Ask HN: Unemployed for 2 years, looking to find a steady programming job - <AUTHOR> I'm an experienced web developer, always worked in Chicago, but now I'm having trouble finding a company that would hire me. I feel like I've been displaced from the programming industry.
* Got my first web dev job in 2007
* Graduated 2007 with an unrelated degree
* Worked on-and-off. I never had another job lined up when I left/laid off from the old one.
* Looking to settle into a salaried job. I don't even know what it's like to be a salaried employee. All the job offers I could get have been contract-to-hire, and they paid well below average.
Based on the last point, I quickly learned that "being a bargain" doesn't make you any more employable. In fact, I'm starting to think there is a correlation between programmers with low salaries and having more difficulty finding jobs.
I don't know where to begin filtering for higher yields in getting interviews. At this point, I'm just throwing anything at the wall waiting for something to stick.
The programming job doesn't have to be web dev related. Maybe the glut of bootcamp graduates is making it harder for me to stay relevant? I am okay with working in one of the bigger but non-sexy places if they are the easier places to get in. So what are some places in the Chicago area that:
* Don't care what tech stack you've used
* Have a large enough tech team to tolerate a greater ramp-up time for new hires
* Years in the field mean less to them, because they can just hire and place someone where it's appropriate
So where to begin changing my approach so I get higher yields for interviews, and offers? <comment><USER2> Have you tried city or utility jobs? They are not as sexy, but they have the potential to meet every one of your requirements.

Secondly, the way you talk about your abilities makes me want to shake you. You are no less capable than the next person. You're not going to be the next big developer evangelist or the founder of some amazing startup, but neither are 99% of the other people. HN is a concentration of successful, smart people. It can skew the way you view yourself so don't use this site as a barometer for your skills.

Also, you sound depressed and defeated and that is understandable after what seems like a constant onslaught of rejection, but the only way to change that is by building your own self worth and confidence in your skills. You can't expect an employer to meet you where you are so you have to meet them where they are. Find your passion in this field and run with it.

I have 13 years in the industry and I still feel like a fraud most days. That doesn't seem to go away.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems like you are looking for a company who will accommodate your needs (i.e. "Don't care what tech stack you've used") but maybe you need to think about what you can do yourself to accommodate what companies need from you?

You say you're looking for somewhere that will "tolerate a greater ramp-up time for new hires" and thats fair enough but there are also plenty of things you can be doing now to prepare for a job to minimize the ramp-up time.

Also your approach of "looking for a job as a web dev, or anything really" is not going to look very attractive to employers. I'm sure you wont be saying that in an interview of course but why would they hire someone with that attitude when there are plenty of people who can say "I love working with Rails/Python/Javascript/whatever because x, y and z and even though I've been unemployed recently I've done this, this and this which is related to this technology".

I'm not saying you have to become one of these web-dev obsessed hacker-newsy types who spend all their free time reading tech blogs and experimenting with no-sql databases but at least pretend to have an interest in one or two particular aspects of web development and spend a bit of time to code something or do something to demonstrate that interest.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've had a Github profile for a couple of years, usually filled with some graphics programming or game projects, coded in C#. That's one of the languages I'd be interested in finding a job in. In 3 years went from learning what a reference type in C# is, to writing a graphics engine using .NET that uses object pooling for best performance, and can be implemented as a DLL for other projects. And learning HLSL for writing my own shaders, doing thing like optimize a parallel split shadow mapping algorithm to run in a single pass within the 512 instructions limit of the Shader Model 3.0 spec.

I also made a software rasterizer in JavaScript, it's very small in size uses no 3rd party libraries but supports z-depth checking and texture mapping.

As you can see I like doing graphics stuff in my spare time. But I'm not sure how to sell my skills in those projects to more "mainstream" web development jobs. My real world JS work is not as novel or even up to current standards. At the last startup I worked on a front end JS code base totaling over 25K lines. And it didn't use any modules. No Grunt or Webpack, no packages to automate builds, bunch of jQuery function calls with little grouping to them- it is JS but JS circa 2009.

So basically I have some novel projects but my dev practices may be "out of time" with certain companies. So I'm looking to see how to show the better side of my skill set.

<comment><USER3> Ok well it sounds like you've done some pretty solid work there and should have things to talk about in an interview. Have you ever gotten an feedback from employers or recruiters as to why you were not picked for a job?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's usually pretty generic stuff. I wasn't a good fit, or they found someone else that's a better candidate, etc. Liability reasons cause them to withhold details. Many people consider all interviews practice, but practice only makes you better if you get proper feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The Gig Economy is on the rise. I keep seeing posts similar to yours saying "I have been unemployed for a year a longer. How do I fix this?" Meanwhile, I have seen articles that suggest that by 2020, about 40% of the US economy will be gig work/freelancers/contractors and similar.

Let me suggest you look for paid work. You can keep looking for a job too, but just figure out how to get money coming in the door.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, I started in 2007 so your projected statistic wouldn't have been very relevant. In 2007 I should have been able to get a full-time job more easily, yeah? Yet even in 2007-13 I only have gotten cheap contractor offers.

I'm not interested in part time gigs. My contract jobs pay too low, highest paid one was $25/hr. I'm looking to settle down for a salaried position with benefits (as any decent job would have) while I still can. Nearly all the jobs on the local boards are still full-time with benefits.

<comment><USER5> Go meet more people in person who already work in the industry - [https://www.meetup.com/topics/web- development/us/il/chicago/](https://www.meetup.com/topics/web- development/us/il/chicago/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> By the way, I've been with countless recruiters in the past. They haven't been very helpful.

I've been to their offices a few times, have been on many phone calls and get moved around from job opening to job opening but I never have gotten an offer because of a job recruiter.

Currently I use BuiltInChicago, Indeed, Craigslist, WeWorkRemotely, Angel.co, and LinkedIn for sending in applications.

I still need the following questions answered, as mentioned in the OP...

What are some places in the Chicago area that:

* Don't care what tech stack you've used?

* Have a large enough tech team to tolerate a greater ramp-up time for new hires?

* Years in the field mean less to them, because they can just hire and place someone where it's appropriate?

<comment> clark-kent Use recruiters, they are very good in landing you interviews, put your side projects on your resume and bring them up during interviews. Try hired.com. The most important thing is to get exposure to as many job interviews as possible. I have no doubt that you will land a job soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> In answer to your questions..

\- Don't care what tech stack you've used

I would argue that most companies aren't too concerned about your tech-stack. You're applying to businesses with dev's who like you appreciate development skills are transferable to other stacks and languages.

HOWEVER, if you are one of 10 applicants, of which 2 just happen to have experience in their tech-stack, then they will get preference over you. This is a logical route for them to go down.

\- Have a large enough tech team to tolerate a greater ramp-up time for new hires

If this was the case, they'd be looking for 'juniors'. If you're applying for anything other than that, assume that they don't have the capability to tolerate a slow learning curve.

\- Worked on-and-off. I never had another job lined up when I left/laid off from the old one.

If I see a CV with noticeable gaps in employment, I will put it to the bottom of the pile. I suggest you fill in those gaps with something.. personal projects.. volunteering.. you must have been doing something other than looking for your next job?

\- Years in the field mean less to them because they can just hire and place someone where it's appropriate

Again I think the majority of businesses don't care too much about years, as such. Context matters. Again, if you're one 10 applicants, and the other 9 have 5 more years than you, then they'll preference them.

Can I suggest you reconsider your approach to applying? 1000 applications in 3 years are almost 1 a day. That's crazy. Your CV must be all over the place, and that isn't always a good thing (for example, if you've adjusted it over time, it may look like you were lying before).

Have you considered sending a portfolio with your applications?

<comment><AUTHOR> I do send my resumes with a list of projects in them, with Github links. Only a few have said anything about them. If you want to take a look, it's here: github.com/ccajas

If I have to be considered as a junior to be on boarded and learning from other, so be it. I never had much guidance from more experienced people anyway. Small companies usually cannot provide that, so it's possibly time to get a fresh start as a junior at a large company. A good old "soft reset" might be the thing my career needs. I'll remove past jobs from my resume, and just keep my education info and list of projects.

> Can I suggest you reconsider your approach to applying?

Yes, you can suggest that. What other approaches do you recommend for applying?

<comment><USER6> Something other than what you've done 1000 times?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Best thing to do is create a portfolio with the latest tech stacks, and make them open source so they can see what your capable of.

</comment><comment><USER8> Have you actually found positions you're interested in?

Have you been applying, but not getting interviews?

Have you been getting interviews but not succeeding?

<comment><AUTHOR> >Have you actually found positions you're interested in?

Yes.

>Have you been applying, but not getting interviews?

about 1000 applications since late 2014, and about 20 interviews

>Have you been getting interviews but not succeeding?

No offers from any interviews in the current job hunt.

What is the usual percentage of offers that I should expect? How many applications is the usual to send before someone gets their first offer?

<comment><USER8> 1000 applications and 20 interviews in around ~3 years?

I don't have stats to back up my opinion but that to me is crazy crazy low (unless you were applying for completely unsuitable jobs).

\- Do you alter your resume per applications?

\- Is there a common theme amongst positions you're applying for? (i.e. 'junior' or 'senior' etc) or are you applying for just every dev role you see?

\- Do you do any networking (i.e. meetups?)

\- Would you be willing to share your resume? (perhaps remove identifiable things if you are concerned).

\- Can you share some links to recent job postings you've applied for?

<comment><AUTHOR> Finally, I can show my resume (with most names redacted)

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/6290viuyjbr09jc/web_resume_swe.pdf...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/6290viuyjbr09jc/web_resume_swe.pdf?dl=0)

<comment><USER8> I agree with another poster regarding the 'not very compelling' and that I would classify you in the junior range of experience.

Honest feedback coming up..

Initial advice:-

\- Remove 'professional' from the experience subtitle, it immediately frames your resume to me that there will be non-professional experience later on and therefore you might not have much professional experience.

\- Remove the professional and personal experiences programming languages/tools parts, merge them into one. Rank them in order of your overall experience, splitting them makes it look amateurish.

\- If you've been unemployed for 2 years, then I would expect your github profile to be way more active if you're really looking and planning to get a job.

\- A lot of your experience descriptions don't really mention much tech and come across as vague; reading your resume fills me with doubtful questions about you rather than answers that make me picture you clearly in your head and what your capabilities are.

i.e. 'Migration of [startup's] corporate websites and blogs to a new host' \- what tech were they running on?, what tech did you move them to?

'Addressed the needs of dozens of business and non-profit clients to improve their online presence via CMS websites' \- what does this even mean? You made some wordpress sites? You wrote your own framework?

\- Have you been practising for interviews? (phone and onsite), P.S. This advice is given based on the variable state of interviews that are given.....buy a whiteboard and pen and practise coding and explaining your thoughts whilst writing, revise for the interview ('Cracking the coding interview' etc).

<comment><AUTHOR> Regarding interviews I hardly get any algorithm questions that are found in CTCI.

Most of the technical interviews ask me practical knowledge on languages or tools, like how would I write a query for some problem, build a simple splash page with X set of features, etc.

It may be more of a west coast thing to ask CTCI questions. Interview styles might be like hip hop or food styles...it probably varies by reason. Local companies don't ask them much. The only companies that asked me those are Amazon and TripleByte.

I don't know of any resources for mock interviews.. my friends and family aren't familiar enough with my work to do a proper one. There doesn't seem to be much of a market for professionals to do mock interviews, which I find interesting.

Also, looking into the future, when I get my next job, what can I do _on the job_ that will keep my interview skills fresh?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> @achicagodevdude

If you're open to chatting 1:1 I could try and give you some advice.

Do you have a profile I can DM you at?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm newish to HN so I don't know if I can DM you through here. Do you mean another website, such as LinkedIn?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> You are right to think that there is a correlation between previous salaries and difficulty in finding jobs. In an ideal world, if your true worth is $X/year but you're willing to work for $(0.90X)/year, then you should be able to nab a job right? After all, you're a bargain. I struggled with this myself as a student job hunting, fighting the mentality of self-worth. All my jobs previous to my new one were low pay for our industry (highest was $25/hr CAD). As someone who's had to learn to embrace this mental shift when negotiating with much better offers relative to what I was used to, the first thing I will say is that you are spot on: a race to the bottom helps no one.

So OK, let's talk about your main question: where to begin to command interviews and ultimately a better salary? The advice here so far has been standard: (a) look outside of one area (b) do side projects and (c) talk to recruiters/network. This is fine advice, but IMO, not the most helpful. Advice like "find your niche" is better... but that is a difficult task on its own, to decide on one path that is by definition obscure.

Again I will draw from personal experience to try and share what I've learned. What worked most for me was to aim for a dream job, and to do things that would lead to building skills that would make me qualified for this dream job. I was in my 3rd year of undergrad - at the time, it was to work in an NBA front office - I was studying stats, and didn't have many interests besides having fun and following basketball. In following this pursuit to its limit, I learned many skills along the way _that I didn 't have until I decided what I most wanted_: web scraping, web development, databases, scripting, algorithm development, computational statistics, explaining statistics to non-technical users, trying to build a business, etc. Side projects, building a network (both local and out of town), and finding my niche (data science + web dev + product skills) _resulted from this goal_. They would have never happened on my own initiative - I would have been one of many people dreaming of app ideas and side projects to start but never finish. This has a nice benefit that comes for free: you are now different than the rest. Your perspective to solving problems and your experiences will be unique (to what degree, matters based on whatever it is you choose).

The downside of my advice is that it is not a short fix: myself, I am now 3-4 years from when I started this story, as I am soon to graduate from my MSc Stats. But you can accelerate this process, and I can tell you it works: applying to jobs coming out of my undergrad, I only heard from companies that you wouldn't recognize. This year, I got on-sites at Amazon and Capital One before deciding to accept a dream job offer at Shopify. You can do it - and I hope that this is an answer and story that can help you in your search of where to begin your change in approach.

P.S., when you get there, do not underestimate the truth behind how useful resources like CTCI, whiteboarding, etc. are for the interview stage.

</comment><comment><USER11> Talk to a recruiter

<comment><AUTHOR> I've already tried. None of the recruiting firms have been able to lead me to job offers. I got a few interviews, but that's it.

There's a lot of detail in my original post, so you would need to provide more detailed, personalized advice. "talk to a recruiter" would be already attempted for someone that's been on the job search as long as I have.

<comment><USER11> Check out Rural Sourcing. They look for bargain devs specifically.

<comment><USER5> as long as you relocate to one of their four locations...

[https://www.ruralsourcing.com/about-rsi/development- centers/](https://www.ruralsourcing.com/about-rsi/development-centers/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90 - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/business/stephanie-l-kwolek-inventor-of-kevlar-is-dead-at-90.html?hp <comment><USER2> > Kevlar has generated several billion dollars in revenue for the company. Ms. > Kwolek did not directly benefit from it financially, however; she signed > over patent royalties to DuPont.

This is kind of sad to me. I realize it is more or less standard practice to sign over all IP rights to your employer, but this was a significantly greater contribution than your standard invention. Reminds me of the engineer who created the blue LED who only received a bonus of <$200. He later sued and got closer to $9m. ([http://www.out-law.com/page-5208](http://www.out- law.com/page-5208))

<comment><USER3> She signed the patent royalties over to DuPont, but that is the deal that she made. There is at least an equal chance that she never would have created this material (there are scores of other men and women who have worked for DuPont, but not an equal number of such incredible breakthroughs). She traded away the ability to hit a home run for lower variance in compensation. She collected a salary, and I would hope that she indirectly financially benefited from potential promotions or raises.

Also, without the resources of DuPont she never would have been able to create this material.

It is a great invention, and she is certainly a great inventor; but just because she didn't become fabulously wealthy doesn't mean she was treated poorly.

<comment><USER4> > Also, without the resources of DuPont she never would have been able to > create this material.

Irrelevant. The need for capital doesn't inherently justify capital receiving ~100% of the proceeds. Her work was also a necessary part of creating the product.

> She collected a salary, and I would hope that she indirectly financially > benefited from potential promotions or raises.

I don't think you understand how bad chemists have it. The guy who invented lipitor ($120 billion in revenue) was unceremoniously laid off from Pfizer for his trouble. He didn't get a penny on top of his salary -- a salary that half of the readers of this post probably wouldn't accept for a software development position.

> just because she didn't become fabulously wealthy doesn't mean she was > treated poorly

No, but the labor force of industrial chemists is generally a heavily deleveraged group. There's an oversupply of them and they absolutely require intensive capital resources for success. That means they get systematically shafted at the bargaining table. They _are_ treated poorly regardless of whether or not this individual incident is sufficient to prove it.

Due to the fact that software development has tiny capital requirements and that there are many industrial positions available for software engineers, we are able to negotiate much more reasonable terms of employment (i.e. capture a comparatively respectable fraction of the value we create). We have it good. Unusually good. It's important to remember that this is _not_ because markets operate that way in general. It's a happy accident that has turned out well for us so far. Nothing more, nothing less. The very least we can do is refrain from victim-blaming in industries where labor is not blessed with the same happy accident.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > A DuPont spokeswoman estimated that since the 1970s, 3,000 police officers > have been saved from bullet wounds through the use of equipment reinforced > with Kevlar [...]

Does that number seem really low to anybody else?

<comment><USER6> Have you ever worn Kevlar body armor?

The Feds have rather stupid requirements for it, that don't match the real world, but depend on deformation of clay behind a vest.

So what cops wear is stiffer, and perhaps hotter than needed. Although I think heat is unavoidable, there's even relevant lines in Shakespeare's _King Henry the Fourth_ :

      Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
      That scalds with safety.

So plenty of cops are killed because they're not wearing their uncomfortable armor; it's sort of like strapping a barrel around your torso.

Another factor is that better, albeit more expensive polymers have been developed, especially very long chain polyethylene (as in 1-2 million units long); my next vest will be made from that. Also Kevlar loses its protective strength if wet. There was also a short period where a very bad new polymer was used by at least one company, it quickly degraded, and that cost a few cops their lives.

Finally, while the gun-grabbers' campaign against non-existent "cop killer bullets!!!" accomplished nothing directly affecting cops on the ground, indirectly it taught a lot of people that cops wear body armor, resulting, or so I've read without personally drilling down to the raw data, an increase in criminals killing them with head shots.

Ah, I should also note that soft body armor saves by preventing penetration, and decreases kinetic impact by stretching the fibers. So a hit can still hurt a lot, enough to potentially fatally distract you during a fight, especially bad if you're alone. My home defense body armor has a hard rifle plate in the front to mitigate this.

Ah, I should also add some numbers. There aren't _that_ many cops killed on duty, here's numbers broken down by years: [http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities- data/year.htm...](http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities- data/year.html)

I don't think Kevlar body armor went into common use until perhaps the '80s, and without adding heavy rifle plates, which only SWAT teams routinely use (and our troops in the last decade), it offers very little protection against the #1 killer of cops, vehicle related accidents (in them, or struck by them).

<comment><USER7> Former LEO here.

I wore it in mild weather (80F), and it wasn't a bother. Hot, but not uncomfortably so. Our portable offices where air conditioned, so this helped quite a lot.

Traffic related accidents are more dangerous overall than getting shot, IIRC. Small sample size: I was never shot at, but T-Boned twice while driving through a intersections. Both times, not under code, but normal traffic speed.

Nitwits.

<comment><USER6> I've not tried it in really hot weather, and haven't found it to be really uncomfortable, but certainly more that I judged worth it for my pretty low current threat level. I do wear it very occasionally when I have to go out late at night. (Level II-A from a company I've never heard of, 1994 manufacture, didn't go to any great effort to get something good or well fitted (it's oversized at the belly, no doubt making that area a lot stiffer due to overlap), it's more insurance for disasters and the like than anything else.)

And thinking about it, if you ignore an ... adventure or two of my youngest brother's with shoplifters while he was working retail at a men's clothing store, none of my nuclear family have experienced any stranger face to face crime, as you might put it.

But we do have a couple of incidents of sitting in front of a red light at an intersection and BANG! Something like that also happened to my father CORRECTION: while avoiding a head on collision with a Pepsi truck who's driver was asleep, his company car, fortunately, got a non-disabling hit in the rear left quarter. He did teach all of us to drive very defensively ... but there's not much you can do when in front of a red light.

Nitwits indeed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> great backstory:

        I had been looking for a lightweight fiber strong
        and stiff enough to use in reinforcement. At just
        about this time—it was 1964—there was talk of a
        gasoline shortage, and we thought we could use a
        reinforcing fiber lighter than steel for radial
        tires. A lighter-weight vehicle would require
        less gasoline. We were not very successful with
        the tire industry. It was using cheaper steel
        wire for reinforcement, and the change to fiber
        would have meant changing machinery at the tire
        plants. So we expanded our research for new
        end-use applications, and we now have more than
        200 end-use applications for Kevlar.

[http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americ...](http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanheritage.com%2Farticles%2Fmagazine%2Fit%2F2003%2F3%2F2003_3_60.shtml&date=2009-05-24)

<comment><USER9> Incidentally, the use of Kevlar may not have caught on for cars, but it's pretty common in bicycle tires, so it has in some sense succeeded in the original intended application in the end as well.

<comment><USER6> I think its use in tires is a lot more common now that radials have replaced the bias-ply tires that were most commonly used when Kevlar was invented. The latter are good for bad roads, but I have the impression that they're not particular about the reinforcing material they use. A material science engineer who worked at a DuPont nylon plant in the '80s mentioned that nylon was used for bias-ply tires for mostly Third World markets.

Goodyear, at least, seems to make a number of models with Kevlar: [https://www.google.com/search?q=kevlar+radial+tire](https://www.google.com/search?q=kevlar+radial+tire)

But of course Kevlar is a trademark of DuPont, general patents on it have long expired. A more general search [https://www.google.com/search?q=aramid+radial+tire](https://www.google.com/search?q=aramid+radial+tire) using aramid instead of Kevlar is also fruitful, especially this 1974 story [http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cen-v052n008.p007a](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cen-v052n008.p007a) about Goodyear entering the market with them. That's very well timed, less than half a year after the 1973 oil shock, when fuel efficiency became a very big thing. No doubt they were working on such tires, and the shock provided a perfect marketing opportunity, in addition to the other benefits Kevlar brought to the table.

"Steel belted" is a phrase that I'm sure is hard to market against, as I recall it was used a lot in the '70s....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have always put Stephanie Kwolek on my "long odds but beyond deserving" list for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Alas, she never won it.

</comment><comment><USER11> I would not be around mucking with code today if not for this woman's work. May she rest in peace.

<comment><USER12> That sounds like an interesting story; would you consider telling it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Ironically he was stabbed to death while wearing a kevlar vest.

<comment><USER14>
        noja 4 hours ago | link | parent | flag
        Ironically he was stabbed to death while wearing a kevlar vest.

You need to work on your reading comprehension:

        Stephanie L. Kwolek
        Stephanie L.
        Stephanie

Stephanie is literally the first word in the title and article.

<comment><USER15> Both men and women are called "Stephanie", although in the US it is mostly a female name.

[http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Stephanie- meaning.htm](http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Stephanie-meaning.htm)

The mistake was to assume a male. It doesn't matter what the name was.

<comment><USER14> That pages looks auto-generated and awfully spammy. Apparently Elizabeth is a boys name, too [1].

[1] [http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Elizabeth- meaning.htm](http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Elizabeth-meaning.htm)

<comment><USER15> Here's a less spammy site.

[http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html)

I don't see what the problem is. "Elizabeth" is a boys name for a tiny number of boys. Both sites mention the tiny number and the old dates, clearly.

(This is one of the things Google fails at, I think. "Stephanie" is unlikely to be a name for a man i. english speaking nations, but Google pretty much only returns me English results. Perhaps they need a switch to "allow whole world www results" rather than locking me out of all those other languages.

<comment><USER14> That page doesn't load for me but I take it on face value that what you say is there.

I personally feel it's more likely that Elizabeth is universally a girl's name and data from the 1890's is not inputted into electronic systems with 100% accuracy.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


De La Soul to Make Entire Catalog Available for Free   - <AUTHOR> http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/de-la-soul-to-make-entire-catalog-available-for-free-20140213 <comment><USER3> Here's my thinking about the decision on the part of an artist to release their entire catalog to the public for free: if digital distribution has rendered direct sales to the customer significantly less worthwhile than it once was, they need some alternate source of promotion and revenue. A move like this would likely increase the artists' visibility in the public's eye without significantly harming their total revenues.

Notice that they give out copies of their songs, but don't release their copyright: want to download their music to listen to it on your iPod? Awesome, enjoy. Want to remix it or use it in a commercial setting? The music isn't licensed for that, you're going to have to talk to their agents.

This move is genius: it increases artists' exposure, ultimately leading to increased sales, licensing, and presumably also concert revenues. There's basically no downside to this.

<comment> at-fates-hands >>> This move is genius: it increases artists' exposure.

Only if people actually find out who De La Soul is. Considering they started in 1987 and their last album was out in 2009, I'm not sure most kids this side of 1997 really know who they are or care about their music.

It would be cool if they did get the exposure. I feel without a concentrated PR campaign, besides a few articles over the next few days, not sure their sales are going to get a big bounce from doing this.

<comment><USER4> I know hip hop is treated as a disposable commodity by society, but kids who are really into hip hop as an art form will definitely learn who De La Soul is sooner or later.

<comment> at-fates-hands >>>> I know hip hop is treated as a disposable commodity by society.

This is really depressing because most kids think of hip-hop as music only. I was taught hip-hop is a culture. Breakdancing, music, and graffiti are integral parts of the culture. It has such a rich, vibrant history that's disappearing as more and more suburban kids gravitate towards rap. Sure they know Kayne and Jay-Z. Do they know about Sofles, Dondi and Phase 2? Doubtful. Do they about the Rock Steady Crew or the Super Cr3w? No way.

Too many kids just think hip-hop = rap which is depressing.

Insane video of Sofles - Limitless: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv- Do30-P8A](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv-Do30-P8A)

<comment><USER5> Hey, thanks for that great link.

Here's a viewpoint, coming from a different place, but with the same recognition of the one-dimensional quality of commercial rap, from a lover of hip-hop as a verbal art form --

[http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/09/all...](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/09/all- of-my-purple-life/26823/)

"I think that mix of vulnerability, confidence and honesty was why our mothers loved [Prince]. I think that was the sort of alchemy we missed in hip-hop. We got close a few times--notably De La Soul on _Buddy_ or _Eye Know_ , or The Roots on _Silent Treatment_ or _You Got Me_. Also, there are a few Outkast joints. But we never achieved that sort of confidence--that sort of true manhood."

Another viewpoint is from DJ Shadow ("Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96") -- it's the money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing I don't see anyone in these comments taking into account- this is music that, for various sampling law / licensing reasons, they have never been able to sell or stream online. They seem to be giving it away because they've run out of options for getting it in the hands of their fans otherwise.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, the story isn't quite as compelling when you put it that way. That first album would cost millions of dollars to release if they put it out today. The list of expensive samples (Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, etc.) on that album is totally out of control...

<comment><USER8> Oh, I don't know -- at least now new artists can (more easily) sample them, and continue making art under equally unclear legal status. One can always hope this will help push fair use to become broader, rather than narrower.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The context here, which I haven't seen mentioned, is that De La Soul cannot release much of their catalog digitally given the way their contracts are structured. As a result, all material before Grind Date (2004) is not available on digital stores/platforms like iTunes, et al.

De La negotiated their contracts well before Internet distribution and revenue was germane. Oddly, this is sometimes described as distribution "throughout the universe". This is actually not an uncommon problem for artists from this era who relied heavily on samples (i.e., hip-hop).

Would they have cleared samples used on their albums "in perpetuity", giving De La the widest distribution license available (read: for use forever), we would not be talking about De La Soul releasing music for free online. We'd be buying it on iTunes and they'd be compensated for it. End of story.

Instead, De La makes most of their money off CD sales and touring, which is a tough spot as CDs are entering obsolescence and touring, especially at their age, must be grueling. On the flip side, the good news here is De La Soul and early hip-hop pioneers are seeing a resurgence (IMHO well-deserved) and getting the music out there by any means necessary is a crucial step to be heard. Go see them on tour, buy their gear or even a CD (ha) if you're feeling it.

<comment><USER10> Absolutely. As more people crave for personal experience, their live shows will mean more. Plus, if you've never been to a De La show, you're missing out on life. One of the best show's I've ever been to, hands down.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Well, that was an interesting idea.. They decided to distribute the files via ... Dropbox.

Missing AOI: Bionix now, because

Error (509) This account's public links are generating too much traffic and have been temporarily disabled!

<comment><USER12> This sounds like _the_ situation to use torrents. I wish there was a web torrent standard for large content delivery, and browsers implemented clients, which only seeded for a preset amount or only during the download. The checksumming would also help immensely.

<comment><USER13> The article says their back catalog will only be downloadable for 25 hours. Is it possible to prevent new downloaders from joining a torrent swarm if you take down the original torrent file? Someone could just repost the original torrent file on a different torrent site.

<comment><USER14> I suppose their whole discography has been available as a torrent download for a long time anyway. The whole thing could have been made a whole lot easier, all they'd have had to do was to say: "Look, for the next 24 hours, we're not going to press charges on otherwise illegal file sharing."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What's funny is one of the albums they've put up for download ("De La Soul is Dead") seems to itself been downloaded from a piracy website. This album lacks any ID3 data except for a link to "[http://rappalata.net/"](http://rappalata.net/"). I can't read Russian, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look too legitimate. (EDIT: Correction: all tracks have that link)

</comment><comment><USER16> For those wondering, I've just started to download them, the albums are 100-160MB each, so that seems to be in the range for FLAC or 320 MP3

Edit : I can confirm, they are 320 mp3s

<comment><USER11> Checked 5 out of 6 (after that the links were down) and only track 01 - <USER2> all of these were mp3@320

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is huge. This is amazing. Not only are De La Soul incredible artists, but their work isn't available on Rdio. I had De La Soul is Dead on cassette -- I definitely know what I'll be doing at 11 am (servers willing).

<comment><USER18> Yep, not on Spotify either. Want some De La Soul on my playlists.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Check my homage to the guy who produced their best beats:

[http://bit.ly/1dOAbq9](http://bit.ly/1dOAbq9)

[http://bit.ly/1dOAbq9+](http://bit.ly/1dOAbq9+) (preview)

<comment><USER20> Good stuff, thanks for sharing it.

Having said that, I can't help but get nitpicky about a few things (I hope you take this as constructive criticism).

Filling in the blanks: Jackhigh is from the UK, Odd Nosdam is from the midwest but lives in Berkeley, Nocow is Russian (St. Petersburg). Shlohmo is from Los Angeles, not New York. Lunice is from Montreal, not the UK. Dakim is definitely from Detroit, but moved to California a while back. Mike Slott is marked as New York, where he lives now, but he's originally from Glasgow.

Ssaliva and Cupp Cave are the same person. His occasional collaborator Dem Hunger (who is an insane genius) seems only to be releasing music under the Wanda Group moniker of late. Jeremiah Jae is included, as is his older group material with Young Black Preachers, but not the newer stuff as Black Jungle Squad. The DJ for that group, Pbdy, signed to Brainfeeder not too long ago, runs a few regular nights in LA as well as his own label (TAR), and should probably be included, as should many others.

However, the most egregious omissions from the list are Kutmah and Daddy Kev. Daddy Kev is one of the residents and founders of Low End Theory, and the man behind Alpha Pup Records, a label which has released work by many—perhaps even most—of the artists on that list. Kutmah founded Sketchbook, the art/music night which evolved into Low End Theory. When Ras G releases a song called "One 4 Kutmah"—one of many instances of a producer naming a track "One for/4 _x_ " as a nod to Dilla's "One for Ghost" on _Donuts_ —that pretty well establishes you as a godfather of the scene. Without the contributions of those two guys that huge circle covering Los Angeles on the map gets a lot smaller.

And that kind of gets to the heart of what's really missing from this graphic—the personal connections. You're documenting an art movement which is very much alive, not only in the sense that it's constantly evolving, but that it's filled with real people who are friends and coworkers and share ideas (and experiences and meals and even sometimes bathrooms and lease agreements) with each other.

The fact that a handful of producers from across the map all dabble in samples that might qualify their work as "world music" is sort of interesting, I guess. What I find a great deal more interesting is that Kutmah used to earn extra cash by picking up shifts at Poo-Bah Records in Pasadena, one of the best independent record stores on the planet, which just so happens to be co- owned and managed by Take (who is going by Sweatson Klank these days).

Other employees of that shop have included Ras G, Black Monk, and Detective Tully, who himself has long been the stage manager (and frequent opening act) at Low End Theory, and is a founding member of the My Hollow Drum crew along with Teebs, yuk., Co. Fee, Bahwee, and others. MHD made their name playing a residency at the The Crosby in Santa Ana, which was co-owned by Chris Alfaro a.k.a. Free the Robots, a venue which more recently has played host to frequent performances by members of the Soulection and Team Supreme collectives, who have been making huge moves lately and are completely absent from your list. (Even more recently, The Crosby was forced to shut its doors, though I'm certain something incredible will rise from its ashes.)

Similarly, Kutmah was also one of the earliest participants in dublab, one of the first touchstones of the beat scene in Los Angeles. Its founder, frosty, was once a member of Adventure Time alongside Daedelus, and another early and frequent dublab collaborator matthewdavid would go on to release his own work on Brainfeeder, and put out tapes by Ras G, Samiyam, Odd Nosdam, Ahnnu, Dakim, Dem Hunger, yuk. and many others on his Leaving Records imprint, which just last year signed a distribution deal with Stones Throw.

And that brings us back to Dilla, as so many things do. His impact is wide and deep, and he inspired a great many people to do a great many things, including inspiring you to create that graphic, which itself just barely scratches the surface.

<comment><USER19> Thanks for the valuable insight. See you at Low End.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I entered my gmail address with a "+" in order to differentiate mail coming from this direction, and it considered my address invalid.

<comment><USER22> You can put in an invalid email address and then click through to Mailchimp's signup form, which does respect the + sign.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> They take the marquee up out of the biz.

As a long time De La fan, this was a great thing to wake up to. They fell out of my daily playlist for a while because I'm horrible at keeping my devices synced. Now I have it engrained in my mind that I can download their catalog at anytime, so they'll probably be the first "go to" music in a lot of future situations.

<comment><USER24> It's only for 25 hours, not "anytime."

<comment><USER25> I'm thinking they'll need to extend that some, because their download mechanism failed in approx 15 minutes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> If this turns out to be all 128k mp3s, I am going to be thoroughly irked.

...and then proceed to grab the lot anyway, of course.

<comment><USER27> I'm sure you didn't mean it to sound entitled, but it's free music. Disappointed in 128k is fine, as you can't get the sound quality that would meet your requirement to be in your library. But it shouldn't annoy you.

<comment><USER26> Nah, it doesn't actually _annoy_ me - forgive my hyperbole. It would be more exciting to have lovely clean flacs than to have dirty mp3s, though. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> ...for 25 hours starting at 11AM Eastern, not indefinitely

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> They've started now - [http://www.wearedelasoul.com/](http://www.wearedelasoul.com/) Process is: choose an album/albums, enter an email, click link in email, get message saying they'll be ready in about an hour

<comment><USER25> then dropbox saturated, and you can't get the zip files.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> So who's gonna be the one to tell De La Soul of the BitTorrent file distribution system?

<comment><USER30> Probably the Dropbox sysadmins!

<comment><USER31> You mean Amazon?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> To me "Stakes is High (1996)" was their first album I really liked. And I can't find it online anywhere (not the warez servers, I support my artists). At the moment all I have is an empty CD case as someone has absconded with my CD.

<comment><USER33> Although I can't understand why you didn't like 3 feet high, I agree with with on Stakes is High. One of the most underrated albums in hip-hop.

<comment><USER32> I'm not sure why 3 feet high did not resonate with me. It was good but not great album, IMO. Me, myself, and I was getting too much commercial play so I never took it seriously.

It might also be timing. When 3 feet was released I was a pre-teen. Stakes is High arrived when I was a real adolescent, I was dating, working part-time, and hanging out with friends. Buying music was a big decision back then, a $15 CD required 3 hours of minimum wage, fast food work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Talking about sought after hip-hop, the article reminded me of this:

[http://www.discogs.com/KMD-Black- Bastards/release/4762758](http://www.discogs.com/KMD-Black- Bastards/release/4762758)

<comment><USER35> You fancy DOOM I take it?

<comment><USER34> > _You fancy DOOM I take it?_

Whoops, mis-parsed your comment initially. I thought you meant the video game, not MF-DOOM.

Yes, to both.

<comment><USER35> any hip hop recommendations?

<comment><USER34> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_13iPg6DY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_13iPg6DY)

||

[http://www.discogs.com/Siah-And-Yeshua-Dapo-ED-Siah-And- Yesh...](http://www.discogs.com/Siah-And-Yeshua-Dapo-ED-Siah-And-Yeshua-Dapo- ED/release/195338)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> "Error (509) This account's public links are generating too much traffic and have been temporarily disabled!"

<comment><USER37> Yup, same here..

<comment><USER38> +1. (Me too.)

I suspect De La Soul hit some sort of quota limit and Dropbox will either (a) hit them up for a bandwidth bill, or (b) decide to raise the limit as a goodwill/marketing gesture, later in the day.

 _Edit_ : Downloads working now, 46 minutes after release time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Noooo... I want to give them my money.

<comment><USER40> Isn't there a way to do that? For some reason I thought I read in another source about this that there was a donation type link?

<comment><USER16> Nope, you just leave your email and they send you the links by mail. They don't even offer a way to send money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> There's some bands like wilderness survival([http://www.wildernesssurvivalmusic.com](http://www.wildernesssurvivalmusic.com)) that have always given away their music. Perhaps, this is how things will work going forward.

</comment><comment><USER40> Do we think Trent Reznor, Thom Yorke, and others may follow suit? I really hope so!!

<comment> k-mcgrady Radiohead were one of the first major artists to do a 'pay what you want' which included $0. I believe they regretted it and I think I read one of the reasons was that it devalued music for everyone. e.g. if they are giving it away why do others think they can charge?

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> "Much more than they can see is how it'll always be, believe me"

De La Soul - Much More [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojfkAZZqXA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojfkAZZqXA)

</comment><comment><USER43> Received my download link downloaded to my galaxy phone but reads file cant be opened

</comment><comment><USER44> The Dropbox links are working for me now.

<comment><USER45> I haven't even gotten a confirmation e-mail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Awesomeness, De La Soul is the cream of Hip Hop.

More artists should follow this example, and we HNers should listen to Stakes is High and "What we do for (love)" when nature calls. Its valentines after all.

</comment><comment><USER47> Not a good enough offer - they would have to pay me to download these.

<comment><USER47> Seriously though, I hate to see these kinds of unforced errors. Especially from guys who should understand that the only reason people know who they are is because of a business model that is under siege.

Now is a time when the music industry desperately needs to make the case for value. These kind of gags don't help anybody.

<comment><USER47> OK, so I get downvoting a joke that someone doesn't think is helpful to the argument. No problem. But why would someone downvote a legitimate music industry opinion that they disagree with? As someone with over 35 albums to my credit, I just happen to think this isn't a good strategy.

Is the groupthink so strong on HN that someone can't express an opinion supporting the commercial value of professional artists and their work?

<comment><USER48> I up-voted the comment before I saw this response, as I always do when I see a valid opinion down-voted. Down-voting opposing viewpoints is annoying, but generally people like me will negate it, so there isn't much to be gained from complaining about it.

<comment><USER47> Understood - thanks for the feedback.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: 'hacker' or 'hackr'? - <AUTHOR>

I am registering a domain for my business.  As you already know it is hard to find one that is not already registered.  The above is just an example of what I may be doing.  Omit the 'e' in the 'er' which isn't available.  Do you think it matters?  Assuming later on you've built your business around 'hackr', do you think it would become a serious problem if someone else owns the 'er' version?  Yahoo owns both 'flickr' and 'flicker', but Tumblr owns only 'tumblr', not 'tumbler'. <comment><USER2> No, removing that vowel sounds cool. But buy both the domain names, to be on the safer side (If it's available).

PS : I had the same problem with : <http://quizr.me/>

<comment><AUTHOR> I wish I could get the 'er' version but they are ALL gone!

<comment><USER2> Check if that site is functional/not. I mean, if the domain is in use or not. Check the WHOIS for the expiry date, and wait if you can. Or just email the owner.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just checked. It's being place on auction. A few days more to go. I may bid for it. But is it something to die for? What problems did you encounter by using a shortened version?

<comment><USER2> we liked the shorter version more than the longer one. :P No, it won't really make a difference, but if you think that your website will, in the coming future, become popular, go for it.

<comment><AUTHOR> THanks! I also like the shorter version better. It looks less generic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> "Hacker" is a generic word; you can only get away with "owning" that if you have VERY expensive lawyers (e.g. that fruit company).

<comment><USER2> Hacker / Hackr is just an example.</comment></comment>


The Übermensch in the Cuckoo's Nest: Malware in AI-Human Hybrids - <AUTHOR> https://sociable.co/technology/ubermensch-cuckoos-nest-malware-ai-human-hybrids/ <comment><AUTHOR> "If malware still exists in the future, our hospitals may be treating patients with chronic implant disorders whose illnesses may look like something out of Dante's "Inferno" or "The Book of the Dead."</comment>


Copyright Time Bomb Set to Disrupt Music, Publishing Industries - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/copyright-time-bomb-set-to-disrupt-music-publishing-industries/ <comment><USER2> As a libertarian I'm inclined to believe that the whole idea of IP is just a farce made up by corporate interests. Maybe it wasn't like that in the beginning, but no doubt that's what it is today.

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

<comment><USER3> Copyright are government granted monopolies. That it has resulted in a huge industry that lives out of rent seeking and produces nothing of value is hardly surprising, and as technology threatens their rotten business models expect their grip on government to tighten and to capture the whole legal system.

<comment><USER4> Get a grip, the internet will win in the end. Technology is society's master, not the other way around.

<comment><USER5> I'd like to think so. But honestly I think it could go either way. Not because of technology but because of society's seeming apathy about the value of liberty.

<comment><USER4> The relevant liberty here is the liberty of data. It is probably the most widely exercised form of political protest/lawlessness/criminality today (drug use being a close runner-up: liberty of body).

So, no, I don't think our apathy will allow the government to be overrun by copyright thugs -- we already have the cure and it's already prevalent.

Now, these are fairly base liberties being totally about the individual: "Copying data doesn't deprive. I want this data. Yay!" "Doing drugs doesn't hurt others. I want to feel different. Yay!"

The trick will be to maintain our loftier ideals like freedom of speech, freedom of press, and the right to privacy which I can very, very easily see being taken away.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just because its so cool, Lessig's OSCON speech on copyright:

<http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/>

Favorite quote (paraphrased) "Disney didn't want others to do to them what they did to the Brothers Grimm."

<comment><USER7> Or indeed what they did to King Ludwig II.

[http://www.castles.org/castles/Europe/Central_Europe/Germany...](http://www.castles.org/castles/Europe/Central_Europe/Germany/germany7.htm)

Disney basically ripped off the design for one of their most iconic images..

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Copyright needs to be reconsidered, especially in this ever changing digital world we live where, copies can be made in the blink of an eye.

On the other hand, Record Labels are evil. They continue to rip off artists by claiming ownership of (the artist's work) through copyright, while giving the 'Content Creators' very little.

The RIAA's days are numbered...

Great post!

<comment><USER9> Artists willing and freely entered into contracts with the record labels. Many artists continue to do so everyday.

Record labels aren't any more or less evil than VC firms.

<comment><USER10> When I was young in the 70's artists either entered into a contract with the few major labels, or they remained unknown. The oligopoly owned the big studios, they had the major venues sewn up, and they had the radio stations and DJs. That's not my idea of willingly and freely.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder how this applies to software development. The article says it applies to works for hire; if there's 35-year-old code out there, could the original author get rights to some part of the program back or otherwise block use of the software? I could still see this being applicable for legacy mainframe code.

<comment><USER12> "works for hire" are an _exception_. The 'timebomb' only applies to people who specifically sold their copyright. In the case of works for hire, the legal author was always the corporation; the 'real' authors never owned the copyright.

So no coder is getting the copyright back on his corporate code. Similarly, almost no film or tv writers will get their copyrights back. Nor will most musical acts from the more-modern era. (Somehow, dead tree publishing isn't built on 'work for hire' contracts. So this _will_ likely let many print authors renegotiate.)

Anyway, starting around the late 80s labels required recording artists to sign the same sort of farcical 'work for hire' contract that other authors are forced to sign.

( _"yeah, I wrote this while I was being paid a salary, receiving health benefits and all that jazz. I certainly wasn't building it over the last three years of working two jobs, playing dive bars and eating baloney-on-hand. I just met you yesterday, sign this contract today and it springs fully-formed from my head tomorrow -- just for you and without any of those pesky W2s or insurance forms."_ )

That's why the music industry didn't push _too_ hard to get these old recordings covered -- it's a temporary blip, not a threat to their current model.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> As a musician, I hope they go bankrupt as soon as possible :)

</comment><comment><USER14> >The second option is to re-record sound recordings in order to create new sound recording copyrights, which would reset the countdown clock at 35 years for copyright grant termination. Eveline characterized the labels' conversations with creators going something like, "Okay, you have the old mono masters if you want - but these digital remasters are ours."

That sounds like nonsense to me. Remasters are only redone mixes of old recordings, so if anything, the original artists own at least _part_ if that copyright. Thus: this should be a joined copyright, with a right to veto: if the original artist doesn't want the new remasters to be re-released, he ought to be able to block it.

</comment><comment><USER15> This has been a very long time coming though; so how many record deals made since this Act was passed will have ignored the end of a revenue stream 35 years from when the recording is made, and gone in at what will now be a loss? Clearly, accountants in the music biz will have been factoring/warning about this for ages. A timebomb? I really don't think so.

Totally aside, I really don't see the logic in saying that digital remasters are new works and warrant individual copyright protection. I don't know much about the process, but I assume that it's merely a transformation/reprint of an original recording, no?

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm working on a sheet music app (wonderwarp.com/opus) and it's been irritating to discover how much old music is still under copyright. Like, pretty much the entire genre of jazz. Hopefully more of it expires soon.

<comment><USER17> Just to clarify, the issue in this article isn't exactly expiration or lapse, it's just the possibility of transferring ownership.

</comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen I heard of this in my Copyright class, but it never hit me that this would turn the tables on the RIAA companies.</comment>


This Is The Reason Why The iPhone Will Always Have A 3.5-inch Screen - <AUTHOR> http://www.redmondpie.com/ever-wondered-why-the-iphone-has-a-3.5-inch-screen-this-might-be-an-appropriate-answer/

<comment><USER2> Ugh, not this again.

* The SGS II is shown as relatively larger than it actually is, compared to the iPhone.

* The SGS thumb circle is smaller.

The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because the 3:2 aspect ratio makes the phone unusably _wide_ if you increase the diagonal by any marketable number. Those 4.3" Android phones run at a whopping 16:9, and are only slightly wider than the iPhone as a result (2.11" vs 1.94"). A 4.3" diagonal iPhone would be a behemoth 2.39" wide.

iPhones are locked to a 3:2 aspect ratio because apps are all designed with the promise of a 3:2 aspect ratio, and a different aspect ratio would break the layout of every single app in the app store today. Apple had to increase the resolution of their offering with the iPhone 4 to compete with the high- resolution Android handsets being released, but they had to increase it by an integer factor, or else applications would be blurry/laid out slightly wrong due to the pixel-oriented layouts iOS apps use, so they doubled the resolution, kept the screen size the same, and marketed the shit out of the resulting DPI.

The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because Apple has a tremendous amount of legacy software on the platform that would break in all the most un- Apple ways if they were to create a larger phone.

Here is an exactly to-scale comparison of the phones' screen sizes, done by yours truly: <http://i.imgur.com/b7UI3.png>

And for fun, here's a comparison of what a 4.3" iPhone screen would be like next to a current iPhone and the SGS II: <http://i.imgur.com/du83N.png>

<comment><USER3> _The SGS thumb circle is smaller_

I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out, but it is, indeed, smaller.

Not that it matters; my thumb extends usably well beyond the opposite edge of the iPhone. And you know what they say about guys with long thumbs: they can use bigger phones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I just compared my Droid X to my iPod Touch and don't see a large ergonomic advantage with the latter.</comment>


Ask HN: What backup software do you install for your parents / non-techies? - <AUTHOR> I can't seem to find anything that "just works", specifically for my mom and grandma. Software requirements are simple: easy enough that they can use it after I set it up, and incremental such that the computer doesn't have to have special power-on hours for it to run a complete backup.
For example, telling them to copy the Documents and Pictures folders and pasting them on an external drive is a no-go, as it would take many hours every time. Telling them to copy only new files to the drive seems error-prone and annoying, and I additionally don't think I could explain that to my grandma. Leaving the drive permanently connected isn't really an option with laptops, and is a cryptolocker risk (I wouldn't be surprised if they click on a cryptolocker sooner or later). Not to mention the risk of fire.
If there is good software, an external drive is a reasonable compromise and a cheap option. The software I found for local backups typically requires more than a single click, and many hard-code the drive letter (which is variable). I also found that my mom plugged in the backup drive exactly zero times over the course of half a year.
For online backup, I would like it to be properly encrypted (I'll manage the key: if I get hit by a bus, they still have the original data). Trying Backblaze, the backup gets stuck on a random picture. Asking support, they say it might be a read lock, which is plausible, but c'mon, Windows and indefinite read locks exist since forever, it should not break the backup completely. I guess I'll implement support's solution (ask mom to reboot) and pay for a month while continuing to monitor it...
Cygwin and rsync (or restic or so) is possible, but requires me to run a server with ~500GB of free space. Scripting it so they only have to click an icon isn't a big deal, but rolling my own seems error-prone, and surely there exists a solution that someone without a unix neck beard can understand?!
What do you use for your loved ones? <comment><USER2> I recently set up a friend's new Windows PC with both Acronis online backup service and Acronis TrueImage local backup (to a local USB drive). If one fails the other is there.

I chose Acronis b/c I had installed a local version years ago on his old PC and it ran flawlessly. When I updated to the new version of Acronis it found the old backup files with no problems. The software just works.

Whenever I visit I check his local backup drive status. Sometimes the USB drive light is turned off and I remind him to keep it on and check again before leaving (it immediately initiates a delayed backup). He gets emails notifying him when Acronis remote backups are completed.

Hope that's enough!8-))

I'm an old-fashioned UNIX/Linux text-based person, so my storage requirements are satisfied by a relatively small USB drive. Everything I need backed up is on the desktop. Backup takes only a few minutes. Vita brevis, carpe diem.

<comment><AUTHOR> Acronis does online backup these days?

And they have client-side encryption? [https://www.acronis.com/en- us/support/documentation/AcronisB...](https://www.acronis.com/en- us/support/documentation/AcronisBackup_12.5/index.html#37608.html)

And it costs $5.83/month for 500GB (not super cheap, but the 500GB offer is still doable)? [https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer- backup/#buy](https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/#buy)

Neat. I'll definitely be checking this out, thanks a bunch!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I feel that something like backblaze personal backup is a good option. It's great if they have some local backup drive for this additionally (3-2-1), but it's pretty bulletproof to have unlimited online backup storage for your parent's home PC. From accidentally deleting a file, to a house fire.. everything is backed up outside the home. Just have it back up from the time they go to bed normally, and the time they wake up, and they won't need to do anything or worry about it. Plus, it's affordable af for what it is. My 2 cents.

</comment><comment><USER4> For local backups, Time Machine on macOS. Very easy to use recovery features, everything integrated into the OS.

</comment><comment><USER5> iCloud. - Why?

* No Installation.

* Cross-Platform (iDevice, Mac, PC, Linux).

* Encrypted.

* Simple enough for any person to use without handholding.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wait, iCloud works on non-macOS/iOS? I didn't know that, that's good to know (Apple would be the first company I consider using despite not having client- side encryption: they seem likely to actively thwart dragnet surveillance).

Still, do they do anything that Dropbox/GDrive/OneDrive/etc. don't, like, does it actually do backups, or is it just another folder on your computer that my mom would have to drag new files into (similar to the external hard drive problem I described in the question)? The only place "backup" is mentioned on apple.com/icloud is with a screenshot of an iOS setting to back your device up. Which would be perfect, iff she used macOS.</comment></comment>


Digital security and due process: A new legal framework for the cloud era - <AUTHOR> https://blog.google/topics/public-policy/digital-security-and-due-process-new-legal-framework-cloud-era/ <comment><USER2> I truly do not understand why anyone would want to "help" the LEOs of today. They are the enforcement arm of the ruling class seeking to take away whatever privacy we have left. It truly saddens me that Google is volunteering to help turn over data to them, for free, without a fight.

The current system is slow and inefficient, and that is _wonderful_. Think about it. Police could always legally follow you - it only became a problem for privacy when CCTV and hidden GPS trackers made it easy to "follow" everyone at once, cheaply and efficiently. Much like password hashing algorithms, some systems only work well if they are kept slow and inefficient on purpose, to ratelimit their use. This causes each use to be reviewed and considered carefully. I feel like turning over user data to anyone should be one of these processes.

Let them get warrants signed in triplicate, convince ten judges, file thousands of pages of papers, find out they lack jurisdiction, convince more judges, etc... Only then is there a chance that they will not go on a fishing expedition for everyone's data all at once.

Always remember these words of Richelieu: "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." You may be an honest man (/woman/child/etc), but your government is always on its way to becoming Richelieu

<comment><USER3> There is also the issue of parallel construction - basically using evidence gathered illegally to build a case, and then not submitting that evidence during the case, or using it for a plea-bargain.

As Snowden said, good encryption is a part defense against this. VeraCrypt [http://veracrypt.org](http://veracrypt.org) works nicely with DropBox, while SyncDocs [https://syncdocs.com](https://syncdocs.com) encrypts Google Drive.

Richelieu would have had a ridiculously easier time if he could select any six lines from everything an honest man had ever written. Using encryption to make this harder could be wise.

<comment><USER4> Encryption can't save you entirely, there is still a ton of metadata being produced which is most of the time at least as interesting as the content [1]. Avoid the cloud and decentralize as much possible. As a bonus decentralizing helps to avoid oligopolies and monopolies.

Big, purely money driven cooperations will follow the path of the least resistance so it's no surprise that they automate LE requests away in the long run. As most of the "internet giants" essentially make money by spying on their users they have the basic infrastructure in place already.

[1] 'We Kill people based on metadata' some former CIA/NSA director once admitted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The proposed framework is self-serving, flawed and behind the state of art. I say this as someone who really loves Google's products and uses them heavily. To summarize US citizens, as a right, have and must continue to have their due process rights adjudicated by US Courts in accordance with the Constitution.

1\. Requests under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) take a long time because the Courts don't move quickly. If Google, or a requesting country finds the US judicial process too slow welcome to reality. Lobby for more Court resources, advocate for decriminalization of minor offenses, etc., etc.

2\. Assertions of Extraterritorial jurisdiction (EJT) are a business risk, just like customs regulations, tariffs and privacy regulations. If Google finds them inconvenient then adjust the business model.

3\. "We are also seeing various proposals to require companies to store data within local borders as a means to gain easier access. There are a host of problems with this: small, one-off data centers are easier targets for attackers and jeopardize data security and privacy. Further, requiring businesses to build these data-centers will raise the costs for cloud services, erecting significant barriers for smaller companies."

...Not credible, at all. Smaller companies don't build data centers. Data flows like currency to centers where trade-offs among speed, security, cost, privacy and other considerations is optimal. The market can resolve these issues on its own in response to host country data privacy and criminal law.

4\. And, finally, assurances of adherence to baseline due process, human rights, and privacy standards are largely meaningless to anyone paying attention to the rampant corporate and political espionage states routinely and sometimes/often appropriately engage in. The last thing US businesses need is the long arm of foreign government's attitudes toward encryption, by way of example, reaching into their data.

Again, I believe Google's contributions across all its offerings and policies is a big net positive. Their position on this issue is horribly misguided in my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't see this as a good thing. I would say that I declare (my admittedly insignificant) vote of no confidence in both any government and in corporations. When I look at the legislation passed in my lifetime, it's enraging. Laws are passed specifically to entrench a surveillance based police state.

While it does appear that some legislation is outdated, I would rather it stay, since I can only foresee it being replaced with a bill porkbarreled to the point of bursting with surveillance measures, anti-consumer, anti- encryption, anti-privacy clauses. The governments of today are cartels, plain and simple. Enhanced cooperation between thugs with lots of money is not exactly comforting.

The Alliance of Conservative Dinosaurs (read: the GOP) seems dead set on rescinding my liberties. I'd rather they be frustrated by antiquated legislation than surrender more freedoms under the false flag of security.

</comment><comment><USER7> I don't know what definition of "countries that honor baseline principles of privacy, human rights, and due process" they're using, but if they want to put the United States on that list, the bar must be pretty low.

On the other hand, this is going to be hilarious...

Germany: Hey America, can I get some data on this guy?

America: No problem!

(A few months later)

America: Hey Germany, can I get some data on that guy?

Germany: Uhh, you're not a country that honors baseline privacy, human rights, and due process.

<comment><USER8> > countries that honor baseline principles of privacy, human rights, and due > process

I actually thought that was the most interesting clause in the whole thing. This would basically give corporations a way to make rulings on the behavior of nations, truly an ambitious move.

<comment><USER9> > This would basically give corporations a way to make rulings on the behavior > of nations, truly an ambitious move.

They have that option now, by choosing where they do business. Evidence suggests that they don't care.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> How about end to end encryption in your products to protect your users from governments, both good and bad? Can't disclosure what you can't see.

<comment><USER11> For Google Maps, they refuse to even store local search history or use the local Address Book API to get your home address: to get either of these basic features you have to sign in with your Google Account, and to get the former feature you have to turn on saved search history _for your entire Google account including normal web searches_ , and I imagine for the latter to work you need to turn on location tracking. Google _acts maliciously_ with respect to obtaining personal data and clearly is never going to implement end-to-end encryption as it fundamentally undermines their mission of "organizing the world's information": they can't organize what they can't see.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Law enforcement requests for digital evidence should be based on the > location and nationality of users, not the location of data.

prepare to answer "what is your nationality?" more frequently in signup forms.

<comment><USER13> As a simple answer, perhaps stop having signup forms!

</comment></comment><comment> awinter-py > Today, we're proposing a new framework that allows countries that commit to > baseline privacy, human rights, and due process principles to gather > evidence more quickly and efficiently.

One interpretation of this is that G will no longer play nice with countries which operate unsanctioned warrantless surveillance (ahem america) and which ban encryption (ahem england) and free speech (europe, depending on your view on RTBF).

If this is a threat it's a subtle one and the end game is a bigger say in the regulatory process.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's the actual whitepaper, which goes into more detail of exactly what Google is proposing here: [https://blog.google/documents/2/CrossBorderLawEnforcementReq...](https://blog.google/documents/2/CrossBorderLawEnforcementRequestsWhitePaper_2.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER14> The point about requirements to physically store data in a country seems especially silly.

Instead of "if you operate in our country, you have to store that data in our country", why wouldn't it be "if you operate in our country, you must agree to give us all access to that data as if it were physically in our country".

It would be the exact same in practice (minus network latency) but without the security concerns and business barriers brought up in the blog post.

<comment><USER15> I don't know. Say medical journals - in case of a war, where fiber cables are cut; it'd be nice to still know how to treat people.

Consider that in the 80s, Iraq would've been considered a US ally - how might storing most of financial and municipal data in US datacenters have affected the later invasions?

We like to think about the current "post globalisation"-world as a peaceful one - but it's only true until it isn't. And there are still areas where national interests remain important.</comment></comment>


µTorrent 1.0 for Mac released - <AUTHOR> http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/mac

<comment><USER2> This is a bit late to the boat. Not sure about on Windows, but on OS X, Transmission is a great torrent client.

<comment><USER3> I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I think uTorrent has better network code and produces faster downloads. I use despite its slight ugliness compared to transmission.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> hmm, Linux?

After trying many clients, I have settled for rTorrent (libtorrent.rakshasa.no) which is quite lean and terminal based (so that I can wrap it in a Screen session)

It supports OS X as well.

<comment><USER5> The uTorrent people say they're working on a Linux version, but haven't given details. Until then, it works well under Wine. Or there are a lot of other options, too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> oh who needs a torrent client after <http://put.io> ?</comment>


A Visual History of Baggage Fees [Infographic] - <AUTHOR> http://blog.hipmunk.com/a-visual-history-of-baggage-fees-infographic <comment><USER2> $2.5B/yr seems like a lot of added revenue for the industry, but this is a very, very high-revenue, low-margin business. Has anyone actually modeled the _cost_ of especially first bag fees? Some obvious sources include:

\- Longer boarding times \- Passenger loss (to alternative transport, or no transport at all)

Just considering boarding/turnaround times, increasing them by 10% could easily wash out the entire revenue stream for the airlines.

<comment><USER3> >this is a very, very high-revenue, low-margin business.

this is why any additional fee increases profit disproportionally

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is great -

Southwest still doesn't charge baggage fees (not until your third checked bag anyway).

I've heard industry analysts criticize Southwest for not charging fees and 'leaving that money on the table' (including explicitly calling for shareholders to demand they start charging).

Last time I checked though Southwest continues to be a highly profitable company - something most major airlines cannot claim.

How many times has Delta been in bankruptcy in the last 20 years?

</comment><comment><USER5> A clarification: it's not quite true that baggage fee income is tax-free. It is simply free of the government's 7.5 percent transportation federal excise tax (pre-income-tax tax). Baggage fees aren't deductible on a corporation's income tax return.

<comment><USER6> Wait. So they are free of the transportation excise tax. BUT they are NOT free from income tax; e.g. Delta spends $100 billion running its business, sells $70 billion in tickets (and the necessary transportation taxes), and collects $40 billion in baggage fees, there's still $10 billion left to pay income taxes on.

On YOUR company's taxes (because you're company is not the airline but pays for you to travel by air to Timbuktu), it's still an expense and still deductible as such. Right?

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure what you are asking. Yes, if my company sends an employee somewhere, we deduct the full expense (if we are paying it) on our tax return. And yes, Delta in that example has a taxable income of $10BB. If the IRS ruled that the travel tax applied, then taxable income would be $7BB due to the additional $3BB in excise tax from $40BB of baggage fees (ignoring the question of whether the cost would be passed on.)

The Hipmunk graphic suggested that, by your example, Delta would have $110BB of income, $100BB of expenses and a $40BB deduction (if baggage fees were not taxable.) This would be a $30BB loss for tax purposes. Even using real numbers this would be outrageous...but it is not the case.

<comment><USER6> Not really asking as much as clarifying.

"Baggage fees aren't deductible on a corporation's income tax return." This makes it sound like I can't deduct it as a travel expense.

<comment><USER5> Oh, yes it does sound like that. I meant it in the context of avoiding paying taxes on revenue. Sorry about that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to write untestable code - <AUTHOR> http://googletesting.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-3v1l-untestable-code.html

<comment><USER2> Could someone explain: "Be Defensive - They're out to Get Your Code! - Defensively assert about the state of parameters passed in methods, constructors, and mid-method."?

which, desarcastified, I take to mean:

"Don't defensively assert about the state of parameters passed in methods, constructors, and mid-method."

Specifically:

"You see, there are testing freaks out there that like to instantiate your object, or call a method under test and pass in nulls"

Isn't it the case that a calling a method with (say) null parameters where they are supposed to be non-null should raise an exception? Isn't an assertion failure reasonable in this case?

I understood and agreed with a lot of the other stuff (although it struck me as a bit dogmatic) but this one I don't get.

<comment><USER3> I think what the author is getting at is testing a particular method on an object without having to mock up all the data required by the entire object. I guess?

Agreed that the whole article would be more useful without the sarcasm.

<comment><USER4> So that's basically allowing operations on a half-broken object, just so that you can test it without creating all the dependencies?... I see how it might be useful, but I just can't agree with that.

The tests are not the goal - a working product is. That's just making a trade- off between less lines in a test -vs- code that doesn't explode mid- transaction when that null suddenly occurs in a real-world scenario. If I'm supposed to write my code properly, testies should not be _too_ lazy while writing the tests.

<comment><USER5> It's no longer a unit-test once you're putting the object into the living system. It becomes a system test and then you might as well test the whole system instead of faking things with mockups.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Could someone explain this one?

> Be Defensive [...] Defensively assert about the state of parameters passed > in methods, constructors, and mid-method. If someone can pass in a null, > you've left your guard down. You see, there are testing freaks out there > that like to instantiate your object, or call a method under test and pass > in nulls!

I'm not sure what he wants to change. Surely if the code would crash when I pass a null as an argument, it's better to make it throw the exception as early as possible. You can test that by asserting an exception when you call that_func(null);.

Why is that a bad thing? (Or did I misunderstand him?)

<comment><USER6> In the comments he admits that public APIs should be defensive, but internal APIs should be 'known good' via testing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm pretty sure this was copied word for word from the employee guide of the firm that originally wrote the software I now trudge through every day. Except it wasn't sarcastic. And I think there was some other rule in there about avoiding spacing in the source code at all costs.

</comment><comment><USER8> Some pretty darn good advice in here. This might be slightly embarrassing, but it actually makes me appreciate the value of Factories; something I always thought was a little overkill for anything but GUI code.

<comment><USER4> They are overkill. They're java man's substitute for lambdas. But if all you have is java, everything looks like an object.

<comment><USER9> I don't understand this. Are you using closures as types? If so, what can they offer that factories can't? Trying to understand, genuinely curious.

<comment><USER4> They offer the same functionality (more or less)... Factory objects just feel like overkill - usually they carry no state of their own, so why are they objects? If you could pass around functions, you could just use them instead.

        x_factory_proto :: GlobalParams -> InitParams -> X
        ...
        x_factory = x_factory_proto some_params

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What's wrong with

 _Create Utility Classes and Functions/Methods - For instance, you have a String which is a URL you're passing around (obeying "Use Primitives Wherever Possible"). Create another class with static methods such as isValidUrl(String url)_

if the function is a deterministic function (I guess it could be implemented as a simple test against regex) why is is difficult to test? I get that its better to use the system one or your own URL class, but thats really about OO and not testing!

<comment><USER11> The keyword is "static". You'll often want to use a mock implementation rather than connecting to a remote server, checking for a 404 error and returning true or false - every time you run your tests.

Loosely coupled objects will allow you to do that, but how would you redefine the behavior of something static?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Jesus, basically don't worry about the product, just worry about having testable code.

I thought "having testable" code, is never the end, maybe the means perhaps, but not necessary,

If you have done mobile development, you know you have to break most of these rules at some point. Sorry, I'd rather have a shipping/peformant product, than one that is a hog, but makes OO purists happy, and is easy to test.

At the end of the day, keeping your customer happy, that is the end game.

</comment><comment><USER13> It's too bad Java/C++ were designed after unit testing became commonplace. Some of the advice here will actually improve your production code but a lot of this is just a case of the programmer having to work around the language.

For example, the advice to not "instantiate objects using new in the middle of methods" wouldn't be a big deal if if your test code could easily instruct the compiler to replace the concrete object with a mock when the test is run.

<comment><USER14> Nothing prevents that being implemented in existing compilers. In fact, you can already do that in Java with class paths.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Should be "How to write untestable code in Java".

Makes me glad I'm not writing Java, fewer than half of these are problems for me.

</comment><comment><USER16> A little too vague - don't use if? switch? Surely they are useful. Better to advise against putting application logic into the wrong object - which is what I THINK they are arguing against.

</comment><comment><USER17> _Greenlight if-branches and switch statements

OO cowboys will want to have a whole polymorphic soup of collaborating objects_

Of Course! When I implement, say, Bubble Sort, I do not implement the classes BubbleList with the methods sort and addObject: anObject and BubbleObject with the method bubbleMaybe: aBubbleList, just to see my tests for BubbleObject fail when I switch to Quicksort.

</comment><comment><USER18> Mostly assumes object-oriented programming, of course.

<comment><USER19> With a smug smile on my face, I notice that most of this list is impossible to do in Haskell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> How about a million lines of code in VB6?</comment>


Show HN: Taskr - "Tasking Done Right" - <AUTHOR>

Hello guys!
I need some help reviewing, and refining the landing page for an app that I'm building: http://taskr.punchdev.com/ (and here's a screenshot in case my DNS hasn't updated yet: http://cl.ly/0M1w340S1M2T1m0W3G2I )
It's a to-do list app that differentiates itself from others by making sure you add new tasks daily. Plus, it makes it easy for the user (you) to see the status of a task thanks to colors (blue for week-long tasks, red for overdue, orange for nearly due, and green for not due yet.
Bonus points: The screenshot on the right is actually made with Keynotopia!
Thanks a lot guys!
Georges Duplessy,
PunchDev Labs :-) <comment><USER2> Taskr is a real product that competes directly with your app. Might want to change the name.

Your big "Download" button has some UI issues.

* When I click it, a popup happens far away from the button.

* The popup prompts for my email address, but when I type nothing happens.

* When I click in the popup field to type, letters appear after the demo email address "email@example.com" rather than replacing the demo.

* The letters are in light gray (same as the demo email) and hard to read in sunlight.

* The popup field continues to show a tooltip "email@example.com" even though I've typed in my email address.

Pricing seems off to me because of "Only $0.99". I want to know about value, not cheapness. I would gladly pay much more for a task manager that works well for me.

Differentiate your app from Clear and Task. (both great apps)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply!

Concerning the name, I recently realized I was conflicting with someone else's product. I'm working on changing the name.

The download button works for me, could you screenshot what you see please? Screenshot: <http://cl.ly/2r2T212S3A3M1x100Y17>

Price: I hadn't thought about that, I'll do some more research on pricing (probably some A/B testing would be helpful)

Differentiate from Clear: Any tips there?

And again, thanks a lot for the help!

<comment><USER2> For the name, think about Clear. They didn't choose "Task" anything because that's not their target; instead, their customers want to be clear about what to do, and clear it off their list. Very smart name IMHO. (On the other hand, the Task app chose "Task" so YMMV).

In the download email address area, don't worry about it yet -- I'm not the typical UI case because I'm on Chrome Ubuntu KDE.

Price: A/B testing is good. Bandit testing is better.

Differentiate from Clear tips: download Clear, use it, then write what your app does that's different. Or ask some friends to use Clear, then ask what they'd pay for you to change, then build that.

<comment><AUTHOR> I had never heard of bandit testing before, googled it and wow thanks for the tip!

Concerning everything, I'll definitely work more on that! Great tips, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Link: <http://taskr.punchdev.com/> Screenshot: <http://cl.ly/0M1w340S1M2T1m0W3G2I>

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd recommend you to look at the app Clear for some design inspiration :)</comment>