Help, I've fallen into a pit of steaming Google+ - <AUTHOR> http://scobleizer.com/2011/08/18/help-ive-fallen-into-a-pit-of-steaminggoogle/ <comment><USER2> I'm not sure anyone saw this coming, that Google+ would essentially turn into a Blogging platform, it almost seems like Tumblr's biggest competitor now instead of Facebook.

That said, how many others enjoy following people like Scoble on Google Plus? At first I thought it was great, but then I found my feed mostly clogged up with celebs, who get tons of activity (mostly seems like people who want to spam, suck up, or just make noise... very low value comments) and constantly bump their posts to the top.

I've largely unfollowed celebs, but now I have the opposite problem. Google Plus is a ghost town for normal friends. So I'm back to Twitter hourly, Facebook daily and G+ weekly. I'm just curious if anyone else is experiencing this.

<comment><USER3> Pretend like it's called the "Firehose" instead of the "Stream" and then add everyone who you find even mildly interesting. Then use the circle editor to create less noisy channels – e.g., "Friends" for people you know IRL and "Tech" for tech journalists/bloggers that you find particularly interesting, etc.

IMO, this is the best of all worlds. You always have fresh content in your Stream a la Twitter; open the "Friends" circle for Facebook; "Coworkers" for LinkedIn, "Tech" for industry news; etc. Lastly, mute posts that are becoming annoying.

Thanks to circles, the main Stream is not particularly valuable real estate that you need to protect. You can always create a new circle called "Stream Sans Scoble" and add everyone except Scoble. :)

<comment><USER4> Nope circles are a joke for me. I have venn diagram problem where lots of my friends belong circles in multiple circles.

Lots of them are in advertising agencies, journalists, musicians, all people that self promote themselves as a living. Hence all my streams are full of a mix of true spam and content that I might want to see.

TBH the weighting system of Facebook is MILES ahead of circles for me. Circles is still to primitive. I seem to get the stuff I care about on Facebook first, and if things are gathering steam it gets promoted to more front page. Seems like a much better noise filter.

So I closed my Google+ account down a few weeks ago. I agree with the grand- parent post its a Tumble clone. But I prefer Tumblr its got better original content (and I've already got a great list and lots of friends there that makes me bias).

<comment><USER5> "I have venn diagram problem where lots of my friends belong circles in multiple circles."

I was wondering if you could talk about this a little more. My first reaction was "But... but you can add people to multiple circles!", but I think that I've misunderstood what you mean by "venn diagram problem."

edit: I don't have any delusions about luring you back to a service you dislike with Impeccable Logic. I would like to better understand your reasons for signing off.

<comment><USER6> I think a lot of the problem with circle's being too complex and overlapping is a symptom of people posting public only (the blogging aspect).

For example, I follow Leo Laporte, who has recently been publicly posting a lot of HAM radio related updates. Amateur radio is interesting to myself, but its not a subject I'm all that interested in constantly be seeing. I don't have a way to really block that subject out as a whole without blocking/unfollowing him as a whole, even though I find most everything else he posts to be interesting.

If Leo Laporte had a way to know what interests I am into, and then automagically not put me in a "Amateur radio enthusiasts" circle, of which he posts all those updates, then I would be happier for less noise on my stream. The problem though, is that he is doing it publicly, which means I get everything from him, since that is his choice to put it public.

So basically, I guess, we already have a way to filter outgoing messages by posting to specific circles, but I would like a way to "reverse circle" the people I follow so that I only receive public posts either under a whitelist or blacklist of keywords, which seems to be one of the only ways I see to "reduce the noise". We all know that whitelisting and blacklisting isn't the best solution to every problem, and this seems to be a very complex issue, so I doubt this idea would even work outright.

<comment><USER4> Yep exactly my problem, but the fact is currently there is no incentive for people who make a living off promotion to post to anything but public. Infact would generally be a negative.

It also becomes complex when people are friends and promoters as you can't block them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is there a major social publishing platform that Scoble hasn't become addicted to at launch?

<comment><USER8> Scoble is the tech world's version of "famous for being famous".

<comment><USER9> I think the term you're looking for is perhaps "tech socialite".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> He includes a link to get a Google+ invite for the first 150 people that click. As of about 5 minutes ago, it was still working (I'm in)

<comment><USER11> Here's another link for 150 if that one runs out - I don't know if this adds me to a circle for you to start you off:

[https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3F...](https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DHc4b0yU8-1Y%3ALVd4A5khvAM)

<comment><USER12> Are people still lacking invites to G+? I've got over 100 left, still, e-mail me if you want 'em, etc.

<comment><USER13> Likewise, on the off chance Pavel runs out.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to go from zero to livable wage - <AUTHOR>

Hey everyone, I am trying to figure out this big thing we call life, and I could use some advice, and I know a lot of people here are very smart, so I figured this would be worth a shot.
I graduated from a state university in May of 2010, with a B.S. that isn't super great but it's not Liberal Arts either (Geography). I didn't take college very serious, so it took me five years to graduate, and I only graduated with a 2.1, meaning I leave my GPA off of my resume.
I only held one part-time job while I was in college, and it wasn't in my degree field, just a regular, minimum-wage job college students get for a little extra money.
When I graduated from college, I tried a series of alternative solutions to getting a job. A few weeks after graduating, I went on a two-month road trip of the entire contiguous US (during which I also spent my entire personal savings), hoping to advance a book deal when I got through. After I finished the road trip, I queried literary agents for a few months, I decided that it was more of a long-term project, and focused on other things. I applied to YC for W'11, and didn't get in. When January hit, I decided to quit trying to find job alternatives and start looking for a real job. I applied to all the entry-level positions I could find in my degree field, and to various tech (video game) companies for a community manager/social media strategist role, as I was pretty heavily involved in the video game blogging scene in college, and haven't gotten replies in any direction.
There aren't a ton of entry-level positions in my degree field, on the field's biggest job board there are probably only 3-4 entry-level positions posted a week.
When I applied for YC, I started to learn the basics of HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and Javascript, got interested in it, and I'd like to learn to be a front-end web dev, but I figure the amount of time it would take me to learn enough to be hirable would be at least 6 months, and I really need something more immediate. In hindsight, I really wished I had become interested in programming in college.
I'm not homeless or starving, I live with my family, which I'm thankful to have, but student loan payments started last month, and while I can pay them (it's not that much per month), that's absolutely all I can afford. My youngest brother is going to college in August, which means in August my family is up and moving somewhere else (they don't know where yet), and I'd rather be moved out by then.
Basically, I really don't know what to do at this point. I'm not lazy, I'm relatively smart, and I have plenty of motivation, I think just didn't take "the real world" seriously enough.
To clarify, I am not asking for handouts or sympathy. I know that I am 100% responsible for my low GPA, my decision to not look for a job until recently, and everything else in my life. I just thought that a query of the HN community could yield some ideas that I hadn't thought of. Thanks. <comment><USER2> I was in a similar situation to yourself, and all I can say is work your a55 off.

I bummed out of university after 6 months after getting ill. I had a student debt of 10,000 and nothing to show for it. I couldn't get a job in I.T. without a degree, so I decided to work hard

I got a job in a local stationery store. I took all of the extra hours I could, and I studied PHP and HTML+CSS in my spare time, programming in the evenings and weekends, building up on online portfolio. There was ZERO downtime, and I mean zero. When I was not sleeping, I was working, either at the stationery store, or learning PHP and doing contact work. You say 'I'm not lazy', so now is the time to prove it buster.

I started with a 10,000 debt and no degree in Christchurch New Zealand ... 6 years later I am now a senior PHP developer in a media company in London, with no student debt and am on a pretty comfortable wage. I still work hard (7 days a week) and started my own company 2 months ago.

\- Work and study and you'll be rewarded. \- It wont happen overnight \- You need to be able to take a kick in the balls and get up again \- WORK HARD

</comment><comment><USER3> Hey, Greg -

I wound up in a similar situation as you after college a while ago, although mine wasn't exactly the same. What you need to recognize, and your last paragraph is a good sign of this, is that you have bigger fish to fry than 'doing what you want'. 'Doing what you want' is important, but as I read your activities - got a Geography degree, road tripped the US, tried to get a book deal, applying to YC as a front-end web designer, trying to work in the gaming industry - I don't see a clear picture of 'what you want'. I see a lot of energy and ideas, but you remind me a bit of Dean Moriarity from On the Road - all sail and no compass, so to speak.

That aside, I also think you have more to worry about than 'doing what you want'. You've got student loans to deal with now, as well as an uncertain living situation with your parents. I think those take precedence over figuring out what you want to do with your life. You need to figure out how to get regular money to take steps towards self-sufficiency. A huge plus would be to build something like a 'career' while doing that - because that will make your next steps towards the things I listed above easier.

What I'd suggest is that you look into teaching. At least in the US, there are numerous programs to get new teachers into schools.I don't know when they take applicants, but I would imagine now is a good time to look since it's February and you've got time before next school year. Some pay for a masters in education, which would defer your student loans (you're back in an educational program), but they will definitely give you a salary and let you regroup while you figure out your next move. Teachers also regularly leave education after a few years, so you won't stand out if you do get the urge to chase something else once you're back on your feet. Teaching can give you a creative outlet, which you might enjoy, and it definitely beats living at home with your parents or couch surfing while you wait for your shift at Subway. I'd give this a serious look if I were you.

My e-mail address should be visible in my profile - feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you have ?'s or want to chat more. Like I said, I went through something similar and came out pretty well, so I think I can offer pertinent advice.

Best of luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. :) Although from graduation til about December it was about what I wanted, I have definitely realized at this point that there are bigger priorities in life, and I am working on being responsible for those priorities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's how I hustled my way into an internship with a hot analytics startup (as a non-technical, learning PHP like you. Business degree, almost 2 years after graduating). I emailed the co-founder and told him about my interest in the industry and that I'd be interested in working for free. That was enough to get a skype chat, and a meeting down at the office. Granted, that while I had no work experience, I had co-founded a short list of cool projects with my friend and programming partner, of which had tons of coverage and users. Even so, I was actually rejected until they had a change of fortune and began on a growth spree. I started last month as a marketing intern and I'm learning tons and tons of good stuff that I otherwise would have never come across (one of the benefits of working with smarter, more networked, more resourceful people than you). I only get paid $2k/month, but I get free breakfast everyday and some other perks.

I figure that even if I can't get a job or stay with this company, I can parlay this internship into another one until I'm where I'd like to be.

So for you:

1) Build interesting projects which you can learn from. Or join someone's project. Do something crazy, get press, get users, have something concrete to show for it.

2) Hustle startups in industries that interest you. Not sure if working for free is actually a good idea, but at the right places, what you learn can be very worthwhile.

Gooood luck!

</comment><comment><USER5> If you want to program, try applying for internships. Forget about jobs in your degree field.. no one does that. Expand your horizons

</comment><comment><USER6> Can you please email me at inlith(at)gmail(dot)com Perhaps, I could help you out a bit.

</comment><comment><USER7> you have an idea for YC? build it yourself. that'll build your skills enough to maybe get yourself a job later on, and you'll have a nice website to use as a portfolio project.</comment>


Finding a Way Out [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/presentations/reimagining-software?utm_source=infoq&utm_medium=videos_homepage&utm_campaign=videos_row1

<comment><USER2> Programming is unobservable, indirect, incidentally complex. Chris Granger on finding a way out.</comment>


Show HN: A tactical guide for building a dev portfolio that appeals to employers - <AUTHOR> https://joshwcomeau.com/effective-portfolio/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! Author here.

Sharing a book I released today about building developer portfolio sites.

A few months ago I reviewed several hundred dev portfolios on twitter, and found I was giving the same feedback over and over. I also had a lot to say on the subject; I've been involved with hiring for many of the orgs I've worked for, and I've reviewed a whole lot of portfolios in that capacity. I also work as a career coach for a local bootcamp, helping recent grads land their first role.

The book distills everything I've learned into a tactical guide. A portfolio site is only one small part of the job hunt, but I believe doing it well can offer a huge advantage.

I've made it free-to-download because it's targeted at folks looking to break into the industry, people who just invested their life savings into a bootcamp or graduated college with debt. I feel weird charging for this.

(Sorry for the double-post: forgot the "Show HN" prefix, and couldn't delete the original!)</comment>


Ask HN: How can a concurrency/python/back end dev help the refugees? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Not specific to refugees, but find your local tech4good meetup and join in. [https://www.meetup.com/topics/tech4good/](https://www.meetup.com/topics/tech4good/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Blockchain is being used at some of the refugee center - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMRc5gY3_iU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMRc5gY3_iU)

start looking into it.</comment>


Ask HN: Would you like to see fact checking on "Facebook trending" - <AUTHOR> I was hoping for support for this:<p>https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10209666887980502&added&rdrhc <comment><USER2> I have stylesheets set up to hide that whole right panel.

I gave up on trying to police it enough to attempt to get it to show me interesting news stories - no matter how many times you flag the Kardashian story of the day, or the latest T-Swift drama as offensive, it keeps coming back.

</comment><comment><USER3> I would like to see Facebook lose the ability to suggest that items are trending, lose the ability to censor political comments, lose the ability to curate feeds, and lose the ability to prevent users from moving to other platforms.

In the meantime I would congratulate and support independent investigations into Facebook abuse of it's platform for domestic and international political purposes.

</comment><comment><USER4> Nope. Then again, my /etc/hosts file blocks as many facebook.com domains as possible.</comment>


Social Problems in Computer Science - <AUTHOR> http://jhamrick.mit.edu/2010/07/27/social-problems-in-computer-science/ <comment><USER2> "Person A: I need to reinstall this computer with Debian, but I don't have a CD or DVD burner or any flash media. I'm not sure if I have any other options. Could you help me? Person B: I don't have time. Just use PXE."

The author is contriving a bullshit situation to make her point. If Person A is unwilling to ask what PXE is for fear of looking stupid, then they sure as shit aren't going to explicitly ask for help. Person A is only asking for help because she made them ask for help. That doesn't make any sense. If the problem here is communication like she says it is, she could at least provide a realistic communication scenario. How that conversation really went down:

Person A: I need to reinstall this computer with Debian, but I don't have a CD or DVD burner or any flash media.

Person B: Just use PXE.

Oh snap. Now Person B seems like less of a complete asshole. He just thinks he's being asked an information question, _not a request for ongoing help and support._ The author is right, there is a communication problem. And she's part of it.

"Do you see what Person B did wrong, here? Person A was asking for help, and clearly does not know about netbooting (or they wouldn't have asked). Person B assumes they know what PXE is and that they know how to use it, or at least that they can figure it out for themselves."

The only thing Person B did was give Person A enough credit to assume they were on the same level, probably thinking PXE just slipped Person A's mind. Do you get it? Person B's not being elitist. He's being the opposite of that. He's assuming that if you have any further questions, you'll just ask them because you shouldn't feel embarrassed to do so. But more impotantly: WHY THE HELL ARE WE NOT DISCUSSING WHAT PERSON A DID WRONG? If you don't know what PXE is, the solution is not to complain about the vast culture of elitism in the technology industry. The solution is to get over yourself and ask what PXE is.

<comment><USER3> > The author is contriving a bullshit situation to make her point.

I have been in these situations. They aren't bullshit. When you get a ton of good hackers in one area and a newbie comes in, it's a crapshoot. Nobody wants to hold someone's hand while they stumble around, fucking everything up in the process. "I've got things to do."

It's NOT a bullshit situation.

<comment><USER2> That's not what I'm calling bullshit. Keep reading.

<comment><USER3> Yes it is.

You're saying person A is to blame, at least a little bit. And you're wrong. Person A is just trying to learn. Person A is doing everything they know how to do in order to further their knowledge.

They asked. They googled. They spent an hour trying to figure it out on their own. Why didn't they just ask person B again? Because they got shut out the first time. They got a response that told them "fuck off, you're not worth my time. i'm busy" instead of "Sorry, you should read about using PXE to netboot from the BIOS". They just said "use pxe". If a person doesn't know about pxe, they sure as hell don't know that it requires BIOS settings.

Person A is doing everything he/she can to learn. And Person B is being an obstacle.

<comment><USER2> _Person A is doing everything he/she can to learn._

Except ask what PXE is. If they had done that, Person B would've known that they needed all the help you're talking about, but he didn't because Person A didn't ask. People aren't mindreaders.

<comment><USER3> The fact that Person A didn't know that he could use PXE to solve his problem ILLUSTRATES that he doesn't know what PXE is. He shouldn't need to take step 2 and ask "What's PXE?" because it's OBVIOUS. You don't need to be a mindreader.

<comment><USER4> If you're going to expect the person with the answers to take the mental effort to figure out what the questioner does and does not understand, then I think it's also reasonable to expect the questioner to be honest and say "I don't understand what you just said" when it's true.

You claim it's obvious what the questioner does not know. I claim it's not. This is why teaching is hard. Having the answers is not enough. The hard part is sussing out what the student's incomplete or incorrect understanding is, then guiding them to something more complete and correct. This takes time, patience, and a surprising amount of effort on the part of the teacher. If you don't believe me, then try teaching people with zero programming experience how to program.

When it's someone's _job_ to do that, well, that's their job. Students are often reluctant to say "I don't know what you just said." I had to read their faces to gauge understanding, or I'd have to ask them to repeat back to me, in their own words, what I just explained.

But we're talking about peers. And if peers are going to learn from each other, then there should be an understanding that teaching is hard, and that the person asking the questions has just as much (if not more) of a duty to be honest.

<comment><USER3> I will definitely concede your point. Teaching is not easy.

But I do have to say that in this PARTICULAR example, not knowing that PXE is the solution is a very clear, very easy to grasp next step to not knowing what PXE is.

But you're right in general.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think a decent number of people recognize it's something of an issue, especially in corners of the Unix world (at the extreme, folks like rms, Theo De Raadt, and Ulrich Drepper are, uh, rather abrasive), and not only for gender reasons. There are a lot of "write good docs, be friendly to questions" kinds of initiatives floating around, and to pick one example, it's one of the nicer aspects of the Clojure community versus (parts of) the CL community. Not saying it's solved the problem, but I do think recognition that the classic RTFM approach isn't the best has been one of the bigger changes in the open- source community in the past decade. Projects also seem to increasingly write web-pages where the front page tells me _what the thing actually is_ , instead of assuming I must know, which is great.

</comment><comment><USER6> Hmm...

I would like to put across a slightly different perspective:

First, I am a guy, I admire people of all races, sexes, abilities, depending on what abilities they show and what achievements they had, that I admire in people

There are quite a few women in my life whom I admire: 1) my mom - she keeps learning new things and is ready to remold her beliefs even when she 60

2) my sister - I am not close to her, but find her inspiring in what she has achieved, used that inspiration in getting my own life on track

3) a colleague - she is super efficient, super smart, extremely capable, would put many men to shame

4) a few seniors in the company I work in who have reached very high positions, some very fast, found their advice and perspectives highly wise.

There is a common pattern among all the women that I admire, they are often simple (and quite often elegant) in how they look and dress, indicating they don't spend as much time on vanity as the average woman.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>---

Now consider this: two people, forget about their sex:

Person 1 spends more time on activities that help her/him gather information in a field of knowledge(field 1), whether it be through first hand experience, reading books in that field, talking to peers and experts in that field.

because of this she/he will have more information, so when given a task in that field, can try/perform a task with more confidence than one with lesser information or experience in that field.

because she/he will have more confidence about that field, she/he will take up more tasks in the field, continuing a cycle of knowledge accumulation, increase in confidence and taking up tasks.

Now what would be the state of a person 2 who doesn't spend as much time on field 1 and spends time on other fields, be it beauty, sports, parties, gossip, etc?

They will have more confidence in dealing with these other fields than field 1, because that's where they have more knowledge and that will likely continue the cycle of knowledge accumulation, increase in confidence and taking up tasks in that field.

Now its a matter of which field pays more or has opportunities for self- sustainability, not that beauty and social skills have no value, they can even be critical sometimes. But then, everything is relative.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>----

Of course, we have to keep in mind that women are under the burden of all our collective expectation, that they look good and that they are supposed to look good, from their mothers, sisters, friends, boy friends, husbands. So, please don't consider this as a judgment of women, its just an observation that is applicable, between men, women or between men and women.,

</comment><comment><USER7> > Wouldn't it be so much better to have more skilled people in computer > science, to fix even more bugs and create even more brilliant pieces of > software?

Maybe the problem is that in order to have good chances of becoming a good hacker you need to be the kind of guy that will be able to find the BIOS option yourself...

Btw I think that the low number of women in our industry is not related to this issues at all, but to cultural/evolutionary aspects resulting in a woman being not exactly happy with the idea of passing tons of long hours in front of the screen of a computer when in the teenager age range of your life (that is, when 99.99% of people become hackers).

</comment><comment><USER8> You know, I hate elitist and pretentious people as much as the next person, and I do believe in trying our best to help others. But in this particular case it's not difficult to google for "install debian with pxe". The second result on google [1] says "If your client machine's BIOS supports it, you can then boot the Debian installation system from the network (using PXE and TFTP), and proceed with installing the rest of Debian from the network."

Are you still not sure what those things mean or what to do? How about going to #debian at freenode and asking questions? Maybe the guy in the story _was_ an elitist, so what? This is 2010, there are other ways to ask for help (I know, I know, IRC is sooo 1990's ;-) Hell, these days we can even search for movies and _watch_ people solving the problem! Or, alternatively, how about forgetting about messing with BIOS and borrowing a flash media from someone?

We are not talking about Aunt Tillie [2] here, we're talking about a MIT student. He or she doesn't need to know everything, but I think it's important to know how to find information and to solve problems without too much hand- holding. (although sometimes a session in person can be very helpful and one can learn things that are difficult to learn just by reading).

[1] <http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst>

[2] <http://catb.org/jargon/html/A/Aunt-Tillie.html>

</comment><comment><USER9> A blog on social etiquette and politeness would go a long way, I know I have trouble communication with green engineers.

HOW-TO: Being polite?

HOW-TO: Say no without being an ass

<comment><USER10> There are bazillions of books on social skills, but the target audience (in this case) don't read them. The only assumption one can make is that they don't care to learn.

<comment><USER11> Not only are the "tech" people being asked to help, they're being asked to help in only the way the questioner wants. Why doesn't the questioner (the person asking the favor of the others) read a book on how to interact with people with poor social skills?

This is a more constructive approach because it is easier to change yourself than to change others.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This observation is hardly new, but computer/tech stuff tends to attract the kind of people who will spend hours delving into the minutiae of an abstract system but don't care to spend much time understanding other people. It's also a common attitude in many free software projects that a working patch is basically the only worthwhile contribution and everything else is noise. That attitude has many benefits but being "welcoming" is not one of them.

Yes, the world would be a nicer place if people were more understanding, kind, and polite. I have yet to hear any realistic plan for making that happen, and the issue of making CS more "accessible" has been a talking point for over a decade with no results.

</comment><comment><USER13> At this moment, the following article is sitting right next to this one on the front page, which is great:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1644200>

</comment><comment><USER14> Person A is a moron. It took me about 3 min with google to figure out what PXE was, and 2 more to find an "install Ubuntu with pxe" tutorial.

If women (or any other group) needs that level of spoonfeeding, no wonder they can't hack it in tech.</comment>


BBC announces Nintendo Wii deal - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7338344.stm

<comment><USER2> "The BBC's catch-up TV service can now be accessed ..."

I think they've decided that "catch-up service" is a cool-sounding way to say you can catch up with all the programmes you missed. But to me, it sounds like they're playing catch-up with YouTube and other online content providers.

Unfortunately, I fear their motivation is less to do with entertainment than it is to do with extending the UK's television tax to computer users.

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/03/pc_tax/></comment>


JAMstack vs. Isomorphic Server Side Rendering – Netlify - <AUTHOR> https://www.netlify.com/blog/2017/06/06/jamstack-vs-isomorphic-server-side-rendering/ <comment><AUTHOR> I'm trying to decide between building a static and isomorphic webapp, and one important criterion is that part of the app is only accessible behind a paywall. Any hints on how to handle authentication and authorization, if there is no dedicated server? How to ensure these pages aren't leaked to the client?

<comment><USER2> disclaimer: I work for Netlify.

Netlify's documentation does not yet talk about a new feature we're just releasing around enabling JWT auth using our redirects capability. We should have some documentation up on this in the next few weeks, but besides HTTP Basic Auth or using an external service like auth0, we don't have a good method to do this built-in yet. I'll talk with you more about this in your support case for the time being :)</comment></comment>


Why not mmap? - <AUTHOR> http://useless-factor.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-not-mmap.html <comment><USER2> The main gist:

"mmap() interface is missing a non-blocking way to access memory."

At the end of the day your process will still be suspended when the page is brought in from disk the first time it is read. In some situations, when you can't afford your thread to be suspended waiting for disk IO (say if you could do something else in the meantime, like service network requests) it would be better to use AIO for example to schedule a file read into a buffer and be notified later when it is finished ( <http://linux.die.net/man/3/aio_read> )

<comment><USER3> The mechanism suggested by the author seems a bit absurd. Code would to have to pre-warm regions of memory to be available in a non-blocking fashion before accessing it. One of the major attractions to mmap() is that this is unnecessary, the OS handles all of the read-ahead and caching for you.

It also seems silly to go through all of this, but end up using a thread pool to perform the page faults, which brings back the issues of thread starvation, context switches, and lock overhead which cooperative concurrency models try to avoid.

I'm trying to think thru all the scenarios, but it doesn't seem as if it's really practically possible (in C at least) to make mmap() I/O work in a cooperative concurrency model.

<comment><USER4> Not everything is C. Anything from event-based libraries like Twisted or Node.js up through Erlang or Haskell could potentially make very good and very transparent use of this, if the implementation was slick enough, without changing much code.

I'd say that generally, when the kernel can do something such that a cooperating VM can get a speed boost without doing very much, that's a good thing, all else being equal. Which it never is, when it comes to the kernel. But it's worth thinking about, even if it's too complicated for C to use reasonably. (It's time to let that bottleneck go anyhow. There's all kinds of very good things that are simply too complicated to reasonably use in C, and the solution is not to limit ourselves to C for the rest of eternity.)

<comment><USER5> What does not being in C have anything to do with that? Whatever tricks Twisted and Node.js and friends use can be done in C, just with a different syntax, but at the end of the day it's the same machine code. I don't know how Twistd handles file I/O but Node.js uses libeio which performs all file I/O in a thread pool. It's no better than what you can do in C.

<comment><USER4> rbranson said: "but it doesn't seem as if it's really practically possible (in C at least) to make mmap() I/O work in a cooperative concurrency model."

In that context, it ought to make sense.

Further, there's a set of technologies that are good, but range from difficult to effectively impossible to use in C, and the list is growing, not shrinking. We can't afford to bind ourselves to what will work in C forever. For instance: Garbage collection, possible but hard and certainly a bit inelegant, you're fighting C. Software transactional memory: _Don't even think about doing it in C._ But it may still be a useful thing in some places. And so on, for a mix of things. C is what C is, but "it doesn't practically work in C" can't be allowed to be a fatal objection if we want to progress.

Sure, you can type anything you want in C. But _you won't_. And I know it. Don't even try to argue that you will, it's obvious that you won't. Given the current state of the programming language environment, it is an impossibly small window to sail through to claim that Java, Erlang, Haskell, Javascript, C#, C++, SQL, etc, all have no advantages over C because we can always do the same thing in C (and I deliberately picked a wide range), yet C has some sort of advantage over assembler that makes it worth using. I reject that C is a Platonic default language that all others must justify their existence against; it's merely one that got some popular OSes written in it for certain good reasons, but that doesn't gold-plate it against criticism. This argument hasn't been sensible for about 30 years now, and now it's just gibberish; we _know_ better. Cost factors matter a _lot_.

<comment><USER3> Definitely agree with you that abstraction matters. I use C as an example because it's the canonical way in which we as developers can reasonably converse about directly dealing with the machine. C is still important and will continue to be important because it's arguably the best abstraction we have to write code directly against the machine. GC and STM would be orthogonal to the purpose of C.

It's really sort of pointless to argue what's possible in environments lacking real, unsafe pointers, because the whole idea with mmap()'d I/O is that it lets apps access files as if they are a region of memory. Java wraps up the behavior in FileChannel, and most other platforms have a way to access mmap() in some fashion, albeit the practical use cases are vanishingly small. In C, it's done mostly for squeezing out bits of extra performance by shrinking memory requirements/allocation cost and avoiding copies. Much of the safety mechanisms used by VM environments invalidate or make unavailable the shortcuts that are used in tandem with mapped I/O to achieve higher performance.

In the end, it's all still triggering the virtual memory interrupt that will load the page from disk if it's not in RAM, and the kernel is still going to suspend the calling thread while it's happening. No way around that. Alleviating this through thread pools would just re-introduce the issues of inter-thread locking and context switch overhead, and present an additional bottleneck; in the end just piling on extra complexity. I don't see that as a net win at all.

While the post has some great information on mapped I/O, it seems as if the author is dogmatic about the use of mapped I/O and is trying to find a way to use this hammer in a situation where it might be inappropriate.

EDIT: To the author who replied: awesome, awesome. Ultimately this is great stuff to talk about and these types of posts are what HN should really be about, even though it's turned into startup TMZ.

<comment><USER4> Broad agreement in general, but I would observe there are still use cases for non-bare-metal languages for mmap. It doesn't conflict with _all_ VMs. Haskell could use it (it actually has surprising interfacing capabilities on this front), Google says OCaml can use mmap though AFAIK it has a less useful threading story, Lua can probably productively use it though again I'm unclear on the threading. Erlang can't use it out-of-the-box but conceptually it could be modelled as a port, though again whether you could get a performance win I don't know. Mono and the JVM could use it, though again, primitive threading story. Python and Perl have interfaces to them but you sacrifice so much performance simply by using them that yeah, it doesn't much matter. But at least in theory there are VMs that can productively use it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> mmap is how the Varnish web cache works - the cache files is mmaped in, and the kernel does the rest.

Given the awesome performance of Varnish, I am surprised more applications haven't taken this approach.

<comment><USER7> Varnish is good because the size of a web page fits nicely with the size of memory pages... if you have very many small objects, you'll have to get a bit more clever about how you place them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The big problem with mmap seems to be handling I/O errors. The most transparent uses of mmap are for executables. Failing to page in part of the program can probably reasonably result in a crash. But what of a server process handling a pile of different data on unreliable disks? Destroying the entire process on a single I/O error isn't ideal.

On Windows it seems like the best way to handle these errors is by either embedding SEH into the surrounding code or adding a vectored exception handler globally. On Unix, you have to set a SIGBUS signal handler. But then, mmap is apparently not guaranteed to be async-signal-safe if you want to remap a zero page over the broken one, and longjmp out of a signal handler is its own pile of potatoes; both seem to work on various modern Unixoids, but I haven't been able to find documentation saying that they'll continue to work. And with longjmp, or on Windows (where you can't remap pages over other pages directly, that I know of), any surrounding code that accesses the map needs to be abortable all the way up to a suitable error point rather than just having to handle bogus values. Much code assumes that a simple memory access will not cause a _recoverable_ exception that may result in reëntering the code later.

And if you're in a library on Unix, good luck getting permission from the main process to alter signal handlers. The hook mechanism isn't as rich as that in Windows, so with the exception of large application framework libraries that are expected to take over the process anyway, it's an invasive and possibly irreversible activity.

This is all sad, because I love the idea of mmap. I was tinkering with a C library for accessing certain kinds of files, and I want to do it with all mmap, but I'm not sure I can overcome the I/O error problem adequately. (The blocking and address space problems are not too bad here; they impact performance and capacity, but not correctness.)

<comment><USER3> On top of all of that, using mapped I/O effectively means embracing it directly. Adding an abstraction layer on-top that would allow a quick switch to stdio would negate the benefits. Sucks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Another problem with mmap not mentioned is that not all file systems support it. Filesystems like jffs2 which access NAND flash don't support mmap.

</comment><comment><USER3> mmap is great, but it often lures developers into thinking that in-memory and on-disk data structures can be reasonably unified. It's still spinning media, and even SSDs are orders of magnitude slower than regular RAM. Optimized data structures should be used accordingly.

It's also not a hard rule that the OS cache is always better. It's probably very good at block-level caching, so don't rewrite that, but that's not very fine grained. The OS can't collect much more than some basic access statistics and madvise()s to figure out what to keep resident. It's kind of dishonest to make it seem like "advanced databases" like PostgreSQL should abandon their own caches entirely. In fact, most PostgreSQL tuners suggest that only a fraction of available RAM should be used as a buffer cache, and that it's prudent to just let the OS manage most of it. The query planner can even be advised as to how much effective cache space is available, including the OS disk cache.

</comment><comment><USER10> Another common use of mmap is allocating blocks of memory, e.g. by mapping /dev/zero in private mode. A couple of convenience functions to use mmap can be found here: <https://github.com/ndevilla/mmapi>

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't get the point of things like this. If you remove every single blocking part in your code then you will always use up your scheduling quantum and become the lowest priority process (the mother of all blocking) anyway.

<comment><USER5> If database throughput is that important to you then you will put it on an idle machine that has no other services running, or assign a dedicated CPU core to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Referring to comments below the original article:

So when epoll doesn't cope with regular files as author expected, why not use better interface: kqueue?

<comment><USER13> linux doesn't have kqueue. But kqueue is only an API, you could emulate it with io_submit() and io_getevents().

A bigger obstacle is that not all file systems support asynchronous I/O, the io_*() syscalls won't help you there.</comment></comment>


Finland urges EU to consider banning Brazilian beef over Amazon fires - <AUTHOR> https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-eu-beef/finland-urges-eu-to-consider-banning-brazilian-beef-over-amazon-fires-idUKKCN1VD17R <comment><USER2> Most comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20778566](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20778566).

</comment><comment><USER3> This makes so much sense. Genius move from Finland. (Swede here.)

</comment><comment><USER4> Can they ban it without EU consent?

<comment><USER5> There is a bit of a difference in the kind of impact you achieve with 510 million vs 5,5 million people.

As a Dane I support this ban, even if it's a tad to the side of populism. It would probably be prudent to start turning some of the EU farmland into forest as well, so it's not so much throwing rocks from a glass house. But we can do both things.

<comment><USER6> Forestation has been increasing in Europe the last decades already, so that's kind of positive

[https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/forests](https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/forests)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> free market they said. it's going to be fun they said.</comment>


Tens of thousands of highly skilled workers turned away - <AUTHOR> http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/06/tens-of-thousands-of-highly-skilled.html

<comment><USER2> > Those lucky enough to win the H-1B lottery will be allowed to work in the > U.S., but the rest will be turned away.

Sounds good to me; who wants unlucky employees anyway? They're always having stuff fall on them. I say we keep letting only the luckiest ones in.

<comment><USER3> That's hillarious. Thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If Google dropped its ridiculous policies, such as rejecting potential employees because of low GPAs (regardless of later experience or demonstrated aptitude), then I'm sure they'd make up the shortfall.

<comment><USER4> Why am I being downmodded? My comments come from a discussion I had with a tech lead at Google last week who complained to me he couldn't hire enough good people because of this ridiculous policy. There is no spite or malice in my original comment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Could this possibly result in a programmer shortage? How would that be bad for the programmers that are here? How can it not result in higher salaries for the programmers that live here?

I understand there is an argument which states that if companies can't find programmers here they will go to them by offshoring their work. But there is nothing to prevent that from happening now. If 10's of thousands of programmers are being turned away there must be some benefit to actually being on US soil.

<comment><USER6> It could be incrementally and temporarily good for resident programmers, who are protected from competition.

It's bad for the economy as a whole, because the same new things cost more to create. And it's bad over the long term, because development moves over time to other countries.</comment></comment>


Can we ever go back? - <AUTHOR> https://blog.nillium.com/can-we-ever-go-back/ <comment><USER2> Every tech person I know in the Bay Area was already working 1-2 days a week from home, and they are all desperate to go back to the same arrangement. Turns out not everyone has home offices, expensive equipment, good internet, privacy, sound-proof rooms or other home situations that are conducive to productive, professional work. The article itself makes the ridiculous assertion that newscasters broadcasting on Zoom from their living rooms is (or should be) the new normal. WFH isn't some genie suddenly out of the bottle. Most people out there are making the best of a shitty situation, not enjoying it, and would all go back in a heartbeat.

Yes there is always room for companies to be more flexible and accommodating, and I hope that some of them do change for the better as a result of this crisis, but "office culture" is going to go back to exactly what it was a few months from now.

<comment><USER3> > expensive equipment

What equipment aside from a computer (which you can take home) are you referencing, here?

> sound-proof rooms

So open office layout is the opposite of this?

<comment><USER2> > What equipment aside from a computer (which you can take home) are you > referencing, here?

Large screen monitors, sit/stand desk, adjustable chair, foot rest, anti- fatigue mat, ergonomic keyboard & mouse, computer dock, good quality microphone and webcam, various dongles. All the equipment I use at work on a daily basis put together will likely be in the thousands of dollars.

> So open office layout is the opposite of this?

Every open office has meeting rooms or phone booths in case you need quiet space.

<comment><USER4> > Every open office has meeting rooms or phone booths in case you need quiet > space.

They usually frown upon people using them for the entire work day. More's the pity.

<comment><USER5> We don't have enough meeting rooms to let half the office spend half the day thinking. We don't even have enough meeting rooms for _our meetings_.

<comment><USER4> Shame. One wonders what allowed for the space for the cubicle culture of the '90s. Cubicles were at least semi-individual offices. Maybe because tech companies were based in the South Bay, where land was more abundant?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I miss working in the office. I miss the comradery, the social aspect, cracking jokes, special lunches, walk stretch breaks, etc. I think work for a lot of people is a fun social time, even though they are working. I feel like working at home I have less fun and actually work more.

<comment><USER7> I miss that, too. I don't miss the meetings and the noise, though.

I don't live alone. If I did, I would miss those things much more desperately.

<comment><USER6> Yeah some of my coworkers I feel terrible for. Stuck inside, single, and furloughed. I wonder what health negative health effects we are going to see in the future from so many people being stuck inside.

<comment><USER8> My wife works at a drug rehab and they are starting to see an uptick in new patients.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think there's an interesting matrix of situations here:

                 | Not Willing | Willing |
        —————————————————————————————————-
         Not Able|             |         |
        —————————————————————————————————-
         Able    |             |         |
        —————————————————————————————————-

The interesting outcome here applies only to the set of people who are willing to work from home and are able to work from home.

I wonder how large this group is. Obviously, discussions of how the world will change only applies to this group, so it's probably important to estimate this number.

The questions I have are:

1\. What economic incentives exist for employers to encourage working from home?

2\. How will hiring practices change for various industries?

3\. How will migration to places like the SF Bay Area change?

4\. What new businesses and opportunities will this create?

5\. What disadvantages will impact a hypothetical competitive business if it's competitors adopt a work-from-home first approach but this company does not?

</comment><comment><USER10> I honestly prefer working from home, but that seems to be a rarer opinion. I feel like it gives me the flexibility to fill the gaps with other productive or relaxing things. Even though I feel like my work environment is great, I feel pressured _only_ do work-related things from 9-5 when I'm physically in the office.

At home, I can take a break to do laundry, study languages, go for a walk. Or if I'm just not in the mood to do work, I can do something else for a while and come back to it later. I love the flexibility. Perhaps I'll miss it after another month.

<comment><USER11> I'm loving all the personal space. Eye contact and shaking hands squicks me out. I'm even loving wearing a mask so I don't have to smile at random strangers. I've been cooking my own food, and not feeling guilty for sitting at home on a Saturday night. I'm gonna miss this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I have a feeling that tech companies in the most expensive parts of the Bay Area are going to have trouble getting some people to come back to the office rather than move somewhere a bit cheaper and continue to work remotely.

<comment><USER13> I think some of those people are going to have a hard time getting a Bay Area salary when they are living outside the Bay Area.

<comment><USER12> We'll see what happens when the companies say "okay, time to come back to the office" and a lot of their employees say "you know what, how about let's not?" Maybe some companies will fire all those people or attempt to cut their pay. Maybe some companies will decide to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on their downtown SF office.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been WFH for years and it works super well for me. But I work with people that it very clearly doesn't work well for.

So while I personally believe in WFH (especially as a parent of young kids), I need facts and data before I think we can declare any genie having departed a bottle.

I certainly know of anecdotes where this event has reinforced to some managers that indeed WFH is a bad idea.

</comment><comment><USER15> Unless we want to take a permanent hit to overall productivity and profitability, yes, most people will return to the office real quick. Trying to be efficient while hunched over a 13" mbp at your kitchen table while your children and spouse expect you to be available even though you're "at work" is near impossible for most people.

I've worked from home for 9 years and it took a long time to get to the point I felt just as proficient as I used to at the office. That didn't really happen until I had a dedicated office in my home, a good desk, a great monitor, and an amazing chair.

<comment><USER16> Dedicated office with a door being key.

<comment><USER17> When the boss told us to work from home, I packed up my laptop, ordered a great big monitor from Best Buy, and picked it up on the way home. Now I do hardware, so I also went back in the evening and shoveled half of the lab into my car.

But I live where land is cheap.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I've worked from home quite a bit over the last 14 years. It's nice to have the ability to be productive on some days while having a little more social interaction on others.

I think some people will probably stop fantasizing about what working from home is after this and hopefully some businesses will realize that people are actually a little more productive when not constantly under their supervision. (Did you get the memo?)

</comment><comment><USER19> I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be able to work from home. I imagine most people on HN are in a similar position.

There are plenty of people that successfully wfh every day, but it's not for me. I like being able to go tap someone on the shoulder and have a quick conversation without turning it into a massive vc call.

</comment><comment><USER20> I for one cannot wait to commute back to the office, as WFH has completely ruined my workout routine of walking to the gym after work. I don't live within walking distance of one at home, so this would be an issue for me even if all the gyms were open to begin with.

90% of the effort _for me_ is stepping into the gym and making a routine out of it, so this is pretty devastating. I was pretty happy with my gains and now I can see them melting away week by week. I do try and workout at home, but it is not at the same level or consistency of my gym membership.

<comment><USER4> Your gym is closed because of the quarantine. It's not in of itself the fault of WFH, especially if there are alternative gyms near where you live.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> At my current job I try to WFH 2 days a week, and in the past I've been full time WFH. This time is different. I normally have a fair amount of social anxiety and absolutely hate the open office at work... but after over a month of barely interacting with anyone but my wife I can't wait to get back to the office. I even miss the shitty commute, but as wasteful and time consuming as it is, it is mentally stimulating.

Maybe it's my cramped valley apartment... I don't know. I used to WFH from my old house and felt a lot more comfortable there.

<comment><USER9> > Maybe it's my cramped valley apartment... I don't know. I used to WFH from > my old house and felt a lot more comfortable there.

This is probably a big deal. I love having a ton of sunlight and I pay a premium to have an apartment with an amazing view from a set of giant windows on a 6th floor apartment.

At work, a ton of my colleagues are very uncomfortable with sunlight glare on their monitors, so our building always has blinds down and is lit by artificial lighting throughout the year.

I much prefer my apartment with the natural light, peaceful silence and an amazing view. I am sure that loving my home is a big part of me being happy with the current arrangements.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Depends on the business. It has asked the question 'why not?'. For some businesses and employees there's clear reasons to work in an office (need to talk or interact, need to be manage or be managed) - for others its just a hangover from a previous era and this will help open up flexibility.

I think there will be a lot more '3-4 days in the office and the other day(s) from home' as it also accords with many businesses goals to save money on office space through hotdesking.

</comment><comment><USER23> Yes. This WFH is all kinds of uncomfortable.

</comment><comment><USER24> I enjoy working from home, I also enjoy working from the office

I can definitely see myself going back to the office for 1-2 days a week, on so called meeting days and wfh on busy days

</comment><comment><USER25> There's a huge gap between working from home, and working from home in an isolated way where normal day-to-day contact with other fellow humans is severely reduced. The former I generally enjoy; the latter has been terribly lonely.

</comment><comment><USER26> Most people won't even have a choice. They either aren't working from home now or will stop working from home when things reach some sort of resolution.

</comment><comment><USER4> To all of the disparate opinions in this thread: what about a compromise of 2-3 days of WFH a week?

</comment><comment><USER27> I dislike this slight defeatist, leading question type title. Of course we'll go back. How long til? Who knows.

London survived the blitz, the world survived world war 2, we'll survive this. Yes it sucks, but just do your part and stay inside. We have it easy by not listening to doom and destruction dropping during the night.

<comment><USER28> The full title is "Can we ever go back [to the office, instead of working from home]?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> We have had doctors in the West asking people if they had traveled to Wuhan even in the December time frame. Who knows for how long they've been in the know about the whole thing and nobody said a word until it was too late.

Western reporters (if such a thing exists anymore) in China have absolutely failed to do their jobs on this one.</comment>


Photogenic Alchemy - Photo developed in Absinthe? - <AUTHOR> http://www.synapseshots.com/photogenicalchemy/#prettyPhoto <comment><AUTHOR> Just mesmerized by the results...chemical explanations of occurrences to each effect would be extremely interesting!</comment>


Show HN: Rebranding Death - <AUTHOR> http://getwillwill.com

<comment><AUTHOR> So... for the past month I've been working on a side project called Will Will. It's a legal, mobile, will making app for the social generation.

www.getwillwill.com

Take a look at the site. Let me know what you think. Thanks</comment>


Apple Patent Application Uses 3rd Party App Screen as Example - <AUTHOR> http://venomousporridge.com/post/908986088/whereto-patent

<comment><USER2> Accurate headline: "Someone clueless about patents glances at a patent application, sees an image that matches an existing app, and assumes that is what is being patented".

The exiting app he's talking about in fact does not appear to do what the patent describes, which would have been apparent had he tried to actually read the patent application.

<comment><USER3> Serious question- Does _anyone_ actually read these things? Patent applications are enormously unreadable, and in virtually any internet discussion it comes down to "They patented something trivial!" "No, the details are what matter" .... QUIET....

So what did they patent?

<comment><USER4> When it comes to software, the patent office's answer to that is essentially "no". Pass it through, let the courts decide what to do with it, because they have no official measure to determine if it should be allowed or not.

Idiotic, but pragmatic, but surely they can use _some_ common sense...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Since this was also reported a few days ago, is there an update to the situation?

Have the original app developers made any comments? Anything?

<comment><USER5> Seems like they just did. Thanks Ravir for posting the link.

To summarize, they have no deal with Apple and they're surprised about the patent. They're looking for good affordable patent lawyer and/or looking for Apple Legal to contact/discuss this issue with them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Note that the patent doesn't necessarily cover the functions of the 3rd-party app. It's only the diagram that I'm sure is a copy.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm the guy whose blog is linked here. I've posted a followup: [http://venomousporridge.com/post/909651311/whereto-patent- fo...](http://venomousporridge.com/post/909651311/whereto-patent-followup)

</comment><comment><USER7> It clearly reads on the USPTO site: "United States Patent Application". This is an _application for a patent_ , NOT a patent! Just because someone files an application does not mean they are going to get a patent (even if they usually do).

<comment> loup-vaillant Yes, but even trying is both dishonest and a waste of the patent office's time. The patent office can still make things right, but Apple just did (some) Evil™ here.

<comment><USER8> No they didn't. This is the same thing that happens any time anyone gets riled up about a patent. Someone glanced at the title or an image (in this case) in a patent application and assumes that is what the patent _is for_. In this case it is not, which is clear if you read the actual claims of the patent. The image is one of many existing third-party app screens used in this patent application to show apps where the invention in question (location-based notifications) might find use.

Apple did not "just do some Evil" here. This is simply bad reporting about someone's mistaken mis-observation. I don't know why, but when it comes to Apple, a lot of people's normal inhibitions for shoddy reporting become spectacularly lowered.

<comment><USER9> If I copied a business partner's design in line art and put it in a patent application somewhat related to the business partner's business it would be OK? I think not.

<comment><USER10> If you were patenting a TV and in your patent's example diagram, the TV showed Mad Men playing on it, would that be OK? I don't know if it would or not, but it sounds like they're trying to patent the TV, not Mad Men.

<comment><USER11> Since short fragments are allowed as fair use, one frame from a movie should be ok too. Whether you can copy a wireframe design of an interface under fair use is an interesting question though...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Discussed here 6 days ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561364>

<comment><AUTHOR> was there any response from futuretap?

<comment><USER13> They just did - [http://www.futuretap.com/blog/the-patent-case-we-havent- call...](http://www.futuretap.com/blog/the-patent-case-we-havent-called/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think this is just a storm in a cup of water. Seriously, read the entire patent application. The usage of the screen may fall under fair use just to make a point in the patent application. Don't get lawyers involved. Those parasites are not worth it for something like this. That is just my gut feeling.

<comment><USER15> This is Apple. They will bring the lawyers into it. You can't even talk about their pre-released products without a lawsuit hovering overhead.

And ... this is Apple. They win this patent, they'll sue. They've always done this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is apple the new microsoft? I lively remember a lawsuit from apple against miscrosoft, because microsoft had a wastebin icon on the desktop. copy instead of innovate.

</comment><comment><USER17> Sounds like they're hosting the prior art themselves.

</comment><comment><USER18> In the world of silicon valley intellectual property lawyers what you see is hardly never what it is.

<comment><USER15> Doesn't stop the lawsuits from being filed ...</comment></comment>


Groupon Campaign Needs Buyers to Return 7 Times to be Profitable - <AUTHOR> http://tivly.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/what-a-groupon-campaign-needs-in-order-to-be-profitable-too-f-much/

<comment><USER2> This is completely made up. In fact about 90% of Groupon deals are profitable for the merchant in themselves.

<comment><USER3> Really? Do you have a source for that? Most of the deals I see are for things like restaurants, which have really slim margins. I'm having trouble understanding how they could give away 75% of their revenue and still come out ahead on the first sale, even with upsells and including customer acquisition in that 75%.

Regardless, it doesn't seem to be _completely_ made up; the guy provides sources and math.

<comment><USER2> Yes; I learned that from a friend who works at Groupon and is familiar with all their numbers.

<comment><USER4> You expect an honest accounting from an internal source?

<comment><USER2> I don't expect my friends to lie to me.

<comment><USER4> Even given the best intentions, why assume their information is accurate? Aren't public companies incentivized to bias evidence to their utmost favor?

90% seems so high it fails the sniff test but I could easily see how it's a figure passed around internally. I'm just surprised you accept (and now promote) that number as fact.

<comment><USER2> My friend is high enough at Groupon to know accurate numbers.

I'm not sure what more I can say that would satisfy you. Can we stop now?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Everyday.app – a simple and beautiful habit tracker - <AUTHOR> https://everyday.app <comment><USER2> This looks really good, but...

There must be literally 10+ free/$1-5, high-quality, "don't break the chain apps" on the market. Why would I pay a monthly recurring fee for one? What makes this app special?

<comment><USER3> Exactly, having a one time fee is acceptable. A subscription for an app that's going to largely stay the same feature-wise is overkill.

<comment><AUTHOR> "an app that's going to largely stay the same feature-wise" that's an assumption I can understand but that's not entirely true :) There's a lot of room for improvement feature-wise and right now my roadmap has enough requests to fill the next decade hehehe :P

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I might buy it. Seems like it has the potential to improve myself at least a little. I am always wary though of applications which are glorified notepads or spreadsheets. Also the privacy policy isn't that convincing. In what scenario would a third party need access to the data?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey thanks for bringing the data privacy topic up. This is something that's going to be very important for me in the next months now that I turned the app into a business I can live off.

I'll be plain honest, the ToS are outdated and it's something I need to invest some money in the near future. It was just a bit too early for me to invest when I built the landing page. I want to follow the steps of Maciej from Pinboard and be privacy-first. I have absolutely no intention of allowing third-party apps to get access to the data. This is a bootstrapped business with no ambitions of glory, I'd just love to get it to a point where I can comfortably live from it and make people's lives a little bit better every day.

I know this might mean nothing to you right now and I'll totally understand if you don't want to start using it until the legal bits are fixed. In any case I appreciate that you brought the topic up since I have strong convictions on the matter and I realize I should communicate it better on the landing page. Point taken!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice detail with the 'Android please'. Too bad it's still using an iOS screenshot.

<comment><AUTHOR> oh? I found the vector branded as android :S And I thought it looked very similar but thought that the details in the button and camera were differentiators

<comment><USER5> I meant the screenshot inside the device. The screenshot is taken in the app running on iOS (can tell from the status bar) and not Android.

It's a miniscule detail and I am mostly poking fun a bit, no worries :)

<comment><AUTHOR> oh, you are right! Didn't keep that in mind when doing it, small details count! :P</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Elon Musk's billionaire moon passenger says he's broke - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1612298/spacexs-billionaire-moon-passenger-yusaku-maezawa-says-hes-broke/ <comment><USER2> > _Over the past year, the CEO of online fashion retailer Zozo lost $700 > million, dropping his standing on Forbes's list of Japan's Richest from 18th > to 22nd. His net worth is reportedly $2 billion._

<comment><USER3> But also

> When Yusaku Maezawa was asked online if it was because he was broke, he > responded, "Yes, I never have any money because I always spend it."

The headline is accurate - he said he was broke. He, however, may not be entirely accurate in that regard.</comment></comment>


Scalable Web Architectures: Common Patterns and Approaches - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/techdude/scalable-web-architectures-common-patterns-and-approaches

<comment><USER2> Does anyone know if this presentation is on video or podcast somewhere? Couldn't find it on Youtube.</comment>


Makerfactory: Connecting localized fab tech with people needing stuff made. - <AUTHOR> http://makerfactory.com/

<comment><USER2> One thing I really hate is when a website like this uses javascript links unnecessarily. They prevent me from opening the linked pages in new tabs, so I have to switch back and forth needlessly. When there is no need for javascript links -- which take control away from the user and make his experience distasteful -- why not just use NORMAL hyperlinks???

</comment><comment><USER3> As the founder of CloudFab.com (doing 3D printing as an API service, but originally targeted this market), I know first hand it's very rough going to get conservative prototypers, etc. to use something like this - I've done tons of leg work and sales.

This is definitely more of a maker offering, and so I wish them the best with with. Also worth a mention is the mostly dead 100KGarages.com initiative which did much of the same with a worse interface.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a great idea! Its one of those things I have been trying to find for a while, but I didn't know what it was I was looking for... if that makes any sense.

Thanks :)

</comment><comment><USER5> I love community ideas like this and the ability for anyone off the street to rapidly prototype a product/widget...so cool!

</comment><comment><USER6> like the idea, but WHY IS IT CAPS?

</comment><comment><USER7> someone make me 34 whistles! <http://www.thingiverse.com/derivative:4637>

</comment><comment><USER8> This thing totally rules!</comment>