How to disable the built-in Windows 10 ads - <AUTHOR> https://www.faqforge.com/windows/windows-10/how-to-disable-all-of-the-built-in-windows-10-ads/ <comment><USER2> For me, Windows 10 is where I felt like I was no longer in control of my own computer.

Microsoft doesn't do discrete OS updates anymore but I definitely feel like it might time to give Linux another go next time I upgrade my hardware. There's less and less software the holds me to MS. This is due to so many programs going to the web - Google Docs suite, dictionaries etc and partially due to better Linux support for software I use such as Unity or games via Wine. What's held me back until now has been poor graphics driver support.

<comment><USER3> They are trying to kill the idea of local apps and exe's, aka they can finally turn "files" into property by using active directory and NTFS for the entire internet. You all seem clueless as to the last 20 years of software theft in the game industry.

Everyone 20 year ago on slashdot was worried about software and hardware drm, windows 10 is the first version of windows where they are trying to turn the PC into a mobile locked down platform because of the success of walled gardens like steam, world of warcraft, and the appstores like apple/google play.

The level of stupid on hacker news is disturbing, we used to get complete PC games in the 90's and early 2000's before the public fell for mmo scam of the late 90's which put PC gaming on the path of massive game theft.

Valve is basically a criminal game stealing empire by infecting games with client-server code. The whole industry wants to take us to mainframe dumb client computing.

[https://tifca.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/09/ClienttoCloud_V...](https://tifca.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/09/ClienttoCloud_Vision_V2.pdf)

<comment><USER4> > Valve is basically a criminal game stealing empire by infecting games with > client-server code.

Uhh.. Valve release all their game server binaries for anyone to run, and sometimes even the source code (Half-Life, Half-Life 2). If you're going to rag on any games company, it shouldn't be them.

<comment><USER4> (Replying to dead comment.)

> Valve did so because they had steam money to rely on, they were boiling the > frog slowly.

Citation needed. Valve have been very good to the TF2/Dota 2 communities. Again, you _can_ run the servers for these products. Worst comes to worst, if Valve turns evil, then pirating the software is easy.

There's good points to be had that Overwatch is terrible for not releasing the server, but Valve are not.

<comment><USER5> You don't seem to understand VALVE is an outlier because they have so much power, for the rest of the AAA game industry, dedicated servers largely have been under attack. Because client-server and drm ridden software allows them to put in game stores. They don't want people to have dedicated servers if it interferes with their microtransaction business model. AKA in game stores means further eroding software ownership.

You don't grasp the reason quake champions is a server locked game is because of gamers buying client-server coded software.

You're a corporate fanboy. You don't grasp the reason Doom 2016 and no level editor is specifically because of the last 15 years of the war on PC game ownerhsip that began with mmo's in the late 90's.

That all those "MMO/freetoplay" games on steam would have been boxed products with lan/server exe's in a former era, of the public had not taken them up to begin with, valve would have never come up with STEAM. Steam was a direct reaction to ultima online.

Valves long term plan was to remove ownership from his customers, and valve no longer needs to produce games because their long term agenda was making money, they want to be the middleman that skims money from every game sold.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> First of all, I don't understand why Microsoft is doing this. They are making more from online services than they ever made from selling windows licences so it's not like they need the few cents advertising generates. Probably the windows group trying to up their own numbers, not noting they are hurting the company as whole.

With that said, I don't consider all things author disabled as "ads". Some are just annoying attempts to get people to explore w10 and the included software.

What I consider ads are:

1\. The stupid preinstalled games and apps that fill your start screen upon your first boot.

2\. The preinstalled Microsoft games (these contain actual ads)

3\. The third party app suggestions.

<comment><USER7> I recently got a new "Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop" keyboard. It has a the "Office key" which if you press launches an ad to buy Microsoft Office. AFAICT there is no official way to disable it!!! and at least for me it was easy to hit by mistake.

Apple isn't as bad but I run into ads for Apple Music on my iPhone unintentionally in a similar fashion. Meaning have no intent of ever subscribing to Apple Music but Apple has designed the UX so that users are likely to hit the ad to sign up from time to time.

<comment><USER8> Honestly I would jam a paperclip under that key to disable it out of spite

<comment><USER9> You mean Clippy?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Windows 10 was the final push for me to switch to Linux once and for all. And so far I'm super happy with it. I'm using Linux mint and I must recommended it highly for any long time windows user as they've hugely reduced the learning curve.

The only thing I miss is Photoshop. I've tried so many alternatives like gimp, etc but I find graphics editing a big struggle, for example I can't even do simple things like adding a red arrow to a screenshot till date without googling for it first. Also wine it didn't work for me for some reason. But thankfully my graphics requirements are pretty less so I boot up windows for that, other than that I don't miss Windows at all now. Rather it would be very hard to go back now.

<comment><USER11> Photoshop was a big one that I missed, until someone posted their self-made online editor to reddit: [https://www.photopea.com/](https://www.photopea.com/)

I'm not sure what modern photoshop looks like, but the interface is completely familiar to me as a former CS2 user.

While Photopea is online, its completely satisfactory for small editing tasks that I need to do. Only gripe is that saving massive pngs with 100% quality causes the site to freeze

<comment><USER12> Photoshop is the main reason I still have a Windows boot on my home desktop. I wish Linux had a comparable alternative to Photoshop (for which I would gladly pay a sum comparable to what I paid Adobe). Any time I tried Gimp or something similar I really missed the clean _visual_ UI of CS, ability to accurately work with at least 16-bit color and support for printing large files (say, 17x40" panoramas) without killing my workstation.

<comment><USER13> What about Krita?

<comment><USER12> I have not tried Krita yet. It seemed to be geared to artists drawing / creating images, where my main (in fact only) use case is enhancement of my DSLR or phone-captured photos. That said, Krita is on my "to try sometime" list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The solution is to send a clear signal to Microsoft that their behaviour is unacceptable by switching to Mac or Linux.

<comment><USER15> This. And if the next version of macOS is any more of a dumpster fire than Catalina it may narrow the list down even further.

<comment><USER16> For me Catalina is already a dumpster. In fact, it had been so since Sierra (when, for example, the default Korean keyboard layout was silently changed to include a Won sign in place of a backquote) so that I had been very reluctant to update; I only updated to Mojave months ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> For me the routine is always the same: Install Open Shell to make it look reasonable and then ShutUp10 for things under the hood. While that may seem too much work, it has honestly always been like that. I remember tweaking Win98 and the massive tweaking community around win XP.

[https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu](https://github.com/Open- Shell/Open-Shell-Menu)

[https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10](https://www.oo- software.com/en/shutup10)

</comment><comment><USER18> I highly recommend using this to configure Windows:

[https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup- Script](https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup-Script)

</comment><comment><USER19> My experience with troubleshooting on Windows has led to a lot of websites like this - no-name businesses, a wall of ads, and SEO-optimised content derived from performing the same web search I'm doing.

Unless I add 'Ubuntu' to the search term, troubleshooting on Linux OSes tends to take me to primary sources e.g. internet-hosted manpages and docs.

It's probably just an inevitability of success but it does make the ecosystem more frustrating to use.

<comment><USER20> > It's probably just an inevitability of success but it does make the > ecosystem more frustrating to use.

For searching online, probably yes. If Linux were used by all the people currently using Windows, there would surely be just as much crap.

But for the OS itself, if the current (open) development models of most distributions would remain open and not become like Canonical's Ubuntu, I don't see that such an OS would ever get ads or become frustrating to use as a law of nature. Volunteers don't do work they don't believe in, few people would work on a change or feature they don't think will be an improvement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Windows 10 is practically adware [https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware- microsoft.html](https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html)

</comment><comment><USER22> I use Windows (not 10), I like the convenience of it that most things, drivers work out of the box.

But given the direction Microsoft is going it's likely my next machine will run Linux. All the software I use is available for Linux too, so I guess the main unconvenience will be that I'll have to pay attention when buying hardware to make sure there are proper Linux drivers for them.

I guess there are plenty of people using Windows for convenience, but if the longer trend is that it will have ads, I'll need a Microsoft account to run it, etc. then many of those people who know their way around computer OSs may switch to Linux instead.

<comment><USER23> Why not a Mac? Seems like it would tick most of your boxes.

<comment><USER22> I don't like Apple's business strategy of overpricing. A linux laptop is much cheaper and for my purposes just as suitable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I follow those 3 steps:

1\. Buy LTSC license from sketchy resellers on eBay (I found out it's usually the same Vietnamese guy with 100 of different usernames)

2\. Install Windows LTSC

3\. Enable Windows Store in LTSC by this repo - [https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add- MicrosoftStore](https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore) (it's a fork of some other repo that doesn't work for me that much)

LTSC is available to buy legally too, but it costs around 300$... all the "bulk resellers" are kind of sketchy. But hey it usually works.

<comment><USER25> With commits named "nothing"[0] the repo is surely trustworthy

0: [https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add- MicrosoftStore/commit/b5b...](https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add- MicrosoftStore/commit/b5b2fc94504a1eeb0f87aafc620ca40a389d8dca)

<comment><USER26> You can also just skip that step if you don't use the Microsoft Store. It's what I do.

<comment><USER24> There are sometimes utilites only available on Store nowadays.

If there is an edition that has Store, but doesn't have ads, and doesn't cost 300 usd, I would prefer to use that...

<comment><USER27> Windows S stands for Store (I think) and you can't install anything on it otherwise. Had an impression that it was ad free but I'm not completely sure.

<comment><USER26> Windows LTSC ≠ Windows S

<comment><USER27> That I know, but the question is whether or not it's free from ads.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The fact that this is necessary at all is completely ridiculous. Thanks, but I'll just stick with Windows 7 for my Windows machine. That works and doesn't have any of 10's bullshit.

</comment><comment><USER29> After using windows since 95, I can't do it anymore. It doesn't feel like its my computer.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h > Someone cleverly pointed out that Windows changed from "My Computer" to > "This PC" in recent years. \- arwhatever on Microsoft has removed the "use > offline account" op... > ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21104910](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21104910))

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Maybe I've just become blind to them but I don't recall seeing any?

<comment><USER31> I think it is fascinating that there seems to be huge differences between the amount of ads seen. Not being signed in to Microsoft account probably is the single biggest factor, followed by having Pro edition and being located in EU instead of US. And of course not having an OEM edition. Obviously I opt-outed everything during installation, but I don't remember going through any special hoops in at any stage.

While I can't say that I haven't seen any ads, they have been singular events (I think at least one for O365, OneDrive, and Edge, maybe something else too) instead of any sort of constant stream. Of course it is valid to argue that any ads, however few, are too many, and I don't disagree. But I definitely do not remember seeing any third-party ads in my Windows 10 and I think that is pretty important distinction.

But as someone who has become extremely wary of installing any mobile apps due the infestation of ads there, I feel my desktop to still be pretty decent oasis against ads.

<comment><USER30> All plausible

Signed in, pro but off an enterprise sub, not EU but probably counted as EU for this. Actual I do recall seeing an add for office a couple years back

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I've been using O&O's shutup10 ([https://www.oo- software.com/en/shutup10](https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10)) as the first step after a fresh install for years. Anything better, or is this still a good solution?

</comment><comment><USER33> I still remember the feeling of dread in my stomach the first time I used Windows 10 and realized Microsoft had added a lock screen I had to click past to get to the login screen. On a desktop OS. Just because smartphone sales were booming and that's what smartphones do.

</comment><comment><USER34> Personally I'd rather just hold my knife by the handle end rather than trying to sand down the serrated bits!

</comment><comment><USER35> Frankly, what keeps me on Windows are just games, if I would be able to play all the AAA titles on Linux, it would be my desktop. I can't think of any other thing that keeps me on Windows.

</comment><comment><USER36> In regards to his tip "Disable advertisements from File Explorer". Also after clicking "Apply" do chose the upper button on same window that says "Apply to folders" \- it will make the settings done there to be applied to folders of same "style". One only need to apply this to local drives, documents, pictures, videos and a few other "styles" to have an unified view of all folders when using Windows File Explorer.

But I recommend using Total Commander instead (personal favorite).

</comment><comment><USER37> Ironic, given how the website itself is packed to the brim with ads.

<comment><USER38> Everybody hates ads until it comes to their own bottom line, I guess. Exceptions apply, of course.

<comment><USER39> Something you hate, is something you would like to track and destroy. But it's all the opposite: that's ads which want to track you.

Now please consider getting a copy of my last new world exclusive publication "The book I will never write" for free¹.

¹ First 42 microseconds are free of charge, after what you tacitly renew your subscription into a premium plan, including a varying minute fee whose amount will be changed at our will, and you concede the total complete worldwide eternal exclusive rights on your soul. Download of this page is considered an explicit consent. Any form of pleasure, displeasure, or any other form of emotion risen during the reading of this text might be charged with extra fee.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> The Surface Pro briefly pulled me out of the Mac ecosystem. And I spun on my heel and went right back at the sight of baked-in ads.

</comment><comment><USER41> Would love to see the PowerShell equivalent for these steps so it can be automated / repeated.

<comment><USER42> [https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat- Windows-10](https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I'm surprised no one has mentioned O&O ShutUp10 ([https://www.oo- software.com/en/shutup10](https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10)).

I've used it on my Windows computers for years and never see ads.

</comment><comment><USER44> Step 1: Format

Step 2: Install Linux

<comment><USER45> If only Linux had as nice and frictionless experience as Windows or Mac.

Linux on desktop is somewhat bearable with the right distro but on a laptop it's a big no no (terrible battery life etc).

<comment><USER46> Huh? I get a full work day and then some (~10 hours) out of my Dell XPS 13 running Linux. Quit spreading bullshit. Linux has come a long way, to the point where I and many of my colleagues genuinely prefer the experience over that of Windows or macOS. Maybe you should give it another try yourself. I recommend Manjaro over Ubuntu for newcomers nowadays.

<comment><USER45> Quit acting like a religious fundamentalist. Goodbye.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Is there no magic script or program out there that will just do this for my lazy ass? (:

</comment><comment><USER48> Does anyone know how to disable the "Like what you see" text that is shown over the lock screen images (also known as spotlight images)? If you click on that text Bing comes up in a browser after you login. I've followed some online guides but so far no luck getting rid of it.

<comment><USER49> It drives me nuts how complicated it is to simply have ALL of those 'spotlight' images at login nixed. I don't want any stock photography of landscapes or whatever, thanks - I just want a plain black background.

Unless something's changed in the year or so since I last tried it, it's basically not possible (there was some hacky solution, but it dismayed me, so I never bothered).

<comment><USER50> Just go to Settings > Personalize > Lock Screen and disable Windows Spotlight.

Unfortunately there's no way to get the pictures without the text overlays.

EDIT: In fact it's the first suggestion in the article.

<comment><USER49> Hmph, are you on Pro? I've only got the consumer version of Win10, and I can't see that option... .

<comment><USER50> I am using Pro (which is also a consumer version of Win10), but Home also has the option.

See: [https://i.imgur.com/mzXI6Em.png](https://i.imgur.com/mzXI6Em.png)

<comment><USER49> Well I'm a fucking idiot, it's right there.

Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> You can keep Spotlight on the lock screen. You have to turn on the "Require Ctrl-Alt-Del" option though.

</comment><comment><USER52> This is mostly click bait . The first 3 mentioned by the author are not ads. If you are a new windows user, those tips and tricks are somewhat useful as they tell you what's new in Windows 10 compared to Windows 7 or an older version.

<comment><USER53> The first (lockscreen thing) is definitely an ad. If you misclick by accident trying to type your password, you get sent to a bing site opened in edge regardless of if edge is even your default browser. It will then nag prompt to switch to edge which could bring in a good bit of money for MS.

I guarantee that factored into their decision to add it far more than "this would be a fun thing to innocently engage users with."

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> It may go against the grain here, but I think advertisements in Windows 10 is crucial. It's strange, because you would expect the HN audience to be in favor of getting products in front of eyeballs.

Operating systems in 2020 have evolved into thought systems that enable our lives in the emergent digital economy. Think of it like real-estate in the "real" world. People hate billboards because they're gaudy, yet they relish Times Square. Operating Systems are like the Times Square of the computing world, allowing us to navigate and consume and vote with our dollars. It makes total sense for them to contain advertisements. In fact, I encourage it.

<comment><USER55> Are you in favor of your landlord or the HOA replacing your wallpaper with advertisement too? My desktop environment's role in my life is much more like that than Time Square's.</comment></comment>


Polite Is the New Rude - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/03/civil_society_30_polite_is_the.php <comment><USER2> I'm glad to see commenters generally disagree. If you can't tell the difference between polite and rude maybe you need some disruption.</comment>


What Former Employees Say ITT Tech Did to Scam Its Students - happy-go-lucky http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/07/502601724/what-former-employees-say-itt-tech-did-to-scam-its-students <comment><AUTHOR> >"Maybe if you give them too much information, they won't want to come in."

Perceptive, since that's exactly the reason I ask so many questions before I physically drive out to meet someone. On the other hand, refusing to answer questions is pretty much guaranteed to put my guard up, too, which is contrary to their goals.

I'm an ITT graduate. I experienced none of what was in the article. That may have been their tactics at some point, but it wasn't used on me in the early 00's. Perhaps the person who was talking to me knew their job really well and knew it wasn't a good idea.

In the end, I learned nearly nothing (I was self-taught already and mostly wanted the paperwork) and got a 4.0 GPA. I watched others around me struggle with basic programming. Most of them quit, and I graduated with about 4 others in that program.

They claimed that a high percentage of their graduates had jobs when they graduated, but what they didn't make clear was that those jobs weren't necessarily in their field. I didn't have a job _at all_ , most others didn't have a job in IT, and the 1 who did got it on their own at their current employer, Disney. Despite them providing no leads, they blamed my lack of job on _me_ and how I approached it. No attempt was made beyond basic resume and interview coaching. That guy ended up getting fired after my father made a huge stink about it repeatedly. (He wasn't the only one, I gathered.)

When I did get hired, it was by a company that cared more about my skill than anything, and I actually looked worse on paper than the other main candidate. The company paid for BrainBench exams and I blew the other guy away, which got me hired. The paperwork I cared so much about has never been useful. The original estimate was $30k. I paid $23k because I transferred in some credits and tested out of others.

<comment><USER2> >The paperwork I cared so much about has never been useful.

Going to school just for the paperwork is kind of a bad idea. Ideally, one should learn something useful when getting a degree. Just pointing out the obvious which seems to be overlooked here.

<comment><USER3> Not that bad of an idea when most job listings making more than $40k has "4-year degree at an accredited college" listed as minimum requirements. Without that, your resumé doesn't even make it through the screen door.

It doesn't matter that you have 25 years of experience and run circles around people with Masters degrees. You never even make it far enough in the door to show that.

<comment><USER4> I don't have a degree but I did go to college. Just attend one semester or even a week of school. On your resume put this line for education

Such and such university (2010)

It doesn't lie stating that you have a degree but it gets past auto and human filters and you can explain that you went but found it wasn't for you, you weren't learning anything, you worked better being self taught or whatever, you've got your foot in the door ( or at least as much in the door as people with actual degrees on their resumes)

<comment><USER5> > Such and such university (2010)

A single year universally indicates the year that you graduated.

<comment><USER4> Mine actually says Such and such university - computer science and information assurance (200x-200y)

A degree would usually include B.S. Computer Science. I always tell them in an interview if it comes up or if they ask for transcripts/proof of degree. I actually have nearly 30 credits more than necessary for a degree but missed an elective requirement for my degree program due to a miscommunication about transfer credits. By the time I figured it out my graduating year I already had job offers and would have had to stay an extra semester to take one class. I figured I would take care of it later - started working - never did and it has never mattered.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> >The rule set out in the ITT training materials instructs recruiters to call "a minimum of three times a day for the first three days." This was known as the 3x3 rule.

That is bordering on harassment by most standards. Taking advantage of the underemployed has been happening for years, and in tech I remember when MCSE training programs were mostly marketed towards blue collar employees. Many graduated as "paper MCSEs" who were largely unable to get a job.

I hope that bootcamps and accelerated learning programs for developers don't eventually go this route. They seem to be behaving to this point.

<comment><USER7> They already are. I've talked to some recruiters who laugh at bootcamp programs on a resume. A few years ago nobody would ask me about my academic background in a job interview, but now they've started asking explicitly. I've been out of school for seven years, and nobody cared about my CS degree until this year.

The reality is that degrees and certifications will be used in hiring as long as they are a useful indicator of aptitude. HR departments need to eliminate candidates from the hiring pool. At their zenith, the bootcamp programs were useful for recruiters because only the truly dedicated survived the bootcamp long enough to graduate. But with the proliferation of such programs, I think the day is quickly approaching when the market will be oversaturated with graduates and it will cease to be a useful indicator of aptitude.

<comment><USER8> Degrees and certifications aren't about finding aptitude. They're about protecting the hiring agent from the political fallout of bad hires. "It's not my fault I hired someone who couldn't program well. I mean, he went to _Stanford_."

<comment><USER9> I don't really think that's true.

If I were hiring developers I would pick a college grad over a high school dropout every time.

<comment><USER8> If you have exactly one opening at a fixed salary for the offer and that's all you know about the two candidates, sure. If I magically knew their technical aptitude and employability in perfect detail, being a high school dropout is not just irrelevant, but actually a positive for the candidate. Other companies are looking to hire developers as well, and you're competing over the best-looking candidates. Like, there are plenty of great developers that you can't hire because they're happy making $250k/yr at Google.

<comment><USER9> I do not live in SF. In fact in my town, dev salary tops out somewhere near 100k.

Hiring is all about filtering. What people are going to be bad news? You need to do some rough filtering to get the resume count down to a reasonable number to look through. Maybe someone mentions his hobby is building bombs. Maybe ok, but maybe it's ok to pass him over to avoid getting blown up. Or in a less extreme example, one guy has a lot of rails experience, and one guy has a lot of .net experience... if hiring for a rails job, you get more experience in hiring the guys with rails experience.

Now is filtering on college graduation always right? No. If you have a lot of patience, totally dig through and look for the gems without a degree. But if I get 100 resumes and I need to turn that list down to 20 to do a phone screen, I will prefer people that pass obvious filtering signals (college education being high on the list).

That is my personal experience to prefer people that made it through college. Obviously not everyone agrees. That is fine.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, I totally agree with you about how hiring is about filtering. The concern I have is that there's only so much filtering power you have, so anything you apply on things irrelevant to job performance will end up detracting on things you care about. There's a fairly narrow band of able-to- pass-your-hiring-filter that you're targeting. Anyone below it gets rejected, anyone far enough above it works for Google or founds a company or something. If you turn up one parameter in your filter, you're going to end up turning down the others.

Like, I remember hearing a story about a college that ran some statistics on the SAT scores of incoming students. They found that math SAT scores for their students was inversely correlated with their verbal SAT score - yet, among the general population, this correlation doesn't hold. What was happening was students with low verbal + math were getting rejected, and students with high verbal + math were going to MIT and the like, so given that they went to that particular school, they had to have lower math scores if their verbal is high and their overall suitability is in a narrow range.

I'm basically trying to make a similar argument here - given that the person you're interviewing accepts an offer there, they've got a certain level of ability-to-get-employed-as-an-engineer. If more of it comes from "having a college degree", then less of it comes from all the other things.

<comment><USER9> Or you can offer a perk google and other's WON'T offer. For example 100% remote. That brings the guy in the middle of Alabama into your candidate pool. He is not competing against an offer to Google.

<comment><USER8> Yup, it's all about knowing what you care about, what other companies care about, and what tradeoffs you're willing to make. "Being willing to hire engineers who do not have a college degree" is one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > And it got personal. On-campus visits began with a questionnaire, the WITY, > or "what's important to you."

Interestingly, I remember the same tactics being used by the last Marine recruiter that I talked to. He had little flashcards you were supposed to rank in order, with various ideals like honor and financial security that you were supposed to rank in importance. I thought at the time that it was a pretty transparent trap, but I imagine it works pretty well. However, if we're going to suggest that these tactics and empty promises are immoral, are we to also hold the military accountable?

<comment><USER11> Military recruiter service schools are dominated by sales training. Wouldn't you expect that its omission would be a waste of taxpayer funding?

The key difference between the standard sales techniques when they're used by ITT or by any other organization is that ITT was making promises it couldn't keep. When I get the hard sell about a new car, at least I get a functional car even if I overpaid. If I take out loans to attend ITT, it's likely the training won't help me get a job.

<comment><USER12> >ITT was making promises it couldn't keep

I've never been in the military, but from what I've heard from those who have, this is exactly what military recruiters do. They tell people they will get $XX,XXX signing bonus, but the reality is only a tiny portion will pass all the required training and get placed in a specific type of unit to get that money.

Granted, there a lot of real benefits that they can sell recruits on, but recruiters will tell every 18 year old that they can be in special ops when its not the reality.

<comment><USER13> Military recruiters will at times over-promise, but not about bonuses. Those are generally guaranteed once they pass their minimum schooling requirements.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> To be honest, every single tactic mentioned in the article sounds like Marketing/Sales 101. What's really scary is how effective they are. It boggles my mind how many people make life decisions, both major and minor, on the basis of such sales tactics, instead of doing their own research or relying on trusted sources.

</comment><comment><USER15> and counties all across the US are turning to for profit schooling for their children.

<comment><USER16> Just to note, not all for profit education is bad.

<comment><USER17> Specifically ones that don't profit off of debt paid by third parties.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> No news here. To be honest, these practices are used by all marketers.

<comment><USER19> From the article:

 _> They're looking for not just any customer ... but a customer who's likely to be kind of desperate to enroll, and likely to be eligible for the highest amount of financial aid_

Pushy marketers are all good and well until you start raiding the public coffer while under-delivering. If ITT Tech wasn't dependent on your tax dollars and other legal protections, they'd still be in business today.

<comment><USER20> How is this different from nonprofit schools? If you get a junk degree from a school that costs $60k/yr, does it really matter that they're incorporated under a different section of the tax code?</comment></comment></comment>


Ivy for Bitcoin: a smart contract language that compiles to Bitcoin Script - <AUTHOR> https://blog.chain.com/ivy-for-bitcoin-a-smart-contract-language-that-compiles-to-bitcoin-script-bec06377141a <comment><USER2> Looks cool. What kind of stuff can bitcoin script do compared to Ethereum?</comment>


Ask HN: Document Conversion from DocX and Other FileFormats to a Specific XSD - <AUTHOR> We are trying to convert a .docx – and later other potential fileformats – into a kind of standard XML. This XML is going to be mapped through an XSLT to the XML of our choice (xsd).
For the conversion to be successful, we need to keep as many of the information elements within the document as possible. The most important ones are the structure, the content, tables, lists, and figures (images etc) within the document.
We have realised that getting a document that this job is complex, and that there are serious restrictions to what kind of documents we can support.
As there are different standards, implementing a converter for each of them would be time demanding.
Does anyone have some tips on how to deal with Document Conversion to XML? Any tips on how to proceed? <comment><USER2> My intuition is that an XSLT that can handle everything in a .docx document has approximately the same complexity as the Word executable because it must correctly interpret the information in the .docx in order to correctly transform it. Which is to say that the number of corner cases that such an XSLT has to handle is very very large. It is a reflection of the many many developer-years that has gone into the project.

Because a .docx is already a set of XML documents, and Microsoft provides tools for manipulating them [1], my gut reaction would be to treat Microsoft's format as the primary form of storage and use those tools rather than something custom built for a different XML format: it avoids having to design and build the software for translating .docx files, designing a custom XML schema, and building tooling for that custom schema.

If conversion is definitely necessary, I'd still think performing it with Microsoft's tooling is likely to be more productive than hand coding XSLT.

Good luck.

[1]: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/dn467914.asp...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/dn467914.aspx)</comment>


CockroachDB 20.1 - <AUTHOR> https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/cockroachdb-20-1-release/ <comment><USER2> Online primary key migrations is some interesting voodoo.

We ran it in production from the v2.x days before they moved to a new versioning schema and the support was really good. The paid support is worth the enterprise license.

It's also good to see the added work on supporting ORMs for shops that use it. We used SQLAlchemy heavily and had to do a lot of work to fix our app to work around the transaction retry errors which CRDB has been working on lessening in recent releases.

<comment><USER3> Retrying transactions is something every app _ought_ to handle, but it's rare enough that most codebases I've seen just punt on it.

<comment><USER2> The thing is before CRDB the application was operating just fine in MySQL's default isolation level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looking at the product comparison chart[1], there's quite a lot of features that aren't in the open source "core" CockroachDB. That's fine of course, but the one that seems concerning is the backup/restore. Is there a reasonable and reliable way to do backups and restores with just the "core" open source product?

[1] [https://www.cockroachlabs.com/compare/](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/compare/)

<comment><USER5> Yeah, backup is missing. This question has been asked in the comments of every HN post about a new release.

It doesn't make sense, they are missing out on lots of enthusiast/hacker adoption, people that can't afford enterprise anyway.

Having backup as a "differentiating feature" for enterprise is such a stupid idea.

<comment><USER4> Well, and eventually sets you up for some bad press. I assume a _" I chose CRDB, and now I've lost all my data"_ story will hit at some point. And it won't be obvious for all the readers that they weren't a paying customer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maybe I've been living under a rock, but this is the first I've heard of the Business Source License (BSL). [https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/licensing- faqs.htm...](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/licensing-faqs.html) So after it converts to Apache 2.0 licensing, how does that affect redistribution of CockroachDB if I include it in my commercial applications?

<comment><USER7> First for me too. I like the idea of a time limited conversion to Apache. Companies w easily AWS'd apps need some leverage and having older versions being the only open source ones makes sense. I would prefer a non commercial source available license as well or open core but this doesn't seem too unreasonable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I see an untrusted cert: "Issued by: email@example.com". Am I the only one?

EDIT: [https://www.allot.com/service-providers/url-traffic- filterin...](https://www.allot.com/service-providers/url-traffic-filtering/;) still not sure if it's on my side, or if the CDN (netlify in this case) is applying this to some regions (I'm in EU)

<comment><USER4> "allot.com" appears to be one of those "MITM Corporate/Parental Nanny Software" companies. You're either being MITMed by your company or your parents :)

<comment><USER8> Why just this site?

<comment><USER9> Probably because it's COCKroachlabs.com

See also: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Boom Interview: Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://www.boomcalifornia.com/2014/06/the-boom-interview-rebecca-solnit/

<comment><AUTHOR> Rebecca Solnit is the San Francisco writer whose piece in the _London Review of Books_ last February 2013 touched off a huge discussion (on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5189580](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5189580)) about the future of housing and culture in SF.</comment>


Datastax ripped us off - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/managedfusion/fluentcassandra/issues/114#issuecomment-14018296

<comment><USER2> The last comment on that issue [1] is disgraceful. 'I kept the issue open to let you guys sweat it out until the end of the week'? Really? They submitted their code, just liked you asked. If it's not up to your own standards, then fix it! If that's what they use, then I don't see why they need to invest more time in it. Sure, it's not in the spirit of open source, but at the very least it looks like they have acknowledged where they were required to.

[1] [https://github.com/managedfusion/fluentcassandra/issues/114#...](https://github.com/managedfusion/fluentcassandra/issues/114#issuecomment-14018296)

</comment><comment><USER3> Honestly, things like this make me avoid using github just because of the amount of drama involved. By open sourcing projects you are effectively saying that this code is free to use however you feel fit. Yes they should have fully attributed their source. Yes, they should have sent a pull request for their fixes. But is it really that big a deal?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not involved but I wanted to see what discussion might come of it. I see where the fluent-cassandra guys are coming from but I also agree with your point. I'm new to open source and I personally didn't know people took this stuff as seriously as the fluent-cassandra devs do. I always figured if you contribute back you are one of the few who do things the right way.

When the Datastax guys dumped their code the way they did though, it uppped the drama factor a bit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Part of open source is realizing people will steal your code. The only thing you can do is expect them to give the legally mandated minimum of an acknowledgement of copyright and authorship in alignment with the terms of the MIT license.

Are they good neighbors? No. Are they breaking the law? Only if they refuse to include an acknowledgement of your copyright in accordance with the license you gave them.</comment>


Show HN: Go-odbye – Twitter Follow/Unfollow Reporting Tool Written in Go - <AUTHOR> https://domenicoluciani.com/2016/08/29/go-odbye.html <comment><USER2> I honestly thought this would be the sorry of a developer frustrated with Go's lack of package manager and its pragmatism... wrong!

That said, I would like to be the first to say the following; is it really that necessary to _not only_ include "Go" in the title of the post (as if it were a feature) but also in the name of the application? There, I said it ;) /s

<comment><USER3> There's an unwritten rule that says that if you program Go, whether you love it or hate it, you must ensure everybody knows about it. It would just be irresponsible otherwise.

<comment><USER4> I thought that it was true about vi(m).

A vi(m) user must always let others know about it.

<comment><USER5> We can now expand that stock phrase to "Atheist vegan vim-using crossfitter".

<comment><USER6> The real mystery is: what comes first?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wish Twitter really had a way to filter subscriptions by "channels". If you tweet about databases and I subscribe because you did, I don't want to get photos of your daughter's birthday, your wedding, your favorite gang-star rap music, or your opinion about Hillary or Trump. I ended up un-following a lot of prominent devs because of this.

If Twitter had a way to filter followed people messages by keyword or hashtag It would lead to a healthier environment on that platform. Unfortunately since Twitter basically locked access to its API, writing a fully featured client with that capability isn't even a viable alternative for the terrible UX ...

<comment><USER8> Not a complete solution, but if you use a third-party client like Tweetbot (on iOS & Mac) or Fenix (Android) you should be able to setup a variety of mute filters, for example by keyword or hashtag. Putting Trump & Hillary as mute filters is one of the quickest ways to make your tweetstream more sane.

I still tweet sometimes about Eurovision, which I know must annoy many of my followers, so I try to use the hashtag on every Eurovision related post so that others can mute it if they're not interested. (I guess I should do the same for infosec & coding, so Eurovision fans who aren't into the tech stuff can mute those too.)

<comment><USER7> Nice idea, I didn't find a good client on PC that does it.

But it shouldn't be up to you or your followers to sort the tweets, I don't understand why Twitter doesn't implement this basic feature. The hell it could be something done in the front-end with no server-side code involved at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Author here, I wrote this tool just for fun and to learn go, no bad reason indeed or obsession et simila, that's all, I posted it here to receive feedbacks to improve me so any suggestion will be appreciated, thanks in advantage!

<comment><USER9> You should make it optionally tweet to the users who unfollowed you, to try and get them back as followers.

<comment><USER8> Please don't! As someone who has unfollowed people and then been confronted (sometimes in person!) over my reasons for unfollowing, this would be very frustrating. It'd be a cool technical exercise perhaps, but socially a bad idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why was this flagged? Seems like an appropriate submission.

<comment><USER4> Ditto. I'm not a fan of Twitter but this doesn't seem to be off-topic.

Those flagging this ought to read the guidelines [0].

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Isn't "color.Unset()" dead code?

            if err != nil {
    		color.Set(color.FgRed, color.BlinkSlow)
    		log.Fatal(err)
    		color.Unset()
    	}

[https://github.com/dlion/go- odbye/blob/master/main.go#L27](https://github.com/dlion/go- odbye/blob/master/main.go#L27)

<comment><USER4> Even lines such as

      var plus int64
      plus = 0

could be written as

      plus := 0

\--

The following

      if *url == true

should be written as

      if *url

\--

Moreover, custom logger could be implemented to avoid code repetition.

<comment><AUTHOR> I obviously knew that but I did it to be sure to do the right things and to write a more understanding code. I will edit it very soon, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I created my own Twitter Go project yesterday: [https://github.com/buro9/deleteoldesttweet](https://github.com/buro9/deleteoldesttweet)

The aim of that one is to delete all tweets... but, to do so by scraping Twitter's "First Tweet" page for the oldest tweet.

This needs to be done as it's not actually possible to delete old Tweets using the Twitter API as you cannot _find_ your oldest tweets.

What I would like to achieve is to have Tweets be temporal, and to self- destruct after a period of time. The nature of the way that I use the service is that it is conversational, and a Tweet taken out of context long after the conversation is likely to not be a good representation of my views (fitting reason into 140 chars is hard).

I already use [Tweet Delete]([http://www.tweetdelete.net/](http://www.tweetdelete.net/)), but wanted to go back and nuke the older tweets too, hence this code.

But... I broke the page.

[https://discover.twitter.com/first- tweet#buro9](https://discover.twitter.com/first-tweet#buro9)

That no longer returns my first Tweet, it's borked. My profile still shows I have 1,700+ tweets, but they seem to be totally inaccessible now. Oh well. I did manage to delete a good thousand or so, a small triumph.

Anyhow, Go code and Twitter, I heartily recommend this project:

[https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/anaconda](https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/anaconda)

It's an easy to use and quite complete package that implements the Twitter API.

</comment><comment><USER13> I have to agree with the other comments here that there doesn't seem to be much utility and there are already tools that do this. Additionally, without doing the work for you I don't see how you are doing this any new or interesting way.

To take this to a constructive place, maybe this is more of a Show HN thing, rather than a release, where you show your interesting code.

<comment><USER14> What other tools?

<comment><USER13> [http://who.unfollowed.me/](http://who.unfollowed.me/) [https://manageflitter.com/unfollow](https://manageflitter.com/unfollow) [https://tw.unfollowgram.com/](https://tw.unfollowgram.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Good job!

</comment><comment><USER16> Then what?

<comment><USER17> Your overly short comment doesn't make any sense to me. Also, I see no connection to the article.

Do you care to elaborate?

<comment><USER18> The comments a little short, but the question is valid. What use is the information that "TwitterUser123" un-followed you?

Are you going to write that person and ask why? Are you going to change your tweets because someone doesn't like your writing style, political views or personality?

It's a fun little project, but it's of little actual value.

<comment><USER19> There's heaps of marketing tools (random example: [http://who.unfollowed.me/](http://who.unfollowed.me/) ) around to track who followed you and to auto-follow and un-follow people based on whether they're following you. Many accounts on Twitter inflate their 'Followers' count by auto-following others in the hope that they follow back.

If they don't follow back after x days you can unfollow them again so that your 'Following' number isn't too inflated, and the ratio of 'Following'/'Followers' is better.

<comment><USER18> That honestly sound like a solution to problem that no honest person/company would even have.

<comment><USER20> It's a problem because people use vanity metrics like follower counts as a proxy for the popularity of a company and its product. That incentivizes businesses to inflate their follow counts.

In the real world, 10,000 useless bot or "follow back" followers should be less valuable than a thousand interested followers who are likely to buy something and promote your business.

In social media world its easier for startups to get the thousand "good" followers if they also have 10,000 worthless followers because the good followers will dismiss a business if its only followers are the co-founders and their moms.

<comment><USER18> I wonder want would happen if Twitter decided that your number of followers is irrelevant and just hide it.

<comment><USER21> They'd lop off a chunk of the ecosystem around their product that helps give it value, is what. Desirable as it might be, don't look for that to happen any time soon.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tell HN: "Troubles at Grooveshark" was deleted by its submitter - <AUTHOR>

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7974727 was posted an hour ago and quickly went to #1. It's gone now because the submitter has deleted it. We didn't touch it, and we don't know who wrote it or whether it was true. Since the post would otherwise be at #1, I thought some people might be wondering. Normally I'd post this as a comment in the thread, but there is no thread.<p>For the curious, "deleted" is like "dead" except users can't see it, even when they have "showdead" turned on. We never delete posts, except on rare occasions when users have a good reason for asking us to. The most we ever do as moderators is make a post "[dead]", and those are always visible if you have "showdead" turned on. <comment><USER2> Maybe not the place to discuss this, but I attended Florida as an undergrad and Grooveshark has a terrible reputation among my grad engineer friends there (they're especially well-known for underpaying devs who don't know any better). I'd steer clear of them if you're in Gainesville.

<comment><USER3> I'm an undergrad in the CISE derpatment at UF and did an (unpaid) internship there this past semester.

They are definitely way below market rate for their developers, but you also have to consider how far $40,000 can go in Gainesville, where 'expensive' rent is $600. Grooveshark lets its employees create their own schedules (some devs work 4 PM - 2 AM), have a lot of control over what they're doing, and enjoy a fun and relaxed workplace.

The internet likes to look at the pay figure and cry out that these employees are being mistreated, but the majority of people I know at the company love their job and the lifestyle it allows them.

<comment><USER2> Agreed that cost of living is lower -- $40k in Gainesville maps to $88k in NYC -- but my friends mentioned offers much lower than $40k.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Having read the pastebin link below, the author (regardless of it being true or not) could be liable for slander of individuals and probably in violation of his employment agreement constraints about sharing private data.

A likely scenario is that this post was circulated internally at Grooveshark and their executive team and/or HR team reminded their employees about their obligations.

I am concerned for the submitter - I don't think this is the last we hear of this.

<comment><USER5> Last Line: "I'm working here until I can find a decent job somewhere else where I won't have to sell my soul anymore."

Ya.... Maybe that plan won't work out now.

It's not I haven't felt similar about work.. but when they pay you and you stay there willingly maybe you should keep your frustration to yourself and a few close friends. And.. there may be something you don't know about what your bosses are doing. Ever think of that?

If you really feel the way you do and you want to warn people, quit, then do your rant. Don't continue to take their money while betraying them. To do otherwise is not good practice at all. Even if you are right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't think it was a downright lie to say Grooveshark was worth $375MM if they were making $13MM/year in revenue. Heck valuations aren't necessarily tied to revenue. If they were then a lot of pre-revenue companies would have a zero dollar valuation and that clearly isn't the case.

</comment><comment><USER7> Reading the pastebin text, it seems a little petty and most of all a bit of a big emotional rant.

So the author does not agree with the valuation, many people do not agree with valuations of companies, in fact companies which lose money in some situations still have high evaluations as the valuation is market driven in some cases.

People getting fired, well that happens all the time. Lawsuits happen to companies, HR not getting fired happens, companies hiring for growth happens.

The problem with the author is the way they have stated their case, there is common problems framed with insinuating remarks which are further compounded by a use of profanity. Not to say if the post is true or not, but the author could have done a great deal better to establish credibility.

</comment><comment><USER8> Weird coincidence that glassdoor is under maintenance.

<comment><USER9> Come now, it must be a coincidence! Either way:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w3g4Msy...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w3g4MsyeLLYJ:www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee- Review-Grooveshark-RVW4413466.htm+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Initially confused about the "Greek culture" bit but I guess the author is comparing the executive staff to the stereotypical bro fraternity. I winced every time a real name was used. Brutally honest (and possibly slanderish) writing.

<comment><USER2> It's not that the executive staff are like fraternity bros--it's that they ARE (or were, from what I recall) fraternity bros.

<comment><USER3> Completely inaccurate. Neither Sam Tarantino (Cofounder, CEO) nor Josh Greenberg (Cofounder, CTO) were at all involved in Greek culture during their short undergrad careers.

<comment><USER2> Sorry, I misspoke. The _managerial_ staff, not the C-level people. Should have been specific.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I assumed it was removed for slander, as there was no basis behind the accusations. Thanks for clearing that up!

</comment><comment><USER11> I can actually mark this is fact. They tried to hire me and i shot them down.

</comment><comment><USER12> That's honest of the HN team. Thanks.</comment>


Show HN: How HN helped us pay for our wedding. - <AUTHOR>

So my fiance and I are addicted to Hacker News and we have learned a lot about startups on here. We had an idea for a startup that would have taken a lot of time and resources to build but thanks to Hacker News we have learned about people like Eric Ries, Steven Blank and the whole customer development strategy.
We decided to build the MVP for our startup to see if there was a market for our original idea and also raise money for our wedding. We shaved off all of the crazy features and launched https://www.crowdbundle.com/
Hacker News taught us to build a MVP and make sure there was a market first: By getting people to make purchases so far we have been able to validate that we are providing something of value and the right people are being targeted.
We learned you need to charge money from day one when you are bootstrapping. This was an easy decision because we want to know if we are providing something of value to the right people. If people are willing to actually take out the credit card and pay us for something then we can measure how valuable they find our product.
We learned about social hooks for making a product or service go viral. We all know push marketing is not very effective but personal recommendations are. That is why we have integrated twitter and facebook into the checkout process. If someone is willing to let us tweet or update the facebook wall on their behalf to show a personal recommendation for our product we now have personal recommendations towards their friends. To promote this activity we built a system that gives major discounts for such behavior.
If anyone has any other suggestions to help validate our MVP please let use know. :-) <comment><USER2> what are you using for your credit card processing page (order page)?

<comment><AUTHOR> I built it. ActiveRecord/Authorize.net

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great story, nice site. I have one small suggestion: replace FaceBook with Facebook. It looks weird with the capital B.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! Just updated it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How long ago did you launch?

<comment><AUTHOR> We launched on Friday night

<comment><USER4> Congrats on your learning and success.

Just curious - you launched four days ago and have already had significant contribution to your wedding fund? Please share more details ($) or I'm calling link bait.

<comment><USER5> It went viral.

<comment><USER4> Really? Not that this is a solid indicator, but I see only 4 tweets containing "CrowdBundle" and 0 followers, as well as only 2 facebook fans. Where are the viral indications?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Congrats.Can you tell me what the website is doing,sorry i didn't get it

<comment><USER6> I see it's about some deals.Deals for what,photos.sorry again if i'm wrong

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> linkable: <https://www.crowdbundle.com/></comment>


Ask HN: How to use HTML5 websockets with HTTP reverse proxies? - <AUTHOR>

I usually use a reverse proxy, such as Varnish or Nginx, to cache and gzip HTTP requests when developing HTML5 Web Apps.
Now, I'd like to implement HTML5 WebSockets support in some of my apps. However, it seems that neither Varnish nor Nginx support WebSockets. So how can I realistically use HTML5 WebSockets, if no HTTP proxies support it? Is there a workaround? I have submitted bugreports to both the Varnish and nginx projects, which have been mostly ignored so far.
This seems like a showstopper for HTML5 Web Sockets, in my opinion. <comment><USER2> I agree, the reverse proxies are becoming a bottle neck. Perhaps we need to team up and contribute it to nginx? It shouldn't be very hard unless their architecture really does not do persistent connections at all (they currently use HTTP 1.0 for requests to a backend) ... Do you have any experience with varnish ?

</comment><comment><USER3> I guess the short-term solution is to connect to a different port.

HAProxy developer Willy Tarreau is participating in the IETF HyBi list, so I would expect HAProxy to add WebSocket support.</comment>


Ask HN: What is your philosophy? - <AUTHOR> Nihilism, absurdism etc.<p>What is your view on life? <comment><USER2> Daoism, I guess, especially the branch established by Chuang Tzu

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_\(book\))

</comment><comment><USER3> That none of the alternatives particularly appeal.

</comment><comment><USER4> Work less, play more.</comment>


Offer HN: SEO Help - <AUTHOR>

Hi guys!
I've been lurking here for a while, and I feel like giving something to the community.
You all, who help out the entrepreneurs, are more valuable than you think.
I want to help your startup with SEO. On-page optimization, keyword-usage, titles, descriptions, link building advice, even some Internet Marketing advice.
I've been working as an SEO consultant (on my own) in Sweden for almost two years.
In spite of me being in Sweden, most of my clients are from the US, and I've even held a couple of speaking gigs in LA, SF and NY for SMBs.
Some clients: IKEA, Scandinavian Airlines (through marketing firms I work with), as well as some niche clothing stores.
You could ask your questions here or email firstname.lastname@example.com
I need: The URL of the website; some keywords and what your site is about.
Have a great day, everyone! <comment><USER2> Google have a great SEO Starter Guide up at [http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine- optimiza...](http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization- starter-guide.pdf) . I would love to hear how your techniques in a more general sense are different from or build on top of what Google are already providing for free to the public?

<comment><USER3> Google's Starter Guide is to SEO as "Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 Hours" is to programming. It is kind of difficult to describe the ocean in terms of the marginal change in experience from getting your feet wet.

<comment><USER2> I get the analogy, but after quite a lot of time making websites, I'm still not sure what I should do besides what is mentioned in this doc to improve organic listings. Perhaps you can take a small area of that ocean and give me an example?

<comment><USER4> From what I can remember, Google's SEO guides are more focused to on-site optimization; "design well and provide good content, the rest will come naturally".

While an SEO consultant might use this approach it is not quite the most proactive strategy. SEO comprises of so many things outsite on-site optimization.

I encourage you to read SEO Warrior, a book published by O'Reilly that covers different aspects on the topic.

We have also been using the #seo channel on irc.freenode.net in an attempt to build a collaborating SEO community. You are welcome to stop by and ask away.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, you're right there.

Basically, Google is saying that if you build amazing content, and structure your website accordingly, you will get high quality backlinks.

If you've spent one day trying to get your site a better rank you know that it's almost impossible. Especially if you're a nobody.

You should be careful recommending books on SEO.

Google and other search engines tweak their algorithms daily, and many things can be outdated.

Join IRC-channels and forums - learn from others mistakes (know where it went wrong), and simply put - just do it.

The worst thing that could happen is if you get sandboxed (removed.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just out of curiosity; I would like to see your own pages.

<comment><USER6> I find it somewhat odd that SebastianSh is unable (or unwilling) to grant that simple request.

In other professions (web design, software development, etc) this is usually a sign of missing expertise. What kind of designer or programmer wouldn't proudly show his/her latest creations when asked to do so?

However, in this case there might be another reason. Maybe the customers don't want to be used as a reference? This leads to an interesting question:

Is it bad for business to publicly admit the use of SEO techniques?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't actually do any SEO work for the people asking for help - I simply give them advice and suggestions on how to improve their sites.

You are right about publicly admitting to have used SEO. A lot of my clients have requested NDAs, but some haven't. Unfortunately for them, admitting to have used SEO in their minds devalues the company.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> You might want to try some of Patrick's tips (of Bingo Card Creator fame) here:

[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/07/17/seo-for-software- compani...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/07/17/seo-for-software-companies/)

I'd also suggest taking a look at <http://www.seobook.com/>

The one thing I would say is to look very carefully at what you want to achieve via SEO. I'm fairly certain that the majority of potential customers in our sector (information security) don't want to fill in a form, although we do have a few visitors. For us our site is more about communicating what we do for our customers, than getting people to invite us to do work for them, but of course that's a world of difference from trying to get someone to sign up to a web app.

<comment><USER8> _I'm fairly certain that the majority of potential customers in our sector (information security) don't want to fill in a form, although we do have a few visitors._

We are in the same sector and have had great success with the "step signup" process - i.e. contact forms.

YMMV. But mid-range corporates feel happy about such things.

Random observation; but for anything related to corporate purchasing the more finicky you make it (within reason) the better it is liked. Middle managers are overjoyed to ring you up, ask for a costing, then ring again for an invoice and finally a third time to give you card details.

<comment><USER7> That's quite interesting. Most of the people visiting our site come from other marketing channels and are (at least looking at the heatmaps and a/b testing results) generally checking us out.

Have you got a link to one of your sites with the step signup process?

<comment><USER8> Our marketing channel is usually word of mouth; so "sign up" works quite well. It is essentially "email us but with tactile feedback". We are in the same sector - but the product/services are somewhat different (along the lines of "help help we have a serious problem save us yesterday") so the demographic is probably fairly different.

And traffic from the sites are relatively low compared to someone being given our phone #, so it might have skewed data.

Unfortunately I can't really share more than that publicly (employers choice, not mine). But feel free to email me if you want (address in profile).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys!

Wow - I'm glad so many of you emailed.

A lot of creative apps and sites.

I have replied to 5 and have 10 to go.

Keep 'em coming!

@yaggo;

What kind of pages? My personal site/consultant site?

<comment><USER6> _> What kind of pages? My personal site/consultant site?_

I don't know what yaggo was thinking, but I'd like to see simply some sites that you optimized for search engines - no matter whether those are your own sites or sites of your customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Hey Sebastian, great offer! I'd love if you'd take a look at Fridge to Food: <http://www.fridgetofood.com>

Keywords: recipe sharing, foodie community, ingredient search

Honestly, I could use help coming up with other keywords. I've been having trouble boiling down the concept into a few keywords. The best I can do is TasteSpotting meets StackOverflow (and eventually LocalHarvest).

Shoot me an e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com. Thanks!

<comment><USER10> I think your site is great, but I'd like to share a frustration that I have with EVERY recipe site:

I can't find "connected" recipes that use common ingredients. Sure, there are sites where I can enter my ingredients and get recipes, but for a guy like me (single, 28, lives alone, professional job) I'd rather be told what to buy that will make N dishes.

In short, I want to buy the fewest ingredients (without having to research and crossreference) that will make a variety of delicious dishes.

Something like this may exist. If so, please point me towards it.

<comment><USER9> I have no idea if anything exists to do that. I've never found it if it does. I have no idea how to do that, either. But I'll certainly keep it in mind. Maybe once I've whittled down the todo list I'll come back to it and see if I can solve it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This might be officially time for SearchYC.com to add an "Offer HN" section!

</comment><comment><USER12> Please check out <http://Videolla.com>: Monetization for video, paid video. Video hosting for paid premium video content.

On videolla you can: host, stream, distribute, publish, rent, sell, subscribe, donate your videos.

Also let me know if you have any paid video tutorials on SEO that you are willing to sell(Its very hot topic!)

</comment><comment><USER13> From a fellow swede. I've tried to follow SEO best practices on the startup I co-founded, <http://www.klicktrack.com/> but certainly have things I can improve. I would greatly appreciate if you could have a look. We provide a turn-key download store for labels and artists.

</comment><comment><USER14> Hello Sebastian, this is a timely offer! I've recently looked into SEO and applied what i believe are the 'basics' for on-page optimisation, ie keyword usage, titles, descriptions etc on my 2 sites <http://dipeshparmar.com> and <http://dvpwebdesign.com>. But i'm a bit lost with link building, reciprocal linking, and web marketing in general? SEO seems a really complex subject, which seemingly can take many months to implement, can you give me any advice? If so, you can email me at email@example.com.

</comment><comment><USER15> Hi. I appreciate the service you're providing to the community! I would also like to add that there are keyword suggestion tools such as google's (<https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal>) that might be worth checking out. What is your take on these tools? I assume it doesn't hurt to use them, but how helpful are the suggestions?

</comment><comment><USER16> Heya,

Would love to hear your thoughts on the site I'm working on right now: <http://www.snowboardfinder.com> It's a finder and price comparison site for snowboard gear.

keywords: snowboards, snowboard gear, snowboard prices

i guess i need to come up with a bunch more keywords.

Anyways, any help would be absolutely appreciated :D

:D

</comment><comment><USER17> Sebastian - Thanks for generous offer. Just sent you an email.

These Offer HN strings have made HN like any other place on the web.

<comment><USER18> "These Offer HN strings have made HN unlike any other place on the web". There, fixed.

<comment><USER17> Thanks for catching that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Thanks for the offer Sebastian.. Here is my site:

<https://www.erpnext.com>

It is an affordable, online ERP solution for small and medium businesses into manufacturing, distribution, retail or services.

Keywords: erp, crm, saas, open source, smb

Any help would be welcome :-)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have now replied to about 50 emails, and I've got about 30 more in my inbox.

I will answer them later this evening.

</comment><comment><USER20> Url:<http://tabtrick.com/>

Keywords: Custom Facebook Page, Facebook Business Page, Facebook Fan Page, Facebook Template, Welcome Tab

Description of my site: I have Facebook Page creator that allows user to easily customize their Facebook Page.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is amazing - I sent you an email about www.Jobdeals.com (<http://www.Jobdeals.com>) if you have some time.

We're a local services marketplace .. because we cover such a wide market, I'm not sure which keywords we should be focusing on..

</comment><comment><USER22> I have a special kind of problem with my website on rock climbing weather - the most important forecast pages do not have a lot of text other than the forecast. Advice would be appreciated! <http://www.climbingweather.com>

</comment><comment><USER23> <http://suplify.me>

We're building support software. As in a ticketing system which aggregates all support tickets from email(imap), twitter, facebook and others.

</comment><comment><USER24> Sebastian, a great and timely offer, as I've just kicked off my startup at <http://LabSlice.com>. I've sent you an email and would love to hear your feedback!

</comment><comment><USER25> Wow. I need this and just contacted you. Thanks! Our site is at <http://commerce.exorbyte.com> and we need this type of help.

</comment><comment><USER26> I don't currently have a website that I'd like to SEO, but I will in the future. Maybe those who get help would be willing to post the advice they receive, so that all of us benefit?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you're interested in SEO and would like to learn, I recommend you start reading <http://www.seomoz.org/blog>

SEOMoz is a great SEO-company, and they have an incredibly useful blog. From novice to advance!

<comment><USER27> I second SEOMoz. First learned of them in Mixergy and I have found his blog to be a great resource.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Thanks for the offer. Will be emailing you. FYI - <http://www.thebatchwatermarks.com>

</comment><comment><USER29> I would definitely like some link love. We're still working on our MVP so most of the on-site issues are up in the air. Sending an email now.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I got about 450 emails from you guys. I'm replying to each and every one of them. It's taking some time - but I'm doing my best!

</comment><comment><USER30> Is my posterous blog with a custom domain (troysimpson.co) suffering from SEO problems from the redirect?

<comment><USER31> It actually isn't a redirect if you have it set up correctly. Did you configure your DNS to point to the Posterous server? If so, your domain should be directly bound to Posterous without a redirect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> thanks for the offer sebastian, I've followed some SEO best practices on my site <http://www.gmbhnews.com/make-mobile-site/> , maybe you can take a look, I'll welcome any advice.

</comment><comment><USER33> What's the first thing you look at when optimizing a site for SEO?

</comment><comment><USER34> Thanks, fantastic offer - will be sending you an email shortly :-)

</comment><comment><USER35> Thank you for your nice offer! Will drop you an email.

</comment><comment><USER36> Sorry, the account was created two hours ago, don't have a personal site and any proof that has worked for IKEA or others.

PS: SEO must find the correct keywords for a site not the client...

<comment><AUTHOR> I created this account 2 hours ago, yes - but your point is?

I read HN every day,I read the comments, and I understand the culture here.

I was thinking I could give something back to the community by answering some questions.

"SEO must find the correct keywords for a site not the client" - I don't quite understand what you meant by this, so please elaborate.

Proof and a personal site; I'm not here to promote my business and I'm not here to brag about my clients/past clients. I simply stated that I have worked with them, and whether or not you chose to believe me or not - your choice!

<comment><USER36> "I read HN every day,I read the comments, and I understand the culture here. I was thinking I could give something back to the community by answering some questions."

why don't aswer to questions on HN instead of use e-mail? isn't "community" to share with all SEO tips?

"SEO must find the correct keywords for a site not the client"

part of SEO job is to find the correct keywords for a site and optimize for those, no? but you say "I need: The URL of the website; some keywords"

In conclusion i'm work every day with SEO/SEM and in this sector the word "free" is used often for ulterior motives, hence my doubts...why a pro SEO should work for free?(work is time and time is money)...all here.

Have a nice day ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Some people want secrecy, and some don't.

Those who posted here, shall receive a reply here.

I don't have any motives behind this, except I want to help people out. Startups have very limited budgets, and maybe someone would like to hire me, and maybe I could end up having a good relationship with other entrepreneurs.

Networking first, money second.

I'm employed by a company who deals with printers, cartridges and paper, so I have some free time on my hands :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Thanks for the offer, I'll email you in a minute!

</comment><comment><USER38> Thanks SebastianSH, sent you an email!

</comment><comment><USER39> Thanks for your offer!

</comment><comment><USER40> email outbound! thanks for your time and effort.</comment>


Coinbase Insured - <AUTHOR> http://blog.coinbase.com/post/95927658922/coinbase-insured <comment><USER2> Unless I'm misunderstanding, they're really saying they're now insured for ~3% of the BTC they hold. For security, they've always said they only store about that much online, the rest is offline cold storage, but this post says:

"Coinbase is now insured against theft and hacking in an amount that exceeds the average value of bitcoin it holds in online storage at any given time."

So you're still at the mercy of their offline storage security. Not saying there is a better option for most people, but this wouldn't protect you against a Gox-like breach.

<comment><USER3> > The insurance covers losses due to breaches in physical or cyber security, > accidental loss, and employee theft.

I'm not convinced that this even protects the online wallet against Mt Gox style corporate malfeasance, where much of the damage was done as an intentional corporate decision by the leadership. (I'm conjecturing that's what happened at Mt Gox; regardless, this seems not to cover against them trying something intentionally with their coins related to trading, and then losing them all.)

Additionally, as you pointed out, this only covers a very small portion of their holdings - a percentage smaller than the number of Mt Gox coins that were "recovered" (about 25%).

Finally, Coinbase being insured against the value of the bitcoin loss doesn't translate in to you being covered, as Coinbase may accrue other debts they have to pay off before your holding in the event of a hack large enough to cause a serious business disturbance, such as paying off creditors with higher standing.

<comment><USER4> That's key: Coinbase is insured.

With FDIC, the depositor is insured, not the bank. This is the bank being insured, not the depositor.

<comment><USER5> And in the case of FDIC, evidence of gross malfeasance on the part of the bank would likely result in a seizure of the bank and its assets. The FDIC then becomes the "receiver"[1], entrusted with ensuring as many of remaining funds can be returned, and any covered and outstanding amount paid by the insurance.

[1] [https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/strategic/receivership....](https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/strategic/receivership.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For people not experienced with bitcoin: For some types of bitcoin wallets the user retains their own private key, whereas with other wallets they have to trust a 3rd party (like coinbase) with their keys. This second type isn't really a wallet any more, per se... it's more like a bank that you are trusting with your money.

Of course, bitcoin startups really want to use the second model, where THEY control the money, which gives them many more avenues for profit: As any salesman knows, the closer you are to the money in a business, the more money you're likely to make yourself.

This means bitcoin companies are bending over backwards to say "look how safe your money is!" However, be aware if you ever buy bitcoins, it is much better to store your own bitcoins or use a wallet that allows you to manage your own private keys, or use a (now trendy) multisig wallet where the wallet company can't move money without your permission.

If a bitcoin bank says "We insure our bitcoins" your best response is "No thanks, I'd rather not have to trust you with my money in the first place." The whole raison d'être of bitcoin is that such trust isn't necessary.

<comment> aaron-lebo For the vast, vast majority of people, they will be much better off letting someone else handle their wallet.

Even for those of us who are computer savvy, the lengths you have to go to in order to make sure that your wallet is completely secure and redundant isn't easy. I feel a lot more secure with the bank holding my money.

This is why the whole notion of Bitcoin's success is paradoxical. To really succeed it probably has to be pushed by these third-parties, which is an advantage over our current banking system because the core protocol will still be neutral, but only to an extent: third parties will almost certainly build features that lock people in on top of it. This is a far cry from the vision some proponents have of a completely decentralized system.

<comment><USER7> This is nothing against Coinbase or other centralized wallet services for that matter, but Coinbase is practically being forced to ask their users for a blood sample during user verification these days.

This level of user verification, necessitated by KYC, AML policies and so on, is extremely burdensome for end users.

In fact, I've heard Coinbase is now requiring their users to declare exactly _where_ bitcoins are to be sent when a withdrawal request is made. Furthermore, Coinbase is having to shut down customer accounts that are known to be associated with online gambling.

Native wallets don't come with these "features". That's the benefit of being in control of your own money.

<comment> aaron-lebo You are right, but if Bitcoin ever goes mainstream that kind of regulation that impacts both services and users is going to happen. It never was going to overthrow the flank the financial system like some people hoped.

If Bitcoin ends up relegated to native wallets it probably will look like TOR - something that tech savvy people can use for certain activities, but not something that really caught on in widespread use.

Being able to be in control of your own money is great, if you can do it, but I tend to think most people don't want or can't handle that level of responsibility. Kind of at the heart of Bitcoin is a very libertarian philosophy on life and government. Our political system shows us that the vast majority of people aren't looking for that, and by extension, it probably applies to financial matters as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Regardless of whatever private insurance it has, Coinbase does not have a money transmission license in California or a surety bond as required by federal and state law.

They know they need one; they have applied in other states, such as Florida. See [https://archive.org/download/coinbasefloridamtl/20140415.coi...](https://archive.org/download/coinbasefloridamtl/20140415.coinbaseflorida.pdf).

Interestingly, Coinbase appears to offer false information to the State of Florida in item 6(A)(2) of its application, which has since been withdrawn. Coinbase did receive a subpoena in the NY DFS's investigation of various Bitcoin companies in August, 2013. See [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us- digitalcurrency...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us- digitalcurrency-subpoena-bitcoin-idUSBRE97B03720130812).

<comment><USER9> I don't know how anyone who reads your experience with facecash could come to any conclusion other than the only way to innovate in payments is to brazenly break the law and never even try to deal with the California DFI.

<comment><USER8> One difference between my experience with regulators and Coinbase's is about $31.7 million in venture capital funding. Compliance is expensive, but they can afford it.

<comment><USER10> I'm reminded of the old saying that rich people didn't get rich by being loose with their money.

<comment><USER11> I would hardly consider negotiating with authorities "being loose with their money"...

<comment><USER10> Then you just don't have enough "hustle" for this business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The bitcoin insurance policy I want from an exchange is where they insure me against loss due to actions taken by the exchange and underwritten by a major underwriter, and not the exchange itself. Only then would I really believe that the exchange meant to protect my bitcoins fully, because they've essentially put themselves on the hook for the damages (by having to bear the cost of the insurance policy, recouped by some kind of holding fee or transaction fee).

The exchange having insurance does relatively little to protect me against loss, even if it's a smart business move on their part to limit their losses to creditors in the event of a theft of inventory. That's only sane business, and it's a little crazy how long it took that to become normal in bitcoin.

It seems (naively) reasonable that the exchange could float something like 10k-20k policies of some mixture of 0.1btc, 0.5btc, and 1btc protection, depending on the level of activity in an account, and require that anyone holding more bitcoin than that in their trading account take out a separate policy for that amount or else acknowledge that they're only protected up to 1btc. (An additional corporate policy against theft of inventory seems reasonable, and likely would lower the rate on these separate policies, since the underwriter would know you could cover some degree of loss already, through that policy.)

Edit:

Thinking about the numbers, it would only be ~$20 million of coverage to cover 50,000 customers (40,000 at 0.5btc and 10,000 at 1btc). This seems reasonable.

</comment><comment><USER11> How are premiums calculated for this kind of insurance? Are there software insurance tiers based on code & systems inspections?

</comment><comment><USER12> Off topic, but why does it still take 4 days to buy bitcoins from the site?

<comment><USER6> Same reason as always: The existing payment system used in the world has a weird system of "chargebacks" which mean that it's hard to know that any transaction is ever "final" and can be considered completed. This flaw in the traditional payment infrastructure makes it hard for coinbase to hand you over your coins even if they received a perfectly valid bank wire or credit card payment.

<comment><USER5> Whether it's a "flaw" is in the eye of the beholder.

I have confidence buying from questionable online merchants using a credit card because I know I have a recourse if they are deceptive. I would say it's more of an issue of incompatibility between the systems rather than a real "flaw" in either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> >> Our users, of course, won't be charged for this insurance.

So, where the money came from?

<comment><USER14> Insurance is a cost of doing business. Coinbase generates their revenue from fees on the purchase and sale bitcoin, and from fees on merchant services. That's where the money comes from.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> "Our users, of course, won't be charged for this insurance." Of course. For now.</comment>


Becoming Eloi, Becoming Morlock - <AUTHOR> http://ideolalia.com/becoming-eloi-becoming-morlock

<comment><USER2> Stephenson does the extended Morlock/Eloi conceit better in "In the Beginning was the Command Line":

<http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html></comment>


Mac App Store dominated by games - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/06/mac-app-store-launch/ <comment><USER2> Dominated? No. 15% is not 'domination', especially when there's another category almost at that level.

<comment><USER3> The graph they have is a poor way to represent the 'domination'. Here is a pie chart (with values eyeballed from their graph) of the various app categories:

[https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p&chs=500x200&...](https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p&chs=500x200&chd=t:17,14,13,8,7,6,5,4,14&chl=Games|Utilities|Entertainment|Education|Business|Music|Photography|Lifestyle|Other)

Yeah, it's not really dominating at all.</comment></comment>


From selling beer to writing code for a living without a CS degree - Pete-Codes https://www.nocsdegree.com/from-selling-beer-to-writing-code/ <comment> Pete-Codes I interviewed Caitlin who lives in Portland and used to sell beer for a living. She is now a happily employed developer.</comment>


Does Outsourcing for your Startup Compress Time? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gobignetwork.com/wil/2007/10/24/compress-time-by-outsourcing/10206/view.aspx <comment><USER2> no

<comment><AUTHOR> why not?</comment></comment>