Key practices for achieving large professional goals - <AUTHOR> https://nodramadevops.com/2019/12/key-practices-for-achieving-large-professional-goals/ <comment><USER2> >professional goals

This is missing one major ingredient: Office politics, image and associated soft skills

Finding more and more that actual technical skill has less and less impact on my professional career.

As uncomfortable as it makes me the conclusion is inescapable: playing the game well is now front and center

<comment><USER3> This is a really hard lesson for a lot of people to learn. Networking, self- promotion, and playing politics at large companies will generally get you a lot closer to executive roles than just doing good work.

<comment><USER4> Follow up: where can you do best based purely on technical/design/product skills? Freelance/consulting?

<comment><USER5> Nowhere. With Freelancing/consulting, you're just playing -their- office politics rather than your own. There is no place in society that allows you to avoid developing interpersonal skills.

<comment><USER6> This us true.

But different occupations need a different amount of interpersonal skills: a CEO or TV host need more, while a surgeon or a fighter jet pilot need somehow less.

It all depends on where you want to end up.

<comment><USER7> Not entirely true. Pathology or radiology has nearly zero interaction with patients, and they bill quite high.

You could probably coast along in surgery as well on almost zero interpersonal skills.

<comment><USER8> My eye doctor doesn't have great interpersonal skills. He made me feel like I was wasting his time when I asked a question. He always answered them, though, and he did cataract surgery _really_ well. I wasn't paying him for his interpersonal skills.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > And after nearly 20 years, I have finally refashioned my continuous email > checking (distraction) habit into a daily schedule of:

> a quick check for urgent issues in the morning

> up to a 15 minute session before lunch

> a quick check for urgent issues ten minutes before finishing work

I've said it often enough on HN:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13362603](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13362603)

 _This is why in my interview I specified something like "Morning, after lunch, and before I head home"._

Elsewhere:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21278969](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21278969)

 _I 've told two of my bosses while being interviewed: Assume I'll check email only 3 times a day. Is that workable?_

The response to that comment is amusing:

 _Sorry, but your inability to interact with your co-workers makes you a difficult person to employ. A ton of folks don 't need this kind of special treatment._

(Likely he was responding to the other content in my comment, but in the spirit of this submission, I'd bet the author agrees more with my sentiment).

<comment><USER10> I've been thinking about workplace communication like this a lot lately. I think the "best" structure (most productive for most people) is a 3-tier system on separate tools.

Alert system (pagerduty): 5 minutes (NOT normally used)

"Instant" message (slack): 2 hours

Email: 36 hours

Maybe that's too much for you. But knowing I can get both get a response from anyone within 2 hours, but don't have to respond in less than 2 hours would make me very happy.

<comment><USER9> It depends on whether people are colocated. For me, if the team is all on the same floor, I just don't do IM.[1] If they need an immediate response or one within 2 hours, they can just come to my cube. I don't mind being interrupted for these, because I've noticed people are more likely to think their problem through before getting up and walking - whereas with IM (and to some extent email) they're happy sending off a query without much thought. So I'm interrupted significantly less in personal than via email/IM.

If there are remote members, I usually respond to them on IM and try to ignore everyone else. This is to prevent colocated team members from having an advantage as I allow them to walk to my cube. I've toyed with having a requirement from them that if remote team members IM me, then they have to pick up a headset and talk live (similar to being interrupted in person). I haven't tried it yet.

Email in 36 hours is excessive for me - I think by the end of day is good for me.

Clearly different people have different preferences. My focus is to relieve the burden of always checking/being available. It prevents deep focus. I think this aligns with the author of the submission.

[1] Note that this is for IM in general. I've never used Slack - I've heard Slack is more than just IM so perhaps I would find a good use for it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Dear author,

This entire post over all is the perfect example of "things I wish I knew to do in my 20s (or 30s)" and I love it.

Thank you for sharing your hard earned wisdom and happy new year!!

<comment><USER12> You're welcome! Thank you for sharing that; it means a lot because that's precisely the kind of help I'm trying to provide. I wish you success in the New Year and your career.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If the benefit of writing was primarily to focus your thoughts, I think everyone would be enjoying this benefit. After all, we constantly send email informing people of things we are about to do or have done.

Perhaps the benefit is closer to advertising. As Buffet is supposed to have said, if you don't write it's like winking in the dark.

<comment><USER14> Only rarely do you write emails were the message is complex enough that writing will force you to think it through carefully, which is the (very real) benefit the author is referring to. Someone said writing shows you how sloppy your thinking is, and math (and code to a lesser extent) shows you how sloppy your writing is.

<comment><USER15> "Sorry this is so long, I didn't have time to make it shorter"

</comment></comment></comment><comment> jay-anderson I worked with the author at a past company. He was an ideal coworker. He's an excellent communicator and was great at cutting through whatever else was going on to help us get the important things done. I'm happy to see his writing pop up here.

<comment><USER12> Thanks Jay, that means a lot coming from you. I hope we get to build great things together again some day.</comment></comment>


Space Buckets: DIY Indoor Gardening with LED and Arduinos - <AUTHOR> http://www.spacebuckets.com/#c <comment><USER2> Every time I see a gardening with tech post I get mildly irritated now that I have been actually gardening for 5 years. I'm of the opinion that we need less tech and more systems with integrated design to take the human labor out of gardening and orchards.

The sun is the perfect light source for photosynthesis and temperature. I only use LEDs as a last resort for seed starting. Also LEDs don't provide the heat which plants really, really desire so you will end up needing to supplement with heating pads, incandescent bulbs, or external heating.

I accidentally raised my electric bill $100 one month last year when I used a small space heater to warm seeds.

I'm currently trying the following experiments:

      * winter sewing basil using milk jugs outside in the snow

      * sewing onions indoors and germinating them on top of my houses boiler.

<comment><USER3> I know you know this, as you referenced the pads, but FYI for the interested: you can get electrically-heated seed mats that only burn 20-40 watts, and cover a standard size.

[https://www.amazon.com/Jumpstart-MT10006-8-875x19-5-Inch- See...](https://www.amazon.com/Jumpstart-MT10006-8-875x19-5-Inch- Seedling/dp/B0001WV010?th=1)

I use them for both seed starting, and as a gentle, no-hot-spot heat source in my 3D filament storage/desiccant container. Even leaving them on 24/7 will only add a dollar or two to your monthly electricity bill.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, the heating pads or seed starting is a great idea. I bought a bunch of 72 watt incandescent bulbs for when the seedlings sprout.

I've been using one at my desk to keep my body / hands warm. Beats heating the whole room when all that is cold is myself.

I'm in zone 6b and I'm just starting some of my cold hardy plants now. Its a little early but I can't help myself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This does not seem economical to me.

For a quick calculation operation cost of a bucket with 20W consumption (One CFL lightbulb) consumes 14.6 kWh energy in a month with continous operation. This costs about 500 HUF (~1.8€) according to the electricity costs i could find quickly (32 HUF/kWh ~0.1€/kWh).

This price is comparable to the price of vegetables in the supermarket. This seems economic only for special crops with higher margins.

<comment><USER5> Why would you do the calculation with compact fluorescent bulbs, when the project is really predicated on the efficiency of LEDs? Especially the red/blue LEDs that favor the photosynthetic spectrum.

I'm not saying the conclusion is wrong - this is generally about growing cannabis - but indoor cultivation is surprisingly economical for a variety of scales.

<comment><USER6> Because at least Red LEDs generally aren't more efficient than CFLs.

You can find tons of articles claiming some lm/w record being achieved in a lab of 110 lm/w, 200 lm/w and other ridiculous numbers, but the reality is most of consumer grade available LEDs will only be 10-30% more efficient than a CFL, and probably _less_ efficient than a t5 fluorescent tube.

I've looked into this extensively when running an indoor garden, and in the end decided to go with FL tubes and a 400W HPS (which was far better than any LED on the market in 2010)

<comment><USER7> lumen are defined by visibility for the human eye, which is not what you are optimizing for when growing plants.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This looks interesting, but high-tech gardening communities almost always seem to turn into thinly-veiled DIY cannabis farmers.

<comment><AUTHOR> All plants are welcome, the community does not judge species. For us plants are just plants, we want to become "a melting pot of photosynthesis enthusiasts", as per the bucket manifesto. There are many cannabis growers but that is because it is a very popular plant around the world (and very expensive too).

I've grown a lot of different plants in my buckets, including thyme, dill, basil, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, strawberry and chives :)

Hope you give it a try, it is a very fun hobby.

<comment><USER9> I've been thinking about doing something like this, since I'd have to fence my yard to have an ordinary garden if I don't want deer to eat all my plants.

Are there any concerns about levels of non-growth-limiting (or color- affecting) nutrients in container-grown veggies? Has anyone even looked into that?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's one previous thread with some discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907)

</comment><comment><USER11> Ikea now sells hydroponics gear, in the UK at least. Looks neat. They're targeting it at herbs and salads. [http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor- gardening/](http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor-gardening/)

<comment><USER12> I'm pleasantly surprised by that selection! I expected aerogarden clones, which are IMO way to productized and small for any kind of serious gardening, but those ikea racks are close to what you'd find in a real hydro setup for nursing seedlings/small plants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have my own space bucket and I use it to grow my own food, it's a powerful gardening tool if you don't have much sun hours at home, also you get control of all the process

</comment><comment> King-Aaron Aaah, yes. Nice and inconspicuous buckets in the shed, so you can grow your own... ahem...

"food"

<comment><USER12> you joke, but the marijuana industry has long been at the forefront of DIY hydroponics and cultivation in general, in much the same way that the porn industry is an early adopter of various web tech. being the underdog leads to some fruitful risk tolerance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think the greatest advantage of indoor gardening isn't the ideal lighting and temperatures so much as pest and humidity control. Indoor gardens don't suffer from birds, insects, and rodents like my outdoor plants. (Or my Mom's chickens =P) In addition they don't require half as much water as my drip irrigated plants.

Even if you just keep the plants in the garage it's a huge advantage if you live in an area with lots of pests. Also with the emergence of cheap LEDs you can keep light on the plants without the huge energy costs of fluorescent lighting.

Not to mention it's kinda pretty to have walls of plants in your house =)

</comment><comment><USER15> One of the reasons I dislike living outside of the US is because sites like this only have amazon.com links. It would rule if you could swap them for your local amazon (amazon.de for me) links somehow.

<comment><USER16> The problem at least for me between .com and .ca, is that they seem to be fundamentally different sites with their own separate arrays of sellers and products that can be quite different from each other. There are many things sold on .com you simply cannot get from .ca, or even shipped to Canada from the .com site

<comment><USER15> Yeah, exactly. Each amazon site has 100% different products. You have to just search for the same product and hope it's there, or find something similar. Even more difficult when the other site is not in English.

<comment><USER17> Which is a bummer, because a lot of these sites are supported by affiliate links. When you go to your own amazon, you lose the affiliate connection and can't support the site that gave you the information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Interesting, I've always been curious if it doesn't make sense to have a clear unit with some sort of cover and LEDs to "top up" the natural sunlight in northern locations during winter. Not sure if it just ends up being the angle makes the spectrum useless... but always seems like the completely enclosed environments are throwing away a lot of free energy.

</comment><comment><USER19> One of the reasons why they choose to use Buckets instead of Tents is because it's very easy to transport the bucket from place A to place B. With the tent it's not as easy.

</comment><comment><USER20> The science has come a long way from the incandescent light in my dorm closet.

</comment><comment><USER21> Do I have to worry about bugs if I do this in my apartment?

<comment><USER22> yes. maybe not initially but once they settle in they are there for good. treat with insecticidal soap once a week and rinse it off well (move your buckets or tubs into the shower)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> smart idea having links to the products on amazon

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Lifting content without permission is not cool. You should at least link back to the original site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There was a paper recently that LED lights contributed to retinal deterioration. Let me pull that up for a second.

<comment><USER25> It'd probably be related to the higher blue light levels of "white" LEDs. I'm sure the amount of screen time most people get these days has a greater effect than LEDs in a bucket.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Down for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Working on it...

<comment><USER26> Thank you. I will check it out later, super interesting project!

<comment><AUTHOR> I've put a simple HTML page for the moment :)

<comment><USER27> Is a blank page for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> I added a redirect to [http://www.spacebuckets.com/hb/](http://www.spacebuckets.com/hb/) but it does not seem to very working for everyone. Very frustrating day...

<comment><USER28> still down for me, but that link works. thanks</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hard disk test 'surprises' Google (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6376021.stm <comment><AUTHOR> This was one of the earliest submissions to HN, back in February 2007:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121)

The comments there are interesting, and I wonder if anything has changed in the past decade.</comment>


Results of the 2015 Underhanded C Contest - <AUTHOR> http://www.underhanded-c.org/#winner <comment><USER2> There's an interesting subtlety mentioned in the author's explanation [http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/underhanded/2015-spo...](http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/underhanded/2015-spoilers.pdf) that doesn't seem to be mentioned here: the preprocessing had to be carefully designed because the squashing also amplifies any residual noise, so if that wasn't thoroughly removed the comparison would fail because it'd mostly be comparing noise rather than signal. While the type confusion is the only suspicious thing, the rest of the code did have to be crafted to make it work, it's just that the other changes are reasonable and non-suspicious.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this is my favorite Underhanded C submission ever. One simple ambiguity, applied with breathtaking precision and effectiveness. Puts me in mind of an old essay of Zed's: [http://zedshaw.com/archive/the-master-the- expert-the-program...](http://zedshaw.com/archive/the-master-the-expert-the- programmer/)

<comment><USER4> From the essay:

> _In contrast there are masters in the martial arts who learned their art as > a means of survival and became masters in a realistic and hostile > environment. We don't have anyone like this in the programming profession, > or at least I haven't met any._

Charles H. Moore springs to mind.

<comment><USER5> > _Charles H. Moore springs to mind._

Can you expand on this?

<comment><USER4> Quote from ([http://www.ultratechnology.com/1xforth.htm](http://www.ultratechnology.com/1xforth.htm)):

" _I wish I knew what to tell you that would lead you to write good Forth. I can demonstrate. I have demonstrated in the past, ad nauseam, applications where I can reduce the amount of code by 90% percent and in some cases 99%. It can be done, but in a case by case basis. The general principle still eludes me._ "

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> And if, like me, you didn't knew what this contest was about, the explanation is one click away [1]:

"a competition that challenges coders to solve a simple data processing problem by writing innocent-looking C code that is as readable, clear, and seemingly trustworthy as possible, yet covertly implements a malicious function."

[1] [http://underhanded-c.org/_page_id_5.html](http://underhanded-c.org/_page_id_5.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> The winning entry reminds me of Linus (Torvalds)' viewpoint on typedefs: [http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/typedefs.html](http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/typedefs.html)

Those for whom the name Linus _Åkesson_ is unfamiliar are highly encouraged to visit his site at [http://www.linusakesson.net/](http://www.linusakesson.net/) \--- he has a lot of other interesting articles on programming and the demoscene.

<comment><USER8> _" if your typing speed is the main issue when you're coding, you're doing something seriously wrong"_

So does he mean that programming/hacking is not about banging a keyboard as fast as possible?/s I wish more people knew that.

<comment><USER9> Most importantly, I wish more _managers_ knew that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's Linus in a completely different but awesome context: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pchpDD5EU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pchpDD5EU)

</comment><comment><USER11> I wonder how many of them would be caught using a very strict compiler flag regime.

For the winner, perhaps the gcc flag, _-Wmissing-prototypes_ would catch it?

<comment><USER12> No, that doesn't catch it because "float_t" is properly defined as a 'float' by including <math.h>, instead of a 'double' in the local header. But I thought you might be on to something with adding extra warnings, so I tried it out on [http://gcc.godbolt.org](http://gcc.godbolt.org).

Nope, no warnings at all for spectral_contrast.c with GCC, ICC, or Clang even with "-Wall -Wextra -pedantic". Then I thought to try it on MSVC at [http://webcompiler.cloudapp.net/](http://webcompiler.cloudapp.net/). To my surprise, it caught it pretty clearly with /W4:

      main.cpp(11): warning C4244: '/=': conversion from 'double'
                    to 'float_t', possible loss of data

With that hint, I searched for other GCC warnings and found -Wconversion. Indeed, with that (or -Wfloat-conversion) GCC picks up the scent pretty well: [http://goo.gl/9xq3fG](http://goo.gl/9xq3fG)

       In function 'void normalize(float_t*, int)':
       11 : warning: conversion to 'float_t {aka float}' from
            'double' may alter its value [-Wfloat-conversion]

ICC gives an excellent error message with -Wconversion also, perhaps the clearest of the bunch: [http://goo.gl/cjXLjq](http://goo.gl/cjXLjq)

       warning #2259: non-pointer conversion from "double" to
                      "float_t={float}" may lose significant bits
           for(i = 0; i < length; i++) v[i] /= magnitude;

Clang remained silent with all the options I tried, but perhaps I missed the right one.

<comment><USER13> Did you try with -Weverything on Clang? That will enable more warnings than -Wall and -Wextra.

<comment><USER12> Thanks for mentioning that option. I hadn't known about it.

Clang does give a warning with -Weverything, but I don't understand what it means: [http://goo.gl/M9qjmx](http://goo.gl/M9qjmx)

      13 : warning: no previous prototype for function spectral_contrast' [-Wmissing-prototypes]
           double spectral_contrast(float_t *a, float_t *b, int length) {

It gives the same warning if I change all the float_t's to float, or if I change all the float_t's to double, so I think it's not actually useful or relevant.

<comment><USER14> It's effectively catching the fact that `spectral_contrast.c` does not `#include "match.h"` — this is indeed directly a part of the underhandedness.

The warning occurs because the function is not static — and therefore callable by other modules. Since it's missing a forward definition (a previous prototype), those modules must blindly declare the prototypes themselves… and their prototypes can get out of sync with the actual definition. That's what's happening here. `match.h` has the forward prototype, but it's very subtly different from the definition. Were match.h included, there'd be a much more glaring warning (or maybe even error).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is really great!

Reading through the source made me look twice though, as I am used to writing C++ so seeing variables defined but not initialised, non-const array starting points as parameters with a separate length parameter (instead of just a reference to a container or a const reference to enforce read-only nature), memcpy instead of copy constructors or copy assignment operators.

Basically, it made me realise how impossible I would find it to write good C!

Really clever entry though, very impressive. I spotted all the issues I mentioned above, looking for mistakes in them and completely missing the actual problem.

<comment><USER16> > Basically, it made me realise how impossible I would find it to write good > C!

That was my thought when the comparison was with Turbo Pascal 6.0.

Luckily in the same year I got Turbo C 2.0, someone made me aware that the school also had the newly released Turbo C++ 1.0 available.

Since then, using C instead of C++ or better alternatives, only when I didn't have an option to do so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Beautiful. I'd just looked up float_t, and realized that typedef'ing it to double was almost certainly a 'tell', but I still failed to spot the failure to include the header.

I presumed it was simply going to try to slip in a 'float' for a 'float_t' and hope it wasn't noticed, although it seemed unlikely to be a winning strategy.

One other thing that seemed odd was the continued use 'double' after the typedef. I wonder if there's a way to make it work where all the usages are replaced by 'float_t'.

<comment><USER17> > I wonder if there's a way to make it work where all the usages are replaced > by 'float_t'.

Yes, in fact you don't have to change anything else. The trick is that on x86-64 float is promoted to double for argument passing, so the mismatch in the return type on spectral_contrast has no effect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> here is the blog entry of linux akesson, the winner about his entry. [https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=11032712](https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=11032712)

<comment><USER19> Just FYI his name is Linus (just like Linus Torvalds). It's a common name for Swedes (Torvalds in from the Swedish minority in Finland).

The Linux name is a play on Linus' name.

The Å in Åkesson can be typed on a US keyboard by hitting alt+a. To make ä & ö you'd hit `alt+u a` and `alt+u o`. To make a ø, which is the Norwegian/Danish way to say ö, you type `alt-o`.

EDIT: the keyboard things are on a US layout on a Mac. For a standard keyboard it might be the same, or not. I don't know...

<comment><USER20> >Torvalds in from the Swedish minority in Finland

Torvalds is from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.

<comment><USER19> At least in Swedish they are called "Finlandssvenskar", which means Finland- swedes. That is why I count them as Swedes just like the Swedes living in Sweden, Norway, Denmark or anywhere else.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Don't ever speak to the FBI without a tape recorder running and a lawyer present - <AUTHOR> http://boingboing.net/2013/05/07/dont-ever-speak-to-the-fbi-w.html <comment><USER2> If it is really true the FBI will not conduct an interview on tape then there is a rule that needs to be changed. So why don't these lawyers throw it up on the White House Petition page and see if it sticks?

<comment><USER3> Probably because they understand the cruel joke that the WH petition bonanza really is? And because it is an easy way for smart lawyers to shake of agents for a while, forcing them to look for easier victims that they can threaten.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thought everyone already knew about the right to remain silent...

<comment><USER5> You have the right to remain silent if you are arrested. You aren't under arrest; the FBI just wants to "interview" you. However, the law against lying to a federal agent is always in effect. Even if you don't say anything incriminating, if you say something that they can claim is a lie, then they have leverage over you. I imagine that the FBI would also be exceptionally reluctant to conduct an "interview" if you had someone else with you who was also taking notes. Their preferred situation is when there are two of them who can corroborate each others version of the discussion, and only one of you.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is there any CDN that offers "upload tokens" to put content - <AUTHOR> I'm building an app where users can upload user generated content.
CDNs have good pricing on distribution, and I'd like the clients themselves to upload directly to the CDN without sending the data to my server (and then having the server put it on the CDN).
I'd imagine something like:
- client tells "I want to upload something of size 123123 bytes" to server
- server returns "upload token" to client, that encapsulates an authorization saying: "the holder of this token can store 123123 bytes on my behalf, content expiring on x/y/z, this auth is valid until a/b/c"
- client HTTP puts/posts 123123 bytes of data to the CDN, with the upload token passed as authorization, and gets a URL back
- client gives the URL back to the server "upload done! here's the URL to it!"
Does any CDN support this paradigm? TIA <comment><USER2> I've done a similar thing with S3 and CloudFront using presigned URLs. In general a CDN is a cache not a store so the upload goes to what the CDN reads.</comment>


Studies find having kids makes people less happy - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/143792 <comment><USER2> Studies can show anything if you cherry pick the right statistics out.

Personal experience says being a parent is one of the coolest and most enjoyable things you can do with your life.

You could also say that "being in a relationship makes people less happy" - quite likely true if you pick out the right statistics.

<comment><USER3> It's pretty funny when you criticize "cherry picking", then immediately cite "personal experience" as evidence for a position.

<comment><USER2> Yeah but the difference is, I labelled it as "personal experience", and not some sort of "study". I also did _not_ state it was in any way evidence for anything.

I simply said that in my experience, it's been great fun... It's up to you though. Don't have kids.. Don't buy a house. Go travelling. Just don't get to 80 and wish you had done things differently.

<comment><USER3> You absolutely _did_ use your opinion as an argument. Look at what you wrote:

"Personal experience says being a parent is one of the coolest and most enjoyable things you can do with _your_ life."

If you weren't trying to use your personal opinion as as evidence, what you should have written was:

"Personal experience says being a parent is one of the coolest and most enjoyable things _I_ did with _my_ life."

The latter is a statement of opinion; the former is an argument.

<comment><USER3> The OP is suggesting that a published study is "cherry-picking" data -- but isn't providing any evidence to support his claim. His only argument is his personal opinion.

It's sad that a blatant logical fallacy can become the second-highest-rated comment attached to this article.

<comment><USER4> Published or not, "happiness research" is notoriously difficult. It isn't exactly hard science.

Here's another personal opinion: our daughter is pretty much the most important thing I've ever done, and even if something like Hecl were to become hugely popular, she still would be _to me_ , although perhaps not to the world at large. I would bet that someone like Linus might feel similarly.

Many other things you do in life might have significant impacts on lots of other people (perhaps adding up to 'more overall impact'), but a child's life and future is entirely in your hands, which is a _huge_ responsibility.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Happiness is subjective, and frankly my happiness is dependent on what I achive in life, as I expect most people on here are. People on here are trying to set up companies, most of whom will likely fail as most start-ups do in the first couple of years and they bring a lot of stress and depression, but everyone on here seems positively extatic that they're doing something that in two decades they can say they did something with their life.

I would hate myself if I got to 80 and realised I'd never accomplished anything. If I have kids, I know I'll have done at least _something_ with my life, I'll be able to say 'I raised my 2.4 kids well' and be proud of it. Just like I'm proud that I've moved to a different country.

I'm proud of my life already and I'm only in my 20's, having kids is only going to make me more proud of my life, just as many other things I aim to accomplish will. So I really don't care if I'm not as smiley happy for a few years as I'll be happy that I've done things other people haven't.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm waiting for this one to show up here..."Studies find having startups makes people less happy."

;)

<comment><USER7> Actually, I think I remember an article claiming that having a startup _does_ make entrepreneurs happy. It's _everything else_ (income, social life, stress level) that gets worse for entrepreneurs when they start their own business.

Working for myself has definitely lowered my income, at least for the short term. But I'm fairly happy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Burying the lede:

"Parents still report feeling a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives than those who've never had kids."

So "happiness" or "sense of purpose and meaning." Take your pick.

<comment><USER9> Is there any happy people who live without any sense of purpose and meaning?

<comment><USER10> Me?

I haven't got a clue what my purpose in life is. I'm still happy with what I've got, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It always amuses me when people point to their kids as their proudest achievement. It puts me in mind of this:

function generation(input) { output = input + 0; generation(output); }

Lots of activity, no progress. Your greatest achievement should be something you did that any kids you have would be proud of. Merely spwaning offspring is something that anyone can do - and some of the best kids in every generation come from the worst homes so 'doing it right' is hardly a value added activity.

<comment><USER12> Raising a child is a lot more than "spwaning offspring." You're obviously not a parent and have no appreciation for what your parents have done for you.

In the meantime keep playing halo and wanking to online porn.

<comment><USER11> Insisting that only parents can have opinions on the subject of kids is a bit odd. I would bet that you have an opinion on nuclear power, despite never having built a reactor in your back yard.

Society pays quite a lot towards the cost of children as well (depending on where you are). For example here roughly 10% of income is taxed to pay for universal healthcare, of which a large chunk goes to subsidised and free care for children. If society is picking up part of the bills it should get part of the credit.

(And I don't play Halo, nor am I single. I'm not even that young. Ad hominem is the lowest form of argument.)

<comment><USER2> I don't know, I think kids are one of those things that change your mind about a _lot_ of things, when you actually have them.

It's funny hearing non-parents views sometimes, as they bear little relation to how things really go in practice.

Imagine taking relationship advice from someone who has never had a girlfriend. Sure, they can have an opinion, but I'm not likely to take much notice of it.

<comment><USER13> I wouldn't go to a non-parent for advice on how to quiet a toddler or get your kids to help clean the house. On the other hand, parents can be somewhat irrational when it comes to societal issues. Risk tolerance goes way down, particularly for "dramatic" risks like child abduction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> At my old job we used to play basketball once a week after work. I can't say either this article is true or not, but one thing for sure: guys with kids were much less eager to leave the court and go home. They were the last to leave and first to beg others (kidless) to stay and play a little longer.

<comment><USER15> Scariest remark so far. I have long had the same suspicion about those co- workers who love the extra-long hours: they are simply afraid to go home and meet the family(?).

That might also (among other things) be the reason employers love to hear that you have a family.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Happiness studies aren't worth your time. Also, generalizations about the lives of others make bad advice.

</comment><comment><USER17> Every single study on couples that choose not to have children confirms that they tend to be well-educated and well-off. If you pick a group that's better off than most in every important category (money, social rank, health, etc), you would expect them to be happier, duh. Correlating one of their many choices with happiness is a classic example of selection bias.

</comment><comment><USER18> Well let's hand it to Newsweek for enforcing a crappy version of the page because I'm viewing it from my iPhone. It doesn't take me to a mobile version of the story, just a mini-list of "mobile stories".

Dear Newsweek, get a clue.

</comment><comment><USER19> Schopenhauer knew this - fulfilling our biological urges (to pair off and multiply) is in no way related to human happiness. Where biology and happiness butt heads biology is more likely to win.

</comment><comment><USER20> Are self-filled surveys accurate in finding out whether someone is happy? I my experience, verbal responses, action and body language often contradict each other. Which is right?

</comment><comment><USER9> Even having a very beautiful girlfriend can't make you happy all the time. You can still cry while you are at the Disney Land.

All those studies failed to recognize that the state of happiness is not something infinite. And how can you understand and appreciate the happiness if you have never taste the wrath of sadness?

Yes, the studies show us the correlation between having kids and less happiness in people. But remember, correlation does not imply causation.

</comment><comment><USER21> What this leaves out is the elder years. I believe there is evidence that looking back on an achievements like raising a family lead to happier grey years. Additionally, having someone to care for you when your spouse is gone, and having family to be a part of seems pretty likely to increase happiness. I'd be willing to bet that having grandkids makes people happier. (all play, no work!)

None of this was covered in the study.

</comment><comment><USER22> This article is a positive. Those people who read it and decide not to have children, they are at least not replicating there DNA meaning future generations will not have to deal with those who only have love for themselves.

Reminds me of the story of Narcissus where Narcissus fell in love with himself once he saw his reflection. He was so in love with his reflection he didn't leave to eat and died.

<comment><USER23> I would characterize a person who decides to make partial copies of himself to care for as more self-loving than a person who takes a sober look at resource depletion and decides to seek other means of self-fulfilment, whether that means taking care of already-existing humans or just self-actualizing in solitude.

<comment><USER22> I am not sure if you have ever flown over the United States... it is mostly empty land. It is not depleted. I happen to live in San Diego, we happen to have thousands of new people moving in every day from Mexico. So if you are not going to use it, it looks like others will.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> wrong. See [http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/06/selection_bias_1...](http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/06/selection_bias_1.html)

<comment><USER5> Agreed, happiness has been proven to be subjective. Paraplegics are happy 1 year after their disability causing accident, so wouldn't parents of newborns be the same? It's not a change in circumstances that makes the paraplegics happy, they're still disabled, they didn't magically gain the ability to walk and just not mention it so they keep getting disability. No the paraplegics happiness is subjective, they become happy being a paraplegic just as a parent of a newborn will become happy being a parent.

It's also safe to assume you'll only be happy for a year after your kids leave, and this likely explains the newlywed syndrome that they're happy for the first year and then reality kicks in.

<comment><USER25> Going further with this, it also subtly screws up the kid when the kid feels he is responsible for his parents' happiness.

This study shouldn't be that surprising. It is adequately explained by Fruedian/Jungnian psychological theories.</comment></comment></comment>


Twitter Co-Founder: "We're Not For Sale" - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2009/05/06/twitter-not-for-sale/ <comment><USER2> Who in their right mind values twitter at half the price that youtube went for? Who in their right mind would even consider acquiring twitter at this point?

If you have that kind of money at your disposal then build your clone and blow the leftover on marketing. It shouldn't take more than 10-20 million to put twitter out of "business".

<comment><USER3> that's quite a simplification, ain't that? if money alone would do it, then all one would need to have to beat every single 'hit' site on the internet would be a big wallet - and VCs surely would be willing to give their money away, if it was that simple...</comment></comment>


Linear Regression Proof - <AUTHOR> http://www.eggie5.com/63-linear-regression-proof <comment><USER2> Creating an algorithm whose numerical result agrees with another algorithm isn't how "proof" is defined in mathematics.</comment>


Music, Parties and Booze - Three Startup Sites That Love to Party - <AUTHOR> http://www.gobignetwork.com/wil/2007/5/9/music-parties-and-booze-_-three-sites-that-love-to-party/10150/view.aspx <comment><USER2> Going.com looks pretty impressive. And out of my town, Columbus, OH. Though ironically, it does not list Columbus as one of the towns in its list...

Does anyone know who the founders are?

<comment><USER2> Ok! Never mind... I read it all wrong... They are not out of Columbus, OH... Jeez... I need to sleep :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> sabat - thanks for suggesting I'm not a total douchebag! the book is a free download on the homepage btw

</comment><comment><USER4> This post is amusing, but the real discovery for me was Wil Schroter. (Ok, stop snickering. In a lot of ways, I'm still catching up.)

Wil -- or at least, Wil's site and book ad -- kind of come off like maybe he's one of those slimy SEO "experts" who LIKE TO YELL IN TYPE AND HAVE THE SECRETS TO WEALTH NOW!!!!

But he's not that guy. I just ordered the book after perusing it @amazon. He's humble and seems wise, and I will probably learn some stuff from the book.</comment>


Cops Must Swear Silence to Access Vehicle Tracking System - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/05/license-plate-tracking/ <comment><USER2> This is not news anymore, right.</comment>


Samsung Confirms Galaxy Fold Smartphone Cancellation - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2019/05/07/samsung-galaxy-fold-upgrade-galaxy-note-10-s10-plus <comment><USER2> The surprise is it got as far as it did.

Even for simple stuff like folding calculator cover or foldback cover for connectors they always age and work harden, or tear. Long before the device itself is tired. Flexible ribbon cables are often a weak point of laptops so devote effort to ensure curve, but not fold. I suspect that is why Huwai put the screen on the outside.

Doubt it's coming back any time soon.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Galaxy Fold tech is cutting edge

They're not wrong.</comment>


Four Column ASCII - <AUTHOR> https://garbagecollected.org/2017/01/31/four-column-ascii/ <comment><USER2> One bit of trivia I really love is why "DEL" is at 127 -- weirdly way away from all the control codes.

It's because 0x7F is all ASCII bits set to "1". Back in the early punch card (and telegraph?) days, if there was a typo, you couldn't "unpunch" a hole to make it a 0 again, but you could punch out all the rest of them, indicating "ignore this char, I've deleted it" \-- 0b1111111.

source: [http://www.trafficways.org/ascii/ascii.pdf](http://www.trafficways.org/ascii/ascii.pdf) which is a really neat read if you like that sort of thing :)

<comment><USER3> In particular, paper tape.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> ASCII was very carefully designed.

One feature I like is that you can neatly cut out a 64-character 6-bit all- uppercase encoding (like DEC's) if you don't need lowercase.

Wikipedia covers some of the design choices here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#Internal_organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#Internal_organization)

<comment><USER5>
      > One feature I like is that you can neatly cut out a 64-character 6-bit all-uppercase encoding (like DEC's) if you don't need lowercase.

And if you take the digits from the 0x3X column and the non-digits from the 0x2X column (flipping one bit), you get 0123456789*+,-./ which is enough to write numbers and the basic arithmetic operators. This too was deliberate.

<comment><USER6> Yes and on keybord shift+1 becomes _

<comment><USER7> The TRS-80s had the lovely feature that all of the punctuation above the digits were consistent with ASCII layout. shift-1 was !, as per usual, but also shift-2 was ", and ' was shift-7. On the Model I they even went so far as to make shift-0 produce a space! (On the Model III however, they reused shift-0 to toggle between uppercase and lowercase mode -- sort of a reverse caps-lock key.)

<comment> mark-r In about 1978 I designed my own keyboard. The unique feature it had was that the key positions were used as address lines into a ROM, and I was free to assign any character to any key I wanted. Shift/Ctrl weren't required to be at all related to the base character. Today we take it for granted, but back then it was radical.

<comment><USER8> How many keys were there? I suppose there must have been a lot more keys than your ROM had address lines.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For sentimental reasons I still carry around my Teletype ASCII reference card which is laid out this way. For extra retro goodness it shows the bits as holes on a paper tape with the feed holes and everything.

When you have to design a device that does ASCII entirely mechanically then this is a efficient way to structure it. I would not be surprised to hear that mechanical considerations had a influence on the question of what bits went where.

Added: OK, I have managed to not entirely surprise myself:

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#Internal_organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#Internal_organization)

This seems to say that the influence was partially mechanical typewriters but the Teletype Model 33 entirely followed ASCII.

<comment><USER10> > For sentimental reasons I still carry around my Teletype ASCII reference > card which is laid out this way.

Your comment inpired some googling. I found this chart, which although likely not the one you carry around, is pretty doggone cool too:

[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASCII_Code_Chart- Qui...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASCII_Code_Chart- Quick_ref_card.jpg)

<comment><USER11> Somebody want to pretty that up and put out some print-resolution (and/or good web designed) version? I've always used [http://www.asciitable.com/](http://www.asciitable.com/) ; Not because it's well presented but because it's easy to remember. A 'better' ASCII table would be good for making this cool again, teaching the current generation some of the things they've missed.

<comment><USER12> Don't forget "man ascii". It's not laid out any better but might be more convenient for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There is more to it.

For example, note that the numerals map to their direct binary notation plus a 011 in front. 0 => ...0000, 1 => ...0001, 2 => ...0010, etc.

Now I wonder, why don't they start in the zero row? In other words, why is 0 = 0110000, instead of 0100000?

Why are the parens not in the same row as braces and brackets?

Why isn't "&" (ligature of "et") not in the same row as "e"? "$" ("dollar") is in the same row as "d".

<comment><USER5> The 1963 standard⁰ answers your questions. (Probably the final 1967 version does too, but it's not online anywhere.)

In this instance the more common 8-column presentation actually better reflects the design. It's important that the low _4_ bits of '0' are 0. The 0x2X column and 0x3X column are related by shift (on some devices²).

⁰ [http://worldpowersystems.com/archives/codes/X3.4-1963/index....](http://worldpowersystems.com/archives/codes/X3.4-1963/index.html)

¹ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary- coded_decimal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-coded_decimal)

² [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit- paired_keyboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit-paired_keyboard)

<comment><USER14> > Probably the final 1967 version does too, but it's not online anywhere.

Is this it?

[http://worldpowersystems.com/archives/codes/Revised- ASCII/in...](http://worldpowersystems.com/archives/codes/Revised- ASCII/index.html)

<comment><USER5> Unfortunately that's just an article on the changes in the new version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Oh, that's why ^J is a literal newline in Emacs. How did I miss that for 25 years?

(BTW, for anyone curious, you match a newline in a regexp in emacs by using ^Q ^J, the first is the quote operator and the second is the character you want, ^J, or newline)

<comment><USER16> If you're wondering "why not ^Q then Enter?", that gets you CR or ^M, but in UNIX, newline or ^J is what gets you to the next line.

So, yes, you normally push CR to enter the LF character.

The confusions between CR and LF run deep and wide, even in the UNIX world.

<comment><USER17> You will also see ^M on the end of each line in vim, if you open a CRLF line terminated file in it, but it thinks it's a LF line terminated file.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> What about breaking this table into to parts, 00000-01111, and 10000-11111?

[https://jsfiddle.net/y0pyaax9/](https://jsfiddle.net/y0pyaax9/)

It's a bit easier (for me) to read, if it's on one page. Also, it makes a bit more explicit that digits start at 0110000.

</comment><comment><USER19> Very interesting, thanks. I never knew that key combinations on the terminal were actually just shortcuts to send specific control characters.

It's a bit confusing to me that the column header bits are added to the LEFT of the row identifiers. Might be helpful to report the row ids as "__00000" or similar.

</comment><comment><USER20> This is very neat. I've done lots of work with binary text for hardware, but I would've never noticed this on my own. However now that it's written out, it seems very straight forward.

</comment><comment><USER21> This also explains the Ctrl-D used to end input e.g. when using cat from stdin:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of- Transmission_character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of- Transmission_character)

It also expl^H^H^H^H^H^H

</comment><comment><USER22>
       man ascii

on most Linux systems shows a similar layout.

I wonder if 00-1F could be added to the summary, using the Unicode Control Pictures range for added irony.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_Pictures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_Pictures) (␀ ␁ ␂ ␃ ␄ ␅ ␆ ␇ ␈ ␉ ␊ ␋ ␌ ␍ ␎ ␏ ␐ ␑ ␒ ␓ ␔ ␕ ␖ ␗ ␘ ␙ ␚ ␛ ␜ ␝ ␞ ␟)

<comment><USER23> I've sshed into Linux systems just to get that particular version of the man page. It's a shame that OS X doesn't have it.

Like the author, it blew my mind when I realized that all the Ctrl+? keys were assigned their letters due to a single bit flip.

vim also does this; this is why nul is ^@.

<comment><USER24> OSX doesn't have it? [http://imgur.com/xFRNPbo](http://imgur.com/xFRNPbo)

<comment><USER23> That's exactly what mine looks like too. Compare to the Linux version: [http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/ascii.7.html](http://man7.org/linux/man- pages/man7/ascii.7.html)

The Linux version has two columns; ever wonder escape (0x1b) visualizes as ^[? because it's a single bit off the actual character "["; all the control characters are; they're visualized by essentially flipping a single bit, and displaying ^ + that letter. This was the point of TFA.

The author's four column layout also makes the 1-bit difference between upper and lower case ASCII readily apparent, which the Linux man page regrettably does not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I've a few notes on the programmatic elegance of ASCII at:

[http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/utf8_programming.html](http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/utf8_programming.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> If you want to geek-out further on ASCII have a look at the late Bob Bemer's site: [https://www.bobbemer.com/](https://www.bobbemer.com/) Bob is colloquially known as the "father of ASCII" (among other things) and his writing is fun to read and interesting.

</comment><comment><USER10> I thought the original comment was a gem as well. For me, it made more sense to switch the 5 bit column to the right side, as seen here: [http://pastebin.com/AeTXg1xe](http://pastebin.com/AeTXg1xe)

</comment><comment><USER27> Does this mean that ^; and ^{ are also equivalent to ESC?

<comment><USER28> ^{ is, but on my terminal ^; just prints out a ;

iTerm2, in vim 1.8

<comment><USER29> ^[ and ^{ do the same thing in Terminal.app (macOS Sierra) and vim 8.0. However, I get the bell sound (which generally denotes invalid input in macOS) for ^; and it prints nothing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I've been working with ASCII for over 30 years and never realized this smh

</comment><comment><USER31> The way this is layed out in a table and suddenly properties line up in rows and columns reminds me of the Periodic Table in Chemistry.

Obviously it shows how the ASCII committee used the first two bits as control bits and the remaining bits as a mixture of control and data bits, but I'd never seen it displayed this way.

Really neat.

<comment><USER32> Funny you say that. Here's what I created for my personal use:

[http://files.carussell.fastmail.fm/public/ascii-print- screen...](http://files.carussell.fastmail.fm/public/ascii-print- screenshot.png)

I think the horizontal layout is a lot more readable, especially with the ability to read the bitstring more-or-less left-to-right. Only thing is that it's pretty wide—maybe too wide. The document that screenshot is from is meant to take up an A3 sheet split in half lengthwise. Someone willing to spend more time on it than I was would probably be able come up with helpful notes for the bottom half, or shift things around so elements corresponding to the low bit in the upper nibble are nestled below the items where that bit is off.

<comment><USER33> I did the same thing.

Bug report, your table has an error at 1111110.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> And then there's IBM's EBCDIC, of similar vintage to ASCII, but of markedly dissimilar utility.

[http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSGH4D_14.1.0/...](http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSGH4D_14.1.0/com.ibm.xlf141.aix.doc/language_ref/asciit.html)

<comment><USER35> EBCDIC seems elegant in its own way: [http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cardint.htm](http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cardint.htm) (scroll down) -- apparently it's descended from IBM punch card formats. The discontinuity in the alphabet seems inconvenient for sorting, but it looks like it shares some properties (like bit-flip to make lower case) with ASCII.

<comment><USER36> The digits and letters actually map quite nicely to punch cards. You can see how punches 0 - 9 map exaclty to EBCDIC F0-F9. And if you check how the letters are coded on punch cards (1 - 9 plus one punch "above" in the zone and 0 rows) you can see how it maps exactly to EBCDIC C1-C9, D1-D9, E2-E9. Most other characters aren't coded quite as neatly, I don't know if there is a system to them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I never did the column layout, but I knew about the bit flips for control and shift from both Tom Scott's video on reading ASCII, and from reading about the Meta key.

</comment><comment><USER38> 8-columns, however, makes it clear why the ASR-33 had "!" over "1".

Which makes it clear why the Apple I, II and II+ did the same.

<comment><USER36> The ASR-33 even had [ \ ] ^ _ available only via shift + K L M N O. This is called a bit-paired keyboard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> This also shows why on IRC, [\\]^ are considered to be case-shifted versions of {|}~.

</comment><comment><USER40> Nostalgically interesting. But is it useful today?

</comment><comment><USER41> Thanks for this, just posted it at my desk</comment>


Why Engineers Make The Best Boyfriends/Husbands - <AUTHOR> http://dangerouslee.biz/2012/08/15/why-engineers-make-the-best-boyfriendshusbands/

<comment><USER2> ...she made far too many generalizations.

</comment><comment><USER3> who the hell wears a nice, light-colored suit like to an active construction site?</comment>


SHOW HN: How to Develop a Custom CRM Using Only Low-Code Platforms - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@sebscholl/hot-to-develop-a-custom-crm-using-only-low-code-platforms-67da41bbe9b1 <comment><USER2> I understand there is an "academic" perspective to this somewhere. But, integrating two systems like what is proposed is probably one of the least favourable things to do if I want a low-code (or a no-code) CRM platform (at $10/user/mo + $ 25 /mo).

There are many options - right from building your own using Bubble.io (starts $29/app), using all-in-one builder like AppSheet (starts $5/mo), or to simply choose a "core" platform like Zoho CRM or Zoho Creator.

[https://crmcog.com/crm-apps-of-the-future/](https://crmcog.com/crm-apps-of- the-future/)</comment>


Instant Message, Instant Girlfriend - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25love.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology

<comment><USER2> This is fiction. Funny but it works, too bad the secret is out though ;-)</comment>


Amazon launches Houston web services hub as city looks to boost tech sector - lil-scamp https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Amazon-launches-Houston-web-services-hub-as-city-14189045.php <comment><AUTHOR> Texas cannot be a high tech hub until it prohibits non-compete agreements. With non-compete agreements, startups can start, but cannot grow.</comment>


Android changes for NDK developers - <AUTHOR> http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/06/android-changes-for-ndk-developers.html <comment><USER2> Tangent query regarding iOS. Were there any updates/announcements about native development or C++/Swift interoperability in recent WWDC16 talks.

<comment><AUTHOR> Following on last year's WWDC, around 90% of the talks used Swift.

They announced which upcoming parts of macOS have been re-written in Swift. The dock and a few daemons were part of the list.

They are very keen in focusing on Swift going forward, but with a good interoperability story with Objective-C, thus making Swift/Objective-C a duo similar to .NET/C++ on Windows.

No information about interoperability with C++. Your best way is still Objective-C++ as a mean to create Objective-C friendly bindings that can be consumed from Swift.

You can watch the sessions here

[https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc2016](https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc2016)

If you don't have the inclination to watch them, most have slides available as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> what's the deal with libssl/libcrypto. I discovered that if you put these into your APK, it ignores them using instead its own copies.

So if you think you're working from your own compiled official version, you're not.</comment>


Try/Except vs. If in Dictionary Key Access Python Performance - <AUTHOR> https://ilhicas.com/2018/04/25/Python-try-vs-if-in-dict-access.html <comment><USER2> This is exactly why you need to take some algorithms and data structures lecture. Who in their right mind would think that checking if a key is present in a hash map takes O(n) time by generating a list of all keys and linear search when extracting the value from under that key takes O(1)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello, I've had Data Structures, while on BSc and implemented by hand hashmaps.. If you read the post you would understand the doubt.

Try the following:

a = [i for in range(10000)] if 9999 in a: print('yay I just looped over an entire array')

however:

a = {i:i for in range(10000)} if 9999 in a: print('yay I found a key in linear time')

Now, You might be an expert in Data Structures, but what makes you implicitly know how the 'IN' behaves in python, and that it won't convert to the keys() method of the dict to get a list with the same behaviour as in a list?

<comment><USER2> > [...] what makes you implicitly know how the 'IN' behaves in python, and > that it won't convert to the keys() method of the dict to get a list with > the same behaviour as in a list?

Because it would be the dumb way to do it. You have a lookup procedure to extract a value from a hash. A procedure to check if the key is present in the hash will look exactly the same, barring the value being returned.

Libraries usually work the same way as you would write yourself if you were trained in the task, so it's easy to guess.

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you ever read PEP-20 aka The Zen of Python?

I'll quote part of it, regarding your "so it's easy to guess"

"In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess."

Source: [https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Use try..except.. when you expect it to mostly succeed.

        $ python -m timeit -s "a={k:k  for k in range(10000)}" 'try:
           b=a[10001]
        except:
           pass'
        1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.276 usec per loop

        $ python -m timeit -s "a={k:k  for k in range(10000)}" 'try:
           b=a[1]
        except:
           pass'
        10000000 loops, best of 3: 0.0255 usec per loop

"try" is _fast_ , "except" is slow

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input, yes I've since read that the problem lies on the exception catch, and definitely the time toll is in it.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A new, modern take on web search (like DDG but for non-geeks) - <AUTHOR> http://searchpanels.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, this is an early demo of searchpanels.com. You know those instant answers Google sometimes give you for certain types of queries? Those, but community- driven and with an attractive gamification model for businesses. Does this idea sound good or just plain?</comment>


Income of an uber driver - <AUTHOR> http://uberpeople.net/threads/income-of-an-uber-driver.26649/ <comment><USER2> To those of who you are against including the depreciation cost of the car. Here's the math:

Income: He works 10-12 hours to make $150/day and works every day of hte year. He will make $54,750

Expenses: He calculated 94,900 miles driven total assuming working 365 days a year. That's about 260 miles a day of driving.

Gas cost $12,775 Oil changes $855 Tire replacement $960 Misc Repairs: $5000

So that adds up to $19,950 in expenses. You could reduce that by doing oil changes yourself but whatever. Misc repairs at $5,000 depends on the car itself.

So that comes out to be about $34,800 or $39,800 if you're really hating on Misc repairs.

Let's also assume that he is in fact working 10 hours a day to get that $150/day.

So his hourly wage is about $9.5/hour It's $10.9/hour if you don't include the $5,000 toward repairs.

I've limited it to expenses that directly relate to the uber driving specifically and not costs such as depreciation and insurance with come with car ownership versus actually putting miles on your car driving it around.

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, most minimum wage jobs don't reimburse you for the costs or time spent commuting to and from work. I wonder if that significantly impacts the comparison.

In the other direction, I think the US also has higher self-employment taxes, and of course you don't get health insurance and other benefits. I wonder if that impacts the comparison, too.

<comment><USER4> >On the other hand, most minimum wage jobs don't reimburse you for the costs or time spent commuting to and from work

Uber definitely does not compensate your commute back to your home when you turn the app off.

I'm also pretty sure that Uber does not compensate you during your drive to pick up your first passenger, so unless your first passenger is waiting at your parking location, you have an un-reimbursed commute to work as well.

<comment><USER3> The $9.5/hour or $10.9/hour figure mentioned in the OP compensates for the time/distance traveled to pickup point, including your drive to pick up your first passenger. That was the figure I was referring to. You get misleading results if you compare a gross income from a minimum wage job to a net income from Uber.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My sense is that Uber's current rates aren't entirely sustainable for drivers.

They're able to recruit people who already own a car, and treat it mostly as a sunk cost, when in reality being an Uber driver will significantly decrease the vehicles lifespan and increase maintenance costs.

<comment><USER6> Mine too, but I'd say it is more that Über is exploiting driver behavior.

If you assume there's the $9.50 wage someone calculated above. \+ maybe some premium for being able to schedule work hours yourself. \+ surge pricing, which doesn't seem accounted for.

Transportation companies are making money on the inability of drivers to calculate their expenses properly. People are likely "more satisfied" w/ Uber b/c they don't calculate what the actual money they make.

It's interesting, b/c it makes you wonder about other questions around Uber's model in the longer term as drivers have more information.

== This brings up an interesting issue -- will driverless cars actually _reduce_ profits (of transportation companies) and _increase_ competition?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Correct me if i'm wrong, but Uber started out as a service that connected people without a ride to those who happened to be on the road within a few miles away and willing to give a lift for a few bucks. So what happened? Did Uber pivot or did people start building their lives around Uber and became dissatisfied with the their business model? I don't quite understand this mainly because I don't live in a city where Uber is very popular.

<comment><USER8> > _" Correct me if i'm wrong, but Uber started out as a service that connected > people without a ride to those who happened to be on the road within a few > miles away and willing to give a lift for a few bucks"_

This never happened, as much as Uber would like to imagine themselves a grassroots, populist movement.

Uber started out a service that connected black cars/limos to riders. The idea was to provide competition to taxis, and the easiest existing source of professional drivers was limo drivers, who had a great deal of down time between bookings - and Uber helped fill in the gaps and provide extra income.

Uber was never a "connect riders to random people willing to give a lift" \- other companies tried this model, most notably Sidecar, though even then I think most of its driver-base were at least semi-profesisonal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> So...he uses his personal car to drive for Uber, then deducts the cost of the car from the money he made and says he ended up with nothing? It's like someone running AirBnB in their house and spending all money on mortgage and then saying that they make no money on AirBnb. Unless, of course, he uses the car for absolutely nothing else apart from driving for Uber, and wouldn't get a car otherwise.

<comment><USER10> With AirBnb, you rent out an item that is mainly fixed costs and incurs little variable costs per utilization. With p2p car rental like Get-around, it's the opposite. with Uber, it's even more so on variable costs, as it actively requires your time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The costs include TWO new cars and a ton of other miscellaneous fees. I'm sure that the point being made is valid to some extent, but the calculations are way out of proportion.

<comment><USER12> This entire thing shows just how terrible people are at figuring out the math.

1\. All told, he calculates $12,000 in depreciation costs him $30,500, because he inexplicably adds a new car at the end of the year to his costs.

2\. If the manufacturer recommends an oil change every 5,000 miles, they also recommend one every six months regardless of mileage. So two of those oil changes are "free", but he still gets to deduct them from taxes I would guess.

3\. He figured out he forgot to include insurance, but then didn't take the time to include it. He has to pay for insurance anyway, but will now get to deduct from taxes. The only real cost here will be the increase in his premiums when his insurance company figures out what he's doing.

4\. People chiming in that you should only drive for Uber part time. The profit per mile is probably worse for part time driving, but it certainly isn't _better_.

5\. One guy seems really upset that he used 94,900 miles to do the calculations, since this is nearly an impossible number of miles to drive in a year. It doesn't matter. If it takes him two or three years, the numbers work out basically the same because he is really basing them all on mileage, not time.

<comment><USER13> >4\. People chiming in that you should only drive for Uber part time. The profit per mile is probably worse for part time driving, but it certainly isn't better.

Some times of day are much more profitable than others because there are a lot more people taking rides, so there's less time spent waiting and shorter distance between each ride.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It seems like Uber drivers often don't understand the economics of driving for Uber. Fulltime driving for Uber only seems to make sense for people who have no other choice and are very frugal (or negligent) about their car. Part time may make sense for some people with too much "car" and time on hand. Against both of these groups, the desperate and the part-timers, it's hard to compete and make a living...

<comment><USER15> Repairs are not linear with miles driven. If you average vary low mileage (aka under 6k / year) you can bump that up to ~6k/year on the cheap as many components like tires age even if there not being used.

[http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/how-old-and-dangerous-are- yo...](http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your- tires.html)

I suspect many city drivers could work for at peak times late Friday and on the weakened without adding a lot of maintenance costs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I always thought the concept of asset and time sharing was to convert what you already had into extra cash, just to offset the full price and maintenance of what you already had if you found yourself needing a few hours of income during some spontaneous downtime.

I dont know the feasibility of, for example, keeping pace with a median income earner, or even a minimum wage earner, because honestly I've never done a real estimation of the business.

At first glance, with car payments, gasoline, oil changes, tire changes, insurance, and deductible payments for the inevitable collisions (with court litigation from a single accident without even physical injury lasting in years of time-consuming litigation), driving for a rideshare is something I quickly turned down as an employment consideration.

</comment><comment><USER17> A modern car from honda/toyota maintained properly is good for well over 250k miles. I've seen plenty of these calculations and they always seem to use the worse case as the example. Also.. Next time don't buy a chevy.

<comment><USER18> Maintained properly but also driven softly. When you drive for money you drive hard plus stop-and-go city driving is hard on a car by itself.

A used car with 100k Uber-miles on it will be worth considerably less than the same car with 100k highway miles, and rightfully so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Think of the positives of an Uber job: (a) you can use your car for your _2nd_ job for free; (b) you meet your state's welfare-to-work requirements!

</comment><comment><USER20> Uberpool will be nice. Then you only pick up customers if they are on your route, like on the way to or back from work, or on a road trip.

</comment><comment><USER21> So, fuel efficient cars would be good also yeah?

</comment><comment><USER22> This is easy. If Uber driver does not make money, there will be less Uber drivers, so the fee will come up. There's nothing need to be complainted about.

<comment><USER23> In my experience the result seems to be more crappy cars and less "hip" drivers, if that's worth anything. I read the original plan the founder wanted was an instant "classy" ride. When I choose uberx I don't really expect it to be classy anymore, which is fine most of the time. But it has been something I've noticed. I wouldn't expect a driver to make nothing just to have a new car to drive for uber.

<comment><USER24> UberX wasn't in the original plan at all. The "classy" was UberBlack.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Miles are overrated as a unit of wear. I sincerely doubt a one year old car with 100k miles will require replacement. I would double or triple the authors expected vehicle lifespan.</comment>


Ask HN: How to get hired without using recruiters? - <AUTHOR> Assuming you have exhausted your personal network.
I'm tired of talking to headhunters and the whole jumping-through-the-hoops that comes with the job hunting process.
The thing is, I'm a decent developer but more of a generalist type with lots of entrepreneurial drive (though haven't had any success yet), so my CV is not very streamlined.
I'm more looking to find a business partner (with money as I need a job) than an employer.
Anyone in a similar situation? <comment><USER2> Business partner I don't know much about, but finding jobs: you can apply directly, bypassing recruiters. Doesn't reduce the hassle, but definitely doable.

If your resume is generalist you just need to tune it to the particular company's needs. Specialization to some extent is a marketing thing, so you just need to edit resume to highlight what's relevant to that particular company.

Longer version: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-vs- genera...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-vs-generalist/)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good write-up thanks

Do you mean applying directly to jobs that are listed on job boards or company website? It is my impression that this has a low chance of success.

Or do you mean apply unsolicited?

<comment><USER2> Job boards, company website, unsolicited (for small companies, in particular, I've gotten at least one job interview that way).</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft could have bought Bejeweled for $35,000 in 1999 - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/07/13/popcap-games-microsofts-missed-opportunity-11-years-ago/?mod=google_news_blog Ouch. Meanwhile, Microsoft bought Bungie for a rumored $40-$50 million by 2001. <comment><USER2> It's an open question whether Microsoft would have grown PopCap from $35,000 to $1.3 billion, had they acquired it.</comment>


Verdigris: Qt Without Moc - <AUTHOR> https://woboq.com/blog/verdigris-qt-without-moc.html <comment><USER2> From my experience using Qt, the MOC wasn't a pain point for me. All the generations that I saw were very straightforward and I never had to mess with it.

That's just my experience though, so I'd love to hear where people have found shortcomings.

Also, I am happy to see this project and may try it out nonetheless. Always happy to see work around Qt.

<comment><USER3> The convenience of the MOC is its raison d'être. The minor pain point for me is practically being forced to use the Qt Creator IDE. I'm happy to see a possible best of both worlds solution like this.

<comment><USER4> No need to use Qt creator. Most C++ build systems support moc out of the box, or with minor adjustments.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was trying to figure out how to do MOC from gnu make when I came across this, the only other option I saw was to run qmake and then run that generated makefile from my makefile. Of those two options verdigris seemed to be the better choice to me.

<comment><USER5> [https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/moc.html#writing-make-rules-for- invok...](https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/moc.html#writing-make-rules-for-invoking-moc)

Like that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I guess I should have kept on looking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's really cool is moc-ng from the same person. As a clang plugin, it gets around all the limitations from having a separate code generator.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I really despised having to use moc for QT and I'm glad to have found this, it works quite well. Needs C++14 though.

<comment><USER7> I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the MOC if you have time and don't mind sharing. I've been researching QT's software design approach, architecture, etc. ("core" code base in general), and stand to benefit from learning the pros and cons of software built this way.

<comment><AUTHOR> My biggest gripe with MOC is that it makes it no longer C++ and if I just want to quickly throw together some sample code and build it with a makefile I can't. This still requires the use of a separate header file with is annoying but a lot less annoying than writing in a language which is not c++ and which does not work with a simple toolchain.

<comment><USER8> You don't need a separate header, you can just do #include "foo.moc" at the end.

I'd be interested in knowing in which way it is no longer c++, considering Q_OBjECT, signals, slots, ... are just plain cpp macros (see qobjectdefs.h).

<comment><USER9> > _I 'd be interested in knowing in which way it is no longer c++, considering > Q_OBjECT, signals, slots, ... are just plain cpp macros (see qobjectdefs.h). > _

It's been a while since I've used Qt but if I recall correctly MOC also parsed and read the user interface files to generate the headers which get included in the C++ source.

<comment><USER10> You are not forced to use the designer tool, you can build the GUI with C++ directly if you need that for some reason.

<comment><USER11> There's also a stand-alone designer you can use on individual ui files. In general, there's no need to have the whole project in Qt Creator just to edit a ui file.

You can also edit the ui files in a normal text editor. They're just XML files that specify the widget hierarchy to construct. If you have a few example files to work from, they're pretty straight-forward to understand and modify. Validating your changes using designer is definitely faster than recompiling your program, but it's an option.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is really impressive!

It'd be nice to have a tool that performs a one-time migration tool from Qt- compatible sources that expect the use of moc to code that uses Verdigris, which can then be checked into source control and maintained in place of the original.

<comment><USER8> I have started such a tool in python (see the github issues) but never got around finishing it... got me 90% of the way for a few hundred kloc codebase though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think that MOC is the problem only for people that don't do much Qt development at all.

MOC integrates into Qt build system so well that it's mostly invisible.

A bigger problem is the deployment step, at least on Linux. How to deploy Qt apps with Qt libraries bundled with the app, so that it uses system's look and feel is something I still don't know how to do.

<comment><USER14> When I was doing Qt development, getting CMake to build Qt projects properly was absurdly difficult. CMake had added some half-baked first class functions for building Qt (it's insane that a build system has first class knowledge of certain libraries, but insanity is par for the CMake course), but you still had to invoke them yourself and the various docs, blog posts, stackoverflow answers, etc gave different advice about invoking them but rarely did the advice work (and if it did work, it never generalized to non-toy projects). My understanding is that CMake has improved its insane first-class Qt functions such that it's easier.

(There's also qmake, but at the time I was using Qt, it only worked if you didn't depend on anything that wasn't also a qmake project, which is just more C++ build system insanity).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> All I can say is, About Time!

Welcome to the millennium.</comment>


Google Refuses to Remove the Pirate Bay's Homepage - <AUTHOR> https://torrentfreak.com/google-categorically-refuses-to-remove-the-pirate-bays-homepage-180729/ <comment><USER2> I'm surprised this doesn't mention the European Court of Justice's decision that The Pirate Bay _does_ directly infringe copyright. I'm paraphrasing the decision but there's a detailed writeup here: [http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2017/06/30/cjeu- decisio...](http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2017/06/30/cjeu-decision- ziggo-pirate-bay-communicates-works-public/)

<comment><USER3> Ha, I assumed for a moment that you meant that the code for the Pirate Bay website itself is actually under copyright and that Pirate Bay did pirate it from the original rightful owner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If I was conspiracy minded, I might assume this was posted in response to the story about Google going into China:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17660872](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17660872)

</comment><comment><USER5> Another slightly pointless discussion ensues:

10 We should stop Google! 20 Google are acting within the law 30 Then the law is wrong, let's change the law 40 We have laws already about this 50 But those laws are bad, if only we had someone who could stand up for genuine rights 60 Google are standing up for rights 70 But they are abusing their position 80 GOTO 10

<comment><USER6> Off topic: your formatting seems to have gotten messed up. Try putting an extra line between each one.

<comment><USER7> This is the actual situation code blocks are designed for. Of course everyone just uses them for quotes...

<comment><USER8> I dislike code blocks when they make me scroll sideways on my phone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> People should learn to use urls again, to gain back some control.

<comment><USER10> But I think the Pirate Bay is unique in that it keeps losing its domain, getting blocked, etc. and Google tends to direct you to the latest working version of it.

<comment><USER11> Or you can simply download TorBrowser ([https://www.torproject.org/](https://www.torproject.org/)) and use that to go directly to ([http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/](http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/)).

<comment><USER12> ah yes, the uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk bay, how could I forget.

<comment><USER13> I just write in on the same sticky note as my passwords.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What's the news here? Google's doing the right thing. Don't remove things that aren't breaking any laws.

<comment><USER15> Not only bad news are newsworthy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I think it's more about the precedent this would set

</comment><comment><USER17> You don't want to be that monopolist that removes competitors from your search results, right?

<comment><USER18> >You don't want to be that monopolist that removes competitors from your search results, right?

Or copying the search results from Google and pretending your own engine created them. [http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/02/google.bing.sting/ind...](http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/02/google.bing.sting/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It's great that Google is doing the right thing in this case, but it is still incredibly dangerous for society that one company has so much power over what people can find on the internet.

Google used to say "Don't be evil," but no company or individual should be in the position where they can sit there and think "Should I be evil or not?"

<comment><USER20> Google's code of conduct[0] still has "don't be evil" in it. The very last paragraph/line in the document:

> And remember… don't be evil, and if you see something that you think isn't > right – speak up!

The big issue with a phrase like "don't be evil" is that it is ambiguous and highly depends on the understanding of the word "evil" to the individual that reads that line. Google at this point is 80k+ full-time-employees, that I can guarantee will read that phrase to mean different things.

The newer code of conduct tries to codify what "evil" means, to lay a clearer picture for everyone what it means. That way it can't arbitrarily be applied for or against the company based on your an individual's beliefs of what that word means.

[0] [https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of- conduct.html](https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html)

<comment><USER21> > Google's code of conduct[0] still has "don't be evil" in it. The very last > paragraph/line in the document: > > And remember… don't be evil, and if you > see something that you think isn't right – speak up!

And get fired for doing so.

[http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/02/google-employee-fired- aft...](http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/02/google-employee-fired-after- speaking-out-against-racism.html)

<comment><USER22> Pretty much: Please speak up so that we can remove you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Thank you google for not bowing to the bullies, you really are an organisation that deserves the respect of the developer community

<comment><USER24> That china bully tho: [https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china- search-engi...](https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search- engine-censorship/)

<comment><USER23> That's not cool I agree, but lets see how that pans out</comment></comment></comment>


Ask PG: Disconnecting Distraction progress? - <AUTHOR>

I just reread Disconnectinb Distraction and saw this:
Note: The strategy described at the end of this essay didn't work. It would work for a while, and then I'd gradually find myself using the Internet on my work computer. I'm trying other strategies now, but I think this time I'll wait till I'm sure they work before writing about them.
1) Thank you for the openness and honesty. It's somehow comforting to know the greats suffer from distraction, too.
2) What are your current thoughts about and strategy against distraction? <comment><USER2> I experience this problem on a daily basis, too. A few days ago I decided to set up another user account on Ubuntu. That one, I use from 9 to 5. On this account only work related programs can be used (but no e-mail client!). What's more, I installed Leechblock[1] for Firefox. It blocks every website that is not Wikipedia or university-related.

Hopefully this will work out in the long term.

[1]<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/leechblock/>

<comment><USER3> Why is there nothing as annoyingly effective as leechblock for chrome? Why? It's almost as if Google prefers you to get lost in the web, rather than work.

<comment><USER4> Of course, time on the web and adword clicks are highly correlated!

Jokes aside, there's always StayFocusd: [https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmip...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji)

<comment><USER3> StayFocusd provides more of a gentle hint but is not an effective cage. You should compare it to leechblock's "evil" modes. Like forcing you to type a 64-character random stream of letters and digits (that can't be copied and pasted) before accessing settings or disabling the extension when in lockdown. StayFocusd is just a right click away from being disabled, it's really not even worth installing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It really depends on your job, but for me the key is: stay at your command- line. When you need to do some thinking or planning, don't open up your browser immediately to _see what others say_.

</comment><comment><USER6> Addendum questions I have in addition to the above questions:

1) Do you find it silly or irritating being called a 'great'?

2) Do you find yourself in disagreement with the usage of such a word describing yourself? Are you unable to relate?

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been experimenting with having my work computer be physically disconnected from the internet. I have everything I need to do my job self contained on my laptop, including documentation. If I want to use the internet I need to step away from the computer and use an iPad in another room. Theoretically it works great, but so far results have been mixed because it's such a viscous cycle I almost always find some reason I need to reconnect the internet.

</comment><comment><USER8> A little off topic, but I was wondering if you do away with any sort of GUI on your primary desktop and only use emacs, does that get you a distraction free environment?

<comment><USER9> The problem is that I would still need to read api documents, find solutions to issuse etc.

<comment><USER10> Exactly: even when there was no X windowing system installed on my Linux and the only browser I have access to was Lynx, I found myself using Lynx to procrastinate.

ADDED. Actually, the proper way to think about anti-procrastination is "willpower conservation", and not having a graphical browser installed or not having software on the computer that allows the watching of videos does conserve significant willpower when one is trying to get work done.

<comment><USER8> That is an excellent way to think of it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's how a couple of guys deal with it:

Randall Munroe (creator of xkcd): [http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction- corre...](http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction-correction- extensio/)

Alex Payne (early Twitter employee): <http://al3x.net/2009/09/14/my-get-back- to-work-hack.html>

Please fill in with more examples. Preferably people who've accomplished something, as opposed to random students who managed to get their homework done in time.</comment>