ISS Commander Chris Hadfield Covers 'Space Oddity' in Space - <AUTHOR> http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/13/watch-commander-chris-hadfield-covers-space-oddity-in-space/ <comment><USER2> It is my opinion that Chris Hadfield has done vast amounts more toward popularizing space travel than NASA has in its entire run, the televised moon landings notwithstanding. The general public even got bored of going to the moon after the first few trips, as _Apollo 13_ dramatizes, but Cmdr. Hadfield has cultivated an enormous, captivated audience for what is arguably routine space travel. (That's not a dig at NASA; it's a compliment to Hadfield.)

That accomplishment is even more notable because while Canada has a space agency, most of the world wouldn't consider Canada "spacefaring" in the broad sense (also not a dig at Canada). That a man challenged himself in his career to become an astronaut without a clear path to orbit, then reached a position where he can bring space travel to YouTube, Reddit, schools, and countless young minds in a new generation with the light touch required to "make it stick" is an accomplishment worthy of immense praise. Maybe a Nobel.

EDIT: Holy cow, this got flagged off the front page in the time it took me to get coffee.

<comment><USER3> _It is my opinion that Chris Hadfield has done vast amounts more toward popularizing space travel than NASA has in its entire run_

I'm going to give an opinion here that has no evidence- so consider me devil's advocate-ing, I'd love to see contrary evidence. I have long suspected that Chris Hadfield has been phenomenally popular among the tech-inclined, tweeting classes- but has had a far smaller impact on the 'everyday' person.

I do not mean this as a slight to him in any way- I think he has done everything and anything that he could. But the mainstream media seems uninterested- the height of the NASA space faring days was when there were about four TV channels anyone watched- the mindshare it captured is incredibly difficult if not impossible to replicate today. It's very sad.

<comment><USER2> Young people are not the mainstream media's target audience, but they are Hadfield's. The obvious undercurrent to his efforts is to get more kids interested in science, engineering, and potentially space travel; mainstream media doesn't get ratings out of that, so it isn't really worth covering for them. This Bowie cover seems to be gaining some steam, though; as another poster mentioned, I've heard about it from several people not in my usual "tech" circle.

Listening to the kids react in wonderment as he demonstrated wringing a towel out in orbit really drove home that he's reaching, and _really_ reaching, the right audience in a way that NASA has struggled with for decades. He is exceedingly well-educated and is probably aware of declining interest in STEM among younger kids and _especially_ declining interest in space travel as a whole. (I don't have data to back that up, just basic anecdotal experience much like you, but it seems true.)

<comment><USER3> I can believe that he has impacted kids. I'd be interested to know how widespread coverage of what he's been doing has been in schools- and how far it extends beyond suburban middle-class kids.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I was young, I just thought astronauts were lucky people who got to go to space. It wasn't until I got older and read through their bios (and such books as, The Right Stuff), that I realized they were actual uber-men/women...not only good at operating a space shuttle, but at a hundred other skills that may be needed when you're in space, including musical performances.

<comment><USER5> A couple quotes from Hadfield's Reddit account:

 _We are trained to be able to do everything onboard - we have to be. It takes many years._

 _To be an astronaut who orbits earth and stays for a while, it needs to become your main life's work. It takes: physical fitness to the highest standard, an advanced technical degree, and a proven ability to make good decisions when consequences matter. Then apply to the Space Agency of your country, and compete with the thousands who also want to fly in space._

Sources:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18pik4/i_am_astronaut_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18pik4/i_am_astronaut_chris_hadfield_currently_orbiting/c8gvqdq)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18pik4/i_am_astronaut_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18pik4/i_am_astronaut_chris_hadfield_currently_orbiting/c8gvv6u)

<comment><USER4> I met a backup astronaut (well, one who hadn't yet gone up to space) a few years ago...among her amazing engineering achievements, which I thought would've been enough for going into space, she was also a Division I NCAA track athlete.

The trials for Navy SEALS and other elite military ops are well-discussed...I wonder if NASA has any extreme tests they run...such as dropping off an astronaut on a remote island with nothing but flint and tinder and a shaving mirror and having to build a shelter with functioning refrigeration by the end of the week.

<comment><USER6> You should read Mike Mullane's "Riding Rockets". It has some weird details about the application process, including strange medical procedures...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> He's done some really great work in engaging the public with the ISS. He has a bunch of videos on the Canadian Space Agency YouTube Channel[1]. Wringing out Water on the ISS - for Science![2] was the one that got me hooked. Hopefully the next commander keeps these excellent videos going.

[1]: [https://www.youtube.com/user/canadianspaceagency/videos?view...](https://www.youtube.com/user/canadianspaceagency/videos?view=0)

[2]: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM>

<comment><USER8> His response to Captain Kirk was epic. <https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/286948264236945408>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Commander Hadfield is an inspiration. I wish him a safe trip home.

<comment><USER9> I wish he'd stay up there! :-)

<comment><USER10> It's best that he doesn't.

"Most of what we have learned about living in space is that we should not live in space. We are designed for gravity; without it, strange things happen to both body and mind. For each month spent in space, humans can lose up to two per cent of their bone mass. This means that each day, for hours on end, the ISS becomes the world's highest-flying gym to keep its occupants fit. But even with such precautions, some returning space travellers require months of rehabilitation to readjust to life on Earth. Others, despite having access to the best facilities and treatments available, experience headaches, sight loss, and undiagnosed physical and psychological frailty for the rest of their lives."

[http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/greg-klerkx- sp...](http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/greg-klerkx-space- travel/)

<comment><USER9> I'm well aware of the effects of weightlessness on the body.

It doesn't change the fact that I've greatly enjoyed his presence and I'm completely bummed that he's gotta come back to boring old Earth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Since none of the US media outlets seem to mention it, I'm wondering if most people know that Hadfield is a Canadian.

<comment><USER12> As a Canadian I am a bit uncomfortable with the constant nationalizing of Hadfield (never by Hadfield himself, but instead by people who want to make something of it online).

The I in ISS is about international cooperation, and Hadfield's adventure was made possible by many great people in many great nations. He is a great person, but the fact that he's a great person doesn't make me a better person beyond that we share a world.

<comment><USER13> The most I've seen about Hadfield being Canadian is on YouTube where there are comments that basically amount to "Go America". There is the standard reply that "You know he is Canadian, right?".

As a US citizen, I'm uncomfortable with the constant jump by the masses to assume that everybody that does something has to be from the US. You are correct that the ISS is about international cooperation, so isn't it good the nations that are involved get their recognition?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I love how he has managed to capture the interest of young people. 14 year olds are loving his adventures in space and that´s a good thing.

How many kids do you think this man has inspired to pursue a career in an engineering related field?

</comment><comment><USER15> I can imagine, how you fall in love with space and the view and your heart breaks a little (or a lot), when your time up there is nearing its end and you have to give it all up, knowing that it was a chance of a lifetime, never to be had again. A feeling of having been punched in the stomach, it almost feels like mourning.

</comment><comment><USER16> Things I am envious of from this video:

1\. Being in space.

2\. His mustache.

Things I now know that I didn't know before seeing this video:

3\. There is at least one guitar currently in space.

</comment><comment><USER17> The only thing Chris Hadfield can't do is _not_ be awesome. Even clipping his nails in space (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xICkLB3vAeU>) is interesting.

</comment><comment><USER18> Freaking awesome. By the way even though this one was mostly a keyboard song Space Oddity is a great song to start learning guitar.

</comment><comment><USER18> Encore - Life on Mars

</comment><comment><USER19> Well, he forgot the original lyrics in places and improv'd.

HOW. EMBARRASSING.

<comment><USER19> Sarcasm people! Jeez.</comment></comment>


Gov. Newsom Abandons Plan for High-Speed Train from L.A. To San Fran, Cites Cost - <AUTHOR> https://ktla.com/2019/02/12/gov-newsom-abandons-plan-for-high-speed-train-from-l-a-to-san-francisco-cites-cost/ <comment><USER2> This is both sad and widely expected.

The line from the start was ambitious, but they chose the wrong section to start on for political reasons. Instead of immediately beginning the passage through the Tehachapi's to access the LA basin, they started on a section in the central valley that was easy to start but also much less needed.

It's a good lesson for any future HSR plans: get the hardest part out of they way first as that's what you need most.</comment>


HP opening multiple 3D tech centers in the US and Europe - <AUTHOR> http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170508/NEWS/170509908/hp-opening-multiple-3d-tech-centers-in-the-us-and-europe <comment><USER2> Why places like Corvallis, OR and Vancouver (not B.C.), Washington (not D.C.)? That's where HP inkjet printers have been developed for the past 30 years or so and HP has large offices there already.

<comment><USER3> One of the places these choose is Eindhoven, which is where Shapeways located. I know they have one of the HP printers. So I am assuming they are mostly partnering up, instead of opening their own labs.</comment></comment>


War Plan Red: Requirements for a War with the British Empire - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red <comment><AUTHOR> >War Plan Red was not declassified until 1974.</comment>


Wells Fargo's 'Living Will' Plan Is Rejected Again by Regulators - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/business/dealbook/wells-fargo-regulators.html?ref=dealbook <comment><USER2> There are widely-corroborated allegations that Wells Fargo's flagship retail division had their junior employees open _millions_ of unauthorized accounts/financial products. _Thousands_ of employees that did not play along were either fired or both fired and permanently burned with the self- regulating body FINRA. Employees who refused to engage in fraud were fired "for cause" and all anyone searching for their publicly-available disciplinary record with FINRA saw that they were fired for "not following directions" or somesuch.

Wells Fargo settled this issue with some regulatory bodies by either admitting or not contesting the charges and paying record fines. But they did not settle with _all_ of their regulators.

These crimes are heinous enough to warrant a RICO case against WF. Many C-suite people plainly knew and encouraged or stood silent and should go to jail.

Due to the size of WF and the length of time it has gone on, this cancerous culture has spread, to some degree, to every other retail bank, but we can still eliminate individuals who are obviously morally corrupt using a very simple filter. The entire mid- and senior-level leadership of WF Retail for the affected time period from Branch Manager on up should be barred from ever working in banking again. WF only promoted people who actively and enthusiastically engaged in fraud and we should have little sympathy or compassion for people like that.

The retail bank should have its banking license revoked, which would result in the entire holding company being pushed into bankruptcy and the non-retail divisions sold off in a (semi)orderly fashion, if only to make an example to the rest of the industry. Great care should be taken that this doesn't turn into a Lehman-level fiasco that imperils the entire economy, but the punishment should fit the crime, and, at the minimum, bondholders should lose money. That is really the only way we can save our modern capitalism from itself.

<comment><USER3> This is a gross misrepresentation of what happened. Thousands of WF employees engaged in fraud that _harmed Wells Fargo_ in order to make themselves appear more productive than they actually were and take money from WF. WF explicitly instructed employees not to do this.

Matt Levine, as usual, has a very coherent summary of it:

[https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells- far...](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened- a-couple-million-fake-accounts) [https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-19/tough- tar...](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-19/tough-targets-and- short-term-projects)

RICO is used to target criminal organizations. There is no evidence whatsoever that the employees who were ripping off WF conspired with each other.

You are literally blaming the victim here.

<comment><USER4> So why has only WF seen this? Could it be that their internal controls on account signup were deliberately lax? And why is there always someone on HN willing to stand up for the poor helpless neglected multibillion dollar business?

I'm reminded of "will no one rid me of this troublesome priest" ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket) ). Not specifically asking that someone be murdered, but implying from a position of power that it's something you really want to happen.

Similarly setting up an incentive system with targets that are unmeetable without unethical practices then looking the other way when those practices happen implies a certain amount of complicity. It's just really hard to _prove_ , which is the intention, and why some offences are "strict liability".

Not to mention that the use of punishment for not meeting unmeetable targets is not the same as not giving out bonuses for not meeting them.

<comment><USER5> > So why has only WF seen this?

Why do you think only WF as seen this? They simply are the tall poppy that went a bit too far.

The high metrics that purposefully cause employee turnover due to not being long-term sustainable are more or less industry standard. These policies always lead to at least some low-level fraud trying to game the numbers by the retail level folks, but usually it's a dull roar and more an annoyance that easily gets eclipsed by the additional sales benefit.

And not even the banking industry. The retail service industry. It's simply how the game is played these days, Wells Fargo wasn't much interesting in this respect, they were just ham fisted and clumsier than most.

If you ask any retail bank employee working at Wells Fargo vs. any of the other retail majors wasn't a much different experience. Working as a retail banker is also much more like working as a manager of Instant Oil Change selling upsells than an investment banker deciding where to invest. I think you'll find most folks prefer the Wells Fargo job over other majors; at least my friends who were bank tellers/retail bank managers did.

<comment><USER6> I have a relative who was fired from Wells Fargo and who i know for a fact was involved in this issue, and I can assure you, when Wells bought out the smaller bank that this person was already working for as a branch manager, it was a _completely different_ experience. People who had decades of experience as successful branch employees had their lives turned upside down once they became employees of Wells. it was an entirely unique situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For anyone looking to learn more about the financial crisis, my two recommendations are:

[1] Stress Test [https://www.amazon.com/Stress-Test-Reflections-Financial- Cri...](https://www.amazon.com/Stress-Test-Reflections-Financial- Crises/dp/0804138613) [2] Too Big To Fail [http://amzn.to/2hvIZ1w](http://amzn.to/2hvIZ1w)

Too Big To Fail spends much of its time in the lead up to the crisis, and documentation of the handling of the crisis by the major participants.

Stress Test reviews the handling of the crisis, but speaks much to the aftermath and handling over the following four years.

Both are also great on audible, as Geitner reads his own book (which I always prefer, no matter the quality of the orator).

<comment><USER8> Another good one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31UlBnkQr0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31UlBnkQr0)

"70% of the financial world's cost is regulation, 20% for the tech sector"

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Unless there is actual political will to curb the very powerful in the interest of the less powerful, any scheme like this is unlikely to result in much.

One of the make reasons the federal government is sometimes less effective than we want, is that the powerful and paranoid want it that way. They put hurdles in the way of government that would make any corporation very foul, and then they blame the government for being slow.

Sure, the government is special because it has the power to compel citizens, but that's what it's /for/. We can't do without it. (Well, the bottom 99.9% can't)

<comment><USER10> > One of the make reasons the federal government is sometimes less effective > than we want, is that the powerful and paranoid want it that way.

I'm not particularly powerful nor paranoid, but I also like there being checks and balances on the government. I shouldn't really need to explain why that is.

<comment><USER11> Checks and balances haven't really worked the way they were designed to for over 100 years. The political parties (which didn't exist in their modern form when the Constitution was written) cut across the separation of powers, and so hold much of the power to control how fast policy changes go. This is part of why the Presidential election holds so much interest despite the President nominally not having a great deal of power over domestic policy: we aren't just electing someone to the office of President, we're also electing them de- facto party leader and endorsing their interpretation of the party platform.

What we're seeing lately isn't the operation of checks and balances, it's a mix of partisan obstructionism, officials across both parties deferring to donors, and officials being out of touch with "the 99%" (most members of Congress are millionaires and get VIP treatment from various companies, such as expedited customer service).

<comment><USER10> > partisan obstructionism

This is just a negatively connoted way of describing one of the most fundamental checks and balances we have. Politicians are _supposed_ to obstruct each other. If it's not a manifestly good idea, it's generally better if they don't do it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will prohibit it from establishing new international units or acquiring a subsidiary that is not a bank."

Yeah, that'll show those Wells Fargo bankers. They could cause the loss of billions of dollars and millions of people's livelihoods, but gosh darn, they can't establish new international units or acquire subsidiaries in some cases.

I consider that commensurate punishment, and on par with people selling a few hundreds dollars in drugs going to jail for decades.

</comment><comment><USER13> In case anyone missed this other Wells Fargo news this week.

Wells Fargo also signed up customers for life insurance policies without their knowledge or permission.

[http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/12/investing/wells-fargo- insura...](http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/12/investing/wells-fargo-insurance- scandal-prudential/)

</comment><comment><USER14> In about a month, I don't think this is going to matter anymore. I heard somewhere that Trump plans on relaxing all these regulations anyways.

<comment><USER15> >I heard somewhere that

That's not going to cut it. If you can't source it, don't say it.

<comment><USER14> Sure thing boss -- I can't edit my original comment to include sources. So here it is

[1] [https://commercial.jpmorganchase.com/pages/commercial- bankin...](https://commercial.jpmorganchase.com/pages/commercial- banking/executive-connect/expectations-trump-administration)

[2] [http://www.salon.com/2016/12/01/house-bill-would-relax- bank-...](http://www.salon.com/2016/12/01/house-bill-would-relax-bank-rules- aimed-at-averting-crash/)

[3] [http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/investing/wells-fargo- trump-...](http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/investing/wells-fargo-trump- regulation-tim-sloan/)

<comment><USER16> Still do not see a source there, just some journalists making assumptions like you are. Confirmation bias much?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I closed my WF account some time ago after the initial shit storm hit the press. Where are the perp walks?

</comment><comment><USER18> I thought the living will for all the too big too bail, sorry fail, banks was basically cut public and social funding and divert the tax direct to the banks instead to ensure they can pay their bonuses and complete their financial reach-arounds?

<comment><USER19> It is.

Socialise the costs, privatise the profits.</comment></comment>


Tool of the Day: Spideroak-A Fortress in the Cloud for Your Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.usefultools.com/2009/11/a-fortress-in-the-cloud-for-your-data/

<comment><USER2>
        SpiderOak is a "zero knowledge" backup provider.
        This means that we do not know anything about the data
        that you store on SpiderOak -- not even your folder or
        filenames. On the server we only see sequentially
        numbered containers of encrypted data.

This is really cool, and is a reason I don't use my dropbox for as much stuff as I would like to use it for. SpiderOak looks like something I would use for all my data, for this reason alone.

<comment><USER3> I would have assumed that Dropbox encryps, too?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For all you students out there, don't miss out on the 'Education' offer from SpiderOak!

50% off any premium package (100GB from UNDER $5 month when purchased yearly) just by registering with an '.edu' address!

</comment><comment><USER3> Everybody seems to be pushing these 2GB storage now. A couple of days ago I saw that Dell offers it along with new PCs, too.

<comment><USER5> As far as I know, we (SpiderOak) were the first backup company offering 2gb free - since December 07. It works well. I'd much rather offer real value than spend money on customer acquisition via advertising. On average, free users don't store that much, and most backup data is infrequently accessed, so the cost is manageable.</comment></comment>


My Childhood Home: A paean to the strange suburbs of Baltimore - <AUTHOR> http://laphamsquarterly.org/home/my-childhood-home <comment><USER2> Beautiful piece. Cheers to all the parents out there who send their kids into life with love.

</comment><comment><USER3> From everything I've heard from Waters himself and from other folks who grew up around Lutherville Md, his parents were some of the most wonderful people out there. Despite coming from a traditional middle-class Catholic family, they really went all out to support John's passions. I remember hearing an NPR interview with John Waters where he noted his parents were in fact the main contributor towards funding Pink Flamingos.</comment>


Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Empathy is the key skill. Yes, it's learned.

The ability to walk in somebody else's shoes for a while makes you a better developer. Why?

* You acquire the habit of imagining what it's like to use the stuff you develop.

* You have a feel for the daily experience of your colleagues, suppliers, executives and other stakeholders.

These things give you the sort of spidey-sense that lets you function independently. They also give you the ability to enlist other people to get things done.

How can you learn empathy? Like any skill, it takes practice.

\--Listen to strangers. The question "what are you doing this afternoon" asked at lunch will usually get an interesting response. Interject "wow" \- like sounds to keep them talking.

\--Seek opportunities to meet end-users of your stuff. (Ask sales people to take you along on calls if that's appropriate). Observe their work.

\--Ask your executives and project managers questions like, "what keeps you awake at night?" And listen to the answers.

\--Teach. It doesn't matter whether you teach short courses or get a night job as an adjunct professor at your local CoCo. Your interactions with students will help develop your empathy.

People love to talk about themselves. You can take advantage of that to practice empathy.

<comment><USER3> I've found "what'd you get up to this weekend" to be a great conversation starter because most people have done at least one fun thing over the weekend.

<comment><USER4> People ask me that all the time and it's awkward. I very rarely do anything anyone else would consider "fun", even on weekends.

Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

<comment><USER5> Being somewhat similar, I sympathize. I just tell them that I spent the time relaxing all weekend (regardless of what I actually did) and it seems to satisfy people.

(In spite of the stereotype, I'm always surprised to see how few genuine "introverted coders" there actually are in the industry and how unsympathetic the rest are.)

<comment><USER6> More people than you think follow this advice, which just leaves us with misunderstood anonymous social interactions.

It's OK if you don't want to spend the time to explain the nuance of your personal existence, but do understand that there is nuance in _everyones_ existence. Expecting that the other person you are talking to "won't get it" is just blatant egotism.

Taking time to express what's important to you, and why, can be a very constructive thing for those who want to listen. The OP advocates empathy, and this is where it comes from. In my personal pursuit of empathy, I've had to filter out responses from people like you, and try to see beyond the untruthful statements in an attempt to understand what they are really saying. Shyness is one thing, but a pattern of lies and deceit are indicative of fundamental imbalance.

If you're having a hard time expressing why it's important to you, consider introspection; is it really important to you? If you don't come away from a day, or week, or weekend with _something_ to tout when prompted, I dare say "you're doing it wrong".

I'm certainly not saying that I have something to be proud of every day, but that I'm honest with myself when I don't, and will express to others that I likely accomplished less than them in a given period. No lies necessary, and the other humans around you are given an opportunity to see your similarities, instead of some false iron gate of awesomeness.

<comment><USER7> I am not sure you have a lot of empathy if you automatically assume people want to be asked that question. I hate it if colleagues without kids ask me about my weekend because I believe that the joy of fatherhood breeds extremely boring stories for those who don't share it. I just don't want to feel lame telling you about how cute my daughters were.

Or if I am bustling with joy because the wife and I managed to sneak in an evening of kinky sex between bringing the kids to bed and work on monday. THAT's what I am thinking about and THAT's not what I want to tell you. So I invent some stupid story just so you are satisfied.

It's OK if colleagues which I know well and with whom I have a kind of bond ask things like that. But not as a conversation starter or to create such a bond.

And the list of people who cannot stand questions like that goes on: those with depression for whom every weekend is just a period of grayness, those with social anxiety...

<comment><USER6> "That question" need not be singled out as an outlier; what we're talking about is casual conversation.

Inventing a story, rather than truthfully explaining that you "enjoyed spending time with your wife and daughters" sounds sick to me.

You have a bond with _everyone_ else already: we are humans. There is no prerequisite.

As someone who identifies with both depression/anxiety and positivity toward my accomplishments, in addition to a definite introversion, I reiterate my last paragraph from above: stop lying to yourself and others. If you had a simple weekend, where is the shame in admitting it?

If it was bad enough that you can't admit it, use that to fuel your development instead of pacifying it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup?

Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular.

The common ones, in my opinion:

* Ability to communicate with non technical folks

* Ability to estimate relatively accurately

* Willingness to do grunt work to raise team productivity

* Ability to work self sufficiently, own a big chunk of work, possibly leading small team

* Knowing when to raise an issue to higher ups

* Willingness and ability to mentor folks more junior

* Knowledge of the general software landscape for your domain, including what is buyable vs requires building

How to acquire?

* Seek mentors

* Always be learning

* Seek out folks outside of your department and learn what problems they face

* Attend conferences, technical meetups, or other online learning opportunities

* Help out

* Focus on solving problems and not on being right

Disclaimer: I have spent some time in larger orgs, but mostly as a contractor so my advice may not be applicable for those.

<comment><USER9> Willingness to do grunt work is a fast track to becoming a manager who says "I haven't coded in years".

No good deed goes unpunished. When you step up to be a team player and do that grunt work, you open yourself up to getting more and more of it. Next thing you know you have to stand up for yourself or become a door mat.

<comment><USER10> If you're in an environment where rolling up one's sleeves and taking on the grunt work leads so quickly to negative reinforcement loops, in the way you describe... then that's a sure sign that you've found yourself in the wrong environment.

In healthy environments (and yes, they do exists) good deeds are actually rewarded, not punished.

<comment><USER11> I don't think it's so black and white. In this case, the "punishment" isn't literal. It simply comes in the form of more grunt work, which people trust you with because you have taken it on before and did a good job with it. You may actually be rewarded too when the annual review comes, if you know how to spin it.

Furthermore, grunt work can be an excellent opportunity to shine. For example, you can figure out a way to automate it so that the next person who works on it (which may be you again) has to spend only a fraction of the time on it. Things like running reports or generating documents tend to lend themselves really well to automation, and a little programming ability can take you a long way.

So yeah... think twice before turning away grunt work, even if you believe that you may be given more of it in the future if you agree to take it on now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Generally, I see "senior" as mid-career, kind of based on how Google does levels. (Engineering is basically "levels" 3-9, you get the "Senior" title at 5, so there is still quite a bit of career growth left after "Senior".)

Some things that you would want to start focusing on:

1) Figuring out what projects come next, and designing them.

2) Figuring out what your team wants to work on, so you can shape future projects to be exciting to them. (We always have an infinite number of things to do, so you might as well pick the things that are most interesting!)

3) Doing detailed designs, so that work can be parcelled out to people that are gaining experience.

As you might guess, at this point you are doing more than working alone or working on engineering tasks that someone else defined. You are defining the tasks, and are starting to define the bigger projects.

Your individual contributions should be setting the standards for others that work with you. Write that extra test, clean up that documentation, don't launch a new service without monitoring. What you value will become what your team values, by your example.

How to get to this point? Hopefully the more senior members of your team are setting you up for success; allowing you to do some of these tasks until you're good enough to do them without supervision.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think everyone in this thread is wrong. There is one thing I look for any time someone is looking to increase seniority in the organization and that's ownership. How much responsibility can you own with minimal oversight? Will you seek out the resources you need? Will you remove blockers. Will you do what you say? Will you get others to help you? Some people do this by producing lots of code and some of them do it by clearly documenting needs and concerns and getting others to be more productive. Usually it's both.

<comment><USER14> Empathy can play a significant role in seeking the resources you need, getting others to help you and perhaps even allowing higher management entrusting responsibility on your shoulders.

Over the long-term though I found grit to be a more useful skill to cultivate. Patience and perseverance sound like cliche, but in the end whether in relationships or life, those count the most.

<comment><USER13> A lot of people are succsseful at this by being total jerks. Some organizations show a marked preference for leaders who are aggressive and abrasive over ones that show empathy. Usually bad organizations, but it definitely varies.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> \- Taste. Read _The Elements of Style_ and Paul Graham's [http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html)

\- Watch _All the President 's Men_ and emulate the reporters Woodward and Bernstein. They hustle. That's what I miss among people I work with. If something is not explicitly assigned, cut-and-dried, and easy to follow, they give up. You may not be fired, but good luck making a real dent in the universe, as Steve Jobs used to say (another person to emulate! well, in some ways).

</comment><comment><USER16> A great read on this topic: [http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a- senior-engi...](http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior- engineer/)

</comment><comment><USER17> In most companies I have worked for - or I had the chance to interview with - ageing. :) So, just eat healthy, do some sports, and get older.

<comment><USER18> Haha :-) Indeed, experienced people who had that perception. No grey hair? you can't be senior.

Edit: I do not have grey hair.

<comment><USER17> My comment was a sort of provocation, but I see that some people seem to agree with it. It makes me a bit sad, but unfortunately sometimes it's pretty hard to change things - if at all!

The other comments are all relevant and very good, but they seem to overlook one important aspect: the company's attitude. What all those comments have in common is that they assume things work according to Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware. I have learnt on my own experience that they don't. I have had the chance to work with 1)poisonous, 2)negative, 3)defensive (see the psychological meaning), and 4)offensive (... no psychology needed here) senior developers. Some nicer/more experienced than others, no doubts, sometimes also due to the lack of communication skills (English is not everyone's first language, and I do understand it). However, these ones were senior due to the number of years spent in the company OR their age. That's why I think that the companies that value someone's skills (I like to see them like technical skills, IQ and EQ) for their promotions are the minority.

<comment><USER19> > What all those comments have in common is that they assume things work > according to Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware.

This is a funny comment, since he keeps repeating through the entire book phrases that sound like "you probably won't be able to get this for your team", "you likely never seen it anywhere, but...", "when doing our research, we've seen this. You might doubt it, but trust me, this exist on some places."

<comment><USER17> > This is a funny comment, since he keeps repeating through the entire book > phrases that sound like ...

Yeah, I know. Of course I meant "things work according to the advises given by the book ..." or something like that. I read the book, and everybody agrees that "it's a great book, but in reality...".

<comment><USER19> Oh, your comment was clear.

I literally though it was funny. Describing an organization type by the name of the book that claims everywhere that it doesn't exist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Being the last man standing. Seems sad but when people leave bad company, usually the people who stay get promoted and some of them become senior developer. I have seen this strange pattern a few times.

<comment><USER21> Absolutely. A good way to make this happen is to crank out piles of write-only code. You'll look more productive than your peers and you'll be the expert on a relatively large part of the system.

When things inevitability go wrong, you'll also be the hero that powers through the weekend hacking a solution together. Be sure not to document or comment this code. It makes your memories critical to the operation of the business.

Eventually everyone else but people like you will move on. You'll be given a bigger say in the org by default AND you'll think exactly like all the other senior engineers. This will make you appear to be good at communication and working in teams since you can all say and do what you were already thinking.

<comment><USER17> I wonder if I actually know you and the user mknocker. Seriously, it's scary to read this stuff for how real it is :)

<comment><USER20> Good to know I am not alone :) There are a few pinpoints also to detect if the company you are interviewing to is one of these. Usually, they are 'building' a new team for an existing product. As I grew up in my career I started to develop the reflex to ask why the previous folks left. You might not get an honest answer but at least it gives you more information either you should continue the hiring process or not.

<comment><USER22> I just had a phone interview that was incredibly telling about the company. The interviewer ... didn't speak english. And, I've been doing this long enough that I embrace that broken english is the international language of science. This guy didn't speak english. We had to communicate by typing into the pair coding app (remember this was a phone interview).

Anyway, a company who puts that person on the phone as one of the first points of contact has serious communication issues. It was an easy pass for me (I already work in a company with broken communication).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> To build on the suggestions other people are making, I would say that one thing I look for in the transition from to "senior" is the ability to make the people around you better. At the junior/entry level, a lot of your focus is about consistent delivery for yourself. As you move up the ranks, its about making you and your team better.

That could be removing roadblocks by flushing out designs and specs like other people have mentioned, or finding better processes and practices to make the team more effective. Of course, there is also the proper introduction of new technology or techniques to raise the company forward as well.

</comment><comment><USER24> * Ownership - being able to handle increasingly large tasks on your own with little to no involvement from your manager or lead.

* Search IQ - Nobody knows how to do everything in software development off the top of their head, but a major difference between a junior dev and a senior one is knowing what questions to ask and how to find the answers. I didn't used to have a name for this until one of my former mentees told me it's called "search IQ" in China.

* Understanding the big picture - At a junior level, you are generally able to understand your small task in the context of what behavior it should be producing. Senior devs should be able to grok development tasks in the context of the business use cases and within the wider system.

</comment><comment><USER25> Whatever it takes to make money for customers. That's it.

No, I'm not being snarky, so hear me out...

I've met and worked with _many_ developers over the years and lots of them have become very good with technology and user domains, but still have struggled to "crack the digital ceiling". These are brilliant people who have achieved serious things, but are still not recognized by the big decision makers as "senior", whatever that means.

Then there are a select few who always get the big gigs, big money, and big reputations. Why? Because they make money for their customers. There are lots of non-technical skills that help them, but I think the biggest is their ability to separate the signal from the noise and zero in of the most important things to work on and to get them done. It's almost like they have "profitability radar". And this rarely requires any special technical or people skills. All they really have to learn is a good grasp of the technology, a deep understanding of the customer's domain and business, and the ability to get things done through others. And how did they develop them? By good old fashioned grunt work, whether digging into the bowels of the system or getting up off their butts and relentlessly going around finding out whatever they needed to know.

Once you've figured out the best thing(s) to work on to make money, got them onto the decision makers' radar, and found a way to get them done one way or the other, you are no longer a dev or even a senior dev. You're now a digital rainmaker, the most senior dev of all.

<comment><USER26> You are onto something but I think it's not directly about making money. In my view you need to be able to talk the language of executives which is quite different from how engineers communicate typically. If the CEO sees you as somebody he can talk to you have cracked the digital ceiling unless you make other mistakes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I have the pleasure of working with both an excellent principal developer and a principal test engineer (my other team members are great too, they just aren't senior).

Both can effectively communicate with non-technical stakeholders. Product Management, sales, consulting/services, clients, etc. I wouldn't hesitate to include either in a discussion with executives (internal or client) when appropriate.

Both can do any job on the team, including mine (project manager). They might not be comfortable doing it. They might take longer on some tasks. But, if all else fails, I can safely ask either of them to do anything and they'll find a way to get it done.

Both have successfully managed special initiatives (in a "tech lead" role). These typically involve coordinating across teams, so require a higher level of time management and communication than developing for our primary project.

Both have successfully mentored junior developers, interns, or new (but not junior) employees.

And Both have earned the trust and respect of everybody else in our division. They are go-to resources, not only within my team, but across the division.

</comment><comment><USER28> All the 'soft skills' that other commenters have mentioned are definitely useful things to have but they're things to learn when you want to stop coding soon and move in to a more management oriented role. If you still want to write code as a senior, learn to write _better_ code.

In my opinion a senior developer is someone who writes software that can be maintained without their presence. That means less clever, impressive code and more boring code that's simple and straightforward to understand that just does what it's supposed to do. It means reproducible deployments. It means tests which are up-to-date and working. It means everything is documented in a way that a junior developer, or even someone non-technical, can get value from.

In short, it means being organised.

</comment><comment><USER29> There's a lot of great specific examples in this thread but I think it all boils down to this one quality; being able to put your own ego aside.

I think what lets a developer graduate from one level to the next is realizing that your own knowledge, vision, etc. is limited and not always the right way to go. Being able to put your own desires aside and execute someone else's vision while still providing the benefit of your experience and knowledge when appropriate.

Despite being a senior dev for a while now it's something I sometimes still struggle with finding the balance on.

<comment><USER30> I agree with this to an extent, but a controlled burst of ego can sometimes signal to the rest of the business that they're deeply off-track: "I/my team are better than spending time realising this ridiculous requirement/deadline/anti-feature, and we're just not going to do it. You need to re-think this".

I don't recommend doing it too often (no-one wants a reputation for being precious or difficult), but used correctly it can be powerful.

<comment><USER22> I don't think this works in Silicon Valley. I'm a recent transplant but I've found that people here are very passive aggressive and it's always a mistake to be direct with people. Now, in NYC I never had a problem after talking to someone about a disagreement (obviously in private). But, it's just not affective in SF.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> * Computer science fundamentals

To know the landscape and limitations thereof surrounding a product being developed. These skills can be learned formally through school or informally by continual pursuit, as many hackers find themselves doing who come from backgrounds other than hardcore computer science.

* Communication

With stakeholders, the business folk that green-light and also those who manage projects. This one is two part since it takes a good measure of both knowing how to cut through the red tape and get the jobs done, and also how to effectively communicate with them in the language they understand.

* Programming and devops

You need to know common idioms, a common framework or three, and the way web applications are deployed and hosted. If you have programmed a ton of projects over the years you will have seen firsthand enough of the wrong ways of doing things to spot it a mile away and be able to know when something should be refactored, rewritten, or not, and be able to review others code for the same.

I'm deliberately leaving off "people management skills" because I think #3 covers that -- managing the technical output of people is the most important part for managing technical subordinates, which you will likely be at least partially responsible for as a senior dev, even if it is for developers in a mostly flat org.

</comment><comment><USER32> Get your own work done. Be able to task yourself. Be able to task others. Fill in the blanks with vague requirements. Develop an intuition to satisfy stakeholders. Communicate transparently and with tact.

</comment><comment><USER33> I am the senior dev in our group. I think the biggest skill is being able to teach. Yes you could be teaching junior devs tech stuff, but there is also a lot of non-tech stuff that could be taught.

</comment><comment><USER34> A senior developer varies between different companies. In some companies, if you are a senior developer, you start getting more client facing roles. So your communication skills becomes more crucial. In other companies, you gain a mentor kind of role where you assist your team in designing and developing projects accordingly.

</comment><comment><USER35> 1) Communication: Both verbal and written, both input and output, and both logical and emotion-driven.

2) Proactiveness: Seeing issues before they happen, and acting on the right ones when needed.

3) Ask for and giving feedback: Both formal coaching, and informally with peers.

5) Starting with the End in Mind: Understanding why things are being done, and doing things with the end customer in mind.

6) Planning and Estimation: Much harder than it appears

7) Bias in Decision Making: Understanding the flaws in how people think (recency bias, overconfidence, anchoring, etc) and adjusting decision processes to handle them.

1-5 is mostly by practice. There are books that can provide guidance on 6 & 7, though there it's very much practice too.

It's also important to have good mentors every time one steps up in ability.

</comment><comment><USER36> OK, not strictly answering your question, but for me its about being able to give a developer any job and knowing that they can work it out. Development, database design, server setup documentation. Being able to work on or debug any part of the stack.

<comment><USER37> Actually, this is the one reply in the entire thread that in fact answers the question. This is how I see a senior developer as well.

In your professional evolution you start with simple tasks, learning to accomplish them, first under supervision, then alone. Then you get larger assignments and learn to work without hand-holding. Finally you learn to solve all kinds of problems in your field of expertise with your chosen technology and you get entrusted with making the right decisions and doing the good job of it.

But then at some point it stops mattering what work to do, in what part of the technology stack it is located, or even what technology stack this is. It becomes a matter of simply learning what you need to know to perform the work, doing it, closing this issue and moving on. That's what seniority means (or should mean to provide a base of reference).

This is viewed from the technical side of things of course, and I believe this is what the question implied. Good communication abilities and developed soft skills are essential too but those transform a developer into somebody else to whom the title of a senior developer no longer applies. They're no longer just a developer but a higher-level product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> There are two rules of success, one is soft, one is not:

1\. Do good work. 2\. Don't be an asshole.

</comment><comment><USER39> Based on my experience at small companies and large corps, being a smooth- talking B-player gets you more money and fame than being a great "hacker". However, please, I beg you, always stay TRUE to yourself! The world doesn't need any more zombies trying to climb the corporate hell, the world doesn't need more arse-kissers, it doesn't need fake smiles and interest based "friendships", and it doesn't need more conforming sheep. Stay TRUE to yourself! Peace...

</comment><comment><USER40> Keys that I have seen: * Empathy, compassion, and passion * Ability to delegate work appropriately and fairly * Ability to communicate in a appropriate manner and at the appropriate times: * To the team * To management * To non-technical stakeholders * Ability to identify the "unknowns" and give a fairly accurate estimate that takes into account those unknowns * Know when to raise the red flag if something big will hinder the original estimate * Be humble (no work is "below" them)

</comment><comment><USER41> Domain knowledge about the business activities that your software is supporting is powerful. Do you know why your users want what they want? Can you suggest a better approach to solve their problem, based on your deep knowledge of business needs? Do you know the impact of requested changes on other parts of the business. This, of course, is very specific to a company/industry.

Knowledge of accounting principles is often helpful for in-house developers.

</comment><comment><USER42> Considering some people spend 1-2 years as "junior" and then 10-20 years as "senior", you will get very different answers from "seniors" as they have varying degree of seniority. Most points in this thread add value.

The one thing which in my mind make people juniors well into their 40's is the inability to take responsibility.

</comment><comment><USER43> There are a lot of comments here that are under the umbrella of getting old and sticking with the same company which are probably true for a lot of subpar companies. If you're talking about a good company that has a lot of good engineers to choose from I would look for:

\- The ability to communicate clearly

\- The ability to understand team members with empathy

\- A unique penchant for foresight

</comment><comment><USER44> Understanding the customer value of your work. This is one of the biggest thing I see devs missing. Yes, developers are primarily responsible for the 'how' and 'when' for new features, but they should always be questioning the 'what' and 'why' as well.

</comment><comment><USER45> * Know what's going on with the whole team (what state the project is in, etc) and be able to communicate it with anyone asking.

* Also be able to reach out to other teams to unblock issues.

</comment><comment><USER46> Frankly, none. Everywhere I know of the position of senior dev is defined solely by your technical expierence, and the screening in job interviews for non-technical skills are the same for junior or senior dev positions.

Perhaps a better question is what non-technical skills do I need to work well in a team (as a senior or junior dev), every developer needs to know how to listen to people with different expierence and teach others about his own, whether he's junior or senior.

<comment><USER47> That's too bad. The senior devs I know are generally good with people: Making them better, working out differences, getting people on-board with solutions, helping one-on-one with things like code reviews and debugging sessions, writing design documents, finding and fixing bugs that aren't theirs. The list is endless. Oh, and they write code, too, generally lots of it.

<comment><USER36> I generally find that less experienced devs are the ones writing _lots_ of code. Personally I think more and write less of it (and it usually works better).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> A couple things that I think are important to being more "senior"

\- Owning the problem. Don't pass the buck when you see a problem and it's well within your realm to own and fix.

\- Ownership and delivery. You have to deliver. You have to remove your own blockers. You have to be realistic about what you're biting off. When you say no, and you should, you need have a reason.

\- Be a leader. Make those around you better by thinking of them when you build your system.

</comment><comment><USER49> This pair of articles are surprisingly comprehensive, nuanced, and worthwhile:

[http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-bad- programm...](http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-bad-programmer)

[http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-good- program...](http://www.yacoset.com/Home/signs-that-you-re-a-good-programmer)

</comment><comment><USER50> Understand exactly how development fits into the rest of the business, it will vary for every company. The art of scalability is a good book to read to get started.

</comment><comment><USER51> Someone who can teach/mentor those behind them.

That includes identifying useful ideas from elsewhere - conferences, magazines, books, hn, etc - then adapting them to _make sense_ on current project, convincing the rest of the team of their fitness, and then leading the rest of the team to understand and learn them. Not a manager, a leader.

For the record, "make sense" is not the same as "cram every shiny v0.1 toy into the next project."

</comment><comment><USER52> I think the other comments have answered the question well enough, but it is worth noting that a title in and of itself doesn't mean much. I've had some awesome titles in my career, from Senior Dev to Architect to CTO... but at my current job, every single person here is at that level. So my title is just "Developer".

Focus more on skill gaps, and less on titles, and you'll go where you want to go.

</comment><comment><USER53> I would say a solid understanding of the fields that development most commonly intersects with. Typically business (including politics), product, networking, operations, and security. You don't need to be an expert but you do need to be able to carry on intelligent conversations at the intersection points.

You don't need to be an expert but you do need to have a firm grasp of the basics.

</comment><comment><USER54> Confidence. The ability to push back and stand up for the other developers on the team and your craft.

</comment><comment><USER55> Take ownership of all of your actions and take responsibility for all outcomes. If something did not work out do a root-cause analysis and try to do better next time. Read "The mythical man month" by Brooks to get some perspective to the daily problems.

</comment><comment><USER56> My colleague Elaine gave this interview on "what it means to be a senior engineer":

[https://blog.codeship.com/elaine-uy-tapjoy- interview/](https://blog.codeship.com/elaine-uy-tapjoy-interview/)

</comment><comment><USER57> One of the best resources for improving your soft skills is the book "How to win friends and influence people". It's about 80 years old now, but still the best work in its category. I keep a copy at my desk for quick reminders.

</comment><comment><USER58> Check out the book SoftSkills by John Sonmez.

[https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers- manua...](https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers- manual/dp/1617292397)

</comment><comment><USER59> Being senior means taking responsibility for ensuring the right things happen. If you can teach others to do the same, you may also be a project team leader, and/or have the sensibility to be a people manager.

</comment><comment><USER60> Being able to teach others - focussing on the why, as well as the how.

</comment><comment><USER61> Beard?

</comment><comment><USER62> Age.

Grow old.

</comment><comment><USER63> Faster, cheaper, better.</comment>


Arithmetic with JavaScript Arrays - <AUTHOR> https://learntemail.sam.today/blog/arithmetic-with-javascript-arrays/ <comment><USER2> Yet more evidence that JavaScript is an outstandingly horrible programming language.</comment>


Show HN: Wobble Wockets – Mobile Friendly HTML5 Game Built with Phaser.io - <AUTHOR> http://play.wobblewockets.com/

<comment><USER2> I love this game - it shares a lot of the (re)playability that makes Flappy Bird so compelling. Great to see HTML5 being utilised like this. A couple of comments/questions:

\- Is there actually a 'Moon Base' that I can get to? If not, maybe use a different narrative, because I'm being promised something (another level?) that isn't delivered.

\- another vote for keyboard controls for the power-ups. I was _very_ pleased to discover that I could use space instead of clicking the mouse, though :)

\- a very minor issue: I think the graphics could do with a small polish. i'm certainly not the person to do it, i'm afraid, but I think the game could easily suit an '8-bit' style or some other reworking

Other than that, though, great work. I would happily pay to support your work - do you have any kind of account I can donate to?

<comment><AUTHOR> Powerup shortcuts are 1, 2 and 3 on keyboard - I'll add some instructions. I drew every pixel and I'm not much of an artist, so definitely room for improvement there!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Now it's time for a multi-player Wobble Wockets, where the only way to make it to the moonbase is for the people who come before you to set up little outposts and blast rocks for the people behind them.

Also, is there a moonbase? Or is the cake a lie?

</comment><comment><USER3> Annoying as this game is, its simple game mechanic is far superior to Flappy Bird. It's genius. If some form of this doesn't go totally viral, then it's way underrated.

<comment><USER4> please elaborate. what makes this superior to flappy bird?

<comment><USER3> There's a much deeper thing going on here than Flappy Bird. The rhythm of it is more multi-dimensional. Flappy Bird works really in one dimension. This works more in two dimensions. Also there's a Tetris-like quality to it where the difficulty increases as you get higher up the page. It's also superior to Flappy Bird because there is more decision-making: do I wait for the wobble to make another cycle to make the turn, or do I rush and thrust now in the direction I'm going. Decision-making is what all good games are about, and this has better decision opportunities than Flappy Bird by a mile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This game is awesome tons of fun super easy to play, I would love to see how it was developed step by step.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is my first phaser game and I followed a step by step flappy bird tutorial to learn the basics. It's basically all the same components - scrolling background, generated obstacles, and a simple motion character. I'd love to write a tutorial for this one though.

<comment><USER6> if you don't mind sharing, which flappy bird step-by-step did you follow? btw, great game! i spent the last 15 minutes playing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like that this works just as well on mobile as it does the computer. Great work!

</comment><comment><USER8> Highscores? 607 here with no powerups. [http://imgur.com/MGKeedl](http://imgur.com/MGKeedl)

</comment><comment><USER9> Get this on the iPad stat! Otherwise, please open source it :) I'd like to add hotkeys for the special powers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Open it up in safari, then add it to your homescreen - It'll play fullscreen and behave just like a native app :)

<comment><USER10> If you are interesteed, there are people using CocoonJS and/or Cordova to package up Phaser games as native apps. It was a bit complicated last time I checked. There is a ton of info on [http://www.html5gamedevs.com/forum/14-phaser/](http://www.html5gamedevs.com/forum/14-phaser/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Quite addictive indeed. Love the gameplay.

</comment><comment><USER11> It would be even more awesome it it was collborative with other people logged onto the website!

</comment><comment><USER12> With 12 trials, doing nothing at all earned me an average score of mean 74.08 +/\- 21.5.

<comment><USER2> You realise that's a terrible score, right? :-)

</comment></comment><comment> o0-0o How do you pass levels on this game? Just keep wobbling?

</comment><comment><USER13> widiculously addictive

</comment><comment><USER14> How would you monetize it?

<comment><USER15> What makes you think they want to?

<comment><USER14> Err... I was just hoping for a short discussion about monetizing HTML apps. What is the problem?

<comment><USER15> Sounded as though you jumped to the conclusion that it _has_ to be monetized, above all else. Not everything has to be monetized, and some things are made just for fun and learning. That's how I interpreted your phrasing, at least.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Colour Science for Python Has Joined the NumFOCUS Affiliated Projects - <AUTHOR> https://www.colour-science.org/posts/numfocus-colour-0314-and-colour-datasets-010/ <comment><AUTHOR> Colour 0.3.14 ([https://github.com/colour- science/colour/releases/tag/v0.3.1...](https://github.com/colour- science/colour/releases/tag/v0.3.14)) has also been released over the weekend along with Colour - Datasets 0.1.0 ([https://github.com/colour-science/colour- datasets/releases/t...](https://github.com/colour-science/colour- datasets/releases/tag/v0.1.0)), a new Python package dedicated to colour science datasets management.</comment>


Ask YC: A VC as President? - <AUTHOR>

I work for a startup a year old, with about 10 people in it and a round A of 1M.  What's happened in the last of month is that the VC's have put one of their own guys in as president (not someone that they chose - one of the actual VC's: formerly a stock-broker with no previous experience running a company), who is now starting to dictate schedules and parts of the technical direction.
My question is: this is unusual, right?  I understand that it's common to put in a CEO at a later round, but having the fund-raisers in the presidential role while we are still in heavy development seems very out of the ordinary...
Has anyone else experienced this?  And if so, was it a portent of doom? <comment><AUTHOR> Spent today looking into this. I think, ultimately, the problem is how the founder set things up. The board consists of the founder, the head VC, and two people who are employed by the head VC.

To me, this is three wolves and a sheep deciding on what's for dinner. My feeling is that the appointment of the president (my initial concern) is simply the natural outcome of the overall power structure - and likely just the tip of the iceberg.

I appreciate your feedback (in particular, thank you Dennis for the excellent link). I'll let YC know how this all pans out...

</comment><comment><USER2> Can I offer you my experience with VC?

I am sure that there are some high quality VC's out there but the problem is that there is no quality control in that industry. Just use my observations as a guide but you will be surprise how well it fits their behaviors.

<http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/2007/10/vc-worst-enemy.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, the founders at least can't be blamed by the VCs if the company implodes.

Please come back and update is on the story if you stick with it there. Might help some of us later.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yes and yes. If you are an employee I'd start working on that resume. If you are a founder - sorry.</comment>


Requirements for CNNIC re-application - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.security.policy/zed2F-aNbDc

<comment><AUTHOR> Some background of the story:

CNNIC is a root CA from China. It issued a false certificate[0] and got revoked by both Google[1] and Mozilla[2].

CNNIC is also believed to behind some MITM attack against iCloud[3]. Pulling CNNIC from Firefox was once discussed five years ago on Mozilla's bugzilla[4, 5, 6].

0\. [https://cpj.org/blog/2015/03/chinas-cnnic-breaches-sacred- cr...](https://cpj.org/blog/2015/03/chinas-cnnic-breaches-sacred-crypto-trust- endanger.php) 1\. [http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2015/03/maintaining...](http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2015/03/maintaining- digital-certificate-security.html?m=1) 2\. [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/02/mozilla_revokes_cnni...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/02/mozilla_revokes_cnnic_cert_trust/) 3\. [https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2014/oct/china-collecting- appl...](https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2014/oct/china-collecting-apple-icloud- data-attack-coincides-launch-new-iphone) 4\. [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=542689](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=542689) 5\. [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=476766](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=476766) 6\. [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=607208](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=607208)</comment>


HTC & Dropbox bring free 5GB extra storage to 'all' Android mobiles - <AUTHOR> http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42694/htc-dropbox-free-5gb-android <comment><USER2> This offer applies to all HTC Androids (not _all_ Android devices).

<comment><USER3> Yes! OP please change the title, it is very misleading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Of course this would happen as soon as I migrate over to Spideroak.

It is an excellent selling feature all the same, and applying it to all devices is the sort of thing that builds tremendous brand loyalty.

</comment><comment><USER5> Relying on HTC's Twitter feed for information isn't the most reliable way of gaining information about the company. For a long time I thought I'd be getting an official update to my OS (HTC Desire to Gingerbread), specifically because HTC said I would via Twitter .. needless to say, I didn't.

This seems pretty much like speculation to me.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, for THAT information you have to go to their facebook page: <https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=225607660802056>

_sigh_

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> How can you activate this?

</comment><comment><USER8> Smart move for both Dropbox and HTC. Everybody wins, and the users get the most out of this.

Hopefully we're going to see more deals like this, but PLEASE manufacturers, don't make these apps un-uninstalable (like google did with Twitter.. I don't use twitter)

<comment><USER9> Apparently ICS makes _all_ apps uninstallable. I'm sure American carries will find some way to muck it up though.

<comment><USER8> Nah, ICS allows you to disable any application, not uninstall it. It's basically in a state which just uses storage space, which is still a good thing. But who's to say that manufacturers won't modify ICS and disable 'certain features' ?

<comment><USER10> In order for a phone manufacturer to get the Google seal of approval (which allows you to bundle up the Android Market and various Google Apps in your distribution) their "fork" of Android has to pass a suite of compatibility and assurance tests. Google could simply add that functionality as being required in the test suite to force the phone carriers not to muck with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder if this applies to my old nexus one

</comment><comment><USER12> this service is ONLY for HTC-Androids and ONLY for 12 month.

\--> teaser

<comment><USER13> > Congrats on becoming a Dropbox Guru! We've awarded you 3GB of bonus space > for the next 12 months!

<https://twitter.com/htc/status/128546238999175168> really should have made that clear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> hmm.. time to borrow friend's HTC for 'grabbing' this offer.</comment>


Show HN: wasm_val – API to call JavaScript from rust wasm programs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/viftodi/wasm_val <comment><USER2> How it compares to stdweb ([https://github.com/koute/stdweb](https://github.com/koute/stdweb)) ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello,

The main idea compared to stdweb is to have the ability to call into javascript dynamically but without having to write actual embedded javascript.

From what I've seed stdweb exposes a js! macro with some features to conveniently pass around rust values back and forth.

Also from my understanding of it stdweb also features some abstraction layers of common js APIS based internally on that js! macro.

Ultimately I'd say compared to stdweb, wasm_val aims to provide access to javascript via an API as compared to writing actual embeded js like stdweb does or by writing or generating bindings as wasm-bindgen does.

Edit: Also since wasm_val encapsulates js access in an API it provides additional type-safe guarantees (such as when coercing a JsValue into a rust type)

Also wasm_val does this dynamically, so you could potentially do some stuff during runtime that you couldn't in stdweb due to it using code generation as well.

Hope this answers your question.</comment></comment>


'Doctor Who' Set to Become Film, Reveals WikiLeaks Trove of Hacked Sony Emails - <AUTHOR> http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/latest-security-news/doctor-who-set-to-become-film-reveals-wikileaks-trove-of-hacked-sony-emails/

<comment><USER2> I did not understand this headline at all. What it means is that Wikileaks leaked some Sony emails, and those emails show that there is a Dr Who movie in the works.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wondering if Tom Cruise will play Doctor Who.</comment>


Show HN: Instabug 3.0 (YC W16) – In-app conversations and bug reporting for apps - <AUTHOR> http://blog.instabug.com/2016/02/introducing-instabug-3-0/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi Everyone, I'm one of the cofounders of Instabug. We're really excited to show you Instabug 3.0. We've been working on it for the last months, and we'd love to hear your feedback.

We've originally launched on HN almost three years ago ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526949](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526949)), and since then, we've been helping apps get their beta testers engaged and also provide a feedback channel in their live apps. With this update, we're adding even more details to the reports that we capture, adding the ability to attach multiple attachments, and most importantly, we're closing the feedback loop by providing our own in-app live support. Give it a try and let us know what you think, we're excited to hear your feedback

<comment><USER2> If you file a bug in an app through Instabug, is there any way to check the status of the bug from within the app?

Have you considered gamification of bug reporting? Things like rewards, badges, karma points, or similar for the app users (particularly beta testers) might help to increase the volume of reported bugs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Currently there's isn't an automated way to see the progress of the bug. The way it works is that when the developers or the support team mark it as closed/fixed, they can reply back to the reporter saying something like "We've fixed it and it will be in our update next week" and you get these replies inside your app with our in-app conversations.

And yes, we've thought about gamification and rewarding users but didn't get a chance to experiment it. We had a few interesting discussions with some of our users and their main concerns was that they're already getting nearly 5x more feedback when using Instabug in their beta apps which is enough, and that it'll add an extra step in the process which is validating that the bug is actually a bug for the reporter to claim the reward. But I'm personally excited about it and I believe we're experiment it soon.</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft Wins Trial on Google's Patent Licensing Tactics - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-05/microsoft-wins-trial-on-google-s-patent-licensing-tactics.html

<comment><USER2> FOSS Patents on this: [http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/09/jury-quickly- reaches-verd...](http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/09/jury-quickly-reaches- verdict-in-favor.html)

(Usual disclaimer: You can agree or disagree with him, but he provides a useful factual context for the decision.)

<comment><USER3> > he provides a useful factual context for the decision

Ugh, no he doesn't. The very first thing he states is wrong. A jury ruling does not establish case law.

He really is just a self-aggrandizing pundit, and even if he wasn't terrible, he'd still be a pundit. He's even gotten worse over time, as half of each of his articles now is just pointing out how the weasel words he used to describe upcoming cases in previous posts turned out to be totally true. Who on earth cares that the damages turned out to be relatively small, but hey, _earlier_ he wrote that the monetary amount didn't matter?

Don't give him link juice. The OP Bloomberg article contains a large amount of context for the case.

<comment><USER4> _> Who on earth cares that the damages turned out to be relatively small, but hey, earlier he wrote that the monetary amount didn't matter?_

Well, actually he said the legal implications will matter more than the money, so that's something reasonably vague that he can point to later on if something fits that description and say, "see, I told you so."

Similarly he didn't say "this jury ruling will create case law". It's worded a lot more indirectly than that.

All his articles are like that, with lots of little predictions hedged by weasel words. As such, with all that hedging he ends up appearing to be right frequently, and he never misses a chance to link to any previous posts where "he had said so before".

But because he's careful to always hedge his bets, I find him to be more accurate than most pundits out there, who make bold claims and are either surprisingly correct or, more likely, end up eating claim chowder.

What annoys me more is the hard-on he has for Google -- the "Google micromanaged" Motorola Mobility division? Really?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Do no evil. Google exploring borderline evil tactics.

<comment><USER6> This lawsuit was based on events from a year before the Google acquisition.

I'm not saying Google is good or bad, but this isn't evidence of either.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft cast the first stone in October 2010, and made its FRAND allegations in November 2010 [1]. Google announced its acquisition of Motorola in August 2011 [2] and completed it in May 2012 [3]. This decision comes more than a year after the close.

Granted, regulatory concerns did not allow it to affect the lawsuit until the acquisition closed (other than maybe the extreme measure of abandoning the acquisition itself)... But a year is a long time -- and many, many settlement opportunities -- to pursue a lawsuit to its bitter end, especially with all the disapproving judgements they were getting [1]. I think "evil" is a stupid term used too readily around these parts, but I also think a year is more than enough time for Google to bear responsibility for this.

Essentially, Google decided to bear the negative publicity (if any) of being convicted of pursuing unfair business practices rather than settle with Microsoft.

Judgements of "evilness" aside, given that Google is pretty savvy about its public perception, this probably has a few significant implications.

1\. [http://www.patentprogress.org/cases/microsoft-v-motorola- inc...](http://www.patentprogress.org/cases/microsoft-v-motorola-inc-and- motorola-mobility-inc-w-d-of-wa/)

2\. [http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html](http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html)

3\. [http://investor.google.com/releases/2012/0522.html](http://investor.google.com/releases/2012/0522.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> All big companies are the same, little companies are evil in their own way.

</comment><comment><USER8> Hopefully MSFT will buy the full version when the trial expires.

<comment><USER9> Ha! It's shareware like WinRAR. They could just click the x button.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Maybe the YouTube app fiasco was a preemptive strike.

</comment><comment><USER10> I expect Google to write-down Motorola eventually. The patents seem pretty worthless thus far.

[http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/26/4271432/does-anyone- know-w...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/26/4271432/does-anyone-know-why- google-bought-motorola)

</comment><comment><USER11> _Motorola Mobility didn't act in good faith when it demanded patent royalties from Microsoft Corp_

Duh! Nothing in these lawsuits is in good faith, all is done to screw the other side. MS got lucky Motorola played it dumb and lost. Asking 2.25% of the sale price just for a small portion of one feature takes b-lls. Being FRAND patents and all, no one forced Motorola to add their patents to standards.

 _U.S. District Judge James Robart, who presided over the trial, determined in April that the appropriate royalty rate was about a half-cent per unit for video-decoding technology and 3 1 /2 cents for wireless technology. Microsoft said that would equal about $1.8 million a year._

Is this legally binding, assuming it's held on appeal?</comment>


How to spot a fake Canon flash - <AUTHOR> http://petapixel.com/2013/09/03/spot-fake-canon-flash-learned-hard-way/

<comment><USER2> Having worked with factories in China I'm not sure the sleuthing relating to glue types, etc really mean a lot. Our vendors regularly changed things like that, sometimes without even consulting us first. (Although they should have). Also, we made running changes on things like that all the time as well.

There is no reason why silk screen printing on a counterfeit product should be any less sharp, so I don't understand the relevance of saying the Canon logo will be a little blurred on a fake one.

The premise "How to spot a fake Canon flash" is nonsensical because as mentioned by gaius, often fakes are made in the same factory. In the case of a company I used to work for, their product was copied which included identical custom board layout and a copy of our firmware burned into the chips too. Obviously someone on the inside of our factory took all our designs and ip and was using it to build exact replicas. The only recourse, which worked for us, was to notify the Chinese government and they took action to shut down the people making the counterfeit products.

<comment><USER3> What prevents factories from implementing some online verification mechanism for serial IDs? At least for products which cost a few hundred bucks, this should be economically feasible, no? Then, before buying, you could scan a QR code and have the site tell you if it's a valid serial.

<comment><USER4> Then all the counterfeiters have to have is one valid serial number, and print it on all their products. The online lookup says it is real!

<comment><USER5> If we're talking about _online_ lookup, then there's a simple countermeasure: if the system has already seen the same serial number 50 times, or it sees the serial number in Shanghai then fifteen minutes later in Frankfurt, or any number of other heuristics, it'll report that it's a fake. True, this might inconvenience the one legitimate customer who had that original serial number.

Also, you need to make sure that the serial numbers are long and random- looking, so that they are not auto-generated.

<comment><USER6> I don't know if this will inconvenience the one customer unless they bought it used. Someone with connections to the counterfeiters would have owned that valid product for some short period of time and probably kept it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is it just me or is the point of this article "you can't"? Professionals who deal with real Canons all day every day were fooled for an absurdly long time, the silver bullet relies on extremely niche domain knowledge (the structure of serial numbers) which the counterfeiters don't _have_ to get wrong, and the author was only able to spot minute differences in shades of colors, etc, while staring at a real and fake flash side by side. If I don't have a real flash already, how can I know if the shade of the glass is slightly too blue?

<comment><USER8> That was totally the take away for me. If a fake is this good, there's no way I'm going to be able to spot it without a LOT of domain knowledge.

<comment><USER9> The biggest Red Flag I noticed was the software incompatibility.

The flash would inconsistently show up in the camera's settings.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Living and working in China, I quickly discovered that it's a buyer-beware market. Within a few weeks I had learned to always buy my electronics from the official stores in shops like Guomao. From ICs to smartphones, the fakes run the whole gamut.

In shops like Shenzhen's SEG, I've watched them apply brand stickers in public. When asked if they're real, they told me with a straight face that it was and came from the same factory. Yeah right. One of my coworkers lost all his photos from the trip, when his fake SD with a bogus size reached the internal limit and started overwriting his earliest pictures.

<comment><USER11> One of those fakes cost me my contract. I bought a USB key from a big box store. And used it to store some client work on it. Brought it into their office and nothing worked. I tested it on my servers and everything was fine. A few days later after constantly trying to debug it I copied the version from my USB key to my servers and bam! I finally get the same errors as the client.

In the end I wasted needless hours and missed a deadline over a $20 USB key (you know the cheap ones they keep at the checkout line).

<comment><USER12> 1\. Why do you think it was a fake?

2\. If you knew a deadline was approaching why would you waste your time debugging a USB drive? There are plenty of other ways (including a new USB drive) to transfer the data.

<comment><USER11> 1\. Because the advertised capacity was 8GB but the real capacity was <1GB. There was a lot of coverage about this a few years ago. Including Bunnie Huang who had a problem with bad, fake SD cards being in his Chumbys'. The controller reported 8GB to the OS and so as it reached real capacity the controller would overwrite the first blocks.

2\. If the code works on your computer yet doesn't work on the clients computer you would be lead to believe the problem is on the client's side. Honestly, how many people actually check their storage media? I didn't debug the USB drive I ran the code from the USB drive after recompiling 50 million times.

I don't see a lot of programmers trying to run diskcheck or memcheck every time they have an unexplainable crash.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm with the group that thinks that this flash was probably made in the same factory that makes the real flashes. My question is why would the fake flash stop working? Why would a "fake" product, which in this case is more likely a product made in an extra factory shift, be more likely to fail than an official product?

<comment><USER14> I'm with the two posters currently below me. When the factory runs out of the proper parts, they can do some "counterfeit" or sub-quality runs with near matches and most features will probably still work under most conditions.

The simplest example I can think of would be components value such as capacitors and resistors. If a design uses an uncommon part value (like 5.0uF) and the factory runs out, they can build with a common value (like 4.7uF) and come very close.

This is most likely to happen at the end of a production run. There aren't enough parts leftover for the actual quality device, but you can make substitutions and get some more near-quality units out instead of throwing out all of the rest of the good parts.

Another example I could foresee from the OP is that different revs of firmware were available at different times. e.g. a bug was discovered after the ROMs were masked or flashed and that run of chips should have been destroyed but weren't. (Hell, they might still be upgradeable!)

Ironically, the serial number was possibly intended to distinguish the official runs from sub-quality runs... The "counterfeiters" might not have been trying to fool everyone, but instead, to distinguish between official and ghost shifts. Welcome to the new age! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> A philosopher could have a lot of fun with this one. At what point does perfect imitation cross the boundary of identity?

<comment><USER16> Especially when the person making both of them is the same. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've never seen such a convincing fake product. A lot of attention to detail. If they got the serial number right then it'd be impossible to tell without opening up (or at least peeling that tape).

<comment><USER18> Maybe you have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> With the new informations available, I'm confident the next round of counterfeit flash will be of even greater quality ...

</comment><comment><USER20> I don't get this - How are you supposed to know that the serial numbers don't start with letters? It's not like you buy tons of identical devices and then start making diffs on them.

</comment><comment><USER21> I think the evidence presented with this article is at best inconclusive.

So a couple of guys at the repair shop guessed it's a fake. The comparison flash is a couple of years old.

If on the other hand the author had sent the flash to Canon for repair and they said it was fake, then I would say he has proved it.

<comment><USER22> Uh yeah, an official Canon repair shop. He writes about "Canon employees" later in the article.

<comment><USER21> In the article he talks as if the repair shop is the first place he took it to, only one month after buying it. Then later he says "This one had fooled camera repair shops, professional photographers and Canon employees for way longer than we all probably would care to admit". His story doesn't add up.

If you read the comments you can see many people have Canon parts with serial numbers that start with a letter. Unless you think they are all fakes too.

This is why I say inconclusive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What is the benefit of applying the glue in a "delicate grid" of "fine, intersecting lines" (as opposed to the bad "solid slab" of glue)?

Also, how are the "fine, intersecting lines" of glue extruded?

<comment><USER24> Probably just greater consistency, so one fewer variable when it comes to QC.

<comment><USER23> How do you think they extruded glue in a grid? Would it be an extrusion nozzle on an XY gantry (like a MakerBot), or am I overthinking this?

Maybe a simpler approach would be to extrude through a mask that has a grid- like pattern of holes? Obviously you could only make isolated dots of glue, but not overlapping lines of glue (you can't have floating islands in your mask layer). So although it wasn't the technique used in this article, I guess it could work just as well, right?

<comment><USER25> Can't one just spray the glue in that pattern with some kind of inkjet head? Or is that bound to fail due to glue's ability to ... well ... glue things together?

<comment><USER23> If the glue is standard cyanoacrylate ("super glue"), then, since the glue is moisture-activated, maybe you could do it without the nozzle getting clogged as long as you have some kind of amazing material for the nozzle that repels moisture.

Maybe someone with experience using cyanoacrylate in industrial settings can speak to this. All I know is that my hobby-store super glue nozzles (cheap plastic) get clogged almost instantly. :P

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate)

\--

But, my main concern with any kind of XY gantry (as in an inkjet printer like you describe), is that it would take frigging FOREVER. There's no way you want this glueing step to take 45 seconds per unit or more. That's the puzzle, I think, is how did they create this glue grid so quickly that it rivals the blob approach (1 - 2 seconds)?

<comment><USER26> Stencil application, usually. Similar to the process used for solder paste or screen printing. You can use polypropylene or acetal nozzles, cyanoacrylate won't stick to those.

<comment><USER23> Awesome, thank you

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I thought I spotted the fake on the left because of the small, white, rectangular piece right below the red LED. On the left, the thing is looking much darker. Because there aren't high res images, ironically, it's a bit hard to tell.

But the best way to avoid a fake is to actually buy it from the official shops. That's not to say it too is 100% guaranteed as someone on the inside could have easily swapped the supply for a cheaper source, but it's still your best option.

</comment><comment><USER28> When you are on ebay or Chinese sites and you see flash drives and SD cards for really cheap...they are fake.

Those cheap ADATA cards are fake even if the packaging looks good.

</comment><comment><USER29> Why not just test if High Speed Sync works? That seems to be the indicator that initiated looking for these other differences.

</comment><comment><USER30> So, no visual difference. And no functional difference, as he took a shot and it went fine (so, I presume it synced before those 2 months passed?). That leaves a shorter expected life-without-malfunctions time for a cheaper price. Now, if they'd be only be properly labelled as clones...

</comment><comment><USER31> Not sure I'd risk a fake flash in wet environments.

<comment><USER32> I think the idea is that you risk the fake one over the real one. (IE: You are willing to break the fake one.)

<comment><USER33> Probably he meant, he wouldn't risk _himself_ with the fake one. As in, electricity burst + water near your face = danger.</comment></comment></comment>