A black market where people pay for Instagram verification - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2017/09/01/instagram-verification-paid-black-market-facebook/ <comment><USER2> >When Instagram decided to shutdown about 30 accounts related to cannabis last year, a former employee tried charging people up to $7,500 to reactivate them since he still had access to the feature. He was found out, and his access was officially terminated, according to James.

I've had multiple accounts deactivated for cannabis, and seen hundreds of other weedy IGs deleted -- while businesses like the official High Times sit loftily at over 1 million followers AND verified. It doesn't surprise me that there are shady backdoor deals going on.

<comment><USER3> I run a cannabis company in CA. After seeing my friend's account reactivated a few months ago he told me he paid 3k for the service. When that IG employee got fired there were 5 cannabusiness accounts I knew of that were deleted on the same day. All people who paid the restoration fee.

<comment><USER3> To the comments below who think IG isn't that important--I close upwards of $40,000 of monthly recurring revenue from IG outreach every month. It's value can't be understated.

<comment><USER4> With what type of business? Selling goods?

<comment><USER3> I sell infused cannabis products to dispensaries. They resale them to the consumer.

<comment><USER5> Do you have contact info? Would love to hear your story and how you got to where you are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Presumably paying 15kUsD for a blue spot is worth it for some -fashion industry etc - and the investment will pay for itself. I never heard of the blue spot being particularly important though, my understanding was that parading an effortlessly fashionable and beautiful life was what got the attention.

Great piece on bloomberg from last year on how a journalist recreated himself as an instagram influencer. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-30/confessio...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-30/confessions- of-an-instagram-influencer)

<comment><USER7> After watching that video I find the whole Instagram phenomenon so bizarre.

<comment><USER8> The whole idea of someone staging most of their life to impress people on the internet, makes me physically uncomfortable to think about - even before considering the fact that they have "fans", which makes the whole thing even more awkward. It's like "reality" TV and celebrity worship taken to a whole new level of depressing and shallow.

<comment><USER6> The rate card on the Bloomberg article says it all: get enough 'followers' and you are into big money. Whether those followers are real, bots, or created by insiders at Instagram is open to examination.

Gary Vaynerchuk and his company Vaynermedia have played a role in making the big advertising holding companies see perceived value in 'influencer relations'. Vaynerchuk's (2.2 million followers) instagram presence reminds me of Chairman Mao's little red book, with endless exhortations to strive and succeed. [https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/?hl=en) Glassdoor suggests a different reality at his company [https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/VaynerMedia- Reviews-E48244...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/VaynerMedia- Reviews-E482441.htm)

<comment><USER8> > Vaynerchuk's (2.2 million followers) instagram presence reminds me of > Chairman Mao's little red book, with endless exhortations to strive and > succeed. > [https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/?hl=en)

I don't even have words for that one - but that profile definitely wouldn't leave me thinking "I should do business with this person".

<comment><USER6> "We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view" Mao Zedong

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't see the point of having a "select" verification on social networks. It should be for everyone, like a bank where you verify using ID and a webcam... it could even be a paid service.

Making them exclusive and intransparent is shady. Just like username colors on social platforms where people pay $15,000 to make them look special.

<comment><USER10> Agreed 100%. Why not do things like how Google Webmaster Tools does it, where you fill in a form, get a file to post on your website and have it auto verify based on that? Or for those who aren't website/service owners, a system where you verify your name or address?

The current exclusive system on sites like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and others is awkward and makes no real sense whatsoever. Same with the also awkward trend of 'deverifying' people that say something 'offensive' or 'brek the rules'. You don't stop being the same person when you upset someone.

Really, sites and social networks need to just treat verification like anything else.

<comment><USER11> That's because it's not for verification; It's a status symbol.

Also, this is just speculation, but if saying certain things could get you unverified, and being unverified would lower your ranking some places and hurt your value, a website could censor what they deem "hate" speech simply with the threat of unverification. You can't really cry censorship over a little icon.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, it's definitely a status symbol as it is now.

But my question remains the same. Why treat it like a status symbol?

I don't see a reason why this should be something fancy that only an elite few should have. Why not have a different system for marking elite users which is based on some sort of merit (or actual real world worth) rather than just a vague sense of name recognition?

Just seems like they're misusing the concept, and that a system which does away with the 'prestige' aspect of verification would do equally well on a user level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If Instagram were, say a government space, this would be called corruption; but, it is a private company operating a defacto public space, so it is seen as...employees disobeying their employer? Or what?

This is precisely the issue with company operated spaces: when there is shady crap going down, there's no accountability.

<comment><USER13> Hmm, interesting. I think this one is more "buyer beware".

Government corruption is a when a missile manufacturer donates heavily to a pro-war candidate, and then that candidate ends up in the cabinet. 6 months later, bombing campaigns are in full force.

A private company, or a private employee, selling eyeballs, legitimacy, and influence... it's extremely flawed, but I'm not sure it has a horrifically large effect on the world.

<comment><USER12> I concur the effect on the world is rather small here, the closest analogy I can think of are non-competitive bidding for a local park's construction that goes to the governor's friend. Another was Chris Christie lounging on a beach that was closed to the public. The latter is politically distasteful, but really didn't hurt anyone. It still was corruption of a sort.

<comment><USER13> This all does sound like heft nepotism and corruption!

On a per transaction basis, damage existe but is tolerable. At scale, it is nightmarish.

I'm not sure the same can be said about buying Verifications, but too much of anything could be bad!!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> And I wouldn't be surprised to learn one day that some facebook employees would be running face recognitions for private detectives... Human nature is what it is.

</comment><comment><USER15> Pretty sure this type of thing happens everywhere - years ago I paid for some dofollow links to be placed on specific aged topic based BBC news articles.

£500 a link was paid... a few days later they appeared.

They lasted about three years if I recall right before disappearing for whatever reason.

<comment><USER16> A website can sell links like you're describing.. that's not illegal. I've seen ad networks that only sold those types of links.

What's being described in the article is commercial bribery: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_bribery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_bribery)

<comment><USER17> Yeah, but I'm pretty sure the BBC doesn't actually sell those links, it was probably a similar situation to the article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I think in light of the recent fight against hate speech and fake news, there will soon be a "silencing as a service" (SaaS). Where you can pay large amounts of money to Facebook and Google and they will go and disable accounts and ban various segments of users. Maybe you are Pepsi and get tired of Coke getting ahead selling more sugared drinks than you, and so you pay Facebook to take down accounts of anyone mentioning Coke in a positive light. Then maybe they'll sell a reactivation service, where you can pay even more money to have your account reactivated and so on.

<comment><USER19> Isn't it already possible to pay for fake reports which results in takedowns of legitimate youtube videos and similar content? I'd put good money on these services being offered today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Big tech companies like Google and Facebook often tote the protections they have on user data, i.e. datasets are anonymized and access is tightly controlled. But does this extend to all acquired companies? Do acquired companies that may have lesser protections ever get access to the parent company's data?</comment>


US Leaders VS Chinese Leaders aka (Lawyers vs Engineers) - <AUTHOR> http://gothamgalry.com/post/2876407183/washingtonpoststyle-theatlantic

<comment><USER2> Well, USA can beat China by suing them. Joking...

</comment><comment><USER3> There's not much call for lawyers in a country with a very spotty rule of law. And when you don't have open elections, the skills that lawyers excel at are irrelevant.

But make no mistake. Those men are not good guys. You don't get to be a leading cadre of the Chinese Communist Party through being a superior engineer.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the important point is that there are no engineers among the top political ranks in the United States. I feel the US govt would benefit from an influx of good engineering minds.

<comment><USER3> Me too. Engineers have all the system-building instinct of lawyers, but more experience in fixing unintended consequences.

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of setting up a non-profit, non-partisan organisation to encourage STEM professionals to run for public office, along the lines of Emily's List.</comment></comment></comment>


Plugable Thin Client: The $50 Computer - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1666707630/plugable-thin-client-the-50-computer <comment><USER2> Whats the point of this kickstarter? Theres nothing new here. Citrix, Vmware etc have been doing this for years now and thin clients already exist by the hundreds. The $50 price point is towards the lower end but the client featured also cuts back on a bunch of features that competitors at $75-100 range have.

<comment><USER3> > Whats the point of this kickstarter?

Pluggability (to a single computer).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think was a great idea, ten or fifteen years ago. But not today because the era of growth for desktop computers is essentially over.

I have no idea what I would do with this today. I have a MacBook Pro, and my wife does, too. Nearly everyone I know has an iPhone, and an iPad.

Why would any of us use this? Each of us already has two or three computers of some kind that we carry everywhere, nearly all the time.

I'm not trying to be mean. I just don't see how a $50 computer that you have to plug into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor is something that anyone with mobile devices would want.

<comment><USER5> I would think the average person isn't lucky enough have an inventory of multiple thousand dollars of high-end computing equipment. This kind of system would be perfect in developing countries, or as the project suggests, for education.

<comment><USER4> Many people in developing countries have mobile phones, and smartphones are rapidly becoming the computer of choice for them.

Also, remember that today's high-end is tomorrow's low-end. Why develop stuff for the past? Don't think of the developing world as a dumping ground for our worn-out ideas and wares, because that's not what it is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> At first I was wondering about the benefits of using such a system vs. something like deploying the raspberry pi en masse (which is a full system for under $50), but after some thought it comes down to the fact that the average utilization of any computer most of the time is very low, but we really notice the CPU power when we do something intensive (although not very often). Each user on this system could potentially feel the same power as a full desktop, as the probability of multiple users requiring intensive computation at the same time is relatively low. Kind of like how web providers quote 10MB per customer, but their infrastructure only has to cater for a tiny fraction of the potential full utilization.

<comment><USER6> The hardware in question very likely has computing power (and associated cost) not that far off from that of the Raspberry Pi.

You also have to factor in the cost of the machine used to drive these USB display drivers -- with 4 users on a $500 machine, you're still talking about $125/user.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ok, so they're making something that already exists. I know the HP version costs about $80.

What I want to know is how are they planning on bringing their costs down to be able to provide something cheaper than a larger company that already has the ability to produce whatever they want.

<comment><USER8> It seems it's not in fact a thin client - as far as I can tell, it's a USB hub and USB graphics card which then gets hooked up to its own X session on the host.

It's much more limited than the HP devise you're referring to, so I would think it needs to be a lot cheaper to make sense.

<comment><USER9> This also means it has to be in pretty close proximity to the host machine. No connectivity over Ethernet or wifi...

Not to mention you have to have (or buy) the keyboard, monitor and mouse. Some people may have an extra keyboard or two kicking around, not sure how many people keep extra monitors handy for very long (though you can come by monitors cheap on craigslist).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This looks great. I suppose this will help a lot of class rooms in poorer countries.</comment>


The Boys Are Not All Right - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html <comment><USER2> > No commensurate movement has emerged to help them navigate toward a full > expression of their gender. It's no longer enough to "be a man" — we no > longer even know what that means.

Worse, it's no longer _OK_ to "be a man". You can posture all you want about "toxic masculinity" but physical aggression and ambition are intrinsic parts of the masculine psyche. We need to stop pretending that a man is just a woman with a penis and some cultural influences, and find healthy ways to express these traits.

<comment><USER3> I agree. I think this article is just another attack on masculinity, introducing uncertainty and doubt about masculinity itself by acting like being a man is confusing.

I don't support these men who turn on their own biology, tearing down the buttresses of the masculine identity under the pretense that "it's too hard/confusing/challenging/whatever to be a man."

Nah. Sack up, get your life straight, take your licks, stand tall, and keep moving. Master your emotions and be aware of the interpersonal dynamics that impact you. Strengthen yourself in every sense of the word, minimize your use of porn and video games, and build a useful set of skills. Stay humble and let your work talk for you. I could write a list a mile long, and I think most guys can do the same. We have history books full of great men to study and emulate.

Some men are being co-opted to do the insidious dirty work of the anti- masculine feminism of our modern era, falling prey to doublespeak ("feminism" means "equality"), sexual manipulation, and the empty claim that something is wrong with being a man.

> toxic masculinity

There's nothing toxic about masculinity. Full stop.

<comment><USER4> Heh, it seems you feel that every man has to match your idea of a man. Sorry to disappoint, but there are more kinds of men, and it's not up to you to tell them what to be or how to live their lives. I think the OP's point is that everyone should have a healthy way to realize themselves, irrespective of whether they match our expectations or not.

<comment><USER3> > every man has to match your idea of a man.

On the contrary, those like the author who argue that some kinds of masculinity are "toxic" are the ones attempting to impose such restraints upon men.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The total number of high school shooters is a minuscule number, much small than the number of teenage murders.

The US murder rate hasn't increased significantly over the last twenty years, in fact, it's decreased.

We should be concerned with school shooters, of course, but taking them as a chance to generalize about most boys or even a small percentage of boys seems incorrect.

Oddly enough, Malcolm Gladwell has some trenchant comments on the dynamics behind school shootings and the role media and culture play in this.

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds- of-...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds-of-violence)

<comment><USER6> You're responding to points that the author hasn't made. Any time you're writing, you can absolutely not afford to explain to readers all of the things which you are _not_ talking about. You have to rely on a reader's ability to discern that there may well be other valid points besides the one(s) that you're writing about.

> but taking them as a chance to generalize about most boys or even a small > percentage of boys seems incorrect.

This points was made in the article. The author points that that boys committing mass killing is extremely uncommon. That most are okay. That nearly all will turn out fine.

That doesn't seem to me to be the point.

> We should be concerned with school shooters, of course

That (it seems to me) is the author's point. That all of the mass killings are committed by men. And since we are concerned with school shootings, masculinity in the context of modernity is one topic worth discussing.

Yes, it's only one topic amongst many. This article isn't about those topics. It's about one of the many topics. We can discuss how the world is getting better all the time (a statement I agree with), in some other article.

<comment><USER7> > That all of the mass killings are committed by men.

Should that honestly surprise us? Most killings are done by men. This has been true since time immemorial, going back to the time when we first stepped out of Africa.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The topical thesis of this article is extremely weak, considering:

1\. Male underachievement and lack of identity is happening elsewhere. Certainly in Canada. 2\. Mass shootings are not happening everywhere

I think there is a much simpler explantion for male mass shooters: men commit vastly more crime. America has a cultural tendency for mass shooting crime, so it shouldn't be surprising men dominate that crime like they do the rest.

Maybe fixing male identity would do it, but that's far from a given, and given international experience it doesn't seem to be the direct cause. (Men committed most crime even when they were confident in their identity)

The more likely cause is the legal structure around gun ownership in the United States.

<comment><USER9> America doesn't actually have a greater tendency towards mass shootings. In fact, Norway has the most per capita deaths from mass shootings across the US and Europe. There US is 11th in the rankings for death rate and 12th in frequency.

[https://crimeresearch.org/2015/06/comparing-death-rates- from...](https://crimeresearch.org/2015/06/comparing-death-rates-from-mass- public-shootings-in-the-us-and-europe/)

<comment><USER10> Those numbers are from 2009 through 2015. That's just cherry picking, because those years just _happen_ to include Anders Breivik. I think its well established that the US is the market leader in mass shootings.

 __Edit __: Also, the president of Crime Prevention Research Center is John Lott, who 's a known gun rights advocate. Your source does not seem to be very impartial.

<comment><USER9> Anders Breivik did not commit mass murders in 10 counties.

Edit: with regards to the US being the market leader, politifact rated a similar comment by Obama mostly false.

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/statements/2015/jun/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-correct-mass-killings- dont-happen-oth/)

<comment><USER11> What it rated false was the part where Obama said this type of thing doesn't happen (at all) in other countries.

And they went on to say that a lot of the other countries that ranked highly were small countries that had _a single attack_. Statistics don't work well in that regime.

And of course, here's what politifact themselves commented later:

"June 22, 2015: We heard from several of you regarding Obama's use of the word "frequency," and that frequency could refer to the incidents of mass shootings, not deaths as we examined. Looking at Obama's claim by incident, the United States has a higher rate of incidents than Finland, Norway and Switzerland. We agree that there is no preferred comparison and each is valid, and we've changed some language in this article to reflect that. ... "

<comment><USER9> Connecticut (the state where the Sandy Hook shooting too place) has a population of 3.6 million, compared to Norway's 5 million.

Would it be more reasonable to compare individual US states to individual European countries? If so, are we going to throw out outliers like Berveik and the Sandy Hook shooting? Because with that philosophy pretty soon there aren't any mass shootings anywhere.

<comment><USER11> Nope. First it is reasonable not to define such a thin slice of violent behavior (mass shootings of 6 or more people it related to another crime and some more criteria I can't remember) as to have a completely meaningless stat. If you unabashedly cherry pick like that, you can 'prove' anything you like.

Fact is: the us has 10x the gun deaths and 4-6x the homicides compared to other modern industrialized democracies.

Regardless of your attempts at spin.

<comment><USER9> Fact is: when you try to make a reasonable apples to apples comparison between the US and European countries with regards to mass shootings the numbers supporting your original statement are at best murky and at worst bordering on pants on fire falsehood.

You may have some valid points regarding gun deaths and homicide rates, but that's not what this discussion was about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> In my own experience the modern American young adult male is overcome with an intense feeling of powerlessness. Powerless to change the direction of his own life. Powerless to provide for himself and future family. Powerless to effect anything beyond the virtual world without violence.

There's no easy fix. It's the result of a combination of economics, culture, power structures, and parental disinterest in the lives of their young adults.

<comment><USER13> The social issues are real. Water quality probably plays a larger role than anyone wants to admit. Beyond that, the puberty hormone cocktail does plenty of damage on its own. Most of the factors are out of any individual's control. However, nutrition, exercise, and creating are the answers I found for myself. My family paid little attention to any of those and my few friends were like me so I didn't have enough exposure to the benefits to give them the effort they require. Fortunately in college I made friends with some powerlifters and art students, then a couple years after graduating I lived with a crazy artist very much unlike the art students I knew, who helped me loosen up and find the artist in myself, largely through psychadelics. I took weekly art classes from there.

Hints for any struggling young men reading this: starting strength and whole foods (not the store). Get fit and life gets better. Rebel against conformity by becoming the best human you can be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Part of the benefit of living in the Bay Area – other than tech – is early stage exposure to large scale social and cultural experiments. Hippies, New Age, Eastern mysticism (translated into Western culture), libertarianism, futurism, biohacking, micro-dosing, etc. etc. All of them seeking to find a new but familiar frame of reference for being human in a rapidly changing modern world.

In the whole of human history, every thriving culture had a dedicated male right of passage where a boy becomes a man... every culture except one... ours.

While not mainstream, a few newer practices in the vein of cultural biohacking exist as nascent replacements for right-of-passage ceremonies. The ones I've come across are somewhat underground or at least offline. They're not a secret, they're just currently weird in the same way Steve Jobs using meditation for productivity was unorthodox a few decades ago.

While it's easy to downplay the role of right-of-passage ceremonies as archaic, their existence served a necessary function. It's where a boy gained his confidence and understanding in his role in the community. A time where he stood up as a man to face his peers and elders. An expression at the core of human experience: claiming individual identity within a group.

The need for these ceremonies has not gone away. We just now see the aftermath of what happens when our culture no longer serves the needs of the individual, opting instead to serve the crowd. With men causing most of the newsworthy problems these days, perhaps the culture is not optimal for adapting biologically and socially male tendencies into our present reality.

I've had a chance to attend a few different right-of-passage ceremonies. It's hard to explain how powerful an intentionally crafted ceremony can be in transforming someone until you've seen it first hand. It's nearly impossible to describe.

</comment><comment><USER15> I was relentlessly bullied as a kid because I was not the typical boy type (which sane people now associate with a toxic masculinity). At one point my bullies (there are always a group that picks on the one) chased me onto a 20 meter dam where I fell into its spillway and almost drowned. My pursuers were never punished.

The only reason I didn't become a school shooter is because I literally did not know how to get a gun. I didn't live in a community where there was any kind of gun culture. That's all. If I would have had access to a gun I would have tried to kill them. Because they were, to any point of rationality, on a direct course to killing me. I felt like it was me or them.

I am _the_ school shooter poster child for gun control. Because I couldn't get a gun, I survived my ordeal and became a productive member of society. We need common sense gun control.

<comment><USER16> Or we could make more of an effort to foster a civilized environment so kids like you don't have legitimate grievances so severe that gunning down a group of people seems like the only solution.

I don't have any problem with the idea that folks don't need semi automatic assault rifles. But that is mostly not the framing I am hearing when gun control is mentioned and it appalls me to hear the argument you are making that someone victimized like you were should simply be deprived of a means to fight back and that is something good.

I am incredibly uncomfortable with the argument you are making. My dad was career military and I grew up with guns in the house. Having guns does not cause people to go postal. We need to stop being okay with a culture that routinely gives people a reason to go postal.

That doesn't happen overnight because of a single ugly incident. It is the outgrowth of years of things going wrong. And we should not be okay with that and taking the position that bullying is fine as long as the victim can't get an assault rifle.

<comment><USER15> _taking the position that bullying is fine as long as the victim can 't get an assault rifle_

That's not what I said or even implied. Of course we need to foster an environment that prevents bullying in the first place too. Doesn't mean we don't need common sense gun control like every other democracy has done _that doesn 't have the sort of problems with gun violence we have._

Furthermore, this constant barrage of specious anecdata of "I grew up with guns and there were no problems" flies in the face of what we know about households with guns statistically. You're far, far, far more likely to be killed with your own gun than to defend yourself lethally with it.

<comment><USER17> nickbauman says> _" every other democracy has done that doesn't have the sort of problems with gun violence we have."_

Statistics don't support what you're saying:

[https://crimeresearch.org/2015/06/comparing-death-rates- from...](https://crimeresearch.org/2015/06/comparing-death-rates-from-mass- public-shootings-in-the-us-and-europe/)

nickbauman says> _" You're far, far, far more likely to be killed with your own gun than to defend yourself lethally with it."_

The chance that you need to shoot someone to defend yourself, your family or your property or someone else's property is thankfully minuscule. And it is true that owning a weapon of any kind increases the risk of misuse (hence the need for proper education). But how about cases where a weapon was used to defend oneself or break off the attack?

Statistics aren't collected on such encounters.

<comment><USER15> The crimeresearch link you posted is cherrypicking data like crazy. First it uses a very narrow window of _6 years_ to make its assertions. Then US gun violence sky high problem isn't just about mass shootings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't think there's any single thing responsible. But when I contrast growing up in the fifties and sixties versus today one difference stands out and that's the nuclear family.

Did you know that you're twice as likely to live in a single family household in the USA than Canada? That might be part of the reason why Canada doesn't have school shootings and we do.

[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-inequality-we- do...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-inequality-we-dont-talk- about/article15636708/)

</comment><comment><USER19> > But to even admit our terror is to be reduced, because we don't have a model > of masculinity that allows for fear or grief or tenderness or the day-to-day > sadness that sometimes overtakes us all.

Is this really the big issue? It seems the current "model" of masculinity while recently undergoing heavy debate has historically been pretty consistent.

If it was a serious issue that men couldn't cry a few times a day it should have been an issue throughout history?

<comment><USER20> > If it was a serious issue that men couldn't cry a few times a day it should > have been an issue throughout history?

Hypothesis: Men have always been able to "take their frustration out" on women (sexually or otherwise). Now that women are becoming less tolerant of that dynamic, it's affecting men in unforeseen ways.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Christina Sommer's "The War Against Boys"* is pretty relevant.

* Not "The War on Boys", it's the "The War Against Boys", my bad.

<comment><USER3> Philip Zimbardo, who ran the Stanford Prison Experiment, has written and spoken on this topic too.

TED talk: [https://www.ted.com/talks/zimchallenge](https://www.ted.com/talks/zimchallenge)

Man, Interrupted (Why Young Men are Struggling & What We Can Do About It): [https://www.amazon.com/Man-Interrupted-Young-Struggling- Abou...](https://www.amazon.com/Man-Interrupted-Young-Struggling-About- ebook/dp/B01BZLTBCA/)

<comment><USER21> thanks for the amazon link, it's now bumped up to my next read.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Besides withdrawal and rage, there are plenty of ways of handling it. You can be a Total Badass(tm) in your work. You can offer clear, consistent, moral, protective leadership. You can be a crusader against all that is extraneous or deceptive, a warrior for clarity and simplicity. Or something.

Unfortunately your role as a defender of others probably won't be fulfilling unless you join the armed forces or a gang. Because you probably live in a an ugly car-choked suburban dystopia with douchebags all around, meaning you have no place to care about and no one worth defending. Not that they were in any danger anyway, in their SUV tank on the way to the mall. But that's why people join the armed forces or gangs. They're the only things left.

I don't have time right now to treat this topic properly. And I kind of think more talking-about-it might not be the answer anyway.

EDIT: Or the police force, put that in there too.

</comment><comment><USER23> I don't know whether it has anything to do with the shootings or not, but the problem is real.

American men and boys are really denied any kind of culture or identity because of political correctness.

I can go to a Dewali celebration, and it's obvious the people there have a cultural identity. But try making an American version of that, and it will either be drained of any real culture or come across as intolerant or at least unaccomodating.

The male identity issue is just a part of the larger cultural identity issue.

Aside: I think "guy" is one of the worst examples. Ambiguous about gender and adulthood at the same time. What an identity-killer.

</comment><comment><USER24> > Boys are broken, and I want to help.

I haven't seen michael ian black perform or on tv in many years, but if "isn't it funny what a vicious and petty jerk I am" still makes up a majority of his act/screen persona, maybe he can start by changing that.

</comment><comment><USER25> > the complexities of womanhood, its many forms and expressions.

> help [boys] navigate toward a full expression of their gender

> outdated model of masculinity

What kind of framing of the problem is this? There is no such salvageable thing as any objective "womanhood" or "the male gender" or "masculinity". We have biological sex and we have a power dynamic of which roles and socialized behaviors are the main properties. Take away men's social power structure of over women, and "womanhood" "gender" "masculinity" refer to nothing, or very clinical medical things.

<comment><USER26> Argument could by made as to whether or not power dynamic is directly linked to biological sex (in general) at the biological level.

<comment><USER25> Then the questions obviously become "how do we prove that?" and then "how do we work against the crippling effects that condition obviously has on civilization?"

Who has gotten past the first within the scientific community? Until they appear, I'll assume the less extraordinary claim that gendered behaviors are socialized

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> One of the biggest health progress in the 20th century was hygiene. I believe that the 21st century will introduce us to mental hygiene.

I was watching cartoons recently with my little boy and was amazed at the focus that some put on emotions and how to react to them. That some have a discussion over stress or impulsive behaviors. I did not remember such discussion in my childhood cartoons. I was surprised (and slightly ashamed) to actually learn some stuff from these.

<comment><USER28> Which cartoons? Any to recommend?

<comment><USER27> I got this thought while watching Steven Universe but this is a general trend. A friend told me that Inside Out got her kids starting to talk more about their emotions too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I thought I'd stay away from commenting this article, but the more I consider what was said the more I'm concerned.

A few points:

1\. The article starts off with putting down the behavior of other men. As if it was a weakness to have difficulty in expressing a displeasure. "The way to emasculate a man is to..." I wasn't as much about, lets help the person to realize this, as much as it was to embarass. (No wonder men can't be vulenerable)

2\. It goes on to claim that men and only men were the problem with the violence. It didn't go on to complex situations where they may be doing it over jealously, competition for women, as the result of (Elliot Rodgers and his "women" problem), or even persuaded by women. If you're going to talk about a loopsided amount of violence by men, it may be helpful to seperate the violence by proxy. I would suggest bringing up actual crime data that goes indepth about these situations as a counter point. Brief massacures are nothing new, but they are something to consider solving. \--- Mr. Black should have made a trueful effort in suggesting that we should be more concerned about the development, and socialization of boys to men.

3\. The Boys vs Girls arguement in schools: If you really want to be truthful, explain where it came and how it came to be. Go on and explain how the AAUW influenced schools with faulty data to change how education was done. Explain how there is a lack of male teachers in the classrooms. (And why male teachers are by far kicked out of the schools) There have been studies (I don't have them on hand) that suggest gender seperated schools. I'm all for that.

4\. "Toxic masculanity"\- Again, he's trying to frame traits that are common in males, and in the presence of testotrone in a negative light. He even goes as far as to claim that "it's a model for behavior". It's not. I would suggestion how the environment attempts to surpress these traits and refuses to allow for it to be expressed completely. I.e.: boys rough housing, supression of anger, supression of male bonding, and suppression of independence (helicopter parents, sociality expectations/impressions etc)

5\. Soy boys- lol. In a way I would agree with them, on the metalevel where they would claim that you are betraying your own biological configuration. (In the whole article he keeps tring to maintain a frame that masculine traits are bad) However, they're bully's and they say it because they know that they can get to you. (In a masculine world, those bully's would be beaten as that it's asocial behavior)

6\. Binding the male development to feminism. Sigh. Can men ever not be compared to women? This is incredibly tiring.

</comment><comment><USER26> > We will probably never understand why any one young man decides to end the > lives of others. [...]

Actually, there is a very easy answer and precisely why men join armed forces, or a biker's club / gang / ISIS: power. [and to follow up on this, the same "will to power" that our societies have deprived them of.]

<comment><USER30> Adult men joining gangs just seems so childish.

I remember wanting to be in a gang when I was 15 years old but I grew out of it.

<comment><USER19> Did you grow up in the lower class though?

You would never expect someone from the upper class for instance to join a street gang and rare for people from the middle class in general.

You might think it is childish, but if it's presented to you as the ticket to success in your otherwise unsuccessfull world, why would it be childish?

<comment><USER31> joining the golf club? Cliques are not unknown in middle class life. We may heap scorn upon them by naming them gangs in conversation. Organisational rules being more subtle does not make an organised group less effective than disorganised individuals. Management "teams" are a thing most of us have to deal with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Would he follow the same line of reasoning, if the shooter was Muslim?

</comment><comment><USER33> Girls aren't pulling the triggers? The "modern" school shooting was invented by a girl in San Diego when a Brenda Spencer shot up an elementary school:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Elementary_School_sh...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Elementary_School_shooting_\(San_Diego\))

There was even a pop song written about the incident.

And more recently, Tafsheen Malik, shot up a San Bernadino workplace along with her husband.

And a woman along with her husband went on a shooting rampage in Vegas in 2014. [http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-cop-killers-husband- wife-...](http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-cop-killers-husband-wife- team/story?id=24052877)

Women were persons of interest in the most recent Vegas shooting, and the wife of the Pulse gunman was arrested in connection with the murders ([http://abcnews.go.com/US/wife-pulse-nightclub-gunman-omar- ma...](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wife-pulse-nightclub-gunman-omar-mateen- arrested-san/story?id=44808948)).

Women can and do pick up guns and murder.

<comment><USER34> As has already been hinted to by others it's not that girls don't:

It seems that as usual boys just do more. Win more. Fail more. Fail more spectacularly. Etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> That was a nice read and there's a lot of truth there. I've always thought the US's ideals of masculinity are untenable.

</comment><comment><USER36> > Girls aren't pulling the triggers. It's boys. It's almost always boys.

One could argue that it is the abundance of guns thats the issue. Why not consider repealing the 2nd Amendment? Do something like what Australia did. 2nd Amendment seems to be too masculine anyway.

> It's no longer enough to "be a man" — we no longer even know what that > means.

"Toxic masculinity" is a phrase that seems to be thrown around a bit ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_masculinity)). And it seems to be mostly applied to western (white) men. I would argue that western white males are more 'broken' compared to other males.

> Too many boys are trapped in the same suffocating, outdated model of > masculinity, where manhood is measured in strength, where there is no way to > be vulnerable without being emasculated, where manliness is about having > power over others.

Possibly. As the author says, the lack of focus on men / boys hasn't given them a fresh way of channeling their masculinity in the 21st century.

> I would like men to use feminism as an inspiration, in the same way that > feminists used the civil rights movement as theirs.

Not sure how he means it.

(Western) men are having less sex, watching more porn. The testosterone levels have plummeted. Special programs are being held for females, LGBT, etc but not for men due to unquantifiable broad points about "history of patriarchy" and "white male privilege". More broadly, the Y chromosome is kinda fizzling out (at least according to some studies, I've seen other studies that claim thats not the case). Western men are facing shortening life expectancies, high suicide rates, depression, etc. There is a complete lack of social fabric. Nothing unites them anymore (no military, religion, honor, purpose).

But isn't this the world that many intellectuals are looking for? Don't we want to remove western male dominance? Don't we want people to control their sexual promiscuity? Don't we all agree that patriarchy is bad so we have to destroy it? And that white men have had a historical advantage that should be taken away?

I was always under the impression that the thing that makes western society great is that everyone is supposed to be equal. So why tolerate excessive masculinity from western males?

Edit: case in point, this article has been insta-flagged from the front page. Shows you how much even HN cares about boys/men. And maybe that's good, western males apparently have a lot of privilege anyway.

<comment><USER26> > I was always under the impression that the thing that makes western society > great is that everyone is supposed to be equal.

What makes the Western societies great revolve more around "equality of opportunity" than "equality of outcome", which, if I'm not mistaken, you seem to imply.

<comment><USER36> I'm not too sure. Equality of opportunity doesn't help uplift marginalized populations. At least outcome can be measured and so that could be one way of guiding the uplifting of populations. Example, women earning equal to men. The phrasing there is not "women get the same opportunities as men for careers, etc". No one is stopping women from going into the same careers as men. But, apparently (according to people much "smarter" than me), that is not helping women. So, they look at the outcome : are women making the same as men? If not, lets try to optimize that objective function.

So west definitely seems to be quite heavy on outcomes. But maybe this is just semantics?

<comment><USER37> [https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Berge...](https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Enough with the Boston Start-up Inferiority Complex - <AUTHOR> http://buzzboston.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/enough-with-the-boston-inferiority-complex/ Boston is tied with San Jose in Q2 for total number of venture-backed IPOs. <comment><USER2> I wish I could agree with this, but as someone who switches back and forth between the two every year, Boston is way behind.

<comment><USER3> To be fair, the author's more arguing that Boston's not behind in the more traditional start scene. For YC stuff, the Valley seems much more willing to go in big on less mature and potentially less profitable companies. No IPO's have happened in the web 2.0 space, which demonstrates that his metric is blind to the sort of thing you care about most.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In many ways, both Boston and Silicon Valley have a lot in common -- cities with character that attract likely startup founders, world class universities, a well developed VC community and so on. But they differ in a couple of ways (1) Boston is unbearably cold 6 months of the year (2) Silicon Valley has a more vibrant immigrant community. While (2) may not matter much in the case of Web related startups (for reasons that I cant really figure out, I have seen fewer immigrants gravitate towards founder positions in web based startups), the effect is more pronounced in the case of Enterprise startups. Every other enterprise startup in the Bay Area seems to have an immigrant as a co-founder -- often in the role of CTO or VP of Engg.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think I read recently that the VC money invested in Boston-area is about 1/4th that of Silicon Valley. (For "IT" tech, not biotech.)

I like how Scott Kirsner, Globe reporter, compared it to the Red Sox vs. Yankees rivarly. The Sox have a huge budget compared to most teams, except the Yankees. And while the Sox have a complex about the Yankees, the Yankees barely know their is a rivalry. Can't go wrong with Red Sox analogies ;-)

<comment><USER3> The Yankees don't know there's a rivalry? You're kidding yourself. If you've been to a Sox/Yankees game in either Boston or the Bronx, you know the hate is mutual.

<comment><USER6> I lived in NYC for 2 years and have been in Boston for 3. New Yorkers care much less about the RedSox than Bostonians care about the Yankees.

Similarly, I have to agree with the grandparent that people in the valley don't think about Boston much.

But this navel-gazing turns me off. If you're working on a startup and want to live in Boston, just forget it and get to work.

Pining for a better environment is very different than building it.

<comment><USER7> That's because bostonians care about the redsox way more than newyorkers care about the yankees. WAY more.

<comment><USER6> I can believe that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is San Francisco included in the San Jose metro region? If not, then probably the entire upper half of the peninsula isn't included in the comparison.

Looks like it is, though. That's weird.</comment>


Facebook Identity Is Extortion and Slander - <AUTHOR> http://zedshaw.com/2015/09/20/facebook-identity-is-extortion-and-slander/ <comment><USER2> > they are exerting editorial control on identities

This is something that a lot of people (including Facebook) need to realize. Policies like Facebook's "real name" requirement - and the power to decide which names qualify as "real" \- is the very definition of "editorial control".

It doesn't matter what the original _intention_ was in creating that policy; if the situation as described by in the linked post are true, then Facebook's choices in how they handle account names have included (probably unintentionally) the choice to libel someone who doesn't even use their service.

The power to "edit" opens up the possibility of being liable for those edits. Sometimes it might be a better idea to avoid the liability risk by avoiding content-based decisions.

<comment><USER3> Here's one telling example of the real name editor control.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussi_Halla- aho](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussi_Halla-aho)

[https://www.facebook.com/jussi.hallaaho](https://www.facebook.com/jussi.hallaaho)

He's a member of the European Parliament and Facebook still doesn't allow his real surname. So he's Hallaaho, which is wrong even by Finnish linguistic standards, which state that all compound words with duplicate vowels should have a hyphen, like "Lähi-itä" which is Finnish for Middle East.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Obviously Facebook is evil and should be avoided. But has he informed his friends of the impostor? Maybe they could report him or at least comment on the impostor's posts that he's an impostor.

Of course that doesn't change the fact that Facebook should not be encouraging impostors while cracking down on real people, but it might help his predicament.

(Irony: his blog requires login through third parties like Facebook in order to respond.)

</comment><comment><USER5> clearly the likelihood of harm to the OP is significant, but what's also clear is that many others are at risk. A frustrating dilemma indeed--a kind of damage caused through the fb platform, that presents the biggest risk to those without fb accounts, and the most obvious means of prevision is...to sign up for fb.

always enjoyed Mr Shaw's writing on technical subjects; deep practical wisdom, complete contempt for empty authority, and very dry humor--to wit (from the OP): "Imagine if this person decided to start [p]osting offensive messages pretending to be me. [W]ell honestly I doubt this guy could do that better than me, but the point is, they could invent some form of slander that would ruin my book sales."

<comment><USER2> > sign up for fb

This is exactly the _wrong_ way to deal with this problem. Like the term "identify theft" where liable party is the bank lending to someone without proper identity verification, this shift the responsibility to the victim.

Currently, Mr Shaw (or anybody else in a similar situation) has no relationship with Facebook. From his perspective, Facebook simply stated to libel him. If he instead decided to play into Facebook's game and open an account, the disclaimers in Facebook's ToS probably limit his legal options. Facebook gains a significant legal advantage if you choose to fight by their rules.

<comment><USER5> not what i said or even suggested, i mentioned it as the most apparent solution, particularly given that fb (obviously) recommends this solution, as indeed they did not Jed Shaw.</comment></comment></comment>


The Reality of Touring Revenue from Someone Who Has Done It for 32 Years - <AUTHOR> https://thetrichordist.com/2016/02/16/the-reality-of-touring-revenue-from-someone-who-has-done-it-for-32-years/ <comment><USER2> Touring revenue, in this article, references artists/bands performing live music. Probably obvious, to most, but my first thought was cycling-related, ala Le Tour de France.

<comment><USER3> My first thought was even further off - was wondering what sort of revenue came from some sort of Turing system...</comment></comment>


Yelp Is Growing 80 Percent A Year - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/02/yelp-is-growing-80-percent-a-year-while-citysearch-remains-flat/

<comment><USER2> After reading this article and some of the comments, Yelp reminds me of the Stephen Kaufer/TripAdvisor chapter in _Founders at Work_.

TripAdvisor was acquired by IAC/Expedia, which made perfect sense seeing as they were pushing so many users over to travel sites for booking.

I'm just trying to see if there's a similar fit for Yelp. Maybe something like OpenTable, although they don't have a huge market share. I don't know ...

<comment><USER3> I doubt they have the money, although there's an outside chance one of them could scrape it up, but it strikes me as a fairly perfect fit for any big newspaper, such as the NYT or the Washington Post, who actually has a somewhat similar (good, but it's no Yelp) local product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It makes me sad that Yelp won't innovate in their core product. The site UI is virtually unchanged in 3+ years. I'd love to see them un-bury the histogram of ratings, and add granularity such that a tween complaining about the waiter's shoes isn't weighed the same as a 500-word review of a tasting menu's intricacies.

</comment><comment><USER5> By users, not dollars...</comment>


The rise and... rise of Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/all/1

<comment><USER2> The problem with bitcoin is technical, not economical.

It takes too long to make a transaction, there were no easy built in backups built into the wallet, you needed to download the entire block chain, while sometimes you couldn't even GET to the p2p network without hardwiring in a fallback ip, which frankly goes against the whole point. There is also the problem on non-continuous curves through out the whole thing. Every two weeks miners would get onto irc and bitch about the newest hardness level. Why is it every two weeks? That is crazy. Also, why are we running GPU cards for weeks on end just to ensure distribution. That is stupid.

This is the internet with computers, it should take less than 500 ms to confirm a transaction. It should take less than 10 seconds to install bitcoin and accept a new transfer (ie, I shouldn't have to download the entire blockchain). I shouldn't have to heat my house while ensuring the accuracy of the block chain.

The next bitcoin will address these concerns, and will be widely adopted.

Disclaimer: I made a decent amount of money speculating on Bitcoins.

<comment><USER3> Don't you think a bigger problem is that it's too much of a psychological hurdle for non-technical adopters? Try explaining the concept of bitcoins to most people and they'll become more hesitant, confused or even fearful than interested. Even if the technical concerns are addressed I don't think this gap can be overcome in our lifetime for such a concept to be widely adopted; the current system is too far entrenched.

<comment><USER4> Try explaining the concept of paper money (as it is currently used) to most people and they'll be very confused. But they still use it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love bitcoin. The concept is right up the alley of some of the anti- inflation ideals of milton friedman, locke, keynes, and hayek. The only problem I see is that many people are incentivized to invest in it and hoard it, not to spend it.

Maybe something like a major global economic collapse would actually result in adoption of something like bitcoin; maybe in the long run it'd be good....

<comment><USER6> Hoarding may happen only in the growth phase. As soon as that becomes stagnant (as a long term trend) people will stop hoarding them.

And isn't hoarding kind of a different word for saving money? The current financial crisis came from huge loans that incentivized careless spending. Maybe a currency that doesn't let you spend on impulse isn't such a bad thing.

<comment><USER5> _Hoarding may happen only in the growth phase. As soon as that becomes stagnant...people will stop hoarding them._

Yeah, that seems to be the trend. It's opening up more and more (thankfully!).

 _And isn't hoarding kind of a different word for saving money?_

Well, I'm not saying the hoarding is necessarily a bad thing. I just mean that hoarding, yes, like saving, limits the available quantity of bitcoins. That raises the barrier to entry for many, many people, but as you pointed out that will deflate over time, hopefully.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think the article get across quite well the cult-like nature of the whole bitcoin ecosystem, from the founder worship to the reflexive scorn its adherents heap on non-believers. This point is tellingly reinforced by the HN submitter changing the title of the article from 'The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin' to 'The rise and... rise of Bitcoin'.

In a way, the sheer naivety of the bitcoin enterprise is quite endearing, despite the currency having no more chance of success than the libertarian oil rig city state ever did.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm sure there will be another Bitcoin. I'm also sure the founder is smart enough to know (e.g. in his note about Wikileaks) that something like this must be introduced in stages. In fact, the design of Bitcoin (e.g. the sharp inflationary tendencies stemming from lack of supply) more or less guarentee that it will be adopted by a few enthusiasts but not make it to mass consumption. Frankly, I think Sir Nakamoto also knew this from the beginning and considered this nothing more than a test run.

</comment><comment><USER9> with bitcoin under $3 I'm not sure the 'rise and rise' spin is merited.

maybe this is the 'valley of sorrow' after the 'crunch of initiation'.

but without a sounder legal basis, trustworthy, transparent governance, ability to evolve gracefully, bitcoin seems like an interesting experiment, but not very likely to be a widespread medium of exchange, stable store of value, unit of accounting.</comment>


The profound planetary consequences of eating less meat - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/21/the-incredible-planetary-consequences-of-a-vegetarian-diet <comment><USER2> This extrapolates from current popular meat production practices which are themselves quite new. In order to make general conclusions like this it is necessary to account for the variety of production alternatives available and in development. Vat grown biomeats are very new but appear to have quite different consequences from possible mass production. The problem isn't the meat, but how the meat is produced.

</comment><comment><USER3> I love how they made the article fair and balanced by including a quote from some PR person at the "North American Meat Institute".

</comment><comment><USER4> It is weird that this article didn't make it to the top page.</comment>


From Generative Models To Generative Agents – Koray Kavukcuogla @ DeepMind - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7V2udi5nCo <comment><USER2> The future of machine learning definitely lies in the vicinity of some combination of hierarchical reinforcement learning for training agents to achieve the tasks we want.

It's amazing to see that DeepMind continues to be at the forefront of this ML leap, and I can't be more excited to see what comes out in the future!</comment>


Ever visited a search result only to find one of your search terms isn't there? - <AUTHOR> http://finderr.com.ar

<comment><AUTHOR> I made this in an hour or so when learning the web.py basics. It's running on mod_wsgi.

Very simple but it's something I find relatively useful (it forces Google not to ever discard any of the search terms, which comes in handy when searching for error messages, log fragments, etc.), so I thought I'd share it here in case someone else does too.

More background on the motivation for this here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2931994>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Well, I can't edit this anymore but I decided to give it a shorter URL so it's more convenient (I had one free anyway):

<http://finderr.org>

Hope someome finds it useful!</comment>


Microsoft wins Global Randstad Award (most attractive employer brand ) - <AUTHOR> http://www.randstad.com/randstad-award/award-news/microsoft-wins-global-randstad-award/ <comment><AUTHOR> I had never heard of this award. Some Microsoft employees are sharing it around claiming it demonstrates Microsoft is a great place to work.

I read the award description and...that doesn't sound like that is what this award is for. It isn't based on data collected from employees, but rather from the general public based on their impression of what it might be like to work for a given company.

Hence the Randstad's own description which awkwardly reads that it is "the most attractive employer". Not the best employer, but the most attractive.</comment>


Unofficial Atom Builds for Windows - <AUTHOR> http://blog.someguy123.com/atom-builds-for-windows/ <comment><USER2> Works great for me on Win8.1 x64. Thanks for doing this.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for this.

If you get errors while extracting with WinRar, like "Total path and file name length must not exceed 260 characters", then use the advice here[0] to work around it.

[0] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13178377/winrar-total- pat...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13178377/winrar-total-path-and- file-name-length-must-not-exceed-260-characters)

> I recommend extracting it so that the base directory is C:\Atom or whichever > drive you prefer, as this prevents long path name errors.

The issue I am referring to is not the same as the issue at the end of the post. I'm referring to an issue with the temp folder that WinRar uses, and not the path to which you are extracting.

One more edit: Working well on Win7 Pro SP1.

<comment><AUTHOR> Strange. It seems to extract to C:\Atom fine over here, it refuses to extract to my desktop though, Surely my Desktop is shorter than AppData\Local\Temp o_O

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you have any questions about the builds, reply to this comment and I'll help you.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, are these errors normal?

[http://discuss.atom.io/t/installation-issue-on- windows/8812](http://discuss.atom.io/t/installation-issue-on-windows/8812)

<comment><AUTHOR> Those are when building. I got them too, all I had to do was run script\build a second time and it worked. No idea what's wrong there, but it's not a big problem (other than being a really misleading error)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I tried this thing on Linux yesterday, and when searching for a plugin, I got the chrome dev tools open and present me with an error...I'm surprised it came out of beta. Does this problem happen in Windows?

<comment><USER6> It's not out of beta on Linux, so I'm not sure what you're surprised about.

<comment><USER5> It is? The readme/installation instructions (github) don't mention that anywhere. But actually, I got it working, so all good.

<comment><USER7> It is pre-1.0, and only official builds are provided for OSX so far. That said people are having a lot of luck getting things working on disparate configurations so I am feeling optimistic about the progress of lin/win!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Thanks. I tried building from the source and it worked without errors but then I couldn't figure out how to actually run it? How did you compile the executable?

<comment><AUTHOR> When you run script\build it automatically tries to install it in program files. If it failed to do that, you can also copy %temp%\atom-build and run the exe from there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Thank you kind sire. Works perfectly fine.

</comment><comment><USER10> Power of making something open source !

</comment><comment><USER11> where is the source for your unofficial build?

<comment><AUTHOR> You mean the source code? I compiled it from their github.

[https://github.com/atom/atom](https://github.com/atom/atom)</comment></comment>


Nginx distribution with advanced features, by Alibaba - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/alibaba/tengine

<comment><USER2> Check [https://github.com/openresty/ngx_openresty/issues/54](https://github.com/openresty/ngx_openresty/issues/54)

As agentzh claims, tengine makes much bigger changes to nginx and if you check the repo it's only 1.4 compatible while 1.6 has been out since April. Openresty has patches against 1.7 even.</comment>


PyVersion - Simple Version Control System in Python - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Max00355/PyVersion

<comment><USER2> That's actually not version control system. It's a very insecure and simplistic file server/client. It's also single-threaded and blocking on all operations (so single-client really).

Why not use an existing protocol for big files, or just redis or something similar for small fragments?</comment>


NSA's SKYNET machine learning algo may be killing thousands of innocent people - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/02/the-nsas-skynet-program-may-be-killing-thousands-of-innocent-people/ <comment><USER2> [2016]</comment>


Help HN: Want to build small web app for learning and side income. - <AUTHOR> Hi Guys,
        I am long time HN follower. I always been benefited from HN community.
I am a full time developer and can code in ASP.NET (both web form and MVC), PHP (also i am beginner in ruby).
I want to build web app from which i can earn $200 - $400 per month.
Its not a big amount but it gives me following benefit which is more valuable for me.
1. Motivation for bigger move. 2. Getting experience in running SaaS based apps. 3. Side income. 4. Good learning about business, marketing and other non programming things.
I know i can make these kind of money though some freelancing but that option i am not looking for now.
I can invest my time 2-3 hours on weekdays and 5-6 hours on weekends (around 20 hours in week). Also i can invest up too $300 if i have to do buy some sort of services/hardware etc.
Problem is I am not been able to think about any web app idea which solves some problem.
Please give me some idea about any web app which I should build.
I am not from US or Europa.
I am having high hopes from HN community.
Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> I'd say you posted in the right place because lots of people here have the opposite problem - too many ideas, not enough time. Here's my list of random ideas that I feel can make some money each month if executed well: [http://bulletxt.zetabee.com/share?n=1548888784&h=SHdydmJ...](http://bulletxt.zetabee.com/share?n=1548888784&h=SHdydmJXeWJHa25sbEtVSnJvcG9Wdz09)

I haven't updated it in a few months because I've been busy with an interesting project. Maybe something on the list will inspire you. You're welcome to take an idea directly too if you wish. Do let me know so I can move it down to the baked list :)

<comment><USER3> How would you monetize these? Mostly from just adding Adsense to the page? [For example, I'm looking at the geolocation of #hate/#love tags, and the imbored-counter.]

<comment><USER2> That works. In my experience, 1k visitors = $1. If you want $100/month, that's $3/day = 3k visitors/day. Not impossible to get with something catchy/popular. Make four of these and you hit your goal. It's not easy but it's not impossible either.

<comment><USER4> Please, there is something called niche and keywords in Adsense.

I have had a website in the barcode niche and the click was as high as $5-$7 with a 2-3% conversion ratio. That's like $15/100 visitors only and yes I was making that much.

You can check the PPC in adwords for scanner tools, it's exteremly high.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I would go to Elance and look through the things people are paying for. If you can find something that lots of people are buying but can be commoditized you've found a winner. Since you are experienced in PHP, make some PHP component that people want but the current solutions are crap. Web Developers will easily pay $100 for something of quality that will save time. I think it is easier to sell a digital product than SaaS if you want to do this part time. It's nice to get your money and have no further obligation to your customer. As far as marketing, you can submit a PAD of your software product. That will give you a surprising amount of free traffic. Also, you can giveaway licenses of your product via bloggers. To accept payments I use FastSpring. It looks professional and there are no setup or monthly costs (so no risk). Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER6> You can spend less than that $300 until you get going if you use GoogleAppEngine, where you'd only end up paying if you get higher levels of usage.

Rackspace cloud will cost $10 a month for the basic server if you need to not use java/python, as it sounds like you might need to. You theoretically can do Ruby on GAE via a java implementation, and php I think...

If you need web design, you're going to be a little short there likely to get it done, but you may be able to learn enough to get going there.

<comment><USER7> Just to also mention heroku is free too until you use 5MB of database size, which is great for getting it out there, and depending on your type of site 5MB might get you quite a way.

<comment><USER6> Are there other services like this for php or more python ones? I'd though GAE was really the only one in its type.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Play with Google CSE and build niche search engine <http://www.google.com/cse/>

I built a nifty search engine using Google CSE API over a weekend. It got over 30,000 unique visitors per day and made $2,000 per month.

It was probably one of the most advanced search engine built on Google CSE.

<comment><USER9> Made? What happened to it?

<comment><USER8> After running for a year on Google CSE. I built my own search platform and was able to grow it to over 100,000 visitors per day.

<comment><USER10> How much are you making now?

<comment><USER8> At it's peak, I made $15,000 per month.

Then I pulled the plug, because most of the users were using it to search movies and music. I had no legal troubles, but I did not want to stay in the gray area.

<comment><USER11> Can I have URL of your service?

<comment><USER8> The name of search engine was ShareMiner, it was very popular. The website is now dead, but you can read about it at:

<http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/shareminer-search-web-files/>

[http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/shareminer-com- search-t...](http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/shareminer-com-search- through-rapidshare)

[http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2008/01/pl...](http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2008/01/pl_playlist1602?slide=9&slideView=2)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Here's a few links with ideas:

<http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/>

<http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html>

<http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html>

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

<http://astartupaday.wordpress.com/>

<http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/>

I've taken all these from a list in the 'Start Small, Stay Small' book here: <http://www.startupbook.net/>

Good luck!

<comment><USER12> I'm the author of the 'A Startup A Day' blog listed above. There several hundred ideas on the blog, but feel free to email me and I'm happy to help you pick out a few that fit what you're looking for. Contact info is in my profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> When you're looking at ideas, filter not just for how much a particular idea interests you but how much it will cost to market. A productivity app that addresses a specific issue, for example, has a much more defined, low cost route to market than a website where you need to work with multiple manufacturers and attract consumers to launch a crowd-sourced clothing line production website.

The simplest formula is: 1. Solve a specific problem; 2. Tell the people who have the problem that you've solved it; 3. Convert them; 4. Profit. If the number of people you need to reach with #2 is vast, it's less likely you will reach #4 with the kind of budget you're talking about.

</comment><comment><USER14> Talk to people about what sucks about their job. Pick the problem with the most whines per lines of codeit will take to fix. Fair warning: $200 a month projects get drastically bigger if you figure out marketing.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm in the same boat with similar skill set. Do you want to get-together on IM for some brainstorming? May be we can work together on something. Contact is in the profile, if you are interested.

</comment><comment><USER16> You should see if one of these works for you - <http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html>

<comment><USER17> There are some very clever ideas in there. Number 4 ("A website that you can submit your design and work with vendors to manufacture your own clothes line") is something I'm sure my wife would take advantage of.

I wonder how much of a market there is for something like this, or how many people want to be a micro-boutique?

<comment><USER18> That exists already. It's fairly new, but I forgot the name.

<comment><USER19> <http://www.garmz.com/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Numbers 1, 2 and 4 are very easy to satisfy. Several people have already posted lists of ideas that they and others maintain. I seem to recall Y-Combinator posting lists of the types of projects they wish to look at in the future too, so it would be worth searching for them. If you can't self host then .NET hosting is going to cost you around US$10 a month, although there are deals to be had - I think I pay $35 for 6 months of web and SQL Server hosting with a company that is passable for what I need it for. Unless you have a real passion to learn something new, I'd stick with the languages you now, it will be much quicker to get to where you need to go than if you learn a whole new language.

But the problem is in monetization. Firstly if you can get an idea from start to making money in 6 months (for example) then I don't think there is really a cap on what you can make, I can't see a reason why $400 per month would be all you would want to make, and if you make something that can make money you should always be able to find new users (an exception to that might be if you made something very specific to only a few people and had an easy way to market it - eg something 100 HN users might like and no one else).

But defining a web app that you can develop and easily make money is not easy. Most people's "idea lists" have lots of very interesting ideas, few of them I can ever imagine making a penny. My suggestion would be to look around you, you have a job, is any of the software you develop something you can clone and sell to other businesses (there are legal issues there, but you can often work around them and it depends where you are). Are there everyday tasks that people are using spreadsheets or Access DB's or paper to do that you could create a system for and charge $10 a month? Find an idea like that, spend 10, 20 or 50 dollars on Google Adwords pointing to a fake sales page and see if you have a market. Good luck.

<comment><USER21> I totally agree on the latter point. Before you code anything, as your primary goal here is making money, get an Adwords voucher and see if you can get traffic to your site from ads. If people are clicking, then there's probably something there. If nobody visits your site after a bit of promotion, what's to say customers will visit when there is actually a product there? You can go right as far as the credit card signup page, depending on how you morally view misleading potential customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Start with Paul Graham's essay about startup ideas:

<http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html>

Phrase the idea as a question worth exploring: can I build a startup on the idea of [insert idea here]?

To quote:

> Treating a startup idea as a question changes what you're looking for. If an > idea is a blueprint, it has to be right. But if it's a question, it can be > wrong, so long as it's wrong in a way that leads to more ideas.

So what I suggest you do, is build a webapp based on some idea, but don't count on it making you much money. You'll still be getting experience and learning how to run and manage your servers (and that's really the core of your business).

$200/mo is quite manageable if you just put Google ads and have a decent amount of visitors. To do that, you don't need to have a business idea, you just need a site that provides some cool service that a decent amount of people would want to use it.

Point being, you don't have to hunt for a business idea.

</comment><comment><USER23> even I am a full time employee (but m a Fresh Graduate). I have been seriously giving a thought on starting something of my own or at least deploy some application on apps engine and throw it for review on HN. I work on Java. Currently located at Cornell University, working on Semantic Web Application. Interested in Information retrieval and Machine Learning. Currently working on Semantic search and developing a small hobby application of entity finder. Can I be of help to anyone ? or anyone wants to work together towards some idea/application ? I struggle to take out some time for hobby projects with all day packed with project and assignments ( I have taken some additional courses in Comp. Sci here) but still there is this constant urge to do something more interesting and throw it out to people.

</comment><comment><USER24> Not sure if you are still a student or working full time.

I have few ideas but I guess only student would be interested to work on it.

These ideas wont make you millionaire but you will definitely make enough money to pay your rent and will help you learn how to do business in general.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am full time employee but can invest time (around 15-20 hours).

My mission is simple; learn business by doing business even earning is small.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Have you started working on anything ?

</comment><comment><USER25> The $1,000,000 dollar question... Literally

<comment><USER26> Well, the $1,000,000 answer is worth $0 if you can't make something out of it.

<comment><USER23> sorry! no offence... but this made me laugh... hahaha :)</comment></comment></comment>


Agile vs. Scrum vs. Kanban – Which Project Management Methodology Do You Prefer? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Ugh. Enough with the "vs." already - it's 2020, not 2012.

Try "and": [https://blog.agendashift.com/2017/08/29/scrum-and-kanban- rev...](https://blog.agendashift.com/2017/08/29/scrum-and-kanban-revisited/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the 'woke' reply and article - I was actually just wanting first hand opinions from the community really...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> None of the above.

I find it ironic that SAFe now offers 13 different Agile certs. I don't know which methodology is the best one. All I can say is that Agile/Scrum/Kanban appears to be just as broken as Waterfall.

SAFe Certs [https://www.scaledagile.com/certifications/about-safe- certif...](https://www.scaledagile.com/certifications/about-safe- certification/)

<comment><AUTHOR> thx!</comment></comment>


Germany Plans to Fingerprint Children and Spy on Personal Messages - <AUTHOR> http://fortune.com/2017/06/14/germany-fingerprint-children-spy-messages/ <comment><AUTHOR> > Among the options Germany is considering is "source telecom surveillance", > where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they > are encrypted. That is now illegal.

<comment><USER2> What the hell are they doing over there! Why was that even a consideration!</comment></comment>


Show HN: An iOS Gopher client, written in/for iOS/Pythonista - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lvturner/iPyGopher <comment><AUTHOR> Just for a bit of fun, an iOS Gopher client, written in/for Pythonista for iOS.</comment>


Bookmarklets no longer install via drag-and-drop in Chrome 69 - <AUTHOR> It looks like the latest version of chrome prevents creating bookmarks of any kind my dragging and dropping a link onto the bookmark bar.
For example, if you go to HN's bookmarklet page and try to follow the instructions, it doesn't work. https://news.ycombinator.com/bookmarklet.html
Anyone know if this is a known issue, new bug, or intentional? I tried to search through the changelog for "bookmark"/"bookmarklet", but it's just too much to parse through. <comment><USER2> Created an issue here [https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chrome/sHG5ntLr...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chrome/sHG5ntLrdwQ/34I5R3IzDAAJ)</comment>


The myth of maintainability - <AUTHOR> http://mattduvall.com/blog/myth-of-maintainability/

<comment><USER2> In my experience, when developers start bringing up "maintainability" during feature discussions or code reviews it has less to do with a particular feature (though that might be what prompts the discussion) and more about the current state of the product.

Sure, we as for-profit developers write code so that, ultimately, it can generate revenue. But if work is only ever allocated to pursue immediate business value, the team may find itself slowly drowning in technical debt. New features take longer and longer to develop, and often it's hard to point to an exact cause of the problem, leading to debates about the "maintainability" of single features when the real problem is the product as a whole.</comment>


Desire path - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path <comment><USER2> related: collection of them is currendly trending on reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath](https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath)</comment>


Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago - <AUTHOR> https://speakerdeck.com/giladvdn/ten-things-about-being-a-founder-i-wish-i-knew-two-years-ago?x=1

<comment><USER2> Question: "So why didn't anyone tell me?"

Answer: "Because it wouldn't have mattered."

Before I made the plunge and decided to form a startup, I read everything I possibly could about the process... what to do, what not to do, etc. I _knew_ all the mistakes first-time founders make, and I was pretty sure I'd be able to recognize the issues and avoid making any of the really big ones. I didn't expect to get it all right on the first try, but I was certain that I wouldn't get it all wrong.

Guess what? I still made pretty much every mistake in the book. Almost every single thing that I'd read about basically went out the window as soon as I began.

Why? Because once you and you alone own something and put it out to the world to be used, judged, loved, hated, it becomes a very emotional and very personal experience. And once emotion enters the picture, it's very hard to step outside of yourself and assess the situation logically and pragmatically.

When you work for a large company, it's very easy to distance yourself from the product you're building, because most of the time you are not the only one involved in building it. You shipped a buggy piece of crap? Yeah, it sucks, but it's management's fault because they set an unreasonable schedule. And that contractor that worked on that one part didn't know what the hell he was doing. My stuff worked great.

But now this product is _your_ baby. And when someone tells you it's ugly, you're almost certainly not going to be able to take a good hard look, and say, "You know what? I can see where you're coming from."

This presentation is great. Every single point is true. But speaking from experience, having someone tell you about lessons learned isn't the same as actually learning those lessons yourself.

<comment><USER3> It's been said that stupid people learn from their own mistakes and smart people learn from others' mistakes.

However, this is untrue. Smart people learn from their own mistakes, and stupid people never learn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A friend of mine manages a TechStars outpost, and many of these slides reflect a common point driven into the TechStars community: focus on users. It's a great point as well.

The only point I might take issue with would be the talk-to-customers-before- you-write-code scenario. It depends on the circumstance, but it's been my experience that sometimes you need write some code _in order to_ talk to customers. In our particular market, we won't get in the door without having something to put in front of a customer, simply as a talking point to start a conversation.

If there is one point that's understated, it's the notion of a marathon and not pivoting too fast. It's obviously a fine line, but it's a fine line between beating your head against a wall and working to find a breakthrough or secret sauce or whatever the model is that suits your product. Use the knowledge you find, but the less sexy approach of slogging it out is great advice.

<comment><USER5> > In our particular market, we won't get in the door without having something > to put in front of a customer, simply as a talking point to start a > conversation.

Would wireframes not work? In my experience, telling a story about how your product solves a potential customer's problem with wireframes will get you a lot of conversations, IF the problem you're proposing to solve is important enough.

<comment><USER4> That's a practical answer and good suggestion. For us, wireframes don't quite work -- we need a little interactivity (customer base, plus existing market entrants, require _something_...mostly for appearance of progress.)

But yes, I can think of plenty of scenarios where wireframes would do the job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Echoing what I have learned myself. If you are an entrepreneur and you haven't read "Nail It then Scale It", do so now. No, really. There are few books I solidly recommend, particularly for business, but this book is the one I have found most valuable time and time again. When you finish reading it, go back to these slides and see how many were addressed. Absolutely zero affiliation with the book or authors, just a big fan.

[http://www.amazon.com/Nail-then-Scale-Entrepreneurs- Breakthr...](http://www.amazon.com/Nail-then-Scale-Entrepreneurs- Breakthrough/dp/0983723605)

</comment><comment><USER7> I can't agree with the "investment != success" slide. It's easy to get caught up with all the things you read in the media about Y company raising X amount. Soon, you start to use that a success metric. This can lead to a lot of tension, frustration, aggravation, and self-doubt if you never raise that round.

<comment><USER8> He's not really making any controversial claim here, he's just saying taking money isn't a guarantee of "making it".

Also, you don't always have to take investments at all (which the author may or may not have been alluding to). We bootstrapped Pathwright out of an existing consulting agency.

<comment><USER9> Whilst not controversial, I think a point that needs to be made. A lot of people have their sole focus/goal on raising money. They then raise money and their next sole focus/goal is raising more money.

I think more people need to realise it's an option and a choice, not a required stepping stone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Every single point is spot on from my own experience. Subsequently many of the points won't sit well with the techie crowd.

<comment><USER11> "Subsequently many of the points won't sit well with the techie crowd."

I'm not sure what you mean? Why wouldn't battle-tested well-worn advice work with the techie crowd? And who is the techie crowd? Programmers? Tech lovers?

I'm just confused by your comment.

<comment><USER10> Good point. I should have explained.

Things like:

"Stop writing code"

"Don't worry about engineering"

"It's a marathon"

Won't sit well with technical people (mainly programmers, CTO co-founder, etc)

<comment><USER12> As a tech co-founder, I thought this deck was spot on. Maybe it's because I've been through that experience that I don't feel threatened at all byt hat slide.

"Stop writing code/did you talk to your customers yet?" - he's so right. I've had to trash a lot of iterations of our code because we didn't heed (or grok) this advice.

I still think code is very important. But coding the best thing ever and it not being used is a nearly 100% waste of effort.

I can imagine that developers who haven't gone through such an experience might feel different, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Maybe I'm naive but I have to wonder how you can raise a decent clip of angel money and none of the angels told you any of this. Seems like you should add "get angles that are interested in the business and can provide more than just money"

Either way, nice read. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned :)

<comment><USER14> Have you done it before? Just curious what you're experience was. I've always found that the angel who's willing to put in a lot of time (not just at the inflection points a la every angel group) is really hard to find.

A good metric on this is the number of investments they've made. More than 4 and you're probably not getting any time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Love this. Thanks for posting this and helping us (hopefully) avoid similar pitfalls.

</comment><comment><USER16> This is a good deck. Thanks for sharing. I'd be really surprised though if really no one had told you at least some of these tips before you had to discover them for yourself.

</comment><comment><USER17> Pretty solid deck. A lot of stuff you read in different places consolidated in one place.

</comment><comment><USER18> I loved it and helped me re-evaluate how I'm running my startup, cheers!

</comment><comment><USER19> "For God's sake, no NDAs please."

amen brother!

</comment><comment><USER20> great stuff Schlomi. hit the nail on the head..

</comment><comment><USER21> The only thing I'd consider changing on this deck is point 6 about hiring and firing.

The point has validity, but I've seen more (and larger) problems caused by likable but not-quite-qualified employees than I have by unlikable but qualified employees. A good board of advisors and broad feedback can help spot this problem and offer appropriate prescriptions.

<comment><USER9> There's a lot a people around, I wouldn't settle for anyone that doesn't meet both criteria.

<comment><USER21> My unproven theory is that assholes are less of a problem, because it's relatively easy to identify assholes and avoid hiring them in the first place.

Likeable B/C-players are tougher because if you lack domain expertise (and aren't getting good advice) you might not realize they're a B or C player until it's too late.</comment></comment></comment>


Celery (YC S12) Raises $2 Million To Help Makers Accept Pre-Orders - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/celery-2m/

<comment><USER2> I've had the privilege of working with the Celery guys for a while (client project) and can attest that they offer incredibly responsive support and assistance.

They have bent over backwards to help us get more pre-order sales, install better analytics and even went to bat for us in getting our Paypal limits increased.

Big congrats to them!

</comment><comment><USER3> Very nice. Wish I had known about this several months ago... Charging people for products that are not quite ready to ship yet really does hurt sales vs charging when it ships. Will for sure try this for our next product. Hopefully they will have authorize.net integration by then though because the rates are still better than Stripe or Pay Pal.

<comment><USER4> celery co-founder here. interested to hear about your next product! we'd be happy to help

<comment><USER3> Cool. I'll sign up and check things out (my email is in profile). Our biggest pain point currently (besides having to charge cards right away) is that most online stores do not understand how shipping regions work in the US and around the world and require us to enter tons of duplicate data. Happy to chat about that particular problem with you so you can get it right ;)

Edit: yeah, your shipping UI is not awesome either :)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for that feedback. Definitely interested in your thoughts on how shipping should work, will follow up over email

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Congrats! Question- would Celery make sense for a food business that takes seasonal pre-orders?

<comment><USER6> Hey - you can pre-sell anything you want with Celery. Why don't you write us at email@example.com and we'll discuss...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been thinking about adopting Celery for a new product launch. Not sure if I want to go with the Pre-Order system. However, I believe that Celery also works for Real-time orders.

<comment><USER6> Hi, Celery guy here. It works for real-time orders as well. Happy to answer any questions you have setting it up. email@example.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Congrats on the raise! Celery is an awesome product and currently the BEST option out there for taking preorders.

</comment><comment><USER9> as useless as teats on a bull!</comment>


Uber - business plan for launching a new city - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jYhHsEmDFVemmucTEo_MwyH2Wbnh75VcwRMjtSHEhvk/edit?usp=sharing <comment><USER2> Please make the file accessible by modifying the drive permissions to allow anyone with a link to view it. Thank you.

<comment><AUTHOR> done

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> please don't spam me. I got click happy.</comment>


10 Must-Have Python Packages for Social Scientists - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.nyu.edu/blogs/agc282/zia/2008/06/10_musthaveknow_python_package.html <comment><USER2> NetworkX looks really cool and has lots of example code to learn from.</comment>