HTML5 is for the web, not for mobile apps - <AUTHOR> http://www.terlici.com/2013/01/02/html5-is-for-the-web.html

<comment><USER2> My comments from the article:

> I've developed apps both native and not native for all platforms, and html5 > apps don't deliver faster results. Developing in javascript is not faster, > in fact making a complex app takes about the same time or even more.

This is really a matter of opinion. Obviously if you approach an Objective-C developer and ask them to build you a HTML5 app it will probably take more time, but for someone such as myself who doesn't know and doesn't want to learn Objective-C it will be faster to use HTML5 and Javascript.

> Learning native technologies takes time, but that is a time well invested in > something that you will use over and over again to deliver results.

Again, this is really just an opinion rather than fact. If you want to learn and write your app in Java, Objective-C, C# and whatever the Ubuntu phone will use then go ahead. However, I quite happy to write my apps once in HTML5, knowing that there will be some issues, but that I can get it done a lot faster than writing once for each platform.

> HTML5 does not look and behave like native app, never

This really isn't an argument any more. I agree that to make stuff look like native components (and as pointed out by other commenters to behave) is harder in HTML5, however take a look at apps such as Path or Foursquare. They don't look like native apps at all either. Making things look native isn't necessarily something you should be striving for.

<comment><USER3>
      > I quite happy to write my apps once in HTML5, knowing that
      > there will be some issues, but that I can get it done a
      > lot faster than writing once for each platform.

The point still stands it really pays of to learn native framework: the sole purpose for it's creation was to be used in web apps. HTML was created to markup the structure of large texts…

Source: I am long-time web developer before turning to full-time iOS programmer.

<comment><USER4> _HTML was created to markup the structure of large texts…_

Of all of the potential arguments against HTML _n_ , this is by far the weakest. What HTML was created for is utterly irrelevant in 2013.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The author conveniently left away the most important benefit of HTML5 apps: at least in theory, you only need to write the app once to support multiple platforms.

With native, you have to re-implement your whole logic (and redo significant parts of the design) for every smartphone platform you want to support, which is a major cost point.

Of course, you will not get perfect UX on all platforms with an HTML5 app without major tweaking, but still the total amount of work is reduced.

<comment><USER3>
      > at least in theory, you only need to write the app once
      > to support multiple platforms.

Yep, in theory. And the further away from web page your app is the more tweaking you will need.

      > With native, you have to re-implement your whole logic

And with HTML you have to reimplement all the components wich framework provides — highly specialized and optimized for performance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This has been discussed to death, but I'd like to add an approach that I haven't seen brought up before.

An HTML5 app/site can be a great MVP. You can build and iterate quickly and even launch it first as a mobile web site. Once you're happy with everything, you can use PhoneGap to turn it into apps. And later you can always build platform-specific native apps. It won't be the perfect experience at all stages, but it can be a more appropriate process for smaller teams. Plus, you can reach a large audience very quickly.

<comment><USER7> And there was an article yesterday about samsung developing their own platform, a new one from blackberry and one from the makers of ubuntu. If they take off who could afford native versions for all those in addition to android, iOS and windows phone?

<comment><USER8> A funny thing about that notion.

Blackberry OS, Ubuntu and Samsung Tizen all treat web apps as first class citizens providing JavaScript APIs to access native functions.

(Chrome OS, WebOS, Firefox OS, and Windows 8 also do this and I think Windows Phone 8 does too)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The problem with mobile HTML5 is that the frameworks aren't nearly as sophisticated as their native counterparts. There's nothing that even touches UIKit on the web. Things as simple as drawing a UINavigationBar-style gradient prove to be unbelievably challenging. On a technical level, it's completely doable, but it requires a lot of time, effort, and designer time. Multiply this out by all the little niceties like animations and embossing all of the buttons and you've got a big job ahead of you.

All the technologies are in place to have a native-quality HTML5 app -- we have canvas to draw pixels however you want. We have WebGL to do any 3D rendering. We have blazing fast JS engines. We have hooks for things like location and camera roll access. The problem is that it's really hard to justify the investment of building out a UIKit-quality framework for the web. Apple and Google can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on their frameworks because it means they'll sell more devices/services. But it's really hard for someone to justify doing so for the web, where there's no ROI for your platform.

</comment><comment><USER10> I always thought of all this native fad to be temporary. Can't we expect with browsers to mature and device performance to improve, to have a platform that's more than good enough to build mobile apps in the future? Anyways, I'm hoping that the crowd regains some common sense and starts advocating the web over these damn fenced gardens.

</comment><comment><USER11> No benefits to making an app in HTML5? This is a joke.

The biggest one for me is choice for the consumer.

They can use any device so long as it's browser conforms to HTML5 standards.

<comment><USER12> Yes, if you have 100 developers then by all means create native versions for every device, but as a single developer there is no other way for me to provide my app on PCs, phones and tablets other than HTML5. If you're making a one-off game it might not matter for the user that they can't play it on their other devices, but when you provide a service that needs to be available on the go and accessible anywhere, you really don't want to alienate your customers with "only available on iPhone".

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think the only worthwhile argument is the native look and feel which is extremely hard to emulate using HTML5 (although not unfeasible, see <http://pattern.dk/sun> or sencha's fb client)

But on the other side it is also very costly to build multiple versions of an app on different native technologies and there HTML5 has an obvious advantage.

Speed is not much of an issue for most of the apps, hardware accelerated CSS can give extremely interesting results (again see <http://pattern.dk/sun> or FB client)

But overall I agree that doing well with HTML5 requires a good level of expertise.

<comment><USER14> depends on the product , lob's apps are fine , html games ( aside from text games ) on mobile require more than a good level of expertise to run smoothly on most of the handsets.

<comment><USER13> you're right, I should have said a _significant_ or fairly high level of expertise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm building an HTML 5 app as a side project right now, and I intend to target mobile with it, in addition to browsers. I'm a professional web developer, so it makes sense for me.

There are a few wrappers that will translate HTML 5 calls to native calls when run on a mobile phone. The one I'm working with, CocoonJS, actually provides pretty good performance. Granted, you need to be building your app as an HTML 5 canvas, but if you're doing a game, you're likely to be using one anyway.

As far as missing capabilities go, CocoonJS is getting pretty all- encompassing. For example, I can access the camera of the phone. I can do in- app purchases, and use native ad platforms. I can access the accelerometer and detect orientation changes.

Perhaps missing the "real" UI of the phone does make it feel a little foreign, but in my case, I'm not particularly worried. Most games I've played on my Android phone don't use them either, even when they're fully native.

I would say if you have the resources, or you need to use every drop of performance you can get, go native. In my case, that's not necessary and saves me from having three codebases.

Use the right tool for the job. That tool will change based on your audience and needs.

</comment><comment><USER16> This isn't even an argument in my opinion. HTML 5 is just fine for most common apps. I've published a couple over the years with Phonegap and was able to get completely native performance from them. Where you have to go native is for super high OpenGL performance things and access to hardware features not yet available in the browser. The problem is that most web developers making mobile web apps don't put in the time and care to really make their projects shine.

<comment><USER17> I agree. For something where your competition is a million other startups trying to do photo sharing, you need to go native to compete in the user experience. But if you are doing specialized mobile apps for a delivery company or something, html5 may be more pragmatic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I love using HTML5 instead of using apps which require installation etc. I really hate installing app for every darn site.

Oh well, where's Hacker News App? It would be great idea to do it for every imaginable mobile platform. What are you guys waiting for?

<comment><USER3>
      > Oh well, where's Hacker News App? It would be great idea
      > to do it for every imaginable mobile platform. What are
      > you guys waiting for?

Did you check before writing that? There are 20 apps in AppStore for HN. I had an idea to write one myself, because I was not happy with the offering at the time. Funny, but I ended up using <http://hackerwebapp.com> —but it only confirms the point, because HN is a website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> [http://www.jaynathan.org/2013/01/html5-is-for-the-web-and- th...](http://www.jaynathan.org/2013/01/html5-is-for-the-web-and-the-mobile- web/)

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a horrendously presented argument with close to no interesting content. Aside from being voted up by people with an HTML-axe-to-grind, what's the point of this?

One particular point that gives me a laugh -

 _No matter how much you optimize your app, it will always be slower than a native one, and the users will feel the difference._

This is a broad claim that is unsupported. Both native and web apps are layers of abstraction over OS rudiments. There is _nothing_ stopping both from offering identical performance, however HTML usually falters simply because people layer on abstraction over abstraction, where they take the simplest approach with the native app.

</comment><comment><USER20> i havent seen anyone mentioning things like <http://xamarin.com/>

Write your business logic in C# and just build the View for every platform with native components. Sounds like the ideal tradeoff for me!</comment>


The future is... boring - <AUTHOR> http://www.advogato.org/person/apenwarr/diary/432.html

<comment><USER2> Perhaps the author should try using an iPhone for a month or two.</comment>


How to directly upload files to Amazon S3 from your client side web app - <AUTHOR> http://codeartists.com/post/36892733572/how-to-directly-upload-files-to-amazon-s3-from-your

<comment><USER2> Direct uploading like this has been possible for at least two years. However, in our tests it turned out that Amazon was silently losing some files >100MB (and almost all files ~1GB).

On the AWS forums it was clear that AWS was aware of this consistent problem, but was not able to fix it, and not willing to document it.

They eventually released "multipart upload", which remains the only reliable way to get large files to S3. Unfortunately, multipart upload is nearly impossible to implement as a web app (short of resorting to e.g. Java).

<comment><USER3> >Unfortunately, multipart upload is nearly impossible to implement as a web app

I am right now writing a library to do just that. I already have a prototype working, and we'll probably open source our library once it's reasonably tested. But perhaps you know something I dont... is there anything in particular that makes it "nearly impossible"?

<comment><USER2> Sounds like my understanding must be out of date as of this year! (Which makes me very excited about your upcoming library.) My conclusion was based on research ~1 year ago finding no OSS or commercial software supporting it, and forum posts for those projects by developers sadly explaining why they just couldn't do multipart yet.

My bad experience with files disappearing was entirely with web-based POST requests, ~2 years ago. Large file transfer from EC2 to S3 was reliable, but our POST requests on slower connections (even those that were very reliable) would return with a false report of success.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Alternatively, use Filepicker.io.

filepicker.store(myFile, {location: "S3"}, function(FPFile){console.log("File stored in S3 at "+FPFile.key+" and available at "+FPFile.url);});

<comment><USER5> unfortunately they don't return the full url to the file on YOUR s3 bucket (but you can piece it together)

<comment><USER4> Our concern is that if we return the direct S3 url, people less experienced will assume that the S3 url should work by default, when it will 403. So we return Filepicker.io urls which alias to your S3 bucket

<comment><USER5> then you should have an example IAM Policy in a very easily accessible location

overall as someone who is currently using filepicker, i would recommend people avoid it if all you want to do is upload to files to your own bucket without any transformations like image resizing

<comment><USER6> You could leverage zencoder to generate your thumbnails. Send the job as a test so it's free (limited to 5 seconds but that's ok since we only want thumbnails) and specify your thumbnail settings as desired. You could even set the clip length to one frame so the video encoding step is nearly skipped. Since zencoder runs on AWS, you should get near-LAN transfers between S3 and zencoder

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for posting... I was looking for something just like this:

<https://github.com/tadruj/s3upload-coffee-javascript>

<comment><USER7> I really like CoffeeScript, but do we really need to advertise every JavaScript library as a CoffeeScript library as well?

Feel free to use CoffeeScript to implement your libraries, but lets just call it a JavaScript library and assume everyone who uses CoffeeScript will understand they can use any JavaScript library.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think we need to. It deserves a credit, because we use it and we didn't pay for it. CoffeeScript makes our lives easier, almost eliminates bad practices and removes brace clutter from the screen, making the code more readable, understandable, better.

When having to choose between a library written in JavaScript and a library written in CoffeeScript I choose the latter, because it statistically has a probability to be a better library, just because the coder didn't have a chance to use bad JavaScript practices, when writing it. Assuming I usually don't have time to read the code of the libraries I'm using.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Thanks for posting this. I was looking at adding uploads just this morning, so this is very timely. It looks like if you combine the direct upload to S3 as outlined in this article with bitline (<http://www.blitline.com/>), you get some pretty cool abilities. I especially like that bitline supports batch operation (for example create five sizes of my image) in one call.

</comment><comment><USER9> Tangentially related, but does anyone know of an easy way to push a github repo to an S3 bucket (configured as a public site)?

I'm pretty new at git/github, but understand that the solution may involve a post commit hook that somehow calls an S3 file upload service.

<comment><USER10> I was actually reading up on this earlier; I was led to jgit [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7031729/publish- to-s3-usi...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7031729/publish-to-s3-using- git)

<comment><USER9> Sorry, I should have clarified a little better. I'd like to avoid installing anything on a server to make this happen.

(My development workflow/environment is completely decoupled from any servers I control: I use Parse.com as my backend with static HTML pages served from S3, and cloud9 as my IDE, with Github as my source host)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Here's the other page on the AWS documentation on this: [http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/s3-developer- guide/RESTAuthentic...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/s3-developer- guide/RESTAuthentication.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> I did a demo similar to this a few months ago:

<https://github.com/dgoodlad/s3-photo-upload-demo>

<http://s3-photo-upload-demo.throwawayapp.com>

</comment><comment><USER13> Last week I was trying to figure out how to do this with dropbox. Anyone know a way?

<comment><AUTHOR> Dropbox has a filepicker <https://www.dropbox.com/developers/chooser> , you can also use filepicker.io for more services support. But Dropbox doesn't support per-request CORS as I read on their Forums.

<comment><USER13> G@#$D!T I wished I had known about this last week. I already implemented my own file browser! Thanks for the tip though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Coolest would be an ability to have 1) a great filepicker UI (drag target + multi file upload w/ progress bar) 2) resizing/thumbnails in the browser 3) no server side other than s3

guessing #2 isn't possible?

<comment><USER15> #2 is possible but #3 isn't unless you have a completely open bucket and that wouldn't be good.

<comment><USER4> I hate to be so self-promoting, but <http://jsfiddle.net/GTYX5/2/> should do everything you're asking for

<comment><USER14> filepicker.io is cool. But your backend service wouldn't be needed if the image uploading & resizing straight to s3 could be done in the browser. Your product would simply be a javascript lib.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Any recommendations for how to show a progress-indicator to the user during a direct-to-S3 upload?

<comment><USER15> I wrote the example referenced at the bottom of the article and it has an example of indicating progress to the user. You can see it in app.js here: [https://github.com/carsonmcdonald/direct- browser-s3-upload-e...](https://github.com/carsonmcdonald/direct- browser-s3-upload-example)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why most of the Apache projects use Java/JVM - <AUTHOR> Kafka, Cassandra, and many others use Java. Why do not they try languages like Go, Rust, or even C++ while most of such tools and platforms were made for Big Data processing? <comment><USER2> Java is a very strong programming language in corporate environments. A few years ago nobody would suggest using rust, or even golang. These languages were too young. Java is much safer than c++ and much cheaper to maintain.

Also the performances overhead of the JVM is not a problem at all for big data, since you can scale horizontally and cloud cost isn't really an issue. Having good c++ developers and having a high quality code base in c++ over the years is more expensive.

I don't like Java that much and I play more in golang and rust these days. If I had to decide which programming language to use for a large company for very long term project, I would answer Java without any doubt. Or C#.</comment>


Community review based patent search - WikiPatents!!! - <AUTHOR> http://wikipatents.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> The IBM initiative - <http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/></comment>


Make An Average Face [image processing demo] - <AUTHOR> http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average?img=/tomcat/average/uploads/img85452.jpg&tem=/tomcat/average/uploads/img85453.tem

<comment><USER2> Interestingly, the average of not-so-good-looking people is pretty good- looking.

Looking more into details the set of pictures, none is really cute and there is a lot of people with pretty strange, asymmetric faces. They look kind of retouched, no?

</comment><comment><USER3> Heres what they all look like together:

[http://www.faceresearch.org/tomcat/psychomorph/uploads/img21...](http://www.faceresearch.org/tomcat/psychomorph/uploads/img2154523.jpg;img2154524.tem)

…cool how it does look perfectly average, you cant say "he has nice X" or "his X is Y", its just a human face.

<comment><USER4> "Average faces are deleted from the temporary gallery after 10 minutes, so please do not link to your creation." (yours is already gone)

<comment><USER3> Oh yes, didn't scroll down much to see that.

Just highlight each image (all 91) and let it generate. Looks cool... :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Here's a website where you can make your own facial composites. It only lets you morph two images at a time, but you can morph the output of a morph, thereby combining more than two faces.

<http://www.morphthing.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Just hover your mouse over a lot of them are random rapidly, and you'll see a pretty nice effect.

</comment><comment><USER7> interesting but in genetics, nature takes the best AND the worst features

<comment><AUTHOR> It's even stranger: Genetics does not know about 'goodness'.</comment></comment>


An opensource alternative for the TSA's $300k line assistant - arik-so https://tsa.arik.io <comment><AUTHOR> I get that it's trying to be funny, but is it really no longer possible to create a website with a single arrow that doesn't have to pull down all this cruft ?

      <link href="bower_components/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
      <link href="bower_components/bootstrap-social/bootstrap-social.css" rel="stylesheet">
      <link href="bower_components/font-awesome/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
      <link href="assets/css/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.css" rel="stylesheet">
      <link href="cover.css" rel="stylesheet">

      <script src="bower_components/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"></script>
      <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="../../assets/js/vendor/jquery.min.js"><\/script>')</script>
      <script src="bower_components/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
      <script src="assets/js/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.js"></script>

<comment><USER2> Make a thing responsive, people bitch about how many plugins you're using.

Make a thing vanilla, people bitch about how it doesn't work on their phone.

<comment><USER3> But the app only needs to work on Mobile Safari (let's say 8 or higher?). Not rocket science to make it vanilla.

<comment><USER4> No it needs to work in any hn readers browser. Different business requirements entirely! The business case here is to get hn traffic to that site and start a discussion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I feel like HN's nerd rage at stuff like this (the TSA expenditure) is the same reason many (if not most) engineers make less than they could. It's a very willful denial of a fact of how the world works (large organizations routinely pay large sums for seemingly very simple work).

<comment><USER6> Exactly. Where's @patio11 with some contract negotiation advice?

<comment><USER7> At Microconf, giving it to people running software businesses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have a cheaper alternative. Get rid of TSA altogether. Travelling was a whole heck of a lot more fun in 1975. Since then it's been overreaction upon overreaction. Nobody is going to hijack a plane in this day and age because of the simple fact that the passengers will immediately revolt.

<comment><USER9> It's been all of one week since a plane was hijacked.

[http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/europe/hijacked-egypt-air- jet/](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/europe/hijacked-egypt-air-jet/)

<comment><USER10> According to Wikipedia there have been 6 notable hijackings in the last 5 years. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings#20...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings#2010s)

There are roughly 100k commercial flights per day, 36m flights per year.

Therefore, the probability of your flight being hijacked is 1 in 30 million, which is an absurdly low number. Note that only one of the 6 hijackings resulted in casualties, so the mortality rate even lower.

<comment><USER6> Most likely due to the TSA's efforts! Can you imagine how many would be hijacked if there _weren 't_ a TSA?

<comment><USER11> Ah, the good old days...

The history of airport security is somewhat interesting. There wasn't a TSA for long time, and the hijackings/flying to Cuba got annoying, so metal detectors were added.

Everything else since then hasn't made much sense.

<comment><USER12> Interestingly, another approach that was seriously considered was to build a fake "Havana airport" in southern Florida and have the planes land there instead.

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/skyjacking/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/skyjacking/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/tsa- spent-47000-o...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/tsa- spent-47000-on-an-app-that-just-randomly-picks-lanes-for-passengers/)

"According to Mashable, the Transportation Security Administration apparently spent $47,000 on an app that is essentially a random number generator—it was briefly used to assign travelers to left or right lanes at airports.

As the website reported: "The app was used by TSA agents to randomly assign passengers to different pre-check lines as part of a now-discontinued program called 'managed inclusion.'"

Such an app is widely viewed to be an extremely simple program to write. Many are questioning why a government agency overpaid for the app.

The revelation was published Sunday evening by Kevin Burke, a San Francisco- based developer, who received TSA documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request. The documents showed a $1.4 million price tag. However, the TSA has clarified that figure, stating that the app actually cost $47,000."

<comment><USER14> _Such an app is widely viewed to be an extremely simple program to write._

Writing the app, as anyone who has done any consulting work would know, is often the easiest, least time-intensive part of a project. Anyone saying to themselves, "$47K? I could do it in ten lines of code!" should stick to coding and let the contract procurement folks do their job.

(I'm merely the messenger; hate-game disclaimers apply.)

<comment><USER15> Nail, meet head.

That said, 47k still seems crazy high. I've never done Gov't consulting though. One hopes hardware was included in the contract?

<comment><USER16> > Nail, meet head.

The head is part of the nail. The flat part at the other end from the point. ;)

<comment><USER15> Yes, well, the hammers are hundreds of dollars a piece so we have to make due ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Lets be practical, I am sure the actual app \- Works without network connection \- Metrics (offline syncronization) \- User logins \- Includes price of iPads themselves? \- Involved government and IBM personal

300K sounds about right

</comment><comment><USER18> The UI looks nice, but there is more to this than a UI.

This should be implemented using a cryptographically secure random number generator. Presumably, the TSA requirements would specify some defense against an attacker being able to predict program outputs.

<comment><USER19> [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/RandomSourc...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/RandomSource/getRandomValues) solves that. Just need to tweak the code.

I submitted [https://github.com/arik-so/tsa/issues/4](https://github.com/arik- so/tsa/issues/4) about this issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I actually have a solution that costs exactly $0.01, per employee. It also works on any platform.

<comment><USER21> If you're alluding to a penny, I think you'll find that they cost more that $0.01. Probably a far better example wasteful government procurement than this app.

<comment><USER22> " Probably a far better example wasteful government procurement than this app."

Not really. If you were flipping the penny to get heads or tails and lost it, you could easily replace that penny with a coin, a washer, a stick from outside, a book...hundreds of things already around your home or office, many with no use or value. You can't look around you and find a replacement for the penny as a currency.

<comment><USER21> I just took a look around myself. I found a credit card.

<comment><USER22> That's not a replacement everyone can find.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This left me thinking what could be the simplest implementation I could do, while keeping a good UX. I came up with this in 10mins: [https://jsbin.com/xidefopuqe](https://jsbin.com/xidefopuqe)

It was a fun experiment and felt very old school.

<comment><USER24> Nice - you saved me the effort. But after I wouldn't have been able to resist the idea of tweaking the randomness and ended up spending the rest of the evening trying to perfect something that felt more random than random - including forays into Wikipedia and other searches to find prior examples... So really you've saved me hours of work!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Wait for the $1M+ overhaul when they need to open a third lane!

</comment><comment><USER26> The argument that will be made against something like this is "We _can 't_ use a product that would let the bad guys see how it works!" I know it sounds ridiculous, but in my limited experience, "Security through Obscurity" is a _key feature_ required by _everything_ related to the (ineffective) methods used to secure the airports in the US. I believe this fact was even alluded to in the original article related to the justification for _why_ a PRNG hooked up to a boolean cost USD$1.4M or USD$47,000 or whatever price over an hour's wage of a government intern it actually cost.

<comment><USER27> Security through Obscurity is just not a great way of going about it. NIST notes "System security should not depend on the secrecy of the implementation or its components."[1]

Kerckhoffs's principle is also a relevant read.

As professor Bellovin notes :

"It helps, I think, to go back to Kerckhoffs' second principle, translated as "The system must not require secrecy and can be stolen by the enemy without causing trouble," per [http://petitcolas.net/fabien/kerckhoffs/](http://petitcolas.net/fabien/kerckhoffs/)). Kerckhoffs said neither "publish everything" nor "keep everything secret"; rather, he said that the system should still be secure even if the enemy has a copy."

[1] [http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-123/SP800-123...](http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-123/SP800-123.pdf)

<comment><USER28> Kerckhoffs' principle applies to ciphers with keys. For the threat model the TSA is up against, security by obscurity is actually very close to reasonable.

Specifically, if you're talking about ciphers (as Kerckhoffs does), or system software (as NIST does), or anything else, you _know in advance_ who's authorized and who's not. You've solved the hard problem; the rest is simply math, and we're fortunate to live in a time where the math is well-studied. You can give the secret key to the people who are authorized, and not to those who aren't, and your security rests on that key -- and your competence at figuring out who should have been given the key.

The TSA has no such luxury. They have no good way to distinguish me, a random person walking through the airport with a valid boarding pass and too many electronics, from a terrorist, also with a valid boarding pass and many electronics. If they could give me a key in advance, and not the terrorist, they would. (In fact, this is basically what Pre-Check is, and that works okay, although it only reduces the screening because they know Pre-Check can't be perfect.) But there's nothing that reliably distinguishes me and you and hundreds of millions of other non-terrorists from the small number of terrorists, and there's certainly no practical way to publish a key to us hundreds of millions, while keeping it away from terrorists.

So they rely on heuristics, because there is no better option. You cannot build a system that satisfies Kerckhoff's principle, because there is no key separate from the system itself. And any public, keyless system can be gamed trivially. (Think of, say, unkeyed SHA-256 checksums attesting to software integrity. Without a signature, i.e., without a key, anyone can tamper with both the software and the checksum, regardless of how good SHA-256 is.) So the system must be kept private in order for it to work at all... or we give up, and decide that the only people who can fly are those that we can conduct foolproof background checks on. That seems like a worse world.

It is rather like anti-spam and anti-virus. If you could just give a key to all legitimate email or legitimate software, you would. And in fact there are things that attempt to do that. But they can't be complete, and the remainder of the screening works on security-by-obscurity because there is no better option. Either we give up entirely on the ability to receive unsigned mail or run unsigned software (and even that won't be 100% reliable), or we go with the secret heuristics. It's not great, but it's the best we can do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Is there any transparent accounting on how much the Obamacare website ended up costing? I think it was originally supposed to cost ~$94mil.

From 2014: [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-24/obamacare-...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-24/obamacare- website-costs-exceed-2-billion-study-finds)

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm not sure the TSA app is weighted 50/50

<comment><USER31> For all we know, it's using the camera to gauge the "brown-ness" of the current passenger's skin, and using that as an input to the calculation. It would be about as racially and culturally unbiased as anything else the TSA has ever done.

<comment><USER32> Dont forget beard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Has anyone here worked with IBM before as either: a) employee/contractor b) Customer

And if so, are of those who would say that you didn't expect something so seemingly stupid to happen when they read that IBM was involved?

And do any of those people have any reason to believe that IBM managed this project well from prior experience?

I bet not, but lets see...

</comment><comment><USER34> Small bug; your code has a small bias for right.

if (random > 0.5) { direction = 'right'; }

1 is not included in Math.Random, so it should be < 0.5 == left, >= 0.5 == right.

</comment><comment><USER35> Cue them up and queue them up, here come the pendantics...

</comment><comment><USER5> This seems like nothing more than bait for HN's irrational nerd rage, so I flagged it.

</comment><comment><USER36> This app would've paid my mortgage in some parallel universe....sigh</comment>


How can we reduce medication cost? - <AUTHOR>

There are all sorts of chronic disease ranging from diabetes, adhd, HIV, etc. And depending on the chronic conditions, medication costs are extremely expensive.
This may be a stupid questions so please let me know if that is the case. But, I was wondering if there would be some sort of innovative approach to lower the cost of these medications through a flash-sale (i.e. groupon, fab.com, gilt) business model.
I guess the main objective is to find ways to provide expensive medication to those who are in need that would not just benefit the patient but also the pharmaceutical companies.
I came across this website: http://www.goodrx.com/ that is definitely heading towards the direction that I am talking about.
I need all the input/comments I could get so feel free to give me some ideas! Thanks! <comment><USER2> In the UK, where people get cheap meds (80% of people taking meds don't pay for them) the rate of non-compliance with meds is staggering.

The medication budget is something like £9billion per year, and estimates suggest that half of that is wasted because people don't take the meds correctly (or at all).

And this is not because the meds are cheap or the illness is trivial. Rates of non compliance are similar in the US, and for people who will die without meds. Many organ transplants fail because of medication non-compliance.</comment>


Former Google exec building a high-tech hat that will make telepathy possible - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/07/this-inventor-is-developing-technology-that-could-enable-telepathy.html <comment><USER2> "Right now our output is basically moving our jaws and our tongues or typing [with] our fingers. We're ... limited to this very low output rate from our brains, and what if we could up that through telepathy?" asks Jepsen. "Instant transfer of thoughts would also speed up the innovation process."

So, instant, telepathic transfer of an idea is faster than simply conveying an idea with words. However, in "receiving" a thought, it still has to go through some linguistic framework, which I imagine includes the same kind of language processing that happens when you hear speech. The same with conveying the thought- is it conveyed with words, and if so, how other than through language? I don't mean a computer reading your thoughts and typing them, I mean actual telepathy, which is the "transference of information from one person to another without the use of any known sensory channels of physical interaction"

Can you really learn anything directly this way, without language processing? Am I totally missing her point? I'm not arguing there aren't other good uses for this.

edit: ok, she is talking about OUTPUT, not necessarily INPUT (which is the second necessary component of "telepathy"). I want to hear more of the "input" side, or else the shit's kind of bunk, kind of like Ray Kurzweil (imho)

<comment><USER3> The idea that auditory language or speech is differentiated from mental ideas / thoughts is very thoughtprovoking and I believe under investigated.

Related is the phenonemon that some people always "hear" something while they're reading, others do sometimes, and others literally don't understand what you mean by "hear".

[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/4wttu4/do_you_hear_a...](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/4wttu4/do_you_hear_a_voice_while_you_read/#bottom- comments)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/6gqbga/what_exactly_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/6gqbga/what_exactly_do_you_do_in_your_brain_when_youre/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1uksrt/when_you_read...](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1uksrt/when_you_read_a_book_do_you_see_the_scenes/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/48uiqz/to_what_degre...](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/48uiqz/to_what_degree_do_you_visualize_whats_happening/)

Also related: aphantasia - the inability to "visualize" something in your mind's eye:

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

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6TfNXbJ4M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6TfNXbJ4M)

We tend to assume that most other people experience a similar world to us, but in reality there seem to be incredible differences in the ways people think, in the way people see, in the way people read, in the way people conceptualize, in the way people imagine, etc. and those differences start to come out when you ask them about their experiences - we just don't think to talk about them.

I'm very skeptical of technology that claims to interface with the brain when the way people think, sense, and experience seems to be so diverse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> TL;DR

>In just eight years it will be, says Openwater founder Mary Lou Jepsen, thanks to technology her company is working on.

</comment><comment><USER5> This link is quickly buried by HN's algorithm, but it is really interesting, more so is a link to the new startup of Mary Lou Jepsen: [https://www.opnwatr.io/](https://www.opnwatr.io/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Next up - Twitch live streams of teens unfiltered thoughts.

</comment><comment><USER7> One step closer to nerve gear.

</comment><comment><USER8> [adjusts tin foil hat]</comment>


Show HN: How to start freelance testing? - <AUTHOR>

Hi All,
I have been testing web and windows products from last 7 years. And now moved into automation testing. Writing some tools to automate Web Services (REST+JSON+SOAP) in JAVA. So far I have worked on JAVA, Python, Perl etc.
When I checked in for some freelance platform they generally look for good internal profile. example if any projects done under the same freelancing platform and the feedbacks for same. But I don't know how would I get my first project.
Thanks, <comment><USER2> It's going to be tougher than an area where budgets are high. Many PHBs don't understand the need for dedicated testing.

Most jobs I've worked, people just assume the developer needs to do the testing. It's an uphill battle to convince someone otherwise (again, just my experience).</comment>


Show HN: Your Entourage from others Point of View - <AUTHOR> http://www.sqardius.net

<comment><AUTHOR> We'll be glad to hear your feedbacks.

<comment><USER2> I don't comment usually but you've asked for feedbacks, so here is one, don't waste your time and money on something like this, it simply won't work, who wants to view others memories or pictures, no one!!!</comment></comment>


The Real Roots of the Crisis - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/02/the_real_roots_of_the_crisis.html

<comment><USER2> While the story is true to some degree that "We didn't care", I think it all ties back to government agencies that allow businesses to operate on a very risk tolerant threshold; More than the free market would have allowed.

Take for instance, the FDIC, which allowed banks to only hold some kind of ridiculous percentage, say 10%, of all demand deposits, and the fee the FDIC charged to "insure" banks holdings was very small. There is not an insurance company in the world that would allow anyone to lend out 90% of their money stock and insure it all for almost nothing.

The government sets up safety nets which _allow_ people, who are inherently risk conscious, to stop caring about risk.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is interesting though how much he emphasizes culture. I think that today we are seeing more and more large companies take such a primary focus on it. For Zappos it is their priority. Google is also very notable for this.

It used to be all gesture with out real motion. Think Enron with values like "Integrity" chiseled into marble in their main lobby.

This is something I am very excited about for our future. More thoughtfulness around company culture.

<comment><USER3> The louder the noise the more they have to hide. Check out the beautiful Enron code of ethics: <http://www.thesmokinggun.com/enron/enronethics1.html> .</comment></comment></comment>


It's time for mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/auchenberg/status/1088587621721231361 <comment><USER2> No thanks, I will not go back to Chrome. I dont want or think we need Google/Chrome to run the market with their browser. I think what Mozilla is doing is great. Will keep using FF. Stopped using google search and Chrome along time ago. This dude is extremely biased!

<comment><USER3> Because this 'dude' is a google developer 'expert'</comment></comment>


A Chat with Aaron Swartz (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-05-07-n78.html <comment><AUTHOR> Aaron commenting on his own interview: [http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/interview2](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/interview2)</comment>


Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code - <AUTHOR> http://da-data.blogspot.com/2013/12/briefly-profitable-alt-coin-mining-on.html <comment><USER3> I love the double standards on display at HN. In this whole thread, not a single mention of the opportunity cost of smart people wasting resources on things not productive to society or how it is an unfair market because someone is taking advantage of the other participants by being more sophisticated than them.

What would the discussion be like if the headline was "Briefly profitable HFT FX trading through better code"?

<comment><USER4> I think of research into virtual currencies as at least as beneficial as GIMPS, SETI, Folding@Home. All of these have progressed CS in significant, measurable ways. And if someday one of the many alt-coins or one of their descendants becomes well established, all of this research would be worth it.

Also, while I am still unsure of the benefits of HFTs despite trying really hard to understand how they bring liquidity by front-running etc., I still think the technology invented to make HFT possible is a net-good for humankind - GPUs that can perform trade in nanoseconds, processing happening on the same layer as network traffic, entire CPU/GPUs living an inch from the ethernet port. All of this stuff is really neat and even though the practice of HFT is morally questionable, the fact that it pushes our capabilities further is not something we can ignore.

The future world will be a much better place if I can wire $2k to my dad in India without going through multiple banks, wire-transfer fees, proof of citizenships etc. Better that we work for a world where money is not controlled by the powerful than make better shiny reports for sales and traffic analysis for mobile.

<comment><USER5> "I think of research into virtual currencies as at least as beneficial as GIMPS, SETI, Folding@Home."

LOL. The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. Also, mining bitcoins or squeezing a few extra cycles out of a VM is not 'research into virtual currencies'. Look people, let's just call a spade a spade here - us nerds are quite happy with our new-found economic powers (not just BC, in general), and we're all too happy to flex it when new tech (like BC) gives us an early mover advantage. Yeah I'm bitter I'm no BC millionaire because I had other things on my hands 2 years ago than running some software, while I did run SETI@HOME on a largish network for a long time a decade ago for no gain at all; but 200 years ago I would have been a peasant, now I was catapulted into upper middle class just because I was born in the right decade and with that twist in my mind that makes me grok computers better than most people. That's just how it is, why do feel we need to make moral justifications about it (or worse, whack job 'I deserve it because I worked harder' delusions like in that article yesterday about the Google dude).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I also used this brief window of opportunity as a fun experiment in learning Ansible. As a result, I've published a repo which automates setting up LTC mining on g2.2xlarge instances.

[http://github.com/adammeghji/ansible-ltc-mining-on- ec2](http://github.com/adammeghji/ansible-ltc-mining-on-ec2)

If anybody's curious to spin up a GPU instance and dabble with this, this greatly facilitates downloading, compiling, and installing the CUDA drivers, and setting up the LTC miners. Amazon has a $100 credit available too, if the current spot instance prices are prohibitive.

<comment><USER7> I used your script to help me figure out how to dig for DogeCoin. Ultimately I wound up doing everything on Screen. Did 1, 3, 5, and finally 1 instances, a few hours at a time. I've stopped mining for now, going to wait until I set up my own rig and maybe create a new AltCoin. [https://gist.github.com/benatkin/7868889](https://gist.github.com/benatkin/7868889)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So: 1.5 weeks of work. $50-$75/mo/instance. x20-60 instances. Worked for 3-4 weeks.

If we assume the most optimistic parameters: $75 * 1mo * 60 instances = $4500 in profit for 1.5 weeks of work, or a rate of ~$156k/yr.

Edit: It looks like I misread his revenue numbers for profit. Oops! Even lower margins:

"My gross revenue was about $1000, and I paid Amazon $500 of that."

$500 for 1.5 weeks' work is only $17k/yr rate. Maybe flipping burgers pays better.

<comment><USER9> Well, if he just leaves this running, assuming the same level of profitability it is 17k a year of passive income...definitely worth keeping up if possible. as the exchange rate goes up it should become even more profitable.

<comment><USER8> As others have pointed out, this is not remotely passive.

<comment><USER9> With enough automation it could become passive. Then again with enough automation everything becomes passive.

<comment><USER10> The problem is with cryptocoins, the window of opportunity is always small, short, and never comes again- you have to find an entirely new window.

Much like with most forms of arbitrage, and exploitable patterns in the stock market. You discovery the opportunity, you make a little $$, and the hole quickly closes as everyone else capitalizes on it too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've been mining on my AMD 290x for the past few days - I brought it for gaming, so I don't need to get a return on the hardware, and the heat generated is useful too - it keeps my apartment a little warmer. Looking at a profit of around $8 per day at current difficulty, which is a pretty cheap heating solution!

<comment><USER12> I just bought 3 290x cards for this purpose. Right now they pay for themselves in 2 months.

<comment><USER11> It's certainly more risky when you are buying hardware only to mine - <USER2> I guess that is bounded by the fact that even if FPGA or ASIC miners were to make it unprofitable, the GPUs are still valuable and you can sell them.

<comment><USER12> Yes, there is risk in buying dedicated hardware but the risk is quite reasonable. The R9 290x GPUs are brand new and in high demand. If for some reason the altcoin market collapses I can sell them close to their original cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wonder how many people have custom improved mining software and using it as a competitive advantage.

<comment><USER14> It's a good question. In the case of these nvidia cards, it doesn't seem worthwhile: If you're seriously mining for money and buying hardware, you're still better off buying the AMD GPUs. I don't know if there's similar room for improvement on the OpenCL mining code, but it seems like it gets more attention.

<comment><USER13> Maybe it's not worthwhile for Bitcoins or Litecoins, but how about the smaller altcoins for which a competitive advantage early on can have a big impact?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm currently doing this right now with 30 instances. I'm currently operating at about 7 MH/s. At current rates, it's not exactly "profitable", but I'm using up some AWS credit that I have. I don't intend to sell the LTC until it hits about 40 or maybe 50, but in any case, it's still all profit for me, other than the fact that I lose out on the AWS credit for other uses.

Edit: I'm also not paying $6/hr... That would be absurd. I'm not unprofitable by much.

<comment><USER16> Everyone is using $100 ec2 credits for coin mining, that's why everyone is overpaying for spot price at the moment

<comment><USER15> I have much more than $100. Hence why I'm even bothering.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd been doing my own research on viability of mining on Amazon, and I posed a question on the AWS forums asking how it's possible the spot prices could be going so high. There's instances going anywhere from 5-20 times their On- Demand prices. At this time, no one's answered it, so if anyone here knows, I'd love to hear why someone would pay $10.00 per hour for an instance they can get On-Demand for $2.40.

<comment><USER18> One pricing strategy I've heard of goes like so:

No rational person would bid above the on demand price, so the spot price will never rise above the on demand price. Therefore if I bid just above the on demand price I'll never be outbid, and I won't have to deal with automating the switch from spot to on demand instances.

Needless to say, this logic is wrong.

<comment><USER17> Funny you should mention that. There was a blog post I had read where they were discussing an unfortunate AWS customer who bid $999.00/hour for Spot instances thinking it would protect their running servers from shutting down. Little did this person realize, Amazon - unlike eBay - doesn't just accept the next highest bid, they accept THE highest bid. They were running a Spot instance for an entire month at $999/hour. Ouch.

<comment><USER19> That's not true - the price you set is the max price you're willing to pay. If your price is higher than the current spot price, you pay the current spot price. The blog post author must be mistaken somehow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> AWS is adding an upper limit to spot price bids of 4X the on-demand cost, as of December 20:

[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using- spo...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-spot- limits.html)

This may be in response to some of the crazy bids we've seen on the spot market since people started using it for mining.

</comment><comment><USER20> "With the increase in scrypt coin prices, the load on the mining pools increased, and most began experiencing frequent outages."

He should have used p2pool.

<comment><USER15> That's what I've been using.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Is it just a quirk of the GPU architecture that Nvidia can't mine as well as AMD or it a problem with their cards?

<comment><USER14> AFAICT, it's a result of their internal architectural decisions vs. the structure of some of these crypto operations. The simplest example is that AMD offers a hardware bit rotate instruction and NVidia doesn't. (The newer compute_35 devices have a funnel shifter that gets halfway there, but it requires using a 64 bit op, which is still slower).

But beyond that, for scrypt, AMD has an internal architecture that encourages using a internal 4-wide vector ops (the key being that threads in a stream can diverge and the scheduler handles them, but the vector ops are strictly locked). This seems to give them an advantage in several "stupidly parallel" workloads that consist of basic operations in huge parallel, whereas Nvidia's architecture regains ground when the control flow/etc., becomes a bit more complicated. But calculating 64k SHA-2 or scrypt hashes in parallel doesn't stress the thread scheduler or divergence handling at all. Also, scrypt internally does well when you parallelize it into groups of 4 uint32's - that's actually the key optimization I added to my version of the miner. Which, again, maps quite nicely to AMD's preferred optimization path.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> So _this_ explains why spot prices have been through the roof the past few months!

<comment><USER10> Only on the g2 instances though, I believe.

<comment><USER23> the other high cpu and gpu instances too</comment></comment></comment>


Toronto's Tech Industry - <AUTHOR> https://blog.brainstation.io/5-reasons-why-torontos-tech-industry-continues-to-soar/ <comment><USER2> I think the BS is pretty much established from the comments, so no point adding to that.

Last year, I spent a week in Toronto and I absolutely loved it. During a tour of the area, it was mentioned that the tech sector was growing, and that there are loads of initiatives to get tech workers into the city.

There seems to be some decent opportunities in Toronto, but it falls at the most basic hurdle. The salaries are too low, and the cost of property/rent is too high. It's a lovely place, but the world is full of lovely places.

<comment><USER3> I would say this comment is accurate. I just moved to Toronto. The cost of housing is obnoxious and makes the overall cost of living extremely high, and unfortunately salaries don't make up for it. There is no doubt about that. And of course the traffic is horrible.

However, Toronto has everything Canada has to offer in terms of big city life. It's got the hustle of a global big city. It's has amazing food and entertainment. If you live in Canada and like big, global cities, then there's not much choice.

<comment><USER4> Montreal breasts Toronto in quality of life by a huge margin in my opinion.

<comment><USER5> I have to agree. Even if you don't speak French, there is less emphasis on money wealth, more on everyday important factors, and the city just has more history and is more relaxed without the money imperative injecting itself in everything. And there is a decent, diverse tech scene too, though language will be factor if you want to work locally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a person who moved from Vancouver to Toronto, I really don't think this post grasps what opportunities the rest of Canada, nevermind North America or International, has available.

Toronto is expensive. I need to express that. Business operating costs will always be lower of you compare another city to one that is often ranked exceedingly expensive. Relative references are not appropriate since you don't have a baseline. So, use a baseline of what the average operating cost is.

Toronto is HARD to get around. My morning commute is over 1 hour of driving at 5:40am - 6:50am with some variations depending on weekday, accidents, and time of year. My shift starts at 10am. If I leave at 8am I would arrive at 10:30am and be late for work. I hope this perspective shows how hard it is to get into downtown Toronto and how bad their traffic is. (The office is located away from the GO train and there's free parking in case people are wondering why I drive instead of transit.)

Toronto is also a bit old in tech. When I came from Vancouver and went to meetups, I felt like someone had rolled the clock back by two years. It was an odd feeling. The community just felt... Behind. I think this comes from businesses not giving as much time for developers to explore new technologies, hence why there may be larger delays in new tech popping up in Toronto.

Businesses are... Conservative. Having worked in Vancouver and coming to Toronto there was a cultural change that needed to be made. Businesses operated with less focus on employee happiness and talent retention and more on "talent results" (read: work or replaced) and transparency on 3x salary ROI. Banks and conservative businesses practices are very much the norm in Toronto. Very helpful for a business but to an employee, Toronto has a lot of cons for workplace lifestyle.

If you live in Toronto, I recommend working remote with US companies. Or, if you are inclined to do so, move to Vancouver or Calgary. Because of these issues that Toronto presents, I have myself been planning on moving to Calgary in a year or two.

<comment><USER7> I have turned down two jobs because they were in Toronto. I don't want to commute or move my family there. We need more remote work and more work in other cities.

<comment><USER8> I moved from Toronto decades ago. Since then I've rejected offers constantly because, quite frankly, IMO, Toronto is a hole. I now find myself living north of Toronto, with limited career options but much happier near the 'outdoors' with my family.

Makes your choices, takes your chances.

<comment><USER9> As someone from Northern Ontario who moved to SW Ontario for work as a software dev - how did you do this? I'd love to move back home, but there are very few jobs, and the ones that do exist are dramatically lower salaries with outdated approaches (~45k, Visual Basic or C++98 vs ~80K, whatever web tech I want). Do you work remotely?

<comment><USER8> The trick is not look for work in a startup/dev environment, but in the institutional and corporate environment. Their are jobs and the payscale you desire, just not in the quantities you desire.

For instance, I was at my last position for 6 years. The last 3 of which, I was actively looking for work. It took a while, but I'm making equiv to Toronto wages in a new position.

But yes, the majority of postings are in the low rent payscale neighbourhood. Which is weird, because you'd think to attract skilled talent away from T.O., the scale would in fact be higher.

<comment><USER9> Cheers, when time time comes I'll bug whatever local hospitals, banks, education institutions and admin centres exist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> By far the biggest problem in Toronto is that we do not have a deep startup tech talent pool. They all leave for the SFBay.

Why? Startups here pay engineers 1/3 to half of what they'd make in the SFBay while only being ~25% less expensive. In real terms, I've heard that a "Sr. Engineer" is $75-85K CAD ($60K USD) where in at a typical SF startup (lower than FAANGs) you'd look at $130-140K+ USD.

Startups that get excited about low wages are rarely $B rocket ships. This makes the equity story difficult as there aren't employees who got rich from joining an early stage company. AND, the startups that did succeed also gave out less equity as it wasn't valued. Thus, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Startups and large tech companies would get founded/move here if there's an overflow of top tier talent. There's talent but not overflowing.

Good Solutions:

* Startups should pay more.

* Toronto should attract a FAANG or Uber/Lyft/Airbnb to build a serious office here.

* Employees should hop around more.

* Import talent through Canadian visas for foreign workers (which also takes advantage of more stringent US H1-B visas)

Crazy Solution: End the TN visa forcing a FAANG to open an office in Toronto.

Originally from Toronto, lived in SF and ran a VC-backed startup from 2011-2016 and moved home to Toronto in April to found a startup doing robotaxi ops software. Plug: we're hiring.

<comment><USER3> A previous poster made the point of not having a major top tier tech firm with an HQ here as well. It's an interesting point I haven't thought of. I know MS is building a new big office. Google is planning a pretty large build via sidewalk labs. I need to do some research.

<comment><USER11> MS is not creating a new office. They are moving their head quarters from suburbs (Mississauga) to Downtown Toronto. They do plan to increase number of jobs from previous location though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is dishonest. I'd counter on almost every point. I'm speaking as someone who lived there for over 10 years. I'm back living in London, UK, the opportunity difference is a wide chasm. I'd like to be proven it's really changed since I've been away but I visit fairly regularly to see family and don't see it.

<comment><USER13> I'd agree although I'm not up to date on the situation. I applied for a couple of jobs in Toronto a couple of years ago. There seemed to be a lot of competition for few jobs. Taking jobs out of the equation, rent in London was flatlining, while Toronto was rising rapidly.

<comment><USER12> Right, I really want to believe it was true because with a young family now, London is difficult. Canada's space is alluring, but no I don't see it with respect to the economy and tech. Remote work or an online business would be the better way to make it work there probably.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> _Though it sometimes seems like it, Toronto didn't become a worldwide tech hub overnight. In fact, it was a years-long process that led to Canada's biggest city being mentioned alongside tech markets like New York and Silicon Valley._

Yeah, I'm going to need a citation for that being a thing even now. London, Berlin, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Singapore... but Toronto? Srsly?

<comment><USER15> Here's a link from an article I remember reading a few months ago that caught me by surprise as well. [https://m.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/07/24/toronto-best- city-tec...](https://m.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/07/24/toronto-best-city-tech- jobs_a_23488711/)

<comment><USER5> As a former Toronto person, I am certain there is an intentional behind the scenes campaign to promote Toronto as a global destination. Some of the articles I've run across have been quite breathless in describing features that would be mundane in other places. Sure, it's a nice enough city, more or less a New York wanna-be but with most of the growth extending back only a few decades. It does not deserve to be compared alongside other cities with extended history, geographical features, etc. It's clear many of the publications that published these articles received a payoff, or an insider had influence.

<comment><USER16> You don't need to dig that deep. Brainstation sells bootcamps in downtown Toronto. If they can show that working in tech in Toronto yields crazy opportunities and salary, they'll get more people to buy their bootcamps.

If you look behind the stories and check on which company's blog or who wrote these praises to Toronto, you'll see they all have something to sell from people thinking that Toronto is the place to be. Usual incentives include: difficulty hiring cheap talent, astroturfing for more VC money, selling a Toronto-tech related product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > Toronto is Well Positioned for AI and Blockchain Growth

Stopped reading here. When will this blockchain hype finally die?

<comment><USER18> Brainstation is a web dev/data science bootcamp. This article is not written to speak to you, it's written to market Brainstation as the reader's ticket to a big $ career in Toronto.

Hundreds of people move to the city daily as job opportunities are not as plentiful outside the Greater Toronto Area. These could be international students, fresh college grads, people looking for a career change, etc. They've heard of blockchain and AI just enough to worry that they'll be left behind if they don't join "the tech industry".

So of course Brainstation will mention AI and Blockchain. These articles are lead generations pieces for their training programs. For SEO keyword purposes alone, they would have mentioned it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Toronto has serious housing, traffic, transit and salary problems. It is heavily dependent upon real estate speculation to bolster it's economy and it is quickly being picked a part by the province. This article is trash.

<comment><USER3> I agree with everything you've said, and that first sentence is a killer, but I don't quite get the "picked apart by the province" part. Could you expand on that a bit?

<comment><USER6> Ontario PM Doug Ford is getting revenge on Toronto municpal government. There's a little bad blood with his brother and them. A little is an understatement.

Imagine 40 or so co-workers cheering behind your back that your brother died of cancer. I hope this gives a good perspective as to how he may be feeling.

For the record, Rob Ford was a very bad man.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. I agree, there is some kind of vendetta. However, messing with Toronto's economy could have disastrous effects. I guess we'll see how it plays out. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is nonsense. Toronto is a backwater in tech. There is no first-tier tech company headquartered here. Heck, there isn't even a second-tier company. Plus the pay is peanuts. That article is a PR plant at best.

<comment><USER21> Indeed. There's a dead reply to your comment that mentions eastern european salaries being comparable. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but there are outsource to Canada companies that, I think, are mainly in the KW area and are not really that much more expensive than eastern europe (think like $90k per head vs $70k per head)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I moved to Toronto from Calgary four years ago to do my PhD at the UofT. I love Toronto.

* Toronto has a legacy as one of the best places to do ML, and while it felt like it was losing momentum, the Vector Institute's opening has infused the academic community with incredible energy. Vector's been recruiting top researchers from around the world, but particularly from the US -- there are a number of new Vector members who've come from the Boston/Cambridge area. The academic community in Toronto will only become stronger over the next few years, given how hostile the US has become to students from abroad.

* The strength of the academic community is fuelling a burgeoning startup scene. While it's still early days, there are a number of accelerators associated with the UofT and other entities, so given the talent coming out of the academic system here, I think the community will grow rapidly.

* Quality of life is fantastic. The food and music scenes are world-class, stemming largely from how diverse Toronto is. Downtown Toronto feels like a mixture of Manhattan and Brooklyn, just on a smaller scale. I don't own a car, and only use the subway perhaps once a week -- everything is in easy walking distance.

As to downsides:

* We have a reasonably cold winter from November to March. It's far less harsh than Calgary, though.

* Rent is expensive and rising. I've lived in the downtown core for all four years on a grad student's salary, so it's possible to make it work. But finding accommodations seems only to be getting harder.

* The political interests of the city are often overwhelmed by the sprawling suburbs surrounding it that make up the Greater Toronto Area. The new provincial government seems to be intent on attacking Toronto at every opportunity.

I've had the privilege to travel around the U.S. and Europe quite a bit during my PhD, and it's made me realize how well Toronto compares to the rest of the world. I plan to settle here after graduating -- the tech scene here seems like it's going to explode over the next decade, and it will be a lot of fun to be part of it.

<comment><USER3> I think it's easy to dismiss Toronto, but the quality of life items you listed are absolutely correct, as far as I'm concerned. If only housing weren't so expensive and we had a better transit system.

<comment><USER16> Quality of life is low in Toronto IMHO. It's impossible to find a decent apartment to rent for most: not necessarily because rents are crazy high (2k/mo for a 1BR poorly built condo anyone?) but because landlords are so picky that if you don't offer more than the asking rent include a personal letter, and are luckier than the other 50 applicants, you'll never get a place to live in. The city is also overly crowded and polluted. Traffic is beyond ridiculous, cycling is a nightmare (most dangerous city to cycle in North America). People here are obsessed with money and with living to work. There aren't that many parks and green spaces but a lot of concrete, noise and pollution. A significant number of employers demand that you incorporate so they can "hire" you as a freelancer rather than an employee, and so that the tax fallout of being reclassified as an employee is all on you (because you incorporated.) Overtime is rampant, and most of my colleagues are happy to oblige. Really, Toronto is not a nice place to live. It's an interesting experience because of how diverse it is (I've never seen so many people from so many countries, and I've lived abroad a lot!), but don't come here for quality of life or to make a good living.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'll take all brainstation articles with a grain of salt. They are a bootcamp school and thus they will want to promote Toronto's tech scene to attract people who are not in tech to take their courses in order to switch their careers.

</comment><comment><USER24> Came to the comments first expecting to hear how it's BS, and I wasn't disappointed :)

</comment><comment><USER25> Another BS article. If you are a developer and have even an ounce of ambition better to pack your bags and leave for the states. Leaving the city was the best decision I ever made. I'd be willing to move back if the salaries are double what they currently are. Toronto is just waay to expensive a city to live in for someone in a modest salary and living in the surrounding suburbs is a hellish experience if you expect to commute to downtown on a daily basis. Not a fan of the urban design in the greater toronto area, sprawl as far as the eyes can see.

</comment><comment><USER26> I both agree with the general sentiment of this piece and the backlash in the comments against its overly optimistic view. My gut sense as a newcomer to Toronto is that the _trajectory_ looks amazing, but there's simply no doubt that any comparison to the tech super clusters like Bay Area and NYC is totally disingenuous right now.

I'd love to get some advice from fellow tech migrants like myself that have moved from one of those places (NYC in my case) to a less vibrant but still honestly quite exciting environment like Toronto. Accepting a giant pay cut while still tying myself to a corporate 9-5 here is a depressing thought, and I'm not yet convinced that I feel right simply working remotely for US based companies, even if compensation opportunity is on average 1.5-2x better. Has anyone found a good balance between those worlds? Something that gives back to the local tech ecosystem but also taps in to the the better market potential to the south? I suppose building a business here and selling to the US, but trying to stay headquartered in Toronto is one way to do that, but any other thoughts?

<comment><USER27> I am in a similar situation, and settled on start-up life. AI here is strong, and there are a fair number interesting companies built around it. Get into one, and you'll have a lot of freedom to guide the tech environment. Compensation is still limited, but a decent exit can at least reduce the bleed. It's suboptimal, but I do appreciate how teachable my coworkers are.

<comment><USER26> That makes me feel better. Joining an AI startup is exactly what I ended up doing, so it's good to have someone in a similar situation to end up with the same answer!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Same as the speech they give you at university when you enroll. The world will be your oyster when you finish. This is marketing and nothing else.

</comment><comment><USER29> Safe to skip. Another empty puff piece from brainstation.io.

</comment><comment> Method-X If Toronto doesn't appeal to you, check out the Kitchener/Waterloo area (about an hour from downtown Toronto). Been living here for 17 years and love it. Very tech friendly and educated community.

</comment><comment><USER30> This is scary. People should read about what Canada did to the visual effects industry with outsourcing. Big budget movies now purchase all their effects from Canada because Canada decided to subsidize the industry. It's no joke.

Essentially if you live in Toronto and you're working for a company in SF you are getting half the salary.

</comment><comment><USER31> We've got a (mostly) Toronto-based (with worldwide representation too) Slack community if you'd like to join: [https://techmasters.chat/](https://techmasters.chat/)

We have many candid discussions about career opportunities and political issues in the city.

Disclosure: I'm an admin there.

<comment><USER32> Thanks for sharing as I'm hoping to stay real close to to the tech scene in Toronto from abroad

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> This article makes me think of some people who are the only one laughing at their own jokes at parties. If you have to tell me you're funny/smart/successful you probably aren't.

This article is quite self-serving.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm noticing that in SF, a ton of companies are outsourcing to Canada. Canada already pretty much destroyed the vfx industry with outsourcing. I'm curious what the future holds here.

<comment><USER18> Advertising agencies have long been outsourcing work to Canadian companies. The ad/media/comms industry is highly consolidated, where a few large companies own a bunch of small agencies and move projects around. The motivation is what you'd expect; lower costs, but same time zone, English- speaking, familiar org culture.

Surprised there hasn't been more of it in the tech space as yet. I keep hearing that the future of software dev is microservices, so if that allows for more remote work where teams don't have to collaborate as closely, I could see growth in development outsourcing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Pay increases are no where close to cost housing.</comment>


Google Apps' awesome new Release Calendar site - <AUTHOR> http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/

<comment><USER2> This is really great. I think many people do feel a bit of surprise, even if it is good surprise, with their application updates, and ideally, that shouldn't be the case. I mean, I love good surprises, but change can be unsettling in itself. Replacing the surprise with eager anticipation of a good thing, and the knowledge that it is being planned and tested wins hands down over changes appearing out of nowhere.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it worthy to do a MIT Challenge and how much will I benefit from it? - <AUTHOR> In case you don't know (and you probably don't) about the MIT Challenge, it is a challenge where you try to finish the whole MIT curriculum on your own using the free MIT resources (available here [1]). Even though you don't get an official MIT diploma, you actually learn pretty much everything MIT students learn (and you can prove it by doing some projects and putting them online).
It was suggested by Scott Young in a post in his blog [2]. He also gave a TEDx talk about it [3].
I'm wondering, how much will I benefit from it? Should I include it in my resume if I manage to complete it (under the additional education section)? Do you think it is worthy spending a year of doing so? Do you think that job recruiters will appreciate it?
[1] ocw.mit.edu/index.htm [2] www.scotthyoung.com/blog/mit-challenge/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piSLobJfZ3c <comment><USER2> Short answer is no. I really doubt how it will benefit if you try to learn 4 years of course in an year. Mostly you will be skimming things most of the time. Learning things take time. It's not easy process. If you want to do it to learn CS, but don't worry about completing in an year, then do it. However it will take 2-3 years easily (assuming you have a day job).

Is it worth it? Yes, totally. But it may not be useful if you just want to hurry up the whole thing. Your goal should be to learn, not to finish it in an year.

I saw same discussion on /r/learnprogramming [0], the top answer reflects my exact same opinion:

Given that the MIT challenge was never actually completed with integrity in the first place, it's going to be impossible.

Scott Young is a publicist - his goal is to sell, sell, sell. Completing a world-renowned 4-year curriculum in 1 years time is impossible.

Young marked his own tests (meaning no independent verification), gave himself a pass threshold of 50% (when the reality for MIT is more like 70%), didn't do his Psets, erased the original correct answers from the tests he found (meaning that he already knew what the answers would be), and his only form of progress comes in his one-man Youtube videos. There's no external validation of his success, other than what we take his word to be.

He's a marketer, plain and simple.

[0] - [http://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/2vxt6r/the...](http://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/2vxt6r/the_mit_challenge/)

</comment><comment><USER3> No. If you have the time to sink figure out how to attend classes at the local state university. A few college credits that way would be immensely more valuable even if you don't complete the degree.

And having used MIT's material extensively while going through my studies I have to say the material is not really extraordinary. It's not what gives MIT students an edge over others. That edge is due to the motivating and challenging environment. So you probably won't get MIT level anything just by going through the videos and doing the problem sets.</comment>


Ask HN: What personal finance tools do you use? - <AUTHOR> I've been using YNAB(6 months) after having used HLedger(2 years). HLedger was beautiful, I really loved budgeting that way. There were fantastic tutorials on how to do envelop budgeting. The lead developer helped fix bugs instantly.  There was a tool that let me import my OXF files from the bank. It was a dream.
However I got married and merged finances, so I needed something a bit more user friendly to give my wife access to our budget.  YNAB is well it's slow and dogmatic. I don't mind dogmatic but the way it rolls months annoys me. Couple that with a clunky slow interface and I'm done with YNAB.
What do you use to for your personal budget? <comment><USER2> I've been using LunchMoney for more than six months now and couldn't be happier: [https://lunchmoney.app](https://lunchmoney.app)

It's a simple yet powerful budgeting tool. YNAB always look overcomplicated and unfriendly to me

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the mention!

Jen here- founder of Lunch Money. Definitely give us a try if you're looking for something more modern and user-friendly. Lunch Money is less rigid than YNAB so much easier to get started on and build habits with.

If you (or anyone else reading this) decide to try it out, let me know you're from HN and I'll hook you up with a free month on top of the 14 day trial :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Can you do envelope style budgeting with lunch money? I think I'll give it a shot regardless.

<comment><USER3> We don't adhere to any one budgeting philosophy. While we won't walk you through the envelope style budgeting the way YNAB does, you can certainly mimic it with the platform!

<comment><AUTHOR> I had a checklist of requirements:

* OXF import so that duplicate transactions are not an issue.

* An iPhone app so my wife can see the state of the budget.

* Envelop budgeting by default.

Lunch Money meets none of these. I don't think I am the target market, but the UI has won me over. I'm totally going to do everything I can to make this work. I suspect the API will make that possible.

Amazing job on the interface, clean fast and appealing while showing loads of information all at once.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I recently simplified and starting using Google Forms.

I created a form with name (text), amount (number) and category (dropdown), then opened it in my iPhone's browser and added it to my homescreen. Whenever I make a purchase, I tap the icon and up pops a blank form. Takes me no more than 10 seconds to fill out.

You can link the form responses to a spreadsheet, and from there I can categorize and aggregate with this raw data any way I want. Next step is to create some graphs on the spreadsheet and add that view to my homescreen, so I can see how much budget is remaining in a month.

I've grown tired of budgeting tools that try to link your credit cards, etc-- authentication maintenance is never the smoothest, and things are more detailed than I need them to be. Best thing about this method is that I have the raw data to work on, and I can adjust my data visuals easily as my needs change (it might also be cool to one day do large aggregates over, say, 10 years of personal spending)

</comment><comment><USER5> I use a plaintext double-entry system now. Wrote a small Python script to parse it as well. I put the code up here [1].

Before that, I was using SQLite with a shell script for a while to keep track of my expenses, code here [2].

[1]: [https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py](https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py)

[2]: [https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext- budgeting/](https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-budgeting/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Google Sheets but I've been wanting to move to a plain text solution, however my Google Sheet is now nearly 7 years old, so there is so much good data there and I feel more and more locked in

<comment><USER7> I wouldn't worry about lock in since you can export to excel, convert to csv, and boom, you have plain text.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> While it's only available for iOS/iPadOS/macOS, I can't recommend Debit and Credit enough: [https://debitandcredit.app/](https://debitandcredit.app/)

It's a very straightforward application for logging, categorizing your transactions. The UI is clean and simple, the features like Budgets/Plans/Scheduled Transactions are great, the visualization features are meh, but I don't use them that much. Another great thing is how easy it is to reach out to the developer. I've personally asked for a feature through Twitter and had that patched in within a week.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have always been good with my money. When I married I merged our accounts. Finances became a disaster.

A few years ago we had some major life changes. At that point I set up more accounts. My wife is on all accounts, but she has a PRIMARY spending account, which although I am on the account I never use. We put money into it regularly. Since she does most of the shopping that is where she spends from. I have a separate account for the mortgage. Another account for charge cards, cash and utilities.

By physically separating the money I have not had a late mortgage payment. My wife has freedom to spend without guilt. And we are finally saving money.

Your mileage might be different.

</comment><comment><USER10> What exactly do you need out of your tool ?

Do you want want to track daily expenses ? only big expenses ? check balances across multiple accounts ?

Personally I get along fine with a spreadsheet and a wife who is into finance professionally.

<comment><USER11> I also use a spreadsheet.

I only budget for my own finances. I can't make a combined budget because my wife's income is somewhat variable and she doesn't want to make a budget. I guess that's ok since I pay all the bills except for her hobbies, gas, and tires (and when she needs to buy a new car). I tried to get her to chip in for utilities but she doesn't want to, even though she makes roughly 30% of our combined income. She spends as much on her hobbies every month as I do on our mortgage. I also hate my job but can't quit since she won't help with the finances.

Sorry, I guess that turned into a bit of a rant.

<comment><USER10> Actually we had a corridor chat in my team about that yesterday, I was surprised that even people from conservative countries like India and Pakistan still had some variant of putting all salaries in one pot.

On the other hand I know a few people with his and hers accounts that are happily married so YMMV

<comment><USER11> We have separate accounts, mostly because we were lazy and didn't want set up joint accounts. I think it should be fine either way. I just wish she would contribute to our financial wellness. $1200 per month on hobbies is insane in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've been using buckets: [https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/](https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/) for a couple of years after moving away from YNAB. I find that it's fairly similar to YNAB with better handling of rolling over data from month-to-month and the fact that it's not a subscription is very comforting.

</comment><comment> Maha-pudma Libre office Calc, and pivot tables.

I have set everything up so I can just copy and paste my banks export straight into a sheet, pivot tables on the next sheet.

</comment><comment><USER13> Rolled my own system using email purchase notifications, zapier, and Google sheets: [https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending- wit...](https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending-with-a- couple-no-code-services-and-only-100-lines-of-python-code-36c8ac75f670)

</comment><comment><USER14> I just use two excel (or to be more precise, Libre Office Calc) pages. In one I put all the expenses divided by month, than type. Each one has a short description

In the other I plot graph of the data in the first page, In particular graphs covering each month, each year and last 5 years.

Never needed anything else

<comment><USER15> seconded, even libreoffice. I have 12 sheets, one for each month. Each year I copy it. There is a second spreadsheet for big long term things, like loans and different phases of contractor work on our house

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> YNAB is my main tool for the job.

</comment><comment><USER17> I gave up on budgeting apps as I felt I knew roughly how much was coming in. as long as I kept on top of prices on insurance, electricity,... Then that's about as good as I needed

I did use buckets when trying to budget. It's the same as ynab but not online

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm in the same boat, would love a convenient tool for a married couple with shared economy. I've heard that YNAB is good but that it's not so convenient for the use-case of a household.

</comment><comment><USER19> Mint for tracking spending and M1 for investments

</comment><comment><USER20> Goodbudget for personal spending

Neobudget for shared stuff

</comment><comment><USER21> An Excel spreadsheet.</comment>


Ask HN: How to find part time work - <AUTHOR> Any tips for finding part time dev or data science jobs?
Everything I see in my area is full time.
Would my best option be to work as a freelancer? <comment><USER2> My advice would be to network, network, network. All the part time opportunities I've found have been through a friend's referral.

It's been essential to helping me balance my workload while launching my latest project (we're doing our "Show HN" right now actually, haha).

Meetups, a night out at the bar. This stuff is all great if you have an inclination for it. Just grab contact details from the people you meet and stay in touch. Then the opporutnities will start to flow! Good luck :)</comment>


Show HN: Enophp – PHP library for the eno notation language - <AUTHOR> The eno notation language[1] now also has an official PHP library:
https://eno-lang.org/php/
It features the same API and featureset as the JavaScript / Python / Ruby libraries, and also comes with the same extensive testsuite that has been growing during implementation of the other libraries, with already well over 90% coverage at the time of release.
Happy to hear your feedback and answer any questions!
[1] A user-friendly format for file-based content: https://eno-lang.org/ <comment><USER2> I'm curious what data types exist in this? The (loose) specification says,

> _In eno there is no type differentiation on the language level, there are > only textual representations ( "strings"), which are always referred to as > values._

Yet the example seems to show floating points being parsed as such. While I can see allowing the implementation some leeway — they may not all have the same notion of integral types, for example, Python & JS parse JSON "3" "differently" — Python as an int, JSON as a "Number" (IEEE floating point) — this seems more vague than you'd want. But that could just be due to the spec still coming along.

Is there anything you think Eno accomplishes over TOML (my present choice when dealing w/ configuration files, great for humans) or YAML (arbitrary but more complex data structures that still need to be touched or input by a human; more complex, but generally still human usable) or JSON/CBOR (machine to machine interchange of loosely typed data)? (I list them all since I presently "use" them all for slightly different choices.)

And +1 for having ABNF. (Even if rough.) And I appreciate that it is specified in terms of Unicode code points, which is very appropriate IMO for a textual language.

<comment><AUTHOR> The design principle for types in eno is that the _language_ itself has no notion of types, there are only plain textual representations. Meaning, types are _never inferred_ from a document. Instead, when parsing an eno document the _application_ explicitly requests the type it expects for each field, thereby validating the document during parsing. From the perspective of the _libraries_ for parsing eno, types are defined as simple functions/closures (I call them "loaders"), that basically take the string value from a field and validate/transform and return it as the proper type. Some of these loaders currently ship with the libraries for convenience (int, float, datetime, etc. - this is not a hard specification though, just a sensible predefined toolbox), but there can be any number of types, whichever types an application needs in addition can be defined and used on the fly.

This is the main point that differentiates eno from almost all TOML/YAML/JSON like formats, and the implication of this is that eno is extremly simple and very accessible for non-technical users (so far all casestudies have verified this to be true) and a highly reliable data source for developers, but it also comes at the cost of losing generic de/serializability, so it depends on the usecase whether eno should be chosen over other formats. :)

There are also some other things that are unique to eno (e.g. all parser and validation error messages are fully localized and in user-friendly humanized language) or painfully missing in some other formats (e.g. having any number of "multiline string" fields that don't hang indented against an invisible left margin somewhere in the document), feel free to explore further on the website if you're curious!

Thanks for your interest and the feedback on the ABNF (much appreciated!), hope I could clarify things a bit. :)</comment></comment>


What Would You Do If You Had 10 Years Left? - <AUTHOR> https://zenpsychiatry.com/10-years-left/?yc-news <comment><USER2> The median survival for me is 5 years! I have just had a stem cell transplant (well my own cells) and it wss hard - if I say hard then it really was and I feel a lot of empathy for those who are not as fit and determined as me. What I am doing is pretty much as before - being with and part of my family and doing a lot of endurance exercise (my other half describes me as a ultramarathon runner - I dont) cycling, running and rowing average 8+ hours a week even while having chemo. As far as I am concerned this high level of exercise is by far the most effective medicine, and also shows everyone that this is a life challenge to be met rather than a disaster. I also get some satisfaction from finding out that people such as one of the doctors taking care of me have now taken up running. ps - if you start doing exercise be carful and get good advice - I have known too many people dying suddenly of male exercise bravado.

</comment><comment><USER3> I imagine I would act pretty typically. Quit work. Travel the world and see what I want to see. Spend time at leisure, thinking about the world and my place in it. Develop some kind of spirituality. Take a bunch of psychedelic drugs. Spend my days with family and friends.</comment>


Smart Bed for Kids with Special Needs - <AUTHOR> https://boogaloobeds.com/ <comment><USER2> [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boogaloo](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boogaloo)

TOP DEFINITION boogaloo Civil war. Does not only pertain to war with the government but also to political sides. Me: I just got doxxed and fired. I'm sick of these pinko commies with their authoritarian social justice bullshit.

Friend: I just doxxed the guy who doxxed you. Let's get this boogaloo started. Me: Cowabunga it is. #boogaloo#civil war#antifa#patriots#blm#3%</comment>


Walmart to cut 7,000 jobs due to cash automation - <AUTHOR> http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/09/01/walmart-jobs/89716862/ <comment><USER2> Within 10 years walmart will have 0 retail employees.

They devastate communities, put all their competition out of business, and then lay off their human work force.

Walmart has a vested interest in perpetuating poverty.

<comment><USER3> Markets are efficient. The value of a large selection of cheap goods (that even indigents can afford, mind you) is higher than the value of certain jobs.

Even if you are right 10 years from now (and you won't be), it will be because it increases net economic efficiency.

<comment><USER2> That would be true if Walmart was not already receiving huge subsidies in the form of food stamps.</comment></comment></comment>


What are your favorite C++ development tools? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.typemock.com/2011/07/what-are-best-c-development-tools-in.html?utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=omgubuntupost

<comment><USER2> Dev tools or just for Linux? Asked both ways...

1\. Qt Creator (currently supplied by Nokia). 2\. Ye Olde Command Line. 3\. Visual Studio (only for Windows, natch)

<comment><AUTHOR> Both.

Have you had a chance to try Isolator++ for unit testing (Windows and Linux) - <http://www.typemock.com/isolatorpp-product-page>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Valgrind.</comment>


LINE Storage: Storing billions of rows in Sharded-Redis and HBase per Month - <AUTHOR> http://tech.naver.jp/blog/?p=1420

<comment><USER2> I am not sure if anyone on HN know what is Line. Since US / EU uses Whatsapp.</comment>