Closing Issues via Commit Messages - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1386-closing-issues-via-commit-messages <comment><USER2> I wish github would fix how they parse closed issues. Yesterday I typed "fixes #8011 and #8012", and it only marked the first one as closed. Next I tried "fixes #8011, #8012" but it only marked the first one again.

Also, while I'm at it, firstname.lastname@example.com claims that "fixes otheruser/remoterepo#800" when merged into otheruser/remoterepo's default branch is not supposed to be marked as fixed. wtf?

And no, I am not going to email you a video showing a bug on your site.

<http://heybryan.org/shots/2012-11-26-1209-github-fail.png>

<http://heybryan.org/shots/2012-12-03-1530-wtf-github.png>

<comment><USER3> You have to say "Fixes #8011 Fixes #8012" right? Not sure if the order of those words matter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is nice, but I'd like it to go a step further.

I have my default branch set to 'dev' so that that's where pull requests go by default (otherwise I end up with pull requests going to 'master', and having to manually merge them). However, I'd like the github project page to default to 'master', and I'd also only like issues closed when they're merged into 'master'.

I guess what I'm asking for is more granularity in the default branch settings: I'd like a 'default branch' and a 'default branch for pull requests'.

</comment><comment><USER5> It always seems a little strange to me to reference issue IDs from a centralized system (GitHub) in your commit messages (and therefore the history) in a distributed version control system.

It sure is convenient though.

<comment><USER6> Anyone seen a good prebuilt 'in-DVCS' issue-tracking system that still has web/arbitrary push notification bridges?

<comment><USER2> bugseverywhere

<comment><USER6> Good tip, thanks. The description at <http://bugseverywhere.org/> looks good, with all the features I am looking for. However, worrisomely the 'Live HTML bug repository views for online browsing' feature at <http://bugs.bugseverywhere.org/> is reporting '502 Bad Gateway'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As a guy who has held back on pushing up a branch because he didn't want to field client emails to the effect of "but you said this was fixed on GitHub", thanks, GitHub. This is great.

</comment><comment><USER8> At Sprint.ly, we have a very similar commit syntax, but it allows refrencing multiple tickets at once. We also have a pre-commit hook which prompts you to enter a ticket that the commit pertains to. (Also other sweet integrations, including pull requests).

Syntax & Setup: [http://help.sprint.ly/knowledgebase/articles/108134-setting-...](http://help.sprint.ly/knowledgebase/articles/108134-setting- up-scm-vcs-integration)

Pre Commit Hook: <https://github.com/nextbigsoundinc/Sprintly-GitHub>

</comment><comment><USER9> This is nothing new. Here's an April 2011 post: <https://github.com/blog/831-issues-2-0-the-next-generation>

<comment><USER10> I'm assuming you didn't bother to read the post.

Now issues are not closed until the commit is marged into the default branch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> i'm puzzled, i thought i used this 3 months ago. is it really new?

<comment><USER12> The part that's new is that the issue is closed when the commit hits your default branch (master by default), not when it hits the repository.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Github, I always comment this here, and will continue to do so as I know you monitor these threads.

Please let us have unlimited private repositories for single user repos.

I'm a freelancer and would like to use Github for both personal (which I can open source) and commercial (I can't share the source) projects.

Currently your pricing scheme is borked. I can 7$ a month for only 5 repositories. That's insanely expensive for such a small repository with MINIMAL traffic in an out.

Remember: I'm the only one commiting code here, it's a freelance gig.

Should you offer this feature of free private repositories, you'll become my sole off-site code backup. BitBucket offers free unlimited with a limit of 5 contributors per repo. If they can do it, why can't you?

<comment><USER14> So much about this doesn't make sense to me. What features does Github offer that make you want to use it over, good example, BitBucket? Why do you feel you deserve those features for free? Why in particular do you feel you deserve to use those features for free to do your own paying work? Come to think of it, what kind of freelancing are you doing where $7/mo is a notable expense?

Really, help me, I want to understand— but you sound like a crazy person.

<comment><USER13> I have about 50 repositories. It would cost me a lot per month to host it on Github. Why do I want to use Github? Because I'm transitioning from C# (MVC3) work to Ruby on Rails work.

Heroku only integrates well with Github (for some stupid reason) and I would prefer to host it on Github for my comfort.

I'm located in Bolivia. I do not charge 4000$ per project. My cost of living is lower, hence, my rates are lower than most first world country programmers. There's your reason why I can't afford Github's ridiculous prices.

<comment><USER15> Please consider that in first-world countries, $7 a month is quite reasonable. Pricing something so that it's affordable to everyone, everywhere, is a hard problem. Also consider that they have to pay US-based developers and services to keep it all running, so they're going to have to charge US prices.

<comment><USER16> I think his point _is_ that $7/month is reasonable. What's hard to understand is why you could privately host a project the size of jQuery or Rails for $7/month, but his 50 projects that are orders of magnitude smaller and less active would cost much more.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Billionaire Next Door (2007) - <AUTHOR> https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2007/march/the-billionaire-next-door/ <comment><USER2> "His net worth isn't something he says he ever thinks about. "I don't waste time on it. Because at the end of the day, it's a theoretical number that has no relevance. It's not as if we have a bank account full with all that money and liquidity. I'm sorry, it's not cash. It's assets that are necessary so that people can do their jobs."

I wish more people can see it that way instead of touting the successes of billionaires just by virtue of their theoretical net worth

<comment><USER3> I think that's silly. A sizable portion of my net worth is my home equity, and thus I could say "Because at the end of the day, it's a theoretical number that has no relevance. It's not as if we have a bank account full with all that money and liquidity. I'm sorry, it's not cash. It's assets that are necessary so that I can live somewhere."

While I guess that's _somewhat_ true, it's not a "theoretical number", and there is a very straightforward way to turn that into cash if I want (of course, I'd have to find somewhere else to live). The same is true of this billionaire's net worth.

<comment><USER4> _The same is true of this billionaire 's net worth._

No, because while you own your house, the billionaire owns every house on the block. What happens when all of those houses get liquidated at once? First, local market is flooded, they no longer hold their original value. More importantly, and the part of the quote you left out, is that in this analogy, the houses can no longer be rented and a revenue stream dries up.

So no, it's nothing at all like your home equity.

<comment><USER5> his net worth is calculated by taking his share of the FMV of the assets he owns. presumably, he could sell his share of the company to a buyer and he would then become liquid.

<comment><USER6> > he could sell his share of the company to a buyer and he would then become > liquid.

What buyer? At the time of the article, he's #79 on Forbes, so there's only 78 potential individual buyers here and they're probably all in the same pickle so far as getting liquidity.

Maybe you're thinking of a merger with some other company. How many companies had 7 billion dollars in liquid assets in 2007 and also thought owning FEV would be the best use of that money? I'm thinking not many, but I really don't have any idea.

<comment><USER7> He doesn't have to sell to an individual. I'm sure there are a lot more funds, banks and companies with more then that amount of money around. Also he doesn't have to sell to a single entity, but can sell shares to the public market. That said, it still wouldn't be easy and probably tank the market value of his companies.

<comment><USER6> > That said, it still wouldn't be easy and probably tank the market value of > his companies.

Right, my read is that this is what makes the number theoretical

<comment><USER8> His company has value. As long as he didn't dump all the shares at once he could surely unwind his stake to the market. We're not talking about bitcoin or beanie babies here. There's an underlying asset.

<comment><USER6> Sure there's no doubt about that, but the context is that this dude doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about his net worth and folks here are somehow judgemental of that

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In general this is quite common in Germany, there are still many family companies and the heirs often work outside the business before returning to the family company.

Herzogenaurach his hometown is an interesting case for everybody who is interested in the weird ways of entrepreneurship. The small town is home for Schaeffler, Adidas and Puma. Quite remarkable for a population of 30.000.

Disclaimer: I live next door and organize the Nuernberg Digital Festival

<comment><USER10> Some background on the Adidas/Puma rivalry, which is quite a fascinating story:

[https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/mgz97b/the-nazi- siblin...](https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/mgz97b/the-nazi-sibling- rivalry-that-divided-a-town-and-created-modern-sportswear)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Related: [https://www.propublica.org/article/ultrawealthy-taxes-irs- in...](https://www.propublica.org/article/ultrawealthy-taxes-irs-internal- revenue-service-global-high-wealth-audits)

<comment><USER12> The link is a story from this week about how this guy dodged paying $1.2 billion in personal income taxes to the IRS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> He sounds like a reasonable and introspective person (at least that is the impression I got from reading the article). It's a good reminder that Billionaire's are people too, with all the same hopes, dreams, and insecurities that many of us non-billionaires have.

<comment><USER14> Or it's PR for his tax evasion case: [https://www.propublica.org/article/ultrawealthy-taxes-irs- in...](https://www.propublica.org/article/ultrawealthy-taxes-irs-internal- revenue-service-global-high-wealth-audits)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if he'll be able to retain his family's wealth. I remember reading that wealth is not retained really well in rich families.

<comment><USER16> That also runs counter to the popular narrative that wealthy families only grow wealthier.

<comment><USER17> The children of billionaires (like this guy) are, on average, wealthier than the children of truck drivers.

<comment><USER18> This is true, but at the end of the day most wealth created in the US at least is first generational. It's not uncommon for a family fortune to be lost in 2-3 generations.

<comment><USER19> I can think of not a single family who started out wealthy and lost it all. What's far more common is dilution of wealth. Start out with $100mm, split that 10 ways through inheritance, then split that again, and again. The Rockefellers, Carnegies, Mellons and Westinghouses still exist, just under many different surnames.

<comment><USER18> Most families never reach that level of wealth. It's obviously going to be different for the top .001% of wealth.

<comment><USER19> If you start out even with $100k inheritance you're pretty far ahead already. That's enough to get an education, buy a home, or start a business. If you can turn that $100k into $1mm you can draw off $35k for the rest of your life without lifting a finger.

Having modest savings and being in good health makes you much closer to wealth than if you were further down the economic chain.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple legal is going after Open Source startup with their App Store trademark - <AUTHOR> http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/22/apple-now-sending-out-cease-and-desist-to-smaller-app-store-transgressors/

<comment><USER2> I'm really confused as to what anyone is supposed to call the online store where one sells applications? It's as if someone trademarked "Department Store" and all of the sudden, Macy's, Sears, JC Penny, Dillards, etc couldn't use the term to refer to their stores any more. That's insane.

<comment><USER3> There were online stores that sold applications before Apple did so. What's wrong with calling them whatever we used to call them, before Apple started calling theirs "App Store"?

<comment><USER4> What did we used to call them?

<comment><USER5> App stores.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The 'App Store' brand is so important to Apple now that they have no choice but to go hard to try and own it. It won't look good for Apple's claim if Amazon can stand in court and list off reams of other App Stores.

</comment><comment><USER7> It would be great if the claim does not hold up, however, this may take a while.

In the mean time, to avoid a crushing blow, we have started complying, by cycling the name of the second tab with the top suggestions we are getting - over 830 so far ... <http://www.amahi.org/name-the-store>

We'll do search/replace of other strings in the site soon ...

Worst case is that Amazon and Apple settle out of court and screw everyone else.

</comment><comment><USER8> I hope that Amazon and Microsoft can crush them in court and get all this squashed. I would say go for it Amahi and do not comply with them but I know that cant be done without the cash and lawyers. Lets just hope that the big guys can win it for everyone!!</comment>


This patent application seems coherent.  Then, a dedication to 50 Cent.  Then... - <AUTHOR> http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070156594.html Scroll down to see the description. <comment><USER2> 20070156594 - This number refers to a published patent application, which does not mean that a patent has been granted.

I have a 98% confidence rating that you can only enforce rights from issued patents. An application means that it has a chance of being issued, but normally does not have much value until it is actually granted.

When a patent has been granted, you'll see a number similar to this "5,146,634 6923014 0000001" <http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm>

</comment><comment><USER3> Looks original and non-obvious to me.

But seriously... has the PTO simply given up trying?</comment>


Ask HN: Startup Weekend, is it worth it? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious, what was your experience attending startup weekends.
I've attended one in Italy a while back (when I was pretty new to startups, and didn't know any better) and frankly my whole experience was a bit underwhelming. I've met some interesting people, but overall it consisted mostly of entrepreneur-wannabe-i-heard-cool-kids-do-that audience. Also, it was quite poorly organised (so much to the stereotype about Italians).
Anyone had better luck? <comment><USER2> I did my first one a few months ago. The business that I worked on didn't win, but I learned a lot from my teammates and the other teams that were there. For example there were several teams using wireframing or mockup tools to create simulated mobile apps as their MVPs, and I got to see what they could do with them. My teammates were able to learn from me how to build cost + revenue projections and "what if" analyses with a spreadsheet. Other folks on my team spent the weekend figuring out how to work on an idea with a 3D printer. I suppose if you don't have anything to learn, it might not be worth the time. But who doesn't have anything to learn? Also the food was good, the booze was unlimited, and I got a nice t-shirt out of the deal, so it's got that going for it.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been to a few in London & learn something new every time. I went through an accelerator program as a single founder & wanted to learn how to have my voice be heard in a group setting. Working with team mates is so much harder than hacking on something yourself - especially an enthusiastic bunch of lively, talented & confident people!

Startup Weekend can be an exhausting whirlwind of activity. It makes you realise how easy it is to convince teams to get behind an idea. I've worked with teams that took it really seriously but have enjoyed it far more by picking a team I could have fun with.

It's my aim to win a Startup Weekend & make a great product, until then I'll keep improving my skills & making friends.

</comment><comment><USER4> Startup Weekend is designed to spark someones interest in entrepreneurship. You aren't expected to walk away with much else besides the experience.

They got me interested in entrepreneurship.

I won one, made a very very small amount of money with the business I won with. Shut it down after 1.5 years.

I am pretty grateful to Startup Weekend for getting me... errr.. started. I encourage anybody who is interested in starting a tech business to attend one.</comment>


Ask HN: Tell us about your side projects. - <AUTHOR>

Let us know about your awesome side projects and weekend hacks. What are the cool things you have made or what you are currently working on or plan to work in near future? <comment><USER2> Since I was a little kid I've played on text based "mafia" games, where the idea was like any other game, to be the highest rank, the richest, the one with the most "kills" or in the best "crew", etc.

I started learning to code because of these games in all honesty, over the last couple of weeks I've been working on an open source mafia game (with an installer and configuration page, control panel for moderators, etc) to allow inexperienced people to release their own version of the game (or to give experienced programmers a solid base to work from.)

At this stage I'm getting in the content, the gambling aspects of it, etc. and I am reaching the point where I will consider releasing it. About 90 hours have gone in to it so far at about 6 hours per day (I also have a 40 hour/week full time job with a 2 hour each way bus commute.)

I've come up against and defeated a lot of challenges, and the codebase is very clean and MVC based (I use php5, CodeIgniter and MySQL) so I'm genuinely proud that this revisit to my more youthful days has been a fruitful one. I plan to go live with a demo and release the source on github and via my personal website in about a week or two, depending on how I fare against what I have left to code.

<comment><USER3> Sounds cool, I used to play an PBM (Play By Mail) game called It's a crime... been waiting for a modern version of this since forever.. (<http://www.kjcgames.com/crime/index.php>)

<comment><USER2> If you would be amenable to it being realtime and not play-by-mail, I could send you a tweet with the source and demo (which will be running a live version and won't be closed (assuming I don't become homeless and run out of money for hosting any time soon =) )) link for you to take a look at?

<comment><USER3> sounds good. would be happy to give it a crack

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have a terrible memory, and want to remember more about the little things that happen in my life, and remember the facts I come across that I find interesting. Spaced Repetition Learning is a proven tool for improving memory, but still isn't available in a well designed simple app. (I've tried them all!). I am busy building this app as a side project. I was excited when <http://memstash.co/> launched but it doesn't use spaced repetition, the key aspect of improving memory. There are so many fascinating things around me, and with this app I will remember everything I want to.

<comment><USER5> I was just looking for something like this the other day. Memstash looks like it sends you 3 text messages over a week. Are you doing longer term spaced repetition?

<comment><USER4> So the basic premise is that it would vary the spacing based on how well you remembered the fact. Would start daily, then if you know it well, go weekly, then monthly etc.. The idea is that it's dynamic and mimics your memory decay. Memstash doesn't get feedback from each alert, it just shows you. There is no interaction or feedback to know how well you remembered each item which would then inform the spacing. You can read more here if interested: <http://www.supermemo.com/articles/theory.htm>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My side project is <http://www.imobee.com.br>, it's a real estate search engine for Brazil...

We are trying to build something close to Trulia because our real estate sites suck bad.

We are still on alpha and only the main interface is working, but we will add a lot of statistics and analysis to it so it can become useful.

Coding on my free time with a friend and trying to find some money to work full time on it, but it's very very very hard to do that here in Brazil.

Opnions are welcome.

<comment><USER7> I really like this idea. I hate how existing services limit regions, such as Trulia - it's not like the maps are hard to get - I hope your service works out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Still hacking away on <http://www.thetaboard.com> on nights and weekends. Getting a good flow of signups. Trying to decide whether to charge for it (and if so, how to market it) or possibly just leaving it free (it isn't costing much to run).

As always would love to have some feedback.

<comment><USER9> Great great job! I love the demo and love the clean interface compared with Trello. I think eventually you'll reach a point where you need to decide if this is still a side project or there's some potential there. Leaving it free for now is perfectly fine but eventually as more and more people use it, it might cost you a whole lot more (in which case, it might be a good thing). Good luck!

<comment><USER8> Thanks! Glad you like it. Yeah, I've got some features I would like to add but am holding back b/c they would result in increased operating costs. I'll need to make a decision in the next 6 months or so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I made my first ever Android app in march: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=kiteflyingmo...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=kiteflyingmonkey) It's a dice rolling app called 'Time to Die', I did it in about 2 months of evenings. I had never programmed in Java before.

I started making a website: <http://www.talesfromthemoshpit.com/> What I've done there isn't really functional yet. It's taken about a month of evenings. I had never used HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL or JavaScript before.

I kind of lost interest in my website when my Raspberry Pi arrived, and since I have been working on a home media centre. It's going quite well so far, I'm doing it in Perl, which seems to be quite a fun language.

</comment><comment><USER11> I put <http://www.foundcamera.com> together as a quick 1 day project a few months ago. I wanted to put an interactive map at the centre of it all.

It really is an MVP of a project currently and I would like to expand on it as I'm getting a backlog of cameras to list on the site even without any promotion - just good search engine rankings for popular phrases.

Lots of people are offering rewards in their posts too, a few people have said if I promoted the posts with rewards this would entice more people to help out but I don't think this is right.

I'd also like to monetize it in an unobtrusive way, just to cover its own running costs, as there's only so many projects that you can keep paying for.

I'd really appreciate feedback/suggestions.

<comment><USER12> Great project ! I really like both the idea and how you implemented it.

After clicking on a found camera pin-point, I was a bit disappointed : I closed the left frame showing details of said camera and hoped for the map to show every other pin-points again. I tried zooming out, before understanding I had to either go back in my browser or to chose a top-menu item. IMO you should automatically go back to the "whole map" upon closing the specific left frame.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm still slowly working on Hackerbuddy: <http://hackerbuddy.com/> \- fun fact, the user base is now at a level where I can find people on Hackerbuddy to help improve Hackerbuddy. Is there a name for apps that recursively improve themselves?

<comment><USER6> Trendy antivirus doesn't like your site

Website blocked by Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Malicious website blocked <http://hackerbuddy.com/> Rating: Dangerous Verified fraudulent page or threat source. What You Can Do:

Contact your administrator about security settings on your network Copyright © 2006-2011. Trend Micro™ Incorporated. All rights reserved.

<comment><USER13> Thanks for the headsup - first I've heard about it. I'll have to look into getting it unblocked (I guess it's because of the domain name?)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been working on <http://www.hupland.com> for almost a year. The idea is to help you to improve your Heads Up NL skill by playing, studying your games, and monitoring your ELO rating. I had this problem myself few years back when I was a graduate student struggling with financial issues. I was trying to earn some money on online poker sites but I couldn't afford learning by losing first. I'm pretty close to the MVP-version launch (only 1 feature: play with friend).

One thing I've learnt was that it is really easy to get distracted due to all context switches and conflict responsibilities. So I try my best to touch the code every day (even 1 line CSS change is good enough).

</comment><comment><USER15> Here are some of my little hacks: <http://jgc.org/labs.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> I really liked <http://getpopfile.org> . I had a somewhat related idea where I wanted to use ML to filter incoming emails and assign/tag them as to-do list items.

Have you considered making a web/mobile version? Email overload is one hot topic these days.

<comment><USER15> Actually what I considered doing was making it a service. Since it can all operate transparently through IMAP (including training and filtering) it's trivial to make it work with any IMAP based email. I have it working against my own gmail through OAUTH, but I decided that the market was likely too small.

<comment><AUTHOR> How small is the market and how much work it will take to make a web/mobile app for it? I think if done properly it can get some paying customers. Even if it doesn't become a big startup, it has the possibility of becoming a good source of passive income.

How about reimplementing the core logic in python and exposing it as library/API so that all kinds of web/mobile/plugin front ends can be built on top of it?

<comment><USER15> I actually have the entire thing rewritten as a C library that I have been licensing commercially to companies for years. That part's easy. The hard part (for me at least) is building the web site, billing etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> May be you need a partner who is experienced and fluent in building modern web interfaces.

<comment><USER15> If someone wants to license my polymail library for this purpose I would be happy to do that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I created a disposable email service - <http://dudmail.com> \- this was a interesting exercise to attempt as I didn't have any experience dealing with mail servers before this.

It's been moderately successful (as far as disposable email sites go) - there's about 5000 registered users, a few hundred active users, and after a year or so am on the 1st page google results for "disposable email". (I'm number 7 on the page, but at least it's the front page =)

</comment><comment><USER17> Currently working on a little app that sends email reminders for movies you want to see in theaters. It happens far too often that I see a trailer somewhere, think "woah I want to see that movie" then just forget about it, only to remember when it's no longer playing in local theaters.

Just finishing up the frontend, should be able to release this soon... if I find a good name, at least. Current working title is Filmnudger which I think is pretty damn bad, haha!

<comment><USER18> moviememory?

<comment><USER19> or movieminder?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> New Orleans Music & Event Calendar: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheredatwh...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheredatwhendat) and soon at <http://nolamusiccalendar.com>

<http://isshort.com> \- URL Shortener that uses publisher-provided short URLs (flic.kr, n.pr, wp.me, etc)

</comment><comment><USER21> Started working on a SAAS concept recently, nothing solid to show right now.

My list of side projects from 2010, Android: Personal Finance Calculator (<http://bit.ly/STAJ8n>) helps you to calculate Loan Interest rate.

Baby Names (<http://bit.ly/STAJ8n)Provides> List of Baby names and their meaning

Mobile Number Tracker(<http://bit.ly/STAIkI>) provides caller info based on the mobile number (Only India).

Mobile Number Tracker US (<http://bit.ly/PGakKz>)

iOS Game: Juicy Fun (<http://bit.ly/Ub7IRv>) physics game Atom Ace (<http://bit.ly/UxZ6F9>) a different kind of puzzle.

iOS App: London Tube Map (<http://bit.ly/QqAXo7>) shows london tube statues.

Movie Theaters (<http://bit.ly/SwedyD> ) shows info about latest movies and movie theaters which plays them.

<comment><USER22> Nice Side-projects, but you're in definite need of a designer ;)

<comment><USER21> Thanks. Ya i know, my games flopped big time :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> 1) <http://my.sket.sh/> Paste screengrabs, sketch & add notes, share link with friends (can share read-only version or collaborative version where you can sketch together in realtime)

2) <http://my.groceries.io/> Input your grocery stores, then aisles in the order you travel through them. Then make your grocery list and eventually through use remembers which aisles to find your items

3) <http://www.gifttracker.net/> Family members each have an account, enter gifts they want, and reserve gifts to avoid duplicates. NB doesn't run under https, been meaning to take care of this. If you want to try it out keep that in mind, pick a test password.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm working on FreedomSponsors (<http://www.freedomsponsors.org>) - a micro- crowdfunding platform for open source projects. People can place money bounties related to the projects' issues, and pay after they're resolved.

Currently, payments are handled by Paypal. Right now I'm looking into Bitcoin and bit-pay to enable bitcoin payments into FS. There are a few user experience challenges that I have to work out first though (see [https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org/i...](https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org/issues/78))

FS is open source on Github. Any kind of collaboration and feedback is very welcome :-)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I will start with myself. I recently introduced the first version of my wordpress theme "strapfolio" on HN [1]. Got lots of visitors, not so many sales and some valuable insights through comments and analytics. I will be utilizing my coming weekends to improve it.

I am also looking for ideas for my next side project that I will use as an opportunity to get a better understanding of Flask & Angular.js. So, if you aren't able to work on it yourself, let me know if you would like to get some web app that you wish existed.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4753200>

</comment><comment><USER25> Working on my video game. It's a 2d platformer / adventure game, based on the show Community. It's open source if anyone is interested in writing Lua.

<http://projecthawkthorne.com>

</comment><comment><USER26> My today's 3 hours project is: <https://ptweetcom.appspot.com/>. It is thought to be a "How to" example project for Google App Engine. In general it is a micro service that gives twitter users ability to post private messages to anyone (not only for followers). You enter your secret message and addressee (@person) and get a link in response which you add to your tweet. Only addressee can follow the link and see your private message.

Next evening (now it's evening in Russia :) ) I replace this service to ptweet.com, make it more sexy and write "How to" for my blog (I guess).

</comment><comment><USER27> I just released Device Debug to Android [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.korri.andr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.korri.android.devicedebug) It reads Android device specs and device log and shows them to the user. It also allows the user to share this info through email or by writing it to a file.

The main reason for making it was to have a way to get information from devices you don't have access to. For example if your client complains that your app doesn't work with her device, you just instruct her to install Device Debug and email the info to you.

</comment><comment><USER28> Yesterday I launched my iOS receipt management app, Simple Receipts. My goal was to make the absolute simplest app possible, as all of the (many) existing ones were complex.

By default it simply saves your receipt images to your camera roll. If you link with Dropbox, it will upload them there.

As of today it's $0.99 in the App Store. You can find it here:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simple- receipts/id509966025?...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simple- receipts/id509966025?ls=1&mt=8)

</comment><comment><USER29> I want to work on something where people can leave comments/reviews about rented property they have lived in. Whenever I move to a new place I always find myself wanting to ask the last person why they left, so I can be aware beforehand if the shower leaks, or the rooms are damp or the landlord is useless. I've found sites that have reviews of landlords or letting agents, but not of the actual properties themselves.

I'd love to know if anyone else thinks this is feasible/useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Useful Yes. Feasible? Depends.

<comment><USER29> Upon what would it depend do you think? From a technical standpoint I wouldn't expect it to need a huge amount of engineering, as I wouldn't expect a huge amount of concurrent users. I have been vaguely concerned about the legal aspect; would leaving a negative review be seen as slander/libel? I'm sure there must be some legal protection for this based upon the hundreds of product review websites.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think reviewing a property will invite legal troubles but reviewing the landlord may do so. You need to check it with lawyer. There must be legal protection for this or you can simply transfer the legal liability to reviewer through your TOS. For example, people get sued for tweeting bad things about other people but twitter doesn't get into trouble.

As far as being feasible is concerned it depends on your resources and what you want from it. Do you want to earn money through it? Do you have the skills to develop and market it properly? Is there a paying market? These questions depends on research and lots of ifs and buts. So, it depends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I created a service called <https://www.cyphrd.com> \- previously called passwords.cc - which is a secured personal information service, let's you store passwords, notes, bank information, ssh logins, files/documents, and whatever else you'd like - securely, encrypted with an AES256 encryption client-side. The encryption library I've created is open source and the service is in a private beta stage.

</comment><comment><USER30> I built <http://thepaperboard.com/> with my wife over the weekend. It's a gallery of drawings people made with the Paper iPad app and shared on Twitter. We released an iPhone app based on it the next few days.

Wrote about it at [http://hboon.com/how-a-developer-spent-a-weekend-with-his- de...](http://hboon.com/how-a-developer-spent-a-weekend-with-his-developer- wife/).

</comment><comment><USER31> I came up with a way to automatically modify your websites outgoing links with an affiliate code, useful for busy forums. Kind of like a lightweight, self run Skimlinks.

<http://www.affililink.com>

<https://github.com/deanbarrow/Affililink>

Edit: When I find some time, I'd really like to improve upon this and document it.

</comment><comment><USER32> I've been working on <http://www.weartolook.com> for a while now, we're a fashion shopping mall with 250 of the best high street, luxury and department stores here in the UK, we _just_ crossed 2m products and are gearing up for a proper launch over the next few weeks. Interested in any feedback.

(For you US guys, we're just about to add a wave of ~100 US stores)

edit: clickable

</comment><comment><USER33> I am working on todo service and apps (yes, I know, yet another one world doesn't need, but I really enjoy it) where lists of tasks can be shared between devices and people. Starting point here: <http://todoteria.com>

I have written apps for Symbian, MeeGo and J2ME (not happy with the last one). As well I have BlackBerry PlayBook version ready for upload to App World.

<comment><USER6> You need Android and Iphone... they are the ones that matter.

<comment><USER33> I'm forced to learn both currently (I am not complaining). Android most probably will come first - still I can't give specific dates because my time is unpredictable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I bought <http://livelystocks.com> and I'm rebuilding it. It's a live streaming news service for stocks and shares. If you want to know why Apple shares have tanked, you go to livelystocks and check the live news as well as the latest headlines.

It's a little like stocktwits but many more sources and much more focused on just news, as fast as it happens.

</comment><comment><USER35> I've got <http://placeguitar.com> \- Guitar Image Placeholder written in python on google app engine

<http://themepiggy.com> \- Open source themes based on bootstrap - written in padrino - still a work in progress - I really need to get more themes up there as well and finish off some of the code

</comment><comment><USER36> I've been working on <http://experimatch.com> \- a site for matching academic researchers with potential test subjects. Most researchers resort to posting flyers around campus, thus missing on a lot of people who are willing to participate for compensation (that is offered anyway). Already being used around London, and slowly growing.

</comment><comment><USER37> I am working on <http://getprivatizer.com> , an open source chrome plugin, that allows you to encrypt everything you send to facebook and decrypt everything your friends want to share with you. The server and the plugin are here: <https://github.com/wolfv/privatizer>

</comment><comment><USER38> Going slow on <http://www.migrainevibe.com> (a migraine journal) on weekends mostly. I've been on HN a while now (just reading, no comments), and I have to say that it really is worth going after your dreams one line of code at a time.

Thanks for the thread, I would never have the guts do a "Show HN" post with my project.

</comment><comment><USER39> It's not much, but I've been working on <http://nflscorebot.github.com> for a while now. I built it mainly for myself; I always have a Twitter client open and wanted an easier way to get football scores. I've since built versions for hockey and college football, as well as French versions.

</comment><comment><USER40> I've written a greasemonkey script for reddit that pulls directly linked images, resizes them and displays them inline. I recently updated it to include flickr links as well.

<https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/124010>

</comment><comment><USER41> I'm trying to finish up a logger app for iPad. Based on NSLogger (<https://github.com/fpillet/NSLogger>), my goal is to build an app that could be useful out in the field when you're to debug or monitor how your app is behaving.

</comment><comment><USER42> My two side projects:

<http://www.sizeall.com> site for comparing things by real size on screen

<http://www.newswebreader.com> web Usenet client (three pane, like Thunderbird)

<comment><USER33> sizeall not working for me. I tried with my phone. It was almost right size when loaded but when I clicked "Actual size" it was 1.4 times bigger than actual.

<comment><USER42> Check if correct monitor size is selected (in upper right corner).

<comment><USER33> Yes, that's better. That control was in my blind spot. Maybe you should do something about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I've been working on <http://www.thenpsx.com/>. It's a prediction market for consumer products. I'm slowly growing the number of products represented and getting a bit of market activity. Though it's pretty thin at the moment.

</comment><comment><USER44> I'm writing a book on how to get seed funding with a team and an idea _for no equity_ in exchange (up to 120000 eur). There are three methods, all EU based, but you can apply no matter what nationality you have. I'm preparing a launch page now.

</comment><comment><USER45> I'm a newbie to Rails, yet every free time I can get around to I try to build a Kickstarter for charity in Vietnam. Still in development (<http://charitymap.herokuapp.com>)

</comment><comment><USER46> Nothing mind blowing.

GameBalls.info Keeps track of viewer counts of video game streams.

ExtempEngine (.com) A mobile and chrome news database app for a very specific niche - high school extemporaneous speech students

<comment><USER47> Why .info?

<comment><USER46> The .com was taken, and of what was left, .info made the most sense contextually.

Information about eyeballs on video games.

Was debating .TV too but 25$/year was a bit too pricey for a one off side project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Working on a cross-platform Java-based command line shell that aims to be better than the powershell's available and bring the goodness of user prompts to commands.

</comment><comment><USER49> In order to learn Django and web development, I'm trying to build a simple website for tracking weightlifting workouts.

</comment><comment><USER50> <http://geospeak.co.uk> \- talk about places on Google Maps.

</comment><comment><USER51> nvPY is my ugly but cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac) and open-source (new BSD) simplenote-syncing keyboard-friendly realtime-searching note-taking tool! <https://github.com/cpbotha/nvpy>

</comment><comment><USER52> wrote my own scraper for stock prices, now im writing my own chart analysis app in ROR and jqPlot

also going to pull Twitter and FB updates to see if i can determine the influence social media has on stock price movements

</comment><comment><USER53> I'm not sure what the point of this question is? Usually, if HNers have a project that they want to show to the world, they submit it as "Show HN"... But seeing as you're here for almost two years, I guess you already know that.

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. Not all side projects are posted as Show HN. For example, I know some cool hardware hacks that never get posted.

2\. Not all side projects are yet developed. Some may never be ready for a Show HN but I want to know about them.

3\. I find it informative to talk to developers when they are still developing it. This is the time they talk about problems and solutions and don't make a marketing pitch.

4\. Main reason : I want to know what problems people are currently working on. It helps me in brainstorming and getting ideas for my own side projects.

<comment><USER53> Fair enough. Thanks for answering!</comment></comment></comment>


The 'ugliness' of Python - <AUTHOR> http://wit.io/posts/the-ugliness-of-python

<comment><USER2> Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer Python and find it is more inferable than Ruby.</comment>


How to Implement Material Design Motion with React.js - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/dailyjs/node-js-as-backend-best-use-cases-tools-limitations-9c65165a5bac <comment><USER2> Link goes to the wrong article. Should be [https://medium.com/dailyjs/how-to- implement-material-design-...](https://medium.com/dailyjs/how-to-implement- material-design-motion-with-react-js-8bc561c9a94f)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh. Sorry about that. I copied the title first, pasted it to the form and then copied the link. Apparently I copied the wrong link</comment></comment>


Show HN: ICEcoder v2.0 – online and offline browser code editor - <AUTHOR> http://icecoder.net Have been building a web IDE & browser based code editor and v2.0 has now launched. Contains a whole load of features beyond just code highlighting such as online & offline use, code completion, type boosting, Emmet, database management, find & replace builder, auto backups, Github syncing and a whole lot more. Oh, and it's free & open source. Any and all feedback welcomed. <comment><USER2> This will be really nice for WordPress development, since you bork the whole backend whenever you break some of the core files, such as functions.php (which can be done simply by forgetting a semicolon). Using this should be much easier than logging into cPanel and much more portable than using FTP. Cool beans.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is it possible to have emacs controls in this?

That is one of the only things preventing me from using it.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's possible as the editor portion is CodeMirror and an Emacs mode with loosely correct keybindings is available.

Will look into this and Vim setups soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like all the progress I've seen in web based editors over the years. However, one feature I use a lot in my IDE but have not seen in any web-based editor is code completion. When that gets implemented well, then it will be hard to resist using something this.

<comment><AUTHOR> It comes with code completion for JavaScript, just hit CTRL+space. Will look at completion for CSS and HTML soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The demo is _painfully_ close to working within mobile safari on an unjailbroken iPad 2.

So close...so very, very close!

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool to hear it almost works on Safari and an iPad. I haven't tried on that kind of setup.

Could you let me know what isn't right, may be able to fix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> A little off-topic, but how did you generate/get the loading animation on the demo page? Looks very neat!

<comment><AUTHOR> Think it came from here: [http://www.alessioatzeni.com/blog/css3-loading- animation-loo...](http://www.alessioatzeni.com/blog/css3-loading-animation- loop/)</comment></comment>


Why you don't need a co-founder - <AUTHOR> http://jakesolo.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/why-you-dont-need-a-co-founder/

<comment><USER2> I am not a beliver in this - partners help a lot - they can make a business!

<comment><AUTHOR> And what if you don't have a decent partner available? Just take the plunge with someone and hope it's a good fit?

Been there, prefer to try it on my own now.</comment></comment>


The NOSQL Tapes, vol. 2: D. Merriman & E. Horowitz on the origins of MongoDB - <AUTHOR> http://nosqltapes.com/video/dwight-merriman-and-eliot-horowitz-on-the-origins-of-mongodb

<comment><USER2> I like how this video uses different camera perspectives during the interview. That's some quality editing, Tim. Keep up the good work!</comment>


What Was Your First Coding Book? - <AUTHOR> http://www.flatplanetmedia.com/what-was-your-first-coding-book.html

<comment><USER3> C64 manual in German (I only knew Polish then). I typed some of the programs into the computer, and played with changing the values.

I remember to this day that graphic programs using sprites didn't worked for me (must have been some print error in manual, I've tried like 100 times to run that program - it was supposed to draw baloon, but it just did nothing).

Then I got huge red book "Mikrokomputery" by Herwig Feichtinger from my father. It had schematics and opcodes for Z80 and 6502, listings of commands with short explanation for a dozen variants of basic, pascal, forth and c, commands for CP\M and DOS, and some nice algorithms (drawing circle pixel by pixel, questions and answers program in basic using "learning" decision tree, some utilities to format a disk, etc). And it was in Polish (translated from German I think), so this was the first programming book I could understand.

</comment><comment><USER4> The first one I finished was The Mythical Man Month. At the time, high school, I doubted if I was good enough for programming. So I started reading through Jeff Atwood's recommended books: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/02/recommended- reading...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/02/recommended-reading-for- developers.html)

It was not until I came across Jeff Atwood's fizz buzz post that I started to belief I could program.

The Mythical Man Month opened up my eyes to the fundamental difficulty of programming. In contrast to the typo based difficulty I was going through at the time.

Thus between Man Month and Jeff Atwood I determined that I was capable of programming and that it would be a challenge worth pursuing.

</comment><comment><USER5> Oh, man ... you're probably going to be sorry you asked, but here it is - <USER2> first coding book:

[http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/univOfIllinoisUrbana/illiac/ILL...](http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/univOfIllinoisUrbana/illiac/ILLIAC/ILLIAC_programming_Sep56.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> ha, that's awesome!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> PCBoard Programming Langage Manual (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCBoard>)

In the early 90s I ran a small BBS from my bedroom. I had used a bit of BASIC, but programming doors for my BBS was my first _actual_ programming. I just got rid of the book recently. Because of this start, I got the bug to start coding for real. After this, I migrated to the more traditional C++, but I still have fond memories of writing extensions for my BBS. (Not that I had many visitors... it was more just for fun).

</comment><comment><USER7> 60 Problems You Can Solve in BASIC, or something close to that. It was orange. Google doesn't know about it.

My dad paid me a dollar for each one I solved. I think I did about 40 of them. Now that I think about it, that was also my first paid programming job.

Edit: Those giant Creative Computing books full of BASIC games might have actually been before that, but that 60 Problems one was the first that was explicitly about learning to code.

</comment><comment><USER8> My situation was a little different as I got serious about programming when I was 23, a year ago. The first real book I read was SICP (I had done learn python the hard way by Zed Shaw right before that, but it's more a set of exercises than a book); a friend who I met through HN strongly recommended it. It was awesome and I loved it.

EDIT: It's free online: <http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/>

</comment><comment><USER9> One of those C64 books that goes from "how to plug in cables and switch the computer on" all the way to tweaking memory values with PEEK and POKE. I read that when I was 6 and loved it. Now, computer books and manuals have a tiny fraction of the scope, and yet they _still_ considered too complicated for many full-grown adults.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ahhh PEEK and POKE...yep.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My first book was an awesomely illustrated games programming book for BASIC that my dad gave me when I was around 7 or 8.

It had a number of games in each book, and they provided the entire source for the game in text on the pages that you could type into the computer and play the game. Each game had great illustrations and had an explanation of the game itself.

The next logical step for me was to start hacking away at the games, first changing variables to modify the game, and eventually writing my own simple games.

I'm a full time developer now and I owe a lot to my dad and to those books. I've been completely unable to find information on the books, and would love to get some copies of them now. If anyone knows the names of these books and / or where to get them, I would absolutely love to hear.

</comment><comment><USER11> Not strictly a book, but this made something "click" for me back in the early days: <http://sepwww.stanford.edu/sep/jon/family/jos/oop/oop1.htm>

Sadly the author passed away in 1999 -- when he was younger than I am now & just a few years after I first read his "book". IIRC his parents were still trying to get the book published for a while.

Looks like his family maintains a web site in his memory: <http://sepwww.stanford.edu/sep/jon/family/jos/>

</comment><comment><USER12> My first programming book was about GW-BASIC, it was red and very thick. But it was the second book that I bought that was the book that made me want to become a programmer:

Mastering Turbo Assembler by Tom Swan

[http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Turbo-Assembler-Tom- Swan/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Turbo-Assembler-Tom- Swan/dp/B001J2WK5G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1342159724&sr=8-2&keywords=turbo+assembler+tom+swan)

My copy actually looks very similar to the one on Amazon. :)

</comment><comment><USER13> My first coding book was c++ in 21days (HAH!). It did cover the basics pretty well but it took me a long time before the abstraction of objects really sunk in and templates I don't think we're especially well covered.

I probably bit off more than I could chew at the time, but I stuck with it because I was so hellbent on game programming. I didn't end up in game dev, but I think I became a better developer after spending so much time with a low level language.

</comment><comment><USER14> [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Awesome-Game-Creation-Programming- Re...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Awesome-Game-Creation-Programming- Required/dp/1886801487)

Learned a click-based "programming" method called The Games Factory through this book when I was 11 I think. Ever since then I've been hooked on tech/programming.

</comment><comment><USER15> Does HTML/CSS count? If so, then mine was "Head First (X)HTML and CSS". It was an awesome book that really managed to get me excited about the subject. That ended up being my gateway into JS, PHP, Python, etc.

And yes, that was relatively recently (only about 4-5 years ago), which dramatically reduces the cool/nostalgia factor there.

<comment><AUTHOR> I really like the head first books...I've got a couple of them too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> "Peter Norton's Assembly Language Book for the IBM PC", a handmedown or yard sale find or something. It inspired an early interest in OS development and a few mid-teen years of booting My Very Own OS off a floppy on my middle school's computers. Compilers and games have since seduced me back into userland, though.

</comment><comment><USER17> _Structured BASIC_ by Clark and Drum. Copyright 1983. It's still in print! I was on the TI-99>C64>Amiga>IBM PC trajectory. <http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/662/306/73306662.0.m.jpg>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> You should see this thing, dog-eared, warn out...but still kicking! Even though it's not very useful anymore, I wouldn't sell this book for anything in the world _lol_

Do you remember your first programming book, or have a particular favorite?

</comment><comment><USER18> Tricks Of The MS-DOS Masters. I remember the guy at the computer store telling me not to bother because "in ten years we'll be speaking regular english to computers.". Fantastic book though. Glad I didn't take his advice.

</comment><comment><USER19> "Your Atari Computer"

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/25457150/Your-Atari-Computer-A- Gui...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/25457150/Your-Atari-Computer-A-Guide-to- Atari-400-800-Personal-Computers)

</comment><comment><USER20> I use to have a subscription to 3-2-1 Contact as a kid. The had these short one or two line programs in the back. I think there was an Apple magazine called Nibbles that had something similar.

</comment><comment><USER21> Teach yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours.

Cover: <http://www.treasuretess.co.uk/images/Sams_VB5.jpg>

<comment><USER14> I always found those "in 24 hours" books to be amusing in that there was no way in hell you were going to work through a book that size in 24 hours

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Apple ][ BASIC Programming Manual. The green spiral-bound one with the groovy Atari George Opperman style cover. Integer BASIC of course. AppleSoft BASIC hadn't come out yet.

</comment><comment><USER23> [http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Fortran/10...](http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Fortran/102653993.05.01.acc.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER24> [http://books.google.com/books/about/Programming_in_MacScheme...](http://books.google.com/books/about/Programming_in_MacScheme.html?id=vR2GAAAAIAAJ)

</comment><comment><USER25> Hmm, this is currently down: Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 1310720) (tried to allocate 19456 bytes) in /home/jps/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 597

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah, server crashed under the weight of hackernews...working with tech to try to patch up a solution :-(

EDIT: Upgraded my hosting plan a couple notches and tech support is monitoring memory usage. Hopefully that takes care of things...

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> It wasn't a book, but I clearly remember sitting around with my dad and typing in games from magazines (they would just list the source code on a couple pages).

<comment><AUTHOR> OH YEAH! I did that too! Oh man I forgot about those magazines...what where they called..."Ahoy" Magazine or something like that for the old Commodore 64 mags...yeah yeah :-P

<comment><USER26> We had an Apple IIe so it probably wasn't Ahoy, 'BitPower' or something goofy.

<comment><AUTHOR> I remember my grandmother worked in a comic book factory and she used to swipe a couple different computer magazines for me that they printed there...loved those things!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Mine was actually similar: <http://www.lemon64.com/manual/>

(except it was the dead tree edition)

</comment><comment><USER28> The Macintosh C Programming Primer. It was fantastic: I highly recommend it if, by some strange chance, you have occasion to program System 7.

</comment><comment><USER29> Java: The Complete Reference, 96 edition

Finished this book twice before coding a single line of java.

</comment><comment><USER30> It must have been a Pascal book, but the first one I remember was K&R.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm reading that one right now...

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> TRS-80 basic manual. That sucker's looong gone.

</comment><comment><USER32> itty bitty bytes of space for the commodore 64.</comment>


MTA unveils subway car of the future, and it's a whole lot roomier - <AUTHOR> http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/mta-plans-test-open-model-train-car-article-1.2508577 <comment><USER2> > The modern trains will be equipped with WiFi and charging stations.

I'm a bit sceptical for the charging stations. USB ports are damn easy to break, even accidentally - e.g. by forcefully inserting a USB connector the "wrong" way, breaking off the inner lid and likely shorting Vcc to GND in the process. Also they wear out pretty fast... not to mention people getting pushed around in a crowded car, and breaking off cables out of the ports with their elbows.

Providing "live" 220V, on the other hand, also has safety issues. In a mass transit situation there will be "pranksters" who set off the RCDs with "tweaked" plugs (used to do this in school for great effect), there will be people who connect shady equipment to the outlets etc., or just people with fried chargers providing a fire hazard.</comment>


Sprite.js: HTML5 framework for creating efficient animations in browsers - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/batiste/sprite.js

<comment><USER2> I was a bit curious what exactly this "system load" was. Turns out it's a ratio between the time the browser takes to draw the particles and the frequency at which it is supposed which to draw.

        this.tick_duration = 25;

        ....

        this.now = new Date().getTime();

        // Drawing...

        this.time_to_paint = (new Date().getTime()) - this.now;
        this.load = Math.round((this.time_to_paint / this.tick_duration) * 100);

<comment><USER3> This should shed some light on the technique: [http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/1589/fixed- time-s...](http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/1589/fixed-time-step-vs- variable-time-step)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Demo: <http://batiste.dosimple.ch/sprite.js/test_input.html>

I like how he can fall off the ledge into an infinite drop.

<comment><USER5> Causing the scrollbar to appear :-)

<comment><USER6> anyone of you reached the floor yet?

<comment><USER7> At some point down it was all turtles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Curious that Canvas rendering is so much slower / causes more load than the HTML backend, at least for me. Anyone know why?

<comment><USER9> Because using Canvas requires you to manage redrawing the entire scene each frame in javascript. When using DOM based sprites, the browser takes care of the redrawing whenever you move an element (e.g. a spite).

<comment><USER10> It's also a display model problem. A big bitmap that you draw on arbitrarily is just harder to optimize than a decomposable scenegraph.

This downside of Canvas also means it may become a dead-end for high- performance 2D, unless we discover some way of making all manipulations go completely on-GPU. Canvas is presently best suited for creation of individual textures and sprites, while other methods(CSS, SVG, WebGL) are better to render and transform them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Always wanted to make an RPG game using sprites. Anyone ever tried?

I made a prototype a while ago just to demo some sprite movement while messing around with Node.js (it's concurrent multi-user): <http://rpg.sleeperbot.com/>

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm curious how the Ticker object provides more accurate tick timing than setTimeout considering it just uses setTimeout.</comment>


Admissions Scandal: When 'Hard Work' (Plus $6.5m) Helps Get You into Stanford - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/yusi-molly-zhao-china-stanford.html <comment><USER2> Might as well just not go to an Ivy League college and just create a startup, who cares about your degree credentials if you actually have the skills and connections to succeed.

</comment><comment><USER3> $6.5 Million can't buy you a building these days? Talk about the economy...</comment>


Ask:HN How to deal with people who take false credit from your work? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a software dev and my lead takes all the credits of my work. (Behind my back) <comment><USER2> When you know for sure he is going to slap his name on it, create bugs in the code on purpose. When everything is going wrong, you fly in like Superman and fix your "bug".

There are so many ways to screw this guy over. It is an opportunity for you to climb to his position.

<comment><AUTHOR> True the way he codes proves that he is unfit for the postion, it's not that I want to steal his job, but I want credits for what I do! Can't raise bug for everything, say for ex: He is working on something which he can't fix and the solution is so clear for him, he takes my help and in team meetings he says we did it and later on when he is reporting to the higher auth he claims that he only did the major part and I did nothing :\</comment></comment>


Sounds of Silence: When writer's block strikes - <AUTHOR> https://www.thesmartset.com/sounds-of-silence/ <comment><USER2> muse comes in waves. writers block is interesting because it indicates the author is desperately trying to produce content but lacks enough inner dialogue/creativity/ideas to say anything meaningful. the right way to combat it is to just wait. this is a problem that exists when you have an "industry" behind it or when writers are writing mostly for money or fame. Also a good example of why most books that have been written in the past 50 years will never survive the test of time, or why the top 100 _new books_ section in a bookstore aren't worth the e-/paper they're written on.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure if I agree with this. This can easily lead to a trap of "waiting" and the time never comes.

Many well-known authors (Stephen King, etc) build routines for them to write.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254799.The_Creative_Habi...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254799.The_Creative_Habit) [https://jamesclear.com/daily-routines-writers](https://jamesclear.com/daily- routines-writers)</comment></comment>


Tesla Plans to Add Charging Network in China - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579320642277821448

<comment><USER2> I wonder how long it will take for there to be a chinese clone of the tech as soon as they are in China? My guess, less than 2 years.</comment>


Mozilla says no plans to return to iOS until Apple removes restrictions - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-14013_3-57573440/mozilla-says-no-plans-to-return-to-ios/ <comment><USER3> I don't see how Apple's attitude here is any better than Microsoft's stand regarding browsers on Windows, a few years ago, and for which they got a huge fine in Europe. If anything, Apple's attitude ("The company prevents its users from making any other application the default browser") is worse.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft got a fine for breaking its promise to offer consumers using its Windows system a choice of rival internet browsers (the browser choice screen). That offer was made by Microsoft to stave off an investigation by the EU in the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. That possible investigation was requested in light of earlier convictions of Microsoft for abusing its dominant position in the market (and earlier broken promises).

Apple has no such dominant position in the market, nor has it ever been fined for abusing it.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/06/mirosoft- eu...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/06/mirosoft-eu-fine- antitrust-european-commission)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_compet...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case)

<comment><USER5> Apple's tablet market share is big enough to qualify.

<comment><USER4> IANAL, but according to Wikipedia, it comes down to 'market definition' [1]. The computer market as a whole was recognized to be a 'relevant market', in which Microsoft was found to have a dominant position [2].

It's up to lawyers and economists to decide whether the current tablet offerings make up a market in that sense, separate from the cell phone market or the computer market.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_definition>

[2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_competition_law#...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_competition_law#Dominance_and_monopoly)

<comment><USER6> Microsoft's original legal defense of its browser monopoly was that it was an intrinsic feature of the OS (a bunch of graduate students proved this to be false and most viewed the claim at the time as disingenuous -- MS had sewn IE into as much of Windows as possible seemingly with this defense in mind). The user benefit of security (which Microsoft did not use) could be used by Apple today as a far more legitimate defense.

Also bear in mind that the case against Microsoft showed a pattern of behavior including its treatment of Java, QuickTime, Borland, and so on.

Next, the only significant platform for browsers was desktop computers. So it wasn't a case of MS owning one category of platform among many. It owned the only game in town.

Further to this, Netscape had been the dominant player on the Windows platform, and Microsoft had undermined it. Apple has closed its platform to rivals who _give_ away their software on other platforms. Apple doesn't stop Google or Yahoo or Bing from making money from advertising on iOS, all it blocks is, essentially, middlemen.

Finally, Netscape was a browser vendor who suffered material damage from having its commercial product undercut by MS bundling policies. No-one sells browsers any more.

<comment><USER5> > The user benefit of security (which Microsoft did not use) could be used by > Apple today as a far more legitimate defense.

Relative merits of two bogus arguments aside... It's pretty easy to argue against. Chrome & Firefox would help security (and this additional consumer choice would probably go well with the pro-market regulators). And they could lift the JIT ban on a per app basis.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So is Mozilla going to let us implement JIT and performant JS runtimes with alternative browsers on Firefox OS? As I understand it -- like Apple -- they going to sandbox apps.

In Mozilla's case, there are even more restrictions due to their forcing developers to target only the browser's VM, rather than running as native code.

<comment><USER8> you cannot compare this. for b2g apps the browser is the os.

so you will only be able to provide a different shell to the browser if you so desire.

firefox os is not going to be the something you can extend in any way. that's a design goal.

<comment><USER7> This creates a two-tier caste system that separates out 'platform developers' from 'app developers'. In this system, something like Firefox could never emerge in the first place. All language, runtime, VM, and similar innovation could only come from Mozilla themselves.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Apple is doing the same things today with safari on iOS that MS did with IE back in the Day.

<comment> bjelkeman-again Not a good comparison. IE's core wasn't available open source, as WebKit is, so others could build on the rendering engine. I agree that iOS should be open for other browsers though.

<comment><USER10> In this context, I don't see how that's relevant. Whether IE was open source or not wasn't relevant to them bundling it with the OS to establish a dominant market position.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And we are going to have Chrome on Firefox OS when?

<comment><USER12> You can build it anytime you want. It doesn't make any sense, though.

<comment><USER13> How can you build it without native code?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> All they're doing there is making their browser less relevant on the desktop. It's an expectation now that your phone and desktop should stay synced so that article you were reading on your phone is right there on your desktop too, and that bookmark you saved on your desktop is available whilst you're on the bus - this is just going to cripple Firefox further.

<comment><USER15> Not all Smartphone users are iPhone users.[1] I use Firefox for Android as my primary mobile browser and am mostly pretty happy with it (I stay on the Beta channel so occasionally there are stability problems). In addition, Mozilla will soon have an entire mobile OS[2] based on their browser.

HN always seem quick to jump on the whole "Firefox is dying" meme, but Firefox still seems to to have about 20% market share in most usage reports I've seen[3][4]. I think it's great to see the Mozilla Foundation continue to standup for their principles.

[1] <http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2335616>

[2] <http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/partners/>

[3] [http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/03/chrome...](http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/03/chrome-hits-17-month-low-windows-8-still-only-creeping- upward/)

[4] <http://gs.statcounter.com/>

<comment><USER4> _"Not all Smartphone users are iPhone users."_

Not all mobile computing devices are smartphones. If you add tablets and PMPs to the mix, iOS has quite a presence.

 _"Firefox still seems to to have about 20% market share"_

If 20% is enough to be called a major player (and I think it does), then surely you agree it's hard to ignore iOS.

<comment><USER16> The rules under which Mozilla would have to play to put Firefox on iOS would mean they are not putting Firefox on iOS. All Firefox would be, under Apples rules, would be a wrapper around Safaris WebKit. Firefox is not just a window, Firefox is its rendering and javascript engines.

I would say it is very easy to ignore iOS when you basically can not put your product on it.

<comment><USER14> It's not just about putting your product on it, though. It's about creating a nice experience for those using your product. I don't think that iOS users will really mind if it's Gecko or not.

<comment><USER16> Mozilla wouldn't be creating a nice experience for its users though, the experience would be as nice as Apple makes it. Any problems with Safaris WebKit though will indeed be blamed on Firefox for the very same reason that they don't care or know if it's WebKit or Gecko, all they'll see and complain about is 'Firefox fucked up.'

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "Rosenblatt queried the audience to find out how many people were iOS users, and a majority of hands went up. By contrast, when he asked how many of them were suffering, just a few hands surfaced."

Do people expect a full browser in Firefox for iOS or a skin atop the UIWebView? If its the latter (which, as I understand it, is what Chrome for iOS is) then is Firefox for iOS really important on any level?

<comment><USER18> Chrome for iOS is a little bit more than a skin on top of a UIWebView - <USER2> entire Chromium networking stack has been ported over. The upshot of this is that Chrome for iOS supports SPDY, whilst Mobile Safari doesn't. My understanding is that WebRTC should be going into the iOS Chrome build at some point in the future as well.

A UIWebView is used for rendering, but there's a lot more Chrome code in that app than you might at first think.

<comment><USER19> Eh, the renderer is the most important part of a browser by far. It's where all of the user-facing innovation happens.

<comment><USER20> You don't think the JIT is an important part of a browser?

<comment><USER19> Yeah, you're right, the JS engine as well a the renderer are about equally important. But I was trying to fight off the notion that Chrome for iOS is much more than a skin because it has its own network stack. It's a _little_ more than skin, but the most important bits are off limits.

<comment><USER20> The fact that only Apple is allowed to use the JIT on iOS is a huge, huge limitation in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This just confirms for me that I did the right thing in not choosing Apple.

</comment><comment><USER22> Not saying I don't respect the decision and I definitely side with Mozilla here, but

> We won't build a competing product on your platform until you make it easier > for us to compete!

Yeah I'm sure Apple is going to get right on that. All the negative press from their shenanigans these years has really changed their attitude thusfar.

<comment><USER23> I'm ok with Mozilla's stance on this. I'd be ok with them raising anti-trust issues over this at DoJ, too.

<comment><USER24> iOS is at 35-40% marketshare.. so there's no chance of an anti-trust suit working. Mozilla would just be wasting resources by attempting it at this point.

<comment><USER25> Depends on market definition. It's around 50% of tablet sales in USA. And it was like 90% soon after start of iPad sales.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Firefox was on iOS?

It's only available by turning allowing "dangerous" apps on kindle (not via the kindle store) and I see it's in Google Play but wasn't for quite a while. I love these "open" platforms.

Now that VP8 is licensed by MPEG-LA I guess it's time for Firefox to drop support for it. Oh, and I'd like Firefox to take the same approach to fonts — don't display anything in proprietary fonts.

<comment><USER26> > I see it's in Google Play but wasn't for quite a while. I love these "open" > platforms.

What are you getting at here? It was available on Google Play as soon as Mozilla had it ready.

<comment><USER27> Indeed. In fact, it was ready so long ago that Firefox was in the Android Market for almost a year.

<comment><USER6> I've guess I've just been horribly misled by going into Google Play on my Nexus 7 (which I preordered) and searching for Firefox.

<comment><USER26> You don't see Firefox available on your Nexus 7? Have you modded it in any way? Firefox works fine on the Nexus 7.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox)

and the beta:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox_beta)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Would Cydia be an option? Mozilla always brandish themselves and the rebels of the web. This could be a fantastic move for them.

<comment><USER29> Yeah, I am obviously biased, but I consider this a stupid way for them to play this politically... it isn't like Apple _wants_ them, so picking up their toys and going home is just giving Apple exactly what Apple wants. A much better response would be "ok, we are going to make users want us do bad you have no choice but to let us in", and that's not going to happen with their current strategy, but is easily see-able if they cause a nudge in the numbers of the already large jailbreak community.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Return? Never actually noticed they were there. Google seem to have managed well enough on iOS, Mozilla could be missing out.

<comment><USER23> Chrome is based on Webkit, so the changes weren't that major for them. But they still suffer by not being able to use V8, and not being able to use Nitro with JIT either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm not sure Mozilla really has the clout with its mobile browser to make much of a difference for Apple. If anything, Mozilla building an open-source mobile OS will help Apple by dividing the Android's "open-source hacker" user base.

</comment><comment><USER32> guess they won't be returning to iOS then...

</comment><comment><USER33> > _Mozilla says no plans to return to iOS until Apple removes restrictions_

Apple says: don't let the door hit you on your way out.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm weeping tears of "Mozilla Mobile Browser.. WHO?"</comment>


Sweeping iOS 7-style changes said to be coming for OS X 10.10 - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/05/report-sweeping-ios-7-style-changes-said-to-be-coming-to-os-x-10-10/

<comment><USER2> This would only make sense. They bought the "app store" to OSX and then brought "apps" as well (for some odd reason, people thing apps are different than applications)......

Bringing the two OSes closer together would mirror moves by MSFT where W8 and Windows Phone 8 have similar looks.</comment>


Ask HN: How Many Applications Received from Who's Hiring Posts? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a job seeker, and I'm curious about how many job applicants you the employers are seeing from your posts on the monthly Who is Hiring threads.
The number of companies posting jobs has been increasing every month this year (I'm assuming as the site gets more popular) which would indicate there is also many more job seekers coming here every month applying.
I've been relying on just this site for finding jobs for a few months now and haven't had a breakthrough yet, so I'm curious if I'm just a low quality applicant or is the competition really that fierce.
Post from throwaways or don't include your company's name if you don't feel comfortable. I'm just interested in seeing some numbers.
Thanks. <comment><USER2> We probably need a little more information to help. In my experience, I got enough very close matches from past companies (1 or 2) that I didn't need to look at other promising candidates. The number of applicants is irrelevant -- what matters is the number of good applicants that are a match for what I am looking for and I only need 1.

There is generally a shortage of engineers, but you still need to find a good match for what you can offer.

1\. Are you applying to jobs where your skills/level/location match what was being advertised?

2\. Is that clear from your application? Did you write a custom cover letter that specifically draws attention to the match?

3\. Generally what level are you? What is your strongest tech stack/language? Location?

I recommend trying out other places. I got my current job on careers.stackoverflow.com -- if you need an invite, email me at loumfranco on gmail. There is also hired.com.

</comment><comment><USER3> We have Greenhouse as an ATS and use custom links for sources. Here is what I've measured since beginning to use this channel. Overall, it competes evenly with AngelList on volume and funnel performance.

59 applications since 12/14

15.3% interview rate

1.7 % hire rate

</comment><comment><USER4> I've posted a couple adds and usually get 0-5 hits. I think that it has to do with what time you post, how exciting the post sounds, and what technologies are being used.

</comment><comment><USER5> >I've been relying on just this site for finding jobs for a few months now

Any particular reason you're not using anything other than this site?

</comment><comment><USER6> It's hard to say, because not everyone lists that they came via HN in their applications, but probably ~100.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've always gotten between 0 and 2.</comment>


The Patient Who Diagnosed Her Own Genetic Mutation–and an Olympic Athlete's - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/genetic-mutation-patient-diagnosis-priscilla-lopes-schliep/424662/?single_page=true <comment><AUTHOR> This is truly hacking at its finest.</comment>


Why Engineers Don't Write Recipe Books - <AUTHOR> http://lettur.com/kkbbc <comment><USER2> I'm surprised no one's mentioned Nathan Myhrvold's multi-volume cookbook: [http://www.techflash.com/mobile/seattle/2010/08/former_micro...](http://www.techflash.com/mobile/seattle/2010/08/former_microsoft_cto_nathan_myhrvold_unveils_massive_cookbook.html)

<comment><USER3> Given Intellectual Venturers' reputation, perhaps they are afraid of being sued?

Modernist Cooking is still a fairly niche tome, even amongst the technorati hobbyist cooks. I actually only stumbled across it a few weeks ago, and I have Food Nerd almost as much as I have Code Nerd.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Humorous, but I beg to differ: <http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/>

It's a great book. Tons of analogies that engineers will love.

</comment><comment><USER5> There's also

<http://www.cookingforengineers.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> There is no sense in my mind that a cook is not an engineer of the kitchen.

Engineering is just using quantities, directions, and properties to effect a result.

<comment><USER7> Yup... it's also the best science experiment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I do think that a proper engineer would use weight measurements (grams) in most cases (with the exception of liquids) rather than less accurate volume measurements.

<comment><USER9> Isn't the gram a measure of mass? A gram of flour is a gram of flour at sea level, at 10,000 ft, and on a space station.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Obviously a troll. Engineers using consistent units‽ HA. Maybe he/she meant chemist, in which case:

\- cm3 != cm³. Unicode is 20 years old now, no excuses.

\- flour is (a) measured by weight, not volume; (b) at most 14% gluten, and that's very high-gluten flour used for bagels and some breads, not cookies.

I fully encourage feeding the trolls with this recipe, however.

</comment><comment><USER11> That's funny. I got a few dev groups to update their documentation by comparing it to a recipe: list everything needed, first. List the things which can be done ahead of time. After that, preparation steps, and then the actual time-critical steps.

It is working out quite nice.

</comment><comment><USER12> They're nice but I find them to be much too crunchy. I'd suggest the additional step of removing the calcium carbonate coating from ingredient #8 before it goes into reactor #2.

</comment><comment><USER13> This sounds a lot more like a chemist than an engineer. (OK, maybe a chemical engineer.)

</comment><comment><USER14> Is it really too much for someone to make a blog platform that actually works correctly, as opposed to using JavaScript to paper over fundamental deficiencies?

<comment><USER15> I'm sort of interested in your opinion on this. Care to elaborate?

<comment><USER14> Basically, I'm a little tired of people using JavaScript to implement the basic functionality of a text-oriented website.

A blog is, by definition, fundamentally text-oriented, as opposed to, say, a vlog (video log) or a podcast, and so should work acceptably well, if not attractively or with all of the intended features, without JavaScript. Ideally, it should degrade gracefully without CSS, too, but that amount of respect for your readers is probably a lost cause.

And it is all about respect for your readers: Books don't demand you read them on a veranda attached to a five-star hotel in New Delhi regardless of how much that would improve the experience. Books are quite happy to be read in a grimy bus terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, if that's the best the reader can manage. Text-based web pages are quite capable of being read, at an ugly 'bus terminal in Hoboken' level, in browsers like Lynx or Netscape 4 or Internet Explorer 6, and the designer should not presume to demand that their readership have access to first-class tickets booked on Firefox 4 or Chrome 11.

Sometimes this isn't possible. Sometimes, you really do want to put video on the web and people who can't handle video are out of luck. However, you and I both know about the impact open formats and captioning and other measures of respect for the audience can have.

Finally, I could mention the blind tied to screenreaders, but that's insulting both to the technology of screenreader software, which I hear is fairly advanced these days, and to the authors of web pages, who should not need their noses rubbed in the existence of physical limitations simply to be convinced to show basic consideration for their audience.

(Personally, I find a .30-06 at medium range quite suffices.)</comment></comment></comment>


OpenSurfaces – A Richly Annotated Catalog of Surface Appearance - <AUTHOR> http://opensurfaces.cs.cornell.edu/

<comment><USER2> Wow... This is going to make some game developers very very happy.

<comment><USER3> If you look at the actual content, it's less useful for game art and more for training computer vision systems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Holey crap, that is a lot of mturk!</comment>