IP over Avian Carriers - <AUTHOR> https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149 <comment><USER2> 2549 also includes QoS [https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2549.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2549.txt)</comment>


Mokens Launches on the Main Ethereum Blockchain - <AUTHOR> https://mokens.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> I am the creator of Mokens. Let me know if you have any questions!</comment>


Show HN: I built a Raspberry Pi/Android driven toy car - <AUTHOR>

I am not sure if this is fits the HN community, but I am posting it here if people are interested.
This is the current iteration of the car: http://i.imgur.com/ko8YBh.jpg
Details:
I wrote a simple android app that streams the accelerometer data from the phone to the pi over a simple socket. The pi then uses this data to drive the DC motor and the servo motor. Tilting the phone to control the car feels very natural.
In this[0] pic you can see the wifi dongle I've used. I am using Adafruit Occidental v0.2[1] as my OS because it has support for my wifi dongle. It also makes some hardware interaction easier and comes pre-installed with some good python libraries.
Here[2] is a picture of the breadboard. I am using the L293DNE[3] hbridge chip for DC motor control. The two black wires you see coming off the board connect to the motor.
In this[4] pic is the battery pack I am using to power the pi. I purchased it on amazon here[5]. Here is a pic[6] of the battery pack I am using for the DC motor.
Here[7] is a closeup of the steering servo. It is an HS-55[8] and I power it directly from the pi's 5v rail. To control it I use the servoblaster kernal module[9].
My next plans are to add some sensors and make it autonomous. Let me know what you think.
[0] http://i.imgur.com/w0PIk.jpg
[1] http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-2
[2] http://i.imgur.com/hhogr.jpg
[3] http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/L293DNE/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtYFXwiBRPs0wSafWlCmJbc
[4] http://i.imgur.com/3t6NG.jpg
[5] http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-External-Blackberry-Sensation-Thunderbolt/dp/B005VBNYDS
[6] http://i.imgur.com/zpgyj.jpg
[7] http://i.imgur.com/b8Qnc.jpg
[8] http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-55_sub-micro.html
[9] https://github.com/richardghirst/PiBits <comment><USER2> Fascinating project. This is definitely HN-worthy.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, this is really cool. Can you post a video that shows you driving it while tilting your phone?

<comment><AUTHOR> I just had my roommate film me controlling it. Here is the video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfuv-B1X3ck>

<comment><USER3> That is really cool! Seems to me you're close to having a product you could sell. Nice work!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm actually on the brink of getting into amateur robotics... I just bought "Robotic Explorations: Hands on Introduction to Engineering" ([http://www.amazon.com/Robotic-Explorations-Hands-On- Introduc...](http://www.amazon.com/Robotic-Explorations-Hands-On-Introduction- Engineering/dp/0130895687)), and am planning on getting a HandyBoard kit.

I was wondering if there are any K'Nex or LEGO Technic kits that are particularly well-suited for this type of endeavor? I have found plenty of kits to build a wide variety of vehicles, but it's hard to anticipate what will comprise a good assortment of build pieces for a more free-flow introductory robotics project.

Any thoughts or advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Awesome project, by the way :)

<comment><AUTHOR> The hardest problem on the mechanical side was connecting the motor to wheels. You will often need to gear down a motor before you connect it to the wheels. Without the ability to custom manufacture parts it is very difficult to cobble something together. The simplest solution is to buy a motor with a prebuilt gearbox, axel, and wheel. I don't remember where I got mine but something like this should work: [http://www.amazon.com/KNex-Dragster-Racecar-Rally- Series/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/KNex-Dragster-Racecar-Rally- Series/dp/B0024H3Z2M/ref=pd_sim_t_5)

<comment><USER4> Thank you for the tip! I was actually just reading about gearing in an article called "The Art of LEGO Design" ([http://cheme.eng.wayne.edu/neuron/LEGO_ROBOTICS/artoflego_ar...](http://cheme.eng.wayne.edu/neuron/LEGO_ROBOTICS/artoflego_article.pdf))!

Was also looking at Technic kits (such as <http://shop.lego.com/en- US/Tractor-9393>) with a preference towards those with more pieces, and thus more flexibility.

<comment><AUTHOR> That paper is great, thanks for sharing! It looks like I need to buy some lego technique parts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Brilliant project. Thanks for sharing. You should send this to the people at raspberrypi.org and/or adafruit.com as I'm sure they would feature it. I'm going to reblog it at www.recantha.co.uk and put all the images inline to make it easier to read. Nice one!

<comment><USER5> Reblogged here: <http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=980>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great project! I'm really curious about robotics/automation stuff and this is one of that awesome projects that show how it's really unlimited what you can do in that area

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been thinking about doing something similar with an air swimmer, but mounting the pi on the actual swimmer would weigh it down too much to fly. Instead I was hoping to break open the RC unit and trigger the signals via the GPIO pins or something. I don't know much about electronics so it's a pipe dream, any ideas how feasible this is?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would have to see the remote controller before I can say for sure but that seems feasible.

Most often joysticks in controllers use potentiometers (variable resistors). You can simulate the effect of a potentiometer using PWM, or you can buy a digital to analog converter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just saw the video it's awesome idea to control bot by accelerometer.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hi, very interesting project! Could you tell me how you have connected the phone to the raspberry and shared the accelerometer data? Thank you very much

<comment><AUTHOR> I implemented a socket server in python on the raspi. I wrote a very simple android app that opened a connection to the pi and continuously streamed the x, y, and z coordinates.

You can see all the raspi code here: <https://github.com/jminardi/RobotBrain> And the android code here: <https://github.com/jminardi/RobotBrain-Controller>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Has anyone had success driving motors directly from an Android device?

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm doing this with Arduino. We should talk.

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely, my contact info is in my profile. I found my biggest pain point was real time control, specifically for the servo. The arduino is a much better real time controller, but you lose the modern OS.

<comment><USER12> Well, you can always use Arduino for the main control loop and use Pi on top of that for telemetry and other things. This is probably the approach I'm going to use in my quadcopter... A non real time OS just won't cut it for a UAV.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Awesome ...</comment>


Turkish Grammar by Predicate Logic - <AUTHOR> https://pypi.org/project/kefir/ <comment><USER2> Turkish is an amazing language. I have been learning it since my wife is Turk and it has been a pleasure. Everything is regular and well defined, even the way a word is constructed is defined by rule. Compared to my very irregular native language (French), it is a real pleasure.

I supposed, this makes it a much more simple language to do NLP than a lot of other language.

<comment><USER3> The good thing about Turkish language besides its grammatical structure is the way you pronounce it. I am a very fluent English speaker (and have been living in the US for 8+ years now) and occasionally i am amazed at how some things pronounced compared to root of the words (though when you get the hang of it, you eventually develop an intuition as to why).

With Turkish, it's very trivial.

<comment><USER4> Well there are also a lot of exceptions in Turkish. Like "e". "Mert" and "Meyhane" have different "e"s. For many words, you just have to know how to pronounce them.

<comment><USER5> Actually, this is not an exception in Turkish. It is because of that "meyhane" is a foreign word (adapted from Persian). In any case, no one will expect smo to pronounce these 'e's distinguishably.

<comment><USER6> First of all, nobody will understand if you pronounce it "meːɐ̯t" (as in "mehr" in German + "t").

Mert is actually also a foreign word. Well, most (I'd guess 90%) of the words starting with "me" are of Arabic or Persian origin.

But the difference is there in Turkish words as well. Geri, gerzek (which is interestingly a shortcut for "geri zeka") and gevrek.

There are many "e"s in Turkish, difference among which is very sparsely documented.

Don't even get me started on the "ğ" (which is normally supposed to just make the previous vocal letter longer but took on many other roles).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not the same technique but generation of words is possible with Zemberek library as well, see the bottom example in the morphology section:

[https://github.com/ahmetaa/zemberek- nlp/tree/master/morpholo...](https://github.com/ahmetaa/zemberek- nlp/tree/master/morphology)

</comment><comment><USER8> GF ([https://www.grammaticalframework.org/](https://www.grammaticalframework.org/)) might be relevant to this, it seems to have a similar perspective but is an established multilingual project, though with limited support for Turkish (yet).

</comment><comment><USER9> If you find this interesting, there are a _lot_ of resources for the Turkic languages in the Apertium platform: [http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Turkic_languages](http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Turkic_languages)

These include monolingual lexicons and bilingual dictionaries that can be compiled to finite state transducers, as well as disambiguators/parsers (in vislcg3 Constraint Grammar format) and annotated corpora. For some pairs in the language group, there are also full machine translation systems and spellcheckers (for LibreOffice, Firefox and Microsoft Office).

Much of the data is already available in Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/OpenSUSE, if you don't need the newest git:

        $ sudo apt install apertium-tur
        $ apertium -l |grep tur
          tur-disam
          tur-gener
          tur-lexc
          tur-morph
          tur-tagger
          tur-twol
        $ echo 'aynı maruldaydık' | apertium tur-disam
        "<aynı>"
        	"aynı" det dem SELECT:144
        ;	"aynı" adj SELECT:144
        ;	"aynı" adj subst nom SELECT:144
        ;	"aynı" adj SELECT:144
        ;		"i" cop p3 sg
        ;	"aynı" adj SELECT:144
        ;		"i" cop aor p3 sg
        ;	"aynı" adj subst nom SELECT:144
        ;		"i" cop p3 sg
        ;	"aynı" adj subst nom SELECT:144
        ;		"i" cop aor p3 sg
        "<maruldaydık>"
        	"marul" n loc
        		"i" cop ifi p1 pl
        "<.>"
        	"." sent

Or use the stuff from beta.apertium.org for a quick test; click "analyse" to go from form to analysis: [http://beta.apertium.org/index.html?choice=tur&qA=ayn%C4%B1%...](http://beta.apertium.org/index.html?choice=tur&qA=ayn%C4%B1%20maruldayd%C4%B1k#analyzation)

Click "generate" to go from analysis to form: [http://beta.apertium.org/index.html?choice=tur&qG=%5Eayn%C4%...](http://beta.apertium.org/index.html?choice=tur&qG=%5Eayn%C4%B1%3Cadj%3E%3Csubst%3E%3Cnom%3E%24%20%5Emarul%3Cn%3E%3Cloc%3E%2Bi%3Ccop%3E%3Cifi%3E%3Cp1%3E%3Cpl%3E%24#generation)

There's no "predicate logic" yet, but the Constraint Grammars already used for disambiguation in Apertium are very well suited for syntax and dependency parsing (there are some quite advanced ones for the Saami languages that could be used as a basis)

</comment><comment><USER10> I am also going to point out a subtle mistake committed by this specific library. The examples include this:

        hanımelinin çiçeği (flower of a plant called hanımeli)

That's subtly wrong. The flower is called _hanımeli çiçeği_ just like _portakal çiçeği_ etc.

I fear that the inability of computers to deal with Turkish will end up morphing Turkish into something computers can deal with instead of improving computers.

Turks have done great damage to Turkish since the junta. Just a simple example: Almost everyone says "Deniz Sokak" instead of the correct "Deniz Sokağı" while somehow getting things like "Anafartalar Caddesi", "Çanakkale Apartmanı" etc right.

Adding computers to the mix is not going to improve things.

</comment><comment><USER11> Fantastic work! I hope to see it become feature complete with the remaining grammatical cases implemented. It would be great to have an active and mature Turkish NLP library. Much needed work! ( _Preparing a pull request ATM._ )

<comment><USER7> As a note, Zemberek is still actively maintained and mature imo. But the more the merrier of course.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Fascinating stuff. I think I should study the code to understand the language better. I speak both Turkish and Azeri and most of times I'm unable to explain how the grammar works.

</comment><comment><USER10> As I pointed before[1], Turkish and computers don't really get along. The beauty of Turkish lies in its irregularity, not the rules you learn. That irregularity is amplified by the shrinking vocabulary in use owing to the disappearance of many Arabic and Persian words which people used to use as recently as the 30s, 40s, and the 50s.

Understanding a Turkish speaker requires a grasp of the entire context at all times. " _Matematikten çakmak_ " can mean to be good at math or to flunk math.

Another example which I noticed because it involved my name is " _Uçak düşsün ama sadece Sinan ölsün!_ "[2] which Google Translate translates as " _The plane is your dream, but only Sinan!_ "[3].

In fact, it means " _I wish the plane crashes and only Sinan dies_ ". Of course, " _düş_ " as a noun is " _dream_ " but "düşsün" is derived from the verb " _düşmek_ " which means "to fall" but when it is coupled with a plane means " _crash_ ". Interestingly, there is not a good general purpose translation of "plane crash" to Turkish. Sure, you can get away with " _uçak kazası_ " in most cases, but not all crashes are accidents. In fact, something as simple as " _five perished in the crash_ " is perilous to translate. Most will translate that as " _kazada beş kişi hayatını kaybetti_ " even in cases where the crash was not an accident. To deal with similar things, people end up over-using the word " _olay_ " (event).

Now, ponder the difference between " _Sinan bir düş_ " and " _Sinan bir düş_ ".

Turkish and machines don't mix.

Now, let's briefly consider the claim that Turkish pronunciation is easy compared to English. It is not. I am not even going to get into regional differences, but leave this one example which became even harder after the military junta abolished the circumflex. List the meanings of the sentence " _Karı severim_ ". Which one is pronounced differently? Note that at least one of those meanings can get you in trouble in polite company.

Edumacated Turkish native speakers always had a tendency to resort to English or French words even when completely unnecessary and I've been observing in the press and social media many examples of automated translation errors making it into daily use.

PS: A related rants[4,5].

[1]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17737333](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17737333)

[2]: [http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kelebek/magazin/ucak-dussun- ama-s...](http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kelebek/magazin/ucak-dussun-ama-sadece- sinan-olsun-40725251)

[3]: [https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/U%C3%A7ak%20d%C3%BC%C5...](https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/U%C3%A7ak%20d%C3%BC%C5%9Fs%C3%BCn%20ama%20sadece%20Sinan%20%C3%B6ls%C3%BCn)!

[4]: [https://www.nu42.com/2013/04/translation-of-programming- term...](https://www.nu42.com/2013/04/translation-of-programming-terms- and.html)

[5]: [https://www.nu42.com/2014/08/replacing-hash-keys-with- values...](https://www.nu42.com/2014/08/replacing-hash-keys-with-values- does.html)

<comment><USER5> Many mistranslations may be a result of lack of work/research in Turkish language. I don't agree with that Turkish language does not get along with computers well. Yet, there is not a mature work on this. If a language is understandable, analyzable, executable, expressible by humans, computers most probably can process it (this is a claim, not a fact).

<comment><USER10> > _If a language is understandable, analyzable, executable, expressible by > humans, computers most probably can process it (this is a claim, not a > fact)._

In English, a sentence[1] is " _a set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, ..._ ".

In Turkish, sometimes you need a paragraph, sometimes you need a page, and sometimes you need the whole story to provide " _a set of words that is complete in itself_ ".

Try these for size[2,3].

I especially love the translations of the word " _tane_ ". Or " _say_ " here[4].

I am going to stop before I keel over. Sure, you can try to codify a rule for each and every " _set of words that is complete in itself_ ", but I doubt that set is finite.

The way things are going I full expect to see people being required to use Turkish in a way computers can understand before computers can deal with Turkish.

[1]: [https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asentence](https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asentence)

[2]: [https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/%C3%A7akmak%20%C3%A7akma...](https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/%C3%A7akmak%20%C3%A7akmak%20g%C3%B6zleri)

[3]: [https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/%C3%A7ak%20bir%20tane](https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/%C3%A7ak%20bir%20tane)

[4]: [https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/say%20ba%C5%9Ftan](https://translate.google.com/#tr/en/say%20ba%C5%9Ftan)

<comment><USER13> English is not immune to ambiguities and thus not superior to Turkish in this regard:

[https://translate.google.com/#en/tr/fruit%20flies%20like%20a...](https://translate.google.com/#en/tr/fruit%20flies%20like%20a%20banana)

<comment><USER5> One approach to test the effectiveness of a translator is translating a passage from L1 to L2 and then its reverse. When you do this action many times, if the final version of the passage in L1 gives the meaning of the original passage in L1; then it is a stable translator. They do this test for English-German at Linguee translator. Their claim is that it is more successful than Google translate in these terms. This gives another idea that Google Translate does not give strong results for English-German translations. Considering German is much more closer language to English than Turkish, I don't expect much from Google Translate. Thus, I don't see it as a proof to any argument.

<comment><USER10> On Google translate, Dolar düşsün → Dollar dream → Dolar rüyası.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Browser downloaded this unobfuscated PHP script. What is it doing? - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38549998/browser-downloaded-this-unobfuscated-php-script-what-is-it-doing <comment><AUTHOR> I just noticed this script downloaded from mobile.nytimes.com on mobile chrome, so whatever bug it is is widespread.

Edit: [http://mobile.nytimes.com/](http://mobile.nytimes.com/) on desktop also triggers it.

The source of the csync.php file for me is [http://qsearch.media.net/csync.php?vsid=1123686542018807000V...](http://qsearch.media.net/csync.php?vsid=1123686542018807000V10&type=apx&ovsid=0) Media.net is a yahoo/bing ad property, so this is an example of ad networks misbehaving.</comment>


Stop hurting your engine by idling the car when it's cold out - <AUTHOR> http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2mL62RFxz9cJ:uk.businessinsider.com/heres-what-idling-your-car-in-the-morning-is-doing-to-your-engine-and-its-not-good-2016-1+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b <comment><USER2> Even better, you can preheat your engine using heat lamps; or in the extreme cold areas, a thermal wrap that contains heating elements.

Using a heat lamp assumes you have a garage, or you might find that animals try to get warm using your lamp and may end up in your engine compartment.

Some large equipment even contain electric oil pumps with heating elements that can heat the engine and lubricate it as well. I have seen people modify their trucks to have this as well.</comment>


What is Enlightenment? (Kant) - <AUTHOR> http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html

<comment><USER2> > "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of > enlightenment.

But what if our understanding is a result of conditioning.

I think it was Descartes who once said "I think therefore I am" which is flawed in several ways. He was stuck in thought. Someone else later figured out that the person thinking is apart from the thought. But he too was stuck in thought/mind.

Enlightenment is seeing that you are not the mind or the mental story or concept of yourself. And being totally free of that. Enlightenment is when the misidentification with the mental self is broken. The mental self acts out of fear and insecurity and a constant wanting of something else. This is a sure recipe for being unhappy and causing unhappiness in others.

I don't know which kind of enlightenment you wish to discuss, but I would rather you read Eckhart Tolle instead of Kant.

<comment><USER3> I will heartily second reading Eckhart Tolle instead of a whole lot of different spiritual books - he gets to the heart of it all without the needless digressions. Next to it J Krishnamurthy is good if you want to go deeper. But yeah after you've read Eckhart's Power of Now you should not feel like adding more knowledge to your self :)

To me PoN was a fundamental shift - in the way I think, the reasons that prompt me to think, the decisions I make, everything. I found the concept of utilitarian thinking very helpful in terms of actually being able to stop useless thinking - if you keep a bit of consciousness always in the background and ask - what is this thought giving me, is it changing my circumstance - that to me is a huge balancing force.

<comment><USER2> I actually came to PON _after_ finding the silence and I-am ness through a process of questioning beliefs. I was glad to find someone who could explain simply what was happening.

Tolle was great for me because he asks us to stay in this I-am'ness or Nowness and not just dispel it. And that has led to a huge "fundamental shift" as you say.

Just because some of these things have been known for thousands of years and have been talked of by Christians, Buddhists, Hindus etc, does not mean they are a set of beliefs (as some are suggesting).

<comment><USER3> Beliefs have traditionally come with blind acceptance - either due to very complex disposition or due to its origins in fear (sins/hell etc). To that extent, I agree that what Tolle is doing falls outside of beliefs - it is a paradigm change in that the path he charted to get to enlightenment is much more scientific in nature - verifiable, logical and something that can be easily experimented with. And most of all it doesn't have its origins in fear or authority.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd like to see Socrates' take on this.

</comment><comment><USER5> [1784]</comment>


Ask HN: Games suggestions for hacker kids? - <AUTHOR>

My friend, a self described English major type, has a son (age ~8) who has a very logical, analytical bent, as well as some subtle autistic symptoms. He struggles to know how to nurture his son's strengths. I would guess that many hackers here, like me, would relate to this kid from having similar strengths and interests at his age.<p>Do you have any suggestions for games and ways to engage kids like this and foster their inherent abilities and interests? <comment><USER2> This might be too ancient, but how about Infocom games?</comment>


Ask HN: Impact on sales of using external site for payment processing? - <AUTHOR>

Seems like there's two options for processing payments:
1. Integrate a payment system into your app (so the user is actually typing his credit card number on a page within your site)
2. Use an external site to process the payment (such as linking the person to a Paypal processing page)
PROs of using Paypal:
- I don't have to mess w/payment processing
- Paypal is viewed as a trusted third party (though some people might think that their credit card info is sent to me through Paypal anyway, which makes this a little weaker)
CONs:
- People might think they need a Paypal account
- Extra step in payment process
- More difficult to integrate smoothly into the registration process (my app's customers will register/pay at the same time for use of the service)
Has anyone tried both options to see which results in higher completion rates?
Edited to add: I suppose it matters a lot who the audience is. In this case the site is geared toward computer savvy people, which makes me lean towards Paypal all things considered. Also, I'm going to just make it a one time payment which will be slightly higher, but I think more people are willing to make a larger one time payment than signing up for a monthly service -- thoughts on that? <comment><USER2> Just a word of caution on PayPal, being as unbiased as I can.

I have had first-hand experience, on behalf of numerous clients, with problems that can arise with PayPal and some of the crazy things PayPal do out of the blue and without reason (see sites like <http://www.paypalsucks.com> etc. for examples) and always suggest using other methods for anything but low cost products where a chargeback/dispute won't bother you (if you get 2-3 disputes in quick succession, PayPal typically freeze your account and all monies in it for 180 days and even if you jump through all the hoops they set thereafter, will in most cases not unfreeze your account for as long as they possibly can - which is very bad for cash-flow if you are a business).

Although low-cost products and small payments for web-services (which being intangible goods are not covered by PayPal seller protections anyway) may be less likely to incur problems with PayPal (especially chargebacks), mainly due to the buyers/users being less likely to complain over what are trivial or easy to resolve matters (e.g. shipping delays or miscommunication) and being more honest in general when compared to those in higher value transactions, I would always suggest using a merchant account or service such as protx for online payment processing and repeated billing.

These generally provide a better quality of service anyway, and when things go wrong respond faster, follow legal guidelines and regulations, and are more likely to fight for you than PayPal which _will_ just cave-in and return any monies to the buyer/user on even the smallest issues and with almost no recourse to you or consideration of whether it is the right thing to do in the situation. To PayPal, it is about numbers and money and basically it is cheaper and in their interest for them to hand back money (your money, remember, not theirs) to buyers almost without any seller considerations than fight issues, whereas a merchant account has more legislation and obligation to protect you and will infact dispute chargebacks and other complaints if you so request. Also, unlike PayPal, they will not freeze your account or make other major demands that could affect your business, when customer related issues do occur (and eventually one will occur!).

<comment><USER3> Paypal has a load of services for billing credit cards and sending money to a merchant account; they purchased Verisign's online payments business a while back. Presumably that's what's being discussed here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I offer both options for setting up monthly subscriptions and people go almost exactly 50/50 between the two. Some people prefer Pay Pal because they feel more secure while others refuse to use Pay Pal for whatever reasons.

Setting up a payment system isn't really that difficult. It seems like if you get even 1% more sign ups because you offer both choices, you should hopefully make out on the extra implementation cost.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, good points. It is possible though that you wouldn't experience a significant drop if you offered one or the other. Since you offer both, people probably choose whichever is most convenient, but it doesn't mean that you'd lose half your customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Have you looked into PayPal Pro? [https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi- bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overvie...](https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi- bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview-outside) and [https://cms.paypal.com/cgi- bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-cont...](https://cms.paypal.com/cgi- bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render- content&content_ID=developer/solutions_carts_wp_pro)

There are a few options you can take, ranging from creating a Google Checkout account, PayPal account or even going as far as a merchant account (where your site is processing a very large amount of transactions a month). Some say PayPal is more buyer-centric and others say Google Checkout is more seller- centric.

One thing to consider with PayPal (either Pro or Express Checkout), you need to build into your design and flow the way the customer will purchase the product, enter the product into the shopping cart and then do one of two things:

1\. If using PayPal pro, continue the transaction all on your site and then return to the product summary/confirmation page. 2\. If using Express Checkout, leave your site to PayPal and then return to the product summary/confirmation page.

Here's some more information on PayPal Pro, API and integration design: [https://www.paypalobjects.com/WEBSCR-550-20081103-1/en_US/pd...](https://www.paypalobjects.com/WEBSCR-550-20081103-1/en_US/pdf/PP_WebsitePaymentsPro_IntegrationGuide.pdf)

What are you building?

</comment><comment><USER6> We use PayPal for our service (Feedity.com). It works well. But once in a while we have users who simply do not want to pay through PayPal (due to security/privacy issues, or they don't have a credit card). In such cases we generally recommend them to pay with an eCheck. We have perfectly good potential customers waiting for us to provide an alternate payment method. It doesn't happen too often, but at the end of the day, every new customer counts.

Another thing we have learned is that you should always offer monthly as well as annual subscriptions. We'll be introducing monthly subscriptions (through PayPal) pretty soon.

</comment><comment><USER7> You should look at PCI DSS, the new requirements for processing credit card purchases. I haven't looked into it very deeply, but according to the reporting about it you'll no longer be able to use a simple form on your own site to handle credit cards - you'll have to go through an external payment processing site (or implement it yourself and have it audited - expensive!).

Compliance with these new rules will be mandatory beginning next year.

More info at <https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/>

<comment><USER3> AFAIK, if you're not doing loads (well into six figures) of transactions, you don't _need_ to get external auditors in. But there's a lot of work in figuring out what is required, and the penalties for screwing up are severe, so you may want to anyway.

<comment><USER7> This is what they have to say about this:

"""How do I determine whether my business would be required to do a full independent assessment or a self assessment?

Merchants that store payment account data should contact the acquiring financial institutions with whom they have merchant agreements to determine whether they must validate compliance and the specific requirements for compliance validation. Service providers should contact the individual payment brands for further information. """

Wonderful example of saying "we're not saying until you're paying" in as words as possible.

<comment><USER3> Most banks will have a standard policy, and you should be able to dig it out of their sales guys.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think for your audience using paypal will kinda label you amateurish.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not so sure. Would you consider a site amateurish if they exclusively offered Paypal for payments?

<comment><USER9> Right or wrong, yes I would.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> PayPal is a good alternative checkout method, but less desirable as a billing method. Recurring billing via PayPal, for example, requires your customer to enter a hairy "User Agreement" giving you permission to charge them up to several hundred dollars/mo. Try using PayPal at GoDaddy to see what I'm referring to.

<comment><USER3> I don't know where you're getting several hundred dollars/mo from. Customers obviously need to consent to the recurring billing upfront, but I'm not aware of requirements more onerous than those imposed by the credit card companies.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Got seed funding from the Japanese government. How should I use it? - <AUTHOR> TL;DR - I got 3 million yen in seed funding from the Japanese government for a marriage-focused dating site. How should I use the money to grow the business?
Longer version:
Moved to Japan two years ago. Started watching cheesy soap operas to get better at the language. Got an idea from one about a marriage contract-based dating site. Found a great domain, filed a patent, and hacked out a basic site one weekend.
https://keiyakukekkon.com
Over the last few months I've been working on it in my spare time. I made a blog (one of my posts made it to the front page here actually) and did some promotion on Twitter. With very little marketing we've managed to get about 200 users to register and tens of thousands of site visitors. Mostly I think it's just people stumbling on the domain which was a popular term on Japanese twitter.
My Japanese friend recently suggested I apply to the Japan Finance Corporation for startup funding. There is an increasing amount of accelerators in Tokyo and we figured with some money we could invest in improving the site and marketing. Well lo and behold, the representatives liked our site, and immediately gave us 3 million yen (A little under $30,000. A yen is comparable to a penny). The government as you know is very worried about the low birthrate so they want to support businesses that help people get married.
So it's not a ton of money but I have zero experience so I am not sure how to use it. I'd like to make some improvements to the site and also do marketing both online and IRL.
Anyway let me know what you guys think is a good way to proceed.
Also, if anyone is interested in the project and wants to help out, just shoot me an email. Could use technical people, designers, marketers, investors, and even a cofounder if I find someone really good. Thanks in advance! <comment><USER2> Interesting. You're either doing language detection the right way _OR_ your website is in a foreign language for its primary market? Hopefully it's the first.

I would say if the site is actually functional (to the point that it does what it claims, doesn't need every possible bell and whistle), you probably need marketing more than more dev.

No point blowing $X implementing features no one ever sees because no one knows it exists.

Edit: btw, you Email doesn't appear to be in your profile or the post either so, the last bit about reaching out is slightly impossible

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. The site is meant mainly to work in Japanese but it should detect your browser's language and work in English if that's what you're using.

My email is email@example.com. I thought it was already in my profile but I guess it wasn't set to display. I added it again more explicitly.

<comment><USER2> Good job - so many places get language detection wrong it's nice to see one that works properly!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Mostly I think it's just people stumbling on the domain which was a popular > term on Japanese twitter.

Then maybe you should add a Japanese only Twitter account and try to target those people more directly.

Oh... and an app. You need an app. Give me time to finish the Udemy course on Corona SDK and I'll be happy to whip you up something for $20,000.

</comment><comment><USER4> Spend it on marketing (and get a great growth hacker to head your efforts). That's where most startups fail in the first place. A dating site in particular only works and grows if it's already got a LOT of users.

</comment><comment><USER5> Happy to give you a chat on some growth strategies - especially around some of the modelling/strategy - I'm trying to do more consulting in this area so its just your time for my time, at least initially.

email is in docs i'm gmt+10 so similar timezones

</comment><comment><USER6> This looks like something from 2008. I think people's expectations have increased since then.

<comment><USER7> Target market is Japan, take a look at contemporary Japanese web design -- very different.</comment></comment>


Code 'samples' will misrepresent you - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/career-pathing/e393af96f480

<comment><USER2> "My personal recommedation is to have a nicely populated GitHub profile and send the link to that. If asked to narrow it down, pick a project that you're proud of and submit it in its entirety."

Great if you work mostly on open source projects. My clients would not be happy with me publishing their code on GitHub or sending it out in its entirety. I can usually get permission to show snippets or maybe one source file, but most companies view their source code as valuable intellectual property. That's why they ask you to sign an NDA to see it.

To expand on the journalist angle, eliminating candidates who don't have a "well populated GitHub profile" is like eliminating writers who don't have a body of work published in The New Yorker.</comment>


Spotify Adds Led Zeppelin as It Focuses on Mobile Business - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/business/media/spotify-said-to-secure-exclusive-deal-with-led-zeppelin.html?hp&_r=0

<comment><USER4> Wow. This is both great and sucky. Remember when you'd have to save up, buy the album, listen to it for a whole year, and then listen to the next one? That time was important - it allowed you to grow musically so that you were, indeed, ready for the next album. Now imagine being 13 years old and hearing Kashmir (1975) and then Whole Lotta Love (1969) as your first intro. Those are great, great songs. But really - you needed to hear Whole Lotta Love and understand where that came from - that bluesy roots really coming through. Kashmir is "Led Zeppelin at it's original peak" IMO - it's as unique as any Top 50 song every made IMO. If you started with Whole Lotta Love, you aren't ready for Kashmir!!!! You need time to let that shit soak and for your brain to grow haha. Oh sure, "It's got a killer hook/riff" but you don't get it. Not at 13. You like it for superficial reasons. Later on - 1-5 years go by - <USER2> you'll really dig it for what it is and what it represents.

Get off my lawn!

<comment><USER5> My favorite part of Spotify is the "Related Artists" link. I can click on it and see that Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, Pink Floyd, and Queens of the Stone Age are somehow related to Led Zeppelin. This starts me on a very cool journey to discover music I might not have heard.

It is like Wikipedia - click on an artist, then a related artist, then an artist related to that ... Great for road trips and long coding sessions. I can get a sampling of a little bit of music history without having to go to a record store and search through bins of records. Don't get me wrong - <USER3> record store was great, but this is better.

<comment><USER6> last.fm has provided a related artist feature for longer than spotify has existed!

<comment><USER7> The last.fm spotify app also has a "recommended" tab, which has given me some pretty good recommendations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Even with spotify access, I really don't like the way those deals are going. Soon we'll need spotify for LZ, itunes for TB, let's say Google music for ACDC, etc. In reality this means only one thing: instead of paying for access, people will choose one or two providers and just torrent the unavailable albums. This is not beneficial to any of the groups involved (unless the streaming providers count on people paying for multiple subscriptions).

How many years will have to pass before publishers / authors really get what people expect and are willing to pay for?

<comment><USER9> How many people are interested in streaming Led Zeppelin and don't already own a big chunk of the collection.

<comment><USER10> Spotify premium subscriber here. What I've heard of LZ is good, but I don't think I've heard anything other than best-of albums. I'd love the chance to listen to their back catalogue.

I gave away / lost / threw away all of my CDs over the last few years. I don't own a stereo, so they just took up space. I think that the artists that refuse to appear on Spotify are very short sighted, they may as well be invisible to a whole generation.

<comment><USER11> Spotify Premium user here too. To my knowledge the two albums available today (and not before today, as far as I can tell) are the only tracks available that are by Led Zeppelin and not a tribute/cover band.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Terrible news for Led Zepagain and Lez Zeppelin.

<comment><USER13> I dunno if you're being flip, but Lez Zeppelin is a pretty good group in its own right and not trying to simply place cover songs of originals....

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think we'll see more battles in the coming years between Apple and Spotify over exclusive rights for the music of artists that aren't on either service.

Sidenote: I'm curious how iTunes Radio has done since they released it. I haven't heard from anyone who prefers that over Pandora or Spotify's offering. It'd be a large acquisition by their (or anyone's) standards, and I know I'm not saying anything revolutionary here, but there have to be discussions that have happened/will continue to happen about Apple buying Spotify.

<comment><USER15> Re: Sidenote:

I tried out iTunes Radio last night, thinking "this'll be cool!" About two songs into it, they played an ad for Macy's. I'll stick with Rdio, thanks.

<comment><USER14> Sounds about right. I gave it a try because of their Beatles catalogue, but went back to Spotify after a few sessions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> How does this work if Spotify supposedly pays all artists in the same way?

<comment><USER17> Who said they pay them the same way? Spotify has never said that and it is most certainly not true. They carefully worded that they pay roughly 70% to rights holders, and that it is their percentage of the total streams, times their rate. They did not ever say everyone gets the same rate. They just tried to imply it so that artists would stop bitching.

<comment><USER18> The rate is what the rights holder pays to the artist. The rights holders all get paid on the same formula.

[http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify- explained/#royalties-i...](http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify- explained/#royalties-in-detail)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "Users can't pick the exact song they want to play right away, and will have to shuffle through their playlists. "This is the way the next generation will build their music library," said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. "It's not about purchasing one song or other. it's about adding it to a collection."

Oh yeah. So that's a feature now...

</comment><comment><USER20> I've been waiting for Spotify to get Led Zeppelin in their catalog since I signed up when it launched in the US (Summer 2011). No Quarter is one of my favorite songs and I would love to play it on speaker at home digitally.

Tool would be the next one I'm hoping for, until then... grooveshark for them.

Edit: Looks like only two albums for now =\

</comment><comment><USER21> This is huge news for 17 year old me.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wonder if Led Zeppelin's "deal" with Youtube will survive:

[http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=led%20zeppelin&s...](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=led%20zeppelin&sm=3)

</comment><comment> daniel-cussen Albums I and II are already available on Spotify--I just checked. Interestingly, their Spotify popularity is currently zero, probably because they just got added.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is a shame. Spotify's Ogg Vorbis streaming is the poorest quality of all streaming services. I wish they'd switch to a real codec.

</comment><comment><USER24> Wait, we don't have spottily here in india. So its back to the LPs. Or maybe the mp3.</comment>


Ask HN: Any "growth hackers" or UX/UI rapid prototypers up for coffee? - <AUTHOR>

For those in/around Silicon Valley, I'd like to meet to talk about launching a new kind of development shop focused on customer development, MVPs, and lean startups in general. Any takers? If so please see my profile for more background as well as my contact info. <comment><USER2> I am not interested in a meetup, but thought I would give you a quick tip.

If you are looking for blind connections, you should consider posting a little more frequently (you're karma point total = 2!!) I don't think you will get much response without letting people know a little more about you.

Hope that helps get you more connections!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the heads up. I'm worried about that too. Although I've been a long-time lurker this is actually one of my first posts. All my info is in my profile so hopefully that gives people some context.</comment></comment>


Knowing When to Fold 'Em (as an entrepreneur) - <AUTHOR> http://founderdating.com/when-to-fold-em/

<comment><USER2> I feel as an entrepreneur it's easy to let the weight of the world fall on your shoulders. What we do as business owners is easy to think of as an extension of ourselves.

In many ways it is an extension of ourselves. Whether a business lives or dies is based off of our ability to manipulate it. Neglect it completely and it will fail. Don't start it and it will never exist.

But if you do think this way, it's first most important to take care of yourself. Picking up smoking again reeks of stress left unchecked. No sense of satisfaction from generally satisfying activities does too.

I know nothing about the Micah's business and what got him there, but from his post it feels a lot like what I've seen and what I've been through. A lot of "personal sacrifice" for the business, a lot of feelings of pressure, a need to perform. Essentially like an addiction to realizing goals; the fitbit example for instance - compelled to meet an arbitrary metric to the point that it causes him stress.

I think the best way to do anything, running a business or otherwise, is to first be cooperative and aware of yourself. If you are judging your business as an extension of yourself, it's destructive to sacrifice yourself for the business. If it's necessary, then do it with awareness; be cognizant of your actions and evaluate them to make sure they're still necessary. Stress can be a great way to motivate yourself for short bursts, but in the end it's a negative influence, it will ruin your life and it will ruin your business.

When you live off stress, that's when you can "hit rock bottom" - that's when you realize that relying on all the stress in the world to motivate you still isn't enough. If the stress doesn't help, why bother with it? That release gives you a boost - stress impairs your ability to function as much as it compels you. But I think it's important to take a lesson away from that - mitigate stress, monitor stress, and only use it occasionally. Let stress be the thing that happens when the shit hits the fan, and forces you to knuckle down and get through it. Be careful to never let it be the baseline again.

<comment><USER3> I 100% agree with you. That experience made me really think about the "team v. product v. market" dynamic that so many startups and founders are judged by. If we are to believe that team matters above all -- then why do you put the product over ourselves? If we spent more time taking care of ourselves, perhaps the product's quality and viability. would accelerate faster?

<comment><USER4> Couldnt agree with the two of you more. At a certain point stress can be debilitating for creativity and finding new solutions. Its so easy to get rapped up in needing to make one specific thing work that we become short sided in our thinking. Its in those moments of space where perspective and growth happens.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Micah, thanks for writing such a open post. We need more of this sort of open dialog in our industry. We have to push through the 'killing it' mentality that is too common now and start to have the type of dialog that keeps our community strong and lets all of us help each other when we're struggling and let's us reach out to one another when we're stuck.

</comment><comment><USER6> "I know we tell each other that failing is ok. I know that there are books and blogs written about the importance of failure. But that didn't mean that I didn't think it wasn't because of me."

What a super difficult topic to discuss - props to @micah for his honesty.

<comment><USER4> Wow what a moving story. Describing the physical pain we'll put ourselves through for a goal where the answer is clear, but being unwilling to put our selved through emotional pain to do the right thing really resonated with me. Those clarify moments when you're able to step back and look at things for what they really are, and decide to take the hard road - thats the stuff successful entrepreneurs are made up. Really inspiring and really great to hear someone speak about those persona, intimate difficult moments. Thanks!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Micah is an amazing presenter and someone with a hell of a story to tell. It's great to see him always being open with other founders and spreading the knowledge from his experiences.

</comment><comment><USER8> Always wise words from Micah. Thanks for contributing!!

</comment><comment><USER9> Micah is a wonderful human being.</comment>


SimplyNoise.com - White noise generator - <AUTHOR> http://simplynoise.com/ I use this to drown out other people. <comment><USER2> Hurrah for white (or brown) noise. If you are in an environment that is full of chat and conversation its great for blocking all that out. You can still hear that people are talking , but you can't understand what they are saying so you can more easily block it out. Wonderful if you are a bit of an introvert and want a little bit of mental isolation in cubeland, or even worse, an open plan office.

The problem with the SimplyNoise site is that the track only lasts 30 seconds or so and then repeats, so every 30 seconds you hear an annoying click. Instead, download Audacity which can generate a brown noise track as long as you want. I have a 30 minute brown noise track as an MP3 which I have on repeat.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, that stinks! In Firefox on Mac OS X I don't hear a click. I'm not sure I would've posted this site if I heard clicks!

<comment><USER2> Actually, I looked at the site again today and they said that they have fixed that. I guess if you don't hear it then it has been fixed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Don't even dream about using this to make your one-time pads without rigorous analysis of the data, making really random bits is a lot harder than it seems.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise></comment>


Ask HN: How did you learn about stock market/trading investing ? - <AUTHOR> Any good videos/books ? <comment><USER2> I learned enough to know it's a game not worth actively playing. Buy an index fund, do dollar cost averaging, and stay hands off. Why?

. Big shot fund managers can't consistently beat the market, and they do this 40+ hours a week -- why should you do better?

. Stocks should be a long term investment; the market has always had a positive return over any 20 year period. Index fund and don't worry about it.

. You'll do a lot better applying energy to your start-up or whatever you're working on than dwelling on ticker prices.

. You're probably not playing with enough money to make it worth worrying about

Ramit Sethi's "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" book is a great overview of personal finance. He convinced me to automate my investments and not worry about following the market day to day.

(UPDATE: fixed formatting, thanks davidw)

<comment><USER3> > why should you do better?

It's a zero sum game, but one might be smarter than others. Some companies doing algorithmic trading consistently skim off their share of the market's inefficiencies.

What I'm wondering is how much of an investment it would be to get into high- frequency trading for yourself. Any idea?

<comment><USER4> _It's a zero sum game_

It most certainly is not.

When you buy shares they represent a share in a company. This company may rise in value due to good management, successful products, expanding into new markets, etc. If you sell your share at a higher price, no-one is going to lose the money you will earn, the company is just worth more than when you bought it.

Other securities may make you money in other ways, e.g. if you buy T-bills the FED is paying you interest on the money you effectively loan them.

<comment><USER5> It is a zero sum game. For everyone who gains, there is someone who loses money. The prices aren't going to rise higher and higher forever.

<comment><USER4> Why aren't the prices going to rise higher and higher? There is absolutely nothing that says they shouldn't (or they should for that matter).

And how does someone lose money if the prices stagnate? The prices have to actually drop for someone to lose money.

Fundamentally this stuff is pretty simple:

I have an idea for a business, I need $1,000,000 in startup capital. I sell 1,000 shares costing $1,000 each.

After a year my business is profitable and valued at $2,000,000. The stock is now worth $2,000. That means everyone who bought my stock now earned $1,000.

Who lost on this? you can say that the consumers who paid my company (to make it worth more) lost, but a) these are not part of the stock market, and b) my product may actually have saved them more than they spent.

<comment><USER5> Well in the long run, it IS a zero sum game. A stock is valued higher only if someone wants your stock. If no one is interested in buying your stock and you try to sell it, its value will be zero. Also, if everyone holding a certain stock starts selling it, in the end the value will drop down back to zero. So everything earned by someone is lost by someone else. The only real earnings which you get by owning the stock is the dividend which the company pays out.

<comment><USER4> It is true that if no-one wants the stock then the value of it will drop. This however should (under normal circumstances) only happen if the company is not profitable and is in debt (to the point where its physical assets amount to the same or less than its debt).

It is not a psychological game, i.e. if someone somehow managed to make the Microsoft stock drop to zero then I would effectively be able to get all of Microsoft for nothing, that's a pretty sweet deal, and why that stock won't drop to zero as long as they are profitable.

The "psychology" that affects the stock prices are in speculation about the future worth of a company, and that is why you see a disconnect between a company's net worth and market cap — generally the market cap should be above its net worth, otherwise someone should buy all the shares and liquefy the company :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The most important thing to realize is that trading and investing are different ball game.

I don't know much about investing but I did dabble in trading, especially penny stocks. No, I am not talking about those scam emails where they claim that their stock pick is going to go up 100% in a month. I am talking about realizing those penny stock scams and 'shorting' them to your advantage. I learned about shorting penny stocks from Timothy Sykes (<http://www.timothysykes.com/>) and have made some money. There are quite a few other traders who share their knowledge through blogs. Few blogs which I follow:

<http://www.bigmiketrading.com/>

<http://www.reapertrades.com/>

<http://www.welcometothegutter.com/>

And most important tip: Trading is very risky. The saying '90% of the traders lose money' is spot on. Realize that trading is an extremely difficult profession and be very careful if you do decide to take the red pill.

</comment><comment><USER7> By trying to incorporate programming into trading.

If you get an account with a company like Interactive Brokers, they offer an API. They also only charge $0.005 per share.

You can study a trading method called momentum trading, which is the idea of riding the curve for a very short period of time. For example, right after a financial statement is released, the company's stock is going to go up or down, depending on the statements results. You can write a program that immediately determines the direction the share price is going at the time in which the statement is public, then buy long or short depending on its direction. Then do the opposite when the program determines the up or down curve is leveling off.

Pretty interesting stuff, and it'll get you engaged.

As far as books, google momentum trading.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'd recommend starting by reading this article about how Google approached educating its employees on investing: [http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/best- investment-advice-youll...](http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/best-investment- advice-youll-never-get)

And this talk by Charlie Munger on stockpicking and the art of worldly wisdom: <http://ycombinator.com/munger.html>

The two major mental models which I've found helpful in understanding the market are the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH; <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_market_hypothesis>) which explains how the market acts under idealized conditions of rationality. Temper this with learning about Behavioral Economics (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics>) which covers issues of human perception and how us semi-rational beings actually act, such as perceiving a loss of $100 as twice as painful as a gain of $100.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a wonderful book, but reads densely. In more recent editions contains thoughtful side commentary by Jason Zweig which help break up the text and give a more modern perspective. A key idea is the separation between investing and speculation: set aside some percentage of your portfolio for speculating, and experiment with it, but investing for the long-term is the way to go in the absence of something which allows you to escape the financial gravity of the efficient market.

A Random Walk on Wall Street by Burton Malkiel covers efficient market theory thoroughly. The Intelligent Asset Allocator by William Bernstein for approaches to constructing long-term portfolios.

Lots more to say on this issue, but hopefully some of these starting points will get you thinking.

<comment><USER9> Incidentally, heard a rumor (absolute speculation and it was probably made up by the person who told me) that Google was interested in financing an internal hedge fun and someone sent me this link.

[http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain- view...](http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain- view/finance/taxtreasury/trader-foreign-government-bonds-mountain- view/index.html)

<comment><USER10> Most large multinationals will have traders in their treasury teams. If you've got large reserves of currency in lots of currencies you need to manage currency and deflationary risk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham is a classic, and a good place to start. A Random Walk Down Wall Street is also a must read, even if you reject the efficient market hypothesis. Of course, there is a huge difference between trading and investing. These books are firmly about investing, not trading.

</comment><comment><USER12> by losing a bunch of money.

personally I didn't find the games etc to be all that useful, you act completely different when it's real money on the line.

luckily I started out around the time the market started picking back up, so even when I made stupid bets they paid off.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm not a trader, I do index funds. But, I'm a news hound, and I love reading economic an financial news, which is why I started <http://Newsley.com>.

I went out to NY last week and met with the guys from <http://stocktwits.com>. They're trying to revamp trading through social media. They have a really active twitter channel,and I follow a number of their twitter feeds.

They've also started streaming live video while the US market is open. They have a number of traders broadcast live while they are trading. It's a pretty cool concept. I wish them well.

If you looking for reviews of trading news, and companies, etc... there's <http://www.investimonials.com/>.

</comment><comment><USER14> [http://www.amazon.com/Options-Futures-Other- Derivatives-5th/...](http://www.amazon.com/Options-Futures-Other- Derivatives-5th/dp/0130090565)

<http://www.amazon.com/Investments-Zvi-Bodie/dp/007293414X>

are both very good general resources.

Investments is a very broad approach that covers a lot of markets and basics and how things work. Very accessible to complete beginners.

The Hull is an introductory text and a great reference source to keep handy. You'll need to be slightly mathy to get it, but I suspect most HN readers will feel at home.

</comment><comment><USER15> One of the best books I've read about investing is Vitaliy Katsenelson's Active Value Investing: Making Money in Range-Bound Markets.

Katsenelson argues that one should have a sell strategy in mind before purchasing a stock, instead of buying a stock and then holding forever, what he calls "buy and forget to sell".

His book is not about day trading, but he does advocate timing, what he calls pricing, a trade so that a stock purchase is made when it's a good value proposition and sold when it becomes more fully valued.

I hadn't heard the term Range-Bound markets before reading his book. He defines the term and uses it to help him make the argument that taking a more active approach to investing (i.e. buying and selling as opposed to buying and forgetting to sell) is a good strategy in bear markets and range-bound markets, and isn't a bad strategy in bull markets.

It's a very readable book. I'd suggest it to anyone.

Also, Katsenelson has his own suggested reading: [http://contrarianedge.com/2009/10/28/books-that-will-help- ga...](http://contrarianedge.com/2009/10/28/books-that-will-help-gain-sanity- in-insane-market-part-2/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Through a recent HN discussion, I discovered the finance course from Robert Shiller at Yale, and this is really only joy to look at this lecture. You get the whole semester in video: <http://academicearth.org/lectures/finance-and- insurance>

</comment><comment><USER17> I read Investing for Dummies back in 2004. It taught me all the basics I needed to know -- mostly lingo, since I had no clue what all the TLAs meant.

I had just gotten my hands on a few thousand dollars that I knew would otherwise be wasted on an unnecessary purchase, so I signed up with Ameritrade (back in 2004 when it was much less user-friendly) and had to read the book before I felt confident enough to actually place an order.

The book advised me to buy what I knew, and to only buy something I planned on holding for a long time. Luckily I had just tried out a Powerbook for the first time and was blown away, so I bought a bunch of Apple stock.

</comment><comment><USER18> <http://www.bogleheads.org/readbooks.htm>

Probably the best resource I have found online; the forums are great, the folks are really helpful with a lot of useful information.

</comment><comment><USER19> <http://www.investopedia.com/> is a wonderful website with lots of basic financial information that spans much more than just trading and investing.

</comment><comment><USER20> The first thing to do is decide whether you really want to invest the time and effort into learning. Realise that the people you are playing against are professionals who do it all day every day. That's not to say you can't develop an edge and beat them, but don't assume you can walk in with no experience and set the world alight. Nobody here would expect a novice programmer to sit down and write the most awesome web app in a weekend - the same principle applies.

In this thread I've seen 'day trade', 'don't day trade', 'index funds' , 'don't do index funds'. Realise that all this advice is contrary, and only applicable to the specific people providing it. What matters is finding something compatible with your belief system, not twisting your mind to try and accept somebody else's belief system. Because when the pain and stress arrive, if you're not fully aligned with your strategy, then you're going to make the wrong choice.

Once you've decided you're going to put some effort in, then you need to work out a strategy that aligns with your personality. This needs to evaluate things like:

\- your risk tolerance

\- your expectations of returns

\- your starting capital

\- your analytical skills

Everyone is different, and the only people who succeed are ones who find an approach that works for their personality, and then take the time to get rid of their mistakes.

As for books, here's what I recommend:

\- Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham - the take away in this book is the 'margin of safety' concept

\- Trade your way to Financial Freedom by Dr Van Tharp - the take away in this book is that active management by position sizing and risk setting dictates more of your return than your actual strategy.

\- Market Wizards, The New Market Wizards and the Stock Market Wizards, all by Jack Schwager. These books are all a series of interviews with top traders in commodities, currencies, funds, stocks and probably something I've forgotten. By understanding how an incredibly diverse set of traders have made astounding returns in the same markets should make you realise that there is no one approach that works, there are only approaches that work for specific people.

Good luck, and pray your first trade is a failure, not a success. Because you need to learn the pain of loss and how to minimise it before you taste the sweetness of profit.

</comment><comment><USER21> I've recently started doing some investing (in both stocks and MF's) - in the Indian market. Over a 3 month period, I've had higher returns on my Growth MF's than on all the stocks I've bought.

I'm slowly starting to pull out of stocks and reinvesting that money into MF's - stocks take up too much time for it to be worth the effort.

</comment><comment><USER22> start reading the financial news. the best way to learn about the stock market is to start paying attention to the financial news. there's a lot of data to be absorbed when you first start, but with time it'll become easy to read and understand the news articles and how they relate. also start paying attention to the major indexes, prices of commodities and currency. pay close attention to monetary policy set by the legislative body and find out how that may affect the general market or a specific market. pay close attention to the habits of the consumer - how she uses credit, her spending capacity, wages, etc.

just like most things in life, practice makes perfect. start practicing your trade/investment hunches. start with small wagers and increase them as you learn more and start to understand what works and what doesn't.

</comment><comment><USER5> I stopped day trading when I discovered that the time I spent tracking my investments and researching stocks was not worth the profits I earned.

I would rather buy an index fund or go long on certain stocks with excellent fundamentals.

</comment><comment><USER23> _Any good videos/books ?_

[http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumi...](http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25)

</comment><comment><USER24> My girlfriend taught me a lot and then it was just by actually putting money out there and by talking to friends who were doing the same.

</comment><comment><USER25> The same way I learn most things: by making mistakes.

<comment><USER25> I am not trying to be facetious, but a better question would be "how can I learn trading without making expensive mistakes?".

<comment><USER16> That would lead to much simpler answers, mine would be "you can't". Of all the picks you'll make, most won't be the most efficient, and many will go down. So if you can't accept losses - at least for a given amount of time -, just buy fix interests - no stocks.</comment></comment></comment>


Octopart very well received after its first time on the Reddit frontpage - <AUTHOR> http://reddit.com/info/6gtvm/comments/

<comment><USER2> The entire thing is pretty funny - we never thought an electronic parts search engine would get on the front page of reddit. Here are the reddit stats: 4056 unique ips, ~10000 queries

The reddit post also got us traffic from popurls.com (157), wired.com (37), and some random traffic from stumbleupon.

I have a new appreciation for reddit comments. Redditors are extremely intelligent people expressing well thought out points of view which I agree with whole heartedly. I'm going to start using the testimonials in our VC slide deck.

<http://reddit.com/info/6gtvm/comments/c03sz4z>

<comment><USER3> Is VC funding the plan then? I would think this was a great example of a business that just becomes profitable... Presumably you get commission for each purchase you refer? Or is it not setup that way?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not really in Octopart's demographic so I can't attest to its usefulness, but the comments on Reddit seem incredibly positive. You must be doing something right. Congrats on the continued praise and positive feedback you guys seem to be getting.

<comment><AUTHOR> Although, unfortunately, the time v.s. maturity of audience curve for reddit really shines through here...

Here is a comment that really sums it up, though:

 _this lists all the parts that may fit your description, then when you choose one it gives you who has it, how many in stock and for how much w/ price breaks. !!!!! 15 mins of searching reduced to 30s. I wish I had that last semester..._

<comment><USER5> you know you've made it when people in the reddit comment threads lose control of their bodily functions in response to your product...

<comment><USER6> Octopart Inc. cannot be held responsible for the preexisting medical conditions of its users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great job, Octoparticons! (Feel free to use that name in your literature ;))

Congratulations!

<comment><USER8> Octopartisans, surely?

<comment><USER9> Sam and Andres?

<comment><USER2> AND Harish! Who incidentally, is solely responsible for the ultra-fast attribute filters.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Well, there is no reddit front page anymore, right? There is only your front page, which depends on which subreddits you have on.

<comment><USER11> I think the "front page" is the one shown to non-logged-in users, since they probably make up the majority (?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> So, any plans to launch in the UK? I don't do much electronics stuff myself these days, but I know a few people who'd be interested. The site looks great.</comment>


Why investors are pouring millions into crowdfunding - <AUTHOR> http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/04/17/why-investors-are-pouring-millions-into-crowdfunding/

<comment><USER2> Wonder why investors would pour money into something that would render them useless.....in theory.</comment>


How to vet a recruiter as a developer candidate - <AUTHOR> https://42hire.com/how-to-vet-a-recruiter-candidate-edition-3f075fd0f853#.juip8vtvm <comment><USER2> > If you're talking to a recruiter, there's probably 80% or better odds > they're relatively new to the field.

Makes sense. When a recruiter contacts me, more often than not she has less work experience _in total_ than me _in a single company_. It doesn't induce respect from my side (even less so if she is too dumb to actually read my profile before sending anything).

\--

This actually is not a bad list of questions.</comment>


Ask HN: Do software dev mentors really exist? - rc-1140 I ask because it's among the first lines of advice that people give to new developers posting on the internet, and it's easily one of the most common bullet points on those "top things to do as a new dev" articles, but I haven't exactly been privy to such things since I started. The closest I've come to having a mentor is a (ex-)friend who helped me navigate the initial rocky pathway to getting my first job and advice on how to go forward in the field, but I don't think we're on friendly terms anymore after some issues within our circle.
I know it's something that goes on in the wild, because I overhear snippets of conversation at work about assigning someone to mentor a junior or actual mentoring going on, but I've just kind of been given junior-ish tasks and told to ask if I have any questions. No one seems to know what exactly I'm going to do or where they want me. I've been trying to act on some of the last bits of advice that friend gave me before the social separation, but some of the pieces that were the quickest to address and complete haven't borne much fruit.
I've gone to a meetup (planning to go to more) to try to find someone who might be a mentor or at least a mentor-like figure, but that's been bleak as well. Is mentorship just a buzzword that internet posters use to give themselves advice-giving credibility? Will I have to switch jobs just to get one if that isn't the case? If I do, isn't that my catch 22: I don't have enough experience, but in order to get it, I need to apply for a job that needs more experience than I have?
Things I've read in the past on HN:
- I know there are pay sites that exist, but I can't afford to take samples on random people on random startup websites.
- I know someone is going to pipe up and say "well you don't NEED a mentor" and then go on to cite how they made it on their own except for the long-time mentors they have but those guys don't count <comment><AUTHOR> Have you asked HR or your boss if they have an explicit mentorship program at your new job? Also, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, and don't know what questions to ask, I usually grab a coworker and ask "Do you have 30 minutes? I'd like you to sit with me and review what I'm doing. I would like more direction to get this task started/finished".

If there is nothing formal at your current place, you can try the informal route. Ask a coworker to join you when you go for a coffee break, and informally chat about work. Ask a few questions to see how they respond. This process is slow, but personally I've had the most success with this approach. (Yes, its politiking)

In my opinion, formal mentorship programs are uncommon. Usually the senior devs are under pressure to ship and don't have the option to help the new people (junior or not).

<comment><USER2> thats really a shame. i don't know how true it really is, but they say you don't really know something until you can teach it. Some of the most rewarding experiences I've had professionally have been finding talented but inexperienced developers, getting them excited enough to seek out little daily strategy sessions and watching them grow.

Organizations which don't foster this kind of relationship are really short changing themselves. Some of those junior people turn into stellar contributors in short order, and without a little guidance would have been frustrated and lost.

As a senior guy I feel vastly more productive and interested spending half my days in a series of little one-on-ones and in depth reviews then just burping out features with my headphones on.

I've always found a good mix of new talent, growing talent, and old hands to be the best teams. For best results have enough experienced people around that the younger people have a variety of options to choose from and be able to work with the mentors they get the most out of.

Thats pretty old school. Now it seems that its really all about the next two weeks, and not about building good teams.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I was extremely lucky to get to work one-on-one with someone much more experienced than me when I was starting out. I interned at a startup and was making the iPhone app with one of the original engineers.

I had already gotten pretty good at the slamming my head against things until they work part. So I could eventually make something that functioned, but my code quality was terrible.

Where having a mentor really helped was becoming more disciplined, seeing good code, and learning new tools and services.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is there a specific problem or set of problems that make you feel you need a mentor?

<comment> rc-1140 1\. I said it in the OP, but no one seems to know what to do with me. I just kind of exist to look at tickets and add/remove a few lines. Meanwhile, even the intern we just got for the summer was given a project, although it was just kind of decided on the spot during our last standup what he'd exactly be doing.

2\. I haven't become a better software developer since I left my first job; in fact, I've done less programming since I joined a purely tech-focused company.

3\. The code smells I can notice in the things I do look at I mostly have no solutions for since I don't know what a better option would be. The times I do have an idea, I play around with it and realize that the way we have the code is fine and I'm just trying to replace it with something New and Shiny (i.e., I wanted to replace the nested loops we used to search a log file with LINQ, but I realized that not only did this not really change anything, I'd have to start combing through dozens of tests that use this method to make sure everything still works which would destroy my sprint schedule).

4\. I don't have an angle like I did at my last job: there was always room for a tech solution because none existed in the first place. I was able to cook up lots of small and useful things that had a direct impact on the workplace. Here, just about every problem has a solution implemented already, usually a simpler one than I had in my head. Some tools that I've seen the insides of are definitely entrenched purely because of the sheer number of code smells within; I thought this would be an angle because it would probably be much easier to update if a refactor or even a replacement was worked on, but no one can justify ANYONE'S time refactoring/remaking something that already works.

5\. I'd like to learn company vocabulary; my team continues to assume that I know all of the jargon even after the past few times over the months since I've been hired where I've explained I don't. I do all the usual things like explain what I'm trying to do, why I'm doing it, and do it step by step, but it feels like the only person who seems to get me when I have an issue is my manager, and even then not always.

6\. Having someone who would actually be interested in getting me involved in the company would be nice, even if it just ends up being a social thing and not necessarily a tech thing. We don't work on anything groundbreaking and we've got our list of defects like every other company, but just being able to work on something and have something to even gripe about as chit-chat would be nice.

<comment><USER5> From your answer, I get the feeling that you need a manager more than you need a mentor. In particular:

* if you don't really know what you should/could be working on but are feeling frustrated with your daily routine, you should bring this up with your manager.

* if you still don't know company vocabulary and don't feel involved in the company after a few months, there may be an onboarding / culture sharing issue at play.

That said, maybe you should play the "money game" (as in the movie about baseball). It may be impossible to find a mentor who will do it all (help you grow technically, help you find more meaningful tasks, help you feel more socially integrated) but finding several mentors who can help with each facet is probably easier. E.g. your manager should be in that list re. day-to-day tasks and company culture; an outgoing coworker for the social interaction, etc.

You mentioned that most of the team is much older than you; maybe you can create a "filial" social relationship rather than a "fraternal" one. In my experience, this works quite well if your coworkers are old enough to have kids in high school/college, and you've graduated a few years ago - easy to relate to what they're going through and reassure them that their kids will eventually turn into fine upstanding folks just like you. Plus everyone loves talking about their kids.

This leaves out the big one, the dev/tech mentor... But if you're not looking for someone you can have a normal social interaction with, you can target the grumpy beards who committed 95% of the entrenched esoteric code and ask them about it. (Or, you know, just commit something that'll break their code. That usually gets their attention ;)</comment></comment></comment>


Why usability is still a competitive differentiator - <AUTHOR> http://teamblog.supportbee.com/2011/03/18/why-usability-is-still-a-competitive-differentiator/

<comment><USER2> Usability (in the sense of a product not frustrating the user's intentions) will always be key to getting good word-of-mouth advertising. Friends don't tell their friends to buy frustrating products or services. When I first started using Google for Web searching, way back before Google's IPO, I told all my friends about it, because it got me better results than the other search engines of the time.

After edit: And the reason I knew about Google way back then is that I checked my server logs for my personal website, and noticed a new search engine spider coming by to visit. As I began using Google, I discovered its usability, and soon began telling everyone I knew, tech-oriented or not, about it. That's viral marketing at its best.

</comment><comment><USER3> It can be a differentiator but it's a hard one to sell. Telling someone your software is easier to use will usually be met with an eye roll or a snarky "of course you think it's easier to use, it's your software...". Ease-of-use needs to be either demo'd or experienced during a trial period. The question is how do you get a potential user to that point?

Further, you'll notice very few companies that make highly usable products advertise them that way. Look at an Apple ad or Netflix or Toyota. Very rarely do they ever talk about ease-of-use. They always focus on what the product can do and how it makes you feel.

<comment><USER4> What you say is true if you restrict the term usability to just mean user interface design, but usability can go far beyond that. Usability should be about how your product solves a problem, not just how its options and menus are laid out. As soon as you hear about how Dropbox works you know instantly that it's far more usable than other sync options.

<comment><USER5> It sounds like you're talking about usefulness, not usability. In HCI/UX circles, the classic catchphrase is "useful, usable, desirable."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> From the article:

 _"Businesses can't make their products usable by just painting a thick coat of usability over their already functioning complex applications. "_

I don't know about you, but I can think of more than a few products where layering on a thick coat of usability might not solve all their problems, but it would be a jolly good start.

</comment><comment><USER7> It will also become a differentiator in that services that don't have good usability will become ostracised.

I remember when Wifi was becoming mainstream in Estonia's capital Talinn. Coffeeshop owners started providing Wifi, not because it brought customers, but because not having it pushed customers away.</comment>


Show HN: Spartan HUD Augmented Reality Helmet - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/realjds/spartan-hud-next-generation-augmented-reality-helmet <comment><USER2> Just looking at and I feel like I can't breathe in there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very breathable I assure you :) From nose to nearest front part of helmet is already at least a few centimeters. Think of a somewhat more spacious face shield in the regard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> So just a Logitech webcam connected to an Intel Atom PC + one of those smartphone VR googles all nicely packaged in an unnecessarily large helmet.

<comment><USER4> Can't wait to see your technological revolution buddy.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys, we're super excited to launch our augmented reality helmet product, this first flagship version focused heavily around the developer and researcher opportunities.

Happy to answer any questions, website links and email address below.

\---

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/realjds/spartan-hud- nex...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/realjds/spartan-hud-next- generation-augmented-reality-helmet)

[http://spartanhud.com/](http://spartanhud.com/)

firstname.lastname@example.com</comment>


Danger – Men Cooking - <AUTHOR> http://men-cooking.takeashare.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Danger – Men Cooking

A collection of original recipes and some great stories about the men who play in the kitchen at The Boomerang Social Club at Grand and May streets in Chicago. This is for them!

<http://men-cooking.takeashare.com/>

</comment><comment><USER2> Danger – Men Cooking

A collection of original recipes and some great stories about the men who

play in the kitchen at The Boomerang Social Club at Grand and May streets

in Chicago. This is for them!

<http://men-cooking.takeashare.com/></comment>


How to tell your story to investors - <AUTHOR> http://blog.thesecretofraisingmoney.com/storytelling/

<comment><USER2> Great post - I would also add that storytellers need to be aware of their surroundings and interpreting the audience's body language to help minimize rambling or telling the wrong story to the wrong audience.

<comment><AUTHOR> yea that's a great point.</comment></comment>