Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it? - <AUTHOR> https://nota.io

<comment><USER3> OK, I've gone to your page and had a look ...

        Nota features an innovative toolbar
        to help you get the job done

What job?

        Area Selection Tool: Lets you highlight any part of
            a web page. And best of all it takes a screen
            capture of the selection!

For what?

        Text Highlighter Tool: Shows copy changes and catches
            typos in text heavy pages. (Yeah, we're looking at
            you "Terms of Use" pages.)

What?

        Take the guesswork out of web development, with Nota.
        Nota records every click, scroll, and keystroke, giving
        you the clues you need to efficiently understand and
        repair user issues.

WHY?

the thing you're missing in all of this is the question of what problem you're solving. I assume you're solving a problem, but:

* How do I know I have your problem?

* How do I even know it's a problem to start with?

* What _is_ the problem?

* What is the context?

* Who is your audience?

In short, based on my visit to your landing page, I have no idea what problem this product is solving.

So I left.

Does that help?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for that. This landing page can sure be optimised quite a bit. Though as today the main problem is not so much converting users from landing page to sign-up but rather getting current beta users (that do not complain in any sort about the app) to actually try it in they day to day workflow. I am striving for feedback, and if no one use the app I can't get any.

<comment><USER4> "if no one use the app I can't get any"

I did sign up and was left puzzled by what to do next - I wanted to try the functionality but the only example I could see was to send feedback to you, and I couldn't see the tools mentioned on the home page.

I suspect nobody can work out how to get started with your product!

<comment><AUTHOR> That is strange. There should a sample project called "tutorial project" right on the page you land on after your first registration. Did you try to give the page a refresh ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I would have left you this feedback live on your site, but no widget there, which I feel is a missed opportunity.

Anyhow.

Talk about how _web designers_ in specifically should be using this rather than getting their feedback over email with non-descriptive explanations like "I feel the paragraph was overshadowed by the icon." "What icon?" "The green one." "On what page?" "The home page." "Oh yay after 3 emails I finally understand what you meant!"

Get Beta Access doesn't read as a button.

The hero shot is a lovely photo and I don't want to crush your soul about it, but it sells a lifestyle of working on Macbooks in hipster cafes, not your software. It is impossible to tell, at that point in the sales process, that the fake website which gets 100% of the screen-within-a-screen real estate is not actually the point of the shot, but rather, the UI that gets 10% of the screen-within-a-screen real estate is the point. That UI is unreadable to me, both literally and figuratively. Your animated explanation later on the page is superior in explaining what your software actually does.

You should probably sell this face-to-face to designers at meetups/etc. Give away two dozen beta accounts to actual people in real life, with that crazy founder gleam in your eyes. If they don't use it, pester them about why. Answer the objections in onboarding -- e.g. don't have a website that I need feedback on right now, didn't get the snippet installed, etc.

<comment><USER6> Indeed, if you're not even using your product yourself - showcasing it front and centre, then why would I want to use it? Including it would be the perfect demo opportunity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Don't market to "everyone". Market to a very narrow, carefully defined market. And it doesn't matter if they "love" it. What matters is that they _need_ it, and need it enough to pay.

Who are you seeking for beta customers? How are you reaching and inviting them? What kind of feedback are you getting from them?

<comment><AUTHOR> My target market is small (2~10 employees) web agencies. I worked for such companies and build that app to address the pains they have with the feedback loop. So far I have mostly been doing cold mailing to very targeted market and made some promotion through listing site (betalist, reddit). I had about 300 users out of this. The type of feedback I got so far sounds like: "Great app will save me lot of time!!" yet after 1 month since the launch I have 2 "active" users.

<comment><USER8> Have you spoke to those users that stopped using the site. Seems like they're you're biggest chance to find what's wrong. You can get as many users as you want, but if you can't keep hold of them then you'll still have problems.

Find out why they started, then find out why they stopped. Maybe it wasn't right for them in the first place, in which case you can focus on the people it is right for. Maybe there's something they thought it had which it doesn't, it might be worth adding that in if it's consistent for everyone. Good luck!

<comment><USER9> I've seen several strategies like this to improve startups/sideprojects Keep statistics on people who have: signed up but not set up your product <\- Contact these to see if they need help setting up signed up and set up your product but stopped using it <-Contact these to find out what's wrong with your product

The best way to do this is to send a personal email to the users. You should be able to get some real feedback and if you're responsive to their suggestions get some customers for life

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, as mentioned above I am trying this but not getting so much success with it so far. I probably need to crunch bigger numbers to get significant results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The problem is, nobody wants to be the evil guy that rips another guy's dream to shreds. That's why, when asked directly, people will always say that your thing is a cool idea, looks great, etc.

It is said that entrepreneurs need to develop hard skin. I propose that this hard skin should extend to ignoring this kind of vapid feedback. Because with our typical starry-eyed optimism (/ denial), we often see these as validation, when they're really not.

One thing I've learned is also to always listen to the 'assholes', you know the guys who tell you that your thing sucks, looks like shit and so on. They are often valuable resources because at least they are being honest - if you engage them and try to get them to flesh out their criticism. Some of the best feedback I have ever gotten was this way.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I thought about that. Tho I am getting spontaneous feedback from people telling they love the app. Actually the few I've asked feedback to, more often than not don't answer..

I am Ok with dismissing the idea or pivoting if I have too, but I can't do that without understanding what went wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some random comments:

"Feedback right on the site"

This made me wonder what site you were referring to - maybe "Feedback right on your site".

"The Right Tool for the Job"

By this point I still wasn't sure what "the Job" was...

Also, having a product that collects feedback on web pages that doesn't immediately allow me to play with the tools is a bit frustrating - I won't sign up just to play with a text selection/highlighting tool even if it is pretty cool.

<comment><USER11> >> This made me wonder what site you were referring to - maybe "Feedback right on your site".

Or maybe more dummy-proof; "Do you run a web site? Get feedback right on your site"

>> Also, having a product that collects feedback on web pages that doesn't immediately allow me to play with the tools is a bit frustrating

And why doesn't this site itself use this tool to get feedback? That could be also a nice demonstration.

Finally, I scrolled thrice, and didn't really get what the tool is about. Maybe the site has a communication problem, which prevents conversions...

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Scrolled through it, no idea what it does.

<comment><USER13> +1 for this. Here's my thoughts while browsing it:

I scrolled down, and to be honest if you hadn't mentioned feedback at the top, I would've thought "web design collab tool", with the area/text highlighting.

Oh hey, you follow with that impression too.

> Take the guesswork out of web development

So I'm to be developing a website, I guess with other people, so it is a collab tool (thats the feedback)? Ok.

It hooks into Github? How? Why? Eh, lived 22 years without it, probably don't need it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wanted to give you feedback that there is no feedback mechanism on the right side of the page but ironically you don't give the user opportunity to apply your product to your own site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, unfortunately a "public" version of the widget would mean a serious refactor (which is btw on the list of potential pivots).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> You appear to have a feedback tool that allows users to select part of the page. That isn't clear, but...

You've made a website feedback tool that allows users to tell the site owner what they think is bad about the site. _Why aren 't you using it for this thread?_

</comment><comment><USER16> What is this? What pain does it stop?

I can't tell from the domain name, or from the website 'above the fold'. Even scrolling down, I'm still not sure what it does.

Also, you have no signup at the moment?

</comment><comment><USER17> Just my 2 cents:

When you go live, identify your client group (at first sight, it's agencies and freelancers)

\- Create a seperate button for agencies and freelanciers Agencies, signup here, freelancers: signup here.

\- Create different pricing to match the client group

\- Create a "use-it now" script, eg. a editable-text that they can copy and copy paste it in a website. Give it a trial account (or beta).

\- Sell to your target groups, i think you can do something with this, but you really need specific group targeting.

\- Change the button: Get early feedback into the register texts and buttons: Register for free here (input: Name & Email) -> Button: Register

\- Change some text: Collect feedback on your site... Try targetting web designers (who hate the overuse of mail for adjusting to the clients preference -> put this as a section on the front page). Example for a section: Optimize your website feedback (collect early client feedback)

It's not immediatly clear what it does, it summorizes the tools, not the goal itselve (eliminating email by a better workflow for receiving client feedback for example).

And last but not least, marketing marketing marketing :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Gotcha. Thanks for that. Apparently my landing page is due for a re-design asap..

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> What does your site/product do? The first thing I read is something about a toolbar ... a toolbar for what? :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess the smallest version of it is: sticky notes on a live website to ease the web developer / client feedback exchange process.

<comment><USER5> That is _radically better copy_ than anything you have on your website right now. It is instantly clear who the intended user is, what pain it purports to solve, and what the core workflow will be like. (It is often the case, by the way, that founders describe their stuff better when speaking informally than they do on their home pages.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Update the headline - "FEEDBACK RIGHT ON THE SITE"

Leave feedback? Receive feedback? So I can do what?

On the subhead - What does taking the guesswork out of the feedback loop actually mean? What will I be able to do once I take the guesswork out of the feedback loop? Make better design decisions?

A lot of the copy is too vague to be helpful.

"THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB"

What job? What are the pain points your tool helps alleviate? From the site, I'm guessing it's to find out the specific elements that are stopping visitors from converting or further engaging with the site? Poor design is expensive. A lot of people know what people do on a website, not lot of people understand why they do it. Sell up your solution as solving for the "why."

</comment><comment><USER20> From browsing the comments it seems like you mostly rely on online feedback from the betatesters. I think you need to move one step back. You have identified a pain point (from your own experience) and a way to solve it but are you really sure you're targeting the right people and the pain is big enough?

I think you should find some people that you think have the identified problem, see if/how they solve it and meet them in person to demonstrate your cure. It's costly (time/travel) but I think it'll clear up a lot of things. You can learn A TON from this. Seriously find ~20 people and meet them in real life.

</comment><comment><USER21> I've seen a stratup take beta user metrics and offer their most active users the first year free. If you give out 10 free years of service to your most active users and promoters this might actually give them the motivation to start using the product.

Also, once they've used the product for a year they probably won't stop when they have to start paying and by then they've given you the feedback you need. They might also give you some quotes to put on the front page to show how happy your existing customers are.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I'd give life long use to the right beta users willing to give me serious feedback. It's the very least I could do. I am currently trying that approach with cold mailing but not getting a whole lot of attention with that (actually none at all)

<comment><USER21> Try changing the message or try a cold-call, give you the chance to get instant feedback on why people don't use the product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Looks like a great feedback widget like [http://bugherd.com/](http://bugherd.com/) to me

Be patient and

KEEP AT IT: listen, learn, fix - <USER2>

I found this helpful - [http://www.appsumo.com/copywriting-checklist- special/](http://www.appsumo.com/copywriting-checklist-special/) \- simple, concise and well explained guide to website copy.

Good luck, work, listen, learn and be patient :-)

Oh and take HN with a pinch of salt :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> It addresses the same issue but with a completely different approach.

Thanks for the perspective. I will keep at it. Cheers

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's been mentioned several times but I think the main thing is telling what problem you're solving, as early as possible.

Also, your sign in looks like a modal, but it isn't. Confused me a little bit when i wanted to go back and almost made me stop completely. Probably just me, but might be worth a look.

Try asking the people that love the concept what they think of your sales site. Maybe you explained something to them which caught their attention that you're not saying on the site.

</comment><comment><USER23> You might be onto something. Could this be easily converted into an annotation tool for machine learning purposes? It looks like you could use it to annotate images and text. You need an interface to create annotation schema. Then, you need to have two or more annotators per text/image. And finally, you calculate inter-annotator agreement and export the data.

I know that there are couple startups that got seed money for "annotating the web". For example "Rap Genius".

</comment><comment><USER24> these things piss me off, i click on it, and it doesn't say what it is or why i want it.

it should be right there at the top "nota - it's bacon for your computer" or whatever. instead i'm supposed to scroll and look at pictures and i still don't get it. looks to me like more effort was put into making a fancy design rather than an actual product, because if it was a product it'd be obvious what it was.

that would be problem 1 i suppose.

<comment><AUTHOR> Got it, shitty landing page. Fair enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I understood your site because I use screenshot browser extensions frequently.

Most people have no idea such tools exist. You are asking them to envision a concept that they never imagined is possible today.

Your animated graphic is clear to me, but it's not explicit enough.

You also appear to include features of tools like Clicktale, which is interesting and not prominent enough.

I agree that this tool must be live on your own site. :)

</comment><comment><USER26> Take any notion of "beta" off your site. You want people to sign up thinking it's production ready and start test and improving your funnel based on a trickle feed of new visitors. Use A/B testing and talk to people that leave their details on why they did or did not use it and improve accordingly.

Watch this video for background: [http://vimeo.com/54118238](http://vimeo.com/54118238)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, good point. That is the next step.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Unlike others, I understood the problem.

Your true problem is unless this web agency is cranking out landing pages for a living - your customer will probably spend more time getting your tool integrated than working with it. And they cease to become a customer when the project is over.

There is value in this, but besides maybe some server hosting, what are you doing that can't be accomplished with an open source JS package?

<comment><AUTHOR> Well there is a whole bunch of value that goes with this. Event tracking, rendering of pretty damn accurate "screen grabs", reproducing of the environment.

I think you made a good point about the typical project live spam and I might be reason why people can not get to use the tool righ away. I personally see that tool being very useful for "intra team" communication as well.

<comment><USER27> The next use you described came from yourself. The rest of the thread is emerging with a consistent theme, "what are your customers saying?"

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep I got that much out of it. So far I was not really lucky communicating with them. Will push further down that path. Thanks for the input.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Does this only work on static pages or is there a way to annotate dynamic pages as well?

While I don't disagree with a lot of the feedback about better communicating certain things on the page, I thought I would say that I understood immediately what your does. That's to say, I think others are being a bit hyperbolic when they say they have no idea even after scrolling.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I know the landing page could be a lot better tho, but I do think that people with the pain the address do get how Nota could help out form the landing page.

Yep it'll work on static sites just as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> To echo the feedback others have provided: your website makes it a challenge to understand what your product does.

Being obtuse about the point of your product is not an effective strategy unless you are in stealth mode and you have a simple landing page just to drum up intrigue.

I would clarify the problem and why your product's features supply the best answer.

</comment><comment><USER30> I would love to such frank feedback on my startup. I am going same phase, everyone loves the idea but nobody seems to use it. Probably because either they are not actually convinced and are faking it or I am not solving any urgent "pain point" they have.

Thanks @m4nu, for this post, signed-up for Nota.io and checking it out

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Shankysingh. Looking forward to see you there. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need assistance. Good luck with the startup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Maybe people you've explained it to love the concept, but I have no idea what your product does after scrolling through your your bootstrap page. I THINK you capture events to help analyze visitor patterns better, while helping to solve some common mistakes like mistyped words and such, but I really have no idea.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm using bugherd and would like to have the feedback part only as I don't need the bug tracking part (already using another tool for that).

So I'm definitively in your potential client list, but no demo on your website mean that I would probably have skipped it completely without creating an account.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh well I would love to hear feedback from you. As mentioned somewhere else in that bunch of comment I am more than willing to give away long term free use for any one willing to give this a serious try and share the experience with me.

The registration process is very small (basically one more field than a sign- in) and you can delete your account anytime if you are not satisfied. Once logged in you will see a tutorial that highlights the main features of Nota in under a minutes.

Will work on a screen cast of the app first very soon.

Thanks for sharing

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Isn't JIRA Capture by Atlassian pretty much the same? Probably with better integration with JIRA, which you recommend in your page for issue tracking... [https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/capture](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/capture)

</comment><comment><USER34> Hey, had no idea what it did.. signed up anyway and it's something I can see myself using. Kudos to you. One slight niggle so far.. there's a typo in your confirm email. "glad to have you abroad" should be "glad to have you aboard".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks that. 300+ welcome email and you are the first who got that one !

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> 1) What does it do?

2) It's not on your site. Where can I see it in action on all sides? what does the widget look like?

3) will it even work in my local development environment?

4) what does it cost? Can I persuade my manager to buy it?

<comment><AUTHOR> 1- Let everyone involved in the site creation (Clients, PM, devs ) communicate right on the live site by using "sticky note" 2- It can't be use on a public site without major refactor 3- Yes it will. I have a "Mirror" feature plan so that you can even mirror issue from "stage" site to you dev 4- Still unknown yet. Probably will have a free plan with some restriction, but the "small agency" tier would be around 29/mo

<comment><USER35> With 3, it complained that it didn't find the widget on my development site - which left me really confused.

A production-capable version would be extremely useful to our team, even with minimal feedback - we're in a public beta of a new version of our site, and we're using A/B tools which would allow us to get that sort of feedback from a number of our users without being overwhelmed.

We might only want to use it for 4 months, while a beta runs. A one-off payment of up to £100 (GBP) would be reasonably easy, if we chose to use it.

What's keeping it from production?

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you send me a ticket via UserVoice (bottom right corner) so that I can have you user ID and have a look at what might be wrong?

Nothing is really keeping it to be pushed to production. I was just hopping to get more feedback before proceeding to that step.

Thanks for the input.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> The tutorial project that you get to once you sign up - or maybe a video of it - needs to be front and centre _before_ the sign-up.

I wasn't clear before I got to that, but now I've seen that I'm motivated to dig deeper...

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, thanks. That is helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Probably because your site gives absolutely no indication of what it is you actually do.

</comment><comment><USER38> No price listed. I usually don't sign up to anything unless the price is listed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Faire enough. I didn't list prices because I was not sure but now I understand some prices (even if inaccurate) are better than non at all. I am thinking: 1 Active Project + 1 Archived Project, Unlimited users 9USD/mo 3 Active Project + 2 Archived Project, Unlimited users 19USD/mo 5 Active Project + 3 Archived Project, Unlimited users 29USD/mo

<comment><USER38> Well it depends on your use cases. As a general rule of thumb, if you don't publish prices it means it's too expensive for the common man (eg, it's aimed at businesses).

I can't really see any small time indie (I could be very wrong I've looked at your project a total of 5 minutes tops) using this. 20/30 dollars seems really low if you're only going to get a small amount of customers.

I'd read up on this thread posted here on HN just a few days ago, there's an incredible amount of info here:

[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/03/fantasy- tarsnap/](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/03/fantasy-tarsnap/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Is there a way to allow clients to create annotations on a project without creating an account? Maybe through a private URL?

From poking around I didn't see a way to do that. Without that I wouldn't really use it.

</comment><comment><USER40> You told me what features it has not why I would want it. Give me a value proposition. Also put the pricing on the front page and offer more than one option, 3 would be good.

</comment><comment><USER41> It seems like you've thought about the experience for end users, but I can't see a way to actually try it out (from an end user perspective) from your homepage.

</comment><comment><USER42> I still have no idea what your product does. Make at least a video(2-3 minutes) that defines the problem and shows how it is solved using your software.

</comment><comment><USER43> Had a look at your site - Nice design, but quite bad "communication". Not getting what nota really is about and why I should use it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. Will work on improving that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> No idea what problem you are trying to solve.

</comment><comment><USER45> How is this different from TrackDuck?

<comment><AUTHOR> Never heard of it. Googled it, their certificate is broken and it seems to be fetching stuff from fishy domains name. I stopped there. If you used trackDuck tho I'd love to hear your feedback about how/if it differs.

<comment><USER46> Hi! I am a CDO at TrackDuck. Very strange problem, what browser/os you use? From what domain you got ssl alert?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> You use Ask HN to post a link, smart.

<comment><AUTHOR> No trickery intended here, just seemed to be the best way to go about it.</comment></comment>


Footsteps, Pressure Sensors, and AI: The Next Step in Airport Security - <AUTHOR> https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333332&_mc=RSS_EET_EDT <comment><USER2> > With this system, the researchers claim that the way a person walks and > analysis of that individual's footsteps could be used as a biometric at > airport security instead of fingerprinting and eye-scanning, providing a > non-intrusive method of identity verification.

This is one of those modalities (gait, keystrokes, tone of voice) that gets rediscovered every few years, shown to be waaay worse than e.g. iris recognition and forgotten until somebody else picks it up again.

Back when I was doing my thesis(liveness detection based on pupil dilation) there existed a system that could scan multiple irises from a distance of up to 6 metres. I assume these kind of systems have only gotten better since then.

<comment><USER3> >> there existed a system that could scan multiple irises from a distance of up to 6 metres.

Holy %}^# _#_

I thought that was Minority Report BS - it's actually possible?!

<comment><USER2> The head of our department was rightfully sceptical as well.

Here's how they did it: they had a few decent cameras zoomed and focused so that their fields of view formed a skewed line crossing the path the subjects walked.

You only need a 300x150 image of the whole eye to perform decent iris recognition, so an eye covering 10% of a given camera's field of view was usually large enough.

But that was in 2012 - I imagine they've made some improvements.

<comment><USER3> I still think we can only survive as societies with truly radical openness - stick up all the cameras younwant, but it is legally obliged to publish _everything_ you are monitoring - everyone gets to see what everyone else sees.

i honestly don't see any alternatives, despite the enormous implications

<comment><USER4> An idea publicized and championed by David Brin in 1996 (!)

[http://www.davidbrin.com/transparentsociety.html](http://www.davidbrin.com/transparentsociety.html)

<comment><USER5> An idea dissected in detail since even the 1950s.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days#Simila...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days#Similar_themes_in_literature)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Silly walks may be freedom. I find this mostly daunting. I wouldnt mind if the technology was developed to improve our understanding of city commute, but this gets into some freaky stuff. When were all much older, I can imagine getting pulled aside by an officer because my walk is disturbing the computers.

Oh monty python has this covered... (Here)[[https://youtu.be/iV2ViNJFZC8](https://youtu.be/iV2ViNJFZC8)]

</comment><comment><USER7> It's relieving to see basically all the comments here expressing how dystopian this is, and my opinion is no different.

As I read the article I keep asking myself what motivates these people to do such research --- they're basically contributing to the erosion of personal freedom and privacy. It's scary.

<comment><USER8> Pretty easy. Money and security.

People make a lot of noise about freedom, etc, but paying the mortgage tends to trump all.

<comment><USER9> Many people have a legitimate belief that security is preferable to freedom.

To the folks downvoting this objective fact: I suggest you take a look at your ability to rationally discuss things that upset you before spending much more time on the internet.

<comment><USER10> It's certainly a fact that some people prefer security to freedom. In addition freedom is a very abstract concept, and as a consequence it is much more often fetishized than adequately understood. Absolute security and absolute freedom are both essentially death.

That all gets very philosophical though, and most people can recognize a good balance of freedom and are watchful of security paranoia stepping up and curtailing that balance.

But here's the problem. This isn't actually security. Security is the straw man. This is power masquerading as security. Nobody is becoming significantly safer thanks to these overreaches of surveillance in any way that really matters. The likelihood of falling victim to a failure of airport security is outrageously low, and these security firms are taking advantage of our inability to accurately assess risk when it comes to things like this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I prefer to inject a little randomness into my attacks on gaitrecognition: I put a handful of gravel into each shoe. Cheap and effective, and no two steps are the same. Plus you get a great reflexology foot massage in the process (I kid. Reflexology is about as scientifically useful as gaitrecognition).

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

<comment><USER12> > Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Makes my blood boil

<comment><USER11> why? I don't understand.

<comment><USER12> Did you read it? It's written to push buttons, and it did push mine, I don't get how's that hard to understand.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm"

<comment><USER14> So now it just tries to keep track of who's where and when. If someone leaves by the school-gates during classes, their gait is checked to see if it kinda- sorta matches any student gait and if it does, whoop-whoop-whoop, ring the alarm!

Chavez High is ringed with gravel walkways. I like to keep a couple handsful of rocks in my shoulder-bag, just in case. I silently passed Darryl ten or fifteen pointy little bastards and we both loaded our shoes.

        - Cory Doctorrow, Little Brother: https://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-_Little_Brother.pdf

<comment> gm-conspiracy Excellent book!

I read the whole story in one sitting.

<comment><USER14> Me too (almost), gave me a good grip on public/private key crypto as well!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> d--b Unless you need a captcha in an airport, I wouldn't say this qualifies as useful... 0.7% error rate on biometrics means that of the 1000 people who will use the airport on a particular day, the system will fail 70 times, that's huge. Plus this is in lab conditions. Add a few years to the sensors, and your error rate goes through the roof.

Plus I'm pretty sure you could develop "adversorial shoes" for this...

Meh.

<comment><USER15> What do you think the current error rate is? In testing the TSA has something like a 100% failure rate iirc.

<comment><USER16> I'm no fan of the TSA, but you're comparing apples to handguns-in-handbags here; their inability to find planted explosives in my luggage isn't the same as a failure to correctly identify that I have the right documentation to get on the plane.

<comment><USER15> You're right; failing to detect weapons (and thus letting people die) is a fatal error that can't be corrected. Failing to correctly id you is something that can be corrected by a human afterwards. I'm much happier to let a system incorrectly id someone than to let them onto a plane with a weapon.

That said, this seems like just one of many potential id methods that would comprise a larger system (facial recognition, fingerprinting, etc).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> With only 127 people being tested and a false positive rate of 0.7% I'd be hard pressed to see this as a viable system in its current form.

It's certainly less invasive but you have to ask how effective it can possibly be when it's known about. It's a lot harder to fake your fingerprints and retina than to walk at a different speed.

If you were a highly funded individual you could also quite easily acquire one of these systems and practice to fool it.

I don't see how this could be used as a effective security system but maybe someone could enlighten me.

<comment><USER18> You could probably trick that system by dragging something heavy, deviating from your regular gait. Now where to get something heavy to carry around at an airport, I have no idea.

<comment><USER19> A roller carry on bag with jammed wheels would qualify.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> >>> With this system, the researchers claim that the way a person walks and analysis of that individual's footsteps could be used as a biometric at airport security instead of fingerprinting and eye-scanning, providing a non- intrusive method of identity verification. Lol. Does anyone here think this is possible given the realities of airport "walking". Pressure patterns? You mean the pressure my feet place on the ground as I shuffle because my laces are untied approaching security? Or my stride length as I drag my roll-aboard with its one broken wheel? Or my pace as I run between flights, limping because one foot is still asleep after eight ours in an economy-class cage.

And ... I don't drink but many people do drink at airports. Everything with your walk changes after a beer or two.

And women in heals.

>>> the process is non-intrusive for the individual

Yes... until I get pulled over for questioning because my walking pattern doesn't match my last walking pattern. TSA is already security theater. If our missteps will result in bad reviews, that theatre is now a security ballet. If you want to make your flight, remember to hit your mark.

</comment><comment> King-Aaron "If it walks like a terrorist.. it's a terrorist"

\- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

<comment><USER21> He didn't mean literally. But these people are seriously nut. They want to scare people, that is all. We all know that the 9/11 terrorists where on the Saudis payroll. And Saudia Arabia is an american ally!

<comment><USER22> > They want to scare people, that is all.

Yes, they do, but not merely in the direct way.

If the government fears its civilians and becomes a police state, _the terrorists_ succeed.

<comment><USER8> Oh course. Asymmetric warfare is usually successful.

We're trying to swat flies with World War 2 armies. The US has been in a war state for so long there is no actual condition that will result in victory, and we have undermined the institutions of civil government with no tangible benefit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This'll work great until someone has an event that changes their gait -- sprained ankle, different shoes, stone or wrinkled sock in one shoe, carrying luggage asymmetrically, etc., etc., etc..

They even mention this sort of problem near the end of the article, where they mention it would be a good way to pickup cognitive or physical decline. This controlled use would be a much better use of the technology, but grab fewer headlines.

</comment><comment><USER24> But what happens if I break my leg?

Does it identify me as someone else?

</comment><comment><USER25> Unless you have pulled a muscle somewhere, and your are limping..

<comment><USER26> Or carrying a heavy bag?

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Isn't that easily bypassed with a hoverboard or wheelchair?

<comment><USER28> Or a pair of cheap ankle weights, maybe even only wear one on one leg only to increase how much your gait is off balance.

<comment><USER29> It's probably safest to have a few beers before setting off.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> pimp stroll

</comment><comment><USER14> Security? Whose official vehicles are in the basement parking lot?

According to the register, a Mr. Nakamura from the Treaties Bureau and a Dr. Willis, sir.

Get me the video records of their entrance.

Again. In infrared this time.

One thousand, one; one thousand, two; one thousand, three.

Now get the records of the pressure sensors for basement parking stalls B8 and B7.

Major, this is Togusa, Code 09.

What's up?

Does that Nakamura guy have a special-order cyborg body?

No, there aren't any cyborgs in Section 6. They don't even ship them to serve overseas because they're too hard to maintain. There's diplomatic considerations too.

Then, even if the other guy that was with him is a cyborg, the two of them together couldn't weigh over 1,000 pounds.

Ah, you checked the pressure sensors in the parking structure, didn't you?

Right, but neither man looks like the type to drive himself. The security cameras show only two people. But remember how sensitive the sensors on the entrance doors are? They took a full three seconds longer than usual to close after the two went in. And it's illegal to use therm-optics inside government facilities.

It's a serious violation of the National Security Act. Section 6 must be up to something. Are you ready?

With my trusty Matever, anytime.

        - Ghost in the Shell 1995: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(1995_film)

<comment><USER31>
        Transporting a listed programmer out of the country violates our arms export treaty.

My all-time favorite.

<comment><USER14> This movie is full of nice quotes regarding tech and it's from 1995! Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese _use_ tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it.

Ok, some more from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, fully off topic but hey I'm getting pretty fired up, I'm going to watch both movies again really soon... The movies are so timeless because they don't focus on exact tech, they focus on the philosophical implications of the tech, it keeps them highly relevant.

 _Scene 9: Golden Sky (In a vehicle flying across the remains of a city)_

Batou: "This is one of the largest cities in the Kureal Islands, it was once prosperous, originally built to be one of the most important information centers in the Far East. See those towers? This city was really something. But its dubious sovereignty has made it the ideal haven for multi-nationals cooperations and the criminal elements that feed off their spoils. It's now a lawless zone, beyond the reach of the e-police. Reminds me of the line, 'What the body creates, is as much an expression of DNA as the body itself.'"

Togusa: "Doesn't that apply to beaver dams and spider webs as well?"

Batou: "If the essence of life is information that is carried in DNA, then society and civilisation are just collossal memory storage systems, and a metropolis is simply a sprawling external memory."

Togusa: "As it says in the bible. 'How great is the sum of all thy thoughts. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.'"

Batou: "Psalms 139, Old Testament. The way you spontaneous spout these ancient exotic references, I'd say your own external memory's pretty twisted."

Togusa: "Look who's talking."

Speaker: "Sorry to interrupt, but we're about to fly over Locus Solus. I'm changing the route just for you, so take a good look."

Speaker: "So much for the free tour. Now prepare for landing."

Togusa: "'His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced / Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks'"

Batou: "Now you're quoting Milton, but we are not Satan."

<comment><USER32> You're kidding yourself if you think the Japanese are above a good old- fashioned AI gone rogue plot. Exhibit A: Macross Plus (and the AI is an idol singer to boot). Exhibit B: GitS itself, with the Puppetmaster.

As for "Asimov's Three Laws gone wrong", Asimov himself created the Three Laws because he thought _Frankenstein_ had been retold too many times and wanted to write stories about robots blending into human society rather than attempting to overthrow it (and imagined interesting _new_ failure modes of these robots in the process!).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Put a pebble in your shoe and the metric becomes meaningless. Move the pebble around to shuffle your biometric signal.</comment>


Ask HN: What's up with all the unjustified flagging? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Do you have an example or two? It's more easy to understand your complain with an example. Perhaps they are off-topic. From: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003501](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003501)

> _What to Submit_

> _On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes > more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the > answer might be: anything that gratifies one 's intellectual curiosity._

> _Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they > 're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Ideological or political > battle or talking points. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal > pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic._

Anyway, for an official answer or if you see another story wrongly flagged, you can write to the mods: email@example.com

>

<comment><USER3> Not the OP but I just happened to click on this (request for highly intelligent people to share experiences) in my RSS feed: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16007404](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16007404) and couldn't really see a reason why it would be flagged, besides maybe being in slightly bad taste and attracting r/iamverysmart types.

I also noticed something strange with a thread comment I made a few days ago. It had a link to a Youtube video that some might find politically incorrect (people talking about IQ being a predictor of success and homogenous societies being less violent). It was immediately downvoted several times but spawned a large discussion thread. All my replies within the thread seemed to be purely upvoted, but were in line with what I was saying in my original comment. After a while (several hours), the original comment made it to positive points as well.

That made me think that there was some (possibly politically motivated) band of users that were scanning for certain things to downvote, and the video I linked or perhaps the other content of my comment met their qualifications. They immediately hit my parent comment (and overlooked my other replies), driving it to the bottom of the page, but it eventually managed to crawl back on its own merit.

I'm probably just paranoid, though this thread increases my suspicions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Even if it's not the intended purpose, it's the downvote button of HN.</comment>


Move Code Not Data: 'Sandboxing' Using Remote Lambda Execution - <AUTHOR> https://www.juptr.io/juptrblogs/a2b6139f-b273-42bd-b533-e4695e27e353.html <comment><USER2> Ok, but how do you handle different client versions? Do you have to exchange meta info like headers/version numbers?

<comment><AUTHOR> at connection time a client submits the class files reqired to execute its lambdas. We hold a classloader per client connection.</comment></comment>


Show HN: How to Solve Nearly Impossible Problems  - <AUTHOR> http://www.lostland.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, author here. Any feedback on the contents of the videos would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.</comment>


Why Apple doesn't care about professional Mac users anymore (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2016/10/why-apple-doesnt-care-about-professional-mac-users-anymore/ <comment><USER2> A lot of people who complain about hyperbole in the press seem to enjoy hyperbole applied to their favorite and least favorite tech brands.

Really? You really think Apple "doesn't care about professional Mac users"?

Not only does this exaggeration/absurdity denigrate the author, it also makes it really, really hard for reasonably-minded people to pay attention to possibly valid arguments. The best authors tend to be candid and precise.

<comment><USER3> What happened to their server line?

<comment><USER4> They discontinued the xserve in 2011, was nice buying the last three of them directly from Apple.

<comment><USER3> I was using that to point out that they have abandoned their audience before. This would not be that surprising.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apple really only has two major issues with the MBP right now: thermals and the update cycle.

Its absolutely unacceptable that we have to wait a full year after Intel's mobile chip releases before we see them trickle to the MBP. I understand that Apple operates on a scale other manufacturers don't match, but we saw 8750H laptops release to the public months before WWDC, but Apple will sit on their 7th gen laptops for another 6-8 months before releasing. Because "release cycles".

But even when they do come out: Apple doesn't understand professional grade thermal management. They put fans (or, fan) (or, no fans) in the machine that can spin up pretty high, but you'll never see the machine do it on its own. Instead, they prefer to thermal throttle the CPUs under any sustained workload, while the fans just spin at a whisper quiet whrr and the underside heats up to an uncomfortably hot level (because the machine itself is a heatsink, which conversely makes your lap part of the heatsink, thanks Apple [1])

I don't believe them for a second when they say that they still care about the Mac, as an organization and at their leadership levels. Its immensely frustrating. But the biggest frustration is that they (and Microsoft) are the only companies still making laptops with screens other than 16:9, which is a major component to professional sales. So even if you can get over not having MacOS (which is pretty darn easy to leave with how lackluster the latest releases have been), you're still left with a subpar hardware experience.

[1] [http://time.com/4938530/can-laptops-cause- infertility/](http://time.com/4938530/can-laptops-cause-infertility/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Who are professional Mac users? These are the ones I'm thinking of off the top of my head.

\- Developers

\- Adobe Suite users

\- Video Editors

\- C-Suite Professionals

I think they abandoned video editors when they dropped Final Cut. So they didn't care about those professionals.

Adobe Suite users is a large group of professionals. Photographers for one; Apple ditched the SD card port - seems like they don't care about photographers. Illustrators; Wacom/tables all use standard USB style ports; and several other ports at the same time; like external hard drives or now, external video cards I guess. Less ports seems to mean they don't care about people who use additional hardware. Musicians, Video editors, I'm sure I'm missing a few other "pros" who require external hardware.

The iPad Pro has that pencil thing; and maybe the adobe software for the iPad is good enough to do professional illustration and photo editing. Although i don't know any photographer editing 1Gb files on an iPad Pro. They're hard enough to edit on a MacBook Pro.

Who does the touch bar serve? Maybe it's just because I'm in that demographic who doesn't understand Snapchat - but I just don't nderstand the touch bar. It doesn't feel "pro" to me.

You can't charge the Apple mouse while you use it. Somebody needs to explain that logic to me.

So all the Mac pros are really good at - is jobs for professional typists. Programmers, writers, emailers; but the new keyboards seem to be pretty poor at their core function. Typing.

It's clear in my opinion that Apple doesn't care about today's professionals. Maybe they care about tomorrow's. I guess I have to ask what problems is Apple helping to solve for tomorrow's professionals - today? Wire problems?

Edit: added the iPad Pro, and Apple mouse

</comment><comment><USER7> The rise of the iPhone explains a LOT about where Apple puts their attention. What it doesn't really explain is why the changes they do make to Mac products seem designed to annoy. Since they're not upgrading the processors couldn't they just leave things completely alone and keep selling the old models? I'm not sure they'd take any more heat for that than they do for dropping connectors and such.

<comment><USER8> > _leave things completely alone and keep selling the old models_

That would trash the brand. You can't be selling cutting edge out of one side of the company while milking legacy products out the other. Perhaps more fatally, it spoils Apple's incredibly effective "make your product obsolete before someone else does" philosophy.

<comment><USER9> > You can't be selling cutting edge out of one side of the company while > milking legacy products out the other.

Except that's exactly what's happening with the MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Pro...

<comment><USER10> Additionally, iPhone has been their core focus for a long time now, and yet prior to the X, they basically shipped the same phone for the last 4 years. What have they been doing at Apple for the last half decade or more besides building a GCHQ replica?

<comment><USER11> Making money hand over fist, for one thing. It is _smart_ to change slowly if you've achieved market saturation and your customer base has no viable alternatives. It means more profits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Especially given the recent launch of the iMac Pro, I don't think we can say this definitively until we see the next release of the Macbook Pro.

<comment><USER13> Except we largely know what the next MacBook Pro will be.

Same design. Same TouchBar. Same display. Same keyboard but with covers on the key to prevent dust (refer to recent patent). Upgrade to 6-core for 15inch, 4-core for 13-inch. Possibly 32GB maximum on 15inch.

Tim Cook has himself said it takes years for Apple to switch directions in their product line. And so since the current MacBook Pro is only a couple of years old it isn't likely we will see a dramatically different product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think Apple's concern for Mac users is roughly proportional to Macs' share of Apple's revenue breakdown. Currently this is in the single digits[1].

[1] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share- re...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of- apple/)

</comment><comment><USER15> And just as phone sales went flat.[1] The computer business may become more important as phones become a commodity.

[1] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple- ipho...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales- since-3rd-quarter-2007/)

</comment><comment><USER16> I think Apple makes some top-notch computers, but I also think I am no longer the target audience for those computers.

</comment><comment><USER17> I realized something like this a while ago; that Apple is catering to casual users and neglecting its upscale offerings, not pushing its desktop software business forward. The problem in the long run is that the loyalty of smartphone users is fickle; there's no vendor lockin. Suppose someday people decide that X smartphone maker is the next big thing; what's tethering them to Apple products?

<comment><USER13> > there's no vendor lockin

Really ?

200+ billion apps sold, which on average are more expensive than Android. iMessage/Facetime which are iOS only and are likely top 3 messaging platforms. Apple Watch which is the leading wearable and is iOS only. HomePod and AirPods which are iOS only. Apps like Notes, Photos etc which are iOS/OSX only.

If you spend ANY time using the functionality of iOS you are slowly but surely cementing your feet in the ground.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is absolute crap. Apple cares about their pro users, they just want them using products that are much more accessible and easier to use. We just transitioned to iPad Pros in our recruiting office and some of our developers are recommending that we just push everything into Google Cloud and using the iPad to do development on.

This argument is like saying that Tesla doesn't care about petrolhead and horse carriage enthusiasts. The only people that I know who care about Mac hardware are the same people who waste powerful machines on web browsing and like to boast about how fast their computer is. Just toxic.

<comment><USER19> Right, it was so hard to use magsafe, keyboards with key-travel, non-touch screen laptops, and all of those annoyingly varied ports on the side! I think OSX and iOS should become the same thing so no one has to manage their own software - let's get everything from their appstore, it's wonderful! I'm also really glad they incentivize smaller hard drive space so more people decide to use their cloud offerings; cloud is the future! Also, anyone who liked the old non-reflective displays just doesn't understand graphics; a company shouldn't listen to all customers, just the correct customers. USB is a great example of where most customers are wrong.</comment></comment>


Heat your home for free with heating provided by a computer server - <AUTHOR> http://news.eneco.com/heat-your-home-for-free-with-heating-provided-by-a-computer-server/ <comment><USER2> I couldn't help but think "Bitcoin mining!" Back in 2011 I remember discussions on bitcointalk.org about giving away Bitcoin miners disguised as "heaters" which would, of course, mine for the manufacturer. So the manufacturer gets all the bitcoins without paying for electricity.

Unfortunately this will never work. Space heaters are cheap enough that their price is a non-issue. Plus they are smaller and hotter. [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AQLUHC](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AQLUHC) is $15, the size of a bread toaster, and 1500W. You can't have this thermal density from a computing device.

</comment><comment><USER3> This only seems practical in a handful of climates that stay cold throughout the entire year.

Many places that have very cold winters often also have very warm summers. In which case, do you turn the servers off in the summer?

<comment><USER4> That was my first thought, as well: Ottawa was wicked cold this past February ("extreme cold and wind chill warning _again_? fml..."), so it would have required a basement full of servers to have meaningful impact...

...and we can expect our usual stupid hot, "be nice to be in Houston right about now" peak couple of weeks, when the basement is nicest part of the house and the AC runs pretty much non stop.

<comment><USER5> Windsor here. Our winter wasn't as bad as yours, but it was one of the worst we've ever gotten. My machines and monitors in my room keep the place nice and toasty, but in the summer, this place is unbearable. Just sitting causes you to break into a sweat.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So.....what happens if you don't need heat anymore(in the summer and such)? I always imagined solutions like this as installing a server in a basement and only using the hot air to heat up the house through air ducts - and if not needed just venting the air outside. In the pictures the server looks like a wall-hanging radiator - surely you can't just switch it off if you don't need it?

<comment><USER7> I don't know much about Finnish summers, but I don't imagine they get too warm

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The Internet Archive already does this; their headquarters on Funston Street in San Francisco is heated by the server banks that run archive.org. (This occasionally makes the building a little too hot, but luckily the Richmond District in SF is usually a fairly cool climate.)

</comment><comment><USER9> I've been wondering when such a thing would take hold. If we end up with applications amenable to homomorphic encryption, this could be more viable. It could also lead to further changes in the relative economic power of cold regions where electricity is cheap.

</comment><comment><USER10> The folks at [https://www.cloudandheat.com/en/index.html](https://www.cloudandheat.com/en/index.html) are doing this in Germany.</comment>


Deep Inside Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3008346/deep-inside-taco-bells-doritos-locos-taco?

<comment><USER2> That looks absolutely revolting.

It looks like when you bite it it would just shatter everywhere and all that grim looking meat and cheese would slop down onto your hand.</comment>


Ask HN: When one wears AirPods, does it change how you interact with him or her? - <AUTHOR> When someone is wearing AirPods, does it change how you interact with him or her?
If you're having a conversation with him or her? If you're on the elevator or just passing him or her? If you're waiting to cross the street together? If he or she is driving? Etc.
What I'm finding interesting about observing wearable tech entering our society is not only the classical Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) considerations, but also the Human-to-AugmentedHuman Interaction. Have you been noticing and thinking about this, too? I'd appreciate your thoughts!
Also, if you're a regular AirPod user, have you noticed changes in how you interact with others or how they interact with you when you have the AirPods in?
Thanks! Mike <comment><USER2> I own a pair of AirPods, but I judge others for wearing them. Something about them just rubs me the wrong way. I feel embarrassed wearing them myself. None of this is rational and I'm not sure why I feel this way.</comment>


Bridge.me meetings that call you - <AUTHOR> http://bridg.me/ <comment><USER2> The typo in the title of this very HN submission is a perfect demonstration of why this startup has an awful name…

<comment><AUTHOR> Oops.

It is a startup weekend project, I supposed they could get a better name once they get some sleep.

<comment><USER3> Which StartUp Weekend did you participate in and is this winner of your event?

I attended one in my hometown of Baltimore - huge turn out and was a sold event. Can't wait to do another Start-Up Weekend!

<comment><USER4> I was at the NYC one this weekend. Bridg.me stood out as one of the best of the weekend, for sure. I was surprised that Playmob won, though they seem like they have a solid business model. Disappointed at coviewer.tv, to be honest.

Anyhoo, winners here:

<http://nyc.startupweekend.org/2011/04/17/winners/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> You have to love it when a service comes in and completely changes the way you think about the problem it is solving. This falls into the "What in the world didn't anyone think about this before?"

Great solution.

<comment><USER6> IfByPhone's conferencing does this, they call it "Smart Conference". Love it, nobody joins the call late. Freaks people out. Some even tell the group, "Hi, this is Joe, sorry I can't talk right now, I need to jump on call." "Um, Joe, you're on it."

PS. IfByPhone offers an API for it too:

[http://public.ifbyphone.com/about/press/ifbyphone- announces-...](http://public.ifbyphone.com/about/press/ifbyphone-announces- smart-conference-calling-api)

<comment><USER5> If you invented it and noone knows about it, then you did not invent it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Gawk !!!

I tried registering, and the responded with a verify email that had my password in clear text. I'd wait for a few days before you try using the service, for anything.

<comment><USER8> Eesh. Sorry about that. The password was only emailed for debugging during development, since we weren't storing it (plaintext) in the database. It has been fixed :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The concept is great. Kudos to that. Just a minor quirk - there is no timezone information in the create new call page. Even if timezones are not supported, indicating the current timezone would have helped.

<comment><USER10> It pulls it from your Google Calendar - so whatever time zone Google thinks you're in, is what is used.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Impressive idea, clear messaging, and a nice solid design.

<comment><USER12> I agree. Although, I'm not a huge fan of the common phrasing such as "impossibly simple", or "stupidly simple". Something about having the word impossible or stupid in big bold letters on my landing page just makes me feel like I could choose a word that satisfies the same message without those negative words on there like that. But, I see it used all the time like this and always end up thinking the same thing that I just explained here. So, I'm probably a minority here. heh

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Was at the NYC startup weekend and saw their pitch and it was by far the best one. Really great example of using straightforward technology to solve a huge pain point and customer problem.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice app and good design, however I have a problem with this and other startup projects I have seen in startup weekends that there is just not enough information before asking me to signup, where is the 'about' page?.

Also, call me ignorant but how does someone trademark a slogan over a weekend (footer) - "The Conference Calls You™ "

<comment><USER15> You don't actually have to register a trademark to use the TM symbol. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_symbol>

<comment><USER16> Yeah, TM is free, (R) means registered and costs ~$450+

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Cool idea! Agreed that the name/URL needs to change, as demonstrated in the title of this original post. I love the simple, clean design/branding, very well done, especially for a weekend's worth of work.

</comment><comment><USER18> Does this utilise Twilio? Would love to see a pricing structure and what countries it's available in before registering. Is it tied to a single phone or can you set different numbers on a per meeting basis?

<comment><USER19> Why would it matter if it used twilio? You could do this idea just quickly without it...

<comment><USER20> Availability and pricing of things like Twilio is pretty variable outside of the US. Last I checked Twilio wasn't going to work for most SMS down here in NZ for example. Not sure about voice.

<comment><USER18> Exactly right. We're based out of Australia so it's horribly annoying to see so many cool startups that don't provide service to us down here. The majority of voice/sms startups these days use either Twilio or Tropo (including us) so that severely limits the cost or even use of a service for Australians.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> One of my favorites from Startup Weekend NYC. It's something we call think about if you have ever been on a conference, and fits my needs pretty well. Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER22> Like the idea, but how do you get it to call you back if you drop off or if you miss the call? Is there a dial-in also provided for those situations?

<comment><USER6> On IfByPhone, the moderator or host sees on the dashboard they dropped, clicks a "call 'em back" button.

<http://public.ifbyphone.com/services/conference-calling>

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> You should also checkout CallMeMeeting. Same weekend, same problem, same solution -- two different startups, two different cities. They won 2nd place winner at KC Startup Weekend. Mentioned in preso ... already selling service to large beta customers. Nice job to both teams. Love the concept!

</comment><comment><USER24> Since you are making outbound calls, I'm curious how you will handle verification of phone numbers? It looks like I can enter whatever phone number(s) I want, which seems like it could be abused by spammers.

</comment><comment><USER25> Bridge me : Perfect name. Kudos to the idea and creaters. Awsm Job ! "Impossibly simple" needs a second thought !!

</comment><comment><USER26> <3 the look. Also <3 the content. Also Also <3 url.

</comment><comment><USER27> Love the idea. nice work.

</comment><comment><USER28> Love the design.

</comment><comment><USER29> Some of the greatest innovations come from Soviet Russia

</comment><comment><USER30> It's Brid.me not Bridge...

<comment><USER31> Somewhat amusingly, it's neither brid nor bridge, but rather bridg. :)</comment></comment>


Every "best paper" from Computer Science conferences since 1996 - <AUTHOR> http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html <comment><USER2> Btw, this is one of the areas where Yahoo! has a lot of success. Yahoo! Research in its current form exists for around 5 years, but it has already surpassed MIT.

<comment><USER3> According to what metric?

<comment><USER4> Here is at least one metric. In that link, scroll down to the bottom. Yahoo Research has 7.6 "points" while MIT has 5.8.

Lifshits is a research scientist at Y!R.

<comment><USER5> This is a very limited metric. By the same vein Microsoft is the best of the best.

<comment><USER6> Not Microsoft, it's Microsoft Research. They probably are the best of the best. The cameras and firmware for the Kinect were made there, for example. <http://research.microsoft.com/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Thanks for the link, I really like the site. However, my interests are more in the area of programming languages (PLDI, POPL, OOPSLA, etc.). Does anybody know of something similar for ACM SIGPLAN conferences? (I know they hand out "most influential" awards after 10 years consideration time, but "best papers" in general for many conferences should give a pretty good picture of the state of any field over time...)

<comment><USER4> What is your specialization? I can send some survey papers your way. (I already tweet them as I find them.)

I go through 2-10 papers a day, nearly on PL research, semantics, type-theory and implementation lore. There are a bunch of us on HN, some I correspond with via email, others twitter.

<comment><USER7> Hi, PL reserach in general is my cup of tea, too. I find the idea of a "best paper" catalogue for conferences in the PLDI-area in general very appealing; similar to the site the OP posted. Since you mention that we're not alone, we should probably pool our resources, what do you think? (Probably host a site somewhere...)

EDIT: 2-10 papers a day is an _awesome_ rate!

<comment><USER4> Hey, we're not "alone". Just check out the people I follow on twitter.

There is a huge community of PL enthusiasts.

We can setup a site, but the field is too diverse. Right now it mostly makes sense as each of use tweeting a summary of a paper :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's interesting to compare this list to Citeseer's "Most Cited Computer Science Articles":

<http://ksuseer1.ist.psu.edu/stats/articles>

</comment><comment><USER8> These are going directly on the kindle; thank you.

</comment><comment><USER9> Did anyone notice that Microsoft tops the _Institutions and best papers_ table while Google is the last?. (And Yahoo is #9)

<comment> St-Clock 1\. This is a very limited subset of conferences/fields. 2\. Google Research is younger than Microsoft Research. 3\. Google Research is really mixed with their product development whereas Microsoft (and IBM) Research are more isolated so they can focus on fundamental research and publications (there is some transfer...). A Google representative once said in a software engineering conference: "Come work at Google Research, you'll work on real and interesting research problems like GMail". Gmail==Research? Really?

<comment><USER10> I don't know if GMail itself is "research", but I'm sure there is definitely a lot of systems research going on behind the scenes. I don't know that they use it for GMail, but the Google File System paper was interesting. Allowing their users (millions?) to quickly search their email (tens to hundreds of thousands?) must have some interesting networking/distributed systems research questions.

That said, some more publications/insight on those systems would be nice to see.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is great! However, if I click on the 2010 one (edit:any), I get to a "purchase this article". Is this what's expected?

<comment><USER3> Try searching CiteSeerX:

<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/>

A google search of the site is sometimes more productive. For instance:

[http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fcites...](http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu+%22ir+evaluation+methods%22)

<comment><USER12> or <http://scholar.google.com> and make use of "All x versions" there's usually a pdf version among them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I find this is really the best way. It also finds papers authors post on their websites which has been becoming extremely common (kind of like self- publishing)

<comment><USER3> Personally, I much prefer searching citeseer, as most of the papers I've found through google scholar are behind paywalls, while virtually every paper on citeseer is free.

If I can't find a paper through citesser, I usually just do a regular google search, and often find the paper elsewhere on the web. Google scholar is pretty much my last resort, and I really haven't had much luck finding freely downloadable papers through it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> the title is wrong. it's not every "best paper": notably all best papers before 2005 are missing for ICML.

in terms of metrics of research quality, not all conferences are equal, and "best" papers are often selected by a relatively small group of people whose decision isn't really validated too much.

<comment><AUTHOR> sorry, it seemed to cover most of the conferences I knew about. where would one start looking for something like older best paper awards? it seems like ICML only started giving out best paper awards since 2005

I guess it's the old truism of not being able to prove something does not exist

<comment><USER13> you can find the previous icml best paper awards by looking at the previous conference websites. for example:

<http://www-ai.ijs.si/SasoDzeroski/ICML99/award.html> via <http://www.machinelearning.org/icml.html>

in machine learning, i think the significant conferences are NIPS (<http://www.nips.cc/>), ICML, UAI (e.g., <http://event.cwi.nl/uai2010/>), and AISTATS (<http://www.aistats.org/>).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Here is the link for best paper awards for 3 more conferences from NLP/CL area: [http://www.aclweb.org/aclwiki/index.php?title=Best_paper_awa...](http://www.aclweb.org/aclwiki/index.php?title=Best_paper_awards) .

</comment><comment><USER15> "Every best paper from CS conferences" does not really sound like what this site does -- list best papers from _11_ CS conferences, a marginal fraction of how many CS conferences are out there.

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting, no category at all for Programming Languages.

</comment><comment><USER17> Why are there so many "best papers" on CHI 2010?

<comment><USER12> CHI is a huge conference. More than 1000 papers were submitted last year. A designated committee chooses 1% of the submitted papers to receive the best papers awards which explains the number of awarded papers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Having 2 or 3 best paper awards I can understand, but having a dozen is cheating. Many of the other top conferences like WWW, AAAI, and SIGIR have nearly 1,000 submissions also and they only have a single best paper award.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Anyone programmed/used KaiOS recently? What are you thoughts? - <AUTHOR> I was watching a youtube video on a 10 dollar (!!!!) flip phone. It had some impressive games and apps (all HTML/JS) for it's screen size and processor. It was quite snappy.<p>Anyone programmed/used it recently? Curious what your thoughts are <comment><USER2> I'm using one (a Nokia flipphone). It's quite impressive considering its limited hardware. It has thetering, google maps, a browser, etc (the first 2 were hard requirements).

My demands were:

1\. Long battery life 2\. Small attack surface (security) 3\. A phone that is so uncomfortable to use that I would use it only for calling, and some sms. 4\. 4G network 5\. Thetering 6\. Google maps (the only thing that is really, really needed) 7\. Flip phone (strong, no worryes about scratches, etc, and easy to put in a pocket).

It turns out to be the best decision I made in years .. no more distractions.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not recently, but I looked into a year ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20564678](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20564678)</comment>


Sudan's leader toppled after 30 years of rule - <AUTHOR> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/military-removes-sudan-omar-al-bashir-190411072752615.html <comment><USER2> I hope that the situation improves in Sudan, but it would be difficult for anyone to deliver prosperity when an already poverty-stricken population is growing at these rates:

1950: 5.7m

2000: 28m

2019: 44m

2050: 80m

2100: 127m

If the population cannot prosper today, how will the country handle 3x as many people and growing, with the added problem of climate change?

The fertility rate (currently 4.53) is falling too slowly. The #1 priority of the country should be to provide contraception, education and abortion to women nationwide - with 100% of foreign aid directed towards this cause.</comment>


Strang's "Linear Algebra and Learning from Data" is printed and available - <AUTHOR> http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/ <comment><USER2> _Execution of a determinant_. [0]

Always love it when a professor can bring in some comic relief in the midst of a very heavy math topic. The students seem to enjoy it. I am self-teaching myself background math for preparing me to the likes of PRML-Bishop, and I wholeheartedly recommend his Linear algebra course available on MIT Courseware[1] coupled with his book[2]

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amv58LCqCMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amv58LCqCMI) [1] [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear- algebra...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra- spring-2010/) [2] [https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Linear-Algebra- Gilbert-S...](https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Linear-Algebra-Gilbert- Strang/dp/0980232775/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547067005&sr=1-5&keywords=linear+algebra)

</comment><comment> a-dub I've never seen his lectures, but I've used one of his books for a course and have leafed through another.

I have to be honest, I never have understood why everyone loves his texts so much. I always felt that they were lacking in practical applications (even the Linear Algebra with Applications version) and that a lot of the ideas were not immediately clear when presented in his writing style. It often seemed that ideas and definitions would be thrown out with not much connection to _why_ they were interesting. (Although I suppose this can be said of many math courses).

I suppose the thing is, with this stuff, there are lots of really interesting applications. I think I would have preferred something that started with the applications and then worked backwards. Maybe this book is an improvement? I'd like to check it out.

The exercises also didn't seem particularly enlightening, I just remember doing lots of rote things like LU factorization by doing Gauss elimination by hand.

<comment><AUTHOR> Perhaps "Computational Science and Engineering" is a better fit for you?

[http://math.mit.edu/~gs/cse/](http://math.mit.edu/~gs/cse/)

<comment> a-dub That book looks great! Also his writing style is different!

I will note, however, that I really like the fact that the new book has a chapter on compressed sensing. I feel like that was the thing that was always lacking when I was in school. It was like "ok, I get the idea of new bases, now what are some cool ones and how do they tie together." Occasionally someone would throw me a paper on compressed sensing or PCA/SVD or spectral decomposition, but I always felt like I wanted to see a class/book that tied them all together.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Ordered my copy a few days ago after learning about it from a talk at JuliaCon[0]. It's been a decade since I took linear algebra, so I'm also reviewing Prof. Strang's basic course[1]. What an amazing teacher.

[0] [https://youtu.be/gGYcSjrqbjc](https://youtu.be/gGYcSjrqbjc)

[1] [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear- algeb...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear-algebra- fall-2011/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Just from the title, this is a book I want to buy.

I had to rapidly teach myself Linear Algebra to get through some machine learning graduate courses, and Strang's book and video lectures saved me. He has a very special talent for making complex material understandable without dumbing it down. He's up there with Norvig and Feynman for me in terms of teaching talent.

That man with a piece of chalk and a big chalkboard beats any PowerPoint presentation or video presentation using animation and whatever other technological helps you can think of.

</comment><comment><USER5> It looks like this is a boiled down subset of linear algebra sufficient for deep learning? Is that a correct assessment?

<comment><USER6> To some extent. Gilbert Strang is kind of a linear algebra education celebrity.

<comment><USER7> He was pretty awesome to take linear algebra from. He had this perfectly tuned "absent minded professor" persona that had people almost literally on the edge of their seats trying to help him finish his points and his sentences. I've never seen a class so engaged before or after.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wish there was an ebook/PDF version of the book.

<comment><USER9> Agreed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great book to practice and learn Linear Algebra concepts, more importantly get back again for a refresher when you need to.

</comment><comment><USER11> For a critical perspective on Strang see:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUB0pILNj8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUB0pILNj8)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W65K-P7dxk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W65K-P7dxk)

<comment><USER12> This should be flagged. Just read the second video description: "Get it you retard?! Hurry up and die. I will make sure everyone knows what a scumbag you are."

This isn't a valid "critical perspective"

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> wow $100 on amazon. It it worth the money?

<comment><USER14> $70 + postage if you order directly:

[https://math.mit.edu/~gs/linearalgebra/weborder.php](https://math.mit.edu/~gs/linearalgebra/weborder.php)</comment></comment>


Traffic flow measured on different 4-way junctions [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITr127KZtQ <comment><USER2> This is from the game Cities: Skylines, which is basically the modern version of the old classic SimCity.

I think it would be good if the title made that clear, and didn't pretend this is some serious simulation. I mean, it's very cool and detailed for a game, but as you can tell from the video, it's far from perfect. It doesn't care about collisions, just about a rough approximation of traffic flow.

<comment><USER3> Yup. I'd also like to see a couple other figures alongside traffic flow like, "total square footage of structure", "collision rate", and "number of displaced residents."

<comment><USER4> Cost might be a good one too.

<comment><USER5> Cost can be very misleading, since most of the cost of big projects like these tends to be land acquisition.

For example, roads are on average much cheaper than rail lines per lane mile of construction, but lots of roads get built in rural or depopulated areas where land is cheaper, whereas rail tends to be built in denser corridors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's a great game that is just junction design:

[https://captaingames.itch.io/freeways](https://captaingames.itch.io/freeways)

 _You are a traffic engineer._

 _Draw freeway interchanges._

 _Optimize for efficency and avoid traffic jams._

<comment><USER7> I loved this game. As you complete boards, you get to see them all link up and can watch cars drive all over your city.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> In the simpler variants it seemed like some cars passed right through the middle of semis or were my eyes deceived?

<comment><USER9> I don't think your eyes are deceiving you, I saw the same thing. My guess is (and excuse my incorrect terminology) that the hitbox and the mesh aren't the same size, so the cars are passing after the hitbox (maybe the cab) safely, and thus through the trailer mesh/texture.

<comment><USER10> There is no collision detection here, and consequently no hitboxes. It's just a visualization of some simple game simulation data

<comment><USER9> There has to be some though right? Otherwise there wouldn't be any back-ups. I guess they could be point masses that can't occupy the same space of another point mass + some radius around it.

<comment><USER10> You just calculate the total load of the road and render enough cars appropriately with defined positions. Doing that logic through a physics system would collapse the entire simulation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In case anyone is confused (like me), the video is an simulation made using mods for the game Cities: Skylines - [http://www.citiesskylines.com/](http://www.citiesskylines.com/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Here, two very much related papers, albeit the title of the first one wouldn't tell you that:

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.07888](https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.07888) Kurauskas, Valentas - On the genus of the complete tripartite graph Kn,n,1 [2017]

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.03860](https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.03860) Kurauskas, Valentas; Šiurienė, Ugnė - Symmetric road interchanges [2018]

And slides from 2010:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20101127223543/http://www.saga- ne...](http://web.archive.org/web/20101127223543/http://www.saga- network.eu/phocadownload/auron/Krasauskas.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER13> That "turbo roundabout" really got me. I feel like for that example (and probably others) you'd also need to measure the quantity of efficiency lost to people just trying to understand how the system works and maybe then the actual score would be lower.

In the same vein, for the few complex systems at the end, they should probably factor in human mistakes in the score because it looks like it would be incredibly time consuming to get back on the right way if you took the wrong turn (and could potentially add traffic to the equation).

</comment><comment><USER14> My town just recently put in the Diverging Diamond Intersection (or at least something very similar) on a major highway and major road interchange and the extra throughput was very noticeable.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'd like to see it model Powderhouse Square in Somerville, MA... traffic circle with red lights going both in and out...

</comment><comment><USER16> I wonder what the theoretical maximum throughput is? Anybody know? The video got up to 1000, which seems pretty high.

It seems like, from that simulation, that the longer the curve, the higher the potential throughput. I particularly liked the Turbine.

<comment><USER17> The theoretical maximum would be all vehicles operating at highway speed limits of perhaps 70MPH, non-stop through all points, bumper to bumper, packed as densely as possible, according to a profile for vehicular mixture, achieving was is effectively the equivalent of laminar flow for fluid dynamics.

If everything is tractor trailers, the throughput is lower based on vehicle classification. If everything is passenger cars, variation between SUV and sub-compact car provides a mid-range. If everything is motocycles only the vehicle dynamic squashes vehicle volume and boosts maneuverability to inflate apparent throughput.

Somewhere in this, driver skill level and physical fitness comes into play though, so there has to be an index for that also, based on available residential zones, and an origin/destination matrix.

If everyone is driving from the retirement home to church bingo, the throughput will be lower than tractor trailers. Tractor trailers and other commercial vehicles are expected to operate at lower speeds due to inertial lag during braking and acceleration, prolonging periods spend at lower speeds. All other vehicles can only be modeled according to legal speed limits, even though the accuracy of the simulation is threatened by the fact that in reality many vehicles will be ignoring speed limits.

Time of day, however, is usually going to model rush hour, which consequentially alters vehicle profile and driver persona.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> That was an interesting way to kill a few minutes.

My conclusion is that throughput is basically a function of space the intersection takes up. Also water is wet.

Sure given a fixed space you can optimize type to maximize throughput. If you really care about maximizing throughput with minimal complexity (the more rapid fire merges and lane changes you have the greater the chance of an accident that bottles up the whole system) big rotaries seem to be the way to go (above/below grade structures and traffic signals are a lot more expensive and cost more to maintain than some raised medians to divide right turn lanes).

<comment><USER19> In general, but there were some exceptions. The various roundabout solutions (rotaries, dumbbells, cloverleafs, etc.) seemed to punch under their size, while the continuous-flow intersection moved a lot of cars in a space not much larger than a traditional 4-way intersection.

Also, the video showed how effective getting the signaling right can be: intersections with dedicated left turn lanes (with the TPME mod) outperformed stock traffic lights by almost 50%. The 4-lane road with dedicated left turn lane outperformed a 6-lane road without protected lefts.

<comment><USER20> My own observations were that roundabouts tended to perform better than intersections with time division utilization and also didn't require any signaling infrastructure.

Modifications to roundabouts that added dedicated bypass routes for higher traffic / shorter path (merge to closest output without being part of the main queue) were inexpensive upgrades.

The same general observation also applied to higher scale variations where the core loop was either factored out entirely (every route has a dedicated path); applying more complexity (expensive) lead to better results.

Of course the real world has different needs than this over-simplified simulation.

Terrain and political situations impose limits on usable work area while use patterns can vary widely. Worse solutions that used to work in the past can be woefully incorrect as the world around them changes.

The example that comes to my mind is the pattern in urban areas, especially like Seattle with heavy geographic constraints that make alternate routes untenable, where the old "most commuters go in to the city in the morning and leave in the evening" break entirely as jobs flee the expensive urban core and leave workers trying to traverse the choke points where cross traffic was never designed in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The cars move through each other. Looks buggy. But cool.

</comment><comment><USER22> Something about this video was very satisfying.</comment>