Sights and sounds of the final hours of World War I - <AUTHOR> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/war-done <comment><USER2> The article is WWI but here is a relevant anecdote.

I have an elderly neighbor who served in WWII.

He was on a battleship when the news came from the radio room that Germany surrendered.

In the midst of the celebrations onboard, the sea broke, and they found that they had been followed and semi surrounded by U-boats.

The submarines were also listening for news, and their commander had said not to torpedo the ship until they know if the war continues.

It hard to imagine the feeling of victory and relief combined with the feeling that one was almost sunk, and only for the goodness of the German commandeer that wasn't looking to kill indiscriminately..

He told me this emotionally, so I take his word for this, but am open to hearing from those more knowlegable about the facts if his story makes sense.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't say it is impossible, but it strikes me as unlikely (Though do keep in mind that I am nothing but a guy with an above average interest in history; I'm mostly throwing out my thoughts here to have them vetted by those more knowledgeable than I!)

a) To listen to the radio, the German sub would've needed to keep an aerial above water; this would create a wake which could've been observed, with obvious consequences for the sub. I doubt a commander would have taken that risk.

b) I also doubt he'd risk surfacing near a foe armed to the teeth so shortly after cessation of hostilities - what if the battleship hadn't been notified yet? Or, just as bad - if they had, but assumed the sub hadn't been, and acted accordingly, just to be safe?

c) Further, in the last days of the war, Dönitz (head of the Kriegsmarine) ordered all vessels scuttled, rather than having them fall in enemy hands. I have no idea how many submarines were still operational and on patrol come V-E Day, but presumably most would have been scuttled or headed for South America by then.

So, while I find it unlikely, I wouldn't rule it out, and would love to know more about the incident.

<comment><USER4> a) True, but most uboats needed air anyway. They were viewable by air. (Sure there was a snorkel [1] but they couldn't endure hours using it).

b) "I also doubt he'd risk surfacing near a foe armed to the teeth so shortly after cessation of hostilities"

Ok. This. I would say, yes, they would risk it on the German side. Germans were known to run to American troops for safety. The 'bad war' wasn't between the US and the Germans. The Germans weren't dumb they knew if they surrendered to the US they would have international rights and be treated like POWs.

c) Sure. But that left each vessel to their own devices. I would imagine many surrendering to the US (but still have arms on board).

"I have no idea how many submarines were still operational and on patrol come V-E Day"

I would say not many. Many due to gasoline restrictions. Being a Uboat wasn't hard, it was being an axis allied gasoline tanker that was hard.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_snorkel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_snorkel)

<comment><USER5> Being on a Uboat (or any sub for that matter) must have been absolute horror. I think das boot (the uncut version) does a good job of conveying the insane boredom and long days or months with no communication with the outside world.

Also, the fact that your home also has an insane chance of being your coffin..

<comment><USER6> Chicago's Museum Of Science and Industry has a Uboat on exhibit. The first uboat captured by allies during WWII in fact. I went inside it and yeah, it's pretty depressing. :)

<comment><USER5> kinda cool! would love to visit suchs a thing sometime, sadly going to the states is a bit of a large expense to see a uboat..

<comment><USER3> You can find the occasional showpiece U-boat several other places -

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submarine_museums](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submarine_museums)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Incredible! Listened to all the Hardcore History episodes about the first world war again recently, very moving and just unbelievable in it's scale, I still don't feel I grasp the immensity. Also saw this[0] colored photo collection pass by on twitter this morning.

[0] [http://thechive.com/2018/11/07/ww1-in-color-for-100th- annive...](http://thechive.com/2018/11/07/ww1-in-color-for-100th-anniversary/)

<comment><USER8> I listened to that series too ("Blueprint for Armageddon"), and it's _incredibly_ depressing. The big thing I pulled from it is to watch for the Sunk Cost Fallacy everywhere. It was obvious by 1915 that trench warfare and the defensive technology of the era meant that no one was going to gain the upper hand. It was in everyone's best interest to just quit fighting. But no one did, because they couldn't go back to their people and say "Yeah, we lost a million of your sons for nothing, but at least we didn't lose millions more". So instead, they lost millions more.

<comment><USER9> The "When diplomacy fails" podcast has a series on all the errors that were made during the month before the war started: [http://www.wdfpodcast.com/july- crisis-anniversary-project/](http://www.wdfpodcast.com/july-crisis- anniversary-project/)

That war could have been prevented in so, so many ways it is not even funny. Anyone here could have done it, just by not being able to speak German, or by not getting the Czar involved, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Since the armies tabulated their casualty statistics by the day and not by the hour, we know only the total toll for November 11th: twenty-seven hundred and thirty-eight men from both sides were killed, and eighty-two hundred and six were left wounded or missing. But since it was still dark at 5 a.m., and attacks almost always took place in daylight, the vast majority of these casualties clearly happened after the Armistice had been signed, when commanders knew that the firing was to stop for good at 11 a.m. The day's toll was greater than both sides would suffer in Normandy on D Day, 1944. And it was incurred to gain ground that Allied generals knew the Germans would be vacating days, or even hours, later."

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/05/a-hundred- year...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/05/a-hundred-years-after- the-armistice)

</comment><comment><USER11> My kid is doing a presentation today about his relative who died in the Great War.

We did some research for him, and the guy had fought at Ypres twice, been part of the first gas attack, and got shipped off to Mesopotamia.

A week before the war ended, negotiations were underway but the generals decided they had to kill a bunch of Ottomans before it was too late. So our guy got sent to his death to win a war that was already won.

I just think of the waste of life. Wilfred Owen, the poet who wrote about the war, also died at the very end of the war. His stuff has done much to affect the mood surrounding WWI.

<comment><USER12> I happened to be looking at pics of the War Memorial in the village I'm from (which I walked past multiple times every day for many years) and I noticed an odd thing - WW1 is "The World's War" and 1939-1945 is "The Great War"

[https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/251345](https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/251345)

<comment><USER13> That's interesting, as in the UK I've always heard the term Great War for the First World War. Sometime the Second was known as The Last War, which always confused me as a child as I knew there had been wars since.

It's a shame that war memorials site doesn't have a copy of the inscription on the memorials - it would be interesting to do a frequency analysis of the terms used.

<comment><USER12> I guess there have always been "Great Wars" in history - I remember reading that the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 was called that for generations after (probably in Michael Wood's superb book _In Search of England: Journeys Into the English Past_ ). Now we don't even know where Brunanburh took place!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a fascinating article, but it really strikes me how quickly the past fades.

To a friend who's currently deployed I sent the following message (we're both Americans for context):

> I've always thought the civil war was a long time ago - it finished a bit > over 100 years before I was born. I never thought that to our parents, they > probably considered what their grandparent's childhood was like - those were > their grandparents first memories after all. For our kids, that's about the > same for WW1.

<comment><USER15> And that's why rememberance is so critical, the severity of WW1 is all too often forgotten.

<comment><USER5> i disagree with this, atleast from my experience. World war 1 is heavily discussed in schools, (considering it resulted in massive social and political changes around europe, that is not weird)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Technically speaking, these were the final hours of the First World War in _Europe_. Fighting continued in East Africa for a few more days owing to delays in communication.

It was only on 14 November 1918 that the German commander in East Africa Gen von Lettow-Vorbeck was informed under a ceasefire flag by Lt-Gen van Deventer, the South African commander of all allied forces in East Africa, of the armistice signing. His formal surrender only occurred some days later, on 25 November.

The Chambesi Monument in Zambia commemorates the moment the news was communicated and thus the final cessation of hostilities of WWI.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm currently reading Martin Gilbert's "The First World War: A Complete History". It's been a great read so far. Although there are very many sad and tragic parts, one section put tears in my eyes:

 _"As [Friedrich] Feuchtinger's regiment reached the Russian trenches, the Russians turned to flee. One of them, being closely chased, and apparently without his rifle, stopped all of a sudden, turned round, held out his right hand, and put his left hand into his tunic pocket. As he did so, Feuchtinger plunged in his bayonet. 'I see his blood redden his uniform, hear him moan and groan as he twists with the bayonet in his young body. I am seized with terror. I throw myself down, crawl to him, wanting to help him. But he is dead. I pull my blood-stained bayonet from the dead body. Wanting to fold his hands, I see in the left hand a crumpled photo of his wife and child."_

</comment><comment><USER18> It doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere: the reason this article has emerged right now probably has to do with the 100 years since the end of World War I coming in a few days - November 11th according to Wikipedia (interpretation varies), also Independence Day for many countries.

<comment><USER19> Anyone who lives in the West who did not already that Sunday is the 100th Armistice Day must be living under a rock.

<comment><USER9> I doubt most here in Denmark know it. The war ending was horrible for the country (we were neutral war profiteers and sold to both sides at extremely inflated prices). The war probably only matters to the older generations, if at all, because for the rest of us it is overshaddowed by the second world war.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> One of America's most famous battles - the Battle Of New Orleans, was fought well after the treaty ending the War Of 1812 had been signed

News travelled slow

</comment><comment><USER21> If you want to hear for yourself, the Imperial War Museum has used contemporary records to recreate the sounds of the end of the war:

[https://metro.co.uk/video/imperial-war-museum-approximate- en...](https://metro.co.uk/video/imperial-war-museum-approximate-end- wwi-1798600/) (audio)

[https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/imperial-war- museu...](https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/imperial-war-museum-world- war-one-end-a3982146.html) (more information)

</comment><comment><USER22> great timing, i was actually reading a wonderful book about wwi called "a world undone" by g j meyer, probably one of the best books about the war out there.</comment>


If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/development/84780/if-comments-are-ugly-code-ugly <comment><USER2> The only not ugly code is the code you are working on right now. A month after ceasing to work on it, you'll think it's ugly too.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some suitable technical roles for INFP personality types? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Some suitable technical roles might include:

      - Technical writer
      - UX designer
      - Design technologist</comment>


Basic Blackbird Bundle with 4-core IBM Power9 CPU - <AUTHOR> https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html <comment><USER2> We have FreeBSD running with radeon driver and will have a ~linux4.20 amdgpu driver up by the time blackbird ships. Most the performance work is usable, our goal is to have a usable daily driver around Q1 [https://github.com/POWER9BSD/freebsd](https://github.com/POWER9BSD/freebsd)

<comment><USER3> That's great, I've been hoping to see amdgpu support on FreeBSD. Thanks for your hard work!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hmmmm... the $1,129.99 for the "Lite" motherboard seems like a better value, especially because the "Lite" motherboard supports 22-core (88-thread) CPUs... or more importantly... the 18-core (72-thread) CPU, which seems like a good value.

However, at $799 + 4-cores or 8-cores, the main purpose of this board is for "toy" uses. There's no way that the 4-core IBM is going to be anywhere as fast as a 16c/32t Threadripper 1950x (going for ~$450 these days btw), but it would be the cheapest machine to build for the Power9 system.

So that alone is important. The "Basic" box would be for developer machines, while the "production" machine would be 22-core, or maybe 12-core SMT8 (the "thicker" IBM design where 8-SMT is possible).

Consider this: what if you were developing for Summit? Do you want to rent supercomputer time when you're writing your code? Or do you test it out on a cheaper 4-core, $799 motherboard machine? [https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/summit/](https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/summit/)

<comment><USER5> I think the other advantage is the size. The EATX size of the T2 and T2 Lite is a bit bulky for some applications. We're actually thinking of sticking the 4-core Blackbird we ordered in the home theatre and using it for media as well as general computing. The mATX form factor just gives you much more flexibility.

<comment><USER6> Can you please share details about your HTPC build? What case will you be using? Did you choose Raptor's 2U heatsink assembly, their 3U HSF assembly, or something else?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is great! I've been hoping someone — IBM or one of it's partners like Raptor or Gigabyte — would make a lower-end POWER8/9 system available. The price of this board ($1K) is much more affordable for a hobbyist developer who wants to tinker with POWER, try porting some open-source projects, etc.

<comment><USER8> The price is a little high, sadly. I don't blame them, it can't be that cheap to design and produce, and it really is what I would like to see as a desktop option.

I mean it really sucks that we cry for non-X86 desktops, and when someone finally delivers, we complain about price. It's just little hard to justify for something I'd basically buy as a "toy".

<comment><USER9> The price isn't _THAT_ high!

Compare to an Intel 16 thread CPU + motherboard with ECC RAM and the ability to address more than 64GB of RAM. You're well into Xeon parts probably in the $300-400 range just for the CPU, then to get a decent motherboard is probably another $200. So you're paying a 2x premium for this Raptor Computing offering, that's really not _THAT_ bad of pricing!

This pricing is an order of magnitude better than some of the previous Raptor Computing POWER systems which will hopefully open up their market to a wider audience and help drive down prices in the future.

<comment><USER10> Could you say more about what you see yourself as getting for that 2x premium? Skimming articles it sounds like the POWER9 line's main attraction is the potential for higher performance?

<comment><USER11> There's two, main attractions for Raptor:

1\. All Intel and AMD CPU's are backdoored with management processors running black box software that's already had vulnerabilities. They refuse to remove the backdoors for consumer segment for probably shady reasons. These POWER CPU's have open-source firmware, OpenBMC, which is a little better on trust side. Personally, I think they're still backdoored somehow since IBM is one of NSA's longest-running partners. Still a risk reduction if we go from anyone might hit this closed software to open software anyone can analyze and improve.

[https://hackaday.com/2017/12/11/what-you-need-to-know- about-...](https://hackaday.com/2017/12/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-the- intel-management-engine/)

2\. People that want POWER ISA or just a RISC ISA at x86's performance. The x86 ISA is pretty horrible to some of us. It also locks you into specific patterns of execution, like its stack architecture, that can make it harder to efficiently implement alternative schemes. POWER could be more flexible for alternative designs.

2.1. PowerPC, like sold by NXP/Freescale, is still used in a lot of safety- critical fields along with sections of the embedded sector. While invisible to desktop programmers, it kept getting better and better for niches like with QorIQ CPU's for telecoms. I speculated developing on a POWER architecture for POWER-like targets might be easier somehow (idk though).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QorIQ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QorIQ)

2.2. The separation kernels like INTEGRITY-178B were all originally designed for PowerPC boards like Curtis-Wright makes for aerospace and military. They might be easier to port in evaluated configuration to a Raptor than to x86. There are also a lot of hardware/software architectures for improving security that work better when you know what the hardware is doing in the first place and/or can modify the firmware. OpenPOWER has more potential for these designs with the main drawback being CompSci folks usually not able to afford expensive, new computers. Somebody might port an existing idea, though, that they were doing on MIPS, Leon3, ARM, etc.

2.3. The Amiga people also use PowerPC-based machines. They're willing to pay a premium to maintain their nostalgia. Wouldn't surprise me if someone ports MorphOS or something like that to these machines.

So, there's a few ideas.

<comment><USER5> Some of the MorphOS people are dreaming about it and a few are purchasers. However, the MorphOS devs themselves haven't really said.

[https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id...](https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11815&forum=11&start=225)

Might be fun to see AmigaOS on one of these too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What is the space to the immediate right of the right RAM slot for? ([https://static.rptorcs.com/BK1B01/images/boardlarge.png](https://static.rptorcs.com/BK1B01/images/boardlarge.png)) The white connector almost looks like an M.2 connector.

<comment><USER13> It's a connector for the optional FlexVer module they intend to release in the future. It's not OCuLink.

<comment><USER14> Thanks!

More information on FlexVer: [https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/documentation/flexve...](https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/documentation/flexver_intro.pdf)

> FlexVer™ is a new, owner-controlled security technology designed to > safeguard critical data and applications in the event of software or > hardware tampering. FlexVer™ allows a system to be provisioned in a trusted > physical environment, then deployed to an untrustworthy physical location > while retaining system integrity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> For dev workflows the high-end 22 core with dual sockets seems to perform pretty well already: [https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=power9-t...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=power9-threadripper- core9&num=1)

Having such a powerful (or at least performant), free and risc-y machine has been a dream of mine for quite some time now... If I can only find a good argument to my wife as why we need one :P

<comment><USER16> > high-end 22 core with dual sockets seems to perform pretty well already

Oh nice! Almost 2x the speed of i9 for 7-Zip compression and ahead of everyone on LLVM compilation speed and Rust prime benchmarks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> From the specs:

> 2 Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet ports > 1 Isolated BMC Gigabit Ethernet port

What does 'isolated' mean in the context? AFAIK ethernet connections are always isolated using transformers, so I don't suppose they are talking about galvanic isolation here.

Can anyone elaborate?

<comment><USER17> Some BMCs have the ability to listen on both the normal ports and the BMC- dedicated port (or just the sole normal port). Some do that all the time and some do that when the BMC-dedicated port isn't plugged in.

I think this research was where I heard about this:

[https://lwn.net/Articles/630778/](https://lwn.net/Articles/630778/)

<comment><USER14> Makes sense, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> So basically a quad CPU + motherboard for $1000. IBM doesn't seem confident enough in the performance of the power 9 to publish standard benchmarks like CPU2017.

So if you want something with published scores on a wide variety of benchmarks that are included in CPU2017 get an Epyc or a Xeon.

<comment> tpearson-raptor Have you seen [https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2018q3/cpu2017-20180...](https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2018q3/cpu2017-20180805-08109.html) from back in July? There are more submissions as well if you want to browse around a bit.

<comment><USER18> Ah, looks like someone formatted the IBM entries incorrectly, at least unlike all the AMD and Intel entries I could find.

Usually the description has a CPU entry something like "Intel Xeon Gold 6148". The IBM entries have things like "3.4 - 3.8 GHz, 40 core, SLES". So if you search any of the lists for "power9" you don't find anything.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> It doesn't seem to say anywhere what drives the HDMI output, just "2D". Is that just for connection to a PCI card? Or is there some rudimentary VESA frame-buffer chip on it, just to watch it boot?

<comment><USER20> It has a server-style BMC which drives the HDMI port. It's only a basic 2D framebuffer device (with basic 3D "support" through the LLVMpipe OpenGL/Mesa software rasterizer), though Raptor Computer claims it's good enough for daily use. Obviously if you need high-performance 3D or more than 1 display you need would an add-in card.

<comment><USER21> You might run into problems with compositing window managers on that interface. Gnome supposedly has a pure-software fallback now, but it may be less than ideal.

Most systems assume a minimal level of 3D acceleration support for desktop use. Watching video, browsing the web, etc... could suck down a lot more CPU than you're used to.

NBD if you're using it as a server, but problematic as a daily driver desktop.

<comment> tpearson-raptor For what it's worth, LLVMPipe normally picks up the basic 3D requirements without much trouble. When using Xorg though you definitely want to enable the 2D acceleration and disable Glamor; the chip is a fairly decent 2D framebuffer.

On a slightly different topic, I'm not sure this push to force libre software into requiring a 3D GPU is a good idea while every 3D capable card / chip currently being made relies on proprietary firmware enforcing various forms of DRM. If at some point the already existing DRM starts being extended to protect modern 3D support (e.g consider no 4k /8k 3D allowed without DRM handshake), there is no reasonable fallback for the desktop (leaving games etc. aside); this is not a good place to be IMO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> How many threads per corse does it support? or is that a concept that doesn't apply to power9 procs?

<comment> tpearson-raptor All POWER products offer SMT. The POWER9 OpenPOWER chips are all 4 threads per core (SMT4), so a 4 core device presents 16 logical cores to the OS. POWER's hardware threading system is also unique and has high performance compared to offerings from other vendors (mainly x86) -- check out the processor user manual [1] for all the details.

[1] [https://wiki.raptorcs.com/w/images/8/89/POWER9_um_OpenPOWER_...](https://wiki.raptorcs.com/w/images/8/89/POWER9_um_OpenPOWER_v20GA_09APR2018_pub.pdf)

<comment><USER4> > The POWER9 OpenPOWER chips are all 4 threads per core (SMT4)

Some are SMT8. The ones that are supported by this motherboard are "only" SMT4 however.

I think its "OpenPOWER" chips are at least 4-threads per core.

<comment><USER5> Cumulus are the SMT-8s. I think you're thinking of the PowerNV vs PowerVM distinction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can anyone recommend a 2U case that's known to work with this bundle and the 2U heatsink assembly? I'd prefer a short-depth case if possible.

<comment><USER23> I think that, when Raptor were demoing the blackbird at OpenPOWER Summit EU 2018, they were using a Lian-Li PC-05 case w/ the 2U HSF. You'd want to check with their sales/support for recommendations though.

Edit: It was a Lian-Li PC-06SX and not an 05!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Anyone know when these are supposed to ship?

<comment><USER25> from the page:

> _Expected to ship late Q1 2019_

</comment></comment><comment> dis-sys a little bit disappointed that the motherboard only support up to 8 cores and actually comes with a 4 cores processor.

such low core count is making the product not that attractive - I can go with µATX MB + Xeon if I want computing power or a decent 6/8-core ARM board for smaller form factor. to just try a different ISA, I'd probably choose RISC-V to maximize my potential investment return.

<comment><USER26> Considering you don't even mention the openness of the raptor products vs. the xeon alternative, you're not the target market.

<comment> dis-sys I'd be heading to RISC-V for openness.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h You can buy riscv in a year or 2 (for desktop), or wait 5 years for it to become performance competitive. Or you can buy power9 _today_ (or end of 2019 for a cheaper model) and get a system that already exists, has silicon in production, and already appears to be performance competitive with Intel.

Mind, I'm probably waiting for whichever gets <$500 first because I'm not necessarily in a place where I can justify the money even for an open platform, but let's not pretend that there are massive benefits to both.

<comment><USER26> > Mind, I'm probably waiting for whichever gets <$500 first

This is pretty much my threshold as well, but when I actually think about these numbers and put them in perspective with regards to how much I used to spend on 486/pentium desktop computers when they were modern, and adjust those numbers for inflation, it's downright absurd that I'm not willing to spend what raptorcs is asking for a modern, open platform, in 2018 dollars.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant agency? - <AUTHOR>

After reading some articles about virtual personal assistants, I want to ask the community, if they know of any good site to find me an assistant paid on an hourly basis for some research tasks I have to get done(i.e. finding tables of measurement data in a certain format). The tasks are not as simple as ordering food, but on a level low enough, so that they can be done by any half-way intelligent person without any previous knowledge on the topic.
I would really like to source some things out. Can you help me?
Edit: After doing some research, I found oDesk almost fits my needs, they are only missing one key feature: Searching for people speaking other languages than English. <comment><USER2> I use TimeSvr.com - wrote a detailed post about them here: <http://personalmba.com/delegation-outsourcing-timesvr/>

</comment><comment><USER3> One of my author wrote a rather nice article with relevant links to services that provides Virtual Assistants. Here is the link to the article

[http://brajeshwar.com/2010/virtual-assistants-managing- busin...](http://brajeshwar.com/2010/virtual-assistants-managing-business- scheduling-better/)

I've also heard someone said Indonesian's (from oDesk) are pretty good and easier to interact.

I suggest trying out few with small task and figuring out the best which suits you.

</comment><comment><USER4> I know a lady that is a Personal Assistant. Her website is here (be careful the PA link is messed up): <http://www.whyorganizingworks.com/services.php>

She knows a little of some languages. Which are you looking for?

</comment><comment><USER5> I've heard good things about <https://getfriday.com/>

<comment><USER6> I've been using them for almost two months now & strongly recommend them. It is worth asking for someone with a technical background and then giving him/her some breathing space to get to know you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have been using www.onlinejobs.ph to find VAs. My criteria are; able to speak basic English and not more than USD$5/hr. I does take up quite a while to find the right person, at the end of the day it's worth it.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you want people that speak a certain language, you could try looking at some translation communities, such as ProZ.com.

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

</comment><comment><USER9> I use a virtual assistant service called Rent A Smile <http://www.rentasmile.com> \- they're specially good for research work.

</comment><comment><USER10> i've been using filcan (<http://www.filcancommunications.biz/>) for the last three years. they've done everything from data entry to data collection to telephone research for me. they're based in the philippines. pricing is around $6/hour.

</comment><comment><USER11> I co-run fancyhands.com - we can help you. Feel free to contact us if you have questions about our service.

</comment><comment><USER12> What about oDesk et al.? There is a huge amount of people offering to work as your personal assistant.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the recommendation. Some of my tasks are language specific, so I would like to find people capable of speaking a certain language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm using ContemporaryVa and am very happy with it.

</comment><comment><USER14> Why not use amazon mechanical turk?

<comment><USER15> mech turk is best at yes/no questions.</comment></comment>


Philip Zimmermann's fears for privacy - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/25/philip-zimmermann-king-encryption-reveals-fears-privacy <comment><USER2> Switzerland is mostly a privacy snake oil in regards to the coercive powers of various legal authorities. Your executives, investors etc are all subject to US law. Swiss law isn't going to protect users.

Switzerland might be a reasonable place to stage civil disobedience from. Phil has credibility in that regard. Would love to see a statement from Silent Circle comparable to Least Authority's [https://tahoe- lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2010-October/0053...](https://tahoe- lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2010-October/005353.html)

<comment><USER3> Most of Silent Circle is marketing, as far as I can tell. The ZRTP stuff is great, as voice verification is easy (spoofing it is hard).

But the rest? They talk about secure PSTN, but they are just using VoIP AFAIK (even if they had TDM handoffs, a ton of traffic goes over random VoIP providers anyways.) But that aside - there is no such thing as secure PSTN (outside of things like PGPfone). What benefit is there versus using a VPN and any random VoIP provider? Maybe they keep less CDRs, and if you use no calling number, that'd be a little better, I guess.

Hell, try to explain what this even means:

"Our Silent Network provides the backbone to our encrypted communications service. There's no sharing of our dedicated network. We have custom-built servers, CODECs, software and hardware that ensure security integrated through design"

Custom built servers? Like what, they assembled Super Micro servers or FB's server spec? Or what? 100% dedicated network? They ran fiber? Or they mean they bought some Ethernet switches instead of using AWS or some colo's switches? And new codecs? I guess it's possible but if they've outdone all the other audio codecs out there, that's worth taking about concretely. Not to mention that's a huge breakthrough, on top of the crypto work. (Or do they mean ZRTP is the custom built codec?)

Seriously everyone: go to this page[1] and tell me if your BS meter doesn't redline.

Custom built PBX? Does that mean FreeSWITCH or Asterisk, or something else? If it is one of the open source systems, where are the CVEs they've found and upstreamed?

Custom built HD network? Wtf does that even _mean_?

And Blackphone? Last I saw it on HN, it was a closed source system, zero mention of baseband processor security. I thought it was Android based, with a few apps thrown in but I don't recall offhand.

SC has some great tech guys and the people I've met seem nice and sincere and I've no doubt they are acting in good faith. But the stuff their CEO and marketers say make it come off very scammy.

1: [https://silentcircle.com/silent-network](https://silentcircle.com/silent- network)

<comment><USER4> > voice verification is easy

Why can't anyone who hears my voice spoof it? Seems relatively insecure to broadcast my password every time I talk.

I've heard in other contexts such as retinal or fingerprint scanning that biometrics are more like usernames than passwords (public and hard to change). Why shouldn't voice be the same?

<comment><USER5> They are referring to the SAS verification, which are two words derived from the peer to peer key exchange process. If they match on both ends, you can have a very high degree of confidence that there is no man in the middle.

It's not a password, it's a verification tool that can be used to double check the security of your connection once you are sure you are talking to the right person.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Today, his biggest worry is not software backdoors, but the petabytes (1m gigabytes) of information being hoarded by the likes of Google and Facebook. "If you collect all that data, it becomes an attractive nuisance. It's kind of a siren calling out inviting someone to come and try to get it. Governments say that if private industry can have it, why can't our intelligence agencies have it?"

I am hoping if enough people stop using these two services; they might start deleting information permanently? I know Google is hard to give up, but I don't think they need to keep everything. As to Facebook, I can't see any reason, other than business, as to why they keep every bit of information we put up there--forever.

<comment><USER7> Keep in mind that not using Facebook or Google is a bit like not having a Social Security number. Totally possible, but a gratuitous red flag.

It's better to poison the data beast than to try to starve it.

<comment><USER8> what about not using the internet, is that a red flag too?

</comment></comment></comment><comment> java-man "Today, email can be routinely and automatically scanned for interesting keywords, on a vast scale, without detection. This is like driftnet fishing."

\-- Phil Zimmermann, 1991

<comment><USER9> This is why I'm for any attempt to encryption that makes such large-scale surveillance hard. It doesn't have to be _perfect_ (although it should also not be marketed as perfect), but things like encrypting all connections, opportunistically encrypting communications, and everything else that would require someone to actively tap an endpoint, rather than just tap any backbone random router, still does a lot of good for privacy. Do it, just don't call it "secure" ("secure" to me means person-to-person secure).

<comment><USER10> Would love to get your feedback on this then:

[https://github.com/Spark-Innovations/SC4](https://github.com/Spark- Innovations/SC4)

<comment><USER11> The fact that it's meant to be run in a browser is somewhat concerning. HTTPS is... okay... but for a GPG replacement I wouldn't really want to be dependent on the CA system _or_ a remote server.

<comment><USER10> Two responses:

1\. You can run it on your own server, and you can run it from a FILE: URL (though that part is still work in progress).

2\. This implementation is not the only one there will ever be. The goal of this implementation is just to make something that non-technical people can easily use in order to establish the (open) file interchange protocol. Then anyone who wants to can write native clients, email plugins, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The last time I looked into it, all SilentCircle had was a small sales office in the French part. No engineering, marketing, etc... just a secretary and a sales guy.

I'd be surprised if they move anything substantial besides their servers to Switzerland. It's increasingly difficult for non-europeans to get residence permits here. I doubt Phil, Jon Callas, etc are anywhere near Switzerland, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

As for Switzerland being a 'privacy snakeoil', that's wrong. Privacy rules (especially financial) are strict and followed by the government, unlike in the u.s. There are definitely surveillance operations, for example, the satellite communication program that uncovered the CIA rendition programs, but these are mostly directly outward.

<comment><USER5> Phil spends almost all his time in Geneva at this point (obviously excepting travel for conferences, etc).

<comment><USER12> That's great. However, it still looks like it's just a sales office based on sc's job board.

I'd be curious to know if he got residency but I know you probably can't answer that. Without residency he can only spend 90 days in ch every 6 months.

<comment><USER5> I don't know about his official residency status. I do know that he spends enough time on the road for conferences, etc, that it is possible that half of every 6 months works for him...

As far as who is in the office there... Any office we have is a sales office. All of our tech/engineering folks are remote, and spread all around the world.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Extremists seem to be winning. The silent moderates losing. What to do? - <AUTHOR> I was born in a country where the politicians are racists and religious fanatics. The ruling political party used to harbour closet racists decades ago but now they're getting more and more vocal and out in full force. They allow the extremists from the majority to bully the minority. Minority could be in terms of religion, race, etc. Their strategy is simple.. divide and conquer. If they can incite racial/religious hate, then the moderate majority will be busy suspecting and blaming the minorities while not objecting to extremism. The racist politicians charge opposing party politicians for seditious comments if they were to criticise certain sensitive topics.
The moderate majority are either too busy with their own life struggles to care about politics or they are are silenced because they're afraid of being charged/jailed. Because if they speak bad about something, they/their family members could be in trouble for "disturbing the peace which is the status quo" (which is of course untrue).
So how can I as a Web developer contribute? I worry where the country is headed and so I've thought about this idea of a Heat map on top of a World Map. Any news stories of injustice caused by extremism are recorded (based on the country which it happened) and increases the density of the heat (shown in colours) for that particular country. Snapshots are taken at intervals to show whether extremism is trending up or down for the countries. The linkage between the articles and the countries need to be crowdsourced but I suppose a news stories scraper can help too.
The purpose is to show the rest of the world the crimes committed by the people in power (usually politicians) involved. Those evil politicians who had robbed the country's wealth and caused suffering for others may get away without trial by court. But at least, the whole world knows about his/her wrongdoings and they shall not get away with their reputation intact. <comment> dj-wonk These are tough questions. I don't know that I have any great answers. Connect with savvy, non-violent organizers; find small ways to make a difference that have the potential to grow.

Re: "So how can I as a Web developer contribute?" You might want to check out movements.org -- I can't specifically endorse it based on experience, but it looks interesting.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing Movements.org. I think I can be of help there. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> The trouble will be the fuzzy definition of "extremism" which can be used by racists and religious fanatics to paint those seeking tolerance and equality if you crowd source. Doublespeak is exceptionally dangerous because it is so very hard to filter out from actual stories of repression and hatred.

Governments also make use of force to keep articles from being published before others can spot them or you can scrape them. Take China for example: They employ similar technology to censor and stifle speech that is deemed "disturbing".

I am not saying "do nothing" instead, I am making sure you're aware that you may get few results or counter-productive results depending on how you structure your site.

Be Careful!

<comment><AUTHOR> I think similar to HN, the wisdom of the crowd will be able to downvote an article that doesn't apply but perhaps in the early days having a moderator to approve posts would help.

The plan is actually to fight from outside. The politicians want Internet to be filtered/censored but they haven't won that battle against the people yet. News sources like BBC and generally Western media covers the injustices quite well and safe to say people do not disagree with it. For example, wanting to stone or chop one's head can easily be deemed extreme by most people these days. It hasn't happened but there are trends showing that eventually it can happen so the goal is to prevent it from happening by identifying and highlighting it before it is too late.

Yes, I understand there are risks (of seditions) involved and so I want to structure the site to only show trends based on articles and not have user (or even my own) comments there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The most obnoxious and loudest people always superficially dominate any open and unmoderated conversation -- like the public square. That doesn't necessarily mean they're winning in the long game, just that being obnoxious and loud and pushing oversimplified bombast gets lots of attention.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree api. However when politicians and ruling parties are stirring up the hatred and unrest, you see the condonation of voices of hate, unreason and all forms of extremism on Government-controlled media. People getting brainwashed to accept the status quo without objecting or becoming more pro-extremism. This is how countries in the Middle East or even Nazi Germany turn the countries into unliveable mess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do you mind sharing where you're from? Because everything you mentioned sounds awfully familiar to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Yen, my goal is to be as anonymous on the Internet as possible so I don't become a target of bigotry, stupidity, etc. from people in my community/country. There are more than a few countries in this world which is letting extremism win, so perhaps you may guess wrong. :)

I understand that I need a sense of identity on the Internet too but when I'm expressing opinions, I've learned to be anonymous because people who may know me (esp. on Facebook) don't like thoughtful honesty. It is shocking how many people just like positive and pretty things only (while choosing to remain silent or block out painful truths) and rarely discuss real issues. And if they do, they only rant or get into unnecessary debates. No real actions were taken sadly.</comment></comment>


Balloon trips to the edge of space by 2021 - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/spaceship-neptune-travel-scn/index.html <comment><USER2> How long it takes?</comment>


Generate code using Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://www.debugshell.com/2011/05/21/generate-code-using-ruby/

<comment><USER2> Filling out a template is not 'generating code'.</comment>


Yahoo protects user privacy and gets fined? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cdt.org/2009/07/11/yahoo-protects-user-privacy-and-gets-fined/ <comment> onreact-com Next time Yahoo hands over Chinese dissidents to the police we will be able to tell them that their "obeying by the laws" point is not valid, they don't abide by random laws elsewhere either.</comment>


A Guitar Hero way to learn music - <AUTHOR> http://www.jellynote.com/en/

<comment><USER3> Soundslice does it better. :-)

[http://www.soundslice.com/scores/auld-lang- syne/](http://www.soundslice.com/scores/auld-lang-syne/)

<comment><USER4> Says the guy who made it ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not so much about the service itself, but about the site.

At this page: [http://www.jellynote.com/en/premium/presentation](http://www.jellynote.com/en/premium/presentation)

it's nearly impossible to scroll in order to see all features, I'm using a 13" macbook pro: [http://lry.be/fGL0](http://lry.be/fGL0)

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been using Synthesia on an old macbook air hooked to my digital piano on and off for a few years. It's really astonishing how quickly you can learn a song when you have instant feedback.

Although this tool is obviously not going to teach me dynamics and expression, I can't recommend it strongly enough for people looking to learn to play the piano by themselves.

<comment><USER7> Hmm, I tried Synthesia but found it unworkable. I have some basic skills at sight-reading and can play a bit by reading intervals. I found that this didn't work in Synthesia at all, and that I totally struggle to hit notes reliably. Combine this with the sheet music display in Synthesia being crap, and it got frustrating pretty quickly.

So I'm back to simply playing from sheet music. Feedback isn't a problem - <USER2> can hear when music sounds like shit pretty easily, and Synthesia isn't going to correct your technique mistakes anyway.

Comparing it to something like Rocksmith, I think I'm missing the display of where your hand should be anchored.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > A Guitar Hero but with real music!

The problem with Guitar Hero was not the music (bad as it often was), but the instruments. The idea that you can learn anything about playing music by pressing plastic buttons on some chintzy toy is — well, akin to the idea that you can learn to read by watching television. But people buy into it because it is so seductive.

Good looking site, though, and I wish it success. I developed a little training app for MIDI about twenty years ago (in Visual Basic), and although I didn't find it very helpful, I hope this kind of tool is useful for some learners.

<comment><USER7> The whole Guitar Hero thing is pretty buried now that you have Rocksmith.

<comment><USER8> Um yeah, I'm out of the loop. The last video game I owned was Metroid.

<comment><USER7> It's like Guitar Hero but you hook up a real guitar and it uses note recognition. It's actually a very effective practice tool.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't want to be "that guy" but is publishing notation and tabs for copyrighted songs OK? I thought many "Guitar Tab" websites disappeared from the internet exactly because it isn't.

</comment><comment><USER9> Not a nice one, not even a free thing. Rocksmith already done this and with amazing features.

Sorry to be this direct but with only 100$, ubisoft offers unequal capabilities.

Just tried "Nirvana - Come as u are" on guitar which app suggested, still it's a little buggy.

<comment><USER10> But then, you do have a limited library on Rocksmith. And you have to install stuff on your PC or have a console, plus getting the guitar adapter. Jellynote is more ready-to-go. Kind of like a Spotify of sheet music.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Very good stuff, like the fact that it has its own library</comment>


DSL for WATiR to do automated web app testing I've created - <AUTHOR> http://wsl.xqoob.com I've been working on a web application for the last year or so at work. In order to do some lightweight automated testing from the UI down I started using WATiR; which is pretty cool. However I took this one step further and wrote a DSL on top to speed things up. I call it WSL - WATiR Scripting Language.<p>The ultimate aim is to simplify the API so much that non-devs can use it (ie. testers). I'm hoping to open source this soon but in the meantime you can download the gem and install locally to play around with it. I'm in the process of creating collateral and examples that people can refer to at the linked site, in the process I have learnt a hell of a lot of other skills/technologies, which is really gratifying, but my submission primarily is about WSL so far - What does everyone think? <comment><AUTHOR> I've been working on a web application for the last year or so at work. In order to do some lightweight automated testing from the UI down I started using WATiR; which is pretty cool. However I took this one step further and wrote a DSL on top to speed things up. I call it WSL - WATiR Scripting Language.

The ultimate aim is to simplify the API so much that non-devs can use it (ie. testers). I'm hoping to open source this soon but in the meantime you can download the gem and install locally to play around with it. I'm in the process of creating collateral and examples that people can refer to at the linked site, in the process I have learnt a hell of a lot of other skills/technologies, which is really gratifying, but my submission primarily is about WSL so far - What does everyone think?</comment>


Tesla's New Car Smell - <AUTHOR> https://mondaynote.com/teslas-new-car-smell-315c72c955d3 <comment><USER3> > I couldn't help check off the sins against the "Toyota Bible", prescriptions > for car manufacturers that are lucidly detailed in The Machine That Changed > The World (a great and, in parts, sad read). In particular, one mustn't > stockpile parts on the floor, they must be fed in small quantities at small > time intervals. If a part has a problem, only a small quantity needs to be > shipped back to the supplier who can inspect, correct, and quickly adjust > their own production process.

This isn't just a minor set of sins. Tesla apparently fundamentally does not grasp the concept of Lean Manufacturing+ as developed by Toyota, also known as the Toyota Production System++.

+[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing)

++[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System)

<comment><USER4> What makes you think Tesla doesn't fundamentally grasp it? This anecdote? The plural of anecdote is not data.

Your wikipedia link on the Toyota Production System says it was developed between 1948 and 1975. So it look 27 years to develop. Working for a startup myself, I'm very aware of Kanban and other TPS-inspired work processes. Sometimes in startup-hair-on-fire-mode that all goes out the window and I think that's where Tesla is in company maturity right now.

<comment><USER3> It's pretty self-evident if you read the next two paragraphs:

> (Ironically, the Fremont plant is prominently featured in "The Machine…" as > the locus of the ultimately failed GM-Toyota cooperation.)

> As I watched Tesla's messy, hiccuping line, with workers dashing in to fix > faulty parts in place, my mind travelled back to the Honda plant I had > visited years ago in Marysville, Ohio. Clean, calm, everything moved > smoothly. I was so shocked by the contrast that I imprudently voiced my > concern. That didn't go over well with my fellow Tesla owners. I was a > killjoy, I was calling their choice into question.

So we have an actual first-hand description of the differences between Tesla's and Toyota/Honda's understanding of lean manufacturing. Even in the very same building in fact. And I'm pretty sure the author is describing the production of Model S or X, not the new Model 3. Since those cars have been in production for a while now, there's no way they wouldn't have implemented something like the lean manufacturing system unless they simply don't understand it.

<comment><USER4> I really find it hard to believe they don't understand the TPS. Sure. Maybe. I don't know.

It seems more likely to me their "goal" (pun intended for those readers of "The Goal") is the TPS but their particular supply chain may not currently allow for it.

<comment><USER5> > I really find it hard to believe they don't understand the TPS. Sure. Maybe. > I don't know.

American carmakers didn't get it for decades. Even when they thought they did, they performed Lean rituals without real understanding. This was despite Toyota trying vigorously to teach them.

<comment><USER6> History shows that knowledge transfer is really, really hard. Humans are just not very good at it :(

(A similar story is told of the spread of the use of Feynman diagrams in physics - I've read that their spread was far slower than you'd expect given their utility: For whatever reason it wasn't enough to be told that they were an incredibly useful tool by people you trusted - it was only when non users actually worked together on problems with Feynman diagram users, or were taught by Feynman diagram users directly that their use actually spread. Both of these transfer methods required physical proximity which restricted the use of Feynman diagrams to a small number of labs for a surprisingly long time.)

<comment><USER7> Fascinating story, do you have any idea where you read that?

<comment><USER6> Nope, but a quick Google suggests that this paper:

"Spreading the Tools of Theory: Feynman Diagrams in the USA, Japan, and the Soviet Union" by David Kaiser, Kenji Ito and Karl Hall

[http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/Kaiser.SpreadingTools.pdf](http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/Kaiser.SpreadingTools.pdf)

must have been the original source research.

edit: Also, there's a book (by one of the authors of that paper): "Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion Of Feynman Diagrams In Postwar Physics" [https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Y5W2X2](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Y5W2X2)

<comment><USER8> 'pja, you should post the Kaiser et al. paper to HN on its own.

<comment><USER6> That's a good idea. Done.

<comment><USER8> Excellent. I just upvoted it; I hope the time zone difference won't keep the post from being seen.

<comment><USER6> It got a second chance & got 33 votes the second time, but no discussion. Oh well - maybe it needs an explanatory blogpost or two in order to draw people in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > As I watched Tesla's messy, hiccuping line, with workers dashing in to fix > faulty parts in place, my mind travelled back to the Honda plant I had > visited years ago in Marysville, Ohio. Clean, calm, everything moved > smoothly. I was so shocked by the contrast that I imprudently voiced my > concern. That didn't go over well with my fellow Tesla owners. I was a > killjoy, I was calling their choice into question.

Well, it's exactly the experience you get when you criticize Tesla on HN.

<comment><USER10> The difference is that Honda doesn't make interesting cars. People are ready to cut Tesla some slack because they are truly innovating.

<comment><USER11> Because they put a battery in a car?

<comment><USER12> Because they single-handedly forced the market against its will to accept electric cars, and we're all better off thanks to it, now that regular car companies decided to join the party too.

<comment><USER13> Forced? Not really. They made a good battery-powered car and a lot of governments heavily subsidized fully electric cars.

<comment><USER12> They made a first quality electric car that both solved the range problem and was sexy enough to attract a wide enough audience, thus for the first time making electric cars a viable and desirable alternative to ICE cars. The subsidies followed.

<comment><USER11> Federal subsidies in the US started in 2008, while the Model S wasn't released until 2012.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Disclaimer up front: I work for a Tesla competitor.

People believe funny things about Tesla and Elon.

But before I talk about that, let me say: I've been extremely impressed with Tesla and Elon for their ability to eventually deliver, and to build unparalleled excitement around electric vehicles.

I believe Elon is truly a visionary.

Now for the funny things:

1\. You can throw money at problems to fix them: If you do this you end up with a 1980's Jaguar - lovely and fast and fun, but unreliable, and overly expensive, and your competition will eat your lunch.

2\. Tesla shouldn't be graded on cars or car production, they are an X company (X= software, technology, etc): Whatever kind of company you think Tesla is, right now they make cars and that's all you can grade them on right now. If you want to make a bet about the future, go for it, but realize that it is a bet.

3\. Automation will solve this: GM spent about $60 Billion on advanced automation in the 1980's because they could not believe that Toyota was building cars at the cost and quality with human labor (this is a gross simplification). 10-15 years later, GM basically adopted the Toyota Production System. It may be possible to build quality cars in a cost effective manner with near 100% automation, but I do not believe it is possible to build them BECAUSE OF automation. You must have a good quality process first. Elon's previous comments about having a bed near the end of the production line rings alarm bells for anyone who has been in manufacturing. You cannot inspect your way to quality.

<comment><USER15> Just to 3

 _Unknown to analysts, investors and the hundreds of thousands of customers who signed up to buy it, as recently as early September major portions of the Model 3 were still being banged out by hand, away from the automated production line, according to people familiar with the matter."_

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-teslas-production- delays...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-teslas-production-delays-parts- of-model-3-were-being-made-by-hand-1507321057)

<comment><USER16> > still being banged out by hand, away from the automated production line, > according to people familiar with the matter."

The press is up and running:

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BaInXGBg9G7/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BaInXGBg9G7/)

Based on a 3.7 second cycle time, they can bang out 5,837,837 body panels per year (assuming some math an automotive engineer on /r/teslamotors provided that takes into account downtime and typical automotive labor scheduling: 50 weeks/year * 5 days/week * 24 hours/day * 3600 seconds/hour)/3.7 second panel cycle

EDIT: csours: Thanks! I removed my grossly inaccurate prediction of per- vehicle pressed components.

in_cahoots: Original response was to comment that Tesla is still banging out components by hand; this is possible, my rebuttal is that they do have parts of the line that are fully operational.

<comment><USER17> That's what stamping looks like. Here's Subaru banging out car doors.[1] About the same cycle time, using automated loading and unloading.

[1] [https://youtu.be/r9byGJtbCws?t=63](https://youtu.be/r9byGJtbCws?t=63)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The author is only comparing production ability and basic mechanical stats with the Bolt and Leaf.

I am on the Model 3 waiting list for the Autopilot. Heck, it could be gas powered and I'd be on the waiting list for the Autopilot. I don't need full autonomous. I just want the best system, and currently Tesla has it. So hopefully they figure out their production issues.

I also just bought a 2018 Honda Odyssey as our main family car and it can't even do adaptive cruise control under 20 mph. I think people underrate how far ahead Tesla is in these areas. Their competition is currently Google and Uber, not Chevy, Nissan, etc.

<comment><USER18> I have to agree completely. Autopilot is miles ahead. While I'm waiting for my 3 preorder, I took a test drive a Model S. I haven't felt as moved by a technology like Autopilot since I first swiped on the first iPhone.

Coincidentally, we're in the market for a 2018 Odyssey as our family car too.

<comment><USER19> Off topic - but curious of why Odyssey > Sienna? ...as I'm having a hard time deciding.

<comment><USER4> Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is in Honda (and lots of other cars). Toyota is currently in a state of rejecting these integrations, which I think is foolish.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Manufacturing ramp-up is exactly this sort of thing. Building by-hand as you work out the process and employ more automation. I'm not sure this is unexpected?

As an investor I know full well Tesla has a ticking clock. They must achieve scale before the giants can catch up. People underestimate how god-awful slow the big car makers are. They haven't even come to terms with what Tesla is really doing yet. None have anything like the software experience. My guess is Tesla has 5 more years before the big makers can truly become competitive (assuming they all fire their software engineers and hire new ones today).

Time will tell. If they're still fumbling a year from now then I'll start to get concerned. If they can't churn out at least 250,000 vehicles per year within two years I'll be very concerned.

<comment><USER21> > People underestimate how god-awful slow the big car makers are

I think it's exactly the opposite. People enamoured with Tesla and Musk tend to _over_ -estimate how slow the old car makers are, because they're so used to the "Silicon Valley story" that we will inevitably come in and take over everything.

Look: it's 2017. Everybody has read the Innovator's Dilemma, everybody knows how fast e.g. Palm, Nokia, etc. went out of business. The old companies aren't stupid, and they aren't sitting around waiting for Tesla to eat their lunch.

> None have anything like the software experience.

GM is arguably in the lead right now as far as autonomous driving capability. They're at least tied with Google and certainly ahead of Tesla.

I'm going to be blunt: you don't sound like a very good investor. You sound like someone who makes decisions based on hype and wishful thinking instead of real evidence. My recommendation would be to get out now before you lose your shirt.

<comment><USER22> And companies like VW, BMW and Toyota are also investing a large amount om money into autonomous driving, they just keep it more behind curtains than Tesla.

<comment><USER23> Ditto with electric tech. You can buy an electric VW right now, and from reviews I've read it's apparently a fantastic product. The difference is in hype. VW very boringly made their existing dependable and well known Golf electric.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Tesla is trying to "lean startup" the Model 3. Not clear whether that was originally their intention, but the fact that they're building parts of the Model 3 by hand immediately brings to mind the kind of non-scaleable stuff that people in the software industry do at early phases of their evolution (things that are hailed as "the right thing to do). Maybe Tesla's undoing is that there's a little too much of the Silicon Valley ethos going on there.

<comment><USER25> I don't think that's a fair comparison; I'm sure they had a plan for mass- scale production for model 3 from the start, the problem is if that plan/approach will work or not in a reasonable time.

The non-scaleable stuff was most likely done in parallel not to delay initial deliveries, they don't need to validate the product idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> People that are caught up on this "miss" obviously do not follow the guidance very closely. On the last conference call they repeatedly downplayed the importance of the Q3 delivery guidance and repeatedly stated it would be difficult to predict and that there was a high degree of uncertainty. They repeated this ad nauseam.

Here is a sample: >So, I would simply urge people to not get too caught up in what exactly falls within the exact calendar boundaries of a quarter, one quarter or the next, because when you have an exponentially growing production ramp, slight changes of a few weeks here or there can appear to have dramatic changes, but that is simply because of the arbitrary nature of when a quarter ends.

That is why there has been little stock movement despite this miss. Run rate at the end of Q4 is a different story. That is very important guidance.

[https://seekingalpha.com/article/4094115-tesla- tsla-q2-2017-...](https://seekingalpha.com/article/4094115-tesla- tsla-q2-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript)

Also, another indication that this guy know anything about Tesla's goals or guidane... Tesla has repeatedly stated they are not going to increase Model S/X production beyond 25k per quarter. They think that's close to the total addressable market and it's costly to expand production beyond that.

</comment><comment><USER27> I really thought that the article was literally about the smell of the cars :)

<comment><USER28> I wasn't sure, but now that I checked, it's clickbait, and flagged it

<comment><USER29> It's not a very good article so I'm really not invested in this, but the title isn't "clickbait". It's a play on words, a rather creative use of the ambiguity of language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> You can complain about Tesla missing a deadline by a year but you need to also consider them pulling the rest of the industry forward by 10 years when they do it

<comment><USER31> That may be a compelling HN argument about the heroism of Elon Musk, but for a competitive car company, "pulling the rest of the industry forward 10 years in the span of 1 year" is a _very bad thing_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I just kept thinking, "well yeah, but the optimists might be right, and Musk has done amazing things before." Then...

 _Unknown to analysts, investors and the hundreds of thousands of customers who signed up to buy it, as recently as early September major portions of the Model 3 were still being banged out by hand, away from the automated production line, according to people familiar with the matter._

That reeks of fundamental issues at odds with _"It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term."_

Maybe mass production is that one step too far.

</comment><comment><USER32> _> What seriously worried me was a July 2016 visit to Tesla's manufacturing plant... In an exchange with a trusted industry observer, I found out that he had had exactly the same experience only weeks ago, but he couldn't write about it by "virtue" of the NDA he'd signed._

Did Gassée's NDA expire or what? He's certainly divulging details about the factory. He previously wrote that he couldn't write about his visit due to an NDA.[1]

[1] [https://mondaynote.com/chairman-elons-great-leap- forward-68f...](https://mondaynote.com/chairman-elons-great-leap- forward-68f49ffde372)

</comment><comment><USER33> "If a part has a problem, only a small quantity needs to be shipped back to the supplier who can inspect, correct, and quickly adjust their own production process."

Isn't one of the advantages of having a minimal, electric vehicle that there are fewer moving parts?

Telsa is in a interesting position as a software/car maker. There production line is like an algorithm they are adjusting on the fly, and it's obviously going to be messy when you don't have multiple decades of manufacturing experience.

Still, Tesla's learning curve is steep, and the M3 is a much more simpler car. Don't be against Elon, it's quite possible he'll be able to figure out how to make 10K/week once the kinks are figured out.

<comment><USER34> The world's leading assembler of cars, Toyota, doesn't use artificial intelligence but human intelligence to make its processes run smooth and continuously improve them. A large human component is necessary in production and this idea of using software and full automation to optimize it is a pipedream.

<comment><USER35> Isn't a pipedream basically exactly what Elon is always trying to produce?

Why is this a bad thing and why isn't software/full automation achievable?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Makes some good points except for the competition, I think its weak. Always wondered why Nissan intentionally made such an ugly car, I think the Leaf is no longer sold in Australia due to poor numbers. Isn't the Bolt a hybrid?

<comment><USER37> No it is an EV. The Volt was the hybrid. Confusing naming. Decent range and acceleration but no RHD model so not an option for Australia. Sad to have a GM plant going idle in Adelaide and no electric car subsidies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I wonder if there are many side effects from this sort of schedule slippage apart from just needing more time.

If the only result is the schedule slipping, then investors can continue giving to Tesla with the assurance that things happen "eventually".

If this is actually indicative of greater disorganization, then perhaps we'll see more issues later on. But my impression is that this is _the_ major issue for Tesla... and ultimately it's an issue that can be solved with more money.

<comment><USER34> Production issues in car manufacturing can be solved by adding more resources just like adding more programmers to a software project can. Nope, not at all.

<comment><USER38> What I'm saying isn't that the production issues get solved. What I'm saying is that if you have enough money, delays aren't as much of an issue in itself. You can wait things out.

Valve surely has a lot of developement issues leading to delays, but they still got Half Life 2 out and made a bunch of money off of it.

<comment><USER34> No, you did say that money solves production issues.

<comment><USER38> to clarify, what I meant by "issue" is production delays. There are underlying issues for sure, and those won't be solved just with money.

But many side effects of delays are mitigated by throwing money at it. And spending money is usually an easy option, if you have a lot of it.

<comment><USER34> It's getting less and less clear.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> A greater problem may be the insider trading that might be going on according to the author.

<comment><USER29> That allegation is completely unproven. An with that set of facts ("some people know more than others", "the stock price changes") you can literally find "insider trading" for any given stock, in any given week.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Hmmmmm. If I were a short seller, this might help me make my game plan.

Or not. Markets aren't rational, it could be costly.

</comment><comment><USER41> I worked for Tesla for 5 years, joining with a cohort a few months before Model S launch in 2012 and departing recently to take a rest. My role involved architecting, developing, and helping support many software systems focused in the financial domain. These systems process all of the downstream events arising from sales, procurement, production, and other activities of the company with financial effect.

Many often wonder why large software system projects are difficult. Many often wonder why running large organizations such as governments is difficult. In this topic some wonder why large scale vehicle manufacturing processes are difficult. These fundamentally share properties.

One key challenge is that system, organization, and process complexity do not grow in a linear manner. If you have ever tried to estimate software development time for larger projects you understand how wildly inaccurate it can be. The number of interaction points multiply with growth. Progress feels extremely fast at the beginning. As the system surface area grows it becomes increasing difficult to push incremental improvements forward. A single person or small team comprehensively understanding the entire system and keeping enough of it in working memory becomes a challenge. There are design and management strategies to combat the challenge but in my opinion only time and iteration can truly overcome.

The single most important long-term factor here is whether quality and continuing improvement is part of the culture or not. I believe they are, as suggested by the production target miss. A process of prioritizing and then fixing sub-optimal system and process interaction points, both internally and externally, will drive the company to high output while maintaining quality over time. TPS [0] concepts are well known but one doesn't simply download and install it in an afternoon. It can take decades to optimize.

The single _worst_ decision the company could make is to pump out vehicles to meet a production target metric while sacrificing quality. That has been tried before in this country (and at the same factory several decades ago no less [1]) and did not work out well.

For perspective: Competitive threats are just not a very big deal. Globally, 72 million cars were produced last year [2]. If Tesla captures just 1% of that market it is still a huge achievement - 720k cars per year. Even if we assume they sell only the lowest price Model 3 at $35k and ignore all other vehicle and energy products that would equate to over $25 billion in revenue - <USER2> times the 2016 annual figure. The market will also grow as the global economy does. _There is plenty of room_.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System) [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI#Background](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI#Background) [2] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/262747/worldwide- automob...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262747/worldwide-automobile- production-since-2000/)

</comment><comment><USER29> _In taking delivery of my wife's Model S, we were treated to a group tour of the site. Everyone marveled at the robot porn,[...]

Everyone but yours truly. I couldn't help check off the sins against the "Toyota Bible"_

And I can't help but notice that his truly is still putting his wife's truly into a Tesla, not a Toyota.

There seems to be a wave of stories critical of Musk currently, and most seem to be rooted in some sort of ill will towards the man. Other than that, I just can't wrap my head around these alarmist screeds, considering a few months' delay is, if anything, so little one wonders if Musk is spending too much time on production...

It's annoying for customers, but hey: at least you're not one of those customers whose vehicle gets blown up 5 miles off the coast of Florida.

I ca

<comment><USER42> If you've got money you might also buy a Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Lambo, BMW, Jaguar, etc, instead of a Toyota too, because who cares about things like quality control at that point, and you want something different, but you'd be laughed out of the room if you said "I know Alfa Romeos are better made than Toyotas because they're fancier and cost more."</comment></comment>


Markdown Editor for web developers, on Mac OS X - <AUTHOR> http://mouapp.com

<comment><USER2> Those using MultiMarkdown[1], which this app seemingly doesn't support, may be interested in the MultiMarkdown Composer app[2] that should be out within a month or so. It's being worked on by the (very) active developer of MultiMarkdown and looks perfect for fans like myself.

[1]: <http://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/>

[2]: <http://multimarkdown.com/>

<comment><USER3> That looks very nice, especially the TOC. I'd love to see it have a file- browser too similar to TextMate's, which is very nice if you like to organize MMD notes/docs in different files and folders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> MacOS only :(

Why don't people add that to the title? It would prevent non-mac users from getting their expectations up.

<comment><USER5> I launched last week an online Markdown editor that works in all recent browsers (IE support not perfect yet but will be).

It does intelligent preview (the paragraph being edited is kept into view and highlighted), has autosave and a simple document manager that lets you export HTML or markdown (RTF coming soon), and also has a converter, to convert rich text TO markdown (for your legacy content).

Check it out! It's called "Akayame" for Yet Another Markdown Editor, at <http://akaya.me>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Okay...

<https://github.com/vojto/markdownlive#readme>

</comment><comment><USER7> There's also Marked: <http://markedapp.com/>

I have no affiliation, just a happy customer. MacVim + Marked side by side is a neat combo.

<comment><AUTHOR> Marked is a Previewer, not Editor. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Could anyone explain to me the trend to write HTML in some other markup syntax? I write HTML in HTML. Going from one markup language to another seems like an extra unnecessary prereq.

<comment><USER9> Ideally, we would write everything in plaintext, but it doesn't support even the most basic features offered by typesetting (bold, italics, etc.) or hypertext (embedded links), so we turn to markup languages at the expense of readability.

Markup syntax like markdown, asciidoc, reStructuredText, etc. strive primarily to preserve readability with the least obtrusive syntax, and with a smaller learning curve (at least for the most basic usage).

So why use it instead of HTML? Like you, I typically write HTML in HTML, but often use asciidoc for other purposes (documentation, recipes, quick notes, etc.), because:

\- One source document can output to multiple formats, like XHTML, LaTeX, PDF, DocBook, EPUB, Man page, etc. It's even trivial to output to a specific HTML DOCTYPE. That's pretty neat!

\- Diffs are far more readable when not swimming in markup soup.

\- HTML is overkill for many purposes. In fact, lightweight markup has its roots in email/newsgroup markup. HTML email is still a compatibility nightmare. Wouldn't it be great if a new standard for rich text email was developed, based on something as simple as markdown? It would be trivial to support it in webmail interfaces and the source would still be readable in plaintext email clients or if the sender went overboard with style choices.

\- Archivability. Many old HTML documents render poorly in modern browsers, mainly due to style choices that seemed sensible at the time. Lightweight markup focuses more on the content and discourages going off on a stylistic tangent you may regret later. In other words, it does a good job of separating content from presentation, so your source documents will always remain readable and transform to something readable with relatively few tweaks in external stylesheets or configuration files.

Because it's easy to learn without getting lost in the arcane details of validation and compatibility, it's understandable why it's gaining popularity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Awesome, and very handy! One important feature request for developers: Support Github-style code blocks, e.g.

```

some code

```

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestion!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi all!

There're just too many comments and I can't watch this page minutes by minutes.

If you have questions or suggestions, please email me directly.

Thank you very much!

:)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> A new Markdown editor for Mac I made, it's still in early beta stage. Requires OS X 10.7+ to run.

:)

<comment><USER11> Why does a text editor and a renderer with a fraction of the complexity of a browser engine require 10.7?

<comment><AUTHOR> It can runs on OS X 10.6 but not officially supported. Features like Layout Orientation, Find bar, Full screen, auto save are using OS X 10.7's API.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Every time you make a change it scrolls the preview window back up to the top, making the live preview kind of useless.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm thinking a way to improve the scroll behavior. :)

<comment><USER12> Awesome... if there was a mode where it could auto scroll to where the cursor was then that would be _heavenly_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Looks great. Just a suggestion, I'd add another download link to the top of the page.

</comment><comment><USER14> Very fine. I would suggest that you let the right pane follow the scroll position of the left pane (Or really - just have one scrollbar for them both). I know this isn't easy to accomplish, but it would really make a difference.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestion! I'll see if I can find a good method to implement it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Looks pretty sweet. Markdown really is coming into a golden age, its everywhere: git readmes, stackoverflow posts, i'm even using it to write my presentations in these days! Love it :)

<comment><USER16> I'm just wondering why Creole wiki syntax failed on this particular point: for me, the syntax is much more consistent and easier to parse.

<comment><USER17> Markdown took email/mailing list/usenet conventions and turned them into syntax.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's great !

I just have two small requests. First, it seems you're using libdiscount (or objc bindings to libdiscount) to compile markdown, could you give the ability to pass flags to the compiler ? (e.g. activate footnotes). Second but less critical to me, I'd love to be able to tweak the CSS of the generated page (less critical because I can just tweak the style.css file in ORCDiscount).

If Mou had those two (small) features I'd gladly donate/buy it when it comes out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestion! Replied you in Email. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Reminds me a lot of iA Writer (which is a commercial markdown editor): <http://www.iawriter.com/>

</comment><comment><USER20> StackOverflow published their greatly extended bugfix of the original markdown web editor as OpenSource. They named it pagedown IIRC.

</comment><comment><USER21> Eclipse.org Aptana has a plugin for editing markdown, but i don't remember coming across a live preview feature. Usually use Dingus for preview <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/dingus> so i'm gonna give this app a go in about 15m

</comment><comment><USER22> Thanks for this, I've been looking for a nice simple markdown editor that can kick out HTML for a while. I used to use TextMate's with it's Markdown preview, but since I stopped using TextMate I've needed something to fill that space. (Sublime Text 2 doesn't seem to have a preview feature)

<comment><AUTHOR> You know, I'm glad you like Mou. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm on snow leopard, so this might not be a bug as you said it runs on SL unofficially, but it's VEERY annoying that every time I edit the 'source' on the left, preview jumps up to the beginning and I have to scroll all the way down to where I was. This is unbearable for long articles.

<comment><USER24> Having this issue on Lion as well. The 'flashing' in the preview pane in general is pretty noisy on the eyes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Looks great. Any chance you can make the line-height adjustable? I find the editor a little too squished.

It would also be useful if users could supply their own css for the preview rendering...that way you could see what it'll look like with your own stylesheet.

<comment><USER25> The scrolling needs some work as well. It seems as soon as I write anything, the preview just shoots back to the top. Ideally it would follow me as I type and the two would link up transparently and smoothly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> Just a note, it'd be awesome if there was some way to specify the stylesheet used in the preview pane, I'd love to be able to see exactly how the result will look on my site.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's already possible. Simply edit the css file inside Mou's app bundle:

<http://cl.ly/AaUT>

But do backups first!

:)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is already awesome, great work. However, if you integrated this with Simplenote, or a similar service, it would be even better.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestion!

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Very nice, love the color scheme and content preview. Will it be free once off beta?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not decided yet. But if 1.0 turned into shareware, all the people who donated during beta will receive a license for free.

<comment><USER27> That's what I was wondering, donating or buying it eventually, will be good to write a note on donation, so people like me know what will be happening :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I just added a note below the download button. \- "Note: All the people who donated during beta will receive a license for free when Mou 1.0 released."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Hashify.me may not have as many features but it is a web-based version.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah Hashify.me is made by my friend David Chambers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Darnit! I had this EXACT same idea. Even the layout was the same in my mind. I'm not mad at the developer, major props for the hard work. But I AM mad at myself and hopefully this will serve as a reminder to future me that I should execute on my ideas.

</comment><comment><USER30> Possibility to write using vertical layout is a pleasant surprise.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, Chinese and Japanese people will enjoy vertical layout. And perhaps Korean will like it too. :)

<comment><USER30> Don't forget about people learning these languages—they sometimes are even more concerned about vertical writing than natives, AFAICT =)

(OT: Nice clean personal website you have there.)

<comment><AUTHOR> That may be true. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> This looks amazing, but is it available for snow leopard?

<comment><AUTHOR> It can run on snow leopard, but not officially supported, some features will be lost.

If possible, run it on Lion. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Is there anything similar for LATEX?

<comment><USER33> Check out WhizzyTex mode for Emacs, which also lets you have an auto-updating preview beside your code for LaTeX.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Please someone do this with HTML.

<comment><USER35> While it's probably not exactly what you're looking for, Safari's Snippet Editor is great for whipping up some quick HTML with auto preview. Accessible via the menu, Develop > Show Snippet Editor.

No syntax highlighting which is kind of a bummer.

<http://i.imgur.com/omtFb.png>

<comment><USER2> Wow I'd never seen that before, very useful little tool.</comment></comment></comment>


Has Your Watch Appreciated 158%? - <AUTHOR> http://www.watchely.com/?s=Rolex+GMT+Master&post_type=product

<comment><AUTHOR> Watchely is the new solution to watch sales and research. Watchely aims to close the gap between watch buyers and sellers, helping them approach online and auction watch sales more informed through intelligent analytics. We've utilized the power of big data science to help build a better marketplace.</comment>


I Hate Manager READMEs – Camille Fournier - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@skamille/i-hate-manager-readmes-20a0dd9a70d0 <comment><AUTHOR> I knew that the trend for Manager READMEs bothered me, but this really helped me to nail down why. When I'm wearing a manager hat, I see it as my job to serve the people who work for me. But READMEs are a one-way communication medium. They send the message, "It's your job to pay attention to me, the manager. You must learn and conform to my quirks." I think that's exactly the wrong message for a new employee.

This post is written by the author of The Manager's Path, which I also recommend: [https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating- Grow...](https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating- Growth/dp/1491973897)</comment>


Koneko, a concatenative not-quite-Lisp for kittens - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/obfusk/koneko <comment><USER2> At first I was wondering why everything looks backward. But of course, it is _stack_ oriented. I would expect push and pop to be quite powerful commands in such a language, since it appears to be the method by which functions are built and invoked.

There are a few crazy bits in there to keep it interesting. For example, bi appears to be a "lite" version of Lisp's multiple-value-bind macro.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sort of ... Forth ... but with CADAADR</comment>


Ask HN: What do you use to follow a topic of interest? - <AUTHOR> I find myself in a position of needing to become an expert on a topic and having no idea where to start with my research. <comment><USER2> The Library of Congress Red Book. It was intended to guide the Library of Congress librarians in classifying books. It turned out to be a deeply cross- connected network detailing the structure of human knowledge. Follow its links assembling a list of appropriate book catalog classifications. Then go to your library's Shelf List. It lists every book in the library as it is located on the shelf (that is by these classifications). It's better than browsing the shelves themselves because many books are checked out. Assemble a list of promising books and proceed to read and take notes.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. Find some blogs. Toss them in your RSS feed. These will lead to other people with expertise.

2\. Throw a lot of time and attention at what you find.</comment>


How Hunter S. Thompson Predicted the Rise of Trumpism - <AUTHOR> https://www.thenation.com/article/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/ <comment><USER2> This reads like a Hells Angels book report, with a strained and tenuous connection to Trump. Sadly, had the author read more than a single book by the author, he would have grasped a much firmer connection to the hip association of HST and the rise of Trump.

</comment><comment><USER3> >>  We parents tell our children that when you know you've lost an argument or a race, the right thing to do is to be a good sport and to "get 'em next time." But if there is no next time, or you know that every next time you are going to be in the loser's lane again, what's the use of being a good sport? It would make you look even more ignorant, and more like a loser, to pretend like you think you have a chance. The game has been rigged against you. Why not piss on the field before you storm off? Why not stick up your finger at the whole goddamned game?</comment>


Enlightenment DR 0.20.0 Release - <AUTHOR> https://phab.enlightenment.org/phame/live/3/post/e20_release/ <comment><USER2> This release is particularly notable because it has full Wayland support.</comment>


John Carmack Archive - Interviews - <AUTHOR> http://www.scribd.com/doc/479479/John-Carmack-Archive-Interviews/

<comment><USER2> While it sounds cliche, John Carmack, along with Michael Abrash, are among several people that begat my interest in programming (with a focus towards games of course ;D), at a time when I was still unsure of what I wanted to do in my life.

It's interesting to see the evolution of what was happening at the time in the game development industry, and then correlate that to what I was experiencing at the time as I was growing up, and playing these games.</comment>


If you do not have hacker friends, what is the best way to find a hacker co-founder? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Good question... I have a similar situation, however I have hacker friends that a) have too much holding them down from working on any projects, b) are comfortable with the 9-5 routine, or c) I just know that I can't work with them

I guess that is why I'm beginning to contribute here at news.yc, in hopes of meeting some technical folks who would be willing to start something down the road.

If you're looking for co-founders, I think you're in the right place

<comment><USER3> I too have talked to hacker friends who don't have the nerve. Get 5 years of experience, then start something. 5 years later, get 5 years of experience, then start something.

and 5 years later, they start a family.

if you think about it, it's pretty easy for a decent programmer to get comfortable with a 9-5. if it pays well, you really don't need to think much. and i've come to believe that complacent people, no matter how skilled, will not be able to achieve great things. when i talk to talented, but complacent people, it's harrowing.

<comment><USER2> I agree with the comfort level of a 9-5. I've been working high paying 9-5 jobs between IT and Software Engineering since I graduated (3 years now).

I'm just plain sick of it, however I can certainly see how the majority can get easily complacent with the daily routine and nil responsibility.

I've just come to the realization that its not for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would upmod this but I'd be afraid even more non-hacker friends would bug me.

To be honest -- I'd be scared of any incredibly bright individual (even who went to b-school or majored in art history) who was not willing to get their hands dirty with at least a little code.

If you're building the next Google, okay, they probably can't help much.

But if you're building your average CRUDish webapp, you don't need that many CS rocket scientists to get er done.

<comment><USER5> Furthermore, the question in the back of my mind would be - what's he (non- techie) contributing?

Unless of course, he brought in a lot of users/investors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This was also recently discussed here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=15613>

</comment><comment><USER7> I went back to school. It worked.</comment>


Time4J: Advanced date and time library for Java - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/MenoData/Time4J

<comment><USER2> it's so nice to have an alternative, though Joda works well enough currently.</comment>