Show HN: What's wrong with team collaboration tools? We built Comtify - <AUTHOR> http://comtify.com?r=HN <comment><USER2> Hi,

Congratulations on releasing your app! I just wanted to mention something that I'm hoping will help you guys.

I realize that you've probably worked hard on the design of the website; but, personally I think the design needs a bit of an upgrade.

The layout is pretty good, but here's a few things I'm noticing:

      1. The fonts are thin, and kind of hard to read (check out
      Google fonts for other choices)

      2. I'd suggest removing the faded images in the
      backgrounds of certain sections, like the one in the "Do it
      all from a single page." The problem is it makes me lean in
      and squint to see what's in the image. Instead, if you want
      to show something, show it as a fully visible image, and add
      the caption/sub-title above or below it.

      3. The buttons and other elements look a bit dated, in my
      humble opinion.

I really, sincerely hope this doesn't offend or upset you, that's not my intention at all, and I realize this may be coming off a bit harsh; but I'm being blunt with you because I actually almost left your page within the first 5 seconds because of these things.

It didn't seem like a trustworthy site, for starters.

My suggestion would be to either pick an HTML theme from themeforest.net, or try to find a nice UI kit (try googling for "css ui kit" or "free css ui kit" and see what comes up.)

It's more important that you shipped, so this is great! But, I'd suggest taking some time to polish your homepage.

I hope this helps, and my humble apologies if it comes off as harsh.

Edit: grammar.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey @michaeldwp, thanks a lot for the kind feedback. Really appreciate you putting so much time in writing this.

Actually our design is still a WIP and we don't have a full-time designer yet.

And it doesn't sound harsh at all. Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'd improve your explainer video, there's just so much going on.

\- Bottom windows bar is there for no reason

\- Screencast lite watermark

\- Slowly moving and disappearing instructions/explanation

\- All of this while the actual usage of the site is going on

I closed the video around halfway in due to it being hard or annoying to follow along with

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks @wingerlang, will work on it.

It is a makeshift video as of now, just made last night.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It seems amazing, but I quite don't get what it is, exactly, is it a single- page "board" with a thousand of "apps" for team collaboration you can install?

Anyway, I'm not a team, but I think this will be useful to many people, if it is what I'm thinking.

<comment><AUTHOR> So it is a system which leverages the 'threading' feature so that you can do a lot of things - bug tracking, task management, knowledge sharing, calendaring and reminding, file sharing, CRM etc. As everything is a thread, you can drag a thread into different forms so that it serves as a multi-functional tool. So this is a different approach, as opposed to integration with different tools.

Hope I'm able to explain myself.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Side business – how to get started? - <AUTHOR> I see so many people doing side projects or business. I have excellent backend data engineering skills in the data analytics space.
However, I honestly don't know anything about front end and don't know where to start?
I don't feel motivated enough to learn Javascript/Node etc. Frameworks are evolving very rapidly. I am sure how much learning front end will help in day-to-day job as well. I am good at getting things done. When I look at good freelancers they are often charging $50 or more per hour. I don't want to spend a lot of money just to build a website.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get started and what are ways to build a side business? <comment><USER2> I've collected 35 stories of solo-preneurs at [https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/wjRD/collected- stories-o...](https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/wjRD/collected-stories-of- solo-founder-with-profitable-businesses-for-your-startup-inspiration.html)

This might be of some inspiration.

That being said, the one thing you cannot skip is building the product.

If your product is a website, then you either have to learn how to do it, both front-end and back-end, or hire someone to do it.

If you don't know where to start learning, you can start at [https://www.udacity.com/](https://www.udacity.com/). They have free and paid (but still cheap) web dev courses.

There's really never been easier to learn web programming, with so many free resources.

If you're overwhelmed with choices, learn React + HTML/CSS (frameworks like React are about easy way to create HTML; you still need to know what HTML/CSS to create).

<comment><USER3> ^ This guy wrote SumatraPDF, everyone's favorite PDF reader on Windows. Thanks Krzysztof!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think there's two questions here:

 _1) How to start a side business?_

Make something people want, charge money for it, and figure out how to market it. Not necessarily in that order.

 _2) Where to start with front-end tech?_

Use as little of it as possible. Plain old HTML, and forms that submit to a server are all you really need. No fancy JavaScript. CSS is nice, and probably a bit more important but also not strictly required.

I say this as someone who makes a living writing JS/Node and charges well over $50/hr. After your project is bringing in money, then you can look into learning front-end fancyness. Or just hire me ;)

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe partner up with someone who does have full stack web development skills?

I think there are plenty of good side businesses where data analytics combined with a great interactive web front end to visualize the data could be profitable.

Such a partnership need not cost much money at all to get started. You could launch a product on an inexpensive Digital Ocean VPS.

</comment><comment><USER6> _I don 't feel motivated enough to learn Javascript/Node etc._

Well, there are two basic paths.

1\. Pay somebody to do that stuff.

2\. Learn it and do it yourself.

You've already eliminated option 2, so the equation doesn't seem very complicated to me. Maybe you can find some offshore talent, or still-in-school (or just-out-of-school) folks who would be willing to work for a relatively inexpensive rate? Or you could "pay" in equity and have a co-founder.

I guess you could argue that there is also a hidden "option 3" \- invent an artificial general intelligence and make it do the work for you.

</comment><comment><USER7> Well you can either learn how to build frontend yourself or pay somebody to do it. And as always you get what you pay for so somebody good will charge a lot. That should help motivate you to learn.

You don't need to learn JavaScript or Node initially. It's perfectly fine to start with old school front end built with Rails or Django.

Dynamic HTML generated on the server. Which could be Node but doesn't need to be. PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby will do just fine.

You need to learn HTML and how submitting forms works at the very least. And probably some CSS. You can start with that.

And by the way, $50 per hour is not even that high. There are some too frontend experts charging double that or more.

So unless you got big budget for this side business I'd recommend to learn very basics yourself and start with simple UIs that you can write on your own. Later if the side business takes off you can hire front end experts to take it from there.

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe check the algorithmic stock market trading, looks like you have the background, just get some data and start testing different trading strategies, the upfront cost if minimal and if you find something that is working for you you can start trading with real money and then do it for friends and family, etc...

<comment><USER9> I have tried this. Very good chiice. You can easily make more than bank interest.

<comment><USER10> You can also easily lose money too.

<comment><USER8> That's why you have to test a lot before putting a single penny on the line...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have built a few startups in the past, and am currently building 12 startups in 12 months at [http://blog.12startupsin12months.in/](http://blog.12startupsin12months.in/) . Like the @nfriedly mentioned. You really have 2 questions. I always ask people to get their product validated with at least 20 customers. For this you probably just need a simple landing page asking for an email. Make sure you are building something that provides value.

The next part is actually building the app. I am a developer so my advice may be a bit biased. But, I would ask you to learn a front end framework. If you don't know an JS frameworks yet, I'd ask you to take a look at Elm. Once you have the first version out, and grows beyond your capabilities you can hire folks to work on it.

<comment><USER12> you can't build 12 startups in 12 months. You are building 12 hobby projects in 12 months. Big difference.

<comment><USER11> Well, what is the difference between a hobby project and a startup? Is a startup something that brings in money? If so, I am definitely planning to monetize all the 12 startups. Does a startup need someone who works on it full time? If so, I am working on these things full time. These products may be _small_ but they are real products which will have real customers.

<comment><USER13> You seem pretty sure you'll have real customers.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, The first app that I am building has a lot of competitors. So, it is not really a question of whether the market is there. I definitely need the confidence If my startups are going to be successful :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It sounds like you are worrying about skills & tech before having a problem to solve or a product to build.

Investigate some ideas, find a need and a solution you want to build. Keep things simple and see if there is demand.

You can decide then what skills are important and either learn as you go or hire. You will be much more motivated to learn if you have something specific to build & customers waiting.

</comment><comment><USER15> Do you feel motivated to learn marketing? Because you will need that too. Its ok to farm out or even team-up with people though, so build a network of potential partners.

</comment><comment><USER16> Do you have good ideas? And can they become viable side businesses?

I do frontend mainly and know a bit of backend as well. But don't have good ideas to work on :(

</comment><comment><USER9> You can hire me for 20$ per hour. I'll help you build the mvp if you have an idea. PM me if you're interested.</comment>


Pylons – Extremely Flexible Python Web Framework - <AUTHOR> http://blogfreakz.com/framework/pylons-extremely-flexible-python-web-framework/

<comment><USER2> This is basically spam. The post has very little information. In fact,you have to scroll past the ads to even see any content. Sure, some sites will hit you with a popup ad before you can view content, but this is okay if the article has value (and a word count which is greater than the total word count of the ads on the site.) This site has clearly been built for ads and probably driven by very cheap article writers.

Edit: I don't see why people spam hacker news. There's a relatively small segment of people on the web who are responsible for clicking on ads and buying from affiliates. Hacker news is not that sort of audience.

Edit: Edit: Yep, user has 1 Karma and one submission (guess which one?) No comments.</comment>


United States, once tallest, has been overtaken by Netherlands since the 50s - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-the-tallest-of-them-all-its-no-longer-the-americans-11553254201 <comment><USER2> It's pretty obvious this is about immigration and origin, not income or healthcare.

Mesoamericans, which became Central Americans, and have since immigrated in large numbers to the US, tend to be shorter than Europeans.

Japan has some of the healthiest people on Earth, as measured by things like nutrition, healthcare, and lifespan. But they are still shorter on average than the much poorer Estonians.

It feels like the author is inappropriately shoehorning this data into a statement about healthcare.

<comment><USER3> I thought the same thing until I got to this part:

"Based on white and black U.S.-born adults ... Asians and Hispanics, who would make Americans appear even shorter, are excluded to better illuminate how the U.S. compares to Western Europeans."

Turns it from a "well, duh" to a "wow, interesting".

<comment><USER4> Arabs/North Africans are also shorter. But I don't know how many the US has.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The reason why the Dutch are tall is they have less of a preference for shorter women: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/08/scientists- try...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/08/scientists-try-to- answer-why-dutch-people-are-so-tall)

I used to work for an ISP in Amsterdam. I sent a network engineer to the US. He had never even had a passport before. When he returned, he told me: "I used to have a stereotype of Americans as short, fat people. Now I know it is a fact" (he was 1m95/6'6")

</comment><comment><USER6> Given how height conveys many advantages, including higher pay* thanks to people's biases of taller = leader, I wonder how long it will be before people start genetically modifying their unborn children to be taller.

* [https://www.payscale.com/career-news/2016/03/theres-a-new-ty...](https://www.payscale.com/career-news/2016/03/theres-a-new-type-of-pay-gap-the-height-and-weight-pay-gap)

<comment><USER7> Does anyone besides pop psychologists actually believe that?

<comment><USER8> People have studied this. The effect is IIRC each inch of height for a man (within the sampled range) confers a 1-2% increase in income, after adjusting for other easily measured factors (race, education, hours worked, etc.)

To give a sense of scale, a 5'4" man faces a larger "height gap" than the adjusted gender gap for women.

<comment><USER9> This doesn't necessarily mean what you think it would mean. As always the problem with social sciences is that correlation != causation. For instance taller people also have higher IQs. [1] Its for reasons like this that I think we're rather more likely to recreate Frankenstein than Gattaca.

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

<comment><USER10> Although it's entirely possible that height and/or attractiveness as an advantageous cultural norm also explains this. If height is seen as attractive, and beauty leads to more opportunities in education (more accessible peer tutoring partners, better study group interaction, more likely to get help from a teacher, etc).

But yes, teasing out the actual causes for anything like that seems impossibly hard (without breaking ethical guidelines), thus we have a lot of conjecture.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> My mom and I are six feet tall; from Indiana. Took her to Amsterdam last year for a few weeks; she said it was the first time she didn't feel like a freak.

<comment><USER12> I'm also 6' tall. I feel like a giant on the east coast (US). On the west coast, I feel just a little above-average.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you visit Holland, this becomes pretty obvious, Dutch and 6'5" myself. I speculate milk culture might be a factor.

<comment><USER14> Milk culture as in a cultural aspect of drinking milk, or the bacteria in the milk?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Can someone please sum it up for those that don't have a subscription?

<comment><USER16> > "As for why the height of Americans has plateaued, while the Dutch continue > to grow like weeds, Dr. Komlos theorized that it is because of differences > in nutrition, health care and spending.

"Average income is a very misleading indicator," Dr. Komlos said. "It depends on who gets that income, and how it is used. If you're healthier, if you go to the doctor regularly, you're likely to live longer. And you're also likely to become taller."

<comment><USER17> The Dutch have gained 8 inches in height, on average, over the last 150 years. Americans meanwhile onl gained 6cm of height

'Natural selection'. From another, similar article:

Average-height women seemed to be favored when it came to having kids, even though taller women had kids who I'm sure the height of the average American has been lowered by immigration from typically shorter people from China, Mexicao, and India were more likely to survive. That, in turn, contributed to the reproductive success of tall men.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> (Via reddit) There is a way to get around the paywall for all articles with no limits. WSJ considers links to articles from Facebook to be advertising, and allows full access. Next time you find a WSJ article you want to read, simply paste the following address BEFORE the address of the paywalled article in your URL bar:

[http://facebook.com/l.php?u=](http://facebook.com/l.php?u=)

<comment><USER19> If you can afford a subscription, please consider supporting our Free Press. Last year, 53 journalists like khashoggi were murdered in their quest to keep us informed. America's leader has a war on the Fourth Estate constantly labeling them, "Fake News". American Journalists are paying the price for this toxic rhetoric.[2][3] In this time more than ever, those that can afford it, please support real journalism like WSJ, NYT, and Wapo.

Social Media has been a gift to dictators, allowing them to speak directly to their subjects. It also has embolden them to use violence against journalists that report the world in a way that conflicts with their message.

I've been trying to do my part by giving out digital subscriptions to friends and family that share actual fake news on social media.

[1] [https://www.apnews.com/2deb8e97a7454800803bc5d156c36d2f](https://www.apnews.com/2deb8e97a7454800803bc5d156c36d2f)

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

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2018_United_States_mai...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2018_United_States_mail_bombing_attempts)

<comment><USER20> Some good people got murdered, so give your money to this big corporation? I don't follow.

<comment><USER19> First of all there are still local newspapers that have enough business to support investigative journalism. We can thank the Miami Herald for their work in breaking the Trump labor Sec. / Epstein scandal wide open. [1]

Secondly there are nonprofit like ProPublica that do amazing work. They were a major force that brought the dangers of fracking into light.[2]

Finally, Investigative journalism isn't cheap. The orgs need to pay a salary and travel costs for months and years on a story that may or may not pan out. In an interview, the journalist that broke it said that it took months to research and fact check an anonymous tip to develop it into a full blow story.

So no, I don't feel bad about NYT being a "corporation" when their quality journalism brings to light stores like this.

[1] [https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html)

[2] [https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking](https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking)

[3] [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/d...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald- trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html?module=inline)

<comment><USER20> This is a more reasonable line of argument. Start with this rather than "pay party A in order to balance out harms to party B".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> >What is immigration?

<comment><USER22> Not sure why you're being downvoted. Immigrants into the USA come from shorter countries so that is a likely factor.

<comment><USER17> It's amazing how much taller second and third generation immigrants are than their parents/grandparents.

It's all diet. I'm ten inches taller than my grandfather and 7 inches taller than my dad. When I was a kid I remember my granda joking about eating 'white people food' like milk, peanut butter and jelly, and hamburgers, and that being why I got so tall.

<comment><USER23> I'm curious if this is mainly due to the diet being healthier, or due to hormones that are given to cows and eventually transferred to the consumer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Is immigration considered as a factor in such studies? Because many of the tallest nations in Europe are some of the least ethnically diverse.

Also, 4 out of 10 tallest nations in the world are from former Yugoslavia, which is one of the poorest regions of Europe[1].

[1] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/the- tal...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/the-tallest-and- shortest-countries-in-the-world/)

<comment><USER25> Not sure if i understood you correctly, but just in case : Japan is a enthnically very not diverse, and has a very short population. Some ethnicities are taller than others, for sure. So in a way, japan could benefit from immigration from holland, should it happen one day.

<comment><USER24> If you looked at the tallest and the shortest nations in the world, you would see, that most of them are not ethnically diverse at all.

My point is, that the height of a person has nothing to do with the income, but rather with his anchestry.

And because the US is extremely etnically diverse, making any conclusions is pointless.

<comment><USER26> malnutrition during early childhood causes low height: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunted_growth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunted_growth)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Uberization of Money - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uberization-of-finance-1446835102?mod=trending_now_2 <comment><USER2> They've re-invented the Promissory note

Historically, promissory notes have acted as a form of privately issued currency ... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promissory_note](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promissory_note)

</comment><comment><USER3> Yet another article about the somethingization of money that doesn't mention decentralized currency, or even plain old digital. I get that people love hating Bitcoin, but isn't it fashionable at the very least to nod at the underlying technology?</comment>


Ask HN: To do or not to do? - <AUTHOR>

Hi guys,
I recently tried to canvas that market by creating a launch page on Launch Rock. So far I have 66 pageviews and 5 people have provided their email (7.58% conversion rate).
I'm wondering if I should follow through with this project of mine, continue to collect more stats to validate my product or abandon the idea.
Thanks! Cheers!
Link: http://signup.resumati.ca <comment><USER2> Click: <http://signup.resumati.ca/>

That landing page shows nothing about how you plan to solve this problem. If I were going to be interested, I'd want to see something specific about how you are approaching this problem.

This could be mockup screenshots, or a list of features, but I want to know how you are approaching this problem in a unique manner.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't understand what you do, but I still think you should follow through with it. Worst case scenario, you'll fail and learn one heck of a lot. Best case scenario, it will be successful.

On the other hand, if you don't follow through, you definitely will not succeed. And, if you're really an entrepreneur, you'll spend the rest of your life asking 'what if...'.....

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I've just added the link to the post.

Any advice on the marketing copy?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> That's not much to go on. What's your business about? It could be that your idea is great but your launch page didn't do a great job exciting people.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's basically a job posting/candidate organizer.. think Taleo.

<comment><USER4> Ah, I can see why you might not have gotten a great response. That's something very specific that a person wouldn't really be interested in unless they're hiring or need a job. Its also something people would wait and see how it turns out before they would get excited about it. I say go for it. If you're really good it will be worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. So far, I've had several people mention to go for it. I'm wondering if I should build out an MVP or work on creating just a marketing page with a screenshot on what the product looks like?

<comment><USER4> Build out an MVP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> OT: in what language are you gonna develop Resumati?

<comment><AUTHOR> I was planning to go for Python with Django back-end and the usual HTML/CSS/JS front-end :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Any good stock trading API's for international traders? - <AUTHOR> I live in Dubai and it seems that most good stock trading API's are in the US, but they require a social security number which I don't have, so are there any good alternatives that are accessible to international traders?<p>I want to be able to purchase stocks, not just list/view them. <comment><USER2> Interactive Brokers is the best solution I know of. Java/C++/C#/Python API's

</comment><comment><USER3> Check out Interactive Brokers</comment>


Top Programming Fonts - <AUTHOR> http://hivelogic.com/articles/view/top-10-programming-fonts

<comment><USER2> By my reckoning, six of the ten have major flaws that make them completely unacceptable for use as a programming font. Courier, Profont, Consolas, and Incosolata all have insufficient distinctions between 'l' (lowercase L) and '1' (one). Droid Sans Mono has an 'O' (uppercase O) that can pass for '0' (zero). Perhaps by virtue of the font size, Proggy has a lowercase L that can pass for a vertical bar at a glimpse. If you look closely, Proggy's lowercase L looks like a one -- this is less of an issue because it is visually distinct from Proggy's one glyph, but I still don't like it.

<comment><USER3> For day-to-day programming, why does l/1, O/0 matter? I usually don't see them in contexts where they could be confused.

<comment><USER2> A few cases that have occurred over the years:

1\. Working with inherited code, one of the original programmers had an identifier I _believed_ was "el" (short for "element") but that was actually "e1" (presumably short for "element 1"). You don't know frustration until your compiler tells you "undefined identifier 'el'" when, by all appearances, there's nothing wrong with your code. Not only did I waste a couple of hours on this, but the stress probably shortened my life by a few hours, too.

2\. Embarrassingly enough: For reasons that I don't understand, I have on a couple of occasions typed a zero where I meant to type an uppercase 'O'. I shipped Python code that had a bug in it because I assigned a value to "box0ffset" instead of "boxOffset". The bug was thankfully minor, and I obviously must have been smoking crack to make this typo, but it has happened and could have been avoided if I'd been using a good font.

3\. I've seen C code (I think in an open source project) where the programmer typed something along the lines of "100l". He probably meant to type "100L" and just missed the SHIFT key. By this time, I'd switched to a font that had an "l" that was clearly distinct from a "1", but I imagine that I would have otherwise been utterly perplexed.

These are probably not everyday examples. The circumstances in which confusion is possible are rare. But they _do_ happen and are (in some sense) expensive. At the very least, it's a whole class of errors that's easily and cheaply avoided by choosing an attractive font that minimizes the opportunities for confusion. Why risk the frustration?

<comment><USER4> I always thought it was amusing that the 3 is right above the 3, and the 0 above the o. I've made a few "leet-speak" errors in the past just due to finger-slips.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love 'Bitstream Vera Sans Mono'. I've tried tons of fonts, but always fall back on that. I use Ruby a lot, and it complements the language nicely…

<comment><USER6> Indeed, I've been using this font since watching the railscasts by Ryan Bates and it's great. I was using the standard Monaco before.

I don't know why but switching to a new font made me a happier programmer!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For whatever reason, I can't stand how Windows or FreeType anti-alias Inconsolata. But on a Mac, it's dreamy.

It is, however, somewhat annoying when I exuberantly recommend a typeface, only to see it become rather unusable when rendered by another system.

<comment><USER8> if you like inconsolata on the mac, try consolas which is very similar but in my opinion just a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Terminus is by far my favorite. I am disappointed it was not mentioned.

<http://fractal.csie.org/~eric/wiki/Terminus_font>

apt-get install xfonts-terminus

<comment><USER10> The only real alternative to Terminus is LispM font:

<http://www.eurogaran.com/downloads/lispmfont/>

A similar appearance! The CADR was dreamy in many ways, even its screen font.

Downside: only one size...

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> _In the past, we've had to decide between tiny monospace fonts or jagged edges. But today, modern operating systems do a great job of anti-aliasing, making monospace fonts look great at any size. It's not 1990 anymore. Give your tired eyes a break and bump up that font size._

No, thanks. All the anti-aliased screenshots in his post look blurry and some make me outright cringe.

Also he missed my personal favorite: <http://www.netalive.org/tinkering/triskweline/>

<comment><USER12> That's a good-looking font, but I personally need a big visual distinction, like a slash or a dot, between O's and 0's. (I do like the distinction between l's and 1's, though - lots of fonts screw that up.)

<comment><USER11> Well, I think I would prefer a slashed zero for confidence, too, but can't say this has ever been an issue in my years of real world use.

<comment><USER12> That's why I said "I personally". :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Colsolas was the best thing to come out of Vista. In fact, it's the only thing I kept when I switched back to XP, and later, to OS X.

<comment><USER14> I used Consolas for ages, but now switched back to DejaVu Mono, mostly because it's thinner horizontally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like Consolas, but when I first tried it I thought it was rubbish.

It turns out the problem was my Windows box had Clear Type font smoothing disabled.

So make sure you have Clear Type enabled:

<http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4449#4449>

</comment><comment><USER16> No mention of Dina? That's a shame. I love Proggy, but Dina is much more readable IMO. (It's on the Proggy site as well)

</comment><comment><USER17> ProFont - what other font is easily readable down to 6pt?

<comment><USER8> upvoted because profont is simply lovely, but i can't get it to work reasonably on the mac.

switched first to inconsolata, but i like consolas a little bit better.

<comment><USER17> I haven't tried it on the Mac yet only because I don't have a way to unstuff it w/o enduring that horrible stuffit website...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Pragmata is absolutely wonderful on OS X IMHO (<http://www.fsd.it/fonts/pragma.htm>)

It's kinda pricey, but so beautiful when sized and anti-aliased right.

</comment><comment><USER19> Tried all of them, still using LuxiMono.. love it.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas_aylott/294076124/>

<http://wiki.macromates.com/Main/AlternativeFonts>

</comment><comment><USER20> I used to use Bitstream Vera Sana Mono but I switched to using Liberation Mono, it was released for free by the red hat guys. <https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/>

I'd recommend both, but I like Liberation Mono more.

</comment><comment><USER21> Also in the category of improved Vera family fonts is Espresso, which ships with the web editor of the same name (<http://macrabbit.com/espresso/>).

</comment><comment><USER22> I used Anonymous for a while, but then I switched to Consolas. I'm not sure if Anonymous is free or not. One site wants to charge you for it, and another has it for free(no, not the Pirate Bay!).

</comment><comment><USER23> Call me ancient, but I really miss the 3278, with its distinctive 6's and 9's. I never could find its original bitmaps, much less a vector font like it.

</comment><comment><USER24> I've been using Panic Sans for a while. It ships with Coda and you can grab it out of the application package.

</comment><comment><USER25> I am a big fan of Envy Type R.

<comment><USER26> You probably mean Envy Code R? And yes, it's a great font. I wouldn't use any other.

<comment><USER25> haha, yeah, that is an embarrassing mixup. i even use it under linux and os x these days.</comment></comment></comment>


How Fiat Chrysler's Proposed Merger With Renault Crashed - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-fiat-chryslers-proposed-merger-with-renault-crashed-11559860056 <comment><USER2> Disclosure: im an automotive mechanic for a chain of midwest shops. Chrysler has been the "frat boy on probation" for nearly 40 years now. Renault was wise to reconsider what they would get.

wind back the clock to Daimler Chrysler and youll see there was nothing but mistrust from the start. German execs wanted an inroad into an american market segment that their luxury brands couldnt target at the time, and Chrysler wanted cash and technology. In the end, Daimler wound up with almost nothing in terms of IP or licensing, and Chrysler got the E class for its charger and challenger. Right down to the windows that roll down when you exit and enter by a few centimeters.

Fiat was at least pragmatic about its interaction and kept Chrysler at arms length. they got the GM fiat small platform developed almost entirely for them as they pumped cash into chrysler. The bitter irony here is that Chrysler once partnered with Maserati to get them off the ground, and now the same group is basically taking them to the cleaners. the promasters made it to the states as basically rebadged Ducatos basically at cost. Chrysler saw very limited revenue from it.

Chryslers other big problem is they are market-blind. Their strong suits are already dominated by fiat. Americans want reliable cheap cars that are good on gas, but things like the Charger RT and Hellcat challenger are loss-leaders that arent doing much of anything but filling press releases and patching the bald spots on the dwindling boomer market that remembers hellcat (and can afford it.)

<comment><USER3> Fiat got Chrysler to get Ram and Jeep. Ram took off very well and recently had landed many accolades for their trucks. Jeep turned around nicely but has seen a slide for the last few quarters but has a solid foundation of vehicles to include their first PHEV and pickup. Chrysler/Dodge are mostly sustained by their minivans. Chrysler/Dodge was the first of the American brands to ditch sedans. Ford and GM followed.

Challenger/Charger are FCA's pony cars kept to compete with Camaro and Mustang. Combine the two FCA cars with their sibling the 300 and that was nearly two hundred thousand sales, not bad for an old platform. What keeps them going, they don't get stuck with the same boring colors year to year and get other tweaks people want from them. However they are one of the biggest risk factors for FCA too as they are vulnerable to fuel prices.

Renault simply is not a good fit because getting Renault means taking France too and that would pretty much sink them in legacy costs and employment structures. The better opportunity is to look to both China but locally to move East into the long gone Warsaw pact states.

FCA's real loss was the passing of Marchionne before he could do an orderly and planned handing off control to a picked successor.

<comment><USER4> These models won't sell well in former Warsaw Pact states. Most of them are in the EU now and fuel is quite expensive. People in those states buy mainly used German cars, mainly diesels, plus cheap domestic cars (Dacia and Skoda) and French cars (Renault and PSA brands). They'd probably sell in North Africa and maybe the Arabic peninsula but that's debatable. The Emiratis are so well off that their police drives Lamborghinis, so I pretty much doubt they'll buy Dodge Chargers. China will just copy whatever model and produce a lookalike at 1/3 the price. They did it with the Range Rover Evoque and other cars.

<comment><USER5> > cheap domestic cars (Dacia and Skoda)

(Owned by Renault and VW Group respectively, for those unfamiliar with those marquees.)

<comment><USER4> And built domestically or in Casablanca, Morocco. Skodas built in India, Russia or China are for those particular markets.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The merger may have helped the companies technologically but from my naive perspective it seems like what each of the companies need more than anything is a stronger QA department. From what I hear about Renault they are a little shoddy and I know from personal experience the level of quality from Jeep/dodge/ram/Chrysler.

Also, typically most companies only want to buy Jeep when looking at FCA because it's the real money maker from what I hear. I wonder if a merger would ultimately lead to companies like Chrysler being shuttered due to redundancy. That'd be a big loss of jobs.

And on another side note it's intriguing to think about a company that would have spanned four countries and how so many different personalities and cultures would have been able to work together.

<comment><USER7> _" Typically most companies only want Jeep when looking at FCA because it's the real money maker from what I hear"_

The Ram trucks are 3rd behind Ford and Chevy in sales, but only very slightly behind Chevy. And way ahead of number 4, Toyota trucks. I imagine that's attractive also.

<comment><USER8> Jeep (34% in 2018) and Ram (16%) account now for more than half of the sales of the group. In units, because in dollars it will be more and in earnings probably much more (but I don't think the company discloses that info).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> [http://archive.is/mZuEc](http://archive.is/mZuEc)

<comment><USER10> Gooood bless you sir!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Dodge has the oldest lineup there is:

[https://jalopnik.com/the-entire-dodge-car-lineup-is-old- as-h...](https://jalopnik.com/the-entire-dodge-car-lineup-is-old-as- hell-1823834029)

</comment><comment><USER7> Are the current Renault vehicles competitive? From the US, so I don't have much insight into the brand outside of Nissan.

<comment><USER4> Yes, they are cheap. Not particulary reliable but okay, kind of like most French cars. They'll get you from point A to point B. They've got EVs. If you want a better trim you buy Nissan, which is more and more like an overpriced Renault. Not what they used to be. I remember the old Patrol GRs, built like a tank.

<comment><USER12> My personal experience of French cars is that they're cheap, but you get what you pay for. I recall a Renault Clio I had several years ago, bought new, where almost immediately after the 3 year warranty expired the problems stated - a door handle literally came off in my hand, the gear knob came off in my hand, and _numerous_ electrical problems occurred.

I made the mistake of buying French cars for years after that (because they were cheap, and I guess I kind of am too!), but eventually learned my lesson.

<comment><USER13> I salute to you, had the same impression on French cars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Renaults are the only cars sold in the middle east whose entire range have steering mounted speed limiters. I love that feature.

<comment><USER15> When you say speed limiter are you referring to cruise control? Or an actual speed limiter that won't let you go over X kph with your foot on the pedal?

If the latter, it seems like a strange feature to have/want.

<comment><USER16> > If the latter, it seems like a strange feature to have/want.

Seems dangerous - to not be able to accelerate out of a collision in an emergency if that is the safest thing to do.

<comment><USER17> I'm dubious that accelerating out of danger is the 'best' option in any but the most contrived of circumstances.

<comment><USER16> I said 'safest' \- I don't know who you're quoting with 'best'.

But if your options are hard breaking or hard accelerating, it's easy to see when hard acceleration is better - when someone is immediately behind you and the road ahead is clear, and then for example someone swerving into your lane from the side

<comment><USER17> "when someone is immediately behind you and the road ahead is clear, and then for example someone swerving into your lane from the side"

If someone swerves into your lane you accelerate... into them? Unless its a really wide road (12 lanes?) where you have plenty of time to see that person, and somehow know they're going to pull into your lane, but you can't pull into another lane because Theres too much traffic. As I said, contrived examples.

(wasn't quoting you btw, just put best in inverted commas, as there's a lot of different interpretations for best)

<comment><USER16> > If someone swerves into your lane you accelerate... into them?

Obviously not. Accelerate out of their way.

<comment><USER17> "Obviously not"

Well I didn't think so either, I still don't see how it would work though, if they swerve into your lane ahead of you, you should brake, if they were behind you, you probably wouldn't see them, so there's a very narrow range where you can both see them and plausibly argue that accelerating is a reasonable option, and even then it seems to me at the very least, braking would be no worse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Although Renault have joint ventures and plenty of operations around the globe they are part owned by the French government and that government are keen to hold on to their auto sector. Their sector is different to what the German marques chase on the international stage, however, French cars are very popular in France. Whatever government is in Paris they are obligated to defend the French auto sector, they would be very unpopular if they did not.

Meanwhile, what does FIAT make in Italy these days?

FIAT get cars made in the former Eastern Europe, slap an Italian flag on and pass off the product as having Italian design. That is what motorists buy into, the Italian style and not the Italian workmanship. They don't care if the tin box is made in Timbuktu, so long as it expresses their personality in some way then they will buy it.

Italy has gone the way of the British auto sector, they have lost the ability to have Italian companies making mass market cars in actual Italy. Sure there are few thousand Ferraris and other lifestyle accessories churned out but those FIAT 500 cars for the ladies are not made in Italy. Those days are over.

Aside from the poor communication between Renault and Nissan, the proposed deal strikes me as over pushed by the FCA management. It went down with the French establishment as well as the post-Brexit British idea of outsourcing the NHS to American private healthcare providers. A complete non-starter because the management was not a cultural fit. Having Renault thrown in with some brash American led FCA was not on the table. The publicity for the merger was over-eager, as if that would make it happen by making it appear the deal was as good as done.

It is important to understand how the 'captains of industry' work. They are capitalists, not Marxist social workers. They don't care about making jobs or even delivering a product for the regular working/middle class person. They are not cast from the same stuff as Henry Ford. They get their bonuses for merger and acquisition activity and move on to the next deal.

<comment><USER19> > Meanwhile, what does FIAT make in Italy these days?

Quite a bit, it turns out:

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

<comment><USER18> The Panda and the 500x. Those are the two models FIAT make in Italy with the FIAT badge on them.

The wider group makes Maserati and you don't see many of them in your supermarket car park.

The 500x is not to be confused with the multitude of other 500 models. As in the ones you actually see.

As for the Panda:

"The decision to manufacture the car in Italy, instead of manufacturing it with the cheaper workforce in Tychy, Poland, was taken because of the agreement between Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Fiat directors not to close down any of Fiat's plants in Italy."

Almost forgot about the Ducato van.

This gets more interesting as it is a joint venture with PSA. There are Peugeot and Citroen versions so exactly how a merger would work out with Renault could be interesting. Renault partner with Mercedes in the category.

So a few thousand Maserati things, the vans and a few cars kept being made in Italy so as to keep the government happy. It's a lot but not a lot.

Anyway, it is just final assembly we are talking about. Where do the components come from? The final bit of putting the jigsaw puzzle is what we all think a car factory is but there is always 10x the jobs in the component suppliers. Get rid of the factory though and the local demand for the components is gone. I suspect all the components business for FIAT has moved over to Poland and elsewhere for the same reasons - people don't have rentseekers demanding vast sums out of them every month in these 'lower wage' economies.

<comment><USER19> The Panda is the top-selling car in Italy by a huge margin.

[http://listino.motori24.ilsole24ore.com/auto- prezzi/classifi...](http://listino.motori24.ilsole24ore.com/auto- prezzi/classifiche/le-auto-piu-vendute-in-italia/)

And the 500X is the best-selling version of the 500.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are the essential Linux sysadmin skills - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
Just to give a you a little bit of background, I'm a software developer. I do mostly Python, Node.js and a little bit of Golang.
At work and in my personal projects, I was exposed to DevOps and Linux admin, which I do, but lightly. (I manage my own VPS', I've played with Ansible, I can create users and all ...)
I'm currently looking to expand my set of skills to Linux System Administration and I would like to know the essential abilities a sysadmin should be able to demonstrate to be taken seriously.
(I don't necessarly want to leave software development but If I ever get tired of it, I can totally see myself hacking away in Linux and get paid to do it)
Cheers <comment><USER2> Hi, there is a big (partial) list of software, you can take a look at it:

        https://github.com/kahun/awesome-sysadmin

I think you can assume that every title is a skill? :mumble:</comment>


The Etiquette of the Victorian Ballroom: Twenty Tips for Single Gentlemen - <AUTHOR> https://mimimatthews.com/2017/05/08/the-etiquette-of-the-victorian-ballroom-twenty-tips-for-single-gentlemen/ <comment><USER2> #1 ("When you receive an invitation to a ball, answer it immediately.") is really important. I can't tell you how many relationships (friendship, professional, or romantic) I've screwed up simply by not being a prompt responder. In the times, places, and relationships I've made prompt-responding a priority, everything goes better.

<comment><USER3> That advice was written when immediate answer meant writing a letter by hand and give it to someone who would ride his horse to the host. These days an immediate answer can be 10 seconds or less, so I'm not sure being really immediate would be a good practice. Fast yes, immediate... not sure.

<comment><USER4> An answer can be had in 10 seconds or less, but you still need to pull teeth to get people to respond to an invitation. Email, evite, SMS, whatever. You will still get a certain % of people that won't reply until you nag them for the fourth time.

And then you'll _still_ get a % of no-replies that show up at the event unannounced.

<comment><USER5> This is really something that annoys me in the 21st century; that despite a formal invite (FB Event, email, even olde-worldy paper invite) people feel it's still OK to either hedge their bets right up to the last minute, or simply not show up even if they had previously rsvp'd to the contrary.

Most people these days simply have no manners.

<comment><USER6> An alternative stance to take could be to not expect people to behave how you want them to and just be happy if people turn up. (You're free to do what you like of course !)

Someone may be on Facebook just to keep a contact list, not to use it. Someone may not have turned up because their mother was in hospital. Maybe they were about to RSVP but then their kid fell over, then it was dinner time etc. Maybe some people just to prefer not to pre-plan everything in advance.

<comment><USER4> Try planning a wedding, conference, bus trip, or dinner party where an exact head count helps, if it's not completely mandatory.

You _could_ be an ass and say "sorry, no RSVP, no entry", but most people will _try_ to show a modicum of etiquette more than the guests and accommodate the fools somehow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Man, I think it'd be so cool if etiquette was a core class in grade school (perhaps stripped of some 1850s sensibilities).

Most of the upper-class people I know would sooner go to the club and dry-hump a stranger than throw a cocktail/dinner party (much less waltz). I'm all for having fun and using a salad fork to eat dessert, but I'd be interested to see the world with like 25% less depravity.

<comment><USER8> I see this a lot on Hacker News and I really don't understand why. Who cares if people "go to the club and dry-hump a stranger"? What if I like cocktail parties AND clubs? Where do I fall in your moral binary? Furthermore, what's wrong with your so-called depravity? You do realize that you just said you wanted manners without 1850s sensibilities and then proceeded to invoke those same 1850s sensibilities, right?

In other words, come down off your high horse; let people like what they like.

<comment><USER7> Woah I was not trying to make a personal attack, so I don't think hating on me from a throwaway is really called for. I know that a lot of people like doing those things because I hang out with them and often do them too.

You _really_ got me wrong. I was trying to open a dialogue on shifting norms, not assume a position of moral superiority.

<comment><USER9> "I was trying to open a dialogue on shifting norms"

Why can't you just LARP for fun? People do stuff like civil war encampments and renn faires because they're huge fun. A LARP club that gets dressed up and dances to the waltz sounds like an unusual, interesting time.

(Edited to add, I've not been to a SCA event but would I be correct in predicting there might be a waltz at a SCA event?)

<comment><USER10> There's dancing, but its Rennaisance; the Waltz isn't period.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'd like to suggest that anyone who hasn't tried it, try and find beginner- level ballroom classes nearby. It's a ton of fun.

<comment><USER12> Any social partner dance, really. "Ballroom dancing" may evoke mental images of old-fashioned dances in a formal setting, but there's a huge selection of different dances, some very modern and casual. West Coast Swing [1] is my passion. Its roots are in Lindy Hop, the grandfather of swing dances (and itself very fun to dance) but it's modern and smooth and sexy and mostly danced to contemporary popular music.

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

<comment><USER13> +1 on WCS. My only regret was not taking dancing lessons early. Guys, one of the easiest things to improve self esteem and to have fun at social occasions like weddings is to learn some basic dance steps. It's not as hard as it seems and the basic classes do assume you can't dance at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Don't Presume on an Acquaintance

I really like this advice. You dance and you leave. No phone number exchange, no text messages, no selfies, no follow ups.

<comment><USER15> In my early 20s, I used to meet girls at a country swing dancing place. I was really nerdy and this gave me a chance to practice interacting with women and I got quite a few dates off of it.

Some of my fellow nerds tried to do the same thing but they made this big mistake: they'd think just because the girl danced with them, they could try for a phone number. It would make the girls really uncomfortable. Other people would see that, and it made it harder to get another girl to dance with.

I took a different strategy: I danced with any girl, made them smile (I was good at dancing with beginners and I recycled the same few jokes over and over), and then move on. Sometimes the girl would show interest and that's when I'd go for a phone number.

And if the girl wasn't interested (vast majority of the time), they'd still tell their friends how fun I am, or other people would see the whole interaction and I'd quickly feel like a rockstar.

<comment><USER16> That's a good observation. A lot of guys ask how to meet women (well everyone asks how to meet everyone). The key is to engage in social activities where you expand your social circle.

Here's the thing - most activities that expand your social circle are _not_ actually focused on finding a date, because most people are paired up and.or otherwise aren't looking for a date. As a result, you need to engage sincerely in the activity itself, and not try to romanticize (which is the mildest form of what you shouldn't do) every encounter.

Ballroom dancing, tennis leagues (such as mixed doubles), and other activities that mix men and women are good choices. But yes, in most of these cases, the people involved not only won't be looking for a date, and it's extremely important not to treat them as events where people are looking for a date. They aren't, and people involved in them may in fact resent the implication that this is the primary purpose for their participation.

Ironically, that's why they work so well for expanding your social circle. If they were about dating, 90% of the people involved in them wouldn't be involved, and the network effect would collapse.

Also - once people know and like you, _of course_ they don't mind that you are single and would are interested in meeting single people in the same spot. There is a time honored tradition of introducing people to each other under exactly these circumstances.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > At a public ball, it is exceptional for a gentleman to offer to escort a > lady home: she is pretty sure to refuse, unless ____ but we need not supply > that blank!

Hasn't changed.

</comment><comment><USER18> I love these pieces that give an insight into another time. There is a certain old world charm to this. There is a lot of encouragement to to be thoughtful and put others first. This is what gracious means. And that's timeless.

But its also about a context that may not be common anymore. Our standards of behavior are much more laid back. I suspect its very rare for most people now be among strangers in a formal-informal context without friends in tow and in groups this reduces the overall level of formality. The risk of overt graciousness out of context is it might come off as affected.

</comment><comment><USER19> Reading historical advice, I find I must continually remind myself that it isn't descriptive. All these things happened with some regularly or they wouldn't have needed the advice!

</comment><comment><USER20> > "At a public ball, it is exceptional for a gentleman to offer to escort a > lady home: she is pretty sure to refuse, unless ____ but we need not supply > that blank!"

On the contrary, you need.

<comment><USER21> In that climate (and frankly still present in a lot of places), it's a major character slur to imply an unmarried woman going home with strange men.

(as mentioned at #11, this is the time when the waltz was still a bit racey and mildly controversial)

<comment><USER22> 123, 123, 123.

The thing Victorian teenage day dreams were made of.

<comment><USER11> I'll bet you're just thinking of the box-step (the super basic step where you basically walk in a box shape).

If I'm not misremembering my lessons--to do some of the turns properly, the woman has to be essentially straddling the man's upper leg. It was a pain to do some of those with partners who weren't comfortable with that kind of contact.

<comment><USER22> I believe one of the defining characteristics of the Waltz is that its done in 3/4 time.

<comment><USER11> Right, I just mean that the way you phrased it sounded like you were picturing a super vanilla, middle-school-dance-esque box-stepping couple (in 3/4 time).

All's I meant is I can see how waltz was considered risque; as a sheltered guy, I was caught really off-guard when our instructor positioned my partner and I in the way I described.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23>
      #8 Don't Whisper to the Ladies.

      "To affect an air of secrecy or mystery when conversing
      in a ballroom is a piece of impertinence for which no
      lady of delicacy will thank you."

Nowadays, don't most people find whispering in a loud setting a kind of intimate thing from partner to partner? I personally find it has the effect of making a big event smaller, more about "us."

<comment><USER24> It's more about shouting directly into each others ears over loud music.

<comment><USER25> Do that thing I like...

"DO YOU WANNA GET A DRINK!?"

<comment><USER8> Fun fact: if it's ridiculously loud somewhere, just cover your ears (and have your conversation partner cover theirs), and you'll be able to speak to each other at a fairly normal volume. Works great for concerts and clubs especially.

<comment><USER25> Noise Reduction, closer range. Makes sense I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> For a slightly more modern and irreverent take on social customs I can thoroughly recommend obtaining a copy of J.P. Donleavy's _" The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners"_:

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

</comment><comment><USER27> Reminds me of this tidbit on etiquette from the 1940s, "Junior Prom". "Let's follow these students as they go on a date and see if their manners have anything to do with their fun."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7sHCAG69Wg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7sHCAG69Wg)

</comment><comment><USER28> Speed dating in the 19th century. :-)

One of the most interesting artifacts of the time is this:

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

Women had to keep a careful list of the men that they would dance with during that night, each lasting about five minutes.

</comment><comment><USER29> It's important to remember that these sources are still only advice/self-help books. The authors may have had limited practical experience, for all we know.

</comment><comment><USER30> Consider how many of these tips might apply to the dance of entrepreneurs looking for funding, and VCs looking for their next investment.

</comment><comment><USER31> How true half of this is today. And thank god how I had to follow near to zero of it to end up happy with my SO.

</comment><comment><USER32> I would say some of the tips are still relevant in modern dance halls (Tango, Walz, Salsa, ....).

</comment><comment><USER33> Ironically... these all apply to the modern dance floor at most places you can two-step or swing these days (yes we two-step out in the midwest)

</comment><comment><USER34> This soo reminds me of Don in The Rosie Project. It is what Don what have read and followed to perfection.

</comment><comment><USER35> In summation:

Be respectful.

Don't make assumptions.

An interesting read, nevertheless.

<comment><USER36> Also: it is your responsibility not to make other people look bad.

I found that interesting. Much of what was recommended was telling the young man to be very careful not to accidentally make anybody feel embarrassed or shamed.

<comment><USER37> That's the core of etiquette... Making others in your presence feel comfortable even at your own expense.

Respect is a separate matter (as anyone who has experienced someone who doesn't like them in the south can attest)

<comment><USER36> Agreed. It is also easily forgotten (or perhaps never taught) in the modern world.

Somebody with good manners always make you feel special and takes care of your needs ahead of theirs. Somehow or another, a ton of people grew up thinking manners and etiquette were about where the forks go at a formal dinner.

<comment><USER37> Yes. Even in the dinner setting case, the forks have a place so that you can feel confident in what you're doing no matter whose house you sit down in. But good hosts also know, if they see their guest start drinking the contents of the finger bowl, the host does the same :)

<comment><USER38> I had heard the expression 'drinking out of the finger bowl' many times as the epitome of uncouth, uncultured behavior. Finally around the age of 30, I found myself for the first time at a dinner where there were _actual_ finger bowls, I could not stop myself and had to pretend to drink out of it.

(But interestingly, I also discovered they're quite useful. The meal featured a bit of a messy seafood course which required eating with your hands, and they allowed a bit of a wash up at the table.)

<comment><USER37> On the flip side of this, growing up eating whole lobster in Maine most of my childhood, the first time I ordered it at a 5-star, haute cuisine restaurant I was extraordinarily disappointed to find out they had already shelled it (albeit beautifully, perfectly) in the kitchen before serving it to me.

<comment><USER39> That is disappointing.

I was very pleased, the first time I ate at a similar restaurant, to be given all kinds of tools with which to attack the large pile of seafood.

(This was in Copenhagen, but two anecdotes isn't enough to generalize.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Make sure to dance quietly! Sounds like a blast.

<comment><USER41> Still happens today on modern social dance floors (read: not the nightclub). You don't want to be stomping your feet on every step unless it's intentional (such as an inflection on a certain part of a song). Otherwise, you're quiet with the feet.

It's actually a lot of fun to be graceful! Quiet with the feet, loud with the dance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> >Just do it

Yes you can!

<comment><USER42> Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN?

We detached this comment from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14291182](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14291182) and marked it off-topic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> M'lady! _tips fedora_

</comment><comment><USER44> A lot of sexist nonsense in this list - I hope it won't be overlooked. We have most definitely moved on from these primitive days as a species ..

<comment><USER45> Surely we all understand what you're pointing out, but the idea of looking back at this is to see what we've forgotten and to learn something of value from the past, which surely does have a lot to offer. If we ignore the wisdom of the past because there are so many mistakes included, we throw the baby out with the bath water.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing that you've ever learned? - <AUTHOR> Not just in terms of the latest framework. But interested whether it's a life lesson, concept, language, theory, tool or trait. <comment><USER2> In terms of raw impact on life, probably the Japanese language.

In terms of "clearly weaponizable in one's business/career", it's "measurement and leverage" from PG's wealth essay. [http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

In terms of "things which I wish I had known when I was much younger", I'll pick "In most things you will become the average of your five closest friends, so choose your peer group carefully." and "Dating is a sales and marketing exercise, with all that that implies." (Granted, telling myself that when I knew nothing about sales or marketing probably wouldn't have helped that much.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Can you elaborate on how Japanese has benefited you? I'm heading over there for a few weeks next year and am considering learning Hiragana/Katakana before I go.

<comment><USER2> Subsequent to learning the language I immigrated to Japan, worked in a Japanese company for a few years (not recommended), married my wife (highly recommended, but sorry, she's taken), and in general built a happy little life here for myself which would not have happened absent learning the language.

If you have a little bandwidth to study Japanese prior to coming you'll get the highest bang for your buck from drilling self-introductions and basic conversations ("$ITEM kudasai.", "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu", "$LOCATION doko desu ka?") until you're blue in the face. Knowing just hiragana and katakana is of limited utility for navigation, since the places where it suffices will likely be English-friendly. (They're great to learn for mind expansion, just tough to operationalize as a tourist.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> "You are more valuable to your employer than they are to you".

That is, once you prove you're good at writing software, you can spend the rest of your career picking and choosing between employers as they suit your whim. There is very little you can do to sabotage your ability to find good gigs in this market (again, once you have established yourself as capable of doing the work).

That means you can treat work as a source of capital to bootstrap the rest of your life, picking it up and dropping it as need be. As you get more valuable, you can ramp down the number of months you need to work to save up the runway you need to last out the rest of the year. And you can spent the rest of your time doing whatever you want.

Personally, I spent a dozen years of that extra time traveling the world, climbing rocks, and building the software product business that's finally letting me skip the "employer" part entirely.

Start doing that when you're 25 and you will have a very fun 30s and 40s. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER4> That most people rarely think of you. People tend to think most of themselves, you included, me included. Not family, or loved ones of course, but the 95% of the mass of people we see on any particular day.

It's very easy to see one's own shabbyness of clothes or behaviour. Well, because you're right there, up close, all the time. Now, do I recall any stains on someone's pocket or thread hanging down on a dress. Maybe, but it's rare, and I have to be looking quite closely.

This isn't license to be smelly and gross, not bathing and wearing clothes with great greasy stain all over them. Instead it's about the +/-5% of wiggle room we get from not being under the great sharp spotlight that it feels like we're under because, well, we're ourselves.

All that said, it's a great idea to pay special attention to one's self for an interview. Because you'll be under great scrutiny at that point, naturally.

</comment><comment><USER5> In terms of financial success, technical skills and know-how cannot overcome poor social skills or lack of connections, no matter how good you are technically. Outside of rare exceptions, social skills and networking are thus inescapable requirements for financial success. Money is by-and-large a social construct that has only limited correlation with quantity _or_ quality of work. In my early years, I unfortunately thought that hard work alone equaled financial success.

</comment><comment><USER6> Reading tptacek's and patio11's advice on salary negotiation has improved my personal finances quite a bit.</comment>


Coordination-Free Consistent Transactions Using In-Network Concurrency Control [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~lijl/papers/eris-sosp17.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> Had to drop Eris from the title due to exceeding the title field length limit.

Code can be found on GitHub [https://github.com/UWSysLab/Eris](https://github.com/UWSysLab/Eris)

</comment><comment><USER2> Great submission. This claim, though...

"Traditionally, achieving all of these goals has required an expensive combination of atomic commitment and replication protocols – introducing extensive coordination overhead. Our system, Eris, takes a different approach. It moves a core piece of concurrency control functionality, which we term multi-sequencing, into the datacenter network itself. This network primitive takes on the responsibility for consistently ordering transactions, and a new lightweight transaction protocol ensures atomicity."

...reminds me of NASA's ROBUS and SPIDER:

[https://shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/fm/spider/](https://shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/fm/spider/)

So, moving integrity and availability mechanisms to hardware in the middle is a proven method. They even did a proof of it. Good to see that kind of thinking is being applied to networking hardware. A tech like this might have most impact at companies like Google that own some of the lines they use. Might even be a value-added service for Tier 1's if we're lucky.</comment>


Cannot sign FSF petition with GMail account? - <AUTHOR>

Cannot sign FSF petition against restricted boot with GMail account?
I am talking about the petition at:
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement
Filled in my name, surname and my gmail address and pushed sign. The next page tells that I will receive an email with a link to confirm the signature. I waited for the email, after some time I got suspicious and checked in the spam folder - nothing there. Thought might be a bug in the systems, tried it again - 3 times. Does not work.
Luckily I have another non-gmail account - tried with it and it worked immediately.
So what's going on? Is FSF blacklisted somewhere, or maybe FSF does not want to send to Google? Did you have the same experience? <comment><USER2> It works with google apps email. Why "ask hn" instead of "ask fsf"? It seems like the fsf might be the best place to get an answer...

</comment><comment><USER2> So with a sample size of n=1 and a control group of n=1 you decided gmail was banned?</comment>


Show HN: Lekh Diagram for Android – A sketch recognition diagramming app - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avabodh.lekh

<comment><USER2> Interesting, it looks like you made this for the iPhone and iPad and got very little love (no comments and only a few points) when posting as Show HNs.

What do you make of that?

<comment><AUTHOR> HN is non predictable. You never know if your are going to make your post to main page or not.

BTW, there were good number of comments in my show HN post for iPad. Don't know why the HN is not showing comments of older post now.

But for iPhone show HN post did not do well. It got only few points

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I downloaded the app with a bit of bit regurd but I was really really please with how it worked on my nexus 4! can't wait to try it on the nexus 7! Well done!

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice arm!

I can't decide whether the arm obscuring most of the screen most of the time, lending the video a folksy charm, should have been eliminated through more professional camera positioning. Another option would be to mount the tablet on a vertical surface at eye level, place the camera at eye level, and then the user's arm will naturally come from below. As it is the camera appears to be mounted on your elbow.

<comment><AUTHOR> agree.. the video recording is very naive. This was recorded with galaxy S4. I am inexperienced in video recording. I still figuring out either this is camera issue or lighting issue.

And there also a orientation (of tablet) issue that you have pointed out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I sometimes managed to draw shapes that were certainly not what I wanted. I mean, they were recognized and redrawn. "Random" rectangles, ovals with corssing lines, ...

And sometimes shape was not recognized even though I think it was nice. But this isn't as much ofa problem as drawing weird shapes. Perhaps if I could somehow select shapes that I want to use?

</comment><comment><USER6> sorry i dont give much value, but: wow. i imagine it'd be great to have this for desktop, combined with wacom tablet.

<comment><USER2> Why wouldn't you give this value? I'm tired of drawing things on napkins and welcome this app.

<comment><USER7> He meant that towards his comment, not the app :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow! This is great! One question: Why is this free. I think this should be a paid app.

<comment><AUTHOR> The free version has advertisement. Advertisement can be removed by in-app purchase.

<comment><USER9> I love how ads brings practically no money and are just an annoyance that you monetize for the user to get rid off :)

disclaimer, my salary is paid with ads :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is pretty neat.Is there a paid app available, i find the ads to distracting?

<comment><AUTHOR> You can remove ad by In-App purchase (or by disconnecting internet :D)

<comment><USER11> I have no need for the app but will consider purchasing because your parenthetical comment made me laugh and I appreciate that kind of honesty from a dev.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks

There is nothing to hide the fact that ad does not work if you are not connected to Internet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like this. One great feature would be to automatically save to a Dropbox/Google Drive/.. location. Im pretty sure the Dropbox api's support that, don't know about the GDrive apis.

</comment><comment><USER13> I want this for my desktop!

<comment><AUTHOR> which os? Mac or Windows

<comment><USER14> Is there a way to make it universally available? I'm thinking of a web app mostly. I don't have an Android phone at hand right now, but this looks like something that should have existed ages ago, congrats.

(To answer the question: Linux for me)

<comment><AUTHOR> I can make it for desktop but without touch screen, the shape recognition is not useful. Probably a web version can work well for desktop.

<comment><USER15> Points against that:

\- I can have a wacom (or similar) device connected to the desktop

\- I can even .. use my android tablet as mouse/touchpad/wacom simluator

The benefit: The result instantly on a bigger screen (and maybe even a really big screen if I connect the desktop/laptop to a projector or something).

<comment><USER2> If there's not something out there to use an Android/iOS tablet in place of a wacom, there should be!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Nice, this is something I've wanted, half way between the white board and Rational Rose.

If I had an android device I would be downloading it right now!

</comment><comment><USER17> This makes me nostalgic for my Apple Newton. This app existed [at least] 20 years ago. A shame it was killed off.

</comment><comment><USER18> Could you please make it available for my country - Georgia. Thanks

<comment><AUTHOR> In play store, I selected all countries. I am not sure, why this is not available in your country. If Google allows me to do that, I will surely do that.

EDIT: I cant see your country in list provided by play store. That means Google does not allow. I will be publishing the same app to Amazon app store. Check if you can download apps from Amazon app store

<comment><USER18> Strange. Did you also make available for all the devices? (Mine is nook hd+).

EDIT:

Right. Since you use in-application payments, the app won't show up in countries where payment is not allowed, including Georgia.

Unfortunately, Amazon app store is not supported for Nook devices, but at least I'll get it for the phone.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have made it available for all devices with Android version 2.3.3+

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> After I select a shape by tapping it, how do I delete it?

<comment><AUTHOR> There is delete icon(image of trash bin) on toolbar. Tap that to delete selected shape. The icon will be visible only after you select the shape.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Obvious question: Any plan of porting this to iOS?

Or, Anyone know of an iOS app that does this?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is already available for iOS

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lekh- diagram/id576124115?mt=...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lekh- diagram/id576124115?mt=8)

<comment><USER20> I should have google it first :)

Thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


A video conferencing service – that rickrolls you - <AUTHOR> With everybody at home, something that is really important is video calling. And thus I show to you, my amazing creation "co-vid"!
But it's not actually a video calling service. It's a rickrolling service! Simply tell someone that you want to call them, and then tell them to use co-vid. https://co-vid.github.io/join then tell them some random meeting code to use and you're ready!
heres a sample conversation. you: "hey wana call" them: "sure, discord? zoom? "ect... you: "how about we try co-vid" them: "sure" you: "https://co-vid.github.io/join the meeting code is blahblah123" them: "alright" ... them: "do not speak to me again"
and there you go, that's co-vid in all its glory.
https://co-vid.github.io/
(ps. it sends the screen name and code to a request bin, so i can see how many people co-vid has gotten)
let me know what you guys think. <comment><USER2> Brilliant.

Could the video be changed to Rebecca Black on Fridays?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I prefer the rickroll, however I can make a special case where if you input a specific code it'll be a "friday-roll". What should the code be?

<comment><USER3> tgif

<comment><AUTHOR> The code "tgif" will now take you to Friday.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love you. If only there was an autoplay feature.

<comment><AUTHOR> YouTube should autoplay the video, at least it does on Chrome

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The hero we need, but don't deserve

<comment><AUTHOR> :)</comment></comment>


Bringing Hyper-V to Windows 8 - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/07/bringing-hyper-v-to-windows-8.aspx

<comment><USER2> Despite Microsoft's what late entry into robust virtualization, they've really put together a solid product quickly. I've found it much easier to use casually than KVM or Xen, and the Linux support is surprising quite good.

The integration into client versions of Windows will be quite welcomed by software developers who need to test on multiple versions of Windows.

<comment><USER3> Have you tried Virtual Box and VMWare in addition to KVM and Xen? I am very happy with Virtual Box when I need to do something Windows-only. I only use Xen and KVM on servers. The run very well in headless boxes.

BTW, isn't Hyper-V somewhat related to Virtual-PC, the product Microsoft got when they acquired Connectix? If that's the case, it's one of the first desktop virtualization technologies. I used it extensively on my Macs in the early 2000's.

<comment><USER4> Yup, Microsoft acquired Connectix, and Hyper-V evolved out of VirtualPC. In fact, a few of the connectix guys still work on Hyper-V.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From the comments on the blog post :

"you will not lose the ability to put the physical machine to sleep when the Windows Hypervisor is running in Windows 8."

"During sleep, the VMs VPs are descheduled and effectively the VMs are suspended in memory when Windows goes through it's normal sleep processing. On machine resume, the VMs are in memory and we just start rescheduling the VPs to get the VMs running again."</comment>


Show HN: Tetris with a twist - <AUTHOR> http://www.alittlebrighter.us/games/tetris/

<comment><USER2> "It's electric" is by far the best variation.

It should probably have been clearer what the different buttons at the start do. I selected "Classic", and then spent quite a while looking for the twist. I'd assumed you were letting me choose the graphics or something like that.</comment>


BitCoin Under Fire - <AUTHOR> http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/04/jerry-brito-defends-bitcoin.html

<comment><USER2> I don't understand what he is saying. Aren't dollars just worthless pieces of paper? They are only worth something because people accept them as payment. Obviously at the moment investing in BitCoins is rather speculative, but so is investing in other currencies (and dollars don't have the best reputation anymore, either).

If he converts everything into dollars and dollars are being devalued, he loses. Is he saying that dollars are the only solid currency in the world, and everybody should convert all their assets into dollars as fast as possible?

<comment><USER3> _Aren't dollars just worthless pieces of paper?_

Apparently not. Try spending dollars in a store (both in the U.S. and many places besides) and see if it works.

 _They are only worth something because people accept them as payment._

Including the U.S. government as payment for debt. If the most powerful government in the world says dollars have value, it's not so easy to lose all of that value, even without it being a backed currency.

 _Is he saying that dollars are the only solid currency in the world, and everybody should convert all their assets into dollars as fast as possible?_

Most of the world uses non-backed fiat currency now, not just the U.S. People do convert their assets into and out of dollars (and other currencies) all the time.

<comment><USER2> "Including the U.S. government as payment for debt."

So what exactly can I get from the US government in exchange for dollars? (I am not a US citizen).

<comment><USER3> If you're not a US citizen dollars are not meant to be held as a store of value and trade (although some outside the US actually do use them this way).

However, to answer your question directly you can get interest from the US government in exchange for dollars by buying US Treasury bonds.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm having trouble seeing how his argument doesn't apply to every other currency that exists, and feel like he's ignoring that if you want to pull money out of the cayman islands to spend locally, there is likely to be some hassle, delay, or loss of anonymity involved. Surely an economist understands opportunity cost? Is there more to his argument that I'm not seeing?

</comment><comment><USER5> It's not the best-written criticism (incidentally, why was the title changed for submission?) but it has a point. Right now, Bitcoins ain't worth jack-shit as a currency in any denomination larger than "a few".

If I have a hundred thousand dollars, I can buy a Porsche. If I have a hundred thousand bitcoins, I can't buy anything, because I doubt I'll find a buyer for a hundred thousand bitcoins.

I'd be interested to know: what's the largest bitcoin-to-dollar (or bitcoin- to-real-goods) transaction that has ever taken place?

<comment><USER6> About 25k BTC trade daily on MtGox, and that is thought to represent roughly 1/3 of USD-BTC FX transactions daily.

Keep in mind thats BTC-USD trades, not "notional value spent".

Apparent largest transaction was 400k bitcoins: <http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1346.0>

It would be difficult to transact 100k BTC with one counterparty, but could be reasonably accomplished in a few days via electronic exchanges (mtgox).

<comment><USER7> It would be interesting to know how much of this 25k/day trade is simply a kind of steady-state speculation, including attempts to exploit arbitrage. If somebody really wanted to change 100k BTC to $, it would likely have a disastrous impact on exchange rates.

The trade of US$ in the currency markets is on the order of several _trillions_ per day. Now imagine what would happen if somebody truly wanted to exchange a few trillion US$ for Euros, and keep those Euros...

<comment><USER8> The global currency post market turnover is ~1.4 trillion according to the BIS, note this includes many currency pairs that dont involve USD; a trillon a day is an upper bound on the daily USD market.

China effectively traded around 0.2 trillion USD for yuan and kept the USD last quarter, the impact is not that big.

More generally looking at the volume transacted does not tell you much about the depth of the market; you need to look at the order book for that. Looking at the bitcoin market there are several lots of over 25k sitting within 20 cents on each side of the bid-ask, this means it is extremely likely one could carry out a directional 100k trade with relatively small market impact if spread out over a few days.

<comment><USER7> Thank you for the data on the Bitcoin market, that is indeed informative.

As for China though, I would like to point out that those trades must be seen in relation to the massive net flow of goods from China to the US (and other parts of the world). The trade you claimed is actually bigger than Chinese net exports for that quarter (which I find somewhat surprising, I have to admit, but probably that just balances out with what was happening in the past), but it's in the same order of magnitude.

If China did _not_ do such trades regularly, the Yuan would be expected to appreciate in a noticeable way, making current trade arrangements more difficult to maintain. Essentially, if China did not make such trades, it would be forced to restructure its economy towards domestic consumption, and it would force the rest of the world to start producing more of their own stuff again, or swallow the price increases.

So to claim that the impact of those trades is not big is problematic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Bitcoins are attractive because they are intrinsically stable. Diamonds will become worthless if we find a way to make them cheaply, the Picasso may turn out to be a fake, and the Cayman islands might suddenly decide to print a few trillion dollars. All of which means _your_ net worth is subject to the availability, accuracy, and governmental decisions of whatever your storage medium is.

Bitcoin doesn't have this vulnerability, unless the majority decides it does. There cannot be rapid inflation due to "printing" bitcoins, unless the majority decides to allow it. The system cannot declare bankruptcy, because it's not backed by anything which can determine its intrinsic value.

It's a foreign currency that no single _anything_ controls. It can wax and wane in value compared to other currencies, as any value-exchange system can, but if it becomes "the" currency, it'll be the first stable, totally-trustable currency _ever_ , because transactions and amounts cannot be faked. Assuming quantum computers can't be made cheap enough to allow attacking the system to be valuable, as it relies on public key cryptography and difficult hashing functions (not sure how quantum computing effects hashing functions).

</comment><comment><USER6> Can someone explain the velocity of money argument to me?

The blog post seems to be: 1\. If btc are liquid, everyone will want to move btc wealth out to some other store of wealth and btc will fail. 2\. If btc are illiquid, then it fails by definition. Currently btc are at this stage.

Here's why I don't get it: 1\. If they ARE liquid and its easy to convert btc value to other value, why would everyone want to move value out of btc? seems like people would want to move value IN to btc because of the other benefits (anonymity, instantaneous transaction). Regardless, it doesn't follow that easy value conversion predicates value drain. 2\. "Bitcoin seems to be at this stage [of being unable to convert Bitcoin assets into other, non-Bitcoin assets easily now]" -- this seems to be false. There's a highly liquid market for BTC-USD (21k btc have traded so far today). Yes, its not easy to transact 500k, but thats true for most new assets including exchange listed backed equities.

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_exchange>

<comment><USER6> sorry, I wasn't clear. I wasn't asking WHAT velocity of money is, I was asking someone to explain the author's velocity of money argument. i.e. transfering wealth out of btc accelerates the velocity.

q, m, v, and p remain relatively constant in that transaction unless the liquidity event causes a persistent decrease in the price level (no evidence that the current BTC market could support it, but also c.f. above my comments about immature markets and liquidity).

<comment><AUTHOR> My reading of his argument is that bitcoins primary function will be as a medium of exchange, not as a store of value. Thus when any indiviudal has a significant amount of bitcoins, he will convert them to an asset class that does store value.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Okay, if I'm understanding how transactions work, all transactions are public, as they need to be validated by the P2P network.

This seems to be a significant disadvantage, to say dollars, where no record of a transaction exists.

Am I missing something (that's what I'm assuming)? Or is having a list of all transactions viewed as a strength?

<comment><USER2> If you can hide your IP address (a big if if you ask me), you can still remain anonymous. The transactions are public with their public keys, nobody needs to know your private keys and hence what transactions belong to you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As I understand it bitcoin has no seignorage. The issuers of bitcoin do not gain anything the way governments do.

Seignorage is the difference between the cost of production - for paper money it's very low - and the value that is bought with the money.

In the case of bitcoin, they are about the same and any difference doesn't go to the designers or to the issuing network. The network is "paid" in cpu cycles (electricity) and spits out roughly the same value in bitcoins. But giving more power to the network doesn't make them come out any faster. In short, unlike governments who use inflation of fiat money as a very regressive wealth tax of last resort, the runners of bitcoin aren't getting rich off this.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Cohen's GMU colleague Russ Roberts interviewed BitCoin's Andresen a few weeks back. Roberts, normally hyper-critical, was ecstatic over it. A great podcast: <http://goo.gl/mNcQW>

<comment><USER9> Gavin didn't do a very good job explaining things in that one, unfortunately. I recently found the Omega Tau podcast covering Bitcoin, and he does much, much better: [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital- dece...](http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital- decentralized-currency/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent. Agreed, he seemed to want to cater to Roberts' economics strengths, though if I recall, Roberts was trying to tease out some of the technical issues.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> BitCoin has been criticized for its built-in deflation, but that does give a reason to use it as a store of value.</comment>


Introducing Parse Push Analytics - <AUTHOR> http://blog.parse.com/2013/03/18/introducing-push-analytics-improved-insight-into-push-campaigns/

<comment><USER2> I think the marriage of backend as a service and (query-driven) analytics is going to be huge in the next few years. This interface looks really awesome. Look forward to hopefully playing around with this soon</comment>


An Amazon Wannabe Rises on the Steppes - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/russian-search-giant-yandex-looks-to-e-commerce-for-growth <comment><USER2> >After beating Google, Russia's Yandex targets e-commerce.

Just a couple of days ago there was a report saying that more people use Google than Yandex in Russia.</comment>


Forever 23: The Rapid Rise and Sudden Disappearance of Velva Darling - <AUTHOR> http://pictorial.jezebel.com/forever-23-the-rapid-rise-and-sudden-disappearance-of-1786330859 <comment><USER2> "But aren't we all? Sometimes I think yes, sometimes I think no."

Egads. Her article titles were truly horrendous. Like a flapper-era Buzzfeed (only seemingly with less actual journalism). It says she was a fan of Mencken; I wonder if Mencken was a fan of her?

Anyway, she seems kinda awesome as a person, but I don't get the impression I'd want to read her work.</comment>


(Haskell) Async exceptions, STM, and deadlocks - <AUTHOR> https://www.fpcomplete.com/blog/2016/06/async-exceptions-stm-deadlocks <comment><AUTHOR> If you want to see what people will be getting excited about in .NET in 5 years time, Java in 10 and Javascript in 15, just keep looking at Haskell. The stuff in this article is certainly not new but concurrency abstraction and implementation is miles ahead in Haskell.</comment>


Detecting bots with Javascript for better A/B testing results - <AUTHOR> http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/07/detecting-bots-in-javascrip/

<comment><USER2> There was a Javascript split-test framework posted yesterday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1408637>. So I'm wondering (because I don't know):

What are the advantages of using Rails vs Javascript to do a/b testing? And of course, advantages of either of these "custom" approaches over Google Website Optimizer?

<comment><USER3> With regards to GWO, see <http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo/compare> . Google doesn't use GWO on any page of importance and neither should you.

On the general topic of doing A/B testing server side (with Rails or what have you) versus doing it client side in Javascript:

1) Doing it in Javascript sacrifices one-line A/B tests, and that is a cost I'm totally unwilling to put up with because it means I will be too lazy to actually do A/B tests. (Take a look at the framework posted yesterday and what they have to do two swap two divs. That is fairly representative. Note that it gets harder, fast, if you start doing anything the least bit complicated.)

2) Javascript is not your friend for load times. A/Bingo and similarly optimized server-side frameworks are, essentially, free in terms of user- perceptible performance.

<comment><USER4> "Google doesn't use GWO on any page of importance and neither should you."

That's not true, Youtube used GWO to run a successful, massive multivariate experiment on its US front page, which qualifies as a page of importance in my book: [http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/08/look- inside-1024-...](http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/08/look- inside-1024-recipe-multivariate.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good post Patrick!

 _"You might have noticed that I assume humans can run Javascript. (My site breaks early and often without it.)"_

I find my sites doing the same thing more and more these days. Do you find that this has caused you any problems? I'm guessing that a large part of your target audience for BCC is non-technical so they're probably a good test...

<comment><USER6> You need to be fairly technical to disable javascript. That or there's an administrator doing that for you (like in some company).

So, besides companies which restrict javascript (very rare?) there's only those using noscript (very rare?).

<comment><USER3> There are also a variety of mobile clients, but people don't try printing bingo cards from their cellphone that frequently so I generally don't worry about them.

More broadly, I tend to think that anyone who goes into their browser settings marked Here Be Dragons is a lot like someone who routes my domain to localhost in their hosts file. Ah, yep, that will indeed cause the site to not work. You want the site to work? OK then, I would suggest not doing that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is not detecting bots (as per the title), but detecting user agents that execute Javascript and are assumed to be human.

Detecting bots with JS knowing they don't run JS would be quite challenging.

<comment><USER3> Assume user #1234 requests a page with an A/B test on it. We hand them the page and a Javascript challenge, and mark them as a bot. If user #1234 successfully passes the Javascript challenge, which if it happens will almost certainly happen within the next few hundred milliseconds, we revise our opinion about their character. Anybody who fails to convince us remains flagged as a bot.

<comment> mike-cardwell I don't know if it is currently being done, but it wouldn't be too difficult to write a bot which uses webkit as a backend and supports javascript.

For an example, <http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/> is an application which converts a webpage into a pdf and supports javascript.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Reminds me of hashcash and other proof-of-work challenges.

Nice post Patrick!</comment>


Evolution of a Python Programmer - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/fmeyer/289467 <comment><USER2> Not sure which is funnier, the Web developer/Windows API/Enterprise Programmer sections, or the comments from people underneath complaining that nobody used memoization.</comment>