Little Alchemy 2 - <AUTHOR> https://littlealchemy2.com/ <comment><USER2> For those who aren't familiar with the original one: [https://littlealchemy.com/](https://littlealchemy.com/)

I think the animated overlay when you create a new thing lasts a little bit too long in the new one. An animation might be cute, but it would be better if it didn't immediately prevent me from continuing to interact with my pile of stuff...

<comment><USER3> Impatient much? Instant gratification society is getting worse....sheesh

<comment><USER4> Wanting an inherently repetitive game to get the fluff out of your way so you can actually play it is hardly the hallmark of "instant gratification".

I prefer to call it "a strong dislike of bad interaction design".

</comment></comment></comment><comment> dane-pgp I like to think of this as basically 1-dimensional Minecraft. (Imagine an infinitely long tape, which you can write symbols to, and if two symbols next to each other can be combined, then the game automatically merges them, and allows you to put the resulting symbol in your "inventory").

<comment><USER5> >Imagine an infinitely long tape

Only on HN would you see something like this described like a mathematical Turing machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I reverse engineered a bunch of 'element alchemy games' (games where you combine elements into new elements), extracted the recipes and wrote a tool to interact with them. See [https://github.com/redfast00/element-alchemy- cheater](https://github.com/redfast00/element-alchemy-cheater)

<comment><USER7> There appears to be a source file at [https://littlealchemy2.com/js/chunk- vendors.1828b6b5.js](https://littlealchemy2.com/js/chunk-vendors.1828b6b5.js) with answers under the key: "2e77". I'm bored on a Saturday, might try this out =)

<comment><USER8> Here's a little something to get you started:

[https://gist.github.com/jeffallen6767/ceeb804c19ac998f877607...](https://gist.github.com/jeffallen6767/ceeb804c19ac998f8776071b3075b3df)

<comment><USER9> here is it with some formatting [https://gist.github.com/xyos/b049bf8f1800b15ccae36a9f7ded4dc...](https://gist.github.com/xyos/b049bf8f1800b15ccae36a9f7ded4dca)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Started playing this with my laptops touch screen and it worked mostly well, but I couldn't scroll the element list. If they fixed that small bug, this would make for a great touch game!

<comment><USER11> Works as expected on an iPad. Might be a browser inconsistency.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Little Inferno HD by Experimental Gameplay Group is an iOS game with a similar concept. The developer also has a clever dystopian game based on writing assembly.

<comment><USER13> Little Inferno is by the Tomorrow Corporation ("World of Goo"). The dev you mention seems to have done the iOS port.

<comment><USER10> Yep, great game that's available on all sorts of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Possible bug: I discovered steam as a by-product of discovering something else.

As I went on to discover other combinations, I ran across other discoveries already, and the UI shook the material I dropped on a previously placed/created material when both materials would create what I already had in inventory.

When I created steam as a by-product, the steam "shake" wasn't in place when I went to create steam with the basic elements.

</comment><comment><USER15> 2011 App Store vibes

</comment><comment><USER16> You'll be delighted with the elements you can mix to make new elements. I love this game, and the original. To start, Try mixing air with earth, then add fire to the result.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm disapointed air+bus doesn't yield plane

</comment><comment><USER18> This thing needs some keyboard controls. Clicking hundreds of times is a recipe for repetitive stress injuries.

</comment><comment><USER19> Nice. Nostalgia of playing this in elementary/middle school is great.

</comment><comment><USER20> Thanks. Really fun to play

</comment><comment><USER21> Lots of fun. My 9yr old daughter loves it!

<comment><USER21> Now all of my kids are super into it. 5yr, 8yr, 9yr. They are playing on 3 different devices and discussing everything. Fun and happy interactions between the kids - priceless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> what's the tech stack behind this?

<comment><USER23> The chunk_vendors includes a list of dependencies:

\+ Webpack

\+ Vue.js

\+ UAParser

\+ vuex

\+ An unnamed dependency created by Microsoft that I suspect has something to do with Typescript.

</comment></comment><comment> awinter-py leaves out the commonly overlooked universe + phoenix combo</comment>


Show HN: QuotePress - Easily share customer success stories - <AUTHOR> http://quotepress.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN, QuotePress is a very early version of a new startup we are launching. It originated from a problem that we had: we asked customers "how is everything going? Give us some feedback" and they would simply hit reply to an email and we ended up with a bunch of happy customer stories sitting in our inbox that never got added to our website.

They were also ugly and we sometimes neglected to get explicit permission from customers to post their comment on our website or social media pages.

So, this is a very early beta of what we are planning. We're not quite ready yet to take on new customers but we are interested in hearing your feedback, thoughts and ideas on the concept.

<comment><USER2> Looks terrific so far -- I've experienced the -exact- same problem countless times and it's great that you guys are tackling it.

A related problem - and perhaps harder to solve - is going a step further: I get those glowing testimonials sitting in my inbox, and then I reply back and say "thanks! Would you mind sharing those thoughts on Yelp/Google/etc.?" 99% of the time, that's the end of the interaction :( Customer either doesn't reply, or replies and says "Sure! I'll go post a review right away." And then they don't.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha reading your comment almost had me pointing at the screen saying "yes! us too!".

I really believe that consumers are becoming more and more resistant to old- fashioned marketing so it's important to stop marketing AT people and create an environment where customers will market to each other.

When a customer has a great experience and they are telling you about it you generally want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to hear what they are saying. I think we can help make this a lot easier and more likely for them to do by implementing a one click share option where they'll be able to click on social media share buttons (facebook, twitter, google etc...) and start spreading their testimonial with one click.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks very nice, and I had been looking for something like this for a while.

Part of the value proposition to me would be that it is third-party but still controlled by the site owner. By being third-party any verification of external logins you do would be more trusted than the average testimonials page of a very small company. By leaving the site owner in charge, they can know it doesn't look tacky, try to steal traffic, or contain negative reviews.

One feature I've always wished someone would implement would be a way to assure a customer they can easily have their testimonial removed if they end up unhappy with the service later.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great points I hadn't thought about. Thanks. Letting customers remove their testimonial sounds like a smart way to relieve some anxiety. Maybe even let them edit it so they can add to or update their results & experiences over time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Neat Idea! I would provide some form of "embedding" and customizing capability to match a target site. For the current site, may I ask which Wordpress theme are you using?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! That is exactly what we had planned with our "widgets" where you can embed individual customer stories or even rotate them so they can be displayed inline with sales copy or during a sign up process.

The Wordpress theme is a child theme that we custom created on the Genesis Framework.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice work, I think the product does address a need. Pricing to me at least, feels a bit steep. I could probably convince myself that $9/mo is worth it, but $29 doesn't compare favorably against other services that are more complicated.

Yes I know pricing shouldn't be tied to 'difficulty' but that's my 2c.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Appreciate the feedback. We'll definitely look into some other pricing options.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This looks like a very interesting product. I love the design of the landing page as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> One observation: I think your pricing is off. Too expensive. I signed up anyway, but $30 /mnt is a bit rich. I'd say $9 /mnth hits the spot. Much more than that and I when it comes time to pay, many will walk.

Just my .02

<comment><AUTHOR> We'll definitely take a closer look at our pricing and consider some options. We'd like to see a good ROI even at $29+ per month by increasing our customers' conversions or gaining referrals.

At another startup I've worked on (virtualstagingsolutions.com) we've received a good amount of new sales from customers sharing their experience which would have paid for several months worth of QuotePress. Average sale price is $200-$300 for what we are selling and not taking into account lifetime value. However, I do realize our average sale price is priced higher than some other products or services so it wouldn't hurt for us to look into some other pricing plans.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: With advent of SPA, are Rails/Django still relevant? - <AUTHOR> SPA isn't possible in these Frameworks right?<p>So if we can't use these frameworks then what should we be using instead <comment><USER2> SPA is not a panacea for anything. It's also quite possible to integrate an SPA framework with a backend framework, they are orthogonal.

An SPA framework generally executes on the frontend in the users browser as Javascript. There may be build tools like webpack and browserify and babel, or one may y a simple spa.min.js file to include. Polyfills may be needed, even for such simple things as Object.values, as Javascript support varies across browsers and version.

The 2 backend frameworks you mentioned allow for front-end templating, which you really SHOULD use in lieul of the SPA-centric solution of "server-side- rendering" which basically takes advantage of Node.js running Javascript by hacking a client-side JS "template" to be processed by Node.js, which, unless your backend is ALSO Node.js based, requires an additional process and a totally different set of server tools than either Rails or Django.

There are a whole crop of app designs that basically use whatever backend with whatever SPA front-end in a more minimalist cohesive fashion. The basic idea is this:

1) server-template-rendered pages (NOT an SPA blob) that already have data affixed in them delivered as a response to a request on a given route path

2) judicious usage of Javascript on the front end only where needed, usually following the pattern of

A) the template assigns templated data to a Javascript object B) a Javascript virtual dom is created and mounted based upon the data in A C) normal XHRs or wss are used to send/get data from the server, with the response callback in an XHR setting the returned data into the Javascript object again, causing the Javascript virtual dom to redraw, as the data has changed.

Best of both worlds...

the main takeaway is to avoid making people wait for an SPA blob to download and then load it's data if the person is actually just interested in checking the contact info page, etc. SPAs serve a specific purpose, as a kind of interactive brochure that one is prepared to wait for initially, but later should move around quickly amongst it's various pages. I would go so far as to say that an SPA only really works best when the concept of "pages" is thrown away.

</comment><comment><USER3> Both frameworks support API-centered design. Your question doesn't make much sense without knowing what your requirements for an application are, beyond 5hst it be rendered to the user as a single-page.

</comment><comment><USER2> Rails has also influenced an entire new generation of frameworks in other languages like Amber, so the principles and concepts DO translate. there are active-record implementations in several other languages circa 2018

</comment><comment><USER4> If all your business logic and validation are on the client side, you have either a trivial app or a security disaster waiting to happen.</comment>


Show HN: HyperSwift – a DSL for HTML/CSS written in Swift - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/johngarrett/HyperSwift <comment><AUTHOR> I just finished building a dsl to generate html (with css styling) purely in Swift. It's still a little rough around the edges but, as I'm using this for my personal website, it'll continue to improve. Let me know what you think!</comment>


The Seven Deadly Sins of Predicting the Future of AI - <AUTHOR> http://rodneybrooks.com/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-predicting-the-future-of-ai/ <comment><USER2> Nice for Rodney Brooks to chime in. For those that don't know, he was a pioneer in early AI work esp with things such as subsumption architecture and robotics.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Brooks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Brooks)</comment>


TPUTH — Socially Generated Newspaper for Geeks - <AUTHOR> http://tputh.com/ <comment><USER2> Congratulations on finding a five letter .com domain name that was available.

<comment><USER3> I'm pretty sure I've seen plenty of 5 letter .com domain names available using nxdom.com (started by someone here at HN). Especially ones that aren't easily pronounceable such as TPUTH.

I'd check to verify, but nxdom is blocked by my employer now because of the GAE hosting, I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This seems to be from the guys over at <http://informationarchitects.jp/> \- which explains the heavily typographic layout.

I actually think it would be fantastic as a daily email round.

</comment><comment><USER5> quick impression: it's taking most popular stories from (social news sites like this?) and then creating a frontpage of them with... editing?

I trust the crowd but want to edit them...

<comment><USER6> Those "headlines with attitude" are going to get old really fast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> yeah, size matters ;)

because font size is the only original thing for me in this project

<comment><USER8> The font and its size make the headlines extremely hard to read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> TPUTX?

<comment><USER10> They imitate ТРУД in cyrillic, meaning "labor". It looks like a newspaper of the ruling communist party in some Eastern European country.

Who is the fourth guy after Eric/Bill/Steve?

<comment><USER11> The official newspaper of the Communist rule of Soviet was called Pravda. Pravda is russian for "Truth". I think this is what they are joking with.</comment></comment></comment>


Google Home: An Insight Into a 4-Year-Old's Mind - <AUTHOR> http://www.jonobacon.com/2017/05/18/google-home-insight-4-year-olds-mind/ <comment><USER2> Although short, an absolute joy to read, too. Not trying to sell or plug any idea or worldview, just sharing a story about the joy of the human condition. Blogging was made for stuff like this.

<comment><USER3> Not trying to sell anything, eh? The author discloses he was given the product for free. Then he embeds a video of him using it. (A common requirement of many sponsored content posts) Then a cute story of his son using the product, closing with a video of them singing along with it. This is native advertising.

<comment><USER4> I wasn't asked to promote anything. I got a new toy and I wanted to share me using it.

You may think this is advertising, but you are wrong.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hopefully Mycroft (or similar open-source alternatives) can provide the benefits without all the privacy / behavioral modification downsides. But I fear open source products like this will always languish behind commercial offerings. Makes me think that the democratization of AI is very important in this regard (you shouldn't have to sell your soul to get good speech recognition, etc).

<comment><USER6> There's never going to be a democratization of AI without a democratization of the data. But the data itself comes from privacy violating surveillance so I don't think we really want democratization of data.

<comment><USER7> I'm confident that in 20 years we'll have a very different conception of privacy. Certainly, one of the worst privacy outcomes would be if government had a monopoly on ubiquitous surveillance.

Already I don't expect to be anonymous in any public location. Given a public enough lifestyle and enough acquaintances, the likelihood of someone recognizing you anywhere on the globe or in a random pub is non-negligible.

<comment><USER8> I agree that we will have a different conception of privacy. I'm hopeful (but not particularly optimistic) that we can have something like David Brin's "Transparent Society" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society)).

<comment><USER7> I like that term "sousveillance". It's tough to communicate the concept with phrases when folks tend to skim rather than read carefully.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm invariably amused when my four year old gives up on "Alexa, play Justin Beaver on Spotify" and resorts to "Alexa, play whatever you want on Spotify", only to get back this:

[https://youtu.be/dG2jj-aIl-A?t=1m16s](https://youtu.be/dG2jj-aIl-A?t=1m16s)

<comment><USER10> That's interesting. I wonder whether some artists are already exploiting this by creating tracks with names such as "a random song" and "some music"?

<comment><USER11> Yes: [https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/youneedtohearthisthis-...](https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/youneedtohearthisthis- guy-made-23000-by-releasing-14000-songs-on-itunes-and-spotify)

<comment><USER12> "it is inevitable that they will type the word "poop" into the search bar. Once they do that, they'll find 9 albums by The Toilet Bowl Cleaners! It's impossible not to listen to these songs once you know they exist."

Touche. I would absolutely do that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Are there psychological concerns regarding a child's development by interacting with these devices ?

For example, I recently changed Alexa's awake word to be "computer" (one of 4 allowable options) and I say it with a commanding Picardesque voice. I enjoy doing that. But sometimes I wonder if the joy is coming from the _TNG_ nostalgia or from a sense of power.

I have also wondered about the consequence of adding "please" to the awake word (that isn't an option yet). Given the complexity of the human mind it is not obvious. Perhaps it is human nature to desire exertion of authority. Better to have the authority gratuitously exerted on a piece of electronics than on the family pet.

 _edit: Picardesque may be obscure so I added a TNG reference._

<comment><USER14> I wouldn't worry about it. Humans are profoundly good at learning and contextualizing associations and recognizing special cases. And to a certain extent this is not a new phenomenon. It's very similar to having a dog in the house, which you and your child will give commands to. You don't preface all your commands to the dog with "please" and follow it up with "thank you," and yet children have no problem with learning manners or develop an unhealthy desire for power.

<comment><USER13> Authoritarian personalities aren't that uncommon IME.

<comment><USER14> Sure, but that's specious reasoning. I have green eyes, and I haven't been attacked by a tiger, but that doesn't mean that green eyes prevent tiger attacks. Similarly, just because we have dogs around kids that are given commands without please and thank you, and also authoritarian personalities doesn't suggest a causal relation (or even a correlation!).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > (thanks to Google for the kind gift)

Why am I spontaneously thinking "Trojan Horse?"

<comment><USER16> 'timeo danaos et dona ferentes'

it's amazing how some fundamentals of the human condition don't change even over thousands of years

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> What a terrifying glimpse into an autotechno distopia.

No, I didn't like _The Diamond Age_ either.

<comment> Jaq-77 I want to be excited for this - a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer done right and distributed freely could advance the collective education of our entire planet - but all I can think of is ways that giving kids unfettered access to this could go wrong.

<comment><USER18> Yeah, there's definitely a sinister component to accepting a device from $MEGACORP into your home and allowing it free reign to indoctrinate and teach your child.

My older kids have already started going to Google and using search-by-voice to find things that me and their mom have either forbade or just to get answers that they didn't find adequate. I saved the auto-recorded MP3s of every query from when my daughter snuck away with my phone and said, "OK Google, show me scary goblins", after we declined to show her scarier ones. This was cute, but unless it's your first day on the internet, you know that children asking Google to show them scary things is a potentially upsetting situation.

My son ran over and asked "how do you turn a Wii U console off and on again" after he didn't like my response of "You have to ask a grown-up to hold down the button on the console for 4 seconds" (this one wasn't bad of course, he was just frustrated that he couldn't reach the console on the shelf and was seeking alternate solutions, but it demonstrates the point that children are learning to seek truth from the machines).

Perhaps more concerning is the disclosure inherent in a child's questioning. Suppose your family adheres to an illegal religious or political tenet. You teach this to your children in hushed tones where no one is listening. One day, they innocently approach the $MEGACORP_LISTENING_DEVICE and say "Alexa, why doesn't Daddy believe that the Great Leader is a smart man?"

Next day, Mommy and Daddy go bye-bye and the children go off to be re- educated.

That is _absolutely_ a plausible scenario. All of us on HN already know that the tech is there for that. The government needs only to wait for the population to be hostile enough against those who oppose the Great Leader to accept it.

<comment><USER19> Beware also more subtle effects. Both intentional "nudging", and unintended emergent effects. Racial segregation of schools and neighborhoods doesn't require brute force redlining, it can emerge from surprisingly small incentives.

I intermittently work on education content to better develop a rough quantitative feel for physical size. Lots of searches mentioning "millimeters". And Google Images starts showing me pictures of guns. And bullets. Lots of guns. Even on unrelated searches. Then I work on something else for a while, and they slowly all go away. Not much liking guns, it's a disincentive to work on the topic. And while I like the concept of encouraging kids to use google searches to get rough sizes for the objects they deal with, and "OBJECT millimeters" (or "micrometers", etc) works... Google's behavior gives me pause.

> Yeah, there's definitely a sinister component to accepting a device from > $MEGACORP into your home and allowing it free reign to indoctrinate and > teach your child.

Yeah. "Is human evolution real?" "Is climate change real?" :) I just searched for "how old is the earth", and while the embedded answer is 4By, the top link is "A handbook for students, parents, and teachers countering the latest arguments for evolution". Can you think of any approach to answering such questions, even personalized, that _won 't_ be thought a problem?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Very cute, couple months ago NYTimes had a video made by a mother of 2 girls called How Does Life Live? [https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004976604/how- do...](https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004976604/how-does-life- live.html)

</comment><comment><USER21> Haha, love it. Kids are great, some time back my 3 y/o told me there was ice under the pond (where else could it have gone because it was still there the previous time he saw it), such logic, with such knowledge and hardly any assumptions. It's refreshing. Currently my kid is obsessed with what floats and what sinks in a bucket of water outside in the garden. A joy to watch.

<comment><USER19> > obsessed with what floats and what sinks

In an alternate timeline, there's an NSF science education wiki to point to, but oh well.

You might seed the environment with cans of different sugar content [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzsORE0ae10&t=69](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzsORE0ae10&t=69) , potentially helping with several common misconceptions ("heavy sinks", "metal sinks", "hollow floats"). Perhaps small plastic bottles with pennies. Pennies are also good for sinking boats. As a collaborative follow-up to the cans, perhaps a layered drink [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsMmCb3Cdw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsMmCb3Cdw) , or hand-mixed sugar water in those floating/sinking small plastic bottles.

Other random fun density videos: Bubbles on CO2 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drBjDy96iNI&t=30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drBjDy96iNI&t=30) and Al boats on SF6 gas [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaJs_u2U_A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaJs_u2U_A) . I've been exploring a "teach size down to atoms, then nucleons up to bulk materials", for early-primary. Thus the links.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> It would be interesting to see this sort of thing play out again in five years when/if the box can understand Jack's question and respond in a meanignful way.

I guess it'd just be a continuation of a trend, where the effect is already in full effect with slightly older kids, who can read. Today's 14 yro probably learned most of what they know about puberty, college, sex, race or drugs from "google" anyway. They used to learn things adults avoid telling kids from eachother, now it's google.

Maybe it's no big deal if they start as soon as they can talk. Strange though.

<comment><USER23> People not just children need supervision and guidance when it comes to information going into their heads. It is why whichever culture you pick across the globe, "education" involves having a "teacher" figure around. There is no system anywhere where you can just drop of the kid at the library and magic happens.

Take this community, you will find the ones that are good at what they do aren't just good, because of access to information, but because of the kind of mentors that have been around them or they have run into in life.

That's really the missing piece in today's internet. Despite all this information access it's still hit or miss that a kid or an adult will find the right mentor.

<comment><USER24> Here's the exception to prove the rule.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves)

<comment><USER23> It's a nice feel good story that gets funding. It's not replacing teachers, mentors and schools anytime soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> How does one say "hggghghghgghgghggghghg" such that Google Home would understand it?

<comment><USER26> I suspect you don't. Google didn't understand any of the questions in the article. This is as much about a child's patience as it is about their curiosity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> This makes me incredibly sad.

Why are we handing massive advertising corporations the keys to our children's minds?

<comment><USER4> You must be fun at parties.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This kid has a bright future as a human fuzzer. After a few days something like this would probably happen:

Kid: _OK Google, Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?_

Google Home: _? ?? ???_

Google Home: _Segmentation fault (core dumped)_

Kid: _OK Google, Please initiate bug bounty payout._

</comment><comment><USER29> Great blog post, short and quick read. The whole voice and children stuff has not been worked out properly yet. I believe Mattel is working on some special child-focused device.

<comment><USER27> Advertisers are probably foaming at the mouth thinking of the data mining and indoctrination possibilities. Today's youth never had a chance.

Imagine growing up and finding out that your parents took away your ability to decide whether or not you want corporations to have a permanent record of your entire life?

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Haha fantastic read. Best part though was that my Google home responded to all the commands from the video.

</comment><comment><USER31> Related: metafilter on needy robots that make you feel guilty.

[http://www.metafilter.com/99661/But-but-is-not- Johnny-5-aliv...](http://www.metafilter.com/99661/But-but-is-not- Johnny-5-alive#3472942)

</comment><comment><USER32> It makes me so, so angry that people would put a big brother in their homes VOLUNTARILY!

A device that records you and sends the data to a corporation! In 1984 people were freakin' forced to have one. In 2017 people WANT to have one.

Sorry for this short rant, but I just struggle with understanding what's wrong with people these days.

<comment><USER33> > A device that records you and sends the data to a corporation! In 1984 > people were freakin' forced to have one. In 2017 people WANT to have one.

As predicted by Brave New world.

<comment><USER34> To tag onto this, my father made my sibling and I read Fahrenheit 451 at one point before he would buy a flat-panel TV.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I enjoyed the video with the song.

<comment><USER36> "wrecking bones" was great

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> What a wonderful illustration of a child's boundless curiosity. My five-year- old asks these sorts of questions constantly, and it's fascinating and hilarious (and, I confess, sometimes tiresome).

</comment><comment><USER38> So how many "why?" loops can it last before going insane?

<comment><USER39> Probably more than most parents.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I wonder how long it'll be before the last person who cares about privacy dies. I wager within 100 years, and I wager that person is already alive today.

</comment><comment><USER41> My 14 month old son works our Amazon Echo.

</comment><comment><USER42> > I would love to see the world through his eyes, it must be glorious.

Please please please don't let this be crushed out of him.

<comment><USER4> I absolutely promise it won't. I want him to be curious and I want him to be silly.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Secure file sync solution (2016 Edition) - <AUTHOR> When it comes to security, the main test where all major file sync services currently fail is: Can they have access to our files if they want to?
For them to not have access to our files, they need to support client-side encryption with the private key provided by the client. And, open-source the client part so that the security community can verify that the client indeed encrypts with the said key.
As far as I know, all major services only encrypt files during transfer, but not at rest (ie, on their server). This means Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc can access all your files.
You can use an encrypted file system (ex, EncFS+FUSE or TrueCrypt if you still trust it) on top of one of these services (esp. Dropbox because it supports block level sync), but TrueCrypt is inconvenient as you need to remember to mount/unmount it after use. And EncFS+FUSE is error prone (I've had some files become corrupted) and not that secure anyway.
Services that do support client-side encryption (AeroFS, BTSync, SpiderOak, etc) seem to have other issues (Closed source client, poorly performing client, etc). As far as I know, Box's KeySafe also only claims that Box won't have access to your keys. They will still have access to your files (which is what the keys are supposed to protect anyway).
In the open source world, people have mixed opinion about ownCloud. Syncthing appears perfect (if you're willing to setup your own VPC as a hub). The only issue is that you want the files to reside on that hub in encrypted form (treat the server as untrusted). Currently, the files are exposed on the server, and if a hacker can get into the VPC, they have access to everything. Git-annex and Unison can be made to do file sync, but as far as I know, that's not the main use-case those tools focus on. I am not sure if they support an untrusted server either.
What file sync solution do you use today? What kind of issues do you have with it? <comment><USER2> > Services that do support client-side encryption (AeroFS, BTSync, SpiderOak, > etc) seem to have other issues (Closed source client, poorly performing > client, etc). As far as I know, Box's KeySafe also only claims that Box > won't have access to your keys. They will still have access to your files > (which is what the keys are supposed to protect anyway).

I can't imagine anyone with any understanding of security being willing to use a closed source client to handle encryption. If you don't know how it's working, you don't know it's working.

> What file sync solution do you use today? What kind of issues do you have > with it?

For servers, configs, and general "small stuff": tarsnap

For big/static things: GPG + S3

For ultra private: pass + git on a private server

No issues with any of these and all three are highly recommended.</comment>


Creating an Autonomous System for Fun and Profit - <AUTHOR> http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/2017/11/creating-autonomous-system-for-fun-and.html <comment><USER2> Really like posts like this - when I first think of an AS, it seems unattainable by anyone but a larger corporation, but this really reduces it down to the nuts and bolts of what's necessary to create your own little segment of the internet. Pretty cool!

<comment><USER3> What I got out of this is that to be an AS, you either have to be a big company, or a small company with a lot of connections. There was a lot of stuff that relied on his friends helping him out. What if you don't have industry connections? You will never get the peering agreements needed by an AS unless you pay someone big bucks to peer with you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _This letter of authorization is also the first instance of where learning about how the Internet actually works gets a little weird. That letter is literally all it took for me to take control of a sub-block of someone else 's public address space and get it routed to my network instead of theirs. Some of my network peers later asked for me to provide this LoA when we were setting up my network links, but that means I just sent them a PDF scan of a letter with my friend's signature on it. And I mean an actual signature; not some kind of fancy cryptographic signature, but literally a blue scribble on a piece of paper._

I can't wait for the Hackernews post where someone social-engineers their way into controlling an IP block and posts about it on twitter.

<comment><USER5> With one of my upstreams (a large Tier 1 you've heard of), I can announce any prefix I want. I just have to add a "route" entry to the routing registry database and wait a day or two for them to update their filters on my BGP session.

It's easily doable (I do it occasionally so I can announce customers' prefixes for them) but I'd "get caught" if I was announcing prefixes I shouldn't be.

BGP on the public Internet is all about trust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "That letter is literally all it took for me to take control of a sub-block of someone else's public address space and get it routed to my network instead of theirs."

Interesting. I don't want some faceless central authority making it a bureaucratic nightmare to do what he's doing, but I also don't want malicious folks exploiting the vulnerability. What's the long game here? What should this process look like in 30 years?

<comment><USER5> RPKI: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Public_Key_Infrastruc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Public_Key_Infrastructure)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you're in Europe, RIPE still hands out ipv4 /22's to new members. Their fee is 1400EUR/year though, so not that cheap.

</comment><comment><USER8> Where is the profit part?

<comment><USER9> there isn't. it's just a popular format titles (right along there with "x considered harmful")

<comment><USER10> sure, but theres also generally profit in the story.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> TL;DR please?

This really needs an abstract/summary. 5 paragraphs in and I have no idea what they're doing.

<comment><USER12> They are making an ISP without the CMS + Payments</comment></comment>


Building an energy-efficient server - <AUTHOR> http://pingswept.org/2009/09/13/building-a-green-server/

<comment><USER2> 8 cores with a single GB of RAM. Really?

If this is strictly a file server you can do a lot better than that energy wise.

<comment><AUTHOR> (I built the server.)

You're right, in a sense-- a file server certainly would be better off energy- wise with fewer cores.

But building a fileserver wasn't my sole intent. In the long run, I expect to use all the cores, but with more RAM added. I just didn't want to buy RAM before I needed it-- I can add more RAM without losing the RAM already there. The same is not true for cores-- I can't add cores without throwing away the old processors. I thought about just buying one processor to start with, but I didn't want to worry about the availability of an identical second processor down the road.

(Actually, now that I think of it, there's actually 2 GB of RAM in the machine now. Post updated.)

<comment><USER2> I've been thinking about one of these.

<http://www.tonido.com/>

I don't know exactly what you are going to do but it might be better to serve email/files from something like this and use your bigger server only when needed. I guessing your eventual workload for bigger server will be intermittent and in the off time you will be wasting tons of energy by running a mostly idle computer.

Just my $.02</comment></comment></comment>


Again and Again, 3 Boston Entrepreneurs Left Crowdfunders in the Lurch - <AUTHOR> http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/08/26/crowdfunding-raised-money-failed-to-deliver/

<comment><USER2> Anytime there is a platform for money to be exchanged from one party to another, there will always be people who will exploit it.</comment>


Show HN: New PHP router wich is 7 to 15 times faster then Symfony router - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/alexdodonov/mezon-router/blob/master/doc/router-symfony.md <comment><USER2> speed is good and I like to see PHP moving forward but does this library support model binding in your application? Laravel router is good for this exact reason.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Any comments? )</comment>


Startups in India Fail Due Lack of Innovation, According to a New IBM Study - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/suparnadutt/2017/05/18/startups-in-india-fail-due-lack-of-innovation-according-to-a-new-ibm-study/#3c812150657b <comment><USER2> "Also, if a yardstick of innovation is the patent, then India is miles behind its Asian counterparts."

It isn't. Patents are a poor proxy for innovation, especially when used to compare across patent systems instead of within one system over time.</comment>


Ask HN: Which CRM for a solo-freelancer in 2014? - <AUTHOR> There are <Dr Evil>one million</Dr Evil> choices when it comes to CRM's and from using Google and HN Search, I haven't found any decent threads on this for a while.
What CRM are all the freelancers out there using? I'm about to go solo and am not sure what to go for (Salesforce, Zoho, Highrise (though I'm put off a bit by 37 Signals' Basecamp direction) all seem 'up there'). Too many choices, could really use some HN advice.
I was planning on using Wave for accounts, and still undecided on project management, but I guess any integration possible would be desirable! <comment><USER3> You are doing it wrong.

I don't mean to be contrarian but if you want to be successful as a independent developer (I have been for almost 15 years now) and you are looking for a CRM you are off the rails.

CRM systems are for the most part, for companies or sales individuals who need help managing the number of contacts they have at any given time and ensuring they follow a structured interaction pattern.

I know about a dozen people like me, some of whom float in and out of full- time gigs and consulting and others who are years or decades into the independent consulting arrangement. Not a single one interacts with a high volume of customers. At any given time I have two or three I interact with and maybe one in the pipeline. If I make contact with new potential customers I create a contact record for them in Outlook/Gmail/Whatever and record any extraneous details in the notes section. That is all, if you need more than that I question the approach.

ps - Another tip. 'Freelancers' are cheap and not serious, 'consultants' or 'developers' or 'independent developers' take home the big checks. Just a perception thing.

<comment><USER4> I'll go further and say that researching CRM's only feels like work. It isn't. Cold calling and chasing contracts and closing them and completing the contracted work is all that counts as actually working. Choosing and installing and learning a CRM is easier. That's why it doesn't count.

<comment><USER5> Perfect observation of real, honest-to-God procrastination. You are usually better served taking the time researching the CRM and slacking off. Or at the very least admitting that the CRM research is part of your time off, not your job.

<comment><USER6> No. You're both missing the whole point. This is like researching a move to Node from Rails, or something similar. In fact, using the right tool for your sales has a direct effect on your bottom line, so I'm going to say it's far more important if you like stuff like money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In our company we use plain TXT files with an agreed formatting between the team mates.

We have the plain TXT files stored in dropbox shared location.

Easy, slick, cost 0, and accessible by search through OSX Spotlight. Also, we don't depend on third parties (we can move disconnect from dropbox at any time)

<comment><USER8> Could you post a template? That's a neat way of doing it.

<comment><USER7> Sure, here you have it, very simple.

EDIT:: The formatting got corrupted when I posted the comment. Feel free to contact me and I'll send you the format by mail. marc /at/ kitebit /dot/ com

 __ __ __ __* CUSTOMER2 NAME Contact details Where we did find about him __ __ __ __* \--- > who_contacted_the_customer DATE CONTACT_CHANEL (mail, phone...) Description of what we talked about

\---> \---> who_contacted_the_customer DATE CONTACT_CHANEL (mail, phone...) Description of what we talked about

 __ __ __ __* CUSTOMER2 NAME Contact details Where we did find about him __ __ __ __* \--- > who_contacted_the_customer DATE CONTACT_CHANEL (mail, phone...) Description of what we talked about

\---> \---> who_contacted_the_customer DATE CONTACT_CHANEL (mail, phone...) Description of what we talked about

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Okay, so this is going to be a bit of a random one, but hear me out.

I personally use Pancake[0]. It's a self-hosted, one-time-payment (but comes with updates) web application that will handle invoicing, CRM, time-tracking, and do it all with a really nice interface.

Also, if you know PHP at all, it's quite fun to hack on, but of course a lot of people dislike PHP. Even if you don't do that, it's a brilliant web app that was a life-saver[1] for myself when I was freelancing. Give the demo a try, see what you think.

\---

[0] [https://pancakeapp.com/](https://pancakeapp.com/)

[1] I just took a full-time job, so I won't be freelancing anymore, but I am going to continue to use it for my time-tracking and project management for personal stuff :)

<comment><USER10> Thank you for the link. This is a decent system for a simple small office.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Agree with everyone saying to use something like Trello, Asana, Google Docs, etc.

Unless you need a "special" CRM feature, I think you can get by on using a generic tool that fits your workflow, and is simpler to get going with.

I'm building Notedock[0], it's really a general tool underneath all messaging on the homepage. I actually use it as a CRM, with a page for each contact (you can put all relevant details here, discussions, contact info, etc.)

If anyone's interested, send me an email and I can show how I get by with this "CRM".

[0] [https://notedock.com](https://notedock.com)

<comment><USER9> Oh wow. I've been looking for something exactly like this: basically similar to the new Basecamp but more focused. I really dig it, only I can't decide what to call my Notedock :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hey there, ClinchPad ([https://www.clinchpad.com](https://www.clinchpad.com)) has a large number of freelancers using it. It is a CRM targeted at small teams and focused on the process of moving prospects towards a deal (something that freelancers do often as they look for clients).

We're always improving the application and welcome any feedback on it. Feel free to reply to this comment or email me at email@example.com.

Disclosure: I'm the Founder of ClinchPad.

</comment><comment><USER13> As explained by some posters above we did the procrastination thing and spent time researching CRMs :). Our situation however was 3 people selling lots of leads, managing mentors and investors and keeping track of a few hundred customers. I wrote a review of our findings, [http://renooble.tumblr.com/post/79551891411/crms-for- small-s...](http://renooble.tumblr.com/post/79551891411/crms-for-small- startups)

<comment><USER14> Honestly it is easy to say researching CRMs is procrastination, but if you really need a CRM, you need one and it is going to take time to find the one you like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I remember seeing an article from the guy who built this where he mentions that you shouldn't bother with a CRM until you get to a certain number on sales.

[http://spreadsheetcrm.com/](http://spreadsheetcrm.com/)

I couldn't find the article. Seems about right though. It's easy to spend a lot of time looking for something that we feel we need when a simple spreadsheet app probably works well enough for solo use.

</comment><comment><USER16> At one time in my life, when I was still in love with Emacs, I was using org- mode to do that kind of things as it wasn't breaking my workflow.

The thing is that you're a single developer, so don't you waste time managing customers and choose the simplest tool which gets the job done.

I know that others are saying Asana or Trello - and those are good tools, but with a bit of customisation and 20$ you might get yourself Jira + Confluence - those will work like a charm and you will be able to not only manage customers, but also projects and all that crap, everything in one place. One often overlooked fact is that customers like to ignore all those sexy markdown files with requirements and they don't care about code versioning - you will be receiving PowerPoint presentations and Word documents and Excel spreadsheets - all of which can be easily managed / kept in Confluence.

Remember - CRMs are for business people and whatever you choose, the time spent using it should be as minimal as possible as it is not directly bringing you any revenue.

</comment><comment><USER17> We've been using Highrise a while ago, but moved away from it quickly.

These days we use Trello with a card for each lead, where we keep track of the current status. The card moves between different states as we engage with the client (kanban style).

If you keep your mails in Gmail you already have a powerful tool to handle them and don't need CRM support for that.

</comment><comment><USER18> We've been using Zhen CRM at my company for a while now: [http://codecanyon.net/item/zhen-crm/4149099](http://codecanyon.net/item/zhen- crm/4149099)

The cool thing about Zhen CRM is that its self-hosted and a one-time fee - <USER2> you pay for the software one-time, and download and self-host on your local server (LAMP stack) and off you go! You can create as many users as you want, and you don't have to worry about it being hosted at a third party.

What I find really cool about it is the price - right now its only $25! (used to be even less, the price must have gone up recently) I purchased it to experiment, but found it has enough features to use as a primary CRM.

</comment><comment><USER19> Create folders for your customers. Save important stuff like contact details, mails, contracts and whatever else you wish in those folders and organize them in sub-folders when necessary. Also use the SCM of your choice with those files. You're welcome.

</comment><comment><USER20> Disclaimer - I am a co-founder at ONDiGO Mobile CRM.

I completely agree with what I've read here on previous answers.. Being a solo freelancer or a small business owner you don't need a CRM. At least not the good old fashion CRM solutions our there.

What you do need is a simple to use, easy to on-board and free solution. It should also be mobile as we're constantly on the go and rarely sit all day in front of the desktop.

That is exactly what we had in mind when we started working on ONDiGO. Check it out.. I'm sure you are going to love it!

[http://ondigo.me/](http://ondigo.me/)

</comment><comment><USER21> We are building a tool that really scratches our own itch. We needed a tool that:

1\. Manages projects - Like Jira but simpler

2\. Allows us to create documents and share them with clients - Like email but with commets

3\. Track time - Like the notepad that lives on my desk

4\. Keep everyone on the project informed

Its called [http://matterhorn.io](http://matterhorn.io) and its coming along we've been using it for months. We are a small agency (6 of us) and its designed mainly for teams from 1 - 20 who work directly with clients.

If you're interested drop me a line I'd love to get your thoughts on it. josh[at]seriousfox.co.uk

</comment><comment><USER22> Streak is a dead simple way for managing "things with workflows/pipelines". It lives in gmail so the overhead pretty low.

[http://www.streak.com/](http://www.streak.com/)

<comment><USER23> +1. This is what I use as well. It is dead simple to use and free.

<comment><USER24> I also use Streak for a very lightweight CRM. Works great for identifying prospects and moving them through the close process.

I'm also keeping an eye on FullContact. A few slight tweaks to their tagging feature and they'll be a great lightweight CRM for solo folks.

[http://www.fullcontact.com/](http://www.fullcontact.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Try [https://www.vtiger.com/open-source/](https://www.vtiger.com/open-source/)

open source so you can install it on your own box or sign up to one of their plans.

<comment><USER26> Oh god no. Twenty steps to send out a newsletter and it STILL appears buggy on the clients (if it sends out at all).

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Trello or Asana is pretty easy to use

[https://asana.com/guide/explore/videos/crm](https://asana.com/guide/explore/videos/crm)

Plus you can use those for your projects/tickets/personal todos too.

I hate having <Dr Evil>one million</Dr Evil> webapps to do <Dr Evil>one million</Dr Evil> things. Even if they aren't best in class for _everything_ there is something to be said for _good enough_ in a single location

</comment><comment><USER28> Make your own dude. That's a good way to show your skills! That's what I did for me at [http://marques.io](http://marques.io)

<comment><USER28> Took me about 3 weeks (working after work and week-ends) so anyone could (and should do it also).

<comment><USER29> looks nice, i like the scrolling but there is a bug there ... if you highlight something that is more than a line it will scroll to the next article.

<comment><USER28> Yeah! I already noticed it but never had time to correct it! Thanks for the highlight! Ps : it's for mobile/tablet compatibility but yeah, it should be disabled in desktop! Thanks for checking!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think using a CRM is massive overkill for being an independent developer. My own company is going through a CRM migration, and given how much of a pain that's been, you're being needlessly complex. Of course, this being HN, people want to show off their own companies/personal projects, but that's needlessly complicated. Keep it simple.

</comment><comment><USER31> [http://www.orocrm.com/](http://www.orocrm.com/) OroCRM is an easy-to-use, open source CRM with built-in marketing tools for your ecommerce business. It's the CRM both marketing and sales can agree on!

</comment><comment><USER32> I asked the same question a month or so ago. I also was hesitant to get started with Highrise. Right now I'm testing Nimbly and Pipeline Deals. Nimbly seems to be more about generating leads through social media. Both have a nice interface.

</comment><comment><USER33> Disclaimer - I work at Base CRM.

You should consider using Base CRM ([https://getbase.com](https://getbase.com)). We focus on great UX so that you can get value without much effort and have fully-featured mobile apps.

</comment><comment><USER34> I've been using Pipedrive ([http://bit.ly/1kpPlYZ](http://bit.ly/1kpPlYZ) \- my referral link) for over a year now. Nice integration with Google Calendar and great mobile Apps.

</comment><comment><USER35> My personal favorite task list app is asana. You can actually set your email system up to forward emails to you from specific people directly into asana applications which makes it a great way to handle things.

</comment><comment><USER36> I always recommend Capsule CRM: [http://capsulecrm.com/](http://capsulecrm.com/)

You get a reasonably generous free allowance if you try it with Google Apps for your Domain.

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks promising!

I've actually found a truck load more tools on their add-ons/integrations page that will probably be of use to me too:

[http://capsulecrm.com/features#/addons](http://capsulecrm.com/features#/addons)

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Good question, I'm looking for one as well. Preferably a pay-once and not a pay-monthly. Or something I can install on my own domain.

</comment><comment><USER38> Trello? Asana? I'd tend towards a more flexible tool, and create your own simple workflow that works.

</comment><comment><USER39> Google Spreadsheets

Why? \- Free \- Collaborative \- Supported by Google. Aka. will not close down in 6 months. \- Customisable

<comment><USER40> You really sure about that 6 months term? Google does have a reputation of just shutting down stuff now and then, don't they? :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> See [http://close.io](http://close.io) by Elastic (YCW11)

<comment><USER42> Ouch, that's 6x more expensive for the Basic than Pipedrive, which we use and is awesome.

<comment><USER14> 6x more expensive because it ties into telephony. That gets expensive. (No affiliation, just work with telephony solutions etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> So far, I love Podio, flexible, free. CRM & Project Management.

</comment><comment><USER44> github?)</comment>


Scaling React Build to 8000 Components - js-build-dude https://github.com/thelgevold/react-bazel-example/blob/remote/README.md <comment> js-build-dude Here is an example of a huge React build using Bazel with a remote build cache.</comment>


Run-up in home prices is 'not sustainable' - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/run-up-in-home-prices-is-not-sustainable-realtors-chief-economist.html <comment><USER2> _" 'The continuing run-up in home prices above the pace of income growth is simply not sustainable,' wrote Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors,"_

Oh, yeah? Just because people aren't making the money to afford those houses? Earlier, it was pointed out that the high prices are due to "demand and low supply". People are going to do what they've always done if they want a house in a desirable area: both spouses work, and you're mortgaged to the hilt.

Just a few days ago the wife and I were walking the dogs in our Redmond, WA neighborhood. Lots of 30 year old houses, not extravagant, used to be a "working class" neighborhood. Saw a house for sale that was $1MM asking. I can't find the Zillow listing (might have already sold), but it was nothing all that special. Our house is the low end, 1200sq. ft. @ $650K. That's where you _start_ in Redmond.

So I went home, and out of curiosity ran some quick numbers on what a $1MM house payment would be: $4200/month. Even making Microsoft money, that's a tough nut to make. Our house, were we to have to buy it again: something like $3200/month. So unless you're making six figures, you're not going to keep the house payment to 25-30% of take-home.

"Sustainable"? If there's demand, and low inventory (Redmond supposedly has inventory measured in _weeks_ ), I don't see why prices won't keep going up.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not news, we're not in the system that supports building affordable sustainable/homes.</comment>


Plane flies in a plane pattern - <AUTHOR> https://www.flightradar24.com/BOE004/e54ad6b/# <comment><USER2> Ha that's awesome! To more clearly see the flight path, click the filter button on the side and add the plane's callsign, BOE004, to the filter list.</comment>


Ask HN: 100K, want to make a WISP. Profit, don't care - <AUTHOR> 1. Fiber exists. 2. No knowledge of running a ISP. 3. I'm bored, I have savings and credit. 4. I don't really care about monetization yet.
5. There was some guy that made his own ISP for Rural America, I'll find him.
Location: Manila, Philippines.
Internet: unreliable.
WISP: avoid all that nasty property issues.
Pipe dream, yeah. <comment><USER2> Probably first step is joining [http://www.wispa.org/](http://www.wispa.org/) Then track down articles such as this one (that I wrote). [http://www.pcworld.com/article/245094/when_your_isp_is_one_o...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/245094/when_your_isp_is_one_of_your_neighbors.html) Keep in mind that Google's Project Loon might undercut whatever you're working on. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Loon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Loon) I recommend doing research on wireless community networks, too. Some fascinating stuff happening in that arena -- in locations all over the world. For follow up questions, contact me at @philshapiro (Twitter). I work as a public librarian and answer questions for a living.

<comment><AUTHOR> AFAIK project loon has been scraped.</comment></comment>


The Facebook Effect (On Real Estate Prices) - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/the-facebook-effect-on-real-estate-prices/ <comment><USER2> Titleholders that have done nothing to cause the increased value get windfall gains from nearby productivity, simply because the government has granted them exclusive usage rights over the land.

That land value should be taxed, and used to pay for public services, or returned as a dividend to the citizens.

Taxing such unearned windfall gains has a very different economic impact than taxing earned income or sales. Taxing production reduces production. Taxing idle landholding just reduces wasteful land use.

Because taxes only harm supply when the thing in question is a product of human labor. Taxing land doesn't make land go away, like it does for most other things.</comment>


Jonathan Blow demos his game development tech: own programming language/compiler - <AUTHOR> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-04-20-jonathan-blow-teases-prototype-of-his-next-game <comment><AUTHOR> It looks like a mixture of C++, Pascal, Haskell. Ugly to my taste. Reminds me of PHP and certain Operating system named after a building of worship.

</comment><comment><USER2> Well done.. i watched his language conception videos. He really thought this well through. Its not tailored to the task is made for - relatively quick writing highly performant game code.</comment>


Integrating Yahoo BOSS Search in a Django site in 5 easy steps - Peter Krantz - <AUTHOR> http://www.peterkrantz.com/2008/yahoo-boss-in-django/ <comment><USER2> It looks like something broke since the author wrote the article, and he reverted to using Google. Example links lead to blank results, while the search box on top of every page of the web site mentioned in the article leads to Google-powered search results. Anybody have luck with integrating YBoss results?

<comment><USER3> I used YBOSS on a prototype of a firefox extension - <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9986>

It works ok, the main issues are:

* the results are not as good as yahoo's real results

* about 10% of the time the yahoo click-through url is incorrect (meaning instead of seeing the result you see a yahoo error page).

I've since rewritten it to use Google's "AJAX" API (which is just JSON). Check out the flash section for how to get the JSON directly.

<comment><USER4> Disclaimer: Putting on my Yahoo! Developer Network hat

We'd love to hear more feedback like this. If we don't know that something isn't quite right we can't fix it. If there are things we can improve for you unless you tell us we can't do them.

I've emailed you hopefully we can work through this list and get them all fixed :)</comment></comment></comment>


Project Alternator: The Scylla Open Source Amazon DynamoDB-Compatible API - <AUTHOR> https://www.scylladb.com/alternator/ <comment><USER2> So what they're doing is adding a option to Scylla's yaml configuration so Scylla can literally be a drop-in replacement for DynamoDB. No updates to your existing code. Scylla can be downloaded and installed on pretty much any server, so what this means is you are no longer shackled to AWS. Just deploy a Scylla instance anywhere you please, configure it to emulate dynamo's API, point your existing application that normally uses Dynamo to it, and you're up.

My current company has a monthly AWS bill of $100k. C-level people get concerned that all their eggs are in one basket. Also Dynamo is EXPENSIVE when you start scaling. We have been looking into making our applications cloud service agnostic, and Dynamo is a huge blocker.

Scylla is a far superior database anyway, so I think we're going to begin trying this out.

Great job, Scylla team!

</comment><comment><USER3> Design doc here: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i4yjF5OSAazAY_-T8CBce9-2...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i4yjF5OSAazAY_-T8CBce9-2ykW4twx_E_Nt2zDoOVs/edit?usp=drivesdk)

</comment><comment><USER4> Looks promising, I want to try it outon my project.</comment>


Ask HN: please review "Introducing Fathomer" - <AUTHOR> http://www.trending.us/2009/01/14/introducing-fathomer/

<comment><USER2> this is a very very good idea!

I'll be implementing this, kudos. Hope twitter doesn't fix this "bug"(?)</comment>


After 30 years why is web development such a heterogenous mess? - <AUTHOR> It seems like greater standardisation like the HTML standard but for web 2.0 apps is desirable. Instead of converging on a standard it seems as time goes by the forest of webdev frameworks and backends grows ever thicker and web pages load ever slower and contain less useful information. <comment><USER2> I think most of it can be attributed to Not Invented Here Syndrome. Everyone wants to invent the next Great Thing, be in control of the protocols and standards, have job insurance—-so instead of using long-established international standards and time-tested tools, they invent reasons to go their own way. Can't blame them: new is exciting and challenging, old is boring and practical.</comment>


How do I keep the passion and energy up after 17 years of writing software? - <AUTHOR> http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18345/how-do-i-keep-the-passion-and-energy-up-after-17-years-of-writing-software <comment><USER2> Interesting question!

As somebody in a similar age bracket, the things I do:

Stay healthy. My energy levels are generally great if I am getting plenty of exercise and good sleep. And avoid eating junk, throwing off my sleep schedule, or having big worries.

Do things that matter to me. A few years back I was doing consulting that I got burnt out on. So despite a very lucrative bill rate, I said, "fuck it" and joined a friend in a startup. He had a problem that I really wanted to see solved.

Work with people I like. If I'm going to spend most of my daylight around people, I want to enjoy it. I generally like people, so this one isn't too hard for me.

Serve people I like. If I'm making something for people I care about, this is a big motivator for me. It definitely helps for me to actually meet users, watch user tests, and see stats that demonstrate that what we ship is making a difference.

Minimize my commute. I know that some people don't mind long drives in traffic, but I'm not one of them. I live in SF and have occasionally done gigs down the peninsula; it quickly drains not just my enthusiasm, but my will to live. I want to spend my energy on things that are actually productive, and rush-hour traffic is not one of them.

I look forward to seeing what others say.

<comment><USER3> +1 on minimizing the commute. I switched jobs some time ago in large part because my commute was slowly killing me. I couldn't be happier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You ever listen to the first movement of Mozart's 25th symphony? And then contrast that with the second movement of his clarinet concerto? His 25th symphony was one of his earlier works and his clarinet concerto was one of his last. His clarinet concerto is a technically more interesting piece, but would you say that you think the latter piece is more than the other, based on those technical grounds? I like both pieces for different, indescribable reasons that go beyond technical depth.

I think one of the problems of creatively-oriented endeavors is that we confuse mastery with fulfillment. The smarter and more talented you are, the easier it is to fall into this trap. We chase hard problems instead of noticing the interesting problems that lie at our feet, hidden in plain sight amongst our daily dirty work. We chase braggable successes instead of indescribable play. And then we get bored and quit, sometimes without accomplishing much depth at all, and it's not obvious until you step away from it all to take stock of it. At least that's my two cents on it.

</comment><comment><USER5> After 20 years of programming ten hours a day I took a two year break. Didn't code a single line all this time. Now Android got my interest picked again and been having fun learning all I can like in good old days. Ten tabs open in StackOverflow looking for answers, another ten tabs in android docs, ten more with samples and widgets, oh boy, that's my kind of coding fun.

So, take a break, do something entirely different, then come back refreshed. There will always be something new to learn waiting for you.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm still very young compared to the original poster on stackexchange, however a comment in that thread reminded me of something I did myself which filled me with motivation.

"And finally, if you get a chance, help students with things. For example I judge and coach for Imagine Cup (sponsored by Microsoft) but I am sure there are equivalent things in whatever tech field you're in. This is a self- selected group of passionate and innovative young people who are building something they think will change the world and make them rich, and spending some time with them will get you fired up again, I guarantee! My first judging trip left me feeling ten years younger, so now I'm hooked." \- Kate Gregory

I helped out at CoderDojo ([http://coderdojo.com/](http://coderdojo.com/)) whose primary participants on the days I helped were 10-15. I helped the kids out with programming, learning myself and helping them program quadcopters amongst other things. Seeing the enthusiasm the kids showed and hearing what they were trying to build in their own time was incredibly inspiring. If you can, see if there is a local club teaching kids programming, I'm still only a university student but the club I helped out at were incredibly eager for anyone with coding experience to come in and help out. I can only imagine how happy they would be with someone with that much experience helping out.

</comment><comment><USER7> I actually find this a really interesting question and as an older programmer I'm interst... QUESTION CLOSED. TOO BROAD.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been around about the same time as the OP. I've had ups and downs, but honestly this is a GREAT time to be a software developer.

I can't remember a time where there has been such a large number of truly interesting technologies around. And there are open source solutions to everything.

You can pretty much pick a new thing every week and you'd be still learning something new next year.

And with the way the job market is these days, you don't have to settle for that boring tech job either. Get out there, get yourself into a job that lets you work with exciting stuff.

</comment><comment><USER8> I think a few months or a year (depending on your cash in bank) of traveling/exploring other things aka a sabbatical to recharge the batteries is great.

</comment><comment><USER9> I use a mix of things after 20+ years of fulltime code:

Exercise: I don't sit during coding for the last 3-4 years and I will never go back; I walk behind a standing table, I set up a small gym in the garage I use 30 min / day and I take walks with the dogs for 1-2 hours/day.

Do new things: these might be considered risks but I don't really care; I need new tech to keep learning; I know my company would benefit most from doing the same Java enterprise web stuff forever, so I sold my shares and went on to something else. I probably would've been depressed and bored by now if I hadn't done that.

Lot's of hobbies: even if they are computer related, they will feel like something completely different. I restore/upgrade old (end 70s/80s/begin 90s) hardware and program software for it; it feels like working on an old relic and getting it to life.

I happily walk behind my computer and write code after 20 years, still in amazement how we can create so much something out of nothing.

</comment><comment><USER10> I agree with most people here: stay healthy and keep learning new things. To me the learning process is quite fun every single time. And often you'll find while learning that you don't like some kind of technology, but at least you can reason why. But the few times you do like the new tech, you might expand your options to whole new horizons.

Currently I've learned:

\- TI Basic (when I was very young, for the TI-99/4a)

\- LotusScript (ancient tech, yay!)

\- Visual Basic (the horror!)

\- Objective-C (cool language)

\- C# (sweet language)

\- Java (yuck! - the crappy version of C#)

\- a bit of HTML / JavaScript (hate browser differences)

\- Python (pretty nice language, except for the indent requirements)

\- Django (pretty cool framework, but eventually didn't "click" with me)

\- C (cool language due to very small library, still need to figure out some pet project to use it on).

\- Xamarin (very nice to build iOS / Android / WinPhone apps with 1 language but still optimised UI per platform)

\- SQL (I know enough to get around databases, but don't particularly enjoy this)

Hoping to pick up Lua in the future, perhaps in combination with a C or Objective-C program. Dabbled a bit in OpenGL, would like to make a real game with it one day, not just the very lame Pong clone I created.

If you don't enjoy learning new stuff, better move out of software development I think. Cause you won't invest your free time which means you'll get behind on other software developers who take their job more seriously. This in turn might make you much harder to employ.

Also: put stuff out on Github, be active on StackOverflow. Since I've put several (mainly abandoned) products om my Github this week, it seems a lot more recruiters have shown an interest in me. Though maybe it's just coincidence, I'll have to see how it works out in the long term ... Anyway, having some pet projects in different languages that interest you on your Github, might make it easier for you to pivot into new areas.

<comment><USER11> If you are looking for new languages, you should check out this list. [http://norvig.com/21-days.html](http://norvig.com/21-days.html)

I was finding diminishing returns learning languages that were really just slightly different notations: Java, C#, VB, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP. Each new notation felt more tedious and less thrilling. Then I started struggling with deep questions like, "these are so similar, why do they all even exist?" (Which is a great way to make new enemies).

Then I found that list and started with lisps. That's kept me fascinated for at least 3 years, learning macros from Let Over Lambda, abstractions and FP/OO from SICP, interpreters from PLAI, and syntax from Clojure Programming.

I just started learning type theory from F# Programming and Real World Haskell. I'm hoping to get bitten by the "Types Bug" just like I've been bitten by the macros bug.

Next after that I'm going to start learning APL/Q, and read the dragon compilers book, but at my current rate that'll be a few years out still.

I think it's entirely possible to keep circling around, learning new notations for the same old Java-like and Perl-like paradigms, and it's good to know what's out there in those domains, but don't stop with just those two!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Work with good people. Work for yourself (own projects, freelance, consultancy). Use your experience to work smarter than the young ones (and your peers if you can). Take adequate downtime. Travel the world. Specialise in technologies you find interesting.

Seems to be working for me :)

</comment><comment><USER13> Invent a new programming language.

<comment><USER14> Been there, done that. Wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Learn functional programming, then apply those techniques to your language of choice.

</comment><comment><USER16> Do something for the fun of it and/or the challenge, or to see "what if", without worrying about whether you can monetize it. This is of course assuming you've paid your bills already ;)

</comment><comment><USER17> Exercise regularly, eat organic, pray, meditate, attend good conferences, pick up a new domain such as "Internet of things" and create beautiful products that inspire you.

</comment><comment><USER18> Keep doing something new. After 32 years, I still love it.

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't know how you do it when you work for someone else. I've been developing software for 15 years and mis-management, ridiculous corporate culture, and being forced to work weekends to make up for the mistakes of my superiors nearly drove me from development completely.

Things got better when I started my own company.

</comment><comment><USER20> in this thread, a lot of rationalizing going on, trying to avoid the basic truth that IT/programming is for the most part well-paid wage slavery, and working at a desk/cubicle 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, year after year, decade after decade is an unnatural condition, akin to a form of torture.</comment>


Ask YC: Money, power, freedom, and open source. - <AUTHOR>

I've always thought it would be cool to put my code online for others to mess with.  But every time I think about it, I end up being inhibited by the question 'What if I want to make money off of this?' or I think 'By releasing this, I'll be wasting my competitive advantage.'  Then I get all conflicted thinking big general thoughts about capitalism vs. er... anti-capitalism (socialism? idealism? whatever you call it).
I'm currently 23 and being supported by my parents, which is nice because it offers me freedom, but lame for obvious reasons.  What I really want is the freedom to work on my ideas and the power to make them real.  I don't care much about money and am not very interested in going the VC -> IPO route, but I also realize that turning big ideas into reality may take a lot of money.  So part of this is me figuring out what trajectory to set my life on.  I guess I'll probably end up doing some combination of open / closed stuff, but I'm having trouble deciding where to draw the line.
I guess this is just the classic tension between open source vs. closed source playing out in my head.  Stallman vs. Gates.  I'm curious to see what YCers think of the issue. <comment><USER2> Virtualmin is my second Open Source based business, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about Open Source in business. But the fact is that it's more about you than about open source or proprietary software, and nobody can figure out where you stand on this stuff but you.

I'll tell you some of the negatives first:

Open Source users are bitchy. All the time. They (or, I guess I should say, "we", as I was an Open Source user and developer before starting a business based on it), paradoxically perhaps, feel entitled far more than users of proprietary software. I suppose it is the long history of abuse in the proprietary world that has trained their software users to never expect help from their vendor, unless they pay a lot for it. Users of Open Source software expect bugfixes and answers immediately, if not sooner. They are simply far more demanding, and it's much harder to weed out your toxic "customers", since you can't stop selling to them. Since I'm a believer in weeding out your most painful customers, this is a big problem, in my opinion.

You must have longer range plans with an Open Source based business. The pool of potential acquirers seems to be smaller, as even after the success of several well-known Open Source based businesses, it is still considered riskier than proprietary software. So, plan for a long haul and prepare to be able to show a HUGE userbase if you ever do want to get acquired or raise money...but the next few items make this easier.

And now a positive or two or three:

Open Source is easier to "sell", so growing your userbase is remarkably easier than with proprietary software. It takes free to the next level and it's not at all uncommon to see an Open Source project with millions of users within a couple of years of starting. Webmin, our Open Source core, is downloaded over 2 million times per year, just from SourceForge. That's a really nice pool of potential customers, and the kind of numbers that make investors and acquirers swoon.

Getting your users to talk about you is easier. Open Source is inclusive, and a big pre-requisite for encouraging evangelism from your users is for them to have some ownership in it. Nothing makes a user feel more involved than submitting a patch, contributing to the documentation, answering questions, etc. Some of these things are possible with any software, of course, and many companies manage to create a feeling of ownership without being open...but it's easier with Open Source. Open Source users are far more likely to be fanatics about your software, and far less likely to be critical of its flaws (to outsiders, but see the first point for how they behave within the community...it's a two-sided thing).

Balancing the business needs of a company and the needs of an Open Source community can also be challenging, and in ways that you probably don't anticipate if you haven't been involved in Open Source development on a few projects. Pretty much my whole development career I've been drawn to OSS projects and development...so I don't really know any other way to do things. But it does have its drawbacks.

I wrote an article about this very subject a while back on the Webmin blog, which might be worth reading:

[http://inthebox.webmin.com/open-source-and-business-a- precar...](http://inthebox.webmin.com/open-source-and-business-a-precarious- partnership)

I'm sure I've also posted a number of times on the subject here at news.yc. With about ten years of making my living off of Open Source software, I'm guessing I could be called a resident expert on the topic.

</comment><comment><USER3> Possible benefits from starting an open source project include name recognition, social status in the hacker tribe, a portfolio to show prospective employers, meeting other hackers, more competition for software companies, and the moral benefits of giving away useful tools to others.

If you're not committed to it and don't want the trouble of managing a mailing list and dealing with feature requests, you can still open-source it and wait for someone else fork it.

Keeping your software secret is good for practice and competitive advantage. It's a good strategy if you don't need much help from others and you're working on something difficult and non-obvious that could be useful in a future startup. But good problems like this are rare, so I suspect open- sourcing is the better choice for most projects.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think a good rule of thumb would be:

If it's at the core of your business, default is not to open-source. If it's tangential to your business, default is to open-source.

For example, while doing my first big web project, I'm making a pretty good (I think) web framework. I'm thinking of open-sourcing part of it at some point. But the specific project I'm working on, that will be completely closed- source.

<comment><USER5> _"... If it's at the core of your business, default is not to open-source. If it's tangential to your business, default is to open-source. ..."_

I would have thought it's the other way around.

Lots of code is just that, code. It doesn't make money by itself. You could try to sell it as is. But I'm not sure if you could make a living off it. On the other hand if you give it away [0] and let users own it something interesting happens. Firstly most users have trouble using it. Some others want additions but don't have the skill to do it. Or simply no time. Then there are others who rely on this software 24/7 but realise that division of labour means it's cheaper to get someone else to run and maintain the software.

The software I'm thinking about in particular is WordPress.[1] The software is free to use but most will probably pay a small fee to have their blogs hosted with domain names and other extras. The company automattic hacks on WordPress and various other projects building a business around the software they gave away for free. [2]

So how did WordPress start? How could it afford to give away it's business core at that time? Users flocked to WordPress after deserting Movable Type looking for fairer alternative. [3] The groundswell of users gave WordPress the opportunity to create a business.

I don't think the software is the core business. Converting ideas into software is the core business. Giving away the _"object code"_ of their ideas, allowed automattic to grow. [4]

[0] What license can make a lot of difference. I've heard of a lot of developers releasing software only to be screwed over by companies not abiding by rules of the license. I'm thinking about busybox

\- [http://126.96.36.199/search?q=cache:-utA38iMHlYJ:perens.com...](http://184.108.40.206/search?q=cache:-utA38iMHlYJ:perens.com/Articles/StandTogether.html+gpl+software+abuse+by+companies)

\- <http://gpl-violations.org/faq/violation-faq.html>

[1] <http://wordpress.com/about/>

[2] <http://automattic.com/about/>

[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress#History>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wouldn't care much about money either if my parents paid for everything ;)

Release it. If it's really amazing then you'll make a name for yourself. And then if you want to move on to the "next big thing" then you should have a bunch of people that are willing to invest in your ideas.</comment>


Google's Samba client for Android now supports SMBv3 - <AUTHOR> http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/07/19/googles-samba-client-android-now-supports-smbv3/ <comment><USER2> OMG! SMBv1 used more than month in this app for android, when this protocol used around the world for ransomwhear's attacks on Windows... R.I.P. dirty SMB</comment>


Free Windows XP-10 VirtualBox/Parallels Images from Microsoft - <AUTHOR> https://dev.windows.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms <comment><USER2> Microsoft have been offering virtual machines for years now [1].

I know they offered Virtual PC and VirtualBox previously, is the news that Parallels is now supported?

[1] [http://superuser.com/q/109944/23461](http://superuser.com/q/109944/23461)

<comment><USER3> Nope. They've offered Parallels for years too.

<comment><USER4> I mean, I don't know when they released windows 10 VM's, that might be new.

<comment><USER3> Not that either (proof: [https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/08/17/windows-10-vi...](https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/08/17/windows-10-virtual- machines-now-available-on-microsoft-edge-dev/))

Let's face it, this was a click bait (esp the free bit) and we all fell for it.

<comment><USER5> Well, it is "free as in beer", with some strings attached (90-day usage limit, no production use); still very useful for testing (this used to be at modern.ie, apparently moved to a new address).

<comment><USER6> Modern.ie redirects to this, not sure since when.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Correction: free limited Windows VM images for testing Microsoft browsers.

You can't just throw these on a copy of your favorite virtualization platform and have a free copy of Windows to legally do whatever you'd like with, indefinitely.

<comment><USER8> Indeed. Better off using [http://browserling.com](http://browserling.com) to test.

<comment><USER9> BrowserStack.Com is much better

<comment><USER10> Why do you feel it is better?

<comment><USER11> Maybe because of much bigger latency which makes debugging animations so sexy (almost impossible).

<comment><USER10> I remember having been hit by this issue in the past (I'm in Europe too). It made me use a local virtual machine instead with VirtualBox.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've used these for years in Web Development, they're invaluable.

</comment><comment><USER13> So the main point seems to be MS has killed modern.ie -site and redirect to this dev.windows.com site. Still useful once in a while although the big disk images are PITA to download and setup. I have better uses for my laptop SSD than to fill it with different IEs and Windowses :p

<comment><USER14> I use a service like browserstack instead for the occasions I need to test on IE

<comment><USER15> Can you use it to test sites on localhost, maybe through a ssh tunnel?

<comment><USER16> There are tools for this.. iirc BrowserStack is a service on top of Selenium WebDriver, and there's tooling for it in the node ecosystem. IIRC, there's decent Ruby tooling, but I prefer to do all my browser related things in JS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I know I'm old, but a 5Gig download just to run Edge on OS X? (And that's a 5Gug zipfile, I wonder how much of my SSD that's gonna eat unzipped?)

In the plus side, Chrome says "6 minutes left", and I've only just clicked download. I suspect my network bandwidth improvements over the years make this no less an imposition than the outrageous 200+Kb download for Doom over a 14.4k modem...)

<comment><USER18> Oh poor you. If I want to test my app on OSX safari I have to either buy a mac or find a hipster.

<comment><USER19> No you don't.

[http://www.macincloud.com](http://www.macincloud.com) works very well, and they have billing by the hour and versions of OS X ranging from Lion through to El Capitan.

No connection with them, just a satisfied customer.

<comment><USER20> A much cheaper way is to get it tested from freelancers on Upwork/Elance who have OSX!

<comment><USER21> Sometimes you need to see the issue first hand.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> What's the licensing situation for these VMs?

What can I use them for, for how long, and what limitations are in place?

<comment><USER20> Even if the licensing terms were liberal, are you going to use an OS that hasn't been issued system updates since ages? It will be riddled with malware the moment you connect to the Internet!

<comment><USER23> I would almost say "challenge accepted" \- this calls for a little test!

I don't believe that the images that Microsoft made available are so vulnerable as-they-are that they will be infected within hours...

<comment><USER24> You must not remember some of the more memorable worms like blaster. It was a complete nightmare and would own machines that weren't behind a firewall in minutes. Luckily long since patched, but it's only a matter of time for others.

<comment><USER23> True - those were the days...

However, I believe these OS-es come with certain presets that will not expose them to the wild-internet immediately. I assume (yes - assume) that MS has enabled the firewalls per default on these images, so unless you use them to browse to certain "entertainment sites" you should be quite ok...

Edit: ok, ran a lab-test (so not the real thing): Windows XP with IE6 on one VM, Kali with Armitage on the other. A "Hail Mary" of 22 exploits did not result in any session on the windows machine...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> 90 day limited demo version of Windows. Make sure you back up the original image in case your demo expires and you need to restore the image from the original.

I remember Microsoft used to offer ISOS of Windows with a 90 day limited trial key. There was a utility that would reset the demo clock as well as a command line option to reset it for another 90 days.

<comment><USER26> Can I register a valid XP key with it?

<comment><USER25> I don't see why not, as long as the license for that key matches the OS.

A friend of mine used to buy COA stickers from eBay that had XP keys on them for like $10 each. They are OEM keys so he used an OEM XP CD-ROM to install them with the keys on used systems. They would activate even if they have been used before. If activations run out you can call Microsoft and have them reset.

Windows 10 Keys are different, locked to the hardware. Windows XP keys can be transferred to a different system.

<comment><USER27> Just because you :can: do this doesn't mean it isn't a violation of the software license.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> On a OSX/Linux I was always using [https://github.com/xdissent/ievms](https://github.com/xdissent/ievms) to get Windows VM that I want.

</comment><comment><USER29> It's probably not the intended use case, but I use these more often for testing desktop applications than for testing web pages. It's a shame there's no 64-bit VMs.

</comment><comment><USER30> There is no IE11 on Windows 10 VM. It seems Microsoft are very committed to Edge. Or is this to avoid misuse of the testing VMs?

<comment><USER31> It wouldn't make sense as most users would never use ie 11 on Windows 10. It's possible, but it's hidden in the menu. Just get an Edge for Windows 10 VM and use the IE 11 on that, it should be there.

</comment></comment><comment> brian-armstrong I used the Edge image to test Web Audio in Edge and it was perfect. I was able to test my entire web app.

</comment><comment><USER32> if you want to use it with Vagrant: [https://github.com/whatwedo/vagrant- ievms](https://github.com/whatwedo/vagrant-ievms)

</comment><comment><USER33> Can the vmware converter make these work?

</comment><comment><USER34> are these still time limited? Because I'd rather have the desktop with feature limits than time limits. Having to reinstall the VM because of a 30-day limit is just a waste of time.

</comment><comment><USER35> These don't "auto-update" to the latest Edge browser, do they?

<comment><USER36> That would defeat the purpose of them having a large range of images available. These images are made so you can spin them up, test the site with a range of IE/Windows combos, and then spin things down again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Ah, hopefully one day the ReactOS project will be sufficient and not require these dodgy VMs.

In particular, I'd love to install ReactOS and build LibreOffice, er, natively.

<comment><USER38> why are they dodgy?

<comment><USER39> If these VMs use the same license as the ISOs, then they're under a 90-day evaluation license which disallows commercial usage. Maybe this is what he's referring to?

<comment><USER37> Pretty much nailed it in one :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> At some point someone is going to have ask the questions: Who is gaming HN, why is this news and at the top spot of HackerNews? MS has been offering this for years and yet every once in a while I see posts similar to this on the front page.

<comment><USER41> Surprisingly, not everyone is aware of everything that has ever been on the front page of HN.</comment></comment>


Volvo Cars to impose 112 MPH speed limit on all cars - <AUTHOR> https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/en-us/media/pressreleases/249678/volvo-cars-to-impose-112-mph-speed-limit-on-all-cars-to-highlight-dangers-of-speeding <comment><USER2> I want to find a reason to be angry/upset by this but I find I really can't justify ever needing or wanting to drive that fast. The best I can think of is that it won't be very effective at curbing speeding related fatalities. Besides the mostly obvious fact that vehical speed likely follows a bellish shape centered at/near the limit, so most accidents involving speeding will statistically still be near the limit which in most places is well under 112 MPH.</comment>


Ask HN: Developers, What annoys you about security within your company? - <AUTHOR> I am curious about how security affects your team. Does it hinders you? Bugs aren't well written? Lack of knowledge and can't understand the challenges you face? I want to be more empathetic towards my developers and help make each other better. <comment><USER2> The biggest thing you can do if you have developers that work on one of your teams is actually care about security, listen to them when they say there is a risk, understand it, challenge it and then address it. And if you or the business choose not to address a specific concern now, which can happen, go back to the team and explain the why of the decision to keep them in the loop -- this is not optional if you want the teams trust. Personally, with my teams I make sure they get feedback on decisions as quickly and clearly as I can when the business makes a call on product etc. I always seemed to have frustration with the lack of feedback as a developer and work hard to prevent that on my teams. A lot of times as a developer on a team (especially larger teams) it can feel like feedback is being given to the business but very little is coming back on decisions that are made. If the devs understand the concerns or limitations as to the why, many times they can come up with ways to make mitigation still happen but within some constraints that benefits the business still and doesn't let technical debt rack up. Taking the team out of that loop means you will get frustrated developers that see/feel that the company doesn't care, so in the end, why should they, bad cycle to get into.

And I don't think it can be said enough, do more than pay lip service to security. Care about security and work with the team to identify and address areas where there are problems. Especially in my experience startups always have this as a failure point. I've yet to see a single startup get security right early on, not saying some don't but almost always speed, getting investor dollars and "well come back to it" outweigh the security items raised. In the end this will always bite them, either in terms of cost to fix it later, or in embarrassment when it leaks or is hacked by a bored 14 yr old. Think of how many major startups/companies you can list that still had plain text passwords someplace, it is insane? Good logging is not an excuse to abandon good security practices.

I could ramble for a long time on this, but hopefully that gives some ideas.</comment>


Psychological effects of Internet use - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_effects_of_Internet_use

<comment><USER2> I'm currently reading Nick Carr's 'The Shallows'. Enjoying it so far and he makes a fairly strong argument on the neuro changes as our brains adapt.

I've also found it fascinating (yet obvious in hindsight) his discussion of how any technology has an impact on our intellect (it's 'intellectual ethics'). From the invention of clay tablets and papyrus to the typewriter, each has influence on the output and operations of our intellects.</comment>