UX Idea: Real Turn-by-Turn Navigation - <AUTHOR> http://kyrobeshay.com/post/37837706193/ux-idea-real-turn-by-turn-navigation

<comment><USER3> > _"It's hard to orient yourself, at least for me, and that's when the dance > begins (let's not get into the figure-8 rave that Apple sometimes asks me to > do to recalibrate the compass)."_

But the suckiness of the compass is also what prevents us from implementing author's feature.

I mean, isn't this whole feature a response to "the compass/blue arrow sucks and is inaccurate, often not working at all, and is laggy and slow to respond even when it works". It would seem that implementing a new UX around it won't really help, since the new "fill up turn bar" would be just as unreliable and error-prone as its blue-arrow predecessor.

<comment><USER4> That was my exact thought. This is a good idea once the compass doesn't suck as bad, but until then this feature would be just as frustrating because of the high potential for error. It would be no different than the frustration you already face, just in a new design.

<comment><USER5> I am not sure. We may be more sensitive to smaller misalignment looking down at a spinning triangle than out at the world. If I get a "go!" and it is 10 degrees off, I will still be following the correct street in the correct direction.

<comment><USER6> The problem is that the compass won't be off by just 10 degrees -- it could be off by 90 or more degrees because of overhead wires or the magnet in your wallet or anything else nearby that happens to have electricity flowing through it.

<comment><USER5> Oh, for sure there are degrees of wrong that would break any reliance on the compass - no question. My point was simply that this approach may have better results sooner.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As others have pointed out, it's the noisiness of the compass sensor itself that's the real problem - this isn't something that can be fixed in UI.

Assuming you're pointing the device in the direction of travel, you can move forwards and combine the new position information to reduce this noise - <USER2> believe Google Maps does this on Android.

One could possibly envisage also using data from the phone's camera and corresponding it to street view images which (presumably) all have a known direction. There would be issues with the amount of data being sent up to Google to do this and the experience would be a bit wacky as you'd have to point your phone up (or at least horizontally, assuming you weren't surrounded by pedestrians etc) and maybe scan it around a bit...

You've got me thinking about Google Maps in general though. A feature I'd love to see is a map layer for mobile network coverage. I'm taking a trip this weekend somewhere quite rural and would like to try out the turn-by-turn directions, and it would be good to know ahead of time if some cruicial point in the route simply isn't covered by a signal - you never know until it's too late! They could perhaps combine this with the routing algorithm to offer you an alternate route where you don't have to make a turn in a no-reception area. When caching is implemented further down the line this could be used to provide a sensible 'minimal caching' option that just stores the bits you won't be able to receive on the road.

<comment><USER8> I've driven thousands of miles via android TbT navigation and surely for many of those i was out of signal. But because of the way it gets a complete direction list at the beginning it seems to never run out of things to say. I think this is an issue that's already been solved for most people's use cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> So...Google Maps for Android has this feature, and has for at least the last two years.

If you tap the little compass icon in the top right, you switch from "north is up" orientation to "current user direction". This uses the compass and not direction of travel, by the way, because it works if you spin around on the spot.

I've never had a problem with the compass. In fact, I've never had to recalibrate my compass. But then again, I don't have an iPhone.

<comment><USER10> Which is exactly how it's always worked on the iPhone (since getting a compass in 2009).

I'm pretty direction savvy but I find that whole spinning map thing pretty confusing. I think this interface is nicer - turn right, turn right, walk. Seems really intuitive to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The suggested functionality is already present in the UI and also it is not as intrusive. It is the blue arrow when you start navigation. You are supposed to keep turning till the blue arrow aligns with the blue route. It is not very effective because the compass sucks. Your UI addition will face the same problem.

</comment><comment><USER12> I was thinking this same thing this morning as I tried to figure out where I needed to go once I got off the subway using the new google maps. This is a neat idea, but I wouldn't use it until I feel confident in the GPS and compass in my phone being accurate. Right now it's only right about 50-75% of the time (an one fo the times when it is notoriously bad is when it is finding its bearings after being without servie underground.)

</comment><comment><USER13> As it has been noted, the one primary problem is with data. The other is with deciphering user conventions in referring to that data. The Nokia maps app for iOS knows where the nearest supermarket is to me, but still refers to it as "Albertson's."

When human beings give directions, they can use information from the other party to improve their directions. How is this done with maps apps currently? I guess turn-by-turn apps can detect when someone deviates from the directions and use this data as feedback.

I wonder how much a maps/navigation app would benefit from being able to detect exclamations of anger? Or, even simpler, what if there was a "WRONG!" button positioned right where someone could press it on impulse? Or let users violently shake the device to let the server know they're mad? (Maybe activate a sound recording of their complaint for that 10 second timespan?)

</comment><comment><USER14> Japanese phones have had that feature since 2006 with first person 3d views. You see the buildings in 3d in first person. It's pretty easy to figure out where to go

<http://blog.greggman.com/blog/cell_phones_keep_on_advancing/>

I find it frustrating the pretty much all smartphone navigation systems are not as good as 10 year old Japanese car navigation systems. They show 3d views as you go, which lane you should be in, Warn you about lanes to avoid. They'll even show buildings and bridges translucently to portray in first person that you need to go around behind the building or pass the on ramp of an elevated freeway and then uturn under the freeway and back to the other side.

<comment><USER15> Don't be frustrated. The challenge is not in building the app itself but getting very accurate data about the physical world. The density in Japan helps justify the costs required to collect this data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I would happily carry a candy bar-sized object that connects wirelessly to the map app on my phone and haptically let's me know when it's pointed in the right direction. This would mean that: 1) A better compass can be used and 2) I don't have to look down at my phone.

<comment><USER17> A candy-bar sized device with some sort of built-in vibration function?

You'd need a microcontroller and a bluetooth module, but I think I know where you can get a prototype. They usually have a grip-friendly and rain-protecting latex outer shell too...

<comment><USER18> But then users would be constantly selecting "most turns" routes.

<comment><USER16> Are you guys talking about dildos?

<comment><USER17> Uh.... no? Why would we be talking about that? ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This blog talks about a problem that I've ran to a bunch of times as well. I use smartphone navigation almost exclusively for biking and on-the-foot traveling almost exclusively. I have the same problem where I'm supposed to walk three blocks south, and one block west, but I can't figure out which direction is south, so I end up walking in the wrong direction.

The solution I came up with is a simple breadcrumbs feature. Every 30 seconds, the map drops a marker down on the map (going back 100 meters or so) to give you an orientation. I haven't tried out the new Google Maps app, but if they have this feature, I'm sold!

</comment><comment><USER20> Nice idea, but you're missing out on a lot of points.

1) Turn right where? You need the street name.

2) Changing the icon to Go, you're relying on the user to remember what state the dialog was in. Bad idea. When you're driving and have a lot of things going on, you're not going to remember what the dialog directed them to do.

3) Adding distance remaining indicators has always been confusing because it's difficult to translate what distance the navigation app is giving you to real world distance. "Turn. Right. In. Five-Hundred. Meters". _SUDDENLY RIGHT TURN, SLAM BRAKES, SCREEEEEECH_.

You get the idea.

<comment><USER21> This is more for foot transport, and it's not a turn-by-street, but rather more literally a stand-in-place and turn-to-your-right type thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> My car navigation system has something like this.

It shows a simple flat picture of the intersection oriented from the car's direction with the exact path to take overlayed on the map view when it is time to turn. It is extremely helpful for things like traffic circles where four or even five exits may exist.

</comment><comment><USER23> I was thinking about a similar idea today, why isn't navigation done in Street View??? So many times I've driven past a turning because I've not been sure if that's the right one.

If Street View was used for directions, then this guys problems would be solved because he could pick out the landmarks

<comment><USER24> Don't show street view, show the camera's feed and correlate it with street view, the GPS position and the compass in order to superimpose directions on the image.

Light condition changes would be a pretty tough problem to solve though.

<comment><USER18> Isn't it extraordinary that you're carrying a device powerful enough to make your suggestion plausible?

<comment><USER24> Yes, and it's equally depressing that it's implausible you do that for a little while without totally draining the battery.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Unrelated, but I used to live right there for about 4 years. Always fun to see stuff like that.

</comment><comment><USER26> Very interesting, but why change the button when it's time to "Go"? You could keep the arrow and just change the background color to green.

This will also allow me if I am distract to know where to go.

</comment><comment><USER27> This seems destined to cause a huge number of car accidents. Instead of looking at the road people will be staring at the screen watching to see if they have turned enough.

<comment><USER21> I should've clarified, but this is more for foot transportation.

<comment><USER18> I find walking with the map on auto-rotate mode helps friends with spatial orientation problems find their way, as does using sat view.

Personally, I prefer "North Up" view, even in automobile GPS. I find this improves imprinting of location and orientation through the spatial relationships, leaving me better able to navigate without the GPS.

<comment><USER28> Anything but North Up confuses the hell out of me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is not a good idea. It requires you to "look" at the screen. A good nav app has great voice prompts alongside accuracy.

</comment><comment><USER30> Bad idea. If you have to stare at that going round a corner you are going to end up stuck in the back of a bus.

<comment><USER10> _"When you're on foot just stepping off the bus at a crowded intersection..."_

I think you missed the point. It's not an aide to use while you're following the directions (like a TomTom). It's there so you know which way to walk at the start of your journey.</comment></comment>


How much time do you have left? - <AUTHOR> http://nt2w.com

<comment><USER2> Naah, I wont live 100 years. Would be interesting though if you could pull up some life expectancy statistics from public data (WHO has it I guess or World Bank) based on region and incorporate that in the diagram. :)</comment>


Are you ready for iOS 7? Get flat in 7 days. - <AUTHOR> http://blog.scoutzie.com/post/52631288358/ios7-flat-design-fast-professional

<comment><USER2> Let's hang on for another hour or so and see the thing first, yeah?

There are many conflicting and competing definitions of flat design. It's generally agreed that Apple will go flat, but nowhere near as flat as Win8 or even a lot of the web.

Don't worry about anything until you see the keynote. If you want to mesh with Apple's new visual design, you really can't do anything without _seeing_ said visual design.

<comment><USER3> Oh, pish! Why wait when they can make all the sweet, sweet ad money from linkbaiting

<comment><USER4> Yes! Please follow every design steps Apple make so all apps look like the other one and individuality has completely disappeared.

Seriously a well thought app is a well thought app, you don't need to go flat just because it will be the next 6 months crave before textures pops back again....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't get this flat vs. skeuomorphic debate. They're not necessarily opposites.

Skeuomorphic doesn't necessarily mean photorealistic. Flat doesn't necessarily mean white text on bold colors. I believe you can have a design that is both skeuomorphic _and_ flat, though I don't expect them to do that.

I think it's safe to say Apple will move away from skeuomorphism, but that doesn't necessarily embrace some pure form of what we've been calling "flat" design.

</comment><comment><USER6> Assuming that Apple does go flat, my understanding was that it will be, for the most part, taken care of for developers. Unless you were already doing a lot of custom skinning, building for iOS 7 with native widgets should just "work," no?

</comment><comment><USER7> Flat is such a ridiculous design fad. Good design implements both flat and "skeuomorphic" (another word I wish would just go away) elements. Can we stop running back and forth from one side of the room to the other?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, good design is how it works. We aren't against skeuomorphism and don't think flat is opposite of it either. In fact there can even be flat skeumorphism. I think Layervault's post on flat interface design, and Sacha Grief's flat pixels post are the best out there to read up on what IS flat design. Or Almost flat design. [http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/32267022219/flat- interface...](http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/32267022219/flat-interface- design) [http://sachagreif.com/flat-pixels/](http://sachagreif.com/flat- pixels/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> We will finally be able to jailbreak our iDevices again!

</comment><comment><USER9> Does having a flat UI allow the apps to scale better between phones and tablets?

<comment><USER10> I'm not in the domain, so this is probably naïve thinking, but it seems to me it could lend itself that direction.

Considering that many skeuomorphic designs involve a layout which spatially mimics some particular object. One can't scale that up and down in size to fit on any screen without also changing the size of the actionable interface areas (buttons, toggles, and such). And since the controls have their meaning implied/explained to the user by where they are on the layout of the mimicked object, rearranging the location of control areas takes away from the meaning that the mimicry is made to communicate. If the physical object mimicked is larger than the screen, and the layout and control area sizes must be preserved, then scrolling the entire view or something like it is needed.

With a flat interface, the actionable control areas can be grouped, for example by type (do they alter something global, domain related, context- specific, or only a single item). Membership of a control in a type could be communicated to the user by something like grouping all the controls of that type together in a box with a particular background color. Since the scope meaning of the controls is encoded by which color box they are each in, but not at all by where in that box they are, nor necessarily what shape that color box is, nor the box's location relative to any other color boxes which hold controls of different types, then the color/type boxes can be reshaped and reflowed to fit many screen sizes while keeping the size of the controls themselves constant (easy to hit with a finger, or mouse, or whatever).

Edit-addendum: Of course, this line of thinking simplifies skeuomorphic design too much. Such designs allow for more conceptual or cartoonish representations of the controls from familiar objects, so that the scaling factor used for any given control doesn't have to correspond to the scaling factor of other controls or the overall mimicked object. Still, flat design gets a great deal of rearrangement of controls for the price of the user learning to associate the box with color scheme foo as holding things that change the global context of the app. And the amount a user needs to learn can be smaller still. Even just using the principle of up-and-to-the-left is more general while down-and- to-the-right is more specific can give flat designs some structure (enough for many uses) while allowing a great deal of rescaling of the screen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> iOS7 icons make my eye soar. Seriously... I wish they spent more time with UI and make whole thing consistent.</comment>


60% of male managers now say they're uncomfortable mentoring women - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/60percent-of-male-managers-now-say-theyre-uncomfortable-mentoring-women.html <comment><USER2> This is _(%_ #(* ridiculous. If you're part of this group you're a coward or you're just looking for another excuse to treat women like something "less". I'll tell you to your face that you are wrong and that you should be ashamed.

<comment><USER3> If you're not a part of that group, you're in the minority. Invalidating someone's feelings seems so abusive to me.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why some startups grow soo big where as some stays small? - <AUTHOR> But both of them had the same idea and tried to solve the same problem.<p>What is the secret? ;) <comment><USER2> 2 key ingredients.

1: build a great product for a very large market, by very large I mean mums and dads can use the product.

For example, if you build a startup say a CRM for Lawyers, think how big can it get. Take uber, they have a very large market because mums and dads (all of us) can use the product.

2: marketing, marketing and more marketing. It creates hype..</comment>


A big warning of airline industry? - <AUTHOR>

There must be a way or more to prevent more plane crashing and missing! Let's put our nerd, geek and tech minds together to make a different! What do you think? <comment><USER2> Do you think there's a pattern of plane disasters? Seems like each one has a different cause and, overall, they remain pretty rare relative to the number of daily flights.

Here's a really good article on the subject of "autopilot" and human control of aircraft: [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/10/air- france-f...](http://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/10/air-france- flight-447-crash)

<comment><USER3> There _may_ be commonality between this one and the Malaysia Air disappearance. We don't know enough (yet) about the Malaysia Air one to know for sure.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree, the MH370 disappearance is so strange, I wish that pretty soon there will be some clues!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So long as there is human involvement, we'll have ulterior motive, jealousy, agony, and the whole basket of what makes us imperfect, which no amount of computing power can prevent from taking charge of a situation where a machine is involved. I'm speaking on what has happened recently with the Germanwings flight. To speak on the matter that you've raised, I think it boils down to thorough testing.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with you. I still believe that there must be some ways we can reduce the possibility. Thinking hard..

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Latest news, it seems like related to health issues behind the reason of why the co-pilot crashing the plane!

Probably some sort of procedures to make sure the health condition of pilots before a flight or in regular basis.

</comment><comment><USER5> I foresee regulation changes where a pilot of a commercial aircraft requiring multiple pilots cannot be left alone at the controls. Humans can be entirely unpredictable

<comment><USER3> You have to have one pilot able to take over solo if the other becomes incapacitated (heart attack, food poisoning, whatever). But that means that one pilot can take over by incapacitating the other. There's no way around it (other than, perhaps, three people in the cockpit).

<comment><USER5> Or just get the head steward in there if one of the required crew needs to use the can.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think this could help, but I thought this is a common procedure in the US?

It is not the case in Europe.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


If all fighter jets become stealthy, how will they fight each other? - <AUTHOR> https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/25312/if-all-fighter-jets-become-stealthy-how-will-they-fight-each-other-in-the-futur/ <comment><USER2> I view this as a similar question to: "If hackers become more sophisticated, how will we stop them?"

It's an ebb and flow. Stealthier aircraft will almost inevitably result in more sophisticated and advanced detection systems.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Myth: Stealth is obsolete / stealth is a hoax / stealth is marketing

> LO remains relevant (and very useful) for the same reason armor didn't > become obsolete when antitank guided missiles were fielded. [...] LO > technologies drastically reduce detection ranges and warning times. Sensors > that work well against stealthy aircraft would work far better against non- > stealthy aircraft. What's the alternative to stealth? No stealth? Make our > aircraft easier to detect and track? All future combat a/c designs must > consider signature reduction going forward.

Can be seen as a commentary on isolation/mitigation techniques in infomation security.</comment></comment>


The Billion Dollar Mind Trick: An Intro To Triggers - <AUTHOR> http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/04/billion-dollar-mind-trick.html <comment><USER3> This article skims the surface of habit formation. For a great read on the topic, checkout the current bestseller: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business. [http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What- Business/dp/14000...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What- Business/dp/1400069289)

The jist of it is that we all have habit loops that we respond to without realizing it. They flow through the cycle of CUE->ROUTINE->REWARD->CRAVE. Everything starts with a CUE, which triggers the habit. It could be something as simple as the little red indicator on your iphone app. This is followed by ROUTINE - or the series of actions that we normally think of as a habit. Next is the REWARD which can be surprising at times - you might think you get that cookie after lunch to enjoy the sugar rush, but in reality you might just enjoy talking to coworkers in the cafeteria. Lastly, for any habit to stick, you must CRAVE the reward at the end.

The book goes in more depth about how to use this cycle to structure habits in your own life (I have FINALLY started to workout and wake up early since reading the book). It also has great case studies about how advertisers, product managers, people managers, and more are structure these habits to influence consumers, employees, etc

<comment><USER4> I found this book unusually good for a popular nonfiction book, in the sense that it actually had a decent insights/page count ratio:

[http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching- Training/dp/05...](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching- Training/dp/0553380397)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I still remember learning about this at Doublerecall HQ in Palo Alto. It was an interesting evening of random charts on a drawing board. The idea was so profounding everyone had to know, immediately. If I remember correctly Nir and one of the founders were at a seminar together where the power of triggers was explained.

That evening I looked at the two websites who have become my daily destinations almost instantly: Buffer and 750words.

Both send you an email every day. It's not spam. It's a useful and interesting email. Something you do want to receive.

It changed the way I think of new project ideas forever.

<comment><USER6> Sounds like they have you under their spell..

(but seriously I'll probably check out those sites now : P)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Meh. In this sense one could become "addicted" to writing in a journal. "Addict" is quite the pejorative term to use for someone who likes taking and posting pictures of things.

That said, triggering is a fascinating phenomenon and can be used consciously on yourself for fun or profit.

<comment><USER8> Because a journal-writing does not give a variable-reward triggered dopamine hit after the activity, it does NOT form a habit in the same way instagram does.

<comment><USER9> It _doesn't_? What about blogging?

<comment><USER10> Blogging gives the blogger a rewarding experience of being listened to - <USER2> wouldn't say that's a trigger, people enjoy being heard, so while they have listeners, they're gonna speak.

The reader on the other hand gets a new post, which could be about anything, and sometimes the post will be bad, other times good, really good. This will create a variable reward system, and keep the reader coming back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think these triggers are an important insight into human behavior, not just because of the profit that can be had by activating them, but because of the great potential for abuse/utility. On one hand, we see potentially dangerous abuse of these triggers, such setting people up to waste time on Farmville style apps or making repetitive comments on Facebook. On the other hand, there is a potential to train ourselves so that our triggers lead us to more productive situations. Instead of reading a newsfeed generated by people we could ultimately care less about, what if our go-to for boredom is performing some 30 second crowd-sourced task? Or maybe we look at something relevantly educational, like an elegant programming trick of the day.

For the most part, when I get an internal trigger like boredom or anxiety or exhaustion, I go to something non-productive, like /r/wtf. But recently I've been replacing /r/wtf with HN, and while most of the browsing is still mindless, it's a lot more relevant to my career path and often leads me to other useful things like 750words.com

Right now, the most successful companies that make use of triggers are mostly parasitic to our everyday lives, but I'm wondering if that can't change to become something that we benefit from.

</comment><comment><USER12> Does anyone have good information on "beating" these triggers? Knowing they exist is a good start, but I'd love to be able to stop checking FB / Twitter / HN (gasp) when I'm feeling bored.

<comment><USER13> For me and my sons, mindlessly checking stuff while bored was rooted in health issues. In other words, we were both bored and too ill for something more challenging than passive entertainment. Working on underlying health issues did a lot to change that. Old habits return when we are somewhat under the weather but it isn't a big issue like it once was.

Best of luck.

<comment><USER14> what kind of illness?

<comment><USER13> I happen to have cystic fibrosis, as does my oldest son. I am real sensitive to dust, chemicals, etc. Having spent some time on alternative med sites, I have come to believe that allergens, chemicals and the like leave a lot more people in a mental fog than most people would think.

<comment><USER14> Interesting, thanks. I am glad you two are better!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Part 2:

The Multi Billion Dollar Mind Trick: Manipulate People by Simulating Success

Computer games are based on psychology, they try to make people think they accomplished something with as little effort as possible. Millions of people are addicted to it.

<comment><USER10> Do you think that's it? By that logic, I could make a game that's ridiculously easy and become a millionaire like that. People will beat it, no effort, success.

I think there's got to be a perceived effort and learning curve involved.

<comment><USER16> That can get people hooked initially.

The tricky part is to get people coming back. That involves increasing the difficulty (but not too much), so the user feels a sense of accomplishment.

Throw in elements of randomness and, voila, you have an addictive game.

There are studies that go into more depth than this, but that's the basic outline.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The article isn't half-bad, but must we always refer to things based on "Billion Dollar" money-centric thinking. What happening to "world changing", "breakthrough", etc. hyperbole?

Maybe it's less measurable, but it'd be nice for us to at least frame what we do as trying to accomplish more than deal digital heroin to make GigaBucks.

<comment><USER18> It's about Instagram, and there are people still mulling the "billion dollar" figure about Instagram getting acquired by FB.

<comment><USER17> Instagram being cared about because of acquision size is part of this too. I'm skeptical about what "value" is really created with companies like this. Zygna seems like a net-loss for society, "they're gonna make billions!" seems to justify it in the eyes of many...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "The minimalist interface all but removes the need to think. With a click, a photo is taken and all kinds of sensory and social rewards ensue."

This is drivel. Half of the content is even linkbaited away.

</comment><comment><USER20> This feels nauseating, considering:

\- <http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/01/06/the-gollum-effect/>

\- [http://dopamineproject.org/2011/12/the-dopamine-matrix- where...](http://dopamineproject.org/2011/12/the-dopamine-matrix-where-truth- is-stranger-than-fiction/)

No wonder we have a recent resurgence in Zombie Apocalypse myths in pop culture.

I suppose, this too shall pass.

</comment><comment><USER21> These desire engine articles make me wonder if similar ideas were circulating around the tobacco industry in the 60's.

</comment><comment><USER22> Makes me think of "there are no atheists in foxholes". Does religion have a trigger on despair?

<comment><USER23> This popular phrase often strikes me as untrue. For example, at the end of WWI number of religious soldiers in Russian army reduced drastically. Church in Russia collapsed after First World War/Russian Civil War.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I thought this was going to be about database triggers. =\</comment>


Ask HN: Asynchronous customer service - <AUTHOR>

I'd like to know if this already exists or if this is stupid.
All customer services in my country operate in "Blocked IO" mode: you call them, you wait 30 minutes for someone to answer you, and sometimes they even hang-up.
The alternative I'm thinking is: you call, automatically your number is queued, and someone will call you back on your cellphone.
Apart from the calling costs, is there any other reason the latter system isn't a win-win solution? <comment><USER2> Both Southwest Airlines and Amazon.com do this in the U.S. They've both called my cell phone before to do it.

With amazon, it's actually even easier. IIRC, you can click a button on the site to queue you, and that's what gets you in the queue.

Other corporate phone tress I've called before have had a similar option. After a given time they give you the option to leave a voicemail, and they'll return your call.

I think the major obstacle is psychological. People don't actually believe in their lizard brains that they won't lose their spot in line unless they're standing there to preserve it. Even though being on hold isn't the same (after all, it's not like you can _see_ the people in front of you, to ensure no cutting in line), I think people interpret it the same.

That, and, async like that would probably make people feel like they're being put off. Whereas with blocked IO, you think, "it's not that they don't care, it's just that they're busy right now."

But I agree -- I love it. I think people's attitudes will shift towards the system you're suggesting. It'll just take time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I felt this should exist somewhere already. Here, some systems say you have an "waiting time: 10 minutes" every 10 minutes.

But what can I do with this, startup-wise? :) (It's a problem to myself also)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> IBM (in Germany) did this at least some years ago.

Called the hotline, a nice computer voice told me that all lines are blocked and that they will call me back in 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes my phone rang and a friendly lady apologised for letting me wait and I told her about my problem.

I am still impressed.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've heard of exactly this from US and UK companies, but their names escape me right now. And this is a biased sample because I don't read much news in other languages.

</comment><comment><USER5> Calling a cellphone is pretty expensive...

But anyway, the consumer might be busy, I guess? Maybe that's a pretty big reason, but I never worked in call centers / telemarketing.</comment>


3D Real-time Unigine Crypt demo (WebGL) - <AUTHOR> http://crypt-webgl.unigine.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> This was submitted via the source I got it from (Mozilla Future Releases blog), and directly to the demo page, a couple of days ago by AndrewDucker, but unfortunately got little attention

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5251980>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5252075>

<comment><USER2> The problem, it seems, is that the titles were a little Editorialized. Which can get it flagged, as doing this is against the HN guidelines.

But, from my experience[1], WebGL topics have a hard time getting tracktion on Hacker News.

I'm glad this got traction this time. It really is an impressive demo.

[1] [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=web...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=webgl+by%3ADanielRibeiro&sortby=points+asc)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Since I was having trouble understanding what the impressive part is here (low polys, (apparently) static lighting, and bump mapping at smooth frame rates have been WebGL tech demos for a while), so I found some more context:

Uningine's news entry: <http://unigine.com/news/2013/02/20/crypt-in-browser>

A video of the demo they're running: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azKNaRD221M>

Obviously they haven't implemented / turned off the bells and whistles. Which conflicts a bit with the news entry, which says "with all visual effects". Does anyone know how much they have implemented? I'm interested, but more information seems hard to find.

<comment><USER4> This WebGL demo is apparently a port of Unigine Crypt which is a mobile version of Unigine Sanctuary (running on Tegra 2):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX25STzOdtM>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm afraid it's glitchy, and there's something horrible happening on the square panel above the door - looks like two flats superimposed, or transparency moire, or some such.

Sorry, but I'm not especially impressed - this is on a high end desktop machine custom built for gaming at 1920 x 1200(core i7, 12GB RAM, GTX670s etc.) - there's no hardware reason for it not to be perfect. Running Chrome 24.0.1312.57 on Windows 7 64 bit.

It didn't run on my Nexus 7 (no WebGL found) but then I'm not running a beta version of Chrome. Perhaps that would be the impressive bit.

EDIT: updated Chrome to 25.0.1364.97 m (the latest) and got the "Aw, Snap!" dead tab on reloading. State of web development as expected. Perhaps THAT'S why there aren't any AAA titles on WebGL...

</comment><comment><USER6> In Chrome, all I see is lighting effects occluded by solid black (unshaded) shapes. This is similar to what I see in the BananaBread demo in Chrome.

Works fine in Firefox, but as is typical for WebGL demos in Firefox on my machine, looks like about 10 fps.

<comment><USER7> I got a lot of these errors on the console for Chrome: .WebGLRenderingContext: GL ERROR :GL_INVALID_ENUM : glCompressedTexImage2D: internal_format was GL_COMPRESSED_RGBA_S3TC_DXT1_EXT

Turns out it requires S3TC compression which is not supported in Mesa drivers by default (only decompression is). After installing libtxc_dxtn.so it worked just fine in Chrome.

Also it doesn't work with Firefox 10.0.12, even if I enable WebGL. It does work with latest nightly (Firefox 22.0a1) though.

<comment><USER6> Aha! Installing the libtxc_dxtn_s2tc0 package fixed it, and it ran smoothly (with a small periodic stutter). That fixed BananaBread too (well, it's still buggy, but sometimes it works correctly). That package seriously needs to be a default for Ubuntu, given how many WebGL pages I've seen it break.

<comment><USER7> Another solution is to: "export force_s3tc_enable=true" (or equivalent setting in ~/.drirc) since only decompression is needed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Bravo! Very nice smoothing on the angel statue closeup.

Framerate was a bit low but maybe that's just me (Mid 2010 MBP 15").

Keep at it!

</comment><comment><USER9> That is cool. and it works well. Even on my linux laptop. Also on Firefox. In fact, it seems faster in Firefox than Chrome. Maybe because its been dev with Firefox as test platform or something.. I wonder.

</comment><comment><USER10> Wow. Amazing demo, can't wait for WebGL animated movies that look this good!

</comment><comment><USER11> This has quite a way to go. I'm running Firefox 18 on my Radeon HD 6970 card (high end gaming grade) and there's quite a bit of stuttering every few seconds.

Maybe the javascript garbage collection?

</comment><comment><USER12> Whenever I see demos like this, I wonder why we don't have full-blown WebGL games out there? What are the limiting factors? Can somebody explain the issues?

</comment><comment><USER13> So when is Unigine going to launch a cross-platform OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0 benchmark for Android and iOS? They seem to have it for everything else except mobile.

</comment><comment><USER14> Stuck at Loading... after successfully loading several Loading... screens.

Gotta say I've never been so impressed with the loading capabilities of a game engine before.

FF 19.0 OS 10.8.2.

</comment><comment><USER15> They blatantly copied, ripped-off even, the Mozilla BananaBread loading page, even copying the Mozilla bar.

Why?

<comment><USER16> I'm only speculating, but perhaps they literally copied it - BananaBread is under the BSD license.

<comment><USER15> Is the mozilla bar thing, though?

<comment><USER16> Oh, I see what you mean now. Yeah, that seems odd.

<comment><USER15> Ah, it's under the MPL, they're allowed to copy it:

<http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/tabzilla/tabzilla.js>

<http://crypt-webgl.unigine.com/js/tabzilla.js>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> All I see is a slideshow of nicely rendered images. Yes, my browser is capable of WebGL.

<comment><USER18> ..did you run the demo? It actually generates those in WebGL not as still frames but as real, dynamic scenes which are panned through.

In fact, I was utterly blown away by how smooth (absolutely lag free and very fluid) yet detailed this demo was. Very impressive.

<comment><USER19> I'm suspect about how there are no movement controls. It's all prescripted. There aren't any physics either. Not impressive.

<comment><USER20> I think this is quite impressive. As for the movement controls and physics, both introduce complexity completely unnecessary for a tech demo.

...you do realize this isn't a game, right?

<comment><USER21> Nonsense.

There is nothing compelling about WebGL _except_ that it is interactive.

If I wanted a non-interactive scene that repeats, I could do it in anything and upload it as a video on youtube.

Dynamic interactive 3d is the exciting thing _about_ webGL and it is the the thing _missing_ from this demo, so I too, am disappoint.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This works really well in the Chrome beta browser on my nexus 7</comment>


AeroDoodle - interactive CFD in your browser - <AUTHOR> http://aerodoodle.swan.ac.uk/aerodoodle_med.htm <comment><AUTHOR> If this doesn't work for you, could you tell me your OS/Browser version numbers? I'm getting reports of problems.

Thanks.

PS: It's not mine - feel free to report directly to the people involved, but I thought I'd collate some data (if any) for them from this community.</comment>


What if Facebook charged $1/year : Would you still use it? - <AUTHOR>

FB has been a great execution of an idea overall even though I am not a big fan of it lately due to every changing things with it. Anyway, looking at the recent issues with fb and its dismal projections, what happens if it asks its users to donate/pay $1 for a whole year ? Is this something that active users will consider ? Personally, I don't use fb at all these days but out of the 900 million claimed active users, even if 500 million pay, wouldn't that mean 500 million in revenue for the year ? Is that pocket change ? Would that help ? <comment><USER2> At this point, yes I would. I bet anyone who has hundreds of pictures up would too (so a lot of the female user base). Some people wouldn't mind but I could see some being annoyed but paying it anyway. I think it could lead to people not joining and would probably be the beginning of the end for the company. I mean it would still take in a lot of money for the foreseeable future but would ultimately fail.

If Facebook were to charge when they were smaller, it would have stopped growth and allowed a competitor to take most of their user base. I would not have paid anything when I first started using the service.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not a chance. I think I'm one of the decently large group of Facebook users who are looking for any excuse to stop using the service.

Not only do I think its a poor way of sharing information, its always had huge swings of spam-ridden News Feeds, and forced user adoptions in terms of UI, etc.

</comment><comment><USER4> No because only 1/10 of my friends that use it now would continue using it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Not for Facebook, no. I won't take it for free. However, I think that maybe you have a germ of an idea.

The thing is, what is important about a social network? the other people on the network. If you had a quality filter on that network, sure, I'd pay a buck.

Some people would even argue that the buck /is/ a quality filter... to some extent, it is, if you use that dollar to verify the identity of the user in question. (I mean, this is important more on professional networks, like linkedin) but yeah, in some contexts? that'd be great.

but, if you mean "can facebook make money from charging people a buck a year?" my guess is "probably not." - it would have to be a niche network.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think FB should charge for the mobile app since more than half of users are visiting via mobile. Since FB can't make money off mobile users why not change $3 per month to use the mobile app? If FB started to charge mobile users it would change the dynamics of free mobile apps. If users don't want to pay, then they will need to use the FB website.

<comment><USER7> "Since FB can't make money off mobile users"

Facebook is making $183 Million per year off mobile ads whilst, this may not be a huge number when considering Facebook's user numbers, the amount of users who use Facebook on their phone or even the amount of users who only use Facebook through their phone this number is certainly going to grow considerably over the next few years.

In fact, Facebook haven't even rolled out these advertisements worldwide yet and the ones they are testing are only showing every 150 or so, again this is something Facebook aren't being aggressive about their CFO David Ebersman said Facebook are "being very careful about the volume of sponsored stories in the news feed because it's so core to the user experience."

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> No I won't use it. It's not very useful. Following others doesn't make me happy. If google charges $1/year, I will stay.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hell no. I wont pay to them when they already have pretty much all my data.

<comment><USER10> Methinks they have that data to cultivate ads for the users. If they asked you to pay and changed their policies for the paying (ability to export data, a lack of emphasis of keeping it for themselves) would it be more compelling?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> yes, if that 1$ (hell, make it $10) buys me privacy & if they cut the ads

<comment><USER12> You could always try Adblock. I've never seen an ad on Facebook.

<comment><USER13> I've noticed that parts of ads(text) have been trickling through lately with Adblock, maybe I just need an update.

<comment><USER14> Same here. Luckily I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, and a little bit of text on the side is a lot easier to ignore than a bunch of pictures.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Yes, if it meant that it was ad free for me.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm not even using it right now. And if Facebook made it easier to delete the account, I would've done it by now, but I can't be bothered to look for tutorials on how to delete your Facebook account right now.

<comment><USER17> Why do you need tutorials?

You just go to <https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account>

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> No. Speaking for me personally, times of procrastinating because of Facebook are long gone. After some time, you realise there are clearly no benefits. Hell, I'll say it, I think Facebook has reached its peak already (maybe not in number of users) but definitely in other areas. There are healthier alternatives to almost every service at Facebook.

And as somebody else mentioned, if Google wanted to charge $1/yr for all their services, I'd be glad to pay it. Same goes for iCloud and other Apple related services.</comment>


So this is why JavaScript is being mocked - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34589488/es6-immediately-invoked-arrow-function <comment><USER2> I know this isn't mature but I keep seeing penises</comment>


Which is more illogical, voting or buying green products? - <AUTHOR>

Neither is worth spending time/money on in the sense that one person won't make a difference -- at least, if you discount network effects.
It's hard to imagine for example how this could be a selling point:  http://www.apple.com/mac/green-notebooks
So which is more illogical to you? <comment><USER2> That completely misses the point of why people vote, or buy green products, or help the homeless, or donate to charity, or do anything civic-minded.

It's true that one person basically does not make a difference in the grand scheme of things. However, it makes a big difference _to that person_. It's all about identity, and self-image, and all the intangible self-esteem thingies that you can't reduce down to rational behavior.

Same as with any branded behavior. Why do people pay $5 for Starbucks coffee when they can make it for pennies at home? Why do they pay double for Macs when you can get an Ubuntu machine that works nearly as well? Why do they live in gigantic McMansions that cost a fortune to heat when they'll never use all the rooms? It's all a way of saying "I'm cooler than you", and people will pay a lot to be cooler than their neighbors. Personally, I think being green or civic-minded is a lot more productive expression of your self-identity than mindless consumerism.

Same reason that the Prius succeeded in the market while the Civic Hybrid and various diesel cars failed. The Prius just screams "I'm cooler than you", with the sleek body, separate brand, keyless entry, electronic transmission, on- screen computer display, etc. If you really want to be friendly to the environment, get a Jetta Diesel or a motorcycle or bike to work. But those don't _announce_ that you're being friendly to the environment the same way that driving a Prius does. (Except at Google, where biking to work is one step cooler than driving a Prius, because everyone has a Prius.) So they fail in the marketplace, which is all about "What can this do for me?" rather than "What can this do for the environment?"

<comment><AUTHOR> Donating to charity is different because even a small donation can make a difference to someone (e.g., keep him/her alive for a few days).

Voting/buying green products is all about showing other people that you share their views. That's all it is. If you are independently-minded, maybe you wouldn't want to do that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Having run for election last year [1], I'm confident that voting tends to be more illogical of the two.

First, most people tend to vote in accordance to their philosophical world- view. And since most people are inconsistent and illogical [2] with their world views, then their voting will be likewise inconsistent and illogical [3].

Second.. eh. I need to get back to work. More later if y'all want.

Notes:

1 - I came in dead last. Which I thought was still amazing because I never ran for anything other than college clubs before. I don't begrudge the guy who did win. If it couldn't be me, I'm glad it was him, and not the other folks who ran.

2 - Most of the readers on this site are developers, who have a far more consistent & logical approach to things. While I value consistency and logic, I recognize that I am frequently far less logical and far less consistent than I would prefer.

3 - In general, pointing out the inconsistencies in a person won't make friends - just enemies.

</comment><comment><USER4> _Neither is worth spending time/money on ... at least, if you discount network effects_

That's a lot like saying, "This thing is completely worthless and illogical . . . at least, if you discount most of what makes it worth something and logical."

</comment><comment><USER5> Voting</comment>


Use Espresso v2.0 for Android App Development and Testing - <AUTHOR> http://instantdevices.com/testdroid/9239/how-to-use-espresso-v2-0-with-testdroid-cloud-devices

<comment><USER2> The new Espresso is a great improvement compared to v1. The thing that I like the most in Espresso is the general speed of it: no other framework is as fast as this one.</comment>


Ask HN: Were you disappointed with the Apple conference? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> It should have been expected really. I mean 3GS came before 4.

I just feel if Apple had went and put a new casing on the iPhone then none of this negative commentary would be around.

I personally still think the iPhone 4 shell is the best looking phone out there.

</comment><comment><USER3> Couldn't care less. The only thing making me happy is that HN is keeping the Apple News to a minimum.

</comment><comment><USER4> Although I missed Steve, Siri and the new camera really impressed me.

</comment><comment><USER5> YES</comment>


Webhook Tester - <AUTHOR> http://webhook.site <comment><USER2> Looks neat. Also see [http://requestb.in/](http://requestb.in/) in the same vein.

<comment><USER3> The full runscope product is really powerful too. I recommend anyone who does anything with HTTP add it to their toolbox. (I have no affiliation)

<comment><USER4> Thanks Patrick :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Use history.replaceState instead of pushState on the initial page load. Also, your first history state change is missing a / causing a second state change:

        http://webhook.site/
        http://webhook.site/#048eaf45...
        http://webhook.site/#/048eaf45...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

Edit: Fixed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Another cool tool for testing HTTP in general is [http://httpbin.org](http://httpbin.org)

</comment><comment><USER7> Shameless plug: [https://requesthub.xyz/](https://requesthub.xyz/)

Let's you transform input data with jq and redirect the webhook to another endpoint. Kind of make-your-own Zapier.

Also featuring replays.

<comment><USER8> Nice! I've used hook.io for this in the past but yours looks much simpler.

<comment><USER7> Thank you.

The problem is that it is only good if you happen to know jq[1]. If you know a lot of jq you can do a lot of interesting things.

[1]: [https://stedolan.github.io/jq/manual/](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/manual/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> wes-k Related: [http://www.ultrahook.com](http://www.ultrahook.com) \- a free webhoook to localhost setup to help testing things like stripe webhoooks locally.

Unaffiliated, just used recently and am big fan!

<comment><USER9> Also Ngrok: [https://ngrok.com](https://ngrok.com)

I really like Ngrok because it also comes with a light-weight web client that lets you see requests and replay them. Replaying especially is huge for me when doing testing.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you use Vagrant, "vagrant share" is built in. Very handy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Another similar tool is [https://testwebhooks.com/](https://testwebhooks.com/) which supports SSL connections.

</comment><comment><USER11> Love the realtime updates. We made a similar tool ([http://webhookinbox.com](http://webhookinbox.com)) because others weren't doing that yet. Always good to have options though!

</comment><comment><USER12> Great work fredsted. I especially like how you can have multiple people use the same endpoint.

[https://tailtub.com/](https://tailtub.com/) is a similar project I've been moonlighting on. It's a go binary and it's like Requestb.in but for stdin.

I wanted something where I didn't have to use a UI to start a stream. Your project and others like this I think are especially useful for giving API consumers more insight on what's happening to a resource after a record is queued (say after a HTTP 201).

</comment><comment><USER13> Nice. I created [https://logrequest.com](https://logrequest.com), originally for my own use. Supports custom responses, ssl and cors which requestb.in didn't.

Looking at this thread there seems like a lot of similar (and better) tools so maybe I didn't look hard enough before deciding to hack something together :)

</comment><comment><USER14> GET requests are coming through with 'content-length: 0' when that header was not sent.

Some other headers are not coming through, e.g. `te: gzip, deflate`

Otherwise, trying to use HTTPS instead of HTTP takes me to "Simon's Filedump"

<comment><AUTHOR> HTTPS should work now! (Thanks Letsencrypt!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another free/open source/easily deployable to Heroku alternative is Hookable:

[https://github.com/kdaigle/hookable](https://github.com/kdaigle/hookable)

</comment><comment><USER16> Very cool! Note that your Laravel installation is in debug mode though.

When you make a request with a non-supported HTTP verb, you get the full Laravel error message back instead of just an empty 405.

Are you disallowing verbs on purpose?

</comment><comment><USER17> Nice! Some services don't allow non-https URLs for the webhook even for development (slack...), so might be nice to support that. Let's Encrypt provides free SSL certs if you wanted to go that route.

</comment><comment><USER18> +1 for another useful tool. My favorite for these use cases is [http://mockbin.com](http://mockbin.com). You can also define the response if so needed.

</comment><comment><USER8> One thing I've wanted on tools like this is an API to query what requests have hit your particular endpoint which would be useful for unit testing applications which use webhooks.

<comment><USER4> [https://www.runscope.com/docs/request- capture](https://www.runscope.com/docs/request-capture) paired with [https://www.runscope.com/docs/api/messages](https://www.runscope.com/docs/api/messages) can do that.

Or use [http://blog.runscope.com/posts/monitor-your-webhook- workflow...](http://blog.runscope.com/posts/monitor-your-webhook-workflows- with-new-incoming-requests-for-api-tests)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> On Chrome 54, on Windows 7, I have to refresh to see the web requests, which feels like it makes the flow much worse from a UX perspective.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm using Pusher, and it looks like I've hit their rate limit after I posted this. Whoops!

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Reminds me of [http://logvoo.com](http://logvoo.com)

</comment><comment><USER21> Neat idea. I've used a 1-liner (just print) AWS lambda function in the past to test webhooks.

</comment><comment><USER22> Auto-refresh on Chrome 54+ after added new url doesn't work

</comment><comment><USER23> This is simple and super useful, thanks!

</comment><comment><USER24> Awesome!

</comment><comment><USER25> Neato!

</comment><comment><USER26> Please never hijack back button.</comment>


Female Co-Founder position for a dating app - <AUTHOR> http://realmccoy2k2.tumblr.com/post/81782700480/female-co-founder-position-for-a-dating-app

<comment><USER2> I have some serious questions:

\- Did you have another person proofread this for you?

\- Why should _she_ relocate to Pune, India? Why shouldn't you relocate?

\- How did you come to the conclusion that the world lacks dating apps?

\- How are you flexible on the skill-set you need from a cofounder but not on the name of the app?

You're trying to get someone with a Masters (or PhD) in Psychology. She's got good prospects wherever she already lives. I don't see an appreciation for that in this post calling for a woman cofounder, especially given the finder's fee, which I would describe as "nominal".

I'm not saying all of this just to put you down; if you're going down the entrepreneurial path, you're going to be seeking investment from VCs and others who will judge you critically. This isn't a learning exercise for them - it's their wealth, and they want to grow it. They're not inclined to cut you slack and ignore your oversights (e.g. "nulcear"), no matter how trivial. Certainly they'll expect compelling answers to the big questions (including but not limited to the ones I asked at the outset).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi !

1) Since the posting of this blog, I have edited the blog post and now it is a bit sane. I admit it was extremely lousy earlier.

2) Please do not take this re-location post as a sexist comment, where I want to get the other person re-locate and I do not want myself to do so.It is not like that. This post is primarily meant for Indians living abroad and looking for an opportunity to come back to India. Thats it. I apologise, if it meant anything else to you. It was not supposed to be.

3) There is no dearth of dating apps, but trust me all of them are bitterly broken, because I have used a lot of them.

4) Well, I removed the flexibility part of education, for my co-founder. I believe I definitely need someone who is a Psychology major and is a woman. I wrote name has been decided, but that does not mean, that I was not willing to re-consider it, if something better comes.

Finder's fees is nominal because, that is what I can afford after failing for 3 years and 9 months as a founder.

Well, I am open to all questions, and if you have something specific to ask, I'd be glad to answer them as well.

Thanks for writing in, it means a lot.

Cheers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Eventually relocate to Pune India ... I'm going to guess that the set of female PhD Psychologists willing to move to Pune India is pretty small. And to work on a dating site?

A couple comments about the job posting. It seems pretty informal considering you're looking for a PhD co-founder. I like the idea that solving the loneliness problem might have trickle-down effects on the condition of the human race (who's going to argue against more happiness?) but I also think you're going to need some specifics regarding why your dating service will work.

Maybe this will get some nibbles and I hope you let us know if it worked!

Good luck

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi !

I have experienced the re-location just now. It would be extremely foolish of me to expect someone well entrenched in her job to leave it and re-locate to my country.

This was primarily meant for people of my country living abroad, who might be looking forward to an opportunity to come back to their country.

If you have any specific questions regarding this do let me know, I'd answer them.

Thanks !

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is is legal to specify gender in a job ad?

<comment><USER5> Depends on the laws of the specific country; this job seems to be located in India.

It also depends on the requirements of the job. If the job was to model women's clothing or to play a male role in a film, it would probably be legal in the U.S. For the job being advertised, it would probably be illegal in the U.S.

<comment><USER6> The argument for allowing it would be that for a dating app aimed at arranging heterosexual dates to be successful, it has to attract both male and female customers.

Attracting males to dating sites is generally not a problem, but attracting females can be difficult. Having a female co-founder will make it easier to convince women that the app was designed with the dating needs of women in mind, and won't be just another place to get fixed up with creepy men.

It would still probably be a hard argument to make with the EEOC. I could see it going either way.

I wonder if it makes a difference that this is for a co-founder position. Doesn't that imply that the company has not yet formed? If so, do anti- discrimination employment laws even apply?

<comment><USER5> _" I wonder if it makes a difference that this is for a co-founder position."_

The ad says "This is a full-time paid position", which makes it sound more like an employee position than an actual co-founder.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Full-time paid position" was advertised as many times people say/advertise that co-founder would receive substantial equity but would have to work without any financial remuneration for some time.

It is not like this here. You might be a co-founer but equity in a startup would not pay your bills, right?

<comment><USER7> Can you fire the co-founder? Can the co-founder choose exactly what they're working on, or do they take direction from someone else?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Great Idea but Cannot Implement...Yet - <AUTHOR>

Hi There,
It looks like I might have an idea for a service that might fulfill an impending need. I know this sounds pretty vague as I'm not explicitly mentioning anything concrete but that's kinda the issue: I'm not in SV; I don't know where or with whom I can discuss this idea. I didn't go to college in the US, so I don't have a network of brilliant programmers that I can rely on. I'm a fairly good programmer myself, but I didn't start programming when I was 10, so I probably can't do it all by myself.
Is there a way to find someone and not have them just steal my idea? Or does it make more sense for me to develop those skills myself (mostly web-dev and mobile/app dev) and then think of working on this idea? <comment><USER2> "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." \-- Howard Aiken

I'd add to that, that there are many, many examples of successful products that are successful not because they were the first to do it, but because they executed well and grew a large and supportive user base. It's very likely your idea has already been done, just not very well. As a professor of mine always said, "there are no new ideas under the sun."

</comment><comment><USER3> I think you will find that there is less and less of a secretive nature around the software community, and people are willing to share and discuss ideas fairly freely without worrying about stealing. This inevitably leads to stronger ideas when we can flesh things out together. There are websites such as [http://www.cofounderslab.com/](http://www.cofounderslab.com/) where you can meet people, however you still have to trust them to share your idea with them. I've met a few random folks over the years at programmers / entrepreneurs meetups and we have discussed our ideas fairly openly.

<comment><USER4> this! ideas are a dime a dozen.

<comment><USER3> You summed up what I was trying to get across perfectly. So many people running around with 'ideas' and non disclosure forms. Frankly though if you cant implement it, its not worth jack.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are at least three phases in situations like this:

1\. Validating idea

Confirming that people will buy what you want to sell.

2\. Implementing the idea

This is where your programmers come in. You need them after phase 1.

3\. Selling the solution

</comment><comment><USER6> You don't need a "network of brillant programmers" in fact they might detract from the idea getting off the ground. Simply start. Email people, and search Noah Kagan's tips on Youtbue.

</comment><comment><USER7> Here it goes:

1) Go to elance.com or odesk.com hire feelancer, build MVP 2) Show traction 3) Convince co-founders

</comment><comment><USER8> getting people to steal your idea is pretty hard thing to do. even if they happen to like it they will want to put their own spin on it. now once you've proved it can be successful thats different.</comment>


Yices SMT solver now open source - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/SRI-CSL/yices2 <comment><USER2> Way better than z3!</comment>


Your computer room will overheat next weekend - <AUTHOR> http://everythingsysadmin.com/2010/05/your-computer-room-will-overhe.html

<comment><USER2> That exact scenario happened to one of my former employers. We installed a server in a closet in this hallway. The hallway had no HVAC and the installation was in the winter (so the hallway was always very cold). I remember asking what we were going to do in the summer.

Eventually the summer came around and one morning the server was down. Fortunately there wasn't anything time-critical on the server, everything was backed up both on and off site and we got it up and running again a couple of hours.

It turned out that all we needed to do was cut a vent in the door and mount a box-fan to it.

</comment><comment><USER3> "overhead"?

Do you mean "overheat"? It's not too late to fix it ...

</comment><comment><USER4> We had a cooling failure in the room in our office that had the development servers (production server are in a data center).

It was well over 40C - the noise was incredible, sounded like the racks were trying to take off.

<comment><USER5> I've been surprised just how long "amateur" server rooms survive cooling failure. Mostly becuase the densities tend to be lower, but also becuse you just get lucky with the way they're built. At our current office we had a server room total cooling failure (due to copper piping stolen off the back of the building...) and although it got very hot (and very loud) in there, we didn't get any machine failures or thermal shutdowns. But you could feel the heat radiating out of the walls the rooms around and above the server room were noticably hotter. If we'd been an older building or the server room had been built for physical security, the thicker walls would have trapped the heat and it would be a different story.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not my 'server' room. Granted, its actually my laundry room, so the heat escapes to the rest of the house, even on hot days. You can see graphs here - <http://www.digitemp.com>

If you are one of the unlucky then you should be setting up temperature monitoring and alerting before you exceed the melting point of your Pb free solder...

</comment><comment><USER7> When our department was buying a moderately large cluster I remember being surprised by the fact that one of the considerations for the server room was that in the event of cooling failure you had to make sure there was enough time for the 1600 cores to shut down before the temperature went totally through the roof. I guess the power density of these packed installations is something not easily imaginable if you don't have experience with them...

</comment><comment><USER8> This really should be a "duh" for any system administrator. If not, time to find a new job :)

<comment><USER9> Unless you work in a large organization, the "system adminstrator" often isn't actually a System Administrator

<comment><USER8> That doesn't make sense. The larger the organization, the more often they have large system administrator teams. In fact, most large organizations have compliance requirements, which often map people with proper skills to proper titles and responsibilities in order to get the correct liability protection.

I can not imagine Google allowing some junior programmer to setup a little closet and run servers in there without contemplating cost, heat/cooling, network allocation, and priviledge management (i.e. what services are running where, why, and who's managing it).

However, the smaller the organization, I can see this happening. 8 man startups without a system administrator... Now that is certainly reality.

<comment><USER8> I just now realized what you meant... The guy who doesn't really have talent can slip into a larger organization, since his work scope is often narrowed or siloed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> We used to co-locate our servers with another software/services company that had a good setup in their office. On a cold winter morning our oldest server restarted and wouldn't come back up so I went over to their office. The server room was probably 120 degrees and the server was stuck on a temp warning on boot. Turned out their AC in the attic froze up.

</comment><comment><USER11> And/Or switch to 32nm. Runs much cooler at load.

I wish AMD would hurry the heck up with their 32nm as Intel is too pricey.

</comment><comment><USER12> Air conditioning shuts down on the weekend? THAT'S NOT HOW BUILDING HEAT REGULATION WORKS.

<comment><USER13> You clearly have not leased space in a building owned and run by accountants.

• 4:00pm? Shut it off. Leave the blowers going at least. (Had negotiate life support systems until 6pm in the next lease.)

• Long weekend? Shut it off.

• Compressor that drives the thermostat system fails? Get a cheap household unit from Harbor Freight. (Thunderously loud, ran nearly 24 hours a day, for a while anyway.)

• One of the two main air fans broken? Don't fix. Air still moves. It's ok, I can put on the hearing protection and work in the server room in the afternoons when my west facing office is uninhabitable.

• The remaining fan breaks on Memorial day weekend. Why‽ It was already running 24x7, this is just cruel timing! Now the building gets way too hot and starts transferring heat through the uninsulated walls into my machine room overloading my cooling capacity.

<comment><USER14> Is it really cheaper to turn AC off and then recool the building compared to keeping AC running?

<comment><USER13> Probably yes. As your temperature approaches the outside temperature less heat enters the building, so there is less heat to pump out. (Non-linearities probably abound though.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Proof in Functions - <AUTHOR> http://www.fewbutripe.com/swift/math/2015/01/06/proof-in-functions.html

<comment><USER2> Of note: The definition given of propositional implication is in terms of classical Boolean logic, but, though I don't know much about Swift, it seems likely from the discussion that its inhabitable types correspond to the theorems of intuitionistic logic rather than classical logic. [E.g., it is unlikely to be possible to implement generic functions of types such as "((P -> Q) -> P) -> P" or "Not<Not<P>> -> P", despite these being Boolean tautologies (these are often thought of as in Curry-Howard correspondence with constructs like call/cc, which perhaps is an integral component of Swift, but at any rate, this nuance was never discussed in the article)].

<comment><AUTHOR> I do address this, but in the exercises at the end. Decided to cut a discussion on intuitionistic logic.

<comment><USER2> My apologies; I don't know how I missed that. This obviates my original comment.</comment></comment></comment>


Why is Governor Cuomo being praised for his coronavirus response? - <AUTHOR> https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/21/why-governor-andrew-cuomo-praised-coronavirus-response-column/5220164002/ <comment><USER2> Lol that's a laughable opinion article</comment>


How Entrepreneurs Decide Which Meetings to Take and Which to Refuse - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jproco/how-entrepreneurs-decide-which-meetings-to-take-and-which-to-refuse-ad080fe562b5 <comment><USER2> Pretty good advice. I work a full-time job in IT security and own a low seven figure lifestyle business on the side. Here's what I do:

1\. I always email screen and ask for more information specifically questions.

2\. Always have them meet you where you're already going to be (ie, coffee next to where you live or work, community event) That way if you end up with a no-show it doesn't impact you as much.

3\. I give out my number and email often. Nowadays people don't like to call which means they don't but I get brownie points for offering my number up. I screen both calls and email so it's still a win-win.

4\. I gave regularly calling recruiters my big number which includes my business income. This has reduced their calls to 0 but they do email me at times.

5\. I often take meetings where I get an opportunity to learn from others or give back. Without disruption, life becomes routine.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback and the extra points you listed.

#2 is intriguing. I started a "rant" on this but it made the post too long so I cut it. What do you do with no-shows? I mean, it's on me for not seeing it coming in the first place, but I've never figured out good etiquette for dealing with them.

<comment><USER2> No-shows usually go to the bottom of my list and I'll only engage with them via email after they've burned me once. I don't lecture them because I understand life happens but further engagements are on my terms.

No-shows don't affect me now because I have all meetings come to my workplace or to my small business office if I'm working from there. Once they've arrived if necessary we'll then go to our intended location TOGETHER (ie. lunch, coffee).

When I'm traveling I rarely have meetings outside of the hotel I'm staying in.

I got burnt twice by a founder of a local hot startup a few years ago and made this change after dealing with him. It's made things much easier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> As hard as I try to say no to meetings, a lot more than one per month gets through. The toughest ones are from people who may have helped you/supported you in the past or when you are trying to build a relationship with someone and they introduce your to someone. These are meetings where there is some kind of social obligation. Very hard.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally get this. This is where the email screen can be a lifesaver. You fill the social obligation, maybe even lend a hand or get done what you need to get done, and you can prioritize it -- meet now, meet later, meet never.

When you're an entrepreneur, you can easily get up to 50% of your time meeting people outside of your company -- sales, hires, partners, help, funding. It can get tricky real quick. My basic guideline has always been no more than 1 a week unless I'm doing something that specifically requires me to meet external people.</comment></comment>


Barricelli showed that organisms evolved by symbiosis and cooperation (2014) - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/74/networks/the-computer-maverick-who-modeled-the-evolution-of-life <comment><USER2> Tangentially related, I highly recommend the Steven Levy book Artificial Life. It's pretty dated now, but it's still a fantastic read. I couldn't put it down.

<comment><USER3> Strongly seconded. Reading "Artificial Life" in my teens was a formative experience for me. Reading about Tierra[1], in particular (and being an assembler program who also played "Core War"), filled me with wild enthusiasm. I even went so far as to try implementing something similar on my own (albeit I never did get it into a finished state).

re: this article - I was surprised to see somebody thinking about modeling evolution in computers all the way back in the 1950's.

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_(computer_simulation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_\(computer_simulation\))</comment></comment>


Elementary OS Loki 0.4 Stable Release - <AUTHOR> http://blog.elementary.io/post/147637979911/loki-04-stable-release <comment><USER2> The team behind Elementary is great. The ecosystem badly needs the polish that these developers are meticulous about applying to their particular flavor of linux.

It's not sufficient to just slap things together and hope they are somehow cohesive to compete in the desktop space today.

These people get it.

<comment><USER3> Oh please, just because you don't like something does not mean people in the Linux space before elementary were just slapping stuff together.

Sure, there are a lot of distributions and desktop environments that focus on getting stuff done and let the user customize the look to their needs, but that is hardly the only choice.

For anyone wanting to try out a cohesive setup try one of the following:

\- GNOME on Fedora (or Korora if you want binary repos).

\- Unity on Ubuntu

\- KDE on OpenSUSE

<comment><USER2> Sorry. I've used Gnome, Unity, and KDE extensively. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into them sure but they are definitely not polished.

I'm the definition of UnixPorn junkie and customize my linux box to the hilt but even I have to admit when there is a benefit of standardization and the work the elementary people are doing.

<comment><USER4> I used elemeentary os at work for a while.

Looked great at the first view.

Months after using it became a living hell to work with it.

The delay between app switches is a shit.

Swiched to GNOME/Debian. Never looked back.

<comment><USER5> Any idea what causes the slow app switches?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> "Privacy & Security : We always strive to provide the utmost level of privacy and security to users of elementary OS, and Loki is no different. We've made improvements to Privacy Mode, which is like "Incognito" for the entire OS. For example, now when you're using Privacy Mode, the Videos and Music apps won't remember what you last played the next time you open them."

Ah, this looks interesting.

</comment><comment><USER6> And they say Linux can't be pretty. If only this distribution had more support! The team hs already done wonders making it the most well-polished Linux distribution out there. Perfect for those transitioning from a Mac/Windows.

<comment><USER7> I'm a Windows/Linux user. I feel like something like Linux Mint is very much polished. My complain is the lack of main apps: adobe suite and visual studio in my case.

<comment><USER6> I agree that Mint is very much polished but I actually started recommending Elementary over it just because of well it looks, it's quite subjective.

Adobe suite and VS are also the sole reason I have a Windows dual boot set up. Hopefully in the future but I honestly doubt it.

<comment><USER8> Looks are pretty silly and irrelevant for most power users. I run Ubuntu with the i3 tiling window manager, which doesn't even have a desktop. Having a desktop is another thing that's pretty much irrelevant, given the way i3 works. I would never sacrifice the functionality I really like just to get something that's supposedly "prettier".

<comment><USER9> There are different kinds of users. No need to call something silly and irrelevant just because it doesn't fit your preferences and priorities.

For example, one of the first things I check when trying out a new Linux distro is whether I can tweak the font rendering exactly the way I like. If this takes more than a few minutes, or if Firefox and LibreOffice don't pick up my tweaks consistently, that distro is out. I don't care what other awesome features it has. If I'm going to be looking at it for 10 hours a day, it had better not hurt my eyes. I would never sacrifice visual comfort just to get something that's supposedly "more functional". But that's just me. Other people will have other priorities.

<comment><AUTHOR> How do you tweak the font of the entire environment?

<comment><USER9> In most desktop environments, you can change the system font, font size, subpixel rendering options, etc. in the "Settings" (or equivalent) menu.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> le-mark I'm fascinated by Vala, can anyone talk about how it's used in elementary and if it's a huge productivity benefit? I really think Vala and its ecosystem should get more attention!

<comment><USER10> Vala seems interesting but at this point in time I wish that Vala, much like Gtk, wasn't ever necessary.

Both were created due to licensing concerns (Vala -> C#/Mono, Gtk -> Qt).

<comment><USER11> Comparing Vala to C# isn't fair. Vala is transpiled to C, then compiled to machine code, therefore has source compatibility with C and uses automatic reference counting, while C# is compiled to byte code, needs wrappers around C and uses garbage collection. They both are high level languages, but definitly with different goals.

<comment><USER12> Why should this matter to someone interacting with Vala as a programmer the language?

These are implementation details of the runtime. Vala predates the new plans laid out over the last ~18 months, but at this point, shouldn't Vala be a research branch of C#? Seems like this kind of approach would serve as a multiplier for the benefits Vala is trying to bring to the world, from both sides.

<comment><USER13> "shouldn't Vala be a research branch of C#?"

Vala is a nicer shinier layer for programming with GObject in C. I don't really understand what it has to do with C#? Do you mean just the syntactic influence?

Keep in mind, lots of vocal people hated Mono, not just because of some vague looming threat of possible patent action, but because they disliked the memory heavy and slow startup nature of the runtime (see: Tomboy).

<comment><USER12> 1\. Start with C#

2\. Create research fork

3\. Change it just enough until it can do what you're trying to get out of Vala right now (including whatever sweeping changes you want from the runtime by targeting GObject, so that it exhibits the static properties Vala wants here)

Result:

GNU/Gnome/Vala benefits from it, and the C#/.Net folks can benefit from it, if ever that research makes its way upstream. Which in turn brings another round of benefits to Vala's users and maintainers. My overall point is that symbiosis is nice. There's strength in numbers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A fantastic job, really well done.

It's great to see a distro with such a strong focus on design.

</comment><comment><USER15> I wish they could create a bigger team. Then eOS would be a real contender. Their ideas and their execution are great, but their output is far too low.

I personally would prefer arch as the basis - like Antergos and Manjaro. But this is a different thing.

<comment><USER16> I think using arch as its basis would clash too much with their target audience. I have not tried Antergos or Manjaro, but at least arch itself is often rather high-maintenance due to its rolling release nature.

I think someone looking for an easy-to-use desktop would not be amused if her/his touchpad stops working one day or the system would not boot properly.

Using a LTS Ubuntu or Debian as a basis allows you to not worry so much about things breaking and focus your energy on the added value you provide.

<comment><USER15> Yes, I know. That's why it is my personal preference.

With Manjaro it's working quite well, because their repos are 2 weeks behind of arch.

With Antergos it's a problem sometimes. My system was never unusable, but especially Gnome updates introduced some errors.

That said, using an arch based distro as dev machine, is insanely great. Installing the newest version of Android studio is like:

yaourt android-studio

<comment><USER17> Does Android Studio have an built in upgrade option?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> Anthony-G They were quite quick at getting this release out. I had been using Luna in 2014 and remember waiting a long time for the release of Isis (which was renamed to Freya before it was released in 2015). I eventually gave up waiting and went back to Lubuntu (which was a better fit for my 10 year old laptop).

I like what they're doing a lot and think they carved out a unique space in the world of GNU/Linux distributions. There's a lot to be said for emphasising usability and aesthetics and not overwhelming the user with too much software choice or OS customisations. I'm not the target market because I spend a lot of my time in the terminal but I'd be happy to recommend Elementary to friends and family who don't want to have to think too much about their computing environment.

</comment><comment><USER18> Lubuntu and xubuntu are also quite good if you have old laptop. They eat ram in mb not gb.

</comment><comment><USER19> Didn't know that they had a development podcast. Ooo that intro is classy, much like Elementary.

</comment><comment><USER20> This is great. I've been waiting for them to catch up with Ubuntu LTS so I can move over. I already know Geary is quirky and still doesn't handle contacts and that the calendar apparently doesn't sync with anything (at least one of the betas didn't), but the nice, clutter-free desktop (mostly) makes up for it.

</comment><comment><USER21> Another year, another Geary release without even the slightest support for address books.

</comment><comment><USER22> Until i hadn't purchased macbook, I always had my eyes gazed upon elementary OS. Everyone wants to have OSX look and feel but this linux distribution actually did it.

</comment><comment><USER23> The last time I tried Elementary, I had significant problems getting Geary to play nicely with Gmail. Gmail didn't recognize Geary as being a "verified" mail client. I ended up using Thunderbird, but that seemed to defeat the purpose of having Elementary at all (at least for me). Does anyone know if this problem has been resolved? The Loki notes didn't seem to mention this.

<comment><USER6> I've been using it on Freya and it works very well with my Gmail account.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> As much as I love the looks and the design theory of Elementary OS I hate the task switcher! In 0.3 my Alt+Shift+Tab didn't used to work, and well if I have 10 windows open and I missed the window while speed switching, good luck. I wish someone can implement a better switcher!

</comment><comment><USER25> I would think of using this if they switch to rolling release system or had Ubuntu like release cadence

<comment><USER26> Rolling releases and ubuntu-like cadences are why Linux environments are pretty much always ugly and have usability problems. It takes time to work on UX, which is something a lot of projects don't do.

<comment><USER3> Good luck supporting newer hardware without such a cadence.

<comment><USER15> Ubuntu and subsequently eOS does that via hardware enablement stacks, ie new kernel

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Is Loki based on Ubuntu at all? I've just been very used to Ubuntu. The skin looks very pretty. I'm gonna try this out in a VM.

<comment><USER28> Yes, it is literally just Ubuntu underneath, but they don't mention that on the release notes—it bothers me that they're not more open about that.

Every two years, they take the latest long-term support (LTS) Ubuntu release and then install quite a number of their own applications to replace stock GNOME and Unity ones. To their credit, they have a good eye for UI/UX and actually write applications—not just themes—that are simple and look nice. They care about fonts, colors, etc, and even have some decent style and code guidelines for developers:

[https://elementary.io/developer](https://elementary.io/developer)

<comment><USER29> They recently launched this page referencing all open source stuff that's included in Elementary OS: [https://elementary.io/open- source](https://elementary.io/open-source)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Still no hidpi support?

<comment><AUTHOR> The core devs said Loki now supports HIDPI out of the box.

Here is the youtube video : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN8dVJ6_AL8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN8dVJ6_AL8)</comment></comment>