Expunging Google - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/duncan-bayne/duncan-bayne.github.com/wiki/Expunging-Google <comment><USER2> I still think this is all ridiculous. Stopping support for a product that uses a certain standard doesn't mean you're against that standard, unless you're a conspiracy theorist.

You can argue that they're against certain open standards if you want, but the canceling of Reader isn't actually evidence of that. Simultaneously putting effort into G+ is also not evidence of that. It's not even symbolic of that. It is only evidence of shifting product priorities, not outright _opposition_ to open standards.

The singular data point that I can think of as being anti-standard is the pending drop of CalDAV for Calendar, which I personally think sucks. But nobody ever cites that. Everybody's pissed that Google canceled a product that they liked, and that's what's driving this never-ending criticism.

<comment><USER3> The main problem with Google at the moment is the centralization of many popular services into one corporate entity. Video, search, email etc. are all now in the hands of, mostly, Google. With so few viable competitors, you get a de-factory monopoly as well as insane growth. The centralization itself is the problem.

Success like this does not breed innovation. Aside from some novel extra- Internet projects like Glass and autonomous cars, Google does not innovate much, and many of these services have stagnated, and Google does not seem to care much about Internet standards or about being ethical.

<comment><USER2> I can get behind your first paragraph, which is basically just saying that as a consumer you like to support variety and a dynamic market by using services from multiple providers. If that's you're goal, that's a reasonable enough justification for me. However, that's not a reaction that would come as a direct result of one product cancellation (because it is a proactive, not _re_ active perspective), and my comment is in response to the post, which explicitly claims the reason for expunging Google is due to Google's supposed new opposition to open standards.

I really don't understand your angle with the second paragraph though. It's just the kind of stuff that's going to make this all devolve into a battle of words about who the best/worst/most evil/most creative/most underdog/most overvalued/undervalued/deserving/undeserving companies are. Frankly a generalization like that without any specifics or context is a fanboy thing to say. If you're trying to tell me that Google is a stagnating company doing more net harm than good, all I think it's worth to say is that I think you're terribly wrong, and I disagree.

<comment><USER4> He is not claiming an _opposition_ to open standards, but that open standards are _secondary_ , and will get thrown under bus if it conflicts with the primary goal of making money, and that it seems Google believes social in general and Google+ is the way to make more money, and that this puts open standards at risk.

Reducing your dependency on Google's support for open standards then becomes prudent.

Personally I'm sticking with a number of Google services, but I'm also taking precautions (backing up my data; my primary address is on my own domain so I can move away from Gmail easily if I want to (don't think they'd close it down, but they certainly can - and have - made changes that I find detrimental; I only stick with Gmail now because of a number of tweaks using Minimalist, for example)

It's not so much that Google has become horrible, but that they've taken a number of steps to be "less good" than what a lot of people have come to expect and depend on. They're on their way to being "just another company" instead of anything special.

<comment><USER5> No he is arguing that because Google closed down Reader, using any other service offered by Google is poor judgement while also stating that they don't innovate in many if not all product areas.

<comment><USER6> I can't read that from the original comment. In fact, he didn't even mention Google Reader specifically.

If you are referring to the original article, the article makes it fairly obvious that the GReader event was the proverbial last straw, not the main motivator.

<comment><USER7> Still odd that reader's the 'last straw', but not on the lists of services to expunge!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Even assuming Google is not being malicious--and I think that's a broadly safe assumption--I'm still concerned. I'm am _significantly_ over-reliant on Google's serviced: my email, my calendar, my OpenID, my web search, my videos, my phone, my maps, my web browser... (Well, I do use Firefox now.) It's a single point of failure. A rather scary one at that.

Some of these things do not have good alternatives. My phone? I could use an iPhone or Windows phone, but Apple and Microsoft _are_ malicious. Also, they both hate Linux. But the other things? I probably could--and probably should-- move some of them to a different service, if only in the interest of diversification.

Of course, I've been meaning to do this for a while. But I haven't. In many different, usually small ways, I'm hooked into Google. That by itself worries me; in some cases, even if I did want to move to a different service, it would not be easy. Very importantly, this is not Google's fault at all--in fact, they're very good about making my data portable. It's entirely poor planning on my part. Yet it's still an issue.

Perhaps the worst part--or the best part--is that I don't have any immediate problems with this situation. Everything works. Quite well. I just have a general sense of disquiet about it all.

Just something to think about.

<comment><USER9> Diversification is a good idea, but the cost seems higher than the benefit in this case.

Let's say Google becomes evil and makes Android and Chrome evil: the solution is simple, fork Android and Chromium and continue on without the evil additions. Or, don't upgrade. If you "diversify" _now_ , though, you miss out on cool Chrome features, or you spend your weekend maintaining a web browser fork when you could be at the beach.

As for services like videos, calendars, email, and so on -- you can download your data regularly [1] and move to a new service when you feel like it. This lets you defer the cost of switching until you actually need to switch. If that happens to be never, you win. If that happens to be tomorrow, you still win. (But if you switch now, you pay the feature difference cost every day. If Google never becomes evil, then you've wasted your time.)

[1] <https://www.google.com/takeout/?pli=1>

Think of it another way. Whenever I go to the grocery store, I typically buy "store brand" products. That means everything in my pantry is "over-reliant" on that one store. But in reality, that's not the case: if Whole Foods goes out of business, I can just shop at Trader Joe's instead, since flour and sugar is pretty much the same everywhere. My accumulated recipes will continue to work either way. (And while both stores exist, nothing is stopping me from shopping at them both other than the added time that visiting each store takes. But that cost is non-zero, which entices me to consolidate my shopping needs. For now.)

<comment><USER10> > If you "diversify" now, though, you miss out on cool Chrome features, or you > spend your weekend maintaining a web browser fork when you could be at the > beach.

Sorry but what you are saying doesn't make sense. It is your proposal (fork when Chrome turns evil) which could end up with him maintaining a web browser fork on the weekend. "[M]iss out on cool Chrome features" ... well you miss out on cool Firefox features if you don't switch now ... I think switching the browser is really the least complicated thing to do of all those things.

> This lets you defer the cost of switching until you actually need to switch. > If that happens to be never, you win. If that happens to be tomorrow, you > still win.

No. Because now you have the time to slowly migrate and adjust. When you are with your back a against the wall the "costs" can be much much higher.

<comment><USER11> > No. Because now you have the time to slowly migrate and adjust. When you are > with your back a against the wall the "costs" can be much much higher.

How, exactly? In some cases, waiting seems to be cheaper.

For example, I've always regularly backed up my Reader's OPML, so I could leave anytime, but I'm still on Reader because this way I am waiting out things like Feedly's downtime, letting them iron out import bugs and complaints from less patient Reader refugees, letting people try out the various options and blog about how they are working out over a period longer than a day, etc. When Reader shuts down in June and I finally leave, won't it be cheaper for me to switch to the next-best alternative _because_ I have waited?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Most important thing is to not get so entrenched in one technology vendor or another. They are not part of you. You're not an Apple person or a Google person - that's just how companies want you to think. Don't let technology choices become part of who you think you are. Use tech that helps you until it doesn't. Always have an exit plan. Don't get emotionally attached to one company or emotionally put off another. They're corporations. The don't care about you. Thy offer a service. If that service comes as part of a trade you're comfortable with use it, else don't.

<comment><USER13> This is the comment that should be at the top of this thread.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is not conscious consumerism. This is a childish temper tantrum.

Chrome has better developer tools. If your job is being a web dev and you purposely make your job harder because you're mad at Google for shutting down Reader, you're not being rational.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll still happily use Chromium for web development, as and where necessary. Just not signed in to Google for sync, etc. etc.

I do wonder though ... would you have described the formation of the FSF as a childish temper tantrum? I remember the days when to use Linux as a development OS was painful ... it worked out well in the end though :)

<comment><USER15> FSF is an ideal. The ideal that all software is open source so that it's more secure and has all the other benefits of open source. What you're doing is being childish. "Boo hoo, big bad Google killed a product I liked, so I'm going to make some bullshit arguments to stop using ALL their products."

I don't use all of Google's products, but I use a subset because they get the job done well. If you think killing off reader was a bad idea, why not build your own and see how the cost/benefit ratio pays off. What problem are you even solving by doing this? You're just throwing a childish fit.

<comment><USER16> _FSF is an ideal. The ideal that all software is open source so that it's more secure and has all the other benefits of open source._

FSF is not about open source or security: <https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is- free-software>

Also, calling something/someone "childish" is not a good way to make your point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "It's because I think that Google is now working against the potential of the open web" That's a pretty bold claim and an epic overreaction, especially given that Google currently derives 97% of its revenue from the Web, and if it goes away, it would be very problematic for Google.

<comment><AUTHOR> The Web is a small subset of the Internet. There are many other protocols to enable the sharing of data between individuals and platforms, and it looks like Google wishes to deprecate at least some of those in favour of its own end-to-end solution. I think that killing off Reader in favour of G+ is the start of acceleration in that direction. I hope I'm wrong.

<comment><USER17> First of all, the quote, from you, specifically says "open Web" not "open Internet"

Secondly, Reader was not killed because of G+. If FriendFeed is finally killed off, will you say it was because Facebook needed the resources and engineers on a competing product? Consumers have moved on to desire the kinds of features that are inherent in services like Facebook, and RSS simply isn't suited to solving the problem of federated social networking. There is no open standard for this, remember, Google tried it with PubHubSubHub/WebFinger/OpenID/OAuth/ActivityStreams but it didn't work.

I favor federated feeds as well (see my essay [http://timepedia.blogspot.com/2008/05/decentralizing- web.htm...](http://timepedia.blogspot.com/2008/05/decentralizing-web.html)), but honestly, for me personally, RSS was a HUGE step back from what I had on USENET in the 80s with RN/TRN. Someone must create a new, open federated social networking platform, but honestly, you can't put the cart before the horse. Google tried that several times and failed.

First, you've got to built a super successful platform consumers love, then you can standardize it. The history of doing it the other way is littered with failure. Remember OpenSocial?

I don't think Google has lost sight of the Open Web, I think it just realized that you must focus on the end user design issues first if you want to be successful. Ignore this at your peril, look at the way consumers flock to native apps on mobile. They care about experiences, not implementation. If the "open web" specs don't do the job, then you need to create a product first that consumers show they want, and then work backwards to figure out how to fix the specs.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right; I've corrected that.

You're also correct that RSS doesn't solve the problem of federated social networking. It was never intended to.

W.r.t. developing protocols for federated social networking: Google isn't interested; it would harm their bottom line if users on their systems could easily share content outside those systems. Hence why Google+ doesn't even offer an RSS feed.

Do you really, hand-on-heart, think that Google would support a federated social media protocol on Google+ should such a thing come into being? Do you think they're planning to build such a protocol?

<comment><USER17> A central core feature of Google Wave was federation. Wave failed. Reason? Not because of federation, but because of consumer experience and confusion.

If you look at G+, Google has taken a very very careful approach this time (after OpenSocial, Buzz, Wave, et al failed), building on it very incrementally, always concentrating on user experience at each step. Even to the extent that they don't have even have an API to post content to G+ programmatically. Whether or not it will eventually turn into some idea federated open network, I have no idea.

But I would not take G+ as somehow Google dropping support for the open web. Google is a very large company with lots and lots of product, and company culture just doesn't change overnight.

I'd love it if Google had done a disapora-like federated system. But honestly, if they had gone that route, we'd have threads all over the blog-sphere laughing at Google for yet another social networking failure.

Those kinds of projects earn the love and adoration of the hacker community, but they don't get grandma, teens, and celebrities on your site.

Want better counter-evidence? Look at WebRTC and Google Hangouts. Hangouts are a defining competitive advantage G+ has over all over social networks, and Google sponsors a spec that essentially makes them a commodity that anyone can implement now.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmmmm ... the fact that there is no API access, no RSS feed etc. doesn't strike me as a coincidence, or perhaps a consequence of a streamlined user experience. I think it's deliberate, & part of a long-term strategy.

Clearly you don't though.

Perhaps we should resume this conversation in five years time? :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm planning to do exactly this, myself. Not so much because of any perceived danger to the open web posed by Google, but because I've come to realise that I simply have too many eggs in their basket. Tellingly, my list of products that I will be replacing is almost completely different to this person's. Google has become the Walmart of computing and it's time to resist.

</comment><comment><USER19> I understand why people are reluctant to trust a single corporation with so much control over their personal information, particularly when, as they say, the user is as much the product as the customer. I'm generally a big defender of Google but even I am disquieted by their maneuvering around Google+.

However, I also doubt it's possible to build services as sophisticated as GMail on direct payments from users. I strongly suspect that very few people would be willing to pay what it would cost to build and run a service like GMail without ads.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I strongly suspect that very few people would be willing to > pay what it > would cost to build and run a service like > GMail without ads.

What do you think the problem would be? I'm using Fastmail now, and not missing anything from Gmail. All for $50 / month.

<comment><USER19> I tried Fastmail last year and maybe my impressions are out of date but it can't compete on features at all. The web interface is stone age compared to gmail, search is far slower and less sophisticated, spam filtering was not as good etc. No native apps are available for mobile.

Fastmail isn't bad but I don't consider them to be in the same league.

<comment><USER20> The new Fastmail webmail interface is actually massively on-par with Gmail. It's very slick and I'd encourage everyone to give it a(nother) go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Reminds me of Android Market. Used to be OK for getting apps, but now it is going to shove music and video search results in my face every chance it gets with annoying screens between me and the app search results and annoying continue shopping screens after each app.

If I wanted those things, I'd be in the other apps for them, like Google Books or whatever. Of course I'm never in that particular one because Amazon Kindle is so much better. I'm sure if I liked music or video then Google wouldn't be my choice either. I tried to get 300 once for someone and it had a search result for it, but wouldn't show me the page. Then I bought batman instead and it just gave me a license error whenever I tried to watch it.

Really would have been better to migrate Android Market/Google Play as soon as someone else made an app store on Android, and there are many, rather than trusting Google not to sell out their users. With Google you invest time in a product, then basically it gets shut down or co-opted into something you don't want. A startup you like getting bought by Google is pretty much the worst thing possible since generally they'll just kill the product.

Guess I should go through this list and get off their other services proactively. It just isn't worth trusting Google where you don't have to.

</comment><comment><USER9> By these standards, it would seem that every company on Earth is "opposed to an open web" because they don't make available a free web-based RSS reader.

</comment><comment><USER22> I don't think Google is 'actively working against an open web', but the shuttering of Reader in order to make way for that ghastly Google+ makes me reconsider every time they open up a new service (didn't even glance at Keep, for example. Remember what happened to Google Notebook?)

It's nice to have open source alternatives, and possibly to help them grow. If a lot more people start using, say, ownCloud, it will probably help develop it into a more robust and usable platform. Also, as a hacker, having a stack of my own software side-by-side with my current Google/Apple stack will probably help me learn more as I use it more, and will give me something to fall back on in case Google shutters it.

<comment><USER17> "the shuttering of Reader in order to make way for that ghastly Google+"

There's a lot of erroneous assumptions in there. Reader was never really a product with much support, it was more a labor of love of a small dedicated team. Reader was not shutdown to "make way for G+" anymore than any of the other spring cleaned services were shut down because of competing services. Even the original (ex-Googler now) Reader engineers have pretty much outlined many of the reasons, including the decline of RSS, which was killed off in large part by people moving to services like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

It's really regretable, but it's time to realize that the rest of the world moved on, and if we want federated, open services, it's going to have to built from the ground up, and in a way that users, not hackers, will want to use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm a bit speechless with this post.

I have seen overreaction from people when Google shut down Reader.

I told myself that the craziest of those overreactions would be for somebody to quit all of Google's services.

Then I saw this article and I thought he was trolling.

Sadly he is not.

</comment><comment><USER24> Regardless of where you stand on this issue, this is (to me) why being able to export your data is a _first class_ requirement of a service. For these listed, there's takeout: <https://www.google.com/takeout/>

Backing up your online data from services should be just as common (and practiced) as backing up harddrives or important information. You decide which services you want to use, but give yourself the flexibility to move if and when circumstances change.

</comment><comment><USER25> I don't care about reader or RSS.

I do care about Google's decision to avoid paying tax. This may be legal, but it's shady. Thus, I'm starting to not use Google provided services.

It's a shame because Google Search (web, at least) really is very good, despite occasional weirdness.

Here's some screenshots (<http://imgur.com/a/u1zj6>) of my results. (Note that suicidegirls is NSFW)

[suicidegirls dutch doctors want to kill little babies] gives this URL ([https://www.google.co.uk/#output=search&sclient=psy- ab&#...](https://www.google.co.uk/#output=search&sclient=psy- ab&q=suicidegirls+dutch+doctors+want+to+kill+little+babies&oq=suicidegirls+dutch+doctors+want+to+kill+little+babies&gs_l=hp.3...631.9034.0.922.214.171.124.18.104.22.1682.4667.1j25j4j1.31.0...0.0...1c.1.9.psy- ab.Mk4wE- lsAIY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45512109,d.d2k&fp=24006220c2dff3f4&biw=1280&bih=713))

But [suicidegirls dutch doctors] gives this url ([https://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy- ab&q=suicidegirls+...](https://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy- ab&q=suicidegirls+dutch+doctors&oq=suicidegirls+dutch+doctors&gs_l=hp.3...120198.120198.1.1205126.96.36.199.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.9.psy- ab.kPe0DhqLH_I&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45512109,d.d2k&fp=24006220c2dff3f4&biw=1280&bih=713))

</comment><comment><USER26> Switching to Firefox will not save you.

I recently found out that Firefox sends a request to safebrowsing.clients.google.com for every page I visit. I found out how to disable it, but it wasn't straightforward and there were still requests sent to Google for other things.

Safe browsing is in Firefox Preferences "Security" tab under "Block reported attack sites" + "Block reported web forgeries".

Search for "goog" in about:config to find more interesting things.

LiveHTTPHeaders extension is also an eye-opener, because Firebug usually doesn't show these requests.

<comment><USER27> sniff the connection rather than jumping to conclusions (and _especially_ before telling people to disable a safety feature of their browser).

Safe browsing _does not_ send the addresses you visit over the wire. The protocol was very carefully designed to be both fast updating and not expose any information about the sites you visit.

<https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/>

[https://code.google.com/p/google-safe- browsing/wiki/Protocol...](https://code.google.com/p/google-safe- browsing/wiki/Protocolv2Spec)

edit: just to save time for others parsing the protocol page, and it's been a while since I've read it, so someone please correct me if I have this wrong, but Firefox (and Chrome, and maybe others, not sure) stores a local set of the first 32 bits of the 256-bit hashes of all the sites currently marked as hosting malware or whatever. Your browser pings fairly often to get an updated version of this set of sites.

When you visit a page, the canonicalized name of the page you're on is hashed and the first 32 bits are compared against the database of prefixes. If there is a collision (I believe there are usually a few hundred thousand entries of the 2^32 available hash prefixes), _only the first 32 bits of the hash of the page you're on is sent to google_ , as a request for the set of full hashes of malicious pages that begin with that prefix, which allows for the final, very much local, check.

This saves a bunch of time and bandwidth, and lets you get a last minute double check that the page is still bad with no one able to work out what page you're actually on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I have seen many of these posts recently and I honestly do not understand. I use Google products and it definitely beats out most of the competition and doesn't interfere with anything worse than any other product out there. Sure the internet is changing, and you can either go with it (or not). Switching to many different products to complete the same tasks (many of them worse than Google products) seems kind of silly to me.

</comment><comment><USER29> RSS just isn't very popular. Firefox also removed that RSS icon from the address bar a few months ago. Do you think Mozilla did that because they "oppose the open web"?

No, of course they don't. They got rid of it because virtually no one used it.

</comment><comment><USER30> FYI: Fastmail, while still developed in Australia, is now owned by Opera Software.

<comment><USER31> I'd like to give credit to Google where it is due. With takeout, it is very easy to get quite a bit of your information. You already could get your emails by IMAP or POP but still Google set a standard with Takeout :)

This makes it possible for someone to just pack his bags and leave. This is also the reason why I am staying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Just like everybody else said, Google is not moving against the open web. Rather the opposite. The only thing I agree with is the part where Google tries to get everybody to use Google only, which makes sense considering Google can be compared to a small empire. I mean, has anyone seen the office buildings that Google has?

As for Chrome, I think Webkit (or now Blink) is where web happens fastest. All new web experiments are done with -webkit, not -moz-, and you gotta go where the majority goes. In this case anyway. I haven't used gmail for a long time tho', because I didn't like that the content of my emails get used for ads - so I set up my own email server for personal usage. Other then that, maps, search .. it does what I need it to do so whether it tracks me or whatever is just the cost of the service.

<comment><USER33> > All new web experiments are done with -webkit, not -moz-

Uh... That happens to not be true. But WebKit does have much better (and better-funded) marketing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> When I registered on Quora by using my GoogleId, I was very surprised to see Quora asking me to send an email invite to all my Android phone contacts. Google handed over all the emails of my Android phone contacts to Quora ! Is this what I get from using Android and synchronization ? I didn't see an opt out of that.

I'm now waiting for Ubuntu phone, while hoping that they don't try to monetize it using similar abuse of monopole. The Ubuntu desktop spam still hurts.

Also, when connecting to my Youtube account, google ask me regularly to use my real name and there is no button to reply just no and don't ever ask me anymore!

Google is lowering the barrier for competitors ! Same thing for Twitter and Facebook.

<comment><USER35> No, that's what you get when you don't read the permissions you are granting. Here is the permission request I saw:

      Quora is requesting permission to:

        View basic information about your account
        View your email address
        Manage your contacts

Given that, you shouldn't be at all surprised that Quora was able to figure out your phone contacts.

<comment><USER34> I agree but this means that I can't register in quora with my googleId without giving Quora all my emails. Since I don't use facebook and twitter what options are left ? I do want to use googleId authentication to access Quora but why would that imply I have to give all my emails to Quora ? Why can't I decide about that ? Why is Google imposing that to me ? Is this a commercial deal between Google and Quora ?

<comment><USER35> Google isn't imposing anything, AFAIK. The permissions exist because there are reasonable applications that might want them (e.g. contact sync). Quora is deciding what permissions to ask for. They could ask for more or less (other sites/services do), but they don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> For companies like Google we are mere merchandise, as we do not generate sufficient profits they discard us, well done ...

</comment><comment><USER37> You know, I've come to think of Google as less of a corporation and more of a country lately. Most of their products act more like a sort of public service for their citizens, subsidized through ad revenue rather than taxes.

So far, it's had a pretty good track record for a country, no doubt due to the fact that it's still technically a corporation, but still, not too bad.

Still, it has its issues. There are many countries that can only dream of obtaining the data Google has on its citizens. Many of them have tried, and thankfully, for the time being, Google has been more or less protective of this data. Then there's their whole policy of axing infrastructure and services (products) whenever they deem fit, and by fit I mean unprofitable. Depending on your political views, this can be seen as either irresponsible or efficient. Regardless, its inconvenient for those who were using the service, and most efforts to put a service on the chopping block have something to do with trying to get more people to migrate to Google+, possibly to collect more data and serve up more ads, a very bizarre synthesis of increasing taxes and surveillance.

So maybe Google doesn't want to be a country of the internet. Tough. That's what they grew into, and the only way to avoid it is to shrink and pivot and lay off a lot of people who are essentially the Google equivalent of government employees.

Until then, we're right to be critical and cautious towards Google's actions, a responsibility even, otherwise they're liable to really screw up.

</comment><comment><USER38> Also: Self-Host Everything <http://www.slashgeek.net/2013/02/17/self-host- everything/>

</comment><comment><USER39> I would find this a lot harder.

I have 6 applications running on Google App Engine. I use Analytics to track stats in them. I use Ad Sense and Ad words to help monetise them. I have 2 apps for business accounts each with separate gmail, calendar and docs. One for personal life one for business.

Crome is significantly better than both Safari and Firefox on my Mac laptop event though I use both and have all three browsers open, each has a different google account loged into it.

</comment><comment><USER40> I don't know about replacing Google with DDG. I'd prefer an engine that actually does its own indexing. Yandex is the only alternative that fits the bill in my mind: <http://www.yandex.com>

Also, so happy to learn about ownCloud. As a developer, I'm a little disappointed to see AGPL licensing, but it's probably a smart choice and I use that license in some projects.

<comment><USER41> DDG actually pulls its results from Yandex and several other sources. Why limit yourself to a single, old-fashioned crawler, when you can use one of the most innovative meta-search engines?

<http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/216399>

<comment><USER40> Meta-search is a pretty old idea too. And you're at the mercy of your sources and have less insight into the data you're searching and less ability to rank pages.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> This reminds me of a kid, lying flat in the middle of a super market, revolting with his parents because they didn't buy a toy he liked..

</comment><comment><USER43> People want their news curated, either through hacker news, reddit, Google plus or something else. For a minority RSS was their preference, but for everyone else Google correctly shifted their resources to the future.

RIP RSS, you had your day in the sun and lead the way for better products.

<comment><USER44> That's a false dichotomy - I can consume curated news through RSS just fine. Trivium is one of my favourite feeds, for example.

The only difference between using RSS and following the author on FB/G+/Twitter is that I can use any client I want, and neither of us has to use yet another web service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Google Talk uses an open protocol, XMPP. So basically any client that support XMPP _should_ (hopefully) work with Google Talk. This means you wouldn't have to migrate your friends / family over to a new client but you can still expunge Google's IM client specifically.

<comment><USER46> Google just recently reinstated federated XMPP for their Google Talk service [1] so you can talk to peers on other XMPP servers. I use an XMPP server that has been provided to me by my e-mail provider (lavabit.com) to chat with my friends/family that use Google Talk without any issues.

[1] [http://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/operators/2013-April/001672...](http://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/operators/2013-April/001672.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> I love these articles and seeing alternatives to mainstream solutions but focusing on alternatives for a single company is not the end goal for me. You can go with Apple, Google or Microsoft and get a nice packaged solution for email, calendar, contacts, music, storage, etc and the end goal for me would not be switching to separate packages. The end goal would be to have a self- hosted easy to install and solution, OwnCloud is almost there for 90% of what I want but it doesn't maintain my email. There is no solution for me unless it's easy and all works seamlessly together, like Google and the rest have.

</comment><comment><USER48> The main Google services I use are Gmail, Android and Search. I would be mainly interested in replacing Gmail and tried (I have a personal domain with mail forwarded to Gmail). I use Gmail mainly because of its excellent spam blocking but also the Android experience is very good.

I tried getting rid of Gmail last year but failed due to not finding a decent email client on Android that wasn't Gmail. Any suggestions? Please don't suggest K-9.

For search I am now trying DuckDuckGo. I'm a mechanical engineer so will give this a few weeks to see if it affects my day to day fact finding.

</comment><comment><USER49> I totally agree with your thoughts and concerns. It sounds like my experience: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5535181>

</comment><comment><USER50> I've barely used it, but <http://librelist.com> seems like a potential Google Groups replacement.

</comment><comment><USER51> Adding the missing features (email + maps) to owncloud would appear to be the neatest way to go. Then target something like the openstack API and you can move between providers pretty easily. The bit that bugs me is how to deal with rolling your own maps provider, but if you're willing to compromise on having access to all maps all the time it wouldn't be so hard.

</comment><comment><USER52> For replacing Google Groups, you should check out Groupsapces, a UK company. <http://groupspaces.com/>

A free plan gets you two lists of 50 members, and there are many paid options. I've been using it for a group in my local community for over a year now and am very pleased with the product.

</comment><comment><USER53> Google's primary objective is not money, but information gathering and control. The move to Google+ is a centralisation of the information repository. Google Glass is an attempt at getting more detailed personal information. The autonomous vehicle development is for them to control your vehicle.

</comment><comment><USER54> Stop whining and build something better. Reader was never a very good RSS reader anyway. You can do better.

<comment><USER55> Reader was a great RSS archiver and syncer though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I might recommend uzing Zoho mail instead of fastmail. I've used it for a while now and it's very nice.

</comment><comment><USER57> Cool. Now show me how you're going to expunge server-side Google Analytics from your life.

<comment><USER58> If you mean replacing analytics for your website, piwik is the answer : <http://piwik.org/>

If you mean not being tracked by analytics, well, it's quite simple :

# cat /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com googleadservices.com

edit: formatting

<comment><USER57> I was talking about actual server-side analytics includes. Pretty sure the only way around it is to spoof your user agent data or use a proxy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> Great list! I had already been eyeballing fastmail but hadn't seen ownCloud. Will check it out, thanks!

I agree with you on the Android front, too. Although I'm still struggling to get a new qwerty after my pro+ died :(

<comment><USER48> Also check out <http://aerofs.com/> (I prefer this to Owncloud)

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> For maps you may want to try here.com It's not bad - faster than gmaps too

<comment><USER61> Hmmm Laval shows up before Montreal... I think I'll keep using Google Maps for now.

<comment><USER62> Google Maps has its share of little cities showing before big ones. I currently see a Digoin on the map of France whereas Saint-Étienne, Clermont- Ferrand, Bourges (or Laval) do not appear...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> Note that you can often get jabber/xmpp from your email provider: e.g. <https://www.fastmail.fm/help/features_chat.html>

</comment><comment><USER64> I've asked multiple times about adding subdomains to distinguish repos from blogs, but it appears that this is a workaround that no subdomain reporting would detect

</comment><comment><USER65> One alternative to Google Groups is 37signals' Breeze:

<http://basecamp.com/breeze>

$20 one-time payment to create a group email list.

</comment><comment><USER66> > Bing Maps looks like a potential alternative

why not openstreetmaps?

<comment><USER67> It's pretty incomplete for parts of the world, and certain applications require accuracy (or at least completeness). The answer, of course, is to contribute, but when your core business isn't mapping that's hard to propose as a viable fix.

Parts of the world in my case ~= Sydney, which has a decent number of geeks per capita to contribute. OSM is wonderful, but has a way to go before it's a viable solution for everyone.

<comment><USER68> Check out MapBox and <http://ideditor.com>.

<comment><USER67> iDeditor is great! Leagues ahead of other OSM interfaces I've seen :) Did MapBox have anything to do with it? Polished! Love the walkthrough!

I've just recently discovered (and love) TileMill.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> I use all the products you listed. And I will not attack a company just because of a product. If you just want to be popular? you did it. Kid.

</comment><comment><USER70> This is exactly like in nineties and also later some were trying to do anti- microsoft movement.

</comment><comment><USER71> owncloud was an interesting item on his replacement list. Has anyone else used owncloud and can vouch for it? If so, are you self-hosting it or using a commercial host? If the latter, which one?

<comment><USER72> I was mildly interested in it until I saw the letters PHP, then lost interest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> What about the products advertisers/publishers use? Adsense and Adwords.

</comment><comment><USER74> I'm doing the opposite.

</comment><comment><USER75> Streeme is a good alternative to Google Music

<https://code.google.com/p/streeme/>

</comment><comment><USER76> exagerado.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nah, farsighted :) Seriously, you just wait.

If you're a user on a commercial system you didn't pay for (Google, Facebook, etc.) then you're not a customer, you're cattle. Your value is directly proportional to how much the company running the system knows about you.

I don't like where Facebook is going, and I think Google is following in their footsteps, albeit helped along by an excellent reputation for quality and fair play, especially amongst geeks.

Maybe I'm just being a curmudgeon, but I think Google is playing the same 'embrace and extend' card as Microsoft did back in the day, just for slightly different reasons.

<comment><USER77> > Maybe I'm just being a curmudgeon, but I think Google is playing the same > 'embrace and extend' card as Microsoft did back in the day, just for > slightly different reasons.

I see this meme a lot, but I don't get it how the analogy is supposed to work.

There is actual evidence that Microsoft in the 90's was trying to sabotage standard protocols and open source software, e.g. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Documents>.

The key part of "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy was extending the standard in proprietary ways, thus making it incompatible and no longer implementable via open source software, thus killing it.

I don't get how any of this applies to any web company, where nearly the entire business is based on the web and the standards that back it. It's no wonder that many of these companies contribute back to the web standards and open source software. Sure, these contributions are in the company's interests --but that's the whole point. We reached a time when it's in interests of many big (and small) corporations to contribute to open source and standards (including Microsoft!).

Some people see efforts to improve standards or contribute new ones as somehow bad, "embrace and extend". When actually it's the opposite: investing in the commons to promote its welfare.

Obligatory disclaimer: speaking for myself here, not any employer past or present.

<comment><AUTHOR> ... except where it isn't in their interests, which is why Google is trying to kill off RSS with a multi-pronged strategy (ignore RSS in Chromium, kill off RSS reader, don't offer an RSS feed in G+).

If your platform is free-as-in-beer, you have to monetise your users to advertisers. You do this by learning more about them by keeping them within your ecosystem, not by allowing them access to your platform through open protocols.

I see it as a fundamental conflict between users of a system (you and me) and the customers (advertisers). Google has made it clear which side of that equation they care about. See e.g. their support of DRM in HTML.

<comment><USER27> Not only would that be a pretty poor multi-pronged strategy, it still has absolutely nothing to do with "embrace, extend, and extinguish", as the parent pointed out.

And, seriously, "ignore RSS in Chromium" is now kowtowing to advertisers? How about the lack of gopher support[1]? And no built in bittorrent client[2]??

I'm starting to agree with others that you have a point somewhere in here but you're missing it over anger about Reader.

[1] <https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=11345>

[2] <https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=182399>

<comment><AUTHOR> Not exactly embrace and extend like MS did it, but similar in spirit: take an open protocol, embrace it for a while, gradually weaken it over time in favour of a parallel closed system, then once everyone is happily using it, kill it dead and watch the migration into the closed system.

If I had to guess, I'd say that torrent support was nixed for fear of offending Big Content; Opera has already showed that it's reasonable for a browser to support it. Also there's already a plugin for that protocol, so it may just be a low priority for the team. Odd that they flagged the request 'invalid' though.

(Please stop telling me that I'm angry about Reader. It's not that I'm angry: I've identified what I think is a pattern in Google's behaviour, figured out what their end goal is, and it troubles me. So I'm abandoning their platform to the greatest extent practical.)

<comment><USER27> That's not similar in spirit to "embrace, extend, and extinguish", and not even a good description of what they've done. There's no migration path from Reader to G+ (presuming that's what you mean by "the closed system"). There's not even a clear correspondence between the content in each, and meanwhile Google _does_ provide a migration path to other RSS readers.

I think there is a clear argument for Google consolidating around APIs and their social network instead of federated protocols in the future. However, the whole "strategy to kill off RSS" thing is silly and undermines the other arguments you're making.

The bittorrent and gopher comments were facetious. It's not at all clear that all browsers should have a button that appears when a page has an RSS feed and, when pressed, opens a _different_ web page to then enter the address of that RSS feed into your reader. Zawinski's Law was not meant as praise.

The lack of that RSS button is no more evidence of trying to kill RSS than the lack of gopher support is evidence of Google's plot to make sure that Gopher will never rise again like a phoenix and supplant the World Wide Web once and for all. Instead, you make sure extensions are able to build that button for those that want it (or put an option to enable it in about:config) and you call it a day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> Good for you...

</comment><comment><USER79> I try to avoid these sorts of submissions, mainly because of their non-content and the subsequent familiar discussion, but somehow they keep reaching the front page.

It's certainly your prerogative to use whatever you like but the incorrect assertions bother me, especially the prevalent one: "It's because I think that Google is now working against the potential of the open web".

Here's a rebuttal in the form of a _partial_ list of links to Google initiatives that exist primarily to advance the "open web":

<http://www.webrtc.org>

<http://www.chromium.org>

And their various web speed efforts:

<https://developers.google.com/speed/spdy>

<https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed>

And of course:

<https://fiber.google.com>

I don't think the closure of Google Reader was any indication to the contrary, and all of these are certainly much more important to the web than yet another centralized RSS reader.

Other errors in that post: Chrome never 'dropped decent RSS support' as it never supported it to begin with, it was actually Firefox that dropped their support. Also there is no evidence that Reader was closed to "drive users to Google+", there is no proof nor common sense explanation to support that assertion.

<comment><USER80>
        Here's a rebuttal in the form of a partial list of links to Google
        initiatives that exist primarily to advance the "open web":

        http://www.chromium.org

That's funny. I see Chromium as their OSS alibi for doing whatever non- standard they want with open-web HTML, which doesn't exist in any other browser. But now it's not "proprietary", because it's in a OS code-repo somewhere.

So now it's "standards" even though it hasn't been submitted, ratified or approved yet. And everyone else, if they dont want Google's stuff to work poorly in their browser, has to be a dog and follow Google's leash.

I consider Chromium some of the worst damage Google has done to the open web.

<comment><USER81> Interesting opinion. I hadn't considered it like that at all, but I will give it some thought. How much of the non-standard stuff is getting any use/traction (honest question)?

For me, currently, Chromium seems like nothing like a good thing. For example, their Linux sandboxing appears to be at least a step ahead of anything else so far.</comment></comment></comment>


Stephen Wolfram Aims to Democratize His Software - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/stephen-wolfram-seeks-to-democratize-his-software/ <comment><USER2> This is a remarkable change for a man who famously inserted a fairly esoteric copyright notice in his book "A New Kind of Science":

"Copyright © 2002 by Stephen Wolfram, LLC

...Discoveries and ideas introduced in this book, whether presented at length or not, and the legal rights and goodwill associated with them, represent valuable property of Stephen Wolfram, LLC, and when they or work based on them is described or presented, whether for scholarly purposes or otherwise, appropriate attribution should be given.

...Illustrations (including tables) may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. Most individual illustrations in this book represent substantial original works in themselves, and their reproduction is not a fair use... Permission to reproduce illustrations will normally be granted for scholarly purposes so long as the illustrations are not modified...[and] are used and explained in an appropriate way... Stephen Wolfram, LLC is the owner of the full copyright to all illustrations in this book (except as indicated in the colophon), including...such original elements as non-obvious choices of rules and initial conditions used to create them."</comment>


How the Internet Archive is waging war on misinformation - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/5be1f2ee-d60b-11e9-a0bd-ab8ec6435630 <comment><USER2> Pay-walled

Try this archive: [https://archive.is/XYUqg](https://archive.is/XYUqg)</comment>


The Android Market - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomkleinpeter.com/2010/10/12/the-android-market/

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I completely agree with this post. I recently published my first application to the Android Market (last month) and was pretty shocked with how little the Developer Console tells me. I had expected a lot more analytical data.

Hopefully, as they continue to improve the OS, they will improve the Marketplace as well.

(Side: I am still waiting to even hear another thing about the Desktop version that was demoed at the Google IO this year.)

</comment><comment><USER3> To anyone who thinks: that a very small team creating an entire, enormously complex operating system, with unending goals for platforms improvements, that has already been successfully iterating at an extreme pace, is up against enormous competition from Apple and Microsoft, and is playing the long game for the future of mobile and computing as a whole... is really ignoring these extremely common complaints and resting on its laurels...

...uh, really? There are many very concrete reasons to believe they know about the vast majority of these issues and have respective solutions addressing them somewhere in their product roadmap. (ie, major UI revision in Gingerbread, along with optimization for tablets.) That, and they've been overwhelmingly successful so far, as Android phones now consistently outsell the iPhone each quarter.

<comment><USER4> > ...a very small team creating an entire, enormously complex operating > system...

I don't think the size of the team is a defense against the OP's critique. Criticism of Google's handling of the Android market includes the decision about how much man-power to devote to it.

This isn't a personal attack on the team members.

<comment><USER5> If the team size is a problem, maybe we can hold a bake sale so Google can hire another engineer or two.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thinking about this a little, I can kind of understand why Amazon would consider entering this business. Even if Apple would allow it, probably no other company would invest significant resources into trying to unseat the Apple AppStore. You have to have some kind of leverage to beat a competitor like that.

The situation is different with Android. Building a better app marketplace than the Android market is not exactly a very high bar to leap.

<comment><USER7> Microsoft will also invest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You could fill pages with things that can be improved on Android Market (most of which are available on the App Store). Most shortcoming are well documented - things that I would like to see personally:

\- ability to publish what changed in an update

\- track number of users who upgraded vs new users

\- ability to search for apps and see reviews on <http://www.android.com/market/> (that website is practically useless)

<comment><USER9> The market client also needs some improvement: for example, the search feature isn't very good. Searching for "ADW Launcher" brings up countless pages of themes for the ADW Launcher before showing the actual launcher app itself.

<comment><USER2> I completely agree with you. You would figure that a search giant would have a good search implementation in their Marketplace.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Ugh, so tired of reading these posts. Has everyone so quickly forgotten Google IO? They know there are problems with the Market, they plan on having them fixed for the release of Gingerbread, which according to rumors (which indicate the SDK will be out next week) could be very soon.

<comment><USER11> If anything, I think there should be far more of these posts, and have been thinking of compiling my own list on my blog. There has been no indication from Google that they think anything is wrong with the market or that they're planning to fix it.

<comment><USER10> ... What are you talking about? They have plans for a web interface that does the equivalent of app-to-phone like chrome-to-phone. They have acknowledged problems with app discovery and with the lack of a proper ranking system/algorithm.

This was all discussed at Google IO when they announced JIT/Froyo. How can you say Google hasn't indicated there is a problem? I guess they're just planning a complete revamp/redo of the market for giggles?

<comment><USER12> Devs are in pain right now, and considering that Google does web apps for a living, it is actually quite mindbogglingly that the Marketplace sucks so badly.

If they discussed these at Google IO, that's irrelevant: they should just deliver, everything else matters less.

Another annoyance the article hasn't mentioned: my European country is not on their frickin' list (not even with the latest update) and I cannot upload priced apps, even though I can do that in Apple's iTunes store. I mean, WTF ?!?

<comment><USER10> > It is actually quite mindbogglingly that the Marketplace sucks so badly > [...] they should just deliver, everything else matters less.

I agree, but I still don't agree with this...

> There has been no indication from Google that they think anything is wrong > with the market or that they're planning to fix it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Jason Fried: The pleasure of an open schedule  - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2391-the-pleasure-of-an-open-schedule <comment><USER2> I can't believe I'm saying this, but I totally agree with Jason on this one. (I'm usually their devil's advocate)

I had a week vacation in May, and then a long weekend in June where I went out of town. For the last 2 months, everything I've been doing has been clouded by a "I'll start on that when I'm back" mindset. I don't know why, I just couldn't focus on anything new until those vacations were over.

I wish I knew what was happening here on a deeper level. I need to keep this in mind next time I find myself doing this so I can out-think it and just move on anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought that 37 Signals argued that constraints are good because they force you to be efficient. Can't a busy schedule with a lot of traveling be considered the same way?

<comment><USER4> Constraints != interruptions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Perhaps it is not so much the case of traveling, but the case of high level context switching. What does "productive" mean to you? If you don't regard public engagements as productive, then I would agree that traveling for them is very unproductive! Otherwise, doing so could be viewed in the same way as a person who runs two types of businesses (e.g. a restaurant and a software shop) in which case switching between those responsibilities takes a lot of start-up time. I'd therefore agree with mburney's comment above that being aware of those constraints should force you to be more efficient.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't do near as much traveling as Jason Fried; but I personally find travel to be a refreshing interruption that is usually followed by a new perspective toward my work.

I'm always full of ideas after SXSW, for example.

</comment><comment><USER7> summary: traveling every week makes you less productive.

</comment><comment><USER8> What about the biggest and most regular productivity killer of all? Weekends.

Should we get rid of them?

<comment><USER9> When I was doing freelance work I worked for ~4 hours every day of the week. I got much more work done that way than doing 9-5 Mon-Fri even though I was working less hours in total. Its a much easier rhythm to get into and you get to skip those unproductive hours spent just waiting for the clock.

<comment><USER10> This works especially well when you are doing creative work. Come in and do at least some work every single day you possibly can. You don't have to do a lot of work every day, but try to stop at a natural stopping point.

My theory is that by working every day you keep the work current and churning in the back of your mind; while by working to a natural stopping point, you avoid feeling frustrated by loose ends.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to account/charge for web app bandwidth/disk usage? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working on a web app in my limited spare time which, if all goes well, will require storing and serving a large number of small files (HTML, JS & images mainly). I'm going to get a VPS from Linode to start with (and possibly join up with a CDN) but I'm not sure how to estimate how many resources each user will require and whether I'm going to lose money off them. For example, I don't want a $10/mo user costing me $50 in bandwidth. I'll set limits obviously, but right now these are just totally abitrary; they could be far too conservative or far too generous!<p>I realise this isn't very specific but I was curious how other people handle things like this - especially when you have no idea how take up will be, or average usage loads? <comment><USER2> Generally speaking, bandwidth is cheap. You can get an extra 100gb of bandwidth added on to any linode for $10/mo. S3 bandwidth is incredibly cheap at $0.15 per gb for the first 10 terabytes after that it gets cheaper.

More S3 pricing information can be found here (<http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/>)

Using those numbers you can generally figure out how much you would need to charge a user to stay profitable.</comment>


Learn Something New Everyday by Email - <AUTHOR> http://nowiknow.com/

<comment><USER2> Dan Lewis started this newsletter about the same time I started my Hacker News related one so we have collaborated a good bit the past 2+ years. It has been awesome seeing how fast he has been able to grow it. He does a great job with the writing and finding things that you never have heard of... I can't recommend it enough!

<comment><USER3> Also agreed. Enjoy getting these as one of the first emails in the morning. They are always well written, informative, and fun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> would you consider making an rss feed or would that defeat the purpose?

<comment><USER5> Kinda defeats the purpose.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure to understand why. In my case, I think that if if it happens that I receive the email in my phone (that is, when I'm not in frond of my computer), I'll make it as 'read', and it will be forgotten in the middle of the not-so-important emails (that is, outside of the inbox, in Gmail). I only read rss news on my computer, so it's far more likely that I'll read and enjoy it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks! I write this :-)

<comment><USER7> Just a heads-up: when I signed up, the banner that shows on the "thanks for signing up" page links to "<http://dlewis.net/nik/> which currently says "OK" and nothing else.

<comment><USER5> Thanks, it's a broken redirect -- will strip that out.</comment></comment></comment>


Spoofing Fitness Trackers - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/09/spoofing_fitnes.html <comment><USER2> I'm pretty sure this is a joke. Wouldn't it be much simpler to use the FitBit API? [https://dev.fitbit.com/docs/activity/#activity- logging](https://dev.fitbit.com/docs/activity/#activity-logging)

If you do this to get a discount on your insurance, then you are committing fraud.</comment>


Show HN: PHP Best Practices, a short guide for common and confusing PHP tasks - <AUTHOR> http://phpbestpractices.org

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! I'm the author. I've spent a lot of time writing PHP, and one thing that always struck me was that PHP often has many different ways of approaching what should be simple tasks. Some ways are clearly flawed, but can still be found in online tutorials. Database access for example: there's at least 3 different libraries you can use to connect to a MySQL server. Which one should a newbie pick, and which one is "best"?

I wanted to compile a guide containing what can be considered the best ways of approaching such problems, with basic examples and links to follow-up reading.

If anyone has suggestions or corrections, please drop me a line! Contact info is in the page.

<comment><USER2> Love the idea and I think it's a great resource to centralize most common solution like using phpass to hash/salt passwords to avoid people reinventing the wheel all the time.

Could you elaborate on why you chose PDO over MySQLi to interact with MySQL? Especially with all the "specific things to do for it to work properly" at the end of the section?

The email address validation is also a great section, everyone tries to rewrite its own and fails or forgets to handle cases (such as '+' in first part). I think it would be great to show other filters examples instead of providing a link to the documentation, like how to sanitize a username entry for example?

Another interesting section would be how to handle errors properly, like the use of trigger_error(), set_error_handler() or exceptions. Seems that a lot of people are also doing their own logging/debugging/reporting system not knowing where to start?

<comment><USER2> Another point is the utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() functions whose names are misleading as they only handle conversion to/from ISO-8859-1. A section on te proper use of iconv() with examples could really be useful no?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> <?= ?> is perfectly fine, and I believe Rasmus Lerdorf said several times it would continue to be supported by default settings (whereas <? ?> is being phased out, and rightly so).

That means there is no need to go and tell people to convert all their <?= ?> into <?php print() ?>.

<comment><USER4> Yep, since PHP 5.4.0

Source here : <http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.short-open-tag>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> hey good post :)

I got a few tidbits to add.

"if you ever plan on deploying your PHP to a server whose configuration you can't control, then you should always use <?php ?>." I would change that to "always use <?php ?>", if you do you're safe, otherwise you can run into problems (as I have).

its a matter of opinion but I would recommend SwiftMailer over phpmailer.

And lastly, I would definately put namespacing and code organization in here somewhere, like PSR [https://github.com/php-fig/fig- standards/blob/master/accepte...](https://github.com/php-fig/fig- standards/blob/master/accepted/PSR-0.md)

liked the article!

</comment><comment><USER6> There's a similar site that launched a while ago that is really good - <http://www.phptherightway.com/></comment>


Cadillac vs. Lincoln: Who Will Win the American Luxury Auto Race? - <AUTHOR> https://www.worth.com/cadillac-v-lincoln-who-will-win-the-american-luxury-auto-race/ <comment> java-man Tesla will.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you wish you had taught/done for your children at an early age? - <AUTHOR> Hi, new dad here - 3 days old. I've been thinking about the best ways to developer my new-born. What are some best practices you wish you had started with your child when they were young? Brain development skills, character development, daily routines, etc. <comment><USER2> Congrats on being a new dad!

I have 2 kids of my own and grew up in a family with 8 kids. The #1 thing I really appreciated when I reached adulthood was how relentless my parents were with all 8 of us when it came to working hard for what we wanted and treating people around us with respect. They didn't just preach it, they lived it so we learned by watching them. I may be a little biased but all of us turned into really good people and we all make pretty decent livings.

I carried that on with my 2 kids and so far am pretty happy on the people they are becoming ;)

The other thing I do with my kids is get really involved with whatever they are interested in at any given time. I look for learning opportunities in those interests and leverage those wherever I can to teach them new skills in a way where they don't realize they are being taught.

Mostly, enjoy the ride! It is an amazing ride that goes by so fast!

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't have kids, but there are three things I really wish my parents had done:

1) Require that I take piano / guitar lessons for at least a few years. I know I'd hate it as a kid, but as an adult, the ability to read music and create music is magical to me. I wish I'd learned. (I've been "playing" guitar for 20 years, but I'm _terrible_ at it and not likely to get much better.)

2) Make exercise a family activity. I've been running for about 7 years now, and I'm healthier, stronger, happier, and more confident than I've ever been in my life before. I see my parents aging and getting older and fatter and having more and more health problems, and I wish that had been something we'd started off with a whole lot earlier.

3) Teach me a second (or third!) language. I took four years of Spanish in high school, and I can sorta-kinda-not-really read and speak Spanish, but I wish I were fully fluent in Spanish as an adult.

I'm fortunate in that I had a great childhood and great parents, and I wouldn't change much of anything else. But those three are things that stick with you for life, and as a bonus, they're things you learn better, faster, and more easily as a child.

If I have kids, I'm going to be doing all three of those.

<comment><USER4> I'd like to know why did you choose Spanish over other languages. Can you tell me?

<comment><USER3> Well, at my high school the only choices were Spanish and French. I grew up in the South. There aren't a lot of Francophiles there. I figured Spanish was a more useful language (and it turns out, I like it a lot).

I did wind up taking a semester of French in college, but I hated it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 1\. Physical self-defense.

Don't leave an open avenue for bullying to set in.

Also, don't let your kid become a bully. Be sure the knowledge and skill come with that counter-point.

Bonus: Physical fitness. Mind and body are one. Oh, and regarding the mind, make sure the training doesn't involve head blows nor untrained, unguarded falls.

</comment><comment><USER6> I have a 3.5 year old and it's too early to say.

However, languages are definitely a big thing in our household. I have three passports, my daughter has two of them, my wife has another, our daughter was born in a fifth country, and we travel relatively often and extensively.

Tip 1: Encourage kids to thank and greet people to begin to interact in another language, even if you can't speak enough to be truly conversational.

Tip 2: Show the same episodes of the same major cartoons in three or four languages so your kid gets the sense of multiple languages without the need for constant environmental stimulation.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been watching younger friends teaching their infants some sign language, which seems to make for happier babies. The kids can start learning at 4-5 months and had the coordination to use the signs maybe two months later. 'more', 'eat', 'mom', 'dad','play', 'sleep' & 'dog'. And the kids are thrilled when I finally learn a new word from them.

<comment><USER8> We totally thought we'd try signing. But it turned out that our child was able to make their message known with their own signals. So we just picked up theirs and didn't bother with "official" sign language.

Around 6 months our kid picked up signs from other kids at school and tried them on us. That was super cool. I asked the teachers and they told us they only used 3 signs. So our kid definitely picked it up from friends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> When kids are young (2-8) they have a magical ability to learn languages, it's a shame not to take advantage of that limited window to give them the lifelong gift of being multilingual.

<comment><USER10> There's a startup [https://lingumi.com](https://lingumi.com) that makes games so kids aged 2-5 can learn new languages, even and especially if the parents don't speak them.

<comment><USER11> This sounds cool. But it seems they currently offer only English.

Have any of you used any app/tool to teach your 2-year-old a non-English language you don't know yourself?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As a child, looking back on it, fishing and doing outdoor activities with my dad was amazing.

That and look into doing sports for your kid. Strength and health + everyone's recommendation for learning/reading will place your kid miles beyond the average person when he's older.

I recently read some report of children having TOO WEAK a hand to hold a pencil correctly. I can't begin to imagine the terrible conditions that will present themselves 20 years later when these kids grow up.

</comment><comment><USER13> Congrats, you are very lucky.

Here are a few that will help you and your new baby:

1) Family is the most important community you will ever have. Learn to make it work. Offen, it will seem like it's futile but you need to do your best to keep it functioning.

2)Learn a skill/hobby you can use to scape the harshest part of life. Playing an instrument is a great scape. Don't make it part of your work.

3)Learn to make and keep lifelong friends. Have friends and be a good friend. Life is much easier when you can count on a friend and they can count on you. Friendship is about giving of yourself.

4)A scientific view of the world is only a partial view. Religion can be an additional view. Religion is more than believing in myths. It's a way to transfer knowledge thru time. Learn to identify the best parts of both and reject the bad and make it part of your life.

5) Success starts early, identify and implement habits that will help you from the start. Such as keeping a clean home and body, daily exercise, setting aside time to study and learn, planning your future and on and on

6)Everything in moderation, the problems in life often arise because of excesses, too much food, too much sex, too much alcohol, too much gaming, too much of anything.

7)Set aside time for the 2 of you to bond. Pick a fun activity you can do together regularly. As an adult, he/she will find peace while doing the same activities. Yet, they won't exactly know why but the reality is that it's a way to re-live the past good times.

8) Every action has consequences so understand that some have fatal and/or lifelong consequences, make sure he/she understands that.

9)Help by finding role models that will help thru life. The teen years are especially hard, reading books that help by showing what it's like to be a growing teen and how to cope.

10) Set aside an evening a week for the family. It can be a fun, learning, teaching or listening evening. It's a great time to bond with your family and learn from the family.

11) Life is what you make of it not necessarily a bunch of random events.

12)Work is important. Don't wait until they are adults to make them understand that we all need to work to have a good life. The worst is to have a 22 yrs old that does not have a work ethic. They will struggle all their life. Always looking to mom and dad for help.

There are plenty more but in the same way that you learned a skill, take the time to learn to be a great father.

</comment><comment><USER14> I recommend this book. [https://www.amazon.com/Achtung-Baby-American-Self- Reliant-Ch...](https://www.amazon.com/Achtung-Baby-American-Self-Reliant- Children/dp/1250160170)

Mostly I'm trying to model good behavior. My kid mimics me a lot better than he can follow my directions. He's going to be his own person, and nothing I can do will change that, I'm just a caretaker to help him grow into himself.

</comment><comment><USER15> Did do, and it paid off: touch typing skills using a fun letter invaders (like space invaders) educational game. Not at 3 days old though ;-)

</comment><comment><USER16> I have some words of caution ... Whatever it is you do or don't do, you'll first need to get buy-in from your spouse.

E.g. "daily routines" are harder to implement if they're important to you but not your spouse. It's difficult enough to deal with kids, when you're also dealing with an indifferent or opposed spouse, well ... good luck with that!

</comment><comment><USER17> I am grateful that my father was using Linux exclusively pretty much from the mid 90s on and we never had another OS at home.

</comment><comment><USER18> Taught me better hygiene and bought me better clothes. Was way too late in my life when I corrected that stuff.

</comment><comment><USER19> How to invert a binary tree

Definitely useful

</comment><comment><USER20> Welcome to parenthood and congratulations on your new little one!!

I have two stepchildren (8 and 6) and a 2 year old. I'm far from an expert and, if you want straight up truth, I can't think of any other relationships that have made me doubt myself so much.

But, if I could give you a bit of advice, first, I'd tell you to genuinely get to know your child, figure out what he or she loves and get as involved in it as you can. My stepchildren were a little bit older when I met them, so I didn't get the chance to see them transition from babies into little people, but seriously bud, I'm starting to cry just thinking about watching my little girl start to develop into herself.

The more that I've opened myself up to letting my kids guide their own development, the more they've driven my own development. In fact, looking back on the last four years, I'd argue that they were more involved in my development that I was possibly involved in theirs.

I'm a stutterer who hides it well, so I'm maybe a little more sensitive about speech issues than the average bear, but I got into a habit that some early childhood education types seem to love. Lauren (my two year old) is very vocal, but there are some sounds that she has trouble with, and so I try to make those sounds part of our play.

The hard 'C' and 'G' sounds are two that Lauren has some trouble with, so one of our favourite games is 'Claw'. My hands are 'Big Claws' and her hands are 'Little Claws'. The Big Claws love Little Claws, but, being hands, they don't have brains, so they don't understand things like their own reflections and they can only say 'grrrrr'.

The neat thing is that now, she likes playing 'Claw' too, so she will call them. In the early days, she clearly said 'Plaw', but with several months, it's getting closer to a hard 'C' and the growls, which used to sound like 'derrrr' are getting closer to 'grrrrrr'.

Music and dance are also pretty huge for us, but my girlfriend and I are both absolutely obsessed with music. I am a hardcore vinyl collector and, seriously bud, whatever you do, if you collect vinyl, DON'T SHOW YOUR TODDLER HOW TO SCRATCH. You might think it's a good way to teach him/her how to handle vinyls, but I have two dead records (including a formerly mint copy of Highway 61 Revisited) and two dead cartridges to serve as constant reminders of the errors of my ways.

Some of my favourite moments with my kids have been our almost daily dance parties. I'll throw on anything imaginable and figure out what they like to listen to as we go. You might be surprised by some of the music that your kids love. My eight year old stepdaughter likes pop music and trance (?), my six year old stepson likes guitar even more than I do - he's currently pretty obsessed with Soundgarden and Nirvana, so my next mission is to introduce him to Kyuss. My two year old likes traditional toddler stuff like Dora, Daniel Tiger, and Thomas the Train Engine, but she's also into some completely baffling stuff like Sepultura (Max Cavalera is the only singer she likes more than Daniel Tiger), Nailbomb (again with the Max Cavalera), the Cavalera Connection (are you seeing a trend?), the Melvins and the Wu Tang Clan. She's also really into traditional pow wow music (Young Bear is her favourite), traditional rockabilly (she used to nap to Johnny Cash and now she's developed a strong love for Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis) and psychobilly (there was a time when I genuinely thought that her first words would be Reverend Horton Heat lyrics).

I think that music and rhythm are really good for young brains and our dance parties are pretty amazing forms of exercise, but I think this all goes back to my first bit of advice. Introduce your kids to the widest range of things imaginable, figure out what they love, and I think that you'll be well on your way.

Edit - I forgot to mention two things. Lots of parents really love television/Youtube. We don't let our kids watch tons of television and we try to limit screen time in general, but sometimes, the screens will keep you sane. When your little one gets a little older, you might find yourself watching tons of children's television to see what is a nice blend of wholesome and educational. Of all the shows that I've watched, "Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood" is my absolute favourite. The Mr. Rogers Foundation/Company/Whatever it is is heavily involved in Daniel Tiger. They're wonderful little shows. If Lauren had her way, she'd replace Music Man Stan with Max Cavalera, but hey, dare to dream.

The second bit of 'advice' I could give you is that it's okay to be frustrated by your little one. Kids are a big learning curve and it doesn't matter how much you love them, sometimes they'll be very frustrating. It's okay to feel like that and it's okay to vent. It's also okay (I'd say necessary) to be an adult with adult hobbies. Even when Lauren was very young, I still made a point of going out, watching the Yankees play and having a pint.

</comment><comment><USER21> Not sent them to the govt brainwashing centers.

<comment><USER22> Public school?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is it worth doing an MS in a university from US? - <AUTHOR> I am having total 4yrs of experience in the software industry currently working as a software engineer in India. I have also been the co-founder of a startup. Now i want to pursue MS in computer science from a US university just because I want to improve my skills in this field and moreover, I have a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engg. Do you think doing an MS is worth it at this time? <comment><USER2> The predominant answer around here seems to be that it's not worth it if you are doing it for external rewards because the experience you could gain in that time would be better. More work experience might be a better way to improve your skills. However, if you're doing it for personal reasons it might be more justifiable.

I did undergrad in EE/CPE in the US and I always felt like, personally, I need a "real" CS degree, which may be a bad reason. I guess you need to decide if the Mech degree is actually hurting you somehow?

But also I went for a masters degree because I wanted exposure to CS fundamentals, which I think is a good reason: compilers, operating systems, artificial intelligence, data mining, etc. Depending on the job, you aren't likely to pick those things up on your own.

</comment><comment><USER3> No.

Masters degrees are never a good idea, regardless of your circumstances. It's an opportunity to exchange two years of your life for a 10% salary boost on your first job. After that, nobody will ever ask about your schooling so it will never again be relevant.

In those same 2 years after school, your value could increase 50 - 100% by working for a software company and demonstrating that you're good at what you do. That's where the better payoff will be, so that's where you should focus your attention.

<comment><USER4> As a person with a Master of Science in Information Systems degree...jasonkester's answer is correct. I put my career on hold for 2 years (luckily during the dot-com bust of 2001-2002) to get my Master's degree. Yes, it sparkles on a resume...but it's all about what real value you can provide.

I also have a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, which took 5 years to get. I often wonder how far ahead I would be if I just went into software dev without bothering with college/university. I look back at it as a 7 year distraction.

So think hard on why you want that degree before you pull the trigger.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you need H1B visa to work after masters degree, it's getting more tricky nowadays! With limited number of visas lot of people are finding it harder to get H1B even after US masters degree

</comment><comment><USER6> It's not worth it for your stated reason. But, I know of lots of people who did it so they could leverage that to a job in the US.

<comment><AUTHOR> One of the main reasons I want to pursue an MS is that I want to work in the Silicon Valley, build some network and build a startup out of there. Do you think it might be the correct approach?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> a master's degree is only useful when: 1\. u want to switch career; 2\. ur resume needs help from a presitigious name-brand school; 3\. u need to figure out whether u would want to pursue a Ph.D.;</comment>


Why you (almost certainly) shouldn't take an omega-6 supplement - <AUTHOR> http://supplementsos.com/blog/why-you-shouldnt-take-omega-6-supplements/

<comment><USER2> Here's a good list of cooking oils with smoke points, and omega-* content listed. I'm unsure if the % is the percent of the oil, or just the percent of 'daily recommended values,' but I find coconut oil to be pretty easy to work with (though mixing it into pancake batter is difficult if you don't heat it, as it's solid a room temp). If you supplement with something like Udo's oil that has a high Omega-3 content (vs. omega-6 and omega-9), then it should help to raise your ratio.

[http://theconsciouslife.com/omega-3-6-9-ratio-cooking- oils.h...](http://theconsciouslife.com/omega-3-6-9-ratio-cooking-oils.htm)</comment>