Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer? - <AUTHOR> TL;DR I'm about to get evicted because I ran out of money and can't seem to land a job. I'm also in a bit of a rush, so i apologize for any grammatical errors.
I have been a web developer / software engineer for 15 years (fullstack, 5 languages).
I am living in Colorado with my wife -- I quit my job In Jan due to issues I had with the way our company was treating customer data. This turned out to be a foolish move as it has proven difficult to find a new job (I had something lined up when I quit, but it fell through).
I did land a contract between then and now, but in order to survive I had about 1.5 months to find a new job and that hasn't happened.
I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction.
I've never had an issue finding a job prior to this so I'm quite frustrated with myself.
I don't own a good laptop (i use a desktop) and have about $400 to survive on. I've tried upwork but can't drum anything up quick enough / at all. I have multiple interviews lined up but I'm not hopeful at this point. I have things I can sell but I'm not sure how quick I can turn them around. My wife has a job but its only a couple days per week so not enough to survive on... she has another interview on monday but no clue how it will turn out of course. We own a car and are currently planning on a shelter (car is second plan).
The questions I have for HN are: what are my best options for survival? any pro tips on how to live on the streets and still land an engineering job?
Thanks in advance guys <comment><USER2> I've been in the kind of spot you're in. I survived it. There's nothing so special about me. You can do it, too.

Every day make a careful, accurate inventory of the things that are under your control and the things that are not. Don't worry about the things that are not under your control; they're none of your business. They're like the weather: they come and go as they will.

Focus on the things that are under your control, on finding out what is the best thing you can do about them. Do it as well as possible.

You can survive the loss of a job. You can survive losing a place to live. You can survive diagnosis of a debilitating, incurable illness. You can survive the loss of the future you thought was ahead of you. I survived all of these, and went on to do things that I judge to be good and worthwhile.

Like I said, there's nothing so special about me. What I can do, you can do.

Some of the other comments have good ideas and good advice. Take those and use them.

Some comments are unhelpful. Forget those.

Remember: I lost my job, my family, my home, my career, and my health. I'm still here. I still do things that I think are good and worthwhile. Some of the best things that have ever happened to me happened after my great catastrophe.

I did it, so you can do it.

I wish you the best of luck.

<comment><USER3> so... stoicism, basically.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> \- Public libraries can help with the job search if they offer free internet access

\- If you don't mind camping, its an extremely cheap way to live, and a gym / YMCA will help before interviews.

\- If you have any friends / family, ask them if you can crash. Have a friend who lived this way for ages.

\- If it comes to it, there are often abandoned structures that are reasonable for keeping rain off. Lived in an abandoned office building for a month at one point. That one was really lucky. Had a gym, water, and electricity still!

\- Apply, apply, apply. Set a goal. X applications a day, where X is probably 3+. Beat that goal every day.

\- Be humble, but not desperate. If its reasonable and will pay bills, worth it.

\- Be willing to move. Frankly, CO is really expensive. People scoff at AL (cur. loc.), but it has NASA, Army, most 3 letter agencies, and every gov't contractor known to man. Also, rent is $400-600 and a house can be found for $30000-40000 if you're not picky.

\- Sell all your stuff. Flea markets, craigslist, ebay, whatever works.

\- If you get a job - save. There is no reason to lose a job and then only have $400.

\- Send me a msg (email in profile) if the AL thing sounds reasonable. Used to be in software and a contract mgr., can at least look at whats around. Can't promise, as I left to walk the earth a while back.

<comment><USER5> Sidenote: how does a place like AL have so much government money poored into it?

<comment><USER4> Its like gravity. You make a divot in spacetime, and things being to roll downhill toward the divot. Mass collects, attracts other mass, and soon you have a significant planetoid. Leave it alone long enough, you have a star, or in the case of some places, a black hole.

In HSV case, several significant divots. NASA MSFC, Army Materiel Command (Logistics), and the Missile Defense Agency. Caveat on living here, if WWIII happens, we will get nuked.

<comment><USER5> I like the gravity analogy. Sounds like you live there.

What is the life like there? Professionally and outside of work?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Apparently my post has been flagged for some reason. I attempted to post the following last night but kept getting a message that I was posting too fast:

Questions / answers thus far:

there's been a lot of good advice in this thread thus far and a few understandable questions.

I'm going to answer them all here as I can no longer edit the main thread.

first off, great suggestions - some of these were already on my mind (gym, library, camping specifically) and seeing them reinforced via comments is encouraging.

to answer some questions that have been raised:

1\. > homeless in the USA? Just cannot understand how this would happen

I'm still trying to piece this together myself. I failed multiple job interviews that were very difficult, ran out of unemployment and am now facing eviction. it takes 6 to 12 months to get into government housing in colorado. unless i get a job before that, its the car, the woods or the street.

> 15 years full stack

I don't get it either.

2\. > How resonable is the person/company you rent from to secure an agreement to stay on despite the late rent?

zero reasonable. they filed after 3 days and after i explained that i'm having health issues.

3\. > Have you applied for unemployment?

yes, i was approved as my reason for quitting was appropriate, however it ran out quickly as rent is extremely expensive.

4\. > Built In Colorado job

I am aware and use it, however yes the process is slow

5\. > if he were a brilliant engineer he probably wouldn't be on here with this post

Define brilliant. i certainly haven't claimed to be brilliant, but i do claim to be an excellent employee, extremely fast learner and someone who has never been fired and who has always excelled at their job. I suspect some people think i'm brilliant and others do not.

6\. > Why would 3 days late on your rent involve a court date and eviction?

Denver / Colorado is harsh as fuck, apparently.

7\. > It'd be really shocking to me if this happened in the US without some prior history/grounds for eviction

then be shocked, my friend. its happening and i've never been evicted in the past nor has my wife. nothin but smooth sailing in my past. this is denver

In all of this i also forgot to mention that I was diagnosed as being bipolar which has helped wreck my life.

8\. > How have you been an engineer for 15 years and still: Rent an apartment, Don't have a few laptops lying around, Don't have any savings while having no kids

This series of questions assumes that i have made sound financial decisions over the years. i have not. it also assumes i do not have a child whereas I do from a previous marriage. also, it assumes i've never owned a house, i have... doesn't mean i still do.

<comment><USER6> People aren't being very fair to you here and I'm flat out embarrassed by HN.

The most relevant thing is that you're going through something terrible. If I had anything, I'd give it to you, but I've had a very tough year.

The best I can offer is that I'm genuinely sorry. Not only for the way you've been treated here, but for everything that has happened.

I've had some good friends go down the homelessness path and the one thing I've heard from all of them is that, no matter what, you've got to have some sort of fixed address. Over the next few days, you've got two big priorities:

1.) Finding shelter.

2.) Finding someone who will let you get your mail sent to their address.

I wouldn't normally suggest this because it's rather manipulative, but there's a technique called door in the face persuasion. Your first ask is going to be, "Can we stay on your couch for {{period of time you'll stick to}}?" And, if you hear no or see a pained expression on that person's face, your next ask is, "Can I change my address to yours so I can keep getting my mail?"

Vast swaths of North American culture assume you have an address. It's amazing how hard things will get when you no longer have one.

If you're in the Denver area, check out the Denver Voice. It's a street newspaper and street papers are a great way to make money!

<comment><USER7> >People aren't being very fair to you here and I'm flat out embarrassed by HN.

Me too, it probably the just world hypothesis at work.

Hang in there and don't listen to the negative talk.

They cannot possibly understand what you are going through, because they aren't going through it.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just- world_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just wanted to chime in, I'm in Utah and can totally relate. (My car will be repo'd next friday if I don't have enough, and we're struggling w/ eviction possibilities too.

For me, I had an employer not pay me 2 months of wages.. 14k. The CEO is a corrupt scam-artist, and me and all other devs/ex employees have filed wage claims, but he went to jail for check fraud, and I'm assuming he's poor too, possibly a drug abuser according to one dev, so yeah--I'm probably never seeing the 15k I'm owed :( ...

It's been a real struggle, the depression has made it so for about 2 weeks I couldn't get out of my chair, I just felt if I move it would be to jump off a roof or something. It gets better though (i think)...

My saving grace is reddit.com/forhire -- 90% of my freelance clients have come from there, it's a great resource. I just got 2 clients this week, so hopefully they pay and I can knock out their things fast enough to build up my security net a bit.

My advice look at the for hire posts for devs, find the one that sticks out the most, copy their layout, replace the content with your details, and post it.

Do this once per week -- Monday at 7am eastern seems to be best / most trafficked time according to a reddit stat's site I checked out.

Then just keep posting other places too, and following up. Hopefully you find something. I know how hard it is though, good luck!

<comment><USER9> The subreddit link is www.reddit.com/r/forhire

<comment><USER8> I've also got a multi-reddit for jobs, careers, and freelance: [https://www.reddit.com/user/zvive/m/jobs_and_freelance/](https://www.reddit.com/user/zvive/m/jobs_and_freelance/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This sucks! I'm so sorry to hear man. I've spent a lot of time with people who are homeless, which has caused me to think about this very question though I haven't had to put any of this into practice so grain of salt.

\- Get a membership to a cheap gym so you can use their shower (and potentially wifi) if the shelter doesn't work out. In many areas it's possible to get a membership for $10-20/month. Clean your clothes in the shower with you.

\- Try really hard not to feel desperate during interviews. We make worse decisions when desperate. Easier said than done :(

\- You may need to buy a laptop, which will suck, but hopefully you can find something good enough and very cheap on Craigslist? If you can't get a laptop, consider public library or internet cafes (if those exist there).

\- Food is going to be tough. Canned beans will become a close friend. Also canned soups/stews. Peanut butter, cheap produce. You may be able to find edible plants nearby. Free samples at grocery stores? Bulk sunflower seeds are cheap. Lifted most of these food ideas from a thread on reddit btw.

<comment><USER11> I'm not convinced that OP needs a laptop but a $100-150 old Thinkpad or low end Chromebook will get you pretty far these days.

<comment><USER12> A chromebook is not good. A cheap t410 or t400 would be best.

<comment><USER13> Why is a chromebook not good? Battery life is excellent and if crouton is setup, make an excellent low end dev machine.

<comment><USER14> its like trying to code on an ipad, it can be done but that doesn't make it the best choice.

<comment><USER15> You can install a real os (linux or windows) on it, and they tend to be much cheaper than other laptops (the tradeoff is that they have little disc space and a slow processor).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm in Colorado and I have a laptop I'd be willing to give to you (its a little older - 2011 but works fine and has a fresh linux install on it) if you would like

</comment><comment><USER17> Shit does happen. I've been there. #1 get some sort of income coming in. Keep looking for an engineering position, but find another job that gets you some $ but leaves your days free for interviews and phone calls. It would suck to give up a 4 hr shift for a BS screening interview. And at this point it does not matter what you choose. You are not looking for your one true forever job. You are looking to exchange your time for money.

Target, Home Depot are hiring. Consider 2nd shift and third shift type work. It sucks but it leaves your days open for interviews during normal business hours. Gas Station/Convenience stores are always looking for people to work the graveyard shift.

Warehouse/logistics distribution centers are ALWAYS looking for 2nd shift workers. If you can read and pass a drug test you can be hired. Double points if you are actually legal to work in the United States. Usually there will be a staffing agency who does the actual hiring.

I once worked for a business interiors company. We installed cubicles and such for businesses. The work all had to happen after hours. Paid pretty good too. Since you are in Denver that may be an option.

Consider too grocery store/bakery. Access to food that is still fine but can't be sold is a great way to stretch your dollars.

As to your engineering job search. Please tell me you are not doing everything yourself. Get IT staffing recruiters working for you! You are a easy candidate. An IT worker with skills and experience who can start TODAY! Don't be picky! If you can land ANY sort of professional work, you can stabilize your life and keep looking for that Forever job.

</comment><comment><USER18> Well, it is summer, so there's that. Your compute situation is unfortunate but your rental situation is surprising. Three days, court, eviction? I was always under the impression that there were some number of weeks involved with a legal eviction having some process before the sheriff can come knocking. Clearly I'm mistaken and/or there's a longer story there.

You have to keep the faith and cannot allow yourself to spiral out. Find grit. It is frustrating but you're going to have to temper that. You seem to be doing the right things so do keep on keeping on. If homelessness is truly a risk then you and your spouse will need to dig deep, reach out to friends and family if possible, identify any root that you have and cling to it. Maybe that's just each other but hold onto it regardless. You're already taking inventory so you're already planning and adapting. Camping seems like a good suggestion. Reach out to some agencies if you haven't already. The more people working your case the better your chances will be. RH got my foot in the door after a (not so) nice five month shutout that started early in Sep. 2001 when myriad opportunities locked down tight literally overnight. I was at the end of a nice, well earned six week vacation from tech after our startup shut down. Just lying around. I regretted that little timeout for the next few months, to say the least. The money was about done and stress was running pretty high for a small family. You'll pull out, man, keep your chin up, your eyes peeled and don't balk if an offer comes up short. Find a comfort zone and shore up. You'll need a way to keep your comms open, for sure. I think that's all I've got. Good luck and god speed.

</comment><comment><USER19> I know the feeling, in fact a little over two years ago I posted something similar on HN and got 0 responses. It's always empowering to finally acknowledge that there is no safety net.

Forget computers and engineering interviews, start looking for any and all work that pays. If all else fails, go to McDonald's and work there until you save up a little. Once you have an income restart your job search.

If you go homeless that becomes a social stigma that's hard to come back from, so do EVERYTHING in your power to avoid that.

Oh, and find an apartment you can afford.

If you want someone to talk to, you can give me a call (send message first to firstname.lastname@example.com).

<comment><USER20> "McDonald's" will not hire just anybody. I lived in Seattle for almost 8 months before finding a low-level wage job. The McDonald's argument is what entitled people say to poverty stricken people who are suffering.

Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.

<comment><USER21> Anecdote, possibly no longer relevant because of political changes (especially 9/11):

I've been in the US for six months, back in 2000. A few days before my visa expired, I was in a fast food and started talking to the guy selling me food. (Not a McD.) Turned out he was the owner :) One thing led to another, I told him I was bummed because my visa was expiring and I had to leave; he said "you speak English very well, I will hire you - none of my guys here have a visa". I didn't want to take him on, the company I was working for at the time had promised me they would try to bring me back (they didn't) and I didn't want to overstay since that would have been an automatic rejection.

The worst thing was... the company I was working for (as a programmer) was paying me around $15 / hour. He offered me $17 :)

Anyway, back to your point. That event had also led me to believe that finding a job in fast food is incredibly easy... I'm surprised to find out it's not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> 0\. Save your money for laundry and storage.

1\. Food pantries will provide food. "I have a food emergency."

2\. Call the local homeless shelters, mental health clinics - anywhere that deals with indigent populations.

3\. Recognize your bravery for putting ethics over money.

4\. Work your way into a low-income housing situation. Many ethical thinkers live this way.

5\. Don't get paranoid or angry. You have dignity.

6\. Join a church which is full of intelligent and relaxed people. I recommend Catholicism.

7\. If you have to ask for something, ask for it with a smile. People want to help each other.

8\. Family sticks together.

Sincerely, A programmer who lived homelessly for years

<comment><USER23> This is literally the only helpful post in this thread. The rest of the posts are nothing but, "Sorry, but..." posts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There's some good (and other) advice already posted in here, and I can't think of anything to add to that, so I won't belabor the point...

but if you run out of other options, and can find your way to the Annapolis, Maryland area, I've at least got a relatively empty basement that you're welcome to occupy until you get back on your feet.

This would also put you in commuting range to Annapolis, Baltimore, or DC, which are all fairly ripe with job opportunities for talented engineers.

</comment><comment><USER25> How resonable is the person/company you rent from to secure an agreement to stay on despite the late rent? You have had a job before and based on your background clearly have the potential to be earning again soon. It's not like the situation is hopeless for them, if they can wait it out you will be able to pay. Is moving in with family or friends temporarily possible?

</comment><comment><USER26> I actually spent the better part of 2 years homeless and/or living in a car etc. I made heavy use a local college campus lab computers by copying student ids off sign in sheets which were used for login. Also used a lot of discarded free meal coupons given to new students.

Took random contract gigs from IRC, elance style sites, and Craigslist. Also did telemarketing, and random day labor jobs off and on. Eventually a startup gave me free room and board in exchange for programming help. Saved and relocated to an area with more jobs after that startup imploded.

Found an abandoned trailer some property owners agreed to let me squat in. Got to tap their electric line in exchange for helping out with deliveries and tech work for their tractor store. Kept up with random craigslist tech gigs etc and started my own consulting company bootstrapped with retail work income and help from friends from IRC for bigger jobs. One of the random contracts I took let me code with free reign and ended up keeping me on as a full time software engineer and gave me several years of experience making custom prototypes and doing pentesting for fortune 500 companies as well as angel funding for a startup of my own.

Never had a problem getting work since.

Be relentless and don't limit yourself to tech work until you have some buffer in the bank. Be willing to relocate if the market is dry in your area. Never ever stop learning marketable skills and taking interviews you are not qualified for until you are. Most of the "mandatory" minimums on job postings are optional if you have some quality open source code to prove your capability.

</comment><comment><USER27> > I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to > explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction.

wow that's harsh. I own a house in the UK when the tenants lost their job but promised one was lined up. They didn't pay for 2 months, then the tenancy agreement was up and I told the estate agents to not renew it as I cannot afford to pay for these people to live in my house for free whilst covering the mortgage.

They refused to move out. Had to wait another month before could start the eviction process. Took 4.5 months to get them out, then they stole much of the furniture that was in the house and perhaps not "smashed" the house up, packed their things up and very hurriedly damaging the house (pulling curtains off + rail etc).

I refused to give them the deposit back, they went to court to get the deposit back and won lol (have to laugh about this otherwise would cry)

I think what happened to us in the UK was too much the other way, but kicking you out after 3 days is harsh.

Don't you have friends and family to borrow the money from?

<comment><USER28> Just..wow. How did they manage to get the deposit back? I'm sorry for your experinces with assholes. Makes the world a worse place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Sorry I am not helping. But 15 years full stack. Sounds at least 15K RMB/month here in China Chengdu. homeless in the USA? Just cannot understand how this would happen. sorry again for not helping. Maybe after you get better, some day in recent years, move to China?

<comment><USER30> Yeah, there is plenty of English teacher types, if OP has a degree there is always China.

<comment><USER29> Sorry but I meant dev work... if you still think only English teacher, then I am speechless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> \- Not have conections with old customers/employers? You could try to ask if wanna some help. Is surprising how often work come from old work... or just people that barely remember you

\- Customer support and/or pc maintenaince or similar is seriously in need for a lot of small-medium companies. This can lead to coding very easily. See around where you live and note how many companies are. ALL OF THEM NEED SOMEONE LIKE YOU. Not all of them will say yes, but well, you could try!.

\- Do you have other abilities san coding? Having any job look like is _more_ important than having the job you want.

\</comment><comment>

I don't know how things are in USA but where I live (Colombia) is kind of easy to survive - and VERY well- selling street food. One time, I make a bit more than my prior jobs selling tasting meat (was not unemployed but wanna get a bit more). I know someone in California that sell spicy food in jars and live very well.

My mother is Chef and have helped some friends in bootstrap a food bussiness around easy-to-made food. One of them, sell Hogao ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogao)) in jars and made to support his family just with this. Their situations was even more desperate, for sure.

You could put to advantage you/wife extra amount of time. As my naive understanding of the USA situation, nobody have time!. Can you provide a service like prepare lunch boxes, take care of pets, clean houses, or anything similar?

</comment><comment><USER32> PM me your info (my email in my profile) and I'll mail you some gift cards to your local grocery store.

I have a T240 with 8gb of RAM you can have.

There is a lot more said here so I won't repeat.

I'm struggling to to find a job in my area as a c++ dev, but I can help out another human being.

If you ever get to Upstate NY you and your wife are welcome to stay with us. We live on a lake with lots of trees. Might eliminate some stress while you rebound :-)

</comment><comment><USER14> Doh I am so sorry to hear that :(. Do not blame yourself for not finding a job, guilt/blame is just going to hurt you here. Be confident when you do those interviews and submit those applications, just because you have gotten unlucky so far in finding a new gig does not in anyway reflect who you are.

Do you have anyone you can borrow money from to cover you for a while? Family or friends? That would be the first option I would suggest.

Do you have family or friends who have a spare area you can crash to sleep at least?

Can your wife drive for uber/lyft while she is looking for a job, that can bring home some money and if you own a car that might work. That could help you get back on step 1 possibly. You might also look in Boulder, as there are a ton of jobs here she could get instantly and then quit once she finds something closer to Denver to avoid the commute.

There are some good resources here: [https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/denver- human-...](https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/denver-human- services/community-outreach/denvers-road-home/homeless-help-resources.html) *It might not hurt to call and see what options they have. There might be some city programs in this situation to get you in something for 30 to 90 days until you are back on your feet.

Another option is to camp and use the shower system someone mentioned. A tent is cheap and it is a warmer time of year to get away with that. I hope it doesn't come to that.

I salute your ethics in quitting the last job, but I would urge you next time to build a safety net and put ethics second to "survival". I can understand if they were killing or hurting people, but customer data is just a modern day problem we don't know what to do with as the definition of privacy evolves.

</comment><comment><USER33> Have you applied for unemployment? State benefits may not fully pay the rent but should help. You'll likely need to supply proof that you're looking for work but that sounds like your plan anyway.

<comment><USER34> With some exceptions (hostile work environment, etc.), unemployment typically won't pay out if you quit a job.

<comment><AUTHOR> unemployment approved me as the reason I quit was valid (HIPPA violations)

<comment><USER35> perhaps these were symbolic breadcrums after you revealed your allegiance with the people instead of the corporation?

if true, this helps explain why you have a hard time finding an IT related job.

if true, this insight may help you find a job by selectively applying for IT work at civil right-ish places (EFF, small civil right-ish law firms, etc ...) as they may be less prone to discriminate on your past "offences", with the upshot that you might feel more at home in such a job than elsewhere?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> > I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to > explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction.

This is strange. If you paid, why are you going to court?

Normally, if someone does not pay on time, they may be served a late rent notice. This is an official warning and has a deadline by which a payment must be made. If you miss that payment, the landlord can file an eviction case.

You paid. Why would the landlord take you to court?

I am not a lawyer, but even if the above is true, it seems that a judge would not allow an eviction based __just __on a single 3-day late rent payment.

You have a bit more time to get yourself together.

<comment><USER37> The laws vary greatly by state regarding eviction in my experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Lots of good advice here already. Some of what's below repeats what others have said. The main thing is _avoid becoming homeless_. I can't stress that enough. However, if you really can't do that, then here's some advice:

1.) Don't Panic!

You're about to have an adventure. Make it fun. You're not crazy, you don't have face tattoos(?), you've got skills. You won't be homeless for long, if at all. Keep your attitude in check.

2.) Head West before Winter!

If you're still out and about by then (unlikely) do not mess with that Colorado Winter. Brrr! Come out here to CA, OR, or WA. I didn't used to believe in seasons, not really. Growing up I saw them on TV, of course, but they were something that happened to other people, like tiger attacks. I spent a Winter in CO once. _Once._ Fuck that.

3.) Go camping.

You can camp for free in National Forests [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:National_Forests_of_C...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:National_Forests_of_Colorado) This is a huge country and much of it belongs to you. Take advantage of that.

4.) It's really hard to starve in America.

I mean it's really fucking hard. There are food banks, Churches, and other places that serve meals or give away food. Usually there's a list that you can get from a local homeless aid group or something. We throw away huge amount of food too, I know there are "freegans" in CO.

5.) Ask for help.

You're doing that here, now, but keep it up and ask everywhere and everyone. Being too proud is a stupid way to stay homeless. You've got to have _some_ friends or family, eh? If my friend had no place to go and _didn 't_ ask me for help (that I'd be glad to give) I'd be pretty sad when I found out.

6.) Avoid drugs and drug users.

You cannot trust a meth-head. At all. They will steal your stuff and sell it to get drugs. Don't let them in your car, don't let them watch your bag while you pee, etc. No matter how nice or cool they seem, nor how much they seem to have their shit together _you cannot trust a meth-head._

One weird idea: Consider starting a blog so we can all follow along and root for you and send help. ;-)

(And for goodness' sake, when you're back in the green, save 10% of your gross and put it in index funds, you silly man!)

</comment><comment><USER39> I haven't read very much of the answers, just enough to know that a lot of people are not exactly being supportive. I'm a little surprised, though perhaps I should not be, that with 164 comments, apparently no one has hooked you up with any of my websites:

[https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com](https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com)

[https://www.pocketputer.com/p/links.html](https://www.pocketputer.com/p/links.html)

[http://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com](http://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com)

But let me suggest that it sounds like you still have a little time. It is best to not end up on the street if you can avoid it.

Call 211. Find out what kinds of support are available locally.

Collect recyclables.

Start selling stuff. You probably can't take it all with you anyway. If it helps you make rent, awesome.

The Pocket Puter link includes a link to a Google Doc listing freelancing platforms. I'm having trouble accessing it from my phone, but one of the listings, probably towards the bottom, is for something with Moonlight in the name. It is a YC company. That might work better than Upwork.

Ignore whatever negativity you are getting here. The world is full of classist jerks who think it can't happen to them. It absolutely can happen to anyone.

In spite of all the good news about low unemployment currently, there are still a lot of systemic issues.

Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER40> I know it's not the main focus of your question, but since the eviction hasn't happened yet, it may be worth continuing to work on making it not happen, by consulting a tenant lawyer familiar with Colorado law. There may be legal resources available to you at low or no cost that could improve your chances of a favorable outcome in court.

[https://www.hud.gov/states/colorado/renting/tenantrights](https://www.hud.gov/states/colorado/renting/tenantrights)

[http://theactioncenterco.org/program- services/tenantlandlord...](http://theactioncenterco.org/program- services/tenantlandlord-helpline/) (although "helpline navigators do not give legal advice" it sounds like they might help with some of your questions and might also be able to help you find legal help)

</comment><comment><USER41> After you get back on your feet please work toward an emergency fund with 6 months living expenses in it.

</comment><comment><USER42> My wife and I own a catering business in Denver. In the short run, you could do some deliveries. It's easy work in the short run and pays decent on an hourly wage for a couple hours a day so it wouldn't keep you from interviews since I t's only during lunch hours.

That being said, I manage several software engineering teams in Denver around Union Station. Currently, I'm hiring for several positions, mostly server side in Ruby and Node. If you'd like to chat a bit about your experience, I could take you to grab some coffee. If your experience doesn't really fit with that, I can help provide feedback on how to improve your chances in interviews. Feel free to reach out via the email in my profile (it works... just trying to protect against spam).

</comment><comment><USER43> It doesn't help now, but in the future please do not quit a job because the company is behaving unethically. It will eliminate 80% of employers.

<comment><USER44> If they're forcing you to do something that you know is criminal (e.g., stealing from a customer, tax fraud, etc.) it's much better to quit your job immediately than to risk going to prison.

If they're not asking you to do something criminal (merely something that you find unethical), start looking for a new job and quit when you have a firm offer lined up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The strategy here is: solve the short-term crisis first, so you can buy time to find a good job.

Some ways to buy time in the short-term are:

\- Get a lower paying job even if you are overqualified. Not necessarily development. Work on ridesharing or delivery if you have to.

\- Raise money, ask for donations (e.g.: gofund.me page).

\- See if you qualify for welfare benefits.

\- Sell things.

Remember, all of the above is just a temporary, short-term compromise.

Then, once you are stable enough, take the time to look for a better job, but do it in a less committed way, e.g.: your wife first then yourself, or something like that.

</comment><comment><USER14> Also, just to make sure, you know about the Built In Colorado job board right?

[https://www.builtincolorado.com/jobs?f[0]=job- category_devel...](https://www.builtincolorado.com/jobs?f\[0\]=job- category_developer-engineer)

I worry their process will be slow but I want to throw that out there. I also would just mention that you quit your last job because your manager was bad, I would not mention you quit because of data privacy concerns as that can raise red flags I would imagine.

</comment><comment><USER45> Please apply at www.WindwardStudios.com. We're looking for a brilliant senior full stack developer.

<comment><USER46> > We're looking for a brilliant senior full stack developer.

How about just a "solid, hard-working senior developer"? When you say "brilliant", most good, competent developers think of a truly 1 in 1000 brilliant developer we know, and think of how short we fall from that.

In truth, unless you're doing some kind of advanced machine learning or cutting edge software work, you likely don't need a brilliant developer. And indeed, looking at your site, you probably aren't doing anything of the sort.

Instead, a company like yours requires a dependable, competent, team-player.

Why not ask for that?

Edit: Jesus H Christ, is this really that controversial to merit 4 downvotes in the first 5 minutes? OK, have at it all you brilliant devs. I remember being in my early 20s, too...

Also, have you geniuses considered that the job post above is addressing a man who's a bit down on his luck at the moment? Perhaps putting up a post asking for a "brilliant" developer isn't the best approach? Unless, of course, the OP isn't the actual target of the comment, but instead he's advertising to HN at large (which is my guess).

<comment><USER47> >How about just a "solid, hard-working senior developer"? When you say "brilliant", most good, competent developers think of a truly 1 in 1000 brilliant developer we know, and think of how short we fall from that.

no one thinks that because it's pr speak. i've never met anyone deterred by "brilliant" or "ninja" or "10x" or etc.

<comment><USER48> No one? Never met? Well then, nice to meet you!

Yes, such terms in a job description - or in my case, in initial contract meetings - are red flags for me. Red enough to either never apply or show myself out with some excuse. Because my definition of "brilliant" may not match their definition of "brilliant" in terms of capability or efficiency, and I don't want to find out how high the expectations are after the agreement's signed.

<comment><USER49> The point of the interview is to sync up those expectations. If you're wondering what's their definition of brilliant, that's the perfect time to ask.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Cashflow: you want many of them, things that have royalties or residuals that add up over time. Better having a bunch of gradual passive incomes instead of one big income. Making software that is sold in an App Store is a way, but also offering your web dev services on a month-by-month basis (subscriptions) may be a potential way to leverage this idea. Longterm you want a way for money to continually keep finding you, and the quantities don't need to be huge but the trickles should be many. Start with something that scales and get it working. Other things that can help you make a passive income are: writing books (after you have a life worth of experience to write about or very strong philosophy or understanding, or simply colorful use of language), create music and sell albums or songs online (i am breaking into busking, myself), create or invent something that kicks back a small percentage but frequently. It all adds up, so small things ... don't shy away from them. What's your ideal vision for job and house and squad situation? Visualizing where you want to be without stressing so much the "how" can be really beneficial because we are naturally pathfinders in a rapidly changing world, sometimes we need to focus on the honeypot and the rest falls into place.

</comment><comment><USER51> How much is your rent? How much short are you from paying the due rent?

If your rent is at low-end for your area, then I'd try to avoid getting evicted. Getting evicted could trigger more expenses (moving costs, new deposits, etc.). Putting you deeper in the red.

I'd first sell everything non-critical. If you get evicted a big pile of possessions is going to be a burden anyway.

</comment><comment><USER52> Put your resume on dice.com and other contracting sites. There are a ton of recruiters there who need people. You probably won't get paid well and the work won't be glamorous but it should be fairly quick to find a contract somewhere in the country. Wherever you find a contract you can rent a room cheaply and send money home.

</comment><comment><USER53> I was in a similar position post divorce. Drove away from the family home with next to nothing and was sleeping in the car. That was actually not as bad as it sounds - I worked out and showered at the gym, and spent a lot of time in the office - sometimes sleeping on the sofa in the break room if I thought I could get away with it. I remember one guy came in one morning and joked with that old chestnut "you been here all night?" \- I would laugh, but little did he know!

Then the company went bust almost overnight - VC pulled the plug...

It was then a lot tougher. I moved to Thailand and lived on my credit card. I got some remote work with a borrowed Windows laptop, and did some marketing work for local companies. I then moved to Malaysia and became a dive bum. Best time of my life. I was lucky.

All I can say is hang in there, things have a way of working themselves out...

</comment><comment><USER54> OP asking for survival tips. Avoiding the crisis is best, sure. But if that doesn't work right off, keeping body and soul together needs food. Studied this a bit when I thought we might be looking at an economic meltdown on a large scale. YMMV, this is result of reading and practicing from comfort. Most canned foods are very low on the calories per dollar scale. On the other hand they need no refrigeration and most can be safely eaten without preparation, being already fully cooked. Sites like Survivalblog are a wealth of staying alive info. There are many sites about surviving homelessness too. Find a LDS cannery in your area and ask if they sell to the public. Most will. A six pack of #10 can filled with oats or pasta or dry milk goes a long way for very little coin. They have a pragmatic mission to help folks _before_ a crisis. Get a wide-mouthed thermos bottle or two. In goes a half cup of oats, a pinch of salt, dab of butter if you have it. Flavor to taste and ability. Add a cup of boiling water, seal and let sit 5-10 minutes. Ta-da, a hearty breakfast for a few cents. Thank Kurt Saxon, regardless of his politics. If you still have a roof and electrical power, consider a thrift-store bread machine. A few practice runs with some recipes off the 'net or from the library. '5 minute a day artisan bread' works well. A rice cooker is another great tool for keeping well fed on the cheap. Add a wok and you can work up a near infinite variety of stir-fry tasties. Look at 'Eternal Soup' for how some of our ancestors made safe use of all nutritional calories that came their way in trying times. If you are looking at longer term low-cost food intake, remember complete proteins and micronutrients. Vitamins. We can get by for quite a while on body reserves but the symptoms of deficiency won't help an already tough situation. Healing slower, getting sick more easily, worsened depression, insomnia, and the ever-popular teeth falling out. Sprouting beans, wheat berries, getting a few ounces of ascorbic acid for doctoring up the bread dough... do a bit of homework. Keep a healthy mindset.

Blessings to you and yours.

</comment><comment><USER55> I'm surprised (or maybe I didn't read through all the posts in detail) that we aren't trying to solve the root cause - finding you a job by clearly and correctly understanding your skills as an engineer. I honestly want to help and I have a few ideas but I'm not very good at this mode of communication (I have always used hackernews in readonly mode and this is the first time I am commenting here - I actually had to create a new account). If you'd be willing to reach out to me (systemicdent at gmail dot com) I'll do whatever I can to help you get out of this situation.

</comment><comment><USER56> If you haven't talked to your landlord, talk to your landlord. If they sent you a summons after three days, I don't have high hopes, but it's worth a shot. Explain your situation and see if there's anything they can do for you. Maybe they'll let you stay until they can rent the place.

Are you someplace you can drive for Uber or Lyft? It's not great money, but you can probably earn enough in the month you have left to buy a cheap laptop and pay for food, a cell phone, and a gym membership after you get evicted, which should improve your ability to keep applying for jobs.

</comment><comment><USER57> First, sorry you're in this spot. I hope you have friends/church group/family support to help you in this time.

If it were me, I'd probably have both myself and my wife take whatever 'second' jobs we could (Wal-Mart, fast food, etc.) for nights/weekend income. I'd reserve my 9-5 hours for a full-press job search.

Good luck to you. Your skills are in demand, so hopefully this won't last long.

</comment><comment><USER58> Doesn't the eviction process take at least a month? How long will it take you to land a new job? It seems pointless to have to be homeless if you're able to land a job within a month or 2.

Are you in a position to borrow money? Maybe even an online lender like bestegg.

You could setup a bitcoin wallet and livestream yourself coding, I feel like a person in your situation is a kind of person I would be willing to donate to.

<comment><USER59> Having been in this situation, I'd recommend against borrowing money. Only family and friends will lend it to you, and you know you can't pay them back anytime soon. Unpaid debt puts a strain on any relationship, and OP is gonna need all the support they can get.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> Sorry to hear about your situation.

Please share your email / Upwork profile, also feel free to email me (contact in the profile) - I might be able to help you.

</comment><comment><USER61> Breathe, it may seem like the world is falling apart, but you will be OK. You should be able to start a low-skill job to make ends meet. If you're in a city, start driving Uber and Lyft! The hours are flexible so as to give you time to apply. Also, do you have any friends or family you can stay with instead of staying in a shelter or your car? Now is the time to call in any favors.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER62> Can you link to your Upwork profile?

Have you tried [https://www.gun.io/](https://www.gun.io/) ?

<comment><USER63> Have you used Gun? If so I'm very curious about your experiences, as I've heard very mixed reviews.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> Find a cheap laptop on craigslist, thinkpad or chromebook would be good.

Write a selenium script to automate applying for jobs.

Find a spot with wifi and run the script.

</comment><comment><USER65> Just wanted to say that I'm very sorry that this is happening to you. I hope that you and your wife find a way out of this.

</comment><comment><USER66> I've been there. Transition to your car, but find someone or some place to stay before worrying too much. You're off the grid, so look and plan where to start again. In the future, always plan for this. But for now your life will be reset. Just go with the best you can.

Once you can think, stop and do so. Acknowledge you are a SJW and as a result, lost a standoff with your previous employer when you brought it up. That company isn't going to risk the livelihood of its employees, even if you might and did.

What did I do? Living in my car there's few options, so I took a job canvassing for causes I believed in. It paid nothing, but I got out there doing my SJW stuff and felt better.

When I got off the streets, stayed with relatives, found a tech job and moved out, I learned somethings.

I never have enough info. Social justice causes are fine, but if you don't have all the info, you'll lose. Support agendas only with all info.

Second, make commitments and stick to them. I agreed to work for an employer, so to accuse them of bad data practices is not the right move. If the company bothers you, leave, stop trying to 'change the world'.

Finally, be prepared. Jobs can be lost at any time. Apartments are not yours, be prepared to move at any time. And stop spending. Buy what you need. Adults do not need workstation computers, they need laptops. Not toys, Legos, Funkopop dolls, etc. Those are for kids.

Yes, after 15 years most have saved or diversified. Improve your handling of money.

Some turn spiritual at this point and pray your body stays healthy. It's a strange journey called life!

<comment><USER67> > _I agreed to work for an employer, so to accuse them of bad data practices > is not the right move._

It's the ethical move. Just because you agreed to work for an employer doesn't mean you have to accept everything they demand from then on.

<comment><USER66> No, it's not his company. He needs to leave.

He's naive if he thinks they need his 'extra advice'.

Sure, make judgment calls without all the info. Get fired. Your choice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> If you get desperate enough to live in your car, this might be a useful resource: [https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/)

There are a lot of lifestyle/travellers on there, but also people doing it out of necessity.

</comment><comment><USER69> I feel bad for you man. Why don't you apply for a temporary job at local coffee shop or a grocery store until you get a proper tech job again? ~50 hour per week even at minimum wage in CO ($10.2) should cover your rent, right? You will have Sundays and night time to apply for developer jobs.

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't have direct advice, but I might suggest trying to sell the desktop and buy a laptop. You can probably use a library computer or, as a last resort, a phone, as a backup in between selling and buying.

</comment><comment><USER70> 1\. Borrow money from trusted source.

2\. Buy time with it.

3\. ...

4\. Return that money.

Don't let finance bring you down in your life, ask for help from people around you. Good chance someone will be able to help you.

This Ask HN is a good start, so I think you're on a good path back up already.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER71> I just went through the worst job search in my life but it ended up well for me in the end, it just took awhile. Don't give up hope! Keep doing the interviews, something will work out for you eventually!

</comment><comment><USER72> Check out this group community/forum. Many people getting along in life with similar circumstances.

[https://www.cheaprvliving.com/](https://www.cheaprvliving.com/)

</comment><comment><USER73> If you want to send me an email with some more details about your experience, etc I'd be happy to reach out to some recruiters I know and see if anyone has anything going. jaye at claruscomputers.com.au

</comment><comment><USER74> Step 1: Setup a Go Fund me so people can help you out.

Step 2: Get your resume on linkedin, ziprecruiter, indeed.com and msg all the tech recruiters you can find on linkedin.

Step 3: Reach out to family if you have any to let you stay with them while you are doing a job search. If not see if a good friend would do that. If not see if you can at least put your wife up with one of her friends so she is safe while you look for a gig.

Also look on craigslist for part time programming jobs. Not great money but it is something. Ask for half up front so you don't get stiffed.

Apply to everything here: [https://www.indeed.com/q-Computer-Programming-l- Colorado-job...](https://www.indeed.com/q-Computer-Programming-l-Colorado- jobs.html)

<comment><USER75> Step 1: Setup a Go Fund me so people can help you out.

Number one reason why I don't use Go Fund me. Step 1 should be getting your shit together not relying on other people.

<comment><USER14> We are supposed to be an American community, not a bunch of people who don't lend a hand when someone makes a misstep or hits a wall.

I am disgusted how selfish such a huge chunk of this country has become... half this country can't remember what empathy is, and they have slowly destroyed our social safety net. I want the government to do more to help people in this type of position get back on their feet so that they can live a good life, and contribute to our country and tax base. I want my taxes to go UP to pay for that, in conjunction with lowering the massive defense spending we have.

If you are lucky enough to have parents or family who can help you out awesome, but not everyone has that.

If you are lucky enough to never make a misstep so deep you can't recover on your own, awesome for you, not everyone has that.

What do you want him to do? Build a time machine, go back in time, and not make a series of mistakes that helped lead here?

<comment><USER24> > half this country can't remember what empathy is

Not that I disagree with your overall point, but while I might be being overly sensitive here, I think it's implicit that 9 times out of 10, when someone refers to "half the country", what they mean to say is "the half of the country not affiliated with the political party to which I am affiliated."

Yes, there are selfish people, but largely, that selfishness is not evenly divisible by party line, and the castigation of "the others" should be minimized, in my opinion, as most Americans, left, right, or center, are honestly trying to do what they feel is right.

As it sits, Republicans are statistically quite charitable[1][2], to the point that 9 of the 10 most charitable states are red states.

Yes, perhaps they see a different role for government than you do, and yes, I think that the parent to your comment was indeed acting selfishly, but that doesn't necessarily conflate to partisan beliefs, nor should we attempt to correlate individual behavior to partisan causation.

[1] - [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/giving-back- _n_378...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/giving-back- _n_3781505.html)

[2] - [https://www.nationalreview.com/the-home-front/which- politica...](https://www.nationalreview.com/the-home-front/which-political- party-more-charitable-nancy-french/)

<comment><USER14> I don't like either political party, but that doesn't mean they are equal in how terrible they are, too many people try to equivocate.

We absolutely should do more to castigate people by party line, especially when their beliefs are based on propaganda. The Republican party is destroying the future of this country. The Republican media and formal political party have convinced the majority of its members that people who need help are lazy welfare queens, and that government can't do anything efficiently. It is a great narrative, and it is not factually true.

Charity is ineffective, have you looked at how they spend their money and how much goes to fund-raising and operations? Very few charities actually do anything meaningful. Government is what does the hard work that keeps states and the country running. Not to mention the number of funds given to charities with dubious missions, such as convincing women not to have abortions, or megachurches trying to buy a jet so that Christ comes back and the world ends...

Charities are badly run band-aids that are trying to hold the country together. It isn't a good thing, it is another sign of how far we have sunk in taking care of our people. That is money that should have been collected via taxes and actually deployed to help educate people, help them afford health care, etc etc.

I would urge everyone to start castigating people by party line before it is too late.

<comment><USER24> There are Republicans who agree with you on healthcare. Let's not forget that Obama's ACA was a rehash of Romneycare. There are Republicans in favor of gay marriage. The attorneys in US v Windsor, which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by Bill Clinton, were Republicans.

There are Republicans who support charity, a strong social safety net, and taking care of their friends and neighbors.

<comment><USER76> and then they talk about all that and go out and vote for people who support none of those things.

Actions speak a lot louder than words. If you vote republican you absolutely stand behind those things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER77> I would suggest you consider leaving Colorado if your job prospects are that poor there. I'm located in DC and constantly get hounded by recruiters looking to fill positions.

</comment><comment><USER78> I am surprised about this. A cloudy future. Is this the future of web programming? Expecting downvotes.

</comment><comment><USER79> This story does not make sense

<comment><AUTHOR> which part?

<comment><USER80> How have you been an engineer for 15 years and still:

\- Rent an apartment

\- Don't have a few laptops laying around

\- Don't have any savings while having no kids

Each item above, on its own, is normal but all together doesn't make sense.

For the last 15 years you should have been making 60-200k and you obviously didn't sink it into a house, computer hardware, or savings. Where did it all go?

That's why this doesn't add up, to me at least.

I'm not saying you're lying, but that I can't figure out how you got to this point.

<comment><USER81> So many things could have happened, not everyone is able to save up. Also, it's irrelevant - either you want to help or not. Discussing the "impossibility" of his situation is not yours to judge, seriously.

<comment><USER80> I'm not judging.

A cautionary tail could do a lot of good here.

Why not let something good come out of the discussion that could prevent others from ending up in this situation?

A postmortem of sorts.

I could have ended up like this guy, but I found personal finance religion when I was 28. After making six figures for six years all I had was monthly payments equal to my paycheck and not much to show for it.

It's pathetic how many people here leap to pity. The OP wasn't asking for it.

<comment><USER81> Yes, a cautionary tale would be good. It's just the way you phrased it that was bugging me.

Also, I was not gunning for pity, nor was OP, true. Still, in such moments kind strangers on the internet who wish you well still feel good I believe.

Thanks for clearing it up!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> Can you get your old job back or is that bridge burned?

</comment><comment><USER83> I see several offers for laptop and other assistance, so you need to create an email address for this (if worried about getting found out, embarassed etc with using real email address) and put it in your about page right now, so that these kind folks can get in touch with you, and you can get a head start and try to avoid going homeless....

Who knows, you may even be able to get some short contract from someone here and stay afloat for a few weeks / months.

Wishing you the best!

</comment><comment><USER84> Why has this been knocked off the front page all of the sudden?

<comment><USER85> It appears to have been flagged. I think it should not be flagged regardless of the OPs post as the information in the comments is very useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> Email in profile. I am in Denver / Boulder area and would like to help you.

</comment><comment><USER87> Why would 3 days late on your rent involve a court date and eviction?

If I recall, the last few leases I signed had clauses like a $25 late fee for up to a week overdue. And as a landlord, at least here in NH, if somebody doesn't pay immediately, and you want to get rid of them, you have to deliver a written demand for rent, which allows X number of days for response, before you can commence eviction proceedings.

<comment><USER88> It'd be really shocking to me if this happened in the US without some prior history/grounds for eviction. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm pretty sure most states have pretty pro-tenant laws when it comes to these sorts of things.

OP- if this is nothing but 3 days late on rent, check your lease and your local laws. I can't imagine many places in the western world allow eviction from an actual residence over something like this.

<comment><USER89> Unfortunately, Colorado's eviction laws are not as pro-tenant as California's or other Western countries'. Based on a cursory search, it doesn't take more than 30 days between the missed payment and a judge ordering a sheriff to evict you in person.

<comment><USER90> But a late payment (only 3 days!) rather than a missed one. A court appearance seems very heavy-handed to me. I'd hope the judge will see that.

<comment><USER89> The thinking probably goes that it's only a late payment if the tenant makes an agreement with the landlord, in which case the landlord wouldn't be giving them notice to vacate. If it has gotten that far then it is a missed payment because the tenant couldn't (or didn't try to) reach an agreement in time and it resulted in the tenant breaking the lease. I think many leases include provisions for late payments for this reason, even in states with pro-tenant laws.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER91> stop saying the reason why u quit in job interviews

</comment><comment><USER16> sadf</comment>


Greek archaeologists uncover first remnants of ancient city of Tenea - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/tenea-archeology-greece-scli-intl/index.html <comment><USER2> Is there a country with better sites /places than Greece for tourists? Maybe Italy, but then Greece has the islands. Turkey too, has a lot of tourist sites but I think Greece takes the cake.

It's a shame they don't seem to manage the econ properly.

<comment><USER3> Better is subjective. Places like Egypt, Turkey, Iran, China, Peru (among others) are a veritable treasure trove of archaeological goodies.

The remark about the economy is interesting. The cost of maintaining so many monuments, prosecuting looters, postponing critical construction projects when major archaeological treasures are discovered, etc has a significant cost to the economy (when these resources could have possibly been applied to improving healthcare and economic opportunity). It is therefore no surprise that not all residents of these countries share the same sense of wonder and excitement of their ziggurats or temples as foreign tourists.</comment></comment>


I need your advice! Startup Failing. Should I simply release the product? - <AUTHOR> http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/03/i-need-your-advice-startup-failing.html <comment><USER2> I went to juwo.com when you first posted here and thought "huh, that's kind of funny that there's nowhere where you can actually use the product..." You're competition is going to have a chance to copy your ideas at some point or another anyway- it's a simple fact of business- even if you do have a patent. And no amount of miraculous outside funding will help that. Take a risk [ http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/death_by_riskav.html ].

Get the product into as many people's hands as quickly as possible, as massively as possible. If there's a chance that some hacker is willing to do some of the work to make it work with other media formats, then for heaven's sake open source the product (or part of it like pg said). What do you have to lose? You're product is more than just a list of features. Believe it or not, many people will not do a point-by-point comparison of your product with other products- there's the coolness factor, loyalty to you and your company, the subtle touches of your product, the way you support it and it's users, the vision you have of how it can be used to enrich someone's life, how frequently you respond and update it, etc. etc.

None of that will matter if no one is using it. Start a following. It may fail either way- that's got to be part of the reason you still have a day job, but it has absolutely no chance of success if no one is using it and spreading the word about it.

<comment><AUTHOR> jwecker: I had a demo page up that I took down upon other people's advice. I just returned from an enterpreneur meeting here in Kansas City and a wise man with 6 startups under his belt told me when I said I am considering giving it away, "Dont give it away because then it's gone".

But then contrast it with, "Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days, they shall return to you".

<comment><USER2> I don't understand his logic. It's catchy, but it means nothing. The only time that would make sense if there is a very small finite market for your product- for example- if there are only 50 people on the planet who will pay for your product and there's a reasonable chance they'll know where to find it, then yah, don't give it away. When is that ever true, though? When you sell nuclear submarine technology to 1st world governments? It sounds like you've put a lot of sweat and guts into this. I would suggest you read http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php (it applies even if yours isn't a web app) and Crossing the Chasm http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060517123 which goes into the mechanics of your market. If you took down the demo because it made your product look bad because it was incomplete, complete a smaller subset. If you took it down because someone said someone would steal your idea, welcome to startups- know that they'll steal it and move on and do it better.

<comment><AUTHOR> I really appreciate the advice from you all. To those who posted on this page, I can send you the demos, an executive summary and competitive matrix - if you are interested. IMHO juwo is a useful everyday tool. However, you would have to give me your word that (sorry, I dont know how to put it diplomatically) you will not rip off any new ideas. In return, perhaps, I can share a percentage of any profit from juwo - for a certain time eg. 1 year with those who will help out with concrete help. There is a lot of money in it if it catches on. Think of youtube using it for their audio/video. Feel free to email me anil AT juwo DOT com. thanks, Anil Philip

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Releasing new software products to a market and being successful may seem to be timing, luck or good marketing? But the pro's know better and know there is more to it than that. The answer to your question is not as cut and dry as you think.

ASSUMPTION?: I'm assuming your product is a shrink wrapped binary to be released to one operating system for single users (from what I've read on your product).

COMMUNICATION: I cannot really view your software, but it looks like its a binary application. Unlike its web counterparts, your audience cannot simply use your software. This is by far the biggest hurdle. If your audience cannot use or see your software they will judge (rightly or wrongly) by what information you offer. Do you show on your website, blog or other forms of communication the following?

* product summary?: simple sentence explaining problem solved

* why better/product comparison: how is your product than competitor(s)?

* features: list of things the software does

* scenario: small stories of how certain problems are solved

* images: screenshots of major forms

* blog: meta behind the scene view of product (my favourite as you can really guage the product process) & how real users solve their problems (hopefully with your software)?

* forums: what problems people are having

* price: what is the price of your software? No price, even if its alpha still give a hint

DELIVERY: Are you going to have your software on your website? Or are you going to look for the best couple of sites that offer downloads for new & categorised binary software like Tucows or Cnet.com? The ranking and categorising of products make it easier for users to find new & interesting software and also makes it easier for developers to find their markets. From here you can work out important things like pricing, feature matching etc.

'... Your first set of problems revolve more around business & distribution than software and engineering. ...'

CONCLUSION: Notice I've not added any development problems here (release planning, defect processes, etc ...) Your first set of problems revolve more around business & distribution than software and engineering. Since you have invested time & money and you want to protect your investment consider the following. Go back to marketing 101.

Invest the time (not money) to see how you can improve the communication of your product on your site. Then concentrate on placing your product with Cnet. At the same time maintain your job (and income) & improve the existing code but not new features.

There are other alternatives, explore those. I do not suggest you open source the product. If you have created a site that communicates the benefits of the product. Found a way to deliver the product to consumers. Then you can work on selling. This is going to take longer than you probably think.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is not shrink wrapped, it is via viral distribution via web. if you would like to run a demo, please read my reply to jwecker an do contact me. (sorry for the repeat posts, but there doesnt seem to be email notifications or even highlighting of new posts).

<comment><USER3> thx, I'll get back to this as soon as I can.

<comment><AUTHOR> released! <http://juwo.com> Please provide your feedback - via email or the newer thread I started

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi There,

jwercker has some great advice - you need to get this out there. The other products are pulling ahead because they're actively building a community. You aren't!

Adding to that, you may want to take some time to invest in a communications "strategy". After reading your post and checking out the website, I don't think I have much of a clue as to what your product does, other than maybe allowing me to organize media in some way... how will that benefit me? How is it better than the products your competitors have released?

You need to build the community, but in order to do that, you need to communicate how your product is going to improve that community's lives in some way - and you need to do this on the front page of your site.

</comment><comment><USER5> Release it. I once worked at one startup that decided that their product sucked too much to even put into the hands of beta customers and went about rewriting it. The VCs canceled the rewrite 2 months later and shut the company down 6 months later.

A little later, I was at another startup whose product IMHO sucks *more*. They, however, are profitable. They manage to get customers to fork over several hundred thousands dollars to use the product.

There's almost *always* a buyer if you look hard enough. Entrepreneurs are usually the most critical of their own product; they ought to be, that's what makes them improve. But chances are, somebody somewhere really wants what you're making, and your job is to find them.

<comment><AUTHOR> released! <http://juwo.com> Please provide your feedback - via email or the newer thread I started

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> If it's divided into layers, you could release the substrate as open source and keep some of the uppermost bits.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you pg. No, it's not divided into layers. Since it is a GUI, anyone can play with it and copy a feature they lack - that is the problem. In the finished product, there was to be a Viewer and an Editor that viewers would upgrade to upon paying $5. But I would feel comfortable charging only on a finished product. Giving away a Viewer makes sense only when I have a multimedia customer. For example, if Paul Graham wants to 'broadcast' his audio talks. That is an interesting thought - can I get this in front of Paul Graham right now? :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Right now, your competitors have a product. You have a list of features, as jwecker put it. I do remember reading your posts on juwo here a couple times, and still I am unsure on what exactly it does.

You sunk a lot into this and giving it away would yield you 0 return. I understand that. But don't let regret and hindsight turn into future mistakes. Get it out there and get yourself a user base.

<comment><AUTHOR> if you would like to run a demo, please read my reply to jwecker an do contact me. (sorry for the repeat posts, but there doesnt seem to be email notifications or even highlighting of new posts).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Websites tend to grow exponentially, meaning that for the first few months mainly the earlier adopter types will be the ones playing with it. Does your website currently do anything that creates value for them? If so, release even if it's buggy and unfinished. People will expect it to improve. On the other hand, if people go there and see that it doesn't solve their problems or make their life easier, they probably won't go back a second time. So if it doesn't yet solve a problem, wait until it does this.

<comment><AUTHOR> if you would like to run a demo, please read my reply to jwecker an do contact me. (sorry for the repeat posts, but there doesnt seem to be email notifications or even highlighting of new posts).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why not pull a Kiko?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR>

</comment><comment> juwo</comment>


Gamer News - <AUTHOR> https://www.makegameswith.us/gamernews/

<comment><USER2> Man, this trend of creating social news/aggregator/HN-clones is really catching on! Not really a bad thing IMHO, and I probably feel so because I'm working on "Yet Another News Aggregator" for another particular niche. I think this is basically a trend of creating subreddit-like sites, except with more customizations allowed.

</comment><comment><USER3> What differentiates this from, say, /r/games?

Just curious, because at a cursory glance it appears to be just Yet Another News Aggregator</comment>


Ask HN: What are your New Year's resolutions? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Adopt / make nutrition software and set up a diet where I am sure I am getting 100% RDA of each nutrient.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ignore any blog post that begins with "Why", "Please" or "Dear"

</comment><comment><USER4> 1\. finish program and launch company 2\. lose weight

</comment><comment><USER5> Get to 500 karma points :)</comment>


Countries Using Hydroxychloroquine Have Lower Covid-19 Fatality Rates - <AUTHOR> https://techstartups.com/2020/07/23/countries-using-hydroxychloroquine-low-coronavirus-fatality-rate-compared-countries-dont-association-american-physicians-surgeons-says/ <comment><USER2> No citation for the illustration of the mechanism of action, maybe JAMA or NEJM?</comment>


Samsung's exFAT Linux driver now GPL compliant - <AUTHOR> http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/news/samsungs-exfat-linux-driver-now-gpl-compliant?

<comment><USER2> I'd love for Samsung to test it in Court, if Microsoft dares to sue them over it.

Samsung has been doing some great work lately with file systems. They've also worked on the very good F2FS file system for flash storage, and I think we'll be seeing it supported in the next version of Android (KLP).</comment>


Coronavirus – Getting Angry - <AUTHOR> http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-getting-angry.html <comment><USER2> Pretty good commentary in the comments section too.

Clearly this is complicated, and politics everywhere will shape different outcomes.

I think this will be studied for decades across the fields of immunology/medicine in general, logistics, statistics, politics, sociology, and economics/finance.

My personal belief is that we have a number of highly knowledgeable people with varying recommendations. Hopefully different countries will try different things so we can have a solid guide for the future.</comment>


The Most Influential Books Ever Written (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://thegreatestbooks.org/lists/45 <comment><USER2> I noticed that this list was made by Martin Seymour-Smith. He was an English poet and critic whose masterpiece was called _Guide to Modern World Literature_. It is a monster of a book that covers hundreds (thousands?) of writers, a tour de force that is nearly impossible to believe was put together by one person. I used to spend hours poring over it in the reference section of the library. For such an encyclopedia, it's remarkable how idiosyncratic and addictive it is. He makes no attempt to be balanced or standard about anything; he just gives his personal views—for example he pooh-poohs Eliot and says that the greatest poet of the 20th century was César Vallejo. So, unlike most reference works, it's wonderfully intimate. It's like having an uncle who knows everything and will happily tell you all about anyone you name.

Sometimes it's even perverse, as he loves nothing better than to champion the obscure and take the famous and well-established down a peg. So I suppose it's fitting that basically no one has heard of his work.

I discovered him years ago on a long bus trip with a layover in Salt Lake City, where I went to a used bookstore. His book--actually an earlier one called "Who's Who in 20th Century Literature", smaller but still massive--was on a shelf in the basement of the store. I looked someone up in it and thought "this is interesting", sat on the floor and looked someone else up, and then another and so on. Hours later I woke up and realized that I was sitting on the basement floor of a bookstore in a strange city. I remember I had to run to the bus station and barely made it. That book, and then later the astonishing one I described above, became my companions for years, the sort of thing where the author is your mentor and friend and you feel vividly that you know him. Thank you Martin Seymour-Smith!

<comment><USER3> This site, as best I can tell, does not given any reason for inclusion. There are blurbs from wikipedia, but they're basic descriptions of the work.

I want to see the rationale for each item. Perhaps the site exists to sell an associated book.

<comment><USER4> The specific rationale wouldn't be something one could really explain in less than a few pages for each of those.

The overarching reason is that each of these books had a huge effect on intellectual and cultural history across a long span of time. To demonstrate that, one would need quite a bit of space, and ultimately it would amount to giving someone an entire education in the intellectual history of most of the world over the last 2500 years.

It seems rather futile in any event. Pointing out the highlights of Plotinus' influence would involve referring to a large number of other authors and texts and movements that are even less well known, e.g. Marsilio Ficino, the Corpus Hermeticum, and Renaissance Neo-Platonism.

I am pretty sure that for most of the authors, however, a good Wikipedia entry will throw out a few sentences that give someone an idea.

<comment><USER3> _The specific rationale wouldn 't be something one could really explain in less than a few pages for each of those._

Sure, but _something_ should be said as to the reason for inclusion, if only to direct people as to were to get a better understanding.

As it is it reminds of the many "best of" lists (movies of all time, etc.) where some suspect or opaque selection process is used and the results put out as if the veracity is just to assumed. Great for starting conversations at parties, perhaps.

 _I am pretty sure that for most of the authors, however, a good Wikipedia entry will throw out a few sentences that give someone an idea._

I have roughly zero confidence in anything on Wikipedia that is not a matter of hard science. I'd much prefer a comment from a single person who admits biases upfront than the subtly distorted content of Wikipedia.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Gurdjieff was influential for some 20th century folks, but it seems a little ridiculous to put him anywhere near, say, Marx or Mao. I suspect Seymour-Smith was a fan, or at least his circles held a disproportionate number of them.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._I._Gurdjieff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._I._Gurdjieff)

<comment><USER6> It's hard to compare ancient books whose influence is clearly enormous -- e.g. analects of confucious and the new testament -- to more recent books whose influence is hard to estimate, especially in the longer term, so it's necessarily a silly but interesting exercise. And, is a book influential for being famous or having an impact or simply acting as a standin for influence that clearly exists? E.g. I doubt Einstein's influence stems from his _book_ on relativity.

<comment><USER7> But it would be easy to make a long, long list of other works and of important people who were influenced by the Analects or by the New Testament. Or indeed, by most of the books on this list. A list of works and people influenced by Gurdjieff would not be very long. I would be curious to see his reasoning here, because without an explanation it brands the whole list as personal opinion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This site really needs to link to gutenberg. For example [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300)

</comment><comment><USER9> Hugely surprised to see Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson by George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff on the list.

Gurdjieff is the modern father of mindfulness. Of course he borrowed it from the Buddha but in his time the Buddha wasn't much in vogue in the west. Shocked to see such an obscure yet such a marvelous thinker/doer on the list.

Absolutely fascinating human.

</comment><comment><USER10> Surprised that The Art of War and Heart of Darkness are missing.

<comment><USER11> Agreed. Mein Kampf, Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead and Strike towards freedom deserve mentions too. Also the list shows a striking lack of science fiction. Neuromancer, Do androids dream of electric sheep, Lovecraft, Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Dune, Foundation series by Asimov, Jules Vern's works, Time machine by H.G. Wells are some very influential titles.

Shakespeare's work is missing also.

<comment><USER12> "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged . One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

<comment><USER9> Then, of course, there is Catcher in the Rye, the most damaging book ever written. Completely ruined two generations at the least. Made effete and cynical cool and we've yet to recover the hard nosed optimism that infused us with greatness for a too short a while.

I sincerely wish we'd lost Salinger in the war.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Notably absent from the list are the Bible and the Koran.

<comment><USER14> The New Testament is listed as well as the "Hebrew Bible". Edit: correction

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It is phenomenal how many of those books are on the scrap heap of history.

<comment><USER16> People are suckers for ideology.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Gamifying Labor Union Recruitment - <AUTHOR>

I posed a question yesterday, that didn't get much traction - but what if everyone earning < $22 an hour were to unite, imagine if every service worker in America striked. Demanding that wages rise to inflation level that they should be at. it would be a big win against the 1%, and against income inequality.
Recruiting would be difficult--but what ways could you make it fun/attractive for people to join/tell their friends, and spread the movement--how would you gamify this sort of thing like foursquare or something? Any thoughts?
Frankly, I like guaranteed basic income--but a lot of people don't want to give to those who don't work--well if wages were guaranteed @ > $22 - that would be a guaranteed basic income but also guarantee that people actually hold a job at the same time, and people will be much anxious to be employed when they actually get paid decently. <comment><USER2> The problem with this is no one earning < $22hr can afford to strike for any serious length of time. I like the idea of a high minimum wage or a minimum income (not both at the same time, though), but the right way to attack it is to get all those people you're targeting to vote, and make this their single biggest issue.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's why my plan is this : Build a gamified app that is centered around getting wages >$22. -- Refer a friend to the movement and earn points, refer 5 get a badge, --go to a support rally or checkin at an event for the movement -get more badges(think Foursquare) - tweet about the movement earn badges...

And you're right - those earning less than $22/hour can't afford to strike at least for prolonged periods- but phase 1 is really building a database and organization of people -- being able to send a txt msg to all McDonald's workers and say. Two day strike Monday and Tuesday. -- It would be more like flash strikes across related industries.. 2 days for MCd's, 2 Days for Wendy's..etc..rotate through the list-- all to bring awareness to the cause.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You might want to learn game theory first.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma)

</comment><comment><USER4> Why 22?

If you got everyone making < $100 an hour, you would cripple the nation and have a greater bargaining position.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cause minimum wage should be $21 based on inflation - so that's our target- which isn't to say we won't have middle class people who also support the initiative because they may have college students who are @ minimum wage in the family, or a spouse.</comment></comment>


A Ridiculous Interpretation of Entropy Estimation - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/paragonie-scott/9ae0f35cb837f9594223 <comment><USER2> In other words, your password is a letter and a sequence of numbers, for example "X64796265357", encoded in a very inefficient way.</comment>


Elizabeth Warren comes out in support of a national right-to-repair law - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/27/18284011/elizabeth-warren-apple-right-to-repair-john-deere-law-presidential-campaign-iowa <comment><USER2> "Update 12:41 PM ET: Copy changed to clarify that the proposal will only apply to farm equipment."

<comment><USER3> Yes, because farm equipment is the only durable, expensive good that plays a key role in peoples' survival and well-being. SMH.

<comment><USER4> It was announced as part of an agriculture platform; because there isn't actual legislation proposed, all the reporting has as a basis for scope is the reference to what it would do for agriculture.

Whether what Warren actually wants is something explicitly limited to agriculture or whether the benefits to ag are just the key selling point when the proposal is mentioned in the context of agriculture remains to be seen, AFAICT.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Now that's a policy that folks across the aisle should be able to unite behind (provided that it only entails disclosure of repair details vs. dictates design requirements, which is a different matter entirely).</comment>


Tutorial on building a desktop app with Go and Goey - <AUTHOR> https://bitbucket.org/rj/goey/wiki/Tutorial-Hello <comment><USER2> I am always happy to see Go UI Toolkits. The lack of full macOS support on Goey and the decision to target GNUStep instead of Mac Cocoa proper is... interesting.

I'll probably stick with Fyne for the time being. It's fine.

<comment><USER3> I don't write in Go but from what I read the language isn't oriented towards GUI app development.

Can anyone explain why this is the case? Are there any obvious reasons why Apple and Google haven't adopted it for mobile apps?

<comment><USER4> It wasn't originally designed with GUIs in mind but that doesn't necessarily mean it would be bad at it. Some people don't consider Go well suited for GUI programming as most of that large GUI platforms are traditional Object Oriented frameworks that wouldn't work as well with Go.

Google and Apple haven't adopted it as they were already developing languages/platforms targeting GUI development (Dart/Flutter and Swift respectively). Also Go is a young language targeting a different niche so there was nothing pushing it this way.

<comment><USER5> Go is ten years old - older than Swift, as old as Dart.

I don't think any of them - maybe Swift - are terribly young at this point.

I also think it's not quite right to call Swift object-oriented, at least not any more so than Go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> c-smile AFAIR the name of the project sounds like "non-Jew" in Hebrew and Yiddish, in derogatory connotation.

Is it just by accident?

<comment><USER6> I reckon it's a phonetic play on "GUI"?

<comment><USER7> Yeah.

Golang projects like to have a play on words with "go" or just prefixed like "go-commander". Such as Hugo static site generator, the mascot gopher, Gorilla web toolkit...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is it just me or the syntax here resembles that of Flutter's Dart

<comment><AUTHOR> The syntax is definitely Go :)

The approach is a hybrid. The declarative approach with reconcilation (tree diffing) comes from React. The automatic layout with constraints does come from Flutter.

<comment><USER8> I understand it's Go. Just never thought that Go can also be written that way.

I personally like that kind of syntax for UI development.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why not just put html/css inside a go-http-binary and use the browser as the UI part, that will be 100% portable and browser is universal these days anyways.

Anyway still fyne looks like another good option</comment>


Show HN: Post a web form to HipChat - <AUTHOR> http://bitbucket.aerobatic.com/blog/aerobatic-express-request-proxy.html

<comment><USER2> A somewhat-related idea: posting web forms to Trello [http://boardthreads.com/](http://boardthreads.com/)

</comment><comment><USER2> There's a lot of text in there. Seems complicated (I haven't actually read it since I don't use HipChat).</comment>


Ask HN: Is it me or windows 10 slow as sh**? - <AUTHOR> First of all i must say that i don't like apple stuff, and not kind of android person.
But my old windows 10 desktop is slow and box is hot when just started, plus it eats much energy even for basic stuff.
I'm curious is it just me or desktop pc are so not efficient and hot? <comment><USER2> Pay for a windows PC like you would pay for a Mac. Get Razor (expensive but also good looking and high performance), or Lenovo Thinkpad/Ideapad (best price to performance, don't buy any other). Buy at-least 16gigs of ram, min i7 or i9 processor and a good nvidia gpu (1050 or 1060 min). You'll be set for at-least the next five years unless Moore's law on singled threaded performance starts to get on track.

Any processor prior to 2014 is old. And any processor after 2018 that isn't a quad core is also old in my opinion.

My Windows PC is fast and its a breeze to work on. Just don't cheap out on a good device. They're worth it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lol. I use both mac and PC. I have a theory. The more you curse at them the slower it gets. I think their voice asst captures the curses and slurs and assigns a cursometer rating. It determines how fast my windows works.

Since then I boot my pc and I say, I love my country, my God and microsoft (the other two are necessary to sound sincere). Since then things have felt better. It atleast stops the Belichek type of urges.

Seriously though, if your file explorer does not start, it helps to start the task manager and open a task in file menu, named explorer.exe.

I have such tips for mundane things like outlook or Chrome.

I have started believing that microsoft does not love me.

<comment><USER3> One more thing, while hung, it occassionally throws up an ancient styled msg box that says "RPC failed". I have a suspension they are returning the slurs by citing my intellect and body parts.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thx dudes. Seems i need new pc.</comment>


Intel Shreds Sales People For Not Understanding CPU Stickers - <AUTHOR> http://www.conceivablytech.com/9100/business/intel-shreds-sales-people-for-not-understanding-cpu-stickers

<comment><USER2> Whine whine whine. I don't expect car consumers to know what the differences between different engines is, but I do expect car salesmen to know. _That is their purpose._ If computer salesmen aren't going to take the time to figure out Intel's product line (seriously, only 24 processors is not a unreasonable thing to learn), then what _are_ they doing?</comment>