Issue/Pull Request Buttons for Gmail - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1891-view-issue-pull-request-buttons-for-gmail

<comment><USER2> We set this up for Meldium a little while ago and our customers _love_ it. We wrote up a HOWTO here: [http://blog.meldium.com/home/2014/5/19/setting-up- gmail-inbo...](http://blog.meldium.com/home/2014/5/19/setting-up-gmail-inbox- actions)

<comment><USER3> As did we at Rainforest! It's a nice little detail and a pretty easy hack: [https://blog.rainforestqa.com/2014-04-24-howto-gmail- action-...](https://blog.rainforestqa.com/2014-04-24-howto-gmail-action- integration/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So thats what those are! I started noticing these buttons last week with my subscriptions. Looks like Mailchimp wrote a blog post about it too - [http://blog.mailchimp.com/gmails-inbox-actions-work-with- mai...](http://blog.mailchimp.com/gmails-inbox-actions-work-with-mailchimp/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Before you start implementing this for your own services, make sure you meet the guidelines[1] for being approved by Google. Specifically, you must have a history of sending hundreds of emails a day to gmail users.

This isn't for small projects (yet, at least).

[1] [https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/registering- with...](https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/registering-with-google)</comment>


How can we stop the design thieves? - <AUTHOR> http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/archive/2008/how-can-we-stop-the-thieves/

<comment><USER2> I honestly don't think there's any way to stop people from "stealing," designs like these. It happens to many designers, and it sucks, but the choices are:

\- be angry, but flattered, and let it go

\- sue them for copyright infringement if applicable

If you're a designer or an artist, you take that risk. Look at it this way: if your work is good enough to steal, then you're doing pretty well. If you keep working hard, maybe Apple will rip you off: [http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/05/apples-little-problem- wit...](http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/05/apples-little-problem-with-ripping- off-artists/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder if there are security games to play with javascript.

Have the CSS encrypted in some non-trivial way. Have the JS decrypt it after querying a server for a key. You could do the same with images, or a least their file names.

The query could include a token associated with the machine that served the page, and only the correct tokens would get the correct key.

Just a thought.

</comment><comment><USER4> After reading a few of his blog posts I think he needs to move on. Design is something that is always going to be copied. Especially good designs, he should be proud that people love his designs and copy it or modify it. Well obviously it is not ok if someone rips of the entire site, but inspired designs is never a bad thing. just my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting technical question, but a bad business one.

How does swiped design/css impede your business's ability to prosper?

</comment><comment><USER6> They say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." I guess this guy disagrees.

</comment><comment><USER7> Title typo?

<comment><AUTHOR> fixed

<comment><USER8> It still says "thieves", but the linked article is about plagiarists.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm Apple had this discussion. I'd say just relax...</comment>


Design in tech is stupid - <AUTHOR> http://jeremykooyman.com/design-in-tech-is-stupid/

<comment><USER2> > _So unless you've had your head in the sand over the past year I'm sure > you've noticed your day to day readings have become plagued with people > proclaiming the importance of Design, particularly in the technology > industry._

No, actually it's the inverse. This trend has faded in the past 1-2 years. It's like he's ranting against grunge music in 1996.

> _For instance, the cycling lights they featured prominently don't cast > sufficient light to ride in dark conditions, have a horrible attachment > mechanism that doesn't work on things that aren't tubes, and apparently the > battery mounts break easily. But you can lock them to your d-lock so you > don't have to walk around with your lights when you park your bike, so lets > give them an award nomination even though they fail at their one primary > function OF BEING LIGHTS._

That (and the other examples he gives) doesn't prove that "design in tech is stupid". Just that this product's functional design is bad, and that its creators should have paid attention to the other necessary attributes for such a device.

Remember the "Design is how it works" thing et al. But even if we are to think of design as merely the "cosmetic" part, then again, given two functionaly identical products, with the same capabilities, people would pick the more nicely designed one over the cruder looking version. That's because being pleasant to look at is also a feature (some people can't understand that, but there are ancient, $500 billion / year industries like fashion that work on this very principle, so it's not like it's some kind of passing fad).

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the article is getting at the "design is form vs design is experience" debate, and actually uses a good variety of real-world examples.

The title is obviously a bit link-baity/ sensationalist, but this is unfortunately often required in blog-style writing. The title could have been something like "Some people think good design is interesting aesthetics but that doesn't matter if the thing doesn't work right in the first place".

The intention isn't that aesthetics don't matter, its that aesthetic design can complement, but not replace, functionality and user experience.</comment></comment>


4 Ways to Avoid Hiring Your First Employee - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2012/04/4-ways-to-avoid-hiring-your-fi.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> Lots of awful ideas here.

Startups that hire consultants generally do so at their peril. Consultants write code fast, but rarely well. Their incentive is to do what they're told to do quickly, not to build reliable, scalable architecture.

You really don't want to leave core architectural decisions (which every technical hire will be making, at this early a stage) to mercenaries.

</comment><comment><USER3> I agree that leaving the core technical decisions to folks that don't have skin in the game is dangerous. I really like the idea of bartering services. I've done that quite a bit in the past (not for coding but for marketing/graphics/other stuff) and it's an option I think most startups don't explore enough.</comment>


Erlang.org's new website look - <AUTHOR> http://www.erlang.org/news/14

<comment><USER2>
        -module(opine).
        -export([opine/0]).

        -import(io).
        -import(random).

        opine() ->
            io:fwrite("I "),

            X = random:uniform(),
            if
                X > 0.2 ->
                    io:fwrite("love");
                true ->
                    io:fwrite("hate")
            end,

            io:fwrite(" the new website.\n").

<comment><USER3>
        -module(opine).
        -export([opine/0]).

        opine() ->
            S = case random:uniform() > 0.2 of
                   true  -> "love";
                   false -> "hate"
                end,
            io:format("I ~s the new website.~n", [S]).

<comment><USER4>
        -module(opine).
        -export([opine/0]).

        opine() -> io:format(gen_opine(random:uniform())).

        gen_opine(R) when R > 0.2 -> "I love the new website.~n";
        gen_opine(_)              -> "I hate the new website.~n".

<comment><USER3>
        -module(opine).
        -export([opine/0]).

        opine() ->
           io:format("I ~s the new website.~n",[gen_opine(random:uniform())]).

        gen_opine(R) when R > 0.2 -> love;
        gen_opine(_)              -> hate.

<comment><USER4> Heh, won't quite work since you used ~s for atoms, and also, mine is better because it's more flexible if you want to change the format of an opinion for a specific score range ;P

<comment><USER3> Are you sure?

      [~]$ erl
      Erlang R14B02 (erts-5.8.3) [source] [smp:2:2] [rq:2] [async-threads:0] [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]

      Eshell V5.8.3  (abort with ^G)
      1> io:format("~s ~s!~n",[hello, world]).
      hello world!
      ok
      2>

<comment><USER4> I stand corrected!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Love the new design. Now I await for some form of erldocs.com-like documentation browser from them as well!

Citing a simple mailing list demonstration here: [http://www.erlang.org/%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%3E%3Ch1%20style=%22fo...](http://www.erlang.org/%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%3E%3Ch1%20style=%22font- size:60px;%22%3EThis%20shows%20up%3C/h1%3E%3C/div%3E)

<comment><USER6> they have it on the right side of the documentation page which leads to

[http://www.erlang.org/erldoc?q=mensia&x=0&y=0](http://www.erlang.org/erldoc?q=mensia&x=0&y=0)

I still prefer erldocs, as the author I am bias though :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Congratulation! Better look. Under Links->Erlang applications and projects, please consider to include Erlang apps such as Riak, RabbitMQ, CouchDB, ejabberd, Mochiweb, Webmachine and Zotonic.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea. They have ejabberd, yaws, and Wings3D under <http://www.erlang.org/link> . But no CouchDB, RabbitMQ or Riak...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Noticed this yesterday when I was going to download R14B02. Took me a minute to make sure I was on the right site...

Now I can't wait for them to update the online man pages. Something like redis.io documentation would be ideal. A console right there, shows the complexity of functions. I'd be so excited...

<comment><USER4> I'd be happy if they based the docs on erldocs.com - having a decent, live search is crucial.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Err if this is the new site. Shouldn't their "Getting Started" be on left? And then regular links for regular users on Right and top?

Wonder what logic they followed to design the new site.

</comment><comment><USER10> Would be nice to see tryerlang.org integrated with the Quickstart section.

</comment><comment><USER11> That big "e" in that color is giving me a bad association.</comment>


How Your Startup Can Deliver Support That Will Increase Sales - <AUTHOR> http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/21019/11-Ways-Your-Startup-Can-Deliver-Support-That-Will-Increase-Sales.aspx

<comment><USER2> As implied by Kevin at Wufoo, repetitive support requests are a form of waste, since a solution would have saved the time for both you and your customer. I've closed an A/B test or two which was indecisive in terms of impact on sales in favor of the one which caused less support requests. I think one of them in particular (ditching the downloadable version, which literally cut my support load to 10%) probably saved my life this October -- I added something like 20k trials and at previous rates that would have crushed me.

<comment><AUTHOR> yup, great points. the biggest difference between machine and human scaling is evident here. You can spawn up ec2 instances fairly fast to accomodate for machine bottlenecks ie-20k more users. Spawning up the support staff for that is nearly impossible, you'd just drown.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _I suggest that all tickets are made public and viewable by users._

No. Don't do that. If I pay for the service I do expect confidentiality of my support request.

<comment><AUTHOR> We had that happen the other day and they emailed us. A good alternative would be: mark this as private request. Depends on the company, service, issue,etc.

<comment><USER3> And what did you put in Terms of Service.

<comment><AUTHOR> you misunderstood. they didnt want to make the issue public, so they emailed us. they didnt post, thinking it was private and it was public.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you implement and manage subscription plans in your SaaS app? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for suggestions about how to create user facing plans and manage which features are available to them? To my knowledge Chargebee, Recurly, Stripe handle all the billing / subscription management, but do I have to build all the logic around what features are available for which plans in my app, or is there a way to abstract this?<p>For reference, we currently use Stripe for billing, Firebase for authentication, Node.js on the backend, and React on the front end. <comment><USER2> It sounds like you are looking for an entitlement system[1]?

In my experience, none of the SaaS providers mentioned help you with this, probably because it's very dependent on your product and business logic. Even with Kill Bill, which has an entitlement system[2], some amount of coding would be required to manage and enforce states like "max amount of users reached for that plan" (the logic would be abstracted from the billing though).

\- [1] [http://killbill.io/blog/subscriptions-entitlement-billing- an...](http://killbill.io/blog/subscriptions-entitlement-billing-and-dunning/) \- [2] [http://killbill.io/blog/blockingstate- abstractions/](http://killbill.io/blog/blockingstate-abstractions/)

</comment><comment><USER3> We use Chargebee (backed by Stripe). As far as I know, in terms making a page that helps explain the different features available, none of these services help with that. Chargebee does provide a hosted page, where you can have a short description of each plan that the user will be able to see.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not just the page, which would be nice. It's also all the logic in the background that says - if I change my plans to support 3 users now instead of 5, all the product changes are abstracted away?

<comment><USER3> Ah I see, well Chargebee would give a UI where the user can change from 3 -> 5 (pro-ration if they're in the middle of a cycle, generating invoices, scheduling the change in the future if desired, etc). But how 5 instead of 3 licenses actually impacts your product, they don't help there, they just tell you, OK this user has paid for 5 licenses now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Look into Authpack. Haven't used it, but it seems interesting.

[https://authpack.io](https://authpack.io)</comment>


Building a Successful Remote Team - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/what-i-learned-building/60c837d3e1e0

<comment><USER2> I worked remotely for years. While I like working in-office better, there were plenty of tools to help keep me connected from across the country.</comment>