Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tadast/switching-to-contracting-uk/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> As a contractor of many years standing (I started contracting when the internet appeared in 1994) I started reading the article hoping it was correct and finished it with my fingers covering my eyes in fear. Sadly I don't have time to correct many of the misconceptions and total inaccuracies it contains.

Its a shame really as good articles are hard to find and I'm sure many americans would find the differences between the UK and US markets very interesting...

However if you really want to be a contractor [https://www.ipse.co.uk/advice/articles/starting- out](https://www.ipse.co.uk/advice/articles/starting-out) has a lot of advice on starting out.

[http://www.contractoruk.com/first_timers/](http://www.contractoruk.com/first_timers/) also has a lot of advice although as a new starter I would avoid the general part of their forum...

And there is a reason why people use limited companies. You can work as a self employed person but many clients stop when HMRC come knocking while agencies have been legally barred from employing people as self employed since the 1970s...

<comment><USER3> It would be a lot more useful if said what these misconceptions and inaccuracies were. It seemed generally accurate to me. I think you should either back up this comment or delete it; otherwise it's unfair to the author.

(I don't mind to sound snarky here; the rest of your comment is genuinely helpful).

<comment><USER2> Where to begin

Am I ready - The biggest bit is actually having the confidence to do it and a CV good that will get you past both the gatekeeper (the agent) and the client checking CVs... That means you should have real experience across both multiple employers and multiple market sectors (retail, consultancy, banking for instance) before thinking about it.

Timing -

Never understood this one. Projects have different life cycles so require analysts before project managers before developers before testers.

Outside of the week between Christmas and New Year there are always some companies looking to start projects or requiring another contractor to fix a problem. In fact the only time I've found it difficult to get work is in April which supposedly is a boom period due to new financial years...

Bureaucracy -

The easiest way to find contracts is through agencies. To do that you need either a limited company or to use an umbrella. You don't however need to create this before you get a contract as you can get a company created in about 4 hours..

Getting an accountant

You need one but don't need 1 until you get that first contract. Crunch has a lovely interface and is a good site but frankly I don't think they would be that great if things went wrong as they haven't got many qualified accountants. Look at IPSE or Freeagent for many other possible options..

Registering for VAT

On the flat rate scheme you don't keep 5.5% but rather .2 *.145 or 2.6% as the 14.5 is taken from the income including VAT..

Expenses

You don't need to do anything until you have a contract (as I've continually said setting up a company can be done in 4 hours). You may need to wait before you get paid (although some agencies still pay weekly) but if that is the case you keep the expenses to a minimum, keep a record of them and take the money from the company as soon as it receives that money.

Finding your first client

The first client isn't the hardest. The second one is. Especially when your first client was a short term 3 month contract and they didn't renew you because the work was done. With 1 3 month contract under your belt you then start looking for a contract as your money starts running out. That is when things are difficult.

And I'm out of time but just before I go

Mailing lists and communities

This is my real problem with this article. He doesn't seem to want to be a contractor. He wants to be a freelancer working for multiple companies on various projects. Perfectly acceptable but thats the world of code bunnies doing work for start-ups and advertising agencies rather than contracting in a consultancy firm or government department.

<comment><USER4> A few things to add to this.

\- put aside money Before starting try, really try, to have saved at least 1 months expenses - preferably 2 and ideally six. You won't get paid (as in a months salary in the bank) for a couple of months. companies have cycles for payments and if you are on the wrong end it can hurt

\- know your tax liabilities Sit down with your accountant and write a spreadsheet or a script that tells you exactly how much tax you owe to whom given say 10,000 of monthly income. Do not leave until this is done. Read this again. Trust me from bitter personal experience. Know your tax situation

\- tax "dodges". You will be approached within days by someone hoping they can sell you on a scheme where you will pay 1% tax. Loans, off shore, forget all of them. Until you can afford your own tax lawyer, you pay what HMRC tells you. Possibly the only "dodge" is if your spouse works for you and you split the shares of the company, each takin dividend payments - this way as a couple you have about 80k of income before a top rate tax is applied instead of just 40k if you are the only dividend reciever.

\- good personal project management. No matter what half arsed system the client has you must always know what tickets you have, what the acceptance criteria are, and be able to report weekly to whomever. Even if you report to your Collegue or your own inbox the discipline is vital.

\- have a "swapsies" partner. IR35 essentially says companies cannot exploit workers by calling them contractors. So there are several tests, the most convincing is substitutability - the idea if I am sick my company can send in another contractor just as good. Have a comtractor friend act as this person - it is a useful way to remember you are supposed to be a company not a person.

Wow - there is a lot more to talk about

<comment><USER5> Shameless plug, but if you need to set up a substitution agreement with another company, i.e. a "swapsies" partner, checkout [https://agree.digital](https://agree.digital). It's generally a good idea to have documentation in place you can use as proof if HMRC come knocking!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What this does not touch on is be prepared to be a grease monkey, roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty and most importantly learn how to make recommendations but not take it personally if they're ignored for seemingly irrational reasons. Organisational dysfunction is the norm, not the exception.

Broadly speaking I've seen most of my work fall into these categories:

a) Help we need someone competent to aid us in a murky project b) We are a dysfunctional organisation, who require transient developers to put up with their modus operandi. c) We need your experience and expertise for a gap in our project

I've found (c) is best but (b) pays best though it can be stressful if your passionate about quality, engineering practices or process and (a) is often relatively short term but can garner kudos and create better opportunities.

Most companies don't hire contractors because they're doing swimmingly. Often it's because they have some degree of dysfunction. For example large institutions in the City regularly operate as a parody of the Mythical Man Month. Expect Waterfall, PMO, silos of BA, Dev, QA; UAT (manual), Cookie Cutter templates to everything. Expect most "business" interaction to be via a PM and scrums to be lengthy tortious ordeals. (This is why companies like Thought Works do so well and why I expect some serious disruption in the coming years from Startup targeting City companies).

Expect people to ask you your advice and for you to mentor less experienced developers. Do not expect your advice to be implemented, or rather expect it to be watered down with compromise by non-technical councils.

I really like contracting. I enjoy the flexibility, variety and the challenges. I enjoy the people and skills I learn and now my network has expanded and I have earned a reasonable reputation I enjoy the better projects.

I second the sentiment about going IPSE and of hiring a decent accountancy. Don't worry about their portals or how shabby a website may look, pick them based on their competency.

Bite the bullet. Go for it!

<comment><USER7> I agree with you. This is why I will probably never go contracting. These my observations:

You have to be an expert in the required area. Example: you have to be a Java Developer. If you are a software engineer that uses Java as one of your tools, it's not gonna fly, because god forbid you won't know by heart some java specific library/method/quirk/etc during your interview - this will be immediately filed under as a "NO" under "can hit the ground running" section, no matter how good you are at software engineering as a whole. In the end you will work with handful of "proven" (read "old, outdated") tools and become an expert of handling all kinds of legacy mess.

<comment><USER2> You can't know everything and don't need to know everything.

What I offer is a lot of knowledge for the core items I currently use (Dynamics CRM, C#, Javascript, SQL) and a very broad set of knowledge based on 20 years of been there done that seen what happens if you do it that way...

The requirement of any contractor (or consultant) is to convey a sense of competency / trustworthiness that allows the interviewer to believe you either fit the exact requirements or provide enough additional value (in my case 20 odd years of battle wounds and stories of utter disasters) that you are the person who will add the most value....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> _> The fixed rate VAT does not let you reclaim VAT, but you pay a lower rate than you charge your clients. So if you're a developer contractor you'll be adding 20% VAT to your client invoices, but only pay 14.5% to HMRC, keeping the remaining 5.5% to the business._

This is not correct. The way the flat rate VAT scheme works is you add VAT to your bill, then pay 14.5% of your "flat rate turnover" to HMRC. Flat rate turnover includes the VAT.

For example, let's say you did £100 worth of work for a client. You invoice them for £100 + 20% VAT = £120 in total. You must then pay 14.5% of £120 to HMRC (i.e. £17.40).

<comment><USER9> It also doesn't mention that you don't need to register for VAT until you have a turnover of £82k.

<comment><USER10> But for coders it's almost always worth registering straight away and going for the FRS.

Also, on FRS you can claim a single £2k expense annually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In terms of the recruiters section, whilst I appreciate you may not have had a good experience, this is probably the way a lot of people get contracting work, at least until you have a fairly big network of contacts.

I'd be more interested in knowing what agencies do have a good reputation / good developer experience along with the note to beware of the cowboys.

<comment><USER12> In general the big ones suck and have a boiler room mentality. Good ones in my experience:

Oxford Knight

Functional Works

GQR

Hays (They're big but have been good to work with)

I'll add more as I think of them.

If you're looking for work in finance - you will almost certainly be going through a recruiter.

<comment><USER6> Funny. I've had lots of problems with Hays. Cancelling cheques, unenforceable and ridiculous clauses in contracts for example.

The best agencies? None. Don't use them if you can help it. If you have to the smaller the boutique ones tend to be better, if nothing else because they'll have the better clients and more interesting projects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Why bother with a third party company registration service? You can do it yourself pretty easily through companies house.

Do companiesmadesimple have any value-add?

While I do share your cynicism about recruiters, I have also got most of my contracts through them. There are bad recruiters (vague job descriptions, never call you back) and there are good ones (We need someone here, you fit the bill, can we arrange a time to talk to my client?).

Learning to swallow your distaste and listen to them as if they were worthwhile human beings is a useful skill. Some (few) of them actually are.

(--edit-- good guide in general! I don't just want to harp on the negatives!)

<comment><USER13> A few more comments -

Rate - Daily is good, hourly can also work. My current client will pre- authorise overpayment of a few hours a week if I work them. A little income boost if I want it.

IR35 - The 'own equipment' thing is a guideline only, and I don't think you'll fall foul of IR35 for using their equipment, particularly as many places only allow their equipment to be used on their networks.

There are other reasons to avoid working for one client long-term too. At the moment you sign up for a contract or contract renewal that takes you over the two year mark, you can no longer claim day to day expenses.

I.E. I sign an initial 18 month contract, and at the end sign up for another year. From the18 month point the client office will be considered my 'normal place of work', regardless of IR35, so the company cannot pay for transport or lunch any more.

<comment><USER14> > Rate - Daily is good, hourly can also work. My current client will pre- > authorise overpayment of a few hours a week if I work them. A little income > boost if I want it.

How do you manage your hours with a day rate? Is a work day 8 hours, or is it any day you worked for the company more than X hours?

I've been trying to move to logging time and equating 1 day to 8 hours work.

I find it fiddly to bill per day when perhaps I only needed to work 5 hours to complete one job and 3 on another day.

<comment><USER13> Good to get this stuff sorted out ahead of time I guess.

Last year I was on a no-questions, no deviating day-rate. The consultancy I was working through wanted hourly accounting, I told them no and charged my rate per day or part of a day I worked for them, and based my working practices around 7.5 hour days. I put in the odd extra hour or ten here and there because I liked them and enjoyed the project, and they never quibbled about me clocking off early when the project didn't require a full day's attention. Quid pro quo I guess.

For this current contract the agent demands an account of hours worked and pays extra hours at day-rate/7.5, up until some maximum at which time I get to charge double, but the time has to be authorised by the end-client.

But it sounds like you're doing much smaller chunks of stuff for multiple clients? I tend to dedicate myself to one client at a time and work more or less full time on one project. Serial monogamy one might call it... I'm not an employee because I work on a project basis and then leave with no fuss :) I'm definitely a contractor, are you more of a freelancer?

<comment><USER15> I do largely prefer the hourly rate myself. The reason is that it is way too easy to work 'more' but it is very hard to work 'less' when paid daily. It was a problem I had for all the years I was employed, and I hate it..

With the hourly rate, I can just go off at lunchtime if I feel like the weather is good, and plonk in 12h on the following day if I like. And nobody /minds/ because they know I'm on an hourly rate. Also, I have a 'primary' client, so I can work there in the morning, and take on another contract from home and work that in the afternoon for example. I've been doing that a lot lately, and yes some days you end up doing silly hours, but they are all /paid/ hours.

I used to charge (as a freelance) on 'project' and 'phases' and so on, but very often, you always end up working more due to shifting specifications, bugs etc. By sticking to an hourly rate, you remove that constrain, and if you are 'expensive' companies will try not to waste your time -- while I see a lot of 'daylies' being given menial jobs because they are considered 'cheap' and expendables.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'd also mention joining IPSE ([http://www.ipse.co.uk/](http://www.ipse.co.uk/)) which a is trade organisation for freelancers. They provide various benefits including IR35 insurance that covers investigations.

Freeagent is a good online accounts package as well, but you need to find an accountant that uses it.

<comment><USER16> One other thing I would say is that I'm not sure your points about IR35 are correct. EG:

* Don't use equipment provided by the client; \-- This would be very hard to do. Most clients I've ever worked for supply you with a PC to use and won't allow non-corporate devices on their network.

* Be careful with paid-for meals or participating in company parties. \-- Never heard this mentioned before.

* Avoid working for one client for longer than a year when possible. \-- A lot of cients will enforce a maximum period of 2 years anyway, as after that you could theoretically claim benefits.

There are a lot of scare stories propogated about IR35, and a lot of it is by companies that sell IR35 Contract Reviews, IR35 Insurance etc. The number of IR35 investigations each year is in the low thousands, and there are 1.8m contractors in the UK.

<comment><USER17> Re. IR35 investigations - that number is going to go up. The new intermediaries legislation will give HMRC a ready-made list of likely targets. I expect the first people to be hit will be in companies with a large number of contractors supplied through the same company.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good to see recruiters getting some love on the comments here. If there remains a place for 3rd party recruiters its in the contract market. A few reasons:

 _Payments processing - a lot of employers will not want to deal with processing payments for contractors. Indeed, its often the main reason why they might go for contract vs permanent resource in the first place. I 've seen situations where contractor and employer have discovered each other, only for the employer to then ask the contractor to 'go through agency X'. No one likes admin load and we'd all get rid of it if we can.

_Reduce assessment load - job opportunities cycle much more frequently on the contract market - typically 3-6 months. This means a lot more time involved in opportunity sourcing / vetting, potentially a hugely time consuming exercise. A good recruiter will be able to filter these opportunities for you, and only get you the most suitable gigs

 _Reduce downtime - going without agencies entirely means relying on your own market gravity as a developer of renown to secure job opportunities. This is do-able for high profile developers, of course, especially those who live in metropolitan areas and are prominent on the open source / community / events scene. However, if you work on proprietary software, have heavy family obligations and live outside of a big city, you're probably going to find agents very useful indeed.

_Salary / Rate negotations - they are going to take their 15-20%. But they may end up earning you more by negotiating hard with the end employer. Certainly an inexperienced contractor is at risk of being exploited, but that's true in whatever of the type of contract you sign. A good relationship with a trusted agent can really help you make more on your rate, especially if you are not a naturally comfortable at negotiating.

And I say all this as a maker of a tech hiring platform that doesn't allow 3rd party recruiters on it. They have their place - just a smaller one than they currently occupy.

Great article in all other areas

<comment><USER13> What's your platform?

The payments thing is important, and sometimes recruiters provide a useful buffer too - the end-client company might take their sweet time to pay, or be unreliable. Contracting through a third party provides you with a buffer and I know for a fact that I've been paid well ahead of the recruiter being paid on several occasions.

<comment><USER19> Knowing Hung, he'll be too humble to mention his platform directly so I'll do it on his behalf: [http://workshape.io](http://workshape.io)

It's a brilliant platform & I've hired a few great people on there.

<comment><USER13> Thanks, I'll take a look around...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> >A service like www.companiesmadesimple.com (aff.) will make the incorporation process easy. It usually takes up to three business hours.

Yeah, better do it yourself. I'm from Germany and I set up a LTD directly with Companies House myself. It's really (I mean really really) straight forward and they even accept PayPal to pay the 15 GBP fee. It took me ~20 minutes and the company was incorporated the next day.

Those formation companies usually just are an unnecessary middleman.

<comment> UK-AL The formation companies are a left over from when it was quite hard

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Uh oh, if it's one thing us brits like to do its wrangle over the finer points of tax, employment and contractual law. This thread is going to get long, involved and possibly slightly testy :)

</comment><comment><USER22> one thing I would say is that i have had good fortune with recruiters, providing they are a decent recruiter they can ensure 0 downtime between contracts and if financial stability is a concern then this should notbe overlooked. One thing i have found is that finding a good recruitr and sticking with them has ben more useful than calling a handful of agencies and using the shotgun approach.

I would note that none have ever told me the name of a client prior to me accepting to be represented by them and I have been introduced to a client company who then asked me to work directly through them and to bypass the recruiter (and any fees the client company would be paying to them). I refused as it was a single contract for 6 months and burning bridges with anyone isnt worth it for that sort of duration. Plus the recruiter had got me the interview within 7 days of me getting in touch with them.

YMMV just my 2cents.

</comment><comment><USER23> This looks incredibly helpful - I wish someone would do one for the US/Canada

<comment><USER24> Becoming a Contract Programmer in Canada: [http://www.cameronhuff.com/blog/becoming-a-contract- programm...](http://www.cameronhuff.com/blog/becoming-a-contract-programmer- in-canada/index.html).

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Do not ever be a sole trader. It means you are personally liable for anything that goes wrong.

Say you end up with a dreadful contract and everything goes wrong and the client sues. If you're a ltd company you can dissolve the business and pay them out of whatever assets your company has.

If you're a sole trader you're liable for all the costs. Until you're personally bankrupt. Sure, there may be clauses in the contract etc, but if someone is mean enough they can make your life very difficult and they will exploit the fact you are a sole trader.

<comment><USER26> This is what business indemnity insurance is for, get covered to a minimum of £50K.

If you don't own a house and are brining in less than £70K PA it may or may not be worth registering a Limited company.

<comment> UK-AL If you don't own a house, you probably have tons of cash which is even easier for people to get their hands on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The post is good, covering many of the aspects, but if you are trying or just started contracting there is not always a need to make the VAT registration and Limited Company. As I have been freelancing for 4 years as a sole trader. There are some tax benefits but you have to manage your pay and money very differently as a Ltd, i.e. you have to hold money in the bank enough to cover company bills that you cant spend. Unless you are a high paid contractor all year you are unlikely to make £82,000 VAT base rate.

</comment><comment><USER28> > As far as I understand, it is important to have a contract that allows you > to:

> [...]

> If the client insists on including the clauses above, be ready to move on.

These lines appear to contradict themselves, am I missing something?

</comment><comment><USER29> Finding a good accountant isn't easy, but I would recommend looking for something better than Crunch. They were the default option "just pick Crunch", but I had to do a lot of tax research myself and recommend favorable approaches to their accountants on certain non-standard things. I also felt their first line of support is spread very thin and they put a lot of bookkeeping work on me. Then a lot of services cost extra each month, making their total pricing uncompetitive. In the end I got everything done and they did their best to rectify issues, but it was a big burden on my time and significant amounts of stress.

Maybe I would have had this issue with any accountants as a first time contractor, but I know it could have been better and I would have happily paid more to make it so. Do yourself a favor and pay extra to get an accountant that handles more things on your behalf (bookkeeping, VAT filing, etc) preferably with a simple non-proprietary interface.

I haven't tried these two services but if I go back to a UK accountant they'd be at the top of my list.

[http://www.3wisebears.co.uk/](http://www.3wisebears.co.uk/) (contractor) [http://www.proactive.uk.net](http://www.proactive.uk.net) (more startup focused, very helpful via phone)

<comment><USER30> I would also recommend not using Crunch. They're OK if you stay on the beaten path, but if you start veering off it their juniors don't have a clue. It was a painful experience for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I recently started working as a contractor (just for a few months to bring some cash in so I can continue to work on my business).

As I have a business already, I was considering doing the contracting under the business to reduce liability. Does anyone know whether this will increase the amount of tax I have to pay? I figured that I would have to pay corporation tax on any money I bring into the company as well as personal tax on any money that I pay myself as a salary. Is that the case?

<comment><USER32> Ask your accountant. Seriously, that's the best thing to do in a situation like that - random strangers on the Internet have no idea of the ins and outs of your company structure etc. and so could potentially give bad advice, even if they don't intend to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Something called entrepreneurs' relief is also nice for those with ltds or tech startups in the UK. It allows you to save massively on CG tax (10% instead of the normal rate of 18% or 28%) when selling assets or liquidating the business.

[https://www.gov.uk/entrepreneurs-relief](https://www.gov.uk/entrepreneurs- relief)

</comment><comment><USER34> You guys need to learn some accounting. Don't be afraid of book-keeping and be keen on any rule that helps you save on taxes. Overall, a limited company can save you around 20% on taxes over a salaried worker. That alone makes it difficult to go back to full-time employment.

<comment><USER35> I agree with you in principle, but not in practice.

Outsource your bookkeeping to Xero or Bench or wherever. As a consultant, accounting is a cost centre. You should be focusing on sales, marketing, or service delivery.

As a consultant, you are now a business. Ring the freaking bell or deliver service. That's your new job.

<comment><USER36> "As a consultant, accounting is a cost centre."

While I can't claim to know every jurisdiction, this is a very naive way of looking at things. Situations in which I was first-hand witness to people making (lots of) money from knowing the books well (i.e., much better than if someone else would do it):

\- subsidies (like for 'innovation') \- in case of a tax audit - some junior accountant who gets tasked with the small clients at a firm isn't going to be able to defend some stuff as well as someone with skin in the game \- on bankruptcy or when talking to a bank

And I'm sure there are more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Good advice, especially the bit about crunch. First time I contracted I let my accountant talk me into using their horrible spreadsheet. I couldn't make my self use it it was that bad and my accounts were a mess. Now my accountant (nimble jack) bundles freeagent (which when I looked into it was better than crunch and has an API) and keeping on top of things is much easier.

One additional thing: If you're married make sure your spouse is a director of the company as well (especially if they're not working). You can be hugely tax efficient in this manner and can extract nearly £80k per year from the company with no _personal_ tax to pay (there will still be corporation tax to pay on profits).

<comment><USER32> Other recommendations of accountants with decent online systems would be greatly appreciated. My current ones (Nixon Williams) seem fairly good as accountants, but the spreadsheet based expenses (and having to use email to take dividends, check profit/loss, etc) are getting quite annoying, and they want to charge extra to use their registered address rather than my own, which leaves a bit of a bad taste when Crunch include this.

I have heard good things about Crunch's system but some mixed things about the quality of their advice and how pro-active they are - any other feedback on them or others?

The point about the registered address and fraud is a real one, someone I worked with had this happen to them - will Crunch act as the service address as well as the registered address?

<comment><USER13> I've been using NW for about three years now and am deeply ambivalent about them for similar reasons...

<comment><USER32> I'm unsure if you'll see this reply with the topic being quite old, but I found out today (via a Youtube ad, no less - well targeted, sort of!) that Nixon Williams now have an online portal, called Vantage: [http://www.nixonwilliams.com/vantage](http://www.nixonwilliams.com/vantage) \- judging via the Wayback Machine, it has only been around since February this year.

If you speak to your account controller, they'll be able to set you up a dummy account to see if you like it - my understanding is that this would replace the monthly submissions of expenses and invoices, and give you a better real time view of your profit/loss, but you should still get the same level of service and attention paid to your account and it costs no extra. I'm still waiting for confirmation of all that (my worry being that I could make a mistake and it wouldn't get spotted, whereas it would with a monthly submission to a human) and for my account to be set up, so I can't comment any more on it, but it's definitely worth a look!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's probably worth noting that you only need to register for VAT if you're expecting to make > 82KGBP in VATable sales per year.

If you're contracting is mostly remote and outside the UK, you don't need to register, or charge VAT (as I understand it).

<comment><USER13> There is a financial incentive to do so, you charge VAT at 20% and you pay it at 14.5%.

I.E. I do £100 of work, I charge £120 and pay the government 0.145 * 120 = £17.4

Further, for the first year, you get to pay at 13.5%, £16.20 in the example, effectively boosting company revenue by 3.8% for the first year, and 2.6% thereafter.

<comment><USER14> Specifically I was talking about the situation where your clients are outside the EU and you wouldn't be charging them VAT anyway.

If you are working with UK clients I'd imagine it's most likely in your interests to be VAT registered.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Here's the printable PDF version: [https://gitprint.com/tadast/switching-to- contracting-uk](https://gitprint.com/tadast/switching-to-contracting-uk)

</comment><comment><USER38> I notice that business bank accounts are always mentioned in these sorts of lists. To me they seem like an extra overhead for no reason. You essentially have to ask a bank's permission and pay them just so they can accept your payments? So weird.

I could understand it if you had a business with employees and you sold products on a daily basis with loads of transactions, or if you plan to get into debt... but for invoicing someone every month? Personal account seems fine, and I'm sure people have several of them already.

<comment><USER13> The business is a separate legal entity to you. A business bank account clearly demarks what is your money and what is not. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's a requirement to work with a lot of companies, if not a legal requirement for working with a ltd company.

Business bank accounts can be had for free - most contractor-friendly accountants have an arrangement with Cater-Allen, for instance.

<comment><USER39> It's not a legal requirement and they're certainly not free AFAIK.

It is a requirement for partecipating in certain contests (eg: Microsoft had a program for investing in indie games company and they required to use a business account entitled to the company) but I still haven't heard such requirement from a client.

<comment><USER13> >> It's not a legal requirement

I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it shows a level of professionalism.

>> and they're certainly not free AFAIK.

You haven't looked very hard then...

<comment><USER39> > I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it > shows a level of professionalism.

Agree, but I've never seen such clause in a contract.

> You haven't looked very hard then... I guess it's a service provided by only > certain accountants? All the (chartered) accountants I've talked to never > offered a free business account. They offered introduction to paid business > account but that's the usual.

If it's not and there is a free business banking account with a reputable bank out somewhere I'll be happy to look into it.

<comment><USER13> Ok so the the two things I know of are that HSBC will give you a free intro year or two (but that's obviously only useful for a year or so) and that most contractor-specialising accountants have some sort of promotion/deal on with Cater-Allen to get you free business banking at their private bank.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I read that book [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Contractors-Handbook-Expert-Guide- Fr...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Contractors-Handbook-Expert-Guide- Freelancers/dp/0956074529/) when I started contracting last year and thought it covered quite a bit.

Another thing I'd recommend is finding an accountant that uses FreeAgent or something similar rather than their homegrown system. Also, If you use an accountant they will do the company registration for you

</comment><comment><USER41> My advice would be to use an umbrella company and let them deal with all the tax hassles - they have an entire staff purely for this. You will take home slightly less (no opportunity for tax "optimisation" but I disagree with that on principle anyway) but then also have no exposure to HMRC coming after you 6 years later saying "Where's our £10,000?" (has happened to several people I know.)

(edit for spelling)

<comment><USER2> Oh the joys of IR35 and its old ability to attract people into tax avoidance schemes instead of setting up limited companies....

My advice and I've repeated it continually on Contractor UK for years is to only use a proper umbrella company or use a limited company.

If someone says you'll receive more than 65-70% of you contract value from a umbrella company or more than 80% from a limited company they are just lying to you and wish to use your greed to initially grab money off you and then let HMRC take you to court...

For details on proper umbrella companies see [http://www.allumbrellacompaniesareequal.com/](http://www.allumbrellacompaniesareequal.com/) . But if you are planning to do this long term start a limited company....

<comment><USER42> Good advice.

I contracted for about 10 years in the UK, finance mostly. Had my own Ltd, took home about 65% of my day rate. No funny business, happened to move clients about every two years which helped for IR35.

Nothing more complicated than that. Yes that means I paid 35% tax, which is pretty much the equivalent I would have paid if I could have ever found anyone who would pay me my day rate as a salary.

1\. I believe in a progressive tax system and public services 2\. I don't believe in working for an umbrella based in Norther Cyprus which is owned by a Trust of which I am a trustee which pays me loans on a semi-regular basis of 80-88% of my day rate with absolutely zero tax paid by me.

HMRC is cracking down on IT Contractor loans anyway, and quite a few people are rightly being hit up for quite large amounts of tax.

If the UK public had any idea how many (roughly 50k contractors in the City) avoided paying so much tax (billions) while they were being mugged by PAYE there would be a total bun fight.

Me. I'm still wealthy, my dad was a teacher, my mum a stay-at-home mum. Went to state schools, drove on state roads, took the benefit of people who actually paid tax.

To all the "I could pay some of my extra money to a charity / local school" brigade. Sure, but you never did - you parasite. Feel free to thank me for providing all those public services for you if you like.

<comment><USER32> > Had my own Ltd, took home about 65% of my day rate. No funny business

What do you define as "no funny business"? Just curious what you mean by that.

I operate a Ltd, take a low salary and the rest dividends (as recommended by my accountant), claim the odd lunch and transport as expenses and that is about it, which I think is fine (both legally and morally) as at the end of the day, I am operating as a company rather than an employee, and am following the letter of the law.

I actually don't think the difference in tax paid is that significant if you operate that way, I've not worked it out exactly but I suspect I pay around the same amount of tax as a contractor with an Ltd as I would in an equivalent permanent position (in the sense that the perm salary would be lower but the tax a bit higher), so I don't really feel bad about my contribution back in terms of taxation.

Of course, I've worked with people who do take the p*ss and will put anything and everything through as expenses and find all the tax loopholes they can - seems like a lot of effort and risk and not sure I'd feel morally great about it, but each to their own I guess!

<comment><USER42> My approach was exactly the same as yours and proportionally I paid roughly (within 2-3%) as much tax as I would if I had earned the same amount as a full time employee. About the only thing you are 'dodging' with a low salary as a Director of a Ltd. company and dividends is NIC contributions, which would likely be in the order of £2-3000/year.

The main advantages as I saw them to contacting were:

\- day rate roughly twice what I would have earned salary \- honest, mercenary working relationship

What do I mean by funny business? I worked in the City of London for a decade, contracting at some fantastic places and with some great colleagues. I would say I was literally the only person I know (of say, 20 colleagues who's affairs I was aware of) who paid tax the entire time. Most never paid any.

An absolute majority of my colleagues entered into the following arrangement, which will be completely familiar to anyone who worked as a contractor in the UK finance sector between 2000/2010:

1\. Invoice via an umbrella company which is based offshore 2\. Umbrella preferably based inside Europe outside the EU, Northern Cyprus was very common 3\. Umbrella company is owned by a trust 4\. As a beneficiary of the trust you will be paid a 'loan' roughly every six weeks, since that's not a salary, right? 5\. Loans are not taxable. 6\. HMRC completely, totally aware of these arrangements. 7\. Figure it out, everyone not on PAYE was in on it.

Via this arrangement you can often get 85%+ of your date rate returned to you as 'loans'. I know people who were on these schemes for a decade and dodged in the hundreds of thousands of pounds in personal income tax.

HMRC has sent letters offering to settle cases with 16,000 people, of the people I know I assume they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar for a couple of years, but overall are supremely better off for never having paid tax for the most productive times of their lives.

These are people who often came through state education, drive on state roads, use public services, in the UK which has a rich left/socialist history and have absolutely compunction whatsoever in shirking all and every responsibility they have to contribute in any way.

And as some people in this thread comment - "well, if I wanted to I could write a check to a charity". I heard that so many times from colleagues who had children at local schools, born in the NHS, earning £150k a year, for ten years, who had never pay a cent in tax.

Enjoy being poor plebs, tax is optional. I chose to pay mine.

In the end, some of these people are still my closest friends, we just have very different principles.

I'm relatively wealth in my peer group (disregarding the non-tax-payers who I'm clearly behind). I could be wealthier, but I'm not a fucking parasite.

<comment><USER32> Got you - I completely agree, I think that is a disgusting attitude. I wasn't sure if you were referring to people saving a few extra £k a year by running a Limited company and expensing things in a totally legal way, or something more drastic - I was assuming the OP was referring to the former, probably read it wrong.

And I absolutely agree about the advantages. I like the fact that I can work for smaller companies on interesting projects who wouldn't be able to pay the kind of permanent salary I would be looking for, and I like the flexibility and potential for variety. I've always found leaving permanent jobs, even for good reasons, a horrible experience - almost as if you are breaking up with them! - so while I'm in a period of my life where I would like as much varied experience as possible, I think contracting makes sense, as long as you are willing to put in the work a) to deliver good results for clients and b) to keep yourself up to speed with technologies.

One thing I haven't seen many people mention on here is that as a contractor, you're much more responsible for your own personal development. If you aren't a motivated self-learner (chances are, if you are reading HN then you at least somewhat match that description though) then you could easily get stuck doing one set of technology and not learning much new (which suits some people well, of course), as companies are a lot less likely to "take a punt" on a contractor who doesn't know their tech stack - they don't want to invest money in getting someone up to speed who is only there for a short time period.

By the same token, I wouldn't expect any significant training to be provided to you as a contractor, so if that kind of thing is important to someone, maybe contracting is not for them. I've been quite lucky so far and been able to move into new areas/technology based on evidence that I can pick new things up, but some places definitely aren't interested in you unless you are already well versed in their tech stack.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I would all the formalities after landing the first contract.

It takes like 15 minutes online to establish limited company.

And when you buy insurance - how do you know which one? My current contract requires me to have 10 million employer liability insurance (I don't hire anyone) but I have to have it anyway.

I guess I'll add some comments in this thread... (if time allows)

<comment><USER44> Your consulting company employs you :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I've heard that in the UK, it's much more advantageous to work as a contractor than a full-time employee. Is there any truth to that? What advice would HN offer to a US-based developer looking to move to the UK?

<comment><USER43> I'm in the UK for 4.5 years and one of my biggest dreams is move to the US...

Main advantage of being contractor? Much better pay... They say - "no job security" \- but there is no such term anyway.

<comment><USER45> Is the dev scene bad in the UK? Why are you so interested in moving to the US?

<comment><AUTHOR> The dev scene in the UK is not as great as it is in the US, but it's good. Perhaps the second best after the US.

US is appealing because it's an english speaking country, has a good dev scene and is an interesting country to live in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Very good guide. I am thinking of becoming a contractor but had not idea you needed so much saved up!

Looks like I am gonna have to scrap my lavish summer holiday plans to put money aside...

</comment><comment><USER47> What do you think is the percentage of contract dev jobs? ( vs permanent )

</comment><comment><USER48> Tax.

You invoice £4k. It gets paid into your bank. Congratulations. You just earned £3k.

</comment><comment><USER49> Anyone know if there is much of a contractor market in Spain?

</comment><comment><USER50> The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

<comment><USER19> Almost every salary ceiling is low compared to SV but it's all relative.

It's not particularly difficult to achieve a £100k+ salary in London and you can have a very comfortable lifestyle on a six figure income.

<comment><USER51> Just out of interest, how?

For a developer, £100k+ as a contractor is not particularly difficult, but as an employee this would be rare, no?

<comment><USER15> I agree; unless working for google or something, the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k -- perhaps a bit more if you stay and negotiate well, but I topped up at 75k before I became a contractor.

Now, this company tax year, I invoiced 120k ex-vat so far, managed to buy a rather large amount of kit on the company (like, that 4k£ dream workstation..) and I finally have the feeling I'm getting paid what I'm worth, without having to do any politics.

I can concentrate on pure engineering, and I don't have to ponder whether I should become some sort of 'manager' to crack up the engineer pay ceiling.

<comment><USER19> >the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k

Not in London. Don't get me wrong, £65k will get you a decent developer but £60k is the starting point for good quality developers in London right now. I'm currently hiring a senior iOS developer and our aim is to hire someone around the £70k mark but I honestly think we'll need to pay more to get the calibre we need.

I've spent the last few years hiring developers in London and I also help run the HN London meet-up and based on first-hand experience along with the huge number of developers I've met through HN London, I can assure you that I'm not exaggerating the figures.

<comment><USER15> Oh I'm sure in London it's likely to be the case, but I'm around the Thames Valley here. Just the train ticket to London offsets any gain I would have made tho :-)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Plague: A different way to spread information - <AUTHOR> http://plague.io/

<comment><USER2> This seems cool. Kind of like a 1-many snapchat. So far a lot of the content shared here in NYC seems to be pictures of women though :/</comment>


Ask HN: Should I Leave Google Engineering Residency? - <AUTHOR> I'm currently a SWE in Google's engineering residency program. This is a one year fixed term engineering rotational program. At the end of the year, most residents are given conversion offers to start immediately as a regular SWE. I like the team I'm on, but there is no headcount, so if I convert, I'll likely go through the match process and be placed on some other team. I'm not excited about going through this process and essentially starting over at google.<p>I'm wondering if I should just interview elsewhere and, if I get an offer I like, just take it, even before the program ends. Google has given me no guarantee to stay beyond the program, so I feel it is reasonable to look for, and take, another offer. With a year of Google SWE on my resume, I should have better options than I did when I first looked for jobs. <comment><USER2> Hey, I'm a SWE at Google currently hosting an eng resident. I'd encourage staying through the residency in general, but I of course don't know your specific situation. (I'm also not sure which rotation you're on, but it's worth noting that even if one of your rotation teams doesn't have headcount the other might, and that even if neither does right now they might by the end of your residency.)

If you want, feel free to contact me internally and schedule a 1:1 so we can chat in more detail. My google username is the first 5 characters of my HN username. If you want to make the meeting private, that's absolutely reasonable. I will not mention anything about it to your team or manager unless you ask me to.

</comment><comment><USER3> insufficient data

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Alice: I don't much care where.

The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

Alice: So long as I get somewhere.

The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

</comment><comment><USER4> Personally I don't like quitting commitments, but I'm very careful about making them in the first place. (This is why I'm a remote consultant...)

When you started, you must have had a reason for joining. What was it? Is it still a valid reason, or has new information changed your perspective?

My advice: finish the year of residency, and apply to other jobs just prior to finishing it. If you time it right, then when you get the promo offer you will have other options to compare it against. Also, I just googled this program. I didn't realize it was for engineers in their early career. In that case, I definitely encourage you to wait for the promotion, take it, and at least work a couple months there. Otherwise it might look like you left because you weren't offered the promo. Not sure on that though, I'm not a hiring manager.

Regardless, I don't see a reason to quit without other options lined up. You can easily find other options while employed, it's not like you need to quit first.

Also, it's google. Not the worst place in the world to spend a couple months coasting as a corporate drone.

</comment><comment><USER5> I would suggest staying at Google unless you have a legally binding contract in your hand from another company that virtually guarantees you buckets of money for leaving Google.

Bird in the hand two in the bush etc

</comment><comment><USER6> I would stay, lots of engineers dream of landing at GOOG.

Stick it out and see what happens, network, meet people see what team you land on.

Lots of interesting people and projects.

Plus 3 to 4 years of GOOG on your resume is better than one.

<comment><USER7> > I would stay, lots of engineers dream of landing at GOOG.

We shouldn't get caught up living other people's dreams.</comment></comment>


Ten Years of Kubuntu - <AUTHOR> http://lwn.net/Articles/635880/ <comment><USER2> Kubuntu is in a great place today. Five years ago KDE developers were pretty fragmented between Mandrivia, Suse, Fedora, and Kubuntu. Today, thanks to Blue Systems adopting Kubuntu and the general decline of most other KDE spins (Suse lost its commercial support, Mandrivia died and got forked a bunch, Fedora continues to be Gnome-first in a good way) my impressions from the ML and general developer mindshare is that Kubuntu is becoming _the_ KDE distro for the betterment of the platform, because then you don't end up with all this wasted effort making an 80% great experience on every different package manager, fs layout, login manager, and init stack. Kubuntu CI is pretty much the only place one should go to develop KDE software and that means Kubuntu and Netrunner are always going to be the core KDE distros.

And that is not bad. Desktop environments in my view do a lot better when they have a blessed implementation. Cinnamon, Unity, and even Enlightenment have seen resounding success because they are developed for single distros and that focus lets them dodge the semantics of their environment and get to the good stuff.

Kubuntu 15.04 is looking to be the first release of the distro I can be proud of as something to show the uninitiated and get them excited about using it. The bugs are falling down by the dozen each day and all the best of Linux is ready for the release, its going to be a blast in my book.

<comment><USER3> I think you are forgetting Linux Mint KDE. It is updated regularly and is fantastic to work on.

<comment><USER4> You forget that Mint KDE _is_ Kubuntu, if you look at the package sources ;)

<comment><USER3> Hmm.. but the Mint team does a fairly good job of customizing KDE.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> KDE is a great platform, but most of the prominent distros ship with near- default style settings, which are ugly (just look at the 15.04 screenshots, linked from the article). It would be nice if an opinionated design team (similar to the elementary guys) shipped a KDE based distro which was meticulously styled out of the box.

<comment><USER6> Mandrake, later Mandriva used to be close to perfect IMO.

Today I guess OpenSUSE is the closest thing to what you describe.

<comment><USER7> I feel that OpenSUSE has had the best KDE default settings and Kubuntu had the worst defaults.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I first installed Ubuntu either a few days before or a few days after the Hoary Hedgehog release. I recall using the Gnome version first and then adding in the Kubuntu packages a few days later.

At that point, I was fairly used to Debian and I'd used some of the other "shiny" distros at the time (like Linspire, _shudder_ ) but Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) was one of the first distros to work with my Atheros Wi-Fi dongle without significant amounts of pain. I mean, it was still a pain but I was able to get it done.

Ubuntu -- and Kubuntu especially -- was my obsession for a few months in the spring of 2005. I still remember torrenting episodes of a brand new TV show called "Grey's Anatomy" (that had taken the time slot of my beloved "Boston Legal") that had just debuted and watching it in variations of Mplayer in Kubuntu. Funny. Grey's Anatomy is still around a decade later too.

These days, I only use Linux on the server and very, very rarely on a test VM, but I have an enormous amount of respect to the KDE team and the Kubuntu team for keeping on keeping on.

</comment><comment><USER9> There is not a single day that passes that I don't thank, silently and sometimes not, Linux and the distros it spawned (regardless of my own preferences). It must be clear by now that Linux OSs have recaptured and prolonged the spirit of the "personal computer" idea, which is basically to put the user in control of the machine, or the individual in control of something really. I can't be thankful enough for the hundreds or thousands of talented individuals who made that happen and still do. I think they deserve more praise than they get.

</comment><comment><USER10> Great essay on Kubuntu, Tslolkovsky! It is an impressive overview of your accomplishments, in context, and that's perfect. I've personally tried a few distros of Linux, originally developed by Linus Torvalds. My personal favorite is the one I use the most. Standard Ubuntu just does it for me. KDE is ok but Gentoo is just too lo-fi for me - I'm not interested in a product that is like living in a halfway house instead of a real house with a roof & doors & a working bathroom, if you get the point I'm trying to make here. I am aware that there are people out there who cannot lose their massive social anxiety problems & try to work on their computers. Red Hat Linux is apparently the one that's most like Windows & I've heard good reviews of it.

<comment><USER11> > I've personally tried a few distros of Linux, originally developed by Linus > Torvalds.

Is there some _Intro To Linux_ we can point just people to in order to avoid things like this? The "GNU slash Linux" conversation is wearing pretty thin but it should be common knowledge at this point that the GNU project did 10 ten years of work so Linus could add the kernel and have it be the first completed system.

Should we point to Revolution OS ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8K460vx1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8K460vx1c))?

Should we point to GNU's page about the issue ([https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux- and-gnu.html](https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html))?

Without getting into any finger-pointing, it's just history and we should all know it.

<comment><USER12> And GNU zealots persistently deny that Linux became successful because of XFree86 and Apache, neither of which GNU had anything to do with.

<comment><USER11> Grow up. There's a world of difference between being a zealot and pointing out that Torvalds didn't clone the Unix system _in a year._ He built the kernel, he did it well and he deserves credit for it. For the same reasons he deserves credit the GNU project deserves credit for their contributions.

 _edit: Really. This is a thread celebrating 10 years of Kubuntu. Kubuntu 's downstream from Debian, probably 1/2 - 3/4 of their packages are untouched from their state in the Debian repositories. Debian was sponsored by the FSF (Richard Stallman's foundation) back in the early 90's. Good for Kubuntu, I wish them the best. I also think it's important to recognize the others who have made projects like this possible. It takes nothing away from Kubuntu._

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I enjoy Kubuntu and use it's cousin / child, Netrunner. Ships with all (most anyway) the things I wish Kubuntu shipped with, but a little extra I don't want, but that's ok, it's easier to remove things (Firefox addons) than waiting for the updates and what not. It even lets me use the "Windows Key" to open the KDE Menu, or at least their version of it, which is something I'm all too accustomed to from Windows. Been running Netrunner (Kubuntu derrived) for months now, on my main Desktop and my school Laptop.

I used to love KDE when I first used Linux because of Slackware, back before KDE4. It was adaptable to whether I wanted a Windows feel, Linux feel, or Mac feel. It still delivers in that aspect, and now it's much more mature looking.

<comment><USER14> I never quite warmed up to KDE. I think the problem was that it was a "Windows-like" interface but it never felt quite the same as Windows. I found it easier to adapt to GNOME, precisely because it was different than what I was used to.

I did try the beta of Kubuntu with Plasma 5, however, and it seemed nice. I'll have to try it again sometime.

<comment><USER15> I've heard comments like yours before but this time it made me consider the other side of it. I wonder if your reaction is due to being a power user. If you've been a Windows power user for a while you're probably accustomed to doing things like setting PATH or other environment variables, installing/uninstalling things, starting and stopping services. If you have something that's a little "too much" like Windows but things are in a different place, that may be worse than starting from a mental framework of "completely different now." Particularly, I wonder if it is easier for nearly computer illiterate people to transition from Windows to something very close to Windows, or something else entirely.

<comment><USER13> I've been in both sides, but you're right to some extent, one of the main things I need is supported by Gnome 3 by default, the "Windows key" whenever I press it, I expect either a dashboard or a menu bar where I can start typing whatever application I want to run, honestly that speeds up my workflow on Windows and Linux (where it is supported), instead of browsing through categories and reading through the list of software, I just press "windows", type what I want to use "Visual Studio", "Qt Creator", hit enter, and move on. That is my main thing, I do enjoy tiling windows. I know there's wonderful tiling managers, but they get more in my way than anything. If I can't get used to it in an hour I just wont bother.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I haven't tried in about two years, but I tried every six months for a few years before that (basically every time Ubuntu pushed a new release I'd try Kubuntu first). I really wanted the advanced configurability of KDE compared to Gnome and then Unity ... but something always either didn't work or just frustrated me to no end and I reverted to Ubuntu. A lot of my friends have switched to Arch now, which similarly seems to "just work" and does a much better job of keeping packages updated than Ubuntu does.

<comment><USER17> That's my experience too. For some reason the desktop after startup looks amazing... but as soon as I start playing around with the applications I get a lot of crashes, things in the desktop that don't make sense and general slowness.

I think I've made this comment before, but it almost feels like new KDE releases are optimized for screenshots: it _looks_ great, until you click on something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Kubuntu is very hard because use KDE.</comment>


End of the digital world. Gmail & Google Down?  - <AUTHOR> https://mail.google.com

<comment><USER2> It's just you, buddy!

Works for me. <http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/mail.google.com>

<comment><AUTHOR> it's back online again. I guess there was an outage for at least 15mins.

<comment><USER3> This is why not to post outages here. Please.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good technology podcasts? - <AUTHOR>

I like listening to podcasts, but I'm frustrated with what's on offer when it comes to technology.
Most of them seem to be interested in:
- Kremlinology about what Apple or Google or some other tech giant is going to do next.
- Consumer electronics
- Highly subjective rants presented as momentous observations, e.g. Apple is doomed because we don't like the iOS 7 icons.
Is there a good tech podcast for people who actually create technology, and are interested in the stories of people doing the same? <comment><USER2> You might try TechZing: [http://techzinglive.com/](http://techzinglive.com/)

Here is the "on-ramp" for new listeners: [http://techzingwiki.com/doku.php?id=on- ramp](http://techzingwiki.com/doku.php?id=on-ramp)

<comment><AUTHOR> This looks very relevant to what I'm looking for. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [http://hackerpublicradio.org/](http://hackerpublicradio.org/)

from the site: Hacker Public Radio (HPR) is an Internet Radio show (podcast) that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday. What differentiates HPR from other podcasts is that the shows are produced by the community - fellow listeners like you!. There is no restrictions on how long the show can be, nor on the topic you can cover as long as they "are of interest to hackers".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Interesting concept, I'll check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Could you be a bit more specific about what kind of technology? Technology entrepreneurship? Programming? Security? Electrical Engineering? Etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. I guess to be perfectly relevant to me, it would be a mix of technology entrepreneurship and stuff related to that (languages, tools, platforms, etc.) as well as some mind-expanding CS stuff, and finally the kinds of maker projects that one might find on hackaday.

I think what I'd really like though, is not so much the hard-core tech content (audio is not good for that), but just to get good portraits of technically creative minds, their ideas, and their stories.

Hackers focus on the the "how" and "what" of technology, but rarely the "why". The story of the idea itself, and its relation to the creator's life, is left untold. Non-hackers trying to write about technology struggle to find the human story, because they don't _really_ grok what the technology is or what that person's contribution has really been. There's got to be some way to tell these stories.

<comment><USER4> It sounds like you want to be listening to a podcast called "This Developer's Life" (thisdeveloperslife.com). I really enjoy them and hope you do too.

Here's the some others I've enjoyed over the past year or so in case you're interested in others:

Technology Entrepreneurship: Startups For The Rest of Us

General Entrepreneurship: The Lifestyle Business Podcast, Mixergy, Entrepreneur On Fire, The Advanced Selling Podcast

Misc Interesting: Freakonomics Radio, NPR: Planet Money, This American Life

Please message me if you find anything interesting or if just having a bad day for that matter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are podcasts that relate to specific technologies. I listen to Ruby5 and RubyRogues.

<comment><USER6> Like NodeUp for node.js [http://nodeup.com](http://nodeup.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte</comment>


Quanta Editors Aren't Sure Which Narrative They Are Supposed to Be Selling - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/quanta-writers-and-editors-discuss-big-ideas-in-science-and-math-20181121/ <comment><USER2> Article title: Quanta Writers and Editors Discuss Trends in Science and Math</comment>


I was curious if a nonsense LinkedIn account would get job offers. It does! - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/j4n0/status/1125380024733925377 <comment><USER2> There is a huge difference between head hunter solicitations and a job offer. Hilarious thread either way.

</comment><comment> pickle-wizard I've got a picture of my cat, that looks like a professional headshot. I've been thinking about making her a linked in profile. I never thought about using it to troll recruiters though. I thinking more along the lines to she how many people would accept the connection invite.

</comment><comment><USER3> These aren't offers. These are letters of inquiry. They tend to be automated and based on key words. So you have key words that generated interest.

</comment><comment><USER4> Note to self: ask LinkedIn to give us metrics about how many solicitations we receive as a ratio over the null account (Sea Bream will suffice as a null account).

</comment><comment><USER5> I have personally set up a linkedin account (of basically me in 20 years), I use it to look up people when I dont want to know I am looking them up. I have personally had about 30 invitations to speak at conferences, job offers or people asking for career advice. I find it hilarious everytime, and often consider seeing how far I could go with accepting to speak at a conference, and the demands I could make.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been employed by a clearly fake company name for years (wont mention it here, but its clearly to deflect recruiters and a bit of an experiment).

I've had a number of "colleagues" approach me and try to add me to their network. Seems highly unlikely these would be real people or people with some kind of genuinely innocent intent.

</comment><comment><USER7> When a recruiter sends you unsolicited job postings it's not a job offer, it's advertising for the supply side of their business. This response is not surprising.

</comment><comment><USER8> People do unsolicited job offers on LinkedIn? Or is that part of the joke?

<comment><USER9> Do you not have a LinkedIn account? I've only got about 5 years experience and live nowhere near the centre of the tech hub, but I'll get at least a couple a week. For people near the centre/with lots of buzzwords it must be crazy.

<comment><USER10> I have never recieved an unsolicited job offer from linkedin. There is a world of difference between a recruiter message and a job offer.

<comment><USER11> You know what he means.

<comment><USER10> And you know what I mean. Saying you get tons of job offers off of linkedin is wildly misleading, even if people can guess at what you actually mean. If I did this in real life people would give me a strange look and then immediately clarify.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Clutter is taking a toll on both morale and productivity - <AUTHOR> http://signalvnoise.com/posts/3768-clutter-is-taking-a-toll-on-both-morale-and#comments

<comment><USER2> If I were ever in charge, I would declare that mornings are for meetings. Thus leaving the afternoon for uninterrupted work.

<comment><USER3> Timezones are... unfortunate. I work in Pacific time, but have co-workers in Central, and Eastern. My 11am meeting is their afternoon.

<comment><USER2> Smaller timezone overlap means less time for meetings. Win!</comment></comment></comment>


Bill Gates: What I'm Thinking about This New Year's Eve - <AUTHOR> https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2019 <comment><USER2> > We should shift more of the tax burden onto capital, including by raising > the capital gains tax, probably to the same level as taxes on labor.

Where I live (Finland) capital gains tax is 30% if the gains are less than 30,000 EUR/year and 34% from above. I think it's completely fair. I get most of my income from capital gains, btw.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is really fascinating, basically an examination of ideas to change the U.S. tax code to make it less regressive and more fair for the majority. Spoiler - a lot of it includes taxing the wealthy at higher rates and taxing capital and assets</comment>


7 PowerPoint tips and tricks you didnt know - Power-user http://www.powerusersoftwares.com/#!PowerPoint-tips-tricks-you-didnt-know/biauv/5645ba0e0cf21009be851fe8 <comment><AUTHOR> The authors didn't know that their words of wisdom are not readable on a mobile (galaxy note 4 at least). There is a trick with colors to know (that the font should have some kind of contrast with the background).</comment>


Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0 Expo for free - <AUTHOR> http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/03/join-lean-startup-discussion-at-web-20.html <comment><USER2> 100% NECESSARY panelist: Kjerstin Erickson and her Radical Transparency. FORGE runs as lean as it gets... 70,00 refugees served by over 50 projects (that the refugees themselves develop) with only 3 US staff and a teeny tiny budget... she's brilliant and commands the attention of a crowd.

[http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/forging- ahead/archive/2009/0...](http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/forging- ahead/archive/2009/01/13/10-things-ive-learned-about-transparency)

(called the LEANEST startup NGO there is)

<http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2008/12/forge-final-report></comment>


The Boy with Half a Brain - <AUTHOR> http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/news-opinion/boy-with-half-brain-william-buttars/?

<comment><USER2> This is the third time this has been submitted in the last 24 hours.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8245558](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8245558)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8245633](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8245633)</comment>


The Ultimate iPhone App: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - <AUTHOR> http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/16/exclusive-star-wars-the-force-unleashed-for-iphone/

<comment><USER2> Can we stop calling things "The Ultimate X" or "Coolest Y Ever"?

Also, can we stop being subconciously tricked by said headlines into thinking that they're more interesting than they actually are?

Oh, a game for iPhone. How exciting.</comment>


Google Cloud DNS - <AUTHOR> https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ <comment><USER2> I'm wondering how Dyn is taking this. These guys have been working on DNS for years, and were probably one of the first "managed DNS" or "enterprise DNS" services. Over time though they've failed to really innovate, or even keep up with standard (you can't use any of their value add services like the global traffic manager if you also want to use DNSSEC, for instance). Despite this their prices have remained ridiculously high. Now that other players are moving into the market at literally multiple orders of magnitude cheaper it's tough to see why any of their customers would stay.

As a personal note, I would recommend the Edgecast DNS service over anything else. They have amazing customer support (something Google really lacks), and they've been in the CDN game for long enough to know that they are going to be around for awhile. They're also rather crazy about getting the best performance possible.

<comment><USER3> Can anyone recommend a cheap DNS service that does geographic-based load distribution? I know that Route53 offers something like this, but AFAIK it's only designed for products hosted on Amazon's platforms.

I've heard that geographic-based DNS has something of a bad reputation, but I think it would be a very good fit for a side project I'm working on.

<comment><USER4> DNSMadeEasy for $30/year

<comment><USER5> That's for their DNS Small Business Plan only, plus $55 per Domain per Month for Geo-DNS ([http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/home/compare/](http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/home/compare/))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "403\. That's an error.

Your client does not have permission to get URL /cloud-dns/ from this server. (Client IP address: [my-ipv6-addr])

We're sorry, but this service is not available in your country."

Google is denying access to services based on their broken ipv6 geolocation data (they think I am in Tehran, but I'm in London.)

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I'm getting that same premium experience.

Appear to also hit Google Apps as well as any AppeEngine hosted site.

<comment><USER8> Same problem for weeks now, apparently New York is in Iran

<comment><USER9> @dcc1: could you please email me at brian@<my username>.com? I work for Google Netops and would like to get some additional info from you so we can debug this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Naïve question but what kind of organizations will benefit the most from this service? Or put it other way, the situations this service is needed for? Can anyone explain to me please?

<comment><USER2> The same type of people who use CDNs. If you want great performance globally it helps to have primary DNS services near by, rather than having lookups cross the world.

<comment><USER11> I understand how CDNs are advantageous by having contents served from locations that are closer to origin of requests (typically browsers spread across the world or a country etc.,).

However, for DNS service to be of similar use does it mean application servers are going to be spread across geographically? For end customers it doesn't matter as they will always use the DNS configured for them by their ISP in most of the cases unless one is tech savvy and tries to use some other DNS such as Google etc.,?

Please help understand what am I missing here?

<comment><USER2> You're an Australian Internet User. You want to see hampsterdance.com 'cause fuck it, you like hamsters.

Your computer asks your ISP's DNS server for the record. If your ISP has it cached you're golden, but it turns out it probably isn't. So your ISP needs to go to ask the hampsterdance.com DNS server directly. If that server is in the United States then you're stuck waiting 133ms in one direction, 133ms back- you've now added a quarter of a second to that page loaded.

Using a DNS CDN means that 266ms ends up being 15ms (keep in mind that these guys also peer with local ISPs to make things even faster).

<comment><USER12> Thank you very much for this explanation. So for example I have a very basic website with CMS. I use a CDN just because I want to give the best possible experience to my users. I get about 50k users per month, a lot of them are new. Would adding a paid DNS or "DNS CDN" as you put it help my user experience enough to matter?

<comment><USER2> Honestly it depends on who your market is. If your users are mostly on the same continent as you it's probably not worth it, otherwise it could be.

On the other hand, if your site makes you money and you've got competition then every edge you can get is worth while.

<comment><USER12> thank you and thank you. ok that really makes sense. my site is b2b and although transactions do not occur on the website every ounce of frustration I can save matters. we also get a ton of users from US/AU/EU/AS so even with that it would make sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Was this announced by Google today, or is this on HN because of the XKCD? If the former, did Google push the announcement because of the XKCD?

<comment><USER14> We announced Cloud DNS at Cloud Platform Live on March 25th. It kind of got lost in the noise around the big price cuts.

<comment><USER15> Any chance of geographic and/or latency based views and edns-client-subnet support?

<comment><USER14> I'm not up on what the plans for that team are right now. I can say that it is an explicit goal to expose more and more of Google's infrastructure through cloud -- including how we route traffic globally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's a start - barebones authoritative DNS only - no monitoring/failover, load balancing, Geo, LBR, etc - provisioning via API only. Route 53 started out this way, and has since added many of these features and now has almost 7% Alexa 10k marketshare and rapidly growing.

I created a browser test that measures recursive DNS query times. You can test Google DNS query performance using this link: [http://bit.ly/1nY4e60](http://bit.ly/1nY4e60)

<comment><USER17> Could you provide any more info on how this test works? Where are the tests performed from, or do they run client side? Does it query name servers directly, or if not, how does it avoid ISP-level DNS caching influencing the results?

<comment><USER16> Tests are from your connection using whatever resolver chain your ISP has in place. It uses a wildcard name record and an 8 byte json-p include. It alternates between downloading that file from the same origin using a cached DNS record (test run up includes 3 downloads to prime the resolvers with a cached hostname) and an uncached record (a new randomly generated hostname) and reports the difference in time between the two.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Their example for a 'high traffic' site struck me by surprise. With all the caching that goes on with DNS queries, 1.2B in a month seems incredibly high. I wouldn't have even imagined google.com getting that many requests to the authoritative name servers. Can someone with a better idea of how traffic corresponds to DNS queries give me some perspective? How many DNS queries are the name servers for a typical Alex top 10 domain getting?

<comment><USER19> if you need DNS based failover you want low TTLs , e.g Google.com A record is 100s

<comment><USER18> Still though, aren't most consumers using their ISP's DNS servers, which will cache the same response for all of their customers in a region?

<comment><USER20> It all depends on how high ttl is, the number of queries increase exponentially as you decrease it, with ttl=0 you have no caching.

My company makes about 160qps which translates to about half billion per month, so it doesn't seem too unrealistic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wish either AWS Route 53 or Google Cloud DNS would support being a BIND protocol secondary :(

<comment><USER22> Route 53 developer here. That's on our roadmap, but in the mean time there is this; [https://code.google.com/p/route53d/](https://code.google.com/p/route53d/)

<comment> robinson-wall Nice. Any idea if "internal" zones (private DNS for my VPC) will be supported by route53 at any point?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> DNS is so cheap, and Amazon Route53 has such an advantage with their latency based routing, health checks, and integrations with other AWS services. Honestly zones are $0.50 and $0.50 per million queries. You have to be pushing lots of DNS queries to have costs even exceed a tiny bill of $20 a month.

It is the definition of a lot of engineers hours and infrastructure costs for literally no profit for the company. However, it is a basic service every hosting provides has to offer to be competitive.

<comment><USER24> Hopefully the lower cost from google causes aws to drop prices for this service as well.

<comment><USER25> Unless your app operates at a truly massive scale with a very specific set of characteristics, this won't save you even a minuscule fraction on your total budget. Route 53 is dirt freaking cheap.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Very nice...let us just hope they add Geo and/or Latency based routing. ;)

<comment><USER27> That and DNSSEC support. If they had DNSSEC support, I could see my organization moving to them.

<comment><USER28> You actually use DNSSEC in production?

<comment><USER26> Quite a few people do use DNSSEC in production.

An example of what can go wrong tho? [http://blog.pagerduty.com/2013/12/outage-post-mortem- dec-11-...](http://blog.pagerduty.com/2013/12/outage-post-mortem-dec-11-2013/)

Just a potential issue to keep in mind for people who do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> There is no point comparing this to AWS Route53. Purely in terms of speed Cloud DNS win Hands Down. I am not sure if the Cloud DNS is the same as their own DNS infrastructure, if so it is pretty damn fast.

The only other two DNS services I recommend is DNSMadeEasy and EdgeCast DNS. Both happens to one of the most affordable as well as fastest. ( Strange combination )

The only bad thing is EdgeCast got brought by Verizon. I am worry if anything bad will happen.

<comment><USER30> Really? In my very primitive tests, Route53 is considerably faster than Cloud DNS. And DNS Made Easy is faster than both of them.

Personally, DNS Made Easy is my favorite provider by far. Extremely fast, reliable, and priced very well. Plus, you don't have to deal with a sales guy unless you really want to.

I love it when Dyn or other big providers try and woo me. Thousands of dollars a month for DNS? Bahaha.

robert

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> They really need a free bracket. For example, anything under $1 a month.

From my perspective, I would prefer to pay $20 a year, than $1 a month.

</comment><comment><USER32> I added a quick guide how to setup Cloud DNS for your domain.

[https://www.zeitgeist.se/2014/05/01/google-cloud-dns-step- by...](https://www.zeitgeist.se/2014/05/01/google-cloud-dns-step-by-step/)

</comment><comment><USER33> I'd be interested in seeing a speed comparison with Cloudflare. Cloudflare's DNS is completely free and it's the fastest DNS service I'm aware of.

<comment><USER34> Another user posted a link to CloudHarmony for speed testing: [http://cloudharmony.com/speedtest/run?services_CDN=&services...](http://cloudharmony.com/speedtest/run?services_CDN=&services_Server=&services_Storage=&services_Platform=&serviceTypes%5B%5D=DNS&services_DNS=AWS%3ARoute53%2CCloudFlare%3ADNS%2Cgoogle%3Adns&tests%5B%5D=t&tests%5B%5D=w&tests%5B%5D=l&tests%5B%5D=d&regions%5B%5D=us&regions_us=&regions_eu=&regions_asia=&regions_br=&x=62&y=12&referer=)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> [http://wiki.opennicproject.org/ClosestT2Servers](http://wiki.opennicproject.org/ClosestT2Servers)

</comment><comment><USER36> Nice pricing.

I've been using UltraDNS for many years but this looks good too.

<comment><USER30> Take a look at DNS Made Easy.

robert

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> They are moving towards [http://xkcd.com/1361/](http://xkcd.com/1361/) :P

</comment><comment><USER38> Is this free?

<comment><USER39> The pricing is right there on the sidebar (third link). [https://developers.google.com/cloud- dns/pricing](https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/pricing)</comment></comment>


Codecademy's CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/03/codecademys-codeyear-attracts-100000-aspiring-programmers-in-48-hours/ <comment><USER2> Maybe I'm biased from seeing one after the other but recently there has been so many data points on, how to call it, self-paced teaching/learning that I think this movement has definitely gained critical mass. People still debate endlessly about the relative merits of classroom teaching vs. approaches like Khan Academy, but the enormous success of Stanford and MIT online courses followed by codecademy and now this is, to me, irrefutable proof of a huge need.

The next step is to diversify these approaches to other domains, i.e. x.cademy. How about creative writing, web design, typography, plumbing, general relativity (if you think this is far fetched, check out all the questions from laymen on Physics exchange about GTR and gravity)? It would be great if there were a standard way of putting together course materials, i.e. a wrapper format and standard ways of presentation.

<comment><USER3> I wonder how the impending proliferation of Code/KahnAcademy-like sites will impact the bottom line of traditional "e-learning" providers such as SkillSoft[1], which provide training material for businesses.

Would CodeAcademy remain a B2C company while the existing B2B electronic learning companies remain untouched? Would CodeAcademy go head to head with these companies to fight over the money of HR departments worldwide? Would CodeAcademy's existence spur a price war?

I'm very keen on seeing how these online academies' business models develop over time.

[1]<http://www.skillsoft.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The more people learn the better. We should also encourage programming to younger generations.

I came across the Fedora Sugar on a Stick distro and fell in love with it.

<http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/>

I've been making copies and handing them out to all my cousins and relatives. The Python coding sections are impressive.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why even acknowledge the number of signups for a service like this?

Should I even care how many accounts are created? I'd be more interested in either % conversion for how many people signed up for classes, or % who completed the free test classes.

Is 100,000 people entering their details into a form even a laudable achievement from the perspective of the general public (or even the programming public)?

<comment><USER6> Why even acknowledge the number of signups for a service like this? Because Codeacademy is a startup, and startups generally like releasing impressive numbers and getting coverage on tc.

<comment><USER5> But that's the thing. What does this number mean? Does it matter to you?

Are we celebrating their social media skills? :P

<comment><USER7> We prefer to think we're celebrating the fact that so many people finally realize the importance of coding.

<comment><USER8> I hope you guys plan to release numbers progressively throughout the year on how many people are successfully continuing with the course?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think this demonstrates that lots of people have a desire to understand code but do not know where to start. 5 years ago I wanted to apply for Computer Science because I knew I loved computers. However, my math is not great and I would never have been accepted so I picked Politics instead. I dropped out after two months.

I am a self-taught coder but I think what I bring to the table is a reasonable understanding of how humans interact with my code. I test all my sites out on my grandma. If she can use it then I know it is easy enough to use.

Computer Science and software design are two very different areas. I think I would have got into coding much earlier if I had been able to apply for the latter.

</comment><comment><USER10> The key question that still remains is, how do you find the best learning sources and how do you get credit for it? Are badges the right solution? Its great to see that these many people are embracing self-paced learning. With the democratization of education, it has opened doors for anyone to create a curriculum online now. But all this will soon cause an information overload in terms of self-paced learning opportunities and it will become critical to start organizing this plethora of resources

<comment> UK-Al05 I'm guessing a provider will become a pseudo-standard. Probably somebody like MITx.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It helps to have the huge email list of codecademy. If only I could get a link to <http://oneworldcollege.com> on there :) Still, I'm excited to see education go mainstream like this.

<comment><USER7> We didn't email our users to get to that number ;)</comment></comment>


Upwork Bans Upwork Premium Program Freelancers. Permanently - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@vlad161/upwork-bans-upwork-premium-program-freelancers-permanently-dee7d514d172 <comment><USER2> I use Upwork to get some things done and this is startling.

>>Our decision is based on a careful review and the fact that you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs on our site without many contracts or earnings. Unfortunately, this means the jobs posted by clients are not a good match for your skills.

I see absolutely no correlation between a high rate of proposals and a good match of skills. In what world does a person attempting to gain business loose the ability to keep trying?? I guess it might be time for Upwork to have another competitor.</comment>


Paper Is Good...(paper industry spreading FUD about reading online?) - <AUTHOR> http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2010/11/paper-is-good-pass-it-on.html <comment><USER2> One thing I think this article ignores is that there's a specific tipping point at which it makes sense for a given publisher to drop paper, much like there's one for when they should adopt digital in the first place. We've seen the latter for most publishers, but we haven't yet seen the former for many at all. It'll be different for every publisher, with certain things (e.g. tech books) coming earlier than others, but it definitely exists. It'll be interesting to see where it is for different publishers, and what ends up remaining paper for a long time to come.

Another thing I just considered on the same subject: despite that the tipping point is different for each publisher, if half the publishers in the world have killed paper printing, it'll likely accelerate the other half to do the same due to the lack of economies of scale; despite that demand is down, production costs may well increase. So perhaps there's a more universal tipping point here.

</comment><comment><USER3> There are two things I like about paper that make it superior to viewing text on an LCD or CRT (for most forms of text that exist), that unfortunately the article, which is FUD shill from the paper industry, doesn't cover.

1\. Ease of annotation and manipulation.

I can mark up text with physical writing implements much more easily than I can with an annotation tool in some document viewer. Personally I find this critical for absorbing material like technical papers and lecture notes. Especially for mathematical notes.

The best electronic-display approximation to this would be a tablet that doubles as a display, such as the Wacom Intuos. The iPad and Kindle are the closest alternatives if it is not important to annotate text. Even then, big sacrifices are made in manipulability.

Probably the best thing about paper is the fact that I can get one piece of paper at much less cost than an iPad or Kindle. It's not just that you can do some task on a _single sheet_ of paper better than you can on the iPad app that tries to replicate that task. It's that the cost difference also applies for N pieces of paper versus N iPads; there are tasks that operate on multiple sheets of paper that are hard to do with the usual solutions that exist today for this, which are window managers. Either window managers need to get a lot better (I've used Windows + WinSplit, xmonad, Divvy and a few other attempts at reigning in the horrible wm in OS X), or there needs to be better hardware for doing so. Multitouch trackpads might be a good starting point.

2\. How it interacts with ambient light.

I find that reading text on paper is much easier on the eyes than reading an electronic imitation of it. This is because of how unreadable electronic text is in comparison:

a. Content creators tend toward black text on white backgrounds. This is much higher contrast than you get with black text/white background for paper. The readability of the content is worse the higher the contrast ratio of your display.

b. The rest tend toward a variation of white text on black backgrounds. That is almost as bad.

c. Monitor settings. The monitor's brightness needs to be appropriate for both the amount of ambient light and the content being displayed in particular. There are solutions like Apple's laptop LCD displays that depend on ambient light, but in general the monitor setting is more often the wrong setting than the right one because of (a, b) content being used together frequently + the hassle of adjusting the brightness and ignorance of 'correct' brightness settings in general.

This is where I think there might be an electronic solution; for instance, how about a PDF viewer or display driver hook that remaps the colors of the documents to something more bearable? You can sidestep (a, b) and somewhat mitigate (c) if you say, assume that everyone is using the highest (or default, or as a customizable) setting on their monitors. You already see this with just about every fancy vim/textmate color scheme, and more relevantly, the Inverse scheme of the Readability bookmarklet.</comment>


I could do that in a weekend - <AUTHOR> https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/ <comment><USER2> Note: from 2016.

Discussion from back then, if you're interested: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12626314](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12626314)</comment>