Pebble Closed on KickStarter.. Replaced with GetPebble.com - <AUTHOR> http://www.getpebble.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Source is: <http://www.facebook.com/eric.migicovsky> (not sure how to link directly to comments on Facebook).

 _"All good things must come to a close! Just a few Pebbles left on our Kickstarter before we close it down. In a week or two, you'll be able to pick one up from our site www.getpebble.com"_ \- Eric (Main guy at Pebble)

Apparently there are less than 400 Pebble left (from an expected manufacturing run of 85000 units). UPDATE: They have all sold. You can't pledge towards the project any more (aside from $1 to receive nothing).

Other thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3950169> And as from the other thread:

</comment><comment><USER2> This might be a bit weird (and OT), but when I visit the that site, it looks up my local server.

> [Thu May 10 10:17:59 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: > /Library/WebServer/Documents/jquery.tablesorter.min.js, referer: > <http://www.getpebble.com/></comment>


Show HN: OneView Calendar – My zoomable calendar app just got a big facelift - <AUTHOR> http://app.oneviewcalendar.com <comment><USER2> I love this app and it was a great redesign!!

For anyone that didn't know it is a native android app also, not only a web app, check here: [http://www.oneviewcalendar.com/](http://www.oneviewcalendar.com/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice concept!

It defilitely lags a bit on desktop (as said before) and it seems confused about whether it should scroll or zoom when I tried swiping on the touchscreen of my laptop, eventually becoming completely unresponsive until a refresh of the page.

Also, maybe leave scrolling for scrolling and have click+drag as the zoom function (on desktop I mean)? It feels natural on maps to zoom with the wheel, but this looks tempting to scroll and then when you try, it goes all zoomy.

When clicking on the "+" I very stupidly tried to hunt down the escaping dot daring me to "drag it". This might be a problem on my part.

<comment><USER4> Sorry about that. It hasn't been tested on laptops with touch screen.

Sorry also for LOL, imagining you trying to catch the plus button. I'm sure your not alone there :)

<comment><USER5> I did the same thing with the fab and it gave me a chuckle. Perhaps you should speed the animation up and/or perhaps deemphasise the moving portion (transparency? desaturate?)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is nuts! It took me a few minutes to figure out how the information was laid out, but once I did, I was blown away. I'll be installing this on my phone right away.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is an awesome way to interface with your calendar. But for me (on Safari 10 on a 2015 MacBook Pro), zooming (via scroll) was too slow (like, 1. do 2 finger scroll on trackpad; 2. wait 3 seconds for it to finish the animation 3. scroll in more because it didn't go far enough). Maybe I'm too caffeinated or maybe there's some Safari/Mac related thing making it slow, but I would need much faster zoom-in/zoom-out for this to be usable.

But otherwise, super innovative!

</comment><comment><USER8> Awesome work! Very smooth with touch on mobile.

As you zoom out, how do you decide which items disappear and which remain?

<comment><USER4> It's actually just a matter of "longest wins", so no magic :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This looks great, does it only work with Google calendar or can I use it with other calendar services?

<comment><USER4> The web app only works with Google right now, but the Android app works with most services.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Two things that I would like to see: * horizontal (landscape) mode, especially the tablet / desktop (web) version, maybe with something like timelines mentioned here * some way of marking when beginning and end of box representing even actually falls on begin and end time (perhaps bolder lines, perhaps some shading, perhaps adding "handles" i.e. </comment><comment>- to _\-----_ , etc.)

I also wonder how do you represent whole-day events.

Great work!

</comment><comment><USER11> This is awesome. I seem to have run into an issue where if I keep the window open for a long time, the bar indicating "now" stops moving.

My use case might not be common, but I would absolutely love it if I could zoom in and use OneView as a Pomodoro tracker, have it in the corner of my screen so I can see what I'm supposed to be working on and how far through the Pomodoro I am.

Unfortunately the aforementioned bug makes that a non-starter for now. But I'm excited about the future!

</comment><comment><USER5> Clever and original, and the Android app is very nicely implemented. Congrats.

I don't know if I'll use it. First impressions are that I prefer fixed day/week/month formats as my eyes and fingers know what to do with them without seeking. But it's intriguingly new enough for me to want to try it out for a while.

</comment><comment><USER12> The zoom feels kind of laggy on web.

<comment><USER13> Thought so too at first using mouse wheel. But you can also zoom using right- drag, which is plenty fast for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nice work. I was thinking of doing something similar using the vis.js timeline module. Time to rethink.

[http://visjs.org/timeline_examples.html](http://visjs.org/timeline_examples.html)

<comment><USER4> Wow, that's a cool timeline. You should give it a try! Didn't know it existed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> There seems to be a bug that affects Mac trackpads with momentum scrolling — when I scroll quickly zoom speed slows to a crawl, then gets faster as the momentum runs out. Otherwise, it's incredibly smooth!

</comment><comment><USER16> This looks really neat! I'd love a minimap feature (a la Sublime et al). Something that could give me a high-level overview without enormous detail, but that also doesn't require me to zoom out.

</comment><comment><USER17> Nice look. Just wondering, as I zoom out some events disappear from view. Is this by design? (macOS El Cap/Safari 10.0.2)

e.g. Hockey with kids disappears when it gets to multi-week scale.

<comment><USER4> Hi, well yes that is but design. It may take some getting use to. When zooming out of only shows the most important appointment and a small number telling you that there is more to see by zooming in.

Hope that works for you :)

<comment><USER17> Any way you could preserve the fact that other meetings exist at that level (maybe like Calendar on macOS does it - with dots representing events)?

How do you determine which one is more important?

<comment><USER18> I'd also like to see that other things exist at that level. I didn't notice the numbers at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hi Peter:- Could you share your github account ?

</comment><comment><USER20> Looks great! Can you talk a little about the stack? Doing everything in JavaScript? Thanks

<comment><USER4> Well the stack is small :) No backend. No db. Using Typescript to get some compiler help, instead of plain js. No libraries for the graphical parts. All drawn on an html canvas. And finally wrapped up to native with Cordova.

<comment><USER21> Hmmm ... still using cordova!! Did you consider React Native? Is there a problem with this app being ported with React Native? Btw, nice app, and will try to see if it works for my needs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Very neat concept. Interesting take.

</comment><comment><USER23> Wow

</comment><comment><USER24> That is awesome!</comment>


WSU researchers see popular herbicide affecting health across generations - <AUTHOR> https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/20/herbicide-affecting-health-across-generations/ <comment><USER2> Atrazine research has an... interesting past:

[http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazin...](http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine)

The big Atrazine manufacturer was caught hiring investigators to dig up dirt on researchers and regulators who were not on board with the "Atrazine is safe" narrative.

<comment><USER3> why are companies so horrible so often? ugh.

<comment><USER4> Crazy isn't it, I just watched this Cosmos episode [0] it describes how this "scientist" [1] on behalf of the gasoline companies kept lead in gasoline for 20 years after it was first discovered to be a major health problem. It sickening what people do for money.

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

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _When Skinner and his colleagues looked at sperm of the offspring, they found epimutations, or alterations in the methyl groups that stick to DNA and affect its activation._

 _"Observations indicate that although atrazine does not promote disease in the directly exposed F1 [first] generation, it does have the capacity to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease in subsequent generations," the researchers write._

Damn... that's very disconcerting.

<comment><USER6> It makes me wonder how often this kind of effect is tested for, and how many other chemicals might do this that slipped through the testing phase.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The primary reason most people who eat organic food do so is to avoid consuming pesticides and herbicides.

I have yet to read a single study indicating that consuming pesticides is good for health, but if anyone has such a study I'd love to read it.

<comment><USER8> I am pretty sure consuming food with small pesticide residue is much healthier than starving to.

If you have a working method to maintain crop yields while eliminating all pesticide use and not increasing cost significantly, I think there would be a lot of people interested, and probably a lot of money to earned.

<comment><USER9> Robots.

If you have a small machine that constantly plucks weeds, you don't need herbicides.

Not sure about pesticides.

<comment><USER8> Autonomous tractors are totally a thing. They will only get better with time and development, but they can't replace pesticides yet.

<comment><USER10> You're conflating pesticides and herbicides

<comment><USER11> I understand the distinction you're making. My understanding has been that pesticide is a term that includes both insecticides and herbicides.

> _Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The > term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticide, insect > growth regulator, nematicide, termiticide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, > rodenticide, predacide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, > antimicrobial, fungicide, disinfectant (antimicrobial), and sanitizer._

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

<comment><USER10> My bad. As the child of farmers it's never been used this way where I'm from

<comment><USER11> No harm, no foul! Growing up in a farming community myself was one of the reasons I spoke up, and I'm sure there's variation in how these terms are used. I definitely knew what you were getting at. Language is pretty interesting!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'd like to see them expose the rat to a fruit or vegetable that's had a certain amount of the pesticide sprayed on it. And then expose another rat to a fruit or vegetable that's had the pesticide sprayed on it but was then washed with water in the sink before eating. I wonder if the results would be very different. And I really hope so since that's how I prepare all my produce.

<comment><USER13> Many pesticides get absorbed in the fruits, washing doesn't help. If I ruined your day monsanto ruined your life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> DEET is a component of insect repellants. I've been advised by doctors to buy DEET based repellants when going to areas with possible mosquito borne diseases. In my experience it worked pretty well, possibly zero bites. Anything else is not as effective.

It seems logical and not surprising to associate powerful repellent effect to toxicity but maybe not to effects going down to the third generation. Is there any substitute proved to be not toxic?

There are measures like wearing light colored clothes, don't going out when dark and mosquito nets for windows or beds but they are not enough.

Edit: I found this article [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it- true-that-t...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-true-that- the-deet/) with some advice.

</comment><comment><USER15> Scary to think these effects only get observed in short lifespan animal models where multi generations can elapse in a reasonable time. Think about all the complaints and difficulties with running long term (individual) studies butting up against the next scale of multi-generational studies that are required for human lifespans.

</comment><comment><USER16> [https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/5-pesticides- used-...](https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/5-pesticides-used-in-us- are-banned-in-other-countries/)</comment>


This service lets you use Netflix, Pandora, Hulu, and Rdio from any country - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/11/06/awesome-this-service-lets-you-use-netflix-pandora-hulu-and-rdio-from-any-country/

<comment><USER2> Its a shame that this will almost certainly be shut down quickly. Just browsed Hulu and they have shows on there which I download on a weekly basis.

I do not watch much TV. I do not want to pay an extra £20/mo to get the hundred or so channels I need to watch the handful of shows I enjoy.

Instead to get access to shows I like reasonably quickly I need to frequent some ad-infested torrent crap hole to find the file. The alternative is wait for it to come on DVD which can be up to or beyond 9 months after the show has finished airing in the states.

I would happily pay for hulu. I would happily buy advanced access for individual series. Maybe this advanced access fee could then become a voucher to own the series? Promote a purchase after the series has finished?

Unfortunately due to geography this isn't allowed... so I will keep downloading torrents and keep giving ad revenue to some unscrupulous torrent site owner. Not because I am bad person. Its because the entertainment industry hasn't figured out a way to give me an option to access their content.

Note: I subscribe to Netflix - which is great if you don't want up-to-date episodes of TV shows. Why I can't buy credits to watch the latest season or two is beyond me.

<comment><USER3> It's not that they haven't figured it out, it's that Hulu's average revenue per user earns much less than DVD sales or TV sales.

Hulu, Netflix, etc. all WANT licenses in perpetuity worldwide. It's not they don't want to offer it everywhere, it's that the licensors _won't let them_.

Profits for online media need to be higher to kill broadcast. The average user watches 6 episodes on Hulu per month and earns $2 for that month. Buying a 12-episode season for $30 means that a DVD buyer is 750% as profitable as a Hulu watcher. Hulu has about 30 million users, but in terms of TV profitability, you can wave your hands a little bit and equate the importance of that audience to 4 million TV watchers.

Similarly, Dish Network has 14 million subscribers, a much lower number than Hulu or Netflix, yet has far greater profit and therefore much greater purchasing power for content licenses.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but Hulu and Netflix are such a great value that they're not providing enough of one to be the destination for the newest, best content. Which is why they're working on creating original content - hoping that, among other things, it increases eyeballs, which increases ad sale profits, which makes it more profitable to the entrenched content producers - which, finally, is their path to dominating the online entertainment market.

I think their strategy is wrong and that there's a better path.

<comment><USER2> I get what you are saying. I get that on Netflix for example they aren't just going to give away the latest series or episodes away for "free" to a standard account. I am fine with this. What I want though is an option where I can pay to watch the shows I enjoy. I feel it is so dumb that I need to request this.

If Netflix offered credits. £1 to unlock latest episodes I would pay that. I will probably purchase the DVD anyway. Why not? It would be really convenient. This shouldn't interfere to much with traditional TV channels. If you already have the relevant cable package you wouldn't be paying for the episodes again. You would just watch it on the cable channel or catch up or whatever.

Its the startling lack of consumption options which is empowering piracy. Right now I am downloading a US TV episode of a show I follow. The TV package to get this channel in my country costs £26.50 a month. Considering how little actual TV I watch it would be literally £7 per episode assuming the show is shown every week. I am buying the show's dvd box set when it comes out. I want to support the show. I want to see the extras. I would be paying episode by episode now if there was an option... alas... licensing prevents that. I find it so frustrating. Lobbiests in the UK are already pressuring Google to delist or devalue links to copyright infringed content. I just wish a little of this gusto was put into creating new ways to legally access copyrighted content.

<comment><USER3> I see what you're saying and I think I agree with what you're getting at but to do so Netflix would need to build a radically different service and license it differently as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yeah, lots of VPN services let you do this. However, it becomes hard to do at scale because some of the services like Netflix, Hulu, etc. work to actively block IP addresses that represent anonymous proxies/VPNs[1]. For example, I was unable to use my WiTopia account to use Hulu.jp. Instead, I had to register for a separate VPN account on StrongVPN. Even then, one of their Tokyo-based tunnel end points worked, and the other didn't. That's because Hulu works actively to detect these servers and blocks access to them.[2]

I imagine this will be even harder to scale since the _only_ thing people will be using the VPN's outward facing IP for is connecting to these services, as opposed to the mixed usage traffic the other VPN providers see.

[1] [http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/159360,picking-the- perfec...](http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/159360,picking-the-perfect-home- entertainment-box-hulu-blocks-international-access-via-witopia.aspx)

[2] <http://www.hulu.com/support/article/243651>

</comment><comment><USER5> This only seems to set a proxy which is ok, but limited to your browser. Stand-alone mediaplayers (apple tv, roku, ...) won't be able to use this easily.

I always liked the DNS based services[0] seeing as you can enter them in your DSL router and all wifi appliances will be able to take advantage of them. The other option I used was using socks and proxychains[1] to force e.g. XBMC through an SSH connection to a cheap US VPS.

Both of them have the advantage that you don't push ALL of your traffic over a VPN line.

[0] [http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2011/04/07/hulu-and-iplayer- outsi...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2011/04/07/hulu-and-iplayer-outside-the- us-without-a-vpn/)

[1] [http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/02/26/socks-and- proxychains-...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/02/26/socks-and-proxychains- as-a-vpn-alternative/)

<comment><USER6> For those who want to explore the DNS based services there are a few options. These services seem to very similar and most of them are $5 a month.

I have been using <http://playmo.tv> for just over a year and I get my daily dose of Netflix, Hulu through my Apple TV.

Prior to discovering "geounblocking" I must admit how oblivous I was about the advances in streaming media :s I am happy to pay for the conveniences of streaming Netflix, etc.

<comment><USER5> It's also worth noting that those services have to "manually" enable support for sites. Playmo e.g. doesn't seem to support any of the BBC/iPlayer content. Unblock US does (and a few more). The only downside is that the Playmo website looks way more snazzy :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Are the users of this service technically performing illegal activity? After all, the reason we're not watching Hulu is because it's licensed only for certain areas. I don't know the law pertaining to this case itself.

EDIT: Obviously using a VPN isn't illegal (in most first world countries, anyway), but the actual access of Hulu from an unlicensed area is what I mean.

</comment><comment><USER8> I just want to use Netflix from Linux...

</comment><comment><USER9> This just sets up the browser to use a proxy,184.108.40.206 port 80, for those websites.

<comment><USER10> So… this can't last very long can it ?

<comment><USER11> I don't think so. :)

Unless they constantly change their proxy's IP and play cat and mouse with the targeted websites. That is possible without user intervention because they use a self-hosted file (<http://mediahint.com/default.pac>) to setup the proxy through the use of their extension.</comment></comment></comment>


Iphone's Golden Touch (Time to quit your day job?) - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122902082.html

<comment><USER2> In 1849, some guy discovered gold in California...

When the word "lottery" is mentioned in the article, I thought it was a pretty accurate description of what is happening.

There are 10,000+ apps in AppStore and only 10 that can occupy the top 10 slots. That gives the average developer a whopping .1% chance at any given time to be in the golden goose category.

Keep building your continuity businesses folks, the old boring 37Signals model. It'll keep pumping money into your bank account, month-after-month, and if you have some moola left over -- hire a iPhone hacker to put something together for you.

Maybe you will get lucky and you'll have a flash in the pan for a few weeks.

Moving forward, the winners are going to be the people who can market the hell out of their applications. If you aren't marketing-savvy, you are leaving it up to the gods to get yourself into the big money list.

<comment><USER3> >There are 10,000+ apps in AppStore and only 10 that can occupy the top 10 slots. That gives the average developer a whopping .1% chance at any given time to be in the golden goose category.

It gives the average developer a 0% chance to have a golden goose, but a good developer has a somewhat better chance.

The problem is that people tend to overrate their own abilities. I guess quitting your job and going for something like this is an effective, if risky, way to find out for sure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If it's hitting mainstream media, the answer to "Time to quit your day job?" (no matter the subject) is most likely no longer "yes".

<comment><USER5> What do you think about the timing right now for putting together apps for other mobile platforms, like Android? I am thinking of getting into it, since iPhone seems crowded.

<comment><USER4> Well, earlier is always better for jumping on a bandwagon... I think the real question is how well Android or Palm's new OS will do compared to the iPhone. In my mind there's a strong parallel between Facebook's platform/Open Social and iPhone/Android. Facebook platform/iPhone apps are centralized, consistent, sexy, first to market, and get all the media attention. Open Social came later, required more effort (more fragmentation), and got far less media attention (I haven't followed it closely, so I don't actually know how successful OpenSocial apps have been compared to Facebook, but my guess is much less successful, despite OpenSocial's larger potential user base). So I'm curious to see if the Open Social/Android parallel will hold.

So if you get into Android now and it fizzles out, then you've wasted some time and effort. If you wait and it turns out to be as successful as the iPhone, then at that point it'll also be crowded. I wish I could predict the future :p

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Facebook had this same "Quit your job, get easy money by building stupid little apps like this one!" buzz about a year ago. I actually know some people who quit their very well-paying jobs to take a shot at it...and unfortunately it hasn't yet panned out that well... Maybe the App Store's ability to provide direct revenue to devs will make this platform more sustainable, but I think it's more likely that it will be a similar pattern to FB (where the apps launched in the first two weeks and a tiny percentage of very compelling later apps will do well, and the rest will get zero attention)

<comment><USER7> How many Facebook apps do end users pay for?

<comment><USER6> Better question - would Facebook apps improve to the point where they would be worth paying for if FB built out a payment platform? Would enough pro devs start building FB apps if they knew they might have a revenue stream besides the dreadful social networking CPMs?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I just read someone who said "make sure your software is aspirin, not vitamins." iPhone apps are mostly vitamins. When the iPhone isn't as hot anymore and people have bought all of the $0.99 fart programs they can stand, and the app store is saturated with thousands upon thousands of apps that mostly do what other apps do better, it won't look so rosy.

</comment><comment><USER9> This isn't surprising at all. Let's lump [iphone, facebook, desktop, etc] apps into three categories: business useful, casual useful, and entertainment.

Business useful: These apps are profitable on platforms that business users are already on. They make money based on any combination of: high margins, long customer lifetime, or volume. The cost and time of changing platforms is high.

Casual useful: These can be profitable on any platform where costs are super low or volume is super high.

Entertainment: These apps are HIT DRIVEN. That means: very low success rate, very very high margins & volume. That being said, entertainment apps thrive on almost every platform.

<comment><USER9> I guess the corollary from this article is that "shit just got real" and thousands of joe blows with the "next big thing" will start making iphone apps. That's typically what happens when big media starts churning out articles like this, at least.

<comment><USER10> Isn't this exactly what we've seen happen over the last couple months?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=366151>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If this model of selling software is so successful for the iPhone why don't they have an app store for the Mac? I mean maybe if more desktop applications cost 99 cents they'd be selling more of them.

<comment><USER9> The price point isn't the core of the success of these apps, it's the distribution. Imagine for a moment that when you searched "mac applications" on the internet, only ONE website came up. Imagine as well that this ONE website gave away free front page advertising to apps with the highest volume.

In that scenario, your only source of new users for your app is the ONE webste, and the best way to get positioning is to maximize volume. Thus you price your app for volume and you target your audience for volume.

<comment><USER12> When you describe it that way, it sounds a lot like the "star" model used by Hollywood since the '30s and the popular music recording industry.

It should produce an endless stream of developers willing to work for dreams, lured by the shine on the stars.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> All these mainstream media articles will be good for iPhone programmers for hire, no?

<comment><USER14> Yeah, sell shovels.

And besides services I believe there are already dev tools being sold.

<comment><USER13> Speaking of dev tools, are there any high level URL libraries similar to Python's urllib2? This [CFHTTP stuff]([https://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Net...](https://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Networking/Conceptual/CFNetwork/CFHTTPTasks/chapter_5_section_1.html)) looks low level nasty!</comment></comment></comment>


Forking Etiquette - <AUTHOR> http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/forking_etiquette/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FihdT+%28The+Dilbert+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> And I thought this was about github...

<comment><USER3> Even after seeing the domain name, I was hoping beyind hope that it would be...

<comment><USER4> I must have missed that meeting. Why?

<comment><USER5> Github is home to a whole lot of hardcore forking action.

<comment><USER6> That's not Github you're thinking of...

<comment><USER7> You must be twiddling your own bits then :)

Try pair programming with an opposite-endian char.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For the last time, fellow Americans, it is not proper etiquette just because English people do it that way. If it's called the Continental method, it's probably the result of the English blindly copying the French. Isn't it silly of us to insecurely copy the manners of a country that insecurely copies the manners of another country?

<comment><USER9> It's designed as a mechanism to spot people of lower class, and some would argue it still works. Go dining with a seriously monied American and see what they do.

<comment><USER10> But wait, if you _are_ of the lower class, then you can use your fork however you want without any social repercussions? Excellent.

<comment><USER9> No.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "napkinforkspoon" isn't a very efficient word for such an efficient tool. Clearly it should be "sporkin".

</comment><comment><USER12> _Was I supposed to open doors using nothing but my elbows?_

Yes, actually.

My mother called me with directions to her new apartment...

"Go into the lobby and hit '614' with your elbow. I'll buzz you in."

"Go into the elevator and hit '6' with your elbow."

"Get off the elevator, turn right, and go down the hall to Apartment 614. Hit the doorbell with your elbow. I'll let you in."

"Why with my elbow?" I asked.

She replied, "You're not coming empty handed, are you?"

<comment><USER13> In winter that would be a resounding yes. For all things such as metallic elevator buttons, metallic doors......

Hate getting spiked by static. I don't know why I get an unfair dose of those as compared to others.

<comment><USER14> I usually just slap the offending surface hard enough for the shock to not matter.

<comment><USER13> My friends explain that my humor is dry and unfunny.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Etiquette is such a funny thing. I know I sometimes notice people who aren't following protocol, usually out of ignorance of the rules, and it can really bug me. Why should it matter to me if someone is holding their fork in a fist, rather than between two fingers? But it seems ugly to me. Obviously it is the vey definition of uncouth, but it surprises me that it seems ugly. As if all of us following the rules do something pretty by doing so.

<comment><USER16> I generally go out of my way to _not_ follow "proper" etiquette while dining, but this is because I think that "etiquette" is a piss-poor reason for me to be uncomfortable while dining as a left-handed individual.

Screw old english ladies' definitions of proper, I _am_ going to rearrange my utensils and plates.

<comment><USER17> I dare anybody to tell me that it's bad manners to hold the knife in my left hand. (I'm left-handed.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I had no clue what he was talking about with tines down until he mentioned the american method being tines up. As for cutting stuff with a fork: I've unconsciously avoided doing that in nicer restaurants but I've always done it at home when I don't have a knife handy.

I think I would pick up on other people around me using forks differently just because I like to watch what everyone else is doing.

</comment><comment><USER19> Is it bad that when I saw this I thought it was gonna be about git.

<comment><USER20> I thought it would be about forking processes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Rice is the hardest thing to eat with a fork. Especially the non-sticky kind. Foods like rice and other loose foods should be exempt from etiquettes in favor of the most efficient method. Otherwise, as noted in the article, it'll lead to either an excruciatingly slow and/or messy meal, which is all the more noticeable than the way you hold your fork.

<comment><USER22> Strong disagree. With a bit of practise one can learn to balance a decent amount of rice on the back of one's fork. Green peas, alas, escape even the most practised forking, regardless of which method - balancing on the back or stab-them-to-death - one chooses.

<comment><USER21> That's the thing though. Why even practice balancing when you don't need to balance it using the contour of the fork to your benefit? It's like having a car only to put it in neutral and push it the rest of the way. Sure, you can do it on level ground and it's plain easy to ride it downhill. But if you're pushing it uphill you shouldn't think "hey, I'll just keep pushing this until I become strong enough to do this without effort", you should think "let's just use an essential function of the damn car".

<comment><USER23> it could be worse, you could be using _chopsticks_ to fit in...

<comment><USER24> Sticky rice is sticky for a _reason_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> As much, as I don't mind "proper etiquette" in public places, at home there's only one thing I use: <http://www.lightmyfireusa.com/spork.html> It fits in the hand perfectly and I can finally cut stuff with the side of the fork (who needs a knife anyways?). I really recommend that one.

</comment><comment><USER26> Oh, here I assumed this was going to be stating something like we need fork the whole notion of etiquette and make our own version. To an extent, we already have.

</comment><comment><USER27> All of this stuff is completely hilarious.

It's incredibly rare for me to use a knife in a meal (although I did when I went out earlier this evening). I'm vegan, and I mostly eat non-American food.

About half my meals use just a spoon and chopsticks. Many of my other meals are things like Indian food (just a fork, or just your hands).

I hold my fork in my right hand, because I'm right handed. I use the contour of my fork to pick up my food. If I'm using a fork, I'm often eating something saucy (like an Indian curry). Attempting to eat this tines down would be a messy disaster.

I really don't get these ridiculous etiquette rules. As Scott Adams point out, eating like this is inefficient, and generally annoying. I eat to enjoy myself, not to impress others with my memory of ridiculous minutia.

</comment><comment><USER28> If your cutting don't send the fork all the way through the meat to hold it against the plate. The tines will drag across the plate as you cut and you'll get that high pitched screeching. Just thinking about that sound is irritating. Take your time and let the knife do the work.

</comment><comment><USER29> Rules are just guidelines that are meant to be broken. How else can change happen?

</comment><comment><USER30> There are two differing styles[1].

\----

[1]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=related)

</comment><comment><USER31> I've found that, for a great many foods, the continental method is more efficient. Assuming you still use the knife with the right hand (and if you're right handed, that should be what gives you the most control over the cutting surface), then it's a bit of a waste of time to constantly switch your fork into your right hand for plate-to-mouth delivery. With the continental style, you never have to change your grip (until you switch to eating the rice and other rollables).

</comment><comment><USER32> Surely it would be " _spnork_ "?

</comment><comment><USER33> Correct way of using cutlery:

1\. Concentrate the food on the center of the plate.

2\. Using knife and fork and with a scissoring movement, reduce the food to small chunks.

3\. Using the fork, mix and stir well.

4\. Use the spoon for moving the resulting mash into your mouth with maximum efficiency.

</comment><comment><USER34> I was truly shocked the first time I saw an American eat a meal and I'm Australian so that's saying a lot.

</comment><comment><USER35> Similarly, I was informed a few years ago that I hold my fork like an utter heathen. I tried to solve this, but still have no idea what the proper technique is or how mine differs.

</comment><comment><USER36> Am i the only one holding the fork in my right hand? I thought that was normal.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you collaborate on manuscripts? - <AUTHOR> I've experienced:
- emailing MS Turd documents back and forth
- Dropbox storage of MS Turd docs, everyone takes a turn editing using Track Changes
- Google Docs, simultaneous editing
- LaTeX, emailing .tex files back and forth
There has to be a better way!
Has anyone tried using GitHub and pull requests and/or issues, to collaborate on documents?
Are there other methods I should consider? <comment><USER2> Put .tex documents in any of the myriad web applications for git-based version control and add a simple bash script for rendering the final document.

Use branches and revisions / diffs / pull requests to review changes.

Nothing should be emailed for this.</comment>


Academy establishes inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility - <AUTHOR> https://www.oscars.org/news/academy-establishes-representation-and-inclusion-standards-oscarsr-eligibility <comment><USER2> Absolutely ridiculous. It's like we're taking a step back from the progressive, colour blind world we once strived for every day. How this blatantly sexist and racist piece of writing can be published without fatal backlash from every thinking person is beyond me.

<comment><USER3> Can you really blame the academy though? They've been hammered pretty much non stop by comedians and popular media that they're not inclusive enough with absolutely no one defending them probably in fear of getting canceled. And once this happens, everybody throws their hands up and says no that's not really what we wanted. The real issue here is that everybody's got a mouth these days...

<comment><USER4> >Can you really blame the academy though?

Yes... Don't give in to people who want to cheapen awards for political points. Let talented diverse crews win on the merits of their art.

<comment><USER5> The awards where always about political points. It's just a way for the MPAA to look legitimate. Further more it has never been about the merits of their art. Otherwise Boss Baby would never have got a nomination.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For supposedly international awards, this is ridiculously American. I wonder what happens with foreign movies. Is parasites passing the threshold for having Asian actors, despite Asians obviously not being a minority in korea?

Also, what about introversive movies with a extremely small cast? (The usual Oscar bait of "character gets stuck in a mountain/island/wherever"). Does 30% of your single actor have to be a minority?

It sounds super ridiculous that you have to wonder about this kind of questions, like it will inevitably lead to worsen the tokenization of characters that Hollywood is already infamous for, and harmful for indie companies.

<comment><USER4> It's not diverse. That word is code for "fewer white and Asian people". The same people who profess diversity think that Black Panther and Moonlight had diverse casts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> As an European, I find this _extremely_ weird, and almost as biased as what it purports to counteract.

What if ($DIVINITY forbid) someone decides to do a movie about N.Y. stockbrokers in the 80s, or about the sole survivor of an expedition/starship/civilization? Do animals/aliens/octopi count as "diverse" cast members?

I haven't had coffee yet so I'm thinking off the cuff, but of all the recent movies I've watched/intend to see, only Mulan (which I haven't watched) would qualify on the first three counts.

Also, I can see a lot of writers and movie directors going "I want to tell my story in my own way and not tick someone else's arbitrary boxes". Creativity is like that.

</comment><comment><USER4> The facts are in--white people can't make good movies on their own. It was a good run, but they couldn't keep up the charade forever. /s

</comment><comment><USER8> I find this document strange because it calls Hispanics "Latinx" which is not commonly used except in activist contexts. Latino/latina would make a lot more sense.

<comment><USER5> Hispanics and Latino/Latina are not the same. There are people who live in Latin America who don't speak Spanish and people who speak Spanish who are not in Latin America.

<comment><USER9> Are you some kind of genius? This opened my mind in so many ways.

¡Muchas gracias por escribrir!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Shouldn't they be judging the actual art, acting, directing, etc., and completely disregard the genders, ethnicity, and race of the actors? Wouldn't that be the best for such an award?

<comment><USER4> It's an unspoken foundation of far leftist thought that people don't have beliefs, they have influences. Any art you make is merely an expression of your race, sex, sexual orientation, et cetera. For decades academics have been saying that all white people are subconsciously, inescapably racist. This is the result of that foundational belief.

<comment><USER5> Well that is something that is very strawman like. However you don't;t need "far leftist thought" to examine this. The academy are well known to have tastes and favour some types of movies over others.

The oscars has consistently ignored SF/F, favoured films about history. To the point that some movie makers directly pander to the academy's tastes in an attempt to get a Oscar nom.

The academy knows that there taste is out of touch with the American people because the movies that gets Oscar noms are less and less like the movies that American people like. This is a part of their attempt to fix this.

<comment><USER4> It's not a strawman since it is exactly that which is stated by many influential leftist writers.

<comment><USER11> Could you give some names?

<comment><USER4> It's basically the idea of dialectical materialism. The very popular book White Fragility is a great example of this thought process.

<comment><USER5> Good so it will be simple for you to find a quote that supports this from the book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow, actual racism being passed off as something pro-equality. Welcome to 1984.

</comment><comment><USER13> Standards C & D seem easy to meet by almost all films: hire some minority interns & marketing people.

I suspect the extreme criteria associated with A&B are mostly for PR purposes, and they expect just some lip-service to be paid via a few "opportunities" far behind the scenes.

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't support this type of behavior but... it does seem like this is designed to look very aggressive but actually not be.

You are half way to being accepted at least two of these roles are held by women/LGBTQ/racial minorities:

Casting Director, Cinematographer, Composer, Costume Designer, Director, Editor, Hairstylist, Makeup Artist, Producer, Production Designer, Set Decorator, Sound, VFX Supervisor, Writer

There are other ways to get very easy points in.

They list the BFI as the model for this and we brits are great at this sort of "looks tough but you met the criteria twice over without changing anything" systems.

</comment><comment><USER15> This will put a lot of smaller/indie movies out of contention. Particularly from non-minority foreign countries. Meanwhile, recent best picture winners were rather homogeneous: Parasite Won in 2019. Moonlight in 2017.

</comment><comment><USER16> So, all you need to do to get a film qualified is offer internships to underrepresented group and do market research/test audiences on underrepresented groups.

</comment><comment><USER17> I support this. Eventually it is a classification algorithm and will label boring movies with high accuracy. Saves me time.

<comment><USER18> You can already accomplish this by looking at the difference between critic reviews and audience reviews on rotten tomatoes.

<comment><USER17> Fair enough.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Regardless of whether you support this policy or not, the standards are actually very easy to hit. You only need 2/4 categories. Categories 1 (restrictions on actors) and 2 (directing, creative) are probably what everyone is thinking right now. But category 3 is basically hire some interns, and category 4 is about who works in marketing.

Seems like this policy will freak out conservatives while being effectively toothless for progressives.

</comment><comment><USER20> Ironically, this years best picture winner would still be eligible. With every single member of its cast, and very nearly every single member of its crew belonging to the same ethnic group.

</comment><comment><USER21> As funny as it sounds, we're watching the formation of "progressive fundamentalists" \- their "inclusion committee" would give people a low social score if their skin isn't black enough, or their gender is too male or sexual orientation is too straight. And inquisition, of course, would be watching for heretics and send them to "inclusion re-education camps".

</comment><comment><USER21> You know what? I have a clever idea: the Diversity Standard 500 index, or just DS500. We have this SP500 index: a weighted sum of 500 companies into which everyone invests piles of money. The weights are carefully set by the index committee, which gives them outrageous power over the money flow. DS500 shares the same idea: a highly diverse committee would choose a weighted list of desirable traits, and the gov would use these weights to apply the tax code. From time to time the weights would be revisited to reflect the new trends.

</comment><comment><USER22> I normally get this kind of things... but I actually applaud them this time!

One, there is a lot to be said about having written criteria. You can agree or disagree, critique or boycott, but you can't really do either of those with a woke cancel culture of unwritten rules of correctness.

Two, it is true, how many films show disabled people as part of normal life? Films do present a distorted view of the world. That's partly why we watch them - we can watch the world as it is for free - but to encourage it to show marginalised groups as part of "normal background" is definitely good. I wonder how I would feel if I were wheelchair bound, say, and all I could see were films where no one like me existed. What, for aesthetic reasons?

And finally, films are generally aspirational (maybe except catastrophe and horror genres). They raise the bar of what we expect financially, socially, romantically etc. Especially so for Hollywood blockbusters. So why shouldn't they be aspirational in social progress too?

I'm sure sometimes it just won't be possible. A film about Nazis will definitely show a bunch of white men. But that's not a typical Hollywood blockbuster.

If we can't put successful Black lawyers, female leaders, disabled heroes on a fake screen of film, what are our odds with the real life?</comment>


The New Indie Videogame Movement - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122972605155122665.html?mod=djem_we

<comment><USER2> I find it funny that the "game degree" is exploding at the same time the indie game scene is. I understand why... but I just wish people would realize that they don't need to go to school to make games on their own.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is it really that new? Indie games have been popular for quite some time-- maybe they're just coming more into the spotlight now, but this trend has been going on for quite a while.

See my post at <http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=398305> for an example of a tremendously successful indie game developer who managed--alone--in his free time (!)--to create one of the most popular franchises in Japan.

<comment><USER4> Kento Cho also should get crazy amounts of respect. He just codes crazy shmups for his own amusement. Seems even someone developing for Wii took notice: [http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ZIhL8DajewM6w7pMaFOVrFY...](http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ZIhL8DajewM6w7pMaFOVrFYkcAh9T0dn)

I love a good shmup.

<comment><USER3> _I love a good shmup._

Indeed, and the ones with good bullet patterns aren't just fun to play, they're even just fun to _look at_!

Examples:

<http://mirror05.x264.nl/Dark/Flash/extra.html>

<http://mirror05.x264.nl/Dark/Flash/saextra.html>

(Disclaimer: Not my replays. I'm not _that_ good.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wow I've always wanted to get a foot hold in developing games. But I don't know where to start as the range of my development experiences comes from J2ME apps to web applications.

Are there any YCer's here who are in to game development that could give me a helping hand? Should I start with Flash or something?

<comment><USER6> If you're already got some experience with Java, then applets may be the way to go.

Despite what people say, Java plugin penetration is still very high and games like Runescape show what you can do. The ability to run cross-platform OpenGL in the browser is a huge advantage.

<comment><USER7> The problem is Java Applets are limited to 64MB of memory unless you have the user go through a horribly unusable process to change that. This include Xith3d, jMonkeyEngine, etc.

The best 3d web engine is Unity3D. Best game engine tool is Flash, even for some small 3D.

You can always have a downloadable client but if you want good web based browser games Unity3D and Flash (AS3 since it is on AVM2 and much faster) are the only way to go.

If you want a pretty sweet Python 3D engine check out Panda 3D.

<comment><USER6> With the new Java plugin (6u10), applets can request their own memory limits way beyond that.

<comment><USER7> Yes but 1.6 is not very penetrated. Currently Flash has the best, Unity for gaming sites is getting there. Everyone has java but not the latest.

<http://www.realchat.com/blog/java-vs-flash/>

By the way I am not discounting Java as a viable platform. It works in many cases, Runescape proves that being the #2 North American MMO. But it doesn't do that with graphical quality. It does it with gameplay and the progression etc. As of right now the best looking platforms and easiest to develop for are Unity3D and Flash for the web, if we are talking developing games for the browser.

EDIT: btw those numbers are old, these are newer: <http://kaioa.com/node/40> But still 1.6 is about 70% penetration.

<comment><USER6> Unfortunately, as a closed-source propriety platform that doesn't have any support (nor plans any support) for Linux, I had to discount Unity3D almost immediately.

Flash loses out largely for the lack of good accelerated 3D. I've played with papervision but it's just too slow for a anything decent, that I can guarantee will run on even moderately equipped machines.

<comment><USER7> While I am with you on open source. Unity uses lots of it to build on such as mono.net (C#, boo, javascript), OGG formats, some collada support and FBX support (autodesk), opengl (also directx), Cg formats for HLSL and GLSL shaders etc. I am betting you haven't tried it, if you do I am sure your opinion will change the pipeline and ability to create quality stuff with it is almost immediate. There is not just another product like it currently in terms of pipeline improvements, apis, ide, size of plugin, shader support etc for the web.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Neural network AI is simple. So Stop pretending you are a genius - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/neural-network-ai-simple-so-stop-pretending-you-genius-brandon-wirtz/ <comment> pure-awesome The basic mechanisms for building a neural network from scratch are almost disappointingly simple (provided you know a little bit of calculus and linear algebra). And setting up a basic network in an existing architecture is pretty trivial.

I'm currently busy with the neural networks and deep learning specialization on Coursera.

[https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep- learning](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-learning)

The trick, as far as I can tell, lies in with the various techniques for setting up your data, tuning your hyperparameters, and picking the right architecture for the job. At least, this seems to be the message of the course. It seems to still be a bit of an ad-hoc field. There are a number of techniques and things to try, without there necessarily being more than a shallow theoretical understanding from the experts as to why they actually work.

Then, of course, there are the experts and researchers who come up with entirely new architectures. Now that actually takes skill.

<comment><USER2> Isn't this literally the point of computers? A processor is something that does amazingly stupid stuff 1.3 million times a second.

If you do even very simple things rapidly enough, you can get amazing results.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> While I understand the frustrations that some experts may experience when someone who writes "11 lines of code" claims they understand Neural Networks, at the end of the day why does it matter? If anything its really cool that more and more people are getting excited about this technology, and that it is becoming more accessible.

While the author of this article seems to have decent knowledge of the work in this space, his rant really came off (to me) as "Hey look at how smart I am that I can dismiss people who are trying to learn" and made the author appear really insecure.

I believe we should be promoting and fostering a more inclusive environment for those looking to learn ML/AI, in fact if it weren't for some of the (user friendly) tools and friends who taught me a lot, I might have not been so inclined to attempt to write "11 lines of code".

</comment><comment><USER4> If you're stupid why aren't you poor?</comment>


Japan's Kamikaze Attacks Went from Last Resort at Pearl Harbor to WWII Strategy - <AUTHOR> https://www.history.com/news/pearl-harbor-japan-kamikaze-world-war-ii <comment><USER2> If there was anything that scared the US Navy in 1944-45, it was the kamikazes. The only way to stop them was an effective hit causing destruction. They weren't able to be frightened off.

We have kamikazes in today's world that should, but don't appear to, frighten the US Navy. An anti-ship missile is a kamikaze with a man's brain replaced by a few ounces of electronics.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe a bit meta, bit I assume this is the same History as the History Channel. Didn't they go the way of Discovery and show everything but History? Have they refocused now?</comment>


Former Facebooker Scoops Up $1.4 Million for Freshplum (YC S11) - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20120626/former-facebooker-scoops-up-1-4-million-for-freshplum-sales-analytics-for-the-little-guy/?refcat=news <comment><AUTHOR> I started this company with two other friends from YC companies: Nick Alexander and Michael Yuan. It was really to scratch a personal itch: online pricing. When you're selling something online (especially a virtual good) choosing a fair price is hard. Most people (including me) seem to guess.

I felt like there must be a better way, where econ & math is used instead of intuition.

Freshplum grew out of that. After building the company to solve that need we realized that analytics can help online businesses in several different ways - not just pricing. We now how a more holistic focus on helping companies understand their online business through analytics.

<comment><USER2> Congrats Sam. Sam and Nick have generously hosted me during previous Startup Schools, including during crunch-time of their first Y Combinator startups years ago, even though we barely knew each other, so I'm forever grateful.

Are you guys going to post some visual or marketing on the product? When DropBox 'launched' on Hacker News, Drew posted just a video. Even though it didn't have any actual pictures of the product, it got me excited.

Unrelated, I notice we have the same top color of abcdef. I read your user profile because I'm launching a Google Chrome extension for Hacker News (later today) that shows profiles via a popup inside the story. I'm currently working on my own demo video for it before I post the link, but maybe I should just launch now, too!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> So what does it do exactly? Is it something like automated A/B testing on prices/segments of customers? ("let's see if we can charge visitors on Macs a dollar more?" type of stuff?)

Love the design of the site.

</comment><comment><USER4> Freshplum sounds very interesting and like something I may find useful in the near future, but I fear that this may be because of how vaguely it is described. "Virtual goods" isn't specific enough (in my opinion). I think everyone would be better served with some sort of concrete example of a good that was priced or even a list of the most common goods that Freshplum works with.

</comment><comment><USER5> Man this guy's writing style is incredibly unclear and annoying.

<comment><USER6> Glad I wasn't the only one to notice that. How many annoying euphemisms for "receive" can an author use in one article? "Scooping up," "nabs," "snagging"... And then there's the outright spelling error: "Who is wiling to pay for it?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not to take away from the funding news, but you have a rather eclectic mix of three different faux-3D visual styles on your web page - the logo, the form/buttons and the map at the bottom. At the very least I would consider fixing the glossy stuff on the logo, it stands out the most and not in a good way. Something like this - <http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3535/freshplum.jpg>

(edit) I would also reconsider the use of Futura as your primary branding font. It's way off the mark. You are not a romantic movie subtitles :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Noted, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Clickable link to actual freshplum site : <http://www.freshplum.com/>

<comment><USER9> Always amazes me when I read an article online that's 100% about a website and there's no link to said website found in the article.

<comment><USER10> Somewhat ironically, "selflinks-only" seems to be a common policy with news republishers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "not looking for ninjas, samurais, pirates or rockstars." i like this company already.

<comment><USER12> So ... by extension, there _might_ just be a spot for a philologist on a distant world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just being curious. What type of companies use your service. The example the article gives "a pair of jeans" is still a physical good and is priced taking labor cost into account.

</comment><comment><USER14> Congrats Sam as a fellow UVA alum, always like to see these stories. Wahoo-wa!

</comment><comment><USER15> You know what's cool? The only news about your company is that someone wrote it a check. Your website has fuck-all about what you're doing. Apparently I can sign myself up for some unspecified email content at some random point in the future, because I don't get enough email.

Now it's on hn with some crap about how you've "since expanded"... great. Get back to me when you're in business.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sorry you feel this way and I can understand where it's coming from. Raising money isn't an extraordinary event and probably doesn't mean much to you (though it does mean I can pay everyone's salaries for a little longer - and that means something to me).

That said, we'd love more than anyone to make this available to as many people as possible. The team is pulling long hours to make that happen. We're just trying to do it in a responsible, methodical way.

I'd love to see you or any other HNer try us out. If you sell stuff online and are interested in an analytics tool to help you understand your business, feel free to drop me a line. My email is in my HN profile. After I understand your needs I'll tell you honestly whether we can help.

<comment><USER10> If I understand you correctly, you're saying that if someone gives you market research in hopes of exchanging it for access, there's a chance that they'll be giving it away for free?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Who the hell changed the submission title? It was clearly stating that it was submitted by the founder. And now it has some ex-facebooker BS in it. Who cares he was with Facebook. The fact that he's on HN is what matters.

Please stop. You are not helping. Keep it human.

</comment><comment><USER17> Did the title of this post really just get changed? Was what the head of the company (and much more than just a "Former Facebooker") posted to announce his company coming out of stealth not a good enough title?

Until there's some public announcement about things like this or some accountability, every front page post on this site is going to have a comment chain like this. This is ridiculous.

<comment><USER18> It was changed, yes -- and there was already a previous comment to this submission discussing it (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4163318>) ... and it was killed. I'm disappointed in the continued editing of submission titles as well.

[Edit] And now the referenced comment has been un-killed. :-)

<comment><USER17> If comments like mine are being killed just for pointing out flaws, I guess I should turn on showdead before I start blabbing!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I was thinking that there should be a plugin LevelII stack for each good, say used computer hardware. you can hit someone's bid or put your offer away from last traded price.

[http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip...](http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip_image002.jpg)

I'm sure that for virtual goods, delivery is more fluid and there would be less of difference say for an identical configuration of a server, but one server with 8GB vs 16GB ram.

</comment><comment><USER20> Congrats Sam. I think this is an important and super cool venture.</comment>


Redux in 99 lines - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/gaearon/ffd88b0e4f00b22c3159 <comment><USER2> Simplicity :) I've just started learning Redux, so this may be not accurate - but when I was reading documentation I had impression that Redux was rather a set of design patterns/paradigms (message passing, reducers, immutability) and simple library to make use of these patterns easy, than a framework.

Am I wrong?

But I think that is very good. I think that best thing is that you don't have to use React to use Redux. This opens many possible uses for Redux in future (imagine use Redux with Phaser.js or ThreeJS to make HTML5 Game, for example. Message/action passing can be very useful in making games).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> More: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32461229/why-use-redux- ov...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32461229/why-use-redux-over- facebook-flux/32920459#32920459)

Src: [https://github.com/rackt/redux](https://github.com/rackt/redux)</comment>


Foursquare raises $41 million Series D round - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/11/foursquares-new-series-d-round-of-41m-helps-it-delay-tricky-questions-about-its-valuation/ <comment><USER3> Reading the press on this, there is one thing that is glaringly absent: any numbers around growth. They quote a bunch of numbers that are sums of things since inception of the company: how many checkins total, how many businesses 'using foursquare' (they don't define what 'using foursquare' means, which implies it's something trivial and misleading).

The title of the press release is "Continuing Foursquare's Growth"! Growth is obviously what they want to make you think is happening, unfortunately they have no growth to show.

[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=foursquare%2C%20pinte...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=foursquare%2C%20pinterest&cmpt=q)

Foursquare has no growth since 2011 and no way to generate significant revenue. If the numbers they quote on the press release are true, they would have so much cash rolling in that they would laugh at the idea of raising more money. The press release is intentionally misleading; this company is dying.

<comment><USER4> You might be right. I don't really know people who use foursquare, and it's use cases from a consumer standpoint are really limited to people who live in cities (forget middle america)

That said, this round does make a lot of sense for investors and management. If they didn't raise a round they would have run out of cash. That's over 5 years and $100M down the drain _today_. Rather than write the entire thing off, they're giving the company another 2 years to create _something_ worth more than bankruptcy. There is still a lot to bet on. I'm not sure where they'll concentrate, but there is something valuable in being the location based layer of the internet, or being in a position to make cities more searchable on the go.

Notice it's a debt round (w no valuation). They aren't trying to value the company higher, they're just trying to keep it alive as cheaply as possible

<comment><USER3> I get that, but I think this is an example of a desperate move. In order to have any value left for the founders and employees, the company will have to sell for some huge valuation that they are almost certainly not going to get.

I'm not questioning the decision on the Foursquare side anyway, although they are clearly avoiding releasing any data that would give people an understanding of the current state of the company. I question the decision on the part of the investors. This is a lot of money to put in, and for what? The best case might be a 2x-3x return, but in my opinion the median return on this is $0, all the money spent and virtually no value in the end.

I would imagine it's very hard for the management of FourSquare to let go emotionally, especially after hopes ran high in 2009/2010 and they had huge growth. It's clear that that growth has ended, and that they are now in a period of declining use. Combine that with an inability to monazite the existing user base and I see absolutely no hope of success.

I suppose they could pivot the company, but why would they do that? It would make far more sense to leave FourSquare and build a new company that didn't have all of FourSquare's baggage and dilution from investments in the old model.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm honestly quite surprised they got that much, seeing as they haven't really had any "huge" innovation or evolution since their original product. They have definitely improved some UI/UX on the app, but nothing ground breaking, to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Foursquare but they are getting harder to "keep loving" when they simply can't seem to hit their full potential.

I only use the service now if a location has a check-in special of some sorts. And to get those specials, you need more adaption from local businesses and I think that is where they are failing. I live in a big city, and I think I maybe see one new business a MONTH (at most) that actually utilizes Foursquare, and majority of the time it's just a big chain type store. They need to get a team together to pitch to the smaller indie type shops to get them on board to get users interested again. I'm also in the midwest, so maybe they are better in bigger coast cities?

EDIT ( _additional thoughts_ ): I think they also won the hearts of their original users with the app "game-ification" which was incredible (at the time), but I think they need more than that now-a-days. It seems like _every_ new app has "badges", "awards", etc. While it's good that Foursquare was one of the originals by doing that in a social setting, it's irrelevant now because so many businesses are doing it better than them. Just because you created the first wheel, doesn't automatically make you the best, and I think they are forgetting that and not thinking outside of the box of how to make their app more social and connect users like it originally had.

<comment><USER6> It really has turned into a great local discovery platform via their personal recommendations. As an anecdote, I am not from San Francisco, and visited the bay area in February. I checked into my hotel, 4sq knew that I had travelled over a 100 miles and most likely 'classified' me as a tourist. I checked into the Yerba Buena Gardens, the "people usually go to this burger place afterwards."; was a great place to eat.

I went up to the wharf, and checked in. With no ideas that there are sealions in the area, 4sq said that I should go check them out. So I walked over to Pier 39. They suggested Market Square, etc etc.

I know it is just a singular experience, and my local Los Angeles usage has definitely declined, but everytime that I travel I definitely use it to discover what there is to do. From "real" people in my same cohort.

<comment><USER7> My trip to Bogotá was 10x better experience because of FourSquare. GMaps was totally wrong, Yelp didn't exist, tourist guides are all cookie cutter. FourSquare had all these amazing recommendations, most of which came from people I follow. Great service.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have no idea how they managed to pull that off since foursquare has so little usage today. If I look back a year or more ago, I had tons of friends using foursquare. Now? None.

I am guessing the loan from silver lake makes up 80% of the round and gives them top preference on a liquidity event as well as a 3-5x preference and maybe even monthly interest payments.

As for the convertible debt, I would guess it is likely that comes with a major, major discount on the next financing. That would also means that unless foursquare can completely turn its ass around, it would be super unattractive for any new investor to come in. So it goes without saying that the convertible would also have a short fuse of 48 months or less, which would convert at a some crazy low valuation if they did not raise another round.

If I was in charge over there, I would be thinking very heavily about what is best for my shareholders to get value and that would almost certainly be some form of a exit. However its not known if any suitors would be interested in foursquare at this point.

<comment><USER9> I wonder if this sentiment is similar to the "no one uses Hotmail" type comments I hear from tech people. It seems like lots of people still use it based on the number I check-ins I see. It may not be quite as trendy these days but it's definitely gone mainstream.

<comment><USER10> Anecdotally, myself and several friends use Foursquare fanatically. Though I've been waiting forever for Foursquare to do something more with the service itself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It always bothered me whenever Groupon and Living Social were referred to as "social commerce" companies. Buying coupons is _not_ a social activity (i.e. by sharing you're basically announcing to the world that you are a cheapskate who won't pay full price).

On the other hand, with their recent iOS upgrade, Foursquare may be in position to become the first true "(offline) social commerce" company. I've used their "Explore" function in the past and had a good experience - There's something comforting about the fact that I'm going to a bar or restaurant that's been "vetted" by one of my friends.

</comment><comment><USER9> People talking about usage being down are missing the bigger opportunity. Pretty much every app that needs location data uses FourSquare these days. I think that's the bigger vision here. Not exactly sure how it's monetized, but I see the opportunity.

<comment><USER12> If nobody is using Foursquare then there is no location data to sell.

<comment><USER13> Unless all those apps that use foursquare data are also sending data to foursquare.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I hope this opens people's eyes about venture debt. A much cheaper alternative compared to preferred stock - the traditional VC go to. Venture debt is attractive to investors at the right stage, especially with traditional yields at an all time low. Just look at the investment history of firms like Square1, Comerica, SVB, and Gold Hill Capital.

<comment><USER15> Can you expand on this a little bit? What does a company like Foursquare post as collateral on a $10mm+ loan and what are typical interest rates? Will Foursquare be expected to pay back the entire loan in cash?

<comment><USER14> Never having done a deal like this myself (either as an investor or an entrepreneur) this is just a guess, but I'd say that there is no "traditional" collateral (i.e. hard assets and / or cash flow) like when a more established company raises debt. Rather, the debt investors are made comfortable by the fact that some of the top VCs (USV, Spark, a16z, etc.) are willing to put additional equity into a company they are all already heavily invested in. I assume that Foursquare is expected to pay back the entire loan in cash. I also assume that Silver Lake has some covenants which either call for payback or allow them to take control if certain growth rates and revenue figures are not reached soon. This is a complete guess but I'd say in the range of 10-20% annual interest.

<comment><USER16> 10-20%? That's way out of line for venture debt. The upside in venture debt is usually from warrants, not interest rates, though Silver Lake is different / closer to PE.

<comment><USER14> It's hard to tell without knowing the tenor, amort schedule, and warrants. If the structure is similar to a junk bond the rate is going to be much higher than if it's more like a term loan. Would be very interested in hearing rates and structure of similar deals ppl know of

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't see the logic of raising $41M for a company that doesn't need it to buy equipment, raw material, real estate or physical stock of something.

Unless your revenue model is to do 5 rounds of financing and then move on to the next startup.

<comment><USER18> Some business models only work at scale. Scale can be users, data, traffic, partnerships, distribution or a variety of things.

This is a bet that Foursquare will find a business model as they become the location service everything builds on, or something else, that only works at scale.

In the scheme of private equity financings, this is a rather small deal and makes perfect sense for Foursquare.

And in fact, buying equipment is one of the worst things to do with cash. If you have the cash, then you should leverage that to finance or lease the equipment. :-)

<comment><USER17> My issue with this is that history teaches us that you don't need big money to reach scale, you only need the cash to support scaling up from a technical POV. Look at FB early days, Twitter, etc.

Unless they're going to pay users to join them, I don't see how raising so much money is going to solve their problems.

<comment><USER18> Your examples are not just wrong, but the opposite is true. Twitter and FB needed crazy cash early on, and twitter still might. FB has a business model now, but they didn't for a long time. But they went from low millions to nearly a billion "over night" long after they had spent hundreds of millions of dollars.

Twitter is just now building a revenue business but has raised nearly a billion dollars.

Google is a decent exception to that rule, but only because they turned their revenue engine on just in time and it was an oil well of cash. Otherwise they would have had major cash issues as they scaled their infrastructure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> At this point are they profitable? It seems less and less people are using it, but so many want it to be something awesome.

<comment><USER20> They've got ~100 people and $2M in revenues, so I doubt it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Coming from someone outside of NYC/SF: Foursquare has hit the masses and I have friends/family who have just discovered the app. It takes a surprisingly long time for new concepts to implement to non early adopters. So even while it may not be "trendy" in the SF area the app is pulling in a lot more "regular" people now.

</comment><comment><USER22> Not sure where most of the commenters are from but I completely disagree with the notion of "no one is using or joining Foursquare." I'm a college student in Hoboken, NJ (just outside of Manhattan). Everyone's jumping on board here - but that's just my general demographic.

<comment><USER23> Stevens Tech I assume. I'm an '02 grad in CS.

<comment><USER22> Yep! Still in the area? (Has the degree paid off?)

<comment><USER23> In philly, and yes, the degree has paid off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Raised over $112M to date. Talk about a cash sinkhole.

<comment><USER25> That's just $4 per registered user, so it's not a ton of money. And they've gotten people to give them a ton of data. Venues, locations, tips, activity.

I've been a user since the Dodgeball days, and I personally wouldn't invest in them at this point. But I don't think it's a crazy gamble.

Facebook took $2.24 billion in investment before going public. Twitter took $1.16 billion. Free-to-use network-effect businesses are expensive to build, because you need to build a mainstream-quality product and keep it running quite a while before you can monetize. Indeed, it's best to wait as long as possible before monetizing.

<comment><USER26> (i) Facebook did not raise $2.24bn, it was much (much) less. That $2.24bn figure, which comes from Crunchbase, includes secondary equity sale (shares sold by employees, early investors, etc. to third party investors like DST). That cash was not seen by Facebook.

(ii) Facebook and Twitter raised so much capital later on to support real user/activity growth, the primary use of proceeds was not fund their ongoing burn rate. The $41m raised by FourSquare is going to finance current operations/burn rate, not growth.

<comment><USER25> Which money do you believe didn't go to Facebook? Looking at the Crunchbase investments, only the $120m Elevation Partners money appears to be secondary- market purchases. Facebook itself says that they took the $1.5 billion:

[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases-test/facebook- raises...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases-test/facebook- raises-15-billion-114383494.html)

Regarding point ii, what expenses do you see as under each category? I'm not denying the difference; I'm just not clear what you think is being done differently with the money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I love my <http://untappd.com> and the integration with FourSquare makes me think there's a lot of potential using their API (or location data in general) to add location-awareness to an "social" application. I'm sure it's difficult to monetize that, but it's a ton of value.

</comment><comment><USER28> I find it interesting that companies like Twitter and Instagram were very focused on location initially (due to their founders interest in location) but have more or less have moved away entirely.

Whereas big companies that stuck it out with location - 4sq, gowalla, highlight, loopt, etc seem to struggle reaching a similar scale.

</comment><comment><USER29> haven't been following too much on foursquare, but sounds like it is a prime target for acquisition by Yahoo.

</comment><comment><USER30> One of my biggest challenges as an entrepreneur is I just can't take the plunge to start a business with no way of making revenue. Even though I can see all around me that that (once again) is how riches are made.

<comment><USER31> Don't worry, these sorts of companies are just lucky blips. For the most part if you set out to build a new company and you cannot predict where it's revenues will come from the odds are against you.

Keep focused on building a business. It may take longer but you will learn lots more along the way and your chances of success will be greater if you have a revenue model already baked.

There must be something Foursquare are not sharing with us, along with other commenters on this thread I don't know of a single user of their product since 2011.

Edit - <USER2>

<comment><USER30> I did use Foursquare once. The blood bank made me check in on Foursquare to get a t-shirt. (Nice shirt, with a captcha-based pun - I still wear it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Can someone change the title? From the article:

        Update: Earlier I'd described this as a
        Series D, but as this is based on debt
        and not new shares I've changed the wording.

</comment><comment><USER33> the only reason that make sense for me is that 4sq is going to be acquired in the near future

</comment><comment><USER34> my friends and i haven't used foursquare in over a year...

</comment><comment><USER35> Down round?</comment>


ASK HN : Hacker News Guide to Black Friday? - <AUTHOR>

With Black Friday upon us, what are the deals that HN community is considering/buying? <comment><USER2> Staples has a 29 buck wireless laser printer that looks interesting.

B&N has their Nook Simple touch for $39, and the Nook HD for $79. The simple touch runs android and is rootable, albeit with a e ink screen and no audio. The Nook HD is a fully google experience (Play store, YouTube etc) device that is also rootable.</comment>


Butler pleads not guilty in federal court in CNET scandal - <AUTHOR> http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_18717634

<comment><USER2> FYI: this is not CNET.com, the computer news site, but Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team.</comment>


ZFS on Linux 0.8.1 Brings Many Fixes, Linux 5.2 Compatibility Bits - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ZFS-On-Linux-0.8.1-Released <comment><USER2> Previous discussion on ZFS on Linux 0.8.1: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20186458](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20186458)

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't get myself to use ZFS on Linux with the licensing uncertainty. Anyone using it in production has got lawyers looking into this?

<comment><USER4> Ubuntu/SFLC: [https://blog.ubuntu.com/2016/02/18/zfs-licensing-and- linux](https://blog.ubuntu.com/2016/02/18/zfs-licensing-and-linux)

It links to [http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/02/zfs-licensing-and- lin...](http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/02/zfs-licensing-and-linux.html) and [https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2016/linux- kernel-...](https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2016/linux-kernel- cddl.html)

<comment><USER5> It's Oracle. They'll sue you just because lawsuits are a core part of their business. I have no doubt they'll eventually start litigating on this.

Oracle is basically the Westboro Baptist Church of the tech world.

<comment><USER4> Sure, it could happen, I'm only providing the requested links here.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Technology Review: Whatever Happened to ... Virtual Reality? - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/25917/?p1=A4

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought the problem was people getting dizzy? I'd imagine we have the computer power now to keep up with head turning? Anyone know why anyone hasn't marketed a VR headset? Would this make a good YC company?</comment>


Ask HN: In light of recent events, what Dropbox alternatives do you recommend? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Oft touted on HN here is tarsnap[1] and rsync.net[2]. They both have different pricing models, and both seem to focus on security.

[1] - <http://www.tarsnap.com/> [2] - <http://www.rsync.net/>

<comment><USER3> I looked at TarSnap and I dont quite get it. I am using Dropbox now. Do I keep my files in the same structure and manually tar them and upload? Does the tar and upload happen automatically? The site doesn't quite explain how I get my files up...What about the always in-sync features like DropBox?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This could happen to any other online file storage provider too. So depending on your needs, you're probably best off encrypting your files yourself before storing them online.

</comment><comment><USER5> None. I'm not so hot on Dropbox right now, but they're still probably your best bet.

Just encrypt everything even remotely private in an Apple DMG or Truecrypt volume.

</comment><comment><USER6> I tried UbuntuOne for the first time yesterday, but was awfully slow especially compared to Dropbox

</comment><comment><USER7> Wua.la and Tarsnap

</comment><comment><USER8> www.skyfile.co it has a easy API</comment>


Datastructures for external memory - <AUTHOR> http://blog.omega-prime.co.uk/?p=197 <comment><USER2> The Intel 750 SSD definitely doesn't get 440k IOPS with a queue depth of 1. It's more like 10k IOPS at that queue depth.

This basic assumption mistake really changes a lot of the numbers in the article.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why aren't these data structures also good for main memory?

Is the gap between L1/L2 cache vs main memory not large enough? (1ns vs 100ns)

<comment><USER4> These data structures _are_ good for main memory. I've implemented in-memory B-trees in C#, and they were 2x to 5x faster than .NET's built-in sorted maps. The built-in sorted maps also used 3x as much memory. Surprisingly, B-trees are better even for immutable collections, beating the built-in .NET immutable sorted map by 3x to 5x on updates. This is all with a straightforward implementation.

Red-black trees and AVL trees should not be used any more in my opinion. They are much slower and in my opinion B-trees are easier to understand and implement. It is still customary for data structure courses to teach red-black trees and AVL trees, but they should teach B-trees instead.

<comment><USER5> The linux scheduler uses red and black trees, there doesn't seem to be any performance problem there. I think that's a pretty ringing endorsement of the dsta structure no?

<comment><USER4> Did they try a B-tree and found it to be slower?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This reminded me of BetrFS presented at FAST 15. It looks like there's a more up to date presentation online[1] where the delete performance issues have been fixed.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBt5NuNsoII](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBt5NuNsoII)

</comment><comment><USER7> Let RDBMS take care of it</comment>


Control virtual machines from your web browser with complete strangers - <AUTHOR> http://computernewb.com/collab-vm/ <comment><USER2> NSFW!!!!!!!! Saw adult content. Beware!

</comment><comment><USER3> this is really good and cool and open source!</comment>


The Ops side of Dev - <AUTHOR> http://speakerdeck.com/u/chids/p/the-ops-side-of-dev-2012-03-02 PDF at https://speakerd.s3.amazonaws.com/presentations/4f50cf0ea8a35a002200e251/2012-03-02_ops_side_of_dev.pdf <comment><USER2> My notes, with typos:

[http://jrydberg.me/post/18620457405/crash-burn-2012-the- ops-...](http://jrydberg.me/post/18620457405/crash-burn-2012-the-ops-side-of- dev)

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool. While this deck wasn't too bad, sometimes the video-only presentations without a link to the actual slides really do need notes like this.</comment></comment>