Not so swift - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/06/apple_wwdc_2014_the_company_introduces_a_new_programming_language_called.html

<comment><USER2> Wow, what a terrible article. First of all, the obvious biases of the author as an ex-Googler and java programmer shine through strong enough to make you blind, but the arguments he puts forward are just awful.

Really, java is leaps and bounds better than Objective-C? That must be why all those java feature-phones were such wonders to program for, and why android apps are so much more responsive and well-designed than iOS apps. Or maybe, that's simply not the case, and the language hasn't been that much of an issue for developers. On the contrary, binary compatibility with C and C++ has made it trivial for game developers to port their games and engines to iOS, whereas it took years for Google to belatedly release a native SDK for android.

Are android developers really less miserable than iOS developers? I've developed for both. Rather, I've looked at developing for the hodge-podge mess of vendors, phone sizes, capabilities and general horror of Android and fled from it screaming, while I've released apps on the app store despite not really buying into the walled garden of apple. It's just too easy to make apps on that platform.

"Rust creator Graydon Hoare points out that Swift "appears to have 'Objective-C object model interop' as a hard design constraint." In English, that means Apple decided that Swift still needed to look as much like Objective-C as possible, wherever possible."

That's just not at all what that sentence means. Hoare is talking about binary/runtime interop, not language design.

I really doubt the creators of Go would stand behind the claims made in this article. Swift is a very impressive first release of a new programming language regardless of who is behind it, especially one that achieves binary compatibility with C (how many other modern languages manage that? Go doesn't. It needs a special C compiler for seamless interop.). Yes, the proprietary nature of it is worrying and potentially a limiting factor for the success of Swift. Every other claim this article makes is utter nonsense.

</comment><comment><USER3> At a certain point, we'll collectively have to realize that the people who jump to write opinionated articles on a technology that is 2 days old probably don't have a lot of facts or an opinion worth reading.

Until that day, this guy will have a job.

<comment><USER4> So far, every article I've read about Swift has been opinionated. Should they all not have been written? I actually agree, but this could be said about pretty much all tech journalism. If it's more than 2 days old, it's old news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The author comes across as someone who has grown a little older and is now so stuck in their old way of doing things that they become ignorant and oblivious to improvements.

</comment><comment><USER6> Another terrible link bait article.

<comment><USER7> It is link bait, and it's not the first time Slate has done this. Take this as an example:

"Is There Any Truth to the Claim That Einstein Was a Fraud?"

To summarize the article: "no."

Here's an entire article on Slate's link bait tendencies: [http://matthewdicks.com/2013/11/benedikt-ridiculous- offensiv...](http://matthewdicks.com/2013/11/benedikt-ridiculous- offensive.html)

As for Swift, which Slate compares to Clojure, OCaml, and Scala, one difference is that exactly _none_ of those languages have native support for Cocoa APIs, something you might care a lot about if you're an iOS or OS X developer.

Swift is new, but Slate is not. Total nonsense.

[1] [http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2014/03/18/is_there_any_tru...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2014/03/18/is_there_any_truth_to_the_claim_that_einstein_was_a_fraud.html)

<comment><USER4> I agree completely regarding Slate and their tendency for sensationalist headlines, but I think the author's point regarding Clojure et al is that Apple _could_ have provided native Cocoa APIs for all of those languages, but they chose to develop Swift instead. At that point, IOS or OS X devs could have used any or all of the listed languages that had official APIs.

I suppose time will tell if they made a good choice there, but I tend to think that open source languages will always win over proprietary languages, as they can adapt faster, and get much larger community adoption. It's a pity, because Swift looks pretty nice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I really don't get where the hate for Objective-C is coming from. Objective-C is definitely showing its age and I'm glad to see a new language that improves on it, but I really don't understand why the author's slagging it so much. I've worked in Java and Obj-C and I'd much rather work with the latter any day. I'm not saying it's perfect by any stretch, and I'm not saying it's objectively better than Java, just that there's a case for both. But I definitely don't think iOS would have better off if it had adopted Java as its language of choice instead of Objective-C.

<comment><USER9> C++ made certain decisions about syntax, Java kept many of them. They have been dominant languages for many years.

Objective-C made different decisions. They aren't clearly better or worse, just different. So C++/Java developers have to learn to read a new syntax and have to give up all of their favorite tools.

After all that work, they end using something that's basically the same as their old language. So they aren't thrilled about the change.

<comment><USER8> You're right, the syntax is the main thing I've heard complaints about. I find that really bizarre though. I've been working in C++ longer than Objective-C, and more than Objective-C, but I don't find anything offensive about the latter's syntax. So it's different. For me the measure of a language is how hard or easy it is to get stuff done. Objective-C holds up pretty well in that regard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The only point I can identify with here is the implied one about avoiding swift due to its license. Why anyone would prefer a proprietary-licensed programming language is unfathomable.

</comment><comment><USER11> His points are not invalid, but when you're stuck using C++98 day to day because the technical board don't have nearly as much clout as a sole owner such as Apple, the grass seems so much greener on that side to me. Bringing ADTs and such to a practical language is definitely something to praise; it will take C++ so many more years to get there, if it even happens at all.</comment>


Google's Big Problem: It Ain't What You Think - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2010/12/21/google%E2%80%99s-big-problem-it-ain%E2%80%99t-what-you-think/

<comment><USER2> Excellent post. Back in 2006 I was doing competitive strategy at Microsoft, which was code for "what the heck are we going to do about Google?" One of the things we looked a lot at was corporate culture. Google's biggest success have been all about the power of algorithms, and removing people form the equation as much as possible. Combine that with the lack of attention to design in the companies formative stage and you come up with a limited range of sweet spots. Even back then it was clear they would have a hard time broadening their base.

Google's obvious big competitors Microsoft and Yahoo have had major execution fails and have their own cultural challenges, so they've had quite a few years of dominance. But as Microsoft, IBM, Digital Equipment, and many others have found out, that also makes it tougher to change.</comment>


Rishi Lakhani's robots.txt - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastfwd.com/robots.txt <comment><USER2> I can honestly only say, good. Gaming the search system should be difficult so long as the results we get are better.</comment>


'Matryoshka' diamonds unearthed in Siberia (2019) - <AUTHOR> https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/the-worlds-only-matryoshka-diamonds-unearthed-in-siberia/ <comment><USER2> I think link to this story I posted 2.5 month ago goes into more details:

[https://newatlas.com/materials/matroyoshka-diamond-inside- di...](https://newatlas.com/materials/matroyoshka-diamond-inside-diamond- discovered-russia/)

<comment><USER3> Including a video, which makes it clear that the inside diamond really is disconnected.

<comment><USER4> >The inner diamond moves freely within the transparent outer one.

the second line of the linked article.

but the video is more interesting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This was mined not far (at least by Siberian standards) from the Mir mine that hit the front-page [0] a couple weeks back. I started looking for anything mine-looking near Nyurba but couldn't find any likely candidates, I guess it's totally underground rather than strip-mined like Mir?

Also can't comment on a Russian diamond without bringing up the most oddly- named diamond I've ever found, the "26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union"[1].

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22034055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22034055)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_Congress_of_the_Communist...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union_\(diamond\))

Edit: I believe I found the mine, 65°01'11.2"N 117°05'15.7"E

<comment><USER6> Diamond mines are pit mines simply because of how they're created and pushed to the earths surface. Think of it as an underground explosion resulting in a cone shape with the flat part on the earths surface and the point somewhere underground.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Absolutely love the revolving quotes in the header. Regional news with real class and style!

<comment><USER8> A huge portion of that site's stories seem to be about animals, and dogs (or dog like things) specifically.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I collect stones, rumor in certain circles has been circulating for a while that if it were to hit auction, it would easily command $75M. That would make it the most valuable gemstone per carat ever.

</comment><comment><USER10> > 'Due to the presence of the dissolved zone, one diamond began to move freely > inside another on the principle of nesting dolls.' Bravo, only in Russia!

</comment><comment><USER11> A diamond that is actually rare and worth something? Say it ain't so.

<comment><USER6> A diamond is worth what people are willing to pay for it. Just cause you don't think they should be expensive doesn't mean other people agree with you.

<comment><USER12> A diamond is worth what someone is willing to pay minus the cost of selling it to them. That's why used Diamonds have such a dramatic loss in value.

<comment><USER6> This is not true at all. The value of a new diamond is marketing. No one's advertising for used diamonds. It's not exclusive to the diamond industry either - the reason Coke is more expensive than generic is because of marketing.

<comment><USER8> But used coke is also worthless.

<comment><USER13> It might not be worth the effort but...

[https://sciencing.com/make- phosphorus-4524329.html](https://sciencing.com/make-phosphorus-4524329.html)

<comment><USER8> This is excellent, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's going to be interesting if and how you can put a price tag on this. It being the only case of this ever happening in nature, it could have an insane value for the right collector while being worthless to 99% of the world.

<comment><USER15> In the case of something so unique, there's a strong argument for it being acquired by a museum so it can be enjoyed widely, and studied by geologists.

<comment><USER16> It's just a diamond, they are not very interesting unless you believe the TV commercials that tell you they are super important and special. Carbon is carbon.

I'm just laughing at 800 MILLION YEAR OLD ROCK. Like you know how old all the rocks are right?

<comment><USER6> Umm, yes, they do. They know what layer of rock it was found in and can uranium date the surrounding rocks.

<comment><USER17> I took it as "really, a rock that is old?!" rather than "they can't know that". But I might have misunderstood.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I am very curious about the composition of the air inside, and what it could tell us to have such a perfectly isolated sample that is nearly a billion years old.

<comment><USER19> From the first picture, it seems to have holes, so the air should be the same as the outside. The text also talks about how whatever was filling that space probably got dissolved. For that to happen, it would need a way to escape the enclosure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Warning: Blue sky thinking ahead..

I always wondered if a huge quantity of diamonds, arranged in a specific pattern, could be used to build a passive laser.

The energy input would come in from the sun, and it would refract the light to a second layer of diamonds. That second layer would accumulate enough luminous energy, before it discharges as a laser. Since a laser diode needs to reach a certain level of optical amplification before it discharges its beam.

So that makes one operational unit. And you have to assemble a bunch of them together, to fire off to a third layer, that has a bigger diamond, which requires a larger energy threshold before it fires off.

And you keep repeating that until you get enough energy to do useful work.

So the whole thing ends up looking like a giant inverted pyramid, of a Rube Goldberg machine.

The final result, is that the laser is used to do useful mechanical work, like boiling water to create steam, to move a generator, to create electricity. It can also be used as a giant death ray, but that's not very useful, except for the emperor that wants to hold a planet hostage.

Why this setup? To build something solid state, and somewhat passive, that can be used to reliably generate electricity for thousands of years. And it's not a radioactive nuclear reactor that will create deadly waste that lasts thousands of years.

And it can also be orbited in space to beam the laser down to earth. It should last longer than solar panels, which doesn't seem to last very long.

And now that we can manufacture industrial diamonds that are more pure than a natural diamond (just add heat, energy, and pressure), that I wonder when we can make this cheaply enough.

The next trick would be to find that optimal arrangement of diamonds and design to make such a thing feasible.

<comment><USER21> They do this already but they use mirrors. Mirrors are cheaper to produce, easier to shape and probably more effective than diamonds for this application.

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

<comment><USER20> CSP doesn't work at night. I don't think it really works in space. It's not solid state.

<comment><USER22> Mirrors are passive and solid state, except for spinning mercury mirrors which are spinning and in the liquid state.

<comment><USER20> A mirror reflects light. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

I'm interested in a device that refracts light, in order to bend it in arbitrary ways.

<comment><USER21> Well, then you're on the right track. A diamond can refract light anywhere between 0 and 24 degrees, and an array of diamonds can bend light anywhere between 0 and 180 degrees with (I think) less than 20% intensity loss.

You'll make a wonderful Bond villain.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Keysniffer v1.6 released - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jarun/keysniffer/releases/tag/v1.6 <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately, I can't edit the entry now.

<comment><USER2> It's probably ok to resubmitt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> ### What's in?

\- DKMS support

\- Prepend Left (`L`) or Right (`R`) for Ctrl, Shift and Alt keys

\- Replace `_ENTER_` with `\n`

\- Append newline to keycodes (for param codes=1/2)

\- Add targets install, load, unload, uninstall to Makefile</comment>


Senic (YC S13) builds a laser distance meter for smartphones - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/09/senic-wants-to-revolutionize-measurement-starting-with-a-smartphone-connected-laser-distance-meter/ <comment><USER2> Laser distance meters have been available to contractors for years. The major difference Senic adds, over Ryobi, Bosch & Fluke, is bluetooth & cloud syncing.

I have always wondered how these devices actually calculate distances. I have experimented with Arduino & Parallax, and I've seen how the resolution of an ultrasonic distance sensor is directly affected by the processor speed -- the processor is merely counting the fractions of a second between sending the ping pulse, and receiving its echo. But a 1 MHz processor can only just count milliseconds. A 16 MHz processor can count only slightly faster. At the room- temperature speed of sound, this gives you a resolution of about 1/29th of an inch, or 1/74th of a centimeter.

In theory, the same should be possible with light -- send a light pulse then count the fractions of a second for it to return. Thinking back to Grace Hopper's Nanosecond [1], a 1mhz processor would have a resolution of hundreds of feet. So these must be using a very small, simple, multi-GHz processor to get a resolution of about 2/15 of an inch.

Unless these devices do their measurement in a completely different way...

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEpsKnWZrJ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEpsKnWZrJ8)

<comment><USER3> You don't need a full processor for time of flight just a few transistors which can cheaply operate at ~10GHz. Speed of light / 10ghz = 3cm, but your talking round trip timings so ~1.5 cm is possible.

Multiple frequency phase-shift or Interferometry allows you to do even better.

<comment><USER2> Very good point -- you'd have these fast, expensive transistors (however they are packaged or not packaged) cache their data, then transfer it back to a slower, cheaper, main microprocessor, which would be doing the rest of the device's work.

Do you know where these 10 GHz transistors can be found?

<comment><USER4> Laser rangefinders don't switch the light source at 10GHz. They "chop" the laser on-off at (say) 10kHz. The measure the difference between the reference (onboard) and the return using (typically) a PLL that can measure time differences down to picoseconds (these are usually used in high-frequency RF equipment). Using a microcontroller counter would be too slow.

Cheaper LRF's can use triangulation with a known baseline. That's how Neato robotic managed their $10 spinning version for the vacuum: [http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/12/20/ultra-low-cost- laser-r...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/12/20/ultra-low-cost-laser- rangefinders-actualized-neato-robotics)

To wit... I like to disassemble laser rangefinders!

[http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/01/04/velodyne- hdl-64e-laser...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/01/04/velodyne- hdl-64e-laser-rangefinder-lidar-pseudo-disassembled)

[http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/02/14/omron-sti- optoshield-o...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/02/14/omron-sti-optoshield- os3100-laser-rangefinder-lidar-disassembled)

[http://www.hizook.com/blog/2008/12/15/sick-laser- rangefinder...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2008/12/15/sick-laser-rangefinder- lidar-disassembled)

<comment><USER2> Wow, amazing!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm going to preface this by saying this meter looks great and I realize that it's much easier to critique than encourage.

Overall, I think it's an interesting implementation, but I felt the tone of the video did not match the nature of the product. The video feels produced towards something with more breadth and importance than essentially a contractor tool. Not that I'm downplaying what Senic built, but the presentation gives off "toddler in a business suit" aesthetic.

Having said that, the implementation looks great.

<comment><USER6> But that's advertising in a nutshell right? They're not using disinformation, they're simply setting a tone for how they wan't their company to be viewed. Coca-Cola makes sugar water, Kleenex makes tissue. But you don't push many units by downplaying your product.

I think the video does a great job of making them seem to take their product seriously. If enough people walk away with a similar impression, it will allow the company to expand within the market and be taken seriously in their new endeavors as well.

<comment><USER7> Actually that is a weird ads. It seems targeted at 'us', i.e. tech guys mostly.

Looking at the spec, it seems that this tool has all the necessary bits inside to compete with Leica tools. Yet the ads is very silent on all that.

IMO I think they neglected the software side when designing their gismo ( by mistake or by strategy ). Now they hype it up with tech guys, so that one of us will eventually create a few killer apps for their hardware so they can compete against Leica.

99$ for a bluetooth enabled, fully featured laser measurer but with a SDK instead of great interface ? Well I guess it is working, count me in.

<comment><USER8> I'm biased, as I know the team personally, but they didn't neglect the software side. A majority of the team are software engineers, and hackability is very much a part of their design. So definitely, buy one (or more) and make some killer apps!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)[0]is really cool and has the possibility to enable many many cool devices. The low power requirements allow devices to run for weeks on a button cell, and the fact that it uses the same hardware as the original bluetooth implementation mean devices only need software updates to enable it. The latest iPhones have BLE support, and google added BLE support in android 4.3[1].

BLE is already used in devices like the Pebble Watch. If you are interested in hacking with a BLE device, check out the SensorTag[2] from TI. Its a tiny $25 board that contains a whopping six sensors:

* IR temperature Sensor (contactless temperature measurement)

* Humidity Sensor

* Pressure Sensor

* 3-axis Accelerometer

* Gyroscope

* Magnetometer

They also provide example iOS and android source code. You can download the iOS app in the app store.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy)

[1] [http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluet...](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth- le.html)

[2] [http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2541dk-sensor](http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2541dk- sensor)

</comment><comment><USER10> Useful product, although I'm dismayed its not a device that can build a point cloud of the whole room yet (and use said point cloud for rendering on a mobile device, as well as high-resolution measurements).

Look what tech innovation has done to my expectations of products :(

Room scanning point cloud with Kinect: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhg3_ZgRK68](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhg3_ZgRK68)

Boiler Room Point Cloud: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1l0X46rOAU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1l0X46rOAU)

Point cloud of living room: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eRG3Q27Lw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eRG3Q27Lw)

<comment><USER11> Hey, my name is Toby from Senic. We're focusing on these simple solutions for the building industry first because they are under really high cost and time pressure and it help them the most. With our SDK and API, it's a really flexible product. We're already working on integrating it into different robots etc for some of the mentioned functions. If you have any good suggestions, please drop me a line.

<comment><USER12> Is there an email where we can do that? There isn't one in your profile or on the senic page.

Also your website is being rendered very strangely.

[http://snag.gy/wCkIm.jpg](http://snag.gy/wCkIm.jpg) [http://snag.gy/2PXRW.jpg](http://snag.gy/2PXRW.jpg)

<comment><USER11> Please write me a direct email: support(a)senic.com. I will respond asap.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I love this for two reasons.

First, this is a great example of creating a solution for a small yet annoying problem people have just come to live with. Second, I really like that they're creating well-designed tools for a very specific niche of customers. This isn't a general purpose device for mass consumption, but for architects, interior designers and the like -- professionals whose industry, like most other industries, does not get enough attention in the way of high-quality, well-designed, 'sexy' solutions. There are a ton of opportunities to provide similar solutions to other markets. Withings, for example, produces a really well-designed and easy-to-use blood pressure cuff [1].

As for the Senic, I wouldn't get one myself, but my parents, who are frequently fixing and renovating things around their home and dabble in real estate, definitely would.

1\. [http://withings.com/en/bloodpressuremonitor](http://withings.com/en/bloodpressuremonitor)

<comment><USER14> Agreed. This would be enormously useful for vacation rentals and real estate professionals. Add on and partnerships with virtual tour companies would be expansion value.

<comment><USER12> So like [1], for entire rooms?

[1][http://www.trimensional.com/](http://www.trimensional.com/)

<comment><USER14> Exactly

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I clicked through the purchase flow and noticed the "SSL secured" text.

But the homepage is not served via SSL. I assume the actual purchase form submits through SSL, but an active network attacker could change it to submit anywhere they want, and no one would know.

Everyone makes this mistake, because they think of SSL as being just encryption. It's encryption, but it's also integrity. If a page has security- sensitive functionality at all near it, you want integrity, even if the content is public. (Another example: You have a totally static personal site. Why would that possibly demand SSL? Well, say you want to post your GPG public key so people can send you encrypted email. Someone who can intercept mail bound for you might also be able to MITM your site, so you want SSL to ensure people actually get your real key.)

Just serve everything over SSL always, and you won't have to think about this.

</comment><comment><USER16> This project is interesting, and I preordered one because the last time I had to transcribe measurements of a room into modeling software, I was quite frustrated at the time and complexity of the task.

One thing I'm not happy about is that I did not see any information about software currently in compatibility testing or plans to support specific software.

I won't be satisfied if the device is delivered and I can't actually use it for anything other than a simple measurement that my current laser distance meter can perform.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for pre-ordering one of the devices. We come from the measurement Industry and were struggling with the same problems. We designed Senic to be the most flexible device it could be. We will give out a few apps for iOS and Android that relieve the biggest pain for people (mostly in the building industry) but will keep developing more applications (new apps, integration into existing software, Linux support etc.) If you have any suggestions or questions, please write us. We want to learn as much as possible and make it the best product on the market.

<comment><USER2> AutoCAD support would be awesome. I have a couple friends who run their own stainless steel fabrication & kitchen install business, and getting salesmen and business owners to give them accurate measurements is a _huge_ pain point for them.

If a wall shifts 1 inch across 20 feet, they can build for that, if they have those measurements. But when they are told to make a sink-with-backsplash square, and there's an ugly gap between it and the wall -- well, reworking that tiny gap is almost as expensive as building the table itself.

<comment><USER11> Awesome. Thanks for the feedback. AutoCAD is in our top 10. A lot of people want to see this integration for various uses.

<comment><USER17> Also vectorworks for the theatrical crowd!

We're always taking big measurements and bouncing them around to other people, and measuring weird objects and spaces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Just preordered three of these for various projects I have in mind/that could take advantage of this, awesome work! Do you have any idea when more details on the SDK/API will be available?

<comment><USER11> We will publish a SDK/API preview within the next two weeks. If you send me a quick message to support(a)senic.com, I will make sure you'll be informed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> sounds good but nothing really "new" here leica has similar products [http://www.leica-geosystems.com/en/Laser- Distancemeter_5061....](http://www.leica-geosystems.com/en/Laser- Distancemeter_5061.htm), additionally leica has intergrated with autocad, excel etc so you can already do more. I don't know any contractors that work based off sq. footage measurements alone for pricing no matter the type of work. it also looks like it can't be used without another device

</comment><comment><USER20> I know YC typically gives small investments which works well enough for web startups, but do they give more to hardware companies like Senic that need things like materials, machines and parts?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope, all companies receive the same funding (as in base amount + x per founder up to 3)

<comment><USER20> I'd love to hear about a hardware team's experience in the YC program. Senic, how's it going?

<comment><USER11> Three months is a really short time for a hardware company which forced us to postpone sleeping until after Demo Day :) Money wise, it was kind of tough considering the cost for prototyping, 3d printing, flights from Germany etc. But I would say it gets you where you need to be if you're resourceful enough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It would be cool if it could give you the GPS coordinates of the point your measuring. That should be easy since the phone already has a GPS and a compass right?

<comment><USER11> yes, that's one of the things that our old customers were missing. Combining there measurements with geo-location, time, other sensors etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Love the idea for the professional.

Is there any way to measure less precisely using the iPhone's camera? Something about using the gyroscope to get a depth measurement?

<comment><USER23> More likely you'd use algorithms based on structure from motion, like in the Kinect. But that's definitely not the target market for these guys.

<comment><USER22> ya of course. Do you have more details? I'm interested myself.

<comment><USER23> No, but you should be able to find academic papers in standard databases like EBSCOhost (most major public libraries I've seen have a subscription that you can access by just getting a library card with proof of residency).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Looks like the website wasn't totally ready? The partner logos are all the same, and what does Square have to do with it?

</comment><comment><USER25> I thought distance meters were already built in in all smartphones using the camera's laser.

<comment><USER10> Camera's don't have lasers (at least in smartphones).

You could use infrared with two cameras to do depth measurement like the Kinect and the Leap Motion, but I'm unaware of any smartphones currently doing this.

<comment><USER25> How does the autofocus work?

<comment><USER26> 1\. Algorithm to evaluate how blurred an image is. 2\. Adjust the focus a little bit, is it getting less blurred? Keep going. More blurred? Other direction. 3\. Keep adjusting until you find the point where adjusting either way means more blur.

<comment><USER27> 1 is pretty often "how much contrast", which is pretty easy to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's the tri-corder!

... or at least, the seed technologies for one.

<comment><USER28> Oh wow, downvoted. I guess you guys lack imagination.

You use one device to connect with a sensor, much like the special secondary sensors used in the tricorders. Things get uploaded into a larger machine for processing.</comment></comment>


Monitoring and alerting systems - <AUTHOR>

I can't find a really great monitoring and alerting service for backend systems that is "simple to implement" and "just works". Googling/Quora isn't really being very helpful either. I am curious to know how people are monitoring Java/Rails/python and other 'popular' backend systems. <comment><USER2> Have a look at Sentry:

[https://getsentry.com](https://getsentry.com)

For more enterprise solutions, New Relic:

[http://newrelic.com](http://newrelic.com)</comment>


Reading mind and Visualizing thoughts using AI - <AUTHOR> https://thinkml.ai/ai-can-read-and-visualize-our-thoughts/ <comment><USER2> So high level MRI data features are correlated with reported thoughts. This sounds like interesting research but they are far away from any sort of usable system.

This reminds me of people getting excited by natural language advances of BERT and other transformer models because they think the models actually understand language, instead of the truth that these model are just very good at predicting words around a point of interest in text.

That said, the article is worth reading.

<comment><USER3> > these model are just very good at predicting words around a point of > interest in text

Well, yes, but quantity has a quality of its own. Train it with lots of data for emergent behaviour.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The way I read the output here is that a much larger network attached to something with much better resolution will absolutely work. I wonder if fMRI will ever really have enough resolution to get usable information back; the images from the 'simple' pictures seems to indicate yes. Presuming this was done inside a giant tube, it's not a very appealing idea unless someone has severe disabilities.

Overall I guess this paper makes me bullish on Neuralink. I eagerly await the answer to the question of whether we all see colors the same way or not.

Also, somewhat randomly, the photos of the DVD hardware made me think about whether different brains will process them differently. My wife has no interest in DVD players, and I believe from our twenty years together that her brain spends almost no time visually assessing them. I would be very interested to compare outputs of our two brains on different topics and see which ones we each have better specificity on.

</comment><comment><USER5> This feels pretty sensationalist given the methodology and results, but it's an interesting avenue of research nonetheless. I'm curious about the limitations of fMRI or any other "external" data collection. I'm not eager to see things like NeuralLink be effective, but it feels more likely in some ways.

</comment><comment><USER6> This seems to be a review of several different studies on analyzing brain activity and isn't just about the first study shown, so while the original title is a little sensationalist, I think the edited title is pretty accurate to what the article is about. Some of the other studies include one at Carnegie Mellon about phrase prediction, an experiment at the University of Oregon about facial recognition, Neuralink, thought reproduction at Russian Corporation and Moscow institute, etc.

</comment><comment><USER7> Assuming this article itself isn't autogenerated (which given the sheer number of typoes it probably _isn 't_), the author grossly overestimates what the paper(s) report.

<comment><USER8> I don't think the author is overestimating, I remember when this paper came ouy it was printed/aired all over the media as a The Great AI That Can Read Your Thoughts (TM).

I thinking he's just piling on the hype and showing what it really was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's cool, but from a library of 25 images.

<comment><USER10> I wouldn't dismiss it so easily. 25 images can give you alphabet. That could be useful for people with locked-in syndrome.</comment></comment>


Go 1.8 is released - <AUTHOR> https://blog.golang.org/go1.8 <comment><USER2> See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13661865](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13661865).</comment>


ARM's Feeling Lucky; Netbook 'Battle' Just Beginning? - <AUTHOR> http://www.osnews.com/story/21313/ARM_s_Feeling_Lucky_Netbook_Battle_Just_Beginning_ <comment><USER2> Wow.. I thought the iPhone/iPod touch were pushing ARM and BSD out with their 37 million units. But ARM goes through 1.3 billion units every quarter? That's huge.

<comment><USER3> ARM is in everything. Since their architecture is so flexible, they have solutions for the simplest needs as well as the more complex (netbooks). Anything you look at, from MP3 players and cell phones to flash controllers have a very good chance of having an ARM processor in them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Another nightmare for windows on netbooks. Imagining porting the OS and then all applications for ARM. That would be fun!

<comment><USER5> I wonder how much of the NT codebase is still portable. Back in the "early days" you could get NT for MIPS and Alpha (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT#Supported_platforms>) but I don't think Microsoft is willing to make a ARM version of Windows v.Next. This seems to be a pretty huge roadblock for manufacturers of these netbooks. It's my opinion that to remain mainstream and continue to sell large numbers of units they (Asus, MSI, etc) will have to offer Windows on every model.

<comment><USER6> Windows NT also supported PowerPC (the CPU was switched to little-endian mode on boot).

I'm sure they could support ARM for the base Windows OS, but lack of application compatibility would mean a lot of user confusion that would only damage the brand. ("It's called Windows, it looks like Windows, so why doesn't anything happen when I insert the install CD for FooApp from 1999?")

Emulating x86 on ARM wouldn't do much good either. Apple was able to pull it off for their PPC->x86 transition because the new CPUs were substantially faster and memory had become abundant. ARM-based netbooks don't have either of those benefits (if the budget for these machines allowed big CPUs and lots of memory, they would just use x86).</comment></comment></comment>


Until Google gets its act together, here's a quick way WE can improve search - <AUTHOR>

I was prompted to submit this entry to HN after reading this post: http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/12/google-search/
I've been doing what I describe below for a while and can't imagine living without it. I think with a bit of collaboration everyone can benefit and make Google suck less.
Install this Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/eidhkmnbiahhgbgpjpiimdogfidfikgf
And add this to the config:
# Make these domains stand out in results
+en.wikipedia.org
+stackoverflow.com
+github.com
+api.rubyonrails.org
+apple.com
+ruby-doc.org
+codex.wordpress.org
+imdb.com
+alternativeto.net
+superuser.com
+news.ycombinator.com
+.edu/
# SPAM - never show these results
experts-exchange.com
ezinearticles
efreedom.com
about.com
ehow.com
I'm hoping someone can compile a more complete list of the content farms so that I can improve my config (and therefore my search experience). Just adding the major ones (Experts Exchange, etc) as above already makes a huge difference. Could someone maybe post a gist on GitHub with a more complete config? <comment><USER2> Here's my list of spam sites (I use OptimizeGoogle for firefox to filter them:

/efreedom.com/i

/bigresource.com/i

/thefreecountry.com/i

/sharewareconnection.com/i

/x64bitdownload.com/i

/softpedia.com/i

/tucows.com/i

/softexia.com/i

/mysharonbiz.com/i

/informe.com/i

/whois.net/i

</comment><comment><USER3> For programming questions, I created a very simple Google custom search engine, which works quite well for me - <http://laughingcomputer.com/search/>

</comment><comment><USER4> bigresource.com comes up a lot when I'm searching for esoteric programming- topic solutions, and it's a totally worthless scraper.

<comment><AUTHOR> Added it to a gist @ <https://gist.github.com/779253>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Excellent quick fix, thank you!</comment>


Two metres or one: what is the evidence for physical distancing in Covid-19? - open-source-ux https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223 <comment><AUTHOR> The main problem is that people need some simple thumb rule. Two meters are better than one. Probably three meters are even better. But at some point it is too inconvenient and people will just ignore a ten meters recommendation.

Try to be as far as possible of other people, but at least two meters (or whatever arbitrary threshold your country choose).

</comment><comment> open-source-ux One of the authors of this paper has been posting user-submitted translations of the key table from the paper here (as well as a colour-blind version):

[https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/12985153375379005...](https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1298515337537900544)</comment>


MIT MBA bizdev / product guy seeking technical cofounder - <AUTHOR>

MIT MBA bizdev / product design guy seeking mobile developer to partner with on startup for YC.  www.linkedin.com/in/russellmiller/ email@example.com <comment><USER2> More impressed with the math degree from MIT than the MBA ;-)</comment>


The Virtual Reality Sim That Helps Teach Cops When to Shoot - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/03/virtra/

<comment><USER2> I wonder in what percent of virtual scenarios they make deadly force be the "rifht" decision. I would bet upwards of 50%, 3 or 4 orders of magnitude more often than in real life. Normalizing what should be an exceptional circumstance...</comment>


Google fined £415,000 for making Google Maps free - <AUTHOR> http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3334962/google-fined-for-making-google-maps-free/?olo=rss <comment><AUTHOR> Am I the only one scratching my head over this one? Fined for giving something away, really?

<comment><USER2> It's a standard business practice to create "loss leaders" specifically to undermine a competitor's business, and then when they go under, go back to charging full, or excessive, prices. That's why legislation exists to prevent companies from abusing a dominant market position.

Perhaps the real difference here is that Google has been providing this free service for a long time, and others do continue to start up and attempt to compete by offering some sort of differentiator. Clearly this company decided they'd just claim Google was being unfair.

And according to the law - which you may regard as stupid, but that's not the point - Google is in the wrong. Consider what the marketplace could be like if every startup got crushed by Google providing a free equivalent until the startup founders and dies with no possibility or redress.

Or maybe we have that already, and the only hope of surviving is not to get noticed.</comment></comment>


The stunning hypocrisy of VentureBeat's attack on Y Combinator - <AUTHOR> http://influencehacks.com/the-stunning-hypocrisy-of-venturebeats-assault-on-y-combinator <comment><USER2> Ironically, all you're doing with a post like this is helping her. The right response to bullshit stories --- the norm at Venturebeat --- is to ignore them and continue to cultivate the expectation that there's little good that will come from that venue at all. It's a Venturebeat story. Of course it's preposterous. Let's move on.

<comment><USER3> While I would agree with you normally, that's actually not the best route to take for attacks that have a certain amount of credibility. It's important to get out in front of it and debunk it.

That's why Obama always has people that break down the blatant lies that come from the right's attack.

Having a journalist write a scathing piece on the motives of an email that commented on Google Ventures, without detailing the connection with that blogger and Google Ventures speaks volumes about where the piece is coming from.

As far as I am concerned, VentureBeat is fully discredited. How can I trust what they say again?

Sure, everybody makes mistakes....but this is inexcusable.

It's the same way I look at Fox. I can't take Fox seriously, because they are so blatantly partisan, it's ridiculous. The same applies to MSNBC...so it's not a partisan statement.

The lack of disclosure, on a piece like this, is disconcerting.

<comment><USER4> I second this. This isn't some internet troll that should simply be ignored. If left completely unchallenged, the base assumption by many not familiar with the context will be to take it at face value.

<comment><USER2> On the contrary, I think publications like Venturebeat are, quite literally, the professionalized form of internet trolls. If I'm right, it's definitely not a good strategy to engage with them.

<comment><USER3> Well...there are many that might not see them like that. I, didn't view them as that. Partly because I don't pay much attention to them, but when an interesting article that they wrote appears on HN I would read it.

But now, I am much more likely to read it with a skeptical eye - and possibly not even read it altogether.

This cuts to the heart of journalism.

It's the equivalent of the WSJ or NYT writing a hit piece on either campaign, just to find out that the author's wife/husband is a top advisor for the candidate - without them explicitly stating that in the piece.

The most ironic thing about the VB piece, is that the title is: "Paul Graham's 'lowball' accusation of Google Ventures may hide an ulterior motive".

How ironic that allegations surface that may hide an ulterior motive for VB.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Actually, this article by itself looks more like a rant than anything else and actually seems to defeat the purpose of an 'invite-only', 'quality-oriented' network that SVBTLE claims to be.

</comment><comment><USER6> If the two photos of Graham come from the same source image, then it looks like the microphone on the first image ([http://5.mshcdn.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/04/paul-graham.j...](http://5.mshcdn.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/04/paul-graham.jpg)) was airbrushed out ([http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pg- lowball.jp...](http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pg- lowball.jpg?w=558&h=9999&crop=0)). (Unless a microphone was airbrushed in for the first image.) Just thought that was curious, in addition to the desaturation...

<comment><USER7> Here is the photo credit: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jolieodell/4525127286/in/photos...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/jolieodell/4525127286/in/photostream/)

The link from the article links directly to that, and yet they heavily manipulated it and call it journalism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You know those signs at the zoo, "Do not feed the animals". How come we all learned not to do that as kids but can't help but look at the train wreck in motion that is VB.

VB uses the same approach as sports writers, be controversial cause the fans will read even if its just to complain about you.

<comment><USER9> I thought that was just Business Insider.

VB occasionally has a story worth reading. But usually they're just rehashing what everyone else had yesterday.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I recently read the book: "Trust Me, I'm Lying" which talks about how these types of blog posts. Now it's so obvious when I see this kind of stuff.

Here's the book: [http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions- Manipulator...](http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions- Manipulator/dp/159184553X)

<comment><USER11> Which blog post are you referring to, the original or the debunking?

<comment><USER10> the original: <http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/07/lowball/></comment></comment></comment>


Kevin Rose Interviews Elon Musk - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20120907/kevin-rose-interviews-elon-musk/

<comment><USER2> I can't think of a better role model for engineers than Elon Musk. Some good stuff from this video:

1) Doesn't want to speculate on Hyperloop before he's sure it can exist

2) Freely admits he was too shy to talk to anyone in the Netscape lobby when he went there fresh out of college looking for a job

3) Doesn't read a lot of general business books. Instead reads auto-/biographies of scientists and entrepreneurs.

Plus, he likes Burning Man (I love it but it's not for everyone) and casually mentions he had the idea for a "super-sonic vertical takeoff and landing plane" there. In comparison, I just got back from BM and my only work-related idea was that I should really put some more effort into my work.

So far I haven't heard any stories about him being an ass either, which is very reassuring for those of us who don't want to be like Steve Jobs. Even in this interview he seems reluctant to reveal too much information about people he didn't like working with.

I just wish people like him were more attracted to politics. I wonder if it's because nobody would elect people like Elon Musk or because those people avoid politics.

<comment><USER3> In the book "The Paypal Wars", an account of the almost complete history of Paypal through the eyes of one of its employees, Elon Musk is painted as a stubborn, semi-ass. According to the book, when he was assigned as CEO after the merger, he wanted among other things, to replace the Paypal brand with the X.com brand. The whole company saw this as a bad idea because a lot of people knew and trusted friendly Paypal but not weird, porn-sounding X.com, but Elon apparently didn't care and just wanted "his" brand X.com to be the main look of the company, even after a lot of discussions and metrics showing this could end the company.

He ended up being replaced as CEO after a vote because of this whole debacle.

It's the only description of Musk that I've read in which he is painted in a negative way. Keep in mind the author might be biased against Elon because Elon was CEO of X.com which was "the enemy" of Paypal.

<comment><USER4> Here's what Elon Musk has said about the book:

 _The only negativity in recent years was due to a book called The PayPal Wars, written by a sycophantic jackass called Eric Jackson. This guy was one notch above an intern at PayPal in the first few years of the company, but gives the impression he was a key player and privy to all the high level discussions. Eric couldn't find a real publisher, so Peter funded Eric to self-publish the book. Since Eric worships Peter, the outcome was obvious - Peter sounds like Mel Gibson in Braveheart and my role is somewhere between negligible and a bad seed. However, to his credit, Peter didn't realize the book would be as bad as it was and apologized to me personally at a Room 9 board meeting at David Sacks's home in LA._

[http://m.gawker.com/230076/an-alternate-history-according- to...](http://m.gawker.com/230076/an-alternate-history-according-to-elon-musk)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for this contra-point! Interesting to see Elon reply to this description. Personally I have more reason to believe EM than Eric, but still, as always the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

<comment><USER5> _as always the truth probably lies somewhere in between_

"The Truth Lies Somewhere in the Middle": Does It? <http://politics.ryanrenn.com/truth_in_middle.htm>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ugh the same freaking questions for Elon.

Jeez can't someone ask him something new and different.

One I want to know is why he created Zip2 when he has always wanted to make an impact on the world? What was his thought process at the time? Did he think he'd make some quick money and move on or did he really think zip2 would change the world?

<comment><USER7> IANEM (I Am Not Elon Musk), but in a world where most news and media organizations were NOT online... getting them online could be world changing. Can you imagine if the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc were still only delivered to your doorstep once a day?

That is pretty world changing.

<comment><USER6> Hmm that's true. I never thought of it like that. I wish someone would ask him about how he gauged the opportunity for his earlier ventures.

And his core operational and strategic steps in starting a startup.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Kind of puts in perspective what we are all working on/aiming for. Think a web app is hard, try building a car company or going to space. The dude is Tony Stark.

<comment><USER9> Not sure if you're aware, but the Tony Stark character from the IronMan movie was actually based off of Elon Musk!

Edit: source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Interests>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Most of the interview is old info that won't surprise anyone following Elon's career. The info on "Hyperloop" starts at around 18m20s into the video and is _very_ brief.

<comment><USER11> Tube with Hydrophobic inner surface. Liquid filled. Accelerated by solar energy, Storage solution is simply kinetic.

Liquid accelerates until the solar input meets equilibrium with the (extremely low) energy loss through friction with the surface.

Ride the flow dude!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Actively seek out and listen very carefully to negative feedback" Great line from a great guy

</comment><comment><USER13> Cool interview, I wish they would have gone more in depth. A Mixergy interview with Elon would be great.

I've always been most fascinated with people who start car companies. It's always been something that I would love to do as an entrepreneur and auto enthusiast but creating a car company has it's obvious barriers to entry.

</comment><comment><USER14> @ 15:30 Where Kevin asks Elon why other auto manufacturers make crap car designs.

I've always wondered about this and it's interesting that Elon states that most body styles cost (relatively) the same. Anyone have a further explanation for this?

<comment><USER15> There was a TED talk[1] product design, or designing for manufacturing and distribution. I think the points were that:

1) These concept designs don't work that well in real conditions, are hard to manufacture or don't have a support network

2) People actually expect and want "regular" looking cars. The speaker made a example of hospital equipment which has to look fancy and complicated, because otherwise people won't trust it (and therefore, buy it).

I guess Tesla can work around the first point since, they're a new maker and don't have any previous investments, which allows them to try new ways of doing things.

They're pretty good at the second point as well, since don't make or sell "regular cars" anyway. Tesla Roadster is not an average car, it's a high-end sports car for techfreaks and I think the prospects for the sedan is also pretty much in early adopter audience.

[1] [http://www.ted.com/talks/timothy_prestero_design_for_people_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/timothy_prestero_design_for_people_not_awards.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The advice about having a mindset of looking at the world via first principals rather than through assumptions and analogies was a great insight.

Musk then elaborated nicely, saying that people use the assumption that batteries have always been expensive so they always will be expensive. A better way to look at the problem is to check the London spot price for the individual battery components; cobalt, aluminium etc and deriving a price from that.

Are there books or resources where I can train this 'mental muscle' of looking at the world through first principals?

I should mention that don't have a physics or engineering background myself.

</comment><comment><USER17> Such an inspiration to product engineers. He's very unique to be in so many new industries and execute so well, all focused on the product. With that, to be so level headed and ship focused without the hype. Elon's products are his marketing, first principle design is hard to beat. He was inspired by the US to come here and we need more like him to complete the cycle. Tesla as the company name is very fitting to the individual that started it.

</comment><comment><USER18> I saw him say on twitter that hyperloop is not a vac-tube as most have speculated <https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/224406502188916739>. In this interview he says it could go as fast as the concord jet but on the ground and wouldn't need tracks.

Any ideas what he may be describing?

<comment><USER19> Here's some speculation, [http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/08/nextbigfuture- reader-tony-r...](http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/08/nextbigfuture-reader-tony- rusi-thinks.html)

<comment><USER18> :/ mostly vac-tube speculation. I'm hoping someone has some other ideas.

<comment><USER20> He says the hyperloop is kind of electrical, ground level, supersonic concord plane.

So maybe it is a kind of bullet train riding on the shockwave. But he must confine this shockwave somehow(if he want´s supersonic at ground level with out neighbors burning it down) , maybe with a tube?. Maybe this tube could provide the support for the solar panels, stabilize the flight of the "train"(using the shockwave to steer it?) and storage the energy as a kind of capacitor... This way you don´t need an actual very expensive sealed tube with vacuum in it , just some metal plates with enough form to deflect(and mute) the waves once the "plane" passes...(and serve as capacitors too).

I am guessing all this with just one sentence so it must be way off :).

Thanks to spaceX and Tesla he has more knowledge now of electrical engines, electricity storage and transport, high energy aerodynamics, etc... it must be something that combines all that somehow..

<comment><USER21> That's roughly where my mind was going too.

You'd still need a safe way to stop the vehicle in the event of an earthquake and rupturing of the path down which the vehicle flies.

<comment><USER20> If the hyperloop has some flight capabilities it could lift off from the tube(at supersonic speeds it would be easy), then deploy parachutes at a safe altitude, or ignite some rockets (like the scape system of the dragon capsule), or use some kind of electromagnetic braking (maybe the most probable). I am really looking forward for the day he makes it public!.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Kevin has come a long way in terms of interviewing since his interview with Trent Reznor. Nice job Kevin.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is unfortunately the same as every other interview. He has regurgitated all of this information a million times... I would love to see an interview that goes a little deeper.

</comment><comment><USER24> What were the biographies he mentioned?

<comment><USER25> Franklin Autobiography: [http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Benjamin- Franklin-Illust...](http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Benjamin-Franklin- Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00408AZOE)

Franklin Biography by Isaacson <http://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Franklin- ebook/dp/B000FBJG4U>

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Why does the link lead to AllThingsD ?!?!?!?!?

either point to the YouTube video itself <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-s_3b5fRd8>

or to the show page at <http://foundation.kr>

Don't give News Corp the traffic it doesn't deserve.

</comment><comment><USER27> Hyperloop solar-powered high-speed land travel project will help in expanding boundaries of Silicon Valley. I know it will take long time but will be a great thing for now-in-highschool kids.

</comment><comment><USER28> Damn it, I thought of Charlie Rose. Who is this Kevin blow-hard?

<comment><USER29> As has been pointed out, he founded Digg.

Here's a Charlie Rose interview: <http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10550></comment></comment>


Show HN: Created a Workout tracking web app during xmas vacation - <AUTHOR> http://www.strengthstats.com <comment><USER2> "Some users had some data deleted from the database during some database changes on 12/30\. We apologize for the inconvenience if you were one of the group of users affected - it stinks to lose data, we're very sorry and we will try very hard to make sure no users ever lose data again. Thanks."

What did you do?

<comment><AUTHOR> I made the classic mistake of assuming all imperial units; not much need for decimals in that case - so I had used INT types a lot of places where I was tracking weight. What a beginner mistake.

Last night, recognizing that no one using the metric system could enter their weight in float form - I switched it to Floats thinking it wouldn't be an issue but due to the way GAE NDB datatstore works; it ended up rewriting the switched values to all None. I had pulled the trigger too soon. It was a clusterfudge. Ruined my night.

But, that said -- atleast now the entire site is decimal/float friendly, as it should've been from the start. Fortunately, I'm the main person that had their data destroyed by the db change.

You live and you learn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is pretty neat - how is this different from something like TheSquatRack ([http://thesquatrack.com/](http://thesquatrack.com/))?

Also how are you calculating your 1RM - Eplay? Bryzcki?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

Haven't heard of TheSquatRack but they look to be in a similar space. I would say the main differentiating factor is my focus on PR's. I am a lifter; and I made this app partially to help free-up all my whiteboards that I've been using to track my PRs across different exercises/rep-counts.

I actually show both. For all the calculators I am trying to show multiple formulas where possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Cool. Is it possible to load historical stats?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not at the moment. Good question.

It'd be easy to whip up a migration script; I just would need to be familiar with the structure of the incoming data.

What format would be easiest for you to have your historical stats in? CSV?

<comment><USER4> CSV seems most reasonable. On another note, the UX is not supportive of entering stats while working out or form a mobile phone. Do you use it that way? I've even found most apps are not too slick for entering while working out and I've resorted to google spreadsheet on my phone, which actually works pretty well. I just don't get any charts or graphs out of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I hear you; the site is best on desktop atm with the way the 'workout view' is orientated but I hear you about wanting to do it on the phone. I'll think about how to deal with that.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Much You Must Earn to Buy a Home in 27 Major U.S. Metros - <AUTHOR> http://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-must-earn-to-buy-a-home-metro-area <comment><USER2> These numbers seem irresponsibly low to me... for example I was pre-qualified for a $750k house and I ended up buying a $450k house because my wife and I felt that while the bank would give us the money for the more expensive house and during fair weather we could make payments it was irresponsible to buy it.

I found almost all these calculators for what is "affordable" are unrealistic.

Sure, we can make the monthly payments but what if one of us gets laid off? What if we have twins unexpectedly? Just because the numbers say you can afford a house doesn't mean you should get it.

Which makes these numbers look even worse when you think of the title as "How Much You Must Earn to Buy a Home in 27 Major U.S. Metros and probably be in crushing debt"</comment>


Crowdfunding Backer Patented My Project - <AUTHOR> https://patentpandas.org/stories/crowdfunding-backer-patented-my-project <comment><USER2> > examiners for the most part seem to only look at existing patents [...] So > if your work isn't in one of these patent databases—examiners usually use > the USPTO patent archive or google patents—it's very possible your work > won't be discovered by the examiner.

Would it be feasible to build an "unpatented" database where people could submit the inventions they don't want patented and have the USPTO look at it in their research?

Maybe a patent version of what copyleft is to copyright?

<comment><USER3> I don't understand why the patent examiner wouldn't look into something like Google Scholar for prior art. This is the "unpatented database" where people submit inventions all the time- journal articles, preprints etc.

<comment><USER4> If I understand correctly, the us patent system is "first to file" rather than "first to invent". There's a 1yr grace period from when an inventor publicly discloses an invention (say, in an academic journal) to when they must file a patent application. See this link for more details:

[https://techcrunch.com/2013/02/16/first-to-file-a- primer/](https://techcrunch.com/2013/02/16/first-to-file-a-primer/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That is incredibly upsetting but was very fascinating to read about. The author handled the situation extremely well after seeing (what seems to be) a major part of their life be "intellectually" taken away from them. Even though they may own the patent, the patent troll will never take away the dedication, work and love poured into this passion project. It definitely should make anyone question the current patent process.

<comment><USER6> I suppose the silver lining is that this patent is essentially worthless for the intellectual thief Jill Mackay. Given all the prior art, I'm guessing it would be hard to enforce, but I can definitely see Jill pulling some patent troll moves in the future.

The real stinker in this whole story is how Jill Mackay had the balls to try to sell the patent back to Jie for $5MM. Totally shameful and by a fellow "artist" no less.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting read.

A lot of these come back to the problem of defining a patent: There is no way to determine, in a patent office, in the real world, at scale... if patents are actually novel and/or trivial.

It's possible to disprove a novelty claim in some cases (like this one), but that's it.

We need major reform, globally. The pharmaceutical/medical patent system needs to be separate to the software patent system, for example.

This case is really a great example. Patents enables intellectual theft, it doesn't prevent it.

<comment><USER8> I've always found the fact that independent discovery wasn't a defense to patent infringement to be an obvious indication that patents are more about setting up a protectionist market than about protecting inventors.

<comment><USER9> Ok, so every accused infringer alleges independent discovery. How do you prove or disprove that fact on either side? I think therein lies the reason why this whole line of argumentation is set aside, even if it is logically appealing.

<comment><USER8> How does the police go about proving that it was not self defense? The police have an even higher burden, needing to meet a standard of no reasonable doubt. Instead civil cases require a balance of probabilities.

So, no the difficulty in proving intent is not the reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Very disheartening.

Thank you to the author Jie Qi (MIT)

What can be done on individual level, at the engineering level, as well as voters in US or European Union, to make sure that the economic theft of this type does not thrive ?

(and I am sure there are many 'Jill MacKay' characters in other countries, not just US)

The current patent system in US at least -- had been converted into a form of legalized racketeering.

With its own ecosystem of 'enforcers', 'masterminds', 'spies on the ground', etc.

Also just as in protection from racketeers it pays to have 'wealthy' and 'powerful' backers for your business (with whom you must share a portion of your equity... ).

<comment><USER9> I think legalized racketeering is a hard case to make out from this set of facts. The patent owner here has not received a dime, from what we know from this blog post, for this patent. It may be frustrating to see, but so far seems that the 'system' has not allowed any profiteering here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Former lawyer here:

One of the key takeaways from this is that even if you don't want to exclude other people from using and building on your invention, you should still patent it. It's much cheaper to file the patent--you don't even need to hire a lawyer to do it--than it is to fight off someone else.

But I also agree with the other comments here that if patent examiners need to do a more through search for prior art than just examining other existing patents, especially in domains where there are open-source communities. That would involve a modest increase in cost to the government, much or all of which could be covered by increasing the patent filing fees, and be a huge economic benefit for companies large and small that get harassed by dubious patents.

<comment><USER9> The problem seems to be how to measure such an effort. It's easy to list a few classes and subclasses (of the patent database) and say that you've searched through those entirely, but the whole internet? What documentation would be sufficient to convey that the Examiner had searched thoroughly enough? Examiners are already urged to search NPL (non-patent literature) sources, but it seems too amorphous to establish standards for what sources need to be searched and how thoroughly. And the tooling isn't there either. Natural language search engines aren't precise enough for a real search for information (don't want the googles guessing what you 'really' meant to search for). When I was an examiner, for what it's worth, I always searched at least IEEE, CiteSeerX, and Dialog databases, but I'm not sure that a KickStarter campaign would have come up in any of those databases either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's ridiculous that it costs $300-600k to attempt to dispute a patent. The whole patent process needs a major revamp, and that's before considering how bad it is for software and intangible products.

<comment><USER9> And that's for an IPR, which is the cheap route to invalidation! A similar proceeding in district court would be an order of magnitude higher, and that was much more common before the introduction of IPRs and the PTAB in 2012.

Now, the author is not exactly correct in that the IPR is the only route forward to invalidate a patent. Some other options include ex partes reexam and protest, which may have the potential to be a lower-cost option.

In any event, having pertinent (according to the author) prior art cited in an IDS in the file wrapper could neuter a patent anyways, as any attempt to enforce or transfer it would be severely hampered by its presence. Even any attorney who would take a case to enforce it could potentially have ethics issues in taking the case if they believed the cited art to be invalidating. And no one would buy a patent with such a cloud over it, until all cited art is addressed in a contentious proceeding or in examination it's probably not going to be sold.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Intellectual "Property" no longer is to promote progress of science and useful arts, it is a form of rent seeking. If the patent no longer promotes science and useful arts, then the 1st amendment applies and I view patents and copyright as unconstitutional in their current form. Patents inhibit the progress of science and copyright has no limit.

<comment><USER9> This is a legally dubious argument. Consider that the patent system is one of the only tools which puts all parties on an even playing field. Surely, deep coffers convey great advantage to large players, but that power is not absolute. Solid prior art will ultimately limit or destroy value in a patent regardless of who owns it. It is essentially a meritocratic system, even if distorted by money. Without a patent system, it's a fully autocratic world in which money rules over all, and large players will use their market dominance to steal all innovation. It's a worse situation, any way you cut it. Any unfairness or inequality you can identify currently would only be exacerbated by removing patent protection. So, I support your cause for more egalitarianism and meritocracy, but I think doing away with patents will only make it worse, not better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> If they're anything like domain name squatters they'll now wait until you're worth more, and then try to make you pay to license the patent. The fee they demand will be slightly less than it would cost you to fight them and repudiate the patent. You'll be in a quandary: pay more to fight for justice, or save money and let the terrorists win. Patent trolls are professionals, they know exactly what they're doing.

</comment><comment><USER15> The shamelessness of some people:

> _What really twisted me inside was to see her emphasize how her stickers are > "made in the USA." Here's the irony of the situation: Chinese American > immigrant student (that's me!) from MIT goes to Shenzhen, China to create an > educational toolkit. But the output of such work is patented by an American > businesswoman from Colorado who promotes the "USA" origin of the work._

</comment><comment><USER16> Looks like somebody in the patent office hasn't done their job, the prior art list is overwhelming.

<comment><USER17> The patent office's real job is approving patents. The examination part is an unfortunate necessity, but only so far as it maintains the fiction that the patent system is benefiting society.

<comment><USER9> Well, to some extent this is true and in some ways totally inaccurate. There is a push in the Examination corps to assist inventors in efficiently identifying the patentable subject matter in their application and assisting the applicant in getting a patent on that subject matter. Buuuut, at the same time, the easiest thing in the world for an Examiner to do is to issue a rejection. Nobody ever got egg on their face for issuing a rejection (if there is a tenable grounds for it). But it is quite embarrassing to be the examiner who allows a facially silly patent (like the swinging on a swing patent, or the stick patent, for example). And, from the Examiner's perspective, they can get more counts (a measure of productivity) by issuing rejections and prolonging examination. So, in the end, the real goal of an Examiner is to get the good ones allowed and reject the bad ones (surprise surprise). It's just a very fact-dependent, laborious, and subjective process. So that sometimes you or I may disagree with some cherry-picked results from thousands of Examiners working nonstop, is not terribly surprising. To suggest that the entire system is broken because of this is extremely naive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> If the patent examiner only has 12 hours to examine prior art as the article states why aren't they just replaced with a random number generator?

<comment><USER19> Like peer review in the academic sciences, they just check that it is properly formatted documented that confirms their pre-existing biases.

<comment><USER9> That's simply not true. Just because there are examples of examination being imperfect doesn't mean that all Examiners are doing is confirming biases. Also, Examiners don't care about formatting at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is such revolting behavior. Props to the author for their calm and perseverance. I'm in a rage just from reading the article.

</comment><comment><USER21> What a scumbag (Jill MacKay, not Jie Qi).

<comment><USER22> this Jill MacKay?

[https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/dc954b_8c3843e07bea451a8723ab...](https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/dc954b_8c3843e07bea451a8723ab884ecb8a6d.pdf)

<comment><USER21> No idea. Jill MacKay was the name of the "idea thief" in the linked blog entry.

<comment><USER23> It's this one, according to screenshots.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Read the patent. => Find where he lives. => Order a chainsaw. :p

Now seriously. Sew them. Hunt them down legally and shame them online for the rest of their life.

<comment><USER12> That won't solve anything and is not good advice. We don't need more online mob justice, and this blog post does a good job of documenting the issue as public history.</comment></comment>


Hawkee is now Google+ for programmers - <AUTHOR> http://www.hawkee.com Application developer network for programmers to share code, apps and projects. <comment><USER2> I like the idea, but the site is fairly buggy:

* After signing in via Github, it asked me to create a username. I did so, but clicking either buttons on the dialog that displayed did nothing (incidentally, I probably shouldn't be able to resize that dialog). * I clicked the "Sign in" link in the upper right and the dialog popped up again, again not working. I closed it, clicked the "Sign in with Github" button, and was taken to my profile page. * In clicking around my "wall", I got it into a state where clicking the "All Activities" button does nothing. I have to click the logo in the upper left to get back to my "wall".

Like I said, though: neat idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the bug report. I've fixed the issues you mentioned.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How would you quantify the level of stress at work? - <AUTHOR> Are you stressed at work? How would you quantify the level of stress from %0 to %100?<p>Take the average of a typical week at work. <comment><USER2> I feel 100% stress because of the noise and distractions. It is 100% beacuse

a. I hate it so fucking much that I rarely even curse and it is making me want to say I hate it so fucking much

b. I am more sensitive to distractions and noise. I can't simply "put on headphones" like everyone always retorts when I say I can't focus.

c. There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I can change jobs, but this stupid fucking fad has permeated everywhere. I have heard of exactly two companies that give their thought-workers distraction, noise-free environments. If I haven't put down roots already, maybe I would have given it a crack, but moving is not an option.

<comment><USER3> .. why don't you complain dude ? what's the worst that can happen ? hell, ask everyone so you can form a group-complain or something ? fuck it complain everyday, making them stressed that you complain ? shit like, please lower a little the volume or stay a little quitter ? do it persistently and stress them back? fucking take a note from a doctor ? go around the office with noise detector to find the quietest desk and ask to transfer there? report anonymously for bad working conditions ? put cameras with movement detectors and keep stats on each desk ? but at least you'll find some closure instead of going insane

source: experience

<comment><USER2> I bring it up to managers and co-workers as often as I can, without sounding too bitchy or out of place, because I know how fickle some humans can be, I don't want to be a constant source of negativity -- you have to be in an exalted position to bring up these things, because otherwise you'll just be brushed aside -- _well Frank over there sits in the noise and he 's twice as productive as you_ \-- well I am not Frank. That's part the reason I don't quit. I am hoping to excite some kind of change. There are enough psychological studies and evidence based claims I can make to fill a boardroom on the negative effects of distraction on productivity, it's just finding the right opportunity and having the right leverage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I realize this doesn't necessarily answer the original question, but in my mind I view two major buckets of stress:

1\. Immediate, demand-driven stress.

2\. Low-level, semi-constant stress (the nagging kind).

I'm perfectly fine with 1, as I accept that as part of the job which I'm highly compensated for.

Number 2 though is what always affects me the most and is the reason I left my last role. It's the kind of stress that is alway present under the surface but never quite manifests itself like #1 does.

Think of the boss who is constantly inconsistent (consistently inconsistent?), saying something one day and then something completely different the next. You shrug it off with an eyeroll and start re-doing all of your work, but deep down it eats away at you. Or the lazy colleague who you're constantly cleaning up after but who is best buddies with leadership so is regularly promoted ahead of more capable colleagues. The frustration bubbles under the surface but due to office politics there's nothing you can really do about it. I could go on, but I'm sure we've all suffered some form of low level stress that has a far more significant impact on our personal well-being than we care to admit.

</comment><comment><USER5> No stress. I work at a large healthcare company in the Netherlands, we do science, oncology. There are no real hard dead lines because stuff either works or it doesn't and is killed before it does (us scientists are known to keep trying for too long apparently). I get motivated when stuff gets hard and I get to learn new things. Currently I just had my second child and my project allows for me to work in public transport or at home easily (doing data science on our Linux cluster) making it easier to get to 8 hrs a day and still be at home to assist my wife (who was quite "damaged" during the delivery) as much as possible. This is important because I have an insane commute of 80 min. I like my job.

I work 90% meaning I have a day off every two weeks. Plus, in the Netherlands there is Parenting leave meaning you can have about 1000 hours of unpaid leave anytime you like during your kids first 4 years, of course this is to be discussed with the boss but in my case it is always possible (I do it when it does not interfere with important meetings, conferences, colloquiums etc.) This is on top of the usual 5 weeks paid vacation every dutch person has.

<comment><USER6> I was speaking to someone the other day who has recently retired, and it took him 25ish years of working at a large company to get 5 weeks of vacation time :/

I think many people should get vacation time more quickly, or it should be a standard of five weeks just like the Netherlands.

<comment><USER5> But they way, people still have stress here. But the way I read this comments, it's less than in the US and you can often work less of be less achieving, earn less but still be able to come by easily and loose the stress. Stress seems to be more implicit at any level in the US. We still have people burning out here though and occasionally there are departments that almost develop a japans "stay a work as long as the boss then drink together culture", somehow.

Work life balance is recognized as very important here and the correct way to deal with a too large workload is to go to your Project lead and ask him where your priorities should be if you can only finish one of 2 things. This was really hammered in during an application interview at ASML. I answered that I'd pull an all-nighter if required, they were very adamant about never putting myself in a situation that could lead to burn out, even temporarily. Perhaps I'm a bit in a "highly educated" bubble and truck driver have more stress? Although truck drivers can actually get fined when they don't take their obligatory breaks and stick to decent working hours.

<comment><USER6> That sort of culture exists at my company, but I wish there was more team atmosphere at work. (or free time outside of work to do this)

That's true I'm not sure it's very easy to quantify the stress of a nation/industry and compare it to another nation.

At my current company it's pretty do as you please with breaks/lunch/time off. I believe I have 3.5 weeks and I've been here a year. I pretty much just go to work and then go home (not right at 5pm on the dot). So I wouldn't say work/life balance is great, but it is what it is I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I read this question as "How would one go about quantifying the level of stress at work?", which is what I was hoping I would read about after the click.

In a world where metrics are useful for everything, I feel like a time-series graph showing relative stress levels time would be really illuminating.

<comment><USER8> I thought the same too.

I suspect stress capacity is going to be different for each person, and that capacity might change or shift over time (as a result of physical health, emotional stability, etc.)

Another is that the level of stress (and its attendent tension held in the body) one might be aware of is dependent on how well trained your awareness is.

We could narrow down "stress" by measuring the levels of stress markers in the body, but I think that only gives part of the picture.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> 0%...I work remote and make my own schedule. I'm on my way to the airport for a month long vacation. As a contractor I can take a month off without needing approval from anyone. I can take a Tuesday off and go to Disneyland with my daughter without needing to lie about being sick.

<comment><USER10> > I can take a Tuesday off and go to Disneyland with my daughter without > needing to lie about being sick.

Unless you are talking "on a whim" with no notice it would have to be a pretty terrible employer to not let you take a Tuesday off.

I'd be inclined as long as you give a week or two notice to approve that time off no problem. However, if you lied and said you were sick there is a major trust issue there and there would probably be disciplinary action

<comment><USER11> > Unless you are talking "on a whim" with no notice it would have to be a > pretty terrible employer to not let you take a Tuesday off.

I think OP was referring to not having to worry about the number of days he has taken so far, since he says "make my own schedule", i.e.: not having to worry about limits, either temporal or financial.

<comment><USER9> Exactly this. When you just get 2 weeks, you save those up for a week long cruise and Christmas. You wouldn't take a random Tuesday off and burn a vacation day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Long ago, after a life event, I decided to ban stress as an "illogical activity".

I've got so good at it, that sometimes I have to feign being stressed so the higher ups don't think I don't give a damn. (I do, I just don't consider work "life or death")

<comment><USER13> This. The only moments I feel stressed now is when I have to stand in front of 200 people.

<comment><USER12> Try picturing them all in their underwear ;)

<comment><USER14> Oh, great! 200 nearly naked people, each with stern looks of disapproval!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Surly the question is not how much stress full stop, but how much undue stress?

Some jobs are just inherently stressful, an Account Manager under pressure to get orders/sales over the line at year end, a Support Manager working with irate customers and escalating issues etc etc.

I've seen people go off sick with 'stress' and have staged re-introduction to the workplace, but if the role is inherently stressful maybe they weren't cut out for it in the 1st place.

On the other hand undue levels of stress can be placed upon employees by bad management (usually to try and save their necks after they've messed up in someway), and sometimes people put themselves under pressure by holding themselves to high standards.

Separating the source goes along way to being able to manage it.

</comment><comment><USER16> Before I quit, I felt like I'd hit 100% stress at work. It was an unfriendly environment, my manager was so stressed that she stressed everyone else out just from talking to her, and I got a strong feeling that my project manager hated her job (and me). The work itself was tedious and poorly spec'ed out by the requestors.

100% stress can be FINE under the right circumstances. With a supportive boss and team, you feel like you won't actually drown in the work. But when the team is wishy-washy and distant... well, then you get a situation where something has to give.

</comment><comment><USER17> Stress level is at 100% for sure.

In a giant corporation that is comfy and has 3 levels of middle management. I currently hate life and trying to find a new job.

Everyday I wake up to rejection letters reminding me that I can't find anything better. At least I can fall between the cracks sometimes at work, but ultimately it is will be spent on applying to new jobs.

Its getting harder to get out of the bed in the morning.

</comment><comment><USER18> Honestly sometimes it's zero stress. I feel absolutely fine. But stress creeps up on me - and I know it's hitting a peak when I start to get alopecia holes in my beard. It's only then I realise what's going on and how I'm feeling. A bit like boiling a frog, I guess.

A physical manifestation is an ugly and unwelcome reminder to get on top of things.

</comment><comment><USER19> Stress is hard to quantify. I generally find if I am having fleeting negative thoughts about work flashing though my mind outside of work hours then I am stressed and need to do something about it.

When work is going well and is fairly stress-free then I will not spend a single second thinking about work outside of work.

</comment><comment><USER20> Hi,

I'm working on a project called Performetric ([https://performetric.net](https://performetric.net)) that aims to help objectively measure levels of fatigue and stress and help manage some situations mentioned here. I am not doing my "pitch" here, but trying understand if a solution like our can help you

</comment><comment><USER21> I cannot speak to my current employer as my handle is not anonymized. I will say that in prior employments the level of stress was directly correlated to the incompetence of the staff and developers. Incompetent people tend to create two problems:

1\. Job insecurity. Politics ramp up as employee mobility goes down.

2\. The technology is trash. The internal tech is often riddled with excessive abstractions, confused organization, lack of purpose, and other unnecessary qualities that generally slows people down. Its a real bummer when 10 minute task takes 2 weeks to complete in the office.

I can only speak to large software companies and unfortunately the demand for employees will often exceed the available supply of confident AND experienced developers available in the market.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm currently in my first 'non-programming' programmer role. I was hired to provide 'subject matter expertise' on software development issues and to help define requirements and design architecture.

Meetings, talking to folks, writing documentation, meetings, drawing diagrams in visio, and meetings is my life now.

It's stressful because

1.) I'm not coding (So, I literally have to whip out my laptop and code _something_ every day to maintain my sanity)

2.) It's really hard to tell if I'm doing a good job or not (i.e., I don't know the rules of this new game).

The pay is good, but I really miss being able to code in solitude for hours at a time during the workday.

Also, I'm starting to get headaches, a lot. They used to be rare.

<comment><USER12> Get a pet project in open source. Fast!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> If pressed to find some numbers, one might measure it using a few metrics:

1) Turnover percentage

2) Number of mandatory recurring meetings factor (divide top line by # of meetings?)

3) Strictness of "Core Hours" (meaning, does it cover the entire work day, or just part of it) Perhaps this is a percentage?

4) Leave policy (multiplier for good policies)

5) Work From Home policy multiplier (flexible? routine? abnormal?)

6) Hours worked per week

7) For Software add: Test Coverage %, Automated Deploy Apps divided by Total Apps %, Uptime %

8) Open Office penalty factor

9) Team Room # factor (number of rooms / number of teams)

</comment><comment><USER6> As you sort-of eluded to - it varies by week.

Most of the stress in my life is caused by commuting to and from work, or not relaxing after work (ie: Not going home right after work).

Job wise - It's fairly stress free probably around 25%.

The majority of that percentage is from waiting on other people or answers to questions, or things that I feel are out of my control. I enjoy the work I do, and it hardly feels like work (which is great), but I feel like I could be challenged more.

</comment><comment><USER24> From the title I understood you meant "how to quantify stress in general". It's something so subjective and you can never know how whimpy or brave people are. I really like the idea of asking for what one would sacrifice for the discomfort to go away.

Would you move 2 workdays to the weekend so you can work in peace? Would you move to another town if there was a less stressfull job, all else equal?

</comment><comment><USER25> My level of stress at the moment is around 50%, just because I have resigned a couple of days ago.

In the last 3/4 months the level of stress was 100%: a lot of overtime, a lot of nightly works and on duty calls. Furthermore my manager is part-time (the only case in my whole careeer) and it's under big pressure; the company is in the middle of a big reorganization and there is a lot of politic wars.

</comment><comment><USER26> 50%. I have periodic stress - approaching major releases, major changes in staffing (up or down), but my day-to-day stress level isn't very high.

I also work a reasonable schedule, generally 40-45 hours/week, rarely more than that, and maybe 2-3 weekends in 15 years at my employer. Good vacation policy, flexible daily schedule, and a short commute as well.

</comment><comment><USER27> I'm not sure how this can be well-answered.

Any time you actually feel stressed, you're unlikely to feel that it's 'less stress' than some previous experience; I think it inherently feels each time like you're discovering what '100%' might be, or perhaps it's less than that - a thought that in itself only adds to the stress.

</comment><comment><USER28> 0% right now because I'm not working.

I get stressed out when I need to work because I need money. And then I get work and money and I stress because of the work so I stop for a bit.

It's a poorly choreographed dance between wanting money and not wanting to work.

</comment><comment><USER29> Despite being in quite stressful situations at the moment (consulting with tight deadlines and unclear deliverables), I actually feel quite at ease. Team is great, client and location are great and my weekends are protected.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'd say you don't since stress is a subjective and qualitative thing.

</comment><comment><USER31> I've found I can quantify my overall stress level quite well by the length of my fingernails. The more stressed I am the shorter they get (through subconscious biting/chewing on them)

</comment><comment><USER32> It oscillates as a square wave between 0% and 100% depending on what's on fire, what's due, and who I have to deal with.

There's significantly more 0%s than 100%s though. Probably close to 5:1.

</comment><comment><USER33> > _How would you quantify the level of stress from %0 to %100?_

Reminds me when my employer asked me to rank my level of happiness at work.

I hesitated between 7 and 8, the other guys in my team answered from 5 to 9.

</comment><comment><USER34> 5% of hours in a typical work week. The occasional machine-down situation due to a bug I put in the software or a disagreement with a higher-level manager.

</comment><comment><USER35> Extreme, the open office plan means I'm constantly interrupted no matter what I do.</comment>