Ask HN: Who has gotten a job with absolutely no connections? - <AUTHOR> Hi, it seems like many hacker jobs are obtained via personal connections (either directly or indirectly), and that hit rates on applying online to job posts are pretty low (especially nowadays).<p>If you've gotten your current (or past) job without any prior connections, what kind of job was it and how hard was it to get? <comment><USER2> I have gotten my last 2 jobs with no connections whatsoever. Both were software developer positions for languages/frameworks that I had no experience with. My advice is to write a killer cover letter.

The cover letter is the most important part of any job search. In mine I explained my side projects that I work on and my insatiable love of learning new technologies. I was up front in both cover letters, stating that I had no experience in the language they were hiring for, but I have a verifiable track record of being a quick learner when it comes to technology.

<comment><USER3> _The cover letter is the most important part of any job search_

I disagree. I think the most important parts of any job search are attitude and aptitude. Some background: I started looking for a new job in early February of this year after the company I previously worked for shut down. At first I was worried that with the recession it might take a while to get new work so I got very serious about my new "job" of finding a job. I found one 3 weeks later without any connections (via craigslist) and I'm pretty sure it was because of the effort I put into:

\- ensuring my resume would appeal to the kind of people I wanted to work with

\- ranking and filtering position postings into categories based on how well they matched the kind of work I enjoy, the kind of work I'm currently good at, the salary I wanted, future opportunities and general working conditions

\- writing specific cover letters explaining my background, my understanding of what the position required, why I wanted to do that job and what kinds of things I would do when I started.

\- spending time preparing for interviews and studying things I believed it would be worthwhile to demonstrate in person

\- ensuring my references were fully informed about my situation, understood my view of the companies I was considering and were easy to contact by potential employers without delay

When I started my search, I screened around 100 postings down into three 5-element lists (A/B/C) and sent a custom cover letter and resume to the top 10. This led to 4 interviews and 3 offers in the next 3 weeks and although I had to turn down two of the offers, I've kept in regular contact with them and have been asked to keep them in mind if my situation changes. I'm pretty certain that every one of the things I mentioned above was essential in this outcome.

Ironically for the past month I've been spending a few hours a week where I work screening and ranking resumes, conducting telephone interviews and making recommendations to our management. Although I'd prefer to be coding during this time, I know from experience that I'll be much happier in the long run if I help the company pick good people. So far I've been applying the same criteria I would want applied to me and before I agreed to do any reviews I made sure that my boss and our HR person agreed to:

\- 5 specific responsibilities for each position

\- 8 short questions we would send the candidate before we talk to them on the phone

\- A 20 question, 45 minute written exam for in-person interviews.

Regardless of what their cover letter says, the first thing I look for is _whether or not the candidate's experience and background is appropriate for the job_. About 1/2 the candidates are immediately eliminated without a thought. Then I look more closely at the details and read their cover letter and assign a number from 1-3 for each responsibility indicating how well their stated experience and goals match that responsibility and record the details in a spreadsheet.

The top 1/3 of the candidates get selected for followup calls. When the call is scheduled, the candidate is emailed the questions we'll cover related to the responsibilities. Although technical in nature, none of the questions have right or wrong answers. They are intended to give the candidate an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to understand our company's goals and explain how they would fit in. Although the phone interview is limited to 20 minutes and candidates have to be clear and to the point, they are also offered the opportunity to follow up with anything they would like to say in email (although surprisingly few do so). So far only about 1/3 of the remaining candidates have been asked to come in for the interview and written exam and we've been pleased with all the ones that have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All but one of my jobs I've gotten without any connections.

Out of college I worked for IBM. Initial contact was at an engineering job expo. I had interviews on campus and then on site.

After that I submitted my resume to Xanga.com on a whim. I had a phone screen and then an on site interview.

From there I got a job at a law firm where my wife worked (the only connection based job I received).

Google found me via LinkedIn. I had two phone screens and an on site interview.

A recruiter found me via LinkedIn looking to fill a position for some other company. I told him I wasn't interested but from our exchange he picked up that I would like to work closer to home. When an opportunity at OpenX came along he contacted me again, and I did two phone interviews and then an on site.

In my experience LinkedIn is a great way to have jobs find you. Being able to interview well helps seal the deal - to do that you have to know your stuff and be able to present it well.

</comment><comment><USER5> I got my current job--my first out of college--without any connections. It's a kernel programming job. I got it because I was able to talk intelligently about writing distributed systems and what a node-local kernel can do to facilitate distributed user-space applications.

That said, never underestimate the power of connections. I got my first internship because I "knew a guy who knew a guy". You never know when your scoutmaster or soccer coach or parents' friend from church or whatever unlikely acquaintance is going to end up working for (or founding!) the company that can provide you your dream job.

<comment><USER6> "...never underestimate the power of connections..."

Avoid overestimating the power of them as well; don't always assume it is who you know, or that who you know will make the experience better. When people err, in my experience, they seem to err in the direction of overestimating. They don't even bother to consider opportunities unless there is a connection involved, and they ignore red-flags they discover along the recruitment path simply because they have a connection there who downplays them. Often as not, they end up unhappy, but suffer through it because their only out is through more connections they don't yet have.

Sometimes, you have to look beyond the people you know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I got my first job the hard way. I applied, and took whatever they would offer. I pretty much said I'd work for nothing.

I was in college, had no experience, and knew very little. I needed an in, and saw an ad in our Computer Science building. Emailed my resume, got a call, interview etc. I met with the owner who told me to go home and learn PHP and MySQL over the weekend. Did that, took a quick development test, and started work the following week.

I made minimum wage for about a year before we (the other newbie and myself) power played for a pay raise.

That job is what got me where I am today. We had to learn everything, be everything and do everything from support, engineering, development on through server admin and db schema design. I couldn't ask for a more rewarding first job.

From there all of my jobs have been based on my experience. My first salaried position I got because I was willing to move, could answer a battery of basic questions on programming and system admin, and I fit in. My current position I got because I learned ColdFusion at my previous job.

Everything builds from that first job. Being able to demonstrate your skills is extremely valuable. Connections can get you in the door, but real work will get you the job.

I actually got an interview through a connection once and was called the day of to cancel. That sword is double-edged.

</comment><comment><USER8> I got my job at justin.tv with no connections.

Honestly, it wasn't very hard. If you're genuinely good at what you do, and you can prove it, then you're a huge anomaly compared to most people applying for any position, and you will stand out even without connections.

</comment><comment><USER9> my current job had no connections involved. in fact, i turned down a perfectly good job in favor of this one simply because it had connections involved.

i wanted the job that i earned instead of the one i was handed. but, i'm kind of hardheaded about that type of thing.

<comment><USER10> A job that you got via connections who know and trust your technical ability _is_ an earned job.

<comment><USER9> sometimes yes, sometimes no. i know just as many people who've gotten jobs/contracts/etc because they shook the right hands as people who've gotten jobs because of their technical excellence.

it can be hard to know which is which sometimes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Job 1 (connection) 1998 $17 tech support for 100 person architecture firm.

Job 2 (unplanned connection) 1999 The CEO of the 15 person software company went to highschool with a girl cousin of mine. He obviously use to like her.

Job 3 (no connection) 2001 thank you monster.com

Job 4 (no connection) 2002 side job, thank you careerlink.com

Job 5 (no connection) 2004 thank you monster.com

Job 6 (no connection) 2006 January..thank you monster.com, literally insane boss

Job 7 (no connection) 2006 July..thank you indeed.com, bored had to leave.

Job 8 (no connection) 2007 June..thank you craigslist

The thing that I am most grateful for that has helped me get jobs without connections is Job #5. The company was growing fast and had hundreds of areas where I could work on sql performance tuning. Even when I arrived home I would always dial in to work on sql performance tuning. I gained most of my confidence (not arrogance) making significant contributions during Jobs 3, 4 and 5. That confidence gained through experience helps during an interview.

</comment><comment><USER12> I got a job with the USMC at 17; since then, I've been all syn, syn/ack, ack: Connection-oriented.

</comment><comment><USER13> My last three jobs have been w/o direct or indirect connections:

1\. I was working at an ISP help desk and a local computer repair company called in desperately needing help with a *nix box. Went out on my own after a shift and helped the tech out. He emailed me the next day and asked if I was interested in working for them as a repair tech and if so when would be a good time to do a short interview. I eventually moved up to the director of web dev at this job. (Side note: Getting the ISP job was because of a direct referral)

2\. I applied for a web dev job at the local newspaper about 4 years later. They offered me the positon about five weeks after applying - two weeks after my second interview. They were notoriously slow for interviewing and hiring people.

3\. (current gig) Two years after that I applied for a web dev gig at the state university and was offered the position about 4 hours after my first and only interview. The interview went really well and all my referrals were awesome.

Now between all those jobs (about a 6 year span) I've probably applied for at least 5 other web development jobs and didn't even get interviews for all of them. For some I'm sure the lack of a college degree really made them think twice. In one interview I got burned on some technical questions that I couldn't answer which probably removed me from the pool.

While knowing people can be extremely helpful, I've found being ready when opportunity knocks much more useful. To put it another way, don't stop learning new things.

By continuing to expand your knowledge you prove that you're smart enough to learn and use new things, and that you care enough about your work to make yourself better at it.

</comment><comment><USER14> Hmmm, connections only got me to the interview faster, it didn't seem to make a difference in the decision making process. Did it help for you guys?

</comment><comment><USER15> My first job out of college was a product manager at CNET. I applied to several jobs there over the course of a few months, but heard nothing back. I eventually got a call from a hiring manager for a position, but he didn't find me in the internal hiring database. No, _he found my resume posted on Craigslist_ and decided to call. I interviewed and got the job. Still surprises me.

</comment><comment><USER16> I can't help much with your direct question; every job and gig I've had ended up being the result of knowing someone in some form or shape.

If you're looking for something new, I'd seriously recommend getting to some events and at least making _some_ connections. If you're in a city that has IT jobs, there are groups out there; it might just take a little looking to find them

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the quick reply! so how did you get your FIRST job then? it seems easier to bootstrap once you've made connections at your Nth job to go to the (N+1)th job, but how do you start?

<comment><USER16> My first job was an internship with someone I met during my short stay at college. I didn't know him very well at all, but we happened to talk a little bit and after I told him I wanted to get into the computer industry he let me know they had an internship available.

<comment><AUTHOR> ah nice, yeah it seems like internships during college is a good first step since the barrier to entry is a bit lower ... from there you can start building your network

<comment><USER16> I think it's worth mentioning that college wasn't really the important factor; the important thing was seeking out and finding people who were doing what I wanted to be doing.

You could go the route of posting your resume to job boards, writing great cover letters, etc; but knowing people is a two-way street. Not only can they give you an in, they can also tell you if a place is any good or not to work for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> A linux System Administration job. I was a new kid in the block and in the city. I had minor previous experience. And I was still an undergrad student. Knew no one. But made a good interview. Also the company was in need for an administrator quickly ;). The other one was leaving for conscription.

</comment><comment><USER18> >that hit rates on applying online to job posts are pretty low (especially nowadays).

Hit rates for monster etc are pretty low. Local job boards, University "career center" online listings other low volume job sites are still worth looking at. It is how I found both my current position and my last position.

</comment><comment><USER19> I got my current job as a Software Developer without any connections. Sent in my resume, came in for the interview, and brought my laptop to show off some of my personal projects on top of whatever we talked about.

Having experience that isn't related to work or school seems to be key.

</comment><comment><USER20> Two of my current contracts are from an open source project I wrote and put on Sourceforge (<http://sourceforge.net/projects/gpsmapper/>) It's not very complicated but people really like it.

</comment><comment><USER21> I got a job as a developer at Yahoo! with no connections--I just applied via the ad on their site. This was a number of years ago when they were still hiring big time in Europe.

As for difficulty, it was 5 interviews including coding exercises, so I guess I did okay.

</comment><comment><USER22> I got my first job without any connections. Saw an ad and applied and get through the interview. If you see the job description and feel that you can do that job perfectly most of the time it should not be a problem

</comment><comment><USER23> I got my current job (bespoke web development) based on my participation in an email list. Apparantly the other guys just recognized the name on the resume.

Never underestimate the value of a reputation in the community.

</comment><comment><USER24> I've gotten two jobs that way. My first job out of school, and 7 years later when I was laid off. Most of my jobs, however, have come through personal contacts with other engineers.

</comment><comment><USER25> I think for developers the advice of 'work your connections to get a job' is highly over rated. In my 15 years of experience not even a single job I got is based on connections.

</comment><comment><USER26> Two. My first, and my second. After that, I had a good enough network that I ended up with a personal introduction or referral. Networking really is everything in business. :)

</comment><comment><USER27> I got my current job at Connected Ventures (CollegeHumor) with no connections and my first job at Cablevision as well. I found the CV job on Techcrunch.

</comment><comment><USER28> Every job in the last 12 years that I have had in IT has been with ZERO connections. System architect positions. All hiring was based on my resume.

</comment><comment><USER29> I got into a large consulting company as a junior software engineer back in the day, without any connections.

That sucks. I won't do that again if I can avoid it.

</comment><comment><USER30> I am a system administrator for forsalebyowner.com/ I got this job the old fashioned way, by sending out resumes for job ads on the internet.

</comment><comment><USER31> Myself on the last two occasions.

One, in the paper(!), the second through a local technology association website.

I'm still working there, 6 years later.

</comment><comment><USER32> I've gotten my last two gigs through recruiters. One was an internal recruiter, one was a subcontractor.

</comment><comment><USER33> I've gotten my first job _ever_ after being contacted by a recruiter (at 17, as still a high school student no less!). Got my first position out of college with no connection (applied online, during my senior year, in response to an ad on my university's CSE department's web page).

Left that job to go to a start-up where I was introduced to the founders through a connection. The problem is that (initially to me) the position didn't seem sufficiently technically challenging to me (standard LAMP development), so my connection ended up both a) "selling" the position to me b) "selling" me to the founders (who in turned tried harder to convince me that the position would be interesting).

That's always a sticky issue with referrals: they give additional reasons for hiring a person and a additional reasons for the person to accept the position. The company will feel the referring employee will be happier and more productive if his friend/former co-worker is hired; the referred connection will want a chance to work with someone they already knew and enjoyed working with. Problem is that these reasons can detract from the real questions at hand: "is this person a good fit for the position" (for the employer) and "is this a position where I know I will be happy" (for the employee). _Neither_ side should be trying hard to _sell_ themselves. Note: obviously I am talking about engineering vs. sales. In sales the candidate _should_ be selling themselves (they're expected to sell the product) and _should_ have built up a rolodex of connections in the industry.

When it came time to leave the start-up (due to the office moving out of my reasonable commute range and lack of technical challenge meant I wasn't interested in moving yet again), I applied to four companies (three of them _big names_ , one a mid-sized start-up)-- two by sending in a resume in response to online job ads (Dice.com, LinkedIn), one by a contact from a recruiter, one through a referral. Got interviews from all. Got offers from three and (after more sleepless nights than I imagined) chose one-- the one position I didn't get an offer for _was_ the one where I was referred (yes, it was Google).

All of this happened in Summer/Fall of 2008, as the market was crashing. So, your mileage may vary. My tips are this: write your resume smartly ( _show_ that you're competent, don't tell) tailor the resume (and especially) the cover letter to show that you're _passionately_ interested in _that specific job_. If you use the UDP Multicast method of sending a resume (blast out 100 copies of it to 100 different positions), as expected with UDP Multicast, don't expect it to be processed. Apply _only_ to jobs you (judging from the job description) feel you will be happy to do (which will make displaying passion and interest in that position very easy).

Here are some good resume tips (although I've read them after writing my resume): [http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/09/ten-tips-for- slightl...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/09/ten-tips-for-slightly- less-awful-resume.html)

[http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/09/26/steve-yegges-resume- ti...](http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/09/26/steve-yegges-resume-tips-the-not- so-long-winded-version/) (in case your response towards the first link is "TL;DR")

</comment><comment><USER34> me</comment>


A Lecture on Aaron's Law - <AUTHOR> http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/41442778285/the-next-words-a-lecture-on-aarons-law

<comment><USER2> I seem to recall a highly-rated comment on past coverage reminding us to be suspicious of laws named after dead people that referenced Reason, so this might be a good place to point this out:

Congresswoman Names Law After Dead Guy, But Wait! This One Might Be Good! Scott Shackford

[http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/16/congresswoman-names-law- af...](http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/16/congresswoman-names-law-after-dead- guy-b)

</comment><comment><USER3> This should be simulcast to an MIT auditorium.

<comment><USER4> I wonder if he'd be willing to move the entire thing to an MIT auditorium. I'm sure there's a larger audience that would like to see this speech live, and the ability to ask questions about the situation could be invaluable.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best book on copy writing - <AUTHOR> What are people's recommendations for copy writing books? Primarily books that could be applied to landing page copy. <comment><USER2> Not sure about books exactly, but I like the CopyHackers.com site for good articles, tips, and tricks when it comes to writing web page copy.</comment>


Dutch justice minister wants to allow police to break into computers - <AUTHOR> http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnos.nl%2Fartikel%2F429720-opstelten-hackrecht-voor-politie.html

<comment><USER2> Hurray. This is the 1950 dystopics with cameras in our homes all over again.

(You'll carefully note that rooting a computer includes getting access to its peripherals - including webcam and microphone.)

[http://falkvinge.net/2012/08/28/what-came-true-of- dystopic-v...](http://falkvinge.net/2012/08/28/what-came-true-of-dystopic- visions-of-the-1950s-and-what-didnt/)

</comment><comment><USER3> the same guy who is absolutely convinced of the innocence of this guy: <http://www.arrestdemmink.com/> The corruption in the dutch society is unmatched by any other country in the world I think.</comment>


Where does computer science fit in? - <AUTHOR>

I'm still an undergraduate, and my current major is Computer Science. As I approach upper division work, I realized that it is mostly algorithms. Lately, I have seen a lot of talk about  looking for engineers and not much about Computer Scientists. I don't know what to expect in the industry, so what does a Computer Scientist do in high tech companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, etc...)?  I know a friend who works at a certain airline and he says they hire engineers and teach them how to program because CS majors do not know the engineering lingo. So what is advantageous about a Computer Scientist versus an Engineer who knows how to program? Frankly, I am a little afraid because it seems like there is not much of a need for a Computer Scientist, so I thought I would ask Hacker News and get a more concrete image. <comment><USER2> Every company is different, so it is rather hard to make a statement about all industries everywhere. That said companies that make hardware tend to see software as easy, they typically will let hardware people do the software as well, or not respect their software developers. This is why printers usually have really shitty drivers. As far as what it like to work as a professional developer. Surely you have had a couple of group projects where you had to code something by now. Beef that up, with a much larger team and much larger time frame. As far as what you do at any of the companies you listed, just think about what they ship. You would take it from version X to version X+1, maybe launch a new product.

</comment><comment><USER3> Knowing how to program is easy. Knowing what to program is hard. The algorithms stuff is ostensibly about starting you on the path to learn what to program.

Also, you're not enrolled in a trade school. The curriculum is NOT primarily designed to get you a job. If you show up to interviews with a diploma in hand and nothing else, people are not going to be very impressed. Skills are important. Portfolio is important. A diploma just proves that you can keep a desk warm for a few years. If you cover your bases, there is plenty of need for CS graduates. If you do not, you will have a much harder time competing.</comment>


Just launched an iOS app, what should I do now? - <AUTHOR> Just launched an IOS app onto the appstore, sent it to friends on social media, gained like 10 users and 100+ likes, not doing so well. How should I promote?
Also in terms of tech and dev, what else should I do and watch out for?
Would really appreciate any help and support!
- Note that I'm also not comfortable with a show HN until theres enough on it. <comment><USER2> Not to be a naysayer, but not all apps are stuff people _want_ because they aren't exactly solving their problems (or satisfying them). So IMO, the first step is having an honest conversation with yourself. Next would be to talk to your few users & friends, to try to find out if they like the app and if they would recommend it to a friend or two. As PG Says, "if you make something users love enough to tell their friends, you grow exponentially, and that will convince any investor"[1]. Note that, 'Convince any investor' here is proof of growth.

[1] [http://paulgraham.com/good.html](http://paulgraham.com/good.html)

If you haven't read any of these, you should check them out. [http://paulgraham.com/ds.html](http://paulgraham.com/ds.html) [http://paulgraham.com/growth.html](http://paulgraham.com/growth.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah I've read paul graham, and I've followed your advice, each of the users likes it and want to recommend it, they didnt because its nighttime and will do tmrw.

I'm not too concerned about investors and I don't think highly of VCs/Investors mainly because I think investors will only care if you have users and if you cared too much about investors you wont get them because you're no longer caring about users. All in all, not really here to convince any investors because thats not the goal of the business.

On the subject of what people want, I actually did this app because people friended me on fb and msged me to ask when this app was done. I was ready to give up then and nearly did if they didn't do that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> More word of mouth, a video demo, some reddit, a blog where you offer unpaid consulting

good luck!!</comment>


Sex Ed Is Negative, Sexist and Out of Touch: Study - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/4488013/sex-education-sexism-abstinence/ <comment><USER2> The author made a mistake by linking to the embargoed URL that news writers can read, not the actual URL for plebs like us.

The article is at [http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/9/e011329](http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/9/e011329) .</comment>


Show HN: ZipBooks – Free invoicing and autobill, time tracker, bank feed, reports - <AUTHOR> https://zipbooks.com <comment><AUTHOR> There is also an iPhone app that has a lot of the same functionality. [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zipbooks-free-accounting- inv...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zipbooks-free-accounting- invoicing/id1086811538?mt=8)

</comment><comment><USER2> This looks good and promising. I just hope and wish you become a profitable, self-sustaining business and don't close down in a few years.

<comment><AUTHOR> We have VC backing and are getting a pretty encouraging response, so we are optimistic about our chances.

<comment><USER3> Do you have an exit strategy? As in, something binding in the case you exit or shut down?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Congratulations. The concept seems fantastic! Wish you the best.

</comment><comment><USER5> looks great, eager to try out. congratulations on the launch!</comment>


PON-Z, the world's first honest ponzi scheme. Using bitcoin. - <AUTHOR> http://www.pon-z.com/

<comment><USER2> This raises an interesting question. I wonder if explicitly labeling itself as a Ponzi scheme precludes it from being technically classified as a Ponzi scheme.

Is it still technically fraud if you walk up to someone on the street and say: "Hey, I want to defraud you, so I'm pretending to be your bank. I need interest on that thing you did. Pay up please?"

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this legal?

<comment><AUTHOR> Since there's no fraud and no money, I hope so.</comment></comment>


New Kindle Leaves Rivals Farther Behind - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/technology/personaltech/26pogue.html?_r=1&ref=technology <comment><USER2> I really want to like ebooks, I really do, however I can't stand the thought of purchasing a device that assumes I am a thief. It's the digital equivalent of employees standing at the door of a store, checking bags and receipts. Except worse. The fact that I can't share books is terrible, I wouldn't be able to read books in open formats even more so.

The kindle is definitely the nicest reader, however it seems to Sony reader is the most open.

<comment><USER3> This is only an issue if you're buying e-books from Amazon. There are plenty of wonderful texts available in the public domain, already formatted for the Kindle [0,1], and plenty of other options for public domain texts in other supported formats [2,3].

But regardless, the Kindle natively supports PDF, HTML, and plain text, and should you want to, Amazon provides a tool to convert those and other formats (including ePub) to the Kindle's proprietary mobipocket-derived format. They even provide Linux binaries [4].

Don't want to deal with conversions and manually managing your library? Just use Calibre [5]; it's open source.

And that's exactly why I placed my order: I'm not willing to accept Amazon's DRM, which will force me to read older works to get value out of the device. A goal I've had since reading a quote dubiously attributed to Einstein: "Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else."

[0]: <http://manybooks.net/>

[1]: <http://www.feedbooks.com/>

[2]: <http://classics.mit.edu/>

[3]: <http://www.gutenberg.org/>

[4]: [http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621)

[5]: <http://calibre-ebook.com/>

<comment><USER4> The quote is not so dubiously attributed, here's how it appears in his "Ideas and Opinions" 1954, Crown Publishers:

"ON CLASSIC LITERATURE Written for the Jungkaufmann, a monthly publication of the Schweizerischer Kaufmaennischer Verein, Jugendbund, February 29, 1952.

Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness."

<comment><USER3> Thank you! I had only done a bit of cursory Googling, but I kept coming up with blogs and other sites that provided rather limited attribution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _Sadly, lots of them are now $13, up from the flat $10 that Amazon used to charge for all best sellers. Those prices seem high. The fact that e-books involve no printing, binding, shipping, distributing or taking back and shredding unsold copies ought to save you something. And it's outrageous that you can't sell or even give away an e-book when you're finished with it. You paid for it; why shouldn't you be allowed to pass it on? (End of rant.)_

Argh. This isn't how pricing works. If it was, Photoshop would cost 40 cents.

$13... for a _book_! Egads!

<comment><USER6> It will be this way until some upstart disrupts the industry taking a smaller cut for routing authors directly to customers side stepping the old publishing houses.

<comment><USER5> I'll be happy to hear that authors are getting (say) 80% of the $15 that books end up costing, but that doesn't change the fact that book pricing has nothing whatsoever to do with materials and binding and whatnot.

<comment><USER6> I would love to hear that too. The sad fact is that author's are getting even less for ebooks while the publisher is getting more.

[http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/08/09/ebook-vs-regular- book...](http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/08/09/ebook-vs-regular-book- pricing/)

<comment><USER5> I'm on board with this, but that doesn't change anything about book pricing; this is an orthogonal concern.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The music industry lost 10 years believing that DRM works and it may never recover. Now the publishing industry is looking to do the same . . .

Software is the only medium in which DRM has any hope of succeeding long-term, and that's only because it typically _needs_ to be managed as a service. Video can tolerate it for now because the file sizes are too large to conveniently separate from the physical media, but that won't be true for long.

<comment><USER8> For most people, DRM doesn't bother them at all until stuff stops working.

So far, DVDs pretty much play in every DVD player. (If less PC makers would ship Windows without third party DVD software, more people would care.)

Music was closest to having real DRM problems, but almost every non-hacker I know is perfectly fine with Apple's DRM because they only listen to music in iTunes or on an iPod. If other devices ever really became popular, non-DRM music might finally become essential to the average person.

So as long as the average person only uses the Kindle (or Nook or Sony) and never tries to port their DRMed ebooks to a new, incompatible device, they won't feel the pain of DRM. But first we need average people to start using ereaders for a while, which I think is close to happening.

<comment><USER9> Music on iTunes no longer has DRM.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I am a fan of books, but I'll only get an ebook reader if:

a) I can be confident that books purchased will still be readable in ten years.

b) That I can still do all of the usual things I do with books, like lending and moving them from one platform (shelf) to another.

c) That at no time there is even the possibility of books being remotely deleted from my device without my permission.

d) That ebooks I purchased are owned by me, not rented or temporarily borrowed.

</comment><comment><USER11> Also of note, Kindle's will be available at all Staples locations this fall. There goes the Nook advantage of being able to try before you buy.

<http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/31/staples-kindle/>

</comment><comment><USER12> I don't find the Nook's touch screen to be "balky" at all, at least in comparison to any touchscreen phone. In fact, I think that the use of a touchscreen instead of a hardware keyboard opens the door for a lot more design flexibility.

</comment><comment><USER13> _The Kindle 3 is ingeniously designed to be everything the iPad will never be: small, light and inexpensive._

I'd hold my breath on that one, at least until Thursday. Having said that, my Kindle is ordered and on it's way.

<comment><USER14> I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Based off pictures, it's a good deal smaller and by conjecture lighter than the Kindle 2, which is really quite small and light already. So much so I'm having a hard time saying "no" to one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What is the physical keyboard good for?

I understand the need for keyboard on smartphones where you might want to browse, type text, ssh or whatever... But what's its purpose on a reader?

UPDATE: Thanks for quick response. I really haven't thought of this, these uses make the device better than I thought. I really wish Amazon will start selling these devices here in Russia (and in 100+ other countries as well) so I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Meanwhile, the local market is owned by Chinese knock-offs sold for $300, while Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Sony don't seem to be interested.

<comment><USER16> I use it to write quick notes/thoughts inside the book as I'm reading -- new ideas, questions I have, follow-ups, etc (amazon stores the location of the note). It's much slower than pencil, but the benefit is that it's synced to the cloud, and you can actually _find_ your notes afterwards (how often do you go through the margins of old books?).

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Has any one heard anything about the Kindle Development Kit? Looks like they are still in private beta.

I wonder if there will be Kindle apps (and app store??) coming any time soon.

</comment><comment><USER18> The article doesn't mention that every book available for Kindle is also available on the iPad with the Amazon's Kindle App.

<comment><USER5> Yes it does.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: moving company to Bangalore - <AUTHOR>

Has anybody moved their company or based operations for a startup to Bangalore, India.
We are in Australia, and looking at costs for developers it looks like we can save significant money in developer costs.
We'd be looking at hiring 5 initially then. expanding the team to 20.
Does anybody have experience with this? <comment><USER2> I run a startup in Bangalore and Chennai, so I can explain the costs involved:

In Bangalore

Your cost for 2000 square feet office space would be at least $2000/mo in a fairly decent building; add to this 10 months rental advance which is $20k

Your cost for each developer would be between $1k - $2k - this of course depends on the kind of work they'd need to do as well as how much experience you're looking for in people. Do remember that almost everyone in India expects a 10 - 20% raise every year. Senior level PHP folks will cost you $1,500-ish considering the fact that freshers out of school get paid $600-ish a month.

You'd also need to invest substantially in management staff in India because it's very hard to get anything done unless you have a manager for every 4-5 people, unless you get really good self-motivated guys who'll cost you a bomb. Managers will end up costing you $2k+

And, I forgot to mention - laws and the government are a bitch here.

I think you're just a few years late in jumping to the Bangalore bandwagon :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Why are laws and the government a bitch? How much would the self-motivated guys cost? And why do you say that it's a bit late to be jumping on?

Cheers!

<comment><USER2> For starters, you'll need to start doing the following:

1\. Register a Pvt. Ltd. to do business <\-- hard to do unless you're Indian or someone who's Indian on board 2\. Register with the RBI and get stamped from them every time you remit money from outside India <\-- painful 3\. Not be able to use a majority of payment gateways that collect payments in foreign currency if you want to directly tie it to your Indian co. 4\. Process ESI if you're paying under $400/mo 5\. Process PF if you're paying over $400/mo and have more than 10 employees

It's paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork!

As for being late to the party, cost of labor has gone up at least 4 times in the past 10 years and it's going to probably go up another 3 times in the next five years. Smart people are no longer that easy to find and very few folks actually are interested in working for startups. Cost of infrastructure, electricity, broadband, everything is higher in Bangalore and more at par with Austin or Boston tbh.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> You would save on top developers. Not much on the office though. Better hire remotely.

</comment><comment> aloha-my-boy Developer qualifications ?

<comment><AUTHOR> top level senior developers, php sql jq etc..</comment></comment>


Xtypejs: data validation for JavaScript Apps - <AUTHOR> http://xtype.js.org

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks to lots of great community feedback and input, xtypejs now has a home at [[http://xtype.js.org](http://xtype.js.org)](http://xtype.js.org\]\(http://xtype.js.org\)), with great documentation, user guide, and lots of examples.

</comment><comment><USER2> Lately I've been using the JSON schema format to validate. It's powerful and clean. We've paired it with RAML to validate everything from the URL parameters, POST bodies, response bodies, etc.

[http://json-schema.org/](http://json-schema.org/) [https://github.com/zaggino/z-schema](https://github.com/zaggino/z-schema)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Example of using xtypejs:

 _Go from this:_

        function searchEmployees(value) {
            if (typeof value === 'string') {
                 if (value.trim().length > 1) {
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByName(value);
                } else if (value.trim().length === 1) {
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByMiddleInitial(value);
                } else {
                    return { error: 'Invalid search value supplied' };
                }
            } else if (typeof value === 'object' && value !== null) {
                if (Object.keys(value).length === 1) {
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByFieldValuePair(value);
                } else if (Object.keys(value).length > 1) {
                    return { error: 'Search by multiple fields not supported' };
                } else {
                    return { error: 'Invalid search value supplied' };
                }
            } else if (typeof value === 'number') {
                if (!isNaN(value) && isFinite(value) && value > 0 && value % 1 === 0) {
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByEmployeeNumber(value);
                } else {
                    return { error: 'Invalid employee number supplied' };
                }
            } else if (typeof value === 'undefined' || value === null) {
                return { error: 'No search value supplied' };
            } else {
                return { error: 'Invalid search value supplied' };
            }
        }

_To concise, performant, readable, data validation:_

        function searchEmployees(value) {
            switch (xtype.which(value, 'str2+ str1 int+ obj1 obj2+ num nil')) {
                case 'str2+':
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByName(value);
                case 'str1':
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByMiddleInitial(value);
                case 'int+':
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByEmployeeNumber(value);
                case 'obj1':
                    return EmployeeDB.searchByFieldValuePair(value);
                case 'obj2+':
                    return { error: 'Search by multiple fields not supported' };
                case 'num':
                    return { error: 'Invalid employee number supplied' };
                case 'nil':
                    return { error: 'No search value supplied' };
                default:
                    return { error: 'Invalid search value supplied' };
            }
        }

<comment><USER3> Contrived and oddly specific for an example. Do we have any examples being used out in the wild?

<comment><AUTHOR> There is a non-open-source JavaScript decorator library using this. It has many (real) examples, but the one that first comes to mind is its use of the xtype.is API method ([http://xtype.js.org/api/is](http://xtype.js.org/api/is)) to perform runtime validations based on validation meta-data that's defined in configuration.

For an idea of what that looks like, see:

[http://xtype.js.org/guide/checking_combinations_of_types](http://xtype.js.org/guide/checking_combinations_of_types)

<comment><USER3> Completely makes sense now, the example had me in the wrong headspace.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Forget frameworks, become a versatile hacker - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/forget-frameworks-become-a-versatile-hacker-775128a22a32 <comment><USER2> The "problem" is that front-end styles/look-and-feels change so often that many places feel they need many layers to protect themselves from future front-end style changes so they can have the latest whizbang UI/UX. While this generally works, it creates extra busy work in managing and debugging layers and the interaction between them. Separation of concerns means managing the pathways between the separate parts: it's not a free lunch.

The most productive dev tools I ever used had tight integration between the business logic, UI/UX, and the database. Very little code got a lot done. But, the tight integration meant it was harder to switch database brands or UI/UX styles.</comment>


Data Processing -- Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid - <AUTHOR> http://dev.hubspot.com/bid/6916/Data-Processing-Be-Afraid-Be-Very-Afraid

<comment><USER2> Interesting. I think where the author writes "reentrancy" they may mean idempotency instead.

I haven't thought about the "kill the whole pipeline" approach before, but it doesn't really seem that different from one of my standard techniques, which is to flag any data that was gathered under error conditions so it can be kept but reviewed for cause. Shutting down the whole process seems like it might be a hard sell to non-technical stakeholders, but I would absolutely operate that way in all non-production environments.

<comment><AUTHOR> What's the difference between reentrancy and idempotency?

<comment><USER2> In my mind, reentrancy is associated with threading, and implies that the code could be executing in multiple locations simultaneously, whereas an idempotent operation is one that can be repeated multiple times without negative side effects.

<comment><USER3> Reentrancy comes up with recursion and signal handling as well, both of which can come up in nominally single threaded programs (nominal because signals usually but don't always come from out of process).

<comment><USER2> You are of course correct, I have been working in a multi-threaded environment for long enough to have let that slip my mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the same issue you have when you're building your own analytic system using SQL and you're building big queries to do more complex descriptive, and inferential statistical shenanigans.

No matter the technology, automated tests on known data with expected results are the only way to be sure what you're getting is right. And you better be sure, because people have zero tolerance for inaccurate analytics. They will immediately ignore your tool, permanently.

For instance... if your slot machine analytic system does not include slot machines with apostrophe's in the name in its 'revenue total' column... you are so screwed. Even once you fix the bug, your stuff is tainted. Don't ask me how I know ;)

</comment><comment><USER5> Great post and the comment (only one at the time I post this) doubles it's value, be sure not to miss it!

</comment><comment><USER6> Good article - I'm happy to find out that other DBRs have the same healthy fear & utter suspicion for each analysis they write as I do.

</comment><comment><USER7> Great article and advice. I'd love to see more like it!</comment>


Boob bombs: breast implants suicide bomb a threat to aviation - <AUTHOR> http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130823-boob-bombs-breast-implants-suicide-bomb-a-threat-to-aviation

<comment><USER2> > "Security analyst Paul Beaver said..."

I'm pretty sick of Neocon "security analysts" making shit up in order to give themselves excuses to have jobs.</comment>


United wants to know if you work as a plumbing insulator? - <AUTHOR> http://jalopnik.com/united-airlines-new-survey-is-full-of-the-most-batshit-1757416268 <comment><USER2> Here's my guess: The software accidentally went live before it was intended to, and the apparently random survey questions are test data that the developers used while building the system.</comment>


When did Facebook and LinkedIn become competitors? - <AUTHOR> http://www.startuphustle.com/2007/07/10/when-did-facebook-and-linkedin-become-competitors/ <comment><USER2> You won't find ppl talking about the latest breast implant someone had, at linkedIn :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> edit: I think there's a certain degree of hype involved.

</comment><comment><USER4> circular linkage :D</comment>


How Advanced Socialbots Have Infiltrated Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/view/527746/how-advanced-socialbots-have-infiltrated-twitter/ <comment><USER2> So Turing's test is apparently passed not because of advances in AI, but because humanity embraces a communication medium restricting their capacity to express themselves (and encouraging mindless meme-repetition and irrelevant asides) to the point where it's barely distinguishable from the output of even fairly trivial scripts. #whocares #justinbieber t.co/catpic

</comment><comment><USER3> Researchers create bot that poses as Twitter user and automatically follows other users at random, are surprised that other Twitter users automatically follow their bot at random.

(I've only skimmed the paper, so I may have missed it, but they don't seem to take any measures to check whether their bot tricks actual people into engaging with it, or whether the apparent engagement is just the effect of other bots working at random.)

<comment><USER4> I've got a Twitter bot whose sole purpose is to send links from reddit to Twitter - it gets a lot of replies from people confusing the bot with the human(?) Redditors - often when the bot posts conflicting "personal" information.

<comment><USER5> That's interesting. Can you tell us more about the project and its motivations?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My friend's sister debugged a Twitter bot for Python.

[https://gist.github.com/ErisBlastar/6144424](https://gist.github.com/ErisBlastar/6144424)

The original was very buggy and did not even support Unicode and error-ed out and crashed.

Using the #ebook hashtag it favors tweets with it in it, getting a lot of indie authors to follow her account on Twitter. She can only do 100 favorings at a time due to limits, but it seems to work. She uses favorings due to the British spelling.

You have to get a Twitter API account with the keys, install the Twitter library for Python 2.7 and fill in the foo and bar etc stuff with your special API keys, and it works.

Someone else did the Python 3.X version, you can find it at Github Gists. [https://gist.github.com/jmoz/6135716](https://gist.github.com/jmoz/6135716)

</comment><comment><USER7> >While male and female bots were equally effective when considered overall, female social bots were much more effective at generating followers among the group of socially connected software developers.

This is hilarious, because we can all guess why.

</comment><comment><USER8> I, for one, welcome our new Socialbot Overlords.

<comment><USER9> Yes, digital is powerful.

Another example: In March, two students at the Technion in Israel created a swarm of bots that caused a phony traffic jam on Waze/Google Maps.

Another reference: "What We Should Do Before the Social Bots Take Over" [http://web.mit.edu/sts/Graeff.pdf](http://web.mit.edu/sts/Graeff.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The paper is at [http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.4927](http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.4927). The blog post adds a little context, though, so I guess we won't change the url.</comment>


If You Say Something Is "Likely," How Likely Do People Think It Is? - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2018/07/if-you-say-something-is-likely-how-likely-do-people-think-it-is <comment><USER2> It depends on the context.

Hillary Clinton had a >70% of winning the US presidential election according to the most responsible analyses (see 538: [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election- forecast/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/)).

Most folks took 70% to mean that she would certainly win and were bitterly disappointed the morning after.

On the other hand no sane person would (willingly) play Russian roulette with a 70% or even 5 of 6 chance of "winning".

In everyday life, one conflates probability with severity of outcome. This is normal and is part of how people assess and act on risk in a qualitative way.

<comment><USER3> >Hillary Clinton had a >70% of winning the US presidential election

Probabilities without confidence intervals[1] are by-and-large meaningless (She has a 90% chance of of winning with a confidence interval of +11% -100%). No amount of d3.js on 538's blog will change this.

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

<comment><USER4> From a Bayesian perspective, or from a betting one, it doesn't make sense to put probabilities in a confidence interval. You might be uncertain about the world, but you can be certain about how much uncertainty you have, since it's a property of your own mind.

<comment><USER5> How do we quantify the difference between coin tosses, which we are _very certain_ is 50% likely to end up heads, from political elections, where we only have a few examples to go off of?

<comment><USER6> In terms of predicting what's going to happen next, it really isn't that different if your model's any good. Looking backwards, if the 2016 election had been determined by two coin tosses both coming up heads, would we be surprised? And yet 538's polling model indicated that the probability was even better than two coins coming up heads.

They probably should have just written that right there: "71%, better odds than two coins coming up heads."

But: in order to understand if the model is any good, you need to try to build a good model, describe your model, and describe what you know about the underlying processes. With words, visuals, and math. Which is pretty much what 538 does better than most.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For what it is worth, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change uses the following definitions[0]:

virtually certain: 99-100%

extremely likely: 95-100%

very likely: 90-100%

likely: 66-100%

about as likely as not: 33-66%

more likely than not: >50-100%

more unlikely than likely: 0-<50%

unlikely: 0-33%

very unlikely: 0-10%

extremely unlikely: 0-5%

exceptionally unlikely: 0-1%

[0]: [https://ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment- report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_...](https://ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment- report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf)

<comment><USER8> > virtually certain: 99-100%

Hopefully whoever wrote that never works in a data center, builds cars, sells insurance, gambles, works on crypto, does scientific computing, or is ever responsible for someone's life.

<comment><USER9> If you're talking the realm of five 9s, etc, that's in reference to service availability at some given point in time throughout the course of a year. If you discuss the probability there will be an outage once during a year, the answer is somewhere in the middle, around "more likely than not".

You could use this same probability around a pacemaker. The device is virtually certain (99%) to function at a given point throughout the year, but the probability that the device will not fail over the course of the year is not 99%. If the pacemaker had a 99% chance of not failing once during the course of a year, it would be virtually certain it would not fail during that year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Using numbers for probabilities is not a panacea either, when those numbers are not the result of a calculation. One person might say "99% of the time" to mean "almost always", and another person might say "9 out of 10 times" to mean exactly the same thing.

The problem is that it's hard to estimate the probability of something that you know happens "almost always" without doing the counting, which most people don't do. And hence it's difficult to gain an intuition for what 99% means exactly.

Furthermore, there is also the possibility that two people share the same intuition about a given word/phrase, but then disagree about which _number_ describes that intuition. This could account for part of the results of this paper.

<comment><USER11> A good example of this is ratings on Amazon. You can give up to five stars, but most people just give 1 or 5 depending on if they were satisfied or dissatisfied. Additionally, people confuse precision for certainty and will perceive an estimate of 89.1% as more accurate than 90%.

<comment><USER12> Your examples are kinda funny, because that could easily be true. Now, if the second one was 90.0% on the other hand...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Related: RFC 2119, [https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt)

which defines the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL". Most subsequent RFCs begin with a reference to it.

</comment><comment><USER14> This article, and some of the comments here, reminded me of another article (and GDC talk) by Civilization game designer Sid Meier, about his experience with players' perception of probability in games.

Sid's talk grapples with the issue "If the game says you have 3-to-1 odds to win a battle, how often do players _actually_ expect to win?"

> When designing the combat system in Civilization: Revolution, Sid Meier > found himself up against some interesting design problems. His players > didn't understand math. In Civ Rev, the strength of units were displayed up > front to players before battle to show the odds of victory. For example, an > attacking unit might be rated at 1.5 with the defending unit at 0.5. This is > a 3-to-1 situation.

> Unfortunately, the testers expected to win this battle every time despite > there being a 25% chance of losing each time. Sid tweaked the math to make > the player win more in this situation. Next, the reverse case was tested. > The player had 1-to-3 odds. If they won, the math was functioning properly. > They had a slim chance to win and they did.

> Sid identified a few cases of interest. When the player was presented with > 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 odds, they expect to win. With 2-to-1 odds, the player will > accept losing some of the time, but expect to win at 20-to-10, which is just > a larger expression of 2-to-1. When the numbers get larger, the perceived > advantage grows.

[http://www.shacknews.com/article/62807/sid-meier-and-rob- par...](http://www.shacknews.com/article/62807/sid-meier-and-rob-pardo)

Here is a link to the actual GDC talk by Sid with the content about probability: [https://youtu.be/bY7aRJE-oOY?t=18m22s](https://youtu.be/bY7aRJE- oOY?t=18m22s)

(It's true. When playing a Civ game, it's not fun to have a 10-to-1 strength advantage and lose the battle anyway.)

In later games, Sid removed probability from the game in favor of an outcome that's predictable. Instead, each unit will be damaged in proportion to the ratio of the units' strengths (or something like that).

<comment><USER15> Maybe the key here is that strength ratio != odds, under most intuitive definitions of strength. If someone is twice as strong as you, they're arguably _much more_ than twice as likely to defeat you. If someone has twice the _number_ of units as you, they're also more than twice as likely to defeat you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> That impreciseness is one reason why William Zinsser in his book, _On Writing Well_ , argues:

\- "Get rid of the adjective-by-habit."

\- "Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident."

<comment><USER17> _" Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident."_

This is a separate issue, and one I would disagree with. In fact I feel like this is a problematic attitude in our culture. Too many people overconfidently asserting their subjective viewpoints. Real life is full of nuance, gray area, second-guessing, and different perspectives; simple bold assertions usually don't hold water.

David Foster Wallace, considered one of the greatest writers of recent times, filled his writings with qualifications, side notes, devil's advocacy, and at times insecure waffling. To me this is a more accurate reflection of the mind and reality and should not be suppressed for a macho bravado façade.

<comment><USER16> True, I fully see your point of people imposing their subjective views over- confidently. It is a real problem. :-(

But I don't think Zinsser there means to get rid of _all_ 'timidities'. The subtext my mind's eye read there was: don't overdo it. And he goes on to expand: "Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he's saying. Don't diminish that trust."

For instance, I know smart people who often apologize for no reason, do excessive hedging, or start a request with an apology. It gets _a bit_ annoying when I have to read or hear that everyday.

<comment><USER18> > It gets a bit annoying when I have to read or hear that everyday.

Or, this is an entirely subjective thing based on your own cultural presuppositions, and you are actually simply rude/prideful.

The coin flips both ways - there is no 'norm' here other than cultural/ethical/philosophical bias.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> When people say things like "serious possibility" they are not merely intending to alter the perception of the likelihood but also attempting to impress upon the listener the gravity of the event.

In cold war era America would people have felt any different knowing that a Russian invasion was only 20% likely rather than 30%? For something so /serious/ any non-zero probability is something that should be prepared for.

<comment><USER20> Yes, I had the same thought. A "serious possibility" of global thermonuclear war is 1% (maybe smaller). A "serious possibility" of a hangnail is 80%.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Follow up study: when someone says something happens "90% of the time", how likely do they think it is?

</comment><comment><USER22> When have this type of imprecise (sometimes subjective) verbiage in our legal standards:

1\. Beyond a reasonable doubt

2\. Perponderance of the evidence ("more likely than not", which in theory is >50%)

3\. Clear and convincing (which is somewhere in between the 2 above)

<comment><USER23> There is also a standard terminology for undesirable effects of medications:

\- Very common: affects more than 1 in 10 people – ie the risk is 10% or higher

\- Common: affects between 1 in 100 and 1 in 10 people – ie risk is 1% to 10%

\- Uncommon: affects between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 100 people – ie risk is 0.1% to 1%

\- Rare: affects between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 1,000 people – ie risk is 0.01% to 0.1%

-Very rare: affects less than 1 in 10,000 people – ie risk is less than 0.01% (This includes isolated reports)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Another fun one: Fermi's definition of "remote possibility" as a chance of no more than 1 in 10. (Scary when talking about the odds of initiating a chain reaction, making a small atomic weapon, or even igniting the atmosphere in the first atomic test.)

[https://books.google.com/books?id=2G2TlJOhGI8C&pg=PA280&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=2G2TlJOhGI8C&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280#v=onepage&q&f=false)

<comment><USER25> 0 in 10 is still "no more than 1 in 10", so I don't see why that's scary.

<comment><USER26> 0.9 in 10 is also no more than 1 in 10.

<comment><USER25> Right, but I'm suggesting that the odds of lighting the atmosphere on fire were calculated to be much lower than 1 in 10, but there just wasn't a 'simple English' category to distinguish them. So I wouldn't get scared until I saw something that suggested it was anywhere near 1 in 10.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> "Lesson 1: Use probabilities instead of words to avoid misinterpretation."

Probabilities are meaningless unless it's a repeatable experiment otherwise its a ludic fallacy eg "There's a 70% chance of Hillary winning". This is an un-provable statement. Either she wins and prediction was right, or she loses and it counts as part of the 30%. This is Nate Silver's get-out-of-jail-free card so even when he's wrong he comes off as being right.

i.e. this statement makes sense in a casino and nowhere else.

"Lesson 2: Use structured approaches to set probabilities."

Probabilities are meaningless by themselves. Path dependency matters a great deal to actual humans but not to business professors. A strategy that works well for the ensemble wont necessarily work well for the individual.

e.g. if you save for retirement for the average life expectancy then 50% of the people would be screwed and 50% of the people would have saved too much.

i.e. The cost of being right/wrong is what matters and not the probability.

<comment><USER28> > Probabilities are meaningless unless it's a repeatable experiment otherwise > its a ludic fallacy

Um... this goes against the entirety of the Bayesian approach to statistics. I think you'd find a lot of very intelligent people who disagree strongly with this statement.

The Bayesian approach takes probabilities as subjective confidences. You _can_ describe confidences as "well calibrated" if, when you look at their historical guesses, if their 70% assessments are correct 70% of the time.

<comment><USER27> ". I think you'd find a lot of very intelligent people who disagree strongly with this statement. "

I never claimed to be intelligent.

" You can describe confidences as "well calibrated" if, when you look at their historical guesses, if their 70% assessments are correct 70% of the time."

\- Again, if you're trying to figure out if a coin is split 50/50 then yes, but without being able to repeat the same experiment you're fooling yourself and the whole aspect of bayesian thinking I think goes out the window. eg me being right about unrelated topics doesn't mean I'm right/wrong about specific topics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This makes me thankful for Amazon's document-writing culture. Ambiguous words like very/could/should/few/large are avoided or at least qualified with a range. This helps us avoid ambiguity, regardless of the amount of context a reader has.

</comment><comment><USER30> In my experience, putting numbers to your gut feeling probabilities causes people to not take them seriously. Example: "I think there is 30% chances that I will get a promotion next month". If I say 30% people ask how I came up with that number. If I say "not very likely" then it gets accepted as an educated guess. Probably because we're used that those numbers must come from some dataset. Or should I say "I think there is a chance of 40% that things are like that because we're used that those numbers must come from some dataset".

<comment><USER31> 30% is specific, as if it's the result of a calculation in a spreadsheet. But with something like getting a promotion, how would you calculate that so specifically? You can't. That's why people don't take it seriously.

"Not very likely" is a rough estimate, like "probably not", or "less than 30% likely". It's a lot more believable that with the information you know, you're able to predict with that certainty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> >When you use a word to describe the likelihood of a probabilistic outcome, you have a lot of wiggle room to make yourself look good after the fact. If a predicted event happens, one might declare: "I told you it would probably happen." If it doesn't happen, the fallback might be: "I only said it would probably happen."

The same is true with numbers. If a predicted event happens, one might declare: "I told you there 80 percent that will happen". If it dosen't happen, the fallback might be: "I told you there are 20 percent it will not happen."

</comment><comment><USER33> I work in security and I am asked all the time about the likelihood of horrible things which may happen.

I cannot, ever, give a percentage ("70% chance we will get hacked if this and that"). I either say that I do it know and nobody will, or use "probably" or "unlikely". These are wide, hand waving categories.

I do that not because I do not want to be wrong but just because I have only a vague idea, classified into "maybe" and "maybe not"

</comment><comment> GuB-42 It also depends on the individual. And as you get to know people better, you tend to interpret their probabilities better.

Take the question "are you coming?". "Maybe" can mean "yes, except in case of nuclear war" to "not unless you kidnap me", depending on the person.

</comment><comment><USER34> I PERSONALLY decided if it seems like 20-25% probability, this is 'likely' because it means I can accomplish it if I can try 4-5 times. If it is 1%, I'd have to attempt 100 times to make a thing happen.

</comment><comment><USER35> Aren't all adjectives relative and therefore arguable?

It's amazing how often they're used in debates or political speech (ex. good, bad, strong, important, dangerous, etc.) when they clearly mean different things to different people, but maybe that's the idea.

<comment><USER36> Indeed, this is why the best communicators lean heavily on adverbs and pay careful attention to what adjectives make sense for the audience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I can summarize the article in a single sentence. "Something is likely" has a huge variance.

</comment><comment><USER38> Its very likely, that's its not as likely as people likely think it is.

</comment><comment><USER39> I usually just let the branch predictor figure it out on its own.

</comment><comment><USER40> likely</comment>


Goodbye Yahoo, Hello Bootstrap and Backbone. - <AUTHOR> http://company.unscatter.com/post/20786522334/goodbye-yahoo-hello-bootstrap-and-backbone

<comment><USER2> Sorry, but your site has serious problems. Just adding Bootstrap without any knowledge of at least some basic designs does you no good.

For example:

* The text is wider than the screen and the scrolling destroys the readability of the text. Even when it would fit the screen, it makes a terrible reading experience

* Apply paddings to the left and right edge of the screen. If the text touches the browser window, it looks ugly and removes focus and call to action on it.

As a final advice: get yourself a copy of Design for Hackers ( [http://bitboxer.de/2012/02/05/design-for-hackers-reverse- eng...](http://bitboxer.de/2012/02/05/design-for-hackers-reverse-engineering- beauty/) )

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the advice and the link.

If you don't mind can you tell me what browser you viewed the page and resolution? I don't have the problem of the text being larger than the screen but I also tend to use high resolution screens and my browser width is usually greater than 1000 pixels.

I also admittedly haven't been keeping up with internet explorer or opera testing. Actually, I don't even have a windows desktop available to me at the moment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Perhaps you should stop using Apple products as well since Apple is quite heavy on patent litigation.

</comment><comment><USER4> It seems everyone is saying hello to bootstrap. Too bad very few build anything memorable upon it.

<comment><USER5> My site is pretty cool though:

<http://in.5thvillage.com/> <http://www.5thvillage.com/>

<comment><USER6> looks cool. but there is no way to give feedback or contact.

<comment><USER5> :P oh yes, i miss that... will add one soon..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> <http://twitter.com> is a nice example of bootstrap of course ;)

</comment><comment><USER8> fwiw, on my laptop screen the search box for this blog is straight below the tumblr buttons, you may want to fix that <http://imgur.com/8i4uG>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the feedback. I think I'll also have to see about making it easier for people to get feedback to me as well. Guess I'm going from personal hobby to trying to at least support users best I can.</comment></comment>


Warren Adelman, GoDaddy CEO on "The Internet Mob" (from 2009) - <AUTHOR> http://asocialcontract.com/2009/05/17/the-mob-no-not-that-one.aspx

<comment><USER2> Might want to put [2009] in the title, as without it seems to be a response to their current little SOPA fiasco.

Also… the GoDaddy CEO is going to talk about degrading social norms? How about baiting people to your website with inappropriate, offensive commercials during major television events. Grow up, GoDaddy. You suck ass.

<comment><AUTHOR> I updated the title, thanks. His post reminded me of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)></comment></comment>


API Stylebook - <AUTHOR> http://apistylebook.com <comment><USER2> The non-scrollable layout is unusable (the buttons are hidden) on a 4" iPhone like my SE. :-(</comment>


OS X 10.5.6, Safari can't maintain session at Gmail, Facebook, others - <AUTHOR> http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8657457

<comment><USER2> Here's a page where you can report bugs for the WebKit project:

<http://webkit.org/quality/reporting.html></comment>


The Stack Exchange Architecture - <AUTHOR> http://blog.serverfault.com/post/the-stack-exchange-architecture-2011-edition-episode-1/ <comment><USER2> Interesting to see one of these Architecture blog posts for a site running on the .Net framework.

Does 9.5-10 Million hits a day make them the largest .Net backed site?

<comment><USER3> Windows + Ubuntu + CentOS ... I'm curious to know how the OS selection was made and specifically why the HAProxy servers are Ubuntu and the Redis servers are CentOS. Do your admins work on all three OSs?

<comment><USER4> It's pretty simple, we started off on Ubuntu for our linux boxes. Then made a decision to move to CentOS for the stability and vendor package compatibility for our core services. However, We are going to stick with Ubuntu on some of our back end servers - management and utility servers for the larger package repositories. Our Core Q&A engine is written in C# with MS-SQL databases so obviously we need to run windows for that.

There are only 2 sysadmins so yes we work on all OS's

<comment><USER5> Any good Linux admin should be able to work on any distribution... and will... as long as you allow them to complain about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I found it curious that there is so much hardware that is at around 20% utilization. Wouldn't it be better to have less hardware with higher utilization and buy cheaper/better hardware later if warranted?

<comment><USER7> Time for the sysadmin math quiz:

10 servers running at 20% utilization. Two servers experience hardware failure. What's the resulting utilization per server?

4 servers running at 50% utilization. Two servers experience hardware failure. What's the resulting utilization per server?

Which approach affords greater redundancy and room for growth?

<comment><USER8> R610s are going to have dual PSUs, and they have redundant storage arrangements, so potentially they could experience hardware failure but no downtime.

Chance of hardware failure in a modern server in a colo, assuming it's been stress tested to find DOA hardware before being put in production? Low.

A quick spec on Dell's site, rough guess for the SSDs, the web servers are running around $4,000 each, or $4,500 with better warranty. Saving of 6 servers is >$20,000.

It's entirely up to their funding and growth plans and risk acceptance if that's a useful saving, but if they were a ramen-profitable-is-goal-one startup, it would be months of runway.

<comment><USER7> They apparently have two developer/sysadmins, so the $20K savings is less than a month of their salaries. For the redundancy and growth that affords, it's a no-brainer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do you have additional datacenter environments for staging and development?

<comment><USER10> From the end of the post:

 _We backup our databases nightly and restore them to two different locations. One local to our NY data center for our devs to work against, and one remote in our OR data center._

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is a nice overview. The article mentions database pairs for the MSSQL servers. What high availability mode is used, database mirroring or cluster?

</comment><comment><USER12> Could someone clarify this: the post says that the servers are in _our_ Data Center in NY and OR. I have always thought that DCs host 100s to 100,000 machines! Is this a colo?

EDIT: What is the typical network utilization for such web-services?

<comment><USER4> yes, we are in two colo's one in Oregon and one in NYC

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> everything: DB, Web servers etc aprox 600GB RAM</comment>


Understanding the C/C++ memory model - <AUTHOR> https://davmac.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/understanding-the-c-c-memory-model/ <comment><USER2> Wait, data races are undefined behavior?

Is that in the sense that the compiler is allowed to assume they don't happen? I always figured it was defined behavior but not determinate.

<comment><USER3> The low-level nature of C++ (and also C) makes data races unavoidably undefined behavior. Imagine a data race that causes a torn write on a pointer. This pointer could now point pretty much anywhere. The function stack, some vtable, program data, etc. Any write to that dereferenced pointer will alter the state of your program in such a way that the behavior of your program will become undefined. There would be no way for C++ to guarantee any kind of defined behavior when you can write to arbitrary locations in memory.

<comment><USER4> There are two different things that people can mean when they say "undefined behaviour" in regards to C/C++. One is what you're talking about, with "undefined behaviour" meaning "one of several things could happen, you don't know which, and some of them may be bad."

The other is more specifically talking about code that is deemed "undefined behaviour" by the spec. There's a surprising amount of this, and the compiler is explicitly allowed to do anything it wants when encountered, from emitting 'close enough' code to emitting no code at all, to emitting code to order a pizza to your current location.

If this is the latter case then it could result in random bits of code mysteriously doing completely unexpected things if the compiler thinks a data race there is possible. This would make it far harder to track down bugs and reason about what code might cause such.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> (I screwed up; commented on the story one below instead of one above.) The story and the comment have been moved here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250408](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250408)

<comment><USER6> Your quote doesn't appear in the article, and this article also contains no code. Did you comment on the correct story?

<comment><USER7> Most likely they intended to comment on this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249936](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249936) (which is next to this item on the front page at the time of writing)</comment></comment></comment>


At least 10 StackOverflow moderators resign over a mod fired for CoC discussion - <AUTHOR> https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5193/stack-overflow-inc-sinat-chinam-and-the-goat-for-azazel <comment><AUTHOR> The list of resigned mods is here: [https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/5196](https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/5196)</comment>


Show HN: Chrome extension to bypass that fake-login-wall on Quora - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sdegutis/bypassquora <comment><AUTHOR> This is a terrible idea and I'm sure some legal department is going to take it down. But I thought it would make for an interesting discussion at least.

</comment><comment><USER2> I use uBlock Origin and it seems to remove the wall overlay. Unfortunately, an invisible wall is still present and you can't really scroll with the mouse (use arrow up and down). Everything else works though.

I usually just click links to Quora in incognito mode.

I'll have to give this a try!

<comment><USER3> > Unfortunately, an invisible wall is still present and you can't really > scroll with the mouse

That's right, I failed to see this when I created a filter for Quora. I should be able to fix this with an extra filter.

Edit: this works:

        quora.com##body:style(overflow: auto !important)

I will add it to uBO's own filters.</comment></comment>


A pattern Matching Library for Elisp - <AUTHOR> http://dorophone.blogspot.com/2012/01/shadchen-pattern-matching-library-for.html <comment><USER2> I like it, but the fact that the .el is distributed via a git with a whole bunch of other crap in it makes it somewhat inconvenient to add this as an external dependency to my emacs stuff.

<comment><USER3> Just for you (seriously, I just made a separate repo because of this post): <https://github.com/VincentToups/shadchen-el>

<comment><USER2> Thanks! I really appreciate that. Now I can add it as a submodule in my emacs.d git, and if I ever happen to use it in something I make public I can point people to your repo.

I hope it does not disrupt your workflow too much to have this in a seperate repo.

<comment><USER3> I've been meaning to organize my emacs libraries for awhile, so its not inconvenience at all.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The new SF/Silicon Valley suburbs: Portland and Seattle - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575172541279575622.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

<comment><USER2> I grew up in Portland. Moved to Seattle after Portland. Finally to San Francisco after Seattle.

I will say the article is full of bullshit. Yes, cost of living is drastically lower and the quality of life and the surrounding is not bad at all in any way. But a Silicon Valley / SF? It is not.

If you're like me and you've lived in all 3 areas and grew up spending a huge chunk of your life in each of the 3, you'll quickly realize it's not even close in terms of the culture and resources the bay offers. I can understand the sentiment if you have a family (spouse and kids) and want to find affordable housing and all but lets not kid ourselves, that's not the same as arguing a tech centric hub worthy of comparison to the valley.

</comment><comment><USER3> I moved from Portland to the Bay Area to take a job at Yahoo! four years ago. After a year and a half, I moved back, and have been telecommuting ever since. A coworker recently moved back to Portland and began telecommuting as well.

Remote collaboration isn't yet as painless and awesome as it has the potential to be, but Skype group video chat (when it works) is almost good enough to make us feel like we're in Sunnyvale when we can't actually be there in person, and IRC and IM are great for low-overhead collaboration.

I've been so much more productive and so much happier since I began working remotely that I can't imagine ever going back to spending five days a week commuting to an office, especially if that office is somewhere other than Portland.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've known more than one colleague that has commuted from Portland to the Bay Area. In each case they were older men with wives and children that didn't want to (or couldn't) leave Portland. They rented small, cheap places during the week then spent the weekends at home with their families.

</comment><comment><USER5> _Alex Payne plans to move to Portland with his wife next month, while keeping his job at San Francisco-based Twitter Inc._

Thought he was with Bank Simple?

<comment><USER6> This is from April of 2010

<comment><AUTHOR> He did move to Portland, however. "I live in Portland, Oregon. Before that, I lived in San Francisco. I grew up around Washington, DC." <http://al3x.net/about.html>

<comment><USER6> Your point being? The article is from April of 2010 when he was with Twitter, in May he joined Bank Simple. The parent comment is about where he was working not where he was living and I pointed out the age of the article for that reason.

<comment><AUTHOR> Note to self: tread lightly when commenting on the "community" Hacker News. The parent topic was about moving away from SF. Sincere apologies if my simple clarification torqued your jaw.

<comment><USER6> Not trying to come off gruff or anything, I was just posting quickly between meetings and not necessarily proofreading for "voice" in the message. I don't see how your "clarification" actually clarified anything. The article says he moved to Portland, his profile says he moved to Portland. There doesn't seem to be any confusion about where he lives. The parent comment, not article, asked about his employer not his location.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Typo. is out. Is it a good thing? - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiehackers.com/post/typo-is-out-is-it-a-good-thing-adb58f4736 <comment><USER2> That post looks like it was translated into English using Google Translate. Since your value proposition is helping businesses avoid being discredited due to grammar mistakes, it would make sense to follow your own advice for your posts as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair point. It's not my website. Maybe you can help them.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Typegram – open source publishing platform - <AUTHOR> https://en.tgr.am/@recoilme/1 <comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I posted a link on GitHub in the main thread,69 days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17698719](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17698719)

From that time was added:

* Rating system (like on HN)

* Tags

* Monsters/avatars

* Email integration

* Telegram integration

* Statistics server

* Android app (beta)

* and many other improvements

<comment><USER2> I like it a lot, surprised I didn't know about the project until now.. in the GitHub readme you wrote: "I try to build the new big thing for blogging", I personally believe this will be achieved with ActivityPub, but I'm curious to hear how you plan to achieve it?

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you! I believe in open source and I'm not concentrated on the money. We are working on a mobile app for creating/read texts with a very simple interface and real-time delivery content, like in messengers - [https://user- images.githubusercontent.com/3045439/47013080-b...](https://user- images.githubusercontent.com/3045439/47013080-b3438100-d14e-11e8-9802-e862909fa1b6.jpg) Hope it will fly)</comment></comment></comment>


So you're a feminist who works at Uber? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/women-of-uber/so-youre-a-feminist-who-works-at-uber-b9744a016ab1 <comment><USER2> What do you know, the world isn't black and white! /kinda sarcastic

I find it fascinating that so much rage can cause hoards of people to jump on bandwagons of all kinds. The reality of everything in the universe is far more complex than a headline, and yet we all seem to forget that from time to time.

</comment><comment><USER3> This article has reminded me that just because people proclaim to be a feminist, Christian, humanist or terrorist doesn't mean that they are often primarily that thing.

This particular feminist would probably identify primarily with being a mom and in certain scenarios one of those identities must take precedence. So even if you do feel Uber is anti-feminism it still seems compatible that a feminist who primarily identifies as a mother would take a job at a company like Uber to better provide for her own career which in turn allows her to provide for her kid(s).

Humans are messy.</comment>


Is a home tech company still a viable idea? - <AUTHOR>

I've thought about starting a home-based tech company that deals with individual home owners and SOHO types as well as smaller businesses. Is this still a viable business model in 2014 and beyond.<p>I'm referring to home network setups, malware removal, OS installs, etc. Is this viable anymore what with the cloud all the rage? <comment><USER2> It depends on what exactly you're asking, and what your goals are.

Is the question: Can I earn a living wage for myself by selling my skills around setting up hardware and software for end-users?

or is the question: Can I start a company that I can grow upwards of 10+ people by providing home and small business hardware and software support?

or is the question something else?

Ultimately, the answer is "probably yes". Hardware and software is complicated. Not everyone knows everything they need. When this happens, people are typically willing to pay for qualified help.

The specific economics of this come down to the market and your costs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Tim,

Thank you for replying. I suppose "yes" and "yes" is the best answer to your questions.</comment></comment>


Star Wars' new robot BB-8 on the stage - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzjUf3E_0c

<comment><USER2> [http://time.com/3826420/bob-iger-star-wars- sphero/](http://time.com/3826420/bob-iger-star-wars-sphero/) [http://www.gosphero.com](http://www.gosphero.com)

It is Sphero, a startup making toys with flywheels. For example a spherical ball-thingy (sphero) you can move/control with your smartphone.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does anybody know the company they're talking about? Does the top piece use some sort of gyro-stabilized magnetic control system?

<comment><USER4> I would say the sphere has a counterweight system and separate magnet system to link with the head (because the robot is able to move its head to the side without moving when it needs to). I'd imagine there's magnets in the sphere and head, and the head has powerered wheels/rollers as well. Its a very sophisticated trick.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Too cute to tolerate.</comment>


The death of Bitcoin (controversial) - <AUTHOR> http://hackishword.com/blog/2014/the-death-of-bitcoin

<comment><USER2> I heard that GHash.io was reaching the 50% mark a while ago and then the community decided to split off of a lot of their hashing power to rebalance the minering to other pools. Now this article is saying GHash is intentionally trying to take over? Isn't being part of GHash a volunteer effort?</comment>


Firefox Preview Nightly Now Supports uBlock Origin - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5630 <comment><AUTHOR> Tested and working for me!

To test: install "Firefox Preview Nightly for Developers (Early Access)" from the Play Store, and then select "Add-ons Manager" from the menu.</comment>


Ask HN: Why is the internet so walled off - <AUTHOR> I used to be a believer in the gospel of starting a tech company preferably a Saas app company being a great way to make money because of the possibility of reaching a very wide audience, and sadly that has turned out not to be the case anymore and from my experience this is mostly due to its ability to wall off people and create a sense of being in a vacuum to an individual, I mean when trying to make a sale in real life I could perhaps walk up to a individual in person in an appropriate environment and try to make a sale to him but on the internet there is no such thing you have to pay for google or facebook ads for very miserable conversion rates. I really am starting to regret going all in into the online business outreach hype <comment><USER2> There is always a cost of doing business, even if it is just your time. For example, you can get free leads from organic search but it will take a lot of your time to get to a point where your site performs well in the SERPS. Your time has a value because it's finite and you could be doing something more profitable with it.

The alternative is to pay for search ads, and it can be costly, but what other medium gives you direct visibility to people who are actively looking for your product/service at a comparable cost?

In a previous life I was a tradesman - pre Google. There were two ways of getting business back then. Slowly build-up clients by word of mouth or pay for a featured listing in Yellow Pages.

Same problem - different medium.</comment>


Ask HN: A way to quantify data and energy wasted on YouTube background music? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> What I mean is the use case where a user listens to music videos on their browser in the background. They are not on the tab or they do not have the window open. They are just looking for music. Aside from YouTube is there another way in the browser to listen to music?</comment>


Regular Expression Denial of Service and Catastrophic Backtracking - <AUTHOR> https://snyk.io/blog/redos-and-catastrophic-backtracking/ <comment><USER2> Thanks for adding. As a related aside, someone who read the post pointed me in the direction of [http://stackstatus.net/post/147710624694/outage- postmortem-j...](http://stackstatus.net/post/147710624694/outage-postmortem- july-20-2016). Apparently Stack Overflow had a 34 minute outage this past year due to user input that resulted in backtracking. What's crazy is how innocent the regex seemed, too.</comment>


What Makes a Great Newsletter? - <AUTHOR> http://www.geoffreyweg.com/geoffreyweg/2014/9/18/what-makes-a-good-newsletter

<comment><AUTHOR> Featuring examples by: \- Mattermark \- Product Hunt \- Term Sheet \- Strictly VC \- Farnam Street \- Politico \- Capital NY</comment>


Here's What U.S. Firms Will Have to Do Under the EU Privacy Shield Deal - <AUTHOR> http://beta.fortune.com/2016/02/29/privacy-shield-details/ <comment><USER2> I can't see how any sharing of EU citizens data with US corporations is not going to involve the NSA either directly or indirectly, via it's proxy states.

The only safeguard to privacy is encryption, specifically where the corporation has zero knowledge.

There is no trust. There never was, and there never will be. The Safe Harbor Agreement was an illusion.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't see a lot about what this will require US companies to do and a lot about nothing.</comment>


In MySQL, never use "utf8". Use "utf8mb4" - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@adamhooper/in-mysql-never-use-utf8-use-utf8mb4-11761243e434 <comment><USER2> MySQL is a great example how extreme commitment to backwards compatibility makes your whole product backwards.

It is chock full of bugs and footguns that you can work around and mitigate if you know how to configure it correctly, but most of those improvements are still not the default.

And the `utf8` encoding, that does not fully support UTF-8 looks like it'll stay around forever. ಠ_ಠ

As the author of the post says, much better to just use PostgreSQL, will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

<comment><USER3> > And the `utf8` encoding, that does not fully support UTF-8 looks like it'll > stay around forever. ಠ_ಠ

No, it looks like the exact opposite. As the MySQL documentation clearly states:

> The utf8mb3 character set is deprecated and will be removed in a future > MySQL release. Please use utf8mb4 instead. Although utf8 is currently an > alias for utf8mb3, at some point utf8 will become a reference to utf8mb4. To > avoid ambiguity about the meaning of utf8, consider specifying utf8mb4 > explicitly for character set references instead of utf8.

<comment><USER4> I think every developer has written the famous words: "at some point we will remove this". The accuracy of that statement often seems to be pretty dubious.

<comment><USER5> Doesn't seem dubious to me. I would expect it to be removed (or at least have the utf8 alias changed to point to utf8mb4) in the next major release. utf8mb3 was deprecated in the most recent release series (MySQL 8). For feature deprecation notices, MySQL consistently follows a pattern of deprecate in major release N --> remove/change in major release N+1.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17310690](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17310690)

additional context (which the OP didn't reference):

[https://mysqlserverteam.com/mysql-8-0-when-to-use- utf8mb3-ov...](https://mysqlserverteam.com/mysql-8-0-when-to-use-utf8mb3-over- utf8mb4/)

[https://mysqlserverteam.com/sushi-beer-an-introduction-of- ut...](https://mysqlserverteam.com/sushi-beer-an-introduction-of-utf8-support- in-mysql-8-0/)

[https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/charset-unicode- utf8...](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/charset-unicode-utf8mb3.html)

hint: "Exactly the same set of characters is available in utf8mb3 and ucs2."

</comment><comment><USER7> "Never" seems an odd choice. Until somewhat recently the recommendation would have been the now-deprecated "utf8mb3" for which "utf8" is a synonym.

Until the next release, when "utf8" is updated to be a synonym for "utf8mb4", yes, use "utf8mb4" directly. At the next release, you can use "utf8" again.</comment>