Science and the Rise of the Co-Authors (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2015/11/25/science-and-the-rise-of-the-co-authors/ <comment><USER2> In China academics get bonuses for authoring papers.

There is an informal market for buying selling authorship.

I wonder if this contributes</comment>


Ask HN: How did your first startup's launch go? - <AUTHOR>

What did you do on the launch day? How did you hack the press? How many people signed up?<p>Share your thoughts and experience! Thanks! <comment><USER2> My first startup started in mid-2000s. For identity reasons, I'm not going to list the name here (I prefer to stay anonymous), but it wasn't a typical silicon valley style startup. What I mean by that specifically was while we were based in San Francisco, majority of the bay area never even knew we existed.

Back then, Techcrunch wasn't very well known and I am not sure HN even existed. Majority of people were not blogging yet and we never thought about getting press. Perhaps because of the way things are now, and there is a lot of information overload, there is a lot of subconscious influence on how people perceive things and thus have a specific mindset when it comes to building a startup.

For better or for worse, we were not originally from this area and we didn't get exposed to any of the valley related stuff (total ignorance you could say) and because of that, we took a very different route even though we were building a tech startup.

We didn't really have a formal launch day per say (if people signed up during the beta stages, we never denied anyone from using the product or having to wait for an invite). We didn't even originally intend the idea to be a startup. It was an idea built out of necessity and something we showed off to our friends who got interested in using the product. It wasn't until some time later that the idea of making a company out of it (note the word company vs the word startup) came across our mind. When it became clear we wanted to build a company around the product, we got our small group of friends to help bring in more people who had a common interest in the product as well as reaching out to total strangers online wherever we could finding anyone who would be interested.

We spent countless hours and weeks just messaging random people online from anywhere and we probably got somewhere between 200-300 people using the product (I don't remember exact count, its been awhile). And while the rest of the world didn't even know we existed, we pretty much went through iterations to improve the product base on feedback through this group. This part was also accidental. This was before we ever moved to the bay or even heard of the term lean startup. None of that existed in our world at the time. Turns out this was the best way to do things.

This accident formed our "beta" group although it was never really intended to be such and when it was much better (the product), we started to reach out to people in the industry who had influence to check out our product. This got the ball rolling for what I guess could be considered a public launch but there was definitely no set definitive idea around what a launch day was. We began attending industry events and doing everything we could to spread the word while working on the product around the clock and slowly but surely the user base grew.

Two things to note from this. The first is I don't know how this compares to how others did things back then. The second is this may or may not be the fastest way to grow but our product was not a consumer facing product to begin with and this was before social and sharing became a de facto and things drastically changed on how fast you can acquire users today vs then. I am only answering this base on my first startup since this is what you were asking in reference to. Things are slightly different albeit still the same in a lot of ways. Hopefully it helps in some way.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ahh..you're awesome. Thanks for this great reply!</comment></comment>


I have a business idea  - <AUTHOR> http://www.shopify.com/ihaveabusinessidea

<comment><USER2> This is awesome!!

</comment><comment><USER3> wow this is really well made.</comment>


I've been writing TILs for 5 years - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jbranchaud/til/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> TIL Alt-clicking in the Terminal prompt lets me move the cursor to that position. How had I not discovered this over many years?

<comment><USER3> Which terminal? In Linux, Alt+Left Click is the "move window around" idiom, while Alt+Right Click is "resize window with the mouse".

<comment><USER4> How can you know that this is a common idiom? Is there an (prob. GNU)-document for these things? Two reasons I am asking: 1) I feel terrible reading this, since my last post was preaching for XCFE for this exact functionality. 2) It would be awesome to have these things bundled and discover many things which are yet not discovered by me.

<comment><USER5> The major Linux desktops have had this sort of thing for like 15 years. It's usually only discovered by people who obsessively tweak their settings, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Forgive me for my ignorance, but I haven't contributed to open source much yet. What is the reason for forking this repo. I see a lot of people have done it. Wouldn't that be akin to cloning someone else's personal blog? I just don't see the point of that.

<comment><USER7> It's weird, but two potential reasons:

* in case the repo gets deleted, at least you still have a copy

* some github apps on tablet might give you an easier access to your own list of repos

<comment><USER8> Doesn't GitHub delete forks if the original is deleted? Of course, actually cloning the fork onto your computer and pushing it to a new repository without using GitHub's "fork" feature should get around this easily.

<comment><USER6> Deleting a private repository

When you delete a private repository, all of its private forks are also deleted.

Deleting a public repository

When you delete a public repository, one of the existing public forks is chosen to be the new parent repository. All other repositories are forked off of this new parent and subsequent pull requests go to this new parent.

<comment><USER9> > When you delete a public repository, one of the existing public forks is > chosen to be the new parent repository. All other repositories are forked > off of this new parent and subsequent pull requests go to this new parent.

Yikes, is this a random process?

<comment><USER6> Apparently the oldest fork wins, or the author of the repo can decide. [https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/86769/which- fork...](https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/86769/which-fork-is- marked-as-a-main-repository-when-the-original-one-is-deleted-in-gi)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Chrome Supports Many Unix Keyboard Shortcuts

These are actually Emacs-style editing shortcuts that come are part of Cocoa's text controls. If this _doesn 't_ work in an app on macOS, that app has broken them or is trying (evidently poorly) to reimplement their own text editing widget.

<comment><USER10> You can further Emacsify or customize text controls to your heart with a `DefaultKeyBinding.dict` file.

This what I've been using for ~8 years. Apple removed a few functions here and there but still plenty are available. Reference URL in the file comments.

        {
            /* Additional Emacs bindings:
             *
             * "<key combination>" = "functionName:";
             *
             * Key Modifiers:
             *   ^: ctrl
             *   ~: option
             *   $: shift
             *   @: command
             *
             * Instance Methods of "NSStandardKeyBindingResponding":
             * https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nsstandardkeybindingresponding
             *
             * Install under ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict
             *
             * Download directly:
             * curl --create-dirs -o ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict THIS_URL
             */

            "^l"  = "centerSelectionInVisibleArea:";
            "^/"  = "undo:";
            "^ "  = "setMark:";

            "~f" = "moveWordForward:";
            "~b" = "moveWordBackward:";
            "~<" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:";
            "~>" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";
            "~v" = "pageUp:";
            "~d" = "deleteWordForward:";
            "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:";
            "~/" = "complete:";
            "~t" = "transposeWords:";

            "^x" = {
                "h"  = "selectAll:";
                "k"  = "performClose:";
                "^x" = "swapWithMark:";
                "^m" = "selectToMark:";
            };
        }

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is awesome! Twitter has been my goto for posting TILs for about as long. Now I regret not collecting them in a more coherent format like this.

Sara Soueidan has a similar log oriented toward UI work:

[https://www.sarasoueidan.com/today-i- learned/](https://www.sarasoueidan.com/today-i-learned/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Vim is by far my most TIL-ed topic. I recently started gathering a lot of that learning into a screencast series: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL46-cKSxMYYCMpzXo6p0C...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL46-cKSxMYYCMpzXo6p0Cof8hJInYgohU)

<comment><USER12> Fun fact: I keep my Vim's TIL in a org file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> TIL that I'd been using items in this list for reference without realizing that I had been working with Josh (OP) at my day-job the whole time!

</comment><comment><USER14> I've started collecting these myself and I try to summarize them every month. I encourage everyone to do the same, it's a great way to build a reference of stuff you learn that you can and reviewing them monthly makes it stick.

[https://theodorton.github.io/categories/til/](https://theodorton.github.io/categories/til/)

</comment><comment><USER15> Seems like a really simple web app concept someone should pursue. I feel like being able to browse other people's TILs and save them/search them would be a really valuable thing.

EDIT: Just like this: [https://til.hashrocket.com/](https://til.hashrocket.com/) but open to anyone to sign up

<comment><USER6> Isn't that just a blog or a subreddit? And couldn't you find all the TIL blogs by Googling for "TIL" or something?

<comment><USER15> Would be closer to a subreddit I guess. But purpose built.

I think there's lots of room for simple, purpose built web apps for stuff like this.

<comment><USER6> True. I think that's the way the world is moving towards. I also see the 5000+ custom alarm clock apps out there as essentially forks of "deployed apps" for just alarms. But that was already predated by the explosion of websites doing the same XYZ thing (calorie trackers, photo storing apps, etc...) specifically before the mobile era. I think we're just seeing the same with the open source world as we've seen occur in more mature worlds.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> ive been doing this mostly on stackoverflow (where I answer my own question, or answer questions to something I couldn't find an answer too). It does take a bit longer than a repo where I just dump information, so I might try that instead

My thought process is I'll google something and find something I wrote

There's also the bonus that you might get an expert answering your topic

EDIT: related story - I wrote an answer to a question about programming a financial calculator, and one of my dev friends had the same exact problem/found my solution the next day on stackoverflow

<comment><USER17> I have at least two things I consistently forget, and then relearn from my own Stackoverflow answer. Comes up rarely enough that I chuckle at myself everytime it happens. :-)

<comment><USER18> The time for concern is when you find yourself asking, "WTF was that idiot talking about?"

<comment><USER16> * reads answer

[wow whoever wrote this was an idio... oh nevermind ^I'll just walk out now]

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "On Mac, you can insert a non-breaking space character by hitting option- space."

Does anyone know how to turn this OFF? I accidentally type non-breaking spaces in the terminal all the time and then have to meticulously try re-entering each space from the end backwards until bash finally groks it...

<comment><USER20> [https://superuser.com/questions/78245/how-to-disable-the- opt...](https://superuser.com/questions/78245/how-to-disable-the-option-space- key-combination-for-non-breaking-spaces)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The VIM ones are my favorite - I'm always blown away with the simple keyboard shortcuts that could have saved me hours had I known them 2 years ago.

TIL just typing "=" in Vim fixes all my indentation

Just subscribed to his newsletter so I can get these and not forget about this cool repo!

<comment><USER22> The absolute best Vim command of all times is "ciw", or its variants "ci(", "cip", ... You use this command when your cursor is in the middle of a word (or parenthetical expression or paragraph or ...) and you want to replace that word by a new one.

Maybe it's too well-known, but this command changed my life and I haven't found in the linked list of TILs.

<comment><USER12> I got that one from Drew Neil's book: Practical Vim

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Reading through theses makes me wish I started this 5 years ago.

Guess I better start today!

<comment><AUTHOR> No better time than today to start building your own learning machine

[https://dev.to/jbranchaud/how-i-built-a-learning- machine-45k...](https://dev.to/jbranchaud/how-i-built-a-learning-machine-45k9)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I was inspired by Josh's TIL previously and have been storing TILs at [https://TIL.secretGeek.net](https://TIL.secretGeek.net) for years now too.

Just last night I rebuilt the site using a new static site generator I built for it (called Clowncar) so I can cut gitbook out of my life.

</comment><comment><USER25> Suggestion: If you have an especially good TIL about programming, look for an appropriate public forum to post it.

</comment><comment><USER26> TIL macOS doesn't ship with `ack`. Found this out when trying the first thing on the list `ack --bar`.

:(

<comment><USER27> Indeed... the MacOS command line tools often are missing or have some different defaults and hotkeys (I'm looking at you, 'top') than the versions I'm used to on my linux systems, which, sure, ecosystem diversity is cool and all, but... Every time I try to rearrange the processor usage in TOP, I open it up and think 'IT'S A TRAP!'

(admittedly, this was all just an attempt at making a sufficiently substantive comment so I could make the joke about 'ack --bar')

<comment><USER28> I think top in macOS is the BSD version where top in most linux distributions is the GNU version. Same with tar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is great. I've been collecting 'things' I learned and links to pages, like a reading list etc. but none of that sticks out long term because the resources might move, the data might not be searchable or the thing you wanted to get out of a larger article is actually much smaller than the 20 pages it came with. And then when you collect links and a reading list you end up not really going back to it anyway.

This approach makes it much easier to just add the thing you actually wanted to learn and learned in a small concise way with a reference back to where you found it. So simple, yet as so many others I hadn't thought of it.

<comment><USER6> Why would you need to create notes and go back to it though? Isn't searching for it much faster? Say you learned a nifty hotkey to backup text using a shortcut on OSX (or whatever). Why not simply search "hotkey backup osx"? And say that page you found it on shows up, but like you said, it's very long text page. Then just just bring up the search-in-page feature in your browser, and you're there!

<comment><USER28> Because sometimes you find an article on hacker news that you didn't search for but did stumble upon. Then you can't search for it because you weren't searching for it in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Ha, you got me confused there for a bit, because of: [https://wiki.c2.com/?ThreadedInterpretiveLanguage](https://wiki.c2.com/?ThreadedInterpretiveLanguage)

Anyway, thanks for sharing your tips!

<comment><USER30> I am still confused. Does TIL stand for Technical Information Library?

<comment><USER31> Today I Learned.

<comment><USER30> Yes, I did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> In a similar fashion I've been working on a snippet library for php and js, though it's definitely not this frequent or intentional.

It's quite useful when I stumble upon things like how do I format this date, or match balanced brackets in a string.

Battle tested code ready for my taking. Quite useful when I'm in a hurry! Do you guys do this too?

</comment><comment><USER33> In case folks are interested in other "non-tech" TILs, I occasionally visit this blog to see what's been added recently - [https://alearningaday.blog/](https://alearningaday.blog/) \- by a Product Manager who currently works at LinkedIn.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is amazing. Curious how you search or go back to refer them? Have you considered porting this to a doc generator like mdBook([https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook](https://github.com/rust- lang/mdBook)).

<comment><AUTHOR> I usually remember when I've written on something even if I've forgotten the details. I tend to be able to do a Cmd-f search of the README for a keyword to turn up what I'm looking for.

All that said, I've been contemplating moving all of this into a Gatsby- powered site with either a custom search backend or Algolia to make it all a bit more accessible.

<comment><USER34> Got it. I've been trying to solve a similar problem as well. I also stumbled upon this Gatsby theme for such a scenario ([https://github.com/aengusmcmillin/gatsby-theme- brain](https://github.com/aengusmcmillin/gatsby-theme-brain)). It's inspired from Roam Research's bidirectional links to notes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> A lot of the TILs could be put in a single readme instead of a file of their own.

<comment><USER36> I agree there are ways to organize this that would benefit outside readers, but am guessing the simple, consistent structure probably helped the author get to 5 years of TILs!

It's interesting they chose to alphabetize and start many entries w/ verbs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I am actually building a site specifically for this use case:

[https://todayilearned.co](https://todayilearned.co)

It allows both private and shared insights, so people can learn together. Check it out

</comment><comment><USER38> This inspired me to start doing this myself. I made a start here: [https://github.com/simonw/til](https://github.com/simonw/til)

</comment><comment><USER38> I really like this format. It's an interesting mid-point between a tweet and a blog, but optimized for "evergreen" content as opposed to content where the date is key.

</comment><comment><USER39> This would make a great set of flashcards for a spaced-repetition system! Thanks for publishing these.

<comment><USER12> You should check this out [https://github.com/ashlinchak/mdanki](https://github.com/ashlinchak/mdanki)

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Great effort! Often thought about creating a blog for such things but never progressed further.

</comment><comment><USER41> Referencing the selected element in Chrome with $0 certainly saves quite a few typing.

<comment><USER42> This is the biggest takeaway from this whole HN post/thread. And it works the same on Firefox! Thanks so much!

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I'm so old I remember when TIL meant Threaded Interpreted Language.

:)

</comment><comment><USER44> Thanks for sharing! This is awesome.

</comment><comment><USER45> Great list

</comment><comment><USER46> ive saved this...super cool!

</comment><comment><USER47> github is not a blog.

<comment><USER48> Somebody should let GitHub know.

[https://github.blog/2008-09-16-use-github-as-your- blog/](https://github.blog/2008-09-16-use-github-as-your-blog/)

<comment><USER49> I clicked the link on that page to "go see for myself" and got a 404..

<comment><USER12> > I have a habit of changing my blog URL and software a lot and I've lost a > great many posts over the years.

<comment><USER49> From the amasci.com FAQ:

 _NEVER EVER move one single html file or change an URL. Don 't you hate it when you click on a link and it says "404 file not found"? Well, I've been here since 1994, and all the links to my site still work!_

He's full of what seems to me good advice, e.g. from the same page:

 _Make your website be your filing cabinet. If you have little projects underway, put them on your website while working on them. Reject the paper- publishing traditions of polishing an article to perfection before publication. DO NOT ELEVATE IMAGE OVER CONTENT. (Perhaps even keep yourself honest by cultivating a deep revulsion for "image.") Instead, let all your flaws hang out, and type things directly into your site in rough draft form (label them UNDER CONSTRUCTION if you really must)._

 _Expunge the fear of embarassment from your life, and instead practice making foolish mistakes in front of thousands of strangers. Stop using your PC to store files, instead use your website as your main storage. Let people poke through your filing cabinet. It will contain far more than a perfectly polished website does._

[http://amasci.com/faq.html](http://amasci.com/faq.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't really see the point of this, except that it helps the author stay consistent to make updates and learn things. I'm not really sure why anyone would consume this, except for curiosity into what they could do for implementing their own consistency forcing function.

<comment><USER6> Sorry, good work to the author. I'm kind of a downer, and personally struggling to find motivation to work on projects, but often shoot myself down first. I don't see the point in a lot of projects out there.

<comment><USER50> Sometimes I do projects before I find a purpose for them. Often, I never do.

<comment><USER6> Would you say you've done a lot of projects though and that was the win itself? And that despite not being able to find a purpose to most of the projects, the benefit has been the learning/growth/experience/fun/etc...?

<comment><USER50> Fun, learning, an occasional surprise practical applications have all happened.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I find buyer for my Startup? - <AUTHOR> Background: We are a SaaS tool based out of India and have been into market for the last 2.5 years and our primary audience are marketers in US and UK. We have close to 200 paying clients which are largely SMBs including including few Fortune 500s. Our revenues are in the range of $3k-$4K per month. Our primary mode of customer acquisition is paid advertising and content marketing.
After months of efforts we realized that there is very little we can do to further scale up our revenues. Moreover, the industry we are in has a dying market because of a strong negative sentiment around the technology that we serve. We have two options now. Either close the company down or find someone who would be interested in buying us.
What do you suggest we do in such a situation. Any suggestions on how to go about selling your company are welcome. <comment><USER2> please give your product tool url. you are making a generalized statement here. be specific. i would love to acquire.</comment>


I'll stop calling algorithms racist when you stop anthropomorphizing AI - <AUTHOR> http://mathbabe.org/2016/04/07/ill-stop-calling-algorithms-racist-when-you-stop-anthropomorphizing-ai/ <comment><USER2> i saw the mic article referenced here and of course similarly rolled my eyes at the misunderstanding of technology that goes into these types of assertions, and thought, ok describing whats going on is a futile effort. So instead lets see if there is an easy explanation. googled unprofessional hairstyles, followed the first link to the web page it was on. Notice the title : "It's Ridiculous To Say Black Woman's Natural Hair is "Unprofessional"!" This isn't google's racist AI, this is a freaking keyword search result. So google could be secretly making a racist AI (because apparently we don't have enough racists as is?!???), but this shows and proves nothing of that fact. All it shows is that some of the words you searched were on a page with pictures.</comment>


The Doors of Perception (1954) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://maps.org/images/pdf/books/HuxleyA1954TheDoorsOfPerception.pdf <comment><USER3> _" I am and, for as long as I can remember, I have always been a poor visualizer. Words, even the pregnant words of poets, do not evoke pictures in my mind. No hypnagogic visions greet me on the verge of sleep. When I recall something, the memory does not present itself to me as a vividly seen event or object. By an effort of the will, I can evoke a not very vivid image of what happened yesterday afternoon, of how the Lungarno used to look before the bridges were destroyed, of the Bayswater Road when the only buses were green and tiny and drawn by aged horses at three and a half miles an hour. But such images have little substance and absolutely no autonomous life of their own. They stand to real, perceived objects in the same relation as Homer's ghosts stood to the men of flesh and blood, who came to visit them in the shades. Only when I have a high temperature do my mental images come to independent life. To those in whom the faculty of visualization is strong my inner world must seem curiously drab, limited and uninteresting. This was the world - <USER2> poor thing but my own - which I expected to see transformed into something completely unlike itself_"

<comment><USER4> I couldn't comprehend the meaning of "pregnant words of poets". Can someone explain this to a non-native english speaker?

<comment><USER5> Poets pack a lot of meaning / emotion into their words — you could think of them as "full" of the stuff that makes up life, like a pregnant woman is more literally filled with another life.

<comment><USER6> There are apparently two independent derivations of the word "pregnant" (though the roots may join), confusingly, both adjectives. Other than "with child", there is:

 _" convincing, weighty, pithy," late 14c., "cogent, convincing, compelling" (of evidence, an argument, etc.); sense of "full of meaning" is from c. 1400. According to OED from Old French preignant, present participle of preindre "press, squeeze, stamp, crush," from earlier priembre, from Latin premere "to press, hold fast, cover, crowd, compress" (from PIE root _per- (4) "to strike").*

[https://www.etymonline.com/word/pregnant](https://www.etymonline.com/word/pregnant)

(TIL, for those who'd suspect otherwise. I'm quite a fan of etymology, and Etymology Online in particular.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _" If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."_

\- William Blake

<comment><USER8> Please watch the movie Dead Man with Jonny Depp.

<comment><USER7> I had never heard of this movie, but it looks great. Thanks for the suggestion!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you're in London you can buy the book (comes with Heaven and Hell) for £4 at the Old Spitalfields Market. Tell the guy "the one in the yellow jacket sent me".

<comment><USER10> I will be in London next month. What exactly should I expect the sales person to say when I tell them who sent me. Sounds covert. :)

<comment><USER11> Nothing. You are supposed to just go home and lick the pages.

<comment><USER9> A civilised person will know to lick the fingers instead as they touch to turn the pages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Relatedly, I just finished reading How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, which does a great job of detailing the fascinating history of psychedelics and the current very promising resurgence of scientific research. It also does as good a job as one can expect at actually explaining what they are like, including descriptions of his own personal trips.

After reading the book, I wouldn't be surprised to see legal clinics open to the public in the US in the next 10-15 years.

<comment><USER13> Sam Harris does quite an impressive job articulating what a recent 5 gram mushroom trip was like, worth a listen.

[https://bullhorn.fm/makingsensewithsamharris- subsc/posts/177...](https://bullhorn.fm/makingsensewithsamharris- subsc/posts/177-psychedelic-science?p=6201)

<comment><USER12> Thanks for the recommendation! I just listened to the entire podcast, very interesting and exciting stuff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Brings back memories of the college days... not a single care in the world but expanding horizons.

<comment><USER15> It's never too late to re-expand them :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The Doors (the band) got their name from this book's title.

<comment><USER17> Yes, I'd seen this claim once before. The original quote was "There are things known, and things unknown, and in between are the Doors", yet a quick search led to this explanation: "QI hypothesizes that this quotation was streamlined and then the words were reassigned to more prominent figures such as Jim Morrison, Aldous Huxley and William Blake" on [https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/the- doors](https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/the-doors).

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> _[2011] Aldous Huxley, Dying of Cancer, Left This World Tripping on LSD (1963)_

[http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/aldous_huxleys_lsd_death_...](http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/aldous_huxleys_lsd_death_trip.html)

As an aside: The Doors (the band), in addition to being named after the book and having a classically-trained pianist, basically delved into a different genre with each album. The Electra label also had their albums put on early CDs in 1980/1981 made in _West_ Germany.

</comment><comment><USER19> I always thought this book pretty dull. Different topic, but if you want to read Huxley, Brave new world is great. Alternatively if you want to read about the experiences of early psychedelic users, Leary's psychedelic experience is better.

</comment><comment><USER20> Amazing read so far, very gripping! (Page 5)

<comment><USER18> Yeap. I read it in high school many moons ago. I should probably read it again, before and after dropping acid, just to understand the context. With each year and season of our lives, we see the world through different, hopefully wiser yet still youthfully-enthusiastic, eyes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Was expanded to perfection by Douglas Adams with the bird.

</comment><comment><USER22> What is the copyright status of this?

<comment><USER23> Learned something new:

> In some other countries, including Canada, copyright term is life plus 50 > years, and in those countries C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Robert Frost, Jean > Cocteau, and the famous poet Sylvia Path, who all died in 1963, enter the > public domain in 2014.

[https://klminc.com/intellectual-property/peter-rabbit- loses-...](https://klminc.com/intellectual-property/peter-rabbit-loses- copyright-protection)</comment></comment>


How I Build a $27,000/year passive income with YouTube - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/24q0ln/how_i_built_a_27000year_passive_income/

<comment><USER2> I'm amazed by the people who play video games and post play-throughs on YouTube with millions of subscribers. Even for the ones that don't make $1+ million per year that has to be one of the best jobs available.

Here are some estimated earnings from YouTube: [http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/the-25-h...](http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/the-25-highest- earning-youtube-stars/) Are these numbers correct?

From that list I'm subscribed to CollegeHumor, FPSRussia, and TheRadBrad</comment>


What is Chirped Pulse Amplification, and why does it warrant a Nobel Prize? - <AUTHOR> https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/432138 <comment><USER2> If someone you know has had bladeless laser eye surgery (with a "femtosecond" pulse laser), it probably used chirped pulse amplification.</comment>


The case for a relative popularity meter - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> Here are some thoughts I have regarding popularity meters on news sites and such. Maybe some people would find it interesting or possibly useful. I would also love to hear other opinions, so do share.

I am sure many readers here have seen the new SlashRating box, which sports digg-esque (generally speaking) number ratings for each article. Maybe you noticed that the Gmail Paper article (<http://slashdot.org/articles/07/04/01/0631243.shtml)> and the X-Files article right after it (<http://slashdot.org/articles/07/04/01/1231211.shtml)> have substantially different SlashRatings (1000x+ difference). Humor aside, they may both be valid ratings. Readers familiar with digg (easy example) have seen ratings ranging from the single digits, to way through the thousands. I believe there is a limit to the informativeness of the number rating. And while many services have jumped onto using similar number-based displays of popularity, here I make a case for the relative measure.

As a passer-by, casual reader on digg (which is most readers), when you see a page full of ratings in the hundereds, you probably process only two things from the score: the digit length and leftmost digit. When a 1000+ rating appears, you immediately know from the digit length that it is a magnitude more popular. More than what? More than the surrounding articles. Naturally, your eyes will notice the highest ratings within the page. If you reach a page full of articles rated in the thousands, readers probably apply the same strategy: scan the digit length and the leftmost digit. Unless two or more articles are rated on a higher order of magnitude than the rest, readers would likely ignore the less significant digits -- and when such a comparison is required, the articles are probably popular enough that you read them all.

After you mentally shift to a scale of comparison, you ignore details on other orders of magnitude; this is, for example, how your eyes adjust to consistently bright, or dark, environments. Of course numbers are easy to output and fast to read, and details may be interesting and important to the developers, but for browsing efficiency, most readers do not care, nor need to know, if something is rated 4903, or 4692, points, as long as a reference exists for comparison. And this reference will always depend on the number of participating users at a given moment. A better system should thus display only a relative measurement of popularity within a given timeframe. This idea is not necessarily new, but I believe it is definitely a better approach to popularity measurements, and moreso if you are expecting your project to eventually support a large votership.

An existing example to illustrate good use of this is something like a community download site. Say something is "popular" when over 50% of the users download it. It makes more sense then, to just write "popular" when total_downloads / total_users 0.5, rather than showing "1,040 downloads!", or even "5,503,395 downloads!" (okay, millions is different... but if your users were, like, ants, big deal). In the end, "popularity" is a relative measure.

I'm sure many folks here have thoughts on related issues; let's hear them :)</comment>


Show HN: Go, Docker, and AWS ECS hosted publisher tool - <AUTHOR> http://blockbust.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> One of the authors here. We did an extensive write up on the technology behind the product and lessons learned here [https://medium.com/@BlockBust](https://medium.com/@BlockBust). Let us know if you have any questions we would love to answer them.</comment>


Why It's Time to Focus on SVG Animations in 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://uxplanet.org/why-its-time-to-focus-on-svg-animations-the-story-of-svgator-ac87ff2912e2 <comment><AUTHOR> The lightning-fast advancement of digital technology in a time when businesses are judged by their websites and user interfaces made space for a lightweight and scalable vector image format with support for animation and interactivity: the SVG.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it better to apply as a dual iOS/Android developer or specialize? - <AUTHOR> Also from hiring perspective, my company has a job posting for an Android/iOS developer, requiring expertise in both. Is this common? As an applicant would it be better to pass on these hybrid roles? <comment><USER2> I am. But I as I do contracting and choose interesting projects I tend to be a generalist so my outlook is skewed.

If you were just starting out, I'd suggest you work with Xamarin to do your app development in, and Unity3d if you were doing games or 3d work (Though you could use monogame with xamarin if you were so inclined). But then again, my comfort zone is C#.

Android and iOS apps these days tend to look very similar, with the main difference being a soft back button for iOS and none for Android. Windows phone can look very different if you use the Metro design language but quite a few apps that I've used seem to be mostly ignoring it (admittedly niche ones) and looking like the big two.

Whatever developer you hire will be "better" (or at least more comfortable) at one platform than another.

Have you done your market research? Are you targeting a particular market that is likely to have one phone type rather than another? I've noticed that the different platforms tend to attract different types of people. App Annie is a good source on this market data though you'll have to ignore the most-popular apps as you're not going to be the next facebook/ebay etc no matter how hard you try.

</comment><comment><USER3> It is not very common but it happens. In my company we are divided in feature teams, some of the smaller features have only one mobile engineer for both iOS & Android (Windows has its own very small team for all the features).

It can be beneficial for both the employer & employee, but it is a bit of a particular case.</comment>


NJ-Based Freelance Writers are about to lose their livelihoods - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/dznev1/njbased_freelance_writers_are_about_to_lose_their/ <comment><USER2> This is pure FUD and is just wrong, and it's disappointing to see how many people are rallying behind this nonsense.

The actual legislation as written will serve to protect workers by giving teeth to policies that punish employers from forcing people who are effectively employees into a 1099/independent contractor working relationship in order to cut costs and avoid minimum wage laws.

Stop spreading the lies. You are only hurting the people that this law is meant to protect.</comment>


Show HN: Give/get referrals to tech companies (repher.me) - <AUTHOR> https://repher.me <comment><AUTHOR> Made using React, Firebase, a lot of material UI.

A simple website to give or get referrals to tech companies. Completely free to use.

I was able to get some neat data from over 500 referral requests, take a look: [https://imgur.com/a/kat47BG](https://imgur.com/a/kat47BG).

The right-hand side is the top requested companies, and the left-hand side is the companies from which those requests are coming from. Basically shows who's trying to go where.

I work at Google and personally referred 2 candidates who looked very good, 1 got hired (and yes there's a referral bonus).</comment>


New web sites straddle legality, allowing girls to make big bucks - <AUTHOR> http://www.alternet.org/sex/77923/1/

<comment><USER2> Why didn't I think of that. Damn.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is really quite disgusting.

<comment><USER4> so long as nobody's acting against their will, i can't take issue with it.

<comment><USER5> Shouldn't there always be a balance between what people want and what they need? (ex. hard drugs, suicide, ajax)

<comment><USER6> Who is to say what people need? You? What 48% of people think? Or what the majority of elected representatives in states I don't live in think?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Market efficiency in the sack.

</comment><comment><USER8> $100k/year is "big bucks"?

<comment><USER9> For a lot of people, yes. Even for day-job programmers, the money is better than most professions.

"When I point out that it took me two days to get two offers that pay more than my job at Mother Jones, that I could make $9,600 a month -- $115,200 a year -- and the average starting salary for someone with humanities masters' like ours is $39,808, she sighs, "I really don't know if I could stand banging some disgusting creep for money. But there are really some pretty compelling reasons to try."

<comment><USER8> It just seems to me that if you're willing to do just about anything to make $100k/year, and you consider this particular job disgusting, why not get a degree in something marketable, even if you don't love it, and make the same amount, or more, that way? I'm not at all opposed to women selling this particular skill...it's just when they're saying "banging some disgusting creep for money" it makes it clear that it's not what they want to do with their life.

So, my question, perhaps not made clear enough, is why don't they do something a little less disgusting to them and make even more money than that? An MBA from any good university is worth more than 100k/year in big markets, even with little experience. A bachelors in computer science is pretty close. Law starts near there as well. Nursing pays that well in major markets with a few years experience. Heck, regional managers at McDonald's make more than that-- though working up to regional manager is not a trivial amount of effort.

I'm just confused why someone would do something that disgusts them for an amount of money that is reasonably achievable in a half dozen careers that aren't all that hard to get into. If, in fact, it doesn't disgust them, and they just like to complain about their boss (as folks do in every career), then it makes more sense.

But the more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that the real answer for why they do it is: "I don't want to work very hard, but I want to have the lifestyle of someone who does. And it sucks that I have to bang some disgusting creep to avoid working hard in a field that isn't fun to achieve this lifestyle." As I said, I don't see anything wrong with a woman selling this type of labor, if she wants to. She's probably not the kind of woman I'd want in my life, but that doesn't make it morally wrong. I also wouldn't want to spend time with someone that thinks pageants are awesome, or who loves football above all else, or who enjoys hunting. None of those things are wrong, and I don't judge folks who do them...I just don't find them interesting.</comment></comment></comment>


No Evidence That Fracking Can Operate Without Threatening Public Health - <AUTHOR> https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/08/05/report-fracking-threatening-public-health <comment><USER2> As a former oil field worker and a former scientist, reading articles on fracking is always confusing. Most writers on this topic do not adequately distinguish between drilling, fracking, extraction, maintenance or cleanup. When comparing fracked wells to non fracked wells, all of these processes are very similar except for the fracking itself and the cleanup.

Given that fracking usually happens 10,000 feet underground, and far below any water table, direct effects on the surface are rare. It took 60 years of fracking before we even discovered that it could cause surface earthquake detectable by humans. And even then, the last I checked the number of noticeable earthquakes caused by fracking can be counted on both hands.

Wastewater injection is a known issue. In certain areas, waste water injection can cause earthquakes. In other areas, waste water injection is fine. It's a matter of geological particulars, and a blanket ban doesn't make sense.

With the exception of these two processes, a fracked well is very similar to a non fracked well. On the other hand, the following statement doesn't seem to recognize the similarities between fracked and non fracked wells:

>"There's really definitive evidence now that methane leaks at every stage of the fracking process" from drilling to storage, she says. And that's contributing to a surge in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere.

There's nothing in this statement, or in the surrounding context, that says this problem would be unique to fracked wells. Any well that emits methane (which is quite a few of them) would have the exact same issue. It appears that what organizations like Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York (which doesn't seem terribly non partisan in the first place) are really concerned about is not fracking, but any hydrocarbon extraction.

The real issue at hand seems to be the expansion of oil wells into parts of the country that did not historically have that industry. Banning fracking may simply be the wrong approach. For example, as technology advances, non fracking methods may be discovered that would once again put oil wells in communities that don't want them. In addition, talking about fracked wells without comparing them against similar non fracked wells is sloppy science. Most of the research and white papers I've read on the topic do not adequately use traditional wells as controls, meaning it's impossible to tell if the deleterious health and environmental effects apply only to fracked wells or to every oil well.

<comment><USER3> > Given that fracking usually happens 10,000 feet underground, and far below > any water table

Ok so why are the fracking chemicals being found in groundwater and giving people cancer?

<comment><USER2> Because of flaws in the casing which allows fluids in the well bore to leak outside of it. This exact problem can happen to any well, not just fracked ones.

<comment><USER4> Ok, but this seems to belie your previous point about groundwater contamination. If the bore lining is theoretically a permeable structure in any well, then using fracking techniques would almost definitely make it more likely to crack, right? You certainly can't control where the excess pressure you're providing goes, it's hydrostatic. Therefore it's much more likely that a fracked well will contaminate layers above the production layer, right? Not to mention the fracking fluid contains extra materials which are likely the cause of any deleterious health effects.

<comment><USER5> > If the bore lining is theoretically a permeable structure in any well, then > using fracking techniques would almost definitely make it more likely to > crack, right?

It's not always permeable. It's more of a design issue because well completion is not a science, it's more of a process of optimizing production vs cost. You're not going to just use the thickest strongest metal there is everywhere.

> Therefore it's much more likely that a fracked well will contaminate layers > above the production layer, right? Not to mention the fracking fluid > contains extra materials which are likely the cause of any deleterious > health effects.

Not necessarily. There's layers of permeable and effectively impermeable rock, depending on the fluid. Typical fracking depths are well below groundwater layers and separated by impermeable layers. Shale for example, is so tight that basically only methane flows through it because it's the smallest hydrocarbon. Fracking fluids (ex. water) + extra materials (such as sand, isopropyl alcohol) are used precisely because they can't flow through, build up pressure, and then physically create fractures in the production layer. The fluid can get lost as the rock fractures more and pressure drops, but this is monitored and again, is well below groundwater depth.

<comment><USER4> You've just repeated OP's point verbatim, though. The whole point is that in an _idealized_ system, you have the well bore travelling down through a groundwater later which by definition is permeable by water. If your bore lining fails (which it is likely to do, given the hydraulic pressure required for fracking _lower_ layers) you then have an open circuit to the groundwater layer. It doesn't matter how much further down the production layer is. Furthermore, it's unlikely that a small leak into a groundwater layer would be A. Easily detectable or B. Cause the producer to immediately abandon pumping anything else into a well which has already taken a significant investment to drill and line.

<comment><USER2> My point is that this is not unique to fracked wells. Literally any well can have this problem and it's something that wells have to be regularly tested for. If a new technique is developed that allows hydrocarbons to be extracted from these wells, but does not fall under the fracking bans, then we're back in the same spot. In addition, if scientists have discovered a systematic flaw in regulation on well casing integrity, then I hope we apply that knowledge to all our oil wells, and not just the fracked ones.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't understand articles like this. Do they really think it helps their case to say fracking is bad because of climate change? The fact that the technique is effective shouldn't be a reason to ban it! If you want to regulate carbon emmisions, then do so, but I really feel that trying to attack it from different angles just weakens the argument.

It also means that the article spends virtually zero time talking about things that may actually be risks of the practice, or potential solutions. We aren't getting rid of natural gas powerplants any time soon. We could do a better job of monitoring and cleaning up leaks of fracking chemicals and wastewater injection though, if we focused on that.

</comment><comment><USER7> You can not "prove" a negative.

<comment><USER8> That's a bastardization of the headline and inaccurate.

Do a little substitution over there... and here... and away you go!

No Evidence that you have been employed without killing my pet Liger

Proving a negative, is possible. It's relatively difficult and uncommonly done.

[https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27130](https://www.edge.org/response- detail/27130)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't see any qualification of on/offshore, which presumably is a pretty important omission?

Even though one can probably make arguments about the impact of offshore fracking on public health, surely (at least) also a whole class of impacts relating to the human habitation around/above the fracking area (methane leaks, earthquakes, groundwater contamination etc) are not relevant.

I'd be interested in a pragmatic study that calculates the net benefit of fracking. Some of us don't want to go back to the dark ages, and like not being dependent on nasty regimes to keep the lights on. And before we start fetishing the environment, consider the pollution and hazards thrown out by a volcano, of which there are many on the earth's surface.

<comment><USER10> Why is fracking a requirement, even rhetorically, for "avoiding the dark ages?"

It's pretty inevitable that our world is going to change dramatically over the next century as equatorial regions dramatically change climate, ocean ecosystems go through rapid extinction phases in some regions, and coastlines are redrawn. So if you're concerned about a change to your life and environment, too bad. You're getting that no matter what.

What matters now is not exacerbating the problems presented by using technologies that appear to be harmful like fracking.

You don't need to return to "the dark ages" to preserve a post-industrial society. That society needs to pool resources, spread out less, and use more decentralized infrastructure.

> And before we start fetishing the environment, consider the pollution and > hazards thrown out by a volcano, of which there are many on the earth's > surface.

This is simply a non-sequitur and you should realize it. No technology or even a theoretical framework exists to stop volcanos from erupting. What's more, we know factually that volcanos have historically tweaked the environment one way or another, and humanity's combined industrial output exceeds the output of a volcano. So we should focus on the things we _can_ change.

<comment><USER9> > Why is fracking a requirement, even rhetorically, for "avoiding the dark > ages?"

I strongly suspect that alongside the well-intentioned environmentalists there are malign influences piggy-backing on the movement for their own ends, and I suspect some of these would happily see us back in the dark ages. There is evidence, if one cares to look.

> You're getting that no matter what.

That's the consensus, but none of us have a crystal ball, including you. And there are dissenters from the orthodoxy, though they risk severe punishment for their heresy. Some say we are better off managing the impacts rather than investing stupendous sums in prevention. I'll also point out that the same organisations that are pushing climate change hard (UN etc.) are doing little to halt growth in global population, and are also promoting mass migration to high income economies, thereby creating a need for further development of infrastructure, housing etc. in those economies, but apparently for some reason the concrete used in housing etc. built for migrants magically doesn't generate co2.

> humanity's combined industrial output exceeds the output of a volcano

And there are those that argue that non-human factors influence our climate far more than humanity.

<comment><USER10> > I strongly suspect that alongside the well-intentioned environmentalists > there are malign influences piggy-backing on the movement for their own > ends, and I suspect some of these would happily see us back in the dark > ages. There is evidence, if one cares to look.

Even if we ignore the conspiratorial nature of this statement for the sake of assuming positive intent... this doesn't even remotely answer or even address my question. Even if there are sinister cabals of powerful regressives, what does Fracking have to do with it? And even if someone might have a less than pure motive, does it matter if there are positive scientific findings and plenty of alternatives?

> That's the consensus, but none of us have a crystal ball, including you. And > there are dissenters from the orthodoxy, though they risk severe punishment > for their heresy.

Really? "Severe punishment?" Other than being called wrong and having their papers refuted over and over what exactly is that? It seems strange to offer such an _unmeritocratic_ view on this.

> Some say we are better off managing the impacts rather than investing > stupendous sums in prevention.

Like that guy who said folks displaced by rising sea levels can sell their homes and move?

> I'll also point out that the same organisations that are pushing climate > change hard (UN etc.) are doing little to halt growth in global population, > and are also promoting mass migration to high income economies, thereby > creating a need for further development of infrastructure

Firstly, are you suggesting the UN is "encouraging" refugee crisis? Couldn't then this symmetrically be spun as tyrranical dictators and religious governments oppressing populations such that they flee, "thereby creating a need for further development of infrastructure, housing etc?" And doesn't that seem like the more reasonable assignment of blame?

> built for migrants magically doesn't generate co2.

Construction is hardly the primary source of CO2 in most developed nations.

> And there are those that argue that non-human factors influence our climate > far more than humanity.

I am aware some small minority of people believe in unproven ideas, and that's fine. But simply finding people who agree with you isn't the point of science _or_ my post.

You've said a lot of things but not said why fracking, specifically, is important. It's certainly not a tradition. It, as it is currently performed, is not particularly important for global energy production. It's not the preferred method for helium harvesting.

If I were to stop for a moment in my meticulous assumption of positive intent, I might be inclined to believe you're much more interested in _signaling your distaste for technological progress_ rather than _actually caring about the specific legacy technology at hand._

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This title is true even if zero research had been done.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Facebook Messenger Censoring Swear Words? - <AUTHOR> Messenger appears to be censoring swear words. Bullshit appeared as b* * * * * * *, that's how I found out about it. I haven't tested a wide range of words and I don't see any info about it online or in the app settings. Has anyone else noticed this? <comment><AUTHOR> OK I figured it out...the person who sent the message was using Android voice typing, so it was Google who censored it.

</comment><comment><USER2> Google Voice censors swear words. You can switch it off though, but it is on by default.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just tested it out, it is not censoring swear words for me. They use to not allow torrent links to be sent in the past, I am not sure if thats still the case.

</comment><comment><USER4> test</comment>


Hands off the steering wheel with the Cadillac Super Cruise - <AUTHOR> https://www.pcmag.com/article/356694/hands-off-the-steering-wheel-with-cadillac-super-cruise <comment> tmpnam7280557- Note that General Motors' Cruise Automation subsidiary did not contribute to this product (although we like to pretend that we did). Credit goes to GeoDigital and GM engineering.

</comment><comment><USER2> Reminds me of the steering mechanism in the vehicles in _The 6th Day_ \- one of the substantially more plausible "future tech" presentations in sci-fi</comment>


Ask HN: is Mac or Linux the choice for a modern web hacker? - <AUTHOR>

Let's say you're a lean mean startup web app writer heavily relying on the latest OSS techologies and frameworks to get your job done. You don't care so much for the MS .NET-based stack, you like your various rails, djangos, scalas and nodes and need to get stuff done fast and efficiently.
What would you choose? What are some good arguments in favor of using OSX (I generalized it to "Mac" in the title) over Linux and vice-versa?
Thank you! <comment><USER2> No difference. OS X has Unix underpinning so its close to Linux. Choose the one that makes you happy. If you're looking for excuses to buy a Mac, don't, just go out and buy.

<comment><USER3> I disagree. Package management is a nightmare on Mac--bad enough that I work on a Mint VM at home for my OSS contributions and on a Ubuntu VM at work. This is a significant consideration for any dev.

Note: I know MacPorts exists, and I'm not a fan.

<comment><USER4> Homebrew (<http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>) is a significant improvement over MacPorts. The formulas also seem to be updated much quicker as well, as far as I can remember from when I last used MacPorts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Develop on the same platform that you deploy on - which will probably be some flavor of Linux...

That being said, I usually develop in a Ubuntu VM running on OSX -- so you get the best of both worlds, a system that just works, and a development environment that's the same as what you'll end up deploying on.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you ever feel that the Ubuntu VM isn't fast enough and you wish you had a real installation of the OS to work with, is the VM more than enough?

Also, what software do you use to manage that VM?

<comment><USER6> > Also, what software do you use to manage that VM? could you please clarify > what you mean by _managing_ a vm ? are you looking at running 100's or even > 1000's of vm ? are you running your vm on dedicated h/w (most likely not !) > which would most likely involve migrating running vm's across server blades > etc. etc. for development needs, a handful of vm's can be very easily > 'managed' by your virtualization solution...

<comment><AUTHOR> Managing is a bit of an overloaded term, I agree that it could be misunderstood.

I was only asking about the software used to boot, save, load and configure one or two VMs on a dev box.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you look purely at what is needed to build a web app - the programming language you'll use, an editor and a web browser - and you're a lone developer (not working with a team with existing tools that you too will need), it's hard for me to come up with a solid argument for buying a Mac purely for that (though I'm a huge Apple fan). You can also use apps like Gimp on Linux to create graphics.

Just about all business-ey apps you might need can be gotten for free from Google Apps if you aren't worried about the big G having all your information.

If you already have a Mac though...

I also agree with the points of other commenters here. If you're working on the same OS you're deploying to and have the exact same software installed changes of FUBAR'ing the server by accident are reduced.

</comment><comment><USER8> It doesn't matter. Your life will only be marginally enhanced, no matter which is better.

<comment><USER9> Yeah. Except if he starts to work with multimedia. Edit video, make professional grade midi/audio sequencing etc. Which with Linux will be a world of pain and/or deadend.

Same if he wants to work with a CMYK design workflow, or in a professional DTP environment etc. A world of pain again and/or deadend.

<comment><USER9> Downvotes, really?

I can understand "religious" flames, but people at HN also disagree with _statements of fact_?

Fact: Linux/OSS has bad/lacking/non-existent support for video editing. The fact that you can point to 2-3 half-finished NLE projects that no professional uses doesn't change this. There are the plugins, the drivers for capture options, other supporting software, etc missing.

Fact: Linux/OSS had bad/lacking/non-existent support for MIDI/Audio sequencing. The fact that you can point to 2-3 half-finished DAW projects that no professional uses doesn't change this. There are the plugins, the drivers for capture options, other supporting software, etc missing. No, some semi- abandoned VST wrapper is not a solution.

Fact: Linux/OSS has bad/lacking/non-existent DTP/CMYK support. No Scribus doesn't exactly cut it professionally, and the fact that GIMP got CMYK doesn't change the lack of other parts of the CMYK workflow much.

<comment><USER8> While it's true that that's a reason for some people not to use Linux, it's not a reason for _him_ not to use Linux, and it doesn't discount the point which you replied to, that this decision probably doesn't matter. Everybody already knows that you can only do some things on some operating systems. Also, since we've established that listing statements of fact cannot be downvoted...

Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, she added two and two and got four!

Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, strip had a stack overflow!

Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, she crushes ants when she steps on them!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> While there are tools, usually the same tools, for both OS's... I personally have found that anyone who is serious about hacking should have a working knowledge of both OS's. Usually when I do any serious hacking, I use BackTrack. This is a Linux OS that has all the tools and tutorials that I need to crack a system. The problem I find with Mac OS X... The hacking tools are readily available on the internet if you know what you are looking for, and where to find them. So to put it simply, it takes more time to research how to hack if you are using a Mac. I just want people to know, I love my Mac. I upgraded to Lion the day it came out. I love my Ipod touch 4G, and my Ipad. However I also love my Linux desktop. I can hack just about anything with it.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you handle more than one free account per person? - <AUTHOR>

Mostly in the title. To elaborate a bit further on the service: I offer a free tier account that requires only an email and a password to sign up with. The service is not cheap to run, so the free accounts are very limited (mostly just a taster for the paid account tiers). I've noticed a few people signing up five to ten accounts with variations on their email (but are largely the same).
How do all of you handle the issue of pruning/filtering registrations? Is this is a dead-end battle? Should I try to only allow 1 registration per IP address  for say a two week time frame (to account for DHCP) - their IP can be updated every time they log in; this could catch 70% of the users that aren't smart enough to use a proxy...? Should I even bother?
I'm leaning towards the "Should I even bother?" side of this because I can't think of a truly reliable method of doing this and that if I focus on converting as many free users to paid tiers the paying customers can offset even the wily free account creators. <comment><USER2> What percentage of users do this, that you can tell? If its 3% of users, it might not even be worth it.

That being said, why not allow a few registrations per IP address (versus 1). You'd hate to punish possible paying clients by preventing them from signing up for your service because someone else on the same IP did the same thing.

Finally, it may be worth it to send an email to the people you notice and ask how you can improve the product. It would let them know that you know what they are doing, but you still want them as paying customers, not to punish them or push them away.

<comment><USER3> I'd send them an email & offer them a discounted rate for X months on whatever non-free tier is the best fit for their actual use. After that time they can either go back to their shenanigans, or keep paying your full price.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> just block duplicate accounts, whoever is going through the trouble setting 10 fake accounts, won't be paying you any time soon.</comment>


Programmer Competency Matrix - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiangeek.net/programmer-competency-matrix/

<comment><USER2> Funny how people who write articles are what makes a good on their programming blogs often include "writes a programming blog" as one of the attributes a good candidate should have...

Hmmm, maybe my comment should read as: "it doesn't perfectly describe me in every way, hence it's a terrible list" ;) I'm getting too many 2's damnit!

<comment><USER3> On the same note, I don't see how 'trying out' a DVCS makes you suddenly level 3 on the "source code and version control" metric.

Programmer competency articles are sort of a macho, nerdy equivalent of "do these pants make my butt look big?"

<comment><USER4> Yep. It's a dick measuring contest, geek-style. At least I'm going to call it that since I did so badly. It's amazing I get anything done. And yet . . . I do.

<comment><USER5> It absolutely is, but it is slightly useful to at least attempt to measure competency.

Though, this chart implies all skills are equally worthwhile. There's another extremely important category missing here, which I'll call "solving the right problem". It might need to be split into a technical side and a business/marketing side. Solving the customer's actual problem, and using the correct technical approach vastly outweighs many of the categories listed.

<comment><USER6> "Solving the right problem" is like the skill of "big picture thinking". It's clearly important, but the evaluation of it is subjective and case-based. What's nice about this tool is that it's relatively objective, for the most part, although it certainly doesn't paint a complete picture of what makes a good programmer (which is context-driven, in any case).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think this is a reformatted version of this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232192>

<comment><USER8> It's not a different version... it's the same thing on the same site. Saying it's a different version is like pointing at a page in which an image is embedded and linking to the image itself and saying they're different versions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This may be pretty useful for as a pre-interview form to fill. Definitely not as a tool to generate a score or to filter candidates, but as a way to easily get an idea about somebody's strengths and weaknesses and to start conversation. Also, if you have some code samples in advance (which you should always do) they're dead easy to verify. Actually just verifying them is not a bad interview in itself.

<comment><USER10> I don't like pre-interview surveys much. I tend to fill them out biasing against myself which tends to be a disservice to myself and to the employers.

To use an example. Lets say I'm considered an expert in a closed pretzel making community. I worked for the Bavarians who are renown in the pretzel making community. While there I made some waves in the pretzel making arts. Lets say the Bavarians are very secretive and won't talk about their pretzel making to other pretzel makers. They're Bavarians, they don't need to.

Later I saw a job at a medium sized pretzel factory in Portugal. I liked the location and applied as an operational pretzel maker. They asked me to fill out a survey and I listed that I didn't have experience with dough pullers and have only shaken the salt shaker a few times in recent history.

Quickly said factory sends a "you're not what we're looking for email". Needless to say, I was slightly perplexed.

The survey didn't give me a chance to state that I had invented new pretzel recipes (and pretzel making techniques that did not require dough pullers at that) and had a different view on pretzel making because I was working for the Bavarians for so long. They also missed out on my motivation to get closer to people eating pretzels and take my ideas outside of the schnitzel tower the Bavarian pretzel makers occupy.

In short, I wrote all this to say I'm not a fan of pre-interview surveys.

<comment><USER9> I did mention it shouldn't be used as a filter, for exactly this reason. A pre-interview form can be used during the interview, too. Instead of starting with a blank sheet in front of you, you have this chart. "I see here you have knowledge about VCS systems... which did you use?".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> These all things can easily be learned. Anyone can jump from 2 to 4 in a couple of weeks by learning binary trees, SVN, starting to write unit tests, and do all the other skills. Wouldn't make him less of a moron.

It is the abstract thinking, akin to what is needed at TopCoder and mathematical olympiads, that makes a programmer great, not his fucking .emacs file or nice template for a file.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm surprised that I'm mostly 3s and 2s after 4 years of experience at Intel and 1.5 years experience doing side work at college jobs. Working on many projects has allowed me to focus strongly in a few areas. I'm still a "1" in TDD because I only write unit scripts after the code is written and focus more on getting stuff accomplished.

</comment><comment><USER13> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232192>

</comment><comment><USER14> For a self taught programmer, I find it quite interesting to see which areas I've gotten up to 3 or 4 and which are 2. ( Thankfully none are lower! ) Though obviously it's going to come from one industry bias, it's still useful as a reminder of what areas I should do more reading in.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm pretty much on the right side on all of these. I probably should be getting paid more.

<comment><USER16> Honestly, I think everyone else is too. Most of the things aren't that advanced... or rather, I am not particularly proud that I know or do the things listed. (It does scare me that there are 1s and 0s, though.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Quick issue -- there are _many_ grades of levels 2 and 3 on that matrix (i.e. one could know what a red-black tree is and where it should be used -- or one could easily be able to implement it; one could know basic scheme -- tail recursion, continuations -- or one could have made a prolog compiler on top of common lisp (cf Norvig's book)).

In essence to put it this way:

"for $thing in ( technology, pattern, algorithm, methodology ):

it doesn't discriminate someone who've toyed with a $thing, someone who has made an implementation of that $thing for an employer or someone who has authored an all-new $thing."

</comment><comment><USER18> Heh, I'd place myself in the last column for most of these, but I still don't consider myself a very good developer :)

</comment><comment><USER19> Great article ... err, matrix.

So, how do we stack up here?

With 15 years of experience, I SHOULD be a "3" in every category... but in reality, I'm more like 2/3 '2's and 1/3 '3's.

Chalk the shortfall up to laziness, I suppose.

How about the rest of you?

<comment><USER20> I rate three across the board, which simply implies to me that the author of the chart had similar interests and focus.

<comment><USER21> Yes. How about an O(1) category above log(n)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's clearly EBTS - Excessive Box Ticking Syndrome ;-)

</comment><comment><USER23> This looks a lot like the list in Steve McConell's "Code Complete".

</comment><comment><USER24> These tables are mostly worthless. Just like a bunch of engineers/scientist to take humans and make them as close to numbers as possible.

</comment><comment><USER25> I prefer a binary "Programmer Competency Matrix". Kinda like Hugh Jackman in the movie Swordfish...Get it to work in 60 seconds while getting sucked off with a gun to your head. All the rest is fluff.

</comment><comment><USER6> Pretty good assessment tool. I've been programming professionally for 2 years, and averaged 1.9, which seems about right.

</comment><comment><USER26> I've writing a pretentious wanker matrix, but this simplifies it a lot. It's now a simple question - do you pay attention to stuff like this?</comment>


Show HN: Making of the Breaking Bad logo (CSS/SVG/JavaScript) as a Codecast - <AUTHOR> http://cssdeck.com/labs/breaking-bad-codecast

<comment><USER2> While the Breaking Bad logo is awesome, I have to say their Codecast-ing feature is what makes it pretty cool. Is there anything else out there like this / has this feature?

<comment><USER3> This was submitted to HN some days ago. [http://cssdeck.com/labs/creating- single-element-iphone-using...](http://cssdeck.com/labs/creating-single- element-iphone-using-css3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've watched a couple of these 'casts now and they're really quite informative, although I do wonder if the author constantly adding/editing comments as the main narrative/exposition method is the most instructive.

Obviously there will be things that should be commented for explanation, but it feels like it should be for more 'stable' (I'm struggling for the right term here) notes.

In contrast to a traditional presentation where you have slides + narration (which later becomes a transcript), the 2 forms of information are merged here, which muddies things a bit.

Keeping it all-text is essential; the 15x multiplier is great, and utterly impractical if you're also trying to follow a voice-over, but maybe it should be in another window, perhaps with some sort of temporal glow-highlight or visual-diff style emphasis on what's being changed, to draw those things apart.

That's all a bit cssdeck-meta though.

On this demo specifically, I'm curious why part of the behaviour was tied to the role="" attribute, and part was done with classes. Can anyone with more frontend experience than me (so, essentially everyone) suggest where you might choose one approach "foo[attr=val]" over ".foo .bar"?

<comment><AUTHOR> I used the role-attribute as sub-styling for a parent class!

Example:

.desc // Parent class

.desc[role="top-left"] // Sub styling for parent

.desc[role="top-right"] // Sub styling for parent

But there is no specific rule to do it like this! I just don't want so many classes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Love the codecasts (the iPhone one was very informative), but each time I go to cssdeck I struggle to find the play button. This time it was hidden under one of the code panels and I only found it after accidentally dismissing the code panel.

Making the play button more prominent and placing it in the outer chrome would make life for the new viewer easier.

<comment><USER3> <https://aboutmybrowser.com> please

<comment><USER5> <https://aboutmybrowser.com/450321640>

<comment><USER3> These are fine but for me, it looks like this [https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26141789/CloudShot/shot_9112012_110...](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26141789/CloudShot/shot_9112012_110346_pm.png)

Is it different for you? And btw, not all experiments on cssdeck have play feature.

<comment><USER6> On my computer it also blocks the play button by default. It looks like this: [https://dl.dropbox.com/u/30313301/Photos/Screen%20Shot%20201...](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/30313301/Photos/Screen%20Shot%202012-09-11%20at%209.23.55%20PM.png)

And this is with a completely different browser: <https://aboutmybrowser.com/1498962490>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Just one word... wow. This worked more than any tutorial on HTML 5 I have ever read. Very good job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is just incredible. Well done.

</comment><comment><USER9> wow i'm loving it</comment>


Ask HN: How to stay engaged in your career? - <AUTHOR> I'm continually feeling disengaged at every workplace I've been at after some time.
Even though I perform well externally I'm starting to yearn for harder intellectual challenges. Data Science looks like one avenue of harder work, but it seems like I will have to retool my skillset completely as I am mostly an enterprise software developer. If I stick on with my work, I am sure I will be promoted but I'm not sure whether I will be fulfilled managing others who will replace doing my low level work.
Any advice? How do you sustain your passion for the work you do? How do you know when it's time to be okay with retooling and trying something radically different? <comment><USER2> It isn't abnormal to outgrow current positions, teams, or even companies as time goes on. Not only do we change as individuals (we grow up, want different things in life, start families, etc.), but companies also change (they hire more people, pivot, reorg, etc.).

To me, staying passionate and excited about the work you do is simply following what excites you. It's easy to feel more constrained than you actually are. You don't need to follow the management track at your company at all. You can be an IC forever. You can also find a new team, or a new company! You can be a consultant and chose which companies/projects to work with/on (and only choose the ones that genuinely give you goosebumps, they're that exciting!). You can, as you mentioned, transition into new fields/industries.

Your career doesn't have to be linear. I went to grad school to get my PhD in Neuroscience because I thought I wanted to be an academic professor. Two years in, I dropped out because, even though it was intellectually challenging, it didn't fan my flames. (I felt so trapped and uninspired.) I then worked as an operations manager at a startup called Homejoy. It was there where I realized how powerful coding was. After Homejoy, at 26yo, I learned to code. For two years, I did freelance web development and then almost exactly one year ago today, I started working on a side project that very quickly became the only thing I wanted to work on. I'm now a founder of a company (Key Values) and every single day I'm doing something that's new, challenging, and exciting to me.

>>> How do you know when it's time to be okay with [...] trying something radically different?

You should always be _okay_ with trying something radically different (ie. don't be afraid). Maybe the real question is _when_ do you pull the trigger?

It helps to first know what your personal values are, and then you can ask yourself: "Are my behaviors in alignment with my values?" If the answer is no, it's time to make a change!

If you ask me, you should be excited / stimulated / challenged / inspired every single day. We have a pretty limited amount of time on planet earth, so it's really on us to make the very most of it.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's amazing how much you can learn in your free time, to get a taste of a new field. I've watched some lectures on type theory. Which is super hard, and I didn't understand most of it but it gave me a flavour. I attended meetups on compiler design, spent a few hours on machine learning courses online. Most of these things gave me a flavour of that field but no expertise of course.

I've settled on Elm development as something I am passionate about for various reasons (wont go into here) and want to spend a lot more time on, so I am building a side project that could become commercial in the future. So I found what works for me by experimenting in my spare time, but you only need a few hours to "spike" if you will like a topic.

I guess it's a bit like the 'fail fast' approach used in start ups. For example I thought that I 'should' enjoy stats/machine learning but really I hate it. Someone else can do that thanks, glad I only spent 10 hours on it.

</comment><comment><USER4> This question strikes me as something I was searching for as well. About 3 years ago someone shared this with me and it changed my whole perspective of the "Life KPIs" I was monitoring.

Here it is:

"Life is not about happiness but rather the ability have purpose, to do something meaningful, and to have it matter that you lived at all. Keep adding value to the world big or small, and you'll never be short of gratitude."

I wont be prescriptive, instead, all I can tell you is that it's changed my life. I started optimizing for the above and haven't looked back since.

</comment><comment><USER5> > How do you sustain your passion for the work you do?

This may be a cliche, but, passion comes automatically and sustains indefinitely if you are doing what you really like to do as opposed what you have to do because its your job. That's all there is to it. I have been lucky in that I found jobs that excited me, and I would be self employed soon, so I have no advice wrt finding passion in a forced marriage.

> How do you know when it's time to be okay with retooling and trying > something radically different?

This feeds off the previous point. Retooling must be an organic development and not forced. If you are trying to learn something new simply to get a higher paying job with a cooler image, then you are doing it wrong, and are bound to revisit the feeling of being disengaged. However, if the need arises out of having to move on to the next stage because the current stage is lacking and the new stage will be a better replacement or better augments the current stage, you'll know it without needing to ask.

Take me as an example. I was a C++ developer focusing on desktop products all my career, which is more than a decade. I quit my well paying job in order to pursue some product ideas. A few months into the hiatus I realized that my products are better served and used on the web platform as opposed to being the traditional desktop products. Reasons included upgrade cycles and platform specific building and testing headaches. I had never gone beyond basic HTML and had to learn everything - DOM, JavaScript, databases, server side scripting and the whole gamut - from scratch. This was quite drastic a change. However, I was thoroughly immersed in the learning and experimenting process because that was an absolute necessity. It was imperative to my future plans. As painful as front end JS development is, I completely enjoyed (still enjoying) the experience. The backend development is even more fun. Had I shifted to web development only to get a "better and more challenging" job, I would not have survived three weeks.

</comment><comment><USER6> Have you talked to many data scientists? Most of the ones I know spend a large chunk of time cleaning, and filtering data. And they don't describe it as particularly satisfying intellectually.

<comment><USER7> And the actual algo part is mostly just making some API calls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> In an analogous situation. I try to think of my current work as a stepping stone to other opportunities, but admittedly it's tough. I'm also genuinely interested in data science, but am skeptical that to do data science you have to 'retool'. I think it's about striking a balance between the skills you have and developing in areas that make you more productive. Good employers know how to motivate people and keep them engaged (if they speak up).

</comment><comment><USER9> Find a way to keep learning new stuff. Preferably at least tangentially related to your work.

If you keep trying to find stuff to do that is interesting, and none of it can be related back to your job, then I think that would be a good time to start thinking about your long-term plans and how much longer you want to be where you are.

</comment><comment><USER10> Marshall Goldsmith offers an excellent framework to self-assess and directly improve your own engagement > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k882gTkCCxY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k882gTkCCxY)

</comment><comment><USER11> I stay engaged by taking on more complex tasks and letting my line manager know if I don't feel like I'm moving in the direction I want. They help course correct my position/responsibilities to get my trajectory back where I'd like it to be.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think once you have both of these engagement is lost:

1\. You're not learning anything new.

2\. Hard work and results gets no more reward (either promotion/financial or even just appreciation).

I don't think there's anything you can do after this point. Start something new.

</comment><comment><USER13> Making just barely enough money to survive is a good way to stay engaged.</comment>


Ask HN: How did you choose your Internet handle? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I don't have just one screen name. The screen name I use here I use on the basis of "entities should not be multiplied without necessity." I was already using the screen name "tokenadult" on a site where it was mandatory to use screen names rather than real names, and where I was one of the few adults on a site where most participants are high school students. I then continued to use this screen name on another site with a similar population. On both of those sites I am a volunteer community moderator. My screen name is more jarring here, where most participants are adults, but I wanted to carry over a discernible connection with my identity on those sites. I am well above the median age of HN participants, it appears, so the screen name still makes a little bit of sense here.

On most email lists and Web sites I simply use my real name, which was the rule in several of the places where I first participated in online discussion in the early 1990s.

<comment><AUTHOR> I also use mainly my real name but I like the idea to have a screen name too. I don't care if those two are connected to each other, I don't need anonymity. I normally go by "gg" which are my initials but that is too short and too common to be used in the internet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Barton Fink was the most recent movie I watched when I signed up here. Other handles have been puns on places I've worked, old nicknames, etc. I use a different handle for every site I use.

I mentioned in a similar thread earlier this week that I don't feel that my handle has any ties to my identity - it's just the barrier to entry for posting here. I wouldn't mind one bit if PG decided not to display usernames with posts, and I think it might be an interesting experiment because it would completely eliminate the perceived problem of long-standing users getting celebrity votes and drowning out other, equally valid points of view.

</comment><comment><USER4> "ESWAT stands for "Extra Special Weapons And Tactics". They are a fictional paramilitary group from the manga Appleseed. They also wore 4-meter tall exoskeleton armour, stuck to their ethos and got shit done. If you're trying to come up with a personal moniker you might as well name yourself after a team of badasses."

This is the reasoning behind my nickname I have on my site, but it actually runs a bit deeper than that. I also keep some of the mannerisms of the lead characters in ESWAT and the organization's methods in the back of my mind, whether they work in the real world or something I should scrutinize: Deunan's knowledge and curiosity of multiple languages, ESWAT's belief that specialization breeds weakness, the protagonists' realizing they've become trapped in their current occupation because that's what they are best at, etc. It made perfect sense to me to name my online-self after something from the series.

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Mindcrime>

As you have probably gathered, Queensrÿche are one of my favorite bands, and O:M is one of my all-time favorite albums.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wanted something that is

-similar to my real name

-available on as much websites as possible (signing up early for a service and getting your first name as a handle is nice, but it's unlikely you get it everywhere)

-Easy to have a similar one in case it's unavailable

-short

</comment><comment><USER7> In legend and lore, a "hedge mage" is a magic user who learned hands on by trial and error, as opposed to the ivory tower education of "proper" wizards. As most of my techy "magic" is self taught, it seemed to fit.

</comment><comment><USER8> The one I have here on HN is named as it is because I kept forgetting my username here.</comment>


UA-Parser.JS - Lightweight JavaScript User Agent Parser - <AUTHOR> http://faisalman.github.com/ua-parser-js/

<comment><USER2> On a related note, something I've always wondered about is why there isn't a native host object that represents the UA? Is there anything, save for tons of live code parsing UA strings, preventing this?

Seriously, even this 'lightweight' parser is around 7.6kb and a couple hundred lines of code -- and I'm not trying to knock the OP's work by any stretch. It just seems crazy that we still have to muck with this manual string parsing!

Why can't we just have:

        UA = {
            name: "Chrome",
            vendor: "Google",
            version: [24, 0, 1312, 14], // "24.0.1312.14",
            renderer: {
                name: "WebKit",
                vendor: "Apple",
                version: [537, 17],
            },
            javascript: {
                name: "V8",
                vendor: "Google",
                version: [3, 14, 5, 1],
            },
            os: {
                name: "Windows 7",
                vendor: "Microsoft",
                version: ["NT", 6, 1], // "NT 6.1"
            },
            user: {
                locale: "en-US",
                timezone: "America/Chicago",
                utc: -6,
            }
        };

<comment><USER3> Perhaps because the User-Agent is intended for an HTTP request header, which doesn't lend itself to a complex structure.

<comment><USER2> The HTTP header would be disconnected from this effort, and wouldn't necessarily have to change. The UA object would be populated from what the browser knows about its own operating environment. Not looking to change the way anything works, just looking for a solution to the 100's of different UA parsers that are out there.</comment></comment></comment>