Apply HN and Feedback: Kaleidoscope Corp (Centralizing Health Database) - <AUTHOR> I would love some input from the HN community about this idea we are purposing as of now. Maybe in my head I feel this is a need in the world, but I might be wrong.  With some feedback, we can improve on what we are making.
Currently, we are trying to create a centralized health data infrastructure to be used for the health industry. A health database where we can finally connect our health records together. In the health industry, every healthcare facilities, hospitals, and health record companies all do their own database to store patient's health record. This creates a problem where if you were to go to see a new doctor or check into a new hospital, they will never have any record of you. You would have to experience questionnaire paperwork about your medical history. Clearly no one remember every detail about their past medical experience or medications and so much time is wasted while you are ill. With a centralized health database, wherever you go, any physicians can be able to obtain your information.
That's from a patient's perspective, but for doctors and hospitals it gives easy accessibility to work with other doctors. Physicians can be update what past medications you have taken and what works. Hospitals can know what kind of patient they are dealing with when a new patient enters their facility.  We will also provide the necessary security to protect the patient's data. By being a centralized health database, doctors be doctors and hospitals can spend less on IT instead of become a tech company.
Health starts with us. It's been long enough where we have let the health industry try to mold itself into the digital age, but the health industry is having a hard time to adapt to today's technology. If patients do not stand up for what they want from the health industry and doctors, our health will not improve better for the future and you will still be in the waiting room filling out paperwork for the past 30 min. <comment><USER2> Healthcare is one of the last big industries that hasn't been revolutionised yet. That said the issue of medical data storage and sharing is a very big one and hits a very sensitive nerve on the general public. What you are describing is more or less an everyday reality for anyone who had some recent experience with healthcare either as a patient or a health professional.

As it was noted there were and currently are some major tech companies who tried to tackle this problem unsuccessfully up until now; the fact that they haven't managed to offer a viable solution yet speaks for itself. If you believe you have the knowledge and experience to work on something that truly is a very complex problem to solve you should prepare for a battle. There are literally hundreds of closed proprietary systems for medical record keeping only in the US. They have established marketing channels and collaborations and in fact are so deeply rooted to the workings of a hospital that feels like you would have to physically tear down and rebuild the whole thing from scratch! As we speak there are also some great cloud based alternatives with a different approach and business model (eg patient fusion).

On the other hand what you are describing is the future; some of the most important healthcare evangelists are pointing out that our fixation on the preservation of health data in these closed systems is costing us both in money and quality of services received. My opinion is it will happen once the general public embraces the idea of sharing (anonymised) personal health information which in turn will only happen when we realise that the benefit of such outweighs the possible risks of exposure of this information to a third party.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally agree with your first comment. We have talked to a lot of people ranging from young to old about this issue and we got a various amount of response from, "didn't know it was a problem" to "how safe can this be" to "why can't people build this awhile ago when I needed it."

Those major tech companies cannot solve this problem because they built their foundation completely wrong when tackling the electronic health record software. People like Jonathan Bush, CEO from athneaHealth, explained that the current health system needs to be wiped clean and to be start over. In some cases, big companies are trying to merge in order to solve this issue and to hope one company can rule them all. Having companies establishing channels and collaborations with hospitals is not something we fear about. What we fear most is the lack of options health record companies are not telling health care professionals about. There are better solutions out there to build a better health system. We have looked into a couple cloud based health record companies and we are hoping to work with them someday since we will feel they are on the right path on what we want to achieve as well. (patient Fusion is one of them)

That is why we want to build on this for the future. You are totally on the right track about everything you said in the last paragraph. Building this database will take time; therefore, we want to be there when the public is ready for it. This health database is just the tip of the iceberg. We already planned a path for it and how it can benefit the future as well as how it can change the way the health industry works.

Thank you for your comments and thoughts. If you have more questions or comments or anything, feel free to ask/comment. I would be happy to reply to your thoughts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Your diving headlong into an incredibly sticky issue. This is one of the core fears the public has been chewing on a long time... that the sharing of medical information would become so streamlined that nearly minimal effort would be required to profile an individual.

<comment><AUTHOR> I do understand how hard this task is since there are plenty of rules and regulations that has to be checked. However, the process does need to change regarding to how health data is dealt with. Currently, we are still applying the same knowledge from the 90s about containing health data as if they were still in vanilla folders stored on top of a shelf. The same mindset has already cost the US $33 million dollars trying to patch a broken foundation in the health data industry. As of today, multiple hospitals already have been hacked because the lack of knowledge healthcare professionals have about the digital world. Sure, there are plenty of red tapes around this issue; however, our idea isn't to cut those tapes down but to assist the health industry to move into the digital realm without changing their production in the health field.

As for the second part of your comment, I was wondering if you can explain that more since I'm a bit confused. I got lost about the "one of the core fears the public has" to "sharing of medical information would become so streamlined." I don't know if you are saying if a centralized health database is a bad thing or not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some huge companies are working on this issue. How would you deal with a country like Canada that socialized medical and the systems are more government run.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed, some huge companies are working on this issue. But to also point out, these huge companies have been working on since 2010. In addition, those companies are spending majority of their revenue on data storage and data security instead of better healthcare for patients or better facilities for physicians to operate in. What I can tell you is these companies won't play fair with each other since they all feel the need to protect their software platform on obtaining a patient's data. What makes our company different than those health record companies is the fact that we realize the end product will always be the same no matter what platform the doctor uses.

Our goal is to be like VISA credit card. Any type of bank or credit card company can use the VISA credit card and apply their own benefits on it; but we are third neutral party in charge of the data.

Countries like Canada, Germany, etc. with universal healthcare still have the same problem regarding data storage, data security, and data accessibility. If a patient from Canada ends up traveling to another country, he or she still have to face the same problem where their medical record won't be on them while traveling. Vise versa, if a patient enters Canada, he or she will also see the same problem. We want to link everything together. Sure it will take time because of politics issue, but we do believe that we are all one race. Bacteria and viruses do not care where you are or who you are, so why should we create boundaries and walls for our health data if it can help our life and save others' lives.

Hopefully I have addressed your issue. If not, please continue.

<comment><USER4> I think you answered it but I have another if you would indulge me. So when big companies dominate the sector you usually have to find a small slice to force the wedge in because they usually control the relationships. Do you see this as a slice to do that?

<comment><AUTHOR> We do believe entering the health industry as a database company can be the slice we need. We feel this database is the snowball we need to get things rolling. As mentioned by another reader, big companies are spending tons of money on data storage that it is costing the public money and wasting a lot health facility money that be used elsewhere. There are plenty of big companies controlling this health sector; however, they are slower to adapt to situations since they never started off as a data company but as a software company(SaaS). With our goals in mind, we do believe this can be a huge turning point not just in the health industry, but also how people interact with health.

Hopefully I answered your questions. Please feel free to ask more or comment more. It helps us understand how everyone feels about this project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Look at all these companies. There's 20+ companies working on this problem.

HumanAPI

GetMedal

BloomAPI

UsePrime

RecordCollect

ZweenaHealth

Doctrly

Carebox

GorillaBox

NuskiHealth

PicnicHealth

If you need my help, feel free to reach out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the list of companies. Some of the companies we looked into are either dead or does not exist anymore. Some companies like GetMedal, BloomAPI, and Doctrly have been on our radar as well.

There is a difference between us and the list of companies listed here. I would love to talk more with you if you want. The more help we find, the better of a product we can make based on the people's perspective.

<comment><USER5> Shoot me an email firstname.lastname@example.com :)

Looking forward to connecting. This is a tough space. :)

[http://www.engineersf.com/2016/04/17/a-list-of-the- technolog...](http://www.engineersf.com/2016/04/17/a-list-of-the-technology- companies-that-make-healthcare-it-easier-2/)</comment></comment></comment>


Apple hid a secret message in its latest YouTube video - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/11/apple-hid-a-secret-message-in-its-latest-youtube-video/ <comment><USER2> Extracted from meaningless fluff article: The fake blue-screen in the Apple video is:

 _Error 09102019_

 _This is just a thought. But it might be nice to have some sort of easter egg message in here for the hard core Apple fans that will stop the video._

 _01010011 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00111111 00100000_

 _01010111 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110_

The binary encoded message reads:

> _So you took the time to translate this? We love you._

<comment><USER3> Be sure to drink your Ovaltine

[https://youtu.be/zdA__2tKoIU](https://youtu.be/zdA__2tKoIU)

<comment><USER4> Oh the irony. Closing that video got Safari into some weird headless mode that doesn't show tab content. This bug has been around for 2-3 years (usually when you have ~100 tabs open and close playing videos).

[https://imgur.com/a/x9qP4uv](https://imgur.com/a/x9qP4uv)

<comment><USER5> That's more of a body-less mode...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My favourite easter egg of all time is in the brilliant BBC scifi comedy series Red Dwarf. In one episode the team end up in a dimension where everything is backwards. If you take one of the backwards sections and play it forwards there's a great easter egg... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNWGcYcBklE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNWGcYcBklE) (first part is backwards, second is the same scene forwards).

<comment><USER7> Slightly related, but I'm only aware of Gstreamer based video players that allow reverse playback: [https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/tutorials/ba...](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/tutorials/basic/playback- speed.html?gi-language=c)

Gnome Totem video player, at least last time I tried, could play a video with audio backward after pressing the comma key, it's an hidden feature as it wasn't mentioned in its keyboard shortcut page...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Instead of rapid firing spacebar to catch the frame, you can use [.] and [,] to advance and go back a single frame when paused.

<comment><USER9> This was my biggest takeaway from that article. As someone who like to dissect guitar instructional videos on YT, I wish I had known this earlier!

</comment></comment><comment> King-Aaron 2X faster than the 'best selling PC'

What then is the 'best selling PC'?

<comment><USER10> Probably a $500 HP laptop that Best Buy puts the most discount stickers on.

<comment><USER11> What's the market like for low end laptops? I'd expect the big retailers to get their own 'exclusive' skus to prevent price matching etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Even as binary aficionado I have to say this "secret" message is pretty weak.

<comment><USER9> It can be tricky to fit a meaningful message in a limited space. We had a hidden easter egg of the blog post header images of our blog at one stage. The background of the header image was an IBM punched card, with the message "<Our SaaS App Name> is the greatest HR app for small businesses" (or something like that) punched out.

Given the non techie audience of our app and blog, nobody detected the hidden message, much less decoded it in the 12 months we had them up there. We've since changed the header graphic style to something completely different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> There was a binary background in Silicon Valley season 5 episode 5, I paused it and spent a couple seconds decoding the first letter. Moments after I said it, my SO read out the entire message.

I had no idea she knew how to do that, much less do so in freeking real time.

<comment><USER14> She probably saw it/had translated it beforehand. Not a bad prank.

<comment><USER13> I thought this was a really good point, but it doesn't seem like the sort of prank that she'd make.

So I printed out "01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110010 01101011". It took slightly longer than I recalled, but she read it again pretty much right away (and also responded asking if this was news to anyone).

I think this just goes into the totally useless superpowers category.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Cool idea. I personally found the meaning of the hidden binary message a bit of a letdown.

</comment><comment><USER16> Despite how much I love technology and innovation, that 2 minute video made me a bit nauseous. It reminded me of the last part of the Koyaanisqatsi movie.

<comment><USER17> I do love Koyaanisqatsi. The last part is so tragic and poignant that I'm not really feeling that as a comparison. For those who don't know, this is where the music for the Dr. Manhattan origin sequence in The Watchmen comes from. Works even better here though.

Instead, for me, that apple video is a good match for the middle section i.e. breathless human industry and I think it is sorely missing the end sequence to reveal that this industriousness has forgotten something important. It is empty, futile and ignorant and will return to dust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> >The frames jab at the classic Blue Screen of Death that you might see when something goes real wrong on a Windows computer

You know Apple is a cult when they bring up the BSoD which doesn't exist for 4 years now. Now you get the Sad Face of Death.

</comment><comment><USER19> Yesterday evening I had Friends on and saw the following scene of which I was reminded when I read this 'article':

[https://youtu.be/agtJ6M0cj4M?t=16](https://youtu.be/agtJ6M0cj4M?t=16)

</comment><comment><USER20> They should express their love to tech people openning up osx instead of these lame attempts.

</comment><comment><USER21> "Steve, sorry the new phone is so ugly. Please forgive us."

<comment><USER22> Ulgy to some, beautiful to others. I am from the latter.

<comment><USER21> Do really think so? I mean it's not completely awful, but I don't think Steve Jobs would have liked the camera cluster that looks like it has just been stuck on the back.

<comment><USER23> It's hard to imagine what he would do. I'm sure he wouldn't like it, but if faced with the reality that the iPhone _needs_ a camera spec bump in order to stay competitive, would he really still stick to his guns and demand a flush back? Would he make the entire phone the thickness of the cluster?

(I'm assuming here that he couldn't magic the camera cluster thinner with his reality distortion field)

<comment><USER21> Yeah, I mean obviously I can't speak for him. And he doesn't have magic powers, but when he was looking after the iPhone there were no compromises, and this just looks like one big compromise.

<comment><USER23> Right. Maybe he'd gone for a heavier and thicker phone then.

1\. Modern camera

2\. No camera bump

3\. Thin phone

Pick two. Or else, what would be the solution?

<comment><USER21> If I knew that, I'd get paid Steve Jobs wages.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


ImageGlass – Free and open source image viewer - <AUTHOR> http://www.imageglass.org <comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/d2phap/ImageGlass](https://github.com/d2phap/ImageGlass)

[https://i.imgur.com/Q8LzV27.png](https://i.imgur.com/Q8LzV27.png)

[http://www.imageglass.org/download/themes](http://www.imageglass.org/download/themes)

[http://www.imageglass.org/download/extensions](http://www.imageglass.org/download/extensions)

[http://www.imageglass.org/download/languagepacks](http://www.imageglass.org/download/languagepacks)

I'm not affiliated with the project.

</comment><comment><USER2> Really cool to see more neat open source projects for Windows coming out recently.</comment>


What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/what-ancient-romans-used-instead-of-toilet-paper <comment><USER2> Funny story, as a Venezuelan and having toilet paper shortages I was forced to go water and soap.

Never comming back, not even with all the toilet paper in the world

The feeling is shared with alot of friends (we joke about this as a way to keep the good mood agains the crisis) but a lot of people have realized that toilet paper is not the correct way plus a huge waste of money (we have to pay around 0.5$ per roll nowdays)

Bidets are not a thing here but since alot of Venezuelans are on my same position and also alot of venezuelans have migrated to Argentina, a country where bidets are pretty common, I foresight it becoming a thing in the next few years.

Invest in bidets!

<comment><USER3> Forgive my ignorance, but how does 'water and soap' work?

I can immediately see the application of a tersorium, but not water and soap.

<comment><USER2> Just shower after you do your business, you can imagine the rest.

<comment><USER4> And how do you get dry after showering at a friend's house?

<comment><USER5> I imagine the underwear will absorb the excess water and evaporate it over time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Americans don't have a high ground here.

The first time I used a modern bidet was eye-opening.

It eliminates the funk. It's environmentally friendly. It's easier on the bum, if you have hemmaroids (I don't, but this is the report from friends and family that do suffer). And it just feels refreshing.

The toilet paper is only needed to sanity check cleanliness and dry out.

The American squeamishness over the bidet is irrational and overdue for a change.

<comment><USER7> OK I've seen the bidet crowd grow for years. Never used one but how does it actually remove all the filth? If I got shit on my arm or something I wouldn't be satisfied squirting some water on it - I'd scrub scrub scrub. I just can't see how it does as good a job. Any input?

Also - how do you prevent the bidet from becoming a fecal squirtgun? It sits inside the toilet no? Aren't you in effect washing off with everyone's shit mixed in?

<comment><USER8> If you had shit on your arm you'd just scrub it without water?

Filipino uses a system called tabo, or sometimes a hand hose bidet (I call it the bum gun). If the pressure of bum gun is strong enough, well, it's like a pressure gun. You shoot it at 45 degrees angle (cause 90 hurts lol).

If the pressure is not strong enough, then use it like tabo. Tabo is a water scoop. You water your hand, you water your butt, then you soap both of them, and wash it out. It's a shower but just for your butt.

This sounds a little bit weird and disgusting but it is the cleanest since it's like a shower. Nothing beats a soap and scrub.

If there's tissues, take a tissue, pat down your butt so it's dry, put it in the bin.

Hope that explains it!

<comment><USER7> I also wouldn't just rinse it with water.

And what of the fecal aggregate?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Importantly, if you're a world traveler, is to know if the culture uses toilet paper at all, and if they do, is it safe to flush or do you put it in a nearby trash bin?

[https://wheredoiputthepaper.com/](https://wheredoiputthepaper.com/)

Memorable advice:

> Loving your work, not many people go to Myanmar (Burma), and if you happen > to find a toilet (and these days they tend to be Western-style sitters > rather than squatting over hole sorts), put the paper in the basket or bin > provided. It's worth noting here, that if you're caught short on the road, > it's best not to go too far off track to find a bush as there are an awful > lot of landmines littered about.

<comment><USER10> A can for TP next to the toilet seems the default all over the developing world, assuming TP is used. I guess the plumbing is fragile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have read the glowing endorsements of bidets on reddit and HN for a long time. I've researched after-market bidets that would be suitable for my bathroom. I've bookmarked a few that seem suitable and have good reviews.

But there is one thing which stops me. I'm not sure of the exact details. Even in this thread, I don't know the brass tacks of using one. Do I turn on the sprayer and that is that? Or do I mechanically rub my ass with my hand during/after the anus gets wet? Then do I use toilet paper to dry? Just how much of my ass is going to get wet? Then of course I need to use soap and water to clean up my hands. But someone else below said they use soap and water on their butt. Too much is left to the imagination.

Does anyone want to provide a detailed, step-by-step process of what I should do once I install one?

<comment><USER12> Yeah, if you just spray and pray you're going to have a bad time.

The way I was taught as a Middle Eastern man was: first use toilet paper at least three times to remove the majority of the material. Secondly, hold the spray hose or the bottle in your right hand and point downwards towards your perineum from the FRONT of your legs. Use your left hand to lift your junk and have two fingers down there. Now pour water over your left hand towards the perineum, and let the fingers carry the water and rub to clean out the ass crack. Usually a single litre water bottle is enough to feel extremely clean and refreshed. This method obviously works better if you're squatting, but I use it with western toilets too. The most common mistake people make is to try and put their hands behind their back or pour the water from behind - makes a mess and doesn't clean right. The imagery of the cleaning motion is like a woman fingering herself.

<comment><USER7> ...so you have to use your hands to clean shit out of your ass? This does not sound like a good thing.

<comment><USER13> They wash their hands. What's so gross about them going extra lengths to cleanse themselves? Its not like they're going to then ignore their very hands, considering for many, its a religious law to be clean.

It seems like bidet fear but 10x. For no good reason.

<comment> frosted-flakes Have you ever got poop on your hands? That smell does not go away with just soap and water.

<comment><USER14> I think for millions of people around the world who get poop on their hands daily, the smell does go away.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> There's a YouTube channel, called Invicta, that produces videos that cover how ancient civilizations handled commonplace tasks; their "How They Did It" series includes videos on things like how ancient Romans ran elections, paid taxes, and went to the bathroom.

Not part of that playlist, but a beginning recommendation of mine is their video "Everyday Moments in History - A Roman Soldier Prepares Dinner"([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-l_EbXE3LU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-l_EbXE3LU)).

</comment><comment><USER16> > Speaking of which, it's high time that we consider changing how we clean > ourselves after we use the toilet. Tersorium, anyone?

Rather than the Tersorium (basically a shitty sponge), the answer is the bidet or the bidet shower[1] which is common in the Middle East and Asia.

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

<comment><USER17> Just two degrees of click separation to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_stick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_stick)

<comment><USER18> That was way more enlightening than a wiki page on excement wands ought to be. A gem hidden in the muck so to speak.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm still surprised how many people here get defensive when it gets pointed out that toilet paper is not the best solution for cleaning up. Everybody should try using a bidet sometime and see the difference for themselves.

<comment><USER20> It's not the best, but it works pretty great in the end: one is reasonably clean until one can properly clean themselves. It's available everywhere (not just at home), easy to carry and easy to dispose of.

Wet wipes are a nice upgrade for those that can't stand the thought of TP, although they're usually not that easy to dispose of when not at home.

<comment><USER21> And wet wipes are kind of expensive and wasteful. A bidet is just so much simpler (jet of water cleans you, washable rag dries you).

Honestly, I don't get what the big deal is. People latch on to a solution that still leaves something behind, when another solution is both cheaper and more effective (and eliminates the occasional itching you get if you didn't do a good job with TP). My only complaint is that there not common.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go "WTF?" One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other "WTF" thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with water and soap after doing your business. The idea of just dry wiping was...

(To this day, whenever I go to Japan and sit on a bidet, I can't help but think "ahh, civilization.")

<comment><USER23> As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ?

If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !

<comment><USER24> > green

Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well. Plus most of us westerners would probably balk at using cold water, so we'd waste a lot of energy heating it up too.

<comment><USER25> > Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well.

Well, using paper costs more water than using water itself. Also, the ecological problems of using paper is far worse than using water alone[0][1].

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

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper#Environmental_con...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper#Environmental_considerations)

<comment><USER26> Water has a really high heat capacity, meaning that it takes a lot of energy to heat.

Intuitively, how much water do you think the toilet paper of one bathroom visit would heat, if usef as fuel? (Answer: much less than what you would use to replace TP)

<comment><USER27> How much energy is used to make TP and transport it to your local store?

<comment><USER26> Sure, there's that. Otoh the water will alo have a big energy footprint before heating in the avg municipal water service case. But these things don't really change the order of magnitude energy difference that exists in the setup.

I got curious and did a napkin calculation.

A sheet of TP weights 1.5 grams and you might generously use 10 sheets per visit. Assuming fuel properties of wood, that's 250 kJ of heat energy when burned. That's enough to heat only 1.5 kg of 10C mains water to body temperature.

<comment><USER27> There's a lot of water and energy used turning trees into paper as well that this neglects.

Also just thinking about how much energy is in the TP doesn't account for shipping it around at all.

I have no idea what the energy balance is, i just think this thread had vastly oversimplified.

Even the water volume may or may not be an issue. If you live somewhere that water is precious it's a much different concern than if your location uses surface water that just ends up back in the same river downstream after a trip through your plumbing, for example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Maybe it's possible that the shared poop cleaner had some unknown health benefits as well. Obviously we all understand the risks, but there are potential upsides as well. I'm not familiar what they could be precisely, but I know there's a lot of ongoing research into stool transplants and other poop-related remedies.

</comment><comment><USER29> I can't imagine living in a society before they invented the three seashells.

<comment><USER30> All the unecessary swearing...

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Not sure, but ...

Pro-Tip: If you come to the US, please throw poopy toilet paper in the toilet and not the little trash can next to the toilet which is meant for women's hygiene products.

<comment><USER18> This is not true in all cases, if unsure, ask, or look for any helpful hints (signs, presence of tp in garbage) Its really fine either way. Many places not in large cities are on well and septic and perfer you not flush tp unless absolutely needed. "If it didnt come out of your body, it does not belong in sewage" is a better rule of thumb. Just because many americans harmfully use their toilet as a trash can does not make it correct to do so.

<comment><USER32> Note that OP was specifically referencing America. If there is anywhere in the US where leaving toilet paper in the trash can is the cultural norm I haven't been there, and I've lived with septic tanks for probably half my life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> _Human urine is full of ammonia and other chemicals that are great natural detergents. If you worked in a Roman laundromat, your job was to stomp on clothes all day long—barefoot and ankle deep in colossal vats of human pee._

It gets worse, the ancient Romans also used urine as a mouthwash to whiten their teeth.

<comment><USER34> wait, our urine doesn't contain ammonia, we convert nitrogen to urea as it is far less toxic than ammonia.

<comment><USER35> > Because urea in urine breaks down into ammonia, urine has been used for the > cleaning properties of the ammonia therein. In pre-industrial times urine > was used – in the form of lant or aged urine – as a cleaning fluid.[25] > Urine was also used for whitening teeth in Ancient Rome.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine#Cleaning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine#Cleaning)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> The most annoying part about this article is that he never specified how they cleaned his son's butt.

<comment><USER37> [Narrator voice] They didn't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> _Today, toilet paper is ubiquitous in Western cultures; it's a US$9.5 billion- a-year industry in the United States. Americans, in their typical excess, use more than 50 pounds per person per year! About 1.75 tons of raw fiber are required to manufacture each ton of toilet paper. That doesn't seem sustainable, and frankly, I'm surprised that people haven't protested more as a result._

 _Given these numbers and the marketing efforts behind them, it's hard to argue that the use of toilet paper is somehow natural. On the contrary, toilet paper is nothing more than a technology. So the next time you're enjoying a morning constitutional, think about the fact that defecation and urination are more than biological functions; they are cultural activities that involve artifacts and technologies that change through time._

My takeaways:

* Lots of opportunity in taking on the "dirty jobs" that don't get the glamor.

* Something so ubiquitous and integral to our daily lives is a relatively recent introduction... It's not "perfect," nor "finished;" thinking about this mainstay as a piece of technology that can be made better holds opportunity.

<comment><USER39> "One tree produces about 200 rolls (100 pounds (45 kg))." [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper)

Now, how much land each tree needs, and how long it takes to grow is not exactly easy to calculate. But, something like 2 * 200 trees per acre / 20 years for fast growth forest ~= 1/20 acre of forest per person for sustainable production does not sound bad.

And that's assuming you can't use waste streams from some other processes like sawmills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> That article links at the bottom to the original source, [https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-roman- bat...](https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-roman-bathrooms/)

</comment><comment><USER41> I pee in a sealed orange juice jug. It takes me about 3-4 days to fill it, at which point I take it with me during my morning garden walk about and pour it on top of my compost pile.

The resource is too valuable to piss away.

</comment><comment><USER42> Very similar article by the same author a year ago: [https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-roman- bat...](https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/ancient-roman-bathrooms/)

There was even a HN discussion about it: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16757044](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16757044)

</comment><comment><USER43> Just try a bidet, please. It's so worth it.

I had a "itchy butt" for the longest time. Tried many methods, saw many doctors (not fun!). Found no real solution. Flushable wet wipes helped somewhat, but didn't completely solve the problem and it would come back from time to time. Plus I was seriously concerned about clogging.

Then tried a bidet for a week, and... years of pain (I mean, itchiness), gone, just like that.

</comment><comment><USER44> Great documentary I watched today that touched on this very subject "Toilet the Unspoken History"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZHm3vkavgM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZHm3vkavgM)

</comment><comment><USER45> Here in Brazil is chuveirinho, we used to use the bidets but it just takes up took much room and it looks ugly after usage. Inside the toilet the chuveirinho works well then we use the paper to finish the cleanup.

</comment><comment><USER46> I really like the water gun next to the toilet in Thai bathrooms. It's multi- functional, not only can you use it as a bidet, but you can use it to wash other things.

<comment><USER47> It is called a 'bum gun'. =) So much better than paper!

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Toilet paper vs. water.

The decision is clear, at least in my opinion: Water.

Water, by far.

And from so many angles (hygeine, cost, ecology, availablity, ikkiness, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER49> seems like the sponge can spread disease.

</comment><comment><USER50> an ancient Roman would often grab a tersorium (or, in my technical terms, a "toilet brush for your butt").

Picture: [http://static.nautil.us/16038_96fb9b48825b741083d35b0137af1b...](http://static.nautil.us/16038_96fb9b48825b741083d35b0137af1be0.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER51> I thought they used the 3 shells...

<comment><USER17> One up, one down, and one to polish?

</comment></comment><comment> em-bee "no business is complete until the paperwork is done" (author unknown)

</comment><comment><USER52> TL;DR: An ancient Roman would often grab a tersorium.[...] A tersorium is an ingenious little device made by attaching a natural sponge (from the Mediterranean Sea, of course) to the end of a stick

</comment><comment><USER53> I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but- wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that...

I said I wonder why, I guess that was a lie. It's about having marketable content, "making the reader feel related to the situation", etc. It does strike me as bad practice though, especially when it comes to actual news. Sometimes I read an investigative piece and think to myself that it might be over soon, after all what could the author possibly have left out at this point, only to take a look at the scrollbar and realize I am at 50%. I wished for a bit more brevity, not the brevity of leaving out facts for the short clickbaity stuff but leaving out all the unnecessary filler material.

<comment><USER54> For real, I can't stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, "It was a foggy winter day in …", "we reached a hidden part of the shore", "is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you'll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.

<comment><USER55> Not all writing is utilitarian.

People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, _as a whole_ , _on average_ , are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence.

> To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but- > wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for > that...

For an introduction to South Asian "toilet technology", both very accurate and very humorous: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ)

[EDIT: also quite humorous is how this is getting down-voted into the toilet. Is it defensiveness? Angry denial?]

<comment><USER56> most people don't click on something titled "What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper" to read an anecdote about a stranger's vacation to denver or the history of toilet paper, hn audience aside

<comment><USER55> > most people

or, perhaps, most tech people. Not all tech people, of course, as is evident from other comments on this page.

The article was on _Nautilus_ , not _The New York Times_ or _Scientific America_ or _Linux Journal_.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ivy League Students "Hack" for Post-Pandemic Business Solutions - <AUTHOR> https://steveblank.com/2020/08/17/hacking-4-recovery-2/ <comment><AUTHOR> Stanford hosted a "Hacking for Recovery" class in which students presented well-researched action plans to help existing businesses recover and new ones to start, post-pandemic. From "AntiCovidA.I." to a pandemic advisory service for travelers, the results are worth the read.</comment>


Why Reddit is broken, and how to fix it - <AUTHOR> http://codeulate.com/?p=3

<comment><USER2> There is an accelerating flood of niche social news sites; it seems more likely to me that in a few years there will be a huge number of these kind of sites (and many platforms to let you make your own), which in aggregate will probably follow a power-law distribution of user populations.

Recommendations is a good idea (never figured out why it doesn't work at reddit), but only for the 'fat head' of the curve, for the long tail the problem almost takes care of itself. Also, better categorisation would be useful, and would help with recommendations too.

<comment><USER3> I just don't know. Don't we need a few major social news sites as well as the smaller ones?

<comment><USER2> Sure, I was just saying that the lowest-common-denominator problem will mainly affect bigger sites, and more nichey stuff will be better served by topic- specific sites.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting. You could almost s/reddit/digg/g and get the same article.

IMO, part of the downside of the whole "Web 2.0" social-whatever type sites these days is that they're so easy to create. Digg. Reddit. Mixx. Etcc. Why fix the broken one, when we can build a new one over a weekend (plus pizza and beer).

As the author outlined, they go through a standard-ish 4-step program as a sort of half-life dying off (at least as far as the hard-core geek users are concerned).

I postulate that you can't fix Reddit or Digg, and Mixx will be broken soon too. These sites start out by attracting the leading-edge hacker techie types. The ones who understand about a product being in beta (and feel a sense of elitism for knowing about it early on), they will report bugs to you (often with a 9 paragraph writeup of how to reproduce the bug(s)). They will submit good content, and comment on articles, and vote, etc. But they won't click on ads, or do other things that inch the site toward profitability.

So, there is no choice but to cast a wider net, gather in a lower-level audience. The folks that haven't yet seen a cat with a lime peel on its head (at least we're not getting pancake bunny anymore) flock to the site. With the masses comes the material that the tech crowd doesn't really care for.

news.YC might be the exception, if only because it's more hyper-topical, and it doesn't seem to be concerned with making money (I think news.YC is more of a flytrap for potential investees).

So, enjoy Digg and Reddit while they're young, hold on as long as you can through the growth phase, and then bid them farewell.

Maybe they will one day manage to recover. Maybe we'll read about their recovery here. Or on Slashdot...

<comment><USER5> Was Digg _ever_ good?

Not to mention, unlike Reddit, they weren't neutral. They would try to squelch certain stories and ban users. They shut down all submissions after their attempted squelching of the HD-DVD hex key didn't work. They banned unpopular viewpoints. Censorship was de rigueur.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> With respect to "social" websites, I think this fellow has the right analogy - they are like nightclubs.

[http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/11/facebook-apps- faceb...](http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/11/facebook-apps-facebook- trap.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> I always assumed that the reddit recommended page used filtering based on the submission titles. Maybe not. Any idea what algorithm it uses?

<comment><USER8> I think it was supposed to cluster users who often voted the same way, and then infer that if a user voted up an article, most people in the same cluster as that user would also like the article.

It never worked for me unfortunately.

<comment><USER9> _It never worked for me unfortunately._

Me neither.

I wonder why it didn't work. They certainly have enough of a dataset to play with by now. I wonder if it's computationally too intensive to continually update each user's results, or too difficult to come up with a good algorithm.

Does this "recommended page" problem bear any resemblance to the Netflix prize problem?

Creating a good recommended page would certainly lure me back to reddit.

<comment><USER7> I don't think the founders have much of an incentive to change reddit a whole lot. Also, the existing algorithm is definitely computationally intensive: it takes 12 seconds to generate a new recommended page.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This post makes the mistake of assuming that reddit and similar sites actually implement "wisdom of crowds". They don't. They don't because you get to see the 'most popular' answers and choose from those to vote on, if you really wanted WoC to work you'd need to present people random stories to vote on. (This is part of what I attempted to do in my <a href="<http://www.jgc.org/blog/2007/09/wildfire-has- launched.html>">Wildfire Facebook application).

He also proposes Bayesian filtering as a suitable technique for presenting the recommended page. Despite that fact that I'm a Bayesian-head (see <a href="<http://getpopfile.org/>">POPFile for example) I don't think that's a total solution. You can do ML for news (it's an old idea, see the 20 newsgroups test set for example) and I have a private 'reddit' which I use as a feed reader that does ML.

But I think if you want to solve the 'reddit problem' you actually need to give people the chance to control the 'crowd' that they are getting recommendations from. I'd like to see (actually, I am building) an application that's reddit-like, but uses a combination of ML and social aspects to get a better view of interesting stories.

Some of this I wrote about here.

</comment><comment><USER11> I have an idea for the Reddit people. The old people was the one you got when the community at Reddit was the old community, but the community now is a lot bigger, as there is a lot of people that there wasn't here then, and there is a lot of people that is gone too. So, imagine you want the old users to get the classic Reddit experience again, how would you do it? Just identify who the classic Reddit users were (that's easy, just check the time at which they did sign up) and let them access to a Classic Interface, where karma counts as if only they were part of the Reddit community, and nobody else.

That would make the new reddit behave as the old reddit.

Would that be feasible?

<comment><USER12> I don't think so. The site has grown past a critical point and caused the quality of submissions to submarine below anything the "old" crowd has any interest in. To paraphrase a comment I saw on reddit: it has degraded to the lowest common denominator -- politics.

<comment><USER11> So your point is that the old crowd is now nowhere to be seen in the site?

I also found the approach to solving this problem by the Jaanix website fascinating (<http://jaanix.com/>).

<comment><USER12> No. I'm sure plenty of the old users are still there. The problem is that there are too many new users polluting the community with less than worthless comments and submissions that are completely off topic from what was once the norm and driving force behind the community.

Reddit was once a great place, but its time came and went. Now there's n.yc, and whenever this site starts to drift off on a tangent, something else will crop up to keep us entertained. I think it's just the cycle of life for social bookmarking sites.

I have been working on an algorithm to solve the problem, but I'm not yet ready to release it out in the open. :-)

<comment><USER11> My point exactly: let new users see only the submissions of old users, and voila! you have the classic reddit again between us.

Somebody at the reddit thread for this subject did propose the same thing there...

<comment><USER12> Yeah, that's a good solution. I guess I just didn't understand that from what you posted originally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Baysian filters requires quite a lot of training to start working effectively. People don't want to rate hundreds of articles before they start getting good content.

<comment><USER14> People have been rating reddit articles for over two years -- and the recommendation filter _still_ doesn't give good content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> "how to fix it"

Vote for Ron Paul. He'll fix everything.</comment>


Amazon joins Walmart in push for online sales tax - <AUTHOR> http://washingtonexaminer.com/carney-amazon-joins-walmart-in-push-for-online-sales-tax/article/2503738

<comment><USER2> The crux of the article is this:

Amazon joins Walmart in push for online sales tax _not out of some newfound concern for "marketplace fairness," but because Amazon's business model is changing in such a way that now Amazon stands to benefit from this tax.

In order to provide faster shipping, Amazon is building warehouses throughout the country. These warehouses constitute a "physical presence," which requires them to collect sales taxes, in any event. So, if Amazon is going to have to collect sales taxes under the existing "physical presence" doctrine, it may as well try to expand online sales taxes to whack its smaller competitors who don't have a 50-state network of giant warehouses._

Sigh!

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure if I'd be unhappy about paying sales tax on Amazon purchases if it meant free same-day shipping as a Prime member (or free next-day shipping for non-Prime), which is what I recall they're looking at switching to once their network of warehouses is ready.

<comment><USER4> I just want Amazon Fresh, then I never have to leave the house.

<comment><USER5> That's more or less what they're working towards. Although Safeway.com can already deliver that.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, but the online interface and experience is atrocious. Tried it a few times and it simply doesn't compare to going to the store.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Takeaway: you will already be paying sales tax on your Amazon purchases in the future, and Amazon want to force other retailers to do the same in order to keep the playing field level.

<comment><USER8> I'm not so sure this is a playing field leveling as much as it is someone who grew massively from eating a certain fruit scorching the field the fruit grows on after he's grown into a giant.

(I say this as a fan of Amazon -- I use them all the time and will continue to do so, but this is a purely shrewd corporate move and shouldn't be confused with making things fair).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> So much for Amazon's risible old saw that "sales taxes vary so much among jurisdictions that calculating taxes would be an onerous burden for us". There is some business size at which that is true, but Amazon has never been that small. Lots of folks use Vertex: <http://www.vertexinc.com/solutions/indirect/sales-tax.asp>

Since Amazon has been growing its SaaS business for some time now one had to expect they were eventually going to want to make operating shopping cart checkout by yourself as tricky as possible. They might start lobbying municipalities to pile on the complications now that they're on the "right" side of this dispute.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm surprised this article made no mention of the affiliate nexus laws that have been passed over the past few years. The law was first passed in New York requiring Amazon to collect sales tax from NY customers. NY claimed Amazon's NY "associates", affiliates earning commissions for sending customers to Amazon, represented a physical nexus. Amazon agreed to collect the tax in this case, but it opted not to collect tax in other states who enacted a similar law. Instead Amazon effectively "fired" all of the affiliates living in those states. In one case Fat Wallet, a major player in the online affiliate industry, moved their company out of Illinois because they lost many of their affiliate partners. Illinois didn't gain anything and lost a source of income tax. This has been a major issue in the affiliate industry as it cuts off huge sources of revenue for affected affiliates. Amazon is pushing for the federal government to step in partly because they don't want to lose their online marketers. Secondly, they don't want to maintain a database of tens of thousands of tax jurisdictions across the country.

<comment><USER9> _maintain a database of tens of thousands of tax jurisdictions across the country._

This was always a red herring. Vertex (and presumably others, although I've only worked with Vertex) already maintains this database, and will help any company calculate taxes for a reasonable fee. Corporations with far lower revenues than Amazon have been taxing in many jurisdictions for decades.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The lobbyists are going to be the death of the United States.

I can't blame Amazon though, just looking out for themselves which is the same as the rest of us do.

<comment><USER12> > The lobbyists are going to be the death of the United States.

I can't blame the lobbyists either, they're just looking out for themselves the same as the rest of us do.

I can blame the legislators. They're the ones with a monopoly on force wielded against us for their own gain.

<comment><USER13> I can't blame the legislators either, they're just looking out for themselves the same as the rest of us do.

I can blame the electorate. They're the ones granting the power and the legitimacy to the force wielded against us.

<comment><USER9> I can't blame the electorate either; they're just looking out for themselves the same as the rest of us do, because they are in fact the rest of us. There is no candidate now alive who will not rapidly succumb to the temptations of the lobbyists if given the opportunity. The problem can't be solved by voting for "good" people.

I don't know _who_ the hell to blame. It's the system man!

<comment><USER14> I can't blame the system either - it exists because of those darned corporations, lobbyists, politicians, and the electorate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Having just filed my taxes, and gone through the "so how much tax free stuff did you buy online?" rigmarole this would actually make my life easier. The article calls all but eBay and Overstock.com "Mom and Pop" shops. A real local store that happens to sell stuff online will actually benefit from this law. States will benefit, since this law will actually level things. The only places that will suffer are Amazon's smaller competitors, which otherwise would just turn around and try to crush the local brick and mortar small shops.

</comment><comment><USER16> Just noting that this article is from last August.

<comment><AUTHOR> Note that the Marketplace Fairness Act has been reintroduced in the Senate: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/13/us-usa-tax- online-...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/13/us-usa-tax-online-sales- idUSBRE91C1IC20130213)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Yay for using government to blast competition to little bits!

<comment><USER18> Not that this is anything new. The government has granted a duopoly in almost all markets for cable/ internet services, and local governments are being sued for attempting to bring in their own networks.

As much as it sucks, money is power.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Bad from an environmental perspective: Mail delivery uses a fraction of the carbon of driving to the store.

<comment><USER20> Even if that's true, solving an environmental problem by applying different sales tax depending on how you buy something is wacky and undoubtedly fraught with inaccuracies and unintended consequences. A much better and more direct solution for the externality of carbon emissions is a carbon tax.

<comment><USER21> Because carbon taxes have no weird, unintended consequences.

<comment><USER9> Just because you don't like the consequences doesn't mean the carbon tax supporters don't intend them.

At least carbon taxes are better than cap'n'trade. That scheme is corruption on wheels. I actually wouldn't mind carbon taxes if I could believe that they would completely forestall cap'n'trade.

<comment><USER22> What is wrong with cap and trade? I don't have a strong understanding of the proposed law but it stands to reason that the free market would be able to find the most efficient method of reducing emissions.

<comment><USER23> Whatever you think about cap and trade, it's not a free market thing.

By definition a "free market" is free of government interference. A system created by and run by the government, with mandatory participation is about as anti-free market as it gets.

If a company can't opt-out of participation then it's not a free market.

<comment><USER22> For some reason I thought it was a plan treat carbon emissions as something that could be traded. So if I have a factory and lowering my carbon emissions would cost me $5000 per ton/day and you had a different type of factory that could lower it's emissions for $1000 per ton/day I could sell you my emissions for a negotiated price (in this example, let's say we settled on $1400 per ton/day) and you can lower your emissions and I can keep chugging along. The same amount of carbon is in the atmosphere but it only cost $1400 per ton/day and you got to pocket some money to make your factory run cleaner.

I understand now that it is much more complicated than that but I like the idea of what I thought it was.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Appcubator - Easy way to Prototype Web Apps - <AUTHOR> https://appcubator.com/showhn/

<comment><USER2> This is a really, really, really great idea that I've been thinking should be practical for a couple of months now. I wish these guys the best of luck. I even started work on a (not yet even vaguely functional) prototype of an open- source version of pretty much the same idea ( [https://github.com/seldo/makomi](https://github.com/seldo/makomi) )

</comment><comment><USER3> I think my chief interest in these kinds of ideas is in enabling designers/et cetera to flesh out their ideas for certain interfaces/functionality/tools. It's much easier to express why an idea is cool and worth pursuing (esp. when getting others to come on board and build with you) when you have a prototype that can implement parts of your vision.

There's definite value in giving designers agency in expressing ideas interactively and aesthetically. So I'm really curious if this tool will be used like that. I'm definitely more a designer than a developer, so I think this would make it easier to being implementing an idea without getting frustrated with trying to DIY my own backend.

</comment><comment><USER4> So, a place for non technical people to make websites and call themselves as co-founders?

<comment><USER5> Why would lowering the technical barrier to access be a bad thing when it helps people flesh out their ideas?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Looks really interesting.

Just a quick note: You should really turn off the django DEBUG flag... [http://ilter- ourbnb.appcubator.com/Listings_Page/?query=&fie...](http://ilter- ourbnb.appcubator.com/Listings_Page/?query=&field_json=\[%22description%22%2C+%22city%22%2C+%22price%22%2C+%22photo%22\])

</comment><comment><USER7> I know these guys and I'm continually impressed with the quality of the work they put out. Good work!

</comment><comment><USER8> This is an excellent idea. I remember seeing a similar attempt years ago from the guys at IBM - although it was a PHP app.

The guys could drag a data source on to a widget and automatically configure it. It was amazing.

Your site is a work in progress but so far so good! :)

</comment><comment><USER9> Very very interesting stuff. Looking forward to where you guys go with this. If implemented well, this COULD be the new geocities WITH backend. Loving it

</comment><comment><USER10> "Fill in with Facebook"

Good idea...

<comment><USER11> Agreed. Even though having a "Sign Up with Facebook" link would do about the same it seems more like you are offering a convenience rather than begging for auth keys.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I really like how I can just drag the social login buttons, and it just works! I would definitely use this in the future because I don't have to worry about the individual social login API's anymore. Best of luck guys!

</comment><comment><USER13> What on boarding service did you use? Fantastic Job!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Thanks for the compliment. We build out own onboarding service with some help from external JS libraries. It's still a little glitch but I hope it was helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I feel like this could end up being a pretty good educational tool to get people/students/whoever interested in developing web applications as well.

</comment><comment><USER15> FYI...Your FB Auth is in Sandbox mode.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Thanks for the notice. We've fixed it just now. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> looks like a pretty awesome tool, making web dev possible for anyone. excited to see where this goes!

</comment><comment><USER17> Great idea. Now going to test it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Looks nice. Building web apps doesn't have to be hard and these guys prove it.

</comment><comment><USER19> I'm pretty blown away at how easy the build-a-twitter demo was. Awesome work!

</comment><comment><USER20> Nice, def going to use this.

<comment><USER4> Yeah you would, since your account was created 4 minutes ago for this purpose. :/

<comment><USER14> I've got to say, for someone with nothing but negative comments on this thread, you've yet to produce something constructive.</comment></comment></comment>


Tell HN: STS-135 The Final Flight of the Space Shuttle flies today. - <AUTHOR>

Barring bad weather, STS-135 Atlantis will lift off for the final flight of the US Space Shuttle program at 11:26 a.m EDT. <comment><AUTHOR> We're staying at a local state park just across the river to try to see it go. My kids are young but I want them to have a chance to see the last flight of an interesting chapter in American space exploration.

</comment><comment><USER2> I wish my son was old enough to remember this day. Sadly I'm stuck at work, across the state with black skies and pouring rain.

<comment><USER3> Yup; sucks to have to watch it on TV from Tampa. There's an Atlas V launch on August 5, though; those are even cooler in some ways.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the heads up. I'm over in Spring Hill. I've been here for almost 6 years and never had the chance to get over to the coast and see a launch. Now that the shuttle program has come to an end, I'm really disappointed I never made the time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> what a cool thing to watch. i got a little teary-eyed, remembering my dreams of being an astronaut as a kid. but a bunch of people gathered around my cube at my new desk job, so it wasn't all a sad experience :)

</comment><comment><USER5> It's a sad day</comment>


Ask HN: How do you gather email list signups in your web apps? - <AUTHOR>

I want to send interested users email updates about my progress with the app they're signing up to use. I see three choices (fill me in if I'm missing any):
1. Simply add users to the list when they sign up with their email address. Easiest and most effective, but assumes that a signup = permission to send email. Not totally comfortable with this; should I be?
2. Add a checkbox to the signup process that users can check if they want email updates. Nice middle ground, requiring some back-end integration but ensuring I have permission to email. But it won't catch anyone who's already signed up.
3. Add a blog-style pop-up, smartbar, or otherwise prodding UI element to gather signups. Easy for me, but annoying for users who just want to use the app and may already be signed up. But it does catch people who are already signed up for the app and aren't on the list.
All thoughts welcome. <comment><USER2> While I would love to say 'just be reasonable' you should take some care here as you could be breaking the law by emailing people without permission. While laws differ by country you are best doing 3 things;

1) Include a check box saying you will mail people when they give you their email via sign-up. It's generally considered OK to pre-check this these days.

2) Distinguish promotional vs service emails you send. Its generally OK to send service emails without pre-consent e.g. new terms and conditions but you need permission to send promotional emails e.g. New refer a friend program.

3) Include an easy to find stop contacting me link on every communication. Don't try to hide this or make it difficult to use e.g. login in to update preferences. If people start marking you as spam this could hurt your ability to communicate with users once ISPs view your mail as lower quality.

Additionally I would avoid doing pop-up/notification style prodding. Any app that does this to me gets removed quick smart. Perhaps do this one time to update your current base but if you do this with any regularity any short term gains will likely come at a long term price.

</comment><comment><USER3> Generally you're going to want to adhere to the CAN-SPAM laws.

I believe the general consensus is that you can email users for anything directly related to their account or the use of the service they signed up for. If you want to email them marketing-style information (more like a newsletter than an account-alert) you should use what's called a "double opt- in". Namely:

* User acknowledges on the site that they want to receive updates (they check an extra box, they submit a special newsletter signup form, whatever)

* You send them an newsletter-signup confirmation. They must click the confirmation link you sent them to be added to the mailing list.

* From then on every newsletter you send needs an easy unsubscribe link, etc.

Email service providers like mailchip, sendgrid, etc make managing this process very easy.

More details on best practices here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN- SPAM_Act_of_2003#The_mechan...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN- SPAM_Act_of_2003#The_mechanics_of_CAN-SPAM)

</comment><comment><USER4> I think you are overthinking this. If a user signed up and gave them your email for the purpose of trying your app, then that's the strongest indication that it's ok to email them.

Just don't be annoying. Don't send them daily updates with nothing interesting to say. Make sure they can always opt out. If you treat your (future) users with respect, everything will be fine.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the perspective. You're almost certainly correct that I am overthinking it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my site ([http://alephz.com](http://alephz.com)) I separate subscribers and just people with an email for password reset and important notices.

I am totally honest with user that subscribe and let them know that they will receive a daily update on new content in the site. It works pretty well, actually. A Relatively good amount of users sign up, and I get almost no unsubscribers.

</comment><comment><USER6> Collect emails in something like aweber. If they give you their email it is ok to email them. You have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of emails, so if they don't want them they can just click that.</comment>


HP's TouchPad: Dead on Arrival - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/hps-touchpad-dead-on-arrival/17577 <comment><USER2> I think it's the first tablet to really take the iPad on. They chose to copy Apples form factor - that was a good decision IMO. 4x3 really works well in a 10" tablet. The software looks very compelling from a user AND developer POV. Hopefully it's not too little too late as is predicted in the article though.</comment>


Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys - <AUTHOR> http://www.foundrygroup.com/wp/2010/10/foundry-group-invests-in-orbotix/

<comment><USER2> While I like the initial concept perhaps the founders could tell us something about the vision for the company. Will the products be limited to simple objects?

<comment><AUTHOR> Its hard to tell if they see the future as being a toy/game company or if this toy/game is a proof of concept for a broader API between the physical and digital worlds. My hunch is the latter, as it better fits in with Foundry's "Glue" theme and this doesn't seem like a very compelling toy.

<comment><USER2> One of Foundry's current investments is a toy company.

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

It's a bit of both? The product and the glue?

<comment><AUTHOR> They also invested in a company called Sifteo that is a Toy/Web combo. They are one of the leading investors in the kid tech market it seems.

Smith & Tinker actually pivoted away from toys and are now focusing on micro- transaction based web games.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Does it go any faster than that?

<comment><USER4> Yes, much faster!</comment></comment>


The Post Office Has Turned Amazon Into The Worlds Worst Brick and Mortar Retail - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dworin.net/the-post-office-has-turned-amazon-into-the-worlds-worst-brick-and-mortar-retail/

<comment><USER2> Actually, _Amazon_ has turned Amazon into this experience. For the few cents of savings, these ship-to-USPS services are really the worst of all worlds, and USPS seems to get shafted with the entire blame because "derp derp the post office is obsolete" (you know, ignoring the actual _increase_ in amount of general package traffic).

Anything I've had shipped Priority Mail has been handled well and on-time. The people at the counter at my local post office are fantastic. The actual letter carrier seems to be somewhat lazy when it comes to actually taking outgoing mail (and getting this fixed doesn't seem easy), but for the most part USPS works and has become my preferred shipping option.

Unlike UPS/Fedex, when you've got to ship something out, you can do it for a reasonable rate rather than the ridiculously jacked-up rates for people without a pre-negotiated shipping account. And you're in for a surprise when you end up missing a UPS/Fedex package and find out how out of the way their pickup centers actually are. (Also, there are plenty of remote addresses UPS/Fedex simply won't service.)

I completely agree in scaling back government, but the negative focus on USPS is yet another example of the entrenched unaccountable bureaucracy redirecting your anger away from itself and towards cuts of real infrastructure and services (which you'll eventually cry uncle for and re-fund). Please, don't fall for it.

</comment><comment><USER3> I strongly prefer the postal service deliver my parcels. I live inside a locked building without an attendant, so to receive packages the delivery person has to come inside. But only USPS has a key to the front door. This means that when I have a UPS or FedEx delivery due, I have to stay at home all day. If I'm not, either they leave it and it gets stolen, or they leave a note and I have to stay home the next day.

</comment><comment><USER4> If this guy lives in an apartment without a door man, it seems like missing packages would be pretty common (regardless of carrier). That's why Amazon created the Amazon lockers, which are available in Manhattan, where the author lives.

</comment><comment><USER5> I use a mail forwarding/scanning service (ECM) to handle all my mail and packages. It's a lot easier for me to physically go pick up things one or two times a week than to deal with missed/missing/etc. deliveries.

(also seems like an easy perk for an employer; great shipping/receiving for employees.)

</comment><comment><USER6> The problem is not Amazon nor is it the Post Office, it is FedEx. Using the Post Office to deliver the last mile makes sense, but you have to get the package to the local Post Office in a timely way. FedEx seems to treat "smartpost" packages as low priority.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sounds like a perfect opportunity to shop locally! Check it out, [http://localfirstaz.com/studies/index.php](http://localfirstaz.com/studies/index.php).</comment>


How to Make Friends as an Adult - <AUTHOR> https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-make-new-friends-when-youre-busy-with-adulthood <comment> non-entity It feels like a losing game to me. Pre-covid I decided to try and get out more and be more pro-active about meeting people. There also happened to be recent changed in my life that made it a lot easier to do so. When I moved there wasn't a ton of opportunities to meet people, but I found a group that went out regularly and so I decided to start attending. Overtime though I noticed that I judt had nothing in common with most of the group and while I formed a somewhat amicable relationship with a few other "outliers" I just wasn't connecting with most people and became more of a face. Nothing against them, we just had much different interests, hobbies, priorities, etc. Meetup gets thrown around a (poor) generic advice but in my experience Mertup is modtly fronts for MLMs and other scams, demographic specific groups or tech meetups. Look I'm a hacker at heart but tech meetups always just seemed so awkward to me and often felt like an advertisement. In fairness I have some other unique qualities / issues / etc. that make it more difficult.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is more challenging now with the pandemic in full swing, but it's certainly something I need to work on. At 45 I've got a handful of friends, but when I look around me I see a ton of people my age, particularly men, that don't have many friends. It isn't clear to me that they see this as problematic or not. I believe it is for me.

<comment><USER2> I find it exceedingly hard to make new friends as an adult. When I put effort into it, eventually I reach a critical mass of acquaintances through which I can find those few rare actual friendships, but it's an enormous undertaking. I move around a lot, every few years, and have to start fresh.

The old standby is hanging out at the local pub. Historically, it's been a good starting point, especially if there's a pool table, dart board, or trivia night to encourage more active socialization. Most people I meet this way are just "bar friends" or casual acquaintances, but eventually I meet some real friends and move past "drinking buddy."

A less-boozy (or at least less booze-focused) path that works for me is finding a nerdy board game group. That's about it for my meat-space hobbies, though; I'm not into sports, excersise, fishing, crafts, or many other social activities. At least not enough to build friendships in any reasonable amount of time. I'd go to a makerspace or something if there were any nearby, but I'm in the suburbs, bordering on rural.

With the pandemic, I'm not even trying. There's no way I'm getting together with a group of strangers indoors, and even outside I'm wary of being around many people.

It's easy to fall into the trap of building a moderately-satisfying online life. All my good friends are online, whether they started out as meatspace friends who are just geographically-distant now, or are people I met online. It satisfies the social itch to some degree, and there's no barrier, so it ends up being the most convenient outlet. If it weren't for online communities, I'm just barely social enough that I would find meatspace friends to satisfy my needs; as it stands, the convenience of online friends--while only partially satisfying--usually wins out.

I've never been one to actively seek friends. I enjoy having them, I miss them when we're separated, and I'm happy when I make new ones, but my friendships are always accidental. I don't think this is uncommon; it's just that it gets harder as I get older, because I'm not going to concerts, house parties, school, etc.

Most people my age have kids and families, and they connect that way. They become friends with their neighbors who have kids, with their kids' parents, with people they meet at kid-related social events, or they bond with strangers who live the same sort of life they do. I don't have kids and won't be having kids. I end up making friends with people 10-20 years younger than me. That's fine with me; in a lot of ways we have more things in common, and my sleep schedule and weekend schedule are far more compatible with theirs than with people my age. It's a bit socially awkward--or even frowned upon-- most places I've been in the US, or at least in the suburbs. When I've lived in some places, particularly college towns, it's been easier. When I lived in Cayman, it's such a small place that all generations mingle, and parents mingle a lot with single people; it was easier to make friends there than anywhere I've been.

Again, none of this applies in the pandemic. I'm resigned to online socialization until it blows over, which I expect will be literally years from now.

I share your struggle and concern. There are a lot of lonely people our age out there (I'm 47).

<comment><USER3> making friends is not unlike finding love. its the same four hormones that are involved. serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins. whatever makes you happy, gives you pleasure, creates trust and removes 'pain' creates relationships that bond. this is true for parents-children, lovers, friends and even the relationship between people and their pets.

how do you hack it? adrenaline. thats why high risk sports or watching games together(win/lose..picking teams), going through a traumatic experience together(in these days, this includes maybe a nail biting office coup because we dont go charging into battlefields with swords drawn out).

ziplining, sky diving, bicycling, long and hard hikes are outdoor activities that will get the adrenaline high enough to get the flood of brain hormones triggered. you just need to find indoor ways to achieve the same.

alcohol is the worst way to bond and make friends. its hormones. its always hormones that create relationships.

re: being child free and not being able to make friends. that is a real problem. but it will become the more prevailing trend. perhaps people need to advertise themselves as child free and create friendship circles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> there is too much pressure and hype about 'friends'. the article(i skipped the research 'statistics' part) misses the part where literally millions of people are just fine being introverts or even 'friendless'.

also..its speciesism to imagine friendship only occurs between human beings. of course, 'friendship' evolved for the survival of the species. it is an acceptance of differences so we can all 'get along'.

finches dont have 'friends' who are of a different colour. thats their survival code. woodpeckers are solitary and are infamously anti social. cheetahs are like not tigers or lions. Carpenter bees are solitary vs honey bees that exhibit hive mind. Sheep are..well..sheep. They follow and they need to stick together. You dont see praying mantii flocking together. Snakes..dont even care.

The pattern seems to me that the weaker one is in their ability to survive by themselves...could be bird, beast or insect. or man...they cant afford to be solitary. with mammals, the need to 'get along' with their own kind emerged from the lack of the protective shell of their eggs..for mammalian babies are born naked and vulnerable. tribe becomes important. groups become protective shields so the young would survive the traumatic phase of early infanthood rife with mortality challenges.

Evolution of 'friendship' is a survival hack. Vulnerable populations need to flock together. Women are known to have more friends because they had to...our biology makes us vulnerable as does procreation. As does society. even as early as cavemen days, the cartoon notion is that men dragged their women by the hair to their caves. a caricature, no doubt. but that..my friends..is a depiction of rape. and that's why women surround themselves with their girlfriends.</comment>


Reply form: terrible formatting. - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder why I have such limited formatting options in the "Reply" form (the one I'm writing this in right now). I can't even break my own lines. For instance if I want to make a few points/suggestions while replying to someone, I can't start them with new lines, like this: \- 1st line \- 2nd line \- 3rd line (they'll show up all in a row)

Should be as simple as replacing /n with <BR>

<comment><USER2> I'm gradually going to support more markdown. I don't have libraries for this stuff...

<comment><USER3> Can we have a taller text area before then. There's little visibility of context. I end up using a Firefox extension to hotlink it into vi for more complex posts.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I was insulted at work and its bothering me. What shall I do? - <AUTHOR> Last week I sent out generic email to one of the internal user group asking them few things specifically and providing suggestions on certain items. One of the person took that in the wrong sense and flat out insulted me questioning what I really do. He also said he will work with my manager on few items directly.
It got to his director and she of course sided with him. She has been uber-bitch always. I apologized even though I shouldn't have and closed out thread. It turns out one of the girl made false statements internally to push her tasks up in the queue.
My manager talked on my behalf with this person and he came up with something which i didn't do or didn't say.
I would have switched team or looked for another job. But, compensation is good so finding this good job is gonna take time. It is eating me internally though. Open communication is not an option due to rank and file nature of the company.
What shall I do? <comment><USER2> How about get over it and move on, not worth your time. It bothering you gives them all the power.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't take it personally. Soon enough someone else will walk by and they'll unleash at them too, you won't stay the flavour of the month for long.

Politics 101, keep your paper trail and keep your dignity (don't apologise ever again for being the victim !). Meanwhile, since it sounds like you're not a political creature, just wait for their inevitable implosion.

</comment><comment><USER4> The best move is to forgive the other person, it's not worth wasting your time over emotions at work. Maybe they had a bad day, it can happen to anyone. Just keep your ground and make sure you are perceived as being helpful in the situation and move on.

</comment><comment><USER5> Did you came up with the answer for the question "what do you really do"?

<comment><AUTHOR> Person, who insulted me didn't know me at all. He is new on user group team, but kind of senior. I replied on the progress and said that delay had nothing to do with me.

My manager knows I work 60 hrs and just recently lead and launched critically important project.

I wrote to my manager saying what he wrote was disturbing and he is accusing me of something even though he is new.

<comment><USER5> The only reasonable thing I can think of is to go to this new person and just have a causal talk over lunch or coffee. Get to know each other. Get rid of the idea that you were insulted, it will only make you feel bad and no body else will have any impact of it. The only thing that you have control over is yourself and your feelings.

<comment><AUTHOR> Isn't that like me backing down even though I was right and feeding his ego that his behavior is okay?

<comment><USER6> Not necessarily. It's you being an adult.

Also, and I'm not even kidding, if you cannot deal with a company which places a lot of importance and hierarchy, move on to another place where that is not the case. You'll be miserable if you don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ignore the politics or leave.

</comment><comment><USER8> Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.</comment>


Canon camera signatures cracked - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20025286-264.html?tag=river Takeaway quote: "Hire people who really understands [sic] security". <comment><USER2> Link to Skylarov's presentation: [http://www.elcomsoft.com/presentations/Forging_Canon_Origina...](http://www.elcomsoft.com/presentations/Forging_Canon_Original_Decision_Data.pdf)

Best line, under "What can Cannon do?": Hire people who really understand security

</comment><comment><USER3> I want that Think Different poster with Uncle Joe.</comment>