Brainfuck JIT - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dubbelboer.com/2012/11/18/brainfuck-jit.html

<comment><USER2> Nice, but I should note that JITing does not improve performance greatly. Many basic arithmetic operations take O(n) or O(n^2) time, and as you cannot access arbitrary cells in the arbitrary order so most memory access operations also take at least O(n) time. There are handful optimizers that can optimize them provided that the program uses only a fixed amount of cells, but AFAIK there are _no_ such optimizers in general.

If you plan to implement an optimization, I recommend a pointer propagation. This is very simple and still lots of optimizers ignore it. For example,

        mem += 3;
        while (mem[0]) { mem += 1; mem[0] -= 1; mem += 1; }
        mem -= 4;
        mem[0] = 0;

becomes:

        while (mem[3]) { mem[1] -= 1; mem += 2; }
        mem[-1] = 0;
        mem -= 1; /* you can safely ignore this at the end of file */

where every relative memory access has been adjusted. Since it only affects the relative memory access, it is safe to apply the optimization to unbalanced loops as long as you keep the stride (a net pointer adjustment) at the end of the loop body.

</comment><comment><USER3> This reminds me of Awib ( <http://awib.googlecode.com/svn/builds/awib-0.3.b> ), an optimizing brainfuck compiler written in brainfuck that can produce Linux executables (for i386), Tcl, Ruby, Go or C.

<comment><USER4> Amazing! Thank you for sharing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4>
        ++++++++++[>++++++++<-]>--. N
        -----.                      I
        </comment><comment>.                     C
        ++.                         E
        <++++++[></comment><comment><-]>.        !

</comment><comment><USER5> I have did that with AsmJit 4 years ago: [https://github.com/miaout17/justfuck/blob/master/src/JustFuc...](https://github.com/miaout17/justfuck/blob/master/src/JustFuck/main.cpp)

Shame on me for using Visual Studio. I turned to pure Linux/Mac development environments in recent years.

</comment><comment><USER6> Writing a Brainfuck interpreter is a superb optimization exercise. Basic version is trivial to write, and in 2-3 iterations it's possible to get speed ups of 100x or more. If you haven't tried it, I would highly recommended it as a brain stretcher.

Then try and see if it's faster than this one - <http://mazonka.com/brainf/bff4.c>

</comment><comment><USER7> The main LLVM codebase includes a BF compiler as an example: [https://llvm.org/svn/llvm- project/llvm/trunk/examples/BrainF...](https://llvm.org/svn/llvm- project/llvm/trunk/examples/BrainF/)

See BrainF.cpp in particular.

It's a decent first illustration of the great level of abstraction LLVM offers.</comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone ever had P/T Freelance work as a PM? - <AUTHOR>

I know developers and front end developers will pick up some side freelance work as a Project Manager?  If you have I'd be interested in knowing how/where you found it.<p>About me: I'm far more technical than most of my competitors...I'm know for getting my hands dirty and talking through feasible integration and architectures with dev staff. <comment><USER2> Shoot me an email. I'm interested in connecting and working with other freelancers. You can find my email address in my profile.

<comment><AUTHOR> Done.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why aren't people using PayPal Payflow? - <AUTHOR>

Looking at the PayPal pricing (https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees), it seems there's a complete steal. Underneath the Stripe-esque 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, there's this.
Payflow Pro
$25 Monthly Fee $99 setup $0.10 per transaction
From Stripe, "We offer volume discounts to businesses processing more than $80,000 per month." Seems like any business above $1k per month and under $80k would save money. ($25 / 2.9% = $862).
Am I missing something? <comment><USER2> The developer experience for Paypal integrations leaves... much to be desired. I don't know how to convey the magnitude of the difference without forcing you to implement code against a Paypal API.

Maybe, for a taste of it: Paypal ships API documentation as X00 page PDF files. Their Payflow Pro product, being relatively simple, requires only 176 pages.

Or, in terms of design decisions, consider all the fun of writing software which implements a case statement that maps error code 100 to "Invalid transaction returned from host (Processor), in the case where the processor is Global Payments East or Central." to, well, whatever the heck you're supposed to do when that happens.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Patrick, really enjoy your blog. Um this doesn't look so bad tho.

[https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/#create-a- payment](https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/#create-a-payment)

[https://github.com/paypal/PayPal-node- SDK/blob/master/sample...](https://github.com/paypal/PayPal-node- SDK/blob/master/samples/payment/create_with_credit_card.js)

EDIT

I've been googling and heard such bad things about PayPal but it _looks_ fine. Am i crazy?!

<comment><USER2> Note that you can't use their REST APIs with the product whose pricing you want.

<comment><AUTHOR> Aha! There it is. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Am I missing something?

Yes, a merchant account. "Start accepting credit cards using your existing merchant account."

PayFlow is just a gateway. A gateway cannot process credit cards without being attached to a merchant account; it is just an API to bridge the web with the processing network of the merchant account provider. You can't use it to charge credit cards for $25 and $0.10 per transaction, you pay that _on top of_ the processing fees charged by the merchant account provider.

PayFlow was previously a Verisign product that PayPal acquired in 2006.

That isn't to say you can't save money over Stripe with PayPal. PayPal Payments Pro is their integrated gateway and processing solution, and discounts below Stripe's rates start at $3,000 per month of volume instead of $80,000 per month.

[https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant- fees](https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees)

</comment><comment><USER4> There is a decent range of businesses who are well-served by going the Payflow route -- government offices, non-profits, Universities, etc... Generally small-to-mid-sized businesses with small-to-mid-sized payment processing needs.

It's been a while, but I've set up a few Payflow-based systems, and it's been a great way to go... Payflow allows you much more control and detailed logging than, say Stripe. Yes, it's a bit of a pain to get it all set up at first, and there are a few tricks with error handling, but it's a good way to go to implement your own payment system.

</comment><comment><USER5> First mind share. If you are a developer and you want payments, currently you think Stripe.

Second, ease of use reputation. Paypal is not known to be easy to integrate with and use.

Third, reputation in general. Paypal has a history and reputation (whether deserved or not) of freezing your accounts and leaving you in the worst situation etc.</comment>


Developer Laptop - <AUTHOR>

After living with my junk Lenovo for last three years (battery gone bad after 1 year, HDD is slow as hell), I am looking forward to buying a new laptop for development (personal), basic email/browsing etc. No games, no high end photo/video editing.
What would you guys recommend? Are there any good build laptops which will survive my three year upgrade cycle?
I have a Lenovo T410 from work which I like but hate that it needed a battery replacement in first month and identical machine for co-worker needed a motherboard replacement (again in first month).
I am leaning towards getting 13'' MBA and installing Win7 on it, considering that I don't need and want to spend on MBP. Lack of 4GB in basic model is definitely drawing my attention. <comment><USER2> It sounds like you had some bad times with Lenovo - that's too bad. In the past the x series have been really really solid and a lot of linux distros run well on them without much trouble. 2-3 years ago a consulting company I was working for deployed lots and lots of them to picky VCs and hedge fund managers and they held up well to their abuse.

If you are going to go the linux route full time I would go for an x series from Lenovo or a Dell Latitude. Dual booting linux on a MBP is just a little bit more of a pain in the ass than it should be in my opinion.

That said I paid what I consider a shit-ton for a 15" MBP in late 2008 and I have no regrets though I am on my second battery and currently lusting after the 13" Air.

</comment><comment><USER3> I had to sell my MBA because it couldn't handle larger projects. (Originally intended for class work, at which it excelled.) I'd either wait for the refresh and take the gamble on the new sandy bridge MBA's with 4gb ram, go pro, or get a slick box for Linux and keep it as software-lean as you need. Screw windows.</comment>


An awesome command line tool for windows you might not know about - <AUTHOR> http://wycks.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/awesome-command-line-tool-for-window/

<comment><USER2> Worth mentioning for the sake of completeness: Because it packages its own Cygwin DLL, this cannot coexist with a proper Cygwin install. (The term 'third-party pervert' or '3pp' used to be _au courant_ on the Cygwin MLs for this sort of packaging behavior, but it seems lately to have fallen out of use.)</comment>


Next Version of Web Design May Increase Privacy Threats - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/business/media/11privacy.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> _vomit_. Either I am far, far ahead of the curve, or the NYTimes needs new technology reporters. The worst parts of Evercookie or Panopticlick have nothing to do with HTML5 technologies. Have you ever tried to clear the etag cache, Flash cookies, or have any non-standard fonts installed? Or ever updated anything web related on your computer? The golden age of web tracking is already upon us, and its name is not HTML5.

<comment><USER3> Still, the fact that HTML5 introduces new, "difficult to manage" tracking must be addressed by the browser dev teams. I'm glad the NYT covered this issue, and relieved that they positioned Samy's work as a test (and part of the solution).

Now that the popular media are aware of this issue, we can start to discuss it in terms of "tracking" instead of "cookies".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This article combines tragically clueless with needlessly alarmist.

</comment><comment><USER5> @cdixon tweeted this which summarizes _"When I see how inaccurate NYTimes is re computer security, it makes me worry about inaccuracies I miss in topics I don't know about."_

Seriously, nyt needs new reporters who can understand and see technology things.

</comment><comment><USER6> 2,000 words to say one sentence. Textbook journalism.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sammy is still my hero!</comment>


Show HN: My implemented vision of a PIM - <AUTHOR> Hi one and all. I've created an encrypted personal organizer I wish to share with you all. I know.... you are sighing and thinking "Oh! No! not another one".
doogiePIM is different in that it's built by the same coder that created one of the very first PIMs that came out around 18+ years ago and creator of TexNotes way back then (it was actually called Scribillo. Wow, I feel old). The original PIM was sold then abandoned by GemX Software and that made me feel really bad. So, I obtained the full code and started to build a far better version of the information manager. One that will (hopefully) stand the test of time. The work is still ongoing, taking out the bugs, improving features and making it available to everyone around the world with localisation of the UI.
(Warning: I'm going to invoke Obi Wan Kenobi logic here....) Therefore, it's not another PIM - it's one of the oldest on the Internet... from a certain point of view :P
After a couple of years of work, I think it's almost there. I've rewritten a huge chunk of code, implemented a more modern UI and reworked a lot of the database encryption. I can now start implementing some needed new features and quality-of-life implementations that help rather than hinder. Features such as Android connectivity and better importing of Cloud data. I'm pretty sure you guys will give me a guide as to what you need in a solid PIM.
I want to invite you all to take a look at my vision of a single focus PIM. Go ahead and try doogiePIM, tear it apart. I'd love to read anything you have to say about it.
You can read my latest dev blog here: https://bitespire.com/community/274-around-the-world-in-80-d...
Download here: https://bitespire.com/download.php
Of course, read about the features and usual blurb here: https://bitespire.com/details_doogiepim.php
Kindest regard to all, Chris <comment><USER2> Is this a time traveler PIM? Email client, database, outliner, dashboard, personal finance, perpetual license, desktop client. Nicely done!

Congrats on recovering the source. Ecco Pro and Lotus Agenda users were not so lucky. Users have binary patched a 20-year old .exe to extend Ecco Pro's functionality.

You should include TexNotes screenshots on the site for historical context.

Since you're already doing time travel, will this run on ReactOS (open-source Win32) or Wine on Linux and MacOS?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm playing around with Wine at the moment. doogiePIM does run but there are issues with the toolbars that I need to adjust so Wine will run smoother.

I haven't tried ReactOS. doogiePIM is 32 bit so I'll have a go. Thanks for the heads up.

MacOS is something else. That could take a longer time. :(

I love the TexNotes idea, many thanks. I'll get to work on writing an "About" page with some retro photos.

 _Jumps back into the TARDIS and whizzes off_

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> From the feature page: _doogiePIM has your privacy in mind. It doesn 't use an unsecure Cloud, it stores your data using strong encryption on your disk of choice_

How can cloud storage be "unsecure" if the data is encrypted?

<comment><USER4> > How can cloud storage be "unsecure" if the data is encrypted?

Because security is more than _just_ encryption. If someone puts my data on a simple HTTP web server but the file's encrypted, the only defensive layer between my data and someone else is that encryption - it better be damn good and have used a strong key.

I'd rather that file be behind more layers of security than that - I want authorization and authentication, preferably multi-factor authentication. I want the data service provider to have some notion of what addresses I'd likely be accessing from (North America), and which are likely attacks (China, Russia), and act accordingly (e.g. increasing security measures like anti- botting, asking security questions, etc). I want them to have a pretty robust logging infrastructure and intrusion detection, so that when they do eventually get attacked, they can notify who they need to that their data has been compromised and rotate credentials. I want to know they properly handle drives and NV memory that have had my data on them - either securely wiping them, or destroying them outright.

This whole idea is known as "defense in depth," \- if one layer fails, you have more to fall back on, with the hope that attackers will eventually give up once they've hit too many hurdles to make the attack pay off, or they simply can't surmount the numerous layers of defense.

From the perspective of everything I just mentioned, just throwing your encrypted files on a web server feels pretty insecure to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The value proposition of this product is claiming to do too much. Because I don't have a pre-existing belief in the value of integrating all these functions in a single "PIM" (what is a PIM anyway? is my smartphone a PIM?) I'm stuck wondering how this might help me, and reluctant to try something that might not be valuable until it has replaced a huge set of habits/tools.

If I want to benefit from trying this PIM, where should I start? In case it helps, I'm a gmail/gcalendar/emacs org-mode user.

<comment><AUTHOR> doogiePIM (PIM=Personal Information Manager) is designed around you so you start where you need to start. eg: If you're a coder and you need somewhere to store snippets of research and code whilst researching the web, then you would start with the Documents section whilst using the browser tabs. If you're more into needing a way to organize the Events of the day, then you start at the Calendar.

doogiePIM isn't a tool to use for the sake of being there but a tool to use to assist with what you're a doing. Think of it as a Swiss Army Knife.

If you're already happy with your current set-up to manage your Gmail/Calendar then stick with that.

Don't try to fix something that isn't broken.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Actual doogiePIM user here: I've been using this app for the the last four months and it really does do everything Chris promises it does - its amazingly stable and adaptable for being developed by one talented individual. Hardly a day goes by I don't discover a new feature which has helped me migrate certain workflows into one, local platform allowing me to replace Word, Google Calendar, and Mint to name just a few (I keep everything on my Surface with occasional backups off site).

While doogiePIM is billed as a personal information manager (PIM) I actually use it more as a Personal Knowledge Manager (PKM), which is especially conducive due to the built in Chromium browser, so I don't have to keep switching between multiple apps like Chrome (which I no longer trust), Notion, or some other Productivity program. Talking with the OP he is extremely responsive and open to suggestions that would make doogiePIM more functional and customizable.

As a longtime HN lurker I've noticed that for years individuals have longed for a centrally managed information program and I feel strongly that this is the only one that fits that bill:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8806950](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8806950)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8270759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8270759)

It was actually this topic that exposed me to HN in the first place.

I am not in any way affiliated with the OP but I am a believer in that the program delivers. That and the fact that it's a local app gives me peace of mind.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is good stuff! PIMs were such useful bits of software: Agenda, Packrat, Sidekick, Organizer, Ecco...

I am a Mac user but I'll be watching this very closely. I would love to see this get some traction.

EDIT: Sorry, thought I'd better add something of substance here. One negative is that I have to trust you that it is secure. I get the integration of Calendar, messages, notes etc. but the password manager is a step too far in terms of trust for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Trust is a huge thing and understandable. This is one reason why I don't trust Cloud storage with very important data. I would rather have my data on my local drive where only I can see it.

I like the idea of some open-source modules. I'll think about how I can do that without compromising security of existing data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Here's hoping for an OSX version.

<comment><USER9> Yes. Will there be the macOS version?

<comment><AUTHOR> Alas, not soon. I want to take the next few months to add Android import and personal LAN use first. Then I'll think about porting. I am looking at Wine now though.

<comment><USER2> Might be worth a look at [http://strlen.com/treesheets](http://strlen.com/treesheets), which is a smaller, OSS, cross-platform swiss army knife based on wxWidgets.

On Android, NoteLynX Pro has some neat ideas, including an outliner item having multiple parents, [http://astrodean.blogspot.com/?m=1](http://astrodean.blogspot.com/?m=1) Mindscope on iOS also allows an item to be soft-linked into multiple trees/parents for display, with a navigation path back to the original context.

ConnectedText on Windows, DevonThink and Scrivener on macOS have partial overlap.

For mobile: could doogiePIM import OPML files with dedupe? Many existing mobile apps can export as OPML. Could serve as a one-way sync/import.

For archival resilience: will the database format be documented, or could SQLite or XML export be supported? It's tempting to consolidate data into one app for UX/power, but we all know the long term risks.

For mail import, might be worth confirming that MBX import works from [https://www.mailstore.com/en/products/mailstore- home/](https://www.mailstore.com/en/products/mailstore-home/), a free (for individuals) German app that can archive email from many cloud services. Presumably doogiePIM stores email in a standard format.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The cross-linking capabilities seem honestly really cool, and this is something I have often yearned for in managing my own info. I dig that the license is unlimited updates within a major version too. Will give it a shot. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> The cross-linking of data was the primary reason for creating doogiePIM. I've recently added the ability to hyperlink words and images to specific words and other images within the Documents and Noteboard. This is detailed on my dev blog entry here: [https://bitespire.com/community/239-one-link-to-rule-them- al...](https://bitespire.com/community/239-one-link-to-rule-them-all-2-0-1-4)

Major versions are roughly 18 months to two years apart with at least a 50% discount for the upgrade. I was thinking about a subscription basis but thinking from the point of view of a user, I wouldn't like that myself. I think this is a fair compromise - users get a good deal and I get a little something to replace my flux-capacitor every couple of years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> For the retro folks among us, JetBrains' PIM, Omea, is still available from them. [1] It's free, but not supported. And not as feature packed as the PIM described here.

[1] [https://www.jetbrains.com/omea/](https://www.jetbrains.com/omea/)

</comment><comment><USER12> This is all very confusing.</comment>


Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/japan-lost-race-save-nuclear-reactor/print

<comment><USER2> I thought the reactor was pretty much beyond saving after they flooded it with seawater. The subsequent meltdown-ish events certainly aren't helping, but the reactor was already totalled.</comment>


What IDE do you use for C/C++ development? - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1Zo1uTSnCn-ze329-IUKPyGnUzECPeIfD5kbAPdmaHeUNBQ/viewform <comment><USER2> Are there running results somewhere? And because of the re-submission ability, are the results any good?</comment>


YCNYC: A lost opportunity - <AUTHOR> http://justinjmoses.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/ycnyc-a-lost-opportunity/

<comment><USER2> "Perhaps he's not a great speaker, but I'm not so sure."

I'm not a great speaker. The awkward delivery he describes is unfortunately pretty much the norm. Believe it or not, I used to be even worse.

<comment><USER3> I was there, you did a fine job. Inspiring, everyone liked it. Yes, you were there to drive enthusiasm for your mission, it's not cynical to note that, and it's naive to be dissapointed by it.

EDIT: removed silly domino's in NYC joke

<comment><USER4> YC served Domino's in NYC? I lived there most of my life, swear I never even knew one existed.

If this was downtown (Tribeca/Soho), John's would have been the choice. Talk to them a couple days in advance, I'm sure they could handle it. If not, go to 3 or 4 places and get a variety. Just not Domino's.

<comment><USER5> It was Papa Johns and it was due to a matter of scale. What local pizzeria could handle 300 pies?

<comment><USER6> They had both Papa Johns and Dominos. It was free pizza ... why are we discussing this?

<comment><USER4> It's not a huge deal, but it's a matter of NYC culture. It just would have made a better impression to do it differently. Little things can matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Seems like the OP's post stems from just being over-critical (seems like he really wanted to find issues with the event), as well as expecting a bit too much from the event...almost too much to really live up to.

While nothing presented was especially groundbreaking, I'm just happy YC decided to venture to the east coast. That in itself is better than nothing. It's their first event over here, and a decent one at that. As for next time, the OP's request of getting MBAs to wear ties and developers to wear black shirts is a bit opposite of startup atmosphere. Dress codes are kind of frowned upon. Plus, if you did that, it'd turn into a high school dance with ties on one side and black shirts on the other.

Oh, and if PG and company would have spent a good amount of time on "YC, the school, their process" I think there would have been a large amount of disappointed folk. Why go to a YC event of you don't know what YC is? I'd speculate most there were quite familiar with YC and its process and were looking more for startup advice, similar to the stuff given.

<comment><USER8> YC used to spend half the year based out of Cambridge, MA before they decided to concentrate exclusively on the west coast, so no, it isn't the first time they're heading east.

<comment><USER7> My bad. I'm new to the east coast (been here a little over a year) and PG said something like this was YC's first NYC event at YCNYC, so I reached an incorrect conclusion. Should have said something like this was their first time back in awhile I suppose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Having gone the other night, I understand what the author is saying and agree with a lot of it.

That said, one of main points of the keynote was that chance meetings are what make places like NYC and the valley so conducive to startups. The loose structure really lent itself well to socializing, and so this was the perfect event for those chance meetings.

I personally got a lot out of it, and would love seeing more meetups like this.

<comment><USER10> Chance meetings are wonderful. But when you have an opportunity as rare as this one, why fall back upon chance when you can facilitate? When you can do more, you should.

For instance, what if the color coding was expanded upon and added to the invite application? Each individual could place themselves in the category that describes them the best and then know at the time of the event the people they should be talking to rather than wandering around hoping their next chance meeting is the one that makes the difference.

<comment><USER11> I still never figured out what the colors even meant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The original invitation did clearly state it was geared towards jobs seekers under the premise of a meetup. YC even asked for your resume, and one of the qualifying questions was related to your interest to apply. Not sure why OP is surprised.

PG delivered, if you observe his prior interviews you will notice that is his style. Personally, it feels authentic, and transparent. A trait many speakers lack.

The serendipitous nature of the event added to the allure, it encouraged folks to have a conversation.

Video department could of used some help but that's just nitpicking.

This all comming from someone who didn't get invited, yet drove from Philly, one of the first one there, waited in line, and was magically allowed in.

Well done, YC.

<comment><USER11> Someone else mentioned resume that I met there, but I don't recall seeing that. I definitely didn't submit a resume. Was this for all applicants?

<comment><USER12> It was in the second page of the invite request form, I believe the qualifying question was in regard to your interest to applying for a job at YC startup. Second page requested your resume, at least for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> MBA's in ties and hackers in black tees. What is this, YC Presents _Grease_.

</comment><comment><USER14> A more accurate title would be " Why I was disappointed with YCNYC". I personally had a wonderful time and gained several future leads.

</comment><comment><USER15> I know I shouldn't say this, but does anyone read this critique as just so east coast? Someone goes to an event on startups and they are annoyed because no one handed them action items or facilitated their networking more?

On the west coast it's mostly a matter of things arising from chaos. You do what you can in terms of nailing the logistics (pizza, beer and fast moving lines) but the meat is who you get into the room, not what the person at the microphone is saying.

I'm not saying YC and pg couldn't have made it better, the OP should be lauded for some of the critique. (Criticism of YC tends to be controversial.) But the OP seems to have accidentally discovered exactly some of the differences between east coast and west coast cultures.

<comment><USER11> That's an interesting point. I shared a bit of the sentiment about networking. I thought it could have been facilitated better. For example, nametags already were color coded, but nobody ever said what the colors meant. I figured out YC orange and that's it. I can't blame the guy for wanting to know why he was there to begin with. It's a night with YC people and that description alone probably would fill up the place every time; however, defining it a bit more wouldn't hurt - is this an event to learn about startups? for founders who are considering applying to YC? something.

<comment><USER15> Why do you think they knew that much better what the event was about? These things are usually what you make of them. Who are they to tell you why you're there? Isn't that more your decision?

<comment><USER11> It's my decision based on the information I am given. Very little was given, but given that it was a YC event on the east coast, I was happy to travel from DC to attend without any other knowledge. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement. It also could change the nature of the event and those who attend.

The fact that you say 'these things are usually what you make of them' leads me to think there is tons of room for improvement with the way these events are run. I've been to quite a few tech meetups and some are definitely more well run than others and are easier to access (people wise). A lot of that has to do with how the organizers set up the event and the information they pass along.

<comment><USER15> I think the feedback is helpful and there are always improvements that could be made. I think what really annoyed me was the underlying assumption was an entitlement to some sort of definition of an event that was perhaps too new to be fully defined. Good people jump in and help define the event.

I would not be critiquing a blog post full of specific, useful advice on how the event could have been made better. There is advice like that in this entry, but you have to reach through piles of raw "someone should have told me more about something" thoughts before you can get there. I would have been much more interested in a blog post that read something along the lines of: "I attended this event and I thought it was a bit unfocused. Here's what I would have wanted this to be and here's what I think it should look like."

I hope YC listens to the feedback anyway. It's valuable, but count me personally disappointed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Good write-up, Justin.

My frustration was this:

I feel like diversity fuels creativity and innovation. I like finding myself in a room with a variety of different sorts of people, and the YCNYC event felt like I was in a room with approximately 1000 copies of myself. The most visible example of this was the number of women present. I _personally_ know many times more women in technology than I saw in that entire crowd of a thousand or so.

I know that YC is going to appeal to a certain sort of person, but I would've been much more impressed with the whole event if it had been apparent that the organizers had gone just a little bit out of their way to reach out to different kinds of people who work in technology in the city. There are so many, doing so many amazing things, coming from so many backgrounds. Get people together who don't normally talk and see what new ideas start forming.

If NYC has any chance of outranking the Bay Area when it comes to start-ups, it's going to be because the NYC scene learns how to leverage the extreme diversity of talent out here. Not because a thousand young, male nerds get in the same room together to talk about the same stuff they all just read on Hacker News.

Anyway. That's my rant. I did enjoy PG's talk, even though he has a kind of odd aspect on stage. Glad I went, but it could've been something more than what it was.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think the post is just too harsh. I understand where you are coming from, but:

\- "be transparent". You have to expect that startups are going to be looking for talent (founders are always recruiting).

\- "tell us what we don't know". They don't know what you don't know (nevermind what a 1000 people don't know). They just tell you their stories and at best you would be inspired and motivated. They succeeded at that.

\- "engage". They spent several hours talking to people. I would rather them engage this way than to engage stage to audience.

Having all these people in one room was the great thing about this event. I met other founders who are trying to make it, MBAs who are looking to join startups, cs students and YC alum. Not to mention pitching to many people, engaging in discussions about my startup and getting feedback. I would not label that a lost opportunity.

</comment><comment><USER18> I had a nice time and got to meet some great people. The only suggestion for next time is to somehow label the name tags with either company name, programmer, designer, etc. Everyone was just a name to me so I didn't know what they did until I approached them.

<comment><USER9> _I didn't know what they did until I approached them._

After thinking about it for a while that night, I came to the conclusion that this was the point.

<comment><USER18> I'm not quite sure it was the point. With nearly 800 people in the room, tons of time could have been wasted trying to find out who was who and trying to find the types of people you wanted to talk to. Going up to everybody and asking them what they didn't clearly wasn't an option..so just putting the company name, or developer, designer, etc. below the name tag would have been extremely helpful. All they had to do was put an extra field for this on the YCNYC signup form and it could have been printed on the name tags.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> FWIW, my 2 cents:

1\. I thought PG's informal speaking style was actually quite cool, no issues with that. However, he did seem a bit distracted. At times, it felt like he wasn't sure what he wanted to say next.

2\. There were too many people. Maybe I shouldn't complain, since I am not sure if I would be invited if YC didn't invite so many, but it meant that the speakers/alumni were crowded-out most of the time. Having booths would make it easier to find alumni, but it makes it more like a career fair so I am not sure I like that too much either. Another alternative would be to split up the area into multiple sub-areas for each of the speakers, and have a separate parallel Q&A. I have seen this done successfully in other industry conferences.

3\. I thought the presentations were generally quite good and left me inspired (and scared as well). Talking about YC's application process would have been a waste of time since most people seemed quite familiar with YC anyway. The one thing I would have changed - having some time for on-the-spot Q&A.

4\. The lack of explanation about color coding was a major complaint. I would have had 2 icons per badge instead of color coding - one indicating if you were a designer/developer etc., and the other icon indicating whether you were looking for a job, trying to hire etc. Good, obvious icons are way easier to understand than color codes.

Overall, I am happy that YC came to NYC, and that I got the opportunity to meet so many cool people. So thank you YC team for that, and for bringing me a couple of steps closer to making the leap :)

<comment><USER20> Agreed on all points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> pg, overall, I did enjoy the event. As did many others, so it appeared. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but great insight from YC partners and founders. Thank you.

It was a bit difficult to network, however. As other posters have pointed out, there were so many attendees and since there were no indicative markings on the badges, it was impossible to distinguish between a potential "match" and a friendly (but potentially unproductive) conversation. But hey, hindsight is 20/20. Looking forward to next time.

As you mentioned in your talk, you're unlikely to run into Sean Parker while strolling down 5th Avenue. NYC-area Meetups are enjoyable, as are, at times, General Assembly and other NYC institutions. But as you joked about on stage, they are not a substitute for the daily serendipity and access to talent that Silicon Valley has to offer. This is one of the Valley's greatest strategic advantages. That being said, there is a tremendous talent pool in NYC and last night helped reaffirm this fact. Over the course of my two entrepreneurial decades in this great city, I have never seen a NYC startup event attract such a targeted, valuable and eager audience. It's very possible that the YC brand- name was responsible for this feat. Would YC have any interest in sponsoring a regular NYC networking event? In addition to increasing YC-startup visibility and access to local talent, this could serve as a great boon for the NYC startup community.

</comment><comment><USER22> I agree it was probably a little bit of a lost opportunity for YC. I was interested in talking to a couple of the YC companies but it was hard to find them in the crowd.

Overall I can't complain though. Personally I met some great people at the event and got to shake hands with some alumni. It was a great experience and not a missed opportunity for myself. Thanks YC for that. I will take the sentiments toward the NYC startup scene as a challenge. :)

<comment><USER2> Yes, there were too many people. We originally expected the event to be much smaller, but a lot more people asked for invitations than we expected, and we then had to choose between increasing the size and turning away most of the people who wanted to come. With some misgivings, we chose the former. But unfortunately then it no longer felt like the informal meetup we intended. I'm not sure what to do about this problem. Maybe we just can't do meetups.

<comment><USER23> Being in attendance, I don't think the size detracted from the quality of the event. It actually made networking a lot easier (merely because there were so many different people to talk to). Being that this was the first NYC event ever, I think things went well. If you decide to do another in the future, you'll know what works and what doesn't. I hope more than anything, though, the size and enthusiasm of the crowd helped to show the desire for a strong startup community on the East Coast.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Does anyone realize the size of the NYC crowd was larger than Startup School - which takes places in the heart of Silicon Valley? Last night was standing room only. I left thinking the NYC scene was thirsty for an event such as YCNYC. If you left complaining, I think you showed up with the wrong frame of mind. I met some fantastic people, and really enjoyed presenting. Props to PG and Co. for bringing a community together.

</comment><comment><USER25> I have to say that I disagree with the author: Yes the event was a plug for Y Combinator -- but as someone who is interested in the other coast it was a great in person taste of the program that I could never have gotten via a podcast, blog entry or hanging out here. Also in the past I've incorrectly read the program as being a one way ticket to the valley — and I was very impressed that Paul was selling it as a college experience and a network to tap into above all else.

And I got to tell you something: It's the first time in my life that anybody from THE valley said out loud "I think it's cool to have a startup in NYC". I've been in the scene here for years before it was cool, and it was music to my ears to hear that. And of course we'd love it if Paul announced that they were coming to NYC -- but I came to realize that if they did that part of what makes Y Combinator so cool wouldn't come along for the ride (sort of like opening CBGB in Vegas).

</comment><comment><USER26> I personally liked PG's awkwardness. It felt Jeffersonian.

</comment><comment><USER27> Great event, however would be perfect if more structured networking mechanism is implemented. In addition to color-code on name tag, I would suggest to set up a Google doc to allow attendees to freely sharing their project, what they are looking for (i.e. co-founder or developers) and contact info... before the event. This facilitates to find like-minded / same-interest people effectively, more productive meetup in person at the event. Without this pre- researched info, best luck to find "Sean Parker" in the people sea.

</comment><comment><USER28> We should consider the first iteration of YCNYC a MVP. Kudos to Renee and the YC team for taking a chance and pulling off a great event. I really enjoyed the evening (see my HN post from yesterday -- <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3043069>). It was very inspiring, with lots of energy in the room and was a rare opportunity to speak with YC alums. The fact that YC provided free pizza and beer was a great gesture.

</comment><comment><USER29> Did anyone get the speech on video?

</comment><comment><USER30> I wouldn't count on the "come work for us" being a planned goal of the evening - it's just that those companies are always on the hunt for new hires and take any opportunity they can to connect with good people.

The same thing happened at SydStart the other day - lots of great and inspirational speakers but all of them that were involved with large companies (BigCommerce, Freelancer.com etc.) had a "we're hiring" at the end of their talk.

</comment><comment><USER31> From the author's remarks, it seems as if this event suffered from the same ailments that our education system has - we teach/perform/guide as if everyone (1) perceives and interacts with information the same way and (2) possesses the same amount of background knowledge. These assumptions are obviously fallacious, but coming up with effective alternatives is a challenging proposition.

</comment><comment> johnx123-up Any videos, please?

</comment><comment><USER32> on first look, I'm pretty sure Justin has flattered PG. :D

</comment><comment><USER33> Suits shouldn't be allowed to this type of meetup. I definitely saw at least 5 people in suits. so lame.

<comment><USER34> I wore a jacket and tie to the event. I'm a developer and I've sold a company. I try to not look like a slob. It will get you further than you might think.

Please don't make assumptions.

<comment><USER35> so, I agree with your sentiment. However, you just equated not wearing a jacket and tie with looking like a slob... and then asked someone else not to make assumptions. I'd kindly suggest that his "snob" is roughly equivalent to your "slob".</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Future without being an expert/good enough? - <AUTHOR> I am struggling with my work/job, but I have good intentions, but still all others who came before me after me are better than me. Some of them have enormous experience, some of them have little but growing fast.<p>I feel bad about this. What do you think, do I have a future in current industry (IT/Software) if I am not good like others <comment><USER2> 1\. You have to like what you do. If you don't then think about what would you actually like and do that instead. No reason to work in a job you actually don't like that much.

2\. We all have different speed when it comes to learning and progress of one individual. Just because you might be slower doesn't mean you're stupid compared to others.

3\. Look at them from an other angle. By learning one, or two things really well, takes time. And that time is taken away from something else. They might be experts in A, but they have close to zero knowledge of B, C and D. What would you like to have more 25% of A, B, C and D, or knowing one of them for 100%?

4\. There is a saying "if you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room". Which means, don't feel ashamed knowing less then the others. Use it to your advantage. Get help from them. Get them to explain things. Knowledge is passed down by people to the people. Wether you're reading a book written by someone, or a colleague explaining something. The end result is the same. You grow.

Extra:

Lot of people think IT and Software Development is only coding and nothing else. But that is far from the truth. It has a lot of human aspects from UI/UX to team management. I always say, that when you write code, you write it first and foremost for others to read. Because you're working in a team and others will read what you wrote. But most of the developer ignore this simple fact. Also there are so many jobs and skills needed in IT next to the regular stuff, but people don't see it most of the times. That's why I roll my eyes when I see fantastic developers become managers and struggle, because they love to code, but they don't want to manage people, etc... If you're a people's person, you could become a Scrum Master, a Project Manager, Product Owner, etc... There are so many other things in IT besides coding. But you have to look closely.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Don't compare your insides to someone else's outsides."

Your framing suggests you _feel_ you are struggling. Do you know for a fact that they didn't feel the same way? Do you have objective measures showing that you are actually underperforming compared to them?

I was a good student in school, but I still got nervous taking tests. I said that one day for some reason to my French professor. She expressed surprise and said that I _looked_ so calm. (The conversation was in French and a million years ago. But that is the gist of it.)

You need to try to get objective metrics for your performance. It is incredibly common for people to feel stressed out and to feel they are struggling while others make it look easy and so forth. How a person subjectively feels is often unrelated to the objective metrics of work quality.</comment>


Why I Love Gema (the perfect language for text manipulation) - <AUTHOR> http://web.archive.org/web/20051025073052/http://www.anthus.com/Gema/WhyILoveGema.html

<comment><USER2> I think this programming language qualifies as one of the most obscure ever. Google "gema programming language" and you get a total of two references, both in Spanish.

<comment><AUTHOR> Try searching for: gema macro processor

That returns 111,000 results for me, with at least the first 10 pages of results being pretty relevant.

Still, the language does deserve to be far more well known.</comment></comment>


AI Learns the Art of Debate (IBM Blog Post) - <AUTHOR> https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/06/ai-debate/ <comment><AUTHOR> Perhaps I should've submitted this page instead - [http://www.research.ibm.com/artificial- intelligence/project-...](http://www.research.ibm.com/artificial- intelligence/project-debater/research.html) I found this widely reported, and I was curious what the HN crowd thought of it.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Express Sick? - <AUTHOR> Over 54 open PRs, some going back to 2015, sure — it may not be dead, but it sure looks sick. What can we do to help? Can OpenJS Foundation be doing more? Why isn't it listed as an "Impact Project"? <comment><AUTHOR> Links: - - - [https://github.com/expressjs/express/pulls](https://github.com/expressjs/express/pulls) [https://thenewstack.io/node-js-foundation-adopts-express- fra...](https://thenewstack.io/node-js-foundation-adopts-express-framework- incubation-project/) [https://foundation.nodejs.org/](https://foundation.nodejs.org/) [https://openjsf.org/projects/](https://openjsf.org/projects/)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you name a project/product? - <AUTHOR> How do you go about finding a name for your side project or your product?<p>If it matters, I'm trying to name a software product, but don't restrict yourselves :) <comment><USER2> The traditional way of naming was to base in on the product function or feature. For example, MS Office is literally an office suite composing of a spreadsheet, word processor, etc. Windows is another example, "floating bordered boxes" were quite common then but Microsoft gave them a name based on their functionality.

But the modern hipster way is to name it something cool and different! Android, for example, is quite futuristic and refers to a robotic machine, it has nothing to do with a smart-phone OS, does it? Same is the case with Ubuntu, Hadoop, MySQL, Python, Chromium, Electrum, etc. You can even name it on a Greek God or something these days!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, you're right. I wonder how people come up with the "modern hipster" names though :) Do they just name it after whatever sounds cool?

Funny you mention a Greek God, when my username is a Roman one :)

<comment><USER2> "Modern hipster" is whatever goes against the conservative approach, their thought process is based on the premise that whatever happened in the past was bad (and there were true horrors in the past too).

So yeah, what goes against the conservative approach is really cool! For example, naming each iteration of your product based on a funny animal like Focal Fossa (Ubuntu), or a candy like Kitkat (Android). The conservative approach is to be professional and let them be just versions like 1,2,3 or code names like Longhorn or Aurora as Microsoft did but for internal purposes only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Names are arbitrary labels. For an internal project, it can be anything - absolutely anything. Your favorite national park, your favorite movie star or cartoon character, your favorite mathematician, something completely random, something vulgar or crude - anything. Just pick a name, and roll with it.

For an external name (company and/or product), names are still arbitrary labels. But you need to avoid trademark violations, and you need something that will attract customers rather than repel them. So avoid the vulgar and the crude. As for actually _attracting_ customers with a name... that's marketing. I can't help you on that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point about the distinction between internal and external project names.

I'm having trouble with the attracting part haha.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Step 1: Decide some parameters on what you want the name to do. Is it going to be descriptive of the prouct? Do you want it to be a single word or multiple words? Do you care if it gets an acronym? Do you want to use existing vocabulary/meanings or create a new word or repurpose an old word?

Step 2: Once you have these parameters set out - come up with a list of potential names. No name is too stupid for this step. Add to the list in as many different mindspaces as possible (in the morning, before sleeping, after a drink, after a smoke, after a coffee, etc).

Step 3: Seek feedback on the list of names from a trusted source. "Would you use a software product with name X that does Y?" "When you hear of a software product with name X, what do you think it does?"

Step 4: Hopefully the above steps narrow down the list some, with your shortened list go and see if there are other products using the same name and decide if you want to do a weird spelling or axe the name entirely.

Rinse and repeat and of course YMMV. I'll admit that I've only ever used this process for coming up with names for personal blogs and usernames such as bitbybitbybitcoin.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Add to the list in as many different mind spaces as possible

Thanks for this suggestion. I've mostly been trying to think of names while sitting in front of my computer.</comment></comment>


Raspberry Pi 2 Model B on OpenBSD - <AUTHOR> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/219675 <comment><USER2> OpenBSD does not run on the rPi because there are only a handful developers taking care of the arm subtree, and none of them have time for it or are simply not interested. Heck, their whole arm subtree has been rotting and needs some major overhaul.

The main components of the new rPi are rather simple to get to work, so it's not a technical issue. The only real crapware inside is the usb controller.

I bet if someone supplied a diff they'd gladly take it. Also, I wonder why this rather old post is up here.

<comment><USER3> Actually if you read the comments from the developers in that thread they won't support it until there is documentation on the firmware "blobs" you need to have in order to even boot.

I agree it is a fuzzy line but one which I happen to agree with.

There is a probably a thesis to be had for the first person to build a provably trusted system using untrusted base hardware. I am not even sure how you would start such a project.

<comment><USER4> It is a mischaracterization to say they have issues with the firmware, they clearly say they don't have the same objections to firmware running on the peripherals themselves.

The issue here is that the rPI requires driver code running inside OpenBSD that is a closed source blob.

<comment><USER2> I'm sorry, but that is wrong.

The main blobs are being run on the GPU, as bootloaders, even before the actual operating system is loaded. OpenBSD does not need to run _any_ blob itself.

There used to be a 3d graphics driver blob, but afaik that got open sourced. Also, if you don't do 3d, you wouldn't even need it.

<comment><USER5> So, to summarize, if somebody makes a port that doesn't use a blob, all is good. The question seems to be not so much if the blob runs before or after OpenBSD, but whether we would need to distribute it. If it's in the ROM, then this isn't even a question. But if it's something we are expected to write to the flash drive, that's a potential problem. Anyway, the question isn't very interesting given that the magic porting elves haven't yet gifted us with an OpenBSD RPi port.

I don't know exactly what the situation is. Don't care. I have a BeagleboneBlack if I wanted to watch the paint dry doing a build. :)

<comment><USER6> What's OpenBSD's policy on when something needs to be included?

The rPi boot process requires several files to be on a FAT partition on an sd- card: bootcode.bin, fixup.dat, start.elf, config.txt and the OS kernel; the first 3 of which are blobs.

Would those blobs need to be included, or would OpenBSD be fine saying "use your existing boot card, just drop in our kernel", or "go grab these files from [https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot](https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot) when formatting the sd-card."?

<comment><USER5> If the blobs are preexisting that's less of a problem. But it also makes the hardware less interesting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's hard from this thread to determine if the OpenBSD developers have a point and are just expressing it unclearly, or if they are mistaken in some of their assertions and are unwilling to event engage on the issue enough to learn this.

The one time someone references a prior rPi discussion, it's to a message from Theo De Raadt that says:

 _Wow. Dream on. It is a mess of firmware. You know nothing of our history?_

I understand maybe this has come up before and they are tired of the discussion, but this is just toxic. Is it really so hard to just reference a valid prior discussion when this comes up?

<comment><USER8> The OpenBSD mailing lists tend to be extremely Spartan.

The guidelines users are expected to learn before using them generally involve (from most accepted to least accepted)

Read the mailing lists.

Read them again.

If you have a problem read the man pages.

If you still have a problem search the mailing lists for similar problems.

Make sure you really understand your problem then search again.

If after research you fully understand the problem but still don't have a solution post to the specific mailing list with diagnostic info.

Consider writing up a bug report/ creating your own solution as necessary.

and way way down the list, in the has virtually never been the correct thing to do category, is ask questions like "Will you support the RPi?" Those sort of questions have been asked for essentially every piece of hardware and subtechnology out there, and the answer is always either "No, because propritery whatever but you're free to do the work yourself" or "No, because we're busy and barely keeping the lights and servers on, but you're free to do the work yourself" or "Yes, and you'd know that if you read the mailing lists".

The mailing lists are famous for their get sh*t done attitude and any information about posting on them will relay that to new users.

<comment><USER7> > Read the mailing lists.

I would have a lot more sympathy for this point of view if they didn't fill the mailing lists with replies on the topic that were extremely unhelpful. Every reply that doesn't steer the poster towards a _useful_ prior discussion or further the discussion in some way muddies the mailing list for future searchers, leading to more questions on topics that have been covered before. It's a self perpetuating cycle. Guess who has the power to stop it (or at least prevent it from getting worse)?

<comment><USER8> That's a very valid approach.

OpenBSD has been like this since it's very turbulent beginnings. For better or worse they prefer it this way (and it's bolstered by the lists having a famously high signal to noise ratio).

For a team of their size with the resources available to them they've achived a huge amount of success.

(Debates about whether they'd have larger success if they did a bit more of what they would call hand holding are also valid.)

<comment><USER7> Maybe the signal to noise ratio has gotten better, or maybe my recollection is off, but I remember an excessive amount of bikeshedding circa 2006/2007 when I was reading it heavily. I've always been highly impressed with the product, but the mailing lists seem be unproductive, possibly _counterproductive_ , in some instances, IMHO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The Free Software Foundation has a good resource here [https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board- computers](https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers) on the "relative" freedom of single board computers.

The "enforced" binary blob really turns me off the Raspberry Pi. I bought a BeagleBone black as you can actually boot them without non-free software. Recently BeagleBone's GPU manufacturer Imagination Technologies made comments that the PowerVR chip [https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/37h2a9/i_work_for...](https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/37h2a9/i_work_for_imagination_technologies_mips_powervr/) is planned to be open sourced.

If this happens I hope a lot more people will switch over to the BeagleBone rather than head in the direction of cheaper and cheaper closed ARM platforms. For me, the promising part of these single board ARM computers is that we may escape from running untrusted binaries and avoid things like Intel's Management Engine.

</comment><comment><USER10> Why has no one reverse engineered the boot blob on either Pi?

<comment><USER11> How long is a piece of string?

<comment><USER12> I'm unfamiliar with that rebuttal, but it sounds like it has significance. Could someone explain it to me?

<comment><USER10> It signifies an unknown quantity, a string could be any length. I really don't like that saying at all.

<comment><USER13> Also, it doesn't really make sense in the context of the question anyway...</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google, Sync My Accounts, Please! - <AUTHOR>

If you have multiple Gmail inboxes, Google Apps, Google Calendar and Google Plus, then you know what a pain in the ars it is to manage all those separately. Let's make a statement and remind Google what users <i>actually</i> want and need to see fixed ASAP! <comment><USER2> I agree, and please stop treating us google apps users as second class citizens - I want Google +!

<comment><AUTHOR> Isn't it funny how these days we want things to work, and want 'em to be free. I mean, I am still furious, but I am also laughing at myself for it.

<comment><USER3> Except that many Google Apps customers pay real money to Google. Granted, what services they're paying for is likely explicitly defined and doesn't include a clause like "immediate access to new Google products". However, there's a lot to be said for doing nice things for your best customers. You know, the ones willing to pay for stuff.

<comment><USER4> Except that this money is a drop in the ocean in Google's finances. So, when they launch a new product it makes most business sense to support their majority userbase first.

I feel your pain, but I can see Google's reasoning here.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Do Farmers Want GM Crops? - <AUTHOR> http://fieldquestions.com/2014/11/15/do-farmers-want-gm-crops/ <comment><AUTHOR> "I'm reminded of how Steve Jobs scoffed at focus group testing of the ipad, on the grounds that consumers couldn't judge a new product with which they were unfamiliar. But imagine for a minute that there was a focus group and you were running it. How do you describe the device to the focus group? An in-between device that's too big for your pocket but not nearly as powerful as a notebook? Consumers will say they don't want it. A device that has many of the most useful features of both notebooks and smartphones, that fits into a purse or small briefcase but lets you watch movies? They'll demand it."</comment>


Ask HN: What is a reasonable rate to submit stories to HN? - <AUTHOR>

Is there any limit or checking of how many stories people submit each day?
I ask because a small number of people submit very many articles.
(http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=daegloe)
88 posts in one day. <comment><USER2> I have much more of a problem with accounts submitting every story from large- ish websites; for instance, "IT World Magazine" has had a series of accounts that do exactly that, most recently:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=bdking>

Similarly, a small core group of people seems to be feeding Bitcoin stories, and another core group feeding Torrentfreak stuff.

The site would be better if the heaviest and/or most consistent/homogenous submitters submitted less.

</comment><comment><USER3> Here I thought you were going to mention stupid mathema-tricks, but that's only an average of about 2 posts per days.

If the links are good, then I don't see a problem. But I looked at daegloe's postings. I followed only one of the first 75 links; the rest were boring on sight, and helps drown out the things I like. That one exception was to comment that the linked-to article was missing the point.

How effective is flagging at changing posting behavior?

<comment><USER4> If you flag too many stories you lose the flag option permanently.

<comment><USER3> Currently I flag obvious SEO pages (most of the foreign language posts are SEO) and mathema-tricks. Perhaps 10 a day?

<comment><USER4> I don't know what the threshold is, I just know I lost it months ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd like to see submissions limited to 4 or 5 a day although that doesn't really solve the problem of people just dumping generic 'safe' links to scab karma or conceal whatever they're actually spamming or to build their social networking cred or whatever their motive.

There was a suggestion earlier today to just do away with submission karma, I think that has a lot of merit. Domain limits could be interesting as well, it'd force people to at least be more creative than just spewing the usual tech rags' links.

</comment><comment><USER5> More than 5 times a day, and I question whether I'm adding value or fishing for karma. 88/day is abusive; I flag behavior like that when I see it.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wish I could give credit to the person who said it in a comment, when one previous username was observed over-submitting from all the hot, karma- grabbing sites. The basic rule of thumb is that the submitter of a link should have had time to READ the link and to verify that it is a worthwhile link that will advance the discussion here and inform interested readers. I am a high- submission user here, and that is the rule I try to impose on myself.

It may be that the site already has some automated defenses against any one account submitting too often, but we have recently been observing some breaches in those defenses, it appears.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry guys, got carried away today!

I was home sick all day and spent the better part of 15 restless hours scouring the net and feeding my brain. I was collecting noteworthy links along the way, and generally posted (what I considered to be) the good ones in clusters as I returned to HN.

The inundation of knowledge, boredom and medication seemed to have triggered a bit of irrational exuberance. Not my typical posting activity as you can see by my submission history. It's back to the office tomorrow, which means I'll return to my normal 2 or 3 posts a day.

Apologies if I offended. Lesson learned.</comment>


An open letter to Nature editor Philip Campbell - <AUTHOR> http://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/an-open-letter-to-nature-editor-philip-campbell/ <comment><USER2> Gee has written what can best be described as a "notpology" here: [http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2014/01/23/reflection...](http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2014/01/23/reflections- on-this-weekends-events/)

He seems particularly thin-skinned, to me.

</comment><comment><USER3> I probably missed the whole point, but where does the sexism aspect occur in all of this? This is an argument where by chance a man and a woman are involved. This time a man is in a "theoretically" higher position(working as editor for nature) than the woman. Does this fact alone determine him to be sexist?

I realize he "outed" her and I see by her post that she is not handling that herself too well. In my eyes both of these people can learn a lot about professionalism.

<comment><USER4> It's a years-long story; the crux of it is that the blogger Dr. Isis had been boycotting Nature for publishing "Womanspace," a short fiction piece about women and shopping, in 2011, as well as a more recent letter by some random non-scientist guy from Texas saying it's not surprising that women don't get published in Nature because they're just not that good. That's where the sexism thing originally comes in, not the current events per se.

There is some discussion of the fact that this senior editor at Nature is outing an early-career scientist, and maybe the fact that he feels free to do so is a sign of sexism ("she" might be easier to take down than a "he"). Draw your own conclusions on that one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> 'We must be pseudonymous to protect ourselves from professional retaliation so let's grass this dick to his employer'. Good to see that, yes, sometimes _it is_ possible and both sides _can_ lose.

<comment><USER6> Not quite sure I follow.

The "dick" wrote publicly and under in own name in his employer's journal. No one is "grassing" him, no one is retaliating, no one is drawing attention to his gender or suggesting that he is, in fact, a dick.

They are instead commenting on unprofessional and unethical behaviour he has displayed in public, without apparent oversight or forethought or consideration for the likely harm that will arise from his actions.

The article was well thought out, well written, on the mark, and not all _ad hominem_.

So what's the issue?

<comment><USER5> The dick outed her on Twitter. The champion of pseudonymity in the cause of professional freedom wrote an open letter to his employer. I hope this explanation is as embarrassing for you to read as it was for me to write.

<comment><USER6> Embarrassing to read? Nope, I still don't get it.

Did I err in my original comment? Yup, fact is he tweeted the out - and the _ad hominem_ diss - and did not use his employer's publication as his platform.

That was quite wrong of me.

And really not quite relevant either.

The relevant thread is this: A senior editor with considerable power to influence if not actually establish or derail reputations and careers by a) selecting or rejecting their articles for publication, b) commenting for or against those articles, and, most importantly in this context, c) enlarging his domain beyond its rightful bounds, _the work_ , to focus instead on the personalities and characteristics of the people behind _the work_ , has in fact gone directly to personally directed insult and invective.

I don't give a rat's ass and neither does anyone else if a scientist is a complete dick, provided that he or she confines their being a dick to mere social dickwaddedness whilst doing good work and promoting the careers and training of their students and peers. I've met a few like that, arrogant as fuck, not really nice people, but really, really good at nurturing and developing their students. Odd mix, really.

But a journal editor being a dick and attacking people, setting his or her own agenda that has nothing to do with competence and everything to do with personal politics and one's personal view of the rightness or wrongness of social psychology, that's going over the line.

His tweet may not have been widely read, but the fact of its existence must be, because his influence over his audience and customers is significant, and if his influence is or even appears to be significantly moderated by his opinions of personality and politics and psychology, then he has NO place in his current role and everyone affected by his being in that role deserves to know it.

<comment><USER5> Relevance.

The dick outed the writer on his Twitter acoount.

The writer wrote pseudonymously because of their belief that frank discussion requires freedom from professional retaliation.

The outed writer then wrote not to the dick but to his employer, Phillip Campbell.

That's as much as I can do to explain why I think both parties have acted to their own discredit.

<comment><USER7> That's 9 dicks I've counted now. Serious question - how comfortable would you all be with the casual use of 'cunt' or 'whore' in hackernews comments on gender issues? Really what I'm asking is, are you hypocrites or bigots?

<comment><USER5> What the Nature employee did on Twitter was a dick move. The pseudonymous blogger's addressing their complaint to the Nature editor was a dick move. I haven't been discussing a gender issue. 11.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How the San Antonio Express-News Broke News of Scalia's Death - <AUTHOR> http://www.poynter.org/2016/how-the-san-antonio-express-news-broke-news-of-scalias-death/396569/ <comment><USER2> The article crows about how they broke the news, and touts it as a great example of journalism, which I totally agree with, but one of the commenters there asks a really good question:

>Vianna Davila, Tyler White, Richard A. Marini and John MacCormack: What was Scalia doing as guest at convicted felon Admiral Poindexter's resort property? What was the nature of the party he was attending? Great, you broke a story...but now what? Where is the journalism here??

<comment><USER3>
      convicted felon Admiral Poindexter

_All_ charges from Congress, and _all_ quickly reversed on appeal, making him no longer a "felon".</comment></comment>


This is bullshit - we must move past the one-way lecture to collaboration - <AUTHOR> http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/03/08/tedxnyed-this-is-bullshit/

<comment><USER2> To a certain extent this seems like ignorant webcock bullshit.

In many fields, in most cases, there actually is one answer, especially at the K-12 levels that much of education is directed toward. 2+2 = 4. There is nothing to collaborate on or debate in that. There's not time for students to spend hundreds of years going through the process of complete a priori discovery that pioneers in fields of knowledge did.

I'm saying there's a side to this that this post completely ignores and is reminiscent of typical Web 2.0 douchebaggery that is obsessed with rejecting everything old.

Textbook linear algebra and Bayesian statistics are an important part of some of Google's key technologies. I don't understand the complete failure to recognize value when you see it of the kind this post displays.

I am aware of Seymour Papert's ideas about "guide on the side" vs "sage on the stage" in teaching and using new educational technology to make students own their own knowledge. The author of this post is not, or else does not want to acknowledge the people he is aping.

Edit: I think unconferences are a great idea! Recognize when the audience has a lot to contribute and when it's time for one person or a panel to do the talking. Adapt to the situation at hand. I completely support that. What a revolution in American life it would be if we could imbue our children with real intellectual curiosity! Just don't make things so one-sided is all I'm saying.

<comment><AUTHOR> _2+2 = 4. There is nothing to collaborate on or debate in that. There's not time for students to spend hundreds of years going through the process of complete a priori discovery that pioneers in fields of knowledge did._

This isn't at all what he is saying, I think you misunderstood (or I did). The key points, as I understood the piece:

\- Avoid duplicating effort, instead add value, "just as journalists must become more curator than creator, so must educators"

\- Rather than educate based on a factory-line mentality, engage with the audience/students, in order to help them learn more effectively, "instead of giving tests to find out what [people] learned, we should test to find out what they don't know. Their wrong answers aren't failures, they are needs and opportunities."

\- Instead of getting students to memorize answers or techniques, focus on helping them learn how to find answers and understand techniques, "Google sprung from seeing the novel. Is our educational system preparing students to work for or create Googles? Googles don't come from lectures."

<comment> loup-vaillant This remind me Dr Tae: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=698600>

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a great video.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This quote by Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's head of product management was a great one:

"In the real world the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market."

</comment><comment><USER4> What's wrong with a single individual presenting a well-conceived, poignant, in-vivo essay about the topic they are the best person in the world to explain? I have yet to meet a crowd or committee that can tell a coherent story.

One-to-many speeches may be overused in education, but I think TED gets them very near exactly right.

</comment><comment><USER5> One of Jarvis' best in a while, particularly his defense of why his TED talk was still a one-way bullshit lecture: Ego.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think he's right...but....doesn't there need to be a basis for that creative thinking? It seems to me that the early "memorization" of stuff (elementary school and middle school) is pretty essential. It's pretty hard for MOST people to understand calculus without first being able to solve 2x + 3 = 15

<comment><USER7> I think it might be interesting to study when the optimal time to learn addition would be. Different people might learn at different paces, so letting people learn naturally might be a better way for these things to be introduced at the optimal time, rather than forced at some suboptimal time. I think that's the main benefit in free-form learning, and that's to optimize learning by interest.

So for example rather than forcing all kids to learn addition in first grade (or is it earlier?), we could introduce them to more general topics, and allow a bigger range of time for the children to naturally approach those topics. So the some children might develop an interest for it at 3rd grade or 2nd, etc. But it would be optimized by interest, and school would serve the purpose of creating the interest (to induce learning), rather than forcing the learning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Collaboration doesn't scale.

You can't have 500 people in a room all discussing one topic. Well you can - but it won't be efficient. And people will actually end up learning less.

I think - past 30-35 people, collaboration starts losing its value.

But yes - if there are only 20-30 people in the room - collaboration works better than the lecture format.

(Paulo Freire actually taught English to Brazilian farmers in less than 60 days by using a collaborative approach instead of a lecture approach. His techniques are worth studying. But his techniques don't work for TED type events where huge audiences show up.)</comment>


Big Social Media Is a House of Cards Built on Fake Bot Accounts - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@getongab/big-social-media-is-a-house-of-cards-built-on-fake-bot-accounts-d362b68b33ef <comment><USER2> TL; DR: Here at Gab, we don't need no stinking bots to fill up our streams with nazi crap.

<comment><AUTHOR> TL;DR: You're a gullible moron who believes everything you read on the internet.

<comment><USER3> This isn't OK on Hacker News no matter what you're responding to.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cry about it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reddit CEO says TikTok is 'spyware' - <AUTHOR> https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2020/02/28/reddit-ceo-says-tiktok-is-spyware/ <comment><USER2> I have TikTok installed on my iPhone — I have no account and scroll through it a bit every day until screen time tells me to stop.

It has no access to my location, microphone, or camera. I type nothing into the app. I'm not sure how this could be spyware... Perhaps they track you when you use the app more heavily, but their big new competitor, Byte (created by the Vine founders), requires you to log in to even view a video.

</comment><comment><USER3> I recall seeing a documentary where who was most probably the creator reddit claimed reddit to know about the things the users don't necessarily share with anyone else though their behavior on the site, but ok

</comment><comment><USER4> first thought came to my mind is competition.</comment>


Facebook Testing new Timeline Design - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/10/31/facebook-confirms-it-is-testing-new-timeline-design-with-just-one-column-for-posts/

<comment><USER2> You can get this behavior now by using Social Fixer: <http://socialfixer.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> True - I'm sure many people would appreciate being given the option by default by Facebook though.</comment></comment>