Amusing ourselves to death - Huxley vs Orwell - <AUTHOR> http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html

<comment><USER2> I'm reading this book at the moment, and liking it very much.

Postman goes deeper than this, though. He isn't saying that TV's weakening of the discourse is directly because of trash programming, but that the medium itself is modifying what messages people take in.

Taft was over 300 lbs when he was elected president. There is no way he would be elected in the age of television. He wouldn't have the look for TV.

Political speech in the time of Lincoln assumed of the audience a long attention span, ability to parse arguments and complex sentences, and up-to- date knowledge of current events.

I'm not halfway through, but I'm finding it compelling so far.

<comment><USER3> _Political speech in the time of Lincoln assumed of the audience a long attention span, ability to parse arguments and complex sentences, and up-to- date knowledge of current events._

 _But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the question manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original instrument, a mode was provided for amending it; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of "the Government under which we live" consists of that original, and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted since. Those who now insist that federal control of slavery in federal territories violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus violates; and, as I understand, that all fix upon provisions in these amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the fifth amendment, which provides that no person shall be deprived of "life, liberty or property without due process of law;" while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, providing that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution" "are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."_

Can you imagine 10 percent of the populace following Lincoln on this today? It's like a legal deposition. To a far less educated electorate.

Some of the rhetoric of that age has a level of thought-density that is nonexistent in modern speech. I always thought that was due to the selection bias of the speakers back then (you had to be extraordinary to even register in the public consciousness, but there were several counterexamples to this).

[EDIT: added snippet of Lincoln speech.]

<comment><USER4> > Can you imagine 10 percent of the populace following Lincoln on this today?

No. Not sure I can imagine 10 percent of the populace in 1860 following Lincoln either. Of course, with 60-70% of the adult population excluded from voting, narrowing your appeal wasn't such a huge problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> How about BOTH Huxley and Orwell being right?

We've got the great firewall of Australia & China, and the camera on every street-corner in England, and coming soon to Chicago, New York, and more.

And we've also got American Idol.

We've also got the propaganda war of Iraq, the jackboots on the neck of countless vilified populations worldwide, the haves and the have-nots.

I'm not quite so sure it's wise to linger on pop culture while military power still murders many every day, keeps untold others in the dark, and the all- seeing panopticon is part of the effect of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and others.

Focusing on pop-phenomena and wringing hands over the trite uselessness of pop culture can be just another way to be self-righteous and better than thou. In a perfect world perhaps all we'd worry about is social networks and gossip. But we can't because Orwell's world is real and true, and power continues to absolutely corrupt.

I could go on and on. The treatise is interesting and thought provoking, but weak.

<comment><USER6> They are both combined to large extent in the later dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. The authorities have outlawed books, so the only source of information and entertainment is the internet, which they control.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> While there are valid reasons to fear both the "Orwell dystopia" and the "Huxley dystopia", the former tends to send more of a chill down my spine. I think this is because it seems much more possible, on a personal level, to resist or opt out of the Huxley dystopia than the Orwell one. Postman may have a compelling point that much of it has happened already, but it has happened through individual choices that I don't have to share -- the books are still there to be read, the tools & techniques are there to filter the information overload & focus on the good stuff. Admittedly this is not easy, but in the Orwell dystopia it's not even a possibility.

disclaimer: I haven't read the book and am responding to the (likely oversimplified) line of argument presented in the comic.

<comment><USER8> Article is dead, so just commenting on your post:

Huxley's dystopia is set up to be more subtle and in fact, not one that you would choose to opt out of; that's the crux of it.

He compares to Orwell's writing both in his retrospective, _Brave New World Revisited_ and in his talk titled _The Ultimate Revolution_ (great listen, by the way). Here's a bit from there:

 _"The state of servitude the state of being, having their differences ironed out, and being made amenable to mass production methods on the social level, if you can do this, then you have, you are likely, to have a much more stable and lasting society. Much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs and firing squads and concentration camps. So that my own feeling is that the 1984 picture was tinged of course by the immediate past and present in which Orwell was living, but the past and present of those years does not reflect, I feel, the likely trend of what is going to happen [...]"_

<http://100777.com/node/812>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> In the long run, suppressing people with distraction and pleasure is more profitable than overt fear dispensed by jackbooted thugs. You have to pay the thugs. Addicts of distraction will pay you! What's more, fear, in the form of induced insecurity, can be synergistically added to the mix.

</comment><comment> patrickg-zill I would like to mention the movie "Idiocracy" as a complement to this discussion. The trailer on YouTube gives you a good sense of the movie.

<comment><USER10> That's a great movie! I've used it as a sort of litmus test on my friends. Peoples' reactions to this film are most interesting. Only those who recognize how similar it is to our world are amused. Anyone else is annoyed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The link to this article is dead. Did it have any new insights on this book? It's pretty old, I read my dad's copy in junior high.

<comment><USER2> Nope. It was some slick illustration for the assertion discussed in the beginning of the book; that we are closer to being destroyed by Huxley's vision than Orwell's.</comment></comment>


Steve Jobs keynote live from WWDC 2008 (Engadget's live updates, refresh often) - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-wwdc-2008/

<comment><USER2> <http://www.macrumorslive.com/> have always seemed to have the better interface to me.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, but Engadget seems to go in a little more depth, and have more quotes from the speakers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wwdc-2008-live-keynote- audio-s...](http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wwdc-2008-live-keynote-audio-stream)

You can hear live audio stream. Loopt is now on stage ;)

<comment><USER5> I just want to vote this up after the fact. Streaming audio was clear and wonderful. I hope this guy does it again for the next Apple event.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Gizmodo's liveblog has been surprisingly good so far:

<http://live.gizmodo.com/>

<comment><USER7> kept reverting back to 9:56 am for me, but I followed Gizmodo and Engadget for the whole thing, alternating browser tabs to cut down on the refreshing.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, mine started doing that as well. Something in their load balancing is screwy right now.</comment></comment></comment>


Eclipse 3.5 RC1 released - <AUTHOR> http://www.h-online.com/open/Eclipse-3-5-RC1-released--/news/113320

<comment><USER2> I wonder if I am the only one bothered by the Jovian theme. How am I supposed to know Amalthea is more recent than Callisto? What's supposed to be Kore's feature-set?

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice. Looking forward to the release. Eclipse is a love/hate product. I personally love it.</comment>


The Empty Magic of Steve Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://ux.red-gate.com/the-empty-magic-of-steve-jobs

<comment><USER2> "More, he confidently states that his product will offer the BEST browsing experience despite it not supporting Adobe's Flash player (thus discarding a vast majority of web sites), and gets away with it."

Wait, since when do most sites have flash? It is common, sure, but saying > 50% I feel is outlandish. The "Vast Majority" implies it's even higher.</comment>


A collection of 100 NLP papers - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mhagiwara/100-nlp-papers <comment><USER2> Maybe these could be analyzed to let an AI write the ultimate NLP paper.

Quite the collection, thank you and those that helped answer the question for the effort. Will certainly watch this repo.</comment>


Docker: migrating containers between hosts, portable environments - <AUTHOR> http://scene-si.org/2016/01/14/docker-portable-environment/ <comment><USER2> Nice read. You might also be interested in Cargo, and open source container migration service: [https://developer.ibm.com/open/cargo/](https://developer.ibm.com/open/cargo/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I'm looking at docker swarm and fleet. Got a bit of a 'burn' adopting/using IBM Bluemix, so I'll investigate with caution :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Review my service (track your computer, remotely wipe browsing data) - <AUTHOR>

I'd like some feedback on a project I'm working on, https://www.firefound.com/  It's a Firefox add-on that allows you to track your computer's (or mobile phone's) location and optionally remotely erase your browsing information if your machine is lost or stolen.  (The first version of the add-on won the latest Extend Firefox contest, but I didn't get much specific feedback on it.)<p>I'd also appreciate comments on https://www.firefound.com/premium/  It's an upgrade to the add-on that users will (hopefully) pay $1/month for that gives them more storage space for their location history, more control over email alerts, and the ability to back up data to the central server before it's erased remotely. (It's "live" but not advertised yet, as version 2.0 of the add-on needs to be approved by Mozilla before it's completely functional.) <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable links: <https://www.firefound.com/> and <https://www.firefound.com/premium/></comment>


Edge Computing – The New Frontier of the Web - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/edge-computing-a-beginners-guide-8976b6886481 <comment><USER2> Is this actually a new frontier of the web? It seems more just like 'smart engineering' rather then some new thing. My version of 'edge computing' involves a guitar, a sweet beanie, and a butt load of guitar pedals. In fact, guitar pedals are a form of edge computing now that i think of it. Instead of sending your guitar signal to the cloud for processing, and then sending back to your amp, run your compute on the edge and bypass all the cloud network I/O. brilliant!

<comment><USER3> Totally new frontier.

You see, before, you had things doing 'local' and 'central' computing by interfacing with 'equipment', and this is, you see, 'edge' computing talking to 'smart devices' and 'the cloud'.

Completely different!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This reminds of the "thin client" vs "thick client" debate of the early 2000s.

<comment><USER5> Everything old is new again?</comment></comment>


Seriously Oracle? Who employs you guys? - <AUTHOR> http://oi59.tinypic.com/wvda43.jpg <comment><USER2> Heh. Probably using a lexical comparison on the version components. Well, 10.10 isn't released yet, so there's still time to fix this.

</comment><comment><USER3> As stupid as this is, 10.10 _is_ a horrible product versioning convention.

<comment><USER4> Why?

<comment><USER5> Because 10.10 is actually 10.1

<comment><USER6> Really? So the IP address 10.10.10.10 is the same as 18.104.22.168?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Explicit is better than implicit.

</comment><comment><USER8> 10.10 is beta.

</comment><comment><USER9> 10.10 wins.

</comment><comment><USER10> string comparison lol

</comment><comment><USER11> Tinypic in 2014?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, got used to it. By the way, you can throw anything to the captcha input, it doesn't actually validate it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> WTF!

</comment><comment><USER13> imgur, Please!</comment>


Ask HN: What is the the most user friendly payment option? - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
I am working on Django-based application and need to implements payments. One time payments, no recurring payments.
Since the service that I will be offering is very simple and fee is low ($2 or less) I am looking for something very simple where user doesn't have to go through 7 page setup.
I know there is tons of articles about different options. What I am looking for is make it really easy for user to pay, regardless of complexity on my side.
I am considering PayPal for now. Any suggestions?
Thanks, <comment><USER2> I'm always happy to use Pay Pal. At checkout I can just sign in to my Pay Pal account, click one or two ok buttons and that's it. No entering of addresses or credit card details, no creating another user account, etc.

<comment><USER3> Seconded, also Google checkout. Credit card is OK too, but for small transactions I'm suspicious and if I've never heard of your website before then naturally I worry about the possibility of a scam. It's not the loss of money, but the potential loss of my private billing information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> PayPal is very simpel to use. Another suggestion is Stripe (I have no affiliation with them but our team just got an invite to try out their product and it is great), ask for an invite, their solution is very simple to use both for you and for the users - <https://stripe.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I will ask for an invite.</comment></comment>


Banks face spiraling costs from 50-year-old IT - <AUTHOR> https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/banks-face-spiraling-costs-from-archaic-it-20170912 <comment><USER2>
      > Sanchez also believes leading banks will make the
      > jump first and, as soon as that happens, others
      >  will have to follow.

Could well be the opposite.

Jim Cramer gets on TV every night and says you should ignore regional banks, invest in chronically failing big banks, but many regional and local banks beat the big ones year after year.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's not just banks - anyone with legacy code such as VB6 is going to be going through the same pain. Moving to the cloud is hardly a solution to lacking the technical knowledge or staff to work on and edit the legacy systems.</comment>


Zeus IDE - Version 3.97o Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.zeusedit.com/ze397o.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Zeus is a language neutral programmer's editor/IDE for the Windows platform.

This latest version adds improvements for the ASP.Net, C#, Go and Perl languages.

NOTE: Zeus is shareware, runs natively on the Windows platform and runs on Linux using Wine.

Jussi Jumppanen

Author: Zeus IDE</comment>


Do You Need to Be a Really Good Programmer to Make a Living Freelancing? - <AUTHOR> http://www.christopherhawkins.com/2016/04/need-really-good-programmer-make-a-living-freelancing/ <comment><USER3> In the SaaS world, there's the problem your app solves, how good your solution to the problem is, and marketing. The more real the problem, and the better your solution, the less you have to rely on marketing. I think the same applies in freelancing. The more desperate the client, and the deeper your domain knowledge, the less you might have to work to get clients.

<comment><USER4> I don't think it helps to think of marketing as something you _rely_ upon. Marketing is a multiplier. Even if there's huge demand for your amazing solution to a painful problem, marketing can still get you more customers. It's just multiplying a bigger base number.

This simple concept of thinking of everything in business - product, design, demand, marketing, sales, customer support - as multipliers has been very useful to me.

<comment><USER5> "Marketing is a multiplier" is an interesting perspective.

The idea of "force multipliers" is one that occurs to me quite a bit - <USER2> fact, I even use that term in the linked article.

A problem for many freelancers, I think, is when the base number you are multiplying is "zero". This is, regrettably, something I have a great deal of experience with. :)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Change results when searching for 'suicide' on HN - <AUTHOR> Times are bleak and news says the rates of suicides have went up recently. Search engines such as Google, DuckDuckGo and Bing will show suicide prevention hotlines when searched for 'suicide'. Reddit will take you directly to r/suicidewatch. However, on HN, the results are just like for any normal search term.<p>Can we change this to point to a suicide prevention hotline as a top result and perhaps some other positive/askHN threads after that? <comment><USER2> Regularly we get ask HN questions that boil down to 'help I am depressed'. It would be good for these people to get some quality and standardized advice.</comment>


LinkedIn rejects engineering ads with female images, bans account - <AUTHOR> http://www.toptal.com/remote/in-defense-of-female-engineers <comment><USER4> >The fact of the matter is: members of the tech community (LinkedIn users) saw it as impossible that our female engineers could actually be engineers, and a leader of the tech community (LinkedIn) agreed with them.

Oh, quiet you. The text sounds scammy and the photos of attractive women just give the entire thing a 'spam' feel. It's not a slight against female engineers.

<comment><USER5> Apparently they only had an issue with the images specifically...so maybe they just have a problem with attractive women.

Strange nonetheless.

<comment><USER6> To be honest, I actually find the copy rather disturbing -- it reminds me of the copy I've seen used to advertise sites that provide video chat services.

<comment><USER5> Maybe, but if the pictures were male engineers, would you even blink or look twice?

<comment> mkr-hn Given the same pose, lighting, and composition, absolutely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ugh. What a mess.

I really don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, God, does it ever look bad. On the other hand, I glance at the two ads they're showing there, and my first impulse is "they slapped some stock photos of attractive women on there to give male viewers an endorphin kick." They're a far cry from the "look! boobs!" of Evony ads, but they also don't look like women ready for a day at the office. I know from the article that these are actual, working female engineers, but part of me wants to say that the ad designer obviously picked them for "sexy" as opposed to "professional," and that seems sleazy and sad. But on the other hand, who the hell am I to tell any professional how to dress or style their hair? But on the third hand, if I'm right it's not the fault of the engineers but of the ad designers...

Augh, I kinda feel like an asshole just for thinking about this.

<comment><USER8> > they also don't look like women ready for a day at the office.

Really? How do you judge that? Why do you say that?

<comment><USER7> Essentially, their hair, makeup, clothing, and body language all suggest someone who's getting a glamour shot taken to me, and don't much resemble the women I work with and have worked with. And this is of course a hideously vague and completely subjective standard, and I really do worry that I'm being unfair.

Except.

Except that, when I wrote my first post, there were two people pictured in that article. Now there's only one. There's only one because someone in the comments pointed out that the first woman was not, in fact, an engineer employed by Toptal, but a actress whose glamour shot Toptal had swiped. Now, mysteriously, that comment is gone, there's only one woman in the article, and there's no mention of the edit.

So...I'm not as worried now as I was yesterday.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I can understand completely why the ads were banned. Mind you, I'm female myself.

Most female developers simply do not look as 'picture-perfect' as the one Toptal decided to use in their ads or at least not at work.

That particular photograph looks too staged and is not particularly suggestive that it was shot to be used in a technical career context.

Toptal chose an outlier to represent the majority and that is dishonest to the user population targeted by the ad.

Florencia, the developer pictured in the ad should've supplied different pictures or the company should've asked for them itself, preferably pictures with more work-appropriate clothing, like a t-shirt, shirt or blouse of some sort.

I seriously doubt any female programmer goes to work in that sort of attire, not only it would be over the top in 99% of the cases, it would be damn uncomfortable.

<comment><USER10> When I worked at fashion startups in New York, women did wear outfits like this, including the engineers. The engineer in question is in Buenos Aires where both sexes tend to have a bit more flair.

<comment><USER11> Key point here: Fashion startup. I'm not trying to argue that women never dress like that anywhere else, but I think you've got a very skewed viewpoint.

<comment><USER10> I agree that it's probably not something a Cisco engineer would be wearing, but it seems like a normal 20-something outfit in Manhattan.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> cupcake-unicorn I'm a female engineer, and easily get upset over stuff like this, but I can see why they rejected the ads...maybe banning was extreme, but those images really look like spam ads. While not particularly distasteful, generally men in ads like these are either doing something "businessy" or wearing a business suit, etc. to indicate the connection. I wonder if this would have happened if they showed less glamorous women in pictures where they were in the workplace, interacting with computers. etc.

The poster doesn't really seem to get it. They argue their male ads are the same - but then specifically mention glasses for some reason. I'm guessing the male pictures have a much more "professional" and less sexualized look to them. They should try to run ads with shirtless guys at the beach, and see if they get rejected then...

Edit: Wow, OK - follow the link to see the second engineer's profile : [http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia- antara](http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia-antara) The picture on her page there looks fun and realistic. I'd love to see that kind of photo on an ad! The fact that this developer is choosing this photo for herself and the company is instead very deliberately choosing a glamorous and sexy feel for the photos really doesn't do much for their credibility. Explicitly going out of their way to make photos like this - that the woman herself doesn't choose to represent herself with - and THEN crying sexism?

And second edit: If this company cares about female developers so much, how come all of the (decidedly very unglamorous) photos on their homepage are of men? Pretty much solidifies for me that they're using sexy pics to draw people in, and then showing the "real developers" once you get to the homepage...Yuck! And below, someone pointed out the first photo is an actress.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is an excellent example of angry, prudish anti-sexism being sexist.

Americans need to get over themselves and recognize that sexuality and attraction are part of what makes life wonderful. Persistent sexual harassment and coercion are not acceptable. Appreciation and recognition of beauty are life affirming.

That said, I think the ads are in poor taste, not because they are women, but because they are quite obviously intended to be sexy. If it were a man in a tuxedo winking in the camera I'd feel the same way.

I don't think they should be banned. Toptal should eventually figure out they are getting horny men clicking on their ads instead of funded companies.

I think LinkedIn recognizing that the presence of women were the problem is abhorrent and they will be issuing apologies shortly.

<comment><USER13> I think I speak for all Americans when I say "no, YOU get over yourself." I suppose you believe gravity too?

[http://xkcd.com/202/](http://xkcd.com/202/)

<comment><USER12> I have no idea what you are trying to say for all Americans, but as an American, I'm pretty sure you're not speaking for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> To those that think these look spammy - this is exactly the fucking problem. They are not spammy. It's just that spammy ads have been objectifying women on the Internet since, oh, forever...and now it's an improper association. I hope this gets sorted out real soon.

<comment><USER15> >ads have been objectifying women

in all kinds of media, before the Internet, since forever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I found the first image! [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/suits- usa-network...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/suits-usa-network- amanda-schull-368138) (You can't hide form Google Images.)

She is Amanda Schull: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Schull](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Schull)

 _> Amanda Schull (born August 26, 1978) is an American actress and former professional ballet dancer. [... and studied journalism ...]_

<comment><USER17> Great find, so this pretty much discredits their entire argument no? Ironically it makes them the sexists ones when they feel they need to use models rather then actual real life developers to sell their services.

<comment> cupcake-unicorn Exactly, it's pretty pathetic they're turning the sexism argument around to benefit themselves when they were the ones guilty of it in the first place...Hope more information comes out and this company is called on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It would be interesting to make the male equivalent of this ad. Would we find it equally offensive to have an attractive man in cocktail attire in an engineering ad?

My guess is it would be seen as weird but not a bannable offense.

</comment><comment><USER19> This is crazy! Comparing Florenica Antara's photo from her TopTal page ([http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia- antara](http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia-antara)) to the one they posted you can see that they did use the more glamorous image (or she provided that one to be used). _So what!_ Using glammed up photos is standard professional practice. The photo they used is not sexy or exploitative any way.

One argument against it (as pallandt mentions) is that such people are outliers, i.e. it's probabilistically unlikely to have a female developer dressed in that outfit. Apart from the fact that this hypothesis is scientifically untested (there may be some truth to it), how does it make it any different than, say, the other practice of using "she" to refer to a common coder (the chance of a randomly picked programmer to be female is much smaller than male). No one I know complains about that!

</comment><comment><USER20> There's _no possible way_ this is the same LinkedIn that puts up thumbnails of female users and then tries to tease me into a Premium account with the good 'ol "wondering who's been looking at your profile?" sales trick?

It can't be.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is a little odd, but reminds of a project at work. I work at a face recognition company and we had a worked a bit on an attractiveness estimator. I argued that one of the uses would be for times when you actually wanted somebody plain rather than attractive (assuming you were filtering stock images for an advertisement). I guess maybe this is one of them.

<comment><USER22> So a possible theory is that the images are being rejected because they are attractive?

<comment><USER23> The lady, while attractive, does look like she's headed to a cocktail party rather than work. Though it's not really my place to tell women not to dress up or "appear attractive."

Contrast it with her actual profile picture on the site, both are flattering but completely different in what they communicate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The toptotal link provided by the article doesn't really seem to help their case. Going down the bullet list provided:

Created WordPress themes

Developed HTML5 sites

Designed UI/UX for websites based on wireframes

Vectorized logos

Technologies: HTML5, CSS3, WordPress, jQuery

Directly managed my own clients

Supported clients throughout the entire site development process, including coming up with an idea, designing site architecture, wireframing, choosing a platform and development languages, and improving marketing techniques . Created HTML and CSS layouts, gave life to them with jQuery, and empowered them with a CMS.

Created designs in Photoshop.

Spliced designs into HTML/CSS templates.

Implemented Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress templates. Customized and configured CMS's, including the positioning and styling of modules and components.

Technologies: HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal

I'm sorry, but to me, it seems like she hasn't done any software engineering, and has, at best, implemented hodgepodge jQuery (written by other people). I think it's dishonest to refer to her as an engineer, and 'front-end developer' or just 'web developer' would be much more appropriate. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going off the job titles at my places of employment (both current and former), and what I see on job listings.

I'm sure that they have placed PLENTY of female software engineers who actually write and maintain software on a daily basis. They just aren't as attractive, which is why they don't use their picture.

<comment><USER25> Oh, I see, jQuery and PHP aren't real programming, she doesn't spend enough of her day designing schemas or building iPhone apps or whatever your arbitrary definition of real engineering is?

First of all, real engineers design bridges and machines, and when they screw up, people can die. What does that have to do with whether she is fit to appear in an ad? Why does being attractive disqualify her?

Your post is disgusting and made no more appropriate by your use of a throwaway account.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I've never been to Argentina, where the developer in question is from. However, I've lived in 5 different international cities this year, and in at least 3 of them (Bangkok, Tokyo, and Kyiv) I have noticed that women professionals put a lot of time and effort into their appearance, including hair, makeup, clothing, jewelry, and accessories. Yes, this includes sci/tech personnel.

As another noted, those working in the fashion/beauty industry in the US - including those in IT - do the same. I'm not making any value judgement here, but I think we should open our minds to other cultural perspectives since that appears to be at work here.

</comment><comment><USER27> What I don't like about this is that Toptal agreed to the terms.

 _" Our COO went ahead and said we promise not to show any females in our advertisements"_

That reminds me of the saying: "Sitting on two chairs with one ass." You can't make a write up saying how insulting and how much you disagree with LinkedIn's advertising policies only to later agree to their terms. That's like an activist complaining about the way McDonalds treats their cows before ordering a burger. If your employees are offended, stand up for them by telling LinkedIn they can go f __* themselves.

I think you'd be able to present a better argument if you can show us the images of the male versions. You claim _" our male versions are no different"_, but I think in such a case you should be absolutely transparent. That way, the whole story is laid out and we can see if the pictures are very similar except for the sex, then yes there is sexism on LinkedIn's part or if the images are obviously different and it's valid for LinkedIn to be suspicious. That way we aren't forced to take your inherently biased word (no offence meant).

I think this whole thing could have been avoided if Toptal had images that were obviously related to engineering. Model portfolio type images (female or male) of employees isn't the best image to use when you're not a modelling agency, but a development agency.

<comment><USER13> Check out their home page - male headshots there seem _ahem_ "different".

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The images look reasonable to me, and I'm a female software engineer. Sure, she's wearing an interesting top (it could be a dress, but could also just be a nice blouse), but it's nothing beyond what I might wear to work. She's wearing the tiniest bit of makeup, very discreet and professional. And her facial expression is fairly neutral -- there's nothing especially sexy in it. Banning the account seems uncalled for.

</comment><comment><USER29> Invoice in binary? $0110110001 per hour? That's $433. The whole thing is weird.

</comment><comment><USER16> The second photograph is of Florencia Antara, Argentina. From her profile : [http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia- antara](http://www.toptal.com/resume/florencia-antara)

      > Education
      > 2008 - <USER2>
      > Web Programming degree in Master's
      > IT Master - Buenos Aires, Argentina

      > 2005 - <USER3>
      > Bachelor's degree in English Translation
      > Catholic University of Argentina - Buenos Aires, Argentina

An Engineering or Computer Science degree in Argentina last 5-6 years. She isn't an Engineer, so it's misleading to for an article titled "In Defense of Female Engineers ", that says

 _> Now, mind you, these (and others) are our real engineers that we have signed contracts with._

(Note: She apparently specialized in web development/design and has many projects. Probably she has enough work experience to do the work correctly.)

</comment><comment><USER7> I posted a comment here yesterday in which I was deeply conflicted and felt like kind of an asshole even for that.

Yesterday, there were pictures of two women in that article.

Today, there's only one. Because someone in the comments pointed out that the first woman was not in fact a Toptal-employed engineer, but a glamour shot of a professional actress. Now, she's mysteriously vanished from the article and Toptal is moderating their comments.

So, look, I'm just going to say it: LinkedIn was 100% right, Toptal is trying to sex up their professional ads with completely irrelevant pictures of hot women, and when they were called on it they threw a sanctimonious hissy-fit and made themselves out to be innocent victims of sexism, the hypocritical sexist fucks.

And it worked. LinkedIn has given them their ads back.

I deeply regret ever defending Toptal. I just hope that none of this causes problems for the remaining woman in the article, who actually is an engineer and bears no guilt for Toptal's bullshit on her behalf.

</comment><comment> cupcake-unicorn They did, in fact, end up deleting my comment, banning my Discus account from posting, and in fact all comments pointing out that an actress was used initially are now gone.

So, so sad. Their credibility on this issue is pretty much gone now. I wish that anyone going to that page would get a fair view, but it looks like that's not going to happen.

</comment><comment> cupcake-unicorn Update - looks like they've since removed the image that showed the actress, to numerous comments on the blog asking them about it...I wonder if they'll end up deleting my comment, or the comments about the actress photo and removal as well? :/

</comment><comment><USER30> Regardless of your opinion on the adverts and whether they should be allowed or not, they're pushing it being surprised that they got banned.

> _After a couple hours we logged in and simply re-enabled all of the disabled > ads, including the female ones. In a few more hours, they were all approved, > and continued to run smoothly… until a bigger issue arose._

Either take the hit or try and win the argument, if you just ignore the decision like they did then what could they have expected would happen?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> What I can't get my head around is who the hell complains about a female image beside an ad online? Someone needs to get a life.

</comment><comment><USER31> LOL. Now they removed all the comments mentioning Amanda Schull. How classy.

<comment> cupcake-unicorn Just noticed this myself - and I'm banned from posting there again. Really helps their case, huh?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is there a reason this story was removed from the front page?

</comment><comment><USER32> LinkedIn probably banned them in order to prevent sexism.

</comment><comment><USER33> I don't get why there is a photo at all.

</comment><comment><USER34> Toptal is moderating and deleting any comments that aren't in support of their twisted publicity stunt, but here's my open letter to their CEO.

Taso,

Your vociferous moral crusade against LinkedIn has highlighted a few equally disturbing issues with Toptal. Trusting everything you've written here, I'm hoping you can explain why Toptal operates antithetically to your claims of defending female engineers and "regular professional women."

First, your site raises question -- what women?

\- Toptal's homepage features 10 images of its tech professionals. Not just engineers, but specific titles like Django Developer and Security Specialist. 0 are women.

\- Toptal's team page features 9 employes and investors. 0 are women.

\- Toptal's blog features photos of its 10 latest post authors. 0 are women.

\- Toptal's 2-minute homepage video features "clients like Mark and developers like Andrew," and cartoons of characters dressed in everything from business to scuba suits. I counted over two dozen of them, but let's say 21. 0 are women.

Out of 50 -- FIFTY -- featured Toptal employees, investors, engineers, developers, specialists, clients, bloggers and candidates... 0 are women.

Professional women are just as offended when tech companies sex-up their images to promote their products as they are when their images are excluded all together. Between Toptal's ads and website, women are either 1). as attractive as professional models, or 2). don't exist at all.

Second, why should we believe you?

Searching toptal.com for any support for female technologists, or even a mention of women, woman, female, girl, diversity, etc. reveals 0 results prior to this post. In fact, Toptal's only discussion of women is in a blog post you wrote about how Toptal built "The Ultimate Remote Culture" by organizing a four week long company trip to Thailand. Not only are there no women, but you publicly label your employees' female partners "The Problems" and shamed one employee for returning to his family after two weeks away. I'll let your views speak for themselves below:

"The Problems The second problem almost brought the trip to a halt. Actually, this particular problem can often bring the whole world to a halt. What could it be? Any guesses?

Girlfriends. Or wives, in some cases. That's right. Most of the girlfriends (especially the Russian ones) were not okay with their significant other going away for more than two weeks, much less four. One of our engineers (whose name will go unspoken) was such a victim, and could only stay for the first half of the trip. Pretty much every single attendee asked if they could bring their girlfriend/wife for at least a week. But, alas, this was a company event, and the answer was no. Everyone acquiesced and, in the end, the biggest hurdle was surmounted." [http://www.toptal.com/remote/the-ultimate-remote- culture](http://www.toptal.com/remote/the-ultimate-remote-culture)

If this is how Toptal feels about women, it seems the only thing we need defense from, is you.

<comment><USER35> Thank you for researching / posting / emailing that :)</comment></comment>


Robert A. Heinlein:the 'giant of SF' was sexist, racist and certainly no stylist - <AUTHOR> https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/robert-a-heinlein-the-giant-of-sf-was-sexist-racist-and-certainly-no-stylist/ <comment><USER2> It's a lot easier to criticize others than to create something yourself.

<comment><AUTHOR> Heinlein has always polarized sci fi fans</comment></comment>


The iphone and the TPM - <AUTHOR> http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2429

<comment><USER2> > Worse, imagine if Microsoft made a deal with, say, Dell, to ship computers > with Windows installed (as they do now), and also to use the TPM to make it > impossible to remove Windows and install something else.

Then they would be instantly hit with a gigantic antitrust lawsuit. End of non-story.

<comment><AUTHOR> I vaguely remember from discussions a while back on Bruce Schneier's blog and on Freedom to Tinker, that that would be one effect of TPM hardware. I posted this link because it is the first thing I've seen recently warning that MS was resurrecting TPM, not because I thought it was technically important. They might be hit with a suit, but per the earlier discussions, it was primarily the content providers (esp MPAA) pushing for something like this, and it wold be an intersting suit considering what effect DMCA and other recent copyright legislation would have on the case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Windows actually _does_ use the TPM to improve security. Bitlocker in TPM mode can prevent tampering with the operating system even with full direct access to the hardware, and Vista+Bitlocker+TPM is the only system I know of that provides that level of protection for consumer-level hardware.

</comment><comment><USER4> This post is almost entirely strawman arguments. I'm opposed to DRM and lock- in, but such dishonest demagoguery isn't the solution.</comment>


Want A Google+ Invite Real Bad? Try eBay - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/30/want-a-google-invite-real-bad-try-ebay/

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure what I find worse - the fact that people sell invites, or the fact that people buy them. _Sigh_</comment>


Ask HN: Boston developer salary expectation? - <AUTHOR>

I'm straight out of college with some impressive part-time development work under my belt. The company is a venture-backed startup expanding aggressively. I've checked BLS data for the Boston area so I have a rough idea what developers in the area make but I'd appreciate some specific knowledge about salary expectations at startups... presumably lower?<p>I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks! <comment><USER2> If the startup is giving you good stock participation, and has a good office environment, then yes, the salary should be lower than going to work for, say, BBN.

That said, a lot comes down to what a company needs, how desparate it is, the hiring methodologies.

A formally structured startup with good board support will probably have a series of salary tiers and job descriptions. A more informal one might decide your salary once they meet you, or just have a number in their head that they're willing to pay for the right person.

Since you're young, you might be less salary sensitive, in which case, you can always negotiate for better equity participation -- more aggressive vest schedule, bigger multiple on salary, etc. etc. For better or worse, equity feels cheaper than cash to startups through the early part of their lifecycle.

Hope this helps, and good luck. (Also, if you want to move to Minneapolis, check out my posts, I'm hiring.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! You were right, I'm less salary sensitive right now so I guess I need to start researching how equity packages work.

Appreciate your help!

<comment><USER2> No problem! Fred Wilson at avc.com has some good posts on equity from the CEO/VC perspective that will help you start getting your head around it.

Things to remember: stock price is meaningless, company valuation is highly important. Baked in future dilution is important. For employees, vesting schedules are screamingly critical, as are terms and conditions as to what happens when you leave.

Very, very few employees make it through an entire startup lifecycle (either to mad growth, or stability, or death), so you should imagine when you read all the docs that you'll be leaving, possibly at a time when the founders are stressed or less friendly than they seem to be when you're signing the offer.</comment></comment></comment>


Why Intelligent People Are Still Religious - <AUTHOR> http://maladroit4u.neocities.org/why-intelligent-people-are-still-religious.html

<comment><USER2> I've always assumed it's a kind-of safety net for people who don't want to take ultimate responsibility for their own decisions, or something.

Believing in a higher power maybe gives them comfort that other things will get taken care of. Kinda like when you hire a cleaner and you don't have to worry about having a dirty house anymore. Relieving some pressure on your brain, or something. Appealing for some I guess!

</comment><comment><USER3> The way I look at it is nature is way more complex than we humans understand. Facts are facts but science is the interpretation of facts. Sometimes scientific theories are wrong. Obviously some of religion is wrong, since multiple religions conflict on ideas. So, where does that leave us hopeless and confused. or you can have hope and believe there is more to life and the world than atoms and protons.

</comment><comment><USER4> Fear of their own mortality is the answer...

<comment><USER3> for me it's like "dead is dead" is so boring.</comment></comment>


Bumblebee software - Emacs succeeds despite "poor design" - <AUTHOR> http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/05/16/bumblebee-software/ <comment><USER2> If I may take the conversation up to an academic level here, I always like Conway's Law:

"organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." (cf. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_Law>)

Most software is built in institutional organizations (banks, universities) or by commercial software vendors or otherwise hierarchical, departmental organizations. Therefore, almost all investment in software practice result in software designs and control structures that support hierarchical, departmental organizations.

Emacs and TeX are very different human organizations. Decentralized, ad hoc, stigmergic [1], meritocratic. Very few projects are organized this way and so very few people look at software design patterns that support these kinds of projects.

[1] Stigmergy is self-organized coordination and collaboration managed indirectly through the object being worked on. cf <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy>

The most popular discussions of this I've seen are Eric Raymond's Cathedral and the Bazaar ([http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/cathedral- baz...](http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/cathedral-bazaar/)) and Coase's Penguin (<http://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.html>).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm intrigued. As it stands, two people have claimed that this doesn't belong here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2552857>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2552812>

One even flouts the guidelines to tell us they've flagged the item. And to be honest, I'm rather glad they have, because now I can see a different perspective than mine, and I have the chance to learn something.

I don't understand _why_ these people think this doesn't belong here. It's about software design, and the suggestion that modern opinions, dogma, even, might not be as definitely true as we claim. If Emacs can survive, even thrive, without being designed in a "modern" way, doesn't that give cause for pause?

        ... because the software is so light on
        bureaucracy, it is easy to customize and
        to contribute to.

Would someone care to refute this? More than once I've attempted to contribute to a project, knowing that I can improve some aspect, and been thwarted by the sheer magnitude of the task in coming up to speed with all the nuances of the existing design.

Rather than simply saying that it doesn't belong, can you actually refute the claims? I'd like to see a reasoned discussion - that's why I thought it was interesting.

<comment><USER3> OP isn't much but a 'emacs is successful despite being bad software engineering in these ways', which isn't all that interesting. What would be more interesting is a discussion why those ways aren't bad for emacs or how emacs overcomes those handicaps.

For example, in an earlier Cook post on Unix philosophy, I linked [http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/06/30/where-the-unix- phil...](http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/06/30/where-the-unix-philosophy- breaks-down/#comment-71525) to ESR's discussion of Emacs [http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch13s03.html#id...](http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch13s03.html#id2967765) and the followup discussion about the interesting idea of contexts/frameworks <http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch13s04.html>

That could be more than a blog post, it could be a real contribution.

<comment><AUTHOR> But even though the OP doesn't have that, I was hoping the discussion here could, in effect, "crowd-source" such a contribution. So often in the past on HN I've seen relatively content-poor posts lead to serious discussions that pull together expertise and experience from a wide range of people, and the discussion has been a great reference.

EDIT: Don't mind the down-vote(s) - don't really care about karma - but I'd love to know why people disagree with my comment. Thx in advance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really like that analogy. I think emacs succeeds because of three things mainly:

* It's so vitally important to people for their day to day work that it simply can't fail. I would far sooner trawl through, and modify, the worst elisp in the project than switch editors - I expect I'm not the only one.

* A (relatively) big, chatty and friendly community of smart hackers.

* It's simply fun to hack.

</comment><comment><USER5> Colin, please don't pose this kind of stuff. I love emacs but this is article doesn't deserver to be here.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've flagged this post, mainly because the entire "article" contains absolutely nothing of substance. It is a fluff blog post that doesn't have anything new to say, doesn't provide anything for hackers to think about.

<comment><USER7> From the guidelines:

 _"Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did."_

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html></comment></comment>


For every 100 girls/women - barry-cotter https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-for-every-100-girls-women/ <comment><USER5> I saw this the other day.

It is indeed cherry picking various data points (e.g., chance of being beaten by spouse is not on there, chance of being sexually assaulted, etc).

However, it does beg the questions that you aren't supposed to ask, such as:

We have a criminal justice system that disproportionately incarcerates people of color. We also have a criminal justice system that disproportionately imprisons men, by an order of magnitude. The question you aren't allowed to ask: Is that ok too?

Men are (by a significant factor) more likely to be homeless, mentally ill, die by suicide or homicide, and/or be addicted to drugs. The forbidden question to ask: When it's on the basis of race, everyone understands that's due to systematic racism... but when it's on the basis of sex, and that sex is male... then what?

\--

I guess my larger point is I've (thank goodness) made it "over the hump". With good family support, good education and a good career - also blessed with relatively good health - I made it safely to home base. I have the financial and personal resources to have a stable relationship, afford safe housing, invest in my career, etc.. There were many cases where if I had one link in that chain missing, I would have been a statistic like that. I'm the privileged man that's fair game and fat target for feminist critiques of the patriarchy.

But I think (since most of us are men) we know men who did not make it over that hump - who due to lack of education/money/work cannot attract a partner, struggle with a cocktail of mental illness and/or drug abuse, and generally have no future... and who have no public narrative of a class of people in need of support and investment. And this is to the ruin of us all.

<comment><USER6> All the statistics listed in the article show things that favor women.

Other statistics show things that favor men. For every 100 women... There are this many men...

Fortune 500 CEOs - 1,900 (There are only 25 women, vs. 475 men)

Billionaires in the world - <AUTHOR>

Millionaires in the world - <USER2>

Income over $100K in US - <USER3>

Income over $250K in US - <USER4>

Leader of a nation - 873 (There are only 15 women vs 131 men)

<comment><USER7> The stats you are quoting are only shoring up (half) the base of the article's argument. Aggressive, type-A men are more likely to large, daring risks whether that's committing crime or starting ground-breaking companies.

<comment><USER6> You make a good point.

But I don't think you have to be an aggressive type-A man to make $100K in the US.

At any income level in the US, there are more men than women making that income. Most likely the same is true across the world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > The important thing to understand a lot of problems girls and women face are > because they are victims of the abuse of mainly males. That is why they need > help and resources. It seems from these statistics that men aren't only > hurting women, they are hurting themselves. There are already medical > resources in place to help boys and men with diseases and suicide. More > resources are needed for homeless men and to rehabilitate criminals.

> And it may seem like favoritism, however, I truly believe women need safe > spaces and environments to learn and grow away from men. Boys and Men are > being truly disrespectful towards women in male dominated spaces.

Saw this in the comments section and I thought it was an interesting take. She says "I truly believe women need safe spaces and environments to learn and grow away from men."

The paradox is MEN need that also, because it turns out you are way more likely to get bullied from other men if you are a man. Women tend to have higher anxiety levels so they feel it more, but objectively it is way worse for men.

As a small nerd in middle and high school I was physically attacked many times on campus. I received death threats and was put on lists of people to attack. I was never in an environment that was safe.

</comment><comment><USER9> The table seems broken? It's a 404: [https://www.aei.org/wp- content/uploads/2019/12/ForEvery100Gi...](https://www.aei.org/wp- content/uploads/2019/12/ForEvery100Girlse.png)

</comment><comment><USER10> Very thought provoking, and I agree to the idea that we have become overly partisan in nearly every aspect of our lives, even to the extent of pitting women against men in competing for needed support structures. The answer is likely a radical change of mindset as well as additional policy. By no means should we seek to regress in the opportunities that have been hard won for women, and I do not think this article is seeking to advocate for that.

Also, the comments on that page are a trip.

</comment><comment><USER11> This reminds me: I was just in Washington, D.C. over New Year's to visit the museums. I noticed advertisements on bus shelters for [https://www.fatherhood.gov](https://www.fatherhood.gov) telling men how to be better fathers. motherhood.gov is not registered. Are bad fathers such a bigger problem?

<comment><USER12> I think biologically, mothers have a naturally stronger bond with their offspring for the simple reason they were a _physical_ part of them for so long. A father, likely being less emotionally involved (at least initially), might need a little bit more guidance. I don't think you have to be automatically offended...

<comment><USER11> Who said I was offended? I'm more bemused.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I do not understand the value in pitting one social group against another in these comparisons of who has it the worst. We are all humans, we all face challenges, tragedy, and unfairness in our lives. Quibbling over who has it worst does nothing to help solve anyone's problems. It comes off as childish and selfish to me.

<comment><USER14> I agree with the overall sentiment, but the idea of males and females going through life in exactly the same manner (without an implied role) is quite novel in human history. There are likely unsolved problems here. That females seem to openly suggest being educated apart from males, after extensive lobbying to the opposite effect, is an almost humorous illustration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Seems like men are overrepresented in the areas where "boys will be boys" and/or men oughtn't to "act like girls". Men should probably care about addressing behavior and not worry about what to women are doing. It's not men problems, it's stupid problems.

</comment><comment><USER16> It goes without saying that this is very cherry picked. At the same time, it deserves to be seen simply because celebrities/mainstream media are ignorant of, or choose not to report on these kinds of disparities.

<comment><USER17> I'm sure some/most of the stats are cherry-picked, but several of them seem somewhat comprehensive- like the stats on drug use, suicide, and all-cause mortality. Seems like men struggle far, far more than women do with these issues for at least the first half of their life.

At the same time, some of this is misleading. All the autism stats are probably going to be due to how differently autism presents in women, most notably because it seems like either women don't "get autism 'as bad'" as men (sorry for all the quotes, I know it's not very PC and that ASD is a spectrum, but this is terse and you know what I mean), or they can still appear "normal" even when they have "worse" autism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A good exercise in cherry picking. Don't mention salaries, sexual assault, number murdered by intimate partners, etc. Only include statistics that make men look disadvantaged.</comment>


$106million thanks to Angry Birds - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/07/rovios-big-year-angry-birds-helps-gaming-company-soar-to-106m-in-sales648m-downloads/

<comment><USER2> I think they still need just one other successful game to prove to investors they can repeat the trick if people were to get bored of Angry Birds.

<comment><USER3> I have an idea for them.. a game where monsters are trying to invade your fortress, and you have to build structures that attack them while on their path, and you can upgrade them!

<comment><USER4> This had already been done, see 'Misunderstood Pigs' in the App Store [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/misunderstood- pigs/id43145100...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/misunderstood- pigs/id431451004?mt=8)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Impressive revenue and great profit margin! Hopefully they will be able to keep this up for 2012. It is worth noting the jump in employees (28 to 224) - I kinda wonder if they will be able to manage them all, with such a sharp increase.

Comparing to Mojang (Minecraft) Rivio have done very well, both having a huge jump in revenue from one year to the next:

$78.8m in Revenue for Mojang and $9.5m in profit before taxes. Quite the magnitude of difference in terms of profit rate, 12.07% for Mojang vs 64% Rovio.

Licensing seems to be profitable?

Source for Mojang financials: <http://www.allabolag.se/5568192388/Mojang_AB>

(Don't you just love that annual reports for all companies are public information in Sweden?)

<comment><USER6> To me, Mojang's margins just don't pass the sniff test. It seems they should be much higher. I assume they have done whatever accounting tricks possible to reduce their profit (I'm not suggesting anything untoward, mind).

<comment><USER5> I agree, the margins are just too low. They are expanding and such things cost money but they are still only something like 13-15 employees at the moment but still have bad margins.

I would expect at least double the margin for a company with low distribution costs and reasonably low development costs - compared to other studios anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Has anyone any idea what made this game so successfull? I consider myself a hardcore gamer and I am interested in game development. I grew up with video games starting with game and watch, C64 and NES. I have been hooked by so many games over the years playing hours everyday. I tried angry birds for 10 mins and got so bored I never played it again. I just don't see any fun in it. Anyone like me? Any idea why people love this game?

<comment><USER8> The same thing that made scorched earth so popular. Simple, addictive gameplay.

<comment><USER7> The thing is I don't see what can be addictive in this game. I am easily addicted to games, but nothing with this one. It is so simple that it I find it very boring. I try to understand the mechanics that make people addict to this.

<comment><USER8> That's understandable. Not everyone will be addicted. I get bored with fighting games, but scorch/worms and such absolutely enthral me.

Count yourself lucky I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That's a great accomplishment and I'm very interested in how they are going to top that. There's probably still a lot more room to grow on the franchising and licensing part, but to build a sustainable company you have to constantly build great products (which I'm sure they can).

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed, and they've proved it further with the Space version.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Compensation for a "growth hacker/marketer" as first four hire? - <AUTHOR>

In your opinion/experience and without you knowing anything about the company, what's a fair offer for a first employee of an angel-funded (between $500k-$1mil) startup for a "growth marketing" position. I know you might need more details, but from the above what are your insights? <comment><USER2> Assuming you are US based and raised angel round at $5mil post money valuation. First employee (talented or experienced or super smart) for marketing will get a salary of $110K average in the market for Director of Marketing role. So, you will have to make sure that

X + Y/4 = $100-$125K/per annum and some more equity for being an early employee

where X is a fixed salary and Y is equity with 4 years vesting and 1 year cliff. If you pay him 80K salary, give him around 2-4% equity. And may be 1% equity as options for staying more than 2 years in company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. Thanks for that insight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm looking for that role. We should talk :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds good, will shoot a message.</comment></comment>


Athena: Dropbox's Build Health Management System - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2019/05/athena-our-automated-build-health-management-system/ <comment><AUTHOR> I'm happy to answer any questions regarding this system.</comment>


The BaseShield App Store for Windows launches (YC Winter 08) - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/ycombinator-startup-creates-a-better-download-app-store-for-windows-baseshield/

<comment><USER2> I have to salute the Baseshields for their imagination. Originally the virtualization sw was going to be the product. Might still be. But then they realized that, having built it, they could basically take over the delivery of software on Windows. I was blown away when Patrick came by YC to give me a demo. I thought I was going to be seeing a demo of virtualization sw, which, frankly, is not that interesting, and instead they'd built the Windows App Store.

<comment><USER3> They could turn it into even more than delivering software on Windows. I'd pay to have a virtualization layer that transports settings/environments across my computers. For example, I like to set up custom keyboard shortcuts in my text editor, but every time I set up a new computer I have to reconfigure all of those settings. That shouldn't be necessary.

BTW I feel like the TC article didn't communicate the key point very well. They didn't mention virtualization until eight sentences in.

<comment><USER4> Hmm, combine BaseShield with DropBox and you might have a winner...

You should also add a way for developers to bundle their software directly with the BaseShield so they can distribute the bundle as a single package on their website. This will save small developers a ton of effort in writing an automatic software updater, they'll be able to simply rely on your mechanism.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hi everyone!

We'd like to especially encourage any news.yc readers who write windows apps to distribute them via BaseShield. Just get in touch with me at my personal email: pat (at) baseshield.com -- if you want to list it for free we'll get it up right away, if you'd like to charge you'll be at the top of the list once we get payments going.

Thanks!

<comment><USER6> Not sure if you have this on your radar, but this would be useful in the corporate world.

Corporates spend massive amounts on deploying desktop software - and even then it's a painful, risky process. This would assist that process in a lot of ways.

(Edit: And when I say massive - I mean massive. I've seen XP deploys that were in the 10's to 100's of millions. A big chunk of this is software packaging and deploy).

<comment><USER7> It is a big marketplace with huge players (i.e. Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix, etc) already doing app virtualization/streaming. Still, since it's so large other major companies will be looking for a good platform to build upon if they can get into it, too.

I made a comment above which is probably better suited for this thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=377308>

<comment><USER6> > Still, since it's so large other major companies will be looking for a good > platform to build upon if they can get into it, too.

Yup - And I don't think any of the big players have really "nailed it" by a long shot yet. Corps still spend a vast amount of time in packaging/testing.

Also, there is probably a neat open source niche there - take on a BaseShield style service, then simply pick up pre-packaged X-Y-Z, with all the updates/etc. Just as you would a mature distro.

I can see that being a really appealing model.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Virtualization layer!

That's something I would not have thought of first. Despite the fact that windows security was on my mind when I started reading that article.

Virtualizatin is a hefty technology chunk to bite of for a small team, very impressive.

Best of luck to the BaseShield dudes and dudettes.

<comment><USER9> Agreed. It always annoys me that I have to reinstall my OS every six months because of the crap I end up downloading.

<comment><USER10> Not downloading and installing crap would significantly improve your experience of using the computer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I read the description, and though - that sounds pretty cool. But trying it sucks:

1\. I don't know what these 'apps' are. Only baseshield apps or any applications at all?

2\. I'm using Mac OS X. It offered me a .exe. Tell us that on your homepage

3\. Surely you can spend a bit of money to get some proper icons and not use icons that hundreds of people are already using

4\. Give me some sort of idea what apps are in there without requiring me to install a .exe. Is it worth it at all - I can't know without some idea of the apps.

In general, it's a pretty good idea, and something like this is neccessary for windows.

<comment><USER12> Concerning #2: Right below the giant "Install Now" button it says, "Beta | 14MB | Runs on Windows XP and Vista".

I don't think they expect OS X folks to download it...

<comment><USER13> Actually, if you packaged a Windows installation with it, you _could_ put a special version of this on OS X!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Idea time.

Every time I reformat my windows machine I have to manually download and install all the programs I use. So what about the ability to create common configurations? Or tag apps?

You could simply click "Install all apps tagged with 'X'", go make dinner, and and come back to a machine that's ready to go. For those who reformat often or are always setting up new vbox/vmware instances (like me), this would be very handy. Of course, it also depends on which apps are available.

Note: I have not yet used BaseShield, so if something like this is already in place, ignore me.

</comment><comment><USER15> Wow, that's actually a really good idea. I always assume there can be no innovation left for the desktop. I've got to stop thinking that.

<comment><USER13> Algorithm for determining if there's innovation left for X. Ask yourself these questions:

        1) Are there lots of people who really want to use X?
        2) Is there something that sucks about X?

Your answer is the AND of these two.

<comment><USER16> You may have a useful algorithm, but it does not determine if there is innovation left for X. It seems to be a function that determines if there is potential profit in innovating for X.

<comment><USER17> There's _always_ innovation left for X. This algorithm determines if it's worth pursuing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Neat, seems to work reasonably well.

Inkscape's a bit slow, and the breakout game has some horrible sound lag, but the get/install/run UX is really great.

Anyone know how the virtualize is done?

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't really see how you can claim it makes apps safe if you provide access to 3D hardware. Anyone who has done any 3D hardware programming will know that it's easy to crash/exploit through 3D APIs.

Having said that... nice one!

I see some code I wrote on there is being offered up! So can you please send me the source ;) You should provide any source for binaries you are distributing that require such things... including diffs to changes you've made (for software with those licenses).

There's lots of these types of app stores(portals) around... but I like how you've at least attempted to make it safe. I still think a process of review and trust will help just as much, so I hope you have those ideas mixed in.

Also, are you doing anything to try and stop piracy for paid apps?

<comment><USER20> Can you actually completely take down Vista 64 through 3D APIs, given the user-level drivers? It would be very interesting if you could. The only plausible way I know of is to repeatedly crash the driver for several minutes, and even this is uncertain (I've seen this happen with Forceware + DirectX 10).

<comment><USER19> Not entirely sure about vista 64.

However I've taken down vista 32 and win XP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> A few comments from using it:

* The installer is utterly terrible and gave me no options whatsoever like installation location or where to put icons, which is just outright obnoxious in the Windows world.

* The application installs it itself in C:\Windows\system32\BaseShield\BaseShield\Data\AppStore. This is extremely bad karma - I have /never/ used a legitimate application that did this. Hiding your application amongst the operating system is just something you outright don't do.

* The uninstall is flawed. It did not remove the applications and left data in c:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\BaseShield, c:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\BaseShield\ and c:\Windows\System32\Baseshield\Baseshield. It also did not uninstall the application I installed to test (Abiword), leaving 24 megabytes of data on my hard-disk drive, and I had to uninstall it by hand, along with removing its icon from both my desktop and start menu.

* Using an application's icon in the application stub that launches the main application is dubiously legal at best.

* The user interface is bad, and makes Steam look good, which is a scary state of affairs. Please use Windows-native widgets where possible.

Personally, I would not use, nor recommend anyone use, the application as currently designed.

<comment><AUTHOR> This installer makes it as easy as possible to install the product without asking the user to make unnecessary decisions. The reasoning is that the few users who don't want a desktop icon are likely to be advanced users like you who can easily delete the icon.

Regarding installation in the Windows directory, flash also does this (C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash). For BaseShield there are technical reasons why some components need to be below the system32 directory.

Please use the one click uninstall to remove downloaded applications before uninstalling BaseShield. We need to make this more clear or automatic, sorry.

Feel free to contact me directly at sascha (at) baseshield.com with any technical issues.

Thanks for trying it out and for your feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This could be awesome if it takes off. I've always thought the biggest barrier to desktop app adoption vs webapp adoption is the problem of finding and deploying apps. If this takes off we could witness a rejuvenation in the market for desktop apps on Windows.

As a developer who is often frustrated by how much application development these days is limited to the capabilities of the browser, something that solves the problem of safely deploying and managing application installs, really appeals.

Good luck Baseshield guys!

</comment><comment><USER23> Man I wish I had this for OS X apps. I know there are tons of awesome apps out there for the Mac, and I use many, but if there were some central place to find them I'm sure I'd buy more.

<comment><USER24> <http://osx.iusethis.com/> <http://www.versiontracker.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I really do like this and if it's good and there's good software available through it I would definitely recommend it to friends and family.

But, by making it safe, easy and quick to install desktop applications again one could argue that BaseShield is really the enemy of every web application in existence. It's going to have to die.

</comment><comment><USER26> Really cool product/tech!

Have you looked at Softricity and their product SoftGrid? SoftGrid was a similar app virtualization platform. It was quite mature and complete. They were acquired by Microsoft a few years ago. I think some of their tech is being used in Windows 7 with the pending Application Binary Interface break.

<comment><USER27> Exactly. This product is like a very, very early SoftGrid... which has been out for a few years now. It's now called Microsoft Application Virtualization (Softricity was purchased by Microsoft about 2 years ago).

This certainly isn't anything new -- software virtualization on Windows. VMWare has a s/w virt. product, so Does Altiris, and so does Citrix Xen. I suppose since these products are mainly enterprise focused, most people never even hear of them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Doesn't support 64-bit windows?

I'd LOVE to use this product. I'll be watching avidly for a release that supports 64-bit vista.

Not to be overly critical, I realize 64-bit isn't a priority for a startup, but why wouldn't it be supported? Is there really that much of a difference for an application?

<comment><AUTHOR> You're absolutely right, no fundamental reason why it wouldn't work. It's mainly that some components need to be re-compiled for 64bit with some adjustments for Wow64. It's high up on the list of things to get done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Well I guess there is still a long road ahead. They are a service+infrastructure provider. I would approach some ISVs to actually deploy via BaseShield and to also approach some IHVs to bundle BaseShield with new PCs perhaps.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hopefully, it won't require developers to use a specific language or framework.

An interesting alternative idea might be to create a cross-platform "app store" written in AIR that delivers cross-platform AIR apps.

<comment><USER26> That's the beauty of virtualization: You just find a layer to slice at below everything else, cut there, and everything above it should work. Hopefully, reguardless of language or framework if you make your cut at the right place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I really liked how the icons on the right side of the home page look surprisingly gnome-like :D

</comment><comment><USER31> Great Stuff! Hope this will become the next Apple iphone app store for the rest of us!

</comment><comment><USER32> How do I put my own app on sale on BaseShielf App Store ?

<comment><USER5> We have a form linked from the front page of the App Store just below the featured apps.

You can also just get in touch with me: pat (at) baseshield.com and we'll get you going quickly. Because of our secure virtualization layer apps can run safely with no modification needed.</comment></comment>


Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96 - open-source-ux http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38446309 <comment> david-given All the places in the book are real, by the way. The Watership Down warren is here:

[http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=449912&y=156897&z=115&sv=44...](http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=449912&y=156897&z=115&sv=449912,156897&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=539&ax=449912&ay=156897&lm=0)

...and there's actually a warren there. Watership Down makes a nice walk on a sunny day (although a much less nice one on a December weekend when it's raining and sleeting at the same time, to pick an example _completely at random_ ).

Adams does a fantastic job of making a landscape that's only a few kilometres across seem epicly huge.

Full list of Google Maps links here:

[http://mythgard.org/academy/watership-down- geography/](http://mythgard.org/academy/watership-down-geography/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm adding this to my bucket list. This was one of the most memorable books of my childhood.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> My introduction to Watership Down was in the Paideia, the book of word lists that the National Spelling Bee used to distribute as study material before bee season. The word lists were occasionally themed around specific books and for awhile they had a Watership Down list. Here are a few of the awesome words I learned from that list (which eventually led me to read and enjoy Mr. Adams' book):

stridulate (what a cricket does when it chirps)

susurration (murmuring, like grass in the wind)

tormentil (an astringent plant)

myxomatosis (a viral infection in rabbits!)

They don't write 'em like that anymore. RIP Mr. Adams.

<comment><USER3> Don't forget the language Adams created for the rabbits:

[http://watershipdown.wikia.com/wiki/Lapine_Glossary](http://watershipdown.wikia.com/wiki/Lapine_Glossary)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I owe every ounce of my love of reading to Richard Adams and Watership Down.

Watership Down was the first book of its size that I read and it had a profound effect on me that has significantly directed my life. I enjoyed it so much that I kept reading after the book was finished. This led to reading and loving anything written by J. K. Rowling, Isaac Asimov, Ernest Cline, John Grisham, Robert Greene, Orson Scott Card (despite later finding out of his personal flaws), and many other amazing authors.

Many years later, I'm still a huge fan of books, although I no longer read as much fiction as I'd like.

Perhaps it's time to sit down again and go on an adventure with some rabbits.

<comment><USER5> > Orson Scott Card (despite later finding out of his personal flaws)

I don't typically dive into the personal side of authors whose writing I enjoy, what flaws are you referring to in Orson Scott Card?

<comment><USER6> He's a raving homophobe.

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

<comment><USER7> "Raving homophobe" is a pretty low-resolution picture of Card. Google "Janis Ian Orson Scott Card" for some nuance. Or see this cached post from her site:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ioaWOkC...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ioaWOkC- jhsJ:janisian.com/forum/forum/the-janis-ian-forum/8148-orson-scott-card-and- me+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

I'm not going to defend much of his political rhetoric, which I find is aptly described by the word "raving." And like others, I don't love a lot of his views on homosexuality. Just noting a higher-resolution picture of him doesn't fit the simple description of "raving homophobe."

<comment><USER8> >Google "Janis Ian Orson Scott Card" for some nuance.

Thanks for that tip. I'm aware of the Internet's general opinion of Card (seems like a lot more people have something to say about him since the movie came out!) but have never bothered to look up anything more specific. So far, I had been assuming - based on personal experience with well-educated and well-traveled Christians and Mormons - that his position on homosexuality was pretty similar to what Janis Ian described in her post. Also that the Internet's attention - as usual - had been caught by something and blown it out of proportion. I'm glad that those assumptions seem to have been correct.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Watership Down is a great story but also Richard Adams publishing it was a story of perseverance. It was rejected by multiple publishers back when publishers were big gatekeepers.[1]

 _Watership Down published by Rex Collings after being rejected by seven other publishers. Becomes Adams ' best-known work selling more than 50 million copies worldwide. He wins the prestigious Carnegie Medal_

[1] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/richard- ad...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/richard-adams- forever-animated-by-the-life-of-animals-1974572.html)

<comment><USER10> Aren't the publishers still big gatekeepers? Are there any examples of works by unknown authors that rose to prominence without going through a big publisher? (I wouldn't count something by a prominent author, as they have the name recognition to not need a publisher, at least not as much.)

<comment><USER11> Depends on what you mean by 'rose to prominence', but Andy Weir's The Martian (being one of the most fun science-y novels I've read in recent years) started life as a number of blog entries before being self-published (only to be picked up by a 'real' publisher once the buzz had started)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'll take this opportunity to mention Shardik, one of his many overlooked novels. It's dark, complex, and in my opinion a greater work than Watership Down. It's got world-building that is on par with Tolkien and is filled with flawed, realistic characters.

<comment><USER13> It's been years but man Shardik seemed like a fantastic book when I read it. All my fantasy before then had been of the Piers Anthony or David Eddings type and it was great to be immersed in a world that was like ours but fantastic.

(Though the older I get the more fantastic our world seems.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I first saw the animated film, which I loved and immediately had my parents purchase the book on my behalf. This story taught me a different kind of myth making and adventure from the high fantasy I read voraciously. It touched my understanding of humanity and nature in new ways, and was part of a foundation of great books that made me a life long reader.

</comment><comment><USER15> I remember that being my first "epic" of books I read as a child. My school library had a poster of Newbery Medal winners (the Pulitzer of children books) and Watership Down was on it. I must have read it a lot, because I still remember nearly all of the plot and details and character names, as strange as they were. It's such a strange and detailed book that I was surprised as an adult to find out its benign origins. I guess that partly explains why it didn't turn into a LOTR-like series of volumes. I had always wanted to read more about El-Ahrairah's and Rabscuttle's adventures.

<comment><USER16> Watership Down is a great book, but I am having trouble corroborating a Newbery Medal or Honor?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down#Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down#Awards)

[http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/...](http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal)

<comment><USER15> Oh you're right, well guess I'm getting too old to remember my elementary school days :). That Newbery list was pretty much where I got all of my memorable reading at that age, including Rats of NIMH and the High King (aka the Black Cauldron series), so I must have conflated it with Watership Down. Seems more likely that I liked NIMH enough that a librarian recommended Watership Down.

<comment><USER17> The Watership Down that the book is set at is located near to Newbury - perhaps that's where the confusion arises?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I _loved_ that book as a kid. Had read it a couple of times by age 8 or 9. Probably one of the books that had the most profound influence on me from an empathetic point of view. An absolute treasure.

</comment><comment><USER19> My favourite Goodies moment was a spoof of Watership Downs:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsLZmGBdt8](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsLZmGBdt8)

</comment><comment><USER20> If you enjoyed Watership Down, check out Duncton Wood by William Horwood.

</comment><comment><USER21> dammit

<comment><USER22> Don't you mean "Embleer Frith"?

<comment><USER21> I think it might be embleer rah, but it's been a while since I've read the book.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> 2016 please just end already.</comment>