Show HN: Recordings of phone screenings for employment - <AUTHOR> I have installed a program on my phone called ACR, which records all incoming and outgoing phone calls. I have recorded 26 phone screens from the past 3 or 4 months of trying to find a job as a full stack web developer. Some of the interviews are non-technical screens, some of them get technical.
I have not gone through and beeped out any names or personal details. I maybe should have, but it was bad enough I had to live through these moments once, I didn't want to have to relive them by listening through them again to add in the beeps. Some people may get mad at me for giving away their company's interview details, but it is what it is.
The main reason why I'm posting them is because there's this myth that is commonly spoken about on the internet that the unemployment rate is at an all time low, and that companies are dying to hire developers, and if you're a developer with basic skills and a few years of experience, they you'll be flooded with job offers. Hopefully these recordings will put an end to those myths. No one is throwing jobs at me, as these recordings make very clear. It is also very clear that the burden is on me to prove to the company that I'm the person they should hire, not on the company to convince me to work for their company.
By the way, not s single one of these phone screens have lead to a job offer. Most of these screens are with startup companies, but some of them are established companies as well.
About half way through these recordings, I began the habit of asking how many people the company has interviewed before me. In very few cases do they say that they've interviewed less than 10 people. If programming jobs are easy to get, then companies shouldn't get to interview 10 or 15 people before finding a person to hire.
Anyways, here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/freework/sets/phone-interviews <comment><USER2> 1\. Depending on where you live, recording a phone call without the consent of all the participants may be illegal.[1] For example, California requires the consent of all participants, and violators could face prison time.[2]

2\. Even if it's legal, publicly sharing a recording of a private conversation would be frowned upon by most people. (Would you want it to be done to you by someone else?) So you may be damaging your career by making these recordings public.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#Two- party_consent_states)

[2] [https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen- sect-632.html](https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-632.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've interviewed over 900 developers. I can tell you in terms of soft skills you are in the bottom 1% for sure, at least based on my sample. I can only recall a handful of people who made me feel the way you make people feel when you talk to them.

Learn to understand people from diverse cultures and their accents. And when you don't understand them, don't be so rude about it. Of all the people I've met in my career, you are probably bottom 5 in terms of fit for a leadership position.

You don't even have a thing that you're interested in. "Anything that's programming" is a horrible thing to say when someone is trying to get a picture of you as a developer.

</comment><comment><USER4> Went through all the recordings you've posted and this has to be the worst - [https://soundcloud.com/freework/0d20190604110203pnull?in=fre...](https://soundcloud.com/freework/0d20190604110203pnull?in=freework/sets/phone- interviews)

Yes, the burden IS on you to prove that you are worth hiring. I understand that job hunting can be daunting and almost 95% of the effort you put into it leads to nothing, however if you aren't willing to put that effort in, then no one is going to give you a chance.

<comment><USER5> I've only listened to this one, but...

1) You sound very anxious and/or nervous. Which is normal, interviewing isn't fun and can be stressful, but it does not come across great. See if you can relax a bit?

2) "Why do you want to work here?" is one of the most softball questions you can get in a phone screen... they want to know that you've done 5 minutes of research about the company, their tech stack, their values, basically anything. It doesn't have to be your dream job but you have to sound like you're somewhat familiar with what they do and at least partially interested in being a part of it.

"I don't actually know what your company does, sorry, I just sent my resume out to a bunch of places" is about the worst answer you can give here. Why would a company want to hire someone who doesn't know anything about the company and doesn't even pretend to care?

<comment><USER6> Anecdotally, just knowing what the company does and various stacks they use is a huge plus.

Knowing a bit about the founders and the corporate structure can help too.

Why wouldn't you do just a little bit of research?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Disclaimer: not a lawyer, not giving legal advice. That said, I would agree with greenyoda, although I understand your intent and your point; making that point via recorded phone calls seems to be a bit of a foolish decision. Perhaps write a blog post on your experience, or, preface your interview calls with a notification of the fact you are recording.

Your profile on soundcloud states you're from Miami Beach area and many of the companies you spoke with, or at least a few of them, are based in California. Both Florida and California are two party consent states, opening you up to a large degree of legal liability. That liability includes criminal charges as well as a potential cause of action in civil court (which could be initiated by each company against you individually). Personally, I wouldn't be sure a potential of 26 civil lawsuits and criminal charges are worth the point you're trying to get across here. Similarly, not knowing about the law or not realizing this was illegal, likely won't get you far as a legal defense.

Not to be harsh or negative towards you, everyone's opinion is always welcome here, just be careful on how you achieve/articulate it. I just hope you're aware of the law and I wish you luck.

<comment><USER8> Disclaimer: also not a lawyer, not giving legal advice. In the soundcloud recordings he says he is residing in texas which is one a party consent state.

<comment><USER9> Disclaimer: not a lawyer. The California Supreme Court ruled essentially that the stricter state's laws take precedence, in this case, California's Two- party consent law [1].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#One- party_consent_states)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I know you're frustrated. Its okay to be you. Not having the gift of gab, and knowing that will help you to optimize for something else. I think something that would help you would be to make an amazing resume website, like a custom python back-end with a custom JavaScript front end. Something must speak, and if you're voice does not, you'll need to have something step in for you.

Listening to the audio (again, I appreciate you sharing), it sounds like you're not wanting to play along with the _conversation game_ and that makes it a hard sell to put you on a team. Now, this is just a perception. So, if you don't feel like you could change that, then what I'm suggesting, is that as soon as you can, while on a call, ask them to open your custom website that fires off python back-end code when they click on a cool button and so on.

Then I would just clarify, "I'm kinda socially awkward, I love to code, and would be happy to help your company make great software experiences for your customers".

<comment><USER11> I wouldn't consider OP to be "socially awkward", though I do agree with your point that they seem disinterested in playing the "conversation game". Unfortunately, that's likely what's hurting them the most.

If a candidate isn't fun or interesting to talk to, it comes across to the interviewer as though they are annoyed, bitter, or apathetic about the position.

<comment><USER3> >I wouldn't consider OP to be "socially awkward"

Are you kidding me lol? This guy is borderline autistic. Look at the google interview. He has zero ability to mirror emotions, is unaware of his long silences, and generally sounds super tense and whiny. He lets the recruiter talk for like 5 minutes without making a single sound. Then when he finally does, he gives dry, monosyllabic answers to everything. Then the only meaningful exchange he had with the recruiter was a bunch of whining about a prior Google interview. You could sense that the recruiter felt tense and Chris made him feel awkward.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think you _should_ review these recordings, some introspection may help enlighten you as to why you haven't been hired.

</comment><comment><USER13> Some of these are hilarious. Are you sure you are not a comedian?

</comment><comment><USER14> > If programming jobs are easy to get, then companies shouldn't get to > interview 10 or 15

They'll never be easy to get, even if there are a severe shortage of developers, because companies need more than just someone who can code, they need to make sure you are professional, can work with a team etc. So they need to screen people for this.

The only way for programming jobs to be easy to get (for a "person off the street") is if they are not interviewing properly. I.e. they are so deseperate to hire someone that they will hire someone who is not effective.

</comment><comment><USER15> Hi,

I have listen all the interviews and basically I found some mistakes, which you made.

1) On every recording you sound very shy (desperate). For recruiter is that sign, that you are not interested in the position or something is wrong. If you would really be interested in the position, you should sound enthusiastic! Really exited for that position. You should ask more question, be more prepared and don't let speak only the recruiter - also is good to say, that you have more offers not only this one.

2) Don't ask about how many people has been already interviewed, you sounds more like desperate and they can feel, you have been rejected many times.

3) Don't say, that you looking for job, because you are bored. That sounds just unprofessional.

4) When you retired at 2007 can you make some list of projects which you were working on? Did you learn something new? Did you get some course? Some certification?

5) You are asking for 150k or 130k as salary, if you were off the market for some time, probably you can lower your salary and work for one year just to get again some professional experience in team.

6) Don't talk about your rejections - layoffs, quits, talk about the success that you had.

7) Don't mention that you don't do anything now, say you are looking for job or you work on your own projects. Play it like you have offers and the company should want you, not that you need the company.

8) Mention your hobbies, try to play that you have also another life instead of coding and programming.

There is probably more mistakes, that you made but this is what I noticed. You should really work on your communication skills, be more enthusiastic, optimistic and don't sound so desperate, specially in job interview.

So good luck with the next offers :)

</comment><comment><USER16> I've listened through half of recordings. I like that you sound sincere and looks like you answer what you really think, like if you don't care you really say it.

One thing I found strange is you saying like you want to get salary the same as everyone else and ready to move to any city without any preferences. Also, you want to work with any language and you don't care about the project.

For my concern you are really excellent fit for outsource companies :) but in general I would recommend you to try name your preferences and try to apply to the companies you most care about. For now it looks like you are not interested in working relationships with that particular company.

I understand you're tired of interviews but it doesn't work that way. You are native speaker, citizen, have 10 years of experience. All you need to do is just apply to companies you care about and show you are not desperate to work in general with anyone but that company.

</comment><comment><USER17> Reviewing others comments and not listening, I recommend to clients they practice for interviews 20x longer than the expected real session. You must be able to field the hard questions about your background, critical thinking and abstract ideas in a polished manner. It is like acting but you are playing yourself. Nothing but practice, practice, practice with someone who has your best interests in mind, and won't let you avoid the tough questions, will do.

</comment><comment><USER18> It's like online dating. If someone have had a profile for 3 years, don't bother talking to them. And when you get interviewed, act as if you are super interested, even if you do not know them yet. Make them feel special, but also hinge that you are very attractive on the market. Don't go into details about how your last relationship did not work out. Never mention ex employers if possible.

</comment><comment><USER19> Watch out, depending on the country - recording might be legal , but publishing without consent usually isn't.

</comment><comment><USER20> Sorry you've had so much difficulty finding something. In one of the calls you mentioned you were "retired" for a while. Why did you retire?

<comment><USER10> It was because it was a startup and he was not getting paid properly, as I understood it. So, he must have gotten burned, maybe worked a lot of hours.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Can you anonymize the participants?</comment>


Upcoming Hangouts service consolidation for all G Suite customers - <AUTHOR> https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/upcoming-hangouts-service-consolidation.html <comment><AUTHOR> If administrators do not take action, all messages will be silently retained, even if for accounts where policies where configured without retention.</comment>


Why caesar doesnt trust thin men? - <AUTHOR> I'm reading through a paul graham essay:
http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html
"That's why Julius Caesar thought thin men so dangerous. They weren't tempted by the minor perquisites of power."
... I don't understand?
Physically thin men? Prerequisites of physical strength? Can someone speak intelligently on this? <comment><USER2> A recurrent theme in Roman political thought inhereted from the Greeks, as almost everything of theirs was, was luxury and the possibility for luxury to corrupt. Specifically to corrupt a person's public spirit or the general aim of perfecting themselves (the Greek notion of arete). So Caesar was cautious of the potential contained in evidently ambitious men who were not letting themselves go in luxury as they were potential rival tyrants, or they could be those who wished to restore a more Athenian mode of governance... It turns out there were plenty of both types around.

A related notion from the ancient world:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome>

</comment><comment><USER3> From William Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_ , Act I, Scene 2:

      CAESAR
      Let me have men about me that are fat;
      Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
      Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
      He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

      ANTONY
      Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
      He is a noble Roman and well given.

      CAESAR
      Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
      Yet if my name were liable to fear,
      I do not know the man I should avoid
      So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
      He is a great observer and he looks
      Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
      As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;
      Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
      As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit
      That could be moved to smile at any thing.
      Such men as he be never at heart's ease
      Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
      And therefore are they very dangerous.

</comment><comment><USER4> It has to do with men who have the ability to over-indulge or be lazy (and get fat) but have the strength to avoid such activities.

Physical strength is not a factor in this. It is strength of the mind.

<comment><USER5> >>>men who have the ability to over-indulge or be lazy (and get fat)

No. Not everyone _can_ get fat. I know this. I'm one of them. And yes, Caesars throughout history _should_ fear people like me. Because we're gunning for their pompous, smug, fat, lazy asses. Aside from their flabby souls, their physicality aesthetically disgusts us,

<comment><USER6> Shut up you idiot. First, you're missing more than half the point and im not going to explain. Reread 3 times then try again.

Speaking to your personal anecdote you view as fact, Or your metabolism has just been good with whatever you've thrown at it, and you've never put it into a state of shock to cause one of the many means of retention.

Alternatively you can go with, CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT. CANT EXPLAIN THAT.

<comment><USER7> You may want to look at the guidelines again. The relevant one in this case is "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3.""

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In Caeser's mind, the main perk of power is more delicious food. Someone uninterested in this can't be tempted or manipulated.

</comment><comment><USER9> Perquisite, not prerequisite. Perquisite means something like "perk".

<comment><USER10> It's actually the origin of "perk" as in "job perks" (as opposed to "perk" as in "stand up straight" or "be lively").

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> All men are hungry. What separates the dangerous from the docile is what one feeds this hunger with - political power or food, in Caesar's case.</comment>


The Antipattern of the MacGyver Programmer - <AUTHOR> http://livelongandprogram.com/2012/08/13/the-antipattern-of-the-macguyver-programmer/ <comment><USER2> I think there is some kind of irony here stemming from the fact that the author posted this, probably to get it done (because he could), before taking time to e.g. fact-check how to spell MacGyver ...

<comment><USER3> And yet it makes it to the front page of HackerNews and sparks a discussion on the underlying point... clearly the time-pressed, duct-taped, MacGyver solution was ineffective!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Kludges are not necessarily an anti-pattern. Time is a constraint.

MacGyver put eggs in the Jeep's radiator because it had bullet holes, and the drug lord's minions had a helicopter.

A shipping minimum viable product held together with bailing wire isn't so bad - even if vaporware provides the ultimate ease of maintenance.

<comment><USER5> "A shipping minimum viable product held together with bailing wire isn't so bad - even if vaporware provides the ultimate ease of maintenance."

Totally agree.

In general, Good grief. This contrarianism is a little unproductive.

If someone gets something done quick... oh, well, you're going to have to throw away the code.

If someone builds it the a little longer way.. oh, you're not using a rapid enough technology. They don't mention how your code won't work in 3 years because it might not be backwards compatible.

Be careful to take the opinions of those who aren't shipping anything regularly.

<comment><USER6> Isn't that EXACTLY what the article said?

Can I do it? Yes. And if I have to, given time constraints, etc, I will; but would I rather do it the more compatible way? also yes.

<comment><USER5> I didn't disagree with it.

I was speaking more generally to the attitude of contrarians that we come across. Hope that clarifies things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't believe MacGyver vs. Careful Designer is a strict dichotomy of anti- pattern vs. pattern. Instead, they are both valuable approaches when used with proper judgment at the right times. For example, the MacGyver approach is appropriate when making a proof of concept or prototype. Once the project goes from breadboard to a real device, you use more Careful Designer patterns.

If you're doing messy work, lay out a tarp rather than labeling all messy work as an anti-pattern.

<comment><AUTHOR> The antipattern involved isn't the messy work. It's the management's idea that the most efficient way to work is to always do everything as quickly as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Clearly from the comments there are a lot of reasons for this but I'm going to throw out another that I have some experience with: "living to eat another day"

Sometimes there just isn't any runway, and loosing this deal, customer, etc, really isn't tenable for the company. Features need to be live today.

Did this suck for future me? Yes it did, and to some degree does still. But was it the right business decision? Absolutely.

<comment><USER9> In a non-start-up environment, it's usually not about the business coming to a crashing halt, but that it's hard to quantify the savings that you will reap by fixing something the 'right way.' This means that upper management won't allocate resources or approve projects/budgets/etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> IMHO this the "Get's things done." part of the developer skill set defined by Joel Spolsky. A wizard at solving problems without an eye on maintainability or the long term picture.

The antithesis of this is the "Smart" guy who can design the "perfect system" upto and past the release date.

</comment><comment><USER11> Personally I don't get the argument that you can either have speed or well architected systems.

Yes, if you build features outside the scope of the system to meet unforeseen features it's just scope creep and a waste of time but if you take a few minutes to actually think before you code the actual implementation time is usually on par (assuming you're not working in system that has allowed bad programming practices to take place; isn't DRY, etc.).

I've worked with people that copy and pasted half of their code base on a few occasions. Whenever a change needed to be made to a few of the more complicated systems you had to give it to the original 'rockstar' developer because he was the only one who knew every location it was used in the system.

To me it's just a sign of laziness. The effort to introduce design patterns and keep your code DRY is trivial. Just keep scope in mind and don't build systems to anticipate unforeseen features.

I do get the whole MVP we need to get it out the door argument but usually if you hire people who know what they're doing and aren't just an inflated ego (we all know those sorts of developers) it's really not a problem because they'll take the few minutes to think before they implement.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have met experienced programmers that keep code simple enough, and be kind to their future selves when things need to be developed.

Often with inexperienced developers they go through the extremes of overly complicating a solution, or overly simplifying it.

The middle way, I'd say is more architecting enough of the inner workings of the system, and only building out the bare essentials of it, leaving room to grow.

Is this post relevant to MVP's? :)

</comment><comment><USER12> The problem isn't necessarily the MacGyver hacks. It's building stuff on top of them that hurts. If you realize you're making a MacGyver hack, the responsible thing to do is refactor when it causes you pain. If that time is never, congrats, you got away with it. But hacks on top of hacks, in the interest of some management constraint is, in my experience, a recipe for failure.

</comment><comment><USER13> posts like this do not even begin to cover the intricacies and scale of large development projects with make-it-or-break-it business timelines. we're not all building apps.

</comment><comment><USER14> The distinction I like to make is between firefighters and fire marshals. It's not that one is "better" than the other in any general sense.

When your house is on fire, you want the guy with the hoses and axes. To keep the house from catching on fire in the first place, you want the fire marshal to tell you that your kerosene collection might not be a good idea so close to your wood stove.

</comment><comment><USER15> My experience is the MacGyver programmer equates to an inexperienced/unguided (as in no effort to learn how to learn to design code, through school or other means) person, often young and/or arrogant. If something is worth doing it's worth doing right. If you're creating something of worth, you're going to have to revisit any code you write for changes/updates. The MacGyver programmer has no place on any of my teams. Not only do they often create more work than they accomplish, they poison the morale of the rest of the team who have to pick up the slack and clean up after them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll have to do a follow up post to clarify, as this seems to be the common second reading of what I was trying to say. Programmers of all levels can do Macgyver Programming. I was trying to point out that it is a mistake for any programmer's boss to want all code written that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> >Can I tack on an additional feature in a couple of hours? Yes. Will that mean time lost down the road when that feature isn't properly integrated with the rest of the code? Yes. Sound familiar?

The problem is often that whoever is calling the shots isn't a programmer themselves. I often run into the problem of something that LOOKS simple on the outside but is actually really complex being asked for with a "well I mean it can't be that hard" and explaining why it's actually hard to do and integrate would require explaining a whole pile of stuff that would definitely cause glaze-over.

This is why I find working with a technical person and keeping the marketing/business types far far away until I'M satisfied with the thing I've built to be much less rage inducing.

<comment><USER17> "Nothing is hard to the person who doesn't have to do it themselves." Old quote, I have no idea the original source.</comment></comment>


College student in search of freelancing advice - <AUTHOR>

First off, I'm asking HN for advice, not for a job.<p>I'm a college student and I would love to get into the freelancing market for web development but I'm not really sure how/ where to start.  I'm confident in my backend skills and am familiar with a number of languages and frameworks, and I'm always trying to learn more.  So where can I look for opportunities to put my skills to use for pay?  I spend free time working on several personal side projects but I think it would be fun to try and sell myself a little and take on a project for someone else.  Any suggestions?  Thanks!! <comment><USER2> As theunamedguy said, open-source is pretty cool. If you contribute in a significant way to a couple major projects (programming languages, like Python or Ruby, major platforms like Rails, Sinatra, Node, io.js, major libraries like Underscore.js, Angular, Ember, etc.) that will look really good on your resume.

Also, if you keep hacking away at side projects until you get a few successful ones under your belt (like tiny libraries, for animation, forms, markup, the command line, etc.) that will also show that you're competent and know your stuff.

Just wanted to say: Fellow college student here. I'm still working on getting the first real foundation of programming down, but I think we're in a pretty good spot.

</comment><comment><USER3> The necessary condition for a free lance project is connecting with someone with work. They still have to agree to pay though, so it's not a sufficient condition. Really successful free lancers are called consultants. They have a long list of prospects, leads, and clients [current and past]. If this sounds like sales to you, you're correct.

If it doesn't sound like fun, it will be difficult to sustain a free lance business because you will be down to just falling into projects by dumb luck.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER4> There always are non-technical cofounders looking for a gullible programmer to implement their stupid idea for equity-only. Take a couple of those and then work your way up into paying jobs.

You also could try getting an internship at an established company.

</comment><comment><USER5> Open-source is a great place to start, and (I'd think) looks great on a resume.

</comment><comment><USER6> I am looking for developers like you ;)

You should be able to see my email in my profile, why you don't drop me a line so we can talk.</comment>


Apple Confirms 2018 MacBook Pro Has 'Membrane' to 'Prevent Debris from Entering' - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/19/apple-confirms-2018-mbp-keyboard-prevents-debris/ <comment><USER2> It's absurdly douchy of Apple to not to install the membrane on older MacBooks in for keyboard replacement, due to the design flaw. [1]

Fixing a fatal design flaw shouldn't be a unique selling point for the newest models.

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17577478/apple-replace- ma...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17577478/apple-replace-macbook-pro- keyboards-third-gen-components)

<comment><USER3> Agreed. But maybe it doesn't fit. Someone will try to install the new keyboard in an older laptop, and then we'll know...

<comment><USER4> The chassis are virtually the same, the new MBP is just a speed bump. They could design new keyboard to be backwards compatible with the old mounting points and connectors and simply replace old keyboards with the new ones. There is no new ground breaking features between old and new keyboards apart from that membrane. I think they just hope that after replacing old keyboard with the same ones will be enough to push those units trough warranty period and if keyboard fails after warranty then a lot of people will be pushed towards buying whole new unit. The second reason is that during the recall Apple is able to push out old stock of keyboards, if they would use new design keyboards the old stock would have to go to recycling witch is costly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From the article: "A torn membrane will result in a top case replacement."

It seems ridiculous to me that a single torn membrane junks the entire top case, a $500-800 part.

<comment><USER6> Apple products are simply not designed to be serviceable. I have fond (ish) memories of Dell shipping me several $90 keyboard assemblies for my latitude, under warranty, when keys would start acting up; before requesting the third replacement, I noticed there was a bit of aluminum that just needed to get bent back to shape to fix the issues, and saved a bunch of hassle. But I'm not sure if anybody still makes laptops where they've used the space to made things modular enough for economical spare parts.

<comment><USER4> I think Thinkpads are still pretty good at this although even they started to fall behind. I remember the days when Apple was designing hardware in a way that was allowing easy access to internals for a pro user. All those handles, easy access doors and trays sliding out with the internals, good old days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I had an early 2016 that had a keyboard replaced, then a complete replacement under warranty with a new 2017, and I'm sending it away for another keyboard replacement tomorrow. For a work machine, it's pretty ludicrous that I'll have been without my primary computer on 3 separate occasions within 18 months.

The woman in the apple store hinted that if I had to get it replaced more than once, they _might_ just upgrade it to a new one like they did with my 2016 -> 2017.</comment>


Startup Zen: Top 5 Ways to Approach the Downturn - <AUTHOR> http://www.seattle20.com/blog/Startup-Zen-Top-5-Ways-to-Approach-the-Downturn.aspx

<comment><USER2> Top 5 ways to X.

Where X = Anything.

Seriously, this guide has the same points made in any Startup Guide, regardless of current financial environments.

</comment><comment><USER3> People who include "5 ways" in blog titles will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

To me it always screams, "I'm about to reduce a complex topic to a self-help guide."</comment>


Why you should keep your BigCo job - <AUTHOR> http://www.brians-brain.org/career/2012/04/24/hows-the-job/

<comment><USER2> To each his own. The counterpoints to his arguments are easy to make. Inconvenients of working for a big company:

1\. You will work too much with people or processes, as opposed to technology.

2\. You will work on code bases that evolve very slowly. Case in point: NTFS is hardly a "state of the art" filesystem: one of the slowest filesystems for workloads reading/writing many small files, 3 years late in delivering TRIM support, no snapshot capabilities like zfs/btrfs, no checksumming of data, probably the last modern desktop file system to support hard links, etc.

3\. You will only be a very small part of something (perhaps) important and impactful.

4\. It is the easiest way to guarantee you will not be inordinately financially successful (as opposed to being a cofounder or early employee with stock options).</comment>


[Show HN] Google Location History Viewer - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sergiocampama/location_history

<comment><AUTHOR> Added a demo</comment>


Hyundai now offers an Android car, even for current owners - <AUTHOR> http://www.networkworld.com/article/2926498/android/hyundai-now-offers-an-android-car-even-for-current-owners.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Android Auto, a product that up until now was only talked about by industry insiders and journalists, just shipped this week.

Well, it didn't really ship, because it is being released as a software update to the 2015 Hyundai Sonata that existing owners can download. It will also be factory-installed on new models. Android Auto is an attempt to incorporate the convenience and safety of pairing a smartphone to a car without the distraction. It also points out that the car has become a software-driven mobile device, not unlike computers and smartphones.</comment>


High-quality, open-source fonts - <AUTHOR> http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/

<comment><USER2> If you're going to use these for @font-face embedding, Font Squrrel's @font- face generator (<http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator>) is by far the easiest way to get it to work across platforms and browsers.

</comment><comment><USER3> They've got a much nicer selection of fonts since the last time I looked. Well done!

</comment><comment><USER4> I like the look of Sorts Mill Goudy, bags of character (npi)</comment>


Mark Suster Shares Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News - <AUTHOR> http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/06/03/some-tips-to-improve-the-civility-on-hacker-news/ <comment><USER2> Generally speaking, I think the civility on Hacker News is pretty good. I'd be interested to see a widely frequented news site / blog that had a more civil tone on average.

As for his suggestions:

1\. If people have to post under real names then a lot of people with skin in the game won't post. It's as simple as that. I've no doubt the civility on average would improve, but the content -- and the insight from key people -- would go downhill.

2\. Sure, no harm in flagging comments. Though if enough people down vote inappropriate comments that's probably better from a community perspective. One person flagging a comment as inappropriate does send the same message as 30 people down voting a comment does.

3\. Sure.

</comment><comment><USER3> This article is stupid. I use my real name and have no trouble calling people names or using the word "fuck". I'd do it in real life, too.

 _2\. Allow people to flag inappropriate comments - HackerNews only allows you to flag stories that might be inappropriate. So there's no way for me to highlight that I'm being harshly attacked by Brerrabbit and no retribution to his standing on HN for crossing the line._

This feature already exists. But nobody cares that someone made fun of you on a forum; flagging is mostly to prevent spam. Grow a pair and realize that nobody cares what someone says about you on the Internet. Close window, take a deep breath, and do something else. The comment will be buried in obscurity in a few hours.

But not if you blog about it.</comment>


Ulas family is a Kurdish family of 19, five  of whom walk on all fours - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulas_family <comment><AUTHOR> BBC documentary about this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwiz- yhLpT0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwiz-yhLpT0)</comment>


Oracle to Supreme Court: Google Copyright Breach Knocked It Out of Smartphones - <AUTHOR> https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/03/28/1529250/oracle-tells-supreme-court-google-copyright-breach-knocked-it-out-of-smartphone-market <comment><USER2> This appears to be the source link: [https://www.crn.com/news/mobility/oracle- tells-supreme-court...](https://www.crn.com/news/mobility/oracle-tells- supreme-court-google-copyright-breach-knocked-it-out-of-smartphone-market)

Apparently this is just Oracle's filing on why the Supreme Court should decline to hear the appeal, letting the lower court ruling stand. That lower court ruling says that APIs are copyrightable, which would be a rather radical change to what we assumed the legal landscape for software was.

<comment><AUTHOR> _This appears to be the source link_

It is, but it was submitted earlier (by someone else) and went to [dead] status for some reason. Maybe the domain? Not sure. Anyway, I figured linking to the /. discussion was as good ans anything else, if people are actually interested in this.</comment></comment>


An Introduction to ShareChat: Personalising Content for Next Billion Users - <AUTHOR> https://blog.sharechat.com/tech-at-sharechat/ <comment><USER2> This sounds very interesting and challenging, building a platform for non- english language is amazing. I would like to know more about your NLP systems.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure we are in process of publishing more details about our complete ML pipeline. Subscribe to ShareChat blog.</comment></comment>


The ego depletion saga demonstrates the importance of effect sizes - <AUTHOR> https://pigee.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/eyes-wide-shut-or-eyes-wide-open/ <comment><USER2> The real news is that if current trends continue, ego depletion will soon change sign [https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/11/19/break- out-...](https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/11/19/break-out-the- marshmallows-friends-ego-depletion-is-due-to-change-sign).

This will bring about the ego singularity as the positive feedback loop quickly spirals out of control.

<comment><USER3> that's a great link!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I found this helpful: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion)

<comment><USER5> Me too. When I started reading, I realized that my cluelessness is what computer illiterate people probably feel when reading about IT stuff.

But on the whole, I felt that the article was rather trying to state that effect sizes matter, using the ego depletion theory as an example for that. The implications at the end of the article are particularly interesting, or at least, if I were to be more brazen, don't really deny commonly held prejudices on soft sciences...

<comment><USER6> It seems to me that if a psychological effect is so small that you can meta- analyse hundreds of studies and still not be sure whether it exists or not, then it doesn't matter if it does or not.

This isn't physics, where the existence of a tiny effect such as time dilation might nonetheless have significance beyond the observable regime. If a psychological effect is barely measurable then it's of no use to anybody. In particular you don't need to go around taking it into effect in your everyday life.

Compare to the original analogy of a muscle. An actual muscle, if you work it close to its limit, will be weaker one minute later... but if you work it to its limit three times a week for a month it will get stronger. These effect sizes are large, they're consistently observed in ~100% of healthy adults, and you can actually apply them in your life.

<comment><USER7> I am so sick and tired of the muscle analogy (not criticizing you, but the general usage)! Almost always when I see it used, it is to describe a situation where we know almost _nothing_ about the fundamental phenomena! So any so-called similarity is 100 % speculative.

I'd consider "it is like a muscle" a red flag when reading news/science.

<comment><USER8> It's doubly funny, because we actually have not enough of an idea how muscles do what they do... Even so far as immune system may be involved in their growth and strength adaptation.

<comment><USER9> So it's an apt analogy after all.

<comment><USER7> I don't think so, no. Here is why: the basic behavior of muscles are decently well understood. For example why and how they contract and relax, and why they tire. We know of several reasons why muscles might malfunction. What is not well established is how and why muscles become stronger over time.

Compare this to for example ego depletion, and I would say that the analogy is not apt.

<comment><USER9> Yes, true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great article. This hits close to home as a product developer. I'm certain this phenomena happens in "data driven" product decisions. Top of the funnel, we have the numbers to get statistically sound outcomes on A/B tests quickly. I work on a B2B product (high value, low volume sales cycle) and bottom of the funnel or internal sales process experimentation we try our best at is sketchy and hard to do. Experimental design is hard trying to get adequate power.

Any HNers have tips for working in low-data regimes (N=low hundreds)? Is there some magic Bayesian angle I don't know about?

We haven't systemically looked at effect sizes and this article is a good push for me to dig into that.

<comment><USER11> More data = better prediction.

If you have a million users you can get few data per user but lots of data in total.

If you have 100 users you can get a lot of data on each one by direct contact

<comment><USER8> That always depends on the goal.

Locking yourself into 100 early adopters may or may not be prudent.

Main thing to answer is how representative your sample of target users is. The deeper the questions asked, less likely it is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For those who may nbot be familiar with the term: From Wiki:

Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up. When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired, which would be considered a state of ego depletion.

<comment><USER13> I've been following this through the lens of Beeminder (and "Quantified Self") -- taking away the idea that if you know your own willpower better, you can do magic tricks like "only promise what you can deliver on" and "incrementally ramping up your own willpower"

After looking up this concept of Ego Depletion, which seemed like a new idea I haven't heard of before, when I clicked this discussion today... I can see it's basically the same idea. But what I hadn't considered is that the same ideas are able to be used by, eg. advertisers!

While my goal of study in this field is making the most of my own efforts, there is someone out there looking at the same charts, trying to figure out exactly where is the right place to put their advertisement to maximize the effect it has on me, even going as far as to get me to buy something that I wouldn't have bought otherwise.

That's just fascinating. (Alternatively, that's a horrifying idea...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> What is an "experimental theoretician"?

</comment><comment><USER15> Sure fire way to make it to the top of psychology / sociology academia:

1) Go to Ivy school, get your phd, make all the key connections

2) Find something that makes intuitive sense to a highly educated person, and create a test that you claim measures it. Even better if it's really fuzzy, like "ego depletion". For example, call it "mood enhancement". This is if your mood is elevated. The test would ask 20 questions about your current mood, like "Do I feel happy" and "I feel above-normal positive emotions". These 20 questions will use 1 to 5 scale and provide a 100 point outcome.

3) Use your connections to get people in the academic industry to start promoting it and using it. Publish a paper showing what baseline is.

4) Now is your time to strike. Start making experiments that you anticipate would modify someone's mood, like giving them a glass of wine before the test, or having them call their mother. Do control and experimental and see the boost to "mood enhancement".

5) Publish paper after paper on your amazing discoveries of how to boost "mood enhancement". Get others to cite your publications and make a cottage industry of "mood enhancement" research experts. More people, more papers, more funding - and you started it all with the key genesis "mood enhancement" paper!

6) Write books, go on NPR as a guest speaker, give speeches. You have quantified mood and determined how to boost it. "My research shows that a 7.2 percent increase in mood occurs when you call your mother before a big company presentation. It's science!" You are now a public figure and can get tenure and big corporate speech bucks. The world has been forever changed by your mood enhancing research!

<comment><USER16> Despite its length, this comment is a shallow dismissal in the sense that the site guidelines ask you not to post here: " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"

Elongating an extra cynical rant does not count as teaching us something, so please don't post like this to HN. If what you're writing is based on knowledge or experience, please share your knowledge or experience directly. If it isn't, please post elsewhere.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><USER15> I am indeed throwing stones at the entire academic discipline of psychology and sociology. I see your point but I am curious in the counterpoints in replies, given the massive edifice that has been constructed on taxpayer dollars and has been shown to have absolutely no basis in reality with further pre-registered studies. I can link to many articles about this crisis if you are unaware

<comment><USER12> It's impossible to make a counterpoint, because you don't actually make a clear point other than "its all rubbish"

<comment><USER17> "It's all rubbish" is a very clear point, and it might very well be true.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Livestream: Æternity Starfleet Demo Day – Blockchain Project Pitches - <AUTHOR> Starfleet 2 Demo Day will be streamed LIVE on April 11th (today) at 15:00h CEST!
By tuning in, you will be able to watch 8 of the most promising Blockchain startups for 2019 pitching their innovative ideas. Some of those will get an offer for an investment of up to $100k.
Watch the livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqgGkNKd4Xg
You can also vote for any of the projects here: https://aeternity.typeform.com/to/wuHQd6
The Agenda (CEST time):
15:00 - Welcome speech 15:30 - Startups pitches session 1 (4 startups) 16:10 - æternity Blockchain news and update
17:00 - Startups pitches session 2 (4 startups) 19:00 - Announcing the winners 19:30 - Networking
Enjoy! <comment><AUTHOR> The live stream had to be changed due to some technical complications. Here is the new one: [https://youtu.be/X-IXkSGdoyo](https://youtu.be/X-IXkSGdoyo)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you earn a living from scraping in 2018? - <AUTHOR> I have been scraping housing markets. LinkedIn paired with hunter.io for creating mailing lists of companies. Recently I started MITM and Burp to intercept Apps to get direct api access. I created a docker container using different tor endpoints for different ips. I even used ssh proxying to create my own ip network.
To bypass recaptcha I build a container with chrome + puppeteer with anticaptcha preinstalled and pre logged in.
Yet I wonder if it is still worth it. Kinda looking for a mentor or inspiration.
Been a long time HN reader and I wonder what you think? Why scraping is still worth it in 2018? <comment><USER2> Don't be too discouraged by the negative comments. Half of ML, optimization algorithms is pulling in valuable data. Companies with data monopolies could help innovation by sharing it with others more creative than them.

Stick diverse data feeds in a neural network and try to predict earnings for companies, energy demand or something else valuable to know in advance? Build off some of the ideas that Google trends/insights offer?

Always thought someone should put together a 'bittorrent client for scraping' where you can make large distributed queries as long as you service others.

</comment><comment><USER3> I used to do a lot of scraping too, but now most things have a decent api, I rarely need too. I would think that Machine Learning's need for lots of data just creates a larger market for data. Look at releasing an api for all the data you scrape and sell access to that with a focus on ML.

Things I think are worth $$$

Scrape anything difficult to scrape.

Scrape things that change and keep historical data.

Make a generic scraper and generic api.

</comment><comment><USER4> I can think of a few ways (not sure all within TOS), not sure if helpful but still worth a shot (maybe):

Build a site for people wanting to buy a car and know what's the avg asking price of models with the same characteristics.

For example: say I want to buy a Freelander for max 10K. I'll go and check all freelanders and quickly notice that most in that range are from the year 2010 and 2012. Kilometers differ, guarantees, etc.

For me at least, I go into each and mentally account what's important and compare to decide which ones I'll contact.

I could use a service that would weigh all the variables and basically say to me: these 3 offer the best value for the money and within your price range.

</comment><comment>

If you are able to build email lists, I'll just leave this here: you can upload Look A Like Audiences to facebook to advertise to similar people as your email list.

I'm sure you can see the possibilities here. Sorry I don't go into details as I'm mobile.

<comment><USER5> I used to make charts off of a used car buying site, to show price vs. mileage for every car of a particular type and year I was interested in.

The advantage of this, if you pick something common with hundreds of listings, is you could easily derive a relationship between the two variables and see if a given ad was above or below average.

I never had any idea where to begin marketing it to other people though. I suppose if I knew someone who provided a car buying service...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How do you scrape legally? What do you say when asked for sources?

What are the ramifications for ignoring copyright and TOS?

</comment><comment><USER7> > Recently I started MITM and Burp to intercept Apps to get direct api access.

Kind of a party foul in my book. .

<comment><AUTHOR> I understand what you mean. Still causing less traffic ;) and I'm intercepting my own devices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have a related question. How do you earn a living from scraping, in any year? Is that a thing? Was that ever a thing?

Like others have said: earn money by doing things that people want enough to pay you for.

It's like asking "how do you earn a living giving good names to variables in 2018?"

<comment><AUTHOR> Well i think the possibilities can go beyond reach. Flight search engines, many shops are basically curated scraped data. Good names for variables in 2018 -> maybe good names for domains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Are you just tinkering with all of those ideas above? Or where are you finding these ideas?

Like others have said, start with the problem, rather than coming up with solutions first.

Do you have any of the things you listed on github or anything? Curious to checkout a few of them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well tinkering is the right word. I build a GitHub Repo recommender. Which check what users who starred a repo also starred. And I did a data science christmas calendar for 24 days.

My main goal was to use browser automation for arbitrage.

you can find some old projects here in german. [https://franz.media/](https://franz.media/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's technically interesting but I wouldn't spend time of that because of the legal issues (especially in realestate). It's too risky.

As you know that well, you could do the opposite. An antiscraping product.

</comment><comment><USER11> Microsoft rewards. Live off Amazon gift cards

<comment><USER12> For real, or jesting?

<comment><USER13> You can make about $10 per month via Microsoft rewards with a limit of one account per person, five accounts per household. So unless you can survive on $50/month,this would violate the terms of service.

[https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/forum/bing_other- bi...](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/forum/bing_other- bing_users/in-regards-to-bing-rewards-can-i-have-two- accounts/065d57a3-590e-481e-9820-e1a790684710)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Build something for others worth scraping

</comment><comment><USER15> I think his question really is where can I make money from sccrapping in 2018.

<comment><AUTHOR> Upwork looks very cheapy imho

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> You don't earn a living from scraping, you earn a living by solving a problem and providing value.

What problems are your projects solving? Are people were paying (in either effort or money) to solve these problems currently?

<comment><AUTHOR> I give a price prediction for the rent of a house. So the buyer can immediately calculate ROI.

<comment><USER17> _You_ do? Or the sites you're scraping do?

<comment><AUTHOR> Pretty simple I scrape renting objects and buying objects and then use xgboost to predict renting prices of an object. Then I apply the prediction to the buying object. Voila. It's cool because you can see what features drive prices.

<comment><USER18> A pretty cut and dry case of adding value I'd say. This is a very cool thing, thank you for talking about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> @hoeruz please can we talk email email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER20> Google is a scrapper with ads.

<comment><USER21> Scrapper as in 'fighter'? I guess they are in a way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Send me a message firstname.lastname@example.com</comment>


Ask HN: How to market the go-live of a side project? - <AUTHOR> Hi,<p>I was wondering how I should approach publicly speaking about a new side project launch? Show this be just the Product Hunt path or do you guys recommend something else? I want to do it all free if possible. <comment><USER2> I loved the talk by Kat on this topic: [https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6i-how-to-launch- again-a...](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6i-how-to-launch-again-and- again)

Hope you find it useful :) Cheers</comment>


Why Aren't Operating Systems Getting Faster as Fast as Hardware? (1990) [pdf] - vezzy-fnord https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/papers/osfaster.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> It's clearly a combination of bad OS architecture, bad software architecture, and misalignment of hardware + software interests. We've seen improvements on the last two in different ways while OS improvements are hacks piled on hacks piled on original mess. There were attempts to improve performance with purpose-built designs: BeOS demo made desktop scream with performance; QNX smoked microkernels such as Mach; IX did this for dataplanes; mainframes' Channel I/O gives them insane throughput and utilization (90+%); Intel's i432, IBM's System/38, Burroughs B5500, Cavium's Octeon network SOC's, and recent Azul Systems Vega all accelerated critical functions with purpose-built hardware.

So, there's all kinds of ways to improve things at each layer. Many were done and are being done with vast improvements over the competition of the time period. Why do _mainstream_ OS's not improve as _mainstream_ hardware improves? Bad design, bad implementation, and strong desire for backward compatibility that makes fixes hard. Good news is there's a niche market and academic R&D that are always creating clean-slate stuff that does it better.

Admittedly, though, replacing a full OS isn't likely to happen as users reject anything without feature X, app Y, or benchmark Z. The thing is there's a _lot_ of those things in an OS to the point that barrier of entry to building one is insanely high. Even Solaris 10, despite having a hell of a start, cost over $200 million to design, implement, and test. Best shortcut to that I've seen are the Rump kernels. That combined with the clean slate work means we might see a better thing happen incrementally over time.

<comment> vezzy-fnord _Admittedly, though, replacing a full OS isn 't likely to happen as users reject anything without feature X, app Y, or benchmark Z. The thing is there's a lot of those things in an OS to the point that barrier of entry to building one is insanely high._

 _Best shortcut to that I 've seen are the Rump kernels._

Well, not really. Rump kernels are a godsend shortcut (similar to DDE, but much more advanced) for device drivers, but Blub-loving users wanting their apps means you still need to roll a POSIX userland of some sort (the way GNU Hurd does it over Mach is quite interesting, it supports things like processes with multiple uids with all POSIX calls being RPC that delegates to object servers) or since we're talking about a mainstream improvement here, Darwin/XNU and maybe even Windows NT. No escape.

<comment><AUTHOR> The L4 kernels have just been porting Linux, etc to user-mode to run the untrusted apps with calls to underlying API. Might be the best that can be done outside some kind of source to source translation with heuristics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Because programmers

Systems Software Research is Irrelevant (aka utah2000 or utah2k)

        By Rob Pike (Lucent Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill)

"This talk is a polemic that distills the pessimistic side of my feelings about systems research these days. I won't talk much about the optimistic side, since lots of others can do that for me; everyone's excited about the computer industry. I may therefore present a picture somewhat darker than reality. However, I think the situation is genuinely bad and requires action."

[http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/](http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the paper should be titled: Why isn't hardware as fast as advertised?

If memory bandwidth forms the bottleneck, then a faster processor is of little use.

<comment><USER4> Recently learned that reading this article about Cray computers.

[http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/classics- rock/the-80s-super...](http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/classics- rock/the-80s-supercomputer-thats-sitting-in-your-lap/)

Old Cray sustained bandwidth is still higher than recent Core iX cpus, making them 'faster' for actual workload, even though their peak bandwidth is lower. The CPU GFLOPS will be a lot less useful if they don't have data to flop onto. System Design vs Marketing.

<comment><USER5> Not true. If you program like it's the 80's you don't get nearly the same speedups, but some structures like linked lists are basically obsolete or extremely exotic for performance. Even so Intel's out of order execution, branch prediction and caching is very strong.

If you do trivial operations across arrays of linear memory current Intel processors are orders of magnitude faster than naive serial programming. Lots of C code that looks fine can be sped up by 12x by rearranging memory access, and by 50x using SIMD.

<comment><USER6> _> Lots of C code that looks fine can be sped up by 12x by rearranging memory access, and by 50x using SIMD._

Any recommended papers on this topic?

<comment><USER7> Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (3rd ed)

[http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers- Perspecti...](http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspective- Edition/dp/013409266X)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Meh. For > 15 years I have been architecting I/O intensive server products (web caches, wan optimization, filesystems) and unless it is crashing, we mostly don't worry about the operating system. Our performance issues are of our own doing, and are dealt with in user space, as with nearly everything we do.

I thought this paper was kind of silly when it came out, and still think it is.

Also, while I'm piling on Ousterhout, Tcl has got to be the most overrated winner of the ACM system software award.

<comment><USER9> This is a Usenix paper from 1990. The past is a different country...

Tcl plus the Welch book is pretty good. You get purely event driven programs. I've replaced three or four Big Piles O' Java (that didn't work) with Tcl scripts and in short amounts of time. Nothing particularly wrong with Java, but these Piles still existed...

The Welch book is the critical component...

Its nearest neighbor is Python, which is also just fine except that package management then becomes a real chore. It's also easy to forget that Scotty ( the SNMP extensions to Tcl ) was the real winner back in the first dotcom era.

It's probably pretty lousy for web caches, wan optimization and filesystems. It's very good at constructing workstation-based programs to run against embedded systems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Running DOS 6.22 on a SSD on an i7 (can only use 1 proc, but 3-4GHz is pretty fast).

Runs pretty fast IMO. But that's not really the issue. OSes do 1000x more than they ever did in the past, and if you go boot up some mid 80s or 90s machine, you'll see how much faster OSes actually are.

I play around on my old Pentium 133 from time to time, I always forget how long it took to load programs (at the time it seemed blazing fast ~1996).

<comment><USER11> It's funny, I was in a recent discussion in a BBS group on Facebook, and the question came up regarding running older DOS programs.. imho emulation is plenty fast, but some consistently balked at the idea because it was too slow... I remember running some of those programs for only a single user on 386/486 class hardware, and its leaps and bounds faster today with a dozen users, and a bunch of other stuff running on a server.

Now, for the past 5-6 years computers really haven't gotten much faster (CPU or memory-wise)... they've gotten much lower power, and with SSDs becoming more common place that helps a lot. It will be interesting to see how the next few years shapes up.

It would be nice to see a ground up OS effort... I think ChromeOS is a decent attempt, but think it could be better with a slightly cleaner baseline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Because Linus Torvalds actually believes that userspace processes have "infinite stack".

I swear I'm not making this up.

<comment><USER12> Classic Mac OS applications had 32 kb of stack. Desk Accessories had 8. Much of my effort to fixing Working Software's QuickLetter went towards reducing stack consumption. My predecessor had apparently not read the fine manual.

We spent a lot if money to purchase MacCLint but it overflowed the stack by megabytes and so corrupted the heap. The author wasnt receptive of my advice to remove all its recursion, he asserted rcursion is necessary for compiler- like programs.

Recursive algorithms di not require recursive implementations. The pricedure fir converting recursion to iteration is documented by Robert Sedgewick in "Algorithms".

Really you do have a stack but its not the runtime stack.

<comment><USER13> It comes 'a bit' late, but couldn't you increase stack size by calling SetApplLimit before calling MaxApplZone?

And of course, initially, classic Mac OS didn't have 32kB of stack on original hardware. It didn't even have 32kB available to applications.

<comment><USER12> I started at WSI about seven months before System 7 was introduced. At the time the documented limit was 32 kB. Yes applications could call SetApplLimit but Desk Accessories could not, QuickLetter's stack was on top of the application's stack. We had no control over that.

I expect the System always ensured that DAs could have 8 kB of stack on top of whatever the application had; that is, app+DA defaulted to 40 kB.

MacCLint was such a skanky program I don't think it would have done it a whole lot of good to increase the stack.

<comment><USER13> Aha! I didn't get your problems were with a desk accessory.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Uber exec in March: "we shouldn't be hitting things every 15,000 miles" - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/uber-exec-warned-of-rampant-safety-problems-days-before-fatal-crash/ <comment><USER2> It really never ceases to amaze me the level of protections we have in this country for corporations, and the amount of personal insulation that the members of those corporations receive from their actions. If I had hit someone with my car like that I would be sitting in jail right now. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't push things for the sake of science, but the level of willful negligence displayed by tech companies on every front these days is just staggering because of it. It's the _default_ attitude. You see it an absolutely everything, from illegally dumping millions of scooters everywhere in public, to arbitraging the subversion of well established social contracts that in some cases took decades or centuries of literal blood and sweat to work out, like labor rights (Uber) or urban zoning (AirBnB) etc.

<comment><USER3> I honest do not understand your point. What is confusing about corporate vs individual liability? The corporation (Uber) will be held accountable at a civil level and employees can and do get held accountable at criminal levels (and that is also possible at this point). All this "let's frog-march the execs" talk because "if I did X I'd be in jail now" stuff is tiresome. I honestly do not think you understand the law well enough. Perhaps you should be upset over the enforcement of the law (which has been repeatedly and intentionally gutted in multiple areas of regulation by a major political party in the US). But that is a social and cultural problem, not a problem with the legal entity of a corporation.

<comment><USER4> Potato Potato.

The law is written such that the corporations can do more with less accountability than people.

The law is enforced such that the corporations can do more with less accountability than people.

It seems like a very small difference at this point.

It just seems that corporations can commit crimes with far less disincentives (i.e. punishments) than people.

<comment><USER5> Actually, I'd add that this is more related to the importance of the individual or company as a node in the country's economic network.

The larger the impact on the network in terms of either magnitude or volume of souls owned, the greater the ability to get away with actions that forward individual gain over general good.

Shareholders and directors of many corporations do get prosecuted.

The disincentive for the government is always going to be the effect of removing an important node from a network. Especially when the government and people gain from the stability of the network, even if certain negatives happen.

Not to say the way we treat corporations isn't really horrible. It is. Adam Smith would roll in his grave if he knew we were justifying our corporatocracy on his writings.

I'm simply pointing out that large nodes are always treated differently because it is logical to do so. If 3 people do something and you take them out, the economy keeps up exactly the same.

But take out the head of a company that owns... er... hires 100,000 souls? Or maybe the company only hires 300 souls, but they are developing nuclear bombs, or maybe developing a new gene editing tech, or green fuel? Then we have magnitude instead of volume. You got yourself political backlash if you remove these nodes.

<comment><USER6> that's called cowardice and is used as justification all the time, but that doesn't make it right or even rational. in fact, there is no reason to believe the economy won't be stronger through the failure of corporations and holding directors and exectives accountable.

proponents of the banking bailout used this same rationale, that allowing big banks to fail would lead to economic collapse, but that was only the rationale, not the reason for that course of action. bernanke, paulson & geithner were instead worried about blowback to their careers and economic futures, because it would be their friends in high places taking the hit.

if some large banks had failed, most certainly other economic actors would have swooped in to pick up the pieces and resume business. these were lucrative, real assets after all. the danger was not in economic collapse, but in how long the rebound would take, and more pointedly, the effect on bernanke and friends' careers.

we retard progress and innovation if we don't hold institutions accountable and allow them to fail. bankruptcy is the mechanism we use to allow instutions (and people) to bounce back quickly from failure, so they can use their learnings to try another tactic.

<comment><USER5> My comment was on why governments don't intervene as quickly when detecting bad behavior from important nodes. This applies to the US as to the other countries. I seem to remember a quote from some Russian book I read that went along the lines of "we crucify small thieves and celebrate the big ones".

Your comment on the bailout is something I agree with. Using a non- intervention consideration to justify intervention... has nothing to do with the validity of the non-intervention consideration.

I find it a very odd tangent to use as a reply, since it sounds like a rebuttal but doesn't address the point. It does add to it, in a way, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sounds like they're "moving fast and breaking things"

<comment><USER8> in their case it is "moving fast and killing people"

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Miller also suggested that Uber might want to drastically scale back its > testing program. "I suspect an 85% reduction in fleet size wouldn't slow > development," he wrote.

The vehicles create a firehose of data for the engineers/devs to deal with when there's large fleets. Things are ignored, and you have to dedicate more and more time to create good tools to filter through anomalies, incidents, and disengagements. With a smaller fleet, they'd see less problems come up but perhaps be able to diagnose and act on more of them.

</comment><comment><USER10> And that is going to put a crimp in their IPO plans.

This sort of corporate malfeasance, pursuit of product in the face of a clear and present danger to the public, is the sort of thing plaintiff attorneys use to drain sad corporations of all their capital to operate.

</comment><comment><USER11> Surely this is corporate manslaughter at the very least? Systematically ignoring such dangerous problems should result in jail time for someone.

<comment><USER12> Why ? There is no such legal concept. Manslaughter is criminal law and criminal law _only_ applies to people.

In other words, either that woman watching hulu behind the wheel is responsible, or perhaps some other employee, but a person is.

The corporation is a legal fiction that was not driving any car for the same reason the tooth fairy wasn't riding a pink unicorn next to it.

<comment><USER13> Citizens United gave them the constitutional right of free speech granted to citizens. The problem is that we let the corporations have it both ways. There are no easy answers but if I am a corporation of 1 person and commit manslaughter do you think it would be handled the same as Uber?

<comment><USER12> That's an edge case. I would say no, because 1 person companies are not treated the same.

Generally to get this sort of treatment it needs to be an employee that fucks up (meaning not the owner) and the company needs to guarantee it'll take civil responsibility (meaning pay up damages).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've told so many people that I don't use Uber and why. It just goes in one ear, right out the other. Consumer society in the US has no sense of culpability. I don't mean that in the sense that I'm somehow superior. I'm involved in this too. "business as usual" has so much momentum.

It'd help if lawmakers backed up educated advocates, but the lawmakers are at this point bought by lobbies.

<comment><USER15> I think there's a sense of powerlessness in general. Nothing actually represents the people. It's a race to the bottom.

I vote with my wallet as well, but I don't think the majority of people even consider that.

Even if I'm not making a difference, at least I feel better about what I'm doing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I expect that his recommendations are a good indication of how seriously Waymo takes safety.

</comment><comment><USER17> That is why you don't run tests in a production environment

</comment><comment><USER18> What is the average number of miles per accident for humans? Is it less than 15000? If yes, this is still good.

<comment><USER19> The average driver drives like 13,500 miles a year [1].

The average driver files a claim for collision once every 17.9 years [2].

That makes human drivers 16 times safer than Uber self-driving cars. This is concerning for people who think self-driving cars are right around the corner! Improved algorithms would need to avoid 94% of the collisions that self- driving cars currently get into in order to have the same failure rate as humans.

[1] [https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm)

[2] [https://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2011/07/27/how- man...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2011/07/27/how-many-times- will-you-crash-your-car/#728bbe864e62)

<comment><USER20> this is the thing about most of what we're doing with machine learning. It gets exponentially harder the closer you get to 100%; most of the things we use machine learning for where it works pretty well, 99% is really pretty great. 99% won't cut it for self-driving cars.

Which isn't to say that self driving cars won't get there, just that the fact that it looks like we are almost there doesn't mean as much as you'd think; we still have the really hard bits in front of us.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Slimbox – a simple tool to declutter your inbox in seconds - <AUTHOR> http://slimboxapp.com <comment><USER2> So, in the wake of Edison and all the other e-mail inbox apps that mine your messages for information they can sell to anyone who wants to pay them, how do you differentiate yourselves and ensure that your systems can't be abused in the same way?

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally fair question - here's how Slimbox is different from other 3rd-party email services:

TL;DR – [https://www.slimboxapp.com/privacy- policy](https://www.slimboxapp.com/privacy-policy) (seriously, it's actually an enjoyable read in plain English)

1\. Slimbox is verified to be in strict compliance with Google's User Data Policy \- Edison and other apps are literally what caused Google to change their Gmail user data policy. This means that the use of user data is limited in ways that does not allow monetization. See the Limited Use section here to get a sense of how strict everything is now: [https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user- data-p...](https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data- policy#additional-requirements-for-specific-api-scopes)

2\. Slimbox is _NOT_ in the data business \- Our business model is a simple subscription service ($1 per month). Slimbox does not monetize user data in any way and does not allow ads of any kind. Even before Google's policy revisions, we were focused on delivering a service that we would want to use: one that doesn't operate on a surveillance capitalism business model.

3\. Slimbox requires the absolute minimal data to operate \- When you sign in with Google, Slimbox gets your name and email address to send your daily summary and log you in to the app (where you can manage your senders, set your timezone, etc). The only other information stored in our database (encrypted) is a list of clutter email senders - this is essentially a list of filters that Slimbox has created for you in a single click. This information never leaves the database, and is strictly limited in access.

4\. Slimbox does not have the capability to access the content of your email. \- Slimbox never stores or takes possession of your emails on our servers to operate. This keeps user cost as low as possible, ensures there is never a data-leak from our side, and also means that if Slimbox is down for any reason, you continue to have access to your email as you would normally.

Lastly, we are doing everything we can possible to put user trust first because that's what we expect from _any_ service that requests access to our inbox. We don't even use Google Analytics, and there are zero trackers on our site. Even our Privacy Policy is written in plain English.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice, I love the simplicity. When you say Google certified, did you guys go through the whole $50k verification? Would love to hear how that went.

I'm working on an inbox service that makes it easy to have integrations (think Slack superpowers). Would love to see how we could integrate Slimbox and offer it to our users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We've really tried to keep Slimbox simple in every way. And yes, we went through Google's verification process and it was pretty rigorous.

Because Slimbox is a relatively simple application, we came in under $50k, but laying out 5-figures pre-revenue was a tough pill to swallow. It's certainly a great test of how much you believe in what you're making – we were fortunate to have strong validation from early testers.

The founder of a tool called GMass documented an experience of the verification process that felt similar to ours that you might find useful: [https://www.gmass.co/blog/live-updates-google-oauth- verifica...](https://www.gmass.co/blog/live-updates-google-oauth-verification- security/)

Feel free to reach out as you make progress on your inbox service.

<comment><USER3> Wonderful. Really appreciate the insight. What's the best way to reach you? The contact on Slimbox ok?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that's great. Just mention HN and we can make the link.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Really good idea. I'll be trying slimbox for sure.

Love the simplicity and that you priced it reasonably as opposed to everyone else who seemingly goes 5/m or 9/m .

<comment><AUTHOR> Appreciate the comment – we're hopeful that others see the price point as fair and also accessible.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I'm flying to SFO to interview 2 companies, who should cover expense? - <AUTHOR>

I'm located out of the U.S. and am flying into SFO for engineer job interview, 1 company has already promised to cover expense, but I also want to interview another company (who is also willing to cover if required) in the same visit.<p>What is the general practice of flight covering? Shall I ask the 2 companies to split the expense? Or just ask 1 company to cover flight? Thinking it might just be unfair for the one covers the whole flight. <comment><USER2> It's SFO after all so be entrepreneurial, have them _both_ cover all expenses.

</comment><comment><USER3> I would have them split the expenses. Seems like the fair thing to do.

<comment><USER4> I agree. Split the expenses with whatever seems logical.

Suppose your trip for Company A would be a flight in, hotel for the evening, interview day, then hotel for the next evening (you fly out the next morning). If you want to add another night, that would be paid by company B, and company B would cover food and expenses for that day.

If halfsies seems easiest and both companies are fine with it, then that just makes the receipt tracking easier.</comment></comment>


Popular Notepad++ text editor banned in China - <AUTHOR> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/popular-notepad-plus-plus-text-editor-banned-in-china/ <comment><USER2> 'please don't ban our data sniffing social media apps but we'll ban any piece of software by anyone we deem necessary for political differences'. We also create virtual firewalls.</comment>


Movie and TV recommendations using doc2vec - <AUTHOR> http://www.bookspace.co/search/?query_book=&plus=political+campaign&minus= <comment><AUTHOR> Here's the training data and code for training doc2vec embedding on a corpus of imdb reviews.

[https://github.com/jeradf/bookspace/blob/master/example/doc2...](https://github.com/jeradf/bookspace/blob/master/example/doc2vec_moviespace.ipynb)</comment>