Google says no plans for iOS 6 mapping app "yet" - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/google-says-no-plans-for-ios-6-mapping-app-yet/ <comment><USER2> It would seem that the conclusion of this article can't be drawn from the quotes Schmidt gave.

"Reuters has softened the tone of its original report which is now disputed by Bloomberg. Bloomberg says that Schmidt declined to say whether Google submitted its Maps app for Apple approval. Instead it quotes him saying, "We haven't done anything yet with Google Maps," adding that Apple would "have to approve it. It's their choice." The updated Reuters piece now quotes the Google chairman saying that Google and Apple are in constant communication at "all kinds of levels," while appearing to say that the decision to remove Google Maps from iOS was Apple's alone." [0]

[0]: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386598/google-maps-app- st...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386598/google-maps-app-store-eric- schmidt)

</comment><comment><USER3> Of course, it's a classic PR move (and one that Apple has used quite frequently in the past) to brashly deny that you're building a product up until the day you release it.

Whether or not it's true, what's genius about Eric Schmidt's statement is that it puts the ball entirely in Apple's court for the maps fiasco. He makes it sound like Google was perfectly content to just let things keep working as they had been, and that it was Apple who unceremoniously ended things for no valid reason, where the truth was almost certainly more nuanced than that.

<comment><USER4> Why are people calling it the "maps fiasco"? I just installed iOS 6, and the new Maps app is one of the best pieces of software I've ever used.

<comment><USER5> Agreed. The fact that some data is not on par with current Google offering doesn't make the product a bad one. Data issues can be quickly solved, specially when there are so many users to report problems.

<comment><USER6> "Data issues can be quickly solved, specially when there are so many users to report problems."

That depends on the size of the dataset, and the quality of the reports. It's not obvious that this is true in this case.

<comment><USER5> For a maps application, the best report is just the location of the affected user. Any lookup on existing maps for that location will show what the problem is.

<comment> jack-r-abbit > _Any lookup on existing maps..._

Ironically... I see that leading to a spike in hits to maps.google.com coming from Apple's internal IP range. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Possible misleading headline:

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed on Tuesday that his company _has not submitted a mapping app of its own to Apple's App Store_ , though he didn't entirely rule out the idea.

Just because they haven't submitted one, doesn't mean they're not working on a new one.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is a brilliant strategy on Google's part. Wait until enough people are unhappy, make them really miss Google, and then release it. Suddenly, it becomes the number 1 app in the app store and really puts egg on Apple's face.

<comment><USER9> I'm not sure you can call that "strategy" if a prerequisite is that your competitors customers are unhappy. :)

Apple's hubris (and a not inconsiderable amount of hype by the media, no doubt related to some PR misteps by Apple) gift wrapped this for Google. All they need to do is write an app.

<comment><USER10> But why would they do that? If they do release an app, Apple maps will be mostly on par someday, and Google will lose those Google Maps users. If they never release a Google Maps app, that'll make iOS a subpar platform when it comes to maps for some time, and will be an additional incentive for some people to switch to Android.

It could be Google's sweet revenge to the pain that Apple inflicts on the Android ecosystem. Google probably has some patents in that area is well...

<comment><USER9> Maybe, but recognize that that's the kind of hardball that got Apple in trouble here. Maps are just maps. A few people might switch to Android because of it, but not all that many.

The real value here is marketing: "Google has the best maps" is the message the public is getting. And the bit that Apple gift-wrapped is "iPhones have bad maps, use the Google ones".

You can't buy that kind of spin. In the space of a week the public perception on this issue went from "iOS is the best at everything" to "Android has better maps". It's not in Google's interests to rock that boat by picking a fight and making themselves look like the bad guy to existing iOS users.

<comment><USER11> > _Maps are just maps._

Highly disagree. Maps are _not_ just maps. It's one of the core solutions of the platform and I would argue one of the main reasons people buy smartphones over "dumb" phones.

Have you ever listened to someone complain about Blackberry's? For me, that conversation usually starts with "I can't use google maps on my Blackberry".

<comment><USER12> I have a blackberry, had a curve for many years, waiting to see what this year yields in the way of a replacement, but one of things that you can't criticize the blackberry for is maps. Google maps works just fine, showing directions, traffic and all the other good stuff. Even streetview works.

You can criticize the blackberry for its browser, but maps, keyboard, camera are still as good or superior to the competitors. The camera has fewer megapixels, but takes great photos, the keyboard is rock solid and better than any on-screen keyboard, but browsing sucks big time for sure.

<comment><USER11> Interesting. I've never heard this from someone with a Blackberry before. Whenever I ask someone with a Blackberry to give me directions (like when I'm driving for example) they usually just ask me to use my iPhone because it's easier. My understanding is that it largely has to do with the poor scrolling on a Blackberry as compared to the iPhone/Android app.

Either way, point taken.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm disappointed. Ars is usually pretty good about these things but in this case it sounds like a techcrunch'y over-sensationalized headline as a result of over parsing some casual statements from Eric Schmidt. Not having submitted the app to Apple yet, doesn't mean google is not building one at all. It'll be crazy for google to let go of half their local queries from mobile. It's just not going to happen.

</comment><comment><USER14> It could be a good strategy for Google to turn iOS people to Android. Why offer such a good competitive advantage to their competitors for free? If Android has top quality maps and iOS has poor quality maps, it may not sway a lot of people to go with Android, but it will surely sway _some_ people to go with Android.

<comment><USER15> But google's strategy isn't about beating iOS. It's about creating as much engagement a possible on all its web platforms - search,mail, g+, ...

Android's purpose is to create leverage over all the phone manufacturers to provide a funnel into google services. And it's worked brilliantly, since over 50% of smartphones are now funnels into google services. (It's a nice OS too, I'm just describing the strategic reason behind it)

In that vein, you would think google is better served by capturing all the iOS eyeballs too. Google seems to think that way for other apps (mail, google+, etc) , and I think it's in their interest to do an ios maps too.

Maybe there's value for google in creating a little schadenfreude by delaying, but they have to be careful- if they do it too long, iOS users will have found other solutions (3rd party or apple maps will have improved enough).

<comment><USER16> Most iPhones still are funnels into (some) Google services. It's not as pervasive as Android, but Google search is still the default in mobile safari.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Now would be the best time for Google to release a Maps app. While people are still frustrated with Apple's. Apple will eventually (hopefully) improve their maps with time and then people won't care anymore. If Google wants to keep people using Google Maps, now would be a good time to release it.

<comment><USER18> The question is whether the maps war is more important to them than the android/ios war.

Even if they do as you say, the default maps app will eventually win. It's what'll be on the home screen for new iphone users, it's what will boot up when someone clicks an address in any other app (mail, contacts, etc). And Apple will improve it enough that the gap between the two isn't painful enough to bother with Google's maps app.

No, Apple will win the maps war on the iPhone, just as sure as MSFT would've won the browser war on the desktop if the DoJ didn't step in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can't believe the amount of positive reactions to this. Am I the only one who is reading something along the lines "Yeah, they don't want us, and we don't care. We won't do anything in hopes of people switching iOs for Android" in this?

If that's true… they must be naive, at least.

</comment><comment><USER20> We know Google is at least doing a similar stereophotogrammetry technique to dynamically render the world in 3D... they talked about it coming soon to iOS during their presentation in June, "The Next Dimension of Google Maps" (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMBJ2Hu0NLw>). Though upon rewatching, they might have just been talking about Google Earth.

No sign that they were porting over Navigation to iOS.

</comment><comment><USER21> "We think it would have been better if [Apple] had kept ours. But what do I know? What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."

Yes, passive-aggressive douchebaggery was what this situation was missing.

(I'm not saying he's _wrong_ ; we don't know why the Maps contract negotiations broke down. I'm just saying he sounds like a jerk in this quote.)

<comment><USER22> Yes he is a Jerk because he spoke the truth right? Apple can do no wrong even if it sacrifices its own users experience to take a petty fight.

<comment><USER21> No, he's a jerk because of the tone he used. I deliberately tried to avoid taking a position on the issue of whether Apple was right or wrong. :P

<comment><USER23> Maybe Schmidt has more information than you? Just saying...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Why hasn't someone just used the Google Maps API to mock up a quick app and submit it? Would Apple simply reject it?

<comment><USER25> I think because you need an account + API key and the account will be charged if there are more than some threshold request.

<comment><USER26> Could you make the app ask you to supply your own API key? It's very inconvenient but I doubt your individual usage will ever hit their limits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For anyone (else) dissatisfied with iOS6 there is a way to go back. It's more difficult if you're already upgraded to the latest iTunes version, but the process isn't impossible. You download the ipsw file for your hardware, backup the device, then put it in DFU mode, option-click restore, select the ipsw, then restore the backup you just made.

I am going to wait until 6.1 because I've had many other (than maps) problems. My company's wifi seems incompatible with the iOS6, it connects then immediately drops the connection. Reverting to iOS5 restores infinite wifi happiness. The slow, awkward to use app store is also best avoided until apple figure out how to make it faster and work properly. In the past I have been upgrading happily every time, but this time I really wish I'd waited. I haven't found a single useful 6 feature yet.

<comment><USER27> Does this still work today? I tried downgrading and got error 3194, which seems to indicate that Apple is no longer signing 5.1.1 (I hadn't jailbroken/saved shsh blobs yet). Am I SOL?

<comment><USER28> I tried to back up the shsh blob with TinyUmbrella a few days ago and it was already unable to sign anything older than the first 6.0 developer preview, so it's probably too late.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Why am i not seeing anyone talking about a google maps native app violating apple tos? Apple strictly enforces the "no replicatiion of native app functionality" rule, so even if google does submit an app to the app store, will apple accept it?

<comment><USER28> They haven't enforced that rule for a while now. Google Voice and Chrome replicate native functionality and are both in the app store.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Smart move by Google. They'll gladly let Apple embarrass themselves with their maps and then provide much better alternative. There's no point to rush when they can enjoy current Apple map fiasco.

</comment><comment><USER31> Would Apple approve the Google Maps app for sale? Historically haven't they frowned on apps that provided similar functionality to built-in apps?

</comment><comment><USER32> This is a mistake on Google's part. By not filling the void, they are giving Apple time to iron out the problems with their maps. If Google really thinks people are going to switch to Android because of the maps app they are delusional (there will be a few but not in any number that makes a difference).

<comment><USER33> It's only been a few days. If they still haven't released an app in a few months, then yeah, I think that's a mistake too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Is it possible that google forced them to make their own maps solution? I assume apple made the first move, but given the size of the pissing match between the two of them, I could see google withdrawing map access in order to harm iOS.

<comment><USER35> The article states that was not the case. It's still possible of course, but we have no idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> If Apple wants Google Maps in the app store, they could make it a condition in their next round of default search engine negotiations. Apple has all the leverage.

<comment><USER15> Good point, but apple doesn't have many alternatives in the search box. What are they going to do, switch to BING???

<comment><USER36> Don't see why not. Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China would be easy switches.

If you removed branding from the search engine results, I wonder how many users would notice or care that Apple switched to Bing. The quality difference is small: [http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/08/which-search-engine-do- you-...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/08/which-search-engine-do-you-choose- in-the-blind-test/)

If there weren't realistic alternatives, Google wouldn't pay Apple ~$1B per year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> already posted 50 million times, here's an example: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4569114>

</comment><comment><USER38> _Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful._

*as long as you use Android

<comment><USER39> maps.google.com ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> So where is Bing?

<comment><USER41> In all seriousness, I've been using that for public transit myself.</comment></comment>


Augmented Reality Photo Walls - <AUTHOR> https://www.picturethat.io/ <comment><USER2> It sometimes amazes me how relevant and near term black mirror was/is. I think it was season 1, episode 3: "the entire history of you".

</comment><comment><USER3> Photos in AR, neat!

</comment><comment><USER4> Very useful app ! And so easy to use !

</comment><comment><USER5> Great app. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER6> great idea!</comment>


Twitter aims to limit people sharing articles they have not read - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/11/twitter-aims-to-limit-people-sharing-articles-they-have-not-read <comment><USER2> They should just do it like NRKbeta did in Norway[1], quiz them about one detail from article that isn't reflected in the title.

[1] [https://nrkbeta.no/2017/08/10/with-a-quiz-to-comment- readers...](https://nrkbeta.no/2017/08/10/with-a-quiz-to-comment-readers-test- their-article-comprehension/)</comment>


An interesting take on the difference between UI and UX - <AUTHOR> http://www.helloerik.com/ux-is-not-ui

<comment><USER2> Never thought I'd see the day I got something posted on HackerNews that I didn't post myself.

Definitely a high point in my life.</comment>


Mosh - <AUTHOR> https://mosh.org <comment><USER2> Unfortunately Mosh doesn't support native scrollback. The alternative is Eternal Terminal [1]

[1] [https://mistertea.github.io/EternalTerminal/](https://mistertea.github.io/EternalTerminal/)

<comment><USER3> Another alternative is use of GNU screen or tmux inside the mosh session.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder whether the State Synchronization Protocol has been documented, yet.

* [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11612615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11612615)

</comment><comment><USER5> what a coincidence i was just looking for this and my "brain index" could only retrieve mitmproxy

</comment><comment><USER6> How did you get the domain name? Care to share the story?

</comment><comment><USER7> Just use tmux, it might not get faster than mosh, but it never fails.

<comment><USER8> Tmux and mosh do entirely different things. In fact, I'd recommend you use them both together...

<comment><USER7> Why the down vote? I have tried it many times and I'm posting as a unsatisfied mosh user. When it works, it does very beautifully. but folks have VPN and weird routers at work that just don't interact well with UDP. So sticking with SSH and tmux is way more reliable for me.

<comment><USER3> ssh is comparable to mosh; not tmux. Your comment mistakenly suggested that tmux replace mosh, whereas you actually meant to suggest using ssh to replace mosh (and tmux for saving state when ssh inevitably loses connection, which mosh handles more gracefully).

It also did not justify or qualify the statement. So the non-sequitur in combination with an absolutism is probably why you saw downvotes.

Here's a better way to express what I think you meant:

"In UDP-hostile networks, mosh isn't suitable. For these situations, classic TCP ssh works well. To handle disconnects without losing your work, you can use GNU screen or tmux."</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple granted monopoly rights to gesture recognition on multitouch displays - <AUTHOR> http://cnet.co/j5bw6q

<comment><USER2> Unless you can find some prior art they deserve the patent. I worked doing touch screen kiosks back in the day and things hadn't changed much over the course of twenty years. In fact the only folks who really played with the medium was Microsoft and I'm not sure if they added anything the way Apple did. Besides if you're looking for place to innovate light pens are well overdue to be reinvented.</comment>


Aquameta Layer 0: Meta – Writable System Catalog for PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> http://blog.aquameta.com/2015/08/29/intro-meta/

<comment><USER2> I understand the intention was to create a DML interface for DDL, but I dont really understand why. I guess batch DDL operations are a little easier with meta, but it seems like a lot of work for relatively little gain. There is also the issue that expensive DDL operations (e.g. ALTER TABLE) are hidden behind a DML interface potentially making it easier to shoot yourself in the foot.

Were there problems higher up in the web stack that required the functionality meta provides?

<comment><AUTHOR> For Aquameta's purposes, we're trying to make it easier for people to build visual interfaces that do programming. Higher up in the stack is a PostgreSQL admin GUI. Without meta, the backend of this interface would be the DDL grammar, so when the user took GUI actions, they would be converted to CREATE statements etc under the hood using string concatenation and other dreadfulness. With meta, we can instead just build against meta's data model, so that building this GUI just as simple as any traditional web data manip interface. It seems more elegant and simple.

It _is_ a lot easier to shoot yourself in the foot. You can do very destructive operations through meta. It's more powerful for doing useful things too. Just be careful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> As interesting as this is, I can see _why_ original SQL "designers" didn't go down this route and instead have a separate DDL.

SQL and particularly postgres' documentation go to great lengths to be very specific about what micro-behaviour you should expect when performing SELECTs, INSERTs, UPDATEs and DELETEs (Of major note the concurrency behaviour). Once you start operating on the schema all of these promises will go out the window.

So these "queries" would _mostly_ behave as you'd expect, but not _totally_.

At best you'd have to fill the documentation with "oh except if you're operating on the schema..."s. At worst it could be horribly confusing to users.

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice blog and content, but for god's sake don't mess with the scrollbar / scrolling speed!

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am also writing a microservices api inside postgres, is WIP. http request is captured and sent as a json. postgres does api authentication, building json response, request/response logging.

for development purposes using sinatra(ruby) and gin(golang) for http processing.

will check aquameta on monday

<comment><USER6> Dude, have you seen Postgrest? [https://github.com/begriffs/postgrest](https://github.com/begriffs/postgrest)

<comment><USER5> I have seen it

trying to more things from web stack inside the database, 80% of functionality in DB and 20% in web server and programming language.

I have completed these via plpgsql * api authentication * parse json request * generate son response * request / response logging * audit trail

WIP * routes * before, after filters * rate limiting * app configuration

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This looks interesting for highly customizable apps like CRMs and others where you might find an "add custom fields" feature.</comment>


Microsoft stealth launches 'historic' programming language: F# - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/19/microsoft_f_sharp/

<comment><USER2> _[F#] is the first time we've seen integration of a functional programming language with an industrial-strength framework and toolset_

I think this requires very specific definitions of all his terms. It would be easy to argue that Lisp machines met this definition, and that's just the first example that came to mind.

<comment><USER3> "first time _we've_ seen"

Maybe they haven't been looking around - _cough_ Clojure _cough_

<comment><USER4> Parent mentioned Lisp Machines. They had a full IDE (well before the acronym) based on a functional language.

They predate F# by a couple decades.

<comment><USER5> Well, really multi-paradigm. Using it functionally was certainly an option, but there was also progn, loop, etc. the imperative types.

<comment><USER6> F#, like OCaml, is also multi-paradigm. Maybe not as much as Common Lisp, but it does have language-level support for OOP and imperative programming. It's not a purely functional language like Haskell.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not sure how stealth this is, I've been hearing about F# for years. I'm glad they are finally releasing it.

<comment><USER8> Not only have you been hearing about it for years; it's also been released for years: F# 1.0 came out in 2006! The only difference here is that with the release of F# 2.0, it's now shipped by the Microsoft "product" teams instead of "research" teams: it's included in Visual Studio 2010 available in boxes on shelves, whereas previously it was available for download.

<comment><USER9> Which is actually a pretty big deal because it means the integration into VS will be greatly improved. I've not tried the VS 2010 F#, but the plugin version was pretty clunky within the IDE.

<comment><USER10> It's a big deal because now you can just go ahead and use it and no manager can complain that it's not an official language. Hackers sometimes forget how conservative the mainstream IT industry can be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Very stable and fast implementation. Just finished porting a Scala project and the F# code runs around 50% faster on CLR 4.0 compared to Scala on JRockit JVM.

</comment><comment><USER12> Daniel B Markham wrote his Quote Feed project in F#.

</comment><comment><USER13> Anybody using F# for web apps? Thoughts? Comparisons?

<comment><USER14> I've been thinking of this for a while. Although there is fswebtools that shares the same spirit as GWT <http://tomasp.net/blog/fswebtools-intro.aspx>, it's not as polished. IMHO, F# for the backend to provide web service, jQuery for the frontend, and with JSON as the intermediate protocol may be a good combo.

<comment><USER15> Intellifactory makes a commercial product for exactly this: <http://www.intellifactory.com/>

Write it all in F#, including using async workflows for seamless server-side calls, and have it compile down to JS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> They did make a good point: F#'s marketing is severely limited. It seems that Microsoft doesn't want to be in the position of saying "hey, here's a language that does everything C# does, plus a ton of extra great things, and the only drawback is the tool support".

</comment><comment><USER16> Good to see an Aussie programming language out there. I hear the GC runs anti- clockwise...

<comment><USER17> Not only, but the JIT has a habit of chucking a sickie.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This article is wrong or incorrect at so many levels , i wonder why did it even get submitted and get as high as it is.

</comment><comment><USER19> Microsoft bought a lot of goodwill from me when they productionized F#. Finally, functional programming that anyone will be allowed to use!

Then I found out that they want you to pay them $80 to change the desktop background in Windows 7 Starter.

So now I have forgotten about F#, and recommend Haskell instead. OCaml and Scala are also fine. Fuck Microsoft, they'll never change.</comment>


Blockstream Satellite 2.0 - <AUTHOR> https://blockstream.com/2020/05/04/en-announcing-blockstream-satellite-2/ <comment><USER2> What's the purpose of this and why do I need it? More importantly, how does the company behind this make money?

<comment><USER3> From the product overview page ([https://blockstream.com/satellite/](https://blockstream.com/satellite/)):

"The Blockstream Satellite network broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain around the world 24/7 for free, protecting against network interruptions and providing anyone in the world with the opportunity to use Bitcoin."

Jesus...

<comment><USER2> Yes, I can see that in the product page but I'm still confused. You can get a decent internet connection just about anywhere in the world, I don't see why anyone would need these besides edge cases like maybe a person living in Antartica.

Besides, Bitcoin is not used much anywhere besides for a few fanatics and perhaps gamblers on those casinos like Bitmex. (Bitcoin's volatility is too high to be used in any serious commerce).

The main takeaway is that the market for this product is very small, even though technically the project is quite cool. Perhaps the ulterior motive of this project is to be the "fairy floss" to score some karma points with?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: young people  - <AUTHOR>

Is it me or people at 24 years old and younger not interested in start ups? <comment><USER2> What precisely do you mean by "interested"? As in, interested in the culture (news and blog posts and so forth)? Interested in working at one? Founding one?

Your observation is, of course, incredibly anecdotal and depends on myriad factors. For instance, if you are going to a college outside of a major startup hub but near a big tech sector (such as NC or Atlanta) you'll find people aren't necessarily as interested in startups because of their lack of presence and the security of knowing there's a blue chip job awaiting them. Meanwhile if you find yourself in the Valley, there's certainly plenty of young people who are interested in startups, whether working at one or founding their own.

For what it is worth, I go to school near NYC and lots of my peers are interested in startups to the point where my small-ish school is considering entrepreneurship tutorials and hosting tech fairs that are focused on small businesses and startups.

Personally, I just turned 22 and am interning for a startup right now and am looking to work for one in the city when I graduate in May.

</comment><comment><USER3> In my opinion young people tend to chase what they perceive to be prestigious, or evidence of their value in a field. In respect to the technology field I find this tends to manifest it's self in one of two ways, ether aiming for a major company such as the Googles or Facebooks of the world, or they aim to be a cofounder.

So if you mean do young people have an interest in starting a start up then I know there are a lot all over. But if you mean are they interested in going to a start up that they may not have heard of, but don't feel part of the founding group then I think that they are scarse.

As a 19 year old who is currently studying Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, I would say that most of my peers fall into ether trying to work at a tach giant, or learning what they can at different start ups with the end goal of eventually starting their own.

This is just my opinion and is clearly anecdotal but from my experience i think this is fairly accurate.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think the possibility to "change the world" and make something useful out of your life (and even make some money out of it) appeals to a lot of young people.

It's important to remember that most startups founders/employees have a tech background. I don't think the startup model is being well evangelized in other domains of knowledge. We are now seeing an increasingly number of Designers/Marketers adopting the "culture". But these professions are deeply connected with technology also.

Most of my friends with non-tech background don't even know what a startup is, although things seems to be changing.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think it's more an initial aversion to a lot of risk and lack of direction, as opposed to a lack of interest in startups or small companies. At my previous startup and at my current company, we have a lot of 24-29+ year olds (as opposed to 18-23 year olds) joining us. Upon graduation, they likely have some student debt, often don't know what direction to take at 21 or 22 and end up working at a large tech company or for a bank, etc. for a few years (who offers them grandiose promises of big paychecks and stability) before they take the plunge and join a startup.

<comment><USER6> I'm 21, and have been working on "startups?" since I was 14. While I have pretty successful with my past ventures, I'm still in college and intend to finish getting my degree (last semester). While I could easily drop out, move to SV, and see what happens I think it all comes down to ones personal risk aversion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am 22 but I've been into startups for a few years. I have launched some websites and all, but I think at this age, it is better to have a secure job which will provide you money.

</comment><comment><USER8> I am 22 and I am really really interested in startups. I know have a good job and don't feel like chaining it but if I would I would go for a startup.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I ask friends and family around my age (23) and their like yea will do it...but it seems like they all loose focus cuz if school or their job.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm 23 and I've been interested in startups for years. The hard part is knowing what possibilities are out there when you are younger.

</comment><comment><USER10> 17 year old here. Heard the term "startup" when I sold my first website at 14 and have been shipping products ever since.

</comment><comment><USER11> I am 15 and startups are one of the things i want to do in future.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm also 23 and working on startups since I was 21.</comment>


Show HN: My tool to divide up tasks so everyone does less work - <AUTHOR> http://fairandsquare.ie/app/chore/

<comment><AUTHOR> I have to put in documentation and a good explanation. But I just wanted to see if any managers thought the tool might be useful.

The problem it is trying to solve is to minimise the amount of work people think they are doing by allocating jobs to people who want them most.

All the jobs would be 100% of the work. Each employee puts in what % of the total each job would be for them. The system optimizes so that each employee has the same perceived effort and that perceived effort is minimized. There are some obvious UX fixes that need to be made but I would be interested to hear what you think of the problem/solution idea?

</comment><comment><USER2> It's tough to see what this is about at all, and yes, you need to have more to say what it does.

I found this:

        A computer aided asset division process
        for legal professionals

I'm out ...

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair point. I will write up a proper description.

The main site is about dividing up goods. Lawyers do it and might pay for it.

This app is about dividing up bads (tasks). It was meant to be a toy but something about the problem is sticking in my craw as something more serious.</comment></comment>


When Analogies Fail - <AUTHOR> http://www.chronicle.com/article/When-Analogies-Fail/237716 <comment><USER2> This article is a bit like a graduate student's deconstruction of the feminist themes in Breaking Bad. At first glace it sounds tedious and misguided, but the more you dig into it the more you realize the author is just desperate to please his department heads so that he can get his degree and find employment at another institution where he can finally force other people to pull their hair out trying to invent new and unique forms of utter bullshit to please his whims.

</comment><comment><USER3> The distinction between analogies-as-tools of understanding vs. analogies-as- entertainment is fascinating, and not something that I'd ever consciously thought about before. However, I have certainly seen the separation between the "aha" moment of being able to perceive a system in terms of another I am more familiar with vs. complaining about a codebase by comparing it to sitting with a bony ass on a hard bench.

It also reminded me of another recent hacker news submission [0] that talked about the importance of spacial intelligence in predicting which children will be math prodigies. I think being able to create physical metaphors for abstract concepts, whether consciously or unconsciously, makes total sense as an indicator of intelligence because we have existed in a physical world for far longer than we've been thinking abstract thoughts. Our brains are hard- wired for these sorts of analogies because understanding physical space intuitively was crucial for survival.

The pop culture type of analogy which the author was less fond of are enjoyable not of the epiphanic nature of deep insight, but for the buzz of novelty. It becomes easy to lock into a mental groove when thinking about politics or airplanes or dating or whatever, and the comedy comes from exposing a superficially logical connection to something on an entirely different track.

I do think there's a spectrum, though. Really good comedians can both enlighten /and/ entertain.

[0] [http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons- fro...](http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons- from-a-45-year-study-of-super-smart-children-1.20537)

</comment><comment><USER4> This is simply a criticism of audiences for wanting to be entertained rather than enlightened. The author claims that the internet is the cause.

The downvote puzzles me. Do you not think this is a fair summary of the article?

<comment><USER5> It seems relevant for HN because, it's like the overused "Hollywood movie meets Blockbuster movie" trope for an elevator pitch... and that format gets used for start-ups as well!

Although the person listening thinks they understand, mostly they have just inserted their own popular misunderstanding of the two movies/markets/businesses into the description.

(sorry for using a simile)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> An analogy is like comparing two things that are alike in some way, when it is clear they are not alike in other ways.

<comment><USER7> It's also always funny when someone tries to defeat your argument by continuing your analogy to its weak point. Analogy cannot fail, it is just a shortcut for a quicker discussion.</comment></comment>


How to Be Intoxicated - <AUTHOR> http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Be-Intoxicated/150239/ <comment><USER2> This article, in my opinion, makes an incredibly important point. And yet, does it in an incredibly boring manner. I'm not sure if its purpose is supposed to be a literary analysis, or a point about american social values and the taboo placed on drinking. If it's the latter, though; the literary analysis is a distraction.

That said, I do agree with the sentiment—teaching responsibility would be much more effective than abstinence.

<comment><USER3> > incredibly boring manner. I'm not sure if its purpose

I very much miss the style of writing in which the entire point is given in the first paragraph. The remaining paragraphs then expose the story. I was taught that way and it makes it easier to understand what to pay attention to.

Writing in this style has come into vogue. It begins like NPR stories, with no foreshadowing, just a large number of mysterious statements like, "It's 3 am. I'm hearing tinkling sounds. John Wayne had several unusual hobbies. 80s arcade games had references to screen doors." Then, they pile on details until eventually, you hope, a point emerges.

I have no idea what parts are relevant and which parts are merely building suspense!

<comment><USER4> I recently went on a "business writing course" and about the only thing I can remember was endless repetition of the expression: _" Tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them"_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This kind of distinctly academic writing is bewildering and nauseating. I felt that the author turns phrases just to hear how they sound, not because he believes what he is saying. Maybe spending the majority of his adult life in the confines of the college system instinctively makes him pander to what he believes the Chronicle wants to hear, as if this is one more test and by adding overbearing Greek allusions he just might make the grade.

<comment><USER6> Some people (like me) actually prefer this style of writing. I find the factors that you find nauseating to be stimulating. I get bored too easily reading common prose. So, when I find something like this (or others on the chronicle) it energizes me. I need something like this, occasionally.

So, while I'll agree that this article isn't the best-written one I've read, I do like its style. But, since yours is currently the top-most comment, I'll assume that I'm in the minority. And, that's ok.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Somewhere, buried deep inside this overwrought and pretentious article, is a much better and more insightful story. That story is probably _The Bacchae_ by Euripides.

<comment><USER8> "overwrought and pretentious?" I felt jealous for the deep insights and the ability to communicate them so clearly. This was beautiful thinking and beautiful writing.

Perhaps Euripides is an even better thinker and writer. But I wouldn't have known it without the author's explanation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> "I suppose it is much more comfortable to be mad and not know it than to be sane and have one's doubts."

      --  G. B. Burgin

Not sure how it relates but I thought of this quote.

<comment><USER9> Oops, it's supposed to read "it is much more comfortable to be mad and know it than to be sane and have one's doubts."

That's how I remembered the quote, copy-pasted from the wrong source.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> For comparison with this article (which refers to the US), The Economist has several interesting articles about drinking in Britain. Here's one: [http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21569025-britains- drin...](http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21569025-britains-drinking- culture-deeply-unhealthy-so-politics-drink-their-cup-runneth-over)

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm intoxicating myself every day, starting when I take my first sip of coffee :)

<comment><USER12> Very true, indeed. I wonder if that's the only drug where people are okay with (and often subtly praise) dependence.

<comment><USER13> "praise dependence"? How?

I'd say it's basically impossible to praise the dependence itself, unless you enjoy your withdrawal symptoms. Which is possible, but not very popular.

<comment><USER14> Don't you know anyone who loves to proclaim "I can't start my day without a cup of coffee!"? To me that is praising dependence.

<comment><USER15> Yes, in practice it tends to be a humble-brag when someone mentions their dependence on coffee.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've never seen the point of taking drugs, so never have. Reality is much too interesting to avoid it.

<comment><USER17> > Reality is much too interesting to avoid it.

Some people do not take drugs to avoid reality. They take them to explore it. What one has to realize is that the experience we call "reality" is only a subjective image created by our minds. There is a chain of filters applied to everythings our sensors (eyes, ears, skin and so on) register. Drugs are able to influence those filters. Hence one might be able to see "reality" from a different point of view.

<comment><USER18> Agreed. When in my 20's I had a huge epiphany while having a high fever. The fever had changed my brain in some way that allowed me to see something about my life that I hadn't seen before. After the fever was gone, the thoughts remained and it was still obvious that it was true, so it wasn't just delirium and crazy thoughts produced by it.

<comment><USER16> What was your epiphany?

<comment><USER18> Sorry, but it was of a personal nature so it's not something I want to share.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can only assume that this article is much better after having read The Bacchae. Because I thought it sucked without. I couldn't really fish out the point, and the synopses and quotes were confusing and jumbled.

Maybe someone can shed some light on it for me.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'd suggest [http://www.patientslikeme.com/treatments/show/19781-hepamerz...](http://www.patientslikeme.com/treatments/show/19781-hepamerz- side-effects-and-efficacy#overview)</comment>


Creating a Faster Jekyll - <AUTHOR> https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2018/creating-a-faster-jekyll/ <comment><USER2> Wouldn't switching to Hugo (or another of the thousand alternatives) be easier?

<comment><USER3> (I'm not the OP, but I had a similar experience.)

At one point I tried switching to Hugo. I ended up moving back because I liked Liquid more than Go templates, and I liked the Jekyll plugins and ecosystem.*

Later I became frustrated with some complicated Jekyll sites that took 20 seconds to generate, so I ported Liquid, Jekyll, and some of the plugins, to Go.† This ran about twenty times faster.††

So that's kind of an apples-to-apples performance comparison between Jekyll (in Ruby) and Jekyll-like (in Go).

These days all my sites are simple, and I think Jekyll may have gotten faster too, so I've moved back to the Ruby implementation.

\---

* YMMV. Many people are very happy with Hugo. Moving back to Jekyll was just my personal journey, not something I can defend with facts or figures.

† To be honest, at least as important was that I was looking for a Go learning project.

†† Presumably because (1) Go is a compiled language, and (2) goroutines.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is there anything here you can upstream so more users can reap the benefits?

<comment><AUTHOR> The Jekyll code base would need major refactoring to allow for the lazy evaluation when using `serve` (and it would break some plugins) and likewise for the parallel builds because this is done with `fork` (as Ruby doesn't have proper concurrency with threads due to the global interpreter lock).

So rather than try to refactor Jekyll, it would probably be a better strategy to use my re-implementation as the basis for a Jekyll 4.0, I'd say it's 95% feature compatible with Jekyll and only about 2,500 lines of code.

While writing it, I did want to reach out to the Jekyll maintainers to talk about this option, but it wasn't clear to me how to actually get in touch with them (e.g. no jekyll-dev mailing list that I could find), and I didn't want to open an issue about this.

<comment><USER5> The Jekyll team is listed here: [https://jekyllrb.com/team/](https://jekyllrb.com/team/) I'd contact the project lead.

<comment><AUTHOR> The project lead seems to be about ensuring the community thrives and #2 on that list is about documentation.

As alluded to in my grandparent, what I was looking for was a venue to submit my open-ended thoughts about how to transition Jekyll to parallel builds and lazy evaluation, which would spark a longer discussion about the feasibility of this (e.g. how will it affect existing plugins, would it be OK for some of them to break in 4.0, at least those relying on undocumented API, etc.).

Many open source projects have a mailing list only about development which is great for discussing such things, and that is what I was looking for, as sending an unsolicited email to the project lead (who is tasked with ensuring the community thrives) is just not the same thing as starting a discussion on a development mailing list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This might come a little Off-Topic but I really like the idea of having a decent native macOS editor. Textmate gets so many things right when it comes to ease of use and making the developers life a bit easier. Currently neither Sublime, Atom or VSCode are really native (at least when it comes to UI looking at you sublime).

What many people, myself included, are missing is some code intelligence. Textmate might simply enable lots of language smartness by implementing the Language Server Spec [https://langserver.org](https://langserver.org)

So all of a sudden Textmate could offer autocompletion, refactoring, go to definition for many languages with minimal effort. The language servers are there the editor author only needs to implement the spec one time and it can work for so many languages.

What do you think about it?

</comment><comment><USER6> Great to see things moving forward in the Textmate domain. I'm currently also planning to setup my site in Jekyll or Hugo or something. Apparently I want a blog with static site features.

Allan, your changes sound awesome but I srsly hope that it can get upstreamed to Jekyll in some way so the community won't get divided by creating a popular second fork. The most valuable asset when it comes to Open Source software is imho the community around it.

I'd create a pull request and get discussion started this way.

</comment><comment><USER7> Gatsbyjs is built on reactjs and has a massive amount of performance tuning being done.

[https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/pull/6226/](https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/pull/6226/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Wait, there hasn't been an update on Textmate in 4 yrs. And you're working on Jekyll?

<comment><USER9> TextMate is on GitHub and it looks like the most recent release was over the summer: [https://github.com/textmate/textmate/releases](https://github.com/textmate/textmate/releases)</comment></comment>


Cool iPhone 6 concept - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT0xy_Jai0

<comment><AUTHOR> Note: If it's plausible is obviously a second...

</comment><comment><USER2> A mobile device that's meant to be used ONLY in one VERY specific way that is in no way mobile friendly at all.

Masterbation. Fun but pretty useless.</comment>


Statement on Cancellation of Election Security Briefings - <AUTHOR> https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/82920 <comment><USER2> I'm not an American, but if I was, I think I'd have my pitchfork ready!</comment>


Why we're writing machine learning infrastructure in Go, not Python - <AUTHOR> https://towardsdatascience.com/why-were-writing-machine-learning-infrastructure-in-go-not-python-38d6a37e2d76 <comment><USER2> Sounds like fairly generic deployment infrastructure that has nothing to do with machine learning.

But why pass up the opportunity to use a buzzword to get on the front page of HN?

<comment><USER3> I blame us for upvoting them

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the real lesson here is to choose the language that works best for your team.

On my team we use Python and Scala. For network critical I/O stuff in Python, asyncio has worked out just fine for our needs. For massive CPU parallelism needs (at least in sporadic bursts), we've actually found that AWS/Lambda does pretty well.

Golang seems to be really polarizing. Most engineers on my team have tried Golang in the past, but haven't liked it, which is why we would never consider building anything on top of it. Everyone likes Python well-enough that it has kind of become the lingua franca for us.

Deployment is all based around containers or serverless/lambda, and we have a pretty standardized way of deploying these things by now. Just because a bunch of k8s tooling is written in Golang doesn't mean I need to rush out and write my stuff in Golang too.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm a bit green on infrastructure & deployment but I don't quite get this. If your ML algorithm code is still Python how does deployment with Go make that much difference? It sounds like you're not replacing the Python ML code so why is this such a big deal?

<comment><USER6> I don't think people who work in infrastructure currently will be surprised that Go is a better choice than Python for infra, but for those who are newer to the field of ML or only work on model development (vs deployment), it is likely surprising that a major part of production ML is best done in a language other than Python.

<comment><USER7> I don't buy this comment at all.

I've worked with hundreds of Data Scientists, many new to the industry and they all know that R and Scala are important and popular languages for ML.

Majority of Data Engineering today is using Spark, which is written in Scala and even when you write Python code using it you can't escape Java/Scala internals being exposed.

<comment><USER8> Is Scala really that prevalent? R & Python for sure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think, like TFA says, it comes down to ease of deployment for support tooling. A single executable is easier to distribute than a set of dependencies and a language runtime. These are tools that run outside containers to manage code that can run inside containers, where dependency management and isolation are easier. It makes total sense to me.

</comment><comment><USER10> I would do it in python using one of the fast, modern ASGI servers like uvicorn.

Zero downtime model updates can be done using a redis cache to persist models.

In any case, that's a solved problem using haproxy and kubernetes.

Not sure why go has these advantages

<comment><USER11> If you do model inference in web server process it will be compute bound and lock up the web server, is there a preferred/clean way to req/rec or similar pass the jobs to second process and allow web server process to non-blocking wait for response?

<comment><USER12> Yes, use a dedicated job server/process like Celery.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I would've chosen Erlang or Elixir for those reasons. Are we getting another Go package management solution this year? A pleasure to work with? I've been ditching Go for Nim recently. Other people seem to be enjoying Crystal. Rust is great, and coming down the road Zig looks excellent. I think Go has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Considering, unlike the other languages, it has Google behind it - unimpressed. After six years, I don't expect to be using it at all within the next year or two.

</comment><comment><USER14> Great, another one of these articles, but this time I feel more confident in my usual reply, having been working in Go exclusively for a while.

> Implementing all of this functionality in Python may be doable with recent > tools like asyncio, but the fact that Go is designed with this use case in > mind makes our lives much easier.

This just makes me think about Armin Ronacher's article on back pressure but, sure, whatever.

> Building a cross-platform CLI is easier in Go

No, it isn't.

> The performance benefits of a compiled Go binary versus an interpreted > language are also significant

Ah, yes, because performance is such a key feature of command line interfaces, as evidenced by bash and its _outstanding_ performance in every benchmark.

> The Go ecosystem is great for infrastructure projects

And the reality discussed in this point would be different if docker wasn't written in Go. Had the docker developers chose _anything else_ , this point would apply to that hypothetical language, so it isn't an inherent advantage of Go as a language.

> Go is just a pleasure to work with

No, it really, _really_ isn't, but that's not the point.

This is ultimately the real reason they chose go: whoever made the original decision liked it and everything else is post-hoc rationalization.

Which is fine, most of this tends to be subjective.

</comment><comment><USER15> All the stuff that requires speed is written in a language that compiles directly to machine code while the machine learning libraries are all python based. That seems standard, no?

<comment><USER16> I think that happens, but I don't know about standard. It is pretty obvious and natural. However, a lot of code is written in Python and it can be hard to move ML teams to use other tools. Many of them aren't great at programming because their background is stats/math so it can be hard to move critical code to more performant solutions without resistance from the teams.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"

Golang is probably a step up from Python, but it's just that. There are a lot of issues with Golang. From the top of my head, lack of decent error handling (if err !=nil { return nil,err} ) or lack of decent polymorphism are the most annoying. There's a github repo dedicated to what's bugging people:

      https://github.com/ksimka/go-is-not-good

<comment><USER18> Well... there's also other side of the coin. There's value in visibility and lack of magic.

> lack of decent error handling (if err !=nil { return nil,err} )

Errors are in your face, instead of having exceptions performing invisible gotos to somewhere far up in call tree. Implicit error handling is more code, but your error handling is going to be much more robust.

> or lack of decent polymorphism...

Lack of polymorphism also means you don't have to guess about concrete types when reading code. When troubleshooting, you can see what's going on without going through whole inheritance tree.

Go encourages composition instead of inheritance. That's something I wish more C++ codebases would do as well. Composition makes code inherently more maintainable and easier to refactor.

Go tends to be easy to read and maintain. It does come with some cost. It's just a matter where your priorities lie. Software projects spend majority of their life as legacy, something that needs to be maintained.

<comment><USER19> >Composition makes code inherently more maintainable and easier to refactor.

My understanding of composition comes from interfaces in C#. In my experience composition is actually more difficult to code and refactor, because it leads to bloat from repeated code as you cannot simply inherit. Refactoring then can become tedious as you may need to manually edit every repeated code block. Whereas with inheritance I define a function once and override it where necessary.

Am I misunderstanding something?

<comment><USER18> Composition tends to lead to more code reuse. And to more code that's still usable in unpredictable future.

Over time your whole inheritance model often turns out to be no longer viable, when the basic assumptions made years ago are no longer valid.

Worse, because of all of the accumulated cruft, you might not even be able to change the shape of the monster.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Why not Swift? (I think I know the answer).

Concurrency in Swift is not yet a solved problem, but libdispatch is quite workable (although not "elegant, out of the box" per the article).

With the work being done in Swift for TensorFlow [0], I'd imagine in a year or two both the infrastructure and the ML portions of a product like Cortex could be written in a single language.

[0] - [https://www.tensorflow.org/swift](https://www.tensorflow.org/swift)

<comment><AUTHOR> Swift is an interesting choice, one we haven't explored in depth. Out of curiosity, have you done any work with Swift for Tensorflow/what has your experience been?

<comment><USER21> Not him but the company I work for has moved most of our ML pipelines away from Python and over to Swift. We started the move after Google announced support for Swift for TF. Before the move over to Swift, we were rewriting a lot of the data paths in C++ but were generally unhappy with the state of TF for C++ libraries. The move to Swift hasn't been without hiccups, however, but the community has been extremely helpful and it was worth it overall. State of Swift for TF libraries today is quite good.

We looked at Go early on but quickly dismissed it because with the move from Python to Go, it didn't seem like we were getting enough benefits to warrant the amount of work that would be required.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not reading carefully the title might make one think that you are doing ML with Go which by the content of the article you are obviously not. This is almost click-bait.

</comment><comment><USER23> > Making all of these overlapping API calls in a performative, reliable way is > a challenge.

Pythons asyncio is pretty hard to beat. For non-cpu intensive tasks, I find it a pleasure to work with. Goroutines can still have race conditions.

> Originally, we wrote the CLI in Python, but trying to distribute it across > platforms proved to be too difficult

Sure, I get that go can cross-compile. But what makes python hard? Python works on every platform, and distributing is just a "pip install" and "pip install -u" Surely thats easier than "Download the correct binary for the platform, unzip it, change permissions, add it to your path, then do it all over again for every update"

I was the original author of the awseb cli and we found that pip install was significantly less of a hurdle than a go binary and decided to do it in Python instead. If a user on windows has a hard time installing python and pip, telling them to drop a binary and change their path isnt going to be any easier.

<comment><USER24> > Python works on every platform, and distributing is just a "pip install" and > "pip install -u"

Until you have a dependency which has a C dependency (like a crypto framework, SQL connector, etc). Suddenly you need an entire compiler toolchain, dev dependencies, all the library headers, and a decent amount of time. Also the errors thrown when these compile steps fail are anything but helpful for new users. If you are lucky there is already a wheel for your platform/arch.

> Surely thats easier than "Download the correct binary for the platform, > unzip it, change permissions, add it to your path, then do it all over again > for every update"

This is trivial to automate using a script and has a ton less failure modes to deal with than Pip would have (do you have the correct Python version?, is there a compiler installed for C modules?, etc).

<comment><USER25> > Until you have a dependency which has a C dependency (like a crypto > framework, SQL connector, etc).

but... that's not a python problem.

every time people say they are having a hard time installing a python module, it's almost always a non-pure python module. it has an extension in c or c++. if that tells us anything, it's that mixing c and c++ makes software hard to install...

a fairer comparison with go here is with a go package that has extensions or bindings written in another language.

<comment><USER26> Sure, but the most popular Python connectors for MySQL and PostgreSQL both utilize C or C++ extensions, whereas the equivalent connectors for Go are both written in pure Go. Even if it's not a problem with the language in its purest form, it is a problem with the ecosystem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Anything is faster than CPython. Even PHP!</comment>


How Tumblr Can Save Yahoo - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/thoughts-on-media/how-tumblr-can-save-yahoo-cfd0dfd142fe#.agr31baa7 <comment><USER2> Anybody who wants to think about "saving" Yahoo must read PG's essay on Yahoo: [http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html) It's a bit dated but relevant.

2 steps _must_ be taken first before you can talk about "saving" Yahoo:

1\. Get rid of 2/3 of the managers

2\. Make engineers the "top dogs" in the company.

<comment><USER3> That PG essay is the bomb. Can't imagine a world where Microsoft inspired that much fear : )

<comment><USER4>
      > Can't imagine a world where Microsoft inspired that much fear :)

First it's not funny. Many companies including Netscape, Google (and at the moment PaaS companies) have/had the fear that Microsoft will crush them. You are either too young, or an employee of MS, otherwise nothing funny about. Maybe you should read pg's essay:

      "Another big factor was the fear of Microsoft. If anyone
      at Yahoo considered the idea that they should be a
      technology company, the next thought would have been
      that Microsoft would crush them.

      It's hard for anyone much younger than me to understand
      the fear Microsoft still inspired in 1995. Imagine a
      company with several times the power Google has now, but
      way meaner. It was perfectly reasonable to be afraid of
      them. Yahoo watched them crush the first hot Internet
      company, Netscape. It was reasonable to worry that if
      they tried to be the next Netscape, they'd suffer the
      same fate. How were they to know that Netscape would
      turn out to be Microsoft's last victim?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The way to save Yahoo is for Yahoo to kill Yahoo.

Tumblr is in New York. Away from Sunnyvale. Yahoo could build a new Yahoo there that was comprised of small teams, making new products, shipping on a regular cadence, shielded from the mothership.

When the original Macintosh was created, the team was in a new building away from the Apple II team. Yahoo needs to find its own pirate flag to fly.

<comment><USER6> When I worked at yahoo I suggested this idea. Take yahoo as we know it today, silo it off and give it just enough resources to keep it alive. Then with the massive cash reserves & rest of the employees start experimenting new products that are not under the yahoo name, but get media exposure from Yahoo. If one of them is successful make that the new yahoo.

Sadly, It was not taken over well. If I were an executive I'm not sure I'd also risk my lucrative salary either. I'm also pretty sure the shareholders would not appreciate us burning potentially billions of dollars if this plan failed. So I totally get where management has gone. Its just sad as yahoo never really got a fighting chance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Tumblr has recently (actually, not so recently any more) disabled commenting on their platform. My partner is part of a relatively close running community that used to use Tumblr to connect with others, give/receive encouragement about their runs, and so on. Since they disabled comments (with some half- hearted promise about bringing them back, well, _sometime_ ) hardly any of her friends post any more.

Since, as this article says, Tumblr's business model is depending on people using it, removing comments (in favor of pushing people toward reblogging) seems ill-advised.

<comment><USER8> Why would they do this? _Remove_ comments? Unless trolling and racism and abuse were an overwhelming problem on the platform (and I don't believe they were any worse than anywhere else) why would a major platform built on user engagement deliberately disable comments?

<comment><USER7> Beats me. The announcement about them disabling it was in late October ([http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our- dust-...](http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our-dust-hey-you- know-the-reply-feature)), and on Nov. 4 they confirmed they were coming back, eventually ([http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david- wizardries...](http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david-wizardries- can-tumblr-make-it-so-we)). There's been no movement since then as far as I can tell.

I think they want the reblog to be the primary form of engagement, but that's silly for a lot of things, because the entire original post shows up in the reblog by default. For a running community (just one example), that's pretty lousy: you don't want to clutter up your own blog just to say "That's really fast, congratulations! Keep it up!" to a dozen other people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yahoo is a farce. Ostensibly it is a kind of passive index fund that only holds two assets: Alibaba and Yahoo, which is rapidly declining in value and should be cashflowed out (remove overhead, no add'l investment and collect cash til it dies--or sold to a PE fund that will do that). Typical passive fund managers earn their fee 2%/20% by re-balancing their portfolio as needed to approximate the index. Yahoo is not even doing that. so in fact they are more like a pass through or shell entity that holds one asset, usually for tax advantageous reasons. thus the managers (yahoo management) should get some nominal fee comparable to a clearinghouse. Marissa Meyer earns $20mm per year for running a shell company. that's like paying your agent in the cayman islands $20mm per year merely to file the paperwork to remain incorporated there. what a fucking farce.

</comment><comment><USER10> A company that can be 'saved' by Tumblr is in serious trouble indeed.

</comment><comment><USER11> During the SOPA debacle, Tumblr informed their entire userbase via their dashboards that forthcoming legislation would _destroy the service_. They enabled one-click to contact your representative. It generated 87,000 calls. [http://staff.tumblr.com/post/12930076128/a-historic- thing](http://staff.tumblr.com/post/12930076128/a-historic-thing)

At the time, I remember seeing HN jumping up and down about how great this was. I was excited too, because now I had hard data of a 0.29% response rate. Tumblr as a business died that day.

It doesn't matter how many users you have or what their demographic is if you haven't created a culture of commerce. In the absence of revenue, "rope in millions of users and then reap the profits" seems to scale to about three people profiting per transaction.

2013: "Yesterday, during her call with Wall Street analysts, Marissa Mayer said Yahoo would explore giving Tumblr bloggers the chance to run Yahoo ads on their own pages."

It's 2016 and Tumblr still shows zero revenue on Yahoo's balance sheet.

</comment><comment><USER12> I appreciate this post being on Medium.

</comment><comment><USER13> while i agree that unifying the yahoo-tumblr experience is a good direction, it won't save yahoo. the problem with both twitter and tumblr is that advertising within the content platform is ineffective and does not generate enough revenue

<comment><USER14> Who would've thought that blog posts about the evil patriarchy cannot generate enough revenue.

Also the fact that tumblr blogs look like they came straight out of 2006. We have mainstream 24-27inch screens with 1920 horizontal pixels now. Why do most tumblr blogs look like geocities-era thin vertical strips of annoying gifs filled with tiny blocks of hard to read text?

<comment><USER15> The same reason so many other websites decide to waste so much real estate: phones.

edit: also being lazy.

<comment><USER14> I guess they were unable to grok responsive design CSS practices, even at a $1b valuation.

Case in point of some people who get it: medium.com

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Tumblr save Yahoo? Wow. The other day I logged into Tumblr for the first time in ages, and there was a HTML5 animation thing in the background which completely froze Safari on my recent MBP.

Completely unusable, even with the fans spinning so hard I thought the thing was going to take off.

</comment><comment><USER17> not sure the author understands the magnitudes of money at play here. tumblr is a blip in yahoo world. on its own its a niche, nothing more. beloved by some, sure, but nowhere near the stuff that would be needed to turn around yahoo.

<comment><USER18> I agree, as a Tumblr outsider I'm under the impression that Tumblr's (community) importance is mainly self importance.</comment></comment>


How does alcohol influence the brain? - <AUTHOR> http://theneurosphere.com/2016/01/09/how-does-alcohol-influence-the-mind-a-look-into-the-brain-and-its-genes/ <comment><USER2> The article is interesting on a chemical level and explains the biochemical reactions really well. What I am really interested in is a higher level study on overall social and cognitive results of moderate drinking. I bet you 'll find plenty of anecdotal opinions with claims that small amounts of alcohol help with coding and also social awkwardness

<comment><USER3> I've told that before, but I'll say it once more. Some people are badly calibrated. Two drinks don't make us drunk, they make us normal. I'm not incapacitated, not foolish, not violent, just in tune with the others. Alcohol is the bit of jitter that make the system not corner itself.

<comment><USER4> The term for this is "self-medication".

<comment><USER5> I'm not necessarily sure there's anything wrong with that.

<comment><USER4> <shrug>

I do it at parties, especially when I don't know lots of people.

On the other hand, if you feel like you're dysfunctional most of the time, and you're regularly keeping yourself slightly buzzed to mitigate that, you might have a problem.

<comment><USER6> I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently, as I've been self- medicating depression and anxiety with Kratom leaf powder.

In my opinion, the line between self-medication and proper medication is ethically blurry. Yes, clearly it's better to have a doctor supervising your treatment, but it's also important to find relief from debilitating psychic pain. It can be incredibly frustrating when the best psychiatry has to offer simply isn't good enough.

If someone is dependent on "recreational" drugs to soothe their pain, it's labelled a "crutch" and seen as a weakness. If someone is dependent on prescribed drugs (SSRIs, etc.) then it's just considered proper psychiatric treatment.

I agree that if someone is keeping themselves "buzzed" to mitigate dysfunction, there is definitely a problem. The solution, however, is often unclear. Could this person find relief "naturally" (exercise, diet, therapy, etc.)? Could a regular regimen of a different drug help, and if so, which one would be best? Would a drug that's currently illegal help more than drugs which are currently legal?

The state of medicine in 2016 is clearly strong, but psychiatry has a long way to go. I applaud the work MAPS is doing to promote the medicinal application of psychedelics, I'm encouraged by the research being done with Ketamine, and I'm eagerly watching the development of ALKS-5461, an antidepressant that incorporates Buprenorphine (an opioid).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Am I wrong to read this as alcohol being some kind of actual gateway drug? Not in the sense that it brings you in contact with other drugs, but more susceptible to addiction to them?

> The fact that repeated alcohol exposure reduces production of this receptor > means that over time, drinking disrupts the brain's normal brakes on > dopamine release. In rats, this is known to speed up the development of > addiction to anything from cocaine, to sugar and food. All of this points to > a somewhat worrying reality – in consuming alcohol, people make their brains > increasingly sensitive to the experience of reward that comes with > substances like alcohol, drugs and food, which gradually makes people more > desperate to seek them out.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you start looking at their references the arguments start to fall apart- for example, that photo of reduced glucose uptake was _not_ associated with reduced cognitive performance and the authors of the paper suggested that perhaps an alternative energy source to glucose was being utilized.

<comment><USER9> Alcohol is an energy-rich molecule... I think one of its metabolites is preferentially burned by the body. There was a study published about 2 years ago that found heavy drinkers' brains burn lots of acetate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I feel like this article is misleading in some of the details, for example some of the neurons that are quieted are _inhibitory_ neurons, so the net effect is to make other neurons _more_ activated.

<comment><AUTHOR> The notion that some of the neurons silenced by alcohol are inhibitory neurons is actually the explanation that researchers have proposed for why stimulating glycine receptors produces an increase in dopamine release. The idea which is shown in a diagram in the article is that silencing GABA-releasing interneurons (which are inhibitory) with glycine consequently disinhibits dopaminergic neurons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> And the part about the rats hitting the dopamine lever is wrong too. If the rats were in a rich environment with other rats to interact with they would overwhelmingly prefer straight water to water with cocaine. It was only rats in an empty box with literally nothing else to do that would get addicted- in other words rats which were already in significant psychological pain. I need to find the reference for that..

<comment><AUTHOR> The idea of whether rats with exciting lives would indeed be less likely to become addicted to cocaine / morphine is quite controversial, and there have been some failures to replicate that original study (references here: 1. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148292?dopt=Abstract](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148292?dopt=Abstract) and 2. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2616610?dopt=Abstract](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2616610?dopt=Abstract)). I think the argument is that social isolation can and probably does make animals and humans more prone to drug addiction, but it's definitely not the only factor, and both animals and humans with good lives can still become hooked.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I started to read said article, and then realized that I normally am not inebriated as the article only tests for. I am not a binary sober/inebriated.

Again, it's "Alcohol(in some form) is Good" and then "Alcohol(in general) is bad." Just like Eggs. And just like Butter. All these scientists can test for is gross amounts, and not the small.

</comment><comment><USER11> Interesting read, drinking makes it easier to be addicted to other things. I wonder how strong of an effect this would be.

</comment><comment><USER12> I take it you mean what influence alcohol has on the brain. It´s effect is to constrict the blood vessels going to the brain with the consequence that less oxygen can get there which gives you that woozy feeling when you imbibe too excess.

<comment><USER3> There's more to it. I have blood/c.v problems, I feel when blood flow is constricted, and when it happen I'm not woozy, I'm crippled. Like a piece of dead wood.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The article uses the word "mind" in its title, but the article is strict neuroscience, i.e. it discusses the brain from a biological perspective. The word "mind" never appears again. The mind (psychology) is not the brain (neuroscience).

<comment><USER14> A bit of a nitpick (but I guess that's the HN spirit)? Just different levels of abstraction. The dream would be to be able to put all these levels of abstractions together, and have good mappings between them. Basically, I think you're painting a false dichotomy.

Just like the execution of a program can be described in Machine Code, 1's and 0's or even as electricity, or any other layer of abstraction.

<comment><USER15> I'm not so sure. The title should be relevant to the layer of abstraction used. You're talking of abstractions as if there is a beginning and an end level, but what if there isn't?</comment></comment></comment>


May the App Store Be with You - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@benricem/may-the-app-store-be-with-you-83edf39299d2 <comment><USER2> 1% paid conversion rate when featured, that's really low. 6% for free downloads is not that high either.

This reminds us how hard it is to earn decent revenue from app stores.</comment>


Firefox takes top marks in browser stability tests - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/20/firefox_top_marks_browser_stability/

<comment><USER2> I run the Web Engineering team at Mozilla, which is responsible for our crash reporting infrastructure. I was pretty happy to see this outcome from Sauce Labs :) Stability is something we take very seriously.

If you have questions I'm happy to try and answer them.</comment>


Ask HN: Quit my job to freelance web development. What do I do know? - <AUTHOR>

I'm outside of the United States. I have a computer science degree and just love programming. I worked for a company that does software development for clients all over the world. We used Scrum and tried to follow Agile practices to the best of our abilities.
I have experience in web development (mostly using C# and ASP.NET MVC, but also some PHP) and Android development. I also have experience with TDD, Ruby, Python and a range of stuff from Facebook's API to Sitecore, Brightcove and Drupal.
The point is I can code websites. I'm not the best programmer and I definitely have some weak points that I need to address in the front end department especially (css, javascript), but I'm not the worst either.
I've been looking for work in some freelance websites and haven't been able to win a bid on any of them. This is even after lots of Googling and reading extensively about experiences, tips, tricks, what to do and what not to do, etc.
The issue that I have encountered the most is that people always want to see the work you've done. I completely understand that, since I probably wouldn't hire a graphic designer (for example) that I don't know personally or somebody I trust has not recommended without first looking at some of their work.
Even though I have experience, it was all working for my previous employer and I have NDA's saying I can't disclose the work I did there and even if I could, it is not under my name.
I've decided to follow some advice I've gotten which is to build my own portfolio doing some work for either really cheap or free if they can't pay. The issue is I can't find any or don't know where to look probably. I thought it would be way simpler.
Here I am trying to offer quality work for very cheap or free if necessary and I can't find anyone interested. I say quality work not because I'm that good but because I care about my craft and building a business and it is definitely in my best interest to do a good job since I'm trying to build something I can show off later and get more clients.
I must not know where to look or have the right contacts, since I thought these days there should be lots of people looking to get some website done and I could be of help.
Where do I find somebody interested in quality web development work for a very good price?
Is this the wrong approach, what should I do instead? <comment><USER2> I did this back in 2007 to kickstart my freelance career. Find local businesses with the worst websites compared to their competition. This works great for non-chain restaurants, hair salons, small law firms, etc. Here's an example of a restaurant down the street from my house that has a terrible website: <http://gwrestaurant.com/>. Just go ahead and redesign it without even contacting them. The existing site will already have enough content to work with. The work will go quickly because there is no client to slow things down. Then you go into the business and talk to the manager and tell them you are a local web designer and you are building a portfolio, and you redesigned their site already (I would bring a laptop and show them over a wireless connection...now you could use an iPad). I would then offer to sell them the website for a small fee ($250-$500 + $25/mo hosting). I did this for a few dozen local businesses over a 6 month period before I started getting much bigger contracts ($5000-$8000+). Usually I could close the deal on the first try, but for businesses who don't buy, you can easily swap out the content, and sell it to a competitor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I think this is a great approach. Let me see what I can find!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think that byoung2 definitely has the right approach in mind. Being able to display your product for people immediately greatly adds to the wow factor of your work, and how they perceive you as an individual; self driven, motivated, and self confident in your work.

To add to the suggestions so far, I would advise that you approach local school groups (clubs and the like) and offer your services to them. They will likely appreciate the free publicity your services and websites will offer, and the schools may contract you if they like your now publicized work later on.

</comment><comment><USER4> Have you contacted local non-profits, NGO's, clubs, etc? I'm sure they'd love to have a website developed for free/almost free.

Do five of these and you have a portfolio.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've contacted some local places, but haven't had much luck. Some already have a website they are "happy" with, but most others only want it if they don't have to pay a dime (since they don't feel they need one anyways) while the reality is that there are costs involved that I don't think I should cover like domain, hosting, etc. Seems dumb to me, but that has been the case.

I'm going to keep looking though. Maybe I have just approached the wrong kind of places.

<comment><USER4> Build one for them anyway. Then show it too them. If they say no it is still a portfolio piece.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I generally look for contractors at oDesk.com; agreed that it is tough to get work without a portfolio. You could build some "dev" sites and host it on your website. I'm currently looking for someone to build me a simple small biz website. If you are interested contact me at email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER6> i was once similiar to you, used to be the hardworker company types, and i meet at a point where i feel that i need something more chalenge and risky. if you're with a luck of enough budget on you, i recommend that you bootstrap yourself and try to made a product, usefull for others, say contribute to open source on github and making your portfolio in there. i'm afraid that those cheap works (unleast it's for social purpose) will just make you a cheaper programmer

Best of all, within this point, i'ts fulfilling my ambitious to becoma a better and useful programmer. i'm still trying, and it's just feel great</comment>


Show HN: Write and Share a Message with Fire - <AUTHOR> https://victorribeiro.com/fireEffect/?message=%E2%98%A0 <comment><AUTHOR> I don't think a lot of people have seen this, so I'm posting again.

this is not working on safari right now because of an iOS update that prevents cross site tracking (which you can do with canvas)

Source code is here: [https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fireEffect](https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fireEffect)</comment>


Arianna Huffington announces launch of World Post news website - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/08/world-post-news-website-launches-huffington

<comment><USER2> World Post? Gosh, what an awful name. Are all the good ones gone?</comment>


Facebook rumored to be in talks to acquire Opera to create "Facebook Browser" - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/05/25/facebook-rumored-to-be-in-talks-to-acquire-opera-to-create-a-facebook-browser/

<comment><USER2> I do not think FB will pull anything like that. Even if tey do, I'm pretty sure Opera is ruined. They took Snaptu some time back and ruined it.

I had been using it for quite some time but Facebook came, closed everything except FB app in Snaptu and moved on.

I just hope they do not get Opera.

</comment><comment><USER3> Money is powerful and everything, especially if you don't have it, but I think Opera knows it best it will lose a significant part of its core usergroup if this goes through. They would essentially ruin what they fought for all these years</comment>


Salt dietary guidelines: Why do food manufacturers use so much salt? - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2013/05/salt_dietary_guidelines_why_do_food_manufacturers_use_so_much_salt.html <comment><USER2> Interestingly you cannot meet both potassium and sodium dietary guidelines: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23507224](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23507224)

I'd take any such guideline with a grain of salt :)

</comment><comment><USER3> A couple of years ago, a doctor brought the ~2300mg of sodium recommendation to my attention. While I had previously been considering foods based on calories, fat, etc., I had never even thought about the sodium level, nor how much I was getting or should be getting.

So I started paying attention. I was amazed at how easily you could fly way past 2300mg while still eating healthy otherwise. I began reducing my sodium intake on purpose, choosing low-salt or no-salt options when available, and cooking with less or no salt. (It's not always easy to find low-salt packaged foods! Some things I just stopped eating altogether, or eat very little of.)

It was initially an exercise in blandness, but now I'm quite used to the flavor, and am disgusted at the idea of eating as much salt as I did 2+ years ago.

<comment><USER4> And most of the foods labeled as "Lite" or "Reduced Fat" have more sodium than the original version for taste purposes. Trying to eat healthier by reducing calories can actually up your sodium intake.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Article makes a lot of sense.

I don't think there's any evidence that we should be curtailing our consumption of salt anymore (although I'd be interested in the details if there were still reasons), but the main reason for me to curtail salt intake is because eating too much salt lowers my ability to taste salt, and salt is good.

</comment><comment><USER6> The recommendation to reduce salt intake is simply wrong People craving salt is the sense of taste working as it should, in a world of salt-deficient people.

</comment><comment><USER7> The body needs a large amount of salt. But it has to be unprocessed solar cured sea salt. Processed table salt is terrible for you.</comment>


24 Days of Hackage: pandoc - <AUTHOR> http://ocharles.org.uk/blog/guest-posts/2013-12-12-24-days-of-hackage-pandoc.html <comment><USER2> Pandoc is a wonderful tool and by extension a wonderful library. It takes a simple idea--convert between different document formats--and executes it very well. It then turns out that this simple idea is extremely handy.

This article about the API shows how it uses a great design: the actual tool is written as a frontend to a generic library. This way, the actual logic is not tied to the frontend at all; the dependency flows from the logic to the interface. Since it's designed as a library first, the API is a first-class citizen. Using it never feels like scripting an app, because it isn't.

I really like this way of separating concerns. It makes the "meat" of the program so much more useful and reusable. Moreover, there is no reason not to use this approach for GUI apps as well, but I see it all too rarely.

It would be particularly nice for IDEs. There's no reason why all the great refactoring and analysis tools need to be tied to a given frontend. I'd rather have the two clearly split to make the backend much easier to reuse and repurpose.

This sort of design is implicitly encouraged by Haskell (as in the case of Pandoc). The language naturally pushes you to carefully split the logic and the interface, partly through managing IO explicitly. Even the build tool pushes you in this direction, making it very easy to build both a library and an executable at the same time. Of course, this is also very easy to do in other languages, although I've found it a bit easier to mix concerns in an OOP setting. It's just too easy to add a render method to your Document class instead of maintaining a strict separation; this is especially true if Document contains extensive private state.

I really hope future tools will continue with this sort of split design so that building new things on top of them continues to be easy. I've already benefited from this with Pandoc: the static site generator I use is built on top of Pandoc, giving it some very nice capabilities. Since it uses Pandoc as a library, it's more powerful than just passing files through the tool--the configuration can also use and depend on variables in the Pandoc templates, for example, which is very useful and requires programmatic access to Pandoc's internals.

</comment><comment><USER3> Pandoc is a great tool for anyone using Markdown to write, too, above and beyond the conversion capabilities. I use it to write my website gwern.net using Pandoc+Hakyll, but I also use Pandoc for other things because of its API.

I generate my book review page ([http://www.gwern.net/Book%20reviews](http://www.gwern.net/Book%20reviews)) from my GoodReads CSV export, but that's not all.

I also have functions to add support for Wikipedia links in my Markdown files (so I can write '[Adolf Hitler](!Wikipedia)' rather than '[Adolf Hitler]([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)'](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler\)'), which is convenient and a huge time-saver for longer more complex article titles).

And besides that, I have static checks of my pages via the Pandoc API: I have 2 scripts which parse Markdown files, 'markdown-length-checker' and 'markdown- footnote-length'. length-checker is checking for the case where I have too many spaces and a line suddenly becomes a fixed-width line of 200 characters or something awful like that (surprisingly easy to do with lists). footnote- length parses the file for all the footnotes, extracts them, sees whether their bodies are longer than 2400 characters, and warns if any are (since 2400 characters means the footnote needs some work).

</comment><comment><USER4> Fell in love with Pandoc after seeing my friend's online course notes[0] processed using it. Since then I have been playing with it to simul-publish HTML[1] and PDF[2] cheat sheets from markdown for a course I'm working on[3].

It's worked great. The one thing it's missing is a good way to do image size adjustment using markdwon (but it appears to be in progress).

[0]: [http://www.asimihsan.com](http://www.asimihsan.com)

[1]: [https://googledrive.com/host/0BxJBBicEiS8aYlhGb1Y0cXFBUlU/ou...](https://googledrive.com/host/0BxJBBicEiS8aYlhGb1Y0cXFBUlU/output.html)

[2]: [https://googledrive.com/host/0BxJBBicEiS8aYlhGb1Y0cXFBUlU/ou...](https://googledrive.com/host/0BxJBBicEiS8aYlhGb1Y0cXFBUlU/output.pdf)

[3]: Warning: those are an old buggy copy, notes have since been updated.

<comment><USER5> _Fell in love with Pandoc after seeing my friend 's online course notes[0] processed using it._

For websites, it's even more brilliant in conjunction with Hakyll, a static site generator that allows you to create site generation logic via an EDSL.

[http://jaspervdj.be/hakyll/](http://jaspervdj.be/hakyll/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Looks great, but the barrier to entry is high as myself and I'm sure others here have no experience with Haskell.

Have you thought to consider a hosted solution with an API? I'm sure plenty of people would be willing to pay for it on an API marketplace for instance.

<comment><USER7> Check out Docverter[1]. It's a host-your-own pandoc + html to PDF API. It doesn't support all of pandoc (for example, PDFs are generated using Flying Saucer instead of LateX), but it's an extremely useful subset

(disclaimer: I wrote docverter, it's open source)

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks pretty cool. But it's not monetized?</comment></comment></comment>


Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell, to keynote Distill - <AUTHOR> https://blog.engineyard.com/2013/what-happens-when-you-bring-atari-chuck-e-cheese-and-engine-yard-together <comment><USER2> This is awesome, the Atari 2600 was my first ever 'computer' and I still can remember the thrill of finding and playing a new game (and of course blowing into the cartridge to get the game to load :) )

Its limited by todays standard, which makes me excited to think about the technologies we use today that will be obsolete in 20 years time.

</comment><comment><USER3> "the now infamous Atari 2600"

What makes the Atari 2600 infamous?

<comment><AUTHOR> What _doesn't_ make it infamous? Yeah. Think about that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Typos FTW :)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What SSL certificate provider are you using and why? - <AUTHOR>

I bought a certificate from Digicert last year which is approaching expiration. In the past few months, I've received cold sales calls from a number of other providers claiming to offer the same service level at much cheaper rates.<p>What are the main factors that must be considered when selecting an SSL certificate provider? Who do you use, and why? <comment><USER2> StartSSL.com. Free certs for non-commercial use. Something like $60 per year for as many commercial-use certs as you want.

<comment><USER3> Interesting. Do other merchants have similar "X dollars for infinite certificates" plans?

<comment><USER2> I don't know because I haven't looked. Also, I think it is unlimited certs per verified identity or something like that, and it's the verification process that costs the $60. So one top-level domain is one verified ID, a second TLD would be another, and so on. Now for me, with all of my web sites using SSL, this is very cost-effective. I can also take advantage of the fact that my private networks use real TLDs (registered but with no public DNS), letting me use StartSSL instead of running my own internal CA (for which I lack the staff).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Namecheap. Because they're cheap. Never had any issues so far.

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://getssl.me](http://getssl.me) is quite awesome if you ask me

<comment><USER6> I'll second this. [http://getssl.me](http://getssl.me) worked well for us too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I also use startssl because their cert's are for free when you only have one non-commmercial domain!

</comment><comment><USER8> RapidSSL because they were cheap and 37signals used them too.

</comment><comment><USER9> I use StartSSL because they're cheap.</comment>


"Why wasn't this page found? We asked some leading economists." [FT's 404 page] - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/intl/404/ <comment><AUTHOR> I found this page simultaneously entertaining and educational. My personal favorite:

SPECULATIVE BUBBLE: The page never actually existed and was fundamentally impossible, but everyone bought into it in a frenzy and it's all now ending in tears.

Also,

MORAL HAZARD: Showing you this page would only encourage you to want more pages.</comment>


Americans and Valentine's Day – How They're Loving (or Not) - Infographic - <AUTHOR> http://blog.lab42.com/americans-and-valentines-day-how-theyre-loving-or-not

<comment><USER2> I like that the respondents would rather receive sex toys over lingerie. It would be interesting to see if this was biased because of male respondents or if these figures are true for women alone.

I never understood lingerie as a gift as it'd be for my (male) enjoyment. Why would my wife be happy to get lingerie when I know she wouldn't be happy if I bought her a reciprocating saw, they're both equally selfish gifts. A sex toy will at least derive sexual gratification for the recipient so it's not as selfish a gift and depending on the gift could be far more selfless than selfish.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hmm. So on the "How long till you said "I love you"?" question I assume "other" is "exactly two years".

Otherwise the mind boggles :D

<comment><USER2> No, it's: said it while she/he was sleeping/drunk/otherwise mentally incapacitated.</comment></comment>