'Clock kid' Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/clock-kid-ahmed-mohamed-and-his-family-will-move-to-qatar/2015/10/20/a95ed296-7762-11e5-b9c1-f03c48c96ac2_story.html <comment><USER2> > Eyman was referring to a number of conspiracy theories that appeared on the > Internet about his arrest. Most attest that the incident was a pre-planned > plot [...]. Some of that skepticism stems from claims against Ahmed's father > [...] who has run for president of Sudan

I was completely outraged when I first heard this story, but then I read some of the legitimate criticism that the article glosses over. Basically it looks like he didn't build a clock, but repackaged an existing clock into a pencil box and had it go off during class. Here's the take from someone who went the full length with looking up the parts:

[http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse- engin...](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering- ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/)

<comment><USER3> I don't see how that changes the story at all.

Whether or not he built the clock, the important thing is that he _didn 't_ build a bomb and was arrested by police officers who (then and now) fully admitted that he had committed no crime whatsoever.

<comment><USER4> He wasn't arrested for building a bomb, but for building a fake bomb. I don't think you should arrest a kid for that even if it did, it's not worth it.

However, it's not insane to think he was trying to cause an incident. The hypothesis goes: he wanted to get a teacher to believe he had a bomb so that he could claim religious profiling and racism. If that is what happened, that technically is a crime because the bomb was a hoax bomb.

Why would someone think he was trying to trick a teacher into thinking it was a bomb. It's a weird thing to bring to school. It's not like he actually make a clock on his own. Clocks are not super impressive, but it's a good beginner amateur electronics project. But he didn't even do that. His comments in the media don't really show any understanding of electronics.

Why was he so proud of pulling apart an off the shelf alarm clock and nailing it into a pencil case? He brought it out in each class of the day for no reason. He set it to go off in class for some reason.

And then when he was questioned about it, he was reportedly very tight lipped. He could have been nervous being in trouble. Or he could have been trying to create a scandal.

Mark Cuban said when he called the kid that someone else was feeding him answers. His sister got in trouble in a bomb scare situation at the same school district.

And then the family goes on a media tour meeting with mass murdering Islamic leaders--al-Bashir. And suddenly the family is moving to Qatar.

His Father was also involved in a high profile media circus regarding a Koran burning.

It's not clear that it was a purposeful stunt. But I don't think it requires conspiracy level thinking to believe it was.

<comment><USER5> Bringing an alarm clock to school and NOT setting it to go off during class is more suspicious to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> His father has run for president in Sudan and last made headlines for debating a Florida pastor who burned a Quran.

This kid stuck a Radio Shack clock in a pencil case, and deliberately disrupted a class with it after he was asked to put it away -- he plugged it into the wall and left it beeping until he was kicked out of class and arrested for having a hoax bomb.

This whole episode was engineered by a politically active family, who is now running off to Qatar with all the free publicity and stuff gullible Americans gave them.

Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. Watch for the dad to appear on that network as a frequent commentator on anti-Islamic prejudice in America -- this was probably arranged weeks ago, possibly even before the hoax bomb incident.

<comment><USER7> > he plugged it into the wall and left it beeping until he was kicked out of > class

I'm trying to imagine how this would happen and I'm failing. Do you have some sources to back this story up?

<comment><USER8> The clock was AC powered (you can see the cord and transformer in various pics) - it's not going to make any noise without being plugged in to a power source.

<comment><USER9> It has a battery backup which should be able to power everything except the display.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _》After withdrawing from school in Texas, the boy's family embraced the opportunities that came from his brush with the law. He visited the Google Science Fair, met with Sudan's President Omar al Bashir, posed with the queen of Jordan at a United Nations Summit, appeared on the "Doctor Oz" show and last night, made it to the White House._

Great for him and his family. I hope that he finds someone who kindles his curiosity and turns it into a force for human progress in the future.

For those of us who remain in the United States: I think it's a sad state of affairs when "embracing opportunities" that result from horrendous discrimination in Texas means associating with a country best known for one of the worst genocides in recent memory (yes I know that the situation has changed in the last decade, but most people probably dont) and moving to a country widely known for effectively enslaving thousands for the sake of a sports tournament.

[Edit] horrendous smartphone copy paste

<comment><USER11> >For those of us who remain in the United States: I think it's a sad state of affairs when "embracing opportunities" that result from horrendous discrimination in Texas means associating with a country best known for one of the worst genocides in recent memory

Yeah I'm sure the only option was to move to Oman. Come on, this is one of many opportunities offered and they decided to go to Oman. You're aware this kid just got his picture with al-Bashir - a man facing ICC charges for genocide in Darfur. I hope this kid's family has his best interests at heart.

<comment><USER10> If you had spent most of your life integrating with Western culture, only to have your very identity targeted and put into the [inter]national spotlight, I wouldn't be surprised or disappointed if your first reaction was to go to the polar opposite (in this case, other nations whose government and population are heavily influenced by Islam). We're not even talking about basic discrimination but a situation where the victim was put on a stage many years before he could be prepared for it, if such a thing is even possible for an unwilling participant. Imagine the horror his parents went through when their child was subject to such an ordeal and it's hard to blame them for throwing their hands up and saying "fuck western nations", especially given the response of many European nations to the Syrian refugee crisis and the mass migration of Muslims to the EU overy recent decades.

My comment was rather flippant because in reality he can have a much better life in poorer parts of the world where he is in the overwhelming majority (and educated) instead of in a nation where he is overwhelmingly a minority. Regardless, going from the United States, a country built on the idea of a cultural melting pot, to Qatar or Sudan makes me very sad.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, they probably did say "fuck western nations". Right after visiting the White House and the leader of the nation (and going to the Google science fair and meeting Sergey Brin). Right after that they decided "fuck the west".

<comment><USER10> Are you blaming them for not rejecting opportunities to meet some of the most powerful and influential people in the world to spite them for what happened _in Texas?_

<comment><USER11> No.

I'm pointing out that it doesn't seem very likely that they have a "fuck the west" attitude if they're still cool with meeting the President of the United States and visiting the White house.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What's the story here?

>He visited the Google Science Fair, met with _Sudan's President Omar al Bashir_ , posed with the queen of Jordan at a United Nations Summit, appeared on the "Doctor Oz" show and last night, made it to the White House.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al- Bashir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir)

In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.

In October 2005, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, leading to a referendum in the South, resulting in the separation of the south into the separate country of South Sudan. In the Darfur region, he oversaw the War in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls that are about 10,000 according to the Sudanese Government, but most sources suggest between 200,000 and 400,000.

</comment><comment><USER13> Much of the online commentary I've seen of the aftermath seems to be along the lines of, "See? It was all a stunt!" I expect this will be met with, "See? He IS a terrorist!" Personally, I think the overreaction and resulting media storm have just ruined the kids life. Where can he go and be a normal, if perhaps unusually inclined to STEM, kid? Nowhere in the US, that's for sure.

<comment><USER11> There's no where in the US this kid can go and pursue an education in a STEM field? You really believe that? Good lord HN is a pool of overreaction.

<comment><USER13> There's a difference between pursuing an education and being treated normally socially. I mean "ruined his life" is an exaggeration, I'll admit, but it's pretty tough to get this much attention in a controversy and then just leave that all behind. A significant portion of my friends think he's a terrorist, for goodness sakes...

<comment><USER11> Yeah, it's a situation that should never have happened. If your friends think he's a terrorist, get new friends. It's one to think his family faked it for attention (which I don't, but it isn't like the father doesn't have a history of attracting attention to himself on purpose), another to just call them terrorists.

<comment><USER13> Me getting new friends doesn't help Ahmed. The same attitude is all over. That's my point. Huge portions of America think the kid's a terrorist. That's not HN exaggeration. That is literally the words coming off their keyboard. I don't think he stood a chance of a normal life in America.

<comment><USER11> I guess I can't argue that he'd have a normal life now. I totally don't buy that "huge portions of america think the kid's a terrorist", but we can stop our discussion here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The only thing the clock this kid made is telling is that we're still in a time where racism and xenophobia is rampant still in America.

The comments on that article are abhorrent. Even if it was pre-planned or not they definitely exposed the real problem we have in America. Not terrorists, but ourselves.

<comment><USER15> Funny because in this very discussion

> This kid stuck a Radio Shack clock in a pencil case, and deliberately > disrupted a class with it after he was asked to put it away -- he plugged it > into the wall and left it beeping until he was kick out of class and > arrested for having a hoax bomb.

> The only thing the clock this kid made is telling is that we're still in a > time where racism and xenophobia is rampant still in America.

Sure ,but is it about racism ? or is this about the media making stuff up ?

Was he arrested because he was "brown" ? or because he behaved like a moron in class ? I don't have the answers, but let's choose our champions carefully here.

The media often make up their own stories just for the sake of milking them ad nauseam. It wouldn't be the first time.

<comment><USER14> I think my point is there is no champion at all in this. Whether his story was true or he deliberately did it. In the end both scenarios playing out we as USA still lose. Only one scenario makes us look less bad but bad is still bad.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> One school+police district screws up, the entire nation up to the POTUS and numerous corporations extend their support... and his family then decides to leave the country?? Eh, fuck 'em. Seriously, he has huge opportunities here, both for himself and also as an advocate for other minorities in tech.

This is a pretty bad insult to the USA, no way around that. Very ungrateful.

</comment><comment><USER17> I always assumed Scandinavians were the gullible dhimmis but quite refreshing to see how far Americans are willing to bend their reality distortion field to appease Islamists. The kid is innocent and was used as a pawn. The same can't be said for the impressive list of asshats that tried to capitalize on this as did the boy's jihadi dad and the Muslim Brotherhood - though you know them as CAIR.

While everyone who brought up an ounce of critical thought was instantly dismissed as a "nazi" by the Good Guys™

And you wonder why people are growing increasingly right wing. Stop appeasing Islamists while throwing people like Nawaz and Khan under the buss

</comment><comment><USER18> Like others, I was at first really pissed off at this saga, but the more I've read, the more I feel like it's a hoax. This whole thing has just been one scam on the media.

<comment><USER19> So the media were the ones that made the school and police over-react completely? Riiiight.

<comment><USER20> No, but the media has shaped the narrative to instruct the public as to what the intent was. If a kid brings a fake gun to school, they'd be arrested too (wrong or right)

<comment><USER19> So.. in your mind bringing a very small disassembled clock in a custom housing is _exactly like bringing a fake gun to school_.

Ooookay.

<comment><USER21> yeah, very small disassembled clock which looks similar to a bomb is same like bringing a fake gun which looks like a gun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> If you look up his father's history, it's pretty clear that this entire "controversy" was likely manufactured at the kid's expense.

</comment><comment><USER23> Great for him but I think it will suck for his sister and mom's freedom.

<comment><USER24> It could suck for him, too, if he turns out to be gay, for example.

<comment><USER25> He won't, don't bother yourself with such issues.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Watching this unfold outside of America was really a masterclass in how racism and discrimination continues to thrive in America.

Which isn't to say It's unique to America, only from my experience a lot of Americans think their country has moved on from those days when in actual fact, racism is alive and kicking.

The fact that you had news reporters and even Dawkins going after him was embarrassing and sad.

When I was 14 I hung out with (Caucasian) kids that lit things on fire in the park.

<comment><USER8> "Going after him?"

AFAIK, all Dawkins said was that he didn't build a clock. Which he didn't, he took a circa 1980s Radio Shack clock out of its case and mounted it in a pencil box.

Apparently trivially verifiable facts are discriminatory now?

This whole thing stinks. I've seen nothing in either the police reports, the words of the involved people, or any _hard, objective facts_ that indicate that this is a matter of anything other than garden variety school administrative stupidity.

<comment><USER27> Dawkins was being an ass for the sake of having the last word. Sure, nothing he did was impressive to the internet geniuses who have 10 years of experience and a college degree more than him. And so what? The kid was curious, that kind of initiative shouldn't be stifled. Because anyone who has worked with kids/teenagers in any capacity knows quite well how easy it is to kill that kind of thing in the bud. It takes a seed to grow a tree.

I would absolutely say that Dawkins was in fact "going after him" and being an asshole, even if he probably didn't fully understand why (but that makes the whole situation even sadder, that a scientist so visible to the public would be clueless about how to engage kids about science and engineering).

<comment><USER28> > I would absolutely say that Dawkins was in fact "going after him" and being > an asshole, even if he probably didn't fully understand why

Don't forget that Dawkins said that Islamophobia is a 'non-word'[0].

Dawkins was being an asshole, and he definitely knew why. Ignoring Ahmed Mohamed's religion and race and pretending like it's not relevant doesn't change the fact that this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white.

[0] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins- def...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-defends- ahmed-mohamed-comments-and-dismisses-islamophobia-as-a-non-word-10515389.html)

<comment><USER8> _this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white._

Based on what proof?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is a depressing consequence of media-fueled racism/discrimination that will further drive the disintegration of the US as a strong competitor in STEM fields on the global stage.

<comment><USER30> Don't be silly. Qatar won't overtake US. Neither will BRICS or Japan or Nigeria, etc. They lack innovative culture, disrespect for authority, etc. West Europe, the only real competitor, is almost forever bound to US.</comment></comment>


No More Jimmy Wales Safari extension - <AUTHOR> http://patrickgibson.com/projects/nomorejimmywales/

<comment><USER2> Just click the close button (top-right corner) once - and the banner will disappear forever (actually until, you clear cookies).

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm working on a node.js port of this.</comment>


Oil Futures Crash by 30% - <AUTHOR> https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?p=d1&t=QA <comment><USER2> dupe

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22521099](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22521099)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm honestly not seeing what a big deal this is. It seems unsurprising that a large producer is able to swing the lever of superior pricing power to dramatically lower the price. This seems absolutely reasonable.

Why is it that I see so much surprise and outrage when I read about this?

<comment><USER4> If you read about this in the media - that's the answer right there. I haven't seen much surprise/outrage anywhere else (beyond surprise that OPEC/Russia failed to find common ground).</comment></comment>


Show HN: Tinmark - Bookmarking and Clipboard service - <AUTHOR> https://tinmark.com/

<comment><USER2> Not to be discouraging, but: what does this offer me that Pinboard doesn't?

<comment><USER3> The fact that this great question hasn't been answered yet is a bad sign.

<comment><USER4> I disagree. So what if this is a similar service? Some might prefer some of the minor differences this offers instead.

There's certainly no shortage of companies offering very similar products and doing well for themselves.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All these bookmarking services, including yours, don't allows the importation of Google Starred Items, Gmail Starred Items, Chrome Bookmarks, Firefox Bookmarks, or Evernote extraction so that you can reorganize then, download them, THEN sync them across devices AND you want $5/month?

</comment><comment><USER6> Just a heads up. The logo looks like this on a retina display: <http://i.imgur.com/eERXdzo.png>

</comment><comment><USER7> Not sure why you'd add meeting information to a note - assume you don't have alerts built in + isn't that what a calendar's for?

I'd also be interested to know what you think your USP is - not sure "we've focused very much on building a solid product that looks and feels native and runs fast" is enough. If anything it should be a given.

</comment><comment><USER8> You have Stripe ready to take people's credit card information but you don't have About section describing your information.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey webwanderings, co-founder here.

We're gonna be putting up our about info really soon but we wanted to get the product out as soon as we could to get some initial users.

The demo video gives a good overview of what app looks and feels like.

<comment><USER8> Okay thanks. i always get nervous seeing new product launches on HN without About section. The bookmarking field makes me even more nervous. I am one of those who would rather keep my bookmarks to myself, thanks all to Delicious experience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There's been some interesting bookmarking apps lately, yours included. The question is how are you going to get traction?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's gonna be a tough challenge but we've focused very much on building a solid product that looks and feels native and runs fast.

You're right there are many bookmarking apps and most of them are really good so we _are_ taking a stab at a problem that's been solved many times before. ;)

<comment><USER9> One last suggestion: subtitles on the video. I watched the video but wasn't really sure what kind of functionality is was and how it would benefit me.

Then again, I have a touch of ADD, so I may be your 'worst case scenario'.

I wish you success!

<comment><USER10> No, I agree with this and no ADD. I don't know what I'm looking at, it's too small to read what's being moved around - nice music, though. Very relaxing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> No syncing or plugins for Firefox to be seen = me not caring about paying you that much.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually, we do sync your bookmarks across every device you use. The Firefox plugin is available as both an addon from the Addons Center and XPI file for direct install.

Did you have any problems installing the plugin, or did you just have trouble finding the page that links to it?

<comment><USER11> Just had trouble seeing the links to the add-on center. Excuse me then, I stand corrected.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Are using a modified version of Foundation? I love the UI of this site. Great job.

<comment><USER13> They appear to be using Bootstrap (slightly modified).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like it. Looks great. I'm not ready to spent $5 a month on it yet.</comment>


Limits at Gawker? Rules at Reddit? Wild West Web Turns a Page - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/business/media/limits-at-gawker-rules-at-reddit-wild-west-web-turns-a-page.html <comment><USER2> I'm perfectly fine with management at a media company deciding it wants the curate the content that is produced by employees or visitors.

If the best defense of some piece of writing that an author can muster is that the writing "isn't illegal," then what value have you added to the community of readers/consumers.

I'm tired of having to ignore racists, trolls, etc. Why should I have to constantly filter trash from my input. I'll be happy when spam filters are omnipresent and upgraded to "content quality" filters.

<comment><USER3> You've never worked in a newspaper or other media organization then. This is a significant breach of the firewall between editorial and business. It's not at all surprising that several top Gawker editors have resigned over it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There will always be a frontier where there are few rules and even less oversight. But the frontier of today won't be the frontier of tomorrow, that's all we're seeing... a shift. If you want the stuff Reddit is purging, there are plenty of places to find it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Attempt at Reddit summary: Doing "web 2.0" to outsource content creation to the public for free while collecting all the corporate ad revenue sounds pretty cool until inevitably the people you outsourced your culture, brand, and message to disagree with people on the payroll and the org chart or with your corporate advertisers, but you can't do the traditional neofeudalistic corporate top down enforcement via the payroll and org chart if your content generators are not on the payroll or org chart because you outsourced them to web 2.0 general public.

Reddit Lesson: Never outsource your core competency.

The gawker story appears to have nothing in common at all. Seems to summarize to being totally spineless about admitting they operate an online supermarket checkout lane tabloid, followed by drama over people who would like to pretend they are not (why? They can't be that dumb, ego they're being paid to generate heat and clicks with an artificial story), with a side dish of I'd rather debate the overall ethical issues of tabloids as an industry sector being good or bad.

Gawker lesson: Be honest. People might or might not like you, but they hate dishonesty more.

If there is an overall lesson from both, from a past article awhile ago, I suggested an indication of bubble top is we're seeing the results of amateur hour tryhard then crashing and burning. Basic management leadership skills would have avoided both problems; "real companies" do not suffer from basic mistakes like this. In zero sum bubble markets like real estate, commodities, and stocks there's a concept of bag holders, where around the top, you can tell who the incompetent traders are because they're the ones left holding the bag. With a side dish of if you can't tell who the bag holder is, you're probably the bag holder (there is a poker table analogy WRT suckers...) Everyone can see bagholders all across tech, therefore we're at or just past a bubble top in internet tech companies again. Its all downhill from April 2001 or spring of 2015 or whatever. Wheeee!</comment>


Pastel: A command-line tool to generate, analyze, convert and manipulate colors - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sharkdp/pastel <comment><USER2> This looks really neat. The demo uses a lot of shell pipes though, needing to type "pastel" out for every processing step. It would be convenient if something like

      pastel random | pastel mix red | pastel lighten 0.2 | pastel format hex

could be written

      pastel random mix red lighten 0.2 format hex

(not quite possible, I think) or

      pastel random then mix red then lighten 0.2 then format hex

or something.

<comment><USER3> GStreamer uses the argument "!" as a pseudo-"|" so you can build multimedia pipelines without actually using Unix pipelines, or repeating the gst-launch command:

[https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/tutorials/ba...](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/tutorials/basic/gstreamer- tools.html)

<comment><USER4> Having written a large number of CLIs in the past, I've often come across this issue but never had a good solution. This is remarkably simple, elegant, and easily generalized into a CLI framework so it can be implemented with ease. Thank you for sharing this nugget of gold!

<comment><USER5> Sadly Zsh uses ! for history expansion so they'd all have to be escaped in that shell.

<comment><USER4> Even in the middle of a line, not just at the start?

<comment><USER5> Yes, and it's a great feature IMO:

        touch projects/new-lib/readme
        cd !!:1:h

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Literally last week I was looking for a tool to grep colors from a text file (say an SVG or a theme file) and was about to start writing one...which wasn't going to be even half as neat as this, so thank you very much for sharing

</comment><comment><USER7> Another great tool from sharkdp written in Rust (such as bat, hyperfine, diskus, fd, etc).

</comment><comment><USER8> I love every single tool this guy builds

</comment><comment><USER9> I had to create some diagrams and needed a way to generate palettes programatically, this will come in handy since I can iterate over HSL space and convert back to RGB since the diagram tool only accepts RGB! If the OP is the author please send the info, let me pay you a beer ;)

</comment><comment><USER10> I was just looking for something that could print hex color codes to the terminal the other day. The best solution I found was some hacky perl script which was hit-or-miss with certain colors, for some odd reason. Much appreciated.

<comment><USER11> Probably the perl script only supported 256 color modes, 24bit colors from the terminal are a relatively new item in terms of support in terminals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For us Macheads it looks like there's a brew formula in the works: [https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew- core/pull/43459](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/43459)

I do a fair bit of viz work, this tool could come in handy for generating color schemes I think.

<comment><USER5> FWIW, Linuxbrew is shaping up to be a solid tool as well.

Want to install your favorite text editor on a server and don't have root? Need a CLI utility and your sysadmin is slow/lazy? System package is ancient and you need a newer version? Linuxbrew solves all of those problems.

Heck, you could even rig up a shell script to toggle among Brew installations in order to create self-contained dev environments, synchronize with a Brewfile, and generate a Brewfile.lock.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I usually use hslpicker.com for tweaking colors, but this looks useful for seeing an array of colors at once.

</comment><comment><USER13> I was looking for a quick way to convert RGB 0-255 to RGB float 0.0-1.0 (often used in shaders and other areas of 3D programming) just the other day. This tool doesn't currently seem to support that, would be a nice addition.

<comment><USER14> Is it not sufficient to floating-point divide the input values by 255 ?

Edit: I guess that, even as simple as it would be to implement, it still is another useful output format

<comment><USER13> Simple to implement yeah, hard for me to do in my head hence the need for a tool :-)

<comment><USER15> $ command |sed 's/$/\/255/' | bc # or similar?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 3 days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20798453](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20798453)

<comment><USER2> No comments though, and very few up votes.

From the FAQ (see footer):

"Are reposts ok?

If a story has had significant attention in the last year or so, we kill reposts as duplicates. If not, a small number of reposts is ok."

<comment><USER16> TIL. I'll keep that in mind for my submitions.

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


Timothy Hart, Rest in Peace - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fogus.me/2014/01/27/timothy-hart-rest-in-peace/ <comment><USER2> I'm ashamed I didn't know about Timothy Hart, given the foundational work he's done. Glad Fogus wrote this.

<comment><USER3> Likewise, especially given my recent interest in Lisp. I actually own a paper copy of the _LISP 1.5 Programmer 's Manual_, thanks to Baltimore's excellent free book exchange [1]; I haven't cracked it yet in any serious way, but this news might push it up my stack a bit, especially since I also now know it's possible to emulate an IBM 7094 on which to actually run Lisp 1.5. (I've also thought about implementing a Lisp 1.5 interpreter on Common Lisp, but I'm afraid that's going to have to wait until I have a bit more clue about both of those languages and about the differences between them.)

[1] [http://www.bookthing.org](http://www.bookthing.org)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Surprised he doesn't have a Wikipedia article. Anyone experienced in Wikipedia's little ways want to write one?

<comment><USER5> Working on it. Really solid sources are a bit sparse, though. It's one of those odd cases, which I think are both problematic but interesting for Wikipedia: someone who is clearly notable, but proper bios on him don't _really_ exist, just scattered mentions that need to be tied together. It's a lot easier to write bios on people who already have other bios written on them (since that solves the problem of what to cite pretty easily).

<comment><USER6> The fact that he has books with his name on it should help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cause of death?

<comment><USER3> Old age, from the sound of it:

> Timothy Paul Hart of Cambridge, formerly of Lexington, died peacefully in > his sleep on January 20, 2014 at the age of 74, surrounded by members of his > family.

(Quoted from: [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wickedlocal- lexington/obitu...](http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wickedlocal- lexington/obituary.aspx?n=timothy-hart&pid=169244204))

<comment><USER8> 74 is not old :-(

<comment><USER3> Natural causes, then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Rest in peace and condolences to the whole family..</comment>


What to do with a screaming baby: the history of handbooks on motherhood - <AUTHOR> https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/mary-beard-maternity-manuals/ <comment><USER2> Speaking as a father of a newborn, I feel that parenthood would be more inclusive.

But hey, I'm used to looking at nappies where "mothers know best" (I will pick different brand), so this is still well entrenched.

<comment><USER3> It seems to be one of those double standards that a lot of people are still okay with for some reason. The one that still gets me is "women having it all" (children and a career). Why can't this be "parents" instead? We're not all living in the 1950s anymore.

<comment><USER4> _still okay with for some reason_

Sometimes reality gets in the way of ideals. Men, for example, are pitifully bad at lactating.

Given initial conditions like that- things quickly fall into the familiar pattern.

<comment><USER5> Name one thing, apart from breastfeeding, that men can't do that women can, when it comes to taking care of a child. Why is it, then, that it's still "unmanly" to change diapers, or god forbid, even be a stay-at-home dad?

<comment><USER6> Take care of an infant while recovering from birth without taking extra time of. That's not a huge difference, but it is economically significant for many couples especially when they have physically demanding jobs.

<comment><USER7> The recovery period after birth is not that long. It can be anything between few days and two months, but not much more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For some time already there are studies suggesting that infant colic is not actually a colic but the process of early brain development. In face of this, looks like there's not much we can do. As much as it is heartbreaking, most parents and babies just have to walk through it.

[https://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2013/12001/Brain_Matu...](https://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2013/12001/Brain_Maturation,_Early_Sensory_Processing,_and.8.aspx)

<comment><USER9> "Suggesting"? It's pretty obvious to everyone with half a brain that "colic" is just a label applied (specifically in the English-speaking world) to a baby that keeps crying despite all obvious causes of distress being taken care of, and has nothing whatsoever to do with digestion. I mean, the _official definition_ is based exclusively on the amount of crying and nothing else, how could it _possibly_ be a diagnosis of an underlying cause?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Grandmother used to say babies cry because of three things: need for sleep, need for food, and temreture issues (cold or hot causing colic and gases)

<comment><USER11> Our baby cried because of cow milk protein allergy. The milk protein came from the mother drinking cow milk and breastfeeding. When we figured that out it took a few weeks and then she got happier and quiet and could sleep again. Also the dry spots on the skin vanished.

<comment><USER12> I remember reading a Dutch study where nearly all "child is allergic to milk" diagnosis by parents turned out to be false. Unfortunately, I can't find the study.

<comment><USER13> Here's a counter-example. We accidentally fed formula with cow milk protein in the middle of the night once after switching to a different formula (it was the middle of the night, we were sleep deprived, the bottles looked the same in the dark, and we hadn't purged all the old formula yet). His symptoms returned immediately for a couple days until it cleared his system.

I know this is anecdata but seeing the immediate change and having a very easy experiment to test it with if the child is eating formula makes me question the study.

<comment><USER14> He did write 'nearly all'. So there is room for you and the study being accurate at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The ancients did not know this, but for some reason a trip in the car has always made my kids sleep. Once you have fed and changed them of course. Anecdotally formula milk from a bottle seems to help them fill up quicker than breast feeding, and stay quiet for longer. Although I seem to remember that may have the bad side effect of increasing the likelyhood of cot-death, presumably because they are sleeping more deeply and for longer

<comment><USER14> Ford is on to that:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic6vWoSd8Fk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic6vWoSd8Fk)

<comment><USER16> Wow, I like it. It seems like the approach is, "we have no clue what exactly is it about cars that works this way, so let's replicate as much of the experience as possible". Brute-forcing the problem, but sounds like it could work well.

<comment><USER14> A friend of mine (another crazy tinkerer, which is how we got to know each other) built something like that in the 90's for one of his children that could not sleep anywhere but in the car. It was a crazy contraption but it did work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> So it says: "some pseudo-science which claimed that the stress of crying would prevent the proper development of the baby's brain" ... But cortisol levels have been tested I believe, and the effects of cortisol are well known.

<comment><USER12> It has become more or less accepted (at least in Scandinavia) that small children crying is just a form of misbehavior that shouldn't be given any attention. Coming from South Europe, I found that very strange. But they've become as good at reading a child's cues as they themselves are at socializing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> No idea why this got posted here but I should point out that Mary Beard is well respected around these parts and is a mother. The TLS is not generally considered a rag either.

Now, the article itself does start off with a pretty confrontational style. I humbly suggest you get over it.</comment>


Introducing d3.express: the integrated discovery environment - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mbostock/a-better-way-to-code-2b1d2876a3a0 <comment><USER2> "I buried the lede. It's an in-browser reactive JavaScript notebook for exploratory analysis, visualization, and explanation." [https://twitter.com/mbostock/status/858018259907620865](https://twitter.com/mbostock/status/858018259907620865)

<comment><USER3> love the ease of use

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very cool! I wonder how it will compare with Eve? I love that people are working on visual data analysis tools like this.</comment>


Facebook accidentally put hidden messages in VR controllers - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-weird-messages-oculus-touch-controllers-2019-4 <comment><USER2> This is a marketing stunt. People will buy them _hoping_ they can open them up and find the messages. This is exactly like the 80's album warnings about backward messages - the warnings sold way more albums than the music alone would have.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hidden messages inside consumer products aren't bad, for example what Microsoft put inside the Zune HD and I believe Nintendo has also done it a few times.

Except.... Some engineer thought it was prudent to put "Big Brother is watching" inside of a preproduction unit. Why? That seems incredibly tone deaf of the problems and criticisms Facebook has experienced. Is it supposed to be satire? Facebook "watching" users was a legitimate concern people brought up during their acquisition of Oculus, and the main reason I went with Vive (and didn't install the viveport software)

</comment><comment><USER4> This company is like a less competent version of Dr. Evil, somebody please get working on a sitcom</comment>


ReScript (previously BuckleScript and Reason) - <AUTHOR> https://rescript-lang.org/ <comment><USER2> Recent and related: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24119838](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24119838)

</comment><comment><USER3> I get that people don't like learning new and unfamiliar things, but OCaml's syntax is actually pretty nice, and the editor tooling is a lot better. ReasonML has some nice ideas like more sensible parsing of types and automatic variant to function conversions, but even so I don't think the syntax fragmentation is worth it.

I started a native ReasonML project but eventually converted the project to OCaml as I became disillusioned with the relative verbosity and noise compared to straight up OCaml.

Don't be afraid to learn something new, especially if it looks weird or inscrutable. Things are rarely weird for the sake of weirdness, and you'll expand your horizons and perspectives, eventually understanding (and maybe even liking) why things are the way they are.

This applies to functional programming, Lisp, array languages, etc. The intellectual laziness of programmers never fails to astound me. Excuses for why only the things they currently know are somehow the best. Comments like "X is the best because I don't know anything else" are so common it's sad, even among senior software engineers.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I used ReasonML and Bucklescript for a self-contained part of a massive Typescript project to try it out and it was a _joy_. Here's hoping more people find out about it and it gets some more widespread adoption.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm confused, so reasonml is now rescript?

<comment><USER5> I'm even more confused.

It's like all of BuckleScript and parts of ReasonML is now ReScript. Except BuckleScript has a new C-like syntax unlike the ML syntax that made BuckleScript BuckleScript as opposed to ReasonML.

<comment><AUTHOR> Basically Bucklescript have forked their own (very similar) syntax from ReasonML and branded the whole syntax + Bucklescript + compiler package as ReScript. I suppose the goal is to eliminate the confusion of having so many moving parts and unify them all under a single ReScript brand.

<comment><USER5> Thanks. I guess the thing I didn't understand was where this leaves Reason: what is left under the Reason banner? But a fork would explain the overlap.

<comment><USER6> Lots of things are under the Reason banner:

\- The Reason syntax at [https://github.com/facebook/reason](https://github.com/facebook/reason)

\- Esy, the npm-like Opam-compatible package manager at [https://esy.sh/](https://esy.sh/)

\- Reason native tooling in [https://reason-native.com/](https://reason- native.com/)

\- Not forgetting that Dune and Odoc, two standard tools in the OCaml ecosystem, both support Reason syntax.

EDIT: and I forgot about the various editor plugins which provide Reason support, the most well-known is probably [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jaredly....](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jaredly.reason- vscode)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Dropping the semicolons, all the brackets, and other JS-y syntax of ReasonML in favor of something more OCaml-y makes this a lot easier to read. I'm super confused at a capital U being the sigil for uncurried functions; it just is not a convention I'd expect from a modern language.

<comment><USER6> It's not a sigil, it's just a naming convention. For example, in the OCaml world there's a convention for functions that throw exceptions to have a '_exn' suffix. In Haskell there's a convention for monadic function to have an 'M' suffix.</comment></comment>


$1.39 for 1000 decoded CAPTCHAs - <AUTHOR> http://www.deathbycaptcha.com/

<comment><USER2> An interesting idea would be a browser extension which users can pay or subscribe a nominal fee (eg $2 a year) which hooks up to this service so the user would never need to manually enter a captcha.

It would detect a captcha on a page the moment the browser renders the field and it would be completed in ~15 seconds by the time the user scrolls down to the form and completes the other parts.

<comment><USER3> Funny you should say that.. We (my former classmate and I) built a prototype for that a year ago, but life happened and I never got around to making it into a product. If anyone entrepreneurial is interested in solving that problem (especially for blind people!), I'd love to make it happen. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> stuff like this is exactly why captchas are outdated...they don't stop the real spammers, and just annoy your users.

With most captchas I have to try 3-4 times before I can actually spell out what the image is showing. The only exception is ReCaptcha, those tend to be easy to decipher.

I wonder if 3-4 years down the line, everyone will continue using captchas...even when they stop working as a method to fight spam

<comment><USER5> Only if you define "work" as blocking 100% of spam.

The evidence that they work is right in front of you. The incremental cost of posting 1000 spam comments went from basically zero to $1.39.

I use ReCaptcha on my sites and, as far as I can tell, the only spam getting through is humans (typically with .cn hostnames) manually entering the CAPTCHA. Meanwhile it's blocking 100s of dumb, automated attempts.

<comment><USER6> It depends on what you are doing it for, if you've found site(s) that don't use rel=nofollow $1.39 for 1000 users is a pretty good deal, especially if the CAPTCHA is stopping the vast majority of spammers from making the link juice worthless.

I'd pay $1.39 for 1000 links from sites that haven't been spammed to death with out thinking about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Okay, so bad guys can bypass captchas really easily now for pretty cheap. Anyone want to make a GM script or something so normal people can use this as well to answer youtube and other captchas? I'd pay $1.39 to not have to type captchas in for a month or so of just normal internet use. I'm not trying to spam, just communicate.. Death TO captchas.

</comment><comment><USER8> The obvious next step is to use comments as CAPTCHAs: "which of these 3 comments is spam?" Then, use the CAPTHCA-breaker that results to filter spam.

<comment><USER9> That could actually work if you did it the reCAPTCHA way, i.e. "which two of these three comments are spam?" Where one of the three is already known to be spam. Of course the chance of getting it right by guessing is pretty high but there may be ways around that (by showing more confirmed non-spam comments perhaps). A cool start-up idea right there!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a great service. Haven't used it on a large scale but for a few small projects worked very well.

<comment><USER11> Spamming projects?

<comment><USER10> Nopes. But I used service for automating data scraping.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wonder what the rate of return on something like this is. I don't know about anyone else, but I NEVER click on, yet alone but from people spamming links in comment threads. Do you?

</comment><comment><USER13> From Cyprus, I see.

Does this service break any EU directives or "laws"? There should be a law for that (even if similar services pop up elsewhere in the world).

<comment><USER14> To prevent what? Data entry? I've also noticed that quite a few shady companies I've seen register their companies and bank accounts in Cyprus and live/operate elsewhere. I'm assuming it provides some kind of legal benefit but I don't know what.

edit: note about Cyprus

<comment><USER13> I bet you're right. They probably operate elsewhere and use Cyprus for whatever reason.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The difference between a real user and these type of services is mainly the latency, an effective counter would rely on this fact. One idea would be some kind of game that would be easy for users with low latency to play for a few seconds and win but would be impossible for the proxy'd filipinos.

</comment><comment><USER16> Let's see them solve the "pick out the cats" (from dogs) captcha.

Or simple math problems at random.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've burned through thousands of credits at deathbycaptcha on some "darker" projects of mine, they have a nice service. Depending on the kinds of links you're building, they can be extremely cost effective. If you're going for high volume crappy links, they aren't worth it.

here's a good ruby library for using this service: <http://rubygems.org/gems/deathbycaptcha>

<comment><USER18> Can you give an example of some of the "darker" projects?

<comment><USER19> Automated forum account creation/posting, blog comment spamming, craigslist account creation/posting to name a few.

Some other famous sites that are doing this since the mid 2000s - <http://decaptcher.com>

They integrate with just about every famous spam tool.

UPDATE: Automated Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail account creation, etc. They create accounts in bulk and then spam through the gmail, yahoo, and hotmail accounts by tools that are being sold.

<comment><USER17> forum spamming is far too expensive if you're paying for captchas. There is an extremely famous/popular forum spamming software on the market (made by russians) that internally solves captchas.

If you're going to forum profile spam, you'll go broke paying for captchas.

<comment><USER19> Ok I stand corrected, the economics of paying for forum spamming does not make sense and the software you mentioned (I don't want to name it here) does solve many captchas automatically (It is even rumored to solve Google's captchas)

But for other stuff that I mentioned in my previous comment, it does make sense for them economically and they do use it.

<comment><USER20> I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to provide names or links here. I'm sure if HN users want to spam we're resourceful enough to figure it out for ourselves and for those of us who don't care to spam it would be helpful to see what we're up against.

<comment><USER19> Yes I did mean that. I didn't mean to insult the intelligence of HNers though. Just thought it wouldn't be prudent to mention here!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is despicable. People have CATCHAs to keep you idiots out, can't you respect this?

<comment><USER22> We probably shouldn't talk about viruses or security flaws, either -- might give someone the idea that it's ok to break into a machine. We ought to respect it by not discussing such things.

<comment><USER23> "We probably shouldn't talk about viruses or security flaws, either -- might give someone the idea that it's ok to break into a machine. We ought to respect it by not discussing such things."

I interpreted the OP to be more disgusted at someone making a business out of actively circumventing a control then we discussing that it exists.

That is a bit different than discussing the existence of flaws. In this case it's making money off actively exploiting the flaws.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Wow. These guys even know customer support. They are here to help you spam other people.

Taken from their website:

Contact We're here to help you! Please send us a message to any of the emails below: Technical Support Payment Support System Admin</comment>


Failure: Building a web app that makes $50/month - <AUTHOR> http://tbbuck.com/building-a-50-dollar-a-month-web-app/

<comment><USER2> First of all, I would like to thank you very much for your posts, they are informative and have great value for emerging entrepreneurs.

Some thoughts I had:

* You are spot on in concluding that this is a tool that would be used a few of times in a year. A lifetime payment is the solution, with an appropriate price bump of course.

* Regarding the users that signed up for free: You should have allowed them to keep using the service for free. They are your implicit marketing team. They got in early, they deserve gratis access for that.

* Regarding the recurring scheme of cancellations: Do contact the users, ask them why they are leaving. This will help you either validate my first thought above, or iterate on the service to become what they expect to get out of it.

<comment><AUTHOR> And thanks for your thanks - and also such great advice! :-D

 _A lifetime payment is the solution, with an appropriate price bump of course._

I'm now hearing comments like yours a lot, I think I might give this a try this weekend.

 _You should have allowed them to keep using the service for free._

You know what, you are totally right. I hadn't thought of it that way, and if I do something similar in future, I'll take the same point of view.

 _Do contact the users, ask them why they are leaving._

I'm right now figuring out a nice email with a "don't worry, this is the only email you'll ever receive from me" bit in it, to send to the relevant users. I think I'm being silly by not having contacted previous users about this.

Thanks once again for the awesome advice!

<comment><USER3> Maybe a lifetime payment would be too expensive? Perhaps a $5.99 one month pass, and a $4.99 subscription would be better?

<comment><USER4> I'd let the user choose in such a way that they think they get a bargain with the lifetime pass. Something like $2.95 for one time, $3.95 for a month and $4.95 forever.

I guess you have to be careful in your terms and conditions when you say "lifetime", right? Obviously, you mean the lifetime of the product, not the client's

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Out of curiosity, why did you decide to make it a separate service from TweetingMachine? It seems like a natural extension of it. That being said, since you have both tools, I would consider approaching it in one of two ways.

First: give InboxCleaner away for free and use it to get registered users for TweetingMachine. I imagine if a user signs up and is happy with one tool you provide, they would be more inclined to pay $20/mo for another related tool. This seems like a great opportunity for some A/B testing as well.

Second: add InboxCleaner as a paid add-on for TweetingMachine. Your customers are paying $20/mo for the basic service, so you know they aren't afraid to pull out their wallets. Offer them a monthly inbox cleaning for an extra $1/mo. What's the difference between $20 and $21 when they're already paying you?

Also, your name might be inhibiting some initial click-throughs to your site. When I hear InboxCleaner, I immediately think email. Maybe this is because I'm not a heavy Twitter user, but it's something to think about.

One feature that might up the ante is email reminders to clean their inbox every 6 months or every year. It's something people will do probably rarely, which means they're likely to forget the name of the tool they used to do it or forget to do it altogether. You might offer a friendly reminder to do Spring cleaning on their inbox.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed reading your posts. They're some of the most practical real world case studies I've come across, as opposed to the "I'm making $2000 a week and only working 4 hours" drivel that's out there. Not that I wouldn't like to make $2000 in 4 hours a week.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Out of curiosity, why did you decide to make it a separate service from TweetingMachine_

I was wondering if there were many users who wouldn't spend $19.99/month on a service when they only wanted one feature, and to see if they would pay $4.99/year for that one feature instead.

I am thinking about making it entirely free and using it to solely promote TweetingMachine. I might stick a TweetingMachine advert on it for a week and see if that results in any sign ups and go from there.

Thanks for your compliments by the way - I have a few "proper" failures I can write about in the future if you're interested. Although I'm also waiting for the magic $500/hour moment ;)

<comment><USER6> Don't wait for that time, enjoy it! After all it might be a few steps ahead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> " I made InboxCleaner free for life – just as long as you don't mind being limited to only 50 deletes per day."

Perhaps I'm not the heaviest twitter user, but the free service would wipe every DM I've ever received in.. a day. I imagine a one-time fee would work better.

(On a related note, I wonder if Dropbox is also far too generous with their free offering; almost everyone I know uses the free tier as 2GB is a huge amount for docs that need syncing; I've used dropbox since it came out and am only at 20% of that).

<comment><USER8> Dropbox creates a hash identity for the file and compresses it in the cloud. So stuff like a song isn't uploaded or even stored twice. I assume it's still counted towards the usage.

<comment><USER9> I think the point wasn't about the cost to Dropbox so much as the opportunity cost (i.e. a lot more people would convert if the free package wasn't so good). Then again maybe if the free package wasn't so good, people wouldn't be such Dropbox fans.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think the issue is that it's a web tool and you're trying to make an app. Port it to phones, you'll get a lot of people buying it for 99c.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Port it to phones, you'll get a lot of people buying it for 99c._

Such a blindingly obvious idea, and it never even occurred to me. Thanks, I'm going to investigate this ASAP!

<comment><USER11> I was thinking the same. The problem is that people don't like to get their credit card out for such a small payment (at least I would not). With an iPhone app, it's not such a big deal because your credit card is on file anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting, thanks for the post.

1) I am surprised this is actually a problem that needs solved.

2) I see this more as a product that can be used for free by many and often, but it must promote your other products that you do sell. It could be a nice marketing tool maybe.

3) Couldn't you just roll this in with your other Twitter product that you charge for?

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm unsurprised people are unwilling to pay for this service: InboxCleaner provides very little added value on top of a service which is free.

Further: it's trivial for a competitor to undercut your app with a free alternative. I suggest you give this away for free to (a) build goodwill and (b) attract people to your other products.

Another thought: you mess with your pricing an awful lot. If I was your customer, and recommending your product to my friends, I'd be pretty pissed to find out the price has changed and made me a liar.

</comment><comment><USER14> As I suggest in the comments: [http://tbbuck.com/building-a-50-dollar-a-month- web-app/#comm...](http://tbbuck.com/building-a-50-dollar-a-month-web- app/#comment-475)

\</comment><comment>

Try presenting your users with a paid and viral choice. First oauth them with the promise of the service you are offering. Then present them with the value proposition: "You are about to save X minutes by automatically deleting Y DM's". Then offer them two choices to compensate you for that value: 1) Follow your twitter account & tweet an endorsement (which could be as simple as a variation on the value prop ) or 2) pay you $0.99 for a one time service.

This will allow you to a) measure your funnel, b) advertise without spending any money, c) build an audience, d) use that audience to build a feedback loop and test other ideas, e) make money in a way that seems to align with your users usage habits.

Thoughts?

\-----

What do yall think, could this dog hunt?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've replied to you in the comments, but in short I'm conflicted between not wanting to pay for promotion (which a freebie is, essentially) but liking the idea of thousands tweeting about how great my app is.

Anyone reading that uses Twitter - would you pay or tweet to use a service? I'm guessing the vast majority would tweet... but am really not sure :)

<comment><USER15> I'd be careful with that. Most people probably wouldn't try too hard to promote you, and "just tweeting so I can use this crappy inbox cleaner. bit.ly/asdf..." isn't really great promotion.

In general _forcing_ viral activity both misses the point and fails to work. I'd say you should at most randomly give away free inbox cleanings to your followers / people who tweet about the service. Really, though, you should probably just be active on twitter and talk to people. That doesn't scale well, but it's the most effective viral tactic there is.

<comment><USER14> with oauth access you can push the tweet yourself. Of course, tell them what they will be posting, but you can control the message.

<comment><USER15> In some ways that seems even worse. Canned messages that you have to inflict on your friends to use something are one step shy of pure spam. They also seem to be ignored in much the same ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Confused: why would anybody want to delete their DMs?

<comment><USER17> I was wondering the exact same thing. Is there a limit or something? If so I've never seen one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Thanks for sharing this experience with us.

1\. When you mentioned about 1 or 2 users signing up randomly - what's your overall inbound traffic to your app like?

2\. I am guessing you did not particularly do any paid advertising, except for submitting them to various directories, is that right?

<comment><AUTHOR> _When you mentioned about 1 or 2 users signing up randomly - what's your overall inbound traffic to your app like?_

In June, the app's homepage received 1,344 unique visitors. It's typically around 40 a day. So yeah - conversation rate really isn't very good ;)

 _I am guessing you did not particularly do any paid advertising, except for submitting them to various directories, is that right?_

Completely right; I don't know enough about paid advertising to be effective, so avoid it altogether. For now at least :)

<comment><USER18> Ok, it's interesting that just an hour of submitting to such directories can bring in such decent traffic!

> I also contacted lots of people on Twitter and asked if they'd give my app a > try.

How do you do that? In past, when I have tried doing this using @replies on potential people who might be interested, I always felt like I was just barging in on a stranger!

<comment><AUTHOR> _Ok, it's interesting that just an hour of submitting to such directories can bring in such decent traffic!_

It's not just directories - although they makes up for a decent amount of traffic! - and organic search brings in a decent level of users as well. Although my SEO knowledge is close to zero, I've tried to choose, e.g., a decent title for the homepage that's Google-friendly.

 _In past, when I have tried doing this using @replies on potential people who might be interested, I always felt like I was just barging in on a stranger!_

Search for people asking how to do what your tool serves, and send them a reply. It was a free tool at the time, so seemed totally reasonable to me, but I accept others might not see it that way ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> charge me $.99 every time i use it. no one wants to pay a recurring fee for something they use once or twice a year...or, more likely, once ever.

<comment><USER20> I like the .99/use fee much better than the one-time per life fee mentioned in another comment. No offense, but I don't believe anything smaller than Google or Facebook will be around for a lifetime. If you're new, you've got a bit of surviving to do before I believe you'll survive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> My three comments

a) Payment friction is a big problem here; reviewing comments, I love the idea of overcoming that with an app, but there are also other marketplaces like google chrome apps, etc. Nothing to say you can't sell a web app through one of those right now.

b) Don't email survey your customers, call them. Well, in your case, email them and say you're the founder, you want to know what they liked / didn't, and do they have 10 minutes to give you some advice? This will get you far more than automated surveys

c) I'm kind of thinking a nice "Before / After" with someone's actual inbox would be nice, then they could just click to pay once they see how great it will look.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone,

Tom, blog author here. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer them :)

Edit @1900 GMT+2: I have to run out for a bit, but will be replying on the train and then once I'm back again :)

<comment><USER22> Hi, thanks for an interesting article. I'm curious about the user experience they had -- did users use the tool successfully?

Do you have a measure of their average stay or actions?

I'd be interested to know if some arrived thinking it did one thing and ended up not getting what they wanted.

<comment><AUTHOR> _I'd be interested to know if some arrived thinking it did one thing and ended up not getting what they wanted._

You know how sometimes someone says something really obvious and you want to hit yourself because you haven't thought it through properly? Thank you :)

I've had a quick look through the stats, and users appear to be coming back repeatedly (no errors on the server - will try and see if there's anything else going wrong, e.g. IE6 problems). I think I'm going to try and find those cancelled users and ask them what happened :)

<comment><USER22> Best of luck with it! My experience is that the hardest errors are the ones that happen when the system appears to run perfectly :) It may not be a browser error, but a communication one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The lifetime membership seems like a solid idea. It might also be worth charging, say, $1 to just use it once.

Regardless, though, $18/hr (($200 - $20 theme) / 10 hours) is not bad.

<comment><AUTHOR> _It might also be worth charging, say, $1 to just use it once._

I'm kinda torn on the $1 idea. Whilst I like it in principle, I think in reality it might attract customers who'll be a pain. At the same time though - I can always experiment and find out! :)

<comment><USER22> I suspect $1 is too low, especially if the 6 month theory is correct. I imagine users more likely to pay 5 or 10 dollars because the perceived value of the product is higher, making it more attractive. I feel at $1 the user might think that the task offered isn't worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is it - would a user pay a "delete all your messages just this once for $1" fee, or would lump sum work instead?

I'm also wondering about maybe selling credits instead - e.g. buy 20 deletes for $9.99. My fear with credits is that it would make the tool too complex. But again - I can only try :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Failure is building a business that _costs_ you $50 a month. At least you might break even.

Given the amazing apps and services out there for dollars a month or a one time cost of under $6, it does seem that you need to keep looking for the right sort of payment system for this product. I'd sign up to an amazing Twitter life management system for $5 a month, but not a tool that accomplishes one very limited purpose.

<comment><USER25> What is a "Twitter life management system"

<comment><USER24> Some fantasy unicorn of a product that I pulled out of a hat. I mean to say I'd pay $5 a month for something substantial. The product discussed is better suited to being part of a larger suite than sold ala carte for that price.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> > My mistake quickly became obvious: I had built a tool for an audience that > didn't like to spend money.

The audience doesn't want to spend money for this specific tool but it doesn't mean they wouldn't spend money in general.

<comment><AUTHOR> _The audience doesn't want to spend money for this specific tool but it doesn't mean they wouldn't spend money in general._

I was struggling with the phrasing of that sentence for ages. But you make a fair point :)

<comment><USER26> I just don't want people to "close their eyes on opportunities" as it's fairly easy to jump to conclusions.

Thanks for sharing your insights otherwise, appreciated :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> How about adding a few features?

You're solving a infinitesimally small problem. Remember when GMail was missing a "Delete" button and people wrote greasemonkey scripts to implement one?

You're selling that for $5.

<comment><USER28> No problem is too small to (try to) charge money for. Either they'll pay or they won't.

<comment><USER27> Oh totally true. But coming up with a few more tedious Twitter cleanup type activities might make it an offering that is more valuable to more people! (While adding minimal cost)

<comment><AUTHOR> One idea I've thought about is allowing users to download the tweets they're going to delete in one file format or another. I imagine there's some extra value I could add in there somewhere as well... am just not sure what ;)

<comment><USER15> Suggestion: Download is great, email might be better.

I don't get many DMs on twitter, but if I did I could see an automated "clean out everything over a month old and email it to me" service being worthwhile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Thanks for the article Tom. Knowing that I could use a theme from themeforest has opened my eyes. I always get stuck when it comes to designing the front end part. I wish you all the best with your site.

</comment><comment><USER30> why don't you make it free, have lot's of happy non-paying users where the objective is to convert a percentage of them to paying tweetmachine users?

<comment><USER31> I like this idea. Something tiny and trivial (sorry) really makes more sense as a freebie. But I understand not everyone is into writing free software. So a model that makes sense for you and your users is that the freebie attracts potential customers to something that really justifies a monetary consideration.</comment></comment>


Cash, Cows And The Rise Of Nerd Philanthropy - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/08/23/214875696/cash-cows-and-the-rise-of-nerd-philanthropy

<comment><AUTHOR> Of further interest:

[http://www.poverty-action.org/blog/cash-or-cows](http://www.poverty- action.org/blog/cash-or-cows)</comment>


Learn X in Y minutes where X = Go - <AUTHOR> http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/go/

<comment><USER2> This is the way I like to learn a language.

Instantly, and progressively, by starting at the top and working through a single document that is both a reference and a guide.

Beautiful work.

Edit: One change I would make is to change p := pair{3, 4} into p := pair{x: 3, y: 4} which helps your declarations keep working in the future when you extend or modify the definition of `pair`.

<comment><USER3> > when you extend or modify the definition of `pair`.

Well, pair is an anti-pattern anyway, but what _exactly_ would you add to "Pair"? "File not found"? :)

[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/What_Is_Truth_0x3f_.aspx](http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/What_Is_Truth_0x3f_.aspx)

<comment><USER4> > Well, pair is an anti-pattern anyway

So _cons_ is an "anti-pattern" as well, then?

Your comment is the most original dis of Lisp I've ever read. Bravo!

<comment><USER3> Go isn't a Lisp, last I checked. I am referring to "Pair" as a class/interface in an OO language. If you're using Pair to construct a linked list in a OO language, I salute you, but that's even more of an anti-pattern.

Pair is an OO anti-pattern because it's an arbitrary grouping of two things in a generic container, and you shouldn't do that in OO - classes are cheap. You should make a class that represents what the collection of those two things actually are. Typical field names in generic Pair objects are 'left' and 'right' or 'first' and 'second' which tells you nothing about the values you stick into them (except the types, if you're using a strongly typed language). If, as suggested in the example, the pair holds a 'x' and a 'y', a better choice could be to call it "Point" or even "Point2D". If it's a key/value pair from a map data structure it should be "Entry" with fields "key" and "value" \- etc.

<comment><USER5> It is worth pointing out that the pair in question is indeed an {x, y int} (using Go's ability to elide repeated types, so this means both x and y are an int). The name may be poor, but since it also will in general use be paired with the module name, it may not be, either. "Pair" is a poor name, rationals.Pair might not be.

A truly generic Pair in go would be Pair{interface {}, interface{}}, and that would be a code smell. (Only a smell though, since it's possibly part of some larger construct that is basically getting around Go's compile-time type system and replacing it with a run-time check.)

<comment><USER3> It's generic, not in the Java-generics sense of the work, but in the sense that x and y are generic names - they don't tell you what x and y are. Yes, they are of type int, but are they apples or oranges? In the example, they are indeed just two numbers that we chose to keep together, although the name and field names suggest that the author has a point in mind.

rationals.Pair is still a poor name, it's a pair of what and for what purpose? Assuming you're referring to rational numbers, ratio struct {p, q int} is better.

<comment><USER6> In my C code I've been moving away from distinguishing primitive types by name alone, preferring to wrap them in single-element structs to get some type safety:

        do_things_with_fruits(apple_count_t apples, orange_count_t oranges);

instead of

        do_things_with_fruits(int apples, int oranges);

Which saves my ass when I wind up writing

        do_things_with_fruit(basket.oranges, basket.apples);

Note that at that point, I would say a generic pair type (not allowed in C but borrowing C++ syntax)

        pair<apple_count_t, orange_count_t>

is really no less informative than something like

        fruit_basket_t

and if it's easily defined (tuples + inference?) I see no reason to avoid it.

<comment><USER3> Yes, it's less informative, because you're missing the context of why the apples and oranges are lumped together in the pair. FWIW fruit_basket_t is poorly named too, since fruit baskets not things that can count apples and oranges (and nothing else), they are generic containers capable of holding all kinds of fruit.

I like the single-element structs. I've been finding myself doing that more and more in Java and I quite enjoy it. First epiphany was replacing bool with enums.

<comment><USER6> I don't think "fruit_basket" (or "fruit_counts", say, addressing your later point) really gives much more clue as to why you're grouping these things than does the templated pair. When there _is_ an informative name, use it, to be sure. Occasionally there's not much more reason than "I am using both of these elsewhere. This is much more the case when things are used locally than when they are exposed in interfaces, to be sure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> MULTIPLE return values?! My mind is BLOWN. That's awesome. My work is all in Java and there are so many times on my last project where that would have been helpful (I know I can do it by creating a map or an array or something, but that's stupid and extra code that I shouldn't need to write).

I really hope to be able to write Go professionally at some point, it is a really nice language to write in.

<comment><USER6> If that blows your mind, check out Haskell - you can _dispatch on type of return value_.

<comment><USER8> Care to elaborate?

<comment><USER6> As an easy to follow (though questionably idiomatic) example, consider the typeclass Default:

        class Default a where
            def :: a

and an unwise pair of instances:

        instance Default Int where
            def = 7

        instance Default String where
            def = "foo"

This means I can say:

        3 + def + length ("c" ++ def)

and get back 14. Note that _which "def" depends on the type expected where it is used_.

\---

It's not limited to values, either. Consider the "return" function in the Monad typeclass:

        return :: Monad m => a -> m a

which is a function that takes something and returns that something wrapped in a monad. Which monad? Whatever is expected at the call site.

        [1, 2, 3] ++ return 4

gives us [1, 2, 3, 4] because list is a monad and return for lists gives a single element list, whereas

        putStrLn "foo" >> return 4

gives us an IO action that, when executed, prints "foo" and yeilds a 4.

\---

A super complex example is variadic functions like printf, with the type

        printf :: PrintfType r => String -> r

PrintfType can be a String or IO (), giving you something like C's sprintf or printf based on the call site (which is itself cool), but it can also be a function that takes an instance of PrintfArg and gives back some new PrintfType (in an interesting intersection with currying).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wow, I'm not really interested in learning Go, but I was drawn in and made it all the way to learnInterfaces. Congrats!

One question: why have named return values (in learnMemory) if you return something different? If you didn't have a return statement at all, would the function return the final value of p and q?

<comment><USER10> >why have named return values (in learnMemory) if you return something different?

Probably to avoid declaring the function as `func learnMemory() ( _int,_ int)`.

>If you didn't have a return statement at all, would the function return the final value of p and q?

No, you have to do that explicitly. You can do `return`, though, which will return the variables whose names match the definition.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This looks very similar to the "easter egg" that the F# team put into visual studio.

When you create a new F# project you can select F# Tutorial and it generates a working project with a source code file that is an introduction to the language and its features.

I wish more IDEs did this.

</comment><comment><USER12> My hungarian translation of it: [http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/hu- hu/go/](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/hu-hu/go/)

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm tired of reading that this or that language/framework is "easy-to- understand" and "fun" to use. That's a subjective statement and mostly not true. Writing code is a means to an end, you want the output of a program not a bunch of lines, so I don't see how it could be fun (which is repeated over and over again in the official documentation and various slides and talks). And the concept of easy-to-understand is determined by the level of experience of an individual plus a whole lot of factors that are beyond us, not least of which is the sheer brain power.

<comment><USER14> What we mean: All of us on the team have a lot of fun writing Go. We often show each other little pieces of code that delight us. This seems to happen more when we work in Go than in the other languages we use (or have used), and so we attribute the fun-ness to Go. Pretty straightforward. I'm sorry you're so tired of it.

<comment><USER13> Wow, I didn't expect to get a response from an actual Googler, working on Go no less. Anyhow, I also remember when people were saying that Java was a fun language to work with, but I still have to find a single engineer who doesn't think of it as slightly more than a pain in the ass. It's all a matter of right-sizing expectations; using and objective language keeps you from being called out should those expectations fail to be matched.

That said, I've already professed my love for the Go language, which I consider the spiritual successor of the C programming language.

<comment><USER15> Java _was_ fun to play with back in the early days. It was fast, had a VM, garbage collection and was OO. Sadly the fun was gradually removed over the years as a result of design-by-committee and a desire to try to solve some of its core issues.

Fortunately you can still have fun on the JVM, even though I prefer to avoid it these days given its current custodians.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is the documentation of go regarding the 'map' data type and the usage of the function 'make' out of date?

Because I can't see any difference in:

        package main

        import (
            "fmt"
        )

        func main() {
           m1 := map[string]int{}
           m1["a"] = 1
           fmt.Printf("%d\n", m1["a"])

           m2 := make(map[string]int)
           m2["b"] = 2
           fmt.Printf("%d\n", m2["b"])
        }

<comment><USER5> Compare with:

        func main() {
            var m1 map[string]int
            m1["a"] = 1
            fmt.Printf("%d\n", m1["a"])
        }

[http://play.golang.org/p/JJQ7dSZLeA](http://play.golang.org/p/JJQ7dSZLeA)

which yields

        panic: runtime error: assignment to entry in nil map

<comment><USER16> Well, but this again works:

        type pair struct {
            x, y int
        }

        func main() {
           var p pair
           fmt.Printf("%d\n", p.x)
           fmt.Printf("%d\n", p.y)
        }

That's just wrong, that declaration and initialization behaves differently depending on the type.

<comment><USER5> If I could unilaterally make just one change to Go, I'd adopt C#-style nullable types, and change everything to be nonnullable without the extra sigil (or whatever, I have no passion about the syntax itself, just the feature). This would produce, say, map[string]string vs. map?[string]string. The first would not be permitted to be null, the second would.

It would be my choice because unlike a lot of other pet ideas which would radically change Go into a new language, I'm pretty sure this would have hardly any effect... excepting of course to remove the Billion Dollar Mistake from the next up-and-coming language.

<comment><USER16> Well, I'm more or less a programming language nerd and these kind of things just hurt =).

Just try to pass a 'map' or a 'struct' to an other function. The 'map' behaves like passed by reference and the 'struct' behaves like passed by value. If you want to pass a 'struct' by reference than you have to use a pointer to a 'struct'.

Seriously? What kind of ad hoc programming language design is this?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Where exactly does the struct pair implement the Stringer interface? Is it when the String method was added to it? What if you have interfaces with similar names?

<comment><USER18> >Is it when the String method was added to it?

Yes, that is how you satisfy an interface in Go.

>What if you have interfaces with similar names?

The problem of interfaces with similar names is actually no different than the problems of, for example, packages or functions having similar names. It's down to you to avoid naming things in a confusing manner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is great. I suggest adding fallthrough statement in one of the switch cases.

</comment><comment><USER20> > It's not the latest trend in computer science

Uh, I think it is. I can't go three articles without seeing Go mentioned.

I'm going to get downmodded to gray, but either this tutorial is missing something or Go is _way_ over-hyped. I saw nothing special in the language at all, I have no idea what all the obsession is about lately.

</comment><comment><USER21> Thanks! Inspired by you, just wrote the Romanian translation for Python. Maybe I'll do Go next :)

Seriously thinking about writing the Django equivalent of Michael Hartl's tutorial for Rails. Intimidating as it's a lot of work, over 100k words. Any people would like this? I really could not find a Django/Python equivalent.

<comment><USER22> That would be awesome, I've found the existing Django tutorial rather wanting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is very well useful and very well done, may I suggest to keep things consistent and actually use the syntax /* */ for multi-line comments?

EDIT: Also "// x == 1 here." should be "// x == 2 here.", those are 3 iterations.

<comment><USER23> > I suggest to keep things consistent and actually use the syntax /* */ for > multi-line comments

Idiomatic Go code almost never uses multi-line comments, see: [http://golang.org/src/pkg/net/http/request.go](http://golang.org/src/pkg/net/http/request.go)

> Also "// x == 1 here." should be "// x == 2 here."

No, it's correct. := declares a new variable. The newly declared, inner x shadows the outer x only within the block scope of the for loop:

[http://play.golang.org/p/cP2dWyg0qw](http://play.golang.org/p/cP2dWyg0qw)

<comment><USER13> Yeah, right, I didn't see the external variable. I might as well go ahead and delete the comment :P

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Really great way of learning the overall concepts of Go, but that code should have been gofmt'd!

</comment><comment><USER25> I thought the comment "x == 1 here" could use a little more explanation (I figured it out, though, so maybe not.) I also found the function signatures confusing, especially the function with a local variable q that is nothing to do with its returned value q -- seems like a bit of a wart in Go. (Being able to assign return values vs. using return, as in Pascal, seems like an obvious reason to declare return values this way. Perhaps this feature exists but is not explained.)

</comment><comment><USER26> I think one of the string format examples missing the type formatter:

fmt.Println("it's a", i)

Should be something like:

fmt.Println("it's a %T", i)

See [http://golang.org/pkg/fmt/](http://golang.org/pkg/fmt/) for more options.

[update]

Forgot they allowed to send pull requests; done :)

<comment><USER14> Println does not take format strings. You're thinking of Printf.

<comment><USER26> Yup, forgot to edit that :-/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I really love this format. Such a nice document.

</comment><comment><USER27> I've been reading Chisnall's Phrasebook and Summerfield's Programming in Go books. Both are well done as far as descriptions of language features and standard lib go (covering 1.0), but are a little short on extended code examples.

And the usual amazon pricing: new $26, used $35.

</comment><comment><USER28> Does it bother anyone else that Go supports the GOTO statement? I would've thought GOTO an obvious construct to leave out when creating a new language, to protect programmers from themselves? (See Dijkstra on 'GOTO statement considered harmful')

</comment><comment><USER29>
        // If statements require brace brackets, and do not require parens.

Even if it is single line?

<comment><USER30> Yes, but you shouldn't ever see single-line _if_ s in go, because _gofmt_ forces all of them to be multi-line.

This is one of the strong points of go (whether you like it or hate it): _gofmt_ imposes the same formatting rules for everyone using the language. It's not a choice for you (or your project) to make. Period.

<comment><USER31> It's easy enough to never run gofmt, so there is still a choice. :) In fact, not running gofmt requires less effort than running it.

<comment><USER32> Not if you install the (excellent) GoSublime plugin in Sublime, it will run gofmt on every save.

<comment><USER31> Learning to use some newfangled editor and figuring out how to install plugins for it when the editor you've always used works just fine sounds like much more work than running gofmt. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Loved this. Can someone point to a relatively simple open source project written in Go that I can dig into to learn further?

</comment><comment><USER34> Hm, would it not be where x := Go?

</comment><comment><USER35> It's killing me that no one has made an APL version yet!

</comment><comment><USER36> Need for Clojure.

<comment><USER37> I believe they have one: [http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/clojure/](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/clojure/)</comment></comment>


SeL4 2.0 release notes - <AUTHOR> http://sel4.systems/pipermail/devel/2015-November/000603.html <comment><USER2> If you're wondering: [http://sel4.systems/](http://sel4.systems/)

> The world's first operating-system kernel with an end-to-end proof of > implementation correctness and security enforcement is available as open > source.</comment>


Jailed for $280: The return of debtors' prisons - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57417654/jailed-for-$280-the-return-of-debtors-prisons/

<comment><USER2> "Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit. "

<comment><USER3> A loophole that amounts to the same thing, as the article says.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I received a scam charge from a vapourous business without an office near an emergency room I received services from. It was for 30 dollars. I took the bill to the emergency room I went to and they said they don't recognize that bill and as far as they are concerned don't care if I pay it or not. I was unable to locate the address in the hospital.

And when I called the number they insisted I pay the bill. I went in circles with them trying to find out their association with any service rendered in the building I was in. Trying to reconcile the fact that the nice lady at finance dept at the emergency room doesn't recognize your business.

I could not make progress in reconciling the disagreement, so I told them that based on my analysis of the situation, you are scam artists, and I will not pay you anything. If you want to contest this, please coordinate with the nice lady at finance in the ER. Never heard from them again.

This was about 4 years ago at Waldo county general hospital in Maine. I never got anything in writing. It's scary I could have been jailed for that.</comment>


Ben "bushing" Byer has passed away - <AUTHOR> http://fail0verflow.com/ben <comment><USER2> Ben was the first person I met in the flesh in the Bay Area (we knew each other beforehand via efnet and a mutual open source project). He was the most brilliant reverse engineer / security researcher I've ever met, on a completely different level. He was also the connecting fabric between a diaspora of friends spread across the Bay Area and the web.

Ben, you will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow. I've been following bushing's work for a while and this is very saddening to hear. If you haven't seen bushing & marcan's "Wii Fail" presentation, I recommend it. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z81BCko- UY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z81BCko-UY)

<comment><USER4> Wow! After seeing the video and that his real name is Ben Byer, I think I went to high school with him. He looks somewhat different, but the voice sounds right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wow, this hits me like a punch to the stomach. I worked with bushing on a number of projects over the years, and I've rarely met a nicer, smarter hacker. He'll be missed greatly.

</comment><comment><USER6> I didn't know him before reading this, but I have followed and enjoyed fail0verflow's work. It is a very sad loss.

Edit: I actually realized who he is now, as I only knew of him by the name "bushing". A shame to see a great hacker go.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry to hear that. Bushing was awesome. Many of my IRC friends in the Nintendo DS hacking scene knew him well.

</comment><comment><USER8> These were the guys who found a crack in the PS3 encryption tower right ?

<comment><USER2> Ben was also instrumental in the Wii hacks, played a role in several iOS jailbreaks, and helped me reverse engineer the Second Life protocol.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I met him when he was visiting Vancouver a few years ago and had exchanged e-mails with him a few times. It's really sad to see him pass away.

<comment><USER10> Very sad. Wish I could have met him IRL then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So young, does anyone know why? Maybe that's a morbid question, and I am sorry for everyone's loss.

<comment><USER12> I didn't think someone so young could die of "natural causes", but apparently even dying from the flu or sudden heart failure qualifies as a natural cause: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes)

Ooof. Terrifying.

<comment><USER13> DVT is also considered a natural cause, and if you sit all day, you're at a higher propensity to die from it: [https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/deepveinthrombosis.html](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/deepveinthrombosis.html)

<comment><USER14> Developers really need to look after their health. Our sedentary lives are impacting our health:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11040932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11040932)

Hopefully, we'll soon figure out ways to monitor and measure our health. Then dying from natural causes will never happen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Never knew the guy personally, but he was certainly one of my inspirations. RIP. :(

</comment><comment><USER16> Wow. I only met him a few times, but I always hoped we would work together someday. He blew my mind talking about reversing.

</comment><comment><USER17> RIP Ben, you will be missed by one and all.</comment>


Show HN: Easiest UTM Tags Builder - <AUTHOR> https://utmbuilder.net <comment><USER2> Here's another one (shameless self-plug): [http://utmtag.com](http://utmtag.com)

We're trying to help with avoiding typos in marketing campaigns so that you get your reports nicely organized in Google Analytics.

</comment><comment><USER3> Would be nice to allow going back a step / modifying previously entered fields. Also keyboard navigation to progress is funky (entering a url, pressing tab and then space, closes the first tab in my Chrome browser).

</comment><comment><USER4> Completely fails to answer the question: WTF is a UTM tag? I'm assuming this is some sort SEO/advertising bullshit?

<comment><AUTHOR> UTM Tags are used to traffic sources and campaigns. Here is short write-up by KissMetrics about them [1]. It is less of SEO/advertising but more of tracking the efficacy of various marketing channels / campaigns.

[1]: [https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-use-utm- parameters/](https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-use-utm-parameters/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is Hacker News basically a debate club? - <AUTHOR> I've noticed that while HN is a great source of interesting articles, perhaps its greatest characteristic is the intricate debates that ensue.  It would seem that many of the qualities associated with good debate practice are the same as those expected in meaningful discussion on HN: point-by-point counter arguments, use of good sources, expectation of professional tone; in fact, there seems to be little that separates HN from an academic debate club. <comment><USER2> No. The default assumption is not disagreement. And disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing that forms the basis of academic debate is frowned upon.

Personally, I find point by point counter arguments to be a tedious form of flame warriorism...I call it "the internet pick apart". In my flame warrior days, it was an effective tactic because it opens many fronts and then allows cherry picking the weakest counter-counter arguments and as the chain develops jumping back up the ancestor tree to score flip flopping and inconsistency points by cherry picking previous answers...well and that sort of brings up another big difference, HN awards internet points mainly for intelligent comments and interesting submissions rather than for insulting others or telling them they are wrong.

Of course, here I am offering a counter argument. And that's a reason that meta-comments are mostly frowned upon as well...talking about HN, though intellectually interesting at times, is generally argumentative and hence unproductive.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Perusing over any random comment section to an HN post reveals that the vast majority of comments are made to dissent with another comment. Not all of them, certainly, but definitely a majority. That appears to be the debate culture at work, in my opinion.

But I understand your point about "meta" comments for HN. I think the occasional meta thought helps to add some perspective.</comment></comment>


Tesla's Model 3 Loses Coveted Consumer Reports Recommendation - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/02/teslas-model-3-loses-coveted-consumer-reports-recommendation/ <comment><USER2> Wide spread comments on how fit and finish were lacking. It could be attributed to growing pains but perhaps the real story is that Consumer Reports can take 3% off your market cap in a day.. yikes

</comment><comment><USER3> who would have thought that rushing assembly in a temporary factory extension would hit quality, right?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17437073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17437073)</comment>