Is a subdomain OK as your product's web site?  - <AUTHOR> http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.788086 <comment><USER2> I don't know why the web isn't more friendly to sub domains. We keep wasting domain names. Reusing domains and using sub domains is an elegant solution.

I hate going to web sites that dump every product they own on one page, along with support, company information ,etc. It just makes it harder to find info for what I want when I have to look at everything. If they had a subdomain they can dedicate what appears as a whole site to just that product. Then their company info, career portion, etc can be on their main domain, and keep it all separated.

</comment><comment><USER3> This might help (if you haven't read it already): <http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/>

I use subdirectories.

<comment><USER4> From an SEO perspective subdirectories are considered better than subdomains because subdirectories help the ranking of the primary domain better than subdomains.

If you want the overall ranking of www.example.com to improve, use www.example.com/producta and www.example.com/product, not producta.example.com and productb.example.com.

[http://www.seomoz.org/blog/subdomains-subfolders-and- topleve...](http://www.seomoz.org/blog/subdomains-subfolders-and-toplevel- domains)

<comment><USER5> _Historically, it's been kind of a wash about when to use subdomains vs. subdirectories._ \- Matt Cutts

<http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _Some yays for subdomains:

\- they allow me to share all administrative code behind the scenes (logging framework, key generator, common scripts, etc.);

\- they're free for me on my current hosting plan;_

With all due respect, I'd say this guy has bigger problems than subdomain vs. own domain. I reads a lot like he's on a $5/month plan, and it's a deal- breaker to spend eg. $20 for a slice or linode where all those considerations goes away.

<comment><USER7> What's wrong with that? $15 a month might be all it takes to become "ramen profitable".

<comment><USER6> What's wrong with that is that he's letting very simple technological concerns get in the way of him releasing his product. It's basically an example of very premature optimization.

<comment><USER7> I wouldn't say he's "optimizing" if he chooses to use a cheap host and subdomain. He's boostrapping an agile product. He can always get a better host and full domain name in subsequent iterations.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, and that's laudable. It just reads like he assumes a constraint and starts worrying rather than understanding the constraint his decision imposes. Also, I'm sure, if he shops around, he can find a cheap shared host that'll host multiple domains for him. This further implies that he's in constraints- mode rather than solutions-mode.

The optimization comparison is meant in the sense that it's like he's focusing on whether the compiler correctly unrolls this or that loop, rather than focusing on getting his product out of the door where it can start creating some value for customers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I would think if you can't afford the extra $10 registration for a new domain that you yourself probably aren't very confident in your products recouping their domain cost.

If such is the case, a company has bigger problems than even the great ones outlined previously.

</comment><comment><USER9> It works, but I wouldn't do it. For one it makes selling a product line a tough thing to do.

</comment><comment><USER10> Subdomains are best for separate "apps" on your server.

www.company.com/product1, product2, etc. store.company.com/product support.company.com/product . . .

<comment><USER11> Why would that be?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why not "yourcompany.com/productname/"?

<comment><USER13> I would do both: product.company.com and (www.)company.com/product/.

<comment><USER14> That splits your link juice to no positive effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Just like altavista.digital.com. How did that work out?

</comment><comment><USER16> Subdomains loose you SEO juicyness. So no, better to use diretories (unless you're say Yahoo I suppose).</comment>


Your taxes are not well-spent - <AUTHOR> http://ada.mbecker.cc/2012/11/04/your-taxes-are-not-well-spent/

<comment><USER2> I sympathize with his frustration, but that doesn't mean that this assertion holds water:

"If you're truly entrepreneurial, you'll forge ahead into this underserved market and find yourself not just creating wealth for you and your company, but for the community around you as well."

I think that any entrepreneur foolish enough to try it will quickly discover the true meaning of the word "bureaucracy". It's not like you can just walk into the DMV and sell them a better software package! No, it's going to be years of Study, and Request for Proposal, and Customization Requirements, and perhaps a state bond measure to pay for the inevitable multimillion dollar price tag.

If you're truly entrepreneurial, you will likely avoid this tar-pit and go spend your time working on problems which can actually be solved.</comment>


New mobile version of NYTimes is awesome - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com <comment><USER2> Agreed—mostly because it's SIMPLE!</comment>


No Code of Conduct - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/domgetter/NCoC <comment><USER2> I like it, and have considered adding something like this for my next project. Does seem a bit wordy, though.

My version: 1\. Don't be an ass. 2\. Anyone who mentions "Code of Conduct" will be immediately banned.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is brilliant.

Especially:

Q: Why don't you care about my feelings? We are not a support group for human emotion. We are a community that strives to focus around our topics. Anything else takes away from that.

</comment><comment><USER4> This sucks. I love it! ;)</comment>


Which sub-reddits do people follow that fit in with the ethos of Hacker News? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> /r/gwern

</comment><comment><USER3> /r/webdev</comment>


1981 TV Report On Birth Of Internet News - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/29/you-need-to-see-this-video/

<comment><USER2> I would have kept the gist of the original headline: "1981 TV Report On Birth Of Internet News".

Some choice quotes:

"Of the estimated 2-3 thousand home computer owners in the Bay Area, the Chronicle reports over 500 have responded back by sending in coupons."

"It takes over 2 hours to receive the entire text of the newspaper over the phone, and with an hourly use charge of $5, the new tele-paper won't be much competition for the 20-cent street edition."

<comment><AUTHOR> Done, who knew though?

<comment><USER2> Hmm, maybe your spin was better for drawing upvotes. Well, I thought it was a cool story.

<comment><AUTHOR> Heh - spin doesn't matter, I was just hoping it could spark a discussion.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Computer Science and Physics of Community Detection [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.00467 <comment><AUTHOR> The introduction alone is worth the read!</comment>


Google I/O Sells Out in 30 Seconds - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/u/0/111395306401981598462/posts

<comment><USER2> "Lets create a conference where the swag is easily resellable items worth more than the conference admission. Nobody will figure out how to arbitrage that..."

I've heard great things about I/O, but the device giveaways seem to always turn registration into a circus...

<comment><USER3> To be honest, that was really annoying.

I've become a minimalist in regards to personal property, and the last thing I need is another gadget -- I'm already busily cutting down on what I own, to the point where my fiancee is getting a little annoyed.

It's just more cognitive load to manage that much stuff.

Is a Galaxy Tab bundled in with the admission that much of a draw for people, or is this more a way to offload inventory?

<comment><USER4> I think the gadget gifts is more about making sure developers have the hardware to develop for. If I don't have an Android device there is next to zero chance I will write a Android app.

<comment><USER5> But there are enough Android developers that I/O seems better targeted at existing devs who already have the devices.

<comment><USER4> To an extent. Last year not many people had tablets or Chromebooks and the gadgets are usually top of the line or running an OS that is no consumer ready devices are running yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I guess that's what happens when everyone who attends gets a free phone/tablet. Maybe registration should have a quiz requiring knowledge a developer would have.

<comment><USER7> Last year, they claimed they'd be doing something like this. For some reason they backpedaled.

<comment><USER8> It seems like the "let's try to find actual developers" faction lost convincingly.

Last year, I won a ticket via Last Call for Google I/O, their Google- technology programming competition, but got no early registration access this year (yes, I was shut out this morning too). So not only did they not qualify developers for registration, Google had no interest in registering developers who _already passed_ a recent Google-technology developer test.

I think they're squeamish about restricting access too much, even by a meritocratic approach. I admit that it would be a huge PR problem if developers are angered at feeling classified as "unworthy", or if Google I/O is perceived as elitist. So I guess developers are going to be complaining about I/O registration year after year from now on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 30 seconds? Vic Gundotra's post on the page says _Google I/O has officially sold out! It took just a bit over 20 minutes!_

</comment><comment><USER10> I hope they revoke this guy's ticket: [http://www.ebay.com/itm/Google- IO-2012-GA-Adult-Ticket-/2307...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Google-IO-2012-GA- Adult- Ticket-/230768084849?pt=US_Tickets_all_in_one&hash=item35bad98771#ht_500wt_1182)

<comment><USER11> You're assuming he has a ticket.

<comment><USER10> In the description he says the ticket is in his name.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Sold out as of now. I had been trying since 7:00:00 - and still could not get a ticket.

And I need one for work, damn it - I actually care about Android development. I couldn't care less about a free device.

<comment><USER7> For what it's worth, the Google Android team (as well as many other Google dev teams) host weekly "Hangouts" on Google+ where you can ask questions. They call them "Office Hours", and you can find the list here:

<https://developers.google.com/events/>

Oh, and of course all the I/O talks will be livestreamed and then posted to YouTube.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> It wasn't actually 30 seconds. It just was timing out. I got one in the first six minutes or so. and as of 7:26 PDT there are still regular tickets left.

<comment><USER14> The silly thing was this:

They had a page that said "Don't refresh this page or you will lose your spot in line"

So you wait, after 6 30 second requests to the server, it times out and says "We were unable to find a ticket... please try again"

So I waited, instead of crazily just refreshing the page and disregarding what they said, hoping it was true and Google had implemented some sort of queueing system (call me crazy). My very first request to the page was at 7:00:22 AM.

So, obviously it wasn't actually a queuing system, especially because it was still getting {"status":"waiting"} responses for about a minute after all tickets were reported as sold out on the main page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> devsite.registration.checkWaitListStatus = function (a) { var b = "/events/register/waitlist/status/" + devsite.registration.waitListKey + "/"; $.get(b, function (b) { var d = b.status; "waiting" == d ? a.setTimeout(devsite.registration.checkWaitListStatus, 25E3 + 1E4 * Math.random(), a) : devsite.location.href = "fulfilled" == d ? b.details_page : "/events/io/register/noticket" }).error(function () { devsite.location.href = "/events/io/register/noticket" }) };

</comment><comment><USER16> I got a ticket, but every time I try to pay for it I get "We couldn't complete your purchase because of a technical issue." Anyone else having similar issues?

(It did tell me "declined" once, but I called my bank's fraud department and had them remove the block.)

</comment><comment><USER17> It sold out in 30 minutes, not 30 seconds.

</comment><comment><USER18> Academic tickets sold out, and I can't afford the full price. Skipped class to try at 7:00 PDT on the spot, oh well.

Some people on Twitter are still getting tickets. I imagine that if you're in the queue and someone fails to pay for their ticket on time, you might get a chance.

<comment><USER19> Have the exact same story. Always next year I suppose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is it actually sold out, or did you just time out when requesting a ticket?

It's not really clear from the "checking for available tickets" polling.

also, academic tickets are clearly marked as sold out, but the main tickets aren't.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm not sure this is the definition of 'first come, first served', I hit the register button the first time around 07:00:06, watching painstakingly as every spinner eventually return "No tickets found". What a slap in the face.

</comment><comment><USER22> The article the submitter links to says it sold out in 20 minutes, not 30 seconds.

</comment><comment><USER23> It didn't sell out at 7. The POST to the ticket URL kept timing out until 7:03. The timeout would cause a redirect to the no ticket page. After 7:03 the POST hung until they showed a reserved ticket at 7:07 (for me).

</comment><comment><USER24> Tickets are officially sold out according to the registration page. [1]

[1] <https://developers.google.com/events/io/register>

</comment><comment><USER25> It looks more like it was lottery than anything else. If you clicked on it at the right time and got lucky in a 30 minute window. I have been to a number of them since I went to the first one (part of the android challenge before there was an android phone) I have really enjoy the conference every time I have gone. This year I mainly wanted to get some time in with the Go group and reconnecting with friends I have made over the years. Look like time to start looking for another conference with lots of web startup. Anything going on in the UK?

<comment><USER5> Hopefully the London GUG will host an IO Extended this year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The real number was 20 minutes: [https://plus.google.com/107117483540235115863/posts/iyc4arLj...](https://plus.google.com/107117483540235115863/posts/iyc4arLjidR)

</comment><comment><USER27> We were in our campus server room and got 3 of them. Connection speed didn't matter, it was very random, but we're shocked we got 3 tickets given the demand:

[https://plus.google.com/108430678066988816876/posts/AAuhFJKv...](https://plus.google.com/108430678066988816876/posts/AAuhFJKvs18)

</comment><comment><USER28> Its definitely not sold out yet (academic tickets are gone though). As someone else mentioned it looks like they are releasing the tickets in batches.

Edit: it is sold out now: <https://developers.google.com/events/io/register>

</comment><comment><USER29> They should probably allow one day for people to request the tickets and then assign them at random.

<comment><USER30> This is how Burning Man did their tickets this year. It didn't work out very well for them but I think it would work well for something like this. You'd get a better distribution of devs and people just looking to get "free" devices.

<comment><USER31> The problem I have with this is that Burning Man and the festivals are general-audience events. I'm okay with not getting tickets for Coachella because there are only so many of them and everyone wants to go. Such is life. I'm not okay with attending a low-quality I/O because bad people were able to purchase tickets.

My proposed fix was make people code something simple in JS and then run an automated it before allowing registration. That way, dumb people try to register, and by the time they can Google a solution to FizzBuzz and copy- paste it, all the developers have already registered.

<comment><USER32> But then you're discriminating for developers who know JS (I don't).

<comment><USER31> <Pick your favorite mainstream easy-to-interpret language here> , then. I don't think expecting developers to know enough JS or Python to write FizzBuzz is unreasonable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> They should not give away anything this year, so those that didn't get a ticket will get a similar streaming experience and those that got one just for swag will get nothing for their "investment"

and I got a ticket, so I'm not saying this out of spite...

</comment><comment><USER34> According to Vic Gundrota, it took "just over 20 minutes" for the conference to sell out. [https://plus.google.com/u/0/107117483540235115863/posts/iyc4...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/107117483540235115863/posts/iyc4arLjidR)

</comment><comment><USER35> I think there was a heavy geographical element involved. All my programming friends from OC got in, some hitting the site as late as 7:04. Those in SF and LA were all locked out even after constant refreshes.

</comment><comment><USER36> It was NOT a first come first served:

[https://plus.google.com/112824291715893708090/posts/KVGsrug3...](https://plus.google.com/112824291715893708090/posts/KVGsrug3ZhM)

</comment><comment><USER37> Academic tickets sold out fast, but genreal tickets were available for about 20-30 minutes. Last year google had another round of tickets so be on the lookout.

</comment><comment><USER38> I also didn't get a ticket even though I was on the registration page at 7.00 on the spot. After four retries the tickets had sold out.

</comment><comment><USER39> I hope you all get chromebooks, hahaha.

</comment><comment><USER40> Looks like I'll be attempting to watch the live streams, again, this year.

</comment><comment><USER41> I took 4 spins waiting, but I got my ticket at 16 minutes past the hour.

</comment><comment><USER42> Hardly an official news release.

</comment><comment><USER43> Now both sold out...

</comment><comment><USER44> Uh, awesome. Hope you had your finger on the button if you are an actual developer who wanted to go.

<comment><USER45> I did, no such luck. Same as every single year I've tried. You'd think having been invited down to Google for other summer events would help but it doesn't. I'd buy a ticket that doesn't qualify you for any swag if I still get to talk to people but it seems like they don't care about that.

<comment><USER12> Agreed! The only reason I want to go is to share wisdom and learn.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> If there's such huge demand, you'd think that maybe they'd move it somewhere larger where they can satisfy more of that demand? If you want developers to get and stay excited about your platform, making it impossible to come to your conference doesn't help.</comment>


New UI for Google Image Search - <AUTHOR> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/ooh-ahh-google-images-presents-nicer.html

<comment><USER2> Not active for my Google yet, but looking at the article, it seems to be a set of changes they really had to make to keep up with Bing. Bing's UI for image searches is really hands down much better than Google's current way of doing it. I gave up on Bing text searches a while back, but always pull it up for images. Even if Bing's marketshare never takes off, I look forward to a game of leapfrog between the two. We as end-users will benefit from that.

<comment><USER3> Google image search is better in one way that I noticed within the first 3 seconds of using the two: You can scroll up and down the results in Google using the up and down arrows. Bing has focus in the search box. You need to click somewhere in the scrollable results viewport to get it to scroll with the cursor keys. This is such a basic, annoying screw-up.

<comment><USER2> You're right. I never noticed because I always use the mouse scroll wheel for that. My #1 biggest Bing image search gripe is middle click doesn't work in Chrome for opening in a new tab, yet right click->open in new tab does.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bing's UI is really hands down much better than Google's new image search UI. In terms of results I don't really find a big difference anymore.

I sometimes resorted to google's image search because it was faster. Dynamic image loading really does take a big toll on performance(at least for me). I wonder why neither Bing nor Google have switched to SilverLight/Flash respectively yet. Maybe they are just waiting for html5?

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks great, but freezes Safari if I scroll down too fast. Probably since it's trying to load and display too many thumbs at once.

It's a good direction but the details don't seem right yet. Increasing the image by 10% on hover doesn't add much detail so I'd remove that. I'd just fade in a white box with the details below the image, instead of having the resize/dropshadow effect.

Since basically the whole page has a mouse effect, it makes me very aware of how I move the mouse and where I rest the cursor.

They could also remove the "Page" index, since that's not useful anymore, but I guess that happens once this rolls out to everybody.

</comment><comment><USER6> About time!

I do wonder how this will affect CoolIris though which I really liked but will have a hard time justifying using now.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm not as worried about the UI as much as I am worried about '404' errors, which are pretty common.

</comment><comment><USER8> Still loads results in a frame. So annoying.</comment>


How I read more, forget less and have a database of useful references - <AUTHOR> http://danfrost.co.uk/how-i-read-more-forget-less-and-have-a-database-of-useful-references/ <comment><USER2> Heh, this is almost my exact same workflow.</comment>


OmniFocus 2 for Mac released - <AUTHOR> http://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/#!

<comment><USER2> Some interesting design ideas, but seems a bit aimless... stuck in the weird no-man's-land Mac software is currently in: Apple's shown us the future with iOS 7, but Mac OS is still all shadows-and-gradients. Do you attempt something more minimalist and (ugh) 'flat', and be in discord with the chrome of the OS? Or do you match the look of the OS and be in discord with Dribbble's latest trends?</comment>


Questions to Ask a Potential Tech Employer - <AUTHOR> https://gitlab.com/doctorj/interview-questions <comment><USER2> I've done a decent amount of hiring over the years. When I ask the candidates if they have any questions, I expect them to _interview me_ as a potential manager. Everyone has their own set of criteria so there is not universal "good question to ask". Instead, you should figure out if you'd like to work with/for me? Do you feel you'd grow personally?

Perhaps you're in a phase of life where you just need the money to recover from an unfortunate situation. Still, you must figure out what are the criteria you won't compromise on, and make sure you're getting that. For some, it's work schedule; for others, it's communication styles. Maybe you'll be driven insane by my cheesy puns and so you'd probably want to figure that out ahead of time. Ask me what I'll do to ensure you'll be respected as an individual on the team.

When I'm a candidate, I like to ask how my failures will be dealt with. I will goof up at some point, the question is how is that managed. The larger point is there must be some discussion about potentially unpleasant situations.

<comment><USER3> I am a junior dev.

It is hard for me to get in that dating mentality that I should be testing to see if my interviewer and I are simpatico. I feel a lot of pressure to fill in the blanks on what I want to know without asking, so I don't seem like I'm still deciding if I want to work there.

I know that sounds ridiculous.

The only time I do well is when interviewing for roles in faraway Australia because I feel like I have no chance of getting picked up.

Or maybe Australians are just great at no-bullshit interviews and put me at ease like talking to a friend? Confusing.

<comment><USER4> I think you are selling yourself short by not asking questions particularly as a junior dev. Depending on the role, people are hiring you for not only your current skills but your potential to grow. Write some questions down in advance - no one is going to ding you for having a cheat sheet for asking questions.

Here's some questions I'd ask:

\- what sort of training or growth opportunities do you have? \- do you offer any aid for continued education or online courses? What about conferences? \- do you have a buddy or mentor program to help me get moving quickly? \- Are there any books or resources you recommend so I can hit the ground running? \- If I got the role, what would make you feel you made a great hire in 6 months or a year?

<comment><USER3> I thank you for your kind and very welcome advice.

These are great questions - I think I probably have trouble locating more junior dev opportunities.

I always do research on the history of a company but because of turnover it doesn't score me any piñatas to know where they started if the interviewer can't engage with the stuff I'm mentioning. :(

<comment><USER5> Just doing the research puts you in the top 20% of candidates.

I have lost track of over the years how many time I have got the answer "nothing" to the question what do you know about the company.

I personally find it amazing that people don't make the most basic investigations into the place they are wanting to spend most of their waking hours. It is like waking into a car dealership and saying to the first salesman you meet "I have $30,000 - just sell me any car as I don't care."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One of my faves to ask my interviewers is, "Given a month of time to work on it, what would you work on in your current product?"

The question is worded such that it's not offensive and doesn't sound like a "trying to find out the bad stuff" kind of question, so it puts people at ease. But it still gives people a chance to talk about the "bad stuff", to air out the things that frustrate them about the job. Those aren't necessarily red flags that prevent people from working at the company, but it's given me a pretty good picture over the years of what the day-to-day is like working on that product.

<comment><USER7> I really like this question and I'll be reserving it for future use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just for the giggles, I love hearing wars stories of epic fails to questions like these. Paraphrased, here are some I've personally experienced:

q: If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the company, what would it be? a: Get rid of all our customers.

q: How many hours did you work last week? a: All of them.

q: How many meetings were you in in the last few days, and how long did they last? a: Most of what I do is meetings.

q: What do you use for source control? a: We use $NAME but we forbid branching because merging is too hard.

q: Describe your build / deploy process. a: I don't think we have time for that right now.

q: What do you use for a bug / task tracker? a: Email.

q: How would you gague your technical debt? a: What's "technical debt"?

<comment><USER9> > q: What do you use for source control? a: We use $NAME but we forbid > branching because merging is too hard.

Where I used to work, and the first place I wrote software full-time, we were not allowed to commit code to our system (Synergy) until after our code review. I ended up creating a parallel SVN repository so I could do incremental check-ins.

Don't get me started in merging...

<comment><USER10> I don't think we are supposed to either, but it's never been an issue for our company because there's always shelvesets with TFS, so you can shelve your work at different stages and retrieve it later.

If you're using a DVCS like git, though, that seems silly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I was expecting a neat list of questions on the web, and instead was presented with setting up a programming environment just to output them.

You will need Python 3 with the PyYAML, jsonschema, and jinja2 packages installed. Seriously?

<comment><USER12> I mean or just view them as html. [https://doctorj.gitlab.io/interview- questions/](https://doctorj.gitlab.io/interview-questions/) I agree that the system he is set up is almost absurdly complex for what should just be a markdown file.

<comment><USER13> That misses the answer, followup, and reference. Unless I'm missing something...

\- q: Would you say your colleagues are good at reading your emotional state, or still learning? # TODO: Better wording so the answer is not so obvious a: Research shows the most important factor in team effectiveness is psychological safety, a "shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking." One component of this is high "average social sensitivity," or that everyone is good at reading the emotional state of others. followup: Do you feel like your opinion is heard, respected, and valued? ref: [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google- learn...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from- its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html) pri: 1 tags: [culture]

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> +1 for Gitlab!

But one question. What was thinking behind setting up the extensive YML structure instead of just using simple markdown? I see some reasoning with printing through a script, but will that be a significant use case?

This structure just seems complex for doing a quick PR with a question that I'd like to see added, and would keep me from contributing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, probably a bit over-engineered; just having a little fun. The idea is that you can filter and sort based on metadata, merge multiple lists, make mashups, and render/style it how you like. Feel free to just open an issue with a question, or post it here!

In the YAML, you can get away with just: -q: Your question here.

<comment><USER15> My thought was that it would be useful to have it in machine consumable form if you want to collect data and report on things. You could turn it into a "debriefing" program that makes it quick to go through after an interview and note which questions you asked and rate your satisfaction on their answers.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a great idea. Want to help out? :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is everything thats wrong with (web)developers today.

Why is this available in more than one format? Why on earth is there a filter.sh and render.py?!? This is just awful. If you can't read through a simple text list and select the appropriate questions then you're already doomed.

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://gitlab.com/doctorj/interview- questions/raw/master/in...](https://gitlab.com/doctorj/interview- questions/raw/master/interview-questions.yml)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> YAML's a weird choice for this kind of application. I once explored different markup languages for maintaining my resume, ultimately just went back to using LibreOffice.

There's a temptation to use a structured, machine-readable formatting language for anything that has structure, because you might one day want to use machines to work on it.

But for an application like this, those times are the exceptions, most of the time, it's humans that are going to read and modify the text. It makes way more sense to use a human-oriented format and simply use a convention so that it's easy to use a tool to convert it when you need to. I see no reason why Markdown can't be used.

<comment><USER18> I use LibreOffice for my resume too. However, I'm the only person who maintains my resume, so it works for me. For something that's going to be touched by a lot of different people, a text-based language is far better because you can diff the changes easily. Such tools exist for office documents within those programs, but they're clumsy and don't integrate with source control systems.

But otherwise, Markdown does seem like it'd be a better choice. Everyone's using it these days, it's simple, whereas YAML is obscure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The formatted HTML version of the questions, not sure why you'd need this in JSON...

[https://doctorj.gitlab.io/interview- questions/](https://doctorj.gitlab.io/interview-questions/)

</comment><comment><USER20> "How do you avoid micromanagement and promote autonomy in your organization?"

"I'd like a copy of the employee handbook to take with me"

<comment><USER21> So important. Employee handbooks will rule or ruin your job.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Hmm, this is always hard.

The interviewer is trying to recruit you and also filter you out, but usually will not honestly respond to questions about what they don't like, or will hold some of those against you.

Ergo, you really have to ask "what is it like to work here" (and also culture questions, etc) and leave open ended questions, and then learn to read between the lines. Asking multiple people the same question can also be good.

Attempting to gauge enthusiam is good.

I find places that really want to invest in new hires and make them feel part of the team are the best (i.e. people that want to take you out to lunch and help go over code with you), but those are in my experience also a bit too rare.

You also need to figure out if the folks are smart, not burned out too much, and whether there's a lot of politics -- but it's really hard to filter that out from an interview, just in the same way it's hard for people to tell how a candidate is really going to be too.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is the question that I always want to ask, but am afraid to:

      > q: How many hours did you work last week?
      > a: Working more than 40-hour weeks regularly decreases productivity.
      > followup: Is that typical?

I have kids, and I don't want to miss their growing up. But as an older-than- median dev, I fear coming off as less-than-committed.

<comment><USER24> Don't be afraid to ask it. You can phrase it in a more wishy-washy way, e.g. "what's the work-life balance like", but this is a common question. If someone DQs you for it, you didn't want to work there anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> If you ask the question: "Where do you fall on the spectrum of "Do it right" to "Get-R-Done"?" then do be aware that might be flipped back to you.

Certainly I wouldn't describe both ends of the spectrum with those words. Maybe "Hack it together" vs "Precisely assemble" is less judgemental

<comment><USER26> The thing is, a lot of people think they "do it right", even if they are coding without source control and releasing 1 time a year. So worried this won't tease out enough unless you drill down into what they are view as right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> You know, sometimes you have to join a company and get the s*it done yourself. The failure to answer some of this questions also shows the areas where you can be most valuable. Overall, I find fitting well in a team is of way more value than anything else. Good teams succeed even in bad companies.

</comment><comment><USER28> I would politely submit this whole interview system is wrong. Why not slowly get to know tech workers and interview them over the corse of many days to understand what they are capable of? This idea comes from [http://officecrashe.rs](http://officecrashe.rs)

<comment><USER29> Job seekers who currently have a job are not available for multiple days. Many of the best job seekers are currently employed.

<comment><USER28> yeah it won't work for everyone right away. We start with SCTWs who can do this.

<comment><USER30> I wouldn't work on someone else's project for "many days" for free. I strongly suspect most other candidates wouldn't either. If you start paying them for their work, then it seems the decision to employ has been made and the interview is in actuality over.

<comment><USER31> If you keep someone at work for this long, you should pay them at contract rates.

I would really like this as an option. If I wake up tomorrow and have no job, it would be neat if there were companies out there willing to pay me contracting rates for a few days, because it would let me pay my bills.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> At this point in my life, if I work in a tech firm that pays me a reasonable amount (when I say reasonable I don't mean top dollar, average or slightly below is fine for me as I have relatively low levels of debt and my wife works also) and treats me fairly I'm not that worried about other issues like aging tech stack or legacy code base.

Reasonable management allows you to work towards fixing this, although might not always make what you consider optimal technical decisions.

If you can get along with your colleagues, get paid on time and not have the boss breathing down your neck I think that's a pretty good job!

</comment><comment><USER33> This is a great resource. As a junior developer I didn't have much experience or confidence in this area when interviewing for my current job. The big red flag for me should have been the way they answered my questions. "what is your development process?" "Oh, hmm, I dunno, I guess agile." asking about technical debt would have been a good one, too. Hint: there's lots.

</comment><comment><USER34> I conduct a lot of technical interviews, and I always make "Do you have any questions for me?" the first and last question that I ask every candidate.

Mostly this is to provide an opportunity to just answer a question, of course. But it's also true that a candidate's questions, or lack thereof, can affect my evaluation of them.

So, my advice: have a couple of good questions on tap. If you don't, you run the risk of seeming unprepared or lacking confidence.

<comment><USER35> How many questions is too many? I'd want to ask something like half the questions listed here but that seems burdensome to the interviewer.

<comment><USER36> i do hiring. limit it to 15 minutes.

<comment><USER37> Because that 16th minute shows too much eagerness, right?

<comment><USER36> let me ask you a serious question, notroll -- have you ever been asked more than 15 minutes of questions by a candidate, in an interview? i have not, and i've interviewed probably 300-400 people in my life.

i interview almost exclusively over the phone, and we don't fly people out to waste days of their life, or have more than 3 rounds of phone discussions, so maybe that's where this disconnect.

<comment><USER9> That seems like a really odd way to interview. If you really are relying on phone interviews to make a decision, then you bet my ass I'm asking you more than 15 minutes worth of questions over the phone (if I have them).

<comment><USER36> why is this odd? we hire remote workers. after 90 minutes of conversations (30 mins. x 3 rounds typically), it pretty much covers everything just fine. more than 15 minutes is half the scheduled time for each call.

occasionally a very good candidate will talk for an hour or more, but that's an actual conversation, not a Q&A session.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html)

also, i didn't ask "theoretically would you ask more than 15 mins. of questions", i said, have you been asked more than 15 minutes by a candidate, that you were interviewing.

in the real world, most people don't ask _any_ questions. it's exceptional that we'll get thoughtful questions, and those are usually the people we hire/offer. and of those people, nobody has more than 15 minutes worth. and people who can't even answer basic questions like "how do you list the network connections on a linux machine" aren't given the opportunity to ask questions, because the call is over.

again, a long-winded technical discussion is a different thing, i'm talking about "tell me about your enterprise ticketing system and how many pointless meetings per week you have" type of questions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> A great post with non-technical related questions and discussion on questions to ask an employer:

[http://www.theladders.com/career-newsletters/it-s-not- about-...](http://www.theladders.com/career-newsletters/it-s-not-about-me--it- s-about-you----the-20-questions-you-need-to-ask-in-a-job-interview-June-2013)

</comment><comment><USER39> I gave a talk at MIT last year, and part of it was going over good questions to ask your interviewers. Here is the resulting list: [http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-to-interview-your- interviewe...](http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-to-interview-your- interviewers/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Those are good. May I steal some?

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> for managers:

\- What do you believe is the role of a good manager?

\- What do you do to support the people you work with?

\- How do you handle technical disputes between employees?

\- How do you decide who to allocate a task to?

for engineers:

\- Describe some interesting problems you've encountered, and tell me how you solved them

\- Tell me some of the interesting things you've learned as a result of your work

\- How do you make important technical decisions

</comment><comment><USER41> A discussion from last week that touches on a related issue:

 _Ask HN: How to detect a crappy boss / toxic environment when interviewing?_ [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11449133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11449133)

</comment><comment><USER42> How about the contrary?

What questions should future tech employees know beforehand before going into an interview?

Does anyone have a playbook?

</comment><comment><USER43> "What is your favorite thing about working at company x?"

This is a simple but great one to end with. If they smile genuinely in their answer then that's good information for you and its good to leave them on a high note to tilt things in your favor.

</comment><comment><USER44> Thank you so much for putting the work in listing out exact questions. I have been maintaining my own list and I am glad to find some really good additions from this list.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're welcome!

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> If you have anything you are curious about, ask away. If no, asking questions for the sake of it does not improve your situation one bit, it won't come across as clever or thoughtful.

</comment><comment><USER38> I realize this is geared towards the end of an actual job interview, but many of the questions that really hit home for an employer are: Questions that demonstrate 1)technical ability and 2)culture fit. If you can ask questions that show an employer that you can do your job well and that you will fit in with the team, you are that much further ahead of the competition.

Questions serve as an opportunity to "fill in" the employer on areas they may have forgotten to ask you. If they are not 100% that you can do your job (or are teachable) and that you will fit in with the company, it is your job to ask the questions that eventually give them certainty.

Shameless plug: Just released a book on informational interviews with a huge list of questions and walkthroughs on how to do them. Best way to get a job!

[http://www.amazon.com/Informational-Interviews-Coffee- Superc...](http://www.amazon.com/Informational-Interviews-Coffee-Supercharge- Career-ebook/dp/B01DG19MIK)

<comment><USER46> The primary use of questions during an interview is to actually determine if the employer is a good fit for you.

Your advice seems to take a different approach -- that you shouldn't use questions as a means to ensure you will be happy in the job, but rather as yet another opportunity for status signalling.

Even the first sentence depicts a totally alien attitude to me: "questions that really hit home with the employer are..." ... What? I have no obligation to ask questions that "hit home" with the employer. If the employer doesn't like the questions I _do_ ask, well that right there is a good indication that I would be miserable working for them and should just work elsewhere.

By approaching even the part of the interview where _you_ get to steer the topics of discussion (your questions) with an attitude of infinite pliability and fealty, it makes the process even more about subjugation and hoop-jumping than it already is.

<comment><USER38> I agree you are also trying to determine if the employer is a good fit for you. I think this is implicit in the interview process. You absolutely should ask questions that tick your own boxes!

What I have found in my own career, though, is that you can't turn down a job or company if you are not offered. If you get an offer, and the company isn't a fit, it is your own prerogative to turn it down. Until that point, though, you are selling yourself and trying to get the job.</comment></comment></comment>


China's yuan takes leap toward joining IMF currency basket - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/14/us-imf-china-yuan-idUSKCN0T22OC20151114#cwmVVRkYhB44kFLF.97 <comment><USER2> Kind of irrelevant at this point, just like the SDR basket itself.

I mean international finance and more specifically the IMF, isn't my area of expertise but just spend 10 minutes reading this:

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

> The IMF itself calls the current role of the XDR "insignificant". Developed > countries, who hold the greatest number of XDRs, are unlikely to use them > for any purpose. The only actual users of XDRs may be those developing > countries that see them as "a rather cheap line of credit".

The Yuan might be included in a basket of currencies that is all but irrelevant to everyone, including the IMF, the creator of said basket.

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought the IMF had made it clear that the yuan could never join the SDR basket as long as China kept currency controls in place. The article says the IMF's analysts have suddenly decided that the yuan is "freely usable", and it does mention other liberalizations that China has done, but there is nothing about whether capital controls were loosened. Did China adjust its policy here, or is the IMF lowering its standards due to Chinese pressure, or was I mistaken all along that currency controls were a no-go?

<comment><USER4> china has some of the most strict currency controls in the world and actively manipulates the exchange rate of their currency to help boost exports. if the IMF allows the RMB to join the SDR basket it will make it a joke. I am sure there is serious political pressure and bribery going on to make this happen

<comment><USER5> Currency controls yes, strict no. It's a sieve. Most countries actively manipulate their exchange rates to help boost exports. That's normal. They do it by adjusting interest rates and setting various policies.</comment></comment></comment>


Automatically making sense of data - <AUTHOR> http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/12/automatically-making-sense-of-data.html <comment><USER2> If this really is an automatic "no B.S." translator of big datasets into english summaries (backed by math) then it is huge. It can't compute what the trends mean, but it eliminates the ability to lie about what they actually are (for a given dataset.)

We still have to be careful about the conclusions we draw and the actual usefulness of the data we collect and model of course.

</comment><comment><USER3> Of course, it's not useful as an objective tool until the source can be audited....

<comment><USER4> I think it still is. The output is a function fitting the data, so as long as that function is amenable to analysis, it doesn't really matter how it's found.

In fact, the paper discusses some modifications they made (reducing the number of parameters) to make the output kernels more intelligible to humans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> somehow spurious correlations came to my mind when reading this [http://www.tylervigen.com](http://www.tylervigen.com) :)</comment>


Progressive Tax - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax <comment><USER2> I maintain that an overly progressive tax merely protects the rich because their wealth is largely in assets. Increase the income tax to 80% on Zuckerberg and he is just as wealthy tomorrow as he is today (well the general stock market might dip and that would hit him, but not benefit the government). He can liquidate his assets as needed in friendlier tax haven countries.

I guess I am a polar radical, because I tend to favor more aggressive marxism (seize assets/property) OR the opposite - a low income tax so that it is easier for new entrants to join the wealthy and it isn't just the same rich elite protected by income taxes forever.</comment>


Security Flaws in Encrypted Police Radios - <AUTHOR> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/08/security_flaws.html

<comment><USER2> It's a cool paper and almost none of it depends on knowing much about low- level crypto vulnerabilities.

Police tactical radios are an interesting case where denial of service and traffic analysis are genuinely threatening scenarios. Most modern crypto protocols aren't built to be secure from either. So right off the bat, you have a paper saying they can shut police tactical radios off for entire metro areas.

I'm not sure how true that is of digital domain RF in general, though.

The confidentiality flaws here seem to boil down to usability; the configuration and metadata used by this system is so brittle that trivial real-world setbacks preclude encryption; these happen so often that police teams don't even notice when encryption isn't enabled.

<comment><USER3> However, jamming apparatus can be tracked down just as well. Would we be seeing anti-ECM trained triangulation teams of the police?

<comment><USER4> Triangulation of interference can be a time-consuming process. Like my EE professor (who spent the war years building $100 radar jamming tools that rendered million-dollar radar sets inoperative) said, the odds are stacked in favor of the jammer.

A crude example is a ham-radio fox hunt. A radio is hidden somewhere in a pre- agreed area and teams of foxhunters are set loose once the fox ready to go. If the fox is exactly one transmitter and its power is steady, it can still take the better part of an hour, for example, to locate a fox hidden within a one block area.

So increase the ability of the trackers, say with doppler direction finders mounted on roofs. Now the jammers can do the following things to continue to wreak havoc.

1) Vary the power in 3db steps, perhaps in a loose random fashion. Fox-hunting techniques include rotating an antenna and pinpointing where signal strength peaks.

2) Using carefully time-syncronized jamming boxes, scatter three or four of them around the area and have them turn take turns being on. Or have two out of three on in some overlapping way.

3) Combine 1&2.

4) Oh, make them mobile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I first heard Sandy Clark (one of the authors of the paper) talk about this I was pretty amazed. One would presume that "most" use of the system is as designed but alas no.</comment>


Amazon will be off all Oracle databases by end of 2019 - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/28/amazon-will-be-off-all-oracle-databases-by-end-of-2019-says-aws-chief.html <comment><USER2> So it's about time for that license audit! lol</comment>


Apple closes the iTunes store for iPhone users who don't share location - <AUTHOR> http://econsultancy.com/blog/6126-iphone-users-will-have-to-get-used-to-tracking

<comment><USER2> That's a hugely misleading title.

You have to agree to the terms, however you can then immediately opt out of the specific change and continue using the Appstore as normal without sharing location based information.

I'm not sure how this is any worse than G-mail scanning e-mails of Google or Bing using your web searches.

<comment><USER3> That's a hugely misleading comment.

You can opt out of _receiving_ location-based ads, but you cannot opt out of _sharing_ your location. Just read the terms of <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4228> carefully.

<comment><USER4> In fact, you can completely disable location services with one switch. (Settings --> General --> Location Services --> Off)

If you prefer a more granular approach, all apps (including Apple's own), allow you to disable location services for that app alone. In addition, all 3rd party apps, on first requesting location data, require the user to explicitly opt-in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why is it that I always feel that location awareness is used vastly more against my interests than for it? With the exception of Google Maps, I can't think of a single instance where it's helped me. You can't watch this, because you aren't here. You can't listen to this because you aren't here. You can't subscribe to this. You can't download this app. In the case of O2 in the UK, you can't even use our website. But, you know, at least I'll get some ads in the wrong language because I'm an expat. Win win!

</comment><comment><USER6> What irritates me is that they say that the data is "anonymous" but it is clearly grouped to develop a targeting package to you, so how anonymous can it be when you log into the store from your house every few days.

<comment><USER7> It depends on how Apple provides those ads. If they handle the ad selection on their end, and don't provide any information back to the advertiser, it's functionally anonymous.

Saying "here's this guy's address, provide an ad for him" is very different from "send me ads for this area, and I'll show them to people who are near there".

<comment><USER6> Not really.

They will probably give you at least as much control as facebook as they will be able to target you by the apps you own. If this is the case then its not that hard to target ads to exactly one person. See here: [http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/05/a-fb-ad- targeted...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/05/a-fb-ad-targeted-at- one-person-my-wife.html)

<comment><USER8> Why would they model iAds after facebook? I would say the current facebook model has a nearing expiry date. It's certainly possible that Apple don't see this or don't care, but to just assume it isn't giving them much credit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is there a way to opt-out of Apple's location tracking altogether? I know apps usually request express user permission for it on a case by case basis, but the way I'm reading the new T&C, Apple and/or it's partners no longer need it in iOS 4. Is this correct?

It seems like the opt-out link mentioned in the article is just for iAds and relative to cookies, etc, and not location tracking.

<comment><USER10> Settings -> turn off "location services". This will prevent any app from requesting this info. Of course, you're not going to be able to use Maps or other apps that require GPS. And of course, websites you visit can still use the same GeoIP tracking that they use for non-mobiles.

<comment><USER9> I'm aware of those settings, but it sounds like Apple is now at least reserving the right to collect and/or use some location data irrespective of, or in addition to those settings. I may be misunderstanding it or inferring too much, but that's the impression I got from the new T&C.

<comment><USER11> There was a link provided earlier to opt-out. <http://oo.apple.com>.

If you want complete anonymity, don't use a cell phone. Its unrealistic in today's world to expect it while also using connected devices.

EDIT: This is reality. If you think the loss of anonymity its wrong, I don't disagree. My comment was not to promote a personal opinion about what's right or wrong, but simply recognizing the obvious state of affairs. In today's world, some government entities do not believe privacy transfers to electronic mediums. In fact, the FTC has recognized that current law is not keeping up with new technology and mediums.

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20008422-38.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Article doesn't show the details of this very well.

If an app is iAd supported, it makes sense to not allow a person to download it if they have iAds off, but I'm not sure if there is a more complete shutdown of the store for those who opt out.

<comment><USER13> My understanding is you can't use the app store if you don't click through agreeing to the policy allowing data sharing.

<comment><USER14> I was under the impression that the policy says that you agree to let them share your data if you do not go to the website and opt-out.

Which to me, implied that the app store doesn't care (or even know) if you've opted out or not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The assertion in this headline seems completely unsupported by any policy cited in the article or in the comments here on the article.

</comment><comment><USER16> So, Apple is targeting ads based on location? How is this different from any other ad network in existence? At least Apple is providing an easy to use opt- out mechanism: <http://oo.apple.com/>

</comment><comment><USER17> Meh. AT&T and my other cellular providers have always known exactly where I am, so what do I care if Apple does, too?

<comment><USER18> Where are you right now, and what is your full name?

<comment><USER19> That feels pretty strawman-ish. OP didn't imply that it is okay for everyone to know where he or she is, only that they don't care if a second (or more) benign entities do.

If you presented your motivations for asking their location and identity, and were considered suitably benign to their tastes, you might find out. Instead, it comes off as being glib (perhaps intentionally so, I don't know).

<comment><USER18> There's no stopping Apple from automatically "signing you up" to their new social networking site that conveniently shares all that info to the world. However, AT&T has privacy concerns to uphold.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Mwahahaha, this is delicious!

But seriously, what now guys?

<comment><USER21> What do you mean 'what now'? It'll be the same as it's always been - a few tech-savvy people will complain about it on the internet while the majority of the population won't give a second thought to sharing their location with Apple, and Apple will continue to rake in the money.

I can't even imagine how much money this sort of data would be worth to marketers - you would be able to pinpoint exactly which areas have high densities of people at which times, how long an individual stays on average, etc. You could use the iPhone's microphone to detect noise levels in the area and how they fluctuate over time, which would be extremely useful.

<comment><USER22> And sense it's the iPhone, it's actually "exactly which areas have high densities of people" who have lots of disposable income.

<comment><USER21> Who are exactly the kind of people that a lot of marketers care about.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Making 40K a Year Selling Weeds - <AUTHOR> http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/55334/rolling-in-cash

<comment><USER2> Oh, THAT kind of weed. Never mind.

</comment><comment><USER3> The entire Yahoo "People of the Web" series is worth checking out.</comment>


Ask HN: How to manage focus in a stop and go workflow - <AUTHOR>

I work with data, and my typical workflow involves cycles of high focus(e.g. writing data extract SQL code)for ~15 minutes and low focus (e.g. waiting the extract to return data) for ~5 minutes. I repeat the cycle continuously. Lately, it takes more mental overhead to come back to high focus mode because my mind wonders too far during low focus mode. Does anyone share this situation and was able to overcome? Kindly share your experience. I am open to workflow adjustment as well. <comment><USER2> I don't have the same situation as you but generally when I am faced with a situation like this I often end up doing two high focus things one after another.

So when your query is running for 5 mins you can switch to something of a similar nature (another query perhaps?).

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree that having two streams would optimize my time, but my problem is with the switching. Regardless of to what, the coupling and de-coupling is an overhead for me.</comment></comment>


Two logic puzzles - <AUTHOR> http://www.nickyee.com/index-puzzles.html

<comment><AUTHOR> WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW

If you want to read on, do so. If people up-mod this comment then it will stay at the top.

In case you don't want me to get the karma, up-mod it anyway, and down-mod the other comment to balance it out. Here's the link:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1013881>

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</comment><comment><USER2> 1\. A puts amulet in the safe, puts lock on it, sends to B. B puts lock on it, sends back to A. A unlocks his lock and sends it back to B. B unlocks and receives the amulet.

2\. Take 20 coins aside, and flip them - this is one group. Take the 80 remaining coins - this is the second group. If there were X (0 \leq X \leq 20) queens in the first group, then there were 20-X queens in the second group. Since we flip the 20 coins in the first group, there are now 20-X queens in the first group as well.

<comment><USER3> I guess that's the right answer, but it's not really satisfying. If the servants can walk off with the safe to crack it at their leisure, how is it secure?

<comment><USER2> The moral here is that the more colorful you try to make your logic puzzle, the more implausible the correct solution will be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I used to think that I was pretty good at puzzles like this.

That is, until I met a girl that just simply aced them, one after the other, and in record time at that.

It's the first time that I ran into very solid proof that brains definitely are not created equal, I've never met anybody in my life that even came close to that level of problem solving ability. It's akin to the difference between a chess grand-master and someone that just plays a half decent game of chess, some people operate on a different plane altogether, they are so good at attacking a problem in parallel from all sides at once that what seems confounding to one person is a walk in the park for them.

If you solve the second puzzle in 5 seconds or so because you simply 'see' the solution then you fall in to that group, consider yourself a very lucky person, I wonder how rare such talent really is.

<comment><USER5> I was thinking "eh, just like my brother used to", so I told him the problems and he solved both in about 5 mins (although the first one the same way I did, it seems trivial if you can ybpx gur fnzr fnsr jvgu obgu ybpxf ng gur fnzr gvzr but also seems slightly wrong)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did you know there's a puzzle called "The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever"?

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

I extended it to the general case!

[http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~te233/maths/puzzles/evenharder.htm...](http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~te233/maths/puzzles/evenharder.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree that they are difficult, but for me, they fall into the category of:

      "I can probably solve these by long and convoluted
       means, but I suspect the solution is neither clean
       nor elegant and, to be frank, I can no longer care."

The beauty of the 100 coins problem is that the solution, once seen, is clean, simple and elegant, and it is possible to reason to it - it doesn't require complete inspiration from nowhere.

That's why I liked it so much. YMMV.

<comment><USER7> Actually the solution to the 3 god version is clean and elegant, and long and convoluted reasoning doesn't shed any light on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> My solution for #1 - not sure if it is correct. I didn't expect that two locks could fit in the clasp.

Person #2 sends the safe back to Person #1. It has nothing in it.

Person #1 locks his own safe to the safe of person #2, making sure the clasp of his safe is over the latch pin of the second safe. Again he sends it back with nothing in it.

Person #2 repeats this; now you have two safes locked together (with the latch pin being on top of opposite clasps). He sends the safe back to person #1.

Person #1 unlocks his lock, puts the amulet inside, and locks it again. He sends it back.

Person #2 unlocks the other side, and now has both safes, plus the amulet.

</comment><comment><USER9> The description says you have five minutes to complete the task. So just move any ten coins to a new pile. Continue moving one coin at a time while asking if you have completed the task. You will have to move at most eighty coins after the initial ten. Since you have five minutes to do this, you'll have about 3-4 seconds per coin for the captor to reply if you've solved it yet.

The solution someone posted to flip each coin after picking out twenty is faster but flawed; it would be too easy for a nervous and blinded person to flip the same coin twice. The best solution would be to flip each coin as it's drawn from the initial set of one hundred.

</comment><comment><USER10> I got #2, and I have a solution for #1, but I don't think it's right. Here's my non-right solution to #1:

G places the amulet in his own safe, locks it with the padlock, and keeps the key. G sends the safe to K by way of a servant. K takes the safe with him and uses whatever tools to open it at his convenience once he is safe away.

I think this is wrong, because it's not very satisfying at all. I think it could be right, because (1) it could work in real life and (2) it meets the solution criteria of the puzzle, namely, transferring the amulet from G to K.

I would be happy to know of a more elegant solution.

<comment><USER11> That was the first solution I had for #1. I'm currently at the following, but I think there has to be a better one because it's not clear that it would be possible.

G places the amulet in his safe, attaches his padlock and locks it with his key, then sends it to K, keeping his key. K receives G's safe, attaches his own padlock in addition to G's (there is a "large clasp", no mention of how large or how many padlocks it could support) and sends it back to G without sending his key. G removes his own padlock, and sends the chest back. K removes his padlock and has the amulet.

<comment><USER10> I think your current solution is clearly the right one: It gives me the 'duh' moment.

Edit: But in real life the first solution might work better. Hard to imagine the henchmen who would be sure to spot you if you left your room even for a moment but would take no notice of servants shuffling back and forth three times with a [double-]padlocked safe.

<comment><USER5> reason it is unsatisfactiry (I had the same) is that one of the safe is not used, imo

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a charasteristic of the real world that there are things not used in the solutions of the various problems that need to be solved.

It is one of the most brain-dead characteristics of school and university exams that one is not allowed to have extras - it's somehow "not fair."

I think not using some of the resources provided is perfectly reasonable.

<comment><USER5> apple and oranges, if the beauty of the problem is in a clean elegant solution that does not require all of the pieces, it is not a well posed riddle, or solution.

That's why the solution to the wolf-sheep-cabbage problem is not "just add more floating stuff so you can bring all at once, idiot".

The comparison to school and exams, appears unrelated to me: there are situations where external aid kills the point (e.g. calculator for arithemitic in firs grade).

<comment><AUTHOR> Then I must not have explained myself clearly enough. I'm not talking about extra equipment, I'm talking about information that's not needed for the solution to the problem.

Recently (for some definition of "recent") I was setting an exam question. In it I gave various lengths, heights, and so on, and I was told that it was too hard because I gave details that weren't required. On the other hand, if one is given only the information required, there is already an artificial clue - all the information given must be used. That's unrealistic.

I've interviewed people for jobs who performed fantastically well on exam style questions, but when given free-form problems simply didn't know where to start.

For me, whether a solution is clean and elegant is independent of whether you've used all the information given. It's the solution itself that's elegant. It's not only plausible but likely that we have different concepts of elegance - I'm a mathematician. When solving math problems, real math problems such as required to get a PhD or publish a paper, there's no way you're given just the information required and no more.

Along those lines I've been moved to submit another puzzle - you can find it here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1014092>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Spoiler: The solution is very easy for problem # two if you're allowed to flip the coins.

I haven't worked it out since I've been up all night and had to squint just to read the problem, so I may have read it wrong. I didn't read the first question.

Have fun.

\----

Edit: Just great, seeing this right when I'm about go to sleep after a long night. And it appears what I had in mind doesn't work.

<comment><USER13> No, no. You were on the right track. Think about it with a smaller number of coins, say 4 coins and you know only 1 is Queen side up.

On the first one: I get the feeling this isn't what the puzzle was looking for, but I'd just lock the amulet up in the safe, send it to the other spy, and let them spirit it out of the country. What, does my country not have bolt cutters?

Edit: Spoiler hint for the first one: Start by sending over an empty safe with the padlock locked on only one handle of the safe.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm puzzled over the difficulty people are having with number 1. Surely it's pretty obvious given public-key cryptography ...

<comment><USER12> I thought it was obvious because I have never come across a person who hasn't dealt with the logic problem where the farmer has to get a few of his animals across a river, one at a time, and must do so in a sequence where no animals will kill each other. There was some vicious animal included.

I immediately recognized that problem #1 is very very same problem, but worded differently.

But it sounds like you and I have different solutions...?

Edit: Oh okay, I had to look up public-key cryptography. I thought you meant slip each other secret messages or something.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I know that many, perhaps most, of you hate logic puzzles, especially as selection or hiring criteria. And that's fine.

However, the second puzzle on this page is, I think, particularly nice. Feel free to ignore it.

</comment><comment><USER5> I disagree with the premise: there are a lot of elegant logic puzzles (consider: to mock a mockingbird), it's just that a lot of puzzles dod not fall in this category :)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Downmod this if you don't want me to get the karma from up-voting the spoiler warning.

</comment><comment><USER14> What kind of hotel room has moveable safes? The ones in the rooms I've been in are fastened down. What kind of thief would steal anything except for a portable safe? Couldn't you kidnap one of the thieves, steal the clothes, and disguise yourself? How would exchanging safes in the middle of the night not be noticed? Couldn't the henchmen just open up every room looking for them?

Don't safes have built-in locks? My dictionary says a safe is "a strong fireproof cabinet with a complex lock, used for the storage of valuables." That definition does exclude some categories of safe, but "strongbox" or "lockbox" might be a better word.

Having now seen the answer here, I didn't even think that the clasp (shouldn't that be "hasp"?) might be big enough to admit two locks. That seems like a poorly designed safe, since that means the door probably opens enough to admit a crowbar.

Yes, I knew when I started that the answer was "public key cryptography." I'm just complaining that the puzzle wasn't well stated. Besides, if we're going along those lines, what if the henchmen start sending safes into every room to see if it comes back with an extra lock on it? That gives them idea of where the bad guys/spies might be, and prevents the spies from being able to make the exchange.

<comment><USER15> Presumably the choice of the word "safe" (and perhaps "clasp") was to make the solution hard to search for. Traditionally, the word "chest" is used.

[http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=chest+lock+key...](http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=chest+lock+key+puzzle)

<comment><USER14> Ah! I am enlightened. Thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you occupy yourself on your daily commute? - <AUTHOR> I am interested how do you spend your time on your commute, especially - how do you spend time productively?
I tend to avoid screens (e.g. mobile, laptop) because I already spend most of my day in the front of a screen. Besides, internet coverage is almost nonexistent on the tube.
Audiobooks, podcasts are great but it's easy to doze off.
Other options are newspapers and crosswords (but it quickly becomes impossible due to large crowds).
How do you spend time productively on your commute? Any interesting insights? <comment><USER2> I used to listen to radio, podcasts, interviews, etc. I found that they were not productive. Most were quite random, mostly trivia, the kind you would read on articles on HN. They didn't have the depth of a good book. It's hard to read anything with the depth of a good book; commutes don't give you the focus needed.

I drive to work. Now I wind down the windows and focus on the road. I listen to my car. I try to 'glide' the car, getting it as fast as possible without needing to press the brakes, feeling it as it turns on the curves, feeling the jolts as the gear changes. I observe the flow of traffic, trying to see which lanes are faster or slower, maybe even reverse engineer why so.

It's relaxing. Not really a waste because it wakes me up in the morning so I can focus properly on work.

<comment><USER3> I take public transit now, but that's how I used to cope with car commute too. I'd get into "the flow" of driving. It was a form of meditation and I still paid full attention to the road.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here in Switzerland, the commute time could be quite long. I personally am changing at least 3 transports to go to work every morning with a total time of 1 hour.

I have a subscription to Wired magazine and take an edition every day. Sometimes, when I am bored with it, or I finish the edition for the month, I bring along a paperback from my favorite author - Clive Cussler. Strongly recommend his amazing sea adventures. Moreover, his books date back to the 70s, and there are already quite a lot of them. The paperback format is perfectly fitting into my backpack.

When even those reach a level of saturation... I just listen to music and look outside. You will be surprised how many NEW things you actually discover for the place you are living in the last even 10+ years.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for suggesting Clive Cussler. I was looking for some good fiction to read so might try his work.

My guess that in Switzerland there're plenty of places to look outside during your commute. Not all countries are so picturesque.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> My commute used to be ~40min by car (stop by the gym for an hour) then ~2h by train in the morning, and then ~2h by train and ~60+min by car in the afternoon not withstanding accidents or delays which happened nearly weekly. Toss in a 20min shuttle ride to get from the train to the office. Now I work for the same place but from home. The car rides were audiobooks (mostly sci-fi and fantasy with some dips into non-fiction). The train rides usually involved a small amount of HN time, then working on the laptop or sometimes talking through ideas with coworkers as they joined the train. If not that, then audiobooks. Rarely, I'd play an offline video game. My shuttle rides were mostly Hearthstone.

I can't imagine dozing off during an audiobook I like. I'm more likely to miss my stop (being overly captivated) than to zone out. I can't count the number of times I would get to my stop at such a cliff hanger that I couldn't wait to get back on the train in the evening (though I enjoyed being in the office and my work).

Maybe you can try shaking up what you are listening to. Not everything is about raw productivity. You need to take time for yourself. This so happens to help increase productivity during normal productivity hours.

<comment><USER6> That adds up to 32 hours a week of commuting plus delays. What the?!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Depends on the commute.

I used to have a quite long commute on the subway - 1.5 hours in one direction. What worked well in the morning was getting up a bit earlier, doing some exercise, eating a good breakfast with time to spare, then relaxing with a book on the train (fiction, non-fiction, really anything that tickles my fancy, something engaging) - especially nice buzz after a morning warmup. The evening reverse commute wasn't that much fun, the best use of time was leaving a little earlier, tidying up non-urgent 'for info' emails for 40 minutes, then some music as a barrier between work and non-work; not every waking moment needs to be 'productive'.

With another company, with a shuttle bus, an hour each way, most of the bus slept but I continued to read, stared out of the window at passing fields, plus found reading at the end of the day OK when comparing to the subway at the end of the day. I also had a 'bus buddy' which consisted long fun conversations if we were on the same bus. I also didn't eat anything for a couple of hours before leaving - things settled on stomach tended to make me sleepy in afternoons.

I understand the tube will be getting mobile reception in the coming months. It will be interesting to see if London transitions to carriages of people with their heads in their phones like most underground systems around the world. I hope not; implicit pressure to check and respond to emails before and after work can be pervasive/invasive - busy doesn't mean productive.

I now walk about 20 minutes, just walk, with no distractions from walking, arrive a bit earlier and keep up reading or other activities through an extended lunch break.

</comment><comment><USER8> My commute is an 1.5 hrs each way, mostly by train. My industry still expects 8hr work days minimum (yes, it's archaic and annoying). I work on the train (2 hrs total) and only spend 6hrs in the office.

</comment><comment><USER9> My commute is an hour each way, more or less. On my 10 minute drive to the train, I listen to the radio, usually NPR or Bloomberg.

On my 30-40 minute commuter train ride, I either browse around or focus on some personal side projects, programming or writing. During this time, I listen to music. Typically podcasts or YouTube videos. These are 1hr+ episodes so I typically finish them after my 10 minute walk to the office.

I used to program on a daily basis, but I realized I burned out quite a bit in the recent past so I just go with the flow now.

</comment><comment><USER10> I have a train commute via the NYC subway. I also try to avoid screens... with one exception.

I mostly read paper books, if the book I am reading is comfortable to carry. If I can't read I'll listen to something - either a fun podcast or an audio course.

That said, lately I've been watching movies on the commute home. I can get ~20-30 mins in and then finish the rest after I get home. Doesn't always work well but I am experimenting with it.

</comment><comment><USER11> A fair amount of the time I read Hacker News!

Nah, on a more serious note, I often end up writing in my free time when commuting. Sometimes it's simply notes about possible web development projects I'd like to work on when I get access to a computer, other times its drafts for articles I plan on posting to Medium/my own news site at some point, or notes on level design ideas for video games I'm working on.

</comment><comment><USER12> My current commute is relatively short, on super crowded train and bus and requires a switch so all I can do is listen to something and I prefer podcasts. From learning Swedish, through isoteric mumbling to technical stuff.

When I had a commute time of around 45 minutes on a relatively uncrowded train and a short bus ride before and after I used to read books on an eReader and compliment with occasional podcast on the buses.

</comment><comment><USER13> I go through audiobooks and podcasts. Sadly it's mainly audiobooks as my favorite podcasts publish only on average once a month

</comment><comment><USER6> 15 to 25min drive. Through main city arteries with many lanes and many bad drivers, so do not much spare brain power for learning or even entertainment. Radio or just silence and focus on the road. Might milk over a work or side project problem at those red light stops. Thankfully a short commute.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm in Helsinki and I have a 15-20 minute tram-ride from the bottom of my street to the center of the city.

Mostly I continue reading a book on my kindle. Some days I look out of the window(s) and enjoy the scenery. Though if it's a very nice day I might just get out and walk instead.

</comment><comment><USER15> I read paper books on my 20 minute each way commute. I put the phone on Airplane mode and just immerse as much as possible in it.

I usually go for books from my wife's collection so stuff I'd never normally go for

</comment><comment><USER16> I commute by bicycle.

<comment><AUTHOR> My colleague cycles and listens to audiobooks. Works for him, but I find it too distracting. Besides, you would need a good pair of headphones that let the outside sound in.

<comment><USER17> Cycling with headphones is one of my pet peeves. It's really dangerous. Ears are a _really_ valuable tool for a cyclist.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I read programming books</comment>


The operating system: should there be one? - <AUTHOR> https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2525528.2525534 <comment><USER2> The operating system "library of system functions" does not belong in an app, unless you want to have a single app running on a dedicated machine.

In any machine capable of running more than one app, an operating system is necessary, even if just for cold-booting, console i/o, and some form of file system. (As in the 8-bit OSs of the 70s and 80s.)</comment>


Game industry salaries from the 2009 H1-B database - <AUTHOR> http://realtimecollisiondetection.net/blog/?p=107

<comment><USER2> _"yearly salary = hourly salary x 37.5 hours/week x 52 weeks"_

37.5 hours per week??

In the gaming industry?!!

For H1-B visa holders?!?!</comment>


The mathematical "Hello world" function. - <AUTHOR> http://www.korokithakis.net/posts/printing-hello-world-using-curve-fitting/

<comment><USER2> I'm afraid I'm a bit disappointed. A function* whose plot looks like "hello world" would've been more interesting.

* Or rather an implicit equation of some sort.

<comment><USER3> I thought that it was going to be a fourier like overlay of the pixels making up hello world with some clever working to reduce the number of curves used but maximise the density of the in fill in the text.

Instead it's just a function that goes through the points relating to the ascii codes for the letters - (87,0), (111,1), etc..</comment></comment>


The Debate Around "Do We Even Need CSS Anymore?" - <AUTHOR> https://css-tricks.com/the-debate-around-do-we-even-need-css-anymore/

<comment><AUTHOR> There are three concerns all browsers deal with: HTML, CSS and Javascript. I know CSS has a lot of contention with people because of global styling and other things raised by this article, and I realize it has much improvement needed, but for where it has come today it's a very powerful language.

Countless beginners, traditional web designers and developers, those working with systems like WordPress and beyond, CSS won't go away anytime soon. It will be years before anything comes along to replace CSS, if it ever does.

I don't know that putting CSS in JS is a bad idea, I see lots of benefits of inline styling, but this religious war against the front-end is only going to get louder and more partisan. Let's hope the discussion stays civil.

I'm excited by the future of CSS for my own career, I hope CSS4 and beyond become higher priorities for standards bodies even more so because of these discussions.

</comment><comment><USER2> Ok, I'm happy I didn't learn CSS and stayed with HTML 4.01. Just stay on the trailing edge, and you avoid a lot of futile work! :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> Ugh, if websites start requiring JavaScript for something as core as styling, then I'm just going to stop browsing those websites.</comment>


Ask HN: Would you guys be interested in Yelp with Twitter? - <AUTHOR>

Hi Guys, Wanted to check if you guys would be interested in something like a real time feed of all the available dishes around you? So you have an option to find the possible places where we can have lunch / dinner? <comment><AUTHOR> Sorry may be I didnt explain it properly. So lets say you want to go to a restaurant to have a lunch .. And you want to figure out what are the possible options available for you today.In case of a buffet you find out a restaurant and go to that restaurant only to find out the buffet entries are not what you wanted. But instead if the restaurant provide you option with whats special at that restaurant you can filter from that. Think of it like twitter but instead of tweets you get real time menu's on what the restaurants around you have prepared.

</comment><comment><USER2> I can simply search on google/yelp whenever needed. Probably I did not understand what you mean by real time feed.</comment>


Twitter doesn't think wishing rape on a woman counts as harassment - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/twitter-doesnt-think-wishing-rape-on-a-woman-counts-as-haras <comment><AUTHOR> Twitter ignores this, and yet jumps when Olympics broadcasters demanded content removed. Can anything be done to fix the problem??

As I see it, we need a replacement that gets this right, so everyone decent switches and leaves Twitter to be the unashamed cesspit.</comment>


Show HN: Nobody wants to listen to my problems so I made this - <AUTHOR> http://www.blabdash.com <comment><USER2> "I feel badly because the mechanism that allows me to feel is broken."

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang reference, love it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Skimming over the problems, I am reminded how quickly internet forums devolve into hateful banter.

</comment><comment><USER4> Currently filled with incredibly depressing, offensive nonsense...

<comment><USER5> I think it is a cool idea. Kind of like snapchat for status updates. We all could use some letting out of built up feelings every now and then

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Allow me to vote up the good ones.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wasn't sure how to enable upvoting without requiring sign up. Maybe require an email or captcha per upvote?

<comment><USER7> I'd start with just using a cookie to prevent repeat voting.

<comment><USER8> s/prevent/mildly discourage

<comment><USER7> ...which is probably enough to start making the site usable.

I agree that it prevents _not at all_ against even the least sophisticated of scripts, but in practice it will probably make an impact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like most facebook news feeds I've seen.

<comment><USER10> I disagree, they don't look like ads.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I tried to give someone a " _hug_ " but asterisks aren't allowed :(

<comment><USER12> There should be an automated button for this: "hug"

<comment><USER13> Maybe actions in general could be nice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Intentions are good. Wish the internet was too.

</comment><comment><USER15> Default Bootstrap just doesn't feel right for this kind of thing :(

A 'posted (time) ago' thing on the main page would be nice. And the textareas could use some additional padding sometimes ([http://puu.sh/3OGbF.png](http://puu.sh/3OGbF.png))

</comment><comment><USER16> [http://www.blabdash.com/statements/589](http://www.blabdash.com/statements/589)

> I feel stupid because I made this website.

> This is just a hello world ROR app that accidentally got posted on Hacker > News

</comment><comment><USER17> It's not clear which punctuation marks are not considered punctuation...

</comment><comment><USER18> This reminds me of a project by another HN user, @zackattack's compassionpit.com. I think it's shut down now but it was growing last time I spoke with him - you're probably onto something.

</comment><comment><USER19> Add the ability to get emailed when someone replies to what you wrote

<comment><AUTHOR> good idea!

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> You need a home button once a comment has been submitted!

</comment><comment><USER21> Maybe Amen ( [https://getamen.com/](https://getamen.com/)) will buy this?

</comment><comment><USER22> Here is an older one: [http://www.hatebook.com](http://www.hatebook.com)

</comment><comment><USER23> It needs to be a super dynamic reddit/HN where the order of posts change every second!

</comment><comment><USER24> Pretty boring if you ask me..</comment>


'Don't Vape. Don't Use Juul': Juul CEO Issues Stark Warning to Non-Smokers - <AUTHOR> https://www.insider.com/juul-ceo-dont-vape-long-term-effects-unknown-2019-8 <comment><USER2> not sure i agree with this:

"Don't start using nicotine if you don't have a preexisting relationship with nicotine,"

why not? its been shown to be a very effective nootropic with little more side effects than caffeine, peoples chosen delivery methods (smoking, vaping etc) may be potentially harmful but the chemical itself is actually not that bad, a nicotine patch for example will do you little harm, it may even be beneficial. Smokers dont die from nicotine they die from everything else that comes with the nicotine

this may seem nitpicky but i think its important to know the difference, as they say "the devil is in the details" example someone dies from taking "ecstasy" the chances that they died from the actual MDMA are pretty slim, its far more likely they took a pill with some unknown mix of chemicals which caused it. taking a correctly measured dose of pure MDMA is pretty safe for a healthy person

things like that are what have demonized so many chemicals over the years and stunted research into using them for medical purposes, its only in very recent years this has started to change following the realisation/acceptance that the various component chemicals in cannabis have significant medical applications

</comment><comment><USER3> so he pulled it off the shelves. The man is a hero for our times.</comment>


Show HN: Demo non-blocking ui with interface previews - <AUTHOR> http://www.callumhart.com/demo/building-interface-previews-with-react

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the follow up to my previous post about interface previews ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8997143](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8997143)). It shows how they can be implemented using react.

</comment><comment><USER2> Thanks Callum, looking forward to giving preact a go!</comment>


The Sword That Shapes the Hand: Data Liberty as a Human Right - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/discourse/sword-that-shapes-data-privacy-1e6c38fa91f <comment><USER2> I honestly think that all data collection should be _opt-in_ and require _informed consent_ , and I am long past caring how many business models this breaks.</comment>


Would E-mail work as a "simple" internal messaging system for my app? - <AUTHOR>

I'm building an app, where people can work with his team and they need an easy way to send messages each other.<p>It would be a good idea to setup an "internal" smtp server to send messages between them? Then I could use a lot of existing tools around that (smtp libs for an mobile app for example...) <comment><USER2> If it should be "simple" and internal, no it wouldn't fit well. I wouldn't recommend it for any type of in-app communication actually. Depending on the architecture of the app you're about to build I pretty sure there are tons of more reliable and scalable solutions.

<comment><AUTHOR> What would you recommend instead? XMPP?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How about using eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMMP, a.k.a. Jabber) instead? That one at least doesn't have all the horrible historical baggage that e-mail is lugging around...because e-mail is anything _but_ simple.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds reasonable, but XMPP seems harder to setup though... Or I'm over reacting?

<comment><USER3> Harder to setup - perhaps; but seems better suited to the task at hand. Using a simpler messaging protocol might be sufficient, but then Jabber is quite common, thus I'd expect support in libraries etc.</comment></comment></comment>