Show HN: Standup Jack – A Slack Bot for Your Standups - <AUTHOR> https://standupjack.com/ <comment><USER2> Oh god. This shows a complete misunderstanding of what daily stand-ups are for. This is just a bot for daily status reports.

The point of a daily stand-up meeting is to get everybody physically together, re-make human connections, quickly surface issues, get people talking, and get everybody charged up to go tackle the day as a team. Having a bot help you put the right cover sheet on your TPS report is in no way a daily stand-up meeting. One way you can tell is that it does not involve people actually standing together.

If people want to do daily status reports, that is totally fine by me, but please just call it that. Then when somebody asks me for help and I suggest they try a daily stand-up meeting, we don't have to spend 15 minutes while they un-learn the wrong thing.

<comment><USER3> I was thinking the same thing. Who is really going to read these updates? If I was forced to do this at a company, I'd probably automate responses with a bot of my own. I'd call it the schitt-bot.

<comment><USER2> That's exactly it. The stand-up meeting was created because typical status meetings were a waste of time. Much was said, but most people were bored out of their minds.

The solution was to get everybody together to have a quick, real conversation about the upcoming day's work. And to keep it quick and dynamic, everybody had to literally stand up. Done right, this is great.

Merely renaming a lame status meeting to a stand-up meeting doesn't fix the problem. If people find so little value in doing an on-line stand-up that you need a machine to force them to do it, that's a sign that nobody sees it as worthwhile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Disclaimer: I've been working on a similar product ([https://jell.com](https://jell.com)) We don't have a bot (we do support slash commands).

One thing that sticks out to me (and a lot of the other standup bots) are that the screenshots/demo often only include the simple case of a user inputting a single answer to a question.

Does your bot handle multiple answers? Seems like that could be a differentiator for bots (and the reason why we've stuck with Slash commands).

Good Luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Jell looks great :-)

Yah, so the bot's questions are context aware, so answering "yes" does different things depending on the question asked.

I'll be going wayyy deeper on that soon and open sourcing some neat tools :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nifty idea. Key question missing for my team: "Is any of your work blocked by someone else?"

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

The last question is actually: "Is there anything blocking you". I originally cut it out of the picture for simplicity, but I'll add it back in :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The team updates seem odd with everyone's response clobbered together. I'd much rather see the answers grouped by user rather than question.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the feedback! I'd be curious to know if other people feel this way too. Maybe it can be an option :-)

<comment><USER7> Small teams will do good with the current grouping. Larger teams will get complicated.

Feature idea: DM @Jack "What did @john @mike @gsharma say for their standup today?"

<comment><AUTHOR> Large organization support will definitely need some work. I think the solution will be multiple standup channels for different teams inside the company.

I love your idea. It could also work for aggregation: "What did @john say this week?" or when there is multiple standup channels, querying for people who aren't in your team's standup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> History/Back is broken. If I navigate to /faq and then use my back button, my url updates but the content doesn't. Most recent chrome stable on OSX.

Cool product. I'm going to see if my team would be interested in something like this. I like the design and branding as well. Kudos.

<comment><AUTHOR> oops, you're right. thanks for the bug report :-)

thanks for the kind words!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really like the overall branding / design of this tool. Nice work. Going to give it a shot.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Let me know what you think :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> $1 per user, per month? Ouch.

That's a lot to bite off honestly. We have 80+ people in our slack account, but i'd maybe wanna use this for ~20 of them. Doesn't seem to support that type of deal though.

<comment><USER11> Also, on this note, we're in a similar situation. We have ~250 people in our Slack, but would only want this for 3-4 of them (the full time staff).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> My guess is that no one would really read these standup summaries.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that's highly dependent on your team. We've been using it heavily to help stay connected without nagging each other. It's also especially useful for remote workers :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Reminds of [https://home.idonethis.com/](https://home.idonethis.com/) except Slackified!

(edit: typos)

<comment><AUTHOR> haha, yep. It's quite similar. I Done This offers way more though. Standup Jack is just focused on running great standups :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Seems very similar to [https://geekbot.io/](https://geekbot.io/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh cool, yes it looks like we are trying to solve the same issue :-). One difference I can spot right away is that Geekbot will post the status update immediately, while Jack will collect everyone's responses and post them at one time. It's hard to say which one is more effective. I'm definitely bookmarking this service, thanks for sharing :-)

<comment> saiko-chriskun geekbot also allows custom questions, multiple standups, and is free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> How does this compare to Howdy?

<comment><AUTHOR> It looks like Howdy offers quite a bit more than just standups. But if we compare Standup Jack to their standup product, it looks like someone chooses when to start standup (the "run check in" command). Standup Jack is slightly more automated, where you pick a time that works well for you and Jack will message you each weekday at that time for an update.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I was hoping the mascot would be a bottle jack with googly eyes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha, nice idea :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Can I ask Jack to talk to only 4 of 6 members of my team? I don't see a way to do that.

<comment><AUTHOR> not yet! but i'm planning on adding admin options soon :-)</comment></comment>


Has humanity reached 'peak intelligence'? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190709-has-humanity-reached-peak-intelligence <comment><USER2> Welfare systems are dysgenic, but we will be able to genetically engineer ourselves out of it before it becomes a serious issue.

The notion that time scales are too short for evolution to be involved is not true. Some evolutionary effects can happen very quickly.

The prevalence of an _existing trait_ within a population can change quickly, if it's _highly heritable_ , and the _selection is strong_.

<comment><USER3> _but we will be able to genetically engineer ourselves out of it before it becomes a serious issue._

What is your level of uncertainty regarding this? It would seem to be merely a possibility, especially if we undershoot due to falling intelligence levels ...

<comment><USER4> Even ignoring engineering, there is already preimplantation genetic screening with in vitro fertilization to screen out chromosomes with known heritable defects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5>
      > Even the average person today would have been considered a genius compared to someone born in 1919

If you didn't already suspect that IQ is a load of crap, this sentence should tip you off. Can you really imagine a 100 IQ person being haled as a genius 100 years ago?

<comment><USER3> IQ being 'a load of crap' doesn't follow from some journalists glib (and incorrect) claim. What is more, if it were true and the IQ differences were such that todays average measured as a genius then, if you were to witness someone ace the test, you could reasonably hail them a genius at least in the colloquial sense.

<comment><USER6> IQ simply measures general intelligence. How intelligence is measured when there is artificial general intelligence will be interesting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I would argue that intelligence (as is muscle mass for example) is dependent on the need, and hence, training for it. If your life is simple and repetitive, why focus on getting smarter as it will probably make you bored more easily.

Similarly, if you do physical work all day your muscles are bound to adapt.

<comment><USER8> Your cleverness is likely to be oriented at other matters such as hunting and avoiding being hunted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> As the intelligence (rather than the wisdom) of the network (i.e. the whole of humanity connected by the internet) goes up, wouldn't one naively expect the intelligence of individual average human to go down? (Like social insects - ants/bees/wasps.)

I seem to recall somewhere an article about how native Australian hunter- gatherers had very highly developed memories to track animals through the bush. Not so necessary now - just ask Google Maps where to go.

Also, as elsewhere in this thread - I agree, IQ is a fraud.

<comment><USER10> Yes I've theorized humans are evolving to be eusocial before our eyes. Essentially the "knowledge" is being transferred into the structure of the system itself rather than dispersed amongst humans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> And it will get worse, as intelligence is negatively impacted by CO2 concentration too:

[https://thinkprogress.org/exclusive-elevated-co2-levels- dire...](https://thinkprogress.org/exclusive-elevated-co2-levels-directly- affect-human-cognition-new-harvard-study-shows-2748e7378941/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Just a hypothesis, but often intelligence is a proxy for the mental and social stimulus a child is exposed to in their formative years. So you would expect that to grow and then taper off as the useful limit of childhood well-being is reached. Since childhood enrichment is heavily indexed to wealth in most couuntries...

</comment><comment><USER13> No. The Internet, social networks and other distractions actually cause a slight decrease in intelligence due to shortening of the attention span.

So if we fix the problem with the attention span, we can increase intelligence even further, I believe.

</comment><comment><USER14> Yes. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxzlq8DoXBw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxzlq8DoXBw)

</comment><comment><USER15> Look at the absolute intellectual-curiosity-free morons the masses are electing to lead us across the world. We are past that point.

</comment><comment><USER16> We haven't even scratched the surface.

It's not average intelligence that matters, it's how many outliers are we getting. Outliers make scientific break-throughs that trickle down to the masses.

That's what matters.

We're in the best spot of all time in terms of number of outliers, simply due to the population being the highest ever. Now it's a matter of realizing that potential.

</comment><comment><USER17> SEO fake crap.</comment>


Servo, the parallel browser engine - <AUTHOR> https://servo.org/ <comment><USER2> why does it exist? Does anyone know the vision of the project?

<comment><USER3> "To achieve better parallelism, security, modularity, and performance."</comment></comment>


Will it be snowy holidays in your region? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/planet-os/snow-hypothesis-for-the-holidays-c452d0bed4d <comment><USER2> Yeah, nah, yeah. In the middle of stinking hot Australia, so probably not.

<comment><USER3> No, yes, no, yes, no, yes. Why would there be snow in Australian summer?</comment></comment>


Microsoft hopes to bury iPhone, Android - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6905PY20101002 <comment><USER2> I wish I could ask Steve Ballmer the following: You just said you missed a generation in the phone market. You also missed a generation in the browser, web services, MP3 player and operating system* markets. How does this keep happening to you guys? I find it impossible to believe that with so many talented engineers no one wants to push the envelope; engineers live to push the envelope. So what exactly is the hangup? Am I wrong that your engineers are hungry? Is your management so unwieldy that no one can get anything done? Did you make innovative things that just didn't catch on?

When asked what your plan was for the tablet market (which you haven't missed a generation on yet, but the clock is ticking) you responded simply: "It's called Windows" and laughed. What exactly is the joke here? The absurdity of the idea that Windows could ever fail to dominate a market? Wake the fuck up.

Recently you had a QA on reddit regarding your new browser. Your response to almost every question of the form "Why didn't you include feature X?" was "Our market research shows people don't want feature X, we make what people want." __Again you're only lying to yourselves and insulting us along the way. We are your users (at least we could be) and we're telling you what we want. What those answers mean to us is that your product is just never going to do what we want it to. Why do the QA with these people when all you're going to do is marginalize the concerns they express.

I think I know why you keep slipping up here Steve. You're somehow under the mass delusion that things are still going well.

 _This one less so than the others Vista wasn't a missed generation so much as just not up to snuff._ *To be fair this this QA was done in 2 parts first with marketing people then with programmers the prior having much more of this type of response than the latter.

<comment><USER3> Everything I've ever read about Microsoft's problems always point the finger at crippling management problems. Each department is out for themselves, not for the good of the company as a whole (see the Kin/WP7 debacle), and yet many departments have says and vetos on those of another (there's a good piece about the Windows Start Menu shutdown behavior somewhere... it indicated all sorts of problems with the kernel team telling the UI team what to do).

As soon as the inmates aren't running the asylum, Microsoft does much better. The Entertainment and Devices division and MS has pretty much full autonomy, and they come up with a very popular console line and a unique motion gesture system within two generations, they take a chance on the Zune (particularly the second generation UI... although the Zune didn't sell in the end, they put up a good effort). Microsoft Research does great stuff, and is also completely autonomous.

Ray Ozzie was supposed to move Microsoft away from monolithic development, but it requires a full rebuild of Microsoft's structure, which I can only assume Ballmer is stalling.

<comment><USER4> From friends on the inside, it sounds like a nightmarish political situation, with powerful, long-established, and hugely profitable nearly-autonomous fiefdoms at continual war with one another. There are excellent people there, and excellent technologies, and a cripplingly awful corporate culture.

<comment><USER2> So do they just figure they'll ride the gravy train until it completely breaks down? Do they acknowledge this is a problem or do they just think it's fine?

<comment><USER4> Probably depends on where in management you happen to be. If you're in charge of, say, Office, and the huge profits that that makes, why change what you're doing? Why exert the effort to integrate your product better, or take a short term hit to profitability in the interest of a larger goal? It reads from the outside like a real incentive mismatch problem. At the level of the people who do the work, I think there's great awareness of the fuckedupedness, but that's matched by their total lack of ability to change things. Honestly, I don't really know, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft incapable of stopping their slide into irrelevance.

<comment><USER3> That's the sort of managerial problems that can only be solved from the top down. Shake-ups, reshufflings, and some good old fashioned ass-kicking can begin turning the ship around.

A lot of Apple enthusiasts like to say "Apple's excellence isn't just Steve Jobs," but I think in the case of Microsoft, one can reasonably say "Microsoft's brokenness is just Steve Ballmer." I think he's almost completely blind to pretty much everything that's happening in his company, and the tech world at large. I'm not really sure what value the board think he adds. I guess something to do with sales and marketing, given his background, but it's not like Microsoft's image is doing all that well either.

One other MS subdivision I forgot to mention that are doing well is Bing. They're doing some great work. I'm not sure who they report to, and what their level of autonomy is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is denial. Next step is anger, then bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance.

It seems the mobile division is a couple years behind the server software division.

<comment><USER6> Microsoft in second place might actually be a motivated competitor. Could be good...

<comment><USER7> I'd have said Microsoft in third place would be quite an achievement.

<comment><USER5> I think, considering recent events, such accomplishment would have more to do with the legal department than with the mobile product division and their own accomplishments.

In fact, I would consider it a miracle.

<comment><USER8> Come on man, it's not like the mobile division has the power to unilaterally chart the course for Microsoft's mobile strategy; with MS, every division is subservient to the rest and they're co-shackled, usually in support of Microsoft's core money makers (Windows and Office.)

The mobile division is not just coding for the present and the future, but also the past. If they manage to get half the developer attention that the iPhone gets, I am certain MS will demolish both iPhone and Android because they have a _vast_ developer base to tap into.

If they manage to get the distribution right, control handset variety (or at least require minimum specs; a la PC architecture), tame the carriers and open up to developers just a tad, you will see millions of corporate developers installing the mobile plugins for Visual Studio and cranking out apps.

But I am afraid it's not in MS' nature to motivate developers, but have always relied on market demand and other people's $$$ to make their shenanigans palatable to developers.

If I was in charge, I would assemble a team of 8 - 12 and write a nice .NET/C# cross-compiler/wrapper given to any registered Windows Mobile developer; even remote, hosted cross compiler. Make people write with your tools first, for your primary platform, with the option to target other platforms from the same source. Apple was afraid of this with the 3.3.1 policy: iOS getting wrapped with Win32 API or Android SDK would have been a nightmare for quality on the iOS.

The first tool developer to successfully target top N platforms (for N>2) is gonna rake in cash, 3.3.1 permitting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> In all seriousness, if Microsoft can keep their phone software from getting captured the carriers, that would be a good thing in my mind. IMO, it is impossible to overstate the horror of a world run by the wireless carriers, and I'm afraid that Android is merely serving to empower them at the expense of the consumer.

<comment><USER9> True, Microsoft is trying to combine the advantages of iPhone (OS updates straight from OS writer) with the advantages of Android (multiple hardware choices from various companies, carriers).

It's just unbelievable that Sony is launching phones running Android 1.6 now which can't be updated by Google directly like it can the Nexus One.

<comment><USER10> >It's just unbelievable that Sony is launching phones running Android 1.6 now which can't be updated by Google directly like it can the Nexus One.

Did you buy one of those Sony phones?

Probably not. In fact that major disadvantage of Sony's entrants is incredibly well known, and has heavily worked against them. Which is exactly how the market is supposed to work.

Having said that, it's humorous that Microsoft is now looked to as a _good_ example. For anyone who owned a Windows Mobile device before, there is a long history of Microsoft grunting out a version onto the market, and then abandoning. The amount of support for that Moto Q after it was released was exactly 0, and that wasn't Motorola's fault. Microsoft gets bored quickly.

<comment><USER4> Obviously, it's too soon to tell which direction WP7 is going to go. Microsoft certainly have form in totally screwing their partners and customers, so skepticism is warranted. And it's not like there aren't sufficient internal problems with the company to scuttle even an excellent product.

But more competitors focussed on the customer and not the carrier is a plus in my book. I'm an iOS fan, but I don't want to live in an Apple monoculture.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I got hands on with a pre-release WP7 phone earlier this week. I think all the "kill Apple" stuff is kind of stupid, but the WP7 phone was really really nice. There were lots of nice features and flourishes, and I can honestly say I liked it a lot better than my wife's iPhone.

MS has obviously put a lot of thought and a lot of work in WP7 and it shows.

Whether it will survive in the marketplace is a different matter.

</comment><comment><USER12> Microsoft's mentality reminds me of a recent TedTalk: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4>

The researcher concludes that when you tell others what you are going to do, that your mind tricks itself into believing that the task has already been achieved, and reduces the incentive to do the hard work to actually achieve it. Thus, when Steve Balmer gushes to the press and says that iPhone is going to get obliterated, it probably reduces the chances of that actually happening.

<comment><USER13> well, Steve Balmber isn't the one who will actually build the competitive device, and judging from demo videos I'd say Windows Phone 7 as an OS, looks liike a serious competitor for people to build applications for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Microsoft's last chance? No way! Microsoft isn't going to run out of money anytime soon; it can buy itself quite a lot of time, enough for several chances.

Paul Graham also declared Microsoft dead (<http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html>) 3.5 years ago. With all reservations made to the meaning of the word "dead" in this fine essay, I can't find the way around some ways in which this is simply wrong. For example, if I want to play a computer game nowadays, I'd better have Windows. The vast majority of games, from indie and experimental through proud little independent companies all the way to established companies - are made for Windows. It's like the only game in town. There's no sign of changing this in sight. Granted, PC game market is a fraction of that of consoles, but in consoles Microsoft established a good foothold too and not giving it up anytime soon.

I'm afraid that many technology observers drink too much of some fashionable kool-aid and over-dramatize things. Wherever some company or technology appears that has non-zero chance to potentially displace established company or technology X, they declare it "X killer" or proclaim X dead. I'm afraid I can't fully trust the expertise and reasoning of said people after that.

Maybe Microsoft's hopes to bury iPhone and Android are just that, hopes. But declaring it Microsoft's "last chance", even in mobile segment, is no less wishful thinking.

<comment><USER15> >For example, if I want to play a computer game nowadays, I'd better have Windows.

Try this site: <http://www.kongregate.com/>

<comment><USER14> Try playing games from this <http://www.ludumdare.com/>, <http://www.tale-of- tales.com/>, this <http://www.impulsedriven.com/> or this site: <http://store.steampowered.com/>. That's what I mean.

Or, to go with the Kongregate example look at what's hot there: [http://www.kongregate.com/games/kupo707/epic-battle- fantasy-...](http://www.kongregate.com/games/kupo707/epic-battle-fantasy-3) Humour is fine, but this variety gets old after 5 minutes. And this kind of thing is no substitute of the games it is trying to mock, only supplement.

It's not that you cannot play any games on Linux or web. After all, there are fine games like Tux Racer and Quake III and there are really lists like "25 Linux games". But it's like the selection you have is like the menu in prison canteen vs all the world's restraints. Chefs don't come there. All the new and exciting stuff is happening elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> John Gruber (noted Apple fan) recently had an opportunity to play with a prototype Windows Phone 7 phone for 5 minutes. He felt that in many respects the UI/UX was as good as an iPhone, substantially better than Android.

Listen at: <http://5by5.tv/talkshow/10> starting about 55:00

7 may be their magic number.

<comment><USER11> Interesting listen, and closely mirrors my own experience.

* The UI is very responsive on pre-release hardware. I've been told that the released version will be faster.

* The keyboard is very nice. One feature that I noticed is that if you hold down the letter key, you get accented versions of that same key. Makes it much easier to type résumé instead of resume. I can't compare it in over-all usability to other smart phones as I haven't lived day in day out with a smart phone.

* The way applications are organized is interesting. Instead of merely having a mongo huge list of apps, apps can also register themselves in app hubs. So applications that manipulate photos will show up under your photos, applications that deal with music show up there, etc. I'm not totally sold on this, but it seems like a good idea.

* Development for WP7 in silverlight is shockingly easy. And silverlight on WP7 runs super fast. Actually runs faster on the device than on my beefy desktop in emulator.

* There isn't yet an easy way to handle deploying WP7 phones in an enterprise, but I was told that this will be addressed later. There was only so much they could do before this launch though.

I'm in the market for a smart phone, and after handling the WP7 phones I am sold. It is better than Android, and in my opinion at least as good as the iPhone.

<comment><USER11> Just looked at my co-worker's Android phone and its keyboard does the same thing. If you hold down a letter on the screen it will pop up the alternatives.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> jfb hopes for a Porsche 918, more than two weeks of sun in San Francisco.

<comment><USER17> Microsoft hopes for iPhone and Android burial, pony

<comment><USER8> They could bury both with an Android/iOS plugin for Visual Studio. Make WinMo8 SDK a meta-API for mobile development. Wrap the fuck out of Android/iOS and bundle top-notch, win32-only emulators.

They have an opportunity to be a wise-elder to the industry, if only they woke up and realized they're no longer the prizefighter, but an _elder_.

With a move like that they can become a reference platform for mobile adoption; first in big business and government, then academia, and once the quality of their Qt-like API improves the game developers will start using it to push the envelope (remember when DirectX was laughed as full-screen GDI, and game developers still used their own hardware abstraction layers, by- passing Win16/32 for the tried and true power of DOS underneath?)

[Edit:

I must add that they might want to naturalize Symbian refugees. Grab the top 10 ten Symbian app vendors and offer them a migration route to WinMo, next comes J2ME which is effectively dead, thanks to Oracle's unapparent interest in mobile.

Backward compatibility is something MS knows best. Take the refugees before they commit mass seppuku and offer them a new home.

Take over StackOverflow or launch your own mobile Q&A site to centralize mobile development knowledge and keep it under your watch.]

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Microsoft: the Nikita Khrushchev of the software industry.

<comment><USER19> at least the shoe still worked afterwards

<comment><USER20> What shoe?

<comment><USER14> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-banging_incident>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm sure it won't hurt their chances to have burned Verizon on the Kin and sued their key smartphone provider. WP7 is obviously going to be _so good_ that it won't matter that they'll launch as second banana on the two largest networks in the US.

<comment><USER11> I've heard from reliable sources that Verizon will have a W7 phone, but it won't be until early next year. Supposedly has more to do with Verizon's phone system than anything else though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Off topic: Why do headlines from some sources omit the "and" from sentences? Shouldn't it say "Microsoft hopes to bury iPhone and Android"? It's not like I can say "honey, can you buy some apples, pears, oranges at the store?". I might be wrong, but this is something rather new, right? If so, when and why did it come about?

<comment><USER23> It's standard form for writing news headlines, by-lines.

<comment><USER24> ...in the US, but generally not the UK.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Keyword: "hopes"

<comment><USER5> They really should go back to their medication...

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> What I find pity-full is that they are trying to bury their competition with litigation instead of a good product, like many other companies out there they are just a law-firm that pretends to sell products.

</comment><comment><USER27> Epic picture. Ballmer doesn't seem his usual comical self. I would say, he's _lost_ hopes of progress, let alone a burial.

</comment><comment><USER28> I don't understand why Microsoft keeps having the mentality of killing their competitors, burying their competitors.

It has become a "LET'S BUILD SOMETHING THAT WILL KILL THE <FILL IN THE BLANKS>" instead of "LET"S BUILD SOMETHING THEY WANT". And that's why Google and Apple are innovating and Microsoft is just playing catching up.

<comment><USER5> > that's why Google and Apple are innovating and Microsoft is just playing > catching up.

Has it ever been different? Not Google and Apple, but Microsoft. Has it ever invented something?

Even Microsoft's first successful product was a version of a language someone else developed many years before they existed.

<comment><USER29> Google's first product was a version of a search engine, something that many people had developed multiple versions of years before it existed.

Google's second most successful product was a web-based mail service, something that existed about 10 years before their version.

Apple's most successful product existed a few decades before they entered the market.

<comment><USER5> Google can have credit for building the first search engine and the first webmail that were done right. Their real innovation is not in the end-user side, but under the hood. Just making it work required a couple leaps in understanding how thousands of servers have to be managed.

And Apple pretty much invented the personal computer as we know it. Unless Woz is wrong, the Apple I had a very innovative feature: a keyboard.

<comment><USER30> The innovation game is a very boring game. People always redefine what exactly they mean by "innovate" just so they can blame some company for not innovating. It always works.

<comment><USER5> Indeed.

But I maintain my statement, which has nothing to do with Apple and Google (something I made clear on my first message in this thread). Microsoft has very rarely, if ever, launched a product that created or redefined a category. They are always late movers, but, frequently, end up with the first successful product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Sounds accurate. They are only hoping now, not longer confident it will happen. They can still dream.

<comment><USER5> > They can still dream.

Shouldn't they ground their goals in reality? I too want a warp-drive and teletransporters, but I am not willing to bet my bonuses on impossible things.</comment></comment>


How Ignoring Inactive Time Skews Analytics Data - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/bouncelytics-blog/how-ignoring-inactive-time-is-skewing-your-analytics-data-df7a4d12cf21#.xocss2jzj <comment><USER2> Interesting post. So how does this help someone make more money off their media/publishing website? What actionable insights can someone draw from inactive time?

<comment><USER3> You can tell the difference between people who look at your page for 10 seconds after opening it 10 minutes ago, and people who actually look at your page for 10 minutes.

If you aren't fooled into thinking that particular people like your page when they don't, you can better know which demographics your pages appeal to, and which pages attract long stays generally.

You can make more informed decisions about who to advertise to and who isn't interested, which pages to invest time and money in making better, and which are fine already.

<comment><USER2> But by the author's own admission, aren't people keeping the tab open so that they can come back to it later?

And is someone who consumes your content in 3 minutes more relevant/valuable than someone who is inactive on the page for 1 hour, but still spends 3 or 4 minutes of active time?

<comment><USER4> 3mins vs. 1hr+3mins isn't the distinction. It's 3mins vs. 1hr+10seconds. You're trying to identify the users who weren't engaged at all but _seem_ engaged due to the extra inactive time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there a reason why javascript can't track if the page is on the front or in the back?

<comment><USER6> It can.

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Page_Visibi...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Page_Visibility_API)</comment></comment>


Why the U.S.-China Trade Deal Targets Corporate Secrets - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/business/china-technology-transfer.html <comment><USER2> Actual article title: "How China Obtains American Trade Secrets"</comment>


Smell your games. Good idea, or good reason it's failed so many times? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gizmag.com/scentscape-system-adds-smells-to-games-and-videos/17615/

<comment><USER3> I am not sure how this could work out for the people who live with the player.

Video images are pretty non-intrusive - if they annoy you, just dont look at the screen. For sound/music, the player could put headphones and annoy no one but himself. I have a hard time imagining some sort of headphones for the nose to limit the sensory input to the player only. And i definitely won't dare wearing anything that comes to my mind.

And yeah, I'm sure your SO would go nuts at the smell of burnt flesh and gasoline coming out of the gadget box waay faster than at the faint sound coming out of the headset.

</comment><comment><USER4> I imagine there's a chicken-and-egg phenomenon at work here - until there are a number of games with scents the gadget won't attract a large number of gamers, and until it attracts a large number of gamers there won't be incentive for a number of game developers to add scents.

If / When it works as a business, it will likely involve some kind of key relationship with a large distributor of either games or gamers. If Microsoft said 'the Kinect rocked, and the next thing we're doing is launching ScentScape' it would motivate developers; if Blizzard said 'we're adding ScentScape capability to the next WoW release' then a lot of gamers would go buy it.

Launching it independently of either channel is difficult.

<comment><AUTHOR> Difficult, sure, but all that Valve needs to do is announce "Portal 3, I can smell the Cake" and throw in a free ScentScape (with starter smell cartridge) with the deluxe boxed set, and it's mainstream on launch day.

<comment><USER4> I think that was kinda my point as well - if a developer or 'gamer distributor' (like MSFT or Sony) supported the product, it would avoid the chicken-and-egg problem. In their absence, it would be difficult.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't believe anyone will make smell-immersion practical without sending direct input into the olfactory nerves.

</comment><comment><USER6> There reaches a point in virtual reality where increased realism becomes undesirable. In my opinion, smell-o-vision is that point.

</comment><comment><USER7> "What's that smell?" isn't a great start to a conversation about a neat new gadget that you just bought.

</comment><comment><USER8> Interesting stuff, but I'm pretty sure I already know what my games smell like, and it ain't flowers.

</comment><comment><USER9> Wario Ware: Smell Ya Later!

Though by the looks of him I don't think I want to smell Wario.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think this could add a _lot_ for immersion, but there are a lot of problems with the scent medium. It's your body detecting particles, not waves. Particles linger, so it's not like the smell's going to go away.

Say you're in a burning village in a game, and the ScentScape releases burnt- carbon molecules. Wow, a real burning village! I'm immersed! Then you ride your FantasyHorse to the next kingdom to warn their king of the impending attack. Except the burnt-carbon's still in the air, and you get this weird mix of regal smell and burnt village smell.

I really think they'll have to use a different mechanism for this to work - <USER2> small mask, perhaps. Or perhaps timed-Febreze particles.</comment>


Ask HN: Best software for a focused HN-like site? - <AUTHOR>

I looked at Pligg and Drigg but they both seem like they suck.  Features I'm most interested in: - Simplicity - OpenID and/or Disqus integration - Easy of management (spam removal, banning users, etc) - Some kind of spam prevention...recaptcha, etc.
Why: I'm making a focused news site and I figured that it'd be great to let users submit things too.  It'd be relating to free-speech / net neutrality topics, or anything related (personal freedoms, world news where applicable, etc)
I'm decent at PHP and I've written a few useful things in Python, but I don't really know Django and there has to already be something out there that does this.  What software does HN use?  Is THAT open source? <comment><USER2> HN is open source (more or less - the source base code is, not all the latest tweaks to rankings etc).

Head over to <http://arclanguage.org/>

The Reddit software is also open source, I believe, and may be another option for you.</comment>


Ask HN: Is (lack of) startup insurance a pain point? - <AUTHOR>

I have a hypothesis that lack of affordable and/or simple health insurance options might be a limiting factor on entrepreneurship in the US by keeping people who otherwise might take the leap from the corporate safety net from doing so.  Is this a real problem?  Or are current solo/group options good enough? <comment><USER2> The health insurance experience varies greatly from one state to the next, so my take is based solely on Maryland.

If you are young, single, and have never had any major health problems then there is no problem at all. Your health insurance will be cheaper than your car insurance. Also, current federal law allows you to stay on your parents policy until age 26(personally, I say cut the umbilical cord already).

If your startup is going to purchase health insurance for multiple people, then you can possibly get into your state's small group plan. You will pay more but it is group insurance that will cover most pre-existing conditions, subject to whatever your state prescribes.

If you have a family it is a bit more difficult but if there have been no major health problems then it should not be too much of a problem. I am in the process of starting my own company and I have gotten quotes for me, wife, and 3 small kids for about 300 a month. The deductible is higher than I have now but is reasonable.

So, no, I personally don't think it is a problem. A lot of people may use it as an excuse, though.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't speak for others here but we worked with an agent that helps small companies (2-50) people get insurance going (medical, dental, and vision). In cases where we would benefit from pooling with other companies in groups to get discounts (this was the case for vision I believe), we were given the option.

I don't really have a whole lot to compare pricing options against but we thought the monthly rates were fairly affordable per employee. Of course there is a wide range of packages and insurance companies to choose from.</comment>


Bell Pottinger "incited racial hatred" in South Africa - <AUTHOR> https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-09-05/for-whom-the-bell-pottinger-tolls-1 <comment><AUTHOR> The article reveals a few "dark arts" of the PR firm:-

\- Twitterbots to "amplify the message"

\- "manipulate Google results to 'drown out' negative coverage of human rights violations"

\- get Members of Parliament "known to be critical of investigative programmes could be used to attack journalists over minor reporting errors"

\- "a team dealing with negative Wikipedia coverage of clients"

and this bit:-

> In 2016 the Bureau revealed a secret $500 million propaganda operation run > by Bell Pottinger in Iraq for the Pentagon after the invasion in 2003. It > involved making videos which would look like they had been produced by local > Iraqi TV stations to spin the news, and recutting insurgent videos with code > to track anyone who watched them. When the Bureau revealed this Lord Bell > told the Sunday Times that "it was a covert military operation" for the CIA, > the Pentagon and the National Security Council and "we were very proud of > it".

</comment><comment><USER2> That's a bit like inciting sex at an orgy.</comment>


Strange rituals or cannibalism? Neanderthals manipulated bodies after death - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150414085317.htm <comment><USER2> Hmm, how sure are they that the cut marks are anthropic in origin? I'm reminded of Peking Man's "cannibalism": [http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/courses/Peking1.htm](http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/courses/Peking1.htm)

</comment><comment><USER3> I suppose they haven't ruled out ritualistic cannibalism, even if it sounds like they have.

</comment><comment><USER4> Clickbait in science happens too.</comment>


Climate Change Could Trigger the Next Global Financial Crisis - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/how-fed-could-fight-climate-change-adam-tooze/595084/ <comment><USER2> Title is obviously built to trigger for many, but the interview itself is a fascinating analysis of the relative plasticity of the Fed's mandate.

Many forget that the Fed is just a few generations old. Its operating principles can and will change over time. Fascinating read!

</comment><comment><USER3> Climate destruction is consolidating and destroying the industry our product is aimed towards. Good for us now, eventually it'll catch up. The bans of single use and obvious longterm downsides of plastics seem to be throwing the whole industry into abrupt disarray. Stuff like our 100k+ month aws bill is going to shrink fast.

</comment><comment><USER4> Kinda depressing but there are people out there who would sit up and take note about climate change, once it affects the financial market. But the way we measure countries via GDP, import and exports and rate those countries based upon financial makeup alone. That's kinda the crux. Sure there are other metrics out there, but none that feedback into how the World operates - financially.

<comment><USER5> There is plenty of money to be made placing bets on climate change. Those people are already locking in as we speak.

Climate change denial is part of a financial scheme. A lot f money is being made, and will be made at every stage. It's only the riff-raff that actually believe it. The people who own the big accounts know it's happening and are making money off it.

Not to mention certain nation states with large arctic holdings.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why is this flagged?

EDIT - OK I get it. It would be helpful to have levels of flagging. This was flagged because violated the clickbaitish title rule, but that rule is always in tension with the mandate to use the headline from the article. Next spin of HN would be enhanced IMO with a class of flags that offer the opportunity to propose a superior, alternate headline.

Of course I don't have to code the next spin so it's easy for lazy bums like me to heckle from the sidelines or flag trigger headlines instead of fixing things.

</comment><comment><USER7> insert topic Could Trigger the Next Global Financial Crisis (

waste of space

<comment><USER8> or Climate change will <insert topic>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Could Trigger the Next Global Financial Crisis

So could a new eruption of Yellowstone, e.g., put a layer of ash 1000' thick 1000 miles downwind, another flu like in 1918, a nuclear war, a supernova explosion only a few light years away, same for a gamma ray burst (blow the atmosphere off the earth, since it comes at the speed of light, can't see it coming until it is already here), a marauding black hole (tough to see coming until too late), some bump in the asteroid belt that knocks a rock to the earth like 65 million years ago, etc.

More generally for lots of cases of event A, as above and many more, we have the true statement

Event A Could Trigger the Next Global Financial Crisis

Yup. But there is a nice result in stochastic processes, the renewal theorem, in

William Feller, _An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Second Edition, Volume II_ , ISBN 0-471-25709-5, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1971.

that shows that the events that

"Could Trigger the Next Global Financial Crisis"

arrive as a Poisson arrival process (e.g., like Geiger counter clicks). Moreover, without looking up the details, we have an estimator for the arrival rate, and it is low except for the stock market doing again what it did in 1929 and 2008, and by now with those two examples we're supposed to know better. So, we can worry instead about Yellowstone, asteroids, black holes, etc.

For a simpler explanation of the original post, poor _Atlantic_ magazine needs "click bait".

Or the consequences of human caused climate change are totally irrelevant if human caused climate change doesn't happen, and the evidence now is that such climate change is no threat at all.

What about the chances of "climate change"? The review I trust is

 _The Great Global Warming Swindle_

at

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Mx0_8YEtg\](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Mx0_8YEtg\\)

In particular pay close attention to MIT prof Lindzen.

That is, the whole concern about humans having any significant effect on the climate, past, present, or foreseeable future, is just a flim-flam, fraud scam driven heavily by people after a hidden agenda on other issues for which big responses, e.g., the $1 T for AOC or Gillibrand, to human caused climate change is a means to power and/or money.

Net, there is no good evidence at all that humans have had anything at all significant to do with the climate, in the past or recent present. Indeed, as in the video documentary, all the good scientific evidence is that there has been no significant climate change due to humans nor will there be for the foreseeable future. In a word the whole concern about the climate is just a scam.

Don't put up with the scam. JUNK IT. CALL IT OUT.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is the most ridiculous headline I've ever seen.

<comment><USER11> Why?

Can you not see any mechanism whereby climate change leads to a financial crisis?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Give people resources so they can move to higher ground. Not just from rising sea levels, but more immediately from the increasing floods and storms that threaten the flood plains where our most vulnerable reside.

edit: Fighting climate change and providing resources are not mutually exclusive policies, clearly. Both should be pursued, in my opinion.

<comment><USER13> Doesn't that seem like an extremely temporary solution, at best? You can't outrun Nature — our best shot is to slow down fossil fuel emissions, contain the damage we've already done, and reverse what we can.

<comment><USER12> Obviously. We must do everything we can to combat climate change. This is absolutely critical.

However, I do not see how providing resources to protect vulnerable populations means we do not fight climate change? They are not mutually exclusive policies. This reminds me of the misunderstanding of Andrew Yang's comments during the recent debate, who is a proponent of massively funding programs to fight climate change, but also believes that we need to help those that will most be affected by it.</comment></comment></comment>


Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit? - <AUTHOR> I'm going to make an app for that this weekend :D Feature requests and suggestions are welcome. <comment><USER2> I earn a monthly salary. That means that as long as I avoid getting fired I earn the same amount regardless of how much time I spend on Reddit/Facebook.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see.

Are there activities that you would consider productive (you would like to do more) and activities that are non-productive?

There is an idea to assign a positive hourly rate for good time spent and a negative hourly rate to other activities in the internet.

The app would track that time spend and show balance to gamify productivity rise.

<comment><USER3> You definitely have to make the hourly customizable. Just stating the obvious but people value things differently.

They could assign a positive rate for Reddit time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly, that was the takeout from this discussion.

I'm going to make functionality to assign a rate for each website, a positive or negative one. Even rates for different parts of the website. Also, a potentially useful feature is to make a cap, like the first 30 min per day does not count.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Feature request - make it fun and position it in a different way than "how much you would make instead". Calculating hourly rate multiplied by time spent on a distracting platform is useless because in reality the overwhelming majority of people don't have an additional income source where that time can be invested. And the ones who do will find it really difficult to calculate an accurate hourly rate.

On top of this, you need to take into account the income benefit of leisure time and relaxation, and the income benefit of casual random interactions on platforms like HN, reddit, youtube. And let's not forget time spent learning - associating a monetary amount with it is so so difficult.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a very good point, however, then it becomes much more complex.

> time spent on a distracting platform is useless because in reality the > overwhelming majority of people don't have an additional income source where > that time can be invested in

Was thinking to propose options for that, e.g. give a link guides how to make a side income, for example, Upwork, creation of youtube channel, etc.

To make it positive is a good challenge as well. I can introduce some scores that would take into account a ratio between time spent on a productive vs non-productive website and show the result as an icon that shows a summary for a day, like learning, leisure, work.

Do you have specific ideas on how to make it more positive?

<comment><AUTHOR> There is an idea to assign a positive hourly rate for good time spent and a negative hourly rate to other activities in the internet. The app would track that time spend and show balance to gamify productivity rise.

This is the current idea of how to approach the challenges you have mentioned.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> But time != energy + motivation. Also time != money. I realize it won't be as eye-catching, but showing time wasted rather than money is more direct and truthful. Then I suppose the problem is that apps like that already exist...

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree, but time & money definitely correlate, so I think it's fine to have it as money for motivation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I made a mobile game, and ended up with negative money from the experience. I spent a lot time I could have wasted on reddit/HN/Factorio. I'd rather a guide to ideas that could be profitable than a guide that only tells me to stops wasting time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair point. But I bet you have earned quite a good experience from building that app. And it was an idea that could be profitable. It's never 100% guaranty.

<comment><USER6> I learned a lot, but quite a bit that made me cynical.

Marketing is very important, but I'll never have a marketing budget big enough to compete. With that thought, odds aren't much better than the lottery.

Next time I won't do advert based mobile games, that's for sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> And it is ready! It is made as an extension to Chrome. [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/how-much-does- my-f...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/how-much-does-my- facebook/gbaikgaciacbfbpoagdpbcbapioboodj?hl=en-GB&gl=NL)

I have tried to take into account your comments to make it positive and customizable.

</comment><comment><USER7> 1\. Instead of just looking at the opportunity cost also factor in the _actual_ costs, e.g., Netflix requires a paid subscription in addition to time.

2\. You could include affiliate links to services for _earning_ money in free time as an alternative to wasting time with earning estimates given input time and skill level. This could include ride-hail platforms (Lyft, Uber), knowledge work platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), even Mechanical Turk.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great idea! Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Zero. EUR. Using neither;) But what a time sink is sleeping ;) Personally I agree with other comments and it's not about those apps per se or equaling time with money.

Why do you spend time on them? If you can't answer that question or they don't net positive value even zero EUR/hour is too much.

I like iOS time tracking feature which tells me that I am too much on HN and Wikipedia.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm a father of a three year old so you know what, sometimes sitting on Reddit is good for my brain. Need to rest it!

</comment><comment><USER10> $25/hour.

The problem is not so much Facebook/Reddit, but because I don't have a low commitment way to take a break.

I don't need an app that tells me not to spend my time productively. I need an app that helps me recuperate in 20 minutes. A non-addictive game would be great.

</comment><comment><USER11> Might add hacker news to that list

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good idea.

I plan to use this list as a base [https://www.reddit.com/r/BLOCK/comments/3ehiy4/distracting_w...](https://www.reddit.com/r/BLOCK/comments/3ehiy4/distracting_website_list/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> You might find some good models here - [https://github.com/humanetech- community/awesome-humane-tech#...](https://github.com/humanetech- community/awesome-humane-tech#health)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, awesome materials!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> ...assuming the side income doesn't affect main job performance because of fatigue.

But as a rough guide, if you multiply your salary by 4.5, that's what you could earn by working 24/7/365.

</comment><comment><USER14> How much carbon you could have offset instead of sitting on Reddit, Facebook or hackernews

</comment><comment><USER15> A blend of hackernews, Reddit and Pinterest would be nice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Don't forget the time spent in your app.

<comment><AUTHOR> :D Sure</comment></comment>


Comparitively Lower Salaries for Apple's Engineers - <AUTHOR> http://hurvitz.org/blog/2008/06/apples-engineers-profit-center <comment><USER3> I don't think we're seeing the entire picture - even with the additional data Oren brings to the table in his post. While R&D is important, so are bonuses.

I sure hope all those underpaid engineers at Apple were getting options. On June 16th of 2003, Apple was trading at $9.60. Today it closed over $180... The average stock bonuses reported on Glassdoor are $24+K, on top of the average cash bonuses of nearly $6K. Sure, substantially lower than Google, but much higher than Microsoft. Close enough to make the true compensation a dead heat.

Also, I'd love to see the average education level for the Google engineers versus the Apple, Micrsoft, Yahoo, etc folks. My bet, you'd see a lot more PhD's at Google, a lot more. When you have a PhD - and are actually good (!) - you should get paid more.

I'm just saying there's more than base salary to take into consideration. And for some, they want to work at Apple over other company plane and simple - <USER2> surprising that Apple would use that point to pay less ...</comment>


OSS kiosks with WebConverger and incredible story on SaaS back end - <AUTHOR> https://webconverger.org/blog/2016/Webconverger_35_release/ <comment><USER2> WebConverger open source: [https://github.com/Webconverger](https://github.com/Webconverger)</comment>


The #1 Dietary Risk Factor Is Not Eating Enough Fruit - <AUTHOR> http://nutritionfacts.org/2016/02/02/the-number-one-global-diet-risk/ <comment><USER2> And vegetables (grammatically implying OR vegetables, in regards to the title), the articles admits in pretty much every paragraph</comment>


Crooke's Radiometer - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_radiometer <comment><AUTHOR> Sharing this after a really interesting klerotoria.org submission - unfortunately they're not public (mailing list) by design, so I couldn't submit that (and copying the text seemed not right) - with an interesting history, which seems to be only partially discussed in the Wikipedia entry.

I can't find a great source/description for it all in one place, but between Wikipedia (OP) and this: [https://www.zvab.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30660656674](https://www.zvab.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30660656674)</comment>


Mint Receives $14m in Funding But Still Only In The USA Market, Why? - <AUTHOR> http://crenk.com/mint-receives-14m-in-funding-but-still-only-in-the-usa-market-why/

<comment><USER2> Sounds like opportunity calling.

Mint obviously doesn't want to go through the effort of customizing versions of the software for different markets. (Which, in the financial sector I'd imagine is substantial work) My thought is that they feel there is much more market to win in the US without a similar expenditure.

What an enterprising young person should do is - call them up and offer to do the work for them for a single market. You could take the risk in terms of the full cost of development and negotiate a cut of every user from the country in question.

Unless they can see expansion in the very near future, they should jump all over this deal.

<comment><USER3> Actually I think it goes deeper than this. I've looked into Mint's operating model in the Canadian market, for example, and we have a _lot_ of privacy laws that simply do not exist in the USA. These privacy laws make it practically illegal to do what Mint does (i.e. collect private information, login on your behalf, and scrape your bank's site).

<comment><USER2> I'm pretty sure all Canadian privacy laws can be worked around with a disclaimer. You just need to tell them what you intend to do and get them to sign off on it. IANAL though.

<comment><USER4> I'm also NAL, but I think privacy laws are the kind of thing that you can't just disclaim away - you may be willing to give up that information, but if it's illegal for them to collect it it's still illegal.

<comment><USER2> Nothing is illegal to collect, as long as you disclose. Ergo credit bureaus, insurance companies with SIN's etc.

I believe there is a set time when certain things will be frowned upon (That SIN particularly) but we are currently within an incremental period where it isn't right now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Netflix made $1.36 billion in revenue last year yet is still only in the US market. Why?

</comment><comment><USER6> Mint accesses your banking information using a service from Yodlee. I don't believe Yodlee has many partners outside the US and am not aware of a similar vendor with EU coverage.

<comment><USER7> You got it. Yodlee doesn't support non-US banks; Mint's built on top of Yodlee; ∴ Mint doesn't support non-US banks.

(Full disclosure: I work for Wesabe.)

<comment><USER8> Excellent answer.

Also, thank you for letting me know there is a ∴ character!

<comment><USER9> I thought my screen was just dirty! What does it mean?

<comment><USER10> ∴ means therefore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> There are good alternatives to mint, too, like wesabe.com</comment>


Functional Programming in JavaScript: Interactive Exercises - <AUTHOR> http://reactivex.io/learnrx/ <comment><USER2> You might be interested in "Mostly Adequate Guide" as well. [https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate- guide/](https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate-guide/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I have read that too. That is one of the best sites that I have ever came across explains so neat the FP concepts like Monad and other stuffs.

Here is the actual course of FP from the same author: [https://frontendmasters.com/courses/functional- javascript/](https://frontendmasters.com/courses/functional-javascript/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think it would be nice to show the code output even when the question is answered successfully. And it might be nice to show the output / expected output in another HTML element on the page rather rather than in an alert. But this is really nice, and a good introduction to the concepts -- very cool!

<comment><USER4> I have not done the course, just looked at the first 2 questions, but the output prints to the console, so it was just to open the inspector.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great site. I used it a few months ago and learned so much

<comment><USER6> yeah same, came across it sometime earlier this year I think - quite useful.</comment></comment>


Filesharing done differently - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/s/aicaa680l1mmw5x/The%20BRAIN%20network.pdf?dl=1 <comment><AUTHOR> This a a proposal to form a new decentralised filesharing network. One that is easy to use and protects the identity. At best, it will give you anonymity. And in the worst case, it will give you plausible deniability.

This will probably raise some scepsis, I know. But so far I've got positive reactions to this idea. So, please, take your time to read it and think about it. Maybe even discuss it or see if a proof-of-concept is possible.

I've posted an earlier draft of this proposal before, but it didn't really get picked up. I did get some usefull feedback, though. So, I went back to the drawing board and this is the result.

I hope you enjoy the read and that it will be inspiring.

<comment><USER2> A link to a webpage rather than a raw PDF download would probably improve readability and not trigger concerns over the trustworthyness of the file when opened.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are absolutely right. I was a bit concerned about this myself. But I didn't have any options available to host an anonymous html-page (I prefer not to link my own name to this, since it could potentially make me a target of some powerfull people...) So, I opted for the PDF-in-Dropbox solution instead.

Perhaps I should repost it in the near future. But this time make it a HTML- page, as you suggest.</comment></comment></comment>


I'm sharing all of my app income and how I did it $28,660 so far - <AUTHOR> http://backstage.joeallenpro.com/category/income/

<comment><USER2> Those posts are quite uninformative and lack any details from what I can see.</comment>


Uber begins background collection of rider location data - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/28/uber-background-location-data-collection/ <comment><USER2> I am still disappointed that smart phones lock you out of your own device with such limited control. why aren't we able to set access levels for all apps? I remember having this sort of access on rooted android only.

</comment><comment><USER3> I install all apps with privacy guard on by default. I really wish there was a way to say something like, "Let this app have location data for the next ten minutes."

<comment><USER4> At least on iOS, there was an option "Share location only while using app" that you could use with Uber and other iOS apps.

The latest version of the Uber app has removed this as an option.

IMO, Apple should remove the option of "Always" to prevent apps from abusing location data.

As a result, I've just been leaving location set to off on the Uber app and manually entering addresses. Thanks Uber for making your service less functional.</comment></comment>


How New Scalping Technology Is Keeping You Out of Concerts - <AUTHOR> http://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/ticket-scalping-new-technology <comment><AUTHOR> > _This fixed supply makes pricing tickets a delicate process: charge too > much, and you won 't sell out; charge too little, and demand goes off the > charts. Scalpers are good at spotting when the balance isn't right, which is > often; when popular artists sell tickets for accessible prices, demand will > almost always outstrip supply._

Some of this logic doesn't pan out at a certain level though - I read an interview with Q-Prime, big-time managers in the music business - who had a different take:

> _It's been said that the only artist who has really been able to beat this > is the Rolling Stones, and that 's because they charge so much for tickets > that the market won't really bear higher prices.

CB: The other thing you can do -- and Peter and I talk about this a lot -- is, in general, successful artists, and this has been true for many years, don't want to see any empty seats. So if you want to price your tickets high enough, like the Stones, you're gonna end up with empty seats or the possibility of empty seats. If you price your tickets lower than the market will bear, you won't have any empty seats. So it really comes from the artist deciding, "I don't mind if I don't sell the last thousand or 2,000 tickets, it's still a great day. Everybody who wants a ticket will get a ticket."

PM: Some of our artists go for big indoor productions, right? And they sit there with their business manager and they go, "We're spending this many millions on a stage show but we're not even getting half out of that." And you have to tell them, fine, let's go to $125 a ticket instead of $75 -- and guess what? You'll make more money but you won't, as Cliff says, fill all the seats. So make a decision: Either go out with just a stage and we'll make plenty of money at $60-75, or go out with all this staging and you're gonna have to charge more money._

[http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7290324/q-prime- cliff...](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7290324/q-prime-cliff- burnstein-peter-mensch-managing-metallica-33-years)</comment>


How to Create Your Own Git Server - <AUTHOR> http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20130619/ <comment><USER2> Running your own internal git server can have several advantages. Mainly, you are not sharing your code (IP) with external parties. There are many frontends you can strap onto a git server too, like Gitlab, Gitweb, Gerrit, and cgit [1, 2, 3, 4]. We use git/gitolite/gitweb heavily with our internal puppet infrastruture. You can have pre/post commit hooks for things like, syntax checking, email notification, and code deployments.

Here is the workflow:

              +</comment><comment>--+   +</comment><comment>---+
              | gitweb |   |dashboard|
      staff   +</comment><comment>--+   +</comment><comment>---+  nodes
       +-+          |           |        +-+
       +-+-\        |           |      > +-+
            \ +--+-----+     +</comment><comment>+-/
              |  |git  |     |puppet|
       +-+ -->|  |gito-| +-> |master| -> +-+
       +-+    |  | lite|     |      |    +-+
            / +--+-----+     +</comment><comment>+-
           /   |    |                 \
       +-+-    |    v                  > +-+
       +-+     |     email hook to       +-+
               |       staff if production branch
               v
                syntax hook

I created a screencast about running an internal git server with gitolite @ [http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/11-internal-git-server- wit...](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/11-internal-git-server-with- gitolite)

[1] [http://gitlab.org/](http://gitlab.org/)

[2] [https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Gitweb](https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Gitweb)

[3] [https://code.google.com/p/gerrit/](https://code.google.com/p/gerrit/)

[4] [http://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/](http://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/)

<comment><USER3> To list some other SCM tools that support Git that you can deploy internally:

* (free) [http://www.scm-manager.org/](http://www.scm-manager.org/)

* [https://rhodecode.com/](https://rhodecode.com/)

* [https://deveo.com/](https://deveo.com/)

* [https://enterprise.github.com/](https://enterprise.github.com/)

* [https://www.atlassian.com/software/stash](https://www.atlassian.com/software/stash)

Those last 4 cost money, but allow self hosting with more "professional" tools.

<comment><USER4> Let me correct you: RhodeCode Enterprise is free of charge for installations with up to 20 users and runs under every major platform, including Windows.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesing that no one mentions cgit,[0] even though Linus and kernel developers moved away from the default (it comes with git itself) Gitweb Perl CGI Library a while ago.[1]

Cgit is pretty impressive stuff as a frontend. I am sure it is a mess[2] (since people here constantly gawk and harp on people bold enough to do the following), but it is merely a giant C program handling CGI with built-in caching, and it is pretty damn efficient. It is crazy fast. I used to run it on a shared host, and boy was I impressed.

Give it a look when you have a chance. You would be surprised how many large FOSS groups (if I recall correctly, I see the UI at OpenOffice, GNOME, KDE, and FreeDesktop umbrella groups).

[0] [http://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/](http://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/)

[1] [https://www.kernel.org/pelican.html](https://www.kernel.org/pelican.html)

[2] [http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/667176-cgit-...](http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/667176-cgit- maintainer-disappears-security-hole-found)

<comment><USER6> What a coincidence. I found out about cgit 30 minutes ago when looking for `pulseaudio-module-raop2`/ I was wondering about the CSS theming that gitweb instance so I looked at the source and cgit is now being compiled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wrote an article last year that builds this same idea with Gitolite, with bonus automatic replication to S3.

[http://www.petekeen.net/hosting-private-git-repositories- wit...](http://www.petekeen.net/hosting-private-git-repositories-with- gitolite)

</comment><comment><USER8> If you're doing all of that, why not take it a small step further and setup your own instance of GitLab? It's a bit more work, but it's by no means difficult if you follow the install directions.

[https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install...](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install/installation.md)

<comment><USER9> or gitbucket, a single war file clone of github. I run gitlab for work, and gitbucket for personal and the latter is far easier to upgrade and maintain.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Gitblit [1] is a nice option if you want an easy install (standalone app or Java WAR) and it runs fine on Windows if that is a constraint you have. It's not as feature rich as some of the other choices out there, but it is actively developed and stable.

[1] [http://www.gitblit.com/](http://www.gitblit.com/)

<comment><USER11> We are moving to Gitblit too (from subversion). One of the things I like about Gitblit is that much of the configuration is backed by plain-text files. While that may not be ideal if you have thousands of repositories and a gazillion users, it makes it much easier to back up or change/fix something by hand.

And indeed, the installation procedure is trivial :).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm unclear on why this recommends setting up a user account for every committer. I'm a big fan of simply adding each committer's ssh key to a single "git" user account to avoid the overhead of managing multiple user accounts-- you have to make sure each ssh key line is identified by the user submitting it in case it needs removal in the future, but it's much easier to manage adding and removing users.

There are some additional configuration steps for that single user, but most are covered in the manual at [http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-on-the-Server- Setting-Up-the-...](http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-on-the-Server-Setting-Up- the-Server)

Is there some advantage to separate user accounts that I'm missing?

</comment><comment><USER13> Use the "\--shared" switch if users will commit the repository from the machine. For details see [1]. I think this makes step 5 unneccesary. If your ssh daemon listens on other port than 22, you can still use relative URL-s to your repo owner home directory like this [2]: ssh://user@host:port:/~/repository.git

[1]: [http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-on-the-Server-Setting-Up- the-...](http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-on-the-Server-Setting-Up-the-Server)

[2]: [http://stackoverflow.com/a/14349254/720077](http://stackoverflow.com/a/14349254/720077)

</comment><comment><USER14> Just wanted to toss out another alternative in Stash by the folks at Atlassian. The setup was easy and it provides a nice interface that can hook in with Jira. Also, for small companies the 10 user license is free.

</comment><comment><USER15> If you trust all your devs, there's also the even easier technique of just giving them accounts on the server and chgrp-ing a bare git repo so that they all have read/write access.

</comment><comment><USER16> Don't forget about GitBucket [https://github.com/takezoe/gitbucket](https://github.com/takezoe/gitbucket)

</comment><comment><USER17> You can always use something like JGit: [http://eclipse.org/jgit/](http://eclipse.org/jgit/)

It's the underlying library that powers tools like Gerrit Code Review.

Many ways to embed JGit too: [http://alblue.bandlem.com/2013/11/embedding- jgit.html](http://alblue.bandlem.com/2013/11/embedding-jgit.html)

<comment><USER18> I'm not sure I would recommend this for 90% of the people out there and I build a product ([http://gitsense.com](http://gitsense.com)) around it. Using Gitlab, gitolite, etc. would be much wiser choice in my opinion.

<comment><USER17> Agreed, should have prefixed it that if you wanted something more low level. Otherwise, Gitblit, Gitlab, Gerrit etc are better options.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Or you can just use Gitolite, Gitlab, etc

</comment><comment><USER20> Without even reading this article I would say 'EASY!'. Git definitely makes it very easy to host and work with repositories. I like to use gitolite for administration, it works really well. Even before it, when git came to be, I was using ssh to host one on dreamhost, it is that easy.

</comment><comment><USER21> I use gitolite as my own git server, pretty happy with it. Easy to configure and maintain.

</comment><comment><USER22> Nice to see this summarised in one place. A lot of my projects are academic things that eventually end up on GitHub, but need to stay private for the first few months of their life. Hosting git on my VPS has been a godsend.

</comment><comment><USER23> I actually just started using Gitprep and it is extremely lightweight and easy to set up. I threw it on a 128MB BuyVM account I had and it worked flawlessly. I tried Gitlab first, and while it had more features, it was far more resource intensive (since it was Rails).

[http://gitprep.org/](http://gitprep.org/)

</comment><comment><USER24> I use GitLab on my VPS (KVM Advanced @ Edis) and I am very happy with it. However, it uses unreasonable amount of resources. I am pretty much all out of resources after deploying GitLab. I will probably switch to something else even if it has less features and worse interface as long as it use less resources.

</comment><comment><USER25> Been doing this for quite some time. I found the following blog posts very useful when I was learning how to do this.

[http://scie.nti.st/2007/11/14/hosting-git-repositories- the-e...](http://scie.nti.st/2007/11/14/hosting-git-repositories-the-easy-and- secure-way)

</comment><comment><USER26> Am curious, I remember seeing a talk by Linus Torvalds on the internet where he explains git and how it incorporates a decentralized design to solve some inherent problems that the alternatives posed. Now, why is there emphasis on creating git servers?

<comment><USER27> My guess is that while some people love the flexibility of a distributed system (lots of different and useful workflows) the average people like centralized. SVN has more market share than Git so far as I know.

tl;dr: people like having less choices, it's less confusing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you just need something for yourself or a few people, you might consider an Android device. I use Gidder on a cheap tablet and it seems to work fine. Multiple users/repos. Easy to setup. It has a DynDNS option as well.</comment>


Ask HN: Best paid iOS dev tutorials? - <AUTHOR>

Hi guys,
I'm currently learning a bit of iOS development and I'm enjoying following video tutorials wherever I can find them.
I think its best if I follow some course or arrangement rather than freestyle on my own, as I find myself wondering what to do next after each session.
Does anyone know of any awesome sites or have reviews? I'm a noob programmer, but I've caught up with enough C/Objective-C reading to be comfortable. So far I've been using tutsplus.com (awesome, free) to learn about Xcode & IB.
I've also heard of: - DiveIntoiOS.com - $199, a bit pricey for me - Lynda.com - $25/month - Various courses on udemy.com ranging from $25 to $250
Any recommendations appreciated. Thanks <comment><USER2> <http://www.raywenderlich.com/tutorials>

There IOS 5 by tutorials is very well done, and also uses XCode 4.2 (thank god)

<http://www.raywenderlich.com/store/ios-5-by-tutorials>

<comment><USER3> My girlfriend (non-coder, but she's done Matlab before) tried out Ray's free tutorial when you sign up for the newsletter because she wanted to try making an iPhone game. She really enjoyed the tutorial, and it had everything that she needed to understand the topic, and the screenshots covered what to click on in Xcode. She didn't ask me anything related to the tutorial, which I think really speaks to the quality of the tutorials.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> these are good designthencode <http://designthencode.com/></comment>


TiDB in production: let's see how NewSQL works in real world - <AUTHOR> https://pingcap.github.io/blog/2017/05/22/Comparison-between-MySQL-and-TiDB-with-tens-of-millions-of-data-per-day/ <comment><USER2> TiDB developer here, this is one of our early adoption user who is already used TiDB in production for over 6 months, this case is quite a 'hybrid' scenario, the workload contains both OLTP and OLAP but to the developer, only MySQL dialect.</comment>


Hashgraph: Superior Distributed Ledger Technology - <AUTHOR> http://hashgraph.com/ <comment><USER2> What is the difference between hashgraph and blockchain?

Its like SQL vs GraphQL db?

<comment><USER3> Try reading this link for a comparison between Blockchain and Hashgraph: [http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.in/2017/10/blockchain-smart- co...](http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.in/2017/10/blockchain-smart-contracts- part-8-capt.html)

Warning: He writes in a very colloquial lang sprinkled with what he thinks is right. Be your own judge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Curious if there is an implementation.</comment>


Dropbox Chooser - <AUTHOR> https://blog.dropbox.com/2012/11/meet-the-dropbox-chooser-a-new-way-to-add-stuff-from-dropbox/

<comment><USER2> When we did this at Omnidrive we worked with other online storage providers and web app prodivers to do it in a standard way so that instead of 'Upload from Dropbox' you could specify any online service that implements the interface.

for eg. the upload form could let you pick your Google Docs, or another account.

We called it WebFS. I think the idea was too early and most of us ended up running out of money or being sold.

I'd like to see the same idea implemented here again. Web app developers can implement an upload button that can open any URL. Similar to WebDAV but for web apps.

<comment><USER3> <https://www.filepicker.io> ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was kinda hoping this was official support for multiple accounts.

<comment><USER5> I was hoping for the same but this would mean people could register dozens of accounts to get a lot more storage.

<comment><USER4> I have a paid work and a private dropbox. There's _got_ to be some way they could let you add as many paid accounts as needed and one free account.

<comment><USER6> I have two accounts also, share a folder between them to sync. You have to pay double if you have a lot of data but with the new cheaper 100GB plans it doesn't burn a hole through your pocket.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting, similar to <https://www.filepicker.io/>

<comment><USER8> Yup, it's great to see that Dropbox shares our vision of helping connect online storage to online applications, so the spirit is the right one.

Our goal is for users to be able to connect directly to their online content, and we're working with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Skydrive, Facebook and others to make this happen.

<comment><USER9> Any project that lasts longer than a few months inevitably encounters some form of duplication from elsewhere. There should be a Metcalfe-esque law for that.

<comment><USER10> Being chased by a 800 pound gorilla is always scary. Hang on guys, I love your product and I'm sure you can embrace and extend :)

<comment><USER8> Love the enthusiasm! To us, anything that helps makes products work more seamlessly together online is a win for the web and the world we want to see.

It also seems like Dropbox is encouraging a different use case, in that the links they provide by default are Dropbox share links that route back to Dropbox, and even the direct ones expire after 4 hours. With Filepicker.io, we want to be a more complete filesystem solution, offering things like store to S3, read/write on the URLs, conversion, etc.

To the cloud!

<comment><USER11> Yup. You guys are doing a great job, I don't think of this as competitive. Image conversion is brilliant.

Keep it up!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> My immediate impression was this was going to be a way to switch Dropbox accounts. That would have been super cool. Not that having a Dropbox API for selecting files is bad.

</comment><comment><USER13> I do love how a guy from box added this link....

<comment><AUTHOR> Just staying on top of things ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was looking into Dropbox integration in a Web applications just last night. Fantastic!

</comment><comment><USER15> I was hoping this would be a way for me to choose which files I sync to which machines.

<comment><USER16> Heartily agree with this. I don't need my library of vintage drum machine samples at work, but would love to have my personal txt file wiki along for the ride.

<comment><USER17> Can't you do this already? Maybe you just need to update your dropbox client.

<comment><USER16> Indeed I can! Awesome!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is a brilliant move by Dropbox. It is now becoming part of the Internet fabric and, if the move is successful, it will likely remain dominant--at least essential--for a very long time.

Now if anyone knows how I can invest in it as soon as possible, I'd appreciate to know. (Email in profile.)

</comment><comment><USER19> It's worth noting that Dropbox Chooser is a javascript tool and intended for web applications.

Native applications might still find it easier to directly access the dropbox folder (no need to know the user's account credentials and faster syncing than through the API with its rate limits).

</comment><comment><USER20> Google Drive exposed something similar few months ago. [http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2012/08/allowing- use...](http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2012/08/allowing-user-to- select-google-drive.html)

Trello was amongst the firsts to add file picker support (great feature we use frequently). Funny to see that the first player Dropbox picks is Asana ..

</comment><comment><USER21> Now they should get a "download to dropbox" method so it would be just another option instead of "save link as"

<comment><USER22> O'Reilly offers this. <http://shop.oreilly.com/category/customer- service/dropbox.do>

<comment><USER21> Yeah, there's some services like this, but most of them have size caps (or in that case, deal with small files anyway). While it would be great for browsing on my phone, I'd really take advantage of this for downloading large files that would take a long time to download otherwise (especially since they'd then have to get uploaded by dropbox).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm all for making it easier to work with the cloud, but... is this application really all that useful, considering that the whole concept of the Dropbox app is that all your Dropbox files are constantly kept in sync on your local machine?

I think of this as the very essence of what Dropbox does, are there really very many situations where local copies would be unavailable?

<comment><USER24> > I think of this as the very essence of what Dropbox does, are there really > very many situations where local copies would be unavailable?

I can think of a lot of situations where the local file is a gigabyte or more and I'd rather not sit around letting the web form upload it.

With this, I can submit immediately, and the site can handle the heavy lifting on their backend. I get to wander off and do something productive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is this a web intent?</comment>


Designing algorithms for Map Reduce - <AUTHOR> http://horicky.blogspot.com/2010/08/designing-algorithmis-for-map-reduce.html <comment><USER2> Nice overview. Off topic, but for complicated work flows I find it useful to use a diagramming Tool like Omnigraffle to maintain a one-page overview of data sources (with sample data), each map reduce job and output (with data examples), etc. A small amount of overhead, but worth it to help keep track of everything. As I add/remove jobs and change code, I keep the diagram up to date.</comment>