First Issue Of GIMP Magazine Coming - <AUTHOR> http://www.muktware.com/3992/first-issue-gimp-magazine-coming <comment><USER2> OT, but something I've been wondering for a while:

Why, WHY is it called "The GIMP"? I mean, I understand the acronym. I understand that nerds in general (such as myself) are the kind of folks who look past names and appearances and judge just about everything on its content.

But whenever I attempt even explain the benefit of linux to a layperson, inevitably the user's need to "run apps like Photoshop" will come up. And inevitably, I'll tell them that there's a similar program that's entirely free, which they become excited about. Then I tell them the name and they immediately make quite a number of assumptions.

The name sounds amateurish and unstable. It sounds like some Windows freeware that installs a toolbar or two, not a powerful image editor or a real alternative to something called Photoshop.

And don't get me wrong, I think the software itself is great and I use it constantly! But for software, just like any product, image and impression are quite important.

<comment><USER3> The GIMP started off as a college project, and I'm guessing that the name was a product of youthful cleverness combined with no expectations that it would ever become a widely-used open source project.

As far as why it's still named that nearly 20 years later, there are lots of decent potential reasons and a couple bad ones. Branding and a loss of mindshare is a concern, as anyone who watched the early days of Firefox (or Phoenix, or Firebird, or...) could tell you. It's also a fair bit of work if you want to actually change the name everywhere and not have all the code break spectacularly. Naturally, there's also the chance that the maintainers just don't care. It's easy to write off people who are offended or express dislike for the name as the overly-sensitive political correctness police, and I've seen many people (although none in an official position afaik) do so in previous discussions like this.

<comment><USER4> > Naturally, there's also the chance that the maintainers just don't care. > It's easy to write off people who are offended or express dislike for the > name as the overly-sensitive political correctness police, and I've seen > many people (although none in an official position afaik) do so in previous > discussions like this.

I've had a close call of being banned from an IRC channel after mentioning the Brain Fuck Scheduler (a different task scheduler for linux), when there was a 'family friendly' policy with no swearing. I assumed that the no swearing part of that rule was more contextual, but it turned out to be a zero tolerance policy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've often read recommendations where people will something like 'Gimp is not as user friendly but a fair alternative if you can't afford to drop the $$$ that Photoshop costs'. Having never used Photoshop I can't comment on how they compare but this type of comment did make me feel nervous about using Gimp and even probably negatively affected my progress in learning to use it. Now, having used Gimp a reasonable amount I think it's about as easy to use as such a feature rich program can be expected to be. Unfortunately because it's a program that I don't use very often, there tends to be a lot forgotten each time I return to it.

<comment><USER6> I have the same problem, GIMP is not particularly intuitive. The other issue is that it's possible to find thousands of tutorials online in how to do pretty much anything in Photoshop, but not so much with GIMP.

GIMP needs to decide between trying to be a full photoshop replacement, or deciding to worry less about features and make itself super intuitive for graphics newbies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For me, the only thing missing in GIMP to be a viable competitor with Photoshop is support for layer styles.

I realize you can do almost all of the effects that Photoshop's layer styles offer, with some workarounds in GIMP, but it's not the same. The easiness of just ticking a few checkboxes, choosing either drop shadow or gradient overlay, playing with the parameters and seeing the result real time... plus then coming back to the dialog to tweak some parameters.... is so much better than the gimp way (applying a filter, clicking undo, writing down what you had in the filter in case you need to rerun it with slightly different parameters, etc).

People without experience who wonder "What's the big deal? You can do all the same things. Do you need some fancy interface to add bling-bling to your images?" are missing the point. Making some of the more common operations as easy and as that saves a ton of time for example when creating web sites. For drop shadows in GIMP I have to move around two layers and re-run the filter if I need to change some parameters of the shadow. In Photoshop I just click the "put a drop shadow on this layer" checkbox. That's saving my time and letting me focus on what's essential.

Before GIMP gets support for these layer styles, it is, in essence, a fancy tool for cropping images. At least for me. Photoshop is used for the real work.

Plus, the plugins to convert Photoshop layers to CSS are additional time savers. For example CSS Hat: <http://csshat.com/> (I'm not affiliated).

</comment><comment><USER8> [http://gimpmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Launch- Br...](http://gimpmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Launch- Brochure-v1-HD.png)

I hate to say this, but that doesn't look very well designed. Every opportunity should be one to show how you _can_ create gorgeous designs with the GIMP.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm surprised somewhat that nobody has come up with a commercial alternative to the GIMP.

Something that is low cost (compared with photoshop), it doesn't need all the functionality of photoshop. It just needs enough functionality for the people who say "I would switch to Linux but I want photoshop" , I imagine most of these people are not using all the photoshop features anyway.

Something like a port of PixelMator could potentially make a killing on the ubuntu app store.

<comment><USER9> Yeah all 10 of those Linux users that are used to paying for proprietary Linux software will be stumbling over each other to buy it.

<comment><USER6> I don't know, look at (for example) the excitement around the news of Steam for Linux as well as stuff like Linux Humble bundle purchases. I think most Linux users would welcome having polished commercial software available in addition to open source software. Ubuntu seems to be betting on this for one.

The "Free as in Richard Stallman" crowd seem to be a minority of Linux users.

Assuming these people are paying for Photoshop on Windows , would they not consider buying equivalent Linux software?

Not to mention that extra software in these areas can bring in a very different category of users.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> @mariusandra layer styles and smart objects are what I need for real work.

Gimp 2.8 is a big improvement though, for sure.

So, according to the articfle, if the magazine is complete and will be digital, why not release it now instead of Fall. why make the world wait for a periodical? For more ad space I suppose.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I prepare for a job as an Implementation Consultant? - <AUTHOR> I have received an outstanding job offer from a startup based on Data privacy products for the role of Implementation consultant.
I have been told, I'll need to handle the following tasks: - Presenting the products to the client - Helping with implementation / integration - Helping the clients with after-sales etc. - Maybe to conduct workshops every now and then.
I'm currently working as a software dev on an R&D team for building ML prototypes. I understand the job role mentioned mostly is similar to sales engineer..  but this is the first time I will be taking on such a role.
Is there something I need to prepare in terms of tools/methodologies etc before starting the new job?
PS: The startup is not based in my country, I will be mostly working with just a single other coworker, so mostly on my own <comment><USER2> R&D ML software dev --> Implementations Consultant seems like a pretty drastic change in roles. You're going from a very technical role to something that is very fundamentally soft-skills based. You'll be a communication pipeline between your company's sales and product teams, and your clients. You'll need to learn how to deeply investigate a client and figure out their needs, in a short amount of time, and then translate that foreign data into your internal company "language" and goals framework. You'll be dealing with two sets of politics at once, and be expected to move and translate seamlessly between the two. You're fundamentally a diplomat. Your technical background will help you establish authority for what you're talking about, and your problem-solving skills will be invaluable when investigating new clients.

(disclaimer: This is all assuming that "implementations" works the way it has at the several B2B software companies I've worked at as a developer. It sounds the same from the short description given, but you never know with a new employer.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it is indeed a huge shift for me. I do prefer still working on Computer Vision / ML / AI projects but my current job is not offering much in terms of growth or learning. Since I dont have that much experience in the domain of Data Science, its currently hard to land such a profile in a good company in my country.

I see this new job as a chance to explore more opportunities while building my AI/ML profile on the side.

What would be some tools or processes that would help me keep track of all the client's concerns and effectively communicate with the clients and make sure there is progress when it comes to implementations?

<comment><USER3> I've been in a similar position for close to a decade now. One of the most effective things I can tell you to do is make sure that you document and ask for verification of any deliverables or requirements. Send summary emails (either after each meeting/or weekly) to make sure that everyone agrees with your understanding in writing and that nothing is missing. I've had multiple clients say something along the lines of "We never agreed to that" but when I've been able to show them an email it helps change the mood of the discussion. Then it becomes a change to the project rather than something you initially missed and now have to finagle. "If it's not documented it didn't happen" is an effective phrase to live by when dealing with clients, even the nice ones. You don't have to be aggressive, always be polite but firm. You can see how the engagement progresses and change things up if the client is more laid back. Additionally, keep track of the overall schedule, and make sure to point out things that will take you away from delivering on the schedule. I've had multiple clients ask for 1 or 2 side things and then complain when schedules slip. If you ensure they understand what the implications of additional work are (in writing) then you'll save yourself some hassles down the road.

<comment><USER4> When you need to push back against a client with that kind of "we talked about it, here's the documentation", what kind of language do you use... I guess when being "polite but firm"?

<comment><USER3> I try to take the stance that they simply forgot about the previous conversations or agreements. That generally has worked for me and keeps people from losing too much face which additionally helps keep everyone on the same side. Everyone forgets sometimes, sometimes its a genuine memory lapse and other times not so much. I've used variations of the following numerous times to decent result:

"Hi <so and so>, we talked about this matter last in <this email chain or that meeting>, I'm attaching the last <email/meeting summary>. If there's a need to readdress this <situation/decision>, please feel free to let me know and we can setup a meeting to further discuss."

That establishes what you consider to be the facts, based on whatever evidence you are attaching, and doesn't necessarily place you at odds with the client. You always need to figure out how to balance your client relationship with your project needs. Sometimes you may need to give a bit on the project needs to keep the client content but that is surprisingly less than most consultants think.

I've had several clients come back to me after an engagement has completed and mention that they were being intentionally difficult to see what else they could get but documentation helped prevent too much excess on my part. I've even been in the situation where I have acted as the client when dealing with vendor implementation teams and told specifically to be difficult to see what else we could get.

<comment><USER4> Interesting. Thanks for the insight and advice!

To reflect back what I'm seeing in your language use - to see if I've gotten the gist of it - your subtext / authoring attitude is "ah, you just forgot, let me simply re-inform" but you also don't bother mentioning any particular reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My recommendation is to hone your "soft skills": make sure you're on top of communication (be quick to respond to clients and don't let emails sit for more than 24 hours), be patient (working with clients means a wide variety of team dynamics and work paces), be humble yet confident (clients like help but they also want to "be right"), and prepare for the politics inevitably dumped onto outside consultants (consultants often are called in to make hard calls that internal teams don't want to make for political reasons).

</comment><comment><USER6> Go round up every elderly family member you have and teach them and all of their friends. Tell them you have a work project they can help you with. Interview them to see if there's some new capability they would want their phone to have. Then teach them how to use the new app or solve their issue. Try to do this all over the phone (don't give your elderly family the COVID) and guide them through it without being able to look at their phone screen. I give this advice because you are already highly technical and communicating with the engineers should be pretty easy for you.

This might sound a bit silly, but there's a significant overlap with your new role. You'll be needing to work with a lot of people with a vastly different level of technical knowledge. You'll need to do this without a guarantee that you'll get much face to face time with them at all. There will be limits to your client's attention span and willingness to participate. Your patience will be tested. You will be doing your best to communicate with each other, but it will be like ships passing in the night.

It's also a hugely rewarding role, in my opinion, since you will be helping to shape a client's future success with the product in a big way. Congratulations!

</comment><comment><USER7> Realise that you will be a translator who is paid to understand the technical enough and the business enough that the project can have a conversation.

As far as tools and methodologies - you have to use what your customers use to communicate. It may just be emails as some of the other commenters have said - have a meeting, write up the notes, email the notes.

Once you are past design stage and into user acceptance test and go live you will need an issue tracking tool. Maybe your customer's IT department has a help desk system that you can integrate with. Be very cautious of using unsecured SAAS products - only document security issues about your implementation on Google sheets if you are 100% confident of who can see it. I am never that confident and want to work somewhere the customer's IT security is happy with.

I would recommend the book Flawless Consulting by Peter Block. It's about management consulting at a more senior level than implementation consulting but the points about agreeing with the customer what they need to provide to you for you to do your job are very valuable.

You need to explain to your customer the consequences of choices. Sales are often happy to say "yes we can build that". But really the standard configuration takes 1 month to implement, 30 custom features take much longer.

Disclaimer I moved from functional into implementation (accountant into implementing finance systems) which is different from technical into implementation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, thank you for giving a heads up over the security issue especially for a startup working on data privacy

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So this is a pretty wide-ranging role, although that's not unusual for small companies/startups.

Typically the skillsets for a sales engineer/consultant and a post-sales engineer/implementation consult are overlapping but different.

In many organizations the pre-sales engineers are there to answer technical questions during the sales process - "will this integrate with X?" "can I solve Y problem?" "how many concurrent users does this support?"

The post-sales consulting team is there to actually wire up the integration with X, solve Y problem, and tune the performance to support Z concurrent users.

The challenge with a hybrid role is balancing zooming out to being aware of the strategic "making the sale" parts of being a sales engineer to the super low-level nuts and bolts connecting things together of post-sale consulting.

In either case clear communication and listening are the key skills I would work on. The ability to actually hear what a customer wants, and clearly communicate that you understand what they want and can deliver it is a difference maker on either side of a sale.

I've worked in both roles, both are rewarding and frustrating for their own reasons - good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, since i'll be one of two consultants in my country for the said startup, I will need to take up a wide-ranging role.

I have a huge learning curve ahead of me and want to prepare beforehand, so I don't get too overwhelmed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> One thing I've learned about startups is that things are always in flux. I would expect your responsibilities to move and shift with time and with different clients.

The position sounds like it will lean heavily on communication and social skills. You will likely want to build a strong relationship with your sales staff and your client.

If in the course of work changes arise make sure you coordinate with your company and do not over promise or move too far from the core solution.

The best thing that will prepare you is to go in with an open mind and do your best. Try not to stick to preconceived ideas of what the job is.

And most of all, be prepared to work hard.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm considering a similar opportunity. The implementation role I've been offered will be crucial in securing longer-term contracts for my employer. I'm curious what variable-compensation structures others have seen for this sort of position. Is it reasonable to expect a percentage of successfully secured longterm contracts, or something based on retention? Aside from an equity package, how can someone in this position be incentivized in a way commensurate with their value?

<comment><USER11> It depends on whether you are expected to participate in those sales cycle discussions or not.

If your role is to hang out at your desk until someone sells your implementation services, then no, you will probably not get commission on sales. You should demand a fixed salary comparable to if you were a SWE working on the product directly.

If you are expected to participate in the sales cycle in some way (like stitching together a demo), you will probably receive some sort of commission.

This is a pretty fair thing to ask about in an interview or in comp discussions. "Am I expected to be involved in sales efforts, or am I simply deployed after the sale?" Adjust salary/commission demands accordingly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hey OP,

I'm a technical account manager / CSM and your role honestly sounds a lot like mine. Did a writeup of my role here: [https://www.careerfair.io/reviews/customersuccessmanager](https://www.careerfair.io/reviews/customersuccessmanager)

Hope you find it useful. Lmk if any questions :)

</comment><comment><USER13> You are switching from a technical to a non-technical job. your job role and responsibility will be fully changed. communication skills(Kindness, Politeness, Empathy) will play a key role here. But as you are from a technical background this is a plus point with you.

</comment><comment><USER14> The best person to answer that question is your future manager.

</comment><comment><USER15> how did you get the job without really knowing how you were going to fulfill the requirements?

<comment><AUTHOR> I know the job requirements. I was asked to interview with them, thanks to my technical background and presentation skills, I was offered the role.

I'm just asking to make sure I'm prepared. There's always something to learn from other people with significantly more experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> so you're essentially going to become a Technical Project Manager. that's interesting - i'm searching for TPM jobs, maybe i should include implementation consultant postings as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> They have told me that my title will be "Implementation Consultant" but im expected to do sales, integration, support etc.

Thats also mostly because they dont have a team in my country as such. I have only one other co-worker who does everything but doesn't belong from a technical background.

I will be doing everything he does and also handle the technical issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> qualifier: i don't know anything about anything.

that said, here is my _expert_ advice:

* no, you do not need to prepare. if you have a heartbeat and a tiny bit of common sense, you can do this role extremely well. and most other roles. it's glorified customer service, with some extra nerdiness thrown in. not hating - some roles do require special skill sets outside of the obvious - this role is not one of them. i mean, there are non-proactive folks littering every position in the enterprise -- which cracks me up -- but i'm assuming that you are not stupid and/or lazy.

* there are some sales and even sales engineering books/course/etc. out there. most are terrible, or worse, especially the ones that people 'highly recommend', but i do feel like learning to sell/sales is double-plus-good. one core aspect is learning to ask good/probing questions, and then learning to shut up and listen. ask follow-ups. rinse/repeat. asking about 'business goals' to the higher-ups is generally a good-ish thing. and you can't avoid nerding out with the nerd team from the other side - but that's easy/fun, and they will dig that you are technically sound. but the business folks won't necessarily care about bits/bytes -- learning their actual uses cases, business model, etc. will go a long way towards earning their respec/trust.

* like hostage negotiations, 'no' is generally a word you want to avoid. better: "I don't know if we can do that out of the box, but I will check into that and get back to you." basically, don't throw your salesperson under the bus. you might see some stuff about the importance of qualifying leads to make sure you don't sell to the wrong customer, etc. -- ignore it -- it's just puritanical, nonsensical grandstanding.

* don't slack/teams/email/text to folks (like a teammate) during a demo -- because.

* being responsive is really cool, but like any position, be careful of burnout.

* i think having realistic expectations about what you can get Engineering to do in terms of easing onboarding is important. e.g. 15 min of ENGR time can cut your customer onboarding time from 2 weeks to 2 hours? yeah, don't count on it happening. else, you'll pretty quickly mentally check out. lobby and document, make your case, but stay measured. find a way to tie the shorter onboarding time to increased revenue, etc., and now you got something.

* if you can get access to and own the documentation/training process, you will actually save yourself tons of time. at least the API/dev/integration docs. you want to be able to go to the source doc and fix something immediately without overhead process. kind of obvious, but....same thing, temper your expectations. if you have to do some things manually with each install, you're not going to die. even small improvements will keep you motivated/hopeful.

* assuming you do get a new customer up and running -- it would be nice to survey them and get their feedback on what could have been better. yeah, asking for work, and i've never done it, but...i feel like most people are lazy idiots. and/or scared. so it prob won't happen unless you do it, or unless you have a competent customer success department already (do they exist?).

* with your documentation, spell it out. you're _right there_. your 'customer' is 'in market'. just tell them how to use your stuff. in detail. if you want to link out to supporting docs, fine. but why deliver them only 73% of the way to the promised land? take them all the way there.

* i like the idea of filing feature/change requests, especially for usability things. Product Managers have 8 trillion things to worry about, and even if they're geniuses, they are going to lose the ability to see the product with fresh eyes. they will _not_ be able to comprehend how _anyone_ could possibly not understand exactly how to fill out fields x, y, and z on some page - that's ok - you can fill the gap. this doesn't really matter except that it will annoy your PM and make your product a lot better. kind of up to you if you want to go that route. helpful to have these conversations offline before you document, in the (virtual) coffee room, if you can, b/c once you file a Jira - it's like an affront to the PM. not sure why - it just is. in fairness to the PM, they've usually considered a feature request from 20 diff angles, so even if they have an obvious blind spot, their expertise/experience can help you clarify your own thinking.

best of luck! please give yourself a calendar reminder for 1 year from now and tell us how it's going! :-D

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much for the comment (I chuckled quite a bit).

The biggest worry I have right now is after a while I might just start getting bored or frustrated. I love learning new things and building too.

Lets see, how it all turns out.. HN wont let me update you after a year though, the post will get archived :(</comment></comment>


The "I don't trust you" syndrome - <AUTHOR>

Has this ever happened to you?
You have an idea for a new startup, you keep on thinking about it. You start planning in your mind each and every page of the new website: what the user will see, what he will do, how you will get new users, why this idea is so cool, etc.
Then the "I don't trust you" syndrome clicks in and you start to worry that someone else might copy your idea. You don't tell anything to your friends (just a "guys, don't be surprised if you will not see me around...I have this idea that will make me rich"), you don't tell anything to anyone.
But you need someone else to build the idea. With this syndrome it is very difficult to find anyone, as you will think about others stealing your idea, you will think about coders copying the code and launching the idea before you, etc.
Finally, one day you find someone that you can trust and usually you bind them with a super strict NDA and you watch their back while they work with you on the idea.
The day comes, when the idea finally launches and...you just realize that the idea was not so good, that nobody is interested in it, that you just thought about the basic features of the website and you did not develop the core of it, etc.
You basically understand that an idea is nothing, that you should show your idea to as many people as possible to get as many feedback as you can, that execution is everything and that nobody becomes reach only because of an idea.
What do you think? <comment><USER2> Isn't that what patents are for?

Independent of what you think about patents in general. AFAIK you need a minimal implementation to get a patent granted, which you could do almost alone (a crappy looking one), and one could start from there.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sure it takes years and cash to finish that process, so it's not for every project, but wouldn't it make sense for some mind-bending idea?

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this corner of the flame war is pretty uninteresting. Balance is everything. Have a good idea and do it well. Or just get lucky.</comment>


What iOS and WP7 are doing right and Android is doing wrong - <AUTHOR> http://danny-t.co.uk/index.php/2012/01/10/what-ios-and-wp7-are-doing-right-and-android-is-doing-wrong/ <comment><USER2> He states he is a 'massive geek', and felt massively disturbed by the Android experience ruined by carriers.

The majority of Android Users are not geeks, and therefore DO NOT care if the mobile is sluggish, buggy, overblown, etc. Thats a fact, i have to deal with it every single day.

Android is gaining traction (at least here in Europe), thanks to non-geeks and cheap prices for the devices, and because of a few apps (Whatsapp, etc.). That's all the mass market cares about. And Android focuses on mass market.

</comment><comment><USER3> @StavrosK, sorry if you felt that was silly and of no value, if I'd have known I'd have been wasting _your_ precious time I'd have put more thought into what I posted on MY website.

Snide sarcasm aside (sorry couldn't resist :P), I don't agree that just because Android is open source it has to put up with being tainted by poor implementations, especially by such large, visible corporations. Certainly it makes it an easier target for such but just because it's open source doesn't mean there are no restrictions or controls and no concerns about the platform perception.

To be clear, I think Android is a great platform, I just feel that it's severely let down by those scheming to make a fast buck out of it to the detriment of it's users and genuine supporters.

@DrinkWater, to think just because someone is not a geek means they do not care if they have to suffer a bad experience is a depressing thought indeed.

</comment><comment><USER4> My Galaxy S (which I simply tolerate now), came loaded with a porn application from my carrier. The damage these companies allow (or do themselves) to their brands is astounding given the competition in the market. I won't even consider Samsung for my next phone because of how bad this one is.

</comment><comment><USER5> There's a very simple way to stop the carriers from doing this: Close-source Android.

The article should have been: "What Android gets wrong: It's open source." Then the author would have realized how silly and of no value that whole article was.

<comment><USER6> When you're referencing siegler to make your case you took many, many wrong turns with your life.

<comment><USER5> I wasn't. It was reductio ad absurdum.</comment></comment></comment>


Ultrinsic - Bet on yourself getting good grades - <AUTHOR> http://ultrinsic.com/

<comment><USER2> Previous submissions of relevance:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1595995>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1595526>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1592416></comment>


Tesla Autopilot First Ride: Almost as Good as a New York Driver - <AUTHOR> http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a27044/tesla-autopilot-first-ride-almost-as-good-as-a-new-york-driver/ <comment><AUTHOR> The video shows it takes a lot of mental adjustment to trust a car to drive itself

[https://youtu.be/3yCAZWdqX_Y](https://youtu.be/3yCAZWdqX_Y)

I'd be freaking out

Next generation of kids will be like "oh geez your car doesn't have autopilot? I have to pay attention and drive? Ugh."</comment>


The Quiet Crisis Unfolding in Software Development - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@billjordan1/the-quiet-crisis-unfolding-in-software-development-cffbdafbf450 <comment><USER2> I would say your right on point about everything except high performers.

\- I think things can get over-architected which is just as bad as spaghetti code.

\- Made sure design and code is reviewed early in the process nothing like getting code done and unit tested then finding out the day before codes is supposed to move you need to redo everything(even if it works.) And treated like you screwed up. People don't know what they don't know.

\- I'm a "quick developer" here are good short cuts in my opinion.

1\. I worked on lots of easy stuff because most developers like to work on the challenging stuff. But it still needs done. Although, I do my share of hard stuff too.

2\. I test as I go. I don't trust my own code. Test every 5-10 lines of code. the better the developer the more they think that one line of logging code doesn't need unit tested.

3\. It's easy to change a doc than code. A lot of times there is ambiguity in a spec. Analyst and QA don't want to change stuff just as much as developers. If the business is ok with the code then change the doc.

4\. I try to follow convention and talk users out of stuff that will take a long time to develop but add little value.

\- watch TDD. A big part of QA is 2 eyes are better than 1. You lose a lot from having the same person code and code tests.

<comment><USER3> > things can get over-architected

Yes. Unfortunately, the cure can be worse than the disease. At least spaghetti code _does_ something, even if it does it more slowly and more resistant to change than something theoretically might. I'd estimate that half of my career has been spent fighting with "enterprise architects" who want to roll out "enterprise solutions" (i.e. third-party software products with questionable support and nightmare licensing conditions) in a misguided attempt to avoid writing even one line of code.

<comment><USER4> Well said. I spent hours yesterday setting up a bunch of ORM make-work, rather than getting a connection to the DB and just doing a bloody query, for a "spell check" function.

All I needed to do was get the intersection of the set of user provided words (candidates) and the set of approved words (a text column in a dictionary table). Conceptually, I needed a prepared statement or query build to do something like:

        select dict.word
        from dict
        where dict.word in ( ... candidates ... )

(the difference of the candidate set minus the result set being the unrecognized words)

But I had to drag in entity models with magic incantations, er, annotations, and repositories and a predicate factory class and multiple config files -- for a dictionary table that is rarely if ever updated, manually; it exists for this query. Sadness.

If I knew the Spring/Hibernate/JPA stuff better, it of course would have been easier, but what a pile of tripe to have to read through for the life of the project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thank you for writing this essay, Bill. I've been wanting to write a post like this for a long time, but you've stated my thoughts so clearly, I will just send this link.

</comment><comment><USER6> Recent discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11791444](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11791444)

</comment><comment><USER7> Thank you! This is a good compendium of what is wrong and can be right...</comment>


Codeity - <AUTHOR> http://www.codeity.com

<comment><USER2> How is this different than the LinkedIn user groups?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the question! This will be somewhat of a longer answer since I will explain the market fit for us and how we support that with our platform.

Codeity is a talent acquisition management platform. We make the hiring process less painful for both developers and tech companies by owning the entire process on our platform from match to hire. As a developer you can signup in a few minutes, evaluate your skills, and then your profile is live. You can begin to see companies you are matched with after they express interest in speaking with you realtime on your developer dashboard. With multiple opportunities at various states in the interviewing process, your Codeity dashboard makes it easy to manage these from one point. There is no direct applicant process with Codeity, it is a one-time profile creation and then you are matched with job opportunities based on data points you identified in your profile. Our algorithms are always running so your profile will be continually evaluated against jobs as they are created and matched if appropriate. In a case of just taking a job or you would not like to be matched with opportunities, this can happen with a simple toggle within the developer settings.

On the company side we do much more and serve as not only connecting you with talent but also a toolkit to make the interviewing process easier. Once you create a company profile on Codeity, you can then use our job templates to create jobs. After a job is made live, we then match on various data points that the company can identify on a level of importance, etc. Companies will also have job dashboards so that for each job they create on our site, they can track, manage, and progress candidates through the interviewing process.

Within our company dashboard you will see matches in the first lane as developer cards. You can click on each individual card to express interest and also send prescreening questions. Once the developer is then notified that company "x" is interested in speaking with them they can then complete the prescreening questions and they are sent back to the company to review. The company then receives a notification in their dashboard with the answers and if they would still wish to speak with the developer, then they can use our scheduling calendar to get the developer scheduled for their interview. We currently integrate with a few different virtual meeting providers AND also have our own video chat so you can conduct a virtual interview within our platform in addition to scheduling. Follow-up interviews and rescheduling are simple and very intuitive. As candidates progress through the interview process we are tracking and collecting data points (time periods, progression points, etc). We also are working heavily on the analytics side right now with a few companies that use our platform so that reporting/analytics can be generated, providing the company with information unavailable on other platforms to make strategic hiring decisions more effectively.

In long form, I think that explains a bit more about the Codeity platform and how we differentiate ourselves from a Linkedin group and also other players in the space. We are not a public group/community of developers created for the purpose of recruiters accessing our profiles or contacting us, but connecting top tech talent with companies and making the hiring process less painful.

Feel free to shoot me an email at email@example.com if you have any other questions you would like to ask offline.

-Mike

<comment><USER2> That's a good answer, but I want to give you a little candid feedback.

I think you are doing a good job addressing the pain points of a company, but i'm not sure there is much value here for a developer.

You are basically offering the developer speed, which is meaningful.

In my opinion, there is a false assumption that makes your value statement less relevant. I'm not sure that the majority of developers would take an interview with a company based on the fact that they were "a perfect match" by a third party.

Most developers are not interested in interviewing for a company where they do not have a direct connection (which is what LinkedIn is trying to capitalize on)

Something to think on. Again, if I were a company I would be quite interested in your model.

Best of luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad you brought this up!

We do have a value prop with developers in that we take the search and direct applicant process out of job opportunities in addition to making the process easier. Since we match developers with companies based on their profile, we are filtering out opportunities and then presenting them with ones that are best suited for their skills. In this way we essentially cut through the clutter of jobs that they might not be a good match for. At this point the developer can view the opportunities and the mutual interest mechanism is set in place if they are interested. They are immediately in front of the companies themselves and not just another direct applicant or introduction.

We also help manage multiple job opportunities for developers so that they can view, manage,and evaluate their opportunities post match and interest. This is all visual and it is very easy for the developer to also know what requires something actionable to progress. Of course they can take advantage of our scheduling, video interviewing, and dashboard to eliminate as much friction as possible to the point of hire.

Hopefully this helps provide clarity as to why a developer should signup for Codeity!

-Mike</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Designing a responsive, Retina-friendly site - <AUTHOR> http://paulstamatiou.com/responsive-retina-blog-design

<comment><USER2> This style of blog is exactly what I've had in mind now for a few months for my own website, I think its a great way to tell a story. Congratulations Paul. Wish I could fork it on github and apply my own styles to your foundations.

</comment><comment><USER3> _I began thinking single column. The content should be the star of the show. No sidebars or extraneous post metadata that gets in the way of reading._

I'm happy to hear you confirm this for me. I've been removing the sidebar from most pages of my site for the exact same reason. Not to mention that a sidebar generally only occupies the first screen you see. Once you start scrolling you're left with empty space below and content that's thinner than it should be.

</comment><comment><USER4> Paul, as always, an awesome write-up. Looking forward to the dev one as well. The design of the article posts are spot-on. The header seems a bit off to me though, maybe it is the alignment of the photo/subtitle and the menu below it? Also, I think it would be nice if on the /photos posts if you could browse through them easier with something like a left/right arrow setup. Maybe you don't want that though? Either way, great work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Yeah I'm still pondering tweaking the header for that exact reason. It looks like it should line up with the header menu. Looks much better on mobile in the responsive header version. :)

> Also, I think it would be nice if on the /photos posts if you could browse > through them easier with something like a left/right arrow setup

Curious, did the left/right arrows not load? <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/186198/Screenshots/y7g5.png> On individual photo pages i also bind the left/right arrow keys too. Thinking about doing the same L/R stuff for posts too.

<comment><USER4> Ha! They loaded and are there, but I can hardly see them on my sony laptop (1600x900) b/c they fall to the outside of the photo. When I resized my browser I could easily see them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just looking through the source of the site, it seems that whatever CMS you're using is inserting <p> tags everywhere, including around the opening and closing <section> tags: <http://i.imgur.com/RkoFP.png>.

It's also causing the page to fail validation (ignoring the errors about unknown meta tags): [http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpaulstamatiou...](http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpaulstamatiou.com%2Fresponsive- retina-blog-design&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0)

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah jekyll is going ham on my new lines. I have been meaning to look into that. It's markdown but I only use html. Need to find a way to have it not use markdown (blasphemy, I know).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Good stuff, looks great on retina. It is still very niche but great to see more sites experimenting with providing higher quality retina friendly images.

</comment><comment><USER7> Not meant to be a shameless plug but I recently redid my business website to optimize for mobile as well. We didn't intentionally target retina but it turns out we're using a font for our logo and I'm very pleased with how crisp it looks on my Galaxy Nexus. I'm currently building a website for a client and the logo is a bitmap and there is distinct difference in quality. This is my own site, built with Bootstrap: <http://www.electrichq.com.au>

</comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone have any good data on the impact on the number of times an article is shared with/without share buttons?

</comment><comment><USER9> The text/font is very nice on galaxy nexus.

</comment><comment><USER10> DarkStarX1, you are a dead user. Time to make a new account.

</comment><comment><USER11> Paul you sure seem to like the word 'yet'.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks -- this is actually helpful. I want to be more cognizant of my writing style, I have a lot of room to get better. I often start sentences with "But" and use the same modifiers (However, Unfortunately, etc) quite a bit.

When I write I usually start with a big, unfiltered brain dump, then some formatting and then a proofread. But the proofread is in chunks of reading, fixing, reading etc so I never get the entire flow of it to catch these i-just-used-the-same-word-in-the-last-3-paragraphs issues.

<comment><USER11> overall I think your writing style actually is very personal. We have never met, but after reading, I feel like I've just had a conversation with you.</comment></comment></comment>


I'm selling my geek dream house to put money into our startup - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jedwhite.com/2011/01/help-im-selling-my-geek-dream-house-to.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey all, if you know anyone looking for a house in Sydney Australia that suits a startup or geeky family, or IT person that likes working from home, would be grateful if you can pass this on. We've run out of savings with our startup after moving to the US, and will use what's left (after the bank takes most of it for the mortgage) to put it into keeping us afloat! Be kind! :)

<comment><USER2> Sincerely wish you success with your startup ... +1 for the spirit!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey thanks Satyajit! Perseverance counts, as they say... I hope! :)</comment></comment></comment>


David Schaff's Quest to Predict Earthquakes Using Ambient Noise - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/the-last-of-the-earthquake-predictors <comment><USER2> Duplicate of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12092154](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12092154)</comment>


Campaign to secure Turing's papers for Bletchley Park - <AUTHOR> http://www.justgiving.com/Turing-Papers

<comment><AUTHOR> Let me start by saying I don't think this will get the job done (£150 at the time of writing) but we need to rise awareness to ensure they stay in the UK.

</comment><comment><USER2> Ffs. Justgiving take 10% of all money raised through this.</comment>


Show HN: An "automatic" way to learn Chinese - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gupik.autolang.zh <comment><USER2> Enjoying the lessons and really liking the idea of the vocabulary rank, that's probably something that would keep me using the app daily.

Some Feedback:

Is there a way to turn off the sound? At the moment it automatically repeats any answer I select which would stop me from using it on the train to work.

Also when I started practice, went away and started practice again the practice questions seem to freeze after one question.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot for the feedback, I'll fix the issues as soon as I have the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Also worth checking out is [https://www.clozemaster.com/](https://www.clozemaster.com/), which is centered around this idea of "sentence mining" and has a very polished interface.

I'm interested in seeing how this compares to it.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm trying it out, and am pretty excited. Nice work! This should help a lot with out-of-HSK vocabulary for me (I'm studying for the HSK using traditional materials/anki).

It'd be helpful for me to see the character in a much larger font somehow, perhaps even with stroke order, because I don't know how to write every radical correctly yet and at that font size can't necessarily recognize them all. For example, 蟹 was a new one I got and if I increase the font size, I can figure out there's 角, 刀, 牛, 虫, but not at the font size currently in the app. I also like to practice writing the characters to reinforce (which I'll do on paper, but still need to see what it's made up of).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking out, I'll definitely look into the font size issue. I would also want the writing feature myself but just haven't got around to implementing it, hard to figure out where to put it too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have no idea how many others like me there are out there, but if you could make a pinyin-only setting that would be really cool. I'm learning mandarin but not learning characters and it makes of a lot of study apps non-useful to me if they only use hanzi.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think you should try learning the characters for once, maybe this time you won't have so much difficulty remembering them.

<comment><USER6> This feels uncharitable. Pinyin is a lot easier to learn coming from a western background. It's also used by many people as the primary input method for typing, and it's reasonable that the parent poster might not have a current need to learn characters. There's no reason to shame people for learning.

<comment><AUTHOR> I certainly have no intention of shaming or talking him down, just trying to suggest an option, if it comes across that way, my bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's like Anki but with a nicer UI, dynamic questions and progress tracking. Nice!

</comment><comment><USER8> I'd love to use your app (even pay for it) if you ever get it out on iOS!

</comment><comment><USER9> There seems to be a maximum length on the email address field when registering? (32 characters) My email address is longer than that.

After registering (with a different email :)) the sound didn't seem to work.

</comment><comment><USER10> Cool! I basically completed the Duolingo course, which I loved but whose vocabulary is a bit limited. I was just wondering where to go next, so I could really use this.

Do you have plans to ever release this on ios?

<comment><AUTHOR> The ios version is actually ready right now, I'm just putting off filling the "paperwork" and some tiny fixes. You can try it out through expo: [https://expo.io/@haint/autolang-zh](https://expo.io/@haint/autolang-zh)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> When you click on the underlined blank, it opens the dictionary and gives you the answer. Not sure if that's an I feature

<comment><AUTHOR> Oops that's a bug, thanks for spotting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is English interface available on iOS ? I see only Vietnamese interface by default.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oops my mistake, I'll push out an update soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Isn't it a little too much for small app?

[https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/reports/40782/](https://reports.exodus- privacy.eu.org/reports/40782/)

<comment><AUTHOR> The app uses Expo, those libraries just come with Expo by default and can't be excluded, but they are unused and not enabled. Only Google Analytics is in use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Will this app cost money in the future? (I'm ok if it does, I just want to know before if it becomes an expensive subscription service or a reasonable one time payment)

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't have a long term plan but I can assure you that it won't ever be expensive (I'm from a third world country anyways) and early adopters today will never be charged. It's going to be free for a long while though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> is china promoting those apps? android has a dozen with million of downloads (and very good quality) but all started less than a year ago.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure what those apps are but I'm not from China and actually started coding this app to learn Chinese myself.

<comment><USER16> what is your fluency? do you speak chinese every day? i am just curious about the accuracy of the app's contents. :) thanks for posting this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't worry the contents are all automatically generated from example data (Tatoeba) and the dictionary, nothing is hand crafted. I sure wouldn't trust myself writing correct Chinese sentences hehe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I just tried to create an account but clicking the 'create an account' button doesn't work

<comment><AUTHOR> That's strange, haven't heard of such an issue. What's your device and android version? You can try reinstalling the app or test it on another phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Any plans on doing the same for japanese? At least for Hiragana and Katakana? Would be pretty neat!

<comment><AUTHOR> No plans for now, I'm having a bit too much to work on atm, no teammates :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> hi, do you have your other app (autolang "english") in other languages than vietnamese ?

and second question, why forcing a registration from the beginning ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately none at the moment. For the second question, it's just the simplest, most straightforward design to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Also worth checking: Skritter.com

</comment><comment><USER21> Who want to invest in China, contact me.

</comment><comment><USER22> Very nice. Will be using this for HSK prep if it's possible to choose vocabulary from different HSK levels. Does it allow for that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not for now, it only has a calibration quiz on entry to find out where you are in the vocabulary by-character rank (that probably correlates with HSK levels somehow) and start from there.</comment></comment>


Intent to Implement: Pointer Events in Chrome - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink-dev/ODWmcKNQl0I

<comment><USER2> Apple's continuing opposition is disappointing.

The situation with Safari is a worrying echo of Internet Explorer's heyday, with an important player dragging their heels when it comes to implementing standards.

I'll be curious as to how this plays out. Safari, even on mobile, isn't anywhere near as close to the sort of dominance IE had at its peak, so I'd hope pressure over standards will eventually force Apple to capitulate.

<comment><USER3> Apple has no benefit in supporting pointer events. The devices they sell only have mice or touch interfaces, which are well-handled by mouse and touch events. There is no benefit to Apple customers to support pointer events, only benefits to developers who think pointer events are "better"

<comment><USER4> I can see value in finding a way to expose individual touch points from their new touchpad to JavaScript. We looked at doing something similar in IE, actually, but didn't get around to it in time.

If they want to do that, then they're going to have lots of compatibility problems doing it with Touch Events. Too much code out there expects the presence of Touch Events to mean a touch-only device. So if you enable TE on a laptop, suddenly sites stop working for mouse/track. :-( Pointer Events don't have this problem.

<comment><USER3> Interesting thought, I'm not sure if PointerEvents would be handled correctly with a trackpad that would have traditionally used as Mouse input either. Seems like the developer would have to know _how_ the trackpad is being used more than anything else since mouse/touch are very different behaviors.

<comment><USER4> yep, we imagined this would be surfaced as a new event.pointerType value, allowing code to specifically target the device if desired.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is in part due to feedback from the community: [https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=162757#c...](https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=162757#c146)

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm glad the Chrome team is doing this. Pointer events is a good spec , I hope Apple will do the same eventually.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm going against the grain and make the assertion that improving the Touch Events was the better option here. Touch Events are supported by more browsers and devices and already have many of the functional requirements that Pointer Events have.

While it makes sense to have a consistent API, for the foreseeable future there will be three event standards; touch, pointer, and mouse. While if there was focus on an existing standard it would leave web developers with a smaller room for error. A direct result of Blink using the Pointer Event standard is that there will be more web bloat such as jQuery wrappers to abstract interaction.

Most web developers like have experienced the mess of getting touch events and mouse events feeling consistent across different devices and browsers. Throwing more hardware and an extra API into the mix is only going to make things worse.

I welcome the much needed pressure support, for the average web developer and user the result will likely be detrimental. Colour me cynical, each browser has to nail its implementation or we're going to see another messy standard. IE for example still does not support Touch Events, even on WP. This makes front end development painful if you support the device.

<comment><USER8> > IE for example still does not support Touch Events, even on WP.

Yes they do. However, IE11 doesn't support Touch Events on desktop because there is _already_ too much code out there that makes stupid assumptions about Touch Events implying a tablet or phone without a mouse. [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/09/05/making-the- web...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/09/05/making-the-web-just- work-with-any-input.aspx)

<comment><USER7> MSIE 11 for mobile is still in developer preview mode, and hasn't been released. As for the desktop version, here's caniuse:[http://caniuse.com/#feat=touch](http://caniuse.com/#feat=touch)

I'm unaware that they released a desktop version where they enabled it, I'll have to look into it.

<comment><USER4> The version of IE with Touch Events (Windows Phone 8.1 Update) is no longer in preview. You can buy retail devices with it on it today, actually.

For the desktop version, see my recent blog post: [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/02/24/pointer- events...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/02/24/pointer- events-w3c-recommendation-interoperable-touch-and-removing-the-dreaded-300ms- tap-delay.aspx)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is Life Boring you? - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesvh.com/2013/01/is-life-boring-you/ <comment><USER2> I dislike how posts like these are often very anti-introvert. There's nothing wrong with snubbing your work colleagues' offer of a drink in favour of a good book :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> A lot of peoples lives aren't boring. They're busy:

\- Dying of an infectious disease

\- Working to get enough money just to survive

\- Starving to death

\- Living in fear of violence

I think you're doing well as a person if you can count your life as boring.

<http://www.who.int/en/>

<comment><USER4> There are lots of people worse off. Doesn't me good-off individuals shouldn't try to improve their lives.

<comment><USER3> Fair point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Boring in terms of routine is not bad. Routine frees your mind for the important things.

Boring can be bad, though. Maybe I would like to do $INTERESTING, but the boring things do not leave enough time. Sure, the common answer is to "make free time in small steps". Nevertheless, family and sickness can eat up all the free time, so you are happy when you get some sleep.

</comment><comment><USER6> Sometimes. That's one reason why I switched to contracting - a new place, a new job and new people every few months stirs things up a bit. I've also lived (kinda) in three countries.

But going out for a drink more? I'd probably die of liver poisoning. There's barely time to fit in all my friends as it is. The odd 'boring' weekend is something I look forward to :)

</comment><comment> guard-of-terra No, it does not. Should it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely shouldn't! You are one of the lucky people in the world that don't find their lives as being boring.

<comment> guard-of-terra Maybe I genuinely enjoy my lifestyle too much. But it's nothing fancy - I go to work, I sleep, I procrastinate.

Of course, I eat out, I go to concerts, museums or something more crazy, travel a bit. But I do that because I like it, not because I'm trying to inject some "change" (sounds cheap btw) into my life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it" - Schopenhauer</comment>


Cancer: the mountain lion in your fridge - <AUTHOR> https://somehedgehog.tumblr.com/post/119415185391/cancer-the-mountain-lion-in-your-fridge <comment><AUTHOR> My wife went through Breast Cancer treatment last year. We both agreed that this metaphor is the most accurate description of the experience we could find (with enough levity to make it readable).</comment>


Ask HN: what's stopping you from launching? - <AUTHOR>

hearing about Paul Bucheit's first version of gmail always makes me realise how much of a perfectionist I'm being.<p>what's stopping you from releasing a demo/beta right now? For me, it's the design. <comment><USER3> Yep. Same here: design.

Well that and we've spent so much time on the main app that we don't have a workable login yet - our login process is akin to 37signals where we subdomain the account i.e. yourcompany.domain.com so it's not that straight forward.

So for us it's literally too early to release since no one could sign up.

One thing we could do is have a signup with an email for news of our pending release... but we're still fine tuning exactly what message we want to release with.

This may be a huge mistake on our part but only time will tell. I'll be sure to share our experience releasing 'late', good or bad, with the HN community.

<comment><USER4> Why the subdomain? Can someone explain why a lot of app are doing it? Personally, I avoid using an app that uses a subdomain.

<comment><USER3> It's the easiest way for us to direct them to their own VM and database.

It also seems to work pretty well for all the 37signals apps and and few others that segment this way.

<comment><USER4> Ok, if you have a special case for your app and it uses virtual machines and things like that, I would understand.

But, talking about them, why 37signals are doing it? They have "normal" web applications that don't require that kind of separation to be efficient.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm actually concerned about the graphic design of my startup. There is a pay- for-service component to it, and I have this feeling that if it doesn't look professional, no one will trust it. Anyone think that is a valid concern?

<comment><USER3> It is a valid concern. Credibility is important for a startup. It also depends on what you're offering.

If it's something remarkable then it won't matter as much. People will just want it and might look past things like design to get it.

Usually though when people are opening up their wallets they want to make sure the service is credible and the overall design is the first thing that helps them make this distinction, followed by a blog, founding team descriptions, press mentions etc...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Two things - the design is, well, okay but extremely simple.. It just doesn't have that _finished_ look about it.

And the app itself is incredibly simple, which makes me second guess myself as to whether it is too simplistic that users won't pay the few bucks I intend to charge for it. I keep telling myself that they pay for value, not the number of lines of code...

<comment><USER7> Is it useful? I love Fried's point about your product being useful. Useful>Innovative.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I agree with pretty much everyone else - design is KEY.

Hiring someone like MetaLab seems unrealistic to bootstrapper's - doing it yourself usually leaves a lack confidence (at least for me).

But I don't think you should let design hold you back, if it's useful, people will use it, THEN you can invest your real time / effort / money into making it look better.

</comment><comment><USER9> A worthwhile idea. After trying a few projects, I've come to realize that it's going to have to be something I care enough about to sacrifice my time and energy for and sell without feeling fake.

I really have no clue what that is. All I want is cash money really.

<comment><USER10> from your profile: _My dream is to make a big chunk of fk you money without having to do marketing or sales._

Web commerce doesn't sound like the way to go for you. You want to be a Wall Streeter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Can 100% understand this feeling and this is how I fight with this - <USER2> release this damn thing!

Not even restricting alfa beta invite only users, just do whatever you can, get feedback and keep improving it! Design never can be perfect - even getting best designers workin on my site i still keep finding issues with it. Its just endless process, and most of your client(not timewasters but client) really dont give it that much attention as you do!

Remember you will loose few clients today but you will learn on you mistakes today also. JUST DO IT!

</comment><comment><USER12> fear of failure. once you get it out there, it will be the true test.

<comment><USER13> Initially I thought "failure" as well. But it turns out, I could care less about "failing", it's my fear of PROBLEMS that stop me from launching.

I have a lot of stuff in my life to take care of already. If launching a product means more problems and little extra money, I definitely procrastinate.

Here are just a few problems I worry about before launch (just off the top of my head):

1) Connection problems that aren't even something I can personally fix (client-side)

2) Feature requests. Tweak requests. People that don't understand that the app isn't a CUSTOM program and wonder why they can't get what they want even though they are paying for it.

3) Credit card payment processing problems. Denied cards, expired cards, overdraft cards, PayPal, Auth.net, 2co, etc. The problem of what to do with accounts when someone isn't paying or when someone says they are trying to pay, or will pay, but don't pay... blah blah blah. PROBLEMS!!!

4) Meetings and Training. The app can be STUPID SIMPLE, but there are still those corporate people that want a training session, or a conference call, white papers, or a live meeting to discuss the benefits of our app. Seriously. Pay $20-$100 and just find out. If you are thinking about my app that much, it's probably not for you.

4) Monitoring backups, restores, server problems, data center problems, storage space, vps, dedicated servers, s3, e3, cloud, load problems, twitter api, facebook connect, etc, etc, etc

Problems, problems, problems, problems.

Maybe this isn't an issue when you have VC, but in the bootstrapping world, failure doesn't matter as much as PROBLEMS do.

<comment><USER14> These still exist in the "VC world," and then there are added constraints as well, such as expectations and pressure on yourself not to let other people down. Bootstrapping is simple; just get the fucking work done. Pardon my french, but that's what it comes down to. People find it easy to let themselves down, so when they do it's not a big deal, but letting a guy (or gal) down who took the time, effort, and money to put into your company will make you try that little bit more.

Find the motivation to get these small un-sexy tasks out of the way and then focus on growth. it doesn't matter how or where you find the motivation, just get your work done. Now I don't mean work 15 hours a day. Just stop wasting time when you are working. Come up with systems that optimize your time. And feel free to outsource. If you're familiar with economics, there is an opportunity cost to everything; odds are it costs you less in the long run to pay someone to keep up with your servers' status or to fulfill customer support so you can focus on what you are truly skilled at.

<comment><USER13> I was saying that I wonder if the reason VC funded companies don't launch is also because of possible "problems". Back when I worked at a "funded" company, we didn't launch because the programming team was never finished with anything.

As for just getting my f __ __ __work done?? Are you serious? As a bootstrapped company, I already work all day on my company that MAKES money, then I have the side-project. The reason the side-project doesn't launch is because of the upcoming problems it creates.

Get the work done? Again. Seriously?

These are problems that come back daily or weekly, problems that don't just "get fixed", problems that recur endlessly and you have to stay on top of them. If you are working full time at your one business, developing constantly for the side-project you launched, THEN have to add the customer support problems, systems problems, live code bugs, etc..... THAT is why I don't launch.

The reason I don't launch is because the "problems" create a whole new "job" for me that I just don't have time to handle.

<comment><USER14> As I said, there are means to overcome these maintenance problems; outsourcing the work being just one of them.

There seems to be a fair amount of cognitive dissonance going on here, and it seems to stem from the fact you feel overwhelmed and I am suggesting that more can be done. This dissonance is probably part of why your response is as aggressive as it is.

Get off HN and do the customer support. Skip that trip to the bar and get that next bug fixed. I know and am surprised from my own personal experiences at how much time we spend on small unproductive things. Personally, I think they are essential to being happy, but there can be stints where neglecting happiness and relaxation has a greater payoff; where doing the work and getting the customer support done will give you enough cash flow to hire someone to do it for you.

There is this little voice in everyone's head, saying that the extra work is too hard, that it'll be better not to stick it through. It's like there is a constant battle with yourself on what level of self-dominion you can achieve; meaning, your ability to actually get yourself to do what you want to do. It's running that 5th mile when you've run 4 and want to call it a day. It's coming home from work and putting in 2-3 hours into your side project when you just want to lay down and watch TV. How hard is it really to dig in and get it done?

I say what I do not to be critical of you--I don't know who you are, and I have no conflict with you personally--but because I know how sticky that emotion is. Feeling like that extra work isn't worth my time; I've been there. What it takes is doing small tasks, one at a time, to build momentum. Taking the trash out leads to cleaning your desk, which leads to writing up a short brief about things, and eventually, you're flying through and getting task after task done (not just work-related things) and you are 100% confident in your ability to say, "okay, so today I'm going to do X, Y, and Z," and at the end of the day you will have done those things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Lack of functionality was holding me back. Then it was no mechanism for feedback. I'm still thin on functionality and copy, but I have a feedback mechanism now.

www.SportsLeeg.com

Getting over the "first release" hurdle is tough. So many "what if"'s remain. Once it's out though, motivation goes through the roof to keep things running tight and releasing often. I find myself releasing 3-4 times a week now. Even for small stuff.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm having trouble discerning what the meaning of "launching" is when most people talk about it. Is it as simple as deploying something to a production server? Or trying to get one more feature in that initial release? Either way, there is no excuse for soft launching now if you have any working code.

</comment><comment><USER14> School for me.

There seem to be a lot of mentions of 'design' though. Honestly, it doesn't matter how good or bad your product is. Get -something- out there for other people to use. Run a private beta of just 5-10 people at first who are willing to critique everything to the ground. Then your design will fall into place rather than trying to be "smart" about it initially.

There is a difference between pretty design and converting design, and then there is a small group of designers capable of providing converting designs that are pretty. Your website need not be pretty to convert well though.

My $.02.

PS: No offense to PG and this wonderful community, but getting off the internet would probably help a lot of us more than it would hurt.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think graphic design should be thought of as graphical engineering .. in the sense that a good graphic designer is always trying to find the very best way to approach a problem.

Poor design isn't down to having bad aesthetic taste or lack of artistic skill - it's down to a lack of clarity in purpose.

Good design is clear thinking made visual... to be able to achieve this, clear-thinking needs to be built into the processes and workflows of applications from the get-go.

Too often, I think a lot of people see graphic design as a skin that can be slotted onto a second rate product to make it sing - and imo, this isn't the case.

</comment><comment><USER18> Re-brand, user login system, some items that probably aren't critical but at least one person on the team feels 'has to be there'.

This makes me want to release an alpha today. Okay, maybe tomorrow.

</comment><comment><USER19> Here's a link to the video if you haven't seen it yet:

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul- buc...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-buchheit-on- why-he-sold-to-facebook/)

I couldn't find it on justin.tv

Edit: Oops that's not the full video. Does anyone have the full video?

<comment><USER20> I'm looking for it too. That part seems to be missing from justin.tv.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Plain old incompleteness. There's a number of bits where either the interface or the backend component aren't finished yet. Unfortunately, they're not optional.

The launch will be soon, though. We've got a big roadmap, but that's not going to stop us from launching the moment the app does something (anything!) useful.

</comment><comment><USER22> Ease of use problems. Users have to upload SSL certificates, and Ruby's OpenSSL library is lacking in features and it's missing a lot of documentation, which is hindering efforts to handle different types of certificates and verification. Might give a message queue + a Python script a try...

</comment><comment><USER23> My Biggest issue is that when you take the leap from "side project" to start- up, there has to be reasonable confidence that the idea is unique enough to make it as a startup.

Somehow I wont be building a search engine this week :)

</comment><comment><USER24> Simple for me. I am not done yet...

Sorry if that was too inappropriate for a serious topic.

What stopped me in the past was always the design/look of the site.

</comment><comment><USER25> I am working on something for which similar products exists in the market place...So making my product beat the existing alternatives is taking time for me

</comment><comment><USER26> For me, it's getting over the attrition of not starting what I really want to work on.

</comment><comment><USER27> A name for my game!

</comment><comment><USER28> oddly enough for me - losing interest in the project. Once it's out there, I want to work on something else.</comment>


In the Land of Vendettas That Go on Forever - <AUTHOR> http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2017/10/land-vendettas-go-forever <comment><USER2> Obligatory: [https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/TOXICVAL.HTM](https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/TOXICVAL.HTM)

I grew up in Russia and have met a few people who subscribe to the "honor" philosophy of life, where personal insults must be repaid by personal violence up to killing. Such people can be fun, intelligent, charming. But I will _never_ enter any serious business or personal relationship with anyone like that, and will teach my children the same.

<comment><USER3> But what about collective honor?

Isn't _a nation which can prefer disgrace to danger prepared for a master and deserves one_?

<comment><USER4> Collective honor is alive and well in the West. If you have doubts, look at the United States' overreaction to 9/11.

<comment><USER5> What extent do you think the reaction to 9/11 was honor, versus 'we can't let this happen again'?

<comment><USER6> As opposed to attempts to make money, start wars (see "make money"), promulgate an ideology, win political points, gain power over a populace (Patriot Act), and just plain fear?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As a frequent visitor to Albania, I find this article appalling. The author goes out of her way to make Albania seem a weird, Borat-like country. Sadly, while it is common for Western journalists to visit Albania in order to write an article about blood feuds as an easy sale to magazines, they rarely put blood feuds in context – they are limited to a distinct region of the country, their real heyday was the 1990s, and the absolute number of people affected is very small even by the standards of Albania's population. Furthermore, the country has made enormous strides in development, and much of Albania is now little different from any other Eastern European country. Writing an article about Albania and pointing to road quality is mainly an anachronism, and complaining about the difficulty of finding a ferry just makes her look like a bellend incapable of doing normal things that travelers do in most countries on earth.

And then the complaint about the Albanian language is ridiculous. The orthography is pretty straightforward and Albanian phonology heavily overlaps with English (one reason that Albanians can often have good accents in English even if the don't actually know the language as well as it would seem). And when she writes this:

> _Ukuˆgaan iˆxamnakuˆx_ or "Nice to see you."

I speak fairly good Albanian now, but I have no clue what this is supposed to be. It is not Albanian, at least not in any standard orthography.

<comment><USER8> I don't blame you for defending a nation that, in my experience, is the victim of a lot of ugly stereotypes in the United States (and probably much of western Europe) in the face of an unflattering article. But I think you're being a little harsh--to me the author seemed to be going out of her way to make clear she was describing only a limited part of the country.

For example, the article makes crystal clear that, that, as you say, the feuds are limited to a small portion of Albania:

> The killing is concentrated in northern Albania—in the rural, often > unreachable villages of the Accursed Mountains, and in the modern city of > Shkodër, one of the oldest municipalities in southeastern Europe.

Similarly, the author's comments about the road, etc., are specifically about "northern Albania." I'm in no position to determine whether or not this addresses the substance of your comment but, at the very least, it is clear that this description is not about the country as a whole.

And finally, about the language: I'm again in no position to judge (though it _does_ seem likely that written Albanian would be challenging for an English speaker simply due to the much larger number alphabet), but I'll just note that the quote you reproduce is, I suspect, intended to be written phonetically, not using standard Albanian orthography.

<comment><USER7> > to me the author seemed to be going out of her way to make clear she was > describing only a limited part of the country.

No, her presentation is very jumbled. Talking about ISIS on the basis of an "ex-Army friend"? Northern Albania is overwhelmingly Catholic, and that mention of Islamism results from suddenly trying to bring Kosovo and Macedonia into the article (and even then, her "ex-Army friend" is exaggerating).

<comment><USER8> We can agree that her army friend sounds like a nut, and it was probably poor judgment to include those inflammatory quotes from him. ("When you touch down get a decent knife and keep it on you," for example, sounds like poor advice at best.) And we can probably agree that the short passage you highlighted is not great as a whole. If I were her editor, I might have taken it out. But I'm not sure what this has to do with the point under discussion, which was whether the author made clear that the feuds are limited to a small portion of Albania, and are far from a nationwide phenomenon.

Moreover, for the record, the potential for radicalization of Albanian Muslims is by no means an issue of this author's own invention. It's easy to find numerous other examples of reports to this effect. So it seems indisputably true that "there are still worried mumblings" that Albania could become a recruiting ground for ISIS. One can easily find these worried mumblings with a cursory Google search. (Of course, the truth of the underlying proposition may be a different matter. I don't know.) I also have serious doubts about your statistics. Albania as a whole is majority Muslim [[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/...](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/al.html)], and Albanian Kosovars are overwhelmingly Muslim [[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/world/europe/how-the- saud...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/world/europe/how-the-saudis- turned-kosovo-into-fertile-ground-for-isis.html)]. So it would stand to reason that northern Albania has at least a sizable Muslim population.

<comment><USER7> > So it would stand to reason that northern Albania has at least a sizable > Muslim population.

No, there is no sizable Muslim population in Northern Albania. While in the far south Orthodox Christianity and Islam are very mixed, in the far north the population is almost 100% Catholic.

<comment><USER8> I'm really not that interested in belaboring this point, but you're painting with such a broad brush (and by merely repeating the same assertions), that I couldn't resist digging in a little further. And it turns out that, indeed, there _is_ a sizable Muslim population in Northern Albania--unless you're using some special definition of "northern Albania." (I suppose this is possible. But, if so, it does not appear to coincide with the region being discussed in the article--Shkodër and the Accursed Mountains--which both appear to be areas with significant numbers of Muslims). There are portions of the north that are overwhelmingly Catholic (not actually inconsistent with there also being a sizable Muslim population, but never mind), but also many other areas of the north that are majority Muslim.

Source [via Wikipedia]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Albania#/media/Fil...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Albania#/media/File:Albania_majority_religion_2011_census.png)

<comment><USER7> Shkodër and that portion of the Accursed Mountains where _gjakmarrja_ saw a revival in the 1990s, are within that portion of your map that designates an overwhelmingly Catholic area. To the northeast is an area with a larger Muslim population, but within the context of Albanian culture that area (Kukës, Peshkopi) tends to be designated "Northeastern Albania" to set it apart from Northern Albania that is centered around Shkodër.

North and Northeastern Albania were separated by considerable natural barriers until recent times, and while the Ottomans made inroads in the latter and Islam spread, in the former the Ottomans never established a firm grip and the area was a fortress of Roman Catholicism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Conflict is an especially fertile ground for cultural innovation. Friedman > stresses how many legal systems, including advanced ones with lawyers and > codes and everything, show signs of originating from feud systems, which > might be the most basic form of law. They work like this: "If you offend me > in some way, I will try to kill you". A slightly more advanced version that > takes account of possibly power differentials between offender and victim: > "If you offend me in some way, everybody in my family will try to kill > everybody in your family". This originally sounds unpromising, but it turns > out that people really don't want their family members murdered. So we end > up with an even more advanced version: "If you offend me in some way, we had > better find some way to arbitrate our dispute, _or else_ everybody in my > family will try to kill everybody in your family".

Scott Alexander, Book Review: Legal Systems Very Different From Our Own [http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/13/book-review-legal- syste...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/13/book-review-legal-systems-very- different-from-ours/)

</comment><comment><USER10> There is an impressive novel by Albanian Ismail Kadaré dealing with this: Broken April.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think the article is exaggerating a lot, I was in Shkodër for a month in 2004 and while it was filled with culture shock, I never felt unsafe as a tourist. That said, I also didn't decline the Raki or Saleep...

... I miss the Saleep.

</comment><comment><USER12> If there's 1/10000 chance that something you do will offend someone, and you do it on the Internet, there _will_ be people that want's to kill you. Hopefully you are not using your real name ;)

</comment><comment><USER13> Nonsense and very outdated.

We all agree that "justice" needs to be done. Before there was traditional law and order by the "state": you kill my kin, I killed yours. It kept things in order and fear of revenge made you think twice.

In Albania like in many transitional countries you could escape traditional justice by paying judges. Or the police never did their job as they should. Now, what's one to do when you see the killer walking freely ? It happened in Sicily, Corsica, it happens in Pashtun areas etc etc. It's really simple: No law, revenge takes over.

By the way, this only affects families involved, and in most cases even others inside the family are ruled out: "I only have problems with the person that killed my son, others are free."

</comment><comment><USER14> Albanian here (living in NYC), and this is a grossly over-exagerated article, and she has no citations whatsoever on her numbers, just a attention seeking/sensationalist article.

The region is very remote. It takes hours to get in a main city, and usually the region is blocked during the winter. Historically this place is Catholic as the Turks/Ottoman empire couldn't influence the region at some of the traditions had carried on.

I was in the region this summer and it is beautiful place to visit. Some of the scenery looks like like strait out of a Lord Of the Rings movie. [https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19961488_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19961488_10103884798269921_5787494737571968257_n.jpg?oh=25e7f90a4a270f6db5638fd6c6120950&oe=5AA5DD4F)

[https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19958917_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19958917_10103884797830801_2850711056259788533_n.jpg?oh=1828c60fc1463ac1319befe6d47627b4&oe=5A96D81E)

[https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19989538_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19989538_10103884797556351_9162254379261742652_n.jpg?oh=081353f59af62166321ac2b9ec91bf4b&oe=5AAD4EAA)

[https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19959110_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19959110_10103884797601261_2948421281904755704_n.jpg?oh=cf06b4a6e0971046d0fd28ec53cb76d5&oe=5A9B2935)

[https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20032008_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20032008_10103884797212041_1684120578030684002_n.jpg?oh=bb05e5a920e3734cd40dc280a9b2c776&oe=5A90AEC4)

[https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20031807_10103...](https://scontent- iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20031807_10103884796937591_8280708970147583766_n.jpg?oh=0d2d1b9f58ee48df4dfe1f7e383a9a61&oe=5AA747E5)

"if the person who has offered it is simultaneously recounting how, a few years back, he got angry and shot a man. Such is the custom here: You honor your host's hospitality."

\-- That just doesn't happen. Trash article.

Please don't get discouraged by this. If you visit the Thethi region, I'd highly recommend during the summer and a 4x4 / SUV. If you love hiking and the occasional 4x4 off-roading, this is a great place to visit.

Bujtina Polia, [https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/bujtina- polia.html](https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/bujtina-polia.html)

Thethi Paradise [https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/thethi- paradise.html](https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/thethi-paradise.html)

</comment><comment><USER15> Unfortunately, the article is not well-researched. There is no effort to explain the social-economic roots of the problem at hand. No historic background or recognition that the problem spans across borders ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krvna_osveta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krvna_osveta)) . I find the title bombastic and inappropriate; it is simply using the catchword "vendetta" as clickbait. If you visited Corsica or Sicily and observed/learned of a local custom or phenomenon, would you extrapolate that phenomenon to the rest of the country (respectively France/Italy)? And what a coincidence that the author is of Serbian / Slavic origin.

<comment><USER8> Fair enough on the lack of historical/socioeconomic background. That would have been interesting--though it's not clear to me why such a discussion is actually _necessary_ here, as you suggest. (And it strikes me as a bit odd to describe this sort of article, based on apparently extensive first-person reportage, as "not well researched".)

But note that the author does _not_ extrapolate to the rest of the country.

> The killing is concentrated in northern Albania—in the rural, often > unreachable villages of the Accursed Mountains, and in the modern city of > Shkodër, one of the oldest municipalities in southeastern Europe.

To me, it is significantly more problematic to suggest that the article is the product of some sort of bias against Albanians merely because the author--who is a professional author/journalist and Guggenheim fellow--has Croatian grandparents</comment></comment>


Show HN: Serverless storage exposed via localStorage like API - <AUTHOR> https://cls.tools/ <comment><USER2> Nitpick but could have adopted the kv-storage API instead: [https://github.com/WICG/kv-storage](https://github.com/WICG/kv-storage)

<comment><USER3> > Work on this specification is currently suspended, as no browser teams > (including the Chromium project, which originated the proposal) are > currently indicating interest in implementing it.

I am not sure if that would be a good idea given above.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks pretty cool. Any space or bandwidth restrictions?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not right now, but if I find it becoming pricy I might ask users to verify their account by phone beyond a certain usage threshold, to prevent spammers from using it.

If it keeps getting bigger I'll try other database solutions (MongoDB, DynamoDb, ...)

<comment><USER5> How can you afford to pay for other people's storage?

<comment><USER6> As this storage aims for serverless apps and it isn't secure (anyone with access to your token can read/write to it) I assume usage won't be too high. If that won't be the case I'll consider cheaper alternatives to Firebase. If it's still stays an issue then I'll look for sponsorship.

<comment><USER5> Still a very generous offer. Can you read all the data?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> fun</comment>


Instapaper Community text-parser configuration - <AUTHOR> http://blog.instapaper.com/post/730281947 <comment><USER2> I'm not as up-to-date as I need to be, but isn't the idea of truly semantic markup and RDF and microformats that Instapaper (and many, many other sites) won't have to have site-specific parsers? Now, I recognize that a) Instapaper can't do anything about that, and b) the vast, vast majority of sites are unlikely to change. So I guess the main question is: if you have really good semantic markup, do you need this, or will Instapaper already handle your stuff correctly?

<comment><USER3> You can always Instapaper your own site to check but, no, you most likely won't need it. There will always be edge cases and poorly coded/broken markup on many sites though. That's what this is for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> He should add support for the <article> tag (if he hasn't already).

</comment><comment><USER5> Yay, the instapaper future is full of ads.

<comment><USER6> _They'll go through admin approval before going live, to prevent abuse, and then they'll improve the text parser for everyone._

<comment><USER5> "If the instapaper_body class name is present, the automatic selection and automatic stripping processes are disabled, leaving full control to the site's author."</comment></comment></comment>