Apple Is Better Without Jony Ive - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@indica/apple-is-better-without-jony-ive-1672dedfd4ef <comment><USER2> Everyone rushes to blame Ive but he just made some shitty keyboards. I just don't see how it would have been Ive's decision to stick with that keyboard for four years, or Ive's decision to deny keyboard issues for the first six months, or Ive's decision to make repairs onerously expensive, or Ive's decision to only replace their faulty keyboards for four years - check your calendar 2016 MBP owners.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ive's design-led product development was the problem. Form over Function, which is exactly what all the Apple-haters said Apple was (though we knew better of course). Yes, Ive was there a long time, and he made some vital and essential contributions, but what Jony wanted to do was never the whole story. Ive unleashed has been an unmitigated shitshow.

Yes, maybe the correct response was to promote the engineering mindset more, and put the ID guys back in their box. But then again, from what I recall "Ive left" so in all liklihood he was told he couldn't have it all his way anymore, threw a hissy-fit and walked.

<comment><USER2> Ive was just one voice among many executives, if anyone is culpable it's the CEO and/or board that exacerbated a bad keyboard with years of bad policy.

Apple's bad policy choices have survived Ive's departure too. Apple is _still_ selling computers they know they might have to replace under "lemon laws" in many jurisdictions. Apple is _still_ investing in impossible-to-repair laptops while fighting "right to repair" legislation.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Ive was just one voice

That's what I said!

Problem is the other executives gave him leeway to steer product development as he saw fit. It's a side effect of Jobs' passing that he didn't have the counterbalancing voices. You could blame the executive team I suppose, but you cant really blame people for "not being Steve".

When the other executives decided to speak up it was Ive's decision to leave when he was told he couldn't have things his way any more.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey - <AUTHOR> http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/16/gordon-humphrey-email-edward-snowden <comment><USER2> "Further, no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China).

You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture."

I am _very_ interested to hear some of his anti-intelligence efforts. I assume he's either talking about the Defense Intelligence Agency [1], or that this is a typo for CIA?

Also, everytime I hear from Snowden, I can't help but "fist pump" and cheer for the guy.

[1] [http://www.dia.mil/](http://www.dia.mil/)

<comment><USER3> To offer an opposing view:

 _I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture._

That is a huge claim. I do not imagine that his training involved being tortured to make sure. If he's wrong, there could be dire consequences for the US.

You might even say his ego is writing checks his body can't cash.

<comment><USER4> Such training does not exist anywhere on this planet.

Edit:

I already mentioned SERE training in a higher level post. It's pretty intense, but still, the most valuable lesson you learn is that everyone will end up talking.

I was simply commenting on the possibility of a person resisting torture. If that person has some sort of safety mechanism in place, the torturer might not be able to get the information he wants, but that's not because the victim has resisted, because he won't.

<comment><USER5> The training is right here:

1) Write some software that destroys your data if you don't login every x hours.

2) Under duress, stall for x hours.

<comment><USER4> If they abduct and torture you immediately, the chances of you stalling for x hours is pretty much non-existent. Snowden is in Russia. Arguably, no nation on the planet is better at torturing people than they are, and unlike the U.S. Russia doesn't really give a shit if the rest of the world doesn't like their methods. His interrogation would likely take minutes, not hours.

<comment><USER5> Well, my point is that there are alternate ways of ensuring the data doesn't get out, not just by being really good at resisting torture.

Other methods:

A) Alternate password that destroys the data.

B) Cyanide capsule in tooth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's always interesting to me that as a new statement from Snowden to the press comes out, most comments on Hacker News take him totally at his word, and assume that his interpretation of events and policy is by far the interpretation most likely to be true. Because I was already past Snowden's current age and current experience level in living in other countries by the time Snowden was born, I see a lot of holes and a lot of callow bravado in much of what he is saying. I hope he is correct that the information that he claims to have extracted from NSA servers cannot be extracted from him against his will, but I don't assume that to be true in the absence of evidence. That's an extraordinary claim, so it requires extraordinary evidence. Some aspects of Snowden's story do NOT look like a thoughtful plan to defend freedom and fair play around the world, but rather a haphazard rash move by Snowden to see what he can get away with. The high degree of cooperation many countries appear to be giving the United States so far in efforts to have Snowden return to the United States for legal proceedings suggests that quite a few experienced national leaders with very different constituencies to represent agree that there is more harm in Snowden being on the loose than in his standing trial to weigh his claims against United States law.

P.S. Remember, I was one of the rather few HN members to go out in public to protest the NSA on Restore the Fourth evening here in the United States. I can be appalled by some of what I read about the NSA without agreeing that Snowden is taking the best approach to doing something about that.

<comment><USER7> > the information that he claims to have extracted from NSA servers cannot be > extracted from him against his will, but I don't assume that to be true in > the absence of evidence.

It's not difficult - if you haven't seen all the data. You encrypt the data with a large, randomly generated password, and give pieces of the password (without looking at it) to several people in different countries. You also tell them that they need to be 100% certain you're not being tortured to get the passwords from them.

If you're tortured, then you actually _cannot_ reveal the data. You can reveal who has the password pieces, but if they're all in different countries it will be nearly impossible to get them. It would be easier to get the data directly from the U.S. government.

<comment><USER8> If you're generating some truly-random "password", I'd call it a key instead. Just a minor terminological note.

Anyway, while that split-the-key scheme _works_ , I wouldn't use it over one of the real secret sharing schemes cryptographers have developed, e.g. Shamir's secret sharing scheme [1]. If you just split a key and give pieces to different people, the more pieces of the key an enemy can collect, the easier time they will have when brute-forcing it.

On the other hand, Shamir's secret sharing scheme is an information- theoretically secure threshold scheme. That is, a key is broken up into _n_ pieces and _t_ of those pieces are required to reconstruct the secret. In Shamir's scheme, the enemy can collect _t-1_ pieces of the secret and still have no chance in reconstructing the password; it simply is impossible.

The scheme works off of the idea that an _m_ -degree polynomial is uniquely defined by _m+1_ points. For example, here's a point from a 1-degree polynomial (line), which would model a _t=2_ scheme: (1,4). Can you figure out the y-intercept? (Actually, Shamir's scheme uses finite fields, but I think asking this question drives the point home.)

So, generate a key, split it up into a bunch of pieces, and require a threshold of those pieces to be present. Coercion-free and even if an intelligence agency can compromise many pieces, they still can't do anything until they've hit the threshold. Also, if you want to require all pieces present, just set _t=n_.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing)

<comment><USER9> Funny thing is, when he suggested splitting the key, I assumed that this is what he had in mind.

<comment><USER8> Maybe he did! I have no idea. But just in case he didn't, or someone else had the interpretation I had, I just wanted to clarify that a real secret-sharing scheme has some pretty nifty properties.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Completely off-topic, but oh-my-god if the Guardian mobile website doesn't look so much better on a desktop browser than their non-mobile website... I thought they'd had a redesign for a moment.

<comment><USER11> Wow, it's night and day. One is a clean usable site where I can clearly read a column of text for which this page exists. The other is a junked up ad/link/box mess and I have no idea what I'm looking at.

<comment><USER3> And one makes the Guardian considerably more money than the other. It's not a mystery.

<comment><USER12> While we're off topic, let's run with that thought. What does that mean for the mobile web when the majority of their page views come from mobile? HTML ad overlays on the m site? The same descent into usability hell that the desktop has suffered, only without the possibility of ad-blocking plugins for mobile browsers? Or maybe it's 10 views a month, then you must use their dedicated app? Perhaps it'll be subscription only, through walled gardens like Newsstand? (Maybe that's even a good thing: we'll be paying directly for the content, instead of having our eyeballs sold to advertisers).

People on this site are thinking about this stuff. Working on it. Some for evil, some for good. I'm curious what this'll all look like in a few years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Everyone's focusing on the fact that Snowden claims he is torture-proof, when in reality he never said that. He said that he "cannot" be tortured into revealing information he is protecting.

For example, Glenn Greenwald may hold a private key which must be used IN CONJUNCTION with Snowden's key to decrypt the information Snowden has. It's possible/probable that Snowden does _not_ have access to the secrets he protects without Greenwald's key, as well as possibly many other keys. He may have a network of people he's made part of the group such that any two of them plus Snowden can decrypt the information, but Snowden himself can't without two keys plus his own, and he could make it such that his key is required in the group of three to decrypt. Hopefully someone else here can provide the name for this kind of encryption (something like n-key encryption, it's escaping me currently) and a link to how it works, but this is all very sound and entirely doable from a math standpoint.

So no, Snowden himself isn't torture proof, but his security is, if he's doing something like what I outlined above. They'd have to go after Glenn Greenwald too, or whoever else is involved, before gaining access to the intel.

Edit: This link[3] might explain it slightly better, but I once read a great primer on the topic, filled with examples and was pretty simple to understand (the layman could grasp at least the concept). I'll add more links as I find more info.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_multi- party_computation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_multi- party_computation)

[2] [http://www.iacr.org/archive/eurocrypt2001/20450279.pdf](http://www.iacr.org/archive/eurocrypt2001/20450279.pdf)

[3] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_cryptosystem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_cryptosystem)

[4] [http://www.tcs.hut.fi/Studies/T-79.159/2004/slides/L9.pdf](http://www.tcs.hut.fi/Studies/T-79.159/2004/slides/L9.pdf)

[5] [https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/CS5430/2013sp/L.SecretSha...](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/CS5430/2013sp/L.SecretSharing.html)

(thanks ##crypto for the help!)

</comment><comment><USER14> Edward Snowden makes me proud of my country, and the people that fight for it. But he also makes me ashamed of my Government and the people that hide behind it.

<comment><USER15> This raise an interesting point.

The guy is risking his life, and no one even wonder who is the branch/person in government that should be responsible for what he says is going on.

Who should be taken accountable for this? why people is not on the streets? ...well people are on the streets, but for the wrong reasons. media is transforming a, sadly, commonplace killing in hate/race crime. Any conspiracy theorist already linked the time they scheduled the trial with the snowden thing? didn't another army whistle blower was on trial on the very same day as the zimmerman one?

<comment><USER16> > _Who should be taken accountable for this?_

Anyone and everyone with knowledge of it who didn't do what he did, IMO.

I realize that's a wide net.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "identify, remove from office and bring to justice those officials who have abused power"

This, here, is the crux of the matter. Drag into the light the parasites that consume the living flesh of this society.

<comment><USER18> I hope people, and indeed the senator, realizes that the people he is talking about are senators and congressmen, not the president who did his duty and executed the 20 million dollar PRISM budget forced on him by congress.

<comment><USER19> Huh? There's no law or budget that requires PRISM. Any of these programs could be shut down with one phone call from the Oval Office, and Congress couldn't say boo. That's sort of the reason they're Constitutional in the first place: The executive has broad national security powers.

<comment><USER18> Not since nixon: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Budget_and_Impoun...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Budget_and_Impoundment_Control_Act_of_1974#Impoundment)

Also, he must execute the law faithfully, if the Congress gives him the power to use secret courts to wire-tap people he is expected to use it to it's fullest extent, to do otherwise would be illegal: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_State...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_5:_Caring_for_the_faithful_execution_of_the_law)

PRISM is the president faithfully executing the laws set by congress, between the 8 billion dollar NSA budget and the Patriot Act, they are responsible.

<comment><USER20> Um, the above is the Sunday School version of U.S. politics.

In reality, the executive has a tremendous amount of discretion. Just look at the Obama admin unilaterally extending an Obamacare deadline that was set by Congress -- and which did not give the executive branch the ability to alter. Didn't matter.

It's true that Congress is also responsible for NSA domestic surveillance. But every branch of government has a duty to ensure their conduct is constitutional.

<comment><USER18> First, where is your evidence of this opinion, I provided links to two sources describing the modern state of Executive powers and you basically call me naive without specifically refuting my evidence or points.

Second, the ACA (AKA Obamacare) does not specify specific deadlines except when reports to congress must be made. I googled for the deadline extension you were referring too, there were many, so please be more specific. Here is the text of the bill to read it for yourself ([http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr3590/text](http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr3590/text)). In general it says the the secretary of HHS shall set deadlines as reasonable, and hence giving the Administration the power to change their own deadline.

Third, I generally base my opinion off of personal anecdote since I have a family member serving as an elected politician in an executive office. Their job requires them to execute laws very specifically, often requiring them to consult lawyers regularly (even though they are a lawyer!). Laws can be tricky, and while I am not knowledgeable of government law I would be willing to bet the President is basically required to use section 702 of FISA whenever he can in regards to terrorism. But then again, my personal anecdote is from a county position.

Finally, it isn't a question of constitutionality. Congress said it was legal, therefore it's legal until the supreme court (or a lesser court that doesn't get appealed) says it is unconstitutional. I agree that the law is unconstitutional, but the executive branch does not get the luxury to exercise their opinions on laws like that.

<comment><USER20> As you continue to explore this area, you'll find pretty quickly that your family member's experience as a local elected official doesn't have that much relevance to NSA surveillance. Other than that, you're mistaken but well- intentioned, and I encourage you to read up on this topic. I might suggest my articles about government and the law over the last 15 years or so as a starting point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> grey-area What I find interesting here is that a former Senator is commending a dissident from the United States and wishing him good luck in evading the government and seeking asylum from the US.

Lots of respect for Senator Gordon Humphrey for speaking out with what will be a very unpopular opinion in Washington. I'd like to hear the same from UK politicians past or present on Tempora, but have heard nothing of consequence from any of them.

</comment><comment> brown9-2 As Joshua Foust points out, Snowden gave some info to Der Spiegel that they chose not to publish which seems to conflict with some of the "no harm" statements here:

 _SPIEGEL has decided not to publish details it has seen about secret operations that could endanger the lives of NSA workers. Nor is it publishing the related internal code words. However, this does not apply to information about the general surveillance of communications. They don't endanger any human lives — they simply describe a system whose dimensions go beyond the imaginable._

[http://joshuafoust.com/dangerously-naive-or-a- liar/](http://joshuafoust.com/dangerously-naive-or-a-liar/)

The Guardian and Washington Post also decided to not publish the majority of the Prism slides for similar national security reasons, even though Snowden's initial push was to have them all published (and almost immediately after receipt by the Guardian and WaPo).

<comment><USER21> He has asked the journalists to be rigorous in weighing the decision to publish what he gives them. I don't have a citation but it's in some of greenwalds recent posts.

<comment> brown9-2 That would seem to conflict with his statement that _I have not provided any information that would harm our people - agent or not - and I have no intention to do so_.

If Der Spiegel (or the Guardian, or the Washington Post) was less rigorous, then information could have been published that harmed "our people" or intelligence agents.

He is positioning himself as having carefully reviewed everything he has given out, but if he has given info to some media sources who themselves have been "rigorous" enough and realized the danger of publishing some of it, then the statement in this letter cannot also be true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This young man is an American hero

<comment><USER23> No, he is not.

<comment><USER24> Want to bother attempting a compelling argument to that effect?

<comment><USER19> Like all the bother the parent poster made to argue that Snowden is a hero?

<comment><USER24> I think the original post did that sufficiently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> _" Further, no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect."_

I currently suspect this to be false or a straight up lie:

</comment><comment></comment><comment>=====

[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/snowden-dead- mans-s...](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/snowden-dead-mans-switch/)

 _" Snowden, a former systems administrator for the National Security Agency in Hawaii, took thousands of documents from the agency's networks before fleeing to Hong Kong in late May, where he passed them to Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. The journalists have handled them with great caution. A story in the German publication Der Spiegal, co-bylined by Poitras, claims the documents include information "that could endanger the lives of NSA workers," and an Associated Press interview with Greenwald this last weekend asserts that they include blueprints for the NSA's surveillance systems that "would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it."

But Snowden also reportedly passed encrypted copies of his cache to a number of third parties who have a non-journalistic mission: If Snowden should suffer a mysterious, fatal accident, these parties will find themselves in possession of the decryption key, and they can publish the documents to the world."_

</comment><comment></comment><comment>=====

From the sound of it, you can compromise him by expedient of killing him.

</comment><comment><USER26> "...one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter- intelligence environments (i.e. China)."

Interesting. Is it from a technical/IT standpoint or more of a "social engineering" one? Or a bit of both? That's a genuine question because I really don't know how feasible this type of work could be when done from within the US.

<comment><USER27> There are ways to store a password in your subconscious [1] but they are relatively gimmicky.

The more logical interpretation is that he doesn't have the decryption keys and has given partial keys to multiple people, thus making his secrets safe from torturing _just him_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> >I hope he is correct that the information that he claims to have extracted from NSA servers cannot be extracted from him against his will, but I don't assume that to be true in the absence of evidence. That's an extraordinary claim, so it requires extraordinary evidence.

>... an extraordinary claim, so it requires extraordinary evidence,

Not.

"Normally ciphertexts decrypt to a single plaintext and hence once decrypted, the encryption user cannot claim that he encrypted a different message. Deniable encryption allows its users to decrypt the ciphertext to produce a different (innocuous but plausible) plaintext(s) and insist that it is what they encrypted. The holder of the ciphertext will not have the means to differentiate between the true plaintext, and the bogus-claim plaintext(s)."

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

with:

"Secret sharing (also called secret splitting) refers to methods for distributing a secret amongst a group of participants, each of whom is allocated a share of the secret. The secret can be reconstructed only when a sufficient number, of possibly different types, of shares are combined together; individual shares are of no use on their own."

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

Let the shared secret be deniable-crypto plaintexts. Threshold T sharers may release plaintext_1 while ignorant of a different sharer subset intersection may release a different plaintext_n, benign or otherwise, for example.

At another level of deniability, Snowden may also not even know the current identities or nos of secret sharers participating.

</comment><comment><USER29> The most interesting part of this is the following paragraphs from Snowden:

 _Further, no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China)._

 _You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture._

While he may be overconfident (it's easy to say you can resist torture, at least until you're tortured), this shoots down the unverified claims that the Chinese or Russians could easily already have copies of his data. Not unless he's willingly handed it over or he's much less competent than his data theft would suggest.

<comment><USER30> I can imagine systems that would be coercion proof, but I can't imagine any that would be coercion proof and also allow a dead mans switch, which I thought he had also claimed to have.

<comment> grey-area If reconstructing the secret requires a certain no of keys, but not all, and those people are distributed around the world, it's quite possible to be coercion proof as one party (because you can't decrypt on your own) and the secrets still accessible even if one party is compromised.

<comment><USER31> If that were the case, there would need to be at least two other parties who share his ideology specifically enough to decrypt the data _only after_ he's presumed dead. They would also need to remain secret in order to not be targeted simultaneously.

Not impossible requirements, but they seem unlikely.

The question is: Can you automate it to remove the human element?

Assuming Tor is perfect, could you create N co-conspirator hidden services that need checked in with periodically to not work together to decrypt it? Assuming the check in would be able to detect duress, that might be a viable system.

<comment> grey-area _If that were the case, there would need to be at least two other parties who share his ideology specifically enough to decrypt the data only after he 's presumed dead._

Well apparently Senator Humphrey is on board with his ideology :)

I really don't think it'd be a problem for him to distribute keys to a few like-minded individuals before he left, or even when he was in hong kong, particularly if he has some shared key system set up so that any n keys can open the secrets. It sounds like he has certainly distributed an encrypted file of the docs to several people, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has likewise distributed the keys to open them.

However while the mechanics of his protecting this data are interesting on a technical level, they're also not the most important story here, and we don't really know enough (or at least I don't) to speculate without more facts...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Can anyone provide some concrete examples about how the NSA, using the tools that many of us would rather they not, "keeps us safe"?

Are there specific incidents that have been avoided (that wouldn't have otherwise)? Is it just that we are generally "safer"?

<comment><USER33> > Can anyone provide some concrete examples about how the NSA

In the UK GCHQ provides intel to the Ministry of Defence. MoD then uses that intel. The intel is secret, and thus we don't know if it has helped or not. The intel is also misused (see, for example, the "sexing up" of documents) or ignored.

But in general you don't know what the spies are doing. It's the nature of spies. You could ask your representative politician to ask some of the oversight politicians, but the answer you'll get back is going to be on the same lines. "The provide valuable intel, and we use it, and we are safer because of it".

<comment><USER32> I just wonder how true that is or is it mostly just legacy behavior (we're a country so we gotta have spies, right?).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I thought he said in the conference with WikiLeake staffer that he has shared everything he knows. Now in the email he is talking about protecting more information. Now I am confuse.

</comment><comment><USER35> > " While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was > to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being > compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments > (i.e. China)."

Mr. Snowden has come a long way from "just a sysadmin". It appears people were trying to downplay the role he had in his line of duty.

</comment><comment><USER36> This is like a dialogue from a spy movie, the good guy is on the run trying to save his country, while this very nation is hunting him down.

I think Wesley Snipes plays the good guy! :-)

Jokes aside I salute Snowden, he's doing a very very brave thing. We should come up with a hacker salute for his cause.

<comment><USER37> Actually it's a bit over the top for a Senator to write a man on the run. Luckily, unlike fiction, this stuff doesn't have to be believable!

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Sometimes I wonder if the intelligence community doesn't have people who's sole job is to write comments on websites/forums to help shape public opinion. It would be something fairly trivial for them to do and help further their interests...

<comment><USER31> Well, the Air Force has already been caught doing it. Why wouldn't everyone else?

[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/18/revealed-air-force- ord...](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/18/revealed-air-force-ordered- software-to-manage-army-of-fake-virtual-people/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I just wish this wouldn't be such a politically partisan issue.

</comment><comment><USER40> I will just leave this here as an encouragement for anyone to write to their representatives, media, journalists and mention this in debates about this issue.

> remove from office and bring to justice those officials who have abused > power, seriously and repeatedly violating the Constitution of the United > States and the rights of millions of unsuspecting citizens.

This is what we should be focusing on and now Snowdens character, his this and that, I and many with me are tired of celebrity-culture and gossip around him.

Lets talk about the US officials, NSA higher-ups who must be removed from office, put on trail or investigation and lets get those companies Google, Facebook accountable.

Anyone know who the NSA high-ups are, names? We know companies CEOs, lets put them under the spotlight instead of Snowden, what did they know? When, how come they did not know, where they coerced or fooled into it? Do they deserve to continue being CEO when such grave mistakes happen under their watch?</comment>


Show HN: Awwation, a Prezi Clone written with HTML, SVG and Js. - <AUTHOR>

http://adityab.github.com/Awwation/
INFO: In firefox, when you generate a presentation, the file is saved as a .part file for some unknown reason. Just rename it to .svg and it plays alright. This works fine in Chrome.
Some notes:
1. I hacked this up as a holiday project. I think using SVG for presenting is a good idea because transforming, zooming, etc is apparently 'harder' or 'unnatural' in pure HTML, from an editor's perspective.
2. Upon clicking 'generate', the editor returns an array of frame ID's in the presentation sequence - since this is, in theory, all the information required to animate, any DOM animation framework, such as impress.js or dizz.js, can used for animating. Currently, it uses code from Sozi, an inkscape animation plugin, for this task.
3. The 'screenshots' of regions in the presentation path, show at the top in the strip, are taken using canvg. Since taking screenshots of the DOM is not normally possible, I had to use canvg to render the SVG on a canvas, and then crop out the region to be shown in the strip.
4. Ideally, I would have used fabric.js and Canvas to animate - fabric.js provides a kind of canvas DOM and Canvas renders things faster, being a bitmap buffer. Unfortunately, fabric doesn't import some elements like text from the input SVG (made by the editor), and you can't use a DOM animator with Canvas.
[edit: typo] <comment><USER2> I think it's great from a technical standpoint.

From a user point of view, my reaction is similar to that for Prezi, which is that while at first the effects are cool, I'm not sure I want to continue to see these effects for too long.

Does anyone know how much traction Prezi is getting in terms of number of users?

<comment><AUTHOR> From <http://prezi.com/explore> it shows the number of views to be among hundreds of thousands or more in some popular prezis.

So I think people like to watch passively, not unlike Youtube videos.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> And link to editor: <http://adityab.github.com/Awwation/svg-editor.html>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://adityab.github.com/Awwation/></comment>


IoT Ransomware Against Austrian Hotel - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/01/iot_ransomware_.html <comment><AUTHOR> > _One of Europe 's top hotels has admitted they had to pay thousands in > Bitcoin ransom to cybercriminals who managed to hack their electronic key > system, locking hundreds of guests out of their rooms until the money was > paid._

If I were a ransomware writer, I would immediately target them.

</comment><comment><USER2> previously: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13511759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13511759)</comment>


Ask HN: How to get major bloggers write about my bootstrapped startup? - <AUTHOR> Hey guys, my startup http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ (A/B testing tool) is just out of beta and we launched paid plans early this week. To announce that we have launched, I had mailed a personalized pitch to Mashable, RWW, TechCrunch, LifeHacker. But no one replied!
I know they must be getting 100s of pitches daily but I think our story is as good as other startups that they cover. We are bootstrapped, had 1200 beta users and now in the first week have actual paying users (with very close to being profitable). Users think our tool beats Google's tool by a huge margin (http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php) and it is actually very helpful to small businesses and marketers (in beta, we have user case studies where sales and conversions got increased by 20-90%). So, what's wrong with the pitch? Based on what I read, I even mailed link to this 2 minute short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YYNebfuvLc
I realize that getting covered on a major blog doesn't ensure startup success, but it is still a great way to announce to the world that you are open for business. So, what is the best way to get major bloggers write about my startup?
Are bloggers not writing about us because we are bootstrapped, based out of India and non-YC (or associated with a similar program)? Is there anything wrong with my approach? <comment><USER2> (Disclaimer: My last startup (now sold) has been mentioned multiple times on all of the blogs you mentioned. I even turned down a full profile on TC because I thought we couldn't scale.. I'm still kicking myself over this ;-))

You need to focus. The e-mail you posted here is well written, but too generic to make an impact nowadays. You need to tailor your story to fit the sources you're most interested in. You will _not_ get coverage on even three of the sites you mention, since they're all keen to get exclusives, so don't bother with the mass mails. Foster some relationships.

Look at the blogs you're targeting. Really _look_. Your e-mail provides no story - it asks me to come up with one and try to fit you in to it. This distinction is important, especially for Mashable, RWW, and LifeHacker. Go through their stories and look for patterns. On RWW you'll see a mix of "news" about well established companies and "how to" type stuff often featuring smaller companies (like yours). Mashable is very list and "soft" news oriented (note posts about Justin Bieber, dating, and "happiness." LifeHacker is very "how to" based.

Your story is basically "news" but it's not a "story." You need to seed the bloggers who are looking for stories (like the above three) with stories, not release news.

(I could write a lot about this but I've been up ages and need to get a few hours sleep before going to the in-laws.. I hope you can sympathize.. :-) Any questions, ask away and I'll be back later.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Yes, I do have a question. I think I have no clue what a "story" email looks like. Well, I thought the one I wrote was a story but you tell it looks like "news" :)

Do you have any examples or references of "story" that I can learn from?

PS: Yes, I know about exclusives. Therefore, I didn't do a mass-mail. I mailed one, waited, mailed another, waited. But still no reply.

<comment><USER3> I believe what he means is make tailor your "story" to their style.

Maybe by changing your subject line to fit their typical "story" type. Like using LifeHacker as an example: "How my software improves conversions by 35% - overnight." - just something a tad bit sensational.

Also, you might want to consider doing "favors" for the bloggers, like giving them a free account & personal assistance in setting up some a/b tests for things like their events or contests, etc.

Also, you can try to reach them more personally (but they usually don't like that) - if you have a particular persons email, give that a try or twitter if they're following you, dm them or even a call, if you have skype credit. I believe Jason Kincaid from techcrunch is jkincaid here on HN, that's a starting point.

Lastly, you might want to approach blogs with smaller audiences, that are targeted, like smashingmagazine.com or appvita.com - something that 90% tech people read.

Good luck, I hope this was helpful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I haven't worked directly with any of the people you mentioned, but with a background in PR I'll give you some general info.

They're not dealing with 100s of pitches per day, they're dealing with 1000s. (That may or may not be completely accurate, but it's true in spirit.) And these publications are not there to serve the world of tech, they're there to serve the relatively small ecosystem of people that they're a part of. Most of the stories they publish will come to them via established channels (a particularly capable PR person, a friend, a fellow journalist).

For the most part, I would say your pitch isn't really even considered. It's not considered because it's not part of a small group of pitches that have to be considered (because of previous ties). To put it another way, there's already enough on the table and ignoring you isn't a political risk.

So, what you're asking for is almost impossible. But so is starting a startup and finding customers, so you're getting used to it.

My advice:

1\. Figure out if you really, really need coverage. Ask yourself if it's worth the energy (most of which will be wasted). If you are finding paying customers, personally I would focus all of my attention on that. In my market and because of my previous work, we can get published more or less when we decide to. But we don't. We focus on product and customers (we're currently stealth-mode on something).

2\. If it truly is strategically imperative (and not just an ego milestone) you need to track down individual humans at each of the publications and get them on the phone, whatever that takes. Don't be afraid to start at the top.

3\. When you get someone on the phone be short, professional and polite. You're not calling to establish how mind blowing/game changing your product is. You're calling to make an impression as someone that needs to be watched. Have a less than 30 second pitch worked out (and practiced).

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your advice! Yes, I was guessing that, just like with VCs, pitches to major bloggers must come from a known reference to be even considers. Random emails to email@example.com probably doesn't even get read by them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think there are two things at play here:

1\. Your product is not easy to understand or write about in a consumer-facing blog. Mashable and LH are probably not your target audience. You want big blogs about web development, analytics, SEO, PPC and that kind of thing to write about you. Don't just go for the obvious big names, but go for the big names that your target market reads. Pop quiz: name the two most famous bloggers in A/B testing world.

I think that's your main mistake.

2\. There is a difference between quick news posts vs analysis posts. Your pitch email (as per another thread) is just the wrong way to target blogs with very different strategies. Mashable likes to be the first with any big breaking news. RWW is the more thoughtful of the bunch in that they take their time to think about the big picture. TC is very interested in deals: raising funding, getting bought out, etc. Your email needs to target each blog properly. In short, each want something different because they've built a following that expects that.

So my question to you: what did your email offer each blog to get them interested?

<comment><USER6> In addition to point #1, I think one of the great things you'll gain by following Peldi's technique (which you absolutely should be doing -- not just Paras, everybody) is the _social proof_ you need to work your way up the ladder.

For example, Avinash Kaushik wrote the book on web analytics. Literally. Twice. I've talked to him -- he's quite a personable guy, and I think it is likely he gets less email than TechCrunch. Write him a personal pitch tailored directly at one of his main interests, such as how to present A/B testing tools in such a way that non-engineers can actually comprehend them. It just so happens that your tool is the answer to his prayers, which is pretty freaking convenient now wouldn't you say. (Less conveniently, he works for the competitor you're busy crushing, so the rest of this is a harmless hypothetical.)

He has 4,500 people subscribed to his blog in Google Reader. That is now 4,500 people to whom you are not just some random guy in India, but rather, the guy who comes with a recommendation from a trusted topical expert.

Then you quote that recommendation in your pitch emails, preferably to people you know read him. Hint: who links to him frequently? Ah, I see he is the go- to guy for SEOMoz when they need an analytics expert. So you write them an email, pitching yourself as a tool for SEOs which has been introduced by their go-to guy for analytics. (You might also mention that folks in their market space already love you. I know you have SEO clients because I referred them to you. Ask them for a quotable recommendation, then quote the snappiest one you get in your pitch email.)

And now maybe you have a recommendation from SEOMoz. Now you widen the net -- who trusts them?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Patrick! As you suggest, specifically, regarding Avinash I had mailed him long back. He replied that VWO is very cool and I like how easy it is, but since I work for Google there may be a conflict of interest. Perfectly understandable.

Though there are lots of other bloggers in web analytics, SEO and online marketing industry. I have made a list (from Alltop and Technorati) and plan to start writing to them soon. Your strategy is interesting. I am using it already, pitching people using your and others' reviews.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What did you send in your emails to these sites, can you show us, so we can critique it? The video was good, but a bit boring and non-obvious to people who aren't aware of the problem you solve. It's dumbed down, but not far enough. Did you mention that your users think you're kicking Google's ass? That's the kind of think a writer loves to claim -- it means page views.

"Google Website Optimizer is old news. Visual Website Optimizer is next generation A/B testing"

I think your name might be hurting you. Your name sounds generic and spammy. It's great for SEO maybe, but it sucks for making people think you're a legit startup. You may want to change the name to something friendlier, like Vizzy Optimal -- VizzyO.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, so you think video was non-obvious? Never realized that! Do you have any ideas on what can be done so that lay people can get the concept? I think, as a creator of tool, I have got a blind spot that A/B testing is obvious.

Yes, the name might sound generic. But this is the product's name. Startup's name is actually Wingify <http://www.wingify.com/> I chose Visual Website Optimizer, because it solved all pain points of Google Website Optimizer by allowing creating A/B tests visually.

Here is the pitch I am using:

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

Hi there (or name of blogger, if available),

I'm Paras Chopra, founder of Wingify. We just launched Visual Website Optimizer (<http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/>), which is the world's easiest A/B testing tool. Here is a quick 2 minute video which demonstrates just how simple is to create and test different versions of a website <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YYNebfuvLc>

Even though we are a small bootstrapped startup, initial private beta users (about 1200) think we completely beat Google Optimizer by a huge margin and are in fact much better than enterprise testing tools (costing thousands of $$$ per month). Here are some of the testimonials from users <http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php>

By providing a dead-simple tool, we aim to transform A/B testing from being an niche, enigmatic term to something even small business owners can use. Already, in private beta phase, a couple of small businesses have been able to increase sales and conversions b 20-90% <http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/case-studies.php>

Since you have covered other web analytics startups in the past, we are hoping you could write about us too!

Regards, Paras Chopra

Founder, Wingify Phone: +91-98682-21372 Skype: paraschopra

<comment><USER7> The video is pretty good, but it just shows too much. It needs to be simple enough a child can understand the value. Maybe 1 minute long. Most people don't even get what multivariate testing is, or why it's important. Maybe show a name brand site or a site going from making $1000 to making $2000 or whatever. "Conversion improvement of 423% = $3253 more revenue per month".

Honestly though I'm impressed. You have a great product and good pitch. Those bastards should write about you. Either way you should also contact the dozens of smaller niche blogs (especially SEO/SEM sites).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! Considered showing a video of doing A/B test on a popular site (such as Amazon or even Google) but then was scared of all legal issues it may crop up.

To try with Amazon.com, simply head over to [http://dev.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/first_time_ab.php?demo...](http://dev.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/first_time_ab.php?demo=1) and enter the URL. You don't even require code on the site to start designing tests.

Now if I only could convince bloggers to at least have a look :)

<comment><USER8> This is just a minor piece of feedback on the video and site itself but.. I didn't understand how i get my site to work with your 'visual designer.' My site is complex, has lots of CSS, etc. How can I just type in a few fonts into a wysiwyg editor and start? :P

This is the key piece to the 'duh' moment that I'm missing. If you could spend a second to give an example of how THAT piece works, you could probably cut out 75% of the rest of the video :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just in case you are not familiar with Peldi's advice, this might be useful - [http://balsamiq.com/blog/2008/08/05/startup-marketing- advice...](http://balsamiq.com/blog/2008/08/05/startup-marketing-advice-from- balsamiq-studios/)

PS Where in India are you based?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, read that article and followed his advice. But it is 2 years old. Not that advice has gotten old, but I am fearing if randomly pitching to bloggers is still as effective as it was earlier?

PS: Based out of Delhi

<comment><USER10> Paras, any startup events you attend in Delhi or other parts of India? I'm from Bangalore, but wouldn't mind flying to other places if there are good startup events.

<comment><USER11> Check TiE, Headstart Network, OCC (in Bangalore), Barcamp (inactive), MoMo Bangalore. All except TiE have mailing lists. DARE Magazine held a recent event called Startup City in Bangalore.

<comment><USER10> Ya I've heard of most of them. I've been waiting for Barcamp for a year. There was recent talk on the mailing list abt organising the next one. But nothing yet.

I've heard about Headstart network. They have something called Startup Saturdays right? How are the headstart events?

P.S: Your email?

<comment><USER11> Yes, Startup Saturdays is part of Headstart. Email is in the profile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I dont know if there is anything necessarily wrong with your pitch. These days however, getting on one of these huge sites is HARD, so hard that its not worth your time.(I mean if you get covered great, bonus, but I wouldn't worry about it)

My suggestion is that if you want to get your startup talked about is to not focus on these generalist first tier blogs. You want to focus on the second tier. So basically find blogs that are interested in your startups space and have a fairly large following an pitch to them. They don't have people beating down their door to pitch to them like these other large sites.

The upside of these smaller second tier blogs is that their readers are generally passionate about their bloggers. Generally the readers of these blogs feel a connection to the bloggers they are reading(as they are individuals, not companies) and when they say they think a product is great, or interesting, or that their readers should check it out, the readers do.

These bloggers generally do around 3-5 posts per week, so you also don't have to worry about the post about your product getting lost in the mix.

</comment><comment><USER13> I got my little webapp <http://weekplan.net> featured by Lifehacker.com by doing the following:

1\. I submitted to KillerStartups.com and waited three days for it to be approved (free) 2\. MakeUseOf.com saw the post in KillerStartups.com and covered my app too. 3\. Lifehacker saw the post in MakeUseOf.com and covered my app.

<comment><USER13> By the way, I have used your application in the past, and I can attest that it is an awesome application, simple to use and very useful.

My only worry is the extra request to fetch your javascript. I saw the script to take quite long on some occasions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. We have fixed all those problems and also allowed the users to host JS on their websites [http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/host- vi...](http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/host-visual- website-optimizer-javascript-files-on-your-server/)

And now our JS is on Amazon S3. Also working on tweaking the servers to make everything much faster!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've heard about your software form somewhere other than the websites you listed :) So at least you're doing something write on the marketing front!

My experience is that the blogs either run very minimal 'skim' pieces based on a press release (which they probably don't like but owe someone a favor) or a solid piece based on a single event.

Like Peter said, build a story... but make it relevant to today's events. It's almost like submitting a story to Digg.

Look at things going on with the blogs (i.e. location mobile app hype) and figure out a way that you can use your software to provide them a great story on that relevant news. For example 'VWO profiles Foursquare, Gowalla, Company X - here's why Foursquare wins' or something along those lines.

You need to present a compelling article, video, blog post or infographic that they can quickly skim, instantly get it, then can easily summarize it in a post.

</comment><comment><USER14> A few tips I got from a talk at Dogpatch Labs with Jason from Techcrunch and Anthony from VentureBeat:

Talk about competitors to give them a quick understanding of what your product may be, they will be able to quickly see how you are different without trying to understand brand new idea.

Don't use buzzwords because those tend to make everything ambiguous

And the last thing I found out was, sometimes you just have to get lucky or know someone who can help put in a good word for you. FanPulse was able to get mentioned because we were launching right before the superbowl, mostly because the timing was perfect and we had some popular techie people using and promoting us.

It's realyy hard, i don't believe there is that one golden ticket that will for sure get you covered. It's going to be a combination of features, relevance, and outright popularity as an individual.

</comment><comment><USER15> Think of it this way: what do THEY gain by covering you? What's THEIR benefit? Inform them what they will gain.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, my product completely beats Google's tool (which has dozens of engineers working for years). While we are a very tiny startup. I think that makes up a pretty good story.

Well, with no offence to the mentioned startups, then what does TC gain from covering Sibblingz ([http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/12/sibblingz-launches- multi-pl...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/12/sibblingz-launches-multi- platform-social-game-engine-to-the-masses/)) or QLess ([http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/qless-saves-you-the- annoyan...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/qless-saves-you-the-annoyance-of- standing-in-line/)). I mean, aren't they in the business of covering tech startups?

<comment><USER15> They are in the business of writing interesting stories. If you have an interesting story like "I totally kicked Googles ass in all benchmarks", they may write about you. Give people the interesting story that their viewers could like, and you may get covered.

Don't give them the facts and expect them to make an interesting story out of the facts, give them the interesting story straight up. People are lazy, nobody wants to convert a screencast into an interesting story.

Your tool 'beating' googles tool is mildly interesting, but it's still not very compelling. Your being a tiny startup is not too exciting either. Make your pitch with the benefit of the journalist in mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My guess is that your startup just isn't that interesting, especially to general audiences like Lifehacker. Your tool is a tool for making tools, which is not what the average Mashable, RWW, or TechCrunch reader really cares about. They want a shiny new service to show to their friends on their iPhone or something, not a tool that will help their company make money. They don't even have companies, or websites to optimize.

That's your problem, I'd guess. The group of people you'd appeal is too small. (Of course, on HN, the demographic is quite different, and you got 28 upmods in 4 hours... in the middle of the night US time. This is probably where you should pitch -- not as many eyeballs, but more eyeballs that care.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I too thought this could be a problem. But then I searched archives and saw that they have covered startups in this industry in the past.

See Clicktale (a tool to see heatmaps/clickmaps on website) for example. TC covered them and got 53 comments too

[http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/11/watch-internet- users%E2%80%...](http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/11/watch-internet- users%E2%80%99-behaviour-with-clicktale/)

RWW covered CrazyEgg (another similar tool) [http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/crazyegg_measuring_webs...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/crazyegg_measuring_website_usability.php)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> One tip would be to include references to past coverage.

Its relatively easy to blast your PR pitch to MSM folks in India and get heard. Especially Mint. Let me know if you need references.

For Indian Bloggers try and contact them personally through FB, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. and them send them a pitch. Helps to know them personally too. Buy them coffee/beer if you can.

</comment><comment><USER17> If you believe your company is that good then just show up at the office and ask for 5 minutes of time from one of the bloggers.

Make sure you are well prepared and that what you have to talk about is actually news worthy and interesting.

Just don't a fuck and go and do it you have nothing to lose.

</comment><comment><USER18> Try sites with smaller audiences to get at least some coverage. If your app is good big blogs might notice and write about it.

My personal experience: I submitted my app to MoMB - just a short email. The next day it appeared on Lifehacker (via Life Rocks).

Good luck with your venture.

</comment><comment><USER19> Think in terms of "what's in it for me" from the major bloggers' POV. Email your pitch, written with flair and passion.

Going for the big catch is good. But if you get cold, try the smaller fish instead (medium-size bloggers who writes about conversion/ab testing).

</comment><comment><USER20> you have paying customers that is really great. you objective in reaching bloggers is to reach more customers.

Why not follow the other approach instead of waiting for their posts...............

one idea is

1.Make your product viral.[Focus more on creating a component which helps the user to refer this product to their friends at some benefit etc..] Dropbox is a great example free 250 MB storage if you refer a friend.

</comment><comment><USER21> Go after big affiliate bloggers and give them an affiliate link so there's incentive

</comment><comment><USER22> appear on This Week in Startups and ask Jason a question</comment>


How Instacart Built Its On-Demand Grocery Delivery Service - <AUTHOR> http://stackshare.io/posts/the-tech-behind-instacarts-grocery-delivery-service

<comment><USER2> This is pleasantly detailed. I've seen the Instacart CEO talk about some of his early day problems, and this is a continuation on a lot of it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Excellent read. Blazer looks great. Having all of that data available to more than just the engineers really allows more data-driven decisions. When combined with the insight of someone on the local level, I'm sure it leads to great results.

</comment><comment><USER4> _B: Yeah, but … yeah, we could've. But I like single-page applications. They feel more responsive._

It's not more responsive when you break the basic functionality of the web. Open in new tab has basically never worked with Instacart's site. I see that they attempted to remedy it a bit since the last time I placed an order (about a month ago). Now instead of generating hashbang URLs that the frontend completely ignores, it just generates broken URLs instead such as: [https://www.instacart.com/store/whole- foods/departments/whol...](https://www.instacart.com/store/whole- foods/departments/whole-foods/departments/89/aisles/985). I get that there are a lot of challenges involved in building a business like this, but a frontend that's had basic functionality totally broken for months shouldn't be one of them.

<comment><USER5> I'm really sorry about that bug and how long it's been broken for you. We'll have it fixed tomorrow.

We've worked hard to ensure basic browser functionality works. Every link on Instacart should work like a normal anchor tag would. This specific issue has less to do with it being a single-page app, and more to do with those specific Department/Aisle View More links being improperly formatted.

<comment><USER4> The current issue is not due to single page app, the previous one was. That one was prevalent for about a year since I was using your site when I lived in SF and noticed it then, and it still had the same issue when it launched in Boulder recently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is thorough and well done.

I'm curious why/how Instacart uses both python and ruby for their logistics. Seems like they could just use one.

<comment><USER7> in the article it mentions how they use python to generate logistics plans, and ruby to serve it to the admin

see/ctrl+f:

> B: The data science is what's all in Python, and the application > infrastructure is still Ruby.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interested in what web server they're using with Rails. Unicorn/Puma? Didn't see it mentioned.

<comment><USER5> We're using Unicorn

Updated the stack page [http://stackshare.io/instacart/instacart/](http://stackshare.io/instacart/instacart/)</comment></comment>


Show HN: Simple and elegant Markdown-based resumes - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/awalGarg/cv-maker/ <comment><USER2> For those in Europe this is already a solved problem: Europass [1]

A service kindly provided by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training [2] a European Union's agency.

It has a CV builder and outputs an standardized PDF that can even be fed back into the builder for further updates.

It is a joy when going through a pile of CVs to read the ones built by that tool, makes the job a lot easier because it allows the applicant to focus on the relevant data instead of on the layout. Better for the RH, better for the applicant, win win all around.

[1] [https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home)

[2] [http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/](http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/)

<comment><USER3> FWIW: Europass CV's generally don't go down well with employers. There's an unfair stigma attached to Europass CV's as the candidates are perceived to be of inferior quality.

<comment><USER2> Speaking as an employer: both receiving one through the regular channels and via recruitment agencies I've never seen anyone perceive Europass as anything like you mentioned.

Maybe it varies from location to location or with the area of expertise but Europass are pretty much ubiquitous around here.

<comment><USER4> Also speaking as an employer, with the exact same mixed origin as you (judging by your handle!) but working in another European country: Europass CVs are poorly formatted (cut-off tables, meaningless whitespace, poor typography,) too long, too formalistic and fail to put forward the relevant information. Curiously, I only ever got them from recent graduates coming from our home country.

EDIT:typo

<comment><USER5> It's not a Europass CV problem if it's too long or doesn't put the relevant information forward. That's the applicant's problem imho.

Europass is awesome. Perhaps not perfect but the original aim was to have a standard format for the EU and leave behind all the local national rules of how-a-cv-is-expected-to-be.

Also, I can't help to think that you must suck as a recruiter/interviewer if you draw conclusions from the tool that the applicant used to generate a CV, rather than by its contents.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Resume tip : don't say "I was responsible for ...."

use the STAR system : Situation, Task, Action, Results

While I was part of the Transport Team I reviewed the delivery schedules by analysing historic data in Excel. I was able to reduce transport costs by 10% per year and increase utilisation by 3%.

Don't be afraid of : we found that there were no improvements possible which resulted in no extra spending for the coming year.

<comment><USER7> So what if you were part of a failed startup? You did your job, and did your job pretty well, but the actual products failed to find its audience due to factors (mostly) outside of your control, since you weren't making the decisions on what to make or how to market it?

How do you use STAR to not make that sound bad? I think I currently say I delivered the projects on time and on budget and talk about what I was responsible for, and I know I personally gained a lot of experience from the projects, but every time I see STAR suggested, I'm like "Well, if I did that, I'd basically have to say that my work resulted in the company losing money and ultimately folding."

I get plenty of attention for my resume as it is, it just always bugged me when people suggest STAR as if it's the only way to write a job description on a resume.

<comment><USER8> _Situation_ :

When I replaced the VP of Engineering at BloatCo, it had 4,000 engineers, producing a mediocre social media product that was roundly criticized for such failures as being unable to edit posts and having no control over online harassment.

 _Task_ :

Cut costs and get the product and feature pipeline flowing.

 _Action_ :

Implemented a thorough review of functional teams, engaging both front-line management and customer representatives to distinguish the individual and practices that were delivering value from those who weren't.

Established a customer council, including social activist and freedom of speech advocates, to advise on anti-harassment policies.

 _Result_ :

After a painful transition lasting two quarters, we are reviving public kudos on new features and our reputation as a tool for scumbags has been turned around.

Our burn rate is down by 40% in engineering, proving that sometimes, you can cut costs and increase production.

 _post scriptum_ :

Alas, this did not increase any advertising revenue, so the company was sold to Yahoo, who fired me and are rewriting everything in Perl 6. But fixing those problems were outside of the scope of my authority.

<comment><USER7> Very amusing and informative. I think I can incorporate some of this in my resume in the future, thanks. Also it should help me organize my thoughts for job interviews.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks good, I wonder how it compares to [https://jsonresume.org/](https://jsonresume.org/)

One of the things I liked about jsonresume is I could separate the data from the layout.

<comment><USER10> I've had my resume in markdown for a long time, but I have plans to convert it to json resume format as I feel that is the better approach long term.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> When I think "elegant text", I think Tex. My resume is in Tex (fork it and your may be too). And do not forget to use Sharelatex and you are not installing any software to get a nicely typeset PDF resume.

[https://github.com/cies/resume](https://github.com/cies/resume)

<comment><USER12> Yeah, another comment (now dead) asks what you do when someone asks for a Word format version.

My CV (I think that's what you're all talking about - took a little while to work out you weren't actually resuming anything) is in LaTeX format. Places regularly got confused with being sent a PDF, and demanded Word instead, so I would just convert each page to a bitmap and load into a Word document as an image. Inelegant, but functional.

Back in the days when I was applying via job agencies, I even had one complain that there was something "wrong" with my Word document, as they couldn't work out how to edit any of it. I told them I thought that was a feature, not a bug.

<comment><USER13> I don't think I've ever had a place ask me for my resume in word format. The closest is a Microsoft interview where they sent me some forms in docx format that I had to send back filled in.

Also you can do some basic conversion from Tex to word using pandoc [http://pandoc.org/](http://pandoc.org/)

<comment><USER14> I've had a recruiter ask for a Word version of my CV so that he could make minor edits to it for each relevant position, which makes sense. Otherwise, I don't think there's an excuse for not accepting a PDF.

<comment><USER15> My previous position I got through a recruiter. Demanded my resume in a Word, which ended up being a butchered and ugly version of my beautiful LaTeX- generated PDF. I understood that he was going to make a few edits, but about a year later I was going through some documents and managed to find the copy of the Word resume that he had made changes to. DRASTIC changes.

He had _completely_ re-written huge chunks of my previous experience, changed the order of things to make me look like I had experience in areas that I definitely did not, and countless other minor changes. I couldn't believe it. His native language was definitely not English, so all of his changes had horrible spelling and grammar mistakes peppered in.

In the end I got the job, but only one other person had applied besides myself and the government agency the job was for desperately needed a body to fill a seat so I was kind of hired by default. Ended up being a crazy mess of a programming shop that I brought a bit of order to before leaving.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have to say that although interesting, you're still in a situation where potential employers will print off copies of your CV and hand them around for people to comment on.

The golden rule I stick to is your CV (excluding detailed work history) should fit on one page. I'm not sure this supports this.

<comment><USER17> I go for two pages (two sides of a single page) myself. But I think US _resumes_ are a slightly different concept that goes into exhaustive detail about work history. As somebody that has acted as hiring manager in the past, I definitely preferred the shorter _curriculum vitae_ format - it shows attention to detail and an understanding of what is relevant to the job at hand. I have had feedback on my own CV from time to time that it didn't go into enough detail, so it's horses for courses I suppose ...

<comment><USER18> You've got it backwards. Resumes are typically one page. CVs are detailed. In the USA most places will ask for a one page resume. I've noticed some tech companies want a longer resume or a CV though.

[http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cv-vs-resume-difference- an...](http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cv-vs-resume-difference-and-when-use- which/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hey, guys! I'm one of the core collaborators for JSON Resume[0], an alternative to this project.

Markdown is cool, but as scrollaway said,

> JSON Resume wants to standardize CV fields to improve compatibility between > tools, ease conversion, ease theming and such.

In fact, we have a notion of "themes", and this sort of markdown-based format can be generated _from_ your JSONResume. We think that JSON is a saner default interchange format than markdown.

If you've been following JSONResume development, you might have thought the project died, but myself, along with @aloisdg and others are reviving it and working towards a stable v1.0.0 release. Feel free to suggest changes and make PRs :)

[0] - [https://github.com/jsonresume](https://github.com/jsonresume)

</comment><comment><USER20> tl;dr - It is a web app that turns form input into a downloadable markdown file.

There is a demo w/ live preview that displays the markdown with Bootstrap css. Here's a screenshot, [http://imgur.com/qCM0yo2](http://imgur.com/qCM0yo2)

The author provides a gist that shows the markdown displayed in GitHub's css, [https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e](https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e)

</comment><comment><USER21> Apparently we have very different opinions as to what constitutes elegant. I would call the example messy and confusing.

<comment><USER22> Echoing what a lot of other folks are saying the design of the resume isn't great. Note I don't work hiring programmers but a portion of my job is in recruiting.

\- It is hard to scan. Often times a recruiter will be scanning through 100+ resumes. The fact that it doesn't follow the 'standard' format of resumes makes me have to break out of my usual pattern of how I'd scan a resume.

\- I don't care about what you're reading. Sorry but it's true. I kind of don't care about your blog posts. I'm not going to click on the links though. I might if you make it past the initial screen.

\- I do like the skill sets under each job. That's handy. I don't care for 'favorites'. Just tell me what you know how to do preferably in a more concise manner.

\- Don't give me three emails on how to contact you. I'm a tired stressed out recruiter I don't wanna play a game on which email I think you'll respond to.

"Don't make me think" is just as valid as it is for hiring as it is for web design. Help the recruiter make the case as to why you're a great hire. I don't think that the non-standard formatting helps with that.

<comment><USER23> Sorry this reply screams "I don't care, I'm tired, I'm stressed, don't make me think." What exactly is your value here? All you're doing is fitting a cog in the machinery.

Since my impression is that a good developer can deal with any situation necessary, I never understood the laundry list of technologies way of fitting a candidate to a "good hire."

We know this is the reality of recruiters. Maybe on HN do a better job of selling the industry of tired, stressed, people that don't care working to fill a slot.

<comment><USER24> > _Sorry this reply screams "I don't care, I'm tired, I'm stressed, don't make > me think."_

Well, if you're expecting anything else from a recruiter being send your resume you'll be in for a hard surprise.

The inverse is "I couldn't put in the time to make my CV tidy and intuitive, but you'll have to soldier thru it, because I have the mistaken opinion that I'm a unique snowflake and you don't get hundreds of them".

In fact, "don't make me think" is a GREAT advice for anything you want others to read/try/adopt/buy.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think- Usability/dp/032134...](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think- Usability/dp/0321344758)

> _Since my impression is that a good developer can deal with any situation > necessary, I never understood the laundry list of technologies way of > fitting a candidate to a "good hire."_

Even if a good C++ game developer could switch to Javascript front-end development if needed (to give an extreme example), the time it takes to have them familiar with the relevant stack is better spent hiring someone already familiar. And, it's kind of obvious -- both can be just as good. It's just the second is also ready to hit the ground running on the stack a company uses.

And, of course, just because someone "can deal with any situation necessary" doesn't mean they'd like to. Some programmers like to program in X or Y languages (or language families), others like building Z or K kind of programs.

Just because someone could switch from Haskell to Ruby or from scientific programming to CRUDs doesn't mean they'd also like to. In this case the "laundry list" serves as a way to match hires that are interested in the specific things the company works with.

<comment><USER25> Agreed. I've put out a lot of fires in badly-written Ruby code, and at least 2 in badly-written Python code, but I couldn't stand working 8 hours a day with either of those languages.

So while my knowing them is definitely valuable, I need some way to convey, "hey I know Ruby, but no I don't _like_ Ruby and I wouldn't accept a position that was primarily Ruby." ("Favorite" isn't a good word for that, but that's the intent I'm needing to convey.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> A markdown resume certainly could look simple and elegant, but this tool is nowhere near it.

</comment><comment><USER27> Obligatory post about how the WTFPL is a poor license choice.

</comment><comment><USER28> Obligatory link to my Markdown resume which converts to PDF (via LaTeX) and HTML using Pandoc:

[https://github.com/mwhite/resume](https://github.com/mwhite/resume)

</comment><comment><USER29> I use fluentcv-cli[0]. Works well, used to be hackmyresume I think.

[0][https://www.npmjs.com/package/fluentcv](https://www.npmjs.com/package/fluentcv)

</comment><comment><USER30> I've used Markdown Resume Builder before ([http://there4development.com/markdown- resume/](http://there4development.com/markdown-resume/)) and aside from sometimes fighting with a few layout issues it is great.

From a markdown source file it produces a pretty clean PDF/html version of my resume and can choose from multiple preset styles.

</comment><comment><USER31> The site is broken for me in Chrome. Though in any case, I prefer to use LaTeX for my resume -- can't imagine markdown beating that.

<comment><USER32> I like LaTeX but it was very tedious for resumes. With resumes, you sometimes want to change the format entirely. LaTeX is great for a consistent format, not so much when experimenting.

Markdown also has the benefit of giving you an up to date plaintext resume. I like that a lot, considering a lot of job sites like to automatically (and poorly) convert PDF into plaintext.

<comment><USER12> So LaTeX is perfect for that, since you can change the entire format by changing the content of a function. You did mark up all your entries as function calls, didn't you?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I miss the point with this entirely, but for those that are looking for a "input markdown -> output web-friendly/pdf-friendly resumé" head over to my CV repository at [https://github.com/andreineculau/cv](https://github.com/andreineculau/cv) and fork it!

</comment><comment><USER34> The markdown-to-pdf resume toolchain I'm currently using is:

(1) Render with [https://github.com/joeyespo/grip](https://github.com/joeyespo/grip) (with a few minor CSS tweaks)

(2) "Print" to PDF with Chrome

The documents it produces are quite sober, but I find it works very well.

</comment><comment><USER35> [https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/home) you can export it as xml and you can upload it later to update. It sends you a pdf or word file to your email if you want.

</comment><comment><USER36> A server side implementation(C#) would be nice. I am considering to add this for an angularjs job board [1]

[1] [https://angjobs.com/#!/jobs/inbox/hn](https://angjobs.com/#!/jobs/inbox/hn)

</comment><comment><USER37> Shameless plug for an opinionated pure HTML / CSS resume template:

[https://github.com/tomholford/html-resume- template](https://github.com/tomholford/html-resume-template)

open to feedback and PRs :)

</comment><comment><USER38> I want to like this, but I don't think it adds anything; you might as well just go with YAML at that point.

As an accessibility obsessive, I really don't like the idea of using `code` tags for decorative purposes.

</comment><comment><USER39> 503 [https://rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js](https://rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have switched to the cdn url ([https://cdn.rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js](https://cdn.rawgit.com/gwendall/way.js/master/way.min.js)). Please let me know if the issue persists, thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Love it.

Back in 2012 I asked @gruber on twitter if he thought it was ok to submit a resume in markdown, his response was:

"For the right kind of job, I'd wager it's an advantage to submit in Markdown."

</comment><comment><USER41> Europe also has NemCV.com. Already in Denmark it is the largest resume provider and has now expanded into Sweden, UK, and Germany soon

</comment><comment><USER42> Not to brag, but I have a pretty well put together resume in HTML: [http://greg.team-duck.com/resume.html](http://greg.team-duck.com/resume.html)

While almost no one accepts .html as a resumé format and it's difficult to convert to .pdf or .docx seamlessly, it works pretty well for converting to .txt for some job applications.

I've thought about making a simple resume builder for this format.

<comment><USER43> I find that format quite heavy, would move education to bottom, trim down each job to tangible achievements/projects completed ("delivered project X using Y" vs "improved features"), remove all stamps & logos, and do away with honors and awards - recruiters in software development are unlikely to be impressed by those unless it's something really big. That would help increase signal vs noise ratio.

Granted, the type of CVs I usually look through are for a slightly different skill set but I believe the same reasoning applies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> I really wish this would just output to a json string. Then we can put it through whatever engines we want.

</comment><comment><USER45> These all look pretty terrible tbh fam

</comment><comment><USER46> A developer who lacks the communication skills necessary to write a resume by hand isn't worth having. They may be great at what they do, but everyone needs to be able to communicate effectively.

Any HR department that relies on automated tools, that only reads resumes that match a profile dictated by the needs of an automated reading machine, isn't doing its job. If they are getting too many useless resumes that they need robot to read them, they need to better describe the offerings and/or broadcast to a more focused audience.

Announcing jobs to everyone in the world and sifting through the millions of applicants with a machine might make you feel good, it might make you think you are finding the diamond in the rough, but in reality you are selecting candidates almost by lottery.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry but I have to disagree with this. Just because I am using a tool to do something doesn't mean I lack the skills to do that thing without the tool. IMHO, it is entirely justified to use as many tools as you want and not do things "by hand" if that saves you time and increases efficiency.

As for this specific case, note that the user still would write stuff in sections detailing his/her profile or experience/education etc (which all take markdown as is). The app only really helps with generating the markdown in a pre-structured format, which is easy to edit as well.

<comment><USER46> I said not doing the job, nothing about lacking the skills. If HR people are reliant upon mechanical means to read resumes then that is a problem. Maybe the people aren't efficient, maybe their approach to offerings is to broad, or maybe the department is simply understaffed. To say that a department isn't doing its job isn't to say anything about the people in said.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Please excuse my questions, I'm old and slow... I see where I can try it myself, can I see one already done (before investing the time to download and try it myself)? As an hourly contractor, everything is a tradeoff w/billable hours.

<comment><AUTHOR> Apologies but I didn't understand that very well. If you mean where you can see an example CV made from the app, you can checkout mine at [https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e](https://gist.github.com/awalGarg/a8e97b27b249f2c94f8e)

I will add a url in the readme as well, thanks!

<comment><USER47> Interesting, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Not an expert, correct me if I am wrong here. But I've wrestled with something similar.

Be careful not to use REM for font-sizes as @Print ignores them, if you must (and obviously I/Brain must) you could get around by using % (so 1.5 REM -> 150%). Make sure to set font-size on both body and html.

Also, not sure how to explain it, but if you open up a PDF in Preview, and select print. You might get a different size/layout and some design issues there. So always double check, but be careful not to use the Printed (Saved from Preview.app) as it disables links.

Don't spend any time on CSS transitions, as a PDF won't show them(?) (yep, sigh)

Also watch out for printers adding margins both top/bottom and sides.

</comment><comment><USER49> What would you guys want to see in a blogging platform?

Markdown or WYSIWYG? Or both somehow?

Git for source control? Or versioning and diffs like wordpress?

Themes? Purely css or something more, less secure? How would you want to host it and customize it?

Would you want any social features besides roles and permissions? Such as quoting content from others, or pingbacks or something?

Finally, generate static files or just cache heavily? I think the latter is better but a script can exist to generate the former on environments where caching infrastructure isn't very robust.

Comments - here I would just say use third party javascript based stuff and plop it on the page.

It's kind of related to this post but I have built a framework where I could probably make a blogging app like Wordpress in a week.

<comment><USER50> Please God, no more blogging platforms....</comment></comment>


What is "Miss PR"? Your idea is needed. - <AUTHOR>

Hello my friends! I am a student studying media & communication. I am currently doing a questionnaire about "Miss PR". Could you please spend a few minutes to help my survey? I will be extremely grateful for your help. Thank you sooooo much!<p>The link is:  http://www.diaochapai.com/survey544016 <comment><AUTHOR> Female PR practitioners are known as "Miss PR" in China. They are considered as sexual worker by most Chinese. After I came to the UK, I found no one regard women PR practitioners as "sexual worker".

It is interesting to explore the different perception between China & Eastern countries.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you don't want to fill the questionnaire, it is OK! You can just leave some words here. Your idea will be extremely important for my study. Thank you!

<comment><USER2> Hey Shiun. I really doubt you're going to find many Western men who think of any sexual service as part of a PR agent's role.

That said, (and I mean no offense!) the choices you give do stand out very much. If you'd like a little help rewriting this for an Western (well, American) audience, I'd be glad to help. My email's in my profile, just click on my name!</comment></comment>


Folding Plug System - <AUTHOR> http://www.minkyu.co.uk/Site/Product/Entries/2009/4/20_Folding_Plug_System.html

<comment><USER2> This was posted on Reddit about a year ago (Or more?). IMHO it would be far too flimsy to be safe/usable, and wouldn't pass safety regulations.

Something inbetween US and UK plugs would be nice. UK is rock solid, can't bend pins, has no chance of sparks, will _never_ fall out of the socket, has fuse + other safety features (Covered pins), socket only opens Live+Neutral once earth is inserted etc, but is a bit clunky.

OTOH, US plugs spark, get bent pins, fall out of the wall, don't require an earth+fuse, are pretty dangerous IMHO, but on the plus side they're pretty flat :/

<comment><USER3> The europlugs have some pretty solid pins and don't seem to fall out of sockets, but they don't have an earth pin or fuses.

<comment><USER4> Of course some euro plugs have what I'd call a "sneaky" earth, that isn't a pin but simply a contact on the other two parts of the socket and plug.

See the two pictures in this (quickly googled) discussion, for a clear illustration - [http://forum.expatica.com/print.html&client=printer&...](http://forum.expatica.com/print.html&client=printer&f=135&t=112082)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice!

I wonder how well the moving contacts to bring the power from the live and neutral to the power cable will survive, though - they may become worn and intermittent with time.

Do we really need the fold-out wings? Could we not just rotate the live and neutral pins into place, then plug it in? Or do the standards require a certain outline to keep fingers from the plugging-in bits?

<comment><USER6> The UK is notorious for their safety precautions. Not only do all plugs have a fuse _in_ them, but wall outlets are usually behind a local fuse even before a home's circuit breaker.

The fold out wings provide a great way to minimize the possibility of contact with the live contact.

And it's just so pretty!

<comment><USER2> ... and flimsy. I would not trust it.

<comment><USER6> Indeed. The biggest problem is going to be rotary connection for the live and neutral contacts, but the actual housing would be quite solid I'd imagine. Thermoplastic at those dimensions can be extremely durable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One of the best workarounds I've seen. Sometimes full solutions are just not possible (i.e. changing the whole standard plug system in a country).

</comment><comment><USER8> I thought I'd seen this before. A quick search found this:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=670856>

If you're interested in this, you might like to read the discussion there as well. Many points are being re-made.

</comment><comment><USER9> A brilliant design. And a brilliant design presentation.

</comment><comment><USER10> Cool! Would like to know how he made the first prototype

<comment><USER6> Looks like good ol' fashion resin 3D printing or rough form injection molding. Most university ID shops have those facilities now-a-days.

Check out <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing> (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_deposition_modeling> more specifically)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's great because Apple pretty much has to license it, given how much pride they take in their power cord design.

</comment><comment><USER12> That looks very good. I really hope they become commercially available and commonplace.

</comment><comment><USER13> I love this. Having used UK plugs for most of my life I know how cumbersome they can be.

My only concern is that many devices which change voltages such as computer power supplies often have some hefty capacitors in them. Even with the regular plugs I've occasionally got shocked (enough to hurt my fingers) by touching both pins while the device is plugged in.

If people have to rotate the pins in order to use the plug it's possible some devices with capacitors would be less safe to use as there is a risk that the capacitors would empty whenever you tried to rotate the pins.

</comment><comment><USER14> That's really cool.

I find that I can get by with a Euro plug pretty much anywhere except the USA. Southeast Asia, Oz, and other places that standardize on US (or AUS) plugs often also accept the round-pinned EU plug.

Here in the UK, I just keep a teaspoon in my laptop bag for cramming into the ground slot. Thus, opening the other two holes wide enough to jam the EU plug in.

AC adapters on laptops already know how to handle any voltage/frequency combo in the world. It's just a matter of of physically cramming the metal bits into the socket.

</comment><comment><USER15> I love seeing the sequence from design -> prototype.

I agree with some of the other posters though, any time you have a lot of current going through a connection that rotates / moves, you have the potential of reliability problems.

However, I don't think those are insurmountable problems, and good engineering could make this a reality.

One advantage is, if I recall correctly, UK is 220V as opposed to US 110V, so less current will be flowing through those contacts.

<comment><USER3> The UK is traditionally 240V, but I believe it's 230V now, so as to be in line with the rest of the EU.

<comment><USER16> 230V -6% +10%, which is just a fancy standards hack to make all of EU technically 230 without having to change voltage from 240

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> A bit off-topic, but does anybody know how that site is displaying its video? I don't have flash or moonlight installed, so it was a bit of a shock to hear my computer actually playing a video feed. I browsed their HTML source, but I didn't see any object tags, video tags, nor anything else that would obviously play video.

<comment><USER18> The page gave me a "plugin not installed" error (from firefox) for quicktime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I wonder what material they've confirmed they'll be using to ensure that it doesn't just snap and break under the regular wear of plug usage.

</comment><comment><USER20> Idea is good, but it is still workaround for bigger problem.

World needs better designed power plugs

</comment><comment><USER21> I often wonder why plug design is drastically different between North America, Europe, and Asia.

<comment><USER22> There's more to it than that even: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets></comment></comment>


Simple patterns for better arguments about programming languages - <AUTHOR> http://plsadventures.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-patterns-for-better-arguments.html

<comment><USER2> A nice set of guidelines. I'm glad he goes over the difference between a language and an implementation. Remember, kids, languages are not slow or fast, implementations are. However, languages can be easy or difficult to implement such that the implementation is performant.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd love to see a study comparing the time it takes to understand a code base in multiple languages.

I'm pretty sure it's just me given the consensus is against me, but give me an undocumented open source code base written in java/c et al and I can submit good patches within an hour. I can't do the same in ruby/perl with any sort of confidence as there is often magic used. I can write the latter much faster though!

My hypothesis is that the closer you get to math like structures the slower the WPM of understanding. Everyone knows how long it takes to truly understand a math paper - I imagine it's the same phenomena, or perhaps I'm just bad at math :)</comment>


OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 Released - <AUTHOR> https://www.opensuse.org/ <comment><USER2> I've been using openSUSE for a couple of months after having been using Ubuntu / Netrunner Linux and at one point Debian. I really don't think I'll search for any other distro anytime soon. I really enjoy that I can find almost every piece of software I need on their repositories even if I have to enable a custom repository from a user (much like Ubuntu does already). One thing I didn't realize is that it is actually a successor to Slackware, which was my first Linux distro ever back in 2008. I'm just hoping openSUSE Leap turns out to be as stable as it's been so far.</comment>