The Disinformation - <AUTHOR> http://uncrunched.com/2013/12/30/the-disinformation/ <comment><USER3> I can't imagine how this situation could resolve itself in a way that will make The Information look good. If you weren't aware, it's a publication that asks for more than $30/mo, in exchange (literally, this is the point) for not running clickbait and keeping the signal/noise positive.

I was happy to pay a buck a day for that service, but to pay for it and then see them run misleading clickbait makes me feel dumb for paying.

Cancelled subscription.

<comment><USER4> What made The Information's value proposition so alluring? It seems like an opportunity for another publication to step up and eat their lunch, whatever it was.

I guess their promise of high-quality tech coverage was a welcome change. Seems like a good idea; hopefully someone else will deliver it.

<comment><USER5> The headlines I've seen on their Twitter feed are very compelling topics that I haven't seen covered anywhere else, e.g. news on what Scott Forstall has been doing since he left Apple. I haven't subscribed so I haven't read them so I can't vouch for the quality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _It's extremely frustrating to have your words rearranged, edited and taken out of context to make it seem like you're saying something you aren't._

This is absolutely absurd, coming from Arrington, who twisted Jamie Zawinski's words from an anti-crazy-work-hours rant into rallying cry for gullible programmers to "work hard, cry less, and make history":

[http://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/11/watch-a-vc-use-my-name-to- se...](http://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/11/watch-a-vc-use-my-name-to-sell-a-con/)

<comment><USER3> Is what he said wrong? Is his history relevant to the actual message he is communicating here? To me, it seems like the answers are "no" and "no".

Guy records a radio PSA saying "don't punch strangers in the nose". Later, it turns out that the guy has a history of punching strangers in the nose. Is the PSA wrong?

There's a way to write the comment that points out that Arrington's history here might be checkered. Unfortunately, the way you wrote your comment isn't that way, because it calls the message into question along with the messenger, and the message here seems valuable.

<comment><USER6> In retrospect, _absolutely absurd_ should be replaced with _hypocritical_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > And really, three sins were committed. The first was changing a quote. You > just can't do that, ever

What utter nonsense!

Unscripted speech, especially under cognitive load about complicated topics, is disfluent. About 5% of the words you speak will be edited on the fly, and not part of the final utterance to be understood. Many professional speakers train themselves not to do this, but even many politicians at the peak of their profession will remain disfluent in unscripted remarks.

Interviews are _always_ edited for fluency. You make someone sound like a bumbling idiot if you supply a verbatim transcript.

</comment><comment><USER8> Good to see people coming out in support of this horrible editing, and I hope the trouble makers see that it is taking the discussion away from what is important.

Why attack someone like pg over this? Is the attempt to shame him into being more women hacker friendly? Isn't he already going out of his way to support women?

<comment><USER9> The people who attacked PG have an agenda:

* Publicly shame as many top males for anything possible to make room for women - assume the worst and don't try to resolve possible misunderstanding privately, but instead immediately engage in public smear campaigns. The little shitlord nerds don't deserve anything.

* Smashing the patriarchy requires getting men out of positions of power, because they didn't earn any of it, and so the best, most capable men must be pushed out. Meritocracies create inequality, and so are evil. Women are only not in tech because of deliberate, institutionalized sexism. There is no other reason. Not because more men were shut-in nerds ostracized by society who were hungry for something interesting to work on. That's not it at all. There is no reason for men to compete with each other for well paying jobs other than them being sexist jerks.

* Remove all male identity, because if men don't exist then women can feel better about not doing things they don't want to. All gendered words must be wiped clean, because you don't know who could be reading your own words even in an industry mostly built, maintained, and ran by men. Any word with "man" must be changed to "person" and if there are none available then invent new words, because men do not deserve identity (because of their male privilege). Why are men more interested in getting into tech on their own? Obviously it's the patriarchy which pushes men into challenging STEM jobs, and women into psychology. If there were no gendered words in tech then women would stop going into psychology so much and instead get into STEM

* Make places where men can talk openly safe for women's feelings, because that's the only reason women are not in tech. This means no fun allowed, no jokes allowed. If there are mostly men in a group then it's obviously anti-women, uninviting to women, and most likely a bunch of women hating frat boys. Humor is problematic. Brave white knights (people who defend some by attacking (being bullies toward) others at all costs by default when they do not even understand what is going on (see: people attacking PG on twitter)) treat women as children without agency, which means creating Codes of Conduct which hilariously favor women, and allow women to get any male kicked out for any reason if they feel like making something up, which will totally make more guys want to associate with women at groups and not distance themselves even more.

* Make the good men who want to see equality, would be very happy if more women were in tech to walk on eggshells, or not even say anything, because they are afraid if they ask questions (if you practice the Socratic method then you are a sexist pig) or think things through logically (feels > facts; Social Justice Warrior Misandrist theory is 100% correct and if you disagree you're a misogynist) they will be attacked, publicly misquoted, and have their character assassinated.

* If any man tries to help feminist issues he is really just trying to put the spotlight on himself. He should STFU and listen, because he's a privileged, cis, white male, and he knows nothing. He's not allowed to ask questions either. He can google, and it's not anyone's job to educate him.

Not hyperbole. I have talked with serious people who gleefully hold these sickening views.

<comment><USER10> Take your conspiracy theories back to the red pill chief.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, totes there are no people like this, and the attack on PG was not agenda fueled.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction](http://www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction)

<comment><USER10> You're going to need more than wild speculation and a link to a subreddit.

<comment><USER9> Are you a newbie to the Internet? Been living under a rock? What do you want me to do cite each example with what Social Justice Warriors say they want?

<comment><USER10> I'm not new to the internet, but you are definitely new to HN. Well-reasoned and supported arguments are valued here, not baseless and fragmented conspiracy theories.

E.g. Aliens are controlling politics! Proof: [http://reddit.com/r/ufos](http://reddit.com/r/ufos)

<comment><USER11> This isn't a conspiracy theory, go click around the SJW corners of the Internet a bit. There are tons of people who think this way. It's prevalent enough that I'd not blame anyone for not providing a bibliography.

<comment><USER10> When describing the radical views of others, it should seem obvious that a link to their 'manifesto' or something would be necessary. Suggesting that 'the info is out there' is a piss poor excuse for a weak argument.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think there's a smear campaign against Silicon Valley right now. ValleyMag is the main agitator, but not the only one.

</comment><comment><USER13> As Hamish McKenzie wrote in his piece about Elon Musk battling the media: ([http://pandodaily.com/2013/11/13/why-elon-musk-is-right- to-f...](http://pandodaily.com/2013/11/13/why-elon-musk-is-right-to-fight-the- media/))

<quote>"There is no established rubric for peer review in the media; adherence to truth is largely a matter of self-regulation. Instead of peer review, in which experts check the work of other experts, media has editors and fact- checkers. Often, those people are not experts in the matters their institutions are covering. Worse, sometimes they are novices on subjects ranging from climate science to jet propulsion to even basic statistics.

But they still get to control the headlines on those stories. They still serve as the major conduit through which the public is informed about what are often intrinsically complex but extremely important matters. And even with strong editing standards in place, it is inevitable that some of the reporting for which they are responsible will lack crucial nuance or just be plain wrong."</quote>

I don't get the sense that the reporter was trying to mislead, but she was doing what reporters always do; twist what was happening into a narrative that they had concluded existed before they began researching and writing the piece. Something contradicts what you have to say? Discard it, and search for something that fits your story. Just like when you would write an essay in college; you're making a claim, and backing it up.

The same is true of events. Creating a story by asking some people questions and trying to bind their responses into a single narrative with one story that makes sense is often-times impossible. Not because the reporter is doing a bad job, but because their task is impossible. The war in Syria is often shown as two warring factions, when in reality there are dozens of groups who play off each other and fight against each other at different times. Even the armies themselves are trying to piece together who is fighting for and against whom today; to expect a reporter to do so is absurd. But that's exactly what we do.

How, then, can we have any hope of gaining a definitive understanding in the world, if even people paid to do so full-time have difficulty grasping it? Maybe there isn't any. Life isn't simple, people aren't just good or evil, and situations are never binary. Maybe we're not ever supposed to look at what's happening in the world and say, "I understand now; it's simple." Because it's not. If we think that we're probably missing a lot of pieces of the story.

<comment><USER14> Every reporter tries to simplify complex events to make it more palatable to a wider audience (for that is what media seek, I guess). Most of the time though, this 'simplification' goes too far. If there was more honesty in reporting (i.e. the reporter can give the events and say that they don't really know why it is that way) it would be more honest but maybe we are so used to people 'explaining' stuff that we aren't ready for that kind of reporting yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> We should pitch in and pay her for retracting the story and apologizing. 10k for retraction seems to be her standard fee and another 5k for an apology should do it.

(Donation address: 1CDdg67uEt6xpzapzGZc1m6JiUF1KAhFqH)

</sarcasm>

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm just laughing at the pissing match. Kinda funny that one would PAY for the lowest-quality journalism on the planet. This is like if Pitchfork started charging $200/year just to read it.

</comment><comment><USER17> I am really surprised that none has actually read the transcript. Here is a quote from the next question in the transcript:

Eric: What you're saying is that they're not out there to be found?

Paul: I don't think so. I don't think so. It is changing a bit because it's no longer so critical to be a hacker

So PG's views are actually exactly that - in general no suitable female startup founders exist in the world. That isn't bad per se as an opinion, or makes him misogynist, I'm just surprised how people that have a positive outlook of someone can defend them even in a clearly wrong situation.

Btw I'm not affiliated with that news website in any way, just couldn't bare to see a community - that is normally so ornithological - go crazy over defending someone who doesn't deserve it.

<comment><USER18> _So PG 's views are actually exactly that - in general no suitable female startup founders exist in the world._

That's not what pg is saying at all.

Eric's question wasn't if female founders can be found. Eric is asking if there are non-hackers out there, just waiting to be found, so they can start the next Facebook. pg is saying you can't just go out and find non-hackers and turn them into the next Mark Zuckerberg.

On a side note, I think the transcript is poorly transcribed. Many sentences are missing keywords allowing sentences to be easily interpreted in different ways.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> What's truly amazing is the lack of foresight in all of this. If you're a tech company doing tech reporting, why in holy hell would you misquote or spin - <USER2> by ignorance allow to be spun - a quote from Paul Graham? How did they think this was going to end for them?

</comment><comment><USER20> A ton of upvotes for a Michael Arrington lecture about what is and is not legitimate journalism shows just how fickle the HN crowd is. You guys are silly.

</comment><comment><USER21> News, apart from investigative journalism, is mostly gossip with a patina of occasional respectability.

But by news being essentially gossip, it's something there's plenty of, like artistic talent, so there's not much money in it. That's because there's a positive gradient of information from people that will tell you for free.

</comment><comment><USER22> The right thing to do here was for them to apologize for taking a quote out of context and fire the reporter. Now that ship has sailed, I think her magazine is probably toast.

</comment><comment><USER23> Does anyone else appreciate the humor in the juxtaposition of parodical wordplay between "disinformation" and "uncrunched?" :)

</comment><comment><USER24> "Power relationships" is about an influence to not publish a story to begin with.

Need to "kill a story" (including an ability to kill it by paying) is a sign of lost power.

From both sides.

<comment><USER25> To add to your remarks on power: VC-funded tech is a world where everyone feels like a loser and is _dis_ empowered.

The VCs want to be working on billion-dollar private equity deals and crashing third-world currencies, not flipping measly $200-million startups. They're happy with their $17-million California mansions... until they go to their MBA-school reunions and are the only ones in their social groups without private jets and who don't live in New York or London.

The founders want to be VCs, the engineers want to be founders. Neither transition is likely at all. The non-engineers want to be engineers. Where that transition is likely, watch out.

The tech press is pretty light on ethics because of the false poverty effect. Few people in tech proper _are_ poor, but they all _feel_ poor, and when you conceive of yourself as poor, pissed-on, and generally cheated, you're more willing to do some cheating yourself.

 _That_ is why there are so many unethical and shoddy people in VC-funded technology. Watching total fucking idiots like Lucas Duplan get million-dollar welfare checks only adds to it.

Then there are the stray weirdos like me who are in tech because we really like the work, but we don't last long in VC-istan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Meanwhile, people who have better thing to do than to listen to drama queens carry on with their lives.

</comment><comment><USER27> Taught to be a hacker? lol.

</comment><comment><USER25> This is a case where "disruption" is bad, because "disruption" usually involves overhaul of older ethical principles that emerged after decades of missteps.

Journalism _is_ being disrupted (and has been for over 30 years) and the result is that reliable, just-the-facts is getting overrun by this nonsense.

People are comparing this to Valleywag. Actually, I like Valleywag. I think it's great. It is exactly what it says it is, and it's helping to break down VC-istan's image and prestige, which is exactly what it will take to save Real Technology. Valleywag is, perhaps unintentionally, tech's best friend right now.

This, on the other hand, is a five-alarm fuckup. You do _not_ alter peoples' quotes like that, or lie to them in the way that PG was lied to, and keep your reputation. The old newspapers and journalists (with very rare, if high- profile, exceptions) knew that; but a lot of these post-disruption actors seem not to.

<comment><USER28> I disagree. The real "disruption" here is pg's response and subsequent responses, including yours.

Yellow journalism is still a problem. Most people who read some little quote about women in tech from some guy they've never heard of move on. For the core group of people who _are_ interested, the best way to learn about pg's opinions is from pg himself and that is easy to do.

New standards need to emerge. Publishing transcripts or recordings would be a good place to start. But the ability of misquoted individuals to respond is itself a disruption.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> why are we still listening to arrington again?

<comment><USER30> Because he makes a valid point. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.</comment></comment>


My Five - if you could only follow five people on Twitter, who would you follow? - <AUTHOR> http://myfive.me/

<comment><USER2> Great.

I didn't sign in yet, but wanted to know if you show a timeline containing only the tweets from those 5 users?

Edit: Grammar.

</comment><comment><USER3> Brilliant.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of working at a successful startup? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I work at a very successful startup that's only a few years old. Generally, things are great, but I have a few big annoyances.

1\. Management is often only slightly less clueless than you are about your career trajectory. My manager currently doesn't have a solid plan for what I'm doing 3 months from now, let alone 6 months or a year, which makes it difficult for me to plan my long-term career trajectory.

2\. Lots of "policies" seem to be made out of thin air. I wanted to go to a conference a few months after I joined the team, and my manager (one of the original ~10 employees) approved it. Then, _his_ manager (the CTO) rejected my request because there was an apparently unspoken, unwritten rule that new employees that have been with the company for less than 6 months don't get a paid conference attendance. I'm not upset that the policy exists, it's reasonable enough for a company that's trying to run lean, but the fact that not even my manager, who is one of the "inner circle", knew, made me feel kind of crappy about it.

3\. Overwork. Everyone around me works 50+ hours a week. I try really hard to plan my week efficiently so that I stay at the office for _exactly_ 40 hours per week, get my work done, and turn my damn phone off on the weekends. But one of my coworkers just had a baby and is still submitting code reviews at 1 in the morning. No one seems to mind that I am militant about my work-life balance, but lots of people around me seem to be getting burned out. One guy up and left for a couple weeks, and when he came back, he said he would only stay if they let him start working remotely full time. They approved his request, which is great, but it was the end result of 6 months of overwork and high expectations from everyone.

Now, let me be clear: I _love_ my job. It's easily the most fun and stimulating job I've ever had, and thanks to my being adamant about my schedule it's not _too_ stressful, but there are moments when I feel like I'm drowning a bit. Everyone around me is extremely sympathetic to each other, and we just instituted a make up time policy (if you have to work late due to emergency firefighting, you're entitled to that time back later in the week). We're also very open as a company about mental health and the legitimate need to take mental health days sometimes, which is extremely encouraging. I only hope that the dust begins to settle as the company continues to grow.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hypergrowth often creates cultural dysfunction. Teams quickly outgrow the processes and communication structures that worked for them at a smaller size. Leaders find themselves leading teams much larger than they have they skill and experience to do a good job with. And in order to hire so quickly, it's not unusual for hiring standards to drop, especially around interpersonal skills and values fit.

<comment><USER4> I would have to agree with this from firsthand experience. This and the fact that most people REALLY change when money starts coming in. It's fascinating to watch...

<comment><USER5> Yes, I agree as well from firsthand experience although I would love to see a counter example.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The chaos is pretty nerve-racking. There aren't solid processes in place and management could be clueless.</comment>


Akamai: World internet speed increasing except for US - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10434930-94.html

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure if it's widely true, but my provider (Shaw in Vancouver) does a sneaky thing where they burst me to 25Mb/s downstream for the first few meg of a download, and then put it back to normal (~8Mb/s).

It is useful for some real-life cases, but it also makes speedtest.net tests very mis-representative.

I think the downstream is quite acceptable for what I pay. The upstream is ass though (0.5Mb/s).

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't dispute the conclusions in this article nor do I think the U.S. is trying hard enough to build its Internet infrastructure. But these comparisons are a little unfair. If you take the top 2 countries in speed (South Korea and Japan) you realize there's a huge space disparity. South Korea has a total area of 38,622 sq mi while Japan has a total of 145,925 sq mi. While on the U.S. side Texas alone is 268,820 sq mi of land while the country itself is 3,794,101 sq mi total.

So yes the U.S. might be a little slower in deploying high speed lines but the effort involved in running cables and building up that infrastructure is far more significant.

<comment><USER4> I see this argument made almost daily despite it being completely invalid.

If it was true, US cities, the high density areas, would have speeds comparable to countries such as Estonia (12mbps), Japan (50+mbps), and so forth. However, _US internet sucks, even in the cities_. In my experience there is almost no correlation between density and quality of internet. And don't make the argument that it's due to the distance between cities: fiber trunklines cost almost nothing compared to the last-mile costs of wiring thousands of neighborhoods.

What _is_ true is a correlation between _competition_ and quality of internet. Areas with only one provider almost inevitably have terrible service.

The excuse that "US internet is worse because our country is larger" is a cheap cop-out to avoid admitting that our telecommunications infrastructure is in many ways worse than some third-world countries.

<comment><USER5> _What is true is a correlation between competition and quality of internet. Areas with only one provider almost inevitably have terrible service._

Do countries like South Korea and Japan have lots of competition for high speed access (or infrastructure)?

<comment><USER6> I can't speak for those countries, but in Sweden where I am there is a lot of competition. I live in Stockholm and I can choose between one cable company (up to 100MBps for ~$50/month), DSL from the three major phone companies (~20MBps for ~$40/month), DSL from a bunch of smaller virtual providers, and if I manage to convince my housing coop to install fiber, there's a bunch of providers that can deliver 100MBps for ~$30/month.

If I was living in a small-town, I would probably be able to choose between a cable company, some DSL providers, and possibly a local municipal network.

If I was living far out in the country-side, there would maybe be DSL, but definitely mobile broadband.

So wherever you are, there is competition, even though it's of course fiercer the larger the city is. I don't know if the broadband market is fully saturated yet, it's probably pretty close to it.

<comment><USER5> You mention DSL from major phone companies and virtual providers. Do all of those major phone companies run their own copper/fiber or use the same infrastructure?

100 MB/s would be nice. I'm paying about $50/month for 5Mb/s DSL in the US.

<comment><USER6> There's only one copper infrastructure which is owned by Telia, the previously state-owned phone monopoly. If you want more copper lines to your home, you have to get it through them. However, the phone and DSL provider market is deregulated such that Telia has to allow other companies to install DSL equipment in the phone stations as well as use the copper cables.

Fiber networks I know almost nothing about. I know there are several country- wide fiber networks, all the phone companies of course have their own infrastructure there, but there are a few more companies renting out access.

I _think_ you can become a DSL provider without actually owning any equipment, just renting access at the appropriate places, but then you are of course dependant on the actual infrastructure owners, and you will probably not be able to deliver the cheapest service, but have to compete on something else.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wish that there was highspeed everywhere and more importantly that it wasn't so expensive. However comparing the US to other countries with way fewer square miles to cover and more densely populated areas is unfair. Taking those factors into consideration makes the US's position not so embarrassing. The telco's and ISP's control of the infrastructure though, is still embarrassing and in need of reform.

<comment><USER8>
      Rank  Country        Pop.Density
      ----  </comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-  </comment><comment></comment><comment>-----
        1.  South Korea    493/km^2 (21st)
        2.  Japan          337.4/km^2 (30th)
        3.  Hong Kong      6076.4/km^2 (4th)
        4.  Romania        90/km^2 (104th)
        5.  Sweden         20.6/km^2 (192nd)
        6.  Ireland        73.4/km^2 (??)
        7.  Netherlands    396/km^2 (24th)
        8.  Switzerland    188/km^2 (65th)
        9.  Denmark        127.9/km^2 (78th)
       10.  Czech Republic 132/km2 (77th)
       ...
       18.  United States  32/km^2 (178th)

Sweden manages to be #5 with a smaller population density than the United States.

source: Wikipedia

</comment><comment><USER9> In some parts of the USA you have excellent bandwidth! Verizon provides me with 50mbps fiber in Dallas. <http://www.speedtest.net/result/684079289.png>

<comment><USER10> When I go to that site, it gives me a "Missing License Key Error".</comment></comment>


An Encrypted, Inherently Secure Social Network? - <AUTHOR> http://tnhh.net/pancake/2011/10/an-inherently-secure-social-network.html

<comment><USER2> I think this is a very interesting idea and things like a 'group' or an 'event would simply have their own private/public key to allow subscribers etc. But two thoughts spring to mind:

1). Without the marketing/advertising opportunity, who will be prepared to pay for a facebook like IT infrastructure?

2). In some ways I quite like that criminal or otherwise sinistre behaviour/communications could potentially be intercepted and policed by some authority for the benefit of others - ie, the bad guys dont have anywhere to hide... (I'm expecting an onslought of critism from this comment!)</comment>


Ask HN: Made MVP at hackathon, validated idea, but no longer have developer. - <AUTHOR>

Hey HN,
I work as a photographer & videographer right now, and editing and reviewing video is a painful process. Going back and forth with clients and involved parties sucks, so I came up with a possible solution and didn't think much of it.
A few weeks ago while photographing a tech conference, I decided to join the hackathon and build an idea I had with my friend. He did all the heavy back-end lifting, and I did the front end work. We didn't know what would come out of it, but ended up winning 'Most Monetizeable' and getting great feedback from all of the judges and many participants.
Long story short, my friend has stated that he has absolutely no intention of wanting to work on it (he's already at a startup) and has agreed to me continuing to work on it without his help. I've showed potential customers the demo, and have received great feedback from other videographers, including a value of $100~ per project as a baseline.
I want to continue with it, but am not sure what to do. I don't have the programming skills to do all of the back end right now (node.js) but am willing to learn it. At the same time, the alpha (if you can call it that) is basically done, and doesn't need too much work before it can go live.
Thoughts? <comment><USER2> Hi, we launched our little project called "[http://sideprojectors.com"](http://sideprojectors.com").

It's a market place for side projects where you can sell & buy side projects and you can also ask people to "join" the project.

We've seen quite a few projects being posted in that way. So maybe you can post it on there? Would love to help you out.

Email : firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER3> Drop me an email : firstname.lastname@example.com I might help you

<comment><AUTHOR> Emailed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Email me if you'd like: firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER5> email me at firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER6> you just left a note for us on [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6219546](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6219546)

Feel free to reach out at the email above or jasdeep at metawarelabs dot com</comment></comment>


Dustin Curtis's new web app - <AUTHOR> http://snail.dustincurtis.com/

<comment><USER2> There's a bunch of these services out there, but here's a couple that may be interesting:

<http://www.postful.com/> <http://www.l-mail.com/>

Both look pretty clean and offer various capabilities to send lots of letters more efficiently, including an API.

<comment><USER3> Compared to Dustin's though, both of those hurt my eyes to look at. This reminds me of Posterous, blogging is a crowded market but they differentiated themselves by being beautiful and dead simple. Competitors are good, it just proves that there's a market for a service like this.

<comment><USER4> beauty and pain are in the eye of the beholder...

<comment><USER5> Up to a point... <http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/>

(warning: autoplay music)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish I could mail myself a note on a certain date. Would be cool to receive a one year old note from myself next year.

<comment><USER7> Could be a real market for that...

"Ensure you receive at least ONE brithday card, by sending it youself! By the time your birthday comes round you'll have forgotten you sent it, and will be pleasantly surprised."

Also things like sending letters a year on, with a reminder of what you hoped to achieve that year etc.

<comment><USER8> I was thinking along the same lines. There are already services for sending emails into the future (futureme.org is one), but I think being able to do it with actual mail is a clever idea.

One commercial use might be for real estate agents sending letters to new homeowners 1/2 months into the future asking them how they're doing, etc. I think that would seem a bit more personal than just an email. I always enjoy it when I start receiving mail at a new residence!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Somebody has to say it:

In the year 2009 snail mail is grossly inadequate.

1\. Does it prove anything? No. Sign something with a private key, that is proof.

2\. Is it better for record keeping? No. Fires, floods, and rot are all enemies. Storing it digital allows one to replicate a lifetime of mail in 10 seconds.

3\. Aesthetic? Only if you have a strong packrat or nesting instinct.

4\. Cheaper? No. Not by a fucking longshot, not even close.

Take a one dollar bill out of your wallet, burn it, and send an email.

<comment><USER10> And yet despite all of those factors, I'll be using Snail.

I have elderly family that greatly prefers getting physical letters to email. I also do a lot of foreign travel, where it's inconvenient and expensive to send letters.

Snail is a definitely niche product, and only useful in weird edge cases. However, you might be surprised how many people encounter those edge cases on a daily basis.

<comment><USER11> An interesting extension to the snail mail services would be to snap/upload a photo, use geolocation to find the user's current location and automatically send postcards "from" anywhere in the world.

I always send my postcards the last day and then hunt for the stamps and post box/office where I can send them from. I'd really find this service useful :) Although, arguably a big part of receiving a postcard is the stamp which you wouldn't have here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've just been pondering such a service, as the result of a friend of mine, being moved to an assisted living facility. He has no email there, and wouldn't be able to use it if he did. I would love to send him quick updates on my life and my kids, but, while I could spare him five minutes to dash off an email and attach some photos to it, the task of printing the photos on a color printer, finding his address, etc., usually gets the task procrastinated, sometimes for weeks, in that "I'll do it tomorrow" procrastination dance.

My thoughts on this line were as follows.

1) It needs to allow photos. They can be an extra charge of course, but I would want to send photos.

2) There's a ton of paper handling equipment out there. If you invested about $20K, maybe 10K if you bought used, I would think you could get a solution that was 100% automated. It printed, stapled, folded, printed the envelope, and stuffed the contents. A service with such an automated capability, that showed pictures of their equipment on their website so I knew it was real, would definitely be reassuring from a privacy standpoint, as well as a reliability standpoint.

3) As for API, my thought was to make the whole thing, just email. Parse incoming emails to confirm the sender is an account holder. Parse the email for the markup headers that you define to designate recipient address. If they don't exist, fire off a reply email to the same address, telling them they messed up and didn't mark up their submission properly. Done. No visiting your website at all, after I set up my account.

3a) I would also suggest a way for me to assign frequently used snail mail addresses as part of an email address. For example, say you assign me the email address email@example.com. Whenever I mail to that address, you know it's my account, and send the contents of the appropriately marked up email to the recipients. OK, fine. But now, allow me to assign sub-addresses. So, for example, if I email email@example.com, and I've already defined the address of terry, now I don't have to mark up my email at all. I just put email@example.com into my email address book, and my friend Terry is the same as contacting anybody else with email. With such a system, mailing somebody and emailing somebody take exactly the same steps on my part. In fact, I can even CC them on an email I send to somebody else.

</comment><comment><USER13> If this gets popular, you could hire a few helpers to handle the printing/mailing. The job ad could go something like "Work from home. Get paid to stuff envelopes!"

:-)

<comment><USER14> Yeah, the service could be distributed so that the letters can be printed and mailed by any number of people.

<comment><USER15> Even better, you could distribute the mailing by geography to minimize shipping time. If it's close you could even have them deliver in person and save 44c. (Did you just invent a new postal system?)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> A couple thoughts 1). I usually love Dustin's work but am acutally underwhelmed by the design. I hate the black on white. It hurts my eyes 2.) Snail mail is meaningful becasue it shows that the person took time to WRITE and then send a letter. Its not nearly as meaningful if its typed up.

<comment><USER17> Dear downvoters,

In this community, we don't vote based on whether or not we agree. We vote up if we think it is worth reading, regardless of whether we agree or not. We downvote when the message is inappropriate - flames and trolls, cheap humor, that sort of thing. I don't go to the comments to see who agrees with me, I go there to see who disagrees, and why.

Sincerely, <USER17>
<comment><USER5> Upvoted because I agree with you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Perfect! Now no one will see me when I send my "Dear Penthouse" letters...

In all seriousness, this is a good idea, but you might be cutting yourself short on the profits. 6 cents a letter for probably 5 minutes worth of work? I think you should charge $1.50 a letter and make about 56 cents instead. Overseas business people might still be willing to pay that.

<comment><USER19> "I never thought this could happen to me..."

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> How many death threats has this service sent so far? There should be a counter for that at the bottom of the page.

</comment><comment><USER21> In Germany the official post office provides this service for 1,90 Euros (stamp costs 0,55 Cents). <https://www.schreibcenter.de/schreibcenter/>

I like the interface of your service!

</comment><comment><USER22> There's another competitor that wasn't mentioned:

www.mailaletter.com

None of the competing services that I know of provide an API, and if dcurtis releases an API that would be a significant edge.

<comment><USER23> PostalMethods has an API: <http://www.postalmethods.com/postal-api>

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The ability to send a PDF would be nice, so I know exactly what the printed product will look like, and I can use my own fonts if I like.

<comment><USER25> Seconded, although that would take away from how straightforward the service is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I suppose if the service gets popular you'll have to find some way to make it pay, otherwise it will cost you a fortune in stamps. Any plans? Or is it "Wait and see.." ??

<comment><USER27> Well, the dollar breaks down like this:

* 10c to paypal

* 44c to stamp

* 40c for envelope and paper

I make about 6c on each letter.

<comment><USER28> It's really a shame that paypal makes more than you do. Are there any payment gateways that are better for low-price transactions than paypal?

<comment><USER29> I don't think it's all about costs. One great benefit of PayPal is that it's a known and (somewhat?) trustworthy brand. (Yes, I know, it's far from perfect...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Build a API dude. This type of service can be useful to some of us who need to send snail mail to customers when they sign-up, cancel, etc. And I agree with everyone else about the prices. Eventually 6c won't cut it and then you'll have to jerk the price up. $1 sounds sexy, but you need to eat.

<comment><USER27> Well I just built this for fun, and I will definitely end up in the red overall.

How many people would use a physical mailing service like this, if it had an API and lots of options for paper and envelopes?

<comment><USER14> I'd use it for just about everything. I hate sending letters, but I do really enjoy writing to people. Making the system fully automated would be cool on a number of levels.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interesting. I wonder if dcurtis would mind describing some details of the operation. Is the postage being printed too, or are stamps being affixed some other way? And I guess someone is still delivering the mail to a box or post office--would that get annoying?

<comment><USER27> I had a beagleboard (beagleboard.org) sitting around in my closet, so I figured I should do something with it.

When you create a letter on Snail, the beagleboard pulls from the heroku database, formats the letter, prints it, and then sends me an email saying it's ready to be stuffed into an envelope.

(Well... sort of. In a perfect world, that is what would happen. Unfortunately, there are some bugs that I am still trying to work out.)

<comment><USER31> You should invest in a cheap trifold folder and an envelope/postage printer (or envelope tray for your existing, presumably laser, printer). That would cut down your operations time _a lot_ if it gets popular.

Though, I think big, sooo probably not worth the cash.

<comment><USER32> I've always wondered what Netflix does. Is their DVD handling/mailing a manual process?

<comment><USER33> Pretty much, you can't trust users to send DVD's back in the mailing envelopes in any kind of reliable state (at all, one to an envelope, with the barcode facing out the window, with the correct disc in the correct slipcover, with the disc in any slipcover) so they have assembly lines of people to tear the envelopes open, check the right DVD is in the right slipcover, and so forth.

<comment><USER32> Thanks. Is that posted somewhere? Is shipping out to customers more automated?

I always wonder about stuff like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> This reminds me of the service from the 1980s (was it Sprint Mail?) where you could dial up (over a 300 Baud modem), type a letter, and it would be physically mailed to an address.

At the time, it was several dollars per page.

</comment><comment><USER35> That's a nice and simplistic interface however I've been using PostalMethods (<http://www.postalmethods.com>) for awhile and they offer an email interface and a Web Service API (<http://www.postalmethods.com/postal-api>) for a cheaper price when sending regularly. They also support postcards.

I think Dustin's service is most suitable for occasional letter senders while PostalMethods is most suitable for businesses wanting to automate their mailing.

</comment><comment><USER36> Is it just for US? Or can one send letters all around the world?

<comment><USER27> I'll only send letters _to_ the US, but you can obviously order letters to be sent _from_ anywhere in the world.

<comment><USER37> May be franchise your service to other HN'ers in other countries? :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> The problem with your business model is that you will not really make any money with a 6% margin. How about this? Start out with $2 a letter, then give bulk discounts based on the volume of mail sent. It seems that a lot of the comments here suggest that the API would be useful in a MASS mailling campaign. Your pricing should reflect this requirement without breaking the bank. Single letter users will in effect subsidize the mass mailers.

</comment><comment><USER39> Love the glowing aura around text boxes. Beautiful design.

</comment><comment><USER40> Wild, so he is actually folding, stuffing, and licking the stamp? At 6 cents/per he'd need over 100 mailings/hr to come out around minimum wage. I like the API idea, pdf idea, maybe .doc files.

You could do what those efax places do for free faxes and include an advertisement in the envelope. Hell, put advertisements on the envelope itself.

</comment><comment><USER41> FYI: The return from paypal is broke...

[http://localhost:3000/success?merchant_return_link=Return+to...](http://localhost:3000/success?merchant_return_link=Return+to+dustincurtis.com)

Edit: Also, a personalized handwriting font upload would be neat.

</comment><comment><USER42> What about privacy? So looks like this isn't useful for sending private and serious mails.

</comment><comment><USER43> I actually wonder what is faster. Sending a snail-mail using regular airmail towards the US or sending one through this service :) At least it's 30% cheaper and saves me the time of formatting a letter and walking to the mail- office.

</comment><comment><USER6> Now you just gotta wait for google adsense to subsidize snail mail.

</comment><comment><USER44> Hopefully he doesn't send swine flu to everybody!

<http://twitter.com/dcurtis/status/5187063511>

</comment><comment><USER37> It would be great if I can select a template for my mail.Definitely not on the landing page, it would clutter such a nice and clean page. May be a 'More...' option?

</comment><comment><USER45> Looks beautiful.

Sorry to nitpick. But, in the preview letter page, it reads "Ma _k_ e a mistake?". It should instead read "Ma _d_ e a mistake?"

<comment><USER46> [Did you] make a mistake? is kind of valid, no? Casual, but acceptable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Looks slick. Minor issue with Safari/Webkit's resizable text area feature though: you can resize a text area beyond the fancy border surrounding it.

</comment><comment><USER48> How about an api so that we can script it? ;-)

Would make it a lot easier for Amnesty International. All that handwriting makes my hand numb!

<comment><USER49> talk about coincidence!

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Great idea. I hate the hassle of sending physical mail the $1 is well worth it. Do you/will you offer the service to/from/within Canada?

<comment><USER51> Yeah, I was inquiring about international mailing, but from what the footer says, it's only limited to the US.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I can see this being very useful for businesses wanting statements and comments for the record.

</comment><comment><USER52> more useful and unique (?) would be the ability to receive snail mails and truly interface with the snail world. requires a lot more (like a mechanical turkish army in different postal jurisdictions) but worth a lot more.

</comment><comment><USER53> Hey cool I had this idea once.

</comment><comment><USER49> keep an online archive of threaded conversations.

</comment><comment><USER49> Where's the API?

</comment><comment><USER54> Related thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=915000></comment>


Show HN: My first B2B app for CRE tech [commutestudy] - <AUTHOR> https://www.commutestudy.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone - this is my first b2b app targeting companies/agencies that are changing office locations.

Why: During the site selection process, one of the pieces of the pie that companies consider, in addition to lease conditions/costs, is the impact of the move on their employee's commute.

My app provides quick and accurate comparison of the properties using their employee locations.</comment>


The Star Wars C64 Demo by Censor Design [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLGXM-wgPM <comment><USER4> Can someone who knows a bit more about this explain what this is?

<comment><AUTHOR> The video demonstrates what a team coded on a 30 year old computer - <USER2> Commodore 64. It was done on a machine that - back in the 1980s - <USER3> against monochrome PCs with 2 inch burping speakers. And the PCs won. But the C64 could do things as seen in the video. The demo was coded this year.</comment></comment>


Bitcoin plunges 12%, reaching lowest value in a year - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/bitcoin-plunges-12-percent-reaching-lowest-value-in-a-year/ <comment><USER2> Thank God; I'm trying to buy a graphics card.

<comment><USER3> Planning on mining some bitcoin are ya? :)

<comment><USER4> You can't profitably mine bitcoin with a graphics card

<comment><USER5> Then why are miners buying so many graphics cards that the price is going through the roof?

<comment><USER6> They are mining (more) ASIC resistant tokens like Ethereum.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Open Source Electric Vehicle - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/10/meet-the-one-modular-ev-created-by-fifty-companies/

<comment><USER2> I used to be in the auto industry, and by far the most mind-blowing part to me is that the team produced a prototype in 12 months. That's difficult to imagine with one company being involved, let alone 50!

Hats off to German Engineering and this rather unique instance of collaboration!

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't wish to criticise the design of this vehicle specifically - it's success or failure will be apparent with time.

But I read once somewhere about aircraft design, that if the chief designer wasn't a zealot about keeping control of the design process, you always ended up with an ugly and underperforming aircraft.

There's always been an element to community participation with car design - many cars are modified once leaving the factory, and over time the modifications tend to congeal along a particular tried and true route. So it will be interesting to see this process at work from the drafting board upwards, rather than from the end of the production line forwards.

</comment><comment><USER4> If this is open source, where can I find the source?</comment>


Writing a Secure Password Manager Using NACL and Go - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sia.tech/2016/12/06/secure-password-management-using-nacl-and-go/ <comment><USER2> I really like NACL, the issue is how long Google is going to support that technology. If I write a product with NACL, It should be able to work in 10 years. I know it will if I use JS. I've been burned by Flash before so I'm really careful about investing in non standard techs today. Hopefully WASM will fill the blank.

<comment><USER3> I think you are confusing Native Client with Salt ([https://nacl.cr.yp.to/](https://nacl.cr.yp.to/)).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Any entrepreneur/programmer here in China? - <AUTHOR>

I guess it would be nice to have a meetup. <comment><USER2> yes, me</comment>


The Negotiations Game Behind Tesla's Gigafactory - <AUTHOR> http://fortune.com/inside-elon-musks-billion-dollar-gigafactory/ <comment><USER2> The last paragraph really blew me away:

<< By November, when Musk discussed the deal on an earnings call, he sounded exasperated with continued condemnation of the terms he had extracted from Nevada. Calling the deal a "super-good idea" for the state, he said the criticism "kind of bugs me. I thought we got an okay incentive package, given the scale, but not a super-huge one." >>

If he honestly thinks that a $1.4 billion in tax breaks and free land is just a "okay" incentive package, it explains a lot about how he was able to ask for $500m cash upfront from the state to fund the factory.

<comment><USER3> One of my takeaways was that you have to be somewhat pathological to be able to make wagers of that size during negotiations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The article states: "He took a process that typically plays out behind the scenes and made it public." and then suggests that his methods were manipulative.

Every successful company negotiates like this. You just never hear about it. They keep it under wraps and as a result nobody knows what really happened behind closed doors.

<comment><USER5> I read that as 'public between the competitors', not as in bringing any extraordinary daylight to the issue. It clearly says many of the politicians involved were thinking carefully about what the public would think when the deal was announced.

I don't think people are generally that impressed by this sort of corporate welfare. If the public takes on the burden of some of the liabilities, they should be entitled to some of the upside. Creating jobs is great (even though it also generates new public liabilities), but it's difficult to see this deal as worthwhile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nevada overpaid for those jobs. 6,500 employees? Probably only during startup. Once it's running, it should be mostly automated. The Chevy Volt battery plant has about 300 employees.

<comment><USER7> But all the tax breaks and other incentives only apply when Tesla meets the job-count required, so Tesla has a massive incentive to uphold the jobs...

<comment><USER6> No. "The factory is supposed to employ 6,500 people, but that is not what the tax breaks are tied to." \- New York Times.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/business/nevada-woos- tesla...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/business/nevada-woos-tesla-plant- in-tax-deal-but-economic-benefits-prompt-debate.html)

It's really "up to 6,500 people". That's only if the later stages of factory expansion take place in the future. They're hiring. Right now, they have 14 job openings.

[http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/10/16/tesla-battery- plant...](http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/10/16/tesla-battery-plant-jobs- advertised/17341211/)</comment></comment></comment>


Measuring user engagement: Lessons from BusinessWeek - <AUTHOR> http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/eulken/200904/1696/

<comment><USER2> PV(monthly)/UV(monthly) is my favorite ratio to track engagement</comment>


It's not you, it's your books - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?ex=1364529600&en=f7845965692c506e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> Here's the problem. You are considered ignorant if you don't know anything about Pushkin. But it's perfectly normal or accepted to ignore who Enrico Fermi, Alan Turing or Paul Erdős were. We're all ignorant about something but, in society, literary ignorance is frowned upon much more than scientific ignorance.

<comment><USER3> I noticed that too - I had absolutely no idea who pushkin was until I asked wikipedia. I do, however, know all the people you mention, and why they are known.

People are just different, and so is their taste in books. The idea of finding partners based on book preferences is interesting though. I would love a dating site where I could search for women based on their reading habits. I mean if I could search for women that liked Neal Stephenson or Bob Woodward I would be thrilled.

So could someone here please make it? Please...

<comment><USER4> We'd definitely consider funding it.

<comment><USER3> With that disclosure you can probably be expecting a few applications for the idea :-)

And I'd love to use it if somebody gets it right.

<comment><USER5> Yeah... no reason to stop at books either, you could also do music/movies, all forms of media really.

<comment><USER6> although, to go back to high fidelity - the big discovery is that it's not what you like, but what you're like that makes a relationship workable

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I feel vaguely guilty when I read fiction, as if I'm wasting my time playing videogames or watching TV. It's gotten to the point where I can't really enjoy novels anymore. I still occasionally read trashy non-fiction though; today I've been reading To Cork Or Not To Cork by George Taber. I wonder what this says about my future relationship prospects.

<comment><USER8> Just because some TV, video games, novels, etc, are not worthwhile doesn't mean you should be averse to rich media in general. The format is good, and good things can be put in it.

<comment><USER9> I think he's not so much concerned about the medium (or even content) as he is the read-only-ness of it. We do hold authors in much higher regard.

But this brings up another question: why does there seem to be this general obsession with the consumption of this particular medium? I would say they're in love with the form, but they don't mention doing any writing. I would say they're in love with great art, but they don't mention any other forms. (Is it a NYC thing? Manhattan always seems downright foreign to me.)

Imagine asking the people quoted in this NYT article about the last manga they've read or the last modern symphony they heard or the last painting they made.

<comment><USER10> It's the same reason we aren't showing each other pictures or playing each other music right now. Written word is the best way to convey almost all kinds of complex information. If you have the time, that is.

<comment><USER8> i think video and pictures are useful for a lot of information (less than writing, but a lot). but in general they are more expensive to do well. but examples include charts, maps, and graphs, and also pictures of scenes usually work better than describing what it looks like in English.

<comment><USER10> I said "complex information". This is vague, but you can see the truth of this in a following way: take any topic, such as maps, which you mentioned. What's more complex, a map, or knowing how to make a map? The former will be a picture, but the latter will be mostly text. As far as I can tell, this is the rule. As you go up in complexity, text becomes more and more suitable.

By the way, I mostly agree that books are overrated. The reason is that most books are not very complex. Text is the wrong medium for the ideas of their authors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Heh, I actually an "Atlas Shrugged" experience - I knew a pretty girl and after adding her on facebook I noticed the book was at the top of her favourites. That really did change the way I thought of her.

But more generally, I can't make my mind up one way or another about this. I've seen the kind of relationship the last part of the article talks about - very long term, very stable with interests like books, movies, music etc being completely irrelevant - so that makes me think its quite right. At the same time, there's gotta be some baseline - how can a music lover go out with someone that thinks highly of (say) Paris Hilton's music? Or a normal person with a objectivist? ;)

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm always suspicious of adults who list Harry Potter as their favourite book.

<comment><USER13> Agreed.

Adults who list Harry Potter as their favorite book (which is not the same as admitting Harry Potter is a fun read) by doing so fairly explicitly state that the universe of a children's book, however well written it is, is pretty much all the intellectual stimulation they care for.

Nothing wrong with them, most likely, but certainly not people I'd want to invest emotionally in. YMMV, of course.

<comment><USER14> By that logic, listing any book as a favorite would mean that you have a limited intellectual horizon, after all, you only care for the intellectual stimulation provided by that book.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I admit it. I read the Character of Physical Law just to pick up chicks.

</comment><comment><USER16> Music is considerably more important than books, since it's typically hard to avoid the other person's taste, good or bad. "Urban contemporary", "country" music, and anything involving death grunts can cause problems.

</comment><comment><USER17> Reminds of me Joel Spolsky's quote, to which I agree with to some degree.

 _"You can learn a lot about somebody by the books they've read. And I've always thought that if you read all the same books I read, you'll come to think like me, too."_

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html>

</comment><comment><USER18> My girlfriend loved Harry Potter when we first met but I've since turned her on to much higher quality stuff (fantasy and otherwise) and she seems to be responding well. At least she doesn't have any literary pretensions like some girl who prides herself on having read pushkin probably does.

If you pride yourself on having rad certain authors you're reading them for the wrong reasons. You don't read great literature because it's "Great Literature". You read it because it is good.

I suppose it's to be expected. Even in the intellectual world Sturgeon's Law applies. 90% of everything is crap.

(Btw, if you havn't you should read Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human)

</comment><comment><USER19> I once dated a girl who said to me: "Barnes and Noble? What's that?" and "I've only read two books in my life."

But she was the one that broke it off.

Now I'm marrying someone that I worked with in a bookstore.

<comment><USER20> Congrats!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've learnt this lesson the hard way. Now my favorite book in social networks is "Why Most Things Fail" by Paul Omerod.

I'll recommend it to everyone, but specially to those with some interest, and little knowledge, in Economics.

<comment><USER22> If he renamed it "Why Most Things Fail -- and 10 Easy Things You Can Do To Avoid It Happening to YOU," it would be on the front page of every social media site . . .

I need to read less about copywriting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I read Hacker News. Does that mean I can only date geek chicks? What if there aren't any?

</comment><comment><USER14> submarine alarm

<comment><USER24> Where?

<comment><USER14> <http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

At least a reasonably interesting discussion ensued on HN. But other than that, I don't think those books are as big an issue in dating as the article tries to make them to be. Hm, except perhaps if you happen to be a "bookslut"? Impressive how they even manage to tailor the article towards the intended audience of their client (I presume).

<comment><USER24> I knew what he was talking about. The article just strikes me as uninspired rather than promotional.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hackerotica: Erotic Stories for Geeks and Hackers - <AUTHOR> http://hackerotica.com/ <comment><USER2> This makes me actually feel a little uncomfortable.... people taking the piss out of [my] geekery has never ever worried me :) but this is, well, a little tasteless.

I couldn't figure out if it was serious, ironic or just rude. :(

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, I only submitted it because I was laughing my ass off at the idea such a thing even existed! :) So I'm going with option 4: creepily funny.

<comment><USER2> oh, totally :D I wasn't laying into you for it! Just my reaction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> so, is that what 'niche publisher' is all about ?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, I publish blogs in a number of niches. But that's _my_ bio.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good Experiences Working at Google? - <AUTHOR>

Based on reading Hacker News, Quora and the internet in general it seems like many people are complaining about the hiring process and actual work environment at Google. I'm just starting in on the interview process now - Can anyone share some good experiences working there to keep me motivated? Especially interested to hear from people who joined Google with a fair amount of industry experience. <comment><USER2> I worked at tech startups and small companies since 1998 until I joined Google this year.

Work is what you make of it.

Interview process: I interviewed at equally big companies like Comcast too. Google's interview process was just as slow as other big companies. Seems to be normal when you get to that size.

Management and structure: Your experience working there, like anywhere including a startup, will greatly depend on who your manager is. My manager is great and actively encourages me to step up my game.

Work/life balance: Google gives you a lot room to do the work that you're excited to do but that comes at a price: Self-regulation. If you're not good at it you WILL burn yourself out. But that's not any different than my last startup. I've seen it in startups too.

Personally, having a great time, learning a lot very fast, and happy. Of course, your millage may vary.

</comment><comment><USER3> Have you read glassdoor.com? There's 2500+ reviews on google.

[http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Google- Reviews-E9079.htm](http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Google-Reviews-E9079.htm)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm at the interview process as well. had first phone interview and they went quiet for 2 weeks. So i just send follow up e-mail yesterday. wait and see. lots of people say their process is pretty slow though. keep clam and look for other positive possibilities :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Take everything you read online with a grain of salt. People with good experiences with any companies usually won't take the time to post about it.</comment>


Why To Not Not Not Start a Startup: The Hedge Approach - <AUTHOR> http://jamtoday.beehold.us/post/32362468

<comment><USER2> There are so many people telling you what to do and what not to do, how to do it, and how not to do it. I think you just have to jump off the cliff and flap as hard as you can.</comment>


Spotify traded down 10% on first day, achieved $26.6B market cap - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/03/spotify-traded-down-10-on-first-day-achieves-26-6-billion-market-cap/ <comment><USER2> _" Some on Wall Street are puzzled as to why Spotify would want to go public without raising money"_

I'm not sure it's that puzzling - they wanted liquidity, but don't need any more cash so don't want to dilute the existing equity.

Also worth noting a stat lower down the article that's a different point of view to the "down 10%" of the headline:

 _' $132 was used as a "reference point," valuing the company at $23.5 billion. Since there was no IPO price, that demarcation is being used to say that Spotify traded up about 13% on its first day.'_

Credit to them for doing something non-typical that fits what they needed. It seems like it's gone according to plan so far.

</comment><comment><USER3> Whether it traded up or down is a matter of perspective - are you comparing to the opening price (~160) or the initial indicative price (~135)... not that it matters to the guys at SPOT. Going public is a major feat in itself...

</comment><comment><USER4> Duplicate of: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16746680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16746680)

</comment><comment><USER5> "Buy the dip"

<comment><USER6> The whole last 2 weeks has been a dip. I'm pondering if I should heavily invest, before the summer seasons typical uptick due to massive consumer spending.</comment></comment>


The Ghost of Cognition Past, or Thinking Like an Algorithm - <AUTHOR> http://www.bldgblog.com/2017/11/the-ghost-of-cognition-past-or-thinking-like-an-algorithm/ <comment><USER2> Very interesting. Also brings up the suggestion that Trump speaks like an algorithm that is brutally optimized to win an election in the 21st century. Is he really clueless?

<comment><USER3> He's obviously not clueless. He either is very adept at winning, or is adept at picking people to support him who are adept at winning which is essentially the same thing. I find it funny that there is a claim that Trump speaks like an algorithm though - he appears to speak the same way regardless of whether he is in a national debate, or ordering a hamburger. HRC, on the other hand, had various voices which were probably developed by study groups and psychologists. I honestly could not believe that the lady speaking in empty political-speak at the debates and on TV/radio shows was the same lady in the leaked tapes from her wall street speeches where she showed typical, human interactions with her questioners.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Discussion 3 days ago about the original blogpost that Geoff Manaugh is commenting on: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15637504](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15637504)

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe it looks something like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSF5PbwKU3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSF5PbwKU3I)</comment>


The AA is out of step with research on addiction - <AUTHOR> http://aeon.co/magazine/being-human/the-aa-is-out-of-step-with-research-on-addiction/

<comment><USER2> The article is question-begging with multiple quotes like this:

"Her multiple relapses, according to recent science, are no ethical or moral failing – no failure of will. Instead, they are the brain reigniting the neurological and chemical pathways of addiction."

Why the assumption that the _will_ is made irrelevant by the fact that brain chemistry exists? Are they really suggesting that AA never realized there was a "mind over matter" struggle in recovering from addiction, just because the "matter" wasn't as well understood when AA started?

Author seems to take for granted that all readers share his radically materialistic metaphysics in which "mind _is_ matter". But that's not the real problem. The real problem with this article is his arrogant implication that the reason the AA doesn't agree with him because it's simply never _heard_ about his self-evidently superior, childish modern philosophy.</comment>


Break before make, abstractions, and sleazy ISPs - <AUTHOR> http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2019/10/05/nxdomain/ <comment><USER2> > If you're using things which do macro expansion or anything else that > involves you writing format A and it generating format B which actually does > the work (or worse yet, gets turned into format C), you really owe it to > yourself to run a 'diff' on the before-and-after versions of the output from > the tool BEFORE it goes and takes any action on your behalf.

Seriously. This is a huge issue with Helm templating Kubernetes resources definitions. When you make a PR on your infrastructure repository, there could be many changes underneath the hood in a Helm chart that Are invisible from changes to a values file.

We had a rule in my last job the diff of the actual resource files had to be included in the PR in order to be approved because we were bit by the same.

<comment><USER3> We're probably going to be moving to a K8s thing, and this what I'm most scared of, really. This kind of macro expansion is (to me) a huge red flag wrt. understandability, audits, etc. It's really just an indicator of a lack of composability. Yeah, you can try to add it, but that doesn't really work (see Ansible.)

Ideally, I'd want something like Propeller (with static type checking) to actually have a little confidence in my changes. We're not using Propeller due to the fact that it requires/installs GHC on the target machines -- I wish there was a GHC-to-bash compiler...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I recently moved to Brisbane, Australia. The apartment building I rent in was advertised as NBN (public fibre) connected.

Turns out, it's vendor locked to a specific ISP, iiNet, which wouldn't be a problem if they offered static ips but they don't. Its kinda funny because another sub company, internode, of their parent company, TPG, does offer static ips for vendor locked FTTB but it wasn't offered in the building.

It gets weird for various other reasons (convoluted inbound tcp/25/80/443 unblocking process, static ips).

But the larger point is that ISPs largely control the internet and frequently do scummy things. in Australia it's quickly becoming a very select vendor market and monopolising behaviour is occurring to the point where there's very few decent 'neutral' isps left.

Here there's laws to prevent complete monopolisation of media but I don't think the same exists for networks comms, and I fear that this place is going to quickly end up owned by a few select companies that will effectively be able to do what they want, without intervention.

Maybe this sounds grim but I needed the rant

</comment><comment><USER5> See this bullshit from ISPs is what something like DNS over HTTPs would help with.

It helps the average user who is using their own internet connection or public internet connections.

Probably 90% of users will never be on a corporate network where they have control over their own browser configuration.

But all the detractors are like "I lose control over my network"

Whilst seemingly not having the skills to block all public DoH providers in their network. Not even going into DPI or MITM style web security products.

DNS isn't security. It's just an address book.

<comment><USER6> > See this bullshit from ISPs is what something like DNS over HTTPs would help > with.

I'll start by saying I've setup DoH on my home router just for fun.

> Whilst seemingly not having the skills to block all public DoH providers in > their network.

Now with my admin hat on - maintaining a list is an unnecessary burden. It's a matter of sensibility not skill. Time is money after all.

DoT (DNS-over-TLS) probably should have won since it uses it's own port (853) which makes it easily manageable, does the same thing and is more mature. The "but privacy" argument for DoH looks like a red herring.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't get what the relevance of the ISP ad page is. Wouldn't it be a similar problem if the any DNS server just cached the NXDOMAIN for too long? Seems to me that the problem is either the ISP's DNS server is using a higher TTL than specified, or the user specifying a higher TTL than necessary?

<comment><USER8> The whole situation is a bizarre and I'm surprised any effect was noticed at all. You had to get unlucky enough that this ISP's recursive resolver cache expired in the 1-2 seconds you sent an NXDOMAIN. And then you have your NXDOMAIN TTL set far enough in the future it causes a problem. One possibility is the ISP ignores TTLs, setting its negative ones _higher than_ the SOA settings and the others lower. I think the more likely scenario is weird caching-- either because of geopolitical boundaries or propagation issues on the service provider's side.

<comment><USER9> Before doing the switchover they might have lowered the TTL to something like 5s, which greatly increases the chance the TTL in the resolver cache would expire during the switchover. And then the ISP probably did set a longer than normal TTL on the record they inserted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The sleaze will slime you, and it's hard to escape it, regardless of whether you use Infrastructure as Code or do things by hand.

Even by hand, it would be easy to do destroy/create -- even if update would have been better -- and think that a few seconds downtime will not do much harm.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is the thing where if you mistyped an address the ISP would present a "helpful" search (usually full of ads) to you instead of letting the application deal with it appropriately?

</comment><comment><USER12> By the way you can have multiple A records on a domain name. So you should add the .2 address before removing the .1

Not that this excuses the crummy ISPs

<comment><USER13> The article is about automating away that change to the point where you don't have control over the order of operations, or the intermediate state(s) of the system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I see the point, but I consider this more an indictment of ISPs than complexity or IaC or more abstractions.

Even if I saw that the update was modeled as delete/insert, I probably would have okayed it.

ISPs doing shitty things... I mean, honestly, it's hard to believe that's even legal.

</comment><comment><USER15> We use "Infrastructure as Code thing[s]" but no way would we use, say terraform, to execute a change to a public-facing DNS record without confirming whether it was an update or a destroy/create operation. I'm not shaming someone who does, or did, and I love Rachael by the Bay, but there seemed to be a wee bit of snark coming through with respect to all the "magic" layers of stuff that makes things work in the cloud. I don't know if it's the old "the cloud is just someone else's computer" thing that you often hear, but honestly I wish we'd get over it. Cloud computing has been transformative, and there are lots of business that are able to exist because of the efficiencies derived from these platforms. I don't think there's much question that cloud deployments can be done correctly and managed well, and after all there is always someone upstream whose competence you rely on.

<comment><USER16> Something I've learned over the past 3 years or so is that when you have Infrastructure as Code, you get Infrastructure by Coders. This is incredibly empowering and useful, but sometimes little details sneak into the system because the folks writing the code don't have any experience managing the systems that have been so neatly abstracted. Or, as could be the case here, they choose to simplify the interface by making a number of policy decisions by default...such as make before break when revising DNS A records.

<comment><USER17> > when you have Infrastructure as Code, you get Infrastructure by Coders

This.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Remember when Verisign decided to try this on the .com/.net/.org TLDs (15ish years ago)?

Any good stories about stuff that broke?

</comment><comment><USER19> I feel that the article should make mention of dnssec which can guarantee non- existance of dns records by signing every response. Of course this relies on the end user having a dnssec-aware stub resolver.

<comment><USER20> It also relies on the zones being looked up actually being signed with DNSSEC, but virtually none of them are. After 25 years of standardization effort there is practically no deployment of DNSSEC among the popular Internet or in the US. The protocol is moribund; it's not worth configuring.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> OpenDNS used to do this a few years ago.

<comment><USER22> It's very common to hit this on public WiFi hotspots. All DNS queries lead to some signin page. APIs have to detect that.

<comment><USER23> Typically, in my experience, WiFi portals will hijack HTTP traffic, but not DNS requests.

DNS will either be blocked until you're signed in, or actually resolve correctly even prior to login.

Otherwise, the incorrect DNS record could still be cached even after signing in.

There's even a tool for routing all traffic over DNS queries, with a specialized resolver on the other end: [https://code.kryo.se/iodine/](https://code.kryo.se/iodine/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Why does changing a DNS record take a few seconds? Shouldn't it just be some milliseconds as the packet is sent and ack'd?

</comment><comment><USER25> > I keep asking if people do this on purpose as a job security gambit.

People are just trying to get stuff done. Come on.

</comment><comment><USER26> What is her beef with infrastructure as code, and what is her suggested alternative?</comment>


WeeChat – an IRC client, real alternative for irssi - <AUTHOR> https://weechat.org/ <comment><USER2> And it works with [https://matrix.org](https://matrix.org)!</comment>