Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/magazine/sperm-donor-siblings.html <comment><USER3> The essay's author talks a little bit about how he and some of his half- siblings feel a sense of loss, or that something feels missing, or that they wished they had a father.

But the essay never really touches on whether they _resent_ the fact that their parent or parents made the choice to have them conceived through artificial insemination from an anonymous donor. Obviously, if that hadn't happened, they wouldn't be around to resent it -- but it's still possible to feel conflicted about it.

I'm sure there are some people who do carry that resentment and some people who don't, and we often hear stories about the latter, but I've heard fewer stories about the former and would be interested to hear their voices and perspectives.

<comment><USER4> Well. You can hear my voice. I'm the child of a sperm donor. I didn't learn about it till I was 18... which was more than a bit strange.

The emotions that come from the combination of society's familial expectations, your own complicated family, and just the general fact that it's nice to be alive is a really strange cocktail. But... I'm not sure resent is a word that I would ever use, even in my bizarre situation of having learned later in life. Instead of resentment I would probably describe a bubbling dystopian feeling. For me, I often focus on the fact that my life, or at least the genetic specifics of my being, is directly a result of technological progress. The very core of who I am everyday in my life relies on the fact that society enabled my mom to have children without her (ex)-husband. That's pretty strange.

These feelings come up most strongly when I look in a mirror. The physical features are the inescapable consequence, right? I think this is what made this photo essay so impactful for me. That photos so strongly highlight what is most stark about being the child of a sperm donor.

In the thesaurus, vex is listed alongside resent. That word seems to get at the core of what I feel. When I think too long or hard it just feels vexing... it's very "what the fuck"-ish.

<comment><USER5> Do you think things would have been different for you, if you knew about it since you were a child?

I'm a 35 years old male that can't have kids. Not possible, say the doctors. I love children and me and my wife are considering using a sperm donor.

Should all work as we hope, we are not sure how to approach exactly this situation of telling our child about it. At first I thought we should just keep it a secret, but the more I read on the subject, the more I think this is a mistake. The thing I fear the most is that my kid would grow to resent me no matter what I do, because ...you know, I'd not be the 'real' father.

EDIT: This is a throwaway account.

<comment><USER6> I was born out of wedlock to a mom that was single by the time I was born, and have never met the biological father. She wrote a little picture book explaining what a biological father is, how it's different than my "Dad" (she had since married someone unrelated), and there was even a little photograph of him in there. And lots of stuff about how her and my dad love me a ton and how it's not a big deal.

So I grew up with the knowledge since basically the day I was sentient, and therefore it as much a part of my life as my fingers and toes. I almost never think about it. Last time I did was in the doc's office when she was asking about family history, and I had to remind myself that my dad's family history doesn't count.

So you have one vote over here from telling the kid from day 1, possibly in a format that they can come back to and explore / show to other kids when they ask (i.e. the picture book I got)

<comment><USER7> Have you considered using DNA testing to track down your father or related family of theirs? I'm not suggesting it, but just trying to understand the feelings that go along with possibly having the ability to have unanswered questions answered.

<comment><USER6> I don't really care to track him down, but this article did convince me to finally pull the trigger on 23andme, so I can at least see some of my genetic health risks.

My biological father is nobody to me - he has no bearing on my identity and I don't see the need to meet him (to answer your question).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I guess it's just the photographer's style, but every one of those portraits looks like the subject been posed in a way that's unnatural for them, and they're not enjoying it.

<comment><USER9> Meh, I think they all look like they're trying hard to look like they're not enjoying it, aka hipster, it's not cool to be happy

<comment><USER10> FWIW, as someone who found out by surprise that I was a sperm-donor child (and that I have at least one half-sister who was equally surprised by the knowledge of an unexpected half-brother) I find the expressions of the people in the photographs extremely relatable. It's pretty much the exact expression I had on my face when I first found out, which is essentially a combination of "wow this explains a lot of things" \+ "what the fuck" \+ a constant background oscillation of "but this changes nothing/everything/nothing/everything/nothing/everything". I'm in my mid-40's, so it's not a generational thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Aside from the bizarre, uncomfortable poses in the photographs, the subjects all look somewhat dejected, as if their existence in this world is very clinical. Not sure if that's what the photographer was going for but kudos to him for keeping such a consistent style across multiple loosely related people. I imagine it could be like herding cats.

<comment><USER12> > Not sure if that's what the photographer was going for

Interesting that the photographer was the author here.

Some of these poses strike me as downright bizarre, but they also remind me of the kind of thing you'd see in magazine shoot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Ok, that is an interesting diversion on a Friday. I too was struck by the odd poses, some of them seem to me as if they are trying to evoke a sexual response although given their consistency I attribute it primarily to the style the photographer imputes on his work. Given all the internal dialog he includes I'm pretty sure the similarity of emotions is intentional.

That said, the most interesting thing for me in the article was the chain of events, same sex couples wishing to conceive, selecting a sperm donor with a 'good' track record, results in the same donor being preferentially selected. Given that the children share common activities (the article mentions camp for same sex families) and the kids socialization there, it would seem there is a higher than otherwise risk of developing a relationship with a half sibling. That has got to be emotionally challenging if you discover it later. Understanding ones own genetic history is a thing in isolated populations like Iceland but I can easily see it being overlooked in a larger more diverse population. I have never considered that burden that would be imposed on future children conceived in this way, but in hindsight it makes sense. Somewhere there is the most "popular" donor of the most used donation service who could have hundreds? thousands? of children out there.

<comment><USER14> Odd poses but without any sort of smouldering look on their face, it's more plain/openness on their face. Really doesn't feel sexual at all. Not even the open legged poses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> My father was a sperm donor, back in the mid-fifties. I didn't know until I was in my thirties (in the eighties). In the past few years, via 23andMe, I've discovered three living half-siblings. I think it's been totally mind-blowing fun for all involved to discover each other. We all read the nyt article today. My bio-sister commented, "Yuh think we'd all look better if we were in the NYT?"

</comment><comment><USER16> If this writing is at all representative of Gen Z it's going to be a VERY interesting cohort. I sense some extreme social alienation lurking.

<comment><USER17> Alienation doesn't even begin to describe it

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> It seems to me that being a sperm donor is an absurdly good evolutionary strategy.

<comment><USER19> Sort of, but from what I have heard, being a donor is also absurdly competitive due to the low marginal cost to the donor. Every prospective parent wants their child's donor-father to be a 4.0 GPA valedictorian ivy league graduate, captain of the football team, leader of men, captain of industry. Or maybe visionary researcher, famous scientist. Or perhaps top- billing hollywood actor, or decorated military hero. And, behold, because the parent can be choosy about the donor, they actually _can_ have that.

So in the end being a donor isn't really the key strategy here, it's just a force multiplier for highly successful men who have _always_ had fantastic odds for passing on their genes to multiple mothers (even in nominally monogamous societies)

<comment><USER20> I don't think this is true. There are ads for becoming a sperm donor on the Seattle light rail.

<comment><USER19> I don't live in Seattle- do big shot lawyers & doctors happen to ride the light rail to work? :)

<comment><USER21> There's a couple restrictions on supply, depending on country:

1) Limitations on number of donations: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_donation_laws_by_country...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_donation_laws_by_country#Limitations_on_number_of_donations)

Even when there are no legal limitations, sperm banks will often limit the number of donations made by any single donor. Most donors will not travel to donate to multiple sperm banks.

2) Limitations on donor anonymity. (probably useless these days - <USER2> of mine tracked down her anonymous donor father via 23AndMe, and was devastated to discover he didn't want to have any contact with her. seems obvious, but...)

3) Limitations on donor compensation. (same reason there are limitations on blood and organ sales, I imagine). However, you have to pay highly achieving men significantly more than others for them to take time out of their day to donate into a vial. And also to abstain so that their donations are high quality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Donor Unknown [1][2] is a documentary film about this topic; young woman, daughter of two women tries to find her biological father and on the way, she reaches and makes contact with her other 12 _siblings_.

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

[2] - [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/donor- unknown/](http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/donor-unknown/)

</comment><comment><USER23> Their nose tip is a common genetic trait.

<comment><USER24> I was struck by the the ears, of those visible, except for two, they were very uniform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is it just me, or do all the photos feel strangely sexualized?

<comment><USER26> I don't think it's just you, but I don't think it's intentional either. Other comments (backed up by the article) have said that the goal might have been to make the subjects look uncomfortable, which at a second look seems perfectly plausible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Is it possible to buy sperm on your own? Do you need the approval of a doctor or some other third part entity to obtain sperm from a sperm bank?

<comment><USER28> yes. you just sign up with a sperm bank and cough up money.

for maximum protections (both directions) you will want to involve licensed medical professionals on the usage end. so you should have a doctor looped in for ICI/IUI/IVF etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is anyone else concerned about a reduction in genetic diversity?

<comment><USER29> The donor is nowhere close to the impact that Genghis Kahn had on the Y chromosome. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1180246/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1180246/) \- and that was in the 11th century with a total word population of about 400M.

A few dozen children from one father today, in a world with a population of 7.5B should not be any concern.

<comment><USER17> Yeah but that was also an anomaly, which isn't the same as repeatedly decreasing genetic diversity over a number of generations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Sorry is this is off-topic, but given the context, why are so many of them posed in seemingly erotic ways? It isn't just the women either look at Nik Morgan, 21 near the bottom (no pun intended).

<comment><USER31> I think a lot of them aren't really erotic, so much as there's an overlap between "erotic poses" and "vulnerable poses." A lot seemed to be posed in a manner that I would call, artificially, awkwardly, vulnerable.

Which might be the point, for all I know.

<comment><USER4> It's definitely the point. Being the child of a sperm donor can be so uncomfortable. It seems like an extremely appropriate way to pose someone who is being confronted by such a deep part of themselves.</comment></comment></comment>


How does one self-fund a startup properly? - <AUTHOR>

I have a startup (set up as an S-Corp) I want to add some of my personal funds to, but I want to know the best way to go about it.  If I pay myself with equity can I create additional shares, or do I have to transfer shares?   If I consider it a loan to the corporation, do I need to specify terms of repayment?<p>Any websites that go over this for the self-funder, or person seeking a family and friends round? <comment><USER2> Loan the money in, it's easier to get it back out (the corporation repays the loan) and you can recognize a loss more easily. Setting a term, a reasonable interest rate, and specifying that you will get a single balloon payment at the end of the term is an easy way to go. Put this into the minutes of a board meeting and get a signed document from all board members (if only yourself). You should only put money in that you need for operations, any early salary to yourself is better paid directly out of savings (value is recognized in the "sweat equity" you have from the startup and avoids taxes on roundtrip into and out of the Sub-S as wages/dividends). Happy to chat, my contact info is in my profile; I am not a lawyer or a CPA (both of whom you should already have if you are incorporated) but we've helped a number of early stage software firms with formation strategy issues like these.

</comment><comment><USER3> No clue for an S corp but I'm saving this for later so I can read some smart person's answer :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe I will need to repost this on Monday... So far no answers...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have a number of self-funded startups, and it is a case by case decision on what to do. IM me if you want to discuss.

</comment><comment><USER5> www.alltop.com, there are few interesting and aggregation of various articles which help startups.</comment>


Help me inspire 7th graders. - <AUTHOR>

I've been asked to speak for a group of 7th graders taking a programming class in a Palo Alto school. I want to title my talk - Why You Should Be a Hacker. The rough outline is:
1) Cheapest way to innovate - low barrier to entry, you can build things without having a lab, lots of tools, or anything more than a computer, and building things is FUN!
2) You live in the center of the startup world. SV is a special place, and you are lucky to be a part of it already.
3) Software will be everywhere (rotary phone evolves into the iPhone) - even if you don't hack professionally, you'll want to know how things actually work.
4) You can wear whatever you want (this is more about hackers being rule-breakers)
5) It's all about practice - and you have a big headstart.
PG's essays are awesome for someone who already knows they are a hacker to get inspired to do something on their own. I'm hoping to inspire the next generation of YC'ers to start now.
Any suggestions?

<comment><USER2> Sounds like you have a fun opportunity lined up. I would personally try to broaden your message some. Kids get told what they should do all the time.

I would tell them that one of life's true joys is to find something you love and to spend your life working on it. Then you could segue into a discussion of how hacking has been a personal source of meaning for you. Talk about the points you mention above, and then bring it full circle by telling them that any road they walk down can be equally fulfilling if they find something they truly care for: life's value derives from what we do, not what we have.

Hope your talk goes well, and keep in mind there is probably a reason you are being asked to give a talk and not me. ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. I'll make the title "N reasons I'm a hacker, and why you should be too" or something like that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "building things is FUN" Start with _that_ point. In fact turn it around and say "Let's have some FUN..and also happen to build things"

The other points are too abstract for 7th graders. For example, 2) is strongly empirical, partly circular reasoning. 3) and 5) will only appeal to the academic types who anyway work towards scoring in exams.

A demo would be great. Tune into some part of kiddie pop culture (some handheld game or Myspace or whatever) and demo how that can be built. No need for snazzy graphics, Even a bare bones version will work.

(I'd go for HTML, Javascript. Biggest reason is that it's easily accessible everywhere, and comes with a decent UI toolkit and Turing complete language)

I'm assuming you have been invited since you are a practising professional. It's the job of the teacher to explain how things will be (points 2 to 5). You ought to _be_ that person in front of them for those few hours.

Walk the talk. Show the enthu in your eyes, voice. Kids pick up such things better than any words. Every gesture in your body language will matter. Unless you successfully come across as cool, 4) will be a waste.

Hope that helps :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.

I was definitely going to start on the FUN aspects. I love being a hacker because I love building stuff. Hacking just happens to be an easy way to build lots of different things really easily.

I'm going to ground most of my talk with examples from my own job, which has lots of snazzy pictures and cool stuff (I'm in visual effects / animation, comes with the territory that kids are impressed by it).

I wanted to talk a lot about innovation, and basically refactor a PG talk to 7th graders. Instead, maybe, I'll be all about fun over innovation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I currently teach seventh graders in Japan. Many of my students are just starting to learn algebraic concepts and seeing word problems, I would definitely recommend trying to get their interesting from things they do know: video games.

Since you mention you are in the vfx industry I wonder if you might be planning a Maya/MEL presentation? I think that would knock their socks off, since you can see the real time changes to the running system without all the compiling, testing. Personally as an attention grabber I would start out with some of your "eye candy" stuff. "Hi, I'm _____ and my job is to make this [kick ass images] happen"

One request I have is don't talk as if this is something for those only naturally talented in math and logical thinking. Teachers want them to see potential in themselves to improve, even if they are behind, if they start hitting the books now they can do something like programming.

Lay out in no uncertain terms how one might progress if they are interested in the subject. When I was that age, maybe a bit older, there were some fields I was interested in but it was all just pie in the sky kind of stuff to me. Stuff you learned in college. Not connected with the drivel at junior high level.

I second the call to not use the word "hacker" RMS lost that battle to Hollywood a long time ago. The kids will find the true meaning to it later. Coder, Programmer, Technical Director (?) are some ideas.

<comment><USER5> Excellent, I will be coming to Japan in a couple months, hacking from a location in the mountains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Much of the general public associates the term "hacker" with what they see in movies; evil geeky guys who break into computers to steal stuff. I'd start off the talk clarifying what being a hacker really is so they are clear on the term.

Cool that you're doing that though, good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yes. I made a mental note of that, but I'll put it in my real notes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> My public speaking teacher always drilled into our heads: Know your audience. Thinking back on when I was a 7th grader, I can say for certain that I was never interested in finding a cheap way to innovate, or that I lived in the center of the startup world. Maybe it was just me, but when I was in 7th grade, I was primarily interested in making millions of dollars. Why not mention that you can make tons of money being a hacker (visual: Pictures of successful young founders from Google, Yahoo, YouTube, etc)? There's nothing wrong with that. =)

Of course, now that I'm older money is not the reason I enjoy hacking. But it definitely helped me get into it when I was younger.

<comment><AUTHOR> Another good point..

Thanks everyone. Your comments are definitely helping. I think I'll retarget a bit. Instead of saying "cheap way to innovate" I'll focus on how it's easy to build fun stuff that people will use and enjoy.

I'll still mention how everything will be software in the future, but will probably skip the center of the startup universe stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm highly interested in the education of young adults, but why 7th graders? 7th graders and programming just don't seem to fit together. Perhaps you're talking to a gifted bunch, but are they really precocious enough to understand the concept of 9-5, let alone "startup"? If not, then I would cut out points 2-5.

I agree that inspiring youngsters is very important, but do you have particular reasons for focusing on the professional aspect of it, as opposed to, say, being able to do cool things with software?

Many years ago, there was a kid at a programming camp; he was a bit too young, but not far off from 7th grade. And he declared that he wanted to learn programming to make games, the kind that he played everyday, some 3D RTS. Starting from scratch, for 2 months, that was quite plainly an impossibility. He probably would've had a more profitable experience if he had more reasonable, and relevant, expectations.

Rather than PG's essay as a starting point to motivate 12-14 year olds, I would be more inclined to use more "palpable" examples, perhaps like the Mars Rovers or movie special effects or something. It'd be pretty cool if you started with a demo where by changing certain parts of the code you could create interesting changes. (But I know nothing about the interests or attention spans of the kids you are going to speak to.)

Just a thought. Please post after the talk!

</comment><comment><USER9> How boring y'all make it seem!

play them clips from movies (e.g. the scene from Titanic which was computer generated), popular games

then play short interviews with the designers and developers who wrote them.

then show them a simple computer program, and it executing to do some graphics. So they can correlate code with effects.

</comment><comment><USER10> Try to find something in their experience that matches the point you're making. Maybe, get them to remember their most favorite class project, or project outside of school. Point out how the best parts of such work might be the freedom, the complete engrossment, the creativity, and the results. Let them in on the secret that this is the way it was meant to be; work is supposed to engage all of your abilities.

However, I personally do not believe that every child is born to be a hacker, nor is this the only way to contribute. Your goal might be to reach the 10% of the audience for whom this message makes any sense, and, perhaps to explain that 10% to the other 90%.

</comment><comment><USER11> Mention that most jobs involve:

1\. Pushing paper around, and/or,

2\. Kissing ass to [bosses|customers|random people on the phone]

Programmers, by contrast, actually get to create something, like craftsmen of the past. One of the very few jobs where that is true.

Nix the word "hacker". It either has a bad connotation or is an unrealistic ambition for 7th graders (to those who understand the "good" connotation, a hacker is a person of rare abilities.)

</comment><comment><USER12> Doing is the second best way to learn.

<http://hacketyhack.net/>

</comment><comment><USER13> Please, please show them hackers can be cool. You can play sports and be a hacker. You can be in a band and still be a hacker. And yes, you CAN get hot girls and still be a hacker.

Enough with the thick glasses and pimple-faces!

<comment><AUTHOR> I like to think that I'm pretty cool :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> ask them if they want to change the world. i knew i wanted to try and do something 'big' when i was a kid (not that i had any idea what that was ;-). i went into the physical sciences not programming but even at that age i would have heard if someone had said 'software is changing the world - you can be part of something amazing'. that, combined with access to other people, would have been enough for me to plug into a hacking culture. as it is, i was pretty lonely until i got into post-grad and found other people out there with the same attitudes.</comment>


Worst Technical Specifications Have No Glossaries (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.yegor256.com/2015/03/16/technical-glossaries.html <comment><USER2> Resonates with what I see in our projects. Eventually we build the Glossary, but only after it really starts hurting when new people join in and ask same questions over and over again.</comment>


Microsoft Teams Is Now Available on Linux – Microsoft Tech Community – 1056267 - <AUTHOR> https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Microsoft-Teams-is-now-available-on-Linux/ba-p/1056267?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=je6NUbpObpQ&ranSiteID=je6NUbpObpQ-FOdkAlSaGW7UCaDXst_SEA&epi=je6NUbpObpQ-FOdkAlSaGW7UCaDXst_SEA&irgwc=1&OCID=AID2000142_aff_7593_1243925&tduid=(ir__mclauvc9qkkftmaukk0sohz3x22xgf0k6hjsa9op00)(7593)(1243925)(je6NUbpObpQ-FOdkAlSaGW7UCaDXst_SEA)()&irclickid=_mclauvc9qkkftmaukk0sohz3x22xgf0k6hjsa9op00 <comment><AUTHOR> Although some media seem to suggest that this could be the first step towards a more broad porting of Office to Linux, at least two factors would suggest otherwise.

First, Teams is based on Electron, so releasing for Linux is almost trivial. Second, it would seem that this is a move only to compete with Slack, which already has a client for Linux (electron based as well).

So while in short this should not get hopes high for those that are waiting for Office for Linux (myself included), once again it looks like a move of MS to copycat Slack.</comment>


Microsoft Outlook (hotmail) doesn't hash passwords? - <AUTHOR> http://imgur.com/A5NYKdh

<comment><USER2> They probably de-crypted the original password and rehashed the actual first 16 characters updaing the HASHed version of the password compare. It's not uncommon to have the HASH and an encrypted version of the password.

<comment><AUTHOR> If they have the decryption keys, that's the same as storing the password in plaintext. I don't know how common it is, but I know it's insecure.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I must admit, as a software dev I'm quite distressed that this is what I was prompted with when I tried to login to my email today.

<comment><USER3> From that warning message there, I don't know how you determined that they aren't hashing. You might have to spoon-feed it to me. I feel like they are just looking out for whatever legacy systems that will stroke if you pass more than 16 char to them?

<comment><AUTHOR> In order to validate that my 16-char truncated password is correct, they would have to have my password stored somewhere.

Standard security practice is to store ONLY the hash of a password, and never the password text.

<comment><USER3> I don't get that from the message though. To me it seems like they do a len() on the input box before it would ever be hashed or stored or anything like that on the server.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Real-time Hair Simulation - <AUTHOR> https://vimeo.com/127668604

<comment><USER2> they could definitely benefit from a cooperation with a hairdresser. And why is it always like in low-gravity-slow-motion? Also hair that "flows" like that as long and heavy. Coming closest in really is thin hair, with electrostatic charge, but I doubt that's the aim.</comment>


Being in Africa Makes You Untrustworthy - <AUTHOR> http://whiteafrican.com/2010/07/05/being-in-africa-makes-you-untrustworthy/

<comment><USER2> A few thoughts:

a) Comparing Nigeria at 8% with the US at 65.1% is not a particularly fair comparison as the US economy is ~83 times the size, and the average citizen is much richer meaning more discretionary income.

b) It's worth noting that the amount of fraud coming from Africa, while smaller than the United States, is still happening despite all of the additional security measures.

c) Africa isn't particularly attractive as a business destination. It's fragmented into 53 separate nations (many of which are poor; his country, Kenya, has an economy one five hundredth the size of the US) and is frequently corrupt. This means there isn't much competition, if Paypal made security particularly onerous for US customers competitors would move in and take advantage, in Africa clearly this isn't happening.

d) I can't help but wonder why this chap isn't attempting to take advantage of the gap being left by the distrustful foreign companies if there really is such a great opportunity for business over there.

e) Complaining about the fact that no one wants to do business with you is understandable but doesn't do anything to make your life better.

<comment><USER3> I wrote the article, so will just respond to a couple items here. If you read it you'll note that most of what you said I agree with.

I'll start by saying that I wish I had the time to work on a solution for this. There is _a lot_ of money to be made in Africa, as products like Mpesa show us. I'm currently up to my eyeballs at Ushahidi (www.ushahidi.com), the iHub (www.ihub.co.ke) and AfriGadget (www.afrigadget.com).

You'll note that I was specifically saying that it does not appear to make business sense for some of these web organizations to pay attention to Africa. There is lower hanging fruit elsewhere, so why should they?

Most shouldn't. Probably. However, it's interesting to note who is paying attention and who is putting money into figuring out how to monetize the web and mobile space in Africa. A couple:

Google - Google Kenya was the first independent office (sales, engineering and product development) that they had in the world.

Facebook - I didn't see this coming at all, but they were the first to zero- rate their site.

Nokia - Nokia runs a couple research labs on the continent and spends a good amount of resources figuring out customer needs.

Though there are startling opportunities, and the chance to make real (big) money in Africa, it isn't where you want to put your money first to turn a quick buck. It's where things will be happening in the future, and that's why those with the deeper pockets are taking advantage of.

Outsiders need deep pockets and a long-term strategy when working here. This is why the space is ripe for local entrepreneurs to move and make headway in users and market share while there is still a gap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the relevant statistic to track would be ($ in attempted fraudulent transactions) / ($ in attempted legitimate transactions). I think that would answer the question of why a country like Cameroon shows up on the black list while Australia does not.

<comment><USER5> I agree. I would be interested to see some sort of analysis of quantity of fraud per thousand transactions on a country by country basis. I think it would be much more useful than the percentage of global fraud that each country is responsible for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> With the obvious caveat that you can't generalize about people, there's still a problem you have to deal with when operating in a lot of third-world countries.

I'll use Lebanon, since I happen to know it somewhat well and am spending a month there now. Corruption and dysfunction in government and private industry are rampant, as are smaller-scale violations (most of the drivers are horrible and dangerous, lots of people butt in line, etc). Basically, it's easy to get screwed.

Why? I don't think it's because the people are inherently mean, because when you meet them, they're wonderful. I think it's actually pretty simple. In plain old evolutionary terms, the society selects for screw-you behavior and against cooperation. If you're the best, nicest driver, your reward is that you never get where you're going. If you always refuse to bribe government employees, your prize for your integrity is watching someone without such scruples get more of what they want, faster.

(I'm making it sound like a backwater. Despite all of the above, it's actually a wonderful place to visit.)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is why china is making quick inroads into Africa. They don't have this blanket perception of Africa, they rather work those spots that actually make them money.

I betya in some strategy meeting in paypal, it was decided to shut down all African countries. Someone clicked some buttons and that's the end of access from Africa.

The Chinese would work differently - they'd still try to squeeze whatever juice can still be got out that. Africa is increasingly becoming Dubai/China focused, and at some point the west will realise that a huge market does not recognize them as viable business partners anymore.

Consider Dubai as a pivoting point for India/China and Africa. That's a new center of the world that is developing independently of the west.

<comment><USER8> > This is why china is making quick inroads into Africa. They don't have this > blanket perception of Africa.

I disagree. After all, Africa in Mandarin is _feizhou_ , literally "wrong continent". (USA in the other hand is _meiguo_ , or "beautiful country")

China is going to Africa for resources because that's the only place they can trade peacefully, without relying on the military, like the US does.

<comment><USER7> Those names for Africa and the U.S are not modern inventions. See my reply below about China resources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Untrustworthy or "not worth the trouble"?

<comment><USER10> Exactly--sure, there are more fraud perpetrators in USA, but there are also more legitimate businesses using PayPal, I bet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> When it became tight for Western investors and companies in non web related businesses, they turned their attention to the emerging economies in Asia.

Now they are beginning to move to Africa as China and India are becoming saturated for non web businesses. What does this tell us in the hacker community especially as the web space in the West is becoming really saturated. Simple, just make your startup to be Africa friendly, if you can't make it your main strategy and you stand a better chance of not entering Techcrunch's deadpool.

So what are the advantages of doing this:

1\. You will own the largest market share by the time the established web companies choose to come into that market. Eg Baidu controls 70% of the search market in China. Google and others share 30%. Facebook had to play catch up to Studivz in Germany and ofcourse sued them, <http://tcrn.ch/cfpc9Y>.

2\. Based on the above, when the big boys like paypal etc are ready to enter the market, they will be forced to partner with you or buy you outrightly. see <http://bit.ly/cESeqo>.

3\. The IPO's that have been so elusive in the US and europe are more easily attainable over there. After your IPO, you can come back and buy the biased established but struggling web based companies in the West. Remember how Asian companies were cherry picking US companies during the global crises, that will be your game.

So make sure you have a strategy for Africa and other emerging economies as you build your web app. Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER12> More interesting would be looking at the ratio of customers or online spending to cybercrime. When making a business decision, you have to look at the reward as well as the risk.

</comment><comment><USER13> Online stores and payment providers have profiled countries for a long time now. It wasn't long ago that logging into your PayPal account with a Russian IP would instantly block it. Yes, this kind of treatment is discriminatory. But this is also a business decision that had to be made considering the potential cost of fraud and profits.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is the ugly side of bayes rule. In some situations, it isn't possible to gather enough evidence to overcome the prior.</comment>


How to Design for the Web in 2019 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-design-for-the-web-in-2019-a0be4d6702e2 <comment><USER2> "The very first thing a user wants to do when visiting your web site in their web browser is to install a mobile application."

I'm not sure how true this claim is but NO. I wish this trend would die. Stop nagging me to open Reddit in the app.

<comment><USER3> This article is satire if you didn't notice

<comment><USER2> I didn't and I am embarrassed! I didn't even scroll down and immediately stopped reading after the first paragraph.

<comment><AUTHOR> It gets better ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ironically, now I'm seeing yet another anti-pattern in Medium, which is that the pictures don't display with an adblocker, another way of making me turn it off.</comment>


Ask HN: Why is the "de-facto" open source Git repo in the world not open source? - <AUTHOR> Talking about github.com obviously ! <comment><USER2> They need paying enterprise customers for all the free OSS hosting they provide.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well gitlab does have paying customers and their product is mostly open source appart from the EE.</comment></comment>


Silicon Valley's elite tribe for young entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/663493/the-price-of-admission-into-summit-series-silicon-valleys-elite-tribe-for-young-entrepreneurs-vulnerability/ <comment><USER2> Often times, part of being an entrepreneur or creating a startup is doing it lean. Living off rice and beans and ramen. Doing that at a fancy ski resort sounds impractical.</comment>


Freemium Is Not a Business Model, Trust Me - <AUTHOR> http://www.bnet.com/blog/smb/freemium-is-not-a-business-model-trust-me/3338

<comment><USER2> I think it really depends on your market. Sites like Facebook or Flickr depend on having a huge community, so offering free accounts makes sense. Others, such as the one described in the article, are hurt by all the resources it takes to support the free users when those resources really should be used to draw in more paying customers. Like all business models, I think you just have to ask your self if the freemium model is a good fit for your current product or not.

</comment><comment><USER3> It sounds to me like they were giving away too much and the premium services weren't desirable enough for most people. Also, their initial target market -- "group and event organizers" -- are typically not the _individual consumers_ he paints them as. Most of these folks will be organizing stuff for their kid's baseball team or doing something church-related or some such. In other words, they are basically charitable organizations, but often of the sort that has little to no funding. For an organization like that, coming up with $5/mo is a huge challenge.

And, yes, these types of people are frequently a pain in the ass to deal with: They typically don't have training for what they are doing, they are doing it "for the greater good" with little or no personal benefit (or vastly underestimating what they are getting out of it), they get no respect for the work they do and they often have a sense of entitlement based on the idea that they are giving their time and energy away for free so it is only "right" that other folks kick in something for free to help them out. If you have a business, they may well see you as a wealthy capitalist pig who is basically obligated to do some do-gooding to save your worthless greedy soul.

Trying to induce folks to pay a small fee when they don't have any money to give you is the thing that is "not a business model". That doesn't mean freemium has no place in the world.</comment>


JavaScript.com a place to learn to code - <AUTHOR> https://www.javascript.com/

<comment><USER2> The UX is amazing. Good job!

The domain name itself is awesome. How much did it cost?

<comment><USER3> I'd think that Oracle would like at least a mention of their trademark on this domain...

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8344049](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8344049)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Minor bug:

On [https://www.javascript.com/try](https://www.javascript.com/try) when submitting more than one command a horizontal scroll bar appeared and blocked my view of what I was typing at the bottom of the console. (Making the console unusable.)

I fixed it by sticking overflow-x: hidden; onto the element's style. A bodged fix, but the bug should probably be looked into.

Using latest Chrome on Windows 7.

</comment><comment><USER5> Seems like an interesting concept, but I still find crowdsourced tutorial websites far better and up-to-date. Example: [http://hackr.io/tutorials/javascript](http://hackr.io/tutorials/javascript)

</comment><comment><USER6> Very nice design and UX, indeed. I'd love to see other languages on that 'platform', too.

Oh, and... _" Don't be afraid when a box pops up — that's your code working, Penis!"_

I'm sorry. I really tried, but I couldn't resist.

</comment><comment><USER7> meh. "Web 3.0".</comment>


Adding Limited Access IAM User to EKS Cluster - <AUTHOR> https://faizanbashir.me/adding-limited-access-iam-user-to-eks-cluster <comment><USER2> Please stop posting the same links to your personal content day in and out.</comment>


Games and Graphics in Popup URL Bars - <AUTHOR> https://matthewrayfield.com/articles/games-and-graphics-in-popup-url-bars/ <comment><USER2> > Strangely sometimes an emoji in the URL bar will instead display as a non- > emoji character.

@MatthewRayfield symbols that also existed pre-emoji-as-we-know-them-today default to the black-and-white variants in non-rich UI elements. You can tag on the variation selector invisible unicode point to force a representation (color emoji vs text symbol), assuming it's supported.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variation_Selectors_(Unicode...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variation_Selectors_\(Unicode_block\))

</comment><comment><USER3> Neat concepts here. Suprised how well Breakout and Donkey Kong worked in this... unusual format.

Also makes me wonder whether you could have a secret message hidden in the address bars of say, five different sites when their windows are stacked a certain way. Could make for a neat treasure hunt gimmick.

On the less positive side, it's probably best to keep this type of thing to fun/game orientated sites and personal projects, since stuff like animated address bars on business sites could get incredibly annoying if overused.

Still, nice work.

</comment><comment><USER4> You can also use animated emoji graphics in website favicons with Emoji Favicon Toolkit.[1][2] The emoji glyphs are rendered with your system fonts similar to the OP demo.

1\. [https://eligrey.com/blog/favioli/](https://eligrey.com/blog/favioli/)

2\. [https://github.com/eligrey/emoji-favicon- toolkit](https://github.com/eligrey/emoji-favicon-toolkit)

</comment><comment><USER5> No big surprise here, but this does not work on my phone.

</comment><comment><USER6> flips out in safari</comment>


Pux – High Performance Router for PHP - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/c9s/Pux <comment><USER2> Your requests per second chart [https://raw.github.com/c9s/Pux/master/benchmarks/reqs.png](https://raw.github.com/c9s/Pux/master/benchmarks/reqs.png) is a perfect example of a misleading chart, some even might call it lying.

Please use 0 as the baseline (zero point of y axis).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> First of all, for your information, the benchmark code and details are already there: [https://github.com/c9s/router- benchmark](https://github.com/c9s/router-benchmark) sorry I forgot to put the link. :p

We firstly tested the pure dispatching benchmark by a simple benchmark tool. (without ab), code is here.

[https://github.com/c9s/router- benchmark/blob/master/code/dis...](https://github.com/c9s/router- benchmark/blob/master/code/dispatch.php)

Tests including klein, ham, aura, symfony/routing. This tests pure dispatching speed, so the benchmark does not includes cache.

The dispatching benchmark result is here:

[https://github.com/c9s/router- benchmark/blob/master/code/dis...](https://github.com/c9s/router- benchmark/blob/master/code/dispatch.txt)

The benchmark with apache is just to show the comparison result (which shares the same configurations).

Pux is basically written in C extension, which reduces the overhead to load classes from PHP files. Also it does a different strategy on route dispatching. to compare the routes as fast as possible, pux uses indexed array to store the route pattern, pcre flag. (In PHP internals, zend_hash_index_find is faster than zend_hash_find)

it's not just iterating all routes in a big loop like Symfony.

<comment><USER3> > it's not just iterating all routes in a big loop like Symfony.

Well, that happens if you turn off the cache. Otherwise, Symfony actually compiles the routes into something resembling a prefix tree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Pux tries not to consume computation time to build all routes dynamically > (like Symfony/Routing). Instead, Pux compiles your routes to plain PHP array > for caching, the compiled routes can be loaded from cache very fast.

symfony/routing compiles routes only once to PHP code ([1]), and then that generated code is used for matching all subsequent requests. (There are multiple route matchers, but the default one works like this.)

It's amazing that Pux manages to be close to 50x times faster.

How is this achieved ?

[1] [https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/0ee25e6580bd4169c128...](https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/0ee25e6580bd4169c1289bdcbefa22220a3a4a8f/Tests/Fixtures/dumper/url_matcher1.php#L23)

<comment><AUTHOR> Explain here:

\- Pux uses simpler data structure (indexed array) to store the patterns and flags. (In PHP internals, zend_hash_index_find is faster than zend_hash_find).

\- When matching routes, symfony uses a lot of function calls for each route:

[https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/master/Matcher/UrlMa...](https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/master/Matcher/UrlMatcher.php#L124)

\- Pux fetches the pattern from an indexed-array:

[https://github.com/c9s/Pux/blob/master/src/Pux/Mux.php#L189](https://github.com/c9s/Pux/blob/master/src/Pux/Mux.php#L189)

\- Pux separates static routes and dynamic routes automatically, Pux uses hash table to look up static routes without looping the whole route array.

\- Pux\Mux is written in C extension, method calls are faster!

\- With C extension, there is no class loading overhead.

\- Pux compiles routes to plain PHP array, the compiled routes can be loaded very fast. you don't need to call functions to register your routes before using it.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for your answer.

> When matching routes, symfony uses a lot of function calls for each route

This is the slow UrlMatcher. The one used by default in the standard symfony edition generates code like this: [https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/0ee25e6580bd4169c128...](https://github.com/symfony/Routing/blob/0ee25e6580bd4169c1289bdcbefa22220a3a4a8f/Tests/Fixtures/dumper/url_matcher1.php#L23) , and this code is used for matching instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice, a long time has passed since i saw a PHP project HN.

<comment><USER6> They're about, but 99% of the time they're flagged/reported because "PHP SUCKS YO!".

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> My personal opinion is that either no symfony and no pux should exist.

There's no need to reinvent frameworks in PHP as PHP is the framework already. There's no need to reinvent templating in PHP as PHP is the templating already.

If you require different productivity from a language just don't stick on PHP and make the right choice by using the most appropriate language for you. There's plenty out there.

PHP is great, it rocks and is very fast when used in the right way.

<comment><USER8> If you're building a web application in PHP, then symfony is a huge improvement over naked php files or rolling your own bootstrapped system. Right out of the box it addresses concerns of security, user management, routing, persistence, and myriads of the other basic needs of a web system. Packages for many common components are already built, meaning you can get sophisticated functionality working quickly. It is modular enough that you can include only the components you need.

The built-in templating language, twig, actually provides a number of benefits over bare PHP templating. It addresses security concerns, has a concise and clean syntax, and compiles down to optimised PHP template code, minimising the performance hit.

If you are suggesting that PHP shouldn't be used for web applications, and should only be used for basic templating, I would be interested to know what you consider to be an "appropriate language".

<comment><USER7> Look at the php.net website source code. Another example could be the Wordpress source code. It's not handsome code, but it just works.

Things like fat (either slim) frameworks should be memory resident (java or similar), not reloaded from scratch at each web request, it just won't never perform on big sites. Alternatively, if you need to deal with bigger applications, or massive traffic, you can build some kind of backend memory resident application (c, c++, java, go...) and delegate the hard work to it by using a lightweight rpc protocol (see messagepack, thrift, protobuf), and leave PHP alone to do the job it's born for.

Also, the choice to adopt a framework is serious stuff, it firstly should be well designed and maintained, then it should suit exactly your needs and more importantly you should not just use it, but learn conventions and write your code by sticking on them or else all your code will result in a bad mess.

<comment><USER9> Any "big site" will use an opcode cacher like XCache or APC to avoid reloading .php files from disk on every request.

<comment><USER10> Honest question: while I know that's true (I was using APC, now using Zend Opcode or whatever the replacement in PHP 5.5 is whose name escapes me at the moment), it seems to me that there's still going to be a performance penalty incurred. The PHP may be all compiled to bytecode at that point and the bytecode may be 100% memory resident, but you're running through all the initialization routines for the framework on each and every page hit.

"Pure" PHP is a pretty fast language when benchmarked, but PHP _frameworks_ tend to benchmark poorly, and I've always assumed that the overhead incurred by PHP's execution model is the culprit -- essentially, PHP was written with assumptions about How Dynamic Web Sites Work that made sense in the late '90s but really suck when every request is hitting a front controller and being dispatched through a router. Is this not the case?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's nice to see a PHP extension for routing to improve performance, but is it really necessary to compile the routing definition before being able to use it?

<comment><USER12> Are you saying you would like an uncompiled option during development time?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Because routing is the bottleneck.

<comment><USER14> You can gain ridiculous performance improvements without anything ever really being a bottleneck at all - this attitude is wrong and annoying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The problem with this is you can accomplish essentially the same thing in userland if you know how to write a good "compiled regex" ... Calling the pcre functions in C land gains you very little. An extension is totally unnecessary.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think so.

Using pure PHP, you need to load a lot of class files. and function calls, method calls, hash find are pretty slow in pure PHP.

\- First of all, while using C extension, you don't need to reload these php class files again and again. it reduces the class loading overhead.

\- Seconds, looping and string comparison is pretty fast in C. it's because in pure PHP, it duplicates the string when calling functions/methods in the runtime.

\- Third, there are a lot of spaces to optimize the code in C rather than in pure php.

\- Last, pure PHP consumes a lot of memory, but in C extension, the memory footprint is pretty small.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Thanks for your contribution! Always love seeing new attempts with PHP. While I 100% appreciate your efforts, there are a few really big questions or problems I have with the way this has been presented. As a PHP developer, I hope you don't mind me addressing them here.

1) You benchmarked a large framework with all sorts of features and functionality against a very specific library with a few files. What about all of the extra pieces from Symfony? What do those files bring to the table or don't they? Did you only test routing features? If so, how? Are all of the features from that Symfony package available in Pux?

2) The title of the graphs showing the hockey stick effect you were undoubtedly looking for is: ab -n 1000 -c 10

The graphs seem to go to 2000. In looking at your test files in your repo, we see the following: ab -g out.dat -n 2000 -c 10 [http://localhost/work/php/symfony-routing- example/index.php](http://localhost/work/php/symfony-routing- example/index.php)

When creating benchmarks, accuracy and transparency is an absolute must. That aside: looking at the graphs, it's clear there isn't much of a difference at the 1000 level. Boosting that to 2000 appears to have had your desired effect. But what's the reason for it and why does it change?

Also, a concurrency of 10? Why 10? What about 1? 50? 100? 1000? Does it never fail? Does it only work well around 10 concurrent users?

 _Making massive claims requires massive evidence._

3) You're comparing apples to oranges here. To get to the point you're at in your test, requires a user to install an extension _and_ run a file on the server to compile the routes, every time the routes change. Symfony doesn't require this.

"Pux tries not to consume computation time to build all routes dynamically (like Symfony/Routing). Instead, Pux compiles your routes to plain PHP array for caching, the compiled routes can be loaded from cache very fast."

To get the performance you're wanting, no, Pux doesn't do it dynamically. Which, makes sense because it's _writing a flat file to disk and calling it "compiling" or "caching"_ when it really isn't either in the traditional sense. You can tell it to write a file to disk of the rendered routes, but it must be manually told to do so; unless I'm missing something in the code, it does not happen automatically. Without reading in the file to check for differences, it couldn't. The performance would almost certainly degrade.

Moving bottleneck concerns to a different layer of the application and then specifically benchmarking against that is almost certainly going to give you the benchmarks you're looking for. Since you have moved your concerns to your disk, you now run into all sorts of problems that come along with such a philosophy. How do you ensure the same file is split across multiple servers? Who has access to run the script necessary to create the file? What happens if the application grows so big that the file can't reasonably fit into memory? What happens when disk reading and writing becomes too expensive? Y'know, the regular questions that crop up when you start to move performance concerns to disk.

This would be much more accurate, and in my opinion interesting, if it left off the comparison to Symfony completely, stopped using words like "compile" and "cache," and instead described it by saying what it _actually_ does:

Pux is a library with an extension for fast tokenization and rendering of strings for application routing and a set of files to allow the option of writing those renderings to disk instead of having them executed at runtime.

<comment><USER17> Without getting into the tests, I suspect he checked his code against the Symfony Routing component[0] instead of the entire framework stack. Symfony is build from stand-alone loosely decoupled components[1].

[0] [https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/routing](https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/routing)

[1] [https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/](https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/)

<comment><USER16> I gave him the benefit of the doubt and am assuming the same. Supposing it is the case, my previous concerns and questions still remain:

1) How was the component isolated and used for the test?

2) Do the features of the Symfony routing component match the features of Pux?

This is _exactly_ why I'm more upset at the presentation of the project and not the project itself.

These questions wouldn't need to be answered if the README simply talked about what it did and how it performed. Instead, it positions itself as a competitor to a specific product and then tests against it. That would be fine, except the tests appear incomplete, very specific, and not a good comparison. In addition, it doesn't highlight the total throughput numbers or show off the maximum viable performance at all. It simply says it's better than something else. When you're selling something as being performant routing, that means you should be flaunting the maximum number of requests you were able to squeeze out of it. There isn't a single statement about how much you can really push through this until it fails. So, how is it interesting? When comparing performance, you have to know maximums. There are none here except for the amount of requests possible when requesting a single page at 10 concurrent users.

The project stands alone as an interesting dive into attempting to speed up routing for specific use-cases.

This sort of goes to the adage of product placement in that you shouldn't sell your product by simply talking about the competitor. Unless you execute it very, very well you stand to have your product lost in the noise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> If they would only first explain what the heck is "routing in PHP"...

Coming from the network programming side of things, "High Performance PHP Router" sounds like a spectacular oxymoron at best :)

<comment><USER19> > If they would only first explain what the heck is "routing in PHP"...

"Routing" is a common and well-understood term in application development: I'm sure you can appreciate the act of writing documentation for an intended audience. In the context of an application, a router interprets a request from a client and forwards it to the appropriate resource (a controller or some other business logic) which then produces a response.

<comment><USER20> _Web_ application development. I'm sure plenty of programmers would think of the Layer-3 device that chooses paths to forward packets through nodes to a destination.

<comment><USER19> > _Web_ application development.

I don't know if I'd make that distinction. Routing certainly gets a lot of use in web application development, but routing at the application level is not web-specific: examples of the pattern can be found in the Android SDK,[1] userland Android/iOS development,[2] and in a number of EIPs.[3]

> I'm sure plenty of programmers would think of the Layer-3 device that > chooses paths to forward packets through nodes to a destination.

I don't discount this at all, but I do think it's pretty obvious from the context and the README which type of routing this library provides.

[1]: [http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRo...](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRouter.html)

[2]: [https://usepropeller.com/blog/posts/routable/](https://usepropeller.com/blog/posts/routable/)

[3]: [http://www.eaipatterns.com/MessageRoutingIntro.html](http://www.eaipatterns.com/MessageRoutingIntro.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not sure the performance difference, but highly recommend Flight ([http://flightphp.com/](http://flightphp.com/)) as a simple router. Flight is well suited especially for building APIs. Flight has great http helper methods as well (header, json response, etc).

As far as performance, I seriously doubt the bottleneck in modern applications is the router.

<comment><AUTHOR> well, flight is not written in C extension.

have checked the code, there are a lot of magic method calls in flightphp. magic method calls are even slower than normal method call.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Fastest routing is: [http://domain.com/filename.php?args](http://domain.com/filename.php?args)

<comment><USER23> you can use this -- [http://github.com/noodlehaus/flat](http://github.com/noodlehaus/flat)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> If the creators are watching, I think it'd be interesting to benchmark against the current Respect/Rest.

<comment><USER25> I thought the same thing.

Here is a link for convenience. [https://github.com/Respect/Rest](https://github.com/Respect/Rest)

<comment><USER26> Also: [https://github.com/Respect/benchmarks/](https://github.com/Respect/benchmarks/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Wasn't there very similar project published a week or so ago? Just can't remember the name of it.

</comment><comment><USER22> I've never thought of routing being an area in need of optimization, but hey.</comment>


The Greatest Computer Books of All Time - <AUTHOR> http://technologizer.com/2010/11/29/computer-books/1/

<comment><USER2> Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1950293>

That was flagged and killed, and rightly so. Dreadful list.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah ok. Though I did not find it dreadful, please feel free to dup/kill it if you wish.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the site in any way and the last thing I wish to do is spam.

<comment><USER2> I don't have special rights or powers here, I'm just a user. My comments are my own opinions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> As With Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", TAOCP is often bought, always lauded, seldom read.

Shame because the few bits I have read are actually very good indeed.</comment>


Apple Watch is hardcoded to block its gay pride watch face in Russia - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1035319938641276928 <comment><USER2> Is there any human rights issue that Apple _will_ take a stand on?</comment>


What to do when Amazon decides to jump into your business - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2013/02/17/what-to-do-when-amazon-decides-to-jump-into-your-business/

<comment><USER2> What to do? Clear your calendar for an afternoon and think about your business - look for weak spots to see if Amazon is going to blow up part of your business plan and adjust.

Read Jeff B's letter to shareholders from year one... it's not fluff and will tell you loads about how Amazon thinks.

Realize that Amazon's main goal is to drive revenue, they'll be fine not making profits off your segment for years or maybe never. They may be public but they're playing a LOT game.

Realize that Amazon doesn't tell anyone anything unless it is to their advantage. When you see the press release that Amazon is moving into your segment they HAVE a working product and likely other related projects underway.

Realize that there are some thing Amazon is not great at. Examples: Taking to the press, there are states they can't work in, face to face selling, working with open source etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> These seem like things one should basically be doing anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. You are totally right. We should all be doing these things. It's a matter of execution and whether we are doing them well enough.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Haml.io - <AUTHOR> http://haml.io

<comment><AUTHOR> There were a couple other conversion sites out there but I wanted to create one with a little nicer UI and make it open source so anyone can contribute. [https://github.com/interviewer-io/haml.io](https://github.com/interviewer- io/haml.io)

<comment><USER2> > other conversion sites out there

Was going to say...

But yeah, it looks much nicer. I'm mostly using slim these days - on personal projects at least.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Yeah, I like Slim as well but most of the projects I work on are using Haml at this point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can I suggest you use a mono-spaced font for the input/output?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, I'm using Menlo which is monospaced correct? Oh, are you on a PC? Maybe that just comes on a Mac. I created an issue and will look into it. Thanks!

<comment><USER3> Ah, that's a Mac font. I'm on Linux, but you should try a more general monospaced font like Consolas, or there's probably one on Google Fonts you can use.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thank you for your work on this. I always found the existing ones to be a little underwhelming, hope this works out!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment>


How to Become a Hacker (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html <comment><USER2> I always thought that this article read more like "How to become Eric S. Raymond". There's a lot in here that is really pretty painful to read 14 years on; in particular, I find the argument that you have to start off by using a Unix in order to become a proficient hacker to be particularly disingenuous.

The general aspect that I dislike is the idea that there is only one kind of hacker -- the kind that fits into Eric S. Raymond's "the hacker culture". For instance, he gives the monoculture that all hackers speak English; but just a few weeks ago, we saw an article on HN about the old microcomputers of the Soviet Bloc (I wish I could find the link now). And, perhaps, maybe my all- time favorite hacks were executed by demosceners who spoke little-to-no English. Are these people not hackers? I don't think you'd find anyone who could argue that, but they are not part of Eric S. Raymond's monoculture.

The great essay that I have always wanted to read about How to Become a Hacker would be answering the question of how to find joy in the minutiae, and how to put all the little pieces together to make the most interesting things. But this essay is not that.

<comment><USER3> Yes, the jargon file and this article are mired in specifics that are probably bad. I also don't think the weirdness the jargon file gets into near the end regarding personality archetypes is very valid, interesting or useful, and it has always felt a little creepy to me. But I would say the core principles mentioned at the top of this article are pretty valid:

1\. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.

2\. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

3\. Boredom and drudgery are evil.

4\. Freedom is good.

5\. Attitude is no substitute for competence.

That seems to capture the hacker spirit pretty well.

<comment><USER4> One problem with these 5 "core principles" is that they apply just as well to tax accounting. It's the places where ESR writes things that _don 't_ apply to contracts law or mechanical engineering where he goes off the rails, which is a telling problem with the essay.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Trying to learn to hack on a Microsoft Windows machine or under any other > closed-source system is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body > cast.

> Under Mac OS X it's possible, but only part of the system is open source — > you're likely to hit a lot of walls, and you have to be careful not to > develop the bad habit of depending on Apple's proprietary code. If you > concentrate on the Unix under the hood you can learn some useful things.

I think this is still relevant. The best hackers I have known are people who understand things pretty much from top to bottom, and having the source code, and rights to use it are _invaluable_ for that.

If you want to create a business, maybe Mac OS or Windows might be better for you (I get by with Linux just fine though), but if you want to be a "hacker" in the sense of having a thorough understanding of your whole computing environment, then you should probably be using Linux or BSD.

<comment><USER6> I'd disagree with this. While OS X and Windows are not as transparent as linux, there are enough resources on both that a hacker that wants can go deep on them. In the Windows ecosystem, Mark Russinovich (creator of Sysinternals) and Charles Petzgold readily spring to mind as people who fit the definition of hacker.

<comment><USER7> The biggest difference is that if you run Windows, you have to be willing to crack open IDA and read some assembly to really get a view of how your system is doing something sometimes.

The main reason I keep a Windows box around is because so many Windows devs seem to think that security through obscurity works and that no one is willing to patch their binaries. Big mistake.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> vezzy-fnord One of my main beefs with ESR has always been his extremely hostile views on infosec hackers, or as he pejoratively calls them "warez d00dz".

The technical proficiency of infosec hackers can be remarkably high, particularly since it requires knowledge in all layers of the stack. To say that someone like Michal Zalewski is not a hacker, is absolutely foolish.

But, according to ESR, if you're more concerned with "breaking" things than "building" them, you're just a juvenile who's gonna get to five to ten in the slammer after realizing you're not too bright. Under this definition, a person with sophisticated reverse engineering and exploit development skills is not a hacker, but someone who bootstraps Rails on a free Unix, is.

I also disagree that not using your real name is for losers, but that one is pretty controversial.

<comment><USER8> > I also disagree that not using your real name is for losers, but that one is > pretty controversial.

It was a more innocent world, back then. I do not go to any measurable lengths to hide my actual name, but I would rather not volunteer it to the social engineering underworld either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> When I read this the first time I printed it out and read it over and over again. It guided me to start my efforts to download linux and learn to program in the 5 languages he mentioned. I took the "learn programming in 10 years" to heart.

It's made me a programmer. The flaws people are talking about in the article, I think, are true but irrelevant because the spirit of the article will still guide people such as me.

His "how to ask questions" article is another great one.

</comment><comment><USER10> Note that ESR uses a stricter definition of _hacker_ than is usually accepted on HN. On HN, anyone who can write code is free to call themselves a hacker. But that doesn't mean you have the mindset. And to the extent that the hacker community still exists in the sense of this document, it doesn't mean you're a part of that.

I've complained about this before, it's something of a pet peeve of mine. I don't describe myself as a hacker.

(But also a weaker definition in several ways. Hacking in the ESR sense doesn't have to have anything to do with computers. This is in the jargon file, I'm a little surprised that the HOWTO doesn't say anything about it.)

<comment><USER11> Actually, on HN the definition pg has endorsed for hacker is as a synonym for 'tinkerer' (not his word). It's not necessarily about code, but it _is_ about the mindset of curiosity + adventurous.

<comment><USER12> But then you have startups recruiting "rockstar hackers", sites that teach you how to become a "hacker" by leraning the newest hip JS framework of this week, and of course, the abominations like the term "growth hacking".

Spirit of hacking, as per pg's definition or the hacker culture, is still strong on HN, but the word hacker itself seems to devaluate quickly. Just like every other term that becomes fashionable, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Simply put: be curious. As far as I know, the first hackers built train models ([http://tmrc.mit.edu/](http://tmrc.mit.edu/)).

Research, make stuff, learn.

<comment><USER14> The first hackers probably made fire and flint hand-axes.

<comment><USER15> The first hackers, instead of eating every piece of algae they encountered, probably tried sticking two or three pieces of algae together, and then used those clumps to propel themselves towards areas with larger concentrations of algae.

<comment><USER16> And of course, there's an emacs command to do that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This essay is far from perfect. That said, when I first read this I was a Windows user and primarily a Windows desktop application developer, but I'd started to explore what was outside the Microsoft ecosystem by playing with things like Perl and Linux. Reading this document, along with the (far, far better) book The Pragmatic Programmer, helped open my eyes to the world beyond Microsoft.

All this to say: despite the negative comments here, this is worth your time to read.

</comment><comment><USER18> I read this essay 7 years ago and it was a revelation for me. I started coding right away and 1 year later I had a job as a programmer. This is a must read for all programmers imho.

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't know. I personally have a mild dislike of self-applied labels like this.

"You know what punkers don't do? Call themselves punkers."

<comment><USER20> Yep. Just like "activist", "entrepreneur", "intellectual", "genius", and so many others, "hacker" is a word without meaning when applied to oneself.

<comment><USER10> The article does say that you _shouldn 't_ apply it to yourself. It permits you to accept the label when others apply it to you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I remember reading this about 10 years ago, feeling old now.

</comment><comment><USER22> I loved the part when he mentioned money, sex and social status as distractions...This is such a claustrophobic way of thinking about the stereotypical hacker.

</comment><comment><USER23> this is really really old.

I enjoyed reading the CaTB book a lot. Unfortunately ESR appears to sometimes be very rude in his opinion of others :/

<comment><USER24> Rude may not be the right wording here. I would put it as passionate or strong beliefs. Sort of in the same vein as RMS.

<comment><USER25> Having met both in person, I think "rude" is rather quite apt in both cases. You can be passionate and principled and not a jerk, or a murderer, or a scoundrel, or even rude.

<comment><USER24> Well, you are correct. I stand corrected. Thanks for providing some insight into both of their personality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> learn how to learn and you have to be naturally curious. The rest follows.

This to me(subjectively) defines a hacker. Rarely do you reach dead ends when you know how to learn.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is where I found PG's essays for the first time.

</comment><comment><USER28> Eric S. Raymond gave meaning to my life.</comment>


Judge orders video of fatal police [CPD] shooting released - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjr3dfKlp7JAhXJjz4KHWBaB40QqQIIHjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fbreaking%2Fct-judge-orders-release-of-video-showing-fatal-shooting-by-police-officer-20151119-story.html&usg=AFQjCNHl54cam3FsiOzVGCEhpLRCxTQJxw&sig2=0wY8wu-eiQ_lvK4PEJjTDw <comment><AUTHOR> This could spark riots in Chicago - don't know what to think here. What were the motives of the journalist using the FOIA here? Is the damage that may come from riots worth it? I don't think the outcome of the officer's trial is complete yet but if it was the case that the courts decided the officer was guilty, would releasing the videos be necessary / the right thing to do?

<comment><USER2> > What were the motives of the journalist using the FOIA here?

One assumes "to expose what looks like a pretty clear case of police overreaction / brutality which resulted in a clearly avoidable death".</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Red Gate giving away iPad to developers who show up for interviews - <AUTHOR>

http://jobs.red-gate.com/templates/redgate/jobdetail_pdf/183.aspx/Jobs/Software%20Engineer
I'm a bit puzzled by this. If Red gate is so desperate to get new workforce, why to they still insist on "valid UK work permit"?
I'm from Croatia and would kill to work at Red gate in UK, ipad or no ipad giveaway :)
I'd really like to hear other HN'ers thought on this one. <comment><USER2> I was up at the Cambridge university computing department the other day, and it became clear that this offer is really targeting the students there (it's advertised directly on their notice boards, for example).

The average quality of their graduates is pretty high, and as Red Gate are already in Cambridge, they need just a little kick to get the best people to come talk to them, rather than one of the investment banks (at the moment, only about half of the CS grads actually go and work in IT). It's not intended to get people to travel the globe to work for them, nor do they really want that hassle.

<comment><USER3> > this offer is really targeting the students there

No, it's not. It's really targeting the great software engineers and testers who are already working, maybe bored in their current job and need a new challenge, but who are reluctant to move in the current economic climate.

As for OP - you're correct, we require you already to have a work permit. The bureaucracy and costs are too high, which does mean we lose some great people, but there's not a lot we can do to change that situation.

<comment><USER2> Well, fair enough then; I'm presuming you're a RedGate employee. I'm then curious, how well are you doing persuading the "great software engineers" to interview away from their safe jobs with a £429 bit of kit?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> See if you can get a tier-1 work visa, you don't have to get an employer to sponsor it, you just have to get a certain amount of points (based on education, current job, age, etc.) to qualify.

Once you have one you can work for pretty much any employer in the UK (their is a minimum salary threshold I believe, but most software dev jobs should be comfortably above it).</comment>


The Manichean World of Tim Wu - <AUTHOR> http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_manichean_world_of_tim_wu <comment><USER2> +1 for use of "Manichean", I believe correctly. It's a word not given enough use in these Modern Times, so I welcome any instance of it, no matter how shrill, wrongheaded or corrupt.</comment>


How Credit Cards Can Hurt America's Low-Wage Workers - <AUTHOR> http://mic.com/articles/118866/how-credit-cards-can-hurt-america-s-low-wage-workers

<comment><AUTHOR> "A couple of dollars an hour may not seem like much, but for low-wage workers they add up to a lost lifeline." Curious to see how much of an impact DipJar can make.</comment>


Ask HN: What industries are moving to Slack/Zoom for the first time? - <AUTHOR> Lots of companies and industries are presumably transitioning to tools like Slack and Zoom for the first time. Is anyone currently experiencing this right now or aware of folks who are? <comment><USER2> My dad is an electrical engineer. Their company is about 100 employees and, over the last week, they have had to shift all of them to a remote setup. It hasn't been easy at all. He mentioned numerous issues:

1\. A lot of their work is marking up drawings which traditionally have been printed on massive sheets of paper. Online, it's hard to click, zoom, markup, zoom out, etc. Not impossible, but much harder.

2\. These files can be GBs in size. Imagine waiting 45 minutes for a file to download, you add two comments, and then it takes another hour to upload back to the server where another engineer repeats the process.

3\. Many of their employees live in remote areas where bandwidth measured in kbps, not mbps.

4\. Some employees don't have full-sized monitors or even laptops at home. Some only have tablets.

5\. Hardly any of the employees have ever used Zoom, so that alone is a huge learning curve for them to download/install/get a webcam setup/etc.

6\. The VPN they had was not configured to handle the amount of bandwidth now being pushed through it. Their provider had to send technicians out to the office multiple times.

</comment><comment><USER3> Academia.

Most classes are transitioning to an online format, using Zoom, Blackboard collaborate, or other videoconferencing software. Professors will also likely be using this software to meet with individual students one-on-one.

Research seminars too. For example, here is an online conference being conducted over Zoom:

[https://www.daniellitt.com/agonize/](https://www.daniellitt.com/agonize/)

Here is an example of a weekly seminar that moved online:

[http://www-math.mit.edu/~dav/LG/](http://www-math.mit.edu/~dav/LG/)

This replaces the spate of in-person seminars and conferences which have all been cancelled.</comment>


Is 5G Spelling Our Doom? How EM Waves Can Hurt - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4pxw4tYeCU&t=637s <comment><USER2> I was about to link this exact video if it turned out this was an actual anti-5G video. I'd forgotten the original title, so it didn't click.

I love Mehdi Sadaghdar's work.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is such a good video about 5G and rf in general.</comment></comment>


Finding Your Next 'Eureka" Moment - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574531552216388962.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness

<comment><USER2> _Greg Swartz, director of innovation at the golf company Ping, says he has come up with 36 ideas for better tees and loftier drives by looking at the stars_

Isn't that everyone's dream job? Director of innovation... looking at the stars... love it.

</comment><comment><USER3> > _He says it's as if he can almost feel the rush of gamma rays that are said > to emanate from the right hemisphere when an idea is born._

Inspiration angry! Inspiration smash puny humans!

...perhaps he meant "gamma _waves_ "</comment>


Ask HN: Paranoid about security/reliability of my SaaS product? - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN
I'm a self-taught developer and designer. I used to do freelance PHP work for smallish sites and never worried too much about this as I know the basics.
I've been playing with Django for a few months now and finally have 'the' SaaS idea I've been waiting for.
I'm working on the prototype right now but the problem is I'm afraid I'm not capable enough to carry this through reliably.
Some things I've been thinking:
- Are there security holes in the site?
- Am I storing/escaping all data correctly?
- Could I accidentally do something wrong with a database table?
- Is the server configured correctly?
Using Djano has alleviated this problem a lot because of it's built-in security (can't believe I used to use pure PHP!) but I'm still worried.
I know reading up more on Django/Python security, keeping database backups, studying server config., forming an LLC so I can't be financially destroyed by unhappy users, etc. will alleviate this further but I was hoping to hear if fellow HN'ers had similar issues.
I know there are countless sites with next to no security, but I believe if users are paying money for a product the least you can do is keep their data safe.
Would really appreciate some advice. Thanks! <comment><USER2> > (can't believe I used to use pure PHP!)

Actually, pure PHP (I assume by "pure" you mean "with no framework") is the safest of all, providing that the programmer is experienced. Hackers target known vulnerabilities in popular frameworks/CMSes/etc., so with a homemade mini-framework built by an experienced programmer you're better off security- wise than with a popular framework.

My point is not that you shouldn't use a framework. I personally love Django and two or three PHP frameworks. I just wanted to add a little perspective to the discussion of "pure PHP".

</comment><comment><USER3> There are several tools you can use for 'hacking' your site. In my logs I see 1000's of requests 'fuzzing' my server looking for known URLs with vulnerable versions. I haven't kept up with the tools, but I would look at metasploit to get started. <http://www.metasploit.com/></comment>


Investors Grumbling, Twitter CEO Struggles to Define Vision - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Finvestors-grumbling-twitter-ceo-struggles-to-define-vision-1415323289%3Fmod%3DWSJ_LatestHeadlines&ei=WCVcVLC4FoqWigLSIA&usg=AFQjCNEqPVTJ975L_NPUGQVDXBbW84AMkQ&bvm=bv.79184187,d.cGE <comment><USER3> Twitter's best feature is 140 characters of content. Also, Twitter has always amazed me by being the first place that I discover breaking and often historic news - an experience that has never been replicated on Facebook or elsewhere. The signs though seem to indicate that it struggles with product vision and leadership. Seriously, "to build the world's largest audience" is not product or user centric thinking and is a step toward failure in my opinion. I think core users can still find value and a unique experience on Twitter, but Twitter needs to better understand and articulate what makes it so great. Yes, it is still great in my eyes.

</comment><comment><USER4> Personally, I think Twitter is struggling because they're married to the greatest short coming of the product: the 120 character statically allocated array. Sure they've tried to shoehorn other things into it (photos, replies, tags), but always at the expense of these precious characters -- a product decision that came from aping SMS. The updates are often frustratingly limiting. As long as you artificially limit yourself, you're stuck and can't innovate.

I use Twitter, but I don't know what I exactly get out of it. I guess I use it out of habit more than anything.

<comment><USER5> I think the fact that Twitter is overwhelming a negative place is a bigger issue.

<comment><USER6> I think Twitter's overwhelming negativity is strongly related to it's character limit.

I spend a lot of time on Facebook and the ability to back-up one's opinions in greater detail with (relatively) longer arguments is pretty crucial tool for having constructive interaction.

<comment><USER5> I don't think it's the character limit, it's the fact that the stream moves so quickly that unless you tweet loudly more than likely no one will read what you write (unless you happen to be a celebrity).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've dropped Twitter. Their iOS client regularly pushed so many ads down my throat (in stream) that (a) I noticed and (b) I noticed it every day.

When I got to the point of blocking every advertiser (confirmed views +1!) but they popped back up under different special handles I resigned myself to defeat.

I will miss the serendipitous discovery of tidbits of information that it enabled, but the signal/noise (or rather, content/ads) ratio was overpowering. It needs to make money, but I think it's killing itself or at least transforming itself into the equivalent of TV -- content producers broadcasting to a largely passive audience.

<comment><USER8> They've made it increasingly annoying to use their site, particularly as a logged out user.

Their mobile site on android breaks -- forwarding me to an error page -- about 1/3 times I attempt to use it. This is the stock os and browser on a nexus 5.

The desktop site no longer allows me to view sensitive content by clicking the button: not on chrome w/ ghostery, not on ff with no plugins, and not on safari with no plugins.

I'm prompted to login at least 1x day, and you can't see who someone follows without creating an account.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm once again flagging an article because of a registration/paywall.

</comment><comment><USER8> this sounds rough:

       Last week, he named Twitter's fifth head of product in as many years. Its
       most recent vice president of product, Daniel Graf, who came from Google
       Maps and was handpicked by Mr. Costolo, lasted less than six months in the
       post.

What was Daniel supposed to accomplish in 6 months? That's barely 1-2 months of strategizing then a 3 month dev cycle worth of work...

<comment><USER10> Six months is hardly a fair shake for anyone, let alone someone in such a crucial role. That said, six months is two quarters on Wall Street's clock. That can feel like a lifetime for an embattled CEO. When CEOs come under fire from investors, they like to shuffle around the executive deck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Twitter has already built the most important audience on the internet - <USER2> news media and news makers. The only missing link is a strategy that caters to this audience with active sourcing of news worthy content and additional mediums for short burst one-to-many real-time broadcasting. Tools that let media and news makers exploit the stream are monetizable. Ad carry-through is entirely unexplored ad revenue awaiting Twitter. Mesh networking solutions are monetizable as are private and encrypted sub-networks. Twitter's chief problem is a lack of identity. It will never be Reddit, Facebook or Instagram - mercifully.

<comment><USER12> I agree. Their best route is to position increasingly as a tool for media and those reacting to it or sharing it. Instagram and Facebook have them beaten for personal updates. But tweets are still being shared on TV broadcasts, and Twitter handles are accompanying TV and newspaper profiles.

I wonder if they've considered making available something beyond 140 characters to media partners. Like nested tweets, or chained tweets, or interactive tweets, or better galleries or listicles. Or tried revenue sharing as a trial with particular partners?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Remember when Gmail used to have that ticker for how much space you get that would update live? You'd watch for a few seconds, and instead of 3.104649 GB of free email storage you'd have 3.104672 GB!

I think what Twitter needs is a similar ticker indicating the maximum number of characters in a tweet. I can scarcely imagine the excitement of watching it slowly creep upwards. Think of the celebratory triumph we can all share when, after months of build-up, it finally crosses over to 141 and everyone gets another character to use!

No more worries about vision after that.

</comment><comment><USER14> I was on a Twitter Singapore office visit once, and asked the panel "what's next after hash tags?", the hall fell silent.their panel stunned. Granted this isn't where their product strategy discussions take place but somebody should know.

The panel avoided answering. This question should be keeping Dick up at night.

</comment><comment><USER15> Twitter's a $25B company with $4B cash in the bank and is at revenue run rate of more than $1B/year. There are some existential questions about whether or not they could be doing more with their reach and influence, but it seems decently managed from my perspective.

<comment><USER16> Twitter has a $25B market capitalization which is not the same as saying that the company is worth $25B. $4B ($3B, actually) cash in the bank are not so cool if they're loaned and you have to pay them back eventually, with interest. And finally, having revenue does not imply being profitable.

<comment><USER15> > Twitter has a $25B market capitalization which is not the same as saying > that the company is worth $25B.

Tautologically, that's exactly what it means.

> $4B ($3B, actually) cash in the bank are not so cool if they're loaned and > you have to pay them back eventually, with interest

$3.6B with $350M in receivables actually. Their debt is convertible debt (which won't impact their cash) at 0.25% and 1%.

> And finally, having revenue does not imply being profitable.

It certainly doesn't but Twitter has positive Operating Cash Flows and the market thinks they'll return $25B in PV to equity, so I think I'll side with the market on this one.

<comment><USER16> Ok you win, haha. Still, I believe that Twitter will not make it. We'll see what happens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's so obvious what Costolo should do that I feel shame of Twitter: sell the firehose data to small and medium size companies! There are a lot of companies who want to analyze data from the firehose but can't afford the entry price.

Google revolutionized the advertisement world in this way. Before Google the entry level for putting ads in Yahoo was very high and involved human assistance.

</comment><comment><USER18> Seach the article title on Google and click on the first result to read it without an account.

</comment><comment><USER19> I have never believed in the twitter idea. Time will kill it.

</comment><comment><USER20> a website for posting small snippets of text is not a business

<comment><USER15> A website for posting small snippets of text that makes over $1B/year _is_ certainly a business though.

<comment><USER21> A website for posting small snippets of text that makes $1/year and yet still isn't able to generate profits out of that billion is a bit of a different story.

<comment><USER15> Has there ever been a service with 250M MAUs that couldn't make a profit? Twitter's been focusing on growth (+100M users in past 1.5 years) and increasing margins (they're strongly operating cash flow positive). I don't have a position in the stock but it seems like they're going to be just fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Twitter is already the premier platform for cyberstalking and harassment. The question they're struggling with is, how do they monetize that?

Maybe if they charged for rape threats. Perhaps use something like the Facebook model, and charge a fee that scales based on the number of the target's followers to make a "Featured Rape Threat" that appears more prominently on the feed.

Or they could actually make a real effort to do something to stop the harassment, but obviously there's no money or "Big Vision" in that.</comment>