Hallmark of an Economic Ponzi Scheme - <AUTHOR> https://www.hussmanfunds.com/comment/mc180604/ <comment><USER2> The thesis statement of this essay is buried fairly far into the essay, but it seems this paragraph is the heart of their argument:

" _The lesson to be learned from quantitative easing, zero-interest rate policy, and the bubble advance of recent years is simple: one must accept that there is no limit at all to the myopic speculation and self-interested amnesia of Wall Street. Bubbles and crashes will repeat again and again, and nothing will be learned from them. However, that does not mean abandoning the information from valuations or market internals. It means refraining from a negative market outlook, even amid extreme valuations and reckless speculation, until dispersion and divergences emerge in market internals (signaling a shift in investor psychology from speculation to risk-aversion). A neutral outlook is fine if conditions are sufficiently overextended, but defer a negative market outlook until market internals deteriorate._ "

Basically, this can be read as a complaint about how distorted the financial markets become when we rely on the Fed to protect us from recessions. If Congress would do its job, and provide sufficiently large deficits to absorb the productive capacity of the modern economy, then there would be no need for the Fed to engage in such extreme behaviors, and we would not see this kind of distortion in the financial markets.

<comment><USER3> > provide sufficiently large deficits to absorb the productive capacity of the > modern economy

Are you serious? How about letting the productive capacity of the economy work for consumers rather than for politicians?

Of course I agree that there should be no bailouts for Wall Street firms, but I would also argue that the business cycle itself is induced by the lack of a sound money in the economy. Easy money tricks entrepreneurs into investing in long-term capital projects prematurely and causes malinvestment.

So Wall Street is not to blame for business cycles. It's the soft-money fiat system that causes so much economic calamity. When the Fed steps in to stop recessions, nobody asks why we had the boom that preceded the bust, which was fueled by the Fed itself.

<comment><USER4> There was a time before the soft-money fiat system. Not really that long ago. It was also marked with many boom/bust cycles. The business cycle was probably first formally named and studied by Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi and described in the 1819 book, "Nouveaux Principes d'économie politique"[1]. I would suggest that the cycle is not necessarily bad. During good times ideas are tried that would not be otherwise and people with little experience can get jobs and show their competence. Then some bad year forces some tightening and a serious evaluation of investments of all types.

The big downfall with recessions is that people with little or no savings can end up in a very bad place economically. Not sure how or if our consumer culture could change to a saving culture, but I'd be interested in reading a book that compares the two.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> IMO it really became bad after US left the gold standard in 1971 and the petrodollar was invented.

<comment><USER5> there seem to be serious problems with the gold standard because of what attracts people, that it is rigid and unchanging. If the us economy grows a lot, how do we get more gold? what if a ship with a lot of our gold on it goes down in the middle of the ocean?

What problems would it improve? if we have a recession, how would the govt help keep things going (ie print dollars)? Most people wouldn't have been better off if most large banks had failed then.

<comment><AUTHOR> The point would be to not print more and more dollars to "boost" the economy and run more trade deficits, especially using debt. With the gold standard trade deficits would result in less money being printed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _"the extreme brevity of the financial memory."_

Yes. It's only been since 2008 since the US economy tanked, it took five years to dig out of that one, and real wages never fully came back. That wasn't long ago.

It's about time for Silicon Valley to tank. There's nothing big in the pipeline comparable to the Internet or smartphones. Laptops, notebooks, tablets, and phones have all passed peak sales. The businesses that assume endless growth are maxing out.

The next big thing may be solar, wind, and storage taking over the energy industry, which is a good thing. That's a slow, capital-intensive, heavy- industry infrastructure upgrade, driven by manufacturing cost reduction. It's going to happen, but it's not a go-go business.

<comment><USER7> > _real wages never fully came back_

Real median usual weekly earnings for full-time Americans 16 and over went from 332 1982-84 CPI-adjusted U.S. dollars in Q4 2007 to 350 in Q1 2018 [1]. Americans are in the midst of record high real wages.

Hourly wages for manufacturing employees haven't recovered to their 2004 peak, but they too are well above where they were pre-crisis [2].

Broadly, the country's balance sheet is healthier in 2018 than it was in 2008. Savings are higher, banks are plumper and then economy's productive capacity has grown. The next recession will be a regular one, not a full-blown crisis.

> _It 's about time for Silicon Valley to tank_

Wall Street may beat us to it:

"Christopher Ricciardi, a former Merrill Lynch banker, was known as the 'grandfather of CDOs' for helping popularize these complex structured products that blew up during the financial crisis.

Now, he is bringing his experience to another corner of the financial world with mounds of debt: student loans" [3].

[1] [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q)

[2] [https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2018/02/are-wages- increasing...](https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2018/02/are-wages-increasing- or- decreasing/?utm_source=series_page&utm_medium=related_content&utm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=fredblog)

[2] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/grandfather-of-cdos-trying- to-d...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/grandfather-of-cdos-trying-to-do-for- higher-education-what-he-did-for-mortgages-1526652000)

<comment><USER8> > Americans are in the midst of record high real wages.

The article shows a different view: total wages dropped as a percentage of GDP from 50% post-WWII to 42% in 2011. This is the basis for the Ponzi-economy argument:

 _consumption is largely financed by accumulating debt liabilities to supplement inadequate wages and salaries, where government runs massive fiscal deficits, not only to support the income shortfalls of its citizens, but increasingly to serve and enhance corporate profits themselves_

<comment><USER7> > _The article shows a different view: total wages dropped as a percentage of > GDP from 50% post-WWII to 42% in 2011_

The article and I are in agreement on this narrow point. Wages as a fraction of GDP are down. Wages, themselves, are up.

Broadly, I disagree with the assertion that our economy's growth is unusually debt-fueled. Total debt as a fraction of GDP is worryingly high [1]. Strip out financial sector indebtedness, however, and we're where we were in the 80s. Household debt explains a relatively narrow slice of recent GDP growth.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_Unit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_United_States#/media/File:Components- of-total-US-debt.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't know. I stopped believing in that the average citizen is really doing his job of self preservation. We always expect others to keep us save and then hastily put all our value (work time, energy, money) into lies that tell us that everything is fine and even better in the future. Blaming Wallstreet is part of that. Sure, they are selfish sharks. But that shouldn't overshadow that they have masses of customers who buy the junk from them without ever checking if everything is really as good as it looks on the cover.

Nowadays I'm worried more about what I as a person can actually do to circumvent that. And sadly the only reliable thing I can see is becoming part of the sharks and selling junk, thereby drastically increasing my private cash budget. Everything else, like raw resources, real estate, stocks, start-ups are all so overvalued with the b.s. that it's not really worth to put money in because of so many people continuing to buy despite knowing that the stuff they buy is overvalued by a margin.

That really makes one sad, you know...

<comment><USER10> The macro commodities picture is looking pretty solid, I've been looking at getting into raw materials. If anything they seem undervalued

<comment><USER9> Are you buying directly or derivates? With derivates nowadays you might run the risk that they are not backed by anything. This needs to be considered in the evaluation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It tires me when I hear people ranting that some government backed & sanctioned economic institution is an illegal ponzi scheme.

Why? Because they are a ponzi scheme, and they are legal by the virtue of being run by the government.

There are different laws that govern what an individual or a corporation can do, and what a government can do. We give the government a limited right to do lots of things (in certain circumstances) which we don't let individuals and corporations do:

\- kill people (military, capital punishment) \- kidnap people (police arrests) \- imprison people (jail, prison) \- run protection rackets/extortion (taxation) \- gambling (state lotteries) \- run ponzi schemes (social security system, fractional reserve banking)

We agree to all of this as a society. Therefore, it is not illegal.

We should always keep an eye on the extent to which those special rights are exercised by the government. We should actively discuss and modify laws that govern these special rights we grant to the government, so that they reflect the will of the people. However, just yelling "Ponzi scheme! Illegal!" is ignorant. It's as if someone stood up all of a sudden and yelled "The government is killing people in wars! That's illegal". Of course they are, and to a large extent it is legal, because we have implicitly granted the government that right as society.

<comment><USER12> That does not seem relevant to this article, because it does not call the system illegal. It calls it "effectively a Ponzi scheme", and then goes on to offer evidence to support that claim.

A Ponzi scheme is "an investment system where the investment profits are paid with the money from other investors, and those who experience profit believe the profits come from non-investors such as business activities, or the earnings and growth of a company." (Wikipedia)

The author makes a clear attempt at analogy: "Debt-financed prosperity is typically abetted by central banks that encourage consumers and speculators to borrow (the demand side of Ponzi finance) and also encourage yield-seeking demand among investors for newly-issued debt securities that offer a "pickup" in yield (the supply side of Ponzi finance)."

<comment><USER11> I think you're right. This was more of a pent up reaction triggered by the article, even though the article is not making that point directly. It seems I am coming across the naive view a lot lately.

Thanks for listening to me rant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A buddy of mine is a wealth manager. His opinion is that this guy obtained significant ears because he predicted and profited off the '08 crisis, but that overall he's a a bit of a "clown". As linked below, his main fund has a 10% performance of -6.45% and he's basically always bearish.

<comment><USER14> Is your buddy one of the very few beating the market or is he one of the many with clients who would be better of just tracking the S&P 500? Because if the latter, he is just as much of a clown, just one whose strategies by accident happen to be less bad for their clients.

The number of 'wealth managers' who add value for their clients (which can also be done by reducing risk in exchange for lower yields or in several other ways) is very small and the remainder are leeches.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I read this lat night. As I read it, I found myself wondering, "Okay, what am I supposed to do with this info? How am I supposed to act upon this guy's bearish outlook and pretty charts?"

Somewhere in article, the point is made that one's paper wealth will be hit hard by the coming crash. My thought there is, "So what?". My present investments in securities are long term; I'm not planning on having to touch them for a few decades. In that time period, if the economy stays crashed for so hard so long that they make no gains over those decades, I'm very likely to have more pressing immediate problems that I won't have the time or energy to care about my securities investments.

I remember looking at graphs of the stock market and realizing that, while the 2008/2009 downturn would have been a terrifying time to begin investing, if I _had_ begun investing then, and ridden out the cycle. I would have come out ahead. If today's market conditions are the boom of another boom/bust cycle, why would that not still be true?

</comment><comment><USER16> The problem is not with memory but with the fact that it is just too easy, too tempting and too profitable to run Ponzi schemes, especially one as big as this. Plus, as any banker would tell you, he who does not steal is robbing his own family.

</comment><comment><USER17> I find the economic analysis here extremely compelling, but it's worth noting that at least one of the Hussman funds has had pretty awful returns historically:

[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HSGFX?p=HSGFX](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HSGFX?p=HSGFX)

What I take away from this is that understanding macroeconomic trends is different than being a successful investor.

<comment><USER18> How are they even still in business?

<comment><USER19> You should question his economic analysis also.

Ask yourself, "if his understanding of markets and economics is correct, how come he is consistently wrong, over and over, in his investment decisions?"

This guy has been weaving stories about economics for years and years and been consistently wrong for years and years.

His understanding of how economics and markets work is simply incorrect (even if it sounds compelling).

<comment><USER20> Being a big shorter isn't for the weary.... Most will accumulate large losses until they go bankrupt or the freak black swan happens and they make 1000x% for the trouble (erasing the accumulated losses very quickly, if smartly positioned).

On the otherside, Bullish banks/etc will make small profits consistently for long periods of time on bullish bets but when the black swan happens, will lose everything they made over the years and more, to the shorters (in 2008 banks had record profits until they lost more money than banks ever made in the history of modern banking).

Gabish?

<comment><USER18> On the other hand:

1\. Determining skill from luck is difficult if we have a very small sample of successful trades (e.g. shorting banks correctly in 2008, but getting everything else wrong)

2\. In order for a diversified investor (e.g. into FTSE World, some bonds and precious metals) to lose everything would require one hell of a black swan. Some kind of forceful expropriation of their assets is much more likely.

The problem for the shorters now is that the exact same arguments they are making now could have been made 5 years ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A negative take on one of Hussman's funds: [http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/09/05/when-the-hedge-is- wo...](http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/09/05/when-the-hedge-is-worse-than- the-thing-being-hedged/)

</comment><comment><USER21> It seems like if corporations are very unequal, we should be suspicious of averages.

Taking an average for corporations that includes Apple and Alphabet is sort of like taking average wealth for a small number of people that includes Bill Gates.

So, I'm not sure how seriously to take this? A company with very high, durable profit margins doing a stock buyback or taking on debt at low interest rates doesn't seem like much of a problem either now or in a recession?

Other companies may be in a much more risky position. It seems important to analyze them in separate groups.

</comment><comment><USER22> I think it's related to the interest rate. If the interest rate is 0% then it means that money is worthless (because in that case debt behaves exactly the same as actual money)... If money is worthless then assets which produce money (profit) are also worthless... So what is actually valuable in a world where money is worthless? Human attention (brand awareness)! Because brand awareness is probably the only asset that won't be affected by a rise in interest rates. So brand awareness is the key to getting a good share of tomorrow-money (which, unlike today-money, might actually have value). So that's why advertising is so valuable now.

<comment><USER7> > _If the interest rate is 0% then it means that money is worthless (because > in that case debt behaves exactly the same as actual money)_

Zero or even negative interest rates don't mean money is worthless. Money money, as in cash, always yields zero.

And even in a zero or negative rate environment, there are still assets (including debt) which have a positive yield. The point of lowering interest rates is to drive capital to those riskier ventures.

<comment><USER23> > zero or negative rate

i don't understand how this is even possible.

<comment><USER7> > _i don 't understand how this is even possible_

$1 loaned for one year at 10% means, after 1 year, you get $1 back plus 10¢ of interest. $1 loaned for one year at -10% means, after 1 year, you get back $90. This is reality in multiple economies [1].

Traditionally, monetary policy hit a zero bound with rates. Why would one deposit money at -10% when one can hold cash at 0%? But modern finance sometimes means it's better to hold bonds yielding -1% than it is to withdraw physical cash. (For example, to use as collateral.) The ultimate goal of these policies is to make holding cash so uncomfortable that investors _have_ to deploy the capital.

[1] [https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32284393](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32284393)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> "When U.S. corporate profits are unusually high, it's typically an indication that households and the government are cutting their savings and going into debt." Pretty much one of the reasons why I dislike the current economy and what I mean by treating people as "consumers" to be extracted from. This has been a problem since the 1970s.

<comment><AUTHOR> BTW, the way the current economy works is also why revenue of for example Sun and Novell declined quickly. I have an entire paragraph about that in the essay.

<comment><USER24> I really, really enjoyed that. What else have you written?

<comment><AUTHOR> Link to the essay for those who are unfamiliar: [http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/2018/04/google-doubleclick- moz...](http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/2018/04/google-doubleclick-mozilla- essay-final.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Flight to quality will go into crypto and for many of the reasons mentioned in the write-up.

<comment><USER26> I can't tell if this is satire or not.</comment></comment>


DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023 <comment><USER2> In the present circumstances there can be no presumption of good faith. We have unlimited evidence of bad faith already in hand.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why emergency powers are being proposed to be used for anything other than increasing supply of necessary hospital supplies, increasing hospital capacity, increasing testing capacity, and saving the economy, is a mystery and a scandal of historic proportions.

</comment><comment><USER4> If they impose martial law they can suspend habeas corpus and still get the same results. Not sure why they would do this. Unless they want to do it outside of declaring martial law which would be a tough legal matter to argue.

<comment><USER5> if it started to degenerate into collapse of civility thats one thing.

there is the morality play where impending doom gives perception of no consequences thus the truly moral remain unchanged, but others act out on impulses because there is no visible authority to heed to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

</comment><comment><USER7> I predict they will find a way to "postpone" the elections in November due to <insert reason here>. Everyone can scream "unconstitutional" at me as much as they want - the current administration has been practicing this for >3 years and they will find a way. Just leaving this here so I can say "I told you so".</comment>


Ask YC: Anything better than Google notebook out there? - <AUTHOR>

I wanted to use Google notebook to store and sort my "stream of consciousness" and notes online, but I dislike the lack of folder support. Got me thinking, what have you guys found works for you in terms of electronic catch-all note libraries? <comment><USER2> I have a folder on my desktop called buckets with individual plain text files called:

Blog Topic Bucket Books to Get Bucket Business Todo Bucket Daily Task Bucket Domain Bucket Idea Bucket Link Bucket Music bucket Personal Todo Bucket Quote Bucket Scrap Bucket Travel Bucket

I then add to those buckets with Quicksilver by pressing .[text here] [tab] Append to... [bucket]/name of bucket

It takes a couple of seconds to put anything I want into them, though it probably sounds more complicated than it is written out.

<comment><USER3> The list is a little confused. This site throws away single line breaks, except in

      code text, which you
      get by indenting lines by two or more
      spaces, like
      this.

Incidentally, why does this site throw away single line breaks?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> To amplify a key point: I think the core of your issue is "findability". It's not hard to collect a lot of internet stuff, or even your own ideas using different software - finding it again is the difficult task.

I'm in the <http://twine.com> beta, and it works pretty well if want structured notes/data about your research/ideas.

Along those lines, you can also try: <http://diigo.com> <http://clipmarks.com>

I also use a personal wiki or blog with lots of tagging. Wiki's are very powerful for organically growing ideas, but I find navigation difficult and tagging with most blogs provides easier content organizations. Drupal's taxonomy can help. Flickr's concept of machine tagging is pretty useful for fast organization of thoughts.

For offline there are more options like OmniOutliner for Mac. Here's more mac software for idea management: [http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Software/s...](http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Software/swindex.htm)

If more specific goals you have, the easier to solve the problem. But the general problem of note taking in turning it into a valuable collection is the hard part.

I also use paper. :) Old school.

</comment><comment><USER5> Evernote is awesome. Although sadly currently only invite only while it's in beta, but you can easily apply for an invite on their site:

<http://preview.evernote.com/>

It has a great clipping tool so you can easily clip snippets from websites and has built in OCR capabilities so if you snip a photo/image you can filter your notes by text actually contained within the photo. It also syncs between your desktop client and web version so you are _never_ without your notes and currently supports mac, windows and mobile windows, with an iPhone version coming soon.

</comment><comment><USER6> Semi-justified self promotion: <http://www.awesomehighlighter.com>

<comment><USER7> This may be off-topic, but its awesome! I suggest you immediately take people to preview page after highlighting is done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you are a Windows person, I find OneNote to be indispensable. screen clippings, random thoughts, notes - whatever, really - are sorted, searchable, etc. It comes with certain versions of MS Office. <http://www.onenote.com/>

</comment><comment><USER9> 3banana of course! =) I'm releasing it to my friends this weekend, shoot me an email at email@example.com if you want to be an early tester.

 _What is 3banana?_

3banana makes your notes useful again. With 3banana you can easily jot something down from any device and then share that note with your friends or colleagues to have a discussion. Share your notes to Facebook, Twitter, Email, Instant Message or to wherever your social graph lives.

<http://3banana.com> your notes are social

My goal is to make it as easy to use as a Google search.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'll second (or third) the vote for OneNote. I find it to be indispensible for dealing with unstructured information, and perfect for imposing structure as you go. It's not a web app, but has good mobility support (easy enough to share a Notebook, or keep one on a USB stick). And, the browser integration is great-- one click saves an article, ready to be filed away.

</comment><comment><USER11> There is also TiddlyWiki [<http://www.tiddlywiki.com/>]. Its a single HTML file that you can carry on your flash drive. You create tiddlers, tag them, search, the whole gambit. I use it for maintaining my work reports, and its pretty cool.

You can even go as far as customizing the tiddlers (think of them as index cards). I created one for work that automatically puts the date, and adds "dailystatus" as a tag, and has two input areas, "Tasks completed" and "Hours worked".

The file can get large, but if you feel the need to host it so its accessible from the web, there is tiddlyspot.com that lets you host these files for free. So you can have a local copy as well as one on the web, and you can synchronize between them easily.

</comment><comment><USER12> gmail, using self-addressed emails and labels as folders.

Being able to search and "reply" to your own thoughts is really nice.

<comment><USER9> I used to email myself notes all the time, but that gets really cumbersome.

I want something that is as easy to use as a Google search or notepad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm on OSX and I use VoodooPad + email. Voodoopad is a really good program for creating "wiki-like" notes. It can also embed, links to files, rich text copied directly from safari, etc. For online viewing you can either use the built in web server or export as HTML periodically.

I use email for updates when I'm away from my laptop. It's easy for me to type things up in a rough form for processing later and I can use it almost anywhere (I took 6KB of notes during the startup school on my blackberry)

</comment><comment><USER14> Lots of little text files, with markdown-like formatting. pyblosxom [<http://pyblosxom.sourceforge.net/>] gives me a web interface when I need one - generally when I want to lazily read through my notes on a certain topic. The files are all in an svn repo, with a copy checked out on every machine I use regularly.

I've been doing something like this for perhaps 5 years, accumulated something like 400,000 words of notes across hundreds of files, and the system's holding up well.

It's not pretty - but my data is safe, I'm not relying on a website staying alive, and if I ever move to something more sophisticated it'll just take a few scripts to convert everything. And, since I always have vim open, editing one of my text files is quicker than almost any other interface.

At one point I had the whole lot publicly-available online - I may again in the future, once I've done a sweep for other people's secrets in there.

I was incredibly pleased to find that Cosma Shalizi (who I admire immensely) has a similar system: <http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/>

</comment><comment><USER15> I had the same problem some time ago, so I built this to support my needs: <http://scribbl.net/>

<comment><USER16> That's funny cos I did exactly the same thing!

I tried using Google Notebook for a while but I just kept fighting the rich text editor. I used Backpack for a while to keep Writeboards but that quickly got tedious.

A quick 2-day stint produced a RoR application which supports Textile, tags for organisation and some ajax to make it simple. It does what I want but I'm not sure I'm ready to open it up to a bunch of "hackers" :-)

<comment><USER15> I worked on it for a bit longer than 2 days and used a fair amount of time to test and escape user input and to create a set of test data that might break the app.

Textile is nice; I should add support for that too, if I ever have time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I am using keynote (<http://keynote.prv.pl>), I keep my file (single file) in a small flash disk and put it in my wallet, so I do not have to worry about sync the file between my home desktop, laptop, and office desktop. Keynote allow you to have tabs and folders within tab.

<comment><AUTHOR> Now that's pretty cool and unique! I like that it isn't web-based but you can still access from anyplace.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I use a plain text file.

<comment><USER19> Ditto. I have a giant "ideas.txt" with unfinished 1 liners, and separate files (supersecretproject.txt) with more details.

<comment><USER4> "supersecretproject.txt" - can't be all that secret ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm currently experimenting with PersonalBrain (<http://personalbrain.com/>) -- it's basically a "mindmapping" tool on steroids. Works on: Linux, OS X, Solaris, and MS Windows. So far, it's definitely better than all of the other mindmapping tools.

</comment><comment><USER21> Are you looking to store web pages along with your annotations, or just your personal notes? Also, does it necessarily have to be stored online? Firefox's ScrapBook extension and OneNote are two excellent tools I have used.

<comment><AUTHOR> Online is pretty vital for me. I'll have to check out scrapbook though, I like firefox mucho.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Moving from gmail to my own email hosting, I discovered that horde had really nice notes/calendar/etc. modules (horde-webmail has them integrated).

The only problem is that it is somewhat of a pain to set up, but if you want a complete self-hosted solution, it's great.

I also discovered recently that the next version (rc now) has syncml support so you can sync with your mobile phone.

</comment><comment><USER23> Try Luminotes. It's a WYSIWYG personal wiki with a focus on simplicity and ridiculously quick linking. It doesn't have folder support per se, but it does have an autogenerated "note tree" and support for distinct wiki notebooks. I apologize in advance for the lack of Safari support.

Check it out: <http://luminotes.com/>

</comment><comment><USER24> Use the extension Foxnotes while online. You get six separate notes, all of them .txt files. When offline use your text editor to access any of the six. Use the editor's MRU list for instant access, or a shortcut(s). It's a simple, superfast online\offline setup. If you're not using PsPad you don't know what a top class free text editor is.

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm using xPad on the Mac and it does well for me. I do miss OneNote on Windows (about the only thing I miss).

</comment><comment><USER26> If you have mobile phone with full keyboard, it not a bad idea to keep your notes there. You have your phone with you all the time, whenever you come up with something to write about, you don't even need a computer.

</comment><comment><USER27> I use Google Docs. It works well for the most part, but the long load time is mildly irritating, and I don't need most of its features. I've been thinking of writing something like this from scratch for fun.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Lots of very fantastic information and suggestions here! Than you everyone who contributed. I'm really liking evernote at the moment. Great solution!

</comment><comment><USER28> If you browse with Opera then it has a nice 'copy to note' feature which is handy for clipping bits of the web and adding your comments etc.

</comment><comment><USER29> I find mind maps to be much more useful than a list of notes. You can always add notes to the map and attach/link to documents.

</comment><comment><USER30> I didn't find GN or similar products useful. I just save the whole URL on del.icio.us, using the tags I can remember later.

</comment><comment><USER31> I'm enough of a fan of TreePad that I paid for a license a few years ago.

</comment><comment><USER32> Evernote is pretty good.

</comment><comment><USER33> lol. me and my friends are working on something similar to this. beta should be available before august :P

</comment><comment><USER34> try also tomboy (part of gnome)

<comment><USER35> I really like Tomboy. It's super simple and has a lot of great features.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> <http://sharedcopy.com>

</comment><comment><USER36> evernote is awesome</comment>


VR dream builders at Google work on immersive browsing - <AUTHOR> http://techxplore.com/news/2016-07-vr-builders-google-immersive-browsing.html <comment><USER2> I wonder if this will be a thing or of it will fade into obscurity like all the 1990s 3D web stuff. Does anyone remember VRML?

<comment><USER3> I was too young to ever see or use VRML, but I believe that VR is much more accessible now than it's ever been. At this point, you only need a 3D capable smartphone in order to view VR. Forget the cardboard, you can still use the phone as a small viewport to view the virtual world. Right now, I still feel like VR is a novelty though, kind of like the smartwatch. Sure it's cool, but it's not necessarily a need quite yet.

<comment><USER4> Just a thought... I wonder if all the 3-d overlays that the maps apps have now could be dumped to VRML. I presume so. That would allow people to go through maps in VRML, and Google Street View in VRML would be pretty darn cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm curious to see if the VR version of Chrome will operate similarly to JanusVR: [http://janusvr.com/](http://janusvr.com/)

JanusVR is a fun experience and linking via portals is novel, but it's more of a place to hang out than anything else.</comment>


Finding and sorting Legos in an image - <AUTHOR> http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2015/04/20/sorting-contours-using-python-and-opencv/

<comment><USER2> Excellent. Thanks for posting source code!</comment>


Ask HN: next big site in the social network niche? - <AUTHOR>

With all the privacy concerns, bugs, etc. that have plagued Facebook lately, I'm thinking it's time to move on to a different social network site. Was wondering what the HN community thought would be the next big site in this area. Is there a Facebook killer out there? <comment><USER2> While there will no doubt be a few attempts to shake up the social networking clique with new entrants, Facebook has a pretty good grip on it at the moment. The recent privacy concerns being discussed here on HN might make people consider switching to elsewhere, but will they actually do it?

The thing with moving to another social network and leaving the old one behind is that you won't find it to be too social without your existing network of friends/family moving over as well. It's a bit of a Catch-22 situation, really.

Of course, it's possible to use your existing networks to invite people to a new network, but in reality, unless people see value in the new vs the old, they will at best politely decline. In Facebook's case, you'll need people's concerns with privacy to outweigh the inconvenience of switching and building a new network.

I've been invited to about 5-10 new 'networks' from people on Facebook or LinkedIn over the last couple of years. I haven't moved partly because some of them look kind of dodgy to be honest but most because I'd simply have to start over again. That's the 'lock-in' that online social/business network tools have.

People need to be convinced that the inconvenience of switching outweighs the existing concerns.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's true that getting your sphere of influence to adopt a new social network is a pain. But that said, years ago I started off on Friendster, then moved to MySpace, and now I'm at Facebook. I would expect that Facebook's fame will cool just like the others did. Surely Facebook isn't as untouchable as Google is in the search market. Is it?

<comment><USER3> I think Facebook is a lot more defensible than Google. I think you seriously underestimate how inertial the relationships it now harbors are. Someone just has to build a better, cheaper, Google, and it will slowly start to leak market share. It's a lot harder for Facebook to spring a leak, because I'm not interested in jumping onto something where only 10% of my friends are going to follow me.

Facebook is the first thing, the ONLY thing, that's gotten hundreds of people I know (I mean, really _know_ ) to all be in the same "place" at once.

I abandoned Friendster and MySpace long before Facebook showed up. Neither of them ever truly reached the critical mass that Facebook did IMHO. If you remember what Friendster and MySpace were like in earlier days, you kind of just friended people and sat there. The engagement on Facebook is MUCH higher.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How about just social without the network? Where being anonymous is part of the attraction and so privacy is at less of a risk - think omegle and chatroulette.

</comment><comment><USER5> My guess is no. Like there isn't really a google killer out there (for search), I wouldn't expect there to be a facebook killer out there any time soon.</comment>


What color is your Text Editor? - <AUTHOR> https://email@example.com/what-color-is-your-text-editor-5d3e0acf80f1 <comment><USER2> Disappointed because it is not actually about text editor colors.</comment>


Naked protest against the TSA upheld - <AUTHOR> http://www.katu.com/news/local/Man-who-stripped-for-TSA-search-at-PDX-found-not-guilty-162935416.html

<comment><USER2> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3861127>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> So I'm waiting for a large group of protestors to strip down completely, and to do this regularly.</comment>


Show HN: The most optimised network for tech workers? - <AUTHOR> https://www.showwcase.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN community! I'm Rong from Showwcase ([https://www.showwcase.com](https://www.showwcase.com)). Showwcase is out to build the most optimised network for tech workers in our increasingly digital economy. We provide an out of the box solution for tech workers to showcase their full range of skills, knowledge, and abilities, and tie that into a network built and optimised for us tech workers - software engineers, web, mobile, developers, data scientists, product analysts, students, researchers etc. One could think of what we're doing as LinkedIn for tech workers, or Dribbble for coders.

There are two key motivations why my team and I set out to do this. First, we don't think there is an all-in-one platform today that allows us to really represent who we are as tech workers - our work, skills, experience - where we can connect with like-minded individuals, enjoy the content that interests us - what we are building, how are we building it, who did we build it with, and finally find new opportunities.

Second, the world is transitioning into a digital first future at a faster pace than any of us could have imagined, and it's only been accelerated by COVID-19. Tomorrow, every business is going to be a tech business. As such, more and more people in tech are in demand, more people transition into tech every year, and every nation is embracing and training the next wave of digital workers. Yet, we don't have a single platform directory built and optimised for us?

We're still in early access and haven't done any major launches but always happy to invite the HN community to give it a try. We currently let you easily set up your profile, customise your page with sections and modules, share top skills, integrate with Github, and most importantly present your projects. Check it out here ([https://www.showwcase.com](https://www.showwcase.com)), looking forward to feedback and connecting!</comment>


Official: Anonymous May Be Able to Disable Power Grids by Next Year - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2012/02/21/anonymous-threat/

<comment><USER2> Here comes the FUD in advance of a Govt. crackdown on hacktivism. Cute.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you guys use to help organize daily tasks and things to do? - <AUTHOR> I'm currently doing software consulting for a company while also launching a startup I am cofounding. I'm starting to feel the crunch of my daily tasks piling up and I'm afraid of not organizing things properly. How do you guys manage and organize tasks as simply and efficiently as possible? I'm just looking for suggestions, thanks! <comment><USER3> A pencil and a piece of paper, or an organizer from Staples. :-D

If you're an Emacs user, org-mode is very powerful and quite useful as well. It's what I would be using, if I actually had a computer with me everywhere I go that could run it. [http://orgmode.org/](http://orgmode.org/)

If you aren't an emacs user, or are looking for an alternative, Taskwarrior is a quite popular CLI todo list management app, which has a similar (although not as extensive: org is frankly massive) featureset. It has a companion, Timewarrior, which is designed for tracking time and displaying reports. IIRC, this is an org feature as well. Both have significantly better mobile support than Org, so take that as you will. Either way, if you _are_ going to support mobile, you have need to host the files yourself, or use dropbox. [https://taskwarrior.org/](https://taskwarrior.org/)

Pomodoro and GTD are both popular methodologies, which you can look into if you're interested in that sort of thing (I'm not, but I've heard good things about them both from people who are). They are applicable to just about any tool, including any of the above (yes, that means pencil and paper).

But ultimately, the only wrong way to organize yourself is one that doesn't work for you. So if anything I've listed works, and you want to use it, do. If it doesn't work, throw it away.

It doesn't matter what tools you use, just so long as they help you Get Shit Done (TM).

<comment><USER4> I've gotten to like Staples' Arc notebooks. They fold over like a spiral notebook, but pages can be moved freely like a 3-ring binder. Downside, instead of holes, sheets have notches in them to keep them attached to the rings that form the binding. This can be problematic sometimes if you keep moving a sheet around a lot, but I typically don't move a sheet more than twice (once to put it w/ related content, again to archive it if I get around to that). And they aren't suitable as pocket notebooks, but I don't consider that a major issue for myself.

But this helps me _a lot_ for pen and paper notebooking. One of my biggest issues with getting a spiral notebook or moleskine-styled notebook is that entries are completely jumbled, organized only by _when_ they were entered. These let me reorder my pages freely as different projects and types of entries are inserted.

<comment><USER5> That sounds like the Levenger Circa system. I never tried them myself (thought they were too pricy), but they are popular in the GTD crowd.

[http://www.levenger.com/circa- notebooks-339.aspx](http://www.levenger.com/circa-notebooks-339.aspx)

I did Hipster PDA for a while, which you could kind of consider a poor man's version.

[http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the- hipster-...](http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda)

<comment><USER4> The Circa notebooks were my introduction to the concept. Arc is cheaper by a good bit. The rings are slightly different but paper from one will work on the other, maybe not perfectly but functionally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I use the zim notebook wiki. Physical Notebooks are great in that you can dump all your thoughts in it. So you can go into your next task clear headed. Unfortunately, I tend to misplace notebooks a lot.

Zim is quite flexible as in it can be used as a wiki or a to-do list. Bonus points for allowing nesting of tasks. I sync between laptops using Dropbox. I doubt it has a mobile option. This is the option closest to a notebook.

Zim or physical notebook, The most difficult thing is that we have to use the tool diligently to reap the benefits. One can often let the practice slide due to time/work pressure. If done properly, you realize how much of your cognitive processes are actually devoted to just remembering the list of things to do

</comment><comment><USER7> Did you take a look at Wunderlist? The common problems everyone faces at the beginning are:

* Putting todo list items on the same system.

* Making it a habit. Discipline and consistency are areas I'm always trying to work on personally (these will cause my end). The few times I was consistent, I just demolished whatever I was trying to do and felt like a 20GW laser pulverizing a problem.

[https://www.wunderlist.com/](https://www.wunderlist.com/)

<comment><USER8> I've started using Wunderlist with some success. I really like having a notebook for a task tracker but the issue is that the notebook isn't with me always. The problem with Wunderlist, as with any method, is that it requires discipline to keep checking and updating it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For daily tasks, at work, the first thing I do is fire up Outlook and emacs.

Outlook has my calendar (very MS heavy corporate environment) so it displays every task, meeting, appointment easily. Mails that come in get put away (ok, not great with the zero-inbox thing, but I try).

In emacs I have a "daily activity log", it's the second thing I open each day. I create an entry for the day, tagging it with the project(s) I'm working on (these get added through the day as things come up, or at the start if I know it's on my agenda). I usually know what I'll work on that day so I'll create an entry for it, and open the linked org file for the project itself. So an entry might look like:

      ** <<2016-09-23>>                    :foo:
      *** TODO [[file:foo.org][foo]] [0/2]
      - [ ] Deal with PR-128
      - [ ] Build and install image

(NB: <<STRING>> in a headline in org-mode makes it a target for links like [[STRING]] or [[file:foo.org::STRING]])

Those bulleted tasks are what I intend to work on that day. If they don't get checked off, I can't mark the project's work as DONE, and I'll refile them later. I should probably automate this somehow, perhaps collect all incomplete tasks at the top of the log file for easier refiling. Presently `C-c / t` does the trick for finding them. foo.org will have a more detailed description of what I'm doing, possibly linking to other things. The bullets vary in detail by the end of the day, and may have several sub-bullets and links. Sometimes project boundaries are fuzzy, I just pick something or create more levels:

      *** TODO Related projects
      **** TODO foo
      **** TODO bar

<comment><USER9> Just started using org mode recently. It is fantastic. I still haven't figured out how to date TODOs and organize them around different org files. The org file fragment you've provided is interesting and has given me some ideas. I've also gotten into the habit of encrypting my org files - it is somewhat annoying having to type in the password every time you launch or save but it's worth it for the peace of mind.

<comment><USER3> You can look at this: [http://orgmode.org/worg/org- tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org- tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html)

That should help you with some of the stuff you just mentioned.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I use mind maps in Freemind. Every project has a root node with project name and date last updated. I then try to go through all projects at least once per day, look for any follow ups I have forgotten and then update the date. This combined with use of appropriate icons gives me confidence I have not forgotten anything. On each project I note everything, last contact with client, meeting summaries, progress, remaining todos, specs. Basically everything of importants.

</comment><comment><USER11> Workflowy fan here: [http://www.workflowy.com](http://www.workflowy.com)

I start with a set of bullets for general to dos, personal projects, work projects, backlog (books, movies and games to catch up) and notes.

Then I have sub-pages for each category with individual to-do for projects, features to implements and such.

</comment><comment><USER12> Related discussion from earlier this week - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12548656](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12548656)

</comment><comment><USER13> Honestly, for logging and tracking my daily business tasks, I use a plain old notebook where I write notes or draw sketches with a pen. It is the fastest and and most comprehensive solution. It accompanies me throughout the day and has more style than an electronic solution like a tablet. Of course searching is not easy but I can remember topics based on approximate dates, that works well for me.

For higher level "management" of longer-term and recurring tasks I also use taskwarrior.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks, you've encouraged me to go buy a new notebook

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Kinda related but does anyone know of some sort of software like Jira that isn't oriented towards software devs? I've tried Trello and Taiga but neither have a way to build a dependency chain (issue a requires issues b and c which require...) like you can in Jira. However I don't really wanna push Jira onto non-technical people and tell them to ignore half of what's on the screen.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm a big fan of FoldingText / TaskPaper (the underlying engine is the same).

[http://www.foldingtext.com/](http://www.foldingtext.com/)

You can tag and add contexts arbitrarily.

        Some Project.todo
        - my task #foo @due(2017-01-01) @blocked
        - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER15> I use a physical notebook. Like the ones kids use at school. I like to scratch the tasks after they are done. I have been using this method since 2012. It is funny to see the old notebooks. It also works as an unstructured and bad written diary.

</comment><comment><USER16> Trello is nice if you have access to it.

If you have Jira or other task/bug system you can also use that.

I personally think a TODO.txt file is easier than both.

A nice paper sketch book is also good, but if you lose it, your out of luck.

<comment><USER3> Better yet, if you use Emacs, have a TODO.org

Seriously. There's a reason I've been singing org's praises throughout this thread. It hasn't been amazingly useful to me personally (I take my notes on paper), but it's a really high-quality tool, and if you're already using TODO.txt it's like that, but with agendas, sorting, organization, calendars, and countless other useful features.

<comment><USER16> I am a vim person, but I agree a text file is a far simpler interface.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> asana.com + GTD methodology

here's productivity forum on setups people use (it's in Russian so you'll have to pipe it through google translate but instrument names are in english + screenshots kinda self-explanatory) [http://forum.mnogosdelal.ru/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=28fdcb21c9...](http://forum.mnogosdelal.ru/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=28fdcb21c95d0e084ecb983a6c4d0de2)

</comment><comment><USER18> Asana, with a loosely GTD workflow</comment>


Anyone you know? "Microsoft BizSpark Accelerates 45,000 Startups" - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/11/16/microsoft-bizspark-accelerates-45-000-startups-around-the-world.aspx

<comment><USER2> We (TidePowerd) enrolled in BizSpark towards the end of 2009 -- as we build a .NET-based product, it's been instrumental in building our company. It doesn't cost Microsoft to give us copies of Visual Studio, Windows, etc., and it would've been a major factor in our startup costs if we'd had to pay for a bunch of licenses.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I came across this and i was curious how prevalent this is in the HN community. 45000 is a pretty big number.</comment>


Reflections on my first experience public speaking at a tech meetup - <AUTHOR> http://brianhudi.org/2017/11/17/reflections-on-my-first-public-technical-talk/ <comment><USER2> this is good advice for first timers and also people that have done many presentations. Also, it is always clear when the speaker has put in effort before the presentation, and that is always appreciated. The only thing I would add is to check your fly again after using the restroom :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! I got lucky and checked my fly right before walking up and it was unzipped...</comment></comment>


Show HN: My cooking app that tells you what ingredients go well together - <AUTHOR> http://www.ingredientpairings.com

<comment><USER3> Initial thoughts having not paid for the app but review screen shots and the website.

Advanced warning - these comments aren't particularly positive. If you're looking for a pep talk, look away now.

Let's start with first impressions before I dig into functionality and actual results:

1) It needs to look nicer. People who like to cook tend to like things to look appealing, particularly as a $1.99 app.

2) Garlic isn't a great example to have as your screen shot - it's not inspiring and it's the sort of thing you have in a draw anyway, not something you pick to make a meal out of. Try something more substantial and interesting - Aubergine / Eggplant say (though the main point below relates to the result for Egg plant).

3) Speaking personally, you need a vegetarian flag which culls all meat and fish (or ideally options to remove meat, fish, poultry individually.)

All of that is simple to fix and you could possibly do in a day or so (most of which would be tagging things as vegetarian or not).

Getting on to the actual results, your main problem is that your data sucks _big time_ , as in unusable, pointless big time in it's current form.

Look at the screen shot which shows matches for garlic and includes cornstarch.

Huh?

Cornstarch is a thickener, it goes with things you want to be thicker, it doesn't go with things you don't want to be thicker. I have no idea why it would or wouldn't go with garlic specifically (especially as garlic is solid and therefore needs no thickening).

I'm guessing that you've automatically mined this data but however you've got it you need a human to review it as I suspect that there are things in there you have to cull because they make no sense and undermine the credibility of the rest of the data.

Do a search on egg plant and you'll get among the results cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, black and white pepper (too common), salt (ditto), flour, butter and vegetable oil. These are not things you match with an ingredient, they're things you season, prepare or use to cook an ingredient. In terms of what you're doing they're meaningless and should be hidden.

Again, that's all easily fixable, you just need to skim the data and pull together an exclude list and edit these out of the results set.

But it then lists semi-sweet chocolate chips, banana, raisins and vanilla extract. Now these may go with egg plant and there may be recipes that use both but they're not natural matches (in the way that say tomatoes - <USER2> including on the list incidentally - are). The average user is going to look at them and go "seriously? what am I meant to cook with Egg Plant and Banana".

Fortunately you have a link for that. Sort of. Click on banana in the egg plant results and you get a list of things that go with egg plant and banana (same issues as above) but also a link to recipe puppy for those ingredients. This is good in theory but have you looked at it?

Try it. The link is for egg (rather than egg plant) and banana. Not sure if the issue is yours or recipe puppy's (though I think the later - plant is in the URL). Even if it didn't drop the plant, recipe puppy thinks eggplant is one word, you think it's two so they'd never match.

But worst of all, recipe puppy seems to do an "or" search rather than an "and" one. In any case it certainly can't find me these supposed aubergine and banana recipes which means I'm none the wiser as to what I'm meant to be cooking and makes me ask again where the data is from.

Sorry to be harsh but I wouldn't be selling this in it's current form, I think you're going to damage your brand if you don't work out some of these issues before it gets out there and if that happens you're in the sort of trouble you can't undo easily.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback. I already added the exclusion list and definitely will be working on my design and screenshots. I did have plans to add vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free flags(I am also a vegetarian)

The problem with the "egg plant" search is that it is guessing the ingredient incorrectly. Unfortunately, the data is not perfect and this does happen sometimes. I fixed this instance, and continue to fix errors as I find them/ am told of them.

Recipe Pupppy does an "OR" search but the most relevant recipes do show up first. Now that I fixed the error with "egg plant" being interpreted as "egg", it will find the right recipes: [http://www.recipepuppy.com/?i=egg+plant%2C+banana&q=eggp...](http://www.recipepuppy.com/?i=egg+plant%2C+banana&q=eggplant)

<comment><USER4> Also for the paelo community: add a flag to exclude all grains and legumes and some vegetable oils considered unsafe by us paleo-eaters.

Another option for keto/Atkins diet where all sugars and sweets get removed is needed.

Don't think only vegans are picky about their food!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My initial thoughts on the results page is that they are not really intuitive, and a bit hard to look at. Without reading the description, I was confused why some were in caps, other's bold, etc.

It might be worthwhile to experiment with a font-size scaling cloud - it's more intuitive. Instantly I would know tamarind paste goes really well with chicken and coconut, and less so with tangerine.

It's an interesting idea though - I was looking for something like this the other day when I had a bag of parsley I didn't know what to do with... but unfortunately, like the other commenters are saying, if I had used it, I would have been told I need to do something with breadcrumbs and butter, which isn't really that helpful.

Keep working on it - I am keen to see how it unfolds.

</comment><comment><USER6> Wow, If it works well, it is a boon for people who are not natural cooks, who want to make something homemade, with the ingredients at home.

(I suppose/believe/hope this is a significant market size.)

I would like to know more about the algorithm/science, behind the pairings (and its degree).

<comment><USER7> I was curious about this as well, as it looked to me like a ripoff of "The Flavor Bible", by Page and Dornenburg (Same method of using bold all caps, then bold, etc for showing the important ingredients). However, from the book link, apparently: _The data for this book was obtained by programitally[SIC] examining just under a million publicly available recipes._

That method of acquiring the data shows in the less useful results. For example, with basil, it includes in the top pairings SALT, GARLIC, ONIONS, BLACK PEPPER. Which, of course, would be found in pretty much any recipe involving basil. Yet, it misses the more classic pairings like mozzarella cheese, eggs, lamb, pizza, etc.

My recommendation -- buy "The Flavor Bible".

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure, when talking about what _ingredients_ go well together, you can include "pizza" on the list :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great idea, and nice execution.

Feature request: it would be great if not only it told you what would work well, but also what to avoid.

</comment><comment><USER10> I've had it on my 'early stages ideas' board for a while for an app that suggests replacement ingredients, groups of ingredients, or techniques. I often have something in mind to cook and then realise at the last minute that I have no parsley, white pepper, lemon juice (etc). Any thoughts on that?

</comment><comment><USER11> Very cool idea. Off to a good start.

Suggestions: * I'd like an easy way to link to a related ingredient by itself. I.e., If I initially search for basil, I'd like to easily rabbit trail to olive oil, irrespective of basil. * It would be cool to also link through to some of the matching recipes you've indexed.

</comment><comment><USER12> Hey, this is the missing part of my cooking web app, centered around ingredients you have at home. This can become ultra powerful with some sort of an API. Is there any?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes: <http://www.recipepuppy.com/about/api/> If that doesn't fit your requirements: <http://www.recipepuppy.com/about/contact>

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> <http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=AQUA+REGIA> made me lol.

</comment><comment><USER14> If you make an easy translation page for all the ingredients this would definitely be a bulls eye !!! Great app.

</comment><comment><USER15> Hmm. Caviar goes well with worcestershire sauce, but worcestershire sauce does not go well with caviar.

</comment><comment><USER16> Cool App! The only problem I see is with people who have bizarre taste. Other than that, good stuff!

</comment><comment><USER17> this app is total scam! First: graphics make me think it was done by an 8 years old child. Cooking is a great opportunity to show some amazing apps designs. Second: they took an english dictionary, not even worried about filtering only "cooking word" and made some results based on some wired fixed algo.

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=grandma>

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=basketball>

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=japan>

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=space>

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=running>

<http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=diving>

i say SCAM.

<comment><AUTHOR> If it can't determine the ingredient it defaults to a keyword search :)

<comment><USER17> not true <http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=sdfhgsfdh> and if it was true it was scam anyway because would not suggest the correct ingredients.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> For the android version, could you put a QR code up for the download.

<comment><USER18> Hmmm... the android version just leads off to <http://www.foodguts.com/>

Both the original link and the above are powered by <http://www.recipepuppy.com/>

Which of course, is still owned and operated by the submittee... but still, it starts to make it feel like a link-farm. I'm a bit confused as to why you don't just have a single URL for it all, some kind of coherent high level interface to encapsulate it all.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have a lot of disjointed websites, because I like to make websites that do one thing. I need to do a better job of bringing it all together.

The android app came before this website. I just haven't switched the link over yet.

<comment><USER19> You ought to link to <https://market.android.com/details?id=com.foodguts.flavor> instead of market://

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Nice job, works really well

<comment><USER20> Showed it to a non techie friend who loves to cook. Here's his amusing feedback...

      foodnetwork has an app where u can search a recipe then make a shopping list
      that's useful
      an app that spits out random ingredients based on a search term does not impress me so much
      search the term 'poo' in this amazing app then 'pee'
      then 'shit'
      no i know that bacon goes well with everything....but c'mon now

<comment><USER21> "no i know that bacon goes well with everything"

Unless you're a vegetarian or vegan, of course. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> One simple typo to correct on the front page: 'seperate' should be 'separate'...</comment>


Ask HN:I'm taking course at codeacademy but.. - <AUTHOR>

Im a 28 yrd old founder non technical who got tired of looking for a technical founder so I started taking courses at codeacademy about 6 months ago. I've learned alot but still dont feel comfortable saying I'll be able to build my own product soon or ever. Am I being impatient? Any other tools out there to improve programming know how? <comment><USER2> I'm not sure what you want, being able to hire developers or really develop your product yourself? There's a huge difference between the two, and the latter will probably take longer than a year.

> Am I being impatient? There's a pretty long time span between soon and ever > :).

You'll need a lot of practice, (unfortunately) there are no tools to speed that up. Practice and enjoy the process.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the advice really helpful

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Developing can be really hard. Depending on your product there are probably a lot of people who have been developing for years who couldn't feel comfortable saying they'll be able to build your product.

Just keep pushing on. Worst case scenario is you learn more and have some ammunition to avoid getting swindled by a developer later on.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the advice</comment></comment>


'Mind-Boggling' Math Could Make Blockchain Work for Wall Street - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-05/-mind-boggling-math-could-make-blockchain-work-for-wall-street <comment><USER2> I can't decide whether this is a) good marketing by the Ethereum foundation, or b) Bloomberg waving the crypto flag to attract eyeballs.

In either case, zero-knowledge proofs, while necessary for putting trades onto the blockchain, are only one of many, many, many issues to solve before it happens, if it ever happens.

<comment><USER3> Maybe I'm misunderstanding but isn't trades being anonymous an issue itself? There are tons of regulations that you couldn't enforce (like insider trading) if you never knew who traded

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The video that autoplays for me is "Bitcoin is like airline miles says JPM's John Normand". Wall Street is sounding pretty dumb with the methods they're using to deflate bitcoin.

</comment><comment><USER5> Does it mean that I should invest everything I have in ethereum before it 17 deadline?)</comment>


JeroMQ: Native Java implementation of ZeroMQ - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/zeromq/jeromq <comment><USER2> What was wrong with ZeroMQ that a port to Java fixes?

<comment><USER3> Platform-specific native libraries are annoying.

If your code runs on the JVM, it should run on, well, the JVM. It shouldn't run partly on the JVM and partly on the host machine, since that breaks the purpose of using the JVM.

<comment><USER4> I don't get this logic. Native libraries are annoying? You can run zeromq (and most, what you would probably call "native," libraries) on almost any platform. Just change your compiler target. The JVM? Not so much. Try running that on an ipod and see where that gets you. Or many embedded devices for that matter.

Not to mention you need the JVM installed too and believe me when I say there are plenty of us who are sick of the JVM and its incessant auto-updater.

<comment><USER3> You do realize that nobody will write an application in Java for the purpose of using ZeroMQ?

Instead they have an application already written in Java, or some other compelling reason to write the application in Java. _Given that there is already a dependency on the JVM_ , it is silly to add another dependency on a particular host platform. It is silly to force the compile process to become aware of the host platform, when it otherwise wouldn't need to be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> used it in a project, and totally recommend it. There was no single glitch when switching from JNI-based ZeroMQ binding to the JeroMQ jar.

</comment><comment><USER6> How is performance in comparison?

<comment><USER7> There's a performance comparison in the wiki:

[https://github.com/zeromq/jeromq/wiki/Perfomance](https://github.com/zeromq/jeromq/wiki/Perfomance)</comment></comment>


Latest macOS Catalina beta hints at new 16-inch MacBook Pro - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/10/18/20920984/apple-macbook-pro-16-inch-new-model-leak-beta-design-bezels-keyboard <comment><USER2> I hope they use the extra space to put the fn keys back in.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just discovered my post is a dup. 12 minutes old and I can't delete it?</comment>


Automating app assets with Inkscape - <AUTHOR> https://insertbreakpoint.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/automating-app-assets-with-inkscape/ <comment><USER2> This is the reason there should be SVG support in every UI framework by now.

<comment><USER3> If the UIs are moving to (or already at) the point where the GPU is doing the work, there is no reason why a subsets of SVGs couldn't be stored as a bunch of triangles. This would impose a practical scaling limit, but it should cover the use cases of logos and icons.

<comment><USER4> _there is no reason why a subsets of SVGs couldn 't be stored as a bunch of triangles_

See [https://github.com/fogleman/primitive](https://github.com/fogleman/primitive) for working SVG-as-triangles generation from bitmaps (or higher resolution/complexity SVG input).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > It takes about 30 second to build all those PNGs

Wow! I run a similar automated set up (for a game), with the flow being: Photoshop layer gets edited -> PNG gets exported -> PNG gets post-processed in Node -> all PNGs get stitched into a texture map, and even with ~100 images it runs in a few hundred milliseconds.

Unless InkScape does special SVG stuff I don't know about, I suspect that using something like ImageMagick, or even some random svg2png.js/py script, would make this instant - and thus something you can just add to your build process, rather than worrying about triggering it only when the source files have changed.

<comment><USER6> The script in the article creates an Inkscape process for each exported file, I'm surprised it's so fast. I'd look into Python scripting to do the export from a running instance of Inkscape at the press of a button.

<comment><USER5> That's one approach, but for something that amounts to a build step the ideal case is not to have to press a button. For one thing, in a case like this the source images are probably in a repository and the converted images aren't, so you can wind up needing to open Inkscape and run the script to keep them in sync.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Nice, I like automation and Inkscape. Always nice to see free software solutions.

Suggestions - perhaps you could script with another language rather than using a .bat? For example you could use Python to create the commands. With that you might also be able some simple looping instead of successive commands, which would make future changes easier (not that you can't do this with a batch file also, but personally every time I've tried to do anything similar with batch files I've ended up losing the will to live..).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I'll admit that batch files aren't exactly ideal. As a c# developer though, I don't ever use Python, so that doesn't come over as easier for me. I think I moved all the important parts into VARs, so you shouldn't have to change too much in the script.

If there was an easy cross-platform scripting language that was installed by default, now we'd be talking.

<comment><USER8> If you're a C# guy: There's the csharp interpreter (run .cs files) or, potentially even better, there're F# scripts.

Or, you know, write Powershell (depending on what platforms you need to support ofc).

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure, but what exactly do they get me that a batch script doesn't? Not trying to be difficult, but if the batch script can do it, why would I wade into Powershell? I definitely think Powershell has it's place, but in this case, I don't see it.

I definitely don't see using cs files or f# scripts as an easier way of doing this.

<comment><USER8> Honestly? If you're good with the current approach, why change it.

That said, there's a LOT of repetition in there and while you probably _can_ improve that in this solution, a 'proper' language might be more readable. Again, if you're a C# developer, C#/F# (or even Powershell) scripts are probably ~closer to home~.

That whole script is basically - if I understand it correctly - two unrolled loops. Instead of two loops (logo dimensions, scale) you're duplicating a loooot of lines.

If this is no problem: Cool. Then again, maybe you want to improve this approach in the future?

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe { crosses fingers tight } Microsoft could package all this up and do it for me. I'd love to just supply an SVG file. Although, since I spend time at work dealing with DXF files supplied by customers, I understand the problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> We do this kinda thing with Sketch and iOS for all assets (including app icons). We also do font styling, colors, gradients etc from Sketch to a styling plist. Kinda annoying to set up, but it's a godsend for styling updates and whitelabeling.

</comment><comment><USER10> I have been doing this for some time as well, my motivation was ignorance about Photoshop: [https://epxx.co/logbook/entries/svg.html](https://epxx.co/logbook/entries/svg.html)</comment>


How To: Pick an iPhone app icon color - <AUTHOR> http://jeremiahlee.com/blog/2009/10/05/picking-an-iphone-app-icon-color/

<comment><USER2> This is good to know -- the icon for the app I am working on is blue as well, now I am considering changing it!

As a coder who understands UXP but is not great with design, I often fall back on blues or grays for my projects. For whatever reason I find that designs I make tend to look better in blue than other colors. Reds too often look pink, oranges and yellows are hard to keep from looking overpowering. Greens aren't too bad, but I still have trouble getting it to look just "right." Maybe it is just me.

<comment><USER3> I agree. Does anyone have any tips on making designs work that don't involve blue?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I disagree with this. I actually really like the asthetic of having a mostly blue selection screen, rather than the jumble of clashing colors. I won't go so far as to say that one SHOULD use blue, but I don't believe there is anything wrong with it.

I would actually argue to stay away from the color black. Looking at my current home pane, I tend to forget that I have AirCam and Rev, AirCam in particular because it melts the most into the black backdrop.

</comment><comment><USER5> I thought it was old news that blue was the unofficial 'color of technology'? icons, logos, even LEDs: If you need to look high-geek, blue is the way to go.

That said, none of the icon pages on my iphone are dominated by a single color. The closest I get is one page with just under half the icons being mostly _brown_ , which surprised even me.

<comment><USER6> Oh yeah, the blogger/HN identical orange favicon problem :-)

What's worse for me is when apps/favicons use a single letter, leaving me only typography for discrimination (for example the google "g" and the guardian.co.uk "g" get me every time). There's enough of them around that I am starting to get collisions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It could have used some more info… On one of my screens I have a lot of red icons. It's probably just depending on what YOU use.

But that's something I have noticed for the Mac as well: a lot of the icons I have are in the blue-purple range. Again, probably because of what _I_ use.

<comment><USER8> I recently noticed the prominence of blue icons as well, and thought to myself "If I ever make an iPhone app, the icon will not be blue."</comment></comment>


A new and simple blogging platform - <AUTHOR> https://www.quickpublisher.online <comment><USER2> I wonder if you have considered developing your own blog page. That is definitely one fun way to go about this.

I've decided to give that a try and I really enjoyed my site more so than the commercial ones out there. Hope you find these posts helpful to give you an idea of considering customized blog sites (:

[https://blog.phuaxueyong.com](https://blog.phuaxueyong.com)

An individual post will be as seen below: [https://blog.phuaxueyong.com/post/2020-05-03-3-more-cloud- de...](https://blog.phuaxueyong.com/post/2020-05-03-3-more-cloud-design- pattern)

<comment><AUTHOR> not interested. thank you. mine is a blogging platform, not just any blog.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: negotiating for vacation instead of salary? - <AUTHOR>

Have you tried doing this? Did it work? Is this even possible at big companies, where people get X weeks of vacation to start, and then Y weeks of vacation once you hit N years of experience?<p>Am I even asking the right question? Should my question be "what companies have generous vacation policies?" <comment><USER2> Yes, I've seen it work at a big company that has a vacation "policy". If you're talking about salary they probably want to hire you, so don't wimp out in negotiation. Don't drag it on too long, but don't accept their first verbal offer either.

General plan (especially with big companies): overshoot your idea of a reasonable salary by 20% or something, and when they come back "low" ask for more vacation, citing the "difference".

</comment><comment><USER3> It might be worth asking about how easy it is to take unpaid leave. Some companies have no problem with employees taking off one or two weeks per year unpaid on top of their regular holiday. Or time off in lieu might be another option.

</comment><comment><USER4> I work at a big company, and no it is not negotiable. At big companies you get thrown into groups, and for people to be "special", requires a lot of HR work, and managing to get right. Usually something out of the box requires a high level okay, and they don't like to do that.

That being said, if you offer something that is rare, big companies will work with you. This is true of high profile persons being hired by big companies.

Also as you move up into hierarchy, or attain a certain number of years under your belt the company might be willing to budge.

<comment><USER5> _I work at a big company, and no it is not negotiable_

I have worked for big companies as well (Gateway, Washinton Post), and while it is true that _officially_ getting bumped to a higher vacation allotment is nearly impossible (e.g. managers get 2 weeks, and I'm asking for 3), it is possible to negotiate "off the books" vacation time with your direct supervisor. Usually your vacation requests go to him/her to sign send to HR/Payroll, who then deducts the days from your allowance. If you have an arrangement with your supervisor, the occasional Friday off or 1 week vacation when you only had 3 days banked can go unnoticed. 2 weeks of vacation can easily become 4 if you get one off-the-books day off per month.

<comment><USER6> Same experience for me. Sad that corporate culture is so thoroughly fucked at so many companies, but the closer you get to HR, the more likely you are to hit some power tripping asshole that gets off on creating and enforcing arbitrary policies that treat high-talent and low-talent individuals alike.

In this world, you learn to get what you can, however you can, with as few people aware/involved as possible.

<comment><USER5> _creating and enforcing arbitrary policies_

It's actually not an arbitrary policy to limit vacation time. The Sarbanes- Oxley Act requires companies to report accrued but untaken vacation time as a liability on their balance sheets.

Since companies are required to pay out vacation time upon termination, and some states don't allow caps on accrued vacation, bumping you from 2 weeks to 4 weeks now could be risky. What if you never use the 2 extra weeks? Fast forward 20 years to your retirement, and they could be forced to pay you 40 weeks pay in a lump sum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I asked for 2-3k more and was denied, so I asked for another week of vaca and got it. Now I'm the only developer with less than 5 years seniority with 3 weeks a year.

</comment><comment><USER8> "what companies have generous vacation policies?"

most of them outside the US

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_emplo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_employment_leave_by_country)

<comment><USER5> My last job had a pretty good vacation policy:

20 PTO days, 13 holidays, office closed between Christmas and New Years

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not a statistically significant sample, but I've asked for this in (almost?) every job negotiation, at both bigcos and startups, and it has never even been considered.</comment>


How Long Should It Take to Build an MVP? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.speak.io/how-long-should-it-take-to-build-an-mvp/ <comment><USER2> Yes, it should take too long, but also there is sometimes too fanaticism about the Lean Startup theory. Too often people get stuck in the loop of testing and testing without really following a clear entrepreneurial idea. The risk is to end up building a nicely market-fitting product, but not a disruptive/visionary product. Andreas Klinger described this amazingly well in his blog post "Why Lean Startup Sucks For Startups"... he wrote right after the Leas Startup Conference of 2013 :) [http://klinger.io/post/69794653694/why-lean-startup-sucks- fo...](http://klinger.io/post/69794653694/why-lean-startup-sucks-for-startups)</comment>