Belarus's Soviet Economy - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-27/belarus-s-soviet-economy-has-worked-better-than-you-think <comment><USER3> I had my second trip to Minsk last week to work with a local IT company.

I was very impressed with the technical skills of the people there. Belarus and Minsk are advanced in many ways (metro with trains every 2 minutes), electric busses (powered by capacitors, not batteries), mobile phone (MTS shop at the airport sells a $9 SIM with unlimited data for a month), Yandex taxis beats Uber, etc, etc.

The main downside I noticed was meals based on meat and potatoes, not many vegetables.

All in all, I now am curious to find out more about Belarus... Need to spend some time learning basic Russian now!

<comment><USER4> > The main downside I noticed was meals based on meat and potatoes, not many > vegetables.

Do you realize where belarus is? It gets cold in belarus. Meat and potatoes are food that can be grown locally. Also, it is environmentally devastating to transport all the vegetables all over the world like we currently do. Look at how much globalism has damaged the environment, not to mention the problems with climate change.

More people should be eating their local "meat and potatoes" rather than a globalized diet.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure why this comment is being downvoted. I live in Kazakhstan, and while it's not exactly the same as Belarus, we're living in very similar conditions. In winter time, fruits and vegetables are very expensive here. Most of the cheaper ones (the only kind available to most people, myself included) look and taste like they're made of plastic, and are packed with nitrites. I tend to avoid them altogether, you don't get to have a very healthy diet with this kind of food.

<comment><USER6> > In winter time, fruits and vegetables are very expensive here. Most of the > cheaper ones (the only kind available to most people, myself included) look > and taste like they're made of plastic, and are packed with nitrites.

It's not much different in the "West". We already plant crops for yield, and in winter, we eat crops grown for yield and shipability. Out-of-season crops will cost substantially more than what cost in-season.

Though storage tech is improving: [https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/26/668256349/th...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/26/668256349/thanks- to-science-you-can-eat-an-apple-every-day)

And thank god for bananas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I had the chance to visit Belarus last year for a extended period. The capital, Minsk, is by far the cleanest and safest place i have seen anywhere.

Putting aside the human right issues, i think the president there has run the country quite well given the circumstances and the post-soviet situation he inherited. Mostly staying out of conflicts, keeping a balance between the big brother to the east and the western European countries, growing the economy (with a big IT sector). But - unlike e.g. Ukraine - all without the usual post-soviet hard system change that displaces workers from the old soviet state companies and social structures they relied on.

/edit: Jesus, why the downvotes?

<comment><USER8> > Putting aside the human right issues...

I'm not sure that is a safe start to an argument that a country is well run. When human rights get suppressed that means people lose the ability to, eg, honestly complain about massive problems or take basic steps to improve their standard of living. Growing an economy at the expense of human rights is kinda stupid. What is the point of making people's lives materially better if the government is simultaneously suppressing their ability live better lives? Pointless and counterproductive busywork.

I can see how a country can be good and have human rights abuses at the same time - most great countries are involved in human rights abuses to some degree - but they can't just be hand-waved at the start. Being a nice place to visit as a wealthy tourist hand having clean streets is not a high bar.

You also inspired me to go and have a look at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Belarus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Belarus) . I wasn't impressed to read that they have laws where a "change of job and living location will require permission from governors [for 9% of the workforce]". I would call that catastrophically poor management of the economy bordering on actual slavery. So either Wikipedia is misleading me or they are not quite well run.

<comment><USER9> >> I wasn't impressed to read that they have laws where a "change of job and living location will require permission from governors [for 9% of the workforce]".

Do they have such laws or you believe that a proposed law (according to the cited articled) is an existing law already? You seem to quickly go and claim border-line slavery without checking it first.

<comment><USER10> Belarus is a dictatorship. If Lukashenko says "this should happen, I'm gonna make it happen", I think it's reasonable to interpret that as a proclamation of a new law unless there's evidence it's not being followed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In the beginning of 1990s, Belarus had more potential than Poland and Baltic states to become a strong prosperous democracy - it was a centre of electronics in USSR, had very good universities with mathematics, physics, electronics, engineering. It had developed textile industry, built heavy carriers, tractors.

Sure, they needed innovations, market thinking, and transparent controlled privatization, but there were hope and enthusiasm in the beginning of 1990s.

My opinion, Russian influence killed it eventually - they helped Lukashenko to stay in power in 1996 and made the country dependent on Russian markets, oil, gas, money - and Lukashenko spent all the money on economically ineffective government projects, lost investors, kept inefficient model. The rigid, indecisive, and toothless politics of the EU toward Lukashenko did not help either. In a short perspective, it may look morally wrong to work and cooperate with "Last Dictatorship", but politics is a long game of planting seeds and growing influence, small wins, and changing minds - such strategic thinking is unfortunately beyond and above our bureaucrats.

Now the country is basically lost and hopeless. Do not be under the spell of its software industry and some improvements in Minsk - it is a tiny part of the picture.

Young and active leave the country. More than half of people who studies CS, physics, or applied maths from my generation (30-35+) live in Europe, US, Australia. State medicine is poor - medical professionals just run away from the country. Construction workers, trade professionals leave for Russia, Poland, Baltic States. I learnt from my connections there that many bright young people learn German, English, Polish, or Czech to go study after school abroad and then stay there, no plan B to stay in Belarus. They see no future in country.

Recently, it got even worse: first, Belarusian military pushed for stricter draft rules, and, second, Russia has successfully pushed for further integration. It leads to even more migration of the young and educated, plus people living abroad drop their citizenship for a new one - few are excited to find themselves one day a subject of Russian Federation.

<comment><USER12> "made the country dependent on Russian markets, oil, gas, money"

How exactly did they do it? It's not like with different president Belarus wouldn't need all that.

You need to take responsibility for your country instead of blaming Russia and emigrating.

<comment><USER13> I can see Russian trolls have infiltrated HN as well. They are abundant in my country's (Lithuania) news sites, but didn't really expect to find any here. Oh well, at least visitors of this site can see right through the utter nonsense you guys put out.

<comment><USER12> Says an account created 4 months ago to an account created in 2012.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen Does anyone else find the pictures of tractor engines hypnotizing? It's a total antithesis of American or Chinese-for-American manufacturing, where everything is maximal or minimal. Instead everything is "reasonable", a reasonable cost, a reasonable engine efficiency, a design that makes simple sense, parts that aren't optimized to the micron in order to save plastic...it's so refreshing to look at the inside of a mass-market machine that doesn't look over-optimized.

<comment><USER14> My opinion: It's the Soviet engineering mentality, forged during WW2, and honed during the Cold War. From more than a few sources I've read, the Soviets basically optimized their country from top to bottom to fight and win a nuclear war, and that included manufacturing equipment that was considered highly durable, and easy to repair in harsh weather conditions (up to and including post-nuclear ones).

But hardware that is over-optimized for the worst-case scenario ended up highly inefficient during normal peacetime operations, hence their economy was hugely underperforming. I suspect the Soviet economy would have proven surprisingly robust in another total war .....fortunately we didn't find out.

<comment><USER15> Yes, it seems to me that they really thought they would fight that war.

At the tractor-engineering level, isn't it partly that they didn't iterate many times? What Ford was making in the 50s was not so different. But they junked the whole factory several times since then, or rather were forced to do so by competitors... it's easy to see how hard it would be to persuade even a well-meaning bureaucrat that you want to close down and replace a factory whose tractors worked just fine last year.

I have read (but am not completely sure) that every factory had a second purpose ready to go, e.g. your tractor factory had the tank blueprints ready, and made sure their machines could work for both. If true this must have been another enormous incentive not to change... if your plan for switching to lighter more fuel-efficient tractors means you can't make all the tank components you were supposed to, then you aren't going to get permission.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> We're now a full generation since the west "won the cold war" and I think it's just now that our "wartime" mentalities we're ready to think past simple binary communism-x-capitalism binaries.

For example, "privatisation." In Russia & parts of the west, privatisation was a major 90s policy.

But like everything else, details can outweigh labels. One privatisation is not like another.

There's a massive difference between encouraging/allowing entrepreneurship, & "selling" state sectors to "private" owners.

I use scare quotes there because the "sales" were generally paid for with state-backed loans and the "private" owners are either multinationals or "oligarchs" as we now know the "private" Russian buyers.

The former is closer to a capitalist ideal, but doesn't affect the "key industries, at least not fast. The latter is instant, but it also involves something approximating giving away a state's wealth for free.

One big hindsight problem Soviet privatisation encountered is a running theme in modern "capitalism:" the failure/inability of states to get value for/from it's owned assets & wealth.

Neither western economies, Soviet ones or post-soviet ones have a tool in their toolbox for this. Norway's oil fund might be the one exception.

<comment><USER17> Privatisations are disasters because they are designed to be. Its proponents want to see the state fail.

</comment></comment><comment> barry-cotter The article talks about Belarus' low levels of economic inequality, its Soviet past and the continuing heavy hand of the state and the KGB but it fails to connect them. I would be shocked if government employees don't have a far higher standard of living than their pay packages would suggest. This is a less severe case of the problem with using Communist era statistics on income to track inequality as if they're equivalent to the "same" measurements in the post Communist era. If access is more important than money and you measure money things can be very unequal and you'll have no idea by looking at the statistics.

<comment><USER7> Agreed. Many government workers and state company employees in Belarus receive different forms on non-monetary compensation. Subsidized apartments etc., although these benefits things are slowly going away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The former soviet states are a great natural experiment in economics. Countries that liberalized their economies, like Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Latvia (the "mostly free" countries here: [https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking](https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking)) have grown much faster than countries that retained socialism and central planning, like Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. See: [https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr-s...](https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr- soviet-countries-data). Remarkably, much of the economic growth came before Estonia, Lithuania, (Czechkia and Slovakia), and Latvia joined the EU. Indeed, their democratic and economic reforms, along with corresponding growth, paved the way for EU membership.

<comment><USER19> Ukraine liberalized its economy and it pretty much destroyed the place.

The whole GDP growth fetish is a lot of horse shit; some measure needs to be taken that the increase in GDP doesn't destroy the lives of some large swathe of the population like it did in Russia. Belarus may be led by a repressive dictator, but the fact that it didn't experience the absurd declines in life expectancy and quality of life in the 90s that Russia did will keep him popular, even if they do have to pay more for oil.

<comment><USER18> Ukraine is listed as "mostly unfree" in the listing above, so no.

<comment><USER20> Ok so let's look at the countries highest on the Economic Freedom index.

Hong Kong tops the list right? It has what you would expect...

Capital has flowed in and normally that would have pushed blue collar workers and children and elderly out, with people commuting 2 hours each way as in SF. But since these are islands, the poor live in coffin like shoebox apartments, far smaller than anything allowed in US cities. Millions form entire communities of poverty around there, raise children there etc.

How large an effect are we talking? 20% of Hong Kong is below the poverty line. I did the math and any four people below the poverty line cannot together afford a studio apartment in normal areas of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has had to aggressively increase its welfare and safety nets. It has over 40 public hospitals and 20 private ones.

Suffice it to say that around the world, government-run and single-payer healthcare and schooling has been compatible with high scores on economic freedom. It's only in the USA do we have this ridiculous fearmongering about that.

Hong Kong has, in many measures, a very strong safety net and strong public sector. Ditto for Singapore etc. And larger countries in Scandinavia, and Canada and Australia etc. are similar.

Much of the centrally coordinated infrastructure investment has paid off - <USER2> the US we had the interstate highway system, China lifted more people out of poverty in 20 years through centrally planned "ghost cities" than any place on Earth ever, and the USSR did a great job of increasing literacy, electricity, bringing universities, rights to women and minorities, to countries like Uzbekistan and that whole region. Child mortality declined greatly, as people got better access to healthcare.

Not to say that everything is black and white, but "economic freedom" and capitalism isn't the only way science and technology and prosperity moves forward.

<comment><USER21> China hasn't fixed poverty though. A lot of migrant workers are left out in pensions, getting as low as 80$ per month.

Moving to those ghost cities have wrecked an entire generation, as it seems.

Moving people out of poverty includes the pension challenge. Which is the hardest one and I'm pretty sure that the one-child policy didn't contribute well to that part.

<comment><USER20> No doubt about it, getting off the addiction to the pyramid for social security will require a lot of automation (Japan is dealing with this now). But it's the only sustainable way forward.

Look, China may not have eradicated poverty but certainly it was able to make the average wages go up 5x a decade for 20 years. Could this be done by uncoordinated market activity of private actors? Perhaps, but the USA has never been able to pull it off so fast.

Now one can argue the US always had a far higher starting point so it ran into diminishing returns. And that is a fair argument.

But keep in mind USSR's GDP grew faster than USA and they faced the aftermath of two world wars, lost 30 million people and also subsidized lots of other countries in the Warsaw Pact (their version of the Marshall Plan). Compare apples to apples, eg the GDP of Romania after it joined the Eastern Bloc vs Hawaii after it was annexed as the 50th state of the US. Or compare GDP growth of Georgia and Puerto Rico.

It's not actually clear which system led to more economic prosperity, and as I said the USA had the advantage of oceans protecting it, the dollar was the reserve currency all around the world after Bretton Woods, and we could import cheap goods all year long by just printing dollars. That has a massive effect on prosperity.

<comment><USER22> China's growth was the result of uncoordinated market activity of private actors. They switched systems.

I don't think Romania and Hawaii form an apples-to-apples comparison.

Romania: a country in Europe, occupied by the Soviets after World War II, with 16 million people. Neighbors Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and the Black Sea.

Hawaii: a U.S. territory for half a century, with 620 thousand people. Noted for its proximity to Johnston atoll (825 miles from Honolulu), Midway Island (1311 miles), and San Francisco (2393 miles).

<comment><USER20> What would you say is an Apples-to-Apples comparison?

And with China, I don't think it is at all accurate to say that the millions of miles of new roads, bridges, infrastructure, ghost cities etc. were built because private market actors woke up one day and decided to make massive infra investments. It was central planning. And a lot of the science, electric vehicles etc. is sponsored by govt too, that is why China is the world leader.

<comment><USER22> If you're talking about roads and bridges, that's all we need to hear. You're constructing a strawman.

<comment><USER20> All the infrastructure including entire cities. Why is it a strawman

<comment><USER22> China's ghost cities were privately developed.

Edit: A better example for you would be Singapore, with its history of public housing, which gets privately owned (or 99-year-leased). They also have public roads.

<comment><USER20> Can you please back up your assertion with sources? Here is the opposite of what you said:

 _Developers acquire new plots of land from local governments and are mandated to construct something more or less immediately.[10] Developers can 't sit idly on vacant land and wait for the surrounding area to develop until it's economically viable.[10] This creates the quick-buck mentality in developers to rapidly build in the new area without the necessary demand for housing.[10]_

 _" The cities are product of plan-driven economy that many cities are not expected to be complete or vibrant after 15 years of construction."_ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under- occupied_developments_in...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under- occupied_developments_in_China)

<comment><USER22> You literally backed it up for me.

<comment><USER20> I backed up pretty much the opposite of what you said. Massive government involvement setting the rules and mandates for developers who take the project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> If the main leverage is oil more than export markets, it would be awesome they can tangle some sort of big environmental deal with the EU to up their negotiating position.

Putting aside the realpolitik, after the west completely bungled the post- soviet transition just about everywhere else in a fit of market-worshiping obliviousness, I'd say they owe it.

</comment><comment><USER24> [https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/europe-s-last- soviet...](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/europe-s-last-soviet- economy-approaches-its-hour-of-reckoning/ar-BBXouy6?ocid=ob-tw-enus-677)

</comment><comment><USER25> _> Glaz also pushed back against the whole concept of Russian subsidies, arguing that Moscow is obliged to sell energy to Belarusian companies at the same price as to Russian ones under the integrated market rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, to which both countries belong._

Russian mafia run by Putin sees "Eurasian Economic Union" as a source of money for their thief pool (obtshak). I.e. it's designed for the sole purpose of extracting resources from those territories. It's not built to give anything back to the people in the participating states, except for collaborationists which sell off their countries to that mafia. So joining it is clearly a damaging idea for any state, and only happens due to corruption of the local government.

</comment><comment><USER26> The people of Belarus know they don't live in democracy while the citizens of many other countries think they do.

</comment><comment><USER27> >> Rolled over through the centuries with Moscow's wars with other parts of Europe

What a profoundly backward perspective. It's the other way around. Belarus was a part of the Russian Empire. So much a part of it, in fact, that the long form of the title of the Russian monarch contained its name. You can't "roll over" something you already own. It wasn't Russia's wars with European states that repeatedly fucked up Belarus. It was Europe's wars with Russia. Napoleon and Hitler were two notable examples - both defeated, but both rolled through Belarus first, killing and raping everything that moved.

<comment><USER28> It was only temporary part of russian empire (for about a century), with every attempt to fight it drowned in blood. During that time russia tried to exterminate any self-identity, forbidding to even have a name and calling it "north-western area". To get an idea of what was happening in that region historically you may read about Great Duchy of Lithuania

Another point to consider: much of the Rus (Ruth) that russia claims to be descendent of is modern Ukraine and Belarus lands, and historically they were figthing most of the time with moscow armies.

<comment><USER29> >Another point to consider: much of the Rus (Ruth) that russia claims to be descendent of is modern Ukraine and Belarus lands, and historically they were figthing most of the time with moscow armies.

Russia claims to be descendent of many things, from vikings to Byzantine Empire, from slavic tribes to mongols. Russia is a mix of many things, where Kiev and Kievan Rus is just one of the main starting points. Not to mention that Kiev became the capital only ofter Oleg captured it after leaving Novgorod. Not to mention that any fights between Moscow and whatever entity you are talking about have happened centuries later.

And even if we are talking about geography only: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27#/media/File:Prin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27#/media/File:Principalities_of_Kievan_Rus'_\(1054-1132\).jpg)

here is the map of the Kievan Rus (1054-1132). Lands of the modern Ukraine and Belarus take less than a half of the territories as can be clearly seen. Even considering that this is a 'flat' map.

<comment><USER28> russia is indeed big so I will not make broad generalizations, but I've never met any russians who would claim vikings, byzantines or mongols as someone russia has originated from (for many mongols is a conflictive/sensitive topic though, but not in an acceptive way). I'm looking at dominating there slavic 'Rus' history view.

<comment><USER29> Well, those are historical facts. Not sure about the russians you've met, but they surely have read about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_route_from_the_Varangian...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_route_from_the_Varangians_to_the_Greeks) at least. Not to mention [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurik_dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurik_dynasty)

And you can't really have any talk about Russian state over here without mentioning that 'Russia is still a Byzantine Empire descendant'. Even newspapers usualy mention that: [https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2016/05/30_e_8271917.shtml](https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2016/05/30_e_8271917.shtml) (in russian, obviously)

Anyway, this topic has lots of material if one is interested.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maps.me](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maps.me) [https://maps.me/](https://maps.me/)

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

</comment><comment><USER31> Russia is in decline due to the same reasons the USSR declined and fell. The costs of communist oligarchs taking the products of their 'slaves' and wasting them on assorted diseconomies with not enough production feedback. There is a joke where Ivan says to Modred in Mpscow, "you know that after the next 5 year plan we will all have our own personal aircraft?", Modred then says "Excellent, if we hear they have matches (or toilet paper) in Vladivostok, we can fly there and be first in line!). Now Putin has imposed a from of the same system that 'overtaxes' by kleptocratic means essentially all the growth the current free 'slaves' create. Thus the amount of work product (money, stuff etc) each of these 'slaves' has at their disposal decreases every year. This is well documented in unofficially reported economic aspects of life. The reported ones are glorious. Military expenditure is essentially a complete waste of money, as it is in the USA, however the USA bears it more easily from it's far far larger base. China is the bear in tha dark that China is readying it's military for - they have nothing to fear from the USA but fear itself. China fears the assembled warheads Russia has - against which it has no defence. Sure it can bomb Russia back, but Russia has it's nor-so-secret cobalt submarines.[https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a24216/pen...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a24216/pentagon- confirm-russia-submarine-nuke/) a few dozen of these could devastate and dender into death zones for 100 years large swathes of China. This will make China think twice about expanding into the Russian far East. Russia has a population in serious decline. Only the Moslem areas are growing. Other Russians are in a devastating decline [https://www.fairplanet.org/story/simply-math-no-russians- by-...](https://www.fairplanet.org/story/simply-math-no-russians-by-2200/), So why does Putin not change? He has the classic Tiger by the tail problem. He and his fellow oligarchs have beggared the Russian economy - how does he unbeggar it? He can not. He can only hand on until he is inevitably devoured by the tiger - or his own friends when he tries to rein them in!

</comment><comment><USER32> ah home sweet home

</comment><comment><USER33> Hi guys, I'm from Belarus, co-own a software development company in HighTechPark in Minsk and would like to drop my "five pennies" here.

First of all, as we all live in diff countries, we have diff perception of what is good or bad.

Moreover, we are live in humanism-driven era, that means that "there is no authority expcept of me and my feelings".

In Middle Ages God and Priest told you want to do and what is beautiful, good or bad.

In Socialism, Nationalism or Communism the Ruling Party told you what to do.

In Liberalism and more democratic countries Capitalism and MNC (Multinational corporations) gaining more power and "providing the offer you can not refuse".

Whereas in Middle Ages there was no growth, now everyone is obsessed with growth. And we would know the answer "who was right" only after we would come into a lack of resources and an ecological disaster due to consumption rates.

So, as I'm not an authority for you, just focus on your feelings when you read the text below.

I would say, that Belarus lives in autocrasy, rather dictatorship. The President doesn't tell everyone what to do. We all have a freedom of choice, can study, learn foreign languages and go abroad.

Many people did that, doing that and will be doing that. The country is facing a challenge how to solve that question.

Singapore's advice would be: bring more investors to the country to build enterprizes. There are issues with that. Same time, there opened "The Great Stone" project, where you can invest $500K into a manufacturing enterprize and get many tax exemptions for many years (terms are very attractive and competitive in World). You would get access to low-cost workforce and get profits.

Could be better? Yes. Could be worse? Yes. Can we improve? Yes.

ICT industry is one of the growth drivers and magnets retaining some of young people from moving abroad.

President's decree #8 prolonged preferences for HighTechPark (HTP) until 2049, gave legislation to cryptocurrency ventures (although there is only one cryptocurrency exchange so far) and let our companies buy ads, hosting and other digital services from abroad without paying 35% tax on top.

3 years ago there were 160 companies in HTP, whereas now ±600. IT sector is booming.

Not only as R&D or devcenters as in other ex-USSR countries, but also product- based companies and startups.

We have some remarkable stories:

1) Apalon (acquired by IAC) was in #10 in the World by downloads in AppleStore.

2) Mobile Games made in Belarus were downloaded 3 500 000 000 (3.5bln) times. That is not only Wargaming. We have plenty of other games studios (including our own subsidiary).

3) EPAM (10bln evaluation)

4) Wargaming (was mentioned above)

5) exp(capital) and a group of its companies have a turnover of $2bln (yes, billion per month) according to it's owner Victor Prokopenya.

6) There is a good food brand: Santa Fish and Santa Bremor with a 1bln turnover per year (they produce products from salmon, $1bln also includes another milk brand "Savushkin")

7) Viber (acq by Rakuten), PandaDoc, Maps.me (acq. by Mail.ru), MSQRD (acq by Facebook), AIMatter (acq by Google)

Total turnover of HTP companies would be $2bln+ this year (the initial investment in HTP was $40K and a small cabinet with a table and a chair, not millions like in Russia's Skolkovo gone astray).

I think for a country, which is only 27 years old these results are exceeding all possible expectations.

In 2016 I did a research on local IT market, you can view it here: [https://www.slideshare.net/alexgrakoff5/belarus-it- outsourci...](https://www.slideshare.net/alexgrakoff5/belarus-it-outsourcing- industry-2016)

Inspired by that research, EY did there own: [https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-it-industry- in-...](https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-it-industry-in- belarus-2017-and-beyond/$FILE/ey-it-industry-in-belarus-2017-and-beyond.pdf)

The main limits of growth for my company is: we don't have a foreign office and can't sell at a higher price at the moment and the speed of salary growth in IT-industry. There is no President involved in that.

I would say, many businesses have benefits now because of a lower salaries (for some period of time). And I can't imagine now hiring a sales in US for $200K/year.

Btw, I think now it is more cost-efficient to have a Belarus company, owning a US company to sell digital services. You would have to pay 1% income tax and 9% dividend tax.

Do you know many stories of successfully built countries from scratch without "open source framework"? Singapore, and maybe a few others.

Do you think that US is only good with the maximum personal freedom?

As you have a freedom market, you get: \- constant growth of educational costs \- constant growth of health insurance costs ($28k/y for a family) \- no limits for mobile plans/TV plans (it can cost $100/m in NY and $200 for TV)

You can read more on that topic here: [https://eand.co/why-america-is-the- worlds-first-poor-rich-co...](https://eand.co/why-america-is-the-worlds-first- poor-rich-country-17f5a80e444a)

The cost of property is so high, that you have to work 20 or more years to afford it if you are not a Googler.

The cost of US effectiveness is that one can easily get homeless. They say "our society tends to support mistakes and getting bankcrupt". I've been in 10 countries during last year and never saw such amount of homeless people as in San Francisco, California.

And it can take 7 to 10 years to rebuild your credit score: [https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit- education...](https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit- education/improving-credit/improve-credit-score/)

Eventually, everything is quite complicated, but in general during last 10 years many positive changes happen and this is noticed by all people who come to Belarus.

Our country has a big potential in many industries, not only IT, just not everyone has the right knowledge to make profit on that potential.

</comment><comment><USER34> There are much better (and almost viciously critical articles) written on the subject even 5 years ago [1]

There were similar predictions in 2014

>"... Lukashenko does face problems. Russia is cutting its subsidies.

Belarus struggles to sell its outdated tractors and trucks in an age of global competition. The economy is deteriorating. ...

Russia's President Putin could engineer Lukashenko's removal simply by stopping subsidised oil and gas deliveries altogether. Belarus receives roughly four times more Russian oil than it needs for domestic consumption, refines the surplus and sells it on the open market for a profit. Putin must be tempted. He loathes Lukashenko, who has cleverly played Russia off against the EU over the past 20 years, reneged on promises to Moscow, and frustrated Russian attempts to gain control of the Belarusian state gas company, pipelines and refineries.

... " [1]

These predictions did not really turn out to be true in terms of regime change or Venesuela-like horror.

There are very few countries in the world, that in the last 100 years experienced what Belorussians did:

> ".. The Nazis killed more than two million Belarusians - a quarter of the > population.. " [1]

> "... Chernobyl disaster of 1986, which contaminated a fifth of the country > and millions of its people ..." [1]

In a way, it explains a bit of how people think there... Basically, as long as it is not worst then before -- than we are ok. And one can see from above, the 'before' was really bad...

Belorussians are not going to revolt, if there is a forced change in leadership, the transition will not be perfectly peaceful, but will not be bloody, And it will only happen to a person that Putin is ok with.

Russian is pretty much 'the language' in that country, and really the affinity to Russia goes far beyond the language. In way of political views/desire to change -- Belorussian's are much milder than Russians'.

Comparing Belarus to Estonia or Lithuania, in terms of 'what-would-happen', I think are wrong. Those republics received a lot of help from the West, and are culturally (including language) were much more aligned with Finland/Norway.

Belarus would more likely compare to a land-locked countries like Armenia or Albania.

Many who did not like the regime, immigrated to Germany. Lukashenko is not holding anybody from leaving.

Law enforcement in Belarus is one of the highest paid government-paid jobs. So state apparatus used to monitor opposition (but unlike in US, they do not need to cheat FISA courts, those things are already 'built-in') Especially, when it comes to foreign-sponsored opposition

"....

Organisers of the protest, linked to George Soros, called the march "Freedom Day", evoking the independent Belarus that lasted just six months after the First World War, in 1918. They tried to march down one of the major streets in Minsk, but were blocked by police who arrested them, along with journalists covering the protest, Alexander Ponomarev told AP news agency.

..." [2]

In terms how Belarus is positioning itself in the worlds import/export markets

It is same way, as Politicians use their family members and charity foundations to do money loundring and bribes.... Basically a mechanism to avoid sanctions and laws...

[https://belsat.eu/en/news/mensk-patlumachyu-rost-ekspartu- be...](https://belsat.eu/en/news/mensk-patlumachyu-rost-ekspartu-belaruskih- kivi-i-papai/) >"... The fact that Belarus is supplying the Russian market with the enormous amount of exotic tropical fruits cannot but sparked a massive public outcry. Although the fruit isn't grown in the Eastern European country, the export of kiwis went up by 151%.

At the same time, the ban imposed by Russia clearly prohibits re-export, and that is exactly what Belarus is suspected of by Moscow.

The Belarusian Prime Minister claims that the fruits supplied should not be affected by sanctions.

..."

Same goes, probably for military equipment exports...

[1] [https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/belarus- dictatorship-a...](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/belarus-dictatorship- alexander-lukashenko)

[2] [http://freewestmedia.com/2017/03/26/another-soros-colour- rev...](http://freewestmedia.com/2017/03/26/another-soros-colour-revolution- for-belarus/)

</comment><comment><USER35> Technically Belarus and Russia form the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

Some speculate that Putin might want to turn this paper union into reality before his term ends and become president of the union. He would avoid neatly term limits for Russian president.

[https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-rejects-putins-call-for- unific...](https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-rejects-putins-call-for-unification- with-russia/a-15295158)

<comment><USER7> My guess: not going to happen. The vast majority of people in Belarus oppose a state union with Russia. Also the president (Lukaschenko) has nothing to gain from this. Surprisingly he has been very hesitant to give in to various Russian demands, openly criticizing Putin at world stages and in the media.

<comment><USER35> Since Russia is subsidizing Belarus, they can start tightening the screws on Lukaschenko politically any time they want.

Belarus is just one military exercise away from Russians taking over. Every time these countries have a big joint military exercise in Belarus there is possibility that Russian troops might not leave when the exercise is over.

<comment><USER9> >> there is possibility that Russian troops might not leave when the exercise is over.

Why they would do that? Unless you organize a pro-West revolution like in Ukraine. It is possible but making people dirty poor and desperate can take a decade like in the latter case.

<comment><USER36> That's what the article is about. Most big employers work for Russian market. If Russia stops buying - Belarus doesn't have deep pockets to sustain for years without trade. People most often live from paycheck to paycheck, so if suddenly a lot of them lose their jobs - escalation will be quite rapid.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> > At the plant's health clinic, 560 doctors and staff use sleek Western > equipment to provide care from routine checkups to surgery, including laser > eyesight correction.

So they are showing off equipment produced by Capitalism? How does that work to prove their point?

</comment><comment><USER38> All this talk of how everyone is cared for feels so cozy. I can understand the desire for tight knit community. Everybody working for the greater good of all. Everybody equal, why should anyone dream of more? No one left behind under leadership of the great Sacha. Sure there is KGB and repression but nothing unnecessary.....

But the reality is that most humans are fundamentally competitive and fundamentally awful creatures. Only thing they will do given all this is find ways to beat the system to give themselves advantage over others.

Dear communism, it's not you, it's us.

<comment><USER14> >>>Dear communism, it's not you, it's us.

Any system that doesn't take into account the realities of the human condition is about as practically-applicable as the Borg Collective. No amount of self- loathing will change that, or solve our collective problems.

<comment><USER38> I hope you will change your tune in future. You're not wrong, but its still bad.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> The first sign of lousy journalism is the chart of poverty with the $5.5/day limit, like the cost of life is measured in dollars and it is the same across the board. No, it is not, in some places $1 is the equivalent of more than $10 in other countries.

<comment><USER40> Traditionally purchasing power parity dollars are used for comparisons across countries. Would be nice if journalists specified but you can pretty much assume that's what their sources used

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

Otherwise, as you say, these comparisons are meaningless.

<comment><USER39> No, it is not pretty much assumed because most readers are not experts in the area to know about PPP; I double checked the article, there is no mention about PPP in any form: bad journalism.

<comment><USER41> There was in the chart of per capita GDP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> You can't talk of Belarus now, and keep China out of the picture.

If people says that East Africa is China's 24th province, than Belarus would be double of that.</comment>


Ask HN: Do we need better ways to interface with our computers? - <AUTHOR> In the mid 80s, personal computers were released with graphical user interfaces – they were controlled by a keyboard and a mouse. Take the Amiga 500, for example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga).
In the last 30+ years, I think we can all agree that computers have become exponentially more powerful, but the way we control them (QWERTY keyboard and a mouse) has stayed the same.
Therefore, I would argue this has left us with a mess of large on-screen menus, awkward keyboard shortcuts and in many cases, no choice but to move our hands between typing commands on the keyboard and clicking with the mouse.
So my question to you, dear HN reader, is whether you think this is a legitimate problem, or whether there are counter arguments, for example, our user interfaces are designed more efficiently nowadays.
Looking to the development of the Apple Touch Bar, I would say big companies believe this is a problem, but then again, Apple typically go for very minimalist 60% keyboards so it's not clear-cut.
Let me know your thoughts! <comment><USER2> You mentioned the Touch Bar but didn't mention smart phones?

I think the trend is clear, ideally you don't want anything between you and your computer. Hence the rise of touch screen phones (combining the keyboard and touch controls with the screen).

What I'm excited about is moving from 2D controls to 3D environments. It is still a little early but if you look at VR, you can create any sort of interface with your computer. Need more monitors? Just edit your scene. Need a bigger or smaller monitor? Easy, edit your config file. Those monitors you just created ... you can make them respond to touch or your eyeball movement.

The only hardware you will need is a VR kit (headset for vision and audio + gloves/knuckles for your hand interface).

<comment><AUTHOR> Those are really good points - thanks for the well considered reasoning.

On the smartphone side, I think we use them very differently - you wouldn't do engineering design on a smartphone, for example, so this is maybe outside of the use-case I was thinking about. I don't think touch screens are that effective either - typing on them is a pain!

Your point about VR is very interesting though because people are starting to do complicated tasks like CAD and graphic design through VR. This does mean it's able to do tasks that typically people would spend a lot of time sat at a desk typing and clicking to achieve.

Having many 'virtual' computer monitors displayed through a VR or AR headset is not something I've ever thought about, but is a really cool possibility. Do you know of any examples?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> FYI, I'm interested because I'm developing software that maps single physical keypresses (e.g. on your numpad) into complex control of applications: [http://numpadsuperpowers.com](http://numpadsuperpowers.com)

The above argument is kinda the founding philosophy so I want to make sure it's sound logic!</comment>


Ask HN: I'm quadriplegic – can you help me with my security? - <AUTHOR> Hey Hacker News,
I've run out of places to look so I hope you guys can help me with this. I would like to:
1. Securely login to my various websites 2. Securely lock and unlock my MacBook Pro.
Easy, right?
Except I'm quadriplegic. I use DragonDictate[1] to input text, and invoke keyboard shortcuts verbally, and SwitchXS[2] with a single button switch[3] (to move the mouse around and switch between applications etc). With these I have nearly total control over my laptop.
I use a password manager and once I've spoken the master password out loud the rest of my password challenges are automated. This is necessary, but not so secure as my laptop is then just open to anyone who picks it up. But I can't password lock my whole laptop because OS X requires that password before it will load up any applications, and I can't put a password in without my apps.
I was thinking of getting a YubiKey, but for that I would need to touch the sensor on the key to activate everything, but as you might imagine the whole quadriplegic thing gets in the way of this!
Some other sort of hardware master key, maybe? What do you guys think?
A word on the adversary: I want my personal information secure from casual passers-by who after having a quick peck on the keyboard would more than likely give up; I'm not looking for PRISM dodging security here :-)
Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated!
[1]: http://www.nuance.co.uk/for-individuals/by-product/dragon-for-mac/dragon-dictate/index.htm [2]: http://www.assistiveware.com/product/switchxs [3]: http://www.ablenetinc.com/Assistive-Technology/Switches/Buddy-Button-and-Big-Buddy <comment><USER2> Forgive the off the cuff suggestion here, it's the quickest and simplest thing I can think of though not an optimum way to use your laptop and you're probably hoping for a more elegant solution.

What if you install virtual box w/ some free OS (like ubuntu). Store all your personal information within the virtual machine which is configured with a secure login. Then you can leave the laptop unsecured so you can use your other apps to dictate the password to the ubuntu OS for login.

<comment><USER3> The Ubuntu VM's virtual hard disk is right there for the taking, though.

<comment><USER4> An encrypted home directory will help some with that.

<comment><USER5> That won't work since escapologybb can't type a password at the OS X lock screen.

<comment><USER6> encrypted home dir on the guest OS, not host.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> How about bluetooth-based locking and unlocking, using an app like this?

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bluetooth- unlock/id576603568...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bluetooth- unlock/id576603568?mt=12)

It looks like it may work with any BT device, so even if you don't have a BT- enabled phone, you could get a cheap BT headset or something, and keep it on you.

I'd also like to say that it's great to see you doing so well with technology. I had a quadriplegic friend when I was little (he was an adult) who had a nice setup for the time, but his independence was limited to a few things like Clappers for lights, TV remotes, and such. I sometimes wonder just what crazy things he'd be getting up to if he was still around today with a setup like yours.

<comment><AUTHOR> My only issue with Bluetooth pairing is that iPhones are incredibly shiny, and carers work for minimum wage and the thought of not only my iPhone going walkies but it locking my laptop in the process… My head might actually explode :-)

<comment><USER8> Perhaps you should pay your carers better, so you can hire quality people....

You can also get a proximity alarm for your iPhone.

<comment><USER9> > Perhaps you should pay your carers better, so you can hire quality > people....

Easy to say things like that isn't it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Hi! I'm on the train with bad internet right now and so can't go looking but have you considered face recognition software using the laptops camera? There must be an app that takes a look at the webcam when a password challenge is presented.

Anyone know of anything?

Edit:

Found one! [https://www.keylemon.com/download-other- versions/](https://www.keylemon.com/download-other-versions/)

<comment><USER11> From what I've read a lot of them can be spoofed with either a printed picture, or a video playing back.

<comment><USER12> So I guess the next step in the arms-race would be twin cameras (kinect?) to build a 3D image of a face.

Then the bad guys would make a sculpture.

Then the good guys could add some kind of mannerism detection (smile?, wink?).

Then the bad guys would work on latex masks.

....I quite want to see how this evolves tbh.

<comment><USER13> Cloning. The end-game is cloning.

<comment><USER14> Not really, because it could require a combo of physical attributes and information known by the subject.

<comment> luke-stanley Age accelerated face cloning and spying to get information and iris or other samples needed?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> When I messed with army radios - these being the made-by-the-lowest-bidder- and-not-secret analogue variety - they were throat-operated. You spoke silently, and the microphone - pressed to your throat - sent speech over the radio.

It took practice to talk perfectly clearly, but it could be mastered.

Google "throat microphone".

<comment><AUTHOR> If I had one of them, I would totally be able to pretend I'm in the SAS on some secret mission!:D Obviously a mission that didn't involve any stairs, and nothing above 6 miles an hour (top speed of my chair!) With lots of ramps and extrawide doors :-)

Seriously though, I'm connected to this computer with a ton of cables and if that could be made to play nice with Dragon, and it wasn't too tight across where the break is in my neck it would be brilliant!

<comment><USER16> If you're already "wired up to the computer", would another USB connection make any difference?

An Arduino can act as a keyboard ( [http://hackaday.com/2012/06/29/turning-an- arduino-into-a-usb...](http://hackaday.com/2012/06/29/turning-an-arduino-into- a-usb-keyboard/) )

You could then hook that into some controls you've already got on the chair - the obvious choice being to have "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start" trigger the Arduino to type out your password.

(Where are you from? I know if someone asked for help with this on my local (Sydney, Australia) hackerspace mailing list, there's probaby be three or four people building prototypes by the weekend…)

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately adding another USB connection would make a difference, there is the cognitive load of just being tethered to my computer there are sometimes situations where I need to get out of my wheelchair quickly; so minimising connections is the order of the day.

That being said this solution could be implemented wirelessly maybe? I mean have the arduino sitting somewhere connected to the laptop wirelessly, and then have a switch connected to the arduino wirelessly as well?

The only sticking points I could see are that obviously I can't assemble these things myself, and travelling to a Hackerspace would be impossible unfortunately.

Also, I'm in the UK.

<comment><USER16> Hmmm. It's also possible to do the same "pretend to be a keyboard trick" over bluetooth - it's just a little more expensive than via Arduino/USB. It's about an extra $50-ish to add bluetooth capability to an Arduino (at least at sparkfun.com prices).

I'm in Australia, so the UK is a bit far to be prototyping - did you see Helgosam's post else-thread? Sound's like he's at least in the same country as you and capable of helping out (and/or putting you in touch with other locals who're in this space…)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Helgosam](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Helgosam) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6054049](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6054049)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It should be possible to make an OSX app that disables the hardware keyboard and touchpad, that can be toggled by voice password.

The laptop only being accessible via voice recognition and one button should be enough to render the entire system unusable to casual snoops.

edit: Looks like you can disable/reenable the builtin keyboad/touchpad with terminal commands, so it'd just be a matter of scripting them to voice shortcuts: [http://superuser.com/questions/214221/how-can-i-lock-the- mou...](http://superuser.com/questions/214221/how-can-i-lock-the-mouse-and- keyboard-but-see-the-screen)

ps: be sure to have a plan B to reboot your laptop while experimenting with this in case it locks out your controls somehow.

</comment><comment><USER18> As Tyler E suggested:

"Wonder if he could somehow get his one-button clicker to translate morse code into ascii."

Use the Arduino Leonardo to send native keyboard key strokes into the USB port of the Mac - it's robust and works every time - plug and play (once it's been programmed).

The Leonardo could be programmed to listen out for a specific pattern of switching and then send the entire password down the USB cable, or alternatively it could have some simple or complex feedback (lights / tones / onscreen keyboard display on a second mini screen) to allow individual characters/keystrokes to be sent down the USB cable from the Arduino.

I've been making stuff like this in the UK for the charity Scope, and their users - often people who have cerebral palsy. I could potentially make you something and post it over - if you are interested drop me a line.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you would be willing to make something that would be brilliant, I would love to work on a project like that :-)

Having an Arduino with a small screen next my laptop would be no problem at all, the only snag I can see so far is that I can only use one button at a time when switching between two buttons is a nonstarter unfortunately; but I'm sure that that is something that can be overcome.

So yes, I'm definitely interested!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> >>But I can't password lock my whole laptop because OS X requires that password before it will load up any applications, and I can't put a password in without my apps.

Why not just have the mac autologin and then immediately go into screensaver mode?

At the very least set /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app to open on start

Thinking about solving this programmatically, it wouldn't be too hard to set up a secure locking replacement for a screensaver that would offer a challenge response system to unlock the system without using a password anyone who hears could repeat.

</comment><comment><USER20> Maybe use your current system with a rolling password, so that the previous password no longer works?

Obviously that would take a little feat of memory, or at least some kind of prompt, but you could memorize a poem or something and use that - it would prevent replay attacks.

Or, use an algorithmic password, perhaps one where you do a sum based on the time of day.

All these solutions require some level of coding sadly, but I would have thought it would be something a freelancer could knock up relatively cheaply.

</comment><comment><USER21> Maybe some kind of NFC device that you could wear so that the computer would lock/unlock when you were near it ?

<comment><AUTHOR> That would be perfect, but instead of wearing it I could have something implanted in my arm for instance; and I would definitely notice of somebody tried to steal the tag!

<comment><USER22> What do you think about biometric Voice fingerprints? Instead of voice- recognition.

.

\---going further---

Then just encrypt the home folder's contents on a file-basis & sync it with a privately owned server. This improves the chances of data-recoverability on crashes or on filesystem corruption. Add a kill-switch toggle that erases all important files on the mac on 5 unsuccessful login attempts, and enables surveillance mode permanently using different tracking software (prey-project for example).

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm really curious about this, I would be open to doing it but I have no idea how to go about implementing something like this!

Could you expand a little or point me at some resources, that would be great thanks :-)

<comment><USER22> There's a demo of a commercial implementation in an earlier post [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6058447](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6058447)

But here are opensource solutions:

[http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Fingerprinting](http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Fingerprinting)

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

[http://www.politepix.com/openears/](http://www.politepix.com/openears/)

[http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/wiki/](http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/wiki/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I'd seen that before just didn't realise that was the term for it.

Something like that would be ideal if a system could be implemented that was reliable enough, there's always going to be some degree of false positive/negative but it would be cool otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> [http://quadstick.com](http://quadstick.com) is developing a mouth operated programmable joystick/mouse/keyboard. A sequential combination of up to eight input signals (specific joystick movements and/or a sequence of hard or soft sip & puffs on four different tubes) can trigger the sending of up to six preprogrammed keyboard keys, or it can just recognize characters traced out on the joystick and send them one at a time.

</comment><comment><USER24> Would something like Keycard[1] work for locking the screen when you're not nearby?

I wonder if it could be set to lock at boot unless your phone (or BT headphones or whatever) is nearby.

I doubt this can be all that secure since it can be downloaded from the App Store, I'm pretty sure that means it can be force quit (it could not prevent this key combo since its restricted in the sandbox). It may be just enough.

[1] [http://www.appuous.com/products/mac/keycard.html](http://www.appuous.com/products/mac/keycard.html)

</comment><comment><USER25> There are bluetooth screen lock utilities that allow one to auto-lock and unlock the machine based on the signal strength of whatever Bluetooth device you pair it with. I would look into the hands-free Bluetooth speakers (meant for auto use) with a Wheelchair power to USB convertor (most likely the easiest would be via an auto 12V DC adapter). That way you can have a mic/speaker mounted on the wheel chair to control the machine as well (if you don't have a wireless mic already). Any Bluetooth device capable of being paired will work though. This will prevent someone going through your laptop while you are away. I actually have one I use on occasion at coffee shops called Bluetooth Screen Lock available on the App Store, but there are other free and low cost apps that do the same thing available. The on I use allows me to set the sensitivity so that it will lock after being about 6 feet or more away, and unlock when I am within that distance. I can also set it to lock at the maximum BT signal range as well.

<comment><USER26> This is the most sensible solution. One implementation of this is called TokenLock. Never used it but it's $3 in the App Store and is pretty well documented, so I'd imagine the dev is pretty pro-active. Buy that with a $20 bluetooth headset to pair it with (make sure the range is as low as possible!) and you have a complete solution for the login issue for under $30.

<comment><USER25> I wrote a review for a $35 pair of NoiseHush NS400s. They are a stereo, behind the head bluetooth headset. So they also have a mic. They sound great, and pairing them would make an inconspicuous lock that most people wouldn't thing about being theft worthy. but they do not work plugged into the charger, unfortunately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Just a thought but would a inverse keylogger work?

I would guess something like this- an arduino hooked up to something you can operate (BigBuddy?). This could then ask you for your PIN code (2 taps, 3 taps, 2 taps)

Once arduino is happy it will quirt a pre-stored key sequence into the USB port, acting as a keyboard, and unlock what you need.

I have no idea if it is really viable but its the best I have.

<comment><USER28> I remember reading in MAKE about a gumball machine that only dispenses gumballs when a secret knock is performed. I'm sure something like that can be adapted for this purpose.

[http://grathio.com/2010/05/secret_knock_detecting_gumball_ma...](http://grathio.com/2010/05/secret_knock_detecting_gumball_machine/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I would love to help build something if you can't find a solution. Maybe you could lock or unlock your laptop via facial recognition [1], or you could add an accelerometer that automatically locks the laptop if someone picks it up. Or just physically lock the laptop to your chair.

Or you could plug an Arduino into the USB port and use it as a keyboard device to send a stream of keypresses when you touch a button (just like a yubikey, except you could put the button anywhere.) The first button press could type in a password to unlock the computer, and the second button press could press a keyboard shortcut to lock it again. Or you could program it to recognize a simple morse code sequence. Let me know if you're interested in that idea, and I would be happy to program one and mail it to you.

[1]: [https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36762/keylemon](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36762/keylemon)

<comment><AUTHOR> I would love to build something, my programming skills are to put it mildly… well… Rubbish, but if you were willing to help that would be wonderful!

I really like the idea of using the accelerometer as one layer of security, because there is no situation where I'm going to be the one who's picking up my laptop! I think it could only be one part of the overall though, because if they don't pick it up it would still be completely open.

I've tried facial recognition software, including the one you linked to but so far haven't found one that is reliable enough; there were far too many false positives and for a large chunk of the time it wouldn't recognise my face at all. In theory though, reliable face recognition would be a great solution.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Hi, do you have any movement or dexterity in your fingers at all? If so, please offer details of this or any other control you have that might be exploited. I have a colleague who once-upon-a-time built a system of low-force buttons and other goodies that enabled a quadriplegic person to work a telephone very effectively, as in they were subsequently employed to do some kind of work over the telephone. Would something like that be of use?

I think you might also be able to make use of a kinect or Andriod/iPhone and some eye-tracking.

Also, do you know of these guys? It's where my colleague worked about twenty years ago. [http://www.tirrfoundation.org/](http://www.tirrfoundation.org/)

<comment><USER31> In the vein of finger dexterity, I fear it must be very low, otherwise I'd expect use of a small "joystick mouse" rather than (or at least as a supplement to) SwitchXS and a single-button switch.

That said, I've heard of some quadriplegics with basic finger function using morse code-style inputs in various ways. I don't know details, but this[1] popped up in Google. It seems old but potentially interesting.

I wonder how much work it would be to put together something like an Arduino- based device that takes morse-like input and simulates a USB or Bluetooth keyboard?

[1] [http://www.makoa.org/jlubin/morsecode.htm](http://www.makoa.org/jlubin/morsecode.htm)

<comment><USER30> Yup, colleague says he designed and built several different sip & puff controls for various things.

>I wonder how much work it would be to put together something like an Arduino- based device that takes morse-like input and simulates a USB or Bluetooth keyboard?

IMO it has never been easier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Yubikey would work if you could mount it so that you can touch the touch-pad with your nose. I don't know if that's acceptable to you?

<comment><USER26> There is a Yubikey model that uses NFC called the NEO[1]. So it would operate simply by your being close to the computer. At the moment, the NFC only works with Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Blackberry, but it might be able to be ported easily. I'm looking into how this might help you now (Yubikey has an SDK).

You're on OSX, so let me see what I can come up with. No promises, but I'm looking.

1\. [http://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-hardware/yubikey- neo/...](http://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-hardware/yubikey- neo/integrate/)

EDIT: I see that the Yubikey NEO is sold out for the next 5 weeks, so this may not be the best option for you.

EDIT2: The best solution was referenced by silverlight above, it's called TokenLock for Mac OSX, and it's $3 in the App Store. You can use it with bluetooth devices. Just get some little $20 bluetooth device or headphones you can pair it with, and have someone put it in your pocket. Please take a look here (again, thanks to poster silverlight above): [http://www.map- pin.com/tokenlock-home/](http://www.map-pin.com/tokenlock-home/) Never used it, but it looks pretty versatile and can be used with all sorts of login approaches.

For securing your browser passwords, I think the Yubikey with the NFC chip will be your best bet. Right now, they don't have OSX software available specifically for the NFC, but I imagine they will release some eventually. I'd call and ask them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think as soon as they bring out some software on the Neo model that would be ideal, I'll definitely get in touch with them. Excellent find!

As for TokenLock, I downloaded the free trial and during the setup process my laptop locked up for apparently no reason; I had to have my partner stop at she was doing and come and restart the computer for me. Clearly not an ideal situation.

It really was a case of;

Download and install application Run through the setup process, which appeared to go flawlessly Read's helpful message that laptop will be locked when iPhone goes out of range … Laptop locks up as I'm reading the message, whilst my iPhone has sat resolutely still about 5 inches from my laptop!

That is a terrible level of reliability for me I'm afraid :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Your adversary is extremely simple. You haven't mentioned in your post if you are open to or able to do any custom coding.

I would suggest writing/getting an app written that runs in fullscreen and looks exactly like an OSX login screen. Bonus points if it can disable multi- tasking shortcuts such as the 3 finger swipe up. The app can be hardcoded to only accept one password - yours. Since the app is running with OSX logged on you can use your usual tools to enter the password.

It goes without saying that this won't fool anyone determined - you can just reboot the laptop to make the app go away. However it should be enough to stop casual passers-by.

</comment><comment><USER34> If you are using AbleNet's "Hitch" switch interface, by their description it should be able to emulate keyboard input without the SwitchXS software being loaded, but a manual doesn't seem to be publicly available.

This product called "Swifty" ([http://www.orin.com/access/swifty/](http://www.orin.com/access/swifty/)) also takes a switch as input, and can emulate a standard usb keyboard. With VoiceOver enabled in the login screen (Settings->Users->Login Options) this should allow one to login without using the keyboard.

Hope this helps.

<comment><AUTHOR> When I clicked reply to this comment I was doing so using the Swifty! It really is robust but when I tried the system you outlined, it was working may be one out of every 10 times I tried it; at which point I had to ask for help to get into my machine. Which is like security fail on my part :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Okay, sounds like an interesting challenge. Let's describe the problem and examine possible solutions.

Goals: 1\. Securely login to websites. 2\. Securely unlock a Macbook Pro.

Solutions to (1): A. (1) Can be solved with a password memorization app, once we solve (2).

So let's examine 2.

Solutions to (2):

Seems like there are two parts to this problem: authentication and OS X integration.

OS X has a login API that can be used to build extensions, or since the adversary is unsophisticated we could use an input blocking regular application.

Okay, so the integration piece is possible, and we can flesh that out later. So let's look at authentication.

A. Use Physical Authentication: Bluetooth, RFID, and Wifi devices come to mind. All of these require purchasing additional hardware. Buying new hardware seems inelegant though, so let's table this option for now.

B. Biometrics: Voice print ID or facial recognition. More promising, but false negative rate is too high, especially for accessibility purposes. Really don't like the idea of a temperamental biometrics program keeping you out of your computer.

C. Speech Recognition: Get voice recognition working on the log in screen. Apple has APIs for dictation and log in. This one seems promising. But then you might need a rotating set of passwords or an algorithmic password,, as others suggested, to keep passers-by from overhearing your password.

One more thought. Is there a way to set up Dragon Dictate as a native input device? If so, Mac lets you access the input device switcher from the log in menu.

</comment><comment><USER36> I used to work with quads. I would use Sikuli.org (python script) automate most things.

Read this post about new treatments in China. Spinal Cord injury therapies and medical situation in China Major spinal surgeries in China. Advances in repair of cord. [http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/07/spinal-cord-injury- therapie...](http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/07/spinal-cord-injury-therapies- and.html#more)

<comment><USER37> Talk about cultural differences. From your link:

> _China in 2004 clamped down on clinical trials and has the most strict > regulations on it now._

> _They executed some doctors who did not follow the rules._

> _Now doctors are very careful and precisely follow the rules._

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> You have a button you can push (#3 in your list above). So this means you are well on your way. You would need to create(or have created for you) a password app, that would open on startup, and prompt you for your password. Of course entering a password using a keyboard isn't so great, but since you have a button, you can ask for a certain set of button pushes, in a certain order. (Whatever works well for you).

i.e. you spell 'cat' in morse code with your one button. Or whatever. The important thing is that it's something YOU can do, and is likely not anymore easily guessed/caught than someone shoulder surfing someone typing the password on the keyboard.

That said.. I want to point out, you mention this is because you are worried about your PA's that are helping you with things maybe taking liberties you don't want them to. If you don't trust your PA's I think you should work on getting their trust (and vice versa), or look into replacing them with people you trust. If you need help with advocacy around this, reach out to your local Independent Living Center.

Good Luck!

</comment><comment><USER39> Unlocking a computer programatically is hard and should be so. Locking on the other hand isn't. Perhaps you could lock upon fail to NFC authenticate every x seconds. That only answers part of the question, since the attacker would still have x seconds to snoop around every time he logged in, but would be such a nuisance that he probably would give up.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wow, I went to bed not expecting much of a response but you guys have come up with some excellent solutions, I'm getting round to specific answers as quickly as I can!

I'm clearly missing something obvious, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to edit and update my original question; can someone put me out of my misery? :-)

</comment><comment><USER22> @OP

a) How about buying an external Fingerprint reader that's close to your thumb or wearable? There are tools that automatically find windows with input fields.

b) OR, instead of dictating a password, you could hire someone to write software that extracts a fingerprint from your VOICE's characteristics. You would have to train it to diferent types of voices you have (morning voice/tired voice/hoarse voice etc.)

Every person's voice has characteristics that make it unique and cannot be reproduced by another human. Only a computer could do that and that would require a lot of effort to break the unknown algorithm used in your computer first

c) use existing software like this: [http://demo.authentify.com/biometric/](http://demo.authentify.com/biometric/) or similar. I just googled for voice authentication/fingerprint.

</comment><comment><USER40> Well I guess you could use something like that: [http://notimpossiblelabs.com/eyewriter](http://notimpossiblelabs.com/eyewriter) with some software modification (pure speculation as I haven't even checked the code) you could use eye movement and blinking to simulate mouse input and with on screen keyboard you should be able to write your password somewhat securely [http://www.ted.com/talks/mick_ebeling_the_invention_that_unl...](http://www.ted.com/talks/mick_ebeling_the_invention_that_unlocked_a_locked_in_artist.html)

also shouldn't be expensive to build... [edit] link to the github repo the software can be found here [https://github.com/eyewriter/](https://github.com/eyewriter/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I will definitely look into that, I remember seeing the TED talk when it first came out and thought it was cool; thanks for the links :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> I'm out of my depth in more than one way here.

How about rigging a bite switch to the ubikey (either directly or via something like a raspberry pi / beagle bone). That's assuming that the only issue with the ubikey is you pressing the button.

Maybe (if it has an rpi) it needs a sequence. Bite. Pause. Bite bite. Pause. Bite. Etc.

I suspect you'd need someone to build it for you but I doubt there is a shortage of capable or willing people here. Sadly, my electronics skills are not up to it :(

I'm always impressed by people with accessibility issues using technology (or whatever is the correct term - sorry if that's at all offensive :( ). I've managed to make one of my apps a lot more useful to blind/partial sighted people after talking to a guy who can't see. It took me about 30 mins, and made the world of difference to him.

</comment><comment><USER42> Maybe you could use a usb device that is physically attached to the chair, then a thin usb ribbon cable that plugs into the computer, but pulls out quickly. that way if the computer is taken it would auto lock the machine when the ribbon is removed.

It would take work to get setup again, which may make the NFC setups better.

you should also follow the leap motion device. [https://www.leapmotion.com](https://www.leapmotion.com) it could enable some facial recognition apps, or new approaches for data entry that are not just voice control.

Also, something like this may make it less desirable to steal, and be another way to mount it to your chair. [https://www.stoptheft.com/products/stoplock](https://www.stoptheft.com/products/stoplock)

</comment><comment><USER43> Does DragonDictate still work if you switch users? If so, you could encrypt your home directory, add a second user, and set OSX to auto-login to that user (and auto-launch DragonDictate).

If not, I think your best bet is a Bluetooth solution or some hardware token. For instance, an Arduino or Teensy ($20) programmed with your login/master password, and with a small microphone connected would be able to respond to certain voice commands and act as a regular USB keyboard, typing in your pass phrase.

You could also have some software on the Mac to automatically lock the screen or shutdown the computer if the Arduino is removed.

<comment><USER44> If you are already logged in to an account with Dragon running, will it let you dictate into system password boxes (OS X Dictation does not when I tried it)? If so, having the computer auto-login on boot to a secondary account should accomplish what you need. Then dictate your password into the Fast user switching box.

Otherwise, user switching can also be activated with Automator or Terminal. OS X Dictation will type into a password prompt in Terminal, so a script might be able to switch to your account with password dictation (or with your password stored in the script, if you trust that).

When done in your secure account, just run another script or reboot to switch back to the secondary account.

Here are some example scripts: [http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2011081307461141...](http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110813074611411)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is an excellent idea and something I'm going to implement immediately! It will certainly give me a level of security whilst I look at some hardware solutions, thanks :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> There's an application that lets you lock individual applications, but which should allow you to unlock it with dictation, as the rest of the OS is still working. Mac App Blocker ([http://knewsense.com/macappblocker/](http://knewsense.com/macappblocker/))

There's also QuickLock which was/is a workaround to lock OS X quickly without using the screen saver + immediate password requirement. [http://www.quicklockapp.com/](http://www.quicklockapp.com/)

Note: I haven't used either, I'm just googling and looking at videos.

</comment><comment><USER46> I don't know much about Apple computers but on a Windows PC I wouldn't use startup password to avoid friction when starting the PC. For login in a website, I would use an application like Keepass. For my private data, I would create a virtual encrypted disk with Truecrypt. If you leave your PC alone or take a nap, just close Keepass and Truecrypt and your data are secured. And to enter the password when you start Keepass and Truecrypt, I would create a few pages text file on my desktop and just copy/paste a combination of 2 or 3 words so I wouldn't need to speak my password loud.

</comment><comment><USER47> Questions on the threat model:

-Is the computer turned off or on?

-Do you want to a) protect your computer from being stolen? b) protect your weird fetish from being discovered? c) protect your online banking credentials?

<comment><USER48> I hope you don't mind if I rephrase that last bit, I felt it was overly specific:

"-Do you want to a) protect your computer from being stolen? b) improve the privacy of your files? c) protect your online credentials?"

<comment><USER47> For porn he could stream it incognito. For protecting banking credentials, he could use a separate password manager that auto shuts down after a minute or so.

Solving the special case is sometimes easier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> When you talked about the yubikey, it's actually not too hard to built a two factor token yourself. Using an arduino, you could wire it in a way that would be convenient for you to operate.

[http://lab.infoserver.com.br/wiki/index.php/Projects:arduino...](http://lab.infoserver.com.br/wiki/index.php/Projects:arduino- oath-token)

[https://github.com/damico/ARDUINO-OATH- TOKEN](https://github.com/damico/ARDUINO-OATH-TOKEN)

<comment><AUTHOR> I would love to be able to do these sorts of things, but anything that involves hardware would mean I would have to contract in a pair of hands.

And hands are not always a readily available resource, the people attached to them have like lives and other stuff to do; it's terribly inconvenient! :-)

I'm going to look into it though, thanks for the idea!

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Perhaps voice identification could help. There seem to be quite a few solutions [1]. Unfortunately I do not have any intuition how good they are, but probably they can be broken with a simple recording of your voice ( or a recording of a passphrase). So before you trust these, you should probably play a bit with an mp3 player.

[1][https://duckduckgo.com/?q=voice+biometric+login](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=voice+biometric+login)

</comment><comment><USER51> A simple solution might be to "double lock" your system. In addition to your password manager, use face recognition (via the laptop webcam). I know such a system can be easily spoofed, but it will stop the casual opportunists you described in your brief, and without requiring too much effort on your part to unlock (and I can only imagine how long-winded many of the otherwise simple tasks might be given your unfortunate position).

</comment><comment><USER52> Face recognition is the best answer I can come up with to unlock the computer. Setup a usb-wrist band that when you computer gets pulled away from will auto lock.

</comment><comment><USER53> If I understand correctly, you use neither the traditional keyboard nor the trackpad. Can you disable both, or at least configure them to be very difficult for the casual passerby to use? As an example, any non-traditional keyboard layout that doesn't match the labels on the keys is likely to confuse and annoy the average user to thr point that they give up very quickly.

</comment><comment><USER54> You can set LastPass to prompt for the password every time you need to login to a password[1]. This presumably disables password caching in the plugin. Would that solve the your first problem?

[1] [https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/account- settings/security/](https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/account-settings/security/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, that's what I'm doing at the moment but I'm unlocking the passwords on a session by session basis rather than one password at a time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> The next Kinect is supposed to be able to detect eye movement. I don't think it would be too hard to implement something that would prompt for a sequence of eye movements after pressing the single button switched described by OP. I don't know if this would take care of both use cases, but I think it would take care of the first.

</comment><comment><USER56> There's a program out there that can use a webcam to detect where you're looking on a screen. It performs a "click" if you hover over a button for a few seconds. Mix that with an on screen keyboard and that might work. I don't know if those options work with OSX though.

<comment><USER57> Camera Mouse 2013 does that on windows for free. Not a great option since it doesn't always follow whatever it is tracking that well. You would need to go with an expensive option like [http://www.tobii.com/](http://www.tobii.com/) if you wanted good eye tracking, but that is expensive and I don't think Mac compatible. Plus, not always as accurate or easy to use as you would think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> How about some way of voice recognition? Maybe through a raspberry pi with a mic connected to it. There are surely some pre-made algorithms / scripts for this sort of thing. So once the voice recognition is passed and validated the password would be entered via the raspberry pi.

Just my two cents!

</comment><comment><USER59> Was this posted by Hal Finney? He's unfortunately a quadriplegic now but still programs.

</comment><comment><USER60> someone could build a login sequence that uses yes/no questions that only you know the answer to. Then it would just be a matter of how many bits of protection you want. eg: 32 questions would be something like 32 bits of entropy. Kind of laborious but also fairly secure because the order and selection of questions could be randomized, so someone would have to shoulder surf many questions in order to break in.

eg: Is this your mom? (with a picture). Is this your favorite color (a color showing). Is this your phone number? Is this your house? Do you like cheese? Do you like candy crush (ok, no entropy there, the answer is always "yes") .

now, does someone want to make this product?

</comment><comment><USER57> have you thought about using your single switch with an onscreen keyboard? I am not sure if OSX will let you automatically show an onscreen keyboard for the login screen (not sure why they wouldn't), but this would be as secure as you typing in the password via a real keyboard, and you wouldn't have to deal with all the other things that can go wrong. Also, have you tried to use a Quadjoy mouse [http://www.quadjoy.com/](http://www.quadjoy.com/) this gives you full mouse use, and gets you out of jams when Dragon decides to stop working and your PCA isn't immediately available.

</comment><comment><USER61> Could you re-route the keys to random unicode values so that if someone types 'a' they get '%' instead. That way if someone took a few pecks they would hopefully get frustrated

</comment><comment><USER62> Would some sort of active face verification be close to what you're looking for? Your webcam would always run, then when it sees you, it unlocks; when it no longer sees you, it would lock.

</comment><comment><USER63> Don't know if this has been discussed already - have you considered a proximity-based sensor, where your device is locked when it's away from you?

</comment><comment><USER64> It may be possible to enter Morse code using the single button switch. I knew someone who used one of these for a while, but not for password entry.

</comment><comment><USER65> If you could have a seperate, physical voice to text converter, it would act as a physical keyboard and type in your password, etc.

</comment><comment><USER66> If you're interested in a custom hardware solution, the folks at hackaday.com may be helpful.

</comment><comment><USER67> In your case, would you like to wear a brainwave sensor, so to manipulate your laptop directly ?

<comment><AUTHOR> That sounds awesome, but financially speaking I think it would be prohibitively expensive unfortunately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> couldn't you just completely disable the keyboard?

<comment><USER69> And USB ports?

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> Using multiple keychains would also help.

</comment><comment><USER71> Here's a simple idea (lacking in specific implementation details, sorry):

\- Figure out how to add a text filter between DragonDictate and your system.

\- Program the filter to look for a special sequence, e.g. "cipher_mode"

\- When in cipher mode, feed characters through a simple cipher. E.g. A -> C, B -> D, etc. No passerby is going to be able to figure out what you're doing.

\- When the filter sees "cipher_mode" again then it stops filtering.

<comment><USER72> If a passerby hears you say "cypher mode A Y R cypher mode" to unlock your computer, they might not figure out that your password is CAT, but they will figure out that "cypher mode A Y R cypher mode" unlocks the computer.

<comment><USER71> Obviously you'd pick a better phrase than "cipher mode".

But you make a good point. I think this approach can still work though.

\- Rotate the cipher based on the current day/time, or rotate it based on the previous use.

\- You could prime the next password each time you successfully login. So e.g. every time you login, you offer 3 additional letters in "clear mode", but then have to give them back in cipher mode.

I think I'd go with the last one.

The worst part about all this is that it requires custom programming.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER73> Since you are here , a few questions (not related to the current subject): you might be surfing on the web , given your condition , what are the annoying stuff you encounter that makes your surfing harder and that could be ,easily fixed if web developpers actually cared about accessibilty.

Do you have exemples of websites that use technology to facilitate surfing for disabled people , that could be shown as an exemple of good accessibility practice ?

thanks and take care.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, hit me up on Twitter and I'd be happy to help. @escapologybb

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> We have patented something called PassRules which does not disclose your secret during normal use. It's the perfect solution for you but unfortunately we don't have a version for Mac -- only Windows. But if there's sufficient interest we might just develop one. Check us out at www.itsmesecurity.com

<comment><USER75> This is a great example of how patents help humanity.

<comment><USER76> TIL that everyone needs a patent to prove defensibility to VC's, but no one is allowed to mention a patent on HN without being down voted, because patents are evil.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER77> If you're not using whole disk encryption (or even partial encryption), then it doesn't really matter if you use a login password or not. The attacker can just clone the hard drive to gain access to your files.

<comment><USER27> The threat model was casual passers-by. That may not seem much but severe disabilities change things a lot.

I am assuming that the OP is simply taking steps to mitigate an ever present fear of "being taken advantage of". There are some real arseholes out there, for example a friend of a friend was a blind dumb mute who was mugged in the street - nothing stolen except her cane and cards she used to communicate. She had no way to communicate with anyone, and they had no way to communicate with her.

She had to walk home...

<comment><AUTHOR> Bang on, it's the horrible person who comes into the house of somebody physically vulnerable and steals pain medication from them (true story); those are the people that are the adversary.

Pain medication, from somebody with nerve fire… I just don't understand that mentality!</comment></comment></comment>


Google Search: Askew - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/search?q=askew <comment><USER2> What is this?

<comment><AUTHOR> An easter egg: the result page showed by Google for "askew" is slightly tilted to the right. In other words, it's askew...</comment></comment>


Publisher Transformation with Users at the Center - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-transformation-with-users-at-the-center/

<comment><USER2> In short, ads on Firefox.</comment>


Ask YC: How much do you make on advertising on your site? - <AUTHOR>

A lot of startups are depending on advertising on their site, but it is often hard to find numbers on what kind of income you can expect from this.
The numbers, of course, vary depending on your niche and your audience, the type of advertising you use, and how aggressively you place your ads.
Still I think it would be interesting to see some numbers and/or ranges. Anyone willing to share, or point to some good resources on this? <comment><USER2> RefreshThing.com : 58,434,725 impressions, 19,730 clicks, $3,083.27 rev, Nov 06-Present. Dropped AdSense from most of the content last May to simplify the design. This is AdSense only, not affiliate (CPA) revenue.

<comment><AUTHOR> nice little app...

Your numbers might be skewed towards the low end due to your business model. I presume that a refresh is an impression here.

But thanks a lot for sharing. :-)

<comment><USER2> Yes - and prior to May there was an AdSense 728x90 in the top frame (fun with auto-refreshing CPM rev =) ).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Well, my blog earned $2.16 in Amazon affiliate commissions this month! That was on something like 10K views. Time to go swimming in my bathtub full of cash!

</comment><comment><USER4> I have one gaming site with forums that makes 400,000 impressions a month. It makes probably $140 in Adsense in a good month, plus about $170 in targetted banner ads from sponsors who approached me directly.

As such, it's enough to cover the servers of that hobby and pay a little towards my other dedicated servers.

By no means is it bringing in enough money for any business. That would require better conversion/click rates or a lot more impressions than I get.

I could probably get the banner advertisers to pay up to 50% more by bargaining harder (since there are a number of small business suitors), but I like them to get solid return on those advertisements.

</comment><comment><USER5> We started running one site with Google Adsense. It didn't generate much money, but showed us what kind of keywords DID generate clicks. We used this knowledge to start selling banner adverts and that has brought in a lot more. We're not talking fortunes - it brings in around $4000/month, but that passive income helps

</comment><comment><USER6> I read somewhere TechCrunch generates $214,000 per month from advertising.

<comment><USER7> I highly doubt that number. 214K a year, maybe, just maybe. I'd be surprised if facebook even brought in that much per month.

<comment><USER8> facebook brings in 4-5 mil a month according to wikipedia

<comment><USER7> Sure it does.

<comment><USER9> You haven't tried affiliate marketing much have you.

One of my sites has around 1,000 visitors a day, generates $5k-$10k revenue a month.

<comment><USER10> Wishing axod would elaborate . . .</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Pipefy: Workflows and process management for startups - <AUTHOR> http://www.pipefy.com/?utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=hackernews&utm_campaign=hackernews

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Guys! I am founder of Pipefy! Today we finally finish our private beta and are open for free sign-ups! Would love to hear your feed-backs!

We're a management tool that helps startups to organize and run their processes in one place. We have free templates based on the best practices of A/B Testing, Agile Software Development, Bug Tracking, Content Marketing, B2B Sales Pipeline, Product Roadmap and others...

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

Enjoy it! It's free! =)

</comment><comment><USER2> Besides run their processes of A/B Testing, Agile Software, Bug Tracking, Sales Pipeline ... Pipefy can solve problems that do not exist yet :)

This is eternal scalability.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice kanban approach to the process mapping you guys have there.

</comment><comment><USER4> So far, a really smooth approach to solve our everyday tech management process issues.

</comment><comment><USER5> Great product! :)

</comment><comment><USER6> bye bye Trello! In love with this tool. I will recommend Pipefy for my friends. Nice job alessioalionco3

</comment><comment><USER7> Awesoms! It solves the problems I have on Trello.

</comment><comment><USER8> Great solution, Congratz!

</comment><comment><USER9> Best Ever!!!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Awesome!!!</comment>