Stratfor emails reveal nationwide surveillance system operated by the government - <AUTHOR> http://rt.com/usa/news/stratfor-trapwire-abraxas-wikileaks-313/?header

<comment><USER2> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4358020> <\- A few comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4369172> <\- More comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4367967>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4369287>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4369993>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4369205>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4370011>

<comment><AUTHOR> That's disturbingly pedantic and self-righteous.

<comment><USER2> Of course it's nothing to do with seeing the same thing posting over and over again, and it's nothing to do with seeing discussions split over multiple submissions, and hence the same points being made over and over again. It's nothing to do with trying to make HN better, and trying to cross-reference things to help people keep discussions in one place, and seeing other submissions from other sources that may make the point in different ways. It's nothing to do with trying to help people find information.

Course not.

<comment><AUTHOR> I assumed there would a justification along those lines. But it certainly helps no one to beat a dead horse like that in a submission with zero upvotes. If reposts really bother you that much then message PG to write up or commission an auto-repost suggester.

<comment><USER2> So is it better to wait for a post to get a few upvotes, get to the front page, start to accumulate a discussion, and _then_ point out that it's already been submitted and discussed?

<comment><AUTHOR> You should consider that a.) two or more discussion for a major topic is actually appropriate and that b.) You can't, nor should you, control the flow or location of commenting on a particular subject. That will be determined by the community as a whole. As for reposting duplicate links, again, that is an issue that will be solved only with better software.

<comment><USER2> (b) I can't, nor do I try to control the flow or location of commenting on anything, let alone a particular subject.

(a) If it's appropriate that two or more discussions for a major topic take place, that will be determined by the community as a whole.

I don't force the discussions to happen in only one place, I just point out that other discussions exist. I don't control anything here.

      > As for reposting duplicate links, again,
      > that is an issue that will be solved only
      > with better software.

Which won't happen, and in turn is why I point out when it happens so that people are better informed.

Your response is starting to intrigue me. Is it simply that you are disappointed to find that your first ever submission was not unique, and had already been discussed elsewhere?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask YC: Thoughts on remotely cofounding a startup (in India)? - <AUTHOR>

A friend has asked me to start a startup with him and a third friend. They plan to do this in India and I can't join them for at least a year. The are o.k. with me working remotely (albeit full time) on it. It seems to me that doing this could be equivalent to accepting all the pain and frustration without being able to fully participate in the good parts. I don't know if this is accurate.
I have two questions for news.yc:
What is your take on working remotely on a startup? (Especially if you've done it yourself)
Has any of you started a startup in India? What have been some of your good and bad experiences? Is there any aspect of doing this in India that seems especially harder than elsewhere? (I am from India but in the US now)
Here are the reasons I am even considering this:
- I really really really want to do this - My cofounders are awesome. One of them is one of my best friends and independently, the first person I would think of hiring even if he wasn't a friend. - The problem space we would be working on is very promising (I know the idea can/will change) - We have got some really encouraging responses from experienced entrepreneurs about need to solve the problem we are trying to solve.
The cons:
- My cofounders are committed to doing this in India for personal reasons. I am not in a place in my life where I can move (back) to India for another year. - I would be working alone, full time. - The time difference between EDT and IST is 9.30 hours which means we would have at most 6 hours and realistically 3 hours of overlapping time every day unless I sleep during the day and work at night. - Bangalore is going down the drain in terms of infrastructure (roads, traffic, real estate prices) and there is hardly any startup ecosystem in any other city (correct me if I am wrong here) <comment><USER2> Where's your market ? And what kind of product is it ?

</comment><comment><USER3> you have asked many questions ... startup scene is not bad in india - the VC fundings are also available there ... apart from that you need to decide by yourself whether you can commit time and energy that can add value to your friend's dream. also if you are in US then you can also take advantage of all the startup programs and apply for it to see whether you can get launching pad. you may also explore about incorporating your company in USA to leverage benefits (if any). Also communication with your partners will be the key ... all 3 of you will be required to be on the same page as far as vision of your product/service is concerned. Lots of time will be invested in tele- conference, also make sure how you are going to get your partner equity, keep everything on paper and legal so that you dont face any problem in the future.

EDIT: it also depends what role you're going to play from here, will you be a main hacker? if yes, then you will be busy in communicating to your partners - if you are going to handle online sales, marketing and PR from here then it could be easy and fast due to broadband connection and other infrastructure.

All the Best !!!

</comment><comment><USER3> by the way - if you are going to work full-time (from here) then how are you going to survive? do you have enough savings? i think you must have plan-b ready just in case if things go wrong ...</comment>


Our first app: One month on the iOS App Store - <AUTHOR> http://log.burningrobot.com/post/15352652288/one-month-on-the-ios-app-store

<comment><USER2> Congratulations! I went through a similar process with my first app as well. A few things I'd recommend:

\- Use appfigures.com and appannie.com to track your sales and rankings. They provide much nicer reports than those provided by Apple. Also, they'll tell you if reviews come in, and even translate them for you. I'm personally addicted to the hourly ranking updates from AppFigures.

\- Never stop promoting. Do something (even if it's something small) every day to raise awareness. Getting on the front page of Hacker News is an excellent start! But don't stop there.

\- Get a 'press kit' of screenshots and descriptions to send to popular app review sites and tech writers etc. Many will ignore you, but the hits are worth it. A great review in AppAdvice completely turned around my app's fortunes.

\- Don't bother with AdWords - at least at the start. Generally the price per click and the conversion rates won't support the revenue you would get from an app sale. Some people spend big on AdWords to push their rankings, but that's not a reliable way to make money.

\- Expriment with pricing. Price changes are quick and easy to make. Don't be afraid to raise your price. You might be pleasantly surprised by the result. And if it doesn't work out, you can lower it again. I found I got fewer cranky reviews when my price was higher. but YMMV.

\- Continue writing honest reports about your app's progress. We see so many news items about huge successes and huge failures, it's a good corrective to see how a 'normal' app fares.

\- Work on your next app. I just launched my second app in the store and while I'm still not making enough to live on, it's great to get twice as much money coming in.

\- Have fun. Building something of your own and selling it is great. You might start resenting your day jobs, though.

<comment><USER3> I recommend using Appviz 2 for sales analytics. It is Mac specific and doesn't contain any Call Home functionality so it is good to go.

<comment><USER4> I second this; I've been a happy user since v1 of AppViz. Might want to try out AppSalesMobile if you want the figures on the move.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> (a) This is great. I've been using Maps+, which is a really impressive little app, but it's complexity often makes it cumbersome. Yours is very barebones, but in playing around with it, that's an asset.

(b) With (a) in mind, there really needs to be a way to plot to/from somewhere other than (what the iPhone thinks is) your current location.

(c) It would be great to be able to see bike lanes, but I understand how much extra effort that would require; so don't sweat it, but if this _does_ rise to the level of a business...

(d) Get rid of the icon-sheen in the App store. It's not enabled on the actual phone icon, and it looks so much better that way. It looks cheap with the sheen in the App-store: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4087500/does- itunes-store...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4087500/does-itunes-store- always-put-sheen-on-512x512-image-when-submitting-iphone-app)

<comment><AUTHOR> a) Glad you like it. Simplicity was a goal. b) Yes, totally agreed & in the works. c) This will be in the next release. d) We actually have a ticket in with Apple to get this fixed. There's nothing we can do on our end. Terrible.

Thanks for the honest feedback!

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the link to distimo.com analytic, I'm looking into it. My marketing suggestion: contact blogs that a cyclist would read, blogs by/for cyclist or even a blog by a boutique bike shop. Perhaps some will write about your app.

<comment><USER7> <http://dcrainmaker.com> comes to mind

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I love postmortems! Could you give more details on the app...how long did it take to develop? How many people worked on it? Did you outsource parts of it? Any ongoing costs (eg, APIs etc.)? Any interesting side stories?

Also, what would you say is your total estimated cost for making the app from start to finish?

<comment><USER9> We're a team of 2. I do all the development. All the work was done in-house... no outsourcing. The app, icon, and website were all us.

It took 3 months to get to version 1.0. We worked on it part time, nights and weekends. There were some big gaps as life and work got in the way. It was my first iOS development experience, and I had only dabbled in Objective-C previously, so most of that time was getting up to speed with the language and framework. I primarily work in Ruby.

There are no real ongoing costs. The website is completely static, so hosting is negligible. We use Google's local search and directions APIs. Both of them are free at our usage levels.

It cost $99 for the Apple developer license. That's all the capital all we invested. The rest of it was just time.

<comment><USER8> Awesome, thanks for the details. You mentioned only dabbling previously, any tips on learning iphone app programming quickly? What tools/things did you use to learn? Any recommendations? Did you use any books/guides?

Finally, did you use a mac pro or imac? and if it's relevant, does the glossy screen cause eye strain when programming for extended periods?

<comment><USER9> I still remembered a decent amount of C from high school & college (I'm just old enough to have snuck through before Java took over CS). I brushed up on the ol' K&R and then read about 2/3rds of O'Reilly's Programming iOS 4 book.

Apple's documentation and sample code is excellent, and really nicely integrated into XCode. Once iOS 5 came out, I learned almost exclusively from there. Of course, Stack Overflow is great for very specific gotchas and questions.

I did all the work on a MacBook Pro, with glossy screen, usually plugged in to a 27" Apple display (also glossy). The gloss doesn't cause me any problems unless I sit in very bright sunlight, but all things equal, I would prefer matte. Xcode is a bit of a pig, so it definitely does best on a big display.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> On thing you may consider doing, if you aren't already, is using one of the many libraries available which ask users to rate your app.

In the last release of one of my apps I implemented one of the libraries and I saw the amount of ratings soar. Especially the positive ratings.

<comment> k-mcgrady I second this. I added 'AppiRater' (<https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater>) to one of my popular apps which users weren't reviewing. As soon as I added AppiRater the number of reviews increased a lot. I also noticed that it didn't increase the number of negative reviews which was a surprise.

<comment><USER11> If you do it right, then yes it will help your reviews. I suggest actually using iRate (<https://github.com/nicklockwood/iRate>)

The advantage of these libraries is that you can ask at a specific time, say the tenth launch.

<comment><USER12> As you can do with pirater. You can also set a time limit, a combination of both, remind the user again, or give them one change only. AppiRater is very flexible, not sure what iRate offers over that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Nice. Congrats on getting your live app in the store. It is a great way to get hobby projects out in the open. Plus I get nice sense of completion when the app goes live.

Sometime soon I'll post a sales breakdown for my latest app. For me getting reviews written on sites like MacLife and AppAdvice made all the difference for sales.

<comment><USER14> > _For me getting reviews written on sites like MacLife and AppAdvice made all > the difference for sales._

How so? The initial traffic from those sites? Other sites picking up the story? Ongoing SEO benefits?

<comment><USER13> The review from App Advice generated enough sales to push Commit (<http://thinklegend.com/commit>) into the top 25 productivity apps. Which got it even more sales.

Unfortunately I can't tell how many came from App Advice, only the total number of sales that day (600).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Congrats on releasing.

Question: When you submit an app for approval, can you tell them the exact date you want the app to be officially released in the App Store?

<comment><USER16> They give you an option of putting in a release date, or immediate release after approval.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Congrats on your app launch! I've been sharing it with all my biker friends. :) Thanks for sharing this info it is very valuable info! You mentioned the disconnect when someone transitions into the App Store. I was wondering if you are signed up for Apple's Affiliate program and using your unique affiliate link on your websites App Store button. Would that give you any more idea of what is going on inside the App Store?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks so much. We have not tried this...but you've motivated me to take another look at it. Do you know anyone who's used it?

<comment><USER17> I do not. I'm in the process of getting my own app developed and in my research I found that if you sign up for the iTunes Affiliate Program (www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/) , use your unique link where ever you send people to the iTunes Store or App store and you get a commission on anything they buy within a 24 hour session or until they click another affiliate link. So even if they don't end up buying your app if they buy anything you'll get a commission! So, make sure you include affiliate links inside your app too.

I'm not sure what type of analytics they provide back to you for any purchases or activity but hopeful it's something to overcome the data disconnect once inside the App Store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't really like your website. Specifically the image of the iPhone. It's a good size but most of it is the iPhone bezel. There is no way to understand specifically what the app does and how by looking at it. Make it the full iPhone height and add obvious arrows to let the user manually progress through a 3 step "this is what it is" in the form of images.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for the feedback!

<comment><USER19> The site won't even load for me. I've been trying on and off over a few hours... What gives?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, so sorry for the trouble.

You can check out the app in the app store: <http://bit.ly/Bike-Maps-App>

<comment><USER19> Safari 5.1.2 on Lion. It times out (the same happens in the latest Chrome, too).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Pardon me if someone else mentioned this but... have you thought of a free version with ads? You can use IAP, In App Purchase, to go to the paid version without the ads. This skips the App Store "no information" wall by not going to the App Store at all.

</comment><comment><USER21> Congrats with the app :) And thanks for sharing your experience. You're high up on HN, so your marketing skillz are improving. Just keep marketing your app and work on the next one.

</comment><comment><USER16> You mentioned you're using google's directions API, what is this doing differently than the walking directions in maps? Doesn't that include bike paths, passages etc?

<comment><USER9> Google uses different algorithms for walking & biking. For example, you can walk in either direction on a one-way street, but you can only bike in one direction.

The bike directions prioritize streets with bike lanes and low traffic bike boulevards. With walking, really any street with a side walk will do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Thanks for sharing! I'd be interested in a follow-up to see how this Hacker News discussion affected your sales too.

<comment><USER9> We're currently #46 in the Top Paid apps for the Navigation category, so I think it's safe to say that the influence has been substantial. We won't get to see actual sales numbers until tomorrow morning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> That is very cool, thanks for sharing!

Are you doing any marketing for it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. So, we had a $100 credit from Google to use on adwords. That was interesting but not something that would work if we had to actually pay for it. In terms of other marketing, Apple gives you 50 download codes so we handed those out to local bike businesses & nonprofits.

Our experience is that people rarely redeem the download codes, but will often reciprocate kindness. Our biggest sales came when we gave some promo codes to a bike courier company, and they tweeted about the app to their 3,000 followers.

Aside from that we comment on some of our favorite cycling blogs with our url. That's it. Suggestions?

<comment><USER24> A small press kit with some screenshot of the app that you can send to blogs and biking websites. I would use your promo codes with bloggers rather than bike businesses, unless they have large followings like the courier company.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Thanks for sharing! What are your experiences with Distimo?

<comment><AUTHOR> We were interested in Distimo their reporting on rankings. Unfortunately, you have to be in the top 200 (it seems) to get ranking info. Appfigures is better for this. They do hourly rankings (thanks to ajlburke for recommending it, we just signed up today).

They do have a nice dashboard and the site is easy to use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Great app, thank you for sharing those data

</comment><comment><USER27> Thank you for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER28> Awesome stuff,

       Hopefully word of mouth among your existing user base continues to pick-up along with your daily sales, but you are already off to a great start.

</comment><comment><USER29> Very good example of why developers are dumb for writing mobile apps. It makes zero business sense with the exception of the very few who sell hundreds of thousands.

Apple screws the developers and we all bend over. What a joke!</comment>


Show HN: Web app to track Coronavirus with city/state breakdown and graphs - <AUTHOR> https://corona.help/ <comment><AUTHOR> I wanted to improve my coding skills and decided to work on this small part- time project. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Please let me know if you'd like to see more features. I'm looking further on improving it.

</comment><comment><USER2> Good work! What tech stack are you using?</comment>


Why You Should Build a Web App - <AUTHOR> http://feint.me/2010/02/why-you-should-build-a-web-app/

<comment><USER2> Please do _not_ build a web app if all text is going to be in unreadable italics. It's used for _emphasis_ , not making it look 'slanty'.

<comment><USER3> Seems like a problem with your browser, works just fine in safari.</comment></comment>


YouTube's Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net (2009) - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2009/10/youtube-bandwidth/ <comment><USER2> How does this pair with Netflix's announcement that they're slowing down their streaming in the EU?

Something I've thought about is that Netflix gets paid a single subscription fee, and in return they have to provide unlimited video streaming for a month. There is no incentive to keep you watching other to make sure you stay interested enough in subscribing again for the next month.

Youtube, on the other hand, gets paid for every video you watch through advertisements. There's no limit on how much profit that can be made from a user in a given month, and so there is a heavy incentive to get you to watch as much content as possible, as there's no cap on the maximum profit possible.

<comment><USER3> > There's no limit on how much profit that can be made from a user in a given > month

There are only so many minutes in a month

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Google's traffic is approaching 10 percent of the net's traffic, and that it's got so much fiber optic cable, it is simply trading traffic, with no payment involved, with the net's largest ISPs."

Clever, so it really isn't free, it's like they bought an ISP and are spending all it's revenue on the cost of bandwith.</comment>


Prostate Cancer Breakthrough - <AUTHOR> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7096959/Prostate-cancer-breakthrough-New-treatment-seek-destroy-tumours-avoid-chemotherapy.html <comment><USER2> What deactivates the Lutetium-177 after the targeted cancer cell is dead?</comment>


Ask HN: Any up to date tutorial on writing a basic compiler using LLVM in C? - <AUTHOR> I tried a lot of resources by they are either for a different language (C++, OCaml, ...) or are not up to date so I cannot even run them with LLVM 5. <comment><USER2> Can you write a parser in C? Can you use a library in C? Because I don't think it's any different for LLVM than to combine the two (that is, if LLVM exposes C API at all). What problems exactly did you encounter?

<comment><AUTHOR> I can write a parser in C and can use a library in C. LLVM exposes a C API but I could not find any type of documentation/sample/tutorial for using it. There are some articles on the Internet but (those that I tried) don't work with latest LLVM.</comment></comment>


Emulating Windows system calls in Linux - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/Articles/824380/ <comment><USER2> There was a follow up a few weeks later: [https://lwn.net/Articles/826313/](https://lwn.net/Articles/826313/)

<comment><USER3> Let's make this the URL? I think the resolution makes for a more interesting discussion, and it does still talk about the provisional design in brief.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This seems like it would be a lot of maintenance effort to get right, considering Windows shuffles their syscall table every release, including releases within the Windows 10 family.

[https://j00ru.vexillium.org/syscalls/nt/64/](https://j00ru.vexillium.org/syscalls/nt/64/) Has an excellent table of syscalls by version.

<comment><USER5> If applications are calling these syscalls directly; then there needs to be some form of stability; otherwise, the applications would only work on the particular version of Windows they were compiled for.

<comment><USER6> That stability comes from the C interfaces of the Win32 API implemented by a DLL like kernel32.dll.

I think when the article is talking about Windows system calls, it's about the interface between the kernel32.dll and the kernel, not about the Win32 API.

<comment><USER7> The syscall api is in ntdll.dll (and user32.dll for win32k.sys calls). kernel32 does not know the syscall numbers, it just calls functions in ntdll.

<comment><USER8> Before, it used to be user32.dll/gdi32.dll calling directly while also having tons of logic inside.

Nowadays, it's split up as it should always have been, with the path being user32.dll -> win32u.dll -> win32k.sys.

<comment><USER7> Ah yes forgot about that. The kernel side has also been split up into win32kbase.sys and win32kfull.sys/win32kmin.sys (I think win32kmin may have only been used for the now discontinued Windows 10 Mobile), and win32k.sys just calls into those.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Despite having coded for Windows for quite some time, I realized I had never actually peeked that low before, so didn't have a good understanding of how system calls really worked.

Found this article[1] which explained it nicely (and hopefully correctly).

[1]: [https://www.codeguru.com/cpp/w-p/system/devicedriverdevelopm...](https://www.codeguru.com/cpp/w-p/system/devicedriverdevelopment/article.php/c8035/How- Do-Windows-NT-System-Calls-REALLY-Work.htm)

</comment><comment><USER10> Since calling syscalls directly instead of through the wrapper dll is unsupported, I wouldn't be surprised if MS prevented syscalls from outside the expected libraries at some point.

OpenBSD already does this to improve security: [https://marc.info/?l=openbsd- tech&m=157488907117170&w=2](https://marc.info/?l=openbsd- tech&m=157488907117170&w=2)

<comment><USER11> I'm a bit at loss how this improves security or why it is necessary. If the kernel needs an external library as gatekeeper, something fundamentally went wrong.

And why would, say a Lisp compiler use the C library (or to use a more popular example, why would a Java VM do the same)? It might be common practice (to ease FFI/JNI), but making this a requirement seems heading the wrong direction.

<comment><USER10> > I'm a bit at loss how this improves security or why it is necessary. If the > kernel needs an external library as gatekeeper, something fundamentally went > wrong.

It's not about defending the kernel from the user mode process. It's a mitigation to make exploiting usermode RCEs like buffer overflows a bit harder by possibly preventing some forms of ASLR bypass.

MS might do it in part for security, but likely aloo to prevent people from relying on unstable implementation details, which makes changing those details harder for MS because they try to avoid breaking popular applications.

> And why would, say a Lisp compiler use the C library

On unix based systems libc doubles as (part of) the OS's API. BSD in particular has no stable syscall interface, code must go through libc. Its libc doesn't even have a stable ABI across major versions, which is annoying if you're not using C. Non C languages are clearly second class citizens on BSD.

Linux on the other hand does have a stable documented syscall interface, so you are allowed to call the kernel directly, without relying on any OS provided usermode libraries.

On Windows it's similar to BSD, but you have to go through different OS provided libraries (at minimum ntdll, usually the Win32 API). At least these have a stable ABI. On Windows libc is little more than just another dll.

> but making this a requirement seems heading the wrong direction.

I disagree. IMO an OS provided dynamically linked library is a great abstraction boundary. It allows the OS to change its kernel interface or even turn operations that previously needed to transition into the kernel into purely usermode functions.

For example the OS might provide a mutex which in the first version transitions to the kernel on every lock attempt, while later it's replaced by a futex based implementation which only transitions on contented locks.

Or more relevant to the linked article, it allows implementing the same API on a completely different kernel (like Wine does), without increasing the kernel's API surface.

<comment><USER12> > IMO an OS provided dynamically linked library is a great abstraction > boundary.

In theory, yes that's true. In practice it's a question of whether it actually reduces anybodies work load. If everybody respected the boundary I sure it would reduce Microsofts work load.

But as has been reported repeatedly here, that's isn't how it's worked out in practice. Not only do applications not respect it, Microsoft finds itself in the position of having to ensure some of those applications keep working on newer kernel versions despite the fact they've wilfully violated the rules. So we end up the Windows GUI having to expose with "compatibility levels", and users having to deal with it. That doesn't sound like a win to me.

There are other ways of doing it that wouldn't suffer from that fate. Trampolines (a page the kernel creates in user space that intercepts some syscalls) is one way that Linux uses. I don't think Linux does, but it wouldn't be hard to insist that any syscall come from those pages. Do that and you have your cake (low overhead user space mediating some calls), and get to eat it to (you can safely assume every one uses it).

<comment><USER13> Except that the Windows applications that do use syscalls directly (i.e. anti- cheat software) are intended to break when something changes. It's part of their way of defending against tampering. It's also part of why they need to be continually updated and why some old games won't work at all on newer OSes until a patch is applied to hack out the anti-cheat engine.

If syscalls were stable, they'd just try to use some other means to obfuscate their OS calls and ensure it's sufficiently fragile as to break easily if something changes.

tl;dr the lack of stability is a feature not a bug for this use case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Windows applications are increasingly executing system calls directly rather > than going through the API

I didn't know this. What applications are doing this and why?

<comment><USER15> Anti-cheating libraries used in games seem to be the primary culprits, and they're doing it this way because their purpose is to break things while resisting the user's attempts to make things work nicely.

<comment><USER16> A bit off-topic, but do you happen to know if there is a way _on Windows_ to intercept syscall instructions? (aside from dynamic analysis/recompilation/etc.?) If there isn't, I assume that's why cheat engines do this?

<comment><USER15> I think it's inherent to the SYSCALL instruction that control gets transferred directly to the kernel and ring 0, with no possibility of intercepting in userspace. So on Windows or Linux, you need kernel help to redirect/intercept syscalls.

<comment><USER16> I asked this as a Windows question rather than an x86 question. I was wondering if there's any Windows API that could help with this. (This includes kernel APIs.)

<comment><USER17> The PicoProcess model used by the first WSL worked by intercepting syscalls (among other mechanisms). It wasn't generally available for consumption by developers other than Microsoft, though.

The gnarlier antivirus will do a similar thing by just patching the IDT and syscall MSRs, but that's a bit frowned upon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Interesting, I would also look into if the usemode-helper function can maybe used to re-map syscalls and proxy them through a wrapper library just like LD_PRELOAD but done at the kernel level after this, every process will load the wrapper lib (not just every glibc process) much like windows programs load user32/kernel32.dll.

Is this feasible or am I misunderstandig the feature?:

[https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelProjects/usermode-helper- enh...](https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelProjects/usermode-helper-enhancements)

[https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/security/Kcon...](https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/security/Kconfig#L198)

<comment><USER19> Oh, nice, so start an app that doesn't use libc (e.g., a golang app) using ptrace(2) to control it, inject code to intercept system calls, mark the app's text as requiring syscall dispatch, then stop ptracing. Presto: LD_PRELOAD for libc-non-using apps. Granted, to make this easy to use the interceptor should be able to use normal LD_PRELOAD objects, which means bootstrapping ld.so and libc, which is going to be very difficult to do.

<comment><USER17> This is how User Mode Linux and gvisor work more or less (albeit with the 'injected' code running in another process entirely). It's also how a kernel I'm writing works in a port that works like user mode linux (in addition to the ports on native hardware).

The issue is that ptrace is unreasonably slow (orders of magnitude slower than just regular syscalls), so they'd want the fast normal path to not go through ptrace. But they don't have a way to communicate that to the kernel at the moment.

<comment><USER19> And this scheme gets you a fast path.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> If the firsts comment, [https://lwn.net/Articles/824494/](https://lwn.net/Articles/824494/), is correct, and this can be made secure, I'm excited that this could mean a much more maintainable/easy-to-upstream version of Capsicum/CloudABI.

<comment><USER20> Not really. Capsicum provides an actual security architecture (capability- based security), as opposed to a ad-hoc bandaid mechanism.

<comment><USER3> Yeah to be clear I would rather see a proper implementation. From the LWN thread I thought Linux didn't have a personality system so this might be a stop-gap way to make a lighter weight implementation, but somebody commented that it in fact does (if barely), so that should be used instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Linux used to be able to run Xenix and SCO UNIX applications- I have not tried this in years, but I'm wondering if the mechanism can be shared such that any OS can be emulated.

<comment><USER12> Linux still can: [https://sourceforge.net/projects/ibcs- us/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/ibcs-us/)

That's my project. I also did the port of iBCS to amd64, which is what ibcs-us is based on.

I moved the support out of the kernel because the rate of change of the internet kernel API's makes maintaining invasive kernel modules like this is just far too much work. Every time I looked at the kernel the way syscalls worked internally changed in some way, and broke ibcs64 as a consequence.

Decades ago Linux had full on support for other syscall interfaces via it's personality mechanism. See personality(2). Most of the functionality has been ripped out as kernel internal API evolved. I'm guessing maintainers noticed the personality stuff wasn't used and so it was easier to delete it than port it to their new shiny API.

At the time I thought that would be a disaster for iBCS. Now after porting ibcs64 to user space, I think personality(2) was the wrong way to do it. Turns out iBCS is mostly glue that emulates foreign syscalls using Linux equivalents, and as ibcs-us demonstrates that kernel space glue runs equally well in user space. It should not be in the kernel, where it bloats things and could introduce security holes.

Once you realise the glue code can run anywhere, there is only one problematic area remaining: directing the foreign syscalls to your user space glue code. Here ibcs-us could really use some kernel could really help to make it both fast and safe, but it's a use case that apparently hasn't crossed the Linux kernel dev's minds.

This is exactly the same problem the Wine developers are having, and are trying to solve in these LWN articles. To me their solution looks like a horrible kludge. That isn't a criticism. I don't see how anything that tries to make minimal changes to the kernel is going to be anything other than a kludge.

If you want to do it properly, you need to add some mechanism to the kernel that lets user space redirect whatever syscall method is in use to a user space trampoline page. There are any number of syscall methods out there: int's, sysenter's, lcalls. The kernel has to provide a way of trapping each and redirecting them to the trampoline, but once they are there they are the emulator's problem. Mostly. The emulator then needs a second mechanism to make the real Linux kernel syscall that isn't redirected. One way to do that is to say "syscalls from within this address range aren't to be emulated". I'm guessing that's what OpenBSD does now, but replace "aren't to be emulated" with "are allowed".

This could be thought of as a way of the kernel providing a way to virtualise it's own syscall interface. There is no need to stop at one level either, as there there is no good reason one virtualised interface shouldn't end in another trampoline, unbeknownst to it. So a Xenix 286 emulator could be running inside of a Xenix 386 emulator running on Linux. It would be lovely for ibcs-us of course, but LD_PRELOAD's, virtual machines and yes even Wine all want to do the same thing, so it is a broadly applicable use case.

<comment><USER21> So I remember a big use case for SCO UNIX was small governments (like at the town level). Do you still see such users of iBCS?

Anyway, this seems like a very good idea. It provides a very general light- weight VM mechanism.

<comment><USER12> > So I remember a big use case for SCO UNIX was small governments (like at the > town level). Do you still see such users of iBCS?

I don't know who they are, which is the normal situation in the open source world. The few I've interacted with seem to use Informix. I, well the company I work for, is the only exception I've met to that.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where can I get a whole project reviewed? - <AUTHOR> Often when learning a new programming language I am be interested in getting an expert review on a non-trivial project. I looked at using code review stack exchange but it seems to only be used for small snippets of code. Happy to pay for a review as I recognize reviewing a whole project by an expert is unlikely to be free. Anyone know of sites which do this? <comment><USER2> That's a really good question. I've found it's really hard to tap into a senior developer's attention span for any sort of short term work that isn't something they are already working on. To get some non-trivial insight, you're not only asking them for the work you're specifically looking for, but also the context switching necessary to level up on your code base and the work necessary to prepare whatever output you'd be happy with. In some sense, it's like asking someone to live in your home long enough to develop their own thoughts on how they like your home, and what changes they might make. It's hard problem to solve.

Another approach to consider is simply not worrying about it too much, only worrying about making serious quality improvements when the project starts to get traction. I once asked a senior engineer for their thoughts on how to test a very specific type of coding approach, and their response was that it didn't really matter until the code was important enough that it needed to be taken seriously.

For me, I'm banging on an Elixir app this weekend. I'm intentionally moving slowly on it because I'm working on refining my approach to how I structure and test the code. In many ways, I find going super deep on a fairly small thing makes it easier for me to find patterns that I'd like to replicate else where. So I'd say my approach to finding code review is to simply budget time to become my own reviewer. Another benefit of this approach is that I often find I develop thoughts that are efficient to communicate, and then I'm able to share them with coworkers as the opportunity arises. My better ideas tend to start getting adopted by others, and then they get better at reviewing my code.

For Elixir, I've also found people who are interested in pairing on the Elixir Slack channel. [1] Consider looking around with your language or framework of choice to see if there's a community where you can find people interested in pairing with you.

[1] [https://elixir-lang.slack.com](https://elixir-lang.slack.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> Obviously paying a professional will get you the best results, but otherwise, you can also try to post a link to a GitHub repo in various IRC channels popular with programmers. It can be a fun or even ego-boosting exercise for programmers to "redline" code in their spare time, so you'll probably find some willing to take a look for free.

<comment><USER4> This actually sounds like a cool business idea to me. I wonder if there's a market for code-reviews-as-a-service, where you match people up with programmers based on the bid amount.

<comment><USER5> I know of at least one person who offers a code review service (specifically for Python).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I loathe being so blatantly self-promotey on HN, but since you asked: this is specifically a thing I do.

Skim my profile and follow up by email if you want to figure something out.

</comment><comment><USER7> One free way would be to find a strictly governed open source project in the language/framework and start contributing fixes. You'll get practical code reviews, meet people in the community and give back to open source.

</comment><comment><USER8> Go on those freelancing sites ? You should be able to find someone with xxxx+ hours in your language/framework and invite to your project.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been on some before but never seen a code review job post, but yeah that's a good idea and I guess that would work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've seen some of the 'high profile' people within my tech stack offer code review. You could find someone who has a blog or does talks in your given area and see if this is something they actively advertise (or just ask them).

</comment><comment><USER10> The only service I've seen for this is [https://www.pullrequest.com/](https://www.pullrequest.com/). Seems more for teams but it may work.

</comment><comment><USER11> I would consider doing it. What's it worth to you?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hard to say, which is why I was kind of hoping for a site dedicated to this kind of thing. ddorian43 is right though, I suppose I could just use a freelance site.</comment></comment>


Finland is about to start using crowdsourcing to create new laws - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/europe/online-crowdsourcing-can-now-help-build-new-laws-in-finland/

<comment><USER2> So if the majority in a specific city or state wanted to pass laws denying minorities or women the right to vote, would it still get passed?

The founding fathers of the US knew what they were doing when they wrote the constitution.

<comment><USER3> The Finns need to look at what a mess California's initiative process has made of their state, legally and budget-wise. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_ballot_propo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_ballot_propositions)</comment></comment>


Nootrobox wants to boost your brain power with vitamin D - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/22/nootrobox-wants-to-boost-your-brain-power-with-vitamin-d/ <comment><USER2> This seems to be based on crappy science. Although studies show that low vitamin D status is linked to poorer cognitive abilities, studies also show that vitamin D supplementation has no effect whatsoever on cognitive abilities.

Most likely it is another factor causing both the lower vitamin D status as well as cognitive decline (such as lack of outdoor exercise).</comment>


U.S. Poised to Announce $13 Billion JPMorgan Settlement - <AUTHOR> http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/justice-department-poised-to-announce-mortgage-deal-with-jpmorgan/ <comment><USER2> Yet again, this is just the cost of doing business, and no one is going to prison.

If what they didn't wasn't so illegal, they wouldn't be paying $13 billion to settle. If they settled for that much, the damage to them, either the bank itself, or the executives could've been 10x greater if they went to trial.</comment>


Industry Predictions - <AUTHOR> http://michaeldehaan.net/post/144299807022/industry-predictions <comment><AUTHOR> A couple of the more pertinent bits:

> We're using way too many computers for simple tasks.

> We live currently in a world that believes in scaling out things VERY wide > with very inefficient code.

> We should also recognize that a lot of office overhead at software companies > has reached soul-sucking epic levels.

<comment><USER2> The third will never be solved. MBA love to suck the souls of everyone below them on the chart. In fact, that is what they live on/for.</comment></comment>


Amazon Acquires Social Reading Site Goodreads - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/amazon-acquires-social-reading-site-goodreads/ <comment><USER2> This acquisition makes so, so much sense. I have a goodreads account, but I never update it, mostly because it's too much time. If it were well-connected (or synced?) with my Kindle, I would use it literally weekly.

<comment><USER3> My biggest complaint about Good Reads is it's confusing user interface. I would really use it a lot more if it was a little less clunky to use.

<comment><USER4> Have you found a good alternative? I'm interested in a service like this, but I haven't been able to find anything better.

<comment><USER3> No, it really is the best service out there currently, mostly because it has the most number of people on it. I think it would be amazing if Amazon can integrate the Kindle with it and improve on some of the annoyances.

<comment><USER5> > I think it would be amazing if Amazon can integrate the Kindle with it and > improve on some of the annoyances.

Amazon have a _terrible_ reputation when it comes to user interfaces.

There are some amazing things about Amazon. I use Amazon often. But the website sucks; search is pretty much broken (it's like web search used to be); Kindle ebooks sometimes have laughably terrible typography.

<comment><USER6> Disagree! While eBook typography is a gimme — can't disagree there — Amazon.com is one of the most usable sites out there. Sure, Krug's book _Don't Make Me Think_ is a bit old, but there's a reason he kept using Amazon as an example of whom to copy. They have good UI design because they had to in order to win online commerce. Flows like reporting problems with orders are very well thought out and guide you to the proper next action, whether you are starting from the the page of the product you ordered or your account history, for example.

Similarly, I don't know anyone who is very confused by Amazon property IMDB.

Amazon.com search may not be as good as Google's, but it isn't the worst thing ever. I will agree they still need to work on relatively basic things like spelling correction. But remember A9? Amazon have certainly invested in search. And certainly their book search is worlds better than GoodReads' is! Basic things like "hitch-hiker's" vs "hitchhickers", IIRC, have tripped up GoodReads search, but don't make as much a difference on Amazon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hopefully they will invest in development of the actual site. Its ui is inconsistent, sometimes confusing, and at times very slow. While they support many many use cases, the workflow for a simple thing like "add a book I am reading and the start date" is needlessly convulted. I also don't like how they prioritize the English version in the results even if you search for another / the original language. Especially in the latter case, the original should be highlighted. And you can only mark the edition your read, not the language explicitly.

<comment><USER8> All that's true, but it's actually one of the reasons I love the site. It's got a funky, homemade feel that I find quite charming. Part of the reason that I'm comfortable contributing my reading information to the site (~500 books so far) is that I don't feel like it's being sucked into a corporate borg. This past year I've been trying to get away from Amazon by replacing the Kindle app on my phone with Moonreader, so I'm really sad to see Goodreads get assimilated.

<comment><USER9> If funky and homemade is your thing, there's always librarything (which also has a real business model, so not likely to get swallowed up any time soon.)

<comment><USER10> Apparently, Amazon holds a 40% stake in Abebooks which owns LibraryThing. From Pandodaily, "Amazon already owns Shelfari as well as Abebooks, which bought a 40-percent stake in LibraryThing in 2006, so it owns all or part of three of the top social-reading sites."

[http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/28/amazon-bought-goodreads- but...](http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/28/amazon-bought-goodreads-but-it-wont- break-it/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A mail from a year ago (29/1/2012).

We want to let you know about a change on our site that is impacting some of the books on your shelves. It's important that you read this and take action by Monday, January 30.

For years, we've used Amazon's data for information such as the book title, author, and publication date. Unfortunately, the terms required by Amazon have now become so restrictive that we decided it makes better sense to work with other data sources. However, the deadline to make the transition is Amazon's, and they have told us that we must stop using their data by January 30. We have to meet this deadline.

We've been adding data from other sources and now know which books still need help. You are receiving this email because we need new sources for 2 of the books on your shelves.

First, please be assured that none of your reviews or ratings are in danger. Not a single review, comment, shelving, or rating will be lost in this transition. We have a system in place to preserve your reviews and comments for any books at risk until we can find new sources. That's the most important thing—your data is 100 percent safe.

What can you do? The good news is you can rescue your books. Saving a book is easy. Just click the "Rescue Me!" button next to each book edition that needs help, and fill in the information on the following page. A few keystrokes can help preserve these books for millions of future readers.

Rescue your books!

It takes only a few clicks, and you will be doing your part to make sure these books remain available for other readers like you. We appreciate the passion you bring to Goodreads, and we apologize for the short notice. If we could have prevented this inconvenience in any way, we would have done it. Ultimately, this change will be better for the members of Goodreads and long- term success of the site.

If you don't want to rescue your books, you can also export your books to a spreadsheet so you have a record of them.

All the best, Otis & Elizabeth Goodreads Founders

<comment><USER12> It's weird, playing hardball with your platform for the purpose of forcing an acquisition. Do the BD & corp dev folks here think they are going to retain the founders for long, after this kind of behavior?

Then again, Tony Hsieh is still at Zappos, right?

<comment><USER13> It seems kind of paranoid to suggest that Amazon would manipulate an API that's so central to their business for the purpose of forcing an minor acquisition. Not to mention it would probably be cheaper to just buy the target for a few million dollars.

<comment><USER12> They cut off data access, right? That sounds exactly what has happened multiple times with other companies to drive an acquisition. I bring up Zappos because Amazon forced a sale there. All they needed to do was threaten a "diapers.com" where they forced an acquisition in that case by (unsustainably) undercutting prices. Companies manipulate their platforms constantly to achieve their business goals.

Also, only the paranoid survive.

<comment><USER13> Goodreads is not Zappos. They are at least an order of magnitude apart in size, if not two, and Amazon is larger now too.

Making large strategic plays makes sense when you're talking about a purchase that is a large percentage of your own company's market value. It does not make sense for a tiny buy. This would be like refinancing your mortgage to buy a Big Mac.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I agree that it makes a ton of sense for both companies, but how they integrate it is going to be very important. My wife and I don't use a number of Kindle features (including the current built in review feature) in part because we share our Amazon account. But, I am a big GoodReads user.

If Goodreads just gets attached on a per device basis (like Twitter), then it's no problem, but if it gets integrated with the Amazon account itself (as some people seem to be suggesting) then I don't see how we (and many others like us) could use it.

<comment> k-mcgrady Is there a reason you both use the same Amazon account? I'm interested because we see this problem crop up every now and then. Apple ID's are another place it's been problematic. With Apple I can understand sharing the ID so you can listen to each others music collection but what are the benefits of sharing an Amazon account? Prime?

<comment><USER15> I would assume the main reason is to share Kindle books.

<comment> k-mcgrady Good point, should have thought of that. Possibly music and other media too. I always forget Amazon sells so much digital content.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The lack of integration with my kindle is a large part of why I don't use Goodreads as much as I might otherwise but I'm kind of disappointed that it will take a buyout to get that integration rather than Amazon creating an api that would allow third-parties to integrate their services with the device directly.

<comment><USER17> It's a shame that Amazon didn't invest in creating a Kindle API rather than buying an existing service. I built <http://kindred.it> to load up my highlights via xpath because I was so frustrated with the kindle.amazon.com UI - it seems they could benefit much more from creating an API and letting great services be built rather than acquiring what will likely be Shelfari mkII.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Not surprised. Goodreads is for books what IMDB is for movies (which Amazon also owns). It'll nicely complement Amazon as a recommendation engine to push buyers to amazon to purchase books (which it already does). I use goodreads to track books that I want to read at some later point; and have used it to discover new books.

Atleast I'm glad it was Amazon vs "Any Other Big Corp" because I believe that Amazon will keep the service alive vs shutting it down or trying to absorb it somehow.

<comment><USER19> This isn't a good analogy. IMDb was and is literally the best source of movie data anywhere. It is more useful to think of them as Wikipedia for movies since the community maintains the info and includes data that isn't available anywhere else.

Goodreads is the largest community of book readers in the world and so they would be able to provide their tools for book groups and conversations about books that Amazon is sorely lacking.

<comment><USER20> That isn't a good analysis. I have found wikipedia itself to be the best source of movie data. For all titles I've searched (and not always mainstream or US releases), wikipedia has a better summary, a better plot description, more release info, and a better page layout. Perhaps it doesn't list all the production details such as who was the key grip, but you can easily jump to all the major cast and producer/director wiki pages. It just seems more complete and easier to read. Imdb now seems too specialized, like it's for the movie industry itself.

<comment><USER21> That might be precisely what the OP meant by 'best'. To me the distinction they make seems important and not inconsistent with what you've said.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Book Depository getting more popular than Amozon? boom, they buy them.

GoodReads having better Google positions for books than Amazon? boom, they buy them.

I am personally a little afraid of this monopolistic behaviour. But hey, capitalism, I guess...

<comment><USER23> A lot depends on what they do with the companies they acquire.

Lots of people were afraid of what would happen to BookDepository post-sale, but pretty much none of that has happened. (I'm particularly grateful that free worldwide shipping didn't disappear!)

<comment><USER22> Their definition of "free" is fun though.

Try some proxies and simulate visiting the site from different places .... yes, their prices vary based on from where you visit it, so they add the shipping to the basic prices.

<comment><USER23> Prices sometimes also change depending on which site you're visiting. Generally these are just a few pennies, but I've seen differences of more than two or three pounds between the .com and .co.uk prices for the same book, even though theoretically they should be exactly the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I think this is Amazon's third purchase of a social book community.

</comment><comment><USER25> Maybe Amazon can turn Goodreads into an actual recommendation site and use the full capabilities of its databases and search facilities.

To this day, since I first joined near its founding, I am astonished that there is still no way to search for the highest rated and voted books within a genre.

Instead, one is left to rely on heavily skewed "Lists" or "popular" books or their (annual) Award system.

In short, at this time, Goodreads for books is far less useful than say, IMDB is for movies. I actually find Goodreads _less_ useful than Amazon itself for recommendations!

</comment><comment><USER26> I was never a big reader of books before I joined Goodreads. I spent a lot of time reading tech books (mostly programming related) but never fictional books. Since joining Goodreads and enjoying the social aspect Ive read so many more books. I really hope Amazon doesn't destroy this service

</comment><comment><USER27> Nobody's talking about Shelfari, which hasn't changed since 2008 when Amazon acquired it. It got frozen in time.

<comment><USER28> Not exactly true, I use it often and small features are being added to it semi-regularly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> So....Shelfari is going to die now? I guess the team there with Shelfari couldn't cut it with making a good Book data site.

<comment><USER7> I never knew this one! Looks simpler than Goodreads, I like it. But it has the same bias towards the English edition of a book, not even highlighting the original even if I searched for it. I wonder what's gonna happen to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I used to be one of the engineers on shelfari. The team was kept mostly the same 4-5 guys from before acquisition and we worked on incremental stuff - integrating with Amazon sign-on, better meta data, lot's of minor UI things like better threads, series info etc etc.

</comment><comment><USER31> Besides Apple, I see Readmill [1] as another serious competitor. It provides the social integration on top of an ebook reader. However it's lacking in its catalog selection.

[1] <http://readmill.com>

</comment><comment><USER32> Makes a huge amount of sense for Amazon, but honestly I can only see this as a bad thing for Goodreads. Amazon has huge issues with reviews of the fulfilling company getting blended in with reviews of the actual product, and there's another layer added with media - quality of the content, completely separate from the build (pages falling out, horrible OCR, etc).

Goodreads has reviews of _content_ quality. Amazon will muddy that immensely with reviews of every other part of a sale if they do any integration into Amazon (unless they plan an overhaul of their reviewing architecture - I'd love it, but I doubt it).

<comment><USER23> I'm hopeful that if they integrate the reviews at all (and I'm not sure they will — I suspect there's a different plan here), it'll be solely in the Goodreads→Amazon direction.

Amazon have a fairly good history of letting the companies they acquire stay fairly autonomous and independent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> If I can link my amazon account and have it load all of my books into goodreads that's great. Otherwise, I still won't use goodreads because I have too many books to enter manually and I'm too lazy.

</comment><comment><USER34> How is this a good thing for readers and other book retailers ? Will we still be able see links to buy books from a number of different retailers such as B&N or Indigo ? I doubt it.

</comment><comment><USER35> Goodreads and Amazon were two places I used to go to check out book reviews. Now I can get best of both in one place. Makes a lot of sense for Amazon to buy them.

<comment><USER23> Have they said that they're going to merge those?

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I'm a sometimes Goodreads user. I'd use it more if it weren't maddeningly slow.

One thing that I had noticed about Goodreads was that Amazon was always at the bottom of the online store referral list. Because of that, I took them to be Amazon hostile or adverse (perhaps reading too much into that). But, I went to the site today and now Amazon is at the top of the online store referral list.

</comment><comment><USER37> I'm not looking forward to this. The best community was just bought by the company that killed text-to-speech in their product in favour of making hundred of millions on audiobooks. Welcome to your new garden prison, online book community. Enjoy the complimentary bookmarks.

</comment><comment><USER38> Personally I think Amazon have just purchased this site for the data.

Goodreads has a fairly reasonable recommendations engine based on the book collections people have inputted into the site, so I'd imagine that information might be very interesting for Amazon to capitalise on.

<comment><USER13> I'm guessing Goodread's data set on book collections is maybe 1/1000th as large as Amazon's. They're more likely buying them for the community of heavy readers and the team.

<comment><USER23> The collections on Goodreads are generally more comprehensive than those on Amazon. I've added over 750 books on Goodreads, but fewer than 10% of those were purchased through Amazon.

<comment><USER13> You're talking about the actual user-generated lists. Amazon also has the data on what all of their users have actually bought over time. (Hundreds of millions vs Goodreads millions.) That's what they use to create purchase recommendations, because it's higher value data than manual user-generated collections.

<comment><USER23> Yes — Amazon certainly has significantly more data, but Goodreads' data is deeper, because it's not restricted to items bought from Amazon. Goodreads has a much better picture of what I read than Amazon could ever get simply from my purchase history (even if they cross-match with bookdepository). Being able to mine the Goodreads data too should enable them to make even higher value recommendations. (Note: I'm not claiming this is why Amazon bought them!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I hope they don't murder the site.

<comment><USER40> Did Woot get murdered? No.

Did Zappos get murdered? No.

Did Quidsi get murdered? No.

Did Shelfari get murdered? No.

(Note: I'm biased.)

<comment><USER41> Woot got a little murdered. It ain't like it used to be.

<comment><USER42> How so?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Awesome. I love Goodreads. I hope this helps them make it better.

<comment><USER44> What happened to other social reading sites like Shelfari that got acquired by Amazon?

Amazon has a strong motive to prevent any alternate review service from gaining traction as those Amazon reviews drive sales.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I wonder if this will have an effect on Google's current scraping of goodreads reviews to fluff-up their books section on the Play store...

</comment><comment><USER46> Now if Amazon will just buy LibraryThing and Discogs I can beam my obsessive library catalog consciousness up into the Amazon mothership.

<comment><USER47> They are 40% of the way there with LibraryThing: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibraryThing>

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Probably a dumb question ... But how does this give superior recomendations to amazons normal recomendations?

<comment><USER49> It doesn't. The selling points are A) the social component (what are my friends reading?) and B) keeping track of books I want to read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> time for me to close my goodreads account I guess...

</comment><comment><USER51> About time.

</comment><comment><USER52> First Shelfari which Amazon bought 3 years ago and now Goodreads.

In three years there's been no updates to Shelfari and that was my biggest peeve against Goodreads - lack of update) and absence of even a half decent mobile app(I use Android).

So, looking at Shelfari's fate one can say that Amazon has bought it for anything but continuing the development and doing sth about it's questionable interface.

Hope LibraryThing stays afloat. Would like to move my data there. Just in case.</comment>


Quantitative Data Cleaning for Large Databases [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/jmh/papers/cleaning-unece.pdf

<comment><USER2> Have there been any black hat/white hat discussions of these sorts of techniques? I.e., how to detect intentional biases introduced into a dataset, faked lab data?

Most of what I remember about this is from the book "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. Comparing different studies against one another is the gold standard for determining a study's reliability, but of course there isn't always the luxury of having an independent dataset for comparison.

Assuming the data-faking party hasn't been completely stupid and has produced fake data following the expected distribution around each data point, the only thing that comes to mind off hand is Benford's Law: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why does HN create a Scribd link for every PDF posted?

<comment><USER4> HN's owner (YCombinator) also owns a stake in Scribd.</comment></comment>


As an email client, the iPhone is approaching the popularity of Gmail - <AUTHOR> http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/post/2839/email-client-popularity-june-2009/

<comment><USER2> Gmail is going to be massively undercounted by their methodology -- not just because gmail users are less likely to view the PR-spam their clients send, but simply because gmail blocks images by default :)</comment>


Show HN: Phosphorene Nanoribbons - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/we-accidentally-created-a-new-wonder-material-that-could-revolutionise-batteries-and-electronics-115347 <comment><USER2> Cool stuff. Something always fascinates me about things that are just a few atoms/molecules wide. Especially things you can see and hold in your hand like the edge of a flint knife. Are these nanoribbons something you can see or feel in any way?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sure they're like carbon nanotubes (i.e. sure if you make enough, it becomes visible and tangible on the macro scale [1]).

It's an interesting thing - the desire humans have to physically sense the microscale and beyond.

1\. [https://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=2035.php](https://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=2035.php)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Are there any summer intern/full-time job for communication PhD student? - <AUTHOR> My wife is graduating as a inter-personal communication majored PhD student. Her site is here: https://wenjingpan.github.io She has done top-tier research and also projects related to Facebook UX as well as online news credibility. She also has strong statistical analysis and experimental design skills. However, under the current environment, it seems that she has to study a CS related degree to find an industrial job. I just want to help and ask all kind hacker friends here what are some relevant jobs/internships that she (a communication majored student) can consider applying? Thank you! <comment><USER2> Does she want to do data analysis with programming?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes I believe so, as she is currently learning python and data analysis.</comment></comment>


Baba Is Y'all - <AUTHOR> http://game.engineering.nyu.edu/babaisyall/ <comment><USER2> If you have a chance to try it out, "Baba is You" is one of the most interesting puzzle games I've ever played. The puzzles are distinctly programming-like, or at least exercise similar modes of thought. The central conceit is that the way to beat each level is by changing the rules that apply to it, which are manifested as physical blocks that you can push around. It is available for Switch and from Steam:

[https://www.hempuli.com/baba/](https://www.hempuli.com/baba/)

<comment> dane-pgp It's also "distinctly programming-like" in the sense that the game rules are Turing complete, as discussed here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19905741](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19905741)

<comment><USER3> Thank you so much for this recommendation. I was looking for some kind of educational game to keep my 8-year-old occupied, and just downloaded this and it's so awesome.

<comment><USER4> Is it accessible to an 8-year-old? I haven't played it, but a lot of adults seem to find it quite challenging.

<comment><USER3> so, he did pretty well up until level 7, but then it starts to get a bit too hard. I wish they had an easier version for kids. It's okay though, if I sit with him we can figure it out together, but I now agree it's slightly too difficult.

If you want a puzzle game that is great for kids, I recommend ThinkRolls by Avokiddo. But all these computer games end up crowding out other stuff that I'd rather they spend their time on, and it always spirals out of control unfortunately.

<comment><USER5> For what it's worth, I am an adult that spent way too much time playing video games as a kid. Like, I started around the age of 5 and consistently played hours and hours every day. I think for the most part it's not too adversely affected my life (besides some remedial catch-up on social skills in college) and I think I even learned some pretty good lessons from them. I would encourage your kid to be an active gamer (i.e. teach him how to add to a games content or lore, or even become a 'script kiddie' as they used to be called.) That said, video games are just like any other hobby with the added benefit of hand eye coordination.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm just getting the title 'Baba Is Y'all' and three buttons. That's it. Do I need a specific browser or OS for this? (Firefox on Ubuntu Linux)

<comment><USER7> It looks like there is a MySQL error breaking the game. View the source for the page and you'll see "PHP/MYSQL Error : ". There's also a "PHP/MySQL Error : whoops" message if you try to visit the sign up page.

<comment><USER8> You don't have to view source, the error message is just black on black: try to select some of the screen at it will turn up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sign up is broken.</comment>


I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup - <AUTHOR> I spent 276 days trying to figure out what to do with my life, I still don't have an answer.
I have no experience in programming, nor do I have delusions about becoming an elite programmer. I just would like to learn enough to have a better filter to notice/process ideas as mentioned here: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
I have decided to commit to learn programming at a base level, enough to possibly make prototypes/potential to find co-founder.
I left a previous job that paid well for many years because 1.I wasn't talented and 2.I did not see my life as being fulfilled down that path.
A couple points for your consideration
1. I have over 1mm liquid, and I have no debt, don't own a house or car. This may be tacky to mention, but since I am anonymous, I just wanted to put it out there out of desperation in hopes someone can give me some solution (wishful thinking).
2. No one depends on me, I have as many hours as there are in a day to work on this.
I started doing some html work on code academy, it seemed a bit slow and thorough for what I'm trying to do. I looked at Zed Shaw's courses, and they seem like a good idea, but I'm not sure if it's overkill (or underkill?) for what my goals are.
If any of this makes sense, you would SIGNIFICANTLY help me by giving me guidance to help achieve my goal.  I don't want to waste time learning things that I really won't need to know (near term).
I have searched much, but not knowing what I need to know, it is hard to discern what is and isn't necessary. (In terms of the base goal).
Maybe I am not cut out to be a founder.  But I do know that reading pg's essays make my mind run wild, and I find instant inspiration and excitement in his writings.  I have spent 276 days trying to figure out something else, and nothing is jumping out at me.  So it's about time to make some sort of a commitment. For better or for worse. <comment><USER2> In my experience it is not unusual that an intelligent, ambitious, and creative person finds themselves at a crossroad in their late twenties. Perhaps it began in adolescence, even childhood, where they knew that they had an above-average intelligence and a mind open to possibilities -- but, at the same time, a grave sense of self doubt existed, which only grew year by year as ambitious projects floundered and others (who to appearances were less intelligent or at least less imaginative) thrived. This can reach a crisis point in the late twenties, when the options for avoidance begin to dry up -- and one is faced with the increasing reality of finding work, starting a career, etc.

This can be a frightening moment -- but it is also a liberating moment, viewed correctly. At this point the self's ego-image -- the set of core beliefs about who you are, what you are destined for, how 'intelligence' and 'success' are defined -- come into conflict with the reality principle. This is naturally a very painful moment (drawn across months and even years). It is also an opportunity to redefine these core beliefs -- to reexamine them -- to ask yourself what are your fundamental assumptions about intelligence, creativity, success.

In my own experience, and watching similar-minded friends, this crisis point is a fundamental conflict between what we THINK intelligence, creativity, and genius is -- and what we actually see in ourselves. On the one hand we "know" that we are smart, imaginative -- on the other, the reality principle demands proof and evidence. But here is the paradox: this very belief in intelligence creates its own contradictions. For example, if you believe that smart people are smart because they do clever things easily -- then your brain can start to believe that if you find something hard to do, it is proof of your stupidity. The brain then finds ways to avoid this painful conflict between ego-image and reality -- by dreaming up great ambitions and projects, but then shying away from realising them. Or, you can develop an aversion to "lesser work" -- which reinforces a belief that you are innately special and "above that".

The problem is in the core assumptions one makes about worth -- examining these assumptions deeply, being open to see the paradoxes in them, the hypocrisies even, can reveal avenues out of the situation. You can find practical things to do -- this in turn can build real confidence, not ego- confidence. Work seems then less like 'drudgery' and more like the slow and steady strengthening of your powers.

Just some thoughts...

<comment><AUTHOR> _"For example, if you believe that smart people are smart because they do clever things easily -- then your brain can start to believe that if you find something hard to do, it is proof of your stupidity. The brain then finds ways to avoid this painful conflict between ego-image and reality -- by dreaming up great ambitions and projects, but then shying away from realising them. Or, you can develop an aversion to "lesser work" -- which reinforces a belief that you are innately special and "above that"_

This is me. It seems very complicated to overcome such a thing, as some of the assumptions seem rational. What do you deem as 'practical things to do'? (Or do you have any examples of this?)

Also thanks for this. I don't know what to say, but this hits home rather hard.

<comment><USER3> My advice would be do something seriously FUN as a first project. Do you have a hobby that could be a springboard? For example, I love Radio-Controlled stuff. So a project could be arduino controlled R/C car/drone. A little coding and a little wiring with real results. It's not trivial, but it's not over the top difficult either. That's my example, but try to get a concrete project to tackle. You will learn what you need to learn in the journey to finish it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I did build a custom, fully watercooled computer with flow/temperature monitoring and custom fan control from scratch. Custom wired and designed and overclocked to 5GHZ. Although it's just a computer, it actually took quite a bit of extensive planning and research. Not sure that it really did anything for me, I don't tend to give myself credit for anything for some reason. I figure if I can do it, it must not be too hard.

But yea, maybe that is a good start. I need to shrug this feeling of worthlessness that I carry so heavily. Maybe these are the baby steps needed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi!

I've tried to do what you, and after about 6 months of trying to get myself to fully code, I fell flat. But I still really wanted to build a business and have slowly realized what I enjoy most - finding the easiest route to acquiring customers by building a MVP.

I now have a team of 3 (biz dev, web dev, and UI) could build you an MVP for around $15-20k. It will help you validate a lot of your assumptions and help flesh out any idea you may have.

More importantly, I believe it will help you jump start the journey of what you want to focus on. You will get exposure and advice to the 3 core elements of starting an internet business - web development, business development, and user experience. Which, if all done properly mean acquiring customers.

Contact details in profile if you're interested! Good luck either way!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your support. I will keep your contact info, and keep it in mind as I progress down this path. Hopefully I will be in touch soon.

<comment><USER4> Happy to help. Even if means just talking on the phone to understand better what you want to do! Everyone's passionate about something different.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was in your position financially and career-wise - just hated what I was doing. Gave a little thought to coding but decided I had plenty of money to just hire people to complete the project. Went to every dev firm in the US who I thought had the skills. Most quoted around $25k - which would be great but I dint believe they could do it.

Instead went to a firm in SV that wanted $54k. They had worked on a large prior project so I thought they could get it done. They couldn't even get the first milestone complete after giving then two times the allotted time. Fired them.

Finally found my own people and launched 5 months ago and going great. I would suggest finding some good people on HN.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm very happy to hear that you're doing it. For a very long period, I started to give up hope (and I had never even attempted anything). I would very much like to find some people here. Can you say what you are working on building?

<comment><USER5> It's very difficult to find good programmers. I would suggest finding someone on HN that has a very good rep and using him to sort through and find quality ones. One of the biggest challenges is that, even when you find quality programmer(s), most will attempt to outsource to crappy devs. I found out that the sv dev firm I hired, outsourced to $4.50 hour ukraine devs on odesk.

<comment><AUTHOR> Same thing happened to me when I tried to outsource a slot machine app to a company on Odesk in India. Was ridiculously dumb to try and work with those guys.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is going to sound like an insult, but it truly isn't:

In my mind, you obviously don't want to a put a lot of research into it -- as if you did, you'd just read everything you could, and get an MVP going -- instead of posting this. Don't worry, I'm often the same way. I suppose it's a sense of urgency.

So you might look into DevBootCamp (<http://devbootcamp.com/>). It doesn't mean you have to be an RoR programmer forever, but you gain coding skills and contacts in a relatively short amount of time. You have the cash and time.

<comment><USER7> I expect DevBootCamp to fail like all other things with which Michael Staton is involved. Staton is the type of entrepreneur who screws over countless other individuals in order to achieve his own success; he pretends to help edtech companies with the sole goal of advancing his own agenda, and his own product -- Inigral -- is rarely used by the universities or the students who pay for it. All in all, Michael Staton is one of those wantrepreneurs who advances because of his success as a "socialite" (in his own words) rather than any prowess, intellectual ability, or entrepreneurial talent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> >I started doing some html work on code academy, it seemed a bit slow and thorough for what I'm trying to do.

Upon reflecting on my professional life, I found that most of my problems were caused by trying to run before I could walk. I needed to learn patience in order to make myself into the person that I desperately wanted to become (These days, I'm still working at it, but I'm making great progress). The crux of the matter is that it's easy to think of awesome things to make, but hard to put in the time to learn how to make them. Take the time to learn, and although you may find that what you wanted to make is not achievable, you will see other possibilities and opportunities open up for you.

With regard to beginner-level resources, I have had some great success with oreilly's headfirst series (<http://shop.oreilly.com/category/series/head- first.do>) They provide an excellent, quick, entry point into a subject, and enough base knowledge that you can expand on your own (and you will have to - they're beginner books). Combine these books and your future learning with diligent note-taking (via Evernote) and you will have a searchable and very useable database that will serve you well.

Good luck, and I hope it works out for you.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hey how's it going?

Sounds like you're in a great spot to pursue a goal, as soon as you've settled on what you'd like to do.

How did the programming go over the past 276 days? (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3964837>) How did your prototype come out?

I somewhat agree with cjbenedikt about investing. The issue though is that without actually experiencing startup or being in the trenches with technology it is harder to filter/process ideas that people talk to you about.

You're cut out to be a founder if you are consistently applying effort to improving yourself as an entrepreneur/in business. Persistence is key, because that way you can eventually navigate all the obstacles to building a successful company, something I've managed only to a minor degree.

I won't presume to give you any advice besides that. What I can help you out with though is getting a solid start to learning how to program. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, especially related to programming (front- end, back-end, software, architecture, mobile, games... anything) at kevin.stubbs at therubyhouse dot com.

P.S.

With apparently all the time in the world, don't worry about learning too much programming. Just work your ass off at it and you'll be a fair enough programmer for your needs soon enough. (I prefer overkill courses too.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Kevin,

I never committed to it. I spent time questioning whether this was right for me, wavering between this and that, giving up, almost going back to work at what I was doing before. There have been some very dark days between then and now. I know nothing more about programming now than I did then. Every time I would sit down to start, I became overwhelmed and then didn't do anything. The recurring thought is 'there is just too much to learn'. 'The people getting into Ycombinator are Harvard/etc.. grads, why do I think I can compete'. These are illusions to some degree, but definitely kept me from making a move up to this point.

Thanks for this advice, I'll definitely follow up.

<comment><USER10> Honestly, if you can afford to spend a year learning to code, put the startup on hold, and just write some code! Instead of focusing on "I need to build blog software," try to think about it as more of an iterative process.

Part 1:

1) Create a database

2) Manually input test data

3) Make a page to list all of your posts

4) Paginate your posts

5) Give your posts permalinks and their own pages

Part 2:

1) Create a simple login system

2) Create a page that lists all of your posts

3) Create a page to add new posts

4) Create a page to edit posts (you can reuse the "add new posts" code)

5) Create a page to delete posts

6) Allow posts to be scheduled in the future

Part 3:

1) Use the same method above to allow users to sign up for your blog and post comments.

This is exactly how I learned to code. I started with a small core problem ("I want to display posts from a database") and started tacking on features one- by-one. There was no end goal, no todo list, no lofty requirements -- just me seeing how many features I could build by myself.

While you could certainly find a benefit in moving to the Bay Area and networking or joining a "learn to code" program, I think there's a lot to be said for just sitting down and churning away at a project like this. Once you get the hang of things, you can pick up contract work, which will both offset your living expenses, and let you improve your skill on someone else's dime. It has the added benefit of forcing you to work on problems you might not normally encounter, like parsing email sent to your server.

Mainly, before anything else, coding should be fun. If you get yourself into the swing of things, you'll have a hard time _not_ working on your startup.

<comment><AUTHOR> First, thanks for the specifics here, it is very helpful to someone like me who is grasping at a starting point.

Second, I so want to believe that this is true. Even if I could just make 1k/mo, my stress level would go from 9.5/10 to 0. I've been told so much by my parents that I'm a fool to pursue such a thing, that I'll fail etc... I think it's really ingrained in me that it would take nothing short of a miracle for me to succeed doing this. It doesn't seem at all rational, but I fear it for some reason.

<comment><USER11> If it helps, I learned to program last year. I wrote a blog post recently with a few tips:

[http://coryliu.com/post/42990233356/how-i-learned-to- program...](http://coryliu.com/post/42990233356/how-i-learned-to-program-aka- the-surest-way-to)

<comment><AUTHOR> Man I want to hug you for this. I am so glad you were able to make it work. I'm just going to do it too, it can't hurt me at this point, and I felt very much the same as you. My doubts are what has kept me from actually doing it. Is there any reason you started C first before Python/Ruby? Probably a stupid question, but I don't even have a basic grasp of the differences or if it even matters. Thanks for posting this.

<comment><USER11> I wanted to make iOS apps, which uses primarily uses Objective-C. After a bit of trying to learn, I found that Obj-C resources weren't very good. Some suggested that I should learn C first, which is where Objective-C was based off of, so I figured I'd do that.

In terms of your choice of language, first figure out what you want to make. Web apps? Mobile apps? Desktop software? That will let you know your options for languages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Over the past 14 months I have put myself through the same self-learning process with a similar goal. Be able to build full working prototypes of the web app ideas in my head. I am fully aware that if one of these start to get some customer traction I will need to have a more experienced dev help me deal with a whole variety of issues from scalability to security and a designer to help with UI/UX and visual appeal.

Although I had read a couple of books and tried some tutorials none of it really felt like it stuck until I just started building a site that I wanted. Even though it isn't the most systematic education, each piece that you learn is focused on solving a current problem.

As I look back over the year, I have learned a reasonable amount of HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and MySQL and just enough of deploying to a LAMP stack at my hosting company so that I can get sites up and running.

It sounds really daunting, and there were some really hard days this last year, but if you stay focused on solving one or two chunks of the overall problem at a time you can work your way through it.

I now can now do what I set out to do, which is build full working prototype sites. I have several demos deployed and am starting pilot implementations with customers on two of the sites.

I don't know your technical background or formal training. My own background was pretty technical but not web development. Even if your background is not technical, there are plenty of examples of people with Liberal Arts backgrounds and teens teaching themselves do do web development.

Another possibility for you, is to try to go to one of the dev bootcamps, you commit 12 weeks of undivided intense concentration under the tutoring of experienced developers. This would quickly get you a foundation.

Best of luck

<comment><AUTHOR> I basically have no technical background other than basic engineering, but nothing software related. On the bootcamps, do you personally know anyone who attended and recommended a specific one? I thought about doing this, but I heard mixed reviews (I know there are quite a few now).

<comment><USER12> I don't know anyone who has gone through one of these dev bootcamps - but in the grand scheme of things 12 weeks of intense effort under some guidance is a relatively small investment to give you a feel for whether not you have the talent and enduring interest to go down the route of building out the skills to be the technical founder yourself.

Even if you decide that doing the web development yourself isn't all that exciting, you will now be in a much better position to evaluate other programmers that you hire to execute your vision.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> >"it seemed a bit slow and thorough for what I'm trying to do"

Okay, so as somebody who quit their job to learn to code (I just didn't realise that was what I was doing at the time), I'll say: if you are going to code you have to be thorough. Codeacademy is a good start. I began by doing pretty much everything on that site in a couple of 8hrs/day 7-day weeks. From there, Treehouse, Zed, books, blogs, StackOverflow... there are a hundred ways.

Bottom line: if you want to be a technical founder you've got to commit to learning the hard way, be passionate and determined. Non-technical, you should read and type along to something like Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial book so at least you've got your hands dirty with code and can understand how it works when working with a co-founder. For a brief intro to simple web apps, you might try the Essential PHP with MySQL course on Lynda.com as you can see the inner workings of CRUD etc.

I've been at it six months and I can hang out with devs and talk shop, no problems. You could probably get to where I've done quicker too. Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for these resources, never heard of the Rails tutorial, will definitely check it out. What area of the world do you live?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hey

Would you be interested in joining another startup, like mine, as a cofounder? I am the only founder.

As a suggestion, you should join a startup (not necessarily mine) and since you are not burdened by the thought of securing your next meal, you can really take much bigger challenges, much higher risk (in terms of time, not necessarily money).

For instance, I see a lot of people saying release early, go to market asap, but I somehow feel the otherwise and I agree that's a risky approach but not totally unworthy.

Just a suggestion.

I am looking for cofounder currently, someone who is willing to take risk (a lot of it) so if it suits your appetite, then you are welcome. I do not expect any money from you, will not pay you ad expect you to take care of your expenses until we secure a round or go profitable.

As far as what I am working on, I am elaborating a lot on it because that does not matter. Personalities should match first.

Contact me: email@example.com if interested. I am based in India.

</comment><comment><USER15> 1mm liquid implies you are actually a lot better at the "reality" thing than you might think.

And being a programmer is a necessary but not sufficient part of being a founder.

I would suggestto you the HN Proposition approach:

<http://hnproposition.blogspot.co.uk/> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694>

Basically - you seed a hacker with 5000 USD to build their MVP, then you seed yourself to promote it, SEO it, sell it basically. Its essentially a way to buy an MVP. It may work really well - it may not, but whatever, you seem in the right place to do it.

You will benefit from learning to code no matter what, but right now I suspect you need to hustle. And trying to sell three or four new startups, birth them into the world, is certainly going to do that for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for this, I did see this earlier. I will certainly consider this option as I progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I would suggest you to do this:

First, ask yourself why you want to learn programming. Is it something that really excites you? Go watch some of the Destroy All Software[1] screencasts: do your hart jump everytime you see Gary orchestrate Vim with elegance? Are you eager to start molding your ruby/python code with his mastery? If the answers is yes, then just let yourself go and start learning: define an easy project and just try to build it up from scratch (watchign screencasts, reading tutorials along the way).

If the answer is no and all you want is to start a tech business, then perhaps it is better for you to hire/find a team?

Btw, if you want to discuss programming, bouncing ideas off and just general support chat, fire me an email (in my profile).

Good luck! :)

[1] <https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts>

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, thanks for the support. I admit I don't know enough about what was going on in that vid to make it exciting, but the thought of being able to make a website do whatever I want to sounds incredibly fulfilling.

<comment><USER16> you can start with Ruby Koans: <http://rubykoans.com>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for this link. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If i was in your situation i would move to silicon valley, visit coding events and finds bright coders and offer them your time , not your cash to help them to get traction , you will develop plenty of other skills you will need to succeed and you might find an activity you really enjoy that is not coding

<comment><AUTHOR> I hear this often. Is this really a good idea? I have thought of it, but I wonder, am I just going to move all the way out there, and then I still won't find anything? What then. I guess I could just sit here and do nothing too, I guess that would be similarly effective. I would like to think that what you suggest is true. I hope that it is. I don't know why I have so many doubts without even actually attempting it. Maybe a visit out there would be a good idea to break this way of thinking.

<comment><USER18> If you have a million dollars and have not done anything for 276 days, why wouldn't you just try it out?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Ha, we have the opposite problem, we have experience programming, delusions of being elite programmers, we have great ideas or so we think. Got debt, house, cars, bills, and no cash. Trade you idea for idea. How did you earn your cash? Teach me, and I can teach you how to code.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wish I had your problem ;-)Where r u based? You don't need to learn how to code, there are excellent devs out there, find your mission/passion and spend some of your cash on it. One area could be mobile tech for develop. countries - exciting! Best of luck

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, I am currently in Dallas. I really have no ties here, I am considering picking up and moving, but not sure yet. I would definitely like to know some people who have worked on, or are working on something programming related. Part of the reason for me wanting to learn basic coding is to find my mission/passion. I have many interests, most too large probably to be feasible on any level, but I feel that as I become more aware of things that are missing in my life, more ideas pop into my head. I would like to be a little more prepared than I currently am in case the need arises, to put it coarsely.

<comment><USER20> Hmmm, I'm beginning to think that maybe you should formulate WHAT you want to do before you get to the HOW. Maybe it'll turn out coding may only be a small part of it. Building a start-up goes way beyond coding. Jeff Bezos never coded yet look at where Amazon is today...Just a thought

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Out of curiosity, how have you managed to save 1mm by age 30?

</comment><comment><USER22> I am involved with, and have started, a number of companies. Feel free to send me a email if you want to chat. Contact info in my profile.</comment>