Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do? - <AUTHOR> I'm the first employee at a startup that has been experiencing management issues. The two founders are often fighting each other for power. Both are micromanaging. We discuss new features, eventually prioritize, and create a sprint. Then, every couple of sprints, a new emergency happens and we switch it up to accommodate. This and general management issues have been stressing out employees, which we've all made clear.<p>After a lot of conflicts, the entire backend team eventually left, except myself. (A few frontend devs remain.) I'm experiencing the same issues, still. We're gearing up for a series A with maybe half a year of runway, so I feel like I should stay and help, but I often feel like I should also quit. I guess I'm looking for advice on how to either try to fix the situation, or options to leave with dignity. <comment><USER3> I'll tell you what you came here to hear, get out.

Everybody says they are "gearing up for a series A" and many many business never get a series A, never mind one that sounds like it is in such a mess.

Unless you have some insider knowledge (hockey stick growth, profit, etc) that the series A is guaranteed, it's not coming and will be used to bait you along.

</comment><comment><USER4> Spend 20 minutes each night journaling your experiences for as long as you stay. This is an incredible opportunity to learn about high-stakes interpersonal conflict from a front row seat.

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe your founders deserve a second chance? If I were you I would tell them that I stay but:

\- I want to have from now on x% more salary, kind of a PITA bonus because I have to deal with amateurs

\- maybe (more) equity, because if I have to tell a founder how he has to do his own job I am not only an employee any more

\- to claim the right (maybe include it also in your contract) to refuse breaking sprints

And of course I would start for looking for a new job, just in case.

</comment><comment><USER6> Unfortunately, it sounds like the current company culture is toxic and most likely beyond hope of redemption. Unless you have

(a) enough influence with the company leadership to make a real difference to the culture in the immediate future

AND

(b) the company has good prospects if only the management issues could be resolved

AND

(c) the risk of staying is balanced by a huge potential upside for you personally (such as already having a potentially life-changing level of equity AND a bulletproof contract)

then I would suggest you make plans to leave as well. Loyalty is a fine character trait, but so is pragmatism. There's no need to burn bridges or screw anyone, just find a better option, give a reasonable amount of notice, and do what you reasonably can to hand over to whoever is taking over your responsibilities for as long as you're still there.

</comment><comment><USER7> Don't stay for obligation so ask yourself if you honestly still believe - <USER2> sounds like you don't.

If you don't still believe, pull off the band aid and tell the founders you plan to leave. However, tell them you'll stay with them through the new year to 1) buy you time and 2) not burn bridges with them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Get your own affairs in order. Pay down some debt if you have any. Avoid large purchases. Make sure that you're going to be ok if the wheels come off and things come to a skidding halt.

Overall, are you ok with the job? Do you enjoy what you're doing? Are you learning new things? It's likely that you can't fix the situation with the higher ups, but you can certainly do what you can to make sure that you aren't going to be left stranded.

</comment><comment><USER9> Contact each one and ask them WHY they left and that honesty will not result in a poor reference.

</comment><comment><USER10> > The two founders are often fighting each other for power. Both are > micromanaging.

Ultimately, leaving is easy. A bigger challenge is learning how to handle Micro-managing superiors. You'll likely run into some form of micro-manager type anywhere you work> [https://hbr.org/2011/09/stop-being- micromanaged](https://hbr.org/2011/09/stop-being-micromanaged)

</comment><comment><USER11> Don't stay for guilt. Don't feel that you're their last hope of making it, and therefore it you quit, it's your fault that they didn't make it. No, it's the fault of the two founders, who can't grow up enough to run a company.

Now, to your question: If you get to the series A, how much do _you_ benefit? Is it enough to be worth the headaches?

</comment><comment><USER12> I was in a similar position once, except there wasn't really other devs (only one more than me) and there was only a single leader/owner. I liked the owner on a personal level, but his way of managing the company and the project we worked on finally made me quit when he refused to let me fix some very grief security issues in our code base.

</comment><comment><USER13> What are you waiting for by staying?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think, just being the first employee and the "rock" for other engineers (even though most have quit) leaves me feeling like I shouldn't just leave everyone high and dry.

<comment><USER14> The company is not your sole responsibility. If the founders are making a mess, and it falls to you to make this startup work, you deserve a share of equity.

But do you really want to be co-owner if the founders are constantly arguing?

You are your own person. If it's time to leave, it's time to leave. I value loyalty, and if you first want to sit down with the founders and tell them to start doing their job, then do that. But if their mismanagement is destroying the company, there's little you can do to stop it. Unless you take over. Are there any outside investors? What leverage do they have?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Stay because there is are potential upsides to staying and because those potential upsides are attractive relative to your alternatives. If there's an attractive potential upside to staying through a Series A, then stay because there is an attractive potential upside. That's not staying to 'help'. That might be an increase in value of your equity. But it's probably not going to entail much that isn't already in writing...so to speak.

To me, I doubt you can fix the situation. The founders have to desire to change the culture and make doing so a priority. If people walking out en masse doesn't inspire such change, then it ain't likely to change.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER16> Leave. Sounds like they'll fail and you'll be miserable the whole time. You don't owe anybody anything. That's what I'd do anyway.

</comment><comment><USER17> Tell them to hire a product manager to lead the dev teams and they should go sell something or do marketing, etc.

</comment><comment><USER18> Leave.

</comment><comment><USER19> two _non technical_ founders, that says everything you need to know</comment>


Good thread on how to use rails with RabbitMQ - <AUTHOR> http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-amqp/browse_thread/thread/3b39343aac6a7db5

<comment><USER2> That is not about RabbitMQ, unless I am reading things wrong. The discussion group is defined "AMQP client implementation in Ruby/EventMachine" (since AMQP is specified to the wire level, this should be a client to any AMQP broker, not just to RabbitMQ).</comment>


Numbers of tech companies when they were small - <AUTHOR> https://lnns.co/OCbQX9Y0ysh <comment><USER2> here's a graph for pinterest

[https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/26/pinterest- viral/](https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/26/pinterest-viral/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Will add.</comment></comment>


Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/18/the-beauty-of-typography-writing-systems-and-calligraphy-of-the-world/ <comment><AUTHOR> And part 2: [http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/22/the-beauty-of- typ...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/22/the-beauty-of-typography- writing-systems-and-calligraphy-part-2/)</comment>


Great maps that changed the world - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1272921/Ten-greatest-maps-changed-world.html <comment><USER2> How changed the world? Cool enough maps.</comment>


The value of a point - <AUTHOR> http://intelligent-conversation.blogspot.com/2010/01/value-of-point.html

<comment><USER2> Just for that I gave you an "unearned" point for the submission you referenced ^_^.

Seriously, if you post something that provokes really good (useful, whatever) comments, you've done something good for the community and a positive reward for that is hardly unearned.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree in principle, I just feel that the reward is totally out of proportion. Anyone, including the author, could have submitted exactly the same link for a huge reward. the 'A new approach to China' post by Google did the same thing for someone else, catapulting them from ~50 points to well over 1000.

<comment><USER2> Hmmm, I now feel we're at a "What's your price?" level of agreement (the old "Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?" joke), in that I agree 1,000+ points for forwarding an item is beyond ridiculous (and for something like that a "please drop my karma" option would be worth it ... although I'd assume 1,000 point boosts are very rare).

Your case of a bit over 50? Out of proportion, very possibly (I don't pay close attention to this level of detail), but maybe not "totally".

Then there's the "this rewards one for other worthwhile items forwarded that got lost in the crowd" theory. For those driven, at least in part, by a desire for more karma, this encourages them to continue to forward worthwhile things. If it encourages them while not discouraging you from continuing to forward items....</comment></comment></comment>


What Is Ron Paul Thinking? Sues To Unmask Anonymous Internet Users - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120119/01493317470/what-is-ron-paul-thinking-sues-to-unmask-anonymous-internet-users.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter <comment><USER2> Ron Paul isn't really used to being a Big Deal. He's going to have to be super vigilant to keep "his people" from doing(1) some very un-Paul-ish things now that he is. I don't think he's going to be very good at it.

(1) And advising him to do as he darts between appearances, where a distracted nod can authorize something that a moments thought would never allow.

</comment><comment><USER3> There's some comments on that page that claim they are suing because they think the Huntsman campaign is behind the video themselves. I don't believe that.

I could believe that his campaign staff filed it, but if so, he better stop it quick.

I feel a little dirty like I'm stretching to defend him. But this _is_ pretty out of character.

[more: [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/gop-ron-paul-jon- hu...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/gop-ron-paul-jon-huntsman- internet-attack-283026)]

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't understand the mind of Ron Paul in the slightest, but if I had to guess, I'd guess he's thinking something like "everyone and their dog has criticized me for the content of my old 1980s-era newsletters and the handful of times I've let myself be photographed alongside some Klansmen -- if I want to put that line of criticism to bed, I'd better come down on this racist hard, with both feet."

</comment><comment><USER5> To me it seems like their may be more to the story, like possibly an indication that this was posted by another candidates PAC to make Paul look bad or something. If so it would be illegal and needs to be investigated. I don't have any information as to whether that is the case or not but it seems like the only plausible reason to go to such efforts.

</comment><comment><USER6> Maybe he thinks he knows who they are and knows that being unmasked publicly would be really embarrassing for them? Such as one of the other republican nominees.</comment>


Entrepreneur's Guide to Email Delivery - <AUTHOR> http://zohrob.com/posts/entrepreneurs-guide-to-email-delivery-part-1.html

<comment><USER3> Part 2 is a lot more useful ([http://zohrob.com/posts/entrepreneurs-guide-to- email-deliver...](http://zohrob.com/posts/entrepreneurs-guide-to-email- delivery-part-2.html)). Part 1 basically says, if you want to run a mail server, use a dedicated IP for it. Part 2 actually goes into the anti-SPAM technologies that will make your messages appear as non-SPAM.

One thing that I would add to the section on SPF: don't say that any mail not coming from your domain is SPAM. It's a bad plan. Use it as a way to gain non- SPAM points if it does validate, but don't say that mail not coming from your servers is SPAM definitionally. Why? Because more and more people are forwarding mail and most mail forwarders do NOT rewrite the chain in a way that preserves SPF. Basically, if you deny all other domains, many people who forward their mail will see your emails as SPAM.

<comment><USER4> We had the same experience when setting our SPF records to FAIL ("-all"). It turned out many more people than we expected forwarded our messages and had spam-flagging problems as a result.

I'm curious if anyone who uses SOFTFAIL ("~all") can comment on how well it works? I see it in wide use now despite warnings that it's not appropriate for production use. Curiously, Microsoft's SenderID wizard calls the SOFTFAIL level "Discouraged" (meaning, mail from non-matching domains is discouraged) with no mention of its intended use for debugging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The world email system is broken... Makes me wonder about proposed "solutions" such as the mini-charge per email sent. I'm not sure I see _the_ fix in this post, but at least it's forewarning us about some temporary workaraounds - <USER2> some helpful education. Just one more issue for providers of web services to get up to speed on :(

</comment><comment><USER6> AuthSMTP was mentioned at Y!Hack a few weeks ago and I'm using it now in a webapp with great success.

<comment><USER3> AuthSMTP is a nice idea and I would pay their rates if they were metered like Amazon's Web Services. The problem is that I often don't know how many emails I'll need to be sending. For example, let's say they had a simple charge of $0.001 (one tenth of a cent) for each email sent plus $0.005 (one half of one cent) per MB sent. That would work nicely (and be in line with what they currently charge).

The problem is that I have to decide on what plan to buy. AWS' model works nicely in that it works for a tiny bit or a lot.</comment></comment>


Uncoiling the spiral: Maths and hallucinations - <AUTHOR> https://plus.maths.org/content/uncoiling-spiral-maths-and-hallucinations <comment><USER2> Probably deserves a "2009" in the title. The 2015 HN discussion had only one comment, but that comment had an interesting link.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10397619](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10397619)

</comment><comment><USER3> Fascinating stuff. I've often thought that the nature of hallucinations - geometric or otherwise - must have lots to tell us about the workings of the brain. From a mechanistic viewpoint all our experiences (hallucinations included) supervene on brain structure, therefore these common geometric hallucinations likely reflect some fundamental structure of the brain.

On a related note, here's an interesting article from 2015 about encrypting information so that only people who are on LSD can read it: [https://qualiacomputing.com/2015/05/22/how-to-secretly- commu...](https://qualiacomputing.com/2015/05/22/how-to-secretly-communicate- with-people-on-lsd/)

</comment><comment><USER4> "But it's not just hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, cannabis or mescaline that conjure up these geometric structures."

The article seems to be interesting, but this start turned me off a bit, as it is wrong. Cannabis is not hallucinogenic. When you get hallucinations from cannabis, then you might have a problem called psychosis...</comment>


The spectacular power of Big Lens - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/10/the-invisible-power-of-big-glasses-eyewear-industry-essilor-luxottica <comment><USER2> Being married to an optometrist and privy to some of the numbers of the business, I'm always a bit annoyed reading these articles. Yes, the margins on frames are high. Are the overall profits of the business high? Not particularly. The staffing costs are essentially subsidised by the products they sell. If you put 'reasonable' markups on the frames, then you have to make the costs of the eye tests a lot higher to pay for the time of your expensive staff and then fewer people are willing to get tested and their problems go unnoticed. Sometimes they are serious enough to be life- threatening or to cause total loss of vision. Your GP is not going to notice a bulging optic disc for example.

So while I appreciate the consumer sentiment of 'This looks like I'm being ripped off', I think the current pricing model is actually in the best interest of public health. Even SpecSavers model of 30min appointments is a bit suspect really.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, if you consider the actual cost of visits, the end product has to subsidize the entire business. It took 3 visits for me to get contacts. The contacts were about $200 for a year's supply, and each visit was about $60.00. Each of the people involved has to make a part of that as their pay, and on top of that they have to rent an office, maintain stock, lease equipment, etc.. All to sell me some squishy bits of hydrogel for less than what a cell phone costs. I'm really surprised if they broke even on me.

<comment><USER4> But _why_ did it take you three visits to get contacts?

It's also interesting that hard (RGP) contacts, which last essentially forever, are now virtually impossible to buy from high-street opticians.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_gas_permeable_lens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_gas_permeable_lens)

<comment><USER2> Contact lenses aren't always easy to fit. Especially if you are correcting for astigmatism. There's sizing, weighting, permeability and the unmeasured but distinct differences between brands. There's also the choice of changing the actual powers involved for different reasons. So people have to take them away, try them for comfort and such... Three visits is pretty normal. If you are a keratoconic then 3 visits would be a very easy case...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Slightly OT, but I can't resist mentioning a blog post of mine: [http://scottlburson2.blogspot.com/2016/01/lcd-backlights- and...](http://scottlburson2.blogspot.com/2016/01/lcd-backlights-and-eyeglass- lenses.html)

Anyone with a correction of more than 3 or 4 diopters in either direction, who uses a wide-gamut monitor, might want to take note of this. This includes anyone with a 2016 or newer MacBook Pro.

<comment><USER6> Assuming you have Anisometropia (difference in prescription strength between the two eyes), this is only half the deal.

You'll additionally want so called /Iseikonic/ glasses, which equalize the magnification/minification between the two lenses, AND THUS also equalize the angles of prismatic diversion induced outside the center of vision by glasses. This SIGNIFICANTLY reduces eye strain.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The mechanics of lens and frames aren't _yet_ within the reach of 3D printing, unfortunately.

The current system is absurd and unsustainable.

These guys look interesting (met them at a conference; haven't tried the product though): they use your phone to scan your face, show you what various frames will look like on your face _as you move it_, make custom frames and lenses on demand, and ship them to you. [https://www.topologyeyewear.com](https://www.topologyeyewear.com)

The app seems to work pretty well, but as I said I haven't tried the real product.

</comment><comment><USER6> 1\. That's a terrible pun in the article title that some Americans might miss

2\. And here I had hoped this article might go into the details of the HORRENDOUS patent lockdown between Zeiss, Rodenstock, Hoya, Essilor, Shaw Lens, and numerous other vendors, who OF COURSE all refuse to license to each other which essentially forces consumers to use lenses built with a hodgepodge between completely outdated technology and cutting edge technology. Imagine running your modern GPU with an 486 as a CPU - or vice versa.

</comment><comment><USER8> There are so many cheap online manufacturers. I feel like this is more the last gasp of an overpriced overserviced industry, like if there was a consolidation of travel agents in 2003.

<comment><USER9> Unfortunately, for people with even moderately complicated prescriptions (e.g., even mild astigmatism), there's no substitute for in-person fitting, as the lens centre must be precisely located.

<comment><USER10> You just have to measure your interpupillary distance with an accurate ruler. It's very easy with either a mirror or a friend's help.

<comment><USER11> With a moderate astigmatism you need to center it vertically too, and that's not really possible without trying the frame on and seeing how it sits.

<comment><USER12> Does that number change over time? Sounds like a one-time calibration, pretty much like my jeans size.

<comment><USER13> No, it varies with each frame and lens shape. My eyes are offset vertically and I have severe astigmatism and it usually takes more than one visit to get proper fitting.

<comment><AUTHOR> EyeBuyDirect and FramesDirect (both owned by Essilor) will remake your glasses with correct pupil/fitting height. Order the first pair, adjust them for correct fit, including pantoscopic tilt, then measure the vertical position of pupil. Make any compensation needed for tilt, then return the frame for a free remake with the new value.

When you order the same frame again, you can specify your custom fitting height.

<comment><USER3> Or walk in to an optometrist and have them competently do all of that for you and then sell you the glasses.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is broad variability in competence of individual opticians, whether independent or at a chain store. If you have access to a competent local optician in your city, wonderful. If you don't, there's no reason to pay 10X prices for worse service than you can obtain yourself with a few minutes of measurements. Unlike an optician who needs to fit a wide variety of customer faces, you only need to fit a single face, which is a one-time learning exercise.

<comment><USER6> We meet again, Mr. Bell. I think you might have missed the last bunch of replies I gave you, you might wish to check!

There's one other thing those online vendors can't give you:

Wavefront aberrometer guided glasses. Unfortunately the industry sits at a shitty place here. Nearly all doctors don't buy those. And even if they do, their measurements aren't portable to the vendor systems. So instead, opticians have those. But opticians can't use cycloplegia, which you do need to get a proper wavefront measurement - and even if you can arrange that (say, by hurrying to your optician very quickly after a doctors visit), you'll run into the problem that most opticians don't configure those devices correctly, leaving them at the vendor default of 3 measurement cycles (instead of the 5 it takes to get statistically useful results), don't check for ring defects on the scan, and so on. It's a mess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> But the technical best frames are still made in Austria, Silhouette. Light and frameless titan, unbreakable.

The Italians or Fielmann haven't figured out that yet.

<comment><USER6> And the aesthetically best frames are also still made in Austria - [http://schau-schau.at/en/](http://schau-schau.at/en/)

<comment><USER14> Only if you like Bulgarian style intellectuals. I heard this is modern in Vienna right now.

I was talking about invisible frames and invisible glasses, as light as possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Any chance of 3D-printing lenses? Frames seem easy, but being able to automate lens creation may be able to bypass these big monopolies.

Whatever happened to these water-filled lenses? [https://gizmodo.com/5116969/eyeglasses-with-fluid-filled- sac...](https://gizmodo.com/5116969/eyeglasses-with-fluid-filled-sac-for- worlds-poor-are-instantly-adjustable) (2008)

<comment><USER16> _Any chance of 3D-printing lenses?_

Yes, it's called "grinding", it's how all lenses used to be made. For like, 500 years.

Next up: can we make lenses on the blockchain?

<comment><USER17> I suspect a lot of the polymer lenses are cast to a rough shape and then ground/polished a relatively small amount to reach the final dimension.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Buying non-Luxottica frames is pretty easy. Go to any smaller eye glass shop and odds are they will have independently made frames, sometimes even locally made.

As for cheap lens, you get what you pay for. Improvements in lens materials, such as Trivex, have made life quantifiable better, and lens coatings get better and better all the time. Anyone else remember the first generation of transition lens? Compared to today's coating, is a world of difference. But in regards to being accessible, head down to Costco (no membership card needed) and pick up a pair of quality polycarb lens.

I also find it difficult to believe that England only has 4 frame makers, when I am pretty sure there are more than that in the Pacific Northwest alone!</comment>


How an information system helped nail Eliot Spitzer and a prostitution ring - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8211 <comment><USER2> I wish the article would go into more depth about how FinCEN was used to spot Spitzer's transactions. Was it a person scanning the database, or some algorithm the Feds use to identify suspicious transactions? They say that only transactions exceeding $10,000 are entered in the system -- so then how did they see that Spitzer had many suspicious transactions just below $10,000?

Pmarca has an a partial transcript of Spitzer's conversations at <http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/03/life-lessons-fr.html></comment>


Facebook's real-name-only approach is non-negotiable - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/08/faceboo_real_names/ <comment><USER2> Play a social game on Facebook - any of the ones that grant you additional advantages for inviting your friends. (In other words, 100% of the successful ones.) There's _so_ many obviously fake, for-games-only accounts loaded up with completely unconnected for-games-only 'friends'.

When Facebook gets serious about deleting these accounts - irritating the platform's developers and impacting the money it makes through Facebook Credits - _then_ I'll believe their real-name-only approach is non-negotiable.

<comment><USER3> Aren't these accounts precisely what generate Facebook's revenue?

There appears to be a large number of people who don't want to associate their public identity with their 'social gaming' profile - does this really cause any harm?

<comment><USER4> _Aren't these accounts precisely what generate Facebook's revenue?_

That's precisely the point. If the "real name only" stance is non-negotiable, they would ban these accounts, forgoing significant revenue in the process.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What name is more real; one you give yourself, or one your parents give you?

And anyway, nothing is stopping you from photoshopping your drivers' license to say whatever name you want. When Facebook asks you to verify your "real name", just give them a photoshop. Or don't use Facebook.

Incidentally, I have a friend whose passport says "Ingy döt Net". Yup, an O with umlauts. And that's his legal name.

So I don't really see an issue here.

<comment><USER6> "Incidentally, I have a friend whose passport says "Ingy döt Net"."

Is it an American passport? If it comes from a country which uses ö as part of its alphabet I don't see what would be surprising.

<comment><USER5> It is an American passport.

<comment><USER6> Ah. Out of curiosity, do you know what restrictions there are on characters that can be used? Are the criteria for "legal characters in a name" in the U.S. driven by technology/codepages? ö is in ISO 8859-1 and Windows-1252, so perhaps support is more straightforward. I have a feeling č or ł might be a different story.

I keep on meaning to look into synchronizing my birth name (with an ł and a ó, latter is in 8859-1 but not the former) with my legal name in Canada, but I consistently conclude I can't be bothered...

<comment><USER7> Ingy used to have a blog post about all the different hassles he had with different people coping badly with the ö (passport, driving licence, Amazon account etc). He's killed his blog at least twice since then though, so I don't think it's currently available and I can't find it in archive.org

I don't know about the US, but I made a series of Freedom of Information requests in the UK to find the answer to exactly this issue there, and was somewhat surprised to find that (in Northern Ireland at least) supposedly _any_ Unicode character is valid: [http://nothing.tmtm.com/2008/11/irene-and- irene-and-%D0%B0%D...](http://nothing.tmtm.com/2008/11/irene-and-irene- and-%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%8F-and-%E5%AE%89%E5%A8%9C/)

Whether that extends to the snowman character and the like is still an open question...

<comment><USER6> Yeah - I'm not at all convinced the principle of having my name right would be worth the hassle.

Very interesting about the situation in NI. Thanks for the link.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> When my girlfriend made a Facebook account about a year ago, I was curious to see how this would unfold.

Her account name isn't her real name as she uses an alias in both her digital and real life (I don't think I even learned her real name for the first six months we were dating.

She won't post pictures of herself to her profile (and will remove any tags other people might add of her) and mostly uses Facebook to play games.

A few months ago she tried to log into her account from somewhere else, and was presented with the "identify yourself by naming your friends" screen and realized that almost all of her Facebook friends (who are mostly people she plays online games with) don't have actual pictures of themselves as their profile pic.

<comment><USER9> That's interesting she uses an alias in real life as well as online. Is there any specific reason?

<comment><USER8> I think she originally adopted it when she was dancing (which is pretty common), and is pretty security conscious (paranoid) in general, so she kept using it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I get the concern, but I feel like there's an entire Internet out there where a real name isn't required... The fact that you have to use your real name is apparent from the moment you sign up, and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

<comment><USER3> There's always been a continuum of anonymity on the internet. Outside Facebook, participants in online communities have to decide on a case-by-case basis how much of their 'real' identity to make available. Because almost all online activity has traditionally been open, indexed, and publicly accessible, this has been the primary way that people have 'protected' themselves.

Facebook inverts this: it requires you to use your real identity at all times, but partitions the online social space into a set of closed, private chambers. Security comes from isolation rather than anonymity.

Facebook has been increasingly successful at working its way into the mechanics of online communities in general, and I think this is a real threat to the unique potential of the internet as a social space. When physical boundaries are irrelevant and people are free to choose _how_ to participate - not just _how much_ \- communities emerge that are qualitatively different from the ones we live in offline. But when Facebook's model applies the social constraints of the offline world to the internet, we lose that uniqueness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So then I guess facebook believes my fb app QA team consists of about a half dozen men who look strikingly like myself but with much more colorful names.

</comment><comment><USER12> huh? Tons of people have changed their name for their facebook account (e.g. "Rob FromManchester" instead of "Rob Smith"), so they don't pop up in employer searches. I've never seen or heard of a verification system.

</comment><comment><USER13> Well, it's a good thing that Ciccio Bong, Wholly Subversive, and Guy Fawkes used their real names, then.</comment>


Artists and Their Physicians: van Gogh and Dr. Paul Gachet - <AUTHOR> http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2018/01/van-gogh-gachet/ <comment><USER2> I finally got to watch loving Vincent [1] (in the plane safely, but really glad they had it !) what a great movie !! I highly recommand it, stunning work ! Rarely have I had goose bumps this much when watching a movie ^^ and the end credits are really cool.

It discusses quite a bit the relation between Van Gogh and gachet. Very interesting. This article goes in a lot more detail tough.

[1] [http://lovingvincent.com](http://lovingvincent.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> The recent movie "Loving Vincent" goes into the last days of Van Gogh's life and his friendship with Dr. Gachet. It's a little less detailed/academic than this article, but does a good job at conveying the complexity of the situation and Van Gogh's struggles with mental illness. It's also visually incredible: every frame in the movie is a hand-painted oil painting. I would definitely recommend for anyone even a little bit interested in this sort of thing.

</comment><comment><USER4> the font and the page layout is very readable</comment>


Daily Scamming - <AUTHOR> http://prog.re/blog/2020-03-03.html <comment><USER2> This must be illegal, to pretend to be a mail provider?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think so, trademark infringment at least.</comment></comment>


I Was A Warehouse Wage Slave - <AUTHOR> http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

<comment><USER2> Previous discussion with a huge number of comments: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641184>

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I was pretty sure this had been submitted before. It is a great read though, so maybe it's not so bad this gets a second play...</comment></comment>


Unsolved problems in physics - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsolved_problems_in_physics <comment><USER2> "Why did the universe have such low entropy in the past, resulting in the distinction between past and future and the second law of thermodynamics?[7]"

I die laughing at this one. "I know that my theory of the origin of the universe doesn't align with the laws of physics. SO THE LAWS OF PHYSICS MUST HAVE CHANGED SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY!"

ROFLLMAO

<comment><USER3> What are you talking about?

</comment></comment><comment> cool-RR Physicists are ridiculous. Here's an unsolved problem for you:

Given the positions, velocities, masses and charges of a set of macroscopic bodies moving in vacuum, (in speeds which may be relativistic,) calculate the position of each of these bodies after a specified amount of time `t` has passed. (Neglect gravity.) (All quantities are given numerically, and the answers should be numeric too, allowing for a specified margin of error.)

\</comment><comment>---

Until physicists can solve a problem like this, they can take their time with quantum gravity and string theory.

<comment><USER4> I think you were referring to the n-body problem (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-body_problem>). If so, I suggest not neglecting gravity.

Without gravity (and either assuming these guys don't run into each other or can somehow pass through each other), the position of each body is independent, and can be found through the following equation:

Position = Initial + (Velocity * Time)

Blah blah vector components blah blah, but you get my point.

<comment><USER5> He included "charge" which (mathematically) is identical to gravity.

Plus he said relativistic, so the very concept of "position" (and time) is not so simple.

<comment><USER6> If you're assuming a fixed viewer, it's actually pretty easy to define position and time. There are just relativistic corrections to a bunch of the terms.

<comment><USER5> Only if you assume no acceleration on the objects. But he said charge, so they do accelerate.

You'd have to figure out the position and velocity of each one relative to the others to figure would what the effect of the charge will be. And don't forget to include the propagation delay of the charge field.

This is by far not a simple problem. Much much harder than the N-body problem.

If the top poster had only left out "Physicists are ridiculous." it would have been quite an insightful post, instead it was an inciteful one.

Look up <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_field_equations> \- add in <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress-energy_tensor> and you'll see that the motion of relativistic bodies is barely understood.

I'm upmoding him, because I think -7 is more than enough.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: The 24 Hour Startup Challenge - <AUTHOR> https://24hrstartup.com <comment><AUTHOR> About a month ago, I launched a startup in 24 hours and live streamed the whole thing on Twitch. I hit #1 on Product Hunt and #1 on Show HN.

I wrote more about that at [https://starterstory.com/blog/how-i-built-a- startup-on-twitc...](https://starterstory.com/blog/how-i-built-a-startup-on- twitch-in-24-hours)

So I wanted to create an organized event to let others try this too. One day, 50 streamers, and a web portal where you can see everyone building.

Say what you want about building a product in 24 hours, but I think it's a great way to:

\- Get your idea out there & drop your ego

\- Just build something & have fun!

\- Exercise your programming and product building skills

\- Build your audience.

What do you think of this idea? I'm pretty excited to see what comes out of a remote hackathon is also streamed on Twitch...</comment>


Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2014UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolListForWindows.aspx <comment><USER2> I don't know why people have such a blind spot in this regard, but Visual Studio's non-support for word-wrapping comments is obviously shameful. It's utterly ridiculous that you have to press Return while writing comments, and then more ridiculous yet that you have to go back and re-wrap them by hand when they change! - and the end result of course is that people usually don't bother, with the wrapping becoming steadily more ragged over time. Which looks shit.

So, I'll recommend this addin, that fixes it pretty nicely:

[http://kynosarges.org/CommentReflower.html](http://kynosarges.org/CommentReflower.html)

Though, you know... I've recommended this to numerous people over the years. And all of them have gone and ignored me. So perhaps I'm just unusual, and people like the raggedy look. Still, Comment Reflower gets my vote.

<comment><USER3> To be honest it's not a problem I have, I like to keep my comments short and punchy. If I'm writing war and peace, it will only ever be for the class comment at the top, for some reason I manually do my own line breaks then as I feel it can be used to break up thought and provide emphasis.

However, I'm also a GhostDoc fan: [http://submain.com/products/ghostdoc.aspx](http://submain.com/products/ghostdoc.aspx) So I appreciate some people consider me to be inherently evil/lazy.

<comment><USER4> Even if it's a problem you'd have, you really have a luxury problem if having to press enter when writing comments is the thngs you worry about when delivering code.

<comment><USER5> That's very dismissive of a very real problem. When you add friction to comments, people either

a) Don't write them in the first place. b) Don't keep them up to date (as to3m mentioned, it is utterly ridiculous when you need to update a comment and then need to reflow every following sentence. Many developers will simply not do it).

Additionally another counterpoint seems to be "my comments are short anyways", which would make me question why comment in the first place? In most cases where I've seen short comments, they were completely unnecessary redundant restating of exactly what the code already tells you.

The comments that really add real value don't try to pseudo-code the code, but instead tell you the why of the code. It is extremely hard to describe why in 80 characters or less.

<comment><USER2> Yes, I've found this too. Comments that are useful to more than just the original author tend to be at least 2-3 sentences long. It's hard to fit that many sentences into 80 characters, a total which is already being eaten away by indentation and comment prefix. (For example, your average C# function will be indented 2 stops. C++ member function declarations will be indented 1 or 2 stops. In both these cases you also lose 2 or 3 chars from the leading "//" or "// ".)

Before I used Comment Reflower, I used one of the example VBA macros that comes with Visual Studio. It was rather slow, and somewhat buggy (you're much, much better of with Comment Reflower) but it _would_ \- usually - word wrap your comments without making too much of a mess. But I noticed my comments improving in quality pretty much the moment I started using it, because finally I could say as much as needed to be said without it being a bother to keep things nicely formatted, or having to even think about the effort of keeping it up to date later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I agree having Paint.NET on this list, it is pretty good. I used paint shop pro 6 (yes, the one made in 1999) and switched to Paint.NET last year. It has really expanded my capabilities with regard to art for game development.

To get the most out of Paint.NET check out their plugins ([http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/forum/7-plugins- publis...](http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/forum/7-plugins-publishing- only/)). It seems like there is a plugin for anything you can think of.

<comment><USER7> Another vote of confidence for Paint.NET from me. It's gotten to a point where I know the shortcuts by heart and can cut, resize, apply tweaks to images very very quickly and it integrates perfectly with windows.

It doesn't look horrible like GIMP. Please donate if you can, even $5 helps!

<comment><USER8> IMO it has a different place than GIMP, and they actually co-exist on my system. GIMP is more of a PhotoShop clone, whereas Paint.NET is more of a PSP clone and/or MSPaint on steroids. I've found that PS/GIMP are usually best for creating a production-quality image from scratch or for touching up full-color photos, but Paint.NET is best for doing informal graphical work (mock-ups, screenshot annotations, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A great list overall. One alternative I'd offer: he recommends Github for Windows and Tortoise as Git clients. I've been using SourceTree for Windows ([http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/](http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/)) and it's excellent. They've done a great job maintaining and keeping it up to date.

<comment><USER10> SourceTree is such a great program. It's also very intuitive and nooby friendly, as opposed to Github for Windows which never seized to confuse me and I've been using Git for years.

With SourceTree, people completely new to Git and version control can get things done.

<comment><USER11> "seized to confuse" love it. that is better than the original.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Just a couple of things.

uTorrent got iffy once it was bought out. IIRC, you want version 0.6 This was very small, fast and unmolested.

VLC. For years used to be absolutely fantastic. When it came out, a god send. I'd tell anyone listening to use it. Sadly, recently its caused me loads of sync problems, and various other minor niggles. As a result, I have had to reverted to CCCP. When VLC works for me, it is the best, but when it doesn't, CCCP fills the gap. In fairness, maybe a recent VLC update will cure my problems. Dunno.

Foobar2000 needs a mention, especially with Winamp going. My PC is connected to my amp directly via USB, and FLAC files sound incredibly good. (These days, hifi wise, MP3 is, to me, awful. They kinda sound dead. You lose so much detail and depth. But that's a whole new discussion) You can also get a great little app for Android that you can remote control foobar2000 with over your lan.

<comment><USER8> Foobar2000 is a great project, it's tremendously efficient (I think it uses 10-20mb when running), and the plugin feature allows you to extend it however you wish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Cmder[[http://bliker.github.io/cmder/](http://bliker.github.io/cmder/)] from that list changed how i view a windows commandline. My best windows tool discovery in 2013.

<comment><USER14> That's just a repackaged ConEmu. Nothing earth-shattering under the sun.

<comment><USER13> "Looking sexy from the start" is what it matters for me

<comment><USER14> Still, it is nothing new, just a repackaging of old software.

<comment><USER13> I dont understand why repackaging is bad for Cmder. I was desperately looking for cmd alternative and found Console 2 a few years back. Then heard about ConEmu but it didn't made me even to try but Cmder did.

<comment> alok-g How would you compare Cmder and Console2?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Even though I barely touch windows these days, when I do, I invariably use "everything" ([http://www.voidtools.com/](http://www.voidtools.com/)) to find where everything is. So fast, so minimalistic. It's like locate on crack (because it shows you stuff as you type and it automatically updatedb's).

<comment><USER16> Windows 8.1 built-in search kind of makes this redundant.

<comment><USER17> no way windows search will ever replace Everything. Windows search is slow and it will not find whatever document you want 90% of the time.

<comment><USER16> Well, it's very-very fast in 8.1. I don't know why it does not find the document you want - it works quite well for me, YMMV obviously.

<comment><USER18> Have you used Everything?

It is instant file name search. I guess recent Windows could have improved file name searching, but it has classically been pretty bad.

<comment><USER19> Actually not really if you set up an index on C:\ it is quite fast, which is basically the main difference. But there is not one by default so you need to add it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> A few more I use:

SSH Tunnel Manager (open source). I don't really like managing tunnels via cmd so here's a GUI to do just that. [https://code.google.com/p/ssh-tunnel- manager/](https://code.google.com/p/ssh-tunnel-manager/)

CryptSync (open source). This keeps a folder in sync with another one but encrypts the content of the destination folder. It's extremely useful to use with Dropbox where I keep everything encrypted. [http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/CryptSync.html](http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/CryptSync.html)

Greenshot (open source). I use this to get screenshots of a particular area of the screen like I would do on OSX with CTRL+SHIFT+4. [http://getgreenshot.org/](http://getgreenshot.org/)

Prepos App. A generic preprocessor for everything web (js, css, etc). [http://alphapixels.com/prepros/](http://alphapixels.com/prepros/)

SPlayer (open source). I have no idea with I enjoy this video player more than VLC but I do. [http://www.splayer.org/index.en.html](http://www.splayer.org/index.en.html)

VistaSwitcher. It's an ALT+TAB replacement. [http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html](http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html)

<comment><USER21> Did you know about the snipping tool included with Win7? I think it replaces Greenshot.

<comment><USER20> I prefer Greenshot because I can do some magic like autosaving each shot in a particular format and folder. It also allows me to save and copy to clipboard so I can with just one click have it available to paste into a new Gmail message while keeping it saved on the disk. I use this a lot every day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Great list! I would also include [http://www.expandrive.com/expandrive](http://www.expandrive.com/expandrive) which lets you mount any server with SSH as a local hard drive.

</comment><comment><USER23> No idea why he would use Notepad2, ST3 loads up just as fast and provides way more features for text editing. Plus it is good with markdown syntax highlighting thus eliminating the need for MarkdownPad

Also Github for windows or just Git bash covers the need for Gow

Jabbr is ok, but I havent been able to give up mIRC

Also he left off a good tabbed ssh/putty

Great list, learned lots of new things thanks!

<comment><USER24> I _love_ Notepad2. It is one of the programs I always install when I have Windows installed.

<comment><USER25> Agreed Notepad2 is pretty much perfect. I have been meaning to try out Notepad2-mod for a while as I would quite like the code folding.

One thing I would like (and might change myself if I ever get around to setting up my own build of it) is for it to remember its last position. At the moment you can save the location but it is annoying and should be automatic (IMHO).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> AutoHotkey is a great way to get your kids coding. Not sure if there's anything like it for what kids use most nowadays, iOS and Android tablets, but having them make macros and letting them manipulate their favorite piece of software in ways they didn't think possible is usually an eye opener.

Edit: I'd add SpaceSniffer to this list.

<comment><USER27> Tasked is like an Android version of AutoHotKey. You can even use it to create APKs, which you can distribute in the Play store. I've used it to do loads of things, like unlock my phone based on WiFi, send automatic responses, and log the GPS coordinates when I leave the car.

[http://tasker.dinglisch.net/](http://tasker.dinglisch.net/)

<comment><USER21> There's on{X} [1], but I haven't used it myself.

[1]: [https://www.onx.ms/#!landingPage](https://www.onx.ms/#!landingPage)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Two additional utilities y like:

* 7+ Taskbar Tweaker ( [http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker](http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker) ): allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar, for example reorder and regroup the programs in the taskbar.

* Network Activity Indicator ([http://www.itsamples.com/network-activity-indicator.html](http://www.itsamples.com/network-activity-indicator.html) ): displays the old 'two monitors' icon in Windows 7 that flashed blue to show network activity. (Well, this don't belong to the OP list because the only purpouse is to clutter the systray, but _I_ like it.)

</comment><comment><USER29> Great list of suggestions. While many of us on HN prefer Linux or OS X for any development work, it doesn't mean we don't at least occasionally work on Windows machines. Knowing how to make that experience more smooth definitely helps.

Going through the list of suggestions there was one particular item that stopped me to think. Living close to the arctic circle where sun never rises with the winter solstice approaching, trying F.lux ([http://justgetflux.com/](http://justgetflux.com/)) felt at first a bit depressing with the app interpreting it's night even though it was noon. But then again, I guess most things have a tendency to feel depressing at this time of year.

<comment><USER30> I used F.lux for a long time, but now prefer Redshift[1][2] on OS X and Linux. (I think it has Windows support too, although I haven't tried it.) F.lux seemed to use a lot of CPU considering what it was doing.

[1] Linux: try your package manager or <[https://github.com/jonls/redshift/>](https://github.com/jonls/redshift/>)

[2] OS X fork <[https://github.com/geofft/redshift>](https://github.com/geofft/redshift>)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Nice list. Can't say I agree with everything, but preferences vary.

I'd add though: ninite, notepad++, foobar, windows snipping tool and maybe cdxpburner.

NB both CDXPBurner and Imgburner come with Opencandy adware in some versions and are sneaky about it.

<comment><USER32> If you like windows snipping tool, [http://getgreenshot.org/](http://getgreenshot.org/) is an open source software that does all the things that snipper does, and more (like a snagit replacement). Window, region, freeform windows. Uploads to various services. Configuration to allow automatic save locations and types.

I use it every day!

<comment><USER33> I second this one. I have used it for years as my default snipper.

<comment><USER34> I've been a huge fan of ShareX (previously ZScreen) for quite awhile. I believe it incorporates Greenshot.

[http://getsharex.com](http://getsharex.com)

<comment><USER32> Oooh, I am going to take a look. I love greenshot, so interesting stuff built on top of it is worth some time. This is why OSS is the best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> my 2 cents:

\- TreeSize ( and/or SequoiaView ) -- see where the big files/directories are on your harddrives

\- Piriform CrapCleaner -- deletes unwanted/unneeded files after booting; configure all of it, then add folders and log files manually (find good candidates with Treesize ;) I like all Piriform tools, they're small, quick and slick. I wish they made more things.

\- any SysInternals stuff you have a use for (Autoruns is a must have)

\- DirectoryOpus -- the best file manager I know

\- FreeFileSync -- backup/synchronize directories (locally, that is). Can also monitor directories for changed stuff (also for Mac and Linux)

<comment><USER36> I'd swap out Treesize for Windirstat (Free-er) and FreeFileSync for PathSync (which I really need to fork one day)

<comment><USER35> I never heard of WinDirStat before, it's like Treesize and SequoiaView rolled into one! Thanks a lot :)

<comment><USER36> And this is why I still read every utilities/tools thread.

Another cool one that needs a new maintainer is SelfImage: it can make a disc image of a running Windows system and even connect to a Linux network block device.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I suggested the author to review my company product SpyStudio that has a free version and is being used by Microsoft MVPs and VMware to troubleshoot Windows issues.

If you need a trustworthy source, here is a video from Peter Björk ( [http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/author/peter_bjork](http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/author/peter_bjork) ) showing how to troubleshoot a ThinApp package: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sLxeoB7Bho](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sLxeoB7Bho)

<comment><USER38> Hmmm "the author" works at Microsoft, I'm not sure if you are aware of this

<comment><USER37> Yes, what's the issue with that?

<comment><USER38> Somehow the way you stated "used by Microsoft..." seemed disconnected from this fact, and just in case you didn't know I wanted to point it out. Since you know, no problem anywhere :)

<comment><USER39> He said 'used by Microsoft MVP's.' There is a difference, MVP's aren't Microsoft employees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Here's my list of tools:

[http://www.catonmat.net/blog/must-have-windows- programs/](http://www.catonmat.net/blog/must-have-windows-programs/)

Must Have Windows Programs

<comment><USER41> This was written in 2010. Any plans for updating this list? (e.g., the link for "tclock2" is dead).

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> A word of warning about TerraCopy- it can cause annoying errors when copying. I transferred many gigs of data from one computer to another over a LAN, some files transferred fine, others looked like they copied ok, but were actually 0kb in size on closer look.

I'm not sure if it was a bug in that particular version or with the setup being used, but once I uninstalled TerraCopy the errors ceased.

<comment><USER31> TC occasionally bombs out if you queue too much stuff - i.e. it just closes ... and thus looks like its done when really its not. Maybe thats why you got 0kb files.

Win7 + copying is decent enough for most non-lan purposes though.

Speaking on copying failing - I stopped using TotalCommander for that reason. It just says disk full (not true) out of the blue. Messaged the author & got some bullshit response.

<comment><USER43> > Win7 + copying is decent enough for most non-lan purposes though.

It's not. If a single file fails on Win7 it cancels the whole operation (how is that possible on an OS released in 2009?! Fixed in Win8 though, that will never be used in corporations though), it fails if the path becomes longer than 255 characters etc.

Robocopy works but I'd much rather use rsync which is not available on Windows unless you use hacked up versions with cygwin.

A good reliable copying tool is sorely missing. Sure, there's all sorts of alternatives but I'm not willing to use it unless it's open source. The other comment on this thread talking about FastCopy got me curious, I'll have to try that (it's open source!).

<comment><USER31> >If a single file fails on Win7 it cancels the whole operation

No it doesn't? It pauses it & gives you an option to retry / cancel. So if another app is using the file you can close it & continue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Scott Hanselman's list is amazing! A must-have for everyone in the tech industry. A decade worth of work at your fingertips. These are all well loved and often used utilities. I have curated my own list of utilities out of this humongous list. I truly appreciate the amount of hard work and many hours of research put together in making this list by Scott Hanselman.

</comment><comment><USER45> [http://tabstospaces.com](http://tabstospaces.com)

I often copy code from my IDE to my blog or other Markdown formatters. I always have to add four spaces or convert tabs to spaces so that it gets formatted as code block. This extremely fast and simply site just brings a simple and easy solution to my problem.

<comment><USER41> For multiple files: _TABS2Spaces_ ([http://bluefive.pair.com/tabs2spaces.htm](http://bluefive.pair.com/tabs2spaces.htm)), which is a GUI application, and _tabspace_ ([http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/tabspace.html](http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/tabspace.html)), which is a CLI one. The latter also removes trailing whitespace (though it can be told not to via the /leaveeol parameter).

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Does anyone know of a list similar in scale and scope for Mac users?

<comment><USER47> 1 item: macports

Seriously, that's all you need.

<comment><USER48> I have stopped using macports since I tried homebrew. Is there any reason for me to switch back?

<comment><USER49> What was your reason to switch away in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Although he mentions Hyper-V Virtual Machines, the real winner for me is VMware Player ([http://www.vmware.com/in/products/player/](http://www.vmware.com/in/products/player/)). Its just like a audio/video player but for Virtual Machines.

</comment><comment><USER51> Great list. I'd add one more program: Agent Ransack at [http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/](http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/) . It's a file search utility that is orders of magnitude better than the utility built into Windows.

<comment><USER52> Yes, the problem i have with the built-in windows search is that I never really know what it's searching and therefore i don't know how exhaustive its results are. Agent ransack has a very precise ui, you know exactly what you're searching for and which folders you're searching in. It's great for when you have to trawl through millions of lines of code across dozens of projects to find the references to a database column to be migrated. I use it depressingly often for that, but it does it really well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> IMDisk, a virtual disk driver and disk image mount utility that is lightweight, ad-free, and actually supports Windows 2000 to 8.1 [1]. It's also open-source.

[1] [http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/](http://www.ltr- data.se/opencode.html/)

</comment><comment><USER54> There's a lot about asking people not to copy the list to their own blogs which kind of spoils the first impression to me - especially that the note is before the fold.

Does the HN crowd have an opinion on this? Did you find the note a bit weird ?

<comment><USER55> No - copy and pasting is endemic, and if he wants to keep a list that's his (rather than have it shared on 50+ 'latest might-get-ad-clicks content' websites), then good for him.

<comment><USER56> But his appeal will not stop those copiers, and it does annoy his intended audience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> Is anyone using TouchCursor ([http://touchcursor.sourceforge.net/](http://touchcursor.sourceforge.net/) )? I really like the idea, but I'm not sure if I should try to stick with it.

<comment><USER58> Thank you for mention of this wonderful software. I tried to do the same with Autohotkey, but it is much simpler with TouchCursor. So I have been working with it for 2 days, it is unusual for the first time, but not so hard. Now I have fast text navigation tool, much better than Home, End etc. keys.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> Great post. However there is 1 great utility missing:

Clover: Chrome-like tabs for your file explorer. No more having dozens of file windows up. Just one. [http://ejie.me](http://ejie.me)

<comment><USER60> Awesome! I love being able to middle-click to open something in a new tab, especially the folder that I'm currently viewing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> My favorite tool on the list is Everything search, which instantly finds all files. It has completely changed the way I use the file system, to the point where I will rarely even open the Windows Explorer.

</comment><comment><USER62> For python development, I'd also add Python(x,y) and/or Anaconda distributions for windows. They're binary installers that give you cpython interpreters + the kitchen sink when it comes to third party libraries and development tools.

Also, I have to disagree with the author about recommending µTorrent. It's become more and more adware ridden with each new update. Deluge is pretty good though.

<comment><USER37> You can't forget Python tools for Visual Studio [http://pytools.codeplex.com/](http://pytools.codeplex.com/) !

<comment><USER63> It is indeed rather nice. However I just started using PyCharm and it's on a whole other level: [http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/](http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/)

<comment><USER37> I tried both, why do you prefer PyCharm? Personally I like the Visual Studio IDE. The main concern I found with the VS extension is that is using 1/4 of the CPU all the time but with PyCharm I saw a similar behavior.

<comment><USER64> [ptvs proj lead here] - thanks wslh! is the cpu really going at 25% the entire time? this should definitely /not/ happen. what will happen is that when you 1st install PTVS the analyzer will run in the background for a while until the completion database is ready for pkgs you've installed. after that it should be incremental as you add new pkgs. the initial analysis may take a while if you have a very large distro (15-45m) & run up the cpu. but after that it should be pretty flat. if you could file an issue w the list of your pkgs (if possible) we can look into it. bugs: [http://pytools.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic](http://pytools.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic)

thx!

<comment><USER37> I saw similar issues from other users: [https://pytools.codeplex.com/workitem/1042](https://pytools.codeplex.com/workitem/1042)

I have "big" packages such as NLTK. Do you recommend to leave the Visual Studio open for a while?

<comment><USER64> NLTK itself shouldnt take thaaat long, but if you have a large distro that includes the kitchen sink, it could take ~ an hour +/\- depending on your machine. the reward is you get really deep intellisense, not just basic completion. the bug you linked is fixed btw.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> Does anyone know of (or have) a similar list for OSX?

<comment><USER66> Here ya' go:

[http://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/27/my-ultimate-developer-and- po...](http://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/27/my-ultimate-developer-and-power-users- tool-list-for-os-x-2013-edition-/)

My Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for OS X (2013 Edition)

> The idea for this list was shamelessly ripped off from Windows developer > Scott Hanselman whose list has long been an enjoyable read when he updates > it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> > "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. > NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting > so much [sic]."

In case it's unclear from the description, NimbleText is a simple code generator. It's saved me a ton of time and keystrokes. Well worth the $20.

<comment><USER68> > "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. > NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting > so much [sic]."

I couldn't even read this part without laughing, all I hear is: "I'm too lazy to spend a few hours learning the free, extremely powerful tools available to me, so I'll use this weaker substitute instead. And it's only 20 bucks!"

I overcame my eye rolling, and checked out the tool. It looks fine, but it seems like just a GUI over regex, right? Am I missing anything?

<comment><USER69> If you're missing something, perhaps it is the use of literary license. The article is written for an audience not as a therapeutic journal. Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type

          del *.*

but a few hours of study isn't going to make much of their syntax stick two weeks later, and two weeks between uses is a lot more frequent than most computer users use them. Everyone ain't a programmer.

<comment><USER70> > Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type

        del *.*

That is not a regex, it's a glob/wildcard pattern.

<comment><USER71> Well it's _also_ a regexp: It's "del" followed by zero or more spaces followed by zero or more of any char. :)

Although I feel competent with moderately complex regexps, I'm not sure I'd want to use them instead of globs while slinging my valuable files at the command line.

Which I think goes back to the ancestor point -- is it crazy to use a GUI to make regexps for you? Although I too can get snooty about that, I think it's smart for someone who doesn't use regexps frequently in their work -- but on the rare occasions they need to, they need to get it _right_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER72> Nice list! I see a few things I already have, and a bunch more that I'll check out.

A question for those who spend more time doing front-end web development: What do all of these much-touted Firefox development plugins like Firebug do that Chrome developer tools doesn't do?

<comment><USER73> I've used both and for some reason on another the Firefox ones just seem more user friendly. Maybe its because I started with Firebug in some ways but the Firefox tools seem better implemented from a usability perspective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> I recommend far manager - [http://www.farmanager.com/](http://www.farmanager.com/) It looks and acts like Norton commander for windows - in text mode; it has many plugins, can't live without it.

Another one missing is vim / gvim.

</comment><comment><USER75> Disappointed that clink [1] didn't make it onto this list. :( Clink brings Bash's powerful command line editing to Microsoft Windows' cmd.exe!

1: [http://code.google.com/p/clink/](http://code.google.com/p/clink/)

<comment><USER76> I think it's in Cmder but I will update to include it because I know I use it.

<comment><USER77> Another vote for clink. Makes Windows command prompt a lot more digestible.

<comment><USER76> It's built into CMDER. But I've added it to the list to make it clear. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> So has anyone found a decent Windows text/XML editor for large files? Notepad++ is great but I've noticed it a bit unwieldy with 50MB+ XML files. I find myself using svndiff if I need to compare large XML files. The performance is much better.

</comment><comment><USER79> Non-Windows users should still grep this list. There are some multi-platform tools listed.

</comment><comment><USER80> One question: why would I bother installing all that when I can simply use a UNIX clone which on top of that is absolutely free? And as always with Windows: oh you got PowerShell, so adorable... Here, check bash/zsh

<comment><USER81> No one is suggesting installing all of that. If you're happy with a UNIX clone, no one's telling you to do otherwise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> I'm surprised AltDrag[1] didn't make it in the list. It's incredibly useful !

[1] [http://code.google.com/p/altdrag/](http://code.google.com/p/altdrag/)

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't use Windows all the time but I do have some favorite programs:

      Firefox
      Notepad2
      7zip
      Faststone Image Viewer
      Foobar2000
      Mame
      ExactAudioCopy
      FLAC
      LAME
      Jhead

</comment><comment><USER83> What's the best hex editor on Windows these days? I'm rarely on it but when I am I usually use the Notepad++ plugin for it but love to hear about something better

<comment><USER2> I use HxD ([http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/);](http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/\);) it's freeware and doesn't suck.

(Previously I used XVI32 ([http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.h...](http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm)) and frhed ([http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/](http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/)), which are both usable. They both have somewhat non-standard UI though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> Does anyone know of a similar list for OSX?

</comment><comment><USER85> I would add scoop. [http://scoop.sh/](http://scoop.sh/)

</comment><comment><USER86> Does anyone have a list similar to this for OS X?

</comment><comment><USER87> I love checking out lists like this.

</comment><comment><USER88> "Everyone collects utilities"

Speak for yourself. I don't collect utilities.

<comment><USER89> don't be junk!</comment></comment>


Life Inside Hong Kong's 'Coffin Cubicles' - <AUTHOR> http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07/hong-kong-living-trapped-lam-photos/ <comment><USER2> In Hong Kong, Currently living in one of those ( Slightly larger ones, 90 Sq Feet ). Ask me Anything.

P.S: " almost no developable land remaining" is utter Bull Shit. I wouldn't say we have lots of land, but more then enough to solve the crisis we are in. If the government thinks we are in a crisis anyway. We have a dysfunctional government, and real estate monopoly controlled by a few billionaires. And then there are lots of complicated Chinese Political power frighting going on behind the scene.

<comment><USER3> \- Do you personally see your living situation as a problem or lifestyle choice? There are some other comments here that if the price is reasonable, this doesn't actually seem like a terrible way to live for a minimalist.

\- Is noise an issue? I see privacy and physical space as competing needs -- I'd rather have a small private space than a large shared space. (open-plan office, anyone? ;) If sound insulation is poor, I could see that negatively affecting the sense of privacy.

\- What's up with the units built out of metal in the photos? That seems like an unusual choice of residential building material.

<comment><USER2> For me Definitely it is a problem. If you are taller then 6Ft, good luck finding a place that you dont have to curl up to sleep, or you paid a little bit more to find a larger place with longer then 6 fts leg room.

For some reason in 2017 we still dont have mini hot water tank that could auto heat up the water at selected time. We have to wait 20 - 30 min getting the boiler to boil the water before taking a shower. And it is a problem when you have to work 10 to 12 hours+ for 6 days a week. And if you are in cold Winter, your shower will only last 3 to 5 min. But they say having a long hot shower is simply a luxury. At least you dont have to share the bath room.

You dont get decent Internet connection either. So definitely no fibre optics despite it is very cheap in HK. You could get a 1Gbps FTTH connection at ~$30USD. Or if you dont need the speed, a 200Mbps for ~$20USD.

But if you live in Cublics or Rooms / Flat, you are lucky if you could get ADSL, because some Landlord now dont even wire the telephone line. And the 6Mbps Connection, ( Speed depending on quality of the copper ) cost $30 - $40 or higher depending on location. And because they are old and poorly maintained you get heavy drop connection every time there is heavy rain or typhoon.

So if you want a decent / fast Internet connection to have at least ANY form of entertainment, like Youtube, you need to get unlimited LTE connection which cost $50+.

But they say fast Internet connection is a luxury, you dont need that.

Since those / some Cubics are built in old buildings some with restaurants at ground floor, you are bound to get big fat mouse, insects or more then usual cockroach to visit your home.

But they say having a insect free home is luxury.

Noise is definitely an issue. You can hear your next's bed room TV if they are loud, and worst is properly your fridge sitting right next to you making a grin noise every once in a while. Small Rooms and Flats are better, but Cubicles, ( those make with wood and metal ) privacy is non existence.

No idea on the usage of metal. But It isn't "residential building material", they are just metal cube or separators within a larger concrete room.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One of the main contributors to this state of affairs is geography: Less than 25% of Hong Kong consists of built up area, the rest is hilly and often reserved for parks or nature reserves.

Most people are squeezed into a small area on the island and Kowloon peninsula. This is why population density can range from as high as 56,000/sq km in parts of Kowloon to less than 4,000 in the majority of the territory!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong#Geography_and_climat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong#Geography_and_climate) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Hong_Kong#/media/...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Hong_Kong#/media/File:Density_of_Hong_Kong_by_Districts.svg)

</comment><comment><USER5> I had a land lord who was from HK. I kept hearing about how HK people had class and British flair and so on and so forth (as opposed to mainlanders).

I thought he was being deluded. It's rather strange that despite all our technological progress, general happiness and contentment has went down (atleast true of the people I know). It's like living to a 125 but spending a great chunk of it alone in a old-age home, or you know like farm-fed pigs.

</comment><comment><USER6> The picture of the combo toilet-kitchen made me viscerally upset. That must be so unsanitary.

<comment><USER7> Several prisons I was housed in had the toilet in our cell, a couple feet from our bunks. We used a towel draped over the seat as a lid. This was typical for a 2 or 3 man cell.

<comment><USER8> Yup-I had that in my brief stint at the Yazoo City Maximum I was in. It had all the fun trappings of Dante's Inferno: armed guard towers, electrified fences, not a bird within miles. And that stainless steel toilet/sink right next to a thin mattress on the floor. breakfast at 4:30 am, as I recall.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The images reminded me of Jacob Cheung's _Cageman_ (1992) [0]. Additionally, this video [1] is a decent supplementary material to the article.

[0] [https://letterboxd.com/film/cageman/](https://letterboxd.com/film/cageman/)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le6nE6yAwFM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le6nE6yAwFM)

</comment><comment><USER10> I often get the sense that people value land away from the cities not high enough. Sure I understand why people move to metropols, it is a bit like a gold rush. But from some idealistic point, not thinking about money, I feel that the "poor" farmer with a small house and some land is richer than the person living in a 1000-sqf-3-million-dollar-appartment in downtown Hong Kong.

<comment><USER11> How much joy does that house/land bring them? If you like having a lot of space then you do you; for me more space would largely just be more responsibility - I feel more comfortable snuggled in a corner than in a big empty space, so even when home on my own I'll often choose to hide away in my bedroom rather than in my main room.

<comment><USER10> I always feel living in even normal appartments is a bit like living in cages (which of course I did a lot). When travelling a lot, they are great because you don't have to care about much. But an acre of land or so could always provide at least for some food in a crisis, while an apartment leaves you unprotected in the masses. Maybe it's some kind of libertarian logic that occupies my mind.

<comment><USER11> That... yeah, that seems pretty crazy. Do you even know how to produce food on your land? (it's not easy in most inhabited lattitudes). What about all the other things you'd need - water, medical care, cloth and minerals? What kind of crisis do you even imagine is that likely yet that survivable? It's worth being prepared for a short-term crisis, but that would be over one way or another well before your first harvest. Put some MREs and a 10-gallon water jug in your broom closet and you're not appreciably worse off in an apartment.

<comment><USER12> >Do you even know how to produce food on your land?

This isn't as hard as it sounds. The nature is overflowing with edibles of all sorts and we simply have to cultivate it for a little bit.

Two years ago, my father planted two chokeberry (Aronia prunifolia) shrubs in our backyard. Now those tiny shrubs have grown to 20 times their original size and yielded about 10 pounds of berries.

Two years before that, we planted 8 tiny grapevines and tied them with pieces of string to a nearby metal scaffolding. Today, those vines have wrapped themselves around the front part of the house and provide us with more grapes than the entire family can eat.

Both aronia shrubs and grapevines grow unstoppably, without any human intervention. Now, having them fit for commercial consumption is another thing entirely, and we'd probably have to invest much more money in ensuring larger yields and so on. Right now, I only spray grapes with some copper sulphate though I see it's been infected with grape phylloxera, for which there is no control or cure.

<comment><USER11> Small amounts of food are easy, sure. I assumed they were talking about growing enough food to live on exclusively, which is a quite different proposition.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> When I saw a couple pictures that showed the interior of one of these buildings with coffin cubicles, I was appalled with the possibilities of fire hazard deadly scenarios. In case of any kind of flame or smoke due to faulty electrical wiring (which causes 95% of all fires), the occupants are as good as dead.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm surprised there's no mention of fire safety in the comments. Not by any means an expert on that subject, but these places look like death traps in the event of a fire.

</comment><comment><USER14> Life in Baishizhou is whole lot better than life of most Hongkongers

</comment><comment><USER15> According to Index of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong has had the highest degree of economic freedom in the world since the inception of the Index in 1995.[0]

Hong Kong is the 32nd largest export economy in the world and the 12th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI).[1]

Hong Kong's unemployment rate was 3.3% as of January 2017 according to Trading Economics.[2]

I think these metrics Trump the photos.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong) [1] [http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/hkg/](http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/hkg/) [2] [http://www.worldstopexports.com/hong-kongs- top-10-exports/](http://www.worldstopexports.com/hong-kongs-top-10-exports/)

<comment><USER6> It also has one of the highest levels of income inequality, which is what this article highlights.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Spent time in HK with a well-off RE developer. Played tennis at LRC, etc. and was able to understand the city better.

Basically everything below mid-level is these conditions. For average in mid- level it's like $15m USD. Condos at the Peak are selling for $120m.

The similar thing to this photographer I witnessed is all the helpers that live on balconies of whom they help. For like $300 a month. They're grateful for having a decent place to live unlike the photos but still no way to live..

<comment><USER17> Sorry this isn't clear to me. Are you saying every dwelling that costs less than 15 million US Dollars has conditions like the ones in these photographs? Or do you mean that all such dwellings are broken up into these type of divisions?

Additionally do you mean that people rent their servants balconies for $300 per month? As a kind of servant's quarters?

<comment><USER18> 'Mid-Level' is a small upscale neighbourhood on HK island. So the housing market there is not representative of the rest of HK.

However said rest of HK remains way too expensive, something on the order of London or NY, but HK being a city-state people don't have the option of moving to or coming from a significantly less expensive countryside region. There is no self-selection as in most other major cities and many people are stuck with low/median income in high-rent zones. What's more as another poster pointed out most of HK is not constructible (there is a reason for all those skyscrapers), and the administration is kind of slow at repurposing/reclassifying existing land, plus they sort of gave up on building enough social housing (I'd say about a decade ago?) which was key for relieving pressure.

I think the numbers given were RE-brag, the most expensive apartments in HK were sold for around USD50M each, so 15M for a Mid-level and 120M for The Peak seems off.

The 'servant' he's referring to are Oversea Worker housemaids, who have a different status than immigrants, and he's right that they're not having an easy life (USD300 is I think their average monthly wage?). By law they must be live-in, but said law is rather light on specifics and protections, so many do not have an individual room and sleep in their employer's living room. "Sleeping on the balcony" is quite harsh and rare (who in HK has a balcony anyway?) but it can happen -- again, very little legal protection. According to local NGOs dealing with OW, at least 10% are abused one way or another.

<comment><USER19> USD 550 is minimum wage, 300 is a random number. 15MM HKD up to 120MM HKD is more realistic for what you pay in mid levels / the peak, i.e. his numbers are off by a factor of 8...

<comment><USER18> Thanks for the correction, I didn't know the real number.

Regarding the RE numbers, it looks a lot like a USD/HKD conversion blunder then ("Wait, 120 millions in _dollars_? That's huge." "Yeah mate, in dollars (lobs ball)." ).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> To be honest, I'd love to live in such a space. It's more than enough for my needs, and I would save a lot of money on rent. I hate that the government somehow prevent me from doing so.

<comment><USER21> The government (I assume US) doesn't prevent you.

I don't know where you're located, but e.g. in SF you can live in so-called hacker houses where for 1/3rd of regular 1 bd rent you can share a room with one or more people.

Or you can cram as many people as you like into an apartment by sharing a lease with many people.

You can have your dream of cheap, squalid living in US.

<comment><USER3> Privacy is important, larger shared room != private tiny room.</comment></comment></comment>