An Open Letter to Apple Computer, Inc. - <AUTHOR>

Apple Computer, Inc.,
I have watched, with a certain amount of surprise and agreement, as the nerd elite have rallied in response to your announcement of the Mac App Store. I will summarize their concerns here, for your benefit: First, if you ever decide to distribute software solely through the Mac App Store for Apple Computers, independent software producers will not have an easy way to distribute their software on their own terms. Second, A lot of software licensing requires that it be redistributable, but if the only way to load software onto a machine is through a third party, that licensing is not satisfied even when the software is free of charge.
That's it. That's the whole reason that people are upset. Other people can talk about various other issues with your approval process, but they would frankly get over it if there was an assurance that it will always remain as easy as it currently is to install software on a Mac outside of the App Store channel.
To be honest, your assurance would probably not mean very much. Apple made it very clear that they would never make a netbook, and now we have the new MacBook Air, which absolutely meets the requirements to be described as such. This is but the last in a long string of what I will generously call misdirections.
I have a solution which will, however, satisfy the nerds and make them happier than you have likely considered possible. It's a solution that will lessen the load of your approval team, not cut into your revenue streams, and lower your bandwidth and infrastructure costs. I'm asking you to harness the power of open standards and the internet, something that you have spoken in favor of a number of times, but in a slightly different light.
Open your App Store protocol. Allow people to host their own App Store servers. Provide a single, buried configuration dialog that allows people to add the urls of these servers. Don't even worry about payment, because the nerds want to distribute their software for free. When you have done this, you win.
Of course, it would mean one more dialog, one that would likely be very confusing to some of your users. But then, I might consider buying another Mac or 50 over the course of my life, and I am fairly confident that there are others who feel the same way. Please don't underestimate how many of your customers care about their computers.
Thanks very much for your time,
Chris Rhoden <comment><USER2> So, there is a lot of confusion over these issues, and I always find that very distress distressing, so let me make this clear: Apple's application approval process on the iPhone, and soon on Mac OS X with the Mac App Store, is a small part of the story, and frankly I will say it is the least interesting part.

I recently gave a talk at TEDxAmericanRiviera that touched on this subject: I think it is an enjoyable and understandable explanation of what it means that the ecosystem of software on the iPhone is limited to "applications", and how that is not what consumers want.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReKCp9K_Jqw>

As some people may not wish to watch a video, I will go ahead and attempt to provide a little context here, in text. The idea is that the App Store is designed to install "applications": units of software that typically involve an icon on some kind of launcher that opens a window into some new functionality the device previously did not have.

However, is that really all that users want to be able to do with their devices? If we just look at the stories posted to Hacker News about Android software we already see that would be a flawed premise: there is a long train of "cool" surrounding products like Swype and 8pen. These programs replace the system input manager, aka the keyboard, for all applications.

These programs are not just apps: they are extensions to other applications on the device. We also see this in the form of custom launchers, dialers, and widgets: Android has numerous ways that developers can extend the core functionality of the handset in ways that escape the trap that is the icon.

Now, before you start thinking "woah, Android is awesome", you still can't add functionality to the address book, the notification area, or the task switcher... or any of the other insanely large number of things that the device is capable of doing. Every time you add a little bit more ability there is still going to be a ton of things that are not exposed.

You may now ask: what else is there? Go look at your average jailbroken iPhone: the stuff people are developing and installing is /amazing/. There are almost no limits to what you can change on the device; it isn't open source, but it is damned close. No system feature or application is immune to the influence of small and large changes. (For some cool examples and screenshots, watch the aforementioned talk.) And, if you really insist that open isn't open until it is open source you can gut the bootloader and install Android on the thing thanks to the iDroid project.

This is why I absolutely hate it when I read people focusing on rejected applications or "opening up" the app store. In a future where Apple did /exactly what you are asking them to do/ almost nothing will have changed: people will still need to jailbreak their phones and developers will still be writing and distributing all of this cool software using Cydia.

Seriously: Apple doesn't actually deny much from their App Store. They are occasionally a little anti-competitive, and that sucks, but these really boil down to a handful of high-profile cases: the effect on the market is minimal. Most of what they deny either a) doesn't work or b) is illegal or morally objectionable to your average American.

I say "American", as that's key: by having Apple, a US company, be the gatekeeper of content, there is a plethora of software involving aspects of copyright or slander law that is simply illegal for them to distribute. Meanwhile, things like pornography are a nigh-unto-no-go for their business model.

But please understand: that's the /only/ important issue with Apple being the shepherd, that is not an issue that your average iPhone jailbreaker or Android rooter (the classes of user that I think are central to this discussion as they are the poster child of a user affected by the closed policies of these companies enough to take matters into their own hand) gives a care in the world to.

Really, if you browse through Cydia, you will find only a small handful of applications. The number of applications that are in Cydia as "refugees" from the App Store was always low, and it is dwindling very rapidly as Apple slowly opens up their Store more (thanks to some nice efforts by companies like Adobe). Everything people jailbreak for is fundamentally not deployable by the App Store applications they /are not apps/.

So please... PLEASE... I /implore/ you: drop the battle to get Apple to open up their App Store(s). Instead, work on getting Apple to open up their /device/ (and, in the case of desktop Mac OS X, to maintain the reasonable open-ness of their MacBook line of computers). Until users are able to install whatever software they wish on the hardware that they own we will not truly have won back any of our freedom.

<comment><USER3> I've had a Mac since the original 64KB model. I remember the FIRST PARAGRAPH of the programmer's manual listing it as a single-user, single-task OS.

Third-party devs led the way, first with installable drivers that munged keyboard, disk, ... and an amazing task-switcher. But those became the bad old days of Macs: OS9 was falling apart due to overload. At huge expense -- Apple almost died from not tackling the issue well -- OSX started with a clean slate. Apple finally took control of the feature set that users wanted: pre- emptive multitasking, multi users, control of various daemons, etc.

Over time, that, too, got overlaid with all sorts of cruft. My upgrade this spring to a new MBP caused me a day's worth of debugging after I migrated files: some long-forgotten and actually no-longer-used third-party system extension conflicted with another module on the new hardware. Over a day's worth of debugging and cleanup, including an hour's worth of tech support (fortunately bundled with the hardware). Cost (very roughly) a thousand dollars.

So I think it's a bit disingenuous to advocate all these "neat" iOS hacks without acknowledging the possibly of really badly busting iOS, even for expert users, and "it just works" -- already a bit tenuous -- with it. Especially stuff running in non-user space can cause issues far-removed from the source of trouble. And unexpected software can either cause bugs or expose OS bugs that were otherwise benign or devs had worked around. A program that was tested only with Apple keyboard features can suddenly fail to work, tarnishing the app developer AND the platform. And like my incident, resolution can be very difficult and expensive for all concerned.

As my history indicates, I've been a big fan of hacks. But I already have seen enough issues with "good" apps such as the NYT crashing, or calendar entries failing to synch, that if I were still a developer, I would NOT want the added burden/expense of the sort of unstable OS that hacks have caused Apple in the past. Especially given the rather modest rewards for so many developers.

<comment><USER2> I will not say I don't feel for Apple. However, I believe this is a relatively minor and, at this point, quite well understood cost that Apple must support. Users, and I mean end users, want features like multitasking on OS9, and a lot of progress was being made in the world because it existed. Allowing companies like Apple to hold back potential markets because it is inconvenient to them is the kind of thing that should be frowned upon (and luckily it is: that's the kind of argument that must be made to get the explicit DMCA exemption that we managed to win).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> fwiw, Apple never said they would never make a netbook. I believe the relevant quote was "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk." (And, the MacBook Air is still not sub-$500.)

[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b41560003...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b4156000345421.htm)

</comment><comment><USER5> That would be nice for the power users, but opening the App Store protocol seems opposite to Apple's entire vision for their mobile iOS and OSX app stores. Apple doesn't water down their products with compromise and while that upsets a lot of users, it's also the entire reason why a lot of Apple software and hardware feels an entire generation above competitors products.

Apple's choices and thick-headedness bugs me, but I'm happy there is a major player out there who doesn't give in to the loud minority of power-users.

</comment><comment><USER6> > An Open Letter to Apple Computer, Inc.

It's been almost four years since the company was named "Apple Computer". A lot of words were written at the time about what the name change signified, but I think it's reasonable to say that making the "nerd elite" happy has taken a back seat to producing more locked-down, consumer-oriented products. Apple has hit on a pretty successful model with the iPhone app store and I'd be surprised if they move towards opening that up with the Mac App Store.

</comment><comment><USER7> If you're paranoid enough to think Apple is going to make the Mac App Store the only way to install software (not going to happen, but whatever)...

... why on earth would you trust Apple not to remove the third-party app store support in some future release?

</comment><comment><USER8> There are so many problems in the world right now — big problems, small problems, even problems that people don't know they have. Why would you waste time on a problem that you admit in your very first paragraph _does not exist_?

</comment><comment><USER9> All this does is make it easy for someone to package an app server full of malware for grandma to download. Never gonna happen.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you opt to add a repository that is full of malware, that is no different from downloading a piece of software from an unreputable website. I don't really see the issue here, especially since most users will not every find a need to use this.

<comment><USER10> Or even find the option -- hiding it well is important.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Your proposition has merit. I think this is another place where Apple's ideology might be counterproductive. But as we all know, they tend to stick to it regardless :-I

I hope the least they do is leave ordinary install options in tact. Other App Stores will probably emerge just like the Android Store clones.

</comment><comment><USER12> Just stop. Really.</comment>


Whoops Brenda Snipes' office mixed bad provisional ballots with good ones - <AUTHOR> https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article221452655.html <comment><AUTHOR> Can't believe how stuff like this is happening in 2018! That being said...

Are there any start-ups developing voting systems and improving processes?

What are the major challenges in getting systems adopted by municipals for actual elections?

Have there been any success stories in this space?

</comment><comment><USER2> Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

<comment><USER3> Nos sumus custodes</comment></comment>


Static Sites with Next.js 9.3 and Prisma - <AUTHOR> https://leerob.io/blog/next-prisma <comment><AUTHOR> I was blown away with the reaction to my tweet about Next + Prisma [0], so I wrote up a full tutorial explaining how to create a static site with direct database access using Next's `getStaticProps`. Let me know if you have any questions!

\--

Deployed Example: [https://prisma-next.now.sh/](https://prisma-next.now.sh/)

Source Code: [https://github.com/leerob/next- prisma](https://github.com/leerob/next-prisma)

[0]: [https://twitter.com/leeerob/status/1246948338714492929](https://twitter.com/leeerob/status/1246948338714492929)</comment>


Why ActivityPub Is the Future - <AUTHOR> https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/06/why-activitypub-is-the-future/ <comment><USER2> Shatter the social and news medias!

Rebuild on a decentralized system of trust without blockchain (totally possible in my understanding)

Separate the data from the interfaces

<comment><USER3> > decentralized system of trust

no need to reinvent the wheel when DNS exists.

<comment><USER2> Eh? Not following, how does the postal system of the internet relate to breaking up the social and news media machines? If anything, it needs to be strengthened with something like HNS

<comment><USER3> With ActivityPub, you can have news media and public agencies prove their own legitimacy through their own domain names.

Example, you'd expect an ActivityPub instance on "cnn.com" to represent the CNN corporation, and you'd also expect one that exists on "nj.gov" to represent the state of New Jersey. What would you propose instead? I don't know what HNS is.

edit: Oh, I'm assuming you're referring to the Handshake experimental root.

<comment><USER2> [https://handshake.org](https://handshake.org) is one of the very few good use cases for a public permissionless blockchain. It essentially will supercede ICANN

I'm all about that activity pub, my point is more that we should pass legislation to force social media companies to comply with the format, much like the US healthcare system and FIHR.

This would enable competition in interface, data custody and monetization strategy while allowing better interoperability. Should this be successful, I'd expect the news orgs to shatter much like social media had. The idea is that in an AP based decentralized system, competition around trust and truth could happen, as well as the greater echo chamber effect.

There's a lot more to say here, but we could start with an ActivityPub / FHIR like legislation against the social media system.

<comment><USER3> > pass legislation to force social media companies to comply with the format

I think it'll be easier if legislation is passed requiring public officials / agencies to use the format, on public infrastructure.

Again, DNS exists, why re-invent the wheel? ICANN/IETF is not going anywhere.

<comment><USER2> The DNS / ICANN is separate from the legislation. We have successfully passed legislation to force healthcare data and systems to be interoperable. We'll see how that goes, but I do believe our country would have the appetite for a similar set of laws. The equivalent of HIPAA & FIHR for our digital lives. The CCPA is a start, and perhaps a state level version of a national digital identity HIPAA like law. The second half, FIHR like standard, could easily have a convincing case made for it and I see little opportunity for a case to be made by these companies that would be able to sway their users the other way. Pretty sure everyone would absolutely love a world like that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


@barackobama has over 6,000 Twitter followers; @hillaryclinton has under 600 - <AUTHOR> http://twitter.com/laughingsquid/statuses/763693774 <comment><USER2> While the statistics are interesting, one of the reasons I love this site is it leaves the politics to the other sites. Not that I am discouraging the avocation of any candidate. I simply came here partially to escape the online political war.

<comment><USER3> Politics aren't explictly banned here.

<http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Let's hope those numbers translate into votes and let's hope superdelegates don't steal the election away from him.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hmm. Sounds like Twitter isn't Clinton's demographic. Would be hard to say her unpopularity there reflects similar unpopularity outside of the interwebs...</comment>


How to Say "Pgnttrp" - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USL5CFNy9jw <comment><USER2> My first thought was "This is stupid" before I got curious (and that surely is the curse of this so-called word!)

Then I found it in my regular word dict files as well as my _common_ password list, and again on this sweater: [https://teeshirt21.com/product/i-love- pgnttrp-hoodie-u5UzE](https://teeshirt21.com/product/i-love-pgnttrp- hoodie-u5UzE)

Rainwords shows it as one of 97 English words with 'pg' in the spelling. The only one that comes to mind for me without looking at their list is "stopgap." So I guess I have another if I ever need one for whatever reason.

I think it is really just the FORTRAN connection having been picked up in weird places. I strongly doubt it is English for anything outside of that context.

I think I'm going to get that sweater just to spread the joy. Hopefully it doesn't mean "kick me!"

</comment><comment><AUTHOR>
      $ grep pgnttrp /usr/share/dict/*
      /usr/share/dict/american-english-insane:pgnttrp
      /usr/share/dict/british-english-insane:pgnttrp
      /usr/share/dict/words:pgnttrp

What is pgnttrp?

<comment><USER3> Looks like it is the name of a FORTRAN subroutine[1] from MTS (Michigan Terminal System) that somehow creeped into our dictionary files. Now you can buy hoodies with "1 <3 PGNTTRP" prints and watch videos like that above, because of bot produced content.

[1] [https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/7958...](https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/79583/MTSVolume03-SubroutineDescriptions- SystemsEdition-Jul1987.pdf)</comment></comment>


Passive Income: Summer 2014 edition - <AUTHOR>

What is your source of passive income? You can find mine here: http://elonm.roon.io/20-8-2014-2<p>Earlier editions of this topic: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7094402 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6661536 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4639271 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=387789 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5903868 <comment><USER2> Btw, always wanted to ask. I'm sure you've seen this as well. There are a bunch of sites full of generic text and links beneath them with long and ugly URLs. I suppose they get paid when you click on those links. What are these sites?

</comment><comment><USER3> Made few bucks from digitalocean affiliate. Most of the money is still pending but I'll be paid $120 this month again :D

Read the post here: [http://vivekgupta.com/affiliate/digitalocean-black- friday-ha...](http://vivekgupta.com/affiliate/digitalocean-black-friday- hacker-news-4000-in-referral-fees/146/)

My digitalocean affiliate link (if you want to sign up for a VPS): [https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=4d7fb2079a96](https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=4d7fb2079a96)

</comment><comment><USER4> I own a content website with well targeted affiliate partnership. Currently at a bit over 1,000 Euro a month pure profit, as all traffic is organic.

I didn't touch the website in about 2 years. Now that numbers are growing month on month, I'm freeing up some some time add more of the specific content which brings in the money. Also trying to scale the above for different related markets and languages. Hope to get it to +2k within the next year.

</comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for listing them out.

The main reason I think hackers looking for passive income source is, They want something can generate money and they can focus on hacking without worrying about money.

EDIT:

forget to add min.

~$100USD/month from [http://webscrapemaster.com](http://webscrapemaster.com)

~$10USD/month from ad on my blog [http://motyar.blogspot.com](http://motyar.blogspot.com)

<comment><USER2> >They want something can generate money and they can focus on hacking without worrying about money.

Exactly. Also, working on a potential second passive income source is as well more enjoyable and easy when you have a first one :)</comment></comment>


Inside the World of San Francisco's Millionaire Uber Drivers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/halting-problem/inside-the-world-of-san-francisco-s-millionaire-uber-drivers-f6f867a56000#.xe4szoetc <comment><USER2> I've met some interesting drivers at Uber. One had a restaurant chain that he had sold off and was killing time. No Tesla yet but a 7 series BMW and a high end Mercedes. I've also spoken to many Uber drivers who were blue collar works in the Bay area and have houses worth over a million bucks ... they have little income so Uber allows them to stay in the Bay area.

</comment><comment><USER3> Any way to verify the claims from the article? I can't find any mention of Rivalta or its sale to Salesforce. Seems more likely the Tesla is leased (business expense) and he spends more time as an UberBlack driver to pay for it.</comment>


Where to find electronics hardware consultants? - <AUTHOR> Hello!
I am tinkering with some physical product ideas, but I have absolutely no hardware or electronics background.
I would like to develop a product that includes Light Dependant Resistors (a big canvas basically), LEDs, Printed Circuit Board, Gyro sensor, etc.
Where do I even start to get a person that can design circuits and essentially design the electronics side to later make a product prototype?
If not a place, maybe a forum or someplace where I can dive into resources?
Thank you! Fran <comment><USER2> Any of the normal electronics hobbyist sites would help, e.g., adafruit blog, evil mad scientist, etc. EMS has a product that has sensors and LEDs on it, btw, although it's not clear what you're actually trying to do.

There hasn't been an easier time to get stuff up and running quickly.</comment>


There's a Real Archaeological Surprise in Honduras - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/03/03/theres-a-real-archaeological-surprise-in-honduras/

<comment><USER2> Evidently this is being blown way out of proportion, and other researchers have been studying this region for some time (to say nothing of the actual people living there, who have known about these "lost cities" all along): [http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/03/03/theres-a-real- archaeolo...](http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2015/03/03/theres-a-real- archaeological-surprise-in-honduras/)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for that. Given that the sensational announcement was on HN yesterday ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9158417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9158417)), let's change the URL of the current post to this critique (from [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/06/archaeologists-...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/06/archaeologists- find-two-lost-cities-deep-in-honduras-jungle)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Really fascinating find.

"Fisher emphasised that archaeologists know extraordinarily little about the region's ancient societies relative to the Maya civilisation." I appreciate the candor. Archeology is a science ahead of its time. The past is _extremely_ difficult to parse accurately—not to mention biases and political correction. It's always nice when archeologists are careful to not draw conclusions on limited data.</comment>


My Revenue Numbers: How to Sell 100 Screencasts - <AUTHOR> http://codeulate.com/2010/03/how-to-sell-a-hundred-screencasts/

<comment><USER2> Congratulations on getting a nice little side business going. The great thing about having a product to sell is now people will (hopefully) buy it even though you don't have to keep working on it. Rinse and repeat a few times and you'll have a nice addition to your income even if you stop making new screencasts.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

Having a passive income stream like this has been a goal of mine for years. Selling a digital product like this is a great fit.

My long-term goal for this is the freedom to take time off and travel while being supported by my business income.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Congrats - that is really cool, thanks for posting this.

How long ago did you launch?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I launched on February 1st. I released my second screencast two days ago.</comment></comment>


Ask YC: Programming language survey - <AUTHOR>

I have the following questions related to an application me and my team have to develop for a chain of supermarkets, for a school subject.
The situation is the following: we are very fluent in developing applications with PHP, but our teacher wants us to develop it in a different language.
The amount of time we have to finish the app, is 2 months approximately.
So my questions are related towards knowing if its feasible,  to learn a new language in order to develop a system.
The questions:

1.- Which is the minimum time to learn a new language?
2.- Having learned the language, how much experience is necessary to make a system for a client?
3.- If you know how to use a certain language, and that language is suitable to make an app, do you recommend  to learn a new one, or to develop it with the language you already know?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> 1.- A couple of seconds. But that's for an esoteric language that was a trivial modification of another esoteric language :-). As for how long it takes you, it depends on how smart you are, what your definition of "learning a language" is, what languages you know and how strangely you've used them, and what language you're learning. It takes more effort to learn the language's libraries than the "language", except for really unusual languages.

2.- It depends on what experience you have and how translatable that experience is to the current project.

3.- It depends on whether that language is PHP ^_^

So, to summarize: It depends.

Edit: actually, just read what brlewis said, which is a more useful response for your situation (given certain assumptions about how fluent you are).

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. Unless you're switching programming paradigms, learning a new language is trivial if you have a copy of the API to reference. It's all just syntax and libraries at that point.

2\. Do it when you're comfortable with the language.

3\. Why would you learn a new language if the one you're familiar with is the right tool for the job? I can only assume you're looking to pick up Ruby on Rails or Django instead of PHP. From my experience, Rails development is orders of magnitude faster than PHP if you're using it for the right project.

</comment><comment><USER4> 1\. Two days.

2\. Two days. (You'll learn as you go along.)

3\. All other things being equal, use the language you already know. If things are unequal all bets are off.

<comment><USER5> "If things are unequal all bets are off"

Well said, and agreed. Actually, I completely agree with brlewis. "Learning" a language is a hard metric to measure. Accordingly, give a language/framework (if you are already familiar with the language) a couple of days, write a small app in it, and the rest, you will learn as you go.

IMO, in most cases, "learning" is merely trying to figure out how you would solve a problem within the scope of your selected toolset. The involves foreseeing what you will encounter down the road, which in a lot of cases is hard, if not downright impossible. Most books/tutorials (atleast the beginner ones) don't touch the boundary cases, so there's only that much value in them. That's not to say that you should drop every reference book on your shelf right now, but that don't spend a lot of time trying to master every detail before getting your feet wet.

Oh, and Good luck...!</comment></comment>


Waiting Rooms Must Be Disrupted. - <AUTHOR>

I visited the doctors office yesterday and while waiting thought, "this place is miserable." I understand that a lot of people who visit them are miserable as well, but for crying out loud, the atmosphere of a waiting room at a doctors/dentists office is terrible.
Everyone I've ever visited seems to be the same. The same television showing Dr. Oz or News, the same germ infected instant coffee thermos, the same uncomfortable chairs crammed so close to each other, the same three month old magazines, the same droll wallpaper and generic motivational framed pictures, the same.. you get the picture.
I got to thinking about it. About how to possibly improve these environments for both the customers and the doctors. Ways to possibly invest further in the atmosphere, equipment, sanitation, and technology. Ways doctors could leverage people (users) in their waiting rooms to recoup the costs of an upgrade investment (and potentially generate profits after breaking even). I've got a couple different ideas that are no doubt, "out there", but I think it's fun to play what if!
Do you hate waiting rooms? Do you think its a medium that should and could be disrupted? <comment><USER2> I've heard of a startup that sells iPads for certain waiting rooms. You fill out your paperwork on the iPad, and since it's dynamic, they can upsell you. The company originally did automotive, and then I think they went into elective cosmetic doctors (laser hair removal, botox, spa sort of places)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder how you are thinking of generating revenue from people who are waiting? Particularly since many (most?) of the people there are either below their cognitive average or distracted by herding children.

<comment><USER4> "since many (most?) of the people there are...below their cognitive average"

Do intelligent people not get sick? Do they somehow avoid needing to sit in a waiting room by knowing exactly when to arrive so that they walk straight into their appointment?

<comment><USER5> _Their_ cognitive average, not _the_ cognitive average. When you're sick, you're not in your best mental condition, no matter how smart you are normally.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Bring your own Wi-Fi hot spot.</comment>


Sharp Elbows (1984) - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/24/magazine/on-language-sharp-elbows.html <comment><USER2> I stubbornly insist on writing Mac OS instead of macOS, but there is no "traditionally correct" way to write iOS, iMac, iPhone, etc.

And I write watchOS and tvOS because its not worth the extra trouble disambiguating Watch OS and TV OS.</comment>


Can You Clone Tangler For $1,500? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/11/can-you-clone-tangler-for-1500/

<comment><USER2> yea, probably, especially if I lived in a country with a lower cost of living than the USA

Most 'web 2.0' sites are not difficult or time consuming to make from a technical perspective, the value is in the community.</comment>


Ask HN: Market to ebay sellers - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
First, some context: I launched my web app a few days ago. My target market is eBay sellers. My app is a tool for them to find out which products are the most popular at the moment.
The Problem: No one has clicked on my ad. Not 1 person! Now I'm no marketeer, but I am extremely motivated to learn! I decided that the best way to target my market is to use facebook. I've used the parameters People over 25 who have liked eBay. And I created a cliche ad trying to attract people who like making money. Here is a pic http://devcomsystems.com.au/fb_ad.png . One constraint on the ad is you are not allowed to use the word "eBay". FB have already suspended one account because of this.
The question: How do you effectively market to eBay sellers? What are my best paths? How do you construct a good ad?
Hopefully other keen learners can pick something up from this if we treat it as a case study. Hope you can help HN!
Best Regards,
Peter <comment><USER2> I think you are seeing what so many people have learned through the years of Facebook advertising: when people are on Facebook, their "mental state" is "goofing off, catching up with friends, and just blowing off steam". What you are advertising is _work_ \- which is always going to be hard for your audience to switch back into. Advertisers like Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Crown Royal - those are advertising "goofing off, catching up with friends, and just blowing off steam" thus their CTR/effectiveness is going to always be massively higher than "work" related ads: they are matching the mindset of the audience. When those companies advertise in another medium ("Fortune" magazine, for example), they will certainly use different ads - a different message, more sophisticated, older models, etc.

As an advertiser, you need to go where your market is _and you need to be there when they are actively trying to work_. Your sellers are most certainly in Google searching, searching, searching for this and that. Find out what they are searching for, and market to that need. Go to Adwords and find out what people are searching for when they use the term "ebay store", or "ebay seller's" or other prefixes that your market would use. For example, someone searching for "ebay fee calculator" is probably a seller - so buy that keyword and craft ads/landing pages around it. There are tons more...

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Scott,

Thanks for the great advice and examples. It all seems to make perfect sense when someone spells it out for you. I spoke to one of my friends on the weekend and they said the same thing about facebook, "they are there for entertainment". But thanks for taking it one further with the ad words keywords like "ebay fee calc", I think I can start to get the hang of it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> If you had gotten a CTR on the low end of reasonable, I'd suggest optimizing your copy. Since you didn't, my impression it's one of two things: 1) people who liked ebay != ebay sellers and/or 2) facebook ads aren't very effective for this market

Try a more sophisticated targeting on facebook (can you target by people who have posted a link to an ebay item?)

If that doesn't work, I'd try a totally different channel. Seems like there should be lots of forums, blogs, and websites where ebay sellers congregate. Shoot for those.

<comment><AUTHOR> quote - "(can you target by people who have posted a link to an ebay item?)" That's a great idea.

Your first two points are slowly dawning on me, I removed the people who liked ebay filter, and I seem to be getting more clicks now, however still no signups (but that is another issue!).

I posted on the eBay forum. It was really, really effective!!.. until I received a warning from ebay to stop and the post was removed. However, as you say, there must be other forums where sellers hang out. I will get my google on. Thanks for the advice.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'll go first. I've updated the ad here are the words.

Title: Always sell the hot items

Content: The most current list of best selling products on auction sites. Selling hot products easy

and you can see the updated ad here: <http://devcomsystems.com.au/fb_ad2.png>

I struggle to think "would I click on this?" because I never click on any ads!

Again, any help would be MOST appreciated!</comment>


SoK: All You Ever Wanted to Know About x86-64 Disassembly but Were Afraid to Ask - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.14266 <comment><USER2> This was well worth the read. Should have gotten more attention.</comment>


Artificial Intelligence and the Art of Mario Klingemann - <AUTHOR> https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-and-the-art-of-mario-klingemann <comment><USER2> I first encountered Mario's work more than a decade ago when he popped up in the Processing community. Two of his from that time stand out as some of my favorite pieces of generative art, but unfortunately require Java:

[http://incubator.quasimondo.com/processing/plankton.php](http://incubator.quasimondo.com/processing/plankton.php)

[http://incubator.quasimondo.com/processing/ornamism.php](http://incubator.quasimondo.com/processing/ornamism.php)

I've politely urged him on Twitter to describe how these work, but he tells me these two are too precious for him to reveal the secret.

<comment><USER3> Java is easily decompiled if you really want to know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am looking for someone who can help me create (or help me get started to create) a GAN that generates H.R. Giger style pictures. Anyone up for helping me out ?

<comment><USER5> Use StyleGAN. The speed and quality of its results surpass any GAN I've ever used, and I've used dozens of different implementations of various architectures and tweaked them over the past 3 years.

If you want a demo of what it can do and the original Nvidia paper/video isn't impressive enough, check out the anime faces I've been generating with just a few days of training on my 2 GPUs: [https://twitter.com/gwern/status/1093701790971953152](https://twitter.com/gwern/status/1093701790971953152)

For H.R. Giger pictures, I suspect the problem is that you simply don't have enough. StyleGAN is powerful enough to memorize datasets of under a few thousand images. What I would suggest is that you might be able to take the Nvidia 1024px face model or cat model and retrain the model with your artwork; that saves you sample size, and to the extent that faces or cats remain in your final model, well, perhaps that will just make it creepier or hilarious, in the vein of 'dogslugs'.

(This is what I have been doing to make individual-character anime-face StyleGAN models: few characters have so many faces as to be able to train from scratch, so I've trained a StyleGAN on the entire face dataset, and then I simply retrain it for an hour or two on just that individual character's faces to finetune it.)

Alternately, you could try to borrow strength from an illustration dataset somewhat similar, maybe a Western art dataset like WikiArt? (I forget if WikiArt is the dataset OP mentions Mario training his GANs on.) Train a StyleGAN on that and then do transfer to Giger as above.

Finally, you could get more invasive and try to weaken StyleGAN enough to make memorization more difficult when training from scratch. Shrink the 8x512 FC layer stack and remove filters from the convolutions, for example. It will be a lot weaker but it'll generalize better within the samples it's still able to generate. Train faster/smaller too.

<comment><USER4> Wow, thanks for the thorough reply!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 30 to 40k estimated price... For a GAN displaying outputs on a tv? I'm sure this can be built in a weekend.

I really hope he sells it at a high price.

<comment><USER7> Far more has been paid for canvas, a few slivers of pine and a single color of paint.

The value of art is not something you can quantify this way.

<comment><USER8> Value of Art = Value of Art Marketing

For something like this, anyway. The point isn't that anyone could build it in a weekend, but that someone with the contacts and the required business/commercial network knew how to build it and sell it.

It will probably be bought as investment with a view to profit on resale.</comment></comment></comment>


Distilr, the event-specific Twitter client, launches for AFL Grand Final replay - <AUTHOR> http://blog.tribalytic.com/launch-distlr/

<comment><USER2> Kind of like our app, <http://afeedapart.com>. We actually gave some thought to opening our platform to other events like this, but decided against it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great to see cool things like this coming out of Australia! I'll use it during the GF and report back on how I liked it.

</comment><comment><USER4> I like it. My project is similar: <http://almost.at>

</comment><comment><USER5> Neat. A much nicer way of watching events than twitter itself.

PS. Carn the pies.</comment>


Topics in High-Performance Messaging (2011) - <AUTHOR> https://www.informatica.com/downloads/1568_high_perf_messaging_wp/Topics-in-High-Performance-Messaging.htm <comment><USER2> There is a suitable, but long-forgotten UDP reliable messaging protocol, included in Plan9. It's called RUDP. Very simplistic and very fast.</comment>


AppFog reduce free plan to 512MB RAM, 2 services, 2 instances - <AUTHOR> http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=1899760903034d38a3bb16d8e&id=953771771d&e=16975953ed

<comment><USER2> Seems like to have a service nefarious users can't abuse, you have to throttle cpu, memory, disk, and requests volume. That's quiet a tall order. Do any of the PAAS solutions address all four?

</comment><comment><USER3> IMO, "abusive" is just an excuse.</comment>


Can BitCoin, the First Open Source Currency, Threaten the Dollar? - <AUTHOR> http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/90660/can-bitcoin-the-first-open-source-currency-threaten-the-dollar/

<comment><USER2> I have BitCoins, so this only is of benefit to me; but I have the feeling that stories about BitCoins are being promoted on HN, not only for the community's interest in BitCoin, but in an effort to pump the exposure to increase awareness and value of their stock.

I don't mind the effect too much, as I personally find the Bitcoin phenomenon to be endlessly interesting, but I feel compelled to point out what might be a small elephant in this room.

<comment><USER3> The relentless promotion campaign that is conducted here and similar places makes it very hard to not interpret the whole phenomenon as a type of penny stock style pump and dump scheme, regardless of the technical merits at the core of the system. One would think that anyone who thought of themselves as not of part of a speculative frenzy would realize that promoting such a bubble, and not caring about giving people the impression that they are, would be bad for its mid to long term success.

<comment><USER4> It's certainly over-the-top. I tried to flag this post down, as it has nothing to do anymore with Bitcoin as open source project and thus hacking. But there's just too much incentive to get it on the front page, I guess...

I like the idea of cryptocurrencies very much but can we stop the overhyping? Nothing good can come of it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Small problem, he says "They cannot be taxed, which would remove yet another source of power the state has over individuals."

I hate to inform everyone, but Bitcoins CAN be taxed. Anything that is normally taxable in USD transactions are also taxable as a BTC transaction.

Remember people, pay your damned taxes.

<comment><USER6> Why does everyone miss the point that once you cash out your BTC you're paying USD taxes.

<comment><USER7> Because they are dreamily thinking that they will spend BTC directly, and never convert to USD.

<comment><USER8> No conversion to dollar necessary. An American citizen say lives on the US Canada border and has a job just across the line and gets paid in Canadian dollars they are still expected to pay income tax. If an American citizen lives and works in France for a decade they are expected to file income taxes in the US every year. Income tax is just that, tax on income it applies to every citizen of the US no matter where they live or what currency they get paid in. BTC is no different.

<comment><USER9> I am no expert on american taxes (eh, IANEOAT?) but I believe there is a treaty between France and USA preventing double taxation. You might or might not be forced to file the papers but if you're already paying taxes from the income in France (as would be the case - since the employer would just deduct it) you wouldn't have to pay the US taxes.

Sorry for the OT

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Bitcoin uses a distributed timestamping server. The paper literally states that "new transactions are broadcast to all nodes". This effectively means that they need a global broadcast to the majority of nodes for every bit coin transfer.

This doesn't scale in terms of number of nodes, and it doesn't scale in number of transactions. They can not compensate for an increase in the number of transactions by adding more nodes because instead of distributing the work load over the nodes, they are in fact replicating it.

The rationale seems to be that as long as you have more honest nodes than malicious ones the system will not be hijacked. Of course, the chance that a Russian botnet has more CPU power than you do is quite real. They go on to say that if an attacker has more computational power than everyone else they would do better to use it mining coins than to break the system, and they seem to leave it at that. Counting on the rational behavior of potential attackers does not seem like a good strategy to me.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm pretty sure this thing will simply not scale. It reminds me of Gnutella, which implemented search through scoped flooding and somehow promised both scalability and coverage. I have the same feeling here. Scalability _and_ security in a peer-to-peer network? Surely you jest.

When something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

edit: link to the paper: <http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf>

</comment><comment><USER7> Governments aren't governments because they control currency. They control currency because the people gave them to power to do so. They were already governments before that.

</comment><comment><USER11> Answer: No.

</comment><comment><USER12> Bitcoin will change the world; end of story.

<comment><USER6> no it wont.</comment></comment>


Owning the Virgin Media Hub 3.0: The perfect place for a backdoor - <AUTHOR> https://www.nccgroup.trust/uk/about-us/newsroom-and-events/blogs/2018/december/owning-the-virgin-media-hub-3.0-the-perfect-place-for-a-backdoor/ <comment><USER2> there comes an update to Mirai.</comment>


Digital Discrimination:  The Case of Airbnb.com [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/14-054_e3c04a43-c0cf-4ed8-91bf-cb0ea4ba59c6.pdf

<comment><USER2> I'm glad that someone is doing this analysis. That being said -- their methods are not quite sound.

1\. Their sample has 3752 observations, of which black hosts account for 7% (~260 obs). Given that the group of interest is a relatively rare event or outlier, it would be better to not compare them to the entire population using standard OLS regression models. Instead, a matching solution (e.g. propensity score matching) would be a better solution so a more representative group would be constructed that matches the black hosts.

Despite the regression attempting to control for this to some degree by including the other observable variables, the regression model is attempting to fit to all the observed prices. Given that the majority of the listings aren't black hosts not likely to be suitable matches to the black hosts, the fit isn't most representative of that relationship.

2\. They don't include the adjusted R-squared value for their regressions; thus, we don't know how much of the price variance is really being accounted for.

3\. They conclude that by including other observables available to customers on Airbnb (like the location rating), that they have removed omitted variable bias. Let's take the 'location rating' as an example of how this is problematic. When I book in Airbnb, I may initially sort by Airbnb's metrics; however, once I find a short list of matching options, I drill down into them to try and determine how well they fit my needs. This additional consumer analysis isn't accounted for by the high level Airbnb metrics, yet I bet it is a primary driver in users booking with one listing over another.

Despite this, I still think it is a good paper to start this analysis. They are likely correct that there is discrimination in Airbnb, and their logic underpinning this is sound.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is somewhat off topic, but I found the typography of this paper to be really really horrible. Maybe I am just used to the nice latex templates that journals use, but something about this (maybe the extra spacing between lines?) makes it really hard to read.</comment>


Simple Respiratory Mask (T-shirt fabric) - <AUTHOR> https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/6/05-1468-f1 <comment><USER2> > We showed that a [our] hand-fashioned mask can provide a good fit and a > measurable level of protection from a challenge aerosol. Problems remain. > When made by naive users, this mask may be less effective because of > variations in material, assembly, facial structure, cultural practices, and > handling. No easy, definitive, and affordable test can demonstrate > effectiveness before each use. Wearers may find the mask uncomfortable.</comment>


Azure now has 31,000 customers - <AUTHOR> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2014098629_azurenowhas31000customers.html <comment><USER2> And our company IActionable is one of them! Our company started around the same time Azure was released. It has definitely been an interesting year 'growing' along side them.

Azure is far from perfect though... in fact I would consider myself to be one of their _noisier_ customers. Hopefully they keep listening to these customers and work fast.

</comment><comment><USER3> Dang... I let my domain AzureNow.com expire a couple weeks ago. should I pay 85 bucks to keep it?</comment>


Database indexing – whose role is it anyway? - <AUTHOR> http://www.vertabelo.com/blog/technical-articles/database-indexing-whose-role-is-it-anyway

<comment><USER2> _Creating indexes at the stage of creating a DB structure makes no sense. Not because it 's a premature optimization, but because indexes make the queries execute faster. When a software architect creates a schema he doesn't know what the queries will look like._

In my opinion, a critical part of creating a schema is designing it to work well with the expected access patterns. If a software architect is just dictating a rough schema without thinking about the queries that will be issued and the expected nature of the data in the database, the architecture simply isn't complete. I'm all for iterative design and whatnot, but that means that the architect needs to stick around and help out throughout the system's lifecycle.

Sounds like the original author is working with some pretty checked-out architects.</comment>


Why women make noise during sex - <AUTHOR> http://www.ua-magazine.com/why-women-make-noise-during-sex/ <comment><USER2> "Researchers of the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Leeds"

"They recruited 71 sexually active, heterosexual women, ages 18 to 48"

I wonder how long this took, impressive so far, regardless.

"According to the scientists, promoting male self-esteem "may strengthen the pair bond,"" etc.

I'm not so sure these are the most advanced scientists if it took them until 2012 to figure out something which has been constant since prehistoric times. It's not so difficult that a cave man or cave woman couldn't do it.

</comment><comment><USER3> HN audience appears to be largely male. Looks like the guys have nothing to say about this. I, for one, have no issues with the quid pro quo nature of the noise.

</comment><comment><USER4> _" But guys – don't worry about this manipulating behavior. Male ejaculation that is influenced by female sex noises, seems to be all natural. In the animal kingdom, the Barbary macaque can only ejaculate while hearing sex noises with the right intensity and speed."_

From now on, whenever I have sex with a Barbary macaque, I'm going to feel like I'm being manipulated...

</comment><comment><USER5> That's why porn without audio is not the same.</comment>


FaaS and Furious – 0 to Serverless in 60 seconds, anywhere - <AUTHOR> https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/10813-faas-and-furious-0-to-serverless-in-60-seconds-anywhere <comment><USER2> Does anyone have experience using OpenFaaS on a large-scale project? I see a lot of hype around this project but I yet have to see someone using it in production

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the presentation to TechFieldDay team at Dockercon which also speaks to some of the current users and integrations - [http://techfieldday.com/video/openfaas-from-zero-to- serverle...](http://techfieldday.com/video/openfaas-from-zero-to-serverless- in-60-seconds-anywhere-with-alex-ellis/)</comment></comment>


Steve Ballmer Reboots - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/steve-ballmer-reboots-01122012.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Single page version: [http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve- ballmer-r...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve-ballmer- reboots-01122012.html)

</comment><comment><USER2> "In an industry dominated by eccentric introverts, Ballmer is out of place in that he's pretty normal."

OK. I don't know where to start.

And we should have been warned about the photographs.</comment>