Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/introducing-equiano-a-subsea-cable-from-portugal-to-south-africa <comment><USER2> Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn't fathom we're actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.

<comment><USER3> I heartily recommend Andrew Blum's book _Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet_ for any non-technical folks interested in the physical infrastructure that makes all that internet magic happen. It's more in the travel memoir/popular history genres than actual engineering, but a very atmospheric layman's introduction.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes)

And of course, if you're ever in SW England, the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy near Penzance is an awesome geek-out experience.

<comment><USER4> My favorite Wired article of all time was the 1996 article written by Neal Stephenson all about undersea cables. I can't believe I was able to find a link, but I may still have the physical copy someplace. That was an amazing example of long form writing and was my introduction to Stephenson.

[https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/](https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/)

<comment><USER5> I really miss wired.

I got into the Internet with their 93 article by William Gibson where they sent him to Singapore.

It was a really neat place to have articles by people like Stephenson and Gibson.

<comment><USER6> Heh do you recall Mondo 2000

It was what wired was inspired by...

Also since we are on the topic: 2600 was a great phreaking resource back in the day... 2600 may still be going though...

<comment><USER5> I didn't read Mondo 2000 in real time and I think found it on its last issue.

2600 is still going last I checked, along with monthly meetups in my mall.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is great. SA feels quite far away from the rest of the Internet (think 200ms) so anything that helps improve connectivity is a possive. Especially since this might foreshadow a local data center there. Azure has tech there. Google doesn't. Yet

<comment><USER8> Really? Sometimes when there is a problem with out of SA connectivity the only non-local websites that work are Google and YouTube. I've got 20ms ping times so Google must have a point of presence in SA.

<comment><USER9> I am gonna guess he meant a datacenter for Google Cloud. Google probably has their own points-of-presence for Google and YouTube.

<comment><USER10> Yes, it does, check out the network tab here: [https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/](https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This cable has a design capacity of ~320Tbps with 16 fiber pairs. The previously announced transatlantic cable, Dunant cable has 12 fiber pairs and a 250Tbps design capacity. These values could probably increase to around 480Tbps and 360Tbps with more advanced optical transmission equipment.

<comment><USER12> That kind of bandwidth capacity is almost unfathomable

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Side question: why is the Middle East not connected to India in the map[1] over Google's fiber?

[1] [https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog- publish/images...](https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog- publish/images/gcp_subsea_cables_XmzTBDO.max-1000x1000.png)

<comment><USER14> [https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/](https://submarine-cable- map-2019.telegeography.com/) shows it is connected. The number of cables going through the suez canal is notable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Once complete, Equiano will start in western Europe and run along the West > Coast of Africa, between Portugal and South Africa, with branching units > along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African > countries.

I understand how undersea cables are laid, but how do you make use of a "branching unit" once it's at the bottom of the sea? Send down a submersible to plug in the branch? Lift the cable back up, plug in the branch, and lower it again? Do they lay the cable with patch leads attached to the branching units, so you just have to dredge those up and plug the rest of the branch in?

<comment><USER16> I've seen photos of internet cables lifted onto ships to work on them. This article explains how one uses a massive robot to find them:

[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable- ship-b...](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-boat)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if Google have plans for Cape Town? It is the most tech savvy city on the continent

<comment><USER7> They should. Amazon is hoovering up all the local talent currently

<comment><USER18> iirc a significant block of Amazon's tech was developed in Cape Town over the last decade or so.

<comment><USER19> Any examples?

<comment><USER20> The original version of EC2 (basically AWS) was built in Cape Town.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Related and a big reason for the existence of this new cable: [https://www.skatelescope.org/](https://www.skatelescope.org/)

The Square Kilometre Array, on its initial phase, will have close to 200 dish radio telescopes and 130000 radio antennas working together in South Africa and Australia. The amount of data produced is predicted at 50% of all internet traffic (this was calculated 2 years ago, probably it changed a bit). A big part of that data will be distributed across the globe for science, being the main link originating in South Africa and ending up in Europe.

This will be the biggest scientific endeavor (by size) of mankind so far.

The Phase 2 of the SKA (for now just an idea), will increase the number of telescope dishes and antennas by a factor of 10.

</comment><comment><USER22> Would this only be used for services l/sites that run on Google Cloud? Or does the entire Internet benefit directly

<comment><USER23> It's funded by Google completely according to TFA, and it's filed under "Infrastructure - Google Cloud Platform" \- I'd hazard a guess that it's probably just for Google Cloud.

They might extend it for AMP sites, maybe..

<comment><USER24> I highly doubt that they would refuse to sell bandwidth if there is a market for it. It is a very valuable market.

<comment><USER25> Of course they sell it, though Google Cloud

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I wonder if this signals that Space/Balloon/Satellite Internet is too far away? Or maybe it's just worth doing this anyway because there's no risk of Kessler Syndrome under the sea.

</comment><comment><USER26> Great to read this. I've Experienced problems when the WACs cable goes down so anything to improve comms is good by me. How much better is optical switching btw?

</comment><comment><USER27> Does it do EU in < 40ms?

<comment><USER7> No. Speed of light caps it to around 100ms theoretical if memory serves. With practical below 160 being unlikely

<comment><USER28> Surface distance Cape Town <-> London is 9673 km which corresponds to 33 ms rounded up at light speed (one way).

Surface distance Seattle <-> Berlin is 8143 km which corresponds to 28 ms rounded up at light speed (one way).

Now, these are distances when travelling across earth's curved surface. Neutrino canons or (quite impossible to ever build them) cables in earth's upper mantle would achieve even faster communication. Also, they correspond to direct connections and don't involve putting the cable into international waters far away from any government trying to get some extra bucks from you. The aerospace industry has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to be able to travel through airspace of a particular country.

<comment><USER7> >London is 9673 km

Closer to 15k via ocean hence the 100ms theoretical. The other 60ms is gear overhead.

But yeah if you could lay the cable as a crow flies then closer to 66

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Anybody remember Google Fiber? Makes you wonder if this may be hit with similar issues. IE: it takes longer than they anticipated, it costs more than anticipated etc..

<comment><USER28> Last mile internet and backbone internet services are two different businesses operating by two different rules.</comment></comment>


List of freely available programming books - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books/392926#392926 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6249376](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6249376)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5160754](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5160754)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3232026](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3232026)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1444890](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1444890)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1972852](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1972852)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=737324](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=737324)

</comment><comment><USER3> Yet another popular, relevant and useful topic locked on StackOverflow.

What a surprise....not.

There seems to be a pedantic core of people on SO that go around locking topics, rather than contributing in their own area of expertise.

<comment><USER4> And now

(a) it's preserved because it has 'historical significance', yet

(b) the bits are rotting as new books are released and old books' information becomes out of date

<comment><USER5> The first link I clicked on in the list was dead. Admittedly I found the pdf with a trivial bit of googling, but still annoying.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This has been driving in the ~1000 hits per month range to [http://eloquentjavascript.net](http://eloquentjavascript.net) for ages. Since that's just one link in the huge list, I guess lots of people are landing on it.

</comment><comment><USER7> [http://hackershelf.com/](http://hackershelf.com/)

<comment><USER8> and Hackerbooks on github : [https://github.com/ekianjo/HackerBooks?source=cc](https://github.com/ekianjo/HackerBooks?source=cc)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs! [1]

Read That Book.

[1] [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)

<comment><USER10> As someone fairly new to programming, why should I read that book?

<comment><USER11> Because the theme music is awesome

<comment><USER12> To say nothing of the hairstyles

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The problem I have with this is that there are so many options , someone looking at this has no real reference as to which books are better, how easy they are to read, etc. Its just a giant list!

<comment><USER14> I created a table of interactive programming resources that just recommends 1 (or 2) options for each category:

[http://www.learneroo.com/courses/12/nodes/96](http://www.learneroo.com/courses/12/nodes/96)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> There's like so many, esp. libraries: [http://libgen.info/](http://libgen.info/) [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computing](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computing)

</comment><comment><USER16> For other free books of potential interest to hackers, see:

[http://csbooks.reddit.com](http://csbooks.reddit.com)

[http://econbooks.reddit.com](http://econbooks.reddit.com)

[http://physicsbooks.reddit.com](http://physicsbooks.reddit.com)

[http://mathbooks.reddit.com](http://mathbooks.reddit.com)

[http://eebooks.reddit.com](http://eebooks.reddit.com)

</comment><comment><USER17> Looks like someone is after their stackoverflow promoter badge;)

On a serious note, this is actually a good resource, and probably an example of a question that wouldn't be allowed on Stackoverflow today but is kept around due to it being so darn popular.

</comment><comment><USER18> So what do you think I should read from this list? (I have a day off tomorrow and so far haven't planned anything meaningful)

</comment><comment><USER19> Very nice, thank you =)</comment>


Ask HN: Features you would like to see in a personal project management software - <AUTHOR> Hi, I've been teaching myself web dev.  I'm looking at building something along the lines of trello/asana.  But instead of building another clone, I thought of doing a bit of market research and make something that can be actually useful.  Request you to let me know :
1) Do you have a pain point that the existing tools like asana/trello doesn't address, but you wished it did ? Would you pay for a Personal PM software that addresses the abovementioned issue(s) ?
2) Is a personal project management tool really useful when you are working on your own project ( as compared to using a simple whiteboard/todo list app/paper, pen) ?
3) What are the top 5 must have features in your opinion, that is required of any Personal PM software ?
4) Would you prefer the Personal PM software to be a desktop/mobile app that works offline as well instead of an online only SaaS app ?
Thanks in advance ! <comment><USER2> I'd like to have something that looks a bit like the Trello UI, but offers a simple and straightforward path to integrate into the rest of my Python infrastructure.

I store tasks as YAML notes in my source files -- a bit like glorified TODOs - and I would like a user interface for manipulating them without having to write the entire UI myself.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comments. If I understood you correctly, you want the comments marked as TODOs listed in a UI automatically , which you can track/move around. Am I correct ?

<comment><USER2> Pretty much ... except instead of being in the form of a TODO, they are actually little YAML data structures embedded in comments, holding requirements, tasks, plans, test cases, records of design decisions and other bits and pieces that need to be tracked and managed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> i reached a point where i have all the notes that i cannot manage in Trello. i still don't know what will be the right design to manage all this crap but it's on my watch list.</comment>


Newish Electric Cars Are Coming Off Lease and Oh My God Are They Cheap - <AUTHOR> http://jalopnik.com/newish-electric-cars-are-coming-off-lease-and-oh-my-god-1790593342 <comment><USER2> I would suggest caution. I would not touch a used electric vehicle unless it came with a new battery. I have seen newish hybrids sell for what seems a steal because of battery issues. Because it can cost several $1000 to replace a battery.

Here is a success story of what I am talking about if you're interested.

[http://imgur.com/gallery/j8Bcp/](http://imgur.com/gallery/j8Bcp/)

<comment><USER3> Most if not all of these cars coming off lease still have a several years of warranty left on the battery. Far as I can tell though batteries[1] appear to be rather reliable in any event.

[1] Manufacturers have about 30 years experience making lithium ion batteries at this point.

<comment><USER4> What they don't have is 30 years of experience with putting them in cars which function from 0 _F to 130_ F ambient temperature and get put through much different duty cycles vs laptops with new battery management software and rapid charging from the various types of auto chargers out there. Many EVs used NiCd or NiMH batteries up until a few years ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This summer I picked up a used 2014 Nissan Leaf, top trim level, with 14,000 miles for 14k. Best car I have owned. Felt like I stole it for the price.

</comment><comment><USER6> Worth noting theres various deals available on new EVs too

[https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/22/new-nissan- leafs-11840-...](https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/22/new-nissan- leafs-11840-colorado-11510-texas/)

</comment><comment><USER7> The "hybrid" cars should be able to operate in mostly-gas mode even with severely degraded batteries.

I'd buy one of them. I wouldn't buy an old electric only car. Lithium cells last 3 years, or at a stretch 5 years if you're happy to have only 30% of the range.

<comment><USER8> Not all lithium batteries are equal. Please don't perpetuate this myth.

<comment><USER4> What are the real figures? I also wouldn't buy an electric car, at all, ever, but mostly due to pack health + replacement cost.</comment></comment></comment>


Worries That Microsoft Is Too Tricky to Manage - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/technology/worries-that-microsoft-is-growing-too-tricky-to-manage.html?hp <comment><USER2> I think things will become much much worse for Microsoft before they get better. I'm afraid they will lose small and medium size enterprises and ISVs because their licensing structure has become so complex, overpriced and antiquated that a new generation of customers will refuse to deal with them.

In the past there was piracy as a way to lower the barriers to entry. Today, piracy has become dangerous for small companies in developed countries. All of a sudden SMEs and ISVs are confronted with scores of product feature matrices, weird dependencies and restrictions, kafkaesque partnership programs and long- term committments.

Sometimes they are just plain stupid. For instance, I recently came across this page that explains developer account types: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/jj863494.aspx](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/jj863494.aspx)

It seems harmless if convoluted at first sight. But look at the dependencies they have created. In order to sell Windows desktop apps in the Windows store and use all device capabilities you need a company account, and to get a company account you need to be recognized as a company in your own country.

That's effectively a wholesale import of tax, social security and incorporation laws of countless countries into Microsoft's own terms of service. Microsoft operates in many countries so they have to know how onerous this rule can be. They are erecting a huge barrier to entry for individual software developers and early stage startups around the world.

I'm sure they will claim it's for their users' safety. But this must be the most uncreative, idiotic safety measure ever invented, particularly if you know how easy it is for real criminals to game this system.

Now, I'm not saying that developer relations is Microsoft's most serious problem. Not at all. But it goes to show how incapable this company is of putting themselves into the shoes of those who have to deal with them in any capacity.

<comment><USER3> > _In order to sell Windows desktop apps in the Windows store and use all > device capabilities you need a company account, and to get a company account > you need to be recognized as a company in your own country_

There are valid reasons for doing that. In Europe for example one reason would be VAT handling. It may very well be that they were forced in doing this.

But, in European countries at least, you have the option to register as a Sole Proprietorship. Depending on the country of course, this is painless to do, accounting is simpler and taxes are much better (in comparison with starting a LLC and paying yourself a salary). It has downsides of course, but for developers trying to experiment it is perfect.

<comment><USER2> > _There are valid reasons for doing that_

There always are, but it's a question of priorities. VAT handling is optional for small businesses in most European countries and it has nothing to do with device capabilities or types of software. Tell me a reason that is valid for desktop software but not for other types of store apps, a reason that is valid for some device capabilities but not others! They are creating unnecessary dependencies between unrelated things (distribution/deployment, types of software, permissions/capabilities, taxes/social security). That's what incidental complexity is all about.

> _But, in European countries at least, you have the option to register as a > Sole Proprietorship [...] for developers trying to experiment it is perfect_

Registering as a sole trader usually means that you have to pay minimum social security contributions even if you make a loss. In the UK that's just 20 Euros or so, but in most other European countries it's between 200 and 300 Euros per month. If you're self funded that hurts.

<comment><USER3> > _Registering as a sole trader usually means that you have to pay minimum > social security contributions even if you make a loss ... in most other > European countries it 's between 200 and 300 Euros per month_

That's true, unfortunately, although these social contributions means you get access to healthcare, which is always nice to have even when starting out.

A minimum of 200 EUR seems too much though, are you sure? In Romania, you get taxed with a percentage of the revenue for healthcare, the tax for unemployment benefits is optional and the only tax that would be required is the pension fund contribution which would amount to 32 EUR per month or something like that.

<comment><USER2> > _although these social contributions means you get access to healthcare, > which is always nice to have even when starting out._

It is indeed, but often times there are various ways to get that. You could be insured with a spouse or by opting into a voluntary scheme for low earners or students. Having to register as a sole trader makes that impossible in some countries.

> _A minimum of 200 EUR seems too much though, are you sure?_

Yes, for instance, in Spain it's 250 Euros per month just to be registered as autónomo. It's similar in many other countries. Good to know it's different in Romania!

<comment><USER3> > _Yes, for instance, in Spain it 's 250 Euros per month just to be registered > as autónomo._

Well, that sucks, I agree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One thing that doesn't seem to come through in all these pundit articles and internet discussions is how fantastically successful MS are.

They've survived several paradigms over decades in a business where most didn't. Most years (including the last few) they make more money than the year before. They have a bunch of very big businesses that make big money. Compare that to Google. Google do lots of cool things: self driving cars, webmail. glass, android. Cool stuff. Still, almost all their money comes from search/adwords/adsense.

They have lots of faults. I really dislike Windows. But, they have a lot of good traits too that others should emulate. A big one is stubborn survivey- ness. Just because an MS thing is still lame 2 years after it was launched doesn't mean it won't make it. They can stick at lame products until they make them decent.

Bottom line I guess is that MS are survivors. I expect them to survive.

</comment><comment><USER5> It is tricky to manage any large company. The more tricky problem for Microsoft is that it heavily depends on old business models. A significant portion of Microsoft profit comes from Windows and Office. Other companies, like Google, can offer competitive products almost for free. That could happen eventually. It won't take Google too much efforts to provide a desktop version of Android and Office-like product. Even at several billion dollars R&D cost, it is still much cheaper than Motorola purchase.

Microsoft enterprise business is hugely competitive. But other than that, it is hard to achieve meaningful profit margin (xbox may earn couple of billions, internet services always lose money, Nokia probably break even for next few years). So the problem is more about innovate than manage Microsoft.

<comment><USER6> Why would Google develop a desktop Android or Office, when they've already got this? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_OS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_OS)

<comment><USER7> Because it sucks?

<comment><USER8> At the current state of development, Google has a problem: Android is by far the better general-purpose OS, but Google Drive's office productivity apps suck REALLY bad on Android. If they were implemented to the same standard as Android's GMail app, Windows would have a lot to worry about. But as it is, Android isn't going to displace any enterprise desktops this week.

<comment><USER7> Even the office productivity sucks, at least for my workflows.

I just use them when I need to quickly share something in a tabular form with someone else.

Otherwise I rather use Microsoft and Libre Office suites.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > _An oft-cited example of this is the reluctance of the Office applications > group to release complete versions of Word, Excel and other software for > iPads and Android devices. That decision, in theory, could help Microsoft > tablets that run Windows, though it hasn't yet...An even broader > conglomerate is Samsung, which is in areas as varied as electronics, life > insurance and petrochemicals. But each of those businesses is run with a > high degree of independence from the others. The company supplies screens > and semiconductors for Apple, even though Apple is the main rival to > Samsung's mobile phone business._

The Samsung software layer on their Android phones was so awful, so devoid of inspiration, that even as an Android user, I hoped that Apple would continue to spank them in the phone industry. But I highly respect whosever management decision it was to keep Samsung's units as independent as possible, even so that one hand of the company may be helping to spank the other. Perhaps it's because Apple's business is too good to lose, but hopefully there's some "a rising tide lifts all ships" mentality in there.

Meanwhile, Microsoft could've ported Office and given it a good foothold as the productivity software of mobile and the cloud..but by the time they've waited for the Surface to become a success, Google and Apple may both eat its lunch

</comment><comment><USER10> Why is this a worry for Microsoft, but not Google and Apple? This isn't really tackled until the last sentence of the article, and even then, they say that Google and Apple are more focused.

Is that correct? or do Google and Apple just have one larger profit maker with many smaller profit-makers or loss-leaders?

<comment><USER11> As a matter of fact, yes.

Apple has a _very few_ products and is quite famous for that.

Google is focused on selling ads. Yes, it has a lot of other products, but in the end, most of them are about selling ads (and getting more information about the user, so they can sell ads better).

What is Microsoft focused on?

<comment><USER12> Microsoft is focused on selling windows licenses.

The xbox and its ecosystem is the exception.

<comment><USER13> "Windows licenses" alone probably include more distinct SKUs than Apple has total products. A lot of that is just inherent to enterprise vs. consumer, but even then, Microsoft has lots of complexity, seemingly on purpose, while Apple tried to be minimalist.

<comment><USER14> There are only 2 SKUs of Windows 8 that I know of. Standard and Pro. (At least that you purchase directly, not already on a device).

<comment><USER15> In my MSDN Account there are 38 versions of Window 8 and 12 of Window 8 Enterprise.

<comment><USER16> You're counting N and KN versions, 32+64 bit, checked/debug? Or what exactly?

I'm sure Apple has SKUs for other countries, where they need different power adapters. The core Windows licensing is down to 4 now, right? 2 on desktop, 2 on server.

SQL Server on the other hand...

<comment><USER17> Why is there even a distinction between 32 and 64 bit versions? Why does a customer have to know anything about it?

Maybe just to f __* customers which:

a) bought the wrong one and now have to buy another one, because conveniently, they can't just return it. (at least in Europe that's the case)

b) want to upgrade their hardware at some point in the future from 32 to 64 bit, without having to buy the exact same software again

<comment><USER18> > b) want to upgrade their hardware at some point in the future from 32 to 64 > bit, without having to buy the exact same software again

Retail copies contain both versions, OEM versions only contain the one and those aren't transferable to other systems anyway. Of course, if you upgrade _some parts_ in your current build you might get shafted with the OEM version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Ever since Ballmer took over, Microsoft is just scoring 'Own Goals'. Microsoft used to think that Apple was their enemy, that IBM was their enemy, that Sun was their enemy, that Oracle was their enemy, that Google was their enemy? Well Microsoft is their own worst enemy! In fact we have entered a Post-PC, Post-Microsoft era.

Apple knew it was Post-PC and invested in smartphone and tablets and knew the desktop GUI would not work in mobile devices. So iOS got a different GUI/UI than Mac OSX has. Microsoft does not get that, a Desktop GUI for all products! Hey why'd we lose $900M in Surface sales? Oh well better buy out Nokia who failed to turn profits selling Windows Mobile 8 phones named Lumina, and rebrand them as 'Surface' phone so they will sell better.

Microsoft has to fix their broken business model, they tried to steal Apple's model and it backfired on them because they aren't Apple (Duh!) and they don't manage things the same way Apple does. Steve Ballmer is no Steve Jobs or Tim Cook, and he should understand why.

Instead of fixing what is wrong with their products and services, they just 'rebrand' them under a different name. Lumina becomes Surface phone, Zune Music Player becomes XBox Music. Windows 8 gets updated to Windows 8.1 and adds the Windows logo where the Start Menu used to be and it takes you to the Start Page in the Metro UI. But where are the visual clues on how to find the Charms Bar? Where are any visual clues at all in the Metro UI? Why is Windows 8.X the first version of Windows not to have visual clues to the user in some form? Of course the desktop part has them, minimize, maximize, close buttons on Windows. But Metro UI does not.

If I were Tim Cook I would not worry about Microsoft taking away anything Apple has done. I would just develop a less expensive version of the iPhone and iPad series, perhaps the iPhone Lite or iPad Lite that can compete with Surface phones and tablets in price. Then let customers decide when the iOS versions have the visual clues and a UI that works for mobile devices and Surface does not.

</comment><comment><USER8> If I were King of Microsoft I would break it into two companies:

1\. Take ex-Nokia handsets, XBOX, and all the miscellaneous hardware and consumer software and cloud services and call that Microsoft Devices and Services.

2\. Take Windows 8 for PCs and servers, Office, everything enterprise and call it Azure, Inc.

Spin the two entities out to shareholders and reap the gains from letting investors own the thing they want to own, and from managers managing the thing they want to manage in the direction they want to go.

Azure would end up licensing a good deal of stuff to MD&S, but both entities could end up with a strong licensing business to third parties, too.

That would be nice, but I agree with fauigerzigerk: "...things will become much much worse for Microsoft before they get better"

</comment><comment><USER20> Props to the illustrator who came up with the graphic at the top... a broken window... brilliant!

</comment><comment><USER21> Wow, the "Mini-Microsoft" blog is now nearly a decade old! Interesting that it doesn't get called out in the Times article, except implicitly by name in the paragraph at "A list of missed opportunities and disappointing investments at the company in the past decade in areas like smartphones, tablets and Internet search have led to the belief that a more focused, nimble collection of mini- Microsofts could respond more effectively to the never-ending flow of disruptive technologies nibbling at its foundations." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini- Microsoft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-Microsoft))

</comment><comment><USER22> It's worrying for MS that for all the major divisions shown in that image, I've never _once_ thought of or used them in relation to each other. MS has no unifying experience to build on in consumer consciousness.

<comment><USER23> That may be true for your average HN user, but Microsoft products generally work pretty darn well with other Microsoft products. There are always exceptions, but as someone who works with small businesses often, I don't see any obvious silo'ing in how they use products from those different divisions in their real-world work.

Cross-quadrant dynamic synergies where the rubber meets the road and pivots, off the top of my head:

\- IE (technically part of the Windows division) and Xbox tie in with Bing (in Win 8.1, Windows itself searches Bing and builds OS-native search results pages that aggregate Bing results with results from the local machine).

\- As Live Messenger, Lync, and Skype converge, Office should have good integration with whatever eventual amalgamation emerges since it already does so with Lync.

\- Office and Bing. "Search with Bing" is right in the context menu for selected text throughout Office apps.

\- SQL Server and SharePoint aren't depicted in the image, but Office has great built-in support for working against SQL Server data and SharePoint lists seamlessly.

\- I don't know the official word about Azure, but I would be shocked if at least portions of services like Xbox Live and Office 365 aren't using the Azure infrastructure (if it's good enough for iCloud...).

\- Skype and Windows have a bit of affinity in Win 8.1 too. The Skype app can raise a call notification even when the computer is locked and you can answer Skype calls directly from the Windows 8.1 lock screen.

\- A killer, overarching connection between groups is the newish Microsoft Accounts. When you log into a Windows 8+ machine with your MS Account, settings for a lot of apps are synced automatically. Even the progress I've made on Angry Birds is automatically synced between my desktops, laptops, and tablets. I'm not sure exactly which quadrants that connects (all?), but it's a great example of MS divisions working well together.

<comment><USER24> Hold on, are you saying the big integration effort between the different Microsoft products is the ability to _search with Bing_ inside random applications and devices? Come on, this is not something any consumer would ever see as a value add. This is a waste of resources, nothing more.

Integration is only integration if it adds value. No wonder Microsoft is dieing if this is the kind of thing they are wasting time on instead of useful features. Who would ever want to search with Bing from their xbox?!

The awful Microsoft Accounts just gives consumers one new and popular question to ask: how do I turn off Microsoft Accounts? That's literally the most asked question in regards to that piece of terrible functionality.

Come on anybody at Microsoft reading this, get rid of people like this and focus on giving consumers something they actually want. You might be able to turn this around if you act quickly.

<comment><USER23> Huh? No, I'm not saying that any of that is the result of a monumental effort at Microsoft. Most of that has been around for quite a while. I was just responding to the parent poster who pointed out that they hadn't noticed any integration between the different Microsoft products in the image at the top of the original post.

> The awful Microsoft Accounts just gives consumers one new and popular > question to ask: how do I turn off Microsoft Accounts? That's literally the > most asked question in regards to that piece of terrible functionality.

Needs citation. The only response I've seen from real people is roughly "Wow, cool!" when the see their lock screen picture and wallpaper sync automatically to a new machine when they log in for the first time.

> get rid of people like this

In case it wasn't clear to you, I don't work for Microsoft and haven't ever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> It is mu h a worry as a factor that makes the company much stable as compared to some others it competes with. Look at BlackBerry or Nokia. Their fall from grace was precipitous. Google and to some extent Apple are one trick ponies. Although its a damn good trick, its risky to only know how to make money doing only one thing.</comment>


Show HN: Free Survey Creator - <AUTHOR> http://www.freesurveycreator.com/ <comment><USER2> This is really nice. I went ahead and made a survey (easy process!) but once I received my embed code I was surprised. The script generated when I made my survey is named in a very predictable, incrementing format. I looked at a few others' surveys by changing the #.js in my embed code.

There needs to be some kind of protection to at least keep people guessing numbers, because I don't want people embedding my survey on their site and interfering with my results.

<comment><AUTHOR> This has been mentioned a few times. Knocking this to the top of the todo list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This looks fantastic - I like the design and obviously I like the free. The interface is much more attractive than the standard SurveyMonkey and Google Forms options.

Two big questions come to mind. First, do you have or plan on an option for people who don't want to embed a survey but link to one outright? Second, do you expect to leave this up, and if it were to become heavily used do you have a plan for monetizing or are you willing to eat the hosting costs?

I ask because with a bit of reassurance that it will stick around, this looks like a nice, clean tool I have regular use for.

<comment><AUTHOR> My hope was to make this as clean and intuitive as possible from a UX standpoint, so I appreciate your feedback on the design.

As far as future development goes, I hadn't actually thought about linking to one outright. I wanted to get feedback on this barebones version and go from there. Features in the pipeline right now are mobile responsiveness and multiple admins per account. I will have to look into what you recommended as well though.

As far as monetization goes, I just wanted to build something cool that people use. I figure I can always set up some premium features down the road if hosting becomes too expensive but right now I'm willing to eat a couple hundred bucks a month.

<comment><USER4> Any plans on releasing the source code?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As someone who does quite a bit of survey work, this looks great for lightweight stuff. I'm biased, but a key part of almost all survey work I do involves cross tabulation, which requires an ability to manipulate the collected data. Do you have any plans to handle data export to SPSS files, or to have a web-based analysis tool that would enable generating simple cross- tab reports?

Also, a small nit: lack of www caused a heroku 404 page, not sure why. After clicking the link once, this stopped happening.

<comment><AUTHOR> I had to look up about half of the words in the first paragraph ;) How can I reach out to to you to chat more about these use cases?

<comment><USER6> Here's a primer on survey data outfiling [1]. A good target would be to import a survey into SPSS (or you can use the open source PSPP for free) or - shameless plug - datacracker.com (my saas survey analysis app).

Contact me at support at datacracker.com if you want to chat, you'll just get me.

[1] [http://mktresearch.org/wiki/Getting_a_Data_File](http://mktresearch.org/wiki/Getting_a_Data_File)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a little off topic, but the detail of updating the reflection when you select radios on the landing page is _really_ slick.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I thought it was a cool little effect, though not supported in any browsers but chrome unfortunately.

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/-webkit- box...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/-webkit-box-reflect)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow. This is really easy to use. I can definitely see myself using something like this. Thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER9> What's the latest on Survey Monkey? They have raised insane amounts of cash.

[http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/17/surveymonkey- raises-800m-t...](http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/17/surveymonkey- raises-800m-to-give-shareholders-back-some-love/)

[http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/03/surveymonkey-debt- financin...](http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/03/surveymonkey-debt-financing/)

</comment><comment><USER10> Shameless plug, my side-project: [http://flisti.com/](http://flisti.com/) \-- Flisti, a free poll creator without signing up.

</comment><comment><USER11> The service looks pretty great but freesurveycreator.com makes me terrified it's a malware site.

</comment><comment><USER12> Here's my first thought: Pretty and simple. Second: Who is this?

Sorry, but I don't like signing up to random single page apps without background knowledge about it. Why should I post my email to even more potential spam sources voluntarily?

I do realize everyone has to start somewhere, though.

<comment><USER13> I agree. I would like to see a "who is this" page as well, followed by a Terms of Service and especially a Privacy Policy. How private is the information gathered from visitors to my website that goes into their database?

<comment><AUTHOR> Completely agree and will be adding the official stuff later this week. I had been procrastinating on getting this out there so I figured I'd throw it on HN and see what people thought, then go from there. If people didn't see a need for it, no use in putting all the official jargon in.

edit: my personal site and info can be found at www.will-wallace.com, just to put a face and name with the site

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like that you ask for username and password at the very end, after user had demoed the product.

Best of luck you're competing with (Qualaroo) Hiten Shah and crew.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, this was inspired after using qualaroo and having a good experience but $250 a month is nuts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you are interested in Surveys based at a location, I'd like to recommend my company: www.RoomPoll.com

It's free as well!

</comment><comment><USER16> This is great — I was actually thinking about making an open-sourced version of this.

Do you have any plans of opening up the code?

</comment><comment><USER17> It would be nice to see some examples more than a mockup on the landing page. Both of the builder and the way to fill out the survey.

Is this strictly for surveys or also quizes and other related form-things? Edit: I see now this is for way smaller surveys than I thought. It's basically just a small widget you get from the service.

Shameless plug, I work for Typeform ([http://www.typeform.com](http://www.typeform.com)) where we have a incredibly UI for both building and filling in surveys/forms. Check it out if you're looking for a survery/form/quiz SaaS that have the biggest focus on UX/UI and for more complex forms.

<comment><USER18> typeform is awesome!

<comment><USER17> I agree, it's pretty sweet! Doesn't stop people from downvoting me though.

<comment> squeaky-clean It's not against the Show HN guidelines, but generally it is frowned upon to advertise your project/company on someone else's Show HN post. If you're offering advice, and linking to your own project as a reference to credibility, that's different. Your comment comes off a bit like "If you're looking for a real Survey webapp, forget this and check out mine!"

<comment><USER17> Hm, I see. It was more a reference to an alternative form application that serves a different audience. I'll have what you said in mind from now on.

Thanks for explaining the reason to me!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Actors and Processes / Communicating Sequential Processes - <AUTHOR> http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1768317 <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting look at Go's concurrency vs Erlang's concurrency.</comment>


Simple Ways of Improving Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate - onreact-com http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/08/30-simple-ways-of-improving-bounce-rate-and-conversion-rate.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Decent advice, particularly where he plugs my software.

Kidding, kidding. Seriously, though, this bit right here:

 _Split visitors up according to source where they come from, returning visitors get different treatment as search and social media users_

is not exploited NEARLY enough.

If you own a Wordpress blog, there is a plugin called What Would Seth Godin Do, which shows new visitors to your blog coming from search engines a discrete customizable prompt to sign up to your RSS feed.

You can expand on that general idea. Do you display advertisements? Do you display them to everyone equally? Do you have any reason to think that is optimal? Try splitting your users into two groups -- the community you've built (who are your core fans and spread your stuff) and transients (someone who just arrived off a Google search and, most probably, won't stick around). Nobody in the core fan group clicks on your ads, since they come there for you and not for AdWords -- so turn them off, and enjoy the increased visitor loyalty and spreadiness.

Many people in the Google search group are looking for something not on your page -- the AdWords ad (and Google) gives them a second bite at the search apple. Show them the ads.

This will result in vastly higher measured CTRs and higher quality traffic (no misclicks from core users who were aiming for something else), which will make your advertisers happy and _might well be revenue maximizing_ , while making your regular users love you even more.

P.S. Did I hear someone say you could split test this?

<comment> onreact-com "You can expand on that general idea. Do you display advertisements? Do you display them to everyone equally?"

This suggestion has already been implemented with another plugin. It's called "Who Sees Ads":

[http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin- who-s...](http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-who-sees-ads- control-adsense-display/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, that is going in the bag of tricks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I'm curious - what are people's experiences with controlling bounce rates on sites that extensively use AJAX? A user could easily visit my page and browse a great deal of content without a second page request needing to be called. As I understand it, even if they spent 10 minutes using the AJAX functionality and left, they would count as a bounce.

I essentially see it as a tradeoff between usability and SEO-friendliness, but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it. I've considered doing something where the first click would perform a page refresh but subsequent calls would fall back onto the AJAX functionality but that seems a bit silly.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you're heavily AJAXed up then bounce rate is a meaningless metric for you. I don't know why you'd spend time optimizing for it -- instead, measure a meaningful metric (such as average number of interactions, or number of visitors with at least one interaction, or -- my personal favorite -- sales).

<comment> onreact-com I think there must be a way to mimic the bounce rate in AJAX by firing the onclick event to make it meaningful again.</comment></comment></comment>


Intent to Experiment: Signed HTTP Exchanges - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!msg/blink-dev/MKHe54W996c/1E51GLbvAQAJ <comment><USER2> >Signed HTTP Exchanges (or SXG) enables loading Web contents signed by the content publishers from anywhere, e.g. from a fast server, as if they came from the original publishers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be part of a greater vision (as heard before). Not only is the transported content protected by TLS, the content is also signed by the publisher and can be loaded from other servers. E.g. makes sense in an AMP context. (As you still know that the content was produced by your newspaper)</comment>


How to start a startup without ruining your life - <AUTHOR> https://www.superhi.com/blog/how-to-start-a-startup-without-ruining-your-life <comment><USER2> I did the life-ruining one as my previous startup. Then I did one that only turned out to be a nice business. The good project and the disaster both took about 3 years to build but the good project was always making money since week 1 cause it had to sustain me as I'd overextended myself in every way just trying to sustain the disaster.

After about 3 years trying and failing to make the good project earn a lot more money I wanted to do an exciting new startup. Having almost hit 6 digits that third year meant I couldn't just ignore the good project and let it atrophy but I didn't want to pursue an exciting new startup being anchored to the good project all the time. I decided to sell it.

With that decision all of the remaining work became about transitioning from 'code on my computer' to 'coherent and pleasant part time job for someone else to do well'. I replaced bash scripts and w/e other random crap with a web interface and gutted my code and dependencies so that the person they find on craigslist to add something in 2 years won't drown.

Now I'm completely free to work on my new startup and make something like a good salary while I do, someone else takes care of the nice business in 5 hours a week. Probably half of HN could pull that off with a side project or two. This is where patio11 and someone from feinternational.com described the difference between the good project and the nice business -

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11347541](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11347541)

<comment><USER3> How did you sell your side business? Just thinking aloud if I wanted to buy one

<comment><USER4> check out feinternational.com (OP mentioned them as well). I've been subscribed to their "Buyers list" for over a year and I've seen many nice saas businesses listed.

<comment><USER5> Interesting, the multiples are 3-4x profit on that site. Is that pretty standard for SaaS?

<comment><USER6> It's the last quarter's numbers annualized to a year so if there's been a spike in the last quarter that isn't seen in prior financials that's a point for negotiating the price. And it's also based on discretionary income so that "profit" is not necessarily the actual profit the business took in. A lot of expenses are considered discretionary but probably have a positive ROI.

So while 3-4x is normal (really 3-5x depending on the industry) the numbers on FEI tend to be a tad high but not unreasonably so.

<comment><USER3> Would you recommend looking any where else?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Just a comment on the expected salaries for developers in London:

\- A junior developer at £20k is probably going to do you more harm than good

\- £30 - £40k for a junior developer is more reasonable, where £30k would be fresh from red-brick uni (if lucky) or a couple years industry experience

\- A senior developer asking less than £50k is probably not super confident (could be various reasons e.g. failing to get other jobs, not super experienced) or experienced with startups

\- Good senior developers experienced with startups are more likely to be on a minimum of £60k and anywhere up to £80/90k

Also it's a little more nuanced than this. A first hire developer might (perhaps reasonably) expect to be a CTO or Tech Lead assuming further hires - this is one of the reasons some developers consider working in startups as it's a potential fast track to gain management-like experience. If you're hiring a junior developer, this probably isn't the best idea and it should be made clear to them this isn't the case. In hiring a senior developer it should at the very least be discussed - the outcome of this may potentially be an expectation of higher salary (either immediately or upon company growth). It's not unheard of for small startups (seed / series A) to pay £100k+ for CTOs.

<comment><USER8> Is this a guideline for startups only? I work as the only dev in a small design company but have no frame of reference for salary expectations as I've never worked with other developers and transitioned into it from a design role. I earn slightly more than the other employees (designers) but that's still under £30k. I would consider myself more experienced than a junior.

<comment><USER9> What kind of dev tools and languages are you using? Hacking php for WordPress?

<comment><USER10> Some of the highest salaries in London for software engineers are for senior developers at Ecommerce companies built on Magento or building Wordpress websites for agencies.

The idea that PHP developers don't get paid much is erroneous, on average they probably do, but the peaks are just the same. I currently earn £70k "hacking" php in Magento and I'm based in Manchester where the cost of living is far lower.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I started a company (actually several companies by now) because I knew that my life literally depended on it. I had a job out of school at a big firm and I absolutely hated it. The idea of getting up at 6:30 am every morning, wasting precious time sitting in rush hour traffic, dealing with people at an office I don't necessarily want to see, much less work with on a daily basis, sitting in a cubicle working on something that just helps get someone else rich, was just terrifying to me. I have a few people in my extended family who have committed suicide and I knew that if I continued on this path I would definitely, 100% be one of those people. I know others can, and some may even enjoy it, but I simply cannot enjoy a life like that. So I started a company and fought like I was going to war to save my own life, and it worked. I worked really hard for about 5 years and now I have enough money that I never have to worry about getting stuck in one of those dead end jobs I feared at the start of my career. So, if you're thinking of starting a company, be ready to go up against some competitors (depending on industry) who will fight you to the death - if corporate life doesn't bother you so much, perhaps you should stay there.

<comment><USER12> What did you end up starting as your first success and how did you decide to start it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hey everyone, I wrote this guide, if anyone has any questions about it, I'm happy to answer and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the article!

<comment><USER14> opposite question as the other poster: what do you do if you have a great idea (naturally everyone thinks their own ideas are great) but don't have the entrepreneurial spirit ? I've been working on a project for a couple years, still have about 25% of the work to go for it to be MVP, but I'd really like to find a business partner/investor. I'm afraid to reach out though because I dont know how to protect myself from being screwed.

<comment><USER13> Sometimes you just gotta give it a go. I'm not saying quit your job and do it full time, but if someone is going to steal your idea, then they're going to steal your idea tomorrow or in a years time.

Everything is a risk, but you don't want to get to 90 and think "damn it, I should have done that business".

The worst thing that might happen is you might run out of cash, give it up and get another job. Or someone will rip you off (be it a biz partner, investor or rival) and you give it up and get another job. It's stressful and not fun, but you're not going to die if your startup fails.

<comment><USER14> > if someone is going to steal your idea

Just to clarify, I (gladly) fell out of love with my idea and dont so much worry about people "stealing" it. I'm more worried about a business partner building an "escape hatch" in the partnership contract and screwing me out of ownership/stake. Not sure if that changes your answer or not.

<comment> ux-app I recently bought on a partner for my business. It was definitely the best thing I could have done. He's an absolute champ and has the same hunger for success as me. Our skills are complimentary and our little business is slowly but surely growing.

Of course protect yourself. Have a contract. Never go with a vague contract and then hope for the best. Have everything in writing. Ownership stake, expectations an escape hatch for either of you in case of a falling out etc. For us there was a clause stating that the contract could be nullified by either party within the first 90 days for any reason.

I had worked on my side business for 3.5 years at the point I partnered up. My partner first spent 2 months working away and we didn't formalise the agreement. We were making sure that we were going to work well together.

I finally said that we can't go on like this and we really need to formalise his ownership etc. We discussed figures and arrived at an arrangement that worked for us both.

In the end, for me it came down to this: own 100% of 0 or X% of a real business.

Once that clicked for me, bringing on and trusting a partner was an easy choice.

<comment><USER13> Yes I agree with this. I think if you're going to offer equity too, offer equity that vests over a longer period of time (3-4 years) might help keep them connected and give them a reason to stay with the business too. Make them work for ownership of the business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I love the section about the first idea is probably not going to be the last idea. I've seen startups come in with a very set idea of how the product was going to work, only to find that the way it was going to work wasn't really what customers were looking for.

Rather than defining how a product should work, startups should define their mission and adapt their product to both accomplish their mission and meet the needs/demands of the customer.

I've been involved in a few startups and this is what I've learned:

1\. Iteration is key and should be welcomed. 2\. Validation, as noted, is incredibly important. 3\. Continuing to validate iterations ultimately leads to a successful company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely! Couldn't agree more with this. Most often thing I see is teams holding onto a solution to a problem that 1) no-one has, or 2) a few people have but no-one cares about. Sometimes they also over engineer the early iterations to a level of complexity that even prospective users won't "get it". Starting small, doing the research & interview legwork to define the problem, then design the smallest version of one possible product solution to it, iterate, review continuously...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Gotta tell you, that "giving a shit" scale isn't true in my case. I work for an agency and we give much more of a shit about our client than the client's internal devs do... about the code, about the business, you name it...

<comment><USER17> This. I've seen agencies that look like they're 11s on the give-a-shit scale. Usually it's interactive creative design agencies that are both small enough and young enough to really care about their reputation.

That said, using an agency to build your startup probably isn't the best idea for so many reasons.

<comment><USER13> Yes, I'd agree with this. The agency comment was more aimed at the medium- to large-sized agencies rather than small, young ones (I kinda see them more as freelancers when it's an agency of 2-7).

Also it's a big variance of caring, some big agencies do care a lot but they're rare and hard to find. Some staff turn up late and are hungover every other morning. It's a wide range but I was trying to average it out!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> How to start a startup without ruining your life 1\. Never accumulate personal debt in the process of starting up 2\. Sleep, Exercise and eat well 3\. Never forget 1 and 2

The rest are beyond your control by a large degree. Try your level best. And Yea, occasionally read through such advices.

<comment><USER19> How do you start a startup if you're at least a few years from getting out of existing debt? Is it even remotely feasible? I've been having urges to give it a try but I'd be starting in the hole, which seems like a really bad idea.

I try to work on things in my off time but it's difficult finding the time after working all day.

<comment><USER13> Always have a back-up plan so I'd clear out your debts first.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> > 80% won't give you critical feedback, because humans like to avoid conflict > and are polite

Haha. I wish!

"Your app sucks".

"Why is this not free?"

"Can I do X? Why can't I do X?"

"You changed Y and I hate it"

80% won't give you feedback, period. Because they've another 10 tabs open and you've haven't intrigued them enough to warrant anymore of their precious time and attention.

<comment><USER13> This was aimed at the idea validation stage. You shouldn't have built anything at this point as you're too busy talking to customers face-to-face, trying to hone the idea down.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'd love for someone to write about howto meet people who you'd want to join up with you as a cofounder. I know I wouldn't be able to do any of my high in the sky plans by myself but I don't know many people who'd be up to taking the plundge.

<comment><USER22> Probably already been done, but free idea?

An internet "dating site" for startup co-founders to meet on (you could have the whole shebang - ratings, chat, profiles).

Maybe something like LinkedIn meets Match.com, with a sprinkle of YC thrown in?

<comment><USER23> Actually, email matching might be suitable for this problem. I did a project for matching flatmates a while ago. [1] Was trying to leverage a user's facebook connections etc. to create better matches (e.g. 2nd degree connections). If anyone is interested in taking it over/working on it let me know. [1] [http://www.flatmate.io/](http://www.flatmate.io/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Validating your idea. That is one of the best but most overlooked advise. Validate, validate again.

<comment><USER13> Yep, totally agree. A lot of founders don't do this as they're too attached to the idea or too worried about criticism. It's a tough learning process to get over the negative feedback.

<comment><USER25> This seems quite hyped advice in SV recently, but validation can be difficult for certain classes of businesses. For example, I recently spoke to a US startup founder who had failed in what is roughly our segment, burning $300k. His advice: validate, validate, validate! In our area, however, it is essentially impossible to do so without similar to launch expenses, so we are just running with a regular development trajectory (in a far cheaper and higher demand market with other positive attributes) and the broad assumption that people want to eat food - [http://8-food.com/](http://8-food.com/)

<comment><USER26> Everything can be iterated. The degree to which this iteration can be accomplished is really highly dependent on the complexity of your product, but, in terms of iteration complexity (and highly simplified, dropping lots of intermediate points, etc):

Polished product > Happy path demo > Mockups (mechanical, digital, etc) > User stories > Deck

At the very least iterate on things like the user stories to make sure your customers can see your product fitting in to their day to day life. Without any form of iteration, you're leaving the most important thing -- product market fit -- somewhat to chance.

<comment><USER25> You're right, but as with anything the management-level questions are (1) risk versus reward; (2) (finite) resource invested versus value derived (versus other options for those resources).

In our case, we can iterate easily based upon real market information post- launch. It's literally _illegal_ to do market research otherwise, so we can't really get a foot in the door hyper-analyzing potential segments ahead of schedule.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> "It's always easier to work with your friends rather than searching for someone to be your co-founder. You trust them and you have faith in their abilities. However, startups will strain even the most solid of relationships."

Not only that, they could ruin your relationship with your friends forever. Friends are friends, business partners are business partners. Been there, done that.

</comment><comment><USER28> Not that many comments. Here is what I would like to say, I love how you structured SuperHi as a both online course and 1-1 mentorship. That way people get best of both worlds. To me that says you care about what you are doing and your customers. This is important and will enable this business to be viable long term.

<comment><USER13> Thank you! Yeh, we've been consistently asking customers what works for them over the two or so years we've been running. We found that a lot of people get stuck very quickly with the free online courses that are out there, and they wanted to create sites from scratch rather than learning about HTML, CSS and Javascript – it's a very slight difference, practical vs theory.

We've found that the 1:1 help informs the course material too - if we get the same request topics in the 1:1 help, it's obvious we're missing something from the course material, so we add it in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Almost all such articles miss the most crucial self assessment piece- if you are married/in a relationship make sure you and your partner have a good understanding of the potential stress that you are about to take on. It can make all the difference in making shitty days tolerable or even more terrible.

</comment><comment><USER30> It's better to try and fail than never try at all. Sums it up. Thanks for the great article.

<comment><USER31> Not really. Failing is bad. It's better to not try at all if you're going to fail, unless you can learn something that makes you succeed in the future. Otherwise, trying will mean missed opportunity costs.

<comment><USER32> It is difficult to know whether you are going to fail, but easy to know whether you are going to try. Nobody sets out to fail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Such an amazing response to this thread! Thanks everyone. Rik (the author) made the original article into an ebook as a result of all this great conversation. It's on Product Hunt books also now, should you wish to check it out: [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/how-to-start-a-startup- wit...](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/how-to-start-a-startup-without- ruining-your-life) :)

</comment><comment><USER33> Great article, thank you! As a developer I often dream about having a startup. I don't want anything large or fancy but a nice little SaaS app that can generate some income. I'm absolutely terrible at marketing and I can never seem to come up with a good idea / product. Do you have any suggestions as to where I can get inspiration for products or find markets that need something?

</comment><comment><USER34> The title of the piece is slightly misleading. It's really more like: Roundup of startup advice based on one person's journey. There's decent advice, but it's not really structured to support the title, which would seem to require a few counterexamples of ruin.

<comment><USER13> "Roundup of startup advice based on one person's journey" wasn't a catchy enough title.

I should have linked to [http://autopsy.io/](http://autopsy.io/) \- a good place to read about why startups failed from the founders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Not to be a geography troll, but... I'm sure the rest of the article is great.

> SuperHi has online courses which means we have students from California to > Australia, all due to the internet.

Lol, sounds like a whole lot of fish to me, amirite?

<comment><USER36>
      sounds like a whole lot of fish to me, amirite?

Courses, like fish, tend to congregate in schools.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I can't reiterate the incentive vs caring point he makes enough. Agencies exist to satisfy a requirement, collect a check, and run. Engage them warily for dev/design.

</comment><comment><USER38> "Niché"? Someone should edit that misguided bit of pedantry out.

</comment><comment><USER39> If starting a startup is in your mind, I strongly this series of videos from Sam Altman (@sama) from YCombinator: [http://startupclass.samaltman.com/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/)</comment>


Kaizen for Developers: No Inventory - <AUTHOR> http://continuations.com/post/61496327/kaizen-for-developers-no-inventory <comment><USER2> This is not just strained, but wrong. From Emacs (read all the document into memory) to Linux (ignore pre-386 processors, majority at the time) to Java (drop C memory handling requirements) and of course any web app that runs on a dynamic language, successful designs choose simpler code supported by more powerful hardware rather than opposite.

There's a good reason for this: hardware consistently gets cheaper and more powerful, because it is something we understand how to engineer. Code, so far, doesn't really get easier to write, because it's more of a craft than a science.

</comment><comment><USER3> Reading the title I thought that the Inventory the author was talking about would be unfinished work. In our startup we often have many half done tickets, because something else a lot more "urgent" comes along - or one of the founders (like me) comes along and changes the focus.

We've come to realize that the real waste in our inventory (or like the author states: bodies in the swamp) is this unfinished work. This points to inefficiencies in our process. So whenever we realize we have unfinished tickets that have been worked on and open for more than a month - we know we have a problem in our process. Finishing tickets completely (as far as the tests/specs go) keeps our code sane, branches clean and helps us integrate earlier.

A much better analogy for Kaizen principle of no inventory in software development is unfinished work.

<comment><USER4> I agree, and I think specifically its about the agile iead of not addressing future, nebulous, requirements. The minimum necessary that will possibly work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't know what "Kaizen" is, but I smell a strained metaphor. Going from "no inventory" to "don't buy excessive hardware", no matter how the latter may or may not be a good idea, seems like a stretch. Are you sure "no inventory" doesn't actually translate to "don't keep excess code around"? (Multiple plausible translations implies none of them are particularly solid.)

<comment><USER6> Kaizen is a quality/continuous improvement methodology...kind of like Six Sigma, ISO 9000, etc. It has its benefits over those programs, is less formal, and is more realistic for small companies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Spending 10x more on hardware will give you roughly 10x more value; I don't think spending 10x more on programmers will give you roughly 10x more value. And that's not even counting the fact hardware is cheap while programmers aren't.

<comment><USER8> I disagree with the blanket statement that "spending 10x more on hardware will give you roughly 10x more value", especially in the context of this article. You only receive 10x value increase IF your software will scale to use the better/more hardware AND your software is rate-limited by hardware AND you receive value based on the speed of the software. Those are pretty big predicates. Of course, there are sensible ranges and strawman ranges. That's true for programming talent, too. But the article wasn't advocating for hiring more people.

The idea of the article is that footprint matters and needs to be reexamined periodically. This is true for programmers (sadly) as well as hardware. "Hardware is cheap" is not a sustainable growth substitute for efficient solutions. We see the same thing with outsourcing, where a company discovers that ten programmers for the price of one does not always yield the desired outcome (faster, cheaper, better).

Because of course everyone wants to be in a position to use your math (10x more on hardware == 10x more value), but you can not be confident of that unless you know that your solution has a hardware bottleneck. And you don't know that until you drain the swamp (or stress test extensively).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The key part of the article is this: "But you have to go look for those and that takes time and smarts." If you don't have those kind of resources (the smarts is the tough one to find), hardware becomes much more efficient.

</comment><comment><USER10> kaizen at code level, i try to eliminate as many as temp vars as possible by using closure, map, macro etc

it's because i'm dumb, my brain doesn't have much STM capacity (that's why i don't use OOP)</comment>


Handling bot attacks against a Tor hidden service - <AUTHOR> http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/762-Attacked-Over-Tor.html <comment><USER3> I have never felt such a greater sense of inadequacy in cyber security as I have after reading this article. This is simply amazing the level of sophistication Eddie was in terms of an attack on the service, and the mitigation techniques used were things I never would have considered. I thought zip/tar bombs were just relics of yesteryear that older folks talk about when they discuss how fun it was to prank the new hires.

Serious question: how does one begin to gain the knowledge necessary to mitigate such an attack, and is it something that developers should be more familiar with?

<comment><USER4> Zip bombs are a classic way to crash any web service that allows you to upload files, modern AV will sometimes fuck up and bite into the file (normally in the legacy fields since they require 'brand name' 'well known' antivirus like 'Norton')

Especially if you are aware that they open the files to "extract info" from them. You can modify the file extension to the correct type and let it rip.

<comment><USER3> I found this: [https://github.com/abdulfatir/ZipBomb](https://github.com/abdulfatir/ZipBomb) which I will be looking into today! Are zipbombs typically something a developer should be actively writing to protect against? Or does a library like Helmet typically provide protection against these attack vectors?

<comment><USER4> Protection generally comes in the fact that the AV will explode or your library will explode. You just need to ensure that such an explosion does not destroy your service as well.

<comment><USER5> And try to make it explode quickly -- if it fails slowly, it can be uses to DDoS, by getting all your worker threads to spend most of their time on your files.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Pretty easy explanation: you've bumped into a few of the ~dozen people who are crawling hidden services for research or law enforcement purposes.

When you publish your HSDir they'll come and crawl, and chances are none of them were expecting a 50PB archive.org mirror and just got stuck.

It's likely that once the operators of each crawler realized this HS was an archive.org mirror they stopped the crawls.

The early version of a crawler I ran across hidden services would have tripped up in exactly this way[0]

Everything else in this post is either a misunderstanding of Tor[1] or plain paranoia.

[1] the top exit nodes have little to do with who is crawling or attacking a hidden service, France and Germany feature heavily in nodes because of the many cheap Tor-friendly hosts, there is nothing 'unusual' about unnamed nodes and the AS confusion is just someone doing a good job of staying anonymous - thanks for reporting them

<comment><USER7> I'd say not holding to the standards of robots.txt and 403-Forbidden is quite malicious, just not evil or bad. If you build a crawler, you should play nice. But bot A-D were easily discouraged.

Eddie however is another problem. It overloads the network, doesn't crawl and doesn't parse the responses. This is not crawler behaviour...

The rest of the post is solid inductive reasoning (from my perspective): the bot is identifiable by his behaviour. It has a faster response time that a source-relay-source roundtrip. Thus the bot must originate there.

This is supported that the anonymous relays were set up just before the attack, all at the same time. And after the attack stopped the majority of all traffic through the relays stopped.

There are also ways to keep your registration private without resorting to fraud. Though probably a number of people think of this as the 'easy' solution.

<comment><USER6> > I'd say not holding to the standards of robots.txt and 403-Forbidden is > quite malicious

Most hidden services don't publish robots files. The only ones that do are the proxy services (which are hidden services but not usually 'hidden'). The purpose of the proxying is to find, discover and monitor what are usually illegal or malicious services.

I don't think there are legitimate crawlers on hidden services - there are a couple of drug market search engines but they identify themselves outside of robots.txt

It's really difficult to run a large-scale hidden service because of this - you need to be able to throttle or block connections but not based on the inbound circuit. You also need to setup guards (which OP makes no mention of)

> It overloads the network, doesn't crawl and doesn't parse the responses.

It's likely adding those later responses into a crawl queue that is tens of thousands of URLs long.

Overloading the network is unintentional, usually your crawling is throttled by your circuit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > If I could easily tear down the entire tunnel from the remote client to my > hidden service, then the delay to rebuild the tunnel would mitigate the > resource exhaustion attack ... For example, if I see hostile activity from > 127.0.0.1:12345, then I want to close the entire Tor connection associated > with this port ... forcing him to renegotiate the entire tunnel.

This seems like a great suggestion for Tor. I hope the author will get in touch via the mailing list and see what solutions might be possible.

</comment><comment><USER9> This is the second time in a week now I've seen this guy talking about Tor on HN. He just seems to not understand Tor.

> He's exploiting a vulnerability in the Tor daemon

This is a vulnerability present in literally any proxy and is a limitation of the operating system. If you open more sockets than you can open, you can't open any more. You can not have anonymous unlinkable connections and have tracking psudeonyms together.

If you wanted to scale, try OnionBalance.

[https://onionbalance.readthedocs.io/en/latest/](https://onionbalance.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)

> The TorStatus page has no country associated with the ASN information

I know that for atlas.torproject.org we use the MaxMind GeoLite GeoIP service. If this is not listed here, no information will show. This is more common than you would think, especially for Tor relays which are commonly hosted on smaller ASs than MaxMind care about.

</comment><comment><USER10> The mitigation goes against my instincts to tar-pit; but in this case it is the server not the client that is resource limited. Very interesting, and bloody annoying that someone would make such an effort to break a tool such as this.

</comment><comment><USER11> Did anyone else get a notification to install that site's certificate?

It's a strange technique.

<comment><USER12> Same here - but the site was asking me to identify myself with a cert. So the other way round to what you are describing. Did not have the time to follow through - but it's certainly _very_ weird behavior. Could be some bad guys trying to identify who is stealing their show...

<comment><USER13> Most likely there's just something hosted on the same IP address that makes legitimate use of the "client certificates" feature of TLS. In order for that to work, the server has to express an interest in client certs, and that happens early in the TLS handshake, IIRC before SNI has been resolved - <USER2> even if you only want to use them on one domain, your server will always ask for them.

The way it's meant to work, the server can specify which certificate authorities it accepts client certs from, and your browser will only prompt you to pick a cert if you have one loaded from one of those CAs - if you don't, you won't even know the server's asking; in practice, some browsers will show the dialog in any case. ISTR some versions of Safari act like that.

(I ran into that at work - we were setting up a web API authenticated with TLS client certs, and started getting bug reports from (largely non-technical) users, completely befuddled by these dialogs that had started popping up for them on our human-facing domains; we ended up provisioning a dedicated IP just for the API to work around it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The fake IP address whois was very interesting. While fake whois for domain names are common and not that big, fake IP address whois means that there was a ISP out there that endanger their peering. Feels similar to when a CA gives out bad certificates, and I wish RIPE would act similar to how browsers do it. There is few enough ipv4 address that we can afford to be picky about it in clear cases like this.

</comment><comment><USER15> I played at some point with Tor bot code and I got rates up to tens of thousands of requests per second and hundreds of megabits per second. So the attacks don't sound too serious in this case. Also modifying Tor itself to allow higher data rates is possible, if you're already using anonymous systems. Then you can avoid the slowness caused by onion hops.

</comment><comment><USER16> I always find the mitigation sleuthing stuff to be so damn fascinating and humbling. Inspirational stuff. Thanks to OP and Dr. Neal.

</comment><comment><USER17> This might be a stupid question but it sounds like those attackers access the Tor Server directly (without using relays). If this is intact the case, why does he not just ban those IPs from those offending hidden and seemingly private relays? Wouldn't that solve the problem until they get a new ip?

<comment><USER18> They're connecting through tor, not directly. I'm not sure what makes you think that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> "And it isn't like they were doing HTTP 'HEAD' requests -- no, they were doing 'GET' requests."

Some httpds treat them the same -- they still send the file after HEAD requests instead of only the headers.

<comment><USER20> 1) Can you provide an example?

2) Wouldn't it still be best to do HEAD in any circumstance where you don't want the body?

<comment><USER19> 1) nautil.us

2) Yes.

I was not implying one should do otherwise. I was just pointing out that servers that respond to GET will not always respond to HEAD as expected. Some sites treat it the same as GET. Others may not allow it. For example, Amazon responds with 405 MethodNotAllowed.

<comment><USER20> [http://nautil.us](http://nautil.us) appears to respect HEAD, and uses Apache. Do you have a specific example of it not respecting it?

% curl -vX HEAD [http://nautil.us](http://nautil.us) Warning: Setting custom HTTP method to HEAD with -X/\--request may not work the Warning: way you want. Consider using -I/\--head instead. * Rebuilt URL to: [http://nautil.us/](http://nautil.us/) * Trying 126.96.36.199... * Connected to nautil.us (22.214.171.124) port 80 (#0) > HEAD / HTTP/1.1 > Host: nautil.us > User-Agent: curl/7.47.0 > Accept: _/_ > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Access-Control- Allow-Origin: * < Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0, max-age=0 < Cache- control: no-cache="set-cookie" < Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 < Date: Sun, 07 May 2017 04:55:46 GMT < Expires: Thu, 11 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT < Last-Modified: Sun, 07 May 2017 04:55:47 GMT < Pragma: no-cache < Server: Apache/2.4.25 (Amazon) PHP/5.5.38 < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=%2B67OvEeIwXsDYbsLxSZLVjlyp%2BWUj%2BOntgIOlRdx6qoOLqyx3WuVpd2ZEH074o5bxTr7IebRTJsGpVdyaw75GEir4ZwZwrmiKAojkoOkvduxZAtpg8D4SAqwNb1EB0l3eOb1gMt%2FMuYpGZsouFJtPHTXssM82%2FKFkU7Gxm%2BTAheHa%2F7VyQ%2BAysgzthDcDyd9RYvU7NXmFAwh596ZEk7TtkwzAGVcoL%2FLjImPvk5q6Xl%2BKMWQDvOkVPIc0JtuC1rWIy3DUsOas8vCM%2BWYdv9KW9lElqzk5IHS6L7kkWSNb7U%3D44229d0bd83cc6954cf8ad73bc14d08a1d039d9a; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:46 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=eDfxDyIM%2BJFhuIpEml2KXA9B8Wcyc4Bo8GJfD0Xr3dNzGgh%2B2QdqgZWRhFVFBguslYrnQfnmrKorJjhwM47N969Qwx1NFLintVOKhP3ivrS5BVq4Kwos59OOpklaUifDEOH1FX9BG8%2BHGX9Fn8kb2duHS%2F1BRJFnGaEyOA1qmB7sFPhsjVPAL2%2BTYHNByRvxwnA2CqaY09uKs%2FC5ui6rnYCRYvI3Q7Z6KLL8QWVlT5rs71FQ%2BYXbdQyIHgiPR7yN8JnaHMgaz4qzETfr6heE04uLfUSKjIjQMM5v0YAEK0I%3D06738da1155f8af1a61c5d13cd8cee0513d4175c; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=9jlaxMJdXhuYik9BjvgSVfG2Xp8HJBLTUNeI8HNcw52ORZC5bbei%2F22YgBTWHMmym1fSQHljSs9dwUbQE5Zgx%2FIWki3S8aakHI%2BXac30JU5eI3FFLeWORwFrsJDniM%2BKCDyhUi5i2zad8aYF%2FNnndhh4yISYk0ASjKa4%2BAnQxR3fZjqK1iw44K3Oe%2FoVc4weHIYCra6ecNnMWkFzBZkLUuJ%2F1gJN0w%2FNdjFs8DERSHLteTbg2OnqjOSEmn62fYXUb%2FW6YRQblJB0J%2BElbJ%2BKIn5v5NRXAerGcIT2O%2F6t08s%3D70ec7ec53459a33b68c9fda357cfbf634fcada85; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=DUK2jE22vfFQmL5vZpV8LpqFsFD0%2F1aHV2mpi6MHNOw4oEastxJGbqL70Tlq79lpD%2F41%2Bl9P%2Bz4%2B8aNESLphAr4%2BlwkEn83jPGE2J83JazLGQJC07ndgXRL7Hf%2FsXbMnyaOwpFPGRwQ7AdLvuIfX8j0lQ7gEEoAF4NQmupcPo0PeQ41gTAf3tJbusD4ONNqkLVi3lGH1qhT%2FjXbu1mpPwYdcZyU18OU3qomqbWkx%2B1RsX8vsiHjoCADs%2FIHhZaY4rBH%2BDi6oDS8JR9vgBG5ll6jN3eTlXtvRblDHE1IMHMA%3D78fb89e5fda5a29bb58f6ab3b872d9150e7ecd9b; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: AWSELB=E93BBFC71E4DF46DDD850E2C67B1FBE52FEAA0E103B670233CA20FC7694721647519A155E8C10ED0C96618595B97A7D45BA1E9EE061A86361B235D0E008D08712CA9113D57;PATH=/;MAX- AGE=604800 < X-Powered-By: PHP/5.5.38 < X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 < Connection: keep-alive * no chunk, no close, no size. Assume close to signal end <

<comment><USER19> There is no need for keep-alive for a single HEAD request. Why use HTTP/1.1?

       cat << eof |nc -vv nautil.us 80
       HEAD / HTTP/1.0^M
       Host: nautil.us^M
       User-Agent: curl/7.47.0^M
       Accept: */*^M
       Connection: close^M
       ^M
       eof

Anyway, it looks like they fixed the problem or I was mistaken.

I will need to find another example.

Meanwhile looking on stackexchange one can still see people running websites asking whether to block or "turn off" HEAD as recently as last year.

If a user expects every website to respond properly to a HEAD request, then the user might be occasionally "surprised". This is because not every person running a website understands or agrees how HEAD can be useful. Sadly, GET is the only method that a user can expect to work on across _all_ websites.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


7 Most Productive Tools for Startup - <AUTHOR> http://tech-tweak.com/2011/09/7-most-productive-tools-for-startup.html

<comment><USER2> Pretty bad post if you ask me.... these generic "top business tools" articles are a dime a dozen and this one doesn't even mention anything new and even leaves out some of the better tools.</comment>


Ask HN: how to change my apple id for icloud use? - <AUTHOR>

I recently updated my iPad2 to iOS, I have one problem not able to use icloud, as it expects my apple id to be like email, but mine is not.
seems my image imports have vanished thank god had backup of most on facebook.
is it me alone or others who face the problem? how do i change my apple id for using icloud? <comment><USER2> <http://appleid.apple.com></comment>


Give Students User Freedom - <AUTHOR> https://my.fsf.org/give-students-userfreedom <comment><USER2> Compared to the actual problem, public health and the economy, this request looks extremely childish

<comment><USER3> Exactly, this request is best described as childish; if not, cringe-worthy.

While the FSF's points are valid, they are eternally weak on actually convincing others to abandon 'non-free software' from (Zoom or Hangouts to Windows or Mac). They are at the point where they have 'won the argument', but still have failed to gain any momentum in convincing the general public or developers and resort to. this.

Not exactly the sort of people that can become social media sensations or have the reach of a Gen-Z 'influencer' to install free-software alternatives because no spyware, no data-collection blah blah blah.

I continue to cringe at the sight of that video.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Any tips on finding relevant Shopify/Magento store owners? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking to validate an idea for a service targeting online fashion stores. Would like to get some feedback from Shopify/Magento owners. Any tips on finding the biggest stores on a platform? <comment><USER2> Looks like this could do it: [http://magento.com/customers/customer- showcase](http://magento.com/customers/customer-showcase)

Surely, other platforms have similar sites.</comment>


HN Poll: was your Twitter hacked?  - <AUTHOR>

I was one of the 250K Twitter accounts compromised. Based on the anecdotal evidence of my Twitter feed, it seems like the tech community was overrepresented, as 250K random hacks is just a small sliver of Twitter's user base.<p>Trying to see if there was any pattern to who they picked to hack (I have more than the average amount of followers, but still pretty modest). <comment><USER2> Me too @ju</comment>