Ask PG: What caused the downtime? - <AUTHOR> It looks like the site was down for a couple hours. What happened exactly? <comment><USER2> Still investigating. The site was slow all day. We got an immense spike in unique IPs. Typically we get a bit over 150k/day. Today we got 220k. Not sure if the downtime was related.

I was travelling today and didn't have proper access to the server, or I would have been on it sooner.

<comment><USER2> Update: An examination of the logs shows nothing remarkable happening at the moment of the crash.

We may have run out of some resource. In that case it may be hard to know for sure what happened.

<comment><USER2> Question: Did people find HN horribly slow this afternoon? (I found it unusably slow around 2 pm pacific, but there was little I could do about it from where I was then.)

<comment><USER3> The site had seemed slow basically all day for me, from say about 8:30-9am central time (I'd been up and checking the site since 6) up to the point when it crashed.

<comment><USER2> Were you using https or http?

<comment><USER4> I was getting the proxy error message with https. I never tried http then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It is very interesting how..eh..addictive this site is. It's like a habit to do CMD + T and start typing in news.y..etc. And while it was down I was refreshing every few minutes. I think personally I do get a lot out of this site, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without it. I've learned a lot, asked a lot, and tried to give back as much as I could. I landed a couple jobs from here that have now set me on a very successful path at such a young age. I'm very thankful for the community here. Sorry for turning this into an emotional post, but I really owe a lot to HN.

EDIT: I do just do CMD + T and then n for everyone who thought I did otherwise. Sometimes it happens so quickly I do new..or whatever, but you get the idea. This is a trivial point.

<comment><USER6> > It's like a habit to do CMD + T and start typing in news.y

I think you're a real addict if you don't even get past typing ne before the autocomplete comes up :D

<comment><USER7> What website is more important/frequently visited and starts with n? I always type n<enter> unless I was very recently browsing the new york times

<comment><USER8> I tend to prefer <http://hckrnews.com> just because of the more intuitive browsing interface and filtering options (top 10, top 20, etc). I have it as a shortcut on my main phone screen and bookmarked in all browsers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wonder if ycombinator could see a correlative increase in the value of their portfolios through the simple process of shutting down news.yc for 3-4 hours a day?

<comment><USER10> Maybe PG has a script that automatically enables noprocrast on all the YC entrepreneur accounts.

<comment><USER11> I would hope not. While some of them are almost children (<20), there's no need to treat them like children.

Software solutions to peopleware problems are always a bad idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Netflix chaos monkey is released into the wild, HN goes down soon after. Coincidence, I think not!

<comment><USER13> Great minds think alike :-) <https://twitter.com/andykelk/status/230131954975133696>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Wow, I got a surprising amount of work done in the last few hours. I had to check isup.me to make sure it was really down, else I would have found a proxy server :)

<comment><USER15> I hardly got anything done. I couldn't see the monitor through all of the tears.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is anyone else out there proud to have a _healthy_ relationship with hacker news?

<comment><USER17> Yes. I only check it on nights, and never for more than eight hours, and never until past 4am, except occasionally at work, but only when I don't have high priority stuff to do, and ... crap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I would bet it was from some of the direct links on Reddit?

The Ubisoft backdoor was linked on reddit front page for awhile today.

</comment><comment><USER19> Yep, I have the same question, lot's of frustrated tweets <https://twitter.com/#!/search/hackernews%20down>

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't been this productive in MONTHS ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The outage came shortly after pg retweeted (<https://twitter.com/davidstamm/status/229926404333129728>):

 _@davidstamm: In the hour of your death, you will not warmly recall the many hours you spent engaging in vitriolic debates on Hacker News._

So I just assumed the downtime was a social experiment. Maybe even a new circuit-breaker: when global thread sentiments get a bit too snippy, the entire site goes dark for a short period.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm curious to see if it had something to do with hitting the front page of Reddit. The Facebook Bot Clicks post received over 1,700 upvotes and perhaps Reddit "performed the most friendly DDoS"

</comment><comment><USER22> I actually found that I didn't get as much done. I kept checking to see if the site had come back up and wondering if there was a status page hiding somewhere I didn't know about. Sheesh!

</comment><comment><USER23> I was thinking someone must have unleashed the simian army: <https://github.com/Netflix/SimianArmy>

</comment><comment><USER24> I couldn't access the site for a few days (error 502) in Vancouver. Probably unrelated?

</comment><comment><USER25> I think I might start throttling my bandwidth to 56kbs over HTTP/HTTPS.

</comment><comment><USER26> Glad y'all got some work done, I just didn't do work elsewhere :).

</comment><comment><USER27> God, it seemed like an eternity!

</comment><comment><USER28> same question, noticed after i got sent two bogus password reset attempts...</comment>


Gmail Blue - <AUTHOR> http://gmail.com/blue

<comment><USER2> not so impressed by this april fools. =(</comment>


Library patterns: Multiple levels of abstraction - <AUTHOR> http://tomasp.net/blog/2015/library-layers/index.html

<comment><USER2> This article gets at the crux of the difference between what I think of as the OO and FP mindsets: OO mindset is overly zealous about applying 'encapsulation' and 'information hiding'. An OO enthusiast might say that revealing your internals in this way is bad design, and if you need it you should 'encapsulate' the 15% and 4% solutions in their own (Helper, ugh) classes. The extreme-radical FP view is to ask why we need keywords like _private_ at all. Why not just show functions that are easy to use and harder to use, and let callers decide what works best for them.

As you can infer from my use of scare quotes, I side with the author on this after accumulating repeated scar tissue.

<comment><USER3> > Why not just show functions that are easy to use and harder to use, and let > callers decide what works best for them.

Won't you be stuck exposing those APIs for the lifetime of the product or risk breaking backwards compatibility?

What if you could make the code significantly faster by changing the parameters you pass in to an internal function? What if you discover a bug that you can only change by changing a method's signature? What if you just want to refactor? Doesn't exposing your internals prevent you from doing these things?

(Note, haven't read the article yet).

<comment><USER4> _Won 't you be stuck exposing those APIs for the lifetime of the product or risk breaking backwards compatibility?_

A real revelation for me over the last year of using nodejs more and more, is that every component can use its own dependencies, at exactly the versions it requires. So, when you add to an API, bump minor. When you take away, bump major. Either way, you can bump patch for bug fixes, on any major-minor combo, whenever you want. So "stuck" isn't really possible any more.</comment></comment></comment>


Customer Development in a Big Company - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2010/08/23/solving-the-innovators-dilemma-customer-development-in-a-big-company/

<comment><USER2> +1 for the comment "in a multi-billion dollar company, a $10 Million dollar/year new product line doesn't even move the needle." I actually saw projects with 7 digit profits canceled because they were not viewed as growth opportunities for the company.

I'd also double the 15% time estimate for "managing up and protecting down." People in entrenched organizations (big and small) simply don't seem open to positive change. You almost have to build it, put it place, get the users going, and then sell it up to management.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think it's because people in big orgs are not open to change.

I believe that big companies would love to be able to change but they're hampered by their own layers of processes and procedures (created to protect the existing/old ways of doing things).

I think Netflix's slide deck on culture explains why this happens quite succinctly. <http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664> (see slides 40-51)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: food replicator possible? - <AUTHOR>

I want to know when we think a food replicator would be possible that can grow organic food products from stemcells.
Are there the equivalent of stemcells from plants as well as from tissue based organisms that would allow for the growth of plant matter based foods in addition to meat/protein.
I was thinkijg that a similar device would be required for travel to other Planets such as mars.
All ethics and squemishness aside, is a stemcell based food replication unit possible, and if so, how far off are we.
(typed on phone, forgive typos) <comment><USER3> Possible in theory, unlikely to be practical anytime soon. Algae is a cheaper (and simpler) food source, and one more likely to be used for basic requirements. I could certainly see stem cells used to grow meat - <USER2> currently exists - to supplement a diet, though. Saying that something like this would be required for interplanetary travel is going a bit far.

<comment><AUTHOR> When I said required, I mean that it would be required to maintain as close as possible the varietal diet of here on earth whilst in transit.

Being in deep space and being able to grow a wonderful filet, some fish, whatever, would probably make the journey far more pleasant than a staple of algae.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A header only C++11 LRU Cache template class, with no dependencies - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mohaps/lrucache11 <comment><USER2> Not really sure why they reimplemented std::list. Also that NoCopy base class adds a vptr for no reason. And so do all those other virtual destructors. I personally wouldn't trust this code at first glance.

<comment><AUTHOR> the kv::List is not intended as a generic linked list implementation like std::list.

The reason for the specific implementation is to get constant time removal and remove-add_to_end operations. Truth be told, it is a hold-over from the previous implementation. I shall be writing benchmarks for this next up and shall revisit the decision on whether or not to use std::list soon-ish :)

The : private NoCopy is just to block the copy constructors.

<comment><USER2> You could have used std::list iterators instead of raw pointers to a node in the map to implement that.

<comment><AUTHOR> now i remember why I went with the old linked list implementation.

with the std::list, everytime I refreshed a node... i did a copy.

basically to the tune of list.push_back(*iter) where as I wanted to keep it as a simple unlink and relink of the node

copy of the comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12391069](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12391069)

<comment><USER2> To swap nodes in the list you need to use splice like this:

keys_.splice(keys_.begin(), keys_, iter->second);

Where iter is from the cache lookup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Or if you want a non-obfuscated version

[https://gist.github.com/Quinny/09e34afb1d187e43dea2f3c3b0c04...](https://gist.github.com/Quinny/09e34afb1d187e43dea2f3c3b0c04b9f)

<comment><USER2> Use splice to move items to the front of the list without copying in the find method.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One of two (or both) things would need to be changed for it to be generally useful:

\- The return value should be a WeakPtr, not a bool and a reference. This allows for data to not be duplicated by all of the different `getter` threads. A WeakPtr<Type> is kind of C++'s equivalent of a Maybe<Type>.

\- The getter function also need to be passed a functor capable of generating the object, which then creates a `named lock` that /only/ other threads requesting that key. This duplicates multiple logical copies of the same item from being created (this is important when the creation is expensive, presumably the core reason for using an LRU cache).

edit: formatting, I am not familiar with HN syntax.

</comment><comment><USER5> This line bothered me more than it should :)

        typedef std::string String;

when

        using std::string;

would have done just as well.

Yes, I noticed the capitalization change. But why do you want to change the name of a fundamental type?

</comment><comment><USER6> Can someone explain how this is headers-only? C/C++ are not my forte, but my limited interpretation of a "headers only" thing would be more along the lines of: it's only type definitions and preprocessor macros.

It looks like there's plenty of actual method implementations being filled out there, but they just happen to be in a .hpp file instead of a .cpp file.

<comment><USER7> It means all the code is defined in-line in the header file, inside the class definition, instead of the more traditional method of using a header and an associated cpp file.

A lot of the C++ standard library (STL) and Boost are header only (but not all)

This means to use the code, all you need to do is #include the header file wherever you need it, rather than including a header file and either building a separate static/shared library for the cpp file, or including it in your own build.

So that's really convenient.

Another thing that happens is that the by doing this, the compiler can potentially do a lot better job of optimizing the code by inlining parts of the library straight into your calling function.

With static libraries it is possible to get some optimizations like this made at link time, since link time code generation is a requirement for templates, but that's not possible with shared libraries since you are forced to call through an exported function entry point by their very nature.

Header only libraries are typical for containers or light weight libraries where the cost of inclusion and possible code duplication of code is worth the performance gains, and certainly very popular where templates are involved.

tl;dr, header only is cool just because they are so easy to consume and don't need a make file. Just #include and you are done.

<comment><USER6> Gotcha. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Benchmarks / comparison to using other container types would be nice to have

<comment><AUTHOR> yup! that's next up. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like your insert function is missing an else . You're creating a new node when each time you find an existing node in the map.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks. fixed

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> So it's C++11 but still uses naked pointers...

<comment><AUTHOR> the naked pointers are inside an internal kv namespace and are a convenience/carry over from the previous implementation (I've covered the justification for the way it's written in a comment above).

the TL;DR is that it is written the way it is to achieve constant time remove/remove_and_add_to_end operations which is not an erase+append but more like an unlink/relink operation.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Looking for an overview of web application development - <AUTHOR>

I am interested in web development.
There seem to be a lot of languages involved. I am finding the abundance of options confusing. Searching the web mostly revealed strong opinions about the author's platform of choice without convincing analysis.
Can anyone direct me to a book or site which describes the overall web framework and discusses the merits of competing options? I need something that breaks down how websites are served and what type of operations are performed on the client vs the server.
I tried to figure out how websites I liked were built. They tended to list various stacks. The variations convinced me that many roads lead to Rome, but left me without a map of the various paths.
Background: I have built desktop applications in java and common lisp. I find lisp more enjoyable, and would prefer to work in a lisp style. However, I recognize that a flexible approach may be required. I took a class in Ruby on Rails several years ago, but it was rather poorly taught. I have played around with html and css.
Endstate: I would like to be able to produce a site with capabilities similar to smartsheet. <comment><USER2> I think you answered your own question. The reason most pieces on web development are opinionated is because there is no 1 way to do something. Everyone has they're favorite stack and everyone has limited knowledge; even "great" programmers haven't written in every language / framework.

[https://wappalyzer.com/download](https://wappalyzer.com/download) \- one of my favorite tools - will give you a little more insight into what smartsheet uses - they're homepage at least, is a LAMP stack with Drupal.

Smartsheet would be a tall order for your first or 5th project. Get a cheap server somewhere - start with PHP, Rails or Node and build stuff. Learn how to communicate from the frontend to the backend - make mistakes, rinse repeat.

I haven't bought or read a book in years; once you get the basic concepts down, searching google / stackoverflow for how to do something will come much easier.

<comment><AUTHOR> wappalyzer is very cool thanks for the tip.

I realize I won't be building Smartsheet anytime soon, but I want to start learning the tools with enough power to get me there.

I do plan to "Start with PHP, Rails or Node and build stuff," but first I would like to have a broad understanding of the frontend to backend path you describe. I know nothing of this process. I am looking for the basic concepts. In some ways, I feel like I'm trying to take derivatives with a fuzzy understanding of algebra. Following the book's example can get you from x^n to n*x^(n-1), but not to understanding.

<comment><USER3> This is a problem I have with much of technical discussion, not just web. The writer focuses on details of a solution, assuming knowledge of the big picture. I'd often like the big picture, so I can have some context for the details I choose or stumble upon.

It's like reading documentation for MS Word, with every menu item explained but no clue as to how you'd put together a large, complex document. How to use every little feature, but nothing on when and why to use the features.

Please keep that in mind, writers. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here is an overview I wrote. This is based on a lot of conversations and emails to non-technical startup people who wanted to learn a bit about the tech. This same material was also given as a talk at Wharton's Venture Initiation Program. Some beginning programs have told me they found it useful also:

[http://illuminatedcomputing.com/posts/2014/03/basics-of- web-...](http://illuminatedcomputing.com/posts/2014/03/basics-of-web- architecture/)

Note there are a few "lies" for the sake of simplifying, and some comments are a little dated, but hopefully it is helpful for you!

EDIT: Let me add, if you're wondering about what language & framework to choose, my advice is it doesn't matter too much, so don't spend much time on this decision. Go with your taste/enjoyment and dive in. You can't make a good choice from reading other people's generalities, so don't try. My preference is Rails, but tastes differ. (I will offer my own generalities though: Rails is best at rapid development and adaptability, Python is best at stats/machine learning, and I'd don't know what Java & C# are best at. For "best at safety/correctness" maybe I'd choose Haskell. :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Your article was quite helpful. It is surprising how hard an overview like that is to find. Now I at least know how to direct my research.

Also, I'm definitely interested in incorporating machine learning, so I think I will give Python a try.</comment></comment>


The One Interview Question You Should Ask - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/thebuildnetwork/the-one-interview-question-you-should-ask.html

<comment><USER2> My favorite interview question is asking presenters to predict a flip of the coin.

You would be amazed that _half_ the candidates cannot accomplish this task. I'm talking about people with doctorates from Harvard, open source projects a mile long, they still can't do it.

The remaining half are the ones who will truly shine on their job.

<comment><USER3> That is a pretty nice response, even if it is a bit snarky :-)

I don't think you, Daniel, would do well there. When I was interviewing people at Google I would always try to remind the candidate that whether or not the interview proceeded to the offer stage said more about the people who interviewed them than it did about the candidate's capabilities.

I like the refer.ly question because it allows the candidate to talk about something they are passionate about, or have thought deeply about. I'm not sure that it informs on their organization as much as the interviewer would like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Previous discussion here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4613413>

</comment><comment><USER5> There is a potential problem with topics chosen by the candidates. The passion they have for their favorite topic might never appear in their daily work.

<comment><USER6> Sometimes it's nice to at least know they are passionate about something, anything at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd be very interested to know the percentage of people asked this who responded by explaining a project that directly related to the job they are applying for, and those that explain something from their everyday life.

I wonder which would be more effective. Passion in the topic of choice is without a doubt key.

<comment><USER8> This sounds like a trick question. If you want to measure passion for the job, ask about the job and listen to them. Don't ask them about something else and wait for them to bring it back up.

<comment><USER7> I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but the question is a perfectly valid way to measure the ability of a candidate to explain complex topics to people with varying levels of pre-existing knowledge.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Here it is presented as a question used by Referly. But for historical accuracy; weren't early Google interviews famous for using this question years ago?

<comment><USER10> I heard about this questions while working at Microsoft in 1998, before Google existed. I am sure someone was asking it even before Microsoft existed.</comment></comment>


Modern "scientific management" threatens to dehumanise workplace - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/business/21664190-modern-version-scientific-management-threatens-dehumanise-workplace-digital <comment><USER2> I think "Digital Taylorism" is more accurate and informative than calling it "scientific management". The quotes let you know The Economist is intentionally using a famous misnomer but I'm not sure that comes across in a HN title where the main title isn't seen first.

I would suggest "Digital Taylorism threatens...." or "Modern Taylorism threatens..." as a title.</comment>


DoorDash (YC S13) reveals how much it relies on customer tips to pay its workers - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/90305854/exclusive-doordash-reveals-how-much-it-relies-on-customer-tips-to-pay-its-workers <comment><USER2> "In about 15% of cases, customers leave no tip, and DoorDash pays the entire amount, the company tells us. (The default tip is usually set to 15% the app.) ... In the next roughly 45% of cases, customers contribute less than half the money required to meet the minimum quoted fee–called the 'guaranteed amount'–leaving DoorDash to chip in the majority of the fee."

So under their model, if you tip well, you're subsidizing people who don't tip at all.

<comment><USER3> > So under their model, if you tip well, you're subsidizing people who don't > tip at all.

Under their model, if you tip well, they can pay less, you're subsidizing the owners, not other customers.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The company is also in the process of raising $500 million [0].

[0] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/delivery-startup-doordash- reach...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/delivery-startup-doordash-reaches-for- over-6-billion-valuation-in-new-funding-11549920541)</comment>


Basecamp doubles starter plan price - <AUTHOR> http://mercurygrove.com/2010/10/basecamp-doubles-entry-fee-%E2%80%93-what%E2%80%99s-up/

<comment><USER2> I didn't mind paying the $24/month to use it for running my side contracting jobs, but they seriously aren't good enough that I'd consider it worth paying double the amount for the same feature set.

EDIT: Looks like they just dropped the Basic plan from signup options, I'm still on it, Plus is now the entry level plan.

</comment><comment><USER3> something has to pay for those four day work weeks and Isilon storage</comment>


Ask HN: How to get money for running a non-profit project? - <AUTHOR> I have created a non profit project for ease of governance. There is no business model. I do i scale it and keep it running? Any other options than donations? <comment><USER2> I can mention my own: [http://www.littlecaution.org](http://www.littlecaution.org) I'm in the process of teaching the general public, including schools, colleges, the aged, etc. about remaining safe and secure on the internet. One of the engagements was when somebody I knew heard about it at a corporate and called me in to educate a large batch of new joinees from colleges. Next up: administrative staff in the office buildings and also employees. Though I'm funding it entirely from my own pocket now, based on the conversations I've had, I think companies will be willing to support it in the future - not to a level of profit, but to keep it running and so that I can pay experts for more their time and more content. I hope that will also cover the expenses when we do workshops at poorer schools and apartments and for senior citizens, where it is going to be entirely free for the attendees.

I also added a bitcoin and ethereum donation address recently. I've got nothing from it yet, but maybe you can try that also.

<comment><USER3> That's an excellent project - thanks for all your hard work!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One option is to create a business model, run it like a business, a way of running a non-profit is to just spend all the revenue on the business' goal, rather than to pay the shareholders of the business.

I think thats the most robust way to insure longevity of the enterprise. Relying on donations to keep the lights on is difficult.

<comment><USER5> > _Relying on donations to keep the lights on is difficult._

Can confirm - the Hackerspace I help run is in big part funded by company donations. Every now and then comes the day when I have to convince someone to keep donating, and since result depends mostly on the goodwill of the other party, we have to play safe with finances - which slows the growth and acquisition of new useful workshop tools.

We're trying to move to self-sustainable model, but with almost everyone having a day job and/or a significant other, it's damn difficult.

<comment><USER6> What does growth mean in the context of a non-profit? Is it really a meaningful metric?

<comment><USER7> Everyone needs to measure success somehow, and increasing your performance against that metric (which is often linked with growth) is good. I worked with a non-profit for a while where each member was asked to track performance against goals. It was often repeated, "it's not about the numbers." No, it's about the people you're serving, but the numbers represent people and serving more people is better. What's wrong with trying to do that? It doesn't _have_ to come at the expense of forgetting the people behind the numbers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Would probably need more information about what your project is exactly and what your actual non profit status is, as it will change how easy it is to get various sources of income and your eligibility.

Widely speaking, the three likely sources of income I can think of are

(1) People - either donations / patronage, or in return for something - you'll likely have more success with this if you provide regular benefits or at least token value in return for them.

(2) Grants from some community grant organisation, for example in Western Australia the Lotterywest lotto company gives out a large sum of grants as part of their license - but there may be other grant sources including private or government - eligibility will likely depend on your mission and actual status as a non profit and/or charity (these two things differ in Australia, no idea about other countries.. I think the US has some weird 3rd "public benefit" category)

(3) Find a home under the umbrella of some other already funded organisation that takes additional projects under it's wing, things like the Apache Software Foundation, GNU, etc. (no guarantee you'll actually get funding, but it may be possible in some cases.. some foundations may help you out legally but not with funding).

Grants are often hard work and come with various requirements, and are often even best case some chance of winning if you compete against others. And hard to maintain long term, so is more suited to short term. In most cases it is unlikely you'd get regular grants over time and there's definitely a time burn even if you can.

Some kind of patronage or regular output getting donations from people generally is easier to have recurring but actually getting a notable number of patrons/donations on a regular basis is difficult. Often not too bad once established.

Lastly a home under a foundation is likely difficult for a new project.. so in that case likely you'd need to self-fund until the point that may be possible.

Hope that helps.

</comment><comment><USER9> We run Security First as a non- profit.([https://www.secfirst.org](https://www.secfirst.org)). I also helped setup an UK charity called Videre ([https://www.videreonline.org](https://www.videreonline.org)). It really depends on what you are doing. We build technology and training to help activists, journalists and people in high risk areas manage their security - through our free, open source mobile app, Umbrella. So we found and apply to funders who provide grants to help us build this. Public donations are actually quite a hard business model for non-profits as it really requires a huge amount of public visibility and work to keep them coming in. I recommend looking for grants first of all. I know the space pretty well so feel free to drop me a mail to the email in my profile and I'm happy to share some thoughts!

<comment><AUTHOR> Will like to talk more about it. Can you please share your email.

<comment><USER9> Cool, click on my username in HN and it's in there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm in the process of doing this right now (we're in the 'fake news' space). Google is your friend, there are a multitude of resources out there for nonprofits.

In terms of how to get going, here are a few useful links:

First, a feasibility study: [http://help4nonprofits.com/NP_START_IsItFeasible_Art.htm](http://help4nonprofits.com/NP_START_IsItFeasible_Art.htm)

Next, a board: [https://www.thebalance.com/importance-of-nonprofit-first- boa...](https://www.thebalance.com/importance-of-nonprofit-first-board-of- directors-2501804)

<comment><USER11> I'm working on a project that is related to fake news too. I'd be curious to learn a little more about what you are doing.

<comment><USER12> Ditto. I think there are a lot of people interested in the online disinformation problem at the moment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This repository gives a nice overview of existing financing solutions with some pros/cons. It's oriented towards open source projects, but this doesn't mean it can't apply for other kind of projects.

[https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade- stand](https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand)

</comment><comment><USER14> You could apply for Shuttleworth Foundation fellowship program that open the fellowship application twice a year.

[https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/](https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/)

<comment><USER15> SF projects should be about promoting openness though, so if "ease of governments" also means "making the government more transparent", that might be an option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Honestly, treat a non-profit just like a for profit. Way too many non-profits rely on a hodge podge mix of grants and donations. These non-profits have incredible trouble scaling because they can never rely upon any sort of cash flow. If you treat a non-profit like a business and figure out a recurring revenue stream, you will be way ahead of the game.

And, as an added bonus, much like in the for profit world, once your non- profit shows that it can sustain itself indefinitely, you'll have people/foundations/other organizations coming out of the woodwork to fund you!!

</comment><comment><USER16> The Foundation Center is a fantastic organization dedicated to the education of non profit orgs and fundraising. They have a really nice library in NYC too. Lots of resources on these topics:

[http://foundationcenter.org/find-funding](http://foundationcenter.org/find- funding)

</comment><comment><USER17> _There is no business model._

Is there no business model, or is there no business model _yet_?

As Google demonstrated, there are plenty of investors ready to invest in companies which have no clear business model providing that they're doing something which could theoretically be turned into a business eventually.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is no business model as far i can see. The project is a catalog of government data aggregated together.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Not a direct answer, but Max Ogden talked about that a bit on Changelog's RFC: [https://changelog.com/rfc/6](https://changelog.com/rfc/6)

</comment><comment><USER19> In the USA just because your a non profit doesn't mean you cannot charge money for your product.

As an example, there are lots of non profit hospitals that charge for a product but don't seek to make a profit.

Would people pay for your product?

<comment><USER20> To my knowledge, the number of non-profit hospitals is definitely getting smaller. This can affect the amount of indigent care significantly. I've heard of for-profit hospitals that cut maternity/OB-GYN services because the number of non-paying patients giving birth cut into their bottom line significantly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Why not monetise in a traditional way? Non-profit doesn't mean non-revenue - just reinvest the profits a la Ghost for example.

</comment><comment><USER22> It _totally_ depends on the topic of your project and the finances needed. And what do you want to _scale_?

</comment><comment><USER23> Earn the money needed from other, for-profit project.

</comment><comment><USER24> make some important project that other companies depend on in their projects and they will pay you to continue developing and maintaining it.

</comment><comment><USER25> Just make the project. This modern obsession that free software has to be 'funded' and 'governed' is absurd. Free software works far better when money is not a factor.

<comment><USER26> Sorry, but that sounds like you have never actually 'governed' an OSS.

<comment><USER25> I assume you mean 'a free software project' rather than 'an OSS'.

Well no, that's my point. Free software projects don't have governors, they have maintainers. They don't have non-profits and boards and diversity quotas and codes of conducts, they have mailing lists and BDFLs and coding standards and banhammers.

This politicisation and corporatisation of free software is not good for free software.

<comment><USER27> Free software has been a political statement from day zero.

<comment><USER25> Only if you have an absurdly broad definition of politics.

<comment><USER28> Stallman has been pretty clear on the political nature from early on. What gives you the impression that free software hasn't been political? Perhaps there's a difference in definition of free software.

With GNU, and the Free Software Movement, the Free is definitely free as in freedom, which is a political concept.

From the Free Software Movement:

[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free- sw.html](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)

 _The four essential freedoms

A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. Otherwise, it is nonfree. While we can distinguish various nonfree distribution schemes in terms of how far they fall short of being free, we consider them all equally unethical._

From the GNU Wikipedia page:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU)

 _Richard Stallman, the founder of the project, views GNU as a "technical means to a social end". Relatedly Lawrence Lessig states in his introduction to the 2nd edition of Stallman's book Free Software, Free Society that in it Stallman has written about "the social aspects of software and how Free Software can create community and social justice."_

That sounds pretty political to me.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google.ie DNS was hacked (now fixed) - <AUTHOR> http://www.domainregistry.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&whois=google.ie&id=86&Itemid=105&Search.x=0&Search.y=0 domain:       google.ie descr:        Google, Inc descr:        Body Corporate (Ltd,PLC,Company) descr:        Registered Trade Mark Name admin-c:      KR59-IEDR tech-c:       CCA7-IEDR registration: 21-March-2002 renewal:      21-March-2013 status:       Active nserver:      ns1.farahatz.net nserver:      ns2.farahatz.net source:       IEDR <comment><USER2> Unfortunately last year Google Ireland barely broke even. A tiny €24mil profit on a turnover of €12.5 BILLION [1]

Perhaps some charitable Irish taxpayer could sort their domain name out for them?

1: [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1006/122432...](http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1006/1224324959631.html)

<comment><USER3> Not sure how that's relevant to this DNS issue?

<comment><USER4> Not sure if it's relevant but one of the major "DNS providers" (that preceded Google) also chooses to domicile their operations in Ireland. They could just as well locate anywhere, but I doubt they chose Ireland for tax purposes. That just wouldn't make sense, right?

<comment><USER5> Secondarily, the amount of internet services hosted in Dublin makes it a good spot to host DNS servers too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> # dig +short @188.8.131.52 google.ie (Google DNS #1)

188.8.131.52

# dig +short @22.214.171.124 google.ie (Google DNS #2)

188.8.131.52

# dig +short @22.214.171.124 google.ie (Open DNS #1)

220.127.116.11

# dig +short @188.8.131.52 google.ie (Open DNS #2)

22.214.171.124

# dig +short @ns1.farahatz.net google.ie

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

# dig +short @ns2.farahatz.net google.ie

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

# whois 188.8.131.52

...

NetName: GOOGLE

...

# whois 18.104.22.168

...

netname: LINTASLINK-ID

...

<comment><USER7> So, the Google DNS servers are returning the correct values? Is it definitely Google's server which has been hacked?

<comment><USER8> It's definitely NOT Google's servers hacked, since at least one other domain (yahoo.ie) was affected.

<comment><USER6> Ooo - Interesting.

I was about to say that points the finger at the IEDR, but.. "eMarkmonitor Inc" are involved with them too..

# whois yahoo.ie

...

person: eMarkmonitor Inc

...

That basically means eMarkmonitor or the IEDR were hacked/had passwords stolen.

<comment><USER9> Markmonitor handles all the ccTLDs (.ie, .co.uk, .de, etc) for almost all the Fortune 500 companies. If they were hacked you'd see more than two changed .ie domains.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> $ dig +trace www.google.ie ... google.ie. 172800 IN NS ns1.farahatz.net.

google.ie. 172800 IN NS ns2.farahatz.net.

;; Received 79 bytes from 184.108.40.206#53(22.214.171.124) in 4 ms

www.google.ie. 14400 IN CNAME google.ie.

google.ie. 14400 IN A 126.96.36.199

google.ie. 86400 IN NS ns2.farahatz.net.

google.ie. 86400 IN NS ns1.farahatz.net.

$ whois 22.214.171.124

...

route: 18.104.22.168/20

descr: Route object of PT Inet Global Indo

descr: ISP

descr: Jakarta Barat

country: ID

origin: AS18351

mnt-by: MAINT-ID-INET

changed: firstname.lastname@example.com 20090211

source: APNIC

person: Santoso Halim

address: Pluit Permai 8 No.3A

address: Jakarta-Utara

address: Indonesia

country: ID

phone: +62-21-30047799

fax-no: +62-21-30047798

e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com

nic-hdl: SH1061-AP

mnt-by: MAINT-ID-INET

changed: email@example.com 20061020

source: APNIC

<comment><USER10> ...and it's been repaired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> [IPv6 Ready] Whois Search Results PDF Print E-mail

[Querying whois.domainregistry.ie] [whois.domainregistry.ie]

% You have issued 1000 queries today. You have 0 queries per rolling 1 hours.

% You have reached your 1 hour limit.

Looks like they're blocking lookups for google.ie

 __Edit - actually looks like they're not doing any lookups. Searching anything gives the same error. I haven't done any lookups today for anything, but it thinks I did 1000.

<comment><USER12> `whois google.ie` returns

      % Rights restricted by copyright; http://iedr.ie/index.php/mnudomregs/mnudnssearch/96
      % Do not remove this notice

      domain:       google.ie
      descr:        Google, Inc
      descr:        Body Corporate (Ltd,PLC,Company)
      descr:        Registered Trade Mark Name
      admin-c:      KR59-IEDR
      tech-c:       CCA7-IEDR
      registration: 21-March-2002
      renewal:      21-March-2013
      status:       Active
      nserver:      ns1.google.com
      nserver:      ns2.google.com
      nserver:      ns3.google.com
      source:       IEDR

      person:       Kulpreet Rana
      nic-hdl:      KR59-IEDR
      source:       IEDR

      person:       eMarkmonitor Inc
      nic-hdl:      CCA7-IEDR
      source:       IEDR

Which looks like it could be cached information. Kulpreet Rana's LinkedIn "also viewed" section seems to identify her as a Google lawyer. The new nameservers are ns1.farahatz.net and ns2.farahatz.net.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If the likes of Google (tech-savvy, security-savvy, loads of cash) can't stay safe, the problem is huge.

<comment><USER14> The IEDR works on a fax based authorisation system for a lot of procedures which is low hanging fruit for an attacker. Any other type of compromise might be more interesting so curious if they'll release how this happened.

<comment><USER6> Actually, you can just log directly into the IEDR site to make these changes.

I've done this many times..

<comment><USER14> Just speculating on an attack vector that's pretty low-tech and open to abuse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This reminds me of Google Bolivia giving a certificate error because it points to Google.com:

<https://www.google.bo/>

<comment><USER16> It looks like the working URL is <https://www.google.com.bo/>

Found that out thanks to the technical details in Firefox's SSL error screen, where it says:

"www.google.bo uses an invalid security certificate.

"The certificate is only valid for the following names: google.com , _.google.com ,_.youtube.com , youtube.com , _.youtube-nocookie.com , youtu.be ,_.ytimg.com , _.android.com , android.com ,_.googlecommerce.com , googlecommerce.com , _.url.google.com ,_.urchin.com , urchin.com , _.google- analytics.com , google-analytics.com ,_.cloud.google.com , goo.gl , g.co , _.gstatic.com ,_.google.ac , ..." and then goes on to list an enormous number of localized Google domains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> yahoo.ie was hijacked too. Both are back to normal now, the incident duration was about 1h.

</comment><comment><USER17> <http://www.whois.com/whois/google.ie>

shows

status: Active nserver: ns1.google.com nserver: ns2.google.com nserver: ns3.google.com source: IEDR

Domaintools.com shows something else

<http://whois.domaintools.com/google.ie>

Something else that's worth a look at: <http://host.robtex.com/ns1.farahatz.net.html#graph>

<comment><AUTHOR> those results are likely cached

<http://www.opendns.com/support/cache/>

This would be loading the correct "hacked" entries now

google.ie 18.104.22.168

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> resolving to

nserver: ns1.farahatz.net nserver: ns2.farahatz.net

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I noticed this as I was getting an error similar to

SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length

I then did a bit of checking.

I am using OpenDNS, which shows 188.8.131.52 as the IP now

Even when browser tries to redirect to google.com, it is hanging

The IEDR reloads the zonefile next at 5pm, although I suspect they may be a bit quicker about it today...

</comment><comment><USER18> Interesting:

      $ dig +short @220.127.116.11 google.ie
      126.96.36.199
      18.104.22.168
      18.104.22.168

      $ dig +short @ns1.farahatz.net google.ie
      220.127.116.11

      $ whois 22.214.171.124
      (...)
      descr:          PT. TEKNOLOGI LINTASLINK
      (...)

</comment><comment><USER19> well that can't be good! domain not due to expire until 21 March 2013 so looks like their dns records have been hijacked per the original submitter. A records are still going to google for me right now.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm sorry but what exactly indicates that it's hacked? It says it belongs to Google Inc, the nameservers end in .google.com, what's wrong here?

<comment><USER21> The story was posted 2 hours ago, do you think that might be enough time for them to have changed the nameservers back?

<comment><USER20> Oh, then perhaps it should have linked to a cached page. Now it's just confusing...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Please Google dont F __with - white Seo</comment>


Ask HN: is there a place for single-person bootstrapped software businesses? - <AUTHOR>

I was thinking and trying to starting my own bootstrapped (read: very little money upfront) software business (not a consultancy) for some time.
The situation as I understand it:
B2C. Lots of VC-backed companies which can afford to make their products and websites pretty. Expensive, I can't.
B2B. Selling to businesses requires a lot of sales work. Expensive.
B2D. Very crowded space, also a lot of companies with funding.
Is there still a place for single-person bootstrapped company which cannot afford to spend money or time on anything, but the product itself?
A little background: I live in the remote part of the world where most of the IT is doing local business support, and unable to relocate any time soon. I am also stuck with full-time job to support my family and repay mortgage. Laws here make it very expensive to employ people and nearly impossible to fire employees. <comment><USER2> Assuming you can code, you have internet access and you'll have some spare time. Especially in software, those three could make up for the lack of money!

VC backing is nice but not a bliss on all sides. In your situation, without VC funding, you'd keep your freedom, you'd not be distracted by money, you can't run out of money and your strongest asset can't go anywhere, cause that is yourself.

With respect to the latter, this means that it is wise to foster this one asset: improve your tech skills, market knowledge, business skills and your network (and networking skills). If you're someone dreaming of your company you'll find this fun to work on.

Having a fulltime job that helps you improve relevant skills is a plus, as is a job / boss where you could reduce working hours (and salary of course) in small steps.

There's a few ways to go from here. You could work per hour. The cool part is that this would enable you to free yourself from your daytime job bit by bit. The downside is that it requires work. As you describe it, this is limited in your area, but perhaps you should do a more in depth market analysis to be sure? Also, you could work for people remotely via the internet, there are many websites that bring work and workers together. Whether this can help you will depend a bit on what country you live in, and how your monthly wage is compared to that in other countries.

The other option is to bootstrap your own product. Read Tim Ferris' 4 hour workweek for inspiration. This depends on a good idea, a bit of luck, how you execute it and your patience. You can balance your webdesign skills a bit by using tools like 'Bootstrap'. Don't worry too much about this part if you are building your own product, look at Reddit, Amazon, Hackers News: the relation between use and looks is pretty noisy!

It is not impossible and bootstrapping has been preferred by many over VC money. Given your personal situation, you do need a lot of patience and put in a lot of time and effort. But as long as you learn from it, and enjoy it, it is all worth it.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER3> The HN bubble often leads people to believe that VC investment is a mark of success. But there is no reason to sell part of your business and swing for the fences other than your own desire to do so.

In the circumstances you describe, the odds of your business throwing off fuck you money are about the same as if you were in Silicon Valley - almost zero. Yes, being in the valley improves your odds some, but the vast majority of startups still go bust.

The only way to lower your odds is to do nothing. Then you will never have the experience gained from having failed on your first, second and third forays into entrepreneurship. Standing still, it is impossible to change direction.

Make something and see what happens because what happens might be good fortune.

<comment><USER4> Getting a lot VC funds for start ups some time treated as a sucess, b'cause VC's invest money into your firm most due to they believe that the start up has some potential. But this is not the ultimate thing. As somebody said 90% of the start ups are failures. Single person bootstrap start up can be successful. look at the case of Instapaper.(<http://www.instapaper.com/>)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sounds like you are out of luck, mostly.

If you don't have time, skills, freedom or money for a startup, can't make someone else to do the hard work for you otherwise, then you can't really start up a programming something business.

Solutions would be to decrease your liabilities, for example get rid of the mortgaged house and/or get a less time consuming job. Your family might have something against that, though...

Other than that, start a business around a website. Maybe something around bitcoins. Maybe a game. In this type of thing time to completion doesn't matter, user support or sales almost doesn't matter... Of course, lack of skills does matter a lot there...

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, I definitely do have skills, but they are just not web design skills: I've got a plenty of diverse software engineering experience, ranging from QA to leading software engineering teams and to designing network protocols (besides a lot of code written).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Is there still a place for single-person bootstrapped company which cannot afford to spend money or time on anything, but the product itself?"

If you have time to spend on the product then you also have time to spend on the research, the marketing, the promotion, and the interaction with your customers.

A business isn't purely about the product - there is so much more you have to do to make it successful.</comment>


Everything you always wanted to know about HTTP headers status, but were afraid to ask - <AUTHOR> http://thoughtpad.net/alan-dean/http-headers-status.png great resources on this site http://thoughtpad.net/alan-dean/http-headers-status.html <comment><USER2> #7 on the front page. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134236></comment>


United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care - <AUTHOR> http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/08/united-airlines-lost-my-friends-10-year-old-daughter-and-didnt-care.html <comment><USER2> This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country.

I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n> who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the drought to this farmer who planted a solid base of drought tolerant sorghum <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417664n> in addition to his corn. The second farmer is diversified. He's making smarter decisions with his farm, but because he wasn't hit as hard as other farmers who aren't making good decisions with their land, he's not going to get as much compensation for failed crops. That first farmer needs to go to work for the second farmer so he can learn better and more profitable methods of farming and we will all benefit -- including him. Watch the two farmers. Look how worn out the first one is compared to the second one. The first farmer is working _harder_ the second farmer is working _smarter_. We need to reward that.

The same thing with United. United Airlines was the largest recipient of cash grants from the US after 9/11, getting $774.2 Million [1]. If the US hadn't kept United alive over the past 10 years so an Airline that cares could fill the void, this little child may not have been left stranded at the airport by a company full of employees who don't need to care.

<http://www.laane.org/downloads/ShortchangedStudy.pdf>

<comment><USER3> I don't think weather forecasting is currently good enough for a farmer to plan which crops to plant based on rainfall predictions.

If every farmer planted a diversity of crops to account for all likely weather scenarios, then the average productivity would drop, as most crops would turn out to be unsuitable for the weather that occurred.

<comment><USER4> "I don't think weather forecasting is currently good enough for a farmer to plan which crops to plant based on rainfall predictions."

It's good enough to offer insurance to farmers for when harvests will fail. This exists, I know because I (even if only at arms length) work in this field.

<comment><USER5> The insurance plans I've seen were based upon historical data, and didn't take weather forecasts into account. (My family is in farming and ranching.)

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure how these insurances are sold to end users at small scales. I'm involved in building crop harvest forecast systems to be used by insurers who insure large businesses (think multinationals) who need resources from mostly Asian and African countries for the production of their goods, e.g. palm trees. So this use case is different in scale from your example, our work is mostly in risk modeling on a large scale.

That said, if I were selling insurances, I'd want two things: data to justify or explain my rates to my customers, and data to make predictions of my own risk and/or profit margins. The two might be correlated in a highly competitive and transparent market, but I have a hunch that these insurances are not, and that there isn't a whole lot of pressure to work on a cost plus pricing model, so that these insurers can work on a value-added pricing model.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> United are losing it at the moment. I had 2 flights the other week where they couldn't even get someone to move the walkway thingy in line with the plane so we all just stood around waiting after we landed. On one flight the pilot actually _phoned_ because he couldn't get anyone on the radio.

They're really hit and miss with the service - it's either great or it's shit. Sometimes I really love them... I've had two flights where a host has gone out of their way to block off a faulty overhead light and a faulty in seat entertainment system so I could sleep, another flight where I didn't have a long enough layover to get food and they had no snack service so they gave me two main courses (and I wasn't even elite back then). Other times they're like a bad fucking movie - 6 weeks ago at 1am after a cancelled flight they just arbitrarily closed the elite line with "a dozen people left" and told us to go to the end of the economy line with 100s of people waiting in it already for reticketing and hotel vouchers.

<comment><USER7> Services like operating the walkway and the tugs that push-back the plane from the gate are often outsourced. Perhaps that's the connection... in most of the cases where the people did a terrible job, it's because the role's been outsourced.

<comment><USER8> I think the article nails this on the head, management doesn't care about it's employees, and the employees pass this on to the customer.

They care so little that they don't even want core pieces of their business done by their own people.

It reminds me of a cable co in canada called Rogers, the entire thing is a bunch of outsourced services glued together with a couple sales people.

<comment><USER9> It can go further. Caring can be actively dis-incented. If your caring about a problem causes any disruption to your "normal" work, you will be penalized.

That child you rescued and escorted to their destination or a safe location? That's 30 minutes you weren't "doing your job".

And perhaps you're not authorized to escort children. The liability! Sorry, but we are going to have to terminate you.

When it gets to this point of actively "not caring", it's no longer human nature; it is a contrary behavior that has been actively taught and reinforced.

<comment><USER10> I don't know anything about this situation, but in some cases there can be other factors preventing people from doing the work, even if they want to. Liability, as you mention, is one such.

I recall many years ago, working at a certain phone company (I was a college student on a summer job). I needed to get some information off a circuit board that was sitting in a box on a warehouse shelf -- I could see it from where I was standing, but couldn't read it. Yet I was forced to stand around for 1/2 hour until a warehouse worker could go fetch the box for me. I was told that union rules didn't allow me to walk 50 feet over to pick up a box, and the union would file a grievance if I did so.

I don't mean this as a rant against unions. I just mean to say that there can be other extenuating factors. In the long run, management should be aware of these problems and act to mitigate them. But in the short term -- when there's a problem right now, that I'd like to fix -- both I and management may have our hands tied.

<comment><USER9> Fair enough. Unions, and their members, can act badly, too.

There is plenty of idiocy and self-serving turf warfare to go around.

I was in a union -- by default -- for a while, one time. It meant that in exchange for a small amount in dues, my wages were 25% - 30% higher than those of other jobs available to me. And, I worked my ass off. With other people who worked their asses off. And who still had the time and energy for some good humor, perhaps in part because there were limits to the amount that management could jerk them around. We were all "blue collar stiffs"; nonetheless, it was one of the happier places I've worked.

I have an uncle who ended up president of his union (in an unrelated field and business). One of the most decent people I know. And he's busted his balls for his folks; it's been necessary, in order to try to counteract some of the very typical, abusive management techniques that have become prevalent -- and increasingly written about -- in the last 20 years.

Unions do bad things. Short-sighted, self-destructive things. But no worse than Management. And often, it seems that the "badness" is symmetric; the worse one side gets, the worse the other becomes in response.

Some of the more compelling arguments of economics occur at the macro level. And there, the decline and destruction of the union workforce has a strong correlation -- if arguments continue over causation -- with the decline of the American workforce and productive industry.

Unions also, at their best, epitomize a characteristic oft lauded as an American ideal: When the chips are down, we "rouged individualist" Americans step up and take care of each other. We're in this together. (A sentiment having significant base in WW II.) It ain't pretty, but it works.

The decline of unions seems to correspond with, symbolize, and perhaps represent the decline of this ideal in the American population and psyche.

These days, to be caustic, we seem to be lauding "ever dog for himself".

P.S. Your story about having to wait 30 minutes to look in a box disgusts me. That definitely is _not_ the way things should be -- I agree with you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As someone who traveled many times as an unaccompanied minor (without a cellphone) in the early 2000s under United Airlines, American Airlines, and Northwest Airlines, I'm shocked to hear this story. I always felt safe and knew who was in charge of taking me from place to place. I'm astonished that United's service has deteriorated to this extent. Yes, it was only a very small sample size of United's service staff, but the fact that this situation happened does not bode well for the quality of their service and will hopefully spark something in the administration and leadership to revitalize the culture that currently tolerates such treatment. If not, well, there are plenty of cheaper airlines with superior service and United's marketshare and reputation will suffer. There's always someone willing to provide the service you do for less. You have to figure out what you can do better than the other guys and capitalize on it.

<comment><USER12> My experience with United/U.S. Airways/American has been, shit to say the least. I'm astounded by how generally large North American carriers pale compared to either small companies like Westjet and Porter, or large Asian airlines like Singapore and Emirates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Wow. This is one thousand times worse than breaking guitars. I would love to see that band make another video about this incident. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo>

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm astounded at how terrible United Airlines is, and seemingly always has been. How have they been able to get away with such terrible customer service for so long?

In 1995 I flew with my brother and mother to America from Australia, a 12 hour flight. I was 5 years old and my older brother was 7. They knew our ages, and had seated us with 1 seat at the back of the plane, and 2 near the front. My mother was pretty frustrated. Was she supposed to sit up the front by herself and leave us two at the other end of the plane? Or sit with one of us and leave the other by themselves?

I recently took a very similar flight at the end of last year. I was flying by myself, but sure enough, once the bulk of the passengers had boarded the plane, an attendent over the loudspeaker told us that they were aware that family members had been separated due to seating arrangements and they ask that we please just sit in those seats for take-off and rearrange ourselves once we were in the air. I couldn't believe that after 16 years they were still having the same problems.

</comment><comment> k-mcgrady United is clearly very wrong here and treating their customers poorly. But, and I'm sure this is going to be an unpopular opinion, who sends a 10 year old across the country on a plane alone? I wouldn't send a 10 year on a 30min bus ride alone. I understand United offers a service to make this possible but it seems like a ridiculous thing for a parent to take advantage of. Maybe it's a cultural difference and this is common in the US (is it?) but I don't know anyone who would even consider doing it.

<comment><USER15> > who sends a 10 year old across the country on a plane alone? I wouldn't send > a 10 year on a 30min bus ride alone.

Wow. Overprotective much? At 10 I went to school by bus, alone, with 2 or 3 changes along the way (and a ~10 minutes walk between home and the bus station), total travel time was maybe 45~60mn and same thing the other way around in the evening. And I had friends boarding who took the train at the beginning and end of the week, same age, hours of travel on their own.

> Maybe it's a cultural difference and this is common in the US (is it?)

I'm not in the US, and I'd definitely consider that fine. Taking the plane is probably less common around here but considering the plane culture of the US I don't see any issue with it.

> I understand United offers a service to make this possible but it seems like > a ridiculous thing for a parent to take advantage of.

1\. No it's not, the whole point of the service is to use it.

2\. I'm pretty sure United created the service because parents were _already_ sending children across the country by plane alone, that's not a rare occurrence. Most children of 8 or 10 are reasonably bright and can actually take care of themselves reasonably well unless you spent 10 years making them completely dependent.

<comment><USER8> I'll second this, in North America everything that is possible to make a child absolutely dependant is done. Parents who try to raise functioning adults are shunned.

There was a national outcry because someone let their 12 year old ride a subway.

You can find most of the roots of helicopter parenting in attachment parenting, the idea that a child should always be touched by their parent until they're about 5.

<comment><USER16> I grew up in Moscow, before I turned ten I would regularly take the subway all the way to school and back. I find it ludicrous and offensive that some of my peers weren't allowed to walk or bike _ten blocks_ to school in a suburban neighborhood.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, there's a strange sense of danger in north america, my father used to play in bomb craters out front of his families' apartment.

Sucks to grow up in a town that makes ball bearings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Doesn't this sound like many large internet companies? Paypal? Ebay? Google? Facebook? Yahoo? All of them seem to ignore their customers. At least that's my experience. They only seem to solve issues when either you have connections to someone on the inside or manage to get your story carried/notice on some major news website (HN included).

<comment><USER18> I'm being as polite as I can say this, but how is it that when you read this article you think it is yet another, "company ignore customer story?" I think most people read this and are appalled by the fact that United is so far over on the wrong side of the line that they can't even be bothered to worry about a human being anymore. They are so far gone that no one in the system cared that a kid is alone by him/herself. Imagine the shitstorm that would have happened had something happened to the kid.

But to answer your question, no. Paypal, eBay, Google, Facebook, Yahoo. None of these companies are in the business of transporting humans (at least not yet, and I guess yes only if you count those self-driving cars Google has).

<comment><USER19> They aren't in the business of transporting human beings, but they are in the business of transporting and storing things that are really, really important to human beings. Their financial information. Their family photos, records of who they talked to and what they said, etc. Real human beings got hurt when Yahoo handed over information about who they were talking to to the Chinese government. If you spend 99 cents on an MP3 from Amazon and something goes wrong you'll almost certainly get a really good customer service experience. There's no reason that a company you're trusting with all of your communications can't have the same level of service.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "So some United executive called Annie and Perry at home yesterday to try to cool them out."

Interesting. I would make this guy wait some 40 mins on the phone, then tell him "something has happened" and that he would have to call later. In the meantime he would have to wait and watch the news getting widespread in media. A little bit of reciprocity would be nice to educate this corporate people. It's absurd that, IMHO, parents of a missing child who have not received proper care for days, now have to give all the attention and care to some executive.

</comment><comment><USER21> I want to know who the the passengers were sitting next to this child were that didn't help her with her transfer. The lack of human decency is a cultural problem as much as an airline problem. What the fuck is wrong with people that don't talk to a child traveling alone and make sure she makes her connection. I blame humanity as much as the airline.

<comment><USER22> It sucks to say this but in the US if you're male, the smart/safe thing to do is not have any contact with an unaccompanied child at all. There is a non- trivial chance that may be misconstrued as something else and you could find yourself in a whole world of trouble. Of course this should not stop someone from bringing a distressed child to the attention of the flight crew and other passengers.

<comment><USER23> Fuck. That. If you're not willing to take the negligible* risk of the situation being misconstrued to help a lost scared child, you are no better than the United Airlines employees.

* Yes, it is negligible. For every scare story you hear, thousands of people interact with minors with absolutely no issues at all.

<comment><USER24> If it happens to you it is a 100% result.

Just today a man was ordered to move his airline seat away from two young children. Until he proved they were _his_ children.

In another story out today a woman aggressively approached a man and threatened him with arrest for taking his own children to a store.

Another man found a lost child and returned the child to its mother, only to be abused and threatened by the mother.

You see enough of this, eventually you conclude "OK, have it your way".

<comment><USER25> _If it happens to you it is a 100% result._

Just like it's a 100% result if your plane crashes. But we know that, statistically speaking, airline travel is safe and crashes are pretty rare.

So, of the million of interactions between men and unaccompanied children, how many result in some crazy, unjustified child-molester accusation? I'm guessing it's about the same as the percentage of flights that crash.

I don't believe that a handful of anecdotes, considered in isolation, are a good basis for making decisions.

<comment><USER26> The benefits of air travel outweigh the risk of dying in air crash and other modes of travel are riskier.

However the benefits to the person helping the child is minuscule compared to the risk of ending up in prison and being added to sex offenders list. It is minuscule even compared to the risk of undergoing a criminal trial.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I don't think this blog post's headline is quite right.

"Losing a child" is putting a child on BOS-EWR instead of BOS-CLE and not noticing the problem until the child's family in Cleveland calls the parents and the parents call Newark, [http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009...](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/06/68159589/1).

It sounds like what happened here was "causing a child to miss a connection" (and also separately "delaying the delivery of a child's luggage"). This is of course a very bad thing.

Missing the handoff of an UM from the aircraft to their connecting gate is the same kind of service delivery failure that routinely happens to pax with disabilities who, when the third-party wheelchair vendor fails to show up, occasionally may be stuck at a gate waiting for someone for an hour. It's a really bad way for a third-party vendor to fail.

The unaccompanied minor fee is supposed to cover a really, really good white- glove service, so it's really sad to see this break down. The service is supposed to include a gate pass so you can accompany your minor to the gate; a complimentary onboard meal (food-for-purchase these days); careful handoff of the pax by flight crew to the ground staff who are supposed to be waiting to escort them to their connecting gate; and in the rare event of an overnight delay, guaranteed overnight accommodations with airline staff staying with the minor at the hotel. (This last perk is so expensive to the airlines that in the event of irregular operations that require a rebooking, UMs typically get top priority for rebooking, ahead of all other displaced pax.)

Total bummer to see service delivery fail here.

<comment><USER28> If my luggage didn't make a connection and I arrived at my final destination without it, I would think of it as "lost luggage." Would it matter to me if it was stuck in the connecting airport or sent elsewhere? No, it did not arrive with me, the airline lost it, even if temporarily. In lay person terms, the luggage is lost--the airline lost a child, yes.

<comment><USER27> Yes, I understand your point -- colloquially, one might say that the "child was lost".

Your mileage may vary, but when someone who works for a company has done something horribly wrong and I'm trying to clean it up, I often find it helpful to be careful with my language so that I can express precisely and correctly what it is that they did wrong.

This is mostly a matter of showing empathy, not being a stickler for technical correctness. When I talk to someone who can fix a horrible mistake, and I show that I understand precisely what went wrong and who's responsible without overreaching, I gain credibility and the person I'm talking to (who is after all a person, if perhaps one who has done something horrible) is more likely to believe that I understand them. If I can express that I know exactly how their system works and what part of it broke, it helps them realize that I'm seeing things from their point of view, and this can help bridge the gap between "my side" and "their side" to help them realize that we're trying to get the same thing done.

I've found empirically that practicing empathy with people makes them more likely to try harder to fix mistakes and gets better outcomes. It also saves a lot of time to be able to say "X happened", which is exactly what happened, and not waste anyone's time re-explaining the problem instead of fixing it.

But, again, this is just a thing that's worked for me in practice (as it happens, mostly with airlines). Concise, precise communication about what went wrong, who's responsible, and what I'd like to fix the problem has helped me get great outcomes dozens of times.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I don't know how accurate it is, but this article

<http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-airlines>

provides an explanation of the chronic financial problems that airlines find themselves in. Briefly, the senior pilots get to negotiate their own pay rates, and since they have the airlines over a barrel they always wind up taking any profit themselves.

Of course that means that airline management is permanently strapped for cash and has to spend the bare minimum on everything else.

</comment><comment><USER30> Simon Sinek in his book makes very similar observations and also has his take on why this is happening and how to fix it.

The book is at <http://www.startwithwhy.com/>

TL;DR folks this is the "trailer" for the book: <http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/848>

</comment><comment><USER31> Not really surprising, in my opinion once these organizations become large enough that diffusion of responsibility become institutionalized. It doesn't necessarily indicate that the individuals don't care, just that they feel that it isn't their responsibility to do so.

<comment><USER12> I flew on U.S. Airways a few weeks back. Lining up to board the plane, a passenger noticed someone left a purse at the gate. A passenger said to the U.S. Airways attendent, "Do you think it makes sense to announce to the gate and the plane that someone left a purse? Maybe someone will come and pick it up." The attendent shrugged his shoulders and kind of said, "meh, not my problem."

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> This is the kind of rage-inducing stuff that makes you want to choke a flight attendant.

I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to be told over the phone that the company lost your child, and the baggage, and that they don't really care... or even think it's a big deal.

<comment><USER33> As someone who is dating a flight attendant, may I say: Please don't choke a flight attendant. They are absolutely the least culpable people involved with airline incompetence.

At least for Delta, flight attendants' primary compensation is based on _scheduled_ flight time. Not actual flight time. Not tarmac time. Not delay time. _Scheduled_ flight time. And even then, only with passengers!

So when you're stuck at the gate, waiting for some nincompoop to fetch the jet bridge, and you start giving the flight attendants hell, you need to understand that _waiting there sucks for them too_. They have only a few short hours to get a half night's sleep and enjoy the destination; the only perk that justifies their lifestyle. The rest of their job boils down to glorified waitress and underpaid babysitter.

If you think you've got a travel horror story, you ain't got nothing on a flight attendant. One night, my girlfriend's phone woke us up at 3 AM. She was on call and was needed immediately for a flight from Anchorage (we're in Seattle). It's about 40 minutes to the airport and this was a "short call", meaning she needed to be there in less than 2 hours! She and 5 of her co- workers, had to jump out of bed and haul ass to the airport where they boarded an empty flight to Anchorage. They were there to relieve a crew that didn't receive the legal minimum rest time due to a weather delay. While they were in the air, scheduling decided "fuck the FAA regulations" and put the overworked crew back on a plane anyway. So my girlfriend's crew arrives, finds that the flight they were supposed to work has already departed, and the pilot who brought them required a legal rest period. So they were required to spend the night in Alaska and take another empty flight home. It was the dead of winter, so it was far too cold to go anywhere outside the hotel. All in all, the crew received one days worth of per diem and no compensation for either flight, as they were "dead heading", which is unpaid. That per diem is fixed for "domestic" travel, so it's relative value varies by destination. It generally doesn't even cover the cost of meals in Alaska.

Fuck airlines.

<comment><USER34> >As someone who is dating a flight attendant, may I say: Please don't choke a flight attendant.

Everyone is responsible for their own actions. It doesn't matter if those are your "orders", you're still completely responsible if you carry them out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> My first flight was unaccompanied at 10 years old, to Maine via Boston. All the airline's flights were delayed indefinitely due to some malfunction. A stewardess took my brother and I around Boston airport and kept an eye on us for 6 hours while things got straightened out. I've had respect for Delta ever since, even if all the people involved are long gone.

</comment><comment><USER36> O'Hare is gigantic airport. And, I know from experience that some flights from O'hare to GRR are running tight,sometimes as little as 10 minutes before the connecting flight taxis. I once sprinted through O'Hare to catch a connecting flight to GR. So I'm not surprised at all by this.

<comment><USER37> That's a valid excuse for missing the connection. Not so much for anything else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'm not United's biggest fan, but this story sounds one-sided.

I know for a fact that flight attendants have procedures where a child is handed off from person-to-person, by signature. The agent comes with the child and paperwork, gives it to the FA, and then when the plane arrives at a new location, the paperwork and the child are handed off to the next person. This article does not mention any of the procedures, but I know they exist -- If a flight attendant loses a child, her job is on the line. The company does care.

</comment><comment><USER39> 2 months back my 13-year old nephew flew from USA to India as an unaccompanied minor in Lufthansa, with a flight changeover in Frankfurt. This is a 21 hour journey. It went off without a hitch. In fact, Lufthansa staff took good care of him, and he had a great time.

</comment><comment><USER40> scary story.

Reminded me of this kid's story (almost same age):

[http://overheadbin.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/25/12945121-rom...](http://overheadbin.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/25/12945121-rome- alone-boy-11-slips-through-security-flies-from-uk-to-italy-without- passport?lite)

</comment><comment><USER41> This shouldn't be on HN. Flagged.

</comment><comment><USER9> Yes, the Management should feel like the scum they are.

So should all the self-serving, money-grubbing, union-busting, career- exporting, not-in-my-backyard scum that have come to infest the U.S.

You want to blame someone? Look in the damned mirror, reader.

</comment><comment><USER42> I think the moral of this story is not to send your 10 year old unaccompanied on an airplane...

</comment><comment><USER43> The responsibility lies with the parents. What are they doing sending a child so young alone? United is not a baby-sitting service.

<comment><USER12> Why didn't the parents give the kid a cellphone? There's no way I'd just leave my kid to travel alone on a flight, let alone without a cell phone.

<comment><USER44> How on earth did people travel some ten or twenty years ago I wonder? You know, before cellphones were widespread or even affordable? For fuck's sake, children aren't dumb. Always treating them as if they are results in them not growing into independent adults.

Besides, unaccompanied flights are _awesome_ as a child. I did that once, don't remember how old I was. Flew with the German Lufthansa from my parents to my grandparents. You can't imagine how adult I felt, flying (almost) all alone. I remember the attendants were all friendly and helpful, and the gentleman next to me even swapped his seat with me so I could look out of the window. It was a valuable and memorable experience.

<comment><USER41> They are quite awesome. I remember my childhood flights as well</comment></comment></comment></comment>


MacUpdate Bundle: 11 Mac Apps for $49.99 - <AUTHOR> https://www.mupromo.com/

<comment><USER2> Parallels and 1Password for $50 is a sweet deal. The two DVD rippers are icing. You could invert those two, I suppose and still be valid.

</comment><comment><USER3> How ridiculously annoying - I just bought Parallels a few days ago, for more than the bundle costs lol.</comment>


In 2008, I bought a book titled "PHP 6″. Six years later, PHP version is 5.5 - <AUTHOR> http://modeling-languages.com/2008-bought-book-titled-php-6-six-years-later-php-version-5-5/

<comment><USER2> PHP version is now 5.6 ;)

Timing is obviously everything.

</comment><comment><USER3> At least it wasn't a Python 3 book!

<comment><USER4> Or Perl 6.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Heresy, a BASIC-inspired functional Lisp - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jarcane/heresy

<comment><USER2> If you could elimiate the outermost braces and have a line continuation character you might get something even less intimidating.

In other words anything between two auccessive non escaped line endings is treated as being parenthesized. Suddenly you can write lisp without parens everywhere.

<comment><USER3> There's an SRFI that outlines an indentation based Scheme syntax called Sweet- expressions. It also adds infix operations.

[http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-110/srfi-110.html](http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-110/srfi-110.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, turns out there is a version of this for Racket: [https://github.com/takikawa/sweet-racket](https://github.com/takikawa/sweet- racket)

I will have to take a gander and see if it's compatible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Odd.. I had a similar project I worked on at work one day out of boredom. Except mine was called "HereC", I was trying to make C more Basic like. Visual Basic 6 was my first language, so sometimes it's fun to 'go back' to it. GAMBAS is a neat little language I play with now and then.

<comment><USER5> euphoria [[http://www.rapideuphoria.com/](http://www.rapideuphoria.com/)] is the closest I've seen to a decent c/basic cross. worth checking out if you're interested in that space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Have you tried to use keywords instead of normal symbols in the forms?

For example, instead of

      (if *test* then *do1* else *do2*)

define it to use

      (if *test* #:then *do1* #:else *do2*)

[Disclaimer: I still use VB6 from time to time.]

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't really think about it. Doing them as literals felt more idiomatic to classic BASIC, and it was easy to implement (initially) with syntax-rules.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I expected GOTO implemented with continuations. Very disappointing.

<comment><AUTHOR> CL can already do GOTO. And the BREAK and CARRY implementations use exit continuations.

I did consider doing it in CL though because then I'd have an excuse to call FUNCTION and FUNCALL "SUB" and "GOSUB".

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice, but I miss ON ERROR RESUME NEXT.

</comment><comment><USER9> I love the name.</comment>


Free app for memorizing Ruby on Rails terminal commands - <AUTHOR>

We created a little app to help devs internalize Rails terminal commands.  You can get it free on iTunes here (http://bit.ly/j9WJda) or study it on the web here (http://bit.ly/mJK5IK).  Let me know what you think! <comment><USER2> Pretty cool. Probably best for a novice -- I knew most of these. Great way to learn stuff from scratch.

</comment><comment><USER3> pretty cool, but after 7 cards it repeatedly bugs me to register. I'd rather just run through the commands quickly, not register, and not necessarily rate how well I knew them.

That said, it did teach me a few new rails commands that I didn't know.</comment>


Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey's $9 million 2 bedroom house in San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://www.home-designing.com/2012/06/twitter-co-founder-jack-dorseys-new-house-in-san-francisco

<comment><USER2> I wonder if it's COLD ALL THE TIME like the rest of SF.

<comment><USER3> Oh, man, how I love that cool weather...just enjoyed SF during WWDC (which was too hot most of the time ;-).

<comment><USER4> If only SF was like that all year round[1]! Had you stayed until Monday, you'd have experienced the colder, partially clouded weather that had inspired a certain Mark Twain quote ;)

[1] The gorgeous days like most of last week pretty much make up for this, though.

<comment><USER5> <http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.asp></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Thinkful – Share your thoughts - <AUTHOR> https://thinkful.me

<comment><USER2> How about some examples of the site, some text about how it works or what it does before signing up?

Sure, sharing my thoughts is great. Who am I sharing them with? What sorts of thoughts? Is it all public? Private? Who else is sharing, and why?

Putting this behind a sign-up wall is seriously hurting any opportunity this may have for you to get users, or even get people interested.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Whenever I see these sites that don't let you see anything before signing up, I just leave. I don't understand this as a design decision, at all.</comment></comment>


Aging: What does it feel like to be old? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Aging/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-old <comment><USER2> You lose interest in signing into Quora. Or maybe I never had the interest.</comment>


Ad Vulna: Vulnerable and Aggressive Adware Threatening Millions - <AUTHOR> http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/2013/10/ad-vulna-a-vulnaggressive-vulnerable-aggressive-adware-threatening-millions.html <comment><USER2> This is why I'm really hesitant to use popular libraries like Flurry.

I'm making a kids game & really want to respect the kids' privacy. I can't hand the keys to all that data & possible backdoors to some "free" third party library & just trust they will play nice.

<comment><USER3> After giving some thoughts on your same issue (customer privacy and security), I moved on to use Piwik ([http://piwik.org/](http://piwik.org/) a well known opensource analytics server) on a personal server. There are also native libraries for mobile usage (I use PiwikTracker [https://github.com/mattiaslevin/PiwikTracker](https://github.com/mattiaslevin/PiwikTracker) for iOS and OS X). Less bell and whistles than Flurry, but definitely a more controlled environment. ;)

<comment><USER4> Piwik allows site owners to track and uniquely identify visitors using their IP adresses. If I were concerned about my privacy I would trust Google more than a random website owner. Just a point to consider.

<comment><USER3> You can always identify your customers though your application without any external library or effort. The point is that (your analytics provider) can track you through all the apps using the library. This is a significant difference, IMHO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> They need a new term -- "Vulna" is just too close in sound and in look to "vulva." Maybe it is on purpose to catch people's attention (it caught mine in a near spit-take), but that would be a poor decision for anyone who wants to be taken seriously.

<comment><USER6> That didn't even cross my mind. Perhaps it depends on language background?

<comment><USER7> Natural English here and didn't occur to me either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm interested if anyone has been able to identify the library or spot any clues other than the image from the article [http://www.fireeye.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2013/10/scree...](http://www.fireeye.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2013/10/screen.png)

<comment><USER8> I'm curious as to why FireEye chose not to disclose the library. What would you call this kind of disclosure?

<comment><USER9> _" I'm curious as to why FireEye chose not to disclose the library."_

For the same reason that most responsible security researchers don't disclose zero-day threats: to prevent people from exploiting them before they can be fixed. In this case, they did notify Google, which can pull the compromised apps out of their app store and notify the developers who've used this library that they need to rewrite their apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What kind of perverted joke is this? They're making grandiose claims about severe security threats without telling us which library it is? This is pure spam. I'm going to flag this nonsense.

<comment><USER11> That's what I thought, read all the way to the end and didn't even find out what the actual threat was. Ridiculous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Key quote:

"We have analyzed all Android apps with over one million downloads on Google Play, and we found that over 1.8% of these apps used Vulna. These affected apps have been downloaded more than 200 million times in total."

</comment><comment><USER13> This must be a false report, because according to Eric Schmidt, Android is more secure than the iPhone. There cannot be 200 million vulnerable downloads.

</comment><comment><USER14> Typical Android</comment>


Ask HN: Review my startup - Audio Transcription Outsourcing - <AUTHOR>

A bit of backstory. I am a single founder in Bangalore, India and have been working on this since the past 2 years. I wrote the CallGraph Skype Recorder and was offering a bunch of services around it, and the transcription service picked up. I wanted to outsource the transcription to a 3rd party but didn't find any good ones. So I went ahead and built one.
We have done more than 1500 hours of transcription to date and have around 800 certified transcribers. We have some very satisfied customers and few of them are as old as 2 years.
I am looking to scale it up now and doing some marketing. Your feedback is much appreciated.
Over the past few years I've seen so many great discussions on HN and have learnt so many things from it. I can't thank HN enough for it. You guys are the best! <comment><USER2> There's definitely a need for this. Some ideas if you want to make it so people can integrate it into apps:

1) Turn around time should be faster (hours).

2) Pricing matters _a lot_. Get the price down as low as you can. Go for volume.

3) Offer a simple API for adding audio and retrieving the text.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

We want to get to an turnaround of hours, but we'll have to scale up for that.

Pricing is rock bottom compared to competing services. The industry standard is around $2 per minute.

API is in the works. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This business should do well. Few feedback on the site:

1\. Link logo to home.

2\. Reduce number of fonts and sizes on the homepage.

3\. Homepage appears text-heavy.

4\. A demo video may be very useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Good feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> many journalists and authors use audio to collect info and interview people. they routinely need transcription service. Rashmi Bansal of Connect the dots fame was once looking for such a service. This is a significant market i guess.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, journalists and authors are one of our primary customers. Do you know which service Rashmi used in the end?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link <http://scribie.com>

</comment><comment><USER5> Medical Transcription is a big market and hospitals pay well for the service.

Start looking into this market.

There is a startup that I met on Monday at the RockHealth meetup called 'Beyond Lucid' which is changing the way ambulances select which hospital to route a patient to, as well as providing electronic forms for the ambulance encounters to be filled in -- contact them and offer to whitelabel your audio transcription service as a bolt on to their offering

beyondlucid.com - founder is Christian Witt and their chief eng is David Saylor (first name dot last name at beyondlucid.com)

There may be legal ramifications for getting into medical transcription which I am not aware of though (bond insurance etc.) -- should be easy enough to figure out though.

Talk to the guys at Dr Chrono. I think this was a feature they were asked for - again, it may be a license/whitelabel opportunity.

edit:

One application which would be amazing would be to have this service coupled with an app like Phone Tap (getphonetap.com) where I can record a phone call, then with a click upload and have it transcribed and emailed to me.

This would be great for consumers fighting phone companies, and customer support/call center applications if you could run it and capture phone audio somehow...

<comment><AUTHOR> Any medical transcription is required to HIPPA compliant, which basically requires that you have your own facility and protect the data. We can't ever be able to do that, which kind of rules out the medical transcription market for us.

White-labeling and partnering with other recording services is a really good idea and we are pursing it. We are working an API using which you can offer transcripts and use our service in the backend. That's high on our list of TODO things.</comment></comment>