Chrome/FF script adds Chat to HN comment pages - <AUTHOR>

We thought it would be useful to combine HN comments with real-time chat.
In particular, we think HN's low quality comment problem is partly caused by trying to fit all discussions into a comment form. We hope adding chat to comment sections helps improve the overall quality of discussion on HN.
We have created a script for Chrome and FF (with Greasemonkey) that adds chat to HN discussion pages:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/101484
You can also fork or contribute desired changes at:
https://github.com/danielbeardsley/wompt_grease_monkey <comment><AUTHOR> Script: <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/101484>

Repo: <https://github.com/danielbeardsley/wompt_grease_monkey>

</comment><comment><USER2> Nice! I was thinking an HN with a chatroom attached to each story instead of a comments page would be a lot of fun.</comment>


Senators to Apple: Pull iPhone DUI checkpoint alert apps - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214928/Senators_to_Apple_Pull_iPhone_DUI_checkpoint_alert_apps

<comment><USER2> My reaction to this was to buy the app.</comment>


Show HN: our Launch2013 hack: live hackathon analytics (including wifi stats). - <AUTHOR> http://alytics.co

<comment><USER2> As a two-time hackathon build master, I want to tell you how fantastic this is... great job! For our last hackathon we had a dashboard showing real-time Github commit (and commit messages streamed with websockets), which people enjoyed watching, but to have all this would be way beyond that! I'd love to see the source code. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Op:Can you tell us what you wrote this app in? How are you getting the real- time activity, are those wi-fi access points, bluetooth phones or motion?</comment>


Google Play store changes visibility algorithm rules - <AUTHOR> https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/VladChetrusca/20180626/320734/Thousands_of_indie_android_devs_on_the_brink_of_extinction_after_Play_store_changes_visibility_algorithm_rules.php <comment><USER2> Bad link. Bad title.

The original blog is here: [https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/VladChetrusca/20180626/32073...](https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/VladChetrusca/20180626/320734/Thousands_of_indie_android_devs_on_the_brink_of_extinction_after_Play_store_changes_visibility_algorithm_rules.php)</comment>


Rovio Announces Redundancies - <AUTHOR> http://www.rovio.com/en/news/blog/552/towards-a-simplified-organization

<comment><USER2> I guess it was hoping for too much that "Redundancies" was a game.

</comment><comment><USER3> I always hate the language used in blogs posts like this. Not saying I could write something much better... just painful to read the sugar-coated bad news.</comment>


The Rise and Fall of a Global Start-Up - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@markkarimov/the-rise-fall-239754982fa8

<comment><USER3> _It's like seeing a person you love getting cancer, putting her on a life- supporting machine and eventually pulling the plug._

Probably not.

</comment><comment><USER4> Super, super offensive intro. Mark, have you been through watching a spouse or parent die of cancer? Note that those seeing this will have known this person for more than two years.

<comment><USER4> Respectfully withdrawn, of course, if you have.

<comment><USER5> Even if he has, it's a ridiculous intro.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> They had huge signup growth at launch (everyone wants to travel for free!) but it dwindled and revenue growth hit a wall (nobody wants to fund someone else's travel - shocking). I'm confused about how this was supposed to work - <USER2> feels a bit like kickstarter except you don't get anything for funding a campaign (If I want to read blog posts and see pictures about other people's travels, there's no shortage of that all over the interwebs).

<comment><USER7> I liked the concept of honeymoon registry, that is one travel friends and family do not have problem sponsoring.

<comment><USER8> I saw that too, and it's the only part of this business idea that made an ounce of sense.

<comment><USER9> i agree with this part... unless its a gift to you, if i am going to be financing travel, it will be me doing the traveling.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think their problem was more fundamental than poor execution, it was just a bad idea for a business. How many people out there really want to help pay for someone else's trip, regardless of how amazing that trip may be?

I can believe they got a lot of signups, who doesn't want someone else to pay for their trip? Plus you can look around and see what amazing trips other people are planning so you can help plan your own amazing trip.

But I can't imagine that there are enough people willing to actually fund someone's vacation to make running the site worthwhile. So without these amazing trips getting funded, eventually interest would dry up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Johnny. I believe it's a combination of both. I would like to refer you to my other comment to explain where we saw the potential - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9951927](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9951927)

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Dude, it really isn't like seeing someone you love dying from cancer.

<comment><USER11> Either that or you have a pretty fucked up model for love.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The business idea behind this startup is really superficial and empty. Can we please come up with business ideas that fulfill an actual useful role in society? I am sorry to phrase it this way, but I really dislike reading stories about "golddiggers" who see their bubble burst (or not).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Amelius! I believe we all can, give it a try. :)

Love & Light.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Mark, sad to hear about Trevolta. All the best for the future.

Maybe there was a pivot in there somewhere? Though as we know here in SA you often do not have enough time.

i.e We (2 co-founders) raised $<10,000 for chowhub as you know,ran for over 9 months. Just paying the rent and feeding your family becomes a massive stress, especially if you do not have a safety net of rich parents/family.

Do not focus on external reasons for failure, introspect and figure out why and what YOU did wrong or could have done better. This is how you learn, look for contradictions in your thinking this is where insights come from.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Ismail, great to hear from you! We should go have coffee some time soon.

Thanks for the comment. I think there is definitely a pivot somewhere there - given we had more time, we would find a working model through trial and error. But with messy structure like that and not being in control of the company - it doesn't make you wanna pursue it anymore. I still believe in the initial idea and just wish we did everything right from the beginning - it would buy us more time.

I know what we did wrong and I learned a lot, I just wish we had more time to right the wrongs. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Many comments here focus on this being a bad idea because 'who wants to fund somebody elses travel', but as the blog post states, they had revenue and brands were interested in partnering. They didn't find a workable model, but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment. I've met a lot of skeptics during this 2 years, but the model did work (not at a big scale though), and there is still a big room to tweak it and find a better combination. We had a lot of ideas in our heads on what we need to try to find the winner, but didn't have enough time and resources. We also focused on a lot of wrong things. Big lessons learned.

Love & Light!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I am sorry it didn't work out for you. Thanks for the great advices and good luck in your future life!

<comment><USER16> This wasn't your fault, wasn't it?

<comment><USER15> Nope. I should use a different phrase. I was sorry, because I symphatise with this guy who tried to create something and it did not end as he expected.</comment></comment></comment>


Intel's earnings show PC industry's new approach - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-intel-20110720,0,4779273.story?track=rss&dlvrit=52116

<comment><USER2> Was there every a time where we considered the laptop market separate from the desktop market when reporting numbers?

Much of this talk about tablet vs pc I suspect follows the same trend as desktop vs laptop. As devices mature and we see new form factors, that is going to change the industry slightly, but the core component and manufacturers shouldn't see a huge change, as long as they are in the first wave of the new innovation.

is that right?</comment>


Intel Unveils Neuromorphic, Self-Learning Chip Codenamed Loihi – ExtremeTech - <AUTHOR> https://www.extremetech.com/computing/256467-intel-unveils-new-neuromorphic-self-learning-chip-codenamed-loihi <comment><USER2> Yay! More chips without results!

I'll link here to avoid re-hashing what I mean: [https://www.quora.com/What- do-Intels-Loihi-chips-offer-with-...](https://www.quora.com/What-do-Intels- Loihi-chips-offer-with-self-learning-neuromorphic-cores-and-async-spiking- computation/answer/Tapabrata-Ghosh-1?srid=8NzK)

<comment><USER3> > _without results!_

Surely they can at least get a movie out of it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcgVztdMrX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcgVztdMrX4)</comment></comment>


French executives convicted in the suicides of 35 of their workers - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/20/three-french-executives-were-convicted-suicides-their-workers/ <comment><USER3> Anyone else feel like they're on crazy pills? How is engineering a culture so toxic it causes dozens of people to kill themselves specifically to circumvent worker protections worth only what amounts to the punishment of a speeding ticket or other minor transgression for a poor person (proportionally)?

Like I get it, I should be glad an executive was held to account for anything. But this is a tiny step and we got a looong way to go before we get to liberté, égalité, fraternité.

It seems that with great power comes great wealth and an almost complete lack of accountability.

I would like to live in a world where the link between power and responsibility was much more aggressively enforced. I've worked in places where corners were cut constantly, endangering workers in pursuit of the bottom line, I'm sure it's more or less the norm. The executives shouldn't be able to sleep at night for fear of the complete destruction of their lives for their transgressions. It should be life in prison with no possibility of parole, not a fine.

Even something like buying an SUV should map to greater punishments. It's well known that you're much more likely to kill a pedestrian with a car that has a high grille. The law should enforce a greater level of responsibility on the people who chose to inflict greater risk on the lives of others.

<comment> shaki-dora All employees are free to leave... That does not excuse misconduct by managers or violations of law. But the specific outcome here, I. s. suicide, is fiendishly difficult link to any one cause.

The usual standard for negligence is something like "resonantly foreseeable", but even that isn't particular useful in this case: with enough employees, you could probably always avoid at least one suicidal by, say, doubling wages. So where's the limit?

<comment><USER4> > All employees are free to leave...

That's a pretty poor excuse for misbehavior. Similar to "if you don't like this country, you should leave".

<comment><USER5> > That does not excuse misconduct by managers or violations of law.

Literally right after the bit you quoted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a sad story that I remember from years ago. I wonder how much the rigid rules that France has on employee firing contribute to this.

I am aware of an employer's view in a different case where (in a small company) an employee was asked to leave for poor performance. The process dragged for so long that the employee was paid full salary for close to 15 months without ever coming to office during this period. The company closed shop.

<comment><USER7> Generally speaking, the harder it is to fire someone, the more reluctant a company will be to hire someone.

<comment><USER8> I think most French would be happy to switch to a system where it is easy to fire, as long as the social net was good. Thing is, these two things (strengthening the safety net and making the labor laws more flexible) are defended by different parties. The few that have pretended to do this transition ended up just removing labor law protections.

<comment><USER9> The great paradox of France is that people keep believing it's hard to fire there while it's not. Every government for the past thirty years have made firing easier.

You have an up to eight months window of at-will before the protections kick in and they are mostly severance compensation which rises with the duration of your employment. You have to have a cause but these are plentyful.

If you can agree with your employee it's time to part, you don't even need to fire them. There is a legal way to commonly agree to break the contract which closes judicial recourse from the employee.

When companies in France complain they can't fire, what they actually mean is that they can't do it for free. Personally it doesn't make me too sad.

<comment><USER10> Past the probation period even if you want to pay firing is not easy. Sure you can use contractual statements (such as that the work can be anywhere in France) but short of harassment there is no easy way out.

If you fire someone out means that you are shutting down the position. The court will not be happy if it was a fake shutdown.

A middle ground such as the specific laws for first employment (which did not pass) child be a middle ground.

<comment><USER8> I keep moving one side or the other on this issue.

I think there is a philosophical difference in the way companies and employees are seen in France vs US. I often feel (from discussions here, but American friends told me the views are more varied in a representative sample of the US population) that in the US companies are seen as an extension of their owners' will. Do what you want on a whim. Want to close a profitable company to just cash in everything and buy a yacht? You own it, you can do it.

In France companies owners that do have employees are more considered like caretakers of a piece of the national production and are expected to be responsible of the piece of economy they grabbed (or, arguable, were allowed to grab).

So yes, if you think you can be a worthy contributor to the economy, you are allowed to grab a piece of it and keep a nice part to yourself, but in exchange there are rules for you to be responsible about it, like not creating jobs that may be unsustainable and depriving sustainable companies from labor.

In France you can fire employees for reasons, but you need reasons better than a whim. If you have a good reason (the employee broke important rules, or the law, refuses to do their work), it is free. If it is for performances or economic reasons, well you made a hiring mistake and it is going to cost you, but a reasonable amount.

I am not sure it is bad. The French economy performs pretty well when you go past the headlines and look at the numbers. I don't think that model is the drag we make it look like.

<comment><USER10> I think you are very correct in your analysis.

There is also some kind of close relationship between job and personal life (at least in the tech companies I worked in).

For instance we will be careful when planning to take into account school holidays.

Or the company will make arrangements on day one at school so that parents can be late (the ones who had to bring their children to school).

Everybody understand that teachers are a civilization on their own and that a meeting with a parent at 16:30 is normal. So companies adapt.

There are many more similar situations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> 30 reported suicides in 2008–2009 in a company employing 100,000 people. This is a suicide rate equivalent to France's average national suicide rate.

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world- europe-13204168](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13204168)

<comment><USER12> You may want to read about the concept of "suicide clusters" which seem to the relevant to the deaths at Orange.

[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/839621/PHE_Suicide_Cluster_Guide.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> "The company, France Télécom — which used to be state-owned and is now known as Orange, one of France's largest corporations — was fined $83,000, the maximum penalty."

Nice.

<comment><USER14> It's like, what, 6 month of pay.

Considering 2 people died, and this slap on the wrist is 6 month of wages, divide by two and that's 3 month pay for every dead worker.

Will the executive have to pay out of their pocket? If so, each executive can have up to 4 dead workers per year before having to worry -- not even taking bonuses in account!

Europe never ceases to amaze me.

<comment><USER15> Europe? Where is corporate crime punished effectively? With decades long prison sentences for the responsible executives?

<comment><USER16> Surprisingly enough, South Korea last week jailed a high ranking Samsung executive for anti union actions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wish the article gave examples of what this harassment constituted of. It is hard to fathom what specifically they must have been doing.

<comment><USER18> I don't know about this specific case, but I can give you examples in other companies. Some of them were things I lived through "thanks" to a former boss of mine who's still lurking on HN so hello, former boss.

1\. Move someone's desk to (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively) a closet: a place where they don't see anyone.

2\. Set someone to watch them. Make sure that they can't speak to anyone during the day. Make sure that they are always at their desk. If they're not, for any reason, make sure to blame them.

3\. Repeat them three times per day that they are doing a piss-poor job.

4\. But also make sure that they have nothing to do. Make-believe job at best, but it must be clear to them that it's make-believe job. Once they have produced their deliverables, ignore these entirely.

5\. Set them up to fail. Give them impossible deadlines. Change the goalposts. Give them a title and responsibilities that looks like they have entire teams working for them but never fill the teams.

6\. Force you to write daily reports of activities when everybody else is on weekly/monthly/quarterly/... basis.

7\. But also repeat to them that they're not working sufficiently. Make it clear to them that it's their fault.

etc.

<comment><USER19> Can I ask briefly what kept you spending such a significant portion of your day working for such an employer? Is this is in the US or somewhere else where maybe there is a forced work period? In the US at least your employer generally cannot force you to keep working for them but I know other places in the mideast etc they can.

<comment><USER18> This was in France.

Well, there were several factors.

1\. It took me time to realize that this was going on.

2\. My boss basically wanted to get rid of me because I had done my job too well and everybody knew it. I had taken over some of his previous responsibilities and where he had led the company's flagship project pretty close to the grave, I led the team that turned his failure into success. Problem is, he wanted his name to be the one on the top of the poster. By then, getting me to leave was paramount to asking me to abandon my baby. So yeah, it took me some time to come to terms with this.

3\. Generally speaking, in France, there's a notion of "job loyalty" which is very different from anything I've seen in UK/US/Canada. I've elaborated more on the topic over there [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21856307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21856307)

4\. Benefits are very different if you quit or if you're laid off/fired. If you quit, there were no benefits at all at the time (laws have changed since then, I believe). My boss was clearly trying to fire me without benefits. I did not enjoy this prospect.

5\. Also, finding a new job takes more time in France than, say, in the US. It's both an economical thing and a cultural thing – interview periods are longer, for instance.

 __edit __Rephrased point 2.

<comment><USER20> If I was aware of someone wanting to fire me without benefits by forcing me to quit, I'd probably try force them to fire me with those benefits. I'd sit at my desk playing games or watching series or some other non-work activity, ignoring any requests from my manager. Eventually they'll have to fire me, or they keep paying me to do nothing.

<comment><USER18> Well, if you do this in France, you can get fired for "Faute Grave" ("It's your fault and it's bad"), in which case you get very reduced benefits or even in some cases "Faute Lourde" ("It's your fault and we're probably going to sue you for it"), in which case you get no benefits at all.

In 99% of circumstances, firing people is really not difficult in France (there are a few exceptions such as pregnant women, people who are on a long- term handicap leave or people who have been elected by workers as their spokespersons). Laying them off for economic reasons is a bit more complicated.

<comment><USER21> > ...or people who have been elected by workers as their spokespersons

would this have been possible in the timeframe you experienced? since he felt the need to isolate you, indicates the boss knew the team respected your leadership, which generally indicates the team would have been willing to vote you as representative / spokesperson.

it might not have become the most pleasant job, but sometimes caesar must accept the crown unwillingly...

<comment><USER18> I suppose it might have been a strategy but job protection was not my goal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> That situation is the consequence of too protective laws for working in France. In France, it is very difficult to fire someone, so it leads to problems when you want to decrease the number of staff.

<comment><USER18> Actually, in most cases, it's not that difficult. You need to expect a fairly large severance paycheck, though.

<comment><USER23> That can close a company that is already in a bad situation, is it?

<comment><USER18> You need to see it coming and plan accordingly further ahead, yes.

<comment><USER23> That is daydreaming.

<comment><USER18> What, planning ahead? If a company cannot plan ahead, I expect that it's doomed no matter what.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Where can I read this article with my phone without paying?

Also is there a way to offer to write an automatic link converter(for free) for hacker news?

</comment><comment><USER25> Is it legally accurate that they are being convicted for the suicides of the workers implying they were the cause or are they being convicted of some other violation which may have lead to worker suicides.

The first sounds insane. The second sounds reasonable.

Can't read the article because of the paywall.

<comment><USER26> The second (institutional harassment).

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> "held to account"

"$83,000"

Choose one. That's not punishment, that's a pat on the back.

</comment><comment><USER28> Is France crazy or are we the bad guys?

</comment><comment><USER29> When you have an immovable object (can't fire an employee due to law) up against an unstoppable force (economic pressure to cut jobs) you get actions that try to bend either of the above constraints.

In the end something had to break — either the company or the people or both.

No one forced these people to either work at the company or to commit suicide.

Yes their pensions were linked to their jobs but is quitting and losing your retirement better than death?

Or maybe they wanted to be martyrs and knew this would lead to a punishment for the executives.

<comment><USER18> One thing you probably underestimate is that the relationship between employer and employee is very different in France wrt, say, UK/US/Canada.

France has something called "job loyalty." After the ~6 months trial period, a _good_ employee will typically _never_ quit their job, because this would be breaking a bond that is nearly as strong as that of marriage. The employer is, of course, expected to do treat employees as best as possible. If economic pressure forces the employer to lay off people, this is a reality of life, and France has laws that forces the employer to make it happen in a humane manner (i.e. fairly large severance check, among other things).

Here, managers decided to cut out on their side of the deal by employing "placardisation", i.e. bullying people out of their job, i.e. bringing these people to nervous breakdown. But culturally, these people couldn't quit. They could only hope that their managers would be replaced by better managers.

So when you're saying that "No one forced these people to either work at the company or to commit suicide" – well, yes, they were forced because that's how everybody is raised in France.

<comment><USER30> > So when you're saying that "No one forced these people to either work at the > company or to commit suicide" – well, yes, they were forced because that's > how everybody is raised in France.

That is very true.

It was even more true in national companies like France Telecom where it was a personal achievement for many to be there.

Often positions in these companies where even family thing, where your family except you to be part of when you are old enough.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Executives at a French company couldn't treat people as resources and fire at will because France has employee protection laws (sounds good but only in theory). So, the executives made employees miserable, intending to push them to quit. Instead, employees killed themselves. You want to fire people but you can't, so what do you do? Make them not want to be there anymore.

There is a case to be made that these employees would have killed themselves if they were fired. This is an important distinction because it's the loss of employment, not harassment, that lead to suicide.

It's crazy to think that there are people here who will read this and think that with this given, firing should be illegal and executives charged for manslaughter. You are thinking dangerously and need to study history. Or, you are French and there is no difference.

<comment><USER32> It's crazy to to think that people are still suggesting people to "study history", as though history is a homogeneous mass that can even be studied as a whole.

It's crazy to think that history is uniformly in favor of the executive class. That somehow the brutality of the elites can be justified by their understanding of history. That they can't be deferred to some broader concept of morality because they have history on their side. This argument is the same as the one made by Francis Fukuyama in his book _The End of History and the Last Man_ and it is fundamentally flawed in the same way.

Never have violence, inequality, exclusion, famine, and thus economic oppression affected as many human beings in the history of the earth and of humanity. Instead of singing the advent of the ideal of liberal democracy and of the capitalist market in the euphoria of the end of history. Let us never neglect this obvious, macroscopic fact, made up of innumerable, singular sites of suffering: no degree of progress allows one to ignore that never before, in absolute figures, have so many men, women and children been subjugated, starved or exterminated on the earth.

<comment><USER33> > Never have violence, inequality, exclusion, famine, and thus economic > oppression affected as many human beings in the history of the earth

And have they ever affected a smaller _proportion_ of human beings in recorded history?

<comment><USER34> The proportion dosen't seem as morally relevant (though it is a factor) as the sheer number (you can figure it as a trolley problem; the train running over 10k out of 100k is arguably worse than running over 5 out of 10) - <USER2> arguably, inequality, exploitation and domination have more to do with relative wealth than absolute wealth. Although the lives of a great many have undeniably improved, that has nothing to do with what social scientists and philosophers of economics mean by inequality, exploitation and domination - which usually focuses on the share of productive capacity by members of society. All the "big names" like Sen and Roemer have those issues on the radar. You can figure the problems of the system in terms of domination[0], exploiters dominating[1], extraction of surplus-value[2], or unequal exchange of labour[3][4].

[0] [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854300.2016.12...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854300.2016.1215810?journalCode=csad20)

[1] [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00346764.2019.1...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00346764.2019.1618483)

[2] [http://matsuo-tadasu.ptu.jp/RecentControversyOnFMT.pdf](http://matsuo- tadasu.ptu.jp/RecentControversyOnFMT.pdf)

[3] [https://ideas.repec.org/p/kch/wpaper/sdes-2018-10.html](https://ideas.repec.org/p/kch/wpaper/sdes-2018-10.html)

[4] [https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...](https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1106&context=econ_workingpaper)

<comment><USER35> If it's the sheer number you care about, not the proportion, then the problem is clear: Human reproduction. Eliminate that, and the sheer number of incidents of oppression and suffering will go down.

<comment><USER36> Eliminate that, and there will be zero people!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


This startup thinks devs should get paid for their open source projects - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/10/xscode-launches-subscription-platform-to-monetize-open-source-projects/ <comment><USER2> About time! I Hope the OSS community and companies who use open source projects will embrace this initiative.

</comment><comment><USER3> 25% for payment processing?

Maybe the title should be changed to: "This startup thinks they should get paid for your open source projects"

<comment><USER4> it's an industry-standard... UpWork.. Fiverr...

<comment><USER3> No personal experience, but aren't those at least supposed to put you in contact with potential clients? I'm having a hard time finding any value added in this service over what my bank already offers me for free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> amazing!</comment>


The Internet and Thought - <AUTHOR> http://nerdlife.net/2008/06/06/the-internet-and-thought/

<comment><USER2> I'm definitely a Googlectual.</comment>


Disagreements on Transparency Fail to Stop ACTA Treaty Leak - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2010/07/16/16idg-disagreements-on-transparency-fail-to-stop-acta-treat-9589.html <comment><USER2> wow - it really sucks that we have to root for other countries to protect us from the Entertainment Industry.

Go USA! Go Freedom!

Give me a break - they don't hate us for our freedom, they hate us because we put the interests of business and capital ahead of the interests of people.

</comment><comment><USER3> An illegitimate process makes the treaty illegitimate as well.</comment>


"You're stealing from people who count on your honesty to make a living." - <AUTHOR> http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9763/codersgu6.jpg <comment><USER2> This is great.

I think "shameware" is much more compelling than DRMware. If you remind people that they are costing a small developer business and then let them pirate anyway then you are going to catch the people who might pay. The people who are going to pirate will do it whatever.

Also USB Overdrive is a great product. So I'm glad to see them trying something to keep their business viable.

<comment><USER3> They won't pay due to shame. Not at all. People steal music from indie artists just as readily as they do Madonna. They're not out to get someone by stealing from them, they just want stuff for free.

They rationalize it largely as they wouldn't have paid for it anyway.

<comment><USER4> That's stealing more (in terms of dollars) from the labels than it is from the artists/talent.

Personally, I would pay for more music if the artists saw more than 5% of the proceeds. If you really want to support an artist: go to the concerts, donate directly or tell your friends about them.

<comment><USER5> Indie artists listed on iTunes (for example) make more than 60% on each song/album sale. It's way higher since there are no middle men involved. And it's easy to get listed through services like cdbaby.com. So "stealing" music from indies does hurt more in those terms.

But even with being a musician, I lean on the side of piracy myself because it's a virtual loss not an actual one, and it's natural for people to want to share the music and things they appreciate. Any long-term successful solution will have to account for and will likely encourage that. Copyright is becoming less and less relevant, and artists (including software developers) will continue to forge an existence in a post-copyright world too.

Funny story, I was playing a show the other day and some kids came up after to tell me they liked the show. One of them bought a CD and the others said they'd "totally buy one" but had no cash. So I told the first kid to just rip it for his friends, and the look on their faces was priceless. They were like "wow, awesome!" but you know he was probably going to do it anyway so why not acknowledge it? :)

<comment><USER3> Theoretically some piracy replaces sales. A pirated CD is not one less you'll sell, but it's more than 0.

But yeah, might as well except reality and just use the extra exposure to sell more concert tickets. If you can't beat em...

<comment><USER6> It could be less than 0, as a pirated CD can be seen as a form of advertising, and could potentially gain customers who would not have discovered you without it. I'm not saying this is always the case, but it's a possibility that makes it even more difficult to calculate the economic harm of piracy.

<comment><USER3> It seems unlikely it's negative in terms of CD sales. The amount of people who pirate a CD and then buy has to be pretty close to 0.

<comment><USER6> Well, a commercial soundtrack on a catchy flash animation is also copyright infringement unless royalties were paid, but there have been a couple of times when this has lead me to investigate a particular artist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't endorse pirating software and I don't use one myself, but I never agreed with the notion that using pirated software is _stealing_ money. Because in most cases, the people using pirated software would not pay for it if it would be not be possible to use it without buying. Maybe a few would, but this amount is compensated by the marketing value the pirating provides. To sum it up, the company would not make more money if pirating would not be possible.

Again, I am against pirating, but don't agree fully with the text in that popup dialog.

<comment><USER8> _Because in most cases, the people using pirated software would not pay for it if it_

That is a fallacy. If it were not of some value to them, why would they even want it? It's more a case that they simply feel entitled to it.

<comment><USER9> Have you ever walked through a department store? Try it sometime & see if you pay for everything you'd take for free.

<comment><USER10> Ok I'll bite. By the very fact that you'd take it, it means it has some value to you. Of course you are going to take something for free that you believe has non-zero value. If you are taking something for free that has value to you, you are profiting. How is that not stealing?

<comment><USER11> Stealing is when someone has something that they value, and you take it from them. It doesn't matter how much you value the object. What matters is that they value the object, and that after it is stolen, they no longer have it.

Are you really saying that if you profit without paying for something, then you must be stealing? What if you have some wood, and you make a table out of it. You've profited by the difference in price of a table and a pile of wood, but you've not paid anyone for anything. Who have you stolen from?

<comment><USER8> What if this wood was a tree in someone's garden? They have a sign up that says "help yourself to apples", they must mean it's OK to take the whole tree, right?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> And it's only $20...I can understand why people steal Microsoft Office and the Adobe Suite, but I can't understand the incentive in stealing something like Transmit or TextMate. It seems that some people can't accept that some software costs money.

And while we're on the topic of small Mac software shops, can we safely call ShapeShifter abandonware yet?

<comment><USER13> I don't think it has anything to do with accepting software costs money. When I was younger and had basically no money, I would pirate software that I needed to improve a skill or something along those lines. Once I got older and started having disposable income, I started buying software. Hell, I even legitimately _own_ Adobe CS3 Web Premium.

Nowadays, if I use a piece of donationware that provided a useful service, I donate. I donate to Open Source projects which have been particularly useful to me. The oddity here is, I'm far from fiscally well-off; I have about $3,500 to my name.

So, it seems to me at least, that these things become habit. There were times I used to pirate software (or anything, really) just because I didn't _feel_ like paying for it. Once I became accustomed to paying for software, I _kept paying_ and even started _donating_. Now, I don't have a single piece of pirated software on my computer.

Although, I do have some paid-for software which I no longer use. For instance, I have a license for SteerMouse (<http://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/>) which I no longer use, but am also barred from transferring it (I was going to give it away just now) per the license agreement. This is just silly. The less restrictive a piece of licensed software is, the more likely I am to buy it.

<comment><USER8> Companies could definitely be smarter about non-commercial licenses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Great strategy, just be honest with your "customers"...

"Hey, we built this awesome piece of software that will help you do [x]. We love building software for our customers. Help us continue building great software by paying $[y]."

</comment><comment><USER15> I think websites should start popping up a similar message when adblock is detected.

I realise this is an unpopular view around these parts, but it's a bit of a "jerk" thing to do.

<comment><USER16> Is the proportion of adblock users actually high enough for the ad-buyers to care about their impact?

<comment><USER15> I'm not sure... as a single data point I measured usage on the Mibbit main client for a while (Mainly early adopter fx3 tech types), and it was 8% or something for the main client.

Of course it isn't too important as adblock is useless in blocking all but the most simple adverts.

In the general population the % is probably much much lower though, so you're right - probably not worth worry about until you're a very big site.

It's more the antisocial attitude I disagree with.

<comment><USER9> Looking at ads is social? Only on HN, I suppose. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> You could only improve on this by having a picture of the developer with his kid or something :)

Shame is a good motivator in this case. Shame works as a motivator for people who probably could pay, but aren't (or just want to "test" the software). Shame does not work as a motivator for criminals or heartless freeloaders, and they'd never pay anyway.

</comment><comment><USER18> Ouch. I would not feel interested in writing a keygen for that app.

</comment><comment><USER19> To hackers: please don't look through our code for GPL violations, because surely you'll find some. Hopefully no one finds all the code I copy/pasted from, or the documentation I learnt from.

To hackers: I used GPL software to compile this program, but I won't give you the same pleasure... you are not free to use my programs.

<comment><USER20> "or the documentation I learnt from..."

Because of course, whoever teaches you owns all the ideas you build thereafter.

<comment><USER21> No one ever owns ideas. It's true, look it up.</comment></comment></comment>


83 year-old woman gets first 3D printed mandible - <AUTHOR> http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120203-83-year-old-woman-got-3d-printed-mandible.html

<comment><AUTHOR> You can see it in action here:

<http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1210886>

(dutch), at around 5 minutes.</comment>


Release of open source Android anti-censorship library - <AUTHOR> We are very excited to share with you the release of Envoy - our open source C and Java Library derived from Chromium Cronet which can be used to make Android apps resistant to  censorship. We have uploaded the library to our GitHub page:
https://github.com/greatfire/envoy
This library can be integrated into existing Android apps. Android is by far the most popular  mobile operating system in China. Even though Google Play is blocked in China, there are many other ways to get Android apps onto your phone. We hope that this library is used by a wide variety of developers, but in particular we hope that larger organizations, whose websites are blocked in China, consider incorporating this library into their exisiting apps.
We have created demo versions of how this code can be integrated into existing apps, so that you can see the library in action and can see that it works. Demo versions have been created for Wikipedia ("the world's largest source of information") and DuckDuckGo, the world's leading privacy-based search engine.
All of the world's largest internet companies, from Facebook, to Google, to Twitter, could theoretically incporate this code into their existing Android apps and be able to reach their audiences in China free of censorship controls.
If you are a developer, we hope that you and your peers can take the time to try out the code. If you know of someone who might find this code useful, please do direct them to this post. We stand ready to answer any questions which you may have and to provide assistance in any way we can. <comment><USER2> I'm a fan of GreatFire Analyzer, so I'm intrigued. But it's not clear to me what this library actually does. What kinds of censorship can it defeat? DNS poisoning, deep packet inspection, IP-based blocks? Do you direct traffic through your own servers or do you sneak past the Great Firewall in some other way? So many questions. All of that information should probably be somewhere in the readme.</comment>


An Interview with Simon Kelley, the author of dnsmasq - <AUTHOR> https://joshuakugler.com/an-interview-with-simon-kelley-the-author-of-dnsmasq.html <comment><USER2> dnsmasq is an incredible piece of software. I ended up giving it a try after struggling to set up ISC BIND and ISC DHCP to work in conjunction (e.g., to create reverse DNS entries when DHCP assigns an IP to a machine).

dnsmasq was such a breath of fresh air.

I thought about the time that I'd spent and how much time I _didn 't_ spend after giving dnsmasq a try and decided that now was as good a time as I could imagine to finally donate to a free software project, so I donated, I think £75 through the PayPal link on Simon's website.

I was really surprised to receive an very nice thank you letter from Simon, as if he had anything to thank me for—quite the opposite in fact.

If you're able, please donate to free software developers like Simon.

</comment><comment><USER3> dnsmasq is one of my favorite software packages. One of those rare things that seems to directly address a real-world problem, address it well, but have minimal added complexity. Extremely common on commercial appliances but also very easy to set up and manage yourself.

</comment><comment><USER4> Best DNS server on the planet. My largest deployment was a ~700 client network with absolutely minimal system resources. Replication provided by simple Unix resources and file watchers.

</comment><comment><USER5> dnsmasq is so nice, you would have thought the OpenBSD made it. Except for GNU style long options, of course.</comment>


How to secure virtualized applications against the unknown - <AUTHOR> http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2009/05/12/how-to-secure-virtualized-applications-against-the-unknown.aspx

<comment><USER2> Wtf is with this marketing speak without any real value?

<comment><USER3> not shocking that it's a lot of marketing speak considering the post was written by a marketing manager at F5</comment></comment>


It's Facebook, What Else Did You Expect? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/10/sincerity-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually didn't enjoy reading this article but posted it mostly to start a discussion.

That is, do people really agree with Alexia's post that Facebook has somehow drawn inspiration from its popular (though ultimately temporary) substitute, MyPad?

Using the left pane for navigation for Facebook's most popular features is not innovative or patentable. Using the top of the main view for a status update button or textarea is common throughout facebook and has been for years. I don't think Facebook is "copying" MyPad for using left-hand navigation and its positioning of the status button or other elements.

In fact, MyPad, being designed specifically for Facebook, obviously drew from Facebook's features and one would expect them to mimic Facebook's UI to ensure a seamless user experience; and MyPad perhaps did the best job in Facebook's long absence.

To claim that Facebook somehow acted unprofessionally by "copying" MyPad-- an application who's inspiration was drawn from Facebook in the first place-- is a complete fallacy.

I think the Facebook IA developers and UI designers deserve more credit. I for one am happy that in spite of the long (and probably mostly bureaucratic) delay, that the team has finally released the app. Kudos.

</comment><comment><USER2> To be fair, both look like they're "inspired" by the Twitter iPad app.

<comment><USER3> I posted the same thing on TC. The Twitter iPad app has become the defacto iPad UI. If Apple could, I think they would've made the stacked split pane view controller part of UIKit. I don't know if Twitter has a patent on it, but it's effectively public domain given how many people are already using that UX paradigm. That said, I don't know if it's safe for Apple to absorb into UIKit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The "mon dieu" tells us she's mocking the overly dramatic response people have when seeing two apps that look the same.

"Of course they look the same, it's the same content on the same UI platform. What else did you expect?"

</comment><comment><USER5> It seems like a logical design to arrive at, and why the title? Since when is Facebook notorious for ripping their ideas off others? Their app is structured much like the website already is.

<comment><USER6> I read the title the opposite way, as in "it's facebook, of course any app will end up looking fairly similar, they're doing the same thing"".

<comment><USER5> Oh, okay. So Techcrunch is defending Facebook from others making this kind of accusation? I'm so confused.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ok I m just gonna go ahead and say the posted article is crap. As an exercise, please suggest how else they could have done it. Did twitter copy mypad too? I expect many things from Facebook, but ripping off others' technology is not what they do.</comment>


Clouds, what are they good for? - <AUTHOR> http://artymiak.com/clouds-what-are-they-good-for/

<comment><USER2> I don't think "simplifying" (aka removing) our choice of servers is an advantage.

There is one clear sharp line that separates cloud from non-cloud hosting: can you deploy (and undeploy) new servers via an API? If so, it's a cloud; if not, it's not. This also tells you when you should be using a cloud services.</comment>


How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/how-to-strip-drm-from-kindle-e-books-and-others/

<comment><USER2> source:

[http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks- formats...](http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm- and-you-%E2%80%94-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/)</comment>


Irony punctuation - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation <comment><USER2> Where's the fun in sarcasm if you have to point it out?

<comment><USER3> This is, of course, why it hasn't caught on in the ~400+ years since it was originally proposed.

Also, many of those who have at some point proposed it may or may not have been doing so ironically, so at some point it gets pretty confusing.

<comment><USER4> Well, there's this widely used gem: ';-)'

Why did people suddenly adopt a symbol for clearly marking their irony when before they have not?

My hypothesis is that prior to the mass adoption of mobile phones (SMS) and the Internet (IM, e-mail, any form of chat and discussion) it was nearly impossible (well, unpractical) to have informal conversations with someone in written form. Even letters or postcards are very much unlike e-mail, a lot more formal, for the most part carefully crafted and lacking the immediacy of our new forms of written communication. We used speech for all our informal conversations up until very recently.

Everyone knows how to mark speech as ironic. You can literally wink, change the tone of your voice or just start grinning after everyone starts looking at you with disbelief. When authors wanted to use irony in their works they had the time, space and skills to create a setup which marks something as irony, a typographic sign would probably have seemed like cheating to them (much like overuse of the exclamation mark would).

But suddenly there are all these people who are not authors and who write all the time if they want to have a conversation. Time, space and skills – the three of those are not readily available when chatting. (And why should they, why should you suddenly invest more time to conduct your informal conversation just because it is in written form?)

I think it works quite well, actually, for what it is, compared to its cousin in spoken informal conversations at least. Sure, it's not even the same ballpark as some of the irony you can find in literary masterpieces but hardly anything we say in everyday conversations ever is.

(For testing my hypothesis I would suggest finding written pre-Internet conversations – if the is at all possible – and looking for any marks for irony or tone of voice. Pretty much seems like an impossible thing to check, if you ask me.)

<comment><USER5> Sarcasm is most interesting when you don't "wink, change the tone of your voice or just start grinning". Good sarcasm is detectable as such even without any change in inflection, which is why there is no need to mark it in writing.

I also disagree that smileys are widely used to mark sarcasm; they mark any sort of situation where you might smile. Most of the time, this is just some sort of happy statement, like "now go get some sleep ;)" when someone emails you at 3 in the morning.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure you are disagreeing with me. 'Good' (using scare quotes here because I think the fake kind is also a valuable tool) sarcasm is fucking hard to pull off! That's why you hardly ever see it. That's why writers didn't need a typographic sign.

And sure, the winking smiley is also used for other things but do you really want to claim that it's not widely used for marking irony? If it were easier to search for ';-)' I would probably be able to quote a few dozen examples here on HN alone in no time.

<comment><USER5> _I would probably be able to quote a few dozen examples here on HN alone in no time._

Maybe those people are just using it wrong ;)

<comment><USER4> See, here's how I would parse that: _Clearly, there is no way marking sarcasm with a winking smiley could be considered 'using it wrong' because there isn't anything like rules for emoticon usage (and if there were that would be stupid), hence I'm tacitly agreeing with your comment._

Amazing ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thank god. I thought this was going to be a link to the "SarcMark" [http://02d9656.netsoljsp.com/SarcMark/modules/user/commonfil...](http://02d9656.netsoljsp.com/SarcMark/modules/user/commonfiles/loadhome.do)

That movement was just really poorly thought out. Yeah, let's choose some bizarre symbol and charge people to use it on their computers... but only people who have also paid for the software can also see it. Yeah, real smart there⸮

I do, however, approve of the irony mark. I mapped pidgin to autoreplace ?/ with it in IMs. That way everyone gets to see my snobbery.

<comment><USER7> There's an easy way to insert unicode characters just about anywhere, if you're using Ubuntu at least:

Ctrl-Shift-u, [hex value], enter.

C-S-u 2e2e <enter>: ⸮

<comment><USER6> Oh, it's possible, but it's easier to use if there's a quick shortcut.

I love how Gnome handles unicode insertion though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think this is relevant: <http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/smiley.asp>

</comment><comment><USER9> I love this⸮

</comment><comment><USER10> Ironically, the irony punctuation mark shows up as a square on all browsers that I try.

(yes I know - that's not actually ironic).

<comment><USER11> It only does this for me on Windows. On Linux, I see the proper glyph.</comment></comment>


First commercially supported distribution of Drupal coming - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/03/03/supported-drupal-distribution-way

<comment><USER2> This could be an interesting development. Wonder if they'll ever address building a more lightweight themeing engine.</comment>


Google Calendar now uses machine learning to help you accomplish your goals - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/12/google-calendar-goals/ <comment><USER2> I wish they'd just fix search.

I use Google Calendar heavily, averaging ~10 entries per day for the last 5+ years, and then some entries per day all the way back to when it was launched.

I can put information in easily enough, and with a few IFTTT recipes I'm able to treat Google Calendar not just as a schedule for upcoming events, appointments and reminders, but as a historical log of everything I've done. It is a time based database of my life... a diary.

I've automated my diary taking into Google Calendar. The what, where and when of everything ends up in one of 12 calendars (each calendar is effectively a label to categorise a whole group of events that have occurred).

And it's brilliant.

Except for the search.

It's really difficult to get the information back out. If I search for something I know that has happened, or has happened frequently, Google will delightfully tell me that I have matched 200 results, and then show me a list of 9 or 10 of them, with no way to paginate the remainder or search the old ones (it only finds upcoming, not past).

Search is broken on Google Calendar, to the point of being almost totally useless.

Far better to rely on time as a search dimension and jump around dates until one manually finds whatever you were looking for. It's that broken.

Compare to search on a product that has some love: Google Photos. Where now the miraculous occurs, I can search things like "Felicity skiing" and what will return are photos of my wife skiing, and an option to look at all other photos on those days. A simple search and all the results you want, and a single click to expand to view it in the wider context that makes sense.

Google Calendar really needs a decent search. It feels far too much like writing to /dev/null at the moment. Your information went in there, but the chances of you finding it when you wish to reference it are pretty non- existent.

<comment><USER3> Quote "It is a time based database of my life"

Exactly that's the reason I want to drop all Google products. Until now I found an alternative to Gmail. Google Reader went bust and I live happily without it. Google Calendar is the last bit I need to find an alternative for. I thought that all you hackers here are more independent than me. Why don't you create your own local "Google Calendar"? no one will judge you for the quality.

<comment><USER4> > Why don't you create your own local "Google Calendar"?

1) Because it would take months.

2) Because it would probably be hard to make it integrate with other things like Calendly.

<comment><USER5> Also, to be as effective as Google Calendar, you'd have to end up integrating it with as many external sources as Google Calendar, decreasing any privacy you might have gained by making your own product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is this the Timeful acquisition playing out? [http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/google-acquires-timeful- to-...](http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/google-acquires-timeful-to-bring- smart-scheduling-to-google-apps/)

<comment><USER7> [https://www.facebook.com/dan.ariely/posts/10100833467156938](https://www.facebook.com/dan.ariely/posts/10100833467156938) yeah

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is one of those things that only the GooglePlex bubble can come up with.

As a busy person (my wife and I both work, we have a child, and hard time constraints due to teaching obligations, etc.), free time is exactly what I want to schedule as little as possible. I want to spontaneously decide to do a hike with my family, or when my daughter wants to play, I want to be there. There's enough obligations already, free time should be spontaneous and available to family.

It is also a bit annoying that they focus on these features without solving real problems first. Someone already mentioned search, which is (ironically) indeed quite bad. Also, appointment suggestions based on e-mails has very low recall. I especially noticed this since I switched back to Mail.app, which picks up a lot more dates in e-mails.

<comment><USER9> >This is one of those things that only the GooglePlex bubble can come up with.

Actually they acquired the company that came up with it.

 _The Timeful team has built an impressive system that helps you organize your life by understanding your schedule, habits and needs.

You can tell Timeful you want to exercise three times a week or that you need to call the bank by next Tuesday, and their system will make sure you get it done based on an understanding of both your schedule and your priorities._

[https://gmail.googleblog.com/2015/05/time-is-on-your- sidewel...](https://gmail.googleblog.com/2015/05/time-is-on-your- sidewelcoming-timeful.html)

<comment><USER8> Good point. I was originally going to say 'the SF tech bubble', but I do not want to offend too many people ;).

I still think the point stands, between missing features, adding questionable features, and failed April 1 jokes, I sometimes wonder how much 'market research' there is.

<comment><USER10> "Tech bubble" sounds like something completely different anyway...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If it works as well as the reminders in Google Now, I'd rather avoid it.

I spent about five minutes saying "Remind me to buy paper towels"[0], Google Now suggested it should remind me the next time I'm near a grocery store. I wasn't reminded ever again and the reminder didn't show up anywhere in Google Now because it had no date or time associated with it. I actually only found the reminder when it showed up on Google Calendar in my desktop browser -- this was about two months in.

[0]: It felt very much like a re-enactment of the infamous "eleventh floor" sketch: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avp9aUkM5g0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avp9aUkM5g0)

<comment><USER12> Works for me. The location-based reminder shows as "upcoming" in Now's reminder list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'll definitely try that out, though it is in conflict with the GTD method I'm currently practicing. In GTD, only things that HAVE to be done on a certain day or time, go in the calendar. Because else you will be constantly re- scheduling and reprioritizing.

If Google gets it right though, and your goals are perfectly prioritized, AND the algorithm makes use of contexts (e.g. I cannot fulfill goal "spend time with family" when I'm not home), then this might actually work for me. Not sure though whether I want a machine telling me what to do right now :)

<comment><USER14> I can't find a good reference for it right now, but GTD is starting to show its age and the latest research/consensus in productivity circles now seems to be "if you never commit to a time for doing it (i.e. put it in your calendar), it ain't gonna happen"

<comment><USER15> For me, the only real consensus is that there isn't one todo methodology that fits every personality type in every job type for every task type at all times.

Anyone suggesting there is, probably has a book for sale.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why does it take an acquihire for google to add meaningful new features to a product that hasn't changed substantially in years?

Also, the implementation of the "appointments" feature that they just rolled out in google calendar is broken; it doesn't respect existing events in the same calendar, which is just half assed.

<comment><USER5> Also, I wish they would make adding invites to your calendar consistently work before making some other products. If your a calendar app, you need to work well at being a damn calendar, and then do other stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The updated Google Calender version doesn't seem to be in the Play Store yet - version 5.3.8-117343094 updated 20160317 doesn't have the Goals feature (20160413 13:30 CET). Does anyone have access and if so how?

The play store webpage in the browser says something else (Updated: April 6, 2016 Current Version: Varies with device), but if I install that one remotely through the web, it ends up being the same version. Perhaps it's because I'm still running Android 5

<comment><USER7> I'm using android 6 and still it won't show up. (I'm in Europe)

<comment><USER17> I'm in Europe as well, perhaps the stores are different. I know this is the case with Amazon, iTunes and Playstation. Well I'm not going to go through all the trouble of VPN'ing into the US to check for this new version. It might come to us eventually.

<comment><USER7> [https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google- inc/calendar/calendar-5...](https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google- inc/calendar/calendar-5-4-119043132-release-release/google- calendar-5-4-119043132-release-android-apk-download/) enjoy :)

<comment><USER17> wow thanks, that one works, very useful site. my play store version still isn't updated over here...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I wonder how intelligent it is, since I do not feed that much data to Google Calendar, just the things I know I'm going to forget. Almost all of those empty hours in my Calendar are actually busy.

<comment><USER19> Garbage in, garbage out. There's other people out there that put in too much data (can't remember the link, but a guy put in literally _everything_, including nutrient consumption)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Seems like the Timeful app's features are finally being integrated.

</comment><comment><USER21> Any machine learning experts here? How is the problem of finding empty slots in your calendar formulated as an ML problem? This is an honest question to learn.

<comment><USER22> Not an expert. My guess is that it is about ranking available slots. Like given a wealth of available times for you to do X task, what makes some block X more "optimal" than block Y?

Also there's some constraint satisfaction. You probably don't want to do your thing twice in one day. You probably don't want to do it during established office hours. Maybe you want your framework to learn what office hours are (to implicitly support people without that office lifestyle). And you want to aim for having something be done N times a week.

Also, you can use the times that tasks are actually completed as feedback into new suggestions. I.e. if historically you've committed to your hobby every Tuesday night, then we should be that you will continue to do that, ergo, keep scheduling for Tuesday night. Similarly, Defer actions for the same times of day could be taken as an anti-signal (i.e. office hours).

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I wish Google Calendar on Android would let me use a keypad to enter the time rather than an analog clock.

And I'm curious to know what benefit analog provides to some people.

<comment><USER24> The analog clock is much better for touch, context, relativity, and tangible processing.

Keyboard entry is a reasonable alternative.

I much prefer the analog clock over the scrolling numbers.

<comment><USER23> > I much prefer the analog clock over the scrolling numbers

I'd rather have a keypad like my alarm clock. I wonder why we can't choose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Do we know yet if there will be a way to actually "log" those goals? The scheduling is great but it's no guarantee I'll get off my butt. On Timeful I can get my goals scheduled in, log them, and see how many days in the week I actually did something rather than just scheduled it. Would be nice to have.

</comment><comment><USER26> Google, please could you:

1\. Fix search in the web client for Calendar, without the funky paging.

2\. Add search to Hangouts on Android

<comment><USER16> ... Add search to hangouts in inbox

... Add search to hangouts.google.com

(it's almost as if lack of search in hangouts is by design, which is infuriating)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Now, if only it could cure my procrastination...

</comment><comment><USER28> I wonder what they used as training data?

<comment><USER29> [https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse](https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> > a new feature called Goals that uses machine learning to help you figure out > when you have time to pencil in stuff like spending time with your family or > exercise.

Spending time with your family is a goal/something you need help finding the time for?

What the fuck Google? How busy do you think the average person is?

<comment><USER31> Spending time with family and exercise are definitely huge goals for me that I frequently feel like I've failed at.

<comment><USER32> But that shouldn't be any goal, that should be the default. Work and tasks should be the exception from that.

Work to live, not live to work.

<comment><USER31> Ah, but do you also remember that if you do something you enjoy, you'll never work a day in your life?

I enjoy what I do. But accomplishing all the awesome still requires a balancing act.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I can't help but wonder what will come out of all of these attempts to feed million's people's data (they'll spy on everyone, but that seems inevitable in this age) to some kind of machine learning contraption.

I have strong feeling that if there comes a revolution in AI, google will be leading it with their unprecedented access to human behavior.

In that perspective, feeding data to google seems more profitable for us as humans than feeding it to some state's agency furthering their own goals. Not that I'm advising for enabling every user-tracking option out there, but still.</comment>


PostgreSQL Worst Practices - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/PostgreSQL-Consulting/postgresql-worst-practices-version-fosdem-pgday-2017-by-ilya-kosmodemiansky <comment><USER2> Are there any statistics about how many projects switched DBs?

I have the feeling 99% of all systems can be run with either SQLite or PostgreSQL their entire lifetime.

</comment><comment><USER3> EAV: isn't that a terrible practice for any database platform?

<comment><AUTHOR> Many practices mentioned in the talk are as bad in Postgres as in any other (R)DBMS</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is there an ISO code for "gibberish"? - <AUTHOR> I'm organizing my songs by language and this happens from time to time. I'm thinking of using the deprecated "JI"[0] but would love to follow a standard if there is one.<p>[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes#JI <comment><USER2> Consider using the ISO 639-2 three-letter code or its extension ISO 639-3. They have codes for "miscellaneous", "undetermined" and "no linguistic content" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2#Special_situations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2#Special_situations)) and a range "reserved for local use" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2#Reserved_for_local_u...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2#Reserved_for_local_use))

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you.

Great handle, by the way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> In one of my past employers, we used "ZZ" for the "gibberish" environment, which was auto generated from English EN to include all sorts of accents and symbols, as well as padding to the max width specified on every label and field.</comment>


Is joining Mensa a smart move? - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/31/mensa-iq-test-self-indulgent

<comment><USER2> See also

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12QUESTIONS.html>

New York Times: What is your I.Q.?

Stephen Hawking: I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

<comment><USER3> In my early 20s my wife and I took an intelligence test, since we had both been "gifted" students and it seemed like something fun to do.

She scored about 10 points higher than me, but as we reviewed the test and my answers, I had logical reasons for selecting my choices. For instance in the tests involving figures, I might have counted visible vertexes and found that the initial series all had an odd number of visible vertexes, and only one of the resulting set fit that pattern (although the rotation or whatever the "real" problem didn't work out) There were many more examples -- probably most of the test -- where there was a bunch of implied context that the reader may or may not have accepted. In fact, I'd argue that some of my "wrong" answers were much better in terms of creativity than the right ones. Some involved much more complex reasoning answers. Some involved thinking about a problem in a unique way.

After that experience we didn't do any more tests or think much about them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Mensa is indeed an intelligence test. If you want to join, you've failed.

<comment><USER5> Indeed, but also <http://www.savagechickens.com/2008/12/iq-test.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you list it on your CV, someone may "remember" that they thought you were really smart but likely won't remember what gave them that impression. That is a win.

If you go to a Mensa social gathering, you may develop a meaningful relationship loosely predicated on having something positive in common. That would be a win.

I personally don't place much stock in the IQ tests but don't think there is anything wrong with joining. It's not much different than joining an alumni association or any other affinity group.

</comment><comment><USER7> cliff notes: the author of the article has an IQ of 150 (did anyone think that there was really any other point?)</comment>


The Next Social Network: WordPress - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2007/12/11/the-next-social-network-wordpress/

<comment><USER2> The next social network is Tumblr. Its the best combination of blogging, twittering, and networking out there.

<comment><USER3> I think the point of the article was that people want to have control of their own decentralized sites rather than use someone's centralized site.

<comment><USER4> I agree with your synopsis, but I disagree with the premise.

Any writer knows that there is nothing more terrifying than the blank page. In social networks, it is the empty friends list.

All of that 'pseudo-user-generated' data that is pooh-poohed gives a new myspace page a warm and fuzzy feeling that is would be missing from a "build- it-yourself" network.

It reminds of Joel Spolsky's take on Jakob Neilsen:

"Every time I read Jakob Nielsen," I wrote in 2000, "I get this feeling that he really doesn't appreciate that usability is not the most important thing on earth. Sure, usability is important (I wrote a whole book about it). But it is simply not everyone's number one priority, nor should it be. You get the feeling that if Mr. Nielsen designed a singles bar, it would be well lit, clean, with giant menus printed in Arial 14 point, and you'd never have to wait to get a drink. But nobody would go there; they would all be at Coyote Ugly Saloon pouring beer on each other."</comment></comment></comment>


Are restaurants basically a memory now? - <AUTHOR> Closing in on two months into COVID 19 lockdown and I personally can't wait for everything to re-open.  However, when that happens, the same restaurants I used to enjoy going to won't be there.
Restaurants are already a mostly risky/low-profit margin business.  Will restaurants like the ones we used to go to still pop up, or do you see new services forming to fill this gap?
People still need to socialize, and socializing over food has been a key aspect of being human.  How will we adapt? <comment><USER2> People used to cook a lot more, in the last 30 years or so they are eating out a lot more.

Some people are learning to cook during the epidemic, as much for entertainment as anything else, and some of them will keep cooking. Also some eat-in business will go to delivery.

It isn't hard in principle to hibernate restaurants since the main cost is labor. You give the workers enhanced unemployment insurance, the restaurant stops paying the rent, the landlord and/or mortgage holder might get a bailout the same way the employees get unemployment insurance, etc.

Some would say that we are eating too much as restaurants and it is making us fat, causing diabetes, etc. Women entering the workforce has had a number of ecological impacts on the society which are rarely discussed (Liz Warren's "Two Income Trap" is a counterexample.) Dual income couples are not just paying more for mortgages and restaurant meals but for also for insulin and payments to their morticians are coming sooner.</comment>