Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/19/12943054/google-trips-travel-app-android-ios <comment><USER2> While this app obviously has a few incredibly useful-looking features, am I the only one who feels travel is best done _talking with locals_? Asking your hotel manager for recommendations - THAT'S how to travel well. See a slice of pizza that looks good? Go ASK the guy where he got it. Do we really believe we can Google/Yelp our way to a genuinely local experience? Or do we think that local experiences start with local people? Is this just another app that helps us stare at our phones while traveling, instead of searching for real culture through real connection?

That said, I already offline Google Maps before any trip, and this app will probably make it easier, so I'll use it. But I'll always place way more weight on a local recommendation than anything else.

<comment><USER3> Locals are commonly a poor source of good information. I definitely wouldn't use them as an exclusive source. I make it a habit when going to the other side of town when running an errand to ask the teller where's a good place to grab lunch. More often than not they'll point to something like a Subway or KFC across the street. Their priorities are generally something quick and cheap.

It's just too easy to live some place and not seek out the unique, locally available things. Many times when visiting other countries the people working there have never done the main thing people visit that area to do. Also tastes vary greatly. These apps offer an aggregate or editorial filter for something instead of a sample size of 1.

<comment><USER4> I don't think "ask the locals" resolves to "ask one local and listen to his opinion even if it is plainly bad."

Just like your app can offer a decent list, a single local will be able to as well. Ask 5 locals and you'll often find all of them name at least 1 or 2 of the same places.

Also, asking questions in order to receive helpful answers is a skill that takes practice. Other factors can also seriously affect the response you get, such as asking the question in English versus at least attempting to ask in the native tongue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hope they'll make a desktop web version of this app, because planning everything (what you want to see, where you want to eat, etc.) on a small screen is tedious.

For all my previous trips I have used Google My Maps [0], which is good but not great: on mobile, the places you added to your layers don't contain any Google Maps information, such as opening hours, and you even need to have data to get the name of a place you saved.

However, what's great with My Maps compared to Trips, in addition to the fact that there is a desktop web app, is that thanks to layers you can color-code the places you add to your map, so for example make all the museums pins purple, the restaurants pins blue, etc.

[0]: [https://www.google.com/mymaps/](https://www.google.com/mymaps/)

<comment><USER6> Played a bit with it and it's not ready to replace My Maps at least for me.

I don't care much about recommendations since I plan my trips beforehand and use My Maps to save the places I want to visit. Having something that could propose multiple itineraries between a subset of those places would be nice (with multiple options related to the method used to move between places).

Trips seems more similar to a traditional guide than an app to assist travelers, you can't really build customized itineraries and even saving places is a bit cumbersome.

Let's just hope they don't kill My Maps now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You can't have a travel guide without an editorial voice. There's a huge gap in travel for tooling, and this is a really good addition, but that's not enough by itself. Lonely Planet et al haven't changed meaningfully _since the internet was invented_ , but compare the amount of time people spend looking at a travel guide vs anything with advertising on it. The Priceline Group spent over 5B in 2015 marketing while all of Lonely Planet is worth maybe 250M. Build the next generation guide and you'll capture the booking market with it. And Google will never compete with you for the same reason Facebook got smacked around when they used human news editors.

It's crazy winner takes all. That's why it's a battle Google wants to fight:

72B: Priceline Group

15B: Expedia

7B: Trip Advisor

1B Orbitz

176M Travel Zoo

<comment><USER8> I think if this were true TripAdvisor would already have won. In my global travels TA has easily been the best resource for mountains of decent reviews and meaningful "top lists" from people like me. It's not even close, IMO. (Although country/ city specific subreddits can be pretty good too). I also don't actually book through TA and see no need to. I just hop on Kayak, whose interface, filters, map, best prices, ease of booking is something I doubt TA could match.

<comment><USER9> This. This is why travel is an insanely hard business. I've been an engineer in the travel business for almost 6 years now and this is a behavior I see constantly (and I am not saying it's bad, don't get me wrong).

Often people think that if you create just the right product you will win both the usage and the booking funnels but it's almost impossible to change the behavior of people and the psychology behind the booking.

What you see is two completely separate funnels (with different users), one will use your product and one will come for 3 minutes, book and never come back again.

<comment><USER7> > This is why travel is an insanely hard business.

Ha, yes, it seems like there's always a travel start up failing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've been using Tripit for years to keep track of my travel plans. Then I use TripAdvisor for figuring out what to do in places I"m visiting. Not seeing anything really interesting here, other than it being in one place. But judging by Google Reviews on maps which are significantly worse than Yelp reviews, I doubt their travel advice will be remotely close to TripAdvisors'.

<comment><USER11> Tripadvisor is much better in Europe and yelp is better than Tripadvisor in the US in my limited experience.

<comment><USER12> +1 this - I have been to London recently and Tripadvisor has much more reviews about restaurants/POI than Yelp.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The trips feature in Inbox is incredibly useful, but I hated having to go back to the email app and scrolling till I find the trip details. So I'm glad they came up with a new app to manage your trips.

<comment><USER14> Did you know there's a "Trips" section in the navigation drawer?

[https://support.google.com/inbox/answer/6228360?hl=en](https://support.google.com/inbox/answer/6228360?hl=en) under the "Find your Trip in Inbox" header

<comment><USER13> Ah, yes. I feel dumb now. :) For some reason, opening the navigation drawer isn't my first thought.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm using it right now, and it looks like I can't share the details of my next trip with my trip mates. This is kind of a deal breaker. Anyone has the same issue?

I love the idea though, picking a 48 hours list from someone. I wanted to do a website like that years ago, called 48hoursInaCity.com or something, where you could upvote a 48hours tour of the city and choose the one you wanted.

Okay, second issue: I can't add a reservation myself. For some reason I received my plane tickets email on a different email than gmail and... I can't have them in the app now :(

Third issue: right now it just feels a bit gimmicky, I tried browsing places and it is nothing compared to Trip Advisor.

<comment><USER16> If you forward yourself the email with your plane tickets, trips should pick them up. But it is a huge pain if your flight, hotel, and car reservations go to different emails. The app doesn't consolidate anything, even between Gmail accounts, and switching accounts requires a restart of the app

<comment><USER15> Doesn't seem to work :/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've been using TripCase[1] and just gave this a try. It picked up my flight information, but not my hotel or GroundLink confirmation emails. All of those emails were in my gmail account. In the case of TripCase, I have to forward all of my confirmation/booking emails to firstname.lastname@example.com to add it to my trip on the app.

[1] [http://travel.tripcase.com/](http://travel.tripcase.com/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Gogobot Senior Engineer here...

This looks a little bit familiar

[http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/14/gogobot-ai-travel- planning...](http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/14/gogobot-ai-travel-planning/)

I've built this product here @ Gogobot and I am super proud of it. Not sure if I'm flattered or angry yet. :)

</comment><comment><USER18> No Wifi, No Data, Taxi took you for a "ride", Goats in the street, Grumpy hotel manager, Flamenco music ...Yes!! This is definitely Barcelona, Spain!! ;-)

C'mon Google!

</comment><comment><USER19> So far I am very impressed with their collection of places to see (groupings too!), and their ability to guess how long you might go to each location.

The app isn't perfect, but these features alone are worth adding to the collection of travel apps for sure.

</comment><comment><USER20> It's not a killer travel app at all, sorry. As of now I wouldn't trade having some Wikitravel pages offline for this Google Trips app. Let's wait and see before calling it a "killer travel app", shall we?

<comment><USER21> Wikivoyage, Wikitravel, I can never remembered which is the most up-to-date. There are some offline apps for them on iOS (okay not great) but they've worked for me abroad a few times. The ones that come to mind are Turdus and Voyageur, both free.

<comment><USER22> I have Wikivoyage's XML dump saved on my laptop.

Recently I arrived in Berlin and realized I wasn't sure how to get to the city from this secondary airport in the best way, so I opened my computer and one easy incremental search in Emacs later and I knew just what to do...

<comment><USER21> Here's the link to the database dumps [0] if others are curious. They also mention some recommended apps. The _Offline Expedition_ page also lists an apparently official app called Kiwix for iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows [1].

[0]: [https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Database_dump](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Database_dump)

[1]: [https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Offline_Expedition](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Offline_Expedition)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> It's completely broken for me as of now. Does not pick up any of my travel mails, I can't create a trip, and it does not show any places for cities that I manually enter...

</comment><comment><USER24> Trello is an amazing tool for vacation planning. I like to have each column be a day in the itinerary, with cards for each event or mode of transportation. The app lets you download boards offline, so you can store relevant reservation info under each card.

</comment><comment><USER25> this solves only 1 part of the problem. at least based on the video, it seems like you'd need to have the hotel and places pre-selected. that's not how it usually works for me. I find having to plan a trip with all the restaurants/hotels/bars to visit beforehand incredibly painful so prefer to just choose the major cities/towns, and explore them after getting there. I also prefer the advice of locals vs tourists that visited and left reviews (because then you get stuck in most touristy places).

This approach requires research in wifi zones and talking to locals.

i think a better problem to solve would be actual suggestions that don't suck. perhaps crowd sourced from reputable users. and get all that pre-cached!

<comment><USER26> I travel similarly to you and solve that by going there, watching people and traffic flow, wandering aimlessly, and having a data plan. (I recently moved cell service to Google Fi and love it.)

<comment><USER25> some countries (like Japan) will also have a cheap wifi internet device you can rent. in Tokyo this was a few bucks a day

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Going to try this out, but like a commentator on the Verge already mentioned, they should really have released it or beta-tested earlier-mid year since a lot of people backpack / travel during the summer.

<comment><USER28> On the flip side, releasing it now is almost more like a soft launch, since the total travel volume is lower. They can fine tune the app before the bulk of users come on during the holidays or next summer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This really comes down to how good the data is. If they are parsing really ambiguous reviews to make a suggestion, the results will still be horrible.

<comment><USER21> I have a hunch the recommendations are influenced by the Zagat acquisition a few years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Doesn't work with Google Apps accounts, fail

<comment><USER31> Does anyone have a solution for old users of Google Apps (back when it was called Google Apps For My Domain) that just want it to be like a regular Google account but keep their email address?

It's very frustrating that everything Google does may or may not work for those of us that just use Google Apps like a regular google account. I don't use any of the organization features. I don't manage a collection of users. All I wanted was a GMail account with my domain like Google originally offered. I feel like a second class citizen in Google's ecosystem because of my Google Apps account.

I'm not even sure what would happen if I tried switch this account to a regular Google account. Google used to (and maybe they still do) allow you to use any email address for your google account but if you wanted to use GMail you needed an @gmail.com address. If I bit the bullet and switched to a @gmail.com account could I keep my data and Play store purchases? I'm guessing the answer to that is "no" so not only would I have to lose my email address, I might have to repurchase quite a bit. Can you import all of your data from one account to another using Takeout?

My dream is that Google will offer a "Make this a regular Google account" button. I don't want to change the email address I've used for 15 years just because Google pulled the rug out from under me after getting me to switch to Google apps.

<comment><USER32> I don't think they'll ever have such a button. What I'm doing is auto- forwarding all mail from GApps to my regular Gmail account. And as I added the GApps account as an outgoing account/identity in Gmail, I can send/receive from my regular Gmail account, but with it showing the GApps custom domain address in all my emails. If you did this, at least you could still keep your GApps email adress even if you started over with everything else (purchases, etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Just another useless app limited to google+ users. Foursquare and TripAdvisor have much wider audience

</comment><comment><USER34> I used it during a my trip to Ireland and it was fine, not great.

<comment><USER21> Which part of the app are you referring to, or were you in the Local Guides early access by chance?

</comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra Sounds totally like a promotional piece.

Count "It's recommended that you check opening hours before visiting." That's how you do UX these days?

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with skyscanner, maps.me, tripadvisor and booking (they have crappy UI tho, check alternatives in countries where they're viable).

<comment><USER21> That seems like an allusion to seasonal hours and whatnot to me. AFAIK none of the travel POI apps account for aspects like that today.

Aside: I got frustrated that none of them offer tracking brunch hours, so I made a one-page site for my city that has just that ([http://www.qcbrunch.com](http://www.qcbrunch.com)). I'd like to do the same for kitchen hours at bars.

<comment><USER35> I like seeing local enthusiast pages like this.

It would be nice to see a clear last updated date somewhere since most pages of this kind stop getting updated.

I was able to see from the Github link that it is indeed being updated like your page says, but I'm not sure if everyone would understand the Github interface. Might just feel overwhelmed immediately? I could be wrong though!

Thanks for reminding me that I'd like to do similar info for local areas around me.

<comment><USER21> Yeah, you're totally right, that's what I really want.

Currently I just git push to GitHub Pages (without a local build process). I haven't figured out how to do get the deployment timestamp from that yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> A "Travel app" that shows so many clichés condensed in its presentation video (and to top it all, a goat in a spanish street?) hints of enormous amounts of ignorance about the destination. And even feels _insulting_...

I'll stick to my carrier with free voice and data roaming in UK-EU-US for reading TripAdvisor/Yelp reviews... and a normal GPS Navigator for moving around.

Also, maybe Google has missed the minor detail that in 2020 Europe will provide free wifi and 4G in all european major urban areas, and free 5G in 2025 covering all the EU... [0]

So yes, european visitors and local goats will have free connectivity in less than 4 years... Another GooglePlus-like project to the trash can, Google.

[0] [http://phys.org/news/2016-09-eu-aims- deploy-5g-technology.ht...](http://phys.org/news/2016-09-eu-aims- deploy-5g-technology.html)

/rant

<comment><USER37> TL;DR: smugness usually works better when you actually have something relevant to say.

Yeesh, this comment is almost embarrassing. Far be it from me to educate the "well-traveled", but I suppose I'll be the one to tell you that the world is larger than the US, EU and UK: I recently spent nine months traveling around 5 continents and less than one month of that was in any of those places.

On top of that, the assertion that having data is a perfect replacement for an offline travel guide is a bizarre one. I (by choice) did all those countries without a data connection,cobbling together offline data similar to that offered by Trips that I needed whenever I found wifi. I'm not the only person I met on the road who preferred their trip to _not_ include full data access. While having a data plan is a reasonable choice as well, it's hardly a perfect replacement for the conscious choice to unplug as much as possible.

<comment><USER36> The thing is they are marketing it for Spain (or European travel) in their video [0]. Maybe because Spain, France and Italy are in the top 4 travel destinations world-wide along with the US...

The focus of my critique (rant?) is that the presentation video only shows:

1- Ignorance about the destination with so many clichés and misleading stereotypes.

2- disrespect for many locals (like me)

 _> I'll be the one to tell you that the world is larger than the US, EU and UK_

Brilliant observation, but if you are marketing your app for European travel, don't mislead travellers showing goats in a Barcelona street and show respect for the locals.

 _> The assertion that having data is a perfect replacement for an offline travel guide is a bizarre one._

Where is that assertion? It's _a personal preference_. As you may know there's not a single/universal way of travelling, there's also people that might prefer a satellite phone... Your preference of connectivity is irrelevant, but for many people having free wifi/4g renders this offline-first app useless in european soil.

Whenever I've visited the americas (north/south) a working SIM with a data plan has been enough for me...

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ign2GmVEflw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ign2GmVEflw)</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: A modern app to watch public domain movies - <AUTHOR> https://cinedantan.com <comment><AUTHOR> Author here. I created Cinedantan.com to watch Public Domain Movies the way I am used to with other popular streaming apps.

<comment><AUTHOR> The source and the datasets are here: [https://github.com/cinedantan/webapp](https://github.com/cinedantan/webapp)

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> Cant watch a movie on safari.. can't scroll to the watch button.

This is my bottom screen: [https://imgur.com/xXzruSz](https://imgur.com/xXzruSz)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much for reporting this bug. I just released an update a few minutes ago to fix it.</comment></comment>


Cops are making fewer arrests since N.J. got rid of cash bail - <AUTHOR> https://www.nj.com/data/2019/11/cops-are-making-fewer-arrests-since-nj-got-rid-of-cash-bail.html <comment><USER2> Like a lot of pieces of the "justice" system, cash bail was more effective at creating poverty and crime than deterring it. The UK got rid of it years ago for all but exceptional circumstances.

<comment><USER3> What qualifies as "exceptional circumstances"?

Cash bail claims to be the middle ground between "we trust you enough to show up in your own" and "we distrust you enough to incarcerate you until this is resolved."

<comment><USER4> In the UK you always get bail by default, without condition.

The exceptions to this are pretty much just murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, and some drug offences.

In short not being bailed is an exception. This is done on the basis you haven't actually been found guilty of crime yet, thus the state can't limit your liberties as you're innocent until proven otherwise.

You read more here: [https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal- guidance/bail](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/bail)

<comment><USER5> That doesn't answer the question. You also get bail by default in the US, "without condition." However, the definition of bail is literally collateral or security that you provide to ensure your return. So to say that you get bail in the UK is just to say that the UK does the same thing.

There's this implication that poor people can't make bail because they're poor, which is utterly false and made in bad faith by most who imply it.

If a person is not released on their on recognizance in the US (i.e. without bail), then bail is set by the court based on 1) extent to which the person is a flight risk / risk to public safety, and 2) the person's ability to pay. Let me say that again, the amount of a cash bail is based on the defendant's ability to pay.

If a person is only a mild flight risk, then the judge will choose an amount that is within the defendant's financial means, but also sufficient to encourage them to show up. If a defendant proves they they are poor, then this amount is be very small. However, if they prove they are poor and the judge still sets a bail that they cannot reach without borrowing from friends and family or a bondsmen, then that also says something. It means the judge determined they're too much of a risk to trust on their own. The point of cash bail is often to make the defendant accountable to friends, family, bail- bondsmen... which encourages them to show up.

A confounding factor is that wealthy people are rarely a serious flight risk. An illegal alien charged with DUI may have friends who he can hide with, skills he can use to work anywhere, and the knowhow to "stay off the radar." An accountant who charged with DUI, however, can be tracked by their phone and bank accounts, likely has far more to lose by fleeing (a paid-off house, a family that lives in town with them, a job that reports their employment to government, etc.). These are all factors that go into the amount cash bail. So, it might look like "he's getting out because he can pay despite being charged with the same crime" when the real reason is that "the judge picked an amount he can pay because he's not a serious flight risk."

<comment><USER6> If a person has $10 in savings, what level of bail would you posit both prevents them from fleeing and allows them to make bail?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I had to bail someone out once. Both misdemeanors both set to statutory bail of $350. Since it was so low, I just went to jail with $700 to bail them out. The cashier said I had to pay $810 as there was a $110 fee to fund some police initiative. The $700 was paid back when the bailee showed up. The $110 was a fee lost even if the bailee was acquitted.

I never knew about this fee, when I complained to my city council member he said not to commit any crimes.

There are many rackets just finding inefficiencies in justice that I'm glad to see we're slowly chipping away at them.

<comment><USER8> This seems unconstitutional since bail isn't punishment as no one has been found guilty. Your city councilman is not a moral person.

<comment><USER7> I agree on both counts. I didn't vote for that person but he's still in office.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Once I was pulled over for a tail light out, and it turned out my license was expired. In DC, this means you immediately go to jail. Once I arrived at jail, they informed me that if I had $80 cash on hand, I could go free and show up for trial; otherwise it could take up to 24 hours for me to see a judge, who would then tell me I could go free until trial.

If I were someone else, without cash on hand, with a temporary job and kids, I would have missed work and not been able to pick up my kids from school and feed them, to say nothing of paying hundreds to get my car out of an impound lot. I realized then that the justice system is a machine that creates poverty.

<comment><USER10> The problem here is not with bail though. The problem is with mandatory jail time for expired license.

<comment><USER11> To be fair, it's actually "automatic arrest for DRIVING without a licence". That doesn't seem completely unreasonable.

<comment><USER12> Thousands of people are driving on licenses they do not know are expired. Throwing them in jail is one-hundred percent absurd.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Link to study: [https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/PSA_New_Jersey_Repo...](https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/PSA_New_Jersey_Report_%231.pdf)

<comment><USER13> Awesome. Thanks for this. I really didn't like the visualization in the article since it was unclear if it was just a seasonal effect and there were no confidence intervals. The report is much, much better.

Perhaps useful to note that the results hold for minor/non-indictable offenses. However, I'm out of my depth on the more nuanced legal aspects in the report.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Chesa Boudin, San Francisco's new District Attorney and son of two former members of the Weather Underground, ran on a progressive platform that included ending cash bail. This is part of a broader movement of judicial reform advocates who advance their policies by taking the District Attorney's office. [https://youtu.be/GbILs4N4bLE](https://youtu.be/GbILs4N4bLE)

</comment><comment><USER15> I wonder how many fewer arrests they'd make if they got rid of asset forfeiture.

<comment><USER16> Isn't one of the big issues with asset forfeiture that the police are able to do it without actually charging you with anything? Instead they charge the asset itself.

<comment><USER17> > Instead they charge the asset itself.

It's a ludicrous assertion, to be sure. Imagine: "we're not holding you, but only the iron in your blood".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It looks like the change to the bail side might be good (avoiding pushing ever more people into poverty, which some believe pushes some people into more crime, etc.). But a little nervous about the use of algorithms here.

<comment><USER19> The alternative is the unknown human biases of random judges. At least an algorithm can be audited and changed.

<comment> blaser-waffle Judges are elected and can be recalled in many states. Their stances and rules are usually public, too.

Why would someones proprietary codebase be more accessible than public court documents?

<comment><USER20> The process/decision tree is open and transparent. There's still going to be the potential for implicit bias in the system, but there's no way to remove that entirely from the process (I guess unless you move to a luck based system in which the decision is just made randomly, but nobody would like that)

<comment> rob-olmos I have doubts the algorithm would be a decision tree, or capable of being contained in one. I feel like at some point it would use or be an ML model.

Would a model also be open and transparent? It would at least be open & testable, but I'm not sure about transparent for easily identifying any biases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> >Now, judges weigh whether to lock somebody up, slap an ankle bracelet on them or release them without conditions with the help of a public safety assessment.

This seems very reasonable. Either somebody is too dangerous to let out, or is safe but might flee in which case ankle monitor seems like a better bet, both because it keeps people from rotting in jail for being too poor to make bail and because bail isn't as good a deterrent to flight as an ankle monitor. And if someone is safe and isn't a flight risk, just let them out without bail.

</comment><comment><USER21> California did this then it got pushed to a 2020 ballot initiative SB10 after an opposing coalition collected > 575,000 signatures in 70 days.

[https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article224682595.html](https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article224682595.html)

</comment><comment><USER22> I imagine that the kind of administration that's willing to end cash bail is also the kind of administration that pushes for community policing, so I wouldn't draw any conclusions.

<comment><USER23> Is community policing tied to fewer arrests? I haven't ever seen hard numbers on this. According to Derecka Purnell and Marbre Stahly-Butts[0]:

> Community policing is an empty phrase. A Washington Post report showed that > law enforcement use of force in half of police departments with consent > decrees. Asking police officers to strengthen community relationships — > including by doing things like playing football with children or handing out > ice cream — does not reduce their power to harm anyone.

0: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/opinion/the-police- cant-s...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/opinion/the-police-cant-solve- the-problem-they-are-the-problem.html)</comment></comment>


Technology principle: The toy will win - cool-RR http://blog.garlicsim.org/post/1495459004/technology-principle-the-toy-will-win

<comment><AUTHOR> It's just too easy to make a case by taking a retrospective look at the winners. I want to see a current battleground along with a prediction of which one is the toy and which one is the non-toy.

Here's an example of why it's hard: iPhone vs Android. Well, obviously the iPhone is the toy. You have to do incredibly awkward things, or pay Apple $100, to run your own code on it; you can't tether it (sometimes); you can't replace the Web browser. It's hard to script it. Want to use your favourite email client? Good luck.

But hang on. Clearly Android is the toy. You can pick up Android phones for a lot less than an iPhone. Most of these phones are nowhere near as pretty or as specced out as an iPhone -- but pick one up and you've got the complete Android experience. If you want to hack on it, go ahead. If what you're looking for isn't built in to the phone, chances are someone's written it for you. Sure, it's messy, but that's democracy.

But hold up again. Smartphones are getting cheaper, but who really needs such a powerful, battery-sucking device in their pocket? Maybe the real "toy" of this generation is yet to emerge.

In five years someone will write an article about how obvious it was that iPhones would succeed because they were the simple accessible choice, or that Android would succeed because it was democratising, or that something else entirely would succeed because the smartphone genre was a fad.

Disclaimer: I agree with the general sentiment of the article.

<comment><USER2> Your comment makes me realize a problem with this article: It's not that it isn't true, it is _too_ true. Its title is a tautology. Of course the technological winner will always be a toy. To a proper hacker, _every_ object is a potential toy.

The very expensive multiphoton microscopes that I once worked with were, and still are, very serious medical research tools. But they were also wonderful toys. Building them was fun. For an R&D engineer, _engineering is fun_.

Which were the "serious" computers again? The ones that were never used for fun? But that excludes _all_ of them. Sometimes the fun was right out in the open: The DEC PDP-1 of 1959, for example, became famous as a game machine, because Spacewar was written on it. But I'll bet that even old-school bank- account data processing was a lot of fun when it was first being invented. I bet even COBOL programmers had fun, especially in 1960 when COBOL was brand new.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think it's more subtle than that. For the micro to supplant the mini (mainframes are alive and well, thankyouverymuch) it had to _become_ one. A contemporary PC running Linux or NT is not only _faster_ than a VAX, it is actually more complicated under the hood. This should be easy to prove: do whatever you need to do to get a complete process listing of your preferred system. How much do you, probably an "expert" if you're even reading HN, know about each and every process? Try the same thing on a CP/M box if you have one...

The real lesson is, it's easier to make a simple thing more complex than it is to make a complex thing more simple.

<comment><USER4> "it's easier to make a simple thing more complex than it is to make a complex thing more simple"

And unfortunately, that's why today's toys will be tomorrow's dinosaurs. That said, this is exactly why mobile is winning now. It's so much simpler. There's no reason it's so complicated to do something on a PC, other than that the simple thing from then has now become more complex

<comment><USER5> > this is exactly why mobile is winning now. It's so much simpler.

Are you sure? Here's a relevant quote :

 _I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone._

Bjarne Stroustrup

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure for everything, but on iOS 4.1 with my iPod Touch (so no, I don't have a modern mobile phone, but this is basically the same) it's much easier to do the things most people do (Twitter, Facebook, email) than it is on a PC. Plus, want to install a game? A couple taps and a couple dollars, and you're ready to play a game within seconds.

Compare that with a PC: find a game online, create an account to download it, spend $20-$50 on it or perhaps just $10-$15 if it's a basic game, wait while it downloads, then step through the installer and if all goes well, you can play your game.

We're all programed to do it, and it's a no brainer for those of us that are used to it, but the iOS model is so much simpler for people who don't enjoy tweaking a machine and just want it to work.

<comment><USER6> _Compare that with a PC: find a game online, create an account to download it, spend $20-$50 on it or perhaps just $10-$15 if it's a basic game, wait while it downloads, then step through the installer and if all goes well, you can play your game._

      sudo apt-get install tremulous && tremulous

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm going to nitpick a little bit about the Arduino. Just to be clear, I won an Arduino and love it, but the article misrepresents it a little bit.

It states that the Arduino is a microcontroller. This is false. From the Arduino website:

> Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on > flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.

The Arduino is an entire prototyping platform. It includes software which makes it easy to use, and it includes a lot of extra peripherals that make it more expensive. In the professional realm, Arduinos are not that popular. They're just too expensive. The microcontroller that the Arduino uses costs a few dollars, which is a tiny fraction of $30 for the whole board. Any professional will be comfortable enough to just program a basic microcontroller and build the small amount of circuitry to power it.

<comment> cool-RR Thanks for the corrections, I edited the article a bit. (I'm still comfortable calling the Arduino a "microcontroller with some software included" since this is what Wikipedia is calling it.)

<comment><USER8> Whilst fixing that I might also point out that the processor on Beagleboard isn't a microcontroller either. The memory is external, it typically runs HLOSs etc. etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice article. Adds another dimension to the Innovator's Dilemma

[http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/11/04/understanding-...](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/11/04/understanding- how-the-innovators-dilemma-affects-you/)

<comment><USER10> Is that article a sufficient summary of the innovator's dilemma, or is it still worth reading the book?

<comment><USER11> The book's good reputation makes it unlikely that there is only 4-pages of meat for this to be an accurate summary.

<comment><USER12> The book is worth reading, but half of it is historical data about disk drives.

Edit: I think it's a bit overrated, actually. Had it been a quarter of its size and stripped of its pretentiousness, it actually might be the classic everyone says it is. That being said, its core insight is an important and good one, so you kind of have to read it anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is it me, or is the author confusing incumbent and enterprise? Office is not 'enterprise' in my book, nor is Yahoo. MS Exchange, maybe. SAP and Salesforce definitely. I'm not sure I see any toys entering that space. Mint is what I can think of that comes closest.

I'm also not convinced by the whole scripting language thing. There is certainly a healthy debate to be had between static and dynamic languages but I'm not sure that too many people poo-poo'd Python or Ruby (unlike PHP). Also to suggest that those have "won" vis-a-vis Java or .Net is jumping the gun somewhat IMO.

Other than that, the central argument is essentially disruption theory, but as gaius points out the idea there is that you start off as a "toy" with a particular advantage which, despite the limitations, allows you to carve out a niche. Then you take over the entire market by growing capacity without losing the initial advantage and pushing the incumbent into an increasingly small niche at the high end. However, by that time the product is fully featured, becomes the incumbent and ceases to be a "toy".

</comment><comment><USER14> "But as the years passed and hardware became faster the relative slowness of dynamic languages became less relevant, while their advantages in programmer productivity became much more relevant."

Let's not discount the fundamental advances to compilation and performance of "dynamic" languages of relatively recent years. Just look at Javascript.

Dynamic languages look much less amenable to optimization at first than static languages, but many new techniques have been discovered, and sometimes there are even optimizations that are only possible to do at runtime if the environment supports it.

<comment><USER15> In the meantime, the 'advantage' of dynamic languages such as verbosity and the functional additions they had before the OO languages are becoming lesser, with newer languages having both static typing and type inference, functional features, etc.

<comment><USER16> I'm reminded of this post: <http://lambda-the- ultimate.org/node/1562#comment-18623>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think the initial definition is incorrect.

A definition of 'toy' needs to include motivation. Most of the time, people will use a toy for its entertainment value rather than its ability to help them carry out productive work. This is the reason that toys aren't always considered as 'serious'.

The essay seems to be suggesting that a small, less complicated product, has a lot of benefits over larger, more complicated products.

I don't think this is surprising.

</comment><comment><USER18> Toys are indeed great, but don't try and 'win' with them. The rational approach with toys is to _play_ with them.

<comment><USER19> Reminds me of CDixon's article a couple of months ago: [http://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will- start-o...](http://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will-start-out- looking-like-a-toy/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> it isn't that toy will win. It is that the things evolve into the "toys", ie. much better UX.</comment>


Ask HN: Why did this post cost me 10% of subscribers? - <AUTHOR> A few days ago I published a post with the title: In 2014, if you want happiness, choose work
After this post my number of subscribers decreased almost 10%. This made me curious: why did this happen?
Was it because of my tone? Was because of some bad english? Or was because people don't agree with my point? And if it is because of this last one, why not?
I'm interested in knowing the point of view from the people of HN.
EDIT: I forgot the url for the blog post - http://danielflopes.com/choosework/ <comment><USER3> The problem is you appear to live in a fantasy land. I only read the second paragraph, but it is one of the stupidest things I've ever read (sorry, that is a harsh thing to say, but I think this requires a reply this strong).

"Work from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep. Take your breakfast while reviewing your to-do list for the day. Work a few hours. At lunch, discuss with your team what's the best solution for that problem. Work some more. At dinner, have a great meal with your loving ones and tell them what's going on with work. Feel free to ask them for their opinion. After that, go back to work, of course – it's time to answer to those emails, and read a decent book about a topic of your industry. Have a good night's sleep."

This is incredibly self-centered. What about what your loved ones have been up to (as one tiny example?). And god-forbid you have any children. You need to get THEM breakfast on a morning. Perhaps, maybe, you should spend some time with your "loved ones" on an evening, other than just telling them about your work over dinner then disappearing off to work?

I would hate to be your "loved one".

CLARIFYING EDIT: This isn't intended to be a personal attack on Daniel's life (which I don't know anything about), just my raw opinions as I read the first two paragraphs of his blog article, hopefully to help him understand why some people took harshly against it.

<comment><USER4> "I would hate to be your loved one."

Is there any need to be that mean spirited about it?

I think a sizeable quiet minority is underwhelmed by the work ethic philosophies discussions on HN. I don't think I'd go as far as the submitter, but I don't think I'd categorize it as "incredibly self-centered".

edit: to the submitter, I don't think it was bad english or your tone. Some people are unable to consume opinions they disagree with. My unsolicited advice: just continue to be true to yourself and write what you think, you can never keep certain people happy.

<comment><USER3> You are right, what I have written comes across as a personal attack and I'm sorry for that. I should have said "I would hate to be the loved one described in the first two paragraphs of this article". However, I do stand by this adjusted point -- I would not stay in a relationship which operated as described in the first two paragraphs of this article (which, to clarify, I'm not saying is how Daniel's relationship really is -- just how his blog post comes across).

<comment><USER4> I try to avoid posting about tone because I don't think they add to the discussion and a lot of the time aren't received well. Thanks for the response.

And I don't entirely disagree with you either... my read of the post was it was an exhortation to be passionate about purposeful about work, not really an itinerary planner around one's day. But if I interpreted it differently, I would have a different opinion. I also think the work/dinner discussion suggestion was something I'd try very hard to avoid in my own life :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you both for the responses. It was my intention to hear the opinion of the HN community. But, may you agree or not with my post, I believe a good discussion should always be about giving some constructive feedback in a friendly tone.

Thanks CJefferson for clarifying your response. Thanks 3am for the giving the heads up. Sincerely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> OP, do you have a family (e.g. significant other, kids)? The post reads a bit preachy. When I read this, I think: the only type of person who would recommend this lifestyle is an early 20-something male who doesn't have much else going in their lives. That may or may not be correct (and it shows as much about my own personal bias as it does about the post), and even if it is correct, that's not a bad thing since if that's the significant demographic that you might be aiming for.

However, if you have subscribers who have a life at home, with family, that they enjoy, or just enjoy hobbies that are not congruent with making a living, I can see why they felt alienated by this post.

<comment><AUTHOR> I consider myself to have a good life. I'm not always in the office working, and I actually spend a lot of time working out and taking care of my best friends and meeting new people.

I only try to minimize doing what in nothing contributes to my life or the others around me. That's why, for example, I like to read books that in someway intersect what I do in my job. But that doesn't mean that I never try new stuff and read a good one like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

And for me, the best way to not "waste time" is by trying to merge your job with what you want with your life, since we already spend so much time on it.

 __

I do not have kids. I 've recently started a relationship, and I admit that I've been asking myself what's the best way to balance these. I get your point.

<comment><USER6> Daniel, you seem as though you have good intentions, but allow me to give a word of advice - feel free to take it or leave it.

You say you just got in a relationship. If you want it to work - choose the relationship more than you choose work. I know from experience, because I used to have a similar mentality. It goes something like this:

If I want to have the most fulfilling life possible, I should make "progress" every day. I feel as though I have the capability and drive to be the best, so I have the _responsibility_ to be the best. If I'm not working, there is someone else out there who is working, and that means I'm "wasting time". Relaxing = being lazy.

Those people who just socialize and play video games? How can they not see how much time they are wasting on a meaningless life! Everyone should spend their time doing things that are "productive" to better their skillset. Otherwise, they are lazy and unmotivated.

Simply put- this is being a workaholic. Through college, I was the same way, and it cost me a lot of missed opportunities. The most dangerous workaholic is one who thinks that it's healthy and good for them.

Don't get me wrong - be motivated, enjoy what you do, etc. But _have balance_. I was fortunate enough to meet my (now wife) who showed me that it's ok to take a break. It's not "being unproductive" or "wasting time" \- it's building a relationship. It's ok (and often necessary) to drop everything and spend time focused on making the relationship better.

In your post, you mentioned Mr. Walton. Let's briefly talk about him. While I don't know if the source is true (ref. needed), Consider this post [1] that talks about his last words: "I blew it". While it's my opinion, I strongly believe you can make a bigger impact in this world through the relationships you build as opposed to the work you do.

So, it's great that you're motivated and driven - it means you'll be good at whatever you do. But don't think poorly of those who do things differently, and put their efforts into different outlets. It doesn't mean they're somehow less productive of a person than you. In fact, I would recommend working to break away from the workaholic mentality. Just like forcing yourself to get a good night's sleep, it will be tough at first, and you will feel like your "being unproductive", but it will make your relationship - and your life - much better.

[1] [http://upstart.bizjournals.com/resources/executive- forum/201...](http://upstart.bizjournals.com/resources/executive- forum/2013/07/16/mike-michalowicz-on-sam-walton.html?page=all)

<comment><AUTHOR> With my blogpost, I didn't mean that you should put work before your family and friends (or at least didn't want to mean that). I didn't mean that playing a good videogame is a waste of time if that makes you feel better.

I try to always be aware when I'm not giving enough time to my family and friends (building relationships). Some times I do stuff like, taking a random trip to somewhere in the woods just to see what happens or what nature has to show me, without any goal in mind.

BUT, I do understand that you think that I don't do this. I understand why with this post I seem such a workaholic. (Maybe I am, but not as much I seem to look in this post.)

AND, even though I spend a good time with my family and friends, I'm not saying that I shouldn't spend more. Maybe I should. (I'm just thinking out loud.)

My point here is that we should strive to try to work on something that's aligned with our life goals - and those may include spending time with your family, traveling or building a charity institution. This way, work would have other meaning to us.

Thank you very much for the article and your thoughtful response.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> You seem to be promoting a recipe for burnout, and that's not a popular viewpoint on HN. Of course you need to work hard at anything to be successful, whether it's sports, art, or a startup, but you need to have balance. For example, after dinner I like to read Dr. Seuss to my 14 month old daughter rather than books about programming or startups. When she's asleep, my wife and I like to watch crime dramas on TV. I like that my work stays between business hours and after that, it's family time.

<comment><AUTHOR> True, my post's recipe, taken to the fullest, probably will lead to burnout. I should have clarified that.

Thanks for your examples.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Let me paraphrase you, or meta-phrase, if you will: "What you are doing now, what you are passionate about now, is the be-all and end-all of your life! You need nothing else! Do it 24/7! If you choose to do something other than this, then choose something uplifting, something that supports and reinforces your view of the world! Because it is right! And the only one!"

Dude. Chill. Where is your time for discovery? You say "travel, sure", but then you say "Forget the idea about how much fun others are getting in the Caribbean Islands."

WTF? How will ever know if you like snorkeling or scuba diving or trapeze or archery, or various other idle pursuits that one discovers when one unplugs?

It is possible to have multiple passions. The one you have now is just that: One. Allow yourself time and space to find others.

"Humans are wired for growth." I don't even know what that means. Humans aren't wired for much other than eating, defecating, and breathing. Everything else is a choice, an itch. Don't over-glorify yours. Don't over-glorify what works right now. Because things change.

If you are lucky, you'll discover the changes while you are still young and fit enough to enjoy them.

Chain yourself to your current passion, for the rest of your life, and somewhere along the line you will wonder when you traded your monastic cell of devotion for solitary confinement.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please see my response to jwcrux ;)

Link: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007119](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007119)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Warning: harsh. I had to google it seems you didn't deem us worthy of reading the piece in its entirety. So here it is [http://danielflopes.com/choosework/](http://danielflopes.com/choosework/)

The title is the least issues with the post. The post is content free, pushing anecdotal evidence (the Sam Walton thing) as data, and stating some pretty important things like "Humans are wired to growth. Long lasting happiness comes from setting big goals and meeting them. It comes from the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." without any supporting evidence.

I would guess the people who unsubscribed followed the spirit of your article, and unsubscribed because their time is too precious to read drivel from a random nobody with no discernible achievement... The right to tell people how to run their live is pretty hard to gain.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, a bit harsh. But helpful. Thank you

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I would unsubscribe too, because I quite disagree with this viewpoint.

I agree with the basic idea that humans need to do stuff to be happy - but not work necessarily. Taking care of kids is _also_ doing something. Making a nice meal instead of microwaving, is also doing something. Those things bring satisfaction as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok. But I don't say the contrary - doing those things can also make you happy.

But using our job to achieve our life goals is one of the best ways to achieve happiness, in my opinion.

Thank you

<comment><USER11> It just feels to me like you are over elevating the prestige of "our job". What life goals do you have if all you do is work? I do like taking solace in my job and just shutting out the world sometimes. Otherwise I enjoy concerts, travel, family, cooking/cuisine, woodworking, mechanics, gardening, reading novels, learning about art, botany, physics, rocket science, camping, fishing, hunting, and so many more things.

Accomplishment can be achieved in so many ways. A life spent _only_ working seems like such a waste. Dying people generally don't regret the things they did do but instead the things they _didn 't_ do.

Go live. Life is such an amazing thing to experience. There are so many sights, sounds, smells, and experiences to be had. I can't justify not attempting to discover as many as I possibly can in the short, insignificant span of time that I will be here. Putting yourself in new, uncomfortable situations will increase your creativity way beyond what working and reading technical books could even come close to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It makes very depressing and uninspiring reading; I don't want to think of my life as being consumed by work.

I think you just need a slightly different angle: many happy people have a driving project or belief that inspires them. I think that's what you meant to say. And it's different from "work", which is a four letter synonym for drudgery.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. That's helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> You lost 10% because you claim things that only 22 year olds do and thus wont be delivering insights to people 32.

You have much to learn yet, we all do :)

<comment><AUTHOR> This HN discussion is leading me to that conclusion :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wasn't a reader of your blog previously, but from the sidebar I take it to be about optimising your activities and effort - work smarter, not harder, that kind of thing. So really I'm guessing that an audience seeking those kind of tips is going to be mildly surprised or discouraged by an article which, in the first few sentences, basically seems to say "work all the time, every chance you get." \- Chances are that such content is the absolute opposite of what your audience came for and is expecting.

Some way down you do then introduce the idea that time is precious and it should not be wasted "consuming low quality content" \- and not saying that your blog is low quality at all, but this sentence does plant a very powerful seed. Don't waste time with things you don't want to read or which are not interesting or relevant to your interests.

The combination of the two could be a one-two punch, at least for some people. If people have not enjoyed the article, the immediate reaction may well be to "unsubscribe now."

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an insightful point! TY

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Probably because the post was incongruous with why they subscribed in the first place. 10% of what number? Which post gets you the most subscriptions?

Picking Sam Walton as a role-model of happiness is unsubstantiated -- he was definitely rich, so a better title might be: "If you want money, work more" \-- which is essentially what you wrote.

<comment><AUTHOR> I picked Sam Walton because I've been reading his auto biography, and he seems to be a good example of someone who really loved his job. Also, his family didn't consider him an absent father. He was someone who managed to merge his job, his family and his life goals in an harmonious way.

Is 10% of around 100. Tt's a small number, I know... but it still is 10% ... =/

<comment><USER16> Sam Walton came from a family who weathered the Great Depression very well and married into a family which was able to lend him a significant sum of money for the period in order to "bootstrap" his business.

Walton, like so many other people who are incredibly successful, started out of the gate far ahead of most of his peers. As a result, he isn't what I'd consider a good example to use for the average person when it comes to work and balancing career with family.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I actually agree with your post. And subscribed to you afterwards.

I often encounter the same issue.

////

Typical Example: Friends ask me what I am doing over the weekend? I said I got some work to do. I have to learn NodeJs, figure out how to parse BCC address off an email, focus on my UI and UX design for my email app, go do more research on hashtags for emails, etc...

What I cited there are not "work" per say as coined in most people's mind as the dreary 8 hour work life.

What I am actually saying is "I GOT A PROBLEM I AM PASSIONATED IN SOLVING. I AM GOING TO SPEND MY WEEKEND AND NIGHTS RESEARCHING TO SOLVE IT BECAUSE ITS FUN. IT IS MY VIDEOGAME, AND MY WAY OF GAINING SATISFACTION TO IMPROVE MYSELF."

////

 __ __So basically if you replaced "In 2014, if you want happiness, choose work" with "In 2014, if you want happiness, choose PASSION". No one would unsubscribe.

<comment><AUTHOR> You said it well:

"What I cited there are not "work" per say as coined in most people's mind as the dreary 8 hour work life."

And yes, I understand your point: work can be enjoyed to the point it feels like a videogame!

Anyhow, the words and the tone I choose maybe weren't the best to communicate what I mean.

Thanks for the feedback (and thanks for subscribing!).

<comment><USER18> For me, that's the gist of it. When you say 'work' I associate the word with 'job work'.

I enjoy programming and reading about programming. And I do it. And I know the same reactions like "You're programming outside your job??". Now the main difference between you and me is that I do these things because I enjoy them, while you do them for the benefits they bring (knowledge, portfolio, etc).

I am a bit of an hedonist, and try to do stuff I ENJOY, regardless of the benefits they bring. Example: I like good food. And I like experimenting new kinds of dishes. But I don't like cooking. SO I rarely make elaborate dishes (I usually eat something quickly made). I don't go for the good dishes because I don't enjoy to process to get there! (In university it was common for me to lose way too much time in a project or subject that I enjoyed, and then having to pull one nighters to study for another)

Now regarding job work. I am Portuguese, and I believe we have a cultural bias that "job work" is not enjoyable. I share that opinion, in a weird way. To me, I shouldn't love my job. I'm not saying I hate my job, in fact, it has it's fun moments. But it's not my ideal way to spend a day. The momentss where you don't want to get off your bed to go to work, our your, once again, implementing something tedious, that's when I realised what having a job is like.

But not loving your job, to me, IS A GOOD THING! It keeps me focused on my objectives. I have hobbies and a girlfriend. My jobs gives me money to travel, buy stuff, and pamper myself and the gf. And eat tasty and expensive food :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> With all due respect I can absolutely see why many people would no longer be interested in your opinions after such a self-centered post. This might be the path to achieving something big, but it also the path to loneliness. If you can't take off for even 15 minutes at a meal to talk about what's important for your family, then you can't expect them to really care about your work either.

"At dinner, have a great meal with your _loving_ ones and tell them what's going on with work."

I can only think what Freud might. They might be _loving_ but they're not _loved_ and they won't be _loving_ for long.

It is the content that might disturb folks, not your English. That you don't perceive this might be part of the problem.

</comment><comment><USER20> what you wrote is a post that has little meaningful content or new information. it is a short and (in my opinion) poorly written opinion piece exhorting people to adopt a life style that many consider destructive and counter productive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The url to the blog post: [http://danielflopes.com/choosework/](http://danielflopes.com/choosework/)

<comment><USER21> Worst. Idea. Ever.

Stop for a moment and think about what you're promoting: exactly the opposite of most HN readers's want: a work-centric life and an existence that's obsessed with more money, more knowledge, more power.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> it's very hard to take seriously advice over long lasting happiness from a 22 year old.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok. That's a valid argument.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I share the same point of view "choose work" thing. Even if I agree with you, reading the post ([http://danielflopes.com/choosework/](http://danielflopes.com/choosework/)), at least the first part of it, makes it feel like it's some kind of a military life, while it's not the case, at least on my side. It's all about the way you present the thing or yourself and in this particular case the post's tone is too much "rude", "strong", "military". It sound like cult propaganda. The second part fails to lower the stress the first part provide. Form advice: The text must be longer, with citations & explanations. Content advice: Work Work Work. What does it mean anyway? When I learn a new technology, I don't feel like I'm working, when I code at home most of the time I don't feel like I'm working... What is significant in my particular case is "focus (on the craft)". CS is my passion, I want to learn it, but that's not the only thing I do, as working on any target also means that I need to take the time to break the loop to breath fresh air (with or without focus on self-improvement). Good focus needs a balanced-life.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great!

Yes, my tone may look like i'm doing some propaganda. I hesitated writting with this way, but I hit publish anyway to see what happened. But it's true, it doesn't feel natural.

Thank you very much for all the other constructive feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Trying to take as objective a view here as possible...

The present hacker zeitgeist disagrees with your viewpoint. Your post came at a particularly bad time, as this post is fresh on the collective's mind:

[http://sethbannon.com/vacations-are-for-the- weak](http://sethbannon.com/vacations-are-for-the-weak)

<comment><AUTHOR> That may be true - "the present hacker zeitgeist" may disagree with my point of view. Today there's an emerging trend towards working less and spending more time with family and your hobbies (in some way, the newest book from 37signals supports that).

And, well, I don't disagree with that! Neither do I disagree in taking off some vacations, if that makes you feel better (and/or more productive).

But my point here is that we should strive to try to work on something that's aligned with our life goals - and those may include spending time with your family, traveling or building a charity. This way, work would have other meaning to us.

<comment><USER25> So your point is... to be happy, choose work, where work is defined as what will make you happy?

<comment><USER26> That's the problem: vacuousness. If work is defined as what makes you happy, there's no choice to be made.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I believe that people is starting to get sick of this over-narcisistic trend in blogging where you imply that you are a genious because you cracked X secret of life and you are going to share it with the less enlightened masses. Its going to backfire unless you provide a truly genius or novel insight.

</comment><comment><USER28> A lot of satisfaction, inspiration and personal growth in life comes from leisure time. Enjoying a glass of wine with a friend, meeting a new person. In the end its the people in your life you will remember and who will remember you. Not your achievements.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with the people side. I forgot to insert that point on my post.

But I don't agree that your achievements aren't also one of the biggest sources of happiness. If that weren't true, why did so much people obsessed with goals like climbing the mount Everest and winning the super bowl, or having rich people continuously building new companies?

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> @OP, Read this- Top 5 regrets of the dying: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/top-5-regrets-of- th...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/top-5-regrets-of-the- dying_n_3640593.html)

:)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not new, but it's never bad to re-read that article. ;)

Please see my response to jwcrux: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007119](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007119)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> It's entirely possible that your post just tripped a lot of people's "Oh, it's the end of the year, I should clean out my subscriptions".

That said...

A quick reading suggests that your message is "choose work, because that means you are doing what you care about (work)". Even if that isn't capturing the subtlety of your message, that's probably what most took away from it.

The "work work work" message doesn't go down well these days, especially because the zeitgeist is that companies are squeezing us folks dry. Asking people to bring their work into every facet of their lives is a bit much, to be honest--and I'm saying this as someone who does just that.

A message of "do what you are passionate about", or "take pride in your work", or pretty much anything else would have gone better; otherwise, you come across as "become worker drone beep boop".

Read _The Jungle_ for a good perspective on how focusing on your work screws you.

~

Some miscellaneous gripes:

Use an Oxford comma ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma)) in your sidebar about snippet:

"...for happiness, integrity and success." => "...for happiness, integrity, and success."

The choice of light-grey-white in the bottom of your about page is brutal-- especially the "Me around the web". Why not use the little badges everyone is used to there, anyways, or in your sidebar?

Your about page also has the worst-formatted quote (from Chuck Palahniuk, no less, who would laugh at your article I think) block I've seen in a while. You need to set the author's name off from the text, and fix the top padding. Fixing the colors wouldn't hurt either.

Also, the picture in your sidebar can best be described as 'slackjawed', the hover version 'imbecillic'. If you're trying to write about how to become rich, famous, and fulfilled, I'd suggest not looking like a stereotypical college kid/PFY.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very very much. I will take that into account to improve my blog and next blog posts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> The article is very opinionated, with bolded sentences, repeated phrasing, and is mainly imperatives.

The immediate response for me is 'some other fucker is telling me I have to work now?'

Work means different things for different people.

Also, I guess your opinion is actually more nuanced than the article implies, and though I still might not appreciate it, I wouldn't be as annoyed if the article was an honest exploration instead of a rushed polemic.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. That helps. Maybe I will re-write the post one day to give it a more natural and humble tone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> "Work from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep."

Depressing as fuck.

</comment><comment><USER33> you guys are idiots - they unsubscribed because most its the start of 2014 and they have been meaning to fix their inbox spam a while and finally have the motivation to do it.

</comment><comment><USER34> FWIW, I _mostly_ agree with your post. I would subscribe, but I couldn't find the RSS feed link.

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought every RSS reader automatically captured the RSS link if you give them the url for the blog.

Anyhow, here it goes : [http://danielflopes.com/rss](http://danielflopes.com/rss)

;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> How big the sampling of that 10% is?

<comment><AUTHOR> 10% of 100 (more or less).

It isn't much, I know... but it still is 10%

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> How old is the OP?

<comment><AUTHOR> 23

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I remembering being told something very similar about university. But I got the degree and it was nothing to me. Achieving hard things is not innately rewarding, at least not for everyone. Maybe it's rewarding if your goal is meaningful, but how many people honestly have meaningful jobs? Wiring in another CRUD app? Shoot me now.

If people enjoyed their work that much, they wouldn't probably need you to advise them to do it. For someone who's struggling with their work life balance, it's far from clear that 'Work more!' is the answer to their happiness.

I know that, before I started only seriously coding a few hours a day and taking three day weekends, and spending the rest of the time on less focused stuff like meetings and planning and mentoring our newbies (favourite work- related activity), I basically had to take a long break from working every couple of years just to recuperate; get my mental ducks in a line, do some stuff that has nothing to do with work. Something I worry that you may not realise is that, for some people, focus and creativity are finite resources.

What fuels those resources? Well, it seems to vary. Among other things, I enjoy swimming, reading fan-fiction of varying quality, and martial arts. I don't think I could function as a programmer if I didn't do those things.

There was a time - back with the open-plan office coincidentally - when I didn't. When I was just getting into programming and it was all work work work. Sure, I'll pull the weekend, sure I'll help with this. I just wanted to make people happy.

Eventually I noticed I was tired _all the time_ , and my creativity and all the fun ideas I used to have just weren't there for me any more. I even stopped dreaming, and feeling emotionally connected to people. Not in a metaphorical sense, I was just so mentally knackered that I went to sleep and woke up in the morning with the impression no time had passed and not even a fleeting image of what I'd been dreaming. People would smile at me and it didn't make me feel happy any more.

Would the answer for me really have been to work more?

Your advice may be very good for some people, but in so far as you don't know everyone, it's probably a bit risky in terms of how people are going to respond to tell everyone to do it.

Would I have unsubscribed? No, not if I found what you were saying in other respects worthwhile - I understand that you probably just want to help people and that's a nice thing, so I'd go with the benefit of the doubt rather than the content of the post. (Like when someone wishes me Merry Christmas - <USER2> what if I'm not a Christian? They want me to be happy, so Merry Christmas too!) But not everyone's going to see it like that, and writing it as more like, "What I've found make _me_ happy at the moment." Potentially offers less that someone might take offence to if it's harder to read it as a statement about how you think they should live their lives. ^_^</comment>


Startups: Don't Host Your Blog on Tumblr - <AUTHOR> http://blog.picplum.com/startups-dont-host-your-blog-on-tumblr/

<comment><USER2> Ummm.... they're hosting on HEROKU?

In 2011, Tumblr was down for 42 hours.

In 2011, Heroku was down for _76_ hours in one incident alone.

And that's all before you get to the hubris of the assumption that your custom coded setup will perform better. A more sensible argument would be to move to a host with a better proven uptime record, such as Blogger (nearly 100%).

Sources: [http://allthingsd.com/20111215/tumblr-had-42-hours-of- downti...](http://allthingsd.com/20111215/tumblr-had-42-hours-of-downtime- in-2011-and-thats-an-improvement/) <https://status.heroku.com/incident/151>

<comment><AUTHOR> No biggie, I can temporary move our blog to another host with a simple DNS change and pulling the static site from our repo. Ah, the power of jekyll!

<comment><USER3> If you're using Jekyll, why not just host with S3/Cloudfront?

<comment><AUTHOR> I had thought about it but

\- I wanted to use Sinatra to 301 old tumblr urls

\- Call me weird but I loathe seeing *.html in urls and that's the only thing you can do with S3 root object (when I checked a few months ago)

\- something I can't remember. maybe it was cf edge server time to update when altering updates.

<comment><USER4> > I loathe seeing *.html in urls and that's the only thing you can do with S3 > root object

You can configure name of index file, and that will be displayed for requests against root URL and subdirectories (such as blog posts) as well. No need for having .html in URLs.

The only problem I've encountered with S3 web hosting is that it does not let you host naked domains.

<comment><USER5> Naked domains as in "example.com" without the www? Just name your bucket without the www and it will work. You can then do a javascript redirect from a simple index page at www.example.com (google has said that they now follow javascript redirects. My play example "<http://whitewatersearch.com>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Like most things, choosing where to host your company blog is a strategic choice that can't be boiled down to a categorical.

tumblr has a really amazing community. tumblr's downtime is a fact. The question is, does the community outweigh the downtime?

I think you make this decision based on the demographics of the tumblr community vis-a-vis your users / customers. And tumblr isn't just 14 year old girls -- there's a bunch of tech people on it (although that may be more NYC tech).

In the comments, people have mentioned the simple fact that you can have both a self-hosted company blog and a company tumblr, much like most companies have a company blog and a company twitter. I agree, although simply feeding content from the blog into the tumblr of course doesn't make best use of tumblr as a platform.

My startup's blog is on tumblr (<http://blog.idonethis.com>) and we get about 1/5 of the referral traffic of twitter and facebook from tumblr. (We have nearly 1k followers on tumblr versus 1.6k twitter followers and 2k facebook likes.) In other words, it's our 3rd largest source of referral traffic from social media.

<comment><USER7> Well put. I do marketing work on a few projects that have commercial blogs. In mose cases, we're able to get 1K+ Tumblr followers in < 3 months (not counting "regular" RSS subscribers). (And none of the projects are famous/have famous founders/services/products) To get the same amount of regular RSS subscribers is much more difficult.

Tumblr is comparable to Twitter in that it's a common _place_ to meet your readers/customers. Unlike a self-hosted blog, you don't have to ask visitors to leave where they are to visit you. So you're likely to get a bit more foot traffic/interaction, not to mention people passing it on/sharing it out (via reblogs).

Now if you're an already established service/otherwise famous, you might have no problem getting people to check you out. But even then, Tumblr has its benefits.

I don't think the choice is necessarily all or nothing between self-hosted or Tumblr. Many companies with "real" blogs also have Tumblrs. In many cases companies have _multiple_ Tumblrs. (Not unlike Twitter, it's becoming common to have a separate Tumblr for different events/products/branches/divisions. IBM has at least 3. NBC has at least 4...)

I won't disagree that Tumblr has horrible performance issues. But it's still worth it. Twitter 3 years ago had bad performance issues, but it was/is still definitely investing in. No social site is forever, but they're great tools as long as you're aware of costs + benefits.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A mistake people seem to make is assuming Tumblr is a blogging platform akin to Wordpress.com, it isn't, it's a different beast entirely. The majority of Tumblr is the "community" of ~teenagers sharing pictures and videos and posts, Tumblr revolves around the dashboard not individual blogs. Sure you can host your company blog there, but do tumblr _care_ about the uptime of that vs. the uptime of their dashboard?

<comment><USER9> There is enough porn on Tumblr that I would assume it's being blocked by many corporate firewalls. (Not to mention blanket bans on social networking sites.) Probably not a place I would put marketing material.

<comment><USER10> It's certainly blocked at my workplace.

<comment><USER11> But that's just blogs on the tumblr domain. If it is on a subdomain I'd imagine it's not blocked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> _Akshay noticed I was so annoyed with Tumblr that he suggested I write this post detailing our move and urging other startups to do the same._

As much as this is a very staunch gesture, I think it's a very valid one. Tumblr has a huge, active, and connected community. It can be a great entry point for niche startups to find users and build an audience, but the performance and stability just does not cut the mustard.

I greatly want tumblr to succeed, their platform is very fresh, the theme garden model they have fits their mold perfectly (although the premium marketplace seems to be extremely esoteric) but I also hope this suggestion for startups to choose an alternative platform kicks tumblr in some sort of direction to improve the QoS.

<comment><USER13> It is still possible to create a Tumblr blog that pulls the RSS from your site, though. You can just tell it to only display the URL and title so you don't get an SEO mess.

Not perfect, of course, but it still gives you a slight chance to use Tumblr's amazing sharing platform.

<comment><USER12> You are correct. That's actually one of my favorite features tumblr has, it reminds me much of a site I used back in the 2000's called SideBlog. It worked exactly the same way, drop in a line of javascript and it pulled in your posts and you could design everything around it.

This kind of reinforces my earlier commentary, tumblr has some great features and awesome integration, but their performance and reliability always make me steer clear when needing to put up a blog for a client.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A Tumblr blog may not be the best solution but spending that many resources on a blog (especially one not featured in the main navigation) is usually out of the question for most startups.

For most startups the amount of time invested for a custom Jekyll setup and a downtime script could be replaced with a new feature or a better product/home page.

I think its important for startups not to spend too much time blogging unless they feel it will provide them some decent traffic and strongly support the product/company. Make the product better first. If your blog host (Tumblr) isn't stable enough, wordpress it and be done with it.

<comment><USER15> HN'ers have a hard enough time accepting:

       'more features' != 'more marketshare'

I would caution this making sure to note "it depends on the startup". If your industry pays attention to blogs it's very much worth devoting large amounts of effort to capturing this attention. I as much as the next programmer need the _focus on marketing_ mantra pounded into my head time and time again.

See 37signals blog, seomoz blog, and every piece of advice patio11 has ever written.

<comment><USER14> I certainly don't have a hard time with that. Perhaps reread the comment I left.

"unless they feel it will provide them some decent traffic and strongly support the product/company"

Not sure you added anything to my previous comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Strangely enough I find that I am more inclined to read company's blog if it is visibly hosted on a dedicated blog site, Tumblr and Posterious included. Based on this observation I did a bit of testing of <product>.tumblr.com vs blog.<product>.com and former generated more foot traffic from Twitter link drops. Haven't tried www.<product>.com/blog though, it might well outperform both options.

</comment><comment><USER17> I run a news site on Tumblr and I can tell you my downtime problems are nowhere near as bad as this site suggests they are. In the past three months I can remember only one major bout of downtime, and I'm on the site most of the day every day.

And in the case that downtime is as bad as it seems, I suggest you guys use CloudFlare, which will at least keep a cached version of your site online even during downtime issues.

Tumblr is way more about community than mission-critical uptime. If you treat it like mission-critical uptime, you're going to be disappointed. If you're trying to reach an audience for your application — which, honestly, should be more important with a staff blog — Tumblr is a great bet.

</comment><comment><USER11> Another problem with hosting with Tumblr is that you can't host the blog on the same domain as your app. The usual solution is to host the blog at blog.example.com. The problem with this is that subdomains are treated by google as a separate domain, so any google juice flowing to your blog does not help your main domain. With SEO, one of the most important things is incoming links and if you split your incoming links across multiple domains, the sum is actually less than the whole. The best solution is to host your blog in a subfolder on your main domain (e.g. example.com/blog).

<comment><USER18> Are there blog hosting services that one can use in a subfolder? AFAIK, both tumblr and posterous only supports subdomains but not folders.

<comment><USER11> Unfortunately not. I don't think this is actually possible as I don't think you can have a subfolder of a site hosted elsewhere (not in a 'performant' manner at least).

The only solution that I know of is to host it all on the one box which makes it trick if you want to use Heroku to host your app.

I am currently wrestling with this problem as I want to host a new app on Heroku, but have the marketing side of the site powered by wordpress to take advantage of things like third party themes. The app will also generate linkable content, so it is important to me to have it on the same domain, but there seems to be no way to achieve what I want to do with heroku :-(

So annoying!

<comment><USER19> Did you try the Cedar stack?

<comment><USER11> Well, you can host PHP on a cedar stack, and I have successfully deployed wordpress to heroku, so that is _very_ cool.

It was actually really easy with this: <https://github.com/mhoofman/wordpress- heroku>

But unfortuently, to the best of my knowledge, you can't host both PHP at the same time as Rails.

If anyone know otherwise I would love to hear!

<comment><USER19> I've read about people who use workarounds on the Cedar stack for different purposes. Did you think about running two different heroku instances for the same app? With both on instances on Cedar stack, one instance can be running the rails part while the other instance runs the php.

I just read the DotCloud docs and they do a lot of stuff including php and ruby, you might want to check them out to see if they run both in the same instance.

<comment><USER11> Interesting. I'll check out the ability to run two different heroku instances for the same app to see if that can help. If you could point me to any literature on the subject it would be very much appreciated.

I'll ckeckout DotCloud as well. Thanks for the heads up!

edit: added request for more info

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> We (NodeSocket) are on Posterous; and so far so good. Love the fact that if a post makes the HN front page, we don't have to worry about scaling or downtime. Also, it was super easy to select a theme and modify some basic CSS rules to match our branding and website. Finally, they have some nice nerdy features as well; GitHub Gists and Vimeos automatically converted from a URL to embed.

<comment><USER21> > _Love the fact that if a post makes the HN front page, we don't have to > worry about scaling or downtime._

If you have to worry about scaling or downtime if a blog post hits HN's front page, then I'm afraid that you screwed up _really bad_ somewhere.

Any server should be able to handle that traffic.

<comment><USER20> See: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3451893>, scaling Wordpress isn't exactly easy, when running on shared hosting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Since when is a startup's corporate blog mission-critical?

PicPlum's recent blog posts seem to be pretty run-of-the mill ... press mentions, tips, new features, etc. Nothing that (a) would hurt the company if the blog was down or (b) you couldn't simply use your company Facebook page for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed, we didn't have anything too interesting in recent past but we're going to start ramping that up. Especially after checking out rand fishkin's presentation about inbound marketing.

<comment><USER23> +1,000,000 to rand's presentation. Here's the link in case you missed it: [http://hackersandfounders.tv/RDmt/rand-fishkin-inbound- marke...](http://hackersandfounders.tv/RDmt/rand-fishkin-inbound-marketing- for-startups/)

We are big believers in making quality content at Parse as well. Interruption marketing is annoying and not nearly as effective.

Given that, it's pretty crucial for our blog to be up as well. (we're also on jekyll, hosted on our own servers)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I don't see the problem with sticking with Tumblr. What most of the trouble with my Tumblr-powered sites seems to be is the use of Tumblr's Static Media uploader (<http://www.tumblr.com/themes/upload_static_file>) which is used for js files, external css, images, etc.

Sites (in my experience!) with a lot of these links have _way_ more loading problems. Simple sites that rely more on markup and CSS3 than images and a lot of JavaScript have only dropped out a few times in my experience.

Just my two cents, maybe somebody can comment and verify this.

</comment><comment><USER25> It does depress me somewhat when I see people writing incredibly insightful or great blog posts on another company's blogging platform. I'd live in constant worry the company could fold up shop one day and your posts would be gone (unless you kept local copies manually).

It's your writing, if it is good and insightful, write it on a server you have control over.

<comment><USER26> I used to have a blog on my personal domain (not saying it was incredibly insightful), and I got tired of updating wordpress. One day the wordpress update failed, and I just took down the blog and now it is gone.

My livejournal blog however, which I set up over 10 years ago (and haven't updated in 7 years) is still there in it's embarassing completeness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Weird. I can't remember ever having trouble loading a tumblr blog.

I wonder what accounts for our different experiences?

<comment><USER28> maybe it's because of the location of the servers? they seem to be west coast, i'm east coast and can't remember the last time i had trouble loading a tumblr blog

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> So, in the last week or so of reading Hacker News, I've been told:

      * Don't blog on Google+
      * Don't blog on Tumblr

Before I start blogging, are there any others I should know about?

<comment><USER30> I think ultimately you will see complaints against almost every service and you will be left with one choice. Host your own. And then that has its own shortcomings. So we can conclude that everything has risks no matter what. It's up to you to assess and decide which risks you can tolerate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I use google plus along with a simple tool I made for a really simple blog that's hosted on my domain: <https://github.com/lylepratt/Plusify>

</comment><comment><USER32> Is your price really 50 cents per print plus shipping?

Costco.com will print for 12 cents per print and free shipping, are you guys going to be able to be competitive against them?

<comment><AUTHOR> Picplum is focusing on quality rather than optimizing on price. Our prints are considerably higher quality with premium archival lustre paper (much thicker), better packaging-- We're selling an experience not cheap prints with an ecommerce add-to-cart-then-select-sizes experience.

Happy to report that price has not been an issue and we have many happy return customers. Try it out and let us know what you think! Each new account has $5 in credits.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'll take 99.8% uptime over managing an entire blog infrastructure.

<comment><USER34> Out of genuine curiosity, what percent of uptime would be worth managing your own infrastructure?

<comment><USER35> I don't think it's quite a simply answer like X% uptime.

A lot of the decision is the 'quality' of the downtime. For example:

* Is it generally stable, but only going down in peak load situations (obviously no good if you know peak load occurs when you are doing critical new product release/sales etc, but may be okay if you peak load corresponds to non-critical events).

* How long is the outages? If it goes down for 1 minute each day, that may be more acceptable compared to '100%' uptime except one day when it goes out for 365 minutes.

All of that affects the impact that the downtime has on your venture - it's quite possible you might have 'poor' uptime stats, but it has zero effect on your business, in which case the cost/effort savings from using a 'poorer uptime' hosted service may be worth it.

<comment><USER33> Well put. I echo your sentiments entirely. No point in bending over backwards for 99.999% uptime when it has zero effect on one's business.

Priorities...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36>
       Heroku-hosted custom Jekyll setup

I thought Heroku only allowed dynamically-generated content (with static assets hosted elsewhere)

But the whole point of Jekyll is that it generates a static site.

What am I missing? (seriously)

I thought a starter Heroku account might work well for a side project I have cooking... Coincidentally, I was reading about Jekyll as something fun to try. Combining both of them would be pretty cool.

<comment><USER37> Heroku doesn't actively prevent you from hosting a static site. Yeah, heavy assets like images and video should be hosted elsewhere, but with HTML and stuff it's fine to just throw it in a static Git repo and use Heroku.

<comment><USER11> The main thing that will stop you is the limit on the "slug size", which is 100mb. This is heaps for static text like html, but if your blog is image intensive you could hit the wall after a while. Video would push you over super quick.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'm in the amidst of launching my start-up CodePupil.com .

What I dig about Tumblr is how fast Google indexes posts from there due to it's popularity.

Thus, if your looking to HELP get your start-up's name listed in Google fairly quikcly, then a Tumblr or Posterous would be best to use. I posted a Tumblr "About us," yesterday and Google indexed it eight hours later.

</comment><comment><USER39> Somewhat related gripe: does anybody like the admin UI in Tumblr? It seems like important settings are scattered all over the place. I don't understand why the site view and admin views are two discrete locations, either. Has the core service received much love since David Karp's first cut?

</comment><comment><USER40> We recently moved our dev blog (dev.anideo.com) to jekyll + github pages as well, not because of problems with uptime but because gist support is a major pita on Tumblr and we primarily use our blog to post code snippets.

</comment><comment><USER41> So what is a generally accepted blog back-end if you're self hosting?

</comment><comment><USER42> Another reason to not user Tumblr is David Karp's [the founder's] attitude. [http://getoffmyinternets.net/2011/05/31/david-karp-will- tell...](http://getoffmyinternets.net/2011/05/31/david-karp-will-tell-you-how- to-run-a-company/)

</comment><comment><USER43> The problem with Tumblr as a blog is that it's not easy to do straightforward comments

</comment><comment><USER44> has anybody tried to crawl tumblr outside of goog?</comment>


US chip industry wakes up to new competitive reality - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/3e2c7500-906e-11e8-b639-7680cedcc421 <comment><AUTHOR> [http://archive.is/y7W4k](http://archive.is/y7W4k)</comment>