Computer, Respond to This Email - <AUTHOR> http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2015/11/computer-respond-to-this-email.html <comment><USER2> I'm often amazed how Google still gives it staff this unique hacker-like approach to their million dollar projects.

For example, the stuff in Google labs (gmail) has had some silly things like don't hit send when you're drunk but sometimes very useful features which may be considered unorthodox like "Gmail telling you when it _thinks_ you wanted to attach a file but forgot".

It's something I wouldn't generally associate with a very corporate design but here they are wanting to add another silly feature and who knows how it will turn out? Maybe it will be super useful and then all the other companies will start to copy it.

But the thing is they're inventing new ways that really don't fit your product development roadmaps. I really like that about them.

<comment><USER3> I had a similar thought with Apple -- El Cap has a feature where if you shake your mouse around, the cursor will momentarily grow in size so you can find where it is.

That does not feel like a top-down design idea, but a bottom-up feature designed by an engineer who was sick of those moments where he/she had lost the cursor.

<comment><USER4> Oh wow! That explains wierd artifacts I've been seeing since El Capitan, when using my trackball mouse. The cursor randomly grows in size, usually when I move it between screens quickly. I expect it's some "random jitter" in my using the trackball that causes it to happen.

<comment><USER5> Case in point why the OS is a terrible place to allow a hacky ethos.

<comment><USER6> Yes. Popping up a notification the first few times (or the first time after a few months of not using it) would be neat.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I appreciate the privacy standards they used (no humans reading your email to develop this), but am concerned that it's not enough. As I understand with language models, overfitting takes the form of returning a sequence of words seen in the training set. If this is overfitting in any part of the response space, this could happen. Out of a million emails, how many suggested responses are going to substantively resemble another response the original author wouldn't want read by others?

<comment><USER8> Much of this strikes me as a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue. Google clearly loves machine learning and doing cool things but I think lately they've been taking it too far.

For example; after purchasing a book on Amazon recently I happened to do a Google search on that book and the first thing I see is, "Your book is scheduled to be delivered on..." Aside from the creepy factor I'm left wondering what purpose this serves? I just ordered the book. I KNOW it's on its way.

Turns out they just mined my emails from Gmail to provide it in search results.

I'm sure some developer or product manager thought it would be a cool thing to do without giving any consideration to usefulness much less user privacy. I really don't feel like Google needs to know what I'm buying thankyouverymuch. Gmail account: closed.

<comment><USER9> > a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue

To me, this phrase is the essence of much of Google's features. To my discredit, I chuckled when I read the blog's phrase "we've used...deep neural networks to improve...YouTube thumbnails." I am certain this was no easy task, and a resulting technical breakthrough. But doesn't it sound kind of petty?

Of course, what's petty for one is essential for another. I wish every e-mail client had that "undo send" feature, which was just GMail whimsy years ago. Is the line between petty and essential always going to be blurred?

<comment><USER10> Improving YouTube thumbnails can be a huge usability win Consider a series of lectures or DIY videos with a common setting. Pulling out a frame that captures something unique about the video (be it the DIY item being worked on in close-up or an important theorem on a title slide or blackboard) makes it easier for users to separate content and find specific items.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This kind of stuff is really cool. I imagine the future of Google being the same old search box, but instead of entering a search query, you engage in a conversation with Google so you can delve deeply into a narrow topic and get back tailored responses to your question (as opposed to opening 10 tabs of Stack Overflow links that are maybe related to your question).

I worry a bit about the long-term risks of this kind of training (query / reply). While this is obviously very far from being "high resolution" enough to single out very specific information, at some point these kinds of tools (and assistant AIs that can answer questions) will out of necessity be able to converse around very domain specific topics. At this point, how do they know what data is private and what is not? It could be tempting to train these AIs on chat logs or e-mail conversations, but that'd give them knowledge of very private information which they might leak to others. Even if they're limited to data that is accessible anonymously, they'd be extremely good at picking up information that wasn't intended for the public. For example, if you could describe a person called /u/andreasblixt on reddit, and leave it up to the bot to put the pieces together that this person is also on Facebook, Twitter, etc... and that obscure forum from 10 years ago. Food for thought.

A final thought on this... When these assistant AIs will inevitably have to know something about you. For example, your preferred schedule, food restrictions, preferred airlines, name, family, friends, phone numbers, where you were last night, who you've talked to, etc. Even if we all get our own namespaced AI assistant (i.e., the trained neural network that contains private information is stored and encrypted for your access only), that assistant's "brain" may very well become a prized target because if you get access to it you can interrogate it for information (you most likely can't just access the information in any meaningful way – you'd literally have to give it queries to make it return semantic output with the information you're trying to access).

Anyway, automatic e-mail responses, yay!

<comment><USER12> Essentially integrating Wolfram Alpha and IBM Watson into Google?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I just started reading Avogadro Corp ([http://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp- Singularity-Closer-Appea...](http://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp-Singularity- Closer-Appears-ebook/dp/B006ACIMQQ)) this weekend, and this reminds me quite a lot of the emergent AI that figures heavily in the story (ELOPe). A quick synopsis: developers build a system to "improve" responses from emails. The system at some point is given the ability to send emails on its own, and a poorly issued directive. It's been an engaging read so far, and fairly hilarious since the corporation in the book is very obviously based on Google.

<comment><USER14> You'll love the ending. I highly recommend you read the sequel as well: [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FZVI2M/](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FZVI2M/)

<comment><USER13> I started reading the sequel this weekend, based on your recommendation. So far it's been excellent. Thank you for the suggestion!

<comment><USER14> You're welcome!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Hey, remember that one time when this feature was Gmail's April Fools Day joke[1]? Kind of funny how it's now a serious and actually useful-looking product.

[1] [https://www.gmail.com/mail/help/autopilot/](https://www.gmail.com/mail/help/autopilot/)

<comment><USER16> Another Google April Fools Day joke, some years ago, was Google Paper, or some such name. IIRC it was funny.

<comment><USER15> Well, they kind of made that one for real too, didn't they? [http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/index.html](http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/index.html)

<comment><USER6> Great Scott, that site looks like it's from 1985! [https://www.google.com/cloudprint/gadget.html?user=0](https://www.google.com/cloudprint/gadget.html?user=0)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> While the technology is very cool, this pushes me that much closer to a "dumber" email service. It's always a conflict for me as I love shiny new things, but I'd rather we let AI loose on someone else's email, especially when the AI's revenue stream is advertising (a business predicated on knowing as much as possible about your audience).

<comment><USER18> I don't think I understand your reasoning. You're already tolerating an AI processing your email to produce the ads, so assuming that, why does a cool new feature push you closer towards a "dumber" service?

<comment><USER17> Because I'm lazy and switching would be time consuming. Each new privacy- related "innovation" motivates me a little more. You're right that the practical effect of this new service is negligible on a technical level, but it still reminds me that I should find an alternative I find acceptable.

<comment><USER19> So basically, because pretty much every useful data-and-automation-based thing - especially on the social, not individual level - can be considered an erosion of privacy, should we just stop progress? That's the sentiment I feel radiating from yours and others' complaints about privacy here.

<comment><USER17> Certainly not. I quite enjoy the features I get from having my data run through a lot of systems. However, you don't need to be a Luddite to recognize that sometimes some users of data (like sometimes Google) aren't as responsible or considerate of the privacy implications of their actions as they should be.

When their primary financial incentive is user engagement to sell ads, I have a hard time believing that the latter doesn't influence the use of my data as much as the former.

I still use a variety of Google products all the time, but when they're training machines to understand the meaning of my emails, I begin to think perhaps that's beyond my comfort zone. I think that machine learning has tremendous things to offer society, but I'm not sure I'm super excited about a company using smartish machines to pull meaning and context from my emails so that we can save some percentage of users 10 seconds when they reply to something. I get that in most cases this isn't ever going to have a practical effect, but I would be a lot more comfortable if our society's data stewards were less blase about that side of things.

<comment><USER19> I see your point better now, thanks for clarifying.

> _When their primary financial incentive is user engagement to sell ads, I > have a hard time believing that the latter doesn 't influence the use of my > data as much as the former._

I don't agree with it in case of Google. I may be mistaken, but my impression was that they sort of separate their products into two groups - the ad-related are earning the money, and then the money is spent on funding something else (like GMail), with little direct connection between the two groups. That is, products like GMail certainly help Google earn more money on ads, but are not themselves optimized for ad-related purposes.

> _I think that machine learning has tremendous things to offer society, but I > 'm not sure I'm super excited about a company using smartish machines to > pull meaning and context from my emails so that we can save some percentage > of users 10 seconds when they reply to something._

I think you're seriously underestimating the potential for productivity gains here. Mobile use case is perfect for replying to e-mails, but mobile experience totally sucks. This service, if it works as advertised, will be probably saving not 10 seconds, but something like one minute _per e-mail_. That + friction reduction have enabling properties that make people do things they didn't before (e.g. I often don't reply to e-mails on a phone only because it's too slow, opting to browse Facebook instead), and aggregated that can help liberate _a lot_ of time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Meanwhile, Twitter change their favourites from stars to hearts.

</comment><comment><USER21> I kept imagining it would generate responses based on MY past emails until the end of the article. Example "When does your flight leave for Paris?", I was imagining it would pull the info from Google Now to reply "Friday at 9am", but I don't think it is built for this type of specific question.

<comment><USER22> Knowing Google, they'll be working on that by the time they release this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I love you.

 __* This is an automated response __ _

</comment><comment><USER24> Does the responses generated from one user response leaks to another one ? Because this could be a major privacy flaw.

</comment><comment><USER25> > The solution was provided by Sujith Ravi, whose team developed a great > machine learning system for mapping natural language responses to semantic > intents. This was instrumental in several phases of the project, and was > critical to solving the "response diversity problem": by knowing how > semantically similar two responses are, we can suggest responses that are > different not only in wording, but in their underlying meaning.

Does anyone know where I can find out more about this? A paper or something maybe?

</comment><comment><USER26> This looks more powerful than iOS's context sensitive keyboard, but that also looked impressive when demoed. It will be interesting to try this out with real-world emails and see how well it works in practice.

This gets really exciting when implemented on a smartwatch. Single tap responses that are actually useful would make smartwatches significantly more powerful. Speech recognition is great but it's not always appropriate for social environments.

</comment><comment><USER27> > Another bizarre feature of our early prototype was its propensity to respond > with "I love you" to seemingly anything

Is it trained mostly on personal gmail accounts?

<comment><USER28> I love you! We should go out some time.

<comment><USER29> Would like to see the Maeby Funke addon where "Marry Me!" is always the first response.

<comment><USER30> Baby Sit me!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I have a concern that is somewhat related to this issue. I've been wanting to play around with doing NLP in the client using the SpeechRecognition API available in Chrome. It typically gives pretty good results for simple recognition purposes, but there is not yet any way to specify an arbitrary grammar for the backend service to use. This is a big deal when someone wants to be able to recognize a name spelled like "Bobbie" rather than "Bobby". The W3C Web Speech spec currently allows for setting arbitrary grammars, but it isn't implemented. I'm just saying it would be cool if some of you AI geniuses at Google could help me out on that front.

You can play around with the dumb little AI app that I've been working on that does a little bit of NLP in the browser. Check out this site with Chrome: [https://yc-prototype.appspot.com](https://yc-prototype.appspot.com). His name is Bertie. You should see his face on the bottom of the page. The site works like an OS in your browser.

</comment><comment><USER32> Interesting. I used a sequence to sequence methodology about 10 years ago in a chatbot that won in a self-learning competition ... of course never had the data available that google has.

A bot like that is a great tool to experiment with NLP and ML ideas. This is really an intriguing area of research.

[https://thinkingai.wordpress.com/](https://thinkingai.wordpress.com/)

</comment><comment><USER33> Where's the "sorry, I won't be able to make it." in the server dropping email.

</comment><comment><USER34> When you receive a call today, you are already prompted with auto response messages such as 'I'm busy, I'll call you back.' This seems like the natural next step.

<comment><USER35> Imagine the day when it suggests an insult for a co-worker based on his or her perceived inferiority.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> > But replying to email on mobile is a real pain, even for short replies.

Imo, this has already been solved. I just whisper replies into my watch for both email and SMS. Google's voice recognition is finally good enough for this. I can't think of anything more convenient.

I'm not sure if AI-ish replies are something I'm interested in. Throwing complex fuzzy logic at what should be a hardware/interface problem seems shortsighted. I prefer a much higher level of granular control, especially if these messages are work related.

</comment><comment><USER37> Did they really write this whole article about machine-generated text but not actually include an example of the actual reply the system generated?

<comment><USER38> There are three example responses at the bottom of each picture, above the navigation buttons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> This is almost exactly the singularity-igniting innovation described in the sci fi book "Avogadro Corp" by William Hertling.

</comment><comment><USER40> What could possibly go wrong?

dudette:are we still on for dinner with my mom?

dude:sure, cant wait to see mrs.Plinketon again.

dudette gets suggested reply message generated from one of dude's earlier emails to his friends: "mrs.Plinketon has great tits!"

It is amazing to realize this type of technology can be bootstrapped only once (?)- as soon as you start getting automated replies in the system quality of learning on past data will drop, at some point snake will be eating his own automated reply tail.

I imagine this system would benefit greatly from optional additional user voice input, something as simple as 1-3 spoken words fed back into Reply network to help with the reply intent decoding. You get email, NN generates 3 replies it thinks you would like, you have different idea for a reply, click microphone icon and say "no, maybe next week", Reply network rebuilds suggested answers with your input shaping reply vector.

</comment><comment><USER41> Finally! This will dispel all those rumours that Google reads all your email.

<comment><USER42> Why do you care if a computer reads through your email? Its not like Larry Page is looking through your search history. AI seems to just be data expressed in some way, ei me and you are a physical expression of years of gigabit streams of data. This will only become more strongly felt as we get closer to serious AI.

Sadly I think its something you either get used to or go live in the woods.

<comment><USER43> Same argument as the NSA: "It's not surveillance until a human looks at the data"

<comment><USER44> Interesting point, but there's a potentially important, albeit somewhat subtle difference. Google collects data which they claim nobody will ever look at. The reason they collect lots of data is so that machines can look at all of it now, while the NSA collects lots of data because they think that a person might need to look at some of it in the future.

<comment><USER43> If anything, that makes Google's bulk data collection more suspect than the NSA's. Not only do they collect it en masse, they also process it.

(Note that I personally think Google's collection is more ethically defensible than the NSA's, if only because they at least seek implied consent whereas the NSA doesn't even have to pretend)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Privacy issues aside, please don't. These kinds of features are outright harmful to our society.

Human communication and our social skills in general have already detoriated a lot by replacing face to face conversations with audio only, then text.

This is just further taking away the incentive to sneak in something personal, something human into our written communication every now and then.

IMO, the very reason someone takes the time to type out these kinds of questions as an email message is to make it more personal. Otherwise, they could just use an rsvp/calendar system or a bug tracker for the particular queries in the article, which already enable you to send such generic replies with 1 or 2 taps at most.

Can we stop misusing technology to dumb down our everyday lives and stop transforming our society into a bunch of isolated individuals living on the same planet?

</comment><comment><USER46> Minus all other concerns, for the operation / infrastructure / devops, the auto-replying about server downtime or inquiry about performance, those kinds of stuff is something I am actively thinking about and starting to learn how to implement in my organization.

</comment><comment><USER47> Slowly, the personal assistants will get smarter and do more of your job. Then you get laid off.

</comment><comment><USER48> There's a quip at the bottom: "This blog post may or may not have actually been written by a neural network."

Has there been any progress in AI-driven/assisted creative writing (other than sportscasts)?

</comment><comment><USER49> Similar to the quick text feature when not taking a phone call, this could come in handy - especially on phones.

But does that mean I'll have to re-enable Inbox to try it. Duh :(

</comment><comment><USER50> "...In developing Smart Reply we adhered to the same rigorous user privacy standards we've always held -- in other words, no humans reading your email."

That the humans at Google may read my email is the least of my privacy concerns. That the robots will pass them along to other robots at places other than google is the real worry. But as no such agency exists, why worry?

</comment><comment><USER51> The real potential here is eliminating human interaction. On the sending end machine should auto compose, auto target a mailing list, send it out. On receiving end machine should scan incoming email, compose a response, send it out. That would cover 95% of current email traffic.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'd love to see this extended in future to include:

\- using mannerisms I have used with the sender in past emails

\- scan my calendar schedule and have an idea of my availability and use that in the response

The product in its current form sounds great and I'm keen to give it a try.

</comment><comment><USER53> I'm not sure I trust that this will work that well. Because I still get other peoples flights added to my calendar automatically if they forward their itinerary to me.

</comment><comment><USER54> Are these kinds of projects only available in Mountain View?

</comment><comment><USER55> This would seem to be an area where senders could alter behavior to make things work better with this...maybe being explicit about the question and options.

</comment><comment><USER56> It's not available for Google Apps users or am I missing something? It doesn't show any replies to me...

<comment><USER57> "available later this week", they should of released this blog post when it was available.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> next step, check your calendar for scheduling conflict and suggest the right response, i.e., "i'll be there"/"i can't make it".

further extension, pull out quick answers from other emails, i.e., "what's the sales number this month?" "100M" from another email

</comment><comment><USER59> Sounds like the system has no way to take into account context. Each message is encoded into a 'thought' vector, but is it difficult to come up with a 'thought' that changes meaning depending on prior messages? I imagine it is such a concern that leads one to look into Hierarchical Temporal Memory and similar techniques.

</comment><comment><USER60> Maybe shortly we'll just have neural networks talking to each other on behalf of us.

<comment><USER61> Everyone has "people" now. Having "people" is no longer for the rich. But they're also not really people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> I guess I've already automatically consented to Google using my emails to train their algorithms. How does filing bugs work in the scenario where the machine learning can't figure something out? Is a copy of someones personal email attached to the bug report?

</comment><comment><USER63> In a parodical reality with mistaken pressings of the "two buttons to reply" feature

> Obama: Hey Hillary, what do you think, should we bomb <X>?

> Hillary: Sure! Count me in!

> Hillary: Hey! Don't consider that last email! Damn auto reply...

That aside, as a fellow nerd, neural net FTW!

</comment><comment><USER64> Waiting for the news about social and legal problems that will happen from typing on the wrong answer.

<comment><USER65> You can anyways undo the sent message! A great feature of Inbox.

<comment><USER64> No you cannot, it is not part of the email protocol.

Once it is sent, it is gone.

I always have fun with those "Please delete messages" from Outlook sent to my email client.

<comment><USER66> Gmail does not literally unsend SMTP messages. To give you time to undo, Gmail delays sending the message for a few seconds. So if you don't select "Undo" within the time limit, your message will be sent.

How to use: [https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1284885?hl=en](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1284885?hl=en)

<comment><USER67> Note these instructions are for how to enable this on Gmail, the original. Inbox does this by default.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> Senior research scientist? So, a forgetful research scientist?</comment>


Advice for the "arrogant fucks": Start with a "toy" - <AUTHOR> http://torgronsund.com/2016/06/14/startups-and-toys/ <comment><USER2> But some toys will never be more than just that, toys. Even though I love making video games, It's highly unlikely I'm going to make a 'world changing' video game.

At best (and with great luck or marketing power) they usually get to be super- popular for around six months and then discarded for the next hip thing. Minecraft is one of the few exceptions.

Sure, you made crazy cash during that time, possibly, but if you hadn't made a game at all, it'd be someone else's game instead that would take its place.

I still think it's good advice overall, though.

<comment><USER3> > But some toys will never be more than just that, toys

Agreed, but I'd say "almost all", rather than "some".

> Even though I love making video games, It's highly unlikely I'm going to > make a 'world changing' video game.

Replace "video games" with anything and "I" with anyone who hasn't yet changed the world, and it still applies. Many more people will try to change the world than will actually do it.

Changing the world isn't a reasonable expectation. In that sense, having a bunch of arrogant fucks around is a great thing.</comment></comment>


Amazon Video no longer available on Google TV after September 14 - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.com/mxfJfzVP

<comment><USER2> Same with a 1 year old LG home cinema system.

Sending you amazon / kindle tv promos does not help to cover up such obviously bad business approach, reliability & ethics as a supplier.

We will cancel all our Amazon subscriptions including their cloud services as a result of this "marketing stunt".

We need businesses to partner with that we can trust and build long-term relationships with - otherwise if they act like amzn here they should be treated like commodity suppliers - replaceable and not worth a penny premium or branding.</comment>


Pixel Tracking in Node.js - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/analytics-machine/pixel-tracker

<comment><USER2> I wrote the pixel tracker for a big corporation, which tracks a ton of hits for many top sites.

1) Using Math.random() to generate a UUID, is not a UUID. There are plenty of JS uuid generators out there. Please use one. 2) Why are you returning a header with what is being tracked? 3) Please please please use coffeescript.

<comment><USER3> About (1), your uuid is random with a good math.random() and a sufficiently long string _with high probability_ (using that as a technical term from theoretical cs). So I assume that your gripe is that math.random() has bad implementations.

Recall the article recently on how a deck of shuffled cards is unique in human history? Apply same logic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Neat, it's cool to see pixel tracking as a middleware component.

What i'm not clear on (and i'd love to hear your thoughts about) is why you'd want it as a middleware component vs a daemonized external service such as <http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/> (and if you care about such things, check out the annotated source: [http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/docs/pixel- ping.h...](http://documentcloud.github.com/pixel-ping/docs/pixel-ping.html) )

full disclosure: i joined DocumentCloud a few months ago.

<comment><AUTHOR> pixel-tracker works with express out of the box and doesnt really imply that you will want to aggregate hits with a key or any certain way. It just provides information about a request you can use in your app (or separate it)

with pixel-tracker there is no aggregated information, but there is a little more detailed information about each request

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You can do something like this with mixpanel if you don't want to setup a whole server. I wrote about it.

[http://alexkessinger.net/2010/12/17/doing-a-pixel-ping- witho...](http://alexkessinger.net/2010/12/17/doing-a-pixel-ping-without-a- server/)

</comment><comment><USER6> I've never heard of pixel-tracking before. But Will wont it break if the user caches it? Then It wont be read again and thus not count the view.

Or?

<comment><AUTHOR> the pixel doesn't get cached

<comment><USER7> Is that the reason why pixel tracking is used because other requests might be cached? When viewing a page, the browser client may just pull the page from cache and not make a request to the server? A 1x1 gif is small, static, and downloaded asynchronously and makes a negligible impact both client and server side.</comment></comment></comment>


50 terms most predictive of a submission making it to the front page - <AUTHOR> Results are based on stories submitted in 2015.
Overall ROC AUC score: 0.634 (front page: 60.00%, not front page: 84.70%)

   0.480619587060     pdf
   0.400951486155     yc
   0.357299773818     c
   0.345074611885     2013
   0.312349086474     2014
   0.282104533149     2012
   0.267570843408     language
   0.261375936103     2011
   0.241650745481     go
   0.219169898626     haskell
   0.211257263299     show hn
   0.205623463348     rust
   0.199571502981     i
   0.195598572648     programming
   0.195274408452     lisp
   0.186177768937     2010
   0.178721616659     a
   0.167683265531     theory
   0.164806775214     fast
   0.163041352661     linux
   0.160414928257     2009
   0.159121703294     released
   0.158462774218     yc w15
   0.157937056948     0
   0.155722711980     w15
   0.153727530604     memory
   0.152325392129     openbsd
   0.140109894354     compiler
   0.139065804971     an
   0.135471235636     open-source
   0.131606742813     deep
   0.131399688219     unix
   0.131269232599     gnu
   0.131168543633     kernel
   0.125287242638     show
   0.124609324199     firefox
   0.124602305508     os
   0.123616770730     who
   0.120643387605     computer
   0.117908824287     the
   0.115902369932     modern
   0.114483061102     hn what
   0.112337592986     ocaml
   0.111354775352     programmer
   0.109343194868     postgresql
   0.108654447345     math
   0.107721823851     2008
   0.106274292219     in go
   0.106071633308     2006
   0.104932567748     perl
 <comment><USER2> This list includes ocaml, postgresql and perl but not java, javascript, python, C#, or c++.

How sure are you of your data and your results?

Because imo those are pretty remarkable results if they're accurate and the lack of discussion of them in this thread is itself remarkable...

</comment><comment><USER3> The year's coefficient is misleading. When an old article gets to the front page, the title is usually changed from "The Title" to "The Title (year)" by the mods. So the submissions of old articles that are successful get the year number but the unsuccessful ones don't get it. (It would be interesting to repeat this with the original title.)

(There are some exceptions, sometimes the submitter adds the year to the title.)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, 100 terms most predictive of a submission _not_ making it to the front page:

      -0.335386489547     startup
      -0.331723905544     2015
      -0.321593118669     app
      -0.306937335575     your
      -0.305739531214     how to
      -0.275438550569     this
      -0.261565592652     business
      -0.252649164518     product
      -0.250614203448     mobile
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<comment><USER2> So java is in the _negative_ list.

As are 3,4,5,6 and 10. Python 3, Perl 5, Perl 6, Windows 10? What's wrong with 4? :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> that's pretty neat. you could build a model using conditional probabilities to generate fake HN submissions. both good and bad ones.

<comment><USER3> Someone did something similar:

Link: [http://news.ycombniator.com/](http://news.ycombniator.com/)

HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10248773](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10248773) (572 points, 114 days ago, 166 comments)</comment></comment>


Image inside div has extra space below the image - <AUTHOR> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5804256/image-inside-div-has-extra-space-below-the-image <comment><USER2> This is due to the image being inline by default, just needs inline-block. There are other hacks too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah - I just found it surprising =)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What Recommendation Algorithms Do You Use? - <AUTHOR>

I am working on a recommendation engine project and was wondering if you guys had any suggestions?<p>I want to do a hybrid of memory and model based classification. <comment><USER2> One of the gentlemen who run Directed Edge, the recommendation-engine-as-a- service startup, pointed me to his list of recommendations research at Mendeley:

[http://www.mendeley.com/collections/796791/Recommendations-r...](http://www.mendeley.com/collections/796791/Recommendations- research/)

(I suspect "all the good research from the past N years" is a broader answer than you were looking for, but perhaps this will be generally useful.)

</comment><comment><USER3> i coded a simplified variant of Koren &Bell for my term project, it ran on Hadoop with some Jama components for SVD:

public.research.att.com/~volinsky/netflix/BellKorICDM07.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Just curious, what kind of data set did you try it on and did you by any chance use Mahout?</comment></comment>


Air Mattress - <AUTHOR> http://www.satbed.com The SAT mattress features a patented air suspension system that has an exclusive intake/release valve system. This technological breakthrough harnesses the atmosphere as an abundant resource of free energy creating a dynamic surface capable of optimally adjusting to each individual regardless of body weight, type or size. It is capable of conforming to the unique curvature of the spinal system providing improved support.
Maximizing weight distribution evenly across the surface reduces pressure on our bodies. The SAT mattress provides pressure relief at all times regardless of what body type you have. A basic physics law (Boyle's Law) allows this amazing technology to adjust optimally to each individual providing a deep REM sleeping environment below capillary closure, meaning blood and oxygen are allowed to flow freely throughout our bodies never being pinched or occluded, eliminating tossing and turning.
Allowing efficient blood and oxygen circulation is paramount to our over all health and wellness. Clinical studies have shown the richer the oxygen content of your blood, the stronger your immune system, which is necessary to combat disease and free radical damage. Sleeping on a surface other than a fluid creates a sleeping environment deficient of oxygen. All inner spring and foam mattresses create an environment deficient in oxygen since all these surfaces can do is absorb weight unlike a gas, which displaces weight.
The SAT Bed Company has positioned itself as a leading research-driven health care company that develops innovative products aimed to improve the health and quality of life. Our goal is to  empower individuals to implement optimal preventive health through health and wellness products in their own home.
Recognized as the world's leader in the technological advancement of mattress and bedding products for over 20 years. Our origins come out of the medical and health care industry, where our surface products have been utilized throughout the world in hospitals and nursing homes for patients that are bed ridden with Decubitus ulcers (bed sores).
Our state of the art R & D and manufacturing plant located in upstate New York has been nationally recognized along with our friendly and courteous bedding consultants. Applying our 13 world wide mattress patents to the consumer bedding industry, we are ideally positioned to open up the retail mattress market to the same extraordinary products used in health care settings.
Our breakthrough bedding technology is now transforming the hospitality industry via Hilton Hotels. Guests are able to experience the SAT mattress while traveling throughout the country by visiting the worlds largest hospitality company. Please call us today at 1-866-677-2156 and speak to one of our bedding consultants to arrange a 90 night in home trial. Remember, a good nights sleep is not a luxury but rather a necessity. <comment><USER2> I guess it's spam because this submission has a direct commercial purpose, but it brings up a good question.

An Aeron is worth the money. You use a bed just as much as a chair. Is it worth paying an enormous amount of money for a mattress?

</comment><comment><USER3> This one is way better: [http://gizmodo.com/381874/toast-mattress-perfect-for- hot-but...](http://gizmodo.com/381874/toast-mattress-perfect-for-hot-buttery- afternoon-delights)</comment>


Anti-innovation: EU excludes open source from new tech standards - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/04/anti-innovation-eu-excludes-open-source-from-new-tech-standards/ <comment><USER2> This is a single good reason why Britain should leave the EU.</comment>


Tips and Best Practices for being On-Call - <AUTHOR> http://blog.pagerduty.com/2011/03/30/on-call-best-practices-part-1/

<comment><USER2> It doesn't matter very much how awesome your device is. You need at least a second person who would also get the alert as a backup (assuming this is a critical system that you really care about, otherwise you wouldn't want to be on-call for it in the first place).

As the primary responder, your responsibility is to acknowledge any alert within a minute or so. Otherwise, the backup person would have to jump in.

To ensure "accountability," you may have a manager who would be a third backup and can escalate up from there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, a good escalation policy would have a primary responder, a backup or secondary, and then one or managers, going up the hierarchy. PagerDuty supports that and my next post will be on that topic.

Having a good device is important too though; if you sleep through or miss an alert, it may take another 10-20 minutes or so (depending on the escalation policy) before the alert escalates to the next person. This slack time could be pretty important depending on the severity of the problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I would recommend against "picking sharp or piercing ringtones". I once had a horrific on-call schedule and, like any mammal, I developed a Pavlovian response to the sound of my pager which resembled those door buzzers that retail stores use. Friends of mine told me that I used to jump when I heard them go off.

So realize that whatever that ringtone is you'll associate it with this kind of anger: [http://www.jeckels.com/photoDetail?PhotoId=4586&Category...](http://www.jeckels.com/photoDetail?PhotoId=4586&CategoryIndex=50&ReferringCategoryId=447)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice; it looks like that pager was an Amazon one too.

There was a time when the sound of my pager (or even my cell phone's SMS ringtone) would get my heart beating faster.

Maybe this would be a good ringtone for being on-call: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bNE-5TVAmg>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Forgot to mention that you also need a patient spouse.</comment>


Ask HN: Business credit vs funding - <AUTHOR>

Situation: a small business, just starting up, no customers, early days, no money. Target market: schools, homeschooling parents, small businesses providing services to schools.<p>Question: get money as a loan from a bank, or seek for funding/investment? What are the pros and cons of each? <comment><USER2> You won't be able to get a business loan -- they'll want a business plan, proven operating history, and known cash flows. At best, you'll get a personal loan secured by you personally. The rates on personal loans are terrible (in some cases approaching credit card cash advance interest rates, though you can do better if you have great credit and/or shop around and find a bank that likes you) and, even if the business folds, you remain liable for it.

Investing is another kettle of fish. My main con there would be a) it takes a lot of time and b) there are fundable businesses and unfundable businesses, and if I had to guess, you're unfundable. There's nothing wrong with that: I sell software to schools, teachers, and homeschool parents, and my business is not just unfundable, it's _laughably_ unfundable.

Have you considered bootstrapping? It really doesn't take a lot of money to get into educational software. Trust me.

<comment><AUTHOR> in a way yes. we're just feeding it ourselves atm...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is not exactly an answer to your question, but be very careful about this market. Schools are a challenging market to break into. Are you prepared for the long purchase process that schools follow? Banks tend to want their interest now. Funders will be cognizant of the time frame for ROI.</comment>


Mourning My Lost Dark as a Blind Artist - <AUTHOR> https://catapult.co/stories/column-blind-writers-notebook-on-blind-artists-and-mourning-the-lost-dark <comment><USER2> I too am discovering the strange world of sightlessness. Charles Bonnet Syndrome was a huge revelation that I wasn't going crazy.

<comment><USER3> Good luck fellow traveler. It's a trip.</comment></comment>


Kids Room Spacecraft (video) - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfY-SlC2XHc

<comment><USER2> Unbelievable. Way cooler than any toy ever! I take it this dad doesn't have a job?</comment>


Japan's failed attempt at AI [1992] - <AUTHOR> http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/5thgen.htm

<comment><USER2> That page looks like a failed attempt at web design</comment>


Adhocracy: open-source cooperative discourse, delegation and voting software - <AUTHOR> https://liqd.net/software.html <comment><USER2> There is not too much information on their home or github page. There's more hints an pointers in the documentation [http://adhocracy3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/](http://adhocracy3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/), but it would be interesting to see some kind of an overview with features, work flows etc.

It seems that they also have an older version running on Python2: [https://github.com/liqd/adhocracy](https://github.com/liqd/adhocracy), docs: [http://adhocracy.readthedocs.org/en/latest/](http://adhocracy.readthedocs.org/en/latest/)

Would love to see tools like this and/or others [1][2] come more widespread and commonly used in the democratic decision making process. I am naively hoping it will help engaging more people in the democratic process again in Europe. Transparent democratic discussion and decision making is a hard problem to solve that doesn't scale well in real life. Figuring out how to scale-up the number of participants with the help of tools like this is democracy's only hope for a bright future.

[1] [https://www.loomio.org/](https://www.loomio.org/) [2] [https://consider.it/](https://consider.it/)

edit: typos

<comment><USER3> Loomio has been picking up development, they recently launched their new Angular UI and will soon add a powerful plugin architecture [1]

[1] [https://github.com/loomio/loomio/pull/2863](https://github.com/loomio/loomio/pull/2863)

<comment><USER2> There's also LiquidFeedback [1] maintained by the Public Software Group of Berlin, difficult to judge how actively developed it is since they use their own Mercurial hosting [2].

It is a bit confusing, adhocracy is maintained by Liquid Democracy B.V. in Berlin, but then there is LiquidFeedback maintained by the Public Software Group of Berlin...

[1] [http://liquidfeedback.org/](http://liquidfeedback.org/)

[2] [http://www.public-software-group.org/mercurial](http://www.public- software-group.org/mercurial)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's a typo in the first word of second paragraph: I think "Adhocarcy" should be "Adhocracy"

</comment><comment><USER5> Where is the link to github? I was unable to find the sources from the site.

<comment><USER2> It is right there in the second paragraph on the about page: [https://github.com/liqd/adhocracy3](https://github.com/liqd/adhocracy3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> no pics?

<comment><USER7> Pics or a demo (if the project is functional) is one of the first things a project should do if it wants to gain traction. The fact that this project hasn't (yet), to me is a big factor in predicting this will never gain any traction. Software that doesn't think about end-users fails. Software developers that don't think about end-users from the beginning will fail.

<comment><USER3> It has actually been used by the German Pirate Party and other political groups for a while now, see for example the instances at [https://adhocracy.de/](https://adhocracy.de/)</comment></comment></comment>


I see debt people- the ten scariest economic charts in the world - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/289390/for-halloween-the-10-scariest-economic-charts-in-the-world/

<comment><USER2> So many problems due to regulation, mostly that in the labor market... Solution to 1 and 2: allow jobless youth from Southern Europe into Japan. This will help solve 3 and 10, as now these countries are spending significant money on these nonproductive youth - this can instead be invested.</comment>


Apple, Amazon Join Race for James Bond Film Rights - <AUTHOR> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/apple-amazon-join-race-james-bond-film-rights-1035539 <comment><USER2>
      Some observers feel that the franchise, by only limiting
      itself to theatrical movies, remains vastly under-utilized by
      21st century standards, where expectations are to exploit IP
      across all mediums, push out merchandising for all age
      brackets and have spin-offs and cinematic universes.

As unlikely as it may seem for Apple to be bidding on the rights to 007 in the first place, it seems vastly _less_ likely for Apple to use them for anything less focused than a franchise of films or an iTunes-exclusive TV series. Disney-level, cross-media IP exploitation has to be among the most foreign concepts I can imagine for the company.

<comment><USER3> Not sure why they'd think that, there's been video games (some good ones, even), there are regular limited edition watch releases, perfume, there's plenty of product placement in the movies themselves (cars, bikes, drinks...). Could they do much more of it without going over the top? It's not that clear.

<comment><USER4> > spin-offs and cinematic universes.

I suspect it is about this. TV shows, spin-off movies based on Felix...

But I think that would tarnish the brand. Bond has always been about long- awaited epic movies, not yearly re-hashes of the same stuff.

<comment><USER5> So was Star Wars. But it turns out it's more profitable as the latter.

<comment><USER4> I'm pretty sure Bond has grossed a lot more than Star Wars. I wonder how profitable Star Wars will be after the 24th installment. I'm guessing not very.

<comment><USER6> You'd be wrong.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest- grossing_films...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest- grossing_films#Highest-grossing_franchises_and_film_series)

Imagine how much further ahead Star Wars will be after the 24th installment

<comment><USER4> > The films in the cross-franchise Marvel Cinematic Universe have collectively > grossed the most, amassing over $12 billion at the box office, although the > Eon James Bond films have earned over $14 billion in total when adjusted to > current prices

I'm not even sure Star Wars is in the top 3.

And I think interest will wane after the current crop of movies being ~12 let alone 24. Its all character exploitation at this point, and there aren't many left who's lives haven't been explored yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Charles Stross points out that too many major real-world figures are like Bond villains now.[1]

[1] [http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog- static/2017/07/paging-a...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog- static/2017/07/paging-agent-007.html)

<comment><USER8> I'll just leave this here: [http://imgur.com/gallery/Lww4Z](http://imgur.com/gallery/Lww4Z)

<comment><USER9> So he went from friendly Kevin Spacey to skinny Dwayne Johnson?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can we get a 'British Gentleman' as actor for reboot of James Bond franchise?

like previously Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan

All the James Bond USP got lost in recent years - where is the humor, the British gentleman behavior, the spectacular but not unrealistic script, etc ? So is James Bond really about a blond short humorless brutallo with little charisma? I don't think so.

<comment><USER11> Idris Elba is the only person I want to see as the next Bond.

<comment><USER12> 100% agreed with this. He would be a superb choice.

<comment><USER5> Sure, as long as we can have a white Shaft.

Seriously though, Britishness (in the genetic sense) is a fundamental part of James Bond's character. He isn't just British by citizenship, he's emblematic of Britain.

<comment><USER13> There's no such thing as 'Britishness in the genetic sense'.

Idris Elbra is as British as they come.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This article reads like a thinly veiled attempt by MGM to encourage two more bidders into the race.

</comment><comment><USER15> Disney seem to be the only company capable of taking stewardship of such huge important characters in a way that keeps fans happy.

They seem to understand that they need to respect the history of the IP and allow the brand to grow in as high quality way possible. Look at Marvel and Star Wars, both huge success stories.

In fact if Disney got Bond, the only mega IP / Brand / Universe I can think of outside of their control would be Harry Potter, and as a huge Harry Potter fan, I'd much rather HP was with Disney than Warner Bros.

<comment><USER16> DC Universe?

<comment><USER15> I guess, I'm not that big into comic books, most of my exposure has been through cinema and the DC universe movies have overall been very disappointing... Characters like Superman and Batman are up there with the biggest & best of them though.

Who do you think would be a good steward for the DC Universe?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _> But the emergence of Apple — which is considered such a viable competitor that Warners is now pressing MGM hard to close a deal — and Amazon shows that the digital giants consider Bond one of the last untapped brands (like a Marvel, Pixar or Lucasfilm) that could act as a game-changer in the content space._

So Apple want to get into film publishing business? Expect them to become DRM sick even more than they are now.

<comment><USER18> I generally agree with your posts but in this case I think you're forgetting that Apple (specifically, Steve Jobs) was squarely behind the big push to remove DRM from online music sales about 10 years ago[1]. Apple forced all the major and several indie record labels to remove DRM over the following years. That's not "DRM sick", that's about as healthy and consumer friendly as it gets.

[1] [https://web.archive.org/web/20070207234839/www.apple.com/hot...](https://web.archive.org/web/20070207234839/www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic)

<comment><USER17> Indeed, but that was a long time ago. Today they are pro-DRM way more. For instance, Apple Music has it.

<comment><USER18> All music streaming services use DRM, out of necessity; it's a service of convenience. You don't buy the songs, you listen to a broadcast of them. Consumer ownership doesn't apply, and if you _do_ want to buy DRM-free songs, Apple and many other digital music vendors will gladly sell them to you. That way you don't have to use Apple Music or any other encumbered service.

<comment><USER17> DRM has nothing to do with convenience or streaming. There are DRM-free services which provide convenience of streaming all the same (Bandcamp for example).

You probably meant that DRM is related to renting (which again, is completely orthogonal to streaming, see above). I find the concept of digital renting to be weird in itself anyway, and the fact that it drags DRM along demonstrates it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Beta online coding interview app - <AUTHOR> https://entrevistame.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I'm playing one man band here and I'm looking for some else's feedback (specially recruiters) to make this project useful.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it possible secure and usable email encryption? - <AUTHOR> My client who is accountant want to establish encrypted email communication with all his contacts. He is not tech savvy neither his contacts are so PGP is out of equation.
Any solution I googled impose to install either some proxy or new email client for encryption or make receiver to change their email workflow in order to read and reply on encrypted email (login in custom portal to read their messages).
That make think is it available any email encryption solution which is both easy and transparent for the user, and secure enough so no hackers and governments can sniff email messages. What do you think? <comment><AUTHOR> I think for email encryption to be used two factors should be present: 1\. Very cheap or free for contacts, and 2\. Very easy to be used at least for contacts

It is next to impossible for Initiator to convince his/her contacts to use any encryption solution that put burden on them. I am not talking about the security because it should be paramount and by default but with upper features.

I think it is possible and believe if enough users use email encryption the trend of cyber crime can be turned back.

</comment><comment><USER2> The closest thing I can think of is Nextcloud [1]. You can host it yourself or get them to host it for you. It encrypts files at rest. That is transparent to the user. You or someone have to be technically savvy to set it up, but the users should be ok. File transfers, messaging, etc... all encrypted.

[1] - [https://nextcloud.com/](https://nextcloud.com/)

</comment><comment> java-man Tutanota or Protonmail

[https://tutanota.com/](https://tutanota.com/) [https://protonmail.com/](https://protonmail.com/)</comment>


Scaleway Amsterdam Data Center Down - <AUTHOR> It's obvious, let's see how long it lasts. No more information available yet. Started about 15 minutes ago. Control panel doesn't show any servers and everything is unreachable. <comment><AUTHOR> Now they confirmed it: [https://twitter.com/scaleway/status/1012709138755776512](https://twitter.com/scaleway/status/1012709138755776512)</comment>


On the history of /usr/bin/true - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.twitter.com/rob_pike/status/966896123548872705 <comment><USER2> Third time that tweet's been linked to from here, with few comments. My comments from 9 days ago, at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16445795](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16445795) , points to sources which give more details.</comment>


Creative Destruction: How Entrepreneurs and the Internet Disrupt Old Industries - <AUTHOR> http://journal.markbao.com/2009/11/creative-destruction-entrepreneurs-internet-disrupt-old-industries/

<comment><USER2> Can anyone recommend a vc or angel that invests in gambling startups?</comment>


Ask HN: What company/industry would you like to see open their data? - <AUTHOR>

Ask HN: What company/industry would you like to see open their data? <comment><USER2> In the UK, postcodes - unlike US ZIP codes, they're not free

Retail product data - books, movies, music, games, electronics, etc: you can kinda do this through affiliate programs, but it's not great

Drug companies - studies can be killed if the data looks bad; we should be able to see every study, completed or not, and all the associated data so we can do comparative analyses

<comment><USER3> [http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,84...](http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,841,177_post_codes_together_with_precise_geographic_coordinates_and_other_information,_8_Jul_2009)

<comment><USER4> Great... except you can't use the information legally and it will not be kept up-to-date which makes it useless

I can't believe we have to pay for the postcode data in the UK. It should be freely available

<comment><USER5> Why isn't it legal to use?

Even if I download and read a book illegally, I'm still allowed to post quotes from the book on my blog. I'm still allowed to know the material. Why is this list any different?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Mint.

What do people invest in? How do they spend their money? How do they lose their money? I'd love to see the kinds of insights that could be gleamed from it. Of course the data will have caveats but I could see reports like: 90% of mint users who own apple stock also buy apple product or maybe 90% of users who buy apple product short microsoft stock?

</comment><comment><USER7> Insurance companies. I'd love to know how they weight different variables when determining the cost of policy (applies for health, car, home etc). If I install $100 worth of deadlocks, will that save me $5 / year or $50 / year on my policy? What other variables aren't I even thinking of improving?

</comment><comment><USER8> Real Estate, hands down. The MLS should be more open.

<comment><USER9> As a vendor, I could not agree more. The politics surrounding each individual MLS is a nightmare, and every time there is a rule change for public display of MLS data, it comes in the form of a 50 page document that the agents don't read, they just sign without realizing how they constantly make life harder for themselves.

Openness of the MLS lies in the hands of the Agents, and they should be demanding free and open access to their listing data so they can sell more properties, but they just stick the the status quo.

Here's how it works. Agents PAY their local MLS's to take THEIR DATA, then the MLS charges THEM to be able to take it back and use it.

It's the most absurd system I've ever seen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Food. I want to know what's in every packet, and what else is made in the factory. If you're gluten intolerant, it matters that flour is used on another process line in the factory that makes the chocolates that themselves have no wheat, oats, barley or rye.

If I had access to the complete ingredients list for every food item, I could buy treats for my best friend's son without wondering whether it will send him into anaphylactic shock.

Never mind business opportunities - this data could save lives and prevent misery on a daily basis.

</comment><comment><USER11> Financial institutions. While you could certainly argue that they already open up their data by way of regulatory reporting, I think there is certainly a case for standardizing output and possibly even increasing the scope.

</comment><comment><USER12> Amazon. One can see sales trends of every book, cd, dvd, clothing, and electronics store across the world. This would be amazing.

<comment><USER12> Come to think of it, does anyone know if Amazon doesn't turn around and sell sales data back to competing manufacturers? This data would be a huge benefit in terms of where to focus advertising money and bundling efforts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The IT industry is ahead of the curve on this one. Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail have been opening their data for days now...

</comment><comment><USER14> IMDB! With a powerful API please.

<comment><USER15> IMDB is open for non-commercial use.

ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/ftp.imdb.com/pub/

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> AT&T

I'm sure they have plenty of data from their cooperation with the NSA.

</comment><comment><USER17> The security theatre industry.

</comment><comment> matt-kantor The US government.

We're making progress, but there's a long way to go.

</comment><comment><USER18> Google. :D

<comment><USER19> That's like your third wish being asking the fairy for another three. You cheat, sir!

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The military.

</comment><comment><USER21> public transportation in Belgium</comment>


How to Save Local Newspapers: Cellphones - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/how-to-save-local-newspapers-cellphones/

<comment><USER2> I'm not so sure it'll work. It'll work for the AP, but the AP was never in trouble.</comment>


Show HN: Spoiler-free Starcraft 2 casts (Youtube/Twitch) - <AUTHOR> http://www.spoilerfreecasts.com

<comment><AUTHOR> I've enjoyed building this web-app using Backbone.js, Yii, jscrollpane, BigScreen API as well as (obviously) the Youtube API.

I've been watching Starcraft vids for a few years -- and I always hated how content can get spoiled. :/ Not too long ago it struck me that I could solve some of the basic problems: 1.) hide the time of a video, 2.) conceal how many games are in a "best of" set (unfortunately there aren't too many examples of this at this time because it's not tournament season), and 3.) intelligently load youtube comments (so as to not spoil the result).

But to go beyond that! The app could --> get all SC2 content in one place for visitors --> notify users if casters have a live twitch stream --> let them pin their favorite channels, etc!

Anyone's feedback is greatly appreciated</comment>


Tinder Is Scaling with MongoDB and Some Help from ObjectRocket - <AUTHOR> http://thenewstack.io/tinder-is-scaling-with-mongodb-and-some-help-from-objectrocket/

<comment><USER2> If Tinder is scaling with MongoDB, then Tinder is probably screwed.</comment>


Wal-Mart's Ultra-Efficient Linux PC Sells Out - <AUTHOR> http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1130/ <comment><USER2> It's the power efficiency that appeals to me.

I want a home server that I can leave on 24/7 without putting a dent in my power bill.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is good news indeed. I hope the trend picks up and more folks end up buying machines running Linux.</comment>


What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories - patrick-james http://www.fastcolabs.com/3009577/open-company/this-is-what-happens-when-publishers-invest-in-long-stories#comments?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer65a7f

<comment><AUTHOR> One concern pointed out in the comments was regarding SEO

A continually updating piece at new URLs looks like duplicate content. The author mentioned that their Search traffic was the same, but I wonder what the long term impacts are.

Clearly low bounce and high time on site are important, but I wonder if fluctuating titles hurt them more than helped, and counteracted the increased engagement.

<comment><USER2> well, if you provide a canonical name in the headers, the search engines will not treat the page as a duplicate content

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I wonder if The Verge sees a similar effect when they post longer features. I certainly stick around there and at Polygon for the longer posts, not the short blurbs that feel like they trick me into clicking them ...

<comment><USER4> Same, I downvote short posts with no real substance. They may have gotten the pageview, but I'll do my best to prevent some other person from wasting their time like I did.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The examples they give seem off to me - slowly-evolving thought pieces. (Of course, I understand that their examples are limited to topics they would typically cover.)

> ...and then build the article as the story develops over time, rather than > just cranking out short, discrete posts every time something new breaks.

Seems to me that this format/style would be perfectly suited to more quickly- evolving stories like the Boston Marathon bombings.

<comment><USER6> News media already use this format for developing stories, called "live blogging". That's what the article refers to with the term "slow live blogging". Like you said, it's slowly evolving rather than breaking news.

<comment><USER5> Good point. I didn't think about it that way. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have trouble imagining the reading experience. You read it, then it updates when you're not reading it, and... what? The RSS for it reactivates, but it's still non-recent. Or we bookmark it to remind ourselves to check bank now and again? It's not quite like a subscription... seems like it's a lot of mental load to check back during those times when it hasn't been updated (scroll scroll scroll... oh drat, it ended at the same point as last time)

<comment><USER5> I can imagine they would (eventually) provide a mechanism to be notified when the article is updated. As for the scrolling, it looks like the most recent portion is placed at the top - "But when more news breaks, you go back to the article, insert an update at the top, and change..."

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Seems like some sort of curated current affairs Wikipedia (from an information POV). It's an interesting idea, and certainly a technically interesting project, especially for interaction design.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd stick around longer to read the article if the funky little script driven animation didn't cause my browser to peg a core.</comment>


BPF: What's good, what's coming, and what's needed - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/787856/9d1d2776311bed3f/ <comment><USER2> What are some success stories of using BPF? What is a scenario where I would want to use this tool?

<comment><USER3> High performance networking: [https://www.iovisor.org/technology/xdp](https://www.iovisor.org/technology/xdp)

Cloudflare uses XDP for a variety of things: [https://blog.cloudflare.com/xdpcap/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/xdpcap/) [https://blog.cloudflare.com/l4drop-xdp-ebpf-based-ddos- mitig...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/l4drop-xdp-ebpf-based-ddos-mitigations/)

Performance engineering, debugging, etc: [https://github.com/iovisor/bcc](https://github.com/iovisor/bcc) [https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace](https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace)

Brendan Gregg is all on board the BPF train as well - check out all the blogs he's written about it over the past several years: [http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/](http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/)

IMO, (E)BPF is one of the most exciting technologies to be introduced in the past half decade or so. bcc and now bpftrace have become two of my favorite tools to reach for when assisting EC2 customers with performance issues. (Edit: I suppose I should note that that's a personal preference and not AWS policy, and also that the performance issues aren't special to EC2 ;))</comment></comment>


Superhuman - <AUTHOR> https://a16z.com/2019/06/27/superhuman/ <comment><USER4> I've yet to read an article about Superhuman that doesn't look like it was written by an investor. Was given an invite, which is really just a ticket to purchase this for $30 a month after filling out a questionnaire. Obviously, I didn't go through with it. Not much of an invite if you ask me.

<comment><USER5> FWIW, Andreessen Horowitz _is_ an investor in Superhuman. :)

<comment><USER6> Well then it's kindof a worthless endorsement, isn't it...?

<comment><USER7> One could argue the investment represents a better endorsement than the blog article. Perhaps a redundant endorsement but certainly not worthless.

<comment><USER6> The investment itself is a meaningful business endorsement. However I said this article is a meaningless endorsement (given the major conflict of interest).

In fact, the "hype-factor" and unwillingness to describe in simple terms what the product is makes me more skeptical than I was to begin with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Most of the fans so far seem to be VCs.

It's very clever for Superhuman to target that group. They're wealthy, influential, and will come in handy when its time to raise.

Outside of the VC segment, seems like most first-hand accounts I've read -- startup CEOs and journalists -- report that they've ended the subscription because the $30/mo. fee wasn't worth it, given the number of free alternatives.

This makes me wonder: does Superhuman have a target demographic outside of the ultra-rich?

<comment><USER9> I'm not a rich business executive and I love Superhuman. I'm happy to pay $30/m for it. If it saves me 10 minutes a month (and it does) it's a no- brainer.

<comment><USER10> What does it provide that other email clients don't?

<comment><USER9> Some reasons I like it:

1\. It's fast as hell. I've tried all the OS X Desktop clients and they're all slower than they should be. Email is a task - only a masochist would spend more time doing email than necessary. This focus on speed means the interface is super snappy. Keyboard shortcuts are nice, but the real win is the Slack- style CMD-K menu that lets me change contexts quickly. I don't know why every app doesn't have this.

2\. The interface is super clean and minimal. It displays only what's necessary on screen.

3\. They've paved many of the key workflows that I care about:

\- I type a date and they pop up my Calendar in the sidebar (but ONLY if I type a date).

\- Undo send is critical to any email client I use and they have it. But I can also "accelerate" a send to skip the ability to undo it. Useful if I'm e.g. trying to get an email with some key info to discuss with a client that I'm on the phone with right that moment instead of waiting 10-20 seconds for the Undo Send window to close.

\- Archiving an email displays the next email (granted so does Gmail) but the point is to process the inbox as quickly as possible.

\- Copying an email from the list view and pasting it opens up the exact same email (recipients, subject, and body) - this is super useful when I'm sending a variation of the same email to people.

\- Split Inboxes are great for filtering emails into a "Sub Inbox" for processing in a way that I don't process my main inbox. When I archive emails from there they disappear (unlike labeled emails which are labeled forever). An example is emails from Freelance gigs lists. I want to keep them out of my main inbox and scan them e.g. weekly, then have them go away forever.

\- The "Escape" key is a back button. It keeps history so you can get back to the inbox very quickly by hitting Esc a few times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I am always interested in the back story.

And to understand the back story you have to listen to the founder/CEO speak. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/)

He's very charismatic - has a fabulous radio voice and when he speaks you feel like you need to listen. He does alot of podcasts and I get the impression he speaks to alot of the most influential people in Silicon Valley (conjecture). So lots of influential people are pulled into the orbit of what he talks about, which is Superhuman of course, and also the way he goes about business.

I'm not saying anything here except that I think highly charismatic leaders are able to generate a large amount of interest in what they are doing - <USER2> speak, people listen and want to hear more, and buy what they are selling. That's why if you pay much attention to the tech scene, you'll have heard about Superhuman from a number of sources in recent times, and you'll read articles like this one that are very positive. If you are highly charismatic then people want you to know you, be around you, hear you and give you what you want.

Paul Graham believes that the person who wins the U.S. election tends to be the most charismatic [http://www.paulgraham.com/charisma.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/charisma.html) and I think that's exactly true as well of getting funding, and generating buzz for your company/product.

Unfortunately if you're not born with the voice, the ability to listen or the X factor that gives you that charisma, then you're going to have to develop that success and interest some other way.

Of course it's not only about the founder charisma, the product must also be there - and if you've got both then you're probably, well, Superhuman.

<comment><USER12> I wonder if charisma is actually an anti-pattern.

Paul Graham is an interesting example -- he's not a great speaker. He's not smooth. But he's obviously smart and interesting in a less polished way. In a way this makes me believe what he's saying more, because I don't think I'm being sold.

Have you ever heard Elon Musk speak? Or Mark Zuckerberg in the early days? They almost have the _opposite_ of polished charisma. And yet they're extremely successful entrepreneurs.

<comment><USER11> You don't need charisma for "success", but charisma can bring success to the charismatic.

History is loaded with highly charismatic people and those who, for want of a more positive term, "fall under their spell". Steve Jobs is an obvious one. Google "reality distortion field".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think they use FOMO effectively in their marketing strategy.

I actually applied for a Superhuman account a few months ago (I am guessing before they went 'invite only'). Went through the questionnaire process then received an email from one of their staff saying I wasn't a good fit because I had more than one (I have 6) G-Suite email accounts, whereas their product only supports one email account for best results.

I was upset for a few seconds, but then that was replaced by grudging admiration that they had a clear focus of their ideal customer and onboarding expectations and were prepared to say 'no' to some people to filter them out.

But I really do wonder how many people have just the one email address these days? Startup founders especially would have a plethora. Would be good if they stated up front that they only cater for people with one email address - <USER3> would save them a lot of vetting time, and also make it clear up front for people spending time trying to get an invite that won't make it past the first gatekeeper.

<comment><USER14> > Went through the questionnaire process then received an email from one of > their staff saying I wasn't a good fit because I had more than one (I have > 6) G-Suite email accounts, whereas their product only supports one email > account for best results.

I believe this has changed now. You can certainly add more accounts to Superhuman and it has keyboard shortcuts to swap between them. I use it daily like this. If you're really interested, you could reach back out and I'm sure they'd let you jump on board now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Information we receive from third parties. From time to time, we may receive > information about you from third parties and other users. We may also > collect information about you that is publicly available.

No thanks.

( from [https://superhuman.com/privacy](https://superhuman.com/privacy) )

<comment><USER16> Yes my first thought was great another we'll mine your data for a trivial benefit that you can mostly get from Tunderbird or other desktop clients. E-mail is a utility to be provided by non-ad tech company and browsed using an open source/private desktop client... that you pay a monthly fee for.

At $30 / month for a webclient I would hope it comes with full iron-clad private hosting of your stuff with an strong privacy-based agreement to boot. I pay half that for my mail for a few mailboxes about maybe 50 gbs of storage between them.

<comment><USER17> Information hiding is key. I get bombarded by so many trash emails every day that I could spend weeks unsubscribing to stuff. When Gmail came out with their tabbed interface and hid all the marketing messages behind a tab, I started using email again for the first time in about 7 years. Before that it was actually less useful than postal mail because I couldn't find anything for the flood of crap.

That's something Outlook and Thunderbird don't do, is give you convenient features to hide information. Sure, you can organize things into folders or labels, colorize things for follow-up, sort emails, etc., but you're fundamentally limited by their model of "emails should be in a list, like a database. And they should be in chronological order. And you deal with them in chronological order, or you colorize them."

<comment><USER18> Outlook has added a lot of "smart" features to its inbox sorting and management. I'll just say "so far so good" but clearly there's something in the air in the space.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I still doubt _anyone_ really uses it because all the supposed users are over the top effervescent in its praise without saying anything about why, or what. No details. I actually did get an invite from a forum on Lowendtalk... followed the link, gave some info (no about an6 email accounts) and then I had to complete a questionnaire about my usage! Never had to do that for an app before, so I back out and pinged the ceo to remove me from their system. I don't know. Seems off. Somehow.

After reading the article there is still a dearth of details other than saying users "experience joy", and that it is fast. Nothing about what generates the joy, of what exactly is fast about it. Avoid!

<comment><USER14> > Never had to do that for an app before, so I back out and pinged the ceo to > remove me from their system. I don't know. Seems off. Somehow.

They pretty strongly adhere to "The Collision Installation" [0] in that they want to give you an in-depth product overview in a consultation before they give it to you.

> Nothing about what generates the joy, of what exactly is fast about it.

There's a keyboard shortcut for everything, and the UI actively trains you if you somehow don't use a keyboard shortcut to do something. It sounds intrusive, but it's not. The actual performance in terms of latency between user input and action is optimized too, which makes everything feel super fast. They also optimize some types of actions so that some specific workflows are faster (like reading every email with auto-advance). It's the combination of these things that make it fast.

[0]: [http://www.startupengine.org/2013/08/the-collision- installat...](http://www.startupengine.org/2013/08/the-collision- installation.html)

<comment><USER20> Building a theory of businest around wrapping an old idea in a weird attempt at a pun an founder cult of personality worship; is that really where Silicon Valley is today? This is Conjoined Triangles of Success level of ridiculous.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> So much text, so little information. It would have been nice to read what is so uber great about it.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, it was a near-total waste of my time reading that article. Almost 100% hype with no actual content. Fortunately, the Superhuman website the author linked to tells you all about it. Many features looked good, too.

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

<comment><USER23> I found a little bit of footage of the actual app in this video: [https://youtu.be/IdYGpiRZIgg?t=1476](https://youtu.be/IdYGpiRZIgg?t=1476)

Interface seems reasonably fast, but not surprising for native clients. Does anyone know whether it's actually native? Or just electron that doesn't suck?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I am a Superhuman user and really enjoy using it.

Having tried and used almost all email clients that have been around, the best thing about Superhuman, until now, was that it made money by charging me a monthly fee, so I knew they can stay alive and continue without being sold to a bigger company and killed like many others before them.

Taking money from a VC is a bad sign for me. Call me old fashioned, but I would like to pay for what I use so they can build a business that lasts. VCs change the trajectory of businesses and usually what it means is getting bought by someone like Google and then being killed 18 months after that, leaving me holding the can.

<comment><USER25> Fastmail and Protonmail also don't commodify your data, and they're a lot cheaper than Superhuman.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm interested. I hate how slow Gmail feels these days – not sure whether it's gotten slower or my expectations have gotten higher, but either way, I only use it for lack of a good alternative.

But does anyone know whether or not the macOS version is an Electron app? The screenshot on the website makes it seem like it might be. If so, most of my interest is lost: it's probably still better than Gmail, but not better enough to be worth switching to. Non-native widgets are annoying to deal with, especially since they tend to not work properly with keyboard navigation/shortcuts (also a problem with Gmail). And while I believe they've gotten their client faster than Gmail, probably by a large margin, if it's Electron it probably isn't quite as snappy as a native app, while also taking up a lot of memory. I could be wrong, and I'll probably still try it if I get the chance, but I have yet to find a single Electron app that didn't struggle with this.

Edit: Their GitHub profile lists a bunch of Electron and JS repos, so I'm guessing it is indeed Electron. :(

<comment><USER27> I'm not sure if it is specifically Electron, but it does have Chrome Dev Tools in it.

<comment><USER14> It's Electron, and that does bring memory concerns, but it is really fast. It's the first electron app I've used that has convinced me that a well-built electron app can exist, if you put the work into it.

It's as snappy as a native app to me, and I have said that about no other electron apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> A relevant NYTimes article about Superhuman was also published today: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/technology/superhuman- ema...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/technology/superhuman-email.html)

Key quote for me: "Mr. Vohra said the app was targeted at people who spend three or more hours a day checking their email. "When you're doing three-plus hours of email every day, it's your job," Mr. Vohra said. "And every single other job has a tool that makes you do it faster.""

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm sorry, is this an article or a commercial?

I didn't see a single screenshot, or informative comment on the feature set, just a bunch of meaningless hype "if Gmail was built today it would be this."

<comment><USER20> It's a commercial, hosted on the seller's website.

<comment><USER6> And who the heck is upvoting this strange advertisement for an undefined product to the frontpage of my go-to NO-BS news aggregator site?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Someone on Twitter freaked out because one of the "core" features of Superhuman is basically a read receipt e.g. similar to marketing emails where they add a clear pixel to your email before sending.

I absolutely hate that stuff, but marketers do this all the time anyway. Definitely adds one more creep factor if you know the sender is using Superhuman and can tell if you have or haven't opened their email.

<comment><USER30> If you use Gmail, turn off loading images by default and it won't open any of those stupid tracking pixels. They won't get read receipts.

I thought a long time ago this was the default behavior to not open external images but it seems this has changed. I don't know who decided on changing that default, as pixel trackers can also enable stalking behavior.

<comment><USER31> You have to block loading of ALL external resources. Smarter trackers will try to load much more than just images.

<comment><USER30> Can you elaborate? What resources are allowed in e-mails besides images? I'm pretty sure Gmail doesn't auto-load JavaScript or anything like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> If anyone at Superhuman could refer me, I'd love to give it a crack at my 5 emails accounts where I receive 1,000 messages each day and I only get to respond to a few hundred. :-) anything I can do to be more productive and answer more fan mail.

<comment><USER33> Funnily enough, top comments say it works only for people with one account :)

<comment><USER9> Not true. I have 5 and it works just fine. But they don't support a Unified Inbox (which suits me just fine).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> The Acquired podcast just released an episode on them today:

[https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/superhuman](https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/superhuman)

</comment><comment><USER35> I use Emacs for email (and most of my other tasks). The problems that he presents, I have long ago solved. The reason is programmability. I can mold Emacs and its wide assortment of email clients into my exact requirements. If my requirements change, _my_ Emacs evolves and adapts. The Lisp Machine rapid- feedback-loop paradigm makes that possible.

Once you lock onto that way of working, everything else seems substandard. That of course includes yet another centralized "service" that I have no control over.

</comment><comment><USER36> Listen to this recent podcast interview w/ its founder & ceo [https://lnns.co/V8Z-SfuvqbB](https://lnns.co/V8Z-SfuvqbB)

The founder raised $750k initially. Spent 20% buying superhuman.com and $45k hiring a design agency to turn wireframes into high fidelity mock. Very bold 2nd time founder

<comment><USER36> Superhuman founder & ceo is doing quite a few podcast interviews recently [https://lnns.co/65uTMm9nytW](https://lnns.co/65uTMm9nytW)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I tried it for 1 month, it is genuinely great, just kind of expensive considering all the pretty good free email apps out there. It is nice for me (CEO), but buying this in addition to everything else for all of our staff is tough to justify.

<comment><USER38> What made it great, did it genuinely free up time?

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> It's kind of shame that being fast has become a super-premium feature that people are willing $360 USD a year for, especially considering how powerful the hardware of today is.

</comment><comment><USER40> Is it just me or are all of the features they list on the landing page exactly what Google inbox did before they stupidly shut it down? I loved the inbox UI...

<comment><USER29> Superhuman has read receipts. AFAIK no email clients offers that outside of email marketing software.

<comment><USER30> I actually consider read receipts unethical. It enables stalkers, and enables bad employers to make judgements about their employees' personal time and sleeping habits. Good e-mail clients should never load any external resource without the user's explicit consent. It should be enforced that images to be displayed in the e-mail should be attached to the e-mail itself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> > Unfortunately, we're not ready to support your desktop device yet. > Superhuman is currently built for Apple laptops, but our team is working > hard to expand platforms.

So not only is it a recurring $30/m but it only works on macOS. Seems to me this could have easily been Electron or a cross-platform web app. Not sure why email needs native performance.

Stop discrimination against Linux users!

</comment><comment><USER14> I love Superhuman, and I do think the hype is deserved. It has a few innovative features (like split inboxes and an entirely keyboard focused UI), but the real appeal is polish. It really is fast, but it's consistent and that's the key. If it weren't consistent or if it had random latency spikes it wouldn't be great, but it is.

</comment><comment><USER42> All I want from email is for any sent to me to bounce unless the sender pays me the current price of a USPS forever stamp.

</comment><comment><USER43> Interesting, but not for me. $30/month isn't a big deal at all for someone (not just rich VCs) that have to deal with volumes of email, but that ain't me. My Xero costs $30/month, and that's worth it, to me, because ROI.

</comment><comment> mkr-hn Over 1500 words and I'm not sure what it does to actually improve email. This reminds me of marketing copy for marketing apps for marketers that, when you get down to it, don't do much.

</comment><comment><USER44> I've had terrible, terrible experience with Superhuman! I got an invitation and some lady wanted to me to do a screenshare and show her how I use Gmail. I told her if she's nuts as I'm not letting anyone see what's in my Inbox and this kind of intrusion is not something they should be doing, but the stupid "Subhuman" employee said they cannot continue onboarding without this. I told them that I don't want anything to do with such blatant privacy invader and cancelled my onboarding.

</comment><comment><USER45> How does the undo feature work? Is there a timeout period that lapses and locks that functionality?

</comment><comment><USER46> Why can't we use a Gmail extension to do something similar?

</comment><comment><USER47> why did i just spend 5 min reading an ad

</comment><comment><USER48> IIRC, gmail was once invite-only

</comment><comment><USER49> Does anyone have an invite?

<comment><USER27> I do, referring you via your email address on your HN profile. In return, I think I'll take you up on

> If you have ANY (literally ANY) sort of problem that you need solved, > contact me. I mean seriously, literally any problem, even the one you think > I can't help you with. The harder the better.

How do I work at a Silicon Valley startup that wants to hire me, if I'm an EU citizen with no degree and 5 years of work experience?

<comment><USER50> > How do I work at a Silicon Valley startup that wants to hire me, if I'm an > EU citizen with no degree and 5 years of work experience?

It'll be tough for sure. And depends on what the startup is prepared to do. Have you spoken to an immigration attorney? [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=proberts](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=proberts) does AMAs on here regularly and it might be worth contacting his firm for advice (also take a look through his AMAs).

Things I've seen work:

\- Work remote, visit SV regularly for work. To be frank, I think that can be the best of both worlds. But YMMV.

\- If you work for an overseas subsidiary for over a year, you can try for L-1 to transfer to the US. Generally the "startup" needs to be big (big) for this to be practical. You don't outright need a degree, but 5-years experience is probably on the lower end. If SV is your dream, it might be a case of finding a bigco startup that is prepared to do this. A stepping stone might be working for one of them in the EU first (e.g. Dublin in particular has plenty of satellite offices for SV companies).

\- There are other options like the O-1 and H1-B, but these are extremely competitive. Again, immigration lawyer would have a better idea.

In all cases I'd probably give Peter a try first.

<comment><USER27> Thanks a lot! I did talk with lawyers but somehow adam already helped me via Twitter DMs a lot more :D

Remote work with visits is a great option in the meantime. L-1 I'm not too comfortable with as I'd be entirely tied to that company. O-1 seems like the easiest path, I'll try to find a book deal to start out with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> A VC pimping one of their investments? YC's influence has spread far and wide.

</comment><comment><USER52> TLDR: Promotional article for Superhuman (email client) written by its investor.

</comment><comment><USER53> This is a little heavy on the advertorial.

Also - aren't we past the 'false scarcity' thing these days?

If you're going to talk about it publicly, why can't I try it?

"Ooh, you can use it sooner if you know someone who is using it"

Sorry that I'm not already in your club, but I was excited to look at it, now, I'm a tiny bit miffed, but most importantly I may not remember to come back.

...

The author lamented 'decision making' 'getting back to someone' etc. which we can all empathize with.

The marketing collateral of Superhuman talks about 'speed' i.e. not having to wait 100ms for anything ...

I'm not sure how the two are deeply related. Yes, a refresh and speed will be great, but I personally don't think that's the issue.

It's a rather difficult thing for orgs to try to magically organize information, Google seems to be trying a few things and while novel and impressive, ultimately I think they are futile.

Anyhow, I'm stoked that people are trying to re-invent old things, excited to try it. I guess when my 'klout' score gets high enough?

<comment><USER54> All you need to know about this thing is this idiotic sentence: "It's the kind of innovation that can only happen in startups, and with special, once-in-a- lifetime founders."

Seriously? Once-in-a-lifetime founders? For an email client? That's how you know this is marketing garbage.</comment></comment>