Alarmed as Covid patients' blood thickened, New York doctors try new treatments - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-blood/alarmed-as-covid-patients-blood-thickened-new-york-doctors-try-new-treatments-idUSKCN22421Z <comment><USER2> My brother is an ER doc in a well-known facility, and he says this covid thing is freaking the everliving shit out of the front-line medical profession. This virus is just not behaving like a normal disease should.

The doctors who have been around long enough say that the feeling in the hospitals is just like the early days of AIDS. All you knew is that patients were dying from a disease that doesn't follow any of the normal rules, and nobody's sure why, and all the healthcare workers are nervous AF that they're going to get it too, but everyone is trying to be brave because the patients and family are scared out of their minds, and calm needs to start somewhere, right?

<comment><USER3> My close acquaintance on the front lines have expressed similar sentiments. This "vibe" you're describing is dead-on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> " The way his patients' blood congealed reminded him of congenital conditions such as lupus, or certain cancers."

Do Lupus sufferers take blood thinners?

The whole hydroxychloroquine debacle started from the observation that Lupus sufferers did not die from Coronavirus, and it was assumed the hydroxychloroquine was protecting them. Maybe blood thinners protected them?

<comment><USER5> >Do Lupus sufferers take blood thinners?

Not necessarily. People with a lupus anticoagulant[1] and a history of inappropriate thrombosis would.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> People keep talking about flattening the curve, which is important, but I think this kind of stuff is just as important. We're still trying to get an idea of what's even going on. The next couple months, I think, will see huge steps being taken in terms of how to treat this thing and keep people alive.

Right now if you can push back your infection date by even just a matter of weeks, you're probably improving your odds by a nontrivial amount.</comment>


The Non-Expert's Guide to the Mt. Gox Fiasco - <AUTHOR> http://www.coindesk.com/non-experts-guide-mt-gox-fiasco/ <comment><USER2> > The simple fact that it took Mt. Gox several years to realize that they were > missing 744,408 bitcoins, the equivalent of 6% of the world's supply of > bitcoin, worth 365 million dollars is mind-boggling.

I didn't realise they'd been missing for several years - is this true/proven? Does anyone have any other info on that?</comment>


Color_coded: Real-time semantic highlighting in vim with libclang - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jeaye/color_coded

<comment><USER2> This is one thing I would love to see in sublime text.

Isn't the name a bit vague though? "color_coded" could refer to anything, surely something that references clang directly would be more appropriate?

<comment><USER3> Syntax highlighting is a complex problem, because it needs to be fast enough, and the more token types you have, the longer it takes.

Each time you type a character, you have to parse the code (clang is used here), select the according color, and draw the text (often the OS will deal with this, and I don't know if you can tell an OS to just update one line of drawn code).

This is a vim plugin, and it's way easier to colorize text in a console environment than in a cross platform GUI window (not to mention UI text editors use a dedicated data structure, the rope: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_%28data_structure%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_%28data_structure%29) to make text editing responsive when using the mouse).

My guess is that sublime text completely shortcuts this problem by using webkit to draw its own text surface.

Anyway, it's another example of how competing windowing systems are inflexible and make things harder on the programmers, which often overcome the problem by avoiding the OS. Cross platform software programming is more than a philosophy or an art, it's a war against OS manufacturers. It's won by finding the easiest solution to make it work on all platforms.

In this case, you can clearly understand how making an editor with syntax highlighting requires many different things, so editing the colors and adding a language will greatly improve complexity.

My take is that one day someone will have the decency to just release an OS that just offer developers to use the hardware directly (or something like cairo) to draw even a simple window, without anything like Xorg, android, wayland, gnome, KDE, etc. The cost of coding something to display the results of your software is way too high when you want to do it the "mainstream way". I'm a little angry at Torvalds, not having tried to introduce something to build simpler GUI stuff.

So, in short, don't expect it to work on sublime text if the dev don't get involved. I guess it's possible since sublime text support scripting, but I wonder if it's possible to do it with decent performance. Even Sublime text start to hang a little when you have a large html file.

I was once very frustrated with text editors (always some missing feature, and I never accepted to switch to vim or emacs), so I tried to make my own, and I failed miserably and settled for what is already there. I still wonder if I can be more productive with vim, but if it becomes necessary to use it because a 11" laptop can't run an IDE, maybe I'll do the switch.

<comment><USER4> > Syntax highlighting is a complex problem, because it needs to be fast > enough, and the more token types you have, the longer it takes.

Yes, it scales with the number of tokens. Why wouldn't it? This isn't a problem. It's 2015, we have ~4GHz umptheenth core computers, we can do this in real-time.

> Each time you type a character, you have to parse the code (clang is used > here), select the according color, and draw the text

You seem to have no idea what is actually happening here. You don't need to rerun the whole parsing step at each character if your tool understands the language, only when you hit a token that changes the parser's state (so when you enter a paren, you're no longer typing an identifier, so now we need to reparse.) There are a huge number of ways to optimize this step from there, but I don't think anyone is actually employing any of them yet, either because they're too complicated or computers are just so fast we don't care (like maintaining a document AST and simply updating the nodes as they change around so you can get away with vastly simpler "reparses").

The actual layout and rendering of text is then done - each OS has their own text layout engine, and there's several open source ones (e.g. Mozilla and Blink/Webkit have their own text layout kits, Pango does it on GNOME, etc). Color highlighting is a part of text rendering, which happens next, which also every platform has it's own solution for (like, e.g. Cairo, an image compositing library, which uses FreeType, the Windows or Mac font rendering systems for rendering glyphs).

What should be colorized/bolded/treated as different is usually tracked by a set of span data structures (e.g. line number X, character Y to character Z should have this set of attributes applied).

> My guess is that sublime text completely shortcuts this problem by using > webkit to draw its own text surface.

Sublime Text implements its own editor widget. Here is the author noting some bits about it: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114) . Shipping Webkit is not an easy task, nor is it a small one in disk footprint. I'm not sure how you randomly came to the conclusion Webkit had to be involved.

The rest of your post seems as if it was generated by some kind of buzzword Markov Chain, so I'm ignoring it.

<comment><USER3> okay

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Doesn't seem to work in neovim currently, as lua support is being completely changed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right. This hasn't been tested in neovim at all. I can add that to the readme to save people some time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> On the off chance that Jeaye is still reading. How do i get it to work with Objective C? I tried:

-x objective-c

Nothing for CCerror. `make run` with the .cpp sample works.

</comment><comment><USER7> Really wish projects like this and YCM would stop including most of Boost and provide an option to use the installed system version instead.

<comment><AUTHOR> With the annoying number of systems that don't have boost installed, such projects are forced to accommodate (by shipping with their own). After the accommodations are made, there's little reason to allow for the usage of the system's boost.

Similarly, color_coded downloads its own clang. Why?

1) People may not have clang installed (like boost) 2) (more importantly) color_coded is tested and proven to work with a specific version; it's more portable this way

If we suddenly allow users to use system-level boost and clang and foobar implementations instead of that which we ship, we're also opening a can of worms for incompatibilities. The amount of coverage that needs to be tested grows surprisingly quickly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Thank you for your work on this! I will surely give it a try.

</comment><comment><USER9> Will be great to have something like this in Emacs.

<comment><AUTHOR> After looking, I'm astonished that this doesn't exist in Emacs. There is a completion plugin using libclang; maybe the highlighting could just be added into it.

On vim's side, YouCompleteMe explicitly denied my approach to integrate highlighting.

<comment><USER10> I hacked together something to add at least #ifdef highlighting* to YouCompleteMe. It's not quite ready to share due to some bugs, but I'm planning to release it as a patch / friendly fork when I find some time.

I believe there's no reason to have two plugins each running an instance of clang.

* i.e. showing parts of code that are ifdef'ed out in grey

<comment><USER11> it would be nice if it could hook into YCM's config file instead of needing a separate one, when available.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that's something I considered from the start. The issue is that, in order for that to work reliably, color_coded would basically need an embedded Python interpreter.

YCM's config file can contain arbitrary python functions and doesn't really need to follow any standards. This makes it hard on color_coded and ultimately didn't seem worth the trouble.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> sigh. yet another plugin that uses more files then a simple plugins/x.vim that has no manual installation instructions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Did you look at the 200 line readme, specifically the part labeled "Installation"?

<comment><USER12> yes i did. the 'generic' install is using pathogen or vundle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Isn't that like HDevTools for C++?

Neat.

</comment><comment><USER14> That is awesome. I am going to give that a shot today.</comment>


Core War Tournament – Spring 2014 - <AUTHOR> http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/33835/Core-War-Tournament-Spring-2014/

<comment><USER2> Timing of this tournament cannot be worse for University of Cambridge computer science undergraduates given the examinations start on the 2nd of June.

<comment><AUTHOR> But you're entering anyway... ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> That museum, and the adjacent Station X Bletchley Park are somewhere I am really longing to visit. Anyone been?

I remember corewars... It was old when I started playing and making genetic programming entries for it :). My algos never beat the humans though.

<comment><AUTHOR> The museum is not adjacent to Bletchley; Cambridge is about 40 miles away. You might be thinking of The National Museum of Computing which is on the Bletchley Park campus, but the Centre for Computing History is a different concern entirely.

But they're all worth a visit. :)

<comment><USER4> There are also a couple of other computer museums open to the public in the UK, one in Swansea, the other in Leicester. I think there's also one in York which you can visit by appointment only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> deadline for entering is already past :-(

<comment><USER4> Not if you take your entry to the museum on the day.

<comment><USER5> Are you going? I just wonder if it might be possible to send a delegate :-) I can not make it in person, but perhaps somebody could take my submission?

Not that I have anything ready yet, so I probably wouldn't come up with a great warrior in the short time. But it seems a shame to miss it.

<comment><USER4> I'll be there (I'm one of the organisers). If you send your program to the email on the tournament page ([http://corewar.co.uk/spring2014.htm](http://corewar.co.uk/spring2014.htm)) before 23:59 GMT on 29th May I'll make sure it takes part. After that, I probably won't have net access for a couple of day.

The same offer applies to anyone else who missed the deadline.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for the offer. I only read it at 23:45pm because I am traveling. Too bad - but anyway, it's great that you organize it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who/What is first to read new posts on HN from Palm Beach Gardens? - <AUTHOR> Every single time I post something with tracking to HN, invariably, the first hit is coming from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Anyone have an idea? <comment><USER2> Who owns the domain that is hitting you?</comment>


Paul Kedrosky: Go ... Elsewhere, Young Man - <AUTHOR> http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2008/07/08/go_elsewhere_yo.html <comment><USER2> Ah, geographical market timing. It's like trying to time the stock market, only with less liquidity!

You know, sometimes Tim Ferriss gets things right. For example, he once wrote:

 _What if you need to learn to do something your friends haven't done? ... If the task is how-to in nature, I only read accounts that are "how I did it" and autobiographical. No speculators or wannabes are worth the time._

Has Paul Kedrosky, resident of La Jolla, CA, ever even _been_ in Brazil for more than a week, much less tried to get a job or start a company there? He conspicuously fails to say so.

I remember the last news.yc item like this: It was about Dubai. And, wonder of wonders, Kedrosky's sly commenters have already posted the link that threw cold water on _that_ idea: "The Top 20 Reasons Not To Move To Dubai":

[http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/94/art_20_Reasons_Not_Move_...](http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/94/art_20_Reasons_Not_Move_to_Dubai.html)

A good principle: Before moving anywhere, find a "Top 20 Reasons Not To Move To X" article and make sure you're okay with it. (The first item on Boston's list is probably "snow"... unless you're a news.yc reader, in which case it's probably "Boston is not near Palo Alto". )

</comment><comment><USER3> _In the spirit of full disclosure, where would I go? Brazil. While I'm painfully aware of the many problems -- infrastructure, crime, capital, corruption, etc. -- that the country still has, I love the dynamism, growth, optimism (mostly -- see my trip notes for more), etc. And it doesn't hurt that the economic numbers are generally good too, with some exceptions._

I have thought about this a bit, and disagree. Going where there are problems that have been solved elsewhere is counterproductive. Something I think about frequently is "when is the US going to have real public transportation, like Japan". I think that's basically never going to happen, so the solution is not to stay here and try and fix it; you'll waste your whole life. The solution is to move to Japan where they've already solved this problem.

In his example, he mentions Brazil's problems: infrastructure, crime, capital, corruption, and so on. Do you really want to be distracted from your real work by crime and lack of infrastructure? Do you really want to be distracted from your real work by trying to fix an _entire society_? You just aren't going to do it. Go somewhere where these problems have been solved, so you can use your brainpower to solve _new_ problems.

I think this is the same reason tech startups want to be in San Francisco; the problem of finding like-minded people has already been solved. Sure, I could try meeting technical folks in Chicago, but there just aren't many of us. Why try and fail to solve this problem when there are other things to worry about?

<comment><USER4> Some of my father's friends live in Rio de Janeiro and when there is a robbery - it's not like in the States - they rob all of the customers too - they lock the doors of the supermarket and demand the purses and wallets of everyone. It's happened to them several times.

Makes me double-think about living down in Latin/South America - many things I assume/take for granted (like being able to drink clean tap water) sometimes don't exist in second/third-world countries

<comment><USER5> The robbers must have seen Pulp Fiction ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you're willing to forego working with your brain in favor of physical labor, western Canada is probably one of the few places in the world that you can make a 6 digit income right out of high school.

<comment><USER7> And Western Australia is another.

<comment><USER8> Details on each?

Western Canada is housing construction and oil, right? Calgary?

<comment><USER6> Oil, natural resources in general, driving construction like you said. Saskatchewan (to the east of Alberta) has some oil, but also has the world's largest supply of potash, the price of which has tripled over the last few years. And British Columbia to the west has the 2010 Winter Olympics driving construction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Culture, law and basic infrastructure matter more than some of us realize. If you are waiting in line for half a day to pay your utility bills or if things, a lot of us take for granted, such as sewers and potable water are not available then its not worth it.

Sure, entrepreneurs succeed in any environment but fighting against the environment is not the only problem that should be taking up an entrepreneurs resources.

</comment><comment><USER10> I don't know if that's great advice business wise, but if I look at my life, moving to Italy was the source of a huge amount of growth and learning. I also met and married an intelligent, beautiful woman there, which helps me stay positive even as Italy itself gently decays.

</comment><comment><USER11> It goes against fashion these days, but I reckon it's still the USA. Anyway, I would go to Cambridge, MA.

</comment><comment><USER12> Much of South America looks promising. I'd probably avoid Brazil and head to Argentina though, the world's spanish speaking market is huge.

<comment><USER13> You'd be best off in Santiago, IMO. Lower taxes, little/no corruption, lower crime, etc. Not a bad place from which to serve the Spanish-speaking market. Keep in mind, though, that SV is still a better place to be.

<comment><USER14> Santiago is more expensive, but you're otherwise correct.

<comment><USER12> ...and has terrible pollution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> But don't jog there, because you'll be less likely to pass a Starbucks with a bathroom.</comment>


Do children actually learn using educational apps? - <AUTHOR>

Hi, I'm wondering if any developers or others out there know of research on the effectiveness of educational apps.  Do children who use these apps actually learn from them?  I'm especially interested in the use of educational apps with young children (ages 3-7) and apps that teach content on he basic relational concepts (e.g., top/bottom, more/less, beginning/end, in/out, left/right, etc.).  Any information would be greatly appreciated! <comment><USER2> Learning is one thing, but do not underestimate the effect of practice. I made an addition pyramids game for my seven and nine year old girls (Android) and promised them a reward when they completed it (200+ levels, some 20 hours in total, progressively harder). After this my girls are able to do three digit additions in their heads without any major problems. Which means their "addition practice" homework from school has become useless. Which is a good thing I guess.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm not sure about apps, since I'm too old ( grew up with DOS and Win95), but I know that I learned more about history and geography from playing strategy games on the computer than I ever did in school. Civilization, Lords of the Realm, Panzer General, Close Combat, Civil War Generals

</comment><comment><USER4> I must admit, my children (girl 5yrs and boy 3yrs) learned a bit with apps. Two good examples are animal names and sounds (for ages <2, and games with rules or strategies for >2 (mplus point for games like memory, because the child can't cheat, and develops quite fast his/her own strategy for efficient problem-solving).</comment>


That Buzzing Sound - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/09/090209fa_fact_groopman <comment><USER2> I found the article interesting - thank you - but I'm a little confused as to why it's here on Hacker News. I'm comparatively new here - 75 days - and I'm frequently perplexed by the choices of articles.

You've been around 10x longer than I, and have much more karma. Why is this of relevance to hackers?

Please help me to understand.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the Hacker News Guidelines provides the best answer to your question:

        On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than
        hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be:
        anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html></comment></comment>


Linus Torvalds on Google+ - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts

<comment><USER2> I read this headline to mean "Linus Torvalds' thoughts on Google+" which led me to expect a usenet or blog post. Rather, this appears to be his personal page on Google+.

If possible, could the title please be revised to something more descriptive like "Linus Torvalds' profile page on Google+"

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen a photo of Linus. Not how I imagined him at all. So... normal. I always imagined him with a Stallman beard.

<comment><USER4> Not only does Linus lack a proper Unix beard, I didn't see a single Unix beard (and only one beard of any kind) among any of the people in his public circles.

Also no beards among the people who have Linus in their circles.

<comment><USER5> Don't worry, Alan Cox will be along eventually to make up for it.

<http://www.google.com/images?q=alan+cox+linux></comment></comment></comment>


College is Overrated - <AUTHOR> http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2010/11/10/higher-education-is-overrated/

<comment><USER2> 'College is overrated' is usually said by someone who became successful (I know, we can debate what 'successful' is, but I think everyone on HN can agree on a somewhat similar definition) without a degree or with a degree and then looks back and thinks they could have been successful 4 years sooner if they didn't waste time getting the degree. The problem with the statement, even if it 100% correct in their situation, is that it is not overrated in a lot of other situations.

I'll agree that there are a lot of degrees that have a low benefit to cost & time ratio (liberal arts, political science, etc.) where the statement probably applies well, but it is inaccurate for professions like medical doctors, electrical engineers, nuclear physicists, lawyers, and similar specializations.

<comment><USER3> Not too sound biased as a pol sci degree holder but I think people grossly underestimate political science as a major.

<comment><USER4> It's "to," man! I thought that degree was supposed to provide you with some writin' skillz?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> With the number of articles and comments on this topic, I think college is starting to become _under_ rated around here.

</comment><comment><USER6> The reason Obama, Bill Gates, et all promote college is because there's a huge difference between a Google and a Facebook--not to underestimate the latter. And notice that they more likely usually promote STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math), not just any college.

Could Brin/Page or anyone, for that matter, have come up with a Google without finishing an undergrad degree in CS and some graduate Studies at a school like Stanford? Very unlikely. Google required a bit more than creativity. It required great hacking and also knowledge of the complexity in information retrieval problems which you didn't get back then with online lectures (what lectures?) on dial-up, etc.

Meanwhile, Facebook as great as a company that it is, mostly borrowed ideas and tweaked them a bit with "exclusivity," a clean design, etc. Not saying that isn't admirable, but yes, it doesn't require graduate level work, just creativity and a lot of hard work to get jumpstarted. And I bet Zuckerberg didn't start hiring high school dropouts/grads to help him scale his site, etc. Surely there were a few, but I doubt they accounted for many.

So if you want to build the next Facebook, you better be hard-working, smart, and creative.

If you want to build the next Google, you better be that and learn about the next challenges in machine learning, information retrieval, data parallelism, etc. And that more than likely requires that you learn it from the experts-- ie, more than likely not your average college/high school dropout.

</comment><comment><USER7> Every time I walk out of class at uni, I keep thinking about this "You dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fucking education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late charges at the public library. - Will from Good Will Hunting

</comment><comment><USER8> I agree completely that college is completely overrated, but only regarding its ability a to create a successful professional. I think everyone should get at least a bachelors degree in their life on whatever field they are interested in, but they should do so because of a drive to expand their knowledge instead of making a degree a proverbial stepping stone to great-dom.

That being said, if you have the determination, patience, and drive to extract such education yourself by means of books, practice, and mentors, why should you not be allowed to become a Doctor, a Nuclear Physicist, or an Architect?

Our educational system is broken, a degree doesn't mean scoot, and everyone should be able to take a test (of various tests actually) to prove that he posses the skills and knowledge to do a job. I understand not letting a 20 year old operate on a patient because he passed an exam, but if the kid passed a standardized exam that proves he has the knowledge and capability to become a resident, why shouldn't he be able to? The same applies to all careers that are potentially 'dangerous', the requirements should be simple, pass an exam and get some experience under a mentor (via an internship, paid or unpaid).

<comment><USER9> I definitely agree with your statements, and I think this is in line with the mission of Skillshare, the author's new startup. People should be learning for the sake of learning! We need to rework our terminology when it comes to speaking about the value of an education; we should be thinking in terms of learning, not economics.

By the way, if you guys are really into the topic, then you should check out Skillshare's latest project on Kickstarter, an animated video (one of those kinetic typography types) about the impending Student Loan Crisis: <http://kck.st/d0MG8o>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> College is a time for exploring the expanses of human knowledge, the beauty of human relationships, and the depths of the human soul (1).

I can think of no other social construct or institution that provides as many broad avenues for personal growth as college (2). Children are limited by their lack of sufficient socialization, professionals and laborers are obligated to focus constantly if not narrowly, and those who have committed to marriage or parenthood pour energy into their loved ones.

College is not life's panacea, nor, I hope, is it the best time of your life, but it certainly can be more than just a bad bet.

(1) Let's not forget bottles, bongs, bottoms, and beats.

(2) There are plenty of alternatives for the intrepid.

</comment><comment><USER11> I just want to point out my own (different) experience with college. College was a life changing experience for me. I went there to learn and get as much out of it as possible. And I did! It definitely was not overrated for me.

So college might be suited for some people, and not others. But just because it doesn't suit some people, it doesn't mean that the statement 'College is overrated' is true per se.

</comment><comment><USER12> Reading the article it seems like a big advertisement for his startup. Collage isn't overrated, people yammering about collage being overrated are usually the ones that didn't go and don't understand that nearly all students go to it because they want to learn more from brighter minds about what they love.

</comment><comment><USER13> Becoming a well rounded human being has definitely become underrated. College isn't just for votech. It's where you learn all the civilization stuff that locates you in the human family.

</comment><comment><USER14> _College is completely overrated. We need to debunk the myth that a college degree leads to success. It doesn't lead to a higher salary or better career._

Well, it can. Though to me college is mostly my gateway to the careers I think I will enjoy and the knowledge & skills I desire.

<comment><USER15> If I hadn't gone to college, I would have ended up in a dead-end janitorial or factory job, stuck in a small town and never have been exposed to fine arts and web development.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> At this rate, there will surely come a time where college will be underrated.

</comment><comment><USER17> Whether or not he's right, this particular guy should've taken a couple more writing classes while he had the chance.</comment>


Why wreck a blank canvas? - <AUTHOR> http://sivers.org/blank <comment><USER2> Study enough information theory, and it will start seeming obvious on a gut level that a library containing all possible books has less information in it than a library containing one book.

<comment><USER3> Can you expand on this please, so I don't clutter my own personal bookshelf (so to speak)?

<comment><USER4> I'm not well-versed in information theory, so this may be a misinterpretation. But this strikes me as a beautiful truth that rewards careful pondering.

A library containing all possible books may contain all the gems of knowledge in the world, but it also contains far more nonsense: Books full of random letters that mean nothing, as well as real books with changes made to them, both unnoticeable and noticeable. Such a library, though containing all information, would not contain any information about which books contain real information and which do not. A single real book, though, while it may contain factual errors, can at least be guaranteed to contain the beliefs and assumptions of its author, which is more than you can say about the infinite library.

Look at it this way: an infinite list of strings containing all possible strings (or even a finite list of strings containing all possible strings shorter than a given length) contains less information than a program or essay that I wrote, because the infinite list gives no indication about which strings are "important", "informational" or "useful", while my one essay or program contains concise, easily-extractable information intended for a particular purpose.

One more example, just for fun: Imagine I'm a stupid bank robber who keeps all the plans for my heists and the names of my partners in one Word document on my hard drive. If the police arrest me, they have enough information to send me and my partners to jail. However, imagine that I've written a program that makes a million copies of my secret plan and changes the names and locations inside all of the copies to random values. Now, if I get caught, without knowing which document is real and which are fake, the authorities don't have any useful information.

<comment><USER5> "Such a library, though containing all information, would not contain any information about which books contain real information and which do not."

Actually, by definition, it would contain that information. But you have the same problem finding it.

<comment><USER6> And it would also contain an infinite number of books which claim to list which books contain real information, but actually contain some titles that contain nonsense & lies and/or are missing some titles that contain real information. So the chance of you finding a fake information-listings book is far greater than you finding the real one.

<comment><USER5> So in other words, you have the same problem finding it?

<comment><USER6> Hmm, sorry. I thought you were referring to the book being difficult to find because it would be mixed in with an infinite number of other books, not specifically that there would be an infinite number of fake versions of that book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So.. we should just think about doing our work and not actually do it. Because imagining, and not reaching the finished product, is the most fun? Uh.. right.

I like the implementation in his house, but it doesn't apply to business or creating things. In some ways, what he's done is created something by creating nothing - but very rarely does that occur elsewhere.

<comment><USER8> I think you might have missed his humor. It was his way of getting you to imagine something and then create it.

Translating it to be a bit more explicit...

The blank page starts with unlimited potential. But each word you add reduces its possibilities.

Same thing with that business idea you've had forever.

Or that beautiful person you haven't spoken with.

      <sarcasm>
      So maybe you should just leave them in your imagination, where they're at their best.
      </sarcasm>

OR...

MAYBE...

The one thing that would be even better is if you...

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> this is why I submitted my YC application without filling in a single field

<comment><USER10> Hell I took it a step further - I didn't even submit mine.

<comment><USER11> I thought about mine a lot though. It was awesome in my imagination.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Awesome, awesome post. The great Ze Frank has a similar video [1] where he calls this "brain crack" (because your mind is addicted to the idea more than what you actually accomplish...or don't accomplish).

[1] <http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/071106.html>

</comment><comment><USER12> Reminds me of John Cage's 4'33", a composition where no notes are played and instead the audience is expected to observe the sounds of the environment.

<comment><USER13> It's funny you should bring that up...

My wife and I visited the Guggenheim a number of years ago, and came across Robert Rauschenberg's "White Paintings", which even as I am a fan of minimalism, seemed kind of silly. All the while, we decided that we would one day duplicate the paintings for our own house. If it's good enough for the Guggenheim...

A year or so later, we bought four canvases, some gesso and some white paint, and made four white paintings, and upon hanging them up, found that it actually looked really nice. We did some research on the original "White Paintings" series, and discovered that John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg were friends, and that 4'33" was "a direct response" to the White Paintings.

<http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/audio/aop_tour_404>

It was doubly cool because while I've worked in the visual arts, my wife is a composer. These seemingly silly paintings have come with us to our new house, and hang in the living room, and I'm quite fond of them, even though they required fairly minimal effort for my wife and I to create. Hooray for minimalism!

<comment><USER14> I think you should add an old-fashioned victrola underneath the paintings, constantly playing 4'33".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> But then, google "creativity constraints" and see how many people talk about using constraints to foster creativity.

<comment><USER16> By imposing every possible constraint, not being able to do anything, you can, ironically, achieve unlimited potential.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Because you end up spending your life with no memories other than a blank canvas, and because you won't stay alive with only a blank canvas.

"Happiness is only realized when it is shared." Communicating ideas without a few wrecked canvases never works.

As far as i know, most artists continuously start with blank canvases. The "wrecked" ones are the ones everyone buys to help the artist eat.

</comment><comment><USER18> Frank Stella said (during a 1964 radio interview): "I knew a wise-guy who used to make fun of my painting, but he didn't like the Abstract Expressionists either. He said they would be good painters if they could only keep the paint as good as it is in the can. And that's what I tried to do. I tried to keep the paint as good as it was in the can."</comment>


Tell HN: So, about that design thread... - <AUTHOR>

A while back, I published a post on here complaining about designers in general, saying that they seemed to either be lacking professionally or producing poor work: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=955918
As you can see, I received a large amount of contact information for designers, and I was a bit overwhelmed by the choices. (Though, you might have to scroll down a bit; Chris_G derailed the thread a bit with his "NO U" post.)
I went ahead and hired Ole Martin: http://piraja.no
I've nothing but good things to say about the overall process. He was very quick in getting back to me with rates (which were reasonable, but in Euros) and progress. While he was able to maintain professionalism, the work was fantastic.
You can see the finished result here for our next startup:
http://piraja.no/dev/MTA/live/1/index.html
I definitely recommend him to anyone, and I'll most certainly be using him in the future. <comment><USER2> My single concern is the design's overall lack of contrast. Sure it LOOKS beautiful, but it is very flat and muted. It is hard to separate content from links etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> So, what were the rates?

<comment><AUTHOR> €80/hour</comment></comment>


Matt Lieberman's Social: Why our brains are wired to connect - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307889092

<comment><AUTHOR> This book contains research that measures activity in the regions of the brain during social activities. For example, rejection registers in the same brain region as physical pain and except it can be more intense.

Also he reports that kids who have trouble with a subject are able to learn it if they are made to teach it. Teaching engages our social brain while studying a dry topic does not.

In programming, pair programming, seems like a way of engaging the social regions of the brain to do the programming work.

Are there other techniques people use to engage social brain regions in programming?

Do you see the compiler or the computer as a person for example?</comment>


Ask HN: How do I make sense of this counter-intuitive resume/CV advice? - <AUTHOR>

I currently feel like I'm stuck in the CV-advice-from-hell-hamster-wheel and need some perspective from the tech community, if for nothing else than to save my sanity :)
One piece of resume advice that I see often repeated is "Don't use personal pronouns in resumes".  Yet for the life of me I can't understand how this rule came about and nobody seems to be able to give a clear explanation beyond "it's unprofessional".  Okay, but why?
Any hiring managers want to chime in on this? If you've seen such an offending resume, what exactly was your thought process? If you ever rejected a resume because of the word 'I', why so? What impression did it give you of the resume?
Besides that, what resume advice do you see floating out there that you actually feel is good? What about advice that is out there that's outdated? Coming from a small company / start-up hiring manager's perspective? I'd love to hear some thoughts. <comment><USER2> I like the advice proffered by Ask The Headhunter: [http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/habuildvalue.htm](http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/habuildvalue.htm) and Liz Ryan: (pdf) [http://www.humanworkplace.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/11/Wha...](http://www.humanworkplace.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/11/What-is-a-Pain-Letter-and-What-is-a-Human-Voiced- Resume.pdf) myself.

Note I am a hiring manager for a small tech team outside the startup space.</comment>


Are you running Windows XP? - <AUTHOR> http://amirunningxp.com/

<comment><USER2> No, but the page loads so slowly it brings memories of dialup. (What is it with 20 MB backgrounds anyway?)</comment>


Why you should not use AngularJs - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mnemon1ck/why-you-should-not-use-angularjs-1df5ddf6fc99 <comment><USER3> I am working on a large app based on angular (not my decision - I voted against it :)), and felt many pain points already, from poor design overall, to crappy extensions most of the currents apps are using.

It Kinda reminds me whole Wordpress thing. Really subpar codebase - but at the same time very easy to make simple things, and as a result - a lot of popularity. And this comes not as surprise to see so many blog posts comparing Angular to jQuery...

But perhaps this bothers me the most - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VsStcCCM8#t=745](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VsStcCCM8#t=745)

Guy behind framework openly admits he did not really pay attention to what other frameworks were doing (and Ember used to be Sproutcore and went through similar observe-loop pains in the past.) He just transferred his Java-server- side-MVC experience ($scope/$context - these are very distinct server-side MVC concepts) as is to the browser, which, as turned out, not quite well suited for long living in-browser apps..

And then whole dependency/packaging mess. There were already solution and tooling in place for AMD - but he decided to reinvent it, and as a result integrating any serious building process is a pain (i am not talking about 1 page apps here, i am talking about apps with 10Mb of JS code bases.)

While this all workable, and this is what I do at my day job, this should not be necessary. I call it "bullshit job" just like many "create report" type of jobs - where no real value is created.

If you know 100% that your app will never grow outside small prototype - <USER2> for it, otherwise either have plan in place to redo your app in sane framework, or do your app in sane framework from the start.

<comment><USER4> What would be a sane framework? Every one of them seems to have many pain points, and every other developper tells you should use X instead of Y because Z.

<comment><USER3> I specifically did not mention any names to not trigger flamewar. And mentioned Ember only in relation to the video.

For me personally it is Backbone (very minimal skeleton-like framework), view/binding library I like today (and can switch tomorrow) and routing I probably write myself for specific use case.

If this is too "low-level", next what I will check in "higher level" framework - as least "magic" as possible - i.e. explicit getters and setters with current state of Ecmascript, clear rules on how and when rendering happens, debuggable views (which often means views being compiled into JS.), being able to split large application in pieces which get loaded on demand without hacking/monkey-patching framework, being able to use jQuery if I want to, and not include it if I don't need it.

Sorry, no specific answer to your question, as I think it is problem specific, and even Angular can be used in some limited cases as it turned out.

<comment><USER5> > debuggable views

One thing I've found while doing Android dev is that views should exist as an immutable collection of state (POJO in Java), and there should be some mechanism to inflate a view from that state. I'm not sure how Angular or Backbone deal with this, but that switch simplified the logic a great deal and made testing straightforward.

<comment><USER3> this is idea behind handlebars templating - ideally, no logic whatsoever and you just supply object with data to render. But in reality it gets more complicated than that and sometimes you need to debug templates too. Unfortunately, debugging angular templates is pretty much hell (mostly because of all the "magic").

<comment><USER5> The way Square's library Mortar handles it in Android is that you essentially have a Model-View Model-View-Presenter sort of situation, where your View Model is JUST your data, your View is JUST the view logic, and the Presenter takes care of knowing how to inflate/deflate the view. It's pretty clean if your design is clean but can get hairy easily if it isn't; that's a feature not a bug for me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> After ~1 yr of experience with Angular, I have to say I fully agree. Debugging is a pain, for a start, and so is delving into the source code. Plus, it's incredibly complex and opinionated and still it leaves it really easy to slip into really poor practices and untestable code (observe the complexity and verbosity of this best practice guide: [https://github.com/mgechev/angularjs- style-guide](https://github.com/mgechev/angularjs-style-guide)). The real deal breaker is, however, performance in complex pages.

I much prefer to write my own controllers and models and use Reactjs for the views.

</comment><comment><USER7> To be honest, this article is pretty poor, and even demonstrates the lack of understanding of Angular the author has.

The databinding capabilities is said to be at 8000+ watchers now, although not all watchers are equal. A lot of performance improvements have been made since 2-3 years ago when that post was made about the watchers, which is where that oft poorly quoted 2000 watcher number originates from.

The two way databinding complaints miss the mark - the point of them in directives was to mimic eencapsulation and what is now being known as the we component spec. Web Components are essentially what Angular directives were meant to be in absence of an official spec for browsers to implement. The point of two way databinding in inputs also are for encapsulating logic for each component.

The comments about ng-cloak and ng-bind were also flat out incorrect.

I think most of all, the author doesn't understand context - Angular was conceived during a different time for frontend, and at a different time with browser support. Five years is a long time to last in the frontend world currently, and that it will likely last at least 3 years more is surprising for a framework that has changed frontend development for the better overall.

Angular is obviously not perfect, and the core team members are quick to point out flaws in approach, or solutions that were good at the time but don't make sense going forward due to changes in the browser environment or other technologies solving problems that Angular had to solve, such as with Object.observe, ES6 modules, and ES6 promises.

I have built & architected many Angular apps over the past two years, some being very complex due to the problem space. I have found Angular to be perfectly suited to the task, and snappy to boot. I have seen very few perf problems where I could not fix them with a little work - the only one that was too difficult was dealing with editable tables with lots of data in older browsers (IE8 - 10), and I believe I could have tackled it, but I was playing more of an advisor role to another developer, and these sort of problems usually require the engineer working on the problem to understand the nuances of the code itself.

<comment><USER8> Additionally, if you have even 2000 data bindings onscreen at once, your users are likely going to be looking at too much information no matter how snappy your UI is. The more info your $watch has to deal with, the more info your users have to expect to change.

The more you want to throw on a page (say for infinite scrolling), not surprisingly, the more you'll have to be careful about how you do it. The benefit with Angular has always been that it brings the difficulty of every task down a notch or two and limits your cognitive load, very much due to its design. You still have to design your page and architect your data.

To be honest, after three years with the product, I still think Angular (1.x) was 10 years ahead of its time.

I've also come to a realization about Angular 2.0 as well: how many people are still using Windows XP? It's almost 4 versions behind, and closed-source to boot. I (as many others did) jumped all-too-quickly to the conclusion that I _had_ to switch to version 2.0 when it came out. That's simply not the case.

Heck, even Microsoft seems to get every other version wrong. Maybe Angular 3.0 will be the time to switch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> While I'd be the first to agree that Angular does a bunch of things I think are a bit crazy, articles like this don't really move the needle for me. The author doesn't like the design of Angular and feels it isn't efficient enough. OK, that's OK! However, there's not some massive conspiracy here - go ahead, use React/Ember. In my own experience, Angular is performant enough for most web applications, and the convenience the framework offers makes up for a lot of the crazy, weird things it does to achieve that API.

But to each his own.

<comment><USER6> "there's not some massive conspiracy here - go ahead, use React/Ember" I wish it were the case; whilst for my own projects I certainly follow such advice, I've found that in industrial settings Angular is seen like a framework that delivers quickly and "if you don't like it probably you don't understand it", and therefore trying to oppose its choice raises eyebrows ("ah you want to bill us more days", or "duh! our consultant wants us to make exotic||obsolete choices"), more than it triggers any objective discussion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Takes all sorts. I put in some time at an office where the team struggled immensely with Ember but found Angular much easier to pick up and produce results with.

The scaling thing is just one of the hurdles you have to manage in this framework. Every system has them. Once you learn where the limits are the tools exist to manage it:

[https://www.exratione.com/2013/12/considering-speed-and- slow...](https://www.exratione.com/2013/12/considering-speed-and-slowness-in- angularjs/)

Like all frameworks, Angular isn't suited to every task. If you are rendering massive tables, to pick the obvious example, then you probably shouldn't be using any of the modern binding-based frameworks for that part of your application.

</comment><comment><USER11> > There is a fundamental rule in programming, it relates to absolutely any > technology or language, this rule says that explicit is always better that > implicit.

Is this a fundamental rule? I thought it was something highly valued by python culture but not by, say, ruby on rails.

<comment><USER12> Yes it is. That's why explicit memory management is still the standard today and implicit memory management with garbage collectors will never lead to understandable or maintainable systems.

<comment><USER13> more realistically:

app.php

       <?php
        // logic and state here

        include 'some_other.php' // modifies or adds state in unknown ways

        // more logic

        $some_variable = 3; // does the include below depend on this? who knows.

        include 'yet_another.php' // expects state, who knows what
                                 // also modifies state

        echo $state; // not sure if we can remove/replace any of those includes and this will be as expected.

       ?>

The includes are being used like sloppily defined function calls which do a muddled combination of rendering and state modification.

The same can be found in Rails in partials.

Also, in Rails, helpers are essentially crippled presenters that have access to lots of effectively global state and thus cannot be reused.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't know if I agree with everything that this post says, but I do agree with the bit about two way data-binding being a problem. Two way data-binding definitely gives a "Wow that was easy" impression in a tutorial app or something not too complex, but once you get into the realm of a seriously complex app, it becomes an anti-pattern. You _need_ to know which direction the data is flowing and in many situations there can _not_ be two sources of truth that are always in sync with each other. I'm working with Ember and I'm really glad that they are moving away from using two way data binding by default.

</comment><comment><USER15> never tried it. AngularJS gave me a strong feeling of j2ee, bold, tons of reinvetions of old concepts. most of all, the authors are from google which never shipped a high quality Js/browser based product. except the original gmail.

the only problem i have with this article is: i wrote a hatre comment on angularjs about 8 months ago and got downvoted heavily, but this one just keeps earning points!

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting post, not sure I agree that the points raised mean AngularJs is a bad choice. Consider first objection - two way binding. Not only there are user-space solutions (bindonce), but now there is standard one-way binding in ng v1.3.

The Angular does nice job allowing simple interactive apps to be written in 30 minutes by anyone familiar with HTML and JavaScript. At the same time, if the app performs what is needed by the client, the app can be profiles, and each bottleneck can be optimized in a couple of steps.

For example, we went through this process and described the steps we used in [http://bahmutov.calepin.co/improving-angular-web-app- perform...](http://bahmutov.calepin.co/improving-angular-web-app-performance- example.html)

</comment><comment><USER17> I am not a good front end developer, however I think something like Angular is very useful to a frontend noob like me, I remember my old Jquery days, it is much easier to write modular code in Angular. You just have a template, and its controller. Easy! (For not very complicated things ofc) It might be better in other frameworks, I agree the docs are somewhat confusing, I still confuse provider-service-factory however as I said, it simplifies most of my development, and my medium sized web app runs very smoothly with Angular

<comment><USER18> "a frontend noob like me, I remember my old Jquery days,"

I'm not sure how a frontend noob can have "old jquery days"! Not sure a comparison with jquery is needed. They're different enough, or do some people actually consider using Angular a "step up from" Angular? That would be funny.

Personally I prefer the cross browser/device performance benefit of jquery even for a medium sized app. Potential growth of the app's frontend needs can be met with jquery. It runs quick I've noticed even when it has a ton of work both initially and dynamically. I've thrown a lot at it, too much, and Jquery doesn't mind a high load of elements and updates, especially if you get your loading spinner graphics and display-timing sorted, complex pages can look quite smooth even on mobile. It wouldn't be wise to rule out a good performer like jquery.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> In my experience, it's very easy to shoot yourself in the foot with Angular, performance-wise. But this is most often due to poor understanding of how the underlying update model works (people abusing deep watches would be a prime example).

Of course, the generally poor documentation does not help newcomers...

</comment><comment><USER20> I'll take a good library over a framework any day. Angular is a framework.

</comment><comment><USER21> There sure are a lot 'Angular is Bad because...' articles out right now. Is it mainly because of the rewrite?

I've begun using Angular for personal projects. At work we use CANjs. I like CANjs but I have to say it feels easier to become productive on AngularJS. For me productivity is most important.

Regarding framework vs library. I heard more than one speaker at Fluent last year say that Angular was a library and not a framework like Ember. For me Angular seems pretty light weight compared to what else is out there.

Maybe in a few months I'll feel different. For now I don't hate on Angular.

</comment><comment><USER22> While I have no direct experience with Angular (I used to do javascript but now iOS) the folks in the office using Angular seem testy all the time.

</comment><comment><USER23> In the section on minification;

> When you minify your code, it stops working, since variables are injected by > name. ... You have to use this syntax ...

We didn't have that problem. Or rather we did until we reaised that the minification tooling can convert it automatically. The author does not know that his problem is not a problem any more as it has already been solved.

<comment><USER24> FWIW, newish versions of angular can be set to explode in your face if you use the shortened syntax even when unminified using "ng-strict-di" which I suggest everyone to use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> That's all fine but literally the #1 reason you should not use Angular is how the angular team tossed everything for version 2.

How can you trust such a tool? Do you want to rewrite your applications when version 3 comes out? Whos to say thy want do the same thing come v3

</comment><comment><USER26> I agree with your points, but I can say that I do not have the same hatred towards the framework as you do. It sounds like I should feel fortunate to have left that project after only a few months of working with Angular.

</comment><comment><USER27> I am building larges scale web-apps with AngularJS and I have no issues with debugging or performance that I need to move to another framework. Once you know the paint points of any framework you work around them.

</comment><comment><USER28> Couldn't find any specific reason in this article to NOT use AngularJS!

One can always talk about any framework like this.

Good reasons to NOT use a framework might be: Lack of hope in future improvements, Inability to deliver the necessities, etc.

AngularJS delivers and there is a lot of hope around it and that's exactly the reason people use ReactJS too.

AngularJS is a very powerful framework and implements many of the common patterns in rich web applications. It has a learning curve which is normal, and poor documentation which is being improved day by day.

Adopting AngularJS will result in less coding in the near future which in turn will result in less bugs and support. Therefore making it worth the learning curve.</comment>


Show HN: Almost Done the Makeover of My Open-Source YouTube Alternative - <AUTHOR> https://nodetube.live <comment><USER2> a lively recent discussion, [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21926666](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21926666)

</comment><comment><USER3> Does it matter that it's powered by Node.js? I mean, tech can change. We need an alternative to YouTube, and that's more important.

<comment><USER4> I'm trying to understand what an alternative to YouTube is going to provide the average end user. What company is going to put up the money for something that will never make a buck, at that scale? A YouTubeToo will inevitably be the same thing. Just like every new photo sharing site inevitably goes down the same path, because you can't just make shit free and expect to survive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Check out the Readme: [https://github.com/mayeaux/nodetube#reasons-to-use- nodetube-...](https://github.com/mayeaux/nodetube#reasons-to-use-nodetube-as- a-free-user)</comment></comment></comment>


Andreessen Horowitz Joins SV Angel, Yuri Milner in Y Combinator Start Fund - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20111014/the-three-ventureers-andreessen-horowitz-joining-conway-and-milner-in-y-combinator-start-fund

<comment><USER2> Everyone in the boat!

<comment><USER3> It does make the investor's work a _lot_ easier. YC has already done all the sifting and sorting and filtered the top ~3%, so why not?

"Up to 5 dozen startups" is what surprised me. I thought it'd be north of that this cycle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can't we keep the commi's out..?</comment>


I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game - <AUTHOR> https://fromdevtomaker.com/ <comment><USER2> If I may: "I designed my blog as a video game interface." It's not really a game for anyone except maybe for you.

<comment><USER3> I initially thought the same, then again I realised that it is a game in a way:

\- There are objectives.

\- You can make choices, e.g.: subscribe to the newsletter or not.

\- The game's outcome will depend on your choices, e.g.: main quest of getting 100 newsletter subscribers will be a bit closer to done.

True, it's not a video game, the action takes place in the real world. But it might still be a game.

<comment><USER4> So... I'm the NPC in this game?

<comment><USER5> Never thought about it that way, but in a sense, everybody except me is an NPC... until I make it a project where everybody can join in

<comment><USER6> From your perspective they will still be NPCs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Would you build your startup, while following prompts from a dungeon master, and perhaps interact with other players, as part of an actual D&D game?

If so, please drop me a message on this form: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsQVowUDsIOYM4OaqR...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsQVowUDsIOYM4OaqRije2EvhyOsiy0zTvsqqV0B7E3MvEWQ/viewform)

I have been brainstorming this for a while and the design of this inspired me to post.

<comment><USER8> This could work out pretty well. I remember reading somewhere (can't find the article) that Brian Eno works with artists this way as a producer, creating artificial constraints to expand their creativity. Would be interesting to see how this affects the startup process where optionality can be overwhelming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think that this site itself could be the basis of a SaaS product. It's awesome.

However, I also know from painful experience that time spent on this is likely a distraction from actually building the thing. The happy exception would be if this was indeed the core idea of the thing that you're building.

If so: well played. If not: get back to work.

ps. Most books are also distractions, but I've heard excellent things about Traction.

<comment><USER10> One of the major but rarely talked about causes of failure for startups is simply the entrepreneur getting demotivated. Gamefication could be an excellent way to deal with that. Beating yourself over the head and giving yourself a guild complex "Focus! Distraction! I should be..." Tend to build resentment and do more harm then good.

<comment><USER11> Except this isn't how companies are built. If you have to rely on "motivation" to accomplish something, you're finished. You'll never do it, your motivation _will_ run out. And then what's going to carry you? This goes not just for companies, but for anything else in life, such as school or exercise.

The real way you build a company is by honing a hard discipline: getting up everyday and doing things you have to do whether you like it or not (and usually not). Whether you're motivated or unmotivated, inspired or uninspired, sick or healthy, confident or afraid. You just get out there and fucking do it, and if you can't, then be a failure.

A company can stay challenging longer than you can stay motivated.

<comment><USER10> That is not really how human beings function. Motivation causes "hard discipline". It does not exist in a vacuum.

<comment><USER11> Only initially, but motivation doesn't last forever.

<comment><USER10> Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivators.

<comment><USER9> Honestly, xwdv is more right than wrong. If you lose motivation to work on your startup, your startup didn't really fail so much as you're doing the wrong thing for you.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s)

<comment><USER10> PS> Your name sounds familiar, did you used to know a Sarah in Portland, OR?

<comment><USER9> Wooooow. Small world.

I miss her very much.

Big hugs for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is actually cool, I like experiments with (semi-)gamifying work for myself. One thing you always struggle with is good measurements. I had been experimenting with giving myself points for improvements and work on various areas, and there were certainly problems with inflation and "underinvested" areas feeling a little less satisfying. Still, as long as I persevered, this was a nice motivation along with a way to actually track what I did with my time.

I wonder if the skill stats here points to the next level, or are they meant to represent his skills on an absolute scale. Not doubting this person in particular, but I think there is almost always a big room for improvement in any skill in life _even_ if you're already masterful.

</comment><comment><USER13> I love this UI! And, as a _huge_ JRPG fan, also the idea behind it. Best of luck that you don't run out of health before finishing a few high-level quests!

<comment><USER5> Thanks, that comment really touches me the most coming from a fellow gamer!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> You should get on to this Open Startup list at some point you will definitely qualify

[1] Show HN: Open Startup List - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22668802](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22668802)

<comment><USER5> I guess I'm not a startup yet but will definitely consider this afterwards!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What a neat application of game design elements and at work here... if nothing else for your own experiences and learnings as you seem to be on that journey :)

Thanks for sharing it. May I ask how much time and effort you've invested to get it to this point?

Further, there is some potential to turn it into a broader tool that others seeking to become more entrepreneurial could benefit from in their daily lives...maybe a freemium MVO model here (charging scrappy entrepreneurs is haphazard at best for both sides).

Beyond that, however, I can see more of an enterprise product potential...

</comment><comment><USER16> I love it! It's really cool. I wish I had one.

But you shouldn't care what I think. You should care about what your target customer is prepared to pay you for, at least until you can lead a happy retirement with your runway.

Much love, and best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER17> It's using this NES.css from what i can tell [https://nostalgic- css.github.io/NES.css/](https://nostalgic-css.github.io/NES.css/)

</comment><comment><USER18> I would also recommend 'the mom test' audiobook. It's a wonderful book for new entrepreneurs.

<comment><USER5> Added The Mom Test in my list of books to read / listen!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for adding this on HackerNews!

</comment><comment><USER19> On one hand it looks really cool, on the other hand it gives me flash-era flashbacks. But he is not trying to pass this as an useful homepage to unsuspecting small business owners who should know better, so I guess this is fine.

</comment><comment><USER20> Very fun. Huge potential if turned into a product.

<comment><USER21> Can you elaborate? I don't see it..

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> start small stay small is great.

<comment><USER5> Awesome book! I learned a ton from reading just 200 pages!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> If you like this idea, look up [http://pioneer.app/](http://pioneer.app/)</comment>


Konami code on French Presidential candidate Bayrou website - <AUTHOR> http://bayrou.fr/ <comment><USER2> Very amusing :-) I imagine it was designed to and will go viral. Having no insight in to the french election, he seems like a bit of an outsider, though?

In general, it's interesting to see campaigns across the globe shifting to a more digital campaign strategy. The latest Economist issue had a note on how the Obama Campaign has spent $12m on digital, compared to $3m on TV and radio ads (<http://www.economist.com/node/21552590>)

<comment><USER3> He's an outsider, but being right in the middle of the favorites he's well positioned to crown the king, his importance is way over his actual voter share.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here is the JS code: <http://bayrou.fr/js/konamicode.js>

The 2 codes:

↑↑↓↓←➝←➝BA

AB➝←➝←↓↓↑↑

<comment><USER5> Does it read backwards, or is that just a gimmick? (I don't understand French.)

<comment><USER6> It read backwards.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> To those of you that have forgotten: ↑↑↓↓←➝←➝BA

</comment><comment><USER8> Cool as it is, I actually feel put off by this site. The Konami Code on websites has always been an easter egg, with some cute-but-meaningless result. This just feels manufactured. It's kind of like seeing someone use a meme in real life; it's just wrong.

</comment><comment><USER9> For those with slow internet connections (like me), if the movie hangs, right click on the fancybox, unselect/select play to resume the movie.

</comment><comment><USER10> For those of us on a touch screen, would someone describe what happens?

<comment><USER8> A video pops up with the candidate cast as a character in an old-school video game, with 8-bit Legend of Zelda-esque music in the background. A bunch of French scrolls by on the screen, with the gist (from what I can tell) being "the final battle approaches, insert vote to continue".

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As cool as this can be, it is not a good reason to vote for someone. That goes without saying but it goes better saying it, especially for this kind of candidate who almost only position himself as being neither one of the two "main" candidates.

<comment><USER12> Obviously it's not a good enough reason to vote for someone, but it will bring more traffic to his site and possibly cause more people to look in to him as a potential candidate if they had previously ignored him since he wasn't a main candidate. It's a smart use of social networking and tapping in to younger generations.

<comment><USER13> Not so young generation, I am not sure how much the young voters (18+) knows about the konami code. It is more about the 25-35 generation.

<comment><USER12> True - but then again I think the Konami code does have some cross over to the younger (18+) crowd as well - not for nostalgia, but because it has become part of gamer culture due to it's use on websites. I'd be willing to bet that a sufficient amount of people in that age bracket would still be aware of what the Konami code is to a certain extent.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A book about how to write an interpreter from scratch - <AUTHOR>

Hello,
My name is Mehmet. I am the author of "Practical Interpreter Construction".
I am not writing for promoting my book.
It is a more story and a contra attitude than just announcing yet another book about compilers and interpreters.
There are some books teaching compilers. When I decide to write an interpreter from scratch, I first googled about compiler books.
I bought some of them but liked none of them because of the heavy theory they include. Also, I don't think that a practical programmer needs to read an even difficult to carry book.
After some struggle and seek and then cancel, I found out James Hague's blog post exactly about what books to read if one wants to write an interpreter or compiler, here it is:
http://prog21.dadgum.com/30.html
As he suggests, I have read Jack Crenshaw's famous "Let's Build a Compiler" text, http://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw
It really is amazing text about compilers.
I have learned a lot by reading Mr. Crenshaw's text.
Despite it is a gem and it does teach a lot, there is something that puts off many in his text: it is target platform is Motorola 68K, besides, it does not teach much about writing an interpreter. It is more a compiler book.
Then afterwards, I decided to write a book about writing an interpreter from scratch.
There is parsing and interpreting expressions, strings, code comments, variables, arrays, while loops, if-else case and functions in the book.
It is heavy-theory free and a practical book. You don't have to be a computer science student to read it.
Any programmer can read it.
I hope I will help many programmers to write their own interpreters and learn how interpreters work.
It is a very useful mental process and it really is fun!
Here is the book link on Leanpub.com:
http://leanpub.com/pic
Greetings,
Mehmet Emin Coskun. --- <comment><USER2> First of all congrats for your release. As a Turkish computer engineer my only suggestion is to release a Turkish version and talk to major publishers. Turkish computer science sources don't go beyond from application tutorials. We really need quality content to teach people real computer science. Even computer science students graduate from school without having single idea of what automata is. So please make it Turkish and get it released.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure, why not to make it in Turkish. Thank you for the feedback.</comment></comment>