ShowHN: Alghayma ~ Tool to backup Facebook pages - <AUTHOR> https://www.alghayma.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Context: "How Facebook is destroying history in the context of the Syrian Civil War" [http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/how-facebook-is- de...](http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/how-facebook-is-destroying- history.html)

Alghayma is free and open-source software: [https://github.com/Alghayma/Alghayma](https://github.com/Alghayma/Alghayma)</comment>


One Thing Outlook.com Mail Needs To Fix Immediately - <AUTHOR> http://digitizor.com/2012/08/01/one-thing-outlook-com-mail-needs-to-fix-immediately/

<comment><USER2> I decided to switch my custom domain from Gmail to the new Outlook.com and used Windows Live Admin Center[1]. After changing my DNS settings to verify that I own the domain, it gave me an option to add a current email account to this domain. So I typed in the email address that I typically use.

When I opened Outlook.com I noticed that someone else's name was showing up. I went to the profile and changed it. Then I went to the People section and noticed there were a lot of contacts listed (a couple of hundred probably), and someone tried to talk to me on Messenger. This seems like a pretty big bug. I'm not sure if it imported the wrong data into my new account or if it linked my account to this other persons. Either way, pretty big security concern.

[1]<https://domains.live.com/manage/default.aspx>

<comment><USER3> Please provide feedback on this.

Go to the little gear in the upper-right corner next to your name and click "Feedback" in the resultant popup. I don't know the exact details of your email address and the steps you took to get into this state, otherwise, I would just provide feedback myself.

Disclaimer: Microsoft Employee. Not part of the team that made this.

<comment><USER2> I wish I had been paying more attention while I was doing it. I know that I did these three steps

1) Added my personal domain to the domain list. 2) Inputted my firstname.lastname@example.com email address into some form. 3) Went to Outlook.com and saw someone else's name, and some else's contacts.

I'm pretty sure #2 is where the problem occurred. Hopefully someone at Microsoft familiar with the process will be able to figure this out. I'll provide the feedback.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> While on the topic of things to fix: When I was signing up, I hit a 16-character password limit.

Now, could anyone explain why you would put a limit of 16 characters in a password on a modern web-service? Don't the recommendations for a very safe password normally specify more than that?

I see much reason for setting a minimum amount, but not a maximum of less than a hundred characters (to give some room) at least.

<comment><USER5> This. I just went to try outlook and ran into this with my existing hotmail account, which uses a passphrase and naturally is longer than 16 chars.

Horribly disappointed.

<comment><USER5> Er, wait a second, how is it even possible that they validate my login just typing the first 16 chars of my old (longer) password. Were they clipping passwords to 16 chars before and not telling anyone? That sounds bad, but the alternatives sound much worse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It took me a good 10 seconds to locate it. Also, I signed in with my Microsoft ID which was confusing as it logged into outlook using my existing, non- microsoft email. If you don't have an @outlook.com email, it'd be nice for them to pop a prompt.

<comment><USER7> This is a bigger issue—I can't figure out how I'm supposed to get an account @outlook.com.

<comment><USER8> If you create a new account, it will allow you to select an @outlook.com email address. There is no ajax on the account name, you'll have to enter the captcha to know if your chosen email address is available.

      - Click your username in the upper right, click sign out
      - click the 'sign in' button on the next page
      - click the white 'sign up' button on the bottom left
      - see @outlook.com text box four entries down

<comment><USER9> Yea, re-typing that captcha about 9 times was the most annoying part. (I only tried 3 different addresses, but it didn't like what I typed in the captcha the other 6 times.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> You are right, as a prominent button/function, it should stand out among the others. This is extremely simple design.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think they should also fix the inadvertent unselection of selected messages when you switch pages. And the weird ajax delay when deleting messages, during which the old messages are still visible and can be reselected briefly, before they disappear. The whole thing feels plasticky to me.

(I just spent a long time browsing through and deleting the ~3000 old spam messages in my Hotmail inbox, ~30 at a time. I much prefer the feeling of control and stability that Gmail gives you when doing something similar.)

</comment><comment><USER12> There's actually alot of things they could fix to improve the user experience. Just signed up for an account and it wasn't overly pleasant. List of a few gripes:

      * No ajax on name availabilty

      * very limited secret question options ( min of 5 chars for answers)

      * Wasn't overly obvious which fields were required until you hit submit ( in the end I think they were all required)

      * Initially there was a smug looking guy on the login page(pretty nitty picky) he seems to be gone now but if goto www.outlook.com you get a broken image

</comment><comment><USER13> I didn't see it at first but I wanted to see what would happened if I tabbed out of the message body and it focused on the send button.

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't think it would need to be a button. But I would place the 'Send' item in a corner, either by moving the Outlook logo to top-right corner, or by moving the items to that corner, and reversing their order (so that 'Send' would be the closest to edge).

<comment><USER15> I just used the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Enter).

<comment><USER16> I just used the GMail shortcut (Tab + Enter).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I didn't immediately see the send button either, so I attempted the same hotkey combo that sends in Office Outlook (Alt+S) and it sent!

<comment><USER18> ctrl-enter works as well(for both)!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> O had the same issue, and just hit tab + enter like in gmail. Now that I know where it is, no big deal. I like the cleaner look more.

</comment><comment><USER20> Another thing Outlook.com needs to fix immediately is the MSFT branding.

<comment><USER21> I don't see Microsoft's name or logo anywhere in the outlook.com interface. I do see Google in Gmail however...

This is a refreshing take on email, I have been growing tired of the sluggishness of Gmail myself. I also like the way the ads look on the right and when you hover you see an image of the product. I have always hated the way Google ads look.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The top bar seems to be the place where all action items are like sweep and delete so that is where I looked first and found it. I prefer the way outlook application has it though. A big button right in the front.</comment>


Announcing Leaf 0.2 – "fastest" Machine Learning Framework - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/autumnai/leaf/blob/5bab0f6b7a14e1281ed67257e36a29777946e928/RELEASE.md <comment><USER2> Amazing work ! Looks like you've put a lot of work in the new release. Will test.</comment>


Show HN: I made a simple tool to preview Google/local fonts on live websites - <AUTHOR> https://getsnapfont.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN

I made Snapfont, a Chrome extension to preview fonts on any website. I recently updated the extension and added heaps of filters, preview options, fixed some old bugs and many more changes.

It is built on top of vuejs. It uses the excellent vue-cli-plugin-browser- extension and all the other standard libraries like vue-router, vuex, bootstrap-vue, etc to power the popup page.

Let me know how you like it.</comment>


Ask HN: How to Sell Proprietary Software? - <AUTHOR> I am investigating practices around selling proprietary software.  I know about the SAAS or managed approach where I need to handle all hosting operations.
In my case, customers might need to self-host the software for security or privacy reasons.  I am wondering how to enforce license and contract.  I am considering to add a routine in my program to "call home" with only the necessary informations, at which point the server will respond with the necessary information that will allow the program to run.
How do you sell software? <comment><USER2> Looking from the customer point of view, I would urge you to consider what value you are bringing with a subscription model. If I understand you correctly, you want to charge an ongoing subscription for a one time piece of software. It sounds like you're not including updates or improvements, just a one off install.

My personal opinion is if I'm buying software designed to run on my own hardware with a one off install, I only want to pay once for it once. I don't want a subscription. But I also don't expect updates or infinite support.

If there is a subscription, I expect updates (bug fixes, new features, support for OS updates, etc). If the maintenance side has value to me, I'll pay for that subscription.

One example is Solidworks. I pay a few thousand dollars for the "base product". It's mine to use forever. But I also pay a yearly service fee. That subscription gives me: software updates (new features and bug fixes), tech support, etc. I get value out of those things so I (gladly) pay for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am considering a subscription model. Also the software I want to sell is a database. Thanks for the reply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Mailspring does something like that. I personally prefer people selling me yearly licences that do not call home, if a one-time is not possible. Depending on the market you target, people might not like sw trying to call home (every adobe software ever?). My firewall would block and report it anyway.

</comment><comment><USER4> Your app might need to call home for updates? I guess it could call home then and verify.

Yes people could carry on running the SW on an old version and hack it somehow, but don't worry about those people. You won't answer their support calls!

</comment><comment><USER5> > "call home" with only the necessary informations, at which point the server > will respond with the necessary information that will allow the program to > run.

That means means users won't be able to use your app offline (in an airplane, during an outage, in an area with spotty connection). You can attempt to play it safe by checking in the background and terminating the app when/if you can make a connection but that is easy to work around.

<comment><AUTHOR> It does no matter, it is a database server, the niche I am targeting (more than 10TB of SSD) is still not available to commoners.

Creating subset of the data is not really possible. And if it is the case, the existing product (free or not) can help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> There are commercial license key libraries that solve this for you. It's been years since I used them so I'm not qualified to make suggestions

<comment><AUTHOR> I look for 'commercial license key libraries'.

Thanks for the hint!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Your call home idea is good. This open source self-hosted product does the same:

[https://docs.sourcegraph.com/admin/subscriptions#how-user- ac...](https://docs.sourcegraph.com/admin/subscriptions#how-user-accounts-are- counted)</comment>


Apple Open-Sources Three Cryptographic Libraries - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/news/2015/10/apple-crypto-open-source <comment><USER2> none are GPL. if you want to know why Richard Stallman doesn't view "open source" to be actual free software, just take a peek at corecrypto.</comment>


Oracle sinks its claws into Android - <AUTHOR> http://andreasgal.com/2016/01/05/oracle-sinks-its-claws-into-android/ <comment><USER2> Ugh. Android used Harmony because OpenJDK didn't exist yet. As Android's first core library lead, I personally integrated Harmony into Android, and I'm ecstatic to see Android and OpenJDK share the same library code. This will greatly simplify contributing enhancements.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Swing will now sit on every Android phone, using up resources."

The Swing classes were removed in a later commit and are no longer there. The commit linked in this article was just the initial bulk import of openjdk source.

[1]: [https://android.googlesource.com/platform/libcore/+/master/o...](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/libcore/+/master/ojluni/src/main/java/com/sun/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Oracle has no control with this; merging OpenJDK doesn't mean depending on OpenJDK indefinitely going forward; in E same way that building Chrome on WebKit didn't give Apple control of Chrome -- Google first became a major driver of WebKit and then forked it to make blink. Nothing in OpenJDKs licensing makes that unlikely for OpenJDK. It's a high one-tone transition cost to forever end the API copyright issue around Android, but once the transition happens Google is in full control of the roadmap.

Heck, Given the significance of Android and Google's ability to offer its choice of Java implementation in its cloud services, Google's probably in a position where, if it code to, it could credibly fork OpenJDK not just got an Android-specific implementation, but to challenge Oracle's Java more generally, the way others have done with both MySQL and Open Office.

<comment><USER5> I see it like you. The switch to OpenJDK was needed so that the Platform could be on par with other Java8 Improvements. Also GPL Code means that you aren't forced to use the vendors versions. Google could fork it easily if Oracle does dumb things.

The move to OpenJDK was needed and the article is clearly wrong about the winner. Especially the loser sections. Heck i've never seen proprietary changes to Dalvik / Harmony based on Android. And there definitely weren't. Most optimizations are kernel optimizations and other stuff and when I look how "fast" vendors will publish the kernel after an update...

> The entire middle part of the Android stack will be subject to proprietary > Oracle control

That statement is so wrong. Especially in the GPL sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am astounded at how bad some of these "explainers" are. Absolutely mind- boggling comments about Swing on Android. Never mind it was removed from the Android SDK, it was never part of Android's base classes, the Zygote, or anything else in a device.

Android is still Android. The Android base classes will be an evolution of the current version. Maybe with Java 8 _language_ features in the near future. It will not be Go (except for NDK code). It will not be Java SE. ART will still precompile Dalvik bytecode, and be the runtime for Android, and have nothing at all to do with OpenJDK.

EDIT: This guy was Mozilla's CTO? Holy crap. Maybe I'd be just as big a dope if I started ranting about JS runtimes, but he really ought to know better.

<comment><USER7> yeah, for me the only consequence of that post is that I have lost a lot of respect for Mozilla.

Why the hell was that clown CTO ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I doubt this article is right about Google's motivations.

That said, I think it's a good idea to try to avoid anything Oracle related. It is an aggressive and lawsuit happy company. When Oracle inevitably starts to decline, they'll use their IP portfolio to sue and inflict a lot of collateral damage.

<comment><USER9> I totally agree. I am still very sad that Google did not buy Sun at the time of collapse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's astonishing how a former CTO of Mozilla could get so many things wrong in his analysis. The number of errors he made is rather embarrassing.

</comment><comment><USER11> "Writing a standard C library from scratch is crazy. Its one of the most commoditized pieces of software. Its almost impossible to do it significantly better than existing implementations [...]"

As the musl developers have shown, this clearly not the case.

Switching from bionic to musl would indeed be interesting.

</comment><comment><USER12> At least they built a mobile platform that works. Seriously tho, enough FUD. The two key premises of the article have been proven false at internet speed. Most would have withdrawn it already, but the Eich cabal are nothing if not persistent.

</comment><comment><USER13> As crazy at it might have seemed in 2014, it is more and more likely that Google will deprecate the current Android Java-dependent APIs and offer [http://flutter.io/](http://flutter.io/) as the way forward.

That move would be strategic not just against Oracle, but also against Apple, as flutter.io targets iOS.

</comment><comment><USER14> I was already quite puzzled about why Google would make the apparently quite significant change (millions of lines of code will need to be rewritten according to this post, too) and _still_ stick with Java, instead of going Go or something else (even if it would be even harder to do it). But this article made me go _" WTF are you thinking Google?!"_

The only explanation I can come up so far (also in light of the recent partnership between Google, Oracle and HPE for RISC-V) is that Google kind of "admitted" that it's not supposed to use Dalvik without paying Oracle, so they went to Oracle and "reached a deal" \- Google won't have to pay anything to Oracle, but Oracle gets to control a large portion of Android now, and will also likely get to be paid by Samsung, LG and all the major OEMs who _will_ pay Oracle for a "custom proprietary license" so they can modify pieces of Android.

As the article concludes, this seems like a major win for Oracle and a big _FU Android users!_ from Google. Can we even trust Oracle won't introduce some "accidental" _goto fail_ -like backdoors in Android code, now? Oracle code is already full of security bugs, so nobody would even bat an eye - just Oracle doing Oracley things.

<comment><USER7> the whole article is insane and nonsensical. Swing is not part of AOSP, ART is still the Runtime. Oracle still does not have any influence on the platform.

Google has just switched to a better code base. OpenJdk did not exist yet when They chose Harmony and OpenJdk will allow them to use Java 8 features.</comment></comment>


Building UI in a Functional setting - <AUTHOR> http://asivitz.com/posts/layers <comment><USER2> hey, thanks for posting! I'm the author - happy to answer any questions. The article is mostly about the theory side of things, but I've actually had a lot of practical success building UI with this technique.

Now I'm most interested in how it compares to FRP-- Is it a proper alternative to FRP, or are there situations where one makes more sense than the other?</comment>


Encounter 2001 Message (for aliens) - <AUTHOR> http://www.matessa.org/~mike/dutil-dumas.html

<comment><USER2> This is like a combination of the Voyager message and the math/logic primer from Contact. It's fairly easy to eyeball what is going on: mathematical and geometric equivalents are laid out while introducing new symbols which are deduced based on the mathematical properties, such as the use of a symbol representing pi in combination with the circumference and area of a circle on page 5.

</comment><comment><USER3> A few of my friends and I got together one afternoon and did our best to decode the whole thing. It's really a fun puzzle if you don't spoil yourself by reading the papers that explain the message.

</comment><comment><USER4> How do you communicate "base 10". The primes on the first page assume it (unless I missed something), but how would you let somebody know "11" is "11" and not "2"?

<comment><USER5> Because it has 11 dots next to it.</comment></comment>


One of the World's Top Protest Apps Was Just Blocked in Russia - <AUTHOR> http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/04/one-worlds-top-protest-apps-was-just-blocked-russia/136982/ <comment><USER2> "Zello, an app that allows users to talk one-on-one, like a walkie-talkie, or in broadcast modes that can reach hundreds or thousands of people at once"

Is this a protest app?</comment>


The Endowment Effect - <AUTHOR> http://particletree.com/notebook/the-endowment-effect/

<comment><USER2> This completely makes sense and in some ways justifies the success of companies like Apple and 37signals. Rather competing on features, companies should compete on ease-of-use.

Getting past the endowment effect also comes down to using concrete metrics. What's more effective? "My product has the latest and greatest features, it is so much better than the competition" or "If you use my product, it will save you X amount of time and/or Y dollars"? Obviously the latter. Saving time and money is a compelling value proposition--they are both easy-to-understand concepts that cut through consumers' irrationality bubble. Naturally, to be able to make this claim, you've got to make something that consumers want and that is also easy to use.

For a great book on this topic, check out Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

</comment><comment><USER3> _You can get a sense of just how irrational buyer behavior really is now that you understand why people are afraid to leave their overvalued software._

Uh huh. I'd been upgrading FF consistently until I realized that every new version just got worse and worse. So now I'm done upgrading. I understand that the "X" mark to close tabs is now on every tab, rather than on the right side of the pane. So, there: I've missed that ridiculous change.

It's worse with other things. The Java IDE Eclipse starting at 2.0 made a simple change: The search box defaults to "Case Sensitive", and never _learns_ that I wan't this unchecked. Believe it or not, this destroys my productivity. So, I've learned not to upgrade Eclipse anymore. I don't care if they add a million new features--they've effectively destroyed the software for me with one stupid change.

There is no shortage of people who regret the 2000 > XP > Vista upgrade/descent path.

I remember the first VCR my family had. _Put tape in. Press play. It works_ Want to try improving on that? You can't. DVDs are a nightmare by comparison. There's a 15 step process between holding the disc in your hand and actually watching a movie.

Consumers are more savvy than you think, in some ways. They realize, at some level, that companies just release the same thing over and over, sometimes with a new talking paperclip, sometimes with a new talking dog, and it's otherwise the same. The transition costs aren't worth it.

Of course, I'm talking about upgrades rather than Brand X > Brand Y transitions. That might actually be worse, since _everything_ changes.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Anyone else familiar with the book he mentions at the end, _Blue Ocean Strategy_? The website (<http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/>) is setting off all sorts of get-rich-quick-infomercial flags.

<comment><USER4> It's reasonably well known, but I haven't bought it yet. I'd like to, to fill out this some:

[http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/6/blue-ocean- strategy...](http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/6/blue-ocean-strategy-how- to-create-uncontested-market-space-and-make-competition-irrelevant)

But I have some doubts about it. The basic idea is simply to be the first mover in a new market, rather than fighting for smaller and smaller niches in an existing market, as far as I can tell.

<comment><USER2> It's the kind of book you would read at say Stanford GSB or Harvard Business School--it's definitely reputable.

That said, davidw just summarized pretty much everything a tech entrepreneur would get out of the book.

All it says is that the wide-open markets are "blue oceans," the competitive ones are "red oceans." Many of the most successful companies started out in a blue ocean. Thus, you should opt to be in a blue ocean too.

<comment><USER4> A good book that I read that actually talks about the mental processes involved in attempting to create something innovative is this:

[http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/5/lateral- marketing-n...](http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/5/lateral-marketing- new-techniques-for-finding-breakthrough-ideas)

It takes you through cataloging the 'dimensions' of an existing product, then changing one or more radically, and going back to look and see if it could make sense. It's an interesting mental exercise, if nothing else.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


"Blink" and the Art of Hiring the Best  - b-man http://consulting.assembla.com/blog/blink-and-the-art-of-hiring-the-best/

<comment><AUTHOR> I do the same thing -- I give new developers some repository credentials and give them a small task.

One thing to watch out for though, is competent developers who are unreliable over time. They have the skills, but they spend their time surfing.

<comment><USER2> > One thing to watch out for though, is competent developers who are > unreliable over time. They have the skills, but they spend their time > surfing.

I think this is more a problem of motivation. I think if you throw enough interesting projects into the pipe (with the boring, necessary ones, of course) it helps keep them on task. Says the guy who's replying to a HN thread at work...

<comment><USER3> I agree. The best will quit a boring job, though, right?

(says someone who sticks around)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sounds like a great idea. I would definitely like to try it out in my organization. The few problems I see with the approach are:

1\. For closed source companies, does this increase the recruiting complexity by requiring potential candidates to sign NDAs as they will be looking at proprietary code?

2\. Does it add overhead if you have a lot of applicants? They would all be sending in questions that you need to review. Since the process may take long and is not time boxed, you may lose productivity as you get interrupts from a new channel. From the article it didn't seem as if the author performs any kind of pre-screening

[EDIT]2.1 If the applicant pool is large, this also sounds like a waste of money.

3\. For reasonably complex systems (I am currently in enterprise software), you would need to provide a quick way for a new hire to finish setup of your application. There was a time when we expected a new guy to finish the first install of our app in a week (!!). Things are much better now with hosted VMs that you can just fire up with the install being 1 click, but not all companies are going to have that luxury

I am also assuming that to accommodate applicants that are applying while still being employed (they need to pay their bills too!), we would need to ensure that the task to complete is short enough/can be done over the weekend or off hours.

</comment><comment><USER5> The only concern I have with giving programming puzzles for hiring is that it can be quite the burden on candidates. This is fine if your company is a top player and candidates REALLY REALLY want to work for you, but if you aren't that established (like as a startup), the candidates might not like the amount of effort needed to apply. We tried this for some interns a while ago and about half balked at the idea and it wasn't necessarily the "bad" half.

Top talent are going to have options. If you ask too much too early, they may just wonder if it's worth 10 hours of coding up front to get the honour of applying to your company. One should always look for code before hiring, but it shouldn't be done in a way where you are filtering out the non-desperate as well as the incompetent.

<comment> b-man "The only concern I have with giving programming puzzles for hiring"

That is really not what the author is advocating. A paid trial period is more in line with his approach. I can personally vouch for its efficacy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sounds like good advice, but why does Blink have anything to do with this? Isn't it obvious that you only want to base your decisions on factors that actually have to do with the outcome?

</comment><comment> b-man If anyone is interested in more details, I've just posted an interview here with the same guy. Worths the check.

[http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/10041/...](http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/10041/Distributed- Agile-Interview-Dan-Mezick-chats-with-Andy-Singleton.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER7> In my opinion, the procedure he describes sounds great to measure the skills of the candidate(s), but that's too early to called the 'Best' resource of the bunch. It will not be until he or she is actually working there that you will be able to measure the real quality (both on the technical and the human perspective ) of him/her.

<comment><USER8> Yes, the candidate does have to fit in with the team. However the article mentioned that he was doing a lot of recruiting for distributed teams. Therefore the output generated would probably be worth more than how the people get along face to face.</comment></comment>


Show HN: LEXIPIX: Create readable pictures(I made this MVP in one week) - <AUTHOR> http://lexipix.com <comment><AUTHOR> Some technical details:

* AngularJS (Front-end framework)

* Bootstrap Flatly theme

* Firebase Database and Firebase Storage used for sharing/viewing mechanism

* All image manipulation done through the HTML5 Canvas.

* NodeJS used for one-time pre-processing to create a "palette" of font/color combinations for pixel replacement. Results stored in Firebase and used by web app

* Accepton and Stripe used for Credit Card integration

* Facebook Javascript SDK used for social sharing</comment>


Review: The Anorexic Startup by Mike Frankel - <AUTHOR> http://webdev360.com/book-review-the-anorexic-startup-by-mike-frankel-42012.html

<comment><USER2> You have the right to use whatever word you like. You have the right to use offensive words. You have hundreds of thousands of words to chose from.

"Anorexic" is an odd choice. Dealing with this purely from a linguistic point of view, and ignoring the "you might offend a few people" point of view, there are some unfortunate connotations.

Anorexia is a serious mental health problem. "The mentally ill start-up"?

Anorexia is, when we adjust for age etc, the most lethal mental health problem. About 1 in 5 anorexics die from it. "The at risk of death start-up"?

Anorexia in its severe forms is very distracting for the person. It takes a lot of effort to avoid eating; it takes a lot of concentration to count calories; it takes a lot of effort to 'body check' before you leave the house. "The distracted start-up"?

Anorexia leaves the person weak, susceptible to illness, and unable to do much. "The frail start-up"?

There are better words for "ultra lean".</comment>


Show HN: An app for logging your meals in under 3 mins/day - <AUTHOR> http://www.TwoGrand.com

<comment><USER2> I actually started doing this last year with a blog (take picture, send to blog) and while it did help get a handle on what I was eating (mostly stuff like 'wow, there are really no vegetables in there') I stopped doing it after a while - partly because it feels pretty weird and anti-social to be taking pictures of your food when eating with other people, especially when out at a nice restaurant, or when someone else has cooked dinner for you.

I actually just started this again the other day - I don't think the app would make it any easier for me, but it's a nice reminder/validation of the practice :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice that you've done this via your own methods. Per taking photos when in social gatherings, we offer the ability to skip the photo when you'd rather not interrupt your conversation. That said, the Instagram-ization of everything has made photos at dinner more socially acceptable IMO.

The ability to follow people at your goal weight and/or people who stick to a routine that intrigues you is something incremental to the personal blog approach. Regardless, you should check out TwoGrand. Would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I just found the "under 3min/day" really appealing. It doesn't matter what it is, if it is under 3min/day (or something like that), I am curious to check it.

I think it is a good idea if you sell your service/startup/website with something like that: "Do X in under Y"

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I agree with your point. In the current health landscape, there's a void of apps that allow you to track your meals quickly. TwoGrand fills that void.</comment></comment>


New Foundations for Byzantine Consensus and Global Monetary Stability - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.07433 <comment><AUTHOR> Lead author here. This paper does a few things that HN may consider interesting.

1\. It formalizes new security vulnerabilities in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Notably, it shows that all of these protocols repeat a simple statistical error that was introduced to the literature in the early 2000s.

2\. It demonstrates how "honest majority" axioms can be replaced with a more rigorous formal method, which incorporates techniques from game theory and microeconomics to prove security from first principles.

3\. It applies biological models to trust-minimized networking. By replacing handicap-authenticated signaling with cue-authenticated signaling, it obtains an exponential improvement in security and performance.

4\. It proposes a cryptographic twist on the gold standard, which can deliver all the advantages of cryptocurrencies (inflation protection, smart contracts) without forcing society to abandon the existing monetary system.</comment>


Student Debt in America: Lend with a Smile, Collect with a Fist - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/upshot/student-debt-in-america-lend-with-a-smile-collect-with-a-fist.html <comment><USER2> The person in the terrible situation in the article doesn't blame anyone but herself for the situation. I agree with the article that while she's mostly responsible for the situation, the lenders should consider risk at some point. I don't agree that we should forgive all of such huge debts because the money was received and spent, although perhaps we should write off some part of it as bad policy.

Obviously the policy for undergraduate education makes a lot of sense. Don't consider risk because everyone as a policy decision is guaranteed a chance to climb the ladder of opportunity. But after completion of a Bachelors degree the lender should be able to take into account grades and ability to repay given expected outcomes.

<comment><USER3> What is wrong is that educational loans have been granted a special status that makes it impossible to remove them by filling for Bankruptcy. It made the banking industry too willing to hand out money to people who would never be able to repay it.

<comment><USER4> That's the compromise to put people on an even playing field though. If you could get rid of them in bankruptcy, they would require a cosigner with credit history. Many people don't have access to that, so you would basically be cutting off anyone not middle class or above from college.

For loans without a cosigner I'd imagine interest rates would be on par with credit card rates, possibly higher since its a large, unsecured loan.

Regardless, you already can get student loans that can be removed in bankruptcy, they just require a cosigner and have higher interest rates so no one wants them.

It would be interesting to see schools cosign loans past the 2nd year. They could chapter out underperforming students with an associates after two years since they would be on the hook for repayment past there. Then the loans would still be accessible basically equally and schools would have incentive to keep costs down and be more selective rather than just growing indefinitely.

<comment><USER5> So if you look at the evidence, neither of your first two claims are true; that's the problem with speculation when there's actual data available. For- profit student debt was dischargeable in bankruptcy just like almost all debts until 2005, yet there wasn't a wave of opportunistic bankruptcy filings. Interest rates were similar to now. Student debt was made non-dischargeable largely through banks purchasing congresspeople because why not exempt yourself from bankruptcy if you can?

There are multiple datasets available that you can find yourself, or eg

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/04/16/student_loans...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/04/16/student_loans_in_bankruptcy_how_the_bush_administration_pointlessly_screwed.html)

<comment><USER4> Those same private loans are still available though - their interest rates are just higher. Either people aren't taking the time to research their options, or they desire the lower interest rate in exchange for lack of bankruptcy protection. Interest rates are lower on the non-dischargable loans, so I'm not sure why you think they're the same when both types currently exist so you can see the difference without the need for guesswork.

Additionally, private loans always have and still do take into account the credit history of the borrowers. If you don't have a credit history or someone willing to cosign you're basically out of luck.

I don't think opportunistic bankruptcy filings are an issue at all, but I do think it would be an issue for banks to lend significant amounts of money to people with no way to quantify the risk associated with it.

I don't have the perfect answer, but I do think it's better to have loans accessible by lower income people than to have the ability to discharge the loans in bankruptcy which by your admission only a small number of people do.

<comment><USER6> If I understand OP's point correctly, it's that there is no bankruptcy protection whatsoever, even with a qualified co-signer. And maybe there should be. Further, if one does not qualify for government loans, banks are the only place to go, with lower interest rates being a moot point.

BTW I am very intrigued by your idea of having a school cosign for a student after the second year. If nothing else it would force schools to think twice about their acceptance habits. It seems to me to be more in line with academia's not-for-profit interests, but I guess tuition dollars are too entrenched at this stage?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm sorry, but it was completely irresponsible for her to rack up 400k in student debt in the first place.

<comment><USER8> This. She started down one path, gave up on it to pursue another, gave up on it after getting ill and continue down the original. However this time around she thought she needed to immediately get her graduate degrees just so she could earn the "highest possible income". Stupid mistake. Let's count the ways she could have prevented this:

1\. stick with the original plan of becoming a teacher. Take out minimal loans, work, pay off loans.

2\. move towards a degree in law and complete the degree after her illness. Work, pay off loans.

3\. get a teaching job after her illness, hold off on the graduate degree, work, pay off loans.

I have no sympathy for her. She clearly couldn't afford college (which is acceptable, that's why loans exist); however she also couldn't think to budget or plan financially for the future. She should have stuck to a single path and slowly worked forward rather than trying to do everything in as short a time as possible.

<comment><USER9> The first problem with college in America is that it assumes college students are fully-formed adults who know what careers they want to have for the rest of their lives. The second problem is that college has become the mandatory mealticket into the middle class.

<comment><USER10> On the second problem, there is no reason you have to pick a college far from home. Go with a state university. Certainly don't go out of state and pay higher tuition.

<comment><USER11> Most state universities have been losing public funding and raising tuition. It is not hard to rack up lots of debt going in-state.

<comment><USER10> Sure but it is still cheaper than many private universities or out of state. Exception might be if you got a full scholarship to a private university.

<comment><USER11> Maybe, but I find it frustrating that many people seem to believe that in- state universities are the solution for not going deeply into debt while supporting state policies that make them more expensive. I think state- supported higher education should be an important part of the solution to this problem, but policy is headed the opposite direction in most states.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is a great example of why federal loans, while they appear to "help people up", are horrible policy.

They 1) make tuition unaffordable (even for those who aren't taking on debt), and 2) enslave those that do take on the debt.

We should cancel the program en mass.

<comment><USER13> How do you plan to fund universities?

<comment><USER14> Normally, like the first world does. Somehow it works in most of Europe?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Every time she came across adversity, the answer was "get more higher education". Suzie Orman (love her or hate her) always yells at people on her show whenever they talk about "going back to school" as a way out of their financial ruin.

<comment><USER16> Whatever the merits of the idea, a tv celebrity yelling is not releveant evidence. We can't all follow her path of selling self help books to riches

<comment><USER17> Eh ad hominum. She can have valid ideas, celebrity or no. I generally don't live her but she is a good start for a lot of people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The part that sticks out to me is:

 _Ms. Kelley has one possible escape route: a federal loan forgiveness program that caps her payments as a percentage of her income and erases her debts if she logs 10 years of service in the public or nonprofit sector. (For today's students, income-based repayment systems are helping lift the burden of debt.) But that would still mean a decade of what she describes as "futile" payments that won't even cover her monthly interest expenses, leaving nothing to put away for retirement._

She didn't pay a single dime towards her loans in 25 years. Furthermore, she voluntarily cashed out her retirement fund, which would have been 100% protected against creditors.

Working for 10 years in the public sector in order to forgive her debt is not futile. That would be the one intelligent thing she could do in the 25 years of pure stupidity. She doesn't deserve a retirement, especially when she's done everything possible to not have one at all.

Yes, she doesn't claim that it's anyone else's fault, yet at the same time, she doesn't really seem to understand that all of her actions have serious consequences, and the actions she still makes also have consequences. She seems to think that when she reaches retirement age, she should be able to retire, just like that, even though she has actively jeopardized it in the past 25 years.

If she's not willing to pay a portion of her debt because its "futile", the best she can hope for is that her kids do well and take care of her ... or leave the country.

</comment><comment><USER19> I am so glad she does not blame others for her excessive borrowing. I still think the government taking over the student loan program was the worst decision ever. This article emphasizes why, government agencies tend to not operate with any sense a business would and therefor make terrible decisions for themselves and those they serve.

the way out would be a government program similar to HARP, let them finance to a new low rate, remove penalty amounts, and start paying it back. Perhaps teaching at low income high need systems to earn credits as well. I have little issue with funding a college education provided it is needed by society and there is a defined service payback. However hers is just lots of bad mistakes compounded by a undisciplined government agency.

Amazing that the loan agencies cannot cut deals like they can do with people with huge tax loads.

<comment><USER20> The government takeover has been great from a loan holder point of view.

With Sallie Mae I would speak with foreign customer service rep who was barely fluent in English, I would be put on hold for literally hours, would be lied to about my eligibility for certain programs, the website was horrible, and trying to get paperwork processed was took months.

Direct Loans, I speak with an American, am on hold for under 10 minutes, and have all my questions answered truthfully. Their website is great and all of my stuff gets processed under a week.

Despite all of the Republicans chest beating about privatized industry doing a better job than Government can, I've found it to be an extreme degree of exactly the opposite in this case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've heard some comments like, "She should move to another country." Don't do this.

Yes, lenders will harass you. Yes, they might sue you.

If you are in debt, and can't pay back--first send a registered letter to the collection agency stating you do not want to be contacted again about the debt.

If worse comes to worse, and they get a judgement against you; don't panic. You have rights. They cannot clean out you bank account. They cannot take you entire paycheck. (with a little accounting magic, you could make a fair amount of money, and they still wont be able to attach you pay check.) You are allowed to keep possessions, but make sure you read what you are allowed to keep. Hell, you are even allowed to keep heirlooms up to a certain value.

My point is yes they want your money. Be smart? Don't panic. You can still have a full life. Try to make your self Judgement Proof.

I've never said this, but if you are a recent graduate, and have student loans, and have a sneaky feeling you won't be able to pay off the student loans; maybe read on. Really try to keep your credit clean. Get that first job --apply for unsecured credit. Don't lie on the applications. If you can swing it, use credit cards to pay off your student loans.

Yes, use CC to pay off your student loans. Do it right. Make sure you have enough unsecured credit to pay off the student loans.

Wait a few months. Declare a chapter 7 bankruptcy.

It's not an easy maneuver, but as far as I know it's legal, but run it by an attorney. If it works--great! Try to keep abreast of federal bankruptcy laws, and changes. It seems like with every Republican administration lobbyists try their best to make declaring bankruptcy more difficult. I foresee a Republican administration in our near future? In doing any legal research--I found findlaw to be a horrid legal site. Too many wannabe attorneys.

What ever you do don't do anything rash--like leave the country, or even think about suicide. Yes, there are people who have killed them-self's because they don't know they have basic debtor rights. Being in debt is not the end of the world.

</comment><comment><USER22> A lot of the comments on here are bashing her for being fiscally irresponsible - which even she is not disputing - but the real atrocity here is the system. The government is effectively driving up tuition prices while imposing a life tax on children of the middle class and the poor in the form of student debt that cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy.

Of course since our Congress doesn't really give a shit because they're mostly millionaires, the only "reform" they talk about is lowering interest rates and expanding income based repayment programs - none of which address the crux of the problem.

I'm glad that students are finally realizing that they're getting royally fucked in the ass here, and that given our current legislative environment, absolutely nothing will be done until students across the nations collectively default on their loans. Luckily I think we're going to see this happen within the next 5 years. This is just piss poor policy, and it's a shame that more people aren't advocating for change, and that Congress can get away with continually kicking the can down the road.

<comment><USER6> I also felt that the real atrocity is the system, despite this one individual's choices. This article reminded me of an interview in the "The Giant Pool of Money" broadcast about the mortgage lending crisis. This person took a loan 100% intending to never make a payment. The system gave him the money, he bought a house and then it was taken away, uprooting his life. Human interest aside, it was amazing to me that this set of events could even happen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> It seems like there should be some sort of check in place for loans based on the expected income. If you're going to be a teacher, loans should top out at $30k or some reasonable number. You can't get a $500k loan for a $50k house. It doesn't make sense that you should be able to get $100k loan for a career that won't likely be able to repay. Prices for degrees should be in line with the career.

I've noticed that young students have to make these choices about loans right out of high school, but we don't really force them to calculate their starting salary and payments until it's time for graduation. It's like pretend money at that point for all of us and of course we all think we'll be the next billionaire anyway.

</comment><comment><USER24> After thinking about this a bit, why isn't there a rule that once a person has graduated with student loans (or dropped out for some number of years), they have to pay back some large percentage of their loans before taking out more? At the very least make it so that additional loans can only be used for a graduate degree in a field directly related to their undergrad degree, and only within a fixed number of years.

This lady isn't very bright, but at the same time it's not very smart to keep loaning people money when they've repeatedly failed to pay back the money they've already been loaned.

</comment><comment><USER25> > The $410,000 total shocked her.

This is the problem. It shouldn't have shocked her. It takes a minute to do the math and calculate how much a debt will equal in x years if you don't make a single payment. It's 100% predictable.

</comment><comment><USER26> Could she just move to another country and renounce her US citizenship?

<comment><USER27> Probably, but you'd have to move to a country which doesn't have extradition treaties with the US.

<comment><USER28> Since when do countries extradite for debts? I'm pretty sure you have to commit a crime, and the crime must be something that is a crime in the extraditing country as well.

<comment><USER27> You are probably right, although if it is a government student loan, emigrating with the sole purpose of avoiding payment could be construed as fraud.

They could also bring a lawsuit for the debt in the country where the US person emigrated to. This is much harder.

<comment><USER29> You have any examples where this actually happened?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> As the article states, this individual is in the 1.8% of all debt holders with the large amount that she owes. She does not represent the majority but rather a minority that has slipped through the cracks based on the current policies.

The payday loan industry and consumer loans in general are under ever-growing scrutiny and some of the most recent proposals and regulations are based on ability to repay. If a lender does not do their due diligence on a potential borrower based on objective information of current/projected income and expenses, the lender could be penalized and even lose their lending license.

With student loans, the ability to repay is considered a moot point since the borrower is a student and likely has no income, let alone income history. However this increased risk is met with an artificially lower interest rate (<10% vs 50-200% APR), the most lax underwriting criteria & acceptance rates (almost all domestic students qualify and receive), and no questions about how it will be paid off.

The primary externality here is that a whole industry, secondary education, has adapted to these crutches by increasing tuition, as the article states. The value provided by these institutions is arguably not increasing since it's becoming more of a commodity than a value-add (e.g. the fact that the bachelor's is the new diploma) and thus you could argue that adjusted for inflation post-degree salaries are not increasing. This leads to the ability to repay not improving and even getting worse.

The false assumption in all this is that education is an investment that yields a higher income even while adjusted for the interest on loans. The elephant in the room is the necessary segregation of students based on potential ability to repay, which is the present value of a student's income based on their future income. The primary indicators of this are based on caliber of the institution, graduation rates as per institution/major, desirability of their major, performance in school, necessity/likelihood of going to graduate school, current unemployment in the industry, job growth in the industry as it relates to time of graduation and beyond, and other significant factors. By understanding this, loan products can be customized for each student in the absence of credit history to more accurately assess risk.

Higher risk applicants may think twice when seeing higher interest rates and ultimately may make the decision to seek a lower product by pursuing a lower risk opportunity. At the end of the day, these are very personal decisions that can only be decided by the individual. However by not pricing loans accurately, we are giving the false impression that each student's decision after high school and/or undergrad is similar in ability to repay with their limited resources (e.g. stress, time, money). The government owes it to their citizens to be even more responsible than the private industry. Student loans may seem like an income generating opportunity such as tax revenue but it is preying on the least educated, most vulnerable, but most promising demographic. It should be viewed like Social Security and Medicare where a certain demographic is dependent on it for livelihood rather than an afterthought.

<comment><USER31> > By understanding this, loan products can be customized for each student in > the absence of credit history to more accurately assess risk. Higher risk > applicants may think twice when seeing higher interest rates and ultimately > may make the decision to seek a lower product by pursuing a lower risk > opportunity.

I get this argument, but IMO it would ultimately devolve into a system with a fixed set of sanctioned fields of study which only the wealthy could venture outside of. We really don't want that.

Don't forget that knowledge is an end unto itself: an educated person is better for society at large, even if they're flipping burgers for a living. The economic utility of a college education extends far beyond the student being educated.

<comment><USER16> Why don't we want that? We will never escape a little unfairness, and we don't need to. Telling a kid that their only path out of poverty is to be an engineer or schoolteacher, but art historian is not an option -- I would love for that to be the worst of our social problems.

<comment><USER31> > We will never escape a little unfairness

Of course not: IMHO, the unfairness in the current system is preferable to the unfairness you describe.

> Telling a kid that their only path out of poverty is to be an engineer or > schoolteacher, but art historian is not an option -- I would love for that > to be the worst of our social problems.

You're assuming the sole motivation is to make money, which isn't always the case. Some would be much happier as a poor art historian than a moderately wealthy engineer. Who are we to question that?

<comment><USER30> It would be hard pressed to argue that the government is offering loans for the ultimate happiness of the student. As the article points out, the lender is smiling when giving the loan but the end goal like any other business should be to get the funds back with interest in a reasonable time frame. If someone were to pursue a degree for happiness the government does not need to be in the business of funding that. They should be funding students looking to create a sustainable life for themselves.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


TravelWits – New US-based multi-mode travel search engine - <AUTHOR> http://www.travelwits.com TravelWits.com combines flight and other types of travel to find various travel routes that are cheaper than flights from the closest airport. <comment><USER2> Neat idea. I often have to do this manually, because I'm somewhere in between a big city airport and a small city one.

Given that, another really important factor is the parking price at the departure airport. Small airport, $6 a day. Large airport, $15 a day.</comment>


Using Python to produce "pixel" gcode for a CNC router - <AUTHOR> http://www.jcopro.net/2012/10/21/halftoning-or-pixel-machining-with-a-cnc-router/

<comment><USER2> This is an area I've been curious about.

Is it currently possible to generate CNC instructions automatically from a 3D model or are manual steps required ?

<comment><USER3> Tool paths are generated from a 3d model. Generally there is some degree of manual intervention to determine order of operations or choosing the correct tool path algorithm.

The below is a good read if you are particularly interested.

<http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/></comment></comment>


CyberChef – Cyber Swiss Army Knife - <AUTHOR> https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/ <comment><USER2> It's funny looking at some of the contributors to this. Some of the accounts seem to be vague, single-duty accounts made for the express purpose of contributing code to CyberChef and nothing else. I admire their OPSEC

(From: [https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/graphs/contributors](https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/graphs/contributors))

[https://github.com/n1474335](https://github.com/n1474335)

[https://github.com/j433866](https://github.com/j433866)

[https://github.com/d98762625](https://github.com/d98762625)

[https://github.com/s2224834](https://github.com/s2224834)

[https://github.com/GCHQ77703](https://github.com/GCHQ77703)

<comment><USER3> Makes me wonder what GitHub can see (e-mail addresses, IP addresses). I also wonder if it is possible to use code analysis to figure out who these people are. Not that it is relevant for me, just curious...

<comment><USER4> GitHub can see what you send it. If you're concerned about leaking IP data, use a VPN and a remote box for git operations.

<comment><USER5> Perhaps OP is referring to traking based on the coding? I.E. if you had all the code repos from an individual and ran some sort of pattern reconition software to cross refrence thigs like folder structure, layout of the code, frequency and time of uploads, function & variable naming techniques, etc. This reminds me of a technique called eBiomentrics[0]

[0] [https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/keystroke-dynamics- wha...](https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/keystroke-dynamics-what-is-it- be396a263bf2)

<comment><USER3> Yes that is what I was referring to. I forgot the exact name for it. It is akin to (hand)writing analysis, but for code.

<comment><USER5> Certainly an interesting idea, I suppose most of the things I listed can in fact be mitigated quite easily. Compilers and obfuscators exist even now that would totally destroy most distinguishable patterns. If anyone knows any case studies on this, please drop a link here.

<comment><USER6> [https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo- Anonymouth](https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth)

Edit: The main page of above site has a lot more publications referenced. Worth a look.

[https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/Main_Page](https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/Main_Page)

[https://evllabs.com/](https://evllabs.com/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Its a brilliant tool, has replaced visiting 3 or 4 different mini sites to do some basic conversions etc..

EDIT: Other thing to note, is you can define, a set of operations, ex: [https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/#recipe=ROT13(true,true,13)](https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/#recipe=ROT13\(true,true,13\))

and get a shareable link

</comment><comment><USER8> So much fun!

At first glance, only feature requests I might have added when I did this sort of work would be in for audio spectrographs in the multimedia section. Useful for finding stego, embedded thumbnails, hidden channels etc, and a generalized malicious ZIP parser that deals with the myriad of nasties packers can use.

The demand to scale this capability within an agency like that makes it worth while to build tools like this, wonder whatother easter eggs are in there beyond alert msgs.

Brits, so cheeky.

</comment><comment><USER9> Wow I actually thought of building a tool similar to this for CTFs, specifically this feature:

[https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/wiki/Automatic- detection-o...](https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/wiki/Automatic-detection-of- encoded-data-using-CyberChef-Magic)

This is REALLY cool. Basically given an unknown string or file from something CTF-y you can run this tool on it to look for low-hanging fruit like it being e.g. base64 encoded.

<comment><USER10> This is a really old reversing trick, for what it's worth; for instance, pulling gzips out of firmware images, or spotting zipped Java images. You can also often identify cryptography primitives from their ASN.1 OID strings. There are a bunch of tools that do stuff like this.

<comment><USER11> Yes, I use this one regularly: [https://github.com/ReFirmLabs/binwalk](https://github.com/ReFirmLabs/binwalk)

(Binwalk is a fast, easy to use tool for analyzing, reverse engineering, and extracting firmware images)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> [https://github.com/usdAG/cstc](https://github.com/usdAG/cstc) this implements This as a burp plugin. A few Colleagues developed this and released it two weeks ago at defcon

</comment><comment><USER13> It reminds me of SnD Reverser Tool[1], although compared to this, SnD RT has a bit more constrained scope in what it does, but it's also a standalone exe of just ~150KB. such a shame it's no longer being developed...

[1] [https://tuts4you.com/download/1923/](https://tuts4you.com/download/1923/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Cryptool is similar and I think older. At least I remember that I have used the desktop version in the 90s.

While I appreciate that they made a web version I think they scattered their efforts to create different versions too much so that the project suffered regarding features and quality.

[1] [https://www.cryptool.org/en](https://www.cryptool.org/en)

</comment><comment><USER15> What's the CLI version of this? It's too cumbersome to click around in a GUI.

<comment><USER16> It's fascinating to me (as someone who has written a similar system) that everybody, almost without exception, makes this leap.

If the problem is that clicking is too cumbersome, then add better keyboard support. That's the solution to the problem as stated. You don't need to throw out the whole UI for that, and there's lots of things a GUI can do that a CLI can't.

I haven't been able to determine if this is the common reaction because people simply assume a GUI can't have good keyboard support, or because they're making an excuse for some unstated other reason.

<comment><USER17> a lot of people want to make things scriptable.

<comment><USER16> That's an interesting point (and a possible hidden agenda), but again, the scriptability of something is orthogonal to whether it's graphical or not.

Web browsers are as GUI as they come, and arguably have far better scripting support than any CLI program.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This looks kind of neat (and not too dissimilar to my own software -- see bio), though I can't seem to make it work (or "Bake"?).

It also reminds me of OpenRefine, another very cool online data processing tool with a slightly different focus.

<comment><USER18> You need to drag specific operation(s) from Operations and drop them into Recipe. And then supply input(s) in Input tab. You can also check the Auto Bake icon in the bottom.

<comment><USER16> Ah, that's it! I discovered that I could add operations by double-clicking them, but I was so intent on trying to find a "type some raw input" operation that I completely missed the "Input tab".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Some great operations in there. Especially [Other > XKCD Random Number]

[https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/#recipe=XKCD_Random_Number(...](https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/#recipe=XKCD_Random_Number\(\)&input=SW5wdXQ) "RFC 1149.5 specifies 4 as the standard IEEE-vetted random number."

<comment><USER20> There's also Numberwang function.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> nice!

so is any of the input feeding back to GCHQ?

<comment><USER22> shouldn't be it's purely client-side. And of course, if you don't trust them, just stick a proxy in-line and watch for traffic.

<comment><USER3> If you don't trust it you can use it in a VM without network access, or something like Qubes (essentially the same). Personally, I use Opensnitch (a personal firewall like Little Snitch) on Kali Linux, but it isn't foolproof.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I use this a lot for basic things like base64 decoding. Of course, nothing you can't do with A.N. programming language, but handy for quick checks.

</comment><comment><USER23> This tool is great. Very useful for CTFs

</comment><comment><USER24> This is just about the greatest thing ever, thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER25> Really nice, thanks for sharing

</comment><comment><USER26> Extremely cool.

</comment><comment><USER27> great site, been using it for years

</comment><comment><USER28> This is awesome! Not sure if OP put this together, but thank you.

</comment><comment><USER29> This has been posted many times to HN [0]. Is there something making it newsworthy this time?

[0] [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cyberchef&sort=byPopularity&pr...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cyberchef&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

<comment><USER30> [https://xkcd.com/1053/](https://xkcd.com/1053/)

<comment><USER29> It's definitely not about making fun of people – It's about expecting novelty and not finding any. After all, `news` is in the url!

I am wondering why people don't do the due diligence of searching if a tool/article has not already been posted before submitting a duplicate item.

I am sorry if you did interpret this as `trying to make fun of people` – This is not my intention.

I still would like to know why duplicate entries are welcomed/accepted on a news aggregator (honest question)!

<comment><USER31> In this particular case, it's been posted only three times this year, and the first two had only 2 or 3 points, meaning that hardly anyone saw them--I know I didn't. I wouldn't have learned about this if not for the repost.

I don't see anything wrong with reposting perennially useful stuff at reasonable intervals. Maybe twice in as many months is too much in general, but it seems to have worked out all right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Why would anyone use a third-party web service to carry out cyber analysis? These tasks are easy enough to do/code.

<comment><USER33> I may be just naive, but I trust and regularly use both Cyberchef and NSA's Ghidra. I think it's very unlikely that these tools are backdoored (and Cyberchef runs completely in-browser).

<comment><USER34> If you've ever looked at the way the NSA treats exploits, remote access software and such, they're very careful about deploying them against people who may be able to detect and analyze them themselves.

Putting such things in public code like that which would both directly point the finger at them and possibly turning secrets into widespread knowledge in the security community would be... incredibly stupid.</comment></comment></comment>


U.S. Legislation Aims to Ban Plastic Guns Metal Detectors Can't Detect - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/10/u-s-legislation-aims-to-ban-plastic-guns/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 <comment><USER3> So then the people who would otherwise use plastic guns to get past metal detectors would say "oh, well those are illegal now, I'd better not."

<comment><USER4> These "plastic or otherwise undetectable" guns are already illegal and have been for decades, since GLOCK and some yellow journalism put the fear in Congress around the time Lethal Weapon came out.

<comment><USER5> Did Lethal Weapon have plastic firearms? My first thought was In the Line of Fire.

<comment><USER4> I'm sorry, it was Die Hard. [http://diehard.wikia.com/wiki/Glock_7](http://diehard.wikia.com/wiki/Glock_7)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> TSA already misses full metal guns and in some airports guns are completely legal in the USA.

Why even pretend to have gun laws in this country.

But I'll tell you what, we better make mental health care available like going to the supermarket and without stigma in our society or one day there is going to be a mass-murder anniversary for every day of the year.

<comment><USER7> >But I'll tell you what, we better make mental health care available like going to the supermarket and without stigma in our society or one day there is going to be a mass-murder anniversary for every day of the year.

Implying that anyone who needs mental health care is going to go on a murder spree is a great way to break that stigma.

<comment><USER8> I believe OP is only implying that those who end up going on murder sprees are in need of mental health care and that it could have prevented them from going on such sprees.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I am fairly certain this already exists:

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

<comment><USER10> Yes, but whether it's covered or not doesn't matter, because just like we have security theater, we have security politics. The important thing isn't enacting a new law to address a need; the important thing is to find a cause that energizes enough of your base to vote and then appear to be _doing something_.

Bonus points if the thing you're trying to do has no chance of being enacted. If you get a lot of attention and appear to be doing the right things to the right folks? You can support actions that you personally believe would be dangerous to the republic. Your personal feelings or the end result of what you're supporting don't really matter.

Apologies for the cynicism, but people should know that the political calculus plays out in this fashion. Perhaps that's the situation in this case, perhaps not. The political calculus is still what it is and we should acknowledge it.

<comment><USER11> The ancient art of bullshitocracy.

<comment><USER12> It actually makes sense if you assume two axioms:

1\. Politicians are rational actors with regards to getting into and staying in office. 2\. Voters are thoroughly ignorant and what sounds good to voters is not the same as what is actually the best policy.

#1 makes a whole lot of sense because people who don't compete to their fullest extent will be out-competed by people who do, and the goal of getting into political office is a necessary part of fixing the government (which most politicians genuinely want to do).

#2 makes sense when you look at people in the middle ages, and understand that we haven't fundamentally changed from them, we just have ACCESS to more information, which most people haven't read. Loads of people don't know jack shit about economics 101, and yet they have strong opinions on how to fix the economy.

 __ __ __ __*

We can extend, from these two axioms, that most politicians will not have TOO much respect for public opinion, and will therefore try to sneak through some bills that are unpopular, but (in the politician's opinion) will do a better job of actually fixing whatever they're trying to fix. That suggests that if you have enough politicians on-board with your way of "improving" the world, you can fix it in spite of the idiot public.

QED, lobbying.

<comment><USER10> I don't even think you need #2. Since voters are emotionally predisposed to certain parties or candidates anyway, regardless of past history, it's easy to continue this pattern with extremely intelligent and involved voters.

When the politician is posturing yet has no chance of getting anything passed, they are "Making a bold statement" or "starting a discussion that needs to be had". i.e., the symbolism is more important than the results.

When the politician is taking direct action, yet action that's at odds with the voters, it's "politics is all about compromise", "a flawed deal is better than no deal at all", "a move in the right direction", or "a politician that's brave enough to make choices other politicians won't"

The trick is just to keep slowly alternating between these two perceptions over the segments of the electorate that you can turn out come election time. At the end of the day you can pretty much do whatever you want. So your end result remains the same regardless of any qualities inherent in the electorate, sadly. It's just a numbers game.

<comment><USER13> _At the end of the day you can pretty much do whatever you want._

Eh, I'd say the history of "gun politics" in the last two decades suggests that's not true, or a bunch of politicians who passed or supported (Al Gore) gun control and ended up spending more time with their families just aren't good at playing this game. Assuming you believe they wanted the office more than the gun control bills, which in the case of the sunsetting and now sunset Federal "assault weapons" bill would seem to be particularly pointless.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The Techcrunch piece links to the original article[1], which provides more information. Rep. Steve Israel is a gun control crusader from way back, as is the Connecticut delegation and a few others. But the ban he proposes, obviously, won't stop anyone from printing a weapon and smuggling it onto a flight; it's just more so-called security theater, intended to assuage the anti-gun segment of the electorate and reassure air travelers that they are still going to be safe.

In my opinion, the only true way to ensure air security is to arm the pilots and plant more armed Air Marshals on flights.

Banning particular types of objects from being 3-D printed seems like an exercise in futility at best, and instills a false sense of security at worst.

1\. [http://thehill.com/regulation/legislation/244319-dems- move-t...](http://thehill.com/regulation/legislation/244319-dems-move-to-ban- plastic-guns)

<comment><USER15> We haven't had a successful hijacking since 9/11, in spite of the TSA being grossly incompetent and ineffectual. The terrorists aren't chomping at the bit. The current system of aware passengers, Air Marshals, and reinforced doors is doing the job. Mostly the passengers. We need regulation of 3-D printers like we need regulation of flower arrangers. Bureaucracy, the fear that somewhere someone is doing something without permission.

<comment><USER13> We haven't had a really _successful_ hijacking since the passengers on Flight 93 heard what was happened with the other 3 and realized the rules of the game had been changed. As others have noted, this has to rate as one of the shortest effective periods for a terrorist gambit, only a couple of hours.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> So, would this make 3d-printing files of these plastic guns illegal too?

I guess some orientations of bits are already illegal. Is there a(n automated) way to check if a file is illegal?

<comment><USER17> For a moment there I thought 'n automated' was some kind of obscure complexity class I'd never heard of :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> So if they're going to ban liquids & gels over 3oz, why don't they ban plastics over a certain volume? At least be consistent. Detecting it might be a bit tricky and would require a pat-down, probably, but I'm sure in the name of "safety", that can be dealt with.

<comment><USER19> Banning plastics over a certain volume is roughly equivalent to banning objects over that volume. I really don't want a policy adopted simply because it is consistent with pre-existing asinine policies.

<comment><USER18> I completely agree--I was basically trying to illustrate the absurdity of that method of "security".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> And so begins the underground market for plastic weaponry.

</comment><comment><USER21> Since this is such a big problem, I think we should do something about it immediately. Just like powdered alcohol. /s

</comment><comment><USER22> Aren't bullets still made of metal?

<comment><USER23> I doubt they would have to be, even a low powered non metal gun would provide an attacker with a significant advantage and if used on an airplane it would not take much to breech the hull. As for encounters on the ground I am pretty sure drones are past the point of threat that plastic guns have.

I would think resins, ceramics, and some composites, would be sufficient for creating a projectile. Still like the article states, only those who wish to obey the law would be affected

<comment><USER24> > if used on an airplane it would not take much to breech the hull

This is a myth. There are already holes in an aircraft's hull - <USER2> through one at altitude would make a hissing sound, and you could plug it with your finger if it annoyed you too bad.

> I would think resins, ceramics, and some composites, would be sufficient for > creating a projectile

The problem isn't so much the projectile, as it is the cartridge case, primer, and the operating components.

> Still like the article states, only those who wish to obey the law would be > affected

Like all gun laws - or laws in general :)

<comment><USER13> All good points, e.g. I seem to remember reading that a 747 can maintain pressure with up to 6 windows being open (not that you'd want to be next to any of them!), but I think bullets still wants fairly dense, and that tends to make them more X-ray opaque, right?

Hmmm, if we're just talking about single shot guns, you don't need to align cartridges in the characteristic rows of magazines, or the cylinder of a revolver, making them easier for the TSA to miss. Of course, you could just load a magazine once on the plane.

<comment><USER25> FWIW you can absolutely pass normal bullets through most airport metal detectors. The typical threshold meant to not flag basic jewelry/etc... will let 1-2 9mm rounds pass through.

SOURCE: flying after being at the range with two 9mm rounds forgotten in my pocket.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Co-worker used inappropriate photo during company wide presentation - <AUTHOR> A few months ago, we had a company wide meeting. During the course of event, a co-worker whom I have been running into some disagreements, inserted a racially insensitive and homophobic image into his powerpoint slide (which I have a video recording of) that he claimed "randomly found on the internet" but it was more than a coincidence as it clearly resembled my face and my ethnicity. Why would he intentionally scour the internet for this specific ethnicity, gender and resembling face? I felt humiliated because the whole company started laughing (video recording clearly shows this).
Now I'm being asked for "anonymous" feedback, yet the last time I gave a low score for diversity (as a result of my co-worker's actions), the team was put into a room and me being the only minority there, it was extremely awkward and I could tell that people were avoiding looking at me. My interactions with the C-level executives began to feel off as if they were avoiding/ignoring me. After that I noticed the tension increasing with other members of the team to the point that this co-worker will not even acknowledge me and the tension made it hard to work with this person. Now I'm being asked to submit a feedback but I'm afraid to as I don't feel like they respect privacy at all. I feel depressed and suicidal since I need this job but the environment is becoming far too hostile as it seems this person has been going around speaking ill about me from the sudden shift in my daily interactions with people.
I'm panicking and I don't know what to do. This is a relatively well known local startup in Canada btw. <comment><USER2> With respect, the HR department is there to protect the company, and not you.

If you give them reason to believe that they need to protect the company against you, then your remaining time there is likely to be short and fraught. And when you do leave, they will make sure you have no ground to stand on for complaints regarding diversity, etc....

If you can find or make friends there outside of this guy, you can potentially help them learn to lead by example, and thus he would become the outlier.

But everything depends on you and your personality, and them and their personality. How willing and able are you to gently lead them down the right path? How willing are they to learn what the right path is, and follow you?

At some point, you may have to decide whether it is worth your effort and pain to try to stay there, versus leaving and going somewhere else. So, I would encourage you to try and avoid burning any bridges if you can help it.

But sometimes there is just nothing you can do to save the situation, and so you may need to extract yourself.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just my two cents. If you have an HR department. This is something you should discuss with them. Second, you should take your buddy out for a beer and both of you should clear the air in an amicable fashion. Cultural issues are a problem but they can always be resolved in a level headed manner. Should post on ask hacker news for this to get more traction.</comment>


Thoughts on the whole XHTML/HTML5 affair - <AUTHOR> http://morethanseven.net/2009/07/08/thoughts-whole-xhtml-and-html5-affair/

<comment><AUTHOR> My favorite bit (even though I, myself, find it a bit silly):

 _Which brings me to the reason why I use XHTML: The validator enforces my preferred coding standards for HTML – lowercase elements, quoted attributes and closed elements. That's it. Not much really. I know it's marketing XHTML rather than technical XHTML. I don't care. Or rather I do care, I just make a conscious pragmatic decision based on a small personal advantage. I'm both pedantic and like having a tool chain which enforces that, XHTML suits my style._

</comment><comment><USER2> Why do so few blog posts have a byline? Why do I have to go digging around to see who wrote the damn thing?</comment>


The Fallacy of Customer Development - <AUTHOR> http://www.ashmaurya.com/2011/01/the-fallacy-of-customer-development/ <comment><USER2> The goal of customer development is to uncover a problem that is worth solving (and that people are willing to pay for). It's not billed as a customer acquisition strategy. Focusing on scaling before you reach product-market fit is premature optimization. You'll likely be testing how to sell the wrong product to the wrong group.

Once you've reached product-market fit, then the focus should be on customer acquisition strategies (often times the strategy is to just throw money at it). That's the time it's worth bringing in someone who has experience scaling a business, as well as experimenting with different marketing strategies.

<comment><USER3> Customer development is not billed as a customer acquisition strategy but there is an implicit expectation that because "customers hold all the answers", cust dev will reveal the path to customers.

I don't believe customers hold all the answers and the point of this post is that you can't be complacent about finding and testing that path to customers.

<comment><USER2> I agree that the idea that "customers hold all the answers" is flawed, but that's not what customer development is. A better phrase would be "no answers are found inside the building". You can't just ask people what they need and build it, that's not customer development. Customer development is about finding a problem worth solving and that people are willing to pay for. You need to understand the problem thoroughly, and that requires you to get out of the building and talk to lots of people. If the solution was obvious, and the people you talked to told you what to build, then you wouldn't have much of a business, because the problem would be easy to solve (and someone would have solved it, or they'd do it in house).

Customers don't hold all the answers, but they can point you to the right solution. You still need to come up with an optimal solution. Once you reach product-market fit, then you can work on optimizing customer acquisition. Before product-market fit, you don't know what your product really is or who your customers really are. Any time spent optimizing that is time that could be better spent finding the actual problem and getting to product-market fit. At best you risk wasting time, at worst you risk following the wrong path because you've invested so much time optimizing it, which would make pivoting to the "right" product/market much more difficult.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've recommended Steve Blank's "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" several times but I didn't know that the blog author has published Running Lean, a (PDF) book on customer development just for web startups. I'm going to order it right now. Thanks for posting this.</comment>


Google launching an Online Presentation App at Web 2.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9709593-2.html?tag=blog <comment><USER3> What are you guys thinking? Of course this is another Kiko situation. Google's new app is going to be the talk of the town when it launches. And Zenter is not even public yet.

I would think Zenter had a chance if they were already available for public use, but think about it. They are still closed beta with no customers, etc....

This is a prime example when you have a good idea (such as Zenter) but take way too long to execute. Zenter should of went from concept to public app in 3 months time. Then they might of had a chance against Google.

</comment><comment><USER4> Ugh. I really hope Zenter doesn't get Kikoed. Hopefully they've got some additional features over the Google offering.

<comment><USER5> I think Zenter _may_ need to come up with a new idea.

Google has marketing clout and web presence like no other (this is obvious). They also have incredible staying power, so if I am investing time into using an application, and I have 2 alternatives that are similar functionally, I would take the one with the best chance of future survival, and that is clearly Google. I guess the option they have is to create some amazing functionality that Google doesn't have in their version, and sell it to Google _if_ Google's app is any good.

I guess we won't know until Google launches what they have. Zenter - <USER2> First and soon!! _Very_ soon.

Btw: At Startup school, a guy from Google asked us about our startup and what we were doing, etc. It was clear they were looking for ideas there.

<comment><USER6> _"Btw: At Startup school, a guy from Google asked us about our startup and what we were doing, etc. It was clear they were looking for ideas there."_

That sounds more like an interested hacker from Google who was genuinely curious about your project (like everyone else there), rather than a planted corporate development spy itching to report his scoops to home base.

<comment><USER7> Ideally IF google really wanted to send someone to spy, it would be someone who is SEEMINGLY a hacker:D

Not that I think google is out of ideas. They probably have too many ideas.

<comment><USER5> Actually, the guy seemed more like a manager/business type than a hacker. The first thing I asked him was "are you spying for Google", and he hemmed and hawed actually. He gave no indication at all that he was interested in doing a startup himself, but wanted to figure out what we were doing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Google doesn't have managers! Everyone there is 10 feet tall, types 200 words a minute, codes in a new version of Lisp called GLisp and can beat up Chuck Norris. You must have been mistaken.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interesting how google announces these days and not just release like before..

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is a big blow to all the online presentation apps just like Google Calendar was to all the Web 2.0 Calendars. It won't be an 'Office Killer' however, until all of their apps can work together well. When you can make a chart in Google Spreadsheets and then copy it into Google Docs or Google Pres(??) easily. Then we'll have an interesting fight on our hands.

</comment><comment><USER9> YouTube beat Google video by a mile.

Not everything Google does turns to gold.

</comment><comment><USER10> Initial reaction: Zenter is dead in the water even if it has more features. Google's brand name alone will be enough to propel it to the top and Google obviously has the technical muscle to make up ground pretty damn fast.

<comment><USER11> I disagree. Calendars have a large social component; creating presentations does not. If Zenter has features that appeal to people who create presentations, then it will do well.

Using the same calendar system others use helps. Using the same presentation system mostly doesn't.

<comment><USER12> That may be true of how people currently use presentation software, but inside of organizations people share decks and slides very frequently and it's a pain. Presentation software probably _should_ be highly collaborative even if existing options are not.

<comment><USER13> I agree, but how does Google leverage their existing products and promote collaboration with presentation software? Google Calendar worked because planning and sharing events/meetings makes sense to be integrated with GMail.

As I've said before, I think this is going to be a different story because, while collaboration brings a lot of value to presentation software users, I can't see a killer app that Google can leverage beyond Image Search that would make their product a must-have. Zenter has done a great job making a connected presentation app with a very slick Google Search-based image import tool.

Pound for pound, I think Zenter has a fighting chance as long as it keeps innovating on the feature front. Don't forget that collaborative presentations will likely give rise to a slide sharing community (i.e. slideshare.net), so there's more to online presentation software than the app itself.

<comment><USER13> Weird how I got downmodded for furthering the discussion. I've been noticing a lot of this in the past week, don't know if it's related to the rush of new users in the past month. Small thing, but kind of annoying.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Zenter guys, launch NOW! Launch as soon as you can! Launch BEFORE Google and create some buzz before Google launches so that when people see Google's Presentations, they will think it's old and has been done before.

</comment><comment><USER15> I have no idea what features this app from Google has, but from what I have seen so far, Zenter kicks ass! It's not about which app has "more" features, it's about how effectively one can present using such an app.

<comment><USER16> Definitely! Google seems to be over-reaching. They have a lot of apps and many people just don't know about them. And I thought they were going to concentrate on _finishing_ apps not creating new ones! big wtf.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The company they aquired:

<http://web.archive.org/web/20060819233054/http://tonicsystems.com/>

"Java PowerPoint® Specialist"?

<comment><AUTHOR> While it doesn't mean too much that website is pretty bad. Maybe Zenter does have a chance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> From here: <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html>

"Our due date is this summer."

</comment><comment><USER18> You can't win on brand name alone.

Zenter has some tough competition ahead of it but I'm sure they expected it.

<comment><USER16> If Zenter can be as cool as KeyNote is on OS X, they have nothing to fear from Google.

<comment><USER18> I don't think emulating Keynote is the right play. Any online presentation app should be designed to exploit the inherent advantages that web applications have, i.e. collaboration, information retrieval, etc..

I don't think the goal is to replace Keynote or Powerpoint but rather provide software the lets people easily develop bring presentations for a web audience.

As a former iWork engineer, I think some of the stuff Keynote has can't be replicated effectively in a web application.

<comment><USER13> Schoudha's right -- the killer edge for Zenter is making a connected presentation app that leverages the web. Remember the annoying task of importing presentation images? Why not make that easier since you're already in a browser? Things like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What does this do for zenter.com?

</comment><comment><USER20> BOy boy. Zenter. I still would not care. Google is just bluffing right now. And it hurts me how many people cannot see that the big Giant has lost its way.</comment>


Who first coined the term "Greenhouse Effect"? (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://www.easterbrook.ca/steve/2015/08/who-first-coined-the-term-greenhouse-effect/ <comment><USER2> Interesting. I suppose "insulation effect" would be more accurate, but I guess it's too late to change it now.</comment>


The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School - <AUTHOR> http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000121.html <comment><USER2> A few of these points really resonated with me, especially #9. I couldn't help but feel frustrated that school was a place where writing about ideas often took precedence over execution.

As I spent the last winter break contemplating my future, a major thing that stuck out in my head was how Sam Altman took the initiative during Summer '05 to build Loopt while my fellow classmates spent an entire semester "pitching" it for a class (more presentations, less prototypes).</comment>