Canadian Credit Bubble In Pictures - <AUTHOR> http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/03/canadian-credit-bubble-in-pictures.html

<comment><USER2> The per-capita numbers wouldn't be as dramatic. Canada's population grew by 10% between 99 and 09.

Also saying that "Canada is fiscally prudent" is true if we consider only the Public debt (which excludes household debt). France has the opposite problem, the state is a big spender and households are financially prudent. A country's finance doesn't necessarily reflect its citizens financial habits.

This is still a worrying picture for Canada...

<comment><USER3> I'd rather live in a country where the government is fiscally prudent, because then you still have choice to be personally prudent and put most chances on your side.

If you live somewhere where there's a massive public debt, whatever you do personally won't avoid you a world of hurt in the long-term.

(or at least, that's my understanding of the situation)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wouldn't comparing the actual numbers with a line that represented both inflation and increases in disposable income be most fair?

In which case from my eyeballing:

a) Credit card debt has doubled

b) Personal lines of credit have tripled - but this could be related to an increased number of lines of credit available to people.

c) Mortgages look on pace

d) Household debt has increased about 50%

<comment><USER5> I know right? Seems like the data can stand on it's own without the embellishment. Omitting important data just makes me distrust the author.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> That is quite scary, but I'd like to see this as a per/capita comparison against america and maybe even europe.

We didn't have the 'sub-prime' credit program like the US did, or maybe we just don't realize that we in Canada have something similar, but maybe it just hasn't struck us yet.

</comment><comment><USER7> In other news, the dollar was very close to hitting parity today:

[http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDCAD=X&t=1d](http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDCAD=X&t=1d)

</comment><comment><USER8> Also, a minor point, the heading for the last graph talks about the increase in credit from '99, but the legend shows '02, so I'd be hesitant comparing those numbers to the rest.

</comment><comment><USER9> This shows an increase in household debt, not a bubble. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble>

<comment><USER10> Debt is a leading indicator of a temporary and artificial increase in spending and prices: people don't take out loans just because they want to sit on a pile of money, they take out loans because they want to buy goods and services. And when more money is chasing after the same goods and services, prices goes up (microecon 101).

If investors are making bad forecasts by assuming that such temporary upward trends in price will be sustained for a long time, or even permanent, then the result is a bubble economy.

A bubble exists because it is a self-fulfilling prophesy: when investors increase debt ("leverage") in order to invest in whatever good is currently rising in price (i.e. has already been bid up via debt-funded spending), those investors further increase the price and thus attract even more investors. This continues until a sufficient number of investors are cashing out in order to pay back the debt (whether due to the timeline of the loan or due to the lender calling them on their leverage position).

Investors who don't use leverage (i.e. use only their own money) are far less capable of creating large price moves: a leveraged investor can generate a trade volume two or three orders of magnitude larger than an unleveraged investor. Bubbles are much harder to sustain purely with unleveraged investments: to become a bubble, a price rise has to be sharp enough to attract attention, bringing in more investors to form the next layer of the pyramid.</comment></comment>


Idleness - <AUTHOR> https://thepointmag.com/2019/criticism/idleness <comment><USER2> >But that languor is, at present, typically debased does not mean it is beyond recuperation.

It's hard to read articles where the author's goal is not understanding but showing off their big words and fancy sentences like it's their freshman English class.

I am still going to read it, but in the future considering being straightforward.

<comment><USER3> Colorful language, when applied tactfully, can communicate more completely than plain language. Most aren't very good at using it, though.</comment></comment>


The "War on Drugs" and Crime Rates - <AUTHOR> http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/11/the_war_on_drug.html

<comment><USER2> "It's worth noting that when alcohol prohibition was repealed the murder rate in America fell by 40%:"

It fell because the corruption was also stamped out. You couldn't buy any cop off the street (like in Mexico).

I'm fine with legalizing drugs, however, as a business owner, I would like to be able to fire someone based on regular drug use (If I can see that it's effecting their work or will potentially cause problems for the business).

Many of the outspoken pro-drug legalization people seem to think that there are absolutely no illicit effects with drug use and want to make it illegal for businesses do do what I feel is my right as a business owner.

I also don't think drug abuse should be classified as a disease. If we are going to legalize it, and you completely fuck up your life, I shouldn't have to spend my tax dollars for your hospital bills. Insurance companies (or whatever we are using for medical care at the time) should also be able to charge drug users/abusers more money due to the increase health risks.

As long as personal responsibility is involved in the legalization of drugs, I'm all for it.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the performance of CPUs post-Meltdown/Spectre - <AUTHOR> I was going to buy a new computer just as Meltdown/Spectre came out, so I put my purchase on hold.  6 months later, I'm wondering what the status of the "fixes" did. My understanding is that performance across the board was hit via OS patches, but no one seems to be talking about this anymore.<p>Will new CPUs be immune to this problem or is it something that can never be fixed, and in order to be immune to this, we just have to accept a decrease in performance? <comment><USER2> There are no CPUs from Intel that have fixes in silicon yet.

The effects on performance are nothing to worry about. You can disable the fixes if you want to and that's what I do with my 8700k. Inspectre is the tool for that. Drive IO is marginally effected. Not really noticable.</comment>


Drone Pilots' Pay is Dropping - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-14/drone-pilots-2-000-paydays-drop-90-in-race-to-the-bottom <comment><USER3> Just pointing out that this article features a drone pilot complaining that this is a race to the bottom when his 2k/day drone business is displacing a vastly more expensive helecopter-based video/inspection industry.

<comment><USER4> I also found this quite humorous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Breaking news: relatively unhindered free markets tend to encourage prices for commodity goods and services to decrease when supply is limited primarily by other scalable commodities.

People who can not differentiate their goods or services in quality or price will find themselves in a mighty rut, and that's a good thing. Why should we expect the price of drone piloting to stagnate rather than decrease?

</comment><comment><USER6> For the 2k/day pilot he was operating outside the bounds of the FAA - <USER2> essentially he was being paid black market prices. The legal competitors all had to fly real aircraft so he only had to undercut those inflated prices. Its not surprising the costs come down when legal avenues are opened.

</comment><comment><USER7> Related, drone rules in the US, [https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/](https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/)

</comment><comment><USER8> I think AI flown drones is a much more realistic goal now than AI driven cars. It'd certainly make it cheaper and easier for Google and Apple to update maps. Is there anyone working in this space?

<comment><USER9> Depends what you mean by "AI". Autonomy in aviation is far ahead of what you can get in ground vehicles. Autopilots are commonplace, even in light aircraft. There are established systems like TCAS for traffic avoidance. Aviation remains incredibly safe, despite huge levels of autonomy, because of the regulation involved.

What (I think) we need is a regulated system where every drone uses a standard transponder and negotiates airspace either with a controller (e.g. IFR) or other aircraft (e.g. VFR). The future is not everyone flying drones with proprietary AI collision avoidance. One existing product in this space is FLARM which is used by a lot of glider pilots and light aircraft, they also make a UAV variant: [https://flarm.com/products/powerflarm/uav/](https://flarm.com/products/powerflarm/uav/)

Autonomous drones themselves exist, are inexpensive, and can be set to fly a survey pattern based on a number of pre-selected GPS waypoints. Ardupilot will do this. The data is used for mapping at a much higher level of data than online maps. Think agri, ecology, general site surveying, etc.

That said, drones are not ideal for replacing aircraft in the large scale mapping. The flight time is poor. An aircraft modified for surveying can cover hundreds of square kilometres a day. A consumer drone with an hour's flight time (good luck) is going to struggle to compete.

Collision avoidance at the local level (e.g. are you going to hit a wall) is a different issue, and that can be solved by standard depth sensors.

<comment><USER10> >That said, drones are not ideal for replacing aircraft in the large scale mapping.

You are comparing consumer drones to airplanes. A quick google search tells me you can pick up a drone with over an hour of flight-time for 3.5k-ish (I don't know much about drone pricing so someone may have better options)

Another quick google search tells me cheaper planes go from 25k (crappy) to 40k (reasonable)

You can purchase 10 drones for the price of one airplane. Which I can't imagine an airplane could out map/survey 10 drones working together. I don't know much about drones or planes though so there are probably other restrictions.

<comment><USER9> > You are comparing consumer drones to airplanes.

Sure, because the OP called out Google maps and that's how Google maps (at high resolution) is created. Drone mapping does tend to be much higher quality because you get a higher image cadence at a lower altitude.

Fixed wing drones tend to be better in terms of flight time, that's certainly true. And you can get gliders which will last even longer if you manually thermal them.

> Another quick google search tells me cheaper planes go from 25k (crappy) to > 40k (reasonable)

Add on at least another 20k for survey quality cameras (up to hundreds of k) and more for getting your plane modified (hole in the fuselage) and re- certified. Pilots are expensive, fuel is expensive and getting your annual COA (Certificate of Airworthiness, in the UK), insurance etc is not cheap. Google's surveying aircraft have at least five cameras so they can use photogrammetry (structure from motion) to create their 3D maps. As soon as you introduce surveying LIDAR into the equation, add a zero or two onto the cost estimate.

I don't disagree that you could fly a drone fleet instead of an aircraft, but for country-scale mapping, aircraft make a lot of sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> More like a race to market value. $2k to fly a drone for a day is pretty clearly insane given the minimal skills involved.

<comment><USER12> except that you pretty much need a pilots license to do it

<comment><USER13> It takes 40-60 hours of instruction time and airplane rental time to earn a pilot's license. Total cost is typically $8-12,000. Once all the requirements have been satisfied, you have to go through a 4-6 hour long oral and in-flight examination. That's just for a private pilot license, which does not allow you to conduct any commercial operations.

A drone license costs $150 to take a multiple choice test with 60 questions, and you only have to pass 70% of them.

<comment><USER14> > That's just for a private pilot license, which does not allow you to conduct > any commercial operations.

Which a commercial requires 150 total hours. And that is the bare minimum. You're still considered a baby pilot in the industry with that few amount of hours.

> A drone license costs $150

And is less than most hourly rates for a plane. That's without an instructor too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> More like a race to a more appropriate level.

$2K a day is $500K a year. For something that apparently a lot of people can do.

<comment><USER16> That assumes you can get a full year into it. Wedding photographers are fairly well compensated in part because of how weddings mostly clump up on a few days of thew week and months of the year.

<comment><USER17> Of corse it's ultimately what the market will bear. But a lot of gig jobs of this type _might_ be 100 days per year and often a lot less. And they need backup equipment, marketing, etc.

In a previous role, I could bill out for up to $10k per day but that didn't include travel time and were very intermittent types of jobs that I had to do a lot of free/lower rate work to be in a position to land.

<comment><USER18> I'm _really_ curious what could demand $10k per day :) not at all because I don't believe it, but because that sounds very very nice...

Vaguely speaking, the impression I get is maybe you were doing senior-level "emergency fix the unfixable" type work, like recovering a petabyte-sized Oracle database that had chewed itself, or PMing an 11th-hour restructure of a 50% finished 10M-LOC project due in 4 hours. (I recall an uncitable story I read/heard somewhere about a bank that nearly missed a deadline and had 1000 developers working simultaneously to get the work done at the last minute)

(I can't figure out/guess what the lower-rate work might have been.)

<comment><USER15> Probably advising senior executives.

<comment><USER17> That's correct. Product strategy and messaging from a team that also has a significant technical background. Also giving industry landscape/perspectives at customer and sales events.

To parent's point, very specialized and experienced engineering consultants can make a lot. Even something like an expert witness report can be $4-5K per day.

But to repeat these tend to be gigs where this sort of click is running for a very small portion on 200 days per year. It's not at all like regular contract work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> It's not a race to the bottom. It's business. Faster, better, cheaper.

<comment><USER20> Click bait title coming from Bloomberg. They know what free market competition is.

<comment><USER21> But it's a quote from the article:

> "It's apparent that a lot of this industry is a race to the bottom," said > Trench,

Bloomberg didn't say this, so can it _really_ be a click bait headline?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> > what is competition

basic economics

</comment><comment><USER23> It's relatively low skill to be a drone pilot; No certifications, no education requirements, no professional organization with yearly fees, etc. You literally just need to buy a drone, get a bit of practice, and start advertising your services.

If the current drone pilots want to keep the high salaries, they should add more barriers to entry. This would keep out the hobbyists from picking up side jobs and eroding the market and will also raise the cost of entry, aside from the hardware purchase.

<comment><USER22> _add barriers_

Or, instead of the noncompetitive approach, they should differentiate themselves from the competition, and offer added value the hobbysts can't.

<comment><USER24> Such as?

<comment><USER22> If I knew I'd be flying drones.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Open source groups warn Greece will waste millions on school software - <AUTHOR> http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/open-source-groups-warn-greece-will-waste-millions-school-software <comment><USER2> Actually it seems that it wasn't a request for tenders but a request for public comments on a tender plan. Along with Greeklug, Microsoft Hellas and other companies also submitted comments. Funnily enough, Microsoft Hellas feels that the nature of the proposed tender favors open source solutions and eliminates MS Office from the competition.

</comment><comment><USER3> Open source/Free software should be used by governments not because it's gratis, but rather because it can be audited and modified by public servants.

Implementing a free solution costs money in training, deployment, etc. But I'd rather pay that price than having a company lock my government data.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft does make its source code available under the "Government Security Program", so a similar level of auditing is possible.

I don't quite understand the problem with governments not being able to modify proprietary source code though - where is the practical disadvantage?

<comment> guard-of-terra Proprietary software comes as a huge blob of compiled code. Most often you can't just throw any part of that code away - it will "void the warranty". And you certainly can't check all the code in that blob.

With open source, you can customize your systems to a great extent. You also employ local specialists to do so. And you can make minimal systems for critical applications. With predictable behavior. Ones that don't message box or screen saver on you.

<comment><USER4> I do understand that there are useful applications for open source software (I've used it myself for a few projects), but in the context of providing laptops for students and servers for running the school IT infrastructure there really does not seem to be any huge advantage. What possible customisations would be required to the core source code of Microsoft's Windows and Office to have them work more effectively in an educational environment?

<comment> guard-of-terra The grandparent was arguing about governments in general, not just education.

<comment><USER4> My point still stands. Why would a government need to modify the source code of Windows or Office? Any customisations or modifications to the stock install would be done by reconfiguring parts of it using the standard tools, or by writing (or purchasing) additional software.

<comment><USER5> A government might want to check that the blob isn't opening access to closed networks; or secretly collecting data somewhere; or secretly adding hidden meta data to documents.

<comment><USER4> Source code is not required for such auditing, it just makes it easier in some ways. Anyway, the main method of distribution of open source software is as precompiled binaries so the same issue arises there.

<comment><USER6> If the binary blob does not match the source code, that will be discovered quickly. Also, if the Government (or other entity) is doing an audit, it does not seem like much work to compile from source.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A mega-list of open source software (for the skeptics):

[http://www.datamation.com/open-source/open-source- software-t...](http://www.datamation.com/open-source/open-source-software-the- mega-list-1.html)

By the way, there's also a petition to promote open source software in American schoos, too:

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/promote-use- free-s...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/promote-use-free- software-our-schools-libre-office-gimp-gnu-cash-and-other-gpl-software-which- cost/T1xGw1fZ)

</comment><comment><USER8> > "The specification is a copy of the proprietary vendor's e-mail and office > software."

I wonder who could have written the spec.

</comment><comment><USER9> Tongue in cheek: How many millions of lost GDP will it cost Greece, a few years down the line, to have a workforce not trained in standard business software?

<comment><USER10> 1) Do you really think that someone who can do "standard business tasks" on linux will be unable to do it on Windows?

2) Perhaps you have not heard or understood that people are dying of hunger or freezing from cold because the government has increased taxes on food, electricity, gas and oil/petrol. This is not the majority of course, but they are enough.

3) MS products are "standard business" in your business. That does not mean it is for every one nor that it should be.

4) Schools are not training centers for businesses. For god sake, public education is about other values, not creating what some businesses require.

<comment><USER9> 1) Yes. People who were proficient in Office 2003 needed special training to use Office 2007. There's a real cost to switching tools.

2) Holy cow, that's a loaded argument: "Use Linux or people will starve!!!"

3) Agreed.

4) Fully agreed.

<comment> guard-of-terra "1) Yes. People who were proficient in Office 2003 needed special training to use Office 2007. There's a real cost to switching tools." This is actually a strong argument for the futility of windows and office-oriented teaching. Why bother if the skills willl become obsolete in four years?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I do not agree with the word 'waste'.

<comment> guard-of-terra Those are money packed in a box and send to USA.

Open source would have caused Greece to spend a part of that money inside the country, employing local specialists.

<comment><USER4> They will need to hire (or continue to hire) local specialists to install and maintain the software though. I would not be surprised if the wage cost is higher than the cost of the software.

<comment> guard-of-terra But those money remain in the country and make its economy feel better. Increase consumer spendings and yada yada. Money that you ship off (even after tax) make it worse.

<comment><USER4> Sorry I misworded my comment, I meant that local specialists will be needed for commercial software too, to install and maintain it.

<comment> guard-of-terra If the commercial software needs as much specialists to support, what's the point anyway? The whole idea of commercial software is outsourcing work instead of doing everything in-house.

<comment><USER4> Well, it depends on the software. If we're talking about Windows and Office, they're very high quality, standard pieces of software that are an excellent choice for the educational market. As well as having a larger number of people already experienced in using them, both as users and specialists.

For example, it's worth paying for Windows Server just for how much easier it is to run large deployments of PCs and users from it using Active Directory, group policies and suchlike. Rather than hacking something up in Linux or whatever.

Your argument assumes that the commercial and open-source offerings are equal in quality and features, when in fact the major commercial software is far superior.

My argument isn't an abstract commercial vs open-source one: it all hinges on the quality of the software: if Microsoft suddenly open-sourced their entire operating system and productivity suites, they would still be the top choice in my book.

<comment> guard-of-terra You can employ mixed approach. For example, buy Windows while using OpenOffice.org.

But I argue that for large-scale development it is feasible to develop a Linux distribution that will fit schools better than Windows ever does. With everything school workplace needs, installable in one click.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "seeking suppliers of 26,400 laptops, 1760 servers and 1760 wifi access routers".

Laptops? Seriously? Is the premium for buying laptops instead of desktops for school computers really justified, especially under the dire economic situation?

<comment><USER13> Yes, they are given to students, not set up in a static computer lab. It's called 1-to-1 computing, and it can be more effective for learning than only giving very limited access to a computer lab. I hope they budgeted for training and professional development though, otherwise it will not be as effective: [http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/02/16/11-programs-only-as- go...](http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/02/16/11-programs-only-as-good-as- their-teachers/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A major advantage of them using Microsoft Windows and Office instead of the open source alternatives, is the high quality Greek internationalisation of the software. The same can not be said of the open source offerings.

<comment> guard-of-terra "The same can not be said of the open source offerings" [citation needed]

<comment><USER4> Here is one example of inferior Greek internationalisation:

<http://www.openoffice.org/el/>

"We need your help to complete the translation of Apache OpenOffice 3.4 into Greek!

"This note is in English because we have no one to translate it into your language. The links on the page will help you download and install OpenOffice.org 3.3.0, an older version of our product. It is missing many bug fixes, performance enhancements and even new features that are in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.

"We would be happy to make Apache OpenOffice 3.4 available in Greek, but we need help completing the translation of the user interface."

Whereas the latest version of Microsoft Office has a full and comprehensive Greek translation as standard, upon release, done by professionals.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Program to upscale windows display? - <AUTHOR> I may be using the wrong term, but I sometimes need to view material that would be optimal in a higher resolution than the highest native display resolution my laptop has.
Example:
Say the screen max, native resolution is 1024x768.  The target would be an integer multiple, say 2x = 2048x1536.
The method could range from simple, just drop every odd pixel, for example, or average the two together, for another example.
Has anyone done this?  Can it be done? <comment><USER2> Open it in a program that supports "zoom out"? Decrease the font size? Resample the image/video?</comment>


What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so hard - <AUTHOR> http://www.pluggd.in/what-exactly-makes-entrepreneurship-so-hard-297/

<comment><USER2> Maybe a better question is, what makes entrepreneurship so self-involved?

Hats off to the lurkers here who are just building shit.

<comment><USER3> narcissism seems naturally correlated to self starters IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I completely disagree with the "Period." I think it's a very small part of why it's hard. Actually, if I were to ask the question differently and say: What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so attractive? Many would say it's the lack of a boss.

Entrepreneurship is very personal and if you don't have the discipline muscle already trained and ready, the first year or two will be very hard. But after that, you simply pick up a sheet of paper in the morning, look over at your yearly plan, and write down the couple of things that you must do that day to get a little closer.

At the end of the day, cross all the items off the list. If you're lucky, that is.

Of course, it's much harder than that. Specially when your plan is evolving as you go.

From my experience, I believe what makes entrepreneurship so hard is having to fly multiple plans in the sky simultaneously.

It's telling which planes are carrying the cargo and which are carrying the people. The ones that can absolutely not crash no matter what from the ones that can not crash.

</comment><comment><USER5> Well, that's not what makes entrepreneurship hard for me. Each day, I can get up and decide various things to do, and I'm plenty motivated. In fact, I would guess most entrepreneurs are the workaholic, get-it-done type.

What makes entrepreneurship hard for me is figuring out what to do, not following through on it. So, in some sense, it would be easier if I had a boss with a todo list, if the ideas were better than my own.

At a chugging corporation, it's easy to figure out stuff worth doing, and hard to motivate people. At a start-up, it's just the opposite... it's easy to motivate people and hard to figure out stuff worth doing.

</comment><comment><USER6> If you need a boss to make all of the prioritisation and deadline decisions, you won't make it as an entrepreneur. But you can take responsibility without having to make all of those decisions on your own.

This is where having the support of people who have walked the path before (like the YC team or even others here at HN) is invaluable, as well as getting the right advice _and_ being held accountable by a specific mentor or coach.

</comment><comment><USER7> I disagree. Everyone has some kind of a boss, even though it may not be a guy working in the office next to you. For entrepreneurs it might be the customers, it might be your investors, it might be your cofounders, but there is still "a boss".

What makes it hard for me is the fact that there is a fog of war. There is a high degree of uncertainty about almost everything. I'm dedicating a tremendous amount of my time and effort to something that might tip over at any moment, either because of a wrong decision, or because of a situation outside of my control, or because I'm not good enough, or because it was a terrible idea in the first place. Entrepreneurship requires faith, basically, and I'm not used to structuring my life that way.

</comment><comment><USER8> The full responsibility for the fate of your company, and all of the people depending on it, though it depends to a great extent on investors, partners, customers, the markets, technical and social and financial risks that you can only vaguely see and barely control, ultimately rests on you.

This is so completely unlike the typical modern day human experience that people often just get culture shock and flicker out. Even more often, they give up and fade out, blaming some little thing or external cause for their failure.

The creation of valuable new technologies, while challenging, seems like a cakewalk compared to the moral weight you're required to bear when running a company. I think this can be partially seen in how many entrepreneurs do end up giving up the reins of their company; either during an acquisition or to 'professional managers' (who often themselves simply shirk the moral weight since the company isn't theirs to the same extent.) Those who can take their company to the next level are, at each step, both rare and exceedingly valuable.

</comment><comment><USER9> its a very small detail for why it is hard. there is about 100 - 150 more other things you need to worry about just as much.

</comment><comment><USER10> The economic equilibrium.</comment>


The Slow Death of the American Author - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/the-slow-death-of-the-american-author.html?hp

<comment><AUTHOR> If you want to read a well-crafted polemic against efforts that try to reconcile digital access to books with authors interests, this I think, is a good example. It creates FUD by mentioning "stolen goods", stigmatizes academics that push for free access to information as "simply promoting their own careers over the livelihoods of other writers".

Especially preposterous, was the claim that book piracy in Russia was to blame for the fact that "... in the country of Tolstoy and Chekhov, few Russians, let alone Westerners, can name a contemporary Russian author whose work regularly affects the national conversation."

<comment><USER2> Indeed. Did Tolstoy have to live off his royalties?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > The pirates would be a limited menace were it not for search engines that > point users to these rogue sites with no fear of legal consequence, thanks > to a provision inserted into the 1998 copyright laws. A search for "Scott > Turow free e-books" brought up 10 pirate sites out of the first 10 results > on Yahoo, 8 of 8 on Bing and 6 of 10 on Google, with paid ads decorating the > margins of all three pages.

How many would actually give you a usable copy? If the top Google hits for piracy did what they said they did, I'd have a lot more downloaded books than I do now...

<comment><USER4> Probably several (of the top Google results) would result on an actual download... after a lot of redirects and malware installs.

Edit: let's test it :)

Search: scott turow ebook download

1st link - paid site (did not try)

2nd link - 1 redirect, ended up on a chinese site, donwloaded. PDF, opened perfectly. Less than one minute download.

3rd link - direct download

The books were: Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, and El peso de la prueba – Scott Turow

That's a hard barrier indeed.

But the hardest is jumping over the hurdle that is legal distribution (and the awful royalty bargains the author mentions).

I've desisted of buying some ebooks on Amazon due to unreasonable prices and/or delayed release dates. Case in point, A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan, I went credit card in hand to Amazon's site to buy it... but they're not selling it, only the paper version.

I'd also pay for a Netflix ebook equivalent, probably more than I do for Netflix itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Couldn't an author simply not sell rights to an overseas publisher? If there is no cheap overseas edition authorized, then there is no cheap overseas edition to be imported back to the US.</comment>


Ask HN: Show logged in state on SaaS marketing site? - <AUTHOR> The main horizontal nav at the top of a SaaS service will typically present options to either log in or sign up. Which of the two is shown is dependent on the logged-in state of the user (if logged_in display_account_link else display_sign_in_link).
Some SaaS services ignore the logged-in state of the user on the not-the-product-itself marketing site. An example is MailChimp where I am shown 'Sign Up Free' and 'Log in' options when viewing https://mailchimp.com regardless of whether I have already logged in. I'm assuming this to be an intentional choice and not a bug as it has been that way for years.
Some SaaS services respect the logged-in state of the user on the marketing site (if logged_in display_account_link else display_sign_in_link) in addition to doing so within the product itself. I can't find any real-life examples of this other than for a service I am currently developing. Examples welcome if you know of any!
My questions:
Are there any best practices, from a user perspective of, of choosing one of the above options (never respect/always respect logged-in state on the marketing site) over the other?
I can see how never respecting the logged-in state on the marketing site has technical benefits with respect to something something complexity and something something security something something.
Do you find yourself confused when ending up at a given service's marketing site and thinking that you are not logged in when you thought you were?
I ask as the additional complexity and security aspects of respecting the logged-in state on the marketing site of a Saas product is something I have to deal with and think about from time to time.
When wearing my engineering hat I want to go with the MailChimp way of doing things. When wearing my UX hat I want to respect the logged-in state of the user at all times. Sometimes my hats argue between themselves. <comment><USER2> I recommend leaving the marketing page content the same for logged in users to view pricing, etc even if they are logged in.

If they are logged in and they click signup or login most frameworks detect that and you can automatically send them to their dashboard.

I like to show dashboard instead of log in for logged in users, I leave pricing/signup the same in case they want to view what the current plan offerings are.

As far as UX I don't like seeing log in if I'm already logged in but other than that I wouldn't worry about it too much. Not a huge issue either way.

Good luck with your SaaS.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm used to see "sign up now!" and similar marketing on the www subdomain (homepage, often powered by Wordpress) when I know I already have an account. The SaaS app often runs on a app. or dashboard. or manage. subdomain. Usually clicking 'login' goes to the SaaS app with a note 'you're already logged in'.

I wouldn't worry. It's a UI optimization which can have considerable technical complexity. E.g. you want to move the cookie to a different (shared) domain, the www site cannot decrypt the cookie because it has no shared secrets (or different programming language), logging out of one page should update the links on the other.

On our SaaS it was easy (shared platform). We only added it to be able to pre- fill API keys in documentation (makes it easier for users to copy&paste code, [https://geocoder.opencagedata.com/tutorials/geocode-in- nodej...](https://geocoder.opencagedata.com/tutorials/geocode-in-nodejs)). Without that benefit I wouldn't have spent the time.

</comment><comment><USER4> There is no good reason for your marketing website to have access to your application database or your customer's session data, especially not for something as trivial as changing the text on a link.

</comment><comment><USER5> At tesults.com, the home/marketing page ignores the logged in status of the user from a UI perspective. If a logged in user actually goes to the home page we redirect them away back to their control panel / results view because we found that's what they really wanted. If they really want to see the marketing page they can do so by clicking a link on the footer.</comment>


It was only a matter of time before a Snapchat leaked website went up - <AUTHOR> http://snapchatleaked.com/

<comment><USER2> How long until it gets shut down for hosting images on minors.</comment>


Show HN: Hacker News desktop app made with Electron and Node - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jingweno/hacker-menu <comment><USER2> I don't care how massive the app is compared to just web browsing...it's always great when people show off not just the product, but the open source code. Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad you like we open source it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not particularly directed at OP, I haven't tried or even downloaded the app. But am I the only one that when I see 'Node' and 'Desktop' in a headline immediately think 'this may be really nice but it is just gonna be to big for what it does'? And, as a followup, what is the appeal of using Node for desktop dev?

<comment><USER4> The advantages would include shared tooling, a cross-platform GUI, and the ability for end-users to modify the code.

Regarding size, it appears to be around 100 MB, so you could have 20971 separate installations of it before filling up a 2 TB drive.

Memory usage could be an issue, but whether that matters will depend on your audience the app. In this case, the aim is toward HN, so it doesn't seem like an issue.

<comment><USER5> While I hope flash drives will come down in price, who has a 2TB flash drive right now? My entire desktop OS, with at least three web browsers, multiple sdks/compilers etc take up a grand total of 15GB. Granted, that'd still leave room for 150 "apps" in the same space (note that I actually only have 3GB free, though). Still, 100 MB for what is essentially high-level code? It's absurd.

[ed: Not directed at op, as such, just how silly the general node ecosystem is currently]

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really like it, runs well under openSUSE (you have to download the repo and follow the instructions under "Development" in the readme). Hope to see it's functionality expand further.

Edit:

One thing I would change is maybe make the overall border a more noticeable darker color, I keep getting confused as to where the borders are for when resizing it, and maybe a way of dragging and dropping the window (that is more obvious if it is there, I haven't figured out how to move the window without using what I assume to be KDE specific features).

<comment><USER7> Thanks giancarlostoro. That is great feedback. Let's gather more responses from others, and we will make the change. We want this to be super easy to you to use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This tool reminds me of a feature in the Vivaldi browser called Web Panels:

[https://vivaldi.net/en- US/blogs/teamblog/item/50-snapshot-1-...](https://vivaldi.net/en- US/blogs/teamblog/item/50-snapshot-1-0-264-3-private-mode-and-improved-web- panels)

You can have a sidebar in your browser with it's own webpage displayed, so you can have Hacker News open no matter what tab you're viewing.

<comment><USER9> And the sidebar extension for Opera for Hacker News (using Dharmesh Patel's app) [https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/hackernews- si...](https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/hackernews- sidebar/?display=en)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks cool. But... 100+Mb for a notification app?

<comment><USER11> How is it 100 MB? RAM or disk space?

<comment><USER10> After checking RAM usage, I'd say both.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Download the latest build for your platform from releases.

Cool !!

Oh.. Mac only right now.

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working on the Windows and Linux builds. Or if you can't wait, just clone the repo and run `npm start`: [https://github.com/jingweno/hacker- menu#development](https://github.com/jingweno/hacker-menu#development)

<comment><USER4> (Be sure to run npm install first.)

<comment><USER12> And install node... which I don't use...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> That's a pretty cool idea... but do people really want _more_ HN? My impression is that most people want to read it once or twice a day, but are driven to it more often than that as attempts at procrastination. So this seems like it'd be a net loss for most users.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's exactly the idea of Hacker Menu. You could check the news anytime by just clicking it, but it's not distracting

<comment><USER13> But it's _tempting_. My hypothesis is that it's too tempting.

<comment><USER7> You should watch for the menu icon to change to dark color then :). Thanks for sharing your thoughts. btw

<comment><USER13> Sure thing :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From: [https://hackermenu.io/](https://hackermenu.io/) "Do you have the habit of jumping to comments before reading an article? We got you covered. Comment is just one click away. So is vote."

I did a quick browse and search of the source on github for "comment", "vote" and "login". How do you handle logging in/submitting comments/votes? Just present the regular hn login inside the app, and use the hn site?

I thought there was some TOS/gentlman's agreement that APIs only had read access to stories, and one needed/should use the hn page for comments/votes? Perhaps I'm mistaken?

I suppose there's no rule against making a custom browser though -- while a bit heavy handed, I suppose there's really no difference between wrapping node+electron and enhancing the UI/UX with greasmonkey -- I suppose the main issue is to behave closely enough to a regular web visitor, so as not to put undue strain on the service, not demand that every visitor _actually_ uses a general purpose browser...?

</comment><comment><USER14> Just downloaded! I love it. The only thing I was going to say was I wish it had the ability to resize the window and save the size for each time it opened...then I realized you were one step ahead of me and had done exactly that! Very impressive, and a fantastic example of React and Electron. I'm definitely bookmarking this to come back and learn from the codebase later.

</comment><comment><USER15> Looks great - in all honesty I probably won't use it day to day as I waste enough time checking HN, although perhaps it would be a less distracting way to check it. Source code looks nice and clean, look forward to digging into it!

</comment><comment><USER16> Because I need to get less work done? It does look great.

<comment><USER7> Haha. I find myself keep watching the menu bar for updates, then click on the news item. Glad you think it looks good. Feedbacks are welcomed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In case it's helpful,

      hacker-menu$ node install
      module.js:338
          throw err;
                ^
      Error: Cannot find module 'hacker-menu/install'
          at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
          at Function.Module._load (module.js:278:25)
          at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:501:10)
          at startup (node.js:129:16)
          at node.js:814:3

<comment><USER17>
        > node install

It's `npm install`

<comment><USER4> Ah, the bug was between the ears. Thanks.

The app seems pretty nice. I wonder why people are saying harsh things?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Great app. Would be cool if it could be installed via homebrew and use an existing node installation.

Anyway, keep up the good work ;)

</comment><comment><USER19> Can the non-Mac users have some screenshots? I dug around the GitHub repo and the website, but didn't see any.

<comment><USER20> Here you go:

1- [http://i.imgur.com/5WjIJ5M.png](http://i.imgur.com/5WjIJ5M.png)

2- [http://i.imgur.com/A1VHspL.png](http://i.imgur.com/A1VHspL.png)

This is about it. When you click on any link, it takes you to the website itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Well done on making this, but I have to say that I'm sure I'm not the only person that's not interested in installing node on their desktop.

</comment><comment><USER22> I have installed this and I agree with other users here - I like it. I can check it whenever I want to and it's non obtrusive.

</comment><comment><USER23> Thanks! I'd like to dismiss and/or mark as read for stories I'm not interested in.

<comment><USER7> Thanks for sharing your thought. We talked about this and are going to implement it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is really great. I like that it remembers read stories, even across sessions.

</comment><comment><USER25> Can you add the 'save to pocket' as well, that would great.

</comment><comment><USER26> Ugh provide high quality screenshots, both on project readme in github and on the website as well.

Currently the website has skewed image of the thing and then cropped round images of the thing.

<comment><USER27> Ugh, quit complaining and put in a pull request. It's open source and a side- project, after all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I would bet that my newsreader uses booth less RAM and less disk space. This is what feeds were invented for. Why should I install that much bloat just for reading HN?

<comment><USER29> Why should you? Okay, don't.

If OP gave you free beer would you spit it out over him and say it's too bitter?

<comment><USER28> That's a pretty bad metaphor. I am refusing OP's free beer, because I don't drink beer. I also question the need of giving away free alcohol. Instead, I take the free glass of water from the next guy.

<comment><USER30> You should hit me up sometime. I'd love to party with you. /s

<comment><USER21> Come on guys, this isn't Reddit so lets keep the commentary constructive. I feel rtz12 has some valid points - although his/her language style contains emotion you can't presume to know why that is without being that person.

<comment><USER17> Is it really a good, constructive point, though? Boo hoo, too big? Having to make concessions drools?

The cutting edge of building xplat desktop apps with browser tech involves independently bundling Node and Chromium, so it's gonna weigh 100+mb like a single Chrome browser tab. That's life.

Yes, we all have different appetites for different sets of trade-offs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> This looks interesting but the first thing I noticed was that the 'H' in your logo isn't centred and it hurts my brain.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good call! We fixed it at [https://github.com/jingweno/hacker- menu/pull/15](https://github.com/jingweno/hacker-menu/pull/15).

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> nice.</comment>


Sous-vide startup wants to take the tech-industry's kitchen darling mainstream - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/sous-vide-startup-wants-to-take-the-tech-industrys-kitchen-darling-mainstream/ <comment><USER2> It will be hard to get more mainstream than it is now. Breville, for instance, now owns PolyScience. What I mostly see in new products is gimmickry --- elaborate wifi controls, machine learning to identify what kind of food you're cooking, attempts to temperature-control pans instead of water baths. You can (and should) just buy an Anova, Poly, or Sansaire unit for about $100.

Major kitchen equipment manufacturers are all going to have low-temp cooking appliances within the next few years.

This article, meanwhile, is pretty annoying. For instance: the "until recently" shot of older lab-style circulators is entirely bogus: for more than 5 years, even the PolyScience units --- even the restaurant-grade pro ones --- have been approximately as slick as the Sansaires and Anovas. Nomiku was an early entrant to the market, but they've pretty much been lapped.

The "next" thing to watch for is probably home-compatible combi ovens (combi ovens cook in temperature controlled steam baths instead of water baths). There are already some products here, but I don't know how good they are yet.

<comment><USER3> I've been listening to Dave Arnold's Cooking Issues podcast a lot recently. He's just announced the Spinzall centrifuge. It is a bargain for what it is, but still too much for the use I'd get out of it. And once you've got a centrifuge, you of course have to get a rotovap, a Vitaprep, and a chamber sealer. Not that you need all this stuff to get good use out of the centrifuge, but just because.

And as I noted in another comment, the "until recently" bit is partly because this article is from 2014.

<comment><USER2> I find myself hoping that he's not going to say something on an upcoming Cooking Issues that is going to make me want to buy a Spinzall, because, like you, I can't really think of any kind of routine use I'd get out of it, and I need fewer not more gadgets in my life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Despite the date showing for the article it's actually from 2014 - possibly a mistake in correcting something minor led to the date being changed.

That said, I could see a nice use for a connected device like this used in an insulated container - prep food in the morning, then leave it in an ice water bath. At an appropriate time turn the heater on remotely. As long as there's water present to be heated and circulated it should be fine for quite a while.

<comment><USER2> Ah, shit. I didn't see that. That almost completely moots my complaint.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> May be anecdotal: I have several friends who got really excited about this and bought anything from DIY kits to industrial grade Sous Vide immersion circulators. All of which are now collecting dust after using them 3 times. Reminds me of the phenomenon of sandwich makers in Germany somewhere in the 90s. Must have been 15 years since I've seen one since.

Edit: After all these replies, my evidence seems to be in fact anecdotal.

<comment><USER6> I bought an ANOVA 18 months ago and two more people have bought one after eating food from mine.

We all use ours several times a week. It turns out so good and so consistent, I basically use it for all beef, chicken, pork, and lamb.

<comment><USER7> Bought one a year ago, been sitting in a drawer ever since. Just don't find it anywhere close to convenient =/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I do not ever intend to stop using my Anova. But in terms of going main stream, I feel like it is already or it is not and the ship has sailed.

I bought my Bluetooth(rarely use that part, just set and walk away) cooker for $125 over a year ago. Why would this competitor make it go mainstream.

I am all for more consumer options, but how is this different/better?

</comment><comment><USER8> Finally dipped my toes into it with the recent black friday deals on the Anova for $100. It came yesterday, and I used it to make eggs. Creamiest scrambled eggs I've ever had!

</comment><comment><USER3> The title of this article should be changed to reflect the fact that it a couple years old.

"we thought we'd resurface our look at one of the early smart sous-vide machines from August 2014."

</comment><comment><USER9> Erm. A bit late for the party?

Larger companies _are_ working on Anova-like devices and some of them are already popping up. Just saw [1] last week in a grocery store here, in Switzerland. It's as mainstream as it gets.

[1] [https://www.bettybossi.ch/de/Angebote/Detail/12168232977?tit...](https://www.bettybossi.ch/de/Angebote/Detail/12168232977?title=Sous- Vide-Garer-Profi-Set)

</comment><comment><USER10> If sous vide catches on, I wonder if the next step in the progression is pre- packaged or even pre-cooked sous vide meats. Isn't that how the restaurants do it? It's more sanitary because it eliminates the handling of raw meat.

I also wonder if a low power microwave oven would be an alternative to a hot water bath. I don't know how the two methods would compare for efficiency.

<comment><USER11> > I wonder if the next step in the progression is pre-packaged or even pre- > cooked sous vide meats.

Coles supermarkets in Australia have been selling pre-cooked, pre-sauced sous vide meats for a couple of years now, though they don't say "sous vide" on the packaging but rather "slow cooked for N hours". But the actual product is clearly cooked sous vide – the interior packaging is a vacuum sealed bag and the results are exactly what you'd expect.

> Isn't that how the restaurants do it?

In my experience it's more common in the restaurant world but still not pervasive.

> I also wonder if a low power microwave oven would be an alternative to a hot > water bath.

Poorly. An immersion circulator is probably the simplest and ultimately cheapest form of the idea; engineering-wise they're not much more complicated than an electric kettle. It just needs economies of scale to really kick in.

A microwave would also be highly impractical for all but the shortest cooks. Sous vide often takes multiple hours or even multiple days – I do 10 hour pork belly and 72 hour lamb shanks. For the latter I usually set it up in the laundry and switch from a stockpot to an esky (cooler box). Very easy to do with an immersion circulator.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Sous Vide is an interesting market because quality is very much a binary quantity. Either it works or it doesn't, there's not "better" sous vide or "worse" sous vide. All the other dimensions under which the product competes (size, noise, reliability, UI) appear to be hygiene factors (ie: we just care that they're good enough. Beyond that, we're indifferent).

As a result, there's very little room for differentiation in this space and a rapid descent into commoditization with very little room for profits. The big players in the market are betting their hope on apps which seems misguided. Expect to see Chinese competitors come in and ruthlessly undercut on price and leave the current players in the dust. Those no-name Chinese brands are going to be the real people who will take SV mainstream.

</comment><comment><USER13> I love my Anova cooker. Not only is it dead simple to get meat prepared exactly to the point you want, it is also much more tender, as over time, any tendons slowly dissolve. And I have gotten much more critical of any preparations of meat which ended up too dry because the meat had been overheated.

</comment><comment><USER14> Someone should make instant-pot like device with integrated magnetic stirrer and accurate temperature control.

<comment><USER2> Why would that product be better than the current generation of "sous vide" products, which can clip onto any pot or cambro?

<comment><USER6> >>Why would that product be better than the current >>generation of "sous vide" products, which can clip onto >>any pot or cambro?

They are fundamentally different cooking techniques. Immersion cooking, "sous vide", is cooking food in a sealed bag in a water bath.

"instant pot" are more like smart cockpot/pressure cookers where the food is contained a pressurized (sometimes) vessel in air.

Which is better depends on the type of food and cooking technique you wish to utilize.

<comment><USER2> Oh, I misunderstood what you were suggesting --- I thought you were proposing a new packaging for "sous vide" style cooking.

I get what I can do with a pressure cooker that I can't do with a circulator.

I do not get what I can do with an unpressurized "smart crock pot" that I can't do with a circulator.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Do the chemicals in the plastic bags not leach into the food? That's always been my greatest fear, given that things like BPA weren't understood until someone decided to analyze it. Has there been a test ensuring that boiling a plastic bag doesn't emit chemicals into the food that it's holding?

<comment><USER3> a) You aren't boiling the water, not even close most of the time. Most meats are cooked around 135F - 150F. You might take veggies up to maybe 185F, but I don't think most people SV vegetables anyway.

b) Dave Arnold on his Cooking Issues podcast got the SC Johnson folks to confirm that their ZipLoc bags are safe for this application. In fact, I checked one box of mine and it says "BPA free".

c) FoodSaver bags are safe as well, but I don't have a reference handy.

<comment><USER15> Thanks for the info. However, BPA isn't the only plastic that leaches chemicals. Even the non-BPA plastics emit chemicals as far as I know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> There's this, Anova, Joule, etc. Why are there >3 high tech sous vide companies right now, I honestly don't understand.</comment>


The world pulls the Andon cord on the 737 Max - <AUTHOR> https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/the-world-pulls-the-andon-cord-on-the-737-max/ <comment><USER2> It's hidden at the end, so I thought I'd put it up here: an Andon cord is a way to notify management of issues in the assembly line, typically by pulling it: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andon_(manufacturing)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andon_\(manufacturing\))

<comment><USER3> Seems like such an odd name for a cord that "stops" production... I imagined by the naming that the world must have resumed flight of the 737 Max or something like that. "And.... on!" or a race "and... go!". Good to know, I wasn't aware of these in factories.

<comment><USER4> It's derived from a language other than English. Japanese? Something...

<comment><USER5> Japanese: 行灯. It's the classic Japanese lamp, I guess pressed into use as a warning signal in factories? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_lighting_equipment...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_lighting_equipment_of_Japan%23Andon#Andon)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > A warning light that would've alerted the crew to the disagreement wasn't > part of the added-cost optional package of equipment on Lion Air's 737 Max > aircraft.

I'm not an aviation expert, but why should something that seems as important as an indicator of system malfunction be an optional package instead of builtin?

<comment><USER7> I agree with you, but cars have optional packages for warning lights for lane changes and automatic braking. It's not _that_ hard to imagine.

<comment><USER8> The first thing I noticed about planes is they are not cars.

Seems an analogy that'd rapidly break down.

<comment> Joe-Z Well, you want to be witty, but that's exactly the point of an analogy: Make things that are different comparable, so you can come to conclusions about thing A even though you only have knowledge of thing B.

You might want to try to strengthen your argument by explaining why an analogy between cars and planes can't hold (one moves only in "2D" vs. the other one moves in "3D" for example)

<comment><USER9> that 737 costs 100,000,000

a plane crash kills a lot of people

The training to drive a car vs a 737 is Hugh

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So... they put in software (MCAS) to try and auto-assist in certain situations so that flying the 737 Max would respond like flying the current 737. But seems like an indicator light to show when the sensors that activate that system trigger isn't standard equipment & the sensors may very well have a bad baseline read before takeoff and the system kicks into gear and auto-crashes the plane if you don't know how to disable it. Yeah, I'm never flying in one of those things :-)

<comment><USER11> Pilots are trained in how to disable it - the stab trim cutoff switches are right there on the console. The mystery is why the pilots didn't follow their training.

<comment><USER12> [https://www.aviation24.be/manufacturers/boeing/boeing-737-ma...](https://www.aviation24.be/manufacturers/boeing/boeing-737-max- automatic-stall-prevention-system-mcas-not-in-flight-crew-operations-manual- fcom/)

> Boeing issued a multi-operator message (MOM) explaining the MAX's > manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) "commands nose-down > stabilizer" in certain flight profiles using "input data and other airplane > systems." MCAS is operated by the flight control computer and "activated > without pilot input and only operates in manual, flaps-up flight," and MCAS > is not part of previous 737 designs.

> The Allied Pilots Association (APA) told American Airlines (AA) pilots in a > message on its website. "It is not in the AA 737 Flight Manual Part 2, nor > is there a description in the Boeing FCOM. It will be soon."

> A multi-page document issued by the airline's flight operations department > that highlights the differences between the MAX and 737 NG does not mention > MCAS or any other changes to the auto-trim system.

> A multi-operator message (MOM) from Boeing on Nov. 6 cautioned that "an > erroneous AOA" can trigger automatic nose-down pitch-trim.

There are lots on indications that at least in the Lion Air case it was not in manuals or communications to pilots.

Further here:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-withheld-information- on-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-withheld-information-on-737-model- according-to-safety-experts-and-others-1542082575)

[https://outline.com/https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing- with...](https://outline.com/https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-withheld- information-on-737-model-according-to-safety-experts-and-others-1542082575)

<comment><USER11> For a pilot ignorant of MCAS, what he'd see is uncommanded stabilizer trim movement. The training says to stop that by throwing the stab trim cutoff switches. They're prominently located on the center console.

The pilot of the same airplane on the prior flight to the Lion Air crash did just that.

<comment><USER13> Wait, are you saying that the aircraft actually exhibited the same failure in the prior flight but the pilot overrode it, and then they let it take off again without warning the new pilots?

<comment><USER14> The previous flight before the disaster actually made an emergency distress call to return back but after disabling the automatic system decided to continue onwards and did so with no further problems in the flight.

Pilots are given all this information and are meant to read it before takeoff but there is no way to enforce that.

Maintenance logs show the AoA vane was replaced, but Lion Air has a sketchy history with maintenance and what's written in the logs doesn't always reflect the reality, they are one of the cheapest airlines in the world and need to keep planes flying. I'd say that's likely the root of the issue combined with pilots not following the procedure books when faced with anomalous behavior.

[https://www.airlineratings.com/news/lion-air-plane-fault- fou...](https://www.airlineratings.com/news/lion-air-plane-fault-four- previous-flights/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder what their management team was thinking.. "We're going to make so much money by not having to retrain pilots for this new plane!"

Reality: Hundreds of people die within months. Boeing is now worth $25 billion less in market cap and the planes are grounded worldwide.

<comment><USER16> > Boeing is now worth $25 billion less in market cap

The 737 Max order backlog ( just over 5,000 aircraft ) has a list-price value of about $600 billion. Even if we assume 50% discounts that's still a lot of revenue.

<comment><USER17> Revenue doesn't really matter, it's profit that matters. They can't discount 50% because they couldn't even make the planes for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > Every airplane development is a series of compromises, but to deliver the > 737 Max with its promised fuel efficiency, Boeing had to fit 12 gallons into > a 10 gallon jug.

I know this is just impactful writing, but the more I read about the 737 Max, the more I feel that the business decisions behind it are somewhere in between Intel speculative execution and "fly fast and break things."

</comment><comment><USER19> Unrelated: the attempt to prevent me from selecting segments of text is a massive turn off to returning to this website.

</comment><comment><USER20> There is a long list of errors and omissions, which contributed to these accidents, but the bottom line seems to be software development malpractice. MCAS system was designed by Boeing and certified by FAA to keep operating with wildly diverging data from two AOA (angle of attack) sensors. Reports indicate that AOA was the only sensor type MCAS was using. There have to be at least 3 AOA sensors to have some level of reliability in case of a single sensor failure. MCAS should turn itself off in case of large difference between two AOA sensors readings. Whoever wrote and certified that code bears at least some level of responsibility.

<comment><USER21> The system does not necessarily need triple voting. Many aerospace systems are only primary and redundant. There are two highly trained human pilots aboard who can detect and isolate faulty equipment. And my guess is that these high level software requirements originated with an aerospace systems engineer, not a software engineer. Clearly that high level requirement was flawed (especially in a human factors sense), but we need to remember that passenger planes are not designed to be fully autonomous.

It seems only one AOA sensor is currently used by software. The update will change that.

"The company said it will change the MCAS software to give the system input from more than one AOA sensor. It will limit how much MCAS can move the horizontal tail in response to an erroneous AOA signal. And when activated, the system will kick in only for one cycle, rather than multiple times."

[https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing- aerospace/inves...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing- aerospace/investigators-find-new-clues-to-potential-cause-of-737-max-crashes- as-faa-details-boeings-fix/)

<comment><USER20> < change the MCAS software to give the system input from more than one AOA sensor

That's even worse than I thought. The data from both sensors was being logged. Some reports indicated cases of huge discrepancies (20 degrees) between sensors. It is incomprehensible to me that MCAS ignored the other sensor. The lawyers will have a field day with that and in this case I say: go for it!

<comment><USER21> What if the system was arranged such that there were 2 MCAS systems and 2 AOA sensors, each redundantly wired in a cross-strapped fashion? Then, in the cockpit there are two switches: MCAS PRI/RED and AOA PRI/RED. You could then tolerate a simultaneous failure of one MCAS and AOA sensor, as well as have a method to bypass and ignore any failing sensor/actuator.

Disclaimer: I've never worked on aircraft software. I've worked on unmanned spacecraft and the scheme I described is very common for fault tolerance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "the complexity of aviation technology was being pushed too hard and at too great a risk to safety, all in the name of economics."

Using automated systems to adjust the flight characteristics has been going on at least since the 707 with its yaw damper, and likely much earlier.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the 737MAX. An entirely new airplane would entail more risk. Altering the 737, with known and proven characteristics, is low risk.

<comment><USER22> « There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the 737MAX »

This would be like Harley Davidson putting a much more powerful engine in an old bike frame, perhaps because they feel threatened by new technology. However the new engine is so powerful it creates wheelies, and potentially fatal accidents as customers were not made aware they'd need to change their bike driving habits.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the 737MAX and how they installed the engines. I'm not an aeronoticaul engineer so I don't know the best solution to minimize the instability. But they certainly should have tried out more configurations, different wing shapes, done more tests etc. Somehow they skipped all that to get more $$

<comment><USER23> The new engines are not that much more powerful (NG: 120kN, MAX: 130kN max thrus), its that they are physically larger.

The issue (nose up tendencies at high power settings) was an issue with the 737 Next Generation as well, its just more prevalent with the Max.

Also, nose up tendencies at high power settings is a known issue with all jet aircraft that use underslung engines.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wonder what design choices were considered and rejected. Was there a missed option that would have been better? Numerous possibilities pop in to mind...

The rear landing gear could have been made to extend more, by telescoping or folding.

The rear landing gear could have been attached more outboard, letting it be longer without the wheels colliding in the middle. Perhaps something else would need to move a bit to make room.

The rear landing gear could have been stowed as the B52 bomber stows landing gear, asymmetrically with one going in front of the other. This would let it be taller since it would be able to cross over the midline of the aircraft.

An engine could be flatter if it had two turbines side by side. The cost of engine removal is still low since the aircraft still only has two engines to remove, and the pilot training is the same because there are still only two engines to control. Really, that isn't a quad-jet.

Letting the fan portion of the engine peek up over the wing is an interesting thought.

<comment><USER20> The primary concern was fuel efficiency, which is proportional to the diameter of turbofan engine. Two smaller engines would be less efficient. The same with turbofan airflow hitting the wing.

<comment><USER24> Two smaller turbines can have the same frontal area, which is what creates the efficiency. It's total area, not diameter. Well it is the amount of power per unit of frontal area.

Turbofan airflow already hits the support structures for the engine. Everything is a compromise of course. Tossing a bit over the top of the wing could be beneficial, with the impact of the wing being less harmful than the alternatives.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Another great article on this subject: [https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing- aerospace/faile...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing- aerospace/failed-certification-faa-missed-safety-issues-in-the-737-max-system- implicated-in-the-lion-air-crash/)

Notable points:

\- FAA delegated System Safety Analysis for MCAS and many other certification steps to Boeing engineers (what can go wrong with corporations policing themselves?)

\- Political pressures on FAA resulted in signing off on some certification steps before they were completed

\- Actual limit of MCAS's command was not known to FAA, 737 MAX operators and pilots

\- MCAS failure was miss-classified as a "hazardous failure" instead of "catastrophic failure", which would require redesign

\- MCAS was not even mentioned in flight manuals

</comment><comment><USER25> Why was a new single-aisle plane important?

<comment><USER26> The continued pursuit of increased fuel efficiency. Airbus managed to make their A320neo more fuel efficient than Boeing's 737 and so Boeing were at risk of losing customers to Airbus.

The new, more efficient engines are bigger and hence didn't fit under the wings of the 737. Hence the "hacks" Boeing did to fit them on 737 that required software augmentation to get it to work safely. A newly designed plane taking into account the size of the engines would have been more inherently stable without software augmentation.

Boeing's solution will probably be to improve the software augmentation by fixing the behavior of error detection and correction in the case of sensor troubles (such as adding clear warnings which some airlines have already added as a optional features)

<comment><USER27> Maybe it's an overstatement, but further improvements on the 737 is beating a dead horse. Maybe even the MAX was a stretch, but if it weren't for this particular issue, it would live a long and happy life. Not that it won't after this fixes. It will probably be the most audited plane in the skies.

It's a great plane that connected the world, surely, but there is no denying that the A320 family is just more modern and still has more potential to be squeezed from it. Starting from the trivial facts that it has a higher ground clearance and the cockpit has more room to improve on instrumentation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Interesting the production methodology follows Toyota. I blogged about the need for exactly this as I'm convinced in these kinds of situations there are employees working on these projects who know there are issues, but because of culture or pressure to launch, are never heard: [https://www.cultivatelabs.com/posts/the-rise-of-anonymous- to...](https://www.cultivatelabs.com/posts/the-rise-of-anonymous-tough-love- and-not-a-moment-too-soon)

</comment><comment><USER29> This year hasn't been a good one for Boeing at all, besides 737 Max issues, there have been major crashes of the 707 and the 767 this year.

<comment><USER30> links?

<comment><USER29> 707 crash in Jan 2019 [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Saha_Airlines_Boeing_70...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Saha_Airlines_Boeing_707_crash)

767 crash in Feb 2019: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Air_Flight_3591](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Air_Flight_3591)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> It is nice to see articles out highlighting that Boeing's choice to string the 737 along will come at great cost.

<comment><USER32> Why is this? I'm not an expert or really follow the airline industry too closely. I'm curious to understand what about Boeing's decision to continue the 737 line prompts your comment.

<comment><USER33> They slapped new engines on old airframe to save costs of qualifying new airframe and airlines save costs on retraining crews.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> How much of this is hindsight? The article seems to suggest that the 737 Max is poorly designed and incorrectly certified. Is the system really that broken? Who knew? Could anyone have known? Are other aircraft similarly flawed?

</comment><comment><USER22> Imagine how it goes for military aircraft. If a Boeing military jet crashes, there's no NYTimes coverage, no foreign governments pressure, no dramatic images of emergency response team around crash site. Maybe just a single family voice, or one over zealous Pentagon officer asking questions. But if Boeing doesn't even acknowledge risks after a phone call with Trump, I can imagine Boeing always claiming their military jets are the safest aircraft ever.

<comment><USER17> Safety isn't as high a priority for military aircraft, except in that losing an aircraft is expensive. Military pilots know that they are expected to die for the mission if necessary.

<comment><USER35> Suicide is not part of conventional military doctrine. Pilots are tremendously expensive and take time to train, so they are not expendable. One of the things going badly wrong for Hitler by the time of the Normandy invasion was he was running out of trained pilots. Factories can build ten more planes when you lose ten per night, but your pilot training can't replace ten men overnight regardless of whether those men are dead or in POW camps.

The RAF was losing planes too of course, but mostly in friendly territory, so it kept getting the pilots back. Put them in a new plane and you've kept all that valuable real world experience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36>
        Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg reportedly spoke
        with President Trump earlier Tuesday,
        urging him not to ground the jet.

Great priorities there, Dennis! /s</comment>


He Made Masterpieces with Manure: Traces of Vermeer - <AUTHOR> https://literaryreview.co.uk/he-made-masterpieces-with-manure <comment><USER2> > measures pigments into mussel shells

It is worth commenting that we aren't talking about the mussel appreciated in kitchens that everybody knows today. Those are shells from a different and freshwater species called 'painter's palette'. A dull brown, medium sized shell with a glossy and pure white inner face. Being common and easily available in most european rivers was a cheap and perfect solution for mixing oil colors in the, plastics-free, XVII siecle.

It is decreasing currently and even critically endangered in some european countries, but still remains relatively common in Holland. Can be found from Iberia to Russia and also in UK.

</comment><comment> the-dude Not in the article, but I really enjoyed "Tim's Vermeer".

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/)

<comment><USER3> Well imho Vermeer was a real painter not a human printer, maybe that is why Tim is not mentioned in the article ;)

<comment><USER4> I feel that Vermeer and Tim are pretty much the same, although after watching that film Tim seems more romantic and poetic about picture making than Vermeer would have been given the time he was living in...

<comment><USER3> I feel you are right. Tim is a romantic typewriter given the time he is living in and Vermeer a conceptual poet :o)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why Nashville, TN is the best place to launch a Health Care company - <AUTHOR> http://williamgriggs.com/startup-spotlight/startup-spotlight-stratasan-with-jason-moore/

<comment> james-fend checkout GrowNashville.com</comment>


Show HN: I built my website and blog using Gatsby - <AUTHOR> https://flavioander.com/blog/how-I-built-this-website/ <comment><USER2> Nice job! Thanks for the writeup.

I checked your GitHub repos and found [https://ipo- calendar.netlify.app](https://ipo-calendar.netlify.app). This looks neat too!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you are looking for revamp your site or build a new one from scratch, my new blog post might be useful. Let me know what you think.</comment>


How to hire a programmer when you're not a programmer - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2628-how-to-hire-a-programmer-when-youre-not-a-programmer <comment><USER2> I'm not even going to use my stock rebuttal of "correlation != causation" because in the case of #1 through #5, I doubt if we even have correlation. For every example of a good programmer for any of these 5 that OP can provide, I can provide multiple counter-examples. None of these is much of an indicator of anything.

 _1\. How opinionated are they?_

 _Everyone_ has an opinion, assholes included.

 _2\. How much do they contribute to open source projects?_

Many of the best programmers I know contribute nothing to open source because of confidentiality agreements.

 _3\. How much do they enjoy programming?_

You mean when it's fun specing something out or at 4 in the morning when everything is down?

 _4\. Do they actually ship?_

And what does it cost to maintain or fix it? There are 2 ways to find out. a. Read the source. b. Wait a year. Which would you prefer?

 _5\. What have they mastered?_

Who cares? What they do on their own time is their own business. This is an indicator of nothing.

 _6\. How well do they communicate?_

This is important for all people, for all things, so it doesn't even need to be on this list.

So, how should a non-programmer hire a programmer?

a. Become a programmer.

b. Hire a programmer to hire a programmer.

c. Punt.

<comment><USER3> The only way one can hire a programmer is to be a programmer.

That's a awfully large sense of entitlement there, one that is very, very difficult to support. I'm surprised such a comment is coming from you.

While I don't excuse idiot HR recruiters and headhunting firms on quotas, there is a level between clueless and mastery that a person can attain that allows them to make the comparative judgement required in the hiring process.

I know little about law, but enough to hire a semi competent lawyer, I know little about masonry, but have successfully hired a firm to rebuild a chimney. They are probably not the absolute best at their professions. They probably take shortcuts that purists wouldn't like. So be it. They get the job done and that's _good enough for me_.

There is really no reason that someone with little knowledge of programming cannot properly hire or outsource a competent developer for work that they need to get done.

To suggest otherwise is only to worry about which way the mortar is spread in between the brick, when it all boils down.

<comment><USER2> _That's a awfully large sense of entitlement there, one that is very, very difficult to support. I'm surprised such a comment is coming from you._

Sorry if that's how it sounded; that's not what I intended.

A little background...

I have worked for about 100 managers over the years, and with few exceptions, here's my experience:

\- Those who were programmers were able to understand, examine, critique, question, and drive almost anything I worked on.

\- Those who were not programmers were able to fit whatever I was doing into their project plan and evaluate it only through the eyes of other programmers (who may or may not have done a very good job of it).

I have also maintained hundreds of thousands of lines of code and I can predict with uncanny accuracy that which was written for a programmer boss and that which wasn't. There _is_ a difference.

There are probably billions (or trillions) of lines of shit code out there that never would have made it through peer review of almost any programmer here at hn. But no one had to worry about that; they were written by programmers working for non-technical bosses.

Hope that paints a better picture of my skepticism :-)

<comment><USER4> I can certainly attest to shit code getting through non-tech bosses.

It's not just a matter of 'getting away with something' either. A badly managed programmer won't know the larger scope of what they are doing, or even worse be doing something the wrong way because they 'have to', and the code inevitably becomes a series of hacks fixing whatever the latest requirement or problem is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _How much do they contribute to open source projects?_

I always take issue with this one. Not all good developers are commiters to open source projects and not all commiters are good developers. While I personally would love to contribute to some open source project I use, the area of work I am in makes it difficult to do so. When you freelance it is an additional burden to try to explain to customers that portions of the code you develop on their dime will get contributed to an open source project. Even if they are generic routines that have no direct benefit to the company other than getting the project done. Also given the fact that some of my clients are blue chip tech companies jumping through the legal hoops is a royal PITA. So in the end it is just easier for me to not be a contributor. I submit bug's, test cases, and suggestions but the requirement of my time to CYA myself so that I can contribute some code back kills my ability to do so. I have to imagine that their are a good deal of top caliber developers in the same boat. I think the point of whether someone contributes to an open source project is moot at best.

<comment><USER6> I wouldn't consider it moot, but I wouldn't necessarily deduct points either. Open-source contribution is a good bonus in a developer; it shows that they have been able to cooperate others (among a group of people that are often unpleasant, ornery, or crotchety) and adhere to the requirements of the BFDLs, which shows adaptability. The big benefit of course if that you can go back and look up their interactions and the code they submitted and how they went about the whole thing, which is definitely useful in determining if the person would be a good hire. It also demonstrates a level of conscientiousness about their place in the community.

So, all that said, there are good reasons a developer may not have many open- source contributions, as you stated. So while I don't think it's good to necessarily detract from developers without that, I wouldn't exactly consider it moot, either; open-source dev is a very useful reference and a good demonstration of the candidate. If you can't contribute, you will miss out on some of those good vibe points, but that's the way things go sometimes I guess.

<comment><USER5> Sure, I don't believe that it deducts points, I just think that there are so many good developers that don't contribute, that using it, as even the slightest filter of applicants, is going to do more harm than good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Am I the only one who thinks that the first one is a terrible heuristic? In my experience, people who don't have a lot of experience tend to be the most opinionated. I may just be thinking of the wrong kind of opinionated, but as far as I can tell any programming language's biggest fans tend to be the programmers who only know one language.

<comment><USER8> I was really opinionated ten years ago, before I had tried to build anything serious. These days, I think every choice is a trade-off. I wonder if I'll ever be opinionated again.

<comment><USER9> I'm in the same bandwagon as you. But I still think I can discuss passionately the tradeoffs of the different choices at length.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> 1\. How opinionated are they?

Like religious fanatics very opinionated programmers will argue endlessly over trivial matters that in the end make no difference, wasting valuable time, all because they can't just let their arbitrary preferences go and are obsessed with winning every argument due to their autism.

2\. How much do they contribute to open source projects?

Those who contribute a lot of free work without compensation don't have much business sense. You also have to worry they will contaminate your code with GPLd code that they have secretly reattributed.

3\. How much do they enjoy programming?

Those who are very enthusiastic about something are usually very new to it and don't have much experience. If your oncologist was jumping up and down and clapping when discussing your tumor because he is so excited to see this form of tumor, would you want to use him, or assume he is either insane or fresh out of med school and has not seen many tumors yet.

<comment><USER11> Not so much that they'll secretly take GPL'd code, but they'll just dump it in without telling you and then 2 years later when somebody finds it in your widget, it's a major pita figuring out what's happening.

<comment><USER12> This is far likely to be done by someone with little or no open source experience. Anybody who has worked with open source code knows the basic difference between GPL, LGPL and MIT/BSD and what you can and can't do with the code. Someone who hasn't worked with open source software is far more likely to go blindly assume that "open source" means I can copy and paste this any way I want.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Some of the "soft" questions I've recently started asking interview candidates:

 _What computing blogs / magazines do you read?_ \- To see if he keeps up-to- date on trends in technology.

 _What are some of your favourite languages? What do you code with in your free time?_ \- Not just to gauge passion, but also to see how diverse his toolset is. Someone who knows Java, Clojure and Matlab is well-rounded. Someone who knows only Java, C++ and C# is not.

 _What do you dislike about your favourite language?_ \- To make sure the guy isn't a religious nut, since we probably don't use his favourite.

 _Who are the key people in your field?_ \- For a given topic the developer is passionate about, there should be someone whose papers he's read plenty of times.

 _Why did you leave your last job?_ \- Pretty standard one, but always key.

I also require a cover letter of everyone who applies, plus I tell recruiters that I want the resume in LaTeX. In addition to gauging writing skills and technical adeptness, those two requirements are a pretty good filter against spray-and-pray applicants.

<comment><USER14> > What computing blogs / magazines do you read?

Would Hacker News/Proggit be an acceptable answer?

<comment><USER13> Of course, so long as it's in conjunction with a few direct sources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Or you can just learn a simple programming question or two that you can ask them to write the answer to. Example:

string itoa(int i)

{

//convert integer to its string representation

}

In my experience this will tell you enough about the person's proficiency to make a decision. I've seen so many people fall apart on this question in so many different ways it's not even funny. The ones who get it have all been pretty good hires.

<comment><USER16> I TOTALLY agree and I've never heard anyone say the same thing. My interviews have all been boiled down to:

(a) can they code and TEST int atoi(char *)?

(b) Are they a good cultural fit (ie they like the startup environment)

(c) Then to be sure, I start giving them some real-world challenges we're having with a product and see if they can help.

But (a) eliminates most candidates before I even have to go any further, and if they can do (a) they're generally a good hire. It's kind of bizarre.

<comment><USER6> The glibc implementation of atoi basically just offloads to strtol, which just offloads to strtol_l.c, which is pretty complex at first glance.

You're basically testing to see if people know about casts, right? I'm not a big C developer and most of the languages I spend most of my time in have much less onerous typing systems than C, but if you gave me this question I would probably just write something like:

        return (int) char;

perhaps including a loop to read to the end of char*. Would I pass or not? I don't think I'm that bad of a programmer, just don't have a lot of direct experience with C.

<comment><USER15> 1) In this scenario you are implementing that mechanism. Casts don't work via magic.

2.) C isn't required. The functions use the C conventions for naming. That's all.

3.) That solution would never work because it would return the ASCII value for the character.

The solution requires that you go through the string multiplying the value you get by the next power of ten and adding it to what you had before. You work from the 1 position back to the front of the string. You also need to ignore non numerical characters.

<comment><USER6> Can I see a functional implementation just for educational purposes here? I don't understand really because I have casted things in C like that before (not in lieu of atoi() with (int) char as shown, but other datatypes) and because in my experience, when I have a read out a string, I have not gotten an ASCII keycode, but the inputted character. Most of my C experience has been on existing open-source projects, so maybe they'd already implemented stuff that glossed over all this.

That said, I don't really understand why this should be a consideration for the programmer at all. C's type system seems to get in the way and slow things down almost as much as it helps (again, limited C experience here) and I don't think that's how these things should work.

<comment><USER17> Castings in c doesn't perform type conversion, regarding the implementation just consider that every ascii char has a numerical code (it's int value) and that in the ascii table the numbers are adjacent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> For a non-programming recruiter it is way to easy to get impressed by a good talker who knows how to throw in appropriate buzzwords in a conversation. You can judge communication skills, but how on earth would you judge whether the prospective hire can code correctly if you cannot code yourself? IMHO the best way to go is to find a fried of a friend who is a programmer and get an opinion from him/her. It would also not hurt to run a candidate through 3rd- party test that require actual programming (my favorite is codility.com, but there are several other websites that provide similar services).

</comment><comment><USER19> _How opinionated are they?_

A novice programmer probably doesn't have enough experience to create any informed opinion.

A slightly experienced programmer is probably very opinionated about his tools.

A very experienced programmer knows there are trade-offs in every choice and isn't so passionate about voicing his specific opinions on the choice between 2 similar duck-typed programming languages.

</comment><comment><USER6> 37Signals is so overrated. I hope more articles like this help change the general perception about them.

It's not that I don't appreciate their contributions or think they're a fine/nice shop or whatever, but the hype that goes into their stuff is a little ridiculous for serious developers I think.</comment>