Pitching startups on technical writing - <AUTHOR> I've been a technical writer for startups--recently at Realm, before that at RethinkDB--and I'm thinking about trying to make a go of documentation consulting in the new year. I think this is something a lot of startups, particularly in the developer tools space, could use. Many of them don't have enough work to hire a full-time technical writer, but they still need docs. I've worked at startups and small companies as a developer, too, and I know that even when everyone agrees in theory that docs are important, in practice they tend to remain in "minimum viable" shape indefinitely.
So here's my dilemma: I don't know how to pitch this. There are probably a few people I can talk to about leads (and I'll likely be doing that after the holidays), but I'm not sure how to approach folks I have no relationship with. I'm aware that to some degree this question is more "How do consult," but I have a definite sense that it's a lot easier to pitch yourself as a JavaScript, Rails or even (gasp) PHP dev than it is as a docs writer: it's hard not to notice, for example, that when HN does its monthly "Who's hiring?" posts, it's rare to see anyone looking for tech writers--even companies building APIs, where the documentation is arguably the user interface.
If you're a tech writer yourself, do you have any experience with this? And if you're not a tech writer, how do you think a pitch like this could work? <comment><USER2> Developer tools startups definitely sound like a promising audience for this. A convincing pitch will show them that the output of your services will earn more than it costs to hire you.

One way to do that might be if you could show some sort of survey data showing that X% of hiring managers select tools based on documentation availability/quality. Ideally, you'd come up with a way to project the impact on their conversion rates if they improved their docs in specific ways.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes there are far fewer opportunities for tech writers compared to developers.

As far as pitching, build out your site and writing samples. I would target companies who currently hire tech writers, they may require some temporary help.

Been a contract tech writer for many years but mostly get work from word of mouth, contacts built up over years, agencies, and responding to vacancies directly.

</comment><comment><USER4> 1\. Write educational content targeted at your audience, as lead-in to "and if you don't have time to do all this yourself, hire me to do it for you."

2\. Post educational content in places where your target market hangs out (e.g. here).

</comment><comment><USER5> I think part of the issue is probably many new companies don't realize they need this. So you might want to start by educating them.

Any reason to limit yourself to startups? More mature companies might recognize the need easier.

<comment><USER4> Limiting your focus makes marketing easier.

<comment><USER5> I agree. But with two caveats:

1\. Make sure you've picked the right segment to focus on.

2\. If you are open to other segments, don't make your marketing alienate those other segments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Put together a portfolio. Put it on a website explaining what your value position is, why people need you. List it in your HN profile.

</comment><comment><USER7> I do like to see sample of your technical writings.

<comment><AUTHOR> The biggest sample that's already up is the doc set for RethinkDB (rethinkdb.com). That's not 100% mine--they had an engineering culture that valued documentation even before I got there, which helped immensely!--but I've worked on most of the pages, writing a fair number from scratch.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is the equity split in the infographic pie chart wrong? - <AUTHOR>

I'm trying to figure out if the infographic is wrong or my math is incorrect in this graphic:
http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-equity/
It seems like these are the percentage breakdowns:
Co-Founder	20.8% Co-Founder	20.8% Uncle	2.8% Options	11.1% Angel	11.1% Series A	33.3% <comment><USER2> At which stage are you referring to?</comment>


Ask HN:  How to be happier  - <AUTHOR> I'm terribly worried that this question will be brushed aside as ridiculously naive, but what the heck.
How do you make yourself a happier person?
I ask this question because I've just graduated from high school, and the transition has forced me to focus seriously about what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.  The best answer I could come up with is "contribute to the betterment of mankind", which I think many HN users can sympathize with.  However, as I tried to flesh out my response into a meaningful plan, I realized I have no idea how to make the world a happier place!  In truth, I don't even know how to make myself a happier person!
In light of this, I figured that's the first thing I should do.  I'd immensely appreciate anybody giving their two cents on this silly question. <comment><USER2> I would read about Buckminster Fuller. He had the same goal. For example, "Critical Path" is a good start.

Another book to consider is "How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life" by Alan Lankin.

Invest time to understand yourself. This could be learning about Zen/Buddhism or just taking time out to journal, take walks, etc.

As a member of Hacker News, you might want to look for "worthwhile problems" to throw your energy at. Good problems need to be hard enough to be interesting and help enough people but still be attainable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Buckminster Fuller seems absolutely brilliant. Thank you for leading me on to him :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not naive or stupid at all. You're doing the right thing by asking people their opinions.

I've got a task for you, instead of asking what "would make me happy?" ask, "What excites me?". Think about the last few times you were really excited at the prospect of something. Can you imagine something just as exciting now? Do that!

Also, to help you with your search I recommend you read these 3 books...

Linchpin by Seth Godin - Seth is really easy to read and quite inspiring. - Helps you think about how you could best find a niche and define yourself. - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linchpin-Indispensable-career- create...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linchpin-Indispensable-career-create- remarkable/dp/0749953357)

Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Work Week - Not everyone is a fan of lifestyle designers like Tim. It can seem a bit shallow at times. You might find the same too. In any case, Tim helps you find what you want to do (and how to do it).

Covey's 7 Habits - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effe...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People)

</comment><comment><USER4> Other suggestions are great.

I would add, as necessary but not sufficient, keep your affairs in order, and always know what you're going to do today and how to do it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Explore the world and discover what makes you happy. Hopefully it will be something that makes money; if not you'll have to find a career you enjoy (or don't mind doing every day, at least) to pay the bills.</comment>


Nexus 7 tablet is $50 more in Australia then the US - <AUTHOR>

The Nexus 7 tablet is $50 more expensive in Australia even though the Aussie dollar is almost the same as the US dollar.  What's going on there?<p>* Go to the nexus 7 google page http://www.google.com/nexus/#/7<p>* See the text "The new $199 tablet from Google"<p>* Click "Buy Now"<p>* Prepare to be disappointed.<p>I would have thought Google would be above the regional price discrimination that regularly occurs in Australia. <comment><USER2> Taxes? US listed prices often don't include taxes, where in many other countries require taxes (sales, VAT, etc) be included in the listed price.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a bit confusing for people in the US.

Oh well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Well at least you can buy it. I am in Sweden and can't.

</comment><comment><USER4> Combination of things including GST.</comment>


Help me pick a cellphone - <AUTHOR>

I'm a web developer/ producer. mostly i build wordpress or drupal sites but i've done joomla, modx, magento, ektron, dotnetnuke, code igniter. I've been doing this about 6 years and i've never owned a smartphone in my life. thinking about biting the bullet. I'm on verizon in the ny metro area. I have no idea what i want. help me figure it out. <comment><USER2> Verizon has a lot of choices, but something from the Droid line is probably your best bet. If you want a physical keyboard, then I'd recommend the Droid 3 (<http://engt.co/k9nRy4>), but if you're fine with an onscreen one, then I'd go with a Droid X2 (<http://engt.co/lUahHe>) or Droid Charge (<http://engt.co/jPK3k6>) – the X2 has a faster processor and arguably nicer design, but the Charge has a gorgeous screen and 4G support, so it's up to you there. Bottom line: Droid 3 for physical keyboard, Charge or X2 otherwise.

<comment><USER3> Seconded - sounds right at the moment, given Bionic is MIA without any updates from Motorola.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I suggest going to your local Verizon shop and playing with the iPhone and Android phones first and seeing which phone OS you like more.

If you decide on going the iPhone route, definitely wait until September-ish until the new batch of iPhones are [rumored] to come out.

I don't know too much about Verizon's selection of Android phones, but my friend just got a Samsung Charge, and it felt pretty nice.

</comment><comment><USER5> On Verizon, the iPhone is always a great choice, especially with new hardware coming out in the near future.

Otherwise, figure out what the newest Android is. It changes pretty often. Droids are a solid product line.</comment>


Ask HN: We realised one of our pet projects. How to market this? - <AUTHOR>

We have been working on a small iphone app on the side, and we have just released it. We have done this project entirely for fun and gaining exposure to the app store(frankly, it wasn't that bad - compared to the horror stories we've heard). We released two of versions of the app, free and pro. We are not expecting any profit from this, but it would be nice to have some users and get some feedback. Do you have any pointers for marketing this?<p>URL : http://www.grammarfungame.com/ <comment><USER2> Cool! I would say get out of the building and bring this to some schools. Get it in front of kids and TEACHERs. They might be your best evangelists. One TEACHER has many STUDENTS who have twice as many PARENTS who have checkbooks.

Also, it would be especially cool if each background graphic related to the sentence presented -- like a second tier for reinforcing the learning experience.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice idea. We should try to reach some teachers.

Actually, the background image may not be a bad idea, but the problem is that we currently have about 100 sentences for the Free version and keep adding new sentences for the Pro version. So, keeping up the background would be a huge task (along with the file sizes)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> One potential target audience: Homeschoolers. A term you should learn and use: "carschooling". This would be a great activity to teach them something and keep them out of mom or dad's hair while driving around to all the activities that some busy homeschoolers pursue. I have already posted it to one (edit: two) of the lists I am on.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for spreading the word. Sure, we'll let you know the results.</comment></comment>


Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k - <AUTHOR> http://www.vox.com/2014/4/22/5640734/learning-to-code-boosted-incomes-to-72000 <comment><USER2> Awesome, though it might take a bit of air out of the tech-as-a-solution-to- jobs when one hears the qualifier "BTW, they're university-educated CS majors." (At a university with an absolutely terrible career services department, even by the low standards of career services departments.)

<comment><USER3> My head almost exploded from sloppy statistics reading the article.

> Six months after the first Access Code class of 21 students completed the 18 > week course, the 15 graduates who accepted job offers have seen their income > rise from under $15,000 to an average of $72,190; the other six students are > either still in college or have chosen to launch their own startups

1: Those not getting a job were not included in the average. 2: The analysis is comparing student incomes with working incomes. I imagine every college and university could show amazing income growth using these measures.

<comment><USER4> 1\. Yes that's what they said. The average included those who accepted job offers.

2\. After paying $20,000 a year and/or going in to debt.

<comment><USER5> I don't think people are charged $20,000. Alexis Ohanian is raising money for the program, and he has a goal of $20,000. That fundraiser also says that the program awards partial and full scholarships.

Also, the NY Daily News is saying they are trying to raise $1,000,000 for the program to pay for 100 students. So that would put the cost at around $10,000 per person without scholarships. [http://www.nydailynews.com/new- york/queens/queens-techies-fu...](http://www.nydailynews.com/new- york/queens/queens-techies-funding-1m-mission-article-1.1761559)

I didn't see any figures about how much the average student paid though. I would be interested in that figure.

<comment><USER6> The program is fully scholarship oriented, we intend to serve low income communities so that adults can all backgrounds can enter the tech industry. Our students were from 18-37, most were not in college at the time and didn't know how to code. We also believe it's not just about working at a tech company, we want to empower those through the course to be tech entrepreneurs. Those that aren't working are pursuing their own projects and launching new ventures. The income mobility statistic shows potential for what coding can do to raise income and improve peoples lives, but it's important for us to increase opportunity for people to create their own startups and apps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm donating my 31st birthday to this great org. Donating $150 will get you a signed copy of Without Their Permission and I'll take the highest donor out to lunch in Queens.

[https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/donating-my-31st- help-c4...](https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/donating-my-31st- help-c4q-teach-queens-to-code)

</comment><comment><USER8> "We saw lots of people in the City University of New York system who graduated as computer science majors but weren't going into the tech industry...It was a lot of access and network problems, and a lack of technical training."

This is really confusing. How do you graduate as a computer science major and lack technical training? And if that's the case, how does such a faculty remain in business?

<comment><USER9> I took an AI class and also a computer graphics class at a CUNY school in the fall of 2013.

Among CS-major seniors who are in the top half of the class, none that I talked to knew what software version control was, what git or Perforce or cvs etc. were.

The faculty is good. Almost all of them knew their stuff, and a few were very good at explaining things clearly.

The kids just didn't seem to have much interest in doing computer stuff outside of class. You'd think at least once in four years they'd browse Github bug reports, do a patch and send a pull request. They don't though. The ACM computer club on campus was always a little derelict and is now pretty much inactive.

A lot of kids have vague ideas about building video games, but then take a graphics course which uses matrix math to calculate transformations, formulas to calculate Phong shading and so forth. After doing that they lose interest.

They do get training - the theoretical stuff is taught beautifully. We also did a lot of Java and C++, as well as some Python, Common Lisp, Prolog etc. As well as learning about DBMSs and the various normal forms, or how the fetch/execute cycle works etc. and all of that.

I don't know how to explain the problem other than that students did the work for a grade and that was it. They had no interest in programming outside of class work. One reason I did extra work was just to feel I could apply things. I learned Java, and then fixed some open source Java bugs, and then wrote a 1000+ line program in order to get a grip on what I learned. Otherwise it would be free floating theory about inheritance, polymorphism, objects etc. The same with graphics - I did some OpenGL work to ground what I learned in class.

Some kids did not even really seem to care about learning what was needed for class or getting a decent grade. I don't know why they're even bothering. I can see slogging through required general classes, but slogging through your major?

<comment><USER10> They're there because they heard they'll get a big salary they don't deserve at the end of those 4 years, not because they have any interest in the field or want to contribute anything to the world.

It's probably been like this since the dot-com era and the mediocrity has only snowballed since. The state of the software industry and the educational institutions around it is an embarrassment. If the curriculum was any good, these minimum-effort clowns would not be able to earn a degree in Computer Science.

<comment><USER11> I really don't think that's the case. Plenty of CS majors at CUNYs have no idea how much programmers make. Most come in not knowing what to major in, end up taking an intro programming class to meet some basic requirement and end up liking it enough to continue learning it. They go through the program doing well enough to pass and hope that what they learn in class will help them get a job once they're done. None of them read hackernews, so they have no idea that living and breathing computers is prereq for becoming an employable programmer.

<comment><USER12> Current CUNY CS major here. Yes, the majority of CUNY CS majors are clueless individuals who have zero business being here. However, there are many diamonds in the CUNY rough (some can be found here: [http://cunytap.wordpress.com/](http://cunytap.wordpress.com/)) who love CS and programming. There's some good talent here for startups in the alley to scoop up if they cared to look.

<comment><USER13> I've heard good things about TAP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Just to be clear, these are people with either a BS or a BA in Computer Science, right?

<comment><USER6> Hi, I'm the founder of the organization. 85% of the class had never written a line of code before. We believe that there are people in Queens and other underserved communities who can learn to code and also pursue tech entrepreneurship.

<comment><USER15> Your quote in the articles says -- "We saw lots of people in the City University of New York system who graduated as computer science majors but weren't going into the tech industry" \--- You can't graduate as a CS major without writing any code...So this quote has nothing to do with the people actually in your program?

<comment><USER6> That quote was part of a longer conversation, it was asking why we saw the need for this. The idea of even students studying CS not having access and opportunities point out the opportunity to open this up to other people in these communities

<comment><USER16> I'm confused. Are the people in this story university CS graduates or not? I think you're saying they are NOT, right?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Also worth mentioning:

CodeNow (DC and San Francisco) [http://codenow.com/](http://codenow.com/) (currently appears down)

CodeCamp (East Palo Alto) [http://www.epacoding.com/](http://www.epacoding.com/)

For people in the tech industry, helping out programs like these is an awesome way to give back. Fun, engaging, direct, and makes good use of the skills you already have (i.e. in a volunteering teaching position).

<comment><USER18> It looks like the CodeNow website is [http://codenow.org/](http://codenow.org/) They seem to be in New York too!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Regardless of the merits of this particular case ... I'm always happy to see people improve their lots in life through education. If someone can learn to program and earn significantly more money, they should go for it.

However, I am concerned when people try and paint any given profession as being some kind of gold rush or as easy money. Even if programming were incredibly simple and anyone could pick it up ... if everyone making $15K learned to program, they would drag the median salary of programmers down to $15K due to over-supply. Our profession in particular really needs more quality before it needs more quantity.

The moral of stories like this should be, "skilled jobs generally pay better than unskilled jobs", not "computer programming is easy and pays exceptionally well!" And at that point, I doubt that is news to anyone.

<comment><USER20> >if everyone making $15K learned to program, they would drag the median salary of programmers down to $15K due to over-supply.

That's market competition and productivity gains. If your job is so easy that you fear that they could crank out people by the dozens that are as good at your job as you are, then you're going to have to choose a harder job if you want to make more money than them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think this is great! As someone who has a background in teaching youth living in poverty who is now a coder, I've often thought about swinging back around and do bootcamp style courses for older teenagers.

</comment><comment><USER22> ""We saw lots of people in the City University of New York system who graduated as computer science majors but weren't going into the tech industry," says Jukay Hsu, founder of Coalition for Queens"

"Not bad, considering 85 percent of the participants had never coded before."

How in the heck can you get a degree in CS while also never having any experience coding. They don't need a non-profit they need to reform that CS department or shut it down.

</comment><comment><USER11> Here's a link to their demo day [http://youtu.be/AS35Lxv6WRM?t=39m2s](http://youtu.be/AS35Lxv6WRM?t=39m2s)

</comment><comment><USER23>
      > There's a booming tech scene in New York City with over 70,000 open
      > jobs, but it's always been somewhat insulated from the city itself

What is this sentence trying to convey? The part that I do not understand is the "insulated from the city" bit.

<comment><USER24> People in a booming tech scene are not sleeping on the streets and are insulated (by walls) from the city itself.

<comment><USER23> I appreciate your response and it is too bad that you were downvoted for trying to help. Whoever downvoted you should have provided their explanation if it was so obvious to them that you were wrong. I think the problem is that we are dealing with bad writing. My problem with your explanation is that it means everybody except the homeless population of the city is "insulated from the city." As far as insightful openings go, this is not my choice for the introduction. This is especially silly if you try and imagine any "booming industry" that would not be "insulated from the city." Once again thanks for your effort and I apologize that someone downvoted you for trying to be a helpful member of the community.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> If you want to support Coalition for Queens and the next Access Code program, donate now through Crowdtilt:

[https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/donating-my-31st- help-c4...](https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/donating-my-31st- help-c4q-teach-queens-to-code)

</comment><comment><USER26> I love reading stories like this.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is awesome, but they are not making enough.

I still get MBA types saying: 'can you build this app for me plz?'

I don't think they want it built, else they'd do it.</comment>


Why the University of California Is Appealing the CRISPR Patent Decision - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/why-uc-is-appealing-the-crispr-patent-decision/522888/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Someone summed up the decision as such: UC Berkeley patented tennis balls. Harvard/MIT patented yellow tennis balls. Harvard/MIT won.

I realize this example is tongue in cheek and imperfect. I also dont pretend to understand the biology, but has anyone produced a good layperson's view of how Harvard/MIT won this?

Disclaimer: I'm a graduate student at UC Berkeley.

<comment><USER3> Berkeley applied for a patent on tennis balls, an _application_ still _pending_. Harvard/MIT _later_ applied for a patent on yellow tennis balls and paid a fee to accelerate the review of their application. The Harvard/MIT patent was _issued_ first. The recent PTAB trial found that the Berkeley patent application did not interfere with the Harvard/MIT patent, but this does not mean that the Berkeley application will not issue, nor does it mean that one could practice yellow tennis balls (CRISPER/Cas9 in eukaryotes) without licensing both from Berkeley and Harvard/MIT.

As to how Harvard/MIT won, part of the PTAB decision relied on general statements made by one of the Berkeley inventors as to the challenges in dyeing tennis balls yellow (getting the CRISPER/Cas9 system working in eurkaryotes) and so demonstrating that the Harvard/MIT inventors had to made an inventive step. That is a pretty profound and worrying development with respect to academic freedom.

<comment><USER4> Why is it a worrying development with respect to academic freedom? I think I'm getting the sense -- statements you make about how difficult some piece of work is can be used as evidence that the work is difficult, and thus as evidence that someone who does that work has done something inventive. But it doesn't seem like a particularly unusual revelation. Sometimes true things will be to your adversary's advantage. That's always been true.

<comment><USER5> I presume parent is worried that this will lead to less open exchange on the academic marketplace - you would not want to have public discussions about anything related to the work you are planning to patent, out of fear you might sabotage it.

<comment><USER6> That cuts both ways, in that open academic exchange can also be evidence that strengthens your own case. Although I guess the real risk is that lawyers would get end up involved in that process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It is a tragedy that all this time and effort is being spent to create a temporally bounded monopoly which, in the long run, will likely hinder the use and development of CRISPR. Why is it not possible for patents to recognize multiple, independent sources of innovation and to award intellectual ownership of the ideas to all deserving parties?

<comment><USER8> > Why is it not possible for patents to recognize multiple, independent > sources of innovation and to award intellectual ownership of the ideas to > all deserving parties?

Why is a temporary monopoly even necessary here? I've written about this before, but every time I see "patents" mentioned anywhere, I find myself thinking "Do we need this system?"

I asked on HN a while back for good examples of the patent system working as it should. The examples I got back were the Super Soaker guy and a sprinkler system someone's uncle invented -- but that's such peanuts compared to what would be possible if money fighting this case were spent on CRISPR researchers collaborating across organizations instead.

The arguments in defense of patents are so weak and yet so vehement. Delaying the cure for cancer is not a fair exchange for the Super Soaker guy getting rich from artificial scarcity in a child's toy category.

<comment><USER3> > Why is a temporary monopoly even necessary here? I've written about this > before, but every time I see "patents" mentioned anywhere, I find myself > thinking "Do we need this system?"

In biotech and medtech no one will invest in your startup, even at the angel level, unless you have a sound IP strategy that includes patents or a very well-considered trade secret plan. The time from discovery to translation and commercialization is long, risky, expensive, and too difficult to predict to permit investment without some sort of period of exclusivity. If someone can clone a product as soon as it is developed and on the market, how could a company recoup development costs?

<comment><USER8> I've had this conversation before (not with you, but re: this argument) and I think you're right, it's hard to make certain areas of biotech work without having the ability to recoup costs (today handled with a temporary monopoly on the product, keeping gross margins very high).

One answer is "if you abolish patents a lot of science research will have to come from privately or publicly funded research" but this is pretty extreme and would be a tectonic shift in the biotech industry.

I'm not advocating an extreme solution like abolishing patents. But I think the pendulum needs to shift very hard in the other direction re: patents in general. Like, how about not having one court in Texas decide it all? Or "you have to sell the product to keep the patent and you can't just pretend to sell it". Or you can't patent software unless there's a really really good reason (like recouping huge development losses)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That's it. I will patent the process of picking up rocks in order to throw them at things.

I think it's a great achievement to discover the CRISPER/Cas9 system, but just as a rock - it was just laying there.

It's absurd that genes can be patented, and the ethics is mindbogglingly disturbing - I could understand procedures and methods for _using_ or _analysing_ genes, but the actual _code_ as found in nature?

</comment><comment><USER10> For those of you coming late to CRISPR and this debate - it's covered in a Radiolab podcast episode from February [http://www.radiolab.org/story/update- crispr/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/update-crispr/)

This is an update, but opens with the original CRISPR report from some years back -- featuring Jennifer Doudna from UC Berkeley.

</comment><comment><USER11> After having spent several weeks studying the case law and patent procedures, I have come to the conclusion that Doudna/UC were naive and sloppy in their original approach to the CRISPR IP and public positioning. Morality aside, I believe Broad has the stronger U.S. claim, at least legally speaking. It's typically not the court's position to rectify the mis-steps of others. The processes are what they are, and the law is what it is, and the onus is on the claimant to properly protect themselves.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm confused about how either MIT, Harvard, or UC Berkeley owns the IP. Ostensibly the research was funded by the NIH or NSF, not those institutions. Is it really the case the the universities own the IP of NSF-sponsored grants?

<comment><USER13> Bayh-Dole Act. Since 1980, IP produced by government sponsored research is owned by the inventor, not the government.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act)

<comment><USER14> That's for Federally funded research.

The definitive way to find out who owns the patent is to look at the Original Assignee and then the Legal Events to find out who the most recent owner is:

So Transmeta was the Original Assignee for _US7100061_ but Intellectual Ventures now owns it.

[https://www.google.com/patents/US7100061](https://www.google.com/patents/US7100061)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> How can they patent this? It's been occurring naturally for millennia.

<comment><USER16> General Electric fought to patent life.

New Zealand banned software patents.

I feel like we're going to see similar analogies between bioengineering and software in the future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Call me crazy, but I somehow doubt all of this fighting over profits/bragging rights/what-have-you will speed the rate at which CRISPR can be developed into a technology that actually saves lives.

</comment><comment><USER11> Required reading if you want to really dig on this - [https://acts.uspto.gov/ifiling/PublicView.jsp?identifier=106...](https://acts.uspto.gov/ifiling/PublicView.jsp?identifier=106048&identifier2=null&tabSel=4&action=filecontent&replyTo=PublicView.jsp#)

<comment><USER11> Also - see here [https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-1350.ZS.html](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-1350.ZS.html) and here [https://www.pillsburylaw.com/images/content/6/5/v2/65484/Whe...](https://www.pillsburylaw.com/images/content/6/5/v2/65484/When- Is-An-Invention-That-Was-Obvious-To-Try-Nevertheless-Nonobv.pdf) Would definitely read the Transcript and Decision on Motions thoroughly from the prior posted link. The weight given to contemporaneous statements regarding "likelihood of success" is paramount. Bottom line - UC muffed the punt, imho, and their counsel didn't make things any better by taking the tack they did. Broad/Zhang drew a straight bead on the commercial IP from the get go and outmaneuvered Doudna/UC from what I can tell. Appellate court could certainly disagree, however, I believe they have a tough hill to climb in light of the record. From a scientific discovery perspective, it seems Doudna/Charpentier are likely to garner the lion's share of credit and accolades, but from a commercial perspective, I do believe Broad will come out on top. Doudna/UC is in a tough spot to claim that it was confident that CRISPR would work in eurkaryotic environments, and Broad had the jump with a better lab setup (and Doudna being crystallography focused). I also believe there is a bit of high level geo-politics at play here considering the Max Plank Institute and (Berlin) Univ. Vienna's involvement with the UC claim.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to avoid places that do not allow me to grow as a developer? - <AUTHOR> So far I've been in a several companies and the story is always the same - the interview doesn't really raise any major red flags, the pay is decent, I take the offer and a month or two in I feel like leaving because there's very little or no opportunities to grow.
The companies seem to always have most - of not all - of the flaws:
- no Glassdoor reviews
- bait and switch, hired for the knowledge of a newer or popular technology, yet work is 100% legacy systems
- no mentoring of any sort
- poor or no documentation and/or tests
- raising the issue gets me murky promises of things being better in the future, but no actual improvements ever come
- weird and dated tools and systems
- verson control exists, but for some reason the projects I'm working on do not use it
- lots of grunt work that should have been automated ages ago
- suggestions of improvements either met with resistance, ridicule and excuses
- people working here are not passionate about technology
I'm looking for advice on how can I find a place where I can truly learn. I don't mind occasional grunt work or having to navigate through a legacy system, however with 2 years of experience of doing mostly that I feel like dedicating myself towards this type of work is actively hurting my future prospects. I just want a place where I can look back one month and say "in this month I learned [x]". So far nearly every single improvement came from learning on my own, after work, and it's getting to the point where this is the only source of improvement for my skills.
I'm interested in what I can do to remedy the situation. The easy answer is probably "networking", however most of the time I'm on my own. How do I leave this broken circle of terrible jobs? <comment><USER2> > \- bait and switch, hired for the knowledge of a newer or popular > technology, yet work is 100% legacy systems

Almost all important work is maintaining already running systems. Good green field development that's not just another instant messenger or social network is rare and far in between.

> \- no mentoring of any sort

"Here, he'll be your mentor for next five years." That's what you expect? In other words, "Let somebody teach me"? You yourself are responsible for your own professional growth (and well-being in general). Don't expect anybody to come and teach you; such situations sometimes happen, but you're not entitled to them just because.

> \- poor or no documentation and/or tests

Normal thing. Nobody likes writing documentation.

> \- raising the issue gets me murky promises of things being better in the > future, but no actual improvements ever come

Have you tried doing it yourself?

> \- weird and dated tools and systems

Normal thing. If it works and is robust, no need to change.

> \- lots of grunt work that should have been automated ages ago

Have you tried automating it yourself?

> \- people working here are not passionate about technology

First, define "passionate".

Second, not everybody needs to be "passionate". What you should expect from your colleagues is to be good craftsmen, not to be some ADHD kids that change frameworks every other week.

> \- verson control exists, but for some reason the projects I'm working on do > not use it

> \- suggestions of improvements either met with resistance, ridicule and > excuses

These two are the only valid complaints.

> [...] with 2 years of experience of doing mostly [legacy maintenance] I feel > like dedicating myself towards this type of work is actively hurting my > future prospects.

> So far nearly every single improvement came from learning on my own [...]

And what exactly are you/have you been doing in your jobs and on your own? Where are you searching?

<comment><AUTHOR> I do realize that most work is maintenance, but there's a difference between maintaining something written in a fairly popular technology and working nearly exclusively with obscure garbage - the first one makes you employable at other places, the second one doesn't or makes you a worse candidate.

So it's impossible to have someone say "it would be better if you did [x] this way because [y]" or "if you want to know more about the subject you should read [z]"? Weird, I've been doing these things for other people pretty often. Is it really entitlement that I'd like to experience something similar? This is also what I meant about "passionate" people. I do realize not everyone has to be like this, but I'd love to have just one guy around with a lot of knowledge and a desire to share it.

I actually like to write documentation. Currently I don't even have a place where I could put it though. And before you ask - yes, the management got introduced to the idea and they told me that "we don't have time for that". When there is a place to for documentation I seem to be the only one who actually puts any effort into writing it.

The solutions work in a business sense, but require tons of constant maintenance (to the point where it is impossible to focus at other work because everything breaks constantly) or make the job harder than it needs to be. I literally got told to not refactor stuff like one letter variables, obvious SQL Injection bugs, removing dead code or refactoring one copy-pasted block into a function. This like these often lead to mistakes that cause outages for the clients and force the team into working overtime.

I automate what I can. More could be done if similar solutions could be put in production.

At home I work on side projects with .NET and Python. I also like to read programming books and blogs in my free time and it irks me I cannot apply the knowledge I get from these sources at work.

<comment><USER2> > there's a difference between maintaining something written in a fairly > popular technology and working nearly exclusively with obscure garbage

And what kind of "obscure garbage" you're working with?

And then, how did you let this happen? You were recruited to work on some concrete software, didn't you? And if they lied to you about where you will be working, which is a betrayal that is almost impossible to amend, why didn't you change the jobs as soon as possible?

Given your original question, there must be something wrong somewhere with your approach. You said that you've been in several companies (how many?). If two or three, you most probably have had tough luck. If more, then it's hard for me to believe that the job market around you is so full of fraud and deception and you couldn't filter the shitty jobs out by asking how they write their software. Europe and North America don't have it as bad as you describe. Or maybe it's neither Europe nor America? You never mentioned your location.</comment></comment></comment>


Node.js Tutorials - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/04/6-free-e-books-on-nodejs.php

<comment><USER2> I have played with Node.js and I really like it. I would love to spend more time learning it but I can't get myself to commit until it hits 1.0

Anyone else feel this way or should I just get over it and get back into it?

<comment><USER3> I've been working with nodejs a lot lately. Nodejs itself is fine, it moves a fair bit between releases itself but it's predictable. It's built on V8 which really is fast and has not failed me once.

The worst part are the libraries. Some are outdated, even 'major' things. That scares me a bit. Even worst is when you bring a pull request updating the library to work with a later nodejs and get _no_ response.

I've had major issues with sockets, which really sucks because to me that's a major appeal of nodejs. Non-blocking code and sockets make realtime really approachable. But nowjs didn't work for me, randomly working between browsers. So I rewrote it using socket.io, same technology at a lower level. Same issues. Then I finally got response from the dude from nowjs saying it's a problem with socket.io 'wait for 0.7' _crossing fingers, knocking on wood_.

That's not serious, that gives me the @#$##$^.

I don't think people should go out there, make website promoting their awesome libraries and the thing just falls over after 3 api calls.

<comment><USER4> Would you care to elaborate on the errors you are getting? I've been using socket.io with no problems.

<comment><USER3> Happy to send you some source code, maybe you can shine some light? msg me your email @keyle on twitter?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> These videos helped me get a handle on Node.

<http://nodetuts.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been playing around with node.js and express a bit lately and can't find any resources or examples of a project using sqlite. Does anyone know of any?</comment>


Ask HN: Tips and tools to make a great screencast? - <AUTHOR> I love learning new programming languages or frameworks by watching screencasts. I've now designed a new language to build chatbots (docs here: https://hubtype.github.io/botSON - still working on it). Thinking about recording a screencast this weekend.
I'd like to know what you guys like about good screencasts. Should it be long and explain a full working example? Should it be a series of very short videos (egghead style)? I'm not a native english speaker, any tips on this? How about the style and tone of the speaking? What tools do you recommend?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Keep videos short, less than 10 minutes. If you HAVE to, only then have large length videos, but they should not be more than two or three.

One topic per video.

Have a text guide on github and point it to the video, that way, you can edit it.

Buy a Mic or use your mobile earphones, they work wonders in sound, test your earphone's mic optimally.

I use Mac, QuickTime is enough for me.

Speak slowly, use a bright text editor with syntax highlighting enabled. Execute code in the demo, don't just show a PPT, PPTs are waste.

Read my books and watch my YouTube channel!!

[https://github.com/thewhitetulip/multiversity](https://github.com/thewhitetulip/multiversity)

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRS1AaHawQklALPHwfAlBCQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRS1AaHawQklALPHwfAlBCQ)</comment>


Vietnam Doesn't Trust Huawei - <AUTHOR> https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/09/vietnam-doesnt-trust-huawei-an-inch/ <comment><USER2> This makes complete sense to me.

The more China opposes the West (as some say), or acts imperialistically/steals tech etc. (as other say), the more Vietnam will become a viable trade partner for the West.

It is besides the point that Vietnam also has large ideological differences that may materialize later. For now, these differences are inconsequential to doing business. The risk of doing business in Vietnam, in terms of IP theft and getting thrown out of the market, is a fraction of that in China.

China, however, needs and wants the West's business. If Vietnam gets cozy with the West, to the detriment of China, Huawei - which is essentially a state (or more correct, party) company, will act.

If anyone can absolutely not trust Huawei, it is other South-East Asian countries!

<comment><USER3> > The more China opposes the West (as some say), or acts > imperialistically/steals tech etc. (as other say), the more Vietnam will > become a viable trade partner for the West.

It's just one aspect. China have been aggressive between the borders and have been trying to assert dominance for the Spratly islands.

Another aspect is that China is shifting to a middle class so their low labor can't be forever, given other countries having much lower labor. I believe this is a feature of globalization.

> If Vietnam gets cozy with the West, to the detriment of China, Huawei - > which is essentially a state (or more correct, party) company, will act.

They've already been cozy. China's aggressive claim to the China sea around there have forced many countries to cozy up with USA. Vietnam had a joint military drill with USA a while back. The only one that buck this trend is Philippines because they elected a guy who's crazy and into purging people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I understand why they would consider china their primary external security threat.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino- Vietnamese_conflicts,_197...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino- Vietnamese_conflicts,_1979%E2%80%931991)

Also let's not forget how pushy china has been in West Philippine Sea ( _" South China sea"_) east of Vietnam.

<comment><USER5> It's longer than that, too:

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

 _The Chinese domination of Vietnam began in 111 BC, and is usually considered to have ended in 938 AD. A fourth, relatively brief, 20-year punitive invasion by the Ming dynasty, 400 years later, is usually excluded by historians in discussion of the main, almost continuous, period of Chinese colonization from 111 BC to 938 AD, as is the brief occupation of northern Vietnam by Chinese forces at the end of the Second World War._

<comment><USER4> Also again look how insane china's claims are east of Vietnam.

[https://i.postimg.cc/3NLwVPGX/china-s-insane- claims.png](https://i.postimg.cc/3NLwVPGX/china-s-insane-claims.png)

<comment><USER6> Basically China is claiming the water that lies between two totally independent countries.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Viettel, the military owned mobile network in Vietnam, has chosen Ericsson as their main partner to build 5G network. It is expected to launch next year and potentially with unlimited data as well.

</comment><comment><USER8> My understanding was South Korea has a policy of only allowing South Korean owned and manufactured network equipment in bank, financial, and government networks. Does anyone have any info on that?

<comment><USER9> You should maybe try to find and/or include a reference for such a claim. Because it sounds unlikely, borderline impossible. To actually work, it would have to include all hardware and most software on any devices that have access. So no Windows on any government or bank PCs in all of SK?

As it is, this comment, even if framed as a question, may well leave some unfounded hypothetical in peoples' minds, which of course some will repeat more assertively.

<comment><USER8> I think most people would read "network equipment" as routers, switches, and firewalls. One wonders at the intellect and motive of a person who claims PCs are network equipment. On the network certainly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> An important part of the article:

 _" The consensus in Hanoi is that Beijing is the nation's primary external security threat. China has a long history of imperialism in Vietnam and invaded the country as recently as 1979 in support of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, resulting in a brief war in which roughly 70,000 people died. Although relations have improved since the 1990s, Vietnam remains highly wary of its much larger neighbor despite sharing communist rule."_

There is a lot of distrust of China throughout Asia. Huawei is having an easier time selling to Western countries than to China's neighbors.

<comment><USER11> There's a lot of distrust from many southeast Asian nations due to the conflicting territory claims in the South China Sea as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This would seem to be a question of history first more than anything else. Vietnam has a long history of conflict with China and Chinese claims regarding the south china sea claim a great deal of area off the coat of Vietnam.

</comment><comment><USER13> Well, Vietnam uses metric anyway.

<comment><USER14> everyone does, even some parts (fields) of the US

<comment><USER15> U.S., Burma and Liberia the only three countries NOT using metric.</comment></comment></comment>


Patreon adding a 2.9% and $.35 fee to every patron transaction - <AUTHOR> https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963 <comment><USER2> Title is incorrect, the $0.35 is for every pledge, not for every (monthly) transaction.

I really dislike this move. I like to support creators with small monthly contributions, like $1-2/month. Because I pledge to a lot of creators the overhead remains small for the people I support.

With this new model Patreon is raising its prices for me with ~30%, or another way of looking at it Patreon is decreasing the payout to creators from ~90% to ~65% for small pledges.

<comment><USER3> I also really dislike the move. What's a good alternative though? If I use something like Paypal to pay the creators directly, I would think Paypal would take a similar cut.

<comment><USER4> blockchain

<comment><USER5> Blockchains have transaction fees. [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DH6QwQrWAAMGl8y.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DH6QwQrWAAMGl8y.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It kinda seems like they need that 35 cents more than the artists [https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/patreon](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/patreon)

<comment><USER7> That may be true, but what they REALLY want is the user base, and their primary model is a freemium paywall model which requires charge-up-front, and they are prioritizing that over prioritizing actual sustaining patronage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> basically that fee, is directly inline with credit card process fees, its even structured the same.

So it seems to me, that they are pushing all the transaction cost of credit card processing on the patrons, and taking that 5% as their chunk of the pie.

Which frankly for the service they are providing is ridiculous, I dumped my account, and will work to find another format to support those I choose, without this 5% fee for nothing.

<comment><AUTHOR> >basically that fee, is directly inline with credit card process fees, its even structured the same.

(1) At Patreon's scale you pay <2% per transaction, so there is at least 1% extra overhead.

(2) That fee is present even with debit card transactions.

I agree with you regarding finding another means to support creators.</comment></comment>


Youth appeal - In efforts to recruit today's college grads... - <AUTHOR> http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/companies-must-learn-new-set/story.aspx?guid=%7BAE4FFA76%2DEF7F%2D4E09%2D8827%2D894D9A7553E7%7D

<comment><AUTHOR> How many college students pick up a newspaper to scour the classified ads for a job? Probably not many, yet some companies still post job ads there.</comment>


Parallax effect in browser using web-camera - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/munrocket/parallax-effect <comment><USER2> Oh, this is really cool! :) I recently made something similar (also uses TFjs for the head tracking): [https://compassionate- murdock-82fdbb.netlify.app/](https://compassionate- murdock-82fdbb.netlify.app/) (source here: [https://github.com/ath92/blazeface-css- parallax](https://github.com/ath92/blazeface-css-parallax))

Yours seems a little faster/smoother/nicer though, so props for that. I used CSS to place the 3d objects though, so that might have something to do with it.

<comment><USER3> These are fun projects. Even in the simple case it's somehow kind of magical and the effect can be remarkably compelling.

I made a simpler desktop version as a game years ago, with a small team at RHIT's "Catapult" summer camp. Not sure I still have the code for it sadly.

We had a custom software 3D renderer with OpenCV face-tracking for both the parallax effect and steering the player character around obstacles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oh!! I've wanted something like this but for a web camera portal between locations. If each side had a 180 degree fisheye lens, then the eye tracking could present a different virtual view from the remote location. It would look like you had a window into another room. Using 4K+ cameras, the effect should be amazing.

</comment><comment><USER5> I did a similar/complementary project that turns 2d photo to 3d. Interested to see if this could be integrated.

[https://alvin5.com/create](https://alvin5.com/create)

@3d_photo_app on IG

</comment><comment><USER6> Really cool project. I think making the demo links more clearly visible would help promote it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought it was pretty clear that examples in the list are links :D

<comment><USER7> I missed them and came here to ask for links lol.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Are there ways to make it work on a mobile phone? If not, what is the issue

<comment><USER8> In Firefox Preview, it seems the examples, after granting them camera access, use the primary camera, thus not detecting any face to track

<comment><AUTHOR> interesting, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well done. Thank you for making and sharing this publicly.

</comment><comment><USER10> Is it possible to make a demo that runs in the browser?

<comment><USER11> Try the examples in the readme - they work for me in a browser.

<comment><USER10> Thanks. I thought they were just links to files, not live demos.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Worked in latest iOS Safari for me, pretty cool!

<comment><USER13> Interesting, because it didn't work right for me, also on Safari with latest iPad OS. There was a brief second of motion, and then nothing.

Maybe because I'm on an iPad and not an iPhone.

<comment><USER14> On iPhone 11 and Safari, I had to tap the red camera icon in the address bar twice to disable and reenable the camera, then it worked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> That's really cool!</comment>


Steve Jobs: No USB 3 any time soon - <AUTHOR> http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/10/30/steve-jobs-no-usb-3-any-time-soon/

<comment><USER2> No USB 3, no TRIM for their SSDs and no Blu-ray. Yay.

<comment><USER3> Well, TRIM seems to be pretty redundant these days. The latest generation of SSDs (Intel, Sandforce) work just fine even without TRIM due to intelligent block management and aggressive garbage collection.

As for Blu-Ray, I don't really see them taking off just yet and honestly don't see a point in preferring them over digital distribution. AND, I would gladly dispense with optical drives altogether if I could get a smaller, lighter laptop instead.

Remember how Steve Jobs said that they would never build a netbook--and now there is the 11" Air.

<comment><USER4> _Remember how Steve Jobs said that they would never build a netbook--and now there is the 11" Air._

What he actually said was: "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."[1] Notice also how the Air is not in the same price bracket as netbooks, does not have the same performance profile as netbooks, and not referred to by the manufacturer as a netbook.

[1]:[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b41560003...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b4156000345421.htm)

<comment><USER5> If only we knew how much it cost Apple to make each Air.

<comment><USER6> According to very unreliable BOM analysis ([http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?ne...](http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=3245509&olo=rss)), $718

It's unclear whether that's total cost to manufacture or only the price for the parts. It's also unclear how they estimate things like the unibody shell.

In any case, that strikes out any chance of "sub-500" as it's very likely an under-estimate.

<comment><USER5> Thanks. Sounds too high to me for the small Air, but what do I know!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Makes sense since Apple has been working with Intel on light peak which would replace USB3. Apple is just thinking a few steps ahead.

<comment><USER8> When Apple follows standards they are a few steps ahead, and when they sidetrack them in favour of an non-standardized tech they are _still_ thinking a few steps ahead?

Am I the only one who thinks Apple is treated slightly differently when it comes to... _anything_?

I'm not pro-anything, but sitting on the sidelines, it seems as though Apple is always right regardless of what they do, how they do it, or reasoning behind the decisions.

<comment><USER9> They're not always right, but they usually do things for a reason. Like how they've stuck with Core 2 in the 13" MacBook, 13" MBP, and MacBook Air.

Most other companies throw every new interface and bus in their machines without much thought. There's a reason most other computers are larger and have worse battery life.

edit: It also depends on the crowd you're in as well. If you ever read any overclocking and general hardware enthusiast forums you'll see that Apple is always wrong and behind. It's all about perspective, and different people care about different things. I used to want to upgrade everything all the time, tweak this and that, etc. Now that I want a machine that's more like an appliance I see more value in Apple products. I'm not going to buy an Apple desktop to overclock for a gaming rig, but I wouldn't consider any other notebook at this point in time.

<comment><USER8> Not to be a dick about it, but: [http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/1/new-macbook- airs-ridden-bug...](http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/1/new-macbook-airs-ridden- bugs/)

Infallibility is a dangerous, if not deadly, attribute one could give any system.

I hope people should understand my point: I'm going to use the Canadian Health Care system as an example.

If you've watched Sicko (Michael Moore), you'd be under the impression that our Health Care system is tits. There are no wait times, everyone gets the transplant they deserve and we have a government that cares about its people first and foremost. Sadly, this is not quite the case.

Canadians believe that we have a great health care system, despite continual cutbacks, ten minute appointments, still a mostly paper-based family patient system, drug coverage cuts and some of the longest wait times in the world for cancer treatment. We slip down the "global list" quite often: <http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html>, <http://www.thestar.com/article/526494>

When our politicians are under budget pressure, it's our once grand Health Care System that sees cuts. No one is watching our precious Health Care System at the ground level.

There will be Canadians to defend it and offer it extreme fandom, ignoring the obvious decay. Not because we're specifically ignorant, but because a great Health Care system is part of our identity. We are not concentrating as to why we identify with it, just that we once did so we should always do so.

In the same way, Apple and Apple products can be apart of one's identity. With extreme fandom, Apple is less concerned about negative feedback. As an example of that, one could say that Apple was completely unprepared for the iPhone4 AntennaGate issue - even ignoring internal advisories about it's potential reception problems.

I hope to convey that, if you love a system, be more critical than you would be otherwise.

<comment><USER9> I agree wholeheartedly.

The problem with Apple is that people often have extreme opinions about them & their products, whether they love or hate them. Both sides are crazy.

There definitely are some Apple customers who look at them with a critical eye, and in my experience they are _very_ critical of Apple. We expect the best from Apple products and don't hesitate to pipe up when Apple delivers less. We expect perfection but realize that Apple is still run by humans and the first revision of every product they ship isn't going to be made of unicorns and double rainbows. In fact many long time Apple customers never pick up the first revision of a new product, knowing it's going to have issues.

I don't think products from other companies are very different in that regard. But people jump and shout about every tiny detail about Apple products, whether it's good or bad. You have to take it all with a massive spoonful of salt, on both sides. It's unfortunate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. If everyone else in the industry, including Apple, was to support USB3 then Intel would probably have to support it too.

Anyway, it's sad to see Intel holding back on standards because it doesn't fit their own agenda.

</comment><comment><USER11> Steve says, "No USB3 any time soon." " ... but look out for the new Apple BUS, which allow for fantastical connectivity for any BUS enabled device to plug into the computer and act like it's a part of the computer. You can add more things to the BUS and they'll act like part of the computer! Folks this is thinking differently!"

<comment><USER12> You mean "apple desktop bus," which let you attach multiple low speed peripherals to your Mac as early as 1987, back when the best you could do on a PC was PS/2 ports? Apple ditched that when they adopted USB 1.

Or are you saying computers should have room for internal expansion, even though most customers these days won't use it?

Or...

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> So what do you do if you require high speed external storage now and not two years from now?

</comment><comment><USER14> I listen to Macbreak Weekly. Alex Lindsay (founder of Pixel Corps and a regular) constantly bemoans the lack of USB3 for professionals and that it's actually a problem for what he does (as in there are USB3 peripherals he uses).

But Intel is not supporting it so I think Apple's hands are tied until they do. It does seem like a strange thing not to support until of course you factor in Intel pushing their own alternative (Light Peak?).

Intel supports many things long before there's a point to them (eg DDR3 when it had no tangible benefit over DDR2 (initially) and cost 4x as much).

I used to think that Blu-ray would come to Apple when it was sufficiently cheap. I've changed my mind on that. I think there's a fair chance it never will. I can see optical drives disappearing altogether. If you want one, it'll be a USB peripheral.

Some Macbook owners replace the optical drive with an SSD (or their normal HD with an SSD and the optical drive with a spindle HD for storage). I would actually really like to see a Macbook that came as standard with two hard drives.

As it is, Intel is updating their (excellent) X25 HDs at the end of the year (or early 2011). My next MBP will probably get one of those (150 or 300GB).

<comment><USER15> You can purchase a 3rd party USB3 interface, so if you really need it for a certain peripheral, it's available.

<comment><USER16> Thank goodness for expansion slots, eh?

<comment><USER17> Right. Just plug it into a usb slot.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


In Defense of Older Workers: There's No Substitute for Experience And Maturity - <AUTHOR> http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130425040156-8451-in-defense-of-older-workers-there-s-no-substitute-experience-and-maturity

<comment><USER2> Hmm, all the examples of people given that did great things after 40 are the same people who established themselves as great names early on. That's not going to be true of the vast majority of older workers.</comment>


Vivek Wadhwa Says U.S. Chases Away Immigrant Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/10/02/in-new-book-and-research-paper-vivek-wadhwa-says-u-s-chases-away-immigrant-entrepreneurs/

<comment><USER2> That's about all Vivek Wadhwa ever says. He never comes forward with any strong evidence on that issue, but only with anecdotes. I don't worry about it.</comment>


In defense of San Francisco's techies - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/In-defense-of-San-Francisco-s-techies-4616783.php?cmpid=twitter <comment><USER2> They shouldn't be angry at techies, who, after all, are helping fund the city with their taxes.

They have good reason to be angry, at the city itself. It's comically mismanaged. San Francisco spends more than 2x per capita than Chicago does, and something like 3.5x what Los Angeles spends. Its outcomes across the board are poorer.

Moreover, the city is infected with NIMBYism that prevents it from employing the rational response to a housing crunch, which would be _building more freaking housing_. San Francisco is small, and, more importantly, locked in geographically. It's a metro area that can't afford irrational density restrictions; it's a Manhattan that zones like it's Des Moines.

People have written about the mismanagement and quality of life problems in San Francisco for a decade and a half. It shouldn't surprise anyone that people on the streets in San Francisco are happy to look for scapegoats, since it's a lot easier to beat up a pinata of a Google bus than it is to make new housing happen, or get libraries and hospitals built, or ensure that quality public transportion is universally available in all parts of the city, or mitigate crime.

<comment><USER3> I'm not a fan of SF's bizarre city politics and NIMBYism, but... where can more housing be built?

Much of the western half of the city is single family homes. As are neighborhoods like Glen Park, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, etc. The dense parts of the city like the loin and nob hill are already pretty dense. In semi-dense neighborhoods like SoMa, Hayes Valley and the Mission existing renters have to be given the boot in order for new housing to be built. That actually happens, and the anti gentrification crowd protests being edged out by yuppies, because that is what is _actually happening._ I'm not sure where the city could put more high density housing.

<comment><USER2> You really think that if we took the time to work out the square mileage of SOMA, The Mission, downtown, Potrero, and Bayview that the population per square mileage of those areas would be competitive with Manhattan? Anything close to it?

<comment><USER4> Brooklyn's probably a better example that won't elicit the 'ZOMG I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN MANHATTAN' response. Twice the density of SF and no heavens- darkening skyline.

<comment><USER2> Somewhat, but Manhattan is the more accurate example because of its geographic constraints.

<comment><USER4> I think the fact the constraints happen to be geographical is kind of moot. Brooklyn can't start assimilating the rest of Long Island any more than SF can start building octopus's gardens in the Bay or housing in Daly City.

<comment><USER2> It's not that Brooklyn would "assimilate" Long Island; gentrification always displaces people no matter what the geography is. The problem with San Francisco is that gentrification is made more painful by geographic constraints.

Moving from SF to Daly City is a big deal.

<comment><USER4> I guess I don't quite follow what the difference is. Moving from Williamsburg to Jamaica (Queens) is as big a deal, if not bigger.

But we've sort of tangented off, what I meant was 'Agree with you but Manhattan is such an outlier and so evocative that the mere mention of it kind of Godwinizes any argument you're actually trying to make. That I agree with.' That's all.

<comment><USER2> Moving to an entirely different city puts you into a different school system and often a different, disjoint public transportation system.

<comment><USER4> Which seems like a or as much of a function of administrative, rather than geographic boundaries so we're completing some sort of talmudic nerdgument circle here and I still don't quite understand why Manhattan is a better or even good example in a comparison with SF.

Thread depth 8 or so, though, call it a draw by mutual confusion?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's tough, I've long empathized with complaints about SV taking over San Francisco and the soaring rents. Largely because I believe SV culture is intentionally blind to or intellectually dishonest about the fact that it is first and foremost a business sector that generates revenue, not a community that innovates for the betterment of humanity (and I think we should be okay with being a business sector! it's creepy to try and avoid that obvious truth). And the claims you occasionally hear about SV being a "true meritocracy" are deeply concerning. Being a "true meritocracy" of people with elite educations is a joke. I do include the self educated people in that comment, once again, great work but a huge percentage of America and the world grow up in places where the idea that they could learn Python and make 100k is unfathomable. And quite frankly, do not have easy access to the educational and cultural environments that aid in developing the soft skills that are necessary to be a self educated success in SV. In short, there are a lot of ways the SV is full of itself, so I empathize with people feeling they are being shoved around by privileged elites.

That said, some of the anger at SV is starting to remind me of general resentment of nerds, in a very high school way. My guess is both of these things are going on and they are getting conflated and that's causing real discussion to halt. Which is a shame because both are real problems, some SV people are clueless elites and blanket anger towards geeks is unreasonable. Any intelligent conversation about the culture of San Francisco should keep those things in mind and be very careful not to conflate them.

<comment><USER6> _That said, some of the anger at SV is starting to remind me of general resentment of nerds, in a very high school way._

Actually, the real enemy of both categories (engineer "nerds" suffering calibration scores and cliffing vs. San Fransicans being priced out by useless, bland people) is the same for each: the executive douchebags who beat those nerds up in high school and are now VPs of BizDev in those supposedly engineer-centric startups.

<comment><USER3> This isn't 1996. The douchey executives who invented the calibration scores also have EECS degrees from Stanford.

<comment><USER6> If the executives who invented calibration scores have EE/CS degrees from Stanford, that's because they either threatened to beat nerds up, or paid them, to get their homework done.

That's how people stupid enough to bloviate about "synergizing our disruptive verticals" manage to get through elite colleges. I wish I were kidding, but something like 60% of MBA students cheat.

Shit doesn't change much, and VC-istan _is_ Corporate America, not some more enlightened successor.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't have guessed that Marissa Mayer ever threatened to beat nerds up, but I guess I've never met her.

<comment><USER6> Is she the one who came up with that shit? If so, I'm going to short YHOO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Having witnessed the eras of gentrification in the mission district (my family has a small business around 20th and mission), the same people that are complaining that 'techies are forcing them out' are the same people that forced out the large hispanic community in the mission just 5-years earlier.

I shall not shed a tear.

<comment><USER8> As they say "Never trust a hippie"

<comment><USER8> Obviously the SF nimbys are in action on HN :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The solution to all these problems is housing density, especially in places like the Mission, which have excellent public transportation.

The anger should be directed at low-rise zoning restrictions, and at the incredible power we provide obstructionists to endlessly delay development projects.

<comment><USER10> Actually the real solution is not focusing on concentrating all technological development in the Bay Area or NYC or Boston but spreading it out across this great wide country (and world) of ours so that everyone can take part in and benefit from the modern economy.

<comment><USER9> Could you express that in concrete terms? For example, my suggestions would be:

* Remove height restrictions near public transit

* Make the building permit process more similar to that of a typical American city. Specifically, reform CEQA and the SF Discretionary Review process.

<comment><USER11> These are transit related, but good transit is intimately linked to urban structure.

* Get rid of free parking and "parking minimums" (not sure if SF has those, but many American cities do, and they're hugely destructive). When possible, get rid of on-street parking entirely in favor of non-car uses for the space.

* Stop widening roads (this mainly applies to more suburban areas). Start narrowing roads and widening sidewalks, adding separated bike lanes, etc.

* Bike infrastructure. This is not just good bike routes, but _bike parking_ (which is orders of magnitude denser than car parking, and far, far, more flexible and easy to integrate into the urban environment without damaging it) near popular destinations and transit.

* Figure out why American infrastructure planning and construction is so dysfunctional (costs way, way, too high, planning often quite poor) and fix it.

* Allow transit agencies more flexibility, e.g. let them take advantage of the synergy real-estate/retail has with transit, the way east-Asian transit operators do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "If the tag on Valencia had read "F- immigrants," or that piñata was made to represent a transvestite"

Yeah, because entrepreneurs and technology businesses are marginalised by society just like immigrants and trans people are.

<comment><USER13> So prejudice and hatred are OK, as long as the group you hate isn't marginalized?

Or maybe it's a hipster thing? Marginalizing immigrants and transvestites is _so_ 20th century. These techies are getting too big for their britches; time to marginalize _them_.

<comment><USER12> Let's see.

[http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/escalatin...](http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/escalating- violence.html)

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

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

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

Ah, but that pales into comparison because someone scrawled "Fuck your startup" in SF.

<comment><USER13> No, it doesn't. Obviously, actual violence is much worse than graffiti, and antipathy towards tech workers hasn't reached that level. But the fact that other people have it worse doesn't make it right.

Update: The root of the issue is that San Francisco has a political problem. The city's voters and politicians can't seem to enact policy to deal with the changes that the city is going through. The influx of tech companies into the city recently is the most visible part of those changes, but they're not the largest part. Rather than looking for scapegoats, San Franciscans should be talking about how to lessen the impact of growth on their way of life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This article is about an intriguing subject, but ends up becoming a bland editorial at the very end. The author brings in interesting anecdotes and a few stats, but it doesn't explore the suggested trend- that there is growing animosity between tech workers and non-tech workers- very much. He writes that "a growing number of San Franciscans are fed up" but doesn't seem to pinpoint who exactly this number is composed of. Lower-income anti-gentrifiers? Non- STEM hipsters? The author brings up both, but without more data, this trend seems ambiguous and undefined.

This article is about a news item that is still in development. But it'd be nice to see in which direction (i.e., who are the most active anti-tech worker segment) it's developing.

</comment><comment><USER15> This is absolutely appalling that this is going on...I've never even heard or would fathom this in SF.

I was raised in San Francisco, right there on Mc Coppin and Market...smack damn in downtown. I've always known SF to be the most accepting and tolerant place I've lived in.

How could this type of prejudice go on in a city that allows nudes in parades, diversity in sexuality, and a bunch of 12 yr olds to run around downtown on Razor scooters at 3 in the morning.

I'm just speechless to hear this about my hometown.

<comment><USER3> In the first dot com boom DIE YUPPIE SCUM was stencil painted on all the sidewalks in SoMa and the Mission, so nothing new...

[http://www.salon.com/1999/10/29/yuppies/](http://www.salon.com/1999/10/29/yuppies/)

<comment><USER15> That's crazy, although I was 11 when this was going on...so I'm guessing the eyes of a child may not be a great reference here.

What I do remember in 2000 when I was there....WebTV, WebVan, Yahoo Auctions, and having Lycos go fetch a search....that's when I was 12.

I do remember everyone had prejudice against the homeless, and I vaguely remember talk of trying to oust them.

<comment><USER10> It's because yuppies/techies don't like their poor and disadvantaged in their faces, they want them in clean well-lit community centers preferably located in minority areas far away from their adult playgrounds.

<comment><USER16> Or because "having the disadvantaged in their face" gives them problem to solve. I don't think you understand the difference between getting rid of homeless people, and trying to solve homelessness.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Picture of the graffiti mentioned [http://instagram.com/p/aSl87rK- IR/](http://instagram.com/p/aSl87rK-IR/) edit: someone registered www.fuckyourstartup.com

</comment><comment><USER18> Read a newspaper from western North Dakota and you will get the same story. Booms are incredibly hard on fixed or lower income residents. It might be an interesting contrast given the towns in ND have an expansionist bent.

</comment><comment><USER19> I've never been to SF, but I'd imagine that the tag's popularity lies in its irony, not the fact that it's a hard hitting sociopolitical statement.

</comment><comment><USER20> "hipster on hipster hatred"

<comment><USER10> This is some hate I can get behind. Is there an online petition or something I can sign?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Technology is a weird space because it has some of the best individual contributors, but also many of the worst managers on earth.

Now that the elites have caught on to technology being actually important, they've colonized us as a people. Just as they've colonized the space in major cities (see: San Francisco and New York) they have taken over us and our economy, and we are now under occupation. And there is a Damaso Effect going on when it comes to technology management.

What's the Damaso Effect? It refers to the theologically incompetent friars often sent from Spain to the colonies, such as the Philippines. The good ones stayed on the mainland; the inept, fired ones who were sent away to die ended up in the colonies and became local authorities. You see a weird and unstable dynamic in a colony relationship where the best people of some society have to answer to the _worst_ of another. It leads to a lot of violence as those with natural leadership talents (the best of the colonized society) refuse to subordinate to people who are, although from a more powerful nation, in all other ways inferior.

That's what's happening to nerds/"techies". We're being subordinated to the worst of another kind. See, in the business/executive/finance world, the _good_ ones who can actually sell and motivate and mentor (rather than bumbling middle managers who can't motivate shit to stink) are off writing billion-dollar private equity deals and flying around the world on private jets. It's the bad ones, mostly, who get stuck managing nerds or who end up being a mere product manager (of a product that was someone else's idea) at 32.

The reason I am writing this is because it's important point out that "we" (the technology people) and "they" (the ones being priced out) have a common enemy: the useless executives and colluding VCs who are _actually_ both (a) running up house prices while (b) destroying the technology sector.</comment>


ASK HN: What startup information should be public to all the employees? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> As a former startup employee I wasn't told much and that always irked me. When pivot after pivot came I could only to speculate as to why.

So, ideally, I would — and an employee of a startup — want to be told as much as possible. You likely structured my compensation with either equity or options and I'd like to know how the company is doing, and be involved in the direction, so as to put me and management in somewhat of a level playing field instead of merely a cog in the proverbial code wheel stamping out services for the business.

Salaries should be public. Job titles and descriptions and responsibilities as far as possible (lots of people wearing lots of hats in an early startup) should be public. The roadmap should be public. Again, where I say public I mean to the employees.</comment>


Nobel Prize winner who discovered HIV says covid19 is from Wuhan lab,has HIV DNA - sahin-boydas https://www.cnews.fr/france/2020-04-17/le-coronavirus-est-un-virus-sorti-dun-laboratoire-chinois-avec-de-ladn-de-vih <comment><AUTHOR> > Researchers in China and the US find that the virus that causes Covid-19 can > destroy the T cells that are supposed to protect the body from harmful > invaders

> One doctor said concern is growing in medical circles that effect could be > similar to HIV

[https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3079443/coro...](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3079443/coronavirus- could-target-immune-system-targeting-protective)

Also, some of the evidence from [https://project- evidence.github.io/](https://project-evidence.github.io/) supports this idea, including this incredible quote from a paper associated with Wuhan virus researchers:

> Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by the SARS-associated > coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as > its receptor for cell entry. A group of SARS-like CoVs (SL-CoVs) has been > identified in horseshoe bats... __In this study, we investigated the > receptor usage of the SL-CoV S by combining a human immunodeficiency virus- > based pseudovirus system with cell lines expressing the ACE2 molecules of > human, civet, or horseshoe bat. __

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2258702/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2258702/)

</comment><comment><USER2> [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/luc-montagnier-covid- creat...](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/luc-montagnier-covid-created-lab/)

<comment><USER3> For those who don't like bare links: Yes, he said it. No, the rest of the virology community does not agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This nobel prize winner is also an antivaxxer.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/05/27/nobel...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/05/27/nobel- laureate-joins-anti-vaccination-crowd-at-autism-one/#30a412f05c53)

<comment><USER5> That's how you know he is illogical and nothing he says could possibly be right, so you don't need to listen to him.

</comment></comment><comment> sahin-boydas It is in French, can anyone do the fact-checking?</comment>


Inside an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Poland [video] - <AUTHOR> http://wtkplay.pl/video-id-14147-zobacz_jak_w_srodku_wyglada_centrum_amazona_w_sadach <comment><USER2> Well, that didn't make a great impression on me. I guess they were filming it right after the opening, so most people were still learning the job.

I'm surprised now that they have these robots[1] already designed and tested it's still more efficient for them to hire humans to walk around instead.

[1] - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM)

<comment><USER3> Average wage in Poland is 634,49€/month (>4€/hr), minimum wage is ~3€/hr so I assume labor still compares positively to automation cost.

<comment><USER4> Minimum wage in Poland is actually around 2.50 EUR/hr, and average wage is around 5.70 EUR/hr (median is considerably lower, but statistics office hasn't published it in a while). Amazon pays around 3.30 EUR/hr.

<comment><USER3> Do you mind me asking - what's the standard rate for developers there (assuming you are in the field/scene) ? Also what's developer availability - do most young people just move to Western Europe or do they stick around in programming ?

Poland is interesting to me - it's large enough that you can have a decently sized pool of people to recruit from (unlike smaller EU countries like mine - Croatia), you also seem to have OK taxes. Not sure what the regulatory/legal system looks like but since I haven't heard anything horrible I'll assume same or better than the rest of Central/Eastern Europe.

You have very low cost of living compared to Western Europe, it seems like it would be the ideal place to create start up incubators in EU.

<comment><USER4> There is no standard rate, the pay scale is extremely wide. You can easily find people who'll churn out shitty PHP for 700 EUR/mo. It's not much harder to find someone who has considerably more skill and experience, and will require at least twice that. Highly skilled people who know their worth won't work for less than 2500 EUR/mo, and have no trouble finding employers who'll pay them that much, or more. Google pays around 3500 EUR/mo for new grads. All of these are gross numbers, and refer to Warsaw market. For other cities, there are fewer candidates, and salaries are 20-30% lower.

Overall though I'd say that developers here don't know how much they're worth, and sadly most employers get away with paying them less than they should. The reason it happens is that everyone else in other occupations are paid even less, so developers feel like they have it good, even though they can easily have it better.

As for the regulatory/legal system, there are some issues, but I don't think it's any better or worse than anywhere else. There are some incubators here, Google has opened Campus[1] just last week, but I think the biggest issue for wannabe-unicorns here is lack of the access to capital. Some of my friends bootstrapped their companies though, and it worked out quite well for them.

[1] - [https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en](https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en)

<comment><USER3> Sounds similarly to local market (although PHP market seems to be dying down) except that top programmers around here don't stick around because highest tax bracket kicks in at slightly above 1k€ net - meaning employer has to pay 2.8k€ for 1.5k€ salary so you end up getting more money even in more expensive countries working for same gross income :D

But thanks for the reply !

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder if US facilities operate the same? I'm actually surprised this video is public, since it contains core (? confidential ?) business operations and processes. Usually Amazon is super secretive about their special sauce.

<comment><USER6> If you want to, you can just go visit an FC and get a tour, you know. It's not exactly closed.

[http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011](http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Work hard. Have fun. Make history" this was cringe worthy, like from Veridian Dynamics commercials ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347789C3D0)) but irl not comedy show

</comment><comment><USER8> I felt like I was watching a visual piece of software.

</comment><comment><USER9> Amazing how much of the work isn't yet automated.

<comment><USER10> They're working on it: [https://www.amazonrobotics.com/](https://www.amazonrobotics.com/)</comment></comment>


RPCS3 (PS3 Emulator) August 2018 Report - <AUTHOR> https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/09/20/august-2018-progress-report/ <comment><AUTHOR> > […] massive performance improvements to many AAA titles, accuracy and > performance enhancements to SPU LLVM, support for C++ 2017, laying the > foundation for macOS support […]</comment>


SB Hackercast #1 Clojure, Python & Ops, and Ninjas - <AUTHOR> http://www.sbhackercast.com/2012/02/12/episode-1-first-podcast.html

<comment><USER2> A podcast by Python open-source developer Daniel Greenfeld and Clojure/Ruby open-source developer Andrew Cholakian. Very interesting to hear the differing viewpoints and see where they converge.

</comment><comment><USER3> Please level out the mic levels using a program such as levelator (<http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator>). I was listening to the show with headphones and some of the laughing and the "oh god" at the end really hurt :(

Other than that the show was great. The topics you guys covered were interesting and you both know what you're talking about. Can't wait for the next show :)</comment>


WhatsApp puts limit on message forwarding to fight fake news - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/21/whatsapp-limits-message-forwarding-fight-fake-news <comment><AUTHOR> My gut feeling is that limiting the amount of recipients isn't really a fix to eliminating Fake News. It seems far more like a workaround to a problem that will still occur after.</comment>


Pork Cake Recipe Discovered at the Internet Archive - <AUTHOR> https://www.pigdog.org/auto/Dining/link/3175.html <comment><USER3> Go browse [https://www.archive.org](https://www.archive.org) \-- you won't regret it.

There's no telling what you'll find, in all languages, from all eras, from magazines to music to movies to games to books, maps, ephemera, junk mail.

Ted Nelson kept all his junk mail, for some reason, and now it's fascinating. Old computer product ads from the 60s and 70s, well before personal computing was really a thing. Everything changed, from the nature of the products to the nature of the ads.

[https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail](https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail)

see also: old issues of Next Generation magazine (half serious tech, half gamer bro, I love both sides of it)

Byte Magazine; Japanese MSX magazines. Old cookbooks. Wargaming magazines. Old books in general on everything from how to write shorthand to ... whatever you want.

Archive.org and Wikipedia are the two best places to get lost on the internet.

<comment><USER4> "Ted Nelson kept all his junk mail, for some reason"

I'm glad he did, I love the design on a lot of these!

Reminds me of the story of the John Johnson collection of "printed ephemera" at a library in my town: [https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/johnson/about](https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/johnson/about)

The way I've heard it, he was in Egypt studying the writing on papyrus fragments which had been excavated from a seam of ancient landfill, and he reflected on how much he'd learned about the real day-to-day lives of ancient Egypt from what had been thrown away as scrap paper millennia before, and wondered what people were doing in our age to preserve the modern-day equivalents.

(Or modern-day-ish - this was the 1920s)

I love archive.org and have "lost" many an evening flicking through some early-80s computer magazines or consumer electronics catalogues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Mincemeat (as in mince pies) originally contained meat, the separation of sweet and meat is fairly recent.

Reading the recipe, this doesn't seem to be in that vein, the recipe calls for "fat salt pork" I wonder if that's just pork fat, and its more for the fat content than anything else.

Edit: The linked recipe book is really quite interesting.

Why egg shells in coffee though??

<comment><USER6> > Reading the recipe, this doesn't seem to be in that vein, the recipe calls > for "fat salt pork" I wonder if that's just pork fat, and its more for the > fat content than anything else.

Pretty much. This is closer to frontier cooking; the only source of shortening and seasoning is from salt pork rendered (briefly) in boiling water. All the ingredients have long shelf lives without refrigeration, except the eggs, which would be available fresh.

Salt pork is generally belly fat - what's left when you take the bacon - <USER2> proportion of lean meat. This cake is going to be pretty porky, so it's cut with healthy doses of game-type spices... mace & cloves... all that cinammon sounds gross though. I'd probably swap it out for fennel or star anise, or just ditch the whole spice bill & go for Chinese five-spice powder instead. Looks like it would probably benefit from an extra egg yolk or two, as well.

> Why egg shells in coffee though??

That's an old cowboy trick. Boiled or percolated coffee is pretty nasty, and extracts a lot of extra acid from the grounds compared to drip. Egg shells (CaCO3) are alkaline, and help neutralize the gut churn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't get the mockery. There's nothing wrong with sweet and salty combinations of foods. Are maple bacon donuts & cupcakes uncommon outside of the US west coast?

<comment><USER8> You should try following the recipe and report back on how delicious the result was. I read it and it sounds like you'd get a lumpy mess if you tried to make it -- not something similar to a maple bacon donut.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The linked cookbook doesn't have any oven temperatures, which surprised me. It is hard to get consistent baked goods when you are guessing at the temperature. When did oven thermometers become widely available?

<comment><USER6> [https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/08/bake- at-350-degrees...](https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/08/bake- at-350-degrees-oven-temperature-is-uncontrollable-and-we-should-stop-trying- to-micromanage-it.html)

> By the 1920s, new models of gas and electric ovens gave cooks slightly more > control over their hot boxes, but the dials still typically only offered > low, medium, and high settings [...] Around the end of World War II, > manufacturers started including temperatures on their dials, featuring hash > marks indicating 10- or 25-degree increments.

This cookbook is from the 20s; we're talking about gas ranges, and the temp control was done by metered flow to the pilot. Low/medium/high settings from the manufacturer did offer consistency, and the gas mark settings on English ovens better specificity... but the state of the art in retail hasn't really advanced hugely over the past century. The thermostats in home ovens are terrible; variance of 50degF or more across time and volume is common. Hence the continued prevalence of mitigating techniques like water baths, covering in foil or parchment, rotating/shuffling baking sheets, etc.</comment></comment>


Life in a digital health Start-Up - <AUTHOR> http://portablemedicaltechnology.com/life-in-a-digital-health-start-up

<comment><USER2> Interesting blog post, "digital health" seems to be getting a lot of media attention at the moment. Only time will tell whether or not this attention is deserved. From my perspective the regulatory barriers seem too high at present, its difficult enough launching a product without having to get 10 different types of approval.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for sharing the post. I love the emphasis on the "feel good factor" for the work you're doing to bring innovation to the health sector.

</comment><comment><USER4> Great blog post. great to see detail on the barriers that a start up faces in the health sector.

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting read, looks like a good sector to be involved in.</comment>


Boy, 9, accused of hacking into Fairfax schools' computer system - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041404159.html

<comment><USER2> "In January, students at Churchill High School in Montgomery County broke into their system to change grades, but that involved stolen passwords, not hacking, and did not involve Blackboard, Montgomery police said."

Implying that the kid did it technically rather than via social engineering or password theft.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It was a surprisingly reasoned response for officials in my neck of the woods.

Oh, and Blackboard makes _products_!? When did this happen? I thought they only made lawsuits.

<comment><USER3> I don't know anyone at a university that doesn't use Blackboard to run at least their online courses.

<comment><USER4> ... and despise every minute of it. Ok, so it isn't that bad, but I'm not really surprised a 3rd grader could hack it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> misleading title?

<comment><AUTHOR> Title copied exactly as found on Washingtonpost.com.

That's part of the "magic".</comment></comment>