Create multi-platform desktop apps with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://www.tidesdk.org

<comment><USER2> Titanium was transitioned to TideSDK in early 2012. At this point the code lacked support for any modern operating system other than Windows 7. Ubuntu and OSX support for any current versions of these OS's did not yet exist.

The challenges involved in moving forward with the code base from the previous maintainer were documented in this post:

[http://www.tidesdk.org/blog/2012/11/16/1-dot-3-1-beta- releas...](http://www.tidesdk.org/blog/2012/11/16/1-dot-3-1-beta-release- announcement/)

The work has been steady and ongoing. The software itself is complex and substantial progress has been made. More that 1 million line changes of code were made to end of Dec, 2012.

This kind of investment and involvement in this project has been huge for us. It is certainly deeper than the rebranding and documentation effort that we also undertook as part of the project.

TideSDK became an affiliate project of Software in the Public Interest (SPI) in October, 2012. As part of this non-profit organization, we stand together with other significant and substantial open source projects (including Postgres, Drupal, Debian, Jenkins, ArchLinux) that are under the non-profit administration of the SPI.

Tens of thousands of developers now discovering TideSDK as a result of our efforts. This number is steadily increasing. Ongoing upgrades and fundamental code changes in the sources are leading to an amazing solution.

Commercial developments involving TideSDK are also underway for many. Obviously, despite the surge in mobile use, desktop development is comparatively smaller. That said, there remains an important need to address for the desktop that TideSDK is filling.

We've put plenty of effort into establishing community around TideSDK as well and to make resources available to developers:

Documentation: <http://tidesdk.multipart.net/docs/user-dev/generated> Source Code: <https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK> Tutorials: Get started easily [http://tidesdk.multipart.net/docs/user- dev/generated/#!/guid...](http://tidesdk.multipart.net/docs/user- dev/generated/#!/guide) Q & A on Stack Overflow: Get help <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/tidesdk> Report a Bug: Help us improve <https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/issues>. IRC: Chat with us on #tidesdk on freenode.net Twitter: Follow TideSDK @tidesdk. Blog: Read our blog at <http://tidesdk.org/blog>. Knowledge Base: Read the wiki <https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/wiki> Google Groups: Join our mailing list <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/tidesdk>.

In addition, more great things are coming this year as the result of our involvement with TideSDK. The core talent behind TideSDK formed <http://coastalforge.com> to bring services and support. We've also got an amazing new solution to reveal shortly that has been spawned from our work. More on these efforts quite soon.

David Pratt TideSDK Project Lead

<comment><USER3> If I write a project that uses the web audio api and then package it up as a desktop Mac (or other OS) app with tidesdk, will it work?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Great project!

The only minor thing that disturbes me are a few well-known logos (Atlassian, GitHub) beyond "Thank you". I know it is a grey area of ethics, but perhaps we should encourage to put real partners (clients, etc.). If you quickly scroll you may see it as more impressive, but in long run listing that kinds of acts seems unprofessional (e.g. listing Microsoft as major partner, when you just license their software).

<comment><USER2> Our thank you on our landing page is not about identifying partners. It is an expression of our thanks for organizations that have helped us by donating software or services to allow us to continue developing TideSDK. Hope that helps to clarify this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been meaning to build something like this using CEF or something, and i'm glad someone else beat me to it. And it has TCP sockets! That seemed like such a glaring omission in cordova/phonegap.

I also think it's good to provide a platform.getOSType() in a cross-platform environment as long as things don't get out of hand. You could switch on this to load the platform's default fonts.

<comment><USER6> Try node-webkit[1]. It's a chromium wrapper around nodejs and they have various ready-made binaries for linux/osx/windows platforms. In my experience, it's much cleaner and faster to get up and running than titanium/tide

[1] <https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit>

<comment><USER7> I've been following node-webkit and AppJS on github for a while and they both look great, though I haven't actually used them. Maybe (hopefully) I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like you can compile an app to a standalone binary with either; specifically on OSX.

<comment><USER6> By "... compile an app to a standalone binary", do you mean that you would like node-webkit/appjs to convert your HTML5/JS files to ObjectiveC? That would be really amazing, but this is just like phonegap/cordova. It basically shields your files around a webkit wrapper.

<comment><USER7> I mean being able to compile to a .app file on OSX, .exe on windows, etc. TideSDK can do this in a wrapper-type of way like you mentioned.

<comment><USER6> Yes, node-webkit does that too. Check out: [https://github.com/rogerwang/node- webkit/wiki/How-to-package...](https://github.com/rogerwang/node- webkit/wiki/How-to-package-and-distribute-your-apps)

<comment><USER2> TideSDK handles the packaging and bundles everything into packaging native to the platform. You don't have to worry about what to include because it is gathered and packaged for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The wiki page on the github provides list of examples using TideSDK.

[https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/wiki/Applications- Using-T...](https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/wiki/Applications-Using- TideSDK)

Apart from that there are examples available to checkout from the repository. (develop branch) <https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/tree/develop/examples>

We are working on fixing various issues including moving to latest webkit.

</comment><comment><USER9> Thank you very much for updating this after Appcelerator dropped it.

I have written quite a few tools using this system (HTML5/JS, with a little help from a couple of python modules) and I was furious when I updated the Titanium build tools to find out that desktop mode had been dropped and I could no longer build cross-platform installers!

I have been editing the HTML code _inside_ my .app folders on OS X while waiting for this to come out - I'll install it ASAP and see what I can get working again :)

</comment><comment><USER10> I was looking for examples or a gallery of sorts, but couldn't find anything other than this:

<https://github.com/TideSDK/TideSDK/wiki/TideSDK%20Samples>

And maybe in this tutorial that I didn't have time to finish yet: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ikb-4tdygg>

Looking forward to give it a shot.

<comment><USER2> Here is a recent example in production with shopify

[http://www.shopify.com/technology/6825262-shopify-desktop- th...](http://www.shopify.com/technology/6825262-shopify-desktop-theme- editor-1-0-release)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This looks like it's based on Titanium, which I've used before and they basically stopped supporting the product for Desktop applications... weary of starting another project using this. Last time I had to convert everything over to an Adobe AIR wrapper with a HTML control.

[http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/01/the-future- of...](http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/01/the-future-of-titanium- desktop.html)

<comment><USER12> What makes you weary of using it? This project looks like it's demonstrated quite well that they were able to cleanly take over where Appcelerator left off, with a degree of cooperation from Appcelerator.

<comment><USER13> Wary. Wary of using it. Unless using it actually tires his body/mind to the point of exhaustion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Very interesting.. can anyone comment on the differences between this and node-webkit/adobe air/appJS ??

Can source code (ie. JS) be completely private (ie could not be reasonably accessed by a competitor?)

Does it have 'custom' jumplist support on windows (eg. media player buttons)?

Global hotkey support??

</comment><comment><USER15> I wanted to build a simple tool for personal use some time ago, and wanted to make it a desktop app in JS. I evalued many options, but I wanted a native look&feel, and with a comprehensive API. In the end I chose Mozilla Rhino+SWT, it really satisfied me. I'm waiting for Nashorn!

(edit: typo)

</comment><comment><USER16> Care to comment how this compares to (Mozilla) XulRunner ?

Well, for one thing, I did not find any decent script to easily package a XulRunner application, so maybe that's a plus point for each, but anything else worthwile (apart from the fact it's based on WebKit) ?

</comment><comment><USER17> I find it weird that the only sample application built with it is the old Wunderlist. Wunderlist 2 - which was released a few weeks ago - was developed native for each platform.

<comment><USER2> Perhaps it may seem so. That said, the original Wunderlist was likely the most infamous use of the original technology that reached millions of users.

It's no slight against its makers to have gone purely native but the fact is that most companies developing a todo app do not have millions in investment or the sort of native programming capacity to throw at this kind of project.

TideKit is a solution that is going to get you on all platforms quickly and its only improving over time. As you might be aware, the new Wunderlist 2 seemed to have lost its linux support as a result of their recent shift.

We're hoping to show something quite soon that shows a speed and quality of development that will have most wundering why they transitioned to native.

<comment><USER18> I think what the guy you're replying to was saying is that the entire page seems to be about Wunderlist, when they no longer use this SDK, and their use of it isn't really that complex.

Perhaps it would be better to show some actual users with a carousel type thing?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm really interested in this project. Multiplatform desktop app with HTML5 is really attractive over Qt and Adobe Air. Does anyone have a experience with XUL or node-webkit?

</comment><comment><USER20> Can anyone explain what is the difference with Adobe AIR?

<comment><AUTHOR> You need to install Adobe AIR in order to run the apps created for AIR but for TideSDK, you don't need any additional software.

<comment><USER6> You need to install Tide runtime once (just like AIR) to be able to run Tide apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> We made a quick spike locally in the office. Like the idea but seems to be based on a two year old webkit and only gets a score of 202 in html5test.com.

<comment><USER7> It seems [1] they are updating to trunk in 1.4.0, whenever that happens.

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13598319/questions- regard...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13598319/questions-regarding- appjs-tidesdk) (4th paragraph)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Looks good. Does anyone know what is the monetization approach for this kind of apps in the mobile platforms?

</comment><comment><USER23> Screenshots from Windows Vista? Why not Windows 7 or Windows 8?

</comment><comment><USER24> This is nicely done! Awesome project!

</comment><comment><USER25> like I always say: "Write in one language, suck on all platforms"

But it is a good start

</comment><comment><USER26> For anyone looking to use native UI components and not HTML/CSS/JS, take a look at these two which seem to be growing rapidly:

<https://github.com/picoe/eto>

<https://github.com/mono/xwt>

<comment><USER14> These lack the real advantage of HTML/CSS/JS apps though, which is that you can make one responsive app and package it for all desktop _and mobile_ platforms.

<comment><USER26> I'd like to see the code-base for a serious application front-end that covers both desktop and mobile because I don't think it's a viable solution for anything more complicated than a TODO list. What successful products can you point to that do this well and are you aware of the pains that they went through to ship?

Although mobile platforms are being added to Eto, I don't think I'll ever want to build the same UI for desktop and mobile. That's just me though.

<comment><USER14> Ehh.. i'm making one (depending on your definition of 'serious'.. it's no office or photoshop of course).

It is responsive, so it is not the 'same' UI, but with a convergence of laptops and tablets coming from both sides (android and windows), the separations make decreasing sense (eg denying desktop users touch functionality, or android users high-res/mouse/keyboard). Yes, there have been _lots_ of pains.. but using something like this so that you only have to target (known version of) webkit at least removes some of the issue. The jury is still out on whether it was a wise decision (I would have had to learn obj-c/java/at least one desktop UI framework, as well as develop and maintain at least 2/3 code-bases, so it likely would have been a similar nightmare), but i'm far enough down the line that the likelihood is it will stay that way (concern re: code theft is the only reason i don't say definitely).

There are quite a few apps that could be made that require not much more than a sophisticated todo-list UI though. A calendar app might be one off the top of my head that would benefit from a responsive UI.

<comment><USER26> The separation makes sense to me because of screen real-estate. On a tiny screen, there's only so much functionality that I want to offer in one single view. To your other point, Eto and Xwt ride on top of .NET/Mono which is stable and current, so you only need to learn one language and then you can address native widgets, even a WebBrowser component. Think of the possibilities...the whole embedding a browser in a native window has been done many times, but how many of those kits let you render native elements too?

Neither of these kits have a complete mobile story yet (I don't even think Xwt team is working on one). So, I'm not saying that any of this is useful for anyone with a same-view-code-for-mobile requirement, but I think it could be really soon. The Eto guys are working on the iOS backing and they already have some impressive demos running on each of the major target desktop platforms from a single code-base. Anyway, I just like them sorry for hijacking :)

<comment><USER14> No hijacking, it's good to hear others' opinions. Tend to learn a lot from (software) discussions here. The thread is dead effectively for a while anyway now.

The way i see it, a minimum expectation (for 'universal' coverage scenarios) is: windows, iOS, android. Perhaps OSX too. There are cross platform solutions for the desktop, but that would still require 2 extra versions to cover the minimum standard. Soon you might be able to do iOS with Eto, but until it gets android support that would mean you still need to implement the mobile UI twice and port the backend code at least once (a feat that i thought was harder when i started than i do now; but maintenance would still be hell).

So you might lead to the idea of doing a cross-desktop app and a webapp with phonegap etc for mobile. This allows you to support more platforms (WP7/8, FFOS, BBx, ubuntuPhone?). Tablets are going to want a more in-depth UI than a phone, so then you have 2 layouts.

By the time you have a flexible layout system, adding a third may even sound preferable to porting everything to .NET, even if you are familiar with it! Yes you want extra features such as keyboard/mouse support, and more in-depth editing etc, but you _do_ get the nice bonus that your android app will have those too (benefiting stuff like the transformer prime), as well as keeping all touch function on the desktop where touchscreens are taking off-- that probably wouldn't seem worth adding if it were a separate desktop app (same for smaller window-sizes). It's very reassuring to know that almost any feature implemented should work across all platforms. You could even extend a basic version for PS3, wii, TVs, chromeOS etc without too much trouble.

There are definitely shortfalls; lack of code privacy, still some browser issues on the mobile side (scrolling?), the DOM sucks, localStorage is tiny, etc! Phone processing improvements are fast whittling away at performance as an issue for many types of basic app though. IMO neither method (HTML vs 'native') are there yet, and different apps will suit each approach. To me cross-mobile/desktop apps are the future, although i concede that it isn't practical (or possible) for a lot of use cases today.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Destroying worn-out cells makes mice live longer - <AUTHOR> http://www.nature.com/news/destroying-worn-out-cells-makes-mice-live-longer-1.19287 <comment><USER3> Fasting destroys worn-out cells and replaces them with stem cells:

[https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell- regene...](https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration- of-damaged-old-immune-system/)

[https://news.usc.edu/82959/diet-that-mimics-fasting- appears-...](https://news.usc.edu/82959/diet-that-mimics-fasting-appears-to- slow-aging/)

<comment><USER4> Right, but isn't this only referring killing old immune system cells, but the treatment in this article is referring killing old cells throughout the entire body?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Note: [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive- free/pdf?res=9C07E5DF1F...](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive- free/pdf?res=9C07E5DF1F3EE733A25755C2A9619C946797D6CF)

Journalistic reporting of 'miraculous' pre-clinical results hasn't changed much in 100 years it seems. Of course, we aren't using trypsin to treat cancer today.

Nevertheless, we should be optimistic, we live during a golden age for the life sciences.

What I find disappointing is that this work has been spirited away to a VC funded private company. At best they will fail, at worst they will stop others from making progress.

<comment><USER6> Private funding is great for engineering projects. But it is only useful in scientific endeavors when the scientist can talk with the academic community openly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm emotionally putting it under "amazing studies whose implications will likely never be realized", but I digress: this is literally awesome.

<comment><USER8> Never is a long time. Maybe we won't benefit, but our children may.

<comment><USER9> I'm 33. I'm confident I'll be able to live long enough to benefit, if only because I'm willing to try something experimental.

"Go big or go home" as it were. What's my other choice? Death? Nothing but upside.

<comment><USER10> The alternative for many choices in life can be worse than death.

A new drug that harms your nervous system or starts an auto-immune disorder could be a real bummer.

<comment><USER9> I'm prepared to live with (or not) the consequences of any genomic self- hacking I undertake.

<comment><USER11> You should probably freeze some eggs/sperm before you start messing up your genome. If you end up with some weird illness, at least your children won't get it.

<comment><USER9> Already done. Excellent suggestion though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >"Investigators were blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment, except for rare instances where blinding was not possible."

Not saying this should mar the study or anything, but I wonder what that could mean.

Edit: It appears I spoke too soon and this does mar the study. I thought they always waited for natural death, but no:

"mice were injected twice a week with AP or vehicle until they became moribund or died of natural causes."

They don't explain the methods or data (how many, etc) regarding these moribund mice anywhere either. The lack of effective blinding procedures combined with this undefined "moribund" state is actually a huge red flag.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think the biggest bit of positive news in this fascinating study is mentioned just in passing...that the treated mice "developed Cancer later".

In a lot of Aging related research tinkering, very often there are steep costs to improving life-spans - increased rates of Cancer. See anytime you mess with the reason a Cell lives or dies due to ageing, you are risking higher Cancer rates. The fact that this treatment both improves life-spans and "delays cancer" is indeed very promising. Now hopefully the transmission pathways hold true in Humans...

<comment><USER12> People also report ~2x differences in tumor death rates due to weird stuff like cage row though: "a strong correlation between cage row and RE (reticulo- endothelial tumor) death rates, which varied from 17% (bottom row) to 32% (top row) (table 2)." [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6935460](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6935460)

Doesn't look like they controlled for that in the current paper. Who knows? In the extended figures they report a huge variation in median lifespan between different labs (like 33%, corresponding to what would be differences of 25-30 years for humans). It could have something to do with closeness to the door, air circulation, etc that people aren't thinking about.

Maybe rodents gain some health benefit from being nearer the ground. Less stress when they look out the window?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nature also has another editorial that goes into the details a bit more.[0] As well, here is the study of interest.[1]

0\. [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature16875.html)

1\. [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature16932.html)

<comment><USER15> Editorial and paper: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/bl2inz7eyrchsre/2016-gil.pdf](https://www.dropbox.com/s/bl2inz7eyrchsre/2016-gil.pdf) [https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpgfw89wq852imq/2016-baker.pdf](https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpgfw89wq852imq/2016-baker.pdf)

<comment><USER14> Interesting, I don't think that they were behind a paywall when I first posted them. Certainly the editorial wasn't, or I wouldn't have been able to read it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The company founded for this is Union Biotechnology; they wouldn't be getting VC money if they were more than a couple years away from human trials. Indeed, the CEO is on record in some of the present press as saying two years.

[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unity-biotechnology- launches-f...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unity-biotechnology-launches- focus-preventing-180300392.html)

The technology being used here in mice is not suitable for humans in its present form. But it won't take much tinkering to make it so - this is an age of gene therapy. The most important things here are that:

(a) a robust life extension was achieved with a SENS approach of damage repair, something that SENS advocates have been working towards for more than a decade. The SENS view is right. It is right today, as demonstrated, and it was right ten years ago when people were lining up to deride it. A SENS technology has produced a robust life extension and remediation of age-related diseases across the board in normal mice. People who think that SENS and damage repair are not the way forward need to take a long, serious look at why they think that, and then revisit the science.

(b) The Union Biotech VC and university PR machines are putting out word for word the SENS vision of damage repair to treat aging. SENS has won. This is the dawn of the age of rejuvenation biotechnology, with a near future of widespread support for that goal.

(c) There are at least three methods of clearing senescent cells in mammals, and most likely four. (1) The method of Oisin Biotechnology, seed funded last year by Methuselah Foundation and SENS Research Foundation, (2) the senolytic drug combination demonstrated last year, (3) the capase/gene trigger work linked here, and (4) the adaptation of method #3 currently underway at Union Biotechnology.

To be clear, half of these methods work in mammals now. If you had the right connections you could use them today. Clinical availability will not be a long time in coming, and I for one hope to see this escape the regulatory gauntlet very rapidly and get into medical tourism and clinics worldwide just like stem cell therapies did at the turn of the century.

Finally a note for investors and business people: every SENS rejuvenation technology of this ilk has a target market of every human being on the planet over the age of 30. Everyone, with treatments once every decade at a minimum. This is medicine that will make blockbuster drugs of past years look like damp squibs. That is why this should and will escape the narrow regulatory gauntlet that will try to restrict use to old people with the late stage of a few specific illnesses. That is nonsense and no way to run the future - <USER2> cells should be periodically cleared every few years starting at 30.

<comment><USER17> Ahh, can't have a HN thread on aging without mention of SENS. Is this a bot?

<comment><USER18> SENS is if anything under-mentioned. Not only everywhere but I get the feeling on HN too. For fun, I did a google search on this site for "aging" and looked at the first page of results, 3/7 relevant threads make mention of SENS, and most of the 7 are kind of old threads. In order, with the first three mentioning SENS:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8838073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8838073) (394 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9592378](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9592378) (256 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6406084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6406084) (868 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844909](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844909) (211 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8727314](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8727314) (420 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10468025](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10468025) (98 days)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9613206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9613206) (252 days)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is this the cure to cancer? Honestly, at the basics, isn't cancer cells turning against us because they're degenerated?

Also this song popped in my head... of course... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1foeTSHrgiU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1foeTSHrgiU)

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm all for destroying my many, many worn-out fat cells. Many.

<comment><USER21> Fat cells are not worn out. When they wear out, they're gone. I guess.

<comment><USER22> The cells can remain when the lipid contents are depleted. One feature request of mine is triggering apoptosis for empty fat cells.

<comment><USER23> This was developed more than 30 years ago by the CISRO here in Australia. What they did is made antibodies against fat cells surface proteins. When injected into an animal the animal lost the fat cells all over their body if injected into a vein and just locally if inject into fat tissue.

I don't know whatever came of the technology, but I always thought it would be very popular if applied to humans.

<comment><USER22> Would you please sneak me a case? And maybe a Darrel Lea SF chocolate bar or two?

But seriously, if it was viable and productizable, somebody would make a mint. Lipo in a syringe?!

<comment><USER11> Killing lots of cells at once is a recipe for trouble. Your body's clean up mechanisms are overwhelmed and you die, basically.

<comment><USER23> This is true, but you can control this by controlling the dose or using locally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> As usual this kind of articles has no info on base size, effect size and whether the findings are totally significant or not. Science reporting at its best.

<comment><USER25> No effect size?

> Mice whose senescent cells were killed off over six months were healthier, > in several ways, than a control group of transgenic mice in which these > cells were allowed to build up. Their kidneys worked better and their hearts > were more resilient to stress, they tended to explore their cages more and > they developed cancers at a later age. Eliminating senescent cells also > extended the lifespans of the mice by 20–30%, Baker and van Deursen report > in Nature on 3 February.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Sign me up for immortality.</comment>


Raising $1,000,000 With No Business Plan + No Financial Projections - <AUTHOR> http://coconutheadsets.com/2010/03/02/what-i-learned-raising-a-million-dollars-for-a-startup-with-no-business-plan-and-no-financial-projections-while-drinking-a-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-8393

<comment><USER2> I couldn't agree more with this post. Get comfortable with a VC that knows your space. You will know quickly that they aren't interested. Also, he makes a valid point to go out and _$%_ %*^ Show something that is getting traction. VC's are number crunchers, they can't predict the future (i.e they won't invest in something you say is going to be huge, especially in today's funding env.)

Ask yourself something: Would you risk your business idea on your own credit cards? If not, neither will they. Go risk your own cash and make it work. It shouldn't take much to know if it's going to work or totally bellyflop. Saves everyone a bunch of time. There is enough web knowhow these days to push a simple version of your product out for free. Just do it (it applies to everything, $thatswhatshesaid

</comment><comment><USER3> What a great post. This is a similar story as mine except it was for a lot smaller (seed) amount to churn out a prototype. For 6 months almost every meeting was at a bar until we closed, and just last month we finally put together a financial model and deck.

We hope to launch this month after working on it for 3, and now starting to look for a bigger round. I fully agree with finding investors that fit and not just taking on money to take it. On top of seeding us, our investor turned over a trademark and preliminary patent to the company. I think it's crucial to find a good match if you want to continue loving your company while working with shareholders.

Good luck Backupify!

</comment><comment><USER4> It is hard to think straight when one is out of a job and running on fumes for a couple of months - I do believe that most people will not think in terms of "hey this VC is not good, cos he does'nt get it".

Most will think in terms of "how should I rehearse in front of the mirror, so that I knock the VC's socks off".

But yes, the article is good reality check - maybe it is much more relevant on your second startup when, usually, money is relatively easier to come by.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> whoops, here's the link to the main article and not my comment, haha:

[http://coconutheadsets.com/2010/03/02/what-i-learned- raising...](http://coconutheadsets.com/2010/03/02/what-i-learned-raising-a- million-dollars-for-a-startup-with-no-business-plan-and-no-financial- projections-while-drinking-a-beer/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting post, thanks. However if, like me, you'd never heard that phrase before - [http://detavio.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/did-you-move-the- nee...](http://detavio.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/did-you-move-the-needle/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Certainly some great advice here.</comment>


Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory - <AUTHOR> https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1698090 <comment><AUTHOR> While I think the abstract alone is succinct, the authors present their theory a bit more in detail on their website: [https://sites.google.com/site/hugomercier/theargumentativeth...](https://sites.google.com/site/hugomercier/theargumentativetheoryofreasoning)</comment>


The Trouble With Malcolm Gladwell - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/10/malcolm_gladwell_critique_david_and_goliath_misrepresents_the_science.html

<comment><USER2> Let us not forget the Igon Value Problem.

 _" He provides misleading definitions of "homology," "sagittal plane" and "power law" and quotes an expert speaking about an "igon value" (that's eigenvalue, a basic concept in linear algebra). In the spirit of Gladwell, who likes to give portentous names to his aperçus, I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer's education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong."_

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Pinker-t.html...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Pinker-t.html?_r=2&)

</comment><comment><USER3> "Malcolm's a very good storyteller. He reads a few quirky scientific studies done on very small samples and weaves them into a myth about how if you blink for 10,000 hours you'll end up dyslexic but people will give you lots of money anyway."

[1][http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/06/david- goliath-m...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/06/david-goliath- malcolm-gladwell-digested-read#comment-27696051)

<comment><USER4> Really? Comments like this seem to be intent on setting up a strawman (ie: not anything close to what Gladwell attempts to communicate) and then knocking down that strawman.

<comment><USER5> From TFA:

 _This leads to my last topic, the psychology experiment Gladwell deploys in David and Goliath to explain what he means by "desirable difficulties." The difficulties he talks about are serious challenges, like dyslexia or the death of a parent during one's childhood. But the experiment is a 40-person study on Princeton students who solved three mathematical reasoning problems presented in either a normal typeface or a difficult-to-read typeface. Counterintuitively, the group that read in a difficult typeface scored higher on the reasoning problems than the group that read in a normal typeface._

 _In my review, I criticized Gladwell for describing this experiment at length without also mentioning that a replication attempt with a much larger and more representative sample of subjects did not find an advantage for difficult typefaces. One of the original study 's authors wrote to me to argue that his effect is robust when the test questions are at an appropriate level of difficulty for the participants in the experiment, and that his effect has in fact been replicated "conceptually" by other researchers. However, I cannot find any successful direct replications—repetitions of the experiment that use the same methods and get the same results—and direct replication is the evidence that I believe is most relevant._

 _This may be an interesting controversy for cognitive psychologists, but it 's not the point here. The point is that Gladwell makes absolutely no mention of any uncertainty over whether this effect is reliable. All he does is cite the original 2007 study of 40 subjects and rest his case. As I mentioned in my review, in 2013 this is virtual malpractice for a sophisticated writer whose beat includes social science, where the validity of even highly cited results has come into question. Readers who have been hooked by Gladwell's prose and look to the endnotes of this chapter for a new fix will find no sources for the "hard stuff"—e.g., the true state of the science of "desirable difficulty"—that he claims to be promoting._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hey, I said this 1216 days ago ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1420913](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1420913)) Can I get a column in Slate now please? ;-)

<comment><USER7> Well, all you need to do is do your 10,000 hours and ask the Collectors in your network for an introduction.

<comment><USER8> You want to also get this to your mavens.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sorry - should have posted the single page link [http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/10/malcolm_gladwell_critique_david_and_goliath_misrepresents_the_science.single.html)</comment>


Ask HN: [YC-Funding] : Will it work? - <AUTHOR>

It is beyond doubt that YCombinator model is a successful one but will it still work if we take "funding" out of it? When startups apply to YCombinator what they want most - investment? guidance? or popularity of being a YC company?<p>What if someone creates a similar organization where a team of experts(Technology/Design/Marketing/Finance etc.) guides and helps promising startups to bring out MVP of their product and connects them with investors in return of 5%-10% shares? Will it work? <comment><USER2> There exist many, many incubators out there which are essentially on the YC model. Let's charitably describe them as occupying a good bit of a hypothetical spectrum of value one could provide.

A new incubator which provided no funding is signaling to prospective companies that it is not as valuable as other incubators. It is less about the $10k (which is a virtually meaningless amount of money anyhow in business) and more about "We couldn't actually convince anyone to part with $10k per startup but don't worry despite that we _do know what we're talking about_ ".

This would likely doom that hypothetical incubator to only getting applications from people who are probably not ready to make successful companies, who are _legion_. You know, "great idea for a social network around filtered mobile pictures of razor blades just needs a tech cofounder to get their gamification on". That would be the happy end of the inbox for that hypothetical incubator.

</comment><comment><USER3> You could create something on this model, but you're not going to get 5-10% of shares without opening your wallet and you'd be hard pressed to put together a group that is as engaged as YC.</comment>


Ask HN: Would you frequent a HN for lifehacks? - <AUTHOR>

The idea: A HN for lifehacks: fitness, productivity, nutrition, Zen Habits- and Tim Ferriss-type material. Would you frequent it? <comment><USER2> Sure, sounds great; except what's to differentiate it from the _actual_ sites like Lifehacker, Zen Habits et al? Aren't these links aggregated by even _other_ social news websites such as Reddit (or dare I say Digg)?

Don't get me wrong, I'll hear you out and I'm certainly interested, but it's hard to get excited about "let's re-create xyz" posts. What makes this idea unique?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point.

Many blogs like Zen Habits don't offer fostered conversations. Zen Habits doesn't even offer commenting, resulting in a subreddit with 6k subscribers: <http://www.reddit.com/r/zenhabits> (many of which links aren't from zenhabits). Lifehacker doesn't offer much fitness-related content (How can I bulk up quickly? etc). They tend to aggregate everything as well -> too much noise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like this would be better as a stack exchange mini-site? I went there and didn't see any lifehack, diy, etc.</comment>


Problems with Remote Learning - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-coronavirus-remote-learning-lockdown-tech-11591375078 <comment><USER2> I can't read the article since I don't have a subscription, but I wanted to share my experiences anyways.

I have 3 boys, one each in elementary, junior high and senior high.

The remote learning experience has been dramatically different for each. Our school district has every student on Office 365, so we're in good shape technology-wise.

The senior high student has been able to just go through his texts, work on the assignments, do the tests and continue on mostly as normal. He gets through an 8 hour school day and seems to be better for it at the end.

The junior high-school student is having much more trouble. There is less material to study, and what there is is filler-heavy. He _maybe_ has 3 hours a day of actual work and is then at loose ends. I have been pulling more advanced material for him to work to keep up his education during allotted school hours, but he also doesn't have the more developed focus and discipline of his older brother.

The elementary (grade 6, so almost junior high) student has the least amount of actual work. Maybe an hour a day from his teacher. He's lucky that his teacher is accommodating and allows him to e.g. document his progress to the mun through Kerbal in career mode for the space module they're doing instead of reading a few NASA pamphlets and being bored.

The big takeaway I've had from this whole thing is that each student will only get as much out as they are willing (or forced) to put in. The opportunity to explore avenues of learning beyond and outside the established system is immense, and will probably grow some already latent educational gaps between kids.

I have a feeling a lot of parents are throwing their kids at video games and youtube, or just ignoring them altogether, whether through lack of time and resources, or lack of interest.

<comment><USER3> This is more-or-less exactly what I would expect: the younger you are, the more in-person learning matters. At the extreme end of the spectrum, imagine attempting remote preschool for a toddler (or maybe you don't have to imagine it these days). It clearly wouldn't work!

Adults are able to learn from mostly independent study. Teenagers are able to learn somewhat from independent study. Elementary school kids can maybe do some independent study, but not much.

Unavailable parents are part of the problem—but another way to phrase that is, the parent isn't available to act as a teacher (albeit one heavily aided by online resources).

<comment><USER4> >This is more-or-less exactly what I would expect: the younger you are, the more in-person learning matters.

Yes, but I think there's something else more subtle happening - younger kids have a lot less to do. I originally wrote a long diatribe with lots of facts, but it comes down to this: programs like No Child Left Behind et al. have actually lowered standards, especially by decreasing the subjects encountered at younger ages. Things that might have been taught at that age in the past have been pushed up or out.

On the other hand, re: in-person learning... watching my ten year old lap her class because she's on Khan Academy told me what I had long suspected: All of the _academic_ things we are teaching at the early grades _can_ be automated away. In fact, I'm fairly convinced she picked up the material better that way than the classroom approach because she had fewer distractions.

So, yes - my high schooler is even more nominally self-sufficient than my younger kids, but I think it has more to do with the amount of material she has to cover rather than age or aptitude related.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Agreed, the schools were not well-prepared for this style of learning and so it has not been particularly effective. We still participate with our kids' classes and teachers, but we rely on Khan Academy, augmented by Adventure Academy, among other things. Even so, we are not professional teachers, so I look forward to them returning to class next year.

<comment><USER6> I agree that the lesson learned here is that _emergency remote learning_ did not work. No one was prepared for it, teachers did not have training or materials needed, students were not expecting it, it was a mess. But that doesn't mean it can't work, just that it didn't work _in this emergency situation_.

<comment><USER7> To some extent I agree. But some districts/schools seemed to really have thought through how to deal with this quickly.

Our child's district did a horrible job, from our viewpoint and from the few other parents I've talked to in the same district (public).

Up the road is a private school that I hear from their parents did a fantastic job. As well as another parent in a district (public) further from us.

Edit: I'm curious to see how this affects the online schools (especially high school and below).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is definitely an issue for families which don't have access to computers & broadband internet. For the rest, I wonder if the results would have been better if there had ideas from the home-schooling community which could have been incorporated. Granted, this would require way more effort from the parent and a different mindset. However a primer on what to expect, how to overcome obstacles, keeping kids on track, etc. Traditional schools are totally unprepared for this scenario in a remote world.

Storytime, a few years back one of my ex-colleagues decided to buy a ranch on the outskirts of Seattle to work remotely. What made the decision easier was that A) his pre-teen kids were already being homeschooled B) his spouse was a stay at home mom who spent a significant amount of time keeping the kids on track.

He showed me pictures of the house which looked beautiful. Sat on the edge of a lake with a backdrop against the mountains and came with a stable for horses and livestock.

</comment><comment><USER9> K-12 schools serve two purposes - to educate students and to provide child care during the day.

Clearly remote learning isn't going to work when it doesn't solve the second need.

<comment><USER4> There's a third leg to the stool: Food and general welfare. Our local PTA has long put together meal / clothing care packages to send home with kids in need, but even before our distance learning program kicked in, the schools made sure to be open to provide meals for kids in need. Maybe this isn't the case everywhere, but in districts like ours with a high number of kids at the poverty level, schools are a significant provider of meals / health and welfare checks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> [https://archive.md/peiyp](https://archive.md/peiyp)

<comment><USER11> I haven't been able to access archive.is and archive.md in Firefox because of a Cloudflare error, "Please enable cookies.". It works on Chrome however.

<comment><USER12> In case you haven't seen, this is probably the reason for the error: You're using 22.214.171.124 for DNS which is not supported by archive currently. [https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/1018691421182791680](https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/1018691421182791680)

<comment><USER11> Specifically, it seems to be the new "DNS over HTTPS" feature in Firefox, with the default Cloudflare provider. I guess 220.127.116.11 will cause the same issue.

Interestingly, without TLS, the error is "Please enable cookies", whereas on HTTPS it's "403 Forbidden" after passing through an invalid cert.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I just re-read "Why technology won't fix education" and find it germane to many conversations going on right now: [https://jakeseliger.com/2020/05/26/why-technology-will- never...](https://jakeseliger.com/2020/05/26/why-technology-will-never-fix- education/)

</comment><comment><USER14> I think what we did during the lockdown doesn't count as a proper test of home schooling / remote working.

What we did here in Belgium is to force kids to stay at home and force parents to work from home WHILE the kids are there. I have 3 and none of the teachers throughout 3 months of confinement had a single Skype session with any. We're talking about <10 years old so a single teacher is normally dedicated to the kids. In effect on top of working from home we have to do the job of 3 teachers. Actually make it 6 teachers because the normal school lessons are half-day between 9 and 12 noon and in the afternoon another teacher is taking over or they just throw the pupils into a playground. So yes, it doesn't work under these circumstances.

</comment><comment><USER15> There are kids who thriving by studying from home compared from studying/lessons in the traditional school environment. At least that has been reported on the radio/news in The Netherlands.

Fully depends on the students what kind of learning/teaching is best for them when they are allowed to plan which tasks they do instead of following the schedule of the teacher.

</comment><comment><USER16> My (mixed income but weighted towards wealthy) community schools did excellent remote instruction, and at no time have I seen academic rigor reduced or compromised. I wonder if this is the educational equivalent of needing a product pivot and just totally doing the same thing, just with a different hat on.

</comment><comment><USER17> Is this because there is no effective way to do "remote learning" or just because of poor execution?

<comment><USER18> Research from the university sector in the US and Europe — who invested heavily in remote learning in the past decade to try to increase their reach — is unfortunately that distance learning is an order of magnitude worse in terms of outcomes than for traditional teaching.

<comment><USER19> Any references you could share?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Archived link: [https://archive.vn/cm9I5](https://archive.vn/cm9I5)

</comment><comment><USER21> Is it an involuntary illustration of the "jumping to conclusions" fallacy?

</comment><comment><USER22> Headlines like this are probably the worst possible way to do reporting. It tells you what it wants you to think right up front. There is no room for critical thought or debate. There is no possibility for them to be wrong. It implies the full authority of the entire scientific community and if you disagree in the slightest you are a heretic.

This is why I like hackernews. There is much less of this crap (though obviously as we can see in this case it still happens).

<comment><USER23> > _This is why I like hackernews._

HN guidelines mandate "the worst possible way to do reporting" by not allowing submitters to alter headlines that are obviously bad.

Most HN readers wouldn't even click on the article, or even click on the comments page. _But they see the headline._

<comment><USER19> The guidelines specifically encourage substituting for clickbait or thoughtstopping headlines:

 _If the title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we 'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."_

 _Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don 't editorialize._

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

Often a subhead or lede is a vast improvement. Here I'd argue for "The pandemic forced schools into a crash course in online education."

(Submitting to firstname.lastname@example.com)

<comment><USER23> Are you honestly suggesting that applies to WSJ headlines in general, and this specific instance in particular?

I suspect not. In which case, what—exactly—are you trying to accomplish with your comment? Muddy the waters? Convince people there's no problem? Waste people's time on irrelevant info?

<comment><USER19> The guidelines are absolutely general, not merely the WSJ.

I'll let you work out the applicability of my suggested alternate, possibly comparing it with dang's editorial choice.

I'm not sure what your specific beef is. The article, regardless of merits, would be better discussed with ... (checks and sees a changed title on HN) ... something other than the originally-submitted, WSJ-provided, headline.

I'm distinctly not a fan of the WSJ. The argument that the recent, global, crash-course on distance learning has ... proved uneven ... should hardly be controversial. It deserves a fair hearing, whether the WSJ has done so or not, and the topic seems well within HN's remit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Technology is not an emphasis in teacher education.

If engineers were teachers, in one week you would see them creating github repos with reusable TeX material for every possible class that exists, and then finding a way to evaluate and rank the best material.

In contrast, every teacher creates their own material that rarely gets reused, evaluated or ranked in any way, resulting in suboptimal material and wasted effort.

<comment><USER25> Computer Science professors are well educated in technology, yet I see much more sharing of material between primary school teachers than among computer science professors.

Teachers know how to use photocopiers, if material isn't shared and reused the reason isn't lack of sophisticated technology.

<comment><USER24> I am referring to teachers in general, including elementary/middle/high school teachers, for every subject, not only computer science.

You can use computers to teach almost anything.

<comment><USER26> I'm curious to know how much classroom teaching experience you have? I agree a motivated person can learn almost anything from an internet enabled computer, but I disagree that you can teach almost anything. In my experience they're not useful for teaching children fundamental skills like math, writing, music, etc.

<comment><USER24> I am not saying we should put each kid in front of a computer, at least at the beginning.

I am saying that the educational material that kids are learning from could be produced in a smarter, more reusable way so that it can be objectively compared and improved.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


No Regrets for the Founder of Tumblr After Yahoo Sale - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/technology/no-regrets-for-the-founder-of-tumblr-after-yahoo-sale.html?smid=tw-share

<comment><USER2> A happy world article</comment>


Uber is still fingerprinting your iPhone - <AUTHOR> I'm pretty sure that the Uber App is still fingerprinting your iPhone.
I have an iPhone 7 Plus and recently moved cities. Which means that I had to get a new phone number (my old number was really old and I didn't want to port it to the new circle - kind of start a new life).
So, I deleted the Uber App, installed the new SIM card and installed the Uber app back again.
However, it definitely seems that Uber is still fingerprinting my iPhone and not letting me sign up with a new phone number. After signing up, it blocked my new number.
So, I tried again - tried with a new phone number. Deleted the Uber app, installed it back again, and Uber blocked that again instantaneously.
Is it legal to fingerprint iPhones after the app is deleted and installed back. I know that UUID is now legacy, and that there was a ruckus a few months back that Apple threatened to remove the Uber App if it continues to fingerprint.
I wrote to the Uber Support, but as usual, disclosing anything and helping out is against their policies.
Can any Uber and Apple engineer here throw light on this matter? <comment><USER2> Apple provides the new "DeviceCheck" framework in iOS 11 to give Uber a "legal" way to do this: [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck)

It allows them to set a bit that permanently "marks" your phone, across installs, while protecting the user from the issues of fingerprinting. In fact, they explicitly call this out as an intended use of the new framework:

> You might use this data to identify devices that have already taken > advantage of a promotional offer that you provide, or to flag a device that > you've determined to be fraudulent.

Not to say they aren't still doing something shady, but it's at least theoretically possible they aren't.

<comment><USER3> Former Uber engineer here.

AFAIK this is the right answer.

Uber uses fingerprinting to prevent large-scale fraud--smartphones used to load thousands of Uber accounts for the purposes of money laundering or testing stolen credit cards.

On a smaller scale, fingerprinting can be used to make sure that "New Account" related promotions aren't given out to folks abusing the system.

So no, nothing shady is going on. Device fingerprinting here is being used to prevent others from doing shady or fraudulent stuff.

<comment><AUTHOR> But, in my case, isn't this the wrong use of DeviceCheck-ing? Why is it not allowed by Uber's policies that a user get a new phone number and make a new Uber account?

How is that fraudulent? I tried explaining the same to the Uber support, but they aren't ready to listen and keep replying with the same canned messages.

<comment><USER4> I wonder if the bit is cleared by doing a full wipe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is very simple. It was done via the advertising identifier (IDFA). If you don't reset it between uninstalling and reinstalling, you're still the same person.

This also applies to keychain data. If you uninstall an app, it's data is still kept in the keychain, and is accessible again after reinstalling. Not sure how you could clear this as a user.

This isn't fingerprinting. It is explicitly allowed by Apple.

As an aside, the new DeviceCheck system cannot be used for fingerprinting. All it could have done is to flag your device as fraudulent pre-uninstall if they thought you were problematic. DeviceCheck allows for the storage of exactly two bits of data - literally four possible values. It was certainly not done with this.

<comment><USER6> As you can see in my other comment, I think this is done by other "malicious" Apps which unfortunately aren't getting the same attention as Uber. Apple Support refuses to acknowledge that any App data is left on your phone after uninstalling. Is there anything that can be done to clean the keychain?

<comment><USER5> I was curious about the keychain issue too actually - as it seemed strange for Apple to just leave that vector in place with no protection. Turns out they did actually change it eventually.

As of iOS 10.3, the relevant keychain data is cleared when the apps which have access are uninstalled.

Thus, if ALL Uber apps on the OP's phone were uninstalled, the only known/allowed method is via the IDFA. This is most likely since Uber has promised to follow the rules.

If any other Uber apps were still installed though, that would also have maintained the unique identifier. Apps made by the same "team" can share keychain data (keychain access groups), and there is another ID - the vendor identifier (IDFV) which will only reset if all apps made by that vendor have been uninstalled. It may even be possible for apps to share files if under the same team ID.

So if you know what you're doing (resetting the IDFA), it's pretty easy to prevent. Just not many people do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It is not the only App that probably fingerprints your phone. Whisper also does it, despite marketing themselves as a safe and anonymous place for vulnerable people to express themselves. It would be very helpful if anyone could comment on how to stop them. Note that this[1] was going on more than 1 year ago

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12973748](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12973748)

<comment><USER6> By the way, in the case of Whisper, it had something to do with the Apple ID. By resetting the phone and creating a new Apple ID, it was unable to restore the old account. This was all before iOS 11.

Edit: in another comment someone suggested IDFA and data stored in the keychain could be used to fingerprint you, even after you reinstalled an app. This makes a lot of sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Lyft is your friend here.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> OP Here: So, is there any solution how can I start using the Uber app again?

Uber support doesn't seem to care what the issue is and keeps telling that they can't do anything about it.

I don't have any other Uber apps installed on my phone, can get a new phone number to signup.

<comment><USER4> Have you tried a full erase and OS reinstall?

<comment><AUTHOR> Haven't tried it. Will I be able to restore from backup after this, though?

<comment><USER4> Yeah. Preferably a local backup vs iCloud.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope, this still does not work.

I restored my iPhone to factory settings which erased the OS and then re- installed the updated iOS11 (I was on iOS10). I restored the phone from my local backup, downloaded Uber and tried to sign-in with a new phone number, but still no luck.

The Uber app throws me back to the sign-up screen after signing up and entering my name, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Maybe you could do a full restore of iOS to get around the issue? If you could jailbreak, there might be a workaround as well, but as far as I know, there isn't a jailbreak available for iOS 11.

</comment><comment><USER9> It is very simple if they are storing some identifier in keychains. Keychain items persist between the app install. There are a lot of apps which do this.

<comment><USER5> Not since iOS 10.3

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Of course they are. A leopard does not change its spots.</comment>


The iPhones of Fall - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/the-iphones-of-fall/279620/

<comment><USER2> For the most part, I've been really happy that HN hasn't been overloaded with iPhone article after article, but I also think it is a sign that the last few releases really haven't been that interesting. iOS7 got a ton of coverage and rightly so!

This article comments that the iPhone move from technology to fashion is a bad thing, but I'm not so sure it is. There is no technology 'missing' from any of the premium handsets these days, and we can only compete on mega-pixels, processors, etc. for so long.

Technology as fashion is a progression, as is the split between 'feature phones' and 'smart phones'. I compare it to a pen, where many companies put out details about how well it writes, while others create fashion pieces that you want to have. Pens all right good-enough, so you can't keep competing on that.

Furthermore, fashion drives price, I suspect often more than technological advancement does.</comment>


Video Interview: PG on YC and New England VCs - <AUTHOR> http://www.innoeco.com/2008/06/sundays-globe-column-y-combinator-east.html Companion piece to Scott Kirsner's column <comment><USER2> _No YC company has yet gotten investment from a Boston-area investor_

Wow. Given that half the companies get started in Boston, I didn't realize it was this bad.</comment>


Startup Field Guide: Mistakes To Avoid, Tips To Get Ahead - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8BVAG8

<comment><USER2> I'd be curious to see what your sales spike is from the HN front page vs other days on amazon.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this 'SlimBook' guaranteed to be concise, to the point and overall; a fulfilling read? Or is coining it as such just an excuse for the author to skimp out on content? 55 pages does not seem like an awful lot. Although for the price, I suppose it is proportional to a meatier book.</comment>


Software Use in Astronomy: An Informal Study [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.03989v1.pdf <comment><USER2> I've only given this article a cursory scan but what on earth is the value of the Venn diagrams in Figure 2 and Figure 13? Especially the latter. Do the authors even understand the purpose of Venn diagrams?</comment>


Show HN: Visualizing the ACLU Twitter matches as campaigns - <AUTHOR> http://match.patronage.org/campaign/11 <comment><AUTHOR> This is just a proof of concept, but it's pretty close to being usable. We built it with real time data via Twitter's streaming API and Firebase. Converting the attachments into data was done via Google's Cloud Vision API.

We wrote a bit more of an overview of the campaign as a whole on Medium as well [https://m.patronage.org/sacca-and-the-700k-twitter- match-76b...](https://m.patronage.org/sacca-and-the-700k-twitter- match-76b8452eae9b#.dq7rdzjim)

<comment><USER2> Impressed the Cloud Vision API worked so well.</comment></comment>


Android weekly - <AUTHOR> http://androidweekly.net/ free android development weekly newsletter <comment><USER2> nice design!</comment>


Ask HN: Do you think that WP devs are ready for a PaaS? - <AUTHOR>

we built a PaaS for WordPress and i'm seeing that, despite  good tries with web acquisition, the most performant acquisition source is still the offline sales to the webagencies.<p>Do you think that devs on wp are just not yet ready with PaaS? Or maybe it could be just due to that a PaaS often requires GIT, what you think? <comment><USER2> I obviously don't know enough about your service or your marketing efforts to say why you are having trouble with acquisition. But the need for a PaaS for WordPress seems to be a very niche one right now. Most sites built on WordPress are blogs or small business websites with very little traffic. For these, a $50/year shared hosting account is sufficient (even if everyone on HN loves to hate on shared hosting). If they need more and have the tech savvy to do it, a $5/mo VPS is good. And if they need more but don't have the tech savvy, a $10-$100/mo premium WordPress host gets the job done.

There are more and more people attempting to build complex applications on top of the WordPress architecture. Tools like WP CLI, Capistrano, Composer, Grunt, etc. - these are just starting to carve out their foothold in the WP dev stack. I imagine in the next 2-3 years the need for something like a WP PaaS will grow.

</comment><comment><USER3> There are already WordPress PaaS offerings that I'm pretty sure are doing OK for themselves, such as WPEngine. It might be worth looking at what they're doing.

</comment><comment><USER4> WP is not really a 12-factor app. so i guess it depends on your PaaS. in general bottom up, dev-to-dev, not top-down (sales, business relations …) works for us — i am co-founder of fortrabbit (PHP as a Service).

i think "GetPantheon" is doing a good job for professional WP hosting. wp- engine also. …

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you Frank for sharing this.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> quite interesting answers, thank you.</comment>


Mobile Haskell (iOS) - <AUTHOR> https://codetalk.io/posts/2018-02-07-Mobile-Haskell.html <comment><AUTHOR> Author here, feel free to ask me anything, and I'll give it a shot :)

There's been a lot of churn to get GHC/Haskell to better support cross- compilation lately, and thought I try to assemble a lot of the pieces of information and posts, into something that's hopefully easy to follow for newcomers.

Also, I would be very interested to hear experiences from other people that have had a chance to toy with this, or perhaps also experiences from people using GHCJS for mobile development.

In fact, I'm interested in all kinds of mobile development using pure FP langs, like PureScript, Elm, Haskell etc, so if someone has some resources of stories to share there, please do!</comment>


Stop Using 'Drop-Down' - <AUTHOR> https://adrianroselli.com/2020/03/stop-using-drop-down.html <comment><USER2> Thing is my customer, Bob From Marketing, wants a new feature. He knows "Text Input","Drop Down","Form","Button", "Checkbox" as terms to communicate his feature to me. He knows this because he used to code some Visual Basic on the side when he was "still a programmer" all those years ago.

Now in reality, I don't take any thing Bob tells me literally as directions. I treat it more as a description of Bobs problem. I then forget everything he told me he wanted and build the tool necessary to do the job he's described.

"drop-down" works just fine thank you. It's adequately descriptive to support its most common application - which is communicating with non-technical people.

But what about communicating with a technical person? Well, they're going to do what they want to/the sensible thing anyhow no matter what I call it.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is nuts. Please don't encourage people to stop using such a tried-and- tested, well understood, descriptive word. Talking about UI/UX is hard enough without taking that away. What the author is actually criticizing is a lack of detail regarding UX and implementation in feature descriptions.

</comment><comment><USER4> I use the word "dropdown" because it's the word that the non-technical people I work with use. They're not thinking in terms of HTML elements. If they ask me for a "dropdown" and I ask them if they "mean a <select> or a <datalist>?" they're going to think I'm just a pompous asshole.

I click it and it drops down. Ergo "dropdown." For better or worse, that's what it's called now.

<comment><USER5> > They're not thinking in terms of HTML elements.

That makes sense, as the term originated with UI development that predates HTML. It's a fairly precise term (although there are variations on dropdown styles, they're all unambiguously dropdowns).

There's nothing wrong (and a lot right) with using the term if you're not talking specifically (or knowledgeable) about web interfaces. Even when used in relation to web interfaces, the meaning remains clear, even if the technical HTML terms differ.

<comment><USER4> > That makes sense, as the term originated with UI development that predates > HTML.

Yes, but this post is focused on HTML which is why I phrased it in terms of HTML. The term "dropdown" is often used to describe a desired out come (a method of interaction in order to make a selection) and is often meant independently of the actual implementation, as browser, for example, will implement the control differently based on platform.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have no idea what this is about - would it really be such a stretch to add examples of the controls he is on about?

<comment><USER7> The silliness of this article's premise is that we still need a bestiary of drop-downs. As if the process wasn't complex enough.

Just call it a drop-down and iterate the design.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've never been confused by "drop-down" I was confused by this post, though.

</comment><comment><USER9> Does anyone else see a trend in recent times of posts that start with "Its time to start X/ Stop using X" instead of saying "I think there is some work to be done about X" or "IMO Y is better than X".

Then turns out you read the thing and they have nothing to sustain that title.

</comment><comment><USER10> People probably _did_ call it 'a select', until non-technical users called it 'a drop-down' (because that's what it does, without knowing what the code looks like, why would you call it 'select'?) and the term came to dominate.

I don't think it's confusing, if anything it's used precisely so we aren't confused... like by the myriad options presented in this post when all we really meant was 'any old thing that drops down and a user will call a drop- down'.

</comment><comment><USER11> Well this seems like something that isn't worth worrying about.

</comment><comment><USER12> This post reads like it was written by a web developer that doesn't realize UI development happens on any other platform.

</comment><comment><USER13> Dropdown is a perfectly fine term to use. Developers should be able to infer what is actually meant by additional requirements.

</comment><comment><USER14> For me, select box is a control with predefined list of options that can be shown and hidden in window-blinds style. Combo box is the same, but new entry can be added by directly typing in the box. They look the same but have different behavior. Dropdown is any of those and thus defines only the visual aspect, not the behavior.

</comment><comment><USER15> Stop using "stop using" blog posts.

<comment><USER16> "Stop using" blog posts considered harmful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> No

</comment><comment><USER18> `Drop-down` is imprecise, especially considering the difference between a navigation menu that drops down, compared with a a list of pre-set options.

There might be a few too many examples on this page, though.</comment>


Ask HN: Best April Fools joke 2016 - <AUTHOR> What is the best April fools joke you came across today? <comment><AUTHOR> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11402321](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11402321)

and

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11402321](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11402321)

</comment><comment><USER2> I don't know based on what policy but they flag posts like this

<comment><AUTHOR> Its a valid question for today.</comment></comment>