Ask HN: Should I quit college to pursue my dream? - <AUTHOR>

-- Current situation --<p>* 23 years old<p>* no degree<p>* studying CS (first year in college)<p>* knowledge of C/C++, Python & Objective-C<p>* been repairing computers, cell phones (f.e. iPhone), ... since I was 18 (check my website)<p>* resentment against the way college teaches<p>-- My dream --<p>* building my own startup (eBay competitor)<p>-- Why can I succeed? --<p>* autodidact<p>* not afraid of working hard<p>* sense for UI/UX design<p>-- Why can i fail? --<p>* not being smart enough<p>* lacking experience<p>* being good, but nog good enough<p>* having no co-founder<p>* living in Belgium (the society in this country focuses on getting a good degree, not building a startup)<p>* finding no investor(s)<p>-- What keeps me from pursuing my dream? --<p>* fear of failure<p>* becoming poor if the startup fails<p>* not finding a job due to the lack of a college degree <comment><USER2> Gut reaction, no.

Your competitors are huge and massively respected companies, like Craigslist, eBay and Amazon, which have network effects on their side. Unless you can grow in a niche (ala AirBnB ... but a different niche), and get very lucky, you won't beat them before running out of money. I doubt you will get funding, if degrees are so respected in Belgium.

Unless there's something you're not telling about your plan, it's too likely to fail, leaving you 24 or 25 without a degree.

It seems your main issue is "resentment against the way college teaches". College is like school - it's badly run, and sucks, but the people who say it sucks are just being losers. Just accept the BS, do whatever it takes to pass (including cheating, if it's the norm) and enjoy learning new stuff.

</comment><comment><USER3> I will disagree with others here, and say (with disclaimers) to go for it.

A little background on me: I finished high school at 14, dropped out of college at 16, and am now on my fourth company. Now, at 24, I have about 8 years real-life business experience and hands on technical field experience. All time spent learning to be creative with technologies that are actually used in the real world, instead of decade old tech. Dropping out was one of the best life choices I ever made.

At my current company I literally can't even consider hiring most college grads until after they have spent several years out of college spent catching up to the the industry. At that point they are much older than me which can make it awkward working for someone much younger. Not a single person fresh out of college has had the experience required to pass the skill evaluation tests I give to interested applicants. The majority of the people who HAVE passed are ones who spent their time learning to manipulate and do new things with cutting edge tech on their own, rather than memorizing the tech of 10 years ago in a classroom.

The reality is in today's tech world, the list of companies that care about degrees is getting short, and most are not worth working for. Even big players like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, typically hire engineers based on either a degree OR "equivalent experience." If you prove you have the skills needed to do the job, they could really care less where you learned them. If you did unique and innovative things with the time you would of otherwise been in school, it will probably INCREASE your odds with many companies. It shows you are self motivated, can teach yourself new things, and get stuff done.

Go get the experience. It will put you years ahead in many respects, and save you a lot of debt for a piece of paper that fewer and fewer actually care about. Even if your idea fails, then open source it, show off the skill and engineering that went into producing it, and move on to the next thing. A lack of reaching a project's goal is only failure if you fail to learn something. Take what you learned, regroup, and use that knowledge to do the next thing even better.

I do want to make it clear however, that skipping college is actually the _harder_ path. Don't have any delusions otherwise. It is also most certainly not for everyone. To make it without college you need to be self motivated, a hard worker, willing to fail and retry as many times as it takes, and good at teaching yourself. If those are true for you, then if your time is well applied, the benefits can be huge.

My TL;DR; advice: Don't spend your life wondering "what if?". If you are self motivated then go do it. Keep the "education fund" in your pocket to pursue your own ideas.

</comment><comment><USER4> Should I quit college to pursue my dream?

No don't do it, unless you've been diagnosed with a fatal disease that will shorten your life span to a few months, I don't see the reason to hurry.

>* building my own startup (eBay competitor)

If you think your startup will be able to compete with eBay today it's likely that it will be able to compete withy eBay in a few years. They are an established company after all they are very likely to purse a stable business model. You could start actively working in your prototype in your free time, so that when you start your startup you have a stable code base and you don't have to code like mad. Have you calculated how much it will cost you to fund this startup, do you have enough savings to last until you are profitable. The legal aspect is something you should also think about although I don't really know what legal problems there could be but. Just don't make any dumb decision now like having kids or getting married, postpone this for later and you can rack up some savings for your future projects. If you think your location could affect your plans if you have a degree and try hard enough, I am sure you could get a job in the US and eventually be on your way to open a startup there (?).

>It seems your main issue is "resentment against the way college teaches". College is like school - it's badly run, and sucks, but the people who say it sucks are just being losers. Just accept the BS, do whatever it takes to pass (including cheating, if it's the norm) and enjoy learning new stuff.

From my personal experience I can tell you that this is true. To make a long story short, I dropped out of high school on my fourth semester. I stopped putting in the effort to pass the subjects, especially Visual Basic 6 (I hate Microsoft products) and because of this I only approved two subjects. My classmate (another slacker) and I, had to do a project with all the stuff we where supposed to know about VB6, but we didn't even had a fscking clue. That's how much we slacked during classes, I even skipped some. We started doing the project four days before the due date, we where reading and downloading documentation like mad but yet we couldn't manage to finish on time, a day before the due date me and my classmate where discussing the possibility of cheating by buying the project from some older guys that knew VB6. I felt that it was to much fscking trouble and bailed out. Even if we got the project in, we would've had to approve a lot of global exams since could only advance to the next grade with three failed subjects. No joke, I became a NEET for two years in which I spent most of my time reading about Linux and related topics. Just until recently I started going to night school (still not working) to make up for the lost time. If I had worked hard in the beginning or cheated and studied like mad at the end of that semester, I wouldn't be telling this story. I don't regret those two years in which I spent most of my time reading, I regret those two years in which I postponed the BS.

</comment><comment><USER5> I went through the same decision 6 months ago. We had a company going and were ready to raise capital and drop college, but we decided otherwise. I am also 23, self-taught and I never liked college. Ever since I was allowed to surf the internet by myself (at 9, in a dial-up connection), my curiosity and patience permitted me to absorb a lot of knowledge "ahead of time". Because of that, college was boring for the most part of it, even more boring when I got into entrepreneurship and decided to start my first company with a friend. The feeling of actually creating stuff and seeing people test what we built and give feedback was amazing, even though most of the feedback was negative. Before deciding to either drop college or close the company, we talked to many entrepreneurs, angels and people we trusted.

Our decision to close it, instead of dropping, basically came down to a few points. We didn't have a working MVP that tested our idea, what we had was a solid beta team and a half finished MVP, so dropping out of college would mean that I would not have a solid foundation that would allow me to get back on my feet, in case things went wrong (I live in Brazil, entrepreneurship and failing aren't seen as good things here; on average, degrees are valued much more than the life experience of failing a company). I also ended up having my doubts if we actually needed to drop out of college to build this, or if I was just trying to escape the frustration of going to classes that mostly wasted my time.

So, I ask you two things: Are you sure you are not thinking of dropping college as a way of dealing with the frustration you (might) feel when going to it? Don't you think you can use the college as a sandbox for testing ideas and working on interesting projects without having to deal with a) social pressure, b) financial health and c) failing consequences? If you aren't sure, don't drop it. If you think the frustration of going to some classes, is a lower cost than a), b) and c), don't drop it. I would also suggest you use the social experience of going to a college in order to meet other people like- minded, possibly even a cofounder for future projects, because the friends I made through college are the ones I am taking with me for the rest of my life and certainly the most valuable thing I am taking out of college with me.

</comment><comment><USER6> As someone who's in a similar position (I did drop out of college, partly to build a company, but partly because it didn't make sense at the time):

1\. Your idea sucks, so don't drop out of school to start it. You need to find a better idea.

2\. See if you can take a leave of absence, and also see how long your credits are good for. For example, my uni's credits are good for 11 years; if I twiddled my thumbs for 10 years, then came back, I would (presumably) have lost nothing.

In the final analysis, you should drop out of college _for reasons that have nothing to do with the college itself._ In other words, drop out because it won't help you get to where you want to go, or because you have other things to do. But don't drop out simply because it's boring or because you want to stick it to the man. Once/if you drop out, you'll realize that.. no one really cares either way.

Likewise, don't stay in school because it seems like the safe thing to do. Life isn't a checklist, and you need to have a good reason for whatever you're doing with your time. The idea of "using a degree as a backup plan" is no different than "finishing a degree in the future as a backup plan", as far as I'm concerned.

Being an anti-college revolutionary is all great when you're in school, but once you leave your school's ecosystem, you'll realize that it's exactly that - a small part of the world. (this is all from personal experience.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Really appreciate your input, but your statement about my idea is rather brusque. You don't have a clue what my idea is about. It is possible to take a leave of absence at my university, which I'm considering. I might even go to night school getting a bachelor's degree while working on my startup during the day.

<comment><USER6> Sorry, that was a poor choice of words, and I apologize. But I still think it's a bad idea, if only because you're going up against multiple billion dollar companies. You're essentially a novice climber who wants his first climb to be Everest.

Business isn't easy; you'll need every advantage you can get. My advice (and what I'm personally doing, after being in almost the same situation as you) is to build a smaller business first, specifically something that does not require a network effect to be useful. In other words, a product that is useful to a single customer without any other users. See stuff by 37signals and most SaaSs in general for examples.

The end point is really that business is hard, and it's infinitely harder when you go after something huge like eBay on your first try. That's not being bold, it's being foolish.

Why not build something smaller to learn more about business, make a good bit of money from that, and _then_ take on eBay? It is quite a bit easier to build a 100k/year company than a 100million/year company. Plus, you'll have money to bootstrap your company.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Normally, I'd say it's hard to decide and I would tend to recommend to finish your studies. But in your case it's different: You are studying CS and getting an Software Engineer. You are on a market where the demand is so much higher than the offer, thus there's no need to signal your skills through a degree. Anyway, you'd learn much more and faster when doing a startup. Or in other words: many reference projects and/or a great Github record is more worth than a degree (and most good devs I know havn't a degree).

One thing I'd change: you location, Belgium seems to be nice, but you need lots of peers in physical distance. So change to a city with a vibrant tech community (Berlin).

</comment><comment><USER8> No, finish your degree while working on your dream. You will gain valuable information along the way, and more importantly form relationships that will help you in your future endeavors.

To be clear, I am of the standpoint that degrees are largely symbolic, but at many times you will be judged on this (Potential Customers, Partners, VCs). It is also reassuring to know you have a fall back plan.

Take the time to get as much out of your education as possible, and along the way meet and build relationships with as many other driven individuals as you can, and I promise you will find your time well spent.

</comment><comment><USER9> Probably not. Is your product near "complete"? If you have not started, work on it in your free time. You should stay in school not because it's a safe decision but because you will learn much more important CS concepts(unless you're a genius genius) and get to network with others. You may get to connect with others like you or any talent coders.

Ask this question once your service is gaining huge audience or attention.

</comment><comment><USER10> No. Get the degree now while it's relatively easy. The longer you're out of the education system the harder it is to fall back into the student mindset. If you're 'not afraid of working hard', work on your startup while pursuing your degree. As an added benefit, I've got to think that your classes would be a great place to find that co-founder you're missing.

</comment><comment><USER11> If you're so autodidactic, why are you studying CS in school? Maybe stay in and pick some other major that interests you and you can fall back on. Otherwise if you're doing CS just to learn to program, you can save a lot of money by just googling and doing your own things. Few people who hire you for that type of work will care anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm only studying to get a degree. Without a degree, it's hard to find a proper job in Belgium. CS has interested me since I was a teenager, that's why I choose it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm not familiar with Belgium, only the US, but why do you resent the way college teaches?

There is some busywork and some BS up front, but if you suck it up, pay your dues and prove to your professors that you're good (I'm assuming you're good), then it quickly turns into not-BS, provided you're at a decent college.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can learn things quicker without going to college. College also teaches a lot of things I don't need right now. I'm a strong believer that one should only learn things when they're needed and useful. You're much more focused then, which results in a better learning experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If your business is growing too fast for you to have time for anything else, that might be a good reason to take a break from college.

If you're doing badly in your classes, that might be a good reason to revisit your study habits.

</comment><comment><USER14> Per a friend who overheard Steve Blank say this once:

"If you have to ask or second guess, then you already have your answer. You're not ready." (paraphrasing)

<comment><AUTHOR> There's nothing wrong with having doubts. I feel it's actually immature starting a company without considering all the options. You're just being delusional then.

<comment><USER14> There's a clear difference between carefully considering all the options vs having doubts. No one said anything about not thinking through various options and making intelligent decisions.

That said, I personally don't think there should be any doubts. It's like working with a cofounder. There are a lot of things to consider, potential issues that may arise, but regardless of what happens, doubts should not arise between you two. In the same sense, you carefully weigh your options and only YOU know yourself best. If you have doubts, you aren't ready because jumping on an idea to pursue it full force can take a lot out of you.

You're free to disagree but calling the advice of a long time and successful entrepreneur that many people respect and admire immature is an insult. To which I say believe what you want.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you have to ask a bunch of strangers on the Internet, the answer is probably "no". If you ever get to "fuck you, I don't give a damn about your lame, irrelevant opinion. I know what I'm doing and win, lose, or draw, this makes the most sense right here, right now", that's the time to do something "crazy" like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're absolutely right. Sometimes I let myself be carried away by the fears of others.</comment></comment>


Researcher controls colleague's motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface - <AUTHOR> http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-colleagues-motions-in-1st-human-brain-to-brain-interface/ <comment><USER2> I was totally against this, but then I put on the cap, and now I can say I welcome it. Indeed, I must say that. Awaiting further commands.

</comment><comment><USER3> There was an action/sci-fi movie called Gamer a few years ago that _briefly_ explored this kind of technology. I was still fascinated by what the script writers came up with - people whose job was to be real-world second life characters, prison inmates who were real-world bodies in a COD modern warfare style game called Slayers, and of course people committing crimes.

<comment><USER4> There was also a Stargate episode[0] which dealt with the issue of having a direct neural interface. In that case, it wasn't people controlling people, but people dealing with a centralized computer system for access to information.

[0] [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Revisions_(episode)](http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Revisions_\(episode\))

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I always assumed we'd have private spaceships before we could decode the brain well enough to do something like this. Wow!

<comment><USER6> We do have private spaceships.

<comment><USER5> I was including me in the We. I haven't hooked mine up yet.

<comment><USER6> Yea but SpaceX's private spaceships is how it looks when it's germinating, just like how mind control right now appears to be really basic as well.

<comment><USER5> I hope you're right. I plan on working until I'm 80 or 90 to be able to afford one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yeah I'm sure the internet is a great place in which to plug our brains, what with all the collection going on. Last thing I want is for all this nightmare to become unopt-out-able.

<comment><USER8> Did you even read the article before your cynical slagging on the tech?

> _But Rao cautioned this technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain > signals, not a person's thoughts. And it doesn't give anyone the ability to > control your actions against your will.

Both researchers were in the lab wearing highly specialized equipment and under ideal conditions. They also had to obtain and follow a stringent set of international human-subject testing rules to conduct the demonstration.

"I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate the technology," Prat said. "There's no possible way the technology that we have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing participation."_

I for one am tired of seeing some exciting advancement come out of research and then having someone pooh-pooh it out of ignorance. Think of the positive places this could go!

<comment><USER9> >Think of the positive places this could go!

My first thought reading it was that some coma patients could finally 'talk' to their loved ones and doctors (e.g., [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom- Houben-P...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben- Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html) ).

My second thought was wondering whether we could crowd-source the origin. For example, multiple people sending commands, with the majority command being acted upon. Creepy, but potentially cool (I'm not sure what this says about me.).

My third thought was wondering whether the receiver would develop 'muscle memory' of the actions taken. In other words, could the receiver learn how to do certain movements.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is really fascinating and I wish I had a better handle on the principles that underpin this kind of research. Can anyone recommend some starter books or papers that cover the subject? For background prior to reading some more advanced material, would it be better to get a primer in traditional neuroscience, or something like signals-processing?

</comment><comment><USER11> Seems like one application of this would be for reflex enhancement in, say, a solider. Equip soldiers with a helmet which stimulated them to act quicker than they would have otherwise in response to visual/auditory stimuli.</comment>


The Little Old Lady from the Upper West Side: How the New Yorker Stays Relevant - <AUTHOR> https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/little-old-lady-upper-west-side/ <comment><USER2> _" The New Yorker has always dealt with experience not by trying to understand it but by prescribing the attitude to be adopted toward it. This makes it possible to feel intelligent without thinking."_

Yes, that's the New Yorker. It is, indeed, designed to create the feeling of sophistication without requiring effort from the reader. As such, it survives in the era of Twitter. The dry wit of the New Yorker's house style has survived the test of time.

<comment><USER3> I have a subscription but hardly ever read it. The overall tone of the magazine is too often annoyingly glib and smug. Far better to spend your subscription dollars on the New York Review of Books, if you're looking for something that will genuinely inform and challenge your intellect.

[http://www.nybooks.com](http://www.nybooks.com)

<comment><USER4> Do you find NYB worth the price? I'm seeing $69 for 20 online-only issues compared to LRB's $49.95 for 24 issues. Just curious what makes NYB worth the 65% higher price.

LRB - $49.95 for 24 issues = $2.09/issue

NYB - $69.00 for 20 issues = $3.45/issue

EDIT: After closer review it seems NYB is simply larger/has more content. That difference alone comes close to justifying the price differential.

<comment><USER3> The New York Review is more expensive per issue but it's really in a class by itself when it comes to the quality of content. It's intelligent, informed, and incisive without being academic or pedantic. I pray they never go out of print.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The New Yorker is, in my opinion, one of the better magazines running. They are somewhat overly oriented towards NYC, and have some issues with sneering at more rural areas of the country, but what do you expect with a title of The New Yorker? The articles are usually intelligent and cover a wide range of topics.</comment>


Functioning Form - The Apple Store's Checkout Form Redesign - <AUTHOR> http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?968 <comment><USER2> I think there's a lot more progress to be made in the e-commerce checkout process in general. It takes far too much time and effort to buy things online, turning away impulse buyers.

<comment><USER3> It seems like Amazon's "express checkout pay phrase" feature is focused on impulse buys, at sites other than Amazon. It's really the next, more secure step, after one-click, for enabling easy payments on sites other than Amazon.

Too bad the idea of amazon's implementation of payphrase kind of feels goofy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've never understood the appeal of embedded labels ("email" inside the email input field instead of next to it). In general it doesn't look any better, and the space saving is minimal. It's also an accessibility nightmare, and as the article mentions, quite confusing once you've already focused the input field.

<comment><AUTHOR> The minimalism is fairly Apple-like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> wow. apple just arrived in the 21st century.

an article because some store now has per-field error highlight? mindblowing stuff, uh?</comment>


Show HN: Cryptocoin portfolio without signup - <AUTHOR> https://coinprices.live/crypto-portfolio <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I am the author of this tool. Prices are based on CoinMarketCap (avg of all exchanges). Data is saved in LocalStorage (cookies) for convenience and privacy. You can delete portfolio on the page to clear this cookie. Suggestions are welcomed. I hope you like it.</comment>


Ask HN: TWASE - Open Source or something else? - <AUTHOR>

Three years ago I built an anti-spam engine for Twitter - http://twase.com
I've not spent much time maintaining it since, and I have around 3 active users today.
My current plan is to take the source and db schema and dump it on GitHub, but to get it up + running on your own server(s) isn't easy as it's got quite a complex backend.
However, spammers/bots are still rife on Twitter and I can't help thinking that Twitter clients and/or 3rd party developers who integrate with Twitter could license it from me (to pay for my time maintaining it) and I could further extend it, maybe resulting in less annoying spam.
What do you think? <comment><USER2> Hi James :)

I guess it would depend on what do you want to do with it.

If you want people to license it from you - simply dropping it at GH will not get you more $ from the licenses. You should rather try to somehow promote the service.

I understand that the idea of dropping it on GH is two-sided. On one side try to keep alive it in one way on another and on the other side, try to get some more engineers involved on it. Again, simply dropping it on GH will probably not change much.

Maybe a good idea would be to look around different OS projects and try to simplify twase and include the technology in some OS projects that could benefit from it?

In addition to that you could request a IP/recognition note and a reference for commercial requests on adaptation of the code to specific needs?

Cheers :)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey Andrzej, thanks for the feedback - sounds very logical. You're right - dropping it on GitHub will not make any $'s, but it might enable one or two other developers to get some value from it, and if I'm honest, that's ultimately what I want.

I'm not worried about making money from it per se - but would be happy to keep it maintained, updated and bug fixed if I could derive some nominal fee from it (I guess licensing).

I designed it to be extremely modular, so developers could add new spam checks and tune it to their needs with a minimum of fuss - it just might take some time to get all the components installed + running (I could create an install script methinks).

Thanks again!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks pepijndevos. twitblock is a good anti-spam tool for users, but it's not an API like TWASE, so 3rd parties cannot integrate as easily.

I agree though that basic anti-spam filtering that'll catch the majority of spammer accounts is fairly basic, but it's still something you'd have to maintain and keep up with (as it's a somewhat moving target).

</comment><comment><USER3> I know of at least 2 other Twitter spam filters, one of them: <http://twitblock.org/>

Maybe some Twitter client will license it, but I doubt it. It's not that hard to get basic anti-spam running, I've done it myself once.

One thing I'd still like to try is using Akismet.</comment>


Ask HN: Any good publications that deal with the Internet? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working on an essay regarding the Internet and how creative minds can use it - regarding various mediums and their limitations. Usually I'd just publish it online and link here, but this one is exceptionally good, and I'd like to see if I could get it published somewhere more reputable. Does anybody know of any good publications that deal with articles like that? <comment><USER2> ''First Monday is one of the first openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals on the Internet, solely devoted to the Internet.'' <http://www.firstmonday.org/>

People such as ESR and Eben Moglen publish there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent! Thanks.</comment></comment>


Yahoo warning users that hackers forged cookies to access accounts - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoo-warning-users-that-hackers-forged-cookies-to-access-accounts/ <comment><AUTHOR> If I understood this correctly, two factor authentication was irrelevant.

Whoever did this just forged the cookies and had full webmail access regardless of any authentication method.</comment>


Has Twitter Been Censoring Posts about a Saudi or American Spring? - <AUTHOR> http://i.imgur.com/geV9B.jpg

<comment><USER2> That error message is a Twitter bug that has cropped up in like the past two months. Another one is "User Does Not Exist." Refresh the page and if you RTed, you should see it has gone through in both cases. I don't work for Twitter and am not defending their censorship of things such as Trending Topics. Just telling what's a fact here and reflects my own experience. Others have had these messages crop up too and have tweeted about them. Refreshing the page fixes it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just like the Siri abortion controversy. The error message is written in English and has a personal tone, so we assume the reason for the error is equally intelligent. It makes sense, too — when traditional tools break they are seldom polite about it.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think this is just a bug. Nothing sinister going on here.

</comment><comment><USER5> Twitter's investors include KHC and DST. This may cause some to question its integrity.</comment>


Teenagers Leaving Facebook In Droves, What's Next? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/3d1c24176c91 Seems that Facebook is loosing its cool when it comes to teenagers. Who is going to be number 1 in this segment? <comment><USER2> I think everyone's big concern is how to make the next teen 'thing' the next goldmine, which I think it where ideas flounder. Once upon a time, it was chat rooms and message boards, then Xanga and LiveJournal, then MySpace and currently Facebook. At their inception, all of these things were not for- profit, but for expression.

"New generations need their own way of expressing feelings and creativity."

This is the most important sentence of the article. The reason all the above examples were so popular is because when they we in their heyday, parents and authority figures in general were nowhere near them. A teen could post their brooding emo poetry on LiveJournal without a concern that everyone they know would see it, only your friends.

While picture sites are popular, I feel like they miss the 'expressing yourself' portion of what made these sites a hit (or maybe I'm just an old fogy now that preferred text to videos and pictures).

Personally, I think there will be a more 'localized' social network that teens will flock to because everything is just 'out there'. While something like Diaspora could be the answer, I'm sure us adults won't really know until the 'next big thing' is no longer 'cool'.

<comment><AUTHOR> Completely agree with this one. Everybody wants to change the world, and they can't stop talking about it. All of these platforms started naively, they wanted to be popular, but no one knew how big they are going to become..</comment></comment>


Google plans to bring password-free logins to Android apps by year-end - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/23/google-plans-to-bring-password-free-logins-to-android-apps-by-year-end/ <comment><USER2> Seems natural extensions of nocaptcha, which seems to get little traction so far.</comment>


Ask HN: How do i make a form usable? - <AUTHOR>

Okay, I built my own webpage, but i have a form where users fill in data (name, address, etc) and then they click a "submit" button.
I understand i need another language besides HTML and CSS to make the submit actually happen. I've heard of javascript libraries such as Node.js and jQuery, though sincerely i have no idea if they are what i'm looking for.
What should i learn next in order to make my form functional? <comment><USER2> If you just need to get some data - maybe use something like this:

[https://support.google.com/drive/answer/87809?hl=en](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/87809?hl=en)

[http://www.wufoo.com/](http://www.wufoo.com/)

If you want to develop it all yourself, you'll need someplace for the submitted form data to go. This means building some software that resides on a server ... so you'll want to learn Ruby or Python or PHP or something like that to process the submitted data.

There's lots of online educational resources. Maybe check out [http://www.codecademy.com/](http://www.codecademy.com/) where they'll step you through the basics of building a webpage.

<comment><AUTHOR> I saw your links, but they're not what i'm looking for specifically.. I already have a form, but i don't know how to actually SEND the data to a server. Once the data is in the server i can process it. But how do i get it there?

<comment><USER2> This explains the basics. The "action" attribute of your form tag tells the form where to send the data. [http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp](http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp)

<comment><AUTHOR> I see... So in your example, the data sent goes to a page called "/html_form_action.asp" How does the server process this information? I assume it uses a server-based language? Which languages are usable?

Sorry if i have a lot of questions. I understand it could be annoying.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Experts Rebuild Babbage's difference engine #2 -- Congrats JGC - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/science/computer-experts-building-1830s-babbage-analytical-engine.html

<comment><USER2> You can hear the man himself talk about the rebuilding project here:

[http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/10/full-interview-john- graham-c...](http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/10/full-interview-john-graham- cumming-on-building-babbages-computer/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Just to be clear, Difference Engine no. 2 was completed in 2 parts: in 1991 and 2000. However work on the _Analytical Engine_ has just begun in the planning phase, and excitingly it will be a crowdsourced endeavor.</comment>


We only had one photograph of the entire Earth–until 2015 (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-one-photograph-entire-earth-three-years-ago <comment><USER2> Latest images: [https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/](https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

It says atm: "DSCOVR is temporarily in safe mode. Further details TBD."</comment>


Leave an anonymous voice/video message - <AUTHOR> http://www.nask.co <comment><USER2> This might make a good "Show HN".

Is the source code public?

<comment><AUTHOR> > This might make a good "Show HN".

Actually, that was my intention... Guess I should have paid attention before posting, heh

> Is the source code public?

Not yet. I was planning on doing this, but I just forgot about it. Anyway, the code is nothing special, it's written in Go, and it's a bunch of calls to picotts and espeak, then uses ffmpeg to convert the files and to make videos.</comment></comment>


Sharing something better – we need new experiments around social media - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@justinkrause/sharing-something-better-8fc2b60e8a04 <comment><AUTHOR> Imagine if Hacker News was whitelisted to a set of people you trust & respect (so only their votes count), and it queued up the top links so you don't miss anything, even if you take a day or two off. That's what we're trying to build.</comment>


OpenSource Bugfix Bananza - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/113450464468623482873/posts/gTmYwMfJFV5

<comment><USER2> Learning about open source by fixing bugs in languages you've never used makes about as much sense to me as learning about physics by fixing engines in vehicles you've never seen.

If you just want to "learn" about open source, read their mailing lists and forums, though you might learn a few things you don't want to know.

</comment><comment><USER3> Good idea. I particularly like the idea of sharing your list publicly.

Though it might be better if it was fixing multiple bugs in few projects as opposed to one bug in so many projects.

Also, for those of us that have used every language under the soon, maybe the focus should be on a language not used in the last year.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason we picked lots of projects is to narrow it down to 5 we might be willing to actually spend our free time working on, thus actually fixing lots of bugs in our favorite 5. I expect the top 5 will not fluctuate much over the rounds, as our first 20 are seeded with projects we already know / work on.

Good point about languages. Since my brother and I have used very few languages we focused on the desire to expand on that. But for those that have used every language under the sun feel free to pick a languages you have not used in a while :).

<comment><USER3> In my experience, the overhead in figuring out a codebase is usually large. So taking 5+ new projects each time would mean that you would be spending a lot of time on just reading code.

Now improving code reading/understanding skills is not a bad idea, it is just that it does not seem to be your goal. I would suggest just taking 1 new project each round.

I guess this also matters if you are working on this full-time or not.

Would love to read your experience report as you progress through the rounds.

<comment><AUTHOR> Part of it is to get experience in understanding diverse code bases quickly, but also to see lots of diverse code bases and styles to see what we like and dis-like about each.

We are not working on this full time, so I expect round one will take two to three months, round two will take about the same. Round 3+ will likely take one to two months.

<comment><USER3> Great. Let us know how it goes. It has definitely inspired me to atleast run a variant of this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So, I noticed that something like half or so of the projects here are C++.

Depending on the codebase (and what bits of the language it uses), you may be in for a real treat. Especially given the fact that this is your first exposure to the language, I would be unsurprised if you end up introducing new, fun bugs into the codebase. Godspeed!

(and don't worry about said bugs--this is a chance to learn, so make the most of it! Somebody else will more than likely be able to clean up any missteps. :) )

</comment><comment><USER5> Is that a deliberate misspelling?</comment>


Daily Stand-Up Injection of Guilt - <AUTHOR> https://www.yegor256.com/2019/09/03/injection-of-guilt.html <comment><USER2> Stand-up meetings are giant locks held for 10 or 15 minutes.</comment>


WakeMate 2.0 - For Real, This Time. - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/wakemate-2-0-helping-you-kiss-those-groggy-mornings-goodbye-for-real-this-time/

<comment><USER2> Let me tell you my WakeMate story. Its publication has been long overdue. It's a bit long, so please bear with me...

I pre-ordered. All excited. I love "life hacks", and this is right up my alley. Even encouraged several friends to jump in on the WakeMate wagon!

It finally arrived, and for the most part it worked. The app was buggy at first (iOS), but they did eventually get some updates approved that made things better. The algorithms employed on the website are questionable. They seemed to weigh certain variables a bit counter-intuitively, but what do I know. I went with it, charging it every other day and sleeping with it at night.

It was a bit snug, but I stretched it out and it was comfortable enough. The "WakeMate" logo stuff wore off in a matter of days though.

They emailed me a few days after receiving it saying to NOT use the charger that came with it because it was faulty and might catch on fire. Yikes. They never sent me a replacement. I just carried on with another standard USB charger.

Then, at some point, my WM started refusing to sync with the app. I submitted a trouble ticket, and they responded about a week later acknowledging a hardware bug. They requested that I send the original unit back to them in NoCal and proceeded to send me a new unit.

I didn't send the unit back to them, mostly out of sheer laziness. But, also, they were rather presumptuous in telling me to send the unit back. No mention was made of postage, or the inconvenience to me.

A new unit arrived and worked for about a week. Same exact problem. I submitted another trouble ticket and got NO RESPONSE. Never even an acknowledgement.

Months go by... crickets. Silence. Nothing. I mentally give up. At this point I had two dead WM's and I really didn't care about it any more, because my excitement was quite high, and I was really disappointed, mostly in the extremely poor customer service.

Then one day, someone at WM (apparently) decided to email everyone who had WMs that still needed to be sent back. Only this time it was more of a rather rude demand, not so much of a request. Again, no mention of postage, or apology, or anything remotely friendly.

The worst part of this? They CC'd all of us in a single email! So yah, we now had not only been treated pretty poorly in terms of customer service from a company with a broken product, but we were also being publicly shamed for it!

Now I cared again.

I was rather disgusted. I replied to all to share my disgust. Others replied to all and were considerably more vocal than me about their own disgust. That was ugly. After some time, they sent out another email admitting they should have BCCd us instead. Yah, amateur hour.

I never got any sort of acknowledgement after mailing the two units back to them. I can only assume they received them. I waited a full month before contacting them again.

This time I've asked that they reimburse me for my WM as well as the postage I incurred. After that I'm not interested in doing any further business with them. Still no response, other than a robot email saying they have lots of support requests blah blah blah.

This is sad because I _really_ wanted to like this company! :(

<comment><USER3> Your identical story happened to me. I never received a third unit to replace the second defective unit. Quite frankly, they can keep it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> WakeMate is the only YC company that left me feeling completely duped for dropping cash on them. My whole experience with the product felt like a sham. Good on WakeMate for having the opportunity at a 2.0, because I personally feel like they did not deserve it :(

Because I love the concept so much, I will give it another shot, and maybe my bitterness will fade, and we can all hold hands and skip in the park one day! Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER5> I am generally pro YC company and pro startup, but after the 14 months of delays, then receiving a worthless, non functional product (which I threw away), I have totally given up on these guys.

I got a $299 zeo, which works pretty well, and has an open API, great distribution at retail, and very friendly responsive and professional support. I kind of stopped using that too since I now sleep in a bed with the gf most nights, but for actual sleep tracking, the Zeo seems like a great solution.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is part of my reply to swaits from his accurate review of the WakeMate 1.0.

"Thank you for your considerate e-mail and your respect for my privacy (by bcc-ing my e-mail).

It's funny that you e-mailed me, since my boyfriend and I read your story on hacker news, about an hour ago and thought about how they could be launching a new product in the ill-be-gotten gains of defective wakemate sales.

The experience I had was very similar yet, I still have my two wakemates (defects and all). I have no desire to send either back until I get a replacement charger, prepaid postage and working device. I have explained that to their customer service. Basically, I am holding them ransom; though, since they don't work, I don't think I have the upper hand.

If you would like, I can send you one of mine. I don't know if you like/play portal, but it could become you companion band.

Thank you for speaking out and letting other's see what has become of this. It had so much promise and then went horribly wrong."

I feel that everyone should know of this service atrocity (yes! An atrocity!). I worked many years in customer service, and I know that I would not be in business, let alone retain customers, with this type of service. The fact that customers paid for a device/service that has not delivered the features that were advertised; and, the Wake Mate company has not come close to satisfying their current customers, with broken devices that have not been replaced, nor a charger that won't cause a fire, one would wonder what they will do with the 2.0 version?!

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been using Sleep Cycle for the last year or so. <http://mdlabs.se/sleepcycle/>

I'm not sure if purchasing a $60 wrist band is that much better than spending $0.99 on an iPhone App that just uses the phone's accelerometer.

<comment><USER8> does it work?

<comment><USER9> I have been using Sleep Cycle too. Most the most part, yes, it does wake me up less cranky. You still need to allow for enough sleep though. If I only get ~6 hours of sleep. It wakes me up at an appropriate time - I feel better - but I am still tired - and thus crankier than usual.

<comment><USER10> The reviews on iTunes store says it's faking data and graph

[http://itunes.apple.com/app/sleep-cycle-alarm- clock/id320606...](http://itunes.apple.com/app/sleep-cycle-alarm- clock/id320606217?mt=8)

<comment><USER11> The creators countered by saying those reviewers were testing on uncalibrated phones. The app normalizes the movements so even if it detects only very small movements it will still render a graph with full range of movement.

I don't know if this is true but I saw in their changelog <http://mdlabs.se/sleepcycle/changelog-v3.0.html> that they "removed "dreaming" from graph legend we've done a lot of research around this with help from sleep scientists and determined that Sleep Cycle cannot reliably detect when you are in REM sleep".

That makes me think they're legit. Their test function is also pretty convincing. It detects large and small movements quite accurately.

<comment><USER12> If they can't detect when you're not in REM sleep and wake you up at that point, what's the point of the device?

<comment><USER13> As I understand it, grogginess is associated with waking from deep sleep (no movement), not REM sleep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How about Lark (<https://www.lark.com/mylark/>)? It's a similar product in a completely different price range ($129!). Has anyone tried it?

<comment><USER15> I'd really like to see a tech review site (Engadget perhaps?) do a Wakemate/Lark/Zeo comparison. Wear all 3 devices at the same time, compare results, etc.

<comment><USER16> And sleepcycle

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> There's a nightly beta for Android that addresses the connection issues. I got an APK from the support some weeks ago and I can confirm that the connection issues have reduced dramatically.

<comment><USER18> Thanks for this tip! I had no idea they had a fix out for Android. Contacting support now!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I guess this is one advantage iOS has, a mostly unified platform for developers. I've been part of the Wakemate beta for Android for awhile now, and it seems that Android has wildly varying bluetooth stacks depending on device manufacturer and phone model. For example, my LG Optimus V won't reliably work with Wakemate with the stock firmware, but works flawlessly with CyageonMod

</comment><comment><USER20> Man, I am serious now, there is one place in my life where electronic devices are not allowed (including TV, alarm clocks etc.) and it is my bedroom.

Taking your "SmartPhone" to bed, in order to improve your sleep seems ridiculous to me by all means.

If you want to improve your sleep and get up in the optimal hour, do the following:

       * Disconnect yourself from those devices (phone, pads, laptops, tv, etc.) two hours before you go to bed.
       * Take a warm shower or bath
       * Go to bed at a fixed time every evening, and get up naturally.
       * Read a nice book for 20/30/40 minutes (whatever suites you).
       * Close your eyes then and meditate until you fall asleep.

You will see how within few days, you are getting up naturally at the same hour, feel better and energetic all day, etc. etc.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is kind of a weird "side complaint", but: despite being a humongous guy, I actually have reasonably sized wrists. The wakemate, when it arrived, had a wrist band so small (and if there were sizes on the site I'm certain I would have ordered the largest one) that I gave it to my girlfriend's little sister (who likely never used it), as I knew there would be no way I'd be able to wear it. I wonder if this has also been handled in 2.0 ;P.

<comment><USER18> From the article:

 _Another recent addition: you can now purchase a larger version of the WakeMate wristband, should you find the original size too tight._

So yes, apparently that _is_ fixed in 2.0 :)

<comment><USER21> Ok, I'm stupid: thanks. :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> To me my WM is more than to just wake up less groggy. Using tags I'm trying to identify anything that would help me sleep better. This is where I think WM is missing out:

I see a leader board but no way to get tips or compare notes (tags?) with other users (specially those in the leaderboard that seem to be sleeping like freaking kings) I would love to figure out how to get a 90+ night when I'm currently in the low 60 everyday.

<comment><USER23> Maybe I'm missing something, but what on earth would you compare notes about?

"Slept a bit rough last night, think I was a bit stressed out after that deadline."

"Woke up hot and worn out, maybe I should get an A/C unit."

"Fit as a fiddle this morning, must be that cheese I ate before bed I guess!"

I don't get it. People are different. Some sleep well and are able to adjust to regular schedules, some are the opposite; there's no magic bullet, and any specific trick will not necessarily work on a different person.

If you ask people who sleep well what the trick is, I suspect you will invariably discover that they went to bed early, before they got really tired, that they avoided coffeine drinks, stress, exercise, TV etc. in the hours before bedtime, and have learned to eliminate as many external (eg., lighting) or internal (sleep apnea) sources of discomfort as possible.

All pretty obvious stuff, and nothing, I think, that a good GP wouldn't be able to steer you towards.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Just to chime in. I got my Wakemate a few months ago and totally love it. The software had a few flaws (just features id like to see) and support promptly and politely replied with their roadmap and such. I randomly emailed the founders to thank them and they were great too.

Highly recommended, seriously, buy one.

</comment><comment><USER25> Clearly, the inventor of WakeMate doesn't have kids.

Kidding. Sort of.</comment>


Emacs killed the server - <AUTHOR> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=732157

<comment><USER2> Somehow, I find their reasoning as to why they're not going to fix it ("Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated in the current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to address this request at this tim"") somewhat ... backwards. I would easily come to the conclusion that being broken is reason to schedule an update.

I realize this is Big Enterprise-ware, but I still think they could do more, e.g. point the user towards some Emacs-specific tracker maybe.

<comment><USER3> Well, this was just reported on Saturday, so I doubt anyone has really had a chance to look into it seriously, let alone reproduce the issue.

It looks like it could be a bad bug, but I think it's premature for HN front page at this point. Get a few more reproductions and additional data before sounding the alarm. There are probably other bugs more worthy of such attention at this point.</comment></comment>


Screenhero has joined Slack - <AUTHOR> https://screenhero.com/ <comment><USER2> Note that Screenhero was _acquired_ by Slack; the "joined" label is an odd usage that implies that they just registered for the service.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ya it is a bit confusing. I had to click through to "Read the Full Story" page to find out Slack acquired Screenhero.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> A possible [January 2015] tag could be added here, because it happened a while ago. I can't wait for the integration to be released, though. Then we can finally ditch skype for good.</comment>


Google has new favicon...ugh. - <AUTHOR> http://126.96.36.199/favicon.ico

<comment><USER2> Why'd the domain preview turn the IP into "126.96.36.199"?</comment>


Website of Albanian Hitmen-For-Hire Hacked, Data Dumped Online - <AUTHOR> https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2016/05/besa-mafia-dark-web-hitman-for-hire-site-takes-a-hit/ <comment><USER2> if this actually is a honey pot (which seems likely), it's surreal/bizzare that the site admins asked wannabe hitmen to set their cars on fire.

<comment><USER3> > surreal/bizzare that the site admins asked wannabe hitmen to set their cars > on fire

Proves you're not a troll or "looky-loo", and that you may actually commit other crimes if given the opportunity?

It does give proof of an actual crime, and intent to commit more crimes (namely, murder, since that's in writing as the intention and goal).

So, if they're a honeypot, they now have cause to arrest you based on your kindly submitted evidence. If they're not a honeypot, they have "dirt" on you if you try to turn on them.

> their cars on fire

From the article, it seems they are not setting their own cars on fire, but someone's random car in a remote location.

<comment><USER4> Which means the site operators are directly involved and could be criminally charged as well.

<comment><USER5> Which is why they set it up on Tor and don't tell the police their names. They're like crackers who might quietly email the FBI a tip if they happen to find child porn on a server they've exploited.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems quite similar to what a person with a wild imagination would write. I think it is a wanna be site.

What does this mean?

> Bitcoin to escrow

Never heard of such a concept.

<comment><USER5> > Never heard of such a concept.

The idea is that when you want to hire them, you send your Bitcoin to a third- party like Bitescrow, who then arbitrates if the hitman doesn't come through. Usually in the hitmen scams, the third-party turns out to be the hitman site in disguise, and they just keep the bitcoins.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Url changed from [http://news.softpedia.com/news/website-of-albanian-hitmen- fo...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/website-of-albanian-hitmen-for-hire- hacked-data-dumped-online-504029.shtml), which points to this.</comment>


"The Most Complex Piece of Engineering Known to Man" - <AUTHOR> http://groups.google.com/group/fa.linux.kernel/msg/52f04d4ab1121c9b <comment><USER2> Thats why I have always loved genetic algorithms.

They are creating some patent worthy inventions using them now. Check John Koza's work.

[http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0e13af26862ba010vgnvcm1...](http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0e13af26862ba010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd/2.html)

<comment><USER3> Genetic algorithms are fun but let's not overhype them. They solve optimization problems by following an iteration procedure. And we all know that iteration commonly produces a _local_ maximum.

<comment><USER4> Are you sure you're not getting GAs mixed up with gradient descent? The whole point of a GA is that they're a global search. Mutation and crossover (with certain conditions) generally mean you don't get stuck in local maxima.

Of course, there are conditions on that. The quality of your RNG, the probabilities of mutation/crossover, etc..

<comment><USER3> Marcus replied to that <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=90115>.

<comment><USER4> Exactly. He's describing gradient descent (and possibly simulated annealing), not a genetic algorithm.

Mutation, especially burst mutation with population stagnation, is what stops you getting stuck in local maxima.

<comment><USER3> It does not matter _how_ it is done, it is still an iteration. You may have several iterations going on but at best you can expect to find several local maxima - at any given time. Further, if there is no "stagnation", how do you know that you've found a solution?

<comment><USER4> Stagnation is the case where the best individuals in the populations fitness hasn't increased by some value for a certain period of time.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'a solution'? You know you've not arrived at an acceptable solution when your fitness is below your required level.

Granted, you never know there is a configuration with a fitness greater than your required fitness but this is generally considered when constructing the fitness function.

<comment><USER3> I understand that when a certain level of fitness is reached the procedure stops. But, it may stop too early - missing the global max. And second, it may never stop!

<comment><USER4> True.

I've seen some interesting work on the latter case that produces upper and lower bounds for time to an acceptable solution but so far it seems to be limited in it's application to real world tasks.

Missing the global max less of an issue, an acceptable level of fitness is generally all that's required for most applications. Though I guess there are several tasks for which a global max would be useful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's not a good comparison. In the very, very long-term, the "fit" inventions do tend to win out, but that says nothing about the processes by which they were built. That is, unless you get really loose with the definition. If I'm designing a bridge, and I come up with 10 blueprints, and select the best one...that's not really an evolutionary process, and neither would it be if 10 different engineers came up with a blueprint. If we build 10 bridges and wait for nine to collapse, well, that would be an evolutionary engineering process. (Again, over centuries and centuries, that very thing occurs.)

A better analogy would be comparing the marketplace with a harsh environment. There, Linux survives for a mundane reason--just like mammals needed less heat from the atmosphere, linux needs less money from its customers. So, it may win out in the end.

<comment><USER6> Its not a comparison at all.

Linus replied to someone who said Linux coding style is not improving because no one sets the rules. Linus said that it is improving via evolution. Style liked by many will be taken over by others, style liked by few will fade out.

Not a comparison. Just a fact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Orgel's Second Rule: "Evolution is cleverer than you are."

But that's just because humans are pretty stupid in the grand scheme of things.

</comment><comment><USER8> Cue Matrix

</comment><comment><USER9> Yeah, but making a new "most complex piece of engineering" is fire-and-forget (at least if you move out of state and change your name).

     >apt-get install human-2.0
      Building dependency tree
      Reading state information... Done

      After delivery $2.5 million will be used.
      Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
      Abort.</comment>


Doctors say schools should not allow in children who are not vaccinated - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/08/stop-measles-mmr-jab-compulsory-gps <comment><USER2> Seems hard to combine with

      a) giving parents the freedom to not have
         their children vaccinated.
      b) compulsory schooling.
      c) society feeling obliged to ensure that children
         get a decent basic education.

But, reading the article, that's not what those doctors say:

 _"They want school entry procedures toughened so that the only exceptions made to the new rule would be for children whose parents have registered a conscientious objection to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine or those whose health means they cannot have it"_

</comment><comment><USER3> Or make special quarantined schools for those who refuse vaccination. It's a self-solving problems.

</comment><comment><USER4> Good, but combine this with enforcement of homeschool and no school standards so you can protect all children and not just the ones with decent parents.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is the concern that they would infect the already vaccinated kids?

</comment><comment><USER6> Maybe we should get the opinions of parents whose first kid died after being vaccinated.</comment>


New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/New-law-bans-California-employers-from-asking-12274431.php <comment><USER2> How does this prevent databases like the one run by equifax that keeps salary info and is still available to California businesses?</comment>


Charlie Stross asks what's happening with higher education - <AUTHOR> http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/10/sheepskin.html

<comment><USER2> Couple the 'certification arms race' with quality of education and you end up having to require experience, even for entry-level jobs just to sort through the applicants.

That's what I do now. If they haven't done -anything- outside of schooling, I have no idea how well they can program. If they have done side projects for themselves or open source, then I can look at that and get an idea of their ability and drive.</comment>


How can I get my DeLorean to 88 miles per hour without a train? - <AUTHOR> http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/28211/how-can-i-get-my-delorean-to-88-miles-per-hour-without-a-train <comment><USER2> I never understood why they couldn't just drop it from 100ft?

Maybe into a body of water or put lots of padding to cushion the landing.

<comment><USER3> ...or a parachute when you arrive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My favorite: just change your frame of reference.</comment>


The New Foursquare - <AUTHOR> http://avc.com/2014/08/the-new-foursquare/ <comment><USER2> They've sacrificed their core of users who supplied all of the checkins and tips in order to try to kill Yelp. Problem was, only those loyal users were ever convinced that they were better than yelp.

Now that they've chosen the foursquare name, which is synonymous with checkins, for their Yelp clone, it seems like they haven't thought out...

1\. If the checkin users leave because Swarm is stupid and eliminates everything fun (mayorships, badges, reading all the tips without going to another app, seeing who else is checked in besides your friends), who is going to keep supplying them with behavioral data? Not casual users, who won't open the app and show their location at all until they're looking for a recommendations. In terms of data, casual users are takers, while the check-in users are givers.

2\. Foursquare super users (their community of people who applied for edit privileges on the venue data) are probably all avid check-in users. Without them, junk venues and spam may overwhelm.

3\. How do they really expect to attract enough users who want to use the new foursquare now that the app is a completely different thing? What's their differentiator from Yelp? To me it just seems like it's Yelp but with shorter reviews. Everyone who didn't use foursquare before because they hated check- ins isn't going to even know they killed check-ins and will still stay away.

I think this whole plan might have had a chance if they'd left foursquare alone as their data generator, and launched a new app with a new name for their Yelp clone. At least then they'd have a new chance to introduce themselves and try to attract the mass audience they're going for.

<comment><USER3> I work for Foursquare; here's my answer to #3:

It's not just that tips are shorter than reviews, though that's part of it. The issue with Yelp is that every single user gets the same recommendations if they search at the same place and time. And in a world where everything is becoming more personalized, it's crazy that the predominant app in the local search category does nothing to tailor its results to you. When you sign up for the new Foursquare, it asks you for your tastes so that every time you search, every time you open the app, it will be tailored for the things you like. It's like Amazon recommended products vs the experience you get on non- smart ecommerce platforms. It's smarter at a fundamental level; the things we are doing with our data are really smart and unprecedented in this space. That's why I'm confident we have a differentiated product in this new app, and I hope you try it out and see what I mean.

Furthermore, we still have tons of check-in data - 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in. So I don't think there's much to worry about with regards to our data getting stale and losing quality.

<comment><USER4> > 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in

You/Foursquare really should clarify exactly what you mean by this - we keep hearing how "successful" Swarm is but it seems most [former] users (including me) and their friends (including mine) stopped using it when (or shortly after) the switch happened.

Right now Foursquare sounds like Google in the early days of Google+ where they were touting how much people were posting but everybody was saying they never saw any activity in their stream.

<comment><USER5> There is some sort of automated checking in going on; I haven't checked in even once in Swarm, and I've been asked by my friends if I'm a fan of this change because apparently, I've been checking in all over the city.

<comment><USER6> Your location/neighborhood is being updated automatically in the background, but you are not automatically checked into venues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have been using Foursqaure for years in NYC, and I think it is really useful for finding new places and picking food on the menus. Checkins, at the end of the day, are a means to an end. Mayorships/Badges/Game Mechanics/etc. might have made their app more viral (I stress might), but it appears there was never going be a way to monetize them, hence their "pivot"

This is how I see it now:

1) If you still live in a major metropolitan area (like NYC, San Fran) then the service is still useful (probably more useful with this new design)

2) If you do not live in a major metropolitan area, Foursqaure is pretty much useless - but it always was and always will be.

3) Now that they removed checkins, I dont expect to ever get recommendations better than what I am currently getting, because I am not downloading swarm.

The fact that they removed checkins from their core app seems really crazy to me - not because I thought checking in were useful, but more because the whole concept around the new app (I think?) is their machine learning algorithms leverage their huge database to provide great recommendations. With Swarm, not only did they add friction to creating more of this data easily (I have to switch apps to do it), Swarm was actually pretty buggy and doesnt appear to be gaining user adoption (per app store reviews, which are obviously subjective).

Disclaimer: I rarely use Yelp, and never use it in NYC because of Foursqaure

<comment><USER8> Piggy-backing: They want reviews and tips right? I rarely check-in on Yelp, but on the rare occasion I do, I'm probably also writing a review and uploading photos.

Why on earth would you make a whole separate app for a single button and modal? And what incentive do I have to participate?

<comment><USER9> Swarm also is where the social components reside; seeing where your friends have checked in, seeing who's nearby, making plans etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Imo this is one of the worst business moves I've seen. Old 4sq? Loved it. New 4sq and swarm? Won't bother.

I may sound harsh but this is how I feel as a user. Foursquare had a perfect mix of social, gamification and information. It made you want to be part of its network.

As for swarm, I don't even understand how they thought that it would make a nice name except that it is marginally better than herd. Why a human would want to be part of a swarm?

</comment><comment><USER11> Wow, coordinated assaults from two of their larger backers (USV and AH).

Please, please Marissa Mayer take us out of this bad trade.

<comment><USER12> Yes, and the article reads like an advertisement. I generally like reading AVC posts because there's often some thought-provoking questions or other insight with broader application. Not so on this one. I guess the take-away point with this one is going to be long-term, watching to see if they're successful in using empty buzz to generate an exit.

<comment><USER13> Last year's round of financing was primarily a loan from Silver Lake. Loans (venture loans), on a company/asset that hasn't got genuine revenues is really expensive, both the interests, and size – I'm assuming it's an interest accruing loan (no way can FourSquare pay cash interests). This scenario should be eating everyone's returns.

The post definitely comes across as a 'Hey, look at us!', the new logo, new apps, is also a sign that FourSquare wants to transmit the message of 'We are still alive and doing 'cool' stuff', but my understanding is that they are trying not to appear stale, which to me they are. I don't think the top line operational metrics are doing that well. I think all parties are trying to save the day with some type of 0.8x-1x cash invested sale price. I even think that is ambitious. Do startups that are doing well market themselves as 'The New Twitter', 'The New Facebook', 'The New Google', no – something isn't working. Time will tell.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't buy the privacy argument. Its an inherently extroverted market so you split your apps into an introvert app that no one in the market will want to use and an extrovert app. Why?

I don't buy the assertion that the small segment of the population that was into 4sq would be into privacy. They're optimizing the experience for people that don't exist beyond the initial fad-explosion.

I would extend my remarks that its a two phase operation where the initial phase is all friends and family and social, but it rapidly converts to astroturfing, basically geo-aware semi-stealthy advertising. Its twitter, as a self selected spam delivery service, but location aware. Not sure how that fits into the privacy angle. This is going to be missed insight on HN because there are so many early adopters here who will remember nostalgically the good old days of being the first on a new service before the masses and then astroturfers invaded and destroyed it.

<comment><USER15> Using Facebook as a model for privacy reinforced my decision to stop using foursquare.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Does their new welcome page look broken/ugly to anyone else? I'm wondering if it's just on my end; scroll down past the initial tick.

[https://foursquare.com/download#welcome](https://foursquare.com/download#welcome)

<comment><USER17> Yeah it's broken. I'm on Firefox with Win8, the gray text is misaligned and missing an element / backdrop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I got really fed up with the forced move to Swarm a while ago, because I only really care about two parts of Foursquare -- a log of my own checkins, and tips at places once I've already arrived. I generally use Yelp or Google for discovering-new-venues, e.g. "search, nearby, chinese restaurant".

I ended up deleting both apps; I'll give it a try again in a few weeks to see if the integration got better, but it felt like I was really being forced into a (for me) worse experience. The Swarm app would lock up or otherwise be unresponsive.

<comment><USER19> > search, nearby, chinese restaurant

Have you tried using 4sq for this? I actually find it's quite good at it, and honestly the filters and interface are way nicer than Yelp.

<comment><USER18> Yelp is good enough for this, especially for stuff like "open now".

<comment><USER20> 4sq offers this as well

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm using Foursquare mainly to make new friends and find interesting people/places. They just made that more difficult. Would have loved if they increased the friends number limit, and made it easier to communicate with other members.

Won't remove my account but will stop using it. I wonder how their performance will move in the next few weeks. It'll be devastating if their user-base is using it for the same reason (as me) and just stop checkin-ing.

</comment><comment><USER22> Foursquare, without ratings, serves a different use case than Yelp. I use Yelp to find a place to go. Once I'm there, I (sometimes, but not usually) check Foursquare for menu recommendations.

If I'm going out with friends, I don't want to put too much weight on my own tastes, I want to pick a place that has a high likelihood of appealing to everyone. Ratings are a good proxy for that – I don't have the time or the knowledge to filter tips by my friends' preferences.

Does the new Foursquare solve this? If not, then it can't compete with Yelp. If it does, was it worth the cost of losing future check-in data (due to less than 100% adoption of Swarm)?

As an aside, how are users' check-ins being used to inform recommendations? I would argue that they shouldn't – I've never heard of anyone just checking in on Foursquare to places they like, I think most people use Foursquare as a personal record and as a way to let friends know where they've been.

<comment><USER19> 4sq does have ratings, and I actually find them to be pretty solid. I've never been disappointed by a place that was 9+.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I think this has been one of the toughest decisions foursquare has made till now albeit in the right direction. Alienating the check-in feature from core- foursquare app might piss off some power users but IMO there is not much value added by check-in for the user. With the amount of data FS has gathered from users up until now will be better utilized via place-discovery. Also I believe that there is a need for this kind of service which we can use to discover places globally rather than depend on something like Yelp which is mostly US centric. On improvement side, I think they should make check-ins using Swarm as easy as possible in one tap. Currently they ask to select/write lot of optional stuff while check-in which slows down the process.

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't agree at all with the "so we needed to separate apps to do that" argument.

Is it that difficult to make a imediate check-in a standard private info and a review + aggregate check-ins a standard public info?

Only your friends know you did a check-in right now at that restaurant. But everyone who look at that restaurant on Foursquare can see your review (if you did one) and how many checkins you, as the author of the review has there. As well as how many check-ins total that restaurant has from any users.

It looks like a wrong strategy to me. It is as Facebook would decide to separate in two different apps (and brands) its newsfeed and its fanpages.

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm wondering if anyone is considering building a new version of what Foursquare used to be. If this were was built and done well and had a point system, mayorships, badges, etc. and allowed me to browse and export my old check-ins, I would use it, and I'm sure you'd get a reasonable initial userbase just off of disgruntled Foursquare users.

It's certainly not a small project. I'm not sure how you get the initial list of locations. I also know Foursquare collects data about wifi networks to pinpoint your location, and that may be hard to replicate. But there's definitely a void here to be filled.

</comment><comment><USER26> With Foursquare I used to make pretty interesting friends by friending people at the same venue. I had a lot of fun following and meeting and commenting with a fashion teacher who bounces between NYC and Korea, a NJ man stuck going to the hospital regularly, etc.. With Swarm that has been completely removed and you only see people you know and only half the people I knew even transferred over to the new app. I don't even know what Foursquare is for any more, an attempted Yelp clone, I guess, but I just use Yelp for that instead because it is better.

</comment><comment><USER27> Can anyone explain the point of Foursquare? I live in rural Scotland, I ended up muting or ignoring friends who did this "I've just checked in <somewhere fancy>" through Foursqaure. It just got really annoying, I don't really care about where my pals are "checking in to". Please enlighten me.

<comment><USER5> It's much more useful in a dense urban area. You can e.g. see that your friend is on the same event as you. Or in a caffee two blocks from you. Or in a cinema watching a movie, so you now have a conversation topic.

One of my experiences of using Foursquare is when a friend of mine checked in to a particular takeout food venue we fancy. A notification came, and a guy sitting next to me got his phone and call the mentioned friend to also buy food for all of us.

Such random situations were the main value of Foursquare to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I have 2.4Ghz i5, 8G Ram, SSD Macbook and the performance of the landing page is horrendous.

<comment> nevi-me 3.2Ghz i7, 16GB Ram, SSD Windows, landing page seems ok, even with the processor on power-saving mode. Does your browser's CPU count increase significantly?

<comment><USER28> Yes 100%. I'm using Chrome. I could by any plugin or extension that I'm using (Chrome Helper is 89%) Flashblock, AdBlock etc. On the other side, timeline says that I my FPS is below 30 with many spikes caused by render and paint. Hmmm.

<comment> nevi-me Yea, could be a plugin or something else. Also on Chrome, and didn't see any spikes</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Facebook is readying a competing service to Zoom, Microsoft Teams - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-is-readying-a-competing-service-to-zoom-microsoft-teams-2020-04-24 <comment><AUTHOR> Facebook is the China of tech companies.

<comment><USER2> What do you exactly mean by the China of?

That it is say "firewalled"?

Or

A behemoth?

Or

A censor of content on its platform?

<comment><AUTHOR> I mean it in the sense that they are copy cats.</comment></comment></comment>


Computer Graphics?  Or Real?  "Ultimate Batting Practice" (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8SK0rk5jdE

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't normally submit something like this. It's not "deeply interesting" and it's not technical, but I was watching it and thinking - <USER2> graphics?

But I can't see how it _can_ be fake, unless the ability of the software these days is significantly beyond what I thought. So I figured I'd ask the community I have contact with that's likely to know the most about it.

And that's HN.

So I ask: Is it for real?

<comment><USER3> Film guy here. It wouldn't be that hard to fake. angle of the sun/direction of shadow is easy to keep consistent, motion blur is wholly automated these days (as in, select start/end frame & position, and motion blur will be on by default in most programs with excellent results). Although the camera is moving slightly, the distinctive and structured shapes of the batting nets provide perfect tracking points for trajectory mapping; alternatively, you could shoot at a higher resolution from a tripod and then introduce some floaty movement afterwards, windowing onto a smaller frame at 1:1 resolution. Making the nets bounce is trivial, you just need a couple of takes from the same camera position. As long as the light isn't changing, it's astonishingly easy to key stuff in and out from different frames - typically used to remove people or vehicles, but just as easy to introduce them. So it's possible that this is a film school/enthusiast project; I'd say it could be done in a single day on an average workstation.

On the other hand, the guy may just be a good batter. Bouncing a ball off 4 nets will rob it of a lot of speed, and if one practices a lot it's not that hard to get a rhythm going. When I was a teenager I used to kick a soccer ball off a wall for practice, and my aim was kick it back 100 times, starting over from 0 if I lost it. I wasn't all especially good or dedicated, so I have no problem believing this would be achievable by someone who's serious about the sport. Jugglers have to perform far more complex movements at much faster speeds, for that matter. Finally, for all we know this could have been the 10th or greater attempt to pull this off.

So either is possible. I don't feel like downloading the video and stabilizing it to do a windowed frame diff, but if you wanted to get forensic on its ass the best place to start would be to measure the # of frames between hits, because you're got a nice marker from the noise of the bat; if it's exactly the same more than 3 times in a row suspect a fake, likewise if you see a repeating progression of frame intervals like 23-25-24-23-25-24.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Follow-up: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2878992>

Conclusion: it's a fake.</comment>


Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD - <AUTHOR> http://halitalptekin.tumblr.com/post/26775107116/arduino-the-documentary

<comment><USER2> There's also a spanish version at the official site, for those interested <http://arduinothedocumentary.org/>

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for comment</comment></comment>