Doctors Without Borders doesn't take money from EU anymore - <AUTHOR> http://www.msf.org/en/article/20160617-eu-states%E2%80%99-dangerous-approach-migration-places-asylum-jeopardy-worldwide <comment><USER2> Why is the EU the only responsible for refugees? Why not other states? Why not Russia, the Gulf states, Japan or the United States? It is getting tiring the bashing against the EU.

The EU is getting refugees at the rate it deems convenient, if some other state is worried about the situation in Syria please take refugees, but please stop labeling the EU as evil.

<comment><USER3> The EU is the closet first world region. And they are signers to the convention.

Arab world is helping...havent you heard about the huge refugee camps in Jordan?

<comment><USER2> Being close is no excuse in this globalized world. Also to take refugees there is no need to be a first world country. I should have included China in my previous list.

Completely true, but Jordan is not the only Arab country able to help.

<comment><USER3> There is also the economic realism that labor will naturally move to where it thinks it can be best off. China is relatively over-populated.

Closeness is an important factor when you realize that there are lots of refugees and that their wealth has been wiped out by war. So while the refugees might have enough money to hike or get a boat or plane ticket, they surely can't afford to fly across the world. And no one should be forced to pay to fly them, either. All they want is the opportunity to build a better life for themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Uh, regardless of your stance on the specific topic (refugee handling), isn't this simply a tactical mistake?

Let's say the EU is your enemy. They offer you money. Is it tactically smarter to flatly refuse the money (you are poorer, your enemy is marginally richer, nothing has changed) or rather to accept the money and then use it to fight the donor (you are richer, your enemy is marginally poorer and you are effectively turning its resources against itself)?

It feels a lot like cutting your own nose to spite the wife.

<comment><USER5> Say you are a non-profit that helps drug addicts, should you take money from drug dealers?

<comment><USER6> If you can find a drug dealer dumb enough to give you money, it would be irresponsible to not take it. That said, your situation has practically nothing in common with MSF's.

<comment><USER5> Untrue. Drug dealers often fund rehabilitation groups; good way to find customers, double profits, identify rats, etc. True rehab centers would never take funds from a dealer, and would be happy to go out of business because there were no more addicts in the world.

Refugees in the EU would not need Doctors Without Borders; in Turkey, refugees will need Doctors Without Borders.

If the EU wants to help Doctors Without Borders' mission, then it needs to take refugees and help them, not make more refugees Doctors Without Borders to help.

<comment><USER6> I didn't realise you meant "take money and also give them your client list in return". If you're going to add strings like that to your question, the answer will obviously be no.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It is very inefficient to bring people to Germany and other western countries in order to help them. We could help one person in Germany, or another 10 people in Turkey for the same money.

Most people coming to Europe are economic migrantw, not from countries affected by war. Refugees who can not afford $4000 for transport are left without help.

It all started when Turkey asked for humanitarian aid. Merkel would not send money, but open invitation. It is all one big virtue signaling, most people do not really care about some people in Africa or Asia.

<comment><USER8> > Most people coming to Europe are economic migrantw, not from countries > affected by war.

Where do you get this information.

If you talk about asylum seekers (The majority of the current inbound traffic), you can look up the numbers yourself they are published as datasets by the UNHCR [1]

Looking at the top 5 origin states of asylum seekers for 2015 and 2016 reveals:

Syrian Arab Rep. 30.5% Afghanistan 18.1% Iraq 11.9% Serbia and Kosovo 3.5% Pakistan 2.9%

So more then 60% of the 2.7M asylum seekers are from Syria, Afganistan or Iraq all of which are currently in a state of conflict.

[1] [http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/asylum_seekers_monthly](http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/asylum_seekers_monthly)

<comment><USER9> This data is incomplete. For Germany it says that they had 440.000 asylum applications in 2015 even though Merkel herself said that they took in over a million in 2015.

Apparently it was 1.1 million registered refugees for Germany alone in 2015. Of these only 476.649 submitted a formal asylum request. Edit: And you can bet that there's a large number of migrants that didn't even register, the minister of interior in Germany even said that there's an issue with a large number of refugees of whom no one knows who they are, where they are and what they are doing here.

Who knows what the rest of them is doing here if they do not even bother to submit an asylum request.

So please don't tell me how 60% of asylum seekers are real refugees, the majority doesn't even try because they are probably smart enough to know that there's no chance that they'll be accepted.

Source: [http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/fluechtlingskrise/deutsch...](http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/fluechtlingskrise/deutschland-476-649-asylantraege- im-jahr-2015-14000143.html) (German, sorry - but this is one of the largest pro government online media)

<comment><USER8> I admit that these numbers do not include people who did not apply for asylum.

But in your own source theres a chart showing the distribution of all 1.0919M registered entries.

39.2% Syrian 14.1% Afganistan 11.1% Irak

I'd say even though not all of the 1.1M register as asylum seekers (or have not yet registered). Their distribution is quite similar to that of the people who registered.

<comment><USER9> Most applicants from Afghanistan are not granted asylum at the moment. The problem is that Afghanistan isn't willing to take them back.

Also it isn't like everyone from Iraq is given asylum.

Oh and btw - NGOs in Europe are actively teaching prospective asylum seekers to say they are from Syria. Most of them do not even speak Arabic.

Edit: reply to comment below:

Please see this comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=11928413](https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=11928413)

"More than half of those fleeing to Europe from the Middle East and Africa are economic migrants and not asylum seekers fleeing the horrors of war in Iraq or Syria, according to first vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.

<comment><USER8> In the Frontex Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis 2016 Frontex investigated Nationality swapping and they found:

"In 2015, 173 042 migrants who claimed Syrian nationality were screened; of which 85.8% were assumed by screeners to be Syrian nationals. As regards the rest, 8.6% were assumed to be Iraqi; 2.5% Palestinian, 1% Moroccan, and 2.1% were assumed to be of other nationality."

So yes, 14.2% of the people who claimed to be from Syria really originated somewhere else. But, if we again sum up those who come from a country who is currently in a state of conflict (I included Palestine), we gain 97%.

Edit: Also, you should note that people are screened again during the process of applying for asylum. So I guess the number of wrongly assigned nationalities is neglectable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A lot of the rapid shift in migration policy has been caused by the increasing prevalence of the view that a lot of refugees will never fit into "polite society". Reference the various sexual assaults across European countries by roving gangs of young men used to very different cultural mores who aren't assimilating culturally.

If the choice comes down to protecting refugees or protecting your own society and the more vulnerable people within it, and that's what it's looking like to a lot of people, then your choice becomes obvious.

<comment><USER11> The vast majority of refugees aren't committing sexual assault. If you care about reducing sexual assault, supporting domestic violence shelters and education (e.g. programs like [http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/prevent...](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/prevention.html)) would be much more effective than reducing immigration. Most sexual assault occurs between people who already know one another, not random foreign strangers.

<comment><USER12> No, but the attitudes of males from Islamic culture towards women tend to be very much at odds with what we expect in modern Western society. This is a burgeoning problem as we admit more refugees from Islamic states. See for example [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35353310](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35353310)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I do not wish harm for any innocent people. If they want they can get what we have in their own country, they need to make that possible though, if needed with our help. (I think there should be more focus on taking care of refugees and the like in the region... or at least more in countries that support their culture) Only when really necessary we need to take refugees into europe for protection, usually those are political refugees. We make something good for our children and we -have- to share it with the whole world in our house?

<comment> k-mcgrady >> "We make something good for our children and we -have- to share it with the whole world in our house?"

You mean you got lucky to be born somewhere that isn't currently at war and now you feel entitled to what you were born into?

<comment><USER13> Yes, because it is my heritage. My family history made it happen, and many families around us. I am a child of my mother and not a random baby thrown on a random spot on earth, I carry the burden of maintaining or improving the quality of life for my kids. \- Doesn't mean that I do not wish that everyone in this world can have what I have, and I support helping others. \- There are ways to come here and join our culture, enrich yourself etc. It does require work though, and if you are not willing to do that then what are you really doing for yourself?

<comment> k-mcgrady And the only reason you are part of that family is luck. A Syrian refugee didn't choose to be born in Syria at a time when they would have to face civil war at some stage in their life. I think if the tables were turned are you had to flee to Syria your opinion would be vastly different.

<comment><USER14> Now, China is not in war, but, unluckily, as a Chinese, I have a lower living standard than a European, do I automatically get a chance to be let in Europe and enjoy whatever benefit the Europeans have? Since when has economics stopped working in Euroupe?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> South Africa has received a huge influx of refugees overs the years from Zimbabwe, Mozambique & Nigeria. Even though the "people" have protested this and asked for the foreigners to be deported (Legal/Illegal) the government has not done that to humans. How a 3rd (2nd?) world country is able to accommodate people of such numbers while 1st world countries in Europe complain is beyond me.

<comment><USER16> So the government should ignore the concerns and wishes of the people (or "people" as you refer to them), because they know what is just better than anyone. When, for instance, the government decides to engage in war despite lacking public support, you would of course approve of that. Or should they only concern themselves with democratic principles when _you_ disagree with their decision?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > sending a message that caring for people forced from their homes is optional

So, they're implying that it's mandatory? How come? Admitting foreign citizens, spending resources on them sounds like a definition of charity — how charity can not be optional?

<comment><USER18> Because the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the EU countries are signatory, gives special status to refugees. This status is not the same as simply "admitting foreign citizens."

For example:

> The Convention further stipulates that, subject to specific exceptions, > refugees should not be penalized for their illegal entry or stay. This > recognizes that the seeking of asylum can require refugees to breach > immigration rules.

<comment><USER19> I read that most refugees pouring into the EU are there for economical reasons, and states argue that as such they don't have to admit them. Cannot find that article right now.

<comment><USER18> "Many" as in absolute values like "more than 1,000"? I can believe that.

Or "many" as in relative values like "more than 30%"? I have difficulties believing that. If so, it's amazing how coincidental the timing is between the start of the ongoing civil war in Syria and the start of the refugee crisis.

It's also amazing how the UN "has identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance, of which 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria, and over 4.8 million are refugees outside of Syria." \- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_W...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War) . Are the ones you mentioned in addition to those numbers?

<comment><USER20> Those number seem unbelievably high, given there are less than 18 million Syrians total.

<comment><USER18> Umm, that's why there's a crisis.

Do you think the numbers are wrong? Why, and by how much do you think they are wrong?

<comment><USER20> It's not credible that 75% of Syrians have left the country.

<comment><USER18> They haven't. The quote I gave is the total displaced population, "... of which 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria, and over 4.8 million are refugees outside of Syria."

Only 5 million/18 million = 28% of the population has left the country.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> So by the same logic they won't be taking money from the US, Australia and so on?

</comment><comment><USER9> What is constantly ignored by the media is the fact that most people coming to the EU illegally at the moment are not refugees but migrants that come because their countries economy is in bad shape.

For example in Austria only about 20% of refugees are given asylum status, the others are simply found to be illegal immigrants.

Though I can understand the motivation for these people to come we can't take in everyone from Africa or the Middle East that would like to come.

On top of that their cultural values are incompatible with ours and this leads to major issues between immigrants and the local population.

That's why I really don't care for this kind of activism by Doctors without Borders. We have borders and laws that should be enforced, our politicians can't just ignore our laws because they personally don't like them or have a different view.

EDIT: Sorry I can't reply to thesimon below in a comment, that's why I'll put my reply in here:

See my comment regarding Germany: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11928358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11928358)

This data again doesn't reflect the situation. It says that we had 20.000 submitted asylum requests in 2015, even though we had 90.000 registered refugees (who didn't formally seek asylum)

Everyone is free to guess why the other 70.000 did not submit an asylum request.

<comment><USER22> >For example in Austria only about 20% of refugees are given asylum status, the others are simply found to be illegal immigrants.

[citation needed]

Official stats of May [0] saying 75% of the applications for asylum are granted.

[0]: [http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_Asylwesen/statistik/files/2016/...](http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_Asylwesen/statistik/files/2016/Asylstatistik_Mai_2016.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> They're not called refugees over here - they're "migrants". The press and our governments insist that most of them are economic migrants, here to make a quick buck, take your job, claim your benefits, rape your wife and daughter. The rest are apparently IS fighters.

In the uk we now have people so filled with hate and fear of immigration that they're murdering politicians. Many will argue that this isn't the case, mostly those who believe the above paragraph - I don't know but "death to traitors, freedom for Britain" when shooting an mp who is pro migrant rights _probably_ means something.

If there's a future to look back from, this period will be looked upon with shame.

Or more likely just written out of history, and anyone who talks about it is called a revisionist or terror apologist.

<comment><USER24> Many people have legitimate concerns over mass migration. It's not all a bunch of xenophobes.

<comment><USER23> What are those legitimate concerns? Income depression? Housing scarcity? Migration hasn't done that, decades of broken robber-baron policy has.

<comment><USER25> Well, concern for the atheists is influx of deeply religious and conservative people. Do you know what happens to atheists in societies where many of people are coming from? Same for LGBT, woman rights etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Didn't the US attack a MSF hospital in Afghanistan a couple of months ago?

Are they still taking US money?

</comment><comment><USER27> I'm fully in favour of MSF's stance, asylum seekers must have their rights recognised. These people are fleeing war and, adding to be forced to remain in overcrowded camps in dire conditions, they're even deprived of legal representation. It's a country's duty to receive refugees, according to the 1951 Refugee Convention and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[1]. EU's action gives the precedence for other states to refuse refugees access to their own safety.

[1] - [http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf](http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf)

<comment><USER28> It's not that simple.

Fleeing to a nearby country is one thing.

Being able to move all the way to Germany, Denmark or Sweden isn't exactly being fleeing war anymore.

The irony is that it's those with most money who can afford to move the furthest away from the refugee camps and many of those who do are men, leaving their family behind hoping to be able to get them to the country they end up in

60% according to some are migrants not refugees.

The problem is that the outer borders doesn't work and so once you are inside it's very easy to move around as there have been practically no border control inside the EU.

This is changing now.

<comment><USER23> You buy the propaganda line then? Are the other 40% IS in your book?

By your argument we should just let them all sleep in a ditch next to the border of the country they fled, because that's good enough? That is more or less what is happening now.

Tell me. If Britain were engaged in a shooting war, would you consider the Isle of Man safe? Or would you go further?

<comment><USER29> What's your take on the camps in France [0] filled with migrants trying to get to Britain? Which wars in France are they fleeing?

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

<comment><USER23> People are trying to flee to somewhere familiar, be it because of language or brand presence. Additionally, many report they want to join family (cousins etc) already in the uk through legal means. I'm sure there are charlatans among them - but we are enacting collective punishment currently, which was largely abolished centuries ago.

What's your take on the 3000 refugee a year limit the uk is working to? (20,000 by 2020)

<comment><USER28> Somewhere familiar? How is Denmark or Sweden or Germany familiar to Syria?

If you flee because of war you don't care where you go, you just want to get away from the war. Moving to Denmark or UK or Sweden is a completely different operation.

Keep in mind that most people are left in the refugee camps near the conflict. For every person we have to take into our welfare system we are basically not able to provide for 10 if not hundreds of others in the actual area of the conflict.

The idea with being an actual refugee is that you are supposed to go back once the conflict is over and rebuild your own country. Thats not the plan of those who move so far away.

You are trying to turn something with a lot of gray areas into som black/white moral thing were the only right thing to do is help.

Sweden said just come everyone everyone warned them. Now they have closed the borders and is sending 80.000 back.

This is because they didn't realize that Denmark did which is you can't just take people in large quantity with such different cultures without it undermining the country they are migrating to.

It's easy to play the good person when you don't have responsibility for a country.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I support Doctors Without Borders choice and strongly disagree with how the EU is dealing the issue; and for that matter not dealing with the related issues.

Most natural way of dealing with the issue is to allow those legally escaping a country to seek asylum wherever they're able to do so and/or to them feels like the best place to go.

<comment> k-mcgrady >> "Most natural way of dealing with the issue is to allow those legally escaping a country to seek asylum wherever they're able to do so and/or to them feels like the best place to go."

The problem with that is that the first countries they tend to arrive in are poorer European countries that don't have the necessary resources to process them. Allowing them to choose which country they want to go to will end up burdening the richer European countries as they will undoubtedly be the final destination for most migrants.

I disagree with how it's being handled too but I don't think your solution would work.

I think if we had some sort of EU organisation that works in border countries and deals with processing and then distributes migrants fairly throughout the continent it would be best. Processing takes so long though that it's still going to either burden border countries or refugees will be kept in detention centres throughout processing which is unethical in my view.

<comment><USER30> > Allowing them to choose which country they want to go to will end up > burdening the richer European countries as they will undoubtedly be the > final destination for most migrants.

Fortunately those richer countries are better equipped to handle that burden (because they _are_ rich).

This is a complex problem and I really do not have any 5 minute solutions (I wish), but processing taking long seems to me a problem that is mostly caused by the receiving countries, not by the refugees.

<comment> k-mcgrady >> "Fortunately those richer countries are better equipped to handle that burden (because they are rich)."

I agree, but if you let people choose where they want to go and they mostly pick one of the rich countries it'll become unsustainable for them too which is why I think an even spread across the EU with countries taking in a share based on their wealth would work best.

>> "processing taking long seems to me a problem that is mostly caused by the receiving countries, not by the refugees."

True, I think the bureaucracy around it is a big issue. Refugees are probably lacking in a lot of documentation though (for obvious reasons) which can't help. That seems like something that should be common and obvious enough to authorities though that they can find other ways to verify identity etc.

<comment><USER5> You're missing the point of how refugees naturally select the country that's best able to deal with the issue.

Germany has an army, Greece does not. Turkey had an army, but the outcome of Turkey using it's army to end the war is not the one the refugees want. Point is to make refugees a natural point of pain as quickly as possible so that those impacted deal with the issue, not allow it to go on and on and on.

Even worse, if allowing countries to send refugees for a fee to another country becomes a thing, it might quickly turn into sending any unwanted individuals to a secured location in another country; which clearly is a horrible solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> You know all the empty cities that China has built to keep people busy and their economy from collapsing?

I keep thinking the EU and middle-eastern countries should pay China to house immigrants there.

Better than a horrible refuge camp?

</comment><comment><USER32> This is a perfect example of the rise of our civil society. Awesome!!

</comment><comment><USER33> And yet MSF was founded in France.

Oh the irony. It hurts.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I become a Software Developer? - <AUTHOR> I'm 24 Y/O and have no experience with developing software whatsoever. I graduated High School 7 years ago and didn't have a plan in mind for the future. Recently I've realized how much time has passed and how little I've done to improve my situation. 5 years ago I worked as an intern doing QA Testing at some startup and it was a fantastic experience which opened my eyes to a world that I knew nothing about. But since then I haven't made any moves towards becoming a part of that world.
I honestly feel quite disgusted with myself for not challenging myself mentally, for not having a career at this point in my life and not having money. I guess being unemployed for the last 6 months has really given me time to reflect on myself. I have a plan in mind, which basically consists of throwing myself into programming for however long it takes until I become proficient in whatever language(s) I choose and then crafting a portfolio. But my dream is to build something of significance that will not only change my life, but the lives of others around me as well. However I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not good enough and that it's too late, especially when I read stories of people younger than me kicking butt and taking names. Math was never my strongest subject and if I had to go to college, there's a good chance that I'd be placed in remedial classes, just to give you a picture of where I currently stand. But I realize that the internet provides me with nearly unlimited resources to improve myself and achieve my dream. My father and I fell out recently so I'm finally on my own, which is a good thing because now I really have an incentive to go all out, so to speak. I'm lost and would like some guidance. I lurked for 2 years or so and decided to create an account today to post. I'd like to hear your story of how you got into Software Development and your struggles along the way. I'd also like some feedback on the best way to go about making my dream a reality. <comment><USER2> To be frank with you, start working, hard. This is going to be your largest huddle. When you read this message, what were you doing? On Facebook (or some other social media)? On some game? Watching your giant Netflix queue? I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding. And if it was, then good! You're already on your way.

I honestly don't mean any of that to be mocking. I am just saying, a lot of people fail because of distractions from their primary goal. So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up? Are you willing to block out all of those distractions so you can start to learn a new skill? Only you can decide that and only you can make yourself fail if you don't.

Next, start building something. Honestly, you don't need to understand math at some high level to build great software applications. Go pick something and build it. Look at Jennifer Dewalt ([http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/](http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/)). She set out to make one website per day for 180 days and blog about it. Imagine the amount of dedication to complete such a task. And look at how much she learned in that time! Just pick things are build them. Learn. Grow. Start right now.

<comment><AUTHOR> >I don't know what it was but it probably wasn't coding.

You're right, I wasn't coding.

I waste a lot of time on the internet not being productive, so I'll change this. I signed up for a codecademy account recently, so I'll challenge myself by doing some exercises there daily.

>So now you have to ask yourself, what are you willing to give up?

I think I'm finally ready to give up all of my distractions. I'm getting sick of not making any progress.

>Look at Jennifer Dewalt ([http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/](http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/)).

This is great. I bookmarked her website and I'll check out her work. Maybe I'll do something similar once I feel capable enough to build something.

>To be frank with you, start working, hard.

>Learn. Grow. Start right now.

Thank you :)

<comment><USER3> go here [http://www.freecodecamp.com/](http://www.freecodecamp.com/). if you stick through it you'll learn enough to get a job. Also it's not a cakewalk. goodluck

<comment><AUTHOR> This looks pretty neat. I'll check it out! Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is great that you have a goal and a direction, but you are pinning your hopes on something that you do not know very much about and you may not even like. It is easy to read about coding on the internet and think it is the answer: that you are going to lock yourself in a room for 6 months and when you come out your career and life will be sorted. This is a delusion, a common delusion many of us have to one degree or another. I switched careers to become a software developer and I'm already trying to figure out how to get to the next step. There was another post earlier today about a career switch and the poster seemed to be blaming it on the company. Becoming a software developer per se is not the answer. You need to focus on becoming a well- rounded person, part of which may involve becoming a software developer.

Being a dev involves a lot more than just coding; communication, organization, teamwork, etc. all go into development. These are skills that are harder to pick up from the internet than coding. It is for these reasons that I would recommend that you consider going to school as a good way to start your career. School is a clear cut path in a situation like yours where you are going from basically no experience to starting a career.

School is not the only way, but I personally would bet on it as the better outcome. Do not let math be a deterrent. You can learn it. Check out Barbara Oakley's book A Mind for Numbers and read Lockhart's Lament. It does not have to be an impediment. Finally, as you mentioned there are a lot of resources online. MIT Open courseware has a lot of awesome resources, especially the intro to programming with Python. Coursera is also obviously awesome. But if this career were as easy as spend 6 months or a year studying and come out making $100K then everyone would be doing it. You need a more realistic plan.

So you have a general direction: software development. Now make some short- term and long-term plans about how to lead a good life and do what you're interested in along the way.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the insightful comment. I feel that a dose of realism is always helpful, especially when it comes to something as important as a career.

You're right that I don't know much about development and that I might not like it.

I grew up on the internet, from the days of AOL chatrooms during the 90s to various other websites and message boards. I learned how to repair computers as a teenager because of the internet and my interest computers. Now I can function as an (entry level) I.T. Technician. I focused a lot on maintaining hardware, software and Operating Systems, but never looked into creating software until pretty recently.

But what really got me interested was what Edward Snowden did. Because of his sacrifice I started to get interested in cryptography and open source software. I moved away from Windows to Debian just to experiment, and it turns out that Debian is actually pretty cool.

I believe in the utility of the internet and computers. To me, it just feels like the right step to take and even though I may regret my decision in the future, I'll still give it a shot and try to accomplish something. Besides, it'll be nice to challenge myself with a new hobby :)

I'll check out the book and course recommendations. I'm probably using math as an excuse to continue procrastinating because I'm afraid of failure, so I won't let that deter me. And I'll definitely consider going back to school once I start working again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let's start with stating a positive. You're enthusiastic about developing software. You have no idea how many software engineers dread writing code (and thus delivering bad software).

Luckily, there are tons of great resources out there to learn to make whatever you want. Don't be overwhelmed by what's out there. Although HN is a fantastic place to keep up with what's going on, it's very easy to get caught up in the noise.

Learning to write software is like learning to do anything else. All it requires is practice. I was fortunate that I went through a university and it opened my eyes to a lot of theoretical things, but I am where I am today because I spent a lot of time outside of university learning things that were more practical.

I can point you to a few resources to get started (there are plenty more that people here can recommend!)

Generic Programming: [https://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python](https://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python) [http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/](http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/)

Web: Ruby on Rails - [https://www.railstutorial.org/book](https://www.railstutorial.org/book) Railscasts - [http://railscasts.com](http://railscasts.com)

At the end of the day it depends on what you're interested in and what you want to make. I find that when I want to learn something new I try to remake what someone else has already made. That way I'm thinking less about the idea and more about how that software should be constructed.

</comment><comment><USER6> I left law, ended up in QA, and am now a full time software developer. I think being in QA helped a lot when it came to teaching myself - would be employers would be glad you had work experience in a professional software development environment. This will be to your advantage, though trying to go dev from a QA role at the same company may be more difficult for political/business reasons.

I think the thing that got me where I am now within a reasonably time period is picking a type of technology (in my case, it was learning iOS and Git well enough) I wanted to work with, then stick to that until you become employed while attending every hackathon and relevant meetup, time permitting. You'll need projects that demonstrate your aptitude and ability.

If you or anyone else is interested, my story is actually on Codecademy: [https://www.codecademy.com/stories/155-from-lawyer-to-ios- de...](https://www.codecademy.com/stories/155-from-lawyer-to-ios-developer), and I've even written a book about the transition: [http://quitlawandcode.com/](http://quitlawandcode.com/)

You're going to do fine. I know it seems like such a binary and insurmountable transition, but the more hours and practice you have, the more OOP and other concepts will just click for you. Also, you're not too late! I started at learning at 30.

FYI: I'm terrible at math, though I love learning, and would like to re-visit it when I have some more time (probably when I have high school aged kids).

</comment><comment><USER7> Similarly I'd like to ask how to jump industries. I have 12 years in enterprise IT as a network and systems admin and the last 5 years I've been living and breathing powershell at work, developed several python/flask side projects (one full site with cc processing, coupon code checking with JS, email notifications, user registration, etc.). Learned to use git, developed my first published windows store app, and now continuing to learn c# for fun.

I find myself enjoying coding more and more each day and IT support less and less. But I "know" IT territory very well. From IT managers, to day in day out, to projects one cam expect. I live and breathe it. I feel out of my depths even applying or building a resume for a development job and have a family to support. What's the safest and best way to get my bearings and jump into a dev job?

Work is supportive of my advancement in coding, but its leveraged as a cheap way to automate processes.

<comment><USER8> \- Work is supportive of my advancement in coding, but its leveraged as a cheap way to automate processes

You are the magical "DevOps". Put that on your resume and wait for the offers to flood in. Just tell prospective employers that you want more "dev" than "ops".

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well, I was 25 when I started learning how to code. The big motivator for me was the birth of my first child, and I was sick of minimum wage labor jobs. Transitioning into software was a long process for me. I spent about two years working at it in the evening hours before I was able to land my first real job. There's a steep learning curve upfront and it takes a lot of effort. I would recommend signing up for classes at your local community college if you can. See if you like it first, then re-evaluate your decision after a semester or two. If you're like me, being enrolled in some kind of program is going to help keep you focused and on track.

Best of luck. You can do it!

<comment><AUTHOR> >Well, I was 25 when I started learning how to code. The big motivator for me was the birth of my first child, and I was sick of minimum wage labor jobs.

I don't have kids, but I certainly can relate. My family immigrated to the states from the Caribbean, making me a first generation American. They aren't well off and even though we aren't that close, I'd like to be in the position where I can assist them and their kids if they ever need help. I feel that the best way to do this is to pursue this path that I've chosen.

> I spent about two years working at it in the evening hours before I was able > to land my first real job.

That's impressive. Thanks for the inspiration.

I know that nothing in life comes easy and that basically you (sometimes) get what you put in. I was uncertain yesterday, but I think today I'm ready to take the first step towards this crazy dream of mine.

>Best of luck. You can do it!

Thanks! And good luck to you as well. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I was interested in coding from a young age but was a terrible student. I barely scraped through high school and never completed any tertiary education. By 22 I was unhappily working as a pizza store assistant manager.

I then took a pay cut to get a job as a tech support guy at a tiny local internet provider. Over the next couple of years the company merged with a bunch of other small ISPs and I found myself given more responsibility. Not liking all the paperwork this involved I wrote some web based tools in perl to make my life easier. This was noticed, as was the fact that I was cheaper than a "real" programmer, and when they wanted to expand the dev team I was given the job. Now, after more than a dozen years and quite a few different organizations I'm a team lead on a pretty large and successful system.

I guess the point of the story is to build stuff, especially stuff useful to you right now, and don't be afraid to take risks.

</comment><comment><USER11> I have also started my career in Software Development with a student job for QA where I was manually testing iOS apps while studying marketing. I was 24 when I took this job because I needed money and was good with computers and interested in software anyway. I am almost 28 now, working freelance with a partner, recently incorporated our little agency, developing products on the side and making around 120k$ a year pre-tax. So with some grid and determination it is well possible. My advise would be to:

\- Ignore gatekeepers (The programmers at this first job ridiculed me when I was asking programming questions)

\- When possible find a partner / mentor that you can learn form and with and whit whom you can motivate each other

\- Keep on learning really hard, don't settle

\- Show some fucking passion and good things will happen :)

</comment><comment><USER12> If you're not in an environment where you have mentors, or if you find yourself easily distracted, sign up to a course at a school with proper in person training and testing or you're just going to keep procrastinating.

<comment><USER13> Definitely agree with this. It can be hard to get started and/or stay with doing the learning when you're doing it on your own. Some people just do better when learning in the context of a group/class or with a pair/mentor. It's really easy to spend time and find yourself just reading/browsing the coding sites instead of doing the work, i.e., writing code, so either try and set small, achievable goals, or find someone you can learn with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I started when I was 24, that was 3 years ago. Since then I've shipped 3 million total downloads on the iOS app store as an indie developer. I've learned enough programming to make almost anything I can think of. I haven't actually ever looked for a job because I like my freedom so much, and I make enough to survive.

Figure out what you want to learn/build, and just start. When you hit seemingly insurmountable roadblocks, just take 20mins away from the computer and come back. Stick with it, have a long run view rather than a short run view.

</comment><comment><USER15> To become a software developer, all you have to do is develop some software and keep doing it. I started when I was 13 and now 12 years later I think I'm doing OK. I started doing Freelancing jobs since I was 19 or 20.

</comment><comment><USER16> You are young. Becoming a coder is very doable at that age. I started self- teaching myself how to code a little less than a year ago just before I was 24 with no prior experience besides believing myself to be raw at math just like yourself. If you understand math, it should not be too difficult. Everything is abstractions, and you get to create the abstractions. If you think about coding in terms of just organizing tables, it makes it really easy. Some of the fancier stuff might take some time (or some copying and pasting), but most of the syntax that is probably going to intimidate you is not necessarily useful in practice. Think of it as writing an argument in a philosophy class. What are the system's conditionality's? What is the end goal of the program? Sound, clean and uncluttered logic with a distinct argument and point is what you are going for. Personally, I found that I learned very fast using PHP, MySQL, HTML5, jQuery, JavaScript, and the LAMP stack. It gave me the foundation to do AJAX (asynchronous calling) and learn a lot of the intimidatingly sounding frameworks which are not altogether that useful, necessarily (I only know as far as my opinion). But I would recommend checking out that stack. They work together nicely and are not syntactically challenging. Another thing I'd recommend is replacing your recreational gaming like crossword puzzles, sudoku, etc with Project Euler. Its an enjoyable way to learn while using competitive fuel/energy rather than draining any oil of finishing a task for a task's sake. However, for me, 100%, the single most important thing was setting myself projects, and committing myself to them despite my subconscious knowing they had no chance at success. The project I chose was a music new-era napster/iTunes in the cloud website. I would recommend something similar because it is relatively enjoyable to learn/code and there are a million different ways you can improve any base product you have, (offline playing, sharing at the blink of an eye, efficient uploading, and you can get rid of Spotify, Pandora, etc. You can also make it illegal as shit and feel like a cowboy and just see how great you can make it. Chances are, it will be really illegal but better than anything else you can currently get right now. Use that as motivation, enjoy the fruits of your labor, save money, and inspire yourself to keep going.

Once you've exhausted the features you can add to a music app, you can execute any idea that you come up with that utilizes the Internet, sharing, etc. You won't necessarily become a master of 4D printing, but any theory you have about anything you can test and create a physical representation of on the Internet. Don't rush building it for the sake of finishing. Learn and understand what you are doing and your next project will have the potential of promis. I spent 3-4 months working on a website that I knew had no chance of becoming anything. However, I just kept smashing my head against the wall and making it better while slowly but surely improving my skillset to the point where new things now come easily, because I understand the philosophy. Now that I have moved on from that initial music website I can now pursue much more innovative and intellecutually stimulating projects (which I wouldn't have been able to do had I not spent so much time on a project that I knew had no chance of success). Give yourself a throw away project, commit yourself to it, and use it as training for the next one. If you truly commit yourself, you should be able to build pretty much anything you see on the Internet 1 year from now. That is not a guarantee! But you have plenty of time and there no reason not to believe that you cannot.</comment>


Have a request for PG and YC - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> Since YC is attracting lots of talent..can YC provide a sort of virtual meeting place where information exchange between people of same frequency happens? Just like Saeed Amidi's carpet shop became center of startup activities, YC can also become one virtual nerve center!

<comment><USER2> Isn't this it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope, here anyone who is a sneaky guy can get evesdrop on things. I would say people who have applied as contestants could only interact otherwise any disgruntled person who doesnt like YC or PG or who likes MSFT can do some mischief ;-) So in short i was hinting at this one...say someone is really good but couldnt get selected, they can redraw/regroup with other talented folks.

<comment><USER3> Submitting a trivial YC application is no indication of anything. But that's ok, because worrying about sneaky guys is isomorphic to worrying about keeping your idea secret -- sheer overhead.

<comment><AUTHOR> Need not be. No one cares about idea getting leaked as ideas are dime to a dozen. Its about seeding mis trust by quoting some stupid things by disgruntled elements that worries. One can just go ahead and say YC cheats and give some cock• story and thats enough to cover up u r idea. So thats one thing i say about 2 faced / double headed sneaky guys

<comment><USER4> Not sure I follow your concern. Are you worried that people could submit articles/comments which are untrue? If so then the voting and wisdom of crowds solves this.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Bitmitigate Is Down - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/pbrgmr/status/1158406436801732608 <comment><USER2> [https://twitter.com/voxility/status/1158408226460884992](https://twitter.com/voxility/status/1158408226460884992)

Voxility, their backbone link, deplatformed them for hosting 8chan

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> But what about their less controversial customers?

</comment><comment><USER3> Yep, seems to be blackholed.</comment>


Ask HN: Good introductory books in Neuroscience? - <AUTHOR>

I have just read "On Intelligence" and enjoyed it a lot but it's a bit old and don't know if the ideas proposed in the book have been confirmed or dismissed. Any recommendation of a more recent book? I'm not afraid of more technical or rigorous approaches but keep in mind that I have had very little exposure to Biology(my background is in Computer Science). <comment><USER2> If you _really_ want to learn neuroscience, here's the book: [http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Edition- eboo...](http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Edition- ebook/dp/B009LHFYNG)</comment>


Declining eyesight improved by looking at deep red light - open-source-ux https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jun/declining-eyesight-improved-looking-deep-red-light <comment><AUTHOR> Stand by for a flood of "healing light" LED lights with all sorts of health claims.

</comment><comment><USER2> What's the best way to make them red torches?

<comment><USER3> How about a grow light like this?

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0744GY7TP](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0744GY7TP)

<comment><USER2> What a great idea, thanks!

<comment><USER4> From the description:

"Extremely bright, do not look directly at the LED bulbs when the light is working."

<comment><USER2> Maybe have them shine on to a neutral surface with some distance.

<comment><USER4> Possibly. Whenever I see this paper I'm reminded of the gap of not having some 12 dollar low power red led flashlight Amazon link. I'm looking at AliExpress right now and idly considering buying a few purportedly red led flashlights and finding a way to test them to confirm they are the right wavelength and relatively low power.

Buy a thousand flashlights at 4 a piece on AliExpress, offer on Amazon at 12, write a blog post about checking this effect on my parents, link to the paper, share on hackernews and other sites with an Amazon link...

Still, I'd be kind of surprised if you could sell a thousand flashlights like this, and it seems a fair amount of risk and effort for a few thousand return.

<comment><USER3> I'd worry about getting LEDs that put out UV or some unintended harmful wavelength.

Is there reliable / cheap way to test wavelength being emitted?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


From Learning Python to Becoming Kaggle Kernels Top, a Road-Map - <AUTHOR> https://imgur.com/a/czej6D9 <comment><AUTHOR> Kaggle Profile: [[https://www.kaggle.com/shahules](https://www.kaggle.com/shah...](https://www.kaggle.com/shahules\]\(https://www.kaggle.com/shahules\))

I was talking to my friend and was super impressed with his journey, so I created this hoping it'd help a lot of people find their bearings and make things a bit more clear. I've added the courses, projects, and the approach he took to get here.</comment>


Ask HN: Healthcare startups? - <AUTHOR>

Who are they and what are they doing? <comment><USER2> <http://massivehealth.com/> \- stealth startup cofounded by Aza Raskin (former creative lead at Firefox).

<https://cakehealth.com/> \- mint.com for healthcare.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://carelogger.com> \- diabetes logbook (my site)

<http://patientslikeme.com> \- illness community

</comment><comment><USER4> These events are a great place to find the interesting new people and ideas <http://www.health2con.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.halomonitoring.com> \- senior citizen health monitoring and automatic fall detection

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://dsharpdiabetes.com> \- Mobile Diabetes Management platform using JQuery Mobile.

</comment><comment><USER7> <http://www.diagnosia.com/en/> \- European source for medical drug information

</comment><comment><USER8> <http://www.nhs.info/> \- patient portal and application framework for the nhs

</comment><comment><USER9> <http://www.wakemate.com/> \- analyze sleep patterns.

</comment><comment><USER10> www.23andme.com - DNA profiler for ancestry and common gene related diseases/conditions</comment>


How Angular Lets Us Iterate Like Crazy - <AUTHOR> http://blog.chartbeat.com/2014/01/15/how-angular-lets-us-iterate/

<comment><USER2> There's a certain irony in the poster dismissing Java with one hand:

        "In effect, to the developer it 'feels like writing Java,' which as we all know, is a terrible feeling"

While professing the benefits of something which looks rather similar to Java tag libraries.

        <graph class="visitor-graph">
            <axis position="left"></axis>
            <axis position="bottom"></axis>
            <line name="typical-week" line-data="model.series.typicalWeek"></line>
            <line name="this-week" line-data="model.series.thisWeek"></line>
            <line name="last-week" line-data="model.series.lastWeek"></line>
        </graph>

"If you're thinking, "that's not HTML anymore! What are these graph, line, and axis elements?"—well, that's the point, Angular allows us to "extend HTML" to create those elements!"

        <cewolf:chart id="line" title="Page View Statistics" type="line" xaxislabel="Page" yaxislabel="Views">
            <cewolf:data>
                <cewolf:producer id="pageViews"/>
            </cewolf:data>
        </cewolf:chart>

That's from a tag library released in June, 2002.

Lest angry Java-haters accuse me of trying to extol the virtues of JSPs, taglibs et al, this is not the point of my post. I'm indicating the commonalities between two modes of development separated by more than a decade, which in the churnful world of technology might as well be separate geologic eras.

It's interesting to compare these two things (particularly when a prior effort has fallen by the wayside) to determine if you are implementing the same concept in a new guise, or if you are removing the issues that people had with prior models which led to their lack of use.

<comment><USER3> Don't forget the dependency injection pattern that Angular uses all over the place. That smells like Java, too. :)

<comment><USER4> Definitely! I've used Spring's DI container before and while I wasn't a huge fan of the (at the time) XML config, I found the experience to be pretty nice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "She" is becoming such a gimmick now.

<comment><USER6> Given the english language requires a gender-specific pronoun (I grew up saying "They" to the chagrin of my teacher) it always makes me a little bit happy to see She in texts. As a woman it makes you realise how much you don't see it. So it stops being a gimmick once the powers that be let us use a non- gendered pronoun ("they" is perfectly fine to me). Or we see a 50/50 split and rewrite the history books accordingly?

Anyway, on topic: we also feel the same way about Angular. Having our APIs abstracted from the beginning into services/factories means we just throw code into a new directive or controller and boom: instant functionality that doesn't cost us a million hours.

<comment><USER7> When I see "she" it makes me reflexively stop and look back to make sure I haven't missed something, wondering, "who is this 'she', I must have skipped the paragraph introducing the subject."

This is definitely bad for readability, the user, and all that. Please, anyone reading this who complains about line-heights and font-sizes, pay attention to grammar as well.

<comment><USER8> From the article (the first time "she" is used):

"The developer refuses. She's worked too hard on Feature X, and dammit, you'll have to pry it from her cold dead hands!!!"

With the exception of the unnecessary extra !! I don't see what is wrong with the grammer, it's clear in this context that "she" is the developer.

<comment><USER9> "Let's artificially use the statistically unlikely case that the developer is a woman, in order to inspire more women to be programmers"...

What kind of BS magic thinking is that?

If you want to inspire women, teach them about the technology as girls and encourage those who like to work with it.

Pronouns ain't where it's at.

<comment><USER10> I disagree with you. Although I stick to "they" as I think it's perfectly fine grammar wise, you getting upset because of your own bias and thinking it's an issue because the author wrote "she" instead of "he" is a bit silly, in my opinion.

Edit: Oh, and language has a massive effect on our thinking patterns, so yeah, you actual could possibly make the case that pronouns matter. They don't to me, at all, and if they "don't" to you, why express frustration or call it "BS"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have been looking into Angular, however I am yet to find it any productive gain as being told here.

From what I was able to find out, there isn't any UI component framework available for Angular with the same set of components offering as jQuery has.

For developer teams that haven't a clue about CSS dark magic as guys with designer background have, this is a big impediment to use Angular.

I have looked into UI Bootstrap, but is still seems work in progress.

Is there any UI component framework for Angular?

<comment><USER12> Look at angular-ui.

A lot of people just invoke jQuery from directives. Sometimes I catch myself doing it from the controller, although that is definitely bad practice.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for the reply. Angula-UI seems a bit too simple in terms of available set of components.

I got the idea that although you can use jQuery, it is an anti-pattern and not guaranteed to always work. At least from what I could find in SO and blogs.

My main problem is that I and many others in our teams, don't have any problem doing native UIs, but always get lost in the HTML/CSS/JavaScript jungle without designer help. Regardless of the experience level in web projects.

<comment><USER13> > I got the idea that although you can use jQuery, it is an anti-pattern and > not guaranteed to always work. At least from what I could find in SO and > blogs.

Only jQuery haters say that. jQuery is totally compatible with Angular,and Angular ships with its own jQuery lite, replaced by jQuery when available. The only thing you need to do is wrap jQuery calls into a directive. I use jQuery and plugins all the time with Angular, never had a problem ,as long i dont call jQuery from a controller , only in directives.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for the info.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> AngularJS is the best tool for building views that I have come across thus far in javascript.

When I write a view (most of my web apps consume JSON and display it to our end users) Angular leaves me with the cleanest markup I've been able to write to date.

It does seem to get slightly unwieldy if I want to start using additional libraries outside the scope of Angular (such as when I needed to add Google Charts), but for iterating it's the slickest thing since the invention of the ice cube.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm not so sure iterating like crazy is a good thing.

<comment><USER16> Well, the alternative is working for days / weeks on a feature that the end- user may not even use (is the message I'm getting from this article). Being able to create and alter a feature quickly is important in an agile environment.

<comment><USER17> There are better ways to discover whether a feature is wanted than hacking up a test version and seeing if the users use it. The idea is to test whether people want it _before_ that stage. You can ask them, but often they'll say yes regardless because things often _sound_ great. On the most basic level, adding a UI element that responds with nothing more than a "Coming soon!" message and measuring if anyone clicks it works brilliantly.

<comment><USER8> That has to be one of the most frustrating UI patterns out there, clicking a button and not knowing whether it will do what it says or say "haha, nope!". It's bad enough when apps do this to try and persuade you to upgrade to the pro version.

What you want to know is not just whether people click the button , but whether having a certain feature available changes the way that people actually use your application.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is this website the result of your crazy iterations?

[http://i.imgur.com/jqy2kwo.png](http://i.imgur.com/jqy2kwo.png)

<comment><USER19> No, that's due to Ghostery. Recognized it as soon as I saw your image. Ghostery breaks lots of sites, even those it isn't explicitly blocking.

<comment><USER20> Ghostery doesn't break "lots of sites". This is one of possibly two or three pages I've noticed in the last year that have been broken by Ghostery. That's hardly an epidemic. (But perhaps this is an issue of sampling.)

Given Ghostery's popularity, I would almost venture to blame the website for this unintended behavior, not the plugin--even if they're keeping to standards and good behavior.

<comment><USER21> Is this due to JavaScript blocking? I mean, the whole premise of using AngularJS is that the client is executing JS..

<comment><USER19> It's blocking tracking scripts/pixels/etc. If a site's JS happens to rely on some external tracker having been loaded, it can break the site. I think that's what's usually happening here. Moral of the story: don't rely on external scripts people.

<comment><USER22> I think the moral is more that if you're not going to let them track you however they want and using whoever they want, they'd rather not have you as a visitor.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The World's Most-Profitable Hedge Fund Is Now a Climate Radical - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-22/the-world-s-most-profitable-hedge-fund-is-now-a-climate-radical <comment><USER2> I hope that we one day will call funds (and organizations) that value pure profit above anything else radical. Instead of the other way around.</comment>


Show HN: Matter – A tiny collection of UI components - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/stevenmiller888/matter

<comment><USER2> I don't know why I like this so much, but it looks great!

I will be using this in my current project ASAP.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm glad you like it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Plans to extend it past a _tiny_ collection?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm working on adding a few more components (form, dropdown, and a generic shape component) but I'm not sure how far I want to take it yet.

Pull requests are welcome :)</comment></comment>


Apple's Proposed Multi-touch User Interface System - <AUTHOR> http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?983

<comment><USER2> A number of the ubiquitous Tablet rumor articles have quoted inside sources as saying the way you interact with it will be what is revolutionary about it. The patent proposals described in this post would seem to bear that out. (And would be pretty awesome)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder if someone at Apple just collects all these tablet day-dreams, polishes the ideas a bit and then patents them.

This could be a crowd-sourcing business model in itself.</comment>


Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/gay-transgender-workers-supreme-court.html <comment><AUTHOR> > The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law [Civil > Rights Act of 1964] protects gay and transgender workers from workplace > discrimination, handing the movement for L.G.B.T. equality a stunning > victory.

> "An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender > defies the law," Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for the majority in the > 6-to-3 ruling.

> Until Monday's decision, it was legal in more than half the states to fire > workers for being gay, bisexual or transgender. The vastly consequential > decision extended workplace protections to millions of people across the > nation, continuing a series of Supreme Court victories for gay rights even > after President Trump transformed the court with two appointments.

> "After today's decision," Justice Alito wrote, "plaintiffs may claim that > the failure to use their preferred pronoun violates one of the federal laws > prohibiting sex discrimination."

> "Although the court does not want to think about the consequences of its > decision, we will not be able to avoid those issues for long," he concluded > "The entire federal judiciary will be mired for years in disputes about the > reach of the court's reasoning."

> Justice Gorsuch responded that the court's ruling was narrow. "We do not > purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms or anything else of the kind," he > wrote. "Whether other policies and practices might or might not qualify as > unlawful discrimination or find justifications under other provisions of > Title VII are questions for future cases, not these."

> He added that Title VII itself included protections for religious employers > and that a separate federal law and the First Amendment also allow religious > groups latitude in their employment decisions.

Background:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964)

The ruling:

[https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf)

For those who have trouble with the link:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200615230511/https://www.nytim...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200615230511/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/gay- transgender-workers-supreme-court.html)</comment>


I ditched my iPhone and it changed my life - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/08/charlotte-church-ditched-iphone-saved-my-life <comment><USER2> The author of that is the singer Charlotte Church.

re: the article: I sort of agree with her premise that digital devices can take too much of our attention and have a negative effect on our lives. I am about half way through the new book "Digital Minimalism" which is a good discussion of purposefully using digital devices while not allocating too much time to them.</comment>


Messaging done right. No phone number. No Email. No sign up required - <AUTHOR> https://welcome.dklo.co/ <comment><USER2> Looks good! Unfortunately for me I had just started working on something very similar.

Mine had only a web interface and optional Facebook Messenger bot to proxy your chat through (I don't need another chat client).

But overall the same general idea to solve the problem of reliable IM without giving up personal info.

Good luck with it!

I'd suggest when a user first visits the site, you generate a link for them to share, which will start an IM between the two users when opened.

Then offer each user more options, registration, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. Works something like that. Thanks a lot :) :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> From the FAQ:

... >We do ask your e-mail address in order to verify the registration process but never save that email on our servers.

...

> The emails we process are saved encrypted on our servers so there is no way > for us to track you back.

???

<comment><AUTHOR> We will reformulate that. What we mean is that we never save user emails on our servers in clear text. The emails are encrypted on the clients before being sent to us. We want to know as little as possible about our users.

<comment><USER4> and what are you doing with the random text per user (i.e. the encrypted emails)? Why do you need them? If they are encrypted by the user, how can you verify their email then? This does not add up.

<comment><AUTHOR> We saved the encrypted version to enable password reset. When you reset your password we send an activation code to the email you signed up with (We don't save that email ). To reset your password you need to enter that email. We encrypt the value on the client and compare it we the value we have on our server. To make sure it s really you But at any time we don't have user emails stored on our system. So If someone gets access she will never see emails in clear text. And most importantly we will never send users marketing emails. Only registration and password reset emails. We want to know as little as possible about our users.

<comment><USER4> Okay and how do you choose the key for the encryption? If it is the same for all users (which from what you said it kind of has to be?) you could just decrypt it?

<comment><USER5> A hash of the email stored then compared to a hash of the email sent during reset

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly. This is the main idea behind Dikalo. Your private stuff belong to you. We are only interested in sending your messages. This is why you can use Dikalo without even siging up

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Love the idea, hate the name.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx :). Whats wrong with the name ? :)

<comment><USER7> Name is meh, but the url is worse. Why not dikalo.net? or dikalo.co?

Also, "messaging done right" is a bad tagline as it doesn't tell me anything.

<comment><AUTHOR> We will offer alternative domains. dikalo.net and dikalo.co beeing one of those. Also the landing page will have more infos soon.

With messaging done right we mean Messaging without you giving up any private infos. No email, no phone nr, no sign up required. In fact you can use Dikalo without ever opening an account.

The reason we started with dklo.co is because we wanted people to type as little as possible.

<comment><USER8> Correct me if I'm wrong:

Most links are sent via text (email, messaging, social networks) where they're automatically turned into hyperlinks. Length isn't an issue here.

When they are spoken, vowels help a lot. It's not fun to spell out D-K-L-O- DOT-CO, no not COM, CO.

In the end though, I don't think it matters that much either way, just bikeshedding.

<comment><AUTHOR> :) I think once you use the service you will get used to the name :)

<comment><USER9> I think you are lowering your conversion rate. My guess is if you do A/B testing with invitation emails, more people will use the service with a 'respectable' looking URL rather than one that looks 'dodgy'.

Sure, have a short name once people are converted, but make a good first impression.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. And we will def. provide better looking URLS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Anonimity is not enough. We need easy to use/install descentralized secure IM. If governments cannot get data from companies providing IM, email, social nets, etc. they will just ban the service. See the two recent cases: LinkedIn in Russia and Whatsapp in Brazil.

<comment><AUTHOR> True there is a risc of being banned at some places. But to it is more important to offer a service that works the right way. We will find a way to be available every where.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> From the Terms of Service:

>Terms of Use

>Last updated September November 1st, 2016

... >The Terms are governed by German law.

...

> To the extent permitted by law, these Terms and the actions performed under > them are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of France, > without regard to any choice of law principles which would require the > application of a different jurisdiction's law. The United Nations Convention > on the International Sales of Goods shall not apply hereto.

To the extent permitted by law, you consent to the jurisdiction of the courts of Paris with appropriate subject matter jurisdiction.

???

<comment><AUTHOR> That s an error. Will be fixed asap. We are based in Germany.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Messaging done right" Everything else done wrong? Why launch the site when its not ready? Ill never come back to this now, simply because it seems like you are too eager to blow your load, because thats all you have. Also, stupid name, dick gigalo?

<comment><AUTHOR> We are announcing our product. Just like any one else would do. The product will be ready december 5th.

We are eagier to get feedback about the idea yes. Our goal is not to get trafic. But to build something people want to use. And it starts with getting feedback like lots of people have been giving us here.

We also explain why we think anyone else is doind it wrong.

Not every word comes from English. Dikalo has a meaning in other languages.

It s a big world you know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> > "you don't have to give up any personal informations..."

There are several of these type of "erroneous plural" errors in your FAQ and at least one missing apostrophe. Impacts your credibility.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. We will clear all this our before December 5th. We are very serious about what we are doing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> [https://www.dklo.co/](https://www.dklo.co/)

> Welcome to WildFly 10

> Your WildFly 10 is running.

Looks like it's down.

<comment><AUTHOR> Should be back up now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> It sounds interesting. Of course, we'll see how it acts when it comes out and we can try it.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are working hard to make it available soon. Stay tuned.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Once I click the try out button, I get a certificate not trusted error message from my browser.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is strange. [https://www.dklo.co/](https://www.dklo.co/) should work just fine. No once has complained till now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Glaring typo on the first page.

<comment><USER17> I sent it to them so they can fix it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx. We will fix all the typos before going live.</comment></comment></comment>