Ask HN: What to do after selling startup? - <AUTHOR>

As a young, recent college CS graduate interested in startups -- I'm curious -- what do most of you plan to do after selling your startup? (And for those who have sold startups already, what do you spend your days doing?)
Contributing to open source projects? Teaching middle schoolers how to program? Traveling the world wasting money on drugs & hookers?
I'm kidding on the last one.
It almost seems like "day jobs", besides providing a basic source of income, also provides a social environment for one to live in.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I have no particular intentions of exit-via-selling. Rather, I'm more of a mind to "hack capitalism": fit a job around what I want to do in life (find a nice young lady, spend more time with my family, feel the grass under my feet once in a while) rather than fitting life around mostly inflexible work obligations.

I like work, don't get me wrong. There's a certain dignity to it, and I'd go bonkers if I wasn't solving problems for somebody. I just don't feel the need to do the traditional 9 to 5 thing. Or the 8:30 to zomg o'clock thing, which is slightly more traditional for Japanese salarymen.

<comment><AUTHOR> This sounds alot like the "Monk and the Riddle" philosophy. Is this what you're getting at?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Often, go to work for the company that acquired your startup for a period of several months to several years. Few deals are structured so that the founders can just walk away after selling. Beyond that, the most common path it to start another startup. It's addictive!

</comment><comment><USER4> Start another programming project that interests me, but without monetization considerations in mind this time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Where would you live? In your own house? On your own island? Or somehow work in a company that lets you spend your free time working on an open source project?

<comment><USER4> Possibly in my own house on my own island ;P

But I'd certainly go for maximum independence so going to work for a company if I don't have to (which presumably I won't have to if I sell a startup) is out of the question. I want to be able to pursue crazy projects that might or might not turn out to give results.

Oh, and I'd crank up on my knowledge of theoretical CS too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apparently starting a startup for startups is becoming a more and more popular post-sale activity.

</comment><comment><USER6> I got out of programming as a necessity and in to doing things for the love of it. Teaching, evangelizing, helping people out, mostly. For me, programming was/is a means to an end, not something _I_ enjoyed doing.. but helping other people to learn and enjoy programming is something I enjoy. (As an aside, I can now sympathize with those professors who teach subjects without having any commercial experience of them. It helps, but I don't think it's a prerequisite to being a good educator.)

<comment><USER7> How did you transition? Do you hire programmers now to build stuff, instead of doing it yourself? Or is the nature of your business just much more content/marketing oriented now, so you don't need much (new) technology?

<comment><USER6> While I'm not a fan of grinding on code for hours anymore, I still code a little but for the _ends_ rather than the _means._ I've become content and outcome focused rather than code and technology focused, so I can "outsource" to existing technologies/apps (e.g. a Wordpress install that does 90% of what I want, rather than a custom CMS that does it all).

I've looked into outsourcing to other _people_ but find myself too much of a micromanager to get away with it. No-one deserves micromanagement so I avoid it. Everyone else seems to want to turn trivial tasks into big "projects" with budgets to match ;-) - but that's because they're professional coders with standards, whereas if I can use an off the shelf product or bash something messy together in Ruby in 2 hours, I'll do that instead.

Professional coders tend to gasp in horror at my philosophy and I can't blame them. I'm very much of the "duct tape" mentality when it comes to engineering. Thankfully, you can get away with this on your own non-critical projects.. (it's a bit like the welder who doesn't use a mask when doing his own stuff in the garage) but I don't advise it for career programmers because otherwise you'll end up on The Daily WTF every week ;-)

<comment><USER7> Thanks for your insightful answer, Peter. I think a lot of entrepreneurs have to wear far more hats than what their strengths and/or preferences are. As you've said, I think one luxury of a level of success is to "retire" to one's preferred areas.

Side note: Having to do significant work in one's areas of weakness/aversion is what makes the initial phases of starting up disproportionately challenging.

<comment><USER6> I think you've nailed it all a lot better than I did! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've already said I plan on setting aside a certain percentage of my net worth to angel invest back into startups. I want to help people who were like me when I first got started at 18 (clueless but relentlessly passionate on building things that can change the world).

I'd most likely do a startup again (and again) at some point, but angel investing could easily become a full time startup.

I'd also spend a lot of time setting up a non-profit that introduced young kids to technology at an early age. I was pretty lucky that my dad got me onto the computer when I was four. There are a lot of kids in bad areas of the world that aren't that lucky.

I guess in short, I want to help give people the same opportunities I had from people that believed in me. With a good amount of money, you can do that on a much larger scale.

</comment><comment><USER9> "Don't start a company unless it's an obsession. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession."

<comment><USER10> Interesting viewpoint. The one I've heard is: if you DON'T have an exit strategy, it's just a hobby.

<comment><USER9> That came across my Twitter stream yesterday, seems it's from Mark Cuban after Googling:

<http://blogmaverick.com/2008/03/09/my-rules-for-startups/>

To me personally, thinking too much about exit strategies in an early phase startup seems like premature optimization. Thinking about what you're going to be doing after you sell a company that's just getting off the ground is bordering on mental autoerotica. It's like debating what you're going to do after you win a gold metal in the olympics when you've just started training. There's so much ground to cover between here and there that it'd be better to focus on making sure you qualify.

<comment><USER11> It's the difference between a supergoal and a _super_ goal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I traveled for a couple of years, then went back to get a PhD in mathematics.

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you a professor or a research scientist now?

I have pondered this route, but it seems that in general, the research community / academia tends to "shun" those that don't do straight undergrad -> research.

<comment><USER12> Neither yet, but I feel like I've been accepted by the academic community and the opportunity is mine to lose.

I dropped out of my undergrad CS program to do my first startup. That was 15 years ago. When I decided to go back for a PhD two years ago, I still had to complete my undergrad. I'm finishing up this spring and will be starting at a top 10 graduate program in the fall. My grades from 15 years ago were not particularly good and my background is rather unusual. I wasn't sure how I would be viewed as an applicant. This was not a easy year for admissions and I feel I did extremely well.

I know two other people went back to study math after working for a while. One is now a grad student at Brown, the other is a postdoc at MIT.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'll probably waste some time contributing to open source projects and then invest into hookers :) Really, if your only reason to do a startup is to do something else after that - why bother? If you like contributing to open source projects - contribute now! You like drugs and hookers? What stops you now?

<comment><USER14> _What stops you now?_

My credit balance.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, on the surface. But some people are making decent living that way, so you may get into the business if you really like it, you pimp ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "wasting"?

</comment><comment><USER16> I'd buy my parents house from them, and let them finally retire. I'd travel a bit, then setup a small office and start working on my list of ideas.

</comment><comment><USER17> Having sold my startup, the money gives me flexibility to do what I want!

Personally, I am i. managing an open source project ii. picking up/tasking the kids to school (generally spending time with the kids) iii. biking regularly to get/stay fit iv. lunches with friends v. looking for the next "thing" I want to get involved in

Ahh .. but you can see I am a little older than you!

</comment><comment><USER18> I haven't sold my start-up, nor has it publicly _launched_ , nor do I _want_ to sell it if the opportunity arises, but I'd imagine you go on to your next big idea.

The people who do startups like the freedom of working on their own thing. That doesn't extend to just startups. Design video games, or direct a movie, or start a band.

</comment><comment><USER19> You usually have 3 stages (based on the successful guys I've met before):

A) Vesting period- after the initial sale, you take on the day job of either (a) doing what you were doing before, if you were properly aligned in incentive structure, or (b) doing something different that they bought your team for. For some, they find that they have now reached a state in corporate America that allows them to vault to the upper echelons of management, while others feel these days don't go by fast enough.

B) Soul-searching/vacation period- for those who don't stay after vesting, some people go and soul-search, Entrepreneur In Residence gigs, live 4-hour workweeks, travel copious amounts, become advisors or investors in other companies, or find their original cadre of friends to start hacking on stuff. Some start dating.

C) Next gig- depending on the riskiness of the individual, they may never sell another startup again and become the circling crew of technology professionals, others will compete with much furor with another startup, while others will forget their hacker roots and take $5M from a big VC firm on an unproven idea.

</comment><comment><USER20> Being a VC/Angel seems pretty fun, but knowing myself, I'll probably get itchy and want to jump back into the game at the first opportunity I see.

</comment><comment><USER21> Related: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398597>

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm just launching own startup this spring, so I cant say for sure...

But if I succeed, I'll probably keep doing what I do now - code, blog and do startup once again.

</comment><comment><USER23> Certainly read this: <http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early- retirement/>

</comment><comment><USER24> 1) I would start all over again. If I was successful once I feel I could be successful again. 2) I have an idea for a non profit I want to start and knowing that I could financially support myself and have money to start this I would get it rolling 3)Invest. I may not have the next big thing but I'm sure other people out there do and I would like to help them out because I will have known what they are going through.

</comment><comment><USER25> a) Trip around the world to go race on every famous race track. Pretty much covers a lot of Europe + Asia.

b) Setup a "Hey everyone, I got some money, and want to be an angel investor...send me your ideas." page. Invest into a couple of promising startups.

c) Start thinking of something new to do. And then do another startup.

</comment><comment><USER26> I don't like the way that life is controlled by money, id much rather live life freely, and that's what I intend to achieve in part, by either selling my startup or just making it so automated that I can earn a living without working 40 hours a week.

Then id probably go and see the world and all of its wonders.

</comment><comment><USER27> Buy a house at the beach. Start going to more conferences. Read a few books. Then start working on the next idea.

</comment><comment><USER28> If the amount of money were adeguate, I'd probably try and help other startup founders.

</comment><comment><USER29> Prove the Riemann hypothesis.

<comment><USER30> We should join forces and prove both.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Play golf. I thought that was the whole point of starting and then selling your own company. Plus, country clubs offer socialization opportunities. Even if the people are a bit snooty.

</comment><comment><USER32> Start my next one. I have ideas that scale - more grand and higher risk.

I'd also work less when "not at work", and focus on my family.

</comment><comment><USER33> Really depends on what it sells for, but I have a much riskier and expensive startup which I would fund from the sale of the first one.

</comment><comment><USER34> You can start a small seed funding VC group, and name it after a cool trick in mathematics which defines recursion.

<comment><USER14> Also I would maybe write a hacker community site in an obscure language for fun - and just not care how long it takes. That's luxury.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Golf, lots and lots of golf.

</comment><comment><USER36> actually seriously already the last one.

</comment><comment><USER37> Start again.

</comment><comment><USER30> proving that P != NP

</comment><comment><USER38> I'd stay at home and watch mind rotting daytime TV in my pants. Lots of fatty, unhealthy food and perhaps a sprinkling of masturbation. Bit like the weekends really.</comment>


Screwing up the technical interview - common mistakes - <AUTHOR> http://dandreamsofcoding.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/screwing-up-the-technical-interview-common-mistakes/

<comment><USER2> An interesting read - though I wonder (like many people) how useful being able to rattle off a linked list implementation is, given that there will almost certainly be a library version available.

If the few minutes that it took to read this article is actually going to help people in an interview, then perhaps the interview method is wrong.

<comment><USER3> It is just an example of a dead simple 10-line programming task to verify that someone knows the language syntax, conditional, iteration or recursion, and references/pointers.

Posing a complex domain-specific unsolved (or else it would be in a library!) problem that requires using library functions just wastes time and adds clutter to a quick coiding sanity check.</comment></comment>


Results from 2008 ACM Programming World Finals: As always, Russia leads the way. - <AUTHOR> http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Finals/v2/default.asp?page=results 1  	St. Petersburg University of IT 2 	Massachusetts Institute of Technology 	3 	Izhevsk State Technical University 	4 	Lviv National University 	 5 	Moscow State University 	 	6 	Tsinghua University
7 	Stanford University
8 	University of Zagreb 9 	University of Waterloo
10 	Petrozavodsk State University <comment><USER2> Hasn't China and Russia/Eastern Europe been winning competitions like these, in all fields (maths, physics, computer science) for ages? How come the winners stop performing when they grow up? Or is it just that it takes 30 years to evolve from "excellent at solving small tasks" to "excellent at solving real tasks"?

It seems to me like these countries (and China in particular) have a culture of overworking and overperforming, while most of the time managing to avoid making a significant impact on society as a whole. A young, ambitious Chinese student studies as hard as most start-up employees, while aiming for much smaller gains.

<comment><USER3> It is not overworking or overperforming in my 0.02. An ambitious American/Western European/Japanese student would rather to spend their energy to deal with real world problems because in reality, he/she may be able to get much large rewards, in comparison to ACM's award and honor.

While an ambitious Eastern European/Chinese student, the reward from local economy is worthy far less than making a big name in ACM. The same monetary reward from ACM has much higher value in those countries. Besides, after winning the award. It becomes a good add-on on resumes for applications to graduate schools in U.S. or a job at Google/Microsoft/IBM.

I am always amazed that people forget how cheap it is when you are living outside U.S and Western Europe. And the same dollar can buy much more there.

When I think about my uncle in Taiwan who have been spending 20 years to build a company that acquires 20% market share of silicone in East Asia, and its market capital is only $200 million. Any ambitious American/European hacker can make 3 to 10 millions if he/she works on the right stuffs in 5 years. Then you will know how unworthy it is to spend time on ACM competition in US but in China and Russia.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a compelling narrative and I think there is some truth to that. However, I think there is a more simple explanation to the dominance of Russian schools. Check out this graph on percentage of population with at least a college degree: <http://blogs.ft.com/crookblog/files/2008/03/kierkegaard.jpg> (warning: squinting may be required :)

More educated people means more candidates to participate in ACM contents means higher chances of getting to the top spots.

<comment><USER3> I agree with what you said. And I also know from my school mates before in NYU that mathematical inclined Russians like to play all those interesting math quiz. Also in old Soviet times, engineers and scientists are treated better for their contributions to build socialist heaven :-)

But I know the tradition in family maybe more important to inspire offspring. Thinking about Robert Morris father was the author of crypt function in Unix, I guess he may learn from his father when he was a still kid to play those games :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Doing well in the the ACM Programming competition requires training time IMHO. The best competitors will have strong programming skills and a deep knowledge base of problem patterns and the best way to solve them. I was on the Stanford B team back in the day ('80s), and I know that if I were a student now, I'd use my free time to build a product/company rather than spending much effort preparing for the ACM competition. While some student programmers aren't swayed by the tremendous capitalist forces, I'd be surprised if it didn't have an impact on which programmers made it through campus preliminaries. There's just so many opportunities competing for your time if you're a good young programmer nowadays.

As well as MIT and Stanford performed, I'd have to wonder about student programmers who skipped the competition because they have their sight set on bigger prizes. The same might be said, though, for the other universities even if they aren't entrepreneurial hotbeds.

</comment><comment><USER5> If they've good hackers in abundance then why there are no emerging startups? Don't they look at the business side of technology ;) Just curious? Can anyone share some insights about startup scene in Russia?

<comment><AUTHOR> Many of them leave and create startups else where, for example Google or Parallels.

Then there are startups you probably know about, like Art Lebedev: <http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus> Most of their startups target the Russian market, for example, Google is in 2nd place among Russian search engines, trailing yandex.ru.

<comment><USER6> Art Lebedev isn't a startup and has nothing to do with skilled programming. He's good at courtshiping rich companies instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This Sunday is the contest at my university, I'm participating with two other friends. I aim at solving at least three problems, though winning with any number is welcome too :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> Pfft, Russia doesn't always lead. :-p

Thanks for the results.</comment>


Looking for single hackers to review my site - <AUTHOR>

Title says it all... just opened today.<p>http://mikesandmegs.com <comment><USER3> Why would I bother using this site when I could go to any of the other dating sites on the web, many of which have thousands of females in my local region?

From the about page of your site, it seems like you're an introvert programmer married for 15 years and three children. When was the last time you've been on a date or tried to romantically connect with other women? I don't mean to plow on the haterade but it's a serious question. Do you understand the dynamics of meeting women (i.e how attraction works, what women look for), or is this site a projection of what you think dating should be?

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't like being called a mike. I only dislike it for the site name - it is moderately memorable, after all - but i hate that i have to call myself a mike when selecting a gender. I'm not mike. I dont know anyone named mike that i like. Just make it say im a guy or girl.

Don't require a one liner. I hate one liners. Make it optional.

The logo and logotype are ok, but everything else looks like a default template. Why not take the design seriously and actually develop a theme? It looks like the microsoft guys hired out for the logo and did the site in house. no offense. Well, just a little.

Why are you getting into this crowded marketplace? What is new about this?

After logging in you say something like, "We're a dating site, but were also kind of like facebook, and if you get a hook up here you're totally lucky, cuz we're way too chill to stress it, bro". I lost faith immediately.

Also, Advanced search has major problems:

Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Notice: Undefined variable: longitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Notice: Undefined variable: longitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search- advanced.php on line 700

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Zend_Db_Statement_Exception' with message 'SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ')) * (69.1 * (latitude - ))) + ((69.1 * (longitude - ) * COS( / 57.3)) * (69.1 *' at line 1' in /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement/Pdo.php:238 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement.php(283): Zend_Db_Statement_Pdo->_execute(Array) #1 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php(464): Zend_Db_Statement->execute(Array) #2 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Abstract.php(232): Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query(Object(Zend_Db_Select), Array) #3 /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php(708): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Abstract->query(Object(Zend_Db_Select)) #4 {main} thrown in /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement/Pdo.php on line 238

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll fix that, and rethink the one-liners tonight. There is no team, just me, any suggestions for themes, or a place where I could read a bit more about the design aspect?

<comment><USER4> Sorry to be so brutally frank about the design - obviously take everything with a grain of salt.

I like the look and feel of the logo (although I would hand draw the type instead of using a font), and I would recommend that you do more to give the rest of the site a similar vibe. For instance, on the landing page i would: 1\. eliminate all the extraneous boxes around everything 2\. maybe try giving the whole page a light blue/pink background instead of just the boxes? Just trying to simplify it more. 3\. reduce the size of the footer type 4\. keep your font colors consistent (i see a few different shades of blue) and unless theres a good reason, keep your links all the same color.

On the next page, 1\. I'm not a fan of the happy face indicator for the default image. Maybe try, i donno... a bunny? 2\. the link buttons on the top right are really ignorable because of the generic icons. I would continue with the handwritten theme for the primary nav items and hand draw the icons 3\. the recent members box takes up a lot of room... its most of your content. In fact, my home page asks what is going on? and answers: nothing is going on. Why not switch the locations and importance of the recent members and the whats going on thing?

Basically, removing boxes and revamping the nav to incorporate the logo theme would go a LONG way.

<comment><AUTHOR> No worries, I know this is the hardest crowd. Once I figure things out, take the advice, it will be a lot better than never mentioning it here.

I appreciate all of the suggestions and advice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm not a single hacker so I can't really help out much; but I hope you've started by reaching out to some more female heavy communities first. Otherwise you may have a pretty severe overpopulation of Mikes.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the first place a guy runs too... I'll speak to the Meg of the site and kick her in the ass to run to wherever they run to when they finish something.

Going to do that now ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Clickable: <http://mikesandmegs.com>

</comment><comment><USER7> My browser cookie settings are default-reject. Your site should allow me to at least take a look at your home page without needing a cookie.

<comment><USER8> Average people don't care about stuff like that. Most people have more cookies than Pepperidge Farms on their computer without realizing it. Unless you're targeting cranky hackers specifically, I wouldn't worry.

<comment><USER9> For the _home_ page? Sure average people don't care about cookies, but if they get an error message when they arrive at your page they aren't going to waste time adjusting browser settings, they are just going to leave.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> signed up. went through painful profile population process (alliteration w00t). the drop-downs for city is not at all fun - suggest text-field with auto-complete if you want the silos. otherwise, zip-code might be better?

checked out the member search not a single user within 200 miles of NYC?

while i understand this has just opened and the team is based in Ontario, seeding the userbase with beta-testers/soft-launch participants for major metropolitan areas is usually a good idea for sites that hinge on real-life location-centric interaction between users...

just my two cents

</comment><comment><USER11> I went there, but I don't know what it is. It's a dating site, but why am I signing up for it? I don't know what the features are at all. So I try to look around, but I'm met with a login screen. Seems like maybe I'm supposed to register there, since clearly I'm new (I just came from the I'm a Mike screen, after all), but no. It's just a login screen, and the user name and pass I thought I was registering with doesn't work..

Oh, I need to register first... by looking all over and finally find the "Join" button nowhere near where I was looking.

I give up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input, going to rethink a few screens! :)

<comment><USER12> Definitely consider what differentiates you.

What's the draw? Why use this instead of, say, OkCupid.com?

EDIT: You also claim to be the best free dating site on the web. This is arrogant and unfounded. It didn't do it for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The logo is sort of heterocentric (it looks like a male rabbit is mounting the female rabbit).

<comment><USER4> Just looks like two bunnies to me. Is one wearing a bow or something? I didn't look that close.

<comment><USER13> I only say that because on the login screen you have to choose a "Mike" or a "Meg" with their corresponding bunny.

<comment><USER4> ...and you dont know any boys named Meg? How long have you lived in sf???

<comment><AUTHOR> lol

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Real quick usability tip: make the bunnies clickable. I shouldn't have to click "I'm a Mike."

<comment><AUTHOR> Did this one real quick! :) Thanks for the tip :)

<comment><USER15> the bunny image title still says "Click the button below..." :]

<comment><AUTHOR> doh... got it ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The graphic design and introduction text on the first page (where you choose a bunny) gives the impression that you want to be different from all the other dating sites..

So ok, I sign up. First questions you're asking when creating a profile is all kinds of stuff I really don't care about.

"Ethnicity", "Religious views", "eye color", "hair color", "height", and whether I am fat or not in some annoyingly gentle politically correct manner. Try to be a bit more creative. A dating site needs to make it easy to find interesting people you are in some way compatible with... and you come up with eye color. EYE COLOR!

I think you really need to think about what you want to accomplish here, start from scratch instead of copying other sites. And most of the other sites suck, so you really have a chance to create something useful and unique if you just do everything opposite from them. (think stackoverflow vs experts-exchange ;).

One more thing, to enter a description you present us with an FCK editor with every feature enabled. Three lines of buttons! WHY? Please, hire an interaction designer or at least read Steve Krug's "Don't make me think".

</comment><comment><USER17> No interest in registering for something i can't see. are there even people in my area?

<comment><AUTHOR> We just opened today to the public. Just looking for some advice ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I dived in your site for 2 minutes even though I'm not single and this is how I feel --

       1. Too many questions during registration

       2. Too little hand-holding for new users

       3. The functionality seems pretty limited (upon a
          quick glance)

       4. How do you differentiate yourself from the
          numerous other dating sites?

</comment><comment><USER19> This is a bit, well, _austere_ is the kindest way I can put it. The bar for any sort of online profile is pretty high these days; you're up against Facebook and the subset of their userbase that filled in their 'looking for' - and they're not even really a dating site.

</comment><comment><USER12> Dude... you spelled Atheist wrong under Religious Views.

It's spelled Athiest right now.

EDIT:Your spell check has an ad in it to buy the spell check's licensed version. That's kind of tacky.

Also, you don't support the features in your rich text editing - my underlines and italics disappeared!

Is "Buy x a drink" a feature to be implemented in the future? Also, this /is/ real life. Your alert text is kind of lame.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can buy anyone a drink. It's working. I fixed my typo... lol ty for pointing it out. I'll have to figure out something about that spell check.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Accessing pic.php with argument s=1 or greater gives much better picture resolution than the original. Is that intentional?

The amount of interaction available without registration is sadly very small, not compelling to me.

Before I invest time in registering, I'd like to evaluate the site much more. At least some sample profiles... Use of OpenID could also streamline the registration or do away with it altogether.

<comment><AUTHOR> yea the pic returns a thumb or a full size image.

I'll look at allowing more prior to login, as a few others said, its a huge weak point for my site.

Thanks for the input, going to look into OpenId now ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why can't I upload pictures of myself from the web? I don't keep any pictures on my computer anymore... so this means I have to download the picture, and then upload it again.

Yet another usage barrier (but maybe it's not an issue for everyone).

</comment><comment><USER21> You have a Google ad for "Greater Expectations" (another dating site) on the front page of your site.

You could always look at it as "my competition is paying me", but at first glance it looks like a traffic hemorrhage.

</comment><comment><USER22> your drop downs in registration seem slow... heavy in javascript maybe? I really hate all these sites with 'blog' and microblog stuff... basically I'm saying how many 'blogs' do I need? I don't mind it but I'd personally rather have one that ends up on all... maybe add a way to grab feeds and post with those? and whatever you do feature wise in the future don't make messaging unfree. I refuse to pay to send a message to someone.

<comment><AUTHOR> messaging is free, as is everything on the site. I'll look into adding feeds ;) Good idea

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Your front page needs a serious design reconsideration. Besides that, two minor points - The two bunnies humping each other in the upper left corner - <USER2> guess that's supposed to be funny. Didn't really do it for me. Also, why mention "Release 488" on the front page?</comment>


American Airlines to Furlough 25,000 Employees - <AUTHOR> https://airlinegeeks.com/2020/07/15/american-airlines-announces-furlough-notices/ <comment><USER2> Every morning M-F, TSA publishes daily traveler numbers for the previous day(s):

[https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger- throughput](https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput)

It's a good snapshot of the state of air travel in the US. Yesterday's volume was 22% of the same date a year earlier (July 14, 2019) and I expect volume may fall below 20% next week as the virus surge causes marginal travel plans to be cancelled.

The low point in absolute travelers was April 14 when 87k people flew, less than 4% (!) of the previous year's 2.2 million.

<comment><USER3> not going to lie... I was still shocked at how quickly the numbers went up starting June.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > These letters indicate that potential layoffs or furloughs are possible in > the near future as air travel demand continues to suffer due to COVID-19.

it's a warning of a furlough, not an actual furlough.

<comment><USER5> Unless COVID magically goes away(tm) by October 1st and travel rebounds to where it was before, which is looking _exceedingly_ unlikely, the furloughs will happen as soon as the payroll subsidies end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I remember reading about people upset that the Airline executives were going to continue making their millions when getting government assistance. I was upset that the unionized airline pilots making $400k/year weren't going to be asked for any concession. Surely it's better for the industry to drive down wages during this downturn than just furlough.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is there a scenario in which all the major airlines collapse?

<comment><USER8> Nope. See also: Amtrak.

<comment><USER9> On the contrary, Amtrak represents the exact scenario that OP was asking about. It was created following the complete collapse of all the major passenger railroads.

<comment><USER10> I think the point was "there'll always be passenger service", not "the current companies will survive unscathed".

<comment><USER8> The worst case is they could all merge into "Amwings" and those who choose to AGTOW would go bankrupt. I doubt it. Consolidation down to fewer major carriers per country would happen first because it's not like HYPErloop is going to put airlines or air cargo out of biz anytime soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Can someone educate me what exactly is the difference between furlough and layoff?

<comment><USER5> A layoff is permanent, and even if the position is reinstated, you have no claim to get your old job back.

A furlough is meant to be temporary and some benefits may contain to be paid out. If the company starts bringing people back in, those on furlough will be rehired first if still available.

That said, if the company doesn't recover fast enough or goes under entirely, there's no difference in practice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Juan at blancolirio announced this about a week ago. He doesn't hold much hope returning to a trip 7 right seat but is exploring firefighting and other options.</comment>


Ask HN: Would anyone pay for automatic backups of their Git repos? - <AUTHOR> I've been contemplating the idea of building a little business around a system that automatically backs up a local git repository's working tree at regular intervals to a cloud repo. I would add a git command that would allow users to easily find and restore backups with no hassle. It might prevent people from losing work that hadn't yet been pushed or committed after an accidental deletion or a hard drive failure. Would anyone pay for this for themselves or their team? I've also thought that it might be interesting to present productivity analytics based upon these regular backups since the data could show more granular detail about working habits as compared to data based off of just commits. Hoping for some validation prior to spending more time building out the application, so any feedback is appreciated. <comment><USER2> Have you thought about inverting the idea, providing backups of cloud services?

I see a lot of people/companies operating under the false assumption that they don't have to backup data that's in the cloud and typically it's a lot harder than backing up files on a hard drive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comment! Are you talking about backing up remote Git repos that are hosted on GitHub, Bitbucket, etc, or are you talking more generally about backing up any data that is hosted by a cloud service? If the former, then I'm not sure that I'd personally find the backup of actual data very useful since all users should have a local copy, but I can potentially see the use case for a redundant remote in the case that the service's servers are temporarily down and you don't want your team's workflow to be interrupted. If the latter, I think that there already some big players in that market and it might be difficult for a solo developer, like myself, to gain a foothold with a bootstrapped product.

<comment><USER2> I was thinking about both, but git repos specifically. Aside from the code itself github comes with a lot of stuff like issue management that only offers an API to access.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think this is fundamentally missing the point of Git, which is to fill this role (which might require modifying user habits to prevent data loss as described here).

<comment><AUTHOR> I see your point and agree that this isn't necessarily a problem for developers that commit and push code really frequently (as we all know we should). From my experience, though, it isn't uncommon for developers to keep code in their working tree, on their local machine for days or longer before pushing it to a remote repo. I've seen multiple people lose a significant amount of work because they fall victim to the idea that "it won't happen to me", and I've typically seen their diligence with committing/pushing improve temporarily until the memory of their disaster fades. If you can successfully change habits to use Git more effectively to reduce this risk, then I think that is certainly a good alternative. I wonder if an inexpensive insurance policy wouldn't be better for many, though, especially since it could backup the working directory far more frequently than even the most careful Git users. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate the response!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not me. But to paraphrase PT Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute.

<comment><AUTHOR> I really have no interest in building software for suckers though, I asked because I wanted to verify if the idea had real value to anyone :) I appreciate your feedback!</comment></comment>


Why Progressive Web Apps Are the Future of Mobile Web - <AUTHOR> https://css-tricks.com/why-progressive-web-apps-are-the-future-of-mobile-web/ <comment><USER2> Currently I'm browsing mobile web without JS (disabled it in settings) and I really wish this was the future</comment>


The clock is ticking on a time bomb that could blow up a free internet: the TPP - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/06/clock-ticking-time-bomb-blow-up-free-internet-tpp <comment><USER2> These hyperbolic headlines do more harm than good. Disappointed whenever I see the Grauniad following this trend.</comment>


Uber asks drivers to pay $115 for a shot at extra Halloween earnings - <AUTHOR> https://thenextweb.com/tech/2017/10/19/uber-asks-drivers-pay-115-shot-extra-halloween-earnings/ <comment><USER2> This is an example of stupid and moronic behavior by Uber. They already get their cut.

Do not bind the mouths of the kine who tread the wheat...</comment>


I did mob programming every day for 5 months - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/comparethemarket/i-did-mob-programming-every-day-for-5-months-heres-what-i-learnt-b586fb8b67c <comment><USER2> Contemplating this article over my coffee just now, I realized what bothered me about this pair programming extension. There are really two divergent schools of thought in software, that only get acknowledged periodically. There are those that see software as a _factory process_ , where developers are essentially interchangeable cogs, tasked with churning out an amount of work each day. I would submit that much of "Agile," despite being well-intentioned, falls into this camp. The alternative view is to view software development as an engineering _profession_ , requiring specialized education and knowledge, where individuals are respected in the same way as doctors, lawyers, accountants, or other types of highly-skilled professionals. In this model, developers might come together in an exchange of ideas or information, but otherwise have _personal responsibility_ for their own outcomes. These conflicting schools of thought would seem to be at the root of many of these discussions of methodology and practice, where for some things like pair programming and stand-up meetings are essential, and for others, untenable.

<comment><USER3> I think a good follow up, if you have the time, would be to read through the BBC article that is also on the front page about the benefits of being a loner. The two articles seem to be arguing for different sides of the same issue.

<comment><USER2> Thank you for the suggestion!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> We do mob programming for my current project, once a week, for about two hours. It is most useful for new features where people can get design paralysis, we've found. The benefit of familiarity are tremendous. The mobs have a topology, though - you can't just pull someone in from the other side of the office and say "alright John let's get rollin'". On the other hand, Architects (and other technical leaders) are good mob drop-ins. They ought to be looking at my code base anyway.

It has also helped achieve coherency in design patterns, stylistic differences (which we also use tools to enforce), and testing practices.

I get the kneejerk reaction of "it's hip or buzzwordy" but this is one that has worked well for us.

</comment><comment><USER5> Never really liked mob programming at my old job. Just made me really distracted and made me feel like I wasn't needed as in my head I knew I was working with talented developers who could do what we were doing by themselves. Basically just ended up being a human typo spotter.

One thing we found useful though was using a timer for the 'driver' (person behind the keyboard). I made a terminal one here:

[https://github.com/benbristow/agile- timer](https://github.com/benbristow/agile-timer)

It's more designed for Mac as it uses the 'say' command but could be tweaked easily for Linux users.

Although when I started at my new job I would have found it useful. Trying to figure out custom frameworks where the documentation was in a few people's heads wasn't fun.

</comment><comment><USER6> Another buzzword - this us simply pair programming but with 3 (or more) people? Frankly, I find working in this way to work but in an extremely inefficient manner. A simple code review is often much more insightful, more efficient, and easier to communicate versus piling around a single keyboard - just some thoughts.

<comment><USER7> I don't agree, pair/mob programming has its benefits.

In the early stage of starting a project you need to set up the structure of the application you are going to build. The architecture, and rough outline of where what needs to go.

By using mob programming we've been able to get an entire team ready to go at full speed in no time. Everyone knew the thought behind every decision made, and everyone had enough knowledge of the structure to hit the ground running.

That is way better than having the lead dev or architect do that work on his own and then having to spend time to explain it all to the rest of the team.

Mob programming has its advantages, but I wouldn't want to use it too often.

<comment><USER8> So what's the difference between that and gathering around a whiteboard and doing some design/planning work?

<comment><USER7> To me personally; not much.

The main difference is walking out of the room with a pull-request setting up the structure in code instead of walking out the room with a photo made of a whiteboard.

<comment><USER9> I find that starting new projects with multiple people right away is almost always a recipe for disaster, or at least drastically reduces the potential quality of the project before even writing the first line of code.

Maybe it works for small projects or teams of mostly junior developers. But for anything remotely complex I can say from experience the architecture won't be ready in a few meetings but rather after much hammock time.

That architecture will then become a main factor in your productivity, maintainability _and_ performance. These 3 are very, very hard to optimize for once the architecture is in place.

Other than for code reviews or mentoring junior developers, I've never seen pair/mob programming works with quality results. Its nearly impossible to solve complex problems when outside the zone, and its nearly impossible to get in the zone in a pair/mob setting.

<comment><USER10> I think at least the zone part depends on personality. I have a much easier time getting in the zone when pairing and riding off each other's ideas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm gonna start pushing for calling it "hive programming".

<comment><USER12> Good idea. I'd never heard of mob programming before. When I clicked the article I expected an article about programming _for_ the mob.

<comment><USER13> Yes, I was thinking about methods for creating and managing mobs. But then, I've read Burroughs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Too many cooks spoil the broth. Effective teamwork does not mean we all need to work on the exact same thing at the same time. The best teams I've been on have people who are "t shaped" and have the autonomy to self organize. It's ok to collaborate but it's usually best to communicate what needs to be done, split up the responsibilities, and then complete the work independently. In my experience smaller teams output higher quality work at a faster rate. Bigger teams have less accountability and are prone to wasting time bike shedding.

All of the problems the author states are symptoms of other issues in the organization which will not be solved by this particular style of group work. Incomprehensible code is still incomprehensible regardless of whether it was written by 1 or 10 people. Everyone is bad at this to begin with, how can you expect to get better if you have someone else solve all of your problems? Going through a bit of a struggle is a good thing, as it gives you confidence that you can solve new problems as they arise.

<comment><USER15> >"T-shaped" ?

<comment><USER16> It's a phrase usually used to refer to developers who have a broad base of knowledge (the horizontal stroke of a capital "T") as well as a single area of particular specialization (the vertical stroke of the "T").

<comment><USER15> Right on. Thanks.

"Jack of ~all~ many trades, master of ~none~ a few."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Sounds like something a consultancy would insist on to juice contract value.

</comment><comment><USER18> I see a _huge_ opportunity to mentor Junior devs by doing this.

<comment><USER2> Completely agreed, but this is probably the only real use for this technique. For experienced (read: expensive) developers, the cost overhead of having two or three developers working on one problem (which is likely a one-person task anyway) is too great. I'm certain proponents would push the quality angle -- that two or three pairs of eyes and brains focused on the problem improves quality -- but there are other ways to boost quality while maintaining a more realistic productivity and cost structure.

For less-experienced developers though, this would be a great way of building team cohesiveness, training/mentoring, plus likely boosting productivity.

<comment><USER19> I would argue it's also useful for new team members in general, or for teams that have in the past been unorganized. At my current job I've spent a lot of time refactoring code so that there's some more unity among everything, because everybody does their own thing and doesn't really collaborate, which makes maintenance a pain in the ass. Something like this that kind of forces people to work together and create some kind of unified style could be very beneficial.

Not to mention when I've seen experience developers show something they've been working on for the past two weeks, only to be told what they've shown is a disaster because they never had any other eyes on it to question their design decisions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I can see this for a team of interns on a summer project, but not senior devs that don't really get stuck that often, or know to involve someone for the brief periods where they need a second set of eyes.

</comment><comment><USER21> I work for a company that almost exclusively does mob programming. As in I'm in a mob 95% percent of the day, every day.

What I miss most is "the zone." Pretty much every single line of code requires a verbal interaction with my coworkers. I used to love the feeling of coming up for air after 2 hours of visualizing abstractions inside of my own head, kind of like that feeling of reading a novel and suddenly coming to and remembering all of the action like a movie had occurred in my imagination.

Programming used to be unbelievably fun because of that. It's still fun, but some of the magic is gone.

</comment><comment><USER22> I've had a lot of success with paired programming in different team/project environments and really have only done 'mob' experiments. I didn't find there to be a lot of benefit to mobs vs pairing unless the goal was to make sure every team member was highly aware of what was going on in a specific commit/feature-branch.

I definitely think ad-hoc mobbing has it's place and most if not all big design/redesign work the team undertakes should be in a mob form. I'm not sure I could see it being a good practice day to day for most teams/projects though.

</comment><comment><USER23> As a junior dev only a couple years into programming I love pair programming. I spend way less time stuck. It's been life changing for me.

</comment><comment><USER24> I've just finished a 4 year PhD, working alone. Now, I'm building my company building software, but I'm currently a one man show, and again, working alone.

Do you reckon 3 people in a mob is more productive in the short term than 3 people working independently?

I wonder if 3 people who typically work independently could time-share each other to work on projects in a mob.

<comment><USER25> Unfortunately, you're probably broken at this point. Too much time spent in the productive bliss of solitary work breeds unrealistic expectations when pulled back into the conformity of collaboration. It's like shackling a thoroughbred to a plow.

If you've got VC money to burn, sticking a whole squad of expensive programmers in a room and gating their output to slightly more than a single person might be a reasonable option...

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Based on the headline I expected this to be someone talking about programming for organized crime. Imagine my disappointment when it's just another bloody buzzword.

</comment><comment><USER27> We have been doing mob programming for the last month or so. It works well, but everyone needs to be engaged. Otherwise, it's just a distraction.

</comment><comment><USER28> I can't wait for recruiters to incorporate this to their lingos

</comment><comment><USER29> I've never heard of "Mob Programming" before coming across this thread. It's as if somebody looked at pair programming and said "This sucks... but I think I can make it suck _more_."

Collaborate on architecture, interfaces, design, etc.. sure. But, as an introvert, sitting in a room amongst a mob of code monkeys screaming and flinging feces about the room whilst trying to share a single keyboard doesn't sound like the best way to build good software. I'd have a blinding headache after an hour of this sort of thing.

<comment><USER30> I am not introvert but I feel very uncomfortable doing pair programming (specially with one keyboard).

When I am driving some times I get questions about things that I don't care at the moment, why I am using vim/sublime this way, why I named the variable like that. This causes me to lose concentration. If I am "navigating" (as the article mentions) I try to not make many comments but I feel very stressed about the other person not solving the problems the way I would.

I am very open to brainstorming meetings etc, but then just let me go back to my computer in my space to write code. Then I send a PR to someone in the team for review and we can discuss about it.

However there are scenario where I think pairing is very useful, for instance when doing risky changes to infrastructure. The driver share her screen and then it tells the other people watching every action before executing, like "I am going to switch the DNS record now to X.." and the copilot answer "go ahead", "I will wait 2 minutes"..."I am taking down this load balancer.. "

<comment><USER31> I think you identified the best use of pairing: high-risk changes. Avoiding costly mistakes is easier with "another pair of eyes." Pairing on the creation of yet another DTO has very little, if any, value.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> T minus 1 hour until every job posting has 10 years of Mob experience required.

</comment><comment><USER33> This is just pair programming, or "swarming".

And, I hate it, especially when told to do it, as opposed to when it happens naturally.

</comment><comment><USER34> > Given that most programmers get in hot sweats just thinking about the idea > of working with other people

Nice.

<comment><USER35> It's a dumb line, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> A person that struggles with CSS and performs better when two other developers are telling them what to do should probably just not be in this industry at all. This sounds like a nightmare for any competent developer.

<comment><USER37> If I have any kind of hard CSS problem, I ask someone else on the team to handle the styling. I could do it, but it would take me 3x as long and make me miserable.

No one else on the team can handle integration with federated identity systems the way I can, though. I know all the technologies and their security pitfalls that have to be coded around. No one else knows those things. Are they nightmares for competent developers and not people who should be in the industry?

<comment><USER38> both - CSS and federated identity - are basic stuff that a competent developer should be able to handle efficiently.</comment></comment></comment>


Coders Should Fear What Happened to Writers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@melissamcewen/coders-should-fear-what-happened-to-writers-d87a895b03db <comment><USER2> Usual 'coding monkey' that is mostly copypasting 2-3 lines, thinks it is a 'programming' and thinks she is a programmer and tries to dwell on that topic -_-</comment>


NSА's MORECOWBELL: Knell for DNS [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cryptome.org/2015/01/MORECOWBELL-Analysis-Grothoff-etal.pdf

<comment><USER2> For those who don't get the reference in the name: [http://vimeo.com/91715361](http://vimeo.com/91715361)

</comment><comment><USER3> I believe this would be the original source link:

[https://gnunet.org/morecowbell](https://gnunet.org/morecowbell)

with the translation to other languages too. Only the Spanish one is corrupted (just the piece of the file) at the moment.</comment>


Send the Barbarian in First - <AUTHOR> https://thewalrus.ca/send-the-barbarian-in-first/ <comment><USER3> Everybody who played a lot of RPGs as a (pre)teen and turned out okay can tell you how it taught them creativity or self-expression or how to understand other people's ways of life, and that's all good and true. But I'm here to tell you how D&D changed my life: _nothing_ prepared me for a career of navigating extensive, poorly-organized, frequently vague and occasionally contradictory technical documents like the _extensive_ library of D&D rulebooks that I lugged around throughout high school.

<comment><USER4> Oh, God, this makes me imagine what it would be like to play a corporate- bureaucracy themed tabletop RPG.

<comment><USER5> Brings to mind this cartoon:

[https://www.shopontheborderlands.co.uk/wp- content/uploads/20...](https://www.shopontheborderlands.co.uk/wp- content/uploads/2015/04/PP.jpg)

And, of course, the ultimate spirit of a corporate-bureaucracy themed RPG would probably be Paranoia:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role- playing_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_\(role-playing_game\))

<comment><USER6> Who did that cartoon? I recognize the style,....

<comment><USER7> It's by Will McLean, who did artwork for early AD&D manuals and Dragon magazine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Is memorizing football or baseball stats any less obsessive? Those guys are > huge nerds! They paint their faces on game days and argue in bars over > obscure rules and regulations.

Yes. Fantasy football is Dungeons & Dragons for jocks - and I mean that in the most loving way possible, having become "a jock" as an adult, and that's where much of my current friend pool comes from.

<comment><USER9> Cosplaying as your favorite player is also common and accepted.

<comment><USER10> Accepted is debatable: [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=full%20kit%2...](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=full%20kit%20wanker)

<comment><USER11> Is there any human activity that doesn't have an Urban Dictionary term disparaging it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As I was reading the article I thought about how cool it would have been to play with dad, but I'd be cautious not be pushy towards playing with my (future) children. Sons specially are thrilled to share activities with dad and will surely entertain him until they lose interest.

But kids come with their own personalities and skills, should I have a child who is into sports, I would rather enjoy that with him or her instead of passing my old hobbies. I'd be hesitant to share time in front of a screen though, video games don't seem to be real interaction.

<comment><USER13> _I'd be hesitant to share time in front of a screen though, video games don't seem to be real interaction._

Maybe it depends on the games? A single player game with elements of exploration can be fun shared experience; I still remember fondly playing Super Mario 64 with my father. And for small groups, a session of Worms is nice - being turn-based, you're never immersed in the screen, it's more like a digital version of Pétanque and similar games. The sessions with my friends were a riot.

Not that there's anything wrong with avoiding video games, but they can bring some variety.

<comment><USER14> My son just turned six and I got him a Switch for Christmas, it's his first gaming system. Apparently he's still too young to really be able to play the games I bought him, but we have had a lot of fun playing Mario together. He gets extremely excited being the hat and helping out. We've only played 3 or 4 times because I'm not that much of a gamer anymore, but I'd say it has been a positive experience. I wish there were a few more games that he could enjoy on his own though.

<comment><USER15> I'm not familiar with games for the Switch but the DS had a lot of games that are easy for younger children to play. The trouble is that they get horrible reviews because they're targeted at kids but kids aren't the ones reviewing them. Fortunately the bad reviews mean these games are usually half the price or less of a AAA game like Mario so you can take a gamble and buy a couple.

I recall Mario Party, Rabbids, and Carnival games being popular games for my kids because the mini games were usually pretty simple and easy to understand. The games themselves develop coordination, timing, and problem solving skills that are helpful for kids.

The Animal Crossing games are perhaps a little beyond a 6 year old but they're definitely worth while. The require reading comprehension, resource management, and a bunch of other skills that require a child to think.

<comment><USER14> Thanks for the advice. The problem is I haven't bought a nintendo device since the super, so I had no idea what I was doing. Looking back the DS might have been better for him. The Switch just looked like so much fun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My dad was in the US Army when I was a kid. My family is primarily from the Pacific NW, and not particularly religious. When I was 5, my family moved to Germany. For me, it was a magical place, but and I fell deeply in love with it...but Germans aren't very religious, and we weren't while we were there, either. At the age of 10, my dad was reassigned to Ft. Sill, nearby Lawton, OK. You can probably imagine the culture shock of dropping into the buckle of the Bible Belt from agnostic origins. I ended up attending church services with various friends (which I had trouble making in Pentecostania) around the neighborhood, which were filled with fire and brimstone teachings, to include demoninizing D&D, which was lumped in with Quija boards, drugs, and premarital sex. The Southern pastors did a fine good job warping my young mind.

So, I meet this kid named Teddy at school. I don't recall his last name, and sorry if you're reading this, Teddy. We have what would probably be called a "play date" nowadays, because my mom had to drive me over to his house, as it was too far for preteen cycling. We're having a decent time, mostly talking on the couch in his living room, when Teddy asks if I would like to play Dungeons and Dragons. Believing that merely opening the box for the game would have set loose invisible demons to whisk my soul away to Satan's bottomless HQ, I may have freaked out a little and asked to leave. The stigma of D&D stayed with me for a long time, even into my late teens/early 20s, and I regret never having gotten to play D&D, now that everyone's getting back into it later in life. Even knowing now that the stigma of D&D isn't real, there's still a vague, magnetic force present in my mind, pushing me back when I think about sitting down to play it.

<comment><USER17> As a kid I played D&D and heard all the stories about how demons would posses even the game books. There was a small part of me that wanted to burn one of my books, just to see what would happen (the story I heard is you'd see screaming demons rising up in the smoke). I saved the books, and don't regret it.

D&D seemed POWERFUL back then, dangerous, didn't it?

<comment><USER16> Absolutely, Stranger Things might have been considered a cautionary tale in Anytown, USA during the 80s/90s.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I introduced my kids to roleplaying and they didn't really like it. Then I tried with Warhammer Quest, and it was a wild success. Being able to focus on something simple like dice and squares helped my youngest focus. Now he plays "Warhammer Quest" with his friends at school - without boards, miniatures or dice, they just roleplay as heroes and villains of the boardgame.

The problem I have now is that these games require a certain amount of preparation (backstory, maps etc) and I'm very lazy.

My wife is a bit uneasy with it. She fears they will become "losers" and "shut-ins" like we were. The "hidden shame" that the writer here briefly touches on, for some of us is a bigger and heavier complex of self-loathing. Which is stupid: the world has changed, this is the new mainstream, and we should just enjoy it while it lasts. But I do have some of these worries at the back of my mind too (in my case mostly about computers, to be honest).

<comment><USER19> I would teach your children the value of not caring what other people think. Probably a difficult task at such a young age. But the sooner people realize that grade school is a bunch of social nonsense, the better. Once you've graduated, the real world forces us all to work together, regardless of what we do in our free time. Enjoy your life, do whatever you're interested in, stop worrying about others. Chances are, they actually don't care either. You'll be happier for it.

<comment><USER20> >I would teach your children the value of not caring what other people think

That's not a great lesson if taken absolutely. Other people can give valuable feedback to social interactions. You should be aware of what people think, and be able to examine it, but not be ruled by it.

<comment><USER21> I feel like english does not provide us with effective words for discussing this topic.

unless you live alone in a cave, what other people think of you _is_ important. it is exceedingly difficult to succeed in the modern world without cooperation, and people will not help you out as much or at all if they don't like you. this means you really do need to care what others think.

that said, it is common to conflate this sense of "caring" with the deep seated need for external validation that many humans have. most people enjoy being appreciated by their community, and this is fine, but I think it is very important not to be overly dependent on this. ideally, one's self worth would come primarily from within.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> RPG has become such a part of the pop culture. We are now discussing how it links people together! My younger self would be amazed! During my youth, french TV depicted RPG in the most anxiogenic manner (suicide, desocialization).

</comment><comment><USER23> "Never heard of Dungeons and Dragons? You must not have lived through the '80s."

no, you might be from the vast area called the rest of the world, where DnD was not available.

(edited formatting)

<comment><USER24> > vast area called the rest of the world, where DnD was not available

It was translated into a lot of languages in the 80s. For example: French 1982, German 1983, Swedish 1986.

<comment><USER25> The anime themed Japanese rule books are hilarious.

[http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/jrc.php](http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/jrc.php)

<comment><USER26> Also absurdly high production values compared to my rule books that were stapled together pulp paper.

<comment><USER24> They were published in Japan in 1994, and are based on the Rules Cyclopedia -version of Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1991.

[http://www.tsrarchive.com/in/jp/jp- cyc.html](http://www.tsrarchive.com/in/jp/jp-cyc.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Rules_Cyc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Rules_Cyclopedia)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> My favorite memory was of a session over candle light at my parents' kitchen table while I DM'd* a raiding party through what they discovered to be the internals of the NCC-1701-C Enterprise - I had received the space ship's floor plans (the set in the vinyl snap enclosure) as a Christmas gift some years back, and decided to introduce a few of my younger friends to the D&D world spiced up with a bit of Sci-Fi.

Did you know that according to those plans there was a restroom right behind the main screen? Now I have to go find my set and check my memory...

*DM then meaning Dungeon Master :)

<comment><USER28> > NCC-1701-C Enterprise - I had received the space ship's floor plans

There were Enterprise-C floorplans? While I never had any of them, I think I've seen them for the original, the -A version (or the similar TWOK refit, not sure), and the -D, but -C is kind of surprising, given its limited on- screen time.

<comment><USER27> Sorry, typo, you are right. 1701-A...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> > Send the Barbarian in First

As the barbarian in my group, I can confirm. :)

<comment><USER30> The marching order for a known threat where stealth approach is infeasible is indeed tank -> damager -> healer -> scout.

Most of the time, you can send the _rogue_ in first, to mark the traps with chalk and then hide in a strategically advantageous position until the barbarian has everyone distracted with all the shouting, body odor, and flying droplets of sweat.

Also, when in doubt, use oil. It's slippery, it burns, and it makes salads edible. Never bring a club. Use a crowbar instead.

Can you tell that I like to be the thief of the party?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Elf = marketing Swordsman = sales Cleric = support

Words © Lee Gold Tune: Walzing Matilda

Once a jolly Cleric, and a magic-using Elf, And a mighty Dwarf with a sword plus three Left their native village - out to get their share of pelf. You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

First they met a Goblin - with a fire-breathing Hound. They bashed and they smashed and they scragged them with glee. Afterwards they searched them - <USER2> a Magic Potion found. You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

The low Wisdom Swordsman picked it up and drank it down, Changed to a Wolf immediately. No one could Dispell it, so they headed back to town. You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

Then a loud voice bellowed, "Who has slain the Goblin King?" Round turned our heroes; what did they see? Swooping down upon them was a Balrog on the wing. You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

"Help," screamed the Cleric; "Ditto," yelled the Elven Mage. The Wolf whimpered low - and he tried to flee. The Balrog fell upon them, and his flames began to rage; You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

They ran through the forest, looking for a place to hide, Pursued by the Balrog, so fierce to see. "Wait," cried the Elf Mage; "I have got a plan," he lied. "You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree."

Once a mighty Balrog slew a Cleric and an Elf And a smallish Wolf who had teeth plus three, Skinned them and tanned their hides...and kept them on a closet shelf. You bash the Balrog, while I climb the tree.

</comment><comment><USER32> Amusingly, though I played only very little AD&D in my youth, I presented it to my teen boy and it clicked instantly, and since then for many years he's been an avid DM, buying all the rule books and building large dungeons to trap his friends inside :)

</comment><comment><USER33> I play with my kids and we love it. We play with almost no rules, tables, or equipment, so its perfect for a walk in the woods. It's one of the few things we all enjoy together, aside from video games.</comment>


Data-Driven Flowcharts in R Using DiagrammeR - <AUTHOR> https://mikeyharper.uk/flowcharts-in-r-using-diagrammer/ <comment><USER2> Shameless plug, but here's a live Graphviz editor in Observable:

[https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/graph-o- matic](https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/graph-o-matic)

And here's a demo of dot tagged template literals:

[https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/graphviz](https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/graphviz)

Having Graphviz at your fingertips is fantastic. I use it all the time for small networks where I don't want to think too much about the layout and aesthetics. Here's an interactive example:

[https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/how-observable- runs](https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/how-observable-runs)

</comment><comment><USER3> Do you know python alternative for DiagrammeR? I've switched from R to python 5 years ago and dont want to come back

<comment><USER4> There's the graphviz lib [0] and also, somewhat confusingly, pygraphviz [1].

They are a bit different though, nicely summarised here [2].

[0]:[https://pypi.org/project/graphviz/](https://pypi.org/project/graphviz/)

[1]: [https://github.com/pygraphviz/pygraphviz](https://github.com/pygraphviz/pygraphviz)

[2]: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37353199/graphviz-vs- pyg...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37353199/graphviz-vs-pygraphviz)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks nice. I was thinking I may have to learn TikZ to make professional looking diagrams, but this may do the trick.</comment>


Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory - <AUTHOR> http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory?act=1

<comment><AUTHOR> This is part 1 - part 2 is here [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/454/m...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory?act=2)</comment>


Going to https took my live site down, running out of ideas - <AUTHOR> From everything I read, I'm looking to do a massive replace('http:','https:')
So far I've changed all /public_html/wordpress/ files to https and the wordpress database(15,000 entries) replaced as well.
Still running into issues on everything outside of my homepage. I think wordpress has some sort of redirect that is killing the css/javascript.
https://efficiencyiseverything.com/wp-content/themes/
The moment anything goes deeper into content, pages stop loading. Thinking its a redirect loop hidden somewhere.
Any ideas what to google? This is day 3... <comment><USER2> Disclamer: haven't touched wordpress in a few years.

I believe wordpress has the siteurl embedded everywhere, no idea why they thought that made sense...

Following the change site url might fix it for you.

[https://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL](https://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL)

</comment><comment><USER3> I just check two html pages with Netbeans, there are around 5 errors in them. For example at the end of all TML file that I looked:

sa</comment>


While we are planning our weekends, the rich are planning for doomsday in NZ - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand-doomsday-preppers/ <comment><USER2> If it really gets to that point, the rich are going to get all their NZ compounds taken away from them by the people they hired to build and defend them. If you're a Special Forces veteran hired to protect the Zuckerberg compound why wouldn't you replace Zuckerberg with your cousin Eddie? What can Zuckerberg offer in a world where money is worthless?

<comment><USER3> If we're considering doomsday scenarios here, the answer to your question lies in the traditional tactics of tyrants.

Hypothetically, Zuckerberg is going to have family members of the people guarding him locked away somewhere as hostages with other people set to guard them with the original guards kept out of direct communication with anyone but Zuckerberg or his trusted lieutenants. Cousin Eddie isn't going to take over when it means Cousin Franny gets to live less than or equal to how long Zuck lives.

Horrible? yes. Rational? Also yes.

EDIT: Remember this is a hypothetical. I'm not saying anything about Zuck's character or motivations here.

<comment><USER2> The thing is that being a warlord and a Silicon Valley CEO are completely different. If the shit really hits the fan, my point is that all of these bunkers will be seized by the warlords from the CEOs.

<comment><USER3> The people setting up doomsday bunkers should probably consider your point. I proposed a strategy they may resort to if they don't (or, as you say, even if they try).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "New Zealand isn't the best solution, he said, because a tsunami caused by an asteroid strike in the Pacific could submerge the island's highest point."

Highest point: Aoraki Mt Cook 3,724 m 12,218 ft

That's a pretty big tsunami...

[https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz26258/Aoraki%2fMount-C...](https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz26258/Aoraki%2fMount- Cook/Canterbury)

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

"The size of a possible tsunami has been calculated. An asteroid that was 4 km (2.5 mi) in diameter falling onto the 5 km (3.1 mi) deep ocean would have blasted the water off the ocean floor for at least 60 km (37 mi), and made a wave over 200 m (660 ft) high on the southern end of Chile and the Antarctic Peninsula. After ten hours, waves around 35 m (115 ft) would reach Tasmania, Fiji and Central America, and the New Zealand east coast would have been washed with 60 m (200 ft) high waves. If the impact object was 1 km (0.6 mi) in diameter, the wave heights would be five times less.[3]"

</comment><comment><USER5> The best way to prepare for doomsday is to prepare everyone for doomsday and to keep civilization and the rule of law functional.

</comment><comment> xkcd-sucks Oh man imagine being the pilot that gets to hold these twats hostage above the Pacific ocean

</comment><comment><USER6> Having done the military bit and currently doing the SV bit, I promise you in this situation the military experience is worth a heck of a lot more.

</comment><comment><USER7> This looks more like an escape plan if wealthy person was sure he would get convicted and end up spending years in prison. Scenario like Enron case where it's CEO Ken Lay decided to die just days before the start of sentencing and his funeral was kept strictly private.

</comment><comment><USER8> Haha, this article - the cartoon refers to "the island"... singular. Come on guys, you even mentioned Cook Strait, the stretch of ocean separating the North and South islands.

</comment><comment><USER9> Well, it worked for Nazi Germany. Loads of them ended up in South America after their Third Reich collapsed; which from their point of view was probably a doomsday scenario. Many of them had been hoarding their riches there for years before that and lived out their lives in luxury after the war. I think the key thing to look for though would be extradition laws. From that point of view, New Zealand looks a lot less attractive.

Reminds me of a ted talk a few years ago: "The pitchforks are coming": [https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocr...](https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming)

</comment><comment><USER10> Did none of them read World War Z? Might be a good idea to see what happens when doomsday occurs with respect to secure compounds.

</comment><comment><USER11> But how would one get to NZ? It isn't exactly around the corner. Couldn't pick a further place if tried.

<comment><USER12> 10 hour jet, the article suggests that and/or shows it in photos.

If you're asking how you'd travel to there repeatedly, that's kind of the point -- its remote-ness is a feature.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The idle rich need something that seems meaningful to occupy their time.

</comment><comment><USER14> There go the East Coast guys poking fingers in the Left Coast guys eyes.

Watch for the payback in the next Marvel movie ...</comment>


What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at Webstock 09 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/03/what-bruce-ster.html <comment><USER2> It seemed a little rambly and stream-of-consciousness, but when he talks he's like that. His written stuff is a little more disciplined.

Bruce Sterling has been one of my favorite authors since I found him, I have always felt that his stories represented a true attempt to describe the future according to his best guesses, rather than make some political or philosophical point and have everyone turn into beings of pure energy or whatever other people consider science fiction.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sterling says: "Sun were the guys who built JavaScript, if you recall."

I don't recall that. Wasn't javascript made by Brendan Eich at Netscape?

<comment><USER4> Yep. Sun owns the JavaScript trademark though, and licensed it to Netscape. Mozilla is still allowed to use it, but everybody else have to say ECMAScript. (So perhaps Sterling meant to to say "the guys who built "JavaScript""?)</comment></comment>


Freenet - The Free Network - <AUTHOR> http://freenetproject.org/

<comment><USER2> I like Freenet, I've been following the mailing list for several years, and even contributed a few small things. That said, what's new about it? Why post the link now?

Wait until .8 is announced, then post the announcement. That'll gather more attention.</comment>


Dear Everyone: Please Don't Turn Edward Snowden Into Julian Assange - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130624/06093623594/dear-everyone-please-dont-turn-edward-snowden-into-julian-assange.shtml

<comment><USER2> I'd like to know whether Snowden is still in one piece or if he has been tortured for information on every last CIA officer he might know something about.</comment>


NinjaVideo "queen" gets 22 months in jail, owes $200,000 to Hollywood - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/ninjavideo-queen-gets-22-months-in-jail-owes-200000-to-hollywood.ars <comment><USER2> The amount of restitution shown in the document was the same as the amount that was seized from her bank accounts. Wouldn't this money be used to pay off her debt to the plaintiff? If this is the case, I don't know why the article would mention that she has to pay at least $150 a month once she is out of prison.</comment>


Develop Video Games for the Eldery - <AUTHOR> http://ideas.theatlantic.com/2009/07/develop_video_games_for_the_eldery.php <comment><USER2> I think video games for the elderly (eldery? sheesh!) are a great idea but what I'd love to see are some innovative tools that would give seniors an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to their community. For example, giving someone who has a visual impairment some kind of "OnStar" device with two way voice and a video camera so that if they were standing at a bus stop they could press a button and the call would be routed to my elderly mother who could tell the person when the number 134 was pulling in (and help them navigate to the door). That's just something off the top of my head and probably not terribly practical but it's just an example of how someone with limited mobility could reach out and participate in the wider world.

</comment><comment><USER3> Here's an idea for an iPhone game: You shake the phone above your head, and the character in the game yells "Get off my lawn!". When you stop shaking your avatar randomly starts talking about the weather or takes a nap.</comment>


High Times: When does self-experimentation cross the line? - <AUTHOR> https://www.chemheritage.org/distillations/magazine/high-times <comment><USER2> It's unfortunate Alexander Shulgin[1] wasn't mentioned - more or less he's the person most closely associated w/ MDMA and self experimented with it and some 200+ other compounds he synthesized - many done w/ a group of like minded chemists/researchers at Berkeley during the 60/70s.

Reports of those experiences in his books are credited with innovating the 'trip report' used at places such as Erowid... which is more or less the gold standard for the modern-day psychonaut.

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

<comment><USER3> People like Hoffman and Shulgin are real heroes. It's unfortunate that most of the substances they discovered are largely ignored by the medical community simply because they are used recreationally.

I have high hopes for halluzinogenes like LSD or DMT though, I feel like they're getting more and more accepted, e.g. for treating PTSD, depression, addiction and other mental illnesses of that kind.

I recently read about DXM, and still have no idea how this stuff is legal in most countries. In Germany, you can buy 1g for 10€ over-the-counter, without prescription or ID. It's a messed up world we live in.

<comment><USER4> Most people I know who've taken large doses of psychedelics, including myself, are convinced of their incredible potential for treatment of mental issues. The problem is that they can be…unpredictable.

The last time I had a large dose of psilocybin mushrooms, it was a difficult experience, but afterward I began to take better care of myself—drinking less alcohol, spending more time with friends and family, enjoying the outdoors, being less generally anxious about work, life, and death. It really changes your personality. Those effects remained strong for several months and noticeable for about a year afterward.

Definitely not a thing to be trifled with—and I've seen firsthand the rare case of a psychotic episode brought on by careless use of psychedelics—but I can't believe we're not using this stuff medicinally or trying to develop more reliably therapeutic analogues. (I did once meet a woman who does ayahuasca- assisted addiction treatment therapy, but that's far from common, and even less predictable.)

I've been asked for ID when buying cold medicine that happens to contain DXM. I don't understand why people take that stuff recreationally, though, other than that it's available. Even an ordinary cough-suppressant dose of 10mg is overwhelming to me.

<comment><USER3> Glad that it had some positive effects on you. Always try to increase the dose slowly. Psilocybin is especially critical as the dose will vary largely, unlike artificial substances.

> Even an ordinary cough-suppressant dose of 10mg is overwhelming to me.

You may be either one of the few % who are super sensitive to it, or it was not pure dextromethorphan. AFAIK many products in the US are combined with acetaminophen to diminish the abuse potential.

> I don't understand why people take that stuff recreationally, though, other > than that it's available. Even an ordinary cough-suppressant dose of 10mg is > overwhelming to me.

For me 3mg/kg body weight DXM is comparable to 2mg/kg MDMA. Anything above that can result in pure horror, Dissociative hallucinogens can get very intense very quickly. And it can last for >8 hours...

If you have pure DXM, 2-3mg/kg body weight should be safe... usually. If you read the wiki article, it's a really complex drug with many receptors involved and thus everybody processes it differently, especially at large doses. Which makes me wonder even more how this stuff is legal.

<comment><USER5> You can find the dxm only stuff on amazon by searching "dextromethorphan".

The customer reviews are pretty amusing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's an interesting book that delves further in to this:

 _Who Goes First?: The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine_

[https://www.amazon.com/Who-Goes-First-Self- Experimentation-M...](https://www.amazon.com/Who-Goes-First-Self- Experimentation-Medicine/dp/0520212819/)

</comment><comment><USER7> It crosses the line from experimentation to 'abuse', imo, when you start experiencing negative consequences, and continue to 'experiment'.

I've been self-experimenting with caffeine for almost my entire life.

<comment><USER8> This may be apocryphal, but it's said that a friend warned Voltaire coffee was slow poison. Voltaire responded that it must be, because he had been drinking it for fifty years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> That article ended super abruptly

<comment><USER10> I was hoping for an actual analysis into where we should draw the line for self-experimentation, and not end with an anecdote

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> There was a shortage of nitrous oxide last fall... Airgas' Florida plant had an explosion, and the canned whipped cream manufacturers had to cut their production.

Xenon is an anesthetic too; I think pure nitrogen just knocks you out. My cousin-in-law is an anesthesiologist, maybe I'll ask him about it.

[http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada- news/2017-archive/jan...](http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada- news/2017-archive/january/fda-issues-shortage-notice-for-nitrous-oxide)

<comment><USER12> Nitrogen makes up the largest part (80%) of breathable air, and the body just ignores it. It's the lack of oxygen that knocks you out.

<comment><USER13> You can actually get high on nitrogen.

This is a serious problem that SCUBA divers face, and is also the reason for why the deepest dives have to use exotic breathing gas mixes, instead of compressed air.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would give anything to try the acid that was made by Owsley</comment>


Critical Success Factors for a Web Startup (Diagram) - <AUTHOR> http://creately.com/blog/experience/success-factors-for-a-web-startup/ <comment><USER2> So much simpler to follow than a paragraph of text.

<comment><USER3> One of the numerous geeky hobbies I have is thinking how to present things to people in a convincing, effective manner. This visualization conveys information through size, relative position, and color. Unfortunately, size, relative position, and color do not support the story that they want the information to tell. For example, if you're working in 2D, things close to each other should be related to each other. However, "keep costs low" is not related with "continuously grow product" -- that is a spurious bit of information carried by placing them a few millimeters apart. Additionally, you would assume the critical stuff is in the center and less important stuff is in the periphery. Unfortunately, again, this is spurious, which is why they're overloading color to convey levels of importance.

If I were going to tell this story, I would collapse it into an outline. An outline is close to linear, so you can put important part up at the top. It is quickly scannable and impressively comprehensible. It does hierarchical relationships very well and doesn't imply relationships where none exist.

Here is the same graph expressed as an outline: <http://www.pastie.org/786194>

I think it gets a bit clearer. (I have left errors and questionable relationships as is so that it doesn't get clearer just by having me copy edit it... although since you can whip out an outline in a fraction of the time it takes to do a visualization like the original, you might have extra time to squash the typos.)</comment></comment>


Show HN: Concise Encoding: The friendly data format for human and machine - <AUTHOR> https://concise-encoding.org/ <comment><USER2> You might want to use encodings other than Unicode (or need to store strings containing invalid Unicode for some reason). For implementations which support this, I suggest a \x escape to escape a single byte; the \u escape would encode the data as UTF-8. Even when Unicode is used, you might want a separate escape for astral characters, rather than using surrogates (which are mostly only relevant for UTF-16 anyways, not UTF-8; it says that unpaired surrogates are not allowed, but surrogates should not be used at all in Unicode text encoded as UTF-8). This would be application-specific. Additionally, in order to simplify the implementation, you may wish to disallow non-ASCII characters entirely when outside of quoted strings, verbatim strings, and comments; the fact that Unicode characters that look similar are disallowed is the problem, and can be solved by disallowing all of them in contexts where any of them are disallowed. Also, comments should not be required to be valid UTF-8 (although null bytes should still be disallowed). Furthermore, uppercase hexadecimal should be allowed. Additionally, I believe the abbreviation for local time is supposed to be "J" and not "L". Years should perhaps use astronomical year numbering; zero represents 1 BC. And, another thing, is that in some programming languages, the string "2000" might clash with the number 2000 as a key, while in others it might not (actually, the same is true with integer vs float), so I believe it is worth noting that. Some implementations might treat UUIDs as URIs (I suppose any one that does will need to convert it back to UUID when writing it out). Additionally, it says that the programming language must match a name from the Linquist languages list; however, some people may use programming languages not listed there, and although PostScript is listed, it is listed as "markup" rather than "programming", even though it is actually a programming language too (and not a markup language). Other than that, I think that it look like good to me.</comment>


Ask HN: How to learn game development? - <AUTHOR>

I have never developed a game but now, I am interested in learning game development. I know C/C++ , PHP, Python, JavaScript, node.js and HTML5. I'm interested in developing
1)Web based racing games.
2)I don't know exact category, so I'm calling it "Hacking games" where player is required to solve some technology/intellectual problems(puzzle like) to go to next level, or some detective kind games.
Which language is best for game development?
Which libraries are available?
Any suggested books or any other advice? <comment><USER2> So, go write yourself a web based racing game in javascript.

As for books: Computer Gamesmanship by David N Levy is a classic. It's not very flashy but it will give you a solid understanding of the basics of all kinds of games, not just arcade.

Oh, and there is this:

<http://jawsjs.com/>

and this:

[http://www.web-delicious.com/5-html5-javascript-game- develop...](http://www.web-delicious.com/5-html5-javascript-game-development- frameworks-for-online-game-developers/)

good luck!</comment>


Fight climate change with better software - <AUTHOR> https://www.getflyweight.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Frightening how a byte here and there sums up to scary amounts of CO2!</comment>


Nielsen: Usability and Website Response Times - <AUTHOR> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/response-times.html

<comment><USER2> I came to this conclusion over a year ago in the only blog post I ever wrote before realizing blogging wasn't my thing. [http://resopollution.com/blog/2009/02/3-misconceptions- about...](http://resopollution.com/blog/2009/02/3-misconceptions-about-user- interface/)

Essentially, it is better to have a fast snappy app with poor design over a high-latency app with great UI design.

Users subconsciously attribute delays caused by bad UI design to themselves, but if you have latency, you are screwed b/c that's delay is subconsciously attributed to your software.

In the end, users can learn to navigate a bad design quickly as long as the page loads are fast, thus making latency the most important factor in usability.</comment>


The Most Challenging Part of Becoming a Freelance Developer - <AUTHOR> http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2009/09/29/the-most-challenging-part-of-becoming-a-freelance-developer/#more-696

<comment><USER2> And if I'm an INTJ without literary skills? :) I know, I know, complaining too much. Seriously, I find emails to be the most effective for several reasons:

\- Even if I had the resources to do phone marketing, I consider it way too intrusive. At most I'd do phone interviews to get a better idea of the market, but not sales.

\- I can present myself in writing as articulate, detailed or brief as I want to

\- I can offer links and / or images

\- I can reach a lot more prospective clients this way.

The only problem is, the inhibition associated with "spam" is so big I only did this once (and landed a big client). If I could do this in a way I'd consider acceptable it would probably be the best way.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting sales approach for freelancers that hate cold calls: Use a blog to generate leads.

"But the way I looked at it I was either going to invest 500 hours on my blog, or make 1000 cold calls."</comment>


Ask HN: Is theming/branding a SAAS product important to B2B clients? - <AUTHOR> I can't seem to find any relevant results in google regarding this.  Obviously it's only a small nice-to-have feature, but would offering a chance to brand a SAAS product in-line with the clients corporate identity (colour scheme/logo) increase conversions? <comment><USER2> I think it depends on who exactly you are selling it to and what they want to use it for.

If there is some workgroup that is buying it that is different thing than something that needs buy-in from central IT and top management.

If it is internally facing, I think corporate identity matters less, if it is externally facing, it is critical. If you look at Saleforce.com for instance, the internally facing side looks like Saleforce, but consumer facing forms can be completely customized. Put it this way -- if you send customers to a site that looks like a phishing site that was drawn with a crayon, that is bad.

For internally facing apps I think the best integration feature is single-sign on with the corporate intranet.

<comment><USER3> +1 for SSO as a worthy feature

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's a nice to have. But not really necessary. It very likely won't be the thing to increase conversions

</comment><comment><USER4> it is maybe important if you want to allow people to resell the service with their own branding</comment>