Ocean waves play greater role in trapping CO2 than previously understood - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2018-05-reveals-ocean-greater-role-carbon.html <comment><USER2> Lest people think "ooh, this is great!" \-- it's not, at least not beyond "having a better understanding of the world is good".

The following might be reasonable (if not necessarily feasible) carbon sinks:

      - Conversion to other materials (plastic, graphite, fuel (sort of))
      - Injection into salt domes

The following are bad carbon sinks:

      - Your lungs
      - The ocean

CO2 dissolving in the ocean produces carbonic acid, and ocean acidification is a huge problem -- it dissolves the shells of a number of creatures, and fucks up the _entire biochemistry_ of the ecosystem. Remember, a lot of bacteria (including ones right at the bottom of the food web) use the ocean water as a sort of communal extracellular medium for nutrient exchange, and pH affects nutrient availability differently for different nutrients. Changing the pH throws everything out of whack, just like making your blood more acidic or basic would hurt or kill you.

<comment><USER3> The sky is not falling.

There are immense quantities of certain creatures in the ocean that take CO2, emit O2, and eventually die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, thus building deep layers of sediments and sequestering enormous amounts of carbon.

They've been doing this for almost 2 billion years: phytoplankton account for about half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth (thereby consuming CO2); 50-85% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis. There have been past periods with at least 10x the current CO2 level, yet all of these oceanic organisms have thrived through it all.

[added] The massive accumulation of dead plankton in sea floors for millions of years is the primary origin story of oil and coal. Clearly oceans are a very large carbon sink.

<comment><USER4> I can't find a link to the it now but in the late 90s/early 00s there was a great research paper that found that we have lost a significant fraction of our phytoplankton biomass, estimated at about 10-20% of the population between 1970 and 1995 due to pollution in the oceans. Our most important oxygen producers are also the most vulnerable to pollution and ocean acidification.

The sky isn't "falling" but combined with all of the other trends we've been seeing, we have no idea just how bad it can get it or if there is a cliff where our economic/political systems begin to rapidly collapse under the pressure of environmental effects. From what I can tell from the last few years of research, our best climate models have been woefully underestimating negative second order effects and since our ecosystems and economies are interdependent there are few to no positives.

<comment><USER3> Actually, calcifying plankton have been increasing 10x in abundance (i.e. _an order of magnitude_ ) in the North Atlantic _over the last 45 years_ , as carbon input into ocean waters has increased. ... "This finding was diametrically opposed to what scientists had expected since coccolithophores make their plates out of calcium carbonate, which is becoming more difficult as the ocean becomes more acidic and pH is reduced." [1]

[1] [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160116215419.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160116215419.htm)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Co2 absorption is likely also enchanced by water/air mixing that exists in uneven shore terrain, like bays/fjords/reefs/underwater rocks/etc which create powerful underwater currents with tides and weather. [https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0485(1989)...](https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0485\(1989\)019%3C0917:VMIBWO%3E2.0.CO;2) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0037073880...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0037073880900068) There is also a biological component: [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/tiny-shrimp-may- be-m...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/tiny-shrimp-may-be-mixing- ocean-water-much-wind-and-waves)

</comment><comment><USER6> Are man made structures that interfere with the crashing of waves are having an effect on atmospheric CO2?

</comment><comment><USER7> Excellent. Global warming>more storms> more waves> more CO2 trapped... hard to make that in to a solution though!

<comment><USER8> The increased acidification isn't excellent, though.

<comment><USER9> More CO2 will be turned into Coral, there's lots of feedback loops here

<comment><USER10> > CO2 will be turned into Coral

No.

<comment><USER3> In actual fact and science, yes, emphatically _yes._ Reef-building corals contain photosynthetic algae; these zooxanthellae are an endosymbiont that depends on and consumes CO2 for the direct benefit of its host. [1]

Up to 90% of the organic material photosynthetically produced by the zooxanthellae is transferred to the host coral tissue. _" This is the driving force behind the growth and productivity of coral reefs."_ [2]

The coral polyps thrive when they have access to nutrients produced by their symbiont algae. These algae thrive when they have access to CO2, H2O, and sunlight. Thus CO2 does turn into coral reefs.

[1] Coral-algae metabolism and diurnal changes in the CO2-carbonate system of bulk sea water (2014) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034600/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034600/)

[2] [https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/cora...](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral02_zooxanthellae.html)

<comment><USER10> Ok, _technically_ yes, but ocean acidity is a far bigger effect, and that's what the GP was confused about.

<comment><USER3> Please stop moving goalposts, and quit denying scientific facts.

1\. As described above, CO2 feeds symbiont algae and thereby drives the growth of coral reefs.

2\. The algae and polyps have been shown to be constantly adapting to variations in local pH levels and water temperature. [1] As one would expect based on a) understanding the theory of evolution; b) observed "bleaching" and re-colonizations of corals for wider, mid- to long-term variations; and c) 20+ million years of corals thriving under a wide range of water temperatures, CO2 levels, and pH levels.

[1] Active modulation of the calcifying fluid carbonate chemistry (δ11B, B/Ca) and seasonally invariant coral calcification at sub-tropical limits (2017) [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14066-9](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14066-9)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Two stories just out of HWU, both related to the uptake of CO2 by the oceans and apparently pointing in opposite directions.

[https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/new-research-reveals- ocean-w...](https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/new-research-reveals-ocean-waves- play.htm)

[https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/invisible-barrier-on- ocean-s...](https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/invisible-barrier-on-ocean- surface-reduces.htm)

</comment><comment><USER12> Tangential: Biosphere 2 had CO2 absorption issues with the concrete of the superstructure. [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_...](http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_walker_e/whatwentwrong.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is just depressing. Just a couple weeks back we saw the article about plastic being found at the botton of the Mariana trench and now this.

</comment><comment><USER14> Peeing from sufficient height also traps CO2. Can anyone confirm?</comment>


What engineers know (1997) - <AUTHOR> http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1997/3/1997_3_20.shtml

<comment><USER2> Does this article say anything about what engineers know?

<comment><AUTHOR> Is that a rhetorical question?

<comment><USER2> Maybe half rhetorical. I skimmed half the article, began to feel annoyed, and decided to ask here if it's worth digging through the article for some interesting observations about what engineers know.</comment></comment></comment>


Food app to find food for $5 or less - <AUTHOR>

Food app to find food for $5 or less > fiveoh.co <comment><AUTHOR> I created this food discover app.. it helps you find local food for $5 or less. Primarily for students and people on budget.</comment>


New Story (YC S15 nonprofit) Crowdfunds Houses for Homeless Families - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/15/yc-backed-new-story-crowdfunds-houses-for-homeless-families/

<comment><USER2> hey guys! would love any feedback, and here to answer any questions you might have.

<comment><USER3> Do you have issues with land property? If you do, how do you solve that?

I have some experience with housing social projects in Brazil. And it was a big problem that the ones with most need for a decent house were exactly the ones with illegal settling. Illegal settling is a danger in itself, because in real life for this families is understood as "temporary settling", as there are no formal guarantees that you stay there 5 years from now. And there is no more overlooked place (in maintenance, decoration, care, government accountabilty) than a temporary home. But, in practice, these poor families stay there for decades.

So the combination of the temporary mindset with permanent stay create horrible places to live. And that excluding the risk that a house built today might actually be taken from you tomorrow. But my deepest point is that even is not taken from you in decades, illegal settling is still a dangerous problem.

How do you deal with that?

Edit: aslafci (who answered this question below as a cofounder) comment is dead. Just FYI. Her answer is:

 _" aslafci 4 minutes ago [dead]

hi soneca, Great and important point that is top of mind as we scale. The homes are built on land that was granted to our nonprofit partner from the Haitian government for this purpose. Families will not only own the physical structures but the land it sits on as well. Alexandria (New Story Co- Founder)"_

<comment><USER4> Hi soneca!

Re: Issue with land property: The Haitian government has issued this land for this purpose (home building). So the families will own the land as well as the physical structures. Our mission is to build as many self sustaining communities around the world and this is something that we are very proud of.

Thanks! \--Matthew (Co-Founder of New Story)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great work - what you are doing is amazing.

It strikes me that you have a very similar model to Watsi (which I am also a massive fan of).

I was wondering if you had any interest in extending your reach to the Pacific Islands. The islands are unfortunately constantly in varying states of disrepair and are regularly exposed to harsh environments, particularly tropical storms.

A recent example was cyclone Pam which resulted in a tremendous amount of devastation to Vanuatu.

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

I currently reside in New Zealand and wondered if there would possibly be any opportunities to work with you guys in any way to achieve such an objective (possibly through collaboration with local networks).

<comment><USER6> Hi Neuro!

Thanks for the kind words! We definitely take inspiration from Watsi and consider the comparison a great compliment!

We don't have plans to extend to the Pacific Islands in the near-term future - but the region is definitely in our sights. We ultimately plan to create self- sustaining communities globally.

If you have any insight on areas of extreme need (like Vanuatu) and/or fantastic local non-profit partners in the area, let's talk! firstname.lastname@example.com

Alexandria (New Story Co-Founder)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> As someone who has been homeless, please let me know if I can help in any way in addition to donations. I don't have much time, but what you're doing is incredible

<comment><USER6> Hi Austen!

Thanks for the kind words. Sharing this story is a great/quick way to help.

We'd love to get your insight - I just emailed you from firstname.lastname@example.com

Alexandria (New Story Co-Founder)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> How does your housing compare with what the Earthship crew brought to Haiti in 2010? [http://earthship.com/haiti](http://earthship.com/haiti)

<comment><USER4> Oh cool! So, our homes are constructed with reinforced concrete and built to US and Miami-Dade county standards.

The really awesome thing is that local Haitians from the community we work in are building the homes - a true boost to the local economy.

Check out the first family we helped move into their new home - newstorycharity.org/maria-rose :)

\-- Matthew (Co-founder of New Story)

<comment><USER8> Not too shabby, thanks for the reply, and keep up the good work.

<comment><USER4> Will do! And if you wanna follow along our journey we'll just be over here twitter.com/newstorycharity

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> (1) For other families that you aren't able to help, how long would it take them to find alternative housing?

(2) What would that situation look like?

<comment><USER6> Hey!

To give some context, all of the families we have funded (and about 80,000 Haitians) have remained homeless SINCE the earthquake in 2010. We cannot say with certainty the length of time it would take to find alternative housing, but their options are clearly scant to non-existent.

The situation for most families = thin tarp tents without access to basic sanitation. The heat is described as unbearable and blinding (literally) by our recipients and other dangers like rape, theft, and disease outbreak are rampant. Our concrete homes = safety, privacy, sanitation, and an environment that supports prosperity. We believe shelter is a human right and a critical component to poverty alleviation efforts.

Alexandria (New Story Co-Founder)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> What plans do you have, if any, to address the growing number of homeless families in the United States?

<comment><USER4> Hi lsiebert!

We're focus on Haiti from now but our mission is to build as many self sustaining communities around the world as we can. One houses at a time. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fantastic name, and congrats on the launch!

<comment><USER4> Thanks Alex! Yea, we love the name too :)

Feel free to check out how you can get involved! newstorycharity.org/birthdays

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Dope.

<comment><USER4> Thanks bra! Check out the first family we helped fund in their new home newstorycharity.org/maria-rose

Each donor gets a video of the EXACT family they helped fund in their new home #transparency

\--Matthew (Co-Founder New Story) newstorycharity.org</comment></comment>


How Apple Almost Got Microsoft's Kinect Game Controller - <AUTHOR> http://www.cultofmac.com/how-apple-almost-got-microsofts-kinect-game-controller/67951 <comment><USER2> Maybe it's just me, but I'm not quite sure I follow how they "almost" got it. Perhaps if they were negotiating numbers and figures and it just fell through -- I could see that; but just because the initial meetings didn't go so well or were hung up on NDAs? I don't get it.

EDIT: It is, however, a cool story to tell...

<comment><USER3> > It is, however, a cool story to tell…

Right. _Microsoft : PrimeSense :: Tartars : Joseph Boyce_

If you're an inventor, it probably doesn't hurt to have a origin myth. And, I'm not quite sure if Apple is therefore the Luftwaffe or the lard...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I had been under the apparently mistaken impression that Microsoft had developed Kinect in house.

Since Microsoft Research has such a strong computer vision team I'm surprised that they needed to go to an outside company for this technology.

<comment><USER5> Based on the Wikipedia entry, Microsoft developed the gesture, voice and facial recognition software which drives the Kinect. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#Technology>

<comment><USER6> But Primesense developed the depth sensor. <http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=h0GvAAAAEBAJ>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm afraid most companies have no idea how much their legal departments, with all of the bullshit they pile on everyday business transactions, cost them.

<comment><USER8> I'm pretty sure the developers have an idea how much is lost.

<comment><USER9> I'm sure most developers have no idea how much money is saved by avoiding lawsuits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What device(s) would Apple even stick the PrimeSense technology in? The 12 watts [1] needed to drive the thing only really makes sense on desktops, and for what - a weird experimental Minority Report style 3D interface?

[1] [http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/kinect-teardown-two- camera...](http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/kinect-teardown-two-cameras-four- microphones-12-watts-of-powe/)

<comment><USER11> Apple TV maybe? Not built-in but as an add-on controller for the device and games/apps?

<comment><USER10> I'm not sure how small they can make the Kinect hardware - I doubt Steve would approve of an add-on more than 6 times the size of the Apple TV.

<comment><USER12> The image on this page looks like it's about a third of the size of the Kinect:

<http://www.primesense.com/?p=487>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'd hardly say Apple "almost" got it based on that anecdote.

</comment><comment><USER5> > _"'Apple is a pain in the ass,' he said, smiling."_

I'm not sure how that becomes "almost," besides, what would Apple do with a game controller?

<comment><USER14> Apple TV comes to my mind...

The Israelis probably did see far more wider uses for this technology, but it seems to me Microsoft just outbid the others and then marketed this only as a game controller. Though, I wouldn't be too surprised if we were to see more uses for this popping up in the next version of Windows or somewhere else.

<comment><USER5> Given how recently it was realeased, it's hard to say that the rumor of Kinect coming to Windows has been kicking around for a while. But it wouldn't surprise anyone at this point: [http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0120/Is- Ki...](http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0120/Is-Kinect- coming-to-Windows)

<comment><USER15> It's not exactly a "rumor", Gates and Ballmer have been talking up its eventual PC use since well before the Kinect's release. [http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/15/bill-gates-natal-for- wind...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/15/bill-gates-natal-for-windows- coming-to-an-office-near-you/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Mythical</comment>


Ask HN: How do I break up with my co-founder? - <AUTHOR>

Here are the details:
- I cannot get a hold of my co-founder. No response to emails or voicemails. This is not out of malice, we've just not been good at communicating.
- We are incorporated in Delaware (50/50 equity split)
- We have no founders agreement
- We have a bank account with a thousand bucks.
- The intellectual property is mine, not the companies, as is the domain. This was out of ignorance about needing to explicitly transfer the IP to the company.
- I intend to move forward with the project/app/product
Can I simply "leave" the company? What are my options?
Best, Ted <comment><USER2> You must talk to a lawyer about this, and you may not like what you find out. Because you didn't set up vesting, both of you will own 50% of the company no matter whether either of you leave. You plan on leaving and starting a new company, so that shouldn't matter. But it might if your cofounder shows up in a year and says that the IP belongs somehow to the company they own half of.

These are the worst kinds of problems: the ones that only matter if you get "lucky" and are "successful", but your success is counterfeited. You want to make sure that can't happen here, or else work on a different project.

</comment><comment><USER3> You need to talk to a lawyer. You might not have had a formal founders agreement, but there may have been some kind of implied or verbal contract between you and your co-founder regarding your intention to share the intellectual property.

Would your co-founder have agreed to start a company with you under the assumption that you'd personally own 100% of the intellectual property forever, no matter how much work they put into developing the product? As you said, your current sole ownership of the IP is accidental.

Since you're incorporated in Delaware, the laws of the State of Delaware would presumably govern the dissolution of the corporation.

So, you really want to talk to a lawyer right now. Don't make assumptions that could lead to your co-founder suing you after you've developed a successful product on your own.

</comment><comment><USER4> 1\. Get in touch with your co-founder. It's just not practical to split up any other way. Time is not critical, if it takes 2 weeks, so be it.

2\. Once you talk, make sure your co-founder agrees with leaving without creating a mess. The 50/50 split is a potential issue here. Technically, you may not have the power to remove your co-founder.

Did you have vesting in place? Did you incorporate with a decent lawyer?

If I understand your train of thought, you are thinking of leaving the company, ignore it and continue working on the idea. If you do so and later become successful, definitely expect a big lawsuit from your old co-founder claiming his share... Not to mention the fact that investors will not like hearing about such a liability. If at all possible, work out something with your co-founder.

</comment><comment><USER5> Talk to an attorney. Maybe even two. A lot of lawyers have specialisations, i.e. litigation, IP, tax, etc. Good firms have all these capabilities in house. Just like software developers, genuine good lawyers are actually hard to find

First, it would probably be a good idea to talk to an IP lawyer, to understand who owns what under the laws of Delaware (and the state your live in). I'm not US based, but I can imagine some states have different laws, with some having precedence over one another. It could be that you inadvertently transferred the IP to the company, by some action or event. Now you know where you're at, which is important if you intend to continue building the product.

Second, and I'm not sure on this, but I would probably talk to a corporate attorney to understand what my options would be. Dissolve the company? Somehow acquire his shares?

Third, try and fix things by just talking things through. This is usually the easiest and quickest way.

Best of luck! :(

</comment><comment><USER6> It will probably cost you more to hire an attorney to solve this issue.

If you aren't that far down the road with the IP, just start over.

Get a new GitHub Repo, Private of course and check in a new iteration of the project there. Give him or her everything you have and say go for it if you want.

Assuming you are the engineer in this relationship you can probably recreate the value you have built in a short period of time. At least you'll know how much time you have currently invested.

That only leaves the matter of the $500 so just get that split after you pay to dissolve the company and reincorporate under your own new company.

</comment><comment><USER7> Hire a process server to deliver a letter to your cofounder. Be polite about - just say that it's important that the two of you talk. Either they should come back and work with you, or the two of you should part ways.

Imagine what might happen if you _don't_ break up, and your company is a success. Your cofounder would sue you for their share.

</comment><comment><USER8> You should find an attorney. They can probably answer your questions in a quick phone call and lay out all your options and what they will cost.

</comment><comment><USER9> [Not very helpful now, but next time remember to add a standard 4 year vesting period with a 1 year cliff.]

By the way, how old is the company?

<comment><AUTHOR> 11 months.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Start writing down everything you can recall about this business (before you forget). Every phone call, every meeting, every conversation, every missed call. Also backup and print out every email and letter.

Take this big heap of stories and evidence with you to an attorney.

</comment><comment><USER11> If you're not good at communicating, it's probably the best way, but a messy one. I'd chat to him first, then get a lawyer if necessary.</comment>


Another Mini ARM C Compiler with JIT Support - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jserv/amacc <comment><USER2> I'm just sort of skimming it, but this looks like it used C4 as a starting point --- it's using C4's parser and stack codegen (which are closely integrated).

We did the same thing for the Jailbreak CTF at Starfighter (we compile to AVR, though, and "ported" it to Go).

If I'm right, the big thing this will be missing (apart from structs, integer types, for loops, arrays, function pointers, &c) is register allocation. C4 compiles to a stack virtual machine, which evaluates somewhat like Java. That's fine for an interpreted runtime, but to run code on an actual ARM, you're going to want to either replace the codegen or (what we did) postprocess it into SSA form and do register allocation.

C4 is a really beautiful piece of code, but I don't think it was intended as a real starting point for compiler development. Everything we did to it to make it work more realistically made me feel like we were ruining it and missing its point.

 _Later:_

Oh, neat, they added struct support! :)

<comment><USER3> Yes, this is C4-style stack-based code generation followed by postprocessing into ARM instructions.

 _Everything we did to it to make it work more realistically made me feel like we were ruining it and missing its point._

On the contrary, I think the parser (and tokeniser) is the most interesting part, as the codegen in C4 was basically "for free" since it generates as it parses. The parser is amazingly simple yet featureful for its size, and that's what makes it a good starting point. It could easily be made to generate AST nodes instead of stack instructions, and then you have the beginnings of a "real" compiler. The simplicity makes it easy to start "hacking on" and extend/modify, because it's straightforward to understand where everything is.

The one idea I have for the parser is to refactor it into being table-driven indexed on the precedence levels, instead of the large switch with lots of very similar code in each case. At a glance it looks like this version can compile itself, and already supports structures, arrays of structures, and maybe function pointers.

In any case it's great to see more little compilers that are so close to "real" ones in functionality.

Edit: yes, it does self-compile. From the Makefile:

        ./amacc amacc.c tests/hello.c

<comment><USER2> It's postprocessing to ARM, but it's using ARM to implement a stack-based runtime, right?

Just to be a little clearer about my concern about the C4 codebase:

C4 isn't just written in its idiosyncratic style in order to be smaller; it's also designed to compile the minimal subset of C required to self-host. For instance, global variables and, in particular, global arrays are there because C4 didn't parse structs.

This compiler is inheriting those design decisions, but has discarded the goal of compiling a minimal subset of C, so its design is a little incoherent. (Ours was too!)

C4 is more like a piece of sculpture than it is a real compiler.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> After digging into the makefile, it would appear that this targets Arm7hf with Linux ABI, correct? Perhaps a note in the Readme is appropriate, just saying "ARM" is 80% information-free.

</comment><comment><USER5> "AMaCC is capable of compiling C source files written in the following syntax" followed by a very brief overview of C syntax. Shouldn't this support the entire C standard?

<comment><USER2> Send a pull request.</comment></comment>


96 tablets under $100 - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&emi=ATVPDKIKX0DER&field-availability=-1&field-price-mp-owner-bin=00000-9999&linkCode=ur2&node=1232597011&pf_rd_i=1232597011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1649708342&pf_rd_r=1FX32BE23KVCF57G5FJA&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-leftnav&pf_rd_t=101&tag=produc05-20

<comment><USER2> I have some really bad experiences with cheap tablets. They often have their own custom power plug (rather than using micro-USB like everybody else), and it's invariably the first thing that breaks.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is anyone else amazed by this? Imagine you told yourself you could buy a fully functional portable computer with a easy to use capacitive touch screen for ~$100 just five years ago? Amazing.

<comment><USER4> Absolutely, I recently looked at Ali Express and nowadays you can even get tablets for < $50. So something like a factor of 10 in 3 years. If this continuous, then tablets will probably become simple impulse buys in another five years. Just as magazines are today. ( I have no idea what that means...)

Amazing times indeed.

<comment><USER5> _I have no idea what that means..._

I do. My wife got _two_ tablets yesterday: an iPad rMini (upgrade from iPad 1, thanks Target for the $200 trade-in), and a Kindle (thanks Amazon for the limited-release offer) for $29. Purpose? about the same as a magazine: light reading, news, advertising. Considering that magazines today run a newsstand price of about $5, yeah we're on a trajectory for selling tablets dirt-cheap as dedicated disposable pre-packaged content viewers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To me, real story is, all 96 tablets less than $50 in China.

</comment><comment><USER7> 96 tablets cheaper than a TI-83.

<comment><USER8> I understand TI wanting to make money and all, but this fact infuriates me to no end.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Seriously considering getting that Lenovo IdeaTab A1000L for $99. Has a front camera too (But no back camera).

</comment><comment><USER9> \- Im thinking of buying these and reselling them for a higher price.</comment>


Slap – A Sublime-like terminal-based text editor - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/slap-editor/slap <comment><USER2> > Issues: [...] Slow on single cores, Raspberry Pi

A text editor that is slow on 1GHz single-core machines. What a time to be alive.

<comment><USER3> Agreed! I wish the sources of CygnusEd (Amiga) were open. Those guys nearly 30 years ago made a graphical text editor which on a 16 bit CPU clocked at 8MHz run circles around most today editors on 32/64 bit CPUs clocked over two orders of magnitude higher.

Do we have to count optimization as a forgotten art, at least among non system developers?

<comment><USER3> This brought memories! There's a video on Youtube showing CED in action... Ladies and gentlemen, this is how a graphical text editor scrolled text 30 years ago on a 8 MHz 16 bit machine!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41oIvre9K0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41oIvre9K0)

<comment><USER4> > 8 MHz 16 bit

... and custom blit and other processors.

<comment><USER5> > on 32/64 bit CPUs clocked over two orders of magnitude higher

... with monster GPUs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Every one of the listed features is also available in Vim. I fail to see how this is either Sublime-like besides the keybindings (since a file pane is available on both Emacs and Vim) or will cause me to leave Vim or Emacs behind. That said, I can definitely see this replacing Nano for some folks.

<comment><USER7> I think the benefit is exactly the keybindings. And the fact that it is non- modal. It works like a text field in a desktop GUI, there is almost no state. You can't mess the state up. Contrast it to vim, where I got into the habbit of bashing ESC three times to be sure I'm not in a mode. Or emacs, which is nice until it's abstractions leak, and you accidentially start editing a configurations pane or something.

I am a part time vim user, and generally like it, but sometimes I find the mental load of the key bindings too high. Anything more complex than d<End>, and I have to stop a moment and think about it. In that time, I can just hit the cursor keys (and Home, PgDn, ...) a couple of times.

It's a trade-off: Do I use a bit of mental power, and save some finger movement? Then I go for the vi way. Or do I use less mental power, and delegate tasks to my fingers and eyes to do autonomically? Then I go for the sublime / notepad / VS way. I might press the arrow key a couple of times, overshoot, go back, ... it may look inefficient, but it's not slower, just a different use of resources.

I've been looking for a Sublime style editor for the terminal for ages. Actually, way before sublime, I've been looking for an edit.com style editor - Nano is one thing, but I want one that respects CUI-like conventions. Shift for selecting, CTRL+C for copy, .... I will definitely check this out.

<comment><USER8> > It's a trade-off: Do I use a bit of mental power, and save some finger > movement?

hammerandtongs already suggested this: it's not a trade-off, you just didn't get to learn Vim appropriately (you say yourself that you're "part time vim user"). Vim is so convenient for its regular users not because it saves them keystrokes, but because it saves them this mental power you talk about. I don't think what commands I want to execute. I think where I want to get in the file or what should the text look like, and then the logic behind the structure of vi/Vim commands takes me there.

It's very similar to proficiency in any other editor, except Vim has so much more to offer with regard to editing (both in first-order commands and in composing the commands). So much more that watching how a proficient Vim user edits a file is akin to observing a stage magician. Most of the people cannot keep up with the changes to the text.

<comment><USER9> >I don't think what commands I want to execute. I think where I want to get in the file or what should the text look like, and then the logic behind the structure of vi/Vim commands takes me there.

this is gibberish unless vim comes with some sort of spinal cord dongle. either it's muscle memory or thinking but you still have to have practiced the keystrokes.

<comment><USER10> Muscle memory is not using some brain power as the GP says. Once you are used to it (2-3 weeks), it feels very natural, I think "Oh I need to change the end of this sentence" and my fingers will take me there. It really is an extension of touch typing.

<comment><USER11> Gee I got to the point of feeling natural after 2-3 months...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> When I am getting friends into the terminal or I don't feel like copying my vim configs to a server I use micro now: [https://micro- editor.github.io/](https://micro-editor.github.io/)

It uses ctrl+s ctrl+c type shortcuts and has mouse support, it really is slick.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is slick but it desperately needs multi cursor support and sadly there has been no progress on that - [https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/issues/5](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/issues/5)

<comment><USER13> [https://github.com/hishamhm/dit](https://github.com/hishamhm/dit)

Hisham's (of htop and gobolinux fame) dit editor seems to have gained such support 4 months ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is this a joke? A command line text editor, written in JS and Node? The sad? "Slow on single cores, Raspberry Pi" How low will the software development world stoop to?

</comment><comment><USER15> The best feature of vim is its ubiquity; I feel at home on almost any computer.

I find myself shying away from anything too specialized that could become a crutch, maybe to my detriment.

<comment><USER16> Same here. That is, until I find out that only vi's there and not full-on vim. While vi is smaller and even more ubiquitous, it pains me that it lacks visual mode.

<comment><USER17> Visual mode is a crutch! I'm used to vi so I never use it. There are faster, more flexible ways of doing anything you'd do in visual mode with plain vi commands.

<comment><USER18> How do you compare two pieces of code side-by-side? I suppose you could create terminals and arrange then how you like but that's not much different than vim. I use gtk emacs with three frames arranged side-by-side on a 40" monitor. Not being able to compare code this way would really slow me down.

<comment><USER17> I use tmux. It works extremely well with vi. It's no problem at all to arrange 3 panes side by side in tmux. You're not even restricted to that, of course. You could be tailing a log file in one of the panes, reading a man page in another, and coding in the middle one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Form GitHub Readme.md:

> slap is based on Github's atom/text-buffer, and as such should be very > performant, even with very large files.

This is cutting irony!

<comment><USER20> Seems like trolling and we got into the trap.

<comment><USER14> Poe's law: Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a [software developer] in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I never really used Sublime, but I find the idea of splitting an editor into frontend and backend to be worth exploring.

Lime does it [https://github.com/limetext/lime](https://github.com/limetext/lime), NeoVim does it.

</comment><comment><USER22> No multi cursors? :(

<comment><USER23> What is the use of multiple cursors? Something that does _not_ boil down to copy-paste programming.

UPDATE: From the answers below, I see that the point is the immediate visual feedback it gives.

<comment><USER24> Find and replace on steroids, meaning the flexibility of moving the cursors around in all instances of a find and making edits near the beginnings and ends of lines, for example.

<comment><USER25> > _Find and replace on steroids_

For people who don't know regular expressions...

<comment><USER26> Or Vim macros.

<comment><USER27> That's a much better analogy. Multiple cursors have the same use cases as macros, they are just performed live instead of saved and replayed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Javascript. Is there anything it can't ruin?

</comment><comment><USER29> I use ne for a terminal-based CUA editor right now, though this slap project looks promising.

        sudo apt install ne

In the past I've used nano with some sane key bindings, but they would often be missing on remote machines. Ten+ years ago I built a turbovision work-alike from setedit.

I'm afraid that the node requirement and lack of Debian repo would rule it out in many situations, like remote editing. Too much work to get it installed on ephemeral boxes. Could someone start a project like this with C and Python plugins? I'd like to contribute.

Guess I'll stick with ne or sshfs and main editor for now.

</comment><comment><USER30> This looks interesting, but the last commit is 5 months ago. Is the project still in active development?

<comment><USER31> Someone else asked the same a month ago, still no answer: [https://github.com/slap-editor/slap/issues/393](https://github.com/slap- editor/slap/issues/393)

<comment><USER32> the author did confirm it's a question, so that clears that up

<comment><USER33> It's mit so if it's good roll with it

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> This looks like an excellent addition to the family of terminal-based editors. Truly looking forward to trying it out at work.

</comment><comment><USER35> Another terminal editor that's similar: [https://github.com/rgburke/wed](https://github.com/rgburke/wed)</comment>


Troubling examples of 'pseudoscience' at the Cleveland Clinic - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/01/11/doctor-questions-the-pseudoscience-of-the-cleveland-clinic/ <comment><AUTHOR> "The Cleveland Clinic also offers "Energy Medicine" therapy, described as "practices [that] are based on the premise that by promoting balance and flow in the body's electromagnetic and subtle energies, health and well-being are improved." Among the conditions this supposedly treats, the hospital lists multiple sclerosis and hormone imbalances. Similarly, its Center for Integrative Medicine touts the benefits of reiki, a "hands-on natural healing" technique that redirects "universal life force energy." According to the Cleveland Clinic, those benefits include enhancing the immune system and improved tissue healing, and its practitioners treat patients with cancer, Parkinson's disease and other serious illnesses.

....I am all too aware of how frightening, exhausting, stressful and dispiriting illness and hospitalization can be. I am broadly in favor of hospitals offering a wide range of psychological, emotional and spiritual supports. Though I do not subscribe to it myself, if reiki helps patients cope with being sick, I'm not categorically opposed to it, any more than I would be opposed to a visit from a chaplain or counselor.

But it crosses an extremely important, bright line to call that kind of service "medicine," or to ascribe a set of therapeutic benefits to it. Describing the manipulation of energy fields as a kind of treatment moves from evidence-based medicine into the realm of faith healing."

</comment><comment><USER2> Cleveland Clinic is also one of several institutions that jumped at the chance to form a strategic alliance with Theranos:

[http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2016/05/clevela...](http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2016/05/cleveland_clinic_mum_on_details_of_alliance_with_embattled_blood- testing_company_theranos_photos.html)</comment>


Radar reveals two moons orbiting asteroid Florence - <AUTHOR> https://astronomynow.com/2017/09/05/radar-reveals-two-moons-orbiting-asteroid-florence/ <comment><USER2> Is the 'light' reflecting off the asteroid emitted from the sun? I had never seen or even knew radar could distinguish value like what is shown here.

I suppose terrestrial radar looks at much smaller objects and what it sees is emitted from the tower and bounced back in a straight line so that sort of makes sense.

More info on the observatory: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Solar_System_Radar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Solar_System_Radar)

<comment><USER3> > Is the 'light' reflecting off the asteroid emitted from the sun? I had never > seen or even knew radar could distinguish value like what is shown here.

Yes it's emitted from the sun, it's clear given that the time-lapse shows "Inner moon eclipsed" when passing behind the site of the asteroid that is not lit.

<comment><USER4> I was always under the assumption that with Radar images that it didn't rely on a light source as technically the radar is the source. So that the impression that there is a light an dark side was based purely on the motion towards and away from the receiver.

But, you have pointed out something interesting and that would appear to indicate other wise. The clear rotation independent of source already shows that I am wrong on that.

Apparently I don't understand this very well.

<comment><USER5> This thread is very confused.

There are two things: the radar images are created with radio waves emitted by the radar installation. The second thing is that the visualisation shows a light source. They are unrelated to each other. I assume that the light source was added during rendering of the film and that it approximates the sun.

<comment><USER6> I don't think the visualisation shows any light source. The radar reflection from the asteroid just looks like it is "lit up"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> How about we have satellites orbiting asteroids for a piggy back ride and then getting off the orbit when they are near a point of interest? My guess is the gravity would be too feeble.

<comment><USER8> You would need to first match the asteroid's velocity, and by then you do not really need the asteroid. But something very similar to your idea is used constantly for interplanetary travel - gravity assist which uses other bodies' gravity to accelerate and change direction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> How do the orbits of the moons, and the asteroid's axis of rotation match up to the ecliptic? Do both moons orbit in the same direction? How eccentric are the orbits of the moons?

What's the going theory on how such a small body can capture moons? It must not be too difficult, otherwise 3122 Florence wouldn't be the 3rd triplet spotted.

</comment><comment><USER10> What's the surface gravity? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3122_Florence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3122_Florence)

Mass isn't given, but could estimate from volume, and typical asteroid density?

<comment><USER11> A quick wolfram alpha suggests about 0.002 ms^-2, i.e. about 1/500 Earth gravity.

<comment><USER12> 9.8 / 0.002 = 4900, so was that about 1/5000 Earth gravity?

<comment><USER11> Yes, sorry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Imagine hijacking a 100-meter moon made of rare earth metals like gold, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, etc. etc. More than enough to under write the mission and pay for a moon base.

<comment><USER14> If we go grab a moon sized ball of gold, gold will lose most of its value. It'll be the next Aluminium.

<comment><USER15> That much gold would still be worth it for electronic and spaceflight applications. Gold's like a better copper or silver there. And let's not forget the most important application, stereo plug connectors.

For platinum or iridium, making it cheaper there would enable all sorts of catalytic chemical processes that are prohibitively expensive now. If abundant enough, new demand will keep the bottom of the market from falling out.

<comment><USER16> They actually just plate connectors typically, I think with around 7µm of gold. And no, gold is not a better copper or silver. Both silver and copper are more conductive than gold (then followed by aluminum).

Gold is excellent for contact points though as it does not tarnish.

Silver conducts heat and electricity the best of the three, but tarnishes the most easily, so it can have issues with high frequency signals as most of the signal travels on the outer surface.

If both silver and copper were the same price as copper, it'd probably be silver that would see the most increase in use in electrical applications. During the Manhattan project, there was a shortage of copper and cost was not an option. 430 million troy ounces of silver from the West Point Bullion Depository was melted down and used to make magnetic coils. At the end of the project, it was all returned, minus 120 oz.

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

<comment><USER15> The stereo plug thing was a joke, but thanks for educating me on the Calutron. Very cool.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Project Lovelace–Learn science and programming through problem solving - <AUTHOR> https://projectlovelace.net/ <comment><USER2> While I like the idea of this site, I think it is good to understand how it is fundamentally flawed.

I do training. And most outside of training don't stop to think about how there are a variety of approaches to training, and a variety of topics, and not every topic aligns well with every approach. And choosing the wrong approach has some very bad consequences - harder learning, poor learning, and less joy in the learner.

I read the first problem - rocket physics - and it does a disservice to both physics and programming. Personally, rocket physics is where I would probably take a historical approach to teaching - what did we learn, how did we learn it - embedded in failure and success stories. And there were software failures there too. But I understand that this site isn't trying to teach those things. It is taking it's one hammer (problem based teaching) and applying it to a bunch of nails.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for taking a look! We're definitely not experts so we appreciate critical feedback!

I agree Project Lovelace basically tries to do one thing (problem based teaching) without much regard as to what scientific topics would be appropriate for the website. Problem suitability is not something I've thought hard about, I guess we just tried to aim for variety and "rocket science" seemed like a fun way to introduce the rocket equation and how code submission works. But it doesn't really teach you anything about rocket science or how to program. It may actually leave you with misconceptions and bad programming practises as you point out.

Maybe sticking to purely computational science topics might be better, e.g. solving an ordinary differential equation for the trajectory of a projectile, as it would neccessarilly require scientific code to be written and tested which is what the website does. Do you think this will better align with the approach Project Lovelace takes? Or is it more than just the choice of topic/subjects to cover?

The motivation for building the website stemmed from our perceived lack of resources for learning scientific computing, or really how to solve science problems on a computer which forms a large chunk of scientific research. Learning how to simulate the weather is an example we had in mind. We thought a Project Euler approach might actually help a lot since we're big fans, at which point we thought maybe it could be of general interest and started thinking of easier and more varied problems to put up. This may have been a mistake.

While the website is purely recreational right now, we may try to integrate it into a science course in the near future at which point it will be critical to address the fundamental flaw you pointed out. Project Lovelace will always be free and open-source though.

<comment><USER2> I have only respect for your idea and approach. The tricky part is figuring out where and how to apply it.

I think of the time I spent coding "lunar lander" and how I then read a physicist's description about the algorithms that I had implemented. I discovered that all the code I had created was really garbage - it was simplified to the point of fiction compared to anything in the real world. So there is an opportunity cost - what could I have been coding that would have been both instructive as code and for the problem domain too? There are lots and lots of good answers, and probably even more bad answers.

First we would have to ask what we want to accomplish from the code perspective as well as from a science perspective. My own personal preference is for mechanics and dynamics - perhaps in a 3D context (so matrix algebra would get involved.) This can be related to real-world things (building failures, game design, etc.) Also both coding and science principles are fairly well understood in that domain (well, it would be relatively easy to explain many of the mechanics issues - such as Feynman did in his well known books. And then there are the recent model failures due to poorly understood energy storage discovered for energy in structures during earthquakes. No models really exist to describe that yet.) And other science areas would certainly work. I don't know "weather", but I'm sure that there are some edge cases where simplified models are meaningful and insightful.

The reality is that it is very difficult to create good Training. And if you are trying to do two things at once - teach coding and physics - it is even harder. That is why there are usually prerequisites, so that coding can be taught, and then physics taught. I truly wish you only the best.

<comment><USER3> Thanks again for your feedback!

Trying to teach both science and programming is definitely very difficult due to the number of prerequisites required, so we'll try to figure out exactly who might benefit from out website. I suspect we'll end up more on the programming side of things as you write and submit code, while the best way to learn science (in my opinion) is to actually wrap your head around the concepts and go through the derivations (+ read up and understand the experiments).

Classical mechanics is not something I've thought of much with linear algebra, I'm still stuck in Lagrangians and Hamiltonians with differential equations but 3D mechanics with matrices would be a good problem to think about.

Some simple models do exist for atmospheric science, e.g. for describing frontogenesis, but it usually boils down to differential equations. There are plenty of simple climate models (usually described as energy balance models) that are simple to describe and solve.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Freelance or job? - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.com/0NynWRCw <comment><USER6> I'd recommend shooting for freelancing income which doesn't just match your burn rate but comfortable exceeds your day job salary (as a start -- it should go up quite a bit from there), as otherwise you're doomed to a hand-to-mouth existence. 3 weeks without a paycheck isn't exceptional in freelancing, at all. If you want to do it full time, get used to that happening _a lot_. The risk of it has to be built into your weekly rates.

Also, your projection that you will have 1.8X your monthly expenses in March is a _projection_ \-- in the real world of freelancing, you're going to have things like "client flaked on the project; two weeks which I had assumed sold are now empty", "client refuses to pay $10,000 invoice", "I had to pay $3,000 out of my pocket for professional liability insurance to secure the next gig", etc etc. And if you think that level of cash flow juggling is fun, wait until you have employees!

You should, as soon as reasonably practical, stop sourcing gigs from oDesk/elance/etc and start sourcing them from clients who pay professional wages for professional work.

<comment><USER7> By the way, how would you go about getting work from real clients? I can easily get work on elance but I find it hard to make the switch to "real" clients.

I'm a generalist, should I find some sort of niche? Or should I raise my rates to attract better clients?

<comment><USER8> Have some skill where you can do X and it will cause money to happen for the client.

Use existing knowledge of some narrowly specific type of business to give you intimate knowledge of the unique concerns those people have, how they talk about it, and what boundary conditions are going to affect which solutions do and don't fit well (e.g. gourmet pizza joints near college campuses, or heritage language schools to steal a previous patio11 example).

If you don't have that sort of knowledge already, talk to people until you do. If you do have that sort of knowledge already, keep talking to people anyway because you still have plenty more to learn.

Use knowledge of this specific customer to find, approach, and pitch clients who are a good match for your target customer. If you don't know how to find them, you don't know them yet.

Then, pitch them:

"You can have me do X which will cause money to happen for you."

"I'm aware that you have concern_a and concern_b, which I will handle using specific_approach, whereas generic_person_235089 doesn't even have a clue about these important_issues."

LISTEN to what they say, then use it to refine your ability to select potential clients and to improve your future pitches. Easy, easy, easy hack: remember the words they use to describe things and use EXACTLY those words when pitching them.

Run 10 pitches, review, repeat with another 10 target customers. Make money.

Then, go read tptacek's guide to scaling your practice:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615)

P.S. It's okay to be a generalist on the back end. It's not okay to be a generalist when you pitch. Address a clear, specific problem for a clear, specific target customer using clear, specific language which shows sensitivity to the issues as THEY see it and talk about it.

98% of people pitch by talking about things that are really their problems, not the client's problems. Actually, saying 2% of people clear that bar is probably being too generous. If you aren't sure, a good trick is to ONLY use language that you've heard come out of a customer's mouth.

<comment><USER9> where do you find these people to talk to? any specific location/meetups? i would think that the enterprise clients that can pay for such professional services don't tend to go to language/startup meetups.

<comment><USER8> For my particular geographical location, tech meetups are pretty much a wash. Also I usually prefer to target non-tech clients which will care about results vs. wanting to debate choice of database.

Also, meetups are mainly good for random socialization and free beer. Sometimes networking, but often only incidentally. You need to get way more targeted than "tech people in my area who also want socialization and free beer." Scrounging at meetups is the last resort of people who don't know who their customer is yet.

Being able to _find_ your customer is one of the first things you have to learn about them. And to start out, go about it like you would trying to find any other thing - just, be a lot more determined and creative about it than you would trying to find a local pizza joint to order from.

Say you want to land a heritage language school as a client. Where can you find these people? Where can you find _their_ clients - who might be happy to talk to you at length about which schools in the area are best for people who are concerned about heritage language education?

* Get on Google, Google Maps, Yelp and search for heritage language schools my_city.

* Check forums and trade publications relevant to heritage language schools. If you don't know them, find out while you're learning the other stuff.

* Track down bloggers who write about heritage language education, see if they mention any specific schools / issues, research those. Connect with any users you find in e.g. comments, guest bloggers, etc.

* Guess that many people who are customers of heritage language schools are second or third generation immigrants. Where else can you find these people? Are there churches, community centers, or local shopping resources that also target them?

Find your customers - by way of their customers or competitors if necessary. All of the above probably have something useful to teach you about making your business succeed.

<comment><USER10> How do you recommend finding a niche like "heritage language schools"?

<comment><USER8> Try a few and see which people you enjoy working with.

You also want people who will (1) be happy paying you real money if you can reliably produce value, and (2) be more or less content to let you be the expert as long as you're on the ball about producing value and communicating effectively.

You do NOT want cases where people will complain that $20/mo is too expensive, or that a $3 business app doesn't have enough features.

Once you pick an area or two that you have interest in, your first steps should be trying to track down and connect with people. Can you do that? If not, it's probably a bad domain for you. Then, customer development interviews. Learn about them before you work with them.

Existing domain experience from previous stuff you've done in your career is a good starting point. Never worked around real estate agents but have intimate knowledge of how to sell construction companies? That should tell you something about where to look first.

It's a matter of applying conditional probabilities, really. Want to work with barber shops but find that's too general? Okay, what about hipster barber shop owners in their early 30s with a master's degree in English Lit? Now it's suddenly way too specific. Somewhere between the two, you become the ONE person in the city who is right for THEM.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I figured out freelancing somewhat organically, around the end of my first year of college, while getting a haircut. The guy giving me the haircut turned out to be the store owner, and we talked for a bit about how you can host your business phone in the cloud. A couple days later I had a simple Java applet making API calls to Twilio (it was my first year of college, I didn't know better ways to do it back then). He loved it - he could set it to remind his repeat customers to come in for a haircut at the frequency of their choosing.

My favorite thing about that project is how simple it was and how little time it took. For a shitty Java UI that improved his ability to do business, I got a couple hundred bucks and free haircuts for life.

After that, whenever I walked into a pizza place or burrito place or whatever, I asked the store owner if there's any way I can help them improve their efficiency or web presence. In my head it felt like I'd get a resounding "fuck off" from all of them, but in reality small business owners are wonderful people who love talking about how to improve their business. Small business owners who are hostile towards random people asking them stuff usually don't stay in business for very long.

By the end of college, there were three places I could go to get a free pizza, and I hadn't paid for a haircut in three years. By the way, one of those pizza store owners had a cousin who worked in a small private lending company. I set up a Python library for him to scrape data from this ancient silo of data and graph it - that was the first job that paid really well.

The key is to realize that being a good designer and engineer is like being a superhero in today's world. You do something that nobody else can - <USER2> advantage of it while it's still relatively rare.

<comment><USER12> That's a great story, I'm on the same steps right now with my own business.

I'm curious about what you are doing right now, I'd appreciate an update.

<comment><USER11> Did two startups, sold the first and burned the second to the ground (metaphorically, of course). Currently working on a new product with a friend from high school, also running an education organization for teaching kids about technology on the side.

One other thing I should have mentioned is how consulting for small businesses gives you a unique perspective as to their needs and abilities, and makes you much more effective at meeting them if they are your target market. So if anything, do it for the insight, because most of them aren't going to pay you a lot of money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The preferred method for reducing freelance workload is to raise your rate. Keep raising it until just the good clients are left. When workload starts increasing again, raise your rates again.

Keep the job until you're billing at 3-4 times your salary, and routinely outpacing your paycheck with what you bring in on nights and weekends.

And stop calling yourself a freelancer. That'll double your bill rate in one step.

<comment><USER14> Yes. Consultant is the term for that :)

<comment><USER15> How can you get "consultant" jobs?

Before emigrating, it was somehow easy to find those kind of jobs through my network. But after moving to another country I haven't found those kind of jobs anymore. Any tips?

<comment><USER16> You just said it—"through my network."

Those jobs come because your network does the business development networking for you. Build that again, and the jobs will come. It's hard to start out, when you're so worried about getting enough that you keep yourself busy. But take a coffee appt whenever you can, give free advice if it doesn't cost you more than the time you'd spend on lunch anyway. I can't tell you how many clients I've worked with because I was referred by somebody I helped out at a coworking spot over a water cooler conversation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Stay with your job for one year more and be more selective in freelancing. In the meanwhile just 2 kinds of jobs:

\- The ones that can improve your knowledge / portfolio

\- The ones that pay VERY well.

In this case you will increase your freelance experience and have enough time to decide what to do.

<comment><USER18> That's a very good two-piece advice. I would add this: \- The ones that use technologies you enjoy working with.

<comment><USER19> Unless you really need it, you should be only doing/working on technologies you enjoy to start with...

<comment><USER20> Tastes can change though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> From curiosity: What did you change in your profile to get flooded with work?

<comment><USER22> This is the key to the whole post in my eyes. At first you get one gig, then can't get any gigs, and then get flooded with work after making one change. It seems that the change might have been a significant event.

Based on the dates given, the calendar might also be somewhat responsible. The first couple weeks of the year are not very active in the hiring market.

<comment><USER23> I'm with you here. I reread the entire post to see what I might've missed and it's bugging me that I don't know his magic sauce.

<comment><USER24> I read this post 3 times and I feel the same way. I have too many questions now but until this guy/girl is on here answering us, I am not wasting my time and energy on this. haha :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I have two words (statements) of advice for you:

1) Don't quit your job unless you have 6 months worth of living costs in savings.

2) When you're about to quit (depending on your job), you can talk to your boss about "potential new prospects" and "exploring the next steps in your career" \- if he is a sensible, long-term thinking and ego-less person, and you're a good, valuable worker, he would probably want to keep on good terms with you, and the doors of this company might stay open for you even if, after 6 months or so, your alternative career plan does not work out.

<comment><USER26> I think 6 months is unnecessarily careful. Obviously that depends on where you live but it takes like something like 3-4 weeks for a competent developer to find a decent job? And in the worst case scenario, you would get paid like, about a month after you started as an employee. If your savings + available credit is equal or greater than 2 months of living costs, you can safely quit your job.

<comment><USER27> Personally I think 6 months is not enough. I've been massively in debt, lived hand to mouth, and that changes your view of 'careful'. At least, it changed mine.

Could I go get a job and start getting paid in < 6 months. Likely, but it might not be good - just, survivable. Suddenly I'm back to check-to-check living, and that cushion slowly erodes. You're now 'check to check' vs "check plus saving".

I realize that for the vast majority of people in this country, and the world, having years (or even months) of living expenses saved up is not even fathomable. I've been there - I do get it. Once you start getting to the "1 month" of savings milestone, then 2 months, etc - you start to realize how little that actually is, and how precarious/fragile your state is. At least, that's how it is for me, and at least a few other people I know - <USER3> attitude towards money/savings/safety can change a lot quickly.

This all depends on your constitution, your age, obligations, family, etc, but "6 months" can go by far quicker than you'd anticipate. Also, the other notion of "6 months of expenses" generally doesn't take in to account extra job hunting expenses - travel or relocation, for starters. Or higher insurance costs if your employer was covering part of it before, etc.

<comment><USER26> While I totally agree that you should try to save up as much as you can, playing it too safe will inhibit your professional growth.

When I decided to get into freelancing, five days after giving my employer notice I had a 12 months consulting contract lined up paying a _lot_ more money for a lot less (but much more interesting) work. If I was worrying too much about financial runways, I'd probably still be at my old job, "playing it safe".

<comment><USER27> Most people I've known who've gone in to full time freelancing have not been as lucky as you within days of quitting their job. Most had _something_ lined up - as in a paying client with at least one project for a few weeks or couple months - not 12 months guaranteed at higher pay for less effort. Again, of the people I've known, they generally had to work to build that up over time - usually most didn't hit that "higher pay than corp job" until between 6 and 18 months. huge sample size? No, but it's not just my experience. :)

While you had great serendipity (congrats!), but not everyone can consider doing that if they've got obligations. In the US at least, the 'insurance tied to employers' is a massive problem, and inhibits most of the people I know from switching jobs too much, let alone quitting to freelance. Single people, young people without health issues or too much debt - sure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> > But the three week (zero-work) period was a scary phase.

That _is_ freelancing, more-or-less. It's one reason you can get so much more than being an employee - you cover taxes, insurance (including professional indemnity), pension plan, sickness, times "on the bench", etc. Doesn't suit everyone. I always live well within my means and keep as much money in the bank as possible. That will cover me for a few months if I lose my current big contract.

Like everyone else here, I would be interested in what you are doing right on Elance.

<comment><USER29> Adam Smith's discussions of labor wages include a discussion of the regularity of work, and skills. See _Wealth of Nations_ , book 1, chapter 8. Online at Project Gutenberg.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> It's called an emergency fund for a reason - as a freelancer / consultant you should be putting away even more than the average worker because your income may swing like that.

For you, I would keep 6 months of living expenses in a savings account that is difficult to get to (I keep mine in a local credit union and don't have a debit card for it so I have to physically go in to withdraw which helps curb impulsive purchasing).

Definitely go the contractor route - it is better pay. Also realize, though, that it's about more than just your programming skills. As a contractor people will pay you well to _solve problems_. Keep your skills fresh even if it means a little extra effort and some mistakes, you will be better off in the end (I am).

</comment><comment><USER31> Is there really much difference between freelancing and a job? In both cases you need (should) be building your personal brand and networking with people. I have bounced between jobs and freelancing. I see them all as my clients. The only difference is in how taxes are done and expectations.

Maybe tell your employer that you are taking other projects and offer to stay on to do certain projects as a contractor, but at your freelance rate.

There are a ton of threads on Hacker News on freelancing. I suggest you do some heavy searching. There are some real gems.

Edit: The great thing about freelancing is that you can always fall back to regular employment. As your pool of contacts gets deeper, you begin to feel like you could never really be without work.

<comment><USER32> "Is there really much difference between freelancing and a job?"

Yes. I had many jobs and now freelance. For me, freelance is a business. A job is a job. Your employer expects you to be working 9-5 (regular hours) and they can pretty much dictate when I have to have meetings and many other things.

As a freelancer, I decide when it's convenient for me to hav e a meeting for instance. My clients don't really have any power over me because they understand that we are both businesses.

<comment><USER31> > Yes. I had many jobs and now freelance. For me, freelance is a business. A > job is a job. Your employer expects you to be working 9-5 (regular hours) > and they can pretty much dictate when I have to have meetings and many other > things.

> As a freelancer, I decide when it's convenient for me to hav e a meeting for > instance. My clients don't really have any power over me because they > understand that we are both businesses.

Right, that's expectations. You set expectations when you start, job or freelancing. If you work full time, you set that expectation. If it's part time, that's a different expectation. You might even work part time from home and part time from the office. Maybe all that matters is that you are getting projects done in a certain time-frame.

It also depends on the model you are working. In some cases I might be on a model where you have a daily or weekly rate. If I'm doing that, then my time belongs to the client for that period. If the client wants me to be in a meeting at X time, no problem.

I also generally give the client a period of time on which I will be working on the project and available to talk. Generally I try to adapt to what's good for the client rather than what's convenient for me. As a full time freelancer, there is no convenience for me. If I'm on my working hours, I'm usually available to someone.

There are times where I like to be working without distractions, but availability goes both ways. If I need to ask questions then I want an understanding of when I'm available and when the client is available.

Everyone who is employed full time should be treating themselves as a business. You should be marketing yourself, always. You should be building networks, always. You should strategize for the future, always.

I'm always tweaking and trying out different things though. Everyone has their own way. Mine certainly isn't the best. It's just another way. I'm still (and always) in training.

<comment><USER33> In running your own freelancing/consulting business full time, I think you can't be expected to be available to clients full time. You need to leave time to do other essential work such as sales, marketing, accounting, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> To me, your question is about the feast or famine side of freelancing and consulting. The key is to hedge the famine side and sell existing clients retainers. patio11 and Brennan Dunn do a great job of explaining this in a ton of their newsletters and also in their soon to be released recordings here: [http://recurringrevenueforconsultants.com/](http://recurringrevenueforconsultants.com/)

<comment><USER35> The one thing I like so much about Brennan's writing is the focus on win-win and quality, professional attributes I was very fond of already but "Double Your Freelancing Rate" helped me tremendously to actually implement the measures needed and to internalize what it means to become the consulter I wanted to become - so I guess I second those recommendations :)

Next goal, recurring revenue!

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> When I was a wee-toddler, I would freelance in the afternoons and nights. I used the regular job for living expenses and banked my freelance money until it was enough to make the switch. It gave me a big comfortable cushion.

I started small and all jobs were delivered before deadline and the execution is what set me apart from the rest of the competition. Work with less people and really deliver. Once you do that, existing clients will up their spend with you and refer you to other clients. Good work spreads fast.

Once you get a lot of clients, then it is time to hire someone. For me, I hired someone with little experience and trained them from the ground up. My ratio was roughly 10-12 clients per employee.

Small jobs are good when you are starting but they can also generate a lot of noise. Your time and expertise is very valuable. Price it accordingly.

If someone is trying to nickle and dime you walk away. That will most likely to be a customer who is never satisfied and will continually ask you to do things that was not in the scope of work for free or fight you when its time to pay up.

Good luck! :-)

</comment><comment><USER37> There are a lot of premium / hybrid solutions out there which may offer you the balance and higher price points you're looking for. Toptal (a16z) does temporary placements and is one such hybrid model.

There's also gun.io (actually, think they pivoted slightly), ooomf, hackerlist.net, 10x, etc.

Disclaimer: I am a founder @ Hackerlist.

Having run and advised consultancies for a while, and having been an employed engineer, I'm happy to discuss the tradeoffs of each in detail, assuming there's interest. In terms of getting clients, I do think it helps working with another organization to increase your intake, even (especially) if you run a small consultancy/agency.

Alternatively, happy to answer questions or help make intros around SF if people prefer personal interactions <firstname.lastname@example.com>

</comment><comment><USER38> So, here's what I did when I dumped a (well paid) full-time job in order to start my own company/freelance full-time:

* Took advice from people already doing it

* Looked really hard at my living costs, savings, etc, and figured out that, probably, I could survive for 6 months or more without an income

* Made sure I had some work (a bit of repeat work, and some other projects) lined up.

* Spoke to as many other people as I could (I'm lucky, I have a solicitor and accounts in the family, as well as someone who started a company which now employee >5 people)

Talking to my wife about finances and stuff was a big deal, as she had just decided to go part-time in order to study. But we did the sums, and realised it would have to go really badly, and really we had enough of a cusion that I could find a paid position if it didn't work out.

Here I am, 18 months later, still paying the bills, still with enough money to live comfortably, and still working freelance. There are times when I'm scared stiff about money (I don't think this will go away) and other times when I'm working 10+hours 7 days a week, for a month or two at a time. I had a death in the family this month, which knocked me off schedule, and had more of an impact that I'd like to admit on my productivity, but I communicated with clients that, unfortunately, their projects were going to be pushed back, and it's been ok. Even when my second project was 2 months late, nobody complained. The client was paying a fixed-cost, so they essentially got two months free.

If you're going to do work fixed cost, do not be afraid to hold your ground when you quote for it. I sometimes even quote a little high because I know I'm really rubbish at doing estimates, and it hasn't got better in time. You know other people are going to be late with key information and decisions, and there will be somethings that you miss when you first quote, but keep communicating with your clients and alert them early when things don't go to plan, and most people will be fine - and the rest you probably don't want to work with anyway.

</comment><comment><USER39> > Then, something happened after I changed my profile. Since Jan 30th I have > been flooded with work.

I'm very interested to know what is this change? I've just checked your elance profile, but I couldn't know what is it.

</comment><comment><USER40> One very important thing not mentioned is what technology the OP freelances in. Mobile is hot and will have you working immediately ( _email me for iOS work_ ), and PHP will take some weeks before you get a good contract that is not tweaking templates.

</comment><comment><USER41> There's been a lot of great advice so far but I think making the jump really depends on where you are in life and where you'd like to be. Are you married or single? Do you have a family you need to support? Do you have a mortgage or other loans? Can you afford your own health insurance? Can you continue to work in your current location and maintain a healthy and sustainable lifestyle? Can you start investing more in yourself and freelance (savings, 401k, IRA, continuing education, travel, etc)?

I made a similar jump two years ago and found oDesk/Elance/etc to be fairly sustainable source of income/jobs once you've demonstrable experience (either through their platform, your blog, github, referrals, etc). While not necessarily a rule I found the higher rate (should be proportional to your experience on oDesk, etc) tends to match up with the more fulfilling gigs and interesting clients using those platforms.

While I agree with Patrick that you should stop sourcing gigs from oDesk/elance/etc you should also establish yourself and feel fairly comfortable running a consulting/freelance business before taking on 'professional clients'.

</comment><comment><USER42> If you can get hired when taking into account the risk of having 3 weeks of no work, then you should take the freelancing role.

So look at the ratio of time you spent without work so far, to the amount of work you have on the books now.

Build in a bit of a "factor of safety" (I work on the basis that I can keep myself billable about 60% of the time, but you might choose less or more).

If the rate your charging is sufficient that you can work only 60% of the time (or whatever you choose) and still make better money than your current job (or that the money isn't better but there is some other advantage like flexible living arrangements that may allow you a cost saving by being able to, for example, relocate to a cheaper location) then go for it.

Just factor the risk into your hourly rate, and see if it works out. Of course your "risk assessment" may be completely inaccurate, which I guess is the real risk ;)

</comment><comment><USER43> Hire an intern and live every work-free day like a vacation.

</comment><comment><USER44> It depends on your situation. Personally, I wouldn't give a bird in the hand for two in the bush.

Do you have a family, loans?

Do you have at least 6 months worth of living expenses?

Can you quickly find a job if things don't go as expected with your freelancing jobs?

You should consider these things first.

<comment><USER45> All valid points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> The usual rule of thumb is that your freelancing rate should be double your salary. Freelancers have to take on considerably more risk than employees. Double your salary rate probably gets you about the same salary in the end.

</comment><comment><USER47> My intuition is that 1.8 times your salary as a freelancer is not enough to cover your expenses as one and retain the same lifestyle. On the surface it is more money, but you're stuck paying your own benefits (health insurance is the big one), and expenses (such as computers, phone, electricity, etc..), and taxes (I use this formula ((Income-expenses)*40%) = how much I need to give the US government.

As an aside, if you're too busy, you may consider raising your freelance rates now as a way to generate more income w/ less work.

<comment><USER48> > you're stuck paying your own benefits (health insurance is the big one)

Eh, do.

> expenses (such as computers, phone, electricity, etc..)

A new computer every couple of years is negligible.

> taxes

Not sure why this would be any different. Were you not paying taxes when you were employed?

<comment><USER47> It is very different having taxes automatically taken out of your paycheck and having to remember to pay them automatically on a quarterly basis.

Most people don't realize how big of a chunk gets taken out. And as was mentioned, as a self employed individual you also pay the "employer's" piece of Social Security which is an extra 7.5%.

If you're incorporated there may be taxes related to that. I pay a yearly fee for the privilege of doing business in Connecticut.

I also must file a yearly annual report with the state; which comes with a processing fee.

I also pay property taxes on business property, such as computers and desks and chairs. My accountant has me list all of these.

Many people go into sticker shock when I tell them to put aside 40% of their income to pay taxes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everybody for such an amazing response and suggestions.

Few people asked what I changed that caused this sudden change in incoming leads.

I do not know what exactly worked - but here are few things I changed.

1\. It may be the calendar - but my intuition says its not just that.

2\. Made my profile more keyword specific instead of lots of text. Uploaded a picture. I also researched a lot on other successful Elance profiles. There were two categories there a) Sounds cool to other freelancers, developers - <USER5> switched from this to the one below: b) Well formatted, keyword rich (for humans too) and shows up better in search results and shows up important stuff in the shorter profile views.

3\. Removed the hourly rate from my profile. I did not charge much lower later either. But I figured out that fighting for that $1 extra is not worth if I am going to lose a lead and spend more time looking for other work. I think 49 < 50 should be represented as 49 <<<<< 50 (These are not my actual hourly rates). This may have been a biggest problem in getting invites.

4\. Changed my profile such that it is more focused to what I want to do and passionate about (data-science/machine learning) rather than what I am good at (web-development). This doesn't really seem to have any impact on the kind of work I get - I get both equally. This has more due to my personal choice - <USER5> did not want to do web-development at my day job and at freelancing (it kind of gets boring)

5\. Updated my blog with one pending post I had created earlier but had been lazy to upload it.

\---

6\. Reduced a lot of self-pitching in the proposals. I carefully choose whom I write proposal to. Client history, Previous hiring rate/cost, Client's project award ratio, understanding of technology, understanding of requirements, timeline suggested. I tend to focus on leads who seem to have a lesser understanding of technology but better clarity on requirements.

7\. Chances of getting selected when somebody invites you are far greater than competing with 50 or 100 proposals. If you are invited - it seems that you are more likely to get work at your preferred rates.

8\. Placing bids when the requirement is fresh and new (or has less proposals). Chances are that in case of lower proposals, client has received many proposals like "I can do in it $XXXX". A good proposal with relevant questions tends to stand out. If something has more than 12-15 proposals with rated freelancers - I back out unless I think I can make a very strong proposal or if this project is a "must-try". There may be tempting high value projects 3 days old with 80 proposals - chances are that the client has started discussing with somebody else in those 3 days. I used to spend a lot of time on such postings, and almost immediately discard those nowadays.

</comment><comment><USER49> I worked for a company who worked on freelance projects. But the company shut down because of communication gap between the owner and the developers and also some client dint clear the bill in time (so they said to me). So i believe working as a fulltime freelancer is quite risky unless you have a plan for future (may b to launce your own product....) I like to suggest you to wait for at lest 3 months and observe the situation and think hard about where you want to go with freelancing ......

</comment><comment><USER50> 3 weeks at the beginning of jan is no big issue. After christmas / new year in a big part of the world, where rarely anybody is starting new project.

The most important part is that your expenses are covered, so you should have some $$ on your saving account to survive the next 12 month without earning a single $. Then i guess freelance could be an awesome option for your.

Your could also try, to acquire a long-term project as a freelancer for a better start.

</comment><comment><USER51> Freelancing is amazing because it forces you to budget wisely, to be smart with your time, and to learn to negotiate. But it sucks because you can get burned badly. I've been unpaid twice, once for a website and once for a blackberry app. But if you hit a hot streak and you can squirrel some money away, you can make a good living and mainly in your own terms.

</comment><comment><USER52> You need to manage growth. Continue to build your side business until you're working 15+ hour days and making too much money with side work that your current job is a hindrance.

And stop using Elance if you want to make real money...

</comment><comment><USER53> 3x is the normal multiplier or set your day rate to be 100x your targeted yearly income want to target $60 pa dayrate = $600

</comment><comment><USER54> Email me if you're looking for a good PHP (symfony) gig.

</comment><comment><USER55> Can you delegate some of your 8-hour job stuff?</comment>


Twilio Is Crushing It: 150K Devs, 1.5M Phone Calls/Day, 500M Total Phone Calls - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/17/twilio-is-crushing-it-150k-developers-1-5m-api-calls-a-day-1b-total-phone-calls-expanding-to-20-more-countries/ <comment><USER2> So, I'm going to be that guy.

Twilio makes its money on SMS and voice services. Those services are _cheap_ and very easy to develop with using Twilio.

Note though that most cellular carriers are moving towards data plans instead of voice packages (Verizon especially) because most people use their phones/mobile devices for data consumption, and less as phones. So while I think Twilio provides fabulous value now, I feel like they're at the tail end of the telephone-based telecommunications revolution. As people move more away from POTS calls (and more towards Skype, Google Chat, iMessages, etc), the need for phone calls and SMS messages will drop quite a bit, as they'll all be handled over other services.

TL;DR Twilio has a shelf life. It'd be like developing services around a shrinking but still necessary industry (like the postal service).

Disclaimer: I love Twilio. I went to last year's TwilioCon and have met management.

<comment><USER3> Voice communication is not going away any time soon. Twilio Client lets them continue powering it for developers well into the future. (disclaimer: used to work there)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love Twilio, but every time I get a robocall to my cell phone selling me cheap insurance, I cringe a little, and wonder if Twilio is enabling this. I wish Twilio had a "is this a Twilio phone number" lookup so that I can report such activity.

<comment><USER5> I'm constantly amazed that we don't have "report as spam" for calls and sms yet.

Apple could provide this quite easily, and it would be a huge differentiator.

<comment><USER6> We do; it's called Google Voice.

<comment><USER7> Unfortunately it's not available in most places.

<comment><USER8> and they won't let you block "unknown" numbers.

<comment><USER9> Frankly I am stunned that carriers even let those through in the first place. Has there ever been a person in the history of telephony who wouldn't prefer it if they could never receive calls from unknown numbers?

Then I remember that call centers probably rack up huge phone bills...

<comment><USER7> Many countries ban phone spam or have a centralised opt out list. A good side of the regulated telecom world.

edit: replying to comment below, many countries have working opt out lists.

<comment><USER9> I want to know why unknown number, regardless of actual origin (spam or otherwise) is even permitted to go through PBXes or the like. Why isn't everything in the network, including my phone, set to drop "unknown number" calls right on the floor?

My phone should be saying to itself _"Hold on a second, am I about to turn on the buzzer and display the text "Unknown caller" to the users? /dev/null it."_

<comment><USER7> Privacy/anonymity is a basic feature of any useful personal communication mechanism as I hope you know. Snailmail supported it before the phone network, and the internet supported it after the phone network. Though maybe people have forgotten now that they've moved en masse to things like facebook (<rant elided>...)

Maybe people don't know how to select this feature when they make calls? At least in GSM based networks you can select it on a per call basis when dialing (#31# prefix).

Eg. calling in anonymous tips to your local newspaper, communicating with an annoying company you don't want calling back, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _What exactly are they crushing?_ Is something here being physically compacted?

If not, can we crush the use of "crushing it?" It's 2012. "Crushing it" isn't any better now than "killing it" was in 2011.

<comment><USER11> It's a metaphor. Quit raining on my startup troll parade.

<comment><USER10> What's it a metaphor for?

Crushing things?

<comment><USER12> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Crushing%20it>

I suspect that 'crushing it' first referred to standard usage of the male sexual organ and later was extended to other usages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm glad to see such tremendous growth for such a tremendous service. Twilio enabled us to get our VoIP functionality up and running quickly and we're certainly grateful for it.

</comment><comment><USER14> Has anyone with telephony industry experience written up a pros and cons and comparison chart between twilio, tropo, telapi, plivo, etc?

</comment><comment><USER15> Ugh, what is it with this offputting language - their doing well, this isn't some 80s frathouse movie.

This is almost as cringy as that picture of a young bill gates in a 'sexy' pose.

</comment><comment><USER16> Who are Twilio's competition? I know of textmarks, which serves a lot of sms traffic, but there doesn't seem to be much else competing in this space.

<comment><USER17> Plivo. Really the only one. And they're awesome from what I've seen of them. Volume pricing from the start too.

<comment><USER18> Twilio does volume pricing from the start as well:

<http://www.twilio.com/voice/pricing#volume-pricing>

<comment><USER19> Twilio's volume pricing for inbound calls only kicks in after 500K minutes. You get that rate with Plivo for your first minute. Twilio's per-minute volume pricing for over 15M minutes of outbound per month is still more expensive than what you pay Plivo starting with your first outbound call. That's what volume pricing from the start means.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> awesome. i know one of the founders, when he told me what he was doing after grad school i was surprised there's any money in it. shows you what i know!

super proud of that team, really great story all around.</comment>