Meet the BRCK - <AUTHOR> http://www.brck.com <comment><USER3> Sites like this need a tl;ds (too long; didn't scroll) general info right up front. Also...why no price and availability?

General Description: The BRCK is a rugged, cloud managed, full-featured router with built in failover and programmable GPIO expansion. BRCK can connect to the internet through RJ47, GSM, Wifi Bridge, as well as Ethernet Over USB via the GPIO Breakout. It's rugged build and cloud managed interface make it ideal for "away teams", monitoring systems in remote locations, and businesses with challenging infrastructure. BRCK's GPIO breakout provides 20 pins for digital and alaouge Read/Write as well as I2C, SPI and UART. This, combined with BRCK's Arduino Profile, make it ideal for quickly connecting hardware to the Internet of Things.

<comment><USER4> Seriously, this hipster "design" insanity has to stop. It's hurting your business.

A pretty picture of your product is not design, it's a dream of a first year art school student who doesn't understand business, who doesn't understand how to send the message and how to describe the product.

<comment><USER5> Your opinion. I think it looks fine. I quite like the 'long scroll' format that's become popular recently. All my devices (MacBook, Android phone etc.) make scrolling simpler than finding and clicking a link. And I feel like I got the main proposition of the product pretty quickly, without having to click around various 'features' and 'specs' pages.

<comment><USER6> I quite dislike any format that does not provide me immediately with a 2 or 3 sentence general description of what the thing is about, of the sort like you would find at the beginning of a Wikipedia article or in the parent comment (but with a bit less detail).

Taking BRCK as an example, I see "It's the easiest, most reliable way to connect to the Internet." and some picture suggesting that this is a hardware device. Insufficient. If I page down it gets even more confusing.

<comment><USER7> I have to agree. Excuse my language, but I didn't know wtf it is precisely on the main page. I have to dig into the Specs page for the description of the device. Wasted my time with frustrated layout. Failed design fails.

<comment><USER8> I agree, but I think it's more this specific implementation than the concept itself. I've seen plenty of "long-scroll" (not sure what to call it) style sites that have been absolutely amazing at dumping information into my head.

<comment><USER9> For example, [http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/](http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/)

<comment><USER10> Bad example imo. A good one would have been [http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/features/](http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/features/) which doesn't break scrolling AND gives hard facts.

<comment><USER11> Agreed - worst thing you can do on a long scrolling page is hijack the ability to scroll like that!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Scrolled all the way to the bottom (didn't hover over anything) and all I know is it connects to the internet and mentioned being used in Africa twice.

So many product web sites are lacking a simple "how it works" section (I'd say 75%).

<comment><USER13> Not to mention that Africa is kind of a big place, you know? With plenty of locations inside it that aren't untracked, howling wilderness.

I understand what they're trying to get at, but it annoys me to see them say "used in Africa" as if that were functionally equivalent to "used on the Moon." And I'm American! I have to think it'd sound even more tin-eared to someone from an African country.

<comment><USER14> Exactly! When it said "works in Africa", my first thought was woah, so how does it work without cell coverage - satellite?, APRS?, etc. etc. Only to realize that it is probably just a rugged 3G-Wifi bridge.

Seriously, I even looked through specs and still not sure what it does!

<comment><USER15> As someone who has done integration with Iridium and Inmarsat for the NSF, I both love and hate this product. It looks like a ruggedized wifi hotspot, but their claim of "works anywhere" is disingenuous.

This is a hotspot that works anywhere in Africa: [http://www.groundcontrol.com/MCD-4800_BGAN_Terminal.htm](http://www.groundcontrol.com/MCD-4800_BGAN_Terminal.htm)

<comment><USER16> > As someone who has done integration with Iridium and Inmarsat for the NSF

USAP vessels?

<comment><USER15> Very close :) Weather stations, same region.

<comment><USER16> Ah, neato. I spent a lot of time staring at the Inmarsat signal strength down there!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't think we have enough comments complaining about its web design. We probably need a few hundred more!

I get that moaning about its design lets you feel smart by participating in the discussion without actually contributing anything meaningful, but at least just upvote a single person for it instead of posting the same damn comment over and over again.

\----

I like that it seems as open and adaptable as they could possibly make it while also keeping it simple. It would be interesting to see just how rugged it is. I'd also like to see how this could be used in an environment that requires a little less "ruggedness", like a coffee shop or a community board room.

<comment><USER18> |I don't think we have enough comments complaining about its web design

I think the issue here, and we definitely saw this a ton with that Sailfish OS or whatever phone recently (probably fitting that I can't remember what it's called) is with some of these product launches, there is an extremely vague title submitted to HN that gets voted up to the top. There is something alluring about seeing that the community has voted this new thing, whatever it is, as the most important item of the moment. And when we get to the website, we are disappointed and/or annoyed when we can't figure out what exactly this thing is or why it was voted to the top of HN. So we talk about our experience on the website itself, as if it had been presented as a design critique.

<comment><USER17> It was pretty easy to figure out exactly what this was. It just wasn't handed to you like the majority of HN wants. All of the information was there, though. It just required you to _gasp_ click something.

The problem with all of those "design critiques" (if they could even be called that) is they derail any discussion about the product itself. As of this comment, three of the top four comments are complaining about the design or structure of the website, with the fourth being mine. You have to scroll halfway down the page to get to anyone talking about the actual product. That's shameful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I am completely in love with the fact that this thing provides a GPIO breakout (and Arduino compatible, no less!). That immediately takes this product from a "neat, but I don't think I have a use for it" to a "holy crap, what can I do with this?" for me.

So, so awesome. I hope more hardware companies start doing this.

<comment><USER20> Would this allow a satellite internet add-on if you find yourself going somewhere seriously remote? If so, does such a satellite internet peripheral already exist?

<comment><USER21> I would guess it's at least _possible_ , but not sure if it would be practical.

The first (duplex, it seems in satellite it still makes sense to offer simplex data) modem I found was this: [http://www.globalstar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_i...](http://www.globalstar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=81).

Of course there is no price, and I find it mildly scary that the US sales contact is listed as "USA/Government", not just USA.

This thing has a 20-pin header which they claim includes data connections, but there is no pin-out. There is a PDF ([http://www.globalstar.com/en/docs/gsp1720/GSP-1720%20Sell%20...](http://www.globalstar.com/en/docs/gsp1720/GSP-1720%20Sell%20Sheet_FIN.pdf)) but it's more of a brochure and doesn't provide a lot of detail.

The bandwidth for data over satellite modems is low enough (10s of kilobits/second) so I guess it seems reasonable to do over GPIO, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This was originally a Kickstarter project back in June: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your- bac...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your-backup- generator-for-the-internet)

<comment><USER23> Looks like they planned on shipping the early bird units last month. Did they actually ship on time?

<comment><USER24> > _" Did they actually ship on time?"_

Nope. I'm an "early-bird" backer of this. The last update on shipping says they've pushed to January.

Apparently, there were complications sourcing the 3G modems they intended to use.

From the update:

 _" Unfortunately, we live in a world where small, African, tech companies don't have the influence to get global component suppliers to meet our delivery deadlines. In particular, we have been unable to secure a timely supply of the 3G modems that are specified for the BRCK. Although it would seem straightforward to simply switch to another modem, the implications of this change effect mechanical design, board layout, and certification - <USER2> things that require time to adjust. We are now working with multiple suppliers to find a suitable alternative that we can source in sufficient supply to meet our production demands."_

<comment><USER25> This is correct (and thanks for being a backer). We had some issues with the modem supplier and had to redesign the comms board to work with the new modem. This was after going around in circles with the original supplier and losing valuable time. It sucks being small when dealing with some of these large organizations, but we did eventually find a great modem and have been testing it out this month.

I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get it out on time...

<comment><USER24> _> "I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get it out on time..."_

No worries. I backed the project as a great idea that happens to provide a reward, not the other way around and I have no reason to doubt your ability to deliver.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Hey, BRCK dudes. They invented this thing called the "paragraph" some thousand years ago.[1] It lets you organize several or more sentences into coherent blocks of text expressing complex thoughts. Paragraphs allow you to get across multiple simpler points, expressed as individual sentences, in a succinct way that allows your reader to avoid excessive and unnecessary scrolling.

Also, for something that apparently involves Africa,[2] the loading speed of that page over my iPad's LTE is shameful.

[1] The paragraph was already in use in English by the time of Beowulf, between the 8th and 11th century.

[2] Apparently. I didn't scroll all the way down.

<comment><USER27> Hey, commenter dude. This footnoting shit is getting way out of hand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Another shitty parallax product site. It detracts from the message when your presentation has yellow on yellow text depending on where your scroll bar is.

<comment><USER29> Perhaps this is nit-picky, but this isn't at all parallax. It's fixed elements mixed with non-fixed elements. For it to be simulated "parallax", it must have elements that move at different speeds that mimic the effect that real-life parallax would have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> The BRCK is a beautiful device which deserves much more attention and debate than the website.

The overdosing of criticism on the website might have been somewhat justified if the BRCK was a web product. Yes, a simpler single screen presentation would have been much better. We do not need more than 4 comments saying it.

I am really excited about the BRCK's (badass name)fail over technology and wonder and hope it could be deployed to POS and other devices like tablet and phones. Reliability of POSs are really hindering cashless systems here in Nigeria.

Erik, have you spoken to the TECNO chaps or Huawei about licensing this technology? A minibrck* will not be a bad idea for urban areas that prioritize reliability over backup power.

Good stuff guys, I am excited that a pure technical play is coming out from these parts.

*Not sure you saw what I did there. we'll have the BRCK and the brck.

<comment><USER31> So what is the special technology it provides, perhaps you could give us a quick summary? Any advantage to using my phone as an access point?

<comment><USER32> Your phone doesn't have the same ways to interface with the world, (probably) isn't happy with water/dust, cannot charge other devices and won't last for 8 hours straight (or more, acc. to the specs page, if you're using anything but the 'full power' mode). This looks a cross between an arduino, a d-link sortof appliance with multi-band support for mobile data, a decently sized flash storage device and a huge battery - in a rugged hull.

Your phone isn't even close. If you just want to hop online for a short while: No advantage over using your phone, I guess.

<comment><USER33> Put your phone in a Ziploc bag and it's water resistant. Add a cheap external 10.000 mAh battery and you'll have lots of battery life. You won't need a large battery, though: the BRCK only lasts for 8 hours, while an LTE iPad can last about 24 hours in hotspot mode.

<comment><USER34> Sure: and why do I need a fancy iPod when I have this perfectly good casette tape player? Your iPod can hold 10,000 songs? I can put hundreds of cassettes in my backpack. You can recharge your batteries and get 30 hours of battery life? I can carry around a box of double AAs and I _never_ have to recharge them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Hello cellphone in a stick. Every single thinkpad I owned (grand total of 2) has a sim card slot. I guess macs don't?

<comment><USER36> Nope. It's actually fairly puzzling that there hasn't been a 3g/lte MacBook Air by now.

<comment><USER37> I think, in the US at least, part of the problem would have been Verizon/Sprint. Now with everyone going to LTE and using SIM cards for that it seems more viable (fewer network restrictions).

<comment><USER38> Why is that a problem? Apple ships millions of 3G/LTE devices a quarter, they can certainly figure it out in the laptop form factor. Worst case and it doesn't support every network--still way better than not supporting _any_ network.

The bigger issue is probably not having OS X architected to play nice when you're paying by the byte.

<comment><USER37> They shipped different models to handle different carriers and only recently are they shipping unified models for multiple carriers. As I said in another reply, that's bad UX for a device that's not quite at commodity level prices. You could always get a dongle or pair it up (still options), which prevents the computer from becoming obsoleted by changing network affiliations or protocols.

<comment><USER38> > which prevents the computer from becoming obsoleted by changing network > affiliations or protocols.

Which would never be the case... Right now no Macs come with any mobile data and I somehow still manage to find them useful. If my MacBook had come with 3G it wouldn't be obsolete now that LTE is the rage, the worst thing that could happen is I would tether with another device like I do now.

I also have a Chromebook and I have to say it's nice not to even think about it--you're just online.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> > IF IT WORKS IN AFRICA, IT'LL WORK ANYWHERE

Nice little insult there. Way to start out on the wrong foot with Africans.

PS: Yes I'm actually African, and that pissed me off.

<comment><USER29> I think this is kind of like an air conditioning company saying, "If it can cool you off in the tropics, it can cool you off anywhere!"

The facts are simple: there are significant parts of Africa that are very sparsely connected to what is commonly available in many (or most) other countries of the world.

I get how this can be somewhat offensive, but I also think the point comes across and isn't directed at the African people.

If it works in Africa, then, objectively, it works in sparsely populated and sparsely connected areas.

<comment><USER40> > If it works in Africa, then, objectively, it works in sparsely populated and > sparsely connected areas.

If it works in a really nice hotel in Johannesburg, it's working in Africa.

Your point is invalid.

<comment><USER29> My point isn't invalid. Communication is messy, and this is an example of that.

"I was in the middle of the ocean!"

Did you think I was in water? You're wrong. I was on an island that is in the middle of an ocean.

"I stayed in a hotel in New York."

Did you think I rented a hotel room? No, I simply stood in the lobby.

You can't say that because someone says something without constraining it with every detail, that the communicated point is incomplete. Communication is a loose protocol.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> It's buzzword compliant for sure.

</comment><comment><USER42> Price / availability? If it's Summer 2015 and $300 USD, that is different than January 2014 and $89.

Or is this still too soon?

<comment><USER43> The kickstarter mentioned below had a price of $150 for backers, and delivery in Nov 2013. There has been no shipping update.

<comment><USER42> Well, I'm not a kickstarter backer. I want to order from amazon.com. So when and how much?

<comment><USER44> The levels on Kickstarter were $150 for the first 50 backers and $200+ "v2". A comment above says they've pushed early-bird shipping to January. Given that knowledge you're probably looking at a _minimum_ 1 year wait for $200-250 retail.

I'd love to know the exact details too but it's unlikely even they will know until at least after the first round of production.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> A bit of interesting trivia - I knew I recognized the COO Philip Walton who has his picture near the bottom of the page. He's been on TV and in the news because his wife is a survivor of the Westgate mall massacre. Small world...

[http://hawaiitribune- herald.com/sections/news/world/kenyan-t...](http://hawaiitribune- herald.com/sections/news/world/kenyan-troops-caused-collapse.html)

</comment><comment><USER46> I love the concept.

It would be cool to see some form of mesh networking added to this as well.

<comment><USER47> We are on it, it won't be in the first release, but it we are working on a software upgrade (to the original hardware) that will support this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> So many of the comments here can be answered with the specs page. [http://www.brck.com/specifications/](http://www.brck.com/specifications/)

The design is intended, as most marketing pages are, to capture attention and interest. Scrolling storytelling is a very effective way to do that.

HN readers, in general, are very critical of emotional-impact-based decisions. The truth is, many people respond to things that are 90% aesthetic and 10% functional. Note: Jabberwocky[0]. If you want to dive in deep, you are a part of the crowd that doesn't make impulsive decisions based on marketing. Congratulations - click on the specs link to see an easily readable, fairly cold page.

If you want to make an impact on the majority of people, consider that most people are less concerned with technical details or even descriptive language, and more concerned with how they feel.

[0][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnwBHVQJWJs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnwBHVQJWJs)

</comment><comment><USER48> Not necessarily a revolutionary device, in that sim-hotspot devices are not rare...

But - with shared onboard storage, that's cool... what would be interesting is having a device with, say, 4 radios and sim slots - and people could add in their sim to allow the device to aggregate data use from multiple sims in a torrented manner.

<comment><USER49> With the right SIMs you could have a local [2g|3g] network so people can use their own handsets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Does it support satellite internet access?

Would it work on open sea?

How useful would it be in a European country with expensive mobile data?

Where can one buy it?

</comment><comment><USER51> It doesn't connect to the Internet, it is the Internet (The IT Crowd)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg)

</comment><comment><USER52> Would be nice to be able to perceive the form factor right away. It looked like a credit card sized device to me at first, and only after I scrolled all the way down to the picture of the device in use in Africa did I find out that the thing is quite big (which is what you'd expect from the features the thing has, but it's strange why the site starts out with a top down view of the thing that makes it seem like it's 1/10 the size it really is)

<comment><USER25> It's interesting that you thought it was so small at first. I've been talking to a number of people about the size over the last few months, and the most common reaction is, "I thought it was bigger". For some reason our early photography left the impression that this was the size of a shoe box or car battery. In reality, it's about the size of 3 stacked iPhones.

We've got some pictures with it next to computers and on top, or near, other "stuff". That was the idea we were going for in that top header image on the site anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Scrolled really long promo page. Still no info.

Look like this is a ruggedized GSM/WiFi/Copper hotspot. Like those you buy from china for $20. No satellite access, thats stupid.

</comment><comment><USER54> Wow. They did never load their site in Firefox. There is at least one JS Error and some features of the site simply do not work. Neither in Africa nor in Europe.

</comment><comment><USER55> One key thing left out in the hardware specs: how much does it weigh? Does it weigh just as much as its name says?

If I am to lug this around it better be as light as possible.

</comment><comment><USER56> So this my cheap Huawei 3G/4G router plus an RJ45 jack glued together with a mobile battery?

The Huawei is already glued together so it's as rugged as you'll get, and it has a microSD slot for disk storage. "Cloud" \- every consumer router I've seen has a WAN configure option...

</comment><comment><USER57> Kinda cool actually. One thing: the 'features' overlays don't appear to work on Firefox.

<comment><USER58> You have to mouse-over the icons.

<comment><USER25> Good point. I'll see what we can do to make that more visible, the features are too hidden right now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> if i am not wrong it takes SIM network. What if the network is not available ? Moreover, why someone will take extra device with them if they can use mobile "wifi-hotspot" feature to connect.

</comment><comment><USER60> I get that people don't like the site's layout (I don't either), but is it really that hard to click on "Specs"?

</comment><comment><USER61> What's the code licence? I didn't find any mention of it on the site.

If it's closed-source, can it be flashed with something open?

<comment><USER47> The device is a bit of a hybrid, its closed source for some of the main firmware, but all the GPIO and sensor connectivity is open source (and open hardware). We are working to open more and more of it up!

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> I thought it was an Iridium for web-access. Sadly I'm wrong, I'll have to continue use my 184Kbps EDGE connection.

</comment><comment><USER63> And how reliable/widespread is the 3G/4G network in Africa that this device presumably relies upon?

<comment><USER25> It's actually very wide spread, especially in major towns and cities. Network maps are hard to come by, especially up-to-date ones, but you can get a decent idea on a lot of the countries from the GSMA data site here:

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> Spent over a minute on this stupid site scanning up and down and still have no idea what it actually does.

</comment><comment><USER65> I tried to scroll but I didn't see anything that told what the fucking thing is within 1.5 seconds.

</comment><comment><USER66> The design reminds me of "The Internet"'s desing from "The IT Crowd".

</comment><comment><USER67> 512MB of memory seems rather small? Or will people finally learn to use GB and Gb properly?

</comment><comment><USER68> What about yourkarma.com

<comment><USER25> I'm one of the BRCK team and I use the Karma when in the US traveling around. I initially bought it for testing and think it's a really well done device. What you should know about it is that it's only really good in US cities, as it uses WiMax backhaul. It's got decent battery as well. Their social mechanism for getting others to signup and get you free Mb really works (pro tip: Keep it on in the airport).

The BRCK was designed for a different use case. It's designed to allow more connections and to have failovers for poor power and internet connectivity. It also allows you to extend it with both hardware and software of your own making.

<comment><USER69> I was thinking about getting the Karma actually. The 14 dollars for 1GB is cheaper than tethering.

<comment><USER70> If you buy in batch, it ends up costing $10/GB. I'm connected via a karma device right now; as soon as Comcast asked me for my social security number to sign up in my apartment, I said f that and bought the karma. If I have to download large files, I generally download them to an amazon instance and sync locally when I have an unmetered connection.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: A Firefox extension to break the habit of typing distracting websites - <AUTHOR> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/focus-by-cabana-labs/ <comment><USER2> what I've been doing for the last 3 or 5 years (in Firefox, which is the browser under discussion in this submission) is setting the following to false:

browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled

browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark

browser.urlbar.suggest.history

it does not literally stop me from typing in for example "news.ycombinator.com", but it makes it so that I have to type every last one of those 20 characters, which leaves enough time between my (impulsive) decision to act and my (fast and nasty) reward to prevent most instances of procrastination.

(then I put frequently-accessed URLs that do not cause procrastination on the Bookmarks menu and the Bookmarks toolbar.)

<comment><USER3> what about google's autocomplete? it's to search sites using google.

<comment><USER2> Firefox has a separate field for search queries that is in the nav bar like the location field (terminology? I mean where the URL goes) is (and like the back button, the refresh button, the "downloads" button, etc, are) but is not combined with the location field.

At least _my_ Firefox does, and I don't _think_ I customized that particular aspect of Firefox.

I seem to recall someone here saying that Firefox decided not to combine them (location and search fields) for privacy reasons. In particular, the user can be sure that anything typed into the location field is never sent to Google's autocompletion servers.

I could be wrong about the things I said in this comment, though.

<comment><USER4> Actually, since the latest nightly, they are combined, and you can turn search completion on or off

<comment><USER5> Is this going to be something that users can customise?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you find yourself just turning this extension off or undoing the edits to your host file, you should try [http://selfcontrolapp.com/](http://selfcontrolapp.com/) for OSX, which blocks URLs for a specified period of time without the ability to unblock them. It is open source, so in theory you could presumably go source diving to find a way around it, but that would take more effort and focus than doing whatever you are supposed to be doing.

Also, if you find yourself desperately needing this, consider the possibility that you may want to get more/regular sleep, exercise, and better food. "Sleep is for the weak" is a load of horseshit. Your brain is a part of your body and you should take care of both. This got me through the last parts of undergrad and I am very grateful to the maintainers, but I wish I'd not needed it.

EDIT: there is apparently an app [http://getcoldturkey.com/](http://getcoldturkey.com/) for windows. I've never tried it though.

Also, Momentum for Chrome is a good replacement for the "recent pages" new tab screen: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfkn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfknpbbblfpciffpaejjkokdgca?hl=en)

<comment><AUTHOR> There's no substitute for a healthy lifestyle. That said, even with one, you may find that you need a tool like this. I know I do.

I added the ability to turn it off as a feature after needing it! =). But yeah - there are heavier alternatives for heavier needs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've tried several tools similar to this, and they're all coming from the right place. But..

1) being told that this isn't the time to do something doesn't change that I feel it's time to do something. It just annoys me.

2) There's no substitute for simply making the choice to not go to those distracting web sites.

Distractions abound, but in my experience I've found that looking to technology to solve what is fundamentally an error in my thought process is a mistake. Changing the thought process isn't the easy way to go about it but it is ultimately the only way that's going to be effective in the long term.

Tools like this don't help much with that process[1]. Instead they provide [again, in my experience] a band-aid that helps cover the wound, so to speak - they let me avoid seeing that I needed to make changes.

[1] one benefit they do provide is to make you more aware of what you're doing.

<comment><USER6> > Changing the thought process isn't the easy way to go about it but it is > ultimately the only way that's going to be effective in the long term.

How does one actually change the thought processes? Or begin to make progress changing the thought processes?

<comment><USER7> Set up an arduino interfaced via usb that delivers a shock every time you start to meander :D

More seriously - I think it's key to realize that sidetracking to various websites isn't the actual problem - it's more a symptom of not wanting to do the task at hand.

Here's what worked for me: When I started to suspect that this was costing me more time than I realized, I figured to measure it. I just started writing the time down each time I mentally wandered off and started browsing, and then again when I stopped.

It didn't take long to see that this added up to a depressing amount - but the awareness of how frequently and how long was critical for me, and the brief pause where I 'had' to write down something when I was about to start was enough for me to check myself and do one of two things:

1\. (more frequently) realize that I wasn't in a mental state to get back on task, and take a quick walk, get a drink, w/e. The time to do this is much less than the time I'd spend on noodling about, still let me get my mind off of it briefly, and often let me become aware of why I was avoiding whatever the task was.

2\. just get back on task (this became easier with time, though 1) is still sometimes more beneficial)

Hmm, maybe I should make a plugin for that :D

In any event, this manual tooling to simply track what I was doing was enough for me, and it worked better than throwing artificial obstacles into my path.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Related: [http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction- corre...](http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction-correction- extensio/)

I briefly used RescueTime's functionality for this. Eventually I actually settled on a separate browser profile for distracting sites. Basically, on my work Chrome, I only have productive sites, am not logged into any distracting services, or anything like that. I can use Chrome's user switching to open my "distracting" session, but the extra effort to do that helps me maintain focus.

</comment><comment><USER9> Leechblock works very well for this: [http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/](http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/)

It counts how long you are on an "illegal" website and only blocks when you exceed the limit.

It's fully customizable for timelimits and method of blocking.

<comment><USER10> I use leech block. I can't get the timer to work for multiple sets of websites.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I like the idea. I find blocking websites with my host file being the best tool for protecting myself against distraction.

It would be pretty neat if this was a website that I could point my blocked domains to

<comment><AUTHOR> The hostfile is great! I use it for more permanent blocks. Reason I use the plugin is to be able to turn blocking on and off quickly if I need to, and as of the next version which will hopefully be available tomorrow, I'll be able to block going to sub-directories.

So, say you have a habit of typing in /r/cars ... I don't know how to block that using a hostfile, but with the plugin this won't be a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I feel like it would work better if it took you to something like a shock website ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha - I tried it. It's shocking at first and annoying soon after. I figured that soft power is the way to go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does anything similar exist for Chrome? AFAIK, default Chrome won't let you disable autocomplete in the address bar.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sure there are - not sure how lightweight they are though. I'll release a Chrome extension fairly soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Where the heck did the install button go to on Mozilla's website?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you're on Firefox on the desktop, then it installs the add-on. To see which add-ons you have installed, go to Tools -> Add-ons in Firefox! Thanks for trying out the plug in :)</comment></comment>


Gen Y "The Lost Generation" - <AUTHOR> http://under30ceo.com/gen-y-the-lost-generation/

<comment><AUTHOR> Great message on changing mindsets. Refers to this article ~ [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b41510320...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b4151032038302.htm)

</comment><comment><USER2> Wow, you can't have your picture taken under a tree, without it being thought you spend all day there?

</comment><comment><USER3> I read exactly the same thing about GenX-ers, and the Hippie generation.</comment>


Foxconn cuts 60,000 factory jobs and replaces them with robots - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/25/11772222/foxconn-automation-robots-apple-samsung-smartphones <comment><USER2> similar post with a lot of discussion: "Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'" (bbc.com) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11801125](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11801125) (344 points, 4 days ago, 396 comments)</comment>


Ask HN: Collect payment info before 30 day trial? - <AUTHOR>

For our app, we have a free version (no expiration, it is just limited) and we have several paid plans. All of our paid plans include a free 30 day trial.
My question is: Should we collect payment information during the signup process for any of the paid plans? Or should we prompt for payment info after the free trial has ended?
Are there any studies showing one has higher conversion rates? <comment><USER3> Drop the free trial. You've got a free version - if you need to 'convince' people, point them at the free version.

If you would like to do a 'first month free' kind of deal, collect payment/payment information up front, but drop off the cost of one month from the total. Or, allow people to cancel within 30 days for a full refund.

Essentially, I agree with avoiding 'free trials' that want credit card information - I am always afraid that it's going to be a nightmare. But if I know I am signing up to pay, that's a different story. The "being able to cancel within 30 days for a full refund" rings much better to my ears than "30 day free trial with payment details collected up front".

In fact, I hate "trial versions" altogether. I much prefer that either it's free, or it's not.

<comment><USER4> I disagree with dropping the free trial just because you have a free version.

It's always a nice gesture to let users see paid plans before any money is exchanged.

There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is letting the user test drive your software with no limitations so they can evaluate if their needs will be fulfilled.

<comment><USER5> Agree, I would only go so far as reminding them 10 days before the trial ends, At any time during the free trial they should be able to upgrade to subscription, but still get the rest of their free trial. Anything beyond that is nagware at the least and a potential headache concern at the worst which won't win many converts.

Whenever I bump into the financial info hostage model it reminds me of the BS "free 30 day" credit monitoring services or hardship insurance plans the credit card companies always try to trick you into when you activate a credit card. You don't want to be associated with that model. Because the next mental association from there is rape. No, means NO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm operating under the assumption that you're using the magazine billing model -- sign up today and you will be billed in 30 days unless you cancel in the interim. This is opposed to the shareware billing model -- sign up today and you will not be billed until you make an affirmative decision to purchase.

The magazine model has a lot of funnel dropout at the first stage (sign up) and fairly little dropout at the second stage (cancellation). The shareware model has less drop out at the first stage (sign up) and hideous dropout at the second stage (decision to pay).

For a service, I'd go for the magazine model. (A lot of non-technical customers assume you're going with the magazine model even if you're not. I get an email on a weekly basis asking to cancel a downloadable free trial.)

One possible exception is if you think your free trial is likely to be in- freaking-sanely sticky for users that start with it. In that case, you might want to make up the difference in conversion rates in sheer volume. Another possible exception is if you get business value from free trial users. For example, if your software has strong network effects, or if you are running an online game and free players are essentially bonus content for playing players, then you might want to encourage as many signups as possible even if you knew a-priori that you would fail to monetize most of them.

Note that if you collect information prior to collecting authorization you've got some headaches to think about beyond the scopes of conversion rates -- information security, whether your payment processor will let you do it, etc.

</comment><comment><USER7> I tend to avoid demo apps that require me to enter my payment info right off the bat.

I don't know of any studies, but I would guess that many people feel the same.

<comment><USER8> Yeah - if I'm asked for payment info during a demo period, I'll probably just move on and find something else. For one, my wallet generally isn't near my computer - but even if it is, I don't like giving out my CC number for something I may use once and then uninstall (because I might forget to cancel the payment plan).

As a startup, one of the things you're selling is great service. So get some contact info and contact them with a few days left and ask if they'd like to re-up.

<comment><AUTHOR> To clarify, we will have a free plan which is 100% free for life and includes all of the features of our other plans except the free plan has limits (useful for testing, not as useful if you are a power user).

</comment></comment></comment><comment> a-priori I have no data to back this up, but I know that I would think twice about signing up for a "free trial" that asked for payment information.

Really, the only way to know for sure is to do an A/B test on it and compare the conversion rates.

</comment><comment><USER9> Regardless of what anyone says here, you have to test several approaches and pick the best performing one.

One company I worked for was famous in it's niche for running tests. We'd run 30/45/60 day free trials, bundle offers, one-time offers, and so on. I mean we ran literally hundreds of split tests every year. The funny thing is that we went a few years before trying a low $1 trial (for a $100+ item) on a whim, and you know what? It out-pulled almost every free trial test we'd ever run. Then we bumped it up to $2.95, and that out-pulled $1 even more.

All this time we'd been running free trials because common sense said that's what would pull best. Not testing this earlier was literally a multi-million dollar mistake.

This taught me a valuable lesson: never make any assumptions about what will or will not work, and test all time.

</comment><comment><USER10> I like the free trial option, without ever entering any credit card info. A free trial gets the user used to what they are getting, and you don't have to upsell them later. If you just let them use the free version from the start it is easy for the user to end up thinking "oh these ads on the side aren't too bad" or "oh I don't need to have my company logo at the top" etc etc - so it is more difficult to get them to convert. Once they have used the version with there logo and no ads (or whatever it is you are offering) it is less likely they will accept downgrading.

The other issue with a free trial is it gives you thirty days of your product being out there before you need to get the billing working. Maybe you can launch next week instead of next month.

The other thing I like, that is rare to see (and would probably suit your time tracking app), is a working demo. Allow people to use the app without having to create an account or enter an email etc, just have some dummy data and preferably ensure the data is cleaned after each use (to prevent someone entering objectionable material). Most people that are likely to use your app are smart enough to go and click around and see if it is what they want. Then they can sign up to a free trial and you have a customer who is more likely to turn into a real customer.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER11> I would offer a cancellation policy within 30 days. The way I see it, there are only two reasons why anyone would get payment information up front.

A: To 'trick' people into paying for something they might have decided against buying. (Bad reason)

B: To limit people who try to take advantage of unlimited free trials - <USER2> using credit card info as an identifier, you could tell who's already had a free trial and who hasn't (to some extent).

If it's for reason A, don't do it. If it's for reason B, do it, but don't charge them until they confirm at the end of 30 days. Send them an email with something like, "We hope you enjoyed your free trial. If you are happy with the service and would like to continue using it, click here and get a promotional 10% off your next 3 months." Anything to ease your customers over the second hurdle of committing to using the service will be good.

<comment><USER12> I like the cancellation policy idea. Give the best options for both you and your customers. Just make it a push button cancellation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I take this a bit further for S3stat. Not only do we not ask for payment info when you sign up for the trial, we don't allow you to pay at all in the first 7 days, even if you want to.

This essentially forces you to actually use the thing and decide if you want it before buying. Before switching to this mode, we used to get a lot of signup/pay/cancel cycles in the first few days of an account's lifetime. Since it sometimes takes a few days before our product is up and running at full force, it seemed like we were losing a significant percentage of the "impatient" demographic.

Now that we enforce a bit of chillin', immediate cancellations have dropped almost to zero, while our conversion rate has stayed about the same.

</comment><comment><USER14> Test it yourself. Any studies or advice is likely to tell you 'it depends.' Any advice you get gere will be 'we do this' or 'I like that.'

Can't beat real data that applies.

</comment><comment><USER12> How competitive is your market? Would your product rank in the,say, top 3? If we know the answers then, I believe, we can have a better discussion.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, our product isn't launched yet. I like to think we'll be in the top 3 but it will take some time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> FogBugz does it the right way. 45 day free trial with no payment info up front. After those days are up, they ask you for payment info.

</comment><comment><USER16> Collect the email addresses. You will be able to monetize a certain percentage of your users in unexpected ways. Maybe because they use your free version for years and finally decide to pay.

Don't scare people into denying you the ability to sell to them out of fear or mistrust..

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm really not a fan of pre-collect payment info trials, but if you do this, make sure you state that it is possible to cancel your account via the website. I will never sign up for one when I suspect they'll make me call to cancel.

</comment><comment><USER18> Let them signup without payment information. It promotes easy signup and you are much more likely to get people to try it out. I know from experience.

Loose the free trial because you are giving a free version away which is enough to try it out.

</comment><comment><USER19> If you are going to enable the free trial so never asks for "Credit Card" information. Most people will consider you SPAM, why asks for my CC while it's free?</comment>


Conditional Action Programmer - <AUTHOR> https://www.conditionalactionprogrammer.com <comment><USER2> I'm always a little miffed when I see natural language being the input, because now in order to use the tech I need to also play the "guess the verb" games.

This is especially bad in Wolfram Alpha.... I can clearly see that all parts of a query are supported but I have to get the NLP part to parse my sentences right. Though there is Mathematica I guess....

Not that I dislike all natural language stuff (far from it) but I'd love to have access to an AST builder too

<comment><USER3> I'd like a language with "natural language" as a first class citizen of a language so instead of trying to name methods, you break down a description of code into paragraphs in english, then you could have a parser that attaches lambdas to those paragraphs.

you would also need the editor to know to display a separate implementation file for each paragraph.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like you are describing Intentional Programming. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_programming)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "What can CAP do for you? First let's agree….. worst name ever. Now that we're past that, here's our story, and an ask."

MS, you're competing with a product called "IFTTT". Don't think so lowly of yourself!

<comment><USER6> What's "an ask"?

<comment><USER7> It might sound weird to you, but it's correct.

Noun

ask (plural asks)

        1. An act or instance of asking.

        2. Something asked or asked for; a request.

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ask](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ask)

<comment><USER8> More information here: [http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4246/can- or-shoul...](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4246/can-or-should- ask-ever-be-used-as-a-noun)

Personally I never use it because it can sound far too close to "ass" especially through low-fidelity channels.

<comment><USER9> According to that link, it's been part of "Microsoft-speak" for over a decade.

It's definitely a noun, but the kind of noun that only annoying business people use.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > AP is an experimental project from Microsoft Technology and Research, > available to you as and Android app on Google Play Store and the web.

And this is why I went from Windows Phone 8 to Android. The Microsoft experience on Android is arguably better than on their own OS.

<comment><USER11> And to think, the Android guys originally wanted to use C# as the native Android language, but were worried about being sued by MS for it.

Instead they went with Java and got sued by Oracle for it, whereas MS open sourced it all.

* Yes I know parts of .NET are still closed source/proprietary.

<comment><USER12> It's also possible that Microsoft might have been less willing to open the language if it had become an integral pillar of the Android ecosystem.

<comment><USER10> The ECMA standardization committee was founded three months after the commercial release of C#.

<comment><USER12> I'm referring to Microsoft's moves in the past year to release their compiler and other parts of the .NET toolchain (and Xamarin) as MIT-licensed open- source projects (moves the company wasn't forced to make). Even though the language itself has been an open standard for some time, the C# ecosystem was very different a few years ago than it is in 2016.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "First let's agree….. worst name ever."

... At least they are consistent over time. Reminds me of this parody: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k)

I attempted to make a couple of tasks, so far it's very limited, but kudos to getting the framework going.

</comment><comment><USER14> None of the examples actually save you any work/task completion. They line up more work/things to monitor/read/process and set you up for overload.

</comment><comment><USER15> Looks sweet. Small spelling mistake

'available to you as and Android app on Google Play Store'

Should be

'available to you as _an_ Android app on Google Play Store'

<comment><USER16> The very next sentence is "We need your help to continue to improve natural language understanding." Maybe a joke? Or maybe they wrote this on a cell phone?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This whole page looks very sloppy. In addition to the weird name, the grammar is iffy and sentences don't sound native. The fonts are also off.

It makes me wonder if this is actually a Microsoft project.

</comment><comment><USER17> Is this a natural language interface of this service [https://flow.microsoft.com](https://flow.microsoft.com) ?

</comment><comment><USER18> So will this result in yet more of my daily life being ferreted away in a data centre somewhere, with me having no control over its persistence?

</comment><comment><USER19> I find it very amusing when people name other brands/apps etc on their homepage especially those where you don't have any business connection.

Case in point here is naming Pocket App on the homepage prominently. It gives on impression that Pocket is some big successful app but in reality has merely 22M users (active users must be lot lower).

I hope I am right to assume that MS has nothing to do with Pocket app.

<comment><USER16> It's really a sign of the times that you can have 22 million customers and still not be viewed as big and successful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Because of the post the other day about Bongard problems [1] I can't help but wonder if it is possible to use that author's algorithms to automatically detect the kinds of conditional patterns that this software wants to automate.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12064188](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12064188)

</comment><comment><USER21> Anyone know what the "HTTP" integration is? If I could get this service to make an (authenticated?) web request I could make it hit a service on a box at home to turn some other stuff on.

Ability to turn my Xbox One on from a programmable button would be great, considering the Xbox Live team took Wake On Lan and turned it into something requiring a Microsoft-signed cert...

</comment><comment><USER22> When I sign in with my outlook.com email address it asks for permission for the "Luis-Actions" app to read my email, among other permissions. It's probably Microsoft, but I wish they would have made the signup experience look a little more trustworthy.

<comment><USER23> They definitely need to make that clearer, but it does sound like the Language Understanding Intelligent Service [1] from Microsoft.

[1] [https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en- us/language-...](https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en-us/language- understanding-intelligent-service-luis)

<comment><USER22> Thanks! I figured it was some engineer named Luis.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Judging by the broken fonts in safari they neglected to test it on a non- Windows device

<comment><USER25> It's fine on android. And since the app is on android only, maybe they tested on android only.

<comment><USER26> On Android the font is big enough to read five or maybe ten meters away, from my 5.5" phone screen. Not sure this is really how it's intended.

<comment><USER25> It's big on my device too but not so big so as to be readable from 10 meters away. Or even 10 feet away.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> > First let's agree….. worst name ever.

Why would they choose a name that they think is so bad?

<comment><USER28> Computer scientists are bad at naming. Let marketing handle it.

<comment><USER29> That's why naming is one of the hard problems in computer science.

<comment><USER30> The other three are memory management and off-by-one errors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Reminds me of setting Gambits on my characters in Final Fantasy XII...</comment>


Follow-Up on the Removal of Airfoil Speakers Touch - <AUTHOR> http://rogueamoeba.com/utm/2012/05/29/follow-up-on-the-removal-of-airfoil-speakers-touch/

<comment><USER2> No mention of the leaked AirPlay private key that they're using to emulate an authorized AirPlay receiver.

Very disingenuous on their part to pretend that they have no idea why Apple has pulled the app. At the very least they can acknowledge that it's in there but make a case that it is in no way a violation of the App Store Guidelines.

<comment><USER3> Not as disingenuous as Apple not just stating that. It seems unreasonable to hold RogueAmoeba to the standard of "Apple says you did something wrong: list all the things that you think they might disapprove of".

<comment><USER4> Not saying I agree with the way they run the app store, but their behavior is, at least, predictable.

We all know that licenses and agreements are unwieldy and quickly become incomprehensible when every edge case is covered. Apple's stance is, and always has been, that they have a specific vision for iOS applications, and they'll adapt the license agreement to adjust to "workarounds". This is an effort to avoid an unwieldy license, and I'll give them credit for that at least.

Again, not saying I agree, but look at what's _probably_ going on. Apple uses the broadest possible interpretation of their ownership of AirPlay, including the protocol and any hardware that speaks it. All devices that work with AirPlay are licensed by Apple. Rogue Amoeba released an app that, while not specifically violating Apple's terms as written, is certainly implementing a technology in a way that is inconsistent with the way everyone else uses it (by licensing it from Apple).

Apple wants developers to innovate (whatever that means) on their platform, but only strictly within the boundaries of their vision for the platform. It's a glaring contradiction that has existed for a long time. However, I don't know that there are any laws against it. Apple doesn't have a monopoly, so there's always the option to take your money elsewhere. Many people are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What the post fails to mention is that any piece of software or hardware that wants to act as an AirPlay receiver requires a key issued by Apple. The key used by most (if not all) of these unauthorized AirPlay receivers comes from an Airport Express ([http://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/11/apple-airplay- private-ke...](http://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/11/apple-airplay-private-key- exposed-opening-door-to-airport-express-emulators/)).

I support the idea of using an iOS device as an AirPlay receiver (I have a copy of AirView safely backed up in hopes of using an old iPhone or iPod touch as a way to turn any speaker into an AirPlay speaker), but they had to have known that using an unauthorized private key was going to get them in trouble.

I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the protocols behind AirPlay, but assuming it transmits unencrypted data (because the client is trusted), then it would be possible to losslessly strip the DRM from protected files, something that could land Apple in hot water with the movie/TV studios.

</comment><comment><USER6> I posted on the previous article as well, and on RA's blog as "concerned bystander", lest you think I'm just stealing his ideas ;)

I've done some googling and found a reference saying AirPlay is supposedly licensed by Apple for $4 per instance to device makers.

[http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/24/airplays-hidden- agend...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/24/airplays-hidden-agenda-apple- tv-sets/)

Assuming RA would have been able to license it for the same price, they would have to charge $7 for the feature to make up the difference, which is pretty steep on the App store. The bigger question is: Would Apple give them a license? My gut says no, not for an iOS application, but who can say?

I asked on the "under the microscope" blog if Apple mentioned licensing at all in what little communication they've had... I noticed RA never seems to mention licensing, not sure if it's an intentional omission or just coincidence. They had to know going into this that they were playing with fire using the leaked key.

If Apple does claim the removal was over non-public APIs, I think they're being disingenuous. I can't believe a developer like RA would be doing that knowingly or not.

<comment><USER7> It's a weird situation, because the iPhone is already an Apple product. Why would Apple require a licensing fee for their own device?

<comment><USER4> Welcome to today's world of intellectual property. You're not buying a "thing" anymore. You're buying the thing, as well as a license for all the stuff that it can do.

The two are inseparable from a pragmatic standpoint, but current intellectual property law doesn't take that in to account. That is why you can jailbreak your phone without legal consequence, but Apple doesn't have to make any provisions in their software/firmware to allow you to do so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The real issue here, as I see it, is that Apple needs to be 100% consistent about its app store approval process, and exceedingly clear when they yank an already approved app.

Why are they yanking it?

In a case like this, the reason seems pretty clear cut "Because you used an unauthorized AirPlay key" - but the way the current system works, Apple doesn't have to give a reason, they just pull the plug.

I am an unabashed Apple fan, but I think this aspect of the platform is broken and wrong and I wish they'd change their policies.

For a much less clear cut yanking incident, check out all the recent news on how they did this to iKamaSutra, which had no stolen copies of anything and got yanked for no reason at all, AND they refuse to work with the publisher to fix whatever violations may exist.

</comment><comment><USER9> Everybody seems to be pilling on RA saying they should have known that using the unauthorized AirPlay key would cause problems.

But I think the real issue here is how Apple treats developers. Don't just rationalize what is happening because "RA should have known better". iOS developers need to start standing up for how their platform is run. If somebody doesn't make a stand soon, Apple is just going to keep shitting on you. Once Dev ID launches, and OSX becomes a walled garden just like iOS, the exact same stuff is going to happen. If Apple doesn't like you or wants what you have, they will simply shut you out. The only developers that stand a chance are big companies or loud bloggers.

I know you iOS developers love Apple more than life itself but have some pride in your platform and stand up for your rights for all of our sake.

</comment><comment><USER10> A great example of the tyranny of the App Store. Call me cynical, but Airfoil is clearly disruptive to Apple's plans to control all of your playback devices with AirPlay, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they've suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the "law". Extremely disappointing.

As great as Apple devices are, I fear a future where Apple controls every device in the home, because interoperability will be dead.

<comment><USER11> They used a stolen private key from Apple to fake their app as an Apple device, in case you didn't read the other comments...

<comment><USER12> Lexmark v. Static Control Components ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int%27l_v._Static_Contr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int%27l_v._Static_Control_Components) ) seems to suggest that even if they were using the "stolen" key, that such keys are functional, rather than creative, works, and not copyrightable. This is almost certainly a case of Apple abusing their powers as distributor to block legal software that they disagree with, because it interferes with their bottom line.

<comment><USER11> Of course, they didn't break the law (or they would've been trialed in a court, not merely yanked from the App Store), they broke App Store _rules_ and Apple had every right to yank them. I disagree with a lot of Apple's practices regarding the App Store rejections, but _no_ company in the world would've tolerated such thing (and rightly so).</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Measure items using iphone camera and paper pattern - <AUTHOR> Hi Guys and Gals, I have written a little iphone app (metoc) to measure things on the floor  and vertical heights using just iphone camera. You need a printed paper pattern on the floor to give scale. Not as fancy as the VR apps, but works with still photos. Accuracy typically within 10th inch near the pattern and around 1-2 % further away (but not too far). Website is metoc.xyz <comment><USER2> I'd suggest changing the title to "Show HN: Metoc, Measure items using iPhone camera and paper pattern" and making this story link to "[http://metoc.xyz"](http://metoc.xyz") instead of listing this introduction. That might allow your project to get a little more attention.

Cool stuff!</comment>


First viable compressed air car: get 200-300km per tank of air. - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/mar2007/bw20070319_949435.htm?chan=rss_topDiscussed_ssi_5

<comment><USER2> Compressed air has great power density, but awful energy density. I.e., you can unload power very quickly from it but can't store much at all.

Looking at this [http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4217016....](http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4217016.html) popular mechanics article, this engine uses 340 Liters of air (under STP) compressed at 4350 PSI.

If my math is right, that only provides a theoretical maximum of about 55 MJ of energy, which is about the same as about 1.5 liters of gasoline.

A combustion engine runs at about 20% efficiency and, if memory serves, compressed air engines at around 30%. But let's give MDI the benefit of the doubt and assume their engines are 50% efficient.

That means this car claims to be able to go 200-300KM (125-185 miles) on the equivalent of about 4 Liters (or 1 gallon) of gasoline.

Now, getting 150 miles/gallon isn't physically impossible, but it seems pretty difficuly and does raise some red flags to me. And that's assuming they have a 50% efficient engine, which _is_ extraordinarily unlikely. Assuming a 30% efficient engine, this car is doing the equivalent of 250 miles/gallon.

<comment><USER3> Maybe part of the explanation is that it's very light-weight - the car in the photo looks tiny, it says it's made of fiberglass, and my guess is that the engine must also weigh much less than a comparable internal combustion engine (you don't need as much metal to contain the combustion...).

Of course, that probably comes with a heavy price to passenger safety. Fiberglass won't give you any protection in a crush. That may be the reason why Tata is involved and not some European manufacturer. The Euro market has some serious safety regulations.

<comment><USER4> _Fiberglass won't give you any protection in a crush_

Damn, just put the tank of air in front. Any wreck will cause a mighty explosion balancing out the various vectors involved. I haven't done (and couldn't do, really) the math, but this seems perfectly reasonable.

<comment><USER5> Or use the compressed air to fill a whole vehicle airbag that triggers on items on a collision path.

This would mean that your safety systems are highly dependent on software and effective sensors, but hey, cheap car.

<comment><USER3> It would also mean that your level of protection depends on the amount of air in your tank.

As someone who chronically forgets to fill-up, I wouldn't like that idea...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "tubular chassis that is glued not welded"

Oh yeah I feel safe already. I wonder what its crash rating will be?

</comment><comment><USER7> That felt like reading a press release.

</comment><comment><USER8> Ok, we won't be burning gasoline in a vehicle, we'll be burning it to compress air when refueling.

For similar reasons I don't get the fuss about electric "zero-emission" cars. Zero? Like electricity just magically comes out of nowhere...

<comment><USER9> It's like software. If you cleanly separate the front-end and back-end it's very easy to tune and swap out the back-end without the user noticing.

<comment><USER8> Like your analogy! :) The bigger picture is that we're approaching an energy crisis. That's why gas is getting more expensive, and that is why there is even an interest in these cars to begin with: the message isn't to "separate front end and back end" but to appeal to people who want to _save money on energy costs_ , i.e. gasoline. But it won't work, because gasoline is just the medium, the real beef here is energy, and it's not going to get cheaper because we need more and more of it. It's not only gasoline that's getting expensive, my gas and electric bills are ahead of inflation as well.

"Solutions" covered by the press aren't really solving the problem, they're just shifting it around. "Wow! We have an air-powered car!" - without an explanation where the energy to compress that air is going to come from...

<comment><USER10> If you assume the problem is "Where will we find energy to sustain our current consumption rate?", then you're right: air-cars aren't a solution. Such a solution might not even exist.

But if you assume the problem is "How can we relieve market pressure on our most constrained resource?", air and electric cars _are_ a solution. The hope is that by diversifying the sources of energy used for transportation, we can continue to use oil for other purposes that we haven't found cost-effective replacements for yet -- like plastics and jet fuel.

So while the cars won't solve the energy crisis by themselves, maybe they'll buy us enough time to reach the "then a miracle occurs" discovery that does solve it. Or, failing that, maybe they'll help civilization make a slow transition to reduced consumption, rather than a sharp crash.

<comment><USER11> Materials science needs to get on the ball and invent Adamantium, from Marvel Comics. Then we can have compressed air-powered airliners.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Program Optimization for Automatic Database Result Caching (2017) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://adam.chlipala.net/papers/SqlcachePOPL17/SqlcachePOPL17.pdf <comment><USER2> I am curious how and if this system deals with concurrent modification of the underlying database by other processes. I can't find anything about that in a brief glance at the paper. That doesn't mean it's not a useful technique for a class of problems, but I guess most installations are going to have more than one client. I guess some sort of cache sharding might do the trick in that case.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't do this. MySQL removed result caching because it caused problems. [https://mysqlserverteam.com/mysql-8-0-retiring-support- for-t...](https://mysqlserverteam.com/mysql-8-0-retiring-support-for-the- query-cache/)

<comment><USER2> This is quite different from that. Read your link to see why: the mysql cache invalidated all cache entries if the underlying table changed at all, and only cached whole result sets. This program does things quite a bit differently, tracking much more than just "which table did this result set come from?"</comment></comment>


Microsoft Office 2013 set to debut July 16th - <AUTHOR> http://www.bgr.com/2012/07/13/microsoft-office-2013-release-date-july-16/

<comment><USER2> I wish they would just finally fix Powerpoint so it doesn't slow down and crash once you have more than 100 slides.</comment>


TheFunded to Open Startup Camp in San Diego--Eyeing Boston, NY, Paris & More - <AUTHOR> http://www.xconomy.com/national/2009/08/28/founders-institute-bringing-startup-%E2%80%98training-camp-for-entrepreneurs-to-san-diego-other-cities/

<comment><USER2> The Founder's Institute is great. Heard Adeo speak at Startup Idol and he was fantastic. Insightful, practical advice.

Really hope he brings this to Boston.</comment>


Around the World in Seventy-Two Days - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_Seventy-Two_Days <comment><USER2> Id like a transcript of the conversation with Jules Verne.

How many authors get to see their fiction become reality like that.

<comment><USER3> Why not read chapter 4 of the book? Free link on wiki.

<comment><USER4> Thanks, it's an interesting read.

Here's the link to the book - [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html)

And here's the dialogue they had: """ "Has M. Verne ever been to America?" I asked.

"Yes, once;" the answer came translated to me. "For a few days only, during which time I saw Niagara. I have always longed to return, but the state of my health prevents my taking any long journeys. I try to keep a knowledge of everything that is going on in America and greatly appreciate the hundreds of letters I receive yearly from Americans who read my books. There is one man in California who has been writing to me for years. He writes all the news about his family and home and country as if I were a friend and yet we have never met. He has urged me to come to America as his guest. I know of nothing that I long to do more than to see your land from New York to San Francisco."

"How did you get the idea for your novel, 'Around the World in Eighty Days?'" I asked.

"I got it from a newspaper," was his reply. "I took up a copy of Le Siécle one morning, and found in it a discussion and some calculations showing that the journey around the world might be done in eighty days. The idea pleased me, and while thinking it over it struck me that in their calculations they had not called into account the difference in the meridians and I thought what a denouement such a thing would make in a novel, so I went to work to write one. Had it not been for the denouement I don't think that I should ever have written the book."

"I used to keep a yacht, and then I traveled all over the world studying localities; then I wrote from actual observation. Now, since my health confines me to my home, I am forced to read up descriptions and geographies."

M. Verne asked me what my line of travel was to be, and I was very happy to speak one thing that he could understand, so I told him.

"My line of travel is from New York to London, then Calais, Brindisi, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York."

"Why do you not go to Bombay as my hero Phileas Fogg did?" M. Verne asked.

"Because I am more anxious to save time than a young widow," I answered.

"You may save a young widower before you return," M. Verne said with a smile.

I smiled with a superior knowledge, as women, fancy free, always will at such insinuations.

I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that my time was getting short. There was only one train that I could take from here to Calais, and if I missed it I might just as well return to New York by the way I came, for the loss of that train meant one week's delay.

"If M. Verne would not consider it impertinent I should like to see his study before I go," I said at last.

...

They clinked their glasses with wine, and wished me "God speed."

"If you do it in seventy-nine days, I shall applaud with both hands," Jules Verne said, and then I knew he doubted the possibility of my doing it in seventy-five, as I had promised. In compliment to me, he endeavored to speak to me in English, and did succeed in saying, as his glass tipped mine:

"Good luck, Nellie Bly." """

<comment><USER5> Good on her.

What I find interesting is that while J Verne's 80 days was inspired by the calculations of a news article, she was able to accomplish it in 72 and as the years went on the duration was whittled successively shorter attesting to the rapid progress and investment the world was making in transport.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can we visit the whole world in just 72 days; considering we have more than 190+ countries and a lot of VISA applications.

<comment><USER7> It's possible if you plan ahead; but that isn't what the author did.

<comment><USER8> I doubt this is possible. Maybe if you take helicopters to get from border to border and have all immigration officials ready to process you once you arrive.</comment></comment></comment>


Job spec for hackers in need of rapid iteration - <AUTHOR> http://blog.planely.com/planely-are-hiring-developers

<comment><AUTHOR> I should add that we're not looking for a team of hackers that are themselves in need of rapid iteration but it is, in fact, the job spec that could do with said iteration :-)</comment>


Euclideon Makes World's Most Realistic Graphics - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AvCxa9Y9NU

<comment><USER2> youtube at 360p wasn't exactly a great way to demo your product.

That being said, I'd love to see high res demos.</comment>


What is an Initial Coin Offering? - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608799/what-the-hell-is-an-initial-coin-offering <comment><USER2> > tokens aren't just stand-ins for stock—they can be set up so that instead of > a share of a company, holders get services, like cloud storage space, for > example.

How is that an attractive proposition? It means I get all the risk of buying stock in a new company, but none of the benefits. My money is gone if the company goes belly up, just like buying stock, but if the company does well, the best I'm ever going to get is some standard service. My token will never be worth more than whatever that service is worth.

<comment><USER3> > My token will never be worth more than whatever that service is worth.

Right, which is why ICOs seem to basically be digital commodity speculation. Still plenty of money to be made in that space. You're betting that the service will become more valuable over time rather than the company.

<comment><USER4> And there is zero financial regulation of "services" like there is financial regulation of companies.

It's the equivalent of speculating on the value of an item in World of Warcraft (Or some other mmorpg). At any point in the future the company will just change the game logic rules to make it worth less and forge a new item out of thin air worth more to raise more funds.

"Oh yes you have our A coins, but you need our B coins to do certain special transactions. Convert at this rate that's highly favorable to us. Or buy in to our B coins ICO and get in on the ground floor before we begin to phase our A coins out."

Don't purchase things where the other party can redefine what you own as it suits them.

"Buy this property from me, but at any point in the next 50 years I can come in and redraw the property boundary lines and keep what I carve off."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've always enjoyed Matt Levine's explanation of an ICO:

It's like if the Wright brothers wanted to sell you airmiles to fund their invention and development of the airplane.

</comment><comment><USER6> > What the Hell Is an Initial Coin Offering?

A fast way to lose money.

<comment><USER7> or make money. Depends which side you're on!

<comment><USER8> Either way it's gooing to be a great way to get in touch with the SEC from the wrong end of the stick.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Valid answers:

1\. A scam 2\. A fad / bubble 3\. An example of the reason why the SEC was created and why securities are regulated in the first place. 4\. An efficient way to lose your money

<comment><USER9> Do we have to make this comment on _every_ post about crypto on HN? Let alone the 5+ clone comments on this very thread?

This article already addresses this: "The scene does seem ripe for swindles and vaporware," but goes on to discuss it with more nuance. Perhaps we could do the same?

<comment><USER10> It's like it's 1992 and a bunch of Luddites are bashing this new thing called the internet because it's unregulated. All the while, failing to realize that the underlying technology has the potential to change the world for the better in a major way.

What happened to the maker spirit of HN, I wonder? I used to think it was the paragon of technological discourse, rather than simply a bunch of white collar workers all cozy with their barely six-figure incomes who think they are the beginning and end of innovation simply because they know how to string API's together and use google.

It makes me think of this community's nearly unanimous stance that code schoolers/bootcampers are bad hires and that a compsci degree is the end all be all when it comes to making a hiring decision. It's obvious that the devs who took a more traditional route feel threatened by the fact that learning to build applications is not as difficult as they think it is. If it was, code schoolers wouldn't be finding jobs in record numbers like they so obviously are.

And sure, ICO's are risky. It is probably not wise to put your life savings into one. So how do we make them less risky? What sorts of netsec lessons learned over the past 30 years can be applied to them to make them less so? How do we bring about the next major technological revolution and insure the future is something to look forward to rather than fear?

This community as a whole needs to climb down from its ivory tower and realize that innovative technology and ideas are what put them there to begin with.

I'm not saying we ought to blindly champion every new idea that pops up, but I do think we could be using our experiences to contribute rather than burying our heads in the sand and pretending that things can't or shouldn't change.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In most markets people have some understanding of the produce they invest in or they choose not to invest at all. In the markets of ICOs, the percent of money held by people able/willing to dive into both the technical and economic side seems to be a small percentage.

I wish I could back up that 'presumption' with facts. But my only real evidence is having seen maybe 3s ICO themselves and read accounts from people investing in them. There is just no explanation other than that people don't have the slightest clue what they're doing and have simply seen 'crypto investments pay big!'

</comment><comment><USER12> An ICO is one thing and one thing only: a scam.

<comment><USER12> To clarify, after YEARS in crypto, I have never seen a widely announced ICO really do anything revolutionary or wind up sticking around beyond the initial pump / dump and market manipulation period.

<comment><USER13> What about TenX? They have a debit card you can order now

<comment><AUTHOR> How is that revolutionary? There are APIs that do this already. [https://www.shiftpayments.com/](https://www.shiftpayments.com/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The ICO craze seems like perfect material for the TV show Silicon Valley, especially after FileCoin has become a real thing.</comment>


Perspective: 74% of UK tech companies are based outside of London - <AUTHOR> http://tech.eu/features/3905/from-tech-city-to-tech-nation-report/

<comment><USER2> Perspective: at least 95% of the UK population is based outside inner London (which is what "London" in the headline refers to).</comment>


'2 girls 1 cup' producer sentenced to 4 years in federal prison - <AUTHOR> http://cir.ca/story/ira-isaacs-sentenced/all <comment><USER2> The site is a little unclear: it appears he wasn't prosecuted for the "2 girls" video, but rather "hours of videos in which females engaged in sex acts involving human waste and animals." [1] His Wikipedia page lists some of the titles that suggest that a horse (horses?) and dogs were involved, as well as "evidence suggesting Isaacs' provided controlled substances to the actresses in his films to compel them to perform." [2]

[1] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264024/Ira- Isaacs-F...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264024/Ira-Isaacs- Fetish-porn-producer-sentenced-years-federal-obscenity-case.html)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Isaacs>

<comment><USER3> This definitely puts the original article in a different perspective. It also answers my question whether the jurors were forced to watch the material.

Governments solution to a man producing movies that sexually violate animals? Sexually violate 12 random jurors.

<comment><USER4> Potential jurors would have been told during jury selection about the movies they would have to watch during the trial, and those who said they would have trouble watching would have been excused.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand this at all. Why would one get sentenced to prison for producing an obscene video? Isn't all porn obscene? Aren't all horror movies obscene?

Don't get me wrong... I don't approve of the "artistic" qualities of the film, I find it very disturbing and disgusting, but that's not a reason to send someone to prison!

I guess if this is how the law works... let's imprison all the coprophiles in the world. Why not make a huge prison and put everybody in it because if you think about it, we are all twisted and sick in our own little ways.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's worth noting this is not the producer of "2 girls 1 cup", however he invoked it in his defense during the proceedings [1]

Not exactly sure what this gentleman "produced", but I won't complain if I never see it.

However, I'm a little torn (in principle) on "obscenity" laws if all acts were between consenting parties (obviously, beastiality is inherently non- consentual).

That said, our society has bigger fish to fry.

[1] [http://betabeat.com/2013/01/2-girls-1-cup-creator- sentenced-...](http://betabeat.com/2013/01/2-girls-1-cup-creator-sentenced- to-4-years-in-jail-for-grossing-out-entire-internet/)

<comment><USER7> > if all acts were between consenting parties (obviously, beastiality is > inherently non-consentual)

Consuming a filet mignon is non-consensual (as it regards the late beast, that is).

IOW, it should be at least as legal to fuck a cow as to eat one. After all, in the former case, the cow gets to keep chewing its cud.

<comment><USER8> You could argue that livestock farming for human consumption (i.e killing cows to eat one) is very different from raping cows. In fact, there are laws on how to treat and kill livestock (granted there are multiple documentaries showing how nobody cares about those laws...)

<comment><USER9> It is my understanding that artificial insemination is a very common procedure in modern livestock farming, and therefore one could argue that livestock farming for human consumption already encompasses rape at industrial scale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Disgusting as the video is, I'm pretty sure having a council of random citizens deciding what is and isn't "art" is the start of a slippery slope...

<comment><USER3> Worth mentioning that the court probably didn't take the consent of those random citizens into consideration before making them watch the material either. If that were the case, the government probably committed a bigger crime than the producer did.

<comment><USER10> Haha, good point!

At least everyone on the internet either knew what they were getting into, or had the option to close their browser once they realized what was up. Those poor jurors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I disapprove of your scatological pornography, but I will defend to the death your right to produce it.

<comment><USER12> defend to the death? What exactly will you do about it? Merely talking on HN doesn't qualify even remotely.

<comment><USER13> _In her biography on Voltaire, Hall wrote the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (which is often misattributed to Voltaire himself) as an illustration of Voltaire's beliefs.[2] Hall's quote is often cited to describe the principle of freedom of speech._

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

<comment><USER12> Perhaps I should have mentioned that I'm quite aware of the origin of the quoted sentence.

I was pointing out that talk is cheap.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > The jurors in the trial, as is the case with all obscenity trials, had to > sit through Isaac's films to determine if they merited any artistic value.

Oh. My. God.

</comment><comment><USER15> The 3-step test is a farce. All it comes down to is whether jurors think it's art. Here's a test for whether something is music:

1) Is it an animal?

2) Is it detergent?

3) Does it lack any musical value?

</comment><comment><USER16> He also produced bestiality films which may have prompted the obscenity conviction.

</comment><comment><USER17> Although I disagree with the verdict, I couldn't help but snicker at this part:

> "The jurors in the trial, as is the case with all obscenity trials, had to > sit through Isaac's films to determine if they merited any artistic value."

<comment><USER18> I snickered at this part: "Two previous cases involving Isaac's videos have resulted in mistrials. One trial ended because of publicity regarding the judge, who was found to have posted sexually-explicit material to a publicly accessible personal website."

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Do not google "site:nl 2 girls 1 cup". Should you so google, do not click.

You have been warned.

<comment><USER20> If you're giving a warning, at least explain what the danger is!

(it's cheaply made scat/vomit porn)

<comment><USER21> But if you do watch it, be sure to stay on-trend and post a video on youtube of yourself while you watch it ala Joe Rogan, and more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> You can get convicted for that ?

</comment><comment><USER23> WTF? Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?

This is an idiotic law that should be overturned. I hope they appeal and take it to the supreme court.

Why aren't the producers of SAW movies charged then?

<comment><USER24> Because the SAW movies are about killing people and thus leave nobody alive to testify?

</comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra We seems to be entering reactionary times all over the world.

Free speech, freedom of expression and sexual revolution are downplayed to whatever random old mom won't find embarrassing.

This is bad.

<comment><USER25> This is nothing new: In the 20's _Ulysses_ , considered by some to be the greatest novel in the English language, was banned for obscenity in both the US and the UK for decades. As long as people keep getting offended, people will keep banning things. It sucks and it's wrong, but let's not forget that the past was not some golden age where everything went without question.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Do not google "site:nl 2 girls 1 cup". Should you so google, do not click.

You have been warned.

But I should add, even if you so click, the result is less obscene than Carmen Ortiz!

<comment><USER26> I prematurely up-voted for the warning; but regretted it when I noticed the completely unnecessary Carmen Ortiz part.

<comment><USER7> OK. So she wasn't involved in the instant prosecution.

But she nevertheless is employed by the same corrupt organization.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to Begin Contributing to Open Source? - <AUTHOR> I've read that contributing to open source and building projects are great ways to demonstrate coding ability and get attention from recruiters.
What is the best way to begin contributing to open source as a less experienced developer (a university student with no real world experience besides building small Rails apps)?
Also, what types of projects should I focus on contributing to? Will contributing to something like Pandas set someone up for a more data focused role while contributing to a rails gem will be better for a full-stack or back-end role? <comment><USER2> What are you, personally, interested in? Where do your passions lie? What do you want to learn more about?

Try to build something, anything, it doesn't need to be complicated or awesome or even original, that scratches a personal itch. In the course of doing so, you'll gain experience using other people's code. Perhaps you'll run into a bug using their code. _That_ is one of the best ways to get started. It's a small change and you gain experience figuring out how other people write code and interacting with the maintainers.

Or, perhaps one of your favorite pieces of software has some annoying thing it does, or some missing feature you really want. (If you aren't a _user_ of open source software, now is a great time to start!) Try to fix whatever it is that bothers you / or you consider missing.

Above all, do not be discouraged if your change gets ripped to shreds or outright rejected. That's known as learning ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> Since you're interested in getting attention from _recruiters_ , let me tell you my best tip that will get your email flooded with recruiter spam: open a linkedin account and fill it with bullshit skills that sound trendy.

You'll start getting emails from recruiters within the week with the canned text:

"I stumbled upon your resume..."

Never fails brah!!

</comment><comment><USER4> Read the issues for the repository, pick one, and try to figure out what the problem is, and what the solution is. As you progress, you can report on your findings.

It's ok to fail, the journey is the important part here. Eventually it helps you get to the point where you can actually start making impactful contributions.</comment>