Ask YC: Do we need to file/pay US taxes (Canadian corporation)? - <AUTHOR>

Short version:
Do foreign corporations need to pay US taxes if they use a US-based credit card gateway?
Long version: We're about to begin collecting payment at our Canadian-based startup (pagerduty.com), but have run into a bit of a snag.  All of the Canadian payment processors we've found that support recurring billing require us to handle the CC numbers during the initial signup process.  This creates a PCI compliance requirement that we're keen to avoid.
We'd like to use a US gateway that allows recurring billing without requiring PCI compliance (e.x. Braintree), but unfortunately they are all asking us to provide an Employer Identification Number issued by the IRS.  Apparently, it isn't difficult for foreign corporations to get an EIN, but we're unsure what sort of tax obligations filing for an EIN will create.
Has anyone else gone through this process?  Can foreign corporations collect payment using a US gateway without incurring US taxes? <comment><USER2> > Do foreign corporations need to pay US taxes if they use a US-based credit > card gateway?

No.

> Has anyone else gone through this process?

Yes

You can request an EIN here:

<http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss4.pdf?portlet=3>

or call:

Internal Revenue Service irs.gov Telephone Assistance for Businesses Toll-Free 1-800-829-4933

You might be able to get an exemption as well, which you can then give to your 'gateway' provider.

> Can foreign corporations collect payment using a US gateway without > incurring US taxes?

Yes, absolutely. Your business is taxed in its home location. Even if you would have a US corporation owned by a Canadian one (you may need this in case of opening a US bank account for instance) you will have to file US taxes, but you will not be paying any, you'll need to consult with a tax specialized lawyer for the precise details on that though, how you set things up is critical.

<comment><USER3> You may have to pay taxes on income from US customers. It is best to consult an attorney.

<comment><USER2> > You may have to pay taxes on income from US customers.

Nonsense. Your moniker serves you well ;)

As long as you do not incorporate in the US you do not pay taxes in the US, when you do the rules change and depending on the precise ownership structure and form of incorporation you then _may_ have to pay taxes. For instance, you will have to pay sales tax to sales done to residents of the state where you incorporate.

It all revolves around the concept of having a 'nexus' in some state in the US. As long as that isn't the case you are not liable for taxes, since there is nothing that could be taxed. As soon as you have an agent or presence in the US that you control that changes.

> It is best to consult an attorney.

That is always good advice.

<comment><USER4> Beware! Tax law is full of dragons and thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

If you have an agent or reseller in the US you may be required to collect US taxes from your/their customers, depending on the parties to the contractual relationship and the flow of money.

(Unfortunately professional advice doesn't always give you someone to sue in case of disaster, as advice can be wrong but not negligent. It's a good start though, and insurance is available against some risks as well.)

<comment><USER2> > Beware! Tax law is full of dragons and thou art crunchy and taste good with > ketchup.

Or even without :)

> If you have an agent or reseller in the US you may be required to collect US > taxes from your/their customers, depending on the parties to the contractual > relationship and the flow of money.

This is very true. It mostly applies to sales tax.

> (Unfortunately professional advice doesn't always give you someone to sue in > case of disaster, as advice can be wrong but not negligent. It's a good > start though, and insurance is available against some risks as well.)

This is also true, and something that plenty of people seem to be unaware of. You and nobody but you are responsible for your taxes. If your accountant or lawyer fuck up _YOU_ are liable for the deficit in taxes, not they.

And that's pretty logical, since you were responsible for your taxes anyway, hiring someone to do some work for you doesn't change that in any way that matters.

You may or may not have a case against them depending on the amount of negligence involved, but usually they're pretty good about covering their asses, and leaving yours exposed.

I've had a (fortunately small) issue like this with a bookkeeper doing our payroll, he forgot a 400 euro deduction for some government fund. That wouldn't have been a serious problem if it didn't take over two years before the fault was detected. So, then you owe x employees _400 euros_ y months to plug the hole. No fun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We just went through this.

We decided to charge in USD. We have a lot of international users, and while people generally know where their own currency stands vis a vi the Greenback, we surmised that they wouldn't be nearly as familiar with where they stand against the Loonie.

We initially went with the Canadian cc processor Moneris. They support recurrings, although their API support sux. Watch out too for the application approval process which was v slow and v painful.

We do not see the cc numbers. They are passed along to Moneris directly.

Moneris could only support Visa and MC transactions for USD, which was pretty limiting (credit cards are not used nearly as much in countries like Germany and Brazil) so we also went ahead and hooked up a pay by Paypal.

Shortly after we set everything up, Paypal started offering its cc processing service to Canada. They have much better API support then Moneris (although PP's web UI sux), and since we had already set up the PP payment option, it was a no brainer to move it all over to PP. So PP now processes our cc as well.

Similar to Moneris, we do not see the cc numbers at all. They are passed along to PP directly.

(We took a look at Amazon, but they were not offering their 'Easy Pay' service in Canada.)

If you are a Canadian registered, there is no need to worry about US taxes.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the info (I'm one of the co-founders of PagerDuty).

Which PayPal product are you using? Website Payments Pro? We'd like to chat with someone who's gone through the process of setting this up already. We are also trying to evaluate which provider to use. Can you please send me an email (alex [at] pagerduty.com)?

<comment><USER5> Done!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's probably a good idea to find a good accountant or tax lawyer who knows this stuff and pay them to give you an authoritative answer.

</comment><comment><USER8> FWIW: we've just started using Beanstream, which is a Canadian gateway that I think has what you're looking for.

</comment><comment><USER9> No you don't need to. Check out PayPal Web Payments Pro Canada for a Canadian processor</comment>


Eighteenth Century English mail hacks (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/6/061.html <comment><USER2> Worth mentioning that in those days the frequency of post deliveries was up to one per hour, 12 deliveries per day. That might be only in London though - elsewhere Id imagine it was probably less than that. But what's clear is that you could send mail in the morning and it would get there later the same day.

Until 2002 in the UK most people would receive their post before 9am in the morning (e.g. before most people went to work, I got mine at 8.15) and then a second post in the late morning or early afternoon. Nowadays there is just the one post and it arrives in the late morning (e.g. when most people are at work). In most parts you can still send a letter and it will get there the next day.

<comment><USER3> I read a story once of somebody sending a postcard from one part of the country to the other end saying that they planned to catch a train in a couple of hours, and would the recipient please meet them at the other end, etc. - the expectation is the card would get there in plenty of time before the sender themselves.

It's hard to believe. Whenever I mention this story to people and say it was all for the cost of a penny (the penny post being introduced in 1840), people say that back then a penny was worth so much more, we were able to invest in the infrastructure.

According to inflation calculators, 1p in 1840 is worth about 96p today. It's about 1/3rd more than a 1st class stamp today, and of course most postage is now paid for by bulk carriers (advertising), which is even cheaper.

There's some interesting stories to find in the economics of the UK postal system over the last 182 years...

<comment><USER4> [1] is a timetable for Sutton Coldfield in 1902.

It seems fairly reasonable that you could send a letter to Birmingham and have it delivered within two hours + travel time, but not to another part of the country unless you were lucky with the timings.

Remember, it was usually possible to post a letter from a station, which presumably gave it a very good chance of being on the next train.

[1] [http://www.sutton- coldfield.net/rail/1902%20train%20timetabl...](http://www.sutton- coldfield.net/rail/1902%20train%20timetable.jpg)

<comment><USER5> If your letter from London to Edinburgh was posted at Kings X at 0800, and sent on the 0830, it may have arrived in Edinburgh at 1530 and arrived at the office at 1600. The contents could be "I'm taking the 1000 train, meet me when it arrives at 1700"

If you were to then catch the 1000 train, arriving 1700, that would give the recipient time to get to Waverley in time for the arrival.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Reminds me of stories of how, when the telegraph was common, people purchased code books in order to compress their messages. Not for security, necessarily, as many of the codes were public knowledge, but in order to save money as one code word could replace a whole common sentence. The telegraph companies eventually banned codes for that reason.

<comment><USER7> _> The telegraph companies eventually banned codes for that reason._

And as with today's spin machines, some claimed that the ban was to help their customers by reducing the likelihood of code related errors (mainly the effect of transcription errors when writing or reading back the telegram) causing significant communication errors. The past is not as alien a country as we sometimes think!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This reminded me of a TCP-over-DNS hack[1].

You could use airport wifi access points protected by captive portal to browse internet without paying by sending traffic through DNS requests.

[1] [http://analogbit.com/software/tcp-over- dns/](http://analogbit.com/software/tcp-over-dns/)

<comment><USER9> As the link mentions, that software is outdated and Iodine [0] is a recommended replacement. I setup an Iodine server when doing some traveling and only had to use it one time, and it was painfully slow Not sure why it is slow, perhaps DNS packets must be smaller than a normal TCP packet?

It was still pretty cool that it worked, but I wouldn't want to use it regularly.

[0]: [https://code.kryo.se/iodine/](https://code.kryo.se/iodine/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Reminds me of a TV commercial from a few years ago: "Do you accept a collect call from we-had-the-baby-its-a-boy? No."

<comment><USER11> It was a very common hack when I was in school that, to call home, you'd make a person to person call and your parents would decline--saying the person you were calling for wasn't there--and then direct-dial you back.

[ADDED: And I'm sure there are people reading that comment with puzzled expressions who have no idea what I'm talking about. :-) ]

<comment><USER12> If I remember correctly, making a collect call through your telephone company required talking to an actual operator who would set up the call and inform the receiving party of who was calling. The 800 number collect call services that eventually sprung up all used automated systems and they were perfect for this kind of abuse. You had about ten seconds to blurt out your message before the recording would stop.

I used to ride the Greyhound to visit my dad on weekends, and it would stop at a truckstop about ninety minutes away from my destination. At first I had to carry a pile of quarters to make the long distance payphone call to let him know I was on my way, until we finally figured out I could just blurt "Dad I'm in town xyz, be there in 90" instead of my name. Saved me a buck fifty or so every trip.

<comment><USER13> If you called 1-800-COLLECT, you would deal with an automated system, not an operator. I would use this as a free signal for when my dad should pick me up from after-school activities, but in my case it didn't require putting in a message, he just knew if he was getting a collect call from me to head out soon, and in any kind of emergency I would just use the change in my pocket.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Fascinating! Probably as long as their have been systems, there have been hacks and abuses of them.

We should probably ask "how can this be misused?" whenever designing a system or rule.

</comment><comment><USER15> I really like articles like this because it allows you to get a great glimpse of a different mode of living. And it makes you realize that a comfortable life is still very possible even without extremely advanced technology.

A while ago in high school I wrote a paper about lifestyle changes as a result of technology, and one interesting observation was the idea that, after 19th century standardization of time, people started becoming more rigidly strict to appointment times and work hours. Sorry for not including more sources here, but I also recall a contemporary news article that bemoaned how standardized time was forcing people to become slaves to punctuality, adding an extra source of anxiety that was a hindrance to the modern human.

Nowadays, if you show up 30 minutes late to brunch, you might really annoy your good friends. But it seems that this behavior is actually a very recent phenomenon.

<comment><USER16> Makes sense based on anecdotal evidence. There's a common complaint about westerners going to places like Kenya and dealing with 'africa time.'

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> C/F the x25 'minicall' Hack to do non call complete transactions in errorcodes which early ATMs were said to use... Because a non complete x25 virtual circuit was a cheaper bill than a timed held session.

</comment><comment><USER18> Make the recipient the return address and whomever the actual address and forget the stamp. Post office will return to sender</comment>


Pentagon chief breaks with Trump over using troops for protests - <AUTHOR> https://www-ft-com.baldwinlib.idm.oclc.org/content/f46c4a73-5358-4319-aed6-d0ec996eee2e <comment><USER2> Let's not make Mr. Esper out to be doing this for any other reason than because of the strong and immediate backlash from the violent street-clearing that occurred in DC. This is the same guy who said to state governors, "I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal." He is no champion of individual rights.

<comment><USER3> It is reasonable to give him some benefit of the doubt and take him at his word that he made a mistake and, after reflection, considers the rhetoric too intense. A member of his Defense Science Board resigned [0] in the wake of the decision and one of the former Joint Chiefs [1] spoke out against his actions. I hope he is responding to these voices.

Edit: Link update

0\. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/02/secretary...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/02/secretary- esper-you-violated-your-oath-aiding-trumps-photo-op-thats-why-im- resigning/?arc404=true)

1\. [https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/mike-mullen-trump- ch...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/mike-mullen-trump-church-photo- op/index.html)

<comment><USER4> I think I was in agreement until the word rhetoric. Friday photo-op may have started with words, but actions that followed removed that label in my mind.

I would love to give Esper some credit. He has a ridiculously tough job on a normal day. And I am not sure I can. It took severe backlash for him to reverse course.

Granted, in this administration, it is probably a good way to be fired.

edit. changed last sentence

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Whats with the weird oclc.org domain? I assume it's used to skip the paywall but haven't seen it before and the homepage or the site doesn't help much.

Original (paywalled probably) article is [https://www.ft.com/content/f46c4a73-5358-4319-aed6-d0ec996ee...](https://www.ft.com/content/f46c4a73-5358-4319-aed6-d0ec996eee2e)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not really sure. I've an FT subscription and often post articles, but I try to do a search and find an alternate link - quite a bit of FT content is syndicated fairly quickly to non-paywalled sites. A few days ago, an FT article that I'd posted and then searched for showed up with the OCLC domain. I've been trying to figure out how it all works, but have failed. If you try to hit "baldwinlib.idm.oclc.org", you get a login page.

Would also like to know more about this - seems likely that many publications are archived via oclc.

Edit to add: Just been comparing ft.com with [https://www-ft- com.baldwinlib.idm.oclc.org/](https://www-ft-com.baldwinlib.idm.oclc.org/) and, at the moment, at least, the content seems to be largely in synch. I daresay that someone will close the loophole soon.

<comment><USER6> Have a spare loophole - [https://www-ft-com.ezproxy.babson.edu/](https://www- ft-com.ezproxy.babson.edu/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> They've disabled upvoting this story in Hacker News (for me), effectively implementing censorship of content. Most of the stories on Hacker News are manipulated by the mods. Here are screenshots from both Firefox and Chrome:

\- [https://imgur.com/9LrkzxA](https://imgur.com/9LrkzxA)

\- [https://imgur.com/Kkyetr5](https://imgur.com/Kkyetr5)

<comment><USER8> Doesn't seem that way to me.

<comment><USER7> I posted screenshots to show what I see. Tried in multiple browsers. It is only this story, everything else I can upvote.

<comment><USER9> Your screenshot shows that you have already upvoted this story. Note the "unvote" button.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The stability of mountains on neutron stars [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/pdf/0904.1986v1 <comment><USER2> A bit out of my area of expertise. Anyone willing to provide an explanation?</comment>


Fractional calculus - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_calculus

<comment><USER2> I find it hard to believe that the article on fractional differentiation only briefly mentions the Fourier transform. For functions on R^n with vanishing integral (or periodic functions on R^n with vanishing integral), the Fourier transform allows you to define arbitrary powers of the (positive) Laplacian by taking the Fourier transform, multiplying by |\xi|^\alpha, and then taking the inverse Fourier transform. If n=1, this process yields the fractional derivatives in the linked article.

Something else that's great is that this works on (compact or asymptotically Euclidean) manifolds, too! You can make sense of the Laplacian on these spaces, and then spectral theory lets you define its fractional powers. The theory of pseudodifferential operators lets you realize these powers fairly explicitly as oscillatory integrals.

<comment><USER3> _I find it hard to believe that the article... only briefly mentions..._

Wikipedia's math content is really frustrating this way. The linked article was pretty good, but many deserve a disclaimer:

"This document delivers utility bounded above by what you paid for it."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Fascinating stuff - I found this paper that tries to give geometrical/physical interpretations for fractional differentiation and integration:

<http://people.tuke.sk/igor.podlubny/pspdf/pifcaa_r.pdf>

Which _might_ help.

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice:

 _Also notice that setting negative values for_ a _yields integrals._

</comment><comment><USER6> If I remember the lecture I went to half a dozen years ago fractional calculus allows for some elegant solutions to cycloid curves and half infinite sheets of charge.

</comment><comment><USER7> you can drag drop play a fractional calculus in Mathematica

<http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FractionalDerivative.html>

<http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FractionalIntegral.html>

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe this can explain the fractals and reverse-engineer them.</comment>


Torvalds Expresses Concerns Over Current "Kernel Lockdown" Approach - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=UEFI-Kernel-Lockdown-Concerns <comment><USER2> Matthew Garret's blog post on the subject was much more informative.

Link: [https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/50577.html](https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/50577.html)

Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761827](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16761827)</comment>


Star Trek Blueprints - Ed Whitefire Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints - <AUTHOR> http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/ed-whitefire-enterprise-ncc-1701d.php <comment><USER2> I always liked the fact that the Jeffries tube or service tunnels were named after the man who designed the original Enterprise:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffries_tube>

</comment><comment><USER3> FASA was always a mixed bag. Yes they published a lot of material that no one else would publish, but they also ad-libbed a whole lot as well, inventing, in the end, their own version of the Star Trek universe that often contradicted more canonical sources such as Sternbach and Okuda.

</comment><comment><USER4> man these bring out the kid in me. I used to look at these so closely in awe of how detailed they seemed.

<comment><USER5> Agreed, these are great. Sure, they're not wholly canonical, though they seem correctly derived from what I remember from the Star Trek Technical Manual. I spent a good 20 minutes geeking out on these images.</comment></comment>


Bytepath game is open source and includes a tutorial for writing the game in Lua - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/a327ex/BYTEPATH <comment><AUTHOR> "This tutorial goes over the entire process of building the game step by step."

This looks like a great resource for anyone with some programming experience already, and is interested in learning LUA or wants some practical experience with game development.</comment>


The minstrel who became a laser physicist. - <AUTHOR> http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/12292/joshua-robson-hemmings-the-minstrel-of-sharp-labs/

<comment><USER2> He wasn't a musician who _became_ a physicist. He was _already_ a physicist, who took some time off to play with a band.</comment>


AngularStrap - Bootstrap directives for AngularJS - <AUTHOR> http://mgcrea.github.com/angular-strap

<comment><USER2> Third party modules like this one of the things that make AngularJS awesome.

I put together <http://ngmodules.org/> as a searchable repository of Angular Modules. Hopefully people will find some useful libraries through it.

<comment><USER3> You, sir, are awesome. Thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So.. No love for AngularUI? <http://angular-ui.github.com/>

<comment><USER5> Well, as part of angular-ui we are building native AngularJS directives for Twitter's bootstrap: <http://angular-ui.github.com/bootstrap/>

Angular-strap is great but it has dependency on jQuery, bootstrap's JavaScript etc. Our goal is to come up with native, lightweight directives with minimal dependencies.

We will be moving slower but hopefully it will be useful for people that don't need / want jQuery.

<comment><USER4> Now this is just great!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So with Angular's "no direct DOM manipulation outside of Angualar" philosophy in mind, what is the best way to integrate Angular into an existing project with a bunch of UI widgets in place (say jQuery UI)? Projects like this seem to imply that you really need to rewrite the UI it you want a clean design.

<comment><USER4> Through directives. This is the cleanest way of doing it. Like Angular UI: <http://angular-ui.github.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is there some AngularJS jargon I'm missing out on, or does the linked page actually mistakenly refer to attributes as tags?

<comment><AUTHOR> indeed, tags were attributes. Thanks! [https://github.com/mgcrea/angular- strap/commit/09985e6166704...](https://github.com/mgcrea/angular- strap/commit/09985e6166704f1aa7dec112a136a24d15441119)

<comment><USER7> No problem! Looks cool. If I ever get into any AngularJS project, I'll keep this in mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I love AngularJS.

It has completely changed how I code websites.

<comment><USER9> I don't know about other JS frameworks, but I've seen many people say they love angularJS, and I believe that's true, because that's exactly how I feel about angularjs ;)

I'm from a Windows dev background and all other exiting code editors/IDE I tried doesn't satisfy me so I'm building a new one.

And a handy tool is only a half for me to happily switch to web front end dev, and another half is a good framework, and I think angularjs can be that framework.

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you checked out Sublime Text 2? Building an IDE is a tremendous amount of work, good luck!

<comment><USER9> Yes, ST 2 is great! And I've seen several ideas I got (inspired when using other IDE) are implemented in it. However, while it's not designed specified for html/css/js.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This looks quite handy, I'll definitely use it, so thanks olouv!

Does anyone know if a similar project exists to help make Bootstrap forms using angular?

</comment><comment><USER11> Great contribution. It's really convenience :D

</comment><comment><USER12> Anyone working on a Zurb Foundation one?

</comment><comment><USER13> I love Angular ;)</comment>


Risch Algorithm for Symbolic Integration - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risch_algorithm <comment><USER2> I recently read about Rubi, which instead uses a huge decision tree and pattern matching to do symbolic integration. Kind of like how humans do it. There are a lot of interesting thoughts on their website, I would highly recommend checking it out. Skimming through the pdfs of rules was a lot of fun.

[https://rulebasedintegration.org/](https://rulebasedintegration.org/)

</comment><comment><USER3> SymPy implements this algorithm, start here: [https://github.com/sympy/sympy/blob/master/sympy/integrals/r...](https://github.com/sympy/sympy/blob/master/sympy/integrals/risch.py)

<comment><USER4> Not all of it, notably the algebraic extensions which are quite difficult to grasp.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Risch Algorithm was mentioned in a recent XKCD[1]. Perhaps that was the trigger for this submission.

There were a few rabbit holes to investigate from that comic. Bessel functions were what first piqued my curiosity. I never did get around to the Wikipedia page, but Wikiquote[2] had some interesting quips.

[1]: [https://xkcd.com/2117/](https://xkcd.com/2117/) [2]: [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bessel_function](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bessel_function)</comment>


Ask HN: What lightweight apps do you use on your Android phone? - <AUTHOR> I always seek to install and use apps which consume as less memory and battery as possible, and preferably open-source.
I'm interested to know what the HN community uses?
Might uncover some lesser known but useful apps. <comment><USER2> MiXplorer - [https://labs.xda- developers.com/store/app/com.mixplorer](https://labs.xda- developers.com/store/app/com.mixplorer)

Its a file manager I use daily. Well made, no issues. I wish its open-source for the sole reason that I want to read that code. It works so well and very light.

</comment><comment><USER3> Give the F-Droid store a look: [https://f-droid.org/](https://f-droid.org/)

<comment><USER4> NetGuard to control which apps are allowed to communicate with the world and when

(save your battery)

DNS66 for dns adblocking

(save your sanity)

Pindroid for bookmarks using pinboard.in

(save your history)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> What the heck, here's another four.

File management : [https://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostcommander/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostcommander/)

Scan for application embedded trackers : [https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.oF2pks.classyshark3xodus...](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.oF2pks.classyshark3xodus/)

mpv for Android : [https://github.com/mpv-android/mpv- android](https://github.com/mpv-android/mpv-android)

Multipurpose downloader, aria2 -- it's also available through Termux : [https://github.com/aria2/aria2](https://github.com/aria2/aria2)

Edit : [https://github.com/termux/](https://github.com/termux/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Too many to list, but a few token ones.

Edit / code : [https://github.com/billthefarmer/editor/](https://github.com/billthefarmer/editor/)

Photography : [https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencamera/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencamera/)

Drawing / painting : [https://github.com/Catrobat/Paintroid](https://github.com/Catrobat/Paintroid)

Unicode : [https://github.com/Ryosuke839/UnicodePad](https://github.com/Ryosuke839/UnicodePad)</comment>


Ask HN: Best places to live in Silicon Valley for families? - <AUTHOR>

Hi Folks, Thinking about making the switch and wanted to get some informed opinions to guide me and my wife through our frantic craigslist/realtor.com/dice.com Silicon Valley search.
We have a couple of young kids and I was thinking of making a career move and SV was high on my personal list, but I'm not sure my family will have as enjoyable of a time out there as I will.
I was wondering if folks with kids lived out there and had opinions on the subject but also any SV relocation advice in general would be helpful.
Thx. <comment><USER2> I only have 10 years SV on my back, but here are some points I have observed. SF as mentioned is not a place you want to have your children to go public school. I was told that schooling is not necessarily assigned to your local area and you can end up sending your child to school by bus, which I think is not such a good idea. My home is in Redwood Shores and Peninsula overall is a good place to be (except East Palo Alto) with children, many good schools. Most cities on the west side along the foot of the Mountains are prime locations like Los Altos, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Woodside, but for sure not cheap. There are a couple of cities very desirable for families, because of the good schooling like Cupertino, Fremont Mission, Foster City. You will find many good places to raise your children, but for SV has a steep price tag. Personally despite living at a nice with highly rated schools I still ended up enrolling my daughters into private school, which tells a lot about California and the broken education system. Good Luck

</comment><comment><USER3> Try skyline (Rte 35) above Woodside (take Rte 84, Woodside Rd to get there). It's very family friendly., more like a small town than traditional suburbia. Going home seems like going to a national park. Schools are Portola Valley and Woodside, among the best in CA. Hundreds of miles of trails a step from your back door. I raised my kids there.

</comment><comment><USER4> Most of SV (except for San Francisco itself) is family friendly. This is suburbia with a large tech population. The big issue you are going to face, depending on the ages of your children, is school selection and you can expect to pay a premium ranging from "a lot" to "you must be joking" for housing in areas with really good schools.

</comment><comment><USER5> Silicon Valley is really pretty family friendly. A trip to Ikea any night of the week, and you'll notice tons of parents and families towing younger children along.

We don't have kids, but my wife didn't really think that she'd enjoy life here. She likes it probably more than I do at this point in time.

</comment><comment><USER6> Check out Milpitas if you need to save a little money. Great East Asian restaurants and not too far away from the main part of SV.

</comment><comment><USER7> Check out this blog: <http://www.svmoms.com>

I think it could contain helpful info for you, specially for your wife and kids.</comment>


Ask HN: Am I not making enough or everyone else is out spending? - <AUTHOR> I work for a tech company and make average salary (lower 100k) a software developer would make. I am single so job is only source of my income.
Wherever I go, I see thousands of people present e.g. parks,hotels,nightclubs,restaurants etc.
No single vacation spot has remained uncrowded in my opinion. Trying to book a flight, well its almost full always. Traffic? Always bad.
Gym? Always crowded.
I live minimalist lifestyle. While growing up poor, i became habitual money saver. I don't watch tv (don't have) or play games. I have never done outrageous shopping. I don't smoke and rarely drink  beer.
So what's the truth and your experience? Do I make less and everyone else is making more than me? Or is everyone out spending me and I have become penny pincher?
Edit - I live in Seattle and have 10 yrs of software dev experience out of which 7 yrs is from working US and 3 yrs from Singapore. <comment><USER2> I think you are on the lower end for Seattle. You should be at least at 100k and thats with mid-senior level. I am in LA over 100K and I going to NYC and will be at 130k.

When I did go lower, I loved my job, but our profession isn't something everyone can do, your value is well more than 100k.

Also, what stack are you using? That has a decent amount to do with it.

<comment><USER2> Sorry for my crappy grammar. I am a little tired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You really didn't provide enough information brother.

The main question is what city do you live in?

If you're in San Fran - (lower 100k) You make infact " make less and everyone else is making more".

If you're in Denver, you should be able to live well on low 100k.

<comment><AUTHOR> Added my location info.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You didn't mention your metro area. $100K goes a long way in some places.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you deal with being burnt out? - <AUTHOR>

It's getting harder and harder to work on what was my passion. With no money rolling I'd hoped, it seems like I am so close but can't get the 10% finished. It appears I am burnt out from working on a SaaS product alone.
How can I break this pattern of, working crazy to get 90% finished, and then crapping out at the last remaining 10%?
I told myself I would commit that last bit of code 40 counterstrike rounds ago. Yet, here I am, keep playing counterstrike, not really enjoying myself, but out of anxiety.
I think to myself how strange, this doesn't even kill me, yet I can't bare to look at the code. I just keep playing stupid games on my computer and checking ycombinator every hour. <comment><USER2> I'm going to go ahead and give you the solution that works for me, even though it's probably not all that practical for you at the moment:

Get off the grid and go traveling for a month or so.

I make a point of switching off for a while each year, sometime for only a month or two, other times for most of the year. During that time, I'm just backpacking across Africa, climbing rocks in Thailand, or otherwise laying low someplace cheap and sunny, with the important bit being that I'm not working at all for long stretches at a time.

Every once in a while, I'll find a little window of good internet connectivity and boot up. What follows will be a couple days of the most intense productivity I've ever had. It's like my brain had been solving problems in the background for the last few weeks and now all I have to do is CTRL+V it into the editor. Sometimes I honestly believe I'm just as productive working one week out of four as I would have been working all four straight.

So yeah, if you've built yourself some runway to pull it off, I'd recommend looking for a flight to Bangkok leaving, say, this afternoon. Throw a pair of board shorts in a bag along with your laptop and go have some experiences.

Some time in January, you can pull that machine out, prop it on the bar at the beach, and knock off the rest of your site in an afternoon.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. To-do list. Come up with 10 things you want to accomplish on the project tomorrow. Keep them small, so they're 20 minutes of work each. When you wake up, you have some direction, and get a sense of accomplishment as you check things off. Since they're quick to finish, you can convince yourself to take care of one 20 minute task before playing a few rounds of Counter-Strike. Waking up, and thinking, 'Uhh, I really need to finish this project', is overwhelming, and you don't know where to begin, or even want to think about it. Write your to-do list for the next day before you go to bed. Just sit down for 20 minutes, and think about a small step you can move forward.

2\. Take a break and focus on other hobbies. You don't need to think about your project 24 hours a day. No, seriously, you can take a break. Here's the situation. You have work to finish, so you convince yourself you can't take a break and leave the computer. At the same time, you don't want to think about work. So, you end up browsing HN, Reddit, and playing games the entire day. In the end, you accomplish absolutely nothing, didn't enjoy yourself because in the back of your mind you're thinking, 'I should be working', and you don't even feel like you took a break to begin with. Set aside some time for a break. Pick an hour, and watch a movie, or go to the park next door and play with your dog, or work on something hands on around the house, or do some exercises or meditation. When you dedicate a particular period of time to take off, you can actually enjoy it, without feeling guilty. It's a good way to clear your mind. When you write your to-do list, choose the times you'll break the next day. Don't make your break HN, and get off the computer if possible.

Anyway, good luck. I'm in the exact same position, 95% finished a project that's been going on for well over a year, and trying to get things wrapped up.

<comment><AUTHOR> your explanation makes a lot of sense as to why I am procrastinating.

I've just made a list (16 items already but going to limit myself to 10 tomorrow to be realistic).

the 20 minute time span is actually a good idea, i tend to take too much time working on something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Okay so I've read through some of your other comments, and I've been there myself (procrastinating by means of Counter-Strike).

I'd say the best way to get over your burnout would be to choose a more relaxing hobby - some people play a musical instrument, some people like working out, some people simply like getting some fresh air.

Next, enumerate your immediate goals on paper (getting that remaining 10% done? What steps can you break that down into?) and assign deadlines to them - by dinner time, by tomorrow afternoon etc.

Choose a distraction free space (if working with other people is what you like, hit the local library/coffee shop) and get cracking!

</comment><comment><USER5> I feel I am in the same situation, haven't really come around to building something serious yet. The goal for me is to build mobile games, I have started and had some freelance work for my old company which have given me some more time to think about what I wanted to do, the only problem is that I can't get around to actually code or design, I keep falling back to playing game, for the same reason as you described. Hate it but don't know what to do about it :(

</comment><comment><USER6> I suffered from the same problem as you. I did some long thinking about what caused this issue and in my case it was fear of failure.

Fearing that whatever I'd launch would suck and that I just spent months working on something that would make no difference at all.

I'm working at a product that I believe in right now, and will force myself to launch within 3 months.

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems that all projects the last 10% takes about 50% of the development time. If you are already burned out the only thing I know to combat burnout is some time off.

Preventing burnout is setting boundaries and pacing yourself. Not working crazy hours, taking breaks and getting a good night sleep so you don't get worn out.

<comment><AUTHOR> it really is true as they, the last 10% seems to be the hardest to pull off. It's not like I don't know how to solve the problem or have run into a creative block. Purely psychological I suppose, it's the fear that if I complete it, people will reject it or not even look at it. I am fixing and it's improved incrementally but I keep inventing ways to fix any possible bug I can think of while I should be selling.

I have been working crazily for the past two month....I've done this again and again and it really is tough. This last 10% work requires several times the energy and motivation....sigh

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> [http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/12/how_to_create_motivat...](http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/12/how_to_create_motivation_for_2.html)

"How's that novel coming? Almost done, I'll bet"

Sometimes you just have to damn the consequences and just decide.

</comment><comment><USER9> Traveling in the same boat as you do, not eligible to advice. Although I read in HN before that burnt out is a signal by the brain stating that we are working without any foreseeable reward.

<comment><AUTHOR> oh. my. god.

yes, that's exactly what my fear is.

me: how do make it turn out a reward?

brain: finish the last 10%.

me: all right let's do it!

brain: no.

me: all right lets play counter strike or read yc

brain: again? fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Then just release it. You will never reach 100% anyway, unless you totally quit the project.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have released it a few week ago (see my submission), but I got caught up with fixing bugs and fell into the trap of "this is crap if this feature doesn't work" and then another and another.... and now at the stage where "I need to finish this but my brain says no cause it needs more customers to validate this software fits a need."</comment></comment>


Will Cloud Computing Kill Open Source Development? - <AUTHOR> https://www.infoq.com/articles/will-cloud-computing-kill-open-source <comment><USER2> Consider what we are seeing from Google Cloud Next this week.

Supported dual-license databases, they seem to have been working with the OSS companies for this.

Google creates k8s and friends in OSS, they become the dominant projects people use, Google supports them in their own cloud, on premise, and in their competitors clouds (niiice).</comment>


iPhones to unlock doors using NFC - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/26/apple-iphone-nfc-unlock/?guccounter=1 <comment><USER2> Glad to see Apple is expanding NFC capabilities. One thing in particular that was exciting this last year was that all iPhone 8/X support Sony's contact payment standard used in Japan's transit system. Previously only the models sold there had the support.

</comment><comment><USER3> Oh boy here we go!

<comment><USER4> Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?</comment></comment>


Show some love for iframes - <AUTHOR>

Why is it that a lot of them websites have the x-frame-options to deny access from another url?
This stops the possibility of making iframe based browsers.
What do you have to lose by allowing iframes to your site? <comment><USER2> You could load gmail or facebook or any other site in an iframe and tell the user to login, but you would intercept his credentials with javascript.

<comment><USER3> How exactly do you use javascript cross domain like that? i'd love to know.

<comment><USER2> You don't. You register a key press event listener on the main page and when the user types into the iframe, you can catch the strokes.

Example: <http://www.jayssite.com/misc/iframesample.html> (not my site, I googled it)

<comment><USER3> i don't think this example is cross-domain...</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Advanced bit manipulation-fu - <AUTHOR> http://realtimecollisiondetection.net/blog/?p=78

<comment><USER2> For those who just want quick and efficient solutions to lots of bit-hacking problems (rather than try to become a bit-guru yourself): <http://graphics.stanford.edu/~seander/bithacks.html></comment>


Facebook is buying UK's Bloombury AI to ramp up natural language tech - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/02/thebloomsbury/ <comment><USER2> I much prefer this kind of tech being developed in universities, but lately it seems that academia are losing ground to companies in terms of brainpower and sometimes even scientific output.

<comment><USER3> Is there any particular reason why you prefer tech being developed in universities?

If the quality of the work being done is good and the results are worthwhile, does it really matter who paid for the room and the lights?

<comment><USER4> That should depend on the open-ness of the work, and whether it is accessible by others. Academic research is published in journals for people to read[1], whereas taking the example of Apple, they have a reputation for barely publishing any of their research (although it is improving).

[1] Although I acknowledge that there are currently significant barriers to access for many journalistic papers. But research locked away by a company is still far more inaccessible than publishing in a journal like Nature.

Edit: formatting

<comment><USER3> Well, as you say, the degree to which academic publishing is open is currently a matter of some debate. There have been moves, perhaps in some disciplines more than others so far, towards a more explicitly open-access publishing culture at the expense of the journal publishers whose contribution is also debatable these days, but there's a long way to go.

What I can say is that as someone who sometimes has an element of research as part of his work for industrial clients, a lot of the useful research material I've read recently has come out of industrial research labs, so they certainly do produce some good work, whatever is also coming out of academia.

Another relevant data point: the only software patents that have actually stopped me doing something recently (which I'd come up with entirely independently, BTW) were granted to major US universities prior to their researchers publishing papers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That seems like a small purchase price given both FB's need for detecting junk content. I would hope that any filtering system would have humans in the loop.

<comment><USER6> Likely an acquihire which also means that their "tech" isn't that mature yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Typo in the headline--should be Bloomsbury.

</comment><comment><USER8> What's the exit? I'm always interested to see how other people in tech get rich.

<comment><USER9> > Multiple sources say Facebook is paying between $23 million and $30 million > to acquire Bloomsbury AI, in a deal that will see a mixture of cash and > stock change hands. In one scenario, the startup's investors will receive > around $5.5 million, with Bloomsbury's founding team in line for the > remaining $17.5 million, paid in restricted Facebook stock. Either way, this > represents a modest return for the bulk of investors, although EF — given > that it invests pre-seed — is likely to have had a larger multiple.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> They could have just asked Google.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, in return for the data.</comment></comment>


Learn how to install the latest versions of PHP and Apache from source - <AUTHOR> https://ivopetkov.com/b/install-php-and-apache-from-source/ <comment><USER2> And how to keep this installation updated and secure?

<comment><AUTHOR> Updates will be manual as the installation itself.</comment></comment>


A general model for Ed-Tech to help frame and plan products and business models - <AUTHOR> http://www.bizbigpic.com/cristianmitreanu/2012/08/general-model-for-ed-tech.html

<comment><USER2> Nice deck man! Education's ripe for the doing - today, we're preparing our kids for jobs that don't yet exist, using technology that hasn't been invented, to solve problems we can't yet imagine.</comment>


Using Metadata/Attributes in PHP - <AUTHOR> http://interfacelab.com/metadataattributes-in-php/

<comment><USER2> Fascinating, learned something new about PHP. I can think of writing several ORM libraries that could take advantage of PHP's reflection class. Too bad though that most PHP coders do not take advantage of the languages diamonds in the rough so to speak such as __call(), __get(), array_map and the like.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :)

Will be posting more stuff of a similar nature soon.

<comment><USER2> Excellent oh btw if you're interested I'm the current maintainer of the Functional PHP extension. Perhaps we could share notes.

<comment><USER3> do you have a link to that? I stumbled on some functional php stuff before but it didn't appear to be that active? I've been dabbling with my own stuff combining functional concepts with fluent expressions. It yields some surprisingly succinct solutions which look a lot like python list comprehensions actually.

<comment><USER2> sure here ya go [http://metaphp.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=fp_docs&PH...](http://metaphp.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=fp_docs&PHPSESSID=d8d595f9487ee0d17e4d16b74ef06375)

We're currently trying to build some sort of community around it. The source code should be there. If not just let me know and I'll have it fix in jiff. Feel free to contribute to the library. I use the library extensively on our in house framework. So it should help you if the need arises.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Many eyes theory conclusively disproven - <AUTHOR> http://blog.erratasec.com/2014/09/many-eyes-theory-conclusively-disproven.html <comment><USER2> I think there's a problem with this reasoning, which is that it may be that these bugs are discovered now _only_ because they are open source, and many more such deep bugs exist in closed-source software.

The flip side of the boon that is code reusability is software monoculture, which means that a significant bug in a core library can have catastrophic effects in many systems, so it's likely that the most severe bugs are rarest (hardest to observe), but the longer they go undiscovered, the more catastrophic they will be. It may be that while we'll find _some_ deep, 20-year-old flaws in core open source code, we'll find way _more_ 20-year-old flaws in closed source code, except we'll find them in 5 years, _after_ the Internet of Things has taken off and a serious bug will be 100x more dangerous.

</comment><comment><USER3> This bug was found by a Redhat security auditor. It's a bit unfair to pose this as an obvious bug that should've been found at any point in the past 25 years, because I'm pretty sure that Redhat has had security auditors for a long while. Although probably fewer in number than Microsofts security auditor team they are likely faced with the same problem:

A huge backlog of old crufty software written in arcane style using programming languages that discourage proper structuring, riddled with bugs promoted to features for backwards compatibility reasons.

What we really should be doing is reimplementing software like this, learning from predecessors, and making sure software that depended on bugs of the past are fixed so they don't. Since we're in the open source world, we don't have to end up the same as Windows did.

</comment><comment><USER4> > Many eyes theory conclusively disproven

Really? Using as evidence an example where a security auditor reading open- source code found a serious bug?

The fact that few serious bugs are found by reading open-source code may reflect their infrequency rather than the notion that "many eyes" isn't realistic. Heartbleed was also discovered by auditors reading open-source code files.

Claiming that Shellshock's discovery "conclusively" disproves many eyes is like saying that a cancer diagnosis proves that one shouldn't visit hospitals.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't know the details behind these discoveries, but weren't they found by security researchers looking through open source code?

Wouldn't that actually support the theory that open source is "more secure"?

Are there any studies done on bugs found in proprietary packages that could give a better definition to "fewer security problems"?

</comment><comment><USER6> "Companies like Microsoft pay programmers to review code..."

Apparently these (well-paid) MS programmers don't do their job well

[http://www.dailytech.com/Appalling+Negligence+DecadeOld+Wind...](http://www.dailytech.com/Appalling+Negligence+DecadeOld+Windows+XPe+Holes+Led+to+Home+Depot+Hack/article36517.htm)

<comment><USER7> My eyes went to this immediately:

"..outdated softwae at America's largest home improvement retailer"

Article lambasting Microsoft for not reviewing their product enough before it gets sent out, sends out a product that clearly wasn't reviewed enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > "The average programmers writes 10x more code than they read."

Not in my experience. And I certainly wouldn't trust such programmers.

<comment><USER9> This is completely surprising to me as well. I can't even imagine what a person like that would be like, at the workplace. I certainly have never talked to one. If you ever meet a programmer that talks 10x more than he listens, please show me it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Some nice, peer reviewed research about this topic entitled "An Emprical Study of Linus Law": [http://www4.ncsu.edu/~apmeneel/ccs221-meneely.pdf](http://www4.ncsu.edu/~apmeneel/ccs221-meneely.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER11> I wonder how many bugs go unreported because the team or individual responsible for the code-base is too difficult to deal with it's not worth the time.

Those that aren't indifferent to feedback are often hostile to it and will get pretty aggressive when you point out flaws.

Additionally, many of these code-bases are so esoteric and needlessly complicated, many with quirky coding styles unique to the project or with layers of meta-programming that makes it hard to understand what's actually going on unless you've actually worked with that project for a while.

When I see M4 in a project I just sigh and move on.

</comment><comment><USER12> Most programmers don't spend their time bug-hunting in crappy codebases.

Most programmers wouldn't recognize a security bug, unless there were making a point of thinking that way (and many wouldn't even then). Which takes extra mental effort.

.

Base-system and network-facing software should be written in a way that makes it fun to read and useful to learn from, so that it gets more people looking at it.

Base-system and network-facing software should have open, friendly maintainers, who welcome questions from new learners trying to understand the code.

.

Some bugs would never be apparent from just reading code. Telnet over an untrusted network is insecure no matter how well written the code is. Priority inversion is only apparent looking at a system as a whole. An overly- concurrent system may work find on a single CPU, but start thrashing itself when run on a big NUMA machine.

These would seem to require a higher understanding of the system, and more specialized skills to detect. I'm not really sure what aside from having good design documentation to do to make them easier to find.

</comment><comment><USER13> The article claims few eyes are looking at open source code, which is not necessarily false, however that claim must be contrasted with even fewer eyes are looking at proprietary source code. Security through obscurity is not a well-regarded practice and in fact the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends against it.

</comment><comment><USER14> _If many eyes had been looking at bash over the past 25 years, these bugs would 've been found a long time ago._

Many eyes switched to different shells, or never used bash to begin with. We have sh, dash, zsh, fish, depending on need and circumstances.

</comment><comment> chroem- What an absolute joke of an article.

Keep in mind that, unlike Windows and OSX, GNU/ Linux doesn't have a paid media arm to make bloggers turn security issues into a huge spectacle. With how vulnerable to malware and generally insecure Windows is, can you imagine what it would be like if the media applied the same level of scrutiny to it? You wouldn't be able to find a story on some online journal that wasn't about a Windows security hole.

</comment><comment><USER15> In my opinion we have to say goodbye to the idea that something is intrinsically more secure for an other reason than being specifically designed for security. On the other hand I'm not sure who seriously still makes the claims that Graham critizises.

<comment><AUTHOR> Eric S. Raymond for one.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus%27s_Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus%27s_Law)

<comment><USER16> To be fair, Linus's Law was meant to apply to all bugs in general, not particularly to security bugs.

Though it can be argued that, given that human nature makes people more prone to go looking into things when there is a (perceived) problem, Linus's Law applies only to the subset of bugs that affect functional requirements of software.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "The average programmers writes 10x more code than they read."

I am way below average. I read a ton of code for every line I write, though I guess that's since I'm usually doing more work on bug fixes than features.</comment>


Ask HN: Do any companies in Canada pay engineers competitively? - <AUTHOR> The difference in salary levels in cities like Toronto or Vancouver compared to SF or NYC is pretty large, even taking cost-of-living into consideration. I'd think the difference shouldn't be more than 30%.
Many folks end up working remotely for US companies, or straight out moving to the US.
Are there any local companies that don't underpay? <comment><USER2> These are the wages nationally for Canadian software developers.

[http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/mobile/report- eng.do?area=9219&lang...](http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/mobile/report- eng.do?area=9219&lang=eng&noc=2174&action=final&ln=n&s=1&version=mobile#wages)

You can also look at national occupational code 2173 & 2175

Here is a list of actual wages for H1B visas under the title of programmer

[http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=PROGRAMMER&city=&year=...](http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=PROGRAMMER&city=&year=All)

With a very similar looking distribution.

If you cherry pick your data by focussing on just the ones who go to Amazon (use software development engineer there) you get closer to $115 - $150k

And it's USD. Almost double the Canadian.

But it's also one of the hardest interviews in the industry.

I think you'll find the data shows roughly pairity if you discount the exchange rate.

On the other hand ... $100k USD is still a bump. But they also often need to pay their own medical insurance.

Best deal is remote work for a US company paid in USD and living in glorious maple syrup soaked Cannuckistan.

<comment><USER3> How easy is it to acquire remote work? What are some sites I can go to to look for open positions?

<comment><USER4> Here on HN is a good bet, in the monthly "Who is hiring" posts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I haven't met one.

My usual course of action used to be - find consulting arrangement that pays in USD for US company (or consultancy) that is ok to pay you normal US rate (not adjusting down your pay depending on your place of living).

</comment><comment><USER4> I remember back in 2012 Sortable was offering $80-$100k for junior devs in KW. But they've been acquired now.</comment>


R U OK? - <AUTHOR> https://www.ruok.org.au/ <comment><USER2> The U.S. needs this day, especially this year.

With the unmitigated disaster of 2020, I'm "probably not ok," but I am not in any danger to myself or others. Quite the opposite - I'm optimistic that things are moving in the right direction. I mean, it can't get worse:

\- Shutdown my consulting Business in February because I didn't feel comfortable with being around new people constantly with a t-cell deficient immune system. \- My boyfriend abruptly stopped his antidepressant and quietly completed suicide in his apartment alone. No indication anything was off. It's been tough to manage such a loss alone during a pandemic where social distancing is important. \- I am left with his orange tabby cat; and with the unrelenting frustration in trying to reason with people who never lost their lover to suicide, with multiple "it's not your fault" conversations. I'm conflicted in that these people are the ones who are standing with me, but I can't hear this logic again. \- Just a few days ago, six months later, I acknowledged what would've been his 33rd birthday and also our anniversary. I couldn't find anything to actually celebrate or anyone to celebrate it with because of COVID. Still waiting for a good time to even have a proper memorial. \- My roommate couple friends moved back home to the Midwest. As the master tenant, I'm responsible for the difference in rent, nobody is moving to SF really; but may have a roommate come October. \- My best friend in San Francisco died of cancer late March. \- We were supposed to have dinner the last week of February, \- and all of us were supposed to celebrate my April birthday together at a Honey Dijon show; \- and go to the Maceo Plex day party on Treasure Island in May. Yep, as both of them are gone and both of those events will never happen, that calendar event was a rough thing to forget to cancel.

On the bright side, I had time to crash course my way into sharpening my CS skills for flavor of the week programming languages, turned half my garage into a wood shop; created an IoT paradise at home or "who needs an Alexa when Jenkins will do," been building the tabby a "catio" so he'll get some outside time, started getting into the fun world of circuit board reworking out of a BIOS Flashing disaster, and enjoying the work of cooking all my meals.

I'm not too stressed about work. I have decided I'm not going back into the self employment hustle; and I'm patient enough to wait for the right next opportunity. Low expectations yield pleasant surprises.

<comment><USER3> That's a lot for one person in one year. I struggle with far less, I don't want to think how I'd feel going through what you have.

I wish you luck finding work and happiness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Single dad - with two boys who delight and terrorise in equal measure. Working in an industry in constant flux, trying to make the right moves and play to my skills. Knowing all along that I am not the best at what I do by a long mile. I've had two years that have often felt horrendous, and that's putting it lightly. I am approaching 40, and have taken a turn for the worse in terms of lock down weight...

Weirdly corona has brought together my family, has made me see I am really lucky to have the job I have and made me desperate to work harder at social relationships.

So that's my story, and I am here for anyone who might benefit from a similar perspective :)

<comment><USER5> Also single dad with 2 young kids in the UK. Got divorced last year, so this year has been a challenge for the same reasons you mentioned! Grateful to have work and spend lots of time with the kids although they are back at school now. I'm 44 so my skills are even more out of date!

<comment><USER4> The first year and a half is the worse for separation with children, at least for me. Trying to be involved in the same capacity, whilst maintaining a job and rebuilding your own life is a lot of work. I was constantly exhausted, often forgetting to eat and drink and barely functioning. There were some friends and family that really came through for me during those first 18 months.

In terms of skills, like I say you just have to work with what you have. Don't imagine you have to be the best at something, but be solid. Let your experience make you dependable and steady - focus on consistency and being the 'calm one'. That's really come through for me in recent years.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the reply. I've been looking after the kids 3 days a week plus half of weekends and holidays for 2 years now. Sleep was a problem for a bit but the kids are 5 and 6 now and sleep well. I didn't eat much last year and exercised a lot so was in great shape, but now I'm happier this year I'm eating and drinking more!

Work is ok. I realise it's a means to an end supporting the family and do what I need to do and try to be kind to people around me. I owe a few close friends for helping me be where I'm at now.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like a similar deal. I was 'allowed' to take the boys for my first holiday with them in years the other week and it was complete bliss. Blackpool beach has never felt so special...

One thing I've been meaning to ask someone in the same position - how do your friends with kids treat you now? Especially those that knew you with your ex? I often feel like they're almost jealous of my position of getting a few days 'to yourself'. It's hard that I feel they're less likely to hear me, or relate... Does that happen with you?

I'm on Twitter with the same name so feel free to reach out. Good to keep a single dad's club going.

<comment><USER5> We have a 50% kind of deal so holidays aren't a major problem although I was told not to take the children overseas. Not a problem this year! I've enjoyed a week in Wales this year and a week in Scotland last year. Can be a bit awkward just with the 3 of us as their mum has a bigger extended family but we still enjoyed ourselves.

I get that a bit. I'm often the only dad in the playground with a sea of mums and a few have said they'd love to have time to themselves. It's important, I think that's why I'm single but I'm not sure. I think it's just important to relate to people equally on a gut level and be kind when you can. It would be nice to have sympathy sometimes but it doesn't really help that much. Things are good right now, but they could easily be better or worse!

Unfortunately I'm not on Twitter but good luck with your journey. Good to talk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Digression that might be interesting for the HN crowd: The healthcheck for Apache ZooKeeper is simply sending it `ruok` and receiving `imok` if it's healthy:

        $ echo ruok | nc 127.0.0.1 5111
        imok

<comment><USER7> That's cute.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment.

The constant flood of bad news combined with an inability to be away from the computer ( work), the inability to go outside (California fires) and the inability to go to a different indoor location (coronavirus) has maybe leant power to this very cynical viewpoint.

I guess we do not have the power, we are not responsible for the way the world is, and we do not have to bear the guilt for it.

<comment><USER9> I guess the one thing that holds me back from acting more selflessly than I do is that we don't appreciate the efforts of goodwill of others, and we reward selfishness.

I pay 45% of my income in taxes? The message is "pay your fair share". Pick up a piece of trash and put it in the garbage can? More litter will replace it when you walk by it the next time. Work extra hard to make sure a project is completed? "You're a great team player."

Contrast that with what happens when you act selfishly.

Negotiate salary aggressively? Receive a 20 - 50% pay bump. Buy cheap meat instead of humanely raised or organic? Save hundreds on your monthly grocery bills. Get Starbucks every day? No one directly minds about the waste you created.

These is one of the biggest cultural issues we should address imo. And we're already seeing the negative humanitarian impacts of selfishness with respect to the Covid epidemic. If the virus required greater awareness, empathy and care then we would have been wiped out.

This comment is referring to American culture, if it wasn't evident already

<comment><USER8> My favorite example of this comes from my ~10 years working at grocery stores before I made it into the tech industry. An older lady would come in and just clean us out of our cheap ground beef. This was at trader joe's, we sold 1 pound plastic wrapped cubes for $2.99. She would come in and buy ~20 every week. I finally asked her what she was doing with all this ground beef and she explained how it was for her two big dogs and laughed about how spoiled they were.

She was totally oblivious about her actions and their implications, completely content with her lifestyle, probably even felt good about how healthy her dogs were. Viewed through a different lens she is abhorrent, single-handedly undoing the work of 20 vegetarians all because her dogs are too good for regular dog food.

<comment><USER10> I don't want this to sound like an attack but what's the issue? Heaven forbid someone feeds their pets the food they're supposed to eat instead of some hyper-processed and unregulated sawdust pellets.

<comment><USER8> Well if you assume that beef is bad and cheap beef is especially terrible for both the environment and the cattle themselves then it isn't a huge stretch to see why someone pouring 20X the amount a human would eat into 2 dogs every week could be viewed as immoral.

It's like more people driving hybrid/electric cars cause gas prices to go down, in response to this other people can now buy bigger gas guzzling cars. Economics rewards immoral behavior.

<comment><USER11> Economics only rewards immoral behavior if we let it. We should properly factor negative externalities into prices.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Like so many other products, services and initiatives, this website would greatly benefit from a prominently placed, buzzword-free, ELI5 explanation of what it actually does.

Finally I found this in one of the subpages that explains some of it:

> Got a feeling that someone you know or care about it isn't behaving as they > normally would? Perhaps they seem out of sorts? More agitated or withdrawn? > Or they're just not themselves. Trust that gut instinct and act on it. Learn > more about the signs and when it's time to ask R U OK? here.

<comment><USER13> It's probably more easily understood in Australia where there's press and some corporate efforts to publicise it. Gives people an excuse to check in on friends who either need support or just want to vent to someone who understands.

The founder was prompted by the suicide of his father and then his own mental health battles.

<comment><USER14> Exactly, R U OK day is now a pretty big thing here, and I would say almost everyone now knows what the day is about. It's got pretty good buy in by the general public which is nice.

Someone on the Melbourne subreddit even baked R U OK cookies and was giving them away to strangers passing by their house. Hopefully made someone's day better.

<comment><USER15> I don't know, it seems like yet another superficial gimmick taking the place of real relationships. Giving out cookies on the street isn't getting to know someone and helping with their troubles.

<comment><USER13> The awareness has meant that I've asked people about how they're going in a non-trivial sense when I otherwise would not have. I suspect RUOK is most effective amongst friends rather than strangers in the street, and that cookies build awareness and encourage people to ask their friends, thus having some impact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Not okay.

It's a worrying time being a Chinese person. On the one hand, I don't support CCP (hence the throw away); I find the dictatorship very troubling. Furthermore, the growing patriotism and nationalism makes me anxious about the next generation of Chinese.

On the other hand, many people outside tend to treat Chinese people and CCP as a whole, and denounce and dismiss everything we do. More and more people suggest severe measures against Chinese products, even when no evidence of foul play is found. Simply the potential of being malicious is enough to warrant doubts, scrutiny, and dismissal. If this trend continues, I don't know how to live in the west anymore. I can't imagine one day submitting a code change, and my code has to be reviewed by a specialized security expert, because my family lives in China.

Personally, I find no place to stand. The future looks to me like I'm going to be on an island of ideology, where the other Chinese despise me for not being loyal, and the westerners suspect me of being secretly loyal to CCP.

In the big picture, it feels like another cold war is coming, and, that has a crushing weight on me. All I ever wanted is a simple life, stable income, no need for luxury stuff; but if the cold war were to actually start, I don't see how I can build that life.

Hell, even an actual war might be looming, during which I and my family have a significant chance to die, given the existence of nuclear weapon, the effectiveness of the modern army, and the stubbornness of governments. And I just really don't want to die like that; it's so meaningless to die in a war.

I guess I just wrote this post to vent a little. It's something that I have absolutely no control (or even impact) over, but it looms over my shoulder every minute of every day. Every endeavor and achievement of mine pales in face of a global conflict, so I'm exceedingly demotivated to do anything these days. It feels like nothing matters, and everything is going to crumble anyway.

Apologies for bringing so much negativity. I hope everyone else is having a good day.

<comment><USER17> I live in Europe. China is often hard to understand and seen as a monolithic block. In Poland if something doesn't make any sense it's common to say "it's Chinese to me". The language, especially the characters, is probably the biggest barrier. I vaguely know that China contains a bunch of peoples and languages, regions with distinct cultures. But very little beyond that.

People fear what they don't understand. I think you could make a difference if you made it easier for outsiders to learn about China and Chinese. You don't need to start a blog or a youtube channel. Just point out some existing ones which give foreigners a decent idea about China. Or maybe some movies which illustrate (aspects of) China pretty well and are still accessible to typical Westerners. No, it won't work for people on the street. I don't have a solution for that.

<comment><USER18> On a more fun note, what is considered "Chinese" varies greatly by language (it's Greek in English): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me#In_other_languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me#In_other_languages)

In German, wikipedia claims "Polish in reverse" (though there's no other reference to that phrase on the Net, other than Reverse Polish Notation).

<comment><USER19> As a German, I've never heard "Polish in reverse", but "Spanish" works exactly that way ("Das kommt mir spanisch vor").

<comment><USER20> "Can't you understand what I'm saying? Am I speaking Chinese?" is pretty common as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Remember, if you are in the US at least, and someone tells you they aren't ok, and you recommend a crisis line, and they mention anything regarding suicide, they are very likely going to be extracted from their living situation by force and end up incarcerated at very high expense to themselves.

If their life was going poorly before that, it sure won't be better after.

edit: as another poster mentioned, the record of this could follow you around for life as well.

<comment><USER22> Also having your name officially recorded for this cause in a database can have negative impacts on the rest of your life, as this Canadian woman found:

[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-woman- refuse...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-woman-refused-u-s- entry-because-of-depression-1.2444960)

<comment><USER23> That particular woman _wrote a book about her experience with depression_ , then wondered how the US border agent knew about it...

I mean, I'm all for privacy, but if you publish something in a book I don't think you can expect it to stay a secret...

<comment><USER22> First of all, that's not much better. "Don't talk about mental health publicly or there will be consequences" is not something we should be OK with.

Second, from the article itself:

> _Richardson told CBC News that border guards referenced her 2012 > hospitalization, and not her book, in denying her entry into the U.S._

Third, this result is not unique to people who have spoken out:

> _The Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office has received reports from more than > a dozen Canadians who have been denied entry into the U.S. because their > records reveal they have a mental illness._

> _It's important to note that police officers, by virtue of their role as > emergency responders, are the first to arrive at the scene of a mental > health crisis. They respond to the person experiencing a mental health > crisis and often escort the individual to the hospital emergency department > or other health care facility for medical assessment. This is the moment > when the mental health police record is generated._

[https://ontario.cmha.ca/news/woman-denied-entry-into-the- us-...](https://ontario.cmha.ca/news/woman-denied-entry-into-the-us-because- of-clinical-depression-history/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm doing ok-ish. I'm waiting to start a new job but I'm afraid maybe some of my past mistakes might have an impact on the ultimate decision. I'm in a really tight financial bind (on top of it all, the only family car broke down yesterday). This new job would be life-changing in terms of financial security and my future career. Taking a cue from this site, I think I will take action by reaching out tomorrow to the recruiter I'm working with.

All we can do is keep our chins up and try to keep moving forward!

<comment><USER13> Best of luck on the job front!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This reminds me of an interesting difference in language semantics when I moved from the UK to the Bay area. In the UK it's normal to say "alright?" as if to say hello. I found people would respond "why wouldn't I be?" or something along those lines as if they looked like they weren't OK. It interests me as I find in the UK we are less likely to talk about feelings than in the US.

<comment><USER15> Can you explain what you mean?

<comment><USER26> "Alright" is a common greeting in the UK, similar to "How're you going".

<comment><USER27> also works in at least french, german, and spanish.

(I think the big dividing line between cultures is whether it's surprising or not to answer with full sentences how one is doing upon being asked "alright?")

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> There's a similar thing in the UK which has seen some promotion on the radio and the press generally: [https://www.time-to- change.org.uk/asktwice](https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/asktwice)

Unusually it's targeted more at men. The idea is that you need to ask the question multiple times as men are allegedly more likely to say "yeah, I'm fine" the first time, so you need to ask a second time to apparently ensure a truthful response.

</comment><comment><USER29> I think any time is fine to ask "Are you OK?" In Chinese, 你好嗎?is as common as hello.

The reply indicates the level of trust they have in you.

If they say "Yes, of course!" then there's nothing to worry out. "Fine" means they're not fine, but they don't trust you enough to tell you why. If they actually tell you what's really on their heart, you now know that this person thinks of you as a trustworthy friend!

<comment><USER15> It's the same almost anywhere. The greeting question doesn't matter. It can be Hi or What's Up. People open up to people they trust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> No, I'm not, but I'm working on it and I will be. It's been interesting today, seeing people at work walking around together, using work-sponsored coffee vouchers specifically to have a coffee with a colleague today, my face clearly says 'I am not okay', yet only two people have spoken to me at all today, some have clearly avoided me.

<comment><USER31> Hey, do you want to chat?

<comment><USER30> Thank you, champion, but no. I've got people to talk with, and I am using that. Not everybody does though, and it disappoints me to see so many people missing that point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Good stuff. Even though a lot of people just don't want to talk to anyone when they're depressed, it doesn't hurt to remind them that there are always people willing to listen.

<comment><USER33> In my experience, the people helping you out are the ones that went through a similar thing themselves.

They are also the ones that can give you the most emotional support. Because you will see that you are not the only one, which already helps a lot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I tried a bunch of times to help a supervisor that was an alcoholic. He wouldn't even talk about it. Helped his family when he was in the hospital with pancreatitis. Offered everything I could. He never did get help, lost his job, lost his family, ended up dead in the street a couple of years later. Still makes me sad.

</comment><comment><USER35> on a side note, "R U OK" is a meme in China, originally taken from a clip of Xiaomi's president LeiJun public English speach.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU- fwS6aAU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU-fwS6aAU)

<comment><USER36> Funny how four letters can take one in so many tangential directions. For some of us old farts, it's also a memorable KMFDM song from 1999: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEC1qpfLY1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEC1qpfLY1E)

<comment><USER37> I was going to mention this song too. I'm glad to see someone (ultra heavy) beat me to it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Kudos for the devs making the site accessible to no-JS and no-image browsers. Site looks great.

Society makes demands of us and then classifies it as "dis-order" when we have issues with the demands.

Here is to more peace and comfort in the life of anyone reading this comment.

</comment><comment><USER39> I wish this would be a completely normal thing to do. I think if we were more genuinely compassionate and cared more about each other's lives then this world would be a better place.

<comment><USER40> Sadly, I think the problem is not even a lack of compassion, but the fact that many people don't have anyone they trust, and there's a lack of shared spaces where they could belong and eventually connect with others that could help them. Everyone needs connection (well, let's leave schizoids aside for today), and connection requires people being together in the first place. And only then starts the hard part, as a lot of people is pretty particular about connection, trust and openess towards others, but where do we expect to go if we are already failing at getting people together in the first place.

While I'm happy about visibilizing mental health problems, I feel pretty similarly to many other issues that we try to visibilize: that's only step zero, and no one seems to bother to talk about step one afterwards. While it's possible to help specific individuals, we are not getting closer to the root of the structural problems impairing our societies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> No. I don't think I am depressed. I just don't want life. I was given a life without my consent, atleast give me option to exit without pain. People have children for selfish reasons, their life has no meaning, bored, what will they do in life, so have children, life becomes less painful. Now those children will have to do the same, it's a cycle. There is no meaning to be honest. People talks nice things but ultimately ignores that there are lot of suffering in whole world because people are seilfish and wants to have baby. They never think that those babies don't remain baby & then thay suffer.

Of course there are some good times, but for most days there are lots of stress. Every morning I have to work everyday in a job I don't like, even the commute is stress. Then I will become old, have some desease. Why do I need this? Just to live and to wait till the day I die. What if I don't want any of this, bring the day closer, so I don't have to do this longer. Don't worry I don't have the courage to do the thing. I am just ranting. The elites will not let me have the easy way out option untill I serve all I can and get old. They are priviledged and they decide all.

<comment><USER42> There are several options to exit without pain. I found one on the internet, and have prepared it. It was inexpensive and the components are not particularly suspicious. It's ready to go when I am.

Somehow that makes me appreciate life more. Being able to leave at will makes staying sweeter. I can let go of much of the stress by knowing that it is voluntary and temporary, which lets me focus on the simple pleasures. Of which there are many.

I'm not ready to go, partly because I am ready to go.

<comment><USER15> I strongly suggest you throw those supplies in the trash. You can re obtain them if really needed. As it is, you are one bad day from taking an action that (based on populato statistical evidence) you will most likely immediately regret but cannot undo.

<comment><USER42> Possibly true in the case of someone dealing with bipolar disorder or acute depression. Not so much for someone with decades-long depression or chronic physical pain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I had a few people from Australia calling me here in the US yesterday (which was the 10th in Australia) for exactly this. It's nice. Had a good chat and caught up on things over there and here.

</comment><comment><USER44> Privacybadger drew my attention to

googleads.g.doubleclick.net

static.doubleclick.net

fonts.gstatic.com

cc.swiftype.com

www.youtube.com

snap.licdn.com

</comment><comment><USER45> No. Because tech blogs and forums like HN/Blind constantly make me feel I'm getting underpaid.

<comment><USER46> I know the feeling.. found out recently that someone in my team is on a good 80k more than me!

<comment><USER47> No one is going to pay you more unless they think you're valuable and you're departure is a credible possibility.

I know it's a lot of work, but the best strategy is to interview for jobs consistently and regularly, regardless of whether you are happy with your current job. Shop around your offers, get companies to fight over you. Use all the leverage you have. You don't get more money without demanding it.

Power and money are never given, they are only taken.

<comment><USER48> At my 2nd full-time job, starting as a junior in a team, I got a higher starting salary than what I was comfortable asking at the interview, plus got a yearly 10% salary increase for the next 5+ years. When I left the company I still got invited to the Christmas party, even though I was no longer working for them. Also, the local managing director grew out from being a developer 15+ years prior (in the same company), and new all his 300+ employees by name. There are always exceptions to a rule.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> No

<comment><USER29> You're not alone.

If you need someone to talk to, I'll listen. Here's some headphones, MP3s [0], and chocolate. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=welW04x876g&list=PLfNF8TQij0...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=welW04x876g&list=PLfNF8TQij08rRJMIp0i5kFg0_LmZJ6RrM&index=1)

<comment><USER15> Where's the chocolate?

<comment><USER29> Do you accept cookies?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Placement New, Memory Dumps, and Alignment - <AUTHOR> http://jrruethe.github.io/blog/2015/08/23/placement-new/

<comment><USER2> C++11 introduced the alignof operator [0] along with the alignas specifier [1], which can be useful when doing placement-new style allocation like this.

[0]: [http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/alignof](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/alignof) [1]: [http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/alignas](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/alignas)</comment>


Here's how Amazon self-destructs - <AUTHOR> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/19/amazon_could_be_a_victim_of_its_own_success/ <comment><USER2> _" But buyers first discover their books online only about 17 percent of the time."_

A greater percentage will discover books online if brick and mortar book stores disappear. Plus there's still the local library, so Amazon may not be quite the death knell for book publishers as this article is making them out to be.</comment>