Ask HN: If I were your dream hire, would you hire me? I live in Somalia - <AUTHOR> I'm at a dead end career-wise and the job market I'm at does not offer any better alternatives than my current job. The pay is great but I find the work I do pretty depressing compared to the stuff I know I'm capable of. I've tried to demonstrate and explain the value I could be bring if we were to do things differently but I've lost hope that I'll ever get through to anyone.
HN has always been inspiring regarding starting your own business and although that is something I want to try, I'm more curious right now about the feasibility of finding a job outside the country. The question is, I don't know if that's even possible.
How would a company even determine if I'm worth hiring and going through all the work to get me a work visa if they can't even interview me in person? Would they tolerate my crappy internet if they try to interview me over Skype? What if the position was for something mid-to-entry level and not some key position. Would it still be worth the hassle to get me on board?
I actually got in touch with German company who had a job posting for JS developer and asked them this very question and their reply was encouraging[0] but I wondered if I could get more input from other sources.
I guess I ask cause I keep hearing complaints about the lack of talent and it makes me wonder if that's a possible opportunity for me.
So what are your thoughts?
[0] Sociomantic Labs response to my question[1] "For our team in Berlin we often hire outside of the EU and have lots of experience with this. We have 35 different nationalities in the office and always welcome a new team member outside of the EU." <comment><USER2> Here's 2 websites that are specifically for tech jobs that provide a visa.

[https://techmeabroad.com/](https://techmeabroad.com/) [http://www.jobsintech.io/](http://www.jobsintech.io/)

If you have the skills and resume, I'm sure you won't have trouble finding a job.

Also [https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/) is a great resource for remote jobs. Most employers don't care as long as you can get shit done and work with a team. If you are a professional full stack developer your confidence in your ability to produce will come through.

You will probably have to work more to get to where you want compared to some American counterparts, but the path is there and the tools are out there. Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> I used to be in your situation, not because the market is bad in country ( programmers today have 0% unemployment rate) but because I hate the way companies work in place. You can start freelancing very easily. As long as you are a great programmer you'll easily find freelance work or a remote job. I live in Portugal and there's a huge demand for programmers and it's growing each year, the same applies for the rest of Europe and US ( and possible other countries ). Keep in mind that hiring remote developers is always cheaper because of tax evasion, you're a contractor not an employe that they have to pay social contributions. You need to research and set your hourly rate. Inform yourself about Escrow services, oDesk/Upwork provides this service. Also don't forget to pay your taxes and add this to your hourly rate.

If you want to increase your options: Create a blog and write great programming articles (I would appreciate it), engage in open source projects as a truly code collaborator, etc. Eventually you'll have more options than you initially thought, you're marketing yourself.

Bad internet connection? This might be a killer, for some people voice is fine but if you have a connection that work great when you're in a video call in HD, it's much better. Communication is key, trust me on this one.

<comment><USER4> Somalia and Nigeria in particular can be challenging for Americans to get money to IIRC, but this is a problem that bitcoin may actually solve pretty well.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. Wrote some articles for InfoQ (which I believe operate in the U.S.) in the past and they paid me via wire transfer without issue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Questions: \- what kind of career do you want? \- What specific job market are you currently in? \- You mention the pay is great but dislike the work. How much time can you dedicate on projects you're curious/passionate and capable of doing?

Regarding unhappiness at work, I was in your situation some years ago and found that the solution to my problem was putting in the required hours at work and then going home and working really really hard on the things that mattered to me. Also I found that having a daily exercise routine helped a lot with my productivity and mood!

Regarding leaving your country, I'd start by marketing yourself better. Your site doesn't give specifics on what your ambitions are and does not showcase why I'd want to hire you. Perhaps, if you SHOWED me what projects you can do for me, I'd be more inclined to see where you'd fit in my organization. A great example of good marketing was this kid's portfolio that sprung some weeks ago: [http://www.hostmeinca.com/](http://www.hostmeinca.com/)

Another way to leave is by getting a masters in another country. Look for masters in a field you're curious about and then search for scholarships. There are tons of scholarship resources out there (google Fullbright, Daad, Gates Millennium Scholarships, UK council scholarships). A masters is also a great way to network and meet potential employers or even future coworkers that might end up giving you a recommendation down the line!

Some other advice (and I know the HN crowd will probably differ): \- GET ON LINKEDIN! Get people you've worked with to endorse you! \- go read this book by John Somnez called Softskills. It will help you market yourself better as a developer [http://simpleprogrammer.com/softskills](http://simpleprogrammer.com/softskills)

Hope this helps!

<comment><AUTHOR> Regarding the site, I made it in one sitting as a placeholder for my domain. I use the domain mostly for my personal email and giving my apps a proper domain name I control rather than an IP address or a domain name I don't control (e.g. herokuapps.com).

I haven't put much thought into marketing myself but maybe I should. Just never thought it would be worth it.

That article about free high education in Germany a few weeks ago had me thinking about pursuing a Master's in Germany but I haven't pursued it.

Thanks for the comment. I like each of the points you've raised and if I want a change your advice sounds like a nice start.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> We only hire remotely (since we don't have an office). For me there are 2 critical issues (aside from the person themselves):

1) Their time zone needs to be reasonably in step with mine.

2) Their internet connection must reliably be able to run a consistent voice connection during working hours.

With 2) we do help with UPS' and additional connections where power and outages can be an issue. But _all_ connections still must be able to do voice comms over.

Other than these two, I couldn't care if the other person is on the moon, except the latency...

<comment><USER7> Out of curiosity, by 1) do you mean that people must be willing to work in your "core hours", or do you actually mean the timezone must be similar? I'm currently working nights (at GMT+1 - not in computing/engineering), and I always wonder a bit about what people mean when they talk about timezones.

I can see arguments for both wanting the timezone to be similar, and for caring mostly for availability/output during "core" hours -- but I'd be curious to hear your views and experience?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm from Canada and though I'm not in a position to hire you myself, I can share an anecdote about the last company where I worked. Two caveats. First - we were a .Net startup in a government town so when we hired, we were a startup trying to compete with Government jobs, government hours, and government benefits. Second - the founder of that company is a really good guy and not all Canadians I know would be as patient or as forgiving as he was.

However, at our peak, our dev team had one Canadian born person at any time. My co-workers hailed from China, Iran, and Israel. We tried to hire some people out of the Ukraine, but I live in the Hinterland and -40 degree weather scared at least one...:)

So, yes it is possible. Heck, some provinces will fast track highly skilled workers to permanent resident status. A good friend of mine was a provincial nominee who just became a Canadian citizen a few years ago!!!

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER9> This is something I've also been wondering for a while (I live in Peru). Most of the folks I know follow this path: apply for a Master's degree abroad and then try to find a way to stay in that country. But this is the thing: I'd love to work abroad without having to do a Master's because I don't like reading/writing papers, it doesn't seem like a very optimal path to me. So my current strategy is to build a portfolio on Github, get freelancing work online and then see if some company abroad hires me. Could this work? Could some company hire me based on my experience online? Glad to hear any thoughts on this

<comment><USER10> It also depends where you get your Master's. Not all universities require you to write a lot of papers, theses and presentations - some require you to solve problems and learn problem solving (in a form of exams, projects etc.). From my experience universities in Europe need less "paperwork" compared to US. I think it's still important part of knowledge in CS field, but it's about balance and I had experienced a good balance at FIT CTU in Prague.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why not try Nairobi/Kampala first? Or even Joburg or Durban? There's size able software industries in these places and you could probably even attend the interviews in person.

<comment><USER12> As I said elsewhere in the thread I worked with some Kenyans and a few refugees in the Kakuma camp, and I do not get the impression Kenya, Nairobi or elsewhere, is just flush with jobs at the moment.

Blah blah, globalized economy, blah blah. But I would love to hear other Africans from Kenya, SA, and elsewhere chime in and correct my foreigner BS here. My time there was short, so I can be way off base.

<comment><USER13> Working as a foreigner in SA... There is a big shortage of _good_ developers here, trust me. And many companies are willing to help out with getting a Visa. Might not be as fancy and "*.io"-domained as the US/EU jobs, but they're there and willing to hire anyone that is good.

<comment><USER12> Very interesting. And how much money would someone like you make and what is the cost of living for you in SA? I mean, if you do not mind me asking.

<comment><USER14> Hi, SA dev here (Cape Town). A starting salary is usually 18-22k, a mid-level position is usually starting at between 30k and 40k and for experienced devs (around 5+ years experience usually) around 50k and I'm sure lots of people get more.

As for costs of living, 50k is a really good salary. See the "developer big mac index" here: SA ranks number 2 [https://stackoverflow.com/research/developer- survey-2015](https://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2015))

Milage varies if you have dependents to support though - private school especially gets expensive if you choose go that route for kids.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Do you have a master's degree? I'm simply asking because although a college degree is not really that important for US based candidates it is extremely helpful to have when applying for a H-1B visa.

<comment><USER16> This is not true!

As long as your foreign degree is evaluated equivalent to a US degree, there is no advantage to having a non-us masters degree for obtaining a H1B visa.

<comment><USER10> This can get a bit tricky, e.g. my 6 semester bachelor degree wasn't enough for US bachelor degree and I had to prove that I had done extra 2 semesters of my master's.

<comment><USER17> Your lawyer needs to get a degree certification company to say that your degree is equivalent to a 4-year US degree.

My undergrad was also 3 years, and my visa went through without problems. Never done a master's degree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> There is a lot of different companies out there in a lot of different places, so I can only answer from my experience. I am from Germany, I work in the US under a H1B visa.

All else being equal, most companies would prefer to hire someone from the US or someone who has a green card. But like you said, now many tech companies have trouble to find talented people. The company where I work has an especially hard time find mobile developers (iOS and Android). Those companies would be happy to hire you.

The problem in the US is that is actually very difficult to get a visa. Visa law is very complicated. I would say, read up on different kinds of US visas and see if there is one that could apply to you. There is also the "green card lottery", where a certain number of people each year get an unconditional green card.

This all being said, unless you plan to study in the US I think your changes in the EU would be better.

</comment><comment><USER12> More power to you. I spent some time in an online education program for NW Kenya in a refugee camp, where US unis help. And if the internet there sucks enough to make it miserable, I can only imagine destabilized parts of Somalia.

So, if someone is interested, and please do not take offense, I am curious: how stable is the net where someone can expect to Skype and chat with you 8-10 hours a day? I am embarassed, but even as an expat living in the MENA region, I might be stereotyping Somalia, but if it is Kenya it is really luck of the 3G draw.

<comment><AUTHOR> Life in Somalia varies depending one where you are. Most of the danger most people associate with the country happens in the south. I live in north in a autonomous region called Somaliland. Pretty peaceful, don't have to worry about bomb blasts or whatnot.

I pay for 512k connection for $40/month and the speed is as advertised mostly since my download clock in around 50kbps mostly. 1mb/2mb/3mb/4mb go for $100/$200/$300/$400 but I don't bother paying for it since I have access to fast internet at the office.

My biggest worry about remote work is that employers would want me online all the time but my internet may go down more often than they'd tolerate (not to mention electricity going down). But for the most part the net and electricity only go down for minutes per day.

The best thing would be to work via email with someone who knows what they want and knows how to describe it well but I don't know if that would be acceptable to most.

<comment><USER12> Well I wish I could refer you somewhere, but I do brick-and-mortar in person IT stuff. I wish you luck, sir. I met a lot of Somalis (I am familiar with Somaliland of course, but you would not be surprised I have not met many refugees from the north, well because it is stable).

Good luck, I do hope people like you make it. It is what makes the internet cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18>
      > How would a company even determine if I'm worth hiring
      > and going through all the work to get me a work visa
      > if they can't even interview me in person?

No company will hire you without an in-person interview. Most companies will pay for your plane tickets and hotel for an in-person interview.

A note on in-person interviews:

You will probably be flown to Europe and do the interview in English. Most English speakers in Europe learned it as a second language. If you learned English from a local Somali school, your interviewers will not be used to your accent and may have a hard time understanding you. You should practice your accent until you sound close to British or American.

      > Would they tolerate my crappy internet if they try to
      > interview me over Skype?

Is your connection good enough to do a voice call at high quality? If it is, that should be sufficient.

Otherwise, you'll need to find a way to skip the initial phone interview. Most software companies do phone interviews to screen out candidates who are not capable of programming. A good substitute is a portfolio of personal projects on GitHub, showing experience with the programming languages you put on your resume.

      > What if the position was for something mid-to-entry
      > level and not some key position.

This will depend on the size of the company. I work at Google, and the legal department here will handle the immigration, visa, and permanent resident process even for regular low-level engineers. Smaller companies will be more selective.

<comment><USER19> My company hires without in-person interviews. We have about 1500 employees, all engineering staff are remote.

Just to throw a point of reference in there.

<comment><USER20> What company is this if you don't mind me asking?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Currently hiring someone JS wise, to work remote. I don't care where you are, I care if you can deliver (i.e. frequent internet outages that mean you can't fork/commit changes = dealbreaker). My team is 99% remote, almost all conversation is via chat, email or PM tools.

So no, it won't necessarily cause you problems – you do need to be able to work and deliver on your connection, and you need to actually be _good at what you do_. That means you need to have a way to show me that you're good at what you do – for example, a well-kept collection of public github repos of modules, or contributions to major projects (and actual contributions, not "small readme changes to clarify example 3") is what I expect to see, and most certainly not a 'portfolio' of ToDo-style projects to demonstrate how you 'know <x> end-to-end' – that shows me nothing. I'd rather see a well-written Angular module than a ToDoMVC app that looks like it's been generated from a 101 tutorial.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

</comment><comment><USER22> Just my 2 cents. I can care less where you live. The 3 things that are important to me as an employer, in the order I care.

1\. You are capable of doing the job and deliver when you promise or communicate when that isn't possible.

2\. You have reliable infrastructure to do the job. Whether that is Internet, Phone or other means, you must be reliably reachable and capable of producing and talking daily. Without that it is hard for me to work with you as part of the team.

3\. I can pay you and not have any government hassle because frankly I am just not big enough to deal with craziness.

If those things are doable I am generally good. I have friends in India who loose power on a relatively regular basis but I can work with them because they are reliable in their schedule and capabilities. Frankly, I think it is stupid of US companies or any country to think they have a lock on the best and brightest, just because you are from a war torn country doesn't make you less capable or intelligent than anyone else.

Good luck and I wish you the best.

</comment><comment><USER23> Also try Australia, which has an awesome immigration policy (much less cumbersome than H1B/Greencard): 4 years on a sponsored visa, then on a permanent immigration, and after 5 years Australian citizen. And try UK, which is pretty keen on immigrants, and only 300km from the center of the world (guess which country I'm from ;))

<comment><USER24> Australia also has a huge Somalian community (particularly in Melbourne) = plenty of great restaurants. :)

<comment><USER25> Not sure if that fully compensates for the 5x greater crime rate among the Somali community [0].

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgsiPmf2eE&t=1m06s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgsiPmf2eE&t=1m06s)

<comment><USER24> What's your point exactly?

<comment><USER25> Your point was that one consequence of having a large Somali community was great restaurants. This kind of statement gets repeated so often (and posts like mine repressed so often) that people start to believe that diversity really does just mean great food in the real world. So when I see a post like yours, I feel the need to correct the record, so that anyone reading will question the mainstream liberal dogma on diversity.

<comment><USER24> Actually my point was that given OP is from Somalia there are a lot of Somalian expats in Melbourne, and Also restaurants, which might make it a more attractive location to migrate to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Are you in Hargeisa? If so, you can solve the crappy internet problem by patronizing someone who has a Somcable connection.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am in Hargeisa and a mid-level manager there. Either I need to work on my schmoozing skills or they're not giving access to anyone outside the company (and customers).

For those wondering what Somcable is; they're a company who brought fibre- optic internet to the country. Currently haven't started selling to the general public but certain larger business have access (for an absurd amount of money, think four figures a month for a 2 or 4mbps connection).

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I totally agree with everyone saying that you should know how to market yourself. If you can't sell yourself then who will?

Blogging\twitting is a good way to get yourself out there.

I had two options - blog\answer Qs at SO\tweet\contribute to OS projects or choose entrepreneurship. I choose entrepreneurship because I thought rewards are much higher if things are able to click. Unfortunately, things have not clicked the way I had wanted but I am not giving up. Did I made a wrong decision? May be not.

Now, I am thinking about starting on a slow speed on blogging\tweeting so that I can get myself known.

I know few people who started with blogs and made contacts out of that. It is a good form of networking. These contacts landed them few consulting gigs which slowly turned out to be a multi-million dollar business per month. There is nothing like when things automatically fall into place.

</comment><comment><USER24> There are a ton of companies out there hungry for great talent and who hire from overseas, help with visas etc

The larger ones will fly candidates in for final stage interviews to meet face to face.

It's a numbers game - apply to enough roles that you would make the move for and you will increase your chances of success.

</comment><comment><USER28> Well, a resume, a phone conversation, a look at any code you've posted online, and a review of sites/apps you've worked on would paint a pretty good picture. We might ask for references not so much on character (though that too), but to know what problems they experienced in working with you at that distance and given the constraints you list.

Bottom line, your location and its limitations would not inherently eliminate you. If we were hiring and wanted to move forward with you as the lead candidate, we'd also need to check with our attorneys for tax and legal consequences of sending payments to Somalia. But presuming those issues could be resolved satisfactorily, you being in Somalia would not be an insuperable obstacle .

</comment><comment><USER29> Checkout my repository: [https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote- job](https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job)

</comment><comment><USER30> Arraging flights for an in-person interview, or arranging the visa and accomodation for new hires are what legal and HR departments get paid for. The biggest problem has always been finding good new colleagues.

Bad Internet connection for the initial pass would not be a problem for us, those who have the necessary background (enough relevant technical expertise and willing to move) get sent a homework with a few day deadline, and those who handle it well will be interviewed.

</comment><comment><USER31> My company is distributed: we have developers in a number of places. This is not a big problem, although for the moment everybody is in one country (Poland).

It is definitely possible to work remotely, you just have to find the right match. In fact, I've been thinking about looking for developers in African countries, because of the small time zone difference.

So, I'd say it's definitely possible, you just need to have the right skills and find the right company.

</comment><comment><USER32> In my experience, if you are looking for a remote jobs you only need a good Internet connection and good English skills, unless if the employer is in the US.

US companies prioritize US candidates (even in remote jobs), to an extend that it's almost pointless to apply for US remote jobs if you no live there.

<comment><USER33> For what it's worth, your English skills are passable, but not great. It's clear that it's not your first language, even in this two-sentence comment.

Perhaps that was part of the issue you had while searching.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I wouldn't have thought that Somalia even has a stable enough internet connection / general security situation to even have programmers working remotely. Interesting to learn otherwise.

</comment><comment><USER35> re: interview over skype -- isn't there some better local connection, eg at a cafe or school or library? As an interviewer, I'd be willing to be flexible around scheduling if you can figure out a quiet location w/ better internet. It's frankly better for me: I'll have an easier time with your accent and get a better read on your capabilities.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you were born in Jeddah so I assume you're muslim. If I were you and considering living in the US, you'll do far better if you stick to the coasts. And probably better on the east coast (nyc, boston), just because there's lots of visible muslims there so people won't be freaked out by you. My country can be very islamophobic (I'm sorry).

<comment><USER36> Wrong. Look up "History of the Somalis in Minneapolis" on Wikipedia.

<comment><USER35> one counterexample totally disproves this!

Want me to list examples of muslims being assaulted in the midwest / south? my list is bigger than your list of one welcoming city

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I've been involved in hiring non-local people and doing the paperwork to get the visa.

1) Yes, there are many, many companies who have difficulty finding good talent locally and are forced to look at the international market for talent.

2) Yes, they can get a visa for you if you are good enough (see below)

3) As others have said, remote working from your own country is definitely a possibility. I do it from Japan (and work very strange hours so that I can work with others in the UK). Working remotely is a skill in itself. If you are interested in influencing process (and it seems that you are), then I would recommend staying away from remoting unless the rest of the team is also remote. If you can go with the flow and just write code no matter which way the process goes, then remote development may be for you. The main problem with influencing others remotely is that you don't end up in the right conversations at the right time.

If you try to get someone to sponsor a visa for you, the main issue is: are you good enough? The rules for sponsoring visas depends on the country, but as there is a world wide shortage of good programmers, you are likely to find _someone_ willing to hire you (especially if you aren't picky about where you go). As others have said, English is the language used generally, but if you wrote the above yourself, then I think your English is probably fine.

You should consider whether or not _someone_ hiring you is good enough for you. Although I don't know exactly what is causing your problem in your current job, "I feel like I'm at a dead end because we do thing in a crappy way and nobody will listen to me" is a _very_ common situation in many companies.

Assuming you want to "do thing right" (according to your own definition of "right"), it means you have to be a bit more picky about where you work. Your main hurdle is to show that you have skills that they couldn't find in their home market.

As you mentioned JS, here's the kind of thing that I mean:

Level 1: I can write basic front end code that uses jQuery to get things done. I have written a few functions on my own, but mostly copy and paste things from Stack Overflow.

Level 2: I can write dynamic front end web applications using one or more frameworks. I can use these frameworks fluently, but rarely go outside of them.

Level 3: I write code in JS. If you want, I will use whatever framework you want, but it doesn't really matter to me. I'm familiar with many styles of programming and can use testing frameworks like Jasmine well.

Level 4: I'm an expert in JS. I routinely contribute bug fixes, and features to various libraries. I write blog posts about how to write better JS applications.

Level 5: I am an internationally renown expert in JS. I maintain one of the really popular frameworks, or I have written books that are popular on the topic.

Basically, I can find thousands of JS "programmers" in the Level 1 category. I don't want them, even if they are cheap.

We get hundreds of CVs from local people in the Level 2 category. We might consider a local person for a junior position, but would definitely not go out of our way to bring in someone at that level.

Level 3 starts to become interesting and we would probably interview someone who needs a visa. At this level, though, you have to convince us that you are super talented to make us want to go through the effort and cost of sponsoring you.

At level 4, you are demonstrating that you have rare skills and initiative. Although personally I think it's actually a fairly low bar to hit, the number of people who do this kind of thing is really very small. It's nice because we can evaluate your skills to a certain degree before trying to hire you.

At level 5, it is trivial for us to sponsor a visa. We still might not hire you if we think you aren't actually a good fit for our team, but I pretty much guarantee that we would eagerly interview you.

Of course there are many more things we consider when hiring people, the above is really just the kind of thing we look at with respect to sponsoring a visa. We just can't justify to ourselves or the government that we couldn't find someone locally unless there is something obviously special about you.

Having said that, you may notice that putting yourself in a Level 4 or even Level 5 position is not something that is outside of your control. Working in a "dead end" job while you spend your time making yourself more marketable to a worldwide audience is probably not the worst thing you could do in the world.

I hope this helps :-)</comment>


Macpaint for the web written in Erlang & Erlyweb - <AUTHOR> http://vimagi.com

<comment><USER2> What a giant letdown! Not only did this POS app force me to register, the UI looks NOHTING, and I mean NOTHING like Macpaint! It's made in Flash and has ONE TOOL! have you ever seen Macpaint?

</comment><comment><USER3> Great, another competitor...</comment>


FAA Bill Establishes New Conditions for Recreational Use of Drones - <AUTHOR> https://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=91844 <comment><USER2> This is sort of, a new frontier of technologic disenchantment. On the one hand: public safety.

On the other hand, drones are a very decent means of inspiring people to go beyond the public, and explore the universe.

We have to temper one for the other. But we have to temper the other for the other, too.

</comment><comment><USER3> According to this page, it was Congress that repealed the rule, not the FAA.</comment>


Adi Shamir visa snub: the S in RSA blocked from his own RSA conf - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/05/rsa_cofounder_us_visa_row/ <comment><USER2> Just do what a lot of other conferences are doing, hold it in Canada and save the hassle.

<comment><USER3> Yes, come to Canada!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Shamir, of RSA and the 'Shamir Secret Sharing' fame!

</comment><comment> B-Con Not the first time he's been unable to get a Visa in time for a big conference: [https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2013/10/shamir/](https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2013/10/shamir/)

<comment><USER5> I'm an american, I'm very sad how we've made it harder and harder for people to come visit us. We lose so much potential intellectual and other gains by doing this. International conferences should just go to Canada in preference to rotating to the us. It would be fairly easy for americans to go there and I assume others can avoid silly visa problems (Canada is better, right?)

<comment> maze-le Its not just conferences you know... I heard from several colleagues that it keeps getting harder to find someone willing to make business trips to the US (something 10 years ago no one would have thought twice about). Some small business owners I know are reconsidering targeting the American market in the future (again something 10 years ago no one would have even given one thought about)...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> i don't really understand how this whole us visa process works: my girlfirend was denied a visa, re-applied after two days and got it. this is also when i found out certain forms have extra pages full of required details that only apply to females, not males.

the whole process seems extremely random

</comment><comment><USER7> Wasn't our government shut down when he applied? Pretty sure that would in fact leave him in limbo... As it did for many other things :-/

<comment><USER8> I don't think government shutdown affects VISA processing. What I've heard is that VISA processing is funded by the application cost itself.

<comment><USER9> VISA is the brand of a credit card company. A visa is a permit to enter and leave a country, normally issued by the authorities of the country to be visited (from Latin "charta visa", a piece of paper which has been seen).

<comment><USER8> Is this comment really helpful to the conversation?

<comment><USER9> Apparently not; some people are glad to correct their mistaken beliefs about orthography, and others are not. In this forum many people are in the former category, but apparently not you. That's fine, but I couldn't know until you replied.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Publish Anki flashcards to the web using Python + Sinatra - <AUTHOR> http://tedpak.com/2013/10/30/exporting-anki-flashcards-to-the-web <comment><USER2> Interesting! FYI the "Discuss on HN" link at the bottom of your post is broken, redirects to "submit link" page.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, it seems to work now. The problem is that it relies on the HNSearch API ([https://www.hnsearch.com/api](https://www.hnsearch.com/api)) which seems to lag behind the official site by a few hours or more. I'd be interested in a Jekyll plugin that actually fixes this issue, ...or does everybody just roll their own?

If you're curious how it works, check out the JavaScript below the link, which swaps out the href if the page is found on HNSearch.</comment></comment>


Apple's Stumbling HomePod Isn't the Hot Seller It Wanted - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-12/apple-s-stumbling-homepod-isn-t-the-hot-seller-company-wanted# <comment><USER2> The article hits the nail on the head for me. My son got a google home mini for Christmas last year for free with the chrome book we bought him.

Now we have a home mini on every floor, and we are happy with the relatively cheap price we paid.

Apple's version either needs to come down in price or offer a lot more for its current price - if it wants a larger share of the market, in my opinion.

<comment><USER3> Fair point.

But, I think they are different markets. The Home Pod, and Siri more specifically, simply cant compete in the "Home Assistant" space on either a technological nor price front.

Honestly, I would be more interested on Margins and Development costs to bring to production - because it does feel like a product that has a very small core target demographic (apple ecosystem audiophiles(?) not concerned with AI capacity outside of tuning for sound).

<comment><USER4> > The Home Pod, and Siri more specifically, simply cant compete in the "Home > Assistant" space on either a technological nor price front.

I'm not big on Apple products these days, but I disagree.

Today's Apple is as much of a "brand" company as it is a technology company. Apple products have recognizable features, e.g. white cords for ear buds, the shiny Apple logo on the new mac books, etc. Apple wants you to remember you're using their brand almost as much as you enjoy their technology.

That said, the home pod almost looks like it came out of Google/Nest. In fact the top view reminds me of the Nest smoke alarm. There's nothing really "Apple" about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That's because having these hot microphones networked in your house is such a creep concept, and feels extremely far from useful, that the people who do buy them, are simply open to the experimentation, and accepting the dare. I don't think anyone imagines the experiment will bear fruit, but they've made peace with throwing some money away on a thing that seems to be something, somehow.

Personally, I hate the idea of Siri. I see people use Siri and I just shrug. I see people with Apple watches and I just shrug.

But I see a lot more people with Apple watches, than I do using Siri. I never see anyone using Okay Google or Cortana or Alexa.

My instictive judgement tells me that people who go beyond mere experimentation with voice-activated personal assistant software, and come to rely on it, are ridiculous people. When you use these things, there aren't many cues to guess at the response you'll get, and the sensation is not unlike yelling at a deaf child that doesn't speak your language. Will it hear me? Does it understand me? Can it follow basic instructions? ( _frequently the answers are yes, maybe, and no_ )

This is even with the low learning curve of a consumer product design.

Virtual assistants aren't fun, feel undiginfied, and don't have a lot of redeeming utility. It's no coincidence that only large companies have developed them, and I think it's best to bet against them for now.

<comment><USER4> > That's because having these hot microphones networked in your house is such > a creep concept, and feels extremely far from useful.

No. I use "Hey google, turn off everything in the garage." all the time. It's remarkably useful if I'm in bed, and don't want to get up to make sure everything is turned off.

Really the Apple speaker reminds me of the Nexus Q. It doesn't do a lot, and it's pretty damn expensive. And if you want stereo, you need two. Google Home Max is similar, and is one of the reasons I haven't bought one.

Edited to add:

I have the audio chromecast plugged into my stereo, and that works really good. I can change out my speakers if I want, add an amplifier, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >Apple's Stumbling HomePod Isn't the Hot Seller It Wanted

Well, just like any other "Pods" out there. Seems ordinary people do not see a point buying them. One of my last tasks back when I worked in a sourcing company 2 years ago, was to investigate what are consumer attitudes to different "random speaking house appliances." It was like 9/10 people will just simply think of them like talking alarm clocks or radios. No wonder people are not spending $200 for a talking alarm clock.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, not like all other "pods" out there. Amazon's is selling very well.</comment></comment>


Airbnb Has a Hidden-Camera Problem (2019) - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/what-happens-when-you-find-cameras-your-airbnb/585007/ <comment><USER2> The state should be regularly auditing hotels and room-shares, checking for fire safety, cleanliness, hidden cameras, and legality of the business.

Businesses don't systematically change in response to a few customer complaints (they just sloppily deal with them), but they do respond to large fines and legal action.

<comment><USER3> But how would the state regulate this when subletting via Airbnb is already violating the regulations in place?

<comment><USER2> At least in Oregon where I live, airbnb is legal if you have a business license and maybe a permit depending in your city. The subletting issue is a civil issue that the landlord would have to sue over.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you know about Gerald Foos [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Foos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Foos) this shouldn't be a surprise - here's the New Yorker article [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese- the...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs- motel)

<comment><USER5> And none of these people were prosecuted? Wow. I think voyeurism might just be the least taken-serious crime today.

<comment><USER6> See also [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/making-video-voyeurism-a- crime/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/making-video-voyeurism-a-crime/) which was absolutely infuriating to find out about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The camera stuff is beyond creepy. But the name discrepancy seems like it's getting blown out of proportion. Ray is a common nickname for Ralph...

<comment><USER8> While I wouldn't like to find a hidden camera, if I did I would not steal them AND steal the keys to the house. I do wonder if you're renting without the host present if you should just block the camera view and keep staying

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Okay HN nerds: what's the best way to go about sniffing out these hidden cams?

<comment><USER10> There was a recent BBC video[1] where Stacey Dooley visited South Korea and engaged with police experts there who search for hidden cameras as part of a huge 'peeping-tom'-type problem they have with surveillance (primarily of women) for the purpose of pornography. I concluded from that video that I couldn't really on my technical expertise and a thorough physical search to find a hidden camera. Unless I had something that could detect GSM radios or something of the sort.

[1]: [https://youtu.be/ggYIsnUgUdU](https://youtu.be/ggYIsnUgUdU)

<comment><USER11> You could probably use an SDR to find transmitting wireless devices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The bigger problem is the VC scum behind the company which as per the typical VC playbook does not care about the negative externalities caused by their creation and will only do the minimum they can get away with.

> In January, Bigham discovered cameras in his rental that he says were never > disclosed. After he reached out to the Trust & Safety team, representatives > told him he and his family had in fact consented to the cameras because they > were visibly displayed in photos on the listing. After Bigham's blog post on > the ordeal went viral, Airbnb apologized and refunded his money.

This kind of behavior is often explained by excuses like incompetence, human error or poor training. There are 2 possible outcomes:

1) It's an obvious lie and tells you everything you need to know about the company, but somehow people keep swallowing it instead of calling BS.

2) It's the true reason but highlights the fact that serious incidents like these are delegated to people with insufficient training because the company doesn't consider the problem serious enough to invest in proper training.

Either option doesn't look good. This is not limited to Airbnb by the way; here are some past examples from other VC-funded companies:

Kitsplit's mis-sold insurance doesn't actually protect against stolen gear, fobs the person off but then does the obvious damage control and pretends to care when the story blew up (no fucks given about the impact on the people until their own reputation becomes at risk): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20276631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20276631)

Wag "dog walking as a service" startup that tries to silence a killed dog's owners with an NDA, again no concerns for the wellbeing of the owners, only concern about their own reputation: [https://www.facebook.com/nick.moore.7140/posts/3600186133211](https://www.facebook.com/nick.moore.7140/posts/3600186133211)

Wag again, realizing that their entire business model is broken, introduces predatory fees to stay afloat that might not even be enforceable in court: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20854100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20854100)

I could find many more examples (even from companies I unfortunately worked for in the past - because yes, as a lot of people here I used to be drinking the startup koolaid and was part of the problem too) but I think it's enough to show a clear pattern here - these companies could not care less about the negative externalities of their business or actions on society at large.

<comment><USER13> Why are the VCs to blame and not the founders and executives of AirBnB?

<comment><USER14> They're all blameworthy, but the VCs are the ones with the power to stop this sort of nonsense.

Stop investing in nakedly criminal schemes.

<comment><USER6> I would actually argue the blame goes to governments for not enforcing their laws. There will always be scummy founders who create criminal enterprises and scummy VCs who invest in them - but governments need to make sure they aren't financially rewarded for it.

<comment><USER12> I agree with this to an extent, but expecting everyone to be committing crimes until caught would put an insane strain on the justice system and would basically collapse society. A lot of our society is still built on trust and works only because the majority of people aren't malicious. This used to work fine until VC and the whole "startup" mentality made breaking laws a routine and respectable thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Airbnb should just be upfront and tell customers they need to assume they are being filmed at all times. There are cameras now the size of a grain of rice, this issue will never go away, the cat is out of the bag.

<comment><USER16> Maybe this is not bad advice. Kinda like "don't post any pictures on the internet that you wouldn't want your grandma to see" or "assume your employer is reading all your e-mails". But still, it is a massive invasion of privacy and there should be some recourse for the victims/punishment for the perpetrators.

<comment><USER17> 'Assume any current/future employer will be reviewing what you do at your AirBNB. Enjoy your stay.'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> My colleagues and I recently published a paper at CHI 2020 that was inspired in large part by this problem of hidden cameras in AirBnBs. Here is a link to ACM Digital Library ([https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3313831.3376585](https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3313831.3376585)) and a PDF copy of the paper on my Box account ([https://cmu.box.com/s/89iugeaf3hcc51ir9f4akrp1a9b0mogd](https://cmu.box.com/s/89iugeaf3hcc51ir9f4akrp1a9b0mogd)).

One of the things we did was a survey of N=226 AirBnB users. 86 people said that they manually searched for devices in AirBnBs, and 8 actually found undisclosed devices. As you might imagine, manually searching is hard because devices are small, but also because you don't always know if you've found everything, and because it looks socially awkward too.

People also reported on how they looked for devices, ranging from manual search (most common) to using WiFi / Bluetooth scanning tools. Here is an excerpt from our paper as to what people said they did.

 _11 (13%) tech-savvy participants used special tools to help search, such as using a phone camera or flashlight, scanning Bluetooth and the Wi-Fi network, and using an infrared scanner. For example, participants reported that they turned off all the lights and used their smartphone flashlight to shine around the area and look for reflections that might indicate a camera lens. Some participants reported that their smartphone cameras did not have an infrared filter, and so they could detect invisible infrared light emitted by cameras. Other participants reported using smartphone apps, such as Fing and iNet, to detect suspicious devices connecting to the network. Two participants brought RF signal detectors to scan the room for the source of RF signals (cameras). However, these methods require a strong technical background, and the devices might not be cheap (e.g., over $100 USD on Amazon for a popular RF signal detector)._

The main point of the paper, though, is to look at ways for IoT device manufacturers to help physically locate devices. We called these IoT Locators. An example might be to have devices blink or beep. It's trying to address the physical layer of privacy, to help people have more awareness of what's nearby and where these devices are. The logical layer might tell you that there's a camera nearby, but we also wanted to help people find those devices and see (for example) where those cameras might be pointed. There's a big difference between a camera in an AirBnb that is pointed toward the living room versus pointed out the window, something that isn't captured just by knowing that a camera is nearby.

There's lots of limitations, for example needing lots of standards among device manufacturers and how to incentivize them to install things like these in devices. I would say the main idea, though, is that we need to really think more about the physical dimensions of privacy (which has been underlooked in research and industry), and that we need to think more about how to help hotels, AirBnBs, and device manufacturers that do want to do better on privacy w.r.t devices, but don't know what to do.

<comment><USER19> Very interesting but one caveat: I doubt you would ever get the most relevant producers on board. There are dedicated spycam manufacturers and all the cheap China stuff to build into other things is probably what ends up being used to spy on customers. So little benefit to try and get legal or voluntary commitments if in the end many won't play along.

<comment><USER20> This is what happen in Japan. In Japan phones' camera must ring shutter sound on taking photo that's annoying on many situations meanwhile bad people use dedicated spycam that's silent of course.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> How costly are these cameras? What are their battery life? Do they stream or record locally? Where do people get them?

(I'm obviously not interested in unethical spying, but could be fun to play with)

<comment><USER22> You can get a camera from Wyze for less than 40 bucks that records in hd, does well in darkness, can be remotely monitored and controlled, records sound, and has a speaker (for talking to my cat). You can set it to trigger recording on movement. I have an sd card in it, and it records about two weeks of events at a time. Records to cloud and/or local storage.

Just be aware that security is never guaranteed and they've had some issues in the past.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> My favorite part is when the dude who was staying in an illegal flophouse _calls the police_ about cameras

Gee I wonder why the police response was not kind to him

</comment><comment><USER9> Could Airbnb solve this by implementing large fines for hosts where hidden cameras are found?

<comment><USER23> There's also the issue of a guest setting up a hidden camera in their rented airbnb without the hosts knowledge. I doubt most hosts are sophisticated enough to even do simple things like see what devices are connected to their wifi networks or cycle wifi passwords on a per-guest basis.

<comment><USER6> Ironically you'd need hidden cameras to catch guests that place hidden cameras in rentals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> AirBnB should just offer a hidden camera/microphone sweep service.

<comment><USER25> Not needed. I just don't use AirBnB anymore.

I suspect the problem isn't with the cameras, but with landlords they can't control - and that interfere with AirBnb's bottom line.

<comment><USER26> Why would only airbnb be affected with this hidden camera problem?

<comment><USER27> It's definitely not just a problem at AirBnB's. It's also a problem at Korean love hotels for example [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYIsnUgUdU&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYIsnUgUdU&feature=youtu.be)

AirBnB's are more affected though, as the penalty might just be a warning/fine/bad review affecting a single property. At a hotel, the entire hotel of X rooms would be affected by the bad publicity, so they have more at stake.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Why would you not do this? It decreases risk, and customers mostly care about price. As technology gets better, this is inevitable.

<comment><USER29> Because it's a massive invasion of privacy and customers hate it?

Yes, they're price sensitive, but if Airbnb carried a "you will be recorded while you sleep" disclaimer I doubt many would agree.

<comment><USER28> Well, that's what terms of service are for. Facebook doesn't seem to have this problem.

Many tenants have problems with adverse selection; more robust monitoring systems would allow for them to take on more risky tenants, without seeing their property trashed.</comment></comment></comment>


Teal – Stylesheets without selectors - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/teal-lang/teal

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting take. Template + Styling engine that doesn't scare you at first glance.</comment>